How money is Mayweather?

By Rick Morris

My good friend Russ Cohen, contributor to a couple of different programs in the FDH family (including The Lounge!), posited a take on his Wrestleology website about the incomprehensible decision of World Wrestling Entertainment to procure the services of Floyd “Money” Mayweather for WrestleMania for the cool sum of $20 million. I would suggest strongly that anyone looking for cogent analysis of their mind-boggling decision go over to that particular wing of Russ’s Sportsology media family to check out his breakdown of why this move is as financially stupid when you examine it deeply as it appears on the surface.

He’s completely right that Oscar de la Hoya would have been perfect for this role, if indeed a boxing crossover would be a winning proposition (a dubious concept for me to believe in the first place). De La Hoya coming to the rescue of Rey Misterio wouldn’t have been unbelievable in the manner of notorious Latino-baiter Mayweather attempting to play the hero. Mayweather is a natural heel and the fact that he is getting transitioned into that role slowly over time (at least he appears to be, but who knows with their style of “booking?”) makes more sense than continuing to shoehorn his unlikable, arrogant persona into that of a fan favorite. But this acceptance of reality opens up its own can of worms: how can the match possibly draw any heat if David is the heel and Goliath is (by default) the babyface? The Big Show is three times the size of Mayweather: the ONLY way this concept could ever work would be for the fish-out-of-water boxer to be somebody the public could embrace. Setting up The Big Show as the defender of all things WWE, which he will have to be if Mayweather continues with his “MME” schtick, would compromise his effectiveness and reduce the already small chance that people would pay to see this spectacle. What a catch-22. Plus, this match will be in the midcard, so if it’s not going to be promoted above the Edge/Undertaker World Title match or Cena/HHH/Orton WWE Title match, how the heck can any participant in it be worth 20 mil?

Russ also recaps some memorable boxing/wrestling crossovers. Here are a few more, none of which added anything to the bottom line of their respective promotions (ignoring the obvious Mike Tyson angle at WrestleMania XIV that did actually work):

Joe Frazier refereeing the Dusty Rhodes/Ric Flair NWA World Title match at Starrcade ’84. Frazier stopped the match due to excessive blood loss on the part of Rhodes, prompting some bellyaching from Dusty’s character but ultimately no feud or resolution to follow.

Buster Douglas refereeing the Hulk Hogan/Randy Savage WWF World Title match on Saturday Night’s Main Event in February 1990. Mike Tyson was supposed to fill this role, but his earthshaking knockout at the hands of Douglas earlier in the month caused Vince McMahon to look for a change in plans. Douglas counted a pin on Savage, then dropped him with one punch when the “Macho King” got in his face. Ultimately, this did not lead anywhere either. The course that a Tyson storyline could have taken is intriguing to consider, given how Tyson helped elevate DX and Steve Austin in another era eight years later and given how much of a wrestling fan Tyson had been all of his life. I agree with Russ: given that Tyson’s only erosion has come in his boxing skills, his “sports entertainment” talents would be completely at home if he chose to use them full-time in WWE.

Evander Holyfield boxing Matt Hardy last year on Saturday Night’s Main Event. In this angle, U.S. Champion MVP recruited Holyfield to box Hardy on his behalf. After taking it to an overmatched Hardy, Holyfield turned on an ungrateful MVP and knocked him out. The incident put Hardy over as a never-say-die battler and MVP as the epitome of the obnoxious heel, but it didn’t have any lasting impact on business going forward.

Please support a great cause this weekend

By Rick Morris

EDIT: As of 10:45 PM EST Saturday night, we are up to $250 in pledges, mostly from the Rick Springfield fans listening now to Uncle Paul Belfi's DJing. Thank you very much. I'm updating at the bottom to provide notes for our wrestling segment from 2-4 PM EST with a capsule look at what has transpired of note at every one of the first 23 WrestleManias and one man's opinion about the top 10 stars of the WrestleMania era never to appear on the card. Also, I'm attaching an approximate guide to which baseball brackets (read below!) will be discussed when.


I'm writing this mere hours before we go on the air at SportsTalkCleveland.com/SportsTalkNetwork.com for our 4th annual Up All Night/Up All Day Marathon to Benefit the Carol Morris Scholarship Fund at Bowling Green State University. THE FDH LOUNGE program will be just one part of an extended broadcast to benefit an excellent cause. Go to STC or STN at the above links to listen and/or watch the proceedings.

This scholarship program is a memorial fund in honor of my mother, Carol Morris, who worked in special education. I urge all of you to visit the home page for the fund and also for our benefit show at www.fantasydrafthelp.com/carol_morris.html , but I'm going to bring all of the relevant info over here also. I also want to profusely thank our event sponsor, TAHJ Capital. This is corporate philanthropy at its finest, and I cannot express my personal appreciation enough.

Here is everything straight off of the aforementioned fund/program home page:

NEW INFORMATION: FOURTH ANNUAL SPORTSTALK CLEVELAND.COM MARATHON FUNDRAISER TO BENEFIT THE CAROL MORRIS SCHOLARSHIP FUND IS THIS WEEKEND, MARCH 1-2! DETAILS BELOW ...

The Carol Morris Scholarship Fund at Bowling Green State University is the official charitable cause of FantasyDrafthelp.com. Named for Managing Partner Rick Morris’ mother, a longtime teacher and tutor, the memorial fund is directed towards students striving for a career in special education.

The fund has been the chosen cause of three annual “Up All Night Marathons.” These broadcasts, which have aired on SportsTalkNetwork.com, have helped bring the fund closer to its goal of vesting at $25,000. When fully vested, the fund will exist in perpetuity and help bring committed individuals into the vital field of special education.

To donate to the fund, make checks payable to: BGSU Foundation, Inc.

On the memo line of the check, please write: Carol Morris Scholarship Fund 30-000812

Mail checks to:
Office of Development
Attn: Erin Keller
Bowling Green State University
Bowling Green, OH 43403

Donations can also be made online at the following web address: http://giving.bgsu.edu/development/fundingopps/onlinegiving.jsp

FOURTH ANNUAL FUNDRAISING MARATHON PROGRAM ANNOUNCED!

The 4th Annual SportsTalkNetwork.com Up All Day Marathon to benefit the Carol Morris Scholarship Fund at Bowling Green State University will run for 27 hours, from Saturday, March 1 at 9 PM to Sunday, March 2 at Midnight EST. This year's program will bring you special extra editions of your favorite STN programs for a very special cause. The following shows are involved.

^ THE FDH LOUNGE (the program where nothing is off-topic)

^ THE FANTASYDRAFTHELP.COM INSIDER (fantasy sports)

^ THE GOON SQUAD (hockey)

^ SEVENTH INNING SLOUCH (baseball)

^ PRO WRESTLING INSIDER (professional wrestling)

^ NAAFS RADIO (mixed martial arts)

^ THE RICK SPRINGFIELD MARATHON (Rick Springfield music and fan interaction)

Here is the tentative lineup as of Friday, February 28 (all times EST):

9 PM to 10 AM: 13 hours of THE RICK SPRINGFIELD MARATHON as the world's foremost Springfield DJ, Paul Belfi, spins tunes from the entire catalog.

10 AM to 2 PM: SEVENTH INNING SLOUCH presents bracket-style voting with a roundtable panel to determine the best players in baseball at each position. This segment features Round One of the brackets at every position (there are 8 players in the bracket at each position except right-handed pitcher, which has 16 players). We will be joined at about Noon by SportsNetwork.com baseball analyst Eric Gold. Position battles are listed below the show information.

2 PM to 4 PM: PRO WRESTLING INSIDER features the WrestleMania roundtable: a past, present and future look at the biggest rasslin' event of the year. For the first part of our discussion, we will be joined by Wrestleology analyst Russ Cohen.

4 PM to 4:30 PM: SEVENTH INNING SLOUCH presents the baseball brackets, with part of Round Two.

4:30 PM to 5 PM: THE FDH LOUNGE welcomes Zach Landres-Schnur, proprietor of THE BIG PICTURE sports blog.

5 PM to 5:30 PM: THE FDH LOUNGE interviews William Gheen, President and Spokesman for Americans for Legal Immigration, the group trying to draft CNN news anchor Lou Dobbs to run for President of the United States.

5:30 PM to 6:30 PM: SEVENTH INNING SLOUCH presents the rest of Round Two of the baseball brackets.

6:30 PM to 7:00 PM: SEVENTH INNING SLOUCH interviews Joe Aiello, founder of THE VIEW FROM THE BLEACHERS Chicago Cubs blog.

7:00 PM to 8:00 PM: SEVENTH INNING SLOUCH presents the final round of the baseball brackets.

8:00 PM to 8:30 PM: THE FANTASYDRAFTHELP.COM INSIDER presents a 2008 NFL Draft Preview with FantasyDrafthelp.com Senior Editor and Chief NFL Draft Analyst Jason Jones.

8:30 PM to 9:00 PM: THE FDH LOUNGE takes its first look ahead to an Obama/McCain presidential race with a roundtable preview.

9:00 PM to 9:30 PM: THE FDH LOUNGE speaks to Lounge Dignitary Nathan Noy about the most entertaining congressional race in the country in 2008.

9:30 PM to 10:00 PM: NAAFS RADIO presents a look inside the MMA world's greatest combined amateur/professional circuit with North American Allied Fight Series executive producer Jake Digman.

10:00 PM to 10:30 PM: THE FDH LOUNGE interviews the IRL correpondant for Most Valuable Network, Christopher Estrada about the big open-wheel racing merger just announced this week.

10:30 PM to 11:00 PM: THE FDH LOUNGE prepares you to fill out your NCAA hoops brackets in a few weeks with a look ahead to Championship Week and the field of 65.

11:00 PM to 11:30 PM: THE GOON SQUAD interviews hockey journalist John Kreiser of NHL.com.

11:30 PM to Midnight: THE FANTASYDRAFTHELP.COM INSIDER interviews Fanball.com Managing Editor Ray Flowers for an early look at fantasy baseball Draft Day.

Baseball brackets

Catcher

Martinez vs. Molina

Mauer vs. Posada

McCann vs. Pudge

Martin vs. Johjima

First Base

Pujols vs. Konerko

Morneau vs. Pena

Howard vs. Berkman

Fielder vs. Lee

Second Base

Utley vs. Polanco

Uggla vs. Kent

Cano vs. Roberts

Phillips vs. Ellis

Shortstop

Rollins vs. Hardy

Jeter vs. Tulowitzki

Ramirez vs. Tejada

Reyes vs. Greene

Third Base

Rodriguez vs. Lowell

Ramirez vs. Atkins

Cabrera vs. C. Jones

Wright vs. Glaus

Left Field

Ramirez vs. Byrnes

Crawford vs. Lee

Soriano vs. Braun

Holliday vs. Matsui

Center Field

B.J. Upton vs. Wells

Hunter vs. A. Jones

Beltran vs. Ichiro

Sizemore vs. Granderson

Right Field

Guerrero vs. Hawpe

Francouer vs. Markakis

Rios vs. Dye

Ordonez vs. C. Hart

Designated Hitters

Ortiz vs. Thomas

Thome vs. Bonds

Hafner vs. Cust

Sheffield vs. Sosa

Left-Handed Pitchers

Santana vs. Buehrle

Kazmir vs. Ol. Perez

Liriano vs. Hamels

Sabathia vs. Francis

Right-Handed Pitchers

Beckett vs. Hudson

Oswalt vs. Halladay

C. Young vs. Penny

Lackey vs. Smoltz

Peavy vs. F. Hernandez

Haren vs. Bedard

Verlander vs. Carmona

Webb vs. Zambrano

Closers

Papelbon vs. Rivera

Putz vs. F. Cordero

Nathan vs. Hoffman

F. Rodriguez vs. Wagner

Here are the half-hour segments when we will discuss the position battles (all times EST and approximate, keeping in mind that the first round is in two parts for the RHP position since there are twice as many players involved):

FIRST ROUND

10:00 AM: 7 RHP

10:30 AM: 1 RHP, 4C, 2 1B

11:00 AM: 2 1B, 4 2B, 1 SS

11:30 AM: 3 SS, 4 3B

12:00 Noon: 4 LF, 3 CF

12:30 PM: 1 CF, 4 RF, 2 DH

1:00 PM: 2 DH, 4 LHP, 1 CL

1:30 PM: 3 CL, 4 RHP

SECOND ROUND

4:00 PM: 2 C, 2 1B, 2 2B, 2 SS

5:30 PM: 2 3B, 2 LF, 2 CF, 2 RF

6:00 PM: 2 DH, 2 LHP, 2 CL, 2 RHP

FINAL ROUND

7:00 PM: 1 C, 1 1B, 1 2B, 1 SS, 1 3B, 1 LF

7:30 PM: 1 CF, 1 RF, 1 DH, 1 LHP, 1 CL, 1 RHP

Notes on past WrestleManias

I: Important because it started it all, Andre beat Studd in bodyslam challenge, Hogan/T vs. Piper/Orndorf set the template for WrestleMania, Sheik/Volkoff tag title win kept them hot as foreign heels.

II: Hugely important because it solidified Mania as a big-time event, only one to take place in 3 cities, Refrigerator Perry in Chicago main event (battle royal), Piper/T boxing match was Roddy’s swan song as a heel, Hogan/Bundy in a cage may have been Hulk’s least memorable Mania match, but set the template for every title defense vs. a big man he had in that era.

III: 93,000 at the Silverdome set a new standard for crowds, Hogan/Andre was some of the greatest buildup ever and the match was great for not having any workrate, Steamboat/Savage was the first undercard show-stealer at a Mania, Roddy Piper’s “retirement match,” Duggan’s run-in vs. Sheik/Volkoff pioneered the concept of having a wrestler debut at Mania.

IV: 4-hour tournament rates as one of the most boring Manias, Hogan/Andre double-DQ rated as the most shocking Mania moment to that point, Hogan saving Savage in the main event was the first pass-the-torch moment at Mania, Bret’s face turn at end of battle royal.

V: Hogan/Savage main event was as emotion-filled as Hogan/Piper tag match at I and Hogan/Andre at III, Piper/Brother Love/Morton Downey Jr. segment foreshadowed the dawn of “sports entertainment segments” at Mania.

VI: Hogan/Warrior main event was completely unique for its time with face vs. face dynamic, first & only Mania for Dusty Rhodes, Andre’s swan song.

VII: Originally supposed to be 1^st outdoor Mania at L.A. Coliseum, later moved to L.A. Sports Arena, Hogan/Slaughter set a new standard for exploiting tragic world events, Kerry Von Erich & Undertaker Mania debuts, Warrior/Savage “retirement match” was the closest thing to a double main-event that had been seen yet.

VIII: Actual double main-event at HosierDome with Savage/Flair for the title and Hogan/Sid in Hogan’s “retirement match” and Warrior returning for the run-in at the end, Roberts & Piper also left after this show, Piper/Hart was show-stealing undercard match that helped establish Hart, Paul Ellering & Lex Luger showed up on camera for the first time.

IX: First outdoor show, double main-event with Hart/Yoko and Hogan/Beefcake/Money Inc. tag title match and Hogan making the “impromptu” challenge to take the belt from Yoko in the end, Steiner Brothers’ only Mania match, Jim Ross debuts infamously in a toga.

X: Bret & Luger both get title shots as Bret wins but loses earlier to Owen, Michaels/Razor ladder match sets a new standard for midcard showstealing matches.

XI: Double main-event with Diesel/Shawn for the title but LT/Bigelow actually goes on last.

XII: Michaels/Hart Ironman match, Austin’s Mania debut, Warrior’s return with a squash of HHH, Piper/Goldust “Backlot Brawl”

XIII: Double main-event with Undertaker’s first title match at Mania vs. Sid and Hart/Austin “I Quit” with famous double-turn, Vader/Mankind tag match vs. Owen/Bulldog, The Rock’s Mania debut in infamous debacle match vs. Sultan.

XIV: Austin’s first title win ever in Michaels’ last match for 4 ½ years, The Rock gets first serious “cool heel” heat in interview with Gennifer Flowers, Terry Funk’s return to Mania after 12 years in match with Cactus Jack/New Age Outlaws, Sunny debuts with “LOD 2000,” Kane’s first Mania match vs. Undertaker with Pete Rose altercation with Kane beforehand, Gorilla Monsoon’s last on-screen appearance.

XV: 1^st Austin/Rock Mania match, Butterbean/Gunn boxing massacre, 2^nd Kane/Pete Rose altercation, HHH/Kane double-turn.

2000: 1^st multi-person main event with Rock/HHH/Mankind/Big Show and a McMahon in each corner, HHH notches 1^st heel win ever in a Mania title match, Edge/Christian/Hardys/Dudleys ladder match, 3^rd Kane/Pete Rose altercation, 1^st Mania for Benoit/Jericho/Angle as they all faced each other for the I-C & European titles.

XVII: 1^st dome Mania in 9 years, 2^nd Austin/Rock title match at Mania with ill-fated Austin turn at end, first Vinny Mac Mania match vs. Shane, WCW wrestlers in skybox watching right after “Shane’s” acquisition, Paul Heyman’s only Mania on commentary, Edge/Christian/Dudleys/Hardys TLC 2 match, Benoit/Angle match featuring much amateur wrestling early on, HHH loses to Undertaker.

XVIII: HHH/Jericho only Mania match for “Undisputed” Title, Rock/Hogan match with strange crowd reaction, Austin/Hall disappointing match, Undertaker/Flair match with Arn Anderson run-in.

XIX: Another dome show at Safeco Field in Seattle, 1^st Mania of split-brand era with 2 brand title matches, HHH gets 2^nd heel win ever in Mania title match by pinning Booker T, Lesnar/Angle title match is the last one before Angle’s 1^st injury hiatus in WWE, Hogan/McMahon match gets surprise run-in from Piper, 3^rd Austin/Rock Mania match is Austin’s last as full-time competitor and is Rock’s last singles match at Mania.

XX: Benoit/Eddy celebrate unlikely title wins together at end of show, Rock’s last Mania match comes in tag match with Foley/Orton/Batista/Flair in Foley’s big return match, infamous Goldberg/Lesnar “farewell match,” Paul Bearer’s surprise return for second Undertaker/Kane match at Mania.

XXI: Cena’s first title win comes in the midcard as Batista’s title win against HHH ends the show, Angle/Michaels “dream match,” Edge wins first “Money In the Bank” match, Austin/Piper/Carlito segment, Hogan run-in vs. Hassan.

XXII: Cena/HHH title match with “bizarro crowd,” Rey wins title in 3-way with Angle/Orton, Edge/Foley “hardcore match,” RVD wins “Money In the Bank,” Michaels/McMahon no-holds-barred match.

XXIV: Return to domed stadium in Detroit area 20 years later, Cena/Michaels helps cement Cena on top tier, Undertaker beats Batista for title, Lashley/Umaga match forces McMahon’s head to be shaved by Trump, Sabu & Sandman make only Mania appearances.

Ten greatest North American stars of the WrestleMania era never to wrestle at WrestleMania:

1. Sting

2. Bruiser Brody

3. Nick Bockwinkel

4. Superstar Billy Graham

5. Steve Williams

6. The Freebirds

7. Kevin Von Erich

8. Abdullah the Butcher

9. Samoa Joe

10. Kevin Sullivan

Video Clips: Fun Timewasters

By Rick Morris

From time to time, we try to accommodate our Lounge content consumers who just want some fun, light entertainment. Hence this edition of our Video Clips series, entitled "Fun Timewasters."

These are simply some video clips that you can enjoy and consume in the form of good, mindless entertainment. On with the show!

We'll start with a very weird but funny one -- My Hands are Bananas!




Somebody apparently just clued Robert Byrd in about the practice of dogfighting. I'm not sure how you spend your whole life in West Virginia being unaware of that slice of life, but whatever.




I'm as jingoistic as the next guy, but I have no problem admitting that the Japanese have much cooler game shows than we do in America. Don't believe me? Just watch this game where the loser of each round gets tortured somehow in a library setting and is not allowed to respond loudly.




The fateful bottom of the ninth inning of Game Six of the 1986 World Series (you know, the Bill Buckner game!) played out pitch-by-pitch in RBI baseball and somehow synchronized perfectly to the TV commentary.




Speaking of old-school sports and video games, Bo Jackson breaks off the most dominating play of all time in this Tecmo Super Bowl clip. Don't believe it? Just push "Play."




Cartoons for children certainly are different in Belgium. Here, the protagonist is ... a flatulent pig!




Even if you aren't much into good old fashioned 'rasslin, you'll have to admit that this promo cut by "Dr. D" David Schultz on Hulk Hogan back in the early '80s was a classic. They were preparing for a match in San Francisco and that got ol' Dave comparing the Hulkster to the locals.




A parody, done in the style of a Ken Burns PBS epic, on the Pam vs. Karen situation on NBC's "The Office."



Perfectville.




And ... four of the sweetest words in the English language: Terry Tate, Office Linebacker.

Great old-school wrestling angles

By Rick Morris

It's a truism of the pro wrestling business that the most basic and (in many instances) inane storylines keep getting recycled over the years. The excuse frequently given is that there's nothing new under the sun and that repetition of ideas is a necessary evil. But if it were as simple as that, we'd have seen some of the greatest ones ever recreated in some new incarnation instead of gathering dust in our fond-memory banks.

To celebrate the greatest angles never brought back to life, we are listing our five favorites here. We're embedding video for each one; where possible it is footage that directly relates to the angle.

5. When I said I forgave you, I lied. In early 1988, Lex Luger was coming off a stint with the Four Horsemen that saw him at odds with former friend Barry Windham. Soon, they tagged up to win the NWA World Tag Team Titles from the Horsemen combo of Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard. But nothing was as it seemed, as Windham never bought into the pairing completely and was susceptible to a Horseman recruitment campaign. The subtle tensions crested in a tag title rematch in which Windham ended up betraying Luger, handing the championships back to Anderson and Blanchard and claiming Luger's vacated spot as the fourth Horseman. The video below contains footage from the fateful match.



4. The "Dream Date" ... with Miss Atlanta Lively??? Ric Flair's lust for Jimmy Garvin's valet (and real-life wife) Precious led him to a fateful offer in the summer of 1987: he would put his NWA World Title up against Garvin in return for a shot at the "Dream Date" with Precious if he held off Garvin's challenge. Due to typical Horseman outside interference, Flair was able to win and he preened endlessly in anticipation of the big night. Holed up in a luxury hotel suite with manager JJ Dillon, Flair approached a blond figure as she approached in a dimly-lit room. As "she" whirled around to knock Flair out with one punch, it emerged that Precious was nowhere in sight; rather, Jimmy Garvin had dispatched his brother, fellow wrestler Ronnie Garvin under the guise of his occasional female alter ego Miss Atlanta Lively. Footage of this incident does not appear to be available online (as it is utilized on the WWE's Four Horsemen DVD), but we do have footage below of the cage match that materialized from Ronnie Garvin's shenanigans. In this match, he shocks the world by winning the NWA Title from Flair, only to lose it back two months later in another cage match at Starrcade '87.



3. The Launch of the Superpowers. In the summer of 1986, the Magnum TA/Nikita Koloff feud burned brighter than any other in wrestling, including the Hulk Hogan vs. Paul Orndorff battles or the latest version of Dusty Rhodes vs. Ric Flair. With the US Heavyweight Title having been vacated due to a temper outburst of Magnum's that the Russians triggered, TA and Nikita engaged in a coast-to-coast best-of-seven series to crown a new champion. If you guessed that the series went the full seven, then chances are you understand how the business works! Koloff won, but before Magnum could get any further shots at the belt, he suffered a horrific car crash that ended his career. Indeed, in the early autumn days of 1986, it was thought that he might never walk again (thankfully, he regained his ability to walk and lives a normal life today). With the shock of the promotion's #1 babyface out for good in heartbreaking fashion, his in-ring replacement surfaced in the most unlikely of ways. Dusty Rhodes walked to the ring for a tag team match against two of the four Horsemen in a contest in which he was supposed to tag with Magnum -- and with him strode his new tag team partner, Nikita Koloff! The "Russian" superstar explained shortly thereafter that his battles with Magnum instilled a deep respect in him and that he was dedicating the rest of his career to his fallen rival. He would form a team with Dusty called The Superpowers and many subsequent events would branch off of this single move (Dusty's longtime partner and friend Dick Murdoch turned on Dusty for teaming up with a "dirty Russkie," Nikita ended up in a strongman vs. strongman battle for the US title against new Horseman member Lex Luger and The Superpowers teamed up to win the 1987 Jim Crockett Sr. Memorial Cup when Magnum TA made his first public appearance since the accident by walking them to ringside to the batsh#% reaction of the crowd). The first interview with Dusty and Nikita explaining their new team is the subject of the video below.



2. Oh brother, where art thou? Brett Wayne was making a difficult climb during 1983, from young and inexperienced wrestler in Georgia Championship Wrestling to skilled young champion. That fall, in a tremendous upset, he upended Larry Zbyszko for the National Heavyweight Title, only to meet the wrath of the National Tag Team Champions, the Road Warriors. These dominant and egotistical bullies felt that seeing the vulnerable young Wayne ascend to his perch as the top singles wrestler in the territory "tarnished" their accomplishment. As they were beating him severely, who came to his aid? The fiercest "bad guy" in the territory, Buzz Sawyer. To the shock of everyone, Sawyer cleared house and saved the innocent young "good guy." The subsequent interview was a shocker: Brett's full name was Brett Wayne Sawyer and the two polar opposites were in fact brothers! Buzz explained that he had kept the relationship a secret to keep the pressure of the association off of Brett, but that he had to break the secret and save Brett when the Warriors attacked. Shortly thereafter, the Sawyer Brothers won the National tag titles and traded them back and ended up trading them back and forth a few times. This was the greatest reveal of a secret association in wrestling history; the only one that is even close or remotely similar was when Jimmy Garvin rescued Ronnie Garvin from the Midnight Express in 1987, but the two had been known to be storyline brothers in other territories (Ronnie was actually Jimmy's stepfather in real life). While there is apparently no video available online about the Sawyer Brothers' reunion, we do have video of Buzz Sawyer in classic heel mode so that you can appreciate what a bad guy his character was prior to saving his brother.



1. They call him Mr. R. Any old-school Georgia Championship Wrestling fan will tell you this was the greatest angle in wrestling history. Former friends Ted Dibiase and Tommy Rich were engaged in a feud in the winter of 1984, which was supposed to end with a "Loser Leaves Town" match. Rich lost, but a masked newcomer named Mr. R immediately surfaced. Sporting Rich's flowing blond hair in back and his mannerisms and speech patterns, it was immediately obvious who the Mr. R really was. An enraged Dibiase put up his National Heavyweight Title for a chance to put Rich out of the game permanently. An entertaining, high-energy match ensued, which culminated in Dibiase unmasking Mr. R to reveal ... Brad Armstrong??? As Tommy Rich strolled to ringside to tauntingly wave at Dibiase, Armstrong rolled up Dibiase for the three-count to claim the National championship! Subsequently, Dibiase gained revenge on Armstrong by severely injuring his father, fellow wrestler "Bullet" Bob Armstrong with his legendary "loaded" glove and the feud rolled on from there. Fortunately, we were able to find the video online and below you can see for yourself what may well have been the greatest angle in wrestling history:

Big rasslin' coverage from UK Sun newspaper

By Rick Morris

The Sun newspaper in Great Britain has long featured coverage of the industry which has come to be known as "sports entertainment," but it is not generally known as a "go-to place" for reading about industry happenings. Give them credit; they are working very hard to become such a destination -- and quickly.

In anticipation of the new "Heyman Hustle" project they are launching this Monday with deposed ECW strongman Paul Heyman, The Sun printed a follow-up to the intriguing first installment of their interview with the Extreme Genius. In it, he reveals that his belief is that Vince McMahon has looked to the Queen of England of all people in terms of setting up a succession plan and he gives thought-provoking analysis of the entire US wrestling landscape.

His new "Hustle" project promises to be full of classic Paul E. con-man entertainment. The first episode will feature a wild quest to obtain footage of the new crew of SURVIVOR prior to the season launch against the wishes of producers. It sounds compelling and I'll be watching, that's for sure.

The Sun also printed an article that came out of an interview with Hulk Hogan, in which he makes the (probably) outlandish claim that he and partner-in-crime Eric Bischoff are on the verge of starting a new promotion to go head-to-head with WWE. In this account, Hogan takes some shots at WWE and claims that he's got a TV network ready to sign off on this project. Ooohkay. As Dave Meltzer has pointed out, Hogan postures every year for a big WrestleMania payday and with the big event just over a month away, the Orange Goblin's claims should be taken with an entire shaker of salt.

It is intriguing to contemplate the talent available to a startup promotion, even if you consider everyone at TNA and ROH off-limits due to their contract situations (and it is by no means certain that you couldn't use ROH wrestlers). Of course, with ego and politics involved, most of the individuals listed below would never attempt such a move (especially in terms of having to deal with the Hogan/Bischoff gaga), but it's fun to contemplate some possibilities nonetheless:

^ Billy Kidman (just kidding)
^ Heyman (maybe in a managerial/commissioner role, leaving aside the past hate between he and ATM Eric)
^ Randy Savage (assuming the latest round of Hogan hate is a work)
^ Rob Van Dam
^ Jerry Lynn (hook up RVD and him for another five-star match!)
^ Bobby Lashley
^ Brock Lesnar (or any other MMA stars who can be lured to a wrestling promotion)
^ wrestlers from Japan and/or Mexico in talent exchanges reminiscent of those Bischoff has forged before
^ Juventud Guerrera
^ Rikishi
^ King Kong Bundy
^ Terry Funk (maybe in a commissioner/part-time competitor role)
^ any of the WWE Divas who have been let go the past few years
^ The Sandman
^ Raven
^ 2 Cold Scorpio
^ Daivari
^ Ricky Reyes

Additionally, I've long believed that the Japanese concept of recycling young wrestlers under the "Tiger Mask" identity could work here. I think that young wrestlers under the banner of "Masked Superstar" and "The Super Destroyers" could work if explained as a tribute to the original stars and you could get away with giving spots to three young and cheap kids. Assuming any kind of bankroll behind a promotion with such grandiose plans, it's easy to see that individual egos would be the major impediment to getting an operation off the ground, not the lack of famous and/or skilled talent.

Wrestling heels who should have turned

By Rick Morris

My post from the last week addressing Vince McMahon spitting in the face of his fans by not elevating Jeff Hardy to become a legitimate main-event player at the Royal Rumble, combined with my stint as a guest co-host on Pro Wrestling Insider on SportsTalkNetwork.com this past Tuesday night where we elaborated on the Superstar Billy Graham precedent and others in company history, led me to wonder about other times promoters dropped the ball.

This column does not delve much into situations like that of Jeff Hardy, because Hardy was a red-hot babyface who could have taken the final step into superstardom. Rather, I will examine situations involving Graham and other insanely over heels who could have parlayed their status into main-event face runs. I rank them in order of the impact I feel that they could have had on the business had they been given a chance to convert the cache of their bad guy personas into dramatic face turns.

1. Superstar Billy Graham (circa 1978). I covered his situation a bit in the aforementioned previous column, but the mind still reels at the alternate universe possibilities if the WWWF had decided to make him "Hulk Hogan before there was Hulk Hogan" back in '78. As the man who basically invented the colorful, arrogant musclehead persona in the business, he was attracting unbelievable crowd heat before dropping the strap in very anticlimactic fashion to the charisma-challenged Bob Backlund in February of 1978. Had Graham instead been attacked by former tag team partner Ivan Koloff, how wild would the New York territory have been for his before-his-time character as a sanctioned crowd favorite instead of cult antihero face? We'll never know.

2. Ric Flair (circa 1987 or 1988). We saw in late 1989 and early 1990 how popular Flair could be even with the Four Horsemen by his side. He was only turned heel again in February 1990 to make way for Sting as the #1 face in the NWA at the time. Now, Dusty Rhodes as the me-first booker would have never shared the fan favorite spotlight with Flair and the Horsemen in the '80s, so this is another pipe dream. But "what if's" are very fun to imagine, and few more so than this one. Imagine a conglomerate formed by mid-level heel managers like Jim Cornette and Paul Jones tiring of the Horsemen dominating the title picture and launching a vicious attack on Flair and his cohorts (the Blanchard/Anderson vs. Midnight Express feud of 1988 was a miniature version of what might have been, but it was cut short by Tully and Arn splitting for the WWF in September). Imagine the ultimate "strange bedfellows" situation, Dusty having to tag up with the Horsemen for War Games matches back in the mid-'80s. The Four Horsemen retrospective DVD put out in the last few years by WWE makes clear just how much the fans seemed to be dying to have a reason to outright root for Ric Flair and the Four Horsemen. What if they were turned face during the phase when they were drawing their strongest collective crowd reactions? Ric Flair could have had great main event matches against strong heels (they could have accomplished this merely by never turning Luger face in '87, keeping Sting heel after the UFW merger, etc.).

3. Nick Bockwinkel (circa 1980-84). I admit it, I'm going through a huge Nick Bockwinkel markout phase, hence the videos you will now see for the time being on the right-hand column of this page. He gave perhaps the most articulate interviews of all time and could generate outstanding crowd heat -- plus he had a good moveset and could execute excellent matches all the time. Imagine him breaking away from Bobby Heenan and feuding with the Heenan Family. Imagine if such a feud started in 1980 after Bock lost the AWA World Title back to Verne Gagne for the last time and if Gagne/Bock had joined forces for tag matches prior to Gagne dropping the title to his "new friend" in his retirement match, "a respect match" (as with Dusty's ego being the impediment to Scenario #2, Gagne's selfish desire to "retire as World Champion" drained credibility from the belt and would have easily precluded this smart business decision). The fans would have really gotten behind the cocky, tanned, smooth-talking Hollywood champ battling the bad guys. If the AWA could turn such hated bad guys as Crusher, Bruiser and Mad Dog Vachon face to great success, there's no question this would have worked. Why wasn't it tried? In all likelihood, it's because Bockwinkel's vast credibility, as a great-drawing titleholder from 1975 to 1980, would have been the foundation for a face run that could have even eclipsed the popularity of Verne Gagne himself. And nobody is ever allowed to surpass the booker -- that's the first lesson of pro wrestling. Even if Bock's turn had been saved for the end of the AWA Heenan era in 1984, he still would have been way more over than Rick Martel, the white-bread babyface who inexplicably got a face title run with the belt for a year and a half when Gagne was doubling down on pure scientific wrestling in the face of Vince's looming "sports entertainment" empire.

4. Arn Anderson (circa 1991-1992). Another admission -- I am a tremendous Double A mark. But I think that if you look back at Gene and Ole Anderson in the 1970s or Ole and Arn in the 1980s, they almost fell into that cult face classification in that there were a lot of fans who cheered because of their toughness and greatness. Picture Arn as a "lone wolf" tweener-type face battling the Dangerous Alliance and holding them off for the World Title. Picture Arn doing battle with Big Van Vader during the behemoth's heyday. WCW probably could not have gained on WWF at that time no matter what they tried, but Arn Anderson riding the cheers of the crowd all the way to the top certainly would have been outside the box -- and there was no more public acclaim for a Ron Simmons title run then than there was for an Arn championship opportunity.

5. Finlay (circa 2007). The crowds are reacting well to Finlay in his role as a newly-turned face as part of the "Littlest McMahon" storyline. But I have long maintained that his tough-guy style, which has faint elements of a 1996-97 Steve Austin flair to it, would be massively over if he were going against the bad guys. When Smackdown was suffering the period of countless main event injuries last year, could they really have done worse than to try Finlay on top as a babyface? The question answers itself -- this is a company that wasted several months on The Great Khali as a monster heel champion when they didn't even trust him to wrestle an important pay-per-view match the previous year.

More of Vince McMahon's hypocrisy

By Rick Morris

Before addressing the main point here, the rampant, constant hypocrisy of Vincent Kennedy McMahon, let's quickly examine a side issue. We at FantasyDrafthelp.com believe in analyzing all matters, not just fantasy sports, on a spectrum from most likely to least likely outcomes. Having said that, there are four possibilities for the "miracle comeback" of John Cena, who returned to the ring less than four months after allegedly suffering a major pectoral injury that was supposed to sideline him a year -- and those scenarios are in this exact order of likelihood:

^ This "injury" was a work from start to finish (scars can be kayfabed!).
^ The "injury" was real, but hyped way beyond the level of seriousness so as to obtain the desired shock return.
^ Cena was hurt, but cut a lot of corners, health-wise (ALLEGEDLY!) in his rehab and return.
^ Cena was actually hurt as severely as advertised and did have a supremely fortunate rehabilitation that legitimately got him back much sooner than anticipated.

Let's now move on to the main point at hand. The notion that Vinny Mac is a hucksterish hypocrite of the first order is well beyond dispute. Whether he is shedding crocodile tears for the premature deaths and chronic addictions that his company has contributed to with regards to its performers, whether he is crying about the predatory business practices of Turner Broadcasting when he went after the old territorial promoters the same way in the '80s, whether he is whining about vendettas from federal prosecutors while allowing revenge politics to thrive in his own company, Vince McMahon has always been in a league of his own when it comes to saying one thing and doing another.

But, as strange as it may sound when addressing the role in history of the only man to preside over two national wrestling booms, his biggest and most grand hypocritical pronouncement of all has been to claim that he has his finger on the pulse of his audience and that he reacts accordingly. We saw yet again last night at the Royal Rumble how false this truly is when he allowed his company to drop the ball on the Jeff Hardy WWE Title reign that his crowds have been clamoring for so much.

Jeff Hardy was deprived of his ascension to the top of the company (and yes, the top spot on RAW is and always will be the pinnacle of WWE) just a few weeks of the thirty-year anniversary that Superstar Billy Graham passed the torch to Bob Backlund -- with both matches taking place at Madison Square Garden, no less! Vince McMahon played an opposite role in both scenarios, proving that he is not consistent in his actions whatsoever.

Recently, I viewed the excellent documentary "20 Years Too Soon: The Superstar Billy Graham Story," and I also read parts of Graham's memoirs. First of all, it should be mentioned just as a side note that Graham was not actually 20 years ahead of his time, it was more like 10 because his colorful muscleman gimmick was the mid-to-late '80s prototype. But I do believe what Vince McMahon said on the DVD: Superstar would have been a huge phenomenon on the scene if he had been given a babyface run as champion.

Take yourself back to February 1978 for a moment. Graham had been drawing huge heat and sellout crowds as WWWF Champion for his entire 10-month reign. As an early forerunner of the "cool heel," he was drawing the type of appreciation from fans that could have led to him becoming a red-hot main event face. One suggestion internally was for onetime tag team partner Ivan Koloff to attack Graham, officially turning the Superstar into a "good guy." I believe that this feud would have drawn insane heat, because the Sergeant Slaughter/Iron Sheik feud of 1984 proved that geopolitics could draw at the box office and the prospect of Graham going toe-to-toe with a Hated Russkie back in '78 would have been quite similar.

Superstar and Vince were on the losing end of that argument, however, because Vince's dad, Vince McMahon Senior was still the boss at that time and he had promised Bob Backlund a title run. The classic wrestling old-timer, Vince Senior simply didn't possess the imagination to understand how big Graham could be. He was wedded to the version of the wholesome face champion anchor. Bruno Sammartino had held the belt for approximately 11 of the 14 years leading into Graham's reign, with Latino face Pedro Morales occupying the title for most of the rest of the time. Bob Backlund, dubbed "The All-American Boy," seemed merely to be the logical successor to this lineage once Graham's "transitional heel" reign was over.

But the strong reactions Graham got at the time argue for the case that he would have been huge as a "good guy" champion just because he was so much different from the rest back in '78. While he never could have reached the status of an '80s Hulk Hogan had WWWE remained merely a regional Northeast territory, he could have exploited New York City, the world's greatest media market, to cement the area as the most dominant one anywhere. Vince Junior is absolutely right that his father and the other cronies in the inner circle missed the boat on Superstar Billy Graham's potential.

Graham makes the point convincingly in his memoirs that Backlund was the beneficiary of almost unprecedented help from the promotion during his almost six-year run on top (leaving aside the question of whether Inoki legitimately was the titleholder for a fortnight back in '79). Backlund continued to sell out all around the circuit, but benefited from the strategic positioning on cards of Andre the Giant, Jimmy Snuka after his hugely successful face turn and Bruno Sammartino's white-hot farewell feud with Larry Zbyszko. Previous champs had not needed that kind of assistance from the bookers; they had always been the predominant focus of the promotion. Billy Graham wouldn't have needed that help either had his wish been granted.

So Vince Junior made what we can probably hypothesize would have been the right call in 1978 with the man he said was 20 years ahead of his time. Coincidentally, 20 years later, Vince put the belt on another man being reacted to hugely by the crowds and not created by the company. Stone Cold Steve Austin was a completely self-made man in the WWF, overcoming the internal perception of him as a mid-carder for life and establishing himself as a made man in 1996-97. In '98, Vince listened to the people and made Austin the face main event anchor that they wanted him to be. Austin built on the foundation of the NWO and DX and made himself (along with perhaps The Rock later on) the face of the late '90s wrestling craze.

Flash forward another ten years.

The "Attitude Era" boom has been dead for most of the decade. Historians will argue about where it breathed its last; I believe that I saw it live and in person at the "InVasion" of 2001 in Cleveland when Steve Austin joined the WCW/ECW alliance in an infamous booking decision that killed wrestling's ultimate dream angle. Since then, Vince has thrown everything he could at the wall, elevating formerly-derided "Vanilla Midgets" to World Title status (Benoit and Eddy), trying to ride the remaining stars of the '90s (HHH, HBK, Undertaker), pushing newcomers to the moon (Brock Lesnar), toying endlessly with nostalgia (Hulk Hogan comebacks) and getting strongly behind homegrown products (Cena, Batista). None of these moves have brought the WWE back to the mainstream status it enjoyed twice before.

And to be fair, there's no evidence to suggest that Jeff Hardy is the missing link, ready to become a household word and carry the company to the third national boom. He might not be the "game-changer" the company needs -- but the aforementioned options have had their chances to step up to that level and none of them have succeeded.

Vince and his daughter, Stephanie (the infamous head of creative control), pushed Hardy to the main event in a cautious, almost-experimental way. They were certainly not cramming him down the throats of the people; rather, they put him in circumstances where he would be able to rise or fall based on the reactions he drew. He shot up like a rocket as the crowds made it clear in no uncertain terms that they were hungering for the dramatic change that a title reign from this superstar would promise.

And yet, his rise to main event status was just a tease in the end, as Hardy was built up merely to be fed to mediocre heel champion Randy Orton, who has himself been built up merely to be fed to the returning hero Cena. Essentially, the company passed on elevating Hardy so that they could put Cena back in the #1 face spot posthaste (technically, now that Cena is cashing in his title shot at No Way Out in February instead of WrestleMania, he could face Hardy for the WWE Title at 'Mania -- but there's no way the company is going to put Hardy in with Cena and even if they did, it wouldn't be to have Hardy go over in the end).

So Vince McMahon, who prides himself on being the ultimate visionary, has shown that he only listens to the public when he feels like it. Rather than take a chance on Jeff Hardy, the acrobatic youngster with unique (mostly non-verbal) charisma and a fundamentally-sound but exciting style in the ring, McMahon is staying with the tried and true: Cena, the man who has improved greatly in the ring, but been neutered by the creative department. When you see him get booed relentlessly by significant parts of the crowd, it's almost impossible to reconcile that with the fact that he was such a cool heel in the fall of '03 that the company was all but forced to turn him. Young males, perhaps the most critical part of the fanbase, boo him in significant fashion (especially in major markets) because he is seen as having the worst characteristics of Hogan (Chain Gang = Hulkamanics 2K8), Backlund (wholesome character over the last few years, none of those raunchy raps that got him over with the crowd), the Rock'n'Roll Express (annoyingly beloved by kiddies and teenyboppers) and Hogan/Backlund together (he's the face who isn't believable in terms of being in significant jeopardy because he ALWAYS overcomes the odds and keeps his belt). Jeff Hardy, a man who was once defined in terms of fan perception as being the choice of those teenyboppers and kids, has transcended his early fan appeal to become widely popular across the board. And yet, Vince McMahon hasn't the slightest curiosity about what would happen with Hardy at the helm -- because in the end, crowd sentiment doesn't matter to him if it goes against his preconceived notions.

On the Vince McMahon Devious Behavior Scale, that may not rate that high. But it does serve to remind us yet again of his complete hypocrisy and the extent to which his ego compromises the final product in the ring.

WWE transitional periods, then and now

By Rick Morris

With the WWE clearly caught up in a transitional period right now, I was curious to check back in the history of the company to determine if we might be able to draw any conclusions about the future success or failure of the company based on present events. I limited my examination to the period coinciding with Vince Junior running the company, because comparing circumstances with a national promotion to the previous regional one would be apples and oranges.

The old WWWF really didn’t feature transitional periods like the ones we’ve grown accustomed to in the modern era, anyway. When Bruno Sammartino captured the WWWF Title from Buddy Rogers on May 17, 1963 and started his legendary eight-year title reign, the overall style of the promotion didn’t change much at all. The next sets of title changes did have transitional champions in the mix, as Ivan Koloff shockingly won the belt from Sammartino on January 18, 1973, only to drop it to Pedro Morales (the Hispanic equivalent of Bruno’s ethnic champion appeal in the urban Northeast) three weeks later. Then, when Vince Senior decided to move back to Bruno on top, Pedro lost to Stan Stasiak on December 1, 1973 and Bruno beat the big heel nine days later. For all intents and purposes, the overall style of the promotion did not change appreciably during the course of any of the title changes.

The next two switches actually had no transitional champions in the mix at all. Superstar Billy Graham started the first long-term heel title run in WWWF history when he ended Bruno’s time on top once and for all on April 30, 1977. His flamboyant run on top, which a subsequent WWE DVD correctly labeled as ahead of its time, ended when the promotion put the strap on the man it had been grooming for the big spot, Bob Backlund on February 20, 1978. With the old-school Vince Senior still running the show, Graham’s wild charisma did not auger any major changes for the promotion and the reign of Backlund solidified the company as a Northeast regional promotion with a white-bread babyface champion. Backlund had a couple of disputed title changes along the way, but stayed firmly atop the (now renamed) WWF until Vince Junior assumed control, started the national era and with it, the first real transitional period in the style of the promotion.

1. THE START OF THE NATIONAL EXPANSION, THE PAY-PER-VIEW ERA AND WHAT WOULD COME TO BE KNOWN AS SPORTS ENTERTAINMENT. This era started with the Iron Sheik’s controversial victory over Backlund on December 26, 1983 when “The All-American Boy’s manager Arnold Skaaland threw in the towel with Backlund trapped in the Camel Clutch. As with Koloff more than a dozen years before, the Sheik was used as a hot-button foreign heel transitional champion, but the man who he would deliver the title to was used as a vehicle to change pro wrestling forever. Just a month later, Hulk Hogan began the modern era with a bang as he took the belt from the Iron Sheik in decisive fashion and was booked in more of a show-biz fashion than any other babyface champion ever. This was due in equal parts to his insane charisma, his larger-than-life physique and his inability to work in the ring in a traditional lengthy main-event fashion. Throughout 1984, Rowdy Roddy Piper was established as the dominant heel personality of the new era with his unprecedented “Piper’s Pit” segments. By year’s end, when he attacked Hogan allies Captain Lou Albano and Cyndi Lauper during a charity award ceremony at Madison Square Garden, the seeds were sown for the culmination of the transitional period. The “War to Settle the Score” between Piper and Hogan from MSG, broadcast on MTV in February of 1985, introduced red-hot celebrity Mr. T into the mix and set the stage for the first WrestleMania at the end of March 1985. That event, with the potent mix of the most over wrestlers in the country, massive celebrity involvement and an undercard of wrestlers ready to be introduced to the national spotlight, set the company in motion with no looking back. That year’s return to national television with “Saturday Night’s Main Event” and the first-ever pay-per-view The Wrestling Classic were anticlimactic events: the transitional period had ended at WrestleMania and started the first national wrestling boom since the 1950s.

2. THE POST-HOGAN ERA BEGINS AND THE NEW GENERATION IS FORESHADOWED. Hogan dropped the belt to Andre the Giant in 1988 and The Ultimate Warrior in 1990, but his shadow never left the main-event scene, nor did the fact that the promotion was still built around the show-biz, style-over-workrate principles he embodied. And when the smoke eventually cleared, he ended up with the belt again both time. However, business had been falling off from the peak period of the boom, starting in earnest with the Warrior’s run on top in 1990. When the title was held up in December of 1991, to be filled at The Royal Rumble the next month, it seemed inevitable that Hogan would stay in the mix – almost certainly to be wrestling in the main event of WrestleMania VIII against the man who became the new champion, Ric Flair (the acquisition of Flair, who left his old promotion without dropping either the WCW or NWA World Titles in the ring in the summer of 1991 is another story in and of itself – proving that the most cyclical element in wrestling is the tendency to make mistakes, the WWF never put Hogan and Flair in the ring one-on-one on pay-per-view during their time together, wasting the ultimate “Dream Match” and foreshadowing how badly they would screw up the acquisition of WCW itself ten years later). But the eruption of the industry’s first major steroid scandal in the winter of 1992 made the poster child for the bulked-up modern era too hot to handle for the company, so a “retirement match” against Sid Justice was booked for ‘Mania instead. For the next several months, the 1980s direction of the company seemed intact, as Flair and Randy Savage traded the title back and forth and kept the focus on the established names of the era with the Warrior also in the mix. But when Flair suffered an inner-ear injury that necessitated the promotion taking the belt off of him, the direction they chose was very fateful. Young Bret Hart, a second-generation synonymous with the traditional type of pro wrestling that had been around for decades before the boom, won the title from Flair in his home country of Canada on October 12, 1992. While the company would not institute the “New Generation” marketing campaign for almost another two years, in retrospect the transition to that era started on that night up north. The following month, Hart and Shawn Michaels, the two most dominant figures of the “New Generation” era squared off in the main event for the title at Survivor Series and signaled that the focus would be on new names and a new direction. Right about then, the Warrior left, Flair was preparing for his final few months with the company and Hogan was preparing a comeback that fizzled due in equal parts to bad booking and a breakdown in understanding with the company. Hogan did have a title run that started with an infamous impromptu match against new champion Yokozuna at the end of Wretlemania IX and ended with a screwy finish at King of the Ring two months later. Fans long accustomed to seeing the Hulkster avenge every wrong were shocked when he quietly faded from the promotion after the loss due to an inability to come to terms with the company. When Lex Luger turned babyface and adopted the persona of a super-patriot by bodyslamming Yokozuna on the USS Intrepid on July 4, 1993, the similarity of his new character to that of Hogan made it clear to one and all that the King of the 1980s era was dead and the new crop of main eventers would be left to carry on in his place. As such, the transition had been completed. The “New Generation” campaign, officially adopted in 1994 as a marketing counterpoint to WCW’s signings of Hogan and other stars made famous by the WWF, fizzled. Business never approached the heights of the boom and the company floundered as more top stars jumped ship over the next few years.

3. THE SECOND NATIONAL BOOM: THE ATTITUDE ERA BEGINS. This is the murkiest transitional era in the history of the company, as the origins were very difficult to trace. For all intents and purposes, however, the November 20, 1995 episode of RAW marks the start of the period. This program was one of the most historically significant in the long history of the company. Diesel, fresh off the loss of the WWF title to Bret Hart at Survivor Series the previous night, gave a speech in the ring in which he declared independence from Vince McMahon and the promotional machine (marking the “outing” of VKM as the real-life owner of the company) but did not turn heel in typical style – instead adopting an intriguing “tweener” character. At the end of the show, Shawn Michaels “collapsed” in the ring as the result of a kick to the head from Owen Hart. This marked the beginning of an effort to infuse as much real-life drama as possible in the show as viewers were subtly led to believe that HBK’s injury was legitimate and unstaged. The next month, Bret Hart and Davey Boy Smith wrestled in a title match that heralded the return of blading to the company, foreshadowing a wilder in-ring style. The start of this transitional era went into a deep-freeze, however, as business-as-usual promoting took over again until King of the Ring 1996. Steve Austin, who had been given the tournament victory to punish Hunter Hearst Helmsley for breaking script in the infamous MSG “curtain call” incident of May 19, 1996, mocked Jake Roberts’ faith with his groundbreaking “Austin 3:16” promo. Throughout the year, Austin’s blue-collar tough-man style caught on with the fans and it was getting harder and harder to keep him as a heel, even after efforts to make him appear as a heartless predator with the Pillman gun storyline. Subsequently, however, the warming of the crowd to Austin coincided with the cooling of the crowd to Bret Hart’s classic style and the resulting double-turn at Wrestlemania XIII in March 1997 launched Austin as the first mega-star of the Attitude Era (which wouldn’t actually be named as such until a year later). Everything that followed (Austin’s run as face champion starting at WrestleMania XIV, the establishment of DeGeneration X as one of the top acts in company history and the creation of The Rock’s character as a cornerstone antihero rivaled only by Austin) was an anticlimax from the moment Austin broke through by passing out in a bloody heap rather than tapping out to Hart at Mania. That moment launched a period of prosperity that by some measures even exceeded the first boom of the ‘80s.

4. THE ATTITUDE BOOM GIVES WAY TO THE BRAND SPLIT. Vince McMahon’s second boom period was initially fueled by the desperation of competition. The Monday Night Wars started off badly for the WWF as Nitro began to thrash Raw in the ratings after an initial period of rough parity in 1995-96. Even the early days of “Attitude” in 1997 saw the company trailing WCW, although business was picking up (as a certain announcer might say). The primal need that Vince had to transcend the accomplishments of WCW served as the incentive to adopt the “old rules are dead” wild style of this new era. But once the epoch of brash shoot-style promos (with questionable language and hand gestures), wild sexuality on display from the “Divas,” the reliance on weapons and wild brawling and the overall “anything can happen” atmosphere took hold, WCW and its corporate restrictions and short-sighted management never had a chance. By 2001, red ink was on the verge of putting both WCW and the country’s third-largest promotion ECW out of business. The WWF came in and scooped up the assets (well, some assets – they turned out to be unable to use the ECW name on-camera due to snags in the bankruptcy proceedings) of each in the spring of 2001. With Austin and The Rock coming off a red-hot main event in the sold-out Astrodome for Wrestlemania XVII, the company seemed poised for many huge years to come. But from that point on, everything they could do wrong, they did do wrong. They stuck with an ill-advised Austin heel turn that did nothing but demoralize an audience that never wanted to boo “The Texas Ratttlesnake.” They botched the WCW/ECW invasion, wrestling’s ultimate dream storyline, in such a brutal manner that the abrupt ending to it at Survivor Series was more of a mercy killing than anything else. And as the company was distracted by the steroid scandal of the early 1990s and their subsequent World Bodybuilding Federation debacle, they were also focused too much on trying to force their insipid XFL down the throats of their fans. Ratings were a complete disappointment, as the promotion was left with only their share of the Monday Night Wars audience. So with their dream of a WWF-run WCW circuit keeping up a semblance of competition dead, the company decided to launch a brand split just after WrestleMania XVIII. On April 8, 2002, the Raw show featured a “draft” in which all stars from the promotion were assigned to either the Raw program or Smackdown program exclusively. This began in earnest the transition to the post-boom reality. Initially, the storyline featured Ric Flair as the on-air boss of Raw and Vince McMahon at the helm of Smackdown. However, the best-laid plans disintegrated as events caused the company to go into a frantic spring and summer of hot-shotting. First, the company made a huge miscalculation about Hogan’s viability as a 21^st century titleholder when they regarded his massive ovation at by the crowd in the dome in Toronto at Wrestlemania XVIII as anything more than the nostalgia pop it was. They abandoned HHH’s first run as babyface champion (and unified world champion, with his belt now having the lineage of both the WCW and WWF World Titles) quickly, although the horrible booking of HHH in that role necessitated some form of abandoning the reign. Then, Austin walked out of the promotion rather than do a job to mega-pushed newcomer Brock Lesnar. The company panicked and hot-shotted a match instead that saw McMahon take unified control of the two brands from Flair. What, then, would serve as the continued rationale for a brand split if one man was in charge of both programs? Bringing in a new authority figure, of course! Eric Bischoff was crowned as general manager of Raw in a desperate attempt to conjure up that old Monday night magic. In the midst of all of this, the company yielded to legal realities in the form of legal challenges from the World Wildlife Federation and changed their name to World Wrestling Entertainment. Meanwhile, rather than push some of the wrestlers who had been on top in ECW and WCW like Lance Storm, Mike Awesome and Raven, the company awarded half-hearted pushes to Rob Van Dam and wrestlers broken out of tag teams in the split for no apparent reason, such as Bradshaw and Bubba Ray Dudley. After the Hogan experiment crashed and burned, the belt was quickly put on The Undertaker and then The Rock, who lost it at SummerSlam to the aforementioned Lesnar. Immediately thereafter, the “unified” aspect of the belt was lost as HHH campaigned successfully to be given a World Title for the Raw brand only and a second set of tag team titles was likewise created. These actions signaled that, whatever fans hoped to the contrary, the brand split was here to stay. Like the New Generation gimmick before it, it did not yield an era of prosperity.

5. A REAL ATTEMPT TO BUILD POST-BOOM STARS. By early 2004, fans had lost patience with the floundering lack of direction in both WWE brands. HHH started the Raw-only World Title era by failing to elevate RVD and Kane, then engaged in a surprisingly mediocre feud with old friend Shawn Michaels, a self-indulgent display of backroom power at the hands of Booker T at WrestleMania XIX and lackluster programs with Scott Steiner, Kevin Nash and Goldberg. Smackdown fared somewhat better with Brock Lesnar and Kurt Angle at the forefront of the WWE Title picture, but distractions like another ill-fated Hulk Hogan comeback kept the show from reaching its full potential. With Austin having retired after WrestleMania XIX, The Rock coming back much less frequently due to Hollywood commitments and Mick Foley surprisingly staying retired, the company was in dire need of developing new stars. Having hyped the 20^th edition of WrestleMania for a full year, the company saw an opportunity and took advantage of it. And they were compelled to make a better effort of it, with the WWE a public entity now and stock prices hanging in the balance throughout their period of stagnation. The transition to the era of new stars began in earnest at the 2004 Royal Rumble when upper-midcard fixture Chris Benoit was elevated with a stirring victory. He ended up on Raw, winning the World Title at Mania. On Smackdown, Eddy Guerrero was tabbed for a promotion to the top of the card, inspiring the wrestling world by capping his comeback from drug issues by capturing the WWE Title at No Way Out and successfully defending it at WrestleMania XX against Kurt Angle. However, the challenges facing the promotion were only just beginning at that point. Mania served as the final WWE match for both Lesnar and Goldberg as two legitimate main eventers quit the scene after one infamous final match. Bradshaw was quickly repackaged on Smackdown as Texas tycoon JBL and thrust into the main event scene so quickly as to defy all credibility. He defeated Guerrero and held on to the belt until the next Wrestlemania, becoming the third man the company tried to elevate that year. He ended up having a longer tenure on top than either Benoit or Guerrero, but never achieved the potential of his great character due to the knee-jerk start to the storyline. Meanwhile, Benoit held onto his belt until Summerslam, but due to questionable booking, still loomed in the shadows of the mighty HHH. Benoit dropped the strap to Randy Orton, the fourth man the company attempted to elevate during this frantic transitional period on both shows. Orton, a relatively hot heel, was inexplicably turned face as champion to go against his mentor HHH. The fundamentally unlikable Orton predictably fizzled as a sympathetic character and his title reign was ended after only a month! Meanwhile, however, HHH’s associate in the Evolution stable Batista was quietly becoming the most over wrestler on Raw. The company did a slow burn with the storyline, culminating in Batista turning face, challenging HHH at Wrestlemania XXI and winning the World Title. On Smackdown, charismatic young John Cena had captured the United States Title, his first taste of gold in the promotion, at Wrestlemania XX. Throughout the year, fans took to his exciting character in such a manner that he was the logical choice for JBL to drop the World Title to at Wrestlemania XXI. On that show, he joined Batista as the final wrestlers in this frantic transitional era to be elevated to the status of world champion. Coincidentally, Cena and Batista were elevated to the “big leagues” not long after the brand split in the spring of 2002 when the company was trying to broaden the rosters of the two shows. When they completed their post-WrestleMania programs with the deposed champs months later, they each moved to the other show in another WWE “draft” that ended this transitional era with each man set as the dominant babyface franchise of his show moving forward. Cena, however, would see his character watered down on Raw, and has never matched the insanely over face status he had on Smackdown – although he has still been the most over wrestler in the promotion, owing to the fact that his crowd reactions are incredible and pretty much unprecedented with women, children and a minority of males loudly cheering him and a majority of males loudly booing him. Batista, due to injuries and incompatible work styles, has never recaptured the magic of his program with HHH. So this era, like the first of the brand split chapter of history, did not lead to massive mainstream success.

6. THE POST-BENOIT ERA. This is where we’ve been since that horrible weekend in late June 2007 when Chris Benoit shockingly gave in to his demons and slaughtered his wife, son and himself. In the months prior to the tragedy, the company did not necessarily seem on the cusp of a new boom, but it did seem at least somewhat possible. With his rap, movie and commercial ventures, John Cena was earning more notoriety in the mainstream than any other star created since the Attitude days. WrestleMania XXIII, held in a sold-out domed stadium for the first time in four years, earned a good deal of mainstream attention as Donald Trump played a key role in the “Billionaire vs. Billionaire Hair Match” between his and Vince McMahon’s proxies. And the company seemed to moving in a pretty decent direction creatively in the first half of 2007, overcoming an injury to HHH that decimated existing plans for Mania and an Undertaker injury that short-circuited his face vs. face feud with Batista. The company did stub its toe somewhat with an ill-advised “Mr. McMahon death” storyline in which it was depicted that the company chairman’s car was blown up with him in it. Resolution of the storyline was interrupted by the Benoit murder/suicide, which shocked and demoralized a fanbase that had already absorbed many previous tragedies, but nothing this twisted. Benoit’s drug issues caused enormous headaches for the company and exposed massive holes in the company’s alleged enforcement policies. In September, many stars were abruptly suspended for drug use, an unprecedented amount of simultaneous punishment brought down the by company. Embarrassing and potentially threatening Congressional hearings await on the issue of the company’s attitudes on drug use. Other main-event stars have gone down as well, including Lashley and Cena (who walked out of WrestleMania as world champion each of the last three years and surely would have been the man holding up the belt with fireworks going off overhead at WrestleMania XXIV in the Citrus Bowl next spring). McMahon quickly wrapped up the “fake death” storyline of his character, only to substitute a “Mr. McMahon’s illegitimate son” mystery storyline that concluded in the most anticlimactic fashion possible, with a midget wrestler being bestowed the “honor” and the matter being played for laughs instead of mined for potential big-money matches. A series of teaser videos have played on WWE programming recently, seeming to hint at the long-awaited return of former star Chris Jericho, but, to the dismay of fans, he has yet to materialize. This transitional period is the most chaotic we have seen in the modern history of the WWE, which is not completely surprising in that it is the first one to feature three brands (ECW was added to the mix full-time in June 2006, although it bears little in common with the underdog promotion of the 1990s that bore the same name). The company is frantically throwing one idea after another at the wall to see what sticks. This desperation paid off with the Attitude boom, but failed in each of the last two transitional eras. All indications are that their unfocused approach will backfire this time as well.