khawk20

I disagree in the sense they were able to perform many of the same moves that they did in their face personas, and have good back-and-forth matches with other wrestlers, like Bret Hart. Bravo could have wrestled more of his Montreal style if allowed, but with the additional bulk and a "World's Strongest Man" gimmick, I don't think it would have translated very well.

All were factors but most noticable to me was how the power version in the WWF seemed to have his offense dumbed down accordingly, which was probably a combination of the extra bulk and the determination from above on how he should wrestle (read: You're a power heel, punch, kick, stomp, that's about it). The old Bravo could have played a scientific-styled heel (akin to Hennig or Martel, for example) adequately. He was never as smooth as either of those two examples as a face...which I think was part of the reason for the shift to power heel.

The difference between his AWA time circa 1980 + his Montreal time vs. his WWF stint is night and day. Two completely different wrestlers.

It's taken me years of practice to get it down to a smirk.

re: Battleroyals: If you ever get a chance to check out some of the older AWA battleroyals, do so, they ran pretty long and had some cool spots in it. Often they went a good ten minutes before anyone even got eliminated. The Winnipeg ones pre-84 are worth checking out especially.

Guilty Pleasure: The Ultimate Warrior. Everything he did seemed to fulfill a wrestling wish I had right at that time, specifically ending HTM's IC title reign and pinning Hogan and taking the title from him clean. I was also pissed more than I should have been when Slaughter beat him for the title. Guilty Displeasure: I hated when Larry Zbyszko got the AWA title as it signified the true death toll for the AWA. Lawler leaving killed any chance they had of working something out with WCCW and the smaller promotions to stay alive as a competitive entity. Zbyszko was very "meh" as a worker compared to previous champs so, while a competent wrestler and great mic man, he represented the true "last gasp" of the AWA. Being a die-hard, I watched until the end and stayed invested in the product, but I hated that Larry was the only viable option as a champion and it made my self-imposed AWA fandom a difficult experience at best.

At the point Bravo and Bad News came in, it might have been more a case of Vince promising limited or no pinfall losses just to get them there and prevent them from going to WCW or anyone else they were looking to bury. The roster was big enough in the WWF at the time to have them float around the mid-card without losing via pin much, if at all. Duggan was stupidly over from the get-go as I remember, which definitely helped in his case.

I'm guessing that loss happened so Brody could get the Red River Jack masked gimmick going as that happened in or around that time frame.

Brody got pinned by Kabuki in Texas in either 1981 or early 1982. I think that was his last job before the Abby match which you speak of (which I don't remember seeing, was it filmed?)

That would reek of effort, though. I'm not sensing that much thought will be put into whatever sort of CRTC appeasement is deemed acceptable.

There was such a lack of International Montreal footage a decade ago that the rights holder at the time, Aaron Weiss, actually came to me for the matches I had taped off of TV when they aired and used some of it in his monthly PPV broadcasts. I'd like to think that some of the original tapes might have shown up since then, but I have my doubts. Gino Brito didn't apparently have any, and most of what is out there now besides what I had is from TV-taped sources. Good to watch, but probably not as good as they would like for showing on the network. Of course, they did air some Georgia snippets in the past on COD that were atrocious, which they apparently got from traders, so there is hope...

That could be the case, which will likely mean a whole lot of Stampede. Some AWA Winnipeg shows that aired on TSN might also make the grade to fill that void, but the whole ESPN/TSN footage that they aired thing confuses me. I assume the WWE can still show that stuff if they have it, and since ESPN has their AWA stuff from the showboat still, does that mean the WWE doesn't? Or is it a shared thing where they both have it and can both use it? One other thing that might pop up is the WWF on TSN, which ran a bunch back after the AWA stopped on that channel. The shows themselves are nothing to write home about, mostly compilation matches from their other main shows as I remember from seeing lists for dvds of it (I never saw the show when it aired as far as I can remember). If they have those, it's an easy add once it's cleaned up. Toronto and Hamilton house shows would probably also count towards filling the void in terms of Canadian content. ....I would have to look but I don't know the CRTC regulations regarding Canadian content in terms of what the percentage is anymore (I assume it is still intact as a broadcasting law). It used to be 30% way back. I can't see it being that high anymore but who knows?

Yes. Yes we did.

https://twitter.com/LAWradio/status/499237385352515584 https://twitter.com/LAWradio/status/499363708796428288 That's it? Yikes.

I think comparing AWA and WWWF shows in terms of how much each drew consistently is probably better suited to do on a percentage basis given the size of the venues is different. The AWA arenas of the 70's such as the Ampitheater in Chicago, Arena in Winnipeg and the Minneapolis Auditorium at maxed out at 10-11000. Milwaukee maxed out at 6112. There can't be a true numeric comparison to the larger venues of MSG, Boston, and Philly in terms of sheer asses in seats since the WWWF arenas generally seemed to be able to seat a lot more. EDIT: I did a brief bit of research and Milwaukee could also host cards in excess of 10,000 on occasion, so it's likely they used a smaller venue (the 6112 one) for most events and moved to the big one when warranted. Denver's Auditorium arena was noted on one card as having "a turnaway crowd of 8000+" which says to me that was the max at that particular venue.) Something else to consider in terms of the main base of the AWA, Minneapolis/St. Paul is that the AWA at times ran cards 3 weeks apart separately in each city. Eventually the St. Paul Civic Center became the main venue in the 80's, and it maxed out at around 16000. I would guess it is the biggest venue they ran regularly, and that really wasn't until the 80's as I recall. I would agree that the drawing base for the WWWF was far greater and the numbers they drew in their bigger venues bore that out from everything I have seen.