2019 Pro Wrestling thread

Favorite moment: When Hogan and Warrior squared off.

Favorite Rumble: ‘92, of course. Plus I love the pop Piper gets when he beats the Mountie for the IC title.

 

I just watched the Nigel McGuiness doc on the network...... so he retired on his own?? No medical condition?!?

This guy needs to come back and feud with Bryan once Bryan turns back face based on this film. Its so clear.

 

I think in the doc, he said he had hepatitis, which was why TNA fired him. Plus, what wasn’t mentioned was he had a lot of concussions.

 

I thought he was in the Corey Graves bad concussion camp but when they didnt mention it I figured I was just mistaken.

Weird the doc made it seem like the Hep would clear with meds but that’s obvs a big thing too.

 

I looked him up after I made the last lost. Found a good Deadspin story on him from a few years ago. Apparently, it was mostly that Hogan didn’t care for his style in TNA, but the hepatitis played a factor. And he dealt with numerous injuries.

 

One contributing factor when WWE was initially about to sign him from ROH, according to the documentary, was an elbow/shoulder injury that Nigel's own doctors were comfortable with, but WWE's docs would not clear.

 

Meanwhile, back in Phoenix...

 

I've talked about it before, but the 1997 Rumble is an incredible time capsule of mid-1990s WWE.
Six or seven of the guys in the RR match were rent-a-luchadores from Mexico (the PPV was in San Antonio). One of them was the legendary Mil Mascaras, who eliminated himself doing a flying dive onto some other guys outside the ring.
Austin won, marking a key point in his ascension to megastar status.
What stood out to me, though, was the sheer number of wrestlers who had the gimmick just before THE gimmick that made them famous. The Rock was still Rocky Maivia. Triple H was a rising star, but still doing his blue blood gimmick pre-DX (Shawn Michaels was the babyface WWE champ at the time, managed by Jose Lothario; he defended the title against Sid on the PPV. The New Age Outlaws hadn't yet formed, although Road Dogg was also in the Royal Rumble match). Glenn Jacobs was in the match as Fake Diesel, a few months before he became Kane.
And, of course, Bret Hart was still there doing Bret Hart things 10 months before the Montreal Screwjob.
Meanwhile, the production values were absolute shit. Today's house shows have more bells and whistles and better production than that major PPV did. You had no idea who half the guys entering were, especially the luchadores no one had ever heard of.

When you look at that match and see all of that, and then look at the 1998 or '99 Rumbles and what all of those guys -- not to mention the WWE itself -- became just a year or two later, it is absolutely mind blowing.

 

Forgot to post the Deadspin story on Nigel. It’s from 2013. Really good read.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/deadsp...-journey-through-the-indie-wrestl-5984273/amp

 

Anyone else just love Nikki Cross?

 

Amazing goal celebration. Watch. Trust me.

 

What an entrance...