khawk20

Nice.

I got a bunch from Charles Warburton back in the day that were very nice quality-wise. Same with a couple of discs that Bob Barnett came up with a few years back. Barnett's stuff was more old film clips from what I remember, but very cool nonetheless.

My commentary was tongue in cheek. It has become apparent in reading people's thoughts on this set that the stock of the AWA has risen in the eyes of many, and that is a good thing.

I'll give this a listen soon but I'm kind afraid to. Nobody likes hearing criticism of their children no matter how many good things are said about them beforehand.

This is the 1977 Strongman contest that Patera was in. There are a bunch of parts to it. Not sure if watching it will help your context any further than what you already have from Kris (I haven't watched them myself but I did scroll in to see Patera is featured a few times). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7urTKKMsMD8 I'm still waiting for the results thread that was supposed to go up on S&W for Patera but nothing yet.

I'm assuming at this point, the answer to the question Loss asked to start the thread is a resounding "yes".

That's what I remember it being like.

I'd actually suggest finding some Meltzer 4 star matches first, and then go to the 5-star stuff, to see if you can notice a difference in the match quality, presentation, etc. Might be a different way to get a feel for Japanese wrestling. Just a suggestion.

Context. The former was a big part of the 80's push to be the main game. The later 90's and the WCW wars were different.

It becomes a valid point because Vince keeps forcing the issue. His failed forays into football, boxing PPV promotion, and bodybuilding (the key failures from "my" era of watching the WWF expand) make it easy to argue the "well, he's great at wrestling promoting but he sucks at the other stuff he wants to get into" point. I would guess he's gotten "better" at his outside-wrestling-endeavours (movies, for example) since he has the means to surround himself with people that actually know how to make forays into the field(s), but I can see how the idea of Vince's "Genius" is hampered by those excursions outside of the WWE's base product for some people. At the end of the day, for me, he cleaned out all his competition (some by his hand, some by the competition's own idiocy)...his genius is that he made himself the only real game in town, which allows him to pursue and succeed/fail in his other projects almost at his leisure. He has to get his due.

I was going to put this one in and didn't because of the same thing you said. Damn bookers.

"I had the idea for the first ____ match".

I'm not a fan of Matysik but the St. Louis stuff on video is pretty good in spots.

Be lucky that's the part of that rant that stuck with you, and not "Balls like Melons".

There are a good dozen discs available that Larry released some years back (at least I think Larry released them). There is some other tv available as well.

I still have my context write-ups for the AWA matches I posted at dvdvr somewhere. When I find them, I'll toss them up.

Martel vs. Bockwinkel from 1978 is good. Heenan is confined to a cage at ringside. There is a Bockwinkel vs. Tsuruta bout from 1979 that is also very good, and long. It just appeared on a Japan Classics show a while back. Interesting as Tsuruta/Tenryu and Baba all came over to the AWA for a few dates a few days before that (2/10/79 in Minny, Jumbo/Tenryu vs. High Flyers and Baba vs. Bock, plus Baba vs. Abby in Chicago the next night). They all ended up in Hawaii a few nights later. Not sure if Bock went to Japan with them afterwards or just came back to the AWA. I have a Buddy Rose vs. Billy Francis bout from the same time frame listed but I'd have to watch it again to see how good it is, or if it's complete before I could recommend it.

Amateur wrestler. He was a big enough deal when Verne signed him up that they put a match of his with Mad Dog Vachon in Chicago on ABC's Wide World of Sports. That was a pretty big deal back in the day. Taylor died around 1979. Billy Robinson was a close friend and came on TV after it happened to talk about him, and when the producer tried to cut him off due to time running out he almost lost his shit on him.

Whatever works for you.

Pinball, that's right. Went bananas in their community too and became an outcast.

Not really... doesn't strike me in that way. A real Psychologist would probably argue that Ric has been trying to kill himself for decades with his all-party, all-the-time lifestyle. Personally, I suspect he'll die in some sort of penis helicopter accident.

Those are the two biggest things that make Matysik unlistenable and unreadable for me at this point. Gary Cubeta was nuts, FWIW. He got clawmaster to send his results to him to use in the "booking sheet" interviews and got so demanding in trying to get them that claw basically had to cut him off (all of the booking sheet interviews are straight from Claw's results. Gary had little to zero knowledge about the things going on for someone in an area or a timeframe without them). He then went bananas and turned the entire Sports and Wrestling forum against him in record time. Further research on the guy showed a similar history on a video game board that he is/was right into. We should be happy he did so many interviews before losing his shit. I listened to a few of these back in the day and I liked Bob Barnett's interview about California wrestling quite a bit, much to my surprise.

There is part of a Bock title defense against Jim Brunzell on one of Cornette's garbage film discs, FWIW. I wouldn't be surprised if the date of the match was Oct. 14th in 1979.Or in that range .In the Crockett book they have a poster for the match with that date. Just an FYI. Thanks. I have no idea what the date range on those garbage tapes is...although I'm sure someone has put a list together of probable timeframe/dates somewhere.