pantherwagner

The tape trading talk was incredible and it's fascinating hearing Jim talk about Japanese wrestling. I'm somewhat surprised that WWE hasn't thrown a huge pile of cash at him to buy and convert his tape collection. I'm sure that he could get some sort of deal where he could get digital copies of everything.

Some of Jerry Lawler's colorful combinations were terrible. He should have stuck to black, blue and darker colours. The entire Memphis wrestling roster ever wouldn't be too bad of an answer either. Goodhelmet often makes a point (which I agree with and that is still true today) that wrestling is always a few years behind the rest of the world when it comes to trends. Jarrett's promotions always seemed to be a few years behind the rest of wrestling when it comes to trends (fashion trends at least as they were very up to date when it came to musical choices for their videos). Somewhat in line with this topic: I have always wondered how some of the bigger wrestlers like Bossman always had a tidy outfit with those crazy late 80s schedules. You know he's going to sweat a whole lot during the match so he's got to wash, dry and iron your shirts every day or carry a fuckload of them and do laundry every few days. Austin has mentioned that he only had two pairs of trunks with him all the time and that he'd wash them every night but I also wonder if some of the wrestlers with more elaborate costumes had some sort of company laundry service.

I have watched a lot of the USWA on the WWE Network. The promotion is corny (even for 1990) and every wrestler seems to have ridiculous neon tights or trunks but the TV is fun and easy to watch if you do not take it too seriously. Ronnie P. Gossett is a national treasure. It's tremendous that he got away with calling the crowd cocksuckers (on the mic, no less) even if bleeped. In one of the first episodes he does a running lariat on a stunned Billy Joe Travis then he trips and falls because he's a fat fuck but he laughs through it and it's awesome. Wrestling needs more greasy fat boy managers cowardly attacking downed wrestlers with a running splash. I don't know why it's not done nowadays. A guy like him would get ridiculous heat somewhere like NXT or ROH.

Great episode and looking forward to part #2. I haven't seen the ENTIRE run like you guys have but considering what I have seen, it may be the best episodic television show for the stretch that it lasted. Only Mid South and WCW on TBS can compare but I have not seen those runs complete either. Memphis was very hit and miss and the studio wrestling wasn't generally as good. Dylan, you said that at one point it may have been the promotion with the best number of talkers per capita ever. How do you compare it to Crockett 85-86?

Isn't it one of those gimmicks that Vince saw as his brainchild and loved from day one? Sort of like The Million Dollar Man? I have never though much about it but I have always assumed that he loved the Undertaker from the day he debuted. As for Calaway the performer, I also suppose he fell in love at some point in 1994.

The same thing happens sometimes when they show clips of previous week (or the week before that) during the NWA WCW on TBS episodes currently on the network. The footage looks like an old school 3rd or 4th generation VHS, still good quality but kind of blurred.

Butch Cassidy, Haiti Kid, Lord Littlebrook, Karate Kid, Cowboy Lang, Little Louie, I guess you could say Littlebrook's troupe. I have never seen any of them in a good match but I usually skip them or stop paying attention. Actually the other day I saw a Stampede midgets mixed match with WWC's Barrabas and some other dude that was alright as comedy.

One of these things is not like the other things. I've seen a lot of good midget matches. Not so much on George Steele or Moolah matches. WWF midgets? Of course we are not talking about Espectrito or Damiancito el Guerrero here.

Pretty sure that they own the unprotected masters and, at an case, they should still possess the original footage. Most of the CHV were posted on Classics or 24/7. It would be a good Christmas present to have the Best of WWF series. "Best of the WWF" is potential false advertising as the tapes featured a lot of George Steele, Moolah and midgets. Enough little person wrestling that it makes you wonder if VKM himself had a hand on the match selection. However there were some great or rare bouts on these tapes such as the Paris 1987 matches (this tape wasn't actually on Classics as the original has got All Japan Women matches), Hogan defending the title vs Rude, Roberts/Duggan vs Andre/Rude, Adonis/Savage/Race vs Piper/JYD/Steamboat elimination, Hogan and Piper vs Race and Orndorff and plenty of other stuff with good workers like Tito, the Harts, Savage, etc.

I'm even more surprised that they don't promote this stuff with current and past subscribers. I have had two accounts as a few months ago I switched to a different address (after they figured out how to hike up my USD price because I am in the UK) so on their database I show up as a former subscriber. I haven't seen a single mention about the territory footage in either mailing list. This is stuff that WWE should know about me: I'm an over 30 male who has never watched a WWE Network PPV live (except for Wrestlemania... I fell asleep during the last part but they still don't have the technology to know THAT). I have not watched most of their B PPV's (live or on-demand) but I have watched every single major NXT show. I have not watched any Main Event or Superstars episode. I have maybe watched at most a dozen post-2010 Raws on the network and 0 Smackdown episodes. I have watched every pre-1992 show on the network (except for a handful of TNT), some of them several times. You'd think that the way to get me back on board wouldn't be an email saying that they miss me with a giant HDR photoshopped picture of Roman Reigns. Your Big Data is telling you quite clearly that, no, I do not give a single fuck about Roman Reigns. A picture of the Horsemen and Dusty telling me that, hey, we just uploaded 100 hours of NWA/WCW/TBS/Saturday Night, why don't you come back? Or a reminder that I used to like NXT, since you left all of these matches have happened, here's a highlight video of what you have missed. BTW I work in the data world and analysing all of these trends is super easy and you can bet that they are collecting all of this data, but they just like to compare themselves to Netflix without doing any of the actual behind the scenes work that Netflix does.

The Japanese freak show promotions (HERO's, DREAM, Bom-Ba-Ye, etc.) featured a lot of style vs style even well into the mid 00s. I'd recommend that you check out some of the New Year's Eve cards from back in the PRIDE/K-1 heyday as these were more about feuds, personalities, gimmicks and theatricals than about the actual fights.

That sucks - I started with the AWA stuff (no particular reason for it, really) and now I was making my way through Stampede but only got to catch three shows. I wonder if this has got anything to do with Bret Hart's ownership of matches featuring himself.

We are all cheering for you here buddy. You have a beautiful family that need you around for a long time.

I also assumed they did not buy it because I have not heard anything else about it (press release or otherwise). That's when they were apparently trying to buy stuff in Spanish to appeal to that "Latin" audience that in WWE terms means anybody that speaks Spanish. Maybe somebody told them that Mexicans won't give a shit about 80s Puerto Rican wrestling.

JYD looked fantastic dressing as a pimped up version of Black Caesar. You could see why Jake thought that he was something special.

There's also OVW. I'm surprised there hasn't been somewhat of a push for that considering that Cena, Batista, Brock and Orton were there in the early 00s. Sooner and later they will probably buy Memphis and WWC. I'm not sure what would they do with the latter, though.

Yeah at first sight I thought he was drunk, and he may have been, but the show is goofy as fuck by design. Did Verne just not give a shit? Or was he even paying attention? Rockers vs Orton and Adonis was a pretty good match. Rockers would were pretty good even if timing was off at times. Orton was tremendous and Adonis looked like absolute shit physically (his face looked rough) but bumped like a mofo. Orton was especially on fire at the end with the punches and elbows.

Pibe 10 was fine but for a while it was an internet legend/meme in Argentina that Pibe 10 died right there. Well, he could have. It's a brutal fall. This was the second Pibe 10, with the afro, that came out dancing with the little girls. The first one is the less cool looking one, even though he came out with the models. The first Pibe 10's real name is JOSE FERNANDEZ.

I had seen the first two episodes before. I'm not sure about the third, but I had never seen it myself.

My memory could be completely off but I think Dave mentioned something about Tiger Mask a few months ago. A logical choice would be Tenryu (former business partner, has been on Wrestlemania, etc.).

Yeah, I always thought that Arn was a Scandinavian name like Ole and Lars... uhhhh and not Gene, obviously.

Not to mention the lack of sensitivity when talking about somebody potentially going through something as complex as depression. Also, not to excuse Dave, he's not a racist or a misogynist, but sometimes his word choices are dubious. He'd really benefit from that step back from the bubble that Loss suggests.

They are not available on iPad or Apple TV either. Sometimes it takes a day or two for the folders to be updated across all devices.

It's almost like someone predicted that would happen... 1st time ever that we old school fans benefit from WWE's childish ways. They should upload a couple of months of Florida, Stampede, AWA and whatever else they have and see what moves the needle. I am personally looking forward to Stampede someday - it's such a completely different set of wrestlers compared to pretty much every other territory and there are a lot of random touring wrestlers. Where else can you see Kio Kawada (from Seoul) vs Canek? It's also a relatively undiscovered promotion. SMW was an odd choice, not that I am complaining. I'd even watch Global if they put it up. @Mike: They don't own Memphis so that won't go next. Ownership has been in legal limbo for years, Lawler has been trying to put everything together for a while to sell it to WWE.

We'll need our legal expert David Bixenspan here but I read somewhere that they are allowed to use the trademark now that Dale Gagner was exposed as a conman and beaten in court.