sek69

It's just like when companies get flak for going after small companies that pose no threat to them. One of the points of copyright law is the owner has to go after any and all infringements lest they create the appearance of not protecting their property.

They can and probably will, ppvs on the network have the same rules against public viewing that regular ppvs had.

Eric was one of those "you had to be there" guys where there really was no reason he should have been over but he was. I do recall he was good at being the guy who takes a beating and never gives up, so there was that.

Also I think the Georgia Championship stuff must not be in good shape since I recall some DVD releases had GCW clips taken from YouTube.

What's really amazing is Adonis was the same weight he was when he left the WWF here in February 1988 and in the last matches he had in Japan in June he was doing the pre Adorable leather jacket gimmick looking nearly 100 pounds lighter.

I figured there had to be an edit, funny they just didn't dub it like everything else. Also I'm glad these shows are back since Big Daddy Ritter was such a great heel.

Did the Stampede show originally have no music in the opening credits, or was there an edit?

I realize steroids were legal then, but mentioning them usually not something done by the announcers.

Amazingly while typing that last post Joel just mentioned the Blade Runners' aggression being a "steroid effect" which just confirms my last two points.

It's funny watching rookie Rob Rechsteiner being referred by his last name constantly in one of the PPW shows and my brain thinking they're saying "Rick Steiner" over and over. Also, holy shit the Blade Runners were jacked even more than Sting and Warrior would be at any point after. Also x 2 man does Joel Watts suck on commentary. It's like if David Crockett took a Xanax.

Wonder what the deal was with Harley Race randomly showing up on the first NWA episode of 1986 scouting Magnum TA and never coming back.

Mid South episodes were never on Classics on Demand as best I recall, and neither were the AWA on ESPN shows. The only AWA tv that made it before were studio shows from the 70s.

Just watched the December episode of Mid South and nearly spit my drink seeing the next match coming up would be Ted DiBase vs young up and comer Shawn Michaels.

They've been adding more NWA episodes too, I hope they finally figured it out.

Knowing these were taped at like 10am Saturday makes everyone wearing sunglasses (and Arn's tinted eyeglasses) while doing promos that much funnier in retrospect.

I wonder if there's anything to the theory that the New Day are basically ribbing the creative team by doing everything you're not supposed to do in WWE. They play to the crowd, make eye contact with the camera, frequently seem to be ad-libbing (ie: Kofi during their country music skit saying "this isn't my character, I really think country sucks"), and Big E still using the Preacher voice from the original horrible version of the gimmick.

So tonight's NXT was all about how "WWE Corporate" wants Eva Marie to be the Women's champ and stacked the deck in her match vs Bayley, only to have her beat the odds and win. It was amazing to see, it's as if they're trolling WWE pushing Roman.

Perhaps I'm in the bubble here, but I wonder if the NWA Classics service might have poked someone in WWE to realize there's an audience out there willing to pay for classic stuff. You'd have to figure just dumping the already converted stuff would attract older fans to sign up, and any sub you get is basically free money without having to buy more libraries or pay to produce more shows.

Ratings do matter in the sense that USA likes to brag that they're the #1 cable network and WWE ratings were a large part of that. If WWE's ratings sag to the point where USA loses their bragging point, WWE loses a lot of steam when it comes time to the next renewal time.

Flair showed up for an interview later in the show with a t-shirt saying "I do it with FLAIR" in a font not unlike Charlotte's current merch.

Main event of the 1985 episode is pre-Horsemen Flair and the Andersons vs Terry Taylor, Ron Garvin, and Pez Whatley. Great stuff.

Yes, which is why it was so mind boggling it wasn't on the network.

Oh shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii...... That was my absolute favorite thing of the old VOD Classics, I still have the run they had there on DVD. From the relaunch after buying time back from WWF to right around the end of 1987. It was after the UWF buyout as Sting just started showing up when the service ended.

So it looks like standing pat with the same "champ is a toady for the Authority" story just earned them the lowest Raw ratings in 20 years. It's getting pretty amazing how completely paralyzed this company seems to be right now. It's like WWE is a turtle that someone flipped over and they are unable to get back up.

If he hasn't he should since they've done precisely jack shit with him. He must not have shook the right hands backstage since he went from getting hype videos to debut his character to becoming a jobber in record time.