I am not a partier, never have been, but last night RD Jr graduated from high school (!!!) and so we went out and had a spectacular time. As I don’t drink or do drugs, my idea of partying is eating massive amounts of food, drinking way too much caffeine, and staying up too late. Suffice to say I am feeling it today! But what a fun time as he finishes up one chapter of his life and opens the next. I was asked the other day by a friend what I was looking most forward to in life these days and my answer was simple: to see what my son does next. That plan is college, but I am looking not directly at that, but rather just what he does in life in general. I don’t care if he’s a civil engineer (his current plan) or drives a garbage truck as long as he’s happy. That’s what life should be about for all of us, right? Let’s not try to constantly one up each other, let’s not constantly compare and try to rank people. Let’s just enjoy life to the best of our ability and let others do the same. Onto the mailbag.
David N kicks us off with…”Is AEW now wwe from 2019 with all the last minute changes from Tony Khan?”
It does seem kinda strange that his long-term booking is seemingly out the window, but there were few things worse in the history of wrestling than 2018-2020 WWE and for its hiccups of late, AEW is nowhere in that realm. I think the big question now is what is the story with giving Ospreay a title match NOW versus waiting for Wembley. There are two ways to go here, one being that Ospreay gets screwed over and doesn’t win the title in his first chance and has to make his way back up and then wins at Wembley. Second would be he DOES win now and he becomes their top guy and you just get him a top tier challenger (MJF perhaps) at Wembley. I want to make something clear before I give my opinion of what I would do: I do not believe that Will Ospreay, as much as I love him, will ever reach the heights of Hulk Hogan in his prime. I beg all of you to reread that last sentence before reading the next one. With that said, I get the same kinda vibe when Ospreay comes out that I did when Hogan would come out in 1985/1986. Crowd goes completely, utterly, out of their minds insane. So let’s hop in the time machine and go back to 1984 and say, I dunno, Tito Santana was WWF champion at the time. Tito was really good and the fans really, really liked him. Would you have not immediately put Hulk over Tito? Of course you would. You don’t want to delay something that has incredible momentum and could be a turning point in your company. That’s what needs to happen here. You belt Ospreay and push him to the moon. And you do it now because quite frankly, I don’t know how long someone can last doing a style like he does. Maybe he has 20 years in the ring left, maybe he has two. You do it now and do not wait.
And just in case that didn’t tell you I am I am the world’s biggest Ospreay mark and you really should take anything I say with that in mind, Joseph M asks…”Do you have a wrestling clip you come back to when you need a boost in your mood? For me, it is the Mania VIII press conference. The Zubaz, the Sid anger, it is all great.”
Traditionally, it’s been when Cheatum the midget blows up Sting’s boat with a giant cartoon bomb. That would be for comedy. These days it is of course a Will Ospreay match or promo, preferably this one that led to the greatest match I’ve ever seen live.
Dustin N wants to know…”Did Bryan Adams have the absolute worst piledriver of anyone in mainstream wrestling history?”
You never saw Lex Luger’s during his ill-fated heel run with Flair left in 1991. That thing was brutal and I do not mean that in a “wow it looked devastating” manner but rather in a “does Larry even know what a pile driver is” manner.
Patrick M asks…”Why did Kidman scratch all the time in wcw ?”
I was going to say because he was Sick Boy and maybe he had a rash, then realized that was a totally different guy. Have we ever inducted Raven’s Flock? Because that was one weird group and I am guessing I could get some mileage out of that.
Thomas M ponders…”It’s safe to say that there have been many angles and storylines that fans have not enjoyed and to be frank, extremely embarrassed by (Katie Vick, Kurt Angle and Guttersnipes, HLA, Hornswoggle, Pee Pee Choppy Choppy) – what was the first angle or storyline that you made you feel embarrassed to be a wrestling fan? Mine had to be Dink the Clown and the whole Clowns R Us, but that might be down to my lifelong hatred of clowns…”
The first one in my fandom I think was probably Ted DiBiase buying Hercules as a slave. It was one of those things that was just so dumb that you had to shake your head and pray no one was watching with you. Seriously, how on earth could you even attempt to explain that one?
John M asks…”What Wrestlemania main events, if any, would you place higher in the list of Greatest of All Time than Reigns Vs Rhodes II from this year’s Wrestlemania?”
That’s a tall order to be sure…especially since so many of my personal favorite Mania matches have been on the undercard. In fact, pretty much ALL of my favorite Mania matches weren’t main events – Bret vs. Roddy, Shawn vs. Razor, heck even Hogan vs. Rock, none of those were mains. But I think I’d put Taker vs. Shawn or either of the Rock vs. Austin matches ahead of Cody-Roman II.
Chad A wraps us up with…”What’s your all time favorite music video from the 80’s”
Changes by the day (and obviously you have to take every Weird Al video out or it would be all of those first and anything else second), but right now at this nanosecond it would be this classic from Honeymoon Suite:
This has everything – EVERYTHING! – I want from an 80s video. Amazing song, amazing hair, amazing special effects, and amazing acting. Watch the utter fear the lead singer has falling from the sky at the end! Music videos really did hit their zenith in the 1980s. It was an incredible time to be alive.
That’s it for this week. Keep those questions rolling in rightchere!