Randomish question because of Backlund. Did Bret and Owen ever have a payoff to the 10 minute chicken wing that ended in someone throwing in the towel? I know Bret/Bob had that WM XI clinic but Bret faced Diesel at RR that ended in run-in galore and February was the last month before IYH started. Fairly sure Bret faced Hakushi at the first IYH as well.

Owen vs. Bret No Holds Barred

Time for those writeups I owe from earlier. Here's the first one.

Round 4, Pick 7: Chris Jericho, the last honest man

The background:

Really, this all started with Ric Flair.

In late 2007, Vince McMahon told Flair that the next match he lost would be his last. Flair would then go on a winning streak, leading to a match at WrestleMania 24 against good friend Shawn Michaels, which he would lose. The night after WrestleMania, Flair gave his retirement speech, and was greeted by many of his friends in the business, including Evolution stablemate Batista, who greeted Flair with a teary hug. When Michaels came out to say thank you to Flair, Batista was NOT happy. Next week on Chris Jericho's Highlight Reel, he told us all why -- he thought Michaels was selfish for not laying down for Flair, to continue his career. A feud between the two developed, and a match was signed for Backlash.

Michaels was cutting a promo a couple of weeks before the match, when he was interrupted out of the blue by Y2J. Jericho thought brought up turning on Marty Jannetty and the Montreal Screwjob, suggesting that Michaels actually enjoyed retiring Flair, to which HBK did not take too kindly:



Jericho was then inserted as the special referee for the HBK-Batista match at Backlash. Late in the match, Michaels appeared to injure his knee, but played for time enough with Jericho that he was able to lure Batista in for a sudden Sweet Chin Music and the victory. Jericho didn't appreciate being played for a sucker, and got a match with Shawn at Judgment Day. But when he was finally convinced that Michaels was really hurt and apologized for doubting him, Michaels finally admitted he was faking the whole time, and dropped Jericho again:



Michaels beat Jericho at Judgment Day, and Jericho shook his hand. But the story didn't end there, not by a long shot.

The turn:
Jericho had HBK back on the Highlight Reel shortly Michaels ended his feud with Batista with a loss in a stretcher match at One Night Stand. Jericho recapped the last couple of months, noting that the crowd would cheer HBK no matter what -- even after faking an injury and the lying about it -- and would boo Jericho for just trying to do the right thing.



Which brought Jericho to his question for Michaels: "How does Shawn Michaels, HBK, one of the greatest performers of all time and one of the most highly-decorated superstars in the history of this business, turn into such a lying, cheating, pathetic little worm of a human being?"

After a short brawl, Michaels got Jericho in the corner, but Jericho delivered a savage low blow that left Shawn writhing on the mat. Jericho then picked up Michaels deliberately, and with the warning, "the worst is yet to come," threw HBK with no warning into the Jeritron 5000, severely injuring Shawn's eye.



The aftermath:

To continue the feud with Michaels, Jericho ended up creating one of the greatest old-school heel characters in modern times. Patterned after Anton Chigurh from No Country for Old Men, who was always convinced of the righteousness of his sinister acts, Jericho would change his look (switching to trunks in the ring, and always wearing a suit while doing promos), talked more slowly and used big words in promos (a la Nick Bockwinkel)...in short, taking everything that made him popular and stripping it away.

His feud with Michaels would be named Feud of the Year by the Wrestling Observer for 2008. Jericho beat Michaels at The Great American Bash after attacking the eye again. There was a memorable encounter at Summerslam, where Michaels said the eye injury would force him to retire, then mocked Jericho's career, leading to Jericho punching Michaels' wife Rebecca (go to 5:00):



As a result, they fought in an Unsanctioned match at Unforgiven, which Jericho lost by referee stoppage. Jericho, though, managed to win the World Heavyweight title as a last-minute replacement in the scramble match at the same event, which he then successfully defended against Shawn at No Mercy in a ladder match.

The turn ended up revitalizing Jericho's career, which had been languishing somewhat, and led to some of the most compelling WWE TV since the end of the Attitude era.

Can't write up now, but I'll take Johnny Mundo's heel turn in Lucha Underground.

If anyone hasn't seen either of those Jericho/HBK matches (esp the ladder match), go watch them now. They blow WM XIX out of the water.

Next up...

Round 5, Pick 2: Terry Funk brutalizes Ric Flair

The background:

Ric Flair spent the first part of 1989 putting on the greatest series of matches there's ever been with Ricky Steamboat. Steamboat upset Flair for the NWA World title at Chi-Town Rumble, and defended it in a 2/3 falls match at Clash of the Champions 6 in April (on the same day as WrestleMania 5). Terry Funk, last seen in the WWF around the time of WrestleMania 2, did colour commentary for the match, which saw Steamboat defeat Flair 2 falls to 1 in a match that went nearly an hour.

However, since Flair had his foot under the bottom rope (unseen by the referee) for the decisive fall, one more encounter between the two was ordered for WrestleWar 89 in May. And given the length of the previous encounter, in case the match went to some kind of draw, the NWA board of directors appointed three former NWA World champions as ringside judges — Lou Thesz, Pat O’Connor, and Terry Funk.

The match, of course, was legendary. Flair got out of Steamboat’s double chicken wing and weakened the knee with the figure four so much that it gave out as Steamboat attempted a body slam, allowing Flair to roll him up for the pin and the belt. Both men hugged it out after the match, and Flair called Steamboat the greatest champion he’d ever faced in a post-match interview with Jim Ross.

Then, things got interesting.

The turn:

Terry Funk crashed the interview to congratulate Flair, saying he would’ve voted for Flair to win if it came down to it. JR is clearly trying to get rid of Funk nicely and get back to his interview, but Funk kept interrupting, eventually throwing out a challenge to Flair for the title. Flair, also wanting to humour Funk but knowing he was nowhere near title contention, turned him down, saying as champion that he had to concentrate on the top 10.

Funk did not take this well.

As Terry feigned an apology, Flair stuck his hand out as a show of respect. Funk shook his hand...and then sucker punched Flair and started the beatdown. It ended with Funk getting onto the judges’ table and PILEDRIVING FLAIR ON IT. Now, keep in mind, this is nearly a decade before the Spanish announce table became a well-worn trope; piledriving someone onto a table was a big ****ing deal. In any event, Terry Funk was suddenly the most hated man the the NWA.



The aftermath:

Flair was out for two months with the worked neck injury, but returned to action at the Great American Bash, cheered as never before, putting the capper on probably the greatest NWA/WCW PPV ever with a title win over Funk. Flair was saved from a Funk/Great Muta postmatch beatdown by Sting, leading to an excellent tag match at the original Halloween Havoc, and then the legendary I Quit match at Clash of the Champions 9.

Not super historic or anything, but a phenomenal angle during the best year WCW ever had.

Bolded for sarcasm?

Definite sarcasm.

Thanks for the link, LKJ. It's always a treat hearing Owen's music

Alright, my next pick is surely on nobody's board at all and would likely never get picked if I wasn't in this draft, but its execution is so fun to me that I want to lock it in on my team.



My team:

My favorite part of the heel turn were those ridiculous little American flags they would bring to ring and wave around. That tickled me even as a kid

I take...





Writeup later.

Yeah that's definitely a good one, I had that on my radar earlier and had forgotten about it.

Meat sauce, Baby!!!!!!

That Virgil photo is gutwrenching.

Looks like we've arrived at our first skip, with gs3737 being skipped. He can catch up on two picks when he likes. Action is back on True North.

(Props to this field of drafters for making it this long without a skip.)

Next pick, a personal fave from the Golden Era:

I select:





Team:

Sorry guys, didn't know it was ok me.

I take:



And

I'll take HHH's turn on Daniel Bryan at Summerslam allowing Orton to cash in the MITB.

Will write up this one and the other one up tomorrow hopefully.

Team so far:

I was thinking this was the real official face turn for Bryan, not the Wyatt family one picked earlier which was more of a bump in the road on his storyline. Plus it's a heel turn for Triple H AND Orton. Went too late imo.

I’ll pick real fast to keep things moving, but I’ll do my write up later. With my 9th selection I’ll take:

Side note: How many more picks are you guys looking to make? After I make my next selection, assumes my it will be there, my board will be empty. I mean, I’ll keep picking as long as everyone is still gung ho, I’m just trying to take the temperature of the room.

I'm completely blanking on this. Anxiously awaiting more.