Loss

I should be past this, but I stopped listening to Grilling JR when he started criticizing some stuff he seemed to genuinely like at the time he was calling it. I realize that being an announcer is a job, and that wrestling is a work, but when I hear him talk about how he didn't think doing a match was that good of an idea after saying on commentary that he was so excited to see it, it's a little bit too much peeling back the curtain. It's weird how I've never had that feeling otherwise. I always want to know more. But JR is different because an announcer has a certain credibility with the viewer, especially when it's someone who has called so many matches that I have enjoyed. So when I hear that he really didn't like something all that much that he sure seemed to love when he was calling it is far more business exposing in a negative way than just about anything I can think of. Shoot interviews don't make me feel dumb for caring, but that sure does.

I think every match in his Fidel Castro gimmick has been worked that way. I can't remember last time I saw one that wasn't that way, in fact.

A thread about Buddy Landell. Click through for the rest.

For what it's worth, nearly everything about WM XIV seemed constructed for first-time viewers.

Sami Zayn's working style is not like that at all now, of course. He's one of the best "character" workers in WWE, in terms of mixing in a lot of personality and aiming to have the right match for the moment moreso than the most exciting one each time out.

It is, indeed, when she was just a local Chicago figure.

Click through for more.

Some interesting talk on the Stick To Wrestling podcast recently about Ric Flair prior to the formation of the Four Horsemen that really rings true going through footage. He was not really a heel before that. He wasn't quite a babyface either, but in JCP, he was probably closer to that. The brilliance of how Flair was pushed in the early 80s was that he was presented as being above the face-heel fray. That meant he feuded with people on both sides, and emphasized the tendencies in his personality that would get the feud over at that moment. The most important thing was that he was being himself and there was an internal consistency to it. That's also how he was introduced on TBS in 1981. He was above the fray. When it made sense, they would emphasize the more heelish traits in his personality. One of my all-time favorite things in a wrestling vignette was the Solie line when they showed him on his private jet: "Despite the current recession, Ric Flair *always* travels first class." It was meant to anger people, but without him having to do some caricatured promo he would become more famous for later, about living in the biggest house in the best neighborhood. Apparently, some longtime fans weren't thrilled about Flair going full-on heel because it felt out of character, and things like making out with the mannequin and doing more overtly heelish things were frustrating to them because Flair's persona was that he was the smooth, well-dressed class act who was full of himself but also very easy to like. The Horsemen did big business, but it's very easy to see an argument that Flair lost something when he became a heel just like the other heels and abandoned the subtlety in his act.

It was a bad match, but I'd personally move it to the other column anyway, solely because it was to this point Undertaker's best built WM program and the finish was what it needed to be. Not remotely a good match, but it hit the parts people cared about at the time. I wouldn't say that for anything else to this point except the Diesel match.

Everyone (not directed to anyone in particular), can we not do this in my first thread back? This is why I wasn't up to posting for a long time.

How perfect is it that the Wrestlemania main event is about to start, and everyone is ready to lock up, then Bret comes out to whine about life?

I don't want to moralize. That's definitely not the entirety of the point. Even if they were all upstanding citizens who volunteered in their communities and fed the needy on their days off, it feels wrong framing discussions about wrestling around the messenger (the wrestler) instead of the message (the match). That's what I mean. There are wrestlers where it's tougher to set it aside than others, but the bigger issue is that I have far less issue commodifying work than commodifying people, if that makes any sense at all. If I ran a fast food restaurant, instead of Employee of the Month, we'd have a Drive-Thru Experience of the Month.

This is a good thread to see if anyone in the world knows the story of announcers calling Ted DiBiase "Ted DiBi-OSS". I asked Dave about it and he had no explanation. Fair or not, I hold a grudge against Larry Matysik over this.

There is also a late 60s JWA match where he is pretty great, although I realize that's an exception to how he normally works. I like Scicluna going for the heat. He has little credibility, so he cheats.

The story here is that he asked for entrance music and was told no. Only top guys got entrance music at that time. So on his own, he decided to give himself music and started just carrying the boombox out with a microphone held up to it to play his song. It clicked!

I think they realized they had to do more on TV. Even if you're getting squashed, if you're booked to go 7-10 minutes, as was often the chase, you have to be able to mix it up some.

And with that, I'm caught up on everything so far. Will post new stuff as I think/find it in real time from here forward.

New Japan was really reeling after everyone bolted with Choshu to AJPW or left to form the UWF. They also lost some Hogan access as his popularity continued to soar stateside. That meant they were having to use foreigners like Hacksaw Higgins and Billy Jack Haynes as headliners. Brody jumping came at a great time for them and the reception he got when he showed up in the audience was massive. But Brody wouldn't last because of conflicts with NJ talent. The story of NJ from 1984-1989 or so is a company that keeps hitting major (major) and mostly self-inflicted bumps in the road and then getting extremely lucky by having something fall in their lap. Almost an annual event. So when NTV aired All Japan Classics, they cut a lot of Choshu and Tenryu footage because of bitter feelings over how they left AJPW. Just imagine if NJPW had cut everyone out who had ever screwed them over. Classics would have just been Fujinami matches.

Randy Savage was just incredible in 1983-1985 Memphis, and they understood every bit as well how to get the most out of him and book him the right way as the WWF. However, Savage had to move on. He was meant to be a gigantic superstar for the masses, not a cult favorite.

-- Was excited to come across a Tito Santana vs Jesse Ventura match because it means maybe Tito got at least some measure of revenge for Jesse always mocking his first name. -- The footage of Gorilla Monsoon and the WWF logo at the Techwood Drive studio doing a TBS show with the same World Championship Wrestling music is still jarring and surreal over 35 years later. -- Tux Newman is just an amazing manager in 1985 Memphis. Worked his ass off in every segment and could cut one incredible promo. He didn't last, though. The Jimmy Hart void was just really, really hard to fill. -- Barry Windham and Mike Rotunda really did get a monster push in 1985 WWF, didn't they?