JerryvonKramer

You know I've been thinking of Chad and I maybe one day going back over the early shows just because we both know so much more now than when we first started out. There's a huge difference between how I'd view a guy like Johnny Weaver now and how I did in 2012.

Did Link and Kamala make a single legitimate tag during this? lol Haven't seen, but I imagine there's a team who don't understand what a tag is.

Was just listening to Grimmas's thanksgiving show and there was a consensus between he and Tim L that Sasha and Bayley was the clear MotY. Grimmas also said it was almost certainly a lock for his top 100 all time matches. Earlier this year, I did my top 100 all time matches and the most recent match on that list was Roman vs. Brock, which I think is easily one of the best WM matches ever. For me, Sasha vs. Bayley was not even in the same ball park and this contest is a no brainer. For Grimmas and Tim, it seems like Brock vs. Roman was not even in consideration for MOTY. I am interested to know where people fall on this.

Try the matches from 1982 I reviewed here: http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/19186-harley-race/?p=5680924 Vs. Flair, vs. Jumbo and vs. Kerry von Erich. All were from after he'd lost the NWA belt. While still not exactly an "ass kicker", he worked a lot stronger than he typically did as travelling champ.

Also, bloody hell, look at that DiBiase bump at 0:50!!

What the fuck, I just played that video and after 36 seconds it says "PARV BLOWS SHEEP". I am really tired, had a long day and was zoning out, and thought I was going out of my mind so rewound it, but ... there it is. WTF?!!

I thought that Blanchard worked with Boesch in the early 80s and that Gary Hart is a part of those cards.

Hi Lee, I remeber when we had you on WTBBP back in February 2013. Time flies doesn't it! Ep #36: Wrestlewar 89 if anyone is interested, Jason Mann was on that show too. I'm just interested in how many of those house show matches made Colusieum Home Video? Can you remember how exactly Savage vs. Santana, Savage vs. Steamboat, and Savage vs. DiBiase were packaged? I remember a lot of the DiBiase feud was on the Macho Madness tape, but I don't think they had any of the Philly ones (for example). But did they bung them on a Best of WWF Volume or something like that? Sorry, still a CHV tape nerd and that sort of stuff fascinates me.

Anyone who is a UK wrestling fan should have a soft spot for the 88 one, mainly because of this: Nostalgia

I think he does more matwork in the 80s than a stereotyped or charicatured view of him might assume. He can be quite methodical. Certainly I do not think it is true to say he just guzzled opponents through unfocused brawling.

I might do a show just looking at that one series, because I really do think it gets a bad rap based primarily on the disappointing WM4 match. I am kind of interested in running through the MSG, Philly and Boston legs. In my mind it is one of the greatest in-ring feuds of 1980s WWF, but it is basically under-sold and under-loved by a lot of fans. Might have to be a solo one though cos I don't know who would want to sit through a dozen or so matches with me. If there's any takers, send me a PM.

Hi Bruce, I am a huge Ted DiBiase mark, do you have any more tasty looking Ted matches from the 80s stuff?

Diving into more of the awesome uploader's footage. Not entirely sure what has and hasn't been floating around before, but I'm going to watch stuff I've not seen before. Dory Funk Jr vs. Stan Hansen (11/28/83) Terry and Brody a seconds outside the ring. I'm wondering if there's a slim chance of Dory actually eating a pinfall here, let's see. With the two guys outside, probably a fuck finish. If you look at Dory here squaring up against Hansen, you can see he's actually a pretty big guy. And he's carrying some weight here in 83. Hansen works a headlock and arm bar to start. This is maybe one Matt D should watch since it is a more technical Hansen we are seeing. Dory hits his cross cross forearm smash before being cut off by a knee lift. Snap mare by Hansen and a chinlock. Uppercuts by Dory. Jumping knee by Hansen. Dory powers out of a piledriver. Snapmare by him now. Nose swivel. Headlock. Back suplex by Hansen out of that. Dropkick by Hansen. Forearm smash by Dory. Headbutt by Hansen. Bodyslam. Misses a knee drop. Spinning toe hold! Spinning toe hold! Hansen escapes. Dory targets the leg now. Outside the ring. This is heading for a double count out. And of the very very lazy variety. This was an extremely pedestrian match with both guys in real auto pilot mode. Not a lot to see here other than to provide Matt D of an example of Hansen working with a more technical opponent who he doesn't guzzle. ** Dory Funk Jr vs. Super Destroyer (12/25/82) Poor old Dunk must have spent the Xmas of 82 in Japan. Gets a good reaction from the crowd. Super Destroyer works over the arm to start. Eventually Dory takes over on the leg. Couple of spinning toe holds. Destroyer tries a waist lock. Suplex by Dory before a flash pin after a piledriver reversal into a sunset flip. Dory wins a plaque of some sort after the match. Nothing-y little match, your basic AJPW competitive semi-squash. ** Dory Funk Jr vs. Harley Race (??/71) This is not the match from Kansas, 5/24/73 that I reviewed in the Harley thread (which had commentary), but silent film footage from St. Louis two years earlier. For St. Louis in 1971 this looks a hell of a lot more wild than you might imagine. While it is clipped to shreds, this is a glimpse at a Dory NWA title defense and Harley takes an awful lot of the match with Dory taking a lot of bombs. Harley takes the first fall, Dory completely destroys his leg with the spinning toe hold in fall two. Harley knocks himself out on the railings with a missed move off the apron to lose by count out. Glad I checked this out. Wish we could have a match like this in full, it looked like it rocked. Dory Funk Jr vs. Dick Steinborn (??/69) I think this is from Big Time Wrestling. This was just as Dory became NWA champ. A lot of chain wrestling here. And kip ups. Black and white. Funny, during this the commentator calls Terry Funk "the forgotten man of wrestling". The pace is really fast and not what you'd expect from the stereotypical wrestling of this era, it's very quick, agile chain wrestling. Moments of explosion. Dory wins with a backslide. Pretty good little match. Dory very cleancut and babyface champ here. *** Dory Funk Jr vs. Johnny Weaver (1/26/73) This is from the garbage tapes. Another NWA title defence. High hopes for this as Weaver has looked good on so,e of this stuff. He works a grinding headlock on the champ. The ring is just stinking. More headlock from Weaver, but a good one. Dory escapes with a shinbreaker. Back suplex. Arm bar. Arm over the top rope. He's starting to play dirty now. Weaver comes back. Dory bails. Forearm smashes by him now. Pushes the ref. Eats a boot. Weaver attacks. Escape with feet on the ropes. Both men over the top. Forearm smash off the apron. Snapmare back in. European uppercut. Abdominal stretch. Weaver says no. Crowd is hot. Still this abdominal stretch. Weaver eventually hip tosses out of it. Butterfly suplex by Dory. Cover gets two only. Back slide by Dory. Weaver escapes. Big bump in the corner by Dory. Weaver coming back strong now. Arm bar. Uppercuts by Dory. Weaver lands on him going for a vertical suplex. Collision spot. Cover by Weaver gets two only. Both men down. Sadly we don't get a finish. But the ten minutes we got of this was awesome. This was Dory as travelling champ against a local face, and this match looked terrific. I was properly invested in it by the time the footage ran out. The garbage tapes are awesome, love the feel of watching them with the crowd and no commentary. Dory Funk Jr and Kerry von Erich vs. Jim Brunzell and Greg Gagne (4/24/84) Let's head back to Japan for this last match. This caught my eye for just looking flat out weird. When did Dory ever tag with Kerry? And against ... The High Flyers? It's strange ... Dory was tagging with Baba mostly around this time and they were working a feud against Hansen and Brody. In fact, when this match took place, Dory and Baba were tag champs and they dropped the straps the very next night! Baba must have had the night off or had business to attend to or whatever. Of course, Dory had tagged before with a von Erich: David in Florida circa 81-2. High Flyers work over Dory to start with a head scissors. First Brunzell then Gagne. Dory bridges out after about five minutes into a Texas cloverleaf of sorts. Catches Gagne and sits him on the top rope. Headlock. This has been slow going. Criss cross. Dory says something to Kerry but doesn't tag out. Criss cross again. Kerry switches in. Hammerlock sequence now. Arm wrench by Kerry into a chinlock now. Back to the hammerlock, Brunzell has switched in. Knee drop from the top by Greg onto Kerry's leg. Dory back in. High flyers still dominating. Brunzell locks on the figure four. Dory struggles free but they've really cut this ring off and isolated his leg. It's kind of strange seeing Brunzell and Gagne working as de facto heels like this. Eventually Dory gets the tag to Kerry after this long FIP sequence. He goes for the claw but it is blocked. High Flyers have dominated this match. Dory back in. Couple of nearfalls, Greg comes off the top with a flying cross body but the momentum takes him over for Dory to pick up what pin. This is a really weird match that has High Flyers on top for basically 95% of the running time. No idea why it took place, and it is unlike any other Dory tag I can recall seeing. I don't think it is a great match and was slow going in parts, but as a total curiosity piece, it is worth a look. **1/2

Give me some lead in matches for it. I'll happily review.

This is a birthday present of sorts for Grimmas, who requested my view on this match: Necro Butcher vs. Samoa Joe (6/11/05) Commentary is risible so I am going to have to ignore it, I believe it is Dave Prazak and CM Punk. This is taking place in Philly for IWA-MS. Stiff brawling to start. Joe kicks the crap out of Butcher sitting in the chair. Really stiff headbutts, and Joe's head is so hard Butcher catches colour from it. Power slam onto Butcher's forehead on the concrete (?!). Knee lift. This has been brutal. Butcher has a lot of blood. A lot of shout outs to Rob Naylor from announce team. Butcher goes and gets some guard rail and throws it at Joe. Senton onto the rail, I might have to mute the commentator, STFU already! Slam off the apron by Joe. Butcher has a lot of blood, crowd with holy shit chants. Prazak might be my all-time least favourite announcer. Butcher a bloody mess. Powerbomb by Joe onto the guard rail, German onto a chair. Joe with stiff chops, knee strikes. Massive, sick knee lift. Kick. The blood is almost congealing here, like an 80s horror film directed by Sam Raimi. Post-match, Joe goes for a pot shot. Butcher is enraged. Joe runs off. It's over after 12 mins? Video is 30 mins ... I have a feeling this isn't over. Oh it is. They just replay the whole match. Okay, well I'll watch it again writing up my thoughts. This had some massive high spots, the kick and headbutt sequence outside was sick and brutal, the slam by Joe onto the floor was sick, the slam by Joe off the apron was also a sick spot, as well as the powerbomb onto the guard rail and German into the chair. And the way the blood was almost curdling at the finish was grissly as fuck. This is a brutal match and a spectacle of violence, and if you look at what they do is more brutal than the high end brawls I have ranked up in my top 100 (Tully vs Magnum, Funks vs. Abby and Sheik, Slaughter vs. Iron Sheik and so on). And this, unfortunately, is where context comes into play. It's impossible to ignore a self-aware smart Philly crowd baying for blood and wanting to be seen baying for blood. It's impossible to ignore also the abysmal commentary, I was trying to tune both things out, but the context is a part of the match whether we like it or not. And that context changes the nature of the match: it does not leave you with the impression that you've just seen a blood-soaked hate-filled brawl -- well at least it didn't leave me feeling that way -- it left me feeling that Butcher was proud to have bled for this crowd and that he was soaking up the adulation at the end. It cheapened the violence and although the spots are sick and brutal enough still to resonate beyond that, the self-awareness of the spectacle breaks the immersion and suspension of disbelief almost totally for me. Where we see Magnum vs. Tully end with the arrogant heel reduced and humiliated, or Funks vs. Abby & Sheik '78 with Dory totally losing it to the red mist and Sheik broken in body and spirit, or any of the other brawls I have at 5-star or 4.75 which have that little something to push them over the edge, here we just get violence for its own sake. Joe wins and leaves. Butcher sticks around covered in blood and soaking up holy shit chants from a cult of smart fans. The first two examples approach being as profound as wrestling can get for me, this one is more like an exploitation horror film playing to a little indie cinema of horror nerds. It is brutal for sure, but it is also cheap, nasty and sleazy and is ... both aware of this and celebrates itself for it. So essentially it is damaged by context and what I perceive to be post-modern inauthenticity ... Did I enjoy it? Fuck yes, I did. But I can't give it more than the rating I'm about to drop for all of the above. That said, some of the sickest spots I've ever seen. Butcher is just mental, dude must have a death wish and Joe is one of the all-time great offensive workers. ****1/2

One annoying AJPW trope from the 1970s and early 80s is the way they tumble outside for the double co and brawl finish as if by rote. The transition into that is often sudden and not very well done. It's not the finish that is the problem, but the execution.

Just 15 mins into this, and honestly am more excited about khawk being on that if Kris had booked Melzter himself to do this show.

Is the DiBiase vs. Magnum match from a couple of days ago the same as the one where they worked the two shots in one day? (other one in OKC)

Does this mean there's a DiBiase vs. Bock match out there?

1. Lawler - I have had trouble connecting with him as a babyface, despite his objective greatness in the role, personally I am not sure if I buy it, I struggle to invest in him. He feels much more natural to me as a heel, especially out of the ring cutting his promos -- I watched a good chunk of his heel run in 1990 USWA. So heel. 2. Hogan - I recognise objectively that he is one of the all-time great babyfaces, but again personally I never connected with him and spent most of my childhood HATING him. As Hollywood Hogan he was a real snivelling Memphis-y chickenshit coward dipshit of a heel, and excelled in that role. So heel. 3. Slaughter - I am not sure if Slaughter was ever more over than in his 1981 run as a heel in WWF. See Titans for more. Heel. 4. Austin - Again, objectively the answer is face, but my personal answer is heel, especially that 2001 run, not sure if I've ever had more fun watching wrestling than during that. Heel. 5. Brock - No brainer, heel. 6. Eddie - Heel. Heel fan in preferring heels shocker.

Sorry Parv. Trying to stick to the hour time frame meant something had to be left out.. plus that feud is over rated. Who rates it? (Apart from me and Dave Melzter circa 1988)