Just S’pose 3.04.07

“Just S’pose I didn’t have bypass surgery on March 4, 2003. What might have happened?”

I’d be dead. Next?

I guess, since Larry and I are the two on here who have worked in some type of official capacity in a church setting, we are required by law to speak about James Cameron’s special, broadcast tonight in the US on Discovery Channel. It is a documentary about a group of archaeologists who claim they have found the tomb of Jesus Christ… and there are remains in it! And the remains of a wife and kid! That’s it! Christianity is a fake religion, put forth as a pacifier for the masses by the Jewish bankers and the Illuminati who knew all along that the being we call “Jesus Christ” was an alien visitor from the Alpha Centauri system, and when he “ascended into heaven,” the being was actually being beamed aboard his spaceship!

No, not really.

The last I heard, Christianity was not based completely on whether or not Jesus rose from the grave and ascended into heaven. That was simply seen as the final sign that he was the Son of God. The basic tenets of Christianity are in his teachings. Everything he said and taught about how to treat others was so completely radical from society in Jerusalem and Judah, that he was able to gain a huge following. The twelve disciples were simply his “inner circle,” who were chosen by him to help spread his teachings around the region and, eventually, the world.

Let me ask you this. If Christianity was based completely on the ascension and resurrection of Jesus, then why did thousands of people hang on his every word when he was alive?

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:3-10)”

The power of those words has not been weakened in the slightest in the almost 2000 years since Jesus first spoke them. None of those blessings are conditional on his ascension and resurrection. If those truly are the earthly remains of Jesus Christ, it does not affect my belief in the slightest. If someone’s belief in the teachings of Christianity are negated by this discovery, then it’s apparent to me their faith was based on… now, how did Jesus say it?

“But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. (Matthew 7:26)”

That’s all I have to say about that.

HUMAN SACRIFICE, DOGS AND CATS LIVING TOGETHER – MASS HYSTERIA

In our last episode, Vince McMahon and Toots Mondt’s Capitol Wrestling Corporation did not secede from the National Wrestling Alliance in 1963, which meant the World Wide Wrestling Federation (now known as World Wrestling – ugh! – Entertainment) did not form as an independent group. The NWA championship lineage went from Lou Thesz to Bruno Sammartino to Dory Funk, Jr., and on to Ric Flair in 1986. The American Wrestling Association, deciding something new was needed to compete with the NWA’s worldwide reach, went more toward showmanship, culminating with monster heel Hulk Hogan’s world title win over Dusty Rhodes in 1981. As our story ended in 1986, “the time had come for Jim Crockett Promotions to change its name to World Championship Wrestling.”

In the world we know, Fritz Von Erich’s World Class Championship Wrestling (focused in Texas) and Bill Watts’ Universal Wrestling Federation (Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas) each declared themselves independent of the National Wrestling Alliance, which was becoming synonymous with Jim Crockett’s World Championship Wrestling (North and South Carolina, Virginia, Georgia). Each declared their main championships to be either “World title (WCCW)” or “Universal title (UWF).” In February 1988, UWF was bought by Jim Crockett Promotions. World Class would merge with Jerry Lawler’s USWA (Memphis) late in 1988. Meanwhile, in 1991, World Championship Wrestling, now owned by Ted Turner, officially became independent of the NWA. But, Just S’pose Jim Crockett Promotions split from the NWA in 1986. What might have happened?

NWA World champion Ric Flair was into his second title reign, and other promoters were very happy with him as their representative. Jim Crockett, however, was unhappy with the current situation. His “World Championship Wrestling” show, seen worldwide on cable channel WTBS, gave the NWA the most publicity of any promotion. Wrestlers from around the world were begging for a chance to work for Crockett. Other promoters around the world were sending tapes of their best wrestlers to air on WTBS, so their local promotions would be seen around the world. The NWA Board of Directors was encouraging other promoters to advertise wrestlers seen on these tapes “As Seen on World Championship Wrestling.” Yet, Crockett himself, despite being the man in charge of this “mega-region,” was not given any extra money or power by the Alliance, and in fact was chastised by some promoters for not freeing up his wrestler’s schedules so they could come to local promotions.

On July 1, 1986, at the first card of the Great American Bash Tour in Philadelphia, PA, World Championship Wrestling officially seceded from the NWA. Ric Flair was named the first WCW World champion, NWA United States champion Magnum T.A became WCW United States champion, and NWA World Tag Team champions Midnight Express (Eaton and Condrey) became WCW World Tag team champions.

The reaction from other NWA promoters was astonished silence. After a meeting of the NWA Board, it was decided to hold a two-night tournament of main champions from sixteen different promotions. Florida champion Barry Windham defeated Mid-South champion Steve Williams on September 18 in St. Louis, MO, to become the new NWA World champion. At the end of 1986, along with Windham, the other World champions in United States-based promotions were Ric Flair (WCW) and Hulk Hogan (AWA).

While the AWA stayed mainly in the Midwestern and western states, reaching from Indiana to California, the NWA was almost split in half by WCW secession. WCW held cards in North and South Carolina, Georgia, Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee, and Kentucky, which cut a hole in the center of NWA home territory. Capitol Wrestling, still with the NWA, held cards in Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and the New England area, as well as Washington, DC. Michigan was united under the umbrella of the Detroit promotion. Florida was its own territory, and home of the new NWA champion. Mid-South (Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas) and World Class (Dallas, eastern Texas) were both holding cards in Oklahoma. Missouri remained a viable and legendary territory, with Kiel Auditorium in St. Louis remaining the center of the entire Alliance. Most territories outside the US retained their ties to the NWA.

There were some exceptions to this general rule. Philadelphia, for example, would hold cards for both NWA and WCW. Tallahassee, FL, had the same division. Chicago would host both NWA and AWA cards, and so would Los Angeles. Japan, meanwhile, was considered neutral territory, and all Japanese promotions were able to host any and all American wrestlers. However, Systems Normal were about to become All Fouled Up.

In early July 1987, Jim Crockett made another major announcement. WCW wrestlers were again going worldwide, and any and all promotions were welcome to join them. The main selling point for switching to WCW was their world wide television program, which was also the number one rated cable program in the US. Promoters in Ohio, Michigan, and Indiana, though represented by three different promoters, acted as one group and jumped together to WCW, completely separating Capitol Wrestling from the other NWA promoters in the south.

In response, Verne Gagne announced the AWA was going to have weekly programming on USA Network, including showing monthly cards from Minneapolis, MN, live. The deal also allowed for four cards live from locations other than Minneapolis a year. At the first “AWA Wrestling from Minneapolis” show in September, Hulk Hogan defeated “Baby Bull” Leon White to retain the AWA World title, and Midnight Rockers Marty Jannetty and Shawn Michaels regained the AWA Tag Team titles from Soldat Ustinov and Boris Zhukov.

The NWA, meanwhile, was struggling with a way to compete with both promotions. There were no other cable channels able to compete with USA or WTBS that were willing to carry a national NWA program. Local SportsChannel outlets were ready to carry local shows, but only in areas where the NWA already had home programming, and there was no ability to show programs in “foreign” areas.

In 1988, Florida broke from the NWA and joined WCW. Barry Windham was given a choice of keeping the title as a nomadic champion, with no real home territory, or joining WCW with a large guaranteed two-year contract. Windham went with the money, and became an instant top contender for Ric Flair’s WCW World title. On October 3, Steve Williams defeated Jumbo Tsuruta in Tokyo to win the second NWA World title tournament in two years.

WCW saw Flair defend his title against Barry Windham, Lex Luger, Sting, and Ricky Steamboat before losing to Sting at Starrcade 1988 in Norfolk, VA. But the big news in wrestling that year was when Randy Savage beat Hulk Hogan to end Hogan’s seven-year reign as AWA World champion in Chicago. Instead of getting an automatic rematch, Hogan disappeared from wrestling for a few months. Fans were told he was in Japan, but the truth is, Hogan and Verne Gagne had other, far more insidious plans.

Hogan and Gagne were busy in Hollywood.

A sequel to 1974’s “The Wrestler,” “No Holds Barred” starred Gagne as Mike Bullard, a former wrestling champion who now owns a gym and training school. One day, he sees Gary Mullett (Hogan) lifting weights in the gym and asks if he’d be interested in wrestling. After training for three months, Bullard takes Mullett to a promoter friend, Ken Mitchell (Ed Begley, Jr.), who signs Mullett. Bullard manages Mullett’s climb up the ladder, and in the movie’s climactic scene, Mullett gets a title match against Zeus (Tiny Lister).

At the world premiere, the movie was well received, and “No Holds Barred” was the number one movie for three weeks after its release. Hogan’s performance also caught the eyes of many agents and producers, who wanted him for other roles. It would be a couple years before Hulk Hogan would wrestle again.

1989 saw more changes in the American wrestling scene. In WCW, Sting was faced with the challenge of Ricky Steamboat early in the year, and on May 1, Steamboat beat Sting for the WCW World title. That match was a best-of-three-falls match, and many wrestling publications named it “Match of the Decade.” Steamboat’s main challengers for the rest of the year were Lex Luger, Barry Windham, and Sting, until October. On “WCW Saturday Night” in early October, Steamboat was attacked by a man dressed completely in black. The man called himself “The Black Scorpion,” and told the audience that he knew Steamboat from many years before. While Steamboat continued to defend the title, Scorpion would attack him occasionally, resulting in many disqualification wins.

In the AWA, Savage lost the title the Bret Hart on a broadcast on USA on April 6. Meanwhile, USA Network was so pleased with the ratings of their AWA broadcasts, they wanted to air a weekly taped program, while keeping the monthly live broadcasts from Minneapolis. Hart and Savage continued their battle over the title for the rest of the year, with occasional title matches for Ronnie Garvin, Hector Guerrero, Manny Fernandez, and Kerry Von Erich.

The biggest news of the year, however, happened in the NWA. The Board of Directors recognized the National Wrestling Alliance was given its name in 1948, when almost all member promotions were in the US. Now, however, with only three American promotions under its umbrella, it was decided to reflect those changes. On July 1, the National Wrestling Alliance officially became the World Wrestling Alliance. Now that the American influence in the Alliance was officially gone, foreign promoters had a much better chance to have wrestlers from their promotions as the World champion. On August 7, Antonio Inoki beat Williams to win the WWA World title.

Names and territories remained in place throughout 1990, but titles changed hands. On February 4, The Black Scorpion was revealed to be Paul Jones, tag team partner to Ricky Steamboat in the early 1980’s in the Mid-Atlantic area, and current manager of Lex Luger. After the unmasking, Luger rolled Steamboat up for the pin to win the title. He held the title until June 7, when Ric Flair regained the title in Atlanta. This was followed by a classic series of matches between Flair and Steamboat. Steamboat won the title back on September 16, Flair won it back on October 18, and in the main event of Starrcade on December 21, Flair won a best-of-three-falls match to retain the title.

The AWA title, meanwhile, went from Bret Hart to Scott Steiner on February 19, to Curt Hennig on May 26. Steiner continued to attack Hennig on AWA television, and on July 14, Scott was joined by Rick to reunite the Steiner Brothers. They then challenged Hennig to find a tag team partner for a match on August 3. His partner remained a secret until that night, when Hulk Hogan returned to a heroes’ welcome. Hogan and Hennig won the match, and the Steiners left the AWA for WCW.

The good news for the WWA in 1990 was that no other groups left the Alliance. The bad news is that Antonio Inoki injured his knee and was forced to relinquish the belt. After surgery to repair his knee failed, Inoki announced his retirement from wrestling, and shortly after that, announced his candidacy for a seat in the Japanese Diet. Big Van Vader won another worldwide tournament to win the title, beating Mitsuharu Misawa in Sydney, Australia, on December 7.

In 1991, the WWA was hit by another major blow when Mid-South Wrestling, which promoted shows in Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Alabama, joined WCW. The only places in America which were still under the NWA banner were World Class, in eastern Texas, and the Amarillo promotion, in western Texas and New Mexico. Throughout the rest of the world, Big Van Vader’s path of destruction as WWA World champion cut through Germany’s Catch Wrestling Association, and spread throughout the rest of Europe. He sent fourteen spectators to the hospital in Tokyo, Sapporo, and Nagoya, Japan. He also hospitalized wrestlers in South Africa and Australia.

WCW champion Flair lost the title to Sting on March 7, and Sting fought through the rest of the year against Flair, Lex Luger, Barry Windham, Rick Rude, Steve Williams, and Steve Austin, but retained the title.

Larry Zbyszko won the AWA title from Curt Hennig on March 16, 1991, in Denver. Three weeks later, on April 8, Zbyszko lost the title in Minneapolis to Hulk Hogan, who held on to the title for the rest of the year.

In 1992, the bad news on the American front for WWA continued, as the last two promotions stateside, WCCW and Amarillo, switched to WCW in March. For a short time, there was no WWA representation in the country where the organization began. Then in July, the WWA got a huge boost when Vince McMahon’s Capitol Wrestling, which was the home of the first aborted attempt to leave the NWA, rejoined the Alliance. Big Van Vader made his first title defense in Madison Square Garden on November 24, beating Davey Boy Smith.

In WCW, Ric Flair won the World title from Sting for the final time on January 7. His final title reign was ended on May 8, 1993, by Ron Simmons.

The American territorial wars ended, as there were no other jumps among the three main promotions. The AWA continued to hold steady in territory and business, and in 1997, the weekly AWA show on USA became a live, two-hour broadcast. WCW continued to make headway in foreign markets, and held a pay-per-view in Australia in 1996, the first pay-per-view for an American company on foreign soil. The WWA stayed prominent throughout the rest of the world, and finally managed to get a national television show on the new UPN network in 1995.

Ten years later, the three major promotions continued to co-exist, if not peacefully, at least without any major talent raids. All were happy with their own little feifdoms, and with three viable national promotions, ratings and popularity of professional wrestling continued to grow. The three groups were able to work off each other, and if one promotion was down, viewers had two other choices. Everyone was happy. The end.

REALLY. THE END.

I almost tried something my college newspaper did for an ending, but I’m not going to do it yet. Maybe in the next few weeks.

Anyway, go hug your loved ones, let them know you care, and all that happy stuff. I’m celebrating life today, okay?