Matt Hardy strongly dislikes mustard

I still have no idea how Rikishi did his back flip axle bump to a clothesline. Ridiculous athleticism for a 350 low centre of gravity pounder

https://www.reddit.com/r/Wrasslin/s/c0ytbpUDy3

Is Undertaker vs Brock vs Batista vs Kane the GOAT final four in Royal Rumble history? 2003 was a spectacle for sure!

Been intermittently watching through the weekly WWF shows from 1990. It appears that Jesse Ventura's moment of disappearance was the August 25, 1990 show. Piper scoots in as the new commentator. The end of Jesse on commentary was truly unfortunate; we would never again hear top-tier heel commentary that wasn't primarily comedic.

The notion of Rick Rude winning the WWF Title at SummerSlam '90 never felt remotely credible to me, and it still just plays to me as a cold program watching it back. There was kayfabe sense to it given WrestleMania V and all, but I just don't think it worked at all.

Going back to the card where Hogan won the belt at the Garden in January of '84, I'm starting to recognize the WWF I began watching around that time.

Just before that match, Orndorff and Piper make their WWF debut, the latter as the manager of Orndorff and also David Schultz, who wasn't on the show. I don't recall Piper being brought in as a manager and wonder why he would agree to something like that (well, obviously money...and it wouldn't last long).

I remember Hogan's re-entrance into the Fed a few weeks earlier. Although I didn't know he'd been there a few years earlier. Bob Backlund was facing one of the Samoan's and went to the back for help. He came out with Hogan, who I'd known only from some of the magazines. Unfortunately, this footage doesn't appear to be available on the Peacock, but Backlund gave an interview following, referencing Hogan's previous stint and asserting that he was a changed man from when Blassie managed him.

Blassie now managed the Shiek, ironically. For some reason, I had incorrectly remembered this as a really quick squash match. It was quick and was somewhat of a squash, just not as quick as I thought I remembered and the Shiek did get some offense in. They also did this weird post-match thing where people were in the ring checking on a supposedly injured Shiek, which made Hogan's in ring celebration a bit odd until Shiek just popped up and went after Hogan again, who threw him out of the ring.

Hogan also celebrated with his parents backstage, who looked like normal sized people. Where the hell did those genetics come from?

Vitamins and prayers IIRC.

Jan 84 Mid Atlantic - Angelo Mosca calls his alliance with his son the Bloodline.

Finally got around to watching the Iron Claw. Felt a bit surreal, as I'm currently going through the period from the first half of the movie on the network right now. I think David died in the last episode I watched early 84.

I think they screwed around with some of the timeline stuff. I remember recently watching the Kevin/Race match, just before Flair won the belt at Starrcade '83. I remember David's promo after the match. And neither Kerry, nor the Freebirds have even been mentioned in the movie yet, but this was towards the end of the Von Erich/Freebird feud. It was Mike, not Kerry that started in early '84.

Kevin delivered the filth vs decency line in real life, not David. I love how Buddy wore the headgear, but it wasn't explained why (Freebird hair cream!)

And David didn't say that Kevin was going to beat Race in real life. He said he was next.

I didn't think Kerry lost that much of his leg in the accident. They did say "inspired" by a true story though. Not even "based".

Great casting: Fritz, Harley Race,

Awful casting: Flair (shoulda gotten Jay Lethal)

I'm wondering if part of the reason they couldn't have Chris in the movie is because his whole story was that he was the runt and they already had a shorter cast. The size thing didn't throw me off as much as I thought it might because there was very littlie in ring activity.

A&E tonight:

8 PM Biography: WWE Lengends
9 PM Biography: Bret Michaels
11 PM WWE Rivals

I legit thought the 9pm thing was about Bret and Shawn for a minute.

Director said they blended Chris and Mike because it otherwise just was too repetitive and bleak.

I've only become more disappointing reading all of Kevin's comments. While I liked the casting, it's really disappointing that they seemed to have misportrayed Fritz and didn't even ask any of the surviving family for input.

Fritz discovered Kerry, not Kevin and Fritz sold to Jarrett against Kevin's wishes, not the other way around, but I guess they wanted a strong heel character throughout.

Sarge and Shiek may have been the hottest thing going in '84. It's regretful that they don't seem to think it's worth their time to put the TV segments that initiated this feud on the network and the April '84 MSG show wasn't even their best match. The Sheik just walked out and got counted out (imagine if they pulled that with Drew/Punk this weekend), but the real entertainment didn't start until after the match.

The cameras followed Sarge as he chased down Sheik in the back and they brawled. The usual agent (and mid-carders) pull apart, led by of all people, Vince McMahon. All of a sudden you hear,

"Kosrow, get your ****ing ass out of here!"

Cheif Jay Strongbow, in probably the most useful moment of his career, is cursing up a storm and none of it is edited out. He's dropping f-bombs like this is some real ****. And that's so weird to me. Does he know they're still on the air? I mean, he's not acting all riled up if they're not on the air, but that kind of language was never used when the cameras were rolling back then. It was odd, but really seemed to add to the element of these guys hating each other.

On the 5/5/84 episode of Mid-South, they advertise Kerry Von Erich as a special attraction for next week.

That week, Kerry won the NWA title from Ric Flair.

On the 5/12 episode Jim Ross has to apologize for Kerry not appearing, as he's due to fulfill the champion's previous obligations.

This makes me wonder how late they decided Kerry was going to win the belt. Certainly, they knew a week or so before, whenever that Mid-South episode was taped and if JR knew Kerry had won the belt during the week, it can't be that far out. It's not like they had to cut away from the normal program to mention it. Was this actually a last minute thing?

The 5/84 MSG show features Hogan defending the belt against Dr. D David Shultz, but the highlight is certainly the return match between Slaughter and the Sheik which turns into a blood bath, necessitating the famed Boot Camp Match announced for the June show. Mean Gene seemed to delight in telling us several times that Slaughter "wears the crimson mask".

Not too much else going on here, but the camera closes in on a young woman in the crowd, just above the wrestler's entrance, who looks just like Brooke Hogan. The year and age would fit a young Linda Hogan (around 25), but they don't identify here. Wikipedia says they were married in '83 in a ceremony attended by Andre the Giant and Vince McMahon. I question the latter unless it was the very end of '83. Otherwise, he would have still been working for Verne until around December.

Also, a babyface Great Moolah defends her title against a heel Wendy Richter, who, just before going for the Boston Crab, punches the referee for no known reason. The bell rings with Mean Gene screaming that Richter won the title, but Monsoon playing the party pooper noting it's an obvious disqualification.

It has been said that he got married between leaving Verne and his first appearance with Vince helping Backlund. Is in one of his books.

WCCW mid-84 is really strange. Pure faction warfare. Von Erichs are the only babyfaces though. All the other heels are fighting Ackbar's group, but still attacking the Von Erichs. I guess Chris Adams is still a babyface, but Gino Hernandez has just arrived, so that turn is coming soon too. Killer Khan is a Freebird. They established that Terry Gordy can communicate with him, but all he does is yell one word commands in English, which the other Freebirds repeat.

Flair gets a non-title rematch, I guess so Kerry can pin him clean again without taking away his return match. Flair has said that he hated going there.

The first Tuesday Night Titans features a segment where they visit David Schultz's house and try to emphasize him being an abusive husband and father. It would never fly today, except for the fact that the wife and kids are all smirking and laughing at him when he's yelling at them.

They also have highlight reel of Captain Lou, which features his spot on Piper's Pit where he claims he made Cindy Lauper.

I went searching for other Piper's Pits on the network, but could only find the one with Andre that was two minutes long. Such a shame for the network not to have all of these shows.

However, I also found something else that I don't know is available anywhere else on the network unless you search Andre Hogan clips. They have the last three minutes of the Hogan/Andre Shea Stadium match from 1980, which I'd been wanting to see for a while.

Hogan slams Andres as he did at WM III, which they claimed nobody has ever done before, but you can now see guys like Kamala and Harley Race doing in old footage. But they also do a referee knock down spot where the replacement ref quickly counts to three when Hogan clearly kicks out on one (as he did in '88). I don't even remember an aftermath to this quick count and total ignorance of Hogan's kick out. I wonder why they did it? I think Hogan left soon after.

Planning to go back and watch all of the wwe ppvs in order. I also want to incorporate raw/smackdown, but not until around the wrestlemania 13 time. I plan to continue from there until about 2015.

I grew up with early 90s wrestling, thru the Monday night wars, and wwe purchasing WCW. I missed a lot of the early 2000s and on, altho I have watched a lot of the ppvs thanks to the wwe network.

I definitely want to catch the Cena intro and rise, Bautista, Rollins, Evolution, The Shield, and more.

Any thoughts on my plan, time lines to focus on, favorite matches or ppvs that anyone likes?

I literally stared at the post above for nearly 10 minutes trying to figure out anything I'd want to revisit between the Finger Poke of Doom and the Summer of Punk and could come up with nothing. Maybe Hogan/Rock. The Nexus stuff seemed like it was going somewhere until Cena buried it. After that, maybe I'd watch Bryan's run, but they somewhat botched that too. Then I'd probably skip ahead from when the Shield broke up to the Bloodline,

Evolution seemed to just be there to bury WCW guys coming in. Although, I guess it made Orton and Bautista, though I quickly lost interest in the latter after he won the title. The Jericho/Michaels stuff is okay too.

The Boot Camp match may not hold up by today's standards, but it was a heck of a brawl between Slaughter and the Sheik in '84. The crowd was hot for it and it delivered.

There's a gap in Mid-Atlantic coverage lasting the entire spring of '84, but when they return, it feels like a whole new show with a new cast (half the roster fled to WWF). Within the first two weeks we get Kamala attacking Dusty, a Flair/Blanchard brawl, a Steamboat/Slater brawl and a hint of a Wahoo McDaniel turn.

Watching Wrestlemania 9. Hogan's eye was a hot topic. I had no clue what really happened at the time, but I love hearing the insinuation that Money Inc paid someone off to "cause an accident at the gym".

I remember the rumor about Savage punching Hogan over Elizabeth staying with Hogan's ex-wife. Supposedly it was caused by a jet ski accident, however.

Episode 4 of Tuesday Night Titans covers most of the Cyndi Lauper angle that explodes wrestling in 84.

Ironic thing is she mentions bringing in a wrestler to fight for while Wendy Richter is still in MidmSouth running a heel angle with Jim Cornette and the Midnight Express. She was on their show the same week or even after Cyndi made the challenge. Wonder what made them pick her.

Also surprised to see how many Fed guys at that time were musically inclined.

Ran across the Titans show where Piper slapped Lord Alfred Hayes and googled to see if there was any real heat between them from this, since nobody ever got touched on that show up till that point.

Came across this transcript of an old Piper shoot interview, which is entertaining, but probably half bullshit.

https://culturecrossfire.com/wrestli...h-roddy-piper/

It certainly wasn't from 1984 though.

Who knew Andre was such a funny guy? The Fish Song.