goc

I'm just gonna put this on hold a bit while I see if any more footage of 87 actually exists. I'd really like to get more footage because I know that Buddy Landel ends up taking over for Sullivan as the top heel and I REALLY want to see as much of that as I can. Plus I have 99 lucha matches to watch before October.

I'm kind of hesitant to start 1987 with so little footage. I only have 12 TV shows for the whole year. If the footage actually exists and someone has it, please help me out because this is all I have: 1/10, 1/17, 2/21, 2/28, 3/7, 3/14, 3/21, 3/28, 9/12, 10/17, 11/14 & 11/21

Les Thatcher is so under rated.

I would be careful of making the straight comparisons between Georgia TV and Mid-Atlantic because the Georgia stuff is heavily clipped up to only feature the best parts while it seems like you're watching full episodes of Mid-Atlantic.

I feel like this is the REAL argument against Andre. I think he had just as many tools but he was booked way differently than Vader. Andre wasn't booked as the top heel that everything was built around. Sometimes he would come in to work as a partner in a serious tag and have a chance to really do something and other times he'd just come in to do something silly like have tag matches with midgets. And he had far fewer opportunities to have a serious one on one match with a top talent than Vader did.

Somehow this damn song got into my head for no reason the other day. It just popped in there.

Argentina Rocca was a freaking Italian! Here I was getting ready to make a joke about how he wasn't from Parts Unknown but he wasn't from Argentina either!

But there's also a difference in "past his prime" Vader and fucking washed up falling down trying to get up the ring steps Vader. Just like there is a difference between "past his prime" Andre and washed up can't even do anything but stand on the apron and hold onto the ropes during the Colossal Connection team. There IS a difference between "past their prime" and washed up as I've learned lately watching Ivan Koloff in 1983 Georgia. I voted Andre. I've seen enough young Andre to make me think that if the amount of footage was equal that Andre would win this.

It seems that might actually be working though. I saw quite a bit of excitement over it on the 411mania comments section.

Japan in 72. So Andre was the foreign menace and Kobayashi is the conquering hero.

So Muta is supposed to wrestle a match tonight at the tapings. Also Ezekial Jackson and Gene Snitsky are backstage. I could actually really go for them adding Big Zeke to MVP's group. And apparently they are going to have Bound For Glory in Tokyo, Japan at Korakuen Hall.

To be honest I am surprised Josh lasted so long. It never felt like they actually liked him as an announcer and he really didn't add anything as a backstage interviewer or host of the Pre & Post shows.

It's somehow funnier in GIF form.

I have been watching a ton of wrestling lately. Georgia, SMW, random Memphis youtube stuff but no Continental. I'll fix that by knocking out the last show of 1986 and then I can say I've recapped what footage exists for the entire year. The date on this show is 12/20/86. As usual we start at the podium with Gordon telling us what we'll see on today's show. The lineup includes Tom Pritchard & Roy Lee Welch in a Texas Bullrope match and The Tennessee Stud & Robert Fuller against The New Guinea Headhunters. And the show is going to start off with the Texas Bull rope Match! Roy Lee Welch must have said that Kings trump Champions because he gets to come out second. The King of Wrasslin shouldn't have to subject himself to this type of barbarism but Tom Pritchard has a good beating coming to him so I suppose he must choose an appropriate match to punish the man. During the match Gordon lets us know that Kris Von Colt is being fined $1000 a day that he keeps the stolen Alabama Title. Well it's been at least a week since the last TV taping so he's probably already out the whole month's pay by now. Pritchard bleeds early and takes an ass kicking for most of the match. This is my favorite Pritchard match I've seen in Continental by far because all he does is bleed, sell and get his ass kicked. Welch is working really vicious in this match, lots of choking and cow bell shots. Pritchard makes a comeback and flips Welch over by pulling the rope between his legs. Pritchard is on his way to hitting the 4th corner when he Welch starts pulling on the rope. Welch's momentum ends up pushing them both into the 4th corner and the ref calls it a win for Tom Pritchard. Roy Lee rightfully is unhappy with this turn of events and begins a righteous beatdown on the false Jr. Heavyweight Champion. He ends up hitting a nasty snap mare with the rope around Pritchard's neck and then hangs him over the top rope until Adrian Street makes the save. I could get into a Street vs. Welch feud but I think the Rogers/Street feud ends up being never ending. We come back from commercial to Gordon hyping a big 12/30 card at the Lavender Coliseum with Steve Armstrong & Kevin Sullivan in a Loser Leaves Town match, Roy Lee Welch & Tom Pritchard in another Loser Leaves match, The Flame vs. The Bullet, Fuller & Stud vs The Headhunters in a Southern Street Fight, Adrian Street vs. Rip Rogers and The Nightmares vs. Jerry Stubbs & The Dirty White Boy. Damn, let's start a time machine road trip. The next match is a Southern Street fight between The Stud & Robert Fuller vs. The Headhunters. Is this the much hyped match? I thought Golden was in that one. This is an all out war from the bell. The crowd looks kind of depressingly small in certain camera shots. I don't want to do play by play so I'll just tell you there is a lot of clubbering and taking off boots & belts to use as weapons. And Gordon answering Kevin Sullivan's question about whether he likes watching this by saying "Well it's a little bit kinky right now."The Headhunters decide to just take off and leave so the ref counts them out. Pretty weak ass finish but this was a fun brawl for a few minutes. Sullivan amuses me as he can't even keep his own booking of New Guinea Headhunters straight saying this isn't how his men learned to fight in Samoa. After the match we get the dueling promos deal with Stud & Fuller in the ring and Sullivan & The Headhunters at the podium with Gordon. Sullivan says his men don't know about a Southern Street Fight but they know about violence. He reminds them what happened to Jimmy Golden & Robert Fuller's arm. Sullivan is going to take The Headhunters out behind a barn and teach them about a Southern Street Fight. Stud says that was just a taste of a Southern Street Fight for them because he didn't get to use his Ugly Stick. They are going to use boots, belts, casts everything they can on The Headhunters. The next match's jobber is Mike Fever and he has found a place in my heart by asking Scott Armstrong to announce him as being from "anywhere but Birmingham, Alabama." His opponent is Steve Armstrong who (SPOILER ALERT) I suspect is having his last televised match in Continental. To be honest with you guys I skipped through this match because I found Mike Fever to be far more interesting than Steve Armstrong. Steve isn't a bad wrestler but I just find him to be one of the most bland guys out there. After the match Gordon lets us know that in 1987 The Flame is coming back to Continental. Hey, whatever happened to Abdullah coming in? We see a replay of The Flame throwing an awesome fireball at The Bullet from December 1985. I thought I was done with the fireball gifs but they've sucked me back in! The Flame cuts a good promo about how his goal every time he's been here is to destroy Bob Armstrong. He says hate just eats at you like a cancer and that's the kind of hate he has for Bob Armstrong. Then we get some more promos from Steve Armstrong & Kevin Sullivan about their Loser Leaves Town match and The Bullet telling us that this is the biggest card he's ever been a part of. Gordon Solie acts like he just randomly sees Jimmy Golden walking around and calls him over to the podium. Jimmy has on an eye patch and says he just stopped by to see Stud & Robert. He talks about the condition of his eye and says he's almost healed. Gordon says he's looking forward to seeing him come back very soon and Jimmy Golden says that he's come to the conclusion that now that he has a daughter and as dangerous as wrestling is, he is going to retire. Gordon is in disbelief and then Kevin Sullivan comes out. He says that Golden was one of the greatest of all time and that if he had been with Sullivan it would have never happened. Then he jabs Golden in the eye and walks off as Gordon is disgusted. Golden sells the hell out of it and Cooley & Adrian Street come out to help Golden off the set. Then Cooley comes back and is a fucking prick as he begins his promo by letting us know that Golden shouldn't have even been out here and "it wasn't his time anyway." They show a replay of Colt's beatdown on Cooley last week with Cooley providing commentary. Cooley is going to make Colt pay for every drop of blood he spilled last week. Cooley cuts a rah rah USA promo that does nothing for me or seemingly the crowd. We go straight to the main event without entrances and it's The Nightmares vs. Jerry Stubbs & The Dirty White Boy. This has been a damn good show so far and I assume it's only going to end on a good note with this pair. Gordon annoys me in these Nightmare matches where he just calls them both "The Nightmare" during play by play. I just watched some DWB from SMW in 1993 and boy did time beat the shit out of him in the next 7 years. Ken Wayne is taking a beating and then they just cut to commercial with no warning. We come back to..Scott Armstrong announcing The Nightmares as the winners? WTF? They at least replay the finish of The Nightmares switching partners as Danny Davis is hurt outside the ring and Ken Wayne is checking on him but rolls in and plays dead as the ref is distracted. Wayne rolls up DWB as he turns around and The Nightmares win. Well now I can say that there WAS a match that finished during a commercial break and was shown on replay. How about that. The show ends with Stubbs & DWB complaining about those cheating Nightmares but it was a non title match and The Nightmares can't take the titles. Kris Von Colt is randomly in the ring with them and he starts going off about Cooley. Cooley charges the ring and attacks him. DWB & Stubbs stand back and watch for a bit before deciding to jump in and attack Cooley. The show ends with The Nightmares running down to help and an all out brawl. This was a disappointing main event but a pretty damn good show and a good end to a fine 1986 in Continental Championship Wrestling.

Trying to decide whether it's worth it to pull out the AWA extras disc and put that on youtube. Did it:

I wanted to say Lesnar but it felt like some people were just dismissing the entire idea of Andre being a good worker so I thought I'd defend him. If Lesnar had stayed in wrestling the past 10 years I think he'd probably be the default answer to this question by now.

It's kind of too bad Vince had to have that little "youth initiative" fit that took Finlay off of our TVs. It was right at the time where he could have been poised to have a really good feud with either Sheamus or Drew McIntyre. He still had a great run in WWE that no one ever expected, I felt like some of the stuff he did with Rey was MOTYC level work.

As far as recently goes, Daniel Bryan has been probably the best and Seth Rollins during the Shield's face run right behind him.

This is the only match I have left from the Andre pack I mentioned and it's already on youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOOyxdEHZKU This match is from 1972 and it's over 35 minutes long. This match displays that early in his career Andre had plenty of stamina, he could wrestle, he could sell, he was far more athletic and mobile than people think of when they think of old Andre in 1987.

I wish I still had the matches of Andre from Japan and Canada from the 70s that I got from a torrent like 3 or 4 years ago. Lots of rare stuff I had never seen before and Andre looked VERY athletic and agile very early in his career. It's unfair to do a straight comparison with Andre and Vader or any of the other popular big man names that might come up because most of Andre's easily accessible footage comes way after his prime while all of Vader's prime is what is going to be used for his argument and not any of the stuff he has done in the last decade.

It IS rather annoying that due to the editing we never find out what's in the box. Also sad that there is never any footage from the Omni match or televised confrontation between The Moondogs and The Samoans because I was getting rather excited by the build up. Into March of 1983 now and I will say that I agree with your assessment of Ivan Koloff. He has the best TV matches by far, and even though he looks past his prime even in early 83 he is still VERY good. It means he had to have been GREAT in the 70s and it's unfortunate he's more known on the internet today for his broken down days in the late 80s.

As a guy who was known a lot more as a singles wrestler, Rey Mysterio is always a great hot tag.

I like Bo Dallas and all but I'm very unhappy about this usage of Titus O'Neil.