On November 22, 1990, The Undertaker stepped into a World Wrestling Federation ring for the first time. Needless to say, the world's changed quite a bit in the last quarter century. Like yours truly, who was a socially awkward sixth grader when The Undertaker debuted. Wish I had the picture to prove it, but unfortunately, I don't have a lot from my more formidable years.
Anyway, the world in a nutshell:
Margaret Thatcher steps down as British Prime Minister after her party basically turns heel on her. She actually never lost the election, but John Major would get her post.
President George Herbert Walker Bush spent his Thanksgiving in Saudi Arabia.
"Love Takes Time" by Mariah Carey was the top song in the US.
"Unchained Melody" found second life in the UK thanks to the hit movie Ghost.
And "Groove Is In The Heart" is still the song of choice in Australia.
The world was still in shock over the news that Milli Vanilli lip synched on their debut album. And the world was coming after them, including the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, who strip the duo of their Best New Artist Grammy, the first act to be ripped of their award.
Two competing cable TV court channels would merge. The combination would become Court TV in 1991. Today, it's known as truTV.
Barry Bonds finishes with a .301 batting average with 33 home runs, 114 runs batted in, and 53 stolen bases, the first player in the history of baseball with such stats.
Panasonic introduces the first world's first high-definition television. The 36" TV costs nearly $35,000.
MTV says nah to Madonna's newest video "Justify My Love", saying the video was too hot for TV. The rejection turns into a financial windfall for Madonna; the single spends two weeks as the top song in the country a few months later, the album it appears on would be one of her best-selling records, and more than a quarter million people pay $10 a pop for the video.
Home Alone cleans up at the box office, quickly making its full $15 million budget back and thensome (it would go on to gross nearly a half billion in the box office, at the time more than any other comedy ever).
Not bad considering at the time, the average movie ticket was just $4.22.
And an average gallon of gas was just $1.32.
Stamps were just a quarter.
A loaf of bread was about 80 cents.
A pound of hamburger meat was just under a dollar.
A fifth Rocky movie, just what the world didn't want (though it does make over $119 million at the box office.)
Nintendo introduces the Super Famicon in Japan with Super Mario World and F-Zero.
The New York Giants were flirting with perfection, having won ten straight. The New England Patriots, meanwhile, were careening towards their worst season ever (1-15).
The Liverpool Reds (or Liverpool FC for the English folks) were defending their Premier League title. They have yet to win it since.
Actually, it wasn't called the Premier League. It was known as Football 1st Division back then.
Entertainment Weekly was less than a year old.
Kevin Costner graced the covers of People.
The WWE was still the World Wrestling Federation. Your champions are The Ultimate Warrior, The Texas Tornado (Mr. Perfect's Intercontinental title win hadn't aired yet, even though he'd won it three days earlier), and the Hart Fountation (though it probably should have been The Rockers, but a ring rope broke).
WCW was still under the NWA banner, with Sting, Lex Luger, and Doom as their top champions.
The most recent WWE Champion, Seth Rollins, was just four years old.
NXT Champion Bayley was just a year old.
Brock Lesnar was 13.
And sadly, twelve people who appeared on the card are now dead: both commentators in Gorilla Monsoon and Roddy Piper, along with Big Boss Man, Crush, Dino Bravo, Dusty Rhodes, Earthquake, Hawk, Hercules, Mr. Perfect, The Texas Tornado, and the Ultimate Warrior. More than half of the list appeared in the first half hour. 13 if you count Buddy Rose, who was in the show-opening dark match.
So... what about you? How was your life in November 1990?