This one, the final entry was tough. There are lots of great choices here, and I’ll go into the ones I didn’t put up and the reasons why soon.
But why Andre the Giant? A lot of people remember Andre from his later career where he was slowed down by his size and weight and accumulated injuries and a destroyed back. But Andre the younger worker was a marvel in the ring. On top of that he was an incredible draw, not only to the WWE, but also within the territory system where he spent his time popping territories. He was also one of the first wrestlers that really had success in the mainstream world.
We can also argue that his final true storyline where he turned on his friend Hulk Hogan and joined Bobby Heenan is on of the top story lines of all time in Wrestling.
Born with Gigantism, Andre eventually grew to a height of 7’4 and weighed a stunning 520 pounds.
Andre started in his native Paris, but became a worldwide showpiece. He eventually went to Japan to work with IWE, then went to work in Germany, Australia and New Zealand.
He eventually moved to Canada and toured the Eastern territories, but he became famous when he went to work for Vincent J McMahon who booked Andre to work for the WWE, but to also be a touring attraction. Now unlike his son Vince Jr. Vince Sr respected the territory systems, and was more then happy to share talent, and that included Andre.
Now there’s one thing to clear up. Andre was never undefeated. The WWE stated that Andre hadn’t lost in 15 years. That’s simply not true, he lost plenty of times in the territories, but he never lost in the WWE.
From a transcending the wrestling game, Andre did fight Chuck Wepner on the undercard of the Ali Inoki (Awful fight) boxer versus wrestler series. It ended when Andre basically got pissed off and tossed Wepner out of the ring.
Andre also had several memorable feuds. He feuded for a long time against Killer Kahn. He had an early feud against Hogan that ended up at the showdown at Shea event in 1980.
But Andre continued to be the special attraction. Every year he showed up at Stampede Wrestling during the Stampede. He toured other small territories to help them attendance wise.
But the best for Andre happened later in his career, with a feud that defined feuds. Andre was always the good guy, he was most recognizable baby face in the industry. That’s when it came as a surprise to the world when Vince Jr bought WWE, signed Andre to work for him exclusively, built him up with feuds against heels like John Studd and Ken Patera and the Heenan family.
But the end was getting near for Andre. Suffering from crippling injuries, and the effects of Acromegaly, he was looking at one last good run in wrestling and to honorably pass the torch to the next generation. The problem. He and the future were both incredibly over baby faces. But Hulk Hogan was the future of the WWE and of wrestling. So, Andre had to turn bad, but they had to make it a surprise. So they upped Andre’s feud with the Heenan family. Had him go under the mask and team with Hulk Hogan and Piper as the Masked Machines (It was so ridiculous at the time)
So on Piper’s pit in 1987 Hogan was given a trophy for holding the WWE title for 3 years. Yes Hogan not only had a belt but needed a trophy. Andre was given a smaller trophy for being undefeated. Hogan came out to congratulate his friend and Andre blew him off. A second Piper’s pit was scheduled for Hogan and Andre and this time Andre came out with long time rival Bobby Heenan. In one of the most brilliant heel turns. Andre accused Hogan of only being his friend to protect his title, and not giving Andre a much deserved shot. Then and this was brilliant. Andre tore off Hogan’s Hulkster shirt, and accidentally tore off Hogans crucifix which left Hogan bleeding from his chest. Visually it was brilliant.
The feud really hit its height at Wrestlemania 3. By then Andre was extremely debilitated and immobile and in a rare instance Hogan carried someone to a almost decent story telling match. But it ended with the Slam heard around the world as Hogan pinned Andre.
The feud continued for a while. But it wasn’t as emotionally satisfying. Mainly because they poisoned the well. There was no way that Hogan was going to lose it so it was tough to build intrigue.
Eventually Andre did pin Hogan to give him his first ever singles title, but he handed the belt to Ted Dibiase. This story was heightened with the evil surgically adjusted Earl Hebner.
After the Hogan feud, Andre hung around the WWE for a while. Had a decent feud with Jake Roberts, but his time was ending. He eventually turned back to Babyface after turning on Heenan and his Colossal Connection partner Haku. But Andre in his mid 40’s drifted out of the WWE, did some shows in the territories made some random appearances in New Japan and returned sporadically to the WWE.
Andre eventually went home and retired. He lived to the age of 46 before dying of heart failure. He was the first inductee into the WWE hall of fame. And fathered Paul Wight the Big Show (Ok that was a lie. But it was a ridiculous WCW storyline gone wrong and nearly lead the for real death of Scott Hall in the ring).
When we talk about Andre, he was really one of the more successful mainstream cross over stars. Yeah Hogan had an acting career, with the high light being his role in Rocky 3. And later using the word dookie in No Holds bar. But Andre really transcended. Beyond smaller roles in Conan the Barbarian and the Six Million dollar man. Andre is fondly remembered for his role as Fezzik in the Prince Bride.
It was a tough decision to put Andre here in front of other deserving stars. But his effects on the industry and the territories can’t be denied. Andre as a pure attraction and a pure draw. He was more then happy to pass the torch and put over other wrestlers. At one point he was the biggest star in wrestling and him turning heel was iconic.
Coming soon: Who didn’t make it onto my Rushmore and why.
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My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
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So what about the ones that didn't make it, and there are a lot. I admit that when you're doing a Mt Rushmore of anything and you only have 4 slots you're certainly going to be putting some personal feelings and memories to that.
But in making my case for my 4, I have to make a case for the why the hell nots?
Hulk Hogan - Absolutely was a game changer in the wrestling world as he took wrestling out of the smoke filled armories and gyms and made it mainstream. You can argue that Hogan himself became a multi platform star as he went no pun intended Hollywood. He was part of some of the biggest storylines in Wrestling such as his feuds with Andre and the Wrestling World changing NWO. But there are lots of cracks in his foundation. Hogan you can argue couldn't work. He was a rudimentary wrestler at best, but it was offset by his charisma and mic skills. What put Hogan off of the Mount Rushmore was that he was a guy that built wrestling up, and then through selfishness and politics tried to tear it down. He was selfish, he rarely did the best for business thing. He buried wrestlers to hold his spot, he buried a company due to his indulgences on more then one occasion. His ego was destructive.
Ric Flair - Another one that should rightfully be up on Mount Rushmore. A man with a 50 year career who never hesitated to make his opponent look like a million bucks, even as he beat him. A Wrestler with unbelievable charisma. He could work a 60 minute match 5 days a week and twice on Sunday. He headed one of the greatest factions in the history of wrestling and was must see TV. And he would be on my Mt Rushmore if he had retired in the mid 90's. Because his work after the Mid 90's was almost like Flair hated himself and his legacy and he wanted to tear it down. To be honest watching Flair in his last 15 years or so was more sad then it was awe inspiring. He lost his in match creativity fighting the same match every night. He was a man that in the end held on because he needed the money, because his personal life was a train wreck.
Shawn Michaels - To me Bret and Shawn are entirely interchangeable. Both supreme and natural workers who understood story telling and psychology. Neither Bret nor Shawn were ever considered to be major draws But Shawn had natural charisma and awesome Mic skills. To bad he was also a destructive force for Wrestling in his early to mid years. The Clique wasn't a good thing, Shawn was universally reviled except for Vince and the Clique. He later became a positive beacon for the sport, and it certainly saved him because frankly if he had been driven to retirement by his back injury he would be remembered as awesome potential wasted.
The Rock - Sue me, but the Rock was awesome on the mic, and he was ok in the ring. But his level of charisma and his ability to stretch his character was amazing. He's certainly generational. He's also the most successful wrestler in history in terms of his cross over into Hollywood. He was an ultimate draw. So why not on my Mount Rushmore. Maybe I'm a wrestling snob or purist. But it always felt like the Rock was playing the in ring stuff as a gag. Was it entertaining? Sure. But after a while it always felt like Rock was looking at the camera and winking and saying "This #### ain't real". Ridiculous moves and sells hurt him when I ranked the workers. I also felt like after a while he felt a bit entitled. He became too reliant on blurting out 30 catchphrases an hour and lost his natural feel.
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My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
I like the idea of continuing on. I've always been fascinated by old school rivalries or feuds. I think its a bit of a lost art now because things like PPV's happen so often that these feuds rarely get the time to develop that they need.
I also think that the fueds nowdays aren't as good because of the death of Kayfabe. Its hard to take feuds seriously when you see backstage videos of the rivals chumming around, or making videos of playing video games.
Coming soon CaptainCrunch's top 10 rivalries.
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My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
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I like the idea of continuing on. I've always been fascinated by old school rivalries or feuds. I think its a bit of a lost art now because things like PPV's happen so often that these feuds rarely get the time to develop that they need.
I also think that the fueds nowdays aren't as good because of the death of Kayfabe. Its hard to take feuds seriously when you see backstage videos of the rivals chumming around, or making videos of playing video games.
Coming soon CaptainCrunch's top 10 rivalries.
The top 3 all involve Stone Cold Austin for me especially since it was during when I was a kid and teen.
CaptainCrunch's Top 10 Wrestling Feuds of all time
Feuds are simple in nature. One wrestler has a beef with another wrestler, and they fight. But its slightly more complex in the make-believe world of professional wrestling. For one thing, Feuds are meant to sell tickets to events. In the older territory days it was to promote mainly house shows, while the build up would happen on TV, all to promote a super show. Feuds would usually end in some kind of special match, like a cage match or a dog collar match, or in Japan something involving explosives. But to get there you as a fan had to believe that these two wrestlers or tag teams hated each other enough to risk death or crippling injury to get their hands on each other. The other big factor in feuds is the concept of Kayfabe, the secretive code of protecting the predetermined nature and the secrets inside the dressing room. Wrestlers would sell injuries in their real life, walking around with casts on, or in the case of the Junkyard Dog, pretending he was blinded. In the territory days you would see two wrestlers feuding across multiple territories over a number of years. The Rock and Roll Express feuded against Jim Cornette and the Midnight express for more then a decade across most of the South States territories.
I love classic wrestling and classic wrestling feuds a bit more then I love modern wrestling feuds. For wrestling to really work you have to have a suspension of disbelief. Yeah, I know its fake or predetermined, but in the old days you could at least get a feel that there was something at stake, or that these two wrestlers hated each other, or The Iron Sheik actually threw fire in Hulk Hogan’s eye. Nowdays with the death of Kayfabe you rarely get that.
So I’m going to give you my top 10 feuds. I’m probably only going to give out one at a time and try to give some real detail to it, so you understand why I ranked it where its at. You might disagree with some or all of them, there will be ones from WWE, NWA, the territories, and even some that you ask what I was thinking. As always, I hope to elicit some discussion.
Enjoy.
__________________
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
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1983 – Bad News Allen vs Archie “Stomper” Gouldie Stampede Wrestling
This was a short intense feud that could have been so much more, but in the end cause a riot, destroyed a family and destroyed a territory.
In 1983, Stampede Wrestling was a historic but dying territory. There was a lot of discontent in the territory since Bruce Hart had taken over booking the territory and shifted it to a bloodier more violent territory. Backstage, there was a rift forming between Bruce Hart and announcer Ed Whalen. Ed hated what was happening, he had never really bothered to smarten himself up to the business, and liked a more comedic softer approach to wrestling. He also saw himself as a character in the show bopping villains with his microphone and arguing with heels. Bruce was somewhat of a visionary, he had Paul Heyman’s booking concepts before Paul Heyman had them. He wanted a gritty, bloody, realistic, violent story driven style of wrestling. This also put him at odds with his father, who was exploring selling the territory and hated Bruce’s booking. But Bruce wanted that one big angle to save the business and he came up with an incredibly creative angle that involved a full on unexpected face turn, and a incredibly violent blow off match in front of a sold out house.
(go to 7:29)
This feud really only lasted a few weeks and was incredibly simple. At the time there were two main heels in Stampede Wrestling. Bad New Allen, a legitimate former Olympic Judo Champion who was known for being extremely brutal in the ring, and was a no compromise wrestler who believed in protecting the business. Archie Gouldie was a bull necked brawler who had been one of Stu’s favorite heels. He was also incredibly dependable and simple. At the time, the target of every heel was the Hart Dynasty. You see the Harts ran Stampede wrestling, and Stu’s sons, Bruce, Bret and Keith were the Stars of the promotion, So it was only logical for the two evil heels to join forces to take on the team of Bret Hart, Davey Boy Smith and Sonny Two Rivers (Junji Hirati). Now this doesn’t make sense, its 3 against 2 heels, bah god its unfair. But here’s the beauty. Archie’s son Jeff had wanted his father to train him to be a wrestler, but Archie wasn’t happy with it but relented, so on Dec 3rd 1983, we got a main event of Bret, Davey and Sonny against Jeff and Archie Gouldie with Bad New Allen, with a young CaptainCrunch sitting with his best buddy in row 5.
The match preceded as normal, with Bret and Davey and Sonny playing the virtuous good guys getting beaten all around the ring. Then the unthinkable happened. Bad News snapped, he attacked Archie and with helped tied him up in the ropes. Then attacked Jeff threw him outside, and pile drove him on the concrete floor multiple times.
The cameras turn off at 4:25 as 2+7 refused to allow the riot to be show. They then start up and we see the promo's by Allen during the riot as panicked fans were leaving. then we see the cleared building and Stomper's brilliant promo
Then all hell broke lose, as Bad New proclaimed proudly that he had broken Jeff’s neck a riot ensued, and Captain ended up getting multiple stitches that night after a bottle bounced off of his head. Bad news trying to protect himself punched and assaulted several fans (including lifting up one old guy by the hair who had thrown a punch at him, and punching his straight in the face knocking him out. This was about 10 feet away from me) and the building had to be cleared. Jeff was hauled off in an ambulance.
Ed Whalen interviewed Bad New Allen who proclaimed that he didn’t care if Stompers son died. Then Ed did a promo with Archie after the building had been cleared, that was one of my favorite promo’s of all time as he softly said he was going to go see his son in the hospital, then he was going to get the man that hurt his son.
Then Ed quit.
That night Jeff Gouldie who later gained some fame as half of the tag team Rock and Roll RPMs as Tommy Lane was snuck out of town by Bruce and flown back to Florida.
Hospitals were literally flooded with calls from frantic fans desperate to find out if Jeff was ok. The story hit the newspapers in the wrong way. And all hell broke lose. You see Bruce already had the blow off match in mind, as the main event of a super card with Archie and Allen facing off in a strap match. He would be the savior of Stampede Wrestling.
Instead, Ed Whalen pulled Stampede from television. The Calgary Wrestling and Boxing commission suspended Stampede Wrestling from doing show in the Calgary city limits for 6 months, and applied fines and sanctions. The match was moved out of town weeks later . And the blowoff match happened 60 miles out of town at the tiny Sarcee arena, during a blistering snowstorm in front of a half full house.
match high lights at about 14 minutes, the commentators killed this match as well.
And then Stampede Wrestling was dead. Stu tired of losing money and as he stated, tired of Bruce’s bs booking took an offer from Vince McMahon and sold the territory on the conditions that Vince took his son Bret, Davey Boy and Dynamite and Jim Neidhart to new York.
From a few structural standpoint, this feud was brilliantly hot shoted and simple. It was believable and realistically it could have lead to a huge blow off plus multiple matches with wrestlers like Kerry Brown and Allen and others and maybe Stampede Wrestling might have been saved for a little while.
But Bruce underestimated the fans, he certainly didn’t understand or smarten up Ed Whalen, and he didn’t control his wrestlers. And Captain took a bottle off of the head and got the hero treatment from his girlfriend.
We wouldn’t see an out of control feud like this til years later in ECW. But more about that later.
__________________
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
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This is one of the greatest examples of story telling in a feud that has ever been. The sheer length of this feud which stretched over more then a year made it an unbelievable exercise in patience, and the reason why its number 9? Because in the end it’s a feud that ended up starting the death spiral of WCW and the exit of disgruntled fans. Its one of the key reasons why WCW lost its lead in the Monday Night wars.
Lets face facts, the original execution of the NWO was unbelievably well done, the heel turn of Hulk Hogan was inspired genius. For months the NWO destroyed everyone and made all the WCW wrestlers look like panty waisted dweebs, oh and lawn darts.
I will say that at this point, everything that Eric Bishoff touched turned to gold, that can never be argued. We also have to give credit to Eric as he showed an incredible amount of patience with this when Eric was well NWO for not having patience and hotshotting angles for ratings. In the end Eric built up a story line the likes that had never been seen before and all he had to do was pull the trigger on the end and there was a real possibility that WWE might never have recovered. But in the end ego’s and selfishness dragged this feud down and everyone ended up looking like idiots.
To understand this, feud the first player that we have to understand Is Sting. A colorful high-energy white-haired super over face. The fans loved Sting and never tired of his exuberance, style, and energy. He was also WCW through and through. He was the top baby face and the one guy that WCW could count on. So, what do you do with him when the evil NWO invades and runs roughshod over the company that he loves what should happen. If you said that Sting should be the hero and get that first major victory over the NWO you would be . . . . right. But that’s not what happened. Instead, you get a incredible journey of twists and turns and questioned loyalties and one of the great character changes or gimmick changes of all time. To understand this we have to look at how it started.
Well at Bash at the Beach in 1996 when Luger, Sting and Savage faced off against the Ousiders and a mystery partner. The night that Hogan told the fans to stick it brother and formed the NWO. From that point on fans expected Luger to betray WCW and join NWO and Sting to lead the charge against the NWO, it didn’t happen like that.
This is when we get a story of perceived betrayals that lead the fans and WCW to believe that Sting was a betrayer. In a match between Luger and Rick Steiner, Luger was called to the back where we heard Sting talking to Ted Dibiase who for a short time was the money behind the NWO. Then Nash, Sting and Hall beat down Luger, and the questions was is Sting NWO part of the NWO.
A week later at Fall Brawl, Sting Luger and Flair and Anderson were set to take on the NWO, but Flair didn’t trust Sting even though Sting told them “It wasn’t me on Monday Night”. Instead, we get a match with Flair, Luger and Anderson taking on Hall, Nash, Hogan and Sting. Wait a minute how could he betray the WCW like this. Of course, the NWO took full advantage and beat down the faces, until Sting came down to the ring and beat the hell out of the NWO, then he turned to his friend Luger while leaving the cage and asked him “if that was good enough for him”. Then Flair told the WCW favorites to stick it and leave as the NWO won the night.
NWO you’re asking how this is happening, two Stings what the hell is going on. Well fake Sting was played by WCW jobber Jeff Farmer who was NWO enjoying what would be the biggest moment of his career.
At the next Nitro Sting marched to the ring, and elaborated about what happened at Fall Brawl, that he witnessed his friend being attacked by an imposter. Then he bought up the fact that nobody, not the fans nor his friends and colleagues believed or trusted him despite giving everything to WCW. He would always stand by the fans. But the wrestlers and friends and commentators that did doubt him could stick it.
Then he stated that he was a free agent, you might see him from time to time when you least expect it.
It was a brilliant piece of story telling. Whose side was Sting going to be on, what did this mean. This is when Bishoff perfected the slow burn. We didn’t see Sting for a month. The next time we saw Sting was when he came out in Black leather and Crow makeup and attacked the fake Sting. Then the NWO invited him to join them. Sting didn’t say yes, he didn’t say no. He told the NWO that he might or might not be in their price range, but one thing was for sure about Sting “That nothing is for sure”
Now I’m not going to go into every single detail, but a week later Sting ascended to the Rafters. This was on Oct 28th 1996. He went from energetic and charismatic to sullen and silent and a picture of rage. What was more brilliant was between Oct 28m 1996 and the supposed final blow off match in Dec of 1997, we didn’t see Sting in a match period. Sure Sting would come out of the rafters and for a while he would attack WCW loyalists and NWO wrestlers without discrimination to further the who’s side he was on. We would get awesome visualizations. Sting would hand bats to wrestlers and turn his backs on them. Or walk into the ring during a match between a NWO wrestler and WCW wrestler and drop a bat to leave. On Hulk Hogans birthday Sting left a vulture in the ring.
The fans wanted to see the blowoff, to see sting come down and destroy the NWO and specifically Hogan. At the same time outside of Sting Bishoff kept the NWO booked incredibly strongly. They were unbeatable. In fact, the only guy they were scared of, was Sting.
Then it all fell apart. After over a year of Sting making mystical entrances and being the Dark Avenger for WCW fans we get to the blow off match. Now before I go into this, I have to again give Eric credit. He had a sure-fire winner in this angle. He had millions of dollars in revenue whenever he pulled the trigger, or quite possibly the death blow for WWE if he did this right. All he had to do was wait. And he did. All he needed to do in the end was have Sting come out and basically destroy the NWO and Hogan and he would have another year of stories with Sting in the WCW fold. Instead, disaster struck.
First of all the vibe was off. Hogan came out as NWO Hogan does. Instead of looking the least bit scared or intimidated he strummed his air guitar. Then we got the Sting entrance. Did Sting come down from the ceiling? Or appear from a cloud of smoke, or ride in on a black skeleton horse? (Ok, I suddenly want this). Nope Sting walked to the ring with a neutral look on his face. But that’s ok Hogan was going to get his comeuppance, right? Right? It’s the big payoffs in front of one of the biggest PPV numbers of all time in wrestling in front of a sold out house. Here we got Sting. Was going to bet beaten down like a doofus and Hogan was going to pin him for a three count. Clean. Now wait. Newly acquired Bret Hart came out in the ultimate lets make Sting and Hart look like idiots so they can never draw a dime again, lets have Hart scream about a fast count and not letting another screwjob happen again. But was it a fast count? Watch the clip it looked normal to every fan. But that didn’t matter. Hart punched out crooked ref Nick Patrick and restarted the match. Sting sprung to life and hit two scorpion death drops on Hogan and locked him in the Scorpion Death lock and pointed at Bret who rang the bell as Hogan verbally submitted.
We had a new Heavyweight champion, and as Sting was carried around on the shoulders of his friends to celebrate the end of Hogan, the fans crapped all over it.
And it wasn’t the fault of Sting or Bret or even Eric who had waited so patiently for this glorious payoff. Hogan had once again played his politics. In later interviews Eric went into the day of the match without a match. After meticulously planning things for an entire year Hogan, and Sting and Bishoff never came to an agreement.
Sting literally said there were a lot of politics at play and a lot of confusion and last minute changes. But in the end Hogan squashed anything that would put Sting over him in a conclusive manner. It was an attack on his spot. Hogan just didn’t feel it.
So instead we got a mess that made Hogan look strong, Sting being the good solider eventually did what he was told and the only question was who told Patrick to do a normal instead of fast count. I think we know.
Instead we got a panicked hotshot booking piece where somehow Bret Hart became a licensed official, and literally did to Hogan what McMahon did to him. Yes because Hogan was nervous about Bret coming in with heat, he literally made it look like Bret screwed Hogan.
It was a tragic end to an awesome, unbelievable story. Even their attempt to fix it was typical of later years WCW. The next night they set up a Nitro angle between Hogan and Sting where they had to fight for the title. But the fight went long and it went off the air with the two men still fighting. Then the end was shown on Thunder with two different referees giving two different decisions so in the end no one had the belt. What should have been that time when the NWO got what it had coming. That in the end Sting would top a masterpiece of a year long storyline with ultimate triumph never happened and Sting ended up looking like an idiot.
To me this was the beginning of the end. This PPV had generated $550,000 In live gate and a 1.9 PPV buyrate.
Within 4 years WCW would be dead, but it started here as fans felt disrespected and we started to see that slide in buy rates and in ratings. Sure we got the finger poke of doom, and Kevin Nash’s experimental Nitro booking. But at that point we expected bad booking and stupidity from WCW. But nobody expected this feud to end like this.
When you look at the effects of the major players in this. Sting was still popular but never the same. He eventually joined the NWO Wolfpac but he became just another guy. Bret never gained traction, but after the events with Owen he didn’t have the same fire. But he was booked into oblivion due to Hogan’s desire to protect his spot, and Nash’s dislike of Bret. Instead of having a huge rivalry with Hogan that would have made money for WCW Hogan and Hart. Hogan basically threw that money into a hobo barrel and burned it. Eric never had another moment of inspiration. The NWO and this feud were the height of his creativity, where everything worked. But it was the last of his big ideas. He was fired, bought back, went to TNA to watch Hogan drive that promotion into the dust and spent time as a character in WWE.
And WCW died. Alfred Hitchcock once stated that he liked playing his audience like a piano. Eric and Hogan and Sting did this for a year. Then they dropped the piano on the audience killing it.
Coming soon number 8
__________________
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
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No distraction, I watched season one and am watching season 2. What I don't want here, is to just have a bunch of WWE rivalries here. I assume most of you guys now those. There are absolutely high profile awesome rivalries that will be on this list.
But growing up there were absolutely awesome rivalries in the territories or NWA or ECW for example that I'd like to shine a light on. I mean how many people saw the rvalrie between Tommy Dreamer and Raven that had a for real crucifixion Of Jim Cornette's Midnight express vs the Rock and Roll express that lasted years and went across territories.
BTW sorry for the delays that are going to happen. I kind of want to give some deep dive to these. The first two were awesome rivalry concepts that unfortuately had dire consequences Stomper Allen ended a territory. NWO vs Sting though such an amazing build was ruined by politics and was a contributing factor to the eventual death of WCW as much as the finger poke of doom was.
BTW people didn't critize me obviously but asked how I couldn't have Hogan on my Mount Rushmore. And it wasn't Hogan's work rate, though by half way through his career his work was like a parody account. It wasn't his charisma, it was his overall effect on the wrestling world where he left behind battered careers and battered promotions all because Hogan was the ultimate political player and was hilariously self interested in. Hogan never learned the lesson that Andre the Giant tried to teach him. And to me that's the tragedy of Hogan.
__________________
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
No distraction, I watched season one and am watching season 2. What I don't want here, is to just have a bunch of WWE rivalries here. I assume most of you guys now those. There are absolutely high profile awesome rivalries that will be on this list.
But growing up there were absolutely awesome rivalries in the territories or NWA or ECW for example that I'd like to shine a light on. I mean how many people saw the rvalrie between Tommy Dreamer and Raven that had a for real crucifixion Of Jim Cornette's Midnight express vs the Rock and Roll express that lasted years and went across territories.
BTW sorry for the delays that are going to happen. I kind of want to give some deep dive to these. The first two were awesome rivalry concepts that unfortuately had dire consequences Stomper Allen ended a territory. NWO vs Sting though such an amazing build was ruined by politics and was a contributing factor to the eventual death of WCW as much as the finger poke of doom was.
BTW people didn't critize me obviously but asked how I couldn't have Hogan on my Mount Rushmore. And it wasn't Hogan's work rate, though by half way through his career his work was like a parody account. It wasn't his charisma, it was his overall effect on the wrestling world where he left behind battered careers and battered promotions all because Hogan was the ultimate political player and was hilariously self interested in. Hogan never learned the lesson that Andre the Giant tried to teach him. And to me that's the tragedy of Hogan.
Well I will call you out for omitting Hogan, though I see you later acknowledge it. The explosion in the 80's was purely on the back of Hogan; The MTV partnerships, Pay Per Views, Hollywood crossover, mainstream integration were all built on Hulk Hogan. Hulk Hogan's Rock and Wrestling, Hulk Hogan bubble bath, Hulk Hogan lunch boxes, nobody had the impact on wrestling's popularity like Hulk Hogan did. No wrestler (prior to The Rock) had the mainstream recognition Hulk Hogan did. Great wrestler? obviously not, neither was Andre the Giant, but, great for wrestling? The Greatest.
Leaving him out because of his "self interest", but including Brett Hart?? Brett failing to drop the WWE title was the ultimate self interest move. Having grown up in the business who does he think is by not dropping the title before moving promotions? Like the Hitman is too good to lose the title, he has to forfeit it? Give us a break Brett. Maybe not more self interested then Hogan, but just as bad.
Also looking forward to where the Freebird/ Von Erich feud lads on this list, has to be top 3.
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The only thing better then a glass of beer is tea with Ms McGill
Last edited by Derek Sutton; 03-08-2023 at 03:03 PM.
