JerryvonKramer

Well, I think people should go out of their way to see those three. And in the case of the Kerry match I can't see that not ranking top half in final voting had it been included. The AJ one is weird mainly because of the other Race matches that were included, and because the performance of Jumbo stands out in the context of "boring early 80s Jumbo" since I don't recall any others like that from the time frame that made the set and this shows you a different side to him.

Round 18 pick Frank Williams vs. Round 24 pick Bulldog Brower On commentary Vince says that Brower has let himself go and has not been training very hard. This match took place in 1980. In both kayfabe terms and in "smart fan" terms, Williams may just be the worst wrestler ever to lace them up. I can't believe I spent ten minutes watching that. Brutal.

After this last batch, Race trending up quite a bit. 1982 seems like it was a great year for him and losing the title seems to have liberated him as a worker. He gets a lot more time on top and all the matches feel both big time and really competitive. He has three matches that I want to dub "the double-juice trilogy". All three of them have both men bleeding buckets, all three of them end in wild post-match brawls, and I have all three at ****1/2: Harley Race vs. Ric Flair (2/28/82) Harley Race vs. Jumbo Tsuruta (4/22/82) Harley Race vs. Kerry Von Erich (6/4/82) I don't want to but I feel compelled to yet again ... I have to call out the DVDR committee for two of their calls: 1. Why wasn't the double-juice match with Jumbo from 4/22/82 on the All Japan set? You included the one later in the year and it's clearly not as hot a match. I mean when do we ever get to see Jumbo bleed or show that much fire in the early 80s? Seems like one of the bigger oversights. I'd love to see your notes on that one. 2. Race vs. Kerry 6/4/82 DIDN'T make the World Class set? Are you kidding me? I can see a match between them from 83 made top 10, but how could this one be left on the cutting room floor? There's no way this wouldn't have ranked top 30. Again, I've love to see the notes, but it's a headscratcher. At least with AJ you can always point to the amount of quality, but Texas? Anway, post-title Race is really good.

Harley Race vs. David Von Erich (11/81) Race had already lost the title at this point. This is from St. Louis and within seconds Larry Matysik is blowing smoke up Sam Muchnick's ass. David spends at least the first six or seven minutes of this applying a headlock. Incredibly boring babyface control segment. Brief respite after Race hits a headbutt but then David goes right back to it. Dull dull dull. Race hits a crossbody. Various headbutts. Tombstone and even that doesn't put the youngster away! Piledriver. But David slams him off the top. Elbow drop by him. Misses a second. Gut wrench suplex by Race. Misses an elbow. Action goes outside. Race slams David's head into the announce table. Goes for a suplex back in, David counters. Inside cradle. No. David hits a piledriver. Race gets a foot to the ropes. Claw! Race comes back. Suplex. Misses the diving headbutt. Claw from the top rope by David. Race throws the ref down. Action goes outside and Race hits a delayed vertical suplex on the floor. Race goes up top to hit something and Kerry von Erich makes a run in. This match went 20 minutes and the first half really dragged. David von Erich sucked hard in this, I find it hard to get behind a guy who looks that goofy, but his offense was really boring. Match was a lot better when Race was on top, but they were working that thing where David almost had an answer for everything which is not a favourite narrative of mine and something we see all too often in Race matches. Finishing stretch was quite hot and it has set up nicely and logically for a bout with Kerry now. But David brought this down a lot. **1/2 Harley Race & Greg Valentine vs. David Von Erich & Rufus R. Jones (JIP – 1/1/82) Just a clip of the finish really. Rufus looked old and fat here. Greg hits a sweet clothesline at one point. Harley Race vs. Ric Flair (2/28/82) This has Japanese commentary even though it looks like it happened on US soil -- looking it up, yes, at The Omni. Flair is champ. Will be interesting to see who works on top more here. Race controls early, Flair takes over, then Race has another spell on top. Double juice. Cool sequence where Race blocks Flair's knee drop and quickly goes over into a variant of the Indian deathlock. The ref, a young Nick Patrick, takes a lot of punishment here. Flair accidentally punches him in the face. Then outside the ring Race posts him and beats on him some more! I think it's a DQ for that and they continue to brawl post-match. Tons of guys come from the locker room including Jack and Jerry Brisco to try to break them up but they can't. Race is possessed and hits a delayed vertical suplex on the champ. This went a good 20-minutes and had a lot of parity. Not quite "your turn, my turn", I think Race took the most of it, but Flair was kept strong and seemed to be the babyface. The post-match brawl goes on forever and Flair is absolutely covered in blood, wow, probably a top 5 of all time blade job for a Flair, the Crimson mask in full effect. His eyes are psychotic and he won't leave the arena. Comes back for more, Christ this post-match has gone about ten minutes itself now! This is an era of Flair I want to see more of and it feels kind of under-explored. I can't recall anyone talking about this match but it's good. Not blow-away great but definitely very good and worth seeing just for that insane post-match. Must watch for anyone who is a Flair fan. ****1/2 (probably **** for the match and the extra 1/2 for the amazing post-match) Harley Race vs. Jumbo Tsuruta (4/22/82) This is in All Japan, obviously. Lou Thesz is the ref, he wore that same weird diagonal striped shirt whenever he reffed - he must have owned it. Suplex City early on as we get a vertical, a butterfly and a gut wrench in quick succession. Jumbo hits quite a few Dory-style European uppercuts here. He's also wearing some snazzy red tights with "JT" embroided on them. Nice one Jumbo, he should have rolled those out a bit more often, mostly just went for the plain black. Match slows down while Jumbo works some holds, but then picks up again when Race takes over with a big vertical suplex. Takes the action outside and hits another big suplex on the floor. Jumbo catches colour from the outside activity and is covered in blood. I don't recall Jumbo bleeding that often. Neckbreaker by Race. Wow, Jumbo is really covered in blood here. He brutally stomps on Race and shows a great deal of fire. Crowd chants his name. Jumbo's fire is tremendous as he beats on Race and nails a piledriver. Slugfest now. And Race has colour. Double juice! Race shoves Thesz a couple of times and he calls for the bell. They brawl outside the ring after the match. Then back in the ring to fight some more. I know I keep saying it, but this is another match that really should have been on the DVDR All Japan set, it was a lot better than the other bout Race had with Jumbo in 82 or in 84 and showed us a different side to early 80s Jumbo. With so much blood here, I'm really surprised Will didn't nominate it. This was a hot match, and would be something I'd show people who claim Jumbo was like Terry Taylor because he showed a fuck ton of fire here after he was bloodied. This is another one I don't hear anyone talk about and definitely needs to be seen by anyone who is a Jumbo fan. ****1/2 Harley Race vs. Kerry Von Erich (6/4/82) This looks like it's from WCCW. Winner faces Flair for the title. They claim on commentary that two years ago in Houston, Race suplexed Andre! And it resulted in a count out. I'd like to see that, I wonder if Tharpe has it. Great spot in this where Race is going for a falling headbutt and Kerry catches him in the claw. Things really pick up when Race takes over. Piledriver. Takes it outside. Smashes Kerry's head into a light rig. Suplex on the outside. Kerry has colour. Race ends up getting posted. And now he's bleeding too. Double juice! Third match in a row! Race is bleeding from the mouth as well as above the eye. Low blow by Race regains advantage. Delayed vertical suplex. Cover only gets two. Drop kick by Kerry. Snapmare. Kneedrop. Race takes over. Goes up top. Slammed off. Cover by Kerry only gets too. This is turning into a really good match. Race hits a flying crossbody from the top but the momentum takes him over and Kerry gets the upset pin and a huge victory. I thought this was a hot match worked from the start at a good pace. Went a good 20 minutes and everything felt important. Race was really good at working heat sequences and it was a benefit to this match that he took a lot of it. The sequence outside that led to the double juice was good. He was on very good form during this post-title stretch of his career. VERY surprised to see this didn't make the DVDR set. I was fully expecting it to be in the top ten. Where is it?! ****1/2 Harley Race vs. Omar Atlas (6/26/82) Back in St. Louis here. Omar Atlas has a pretty jobber-y look about him. He gets in quite a bit of offense here though with a slam, an arm drag and a arm lock. He probably deserved better than to spend the rest of the decade jobbing in WWF-land. He had a decent physique and execution. Nice quick arm wrench. He sort of looks like a middleweight Olympic weightlifter from Iran. Looking him up he was Venezuelan though. Atlas works this arm for like a full eight minutes until Race hits a knee to the gut. That's surprising Atlas got that much time on top, but he worked it decently. Pinch to the jaw sends Atlas outside where he powers out of a piledriver. Atlas slams Race head first into a chair! Back in and Race goes to work with headbutts and knee drops. Finish is fun as Atlas misses a flying crossbody from the turnbuckle and Race hits a jacknife flip for the pin. Solid TV bout, **1/2 Harley Race vs. Jumbo Tsuruta (8/1/82) Reviewed already, ***3/4 Harley Race vs. King Kong Bundy (8/15/82) This is from World Class. Winner of this faces Kevin von Erich. Armand Hussien in Bundy's corner. This should be interesting to see Race up against a different type of opponent. On commentary they put over this idea that he was the only man ever to have slammed Andre again. One little spot Race does that I like is when he punched a guy in the corner and follows through so that his fist ends up well beyond the face and past the head. It's cool visual. Race gets a lot more of this than you'd expect and I'm not sure they did a very good job of establishing Bundy as a monster. That aspect didn't really come off. It goes a good 15 minutes before a double count out which is weird booking considering they made such a big deal abou the winner facing Kevin. Race slams Bundy at one point too, how'd you like them apples Hulk? ** ---------- Having watched through 1982 seems like a standout year for Race. Relieved of the burden of being NWA champ and relieved of the need to work the NWA champ style, he can flex his offensive powers a bit more. The THREE double juice matches here which each end in post-match brawls are must-watch for anyone interested in this period and are a good showcase for evaluating Race in GWE terms as well as good matches to watch for the cases of Flair, Jumbo and Kerry respectively. I was surprised at how good that run of matches was.

Will, would you please make a thread for 1982 so I can nominate Harley Race for it. Thanks.

John Cena vs. Rob Van Dam (06/11/06) This was a lot of fun with a rabidly anti-Cena ECW crowd. It was sort of a "greatest hits" of RVD high spots for the best part. But it was entertaining to see so many fans openly sticking a middle finger at Cena, telling him to fuck off, shitting over absolutely everything he did and so on. I laughed out loud when Cena clotheslined the ref. Crowd dynamics were fun. Match wasn't anything, and looking back it was interesting to see how much the WWE were investing in the ECW brand at the time. The RVD as WWE champ deal was something I had to look up again just to believe that it actually happened. I also thought that this match is good evidence for why RVD could never have been a top top headline star because I think he essentially bottled it in his big moment. Nonetheless, interesting thing to see. ***

John Cena vs. Brock Lesnar (08/17/14) This was a unique match up and something I don't think any other babyface ace in history would do or be asked to do. I think I counted 16 German suplexes in this match. Brock's character work is phenomenal, he has really nailed that arrogant and cocksure monster idea. The moment where he sits up like the Undertaker and starts laughing his ass off moments after taking Cena's AA was great. As a total massacre, this was mesmirising. But I also dug how the crowd got into Cena's hope spots. His flurry of offense before the AA and the STF spot were both very well done. I would still question the booking of the match itself because I don't see how it doesn't hurt and devalue Cena in the long run (which is why I was arguing he should never be putting over Rusev or Kevin Owens this year). But as a match to watch in isolation it's a lot of fun. ****

John Cena vs. Umaga (01/28/07) Wow, stone cold classic. I suspect there's already been enough written about this. I has a classic setup, Cena the babyface hero and champion is coming in with an abdominal injury which Umaga the monster than target. The early going with Umaga working bearhugs and other spots to target that area are good enough, but this kicks into overdrive after Cena does the five knuckle shuffle onto the steel steps in the middle of the ring. Shortly after that he nails an FU onto the steps and in so doing injures his own head on the way down. When he comes up he is gushing blood and Umaga immediately switches from attacking the injured mid-section to attacking the cut. A ton of sick spots that I've never seen before ensue including: a shot where Cena blows a monitor on Umaga's head, Umaga running over two announce tables to splash into a third and Armando Estrada using a wrench to dismantle one of the turnbuckles. What puts this over the top though is the finish: Cena choking Umaga out like a psychopath with his face covered in blood is a fantastic visual and it has that same visceral and emotional hit as the Brock Lesnar Extreme Rules match. What I particularly liked about this one is that it felt organic and unscripted in a way that many of Cena's other matches don't. The finish with Umaga first of all getting to his knees after 2 but then staying down after the final psycho choke was very un-WWE-like. Fantastic match. *****

John Cena vs. Umaga (01/07/07) Okay, turns out this was the wrong match which I'm thankful for because I was about to say "WTF people!" This didn't have a lot to it. Umaga worked some basic Samoan offense including some nerve holds and various Samoan drops. Cena came back and won with an inside cradle. It's any babyface vs. monster match you've ever seen only with more pregnant pausing, more "time passing" and less selling. I will say that Jim Ross on commentary is an upgrade to the bland team on later WWE events. ** Now for that Last Man Standing match.

I thought he'd be a good name to have for me. Can work LA shows. Known in the Pittsburgh and Buffallo areas too. Can send him to Japan if need be. Could make him part of the office with all his promotional experience.

I've been digging around to see what the title was in that picture from 82. Turns out he was working for Wildman Dave McKigney in Toronto, they ran against the Tunneys, but it seems like it was a cordial relationship with Maple Leaf. Dave McKigney was famous for wrestling bears, including Terrible Ted. Looking at results for the McKingney Toronto operations in 82, they had some decent names with a distinct "outlaw" flavour: July 4, 1982 - McKigney; Arena Gardens; Scarborough, ON Chris Colt b. Whipper Watson jr. to win the North American title ... The Sheik b. Frankie Laine ... George Steele Dble CO vs. Bruno Sammartino jr ... Bobo Brazil b. Wolfman ... Candi Divine b. Brenda Hoffman ... Luis Martinez & Everett Sheppard b. Tim Gerrard & Chris Jones July 18, 1982 - McKigney; Arena Gardens; Scarborough, ON The Sheik Dble CO vs. Bobo Brazil ... Chris Colt & George Steele b. Luis Martinez & Wildman ... Wolfman b. Everett Sheppard ... John Bonello b. Wolfman by DQ ... Brenda Hoffman & Shawn Blue b. Candi Divine & Carolina Kid - Mixed tag team ... Kurt Von Hess b. Ricky Johnson Aug 1, 1982 - McKigney; Arena Gardens; Scarborough, ON The Sheik b. Bobo Brazil - Cage match ... Chris Colt b. Wildman - Chain match, to win the North American title ... Bruno Sammartino jr. & Domenic Denucci b. George Steele & Kurt Von Hess ... Ricky Johnson b. El Santos ... Johnny Valiant b. John Bonello ... Jerry Fazio d.w. Ricky Jones Aug 15, 1982 - McKigney; Arena Gardens; Scarborough, ON Domenic Denucci & Wildman b. Chris Colt & Kurt Von Hess by CO ... The Sheik b. Johnny Valiant ... Luis Martinez b. Eddie Mansfield ... Farmer Pete b. Shawn Cassidy (midgets) ... Big Mac b. Danny Little Wolf ... Ricky Johnson b. Jerry Fazio Aug 29, 1982 - McKigney; Lakeshore Lions Arena; Toronto The Sheik Dble CO vs. Tiger Jeet Singh ... Domenic Denucci, Wildman, & Johnny Valiant b. Chris Colt, Kurt Von Hess, & Eddie Mansfield ... Carolina Kid b. Farmer Pete (midgets) ... Luis Martinez b. Jerry Fazio ... Wolfman b. Ricky Johnson Sept 5, 1982 - McKigney; Lakeshore Lions Arena; Toronto The Sheik n.c. vs. Tiger Jeet Singh - Cage match ... Ricky Johnson & Bobo Brazil b. Chris Colt & Eddie Mansfield ... Johnny Powers b. Kurt Von Hess ... Everett Sheppard b. Danny Marsh ... Whipper Watson jr. d.w. Blackjack Johnson

Anyone ever watched his matches with Inoki? He went back a long way with him.

This is what he looked like in 1982. Not bad right? Apparently he came back in 1983 to work matches for charity or something. Weird figure in wrestling history really.

Send some decent talent Mr. Inoki and we will be happy to accommodate.

I am aware of who he is (see also Ninja gimmick suggestion).

This is a scheme for generating future stars, not enhancement talent.

Akira Maeda is more the bracket of talent we'd be looking for on the scheme. Look at the other names on the scheme and think about it.

Johnny Powers was a pretty big star in the 70s. I remember spending a night reading about him and the IWA. Interesting that he was more or less the rank bottom draft pick.

Excellent. Well I might come back to it then. Good drafting everyone, it's still not done until I'm done.

I'd prefer Ryuma Go to that guy for the developmental scheme if I'm honest. Especially because the crowd could chant "Go Ryuma Go!"

I see El Borica took him. Last few rounds aren't updated. If I'm the only guy left in the draft though, there's no rush now surely.

Did anyone take Tim Tall Tree? I want to hoover up jobbers.

Hold on, I missed that you got Marzino. Might need one-two more.

Johnny Powers Chief Thundercloud

I still have some more that I want.