For those of you who don’t know, this is one of the holy grails of wrestling books as there was a single printing and nothing else.  I heard that it was available at a used bookstore in town and was there as soon as possible to see if it was still available.  As you might be able to guess, it was, meaning I got to have some fun.Now I didn’t buy it, as I can’t bring myself to pay $100 for the sake of a single book (though it regularly sells for more than that online).  I did however sit down and read it cover to cover in the store (which took some time).  This one had a little something inside though, as in addition to being autographed by Cornette himself, there was this surprise:

That would be an autograph from Bill Watts, saying “Jimmy, without a doubt, my life has been blessed by your wonderful friendship and talent”.  Watts was the owner of Mid-South Wrestling and very influential in developing Cornette’s character and star power.

Now what is so special about this book?  Well in addition to some amazing photographs, including personal letters and even pay slips from shows, Cornette kept a log of nearly every Midnight Express match ever and included them here, plus most of the houses for the shows.  This includes notes under several matches, including why a house might have been up or down or impressive or a disappointment.  There are also several of Cornette’s hilarious stories, funny Christmas poems he wrote on Christmas cards to the locker room back in WCW (he read them on a recent podcast and they’re worth hearing) and a complete history of the team, both before they got together and after their split.

All in all, if you can somehow find this thing (good luck) and can afford it, check this out as it’s one of the most unique and informative wrestling books you’ll ever find.

IMG Credit: Pro Wrestling Illustrated

Hidden Gems #5
Date: 1969, 1970, 1971

We’re going very old school here for what will mostly be NWA matches. Part of the beauty of these collections is the range of stuff they cover and that’s what we’re getting here with some nearly fifty year old stuff. I’m having a great time with these things and it’s very cool to get some stuff that I haven’t seen before. Let’s get to it.

We’ll start in Florida with Gordon Solie introducing highlights of Dory Funk Jr. winning the NWA World Title from Gene Kiniski on February 11, 1969 in Tampa.

NWA World Title: Gene Kiniski vs. Dory Funk Jr.
Date: February 11, 1969
Location: Fort Homer Hesterly Armory, Tampa, Florida
Attendance: 6,000
Commentator: Gordon Solie

Funk is challenging and we’re joined in progress with Kiniski on his back and getting forearmed for trying to get up. Serves him right. We’re clipped to both guys getting up and Kiniski snapmaring him down to take over. Dory gets two off a sunset flip but a kick to the face gives Kiniski the same. A belly to back suplex puts both of them down and things slow a bit more. Funk gets a pair of two’s off a pair of slams and Gene can’t hold him up for a backbreaker.

The spinning toehold is broken up and the sequence works so well that they do it again. A fourth slam sets up a third spinning toehold and this time Kiniski taps to make Dory the champion at 3:45 shown. The match ran 27:00 total so I’m not rating this, but it wasn’t the most thrilling stuff. Then again I’ve never been a fan of Kiniski’s work.

Post match Dory is rather calm, until he’s handed the title and it’s time to jump up and down a lot.

Back to Solie, who praises Dory as the new kind of athlete. Dory comes in and is very humble and thanks his father and the promoter for letting him have the chance. Not much to say here, but Dory never was the most charismatic guy.

Bruno Sammartino vs. George Steele
Date: July 29, 1970
Location: Madison Square Garden, New York City, New York

Bruno is defending in a cage with escape only rules but I’m not sure on the date here as I can’t find anything that says there was a show on this date. The cage is put together, which takes a good while in its own right. Steele takes his sweet time getting in and I’m really thinking this is the Philadelphia match from July 25 with the wrong label. Bruno unloads on him in the corner to start and Steele tries to go over the top with as much success as you would guess. A big right hand has Steele down and yeah this is the Philadelphia match. Steele makes a save and chokes in the corner but gets punched away again.

This time it’s Steele getting caught in the ropes so Bruno can kick and punch a lot more. Yeah he didn’t have the most versatile offense in the world but he made it work. Steele gets loose and sends him into the cage but gets his face rubbed against the cage for his efforts. You can see the fired up version of Bruno coming out and he pulls Steele off the cage to keep up the beating. Sammartino stomps away until Steele kicks him into the cage for the double knockdown.

It’s the champ up first though and he actually hits Steele low in a rather hard departure from his norm. More kicks and stomps have Steele in trouble and a running kick to the ribs keeps him down. Steele finally rakes the eyes and rips open a buckle so the stuffing can go into Bruno’s face. That was a thing for Steele and it doesn’t work so well as a heel. The fans lose it on Steele for having their hero in trouble and that’s why Sammartino stayed as champion for so long. NO ONE got that kind of a reaction for so long and the company knew that.

Steele chokes him down in the corner as the audio seems to cut out. You can see the trash the fans have thrown in but Bruno making a comeback is enough to calm them down a bit. Bruno unloads on him and sends Steele into the cage a few times before walking out to retain at 14:41.

Rating: C-. Your mileage on Bruno is going to vary a lot and that’s completely understandable. This is nearly fifty years old and it’s almost impossible to compare the two eras. Bruno beat the heck out of Steele and was the definitive winner, which was exactly what the fans wanted to see here. It’s not a great match, but the fan reaction is more than enough to carry everything as far as it needed to go. I mean, it’s not exactly hidden as it’s been on a few home videos before but Bruno is always worth a look for the fan reactions alone.

WWWF World Title: Pedro Morales vs. Blackjack Mulligan
Date: March 15, 1971
Location: Madison Square Garden, New York City, New York

Pedro is defending and Mulligan is the father of Barry Windham and the grandfather of Bray Wyatt and Bo Dallas. He’s also managed by the Grand Wizard. The referee takes a good while going over the rules and Mulligan isn’t having any of that. On top of that, he’s not happy with the fans booing him before the bell. They circle each other for a good bit to start with the only contact being the boos hitting Mulligan. Morales avoids an early charge so it’s time for Mulligan to mess with his glove. Another missed charge means more stalling as there’s no contact for the first two minutes.

They finally lock up with Pedro snapping off an armdrag. That means more stalling into another lockup and Morales shoves him away without much effort. Mulligan loads up the glove again and a single shot has Morales flailing around on the mat. It’s off to the nerve hold with Pedro being taken down to cut off a comeback attempt. Morales gets in a shot to the face for the break and the comeback is on with the big left hands. There’s no follow up though as Morales goes stupid with a test of strength that takes him down again. Well to be fair he never was the brightest guy in the world.

hat means the power of the glove (which apparently gives you super strength) keeps Morales in trouble until another shot to the head breaks things up. After Mulligan walks around for a bit, Pedro slaps on a headlock (how devastating) and hangs on for a good while. Something like a bulldog (more like a running clothesline to the back of the head) sets up a chinlock on Mulligan but he gloves his way out of it.

That means a wristlock from Mulligan as we’re nearly fourteen minutes in. A good looking backdrop gives Mulligan two but Pedro pops up and makes a very fast comeback, capped off by a top rope seated senton to the back to retain at 14:16, even though Mulligan’s shoulder was up at about 2.4. I guess the referee wanted out too.

Rating: F. I’ve seen some good Pedro matches but this was just a boring slog with one hold after another and Mulligan’s glove (it was a thing, but you need more to have a full match) being the focal point of the match. Really boring and flat out bad stuff here, which is all the more annoying as both of them were more than capable of better.

Mulligan goes after him again post match but Pedro clears him off…..or at leas I think he does as we’re looking at the crowd for some reason. Pedro waves a Puerto Rican flag for a long time.

And now for something very unique. From July 30, 1971, a special episode of Championship Wrestling From Florida with the whole show being dedicated to Jack Brisco. It’s billed as This Is Your Life Jack Brisco, which could be rather interesting if done right.

Gordon Solie is sitting at the desk next to the champ and they go over Jack’s athletic background at Oklahoma State, though it’s rather hard to understand what Jack is saying.

We get some highlights of Brisco vs. a bunch of wrestlers, with Jack giving a rather monotone talk about how he loves putting people in holds. We see him against Pak Song (a big North Korean wrestler), Bobby Shane (who was going to be a big deal but died in a plane crash at 29) and Hiro Matsuda (trained Hulk Hogan and Lex Luger among others). There isn’t much to say here as they’re just short clips of matches with Brisco wrestling them down or slugging it out.

Back to the desk after a commercial with Gordon sending us to a package from two years ago with Jack and Gordon looking at some old photos of Jack’s athletic career. He wrestled and played football in high school and then went to Oklahoma State where he wrestled again. There’s also a picture of him working at a gold mine in Colorado before college. The college career is covered in some newspaper clippings with Jack saying what’s going on. Then it was on to professional wrestling with more clippings and Jack talking about his time in Florida. I know this isn’t exactly great reading but it’s just pictures with narration.

We see some clips of Brisco beating Mr. Saito for the Florida Heavyweight Title. I believe this is the first time Brisco won the title (he beat Saito for the first two of his eight reigns with the title) on February 10, 1970 in Tampa.

Dory Funk Jr. vs. Dick Steinborn

No date given and Dory’s NWA World Title isn’t on the line. Steinborn rolls away from him to start and actually sends Dory into the corner. A hammerlock has Dory in more trouble until he throws Steinborn down with ease. Dory can’t get away though as it’s a headlock takeover to put him right back down. This time it’s reversed into a headscissors and a backdrop sets up Dory’s own headlock. It’s way too early for the spinning toehold though and Steinborn is over to the ropes.

As Steinborn fights up from an armbar, we hear a discussion about Dory’s brother Terry, who is the forgotten man of wrestling and much more emotional than Dory (YOU THINK???). Dory gets him into the corner but it’s a clean break because the 60s were a nicer time. Steinborn has to kick away from a leglock and hits a dropkick, followed by a nipup. A flying headscissors gives us another nipup but Dory catches him in a backslide for the pin at 7:45. For some reason the camera went into slow motion on the pin and rolled back a few times, meaning the backslide lasted the better part of twenty seconds.

Rating: C-. Much better than some of the other old school matches I’ve seen on these things, as Dory was moving and working out there with Steinborn getting in a lot of offense of his own. The last big turned up the pace a lot, showing that this generation is perfectly capable of wrestling a faster match. You don’t have to, but it’s nice to see it happen.

Jack talks about getting special coaching from Pat O’Connor on how to defend against the spinning toehold.

And of course we see Jack and Pat working out together, complete with exercising. They work on the toehold as well, with Pat showing him how to counter the hold into a Figure Four. They even work on ways to keep the Figure Four from being countered. This is treated like actual coaching instead of the kind of segment you would see today. It sounds a bit boring but it’s such a different time and is fascinating in a way.

Jack Brisco vs. Hiro Matsuda

No date given again and wrestling coach Jack Heath is on commentator with Solie. They start fast and go to the mat with some rather early near falls. Brisco can’t keep hold of him as Heath talks about the United States Olympic Wrestling Team doing well at the recent (1968) Olympics. Matsuda grabs an STF of all things but Jack switches into an armbar. Back up and Brisco gets two off a suplex and it’s off to a double armbar….for a pin, somehow, as the camera freezes and we’re just told that there’s a pin. No bell either, so we’ll say it was about 4:15.

Rating: C+. This was really entertaining stuff with both guys looking good and working hard on the mat. I could have gone with seeing the finish instead of just a still like that but it must have been a thing at the time as it’s the second match in a row where we haven’t actually seen the finish. Brisco was great as always and Matsuda is a very underrated guy who was awesome in the ring in addition to his famous training resume.

We see some clips of Jack beating Dory Funk Jr. in a non-title match. It’s a very technical match with Jack talking about how wrestling is a human game of chess and all the counters and planning ahead that have to go into it. There’s a lot of clipping here and Jack uses the counter Pat O’Connor taught him to flip the spinning toehold into the Figure Four. That’s straight out of a Rocky montage. Dory finally quits after only a few minutes shown of what would probably have been a rather long match.

Jack talks about studying Dory in the hopes of getting a shot at the title. He would win the title about a year and a half later, but rather from some kid named Harley Race, who took the title from Funk.

No goodbye or anything, but for a mini biography of someone who hadn’t hit the pinnacle of his career yet, this was rather entertaining, especially given how many different styles we saw in some of those matches. You hear about these people so often that it’s cool to see them in action in their primes like this.

Overall Rating: D+. This one didn’t work very well for me with the WWF stuff ranging from bad to horrible while the NWA stuff was rather entertaining. Bruno is a legitimate legend but Pedro is hit or miss at best. Then you have Funk and Brisco, who are some of the most revered named in the history of wrestling. Check out the NWA stuff, but go find something newer from the WWF.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up the paperback edition of KB’s Complete 1997 Monday Night Raw Reviews (also available as an e-book) from Amazon. Check out the information here:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2018/11/20/new-paperback-complete-1997-monday-night-raw-reviews/

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

IMG Credit: WWE

Hidden Gems #4
Date: 2012, 2013

There’s no real reason to go with these two years but I just finished 2009 and 2011 so this way I can have the last ten years done in two days. We’re still mainly down in FCW here and that’s not the worst place in the world to be, especially now that some of the talent has had another year to grow up. There’s one thing in particular here that I’m looking forward to so let’s get to it.

Leakee vs. Seth Rollins vs. Dean Ambrose
Date: February 5, 2012
Location: FCW Arena, Tampa, Florida
Commentators: William Regal, Byron Saxton

I’ve seen this one before and this is about nine and a half months before they were the Shield. The winner gets a shot at Florida Heavyweight Champion Leo Kruger. No entrances here and Ambrose immediately starts yelling at Regal instead of focusing on the match. Regal: “I don’t really like Dean Ambrose.” Dean gets sent to the floor as Regal talks about all the horrible things that Ambrose drove him to, to the point where he can barely look at his children.

Rollins gets knocked down and it’s Leakee throwing Ambrose across the ring without much effort. Ambrose and Rollins get together to double team Leakee before staring each other down. Well you knew that was coming. Back from an early break with Leakee getting double teamed some more, including a double suplex to send him into the corner. Of course Dean turns on Seth (some things….you get the idea) and small packages Leakee for two.

Dean gets sent outside and Leakee punches Rollins out of the air but can’t hit Checkmate (a running bulldog) as Dean makes a save. The Regal Stretch has Leakee in trouble (and Regal nearly smiling with evil pride) but he makes the rope. Regal: “The only problem with it is it’s Dean Ambrose doing it and not William Regal.” Now it’s Rollins’ turn to come in for the save and Leakee is knocked to the floor.

A belly to back faceplant gives Ambrose two but he misses a Regal knee trembler. The Stomp misses as well so Rollins dives onto Leakee to no reaction. Back in and it’s a slugout with Rollins and Ambrose as Regal talks about knowing Ambrose will be his downfall. Leakee comes back in for a Samoan drop to both of them at once (he barely held them up but it worked), followed by Checkmate for the pin on Ambrose at 9:26.

Rating: C+. This is more of an historical note than anything else and there’s nothing wrong with that. Regal was really praising Ambrose here and I wanted to see them have their big rematch (which thankfully is coming). The important thing here was showcasing three future stars, as WWE pretty clearly knew they had something here and that would be the case on the main roster later in the year.

Florida Heavyweight Title: Seth Rollins vs. Kassius Ohno
Date: April 29, 2012
Location: FCW Arena, Tampa, Florida
Commentators: Byron Saxton, William Regal, Chris Russo

Rollins is defending and it’s SO strange to see Ohno thin and in shape. Also of note: Ohno was originally planned for what would become the Shield with Reigns eventually taking his place. We even get Big Match Intros for a special bonus. The grappling exchange begins with Rollins hooking a headscissors on the mat to slow Ohno down. After a long standoff, Ohno goes with a cravate as the announcers talk about Ohno wanting a knockout. That’s reversed into la majistral for two on Ohno and an Oklahoma roll gets the same.

Ohno goes back to the hard strikes, this time with forearms to the shoulder blades. With Ohno on the apron, Rollins strikes away but can’t hit the sunset bomb to the floor. Back in and the chinlock takes us to a break. We come back with Rollins fighting out of the hold, which thankfully means we didn’t miss anything here. That’s always appreciated. Ohno sends him outside for a bit, followed by a sliding boot to the side of the head back inside. Some more shots to the face have Rollins down but a flipping backsplash hits knees.

The comeback is on with Rollins forearming him to the apron and kicking him to the floor. Back in and Ohno knees him in the ribs (the striking does seem to work for him), followed by a Crash Landing (release suplex) for two. Rollins starts kicking away and gets two of his own off a top rope clothesline. Ohno’s rolling elbow gets two and the Ohno Blade (a hard forearm to the back of the head) is good for the same. That’s it for Rollins who hits an enziguri and the Curb Stomp to retain at 14:41 shown.

Rating: B. This is pretty much the same Rollins who would become NXT Champion later in the year and that’s not a bad thing. He’s figured out what works and is being allowed to go out and do his athletic stuff that gets over every time he does it. At the same time you have Ohno, who was perfect in the role of hard hitting villain who can challenge for the title without actually winning the thing. Granted being in the kind of shape that means he doesn’t have to wear a shirt to the ring helps too.

And now for something completely different, we get Renee Young’s audition tape for WWE. Like I said, they certainly mix up the content in this series. Basically she’s given a piece of metal and has to sell it to the audience. Renee says it’s a pet groomer and cuts a sales pitch promo talking about all of its users and functions. It’s nothing wrestling related (even the producer says that) but for an on the spot promo, not too bad. This one kind of has to be seen instead of described but it’s cool for a special feature.

William Regal vs. Dean Ambrose
Date: July 15, 2012
Location: FCW Arena, Tampa, Florida
Commentators: Jim Ross, Dusty Rhodes

Now this is something I’ve been wanting to see after all the FCW matches featuring Ambrose in these collections. Late last year, Ambrose attacked Regal from behind, setting up a match where Regal beat him. Since then, Ambrose has gone over the edge (shocking I know) and become obsessed with beating Regal. Regal sees his past self in Ambrose and knows that in order for Ambrose to become great, he’ll have to defeat Regal and finish him once and for all. Ambrose is pretty easily the top heel in the promotion here but with NXT looming (as this would be the last episode of FCW), it has to end here.

Feeling out process to start as you can tell this is a big one. Regal starts going after the arm, which he severely injured in their first match. A takedown by the arm has Ambrose in trouble with Regal driving his shin into Ambrose’s arm. Back up and Regal sneers down at him as Ambrose is favoring the arm pretty badly. Regal uses his legs to hammerlock him in the corner and it’s a break with Regal getting in as much cranking as he can.

More arm cranking ensues with Ambrose trying to shake off some knee drops and telling Regal to take the arm home with him. Regal pulls him back down to the mat and pulls on the arm again before going with an exploder suplex. All Regal so far as they head outside. The arm is squeezed between the steps and ring for a kick before Regal pulls on the good arm to make things even worse. As the referee gets Regal away, Ambrose loosens a turnbuckle and we take a break.

Back with Regal whipping him down by the arm but Ambrose posts him to finally get a breather. Ambrose pounds his own arm into the buckle to make it work a bit more and unloads on Regal as he comes back in. Regal’s balance is thrown off and he can’t stand up, so of course Ambrose is suddenly much happier.

Ambrose unloads with shots to Regal’s ear and drives it into the now exposed buckle. That’s the kind of violence you don’t get very often and it’s rather awesome to see. Regal’s ear is bleeding now and we actually pause for a bit so the trainer can check on him. Regal is able to get up and hits a running forearm as he’s just not going to let it end. More referees come in and the match is thrown out at 13:42 shown.

Rating: B. This was all storytelling and there’s nothing wrong with that. Regal being all dastardly to start and then falling to the younger, hungrier opponent was the perfectly logical move and exactly how something like this should have gone. The ending was fine as Regal was giving it his last shot but Ambrose was clearly going to win in the end, just due to being able to stand. Excellent story here, which would have been even better with the full build.

Post match Ambrose isn’t done and beats up the referees. Some wrestlers come out and get beaten up as well, allowing Ambrose to stomp on Regal’s ear some more. The Regal Stretch goes on for some bonus evil. Regal gets to his knees and applauds Ambrose, who blasts Regal with the knee trembler. The locker room finally comes out to hold Ambrose back.

We’ll wrap it up with a trip to NXT on May 23, 2013 in this unaired segment. To put it mildly, NXT fans didn’t like main roster stars coming down and sending Ryback made things even worse. This didn’t air on television and was only a dark segment for the live crowd but it was filmed (defying the definition of dark but whatever).

Ryback is in the ring and wants anyone to come out and see why Ryback rules. This brings out Enzo Amore and Big Cass (before they had the signature theme and with Enzo looking odd cleanshaven). Enzo does his entrance (doesn’t have the cadence or crowd reactions yet) but it’s missing HOW YOU DOIN. They’re not S-A-W-F-T though and if they had a dime for every time they were beaten up as kids, they would have zero dimes.

Cass tries to get SAWFT over as a chant before talking about how tired he is of hearing Ryback cry about being eliminated from the Royal Rumble. We get to the FEED ME MORE chants with Enzo making fun of Ryback’s appetite. They both get inside and offer to take Ryback to Golden Corral for a list of food. Cass says they can cap it off with a marshmallow, which Ryback says is soft like these people.

Ryback says Cass’ parents must be brother and sister so it’s time to fight. Well it’s time to talk about fighting first, with Cass and Enzo running over their strategy on the microphones. A quick Meat Hook drops Cass so Enzo backtracks and offers Golden Corral again. He even hugs Ryback, who pats him on the head before hitting a Meat Hook and Shell Shock.

This was long, not funny and really boring with Enzo and Cass not being over yet and the fans not caring about what they had to say. At the same time though, they got beaten up by the villain, who looked more annoyed to be there than anything else. This really didn’t need to air and if it did, it would have been one of the worst segments of the year.

Overall Rating: B. Well the non-wrestling parts ranged from “oh that’s kind of interesting” to “STOP THIS ALREADY” but the wrestling was especially good, with a bunch of young, hungry guys who wanted to become the next top stars in the company. These matches are all entertaining and you can see a lot of NXT in these final FCW shows. I could go for a lot more of this kind of stuff, as it’s the future before it gets to the main roster. Check out that Regal vs. Ambrose match and see how the subtle style can still be incredible.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up the paperback edition of KB’s Complete 1997 Monday Night Raw Reviews (also available as an e-book) from Amazon. Check out the information here:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2018/11/20/new-paperback-complete-1997-monday-night-raw-reviews/

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

This two in two days thing is rough. After Dynamite Kid passed away yesterday at 60, Larry The Ax Hennig has passed away today at 82. Hennig is of course the father of Mr. Perfect Curt Hennig but he had a rather successful career in his own right, mainly as the partner of Harley Race back in the AWA where they won three Tag Team Titles.

Hennig was rather tough and had a rather infamous match with the Road Warriors in the AWA where he wasn’t having any of their roughhousing and pretty much beat them up, teaching them to either sell or face the consequences when someone wasn’t scared of them. Having met Hennig earlier this year at WrestleCon, I can see how he would be that kind of intimidating.

Hennig may not have been as famous as his son, but he was a legend in his own right and December continues to be a hard month for wrestling fans.

This one might be a bit interesting.

How would have HBK faired in today’s wrestling climate? It could have be in either WWE or in the indie scene. Would he have been huge or just been see as another face by the fans?

Now this is an interesting one, and not just because the wife is a huge Shawn fan and might kill me depending on how I answer.

Did anyone do that better than Shawn? He knew how to play to a crowd like no one else and could steal a show so perfectly. There’s one other major point in his favor though: at the end of the day, Shawn is one of the most talented in-ring performers in history, if not of all time. That kind of talent is going to rise to the top as people would see just how good he was. Shawn could steal the show against anyone and he would do it on any stage.

The same holds true for WWE, though maybe not to the same degree. The style that Shawn worked would get over, but at the same time it would be partially smothered by everything else going on. His time as a face wouldn’t work so well as faces tend to get destroyed anymore and his over the top heel antics wouldn’t be allowed anymore. The talent would get him wherever he needed to go and he would be a star, but I don’t think he would be able to get as far otherwise. He’d be a huge fan favorite, though not likely the kind who got pushed as a major star.

It shouldn’t be this complicated.

Why does almost any heel action have to be some kind of an angle? If someone puts their feet on the ropes, grabs the trunks or does anything of that nature, it’s some angle that has to be advanced to next week or some big moment that has to be replayed half a dozen times, often just on that night alone.

Back in the day, heels did those kinds of things because they’re heels. Ric Flair was famous for throwing his fee ton the ropes for a pin even when he didn’t need them because that’s the kind of guy he was. Why did he do that? In the words of Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, “When are you going to get it through your head? I’M EVIL!” Let the villains be villains for the sake of being villains and stop making every action be some big moment.

Time for another question about some tag teams going out of their element.

Speaking of Edge

How would you rank Edge & Christian, The Hardys and The Dudleys singles careers?

I know Devon’s bottom but there could definitely be an arguement Jeff had a better overall career than Edge.

This one might surprise you a bit.

1. Edge. You just can’t argue against that many titles and all that other stuff he’s won. I believe he’s the only person to win every non-weight class title and has more titles than anyone else in company history, plus a Royal Rumble, King of the Ring and Money in the Bank. That’s never being topped, ever.

2. Jeff Hardy. I know he’s not quite what he was back in the day, but egads he was crazy over back in his day. There was a real case that he was the second biggest star in the company behind Cena, and that’s one heck of an accomplishment. If he had stuck around, I’d love to see how far he could have gone.

3. Christian. Not the biggest surprise, but if you could combine his talking and charisma levels in TNA with his success in WWE, he would have been an even bigger star. He managed to craft an entire career of his own away from Edge and he was quite the big deal on his own. That feud with Randy Orton in 2011 would have run away with Feud of the Year if not for Cena vs. Punk.

4. Bubba Ray Dudley. I loved his singles run as Bully Ray and he was a heck of a heel. I know that’s down in TNA, but he was still a success and fighting against some top names. He’s an incredible talker and played a good power heel in the ring. The tag team success helped him out a lot as well and gave him extra credibility. To go from what felt like a joke of a singles run in WWE to this was quite impressive.

5. Matt Hardy. Really, it’s just hard to care. Some of the stuff he did was good and the Mattitude Facts are hilarious but his World Title reigns in TNA barely existed and his ECW Title reign is forgettable. He had some nice midcard work but it never really felt big and he never broke through to that next level. The potential was always there and it just didn’t click.

6. D-Von Dudley. Back in the day, a buddy of mine and I would use our 13 inch Marvel figures for wrestling toys. They had theme songs, storylines, entrance music and all that jazz. One of them was a Ghost Rider figure named Blaze. One of his finishers was a reverse implant DDT called the Inferno. D-Von occasionally used that as his finisher. For me, that is the high point of his singles career.

At the age of 83.  He’s likely best known as the manager and trainer of Shawn Michaels, but he had a heck of a career in both Florida and Texas.  Lothario was one of those guys you had to see to really appreciate, but he was a heck of a talent and someone worth tracking down.

https://wrestlingrumors.net/tommyhall/ask-wrestling-rumors-week-7-july-24-2018/

More questions answered but I think this is going to be the last one for now.  It’s just taking up too much time, though I might have a replacement in mind.  Thanks for all the questions and keep them coming, just in case.

https://wrestlingrumors.net/tommyhall/ask-wrestling-rumors-week-6-july-14-2018/

Another week of questions, including what I like on the WWE Network.  Check it out, watch the videos, and ask me more questions!

Oh and like it on Facebook and ask questions there too.

https://www.facebook.com/wrestlingrumors/posts/1818566021553379