claw64

I originally was going to vote for Edge but changed it to Ricky & Robert. Also considered Lesnar. I'll be able to vote for Edge in the coming years provided he doesn't fall below 10 percent. I want to wait and see how the rest of Lesnar's pro wrestling career pans out.

Snuka definitely influenced Foley. Then I saw two top of the cage dives on Monday night. So I voted for Snuka. Snuka also got some territories to either get rid of or modify the jumping off the top rope dq.

My ballot would look different if Dave didn't institute the 15 years now or almost never rule. "Dave, I'm only voting in three categories. I FOLLOWED THE HISTORICAL PERFORMERS ERA CANDIDATES, I FOLLOWED THE MODERN PERFORMERS IN U.S/CANADA CANDIDATES and Non Wrestlers. Don't think I'm knowledgeable enough to vote on Japan, Mexico, Europe or the rest of the world category. So here you go. The new 15 year rule, 50% or be dropped next year definitely influenced my voting. 1 Ivan Koloff 2 Enrique Torres 3 Wilbur Snyder 4 Gene Anderson & Ole Anderson 5 Dick Murdoch 6 Jimmy Snuka 7 Pepper Gomez 8 Assassins Joe Hamilton & Tom Renesto 9 Kinji Shibuya 10 Rock & Roll Express Ricky Morton & Robert Gibson Non Wrestlers Bill Apter Howard Finkel Don Owen George Scott Jesse Ventura"

The first two groups were easy to rank. The last two groups were not. Group A: Rick Steiner Demolition Smash Road Warrior Animal Group B: Terry Gordy Bam Bam Bigelow John Tenta Group C: 2 Cold Scorpio Sabu Yoshihiro Tajiri Group D: Shawn Michaels Chris Benoit Eddie Guerrero

Totally agree. Kamala is comedy gold.

If you guys had seen Jimmy Valiant and Dusty Rhodes as heels, your opinion of them might be a little different. When Jimmy teamed with his "brother" Johnny, he was a prolific bleeder. They cut great promos too. Rhodes was a great heel too. With Murdoch or on his own.

I learned insider terminology from the sheets long before the internet was a big deal. Even magazines like Wrestling Eye used some insider terms. While I didn't use the term workrate before I started reading the sheets, I definitely knew what it meant. It didn't take a rocket scientist to see Billy Robinson had more wrestling ability than Bruiser or Crusher.

Bruiser & Crusher did not alter their styles at all when they officially turned good in early 1965. Their opponents changed. Their brawling tactics did not. They cheated just as much or maybe even more as good guys. This became the model for AWA face turns from Larry Hennig to Ray Stevens to Mad Dog Vachon to Jerry Blackwell. Nick Bockwinkel was one of the only exceptions. There was no way he could cheat as much as a good guy without Heenan in his corner. Heenan left for the WWF which made Nick's face turn inevitable. Hogan was only a heel briefly in the AWA. It's hard to count him because he wrestled so few matches as a heel. But Hogan as a face was the 80s version of Bruiser and Crusher. He cheated all the time and used brawling tactics. That's one reason Hogan and later the Road Warriors were cheered by AWA fans. It did take Verne longer to turn Hawk and Animal than it did Hogan but he finally saw the light.

Also picked Lance. Ross would have been my second choice. Then a huge gap to the third spot which most likely would be filled by Solie.

Jimmy Lennon Sr. from Los Angeles was the best ring announcer I ever heard/watched. Re:: AWA before Mean Gene Marty O'Neill. You should be able to find plenty of Marty on you tube and I'm sure khawk has a decent amount on Marty in his video collection.

Here are parts of Gary Cubeta's melt down. ---------------- I know you guys hate the shows and especially me, but just one thing I would like to mention ... I never had an issue with Clawmaster ... He was VERY helpful to us and was fully credited on our site as Master of Research ... Without him the shows would never have reached the level they did ... My problem was with Crimson Mask from the other site ... Somehow there was confusion and you guys thought we had turned on you, which we hadn't ... I've known a lot of guys like Barry and Greg on this site for over 30 years (granted more off than on) and I have a lot of respect for them. Not so crazy about the other site though ... My idea from day one was to take the great information you provide here and put it into audio form with the wrestlers giving their real time comments ... I still think it is a good idea, but very difficult to do without the help ... Now you can continue the pummelling of yours truly. ---------------------------- I've got 12 more days From: gary cubeta To: [email protected] to convince you tel help us or the shows are done and the old shows have to come down the boss told me that if we can't get quality new material up by 12-31-2010, no mas we are using 70% of our server space (the show files are so large) ... he said he would fund our own seperate page if we could do fresh shows that weren't "repeats" of the old shows ... the only way to do that is with the results ... i just don't have enough working history of any of this, to keep it fresh I am uploading 12 new fresh shows (have been working on them all this month), why don't you listen and see if the show is worth saving ... if not, no problem ... i'm fine either way, but i do enjoy giving the guys the platform to talk ... they get a big kick out of it and i enjoy it to ... obviously, i don't make a dime off the show ... take care =) ... gary ------------------------ That's just two parts of the melt down.

I really like the Orton/HHH comparison in terms on ring work but Trips had the benefit of being a big star in a much hotter period for the company. Orton is probably the second biggest star next to Cena in the current era. But I think there's a huge gap between them. Cena was a no brainer pick for Meltzer's HOF. I voted for him with no questions asked. Which brings us to Randy Orton. I don't think I'll vote for Orton when he becomes eligible. He's not a slam dunk like Cena. I'd like to see Orton' career play out then decide on his worthiness. Unless the guy is a no brainer like Cena, Austin or Rock, I like to take the wait and see approach. I'm trying to get the pulse of others on Orton. This board because of all the people that watch tape seemed like a good place to do it.

Verne is going to kick the bucket fairly soon so Meltzer will probably ask me for a Verne Gagne record book. I'll bump my friend David Baker's Verne ring record on Sports and Wrestling then add to it. Eventually I'll total the Nick vs Verne matches by year. Seem to recall Bock meeting Verne early on because Verne was replacing Hercules Cortez who died in an automobile accident. I'll quickly look that up. Yep. The first Bock vs Verne match was due to the death of Cortez. 7/23/71 Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada Nick Bockwinkel beat Hercules Cortez dq Larry Hennig & Lars Anderson beat Red Bastien & Bull Bullinski Vivian Vachon beat Kay Noble Billy Robinson beat Big K Don Muraco beat Moose Morowski Jack Bence beat Bob Tuck Professional wrestler Hercules Cortez, 39, died early Saturday morning in a one car accident near St. Cloud, Minn., where he and fellow wrestler Red Bastien were returning to the Twin Cities for last night's card after a Friday card in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Cortez, who lives in North Royalton, Ohio, was driving the car and died en route to a St. Cloud hospital. Bastien, 40, of Minneapolis, was treated and releaeed and will miss about a week of wrestling. Last night's card at the Minneapolis Auditorium went on as scheduled, with promoter Wally Karbo bringing in a replacement for Cortez, whose real name is Alfonso Chicharro. Cortez was a native of Spain. Cortez and Bastien were World Tag Team Champions. 7/24/71 Minneapolis TV Larry Hennig & Lars Anderson beat Jose Betancourt & Angel Rivera Nick Bockwinkel beat Pancho Zapata Edouard Carpentier beat Aldo Bogni Andre the Giant beat Moose Morowski Ray Stevens beat Kenny Jay 7/24/71 Minneapolis, MN @ Auditorium Non Title Match Nick Bockwinkel beat AWA Champion Verne Gagne (sub Hercules Cortez) in 18:21 Bull Bullinski & Andre Rousimoff beat Larry Hennig & Lars Anderson 2/3 Billy Robinson beat Edouard Carpentier via pin in 16:08 Ray Stevens beat Jose Betancourt (sub Red Bastien) in 12:05 Vivian Vachon beat Kay Noble via pin in 8:32 Kenny Jay drew Joe Turco 15:00 att: "6,123 mat fans"

Yes Thesz wrestled in Mexico. There are some threads about it on the Thesz board at Wrestling Classics. I'm too lazy to look them up. 6/17/83 Denver, CO @ Auditorium Arena Mad Dog Vachon beat Jerry Blackwell Baron Von Raschke & Wahoo McDaniel beat Nick Bockwinkel & Blackjack Lanza Ken Patera beat Jim Brunzell Greg Gagne beat Mike Graham Brad Rheingans beat Chris Markoff

Billy Robinson during the summer of 1974 in the AWA.