khawk20

the funny part is that it's a WWF match, and the WWF doesn't have it. Their own match! I knew about the GCW stuff, but that's a different animal since they acquired it.

Why buy a book that reads like a series of message board posts and bad news site reviews? It was a Christmas present. He has to read it or it's considered rude. Greg Valentine was always packaged as a remorseless killer-type. I though the did that as good as anyone.

Holy shit, now I'm laughing even harder...

lololololololololol

Bumping this as it got buried early...anyone have any ideas?

Is there any footage online of the "gimmick brawler and true powerhouse" 70s version of Steele that you would recommend? Sounds intriguing. There have been some 70's Steele bouts released on ClassicsonDemand on some of their older MSG shows. 6/30/73 I think was Steele vs. Morales. Steele was thought of far, far differently in the 70's as far as a WWWF heel, as Steven says. He still retained some of the cartoonish arm-waving at certain points of a match, but he was overall presented like a real monster heel.

Has anyone ever traced back/figured out who the first user of the "Cobra Clutch" was? Vachon was using it as AWA Champion in 1966 and I doubt he invented it.

I'm pretty sure there is lots more 80's footage available if that's what you mean. Is there? I may be wrong, but it seems like there's a lot of 70s Florida out there relative to other territories, and that there are footage gaps in the 80s. Maybe it's all relative -- there's less 80s available than for a lot of groups, and more 70s available than for a lot of groups. The impression I get from a quick glance of my own lists shows a lot more 80's stuff than 70's, with things like Turnbuckle Memories and Mike Graham's infomercial Classics show being a mix of both with an edge to 80's material. Relative to other territories, Florida does seem to hold it's own and then some in terms of 70's footage. This is just going by my lists, of course, but I don't think I'm missing much Florida material.

I'm pretty sure there is lots more 80's footage available if that's what you mean.

Parts of Kunze's tape lists still exist online, FWIW. Only place I've ever seen a listing for video of an April 1984 tag tourney press conference, featuring Brody-Hansen at the PC along with Greg Gagne and Jim Brunzell (they wrestled each other in that tourney).

Robert, along with Johnny Rougeau, are two other iconic Canadian stars but unfortunately there is little to any footage availabe of them.

I think Carpentier was born in France, which, if true, DQ's him by definition. On Watson, you are bang-on. Older folks that watched wrestling in his time frame will tell you he was the best "when it wasn't all bullshit", as they are fond to say. It's probably the ultimate compliment that can be paid by that set, if you think about it.

Watch the Rick Martel-Boris Zurkov cage match from Winnipeg and check out John Ferguson (former NHL hockey goon) as the guest referee, then get back to me about Kiniski. There is probably enough Bravo footage to check out that will help your assessment from the "work" standpoint, but probably not enough of Vachons. Depends on how much you think you need to see of his 50's-70's work. There is some, but not a ton. Mad Dog is such an Icon in Canada that to me the list just seems wrong without him on it. If you didn't grow up around the Canadian wrestling culture, you might not feel the same way, which is understandable. I'm not sure how much Patterson is out there pre-WWF 79, off the top of my head.

I'm pretty sure Martel was still tied in/part owner of the Montreal office at the time, and his departure from the AWA allowed him to go back and be a top guy in that area, so moving to Crockett probably wasn't in the cards from his perspective. I have no idea if Crockett made any overtures to bring him in. Once the writing was on the wall for Montreal would have been when Martel moved to the WWF and formed the Can-Am Connection with Zenk. I'll have to look but the details (and, whether I'm anywhere near correct) will be in the Mad Dog/Screwjobs book. I may have absorbed that from skimming a part of that book...either that or I'm remembering some semblance of that conversation from his shoot interview some time back. Or, I could be talking out my ass, but I don't think I am...this time.

That match is available, FWIW.

He was always thought of as a good wrestler but the questions more revolved around how he compared to Flair and Hogan, who were larger-than-life in the role of World Champion. That clouded how some viewed him and his reign at the time. Most started to pay more attention to his reign when Bockwinkel didn't get the title back within a few months and it appeared he was going to be around to stay as champ for a bit. At that point, he began getting booked against guys like Jim Garvin and later Michael Hayes. Both were solid challengers to Martel and they had good quality programs, but both guys giving Martel trouble (winning non-title matches, "winning" the title with help or an object and having the decision reversed later, before Martel getting a win in the blowoff, as examples) took away from Martel's reign some as well. Backlund was booked similarly with the WWF but it worked to enhance Backlund's reign rather than detract from it. Backlund slayed more monsters, if that makes sense. Looking back at his opponents over the course of his title reign, you see a lot of guys that were not thought to be "serious" title contenders anywhere else until they met Martel. Garvin, Hayes, Zbyszko (a mid-carder in the AWA from 84 through probably mid-86), Mr. Saito (primarily a tag team guy), King Tonga and Boris Zurkov come to mind. The programs were much better IMO with Martel struggling some with each of them, but nobody thought that any of those wrestlers would be a quality challenger to either Flair or Hogan in that time frame. I don't think Martel being booked to dominate them in a one-and-out fashion would have helped and the AWA certainly did not have enough wrestlers on board to make that feasable anyway in terms of booking their Champ. It's much easier to look back on Martel's reign with appreciation for the matches and programs he was in than it was to appreciate them at the time.

Just hang onto your bill, there's a website that will ask for proof of purchase for them to send you the ereader version. Hopefully this offer is good with all copies of the book, not just a special offer from Amazon. If it's sitting on the shelves in bookstores, you should be able to check easily.

...also Coach John Heath makes the majority of pro wrestling announcers that people rag on seem awesome in comparison. He was awful.

I have a fair bit of that "set" that I've accumulated over the years. VQ ranges up and down on what I have, no idea if this set is an improvement. The bulk of what I have is 80's material so there isn't a ton of Brisco on it from what I remember. I especially like the drama that played out surrounding Dusty Rhodes' first title win in 1979 over Race, with Terry Funk interfering and breaking Dusty's arm prior to the rematch, setting up their war in that area. There is a studio segment where Jos Leduc comes out because Dusty is taking his interview time while they review the film and Dusty loses his shit and lays him out, followed by a freak-out Promo. Also Dusty, despite having his arm broken by Funk before the rematch, loses the title when he flips Race over the top rope due to the NWA adding the stip that if Dusty is DQed he loses the title. A broken arm (which Dusty sells completely during the entire match) was not enough of an excuse for him to lsoe the title back to Race, believe it or not. I always remember that one when peolpe talk about other wrestlers losing titles in screwjob finishes that stand up. Rhodes first NWA title loss is easily the worst.

I'm a huge Vachon mark so I'm biased, but his body of work over 36 years to me speaks for itself and puts him into the top ten pretty easily.

My kids are pretty rotten so I'd be fine with that. They are also full-grown and very large so good luck. I will try at some point to get in on one of these...I don't think tonight will be an option but I'll see.

When you get the book, on the inside are instructions on how to get it on Kindle for free, as long as it wasn't a limited time offer. I got mine on Amazon so maybe it was an exclusive to them, but if not, you can have both.

I remember us getting that show. It appeared very randomly and then it was gone. I wondered if they were trying to get a live show here but once it fell apart they just stopped showing the TVs here.

He has more Winnipeg stuff from that era, the local tapings and interviews, but he has no time to convert more of the tapes. He would not sell them to me. It took about three-four months for me to cajole this stuff out of him. I'm watching it right now and it's fun. All the interviews surround the previous Winnipeg arena show and the upcoming Winnipeg show. The note he sent said was that this stuff begins at the very first tv taping they did at the Norberry Auditorium, as opposed to their other venue (Not sure where that was, it may have been the same Minneapolis studio stuff we saw on the Minny tv, no idea) that they used previously. The tv matches are really short squashes, but there are tons of interviews, and some arena matches. They are showing the Martel-Bock 8/16 title match from the arena as I type this. Nice to see the post-match promos after it setting it up from karbo, Bock, and Heenan..with more to come to set up their 9/20 rematch, I'm sure. Lots of fun. **EDIT**--Heenan just said Blackjack Lanza looked like that mule that pulls the milk wagon. I love this stuff. **DOUBLE EDIT**--same promo, Heenan's in a lather and says "The Fabs look like they fell off a wedding cake from San Francisco". lolololol