Rivalries

Hi Scott

Just watched the Bret-Shawn Greatest Rivalries interview, and they make a few mentions of how they replaced the 'dinosaurs' of the 80s (notably Hogan). Having recently witnessed the spectacle of Hogan wrestling Sting in late 2011, with a still-active Ric Flair interfering, it struck me as odd that those guys - the very top guys in Hogan and Flair - of the 80s are still wrestling when several generations of replacements such as Bret and Shawn have been and gone since.

Do you think any guys approaching the level of Hogan/Flair from the New Generation, Attitude, PG eras etc will still be wrestling at that age? Bret, Shawn, Austin, Rock are all done at reasonable ages - though I suppose with the exception of Bret they could come back. Seems unlikely though - and somehow I don't see Cena or Orton or whoever lasting that long either. I can imagine HHH maybe, as he'll be around anyway in some capacity, and Nash at 52 is having a good stab at it - but Hogan and Flair seem exceptional cases compared to the top names that have followed them. Is it because they were such major names that they can get away with it (to the extent that they do), or is it just their individual personalities and situations?

Or am I just extrapolating too much from a very small and incomplete sample size?

Will you be watching/ranting about the Greatest Rivalries dvd, by the way?

MONTREAL WAS NOT A WORK!  Sorry, reflex macro there.

Last thing that Entertainment One sent me to review was TLC 2010, so a full review doesn’t seem likely given how pressed for time I generally am these days and how little I want to put more money in WWE’s pocket in the first place.   Unless I just download the documentary portion, which is possible.

Anyway, guys from the last decade or so have tended to work a much harder style than a Hogan or Flair did.  Not saying it was a cakewalk to do their schedule in the 80s, but Flair’s broomstick formula was much easier to do night after night than someone like Edge having to one-up himself with ladder matches and cage matches and endless chairshots.  Also, guys like Rock and Austin were much smarter about their giant paydays than the “blow it all on coke and hookers” 80s stars were, and thus can afford to leave the business on their own terms. 

Although according to that Scott Hall piece everyone today is a saint who plays videogames and is as straight edge as CM Punk, so clearly we no longer have anything to worry about.  Whew.