JerryvonKramer

As part of the WWF's booking plans, and as part of a storyline, Bobby Heenan is setting up "deliberately weak" challengers to Nick Bockwinkel's WWF title while denying Bob Backlund a rematch. This is reflected in SD Jones getting a shot at the next Philly show. Bock needs challengers for Boston and the Meadlowlands. Preferably they'll be: 1. Known to NY audience already. 2. Babyface. Get in touch if you have a guy for this spot. He'll lose, of course, likely with a cheap finish as Bock / Heenan are being the most chickenshit dastardly heels possible.

At the end of the day, goc, your list has to reflect you.

I watched a lot of shitty SST matches. If you like them, that's great.

Might make my number #25 spot, but hurt by being short-lived really. They are also not that good with the masks on, so the peak run is even shorter. Once the masks come off, they kick all sorts of ass, but I can't really see a case for putting them above the Steiners.

No chance for me. My one observation is that Samu seems to be a much more accomplished worker than Fatu. Samoan Savage totally totally sucks by the time he gets to WCW, he's like the worst ever. Samu is a decent hand, but for me the SSTs were the lowlights of an otherwise stellar tag division in JCP/WCW from 85-90.

I think at this stage I'm not going to be ranking any lucha guys at all. I've watched what are reputedly El Dandy's greatest matches and didn't come out feeling strongly about him. The more lucha I watch, the more it doesn't click with me. If I was to make my top 100 music acts list, it would have a grand total of zero jazz acts, just as some other people would have a grand total of zero hip-hop acts. This is similar. I've seen enough lucha to know that I'm never going to be a lucha guy.

The only time I can recall using a wrestler argument ever was when you suggested that Dory was carried in every single Funks match and I said that Terry would tell you himself that that is total crap, especially when a standard Funks trope is Terry getting injured and Dory going 2 vs 1 for half the match.

Zero chance for me.

Something that happened on this footage is the occassion for another DJ Parv special: https://soundcloud.com/jerryvonkramer/dj-parv-feat-vince-mcmahon-and-pat-patterson-right-in-the-face-with-nothing-but-pure-salt

I still maintain that DiBiase has the better scoop powerslam, even though Sawyer runs him close. Buzz seems like he belongs but I think there's a lack of truly high end stuff in tape like Kris said. GCW guys are really hurt by lack of arena show footage. But he is pretty great at squashing jobbers.

http://placetobenation.com/titans-of-wrestling-51-wwf-october-to-december-1981/ Johnny takes over hosting duties and joins Parv, Pete and Kelly as the Titans FINALLY wrap up on a very long 1981. On the docket tonight: 10-17 GAREA/MARTEL vs FUJI/SAITO TAG TITLE WWF TV 10-19 FUJI/SAITO vs MARTEL/GAREA TAG TITLE MADISON SQUARE GARDEN 10-19 DON MURACO vs PEDRO MORALES IC TITLE MADISON SQUARE GARDEN 10-19 BOB BACKLUND vs GREG VALENTINE WWF TITLE MADISON SQUARE GARDEN 11-14 ANDRE THE GIANT vs KILLER KHAN STRETCHER MATCH PHILADELPHIA SPECTRUM 11-23 DON MURACO vs PEDRO MORALES IC TITLE MADISON SQUARE GARDEN 11-23 BOB BACKLUND vs GREG VALENTINE WWF TITLE MADISON SQUARE GARDEN 11-23 DUSTY RHODES vs KING KONG MOSCA MADISON SQUARE GARDEN 12-12 ADRIAN ADONIS vs JEFF CRANEY WWF TV On this show: - Discussion of the rise and fall of the abdominal stretch - Is Greg Valentine the greatest opponent of Bob Backlund? - Pedro Morales: the miracle worker of finishing stretches? - Don Muraco: lazy beach bum or just misunderstood? - PLUS, mini-bios for Adrian Adonis and Mr. Saito, and Who should be the host of Titans, Parv or Johnny?

15 million stars!!!

I think he'll probably squeak my top 50. My main issue with Bret is that he's an offense guy and I really like my babyfaces to sell and sell. Bret is best imo working on top.

I was just reading over the Stan Hansen Microscope thread to see what everyone else made of the Colon matches and I stumbled on this post from Jimmy Redman: http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/19196-stan-hansen/&do=findComment&comment=5531053 Just made me smile to see a sort of "origin story" for a poster I've come to see as part of the regular cast of characters here.

I am going to watch an hour and a half of the Colon vs. Hansen feud now. Stan Hansen vs. Carlos Colon (10/12/86) This was a 10-minute sprint and a bloody brawl, Hansen seemed to both play monster heel and stooge for Colon here and made both seem natural. Opening ambush was good and Colon's comeback brought the crowd alive. Very promising first match for the feud. ***1/2 Stan Hansen vs. Carlos Colon (11/9/86) This one is in the outdoor stadium in PR with almost a carnival atmosphere. Colon starts as the aggressor this time ambushing Hansen, who catches colour, until he blows his knee on the turnbuckle. Transition seemed a bit awkward. Hansen immediately targets the injured leg. He's bleeding quite a lot from the early attack. Action goes outside. I get a kick out of the play-by-play guy saying stereotypically Spanish sounding stuff like "wow Amigos!" The brawl all over this stadium in what seems to be sand outside the ring. They make really good use of the space. Back in the ring and Colon is back on top, he has color too now. Colon does backflips and handstands for some reason, seems to be part of his schtick which seems really weird to me because I associate that sort of horseplay with a "gay" act such as Lanny Poffo's Genius. Fall comes a bit suddenly with some outside intereference by someone in a white shirt. Hansen freaks out. Decks a mustachio'd dude (who I assume is Hurrican Castillo Sr?), piledrives Colon and gives Castillo a really low lariat outside the ring. Tremendous heel work by Hansen and he jaws with the rabid crowd. Balls of steel. Another sub-10-minute sprint but real fun stuff, which told a slightly better story that the first bout with Colon gunning for revenge. Real solid stuff. ***3/4 Stan Hansen and Chicky Starr vs. Carlos Colon and Hurrican Castillo Sr. (12/21/86) Logical booking here with Hansen also looking for revenge on Castillo (although he now has a goatee beard too). They mostly pair off Starr vs. Castillo and Hansen vs. Colon. Lots of blood. Colon is not afraid to play dirty and does a load of blatant low blows in this match. There's a cool moment where Starr and Hansen are beating the crap out of Castillo. Starr bleeds a ton here. Hansen gets Colon in the bullrope and hangs him from it in the Terry Funk / Steamboat vs. Muraco spot. Always nasty. Medics come and check on him. This is a really blood-stained promotion! Very enjoyable and heated match. Again around the 10-minute mark. ***3/4 Stan Hansen vs. Carlos Colon (1/6/87) This is a Texas Bull Rope match. That's both guys tied together by a rope with a four corners stip. Carnival atmosphere again. I should mention here that Colon seems to be giving up over 60lbs to Hansen, who is a much bigger man in every dimension. After less than two minutes Hansen is already bleeding. Colon chokes him out ith the rope, takes things outside, posts him, lays him on a table and smashes the bell on the rope into his face. Hansen's selling is absolutely tremendous during all of this. Hansen comes back a bit and Colon seemingly almost instantly starts bleeding. I guess with that forehead all you need to do is touch it and he'll bleed. What's really cool about this match is that it is all about momentum and it's always really clear who is on top, the transitions are marked and obvious but that's a good thing. When Colon gets back on top he really takes it to Hansen, beating on him and choking him. Some of the methods of escape from the four corners are cool here. At one point Colon bails out of the ring to prevent a third corner. I feel like they are doing more with the stip than we typically see, some actual tactics involved. Hansen really uses his weight advantage to make himself as difficult as possible to drag. Another cool spot when they are outside and Hansen grabs the ref in desparation and drags him by the leg, and Colon slams Hansen's head into the ref's boot! That is a spot I can't recall seeing: ref's foot as weapon! At another point Hansen can't get Colon over to the fourth turnbuckle and starts wailing and moaning with frustration and despair. Terrific character work. Colon is maybe the only wrestler you'll ever see doing a handstand and then biting a cut the next few seconds. This is also one of the very few times I can remember this stip being made exciting. They work it to perfection so the agony of not reaching the fourth turnbuckle really does mirror a true "nearfall". Probably the best strap match I've ever seen. This had a ton of violence, the stip was worked perfectly, and there was a lot of cool and innovative stuff in there too. Really great match that had great psychology and was smartly worked while being suitable brutal. The feud has built extremely well to this point. ****3/4 Now we get a clip of some of the WWC TV from four days later and Chicky Starr is talking to Colon. I have no idea what they are saying but Starr spits at Colon which triggers a sneak attack from Hansen with a chair. The "Chicky Starr Sport Shop" set is the cheapest fucking thing I've ever ever ever seen, it looks more two-bob than the sorts of sets you'd make as a kid when you pretending to present children's shows or whatever. It really is a piss poor set! So laughably bad I've had to pause the footage to laugh it out. Ha ha ha!! Colon is in a suit. Hansen decks him. Starr shouts orders and eggs Hansen on in English. Hansen ties Colon up by his legs and then sits on his back like a horse. He whips him with his cowboy hat souting "giddy up son!" as Starr stomps on Colon's head. This is some AWESOME heel beatdown shit right here. The floor is splattered with Colon's blood. The constrast between the cheap tackiness of the set and the awesomeness of that beatdown is amazing and must be witnessed by all true wrestling fans! This is a great bit of storytelling too. If you've been paying attention, Hansen has given up 2 wins to 1 to Colon now and needed something to top up his heat and something like this was the PERFECT way to do it. Great stuff. Stan Hansen vs. Carlos Colon (2/28/87) Colon the aggressor here again, which makes sense. A lot of this feud has been very very logical while being consistently brutal and violent. Colon chokes Hansen out with the rope to start. Posts him. Colon's handstand / flip spot is one of the weirdest things and I'm not sure I can get used to it. It's the one aspect of his performance really bugging me right now. Here he does one and Hansen just slams him. What's the point of it? This is a longer match so they go to the mat for a little bit. Colon has the most blatant mule-kick low blow known to man. He focuses on Hansen's left leg for a sustained period working some hamstring snaps and a shinbreaker among other things. Over ten minutes and no blood. Figure-four by Colon! And this is applied for some time, at least 6 or 7 minutes. Hansen reverses. Colon grabs a crutch and goes apeshit, I think causing a DQ loss? Or maybe Hansen used the crutch first and was DQ'd. Colon gets on the mic and says some stuff which gees up the crowd. I suspect he's saying "I want him in a No DQ match! In a cage!" or words to that effect. This one was a bit of a comedown after all the brawls. It was worked as a more techncial match which makes perfect sense in the context of the feud especially as the finish sets up a no DQ cage match. I thought the figure-four went on way way too long, but it was not helped by the camera angle. The storytelling for the feud is great though, if you factor in the non-satisfactory result here and the humilation on TV the month before, the feud stands after this on about 2-2. Everything is poised for the big blow off. ***1/2 Stan Hansen vs. Carlos Colon (3/14/87) This is a no DQ match in a cage. It seems to be in acres of space in the stadium. This cage is a bit bigger than we're used to, more like a Wargames cage only just over one ring not two. Colon dripping with blood within minutes. Hansen too. This is some hate-filled earlygoing. Both guys are really covered in blood. Mule kick low blow gets a big cheer. Atmosphere is unreal with the horns blowing. There's a lot of cage escape attempts which makes me think that this is being worked under WWF-style "escape the cage" rules, haven't seen any pin attempts. Awesome visual as Hansen knees Colon in the face and it leaves a blood smear on the kneecap. Series of elbows by Colon into Hansen's groin, Hansen resorts to taking a boot off to nail Colon, but it is removed by a ref. Figure-four! Various goons turn up to try to get into the ring but they are fended off by Castillo. Siege situation! Man huge pier six outside the ring. Wrestlers fighting everywhere as this figure-four is going on. Colon almost casually joins them to get the win. I didn't care for that finish much, seemed to bury the match and Hansen. Bloody, violent cage match which was a fitting end to the a great great fued with the exception of the finish which seemed overbooked to me and Colon winning by saving his friend seemed to diminish the importance of vanquishing Hansen. Colon is ridiculously covered with blood at the end of this match and the mat is a blood-smeared mess.Very good and enjoyable. **** ----------- This is an all-time great fued with logical storytelling that builds over the months and every chapter making perfect sense in relation to the whole. My only criticism is the finish to the blow off not being as satisfying as it could be. The real highlights for me were that bull-rope match and the angle with Hansen "riding" Colon that led to the 4th match. Real good stuff though that certainly enhances Hansen's GWE case and puts Colon at least into consideration for a top 100 spot. Well worth seeking out.

Lock top ten: Flair Jumbo Hansen Funk Misawa Kawada Absolutely have to make my top 50: All time great babyfaces: Jack Brisco Rick Martel Ricky Steamboat Ricky Morton Kobashi All time great heels: Jim Breaks Ted DiBiase Sgt. Slaughter Nick Bockwinkel Tully Blanchard All time great hands: Arn Anderson Bobby Eaton Greg Valentine Lord Steven Regal Barry Windham

Nominate Tony Garea via Titans.

I feel like I've said this so often now but I'm going to keep saying it till people take notice. Slaughter in 81. Slaughter in 81. Sgt. Slaughter in 81!!!! Most over heel and then some, great opponent for Backlund and Andre, all time great feud with Patterson.

The idea of elevating the title means you can put a guys like Dory Funk Jr. or Bob Backlund as champion, who have little obvious charisma and use them as special attractions or drawing cards. Plus another main event. Plus another special attraction. And that's a stacked card. But in the presentation, you must make the title seem like the biggest deal, even in cases (see Bruno vs. Larry Z in 1980) where something else is really drawing the house.

Wahoo McDaniel vs. Ric Flair (7/12/85) This was on the Mid-South set and ranked #20 in final rankings, but here comes courtesy of the NWA Classics service. Just a stiff action-packed as one would expect. These two chop the crap out of each other for almost 20 minutes before an inevitble BS finish which sets up a rematch. The pace here was impressive, and Wahoo, despite his age here, could clearly still go. This wasn't a Flair carry job by any means. I was in heaven watching this match. ****1/2 Wahoo McDaniel vs. Ric Flair (26/7/85) The return bout, and I believe this was previously unavaible before NWA Classics. Paul Boesch on commentary. Couple of funny little things going into this. First, a fan throws some trash into the ring and the ring announcer promises a $100 fine and POLICE ARREST to the next person who throws trash. Second, Boesch incorrectly states that Wahoo was looking to be the first Indian ever to hold the NWA title, because of course Jack Brisco was an Indian and held that title! Silly Mr. Boesch! This was more of the same with a few more holds and throws thrown in. Super stiff and the chop exchanges are exhilerating. This time we get a clean(ish) finish too. About on par with the first match. My only gripe would be that Flair and Wahoo seemed to run a bit short of ideas after a while. The chop exchanges ARE awesome, but I'm not sure what else they are giving us. Wahoo's thought process is something like this: I mean, don't get me wrong, they ARE awesome chops ... ****1/2

I've been reviewing Race matches from 1982 from Texas where they are still talking about the time Race slammed Andre, so it was years rather than months.

Not a single thing bothers me because this is the best fucking thing to happen in a long time and I can only be grateful to Tharpe and co for their efforts.

Harley Race vs. Andre the Giant (1/7/79) Courtesy of the new NWA Classics and so a backwards time travel for us from the Summer of 1982 where we left off to the Summer of 1979 when Race still had the belt. Commentary is by Bruce Tharpe and his buddy recorded in 2015. This was worked very logically and the first two falls could be divided into shine - transition (finish of first fall) - heat - finish (finish of second fall). Andre for his part worked a lot of holds on Harley's arm and he used his weight to good advantage during all of that. This is a little bit different from a lot of the Harley I've seen because Andre keeps him grounded. If I had to imagine this match before watching it, I'd have thought we'd have seen Harley bumping around for the Giant, but they work a more mat-based affair. Finish to the first fall sees Harley nail Andre with a chair in the gut before bodyslamming him on the concrete -- this must be the bodyslam they were still hyping in Dallas in the 1982 stuff I've been watching recently. So cool to hear about it and then see it like that. The spot with Harley hurting his own head with the falling headbutt was pretty cool and not a standard Race spot at all. Second fall had a long-ish bearhug by Harley and I'd have preferred to have seen him drop a few more knees and variety of offense. But the butterfly suplex by Andre looked great and the big splash for the finish like it might have killed a man. Third fall and the match sort of peters out, but the finish is one I've not seen before and I've seen a hell of a lot of BS finishes watching Harley, Brisco and The Sheik this past year. All-in-all, this was very enjoyable and in the context of Harley defenses from the period, one of the better ones I've seen because it wasn't worked with the Giant getting 95% of all the offense, unlike the bouts against Backlund and Steamboat. They were able to tell a good story. ****

Superstar Billy Graham vs Tiger Conway Jr. (2/7/79) This came on randomy after Race vs. Andre. A lot of schtick from Graham here, and it's obvious he's from the same school of "can't wrestle, won't wrestle" as Jesse Ventura. A lot of boring holds here eat up much of the 20 minutes, but we do get moments of action too. The two most interesting aspects of this match are: 1. The time limit draw --> "let's work five minutes more" finish, and going as far as repeating it. 2. Tiger Conway Jr.'s cool Sly-and-the-Family-Stone-style voice. Conway looked like he could be an effective babyface to me, but Graham was just so limited in what he could do. *