#Spring Stampede 1997

[machobusta]

Madusa vs. Akira Hokuto | Singles match for the WCW Women’s Championship WCW Spring Stampede April 6, 1997

[fromundertheapron]

Episode 39 - Top 10 Top Non Champions of the 80s and 90s

We put out the question of the week, what are your top wrestlers either heel or face that were top guys in their era and in their company but never got the big belt. The World Championship in WCW or the WWE championship. Again, keep in mind growing up we only watched two companies, one in WWE and the other in WCW. This list is going to be controversial to some and its going to have a lot of people saying bullshit. But I think the list I did ended up being nothing but 80s and 90s guys so maybe there will be another list for the millennium guys. The new era guys.

 

Okay, so I gave myself some rules as to how I should pick these. Number 1, Vince loves loyalty so pick the guys that stayed there longer than a year. After that, there shouldn’t be a reason why they didn’t get a shot or a chance to become one.

 

10. Ravishing Rick Rude in WCW and WWE

Okay lets start off with the ladies man, im putting him at number 10 because he really did cause a lot of ruckus to get where he’s at. He was the top heel every where he went, not one time did he turn face in WWE for three years and then he showed up in WCW for another three years and tried going after the belt. He was a 3 time WCW International Heavyweight Champion, which only lasted a short time and it was unified with the big World Heavyweight Championship belt. The sad thing here is that he took a bump from Sting which caused him to end his career so soon. In WWE he was a one time Intercontinental Champion feuding with Ultimate Warrior and then later on with Rowdy Roddy Piper. The guy was popular when he left, we all knew who he was. So when he made his way to WCW, you would think they would have given him that push. They gave him a United States Championship when he defeated Sting. Some matches with Ricky Steamboat. But they didn’t push the button on him when he faced WCW World Heavyweight Champion Ron Simmons on different occasions. On April 17, 1993 on the Spring Stampede ppv show he legit injured his back in a match against Sting. He retired shortly thereafter only making appearances in ECW as a color commentator and in WWE as a member of DX. Finishing his career in WCW as a member of the NWO and most notably known as the only person to show up on both broadcasts of WWE Monday Night Raw and WCW Monday Nitro at the same time.

Pro Wrestling Illustrated voted him Most hated wrestler of the year in 1992

PWI ranked him number 4 in the PWI 500 in 1992

 

9. Curt Hennig in WWE (1988-1996). Mr. Perfect deserved that championship belt. He was top face and top heel and still yet they give the belt to people who would eventually leave for movies anyway. Another guy who feuded with the top face and should have gotten that opportunity. And I get they wanted to protect their company. But you give him a name like Mr. Perfect and he’s a heel, you should be able to give him that. He then held the Intercontinental Championship twice which was the work horse belt. The secondary belt but it still doesn’t count. He wrestled and faced people that would become top guys, Bret Hart, Razor Ramon, Randy Savage, Ric Flair, and Shawn Michaels.  Unfortunately, he started having back problems by 1991 when he suffered a broken tailbone and bulge disks and had to retire. You would see him sporadically as a manager to Ric Flair, wrestled a match teaming with Randy Savage, but later on would mostly be in losing situations against Shawn Michaels and our favorite Alexander Luger. Had it not been for his bad back we would have gotten to see a Perfect push for the top gold especially in the era where Hulk Hogan left for movies and WCW. Just imagine, him vs Bret Hart, Yokozuna, Shawn Michaels, Owen Hart, Razor Ramon, Tatanka, Bam Bam Bigelow and feuding with The Million Dollar Corporation.

PWI Most Improved Wrestler 1997

Number 9 of the PWI Top 500 in 1993

8. Rowdy Roddy Piper (1984 – 1996) in WWE Are you telling me the Hot Rod never held the big belt but yet you give him the Intercontinental championship as a transition to give it to Bret Hart? I get that he’s more known to be a movie star but you had since Wrestlemania 1 to establish him as the top heel of the company and give him that chance. He faced Hulk Hogan. He smashed a coconut on Snuka’s head. Top Heel! And then when he became a top face you put him in the middle of the card or have him face younger talent.

Match of the Year in 1995 Wrestlemania 1 teaming up with Paul Orndorff vs Hulk Hogan and Mr. T.

Most Hated Wrestler of the Year 1984 and 1985

Most Popular Wrestler of the Year 1986

Number 45 in the Top PWI 500 1992

7. Ricky The Dragon Steamboat (1985 – 1988) Initially after getting a DDT from Jake the Snake Roberts on the concrete which Jake didn’t want to particularly do because he was scared Ricky wasn’t going to stop himself from hitting the pavement which happened anyway. Vince should have owed Ricky a favor from here on out. That was the first strike. The next strike is being the top match of the night right next to the match that Vince thought was going to be the top match in the main event. Vince should have thanked Ricky Steamboat then after he won the IC title from Macho Man. But instead they punish him for it and have him lose in the tournament for the WWE Championship at Wrestlemania 4. He left WWE in 1988 for WCW.

Match of the Year Wrestlemania 3 against Randy Savage

Ranked number 6 PWI Top 500 in 1992

 

6. Razor Ramon (1992 – 1996) in WWE Wrestlemania 10 ladder match should have told you he can go. Him facing Bret Hart at Royal Rumble 93 for the title said that he can go. He defeated Diesel on the year that he was World Champion and was in a feud with Jeff Jarrett and that should have told you that he can go. He didn’t even complain when they had Goldust flirt with Chico. Its no wonder he was the first one to shoot that shot and go to WCW. Check out episode 16 titled Hey Yo of the All Things Wrestling podcast to learn more about him, yet… he still didn’t an opportunity to hold it and be near it after that Royal Rumble match against Bret Hart.

PWI Match of the Year Wrestlemania 10 vs Shawn Michaels in a ladder match 1994

Ranked number 7 in the PWI 500 in 1994

 

5. Owen Hart in WWE (1991 – 1999) Not because of his death, Its more of a he should have gotten it when he was feuding with his brother. Summer Slam should have been it. But he didn’t receive that push. Instead it was given to Bob Backlund, crazy psychotic heel. Owen was a top heel from the start of that year. He won the King of the Ring, that should have put him in the front of the line. He got together with Yokozuna and then when that finished, they let Yoko try to go after it again instead of Owen. They had Owen and British Bulldog as a tag team, so they let Davey Boy go after it. Owen gives HBK a concussion, still not a championship opportunity. Montreal Screw job happens. Owen is the only one that stayed, that should have been a reason to give him the belt atleast for a few weeks before throwing it back to Shawn Michaels who left anyways because he had a bad back.

PWI Feud of the Year with Bret Hart 1994

Number 10 in the PWI Top 500 in 1994

4. Arn Anderson in WCW (1990 – 2000) The number 1 man of the top heel and the top stable in the company and even when Ric Flair left, Arn should have picked up the slack. What did Triple H do when HBK left after Wrestlemania? Trip became a top guy. So instead of him becoming top guy in WCW when Ric Flair and Sid left, they make him go after the tag belts. Honestly this was his chance to prove he wasn’t just the master of the spinebuster but a good main eventer. He was WCW TV champion 4 different times. WCW Tag team Champion with 4 different people 5 times. Ranked number 9 in the PWI 500 Magazine in 1991. You talk about a company man, this man was it. Only they didn’t pull the trigger on him because they were too busy experimenting with others that didn’t deserve it.

 

3. Jake the Snake in WWE (1986 – 1992) Why did this man not get a championship title after all the shit he pulled with that snake? He had a weapon. He literally almost killed Macho Man. He was in a blind man match. He almost gave Ricky Steamboat a concussion. He practically gave Andre a heart attack with that snake… and then you kill his snake? But wont give him a push.

Number 23 in the PWI 500 in 1991

 

Tatanka in WWE (1991 – 1996) He had an undefeated streak from 91 to 93 before he lost to some douche who left because his ankle got hurt. He would go after the Intercontinental Championship and lose via count out or DQ. But didn’t get pinned during those 2 and half years. He would be pushed as a main eventer and have main event style matches. When Hogan was gone, he would eventually adopt the hulking up move and run around the ring to get that energy from the crowd and then point at his opponent. He was honored by Chief Jay Strongbow, Chief Wahoo McDaniel and Lumbee tribesman Ray Littleturtle with a full length Lumbee tribe headdress on an edition of RAW. He feuded with IRS because tax man wanted him to pay taxes for that headdress.

 

My favorite year for him was in 1994 when he turned heel against best friend Lex Luger and joined the Million Dollar Corporation. He would feud with Luger, Bam Bam Bigelow, and have matches against the champions like Diesel and Bret Hart but always fell short. If anything, 1994 and 1995 would have been the year to have him win the championship and then have another feud with Lex Luger.

 

Ranked number 40 in the PWI 500 in 1994

 

1. Ted Dibiase in WWE (1987 – 1996) The man has a long resume!! He bought the wwe championship from Andre the Giant but they didn’t acknowledge it so its not in the history books. And since he thought he was cheated from that because he paid a price, he turned it into The Million Dollar Belt and always defended it. He got a bodyguard, paid off Dusty Rhodes stan friend Sapphire and turned and then kicked her out. After he defeated his opponent with the million dollar dream he would stuff a 100 dollar bill in his mouth so when he wakes up it be a way of saying thanks for doing the job. Sometimes Virgil would retrieve the 100 dollar bill and keep it for himself. The man was a free bodyguard. He made a young kid kiss his feet for money on live tv, years later we find out this little kid grew up to be Rob Van Dam.

 

He bought off Hercules contract and wanted Herc to work for him as a slave. Herc didn’t like that. He bought off the number 30 spot at the 1989 Royal Rumble from Akeem and tried to buy off Big John Stud who were the last two wrestlers in the ring before Big John eliminated Dibiase.

 

At the 1990 Royal Rumble, he was punished for buying off the number 30 spot the year before and was given number 1. He lasted 45 minutes

 

In 1992 he got the services of IRS which they became known as Money Inc and they won the tag team belts on three separate occasions. He would mock other heel wrestlers for losing to jobbers. He mocked Razor Ramon enough to turn him face. He retired and became a manager and even then he still was the most hated villainous heel. He started the Million Dollar Corporation and started buying contracts including Nikolai Volkoff’s who was doing poorly and needed the money. He would embarrass him and make him wear the cents logo on his trunks followed by property of the million dollar man. He followed that up with his other partner, IRS, and then Bam Bam Bigelow. He bought others and created the most hated stable in the WWE. Others in the stable were Kama who was Papa Shango and now goes by The Godfather. The walking Condom King Kong Bundy, Sycho Sid, 1-2-3 Kid, and the most famous one of all that I did not see coming. The Native American Tatanka… HE BOUGHT A NATIVE AMERICAN OFF!!!

 

And finally before he left to join the NWO, he introduced us all to the new Million Dollar Champion, The Ringmaster Steve Austin… Yea, that guy didn’t last long.

 

Most hated wrestler of the year 1982

Number 17 in the PWI 500 1991

[g4zdtechtv]

@how2wrestling #27 - #How2DDP

On this edition of How2Wrestling, Kefin & Jo are gonna feel... the... BANG!!!

[everymovie2020]

Dante’s Peak (1997)

Date watched:  24 May 2019

I was going to do a whole disaster movie themed weekend but in the end I only watched four of them (and all ones I'd seen before).  So over the next few weeks there might be some disaster movie discussion as I make my way through my extensive list of the greatest disaster movies of all time (although, on the Vulture list of the greatest disaster movies of all time, it does not include Twister, like… I'm sorry, but is that masterpiece not considered a disaster film?).

I decided to start with Dante's Peak and pair that with Volcano, as they were both released in 1997.  I do not own DP and haven't seen it since… the 90s?  Maybe?  If not the 90s, then the early 2000s.  And because I wanted to watch it – I was determined to watch it on Friday night – and my usual source of movies for free yielded me nothing, I actually rented it through YouTube and I've gotta say, in a pinch – not bad!  Yeah, it cost me $4 but the quality was great and I was able to watch the movie I specifically wanted to watch that night.

Anyway, let's get into the nonstop thrill ride that is Dante's Peak, starring Pierce Brosnan, Linda Hamilton and literally nobody else notable!

Plot:

Pierce Brosnan is the best volcanologist in the biz.  He works for… Geology USA! (I forget the official title so I'm giving it a jazzy new one) as a dude who goes out and investigates volcanoes, so, literally, a volcanologist.

Anyway they get a report about this supposedly dormant volcano Dante's Peak, which overlooks the town of… Dante's Peak.  And I want to say this is in upstate Washington perhaps? But honestly, I'm not really sure. Could be Oregon.  One of those north-western states.  Green, lush, picturesque, mountainous, complete with a quaint, small American town where everything is about to go to FUCKING SHIT.

So Pierce rocks up into town and Linda Hamilton is like, "Tear me off a piece of that," and I'm like, "Get it girl."

She's the town mayor so she takes him on a sightseeing tour, complete with her two obnoxious children, and they go up to meet her ex-mother-in-law who actually lives on the mountain.  It's up there that they decide to go for a swim when they find two people who have been goddamn boiled to death in a volcanic hot spring.

Honestly, the scene of those two poor bastards boiling to death is really the only thing seared into my memory of this movie. When I think of this movie, I think about those two experiencing one of the worst deaths of all time, and I know they're not real but people have died that way and it would suck so hard.

Anyway, Pierce is like, "There's something wrong with your mountain, let's call a town meeting.” So they have this meeting and the townspeople are like, "are you guys fuckin' serious," and then Pierce's boss rolls in all, "all right guys I feel like James Bond has gotten a little too carried away on this one," and Pierce is like, "well I do NOT agree so I will hang around town to prove that I am right and you are wrong (and also to bang Linda Hamilton)".

Then… what the fuck happens?  I watched it five days ago and I'm blanking, because all the ridiculous stuff happens towards the end and the first two-thirds of the movie are pretty boring.

Okay, so the boss dude who doesn't believe Pierce is like, "this volcano ain't doin' shit, we're packing up and leaving," and Pierce is very, very mad about this but happy enough to flirt with Linda Hamilton, and that's when they discover that the town water has turned to sludge.

WELL.  Pierce is HOPPING MAD at this point, let me tell you, because god damn it he was RIGHT and everyone else was WRONG.

So they call a town meeting and they're like, "Listen guys, the volcano is about to fuck yo shit up," and the townspeople are like, "Our volcano is dormant, that means it's DEAD, that means NOTHING BAD WILL HAPPEN," and Pierce is like, "Guys, seriously," and THEN there's a massive earthquake because TIMING IS EVERYTHING.

There's a bit of a stampede, and everyone runs out to the front of the town hall/high school (wherever it was they were having the meeting), and sure enough, Dante's fuckin' Peak is blowing up like a mother-fucker.  The townspeople immediately descend into PANICCCCC and start piling into their cars to try to escape, meanwhile there's a huge earthquake going on, buildings are falling down, shit is descending into madness and then Linda Hamilton is all, "I left the kids at home.  Gonna need to get the kids."

So Pierce is like RIGHT LET'S GET THE KIDS, and then of course it's chaos on the roads, and shit is collapsing – I mean, things are deteriorating – and of course when they get to the house the kids aren't there.  Why? They went to rescue Grandma up on the mountain because she was too stubborn to leave.

And like, this is the most realistic thing, because often in disasters people ARE too stubborn to leave, but like… fuck that.  I'll be taking my cats and noping THE FUCK OUT OF THERE, thank you very much.  Honestly, if I was living in this town, I would've left the second the geologists turned up.  Ain't no volcano is gonna get me.

So they're driving up this mountain, and the earthquake is still happening, and the volcano is still erupting, and then they make it through just as half of the mountain collapses behind them, but there's Grandma's house, still bloody standing (of course, everything else is collapsing but not Grandma's house, and the kids have made it there totally unscathed – like sure, okay, sure a volcano is going off and this fucking 12 year old drove a truck up the mountain during a massive earthquake but sure, okay, they're fine.  So they reunite but then, what's this?  FUCKING LAVA.

Fucking lava, flowing down the mountain like a motherfucker. And the road is cut, so they can't get out that way, and they don't have a car, but they do have a boat and a lake, so they pile into the boat and start across the lake.  But what's this?  The fucking lake is ACID.

It's basically a game of what can go wrong will go wrong at this point.

So the boat is taking on acid water, and they're trying not to burn themselves, but they're getting closer to the dock on the other side of the lake and the propeller disintegrates.  And then Grandma, who SINGLEHANDEDLY GOT THEM ALL INTO THIS MESS – yes Grandma I'M READING YOU TO FILTH – gets out and drags the boat ashore, burning the fuck out of herself in the process.

Because ACID.

I mean like, they probably could've made it without her doing that?  They really didn't have far to go.

Can I just say, at this point – if Pierce Brosnan had not come to this town, literally all of these people would've died horrible volcanic deaths.

Then they've got to walk down the mountain – the lava stopped at the lake, I guess? – and Grandma dies, and then they find a truck which Pierce hotwires – he's amazing – and they're tootling down the hill when all of a sudden LAVA.  FUCKIN' LAVA AGAIN.

You'd think this volcano was erupting or something with all this fuckin' lava, I mean, I don't know.

And then, in possibly the most ridiculous part of the movie, PIERCE BROSNAN DRIVES HIS TRUCK THROUGH THE LAVA AND ALSO RESCUES A DOG WHILST DOING SO.

I MEAN.

Guys.

Like.

It's lava.  It'll fuck your shit up.  THERE IS NO WAY THE CAR WOULDN'T FUCKING MELT INTO THE FUCKING LAVA.  THAT THE WHEELS WOULD KEEP TURNING.  THERE IS NO WAY.  LAVA IS VERY HOT.

If there's one thing I know about lava, it's that it's VERY HOT.  And sure, it burns the tyres off and they're driving on rims, but like, IT STILL MELTS METAL THOUGH?  Because it's VERY HOT.

ANY-WAY.  I had a problem with this during the worst movie I have ever seen (Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, seriously, JW:FK, go fuck yourself to death), and I have a problem now with Dante's Peak not representing lava accurately.

MEANWHILE back at the town the Geology USA team is making their escape across the bridge – apparently there's only one way in and out of this town?  Seems like a mistake – and of course, all of this sludge and trees and chaos is descending from the mountain because all of the snow is melting, there are landslides, etc etc.

So they're driving across the bridge in a convoy and the first two trucks make it across but not the van holding the boss dude from the start – remember the guy that was totally fucking wrong about the volcano? HIM – because the bridge starts breaking apart.  And then he just sits in the van, and they're all like, "OH NO," and I'm like, "GET OUT AND JUMP!!  WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" and THEN he gets out but by then it's too late because the bridge flips over and he dies.

LIKE.

WHY NOT TAKE TWO CARS, GUYS?

It's quite frustrating when these deaths could have been avoided by simply taking less cars.

Anyway, Pierce, Linda, the kids and the dog have made it back into the town, but the volcano is going to hardcore blow its load any minute. They stop to grab this radio thing and of course then the volcano is like "FUUUUUUUUUCCCKKKKKKKKK" (this volcano is big on TIMING, okay) and unleashes almighty hell, and then they've got to drive their beat up, tyre-less piece of shit truck into a mine shaft for safety, and then Pierce forgets the fucking radio thing so he has to go BACK, but the mine shaft collapses, yada yadayada, and then they're rescued.

In summation, they would've died a bunch of times in this movie, but honestly, even driving into a mine shaft wouldn't save you from a pyroclastic flow – I mean, MAYBE it would?  But I don't think it would.  They weren't that deep inside.  I just don't know.

Look, it's… okay.  Personally, I think Volcano is the superior movie.  DP is possibly a touch more realistic (setting aside the lava driving)?  It is based on the St Helens' volcano, though I think the DP version is sped up in terms of shit going from normal to catastrophic.

I mean, the thing that gets me is the lava, like, guys, like… it's super hot.  I just feel like lava has been misrepresented in certain movies as not being hot, but it is though.  IT IS SO HOT. I just don't believe you could drive a car through it.  Maybe I'm wrong.  Maybe there's a Mythbusters episode.  I don't know.

Seriously though, the Wikipedia page for the eruption of Mt St Helens is totally worth a read.  Volcanoes are FUCKING SCARY.

[dalekofchaos]

Eric Bischoff’s arrogance and stupidity in the Bret Hart 83 Weeks episode is astounding. That’s the best he felt he could use Bret Hart?  Coming in as a special guest referee and just using him as Hogan’s sidekick and having more heel turns than Big Show. Bret Hart should have been booked as a face. Being hurt and screwed by the company he helped saved and wants revenge on Shawn Michael’s friends and finally getting his hands on Hogan. The amount of baby face momentum Bret Hart had going following Montreal easily could have been turned into success instead chose to waste Bret Hart. They had the hottest star coming out of a controversial finish and it eventually costed Bret Hart’s wrestling career. What they should’ve done is use Bret Hart for all he’s worth. Feud with Hogan, the NWO and the Four Horseman. Keep Bret Hart the face of WCW. Instead he had some lame feud with Ric Flair and turned heel and face more than Big Show. His WCW career went nowhere.

It’s very simple. Bring Bret in the Nitro after Montreal. Put Bret in the ring with a live mic and let him rip into Vince McMahon and Shawn Michaels. Bring up everything that happened, especially punching Vince’s lights out. Security comes to the ring to escort Bret out but he refuses to leave. Eric Bischoff comes out with a big smile on his face and tells security to back off. He’s loving every minute of everything Bret’s saying. Bischoff eventually welcomes Bret to the nWo. Bret shakes his hand, then decks him. The nWo hit the ring and Bret jumps the guardrail and escapes through the crowd. WCW should have given Bret the mic, let him cut a brutal shoot on Vince and Shawn, ending it by saying "Since I can't beat the shit out of Shawn Michaels I am gonna do the next best thing, hurt Shawn where it hurts, his friends" hinting at Bret gunning after Hall and Nash. It could be like Austin. If Bret was hurt from punching Vince, Bret could just be shooting non-stop and attacking from behind like Austin was when he was injured. 

STARRCADE: Dec 28, 1997 Bret’s first big feud is logically against the nWo. He’s just come from a company run by a corrupt owner and a couple of degenerates with too much backstage political power, so when he sees Bischoff, Hogan, Hall, and Nash all he can see is Vince, Shawn and Helmsley. It’s too early for Bret to face Hogan for the title, besides Hogan is facing Sting on this night in one of the best built feuds in wrestling history, but Hall and Nash make perfect sense. Hall and Nash were Shawns real life best friends, so it only makes sense for Bret to specifically target them as they could make the feud that much more personal by bringing their friendship with Shawn into things. Neither Hall nor Nash were even used at Starrcade 97 which is itself a mystery so they were both available to face Bret.

So at Starrcade its Bret Hart vs Kevin Nash. Bret’s first match is against Shawn Michaels real life best friend Kevin Nash. I believe this is the most logical way to start Bret’s run in WCW. Bret wins via DQ when Hall interferes just as Nash is about to tap to the sharpshooter. Bret wins his first big match in WCW but Hall and Nash get the last laugh double teaming Bret and leaving him laying in the ring with nWo spraypainted on his back.

nWo SOULED OUT: January 24, 1998 After defeating Nash, Bret moves on to the other outsider and former Kliq member: Scott Hall. Bret Hart def Scott Hall After the match Nash arrives and the Outsiders doubleteam Bret. But this time Bret has come prepared. Bulldog and Anvil jump the guardrail to make the save in their WCW debut.

SUPERBRAWL: February 22, 1998 Hollywood Hogan vs Bret Hart After Hogan drops the belt to Sting at Starcade he gets his rematch at nWo Souled out but loses, this means Sting can face some fresh faces for the title and Hogan can move on to feuding with Bret. After beating both of Hogan’s flunkies at the previous two ppv’s, Bret wants to get his hands on the man who’s avoided him for years: Hulk Hogan.

For the first few weeks of the build to this event Hogan doesn’t accept Bret’s challenge as he wants Sting one more time for the title. Hogan feels Bret is beneath him and he has nothing to gain by facing him. But when it’s announced that if Hogan were to win the match he’d get another shot at Sting, then Hogan agrees to the match.

At the ppv, I have Hogan getting the win here when Bischoff comes down and, ala Vince McMahon at Survivor Series, rings the bell when Hogan puts Bret in the sharpshooter. Referee Nick Patrick calls for the bell and the match ends in a Survivor Series screwjob much to the delight of Hogan and Bischoff. After the match, the entire nWo beat down Bret. Anvil and Bulldog show up but they are greatly outnumbered. All the Harts are spraypainted in nWo letters to close out the show.

UNCENSORED: March 15 1998 Bret Hart def Curt Hennig This is what actually happened at this event and I wouldn’t change it. It furthers Bret’s war against the nWo and these two were always capable of putting on a great match. Bret gets the win and starts his climb back up the ladder in hopes of getting a fair shot against Hogan in a rematch.

Speaking of Hogan, he gets his one final match against Sting in a cage match to settle their feud. Sting wins thus bringing their rivalry to a close.

SPRING STAMPEDE: April 19, 1998 Live! From Calgary Alberta Canada: Home of Stampede Wrestling 1998’s Spring Stampede would have been the perfect time for WCW to make a big impression on Canadian wrestling fans. At this point WCW was still number one in the United States, but it was never able to surpass the WWF in popularity in Canada. That was one of the reasons why WCW wanted Bret as they wanted to make headway in the Canadian market. So why on earth not schedule a ppv or NItro in Canada every once in a while?? Bret’s career began in Stampede Wrestling in Calgary, so why not hold the 1998 edition of Spring Stampede in the former home of Stampede Wrestling and Bret’s hometown of Calgary.

Bret knows Hogan has an army watching his back which is why he’s going to need more than just his two family members Jim and Davey Boy watching his back. So two former Stampede Wrestling Alumni decide to align themselves with Bret in his war against the nWo: Chris Benoit and Chris Jericho. Together the 5 man tandom is known as The Hart Dungeon. WWF would undoubtedly have a copyright on Hart Foundation, but The Hart Dungeon was never a creation of Vince McMahon but rather the training grounds for all 5 members of the group.

During a Nitro beatdown of Bret during the build to Stampede, Benoit and Jericho hit the ring and come to Bret’s aid officially joining the group. Jericho is very similar to Owen in style, while Benoit has Pillman’s intensity making them the perfect replacements for the two Hart Foundation members that didn’t make the transition to WCW with Bret. This also would have catapulted Jericho and Benoit into a main event program and injected some youth and freshness into Brets stable.

At Spring Stampede it’s The Hart Dungeon vs The Nwo Bret, Benoit, Jericho, Bulldog, Anvil def Hogan, Hall, Nash, Savage, Hennig.

Not sure who gets the pinfall over who, I would go for Bret pinning Hogan but I’m sure Hogan would never go for it. Either way the Harts pin someone to get the win and maybe, just maybe, this marks the beginning of WCW surpassing WWF in popularity in Canada and taking a stranglehold on the north american television market.

Slamboree: May 17, 1998 World Title Submission Match: Bret Hart vs Sting After winning the war against the nWo, Bret sets his sights on the World title and Sting in a battle of the sharpshooter vs the scorpion deathlock. At this point Sting has a had nice long run with the belt from Starcade in December to Slamboree in May, and along the way defended the title succesfully against Hogan 3x, The Giant, and maybe Savage. But now it’s time for him to drop the belt to Bret.

Bret gets the win here in what could have and should have been a classic match between two of the all time great babyfaces.

GREAT AMERICAN BASH: June 14, 1998 After beating Sting for the title fair and square, Bret and company kickoff Nitro the next night but are interrupted by none other than Ric Flair. Flair congratulates Bret on not only beating Sting, taking on the nWo, winning the world title, but also doing something he didnt think was possible which is winning over the American fans who seem to have forgotten some of the things Bret said in public about them and this great country of ours. Flair calls Bret a fraud and Benoit a traitor for leaving the Horseman for the poor imitation that is the Dungeon.

Flair is joined in the ring by Arn Anderson and Dean Malenko his fellow Horsemen, as well as the newest Horsemen: Lex Luger. With Benoit gone, and Mongo McMichael a joke that never should have happened, the horsemen need a fourth guy and Luger makes a lot more sense in this WCW traditional stable then he ever did in the nWo. Plus he knows Bret and Bulldog well from his time in WWF.

After beating the nWo the Harts have now entered a feud with the Four Horseman. During the build to the ppv different members of the group face off against one another But Sting is still owed a rematch and has his own history with Ric Flair.

So at The Great American Bash it’s Bret vs Flair vs Sting in a triple threat submission match for the World Title. Bret comes out on top making Flair tap to the sharpshooter after blocking and reversing a figure four attempt by Ric. Post match: Hogan, Hall and Nash beat down all 3 guys. The nWo had been off tv licking their wounds for a while but were now back for revenge. So after two months of WCW stars battling each other, they will have to put aside those differences and once again focus on their common enemy in the nWo.

BASH AT THE BEACH: July 12, 1998 WORLD TITLE: Bret Hitman Hart vs Hollywood Hogan Hogan holds a controversial victory over Bret from back at Superbrawl meaning he is owed a title shot against the new champion. This was the event in which 2 years to the day the nWo was formed and Hogan plans on history repeating itself by reclaiming the title and his spot at the top of the mountain.

In reality Hogan lost the title on Nitro to Goldberg during this period which was a huge ratings success at the time but another example of WCW’s short term booking philosophy. Goldberg would burn out quickly and a huge potential ppv buyrate was squandered. So I would have saved that moment for later on in the year which we we will get to later. For now it’s Bret vs Hogan. This time, no Bischoff shenanigans, just a straight up Bret victory.

ROAD WILD: August 8, 1998 World Title: Bret Hart def Randy Savage We never got to see a well built up program between the Hitman and The Macho Man. After Hogan fails to get the job done, Macho steps up to the plate to do what Hogan couldn’t do and thats get the best of the supposed best their is. This would not be the main event of the show, but it would make for a good title match in the middle of the card perhaps as part of a double main event billing. Bret gets the win.

FALL BRAWL: WAR GAMES: September 13, 1998 The NWO vs The Hart Dungeon vs The Four Horseman nWo: Hogan, Hall, Nash, Savage Hart Dungeon: Bret, Benoit, Jericho, Bulldog 4 Horseman: Flair, Anderson, Malenko, Luger

In reality, they did have three teams competing in the War Games that year but 2 of them were nWo groups: nwo Hollywood and nwo Wolfpack. I never liked them splitting the nWo into two factions as it only dilluted the group. If the nWo was losing steam, then simply take them off TV for a while as I would have done sometime after Spring Stampede but then bring them back for Bash At The Beach. Here I still have three factions in the war games but instead of 2 nWo’s and a generic team WCW, we have three legit stables: the original nWo, The Harts and The Horseman.

NWO get the win as they are the dominant stable of this time.

HALLOWEEN HAVOC: October 25, 1998 In realty this was the event that saw the horrific Hogan vs Warrior II, a match that only took place because Hulk was still insecure over being pinned cleanly by Warrior EIGHT fricking years ago. This feud was embarrasingly bad and Warrior would have been better off having never appeared in WCW. Therefore in my timeline this simply doesn’t happen.

After Hogan’s team won the War Games that puts him back into #1 contendership for the title. Since we had three stables facing off at War Games I think it only makes sense to have the three stable leaders face off at the next event.

So we have a triple threat for the World Title between Hulk Hogan, Bret Hart and Ric Flair which results in a controversial finish. Ric Flair has Hogan in the figure four when Bret pins flair. The ref counts 3 at the exact same time Hogan taps out. So who is the champion? We end the show with Bret and Flair arguing over who won while Bischoff grabs the belt and runs off with Hogan.

WORLD WAR 3: November 22, 1998 The title is declared vacant on Nitro but will be awarded to the winner of a 6 man match at World War 3. The participants are Bret Hart, Ric Flair, Hollywood Hogan, Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, and Sting. 3 nwo members. 3 wcw members. And 3 rings. Remember this is the often maligned 3 ring pay per view featuring the 60 man battle royal. I would never hold the title up for grabs in a 60 man battle royal as there arent that many men who deserve a shot. We dont want La Parka walking out champion. BUT I like the idea of incorporating the 3 rings for this 6 man match.

Here’s how it works: There are 3 matches going on at once in 3 different rings. In one ring its Bret Hart vs Kevin Nash. In another ring its Hogan vs Flair. And in the final ring it’s Sting vs Scott Hall. Three different matches going on simulataneously with the title being awarded to the first man who gains a fall. The only rule is that you can’t enter any of the other rings. Meaning Bret can’t jump to ring two to interrupt a pin attempt by Hogan, etc. You have to beat your opponent before anyone in either of the other rings does the same. This is a concept that’s never been done so I like it.

The finish: Bret has Nash in the sharshooter in one ring. Sting has Hall in the scorpion deathlock in the other ring. Neither will tap out. Meanwhile in ring 3 an exhausted Hogan drapes his arm over a down and out Flair and gets the pin to win the gold. Bret and Sting both come so close but Hogan walks out champion…barely.

At this same event GOLDBERG wins the 60 man battle royal to earn a shot at the champion.

STARRCADE: December 27, 1998 Live From Atlanta Georgia in the sold out Georgia Dome World Title: Hollywood Hogan vs Goldberg Everything that happened on that famous Nitro in July of 98 could have and SHOULD have been saved for Starrcade. The ppv buyrate would have been sky high and probably set an all time attendance record for any WCW show and maybe even any WWF show at the time.

As for Bret, it’s time for some descension in the dungeon. After failing to win the title, the hart dungeon disbands. At this point I would have already phased Bulldog and Anvil out sometime after Fall Brawl. Just have Bret, Benoit and Jericho. But now after Bret’s loss, Jericho gets in his face and mocks him, perhaps even says that WCW would have been better off if it had been Shawn Michaels who came over to WCW instead of Bret. That he only used Bret as a stepping stone to get to the top because he wasn’t being given the opportunity and spotlight that he deserved. But now that Bret is a failure, Jericho has no use for him. Jericho kicks Bret between the legs and poses with one foot on Brets chest and his arms raised and a big grin on his face. The evil Jericho is back.

During the buildup to their feud Jericho continues mocking Bret by dressing like him, adopting his mannerisms, wearing his trademark pink shades and using the sharshooter from time to time.

Starrcade: Chris Jericho def Bret Hart: liontamer vs sharpshooter Bret puts Jericho over. It doesn’t have to be a submission match but it’s too tempting to resist. I would have Jericho knock Bret out with the ring bell or a steel chair while the ref is looking the other way, then apply the liontamer to an unconscious Bret. The ref calls for the bell. Bret never taps, he just passes out. Bret is written off tv to sell an injury for the next month or so.

As we enter 1999, Benoit takes exception to Jericho’s disrespecting Bret and they enter a feud of their own in early 1999. When Bret returns he faces Jericho in a rematch and then enters a program with Benoit. He and Benoit meet in a face vs face best of 7 series with Benoit coming out on top 4 wins to 3. In other words, during the first half of 99 Bret spends most of his time helping the next generation of canadian wrestlers get over. Even though he comes out on the losing end of both feuds, he never looks weak and is still a viable world title contender. Although I might keep him away from Goldberg. Just to be on the safe side.

[diptychmonobloc]

Fox's outstanding "Roc" Season 4 has come to a close, and with it, one of the most exciting and endearing black sitcoms ever to have aired. After having had many scheduling difficulties, rabid fans petitioned furiously outside of then president of Fox Entertainment John Matoian's bungalow for much of 1994 and 1995, and when leadership passed over to current head Peter Roth in the spring of 1996, it was reported by an assistant that "the very day" the protesters appeared outside his white picket fence, Roth "flung to the phone with great fury and anguish" and contacted Charles S. Dutton's then-manager and ex-wife Debbi Morgan, demanding to be put in contact with Dutton to "put an end to this nonsense at once". Dutton, brought to tears, gave an impassioned speech that Roth claims "served as the catalyst" for his decision to move forward with the reconstruction of the sets and creation of "Roc" Season 4. Speaking on it, he said:

"Charlie simply won. He convinced me. It was just like on the show. The man is talented. I'll give him that. I told him he had thirty-six hours to get to my house in Malibu before I left for LA to talk to logistics about the lineup for that Fall, and he made it in two. I've never seen a man move that fast. Ever."

Negotiations for the content of "Roc" Season 4 were heated. Rufus Carl Gordon, known as the centerpiece of Roc, the borderline omniscient, wise, all-knowing "Pop-pop", had reportedly decided to retire from "any form of digital acting, be it projector or bleep blops on a screen", due to a highly unpublicized fear of cameras and a desire to return to the "raw grit" of Broadway stage acting. The initial decision to remove the live audience from the show upset him, and it did not help matters that Rocky Carroll, always the instigator, the Loki of the "Roc" cast, had decided to sue the first attached director for "Roc" Season 4, David Fincher, who decided to leave the production after Roc had given him his first edition copy of Fight Club shortly after release and claimed he "wanted to finish up his stupid puppet movie and get started on something real and visceral". He reportedly did not say good-bye to any other cast or crew members, only Dutton. Little did Fincher know that he would be walking out on the greatest possible directing job of his life, but many have argued that Dutton was instrumental in the initial popularity of Fight Club as a cinematic tour de force, admittedly a much lesser one in comparison to Roc. With Fincher gone, Gordon's fear of cameras waned, and he enthusiastically rejoined, bringing with him his new wife, Ella Joyce, to reprise her role as Eleanor Carter Emerson. The main cast was now united, despite merely an uneasy truce existing between Carroll and Dutton.

Tensions caused negotiations to stall out for a bitter six month period from October 1996 to March 1997 as they scrambled to find a new director. Auditions were held in various cities and countries with no success. A young Gaspar Noé attempted to direct an episode, but managed to lose the camera after spinning around too many times and becoming dizzy. After this setback, Dutton became enraged and took a gun to the studio, holding everyone hostage and demanding that "Roc" Season 4 be filmed immediately, giving one of his trademark impassioned speeches about they didn't need directors, that they only needed their hearts and souls and minds and together they would all make the greatest work of art known to man, or die trying. He proceeded to force everyone to the center of the staging room, pouring gasoline around everyone and everything, shaking the can empty and then pulling out a matchbook and smiling as he waved it in the air, yelling "do you know what THIS can do if you don't WORK?" and "Your family might get a lot of BURN INSURANCE, but I don't THINK that's something that you want to find OUT," until he had struck a strong enough sense of terror into the hearts of everyone present that no one dared defy a single utterance. And thus, the grueling 16-month long shoot for Roc would begin. Occasionally, corrupted members within the team would abduct outside people and bring them into the studio, eventually filling every seat with a group that was, unfortunately, not allowed to leave except to use the bathroom and during "mealtime zealtime", in which Dutton would force Carroll to call himself a "little bitch" and play the trumpet, pistol whipping him when he hit wrong notes, and threatening to hook his nipples up to car batteries if he didn't "bring the sauce" during rehearsals. Interestingly enough, during this period, Roger Waters of Pink Floyd had heard through the grapevine about the troubled production and lent his assistance, along with David Gilmour, though these recording sessions fizzled out into drama of their own involving a suitcase and several large bags of marijuana, and "Roc" Season 4 was, instead, released without a soundtrack.

Many people remember "Roc" Season 4 for its incredibly wide berth of content. From the long-awaited trans episode, which established a new sitcom subgenre of episode and managed to wake America up when it comes to trans issues and supporting gender abolition, all the way to the infamous arthouse "cold/isolation" episode, the show's first six hour episode, in which Roc is home alone with a cold, the centerpiece of the work being a three hour section in the episode's middle in which Roc has a meltdown into his morning cereal, bawling and making vicious, self-hating comments about every single episode in Roc's entire run up to that point, revealing a sinister extra hidden layer of spite, running down the show's entire chronology in order, spewing an intense hatred for humanity and immense depth of human suffering. It's at this point that Roc begins to deviate from the sitcom format. The camera is picked up and carried outside, and Roc hijacks a car, demanding to be driven to the town hall. He takes the pedestrian with him into the building, up the elevator, and into the office of the Mayor, demanding an audience, but is told the Mayor is not present. In what is one of the most bizarre moments of the entire "Roc" franchise, Roc seemingly accepts his fate and then pulls out a script from his pocket and says, "it's all written here anyway. Peace to the ones who love me, hate to the ones who don't. With one true love we can overcome all. Truth be told," and with those words, leaps out of the window to his death. Reactors onlook, and the camera slowly pans over to the script, now lying in a disheveled pile on the floor and blowing around, being kicked by the stampede of crew members and local politicians alike, which has dialogue written for the entire sequence including his jumping out of the window and the camera looking at the scattered pages of the script on the floor. Suddenly, the camera drops, and we can hear the cameraman, a man yet to be identified, bawling his eyes out and apologizing to the staff in the room, claiming that "he didn't want to film it" but that he "said he'd kill my family" if he didn't follow the instructions for the final scene "exactly". It was America's first sitcom breakdown. That's just good stinkin' television.

The artistic merit of "Roc" Season 4 is fiercely debated in many circles, but one thing is for certain. It makes for compelling cinema. Dutton has weaved a masterpiece with his blood. He will never be forgotten. Now "Roc" may just live forever.

5/5

Editor's Choice

[machobusta]

Akira Hokuto makes her way to the ring to defend the WCW Women’s Championship against Madusa. WCW Spring Stampede April 6, 1997

[prowrestlingpost-com]

WCW Slamboree 1997 | WCW Sunday Night RetroView

On Sunday, May 18th, 1997 #WCW presented Slamboree 1997. It featured a six-man tag match pitting the nWo against WCW and Kevin Greene? | WCW Sunday Night RetroView with @cdye56

Once again it’s time for the next WCW RetroView. The choice to cover WCW’s prime years of pay-per-views came with the good, the bad, and the ordinary. WCW Slamboree 1997 falls under the latter. Not to say this was a bad show by any means, this show is just kind of there. More of an attention seeking opportunity than storyline advancement.  Coming off the heels of a red hot Spring Stampede WCW…

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 2.11

660 BC – Traditional date for the foundation of Japan by Emperor Jimmu. AD 55 – The death under mysterious circumstances of Tiberius Claudius Caesar Britannicus, heir to the Roman empire, on the eve of his coming of age clears the way for Nero to become Emperor. 1534 – Henry VIII of England is recognized as supreme head of the Church of England. 1659 – The assault on Copenhagen by Swedish forces is beaten back with heavy losses. 1794 – First session of United States Senate opens to the public. 1808 – Jesse Fell burns anthracite on an open grate as an experiment in heating homes with coal. 1812 – Massachusetts governor Elbridge Gerry is accused of "gerrymandering" for the first time. 1823 – Carnival tragedy of 1823: About 110 boys are killed during a stampede at the Convent of the Minori Osservanti in Valletta, Malta. 1826 – University College London is founded as University of London. 1840 – Gaetano Donizetti's opera La fille du régiment receives its first performance in Paris, France. 1843 – Giuseppe Verdi's opera I Lombardi alla prima crociata receives its first performance in Milan, Italy. 1855 – Kassa Hailu is crowned Tewodros II, Emperor of Ethiopia. 1856 – The Kingdom of Awadh is annexed by the British East India Company and Wajid Ali Shah, the king of Awadh, is deposed. 1858 – Bernadette Soubirous's first vision of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Lourdes, France. 1861 – American Civil War: The United States House of Representatives unanimously passes a resolution guaranteeing noninterference with slavery in any state. 1873 – King Amadeo I of Spain abdicates, forming the First Spanish Republic. 1889 – Meiji Constitution of Japan is adopted. 1903 – Anton Bruckner's 9th Symphony receives its first performance in Vienna, Austria. 1906 – Pope Pius X publishes the encyclical Vehementer Nos. 1919 – Friedrich Ebert (SPD), is elected President of Germany. 1929 – Kingdom of Italy and the Vatican sign the Lateran Treaty. 1937 – The Flint sit-down strike ends when General Motors recognizes the United Auto Workers trade union. 1938 – BBC Television produces the world's first ever science fiction television programme, an adaptation of a section of the Karel Čapek play R.U.R., that coined the term "robot". 1942 – World War II: Second day of the Battle of Bukit Timah is fought in Singapore. 1953 – Cold War: U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower denies all appeals for clemency for Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. 1953 – Israeli-Soviet relations are severed. 1959 – The Federation of Arab Emirates of the South is created as a protectorate of the United Kingdom. 1970 – Japan launches Ohsumi, becoming the fourth nation to put an object into orbit using its own booster. 1971 – Cold War: the Seabed Arms Control Treaty opened for signature outlawing nuclear weapons on the ocean floor in international waters. 1978 – Pacific Western Airlines Flight 314 crashes at the Cranbrook/Canadian Rockies International Airport in Cranbrook, British Columbia, Canada with 42 deaths and seven survivors. 1979 – The Iranian Revolution establishes an Islamic theocracy under the leadership of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. 1990 – Nelson Mandela is released from Victor Verster Prison outside Cape Town, South Africa after 27 years as a political prisoner. 1990 – Buster Douglas, a 42:1 underdog, knocks out Mike Tyson in ten rounds at Tokyo to win boxing's world Heavyweight title. 1997 – Space Shuttle Discovery is launched on a mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope. 1999 – Pluto crosses Neptune's orbit, ending a nearly 20-year period when it was closer to the Sun than the gas giant; Pluto is not expected to interact with Neptune's orbit again until 2231. 2001 – A Dutch programmer launched the Anna Kournikova virus infecting millions of emails via a trick photo of the tennis star. 2008 – Rebel East Timorese soldiers seriously wound President José Ramos-Horta. Rebel leader Alfredo Reinado is killed in the attack. 2011 – Arab Spring: The first wave of the Egyptian revolution culminates in the resignation of Hosni Mubarak and the transfer of power to the Supreme Military Council after 17 days of protests. 2013 – The Vatican confirmed that Pope Benedict XVI would resign the papacy as a result of his advanced age. 2014 – A military transport plane crashes in a mountainous area of Oum El Bouaghi Province in eastern Algeria, killing 77 people. 2015 – A university student was murdered as she resisted an attempted rape in Turkey, sparking nationwide protests and public outcry against harassment and violence against women. 2016 – A man shoots six people dead at an education center in Jizan Province, Saudi Arabia. 2017 – North Korea test fires a ballistic missile across the Sea of Japan. 2018 – Saratov Airlines Flight 703 crashes near Moscow, Russia with 71 deaths and no survivors.

[starbug]

No Disqualification Match: Diamond Dallas Page vs. Randy Savage  April 6th, 1997 - WCW Spring Stampede, Tupelo Coliseum, Tupelo, MS

[mitchbeck]

CANTLON'S CORNER: WOLF PACK OFF SEASON REPORT - VOLUME 7

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings HARTFORD, CT - The ECHL's Kelly Cup has been won. The AHL's Calder Cup winner was decided. On Wednesday night, the top award in professional hockey, the Stanley Cup will be awarded to either the St. Louis Blues or the hosting Boston Bruins. While that might be the top talk of the sport right now, it's not all that's going on in what was once again another busy week in the off-season. PACK UPDATE When JD speaketh people listen. In his first interview since taking over the Presidency of the New York Rangers, John Davidson spoke about the direction of the organization he now commands will be taking. The first topic he spoke about was here in Hartford and the dysfunction that has been the Wolf Pack over the past five years which is how long it's been since their last playoff appearance. Not only have they not made the playoffs, but the Wolf Pack have been languishing at or near the bottom of the entire AHL over that span. It's been one season worse than the next with no winning, no player development, and no fan happiness. Read about it HERE. LARRY PLEAU FEATURE Larry Pleau is one of the true Hartford Whaler legends. In his early career, the Lynn, MA native played for the 1963-64 Memorial Cup finalists Montreal N.D.G. (Notre Dame de Grace) Monarchs with future NHL’ers Carol Vadnais and Rogie Vachon, and the head coach was a very young, Scotty Bowman. He played in the AHL just before the WHA emerged. He played for the first Montreal-based team AHL team, the Voyageurs. They finished tops in a nine-team AHL but lost a second-round, three-team round-robin series to Buffalo and Springfield. He played for Montreal in 1971-72, after starting with the AHL team that moved to Nova Scotia, that lost to the Rangers in six games. Pleau jumped to the renegade WHA the following year. He played for the New England Whalers in their first season in Boston where they won the WHA Avco Cup. Pleau played all in seven New England Whaler WHA seasons, finishing as the second all-time leading scorer with 372 points to Tom Webster’s 425. He was tops in assists with 215 and second in games played with his 468 to Rick Ley’s 478. Brad Selwood was third with 431. When the Hartford Whalers were born, Pleau was with the team in its early NHL days. After retiring as a player, he worked behind the bench. Pleau as an assistant for two seasons (1979-1981) before being elevated to the head coach where he replaced Don Blackburn in 1981, Pleau was a head coach until 1983 before he making a second foray into the AHL, but as a coach. He was the head coach in Binghamton, who, at the time, was the Whalers' top affiliate, from 1984-1988. He won the AHL Coach of the Year (Louis A. Pieri Award) in 1985-86. He was brought back as a Whalers' head coach once again in 1987 as a mid-season replacement to Jack Evans where he stayed until 1989. Pleau hooked-up for a long association with the Rangers. He was there from 1989-1997 as their assistant GM, and Director of Player Development. He was also the last General Manager for the Rangers' Binghamton affiliate from 1995-1997 before the Rangers moved their farm team to Hartford. He moved on to become the GM of the St. Louis Blues from 1997-2010 and is still in a Senior Advisor role with the Blues. Read a fabulous piece on his relationship with the Blues HERE. CALDER CUP FINALS The high-speed hockey train called the Charlotte Checkers won their first Calder Cup title. Trailing by a 3-1 score on Thursday night, the Checkers dominated the second half of the game and scored four unanswered goals for a 5-3 win over the Chicago Wolves. They then went on to clinch their first title Saturday night in Chicago with another 5-3 win. In the deciding game, Morgan Geekie had a goal and two points, Andrew Poturalski scored twice and Alex Nedeljkovic stopped 26 of the 29 shots to have AHL Commissioner, Dave Andrews, come down and present the team with the Calder Cup. In Game 4, Nicolas Roy scored two goals, Martin Necas also chipped in with two points and ex-Wolf Pack, Dustin Tokarski, picked up his sixth win in the AHL post-season without a loss. Tokarski finished the campaign with a 13-0 record since being reassigned to Charlotte by the Rangers on February 28th in a swap that sent defenseman Josh Wesley to Hartford. The last Wolf Pack playoff win was on May 15, 2015, in a 6-3 win over the Hershey Bears. The Pack was led by Marek Hrvik, who had a hat trick. The Pack has had 56 franchise hat tricks during the regular season, but only four in the playoffs. The record for goals in a playoff game is held by Chris Kenady. He had four goals on April 20, 2000, against Springfield. Also that year, the Manchester Monarchs, in their last AHL season, swept the Pack en route to the Calder Cup. They scored the game’s first goal in 15 of the 19 playoffs games that year winning all 15 games. Charlotte’s performance is the only team that has come close to that level of perfection, During this playoff season, the Checkers scored first eight times, but in three of their wins, the opponent scored first.  KELLY CUP FINALS In their first ECHL season, the Newfound Growlers captured the championship in six games. They won the decisive championship game 4-3 over the Toledo Walleye at Mile One Centre in St. John’s. They became the first, first-year team to win the title since the Greensboro Monarchs in 1990, who were then coached by former Whaler, Jeff Brubaker. Former QU Bobcat goalie Michael Garteig played in 19 playoff contests for the championship squad. Five members of the team were from St. John’s, starting with playoff MVP, Zach O’Brien (16 goals and 29 points), and including captain James Melindy, Marcus Power, and Adam Pardy (Bonavista), a former NHL defenseman rounded out the playing quartet. After the game, Pardy announced he was retiring after giving his nephew a championship to see in person. The fifth Newfie was former New Haven Nighthawk, and Rangers assistant coach, and Mt. Pearl native, Darryl Williams, who is in his second coaching stint in his native province. The first was with the St. John’s Fog Devils (QMJHL) where, for three seasons, he was an assistant coach. He was hired temporarily in December with the medical absence taken by head coach and ex-Ranger, Ryane Clowe. He was formally added to the staff at the end of January. Williams is a St. John’s resident. Williams was a rough and tumble player during his skating days. He had 495 PIM in 136 AHL games along with 29 goals and 56 points. They all came during his time with New Haven, "Willy," as he was known, played and racked up 1,906 PIM in 540 IHL games along with 98 goals and 224 points. He played with Phoenix, Long Beach, and Detroit. He played in only two NHL games in 1992-’83 and had 10 PIM. Ex-Pack, Matt Register, played for the runner-up, Toledo Walleye. He climbed the statistical ECH playoff ladder with 124 playoff games played and 14 assists in the Kelly Cup Finals. UCONN 2019-20 SCHEDULE RELEASED The Huskies hit the XL Center for the first time on November 11th and 13th. It's a Friday and Saturday night with two non-conference games against Army (WCHA) for the home opener and then RPI from ECACHL conference the following night. The first Hockey East game will be against Merrimack on November 1st. They then will mark their visit ever from Miami (OH) (NCHC) on November 29-30, a week after Thanksgiving. The first-ever Connecticut Ice tourney with all four CT Division I college teams is from January 25th and 26th at the Webster Bank Arena in Bridgeport. The schedule is HERE. NAHL DRAFT One of the last two major North American drafts was held last Tuesday when the US Tier II junior circuit-the North American Hockey league. Here are the CT connected draftees. Matt Crasa (Selects Academy at South Kent Prep) was selected in the second round (31st overall) by the Amarillo (TX) Bulls. Crasa is a Sacred Heart University (AHA) commit for 2020-21. He was drafted by the Sioux City Stampede (USHL) this spring and by Windsor Spitfires (OHL) in 2017 Cooper Swift, (West Hartford/Choate Prep) also went in the second round (35th overall) by the Jamestown Rebels. He was selected by the Fargo Force (USHL) in their draft earlier in the spring. Corey Clifton was drafted in the third round (55th overall) by the Corpus Christi (TX) IceRays. He will become the third Clifton from his Matawan, NJ family to play at Quinnipiac University (ECACHL) in 2020-21. He played this season with the Surrey Eagles (BCHL) and was just traded this week to the Trail Smoke Eaters to play next season. He was drafted by Muskegon Lumberjacks (USHL) in 2017 and previously by the Aston Rebels (NAHL) in 2017. His brother, Connor Clifton, is competing for the Stanley Cup with the Bruins while his oldest brother, Tim Clifton, is with the San Jose Barracuda (AHL). Ian Pierce of Kent Prep went in the third round (60th overall) to the St. Cloud Blizzard. He is a Dartmouth (ECACHL) commit for 2020-21. Kennedy O’Connor (Loomis Chaffee) also went in round three (67th overall) to the Shreveport (LA) Mudbugs. He is a UMASS-Amherst (HE) commit for 2021-22. The Des Moines Buccaneers (USHL) took him in their draft in April. Carter Primo Self, (Selects Academy at South Kent Prep) was taken in the fifth round (127th overall) by the Amarillo Bulls and is a Miami (OH) (NCHC) commit for 2020-21. Matt Iasenza of Canterbury Prep (New Milford) went in the sixth round (144th overall) to the New Jersey Titans and has no college commit at this time. Philip Ekberg of the CT Jr, Rangers (USPHL) was taken in the ninth round (212th overall) by the Maryland Black Bears and also in uncommitted at this time. Logan Martinson, the son of former Nighthawk, Steve Martinson, the current coach of Allen (ECHL), was taken in the tenth round (236th overall) by the New Mexico Ice Wolves. He was selected by Langley (BCHL) in their 2018 Draft and in 2017 by Tri-City (USHL). The another CT Jr. Ranger was taken. Maxim Kuznetsov went in the tenth round (260th overall) by the Johnstown. Tomahawks. The last amateur draft before the NHL Draft in Vancouver in two weeks will be the QMJHL (Quebec Major Junior Hockey League) in Quebec City on Saturday at the Videotron Centre. PLAYER & COACHING MOVEMENT Ex-Sound Tiger head coach Jack Capuano was hired as an associate head coach for the Ottawa Senators. Five more AHL’ers leaves for Europe. Josh Jooris, the ex-Ranger, leaves the Toronto Marlies and heads to HC Lausanne (Switzerland-LNA) on a rare three-year deal. Jooris holds Swiss citizenship. When his father Mark Jooris, a Vancouver scout and Junior A coach, played for Lausanne in the 1990s, he also played some junior hockey there before they returning to Canada. Libor Sulak leaves Grand Rapids for Severstal Cherepovets (Russia-KHL). Braden Christoffer goes from Bakersfield to Sterjen (Norway-NEL). Travis Murphy and Andrej Suster both go from San Diego to Kunlun (China-KHL) on two-year deals. These exits make 36 AHL’ers to sign in Europe. 21 of the league's 31 teams have now lost at least one player to Europe. Ex-Sound Tiger defenseman Mathieu Gagnon Brampton (ECHL) signs with Manchester (England-EIHL). Kevin Morris, (Salisbury Prep), the son of ex-Nighthawk, Mark Morris, announces his retirement after playing with Coventry (England-EIHL) this past season. He completed his MBA and heads off to the working world. Alex Barron (Quinnipiac University) signs with HK Dukla Michalovce (Slovakia-SLEL) after splitting last season with EHC Freiburg (Germany DEL-2) and HK SKP Propad (Slovakia-SLEL). Mitch Ferguson of Division III SUNY-Geneseo (SUNYAC) signs with GHC Bordeaux (France-FREL) next season. That raises the number of college players signing in Europe to 33 and the total number of collegians to have signed pro deals art 218. Ex-Sound Tiger, Peter Mannino, who was let go at the University Miami (OH) (NCHC) as their associate head coach, doesn't stay unemployed long. He lands with the Des Moines Buccaneers (USHL) as their new head coach. The Sioux Falls Stampede are the new USHL Clark Cup champions. They completed a three-game sweep in their best-of-five final over the Chicago Steel by the score of 5-1. Leading the way for Sioux Falls was goaltender Jaxson Stauber, the son of former Wolf Pack and Nighthawk goalie, Robb Stauber. The younger Stauber head to the University Minnesota-Mankato (NCHC) in the fall. Chicago was led by their head coach, the former Wolf Pack captain, and Sound Tiger, Greg Moore. THE CRAZY WORLD OF BILLY TIBBETTS The following link is of ex-Pack, Ranger, and Danbury Whaler, Billy Tibbetts. He actually ran for the Scituate, MA city council and lost. It’s a tour de force performance of classic Tibbetts and his riding high, riding low. It's unfiltered, raw, and unbridled. WARNING: For those sensitive to foul language, there are swear-words in some of these series of one and two-minute video clips. Tibbets is a lot of things, boring isn't one of them. HERE Read the full article

[machobusta]

Macho Man Randy Savage absolutely CRUSHES DDP with an elbow drop from the top. Spring Stampede April 6, 1997

[wrasslecast]

Diamond Dallas Page vs. "Macho Man" Randy Savage: Spring Stampede 1997   #HoFCast 

[wrestlingnewsreport]

WCW Halloween Havoc 1997 Retrospective: Diamond Dallas Page vs. Randy Savage

WCW Halloween Havoc 1997 Retrospective: Diamond Dallas Page vs. Randy Savage WCW Halloween Havoc 1997 had the instant classic between Eddie Guerrero & Rey Mysterio (we already reflected back on that doozy), but this PPV (sponsored by Slim Jim as you’ll soon come to know) also had the rubber match between Diamond Dallas Page and “Macho Man” Randy Savage. The DDP & Savage rivalry had to be one of the most noted wrestling grudges of 1997 as it’s one that ran through most of year. The two’s first match happened at WCW Spring Stampede in April and DDP came out the victor even despite having an “in the NWO’s pocket” referee reluctantly administer the three count. Macho Man however received his retribution at July’s Great American Bash when Scott Hall gave “the edge” to Savage by interfering on his behalf, evening the score at 1-1, which leads us to Halloween Havoc. Dallas always gives humongous credit to Savage as being the man who brought him to the next level of squared circle super-..

https://wrestlingnewsreport.com/wcw-halloween-havoc-1997-retrospective-diamond-dallas-page-vs-randy-savage/