Babylonianfrost

Perhaps it's just a case of loving what you grow up with, but I always rate Stern and Mantlo highly for their interconnected runs on ASM and PPTSS.

Per this week's Observer... After losing the rights to the Dudley name because Heyman trademarked it and then it became WWE property when they purchased ECW's assets... "...when LoMonica came up with the Bully Ray character while in TNA he trademarked it and TNA never opposed the trademark."

Wouldn't they have owned the GCW footage since 1984, when the WWF bought out the Briscos, Jones and Barnett for controlling interest in Georgia Championship...? I've always wondered about that with the territories that Vince "purchased" (as opposed to sabotaging/running out of business). Edit: Well, what Georgia footage there was, anyway...

The obvious answer to me is Dear Zachary. Dear god...that movie... I think that while somebody might toss out arguments for movies like "Cannibal Holocaust," "Salo" or "Serbian Film," my vote goes for "Shoah."

Due to having an ungodly commute, I've really been burning through these lately (even going back to the early ones...like Johnny says in the plug, "you know you want to...") and enjoying them a lot obviously...how far are you planning to go with this? Into the expansion era? Wrestlemania? As far as possible?

Perhaps this is an outlier opinion, but I saw it in 3-D and generally actually forgot that I was watching in 3-D until some of the more obvious "Stick out at the audience" bits such as during the climax. The Ant-Man preview in 3-D seemed more "3-D" than Fury Road actually did for the most part. Still...bloody amazing movie.

Sadly, no. And didn't Farhat just come in for maybe a televised interview (with Ellering doing the talking) and one stip match against Buzz Sawyer at the Omni?

Wasn't Mitch Snow the AWA guy who did some All-Japan shots in the late-'80's and...I want to say he died some time in the past decade...?

Actually, this touches on something that occurred to me before the Perro tragedy made it seem less than important; wouldn't the WWF/E already own whatever GCW footage existed since they legally purchased the company, the television and the titles back in 1984? Or was the actual footage owned/controlled by WTBS?

Dutch booked the IWA in Puerto Rico, I believe. Thinking about Ken Mantell...was he involved in booking Global at any point in 1992 after Eadle, Gilbert, etc. left? Usually if Johnny Mantell showed up in a fed, Ken was in office somewhere.

I got blindsided by it one summer afternoon in the early-'90's on Lifetime, of all channels. I can safely say that I've never forgotten it.

God, I feel like a mooch but I'll join in the frenzy. I'm content with any version that I can get...please and thank you.

Talk to Stu Saks, Eddie Ellner, Matt Brock or Liz Hunter. One of them probably did the interview. If it was the one where Jack spent paragraphs professing his admiriation for "Spaceman" Frank Hickey, then I would actually swear that it was Bob Smith (or possibly Dave Rosenbaum).

Wasn't the "worked all his contracted matches" excuse also the impetus that led to Sting sitting in the rafters at every televised WCW event for roughly a year and a half?

DiBiase, Jake, the Disasters and Bigelow. That's a seriously late-"glory days" WWF team...

Actually (if you're thinking of that Man-Ape/Black Talon tirade he had in the early Englehart WCA run like I think you are...), wasn't his response to her pointing out her ethnicity something more along the lines of the awesomely-offensive "no, you're the purest white I've ever known"?

Barry Windham on a team with Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, and The One Man Gang seems like the most random pairing ever. Also I thought the Oz gimmick didn't last that long. Superbrawl to Halloween Havoc would have been a good seven or eight months. I recall how strange it was that Windham was put on the heel team despite having been turned face after the Luger heel turn and I did appreciate the last-minute "cruncher" hijinx to get him out of the match and Vader into the match, but was an "official" reason ever given to explain how Gang & Oz got replaced by Cactus & Abby (which, admittedly, made more sense within the context of the Sting feud...)?

My god, he KILLED Alberto Torres and Ray Gunkel with the dreaded heart punch...of course it was the only humane response.

Very few human beings have ever looked more like a professional wrestler than Ox Baker. And the "Price is Right" clip IS something awesome to behold.

I enjoy my status standing in back out of the way and trying not to screw up the proceedings like Dan Ackroyd. Still glad everything's back up and running.

All of the eternal "Cena always wins/Cena's been on top too long" debate has me legitimately wondering: was there ever any backlash to Sammartino holding the WWWF belt and headlining for basically fourteen years or to Thesz death-gripping the NWA title so often between 1949 and 1969 or any eternal territory runs for any wrestler (Lawler in Memphis, Flair in the Carolinas, Blassie in California, etc.)? When did the argument for longevity morph into an argument against same? Gagne? And why does everyone forget that - transitional champs notwithstanding - W/WWF/E has usually been a monster face champ territory almost from the onset? Bruno got pinned very few times in the WWF between 1963 and 1977 (cleanly just once, though I guess he may have gotten pinned in Japan for Baba...?). I'm not certain that Backlund ever ate a clean loss in the fed in six years outside of the Inoki strangeness. Hogan's protection is well-documented. Until the steroid/sex scandals led to Vince panicking, there was a near-thirty year history of (with few exceptions) strong faces guzzling heels. For most stretches of time, the WWF wasn't about the chase; it was about the face champ knocking off challengers (I actually Heyman made that point on...the Austin podcast?). The first truly dominant heel champion that they had was Yokozuna. SuperCena isn't really that much of an aberration by any stretch: he moves the merch and he seems to sell tickets.

I think it would have been a bit closer to just a random turn than anything that glorious. 1984 WWF on the heel side had Piper, Schultz, Orton, Valentine, Orndorff, Studd and Muraco (albeit on the way down from his I-C title heights)...I'm not sure that Backlund could have stood out in that crowd, even if he was the best legitimate wrestler of any of them. To have the kind of impact that he had in 1994, he would have had to channel Spiros Arion or something, turn on Hogan in a tag match ("I brought you back to the WWF and then you stole away my chance to win back the title that I held for six years!" etc. etc.) and then get fed to him so Vince could perhaps further legitimize Hogan's reign by having him compete against the only former champion (Sheik notwithstanding) that he could actually wrestle within the fed. Probably a decent payday (especially in New York), but not that long-term of a run. I'm not sure that he would have been any more important to the federation by 1985 than, say, the aforementioned Iron Sheik because I'm also not sure that crazy, bitter Backlund would have worked - or even been considered - as a character at the point. Plus, the timing necessary for an angle like that would have probably completely thrown the Hogan/Piper/Lauper/MTV rock & wrestling connection off the rails. Still, those "face" promos he cut on the Pro Wrestling USA shows were odd enough that one can imagine crazy Backlund being not-too-far beneath the surface. I can almost see some sort of "delusional heel who thinks he's a face" gimmick (like a more serious and disturbing Bo Dallas, perhaps) being something to marvel at in that timeframe. I think I'm actually curious where Backlund might have gone if he had chosen to stay active in 1984 and not taken the break (PWUSA notwithstanding). Verne loved legitimate credentials and I can imagine him forcing a Backlund title run on the AWA fans in place of Martel, or perhaps Eddie Graham convincing him to return to the CWF for one last shot at keeping the Florida territory strong.

For some reason I thought that at least a couple of the female Rockets were supposed to be Squirrel Girl....

Survived, yes (and, hell...thrived in the late-'80's pop-metal renaissance...), but I'm still not entirely certain that the "Bette Davis in 'Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?'" makeup was the best choice... Still, was that an actual commercially-released video for whatever outlets existed in 1980 or just some sort of performance done for some random television show?

The actual payoff to the Kirby Eternals series in Roy Thomas, etc.'s Thor issues (Annual # 7 and issues # 283-301 - give or take a random tour through Ring of the Nibelung) was really good and surprisingly epic. The epilogue in the Iron Man annual (#6?) not so much but it and Avengers # 246-248 do complete the story. The Thor stuff at least in available in trade paperback. They've released an Origin of the Inhumans book with all that Lee/Kirby stuff and the underrated '70's stuff in out in the Masterworks series but it's understandable to not want to plop down that kind of cash. Issue # 4 of the Vision/Scarlet Witch series and Fantastic Four #240 did a nice job of setting up the status quo that lasted for fifteen years or so. Avengers Annual #12 as well, if you're inclined. And, of course, Thing # 3 contains the story where it was revealed that Lockjaw wasn't a dog after all but a severely mutated Inhuman...before that got retconned the hell out of existence...