Elsalvajeloco

For that era Sid, that might as well be a 60 minute broadway.

No, I am also somewhat of that mind. However, I have to add in the context that by the time I saw the Boogie Woogie Man, he was pretty much done on that level. At best, I caught him at the very tail end of his run. Then, after that, it was like on TV through appearances in late era Memphis when they were struggling to put a few thousand people into the Mid South Coliseum. By then, I was wondering, "why do they keeping bringing this decrepit Rip Van Winkle looking S.O.B. back?". I had no context of why he was who he was. IMO Jimmy is one of those guys (along with other Starrcade 83 luminaries like Bugsy McGraw and Rufus R. Jones) who became obsolete once you entered a certain era of pro wrestling where even guys who were mostly personality had to display some type of "workrate". It also doesn't help that the enhancement talent once it was just a big two were guys who were insanely over qualified to be that. So even the guys losing regularly on TV would be able to put on amazing matches if you let them. There are no guys around now where their sole responsibility is to liven up the audience to a molten hot level by putting in the least amount of effort required. The closest is Dusty's 1994 mini return in WCW and also his ECW run where guys are just running into his elbow while he just stands there.

And it's probably because Heenan's friendship with Steinbrenner or Munson's death being in the news.

Problem is WWF already had multiple Ivans whether it was someone like Putski or Koloff. In that era, he was giving people "unique" names like Thurman and Waylon. Unless it's Thurman Thomas or Waylon Jennings, I don't recall multiple people having those first names. Anyway, it was based on a Heenan joke so Vince probably that I. Yankem was enough.

So why hasn't anyone pitched the wrestling version of Love Island?

If Garvin had lasted a couple more years in WWF, we would have potentially got Garvin vs. Tenryu on like an SWS show or something.

Why are people surprised at all when a man in Mick Foley whose forever gimmick was he couldn't get women in school cause he was strange and ugly married a goddamn super model? No only that but they got together when he was flat broke and being a human crash test dummie, and she was the breadwinner. Some people aren't entirely shallow, thankfully. Janela is basically lesser Mick Foley anyway, which is hilarious.

Seriously, there was something about the heyday of stereotypes in wrestling. A few weeks ago, I was watching a Mid Atlantic show from 83 with Gary Hart w/ Kabuki and The Great Dragon or whoever the hell was tagging with Kabuki. Anyway, Gary cuts maybe the longest unintentional intentional racist promo of all time and it involves the phrase, "We all know nobody ever took nothing from an Asian". And this promo was suppose to somehow (I think) make it seem like these are extremely proudful people. How in the fuck it's still on the Peacock version of the WWE Network is beyond me, but then again, that may have just been a typical Gary Hart promo at the time. He may have offensive ones just there waiting I haven't watched yet.

Charlie Minn's WWF run is right smack dab in the middle when they would hire people, decided they sucked after about 3 weeks, and fire them almost immediately.

So Action Zone.... It started off as WWE's idea to compete with the NFL on FOX morning show. So basically, they took constant shots at the NFL on FOX show and even made some (really lame and awful) skits centering around it being this dumb jock show etc. Unfortunately, WWE didn't have the hindsight that it would still be popular more than THIRTY YEARS LATER. What they would do is usually all matches from the Wrestling Challenge episode that same week except one or two matches and whatever promos and insert the feature match from the same taping. That format lasted for a handful of months. Also, another fortunate thing for WWE is WWE was losing syndication everywhere. Even before that Challenge was becoming irrelevant and nothing of any note happened on the show. They dropped having a "feature" match on Challenge and the last ones before they dropped them were pretty mediocre. Coming off an extremely lackluster 1994, Wrestling Challenge in 1995 was somehow more desolate. So once the NFL season was over and no longer having something to ridicule, Action Zone basically became Challenge but with the matches arranged in a different order. The only difference is when there was a PPV that day and they would cut in to show Pettengill or Doc or Jim Ross "live" on site. Other than that? Same same. The commentary was also pretty miserable. When I was doing my rewatch last year, I even noted here I didn't like the JR and Todd "I'm a little bit country. And I'm a little bit rock n roll" pairing. Commentary in general at the time was terrible. Outside of Cornette guesting on Raw every now and then and bringing up his "good friend" Pork Chop Cash which outright baffled Vince or also marking out for Rip Rogers, you didn't get that many highlights. As a result, Action Zone in a span of six or seven months went from something to inject life into the stale nature of what WWE was putting out at the time to being the same chemicals used to perform a lethal injection execution on a death row inmate. It needed to be put out of its misery. By the time Wrestling Challenge was cancelled and that day from the taping cycle got dropped later in 1995, they had no other choice but to turn it into a clip show.

So apparently, Rina (of H.A.T.E.) got hurt and sustained a concussion in her match against Ema Maishima taking a springboard crossbody. Rina may have been too close when Ema was about to land. When Ema made contact, the momentum carried Rina backwards such that Rina's head was trapped underneath Ema's abdomen upon impact. As a result, the back of Rina's head slammed into the mat rather violently. Barb Sasaki, who was the ref, stopped the match when he noticed Rina wasn't moving after the spot and ushered to other officials and ring seconds to get her some help so good on him. Fortunately, it appears that Rina is fine otherwise and she even tweeted as much after the match. She may be out of action for a minute though.

1. I had no idea Junior was living in the United States. 2. The Homeland Security twitter account appears to be ran by a really spiteful teenager. 3. Other than lending the Chavez name, which was the only thing you would be able to associate with Culiacan (specifically) and the state of Sinaloa prior to any cartel, what would JCC Jr. be doing? Shit, James Prince aka J Prince of Rap-A-Lot fame managed boxers for the part of 10 or 15 years plus here and ain't nobody trying to send him or anyone associated with him to jail. This is just bizarre.

Man, I get it...a woman like a Jackie/Miss Texas in pro wrestling in an era where most of the female talent is weighing around a buck o five stands out. Definition of a brickhouse. However, the amount of overzealous fans in the WMC5 Studios getting more than just a feel or hugging for just a tad bit too long is wild. Just a totally different era of pro wrestling.

In my 1996 rewatch, he just showed up as Flex Kavana. Rocky Maivia is trying a little too hard. Flex Kavana is just a terrible name, but again, it's the first thing he's ever done so it can be forgiven. Also: The idea of the future biggest star across two industries wrestling in tiny Mississippi casinos and shitty high schools in middle of nowhere Arkansas is sending me.

Win or lose, I think the Aspinall fight would have been the best note to retire on because that would have been the closest to a top HW in his prime that Jon would have fought. The Ngannou fight wasn't gonna happen so that's the next closest thing. That and somehow an unintentional ground swell of interest made it seem more important than probably actually was. If this was boxing, especially in the height of HBO/TVKO PPV or Showtime/SET PPV, that is a fight you overpay the participants because the ceiling for what could actually be made would probably make the guaranteed purses a drop in the bucket. It's a fight you have to get made. Plus, with the lack of quality opponents for Aspinall, he needs to be legitimized. He beats Jon Jones, then he is a made man and whoever beats Aspinall then becomes a made man. He loses, then no harm, no foul. He only lost to one of the three or four best MMA fighters in the history of the sport.

As much as I can get nostalgic about the Steiners vs. Owen/Bret, most of it is just a pale imitation of what you would have seen in New Japan or All Japan at the time but sans any type of story. The execution is phenomenal, but you can tell whoever agented the match just told them to go out and do whatever until they hit their time cue to go home. The Action Zone match with the Kliq members of Shawn/Diesel vs. Kid/Razor is superior IMO.

Poor Robocop might not get a bonus cause Do Bronx got knocked into the shadow realm and Joshua Van and Brandon Royval were getting their Gatti/Ward on.

If you're going give someone a special bonus like UFC 300 with 300,000 dollar bonuses, you would give it to Brandon Royval and Joshua Van.

Welcome to the hurt business, baby Bubba. It ain't Hendo-Bisping I egregious and also Herb Dean didn't exactly intervene at the right time to stop it.

Apparently, Kevin Iole is retiring with the last show he is covering being UFC 317 tonight. Damn, Meltzer is going to outlast all of his contemporaries.

Here is this week's template: EVENT #18 POINT TOTAL: 245 Cage Warriors 191: Gittins vs. Giordano II (06/28/2025) - Manchester, England, United Kingdom (BEC Arena) Liam Gittins vs. Alessandro Giordano - Gittins, DEC James Power vs. Omar Tugarev - Power, TKO, R2 Michael Pagani vs. Tim Wilde - Pagani, DEC Adam Cullen vs. Lukas Cruz - Cullen, TKO, R2 Teddy Stringer vs. Torpal Merjoev - Stringer, SUB, R2 Omiel Brown vs. Edgar Escarrega - Brown, SUB, R2 EVENT #19 POINT TOTAL: 245 OKTAGON 73: Eckerlin vs. Pukač (06/28/2025) - Hamburg, Germany (Barclays Arena) Christian Eckerlin vs. Robert Pukač - Eckerlin, DEC Adam Pałasz vs. Kasim Aras - Aras, TKO, R2 Kaik Brito vs. Joilton Lutterbach - Lutterbach, TKO, R3 Niklas Stolze vs. Jessin Ayari - Ayari, DEC Jonas Mågård vs. Farbod Iran Nezhad - Mågård, DEC Wahed Nazhand vs. Faridun Shokhnazarov - Nazhand, DEC Beno Adamia vs. Zhalgas Zhumagulov - Zhumagulov, DEC BONUS EVENT #1 POINT TOTAL: 245 MVP Boxing on DAZN: Paul vs. Chavez Jr. (06/28/2025) - Anaheim, CA (Honda Center) Jake Paul vs. Julio César Chávez Jr. - Paul, DEC WBA Super World & WBO Cruiserweight Championship: Gilberto Ramirez vs. Yuniel Dorticos - Ramirez, DEC Holly Holm vs. Yolanda Vega - Holm, DEC Floyd Schofield vs. Tevin Farmer - Schofield, DEC Avious Griffin vs. Julian Rodriguez - Griffin, TKO, R8 Raul Curiel vs. Victor Rodriguez - Curiel, DEC Joel Iriarte vs. Kevin Johnson - Iriarte, TKO, R4 Victor Morales Jr. vs. Rene Alvarado - Morales Jr., TKO, R4 Alexander Gueche vs. Vincent Avina - Gueche, DEC Joshua Edwards vs. Dominicc Hardy - Edwards, TKO, R2 John Ramirez vs. Josue Morales - Ramirez, DEC EVENT #20 POINT TOTAL: 245 UFC 317: Topuria vs. Oliveira (06/28/2025) - Las Vegas, NV (T-Mobile Arena) Ilia Topuria vs. Charles Oliveira - Topuria, TKO, R2 Alexandre Pantoja vs. Kai Kara-France - Pantoja, DEC Brandon Royval vs. Joshua Van - Van, DEC Beneil Dariush vs. Renato Carneiro - Carneiro, DEC Payton Talbott vs. Felipe Lima - Lima, DEC Jack Hermansson vs. Gregory Rodrigues - Rodrigues, TKO, R2 Hyder Amil vs. Jose Delgado - Delgado, DEC Viviane Araujo vs. Tracy Cortez - Cortez, DEC Terrance McKinney vs. Viacheslav Borshchev - McKinney, TKO, R2 Niko Price vs. Jacobe Smith - Smith, TKO, R3 Jhonata Diniz vs. Alvin Hines - Diniz, TKO, R2 The Event #18 & Event #19 deadline is Saturday, June 28, 12:00 p.m. CT The remaining Saturday events deadline is June 28, 5:30 p.m. CT

Thread updated 2025 POINT TOTAL 1. DreamBroken: 251 2. Elsalvajeloco: 245 3. Hail Sabin: 15 EVENT TALLY: Elsalvajeloco 1st (9 events) DreamBroken 2nd (8 events) Hail Sabin 3rd (0 events)

UFC 317: Topuria vs. Oliveira June 28, 2025 Las Vegas, NV (T-Mobile Arena) UFC Lightweight Championship: Ilia Topuria (155) vs. Charles Oliveira (154.5) (vacant) - Topuria, KO (punches), R1 (2:27) UFC Flyweight Championship: Alexandre Pantoja © (125) vs. Kai Kara-France (125) (fourth defense) - Pantoja, SUB (rear naked choke), R3 (1:55) Brandon Royval (125.5) vs. Joshua Van (125.5) - Van, DEC (unanimous) Beneil Dariush (156) vs. Renato Carneiro (156) - Dariush, DEC (unanimous) Payton Talbott (136) vs. Felipe Lima (135.5) - Talbott, DEC (unanimous) ESPN / ESPN+ / Disney+ Preliminary Card: Jack Hermansson (185.5) vs. Gregory Rodrigues (186) - Rodrigues, KO (punch), R1 (4:21) Hyder Amil (145.5) vs. Jose Delgado (145.5) - Delgado, KO (knee and elbows), R1 (0:26) Viviane Araujo (125.5) vs. Tracy Cortez (126) - Cortez, DEC (unanimous) Terrance McKinney (156) vs. Viacheslav Borshchev (155) - McKinney, SUB (guillotine choke), R1 (0:55) ESPN+ / Disney+ / Fight Pass Preliminary Card: Niko Price (170.5) vs. Jacobe Smith (170.5) - Smith, SUB (rear naked choke), R2 (4:03) Jhonata Diniz (257.5) vs. Alvin Hines (259.5) - Diniz, DEC (unanimous) Event Bonuses ($50,000) Performance of the Night: Gregory Rodrigues Performance of the Night: Ilia Topuria Fight of the Night: Brandon Royval vs. Joshua Van Attendance: 19,800 Gate: $11.3 million

Yeah, I was gonna say something to the effect as well. However, I think DDP's ascent started just before the NWO thing started. They clearly have plans for him by April/May of 1996. He also during one of the taping cycles goes from rags to riches with the benefactor stuff (basically a rehash of what they already did w/ him stealing Kimberly's money), and he gets the neon color scheme gear going that he would wear for the next couple years. Also, they do the weird thing of having him win the Lethal Lottery but take away his title shot. I am guessing they didn't want him to job to The Giant and wanted to protect him. This begs the question: why make it for a title match anyway when you already have a valuable ring at stake? You didn't have to do a bait and switch. WCW booking at its finest.

I dunno if Duggan was necessarily going off script. Right when the NWO was formed, I think they were trying to position Duggan as like the one person from Hogan's past and/or the patriotic guy who wouldn't turn his back on WCW and fans. Hence, the impassioned promo he cuts at one of the Disney MGM shows in the summer of '96. Problem is by the time the NWO was in its embryonic stages, Duggan was pretty much slotted as the underneath guy to other underneath guys. It's weird cause Duggan came into the company a couple years earlier, and they put him over guys like Austin and others who they should have been doing major stuff with. Then, he just did a 180 as time went on and had only been doing goofy stuff with people who are just slightly above enhancement talent. So I am assuming Eric gave Duggan some stuff to do for a few months just to please Hogan and then just like Ed Leslie, he transitioned to doing stuff just to pad out the bottom of the card. Tenta, Rotunda, and Ray Traylor among others are just there to be there. Hell, One Man Gang was there and you would have been missed it if you blinked a few times. I am doing a 1996 rewatch right now and right before the terrible Slamboree: Lethal Lottery PPV that very few people remember cause it preceded the Scott Hall debut and was made immediately irrelevant, they have Traylor and Tenta (now Shark) in regular clothes, out of character sitting in the crowd like buddies watching one of the matches as if it's a shoot on WCW Saturday Night. Like...they're not tagging at the PPV and I believe this is a week or so before Traylor shaves half of Tenta's hair off. It's completely bizarre and comes off as the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing. They're shooting angles on Saturday Night, which is now clearly the B show and not acknowledging them on Nitro and vice versa. I know Schiavone and a few others were responsible for producing Saturday Night. I am going to hazard a guess and say that maybe the Duggan stuff was some creative someone came up with, they ditched it at some point, and somehow they forgot they ditched it. This goes especially with Nitro going to two hours and clearly a lot of last minute stuff being added to the shows every week. They needed a continuity person really bad, and it's only going to get worse as time goes on.