Technico Support

I NEED the security jobbers to all have names from Chuck Taylor's list. "This is" Howie DeWitt, "New in Town" Luke Wilcox, Frank "Grabass" Hernandez, "Hard Wood" Rich Mahogany, etc.

Preach. The TNT title should have always been a secondary title. Cody started that "we don't have secondary titles here" shit because the TNT title was his belt and he'd already booked himself as unable to challenge for the actual top belt. That was a masterstroke of carny manipulation, BTW. TK already had his first four champs picked, Cody wasn't one of them, so of course he sets up an angle where he is essentially an uncrowned champion. "Sure, Moxley is a great title holder, but it's only because Cody can't challenge him!" If you're not going to be the champ, then you'll be jobbing to the champ or up and coming challengers. My dude totally sidestepped that! Better to be a secondary champion who claims his belt is just as valuable than to job to the top champion a few times or be a setup guy for new challengers. The TNT title also came to be because they needed something to drive the narrative in those early days of the pandemic. There was no plan for that belt. It wasn't even ready when the time came to crown the champion. What I guess I'm saying is they made up a belt out of necessity, its purpose was vague and ever-changing, and now they have two belts where one would suffice. Will we also get a women's Atlantic champion?

All good points! My guess is they put Hogan with Athena because they wanted Athena to have a good match for her debut and Hogan is better than Velvet.

OH FUCK I am in a nitpicking mood: I am old and don't necessarily remember Geography class, which took place in 1988 for me, but I'm pretty sure Japan is not on the Atlantic. Also, does this mean wrestlers from California can't challenge for it? There goes my fantasy of Super Dragon running in. I like the idea of the TNT belt becoming the TV title and this being akin to the US title, but do something to TELL us that. Because I have no idea what this belt is for or who can contend for it aside from "the bracket is filled with guys from other countries." Didn't Marina JUST get a TBS title shot? I guess she farmed enough wins on YouTube. I haven't watched NJPW in a bit. When did Will Ospreay turn into HGH TJ Miller? All the wrestling on the show was pretty good! The non-wrestling stuff, gimmicks, angles, etc were really a mixed bag. I like Jungle Boy not being especially down with Christian's decisions and guidance! Ae they trying to kill Jeff Hardy? Is this like the restaurant scene in Goodfellas where they burn the place down after they got all the money they could out of it? Finlay is really solid and was a good foil for Hangmin here. Every match Mox wrestles, he turns into such a gross brawl that I think he's going to ask his opponent to join the BCC afterward. Every time. Has Cash Wheeler always had that lisp or was he dipping? WardlowUHHHHH witUHHHH the Triple H deliveryUHHHHHH I really liked Swerve being a dick in the battle royal Didn't we just get Statlander vs Velvet in the Owen tournament? Do they have so few women that we're running shit back? Isn't this supposed to be the company that doesn't do that? Ditto Adam vs Adam. Don't need to see it again, please don't set that up. Is Jericho going to go the Kevin Nash route in the hair vs hair match and end up with a sensible, short haircut? Fully agree with the Casino Battle Royal concept needing a change. Five guys enter at once, separately, to their own themes? Ugh. Also, it strains kayfabe credibility that both the Assclaimed and Red Dragon both drew their own suits. I had no idea the flag of the Netherlands looked like part of the GI Joe logo

Insert joke about about baptizing people by peeing on them

How does the "Stand Back Pack" not include Vince in his disco gear or Hogan in sleeveless tux? Two thoughts: This is what you get when you add cocaine + hubris + wealth + an army of yes men who will never tell you anything is a bad idea I know it's pants + vest but I like to squint and imagine it's a one piece

I recommend Deadlock (recommended to me by @Jiji, I think). I also recommend "We Watch Wrestling," which is hosted by Matt McCarthy, an actor, comedian, and former WWE writer, and his cohost, Vince Averil.

I know part of it was having nobody else ready during Sting's injury in 1990, but it's still crazy to me that Flair and Luger main evented four PPVs in a two year period that only had 12 PPVs. So a full one third of the PPVs between July 1988 and May 1990 were Flair/Luger fuck finishes. Way to kill off a challenger dead and devalue your PPVs.

I didn't think about Creel's son at all but when they went from mentioning One in one scene to showing the mystery friendly orderly very soon after, it was pretty obvious to me that he was One.

Somebody else proposing at your wedding and/or one of the bridesmaids showing up in a wedding gown.

Absolutely. The whole thing has some real "little brother throws a fit on your birthday so now you both get bikes" energy. Except the big brother in this case got a used, broken big wheel while little brother got the best Schwinn they had and ate all the cake.

He's played Vader so far in both of the unmasked scenes and in the quick part where Obi Wan is hallucinating and sees Anakin.

That was the story Bix told on BTS but I'm not sure how true that was. Because I listened to that ep, I watched this match with that in mind, but it was the opposite. T had his hands up at least to the sides of his head while Piper had his down most of the match. And both guys looked really exhausted. I thought the same with that ring and refs while watching The Wrestling Classic. At least the ring had turnbuckle pads this time! And just like the wrestling classic, they used mostly Illinois refs with one WWF ref in a match or two. I think the actual WWF ref was in the Volkoff match because a bump was needed. Brad Muster! Yep, you're right.

This is why I appreciate the perspective Alvarez, a trained worker, brings to these shows. Not being a Lance Storm here and saying you can't criticize something unless you've done it, but Alvarez having done it does add a lot.

Hey! Here's some more talk about stuff I watched recently as I exorcise my 80s WWF nostalgia by working through their early stuff in order! Subtitle this one "Wrestlemania 2 is pretty bad!" OR "I waited hours at the video store as a kid for THIS?" (RIP Axl Rotten, best video store clerk and preternaturally good at Konami's The Main Event.) Roddy Piper vs Mr. T boxing match: this was horrible! It's not like we hadn't had FOUR Rocky movies before this that could have laid the blueprint for how you do a worked face/heel boxing match. SHIT, one of the guys in this match was in one of those films! HEY WOMAN! HEY WOMAN! This was shit and both guys gassed about halfway through. I don't know a lot about boxing mechanics but if Piper is a "former golden gloves boxer," why is his stance so shitty? Are you supposed to stand square to your opponent with one arm down and the other by your chest? Anyway, it goes to round four where both of these amazing athletes are beyond gassed and swinging like garbage, then PIper bodyslams T for the DQ because of course Piper can't do a fucking job. Total shit. For all the shitting we do on Hogan for being a politicking POS, Piper was just as bad. You can't tell me his career would have suffered and would have been any different if he'd taken the money and done a clean job for Hogan at a big show or series of houses. Piper was a huge talent and would not have been one of these monsters of the month that Hogan just beats and sends back down the card and out of the company. Come on. Now we go to the Chicago portion of our event and it still sucks! Ooooh, back to the weird refs and ring from The Wrestling Classic. How I missed thee! Fabulous Moolah vs Velvet McIntyre: FUUUUUCK! Moolah was already 62 here. Velvet must have been one of her "girls." Poor kid. Jesus. Women didn't even have wrestling gear back then! Just one piece swimsuits. It literally looks like a brawl broke out at your local pool. Moolah with HAIR MARES for fuck's sake. Velvet comes back with some quick, high flying offense but misses a dive in which one of her McIntyres comes halfway out of her woefully inadequate gear. Yes, that's all I remembered from this match from watching it on tape as a prepubescent. Moolah pins her off that as the ref ignores BOTH of Velvet's feet on the ropes. Moolah then gives Velvet maybe a shoot stomp to the chest? WTF was that? Smoke a turd in hell with Epstein, Moolah. Corporal Kirschner vs Nikolai Vlkoff, flag match: Nothing match in which Corp blades for no damn reason and wins in two minutes via errantly-thrown cane from Blassie. Isn't the face supposed to blade to draw sympathy? He bladed and then went right to the finish! Useless. Or Nikolai bladed him? I rewound it and it's really a mystery blading, as neither was wearing wrist tape. It looks like maybe Volkoff was holding the blade the whole time. This is way too many words about how a bladejob happened but fuck it, speculating over this is better than the match. Two matches: total match time 3:30. This card is so bad. WWF vs football players battle royal! This was a battle royal. You get what you get. Random thoughts: Pedro was WWF's first triple crown champion when that was a big deal! To show you how titles used to mean something and weren't just passed around willy nilly, the gap between Pedro accomplishing this and the next person to do it (BRET!) was almost 12 years. Jim Brunzell wresting with his arm in a cast because you can't miss that Mania payday brother I forgot Bruno was in this Is Bill Fralic the guy who was Meltzer's friend and was with him at that one Flair/Steamboat match? Refrigerator Perry is wearing a singlet and pants. The pants start falling down EARLY so you see a whale tail the whole match and he's the world's worst Lita. Neidhart takes the dumbest bump off an Andre big boot, taking it and then running to the side and jumping over the top. I watched the entrances for Bulldogs vs Dream Team but not the match yet. Who, in 1986, would have guessed Ozzy would outlive both Bulldogs? I wouldn't have taken that bet. Ozzy comes to the ring with a mic for no reason. I was hoping he'd start belting out Crazy Train or Suicide Solution. Wine is fine but whiskey's quicker.

I feel like the "whistling" part of his entrance theme is very Kill Bill inspired, as well. Really, wrestling needs more sly Tarantino references. And fewer overt ones like Vince's IRL Monsieur Candy act.

And Big Event wasn't even a PPV! I guess they figured because it was going to be a big video tape release, it would sell house shows the same way.

In the end, Vince's all encompassing desire to be accepted in the larger business world and to be regarded as "legitimate" (instead of a carny rasslin promoter) won out over everything.

It's crazy! Wikipedia says the Steele feud started on the January SNME before Mania 2. So, on and off, the "program" lasted 16 months. It's wild, in my lifetime, seeing WWF/WWE go from having programs go on forever as long as they could do house show business, to needing a constant feed of angles to sell an increasing number of PPVs, to finally not really needing to do much at all because that TV money has already been made. I mean congrats to them for turning their product from something that was hand to mouth into a business that makes money whether they are selling something compelling or not, but man it is crazy to have seen it evolve.

A quick word on 80s WWF booking that I'm just sort of theorizing/pulling this out of my ass... It's really clear to me how house shows were still the money draws long into the PPV era. I'll have to test this theory as I go through watching these early shows, but it feels like only the main matches have any story, buildup, or blowoff while the undercard is just thrown together matches and/or matches with fuck finishes because they need programs and issues to keep going for the house shows. Like Savage/Steele was a shit finish so they could run it back for a few more months on houses with the PPV just being an advertisement/storyline advancement. I first noticed this a while back watching SummerSlam 88, realizing that none of the matches had storylines outside of the main and they actually seemed to go out of their way to not book matches with stories; guys who were in programs leading up to the show were inexplicably put into matches with different people. For example, Rude was in a program with Jake on TV, but worked JYD on Summerslam with a Jake run-in to keep the angle going, ostensibly for houses. And of course, Saturday Night's Main Event only featured matches that were designed to build angles OR had already been finished up on the house show runs. Like Hogan has beaten Volkoff all over the country at least twice, there's no more juice left in that orange, so put it on free tv now. As I work through this old shit, it'll be fun to try to figure out when the focus on house shows as the main business changes.

I remember the transcripts from when Hogan's son was in jail for driving like a moron and caving in his friend's head, and Hogan was trying to cheer Nick up by pulling some The Secret bullshit, telling him how it wasn't Nick's fault and that the friend, whose forehead looked like a fucking minigolf hole, clearly must've done some bad in his life to have manifested such an end. Yeah, fuck that guy.

I noticed him! I annoy the living fuck out of my wife with HEY IT'S THAT GUY FROM THAT OTHER THING constantly.

Here are some words on stuff I watched recently. NOTE: I'm working my way through every WWF PPV/big event from the beginning until the nostalgic feelings wear off. That'll probably be somewhere around Mania 9. Holy shit that New York portion of Mania 2 is brutal so far. Savage vs Steele: Somebody must be ribbing Macho or maybe testing him, who the hell knows? All I know is he got JYD on the last major show (The Wrestling Classic) where they got 9 minutes to fill with nothing at all before Savage jobbed on a countout, and now, on the next big show, he's got George Steele. Holy fuuuuuuck. This one only went five minutes but it felt so much longer. Savage started with the obligatory Memphis stalling because that's what you do when you have nothing to work with. Eventually, they settled into a weird match where there's no formula at all. They just trade offense. Steele does a few moves, Savage cuts him off and does a few, rinse, repeat, until the finish. They're given some leeway with turnbuckle stuffing and a bouquet used as weapons because this match needs all the smoke and mirrors you can give it. Eventually, it's Savage's turn on offense and he hits a slam and flying elbow and STEELE KICKS OUT. WWTTTTTFFFFFFF. Dude is the IC champ and will be your world champ in two years and can't beat a washed up JTTS with his finish? I get that WWF was not a heel territory but fuuuuuuck meee. Savage wins seconds later with the same finish he used against Putski at the aforementioned Wrestling Classic (double leg in the corner with feet on the ropes). This was awful. What did Savage do next? The next two big shows are The Big Event (he's not on the card) and Mania 3, where Steele is STILL INVOLVED. Did Savage feud with Steele on and off for a year plus? Was this his personal hell for running an outlaw territory and exposing the business? I do recall, after Savage injured Steamboat, that Randy had a side feud with Bruno maybe on a few house shows. Again, this guy was so underutilized in his early career in the fed. Vince and Susan Saint James' interstitials are hilarious. They're in these daytime talk show type chairs facing each other uncomfortably close just kinda chatting about the show. Maybe this was a backdoor pilot for a McMahon celebrity interview show. Vince! Weekdays at 3. Check local listings. Listen to Vince's weird delivery and you can see where Cena got his "Lance Catamaran" character. George Wells vs Jake Roberts: First off, we get Susan Saint James saying "poor George" two matches in a row. Modern Vince would not have stood for that shit and probably would have preemptively change Wells' name. After watching George Steele, I can say Wells was not that bad. I'd like to have seen Wells vs Savage. Again, a weird match with no formula. Wells beats Jake's ass for the whole match and Jake sells like an absolute motherfucker, then cuts Wells off with a knee coming back into the ring and hits the DDT for the win. This is early WWF proto-Jake, so neither the DDT nor Damien has a name yet. Jake does a weird gimmick with the snake that I don't think I saw him do since: he wraps the snake around Wells' neck so it looks like the snake is strangling him, then Wells either bites an Alka Seltzer or works up a lot of drool and starts "foaming at the mouth." Nothing match but better than the first one. So did 80s WWF just not follow the standard match formula that much or were these exceptions because both were essentially jobber matches where the heel went over? Up next: John Nada vs Clubber Lang!

Lol wut Dude is straight edge, not Christian Scientist. He has no problems with prescription meds. He did enough antibiotics in WWE to shit his pants.