2023 Pro Wrestling Thread

The Von Erichs meet the Doctor of Style.

 

Stumbled across this on a Facebook page and thought it was interesting on a couple of levels.
First, you have Dan Spivey in his short-lived Waylon Mercy gimmick — so short-lived I wasn't familiar with it at all. He used it only in the summer of 1995. I wasn't watching wrestling at all around that time and never saw it or heard of it. If it looks familiar, though, it should. Years later Spivey gifted the gimmick to an up-and-coming Windham Rotunda, who obviously took it to a much higher level. The name for the Mercy the Buzzard character came from here as well.

Then, you have him squashing future Hall of Famer Jeff Hardy in one of Hardy's earliest WWE matches. These "before they were stars" matches are always interesting to see.

Finally, the show itself. Raw from July 1995. Vince McMahon still on commentary, trying to hype up matches with the Godwinns, King Kong Bundy and Tatanka. Jerry Lawler doing a drop-in promo for Star Wars on USA, and hyping his own feud with Bret Hart. The lack of production values and bland entrances. No Titantron or main stage. It's just peak mid-90s low-tide WWE.

 

And then there was this. Some sort of promo for The Love Boat with Hulk Hogan, Bruce Jenner and some other guy doing ... ummm ... things?

 

Thought this was interesting: If MJF retains tonight, 2023 will be the first year since 1985 that the top title in both major promotions did not change hands.

 

So Chris Jericho is suddenly trending, which is never a good thing. Somebody made some vague allegations on a podcast and compared him to Harvey Weinstein, which quickly turned into Jericho making a creepy pass at a female wrestler named Kylie Rae in the locker room, which apparently has taken social media about 30 seconds to blow up into Chris Jericho is an unrepentant scumbag.
Who knows what this is really all about, but has there ever been one iota of talk about Jericho like this?

https://www.ringsidenews.com/2023/1...ey-weinstein-as-terrible-allegations-surface/

 

Depends on how you define a major promotion. The AWA was still a major promotion in 1985 and Stan Hansen beat Rick Martel for belt on December 28, 1985 (yes, I looked it up).

The NWA was still a collection of territories in ‘85, and Flair didn’t lose the NWA title that year. Hogan kept the WWF title from 84-88.

 

Apparently his wife is a full-blown MAGA, and rumors, FWIW, have had him cheating on her for years.

The rumors also are that Jericho invited Kylie Rae back to his room, told her that there would be other people there; then when she showed up, he was there alone and allegedly made the creepy pass which allegedly freaked her out.

She’s fairly prominent on the independent scene and was, I think, offered an AEW contract, then was let go voluntarily by TK because she’s had some major mental health issues. After AEW, she went to Impact, and on the day of Bound For Glory, she announced her retirement due to her issues. She came back a few months later.


She’s currently taking a break as she just had a baby. And depending on the rumors, her release from AEW seems a lot more interesting.

 

good points, kind of found it interesting that it never happened during wcw’s existence and then tracked only the big gold belt history.

Its wild to me that MJF has been champion the entire calendar year. Doesnt feel like its been that long.

 

Yeah given the Jericho stuff and Sammys past transgressions maybe they shouldnt be calling themselevs Le Sex Gods for tonights show?

Should be an interesting media scrum for Tony Kahn for sure. The people crapping AEW for this are obvs doing so in bad faith but TK invites it when he does his unhinged social media stuff

 

I'm pretty sure "some other guy" is Tim Rossovich, the former NFL player who became an actor after that and passed away in 2018. During his playing days, he was known as an eccentric "wild man," who if legend is to be believed, would eat glass and show up at parties engulfed in flames (he apparently knew a method that allowed him to be temporarily on fire without any long-term effects). His brother is actor Rick Rossovich, who among other roles over the years was Iceman's buddy Slider in "Top Gun."

And to keep it thread-appropriate, a guy who probably would have done well for himself if he decided to enter the pro wrestling business.

 

That is who it is. This was from a 1970s NFL Facebook group. I just didn't know if anyone here would've recognized the name.