gordi

SNME #4, from the Sun Dome in Tampa, Jan. '86 Cold Open: Hogan and Mean Gene sharing protein shakes. Hey, I drink protein shakes too! That Hogan isn't such a bad guy after all! Then: Piper and Jess making fun of the Hillbillies. They use OBSESSION by Animotion as the theme! Oh, yeah! #2 used, I believe "Take on Me" by, I believe, Aha. This will be a night of 80s music. OHMYGAWD! This is the show where Jesse gets in the ring! He makes a tremendous filthy joke in the promo for this, asking if (famous baseball announcer) would be wiling to "take a high hard one under the nose" from (Famous baseball pitcher). Jesse, Roddy, & Cowboy Bob vs The 'Billies. 8 straight minutes of pure character work. You can keep your "moves." THIS is pro wrestling. A masterclass in heeling it up. JYD vs Jimmy Hart in a Waterslide Challenge! That was sincerely more entertaining than the Greatest Royal Rumble. Jesse does a great heel call of then Jesse does a poolside interview with a barking-mad Terry Funk then they cut to Gorilla narrating a video of Funk attacking Hulk with the branding iron. Hogan's in light blue and red, with JYD. Funk has The Mouth in his corner, and Dog goes after Hart all match long. Mouth eventually hides under the ring. And: Holy Hell, this is a fantastic match. There's a Hulk-Up Spot, but otherwise they avoid the formula. They do one of the very best rope-running spots I have ever seen. Funk nails Hogan with the Piledriver. There is a great near-fall off of a branding iron spot. Hogan hits a sick Lariat (not an Axe Bomber). Hot Damn, brother! Savage vs Steele is just a set-up for the "Animal loves Liz" angle. Macho and Liz wear a stunning matching-cape-and-dress ensemble. The ref looks just like Dean Malenko. In fact, I think it is Dean Malenko. They run a 1985 highlight video set to "When the Going Gets Tough (The Tough Get Going)" by, I wanna say, Billy Ocean? It looks like a Kyle Mooney parody production. I think that I can identify exactly where every clip in the montage is from. They also play "Don't You Forget About Me" during a George Steele video clip... I wasn't kidding about the 80s music. I'm listening to Ultravox's "Vienna" as I type this up, to keep the mood going. Inspired by the Reagan/Gorbachev Geneva Summit, Nikolai Volkoff (with Freddie Blassie and The Iron Sheik) meets Corporal Kirchner in a "Peace Match." I am not making any of that up. It's a good scientific match until Volkoff cheats to win. (He barely cheated. He just didn't break clean at the ropes. But, it worked). Kirchenr gets revenge with a Double Noggin Knocker Also, Sheiky Baby calls Okerlund "Gene Mean" which is one of my favourite little things. Junkyard Dog & Ricky Steamboat vs Mr. Fuji & The Magnificent Muraco is the platonic ideal of a WWF-ified Southern Tag Match. JYD plays FiP. Steamboat gets the House Afire Hot Tag. Jesse gets in another sly filthy joke, saying that in Japan they even eat "raw dog." I wonder how many of those I missed back in the day.

Another top-to-bottom excellent card. John Nord's dark side coming out and Bigelow's surprise appearance were real highlights. Those two guys are going to get the opportunities they deserve in this version of the mid-80s.

Just watched SNME #2, from the Meadowlands, Aired October 5, '85, 2 days before my 20th birthday. I'll say: It held up better than I expected. An hour plus, with a lot of camp and no real fancy-dan wrestling... but the time just flew by. Did I enjoy myself more watching this or watching the Dominion Okada vs Omega Main Event (which I think was a legit masterpiece)? I enjoyed them both about equally, which means I enjoyed this particular nostalgia trip a lot. Opening match is Hogan (in all white) vs Volkoff. Pure jingoism. Among the most 1980s things possible. Crowd is so hawt for this. Are you not entertained? I unironically enjoyed all 5 minutes of this well-executed formula match. I think that I unironically hated hated hated Hogan shining his boots with the Russian flag and being all "You can't wave that flag here, this is the home of the FREE!" when I was almost 20, but today it cracked me up (perhaps ironically) I had totally forgotten that part of the build for Uncle Elmer's wedding was ARNOLD is in the crowd! (if you have to ask, "which Arnold..." I don't know what to say. Orndorff wedges in an awkward "skin diving for Roto Rooter" joke in his interview with Okerlund before the Piper match. They brawl very intensely (Heenan had a bounty out on #1derful). Eventually it goes out of the ring and the cameras follow them to the back. I clearly remember Piper locking himself in a room backstage and Orndorff hammering on the door. Cool moment. Like WWF's birthday present to me, back then. The wedding: Mean Gene on Organ. Captain Lou in a tuxedo. Hogan in a sleeveless tuxedo shirt. Andre in his red trunks! Jesse and Piper just on fire heeling it up. Jesse's iconic "two carp" line. Pigs and chickens at the reception. There is no more Monster Heel-looking team of Monster Heels than Bundy & Studd. They take out Tony Atlas and start double teaming Andre. Hogan runs in for the save to set up the next SNME. I am sure that 19.9945-year-old gordi unironically hated hated hated that as well. Hogan is supposed to be the good guy! Don't the fans understand that he's pulling a heel move here? (The fans do not understand. They are really happy that Hogan is running in, wearing his sleeveless tux shirt). My memories of watching this back then add a ton to my enjoyment of it now. Also: Andre really beats on Bundy for a bit in this one. That was also hilarious, in a schadenfreude way. Also also: The Meadowlands crowd was just great all night long. Really, really into everything. How spoiled are we now? So spoiled! The "main event" of the 2nd Main Event? It's a title defense! WWF Tag Team Champions he Dream Team (Brutus Beefcake and Greg Valentine) (with Johnny Valiant) defending against... OK, so I guess that Hogan vs Volkoff was the actual main event, but still: In the 80s that was what we got on rare special event TV shows! Not that I'm complaining, though. Enjoyed every second of the bout (all 210 of them). Then: The reception! Sooooo much cheesy WWF humour, so much genuine sentiment. That was a real wedding. He and Joyce stayed married until his death. Tiny Tim shows up to give them a ukelele. My mind is blown. I generally don't like to enjoy things ironically or to eat too many 'memberberries... but this was just what I needed today. Next up on autoplay is SNME #4. Hogan vs Funk! Damn. Might have to watch that one, too.

Pat Tanaka & The Razor Boys vs. Tom Zenk & Death Sentence was a really good lower-card six-man match. White is transforming... it's almost time! I don't know if that is where you are heading with this, but heel Jake vs face Nord would be one of those matches where the face can get sympathy despite his size advantage. Even more so if Jake brings back-up. It would also work if Jake played a "devil-on-his-shoulder" role with Nord, bringing out his dark side... which is perhaps what SirEd was hinting at. The Chris Adams story-line is pretty darned compelling. Nice main event. More pain and punishment await Big Dan in Japan!

The Creatchman Family vs the Rougeaus is a perfect feud because Creatchman can keep bringing in new and different challengers. It's not dissimilar from the Heenan Family vs Hogan, in that way. Just keeps renewing itself. That Borne promo was terrific. I'm very much excited to have Benoit coming over to Japan.

Oishinbo is a manga about Japanese food culture. There are 6 volumes translated into English and organized by topic: Sake; Fish, Sushi, & Sashimi; Izakaya: Pub Food; Vegetables; The Joy of Rice; Ramen & Gyoza; and Japanese Cuisine. That collection is my special treasure. I have learned so much from reading Oishinbo.

I use Fishman as part of the JWA roster, and I also had no idea he was ever a rudo.

Gran Hamada? I haven't seen a ton of Bolshoi but from what I have seen I always think of her as the Joshi version of Morton/Kikuchi/Yamazaki in that I think her best skill is bumping and selling to make other wrestlers look good. I'll pay more attention to her limb work next time I watch one of her matches.

Maximilian Payne is a great "York Foundation" type of name.

Did Terry Funk and Kerry Von Erich ever have a main event singles title match in real life? That seems like such a great and obvious match-up, but I don't think it ever happened. To me, that's still the best thing about this project: booking all those great dream matches that we missed out on in the 80s.

Kernodle, Smirnoff, and Sheik are such a classic heel trio. I never bought into Sarge teaming with "Mustafa" but I completely buy Kernodle in the "turncoat" role.

Did Dr. D PIN The Lariat?? Pirata Morgan vs Stan Lane is one of those "damn, that sounds great!" matches that you can only get right here in this reject. I'll bet Animal & Hawk were blown right up after that match.

Oh hell yeah. Steamboat vs Blackwell just jumped right over Dusty vs Hansen to become the match I am most excited to see.

I like the learned psychology in the Pillman vs Burke series.

Well... All respect to you for once again taking some shit I stirred up and finding a way to turn it into a challenge to your booking creativity.

Ravishing Ronald w/Bugs Bunny vs The Crusher.

Ha! Without thinking about it, I wore a light-purple t shirt when I went to watch the movie. A couple of people thought it was a low-key Thanos cosplay. In much the same way that I surprised myself by genuinely enjoying NJPW Dominion this year, I was surprised how much I enjoyed Infinity War. I guess my tolerance for spectacle is increasing. I was impressed with how they tied so many characters and stories together. I really enjoyed seeing different combinations of heroes bouncing off each other. I loved the sets and locations. I thought the ending had a perfect "big comic book event" feel. I'm really looking forward to the sequel (and the G-1)!

Vader & John Tenta vs Gary Albright & Kazuo Yamazaki (UWFi Kings Road 10/08/94) The nutshell version of the background for this match is: Albright was UWFi's top gaijin from near the beginning in '91, feuding with Takada. When Super Vader arrived, he supplanted Albright as the top gaijin and Albright was moved down the card. In 1994, UWFi held the "Best in the World" Tournament which Vader won by beating Takada in the finals. On the same night, Albright beat Kiyoshi Tamura to finish 3rd in the tournament. UWFi started to build toward a dream match between the two huge gaijin. This match is one of two between these teams, both of which drew a white-hot, sold-out crowd as part of that build. The characters: Vader: The UWFi Champion. An "unstoppable force" type of monster. Tenta: An "immovable object" type of monster. Albright: Against almost anyone else he'd be a monster himself, but in this case he's the scrappy underdog who has clawed his way back to the main event from the mid-card. Albright has the most legit background in amateur wrestling of anyone n this match, though Tenta was also no slouch in that department. Yamazaki: The ultimate scrappy underdog. The Ricky Morton or Tsuyoshi Kikuchi of shoot style pro wrestling. Why this match: cactus gave us Laughter7 bringing their beautiful shoot style into a pure pro wrestling promotion. This is Tenta & co bringing pro wrestling psychology and crowd work into a pure shoot style promotion. I don't want to give too much away, and I want to leave some stuff for other people to notice and write up, but: The crowd is rabid to see Vader vs Albright. Look at how they use that to draw heat. There is a moment here where Tenta perfectly illustrates how "no-selling" can work as a story-telling device. He uses it judiciously to get his character over. It's one of the many fine examples of pro wrestling psychology sprinkled throughout this match. Please enjoy one of my absolute favourite matches of all time: https://ok.ru/video/6876631535 (Actual match starts about 6 minutes in. Don't miss the crowd work at the very beginning).

That feels a little bit like "put the strap on Jinder before we go to India"-type thinking. Like they are worried that American NJPW fans might not care about a Main Event with a Japanese guy in it...

I would be really happy if this was the start of a pendulum swing back toward in-ring story-telling, psychology, and character work.

What a great heel move by Blackjack Mulligan, slapping the Claw on a downed man. Nice story-telling with the cut on the forehead opening up again leading to a come from behind babyface performance from Idol. Looks like we might be getting more out of Snuka vs Haku. I am in favour of that. I think kevin is right on the money w/r/t the finish of the main event.

So, extrapolating: