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WWF Dream Match?

Hi Scott,

Here's a 1980's dream match that could have happened, should have happened, but never did--and doesn't seem to get talked about, either.  

Between Summerslam 88 and The Main Event 89, the WWF had arguably the two hottest tag teams in the country (which is saying something considering the NWA tag roster at the time)--the Megapowers and Demolition. The former were just done headlining the second biggest PPV of the year and the latter were solidifying themselves in the most dominant WWF Tag Team Championship run of all time.  On one side, it was the two biggest singles stars and on the other, the most over tag team of the decade.  But instead of letting them headline a PPV, SNME, or hpuse show run, the WWF rushes a Demolition fave turn at Survivor Series that no one in the live crowd even noticed.  What gives?  I know the WWF champ (Savage) and the tag champs (Demos) were used to headline two different touring groups so that would explain the lack of house show match ups. But at least an SNME headlined by these four? Or even replace the Twin Towers with Demolition in The Main Event in February 1989?

Megapowers v. Demolition would have been too awesome for one arena to contain.  That's the only reason I can think of.  

Comments

  1. Eh, I don't see it as much. They would have booked themselves into a countout or DQ since really back then they actually protected their tag team champions and would not have had them take a loss to Hogan/Savage. And of course there is no way that Hogan or Savage (as champion) were going to eat a pin. It would have made for a fun match, but kind of a no win situation.

    Today, this would have happened as a RAW main event. Actually, Hogan would have beat them both in a handicap match as whatever authority figure in charge decided to try to teach Hogan a lesson.

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  2. Demolition is my favourite tag team from my childhood and looking back at them, it's shocking how over they were. They were beefy but not super-steroid cut and were solid workers but not high-level (like the Harts/Rockers/Bulldogs). But they had their characters down and were booked like monsters. Goes to show what a good mix of ability and strong booking can do for wrestlers...

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  3. Joey Jo-Jo Junior ShabbadooJune 16, 2015 at 1:14 PM

    Demos vs. Megapowers is a good choice.

    Rude vs. Rhodes should have happened, for obvious reasons. Also, a real Piper vs. Savage feud.

    But the real answer will always be Hogan vs. Nikita Kolfoff.

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  4. Much better than the twin towers. Akeem was a joke.

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  5. Joey Jo-Jo Junior ShabbadooJune 16, 2015 at 1:21 PM

    As a worker he was okay, but yeah the gimmick was that of a comedy jobber.

    Now, if he'd been the One Man Gang...

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  6. Dusty's booking wouldn't have worked in 1989 WWF. Northern and southern wrestling are very different and southern booking wouldn't have gone over so well.

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  7. That's really cool. From a storytelling perspective, one could say this is possibly the greatest RAW of all time.

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  8. It is sad how true your last paragraph is.


    Even with a DQ, it might have been okay. They could've just had a wild double DQ finish where both teams brawl all over the place. It would've fit all the characters.

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  9. Akeem: the first trans-racial WWE superstar! Truly a historic moment to behold!

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  10. What an amazing main event. "Blew the roof off" tends to get overused, but it totally applies here. Austin throwing his hat at Vince was great, too.

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  11. Could the OMG really be an ally of the Big Bossman? I suppose so since the Bossman was like a corrupt cop as a heel. Honestly, I'm shocked that law enforcement officials didn't try to sue/boycott the WWF in the 1980s due to the Bossman heel character like the RCMP did with the Mountie.

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  12. Vince's facial expressions, as usual, were also spot-on and he also tried to immediately soothe the Rock's anger at losing the belt by saying "You'll get it back...I don't know how, but you'll get it back!!!" Put over the importance of the title and the moment at the same time.

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  13. Because WWF doesn't see tag team wrestling as main event stuff.

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  14. Yeah, but like Dusty with the polka dots, Akeem took what was given to him and had fun doing it. He looked like he was having a blast doing all the shucking and jiving.

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  15. Steamboat vs Hogan. neither of them would have turned heel, but it would have been a dream match.

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  16. How about you take a trip to Deepest, Darkest Africa and then talk about how big of a joke Akeem was.

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  17. And in case no one told you yet...Megapowers vs. Luger & Sting = biggest missed WCW opportunity.

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  18. Except for Summerslam 88 and 89...and, oh, ANY Surivior Series before 1992.

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  19. Someone suggested that you keep One Man Gang as One Man Gang, and have the story be that Bossman knew him from his prison guard days, when he was arrested for, well, gang-type activities. But since Bossman was an EVIL cop, he'd find a way to get OMG out of there, hence their later partnership. For the insiders, it could be a vague reference to them crossing paths in UWF.

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  20. Yes...see also: Barry Darsow as Repo Man.

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  21. I joke that if Ricky Steamboat took a chainsaw to Hulk Hogan in MSG in 1984 that the crowd would still chant "STEAM-BOAT!" "STEAM-BOAT!" The guy just couldn't be a heel.

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  22. Definitely. It's baffling too because their booking in late 1995 was heading that direction. It should have main evented Starcade.

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  23. Loved it when I was a kid and still get chills when I watch it now. Austin returning, Foley finally winning and how DX was genuinely happy for Mankind.

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  24. I see it being like Hogan vs. HBK, but with a more professional protagonist for Hulk.

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  25. Rude vs. Dusty did happen on SNME. Not sure how often their paths crossed in JCP.

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  26. Hogan had Starrcade off.

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  27. If you want to see a Northern Territory booked Southern, watch Cornette's era of ROH.

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  28. Akeem was Rachel Dolezal's favourite wrestler

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  29. In retrospect One Man Gang teaming with Bossman would have been better.

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  30. Still amazing and love how you can see Mick truly heartfelt celebrating, a guy you never thought you'd see on top as the champion.

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  31. Too bad they didn't have mash-up themes back then.


    "If you ever take a trip down to deepest darkest Africa....."

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  32. I like that Vince thinks even a white guy with African heritage still dances.

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  33. Again, I love how on his 2006 DVD, they openly say the whole polka-dot outfit was a huge rib by Vince but Dusty just went out to put it over as only he could.

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  34. It's another little thing, but I love towards the end of that match when things are starting to fall apart Vince is looking around kind of with his arms out to say "I'm still in control. It's still according to plan." Just a great little nonverbal touch.

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  35. Always wished we'd seen Steamboat getting a partner for some tag bouts against Harts or Demolition. Just hard to figure who'd be a great partner for him at that time (he and Jake would have been very intriguing).

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  36. Who doesn't enjoy shucking and jiving?

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  37. Apparently that was Darsow's idea, he wanted to play an over-the-top comic book villain.

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  38. That was back when they were running two pay-per-views per year and the big singles matches needed to be saved for Wrestlemania and the house show circuit. Tag matches were considered good but not too good to give away in a B-PPV scenario, which is all Summerslam and Survivor Series were in the early days.

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  39. I wish I could be that invested in the product and care about wrestlers and wrestling like I did then.

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  40. Hell, these days, even the world champ is jobbing to Joey Mercury. Nobody whose name isn't Brock Lesnar or John Cena is protected these days.

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  41. I love the idea of Demolition vs the Megapowers, but I thought everyone was into the Demos Survivor Series face turn. I remember my friends and I all thinking it was an awesome angle.

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  42. I wish the Mega Powers had met the Harts. Especially since they were part of their formation.

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  43. Starrcade wasn't the big show at the time.

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  44. Law enforcement officials? There's not really a law enforcement officials organization.

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  45. An awesome joke.

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  46. They were big guys that wore black, had scary masks, wore face paint and stomped people. It'd be shocking if they didn't get over.

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  47. Demolition were a face team in 1988, they just hadn't officially turned. Way too many people were rooting for them to face Hogan & Savage.

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  48. Yeah, there's no way that they'd want to risk getting a split reaction.

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  49. Doesn't really matter. It was a great chance to pop a house. If not Starrcade, they could've done it at SuperBrawl (although Starrcade is a better venue). Would've been better than the New Japan-WCW competition they barely promoted.

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  50. Dusty has said though he wanted Patterson's job when he got there.

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  51. That's why it wasn't a big deal that Hogan wasn't supposed to work it.

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  52. Rude vs Rhodes happened when rude/fernandez were tag champs and they fought dusty/nikita....that's the only context they faced each other I know of.

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  53. "They could have put a diaper on me, and I'd get over."

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  54. The crowd cheered the Powers of Pain like crazy in that one. They didn't quite figure it out.

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  55. Steamboat & Tito, and they just take turns getting the shit kicked out of them for 10 minutes and making a hot tag.

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  56. I was 15, watching this with my best friend who's not a fan at all. He watched when he was a little kid, I guess, but made fun of me in these days for watching. Even he was marking out at the end of this show.

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  57. Bruce Pritchard specifically said it wasn't on the DVD, but I have a feeling he's full of shit.

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  58. And I thought he left in 91 when he didn't get Patterson's job? Or am I confusing him and Jake in 92?

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  59. The did it at Wrestlemania VI and Summer Slam 1992 and it worked.

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  60. Hogan headlines the A tour, and Savage headlines the B tour. So if you did MegaPowers v Demoitlion, who headlines the B-tour?

    Did Hogan and Savage ever work the same house shows when they were both babyfaces? Hogan and Savage basically did three tag team matches together in 88-89.

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  61. Confusing him with Jake.

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  62. and wasn't Jake promised a spot booking in WCW but by the time he started someone else was in charge and iced him out? That's why he was only there for the Sting match and then bounced.

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  63. How exactly did it work? The victor in both of those matches were enormous disappointments.

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  64. Dusty talks about it too in one of those Legends of Wrestling roundtables about bad gimmicks. (BTW, they need to bring those back) He said the same thing ... also that he never made more money than he did in the WWF.

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  65. But who cares? Both or better to say all three matches had great reactions during the match (Hogan/Warrior, Savage/Warrior, Hart/Bulldog) and in the end most of the fans were happy. What happened afterwards is a completely different story. But the matches themselves were great. For example Cena vs Punk MITB 2011 was a great match, even if that what came afterwards was completely bullshit.

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  66. No, he was just promised a shit load of money but Watts came in and slashed his contract.

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  67. Pretty sure the WWF cared. They wanted to make money.

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  68. A more intelligent question: what if Ted Turner cared enough about wrestling to realize what he had in the early 80s, a de facto monopoly on the national wrestling audience, bought out Georgia Championship Wrestling himself, and hired Dusty to take them national years before Vince Jr. had the chance?


    Starrcade 82 could have buried everyone, including McMahon.

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  69. Thought Fuji was turning face at first and was confused.

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  70. HBK vs. Hogan was still a good match and the right guy still went iver - comedy oversell or not.

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  71. Wish the Gang had stayed.

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  72. Well the WCW got sued over using the boss man gimmick

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  73. Did you know George Gray was a prison guard?

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  74. Some say Patterson, who was co booker, was very nervous having Rhodes around to take his spot, and tried everything to get Rhodes humiliated (Vince enjoyed it too), but Patterson was the mastermind behind Sapphire and the polka dots

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  75. Tell Jim Cornette that, he still doesn't know

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  76. So the Dream's booking and contributions to booking at the FCW and NXT level and the consistent and laudatory remarks from staff and talent don't count? What are you predicating not wanting him "booking anything after the 80's" on ?

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  77. And we all know how well that went.

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  78. Plus Hogan wasn't doing the job to no Jap, brother.

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  79. Nowadays we'd see that match unadvertised as the opener on Raw and both teams would be split by SummerSlam.

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  80. Hulk Hogan, Jake Roberts and Demolition as a Survivor Series team was the 2nd most badass team of all time up until that point. Savage/Roberts/Beefcake/Steamboat/Duggan was pretty fucking loaded.

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  81. It was kind of nice back then how the world champ, IC champ and tag champs never really interacted. They had their own worlds which made the titles seem more important.

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  82. That was so weird in 1989 at survivor series. Demolition did two clean jobs to the Powers of Pain. Made no sense then and still doesn't now.

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  83. In 1989 Hogan faced Savage at nearly every arena all summer. Not sure about 1988 if they were together on house shows.

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  84. And by have fun, Vince meant, "GET AS LOADED AS YOU WANT..."

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  85. This forever AND Vince knew it, too. His fear and distrust of WWE looking too "southern" is by no means a new thing. He had no false impressions of what Dusty would have wanted to book if he was given the chance.

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  86. It's interesting that people talk about how Southern booking doesn't work in the North because WWE is currently using a very 1980s NWA booking style at the moment, on both the main roster and in NXT. However, it's definitely a modified version of the style, influenced by what has worked so well for the WWE since the 1980s (big dominating face(s), even without the title).


    While we have seen that someone like Cornette really couldn't adapt with the times, it seems that Dusty had a lot more success at bringing his ideas into the 21st century, at least if we're looking at his time in NXT

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  87. I love that match, Dibiase is just in the zone. Possibly my favorite traditional Survivor Series match.

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  88. To get POP over as a threat.

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  89. And lose the Akeem gimmick? No way.

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  90. They really missed the boat on having more Mega Powers tag matches.

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  91. Warrior/Tornado/LOD>any team

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  92. It would've resulted in Demolition eating the legdrop. Then again it would've made a shit-fuck-ton of money, so why not?

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  93. Not only would it air unadvertised on RAW, it would happen for eight weeks straight in every sort of combination (Hulk vs. Ax! Savage vs. Smash! Hulk vs. Smash! Savage vs. Ax! Ax & Smash vs. Hulk! Ax & Smash vs. Savage! Ax, Smash, and Fuji vs. Hulk & Savage! Ax, Smash, and Fuji vs. Hulk! Ax, Smash, and Fuji vs. Savage! Fuji vs. Hulk! Fuji vs. Smash!)

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  94. Keep in mind that's his booking done after something like 10 years without holding the book. I don't know if Dusty circa 89 or so would've had the benefit of an extra decade of thought.

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  95. Steamboat and Tito teamed up on a coliseum video against someone and it was pretty damn good.

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  96. JJ Dillon talked about it in his book a little bit. He's definitely not a fan of Vince but he said that he never saw Vince give a guy a gimmick as a rib or to humiliate him. He said Vince honestly believed all of the gimmicks he gave people would give draw money and get over. Stuff like The Red Rooster, Mantaur, Bastion Booger, etc were just products of what Vince McMahon finds entertaining and he believes everyone else will too.

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  97. As we're having fun with these fantasy pairings...Dusty and Andre had some fun sequences at Royal Rumble 1990 and looked like they were having a blast working together. I'm guess they had to have crossed paths a few times in the 70s and 80s...did they ever tag together?

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  98. Adam "Colorado" CurryJune 16, 2015 at 5:18 PM

    It was nice when they actually looked like something you'd want to be seen in public with.

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  99. That's a great point. Demo got a monster face reaction for beating Strike Force at WM4 and that was with Fuji as their manager.

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  100. Yeah, I love that Savage Survivor Series team, especially when it leaves Savage, Roberts, and Steamboat as the survivors.

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  101. They teamed in many territories. They were also US tag team Champs at one point. Also, he's a quick six man with them. http://youtu.be/LwHL8Z2nPNI

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  102. Different booking back then. That may be why they were so special. We didn't see them teaming 3x a week against the same people

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  103. It feels like a combo of Southern intensity and feuds with New York wrestling aesthetics, blended with AWA emphasis on match quality. Take the good from each and get a solid product. NXT is great because Vince and his cartoon nonsense are far away.

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  104. That was against the Dream Team. It was epic. Them against the Hart Foundation would have made my head explode back in the day.

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  105. I was about six rows back... greatest night of my wrestling fandom.

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  106. Calling Demolition the most over team of the decade is a pretty big stretch.

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  107. Thanks, that was a fun little match. Ernie Ladd had a pretty devastating leg drop.

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  108. Yeah, nothing has really come close. I've seen other great shows like Backlash 99 but that night was something special.

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  109. Ladd was an awful color commentator but he was an under rated big man

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  110. Hogan was trying to pursue a movie career at that point.

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  111. But why? They weren't programmed for a run with Demolition, their feud after this was with the Rockers.

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  112. They feuded with Demos from Survivor Series until WM.

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  113. Then do it at the January '96 Clash

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  114. The original planned Starrcade '95 main event was Hogan vs. Sting, until Hogan asked to have the end of December off

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  115. Steamboat, just after his initial run, tagged with King Tonga (later known as Haku). God, Steamboat was awesome.

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  116. Depends on how longetivity factors into your judgement. In terms of brief periods of time, I'd put the following as more over : British Bulldogs, Rock n' Roll Express, Road Warriors, Luger / Sting, Luger / Windham and Windham / Rotundo.

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  117. If we're fixing things, the city is Worcester. And it is properly pronounced by Toll Booth Willie.

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  118. Isn't this the match where rock lays the bottom half of the steps on mankind's head then drops the top half on top of it. That was one of the sickest looking things I've ever seen

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