goc

As far as Sir Paul goes, I think he could have done all his wrestling torrents and been fine. From everything I've read it was the UFC stuff that generated the complaint.

Still don't really care but I'll still watch it. I am not as convinced as everyone else that Rusev is going to job at WrestleMania. It wouldn't surprise me but I don't see it as a sure thing. Not if they are going to go through with the Reigns win. He's gonna need a hot heel, and switching the title to Rusev at SummerSlam if Reigns fails as The Man would be a nice backup plan.

All matches in WWE are stopped for blood while they glue the cut, it's been going on for like 5 years or more now. No matches are ever stopped when a ref gets bumped so yea I don't get that criticism. It's consistent with the internal logic of WWE style.

At 11 years old in 1996 I just could not believe how big of a deal WCW was making of him coming in to wrestle Hogan. I mean they got a huge buyrate so it obviously worked but MAN did that just seal the "WCW = Wheel Chair Wrestling" thing to me when you are doing heel beat downs based around attacking the babyface's replacement hip.

Hey Zach Ryder got a win on Raw, when is the last time that happened? I'm only barely watching Raw but that Ryback clothesline to The Miz made me happy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9NpfjYOYxk Just watched this and it was pretty awesome. Not sure if that training video was on TV or not I have not been watching at all the past month after enjoying the build to and the event of Fast Lane. I like the line from Rusev that Cena isn't the competitor he used to be. I think they really messed up when they tried to position Cena as the "old man" of the roster. The crowd didn't buy that at all and it doesn't work. They could however sell the idea that Cena isn't the same as he used to be after the years and years of TLC, Hell in a Cell, Last Man Standing, I Quit, etc matches that have broken him down. I'd like to see him pass out at WrestleMania and maybe have them play up the idea that maybe Cena isn't Superman anymore. But not that he's too fucking old. The problem with Cena isn't that his character is boring it's that they won't DO ANYTHING with it. There have been a myriad of better things to do with his character, none of which include turning heel, that they could have done ever since the loss to The Rock at WrestleMania 28. But he just kept doing the same ol' thing. The Bray Wyatt feud was a gold mine of missed opportunities where Wyatt could have drudged up all kinds of people from Cena's past to screw with him. They could have used that feud to build both their characters and had they done a better story then Wyatt losing in the end wouldn't hurt him as bad (even though I still think he kind of sucks)

I do think about that when I watch Lucha Underground. Like, WWE has tons of slick production equipment and they are the ones who want to be in the movie business, why haven't they been doing the stuff Lucha Underground is doing now for years and years?

The show opens up with Les & Charlie introducing us to a man who they say has turned the area upside down in the one week he's been here: Jonh Valiant. Apparently he pinned The Stomper on TV in 15 seconds last week, which I don't have footage of, and then they show arena footage of him coming out to be a lumberjack and attacking Ron Bass and then the other lumberjacks and gettin sent back to the dressing room. Then he saves Ron Fuller from Don Carson & The Stomper after Fuller's match and he ends up with a bull rope and hangs The Stomper over the ropes with it! During this whole thing John Valiant and Ron Fuller are talking over the footage and Valiant is...interesting. I am not sure how Ron Fuller is now a babyface though. The problems of trying to follow this Southeastern footage. They show a video of Don Carson & The Stomper with Don Carson explaining why he and The Stomper aren't on TV. Don Carson & The Stomper aren't going to be back at the TV studio until John Valiant is GONE. He says they will make every town but they are not coming to do TV. It's tough when the babyfaces like Fuller & Valiant are so much better at cutting promos than the heel manager Don Carson. Suddenly we got a masked man in the ring calling out John Valiant! Valiant and Ron Fuller are totally nonchalant with Valiant saying he already took his mask off and Fuller encouraging him to go do it again. The "match" starts and that's pretty much exactly what happens. El Diablo attacks John Valiant as he comes in but Valiant quickly cuts him off and then unmasks him. El Diablo doesn't appear to live up to his Spanish name as it's just some short bald white dude who quickly runs off. The ref starts to count him out but doesn't even get to 5 before he just raises John Valiant's hand and declares him the winner. Alright then. We come back from a commercial brack with hype for this Monday Night in Birmingham (no date unfortunately) The card is Mike Jackson opening against Oki Shikina, Ron Bass vs. Jos LeDuc in a Canadian Lumerjack Match, Mr. Saito vs. Bob Armstrong for the Alabama Title, Brad Armstrong & Steve O challenging Dennis Condrey & Randy Rose (no longer The Super Pro) for the Southeastern Tag Team Titles and John Valiant vs. The Stomper in a No DQ match with Don Carson & Ron Fuller barred from the building. After the card hype we get John Valiant & Ron Fuller at the desk again with Les Thacher to talk about the match. Before Les talks to Ron & John we get a video promo from Don Carson who continues not to impress me. Ron says he won't be there but he has been the one controlling crazy John Valiant telling him "please Johnny don't do that" but now he tells John to go ahead and do whatever he wants. After another break we're back to Dennis Condrey & Randy Rose at the desk with Charlie Platt with their Southeastern Tag Team Titles in front of them. Charlies asks them about facing another tag team of family members, Bob & Brad Armstrong. Condrey implies that Brad isn't even really Bob's son. Randy Rose talks trash about Brad being too young to face real men and champions. I am digging this original Midnight Express team who don't yet have the MX name. The next match is Brad Armstrong & Bob Armstrong against some jobbers. Les Thatcher tells us that Brad Armstrong has only been wrestling for 4 months. Brad looks ok here, really good if we're judging him based on being in his 4th month of wrestling. Pretty basic little match here with Brad winning with a crossbody. Next we have Charlie Platt doing a Personality Profile with Jerry Stubbs. Charlie tells us that the Jr. Heavyweight Title is held up and then shows us tape of what happened to cause that. The match ends with Stubbs doing a back suplex and the ref counting both men's shoulders down. Stubbs & Charlie Platt argue about the ref holding up the title and then we get a video promo from Norvel Austin that's...not very good. I neglected to mention that his nickname here is The Junkyard Dog. Stubbs calls Norvel Austin a born loser and guarantees that Norvel won't win his TV match today. We go from that to the ring where Roy Lee Welch & Norvel Austin are teaming to face the Southeastern Tag Team Champions Dennis Condrey & Randy Rose. This is is a decent little match with Condrey & Rose being a pretty good heel team as far as cutting off the ring and distracting the ref. The finish is Jerry Stubbs tripping Norvel Austin leading to Condrey pinning him. After the match Condrey & Rose make their way to the desk where Charlie plays arena footage of them facing Bob Armstrong & Jos LeDuc. LeDuc gets distracted by Ron Bass who has LeDuc's "Canadian Lumberjack Championship belt" leading to him being counted out during which Condrey & Rose double team Bob Armstrong including Condrey coming off the top rope with a knee to Bob's back. LeDuc comes back and helps clear the ring and then we go back to the desk where Condrey & Rose have a Stretch Armstrong doll which they start having a tug of war with and say this is what's gonna happen the next time they face Bob Armstrong. Hahah that's fun stuff. After a commercial break we've got Bob Armstrong at the desk with Les Thatcher but before they talk we get another video from Georgia with Saito and Freddie Miller. Saito is asked about Bob Armstrong and asks if that's a singer? Haha. Saito's video gets cut off in progress so I guess there was no where to go but down after that high point. Bob says he's not impressed by Saito's judo because an American right cross is better than any Judo chop. Boutwell Auditorium, be there! The funky music Southeastern bumper is actually intact on this break (wish I knew what song that was) and we come back to Ron Bass at the desk with Charlie & Les. Ron Bass has a Bullrope with him which he says he is the master of. And then he also he a title with him which he says makes him the Canadian Lumerjack Champion. We get arena footage of Ron Bass facing Mr. Wrestling II in a lumberjack match. Ron Bass gets sent outside and Jos LeDuc attacks him which ends up causing a big melee between the faces and the heels outside the ring. While the ref is distracted with that Dennis Condrey comes in from the other side and hits Mr Wrestling II in the back of the head with some kind of gimmick and Ron Bass pins him to win the match. Ron Bass talks trash about LeDuc attacking him during the match and then again after and challenges LeDuc to come out and tie his hand to the other end of the bullrope and get in the ring with him. LeDuc comes out and Ron Bass says he has to go but as he pulls the bullrope to bring it with him LeDuc grabs the other end and pulls him back and blasts him. They both end up in the ring with a referee and the Bullrope and Ron Bass quickly attacks with the bell. He works LeDuc over for a while until LeDuc makes a comeback which brings on jobber Bob Owens and some other scrub to help Ron Bass escape. After a commercial we get a video promo from Ron Bass where he talks about how LeDuc put him out with an injured shoulder and he came back with revenge on his mind. He got a piece of his revenge today busting LeDuc's head open with the bell and he's going to get more. LeDuc comes to the desk bleeding and talks about how he is going to take back his Canadian Lumberjack Title that Ron Bass stole but his promo cuts get off by the funky Southeastern bumper. Hit your time cues people! That's it for today's edition of Southeastern Championship Wrestling. Charlie & Les wrap up the happenings of the episode and welcome us to join them again next week.

If you are going to watch a bunch of early 2000s Kurt Angle then you can't NOT watch the match with Rey from Summerslam 2002. I like Kurt from this time period and I think this might be his best singles match. I thought the Benoit matches around 2003 is when he started to become more like the current Angle and less like the early version.

I would be interested to hear Ron Starr's thoughts about showing up in the Continental Wrestling Federation in 1989 right as it's closing down. He has this match with Cactus Jack that as far as I know is the last match of the last episode of CWF. He had kind of an interesting 1989 in general as he pops up on some Stampede TV listings but only for 2 weeks in May. https://youtu.be/5eSQtYjQLPY

I am kind of holding off on jumping all the way in on Puerto Rico, waiting for something better than hopping around youtube. I did just watch Billy Joe Travis vs. Hugo Savinovich and it's REALLY awesome. Too bad it seems like BJT didn't have much of a run in Puerto Rico. I would love to see more of him in Puerto Rico being pelted with garbage and taking dropkicks on the home plate of baseball stadiums.

There was a suggestions thread I seem to remember putting this in but I can't find it now, but I still think it would be cool to have a shoutbox on the site. Something where people could chat in real time for big events, especially useful with Mania coming up.

Raw was a really weird mixed bag in 1997 where you had some really awesome stuff with Austin & The Hart Foundation, and the Undertaker/Paul Bearer stuff was good too but going back not that long ago and watching some of it, there was still a lot of of crap like New Blackjacks, Godwinns, The Sultan, Rockabilly, the super weak Light Heavyweight division they started, The Truth Commission, Gang Warz. I think Nitro was still definitely better overall in 1997.

From what I've seen, those AJPW matches had selling in the moment, selling over time, and meaningful escalation. I think they have too much of the third but I woudn't deny the first two for the most part (give or take a few lapses). Well I can definitely say that with Kurt there is no sense of "meaningful escalation" whatsoever. He just does Angle Slams over and over for the obvious "nearfall" that you know isn't going to be the finish. And the only thing he does different with the ankle lock is the heel hock that used to signal the end but I have to assume he's killed that off as well during his time in TNA that I haven't watched. And since I can't just assume that JVK has any idea what's happened in TNA, Kurt Angle has essentially let EVERYONE on the roster who has faced him on TV and PPV kick out of the slam or get out of the ankle lock, in nearly every meaningful encounter. From Jay Lethal to Samoa Joe. When those are your 2 big moves and there's really nothing else after that it's kind of hard to have any kind of meaningful escalation.

I have seen very little of All Japan but comparing Angle to those guys seems to miss the mark. At the very least from the standpoint that they all seemed to protect their big moves pretty well while Angle's 2 big "finishers" the Angle Slam and the ankle lock have all been completely over exposed and killed off. It's difficult to even think of someone that Kurt Angle has wrestled in any kind of big match over the last...like, decade, that HASN'T kicked out of his Angle Slam or gotten out of the ankle lock.

What a good angle. I'm still mad in 2015 because here I was thinking I was about to discover a Nightmares match in 1990.

I think we are somewhere in mid-November of 1980 here as Les Thatcher & Charlie Platt run down today's card and we start off with the Southeastern Tag Team Champions Ron Bass & The Super Pro facing my man Charlie Cook & Charles Oden. Les continues talking about The Super Pro being Randy Rose. Well, there IS a rose on the side of his mask now so maybe Les is on to something. Les says that Bass & Super Pro have been defending the belts about 3 weeks now which I relate solely so I can come back to this later to try and put dates on these episodes. This is a pretty good little tag match with the old "strong jobber/weak jobber" formula where Charlie Cook gets to look good and get in offense while his partner Charles Oden pretty much just gets his ass kicked when he's in there. Randy Rose is also impressing me with some cool amateur stuff on the mat. Oden gets beat on for a while before finally making the hot tag to Charlie Cook. Cook comes in on fire and eventually we get all 4 guys in the ring and Ron Bass pinning Oden, who wasn't the legal man. COME ON REF! After commercials we come back to a promo hyping the card on November 24th in Birmingham, Alabama. Alabama Champion Bob Armstrong (who I am guessing won the tournament) vs. Killer Khan?? Damn I want to go...After that we get Les Thatcher at the desk with Robert Fuller & Jos LeDuc. Before he talks to them we get a video promo from Don Carson's Tag Team Championship team:The Super Pro & Ron Bass. Not too impressed by Don Carson on the stick. Robert Fuller has a very heavy mustache here that is amusing me. These guys didn't make me go buy a ticket to see their tag match. After the Robert Fuller/Jos LeDuc promo we cut to Charlie Platt standing with The Super Pro & Dennis Condrey. The Super Pro introduces us to his cousin, the former Georgia Heavyweight Champion, Dennis Condrey. Condrey isn't bad on the stick here although I've never really heard him talk too much. He is here to help his cousin take care of some "unfinished businesses." We go to the ring with Jerry Stubbs and it's announced that his scheduled opponent couldn't make it so now he's going to have to wrestle Norvel Austin. This does not please Jerry Stubbs at all. Norvel Austin hasn't ever really done anything for me but he is looking really good in this match. I guess that's the difference 4-5 years can make for a pro wrestler as most of the Norvel I've seen is from 84-85. This ends in a double countout after Stubbs throws Norvel out of the ring and tries to piledrive him on the floor but eats a backdrop instead. This seems like a pretty good pairing that I actually didn't expect anything out of going into the match. We're back from commercial with Les Thacher and it's time for the Personality Profile. This week it's Jos LeDuc & Bob Armstrong both of whom are going very orange for this occasion. They are talking about some of the different kinds of matches in pro wrestling such as Lumberjack matches and then Texas Death Matches. Bob cuts a good promo about the 8 Man, 4 on 4, Texas Death match. Unfortunately I still don't know who is going to be in it by the time it's over and we go to the next match. Dennis Condrey is making his in ring debut on Southeastern TV against some dude. Condrey is so fun to watch when he's doing a lot of takedowns and matwork to hurt a guy. Awww man! There's a cut in the tape and we don't get the end of that match as it goes straight to Mr. Wrestling II vs. Mike Masters (who I will continue to pretend is the father of Chris Masters) Les drops a line that he knew Mr. Wrestling II before he was II which I'm not sure was a good thing for him to say. The fun thing about commentary is you can usually tell which guys the announcers are marks for and Les seems to be a big one for Mr. Wrestling II. Oh, cool we don't get a finish to that match either. Damn it... We get a cut from the Mr. Wrestling II vs. Mike Masters match into a Don Carson promo with The Mongolian Stomper. Don Carson is like the most generic promo in the world almost to the point of feeling like someone doing a parody of a wrestling promo hitting every single one of the cliches. Wrestling II follows that up with a promo of his own and it's good and fiery. Which he finishes by breaking a wooden cane by bending it over the top of his head, telling Stomper to imagine it's his arm or his leg. I don't care what Parv says, Mr. Wrestling II is awesome. Well that appears to be all for this episode(s?) as the next cut in the tape takes us to Les & Charlie introducing us to another edition of Southeastern Championship Wrestling. There was some good stuff going on here but 2 of the matches being cut off on the tape was disappointing to me. Looking forward to seeing more of Dennis Condrey and would say the same for II but I know he only makes sporadic appearances in Southeastern. "That's what's gonna happen pal!"

Plus having the TV show on the RoH website isn't really doing ANYTHING to attract people who don't know what RoH is. You could at least catch some new eyes on something like Hulu.

How about some Nightmares action? https://youtu.be/-DhgmwLrnl8

This is by far my favorite Adrian Street match. This is just after he turned babyface in Continental. https://youtu.be/0oF0WcMU7TM

I don't understand it. There are a lot of things I used to enjoy as a child that I no longer enjoy today as a an adult. My past enjoyment of those things plays no role in how I currently view those things. Instead of complaining about them and bemoaning the fact that these things I once enjoyed used to be so much better, I don't watch/listen/participate in/play with or consume them any more. Is allegiance to WWE like an allegiance to a sports team for some people? Fans of the Cleveland Browns might do nothing but bitch and moan about how shitty their team is, but the Browns are still their team, dammit, and they still enjoy watching and supporting them, regardless of the misery that comes with it. That I can understand (even if I don't personally feel the same way about wrestling). Yea I don't really get the whole "I love WWF the most out of everything because I watched it growing up" thing. Well I did too but that doesn't mean I'd even consider for one single second watching an episode of the 1991 Superstars that I was watching when I was 7 years old over the 1981 Southeastern that I discovered 2 years ago. WWF is not some indelible part of my life and childhood. WRESTLING is though even if I happened to be introduced to it through WWF.

So who knew there was a wrestling match with a finishing stretch based around a used condom?: This Buxx Belmar guy certainly has his own style...

I don't know if that's entirely true. I was very fair about everything I watched in the ongoing (although very rarely updated atm) Southeastern/Continental thread. If the show isn't very interesting or the talent is weak I don't gloss over it. Parv is usually pretty honest about whatever old footage he is watching that he doesn't like. The thing about is that when watching the old footage, you just don't write that much about the bad stuff. It can mostly be summed up by "this guy sucked" or "that match sucked" or "_ is terrible on the mic" but there really isn't a lot to go on a rant about because eventually you know "well if I see Killer Brooks pop up I'm fast forwarding." In that same vein, no one is forcing modern fans to watch Kane matches and complain about them. Oh, btw I tried to watch some Bob Luce footage yesterday and WOW that guy is terrible. Maybe the worst I've ever heard. I stuck it out for Heenan's interactions with Little Bruiser but it's not something I could see watching a lot of unless I really really want to see that match. I imagine a 3 man booth of Bob Luce, James Blears & TNA era Mike Tenay would be the most effective audio torture device ever.