Well the rumor you posted above was Piper/Warrior. Savage is the one we would be finding a new opponent for. Babyface most worthy of facing Savage at that point would have been Jake, unless they turned someone. Next most prominent face would have been...British Bulldog? He was pretty new to singles and still a year and a half away from winning the IC strap. They were pretty thin.

Can't comment on Chono as a heel as I didn't follow Japanese stuff back then. Cactus ahead of Vader is just wrong. Raven making the top five also is wrong (Austin has to be higher than him at the time of the list). But as lists go, that one isn't terribad.

I don't think this is all that hot a take. Boss Man's face run in that period is underrated. And for a big man, he could move. I always really liked him until he jumped the shark in the latter half of the 90s.

This must have happened during the Carson City Silver Dollar Match.

For 1995? Austin really did nothing of note. Was injured, fired, ECW, WWF. Vader was Hogan's whipping boy early in the year and he was gone from WCW in August and didn't debut in WWF until 1996. OTOH, Cactus was doing evil **** with Raven vs. Funk/Dreamer/Sandman in 95. Cactus went as far as accidentally throwing a flaming towel into the front row during this feud at the ECW Arena.

I think The Gangstas have a legit claim to the top 5 as well. Having extremely (no pun) bloody feuds in SMW vs. PG-13 and The RNR Express and then going to ECW and completely annihilating Public Enemy upon their debut.

Axl Rotten probably has some claim to the list as well with turning on his brother and the insane amount of blood loss in what are the most violent ECW matches, ever.

I'd ditch Vader on that list in favor of one of those two for sure.

lol'ed.

Oh was this just for 1995? I thought it was for the entire 1990s. Misunderstood.

As someone who didn't get into ECW, I'd like to just burn 1995 from memory, actually.

Something Jack and/or JP said on the TLF from yesterday got me thinking. Looking for any thoughts on this:

They basically said that after WM VIII was a weird time because Warrior went off with Papa Shango and Take went off with Berzerker. Two top guys that were so much higher than their new opposition.

My first thought to that was, well doesn't that say that 50/50 booking's ok? If booking's 50/50 or close to it, you don't have 2, 3, 4 guys that are so much higher than everyone else that it's odd to pair them with anyone else. You get ~ten guys to the same level and then do 50/50 between them and have a couple more tiers made up like that while getting a jobber from the top of the tier below at times for RAW/SD matches.

I hope anyone understands what I'm saying and if you do, thoughts?

What they do today isn't true 50/50 booking throughout the roster. Some are protected, still creating the same type of effect that would lead to UT/Berzerker. (IMO Taker/Berzerker is a lot more stark than Shango/Warrior, as it seems less outlandish to me that Shango could have been elevated. Berzerker as a top guy was NEVER happening.)

I think the bigger problem than 50/50 booking is the general dilution of meaningfulness of matches, though frankly I don't have a solution to that problem. If I set out to book five hours of this **** each week, with monthly PPVs on top of it, I would perhaps be able to put together a great few weeks, but I think I would hit a wall and fall into a lot of the same traps quickly.

Which is the real problem-- over-saturation.

Edit to add:
Which is also one of the reasons I think it's so weird whenever they let someone go that is a competent wrestler. More people adds to more variety, and less of the same matchups over and over and over.

Could it not be better to combine rosters and use different guys every other week? Then there could be surprises on what should be some guys off weeks where they come out and attack people or turn heel/face or whatever.

Maybe have SD! every other week and have NXT the other weeks? Of course this is unrealistic so w/e.

There's gotta be a way to make long term programs and good ideas a thing.

Jericho has put up his conversation with Bruno Sammartino for a second listen, in honour of the passing of The Living Legend. RIP Bruno Sammartino.

You don’t want NXT on TV. As long as it’s only on the Network, McMahon will remain hands off. Once it shows up on USA, it turns into another sports entertainment piece of crap.

As for your first point, yes it would be better if they kept people from being on TV every week, but I just don’t think Vince and Co. have the discipline to stay the course. Once rating dropped a smidge one week, then all of their favorites will be on every week, only now they will be on twice a week instead of once.

Tony's show this week (Spring Stampede 1994) was hilarious. I don't usually hype anyone but TLF but this episode was really good and probably his funniest episode.

Did you listen to last week’s episode on Barely Legal?

I did. That was good as well. Loved Tony guessing names .

Eric Bischoff is starting a new podcast starting today that's hosted by Conrad. It's going to cover the Monday Night Wars and is titled "83 weeks". Here's a sneak peak:


The first episode drops later today.

So much podcast coming out today . TLF is dropping a Bruno special, Tony, and Eric's. It's Christmas imo

Fellow wrestling fans, I need your help. Hopefully some of you remember the thumb wrestler figures of the mid-80's. I had these around 86 or 87. I had Big John Studd, Hogan, Iron Sheik, and this guy:



When I was a kid, I had no idea who this guy was because nobody on tv resembled him. Later in life, I realized this was Bruno. I just did a google search for this figure and it isn't Bruno. From searching, the closest I've pinned this down to being is Randy Savage or Rick Rude. There's almost no chance this is Rude due to the figure coming out in 85 or 86 and he didn't come in until 1987. So, is this Savage or ?????

I'm shocked to find out like 25 years after finding out this was Bruno that it isn't Bruno

Looks a bit like dr death

I agree with teejay.

He wasn't in WWF until the late 90's though and these are produced by WWF

This looks a lot like Billy Jack Haynes but I can't imagine he ever had a toy.

I guess it’s probably Savage then but if so that’s pretty bad.

Billy Jerk Haynes also never got out of the damn yellow and green Oregon gear, even back to the territorial days.

Pretty fair chance that it's Savage.

Pretty sure it's Savage yep

Eric Bischoff always sounds super full of BS on every podcast I've heard him on in the past.

I am not optimistic.

I listened to the first episode and it didn't engender optimism tbh.