Happ Hazzard

Paul Diamond was a former soccer player. Famously the only person to have teamed with both Shawn Michaels and Big Sam Allardyce.

RIP Clem Burke of Blondie, the Ramones, et al. Blondie - Dreaming

I'm not sure. What did Meltzer give the Michinoku Pro 6-man at Barely Legal? Did he give the Raven & Stevie vs Pitbulls chain match at ECW Gangsta's Paradise the full five stars?

They are in.

We did this on Wrestling Classics a couple of years ago. These are the most common pairings that were found: Haruku Eigen vs Rusher Kimura - 1473 Mitsuo Momota vs Haruku Eigen - 1338 Masa Fuchi vs Mitsuo Momota – 933 Masa Fuchi vs Risher Kimura - 901 Giant Baba vs Haruku Eigen – 806 Giant Baba vs Masa Fuchi – 654 Johnny Weaver vs Swede Hanson - 569 Akira Taue vs Mitsuharu Misawa – 554 Ultimo Guerrero vs Atlantis - 525 Ultimo Guerrero vs Mistico - 474 Giant Baba vs Abdullah the Butcher - 457 Bobby Eaton vs Ricky Morton – 481 Bobby Eaton vs Robert Gibson - 463 Johnny Weaver vs. Gene Anderson - 442 Akira Taue vs Kenta Kobashi – 429 Ultimo Guerrero vs Volador Jr. - 429 Ric Flair vs Wahoo McDaniel - 414 Jumbo Tsuruta vs Stan Hansen - 351 Mitsuharu Misawa vs Toshiaki Kawada – 342 Ric Flair vs Dusty Rhodes - 344 Tony Garea vs Mr. Fuji - 336 Dr Wagner Jr. vs Atlantis - 302 Baron Mikel Scicluna vs Dominic DeNucci - 296 Kenta Kobashi vs Toshiaki Kawada – 294 Andre the Giant vs Big John Studd - 292 Ricky Steamboat vs Greg Valentine - 291 Wahoo McDaniel vs Greg Valentine - 290 Ric Flair vs Ricky Steamboat - 288 Bret Hart vs Dynamite Kid – 286 Ric Flair vs Sting - 281 Jerry Lawler vs Bill Dundee - 279 Tojo Yamamoto vs Al Greene – 278 Ric Flair vs Paul Jones - 277 John Cena vs Randy Orton - 267 Dick Togo vs Super Delfin - 261 Chief Jay Strongbow vs Mr. Fuji - 260 Bobby Eaton vs Bobby Fulton - 259 Wahoo McDaniel vs Johnny Valentine - 255 Nick Bockwinkel vs Billy Robinson 248 Tito Santana vs Greg Valentine - 247 Ric Flair vs Lex Luger - 240 Bret Hart vs Jacques Rougeau - 239 Triple H vs Randy Orton - 236 Nick Bockwinkel vs Greg Gagne 234 Nick Bockwinkel vs The Crusher 230 Barry Windham vs Lex Luger 227 Dick Togo vs Great Sasuke - 223 Bobby Eaton vs Tommy Rogers - 220 Ric Flair vs Roddy Piper - 218 Mitsuharu Misawa vs Kenta Kobashi – 218 Bret Hart vs Davey Boy Smith - 211 Edge vs Jeff Hardy - 209 Bruno Sammartino vs Gorilla Monsoon - 207 Harley Race vs Rufus R. Jones - 207 Baron Mikel Scicluna vs Tony Parisi - 206 Kofi Kingston vs the Miz - 206 Randy Savage vs Ron Garvin - 204 Ric Flair vs Greg Valentine - 202 Akira Taue vs Toshiaki Kawada - 172

Gran Hamada has apparently passed away.

RIP Jim Cornette's dog Harley Quinn.

It's often forgotten that Austin was in WCW until well into 1995. I think he's said that he was lucky to be released when he did, because if he'd still been around when Nitro started they'd have probably offered him a new deal and he'd have stayed for the guaranteed money.

I don't know how over you can say Luger was in the WWF. He was never as over as much as he was pushed, either as the Narcissist or as Mr Made in the USA. If he'd just been the Total Package (and he had appeared on WWF TV under that gimmick, at WM8) as a heel at first, and then turned face on the USS Intrepid and stood up for America, but not gone overboard with the patriotic gimmick, he'd have done a lot better. He was the first in a long line of Vince showing he had no idea how to push a top babyface in between Hogan leaving and Austin catching fire. (see also, Diesel and Shawn Michaels).

Has anyone read the Chavo Guerrero Sr. biography "Instant Classic"?

I only realised recently that that same venue is where the "Just Bleed" guy appeared in the UFC crowd.

What are the best wrestling books of 2024? Has the shortlist for Meltzer's awards come out yet?

https://x.com/BillMoldestad/status/1856577638439301562 Doink the Clown vs "Bret Hart" in a rounds match from Germany in the mid 90s. It's actually Franz Schumann, not Bret, but he was doing a very good "tribute act" to Bret at the time.

I'm halfway through Steve Keirn's second book after reading the first one. They're very good. Some takeaways so far: Steve has a low opinion of Eddie and Mike Graham, after growing up thinking of Eddie as a kind of father figure (while his own father was a POW in Vietnam) and Mike as a brother. Eddie tried to get Steve to invest in CWF and kept giving him bags of money before Keirn backed out of the deal and got his investment back. Mike got Steve to invest money in a bar that a few weeks later he said had closed down and the money was gone. Steve didn't admit any philandering while he was in the Fabulous Ones. I think he's been married to the same woman for about 50 years so that would probably explain why. Keirn is forthright about his failings as a promoter in the late 80s with FCW/PWF. Even after Dusty came in they were only drawing about 200 people and sometimes much fewer. Dusty also wasted their money by flying in a Lear jet. He also admits he wasn't much good as a realtor and that's why he had to come back to wrestling. The Skinner gimmick was Keirn's idea. He was a legitimate Alligator hunter until the US allowed imports of Caiman hides from South America which caused the price of Alligator hides to plummet. He liked doing the gimmick but after a while realised it wasn't going anywhere. He suggested being the second Doink and the attack on Crush at WM9. He was under the ring for the entire show, both before and after that match. After a while he was sick of having to put on the Doink makeup every night which took about two hours. The WWF had makeup artists for TV but he had to do it himself for house shows. He figured he could get a contract from WCW so he asked for his release. In WCW the original idea for the "Bad Attitude" tag team with Keirn and Bobby Eaton is that they were both pissed off that Stan Lane wasn't teaming with them anymore. However Stan Lane wasn't in the promotion at the time so it didn't really make sense. Ric Flair's intended name for the team was "Men of Distinction" but they didn't like it.