Cornette backs up the story that Undertaker was sitting at the Gorilla Position, fists taped, ready to act if Shawn tried to pull anything.  When the match went as planned, he got up, pulled off the tape, and went back to the dressing room.  Cornette was on the booking committee, during that time.

The Observer is generally pretty factual, as Dave does his fact checking, as best can be done.  the Torch has been caught out with false stories and pretty much everyone else gets their info from those two.  No one is perfect; but, Dave has a pretty good track record with reporting what happened and for covering the historical details.  His analysis of the business is pretty good.  That said, he has his blind spots, like anyone else.  

The problem with wrestling is that you have to get the "facts" from guys who spent careers playing a con or who are being political to keep limited options open.  So, truth is a pretty early casualty.  Shoot interviews are notorious for false stories, bad memories, and spin.  You have guys like Ric Flair claiming to be in Puerto Rico when Brody was stabbed, when a quick scan of the card shows he wasn't and it doesn't take much to check his NWA bookings.  Everyone takes credit for the hits and someone else is always responsible for the flops.

Hogan and Warrior rehearsing their match is like rehearsing 10 seconds of a 5 minute dance routine.  Wouldn't take much.  These days, they rehearse the entire match, in some circumstances.  Pretty certain that Hogan called the match, as the heel usually did, or the veteran and Hogan had way more experience calling a match than Warrior.  Warrior could barely stumble through a match and could only call, "Shake the ropes, beat chest, bodyslam, splash. Pin."  Not many "drop down, leap frog, hip toss into headlock" spots in a Warrior match (or Hogan, by that point).

Not really and I only saw him in two battle royales and a handful of insignifiant singles matches in the late 70's and early 80's. Sorry.

Does anyone know why the WWF came up with a fictitious tournament (Rio de Janeiro) to describe the creation of the Intercontinental Championship? I know wrestling can often be built on lies, good or bad, but I don't know why there was a need to come up with a fictional tournament. Why not just create the belt and hold a legitimate battle royal or something?

Also, is the Honky Tonk Man the greatest WWF Intercontinental Champion of all time, given the long reign? And will that reign ever be surpassed?

Wrestling promoters seemed to prefer fictitious tournaments to launch new titles. Sometimes, it is a gimmick for a wrestler who comes into the territory (Billy Robinson's British Empire title, in the AWA) and sometimes its to introduce a new title that is taking the place of one felt to be outdated (like the Georgia titles being replaced by the National titles, due to the exposure on WTBS nationally).

Some of the motivation is due to the existence of wrestling magazines, which covered other territories. A promotion might bring in a new wrestler who had been a big name elsewhere and bill him as the holder of a different version of the same title contested in the old territory. For instance, Nature Boy Buddy Rogers was the US champion in Chicago and defended the belt elsewhere, including the WWF. He gave up the US title when he won the NWA World title from Pat O'Connor. There were other US titles in other promotions, at different times, since it wasn't an NWA title, owned by the Board. They only sanctioned the World Hwt and Jr Hwt titles. When Bobo Brazil came into the WWWF, in 1963, he had been US champion in Detroit (which took it's lineage from the Chicago US title); so, he was billed as the WWWF Us Champion. generally though, they would just call it the US Hwt championship, without using the WWWF name, as brand names weren't as important as the title itself. The WWWF used the US title as their secondary singles belt until 1976. It was then replaced by a North American title, in 1979.

Ted DiBiase came into the WWF (as it had been renamed, in 1979) as the first WWF North American Champion. DiBiase had been working for Tri-State wrestling, which was the Oklahoma territory of Leroy McGuirk, which became Mid-South Wrestling, when Bill Watts took over, soon after. Their top title was the North American Hwt championship and Dibiase had held it and got a lot of magazine coverage, as he was being groomed as a potential NWA World champion. He was billed as champion upon arrival and dropped the title to Pat Patterson, in Feb 1979. Patterson was the only title holder, in the actual WWF. In September of that year, it was alleged he had beaten Johnny Rodz, in a tournament in Rio, to unify the North American title with a non-existent South American title, to become the first Intercontinental champion. That became the secondary title from then one. In reality, they wanted to replace their old US title, as there was a US title in Detroit, Mid-Atlantic and San Francisco. There was only one North American title, in Oklahoma, so they used Ted DiBiase coming in to launch it. They then decided to make it sound even bigger by making it a title representing the entire Western Hemisphere.

Introducing titles this way made it seem like champions from elsewhere were coming into your home territory and the local heroes were defeating them for their belts. It gave them instant prestige, rather than look like what it was, a secondary title for the undercard and a steppingstone to working with the World champion.

The had other titles, before buying WCW's belts. They initially had a US tag team title, which was replaced by the WWWF Tag team title, which changed initials with the company. The US title lasted until 1976. They had a Junior Hwt title, which was originally used after breaking with the NWA, but to showcase guys who had wrestled for that title elsewhere. It was deactivated in 1972, then revived in 1978, when the WWF began a relationship with New Japan. The title was won by Tatsumi Fujinami and taken to Japan to be used, though some Japanese stars would defend in on US tours of the WWF, like Tiger Mask and The Cobra. When the WWF broke with New Japan, in 1985, those titles were replaced by New Japan. They had also re-created an International Title and International Tag-Team title, which were replaced by the IWGP titles. They also had a working agreement with the UWA, in Mexico and created the WWF Light Hwt title for their use (there was a rival NWA Lt Hwt title, in EMLL/CMLL). The UWA went under in the early 90s and the Lt Hwt title ended up in Japan, as New Japan also worked with the UWA. It ended up as part of the J-Crown.

As for the Honky Tonk Man, I think it had more to do with the fact that keeping the title on him kept heat on him, so that he could have programs with better guys. Otherwise, Ferris was never that great a wrestler, but he got tremendous heel heat as he was an obnoxious nitwit you liked to see get beat up. The WWF, traditionally, worked opposite of most NWA titles, with a hero world champion taking on monsters and villains, while a heel Intercontinental (etc) champion faced babyfaces. The NWA model was a heel champion being chased by babyfaces. Really, a long reign by Steamboat would have been much better matches; but, that didn't fit their booking philosophy. I always thought Don Muraco was a better heel Intercontinental champion than HTM, or Randy Savage, for that matter.

What happened to Shane Douglas? ... he seems to disappear from the scenes and one of my favorite ECW Wrestler ... and wrestled in WCW somewhat briefly.

I always found him an absorbing wrestler to watch. And wish he'd done even better in the WWF.

He's certainly active on Twitter:

twitter.com/thefranchisesd?lang=en