Most of these people probably range in age from their mid-20 to late 30s and only know the wrestling they experienced and never had any training in research beyond typing a subject into Google.  Same with movies, tv and other pop culture; if it was from before their lifetime, they have little knowledge and never learned to decipher bad information from good.

(In cranky old man voice)  In my day (when dinosaurs ruled the Earth and men were men and paleo-sheep were worried), you had to go to a library and research subjects in encyclopedias, and card catalogs and magazine article reference books to research a subject, read said articles (if they applied), compile that information and organize it into your own words.  You learned how to sift bad from good and what sources you could trust and how to cross check and fact check others.  Search engines give more access to data; but without qualification and too many of the younger generations (and older ones, for that matter) haven't learned to tell one from another or about things like "context."  Real paid journalists aren't much better than the amateur ones who maintain websites, as the rush to get content out pretty much precludes things like fact-checking and in-depth research.  Modern articles and news pieces are filled with errors because reporters and copywriters are more concerned about their deadline than their accuracy.  On-line wrestling news sites are just a microcosm of that trend.

When I see things like 100 Greatest Films of all time and 70% are more are from the last 20 years, I know to skip reading it.  Stephen Fry told a story once of his niece and/or nephew(s) saying they had never seen Casablanca, when he was talking about it and that they didn't watch black & white movies.  He says he sat them down and made them watch it.  Same thing in wrestling, where fans complain that older matches are too slow, or they are "20 minutes of rest holds," or similar tropes, when that is hardly the case and depends on whether the match was a tv match, a PPV match, an arena show, a minor house show and in what territory/promotion and who was involved.

Back in 1982, I saw my first WWF matches, from Madison Square Garden, on the USA Network.  I thought this must be a big deal, because it was Madison Square Garden and they put on big shows in all kinds of entertainment.  I had been weaned on the WWA Indianapolis tv, the Poffo ICW, a little bit of Memphis and a little AWA.  Watching the undercard matches was grueling, though, as it was a lot of punch-kick and rest holds and little mat wrestling or highspots.  Midcard matches weren't much better.  Things picked up a little bit for the semi-main, as Pedro Morales took on Playboy Buddy Rose and we got a bit of wrestling and more exciting spots.  Then, the main event was Bob Backlund vs Jimmy Snuka, which was good, and the final match of the night was Andre vs Blackjack Mulligan, which was good.  Still, had I not gritted my teeth through the boring stuff, I would have missed some really good matches.  The next card I saw had a pretty dull Tony Atlas vs Greg Valentine match, with long spots of them sitting there with an armbar.  A couple of matches later, Tiger Mask defended the WWF Junior Heavyweight championship against Jose Estrada.  It was like night and day.

Once we had cable and I started to see World Championship Wrestling (then the GCW Saturday 6:05 pm tv show), Mid-South, AWA, clips from Florida and the Carolinas, clips of World Class, Southwest Championship and the WWF, I learned to appreciate different presentations, though I preferred the more mat-based Midwest style and the faster paced Southern style, as well as the Japanese competitive matches and the British technical style.  Never really cared for the WWF broader style, apart from specific examples, like the Hart Foundation and the Bulldogs, or Ricky Steamboat and Randy Savage, or Paul Orndorff, who were all guys I saw first, elsewhere (except the Bulldogs and Harts, though I had read about them, in the magazines).  Some of the on-line providers seem to think all wrestling was WWF or WWF and WCW and that all territory stuff was studio matches, in front of 20 fans, or that the average age of AWA stars was 5 years dead, or that Kansas City never had great matches or drew a crowd bigger than a swap meet at a high school gym.  Why?  Because that is what they read on the internet. 

It's the same thing in other subjects.  When The Hunger Games was being prepped for the first movie, all I saw on-line was "That's just a ripoff of Battle Royale," like there was never a story of young people being pitted against each other, before that, like, say...Lord of the Flies....or, the myth of Theseus, which is where the author got the idea, from the tributes to the minotaur.  Richard Connell's Most Dangerous Game presented the idea of humans hunting one another in 1924, yet if I believed on-line writers, no had that idea before Stephen King.  The Fifth Element was just a ripoff of Harry Canyon, in the Heavy Metal movie, except that was a knockoff of Dan O'Bannon & Moebius' The Long Tomorrow (which appeared in Heavy Metal magazine), which the producers had tried to option, but Moebius refused to license any of his works, including Arzach, so they turned it into Taarna.  And so on.....

The King of the Ring has always gotten a title shot, at Wrestlemania, autotune has always appeared in music, movies and tv were always in color, anything more than 20 years old is passe, liberals always tax and spend, Mr Jorkin beats his wife and skewers innocent babies, when he is in his cups, and superheroes are the only thing that has ever sold well in comic books.  Everybody says so.

The thing is, where wrestling is concerned, what constitutes "facts" is a very slippery thing.  Promoters created false histories, had phantom title changes, gave people new gimmicks, etc.  Sorting all that out isn't easy, even for experienced guys like Meltzer and Wade Keller.  Those guys printed rumor as fact and got caught out plenty of times, but, a lot of their work was only seen by subscribers, before the internet broadened the dissemination of backstage rumors.  The Montreal Screwjob is where I saw it really take off and since Dave was talking directly to Bret, everyone else was following what he put in the Observer.  So, then, everything he got wrong they did, too.  Corny and others have talked about the boys being big gossips and the fastest way to communicate was to repeat something in the locker room:  telephone, telegram, tell-a-wrestler.  So, the boys pass on gossip to sheet writers, who also push their names.  Missy Hyatt and others have talked about the boys reading the sheets in the locker room and Mick Foley has credited Meltzer with putting his name out there, while he worked independents and Japan, in helping draw the attraction of WCW and the WWF.

The current generation came of age while all of that was going down, with Meltzer's scoops about what happened prior to and following Montreal and the whole WCW vs WWF drama.  Now they try to emulate it, with gossip and rumor and supposition, more in a search for hits and attention...and advertising dollars.  The thing is, it's a pretty small audience, based on the ratings and gates for modern wrestling and the internet fandom is a smaller niche of that.

Meltzer trumpeted the 78,000 number, based on tickets actually sold.  The thing is, there was always a certain percentage of "papering" going on at PPV and tv tapings, where free tickets were distributed via promotional giveaways, comps to attract celebrities, etc.  That went on at WM III, too.  Promoters have always distorted numbers.  I have no clue where the truth lies, except I would never believe an unverified claim made by the WWF.  The point is, regardless of which number is correct, it was the biggest audience for a live show in then-recent memory....well above the average for even big shows and previous Wrestlemanias.  It wasn't unique, though, as World Class drew around a reported (and probably exaggerated) 43,000, for the first Parade of Champions to see Kerry Von Erich defeat Ric Flair, for the nWA World title.  The WWF had already experience a record crowd in Toronto, for Hogan vs Paul Orndorff (I believe that was over 30,000).  However, such crowds were not unknown, in past history.  Nature Boy Buddy Rogers defeating Pat O'Connor for the NWA title, in the old Comiskey Park, in Chicago, drew over 33,000.  Jim Londos is said to have drawn over 100, 000 to a show in Greece and the UWFI vs New Japan feud drew massive crowds in Japan, more than once.  AAA sold out a Los Angeles venue that the WWF couldn't even paper to a decent house, back in the early-mid 90s.

Per captia, the best draw was probably Mid-South, as they drew huge crowds to the Super Dome, for several shows, in the early 80s.  When the WWF was invading, hey tried to do the same, with Hogan and a defecting Junkyard Dog and got handed their @$$.

In the late 80s/early-to-mid 90s, the WWF did tapes featuring matches supposedly selected by fans. The UK and Germany had specific releases. I’m not sure if other countries did, although it’s possible.

Was there any truth in the narrative that the matches were selected by fans? I think the truth is somewhere in between yes and no. Some may have. I know I wrote in requesting a match for a tape called UK Fan Favourites. I received a letter back stating that my match had not been chosen. Someone else once wrote a letter to UK magazine Power Slam stating his match hadn’t been chosen, but the licensee had asked if they could use his name for another match.

I’m sure some matches were chosen by fans - the aforementioned tape featured The 1-2-3 Kid VS Yokozuna, which I’m sure a fan chose - but it’s hard to believe other matches were chosen by fans.

This tape begins with Koko B. Ware vs. The Brooklyn Brawler. With all due respect to both men, that hardly seems like a dream match, so was that really requested by a fan? But it was a decent bout, which saw Koko win via pinfall (I always liked his finisher, The Ghostbuster).

It’s also hard to believe a fan reqested the next bout, Dusty Rhodes vs. Greg Valentine. There was nothing really memorable here. Dusty wins via pinfall.

Match #3 sounds like the kind of match a fan would request: The Hart Foundation vs. The Twin Towers. Both teams had good chemistry, and it was a formulaic (a good formulaic!) tag team bout we all remember from that era. It’s the match of the tape despite the count-out decision, won by The Twin Towers.

Tito Santana vs. Mr. Perfect was a solid bout. I can believe a fan would have requested that. Perfect wins this one.

Superfly Jimmy Snuka vs. Ted DiBiase is watchable (Superfly wins via pinfall).

The final match of the tape - which I do believe a fan might have requested - is Ultimate Warrior & King Duggan vs. Andre the Giant & Rick Rude. As a cartoon-style tag bout involving larger-than-life characters, it is fun. Warrior and Duggan win by cheating, though. Duggan hits Rude with the 2x4, allowing Warrior to get the pin. Hacksaw had done that in other bouts. Seems some babyfaces are allowed to cheat.

Returning to the theme of the tape, seems odd how no babyface vs babyface or heel vs heel bouts were ever selected by fans (you’d imagine someone in 1989 might have requested something intriguing, e.g. Macho King vs. Rick Rude, or Bret Hart vs. Ultimate Warrior). I think the reality is that some matches were fan favourites while the WWF selected others and requested that fans, perhaps on their mailing list, attach their names to the bouts.

Except Andre had pinfall or submission losses to Ronnie Garvin (1978), El Canek (1984) and Antoni Inoki (1986) and Strong Kobayashi, from 1972 on.  They were also making it sound like he was never slammed, when he had been just a few years prior, on their own tv, in MSG matches.  That was the thing, if you were new to the show or too young to have seen the past, you would accept what they said at face value.  If you had been around a while, you knew the truth.  When Elizabeth came out as Randy Savages new manager everyone, including the magazines who should have known better, presented her as if she was brand new to things; but, those of us who saw the ICW show had seen her before, as an announcer/interviewer (in the dying days of the promotion) and that she was Randy's girlfriend and then wife.

When they introduced the Machines, you were supposed to know it was Andre, as the Giant Machine, but as soon as he spoke I knew that Super Machine was Masked Superstar, Bill Eadie, though I knew the physique was familiar before that.  People spotted Randy Colley immediately, as the original Smash, in Demolition.

WCW used to put Brad Armstrong under a mask, constantly and you knew it was him, every time, just by the way he locked up and moved.  If he threw a dropkick, you definitely knew.  He had a fighting stance that stood out and a certain wiggle (emulating his father) when doing certain things.  So much of wrestling is body language that, if you watch long enough and pay attention, you can identify people by how they hit the ropes or take bumps, or execute certain moves.

His ego is big enough for two.

I've only seen The Night of Legends, for his bi shows.  Corny usually put together great shows, for the big events.  Furnas and Orton should have been great.  Bob was one of the best workers in the business and Furnas was a great pro wrestler, especially for a weightlifter/muscle guy.  I caught him while he was still pretty green, in Ron Fuller's USA Knoxfille promotion, in 1988, and he was exciting and his athleticism made up for his lack of experience.  By the time he was in the WWF, with Phil Lafon, he had turned into a great seasoned pro.  Shame we didn't get more of that team.

Corny has told the story about Doug Furnas' brother coming to work with them, which is pretty funny.  Doug helped them out by working some shows, in his hometown (Knoxville native), with his brother debuting.  They had the brother do a run in, as the heels were getting heat on Doug and he was so charged up he dived under the bottom rope, but had so much momentum he slid across the ring and out the other side, without touching anyone.