khawk20

AWA context: Bockwinkel and Heenan brought a variation of the sleeper back from Japan to try and regain the AWA title from Bockwinkel after Verne got it back in 1980. There's an interview (is it on the set? I can't remember) with Bock and Heenan demonstrating the difference between Gagne's and Bock's. Bock's, of course, is portrayed as the non-choking one. If that question refers to some in-joke fro the watch party, then never mind.

Very true. If someone made an actual list of one-offs (or two-offs) that appeared in MSG in the 70's through early 1984 there would be a lot of great, great names on there.

In terms of Khan coming back to the WWF in 87? I think that's more a case of his previous history serving no purpose to bring to light. Bringing him in as "the guy that broke Andre's leg" wouldn't have been feasable given Andre was their top heel. Now, if they had brought Khan in as a face, they most certainly should have acknowledged he once broke Andre's leg. Instant program for both of them.

Rumour has it that Greg Gagne and Jim Brunzell wrestled Rick Steamboat and Jay Youngblood on a Japan tour back in the early 80's. I've never found proof that it actually did happen, but I'd like to imagine it did. Between 81 and 83, were those were probably the two teams that personified "Babyface" more than any others, and I think a match between them, in Japan, given the proper amount of time, would have been one for the ages.

I think the Von Erichs in MSG preceded expansion by quite a few years. I'm thinking Kerry and Kevin were in around 1980-81, for solo shots. The WWF did that quite a bit up until early 1984 or so. JJ Dillion's IC title match with Tito in early 84 might have been one of the last "random appearances" for a name guy from another area. I could be wrong, of course.

Martel talks about getting the title in his Shoot interview. He said he had a good offer from the WWF to come in and Verne, acting on the advice of Nick Bockwinkel, offered Rick the title to come in/stay in the AWA. Bockwinkel himself has said in many interviews that he pushed for Martel to get the belt. That gives me the impression that Verne saw what was going to happen with Hogan and wanted his own babyface champion. Martel was the best choice available and was an easy pick with Nick backing him for the spot. I think Bock-to Jumbo-to Martel was planned right from the get-go to allow for the "You never beat me for the title, Martel" Bockwinkel matches that occurred in the wake of Rick beating Jumbo. A lot of the fans would have expected Bock to get the belt back on that first go-around between the pair. After all, Bock had been champ for the better part of 9 years, so AWA fans were expecting that to have a good chance of continuing. Most interesting to me was Martel talking about how getting the AWA title was a big enough thing that he felt it was a huge career opportunity that he couldn't turn down. I think it illustrates how well thought of working in the AWA (lighter-than-average schedule, good pay) was at the time. BTW I've never put any stock in the Iron Sheik-getting-paid-off-by-Verne story. I would guess that Verne probably made some sort of wild statements like that to someone at his angriest when Hogan bailed and went to the WWF, but there was nothing behind them. I envision something like this happening: Verne: "Sonofabitch HOGAN! Goddamn McMahon! They want war, I'll give it to them! Maybe I'll start with getting Khorsow to fuck him up and come back here with their fucking belt!!" Greg: "Now Dad, really, that wouldn't work and would be bad for business on so many levels." Verne: "Ah shit, you're right, but dammit I wish I could pay Vaziri to fuck Hogan up!!!" **later** Greg, talking to Brunzell: "Dad was so pissed he almost called up Khorsow to break Hogan's leg. Said he'd bring him back here for big bucks as a Hogan-killer." Brunzell: "Really? Shit, he must've been pissed." **18 months later** Vaziri: "Goddamm Mr. Jim Brunzell, is-a so good to see you here with Sheiky again. No see you for so long. how is old Verne?" Brunzell: "Nice to see you, Khorsow. yeah, Verne is pissed at the world right now, with everyone leaving to come over here. Shit, he was gonna call you up and offer you megabucks to break Hogan's leg back in '84." *** ...and on it went, from there, through today.

Some areas didn't necessarily subscribe to this. The AWA, for example, had a history of using past feuds, angles, and events years later to fuel current storylines. I always like it because it made them seem like they were acknowledging fans that were die-hard for their particular product. There were likely other areas that called back to their past for the same reasons. The WWF "ignore everything but us" policy was so blanketing that I doubt they even bothered to think of how die-hards would perceive the process of treating them like idiots. Of course, they weren't interested in catering to those fans anyway, so it's a bit of a moot point. Anyhow, just a point...

Great callback on one of the first bizarre true crime stories I ever read about. Is McDonald still in jail? Has prevailing opinion ever swayed one way or another regarding his guilt or innocence? Don't mean to go OT, just got curious upon reading that name again.

I was watching the Boston Garden WWF show from 10/3/87 last night. Brady Boone vs. Jose Estrada comes on. I'm not expecting much but then out of nowhere BOOM! Estrada hits Boone with one of the best standing dropkicks I've ever seen, literally out of nowhere...the two had barely locked up at that point and the "feel out" process you expect has hardly begun. I can't recall being surprised by a move quite like that in some time. The fact that it was pretty much perfectly executed made it even better. One of the most random things I've ever seen in a WWF match.

Awesome.

Gold! Khawk, can you just post in every thread so I can see the cats and dogs more often. I'll try. Best part is the other cat sitting by the tire, who never moves throughout the whole fight and eventually gets up to move, like he's saying "fuck this, too noisy to sleep here".

Ok. I was curious if you'd seen him work in his prime and where you would have seen it as I don't think there is much out there.

Everything I've ever seen of Brown makes him a very good pick.

Gold!

Have you seen much of T-Bolt? Following your theme, what do you think of Rufus R. Jones?

If you can get your hands on it, the two had a much better match in the summer of 1984 in St. Louis.

I grabbed it from the "New Board Image" thread on Crush Kill Crush. No idea of it's origin. I try to check into that thread every few weeks because some of those guys are really adept and grabbing interesting and odd images.

Funny trend on the ClassicsonDemand AWA TV showings lately is including a JIP arena match from the Twin Cities at the very end of the show, before the credits role. Strange part of it is that the match they are including has been one that happened 2 or 3 months after the tv show airs. The latest example is Tito Santana vs. Sgt. Jacques Goulet airing on the 9/5/81 TV, when the match itself happened on 11/8/81. The same thing happened a few months ago with a Laurent Soucie match. I guess what this tells me is that they have worked quite a bit ahead in converting their AWA TV, and they feel the need to include a non-squash clip in the absence of the interviews that are not included on the TV shows.

Possibly. I really liked the Ivan match from memory, and, though I don't remember which Patterson match specifically that one is, I did like pretty much all of their matches that I did see, so I can see how that match could have got lost in the shuffle a little. I hope that when Backlund gets the HOF treatment on ClassicsonDemand, they pop out a "new" match or MSG card for us. I'd like to see one of the Maivia matches, or perhaps the Adonis rematch from MSG. Hell, even the first Snuka match where Backlund did the stretcher job would be a treat. Even a rematch from that 1978 Ivan match would be pretty sweet as I think the one you listed is the first of two at MSG. My fear is that Bob gets the "nobody really knows who he is, so roll out is best, already-prepared matches" treatment. I suspect that there is enough good Backlund stuff available that they probably don't have to dig deep....we can only hope they do.

I enjoyed this match a lot, I think partially because it seemed a little ragged in spots.

Think he went back to Montreal after the AWA title loss, almost exclusively. He was part of the ownership I think. He did have a non-title rematch in Quebec in the Spring of 86 with Hansen, which he won via pin, that was supposed to set up a title match. That match never happened as far as I know.

You must PM me highlights of this story sometime..I don't plan on getting this book. ...also Brody being the reason Wrestlerock drew well = lol. I don't think it even actually drew all that well, period, at the end of the day, to be honest. But that's neither here nor there....

Especially since he'd likely be hitting on the court stenographer while he was doing it.