khawk20

He had a decent little feud with Crusher Blackwell in 81 that I thought would push him to the next level, but he really didn't do much in the immediate afterburn of that feud. His tv match with Bockwinkel in 83 and subsequent title match in St. Paul were decent, but not the kind that would elevate him to the status of being a legit draw. The Blackwell feud, for example, ended with Hogan making the save in their blowoff after Brad beat Blackwell. This segued into Blackwell-Hogan matches. Fast forward to Rheingans-Zurkov around 85-86, and Rheingans gets saved from Zurkov by Sgt. Slaughter. Rheingans never really did the saving and sort of got left to fend for himself a lot. Funny enough, he would probably have had a decent series with Hennig in 87-88 but it was right around then that Vince picked him up to be a JTTS-type for several months. By that point it really was too late for Brad to get to the next level, and given the pay in the AWA was quite low at that point, the jump was all about money. Brad did come back when Vince was done with him. Verne was in no position to hold a grudge by then.

Aaron Weiss has sold his wrestling footage. If you don't know who Aaron is, the article explains. http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Wrestling/2012/08/08/20078746.html I'd love to know what the Corino incident mentioned in it was all about.

I disagree because Patera as a face always seemed so forced. The man was a natural heel to me. As a face in the WWF in the later 80's and in the AWA in 89-90, I never got past the sense that he was about to Pearl harbour his tag partners and friends at any given moment...and even if there was nothing going on to foreshadow that happening, it would have still worked because Ken seemed like such a vile motherfucker that he could switch back at any time. Patera vs. Rheingans I don't think would have worked because I've never seen Rheingans as having any sort of drawing potential. Patera vs. Sarge in the same setting, for sure. Patera's stuff with the Sheiks is great but you have to ignore Kaissie's insistence that Patera be called by his new name "Lawrence of Arabia", and the AWA announcers actually trying to do that on house shows. Yikes.

Yeah, the ratings number was all that I had. You adding the actual numbers is a nice addition to it, though.

This flies in the face of everything I have read on that segment from people that watched it, on every site I've visited. Are Keller, Dave et al on that different of a planet than the rest of you when it comes to watching this stuff? (I cannot offer a personal opinion on whether it did suck or not since I did not see it. It seems to be getting universally panned with the exception of the sheet guys and the odd poster here and there). FWIW The RAW Rating this week was 2.8. Pretty low.

Patera's run from Jan-May of 1980 main eventing aginst Patterson and Backlund at MSG are some of my favourite WWF matches ever. Overall Patera has always been one of the most believable heels I've ever come across because he has the "bullying prick" schtick perfected, even in his interview style. I get the impression that it's a general reflection of his true personality in real life, which is why it looks so natural on him. His time as a face, however, always looked incredibly forced and out-of-place to me. It was rumoured that Patera was going to get the Blackwell face role in the AWA in 1984 (apparently it was extremely close to going that way). I'm glad it happened as it did as Patera in the Blackwell role vs. Sheik and his army I think would not have worked at all. I just don't see how Patera could have been successfully cast as a babyface, even against those guys. I thought his face time in the WWF in later years was awful. DiBiase is a little easier to think of as a face sicne my first exposure to him was as a face in the late 70's. He was so good as a heel in Georgia a little later that it made you wonder how he was ever a fan favourite, period. DiBiase was another natural heel, imo. They'd have made a helluva tag team in the early 80's.

I always got the impression that he was missing more than just a finger...more like most/all of them except for the thumb. I could be wrong, but yeah, you get the gist of it. Iron Duke was sort of in the same mold as other wrestlers that did refereeing early in their careers, they didn't try to hide the fact that they were wrestlers.

You did notice why he's called "The Iron Duke" right? Some people miss it sometimes. Rooster Griffith was also a manager for Bruiser's WWA in the early 80's. Not a great one, but he was a regular part of that version of the WWA at the same time he was jobbing for Verne. I always found that funny.

I'm getting behind on reading the comments on DVDVR as I keep getting an "IPS Driver Error" when I try to log in. Only been able to get on a couple of times in the last several days.

This just came available on dvd a short time ago. It had previously only been available for viewing on megaupload.

He did defend in Hawaii, several times. Two on tape are vs. Jumbo in February 1979 and against Martel in 1978. Bock defended the title in Georgia, too, FWIW. What will hurt Bock in comparing him to Flair and others is the lack of available "in context" interviews to wrap around a period or a set of matches of his one might be viewing. Part of the package is how well you build yourself and your upcoming matches. Where everyone has access to tons of Flair interviews, by comparison there are limited amounts available for Nick pre-1984. As someone who saw tons of them, it hurts his stock there isn't more available.

I believe you are correct.

Nice to hear from Jose and always a bonus when he returns with CONTENT.

When I first saw this match, I thought this would have been a really good AWA Main Event in the era with Curt as Champ, if Brunzell had stuck around.

I think this is the first taping, courtesy of Clawmaster's AWA Results: 9/18/84 Memphis, TN @ Mid South Coliseum Pro Wrestling USA TV taping the Rock N Roll Express: Robert Gibson & Ricky Morton beat the Nightmares Tony Atlas & Butch Reed beat Kurt Von Hess & Keith Robertson Road Warriors beat Ken Raper & Mark Regan Mr. Saito beat Tracey Smothers Nick Bockwinkel beat Lanny Poffo Jerry the King Lawler & Tommy Rich beat Dirty White Boys AWA Champion Rick Martel beat Eddie Gilbert Fabulous Ones beat the Masked Spoiler & Phil Hickerson Road Warriors beat Tracey Smothers & Keith Eric Jerry Lawler & Tommy Rich beat the Nightmares Superstar Billy Graham beat Ken Raper Mr. Saito beat Craig Carson Harley Race beat Dutch Mantel Fabulous Ones beat the Nightmares Superstar Billy Graham beat Craig Carson Dory Funk Jr beat Dutch Mantel Mr. Saito beat Keith Eric Rick Martel beat the Masked Spoiler Tony Atlas & Butch Reed beat Dirty White Boys Tony Atlas & Butch Reed beat the Masked Spoiler & Keith Roberson Road Warriors beat Ken Raper & Craig Carson Jerry Lawler beat Eddie Gilbert Harley Race & Dory Funk Jr beat Tracey Smothers & Mark Regan Larry Zbyszko beat Keith Eric Rock N Roll Express beat Phil Hickerson & Lanny Poffo Also on hand: Bob Backlund, Terry Funk, Sheik Adnan El-Kaissey Attendance: 3000 I believe the first PWUSA show is labelled as October 10-ish, from memory. Maybe you saw a promo hyping the Memphis tv taping date?

Ok. In the Mid-Eighties Polynesian Pro Wrestling was aired on Saturday nights on the cable channel that was there to see the Stock Market Ticker and they'd put on any old thing behind that. I remember seeing Flair vs. Siva Afi in a big main event, Lawler heeling it up in a promo, and lots of Lars Anderson. It didn't last long and they re-ran a lot of shows, but I'd imagine SOMEONE taped these. I have definitely seen footage of Hawaii floating around with the stock market ticker running at the bottom. There is a bunch available. I'll throw some match listings up in the trading forum for anyone curious.

I'm not sure but if it was Rodger Kent that is a huge surprise since he never worked in the NWA insofar as I am aware.

A quick check showed me at least one match is available. No idea without watching it again if it's clip or a full match. Dylan did a Blackwell for HOF-style thread not too long ago so that thread should be around somewhere close.