Look what I found in my email today...

[FedEx227]

Mean Gene was also apart of that big Hogan/Mean Gene vs. Fuji/Steele program in Minneapolis which hit AWA pretty hard.

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

Mean Gene was also apart of that big Hogan/Mean Gene vs. Fuji/Steele program in Minneapolis which hit AWA pretty hard.

dirty business, right there

so cut thoat

 

[FedEx227]

It's amazing when you really look at the type of business McMahon did in the early 80s. My god was he a ruthless piece of shit. There's obviously the narrative about scooping up all the talent blah blah but it went WAY deeper than that. The man was obsessed with putting any and all competition out of business.

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

It's amazing when you really look at the type of business McMahon did in the early 80s. My god was he a ruthless piece of shit. There's obviously the narrative about scooping up all the talent blah blah but it went WAY deeper than that. The man was obsessed with putting any and all competition out of business.

Including straight up legit dirty business like never paying Stu Hart is money for buying out Calgary.

You can see why Roddy Pipper refused to work Oregon for Vince. He wanted no part of hurting Don Owen in that direct manner.

 

[LiquidLarry2GhostWF]

And wrestling has never really been the same since. Less people watch then ever before.

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

In early 1977, Jerry Jarrett split from Nick Gulas whom he had been working with for many years. At this point, Jarrett owned 50% of the promotion after acquiring more and more of the company over the previous 5-6 years. The split was due to Nick wanting to push his son George Gulas as a top star. Unfortunately, George was not the star that his dad thought he could be and the business started suffering due to poor ticket sales when George was the main event attraction. According to an early 2000′s interview with Kayfabe Memories, Jarrett made the following comments about his split with Nick Gulas:

“I had a meeting with Gulas as a fifty percent partner. I explained that I could not put my investment at risk by bringing his son George to Memphis. Nick got his attorney, Cecil Bramstetter, on the phone. This is the attorney that drew up the partnership papers. At the time, I was so dumb, that I did not have my own attorney and simply allowed Nick’s attorney to draw the papers. Cecil informed me that the money I had paid for the fifty percent interests was only option payment and I owned nothing. I left the office with my head spinning and called another lawyer, who after looking at the contracts advised me that I had been screwed. I asked him what I could do and he tells me that he is sure he can get the contract dissolved in court but it would probably take a couple of years. I told him that in my opinion, the business would be gone in that time period. I told him that I wanted to start my own company regardless of how small it was.”

“I called key talent and advised them of my plans. Tojo and Fargo, who I just knew would stick with me, stayed with Gulas. Lawler and most of my men just asked what to do and said they were with me. I advised them to keep wrestling and I’d let them know when I was ready. Lawler and I went to see Mori Griner at Channel 5 in Memphis. At the time Channel 5 was in third place in the market and Channel 13, which had the wrestling show was number one. I told Mori that I could bring my wrestling to him and I could also bring Lance Russell and Dave Brown. I explained that not only could he get the number one television show in Memphis away from Channel 13, but he could get the program director, Russell, and the number one weather man, Brown. I promised him that he would become the number one station in Memphis within one year. Well, bless his heart, he believed in us and true to my word, Channel 5 became the top rated station in less than a year. This moved sealed my relationship with Channel 5 for years to come and also launched my promotion company.

After securing the television deal, I called Buddy Fuller and told him I was opening my own promotion. Buddy had never liked Nick, so he began helping me inform the NWA membership of the split. I took Buddy in as a partner mainly for political reasons and also because Roy, Buddy’s father, was responsible for me being in the business in the first place. We had to start our Memphis promotion at Ellis Auditorium, because the Mid-South [Coliseum] contract was in the name of Gulas-Welch. Channel 13 realized that they had lost their top rated TV show so rather than have a second rate program, they chose to cancel the contract. This left us the only promotion with a television show and the battle for Memphis was over. Because I had started Louisville, Lexington, and Evansville myself, there was never a real fight for those towns. So almost without a real fight, I had what had been known as the Memphis end of the promotion. Fargo and Tojo finally returned to the fold, but the relationship was never really the same.”

By 1978, Jarrett was getting the better of the rivalry with Gulas. It was during this period of time that Nick Gulas decided to bring in the Poffo family despite their reputation of being “outlaws” and anti-NWA. However, it wouldn’t be long before Angelo Poffo decided he would want to start his own promotion.

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

Terry (Funk) was a complete nut, but a fun kind of nut. I'm sure the empty coliseum was Terry's idea. One day Terry called me and said he had a great idea. He asked me what was the best night of the year for wrestling? I told him of course that Thanksgiving Day was the single best day. Terry said 'Of course it is. Now here is my idea. All promoters around the country are bad business people. None of them lock up their dates in buildings. Lets you and I go rent every building in the country for next Thanksgiving Day. Then we can charge the promoters a lot of money to give up the building.' I said, 'Terry, that's a great idea, but what happens if they all get mad and say let them have it. We will be broke.' Terry laughed and said he thought I would have had more balls than I did.

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

I've settled on two more...

Takashi Matsunaga - All Japan Women was a highly successful promotion for decades, highly influential, and at times the best drawing promotion in Japan. What is interesting about Matsunaga, is he targeted different audiences at different times. The hottest period of AJW was when he was drawing from teenaged girls. We've seen many individual draws over the years that have been big hits with teen girls (Jeff Hardy, RnR Express & the endless string of "blowjob" teams that copied them, etc), but this was an entire promotion that thrived off of that unique market. How can the most successful promoter of the super hot Joshi era not be in the Hall of Fame? He gets my vote.

Jimmy Hart - I was doing research on Hart the other day, and said to myself, "what the fuck am I doing?". Of course Jimmy Hart belongs in the Hall of Fame. There is no question he drew money in Memphis, because for years he was the lead heel to Lawler with his revolving door of heel charges that drew sellout after sellout at the Mid South Colosseum. Influential? Obviously. Great performer? Duh. I mean, why over think this? He also produced tons of entrance themes.

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

That leaves me one spot on the non-wrestler list, which i'm pretty sure i'm going to use. I doubt i'll use all ten of my wrestler spots.

I should probably also mention that I would have voted for Carlos Colon if was was included in the US/Canada group. But Puerto Rico is listed with Australian/New Zealand/Pacific Islands/Miscellaneous for some reason. I dont think it's fair to vote Colon when I know so little about the rest of the candidates, and my non votes will count against them in what will surely be a category that has very few voters to begin with.

Also, Mexico is packed with candidates. I'd vote for Atlantis or Blue Panther and a few others with no second thought, i'm just not comfortable voting that category right now. Maybe next year.

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

So we've got..

Rock & Roll Express
Kensuke Sasaki
Hiroshi Tanahashi


Don Owen
Jerry Jarrett
Takashi Matsunaga
Jimmy Hart

 

[LiquidLarry2GhostWF]

Your lack of Sting and Brock Lesnar is...disappointing.

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

Your lack of Sting and Brock Lesnar is...disappointing.

Haven't gotten there yet.

Been working on people i'm not familiar with. I know the score with people like the above inside & out. I have a couple of weeks to sort everything out.

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

There are people predicting that AJ Styles will get zero votes & shouldn't have been on the ballot.

Look, I don't think he's a real contender, not even close, but I think people forget just how good & innovative he was at this peak as a worker. He was really, really awesome.

The problem, is so were people like Owen Hart & Curt Hennig, and they are much much stronger as overall candidates, and they never even sniff the 60%.

AJ as an innovative, creative, and super worker is underrated. Its not enough to make up for his negative value god awful promos, and the fact he was the top face for many years and his company didn't draw a dime. But I really like Styles and think he deserves his shot on the ballot.

 

[LiquidLarry2GhostWF]

I don't see Styles as a guy that people would ever take seriously.

 

[FedEx227]

This article from friend of the show mookieghana (who will be a guest later tonight) did a piece of JCP/WCW Draws that may be of interest for potential Sting voters:

http://indeedwrestling.blogspot.com/2013/09/jcpwcw-draws-1986-2001.html

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

Meltzer is going HAM on Don Owen on the Observer board, toe to toe with DylanWaco.

Clearly Big Dave does not vote for Owen, but does vote for Jarrett. I get he idea he votes for Crockett Sr, can't get a feel for Crockett Jr.

He makes compelling points about Owen not running a major territory, but we already knew that. The longevity & key business decisions are what sway me on Owen. Plus the fact he was so well liked, that's a feather in his cap to me in a business where most of these guys are despised.

 

[LiquidLarry2GhostWF]

To steal a Warner2BruceTD phrase...Don Owen stayed in his lane...I guess if you want to knock him for it, ok...honestly, in an era when the back end of it had a ton of territories trying to come together to rival Vince and couldn't, Owen just stayed in his lane and milked probably another decade or out of his territory. He was also wise in his expansion.

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

I've fallen off the fence and made a decision on Sting, but i'll save it for the podcast.

I'm having a ton of trouble with the 5th & final non-wrestler spot.

Been going back & forth on Lesnar, Ivan Koloff, and a few others. Doubt i'm voting for the full ten.

 

[LiquidLarry2GhostWF]

Fuck the podcast.

I demand an answer NOW on Sting.

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

It's down to Jesse Ventura vs Gene Okerlund in the non-wrestler. I would vote for both if I could.

Sell me on one or the other. I think Jesse was/is the model for the heel announcer. Influence is unquestioned. May have started in late 84 or so but really his peak was 85-89 or so. WCW he was ok, but all told he wasn't really in that role for a long time.

Okerlund is hard to quantify, but I think he is without question the best at his role of all time, and I do believe he sold tickets. His AWA stuff & early WWF local promo stuff is absolutely fantastic. WCW got a little embarrassing towards the end. He's still active in wrestling, so longevity is no issue. The question on Okerlund, is this. Is he a punter, a closer, a long snapper, or a legitimate player? Is he Mariano River (slam dunk), Ray Guy (borderline), or Steve Tasker (get lost)?