Happ Hazzard

Great American Bash 1987 theme:

Animal retired at the end of 1992 and was collecting on a Lloyds of London policy. He didn't wrestle again until the Road Warriors came back on Nitro in 1996. Hawk wrestled in various places in the meantime, in Japan with Sasaki as the Hell Raisers, in Germany where he won the CWA World title, in early ECW, in SMW. I don't remember what the situation was regarding Hawk being advertised for Fall Brawl but not appearing. I assume either a dispute over money or it conflicted with New Japan dates. They put together the Shockmaster as a poorly thought out replacement and had Animal there so there was still a Road Warrior appearing on the show. Hawk was in WCW sporadically at the end of '93 but he didn't really do anything of note. I think he was brought into fulfil Davey Boy Smith's bookings but then they brought in Ray Traylor to take Davey's spot longer term.

I understand the real estate in New York is expensive but is there literally no 5000-10000 seat venues in the city? For college basketball or minor league Hockey or the like? Barclays is in Brooklyn, how about the Bronx? Or is there anywhere else in Queens other than Flushing Meadow? Maybe AEW could run in Central Park?

What other venues are there in NYC? MSG and Barclays? It's amazing that that major a city has so few viable venues for wrestling. I would think AEW runs MSG at some point just for the prestige, despite it being a money pit.

Does the Arthur Ashe stadium regularly hold non-tennis events? I can't even begin to imagine wrestling being held at Wimbledon centre court, the venue is only used for two weeks a year, and that's it. Now AEW have run there are WWE likely to run there as an alternative to the expensive MSG or will they avoid it simply because AEW did it first?

Jesse also speculated that Dr. Tom might have a degree in gynaecology.

Not an Express but I seem to remember Earthquake and Dino Bravo referring to themselves as (or Jimmy Hart calling them) the "Masters of Disaster" around the same time.

That's Maurice Smith, future/former UFC Heavyweight champ.

Around that time they did the same with just about everyone they repackaged, mention their "real"/former name on the first appearance and then the nickname became their ring name. Curt Hennig/Mr Perfect, Davey Boy Smith/British Bulldog, Kerry Von Erich/Texas Tornado, Ricky Steamboat/The Dragon. They didn't do it with Smash/Repo Man I would imagine because it was two complete gimmick characters, but also they never refenced Hawaiian Crush as the former Demolition Crush despite him using the same name so it might have also been because of the lawsuit over the Demolition name and gimmick. I've never seen Barry Windham's debut as the Widowmaker which is in this this timeframe so I don't know if they acknowledged him as Barry Windham, former 2 time tag champ, son of Blackjack Mulligan etc. He did it at WM6 as well, asking Gorilla if he knew "Perfect's old man, the Ax". It confused me as a new fan of American wrestling and I thought Demolition Ax was Mr Perfect's father for quite a while.

How many Expresses were there? Midnight Express (all versions) Rock 'n Roll Express Zambuie Express PYT Express Lightning Express Viet Cong Express Can-Am Express Orient Express Any others?

Midnights were first by a year or two as they used that name in Southeastern when the team was Condrey, Rose and Austin, then the Rock n' Rolls were formed in Memphis, then when the Rock n' Rolls went to Mid-South, Watts was putting together a team to be the heel foils to the RnRs, with Dennis Condrey and Bobby Eaton, managed by Cornette, was thinking about names and Condrey suggested Midnight Express. I'm guessing they just used it because of the recent movie and because it sounded good. There was no Midnight Express in Memphis but I'm guessing Lawler and/or Jarrett had heard the name and named the Rock 'n Roll Express off the back of it. Then once you had the Express vs Express feud in Mid-South you started getting all the other expresses (and to a lesser extent, Rock 'n Roll/Rock named teams).

Magnum vs Tully

R.I.P. Michael K. Williams - best known as Omar Little from "the Wire" found dead in his New York Apartment.

Early publicity photo of NJPW young boys Mutoh, Hashimoto and Chono, this is when they first started being referred to as the "Three Musketeers".

Harley definitely used it, I can't speak for any other NWA champions. I can't imagine Dusty or either Funk using it but you never know.

While waiting for the Sheik bio to come out next year, are there any other good books about Detroit wrestling?

And unlike Cena or Orton, he didn't really set the world on fire in OVW. Batista was the same but it took him a bit longer than Brock to really figure things out.

I didn't realise that, I emailed Rock for a price for either 2 or 3 of his books and he quoted me $147 or $175 respectively. I was tempted as wrestling books like this seem to always hold their value and sometimes go for crazy prices once out of print but I was assuming he'd accept paypal.

They should have brought Randy Hogan back in 1996, had him shave his head, grow a goatee and made him Shawn Austin.

The shortlived "George Championship Wrestling Superstars" brand extension where Jarretts guys taped TV for Georgia also used a very short ring as well. I assume it must have been taped in a lower ceiling building because neither Memphis or the main Georgia TV ever used it that I'm aware of. EDIT: I'm wrong, the main Georgia TV also had the low ring at least at some points. It's there for the famous DiBiase piledriver angle.

I know Giant Baba was mentioned in the 80s (by Gorilla Monsoon, when Heenan alleged that Giant Machine was clearly Andre the Giant, Monsoon replied that it could be Giant Baba under the mask) but I don't think AJPW ever got namedropped. Maybe NJPW got mentioned very early on in the expansion era when there was still a relationship between the companies. Did Michinoku Pro get a mention during one of the Sasuke/Taka matches? Did they credit IWA when showing footage of Cactus Jack winning the KOTDM '95 tournament?

When Jim Cornette showed up on RAW in 1993 what was just as shocking as Cornette being there, was Vince McMahon on commentary talking about Smoky Mountain Wrestling. This was the first I recall of another promotion being acknowledged on WWF TV. I've heard it said that the NWA was mentioned a couple of times in the 1980s, I think on a Pipers Pit with Greg Valentine on as a guest and possibly Gorilla Monsoon and Lord Alfred talking about Terry Funk. Were there any other notable instances before the late 90s when you had the ECW invasion, AAA being namedropped when they brought Luchadores in, and an occasional mention of WCW by name? I don't believe NWA or WCW were ever specifically named when Flair came in with his "Real World Title" nor was USWA ever brought up in relation to Jerry Lawler even though Vince and others were appearing on USWA TV. Did AJW ever get a mention when they brought in Aja Kong and the other Joshi wrestlers in late '95?