Scott,
A few questions regarding the distortion of Flair's Big Gold Belt on WWF TV in 1991.
1. When they first started distorting the belt on TV as part of the angle, he was still carrying the actual BGB in the arenas and during promos, right? They then swapped it for a different belt (I think one of the Tag Team Titles?) at some point later on, correct?
2. Specifically when was the BGB swapped for the Tag-team Title belt (or whatever belt they used)? Do we have any kind of date as to when the BGB was actually last used on WWF TV in 1991 and when the other title was used in its place?
I mean the whole point of the "Tunny orders the belt distorted" thing is that they no longer had access to the BGB because Flair had returned it to WCW after reaching a settlement with them, right?
Thanks in advance for any answers you or the readers might have.
1. Right, he was carrying it for a bit and then they actually made their own knockoff belt once they returned the real one to WCW. It was kind of a cheesy thing that looked like a cross between the AWA inmate belt and the real Big Gold. Not sure what photos are floating around, but they do exist. And then I believe they got legal threats over THAT as well because they were kind of representing themselves as having possession of Big Gold when in fact they didn't, and at that point they switched to the tag title and killed the angle completely.
2. It was pretty quick. Flair came in around September and the BGB was gone by Survivor Series, right?
I know Flair had the legit Big Gold Belt for his MSG match with Piper in October but then the next month has the tag belts blurred out for his match with Hogan.
ReplyDeleteThis is a replica of the fake Big Gold Belt, Flair used this is a couple of promos in WCW as well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNinsCPbFS8
ReplyDeleteI was surprised they didn't give him some ridiculously huge cartoonish looking belt and then have him just job to Hogan repeatedly.
ReplyDeleteI didn't like the Inmate Belt as much as the classic AWA belt, the one Lawler had and I'm sure has a nickname I don't know.
ReplyDeleteI'd imagine Hilary refused to suck balls.
ReplyDeleteGnomes are in. Get with it.
ReplyDeleteIt's the over the edge match?
ReplyDeleteif they were going to break kayfabe then why not go all out?
ReplyDeleteI remember watching Flair's post-Rumble victory speech and thinking how tiny the WWF belt looked in his hands compared to the Big Gold Belt I'd gotten used to seeing him with.
ReplyDelete“Welcome everyone to N Becks T.” I apologize for making you read a line that horrible.
ReplyDeleteWhy would you apologize for repeating such a bexcellent pun?
It looks like Bobby Heenan is holding it here in this clip.
ReplyDeletehttps://youtu.be/CighoR75pbM
Becky is awesome. Loved her as Rebecca Knox in SHIMMER, and love her now.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing about that, and all of it may be entirely true, is how much patience will both Itami & WWE have for each other? He's 34, he signed in July, I believe he debuted in September, so he's been in developmental for a little over half a year now. Come late this summer, if he's still floundering, I have to think something gives.
ReplyDeleteAlso not sure what they paid him, but that could be a factor too. Supposedly, they paid Balor a lot which is why they're starting to get anxious about getting him up on the main roster (that and he's been good enough since Day 1 to be there). If they paid Itami a lot to get him to come over, they may just say screw it and move him up anyway, but that doesn't bode well for any type of success in WWE.
He'd be fine if he did stuff other than kicks. The GTS would be a good place to start.
ReplyDeleteThis is the knockoff Big Gold they had commissioned from Reggie Parks: http://i.imgur.com/IQE70Qc.jpg
ReplyDeleteLook at the hair on that prostitute.
ReplyDeleteThis clips gives an excellent summary of the BGB history:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZjHERuPIh4
I'm assuming Steiner still has the original?
As I recall, making the replica was their way around the fact that Flair only had a deposit on the belt and didn't actually own it. The injunction put an end to them using the replica.
ReplyDeleteI remember it happened over the same weekend Flair and Hogan has their confrontation on The Funeral Parlor because not all markets were able to blur out the belt in time once they got notice. By Survivor Series they were definitely using the tag belt. I don't know that they even bothered having Flair come out with any belt after that before the Rumble.
If she calls Sasha Banks a divvy knacker, I might die.
ReplyDeleteShe also has the best twitter, ever.
https://twitter.com/BeckyLynchWWE/status/571723328605556736
AWA inmate belt?
ReplyDelete...da fuck?
It was made in a prison. It's the belt Stan Hansen destroyed.
ReplyDeleteI never knew it by that name. Funny.
ReplyDeleteThe generic Bruce Lee-meets-Great Muta gimmick they've saddled him with along with every other Japanese guy ever doesn't help. And he's just a cheesy bland babyface. Turn him heel, and make him a rich snob or a punk rocker or a typical ricer assclown and he's at least got something to go on. As it is the character is a wet fart.
ReplyDeleteThey took a guy who got over, in part, because he stood out as having one of the only personalities in NOAH. This was this hip hop loving, snot kid who took his time beating you up because he was an asshole even as a face. They made him....nothing.
ReplyDeleteIt's not that they're paying Balor a lot so much as he only agreed to sign in the first place if he spent limited time in developmental.
ReplyDeleteIt's a little thing, but I love when multiple wrestlers talk about wanting to work to a title shot. Even if they aren't going to be booked to challenge, making it everyone's goal makes it seem more real, and gets the title over as being important.
ReplyDeleteFun trivia:She was trained by Finn Balor.
ReplyDeleteTrue. Two million buys would have been unfathomable for wrestling in that period anyway given the size of audience with access to PPV at that point. Tyson/Holyfield II did almost two million buys in July 1997 and was far and away the most ordered PPV ever by that point, by miles.
ReplyDeleteIt was an insanely impressive number at the time though, coming off of the doldrums of the mid 1990s and shattering every WCW record, plus a lot of WWF ones too.
I don't think turning him heel is a good idea.
ReplyDeleteWell, Ireland is a small country.
ReplyDeleteI'm assuming she's Van Morrison's niece.
I'm assuming you're talking about KENTA (don't follow NOAH).
ReplyDeleteIt also doesn't help that people keep taking his moves.
AJ used his Tornado Necksnap at Mania...like husband like wife I guess.
You saw him hit it over Wrestlemania weekend?
ReplyDeleteI think the buy rate was 1.8 or 1.9 which is based off a percentagepercentage of available ppv homes, not strictly a number that can be compared to other time periods very easily.
ReplyDeleteGotta defend the White Castle of Fear since it led to an awesome strap match but yeah Sting wasnt always treated the best but mostly because of WCW ineptitude, not anything malicious. Once Hogan came in he almost disappeared from anything meaningful until the start of Nitro over a year later.
ReplyDeleteThis is the important part: No matter how much you hate him, Triple H still has value as a guy who can put people like Bryan and The Shield over big time when he needs to. But that value is gone if he just starts jobbing literally all of the time, even to someone like Sting who isn't going anywhere other than the Wrestlemania spectacle.
ReplyDeleteNow, if it was going to be a schmozz, then they probably shouldn't have written such a serious angle in which Sting the Conquering Hero is riding into town to end The Authority, and instead just played it up as a Franchise vs. Franchise dream match, but either way, the match was entertaining, the sledgehammer shot was fine since it was a no-DQ match, and Triple H was probably the right guy to go over.
It's still fucking unbelievable.
ReplyDelete""He was the man that worked with the man."
ReplyDeleteGod that's a great line. Too bad it's utter horseshit.
To be fair, he was really fat and out of shape pretty quickly too.
ReplyDeleteOkay episode this week, JAson Jordan look good and is more credible as a strong man than Bull or Baron.
ReplyDeleteThey should have had copied LU with Hideo and Breeze and made a Best of 3 serie with the winner earning a shot to the title, this would have made the outcome more important and could have provide another opponent for Owen to defeat before his rematch with Zayn.
I mean...why? Other than *maybe* the completely illogical element of Sting and the NWO on the same side, what was so bad about this from Sting's perspective? He got one over big time on The Authority at Survivor Series and then again on Raw, beat Triple H up with a bat at Fastlane, generally looked good on TV (hell he's apparently the only guy Stephanie isn't allowed to land a slap on), and landed plenty of offense on Triple H and kicked out of a pedigree before a wild sledgehammer shot felled him.
ReplyDeleteHe might have jobbed, but he was certainly made to look strong and I'd say was very well respected by the presentation.
Everyone talks Sting being misused at Starrcade and Goldberg's streak being ended, but it was just as bad that WCW signed the reigning WWF champion... and then didn't do much with him.
ReplyDeleteThank you for bringing some sanity to the discussion.
ReplyDeleteIf they didn't do the "handshake of respect" at the end, I don't think as many people would be complaining.
I did and hopefully that's the first of many.
ReplyDeleteI heard she was Bono next door neighbor
ReplyDeleteI wonder, with the live show in Ohio playing a couple weeks ago, and the Axxess tournament playing next week, if they're trying to stretch out the time so they can get Owens back, and not have him miss a whole taping.
ReplyDeleteTrue. I guess you can say at least he was allowed to look good, unlike the Alliance.
ReplyDelete"This is called a Divas match. I really hope that's a one time line and not a trend."
ReplyDeleteThey've been doing that for all non-title matches I think. I recall Eden/Brandi doing it before she got called up.
Cornette said that about HHH.
ReplyDeleteSo HHH was the headliner that drew money?
Yeah I think that's fair to say about 2000.
ReplyDeleteYup. Buyrates are usually stated as decimals, ("1.9") but they are actually expressed as a percent of the audience.
ReplyDelete~1.9% of about 35 to 36 million households, depending on your source. So somewhere in the neighborhood of 665k to 684k buys.