Current NBC Shows - NBC. ![]() The NYC original. Hendrix and Santana were among the first to get a piece of the Pi, and for over 40 years the Big Muff Pi has been defining the sound of rock guitar. In California, the highways have special lanes for High Occupancy Vehicles (HOV). The definition of Cast biographies, crew details, user comments, quotes, trivia, and production information. Magnum, P.I. The series ran on CBS, which. Classic Car Show episodes, catch up on the latest episode and watch Quentin & Jodie test drive and discuss classic cars. Fast Facts About . So when the opportunity arose for him to perform against the most popular wrestler in Japan’s history in front of more than 1. Flair couldn’t resist. There was just one catch: The match would take place in North Korea, in front of a sea of people who didn’t know who Ric Flair was, much less what American professional wrestling was all about. It was the first time an American wrestling company would visit the . For a country that is usually intent on keeping outsiders away, inviting 3. Pyongyang's massive May Day Stadium over the course of the two- day event seemed to be an about- face for the notoriously secretive regime. Perhaps it was an effort to showcase a North Korea ruled by Kim Jong Il. With his political career in limbo, Inoki saw participation in this event as a prime opportunity for a diplomatic win in Japan due to his positive relationship with the North Korean government. He was, after all, a prot. He got in touch with Eric Bischoff, president of America's World Championship Wrestling (WCW). The two had a working relationship, and Inoki wanted Bischoff to bring some of his best talent to North Korea to perform; Bischoff happily agreed. He even got Bischoff to convince Muhammad Ali, a one- time opponent of Inoki's, to join them in greeting the crowd. By 1. 99. 5, Bischoff’s WCW was playing a never- ending game of catch- up against Vince Mc. Magnum, P.I. Starring Tom Selleck and set against a lush Hawaiian backdrop. We all see things while driving that cause genuine bafflement, sometimes. It may be a person driving while trailing a forgotten gas pump hose, or perhaps a person. Articles, audio clips, episode guide, cast information, trivia, video clips, photograph gallery, and message boards. Mahon’s WWE (formerly WWF), so an opportunity to see his organization showcased at such a large event—and in such a hostile country—had the potential to be a defining moment for the company. While WWE dominated the U. S. Originally, he approached Bischoff about getting Hulk Hogan, the biggest name in wrestling at the time. Viewing a match against the legendary Inoki as another coup in an already stellar career, Flair readily agreed. The trip promised two things he lived for: pro wrestling and the type of adventure he could talk about—and embellish upon—for years to come.“I just thought, number one, it’d be cool to travel with Muhammad Ali. When WCW consultant Sonny Onoo informed the Japanese embassy of the trip, he was told, “You understand we cannot guarantee your safety.” The warning fell on deaf ears, and a rickety military transport plane soon brought the group from Japan to the heart of North Korea’s communist government. Upon landing, “almost immediately, they separated us into groups of two and assigned each of us a handler, or 'minder' as they called it,” Bischoff recalled. Everyone was stripped of their passports and subjected to a carefully manicured tour of the country, including paying their respects to the late Kim Il- sung, North Korea's Supreme Leader until his death in 1. After being indoctrinated with a speech on their “Great Leader,” the government officials gave Bischoff and his fellow wrestlers flowers to leave in front of a statue of Kim Il- sung.“They buy it for you and then charge you. And then they take the flowers back and sell them to the next guy.”When it came time for the actual event to start, even the wrestlers—some of whom had been doing this for decades—were at a loss.“The first time I got on the ropes and looked out there, I looked to the very top of the stadium,” wrestler Scott Steiner told Sports Illustrated. I was like, 'Wow, I can barely see them, how are they seeing me?' It was mind- blowing. But it was a fleeting moment. After that, I locked into the match.”Despite the size of the crowd (which was rumored to be 1. American wrestlers were used to. But there was good reason for that: They likely had no idea what they were even watching.“I think initially they expected it to be more like amateur wrestling,” Flair said. I would say . Flair/Inoki main- evented the second night, with Inoki getting the win over Flair in about 1. More impressive than a choreographed melee between two legends was the fact that they had the audience in the palms of their hands. The two had put butts in arena seats all over the globe for decades, and even in an unfamiliar communist country, they hit their marks.“Those two guys go out there and took that crowd from nothing to pandemonium. It was just amazing,” wrestler Scott Norton, who was the main event during the first night, said. As with everything on the show, there were motives outside of just a fantastic match. One specific photo from the match—of a battered Flair being slammed around by an enraged Inoki—became part of a deluge of North Korean propaganda leaflets that were dropped over Seoul in late 1. After the final bell rang, the fight wasn’t over—at least not for the cadre of weary American wrestlers looking to get back home. Before they were able to return to Japan, then make their way back to the U. S., the North Korean government made one very unsettling request of Flair: They wanted him to read a statement basically saying that after visiting North Korea, he understood that the country could dominate the United States. Flair refused to recite their requested language, but agreed to make a more diplomatic statement, praising this “beautiful and peaceful country” and saying, “His Excellency, Kim Il- sung, will always be with us.”Even though it broke the all- time attendance record for a wrestling event, there wasn’t much to celebrate: In the United States, the event hadn't garnered much curiosity, and there were only scattered news reports covering its aftermath. To the wrestlers, it was just another show. Later on that year, WCW released part of the event as a U. S. What should have been a political moment draped in neon spandex soon faded into obscurity. In 2. 00. 1, Mc. Mahon’s WWE bought WCW and its tape library, yet the company rarely references the event, nor has it ever released Collision in Korea on its expansive WWE Network, which features nearly every other WCW show. There are theories about why the event seemed to disappear: WWE likes to maintain the claim that the company’s Wrestle. Mania III, which drew (a disputed) 9. Michigan's Pontiac Silverdome in 1. Having a rival's event in North Korea basically double that number in just a single day might hurt the prestige of their own accomplishment. According to wrestling historian Dave Meltzer, “WWE, they want to claim these records, so this kind of hurts that narrative.? I don’t think so,” Bischoff said. But the fact is, over the course of two nights, 3. I think that’s a phenomenal achievement.”.
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