khawk20

A sad day but one that, with Mad Dog's rapidly declining health, was coming sooner than later. RIP to a real icon from my childhood. It makes me happy that his family has a video record of his life story to show future generations. KanadianKrusty noted the signifigance of Vachon's death here in Canada, and I would suspect that many Canadian news outlets on every level will have a little something about his death to mention, especially in Quebec.

With reference to Trongard, are you sure you're not confusing the words "boring" and "bad" here? Even if Tronny's calls in Vegas were shitty (and a lot of them were), I don't think "boring" applies. Same with the awful Lord Blears on colour. Donna's segments, well...boring might be too kind. The AWA answer to this is probably Lee Marshall, but he was so fucking awful I can't tell if he was boring and bad, or just one of them.

Are we looking at a situation where their On Demand Channel goes dark without something launching at least close to that date to "replace" it? Alternately, would they keep On Demand active if the February-ish target gets delayed for an amount of time longer than expected?

Jos Leduc and Terry Funk in the summer/fall of 1979, off of his 4 day title reign over Harley.

A lot of VHS tapes were really expensive in the 80s. I think the movie studios priced them out of the market intentionally so they could make their money through the video rental stores. Correct; most VHS releases were "priced for rental." At $59.95 and later $39.95 they were actually pretty cheap, Hollywood movies were closer to $89.95. yep I can remember my cousin getting Back to the Future on VHS in I guess 86 or 87 and it cost like 90 dollars. Unreal And with inflation, VHS tapes cost even more. My parents got me "Ringmasters--The Great American Bash" on vhs for Christmas the year it came out. It cost them a ton. PLUS it had to be shipped to Canada which probably also cost a ton. Keep in mind that for me, making minimum wage at the time meant 4 dollars an hour, so there was no way I would even have been able to afford it myself. Remember that the technology of actually being able to record shows on a vhs machine was still relatively new in terms of the masses being able to afford the technology, and even then, vhs machines were around the $400 mark, a significant reduction in price from the $1000 that the original top-loading vcrs that became more available to people in or around 1979-80. All "newer" technology goes through a similar arc even today, but now the price points don't take several years to come down to a reasonable level. Most things get near an affordable level after a year (taking credit out of the equation, I mean, which makes everyone able to afford everything if they're willing to go into debt for lengthy periods). I'll stop now, this is one of those things I can reminisce about for a long time to the interest of nobody but myself.

Mad Dog Vachon. Every promo he laid out made you think he had murder on his mind, even the funny ones later on. He had the ability to change his facial expression slightly to go from standard scary promo guy to "Holy fuck he's going to kill that guy" in an instant, usually when walking off the set at the conclusion of the promo.

Would giving Orton a mouthpiece have helped? Adonis could talk and I think could have souped up his ring presence somehow to "fit the mold", if he needed to.

Strictly faces, all four of them. I spent too much time watching him as a face to have been able to make that leap. I was actually pissed when he did turn heel...seemed wrong somehow.

Maybe the first part of this would be better off discussed somewhere else on the board? Just askin'...

Anyone think Cowboy Bob Orton would have worked? What about an "in better shape" Adrian Adonis?

For me, the problem with that Martel argument is that I never, ever could envision him in ANY sort of a heel role before he turned in the WWF so many years later. How many others that mattered wouldn't have been able to see it either? He seemed soooooooooo entrenched as a babyface throughout the 80's. To me, at least. It did work when he eventually did turn and he was good at it. In 1981 I don't know it would have worked the same way for him.

(I feel dirty after writing that)

The Crusher was a huge draw for the AWA, but by the time 1981 hit he was mostly lousy in the ring given his advanced age and lack of mobility. He had a compelling series in late 1979-early 1980 with Bockwinkel, but after that, not much in-ring goodness to justify the mind-numbing pops he used to get wherever he wrestled right up into 1984-85. Anything less than a full-out brawl that he was involved with mostly wasn't good.

Maybe they come up with a monetary offer that Nick Bockwinkel couldn't refuse, no matter the evil of the travel schedule as he saw it compared to Harley's salary?

Jack Brisco vs. Bobby Heenan? Fuck, that must have been hillarious.

People your own age, I assume? Amongst friends our own age group, I imagine we all have quotes and bits from movies and TV that pop up like that. There are a couple of us that hang out here that pull Simpsons quotes from 20 years ago (literally) out all the time like that. Not many get them aside from us, but we don't care. The odd person out of our age range that does is a pleasant surprise. Heartening, too, for that matter.

I know one of them did but I couldn't remember which one.

He reminds you of Johnny Sorrow? Both make one think of glass tabletops and the Rock 'n' Roll Express losing their lunch. Altered for clarity.

But does a hot crowd enhance your enjoyment? It does for me. I think if the combatants have a hot crowd it could enhance their own performance through the adrenaline of realizing that what they are doing has connected with the people they are wrestling in front of. As such, the two entities (wrestlers having the match and the crowd watching it) feed off of each other.

Nicely done. Thank you for doing this.