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Re: The Wrestling thread
You guys want to know that hilarious part of this? Vince wanted to sign him AGAIN even after all that. In late 1997 after Bret left, he once again offered Warrior a lucrative contract. Warrior declined and signed with WCW in 1998.
Years later, Vince was asked why he offered/wanted to sign Warrior again and his answer was: I don’t know. I guess I’m a glutton for punishment here.
Re: The Wrestling thread
You guys want to know that hilarious part of this? Vince wanted to sign him AGAIN even after all that. In late 1997 after Bret left, he once again offered Warrior a lucrative contract. Warrior declined and signed with WCW in 1998.
Years later, Vince was asked why he offered/wanted to sign Warrior again and his answer was: I don’t know. I guess I’m a glutton for punishment here.
The Attitude era is completely different or might not even take off in a scenario where Warrior is on the roster.
Only reason he didn't ruin WCW is he was only brought in for one purpose.... for Hogan to get his win back.
Once that was over...and it was a fiasco...they tossed him aside.
They wanted to bring in Yokozuna for the same thing. He was simply too far gone weight Wise for it to happen.
In hindsight it's so crazy how they had the Goldberg phenomenon in overdrive yet allowed Hogan and Nash to do everything in their power to essentially kill WCW.
In 98 when they realized that they had something special going with Goldberg and shitloads of other young talent like Jericho, Benoit, etc it was time to phase out Hogan, Nash, Hall, Savage, and some others.
The NWO angle was beyond played out at that point.
Re: The Wrestling thread
I'm in January 87 right now.
I'm not going to lie....this is a slog to get through. Obviously I know it vastly improved later in the year (summer?) but it's clearly in a state of flux now that the Starrcade feuds are wrapping up, and in some cases, being forced too long.
It's just an odd period.....
The early phase of Luger's career when he's really green
Ivan debuting the Russian Assassin. The NWA is trying to push him as an indestructible monster. One problem...he's pure shit. Zero wrestling skills. Nobody cares about the potential feud with Nikita.
This is when Nikita's career starts sliding. The huge cheers are dwindling. Dusty and Nikita are still together of course but it's not a major thing. I know it gets a second wind later on with Wargames but I didn't remember his slide happening this early. He should've went to WWF at this point.
This should've been the moment Windham gets the title from Flair. They don't know what to do with him. He's in an odd ball tag team with Ron Garvin...and they're the US tag team champions. In other words...they're ranked as the second best team in the NWA. The belts are being wasted on them. I don't remember how long they hold the belts or who beats them. I'm pretty sure it's the Midnight Express. Going on simultaneously is Windhams feud with Flair.
Rick Rude and Raging Bull are the world tag team champs. I have a new appreciation for them. It's a quirky team with the worst manager in the NWA. It somehow works. Unfortunately for them, it's a short reign and they don't gain much momentum. Their short amount of time is mainly wasted on the Rock N Roll Express.
This team begs to be in a tweener role where they fight heels too... Midnights, Andersons, etc.
Out of nowhere and while still champs, Rude bails out and goes to WWF. It worked for him but holy shit what a risk that was.
They're still wasting time on scaffold matches at house shows for the Road Warriors and Midnight Express. It defeats the purpose of the concept. If it's so dangerous and risky to be sanctioned, why are they having them in every town on the house show circuit? The cherry on top is the Road Warriors never lose them. There's no suspense.
The rise of Big Bubba is great to watch in hindsight. I had forgot that a big part of that rise was due to his feud with Dusty during the Bunkhouse Stampede....one of the worst concepts and PPV ideas ever. What in the hell was Crockett thinking by pushing this crap during the golden age of wrestling and while trying to compete with McMahon? Nobody cared. I feel like fast forwarding every time it's mentioned.
Ric Flair is in feud with Nikita that's wrapping up, a new feud with Windham, and of course Dusty always has to be in the mix.
I'm starting to join the group who believed Flair should've turned at some point during this period. Yes the Horsemen are the greatest heel stable in history. There's a problem though and it's been a problem for awhile....
Fans are tired of booing Flair. They want to love him. While Flair was a tweener, majority of his opponents were always faces. Turning Flair would give him a shit ton of new opponents. It would breathe new life into his run.
Doing this would alter so many things that it's hard to imagine doing it. It probably should've happened a year earlier.
Rock N Roll Express need to move on...which I'm pretty sure they do at some point this year. The act is stale and they went overboard pushing the teenybopper aspect. Various contests and other bullshit. Fans... specifically guys...start turning on them.
I'm not going to skip any(yet) but I hope they settle in properly leading to the main angles of 87.
Re: The Wrestling thread
I'm itching to get to Funk vs Flair and Muta. I'm going to start with the infamous pile driver on the table.
I'd start at the beginning of the Flair-Steamboat feud(late 88?). The road to Funk goes through Steamboat. Both feuds flowed seamlessly into the other, intertwining in one night.
I'm looking forward to that period as well. The NWA/WCW was really strong 88 to mid 89.
While I like watching chronologically, if they don't pick up the pace, I may fast forward to 88. Watching Windham again has me salivating for the heel turn on Luger which is a year away.
I stopped watching late 89. That Iron Man tournament concept for Starrcade was a huge mistake. I should watch that again as well. Maybe it's not as bad in hindsight.
Re: The Wrestling thread
I'm reading up on the Black Scorpion angle, which I thought was really cool when I was a kid -- according to JR the ratings were crazy good but the story backstage was an absolute mess. TBS demanded a good tv angle to raise ppv buy rates so Ole Anderson, pissed off to be taking orders from anyone challenging his power, just threw it together as a joke based on their suggestions. Well, it worked and they had no idea what to do. So, of course, Ole tried to place himself in the angle as the Black Scorpion, but he broke his arm and was forced to retire. They could never lockdown a wrestler to actually be the Black Scorpion and had to beg Flair to play the character, when he really didn't want to. Always thought that reveal was weird and the storyline just evaporated.
Mind you, they had Undertaker, Dan Spivey, Kevin Sullivan, Steve Austin, Brian Pillman, Scott Steiner, Barry Windham, Shane Douglas, Sid Vicious, Terry Funk all under contract. Even signing Dynamite Kid for an angle with Sting would've been cool.
JR said the ultimate failure hurt Sting, because immediately after ratings dropped with Sting as champion and they had no one exciting for him to feud with, and Ole used this as proof Sting wasn't a draw.
Re: The Wrestling thread
I really need to revisit the 1990 stuff. I only got glimpses of it. I didn't start watching wrestling again on a regular basis until late 92.
Same with WWF. Only thing I remember from that period is some of the Slaughter Iraq stuff and of course the Hogan-Warrior match.
As far as Sting being a draw, Ole might have a point. He was popular no doubt but the timing may have played a role. A lot of teens like me stopped watching for awhile in 89-90 so ratings had to be down across the board.
Re: The Wrestling thread
Well, Big Show just signed with AEW, which supposedly shocked Vince. They're making hints at perhaps signing Christian in the future, too. Just watching the new Nitro vs Raw, and man, Big Show/Giant was an awful champion. He never even got main event matches and his promos were just thrown sporadically into the show. It's amazing how good of a wrestler he turned into later on. Apparently Undertaker lit into his ass on a nightly basis with how lazy he was.
Re: The Wrestling thread
The great thing about AEW is it seems they are not even remotely interested in making money or any kind of a profit. As far as i can tell...all they’re doing is spending enormous sums of money.
I kinda like that...it’s kinda what Ted turner was doing in the 90s.
All Vince and co. Care about is making money. Hence the whole stock dump back in April/May at the beginning of the pandemic. I know this probably doesn’t make me the smartest finance guy...but something doesn’t sit right with me when the chairman and all the top execs dump stock in the company that they are in charge of...
There have been rumors that Vince might sell the WWE. At first I thought it was ridiculous. Although i still feel it’s unlikely, i can see it now in a way i couldn’t before. If Vince could sell it for some obscene number i think he’d do it now. For more than whatever UFC sold for. Neither of his kids could do it i don’t think and i doubt very much that either of them would even want to.
I’m enjoying reading your posts about NWA. I grew up near Minneapolis and i have vague memories of the AWA. I have literally no memories of the NWA.
