Mister TV

The WCW version of the US belt would have looked a lot better if it mimicked the NWA version with red behind the lettering.

Vince McMahon is due to watch Jackie Brown, so maybe he’ll bring in Blackman with a Max Cherry gimmick.

Spiders is way too cool of a name, they’ll pick something lame like Rockers.

Does Snyder make the announcement about dropping the name tomorrow morning or Monday? With FedEx and Nike on board with a change there’s no way he can keep the name.

I was never a "funny papers" reader so I don't know much detail about the Dick Tracy character but Beatty doesn't seem like any type of character or brings anything to the character, he comes off as Warren Beatty in a yellow hat and yellow coat. Disney really hyped this movie and they could have gotten away with someone else as Dick Tracy since who was playing the title character wasn't the selling point.

Dr. Death wasn't going to have a run with Austin, sure the likes of Jim Ross, Jim Cornette and Bruce Prichard wanted it but none of them were the actual decision maker. Also there really isn't an opening from SummerSlam 98 to SummerSlam 99 for Dr. Death vs. Austin outside a tv main event.

If they don't do the "Grand Finale Match of Survival" whose match do you end the show with, Hogan or Warrior? I can see Vince not wanting to rock the boat by having one of the big two feeling disrespected by not ending the night on top. Also there still wasn't a solid plan for WM when they first announced the finale match so they could have used that match to set-up Hogan-Warrior 2, remember Slaughter wasn't brought in because of the Gulf War, his vignettes were airing before Iraq invaded Kuwait and Vince didn't lean into the exploitation of the war until the night of Survivor Series.

Tom Selleck sans the mustache could have worked but Beatty owned the film rights so he was the only one who was going to play that role.

In the summer of 1990 my friends and I wanted to see The Adventures of Ford Fairlane but we were 16 and that theater was super strict when it came to non-violent R rated movies, so we bought tickets to Dick Tracy and hopped theaters after about 30 minutes. The Adventures of Ford Fairlane was a disappointment and we debated sneaking into another showing of Dick Tracy to see what happened, but someone chickened out and we went home. Last night I finally got closure after watching Dick Tracy start to finish!!!! Outside of Al Pacino's scenes and the look of the film Dick Tracy is really bad, Warren Beatty is cringeworthy as the title character and is 100% the wrong person to be playing Tracy, Madonna's acting is really really really bad and it's confusing on why she threw herself at Beatty for the role, it's really really violent for a PG movie that had a toy line, McDonald's tie in and song & dance show at Disney/MGM Studios. The backstory on how Dick Tracy got made and Beatty's lawsuits with Tribune over a possible sequel was a fun wikipedia wormhole to fall into.

Surely everyone from that era had/has hepatitis? If not it's a damn miracle.

It’s pretty crazy that tv stations were totally cool with showing someone bleeding that much at 11am on a Saturday morning.

I still play this game and it's one of the few games I still play. I run 25ish year dynasties starting as a coordinator at a randomly selected school and then see where things take me, right now I'm in my second year as HC at New Mexico following a stint at Iowa State as the OC. I also sabotage Georgia Tech and Navy at the start of the dynasty since they both end up way too good thanks to their offense, I'll also fiddle with the conference alignments around 15 years in.

I watched Hardcore with George C. Scott for the first time in ages last night since it's on the TCM app, it's just as nuts as I remembered but a few things jumped out at me. First Peter Boyle's detective character should have gotten his own spin-off movie or tv series, he was sleazy and creepy but still seemed like a decent dude and I'd love to see more of his adventures. Second if someone jumps into the movie mid-stream they might think that George C. Scott's character was an alien experiencing his first visit to earth, sure his character was an asexual Calvinist from Grand Rapids but Scott really leans into to the point it becomes comedy. Third the porn leads to snuff films that this movie then 20 years later 8mm implied had to be the movie studios being pissed about adult films hurting their bottom line right? Hardcore was made when Adult Films became somewhat mainstream a few years earlier and 8mm came out at the peak of the video rental area. Fourth there were elements in the story that could have lead to a very good movie back then or even updated for today, cut out the snuff stuff and the dumb ending and there's something to build on.

Did anyone else get the vibe that Vince and the PTC were kind of in cahoots sorta like Dabney Coleman’s smut peddler and Christopher Plummer’s evangelist in Dragnet? Both sort of had the same goal in getting W Bush elected in 2000 and both sides got tons of publicity due to the feud. There were lawsuits after the election but both McMahon and Bozell trying to out carny each other after working with each other is totally plausible

A Bronx Tale is basically Chazz Palmienteri's childhood and teenage years so you can't really say it's not authentic. Palmienteri's one man stage show of A Bronx Tale is amazing and I think he was still taking it on the road until COVID hit.

All of the babyface II stuff I've seen was hokey but grumpy and jealous heel II is gold.

I don't think Ted Turner personally paid for the production, most likely the cost of Nitro's production was covered by Turner Broadcasting's budget while Thunder and the other shows were covered by WCW's budget. Even though everything is "owned" by the same company they're set-up in ultra convoluted ways for ultra convoluted reasons.

They should have gotten Wesley Snipes and made it sort of a sequel to Money Train.

That's nice but they're going to be playing in the Reedy Creek Improvement District not Orlando! This whole thing is going to be weird and I'm hoping Disney and the NBA go all corporate synergy and theme each arena after one of the parks.

If I remember right it would have been a short term run for a proposed tour of South America.

Yeah Vince had a leg up on everyone else with all the cities he already had control of along with the open cities he was able to slide into before the end of 1983. Pre-expansion they had NYC, Philly, Boston, DC, Baltimore and Pittsburgh along places like Hartford and Nassau County plus all of the towns across the Northeast they ran shows in. In 1982 they added Buffalo to the mix, in the spring of 1983 they took over Los Angeles and San Diego, in the fall of 1983 Cincinnati and Dayton, then St. Louis in December 1983. Vince is still moving into those cities along with Detroit in early 1984 without Hogan, plus he was putting the squeeze on Ole by running shows in Eastern Ohio through out 1983 setting up a showdown for Cleveland. Having all of those cities gives Vince the option of going with someone like Kerry, Ricky Steamboat or Paul Orndorff for a year or two if Hogan isn't an option(never born, only works Japan or joins Metallica) and he'd have to pick off the competition a lot slower. A WWF without Hogan is going to have a changing of the guard at the top every few years so by 1986 they change to someone like Savage as heel champ for a year or make it about tag teams and bring in the Road Warriors.

Yes Vince Sr. named him since he wanted someone with an Irish name on the roster plus the names Terry Bollea used prior to Hulk Hogan were all kind of goofy. I don't think anyone being a second generation wrestler would have been an issue if Hogan wasn't available, what kind of office politics would someone like Fritz be able to pull off? It's the McMahon's company and Sr's capos(Moonson, Skaaland and Zacko) weren't going to give an outsider like Fritz the time of day. Remember that Vince was trying to make a deal with World Class until 1987 and he always treated the Von Erich's with a respect, he knew Kerry pre motorcycle accident was a license to print money and would have no issue with Fritz showing up once and awhile.

Henning along with Eddie Gilbert were fuzzy cheeked rookies under the watchful eye of Bob Backlund in 1982 and part of 1983, the fans would never buy Hennig as champ or even a mid-carder in 1984 and he hadn't found his charisma yet.

Vince started the expansion long before he had Hogan locked up, he started running in Los Angeles in the spring of 1983 and Cincinnati/Dayton in the fall of 1983. Without Hogan it's doubtful Vince is able to throw money around to the TV stations in stronger territories like the AWA, but he could have easily taken over "dead" territories like Detroit or ones with a lot of infighting between the ownership groups like St. Louis and Atlanta. Also Crockett would still lose interest in booking talent to Southern Ontario and Vince would have still jumped at the chance to get a foothold up there. I can't see Fritz getting in Kerry's way if Vince offers up a run with the WWF belt, even without the expansion the top spot in New York is a license to print money and with Vince's plans even Fritz would see that it's something that can't be turned down. It wasn't just Verne not wanting to give the AWA belt to Hogan there was the issue of Hogan actually wanting it and the politics of Japan since Verne was hooked up with All-Japan and Hogan with New Japan. Hogan was going to end up back in the WWF at some point, he was too much of a star for the McMahon's to pass on and there was too much money for Hogan to pass up with to without the expansion.

Even without the murder and drug problem Vince wasn’t going to put the belt on Snuka, he was the perfect #2 babyface and didn’t need a belt, plus I can’t see him being taken seriously in interviews with mainstream media types. Also one of the biggest reasons Snuka was so over as a face in the WWF was the storyline of his turn, the new areas they moved into wouldn’t have seen that whole story play out so he might not have been as over in those places. There’s a slight chance they might have went with Sarge but remember he didn’t turn until after Hogan won the belt, he had never been a face before and by the time the turn played out Nationalism was being ramped up across the country due to the Reagan re-election campaign. If Vince had to push things back a few months because Hogan wasn’t coming then Sarge might get the spot in the spring of summer of 1984. If Hogan turned Vince down or was never born then I think he tries to get Kerry Von Erich or possibly brings in Paul Orndorff as a face and puts the belt on him. Without Hogan the expansion isn’t as rapid so Vince might not truly decided on someone until sometime in 1985 or even 1986. There’s no way in hell Vince brings in Lawler and I doubt Lawler would have left his small pond. Remember “Tennessee Rasslin” was looked down on by all of the promoters.