Mantle was highly recruited to play RB at Oklahoma because of his speed, and this was at a time when Oklahoma was the best program in the nation.  In his first World Series, a fly ball that Dimaggio should have called for, forced Mantle to go for it.  He was unfamiliar with Yankee stadium, and tripped on a drain pipe and tore his knee.  Sportswriters say he was never the some after that, still fast but not world class like before.

       Dimaggio was supposedly jealous of all the attention the rookie was getting, being touted as the next great Yankee, and puposely didn't call Mantle off the play.  But Dimaggio was blazing fast himself in his day, and might have been the best centerfielder ever.  Only playing 13 years because of WW2 and retiring early, one could make a case for Joe D or Wille Mays being the best ever all around player.  Career totals pale of Dimaggio pale in comparison to Mays, but per year numbers are very close in HR and RBI, with Joe way ahead in AVG and Mays having many more steals.  Dimaggio played in the Murder's Row era of the Yankees when they didn't run.

       

        There's an interview of Tommy on youtube from 2009 where he states he had a couple of opportunities to go to the WWF, but he backed out.  Rich said he was just a good ole boy from Tennesee and wanted to be home with his family.  By the late 80's, when he probably would have taken the money of the WWF, Vince probably didn't want him anymore.  Rich was out of shape and wouldn't be believable against most of the steriod monsters at the time.

        Rich was an above average worker, especially at the beginning, he was a good natural athlete and very fast, hence the name Wildfire.  And on the mike he was great.  Maybe everthing didn't make sense, but he sounded like a country boy who was fired up and he was so over with the crowd. and from what all the girls said at the time, he was a good looking guy.  If he would have watched his diet and worked out, even without roids, he could have been the top face of the NWA for the entire 80's battling Ric Flair.

       Another regular from Georgia Championship Wrestling that never worked for VKM was Ole Anderson.  He probably never forgave Vince from when he bought the time slot on Sat and Sun night on WTBS from Turner when Ole was booker for GCW.  And I guess Vince never forgave Ole for comments about him in his book, since anderson wasn't asked to be enshrined with the Four Horseman this year.

      Montague mentioned Chris adams earlier in the thread.  Two guys who both wrestled with him and fueded against him were Iceman King Parsons and Gorgeous Jimmy Garvin.  Both of these guys were crowd favorites who wrestled the entire 80's and into the mid 90's with many different federations, but never for the WWF.  Jimmy Garvin is one of the first wrestlers of the modern era to have a female valet/manager.

Obviously, Sting is the biggest star of the last 40 years to never work for Vince.  Magnum TA and Nikitia are two others who were very popular, but both retired very early in their careers.


Other than Sting, the most popular wrestler of the cable TV era to never work for VKM, was probably the first cable tv star, Tommy Wildfire Rich.  i grew up in a small town, Ashtabula OH, and I remember our area getting channel 19, the superstation out of Atlanta, in 1979.  I had watched some WWWF before that, and loved Superstar Billy Graham, but was losing interest and at the age when you learn it's fake.

Then came Georgia Championship Wrestling, much more realistic people than the other federation, and Tommy Rich was so over it was sick.  A lot of girls were in love with him, and all the guys wanted to be him.  GCW was the first popular wrestling program nationwide because of Ted Turner's station, and Rich was the top face of that time.  Magnum and Nikitia never wore the stap, but Rich did, if only for 5 days.  the real life Tommy Rich was such a drunk, the NWA was worried about their champion getting beat up in bar fights, so they had to give the strap back to real-life tough guy, Harley Race.

Rich got numerous more title chances against Flair, had a huge fued with Buzz Sawyer, and worked in many other NWA territories, as well as WCW and ECW before going to independents.  If he wasn't such a drunk and would've worked out and stayed in shape, or gone on the juice, I bet he would have been in the WWF at some point.  But still it's strange that VKM never took him in, if only to embarress Rich, like he loved to do with so many other stars that he did not create.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvWp9S5fPqw" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvWp9S5fPqw</a>

         Mont, you know much more than me about the history of wrestling, but the Freebirds were in the WWF at the begining of the Rock and Wrestling connection, around 1983 or 84 i think.

           I think these guys were a NWA or AWA tag team back in the 80's.

it's still a gay looking pic

Two big dudes...two all the way big dudes !

        Jimmy Hart had The First Family of Wrestling back in the early 80's in Memphis, and I would see them on Georgia Championship Wrestling.  King Kong Bundy, Kevin Sullivan, Rick Rude, Eddie Gilbert and many many more.  Hart and his boys were always fueding with Jerry King Lawler and Tommy Wildfire Rich among others.

        I guess Ole Anderson has been a prick to many people, but I grew up on Georgia Championship Wrestling and still love the old school kayfabe and territory style.  If the business was still like that, I'd probably still watch it.  I respect Anderson for putting out a good product back then in the infantcy of cable television,  I grew up in Ashtabula, Ohio but was able to watch GCW on channel 19 the Superstation.

       And to Vince McMahon for changing and then ruining the business, Kiss My Ashtabula !!!

Just as a reference to the ability to draw money, Superstar Billy Graham was headliner at 20 shows in Madison Square Garden in the 70's and sold out 19 of them.  i think he was 10 for 10 as WWWF Champ.  A 95% sell-out ratio is great no matter how you compare it to other eras, television exposure, pay-per-views etc.  Guys like Sammartino, Backlund and Hogan headlined MSG many more times than Graham during the 60's to the start of the pay-per-view era, but nobody had a sell-out percentage that high.

1.  Superstar Billy Graham
2.  Jimmy Superfly Snuka
3.  Tommy Wildfire Rich
4.  Tony Mr USA Atlas
5.  Kerry Modern Day Warrior Von Erich

Not the best workers or technically sound, not the best mic skills ( except for Graham ) but these were the guys I rooted for the most when I thought it was real, and even afterwards.  Looking back, I'd have to group Ric Flair with these guys too, but didn't really root for him as a kid.

this is my favorite Haney pic

His torso looks to be about the best ever, and while his legs and arms are not huge, they have very good shape.

I think he would have been a force in any era, if Haney was on the same drug regimen of the time period.

Cue the Laurel and Hardy music. 

       Can't believe anyone could mention Eve Mendes in this thread.  She was so freaking hot in both "The Spirit" and "The Other Guys."

       Even though I love Jennifer Aniston, I can see people not liking her.  In some pics she looks bad.  She was fantastic looking in "Rock Star."

       But i don't see how someone could not like Eve Mendes.

how about Colleen Camp from the movie Clue ?

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfsyAzX5wOg" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfsyAzX5wOg</a>

            LA Noir comes out next tuesday, some places will have it Mon at midnite.  Not trying to be a fanboy, but you might want to consider getting it on PS3.  The game is very big, and it's on 3 discs on the Xbox360, but on one Blu-ray disc for the PS3,  so you wont have to switch discs.  And I am pretty sure the PS3 has one extra case exclusive to it.

           So consider these advantages against the fact that you like the controller better for Xbox.

           The NCAA used to have rules against this.  Neither Bo Jackson nor Deion Sanders started playing minor league baseball till the spring after their last year of college football.  Both were drafted out of high school and chose to go to college to play both sports.  Bo had a huge junior year in baseball at Auburn, but couldn't play minor league that summer.  He obviously wanted to come back for his senior year, where he won the Heisman.  And Deion played baseball, football and ran track at FSU.  I guess one day he played a doubleheader, while running a 4 by 100 relay in between games.

           Both these guys could have played pro ball but it would have ruined their college eligibilty for football and other sports.  Back in the 80's, a div 1 scholorship athlete wasn't even allowed to have a job, let alone play another pro sport.  I'm not sure when the rules changed but in the late 90's was when you saw it start to happen.  I know Ricky Williams played some minor league for the Phillies the summer before his Heisman winning senior season.  And Chris Weinke was able to come back to FSU after a 6 year minor league career.  Akili Smith did the same at Oregon, after playing in the Pirates organization.

          
           There was a running back for the Browns, not sure which one, who played some minor league baseball to make some money while still in college.  This guy didn't play high school baseball, and was only picked up because he was a great athlete.  I remember in an interview he said his manager told him to bunt, and ha had to ask what bunt meant.  So if a guy like that could do it, the future Bushes and Newtons could too.  But unless you were a great high school baseball player, you don't get a big bonus, and you salary is very small.  And if you haven't played baseball much before, it would take a lot of hard work to be able to stay on a team no matter how good of an athlete you are.  
          

Sara Rue

I always thought she was very bangable, even at her heaviest.

           Holy shit that's funny !   I guess she was using Weider's Rest-Pause technique. very hardcore.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ka5sPJKnXA0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ka5sPJKnXA0</a>

The crowd not only popped during the Road Warriors' entrance music but all during the match.  The NWA was so much better at this time then the Saturday morning cartoon WWF !

     You had me at 40 H   

        Harley Race for sure was a legitimate tough guy, and a real wrestler, as the NWA champ had to be back in the day.  In case another territory's champ tried to pull a screwjob and take the belt. 

        I heard that Vince Jr wanted either Hogan or Tony Atlas to take the strap from Backlund since they looked more the part. And he would have wanted Superstar to hold it longer in the late 70's.  But Vince Sr rested easy having Backlund because oh his amateur wrestling background.  Don't know how Bob was in a street fight.  The Iron Shiek was an Olympic wrestler and former bodyguard who knew how to really hurt and disable someone.

       Like Ric Flair used to always say, " To be the Man, ya gotta beat the Man...and right now, I'm the MAN !!!   Wooooooo "

       Well on Thursday, LeBron showed us that Dwyane Wade is the Man.  James and Bosh are just a couple of the Four Horseman.

        I've read stories like these as well.  While Haku was the toughest, I heard no one wanted to mess with Paul Orndorff either.

1.  Baseball
2.  Football
3.  Basketball
4.  Boxing ( But don't follow it like I used to )
5   Golf and Tennis ( But now only follow the 4 Majors of each sport, and the Cups of USA vs foreigners )

          Absolutely!

          Before Superstar, a heel would only be a transitional champ, so another face could then win the strap back for the good guys.  But Graham held the title for 9 months, and I believe sold out Madison Square Garden everytime he headlined it.  He could have turned face and held the belt for a much longer time and remained popular.  Even staying a heel he was becoming the biggest attraction.

          Vince McMahon admits he took the belt off him too soon.  But boring-ass Bob Backlund allowed the WWWF to develope more interesting heels to challenge for the belt.  Superstar could have easlily crossed over to part face like the Rock did 2 decades later.

          All pompous heels owe a little to Gorgeous George, who I am sure helped inspire Buddy Rodgers.  But many many wrestlers patterned their persona off Billy Graham and Ric Flair. I think Flair himself admitted to borrowing some of Graham's act into his promos.  Superstar himself admits to bitting off of Muhamad Ali's style of rhyming about how good he was.


          But many wrestlers copied Graham directly like Jessie Ventura, Hulk Hogan and Rick Steiner.  From ring attire, persona and big jacked physique.