I remember this match like it happened yesterday. Both the Garvin brothers had been fueding with Flair because Jimmy dropped a cage match during the Great American Bash in which "Precious" had to go on a date with Flair. Flair was cutting promos with a blow-up doll made up to look like "Precious" that was just classic Flair. It was played out that Flair injuried Jimmy's knee with the figure-four, and Ronnie stepped in to save the family's honor. I see the WWE is coming out with another Flair DVD set. I wish they would do a DVD of just his greatest promos and mic work.

RESPONSE FROM KEVIN ECK: The Flair promo with the blow-up doll is one of the funniest things I have ever seen in wrestling.

Do you remember the other classic moment that set up the Flair-Ron Garvin feud? As a result of Flair's win over Jimmy, Flair got to have a date with Precious. While Flair was in his robe in his hotel room waiting for her (with peeping tom JJ Dillon in the closet), Ron Garvin entered the room in drag and knocked out Flair.

The legitimacy of CM Punk will be how he is booked between now and the next PPV. I for one think he is in over his head, but I am not at all opposed to the storyline. I think its good to surprise the audience on occasion.

Wasn't Crockett's first choice Dusty Rhodes? I thought I read somewhere that he wanted Dusty to beat Flair but Rhodes didn't want to be champ for just two months.

Although he was just a mid-carder, Garvin had real in ring ability. He just didn't have the mic skills or the charisma of the guys at that time like Flair, Rhodes, or even Jimmy Garvin who was also chasing Flair at the time.

RESPONSE FROM KEVIN ECK: I have read the same thing about Dusty and perhaps a few other guys not wanting a two-month run, but that Garvin, not surprisingly,jumped at the chance.

Garvin on the mic was kind of like Scott Steiner (the Big Poppa Pump version) in that his promos were so bad they were good. And I think Garvin did have an understated charisma, but certainly not in the class of Dusty and others.

Kevin -

Maybe I was just too young in the 1980's, but the feuds back then seemed so much more intense and took a lot longer to run their course. There weren't pay-per-views and there was not nearly as much wrestling on TV so maybe that let things build longer.

To see the big stars collide you had to buy a ticket. Not surprisingly (for me today), a double DQ or something unresolved would happen and you'd have to buy another ticket for the return bout and talk about what was going to happen with your buddies for the next month until it occurred. Meanwhile the wrestlers hyped it on TV because they used to do individual promos for your town.

In your opinion, is there anything recently that's even close to Flair/Dusty, Piper/Snuka or Shiek/Slaughter? Michaels and HHH had a good one after Shawn came back from his injury. What are your Top 10 or 20 favorite or best feuds? Thanks.

RESPONSE FROM KEVIN ECK: The best feuds is a great topic. I'm going to save that one for a future blog entry.

Is that the same "Hands of Stone" Ronnie Garvin ?

RESPONSE FROM KEVIN ECK: Yep.

Punk has a clean win over Chris Jericho in the King-of-the-Ring semifinals. That, in my opinion, is his biggest claim to the world-title scene (other than his world title, of course).

I agree with Lee: how Punk is booked during the next few weeks is very important. My suggestion is that he defeat some mid-card talent in non-title matches, and then make a successful title defense against IC champ Kofi Kingston. The would be a good, gradual way to build his main-event credibility.

Kev - Be honest. Before that faithful night in Sasketoon was there really a big buzz that Bret Hart would be THAT GUY in the WWE.

(Granted if your answer is yes - it kills my whole arguement)

I see the comparisons btw Punk and Garvin winning it all. But I remember as a kid watching that match and totally marking out to it. Wins like Garvins and Punks take away that sense of predictability. Although many people will say they saw Punk cashing in MITB coming.

And personally I do not see why this couldn't be more like tuning into WWF Superstars one saturday morning and finding out Bret Hart beat Ric Flair in some unknown town I never heard of to win the WWF Title.

RESPONSE FROM KEVIN ECK: You are exactly right about Hart. He was considered a very good worker and was Intercontinental champ when that actually meant something. But I don't think anyone really thought of him as a future WWF champ at that point, especially because he was coming off a high-profile loss to Davey Boy Smith six weeks for the IC title six weeks earlier.

Dusty Rhodes didn't want to be champion for two months? That is kind of silly when you consider his world title history.

His first title reign in 1979 was only five days as he won the belt from and then lost it right back to Harley Race. I always hated short title reigns of just a few days.

His second title reign in 1981 was about two and a half months as he won the title from Race and lost it to Ric Flair. That was the Nature Boy's first title reign.

His third title reign in 1986 was only fourteen days. Rhodes beat Flair at the end of the first Great American Bash tour and lost it back in an August house show.

I don't understand how fourteen days was okay for Dusty in 1986 but two months was bad for him in 1987. Real silly of him.

RESPONSE FROM KEVIN ECK: Again, I don't know how true that story is about Dusty, but I have heard it.

Punk showed by his matches with Y2J and Kane that he can have some great matches with some of the top Raw rosters players. But if they continue with the idea of maybe this being a fluke title victory and heel turn would be a great idea, as i could see Mysterio and Cena matching up well with the champ.

Either way, Punk has the make up to have some really good matches with Raw's superstars..if given a lenthy run. And that's pretty exciting.

Honestly, I had forgotten that Punk even had the briefcase. I dont watch the travesty that is ECW and never did see much of him. Can I enjoy the fact that he took it from Edge in the same way that Edge won it twice? Sure I can.

I think the better way to handle it would have been to see him being congratulated by the Raw roster big guys(Cena, Batista, so on) before JBL did his thing. You would think the locker room would have been more appreciative of him bringing one of the belts back to Raw. Maybe with that whole calculating "I'm gunning for you" kind of look/staredown scene after they congratulated him.

Another way to handle the character and push both Punk and Kofi would be to form a "New Breed" style stable on Raw to keep straps on the newer faces while frustrating the old guard of Raw that is left (Cena, JBL, Jericho). Throw Batista into the "New Breed" for a while before having him turn on them and gun for Punks strap. A good way to handle the new champs in the lions den that is/can be Raw so that people can get to know the new champs/contenders as they fight together to protect what they've earned. Or there's always Old Guard vs Young Guns with Batista playing monkey in the middle and fighting against both sides to get a shot at the belt.

Ok, I realize lately I've kind of become the resident WWE skeptic (sorry to steal your thunder, Hebronite). But let's be brutally honest for a second, Kev & company. You are giving WWE way too much credit. You make it seem like this was a plan in the works for months and that the booking was designed this way. I, on the other hand, see a company that books its matches week-to-week and doesn't necessarily reflect back on what happened the previous week, the exception being drawn out main event angles that grow stale. I really think Vince was in a conference room Sunday afternoon and said, "So....how do we mix things up? Can we have both champs retain and CM Punk beat Edge tomorrow? That'll turn the internet smarks on their heads!"

P.S. I was seven when Garvin defeated Flair and I loved it! Maybe this is the new demographic RAW is going for. Seven-year-olds.

"Is that the same "Hands of Stone" Ronnie Garvin?"

Oh. It was the fellow who feuded with Greg Valentine? I thought it was the guy who tagged with Michael Hayes. Thanks for setting that straight.

I look at Punk the same way I saw Randy Orton when he won the world heavyweight title. It felt like it could've been a little premature, but after his first short reign, he grew into more of a main eventer and things have worked out for him. I see that with Punk, too. His reign may not be long, but he'll seem more like championship/main-event material soon after. I like the move WWE made Monday night.

Ron Garvin was once the most popular wrestler in Baltimore winning the NWA National TV Championship from Jake the Snake Roberts at the Baltimore Arena on 4/7/84. This was the first time a title had changed hands in Baltimore since Superstar Billy Grahams WWWF title win over Bruno Sammartino in April of 77.

6 months later Garvin pinned Ted DiBiase in Baltimore to win the National Heavyweight Championship on 10/11/84.

The WWF finally followed suit on 7/6/85 with Tito Santana defeating Greg Valentine for the Intercontinental Belt on 7/6/85. But Ron Garvin still holds the distinction of breaking the Baltimore title change droubt.

RH...stop complaining! Sure, the WWE can be criticized for a lot of bad things, but the opening to Raw is not one of them. It was brilliant and many things were accomplished - JR got his farewell speech in Oklahoma, Edge was put over as a big heel even more, Smackdown was put over quite a bit, Batista got his revenge to conclude the feud, and CM Punk became champ to freshen things up considerably.

Punk winning the title reminds me of when Edge won his first title by cashing in the MITB and lost the title back to Cena about 3 weeks later. Then Edge was kind of out of the title picture for a few months and then came back and won the title again. I feel like CM Punk will probably head down a similar path.

Kevin - the story I have heard about the Garvin title win is that Dusty, the booker, wanted to move the belt to a babyface for a couple of months to build intrigue for Starrcade, but that the babyface options didn't include himself. Remember, he was entering a program with Luger that was second from the top. He presented it to a couple of options, but nobody wanted to be a lame-duck champ, so the belt went to Ronnie. Problem was, the heel side all knew Flair was getting it back, so none of them wanted to job to Ronnie to build him up. As a result, Garvin looked really weak going into the Starrcade match. I think about 40% of the crowd was chanting "Garvin sucks!".

The only other babyface options that made any sense at the time were Nikita and Barry Windham. But Nikita was losing his momentum a little bit (tremendous heel, awful babyface). Now a Windham-Flair program would have been a lot more satisfying than Rugged Ronnie on top.

" RH" - no problem .
signed : Hebronite .

not to be confused w/ Jimmy Garvin

The thing I remember from the brief Flair-Garvin feud is the pretty creative finish when Flair got the belt back. Flair did an Eddie Gilbert "hot shot" on Ron Garvin, but because it was a cage match, instead of being clotheslined on the top rope, Garvin hit his head on one of the cage posts! Hadn't seen it up until then, and haven't seen it since. Pretty cool, I thought.

I totally marked out when Garvin beat Flair for the title, even though I was a huge Ric Flair fan at the time. I remember Jimmy and Ronnie coming up to Montreal and having some intense & bloody matches with the Rougeau brothers a couple of years prior. I guess I felt a bit of civic pride when he won the belt.

Luhrm, your recollection makes sense. I believe Ric Flair feuded with Barry Windham throughout most of 1987, though, so either Dusty Rhodes thought reviving their feud would be dragging things out too long or else Barry did not want to be a two-month champion as some speculated above.

I do not understand that kind of thinking, though, when he had never been a world champion before. I also believe that after his feud with Flair wound down in the summer of 1987, Windham became the Western States champion and was splitting a lot of his time wrestling in the UWF.

Flair feuded with Nikita Koloff, and Dusty for that matter, throughout much of the summer of 1987, so you are right in that their feud lost momentum simply because it had been going on for so long. I believe this was also around the time when Nikita's wife became sick in real life.

That led to the angle where Flair started lusting after Precious and feuding with Gorgeous Jimmy Garvin. Ronnie Garvin, of course, got involved as part of the figure four and drag date incidents. He had feuded with the Horsemen before as Dusty's partner in the Risky Business Boys as well.

Another interesting match in the build up to the Flair-Garvin feud was when Brad Armstrong and Tim Horner, then UWF tag team champions, joined Garvin for a six-man match against Tully Blanchard, Arn Anderson, and Flair. Garvin really took Flair to the woodshed outside the ring that day.

Heels refusing to job to Garvin during that period was just low class. It was in their best interest to build up to Starrcade as that was the big event during that era. The angle that Garvin went 40 days without defending the belt before Starrcade was also stupid. It made him look like a little coward.

They should have just had Garvin defend the belt against some really weak heels or else create a masked character to give him some matches in late October and early November. Garvin's was also mishandled after losing the title back as he eventually turned on Dusty for money in 1988.

Wow, How sad that CM Punk does not win the worlds title legit. It took Batista to kill Edge to win the title. I know that Edge did it to Cena at New Years Revolution a couple of years ago. But Edge is a Heel and CM Punk is not. It works for a heel not a babyface. It cheapen the title. Next we will have, Brittany Spears or the Favor of the week beats CM Punk in the Chambers of Horror match ( i.e. David Arquette and WCW)

Thanks