Stuttsy

Calling it now, Cena's match is him and Truth v Rusev & Nakamura. Either they shoot an angle for it on Tuesday or save the whole thing for the show itself but he saves Truth from the two of them and they have a little house show tag match just like the Australia stadium show where Cena works about 90 seconds total after getting the hot tag. Very interested to see where the tag-teams end up, it certainly makes storyline sense for Vince to punish the Usos in some fashion for forfeiting on Tuesday but who knows. Usos v Revival would be my preference but I don't see the Bar getting left off. I think Rey and Joe make the main card because it's a quick match and you need those to break up the longer ones. My guess would be pre-show is the Cruiserweight Title, both battle royals and either or both tag-titles.

I never realized this and it is very wild to read. I always thought the initial attack on Hogan at Saturday Night's Main Event came off great and I love the pre-taped interview with Hogan before the match, lifting weights tentatively with Hillbilly, testing out the strength of his ribs. If asked, I would have said Bundy v Hogan had a great build based on that so this is very fascinating to hear. I need to watch the Championship Wrestling shows on the lead in to Mania 2.

I never got to ask him about it but the impression that I got that day was always that Gary only got one side of the story.

Something way up there for me that there's probably no real hope for surfacing are the Bobby Eaton vs. Randy Savage 60 minute draws Cornette talks about from '78 over the Mid America Title.

Two that I saw with my own eyes: A green body builder named Mike Gunner ran the National Guard Armory in his home town around 2001 and booked himself on top against the Barbarian. The matches have already started and I'm in the back when Gunner sits down in a chair in front of Barbarian, backwards like AC Slater, and starts off by saying "Ok Barb, here's what we're gonna do." and a hush falls over the locker room. We're all looking at each other in silence as Gunner lays out a long convoluted go home that culminates with him of course going over. Barb says nothing during all this until finally speaks up, "Ok bruddah, no problem." They get to the ring and Barb just pounds on the fuckin dude, it was great. Barb wore him out with a chair, powerbombed him 2 or 3 times, stepped over the top rope and got counted out with Gunner just laying in a heap in the ring. Another time wasn't so much a physical shoot although this one was a little more publicized, even getting a blurb in the Observer. Two guys in a tag-team called the Lost Souls were booked with Gary Hart as their manager against Jake Manning & Tony Kozina at the 2005 NWA Legends fanfest in Charlotte. It was to be the opener and if I remember correctly was intended as basically a squash win for the Lost Souls even though Kozina had a bit of a name already by then. But as they are talking over the match, the Lost Souls wanted to use thumb tacks and fire and all this shit, in a 5:00 opening tag match. Manning & Kozina balked, rightly so, and the two teams had words. Ultimately Manning & Kozina walked. Instead of the match, Lost Souls opened the show with Gary Hart doing a "shoot promo" about how their opponents had fled the scene and didn't have any balls. Michael from Highspots was so pissed he cut me off from doing commentary and personally shut the cameras off himself until they left the ring.

First taste of Buddy on the set, who I certianly assume will rank as MVP by the time we're done. Buddy stalls to start. Love how vocal the crowd is. Everything Martel does as a babyface is so superb. Buddy works the leg for a long time. Martel keeps ripping at Buddy's mask to try and free himself. Awesome moment where Buddy pulls the mask up to taunt, Martel grabs his ear and Buddy (with an awesome facial) yanks the mask back down to cover his ear. Every movement here has purpose. Martel gives up the first fall to a half crab. Nice tease of Martel potentially being too injured to continue. Martel is awesome protecting his injured leg at the start of fall 2. GREAT spot as Rose is cranking Martel's leg against the ring post, Martel grabs Rose by the hair (mask) and rams him into the post from a down position. Crowd is HOT for Martel making a small comeback in fall 2. Love Martel favoring the leg with every movement on his comeback. Martel is SUCH a superb babyface. Martel punishes the lower back of Rose using the ring post and a bunch of double sledge strikes, then gets a submission with the Boston Crab to win fall 2. So fundamentally sound. Everything makes sense and no wasted motion. Martel stays on the back in fall 3. Rose goes for a slam but can't do it due to his back. Martel gets a slam on Rose in spite of his bad knee. Rose uses the hair to slip out of an abdominal stretch. Nearly everything Martel has done in falls 2 and 3 has been directly concentrated on the back and I love that. Martel still trying to yank the mask off and expose Rose's bald head for added drama in fall 3. Martel gets the mask off but the Sheepherders are there to wrap his head in a towel. Buddy runs off for the count out to end it. Fun match, everything was SO fundamentally sound.

Chuckle @ Martel being announced from Paris, France, but I've heard more egregious intros in my day. LOVE the start here with Harley running his mouth and Martel giving him a big ol' body slam right at the bell. Jesus Harley takes the over the top backwards bump in the first minute. Martel's fire is superb and Harley is putting Martel over big time in the early going. Martel yanking Harley up with the arm bar was excellent. Super hot start then Martel cranks on the arm for a loooong time. Harley wins the first fall right at 15:00 after a flurry of offense and a BIG suplex. Harley starts fall 2 with a nasty headbutt and attempts a hip block but Martel snatches an abdominal stretch in a beautiful counter. Martel really hits some gorgeous looking offense in fall 2. Martel counters the BIG suplex with a sleeper hold to wrap up fall 2, which I absolutely love. He knew he had to avoid the suplex a second time and he did. Crowd does not want Martel to wake Harley up which is incredible. Third fall is all about Martel's desperation to win. Martel survives a suplex after all and gets the sleeper on as time runs out. Bit of an anti-climactic finish that did not have the oomph you'd expect under the circumstances but a beautiful match.

Thanks for this, guys. Cataloging match listings today and this has been a big help. Does anyone know anything about the Abdullah vs. Sika studio TV match?! Where / when / anything? Thanks!

Oh yeah it definitely FEELS epic as heck and the atmosphere is awesome, definitely adds a TON.

Joe v Kobashi for me. I'm not a big puro fan at all. I know the name Kobashi from all the magazines and RF Video lists from the 90's and personally I found it really underwhelming if you aren't preconditioned to Kobashi worship leftover from the 90's. I actually liked Richards v Elgin a lot more than Joe v Kobashi on repeated viewings of both. I've re-watched Joe v Kobashi a bunch of times trying to like it and I sincerely think everyone who loves Kobashi (not that there's anything wrong with that) overrates it big time.

Singles wrestler Chavo Guerrero Jr. has GOT to be up there for me, at least among modern era guys.

Throw all the Nitros out and don't watch anything past Slamboree 1994.

He leaves somewhere in 1990, I gathered from talking to him it was probably around the time of the first Supertape although he didn't recall the specific dates. So he'll have no knowledge of anything that happened since then. We'll be talking more about the first 75 or so Coliseum tapes, up through say Hulkamania 4. Personally I'm not expecting him to recall much about specific match choices or alternate covers. I only expect someone to retain so much specific information about a job (and that's what it was, a job, not a life's passion) they had 25 years ago. I'm looking more for insight into the company's infrastructure, the nature of their relationship and interaction with Titan corporate and memorable interactions with the talent, which he says he has quite a few of.

I do a mix of both. I definitely re-air ECW at 11 PM or midnight, WCW Saturday at 6:05, Superstars/Challenge/All American Wrestling in the mornings all pretty much untouched. But I also produce more shows LIKE Vintage Collection where Renee Young or Joey Styles or Mean Gene or Michael Hayes or whoever (you'd need a good mix of hosts for rotation) are at a desk introducing older footage and putting it into a broader context. Also I make use of Vintage Collection and MSG Classics A LOT as filler programming during the day. Definitely some 30 for 30 style documentaries on subjects that wouldn't normally get a full proper DVD release like the Paul Heyman story. One thing I think no one else has really mentioned yet is the feature articles and little countdown web videos they've been doing on wwe.com for a year or two now. Virtually all of them would make great full length specials as programming for the network and would be evergreen, you could show them in the middle of the day, on weekends, etc. Sorta like how ESPN Classics will show their countdown shows on weekend afternoons in multiple hour blocks. Just a sampling of the articles they've published in the past year: 10 Best Traditional Survivor Series Matches, Greatest Masked Tag-Teams, Forgotten ECW Favorites, 10 Superstars Who Should've Been World Champion, 10 Most Monstrous Tag-Teams, 10 Greatest to Never Wrestle for WWE, Superstars Who Should've Been Bigger, Rank'd Worst Gimmick Matches, Rank'd One Hit Wonders, Rank'd Most Revealing Unmaskings, Rank'd Most Impersonations, Rank'd Summerslam Shockers, etc. All of those could EASILY be a 2 hour or more program produced for the network. And I am sure there are dozens more.

We'll definitely be talking about this, he shed some insight in the pre-interview that may surprise some people.