cawthon777

Prior to 90, I'd almost bet money that it did.

1. he was branded by Bradshaw and Zebakiah 3. Bockwinkel vs. Backlund

I have a ton of old PWI Weeklies which were similar to this but more kayfabe. What else did the Observer include other than the little news bits?

The Acolytes ... and this is coming from a die-hard Bret Hart, Chris Benoit, Ric Flair, Curt Hennig fan.

I'm not saying Warrior fully extended his arms but he did drop Andre with a gorilla press, setting him up for the splash.

I'm sure he did it around the circuit but a clip of it from a TV taping was featured on SuperTape 1 when the fans are debating who is better - Hogan or Warrior? Might have shown something along those lines during the old toy commercials in 89-90.

If Warrior was able to do it, why not Hogan? It would be hard to prove or disprove if you haven't seen every Hogan / Andre match ... and the two have been wrestling each other around the world since before Hogan entered the WWF in 79.

Steele dressed in drag in most of the major markets to help out Beefcake. Sunny was Ron's manager.

A few days prior to that Raw taping, Bulldog & Lex had a number of tag matches that they lost due to Bulldog walking out of the match ... I believe one was to the Blu Twins. So right there the fans could tell a heel turn was being forshadowed. The trend continued until the episode was aired about a week or so later. Prior to the house show matches, Howard Finkel announced to the crowd that Bulldog didn't want the fans to chant "USA" during the match since he wasn't from America (and, reverse psychology being what it is, I'm sure you all know what happened as a result). At the Superstars taping a day or two after Summer Slam, Mabel interrupted an interview segment with Luger - upset that his interference led to Mabel getting beat at the PPV. This segment never aired and was obviously put together to build a feud between the two. It was advertised a week prior but by the time Saturday came along, Luger had already jumped to WCW. Luger's last match was a tag match with he and HBK beating Owen and Yoko via DQ at a house show in early September 1995. Had Luger stayed around, I believe he would have been paired off with Mabel for a month or so while Bulldog feuded with Diesel. Then after both rivalries died down, I'm sure Luger and Bulldog would have had a blowoff of some sort.

I considered going to that one or the show in Frederick on the 5th but, since I'll be in Alaska for most of July and already got tix for the Raw show in Anchorage on 7/19, I figured three shows a month under a limited budget might be pushing it. Really wanted to go to Frederick since it's an outdoor show. One guy sent me a few pics from last summer's show there - with RVD vs. Brock ... looked like a great place to get in quality shots.

Hmmm ... *needs to re-memorize everything on my site* lol Interesting that they had Austin-Pillman with the same stipulations that Bret-HBK were supposed to fight under at the KOTR (Harts handcuffed to ringposts).

Very true, I stand corrected. I think the ME of that Raw had Austin & HBK vs. the LOD ... I could have sworn we'd see a title change ... nope ...

Maybe it was just because I was a big Hollywood Blondes fan but I'm still bitter we never got Austin vs. Pillman in the WWF. It was scraped from KOTR since the Harts wanted HBK and Austin to beat the snot out of each other and it was scraped from the day after KOTR, with Mankind subbing for Austin against Pillman. I don't think Austin was credited with hurting Bret in Evansville when he and HBK won the tag belts. True, he did jump him but Bret was already hurt and a few punches to the head couldn't have done much damage. Storyline-wise, I believe the Harts saw how much tension was brewing between Austin and Micheals (ex: the night they won the tag belts, Austin jumps Bret on the ramp instead of coming to HBK's aid against the rest of the Hart Foundation in the ring) and thus they prefered to have the two beat each other up instead of having to do it themselves.

HBK vs. Austin was a step down from what we should have seen which was Bret vs. HBK and Austin vs. Pillman. It didn't make me interested at all in the PPV since the outcome was pretty obvious from the get-go. The match meant nothing and even HBK referred to it as being basically a clusterfuck on his shoot interview.

They never wrestled each other.

Tajiri actually worked a Raw match against the Godwinns in March 96.

He and Regal were lined up to dethrone Harlem Heat of the tag belts but Triple H jumped to the WWF so that he could gain more in-ring experience by spending time out on the road, even though the pay was less.

Could be wrong but I think the HBK / Bret ladder match made it on Prime Time Wrestling. It did take place at a PT taping...

PWI never really pushed the lingeage back past Snuka or Flair in the late 70s.

Oh good lord, it's PWI! We're talking about the King of Doctored and Fictitious Interviews. Only believe 10% of what they say.

Well it did get off the ground somewhat. I remember the NOD's dressing room got trashed and Canadian flags were all over the place, giving the impression it was the Harts' fault.

Let's just say the title was dissolved when it was unified. That would explain what happened with the IC title as well. As far as Harley Race being the first to hold the belt in 75 or whatever ... ah, WWE revisionist history ... that's about as accurate as saying the last stretcher match was 17 years ago.

I don't do stars. After a while they start hurting my eyes as I try to count how many are there. Steiner was getting a decent singles push as early as 92 and picked up a win over Steamboat for the TV title while regulary fighting off Steve Austin in title defenses. From what I've seen, those were quality. I just give Bret the edge because he had enough experience under his belt to pull off a great match any day of the week. He wasn't made a main eventer and the flagship of the WWF because of his size or mic skills. He got to that point because he made each of his opponents look 10 times better than they actually were. Steiner isn't universally known for doing the same.

Bret had 10 years on Scotty when Steiner made his debut in 87 and already had classic bouts with Dibiase, Steamboat, and Savage by the time 1990 came around. I'd give the nod to the Hitman.

Well the Harts would be the tweeners for the bout, as they always were when wrestling the Rockers as well as the bout with LOD. I'd be backing the Harts myself. Despite the size disadvantage, Bret was a lot smarter in the ring than either Rick or Scott. Only weak link here would be Anvil.