I've caught up on them all and watched The Chris and Tammy one. The whole thing is sad.  It didn't gut me like the VonErichs one or Brian Pillman one, I just felt it such a waste. Chris' younger brother tore me up. Talk about a freak way to die. His story actually helped me help my friend though. She'd been hit in the ankle during a baseball game and she was describing to me some of the things that were going on. I told her the Chris Candito story and that she should get it checked out because something didn't sound right so she went to her Dr. and sure as shit, she had a blood clot.  She still tells people that story. I met Tammy Sytch at a RoH event in 2008 during one of her rare periods of sobriety. She was wonderful. Imagine going from being in med school to being the top Diva, to being hooked on drugs, penniless and now in jail for vehicular homicide. 

It's hard seeing these older guys tear up over losing so many friends. I mean even in Shootist 's sign above, there's only 1 of 5 left standing. It's crazy. I'm really glad that for the most part things have changed.

Looking forward to all the others. I think I'm most anticipating the Magnum TA one.

I was there when Chris broke his leg. Tragic moment.

Met Chris and Tammy at a tiny show without knowing who they were. They sat next to us in the crowd and we BSed with them for like an hour before Chris took off his shirt and went to the ring for his match. Really cool people. Was around 2004 so Tammy was still sober.

Watched the Chris and Tammy one. I liked how the focus was mostly on Candido, he was a solid talent. I missed the majority of his WWF run and mostly saw him in ECW. He and Lance Storm were a great team and I felt so bad for Lance during the show to see him breakdown like that. Chris's younger brother also had plenty of great insight, Chris felt like "one of us" after hearing about their childhood. He was just a rabid fan who was fortunate enough to live his dream. It really sucks that he came out the other side of all the pitfalls of the business only to see it taken away in such a freak manner. It was his dedication that ultimately killed him, so sad.

I rarely toss the "m" word around but I am a Tammy mark. She was a natural on screen and truly set the tone for the modern WWE diva. Throughout all her trials and tribulations I still hold out hope that a shred of the girl that broke into the business is still inside her and she can turn things around. Unfortunately jail is probably the best place for her now, such a waste. 

^ me too buddy.

When I finally got to meet her I was over the moon and she was so gracious to me and gave me all the time in the world, asked me about myself. Same when I finally met Sherri. I will always champion for the women especially from back before there was a little more 'equity'.

I just got through watching the Tammy and Chris episode. A really sad story to hear again. I think for me, it's sad because at the time, Chris's death hit me harder than even Eddie Guerrero's death. I knew of Eddie's problems, so I wasn't as shocked his heart would give out. But even with Candido's drug problems, it wasn't a heart attack that took him, but a blood clot from a surgery causing pneumonia. It was just a shock at the time.

Watched the Magnum TA episode, I was thinking you could do two episodes with him. They didn't really cover the Magnum/Tully/Tully's wife love triangle that resulted in real heat between Tully and Magnum. They did talk to the now ex Mrs. Blanchard towards the end for a few minutes that was about it.

I didn't know that Andre The Giant gave him the Magnum TA handle which was suggested to him just before he left Florida mor Mid South. We have pontificated on what Magnum's career would have looked like had he not had the accident several times here on PW. It turns out that he would have ended the run himself before he even got to the 1990's. He thought it would be quite silly to be 30 years old and still fighting in your underwear so he aspired to be a NASCAR driver (oh the irony.) They had some good rare footage of the news reports of the accident and some photos from the hospital of all the cards and flowers he got. It really showed how big of a star he was in JCP. They also had pics of his Porsche, how he survived was truly a miracle.

Nice that they also got into contact with his first wife. It really came off as kind of cold that she left him only months after he got out of the hospital but that's what infidelity will get you. In the end though this was more uplifting than the usual episodes as he went on to have 7 children and I believe some lucrative real estate ventures, plus he's involved in the new action figure line Greg Gagne and the guy who made the AWA Remcos started up.

Having watched the Graham Family episode, two main thoughts come to mind:

1. It's great that Mike's daughter has better mental health than many of her family. Hopefully, her strength can pass on to her children and break the cycle of suicide.

2. A small one off comment Cornette made, but he pointed out that in a way, Eddie Graham's suicide might have hurt the territories more, in that Eddie actually had a friendly working relationship with the the McMahons. While Eddie did see the writing on the wall for the territories before many could, I do wonder if he stays alive, does it keep Florida open at the time as a pipeline for wrestlers to go to the WWF, but on a smaller scale than what it was in the 60s, 70s, and early 80s? And would it lead to Eddie eventually working in WWF, like many of the territory guys (Watss, Jarrett) did.

That Graham episode was rough, right up there with the Von Erichs when it comes to wrestling tragedies. I didn't realized 5 men over 4 generations committed suicide.

As with every episode though there is that glimmer of hope. Mike's daughter Nicole is a picture of strength and doing great things in trying to get people the help they need.

Graham was real old school, along with Dusty, Bill Watts (who most think of as an old school curmudgeon) was also a student of Eddie. It don't see that lasting long if he ever did get into some sort of agreement with Vince Jr. If Watts couldn't last a year I couldn't see it happening with Eddie.

Jun 9, 2023 19:07:34 GMT Shootist said:

Watched the Magnum TA episode, I was thinking you could do two episodes with him. They didn't really cover the Magnum/Tully/Tully's wife love triangle that resulted in real heat between Tully and Magnum. They did talk to the now ex Mrs. Blanchard towards the end for a few minutes that was about it.

I didn't know that Andre The Giant gave him the Magnum TA handle which was suggested to him just before he left Florida mor Mid South. We have pontificated on what Magnum's career would have looked like had he not had the accident several times here on PW. It turns out that he would have ended the run himself before he even got to the 1990's. He thought it would be quite silly to be 30 years old and still fighting in your underwear so he aspired to be a NASCAR driver (oh the irony.) They had some good rare footage of the news reports of the accident and some photos from the hospital of all the cards and flowers he got. It really showed how big of a star he was in JCP. They also had pics of his Porsche, how he survived was truly a miracle.

Nice that they also got into contact with his first wife. It really came off as kind of cold that she left him only months after he got out of the hospital but that's what infidelity will get you. In the end though this was more uplifting than the usual episodes as he went on to have 7 children and I believe some lucrative real estate ventures, plus he's involved in the new action figure line Greg Gagne and the guy who made the AWA Remcos started up.

Highly enjoyed this episode. My dad would have enjoyed it too. 

I agree Shootist, this could have been a 2 episode deal and it felt like it ended rather abruptly.  Hell of a come back story though. He was meant to live, because when I saw the car I was shocked. I was shocked even more that although his in ring career was over, he defied the odds and did many things they said he would never do again and went on to have a pretty decent life.

I'm not sure he would have left necessarily. Oh, he can say it now, but we all have seen story after story about how tough it is to leave the business especially when you are on top so we will never know.

I don't think his first wife leaving him was cold. It's hard to have gone through being there through all of this with him and finding out he was unfaithful even afterwards. She had to have a breaking point. 

Jun 21, 2023 17:54:00 GMT iron maiden said:

Jun 9, 2023 19:07:34 GMT Shootist said:

Watched the Magnum TA episode, I was thinking you could do two episodes with him. They didn't really cover the Magnum/Tully/Tully's wife love triangle that resulted in real heat between Tully and Magnum. They did talk to the now ex Mrs. Blanchard towards the end for a few minutes that was about it.

I didn't know that Andre The Giant gave him the Magnum TA handle which was suggested to him just before he left Florida mor Mid South. We have pontificated on what Magnum's career would have looked like had he not had the accident several times here on PW. It turns out that he would have ended the run himself before he even got to the 1990's. He thought it would be quite silly to be 30 years old and still fighting in your underwear so he aspired to be a NASCAR driver (oh the irony.) They had some good rare footage of the news reports of the accident and some photos from the hospital of all the cards and flowers he got. It really showed how big of a star he was in JCP. They also had pics of his Porsche, how he survived was truly a miracle.

Nice that they also got into contact with his first wife. It really came off as kind of cold that she left him only months after he got out of the hospital but that's what infidelity will get you. In the end though this was more uplifting than the usual episodes as he went on to have 7 children and I believe some lucrative real estate ventures, plus he's involved in the new action figure line Greg Gagne and the guy who made the AWA Remcos started up.

Highly enjoyed this episode. My dad would have enjoyed it too. 

I agree Shootist , this could have been a 2 episode deal and it felt like it ended rather abruptly.  Hell of a come back story though. He was meant to live, because when I saw the car I was shocked. I was shocked even more that although his in ring career was over, he defied the odds and did many things they said he would never do again and went on to have a pretty decent life.

I'm not sure he would have left necessarily. Oh, he can say it now, but we all have seen story after story about how tough it is to leave the business especially when you are on top so we will never know.

I don't think his first wife leaving him was cold. It's hard to have gone through being there through all of this with him and finding out he was unfaithful even afterwards. She had to have a breaking point. 

I just couldn't see Magnum being this great flag bearer for NWA/WCW into the 90's. That gimmick was entrenched in the 80's and the feel of it was more regional. Car accident or not Crockett still would have bought Mid South and I still think Sting and Luger would have overtaken him eventually.

Watched the Doink episode, what a cast of characters in that one. His second wife and daughter with said wife are still convinced the girlfriend neglected him which lead to his death, I don't see it. She seemed very remorseful over the whole ordeal. 

They also had great clips of Matt Borne/Doink wanting to shoot on Hacksaw Jim Duggan in 2011, 30 years after their beef started after Matt got fired from Mid South for assaulting a fan. His stories are almost Haku like with kicking said fan in the head popping out his eye  trying to gouge out B Brian Blair's eye, being tasered several times. He was nuts and his end was quite predictable.

Jun 21, 2023 18:28:38 GMT Shootist said:

Jun 21, 2023 17:54:00 GMT iron maiden said:

Highly enjoyed this episode. My dad would have enjoyed it too. 

I agree Shootist , this could have been a 2 episode deal and it felt like it ended rather abruptly.  Hell of a come back story though. He was meant to live, because when I saw the car I was shocked. I was shocked even more that although his in ring career was over, he defied the odds and did many things they said he would never do again and went on to have a pretty decent life.

I'm not sure he would have left necessarily. Oh, he can say it now, but we all have seen story after story about how tough it is to leave the business especially when you are on top so we will never know.

I don't think his first wife leaving him was cold. It's hard to have gone through being there through all of this with him and finding out he was unfaithful even afterwards. She had to have a breaking point. 

I just couldn't see Magnum being this great flag bearer for NWA/WCW into the 90's. That gimmick was entrenched in the 80's and the feel of it was more regional. Car accident or not Crockett still would have bought Mid South and I still think Sting and Luger would have overtaken him eventually.

You are likely right. I don't know where some of those guys, Magnum TA being one, would have fit in in the mid-late 90's.  The Tully/TA/Courtney thing would have fit in pretty good though

Watched The Graham Family one last night. It's crazy that suicide can be so prevalent in some families. Nicole is an amazing woman who has lost so many doing god's work in speaking to others about how it feels to be the one left behind. She could just live her life but she instead she is also spreading awareness and helping others.

Man some of those wrestlers were so talented. Mike might not have been much of a personality like his dad, but he could rassle.

Jun 22, 2023 17:15:37 GMT iron maiden said:

Watched The Graham Family one last night. It's crazy that suicide can be so prevalent in some families. Nicole is an amazing woman who has lost so many doing god's work in speaking to others about how it feels to be the one left behind. She could just live her life but she instead she is also spreading awareness and helping others.

Man some of those wrestlers were so talented. Mike might not have been much of a personality like his dad, but he could rassle.

Was never a fan of Mike in or out of the ring, real small man's complex with him. Still terrible though what he went through and what happened to him.

In the Doink episode they never addressed Matt and his run in with underage ring rats in Georgia. This lead to he and Arn Anderson being stripped of the Georgia tag titles and his firing. This forced Ole Anderson to revisit those pictures of two bouncers from Minnesota and call them the Road Warriors and bring them in as champions off the hop.

Jun 21, 2023 18:28:38 GMT Shootist said:

Watched the Doink episode, what a cast of characters in that one. His second wife and daughter with said wife are still convinced the girlfriend neglected him which lead to his death, I don't see it. She seemed very remorseful over the whole ordeal. 

That's the weird thing about death at a younger age. People always think there is foul play, when there probably isn't. It's why so many still think Courtney Love killed Kurt Cobain, even though the forensics would show it was suicide, Love probably would have been smart enough to kill Kurt and get away with it (or hire anyone who could have kept silent about killing Kurt), and even Kurt's own aunt wasn't surprised by suicide, because she thought he may have tried it when he was younger.

The JYD episode was a bare bones rise and fall episode. He was well loved by everyone but as is the case drugs just brought him down. It still leaves me not knowing what to think of Bill Watts. He seemed to be a champion for pushing black wrestlers (Ron Simmons in WCW as well) but behind the scenes he seemed just as racist as all the rest. Apparently it was a private and colorful conversation in the bathroom between Watts and Grizzly Smith with JYD unbeknownst to them in a stall which convinced the Dog to jump to the WWF. There is also a great story told by Jim Cornette about the JYD/Freebird feud that is too good to spoil. Lots of Mid South footage with a babyfaced JR as well and some crazy stories with Tony Atlas who is always a hoot to listen to in interviews..

His death was quite a gut punch, I still remember hearing the news on an episode of WCW Thunder iirc. Coming home from his daughter's graduation made it all the more heartbreaking. JYD came in just before I got WWF TV and he was right up there with Hogan as a personal favorite for the next few years. His face was everywhere, in the cartoon, commercials, collector cups, an all time favorite LJN figure. A piece of my childhood was lost when he died.

Most interesting thing to come out of the Adrian Adonis episode was the copious amounts of cocaine he did with the Hart Foundation which actually made Bret go straight after a while. Also the Rock's uncle Ricky Johnson (yes you read that right) switched cars at the last moment avoiding tragedy. I guess the legit fight between he and Dan Spivey went into further detail if you're into that sort of thing. Nothing too spectacular though.

Hopefully the Abby episode picks things up a bit.

I highly enjoyed the JYD episode. Lots of things I didn't know coming to light. The Adrian Adonis episode was interesting enough. I think it really showed how wrestling changed when Vince Jr took over and how some of the wrestlers excelled when given a crappy gimmick. Boy did he oversell though. LOL

Focus of the Abdullah The Butcher episode was giving Hep C to WWE prospect now infamous youtuber Devin "Hannibal" Nicholson and ending his WWE hopes. Abby claims since he can't read or write he doesn't understand all the litigation after Devin sued him. He still hasn't paid a cent after being found liable over a decade ago. Devin is a strange cat, still wishing the worst for Abby in such a laconic delivery. I don't think he's all there, especially after he brutalized a ref in 2021 pretty much assaulting him with a spike, pot meet kettle. They hint at Abby milking his second grade education since he ran restaurants and dealt with numerous promoters over the years.

Abby's brother and caregiver give some interesting insight and we also get more commentary from Tony Atlas, love that guy. Mick Foley is another talking head who had a poster of Abby that inspired him to get into wrestling. Wish there were more stories of them travelling together in WCW.

This episode was just missing something. Since they have to focus on the controversy in a 45 minute format the overall impact of Abdullah the Butcher maybe lost in translation to younger fans. To me Abby was near the same level as Andre The Giant as a travelling attraction, a greatest of all time list is incomplete without Abdullah the Butcher on it.

Fuck Hannibal. He will never work again after attacking that ref. Dude is a psychopath. From what I heard, Hannibal's hep C story swaps between he did not know he had hep C before WWE, and he knew he had it, but was told it was cured. And he was treated before the WWE tryout, and never could prove Abby gave him hep C. He just sued everyone, and Abby took the fall, since WWE destroyed him in court and got the suit against them tossed.

There was no world though where he would have been a WWE star.

The Abby episode is weird, in that the only "Dark Side" aspect is him possibly giving Hannibal Hep C.

I wouldn't be surprised if Abby wasn't illiterate, since illiterate people don't really come off as being illiterate. They figure out ways to get past it and survive, even teaching themselves how to read a few things. I had a friend who was a bit illiterate, and he could read a menu at a restaurant (like Abby), but couldn't read or write uncommon words (he'd understand the word "jealous", but still asked me once what "envy" meant).

I took a bit of what Hannibal says with a grain of salt though, after him supposedly being cured of Hep C through some experimental treatment. That's the skeptic in me.

The Bam Bam Bigelow episode was interesting as they did do a slightly deeper dive into his upbringing. He was the alpha male at his school and a boss on the gridiron and on the mat amateur wrestling. He did get close to the Boss as well as he frequented clubs in Asbury Park including the Stone Pony where Springsteen used to play and a club called Xanadu run by a guy named Diamond Dallas Page. It was weird to see Bigelow with a full afro and clean shaven. Also DDP sounds like an 80 year old man now, he looks pretty much the same but just sounds way different. I think it would be a struggle for him to do a proper promo now.

They mention the legendary stories and exploits, only glossing over Bigelow rescuing a family from a house fire. They do touch on his Rambo like bounty hunter mission to rescue a girl smuggled over the boarder to Mexico which saw Bigelow allegedly spending time in jail, crazy stuff. They then go into how he was the true first "Paul Heyman Guy" making his debut at Studio 54 at an event promoted by Paul before he even got in front of the camera. His rise and fall in the WWF was shown, this wasn't mentioned in the show but Bigelow liked to brag how much money he was making which riled Andre The Giant. Andre ran him out of the WWF after strangling him with the top rope during a match which they did show some clips of.

Japan is briefly mentioned and his second WWF run is also just a shout out. No mention at all about his troubles with the Kliq or the Wrestlemania main event match with LT. We then get to ECW where Taz is pained to reveal the secret of how he and Bigelow went through the mat at Living Dangerously '98. Taz was great in this, he should be in more docs as a talking head. Shane Douglas also brought some good stuff to the table. Again though the running theme is the usual situation of our subject matter being addicted to pain pills in this instance. Bigelow was up to 20 pills a day at one point. Bigelow's wife, 2 sons and daughter were all great in this reliving the triumph and tragedy. Still one of the better episodes of the season, Bigelow was a tough loss to swallow as well. He was a really cool laid back dude in shoot interviews and was always a joy to watch in the ring.

I wonder what the deal was with the Abby episode? Whether they really intended to focus on the Hannibal incident or if Abby was so uncooperative that they shifted the focus onto it? It seems like they planned on making separate episodes for the pair only to join them together and make it an Abby episode. Surely there's enough Abby stories to fill an episode without making Hannibal the focus?

The Bammer episode was a return to form and that's why I tune in to these shows. To hear more from the families and the personal toll the careers had, the people that were left behind and how these people were able to function in such a crazy industry. He may have covered it earlier, but this was the first time I've heard Taz talk about going through the ring and I thought it really fit the episode.

All I needed was Bret admitting that he cut one on Bammer at King of the Ring. Just a sly chuckle and a 'they don't call me an excellence of execution for nothing'

I'm pretty sure that's how Natty got that unfortunate gimmick!

Think it was a Paradise Lost thing. Think someone feel down the Hannibal rabbit hole of Abby being dangerous and giving him Hep C. Then when they went out to get stories they learned that almost no one had problems with Abby and many loved him backstage. Meanwhile Hannibal had enough shit to have his own episode made about him including that assault on the ref who pressed assault charges.

While there may be a lot of stories about Abby, he is a rare guy that people do not want to bad mouth on film. I think a lot feel awful about him doing so much, and ending with so little. Like sure he got fork happy, but he would also carve himself up to make you look like a monster fighter him. Never heard of him being concerned at all about him imagine and he always was putting people over. Hard to do a takedown of someone like that.

In the end, think they got bit in the ass with an episode that kind of did not go at all how they planned, and just released it as is. Abby is not in a good spot, but it really does not appear to be due to shit he did. And no one but Hannibal really would go on record saying so. At the worst people hated his style in the ring, and the bleeding. But not the person.

I skipped over the Abby episode as that was a wrestler who scared the bezeesus out of me as a kid. And I want to be able to sleep tonight.  That's my boogeyman. 

The Bam Bam Bigelow episode was super interesting. It's easy to forget about what an agile big man he was so many years later. I liked his wife bringing up the problem of actual Dr's playing a huge part in the opioid crisis. I have a friend who is addicted and the Dr's are complicit 100%. Easier to give her a prescription then have her making a scene. I also have to say we fans have played a part too as our lust for 'more' is never sated. Loved listening to all the good things people had to say about him and the legend he'd cultivated even before starting to wrestle. 

Bash at the Beach is one episode I think most of you and especially Baker would enjoy. I have very little use for Bischoff or Russo, but I'm surprisingly Team Russo (for the most part) for this. I have never liked Hogan. Not even as a kid. I think this story just serves to show how selfish Hogan was/is. Now, I've never claimed to be a Jeff Jarrett fan (sorry Baker ), but I respect everything he says in this. Also, the man looks great. Hogan and Bishoff together was part of what ruined WCW (that contract was insane to offer any wrestler), then IMO they went on to do it again in WWE and even TNA, because Hulk just couldn't admit that his time was over and Bischoff liked being aligned with him and the others trying to hold on to the 'glory days'. 

The Bash at the Beach 2000 episode is really a good showcase of how much of a clusterfuck WCW was near the end. So much terrible booking, added with wrestlers having creative control, would just lead to nothing being fixed, and WWF buying the company.

The worst part about Russo's booking in WCW was constantly having the commentators say "this wasn't on the format" or "we didn't go over that in production meetings". It's like Russo didn't realize that by having commentary say that, it makes stuff look more scripted, thus telling us it's not a shoot, and it was supposed to happen this way. It'd slip through occasionally in his WWF stuff, but happened too much in WCW.😂

Just caught the Bash episode. Really glad they trashed the shit out of creative control. That was so fucked up, and perhaps the greatest thing Vince did was strip that shit ASAP. People can still rebel, but they got to take their ball and go home. They no longer get to write the shows.

That said, I think time prove Bisch right. Russo was a shit booker. It was not Russo that made WWE, it was Rock, Taker, Austin and McMahon, four of the greatest characters in the history of wrestling all active at once. If you could not make money with them, you had no place in wrestling. Look at the undercard and WCW and it is clear Russo was not a good booker. Sad even almost 25 years later he still believes he was right and the world is wrong.

Had to feel for Jeff. He wanted no part of this but did his job. Guy could be a real dick at times, but this really never seemed like one of them.

I wish more people would use Jeff for things like this, as the dude has truly been around forever and done everything. It is easy to forget he was a territory guy. He was Bullet Club, he was AAA champ, he worked Memphis, worked almost every major fed that had a TV deal (sans OG ECW), and started several feds. Even did fucking GCW.

Oh, Vince Russo is as delusional as they get, but I think (for the most part - and it pains me to even say it) he was (again mostly) in the right here. The issue was that insane contract Bischoff gave to Hogan in the first place. Like who gives a wrestler full creative control over their character? Do I believe Russo 100%? Not a chance, but I also am skeptical of anything that comes out of Bischoff's mouth. Especially since he uses that mouth to suck Hogan off. I actually think I rather enjoyed Russo calling Hogan out and telling the fans exactly the kind of person he is.

I actually think Jeff Jarrett was the best part of this episode. He was very well spoken.

I watched the Marty Jannetty one last night. This guy is his own worst enemy as confirmed by others. He would like to think it's something he calls GAT, but really it's his inability to make good choices whether due to his substance abuse, etc. Sad because man he was good. His story just proves as good as you are, as many chances as you are given, it's up to you. I don't believe he would have ever been as big as Shawn (for a few reasons), but he could have had a decent enough career and maybe ended up as a trainer/backstage agent if he'd kept himself out of trouble long enough.

They spoke about him breaking Chuck Austin's neck with the Rocker Dropper and the lawsuit that followed. Of course they spoke about his Facebook antics and especially the 'murder'. I'm inclined to believe it, but hard to know with him. An interesting episode. I'm not sure what Brutus and his wife brought to the table, but they were there.

That motorcycle footage was nuts and like the man himself a strange collection of talking heads for this one (guy from the WCW tag team High Voltage, Brutus Beefcake and wife.) Brutus's wife I never need to see again and Marty's "forever wifey", woof...

Bash At the Beach 2000 was just a clusterfuck, I had no use for anyone in that episode, a triple threat of the biggest liars in Bischoff, Vinnie Ru and Hogan. Jarrett downplaying his friendship with Russo and playing the innocent victim doesn't surprise me either. A heel episode of DOSTR if there ever was one.