JerryvonKramer

I was thinking about direct across 80s vs 90s promotional comparisons and I think I take the 80s in virtually every area. WWF - definitely 80s. Backlund era serves up a good amount of great matches and a feud for the ages (Bruno vs Larry), Hogan / Vince era give us the most fully realised internal wrestling universe ever. 90s meanwhile gives us the sad death of that era, some terrible lows in the middle and Vince Russo to cap things off. Monday night Wars were fun to watch but for me it cannot compare to the specialness of 80s WWF TV. JCP / WCW - over the decade, you'd have to take 80s here. Flair at his peak with all the classic matches, peak Horsemen, peak Midnight Express, peak Rock n Rolls, grizzled bastards from the 70s like Wahoo, Ole, and Ivan Koloff still knocking around. Awesome promos. 90s brings us Jim Herd, Dungeon of Doom, Vince Russo, and David Arquette. Obviously a ton of good stuff in 90s WCW, but I'd probably say something like -- War Games 92 and Rude / Steamboat aside -- Flair's 10th best 80s JCP match was still probably better than the next best WCW match. Territories - This is a steamroll, Mid-South, Memphis, WCCW, Portland, AWA, etc vs ECW, USWA, and early super indies. More or less a no contest. AJPW - Obviously there are self-evident arguments to go 90s here, but between the Funks, Hansen, Jumbo, Tenryu, Choshu's Army etc. Etc. the quality and variety of 80s AJPW is outstanding, whereas a lot of 90s AJPW is the same handful of guys in various permutations. NJPW - Close again, and I need to explore both more, but I'm really not a fan of the 90s Juniors scene whereas I can watch early 80s Fujinami all day. Again Choshu's army stuff. 90s NJ has a lot of good stuff in heavies scene, and of course Hase in general. Might be a dead rubber between who I hate more: Inoki or Chono. Two of my all time least faves stinking up main events in both decades. I probably lean 90s here on balance.

I've got to take 80s. WWF, JCP / NWA, AWA, Mid-South, Georgia, Florida, Portland, Puerto Rico, WCCW, Memphis, AJPW, NJPW, lucha stuff Across all of those places you have tremendous variety with many legendary workers active and near their peaks. For me, I love the huge differences between all of the different places. The unique vibe and feel of every promotion. The traditions, the history, etc. etc. There is incredible richness across the decade.

https://soundcloud.com/prowrestlingonly/old-school-vs-new-school-dibiase-vs-roberts-young-bucks-vs-men-of-low-moral-fiber Quentin represents the new school this week, while Parv stays in the old school seat: Matches reviewed: The Young Bucks vs. Men of Low Moral Fiber (Kenny Omega and Chuck Taylor) (4/10/09) Ted DiBiase vs. Jake Roberts (7/22/85)

Landy, you are a complete legend mate!

The Royals were fans of wrestling long before the Crabtrees got together and thought up the Daddy gimmick. Here's a little excerpt for you: "An entry in Labour cabinet minister Richard Crossman's diary for 1968 recounts a meeting with an unusually jovial Her Majesty The Queen, who is described as "writhing" in delight at the ringmasters' exploits." I believe it was the Duke of Kent who confirmed that the Queen used to "sit up" at 4 o'clock each Saturday and watch the wrestling.And there's that famous story of Princess Anne meeting McManus and remarking: "I didn't recognise you with your clothes on." McManus was buddy buddy with Thatcher and John Major. I'm 100% sure that McManus was a Tory. I'm sure Daddy and Haystacks had plenty of celeb fans. Another oft-told story is the time Frank Sinatra approached Haystacks backstage at the Royal Albert Hall and told him that British wrestlers were the best entertainers in the world. But we're talking about Mick McManus. The main even inspired Peter Blake to paint wrestler portraits. The same Peter Blake who did the cover to Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. No matter how you slice it, he was infinitely cooler than Crabtree. This is all fine. No one said McManus wasn't famous or that Big Daddy was cool. They simply said that Big Daddy vs. Giant Haystacks was a very famous match which did that rarest of things: crossed over into mainstream discourse. There's no issue with having numerous British matches on a list of "most important matches". Or are you arguing for the exclusion of Daddy vs. Haystacks altogether on some grounds?

For me, the most "atheltic" match I've ever seen is still Clash 6, which is a 55 minute match worked like a 10 minute sprint for virtually the entire running time. In terms of pure cardio fitness, Steamboat and Flair both have to be right up there, because I've yet to see that repeated. The closest to cutting that sort of pace in long matches are the Yatsu / Choshu vs. Jumbo / Tenryu tags from 85-6. But there it's four men who can take turns resting on the apron, and they seldom go 45+ minutes. The four pillars do not cut that sort of pace over that length of time, and post-four pillars indie wrestling of the 00s and now follows suit. I'd make a distinction between: - Cardio fitness / stamina (seems like Flair and Steamboat are unassailable, virtually super-human in this regard) - Gymnastic high spots (a la Jeff Hardy) - Strength (a la Mark Henry)

With Col Mustafa, Roddy Piper botched it right would of the gate by saying "That's the Iron Sheik!" Ironically though, Darsow Smash became Repo Man. As I've said before, when I was a kid I had ZERO idea that Repo Man was Smash. Like none.

Margaret Thatcher and the Queen both liked Big Daddy. Paul McCartney was a fan of Giant Haystacks and put him in this film: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Give_My_Regards_to_Broad_Street_(film) They were just as famous only more recent. If the Londos match was too long ago for the analogy how about Blassie / Tolos?

Episode 18: http://placetobenation.com/letters-from-kayfabe-18/ This week Allan and Parv go so long in the mailbag that they never get to the long topic. 1. The Mailbag: Andre in 91 / Celebrities / Luscious Johnny V 2. The Event Center with JT Rozzero: Saturday Night’s Main Event IX To write in to the mailbag there is now an email address, [email protected] or send a self-addressed envelop to PO BOX 227, Kayfabe Towers. Or tweet #LettersfromKayfabe to @allan_cheapshot and @jerryvonk The Playlist:

Incredible!

I watched Mr Perfect vs a jobber earlier and the perfectplex just looked devastating. Now it's a transitional move, not even a one count.

The sheer density and concentration of quality on that set, especially in 89, meant that it was tough for stuff to stand out. I'm deffo putting this on the re-review pile.

I had this at 4 stars and ranked at #23 for the 80s AJ set. Maybe time for a revisit. I did a little 10 minute podcast on tag-team specialists this past Monday on which I mentioned that the Jumbo / Yatsu team are one of the most super-underrated ever. I think they even had a nickname like "The Olympians" or some such. The tag scene in 89 is just incredible in AJ.

I have this one at 5 stars and ranked 3rd on AJPW 80s set. Need to re-watch some of this stuff, so awesome.

Can't we just say something like McManus / Pallo was the Londos / Strangler Lewis and Daddy / Haystacks was the Hogan / Andre?

I have no stake in it. The only fact I know is that it was not proven and this is probably why WWE ran the video, The Rock tweeted, major news organisations reported it with hedged terms, etc. etc. As much as I love the idea of Bix playing Cooper out of Twin Peaks, he's not a policeman or a judge, he's a chap who writes and reports on wrestling.

If Snuka's guilt was as obvious as people have made out here, I don't really think that a very famous person with a lot to lose, Hollywood contracts, advertising deals, sponsorship -- let's say The Rock -- would want to touch this with a barge pole. But there he is tweeting about it. It's almost as if nothing was ever proven beyond doubt so he can do so with impunity. https://twitter.com/TheRock/status/821044564677001217 Wrestling has a long history of "insider" culture, and "inside scoop" culture, it comes from Dave. There's the official story and then there's the REAL story. The truth is out there. I have to have some faith in institutions, and the rule of law. If it's not proven, it isn't proven. I don't really see how anyone here is in a position to say otherwise one way or the other.

I guess we could say "it would be believable that Lineker would get the answer", even if he was fed it by production.

I feel like Penny Banner vs June Byers was a famous match. Just remember hearing about it.

Great list. Minor correction: Bruno / Ivan was 71.

Some of you guys should get together to form the Wrestling Detective Agency.

Personally, I like to use wrestling as an opportunity to virtue signal whenever I can. That's the really important thing: that everyone knows I'm against bad things like murder and am for good things like justice.

I agree, it's VERY important that we come out strongly with the message to Vince and the WWE that Murder is Bad. We shouldn't stand for this.

Well, guys, you've convinced me, let's mobilise twitter forces. Let's get the pitchforks out. Let's ensure that all major outrage squads are set to red alert.

So by that definition was he acquitted or not acquitted? I can't tell tbh.