didn’t

Superstars you didn’t know were related – 5 Things

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Cute list, but how the hell do they explain the Blackjack Mulligan-IRS relationship and then completely ignore the more obvious IRS family relationship?  Are we back in the 80s, where breaking kayfabe by admitting that Bray Wyatt and Bo Dallas are brothers would somehow shatter our suspension of disbelief and cause ratings to drop even lower?

10 Mind-Blowing Finishes That You Didn’t Know Make Me Want To Punch Vince Russo (In the Face)

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Hi Scott – Thanks again for passing along this article to be published at Place to Be Nation.  We really appreciate your partnership.  Here's the link for your readers:

Always happy to share the love.  Or the hate in this case.  

Wrestlers associated with a company they didn’t spend much time in

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Hi Scott,


Something for the blog if you'd like and/or think it will get some discussion:

In the "midcard mailbag" thread, someone mentioned Angle, and it got me thinking about how excluding his time in WWE developmental, Angle has now been in TNA for the same amount of time he was in WWE.  But when people think of Angle, will they think of him as a TNA guy or a WWE guy?  It kind of brings to mind the weird phenomenon of how some guys can be associated strongly with one company despite not having been there very long.

A perfect example is Rick Rude.  Even with the few months in DX, Rude was only with WWF for three years or so. And while I'm betting most people will always think of Rude from his WWF days, the fact is he really was an NWA/WCW guy through and through.  Another example might be any given ECW guy, say RVD: he really was only visibly with ECW for about 4 years or so (got on TV in early '96, and then was gone in mid 2000 through the last PPV in '01),  He surpassed that with his time in WWE, and is on his way this year into next doing that with TNA.  But he'll always be an ECW guy.

Can you think of any other notable examples where someone was very much associated with a given company despite only being there for a fraction of his career?  The simple explanation for it all is probably just exposure/how someone is used, but I still thought it might make for some interesting debate.

Magnum TA was only in JCP for a relatively brief period of time, but because he blew up there and then ended his career at the same time, he got forever associated with it.  And I think RVD was an "ECW guy" because his career was essentially defined by his time there.  

If Vince Didn’t Exist

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Hey Scott,
 
This is Voth22 from the blog, I’ll skip all the ass kissing, because I am not asking for a plug or a link- but I will say that I have been a fan of yours since around 1997, so obviously I think you do a great job.
I am writing with a question that has no real answer, but that I thought might be a good topic for debate/discussion on the blog.
There has been a good amount of conjecture about who Vince McMahon would have ride to the national stage if Hulk Hogan had not been around to strap a rocket to for whatever reason, but what about the opposite? What would have happened to wrestling if there was no Vince McMahon?
I think it is fair to say that, for good or for ill, there has been no one in history that has had the impact and influence on the sport that Vince has.
I think the two easiest answers would be that the status quo would have remained the same or that someone else would simply have changed the sport in his place… but I don’t think it is that easy.
1-      With the advent of cable TV and other burdening media (PPV and the internet) I don’t think anyone could argue that wrestling was going to have to be in for some changes.
2-      There does not seem to be any prominent promoter at the time who would have had the vision and resources to be the man to drive the change- The WWF probably passes to one of of Vince Senior’s Lieutenants all of whom were Lieutenants for a reason. Crockett has proven that he is not a good business man, Gagne is hopelessly resistant to change, Von Erich would be undercut by circumstances beyond his control (his family tragedy and the economic devastation of his home territory), Watts is too abrasive to forge the relationships necessary to change the game… etc…
 
Vince was a force in the WWWF/WWF from 1970 on and it is safe to say he had some influence, but realistically, he took full control in 1982 and began his ascent.  But what happens to the business from that point if he was never born (or never decided to find his birth father or Linda killed him in his sleep or whatever)? Assuming that the Butterfly effect does not too greatly mess with anything else (EX- Magnum still wrecks his car, and Vern Gagne is still a really bad promoter)? Does the NWA manage to still rule the wresting world, what company/companies go national as competition, what happens to the WWF and how long do we take to get to some semblance of a modern era?
 
I look forward to reading everyone’s thoughts….
 
     

I think that Crockett would have kept expanding and would have taken over the Vince slot, actually.  Crockett's main problem was that Vince wouldn't let him get any further north (well, OK, his main problem was Dusty killing towns, but that could have been overcome with a change of booker) and I think that Crockett and Turner together had enough vision to follow through with that plan.  The territory system was going to die regardless and whoever had the deepest pockets (ie, Turner) was going to be the one to survive.  WWF would have likely stayed regional in the northeast without Vince's hail mary pass in the form of Wrestlemania, and might have actually started expanding a bit once the TV and PPV era got going, but Vince risked a lot of other people's money to make that happen and I don't think the likes of Gorilla Monsoon and Pat Patterson could have pulled it off on their own.  
I think ultimately we'd end up with WCW in a mostly monopoly, but with a much smaller universe than we have now.  Weird to think of WCW Main Event style, where everything would be skewed to southern wrestling fans with Ric Flair getting endless nostalgia pushes.