khawk20

The one pisser about those commercial tapes is on the Butchermania one, as there is an Abdullah-Kareem Muhammad chain match on it. That match was taped from the same card that Flair defended the NWA title against Rick Martel (45 minute draw). They got a big crowd as you can see with one crowd-pan they do during the Abby match. The pisser is that the Flair-Martel match was not taped. I mean, WTF??? On the other comms it depends on what one would define as remarkable. The TV stuff (with some handheld action mixed in) had some interesting matchups. These are the ones I found particularly interesting. Most but not all of them are clipped, and most of these I had not seen before I got these tapes. Rick Martel vs Abdullah The Butcher (w/Eddie Creatchman) (2 bouts) (Martel Bodyslams Abdullah Clean in BOTH matches. Crusher Blackwell interferes in the second bout) Dino Bravo & Rick Martel vs Masked Superstar & King Tonga Contract Signing: for Dino Bravo vs Rick Martel Dino Bravo vs Rick Martel (Quebec City, Verne Gagne in Martel’s corner, Gino Brito in Bravo’s) Dino Bravo vs Masked Superstar ( 3 matches between 6 & 23 /8/83 ) Dino Bravo vs Abdullah The Butcher (from Montreal—NOT the Japan Bloodbath) Dino Bravo vs Jimmy Snuka (Snuka is a heel brought in and managed by Lord Al Hayes…Snuka turns on Hayes and Billy Robinson after the bout) Joe Leduc & Mighty Igor vs Masked Superstar & King Tonga Joe Leduc vs. Masked Superstar (Quebec) Dino Bravo & Joe Leduc vs King Tonga & Masked Superstar Dino Bravo & Rick Martel vs. King Tonga & Masked Superstar (Montreal Forum) Dino Bravo & Billy Robinson vs King Tonga & Abdullah the Butcher Dino Bravo vs King Tonga (Montreal Forum) Rick Martel (AWA Champion) vs. King Tonga (Montreal Forum) (beginning slightly clipped..14+ minutes of action shown) Rick Martel vs Michael Hayes (Quebec City) Video and highlights: Sgt. Slaughter vs. Samu (From Quebec) Rick Martel vs Ric Flair Tokyo Japan (This aired in early 1986…I didn’t think this aired even in part anywhere outside of Japan in this time frame. This was aired promoting Flair vs. Martel at the Forum in Montreal which happened in mid-1986) Zenk & Road Warriors vs Steve Strong & The Long Riders (Clips from Quebec) Doctor D David Shultz vs Hercules Ayala (Montreal, International Title match) Doctor D David Shultz vs Hercules Ayala (rematch for International title. 6 minutes of action) The same guy also released 30 minutes of filmed match clips from 1972-73 in Montreal.

FWIW a lot of footage has made it out there in the past decade, although not pristine in quality. There were several Montreal commercial tapes put out back in the day and a guy found a shitload of TV from the early 80's he released a few years back as well. The older content on that tape is Grand Prix TV footage that was rescued from an Ontario TV studio back in the late 90's. It floated around for some time and the quality was quite nice, depending on who you got it from. I would be curious to know if the footage they have, while seemingly the same, is closer to the actual source tapes.

Aaron Weiss was his name and yes, he was the guy than ran the PWS PPV's some years back. He has since sold his rights to various areas he had them for to different parties but I think I remember Scott D'amore bought some and the guys that did the Montreal book (Laprade and Hebert) bought some. Aaron is out of wrestling completely now.

With 70's WWWF ones you would need someone that was a staple of the area to give insight into a whole year, and that would probably disqualify a lot of the heels that came in and out most years to challenge Bruno. Just guessing without cross-referencing, mind you, perhaps a few of the heels that challenged Bruno actually stuck around for a full year with their "Before Bruno and After Bruno" portions tacked on.

It seems to me that there could potentially be a few possibilities. KC has worked with Martel, Zybyszko, Animal, Greg Gagne, and Janetty. Unless travel is a big issue, then I don't see why they couldn't do something with the Clawmaster. Yeah, I'd be curious to know if they think an AWA TImeline would make them some money. They haven't really delved into areas like the AWA or some of the older Territories, have they? The more niche areas might be challenging in that regard.

If the wrestler is interesting to listen to, and knows how to tell the story with some flow, it's a good thing. I watched the Sabu timeline last week and I found his storytelling ability to be lacking in comparision to most of the others I've watched, and I didn't enjoy it nearly as much as a result. I wish, wish WISH that the Timeline concept had been around when more AWA guys were alive or able to talk about stuff as presented in these shoots. Too late for most of them. Going back to listen or watch the other guys do them (which I do for dvd projects or reference points on occasion when I'm working on AWA stuff) is the shits since KC came along.

I used to love watching Beefcake wrestle when I was a kid. Not so much keen on his run in WCW when he was a heel in the DOD but never found the guy boring. Suprised he never went higher up than he did. I don't know how much higher he could have went in the WWF, to be honest. He often seemed to slot in as the face that if you beat, it meant you were a somebody...thes step before Hogan, Ulty, and the rest of the guys at the very top. A run as a tag champ and partner of Hogan's with IC title chases added in and he did pretty well, all things considered. I was never a fan of his but I didn't hate him. He was given a good spot and didn't fuck it up, which is good on him.

For those that might not know, Rockrims is one of the most knowledgable California Wrestling historians around and his contributions here will be very valuable in this area and many others. Rockrims has also put together an excellent Ron Starr dvd compilation that anyone wanting to really reasearch his candidacy here should take a look at. Welcome and thanks.

As a Canadian, I can say I've never heardof them where I live...but it's a step in the right direction, anyway. More will surely follow. Let's hope when Bell picks it up Rogers doesn't screw them into having to charge $20 a month for it.

If it's the same version I have, I've estimated we're only missing a couple of minutes from the beginning of the match but I don't believe it's ever aired "complete".

Gagne-Brunzell vs. Martel and Santana, first match (7/18/82). We've only ever seen 8 minutes of that 28 minute match. (This was the one before the Dropkick of Death rematch), and what we saw was an all-action scientific tour-de-force. Seconded on the rest of the AWA material, so many good matches clipped like that. I've always tried to be happy that any of it survived and was saved, even that it aired on the tv shows back in the day....but yeah, it's frustrating to think about.

Dave pimped Curt as probably the best AWA worker in 1984 FWIW, so he was on Dave's radar for some time.

My journey is pretty long and will require me more writing than I have time to do right now. It began officially in around 1978, but evidence presented to me suggests my initial attraction began around 1971-72. In either case, the AWA was central at the beginning of the journey, and continues to be to a point even today. More later if I have time. EDIT: I'm 45.

Scott Rexsteiner beating The Great Wojo for the WWA title in his debut match was, even on a scale as small as the WWA was at the time, a huge "WTF!?!?!" moment. Wojo was a long-reigning champ, and losing his title like that was pretty unthinkable. Otto Wanz beating Bockwinkel for the AWA title in 1982 was equally as "WTF', especially at the time when nobody knew the behind the scenes stuff that allowed that to happen. Hell, Jumbo beating Bock for the title in Japan was pretty much an out-of-left-field upset as well, even though Jumbo was a known entity by then. Kenny Jay and George Gadaski winning two straight falls from Ventura and Adonis in December 1981 on AWA TV was an eye-opener, until you figured out via the mags a month later that their loss and subsequent tantrum (which led to being suspended from the AWA) was done because they were heading to the WWF.

Offensive is a term that can be used many ways. I was offended at the Ultimate Warrior-Papa Shango voodoo angle because it insulted my intelligence more than I thought Wrestling could possibly do, and that in itself had mostly to do with my inability to "suspend disbelief" (tired old term, I know) during it. I mean, I could play along in my head with a ton of stuff (you have to with wrestling, of course), but I couldn't with that and it offended me that they came up with something so lame I felt stupid for watching it. So I stopped.

RIP to Roger. Had a great voice for the singular calls they used to do in the arena back then, on all those JIP matches from St. Paul that used to appear on the TV show. Like him or not, if you grew up watching him you think of him pretty quickly when thinking of a particular tv or arena match you recall fondly.

Wrestler: "You're all nerds!" Audience: "He's right! We ARE all nerds!!" **audience begins cheering him wildly** I'd have them introduce a guy who's schtick was just completely horrible, something extremely out of touch with the fan base, from costume to wrestling style, and then have the guy fluke out wins over literally everyone. Sorta Honky-Tonk-Man-ish.