khawk20

Not sure why but I thought this premiered on the 15th but it airs tonight on HBO Canada at 10 pm. Same in the U.S. I assume?

Exactly. At this point, it bothers me more that I know people that don't watch wrestling or know anything about it that will watch this and see the presentation of how things evolved and have no idea what the mistakes/falsehoods are. And though as non-fans they won't absorb it, when you hear the same narratives over and over... It's minor at this point in my own viewing, I know history is written by the victors. Hopefully it's not that bad.

TSN Wrestling featuring the AWA ran from the network debut in 1984 through early 1986. It was an exclusive show to that network, with about 90 percent of the matches being broadcast from the Winnipeg arena monthly card. Standard format was 1) arena match from the previous card, 2) classic match from the past (between 1980 and 1984, all form Winnipeg), 3) Main event match (again from previous card). After the AWA was forced out of Winnipeg the TSN show changed briefly to a WWF show out of the Winnipeg arena.I don't think it lasted long. The WWF only came a couple of times a year and could not have sustained original content like the AWA did. With Canadian Content rules in place that likely is how TSN moved forward...I believe Stampede came next. The local Winnipeg show ran arena clips from Winnipeg as well but may have started only in the middle of 1984, that is the earliest footage of the Winnipeg show I have been able to find outside of the TSN show. The arena clips on the local tv show were shown around the interviews and promoted the upcoming card. Their TV later was squash matches and the odd angle taped out of a local high school gym. They also would broadcast major angles from regular AWA TV but occasionally did their own thing. Larry Z turned on Bockwinkel in Winnipeg on a TV angle, for example, as opposed to the Atlantic city Nunchakus angle that the rest of the AWA saw. Pre-1984 Winnipeg TV footage is somewhat scarce (frustratingly, it's like nobody in that city owned a VCR before 1984) so if they may have with more of a regular AWA TV show before 1984, but Canadian Content rules might also have dictated they do more local things. TSN retaining the rights to the Winnipeg footage it showed is entirely possible but they seem to have no plans to use it. TSN is affiliated to a degree with ESPN so a similar agreement being in place could definitely be a thing. Hope that helps some. The TSN rights thing is definitely in play, not that it means much if they don't ever intend on using it.

He was but there has been nothing new uploaded for 5 months or so. He was putting it up in bunches for weeks. I assume he just ran out of footage he had grabbed himself to put up.

Thanks. The Tito-Bock match is fun, and fairly long for a JIP.

Nick what matches are those? youtube is blocked at work for me (annoying as HELL) so I can only see the dates. Thanks. I will update my Winnipeg spread sheet this weekend if I manage some time.

I do have a spreadsheet of everything that I found over the years from Winnipeg, but I have not updated it in a long time. More things have appeared in the last few years (The full Brunzell-Bockwinkel 60 minute draw from 81and A new Blackwell-Bravo match, for example). They seem to have recorded all their house show stuff from at least 1980, and used the bits and pieces from the arena in their TV back in the day (like St. Paul matches were used as arena bits on the Minnesota version of the TV). I had wondered if the Winnipeg stuff was held by TSN so the WWE would maybe not have had access to the footage the same as the rest of the library (or if TSN has rights to show it too). Flair-Bock only aired on TSN JIP but obviously they have the full match so that's one for sure I expect to see sometime. There is film of the High Flyers winning the tag titles in 1977 from Winnipeg so there should be stuff fomr the 70's around too...like Verne and Mad Dog winning the AWA tag titles in Winnipeg from Patterson and Stevens, for example. Lots of potential there. Would love to see a block of AWA Arena shows put out in a network drop (and I think that is more likely than the actual AWA TV being released in a drop at this point). The Matysik thing in the Andre-Bock match... I actually thought was Steve O on commentary for a long time on the JIP that has been out there (Steve O did do some while his wrist healed from surgery and they sound quite similar). If Larry is actually at the match pre or post, I have no idea why he was there. If it was a voice over, maybe it was something he grabbed from Verne to show on TV.

The partial is the only bit of that match that's ever been available.

The Ultimate Warrior-Papa Shango voodoo angle made me shut off wrestling for quite some time. I was embarassed to be a fan when that happened.

Wasent there some Raven/Goldberg match that was supposed to air but didnt. I dunno, was there? lol

Thanks Al, appreciated

Pat did still do some work in the AWA after that run and maybe a few other places. I imagine the context of turning into an agent was different before 84 and all that. Good on Vince for recognizing that Pat had some additional talents he could make work for the WWF as time went on.

Anyone that has read Pattersons' book seeing this might be able to provide some insight. I think the backstage transition was probably less thought out than that...his wrestling slowed down when the national jump started, really, so I would probably tie that sort of transition just kinda happened like it did with Strongbow, and just went in a different direction than that of a regular agent at the time.

There's a channel put up by someone named MikeMcgirkOff put up that has a lot of WWF material for viewing. It's not at Wrestling Collector level or anything (yet) but worth a look.

I do wish WWE would just put the whole thing on the network. NHB was advertised as a WWF PPV showing the Match and the Film so figured they must own the film. have you emailed the WWE and asked them about this? They might give you an answer.

Nobody has ever disputed Hogan-Andre was what drew people to the show. There can be a difference between the match that drew the crowd in and the match that was the best on the card. Bundy's perspective and the perspective of a fan are and should be decidedly different.