Random Wrestling Thoughts (Part 2)

Twenty year anniversary of CZW's Answering The Challenge.

Coming off the success of Cage of Death III in Dec '01, Justice Pain issued an open challenge in front of a rapturous Philly crowd at the ECW arena.

Messiah, a California standout, debuts on the East Coast and in the process sets himself up for a run as one of CZW's biggest names for the following 5 years

After posting about PCO in the Royal Rumble thread, I was wondering who has left WWE and come back under the name/character he developed on the indies? I know EC3 could be one but he was still pretty much developmental when he left. Drew went away as Galloway and came back resuming the McIntyre name. John Morrison went and came back resuming his WWE name.

It is so strange looking back at Cena/Rock feud from 10 years ago.

Cena thought he would never leave the business, now look where he is at now.

Ah forgot about K-Kwik.

I guess Kevin Nash and Scott Hall would kinda count as well.

Tomorrow is the 25th anniversary of the 1997 royal rumble which was live from the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas. This is the one won by Austin after he was thrown out of the ring but came back in and won, which lead to the fatal four way the next month.

Tomorrow is also the 30th anniversary of my favourite royal rumble, the “it’s not fair to flair” edition aka the 1992 royal rumble. The match was great and also Bobby Heenan and gorilla monsoon were perfect on commentary.

Because it happens in and around my birthday I’ve always had a fondness for this event, more so than even mania.

Road Warriors weren't big were they?

They were also apparently from "parts unknown" but that doesn't mean its true.

Here's a laugh. How many times can you remember seeing Hull Hogan take a back bump?

Not sure if mentioned somewhere else here but Vinces mother died last night at the extremely impressive age of 101

Also didn't know Vinces brother died last year

Is Fastlane not the usual PPV between the Chamber and Mania?

Chris Jericho and Chris Hemsworth jammed into the machine from The Fly.

It's up in the air for as when wwe found out. But they knew before the show aired.

Christian said in a shoot he watched that tribute show live with Nova and when it came to Regal saying a few words he turned to nova (accordingly) and said "I think they just eulogized a murderer"

Here is the clip.

Regal knew. So wwe knew. Which is mental. Some argue maybe Regal just had a feeling.

Hornswoggle said everyone was at the arena during the day all dressed in suits cause it was to be vinces funeral. They were all about to rehearse the skit when a meeting was called to inform benoit had died. He says they were all sent out of the arena and most watched the show at the hotel. He does state tho that every 10 or 15 minutes new stuff was being texted around. If talent knew then at the very least wwe knew there was a possibility of benoit killing his family. But they went ahead with the show.

It’s hard to believe it’s 15 years ago this year. I’ve always said that Regal knew that something wasn’t right. Now I’m not saying he knew what was up but it’s clear he's choosing his words carefully.

It was mentioned the night before on the night of champions PPV that Benoit wasn’t there and that it was an emergency.

I have a vivid memory of raw opening and the camera starting up in high and switching to Vince in a light coloured suit.

my recollection is there were text messages with the house address and they their dogs were outside sent from both Chris and his wife Nancys phone. It was Chavo and Scott Armstrong that were mentioned and an unknown colleague(possibly regal?), and it was Johnny ace that Chavo showed the text messages to.