Good points Cody ... I always did not care for DX Generation ... with Triple H and Shawn Michaels running the show and all that and I would have to admit that Shawn Michaels was a good worker in the ring and all that; but his personality troubles me and I just have a hard time enjoying him. When Sean Waltman, Chyna, Road Dogg, and Billy Gunn added to the mix ... I just felt that this group became somewhat a showoff and a nuisance (not the right word here) and that gad-awful theme music really started to bother me greatly and that's when I started to dislike Triple H and ended up not enjoying him at all. Everytime I turn onto RAW ... he makes an appearance and I wish WWE stopped doing that and then Michaels got into the act and I started disliking him too. I just can't get over it back then and even today Generation DX still bothers me and that whole KLIQ thing had so much power in the WWE and that's when the (May 1996) mid-90's ... I stopped watching WWE on a regular basis.

I Was watching USWA and Smoky mountain back then Smoky went out of business though in 1995 . Yea Shawn was a dumbass back in the mid 90s lol.

I Did enjoy Shawn's ladder match with Razor Ramon ( Scott Hall ) , um the midnight rockers there original name was a okay tag team but no where near as great as the Rock n Roll Express !

Rock and Roll Express is far better than the Rockers ... I really never embraced the Rockers at all.

My favourite ladder match is Hulk Hogan vs. Andre the Giant.

It happened. Honestly. When I played Smackdown vs. Raw 2006...

In regards Bob Backlund, I'm curious what exposure people had to his matches; did you only see his work in the 90s, under Vince Jr? Did you see him (or watch any of his matches on Youtube or elsewhere) under Sr, as champion? Did you see him from the early or mid-part of his title reign? Did you only see him at the end, when he dropped the belt to the Iron Sheik, and then was gone soon after? Have you seen anything of his work before he was champion?

I kind of feel that many fans who saw him at all, did so in the 90s, as a heel, compared to those who saw him as champion or earlier. In the 90s, he was a goofy, conservative nutjob, who "snapped" and berated the fans for their manners and intelligence and used submissions and heel tactics in his matches. Before that, he was an All-American wrestler, a college standout, who was a technical master, in the old tradition. He was humble, did the right thing, spoke of virtuous things, fought off evil men and monsters and did it through sheer wrestling. He could convincingly wrestle and beat guys like Big John Studd or Superstar Graham because he could out-wrestle them and he would show off his legitimate strength. From my experience, not a lot of modern fans saw that era. Little footage exists of him before becoming champion, since promoters taped over masters; so, good luck finding matches of his from Florida or the AWA.

He definitely was not a fit for the Vince Jr WWF circus. Bob was a straight-forward kind of guy, who went out and gave you a wrestling match. Now, for full disclosure, I love technical wrestlers. As a kid, I watched Olympic wrestling and when amateur stuff would appear on ABC's Wide World of Sports. When I started to see professional wrestling, the guys I liked were the strong technical babyfaces, like Jack Brisco, Wilbur Snyder, Bret Hart, Ronnie Garvin (pre-Crockett, Garvin would put on a mix of high technical wrestling and brawling), and Ricky Steamboat. The babyface's job was to be the clean cut, humble good guy, who got fired up when the heel pushed the cheating too far. I loved Superman comics. I liked virtuous heroes. I didn't really appreciate some of the heels until I was older (and saw better ones) to really appreciate how they controlled the matches and how they were the central mix in the angles.

Bob was the template of the old NWA travelling champion: a popular, top-rated shooter, who could make other people look good, while staying over with fans. However, that type of champion was an anomaly in the WWF, under either Vince. Sr used ethnic babyfaces to draw big ethnic crowds and heels only as transitional champions. Superstar Billy Graham kind of changed that, as he was a heel that fans loved to see and became kind of a 'tweener. Backlund was a guy that Sr loved, loved his work, loved his attitude, loved his ability to work with anyone. Graham was extremely limited as a wrestler and needed good opponents. Backlund made him look good and Sr liked how the WWF fans reacted to him. So, he put the title on him and had him face every villain and monster that came through, knocking them off with sheer wrestling ability. And he drew. He had tons of sellouts for MSG and other WWF arenas. Problem was, Sr kept him in that slot when the fans were indicating it was time for a change. Backlund, in the latter days of his reign, had grown stale. After the program with Snuka, he lacked for great opponents and recycled old ones. he did have a good series with Masked Superstar (Bill Eadie). The Iron Sheik thing could have been a longer rivalry; All-American wrestler vs heel Iranian wrestler. Both had standout amateur backgrounds, both were feared shooters in pro wrestling. US vs Iran. Perfect. But, Vince Jr was now in charge and wanted the belt off Backlund and on someone flashier. He wanted Backlund to die his hair black and become a heel. Backlund said "no." So, they took the belt off of him in a contested finish, he wrestled a rematch or two and a couple of other bouts, then left, as Hogan came in and they started the circus era. Backlund stayed out of wrestling, for a few years, until Verne was able to recruit him to work some of the beginning Pro Wrestling USA shows. However, he only did that on a limited basis. He did some tours of Japan, in the 90s, with both WAR and UWFI. He came back to the WWF for his heel run.

I can see not being into Bob's work, especially if you only saw him in the 90s or prefer flashier performers. Bob isn't a Rock or Ric Flair. I can see not being a fan in 1983, when he had beaten everybody and was facing the same guys, again. I can see maybe not liking him, compared to Bruno. I definitely understand the people who wanted Snuka to win the title from him. However, if you watch some of his matches from 1979-1982, he really gets the crowd going, with wrestling. He doesn't have the same match with everyone and he looks credible in the fight. Fans came out to see him. He was more a product of the 60s and 70s and was lost in the 80s, as he didn't evolve with the changes in presentation and wasn't comfortable as a heel and no one wanted babyfaces like him, anymore. I think the 90s character was the best he could achieve with a heel character; but, I don't think his angles were well booked (very little was, in that era) and I don't think he really got to show what he could do or just what he did wasn't what modern fans had been conditioned to cheer.

Dave Meltzer, in the Wrestling Observer, once did an examination of the MSG sellouts under the various champions and Backlund had more than most and as much as Bruno. That was over 5 years, with various opponents. Sure, in latter days it was due to bouts with guys like Snuka, who the fans were going ape over, or the more mobile Muraco. Still, a lot of people paid to see Backlund.

I think Kurt Angle was probably the best amateur to transition to a pro wrestler and be successful. He was an Olympic Gold medalist, who took to pro wrestling like a duck to water, understood how to present what he could do in a performance environment and play heel or babyface. He could jazz it up and he could put on a technical display, if he got someone like Benoit, who could keep up with him. He also pretty handily beat Lesnar, in a backstage shoot, despite the weight difference (Brock was an NCAA champion; but, he wasn't an international competitor).

Toronto was a long hotbed of wrestling and Tunney's Maple Leaf shows were the cream of it.His favoring of a wrestler went a long way to making him NWA champion.  Thesz and Rogers had long associations with him, Bruno did, Andre, the Sheik, Whipper Billy Watson (Canadian hero and NWA champion), Flair and others.  Jack Tunney going in with Vince is probably the key component of the WWF dominating the Canadian scene.

Only read about Mosca, in the magazines, when he was in the Carolinas.  He was part of the celebration, in the first Starrcade, when Flair regained the belt. there are photos of Flair riding on Mosca's shoulders, as he carries him around the ring.  They tried to push his son, Angelo Jr, but it was a disaster and he didn't wrestle very long.

The match they show, you can see Ivan Koloff, one of the forgotten WWF champions; the man who beat Bruno.  When he won, there was dead silence in Madison Square Garden and they got him out of the ring fairly quickly.  Of course, he dropped it to Morales soon after.  Ironically, Koloff was actually a Canadian, from Quebec (real name Oreal Perras).  He wrestled, at one point, as Red McNulty.

Bad Leroy Brown would later wrestle as Elijah Akeem, as part of the Zambuie Express.  His partner, Kareem Muhammad, had previously wrestled as Ray Candy.  Brown/Akeem was the more accomplished of the pair, as a singles star, all over, including Florida, the Mid-South, the AWA and elsewhere.  Candy had wrestled more in the South.

Kind of weird to see Ole without Gene, in that timeframe.

I've noticed, from Youtube, that canadian talk shows seemed a bit more low key than a lot of American stuff, of the same era. Local talk shows were often dull, low key shows; but, the Canadian ones, that I have seen, manage to still be interesting (of course, I was interested in the subjects).  There is one on Youtube where Patrick McGoohan discusses the prisoner that treats the audience as intelligent adults and was fascinating, as McGoohan spoke more in depth than he had for the British press or in America.  Here, they are kayfabing; but, the host is also putting out the inference that it is a show; but, is respectful of the profession and they make the apt comparisons to the showmanship in other, "legitimate" sports.  Harlem Globetrotters is a correct example, but it is also a work, as the games are played to show off their routines, not a competitive game.