Scott’s Mailbag – 07.27.25

Scott’s Mailbag – 07.27.25

Good lord, I didn’t even realize there was a Christmas update for Astro Bot until today. Well that was my morning taken care of.

So, what do you guys want to talk about this weekend?

Question 1: No Hulk?

Had Hogan not rejoined the WWF at the end of 1983, who would Vince have chosen as THE GUY to take national?

Dusty? Piper? Savage? Flair? Kerry Von Erich?

Kerry Von Erich. It was known that Vince was interested in Kerry as a backup if Hogan fell through, and wanted him even with Hogan around, but Kerry was making so much money in Texas as the big fish in the small pond that he would have been crazy to risk it for Vince in 84. Would it have worked? I don’t think so. It wouldn’t have killed the WWF or ended wrestling or whatever other silly hyperbole people have been using around Hogan’s death, but I don’t think Vince can take the WWF fully national and do Rock N Wrestling without Hogan on top as the main guy.

Question 2: Music rights?

Hi Scott,

Do you know what changed with music rights back then? At first WWF (and I guess others too) could use famous entrance music, like Eye of the Tiger, Sirius, Anotherone bites the dust, We are the champions, Jesus Christ Superstar, Born in the USA, and sure others I forgot. Didn’t they want to pay anymore for that or did it become more expensive? Or something else?

Yeah, copyright laws changed a LOT in the 80s, mostly around the “controversy” of home taping that sent the recording industry into a tizzy from 82-84 and had normally sane people declaring that cassette tapes were the work of the devil and stealing money out of the pockets of the artists and blah blah blah. All the same shit we heard with the Napster lawsuits of the new millennium, but as always it was the record companies who had the lobbying power and made sure that their interests were protected. So it got significantly more expensive to license music, especially stuff that was being used in mainstream media like the WWF was. It was less of an issue before that both because the laws were less stringent and also the record labels just didn’t know that their stuff was being used in that way until WWF broke big. Which is why you had things like the Wrestling Album, where Vince (quite smartly) made a push to develop his own in-house music for marketing purposes with royalties that he controlled. I don’t pretend to know what kind of deals guys like Fritz Von Erich had at the time, or if they were doing the Paul Heyman “Play the real songs until someone sends a cease and desist letter” trick, but it’s a really interesting rabbit hole to go down if you’re interested in music history.

Question 3: Lex Luger?

Luger question, TAKE A DRINK!

There were numerous reasons for Lex Luger’s first WCW World Title reign not achieving legendary levels. Part of the apathy was the lack of a special moment for Lex and part of it was Ron Simmons as the initial PPV challenger.

Re-booking Haloween Havoc ’91: WCW signs Lex Luger to a 3-5 year contract extension to display commitment to Lex. At the September Clash of the Champions Luger and Harley Race decimate Dustin Rhodes. This leads to Dusty Rhodes coming back for 1 final match for family honor and the world title. Six weeks of Dusty doing promos. That he will leave the squared circle for the last time either carried out on the shoulders of the people as their champion or carried out on a stretcher and he does not believe Luger has it in him to destroy the American Dream. Dusty’s A+ Hard Times level promos.

Magnum T.A. and Dusty’s family sitting at ringside. Tony Sciavone and Gordon Solie calling the match. No ref bumps. No interference. Lex Luger decimates Dusty Rhodes. A brief hope spot but Three ‘Dream Killer’ Piledrivers later Lex Luger has his moment and Dusty Rhodes has created a strong heel champion who can have months and years of opponents seeking to avenge the legacy of The American Dream.

Does that potentially provide WCW a spark??? Oh wait, the electric chair is still on the card??? Wait for it. BECAUSE WCW.

Luger didn’t want a 3-5 year contract. He wanted less dates and more money and was more interested in ventures outside wrestling. By 1991 he so clearly didn’t care about being in WCW that I’m still shocked that they bothered putting the World title on the guy instead of rolling the dice with someone else or just going back to Sting, to be honest. And no, booking Dusty Rhodes in the main event of Halloween Havoc is not giving WCW a spark of any kind.

Question 4: No AEW?

Just curious to your thoughts of what the wrestling landscape would look like in 2025 if Tony Khan never started AEW.

Kenny Omega and the Bucks and Hangman Page all would have likely ended up in WWE, which would have continued crawling along with DQ finishes in Hell in a Cell matches in all likelihood. Lots of guys would have ended up migrating to Japan and working for NJPW, like Moxley and Claudio, and without billionaire money I just don’t see anyone else successfully doing a startup to challenge Vince. It wasn’t just that the Khans had the cash, they also had the perfect timing of getting the Elite all in one shot, with a guy who actually understood the business as the main attraction and Tony Khan knowing how to book, plus a TV deal before WWE sewed them all up. Two years later and they’re dead in the water because of the pandemic and probably never able to start.

Question 5: Summerslam 91?

While Macho Man and Liz were always getting married at Summerslam 91, was the post wedding reception that happens afterward with Jake and Taker always going to happen? Or did they make that up on the fly that night? Was there ever a plan for Jake and Undertaker to get involved with The Match Made in Hell before Vince decided to fire Warrior that night?

Original plan was to move to house show matches with Jake-Warrior and Undertaker-Sid. That being said, I’m convinced that Vince knew well in advance that he was firing Warrior after Summerslam because the famous letter was well before that, and Warrior looked like a complete goober in that Jake vignette where he turned heel. So Vince probably did put the reception in there as a backdoor way to get Savage out of retirement if need be.

Question 6: Buff?

In light of his recent leg amputation, it got me thinking. Do you think there was ever a viable time they couldve put the World Title on Buff? Or a good time you think they could’ve pushed him as a main eventer. Maybe when he returned after his neck injury?

World title? No. Main eventer? Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaybe under the right circumstances if he got really hot after the neck surgery. I still wouldn’t put the World title on him but US champion who could challenge for the big belt on Nitro? Sure. Hell, Russo loved the guy and Buff still never sniffed the World title in 2000 so clearly if he was ever gonna get it, that would have been the time.