JerryvonKramer

The Sheik & Bobby Heenan vs Bobo Brazil & Dick the Bruiser Seems like Luce classics, assuming this was for WWA. Mainly Bruiser working over Heenan, who does a lion's share of the work before the match appears to end abruptly. The Sheik vs Giant Baba Baba is in the ring first. You can see why the idea of The Sheik might appeal in Japan beyond the gimmick -- it's selling the idea of "top contenders coming from all around the world". This guy from the middle east, that guy from Mexico, etc. Baba keeps trying to rush Sheik while he's doing his prayer mat gimmick. Sheik bails and goes and grabs a table and throws it in the ring. It gets propped up in the turnbuckle and Sheik ends up taking three head shots to it. But then he goes over and chokes Baba to the 4 count. It's a chinlock disguising a choke. Choke over the middle ring, and Sheik also goes to bite Baba. Naked choke by Sheik now to the 4 count again. He rips are Baba's face (illegal in wrestling). You have got to admire the man's commitment to ensure that he doesn't do a single legal thing in the body of a match. Not one legal move, it's pretty funny. Joe Higuchi loses his shit and admonishes Sheik loudly for biting. He has the pencil out and is slyly nailing Baba with it disguised as punches. Highuchi goes over to check. Fans have thrown some rubbish at the ring. Baba comes back with chops to the head. There's some guy out there in a white polo shirt (not sure who, Killer Karl Kox?), who starts pulling at Baba's leg. So as soon as Baba gained control, we have the outside interference. This allows Sheik to get another choke in. Baba regains control anyway and gives Sheik a couple of turnbuckle spots. Chases the fat white-polo-shirted guy away. Bell goes for a count out. Baba wins. Post-match we get a heel beatdown. Young boys come to save Baba by Sheik punches them all out. I didn't think much of this. It was a match that seemed to expose the limitations of both guys rather than highlight their strengths (psychology). At this point, I don't think there was much chance of Sheik taking it to the mat, and I don't think Baba was going to work a juice brawl, so what we got was kinda nothing ... ** The Sheik & Great Mephisto vs Terry & Dory Funk Jr. I looked for this everywhere before, but here it is! Abby is currently taking someone apart and Ricky Steamboat is bloodied up. I think Dick Slater is there too. What match is this? It's the end of the previous bout and a cool bit of business as the Funks help take care of Abby while entering for this one. Great Mephisto is a squat chap in black Aladdin bottoms and the curly Iron-Sheik-style boots. We get the full commercials here and there's an ad for a GIANT VCR tape recorder. Wow, I wonder if this was taped on the original 1980 TV. It looks incredibly early 80s. Back to the match and Terry has just taken a tumble. Dory goes over to check on him. Suplex by Mephisto on Terry onto the turnbuckle. Stomps with the curly boots now. Sheik in with a camel clutch. Some cheap heeling now as Sheik and Mephisto pull the gypsy switch on the camel clutch. Sheik in and he starts biting Terry's back. Weird spot with him biting the back like a dog! Mephisto in with the reverse chinlock now. Goes for a bodyslam but Terry reverses into the inside cradle. Sheik rushes in to bite the back again and prevent the tag to Dory. He moves over to work a back nerve hold thing. This is some of the weirdest back-focused work I can recall seeing. Mephisto back in and Terry finally gets the tag. Dory with a series of forearms. Spinning toehold! Sheik in! Spinning toehold! Terry tagged back in. Double clotheline by The Funks. They isolate Sheik who tries to go with an object for another one. Terry with the Texas punches. Elbow smash by Dory on Mephisto. Butterfly suplex! Sheik in. Dory chases Sheik who is doing his chicken strut. Sheik down on the mat like a dog now. Dory unphased. Some forearms in the corner. Elbow and collar tieup. Forearm smash by Dory. Elbow. Terry in. Elbow. GREAT punch. And again and again. Mephisto in. More punches by Terry now who is bobbing and weaving. Haymaker left. Dory in. Criss-cross spot now but Dory tricks Mephisto into a ... Sleeper! All four men take a tumble outside for a disappointing but inevitable CO finish. Dory rolls back in for the win. This was a solid match and one I'd put forward to show how you can see how a guy like Dory was a cut above a guy like Mephisto in terms of how he worked. This also shows you how much Abby brought to those Sheik / Abby tags against the Funks. Sure, Sheik is older here and brought his absolute A-game to those tags, but with Mephisto in there rather than Abby the general chaos levels were down. This was enjoyable enough though, for a nothing-y RWTL match. ***1/2 The Sheik vs Abdullah the Butcher I'm guessing Abby was the babyface here, but fans have a big "GO SHEIK GO" banner in the crowd which the camera zooms on. Abby gets a big reaction though. As he gets in the ring without warning Sheik blind-sides him with a chair and completely suckers him. See -- that's pretty good strategy, every other night for the past 30 years, Sheik had gone to the prayer mat stall start, but tonight against his old partner and protege Abby, he comes with the ambush. Very sound psychology there, that only works because of the precedant. Knowing Sheik as well as he does, Abby would have been taken by surprise at that. It's some assault too, as Sheik gives Abby about 15 chair shots before rolling into the ring. He's looking particularly angry this evening. He has his foreign object too. Goes back out and nails Abby some more, who is already bleeding. Back in the ring and he rips at Abby's face. This has been all Sheik so far. But Abby gets him in the throat now, already completely covered with blood. Sheik chokes Abby but he comes back with his own foreign object. Sheik has Abby's blood all over his arm. Headbutt by Abby. Great Mephisto runs in and just starts beating on Abby. Two-on-one beatdown. Who's this now? Tor Kamata? I think it's Tor Kamata who comes and helps Abby clear house. That was cool while it lasted. Intense bloody brawl between two total maniacs. I wish we could have had a proper finish though, just for once. You can see Abby was a real hot commodity for AJPW here. ***1/2 The Sheik & Jimmy Snuka vs Jumbo Tsuruta & Ricky Steamboat Sheik has traded in Mephisto for Snuka. Jumbo looks ridiculous wearing a full-on Texas style jacket with stars on it. Steamboat looks great and has real star charisma. What a super-team! Jumbo and Steamboat! Snuka is enormous and stacked like a mofo. This is an intriguing encounter, lets hope it doesn't just end after 5 minutes with a double CO. Snuka and Steamboat start out and do a lot of "mirror" spots to get over how they are both jacked guys. Not long before the heels are using the cheap tactics and double teaming on Steamer though. Jumbo in and we get a double clothesline on Snuka who sells it big. Jumbo with a forearm. European Uppercut! He learned that from Dory! The jumping knee. Jumbo is working in a much more "80s style" here than he is 70s-style, which is interesting considering it is only 1980. Steamboat works on Snuka's arm now and Jumbo comes off the top. They wrench the arm. Sheik sneaks over to try to pearl harbour Steamboat, but he cuts him off. Steamer tags back in and works the arm some more. Classic babyface tag tactics here, working the arm. Sheik comes in now and is wild. All bites and chokes and ripping at Steamboat's pretty face. Snuka back in and he chokes Steamboat over the top rope. Steamboat comes back and hits his sweet elbow drop into Snuka's thigh. Jumbo in and he's working the leg now. Shoulder barge by Jumbo. And again. Leapfrog by Snuka. And the trademark chop. Drop kick. Bodyslam. Legdrop. Snuka has his working boots on here. Frog splash, and it hits! Oh wow, that's 1, 2, 3!! And pin! Clealry Jumbo is not quite yet the man, but wow, I wasn't expecting that. After the match, Sheik rips at Steamboat's face some more. Really enjoyable match but it was 90% Snuka vs. the faces here. So nothing that is going to strengthen Sheik's case. Snuka could really go when he wanted to. ***3/4 The Sheik vs Tiger Jeet Singh Oh god, here we go again. Please don't be another mud match! Sheik has some real cool sinister music coming out here. Not sure what it is, but not a million miles away from Jake Roberts's theme. Sheik ambushes Signh before he can even make it to the ring with his foreign object. This starts out a pretty heated brawl. Double juice already. Goes outside. Pretty chaotic. Sheik ends up with a table on his head and Singh rolls in for a very quick count out win. Well at least it was short. Post-match Mark Lewin and Umanosuke Ueda both come out to help Sheik and beat on Singh. I think by 1981 Sheik was either too old or too drugged up to do much more than a 5-minute chaotic brawl with outside interference outside of tag matches. I think tags are where we're going to see any value that he had ater this point. **

Youngblood is an interesting nomination. I don't agree with the notion that he was as good as Steamboat. He lacks the total star presence that Steamer had. I don't see crowds going nuts for him like those Mid-Atlantic crowds did in the 70s and I don't see him turning up in Japan and immediately looking like the real deal. But that's not a huge knock on him, because Steamboat was a very top talent in his generation. I think what is going to hurt Youngblood overall is having his career cut short. I haven't seen the Portland stuff, and we only get glimpses of the team with Steamboat. The match from MSG we reviewed on Titans vs Tor Kamata and Bulldog Brower still stands out as a great carry job performance and those guys got over big with that Garden crowd from just one match. A big feather in their cap as a team, but I don't know if that plus Final Comflict, plus glimpses vs. The Briscos plus what he has in Portland is enough for a GWE case. My sense is that had Youngblood gone on into the late 80s, he'd have made a very serviceable babyface. Not as good as a Rick Martel but leagues above a guy like Tom Zenk, more talent than a Robert Gibson too. In fact I'd probably put him on par with someone like Tommy Rogers, in terms of talent.

You see Matt Hardy as being comparible to Bobby Eaton. I don't really see that. I don't know who I would compare him to. I was thinking maybe Robert Gibson or even a Randy Colley (neither of whom would be in contention for my list), but he had more of a singles career than both. How about Rick Steiner? The point is, I don't see Hardy as being on a level to spend time taking into consideration. My priorities for modern era are Rey, Cena, Angle, Bryan, Styles, and maybe one or two others (Brock will likely make the list). There's a whole bunch of guys like Randy Orton or Edge who I'm just writing off entirely, and Hardy is one of them. My benchmark for this has become Roddy Piper. Now Piper is a legend in the business, one of the top heels of all time, and someone who has a handful of great matches and great performances to his name. But for the best part, I don't really consider him a top 100 great worker. I'm likely to take Piper over Orton or Edge or Hardy, so they de facto aren't getting consideration. I'm also perfectly happy to be sold though. Try to sell me. If I say I'll watch, I will get round to it eventually. Just like I will get round to watching Chicky Starr matches. I even watched Low-Ki matches at one point.

I've probably got Shane Douglas below Terry Taylor as a worker, and I'm not one of these guys who is particularly high on Taylor. What I will say is that before the final voting I'm going to do an ECW power run mostly for the purposes of Terry Funk, but also so I can think twice about guys on the fringes of my 100 like Mick Foley. I am not against including Douglas (or indeed New Jack) matches in that run, but both of them have very little chance of making the cut. When I have people like Bob Backlund in my 80-100 range, in all seriousness, what chance does someone like Douglas have?

In fairness to Mulligan, he doesn't specify when exactly, I just inferred it from what he said. He just says "And then they went and brought in ol' Joe Scrapa in there. Who wasn't a real Indian." Or something like that. Mulligan is a real character who really idolised Wahoo.

I can't recall where we discussed this and can't find it in the search, but I remember us wondering before why Wahoo McDaniel never worked New York after the 60s. One theory was that it was because Strongbow was there. However, I've just been taking in the old Blackjack Mulligan shoot and he tells the story on there: Basically, Phil Zacko was giving out the payments and Wahoo wasn't happy with the payoff and demanded parity with the main eventers. When Vince Sr found out he vowed that Wahoo would never work in the territory again and being a man of his word made that the case forever more. This was also the moment the brought in Strongbow -- who according to Mulligan was seen as an inferior talent in the business -- to replace him. I like stumbling across the answers to stuff like that sometimes.

Here's Matt Farmer's list of Brisco's 10,000+ gates: http://wrestlingclassics.com/cgi-bin/.ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=14;t=000499;p=0

Abby had a forty year career, was a big draw, and a legend of the business; new Jack wasn't. That's the main reason why.

No chance, not under consideration.

No chance, and not under consideration.

I'm not considering candidates like this.

DJ Parv feat. Joe McHugh - "My Name Is ..." https://soundcloud.com/jerryvonkramer/dj-parv-feat-joe-mchugh-my-name-is

Ratings:

http://placetobenation.com/all-japan-excite-series-7/ Parv and Steven crack open another four-pack of excitement, drink it all up. 04/12/93 - Toshiaki Kawada vs Akira Taue 06/01/93 - Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi vs Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue 07/09/93 - Toshiaki Kawada vs Jun Akiyama 07/19/93 - Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama vs Toshiaki Kawada & Masa Fuchi ------------ Just wanted to take a special time out to thank Word Hoard again for the awesome logos he's been doing for all our shows, but I really think he excelled himself on this one. It's knock-out fantastic:

Week 33 (September, Week 1) WWF Tour So the last two tour shows have been in Chicago (success) and Denver (dismal failure). Now it's time to invade Crockett and run a show in his back yard. Yes, WWF is coming to Mid-Atlantic! And I'm running a show in North Carolina. I thought I'd try to put on the most JCP show I could! Yes, Steamboat vs. Valentine one-hour broadway absolutely smashed it out of the park and then some. This joins Race vs. Snuka as a MOTYC. I'm hoping the local fans loved that, because I want to run Mid-Atlantic area regular -- namely, the Captial Centre in Washington, DC. Just a nice way to see out Blassie's career here: *Video montage showing Blassie training Cornette up to be a manager. Highlights include: - Ivan Koloff throwing a jobber into the ropes from an Irish Whip and Blassie hooking the leg to trip the jobber. Then Cornette tries it and misses and Blassie is pulling his hair out. - Blassie cutting a promo running down Snuka, and then Cornette trying to do the same but using very lame lines like "You, you smell Jimmy Snuka" and Blassie burying his head in the palm of his hands. - Blassie showing Cornette how he needs a weapon like his cane, and the two of them going around a sports store looking for objects. Cornette picks up a golf club, and Blassie nods his head. Cornette picks up a baseball bat and Blassie looks pleased. Cornette then finds a pink tennis racket and Blassie looks mortified, Cornette is excited and gets the racket. Blassie shakes his head in disgust. - Final scene is Cornette saying to Blassie, "why thank you Mr. Blassie, I feel like I'm ready to manage anyone now!" and Blassie says, "I'd wish ya good luck if you knew what to do with it, ya pipsqueak pencil neck geek." Slow fade to black.* ---- Storylines and plans heading into Survivor Series should start in earnest after the stocktaking soon.

Week 32 (August, Week 4) Superstars: A show for some transitions, mainly to deal in-storyline with the impending retirements of Fred Blassie and Vince Sr. Quite please with the ideas I came up with. 11-0 for the Roadies. Graham: My guest today on the Superstar's Supershow here on WWF Superstars is none other than the Hollywood Fashion Plate himself, "CLASSY" Freddie Blassie! Blassie: Errghhh, enough. Enough with the applause already. Knock it off. Graham: You're obviously not in a very good mood, brother, because of what happened at Summerslam. Blassie: Errghh, don't talk to me about that event or about that frizzy-haired island pencil-necked no-boots good-for-nuthin' so-called Champeen Jimmy Snuka. I got more important things I wanna dicuss. Graham: More important like what? Blassie: Are you bein' funny with me Graham? Don't be a clown with me today, this is serious business. Graham: Sheesh, you're in a fine mood today, Blassie, what's the matter with you? Blassie: Errghh, let's cut the goofing around and get down to it: Billy Graham, I'm leavin' the wrestling game. That's it I'm done. Graham: You're leaving? Blassie: I've had enough of this lousy business. I been in this game 50 years, and I gotta say that all that time I've had to put up with these pencil-neck-geek fans, and I don't want to hear them anymore! You hear that geeks? I'm through with all 'a' yas! *Blassie looks around shiftily ...* Blaissie: But before I go, where's that little pip sqeak? Has he got the money? Where is he? Get out here you little runt. *Jim Cornette comes out wearing a pair of glasses too big for his face, he's carrying a suitcase with the suggestion that it is full of money* Cornette: Mr. Blassie! Mr. Blassie! I'm here, I got the money from my mama, it's all here for you, sir. Blassie: Errgghh, gimme that yer little weasel yer. Cornette: It's all there, sir, $200,000 in exchange for your manager's license and your clients. Blassie: Listen kid, knock it off, I know what it's for. Here's what ya get ya pencil neck geek yer: one contract, Iron Sheik. One contract, Ivan Koloff. One contract, Iron Sheik. One contract, Big John Studd. That's it ya southern fried turkey. Cornette: Hey now Mr. Blassie, where is the contract for Stan Hansen? Blassie: Yeah well Stan Hansen works for Lou Albano now, you better talk to him. Cornette: Waii ... waiiit ... you. Blassie: Listen kid, yer green, yer wet behind the ears. This is a tough business, and you gotta get like me: wise. The small print said "all my clients", well I gave you all my clients, Hansen ain't my client no more. I can see ya look like ya gonna cry, so I'll tell ya what I'll do ... *Cornette is dumbfounded* Blassie: Come on, I'm gonna give yer some basic lessons in the art o' management. Graham: You're just leaving now? Blassie: Ergghhh stick it Graham, ya louse, and stick it to these morons out here, ergghh I'm outta here. It's gonna be good. FREEDOM!! *Graham goes to commercial break* Finkel: It is now time for WWF President, Vincent James McMahon to make an important announcement. Vince Sr: Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, it is time for me to step down as WWF President. This was a temporary role for me. For many years, the President of this great wrestling organization was Willie Gilzenberg. After his time was over, it was a man called Hisashi Shinma. He had to go back to Japan under unexpected circumstances at the start of this year, and I was filling the breach until we could find a permenant replacement. Myself and the WWF Board of Directors have been in meetings all morning, and it is my pleasure to announce that we have now found a person we think is the ideal candidate to fill this role for many years to come ... Ladies and gentlemen ... will you join me in welcoming ... Bruno Sammartino! Bruno: Well, Mr. McMahon, we've known each other a great many years and I've worked with this company going back to the 1960s. It is a great honour and privilege for me to accept this role. And I'm going to say right now and I want all of these fans to know that I'm going to be a fair President. I'm going to call it straight down the line. And I'm going to be tough on rulebreaking! The referees are going to have to be extra specially careful because I will be having all matches reviewed for their officiating. I am very proud to be the new WWF President! ----- After the next week, I need to do a stock take and try to figure out what to do with a lot of people. Snuka, DiBiase and Valentine all need new feuds. I'm bringing in Jack Brisco on-loan again as placeholder opponent for both Snuka and DiBiase. After Snuka has beaten Race a couple more times, he can take on Brisco. Incidentally, that loan deal was with WWC -- the only company I still have a working relationship with. I think it was a good piece of business staying on good terms with Colon, because they have good talent coming through there and loan deals can be good to plug gaps. I've also not decided if I'm going to run Survivor Series with all 4 vs 4 or 5 vs 5 tags, or run it as a regular card with one or two with the Survivor Series gimmick. A lot of guys are leaving in the next month -- essentially ALL of the Snuka opponents who were on short-term deals apart from Race. Stan Hansen won't re-sign because he's pissed off about the amount of jobs he had to do. Financials for August:

Hey Hector, are you the "Daniel" who took part in the best Japanese matches of the 70s project a few years back? Would love to know some of your thoughts about some of that stuff. I've been watching a lot of Funks, Brisco and Race, but have Billy Robinson, Destroyer and any Baba loose ends to come.

I don't want him engaging with my points or questions or anything, because he has heat with me. So coming in here making long-ass boring pedantic posts repeating shit he's said a thousand times before or systematically trying to deny the actual question itself is trolling in my view. If it was the first time, you're right, or even the tenth or twentieth. At this point I think the guy has no value, none at all. There's not much he can provide in terms of information that others can't. And I will continue to be hostile towards him, even if that gets heat on me or makes me look aggressive or childish. I don't give a shit because the guy wrecks a board I love by wading into threads and destroying them with the sort of stuff we've seen here. Look at the nice little chats about possible trifecta candidates we were having here before he came in and literally scared away half the people who were posting who take one look at the thing and think "ah fuck, it's not even worth posting". And not even with a single thing he hasn't said eight dozen times before. Guys have been banned for less. I think he's a troll, just one that happened to have known Meltzer and has hung around since the start of time. If there was an ignore function, he'd be on it. A damn shame too, because he's one of a handful of people who actually give a shit about the 70s. You've got to be quite an asshole to be into 70s wrestling and have me hate your guts with a passion. It's a venn diagram of one. Actually, I'm gone until he's gone.

I know Dory vs Jack Brisco was a massive drawing feud everywhere. But the historians would have to answer this one.

During Funk's book he had quite a few occasions when he strongly disagreed with something that Flair said in his book. So after finishing it, I thought I'd check out that old RF "Face Off" shoot the two of them did together, because I thought it might be interesting to see how they might disagree on things. They weren't in the sort of mood to disagree with each other and were uber-respectful, but there was an interesting part where the topic came round to how they worked as NWA champions. Flair comes right out and says that he didn't have a lot of offensive tools (he lists chop, knee drop, vertical suplex; Terry mutters that it is bullshit blowing smoke up his ass), but that him, Terry and Race were all "bump and feed" type workers. He then says that guys like Bret Hart and Bob Orton Jr didn't do a lot of bumps but had a lot of offensive tools. Flair goes on to say that he never liked working babyface because not only didn't he have a lot of offensive moves to do in his comebacks, but also guys weren't always great at feeding him. I just thought it was pretty interesting especially in light of what has been discussed in this thread. Shortly after this, they get on to Dory. Earlier in the interview, Flair mentions that he really didn't like Johnny Valentine's work because "he'd sit on a guy" and wouldn't run the ropes. This is Flair essentially saying that he didn't like a mat-based style and prefers motion and action. More or less, what I've said in this thread. When Terry puts over Dory as champ, Flair comes in with "but Dory was a grinder though, like Johnny Valentine". Flair talks about how Dory would lean on you. And then that he figured out that he could get Dory to work slams and headlock takeovers so he did that -- essentially Flair saying or admitting that he can't stand to work an old 60s-style mat-based match and so found a work around with Dory where there could be more high spots and motion. Then he says "me and Terry had no ground game, we were off our feet". Terry agrees, but then adds in that who is to say who is right when those guys (Dory and Valentine) drew more money than either of them ever drew. Then he takes us back to 1900 and goes for more of an evolutionary long view. I thought this was pretty interesting to hear these two guys discuss psychology and working styles like this. Pete, if you haven't, definitely one for you to check out! EDIT: A good 20 or so minutes later, Funk has a little pop at Lou Thesz but doesn't name him. He just refers to "previous champions who used to gobble people up", but it's clear (after just reading the book) that it's Thesz he's talking about. This is during a part where Funk is eulogizing jobbers, which is something he also does in the book.

So Verne: the only trifecta candidate?

Flair going back to WCW was a really big deal for them. It was the ace coming home and they presented him as their top stair. He brought relevance again to the NWA title, before ending the year as WCW champion in one of the all-time great angles. Vader may have been the champ for much of the year, but on TV Flair was a constant presence with the Flair for the Gold stuff and still seemed like the biggest deal around. Over in WWF-land, Hogan is gone after KOTR. I wouldn't give it to Bret, Luger or Yoko. Incidentally, if I had to keep going: 1994 - Hogan 1995 - Hogan 1996 - Hogan 1997 - Hogan 1998 - Austin 1999 - Austin 2000 - Rock 2001 - Rock 2002 onwards - don't care

It's not a podcast but written text. Just click the link and you'll see their picks. My pick for 93 is Flair.

As I said earlier in the thread, Dory Jr didn't work in a way that necessarily made his opponents look super-strong either. He didn't stooge or bump that much. I don't think that's what Dory was going for, he was going for making the NWA and the title and wrestling in general feel more legit. I am fairly sure that's what Lou Thesz was doing too. In the much-cited Verne match where he's playing the subtle heel -- which we reviewed in some detail on a Titans Xtra once -- Verne comes off as a credible challenger to a credible champion who outfoxes him in the end. This is a very different narrative and philosophy from the one Funk is outlining in his book. I haven't seen enough of Gene Kiniski to know if he was a stooging champ, but from what Funk says, it sounds like he worked in that way. If he did, then the style originated with him. I'm not buying the "Thesz-as-bitch" line pushed by some people. Not only doesn't it work in terms of what everyone from the era and Thesz himself have said, it also doesn't work with the footage we have. He just didn't work that style. Dory didn't work that style either, he worked from on top most of the time. That also doesn't necessarily mean that Dory or Thesz didn't make guys look strong -- if you work a 60-minute broadway with the champion, you have to be a good wrestler right? That's Thesz's way of making Verne look strong, not the TINY little bit of stooging he does at the 40+ minute mark. Brisco, Terry Funk, Race, and Flair all to varying degrees worked that style. And certain very old-school guys even criticised them for making the champion seem too weak. I don't get why anyone is wanting to push this idea that all the champions worked the same way, when the evidence is to the contrary.

The story Funk tells in his book is that he suggested Kerry von Erich to Stallone and Sly loved him, but Kerry couldn't learn any lines and didn't get it. Personally, I'm more inclined to believe Funk, especially as I can imagine Sly loving Kerry's look. Also I thought Terry's book was short on bragging and BS in general.