Hunter's Torn Quad

--There is a fourth disc on the upcoming Hulk Hogan DVD that will be exclusive to Walmart and to Europe: *Hulk Hogan vs. Tito Santana 3/24/80 MSG *Hulk Hogan vs. Sonny Rogers & Chuck Greenley (one of his first AWA TV appearances in the summer of 1981) *Hulk Hogan vs. Terry Funk from the Saturday Night's Main Event *Hulk Hogan vs. Harley Race from Saturday Night's Main Event *Hogan wins 1990 Royal Rumble *Hogan vs. Earthquake SummerSlam 1990 *Hulk Hogan interview on the 10/3 Raw show And the ECW PPV in December will be called the December to Dismember.

Shawn and Vince have been feuding longer than Cena and Edge. Not much longer, but since just before the new year. Maybe they'll keep it going till next year just so they can talk about the feud being epic.

Easily. Maybe not a great one, but he is a draw.

For all the good it'll do. TNA buried the X-Divison so bad with how they handled moving the Big Three out of it, that I have little faith in them being able, or willing, to turn it back into the promotion's calling card.

Why because of a few botches or because the ending? I thought the ladder match was fine except for the ending. There were more than a 'few' botches; it seemed like every other move was blown, and usually blown badly. It was a complete trainwreck of a match that you'd usually find on some Indy show in front of 50 people.

Says that a written policy (the Wellness Policy) may look fine to an unknowing public, but the real policy is the hiring policy, and for all the appearances the Wellness Policy made the last few weeks, WWE showed its real policy this past week. While drug testing can, if applied fairly, be part of he solution, ultimately it’s the company that chooses the type of people they hire. With significant pain a fact of life in wrestling, and with promoters and fans wanting muscular bodies because they are more marketable, you are going to get significant drug issues. When people like Chris Masters and Bobby Lashley are rushed onto the main roster before everyone else, what message does that send? It’s a broken record, though, because promoters want physiques because of the feeling they make them money. A lot of big names wouldn’t have been in there positions without their physiques. The double standard is glaringly obvious, but it’s accepted in wrestling because it makes money and in wrestling it’s all about making money. Nobody wants recreational drug problems, because of the numerous problems associated with it, ie; missing shows, turning up loaded etc, however, few actually want to do something about it. Jeff Hardy’s hiring by WWE was expected for some time, and it’s represents something bad. Jeff’s drug history was well known within wrestling during his last stay with WWE, and after eventually being tested, which he felt insulted by and claimed to be clean, he failed and was fired for refusing to go to rehab. TNA had no problem hiring him with such a history, as they also did with people like Scott Hall, Crash Holly and BG James, all of whom had well known problems with drugs. Some nights Hardy was on, sometimes he wasn’t. At one PPV, he was expressly told by TNA not to do a stunt where he risked killing himself, but he went out and did the stunt anyway. Even with a very light schedule, Hardy missed dates, even missing a PPV, and was such a mess that Jeff Jarrett, who was the one keeping him in, gave up on him in the end. While everyone deserves a second, or sometimes third chance, if they prove themselves, Jeff didn’t. Bringing up names like Eddie Guerrero, William Regal or Shane Douglas to defend hiring Jeff misses a key point, because they did end up going to rehab. And while Guerrero got fired after messing up his first rehab, he wound up working Indy’s and Internationally, and made such a great impression in and out of the ring, by always working hard and never missing dates, that he had proven something, and he had to do that for months before being rehired. Hardy did the exact opposite, even with a much lighter schedule. And while Hardy has apparently worked hard to clean himself up, TNA was considering hiring him back not that long ago and the fact they didn’t is telling. While TNA were bad to hire him when they did, WWE proved to be as bad, maybe even worse, when they brought him back. TNA could rationalize hiring him because of the idea the easier schedule would be something Jeff could cope with, but when that blew up in their faces, to the point that Jeff Jarrett gave up defending him, they couldn’t rationalize anymore. If Hardy had done what Guerrero did, and worked all over with great reports of his in-ring and out of the ring performances, it would be one thing, but Jeff was even worse after WWE then he was when got fired. There is no rationale to bring him back. WWE don’t push tag teams, and while his return will get a big pop for week or maybe a month and he’ll be a favorite, after a month or so that and $3 will get out a coffee at Starbucks. He has a bad track record as it is, and his strengths involve a style WWE has moved away from, while his weaknesses are something now emphasized. Other news: With Hogan injured, Dave thinks it could be better for Hogan to lose to Orton, as someone hurt can get over better, if he does it right, by fighting against the odds and coming close to winning before losing. However, it’s all down to Hogan, as he has creative control. Hogan has always historically been more of a PPV draw than TV ratings draw, especially in WCW, where he was never one of their top five ratings movers, but was a legit PPV draw until 1999 when the company fell apart. Pat Patterson underwent surgery in 8/6 to remove a cyst from his main artery. Shawn Michaels has signed a five-year contract from $1.5M a year. Michaels was shocked by this and while he was going to reduce his schedule, this has changed his mind. The odds are currently against an ECW-only taping. Heyman is pushing for it but Kevin Dunn is strongly against it. The reaction the Hammerstein Ballroom crowd was mixed. Heyman was thrilled, believing the undercard to be great and the reaction to the main event more entertaining than it could have been. Others were unhappy with the swearing, as mentioned before. Kevin Dunn was on vacation at the time of the show, but people in the studio were giving him more negative responses than positive. Vince’s reaction was unknown because he gave no reaction either way, but he did lose his temper with Shannon Moore. He felt Moore cracked from the bad reaction from the crowd; Moore wound up grabbing the mic and saying, “I’m not here to impress the internet.” Moore was originally meant to beat Christopher W. Anderson in their dark match, but Vince changed the finish during the match to Anderson winning and also told them to switch roles with Anderson being the babyface. After all the vignettes with him, there was nothing on him at all on the 8/8 show, and it’s felt that he’s screwed himself up. Batista got negative feedback from his reaction to the Hammerstein Crowd, a lot of which was because he was apparently told ahead of time by Vince McMahon and John Laurinaitis exactly what was very likely going to happen, and still wound up losing his cool within seconds of going out. In the international versions of the show, during Batista’s entrance, they edited in fans cheering for him and holding up positive signs, while the negative chants were overdubbed with one long continuous “ECW” chant. Also, the commentary that called attention to the chanting was edited out. Lita may be around until November, as he contract is either up in September or November. As things stand, Trish’s blow-off will be the Unforgiven PPV. The Unforgiven main event will be John Cena vs. Edge in a TLC match, and the storyline would appear to be Cena winning the title in his hometown, and Edge getting a rematch in his specialty. Batista vs. Booker T headlines house shows after Summerslam. Ashley broke her hand on 7/31 during the tag match on Smackdown. She suffered a broken knuckle, and was close to needing surgery. Developmental changes will see Mike Bucci replace Tommy Dreamer as the director of the developmental system. The feeling is that Dreamer being on the road with ECW has allowed his work here to lag. The changes were talked about for a while, but where instigated after Vince watched tapes of OVW and Deep South and was unhappy with what he saw. Dreamer is now working solely as a wrestler, with no office or creative role. The Raw crew were drug tested on 8/7 in Memphis. It was meant to be confidential, but word got out about it at least a day ahead of the test. A lot of people were said to be very nervous backstage. Chris Benoit is expected back on Smackdown in about a month. With the Chavo-Mysterio deal, idea of the heel Chavo’s claims of Mysterio using Eddie’s name are to justify the company being babyfaces since they’ve been doing it for almost eight months now.

Shelton could still be something special, but unless they have their hand forced, then I think WWE have him pegged as a midcarder and I don't see Shelton going any higher up on the card than that.

Pillman was never going to be part of the Bash as he was gone long before it happened. Apart from that, if he had stayed Pillman would have gotten hot and then had his legs cut out from under him by the usual suspects.

They dropped the ball with Shelton after only one week, when Hunter casually blew off Shelton wanting a rematch. Everything after that was standard WWE procedure when it comes to screwing up the push of someone who could have been something special. Well, with Shelton he doesn't seem to have much in the way of mic skills or charisma, Blame that on the writing staff giving him bad material. During that match with Hunter, Shelton showed a ton of charisma, but they've almost never let him show it. It's not an isolated problem, though, but one that so many people suffer from.

Vince McMahon in the USWA Vince McMahon being Mr McMahon in 1993.

-Can you believe one year ago we'd be asking a question if a SummerSlam featuring a Hulk Hogan match, seven bona fide main event level bouts, and a Ric Flair vs. Mick Foley I Quit dream match where both were given adequate time can do half the domestic buys as Ken Shamrock vs. Tito Ortiz. This industry has changed incredibly since February. From WO.com I think SS can do more than half the domestic buys as Oritz vs. Shamrock II, but no way is it beating it.

Correct. This was around 1996 I think. There was a lot of interest from WCW and I believe some from Calloway as well, but WCW lost interest when they realized they had no way of using the Undertaker gimmick, or even anything like it, and because that's all Calloway really has going for hiim they lost interest.

Without the kind of physique needed to maintain the credibility of his Masterpiece gimmick, Masters is dead in the water. They can put a mask on him and have him work a different style, but the moment he shows up on WWE TV the crowds are going to be all over him with chants and catcalls over his loss of mass, and when that happens he may as well just send him home.

Pillman never even wanted to leave WCW. Pillman's contract was coming due soon, and he knew that while he'd be able to get the same deal he was already on, it wouldn't be anything special and that he'd be kept in the midcard. His idea was to convince Eric Bischoff that he (Eric) had created this hot character so that Eric would give Pillman a big raise, and therefore Pillman would have to get a main event level push in order to justify the money Pillman would be getting.

It was groundbreaking, that's for sure. It was a very strong angle for that time, and was well executed for the most part. I'm not sure it had any long term impact, though.

I really hope this comes through. Something like this could be of great benefit to wrestling, not just in Japan but on a worldwide basis. Japanese wrestling as a whole has been on shaky ground for quite some time, mostly due to the most visible group, New Japan, having a terrible last few years, and this could be the very thing to kickstart Japanese wrestling back into gear.

Best of the NWA on TBS This is a 13-part 26 disc set that covers the highlights of the NWA on the TBS Superstation from 1985 to 1988. You can get it from infamous trader Bob Barnett at www.bobbarnett.com Disc 1-1 The first disc starts off with a segment from World Championship Wrestling, which sees Ric Flair and Magnum TA in the studio and it starts the build of the Flair vs. Magnum TA feud. It’s a short segment, and it sees Flair tooting his own horn in his usual style and Magnum responding with how he doesn’t need all the refined things Flair has, because he does his talking in the ring. The main thing you can tell from this is that Magnum is clearly nervous when it comes to doing an interview. Next up is the ending of a Ric Flair squash, with Magnum on commentary. After the match, Flair confronts Magnum and offers to face him right there and then in the ring. Naturally, Magnum gets in the ring, and so does Flair, but then Flair leaves to tell David Crockett and Tony Schiavone that Magnum doesn’t need to suffer a major upset right now and because he’s thinking of Magnum’s best interests he’s walking away. Another confrontation between Flair and Magnum is up, and Flair is chiding Magnum for not keeping his mouth shut and trying to embarrass him. Flair dares Magnum to pay the price and put up or shut up, but that when Magnum is ready for it “I’ll let you know, daddy.” Magnum brings up that Flair was the one who called him out last week but Flair walked away. Flair winds up telling Magnum that he’ll make his chimes ring, and Magnum brings up that he hasn’t yet had his shot but when he does he’ll show Flair what he can do. Three segments, less than 10 minutes, and you’re already wanting to see the match. It’s so simple and yet so effective. Another Magnum TA promo, and this time he gets interrupted by Ric Flair, who says that Magnum is in line for a shot and we’re waiting to find out of he’s ready to play major league ball. Flair tell Magnum to stick around for a while because Flair s going to show him how great he is. The ending of Flair beating Sam Houston sees Flair not release the figure four and Magnum TA, who is doing commentary, runs in and breaks the hold and faces off with Flair. Flair backs off and Magnum follows him to the floor but Flair just walks away to the back. Now it’s the aftermath to a Magnum TA squash, and he and Flair face off again. Flair tells Magnum he needs to dress up and even offers to have some clothes made for him but Magnum grabs Flair and tells him to back off. Magnum goes to the ring and calls Flair out again but once again Flair backs off. They wind up in the ring and Flair attacks Magnum as he enters the ring and beats him up a little before walking away. When David Crockett tells Flair he wouldn’t let him get into the ring Flair tells him to talk his mother. Tony Schiavone interviews Ric Flair who again promotes himself in the only way he can. Flair says he’s put together a video of the four most memorable moments in his career. The first one his is win at Starrcade 83, the second is his title win over Kerry Von Erich, the third is his win over Dusty Rhodes at Starrcade 84, and the fourth is his attack on Magnum TA the week before. Flair says Magnum lacks class and to show there are no hard feelings he’s had his tailors make a suit for Magnum TA and tells Tony to give the suit to Magnum. Flair then goes to the ring for a squash match and, almost inevitably, Magnum TA comes to the broadcast position. Tony gives Magnum the suit from Flair and tells him what Flair said. After Flair wins the match, Magnum takes the suit into the ring and seems to appreciate it before tearing it apart as Flair looks on in silent anger. Flair goes to walk away before charging at Magnum only to get caught with the belly to belly suplex. Magnum walks off leaving Flair in the ring. When Flair finally gets out he rants at the broadcast position a little before leaving. Another Flair promo, with Flair wondering if he might not grow old as World champion and have to just hand it to someone. Magnum TA comes out to confront Flair and tells him he doesn’t think Flair can beat him and bets $1,000 that Flair can’t beat him in 10 minutes. Flair accepts and the two go to the ring. The two have a pretty hot match that almost predictably goes the full 10 minutes. The post-match sees Ole and Arn Anderson, who came out to do commentary part way through the match, jump Magnum from behind and they and Flair beat Magnum up before Dick Slater and Buzz Sawyer hit the ring and run them off. Next up is one of Jim Cornette’s first promo’s on TBS, and it sounds like it came after the debut Midnight Express on TBS. Cornette talks up the Midnights and their success as part of the Cornette family empire. Cornette is on fine form here, getting in a couple of good insults against Tony and the fans. Another Jim Cornette promo now and this one was later on in the same show. Cornette starts off by insulting the studio fans once again. Cornette tells us that it hurt him to see the jobber the MX had beaten up staggering around hurt after the match so from now on he’s going to have someone at ringside to carry them to the back. Next is the finish of Brett and Buzz Sawyer versus the Rock and Roll RPM’s, with Jim Cornette on commentary, and one of the Sawyer’s rolls up Tommy Lane for the win. The RPM’s and Sawyer’s fight after the match and the Sawyer’s get another pinfall over the RPM’s. Cornette goes to ringside and tells at the Sawyer’s and Buzz Sawyer tells Cornette to get out the MX. The Midnight’s come out and an impromptu match takes place. It doesn’t last long before The MX knock Bret Sawyer from the ring and leave Buzz Sawyer laid out in the ring. The pace picks up now as we see Ric Flair confronting Ivan Koloff at the broadcast position during a Nikita Koloff match and the two trade heated words before Nikita attacks Flair from behind and throws him into the ring. Koloff tries to beat Flair up but Flair gets the upper hand until Ivan interferes. The advantage doesn’t last as Dusty Rhodes runs out to even things up. With his clothes torn up, Flair cuts a raving promo and tells Koloff that they’ll meet up again. Jim Cornette cuts another promo and insults a number of people, including the Sawyer’s, Dusty Rhodes and the Rock and Roll Express, where Cornette makes it clear the Midnight Express are coming after the World tag titles. Ric is out for a promo and he has words for Nikita Koloff, telling him that “we’ve only just begun”, Dusty Rhodes, telling him not to interfere in his business again and not to think the tension between them is over, and he also has words for Buddy Landell. We get another promo from Ric Flair, this time hyping a steel cage match against Nikita Koloff in the Omni. In a neat touch, he does it ‘behind’ a graphic of a steel cage that covers the whole picture. Jim Cornette is out again and, after insulting Tony Schiavone, telling him he looks like an unmade bed, Cornette insults freeloaders and bemoans having to pay taxes to subsidize them. After a break the interview continues, and Cornette again has words for the Rock and Roll Express, the Sawyer’s and Dusty Rhodes. Jim Cornette is back for another promo, this time building up his feud with Jimmy Valiant and his Street People. Cornette also finds time to insult Rocky King and Big Momma. A trifecta of Cornette as he’s out again for another promo, this time with insults aimed at Rock and Roll Express, Dusty and Magnum TA and Jimmy Valiant and Rocky King, bringing up that nobody has beaten the Midnight Express. Once again it’s time for more Cornette as he interrupts Schiavone and Crockett. Cornette talks about all the steamy fan letters that the MX are receiving and Cornette tells the women sending them that he doesn’t allow the MX any extracurricular activity, so they’ll be disappointed. Fifth Cornette promo in a row now, as Cornette once again insults Jimmy Valiant, his Street People, and Big Momma, building up their ongoing feud. Make that the sixth promo from Cornette now, as he once again has words for Jimmy Valiant and Rocky King. You can tell it’s the 80s as Cornette calls King, who is black, Buckwheat, which I don’t see happening on television today. A non-Cornette segment at last and it’s the first big angle of the set as we see the first half of the angle where the Andersons and Ric Flair broke Dusty Rhodes’ ankle in the cage. In this part, we see Dusty run-in and send the Russians, Krusher, Ivan and Nikita, packing and the clip ends with Flair apparently offering his hand up to Dusty. It then cuts to the studio where Jim Crockett is with Tony and Ric Flair and Crockett asks Flair to explain the tape they’ve just seen. Flair doesn’t really answer except to go off on not having any challengers so Crockett walks off. After a commercial Flair is still in studio and Tony is once again asking Flair about what happened in the cage. The perennial babyface announcer David Crockett chimes in and presses Flair to answer. Flair says he is the best but David responds by asking if Flair thinks Dusty is the best and if that is why he did what he did. Flair brings out Arn Anderson, who is the National champion, and Flair parades the belts they both have. They can cut to a taped interview conducted by David Crockett with Dusty’s doctor about the ankle injury. The doctor tells us Dusty suffered a third degree ankle sprain and he describes it as a very serious and injury. Time for a Ric Flair promo and this time he’s talking about Tully Blanchard in less than flattering terms, so this is clearly before the formation of the Horseman. Flair also has a few word for Buddy Landell, who is in the ring, with his manager JJ Dillon, and he also talks about Magnum TA and Nikita Koloff. Flair finishes up by informing Landell that he’d lend him one of his robes but Landell would get lost in the arms. Tony Schiavone interviews Dusty Rhodes, in a cast, at ringside. However, the interview doesn’t last long as Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard attack Rhodes, knocking him down and Arn actually steals Rhodes’ World Television title belt. A Ric Flair promo is next and it’s an expanded version of David Crockett questioning Flair about what happened in the cage where Flair and the Anderson’s broke Dusty’s ankle. Jim Cornette is out again and talks about Jimmy Valiant having a drug problem in that when he’s in with the MX he gets “drugged from one end of the ring to the other”. A few more insults get thrown the way of Valiant, Rocky King and Big Momma. The next segment starts up in the middle of an MX squash with Jim Cornette on color commentary off and on. The squash is entertaining as all MX squashes are and Cornette is funny on commentary. After the match the MX keep beating up their opponents, one of whom is Rocky King, so this naturally brings in Jimmy Valiant. Valiant gets beat down before a mysterious lady enters the ring and decks Bobby Eaton, knocking him silly. A post-skirmish promo from Valiant sees him ask for the mysterious lady to get in contact with him. A Jim Cornette promo is up and Cornette once again tears into Jimmy Valiant and the Street People. Cornette says he’s going to prosecute the mystery woman and he’s going to demand police protection from Jim Crockett Promotions because of the woman. A change in direction now as we see an angle where Baby Doll offers Magnum TA her business card and he responds by forcing a kiss on her. With babyface announcer David Crockett screaming that Baby Doll likes it, Doll pulls away and TA grabs her tearing her top and then Tully Blanchard jumps TA from behind and the two have a short but very stiff brawl but the action cuts back to the studio before we see too much. It’s back in the studio again for another Jim Cornette promo and, after bragging about being PWI manager of the year for 1985. talks about an incident between the MX and the R and R Express and we get tape of what went down, with the MX jumping the RnR’s after a squash match where the MX leave Morton laying. Cornette once again vows the MX will be the NWA world tag team champions. Another Jim Cornette promo again and he complains about not being happy when he should be, after all he’s the manager of the year and the RnR’s have been laid out, because the RnR’s fans have been writing to him and complaining about what the MX did to Ricky Morton. Ric Flair is out for a promo and he’s accompanied by the sounds of The Wanderer by Dion. Flair talks about a female fan in the parking lot asking him to come out in jeans like Magnum TA does and Flair says he might just do that one day. Flair then talks about, accompanied by the relevant clip, of an attack by Flair, Arn and Tully on Ron Garvin that gets interrupted by Dusty Rhodes and winds up with Garvin knocking Flair out with a punch. Flair gets aggravated by David Crockett and tells him that they have to show the tape simply to show that Flair is a normal human being on his worst day. Flair also tells the girls that if they see him driving along they should turn around, get in line, and the Nature Boy will make them into big girls. Jim Cornette is in the studio now and he’s got a copy of the Cornette family history and he informs us that the Cornette’s have always been successes. Cornette then talks once again about what they’ve done to he RnR’s and tears into them too. A squash match is next with Bobby Eaton facing Wee Willie Wilkens, who is as short as his name suggests. With Jim Cornette chiming in on commentary from time to time, David Crockett accuses him of having the singles match so Dennis Condrey can protect Cornette at ringside. The highlight of the match is Cornette yelling moves at Bobby for him to perform on Wilkens. Bobby ends the match with a kneedrop off the top and then he and Dennis beat Wilkens up a little more before the RnR’s hit the ring to run the MX off and, for some bizarre reason, Ricky Morton throws Wilkens out of the ring when you’d think, as a babyface, he’d help the guy up. Ric Flair promo now and, strangely for Ric, he’s wearing jeans, which he says he’s doing because when you’re as good as he is you can once in a while go against the norm, which is the suits he usually wears. After the fashion shows, Flair has words for Ron Garvin and their imminent encounter and makes reference to Garvin becoming a US citizen and says that when he beats Garvin it means he’s beaten an American. Another Jim Cornette promo is up and he once again talks about the RnR Express and we see tape of another incident between the two that sees the MX jump the RnR’s after a squash match and Cornette winds up lashing Ricky Morton across the back with his belt. In preview of a special upcoming ‘dream match’, which will see the Rock and Roll Express defend the NWA world tag titles against the Midnight Express we see the Rock and Roll Express beating Ivan Koloff and Krusher Khrushchev for the belts in July of 1985. The introductions of the match take place but the match itself is on disc 1-2 and that is where we will pick up later.

Disc 1-2 This disc revolves around Jim Cornette and the Midnight Express and Ric Flair and the Four Horseman, but we also see some angles that centers on Magnum TA and Nikita Koloff. The Cornette/MX stuff deals with their feuds with the Rock and Roll Express and Dusty Rhodes, Magnum TA and Baby Doll. The first proper match of the set is the Midnight Express challenging the RnR’s for the NWA tag titles. It’s from a television special and so is a little shorter than their usual matches, but is still very good and a great display of old school tag team wrestling. The feud later evolves to include, to no surprise, Dusty Rhodes, as he offers the RnR’s the use of his cage, “Betty Lou”, to stop Cornette from interfering in their matches anymore; it had been due to Cornette that the MX beat the RnR’s for the tag titles. This development leads to some great promo’s from Cornette, who is on top form on the mic in this feud, and really for this whole set. The Cornette/MX vs. Dusty, Magnum and Baby Doll feud kicks into high gear with one of the most infamous angles in the NWA, where Cornette rams the end of his tennis racquet into the stomach of Baby Doll. It doesn’t sound like much of an angle today, but back then women almost never got touched like that, if at all, and the angle got an intense reaction. The crowd went batshit, David Crockett, the babyface announcer, stormed off the interview set and refused to talk to Cornette and the MX as the angle played out in the ring; this was a fantastic angle, and it got heat the likes of which you very rarely see anymore. The aftermath of this was another great angle that sees the mysterious James Gang/James Boys (both names would be used), who looked very familiar, jump the MX after a squash match, leave them laying, and then hog tie Jim Cornette and drag him to the back and tie him to their pick-up truck with only the timely arrival of the MX preventing a lynching. Ric Flair is involved in the second full match on the set against Ron Garvin, and it’s taken from the same television special as the MX vs. RnR match earlier. It’s another good match, though it does suffer from being very much a Ric Flair ‘special’; we see the standard Flair bumps and spots in their standard order, and it really does emphasize the repetitive nature of some of Flair’s matches. The other thing it suffers from, and it happened in the tag title match earlier, is the dreaded referee bump that plagued the NWA when Dusty had the book. One would have been bad enough, but two in the same night, and during a big special at that, was just lazy. The Flair/Garvin stuff continues later on, with footage from a house show of the post-match happenings from a Flair vs. Garvin 60:00 draw, that saw Garvin KO Flair with his Hands of Stone punch and get an unofficial three count from the referee. The feud doesn’t really expand from there, at least not on this disc, as things quickly move on to Flair vs. Ricky Morton. The Flair vs. Morton feud kicks into high gear with an impromptu studio match between the two that ends, after the obligatory and beyond stale referee bump, with Robert Gibson counting an unofficial three count for Morton over Flair. This was a (too) often used method of setting up a challenger for Flair, with the appointed guy getting a unofficial three count in some fashion, but it did get the job done here. The feud progresses on the disc with the ending of six-man elimination match that sees Morton get a clean pin on Flair to win the match for his team, which comprised of the RnR’s and Dusty Rhodes; no guessing as to which teammate was the first to congratulate Morton and which one was left in the background. This led to another great angle was Flair, Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard, who were the heel team in the match, jump the RnR’s in their dressing room and Flair rubbed Morton’s face into the concrete floor. What gets this angle over even more is how Tony Schiavone and David Crockett talk about how Ric Flair has never gone into someone’s dressing room like that before in his career, which helps get over how mad Flair is at being beaten. Closing comments: The 1985-1988 remains my favorite period in the NWA/WCW, and this set shows why. Hot angles, great matches, the best promo men in the business coming out on a weekly basis, and crowd reactions you very rarely get today. If you’re a wrestling fan and what WWE is crapping out each week turns your stomach, then get this set and enjoy a wrestling promotion at its finest.

Wrestling Classics But get ready for pop-up and sometimes you might also get stuff trying to install itself on your computer.

I think he means he'd rather they reform X-Factor and put Killings in the new version. And I never got why people hated their music.

Gimmick stealer. Some people in WWE want to bring back Rikishi and Brian Christopher to reform Too Cool, and to bring in Ron Killings to be a member of the group. Do these people not realize that it's not 2000 anymore? Scotty 2 Hottyis dead in the water, Rikishi has a plum deal in Italy, and don't get me started on the gassed up midget.

Jeff Hardy was a mess in WWE. TNA has a much lighter schedule and he couldn't even cope with that without screwing up so badly that the person with the most power in the company gave up trying to save the guy's job. For WWE to hire Hardy back when he has shown no sign of being able to handle any kind of a schedule is reckless and encourages Jeff to stay on the substances that have killed his career.

Ultimate Fight Night 6: Round-by-Round Josh Koscheck vs. Jonathan Goulet Koscheck totally controlled the fight and was never close to being in danger. Koscheck continues to show that he could be a title contender down the line. Guess I’m going to have to wait a while for Josh to finally get the shit kicked out of him. Dean Lister vs. Yuki Sasaki A very slow start but it turned into a good round. Lister controlled the direction of the fight and clearly won the round, but Sasaki put up more than enough of a defense to avoid being blown out, so I have it 10-9 for Lister. Round two was again controlled by Lister who tied Sasaki up in knots on the ground, but Sasaki somehow weathered the storm and escaped to get things standing for the last few seconds. The question is does Lister win 10-8 for such dominance, or does he only win 10-9 for not being able to finish? I’ll go with 10-9, making it 20-18 for Lister going into the third and final round. The third round saw Lister gassed out from trying to put Sasaki away in round two, but Sasaki was equally gassed and was unable to take advantage. 10-10 round, so I have it as Lister winning 30-28. All three judges give it 30-27 to Lister. There was very noticeable booing from the crowd to that, probably from Lister actively trying to stall during round three. Chris Leben vs. Jorge Santiago Round one was even, and neither guy did enough to make me give them the nod so I have it 10-10. Round two was slow standing up until Leben hit home with a great left hand knocking Santiago out cold. They showed the punch a couple of times in slow motion and it hit Santiago right in the face and he was out before he hit the ground. Joe Riggs vs. Jason Von Flue It went to the ground and Riggs controlled Von Flue en route to a great triangle choke. Von Flue flipped the bird and then quickly tapped out, which was funny. Karo Parisyan vs. Diego Sanchez Round one was very heated with the crowd being loud and noisy. Sanchez was awesome with how easily he was able to get Parisyan’s back. Parisyan was cut under one of his eyes, so that may give the round to Sanchez with the judges, but Parisyan was able to take Sanchez down with some excellent judo throws, so I score the first round even. Round two was all-action and Diego again showed tremendous agility with his ground game. He was able to effectively neutralize Parisyan and dominated the round so I give the round to Diego. It’s 20-19 for Diego on my scorecard. Round three was exciting with a hot crowd who never let up. Diego was again in command with Karo trying to hang in there, getting limited respite. Karo did get a throw in there, but Diego was just dominating in this round and I’d give it to him 10-8. With that, I have him winning the decision 30-27. The judges gave it Sanchez with scores of 29-28. 29-28 and 30-26. An awesome fight, and a real FOTY candidate.

From yesteday's WO.com update: --An interesting coincidence or more than that. WWE usually releases buy rates 2-4 weeks after the shows. The company has not released one buy rate since May. That was the month that Gracie vs. Hughes did 600,000 buys and beat out Mania domestically. It will be interesting to see if they do release the last few shows at the investors conference later this month. I don't even think they were that bad, as noting indicated they would be falling from the levels of the past year and I was expecting Vengeance in particular to do well.

I'm calling around 450,000 buys.