IWD

Are WWE complaining responsibility for just American wrestling, or wrestling in general? Williams & Gordy were bigger than The Steiners or The Road Warriors in terms of geijin (sp?) wrestlers in Japan. Vader has potential too, come to think of it. Cheers.

Backlund was offered it last year and turned it down. There was speculation (by Dave Meltzer) that it might have had something to do with Pete Rose being announced. -Paul Jacobi- Thanks, didn't know that. Cheers.

Some more to consider: Bob Backlund The Funk Brothers Stan Hansen Arn Anderson Rick Rude Barry Windham Steve Williams Terry Gordy Mr Fuji Wahoo McDaniel Cyndi Lauper Cheers.

Good stuff. Fun. Cheers.

Billy White Wolf was in the SummerSlam '91 main event, in his General Adnan role. I didn't realise they were one and the same until last week. Cheers.

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The opener was fine, nothing terrible in it. Trish vs Lita and Benjamin vs Maven were essentially non-matches. Hassan vs Lawler was crap. Kane vs Snitsky is just something to sit through before the main event. Cheers.

The whole of Hassan vs Lawler was a pile of crap. Cheers.

As far as I know, Simmons hasnt been rehired. As I understand it he's working in Public Relations. Don't have a source though. Cheers. Didnt know this. Thanks. Just seen he's listed on the roster on this site, which as I understand it is regularly updated. Not sure on reliability though. http://bodyslamming.com/wwe/wwesuperstar.html Cheers

Danny Doring and C W Anderson are still around too. Appreciate they're not huge names, maybe dark match material though. Cheers.

Tazz's last match was at a house show in Georgia on 9-Jun-02. For the record, he tagged with Rikishi and lost to Chuck & Billy. His last televised match was over a month before, losing to The Godfather on Metal. Cheers.

As far as I know, Simmons hasnt been rehired. As I understand it he's working in Public Relations. Don't have a source though. Cheers.

So far as I can tell the following WWE people worked with ECW at one stage in their career. Years may be slightly inaccurate as they're just from the top of my head. Al Snow (95, 97-98) Arn Anderson (94) Bubba Ray Dudley (95-99) Chris Benoit (94-95) Chris Jericho (96) Dawn Marie (99-01) Dean Malenko (94-95) D-Von Dudley (95-99) Eddie Guerrero (95) Jerry Lawler (97) Lance Storm (97-00) Lita (99) Mick Foley (94-96) Nunzio (96-01) Paul Heyman (93-01) Rey Mysterio Jr (95-96) Rhyno (99-01) Rob Van Dam (96-01) Ron Simmons (94-95) Simon Dean (96-01) Spike Dudley (96-01) Steven Richards (94-97) Tazz (93-00) Tommy Dreamer (93-01) Yoshihiro Tajiri (99-01) Cheers.

That depends on who you ask. Tully did a Q&A at the NWA Fanfest back in August and complained about having to job to the Bushwhackers for 4 months straight before finally winning the tag straps. He also tends to think that Flair is in the position he's in now because Vince wants to bury him. I'm not saying he's right in what he thinks, I'm just saying it depends on who you ask. I think Vince had a hard-on for saddling former NWA champions with silly gimmicks when you think about it: Harley Race: dyed blonde hair and the King gimmick. Dusty Rhodes: Polka dot fool with an old black lady for a manager. Ron Garvin: REFEREE OF DOOM~! feuding with midcarders. Kerry Von Erich: Texas Tornado that to this day some less intellegent folks still think was the guy who was the second Warrior "when the first one died". I think Tully and Arn escaped embarrassment by being better known as a tag team than singles champs. Of course Tully completely fucked his WWF run himself by failing drug tests, so what can you say. Add Vader to that list. Cheers.

Just to clarify, Flair left because McMahon wanted to put him in matches for the IC title which he felt was beneath him. When Flair signed, McMahon said he could leave if he did not feel he was being treated properly. Flair therefore decided to leave on good terms with McMahon, and was asked to put Curt Hennig over on Raw before leaving. Cheers.

Nice leapfrog from Jericho to dodge the spear. Cheers.

By the way, tonight was the first ever time we've got Raw live here in the UK and we got no sound for the first few minutes. Nice one WWE/Sky. Cheers.

Yep, good opener there.

Lou Thesz Ric Flair Bruno Sammartino Hulk Hogan Giant Baba Mitsuharu Misawa Rikidozan Andre The Giant El Canek Harley Race Bob Backlund Stan Hansen Kenta Kobashi Bret Hart Keiji Mutoh/ Great Muta Jushin Thunder Liger Chris Benoit Dynamite Kid Dory Funk Jr Toshiaki Kawada Cheers.

Raw: 11 (Shelton Benjamin, Eugene, William Regal, Chris Benoit, Christian, Matt Hardy, Rhyno, Ric Flair, Shawn Michaels, Tajiri, Trish Stratus) Smackdown: 9 (Rob Van Dam, Rey Mysterio, Akio, Chavo Guerrero, Eddie Guerrero, Kurt Angle, Nunzio, Paul Heyman, Paul London) Total: 22.5% Cheers.

Last time Scotty was on TV was losing to Spike on Velocity in mid-October. I haven't heard that he's officially gone. Cheers.

Presume this is a re-release, since all the matches are in the same time period. Wouldn't spend too much on it, already got that Michaels vs Jannetty match. Cheers.

Yep. Terry Boy is a reference to Terry Funk apparently. Cheers.

Funaki is 36, so could be retiring. Cheers.

Just to summarise what's been mentioned so far (with a couple of my own - #3 and #5 - added in...) 1984 1. Bob Backlund was fired for refusing to turn heel and feud with Hulk Hogan. 1988 2. Ric Flair was supposed to be the guest on the Brother Love Show at SummerSLam 88, but the deal went sour. (Flair was replaced by Jim Duggan.) 1989 3. Tully Blanchard was sacked the day of Survivor Series ’89 and replaced in the elimination match by Bobby Heenan. Blanchard’s tag partner, Arn Anderson left soon afterward. 1990 4. Mr. Perfect was booked to win the 1990 Royal Rumble, but Hogan audibled that call and put himself over. 1991 5. The venue for WrestleMania 7 was moved. WWF claimed this was due to security concerns for Sgt Slaughter (who was involved in an Iraqi sympathiser role) but it actually turned out that WWF realised they were not going to be able to sell enough tickets at the original venue. 1992 6. Early WrestleMania 8 booking had Legion Of Doom vs Money Inc. in a street Fight, a Hacksaw Jim Duggan/Sgt Slaughter vs Natural Disasters match and a British Bulldog vs Berzerker match. 7. Bret Hart considered moving to WCW in 1992, but could not due to a clause in his contract. 8. The Ultimate Warrior quit WWF shortly before Survivor Series ’92, as he did not want to work a program against Nailz. (Nailz was later fired for attacking Vince McMahon backstage.) 1993 9. In Royal Rumble ’93, bookers had to ensure than Max Moon and Tatanka were not in the ring at the same time, as Tatanka’s wife was having an affair with Max Moon. 10. WrestleMania 9 was to include Bam Bam Bigelow vs Kamala. 11. Randy Savage replaced Mr. Perfect at Survivor Series ’93 as Curt Hennig was having problems with a fan harassing his family. 1994 12. The Undertaker was booked to win the WWF title from Yokozuna (whose doctor had been advising him to get into better shape) at Royal Rumble ’94 then drop it to Ludwig Borga soon after, with the intention being for Borga to face Bret Hart at WrestleMania. However, Undertaker had to be written out of the storyline due to a severe back injury. Yokozuna ignored his doctor and carried on wrestling. Ludwig Borga suffered a serious ankle injury and was released by the WWF. 13. Lex Luger was booked to win the WWF title at WrestleMania 10, but was talking about it loudly in a bar the night before the event. This was overheard by a newspaper reporter who printed the story the next day. As such, Yokozuna defeated Luger at the PPV. 14. WrestleMania 10 had a 10 man tag match removed. Also, Earthquake was meant to wrestle Ludwig Borga, but ended up wrestling Adam Bomb. 1996 15. At Royal Rumble 1996, some of the other people that were asked to participate in the Royal Rumble were The Ultimate Warrior, Dan Severn (an Ultimate Fighting contender), Peter McNeeley (that dumb guy that Mike Tyson knocked out in the first round of Tyson's return), Rick "The Model" Martel, and Sabu. Sabu apparently had even set up his own elimination. Before withdrawing his name from the Rumble, he had decided that he was going to eliminate an opponent, slide under the bottom rope, and place the opponent on a table. He was planning to sprint across the ring, do a moonsault over the top rope, and smash the opponent through the table. 16. Steven Richards and Perry Saturn almost jumped from ECW to WWF in 1996. 17. The original plan for Mind Games was Shawn Michaels/Jose Lothario vs Vader/Jim Cornette. As no one really cared about Lothario, it was eventually changed to Michaels vs Mankind. 1997 18. The original plan for King Of The Ring ‘97 was Bret Hart vs Shawn Michaels with all Hart Foundation members chained outside to a the ring posts. If Hart could not beat Michaels in 10 minutes or less, he wouldn't wrestle in America again. According to Dave Meltzer, the original plan was for Hart to beat Michaels by catching him trying the Sweet Chin Music and "breaking his ankle" with a gimmicked boot. But Bret was hurt, so they changed it to Michaels vs Steve Austin instead. (The night after the PPV, Hart and Michaels had their infamous backstage brawl.) 19. Shawn Michaels was scheduled to job to Bret Hart at WrestleMania 13 (to return the favour for Hart’s job to Michaels at WrestleMania 12.) Michaels refused and vacated the title instead (claiming he “lost his smile”) and did not appear on the WrestleMania card. Hart wrestled Steve Austin, whilst the main event was Sycho Sid vs The Undertaker. 20. Shawn Michaels was supposed to job the title to Vader at SummerSlam ’97, but refused. Vader’s career spiralled downwards, with him eventually saying during No Way Out ’98 “I’m just a fat pile of sh!t.” 21. The Great Sasuke was planned to be the cornerstone of the Lighthevyweight division, but Taka Michinoku got more heat, so Sasuke returned to Japan. 22. Plans for Bret Hart if the Survivor Series ’97 screwjob had not happened: Hart would have beaten Shawn Michaels at Survivor Series, and then Michaels would have won the title in a four way at the December PPV (Degeneration-X) that would also have included The Undertaker and Ken Shamrock. Michaels would then beat Hart in a ladder match at the Royal Rumble. The next night, Hart would come out and make one last challenge to Michaels, putting his career on the line, and beat him for the belt. Then Hart would drop the title to Steve Austin at Wrestlemania. 23. The plan presented to Bret Hart, under the guise of wanting him to stay, but in reality getting him to leave, was to lose to Michaels at Survivor Series, lose at the December In Your House PPV as part of a Fatal Four-Way, lose to Michaels in a ladder match at Royal Rumble ‘98, beat Michaels the next night on Raw where he would say he'd retire if he didn't win, and then drop the strap to Steve Austin at WrestleMania 14. Of course, seeing four major losses in a row, with only one win, Hart naturally declined. 1998 24. Prior to WrestleMania 14, Shawn Michaels was putting up a lot of fuss over having to job to Steve Austin, and was openly talking about not doing it. The Undertaker was in the gorilla position, taping his fists up, and flat out told Michaels he was either doing the job in the ring, or he'd be doing one for real once he got backstage. 1999 25. Plans in 1999 were to have a "Gates of Hell" match at Summerslam, with either The Rock vs Undertaker or The Big Show vs Undertaker. The match was to have an opening in the center of the ring that would open every minute or two, and you would have to shove your opponent into the pits of fire to win. 26. Test was originally booked to beat HHH for the title on RAW in 1999, but Vince McMahon changed his mind at the last minute and had HHH retain. 2000 27. The original plan for the WrestleMania 2000 main event was Steve Austin vs The Big Show – this was the plan from the moment Paul Wight was signed. (Steve Austin was injured at the time of the event.) 2001 28. Shawn Micheals was originally going to be a part of the last or second to last Raw before WrestleMania 17. Michaels was meant to do an angle with HHH, and it would eventually lead to Michaels costing HHH his match with Undertaker at WM 17, which would then lead to HHH vs Michaels at Backlash ‘01. This was to happen on the Raw in question, but the segment got bumped due to timing, and Shawn threw a fit. The next day at Smackdown, when they were going to shoot the angle there, Michaels showed up out of his skull on something, and they sent him home. 29. One Man Gang was originally going to wrestle as Akeem in the gimmick battle royale at WrestleMania 17, however he had lost too much weight and no longer fit into the costume. 30. HHH’s quad tear in May 2001 changed the booking for the summer PPV’s. The original plan for King Of The Ring ‘01 was Steve Austin vs Chris Jericho and HHH vs Chris Benoit. This was changed to Austin vs Benoit vs Jericho. The original plan for SummerSlam ‘01 was for Austin to defend his WWF title against HHH. Instead Austin defended against Kurt Angle. 2002 31. Vince McMahon wanted to wrestle a Panda on a UK PPV just to mess with the other WWF during the lawsuit between the two companies. 32. The original main event for Wrestlemania 18 was Steve Austin vs. HHH (heel vs. face) for the WWF title. 33. The original plan was for Kevin Nash to wrestle Triple H at SummerSlam ’02. Nash tore his quad by walking and Shawn Michaels wrestled his comeback match in his place 34. WWE wanted Hulk Hogan to come back and face Brock Lesnar to get revenge for Lesnar injuring him in the summer of 2002. However, they wanted Hogan to job and he didn't want to come back just to lose again, so they went with Lesnar vs The Big Show. 2003 35. HHH refused to job to Booker T. at WrestleMania 19, stating that if he was going to drop the Raw Title to Bill Goldberg at Bad Blood ‘03, which was the original plan, then a short term title change to Booker would take the shine off of Goldberg's big win. 36. The WWE signed the wrong one legged wrestler when they originally courted Zach Gowen. 2004 37. The triple threat at WrestleMania 20 between Chris Benoit, Shawn Michaels and HHH was originally going to be a ladder match. Something else? I think I read something somewhere about Sgt Slaughter being fired in the 1980's for trying to set up a wrestler's union. Anyone know anything about that? Cheers.