Hey Scott, Of the top 3 Mania matches (the winners of which are generally considered foregone conclusions) which one do you think is most likely to not end the way everyone expects? Oh, I think if they're going to swerve us, it'll be the HHH match.  Cena can't lose and Undertaker can't lose, but it really matters little how the Brock-HHH result goes.  

* Newsday caught up by phone with George South, who trained Reid Fleihr for the last couple of years. South says there were no signs of trouble. http://www.newsday.com/sports/pro-wrestling/man-who-trained-wwe-legend-ric-flair-s-son-reid-fliehr-showed-no-signs-of-trouble-1.4962368 * Newsday walked through the gym of Ward Melville High School on Long Island with Mick Foley as he shared memories of his high school days and how that served as a foundation to his WWE Hall of Fame career. http://www.newsday.com/sports/pro-wrestling/wwe-hall-of-famer-mick-foley-has-fond-memories-of-ward-melville-1.4959826 * Newsday has a pair of new photo galleries leading up to WrestleMania week * Mick Foley through the years, featuring career highlights and photos from his upbringing that Foley provided to Newsday. www.newsday.com/sports/pro-wrestling/wwe-hall-of-famer-mick-foley-through-the-years-1.4734082 * Long Island's pro wrestling connections www.newsday.com/sports/pro-wrestlin...

S.C.U.M. TV, baby!

Hey Scott, is there any reason why Cena/Punk shouldn't both win at Wrestlemania? I know HHH/Taker last year was dubbed "End of an Era," but shouldn't that be the case this year, with part-time Rock and part-time Taker putting over the two top guys on the current roster? Cena is more obvious since they can't really have him get jabused by Rocky for the third year in a row, but unless they want Cena to be the one to do it next year at 30, having Punk end the streak seems like the best way to truly establish him as the "Best in the World" among all the casual viewers who will tune in to Mania. I mean, the WWE has pretty much sucked all it can out of the Attitude era (although apparently Rock/Brock is likely for next year) unless Austin for some reason returns for the obvious feuds against Punk & Cena, so it seems like the best idea for them would be to have two of the bigger stars from that period put over their top two guys now/the next few years. ...

Hi Scott,  Couldn't find it anywhere else but as far as I can tell the first Mania without any dead performers (not counting announcers/interviewers, just wrestlers, valets, managers, special referees etc) is 25. I thought it was 18 but Crash Holly killed that idea. Also, all stupid research need GRAPHS! Wow, that sure is...uh...a graph.   Thanks,  Adam.  @adamninja

If a wrestling fan, or Vince McMahon himself, were to create a template of the perfect pro wrestler, a specimen who would turn heads at airports and in arenas, a man with talent on the mic, a man with a legitimate athletic background, that template would pale in comparison to Brock Lesnar.

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: "Justin Rozzero" < jrozz34@gmail.com > Date: Mar 28, 2013 6:14 PM Subject: This Week on the PTB Podcast To: "Scott Keith" < skeith@gmail.com > Cc: Welcome to This Week in the PTB Podcast! Episode 209: Wrestlemania XV In this new episode of the PTB Podcast Vintage Vault, Scott & Justin head to City of Brotherly Love with a review of Wrestlemania XV. They discuss Billy Gunn, Brawl for All, Undertaker, X-Pac, Rock, Big Show and much more. So hit the grandaddy of them all and fire up this action packed episode and join Scott and Justin because it is time for another edition of the PTB Podcast! Episode 210: Old School Wrestlemania Roundtable In this new episode of the PTB Podcast, it is Wrestlemania season and it is time to go old school. Scott and Justin are joined by Jeremy Nichols, Jason Greenhouse, Jordan Duncan & Chad Campbell as they discuss a myriad of Wrestlemania topics, includin...

Waiting for the Trade By Bill Miller   Superman: Reign of Doomsday By Paul Cornell Collects Action Comics 900-904   Why I Bought This: I had read the previous trade ( Return of Doomsday ) in which Doomsday returned to take on all of the Reign of the Superman characters and that one had ended on a cliffhanger with Doomsday victorious. While that trade was only okay, I was still likely to pick up the conclusion once the price dropped online sooner or later. The Plot: the Reign of Superman heroes awaken on a space station containing a pocket universe and Doomsday. Supes goes to mount a rescue mission of the Reign characters only to be waylaid by a newly omnipotent Lex Luthor.

Greetings Scott from a midcarder on the Blog,  Opinion question. I've heard arguments a lot of times that too many black guys haven't gotten fair shakes or that "Vince doesn't make black guys world champion" So I'm wondering  What black wrestler do you think could have been a bigger star but didn't for whatever reason? Oh I should probably mention Fuj as well. He said that'd help my question get answered.  He says a lot of stuff. I don't think Vince is particularly against black wrestlers.  Hell, look at how many are populating the midcard right now.  Bad News Brown got a pretty huge push for someone who should have been a one-and-done Hogan conquest, although again he was 10 years before his time anyway.  But Booker T is going into the Hall of Fame, and Ron Simmons already did so I don't know what more they could have gotten from WWE.  Pancake Patterson is also clearly bound for a main event push and Hall as well.

Scott, Obviously outside circumstances changed whatever plans were in place, but what was the plan for Vince McMahon's limo exploding/death angle?  Was there some big picture plan for it, or was it another of those "Higher Power"/"Who hit Austin?" type angles?  The payoff was supposed to be Vince faking his own death so that he could discover who was truly loyal to him, ala King Lear.  That was all they had planned out at the point when Benoit went and selfishly cost them their big summer angle.  

Smackdown Date: March 29, 2013 Location: Giant Center, Hershey, Pennsylvania Commentators: Michael Cole, Josh Matthews, John Bradshaw Layfield Reviewed by Tommy Hall This is the last real Smackdown we'll have before we go on to Wrestlemania. Next week's show is likely going to be the Wrestlemania Axxess show which is a glorified commercial for the PPV. Therefore tonight we're likely to hear more about the PPV and not much else. There's also a weightlifting contest between Henry and Ryback. Let's get to it.

Waiting for the Trade   by Bill Miller   Spider-man: Venom Returns by David Micheline & Erik Larsen collects material from Amazing Spider-man 330-333, 345-347 and Annual 25   Why I Bought This: When I first got into buying trades five years ago this was among the first few books I picked up (the first one incidentally was Spider-man: Birth of Venom ) as I love the classic early Venom stories and this one in particular includes my all time single favorite issue of Spider-man when he and Venom battle on the island. With me now reviewing Venom’s monthly series, I thought it would be a good time to revisit this. The Plot: Venom hates Spider-man a lot, knows Peter’s secret identity, doesn’t trigger his spider sense and will stop at nothing to kill him.

http://shop.wwe.com/DVD-Sale/dvdsale,default,sc.html $5 each was a price point I wasn't willing to pass up, so I grabbed the Allied Powers, Hulk Hogan Unreleased and Roddy Piper sets for fun.  Lots of other cheap deals on there too.  

You probably have already heard about this.  I'm like 99% sure we'll find out this is from a drug overdose. http://pwinsider.com/article/76485/reid-flair-passes-away.html?p=1 Holy shit, I had not heard.  And he was apparently doing really good in Japan, too.  

March 19, 2003 Hacksaw is in the ring, giving a pro-USA speech about war then leads crowd into the “Pledge of Allegiance.” After that, Duggan says his kids asked him if they are safe and he did not know how to answer them and says it is the land of the free, and the home of the brave before saying they are behind the troops 100%. A video recap is shown of various clips from the past few weeks including Brian Lawler, David Flair, and Erik Watts attacking Jeff Jarrett. Also shown, are clips from the Russo interview from two weeks ago where he announced that he was leaving pro wrestling and AJ Styles attacking Jarrett. Glen Gilbertti is shown leading SEX and D’Lo Brown debuting in TNA. Your hosts are Don West and Mike Tenay

Don't know if this made the blog or not, but a petition is on WhiteHouse.gov to make May 20th National Macho Man Randy Savage Day! Share a link for anyone on the blog (who's a US citizen) to sign if they so desire?   https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/designate-may-20th-macho-man-randy-savage-day/2H6B8pnP Finally, a cause for the fatcats in Washington to get behind and feel good about! 

NXT Date: March 27, 2013 Location: Full Sail University, Winter Park, Florida Commentators: Tom Phillips, William Regal, Jim Ross Reviewed by Tommy Hall After last week's Wyatt Family heavy show, the odds are that we'll be seeing something new this week. That's one of the good things about NXT: they keep things fresh every week while still keeping something from the previous week going. Granted it helped to have only an hour per week to fill in. Let's get to it.

With all apologies to Scott's excellent book, "Dungeon of Death," that book focused less on Benoit and more on the pervasive culture of death prevalent over the last decade and a half in pro wrestling. Randazzo's book is focused on Benoit as the central character in professional wrestling's toxic cocktail of morbidity.

The SmarK Rant for TNA Impact – 03.28.13 Live from Jonesboro, Arkansas (I think that’s where it is), it’s OPEN FIGHT NIGHT! Holy god do these packed arenas look millions of times better. I really wish that Sasktel carried Spike HD to properly appreciate how major league they look now.

Alright Scott! Hope you're well. Give my regards to the missus and your youngster I just wanted to throw some questions at you and give you the option of A or B. Elaboration would be highly welcomed! Better opponent for Rob Van Dam A. Jerry Lynn or B. Jeff Hardy I've always found the Lynn series to be overrated, but the Hardy matches were a bunch of spot-monkey nonsense that don't really hold up, so I'll go Lynn.   Better Tag Team Partner for British Bulldog A. Dynamite Kid or B. Owen Hart The Bulldogs in their prime blew away anything that Davey and Owen did as a team. Better show A. Great American Bash 96 (Benoit Vs Sullivan, Mysterio Vs Malenko, Flair and Arn Vs Mongo and Kevin Greene) or B. Bash at the Beach 96 (Outsiders Vs Sting, Savage and Luger, Mysterio Vs Psychosis, Giant and Sullivan Vs Benoit and Arn) The Bash is a better wrestling show, but the second one is a bigger show obviously, so I'll go with BATB.   Better Match A. Shawn Michaels Vs...

Its open fight night!

So Scott, would you recommend paying to watch Wrestlemania this year? Surely you wouldn't advocate watching it by any other means, but what do you think - worth the buy? Here is the full card as it stands and well, it's a STACKED card. Rock/Cena Taker/Punk Brock/HHH Del Rio/Swagger The Shield/Sheamus, Show, Orton Ryback/Henry Team Hell No/Ziggler & Langston Jericho/Fandango Wade Barrett/Miz Brodus,Tensai & the girls/Rhodes Scholars & the girls So that's 10 matches, only 3 of which I don't want to see (Rio/Swagger, Barrett/Miz, mixed tag). Every other match imo has the potential to be good - great or at least interesting. Rock/Cena, Taker/Punk, Brock/HHH and the Shield 6 man I am hyped for, Ryback/Henry I am curious to see, and I have a feeling Jericho/Fandango might be a nice surprise.  Your thoughts? Buy or no buys? Time management isn't really their strong suit lately so a bunch of those are getting shafted, but my non-purchase th...

Not sure if you are still doing Match of the Day. Here is a cool one from January 89 - a rare title defense from Macho Man's first title run. HEEL Savage vs. ultimate Warrior. Very cool match I swear they’re still kicking themselves for not finding a way to stretch out heel Savage’s title run, because he was drawing nuclear heat as champion.  How crazy is it that Savage’s heel turn, on one of the most-watched wrestling programs in history, was in February and then he lost the belt in APRIL?  They literally took the belt off him a MONTH after making the biggest heel in wrestling.  Still blows my mind.

I'll keep it quick. How about this: Cena merely teases heel turn against Rock. At WrestleMania XXX, it's Taker vs. Cena. Say, for the title. Cena is the one to end the streak only via the WMX7 ending with the help of, say, COOHHH, who forms an unholy bond because it's "for the business". The duo go on a reign of terror of great magnitude. ...Or, bad idea? I feel like "Cena heel turn" is getting near the same level of "Rebooking the Invasion" or "Montreal was a work" here on the blog.

Have you watched this season? It's really been excellent -- just well-rounded talent all fighting to win and coaches actually coaching instead of letting their fight promotion overshadow the talent. And Sonnen is awesome. The last season I really paid much attention to was the Rampage-Rashad season, and the rest since then I've just kind of dropped in and out if something looked interesting.  But yes, Sonnen is awesome.  

Monday Nitro #112 Date: November 3, 1997 Location: Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Attendance: 15,366 Commentators: Larry Zbyszko, Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan, Mike Tenay Reviewed by Tommy Hall We're closing in on Starrcade and most importantly we have a main event signed up for it. Sting signed the contract on Tuesday and the match is officially set. I'd be shocked if we hear about anything else tonight, even though we have a PPV coming up in the near future. Tonight looks like another show with a ton of matches on it like last week. Let's get to it.

WWF kicks off the new year with a few debuts and the Royal Rumble takes place.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbOyvhSd0pw > > The beginning of the long and sometimes fruitful THQ/Yukes run of WWF/E games.

August 25, 1984 Your hosts are Tony Garea and Vince McMahon In action tonight are the Wild Samoans, Sgt. Slaughter, Brutus Beefcake, The Spoiler along with Piper's Pit.

Over the years, HHH has been known to play huge political games, where he'd put himself as champion or top guy, while others that had things going for them would get squashed (RVD, Goldberg, Booker T...). My question is why didn't no one did something about it, like for example, The Undertaker. For all his years in the company,it is known Undertaker can pull strings backstage, so if HHH's political powers were so strong and if - at sometimes - it wasn't the best thing for the business, why didn't Undertaker do something about it? Or, better yet, why does he still - to this day - compliments HHH in the most respectful manner, if at some time, HHH was such a bad influence? I'm mentioning Undertaker, because he' one of the people that has had stroke inside WWE through the years, but there are also people like The Rock or Steve Austin that had the power to do or say something, if they wanted, but - as far as I know - didn't do it and still, to this day, ta...

Hi Scott, A long time ago, maybe even close to ten years ago, you once mentioned this speech that HHH made to the WWE wrestlers backstage. It was kind of a motivational talk and referenced how the wrestlers were playing video games more than paying attention to what was happening in the ring, etc. It just made me laugh thinking of how clueless and out-to-lunch HHH was, especially since the speech was delivered around 2003, when he was basically in the midst of one of the worst main-event runs ever. I wonder if you have a copy or something of your rant/take-down of that speech you could post. I remember reading it and thinking it was all a joke but it was actually close to what HHH actually said. All best, J I *vaguely* remember that speech, where he basically told the locker room that no one knew how to work and that they should be in the empty arena watching other guys instead of playing video games in the hotel rooms.  If I'm remembering right, which I might not be, the...

Six minutes of Teddy Long making tag team matches? Six minutes of Teddy Long making tag team matches.  (Technically, it's five since he also makes a singles match at one point and some T-Lo dancing is thrown in, but this was still the greatest thing I saw at 2:50am this morning. HOLLA HOLLA!) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5aVOoLWF_Q Wasn't this already a thing on WWE.com?  Still pretty funny.

Chris Kanyon was a lot of things. He was a wrestler. He was a physical therapist. He was a wrestling trainer. He was manic depressive. What most remember about him, though, was one distinct fact: Chris Kanyon was gay.

The SmarK RAW Rant – 03.25.13 Live from Philadelphia, PA. Your hosts are Michael Cole & Jerry Lawler

Hello guys, my computer is about to die so I'll make this short and sweet. Expect more build to a Wrestlemania that appears to be getting universally shat on and will still do over a million buys. So enjoy the show, come out swinging but make sure to keep it clean.

and tore his asshole on a failed Bronco Buster Deadspin Link

Waiting for the Trade by Bill Miller   Fantastic Four vol. 5: Forever by Jonathan Hickman, Steve Epting and Barry Kitson collects Fantastic Four 600-604.   Why I Bought This: It promises the return of the Annihilation Wave and I loved Annihilation . It also features the resurrection of the Human Torch, and Hickman’s run in general has been getting rave reviews: although the only other volume of his I’ve read was the Death of the Torch trade, which was indeed excellent. The Plot:   The Kree send an armada to destroy the Earth while Annihilus makes plans to use the FF’s Negative Zone portal to relaunch the Annihilation Wave and an even larger cosmic threat gathers on the horizon. Plus the Human Torch returns from the dead.

This week I review WrestleMania 24, thro w a question out for discussion, and once again find something from wrestling's past that I had absolutely no idea existed. Also, I want to apologize for the way the article looks. Blogger is an absolute piece of crap, and will completely change font-size, font-style, and word & image placement on a whim. You'll save your article, it'll look like you want it, but when published it looks like something completely different. That's what's going on here.

Scott, hope I don't get the Fuj email treatment and this gets posted. Was reading Keller and he makes a very interesting suggestion on Rocks drawing power and last years mega WM buyrate that I want the dooms opinion on. While the Rock gets most of the credit for 28s record buys, Kellers theory is that in in actuality not having a UFC PPV within like 2 months of mania was what made the difference between a decent buyrate and the record breaker we got, NOT the Rock.  The idea obviously is that the companies share a fair amount of fans and most of those fans have to choose between WWE and UFC most months since we're not dropping a 120+ a month just on PPVs.  Since UFC was nowhere in site last year during mania all those fans just gave Vince their money. I originally scoffed at the idea since I didnt think they competed that much in PPV and since we're programmed to think of Rock as the biggest draw left in wrestling, but all of Rocks other headlining PPVs since his...

Hey Scott quick question I was reading up on the past Meltzer's Wrestling Observer awards. I've been watching wrestling since prolly 82 or so, so I know pretty much about everything that was awarded. In 81, he gave the most disgusting promotional tactic to "Monster Character" in Lebelle Promotions. What is this? I have tried looking it up and am unsuccessful. Also in 82, the most disgusting promotional tactic was 'Bob Backlund as WWF Champion'. What was so disgusting about this? I assume he was pretty stale at this point, but was it really *THAT* disgusting of a tactic? Just a couple questions for you Meltzer was asked about the Backlund one just recently, and even he doesn't remember what the deal was there.  Early 80s Dave was a different beast than today, with the awards more based on his own whims of the time than any kind of scientific voting method.  So basically he or some of his friends might have been really sick of Backlund at the time.   T...

Hey Scott,   I was wondering if you had seen this before. I was trying to find some old matches of Dynamite Kid/British Bulldogs and I stumbled onto this site.   http://rudoreels.com/store/catalogsearch/result/?q=best+of+the+dynamite+kid+download   http://rudoreels.com/store/best-of-dynamite-kid-2d-download.html   There is so much good stuff on this site, I will be buying stuff for days.   What I really don't understand is why doesn't the WWE do this? If they opened up their library and made everything available (TV Shows, PPVs, Specials, etc), at a fair price by download, I would go nuts.   What do you think? This is exactly the format that WWE should be following for their library, totally agreed.  Plus a $1.50 for hours of hours of awesome Japan content?  I too shall be partaking, assuming they own the rights to all this stuff and aren't gonna get shut down by WWE tomorrow.  The Stampede footage, for example, would clearly be WWE prope...

Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage continue to have issues.

'Tis I, DSM, YOUR 2012 Fantasy Football League of Doom! World Heavyweight Champion of the World, hoping I can get a plug for a fantasy baseball league...OF DOOM!  Since I'm a pretty competitive fellow when it comes to these things, I'm hoping I can find nine others here who will play with the same drive, i,e. people who will show up for the online draft and won't give up if they're doing bad out of the gate. Here's the league settings for anyone who wants to join: -10 team league, head-to-head weekly matchups (like in Fuj's FFLoD league) -Head-to-Head weekly matchups done in Every Category fashion (you get a W, L, or D for each category every week, basic 5x5 stats) with a 7-acquisition limit each week. -AUCTION draft (this is the true test of GM skills, plus I like everyone having a shot at anyone they want; please join only if you're down for this); draft tentatively scheduled for Sat, 3/30 at 7pm ET unless there's a better time that works f...

I'm going to ask you some questions about Wrestlemania.  I don't want you to think about the question, just answer with the first thought that pops into your head. Most overrated match in WM history: Shawn v. Bret Iron Man Most underrated match in WM history: Diesel v. Michaels, or maybe the first Austin-Rock main event. Greatest performer in WM history: Shawn Michaels Best performance in WM history: The first Undertaker-Shawn match.  His performance against Razor might be a better carry job, but Shawn turned that match into a stone CLASSIC.  .   Best entrance in WM history: Shawn's entrance there.   Best match in WM history: Gonna have to go Undertaker-Shawn again because I was having a heart attack watching at a time when I had little interest in the product.   Best match at WM that had NO BUSINESS in being good in the first place: LT-Bigelow, obviously.   Best WM Main Event: Austin-Rock 2001. What match will win match of the night at WM 29: Brock-HHH.   What ...

> Just a surprisingly great and refreshing book. Warning: There is not much in the way of wrestling here. But it is an absolute must read. Booker T's journey is just amazing, from statistic of the streets to statistic of HHH at WrestleMania. Sorry, that was harsh. ALL HAIL KING BOOKAH!  > > http://marianosaves.wordpress.com/2013/03/23/full-book-review-booker-t-from-prison-to-promise-life-before-the-squared-circle/

Smackdown Date: March 22, 2013 Location: U.S. Bank Arena, Cincinnati, Ohio Commentators: John Bradshaw Layfield, Michael Cole, Josh Matthews Reviewed by Tommy Hall With Wrestlemania coming up very soon we've got almost everything set, meaning that the next few weeks will be spent building up everything else that we've already established. The main event tonight is Swagger vs. Jericho in a rematch from last week where Swagger beat Jericho through the help of some shenanigans. Let's get to it.

Any plans for the Shield beyond the six man tags and all black getup? Are we still working towards finding out who the Shield are working for, or has that angle been abandoned? Are they now just a clan of heels who work for no one and who will eventually fall out and show up one day on Raw wearing their wrestling attire? Just wondering where you think this is going. And if you think the writers (*shudder*) have even thought that far yet.  Peace These guys are being protected like nobody I've seen in YEARS.  You can likely have no fear about getting let down by putting your money on any of them to be a giant star very soon now, especially Ambrose and Reigns.  Even Rollins has a shot to be a top level midcard guy, but Ambrose has some serious political juice behind him, and Reigns is their guy of the future.  If I was to guess, I'd say they split them into singles later in the year and run main events against Cena for a few months to give them the rub on top and g...

Hey Scott, know you're a big Next Generation fan and was hoping you could find the time to plug my interview with Dennis Bailey who wrote the episodes Tin Man and First Contact  http://www.irishcomicnews.com/2013/03/2dcast-episode-23-star-trek-the-next-generation-writer-dennis-bailey/  I apologise for the incomprehensible Irish accents discussing comics . Keep up the good work. I'm glad you apologized for being Irish.  It's the first step to getting better. In a related note, I'm supposed to be getting a review copy of season 3 on Blu Ray from Paramount and I'm insanely pumped about it.   Probably my overall favorite season.

March 12, 2003   Your hosts are Don West and Mike Tenay   The show starts off with a video recap of last week’s events, focusing on Russo supposedly leaving wrestling and the trio of Erik Watts, Brian Lawler, and David Flair attacking Jeff Jarrett, as well as AJ Styles demanding another title shot.

Has there ever been a wrestler that has refused or expressed desire not to make it to the next level?  Someone who perhaps doesn't want all the glitz, glamor or headaches of having to be champion?   Longtime fan... Of course.  Not everyone wants to be champion.  Even trying to get into WWE pretty much expresses that you want to be the best, but there's a million indy guys who are totally happy doing it part-time and living a normal life outside of the business.  

Hey Scott, I know you're a fellow podcast listener, and I came across this today and thought you'd be interested. I can't this possibly being boring.  http://brokenskullranch.com/archives/1285 I picture something along the lines of Ron Swanson running the call-in talk show on Parks & Rec.  

The SmarK Rant for TNA Impact – 03.21.13 Taped from Chicago, IL Your hosts are Todd Keneley, Mike Tenay & Taz

Uprooting a tree is something only Mr. Incredible would do...  maybe a new WWE deal is imminent? "Masters, real name Chris Mordetzky, used his shear strength to uproot a tree before hurling it through a window where his mother was hiding, allowing him to reach in and rescue her, according TMZ.com." http://www.edmontonsun.com/2013/03/20/ex-wwe-star-chris-masters-saves-mom-from-burning-home Chris Masters 1, Mother Nature 0. WWE really should sign this guy back again and have him do crazy shit like that instead of just posing like a douche.

Here's a pretty interesting historic article from the wwe.com crew about rare titles from the '70s/'80s: http://www.wwe.com/classics/classic-lists/10-titles-you-never-knew-existed A good read for those of us who didn't get into wrestling until the '90s. And, there's a clip of this Jumping Bomb Angels/Glamor Girls tag title match included in the article: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x54slb_royal-rumble-1988_sport#.UUt4fVfRP-s I was fairly surprised at how good (great?) it was considering it's a WWF women's match. Might be a good match of the day candidate for the blog. As a belt mark, that was some good stuff.  And I kinda love that there's an actual backstory to the mysterious Rio De Janeiro tournament that created the IC title.   And yeah, that tag match was YEARS ahead of its time.  Blew my mind back in 1988. 

NXT Date: March 20, 2013 Location: Full Sail University, Winter Park, Florida Commentators: Tony Dawson, William Regal Reviewed by Tommy Hall Last week's show was about building for the future, so hopefully we get what the stuff that was being built to this week. The main stories are the Wyatt Family vs. Bo Dallas and the tag champions and Langston vs. O'Brian which should be a good match when we get around to it. I love how they make us wait around here. It's like the old days when they didn't have PPVs every month to build to and things can flow more naturally. Let's get to it.

" Hulk Hogan discussed trying to get Vince McMahon to sign Sting after WrestleMania III during an interview with Fighting Spirit Magazine. “I have unbelievable respect for Sting – he doesn’t realize how good he really is,” Hogan told FSM. “Sting should have already had his New York (WWE) run. I’ll tell you something; when I got red-hot after WrestleMania III, I was begging Vince to get Sting in the WWF so I could turn heel at some point. He had the blonde hair, he was 10 times more athletic than me, and I believed this guy could have the same run as Hulkamania, but take it 10 times bigger. I was telling Vince (McMahon), ‘Let me get this guy over’, because after beating Andre, if they’d brought Sting in and had him beat me, it would have made him this tall (gestures with his hand above his head). But Sting wouldn’t come; we tried and tried, but he just would not jump. Vince even talked to him last year, but still Sting wouldn’t go.”" I'd very much like to know your opi...

Now we're of similar age, and if you remember the Apter mags of our youth, the covers were always Hogan, Flair...and Rick Martel, the AWA world champ, who was this hotshot and the future of wrestling. Martel wrestled Flair in champion vs. champion matches -- see the link to a match in Japan below -- possible Match of the Day. So...what the heck happened?  He signed with Vince and tagged with Zenk and Santana, which was weird since this was THE AWA CHAMPION. Then he became the Model with the legendary vignettes, but stayed in the midcard. Then way later, he had that late comeback run in WCW (where he could still work) with Booker T until he got injured for good. Was this Vince being Vince (Martel is not my creation nor is he big enough)? Why didn't Martel sign with the NWA and have a Steamboat-like face run against Flair? And what are your thoughts on his career overall? Here's the link to Martel vs Flair (AWA champ vs NWA champ) in All Japan. This is good stuff. http:...

One of the better WWE bio's written, Regals "Walking A Golden Mile." I know it was disappointing when he was alleged in the Signature Health thing, but, from reading the book, it wreaked of in-confidence. A great read.  http://marianosaves.wordpress.com/2013/03/21/full-book-review-william-regal-walking-a-golden-mile/

Monday Nitro #111 Date: October 27, 1997 Location: Cox Arena, San Diego, California Attendance: 6,281 Commentators: Mike Tenay, Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan Reviewed by Tommy Hall We're past Halloween Havoc now where Piper beat Hogan in one of the more confusing cage matches you'll ever seen. At that point though I think they knew everyone was going to buy Starrcade so why bother putting in the effort at the other PPVs? Other than that, Hennig retained the US Title over Flair and Rey Mysterio won the Cruiserweight Title in arguably the best match WCW ever produced. I'm guessing nothing tonight is going to top it. Let's get to it.

…at some point in the future, anyway. http://www.lordsofpain.net/news/wwe/WWE_CFO_Reveals_WWE_Network_Subscription_Cost_No_More_Pay-Per-Views.html Of course, this assumes the network ever gets off the ground...   Well, the thing is that if they do get the network off the ground and they DO get, say, 2 million subscribers or as an outside dream 4 million, they'll be able to burn money instead of coal to heat Titan Towers and have enough left over to eat money sandwiches for work every day for the rest of their lives.  WWE will literally be all profit and they can tell the PPV industry and eventually USA to go fuck themselves once and for all.   Now, obviously I give this network a 0.0001% chance of launching and an even slimmer chance of getting anything above the paltry 100,000 or so subs that the Classics on Demand channel has, but absolutely there is money here. I just don't think it's attainable.  But hey, I know nothing about the TV industry outside of what I ...

The Masked Reviewer takes a brief look at WWE Studio's Dead Man Down.

Hey Scott, Thought you and the BOD may be interested in a new project I'm guest writing at Comic Book Resource's Comics Should Be Good Blog - it's called "Gimmick or Good." In this column, I look at the gimmick covers/issues from the 1990s (foil embossed, variant covers, polybags, etc.) and analyze the contents to see if the comic book actually has any redeeming merits. Considering how a lot of these gimmicks are making a comeback in today's marketplace (Batman #13's die-cut covers, Age of Ultron #1 foil embossed cover), I thought this would be a fun retrospective. I think a lot of people slam the excesses of the 1990s, and deservedly so, but through four columns, I've already found a number of "gimmicked" gems and I expect to declare many more to be "good" even by today's standards. http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/category/gimmick-or-good/ Thanks, Mark (aka, Chasing Amazing guy - www.chasingamazingblog.com if ...

Hey scott, read your stuff since 2000. love it.  Back in January everyone on the blog and wrestling fans in general were pumped for Punk/Rock.  Then we got it and i dont think it really set the world on fire.  Personally i really liked the EC match but thought the rumble match was particularly boring.  As a known Rock fan, just curious on your overall thoughts of the feud, particularly the EC match. Thanks. I never saw the Chamber match, but the Rumble match didn't exactly shake the foundations of wrestling or anything.  It was an OK feud without any real stakes to it aside from the insanely long title reign, pretty much just there to set up the giantest buyrate ever at Wrestlemania.  So if that's what happens, it was a success.  We'll find out in a couple of months, I guess.

August 18, 1984 Your hosts are Tony Garea and Vince McMahon The hosts run down the show, which will feature Ken Patera, Kamala, Piper’s Pit with Sgt. Slaughter and Gene Okerlund will present Wendi Richter with the new WWF Women’s Championship Belt.

Hey Scott, I know RAW has you feeling melancholy, so maybe the director of Beyond the Mat will cheer you up. He revealed why he won't be attending Foley's induction, Linda McMahon's reaction to the film, and his thoughts on Jake the Snake's so called recovery. Plus, as a bonus, Barry Blaustein shared his two cents on the last segment of RAW! HEY BUDDY! http://yourlisten.com/channel/content/16963027/Barry_Blaustein_Interview You want to tell stories...THIS MAN HAS STORIES! I miss Jesse Ventura's yearly shout-out to Barry at Wrestlemania.  It was part of the tradition of the show.

Waiting for the Trade   By Bill Miller   Daredevil: Fall from Grace By D.G. Chichester and Scott McDaniel Collects Daredevil 319-325 Why I Bought This: Way back in the day this was the first Venom story I didn’t buy. I’m a total 100-percent member of the cult of Venom that thinks he is just the coolest damn villain to ever show up in a comic book. But at some point in the 90s it became obvious his appearances in non-Spider-man titles were just gratuitous and unnecessary sales ploys that furthered no story function. And yet my curiosity about this story always lingered because it was heavily hyped at the time with DD getting a new costume and new direction. So flash-forward a couple of decades and I grabbed this off MyComicShop.com hoping for the better elements of 90’s nostalgia. The Plot – In the early 1960s the CIA lost both a telepathic agent and a mystery virus that can restructure DNA near Hell’s Kitchen. The Hand becomes aware of this and deci...

Ric Flair vs. Bret Hart for one hour? Ironman Rules?? What fan had a camera in the early 90s that could record for an hour? Thank you Al Gore for this internet shit!

  The SmarK RAW Rant – 03.18.13 Live from Pittsburgh, PA Your hosts are Michael Cole & Jerry Lawler

Welcome to This Week in the PTB Podcast! Episode 205: Manager List-A-Mania! In this new episode of the PTB Podcast, Scott & Justin bring back List-A-Mania to rank the greatest wrestling managers of the modern era. Join them in a classic PTB countdown and be sure to share your own list as well. So fire up this action packed episode and join Scott & Justin for another edition of the PTB Podcast! Episode 206: St. Valentine's Day Massacre 1999 In this new episode of the PTB Podcast Vintage Vault, Scott & Justin spend a romantic evening together with a review of St. Valentine's Day Massacre 1999. They discuss Goldust, the Ministry, Ken Shamrock, Val Venis, Rock, Mankind, Steve Austin and much more. So grab some candy and flowers, put on some Barry White to set the mood and then fire up this action packed episode and join Scott and Justin because it is time for another edition of the PTB Podcast! www.placetobe.podbean.com www.bigelow34.proboard...

Looks like another week of hype for Wrestlemania is coming up. I wonder if Rock and Cena will bother to show up this week or continue to let C.M. Punk do the heavy lifting. I would expect the rest of the card to start to round itself out a bit. Any "celebrity" matches been announced yet? ;) Anyway enjoy the show and come out swinging but try to keep it clean!

it might be an old email that scott just got around to. he does get backlogged, or just outright doesnt post emails (mines) Just to clarify for people, I'm current sitting at 120 e-mails in my inbox, literally all just stuff that people send in for the blog.  I try to answer timely stuff right away and send plugs right to the blog, but everything else I just play Jenga with it and take one from the bottom, one from the top, and one from the middle here or there.  Fuj's of course always go last.

Waiting for the Trade by Bill Miller   Heroes for Hire: Fear Itself By Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning collects Heroes for Hire 6-12   Why I Bought This: As I said in a few reviews now, a few months ago I decided to break my no event story policy for Fear Itself because it was allegedly Cap-centric. Of all the crossover trades this was the one I was most interested in just because it’s by DnA and their work on Guardians of the Galaxy a few years back earned them a ton of goodwill.   The Plot: Basically two separate stories. First, Spider-man team up with Paladin and Misty Knight to stop a smuggling ring. Then, the HforH heroes attempt deal with collateral damage from Fear Itself .

Oh, Google, always coming up with fun stuff even while killing things like Reader for no real reason. Anyway, in the "things you can play around with if you want" category, you can actually render a Blogger site in any of seven different wacky "dynamic views" without having to alter the source code, which is handy for anyone wanting to preview different looks for their site without messing things up.  Now, I dislike all of these, but just for fun you can see what the BOD would look like in all these radically redesigned ways: http://www.rspwfaq.net/view/classic http://www.rspwfaq.net/view/flipcard http://www.rspwfaq.net/view/magazine http://www.rspwfaq.net/view/mosaic http://www.rspwfaq.net/view/sidebar http://www.rspwfaq.net/view/timeslide http://www.rspwfaq.net/view/snapshot Some of them are obviously super-specialized (like "snapshot" for photo blogs) but it's nice to see what things would like with with a change of pace.

Thanks to my fellow blog of doomers, i found the match i was asking you about.  Figure this could act as match of the day: Kurt Angle vs. Stone Cold - WWF Title by sir-roddick The internet... is there ANYTHING it can't do? As a bonus, here's my original rant on the match: -          WWF Title match:  Kurt Angle v. Steve Austin.  Austin stomps him to start and rams him into the turnbuckles about a thousand times.  Superplex attempt is blocked and Angle kicks him down.  Austin comes back with the Thesz Press and a pair of elbows for two.  Gut wrench gets two.  Vertical suplex gets two.  Angle reverses another suplex into a legsweep.  Crowd is surprisingly quiet.  Angle goes to the headlock, and gets a crossbody off the criss-cross for two.  Small package gets two.  Austin tosses Angle, and they brawl on the floor.  Austin puts him into the crowd, and William Regal joins u...

Hi Scott,   Something has always bothered me about the way Andre the Giant left WWE. Yes, he turned face again at Wrestlemania VII and left the arena to a huge ovation. However, he was attacked by Earthquake soon after & stood on crutches in the Bushwhackers' corner at SummerSlam in his final appearance.   I know hindsight is 20/20 & everyone likes to play fantasy booker, but did it ever occur to anyone to have Earthquake attack Andre & injure his knee, but then have Hogan save him from an Earthquake splash? From there, Hogan & Andre could have shook hands and brought their storyline arc full circle. THAT could have been Andre's swan song (with the explanation that Andre suffered a career-ending injury) instead of him swatting at Earthquake with a crutch as his last act.   Your thoughts?   Thank you! Brian Scala Well you know something, brother, Hulk couldn't have saved Andre in 91, because Andre had already been dead for at least 5 yea...