JerryvonKramer

"Choker"

Anyway, all this means is that my example wasn't a good one. Replace it with another of your own choosing. Bret vs. Davey Boy maybe.

Oh shit, of course he did. How could I forget that promo. I look forward to watching this stuff again when I get to the 1994 yearbook in 2021. My memory must now be considered completely defective.

When did he turn then? I always thought the turn was later on after Bret beats Yoko for the title and he's there in the aisle saying "what about me?" 1994 is a darkish period for me.

It's been a long time for me too OJ, but my memory is that the match is worked relatively cleanly, with struggle and parity and face vs. face. Mostly technical. Clean finish. Owen's fully-fledged heel turn is later on at the same show. Someone will almost certainly correct me if I'm wrong here.

It wasn't?

What are people's views on those matches where the babyface has over 80% of the match? When is and isn't that justified? It's been something of a talking point recently. shoe has just reviewed a Backlund vs. Race match in which he argues it is not justified. soup has just reviewed a DiBiase vs. Patterson match in which he argues it is justified. What's the difference? Not asking because I don't know, asking to flesh this out and make it explicit.

It's a pro wrestling shooting vs. a pro boxer. Let's say, as an example, peak Bret Hart vs. peak Mike Tyson.

If I was going to work out some sort of criteria for comparison it would be something like: - Match quality ("no. of great matches") - Booking quality (long-term storylines, specific angles, character building stuff) - Presentation (everything from announce teams to camera work to entrances) - Key workers (bit of a fugde category but this covers stuff like your promos and general non-match specific traits of the rosters) If I had to dish out ratings then: JCP is on 100 Match Quality, 70 for Booking, 60 for presentation, 95 for workers. WWF is on 60 match quality, 90 for booking, 100 for presentation, 85 for workers. MSW probably 85 match quality, 90 for booking, 85 for presentation, 80 for workers Something like that.

With all of that said, if I was forced to choose right now it would be between WWF, JCP and Mid-South. I like well-booked storylines, great promos and big memorable characters in wrestling as much as I like great matches, and all three of these companies delivered that in the 80s. My love of that aspect of wrestling puts a cap on me ever preferring Japanese wrestling or Lucha to an English-language product. So as much as I really really love the high-end All Japan matches and the drama between Tenryu / Jumbo etc., it's not enough to put it over the top. Memphis and Georgia are the two territories I've yet to watch that I'd give a chance to break these three. Memphis because it's famous for its angles; Georgia because too many great workers passed through there at interesting times in their careers (late 70s - early 80s) for it not to be totally awesome. Anyway ... Vince, Watts and Dusty all have strengths and weakness as bookers / promoters. Strengths: - Vince was the master of producing big memorable moments that stay long in the memory and of the mythmaking around those moments. He's also the master at just "creating" characters, sometimes with amazing results (and many times with dismal failure) - Watts was great at plotting angles, great turns, and and at putting heat on the right people at the right times. Also, Mid-South feels like the most balanced of the three. Also, I feel like Watts was able to do more with less. - Dusty was great at booking a chase and at gimmick matches. Weaknesses - Vince didn't always see the value in putting heat on the heel or putting the heel over and also consistently de-emphasised wrestling within "the match" as part of his presentation. In addition, sometimes his tendency to "create anew" rather than rely on a guy's past history ended up hurting workers. - Watts went to the well too often and in the end booked too many twists and turns and also, especially as time went on, struggled to adapt to a changing landscape - Dusty had the opposite problem to Vince: he didn't know when to pull the trigger on a face and send him over; too often the face ends up screwed or looking like a bottler

I feel like I've completed a few diplomas in pro wrestling since making this thread more than two years ago. My characterisation of AWA was way off. I'm about as far from being a relativist as it is possible to get, but I am not sure the territories could or even should be ranked. It's like comparing different cuisines. You wouldn't rag on Chinese cuisine for having too many noodles in it, or criticise French cuisine for having too few noodles. A lot of the core characteristics of each place are what make them what they are. And right now I'm really happy that I can watch different types of promotions side by side, develop an understanding of their own internal rules and appreciate what each of them do well.

This has come up a few times recently in my viewing. First when Monsoon and Ali faced off on that TNT, and then on the 1990 set when Buster Douglas was the special guest ref. The argument is always the same from the wrestling side: "if he can get in and hook him up, the boxer has no chance". So are they right? Does the wrestler always win? VS.

Don't know how much Patterson from before that 79 run is out there, but he feels like he could be a special kinda worker. Seems to me as if we had as much footage of Patterson as we did of, say, Bockwinkel, we'd think of him in that same bracket of guys just under the top tier GOAT contenders. He's been really awesome. Anyway, babyface Ted was a revelation to me, my previous exposure was just that Hogan match and some Midsouth circa 82 before the turn and then after the Murdoch angle. Watching him in 1979 it makes total sense why Meltzer, Matysik and others were so high on him, and why he had a rep as a technician. He's still more vicious than most guys in WWF at that time though. I look forward to seeing him in St. Louis even before this. If he's anywhere near as good as he is here in that stuff, then I think you can start to make a case for Ted being a really versatile worker giving us these three very distinct characters (fired-up technical babyface, nasty brawler with the black glove, Million Dollar Man) who each work with a different moveset and approach. The two things running through them all are fantastic selling and great intensity, perhaps he loses some of the latter in his MDM WWF run. I think the main problem with Ted as MDM was not that any of his fundamentals declined, it's just what happens to a lot of guys in WWF: he established a certain easy match and then was able to just keep repeating it. The problem is, as OJ's run through matches in this thread demonstrate, that match structurally speaking isn't very satisfying because he doesn't spend enough time on offense and what he does do isn't all that focused. The key thing about the Ted I've seen recently in both 79 and in 82-3 has been that regardless of the style he's working, he's tremendously focused on a particular gameplan.

For my New Japan watching, I'll have the Cowboy Wally live simul-casts recorded back in 2009 for company, will give them a chance. New Japan 1.1 Tatsumi Fujinami & Kantaro Hoshino vs. Dynamite Kid & Steve Keirn (1/18/80) Dynamite has the shaved head here and is very spritely. All flash. The guys on the podcast spend a lot of time talking about how Hoshino looks like a "panda midget". Neat exchanges between Fujinami and Dynamite. Very exhibitiony. Kiern looks alright. Dynamite gives Hoshimoto a butterfly suplex. FIP sequence now. They take out his leg. Goes outside. Hoshino comes back with suplex variations. DK hits his flying headbutt for a pin. This first fall seemed to have no flow to me. Didn't tell a story, even though the work was smooth and slick. Second fall and Hoshimo is on fire but not for long and the gaijins work him over again. DK is a very MOVEZ sorta guy. Keirn gives him two backbreakers. Flying kneedrop from DK. Fujinami gets a tag, hits a suplex for 1-1. Things these guys have done on the commentary so far: - Harped on with the "panda midget" stuff - Made lame veiled references to Benoit doing the DK headbutt - Treated every submission hold like a resthold - Ragged on Lex Luger Two more matches and I'll make a decision on whether I stick with them. Bit too smarky for my tastes. I'm giving them some leeway for this being 2009, but still starting to bug me. Cool suplex by Hoshimo. Keirn hits a shoulderbreaker and that's it. **1/2, no flow to this one for me. There were some cool bombs, but this felt like it just "happened". New Japan 1.2 Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Steve Keirn (2/3 Falls) (2/1/80) Eddie Graham is reading out a statement and the guys on the pod ask "is that Gordon Solie". Starting to be a real distratction. They don't know who it is. C'mon now. "Was Steve Keirn ever NWA Champion?" Strike 2, losing patience. This is a very quiet crowd. Decent grapevine by Fujinami during the early matwork. Keirn comes back with an Indian deathlock and falls back on it a few times. Modified STF now. Very amatuer-style match so far. Headlock takeover by Fujinami, a lot of struggle from Keirn. Front headlock. Keirn starts busting out some strikes. Double stomp. Backbreaker. Both guys look pretty good here. The bandage from Fujinami's head comes loose. Big ref bump. Keirn rams Fujinami's head into various posts. Keirn bashes Fujinami's head many many times. But the bell goes. Either a DQ for a closed fist or a countout because Keirn was on the apron outside the ropes. Pretty hot first fall. Fujinami is busted open. Second fall now and Keirn hits a shoulder breaker. Piledriver. That's not a three? Wow. Suplex. Keirn has beat the shit out of Fujinmai here. He's bashing his head into the mat now. Several European uppercuts from Fujinami now. A dropkick. Just a hopespot because Keirn punches him in the face. Bodydrop. GERMAN SUPLEX by Fujinami. 2-0 and that's it! **** This was a really good match and a great babyface performance from Fujinami, and Keirn looked phenomenal dishing out the offence. "Are we going to find out who the guy with the monstrous chin is?" New Japan 1.3 Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Dynamite Kid (2/5/80) Octopus by DK to start. Test of strength. European uppercuts vs. headbutts here. DK very crisp on the snapmares. Deep armdrag by Fujinami. Butterfly suplex by DK. Gutwrench suplex by Fujinami. DK seems to have a nose bleed. Suplex. Diving headbutt. More lame Benoit jokes. Come on dudes. They've been vaguely tolerable for the past 30 minutes or so. He misses another diving headbutt. Two dropkicks by Fujinami. Drop toehold and a very cool pin. Good match. ***3/4 New Japan 1.4 Antonio Inoki vs. Stan Hansen (2/8/80) First 5-6 minutes, this might be the worst Hansen match I've seen. Inoki's matwork is pretty dull. Lonnng reverse chinlock. Doesn't seem like there's a whole lot of cooperation going on here. Lariat! 2-count. Misses a big splash. Massive dropkick by Inoki sends Hansen outside. Both men out, up for a Razor's edge, neat reversal by Inoki. Suplex back in? Counter by Inoki. Belly-to-back. Bodyslam. Inoki goes up. Low blow. Countout finish. I did not care for this much at all. **

I feel like I kinda no sold Johnny's group love at the end of the show, but y'know I'm British, we get embarrassed! So I have to say this. Anyone will tell you that I was a little apprehensive of having five guys on the line for these shows and it was not the plan to do that every time but ... honestly, something has just clicked with this group. Johnny Sorrow has been a star on these shows, but everyone brings something to the table. Kelly the cool, studious Canadian, Pete is kinda pumped up and brings great energy, James is laid back and has that cool gravelly voice and delivers some knockout one-liners. I never in a million years thought that talking about wrestling from 1979 could be this much fun. But this stuff has blown away my preconceptions and these guys have helped obliterate any concerns I had about this show being too similar to WTBBP by giving it a totally different vibe and feel. So thanks for the time you give to this and I'm genuinely looking forward to plowing on through the set and seeing what Kelly and James have planned for the specials.

I'm probably a bigger "offense" guy than most people who post here and by God is Bob Orton Jr awesome. Thought he was great vs. Wahoo and Youngblood at Starrcade 83. Thought he was awesome in that match Dylan mentions from AWA. I'd love to see some more of him.

placetobenation.com/titans-of-wrestling-4-wwf-july-to-august-1979/ Parv and James welcome back Titans regulars Kelly, Pete and Johnny Sorrow for more 1979 goodness. On the docket tonight: 07-30 BOB BACKLUND vs PAT PATTERSON WWF TITLE MADISON SQUARE GARDEN 07-30 JAY STRONGBOW vs GREG VALENTINE STRAP MATCH MADISON SQUARE GARDEN 07-30 ANDRE/SANTANA/PUTSKI/DENUCCI vs VALIANTS/ALBANO MADISON SQUARE GARDEN 08-79 NIKOLAI VOLKOFF CRUSHES APPLES WWF TV 08-26 STRONGBOW, ALBANO/VALIANTS, PAT/WIZARD, BACKLUND, ANDRE WWF TV 08-27 PAT PATTERSON/WIZARD, GREG VALENTINE/WIZARD PROMOS WWF TV 08-27 BOB BACKLUND vs PAT PATTERSON WWF TITLE MADISON SQUARE GARDEN 08-27 BRUNO SAMMARTINO vs NIKOLAI VOLKOFF MADISON SQUARE GARDEN 08-27 ANDRE THE GIANT vs JERRY VALIANT MADISON SQUARE GARDEN Some other topics include: - Explaining the appeal of Bob Backlund to fans raised on 1) the Hogan-era, 2) the Attitude era, and 3) current WWE. And why is he so divisive? - Stooging: to what extent if any is "parity" between the offense of faces and heels important? - General marking out for the greatness of Pat Patterson - The structure of MSG cards - Detailed bio for Dominic Denucci (by Kelly) - The total and utter douchery of Chief Jay Strongbow - Favourite memorable wrestling fans The PWO-PTBN Podcast Network features great shows you can find right here at Place to Be Nation. By subscribing on iTunes or SoundCloud, you’ll have access to new episodes, bonus content, as well as a complete archive of: Where the Big Boys Play, Titans of Wrestling, Pro-Wrestling Super-Show, Good Will Wrestling, and Wrestling With the Past.

Some good discussion here and a good job with so many people on the line. My thought on the "legacy" talking point is that the extent to which we are already in the legacy of Flair is understated. In the 1970s, guys didn't work like Flair. They worked the mat, much slower and more technical. Flair was "bump and move". He probably got it from Ray Stevens and Pat Patterson, but Flair took that next level and popularised it to the point that it became a dominant style. Flair's role in that seismic shift in working style is underplayed because people tend to view wrestling history through a WWF/E prism. In that story, Bret is the guy who turned the main event scene from Hogan and muscle dudes to be more technical work orientated. While there's some truth to that, I honestly think it's overstated: by Bret himself, by fans, by everyone. Savage was more work orientated. FLAIR was champ in 92. But in any case, what's the real legacy of it? Diesel has a run right in the middle of his next period on top. Rock is the champ by 1999. A massively roided up HHH is champ by 2000. Hardly pin up guys for technical wrestling or workrate. What's the net impact? I honestly think it's not a lot more than "Bret was not Hogan". I am not trying to run Bret down by saying that, I just think his importance to the development of wrestling is wildly overstated. Flair's importance in popularizing "bump and move" is incalculable. It's like trying to work out how the Beatles or Bob Dylan exactly influenced rock: it's so deeply embedded in there that it's just part of the very fabric of the genre. I don't think Bret is a guy like that. Loss didn't mention it on this show, but I like the take he made once about Bret in 93-4 being a return to a Backlund-style champ.

Andre was a good worker in the 70s, it's not just a line guys roll out either, it's true. How much 70s Andre have you watched? I only ask this, because it would seem strange to me if a guy had seen a bunch of 70s Andre to pick out those two matches from his career.

Screenshots for this surreal edition of TNT (07/31/84): Alfred sitting next to Albano in his ridiculous pink suit. Wendi Ritcher's "Victory Party". Crusher Verdu. Putski vs. Ventura, Over the Top style. Adonis and Murdoch. Okerlund with random New Yorker 1. Okerlund with random New Yorker 2. Okerlund with random New Yorker 3. Adonis doing the "sewer touch" challenge. "$42??!!!" "Uncle Joe" and a random guy. Adonis and Murdoch order hot dogs. Racial abuse. Adonis and Murdoch crash the Pow Wow. Strongbow: most boring man in the world.

Thanks Loss. I don't want to get too into it and will probably follow this up with similar articles on Bob Dylan, and a few other acts I know inside out, and maybe a series where I pick out 20 albums from key periods or genres. I'm not quite there with my Iggy knowledge, but yeah a big fan of The Idiot Charles. It's a little personal for me because the track "Dum Dum Boys" really really reminds me of my brother who has had some ... issues in his life. But it's a great album. "China Girl" has some of Iggy's best dark lyrics. "Funtime" has this sinister underbelly as does "Nightclubbing", weird sense of foreboding on the whole thing. I'd safely give that album ***** as well as Lust for Life. I guess we should take further music talk to PMs because I could talk for hours about some of this stuff and this is P.W.O. dammit.

I've got a bus ticket with your name on it. The destination? Cheeseville. It's time once again for TNT. July 31st, 1984. Lord Alfred is wearing a ridiculous pink suit this evening. He might have made a decent Mad Hatter if Vince ever decided to do Alice in Wonderland. Oh shit I have to pause this now for some fantasy casting: A 12-year old Stephanie as Alice. Fred Blassie as the Caterpillar. Ok, let's not do this. On with the show. Coming up on the show, we're going to Adrian Adonis's birthplace and where he grew up in New York city. He'll be showing Dick Murdoch around. I can't wait. In other news, recently Fabulous Moolah defended her women's title against Cyndi Lauper's choice, Wendi Ritcher. Alfred talks for a minute without saying anything I could feasibly note down. Moolah lost, Richter won. Here's Lou Albano to account for what happened. Vince says that Moolah hasn't lost in 20 years, so the differentiating factor has to be Albano. That's right, twist the knife Vince. Albano wants to go to commercial break to steady himself before he answers. They do so. Albano: First of all, any time you're involved with a woman, you're a loser. I said before they should be at home raising kids. He argues that Moolah technically pinned Richter. That her shoulders were up and Richter's were down. He wants a rematch. Vince says, gleefully, that at this stage Moolah probably doesn't want Albano managing her. Albano: I'm the manager of 14 tag-team champions. I'm the manager of MEN. Professional wrestlers. Not women, they belong in the kitchen like I said. I was not a manager, I was a technical advisor! They argue about what he was doing on the apron in that match. Albano said he slipped. He rants and raves and Vince throws over to Gene Okerlund. Mean Gene is at Wendi Richter's victory party. It's like that club from Scarface. Gene says there are MTV dignitaries everywhere, and Hogan is on his way. Here he is. Right in the middle of this party he cuts a full-on pumepd up promo. Is it the right place for this Hulk? People are eating canapes here! A kid with a big Hogan finger comes in ... where was Cyndi Lauper? Where was Wendi Richter? Back in the studio, Albano runs through all his bullshit again about how he made Lauper. All the same stuff as last time we saw him. Back at the party with Okerlund and Wendi Richter is there now. She's proud for women, and proud she won the belt. Cyndi Lauper is there too! And the Wild Samoans. And David Wolf! Nooooo. Wolf has shaved off his groovy moustache. Tragedy. Okerlund asks Afa what he thinks. He spots lipstick marks on his cheek. Cyndi Lauper has been giving him "victory kisses". Who else is here now. Sgt. Slaughter! Out of uniform! Slaughter looks like he's been on it. He calls it an "historic day" -- 26 years Moolah has been champ. Albano storms out of the studio and Vince shills WWF Magazine. Vince and Alfred talk about Adonis and Murdoch now. But first, let's see a match of them taking on Terry Daniels and Sgt. Slaughter. ... However, for whatever reason, the matches on this particular DVD have been edited out. How odd. Now why would someone edit out the matches? So we go straight back to Vince and Alfred talking about the match, which the champs won by targeting Daniels. Now it's time for my favourite weekly segment: THE MAILBAG (*weak cheering*). A Native American (Vince says "Indian") is hiding behind the sofa with it and delivers it to Alfred. From Minneapolis, Minnesotta: I was recently in vactaion in Hawaii, and I could have sworn I saw Don Muraco surfing. It was quite a shock. Does he really live there and does he like surfing? Diana Pearson. Vince says he enjoys both so it was definitely him. From Baton Rougue, Louisiana: We always watch TNT and like the interviews, but when are you going to have our favourite, Tito Santana, on again? We think he is cute. We also like Hulk Hogan very much. Francis Lerner, Janet Prior, Candy Nadine Vince says that Tito is very busy as IC champ so scheduling him is difficult, but they'll have him back on again as soon as they can. From Corpus Christi, Texas: Dear TNT, my parents come from Spain. Some time ago, a wrestler called Crusher Verdu was here. Could you show an old film of him for my mother and father. Rosa Lambane Vince says they are going to show some Crusher Verdu in the nostalgia files against Mario Milano. Going on Graham's site, it looks like this was a Boston match from July 18th, 1970. No commentary. Oh good, they haven't clipped this out. Verdu is fat as fuck. Didn't look bad at all. Vince asks Alfred if he ever wrestled Verdu or Milano in his career. He says that he never did but saw Verdu alot in Europe. He was from Barcelona. He saw him wrestle at the Le Palais des Sports in Paris on two occasions -- and a 17 or 18 year old Andre was there at the time. And then he left Europe and came to America and he hasn't seen him since. I think the Nostalgia bits of TNT are one of the best parts of it. It's a little surprising that Vince was keen on giving it 5 minutes of airtime every week. Now, back to present matters and Jesse Ventura and Ivan Putski have had some issues. Putski had a polka party at which Vince was quite the raver by all accounts. But Ventura took exception to the type of music being played and wanted rock n roll. So, of course, the two of them had ... an arm wrestling match! Jesse loves his arm wrestling. Oh goodie, we get to see it. Polish Power is still over with the crowd and his bigger and more roided up than ever. He also looks like he's spent the best part of a month under a sun bed. He's the colour of a deep fried turkey. Ventura is wearing a glittery thing on his head with rasta dreads coming down off it and shades. The crowd boo him. Ventura inspects the table. Posing and flexing from Putski and Ventura now. I don't like Putski's body. His arms are weird. Ventura says he's going to "bust" Putski. Ventura is complainging about every single detail before locking up. And they do so. Ventura quickly breaks. He's not ready. A lot of stalling and psych-up stuff from Jesse. They lock up again and he breaks again. Putski is getting pissed off. Ventura is complaining about something. They lock up again. This time Putski breaks. Crowd goes wild. Ventura throws a tantrum and slams a chair on the floor. Putski does something cool now. He points to himself: the crowd cheer. He points to Ventura: the crowd boo. Cheer. Boo. Cheer. Boo. You can't argue with this, it worked. Ventura is hot. Finally they lock up. Ventura has Putski almost down. A lot of struggle. Putski is fighting back. Ventura cheats by grabbing the side of the table to bring it back. The ref didn't see it. He's almost got Putski. POLISH POWERRRRRRR. Ventura cheats again to bring it back. Are you blind ref? Putski fights back again. Jesse has had enough and drops an elbow across his head. He grabs a chair and slams him on the back of the head over and over again. Stomps now. He slams the ref down. He spits on Putski and flexes his muscles. Knee drop. Knee drop. Crowd boo. Say what you want about these two, ladies and gents, that was pro wrestling distilled into a 5-minute arm wrestling match. And it was more over than most probably 85% of matches you'll ever see. This was the sort of shit Vince was good at. Vince and Alfred talk about who they think would have won if it been allowed to go. Alfred is very grave: "in the long run, Ventura is going to have to pay for those sins". Now it's time for our guests: Adrian Adonis and Dick Murdoch. Adonis walks in like an extra from William Friedkin's Cruising. Dick Murdoch is wearing a baseball cap and wouldn't be out of place on King of the Hill. That's what they were going for with this team, so it worked. A true odd-couple, North and South. Special report now and Okerlund is on location in some back alley in New York. Graffiti on the door. Empty whisky bottles on the floor. Could this be the home of Adrian Adonis? Okerlund can't believe that this is where Adonis lives. Can't get an answer. So Okerlund goes looking elsewhere. A random guy comes walking down the street. He has a graffiti'd t-shirt and appears to be gay. He asks him where he lives: "somewhere over there". Okerlund finds another place now. A black woman answers the door. Okerlund: Excuse me, does Adrian Adonis live here? Woman: Huh? Okerlund: One half of the world tag-team champions, Adrian Adonis? Does he live here? Woman: I don't know. Oklerlund: Do you speak English? Comprende Anglais? Woman: Eh no. What the hell is this? Ha ha ha ha ha. Another location now and Adonis is leaning against a doorway. Adonis: Where've you been? 266 like I told ya Oklerund: You've gotta be kidding me. Adonis takes Okerlund on a little tour of New York now. This guy is from the streets man. They are standing right in the middle of the street and Adonis starts shouting at drivers. "Ah, they'll move around. Go on, move it! This is my neighborhood, not yours!" As if this couldn't get any stranger, Adonis claims that he's in the Guinness Book of World Records for touching the most sewer caps in the shortest amount of time. And, of course, we get a live demonstration. This is fucking ridiculous. He runs to one and then does a cartwheel to the second one. Meanwhile, Murdoch rocks up in a yellow cab. Murdoch: Here ya go partner, ten, that outta cover it. Taxi Driver: Ten? That'll be 42 dollars. Murdoch: 42 dollars?! You only took me around the block! Jay c'mhere I need some money. We only went six blocks, forty-two! Jay! Jay! That was funny. There is an old woman sitting in the street. Okerlund: Do you know Adrian Adonis, world tag-team champion? Woman: No. Okerlund: He grew up in this neighbourhood, do you know him. Are you from around here? Woman: All my life. I never saw him. Okerlund: Adrian Adonis! I thought this was your Aunt Sophie! Woman: No I'm not. Ha ha. What the fuck am I watching here. Amazing. There's an outdoor wardrobe now which Adonis, Okerlund and Murdoch peruse. Adonis claims this is his back yard. An old man turns up now. Okerlund: Who is this? Adonis: Uncle Joe. Uncle Joe!!! Adonis tries to shake his hand. The old man no sells. He exchanges some words with Oklerund. Adonis: "He looks good for 53 doesn't he?" This guy must be in his 70s at the youngest. There's another old man there who comes along and says he saw the two of them win the titles. I have no idea what this whole special report was meant to be but it has been awesome. They are next to a fire hydrant now and Adonis claims he used to use it to shower. There's a dog there. Adonis says that's "old Red". Murdoch says this is a whole new world for him. They go to a hotdog stand now. They order three hotdogs. Murdoch wants mustard on there like back in Texas. He likes it. They have a motorbike now. Murdoch rides in the back and they are headed to MSG. I can't believe I just watched that. Maybe one day Chad can come to London and we'll try to recreate this. Back in the studio and Adonis says that they have the best basic wrestling skills in the world. Murdoch says some stuff too. Adonis uses the line "Even when I'm lying, I'm telling the truth". Back from the break and Chief Jay Strongbow is here as a guest. Murdoch and Adonis are still on the sofa. Murdoch: Get to the back of the bus boy, we're the world champions! Strongbow looks at him icily. Vince wants them to move down by they will not budge. Vince calls Strongbow one of the all-time greats and Murdoch bursts out laughing. Strongbow starts mumbling something and Murdoch says "what's the point in having him out here, you can't even hear him speak!" He has a point. Alfred looks uncomfortable sitting next to Murdoch and calls him an "empty barrel". Murdoch: Well you wouldn't know coming from England, you've never won a war, have you. Sir! Read your history. Vince is upset with Murdoch and Adonis being so disrespectful. Strongbow: I wish they'd go back to the swamp. Ouch. That's a zinger Chief! Sick burn. We get a clip of Strongbow vs. Tony Russo now. This is actually from July 12th 1983. I refuse to recap this sub-par action. The choice of match is particularly poor because Vince and Bruno spend the whole time talking about Lou Albano signing a title match for the Samoans against Atlas and Johnson. Some bad oversight considering they've spent the entire episode building up Adonis and Murdoch. Strongbow wins with a sleeper in 3 minutes. Back to the studio and Adonis thinks it was a chokehold. Mudoch: Was that camera in slow motion? Vince: No the replay was Murdoch: Oh I thought the whole match was. It must have been in black and white too. Vince: How do you think Jay Strongbow's sleeperhold compares or contrasts with that of Adrian Adonis? Top journalism by Vince here. Good, hard-hitting question. Murdoch: Well, number one, my dad was the most famous guy in the world to ever use the sleeperhold. And he taught me and I taught Adrian. Case closed. Some Native American chanting comes from off-stage now. Oh god. A "Pow Wow" now, with members of Strongbow's "Indian heritage". I can only imagine what is about to happen. Murdoch and Adonis immediately start poking fun of this. Adonis asks "where's the corn?" A lot of fairly racist jokes from them now. Strongbow gets up to go to the Pow Wow. More jibes from Murdoch and Adonis. Alfred is still just sitting there in his stupid pink suit. Alfred argues that they are privileged have "people like this on our programme". They go over to a teepee now and various tribe members are dancing and chanting. Jesus Christ, Strongbow is just a barrel of laughs isn't he. Zero charisma seemingly. Strongbow: What a lot of people don't know is that the teepee was like a trailer. The Indian believed in not destroying the land that he lived on. So when the food dried up, they'd pick up the tee pee and move along. Vince: So it was the first mobile home then? Strongbow: You might say that. And also, the teepee was used by plains Indians. I'm a Cherokee; we never had teepees. Strongbow totally miserable during this segment. Blandly stating facts about the buffalo hides. This is quite educational. Like a Sesame Street segment. Vince wants more war dancing. There are three or four different tribes being represented. Strongbow couldn't be less enthused about all this. Thank god, Murdoch and Adonis turn up now in their car. Vince is disgusted and wants them gone. Adonis calls them "clowns jumping around in Turkey feathers". Alfred is there too. So what, he got in the car with them? Vince wants to talk about how the dancing is symbolic. Alfred assures Strongbow not to worry about those two, that he has too much dignity and pride to waste time worrying about the likes of them. Strongbow is upset at the lack of respect. More of this war dancing goes on. Strongbow talks about how proud he is of his heritage. He can't explain his feelings. Vince is happy that they are outside in the stars. Strongbow starts war dancing too. Vince is pumped about it. And the show ends. Executive producer: Kevin Dunn. Is it wrong I really want Murdoch and Adonis to come back and deck the shit out of Strongbow's boring ass? I think I hate the guy. Join us next time for more TNT!

Housekeeping: Midsouth d1 rankings: ****3/4 Cowboy Bill Watts & Stagger Lee vs. The Midnight Express (4/22/84) ****1/2 Mid-South Tag Team Titles, loser leaves town: The Junkyard Dog & Mr. Olympia [c] vs. Ted DiBiase & Matt Borne **** Ted DiBiase vs. Bob Roop (4/2/82) Mid-South Tag Team Titles, no disqualification: The Rock ‘n Roll Express [c] vs. The Midnight Express (5/23/84) Houston Street Fight: Hacksaw Jim Duggan vs. Ted DiBiase (7/29/83) The Rock ‘n Roll Express vs. Butch Reed & Buddy Landell (3/28/84) ***3/4 Mid-South Tag Team Titles: The Junkyard Dog & Mr. Olympia [c] vs. Ted DiBiase & Hacksaw Jim Duggan Mid-South Tag Team Titles: Mr. Wrestling II & Magnum T.A. [c] vs. The Midnight Express (2/10/84) ***1/2 Chavo Guerrero vs. Mr. Olympia (6/24/83) *** Mr. Olympia vs. Paul Orndorff (2/3/82) Mike George vs. Bob Roop (12/16/81) Mid-South Tag Team Titles, Steel Cage Match: Butch Reed & Jim Neidhart [c] vs. Mr. Wrestling II & Magnum T.A. (12/25/83) The Junkyard Dog vs. Nick Bockwinkel (6/11/82) The Junkyard Dog & Mr. Wrestling II vs. Ted DiBiase & Matt Borne (2/16/83) AWA World Heavyweight Title: Nick Bockwinkel [c] vs. Dusty Rhodes (5/20/83) **1/2 Mississippi Heavyweight Title: Mr. Olympia [c] vs. Bob Roop (7/15/82) Lumberjack Match: Buck Robley vs. The One Man Gang ** Mid-South Tag Team Titles, loser leaves town: Ted DiBiase & Matt Borne [c] vs. Stagger Lee & Mr. Olympia D+ Hacksaw Butch Reed vs. The Iron Sheik (4/8/83) * Mid-South Tag Team Titles: The Midnight Express [c] vs. Bill Dundee & Pork Chop Cash (4/6/84)

Midsouth 1.11 Butch Reed vs. Iron Sheik (4/8/83) A lot of heat for Sheik here. Reed is a heel, but as Watts explains, people have put their dislike of him aside for this match because they hate Iron Sheik so much. He mentions his feud with Backlund in WWF too. Seems like he's already beaten him so the date is wrong? This has to be later than April 83. "You better come with more than just a big reputation from the big apple". I think Watts is just so good on commentary. Long head-scissor spot to start, and some amatuer-style counter wrestling from these two. Watts is constantly putting across key points: Sheik's amatuer background, Reed's football background, how Reed has had to overcome this and that to become a pro wrestler. There is a lot of feeling out still here. Big atomic drop by Reed. Sheik bails over the top from it and wants a DQ. No cigar. Reed works the arm now. The ropes on this Mid-south ring are incredibly slack. Multiple kneedrops by Reed on Sheik's arm. Watts calls Sheik the "Ayotollah's former bodyguard". Fun trivia fact: he was the Shah's bodyguard, not the Ayotollah's. Suplex by Reed. Multiple dropkicks now. Flying body tackle. Wow, this was basically a squash! I didn't think this was very good. *1/2 Midsouth 1.12 Nick Bockwinkel vs. Dusty Rhodes (5/20/83) These two feel like old friends who I know from different places now meeting each other in an unusual context. Typical Dusty start to this match. He's on the fatter end of the Dusty scale here. Bock's hair is on the longer end of the Bock-immaculate-hair scale too. Headlock by Bockwinkel: Backlund take note, that's how you do it and make it interesting. Some great Bock punches and kicks in the corner. Flying mare gets a two count. King of the Mountain time now. The more I think about that, the more it absolutely makes sense for a dirty-heel to do. Big comeback from Dusty now and Bock sells the elbows like a boss. Crowd is apeshit for Dusty. Figure-four. Bock grabs the ref and throws him out of the ring. He nails Dusty with something which gives him instant colour. 1, 2, 3. Booooo. The crowd start throwing trash into the ring as Dusty is still out cold. This was fun. *** Midsouth 1.13 Mr. Olympia vs. Chavo Guerrero (6/24/83) I had memories of loving this first time around, so let's see if it still holds up. Fast pace to start as Chavo hits 4 dropkicks. Olympia bails and wants a timeout. He's heel and is being managed by Skandor Akbar. Chinlock by Olympia. Some rope running and Chavo hits a flying burrito. Some armwork by Chavo now. Misses a running somersault splash (I made up the name) and Olympia goes back to the chinlock. Sunset flip out of nowhere by Chavo gets 2. Olympia goes back to the reverse chinlock. Chavo answers with some arm wrenches. Olympia busts out some strikes. Very good back-and-forth struggle in this early matwork section. Chavo pulls Olympia from the nose of his mask and drives him into the turnbuckle. Goes for it again but ends up eating it himself. Olympia takes over. Scoop slam. Backbreaker. Chavo hits a short distance flying bodypress out of nowhere for two. 10 minutes gone. This descends into a brawl. Jerry Usher reprimands Chavo for using the fists and as he's doing so, Olympia sneaks something over his boot and nails him with a dropkick. Sleeper. Misses a move from second rope. Chavo makes a comeback. German suplex. And that's the three. This was not as awesome as I remember it being. Chavo was pretty great and showed good fire but Olympia was channelling Rick Rude at his worst with all the chinlocks. ***1/2, disappointing. I had this earmarked for top 5. Post-match DiBiase turns up for the heel beatdown using his taped fist until Wrestling II is out. Midsouth 1.14 Ted DiBiase vs. Hacksaw Duggan (Street Fight) (7/29/83) I will save the "Famous feuds: DiBiase vs. Duggan" extra until I get to just before the Tuxedo match. This one starts at sprint pace with Duggan punching the shit out of Ted's face. Ted is wearing a very 70s-looking pale blue t-shirt. Duggan in a green number. Proper slugfest this. Duggan chokes Ted and rips his nice 70s t-shirt. Aww, that was a nice t-shirt. Sneaking eye rake from DiBiase turns things around. He uses the gloved fist. Takes his belt off and chokes Duggan with it. Wraps the belt around his fist and lays it into Duggan's head. I will likely catch flak for this, but ... Ted punches are underrated. Duggan takes his belt off now and starts whipping DiBiase with it. Ted bails. Gets a face full of iron railings. Duggan posts him. He grabs a chair now. Eye rake swings things for Ted again. He misses with the chair. Back in the ring. 10 punches in the corner for Duggan. Akbar hits the apron allowing DiBiase to hit a running knee. Black glove now. Akbar hits the ring again. Ted accidentally hits him with a chair. Duggan nails Ted with the chair for the 3. Wild brawl. **** Midsouth 1.15 Mr. Wrestling II & Magnum T.A. vs. Butch Reed & Jim Neidhart (Cage Match) (12/25/83) It's that black TBS-style cage. No commentary. You can hear every crash and bang, very cool. If I was Butch Reed I'd want to be packing more than just a young Jim Neidhart against these two even if they were the tag champs at this point, even though Wrestling II is pretty old here. Magnum hiys a lot of big atomic drops on Reed early doors. Allows him to tag: that's the hubris and over-confidence of youth. From behind, Neidhart looks quite a lot like The Warlord here. Predictably, Magnum loses advantage for being too cocky and eats the cage. This cage is bigger than the ring so he falls to the outside. It's kinda like the Chamber of Horrors cage, without the zombies. Reed looks good dishing out punishment. Nice big elbow. There is about three feet between the ring and the side of the cage, so Magnum is going a long way to fly into it. And then falls down into the gap. Looks nasty. This bigger cage actually changes the dynamic of the whole match. So Neidhart distracts the ref while Magnum is lying outside and Reed sneaks down to nail him into the cage again. Hot tag to Wrestling II causes the big stadium foghorn noises to break out. Heels get back on top and Neidhart looks alright doing some of the power stuff. Quickly goes into a front chinlock though. Tags in and out now as they work over Wrestling II. "Double heat". Reed hits a flying shoulder block from the top rope. Knee drop. 1, 2 -- he pulls him up. Take note Shawn Michaels: Butch Reed is a heel. Neidhart manages to get Wrestling II's mask but under it is ... another mask! In the confusion, he is able to tag to Magnum for the win and they are new tag champs. ***, enjoyable enough. Thought Neidhart ran out of ideas very quickly when he was in during the control segments. Midsouth 1.16. Mr. Wrestling II & Magnum T.A. vs. Midnight Express (2/10/84) Here we go. The Midnights are here. Eaton looks young here. Wrestling II does all his dancing shit. Why southern faces have to dance? Again, no commentary on this. Midnights do a few comedy miscommunication spots. Condrey doesn't have the beer belly at this stage. Jim Cornette looks like he's fresh out of high school. After the shine, the Midnights work on Wrestling II's arm but get the worst of it after he does a series of armdrags and hits a kneelift. Eaton bails and Condrey wants a time out. They do the hug outside to the derision of this Mid-South crowd. Condrey starts massaging Eaton's arm and Wrestling II has seen enough. All four men in now. Referee has lost control of this one. Atomic drop by Wrestling II. We still haven't had a proper FIP segment yet. Condrey stooges in the corner and Magnum tags in. Condrey begs off. Magnum is on fire and doesn't care. Eye rake by Condrey and Eaton's in. Magnum comes back strong and manages to get Eaton in an armbar. Still no FIP segment?? Finally the heels gain control. Bodyslam by Eaton. Flying kneedrop. Condrey works Magnum's arm now. Eaton cuts off the hot tag. Eventually Magnum gets it. Wrestling II goes 2 vs. 1 now against both Midnights. Hits a neat kneelift on Eaton. Cornette throws powder into his face and the bell goes for an instant DQ. ***3/4 Heel beatdown post-match now. Corny unloads on Magnum with the racket. The Midnights work over Wrestling II. Bill Watts grabs Cornette by the ear and wants to evict him. This is one long beatdown. Pretty awesome. Midsouth 1.17 Buddy Landel & Butch Reed vs. Rock N Roll Express (3/28/84) Even in 1984, I'm not buying Gibson as a heart-throb. Heels jump the RnRs to start and they come back with double dropkicks. This is our first appearance of Jim Ross on the set and his voice is a full decibel higher than it is in 87-90. A lot of heel miscommunication here. Cornette is ringside taking notes on a pad. Ross mentions that Magnum TA and Wrestling II are no longer a team. Reed hits a big cool-looking dropkick to turn the momentum and we get our FIP segment starting with Morton. Landel hits a slam and a kneedrop. Bodyslam. Double bodyslam. Big legdrop by "the Brickhouse" Butch Reed. Morton has a few hope spots here but Landel gets to his partner. Reed is just a wall of man at this point, impressive specimen. Assisted suplex by Reed. Big "go Ricky go" chant from the crowd. This is a classic Morton FIP sequence right here. Gorilla press slam by Reed. Now he Gorilla slams Landel onto Morton. Gets a 2. Ross puts over Morton's heart and courage strong on commentary. Gibson can't take anymore and gets into the ring. Cornette sneakily pulls down the rope and Gibson takes a tumble to the outside cracking his head on the floor. Reed has a pair of knuckle dusters and lays Morton out. That's it. Sucker job. Classic RnR formula match without the hot tag. Reed looked really good here. **** Midsouth 1.18 Midnight Express vs. Bill Dundee & Porkchop Cash (4/6/84) Christ, if memory serves Porkchop Cash is just awful. I may well be thinking about Thunderbolt Patterson because this dude is a fair bit smaller than the man I'm thinking of in terms of both height and weight. Cash does shucking and jiving. I fucking hate shucking and jiving. "But it got over with the fans Parv" Well fuck the fans; they are morons. "Nasty heel fan". Who are you anyway? "Your voice of inner reason". Well come on now, you're hijacking my review. Dundee in now. Starts working Condrey's arm. Quite a long shine sequence here. Porkchop Cash's dancing is doing my fucking head in. I might do my list of bottom 10 "dancing idiots" soon. It's between Cash and Pez Whatley for a spot in the top 3. Whatley has the edge because he even did that shit as a heel. Flying butt splash by Cash. Oh for fuck's sake punch him or tag out or whatever, no more shucking and jiving now. Cash is fast becoming my least favourite worker ever. It's ok to dance a little bit in the shine, but we're 8-9 minutes into the match now. Cut that shit out already. Condrey has an epic moustache here. FIP sequence gets going but this match has already kinda lost me. One thing that is notable is that when neither Watts nor Ross are in the booth, Mid-South commentary is pretty ropey. In fairness, this FIP sequence on Dundee has been really good. Dundee gets a tag to Dickhead Cash who eats a tennis racket for an awful-looking finish. Portion of match with Dundee: B-. Portion of match with Cash: E+ B- + E+ / 2 = * Fuck Porkchop Cash. Midsouth 1.19 Midnight Express vs. Bill Watts & Stagger Lee (4/22/84) Watts with some roundhose rights in the shine. The Midnights sell them as if he was hitting them with an actual steam train. Stagger Lee just sort of stands around, but I'll forgive that. Effective shine: don't mess with the boss! Eaton takes another right and is dazed and stunned. He takes another right and flies all the way across the ring. Just amazing selling. Eaton is so out of it now he over to Stagger Lee for a tag. Eats another fist. So simple this stuff, but the crowd is losing it and it's very very effective work. Condrey in now. Takes another Watts roundhouse right. It's like that fist is made out of 100% titananium. Stagger Lee in and Eaton is still out of it in what is turning into a heel in peril section. Lee pokes him in the eye. Turnbuckle. Watts back in. THUNDEROUS right. Nails Condrey for good measure. Heels manage to take advantage though and Cornette sneaks in with some racket shots for good measure. Classic Midnights dick heelery now as they distract the ref, wind Stagger Lee up and choke Watts out. Condrey is the king of this shit. Stomps on Watts now. Eaton gets him in a reverse chinlock in the camel clutch position. Crowd are just losing their shit here. It sounds like an actual riot. Amazing heat. Cool elbow drop by Eaton and Condrey takes over. This is called a heat segment. Stagger Lee has his arm outstretched for the tag, but Condrey cuts Watts off. Stagger Lee comes in anyway and hits the big slam on Eaton. Corny throws the racket in and Eaton lays Lee out with it. Condrey and Watts are in the corner. Watts is rousing himself now but still out of it. Eaton has powder in his hand but Watts kicks it up into his face for the 3. Fucking awesome. I loved this the first time around but if anything I like it even more now. They worked around the limitations of Watts and Lee perfectly. Three key points here. 1. Just a text-book study in how it's possible for sound structure to carry a match. 2. A testament to Eaton and Condrey as a amazing workers. They made Watts look like a genuine threat here. 3. Watts himself is obviously well past him prime but he is clever. He knows Eaton and Condrey will pinball for him. He knows they are good enough to extract the maximum heat from the FIP sequence. So all he had to do was lay there and take the punishment garnering sympathy. He almost didn't need to sell, the MX were that good here. Ah sod it, ****3/4, this is what pro wrestling is about. Post-match, the stip is that Cornette has to get into a nappy like a baby. And of course Watts is going to make damn sure the "sissy" follows through. Magnum TA is out too now just for insurance. Watts delights in stripping Cornette down who is begging and whining. Magnum gets down in the classic "school boy" position and Watts pushes Corny over. They strip off his red trousers to reveal his horrible white Y-fronts. Stagger Lee puts his foot on his chest to trap him. This is probably bullying kids, but Cornette almost certainly deserves it. They put the diaper on him and force him to drink from a big bottle. He walks around dazed and humilated. The crowd are losing it. Stagger Lee gives him a kiss on the lips and Cornette bails. Hi-fives all round from the faces. That is what you call a blow off and spectacular heat. Midsouth 1.20 Midnight Express vs. Rock N Roll Express (No DQ: Tag Titles vs. $50,000) (5/23/84) A contract signing hosted by Jim Ross first. Cornette has put up $50,000 for a shot at the titles. RnRs get the girls cheering at every mention. Matchmaker Grizzly Smith reads out all the stipulations. If MX win, they get the titles; if RnRs win, they get $25k each. Also, it's no DQ. The idea of a "contract signing" in this setting is so awesome. Love pro wrestling. Cornette uses the phrase "hornswaggle" a number of times. There's a shill for "Superdate at the Superdome": two lucky women win dates with the Rock n Roll Express. The seediest part of the package: "A hotel room for one". A week later now and Cornette cuts a pre-match promo to introduce his team and the greatest theme tune of all time. Condrey is rocking a Barry Gibb out of the Bee Gees look tonight. RnRs come out to a big ovation. Ok, here we go. Morton firey in the shine against Condrey. Gibson in. Full nelson, forearm smash. Eaton enters and gets him in a headlock. Gibson hits a dropkick and tags Morton in. Eaton vs. Morton now: for all the marvels. Morton throws Eaton over the top rope, but of course it's no DQ. No padding out there, just concrete. Pretty massive bump and we go into a break. Back and Condrey is working over Morton. Massive scoop powerslam by Eaton. Big knee drop by Condrey. "Go Ricky Go! Go Ricky Go!" Big bump out to the concrete now by Morton. Front roll into the hot tag. Cornette pulls the ropes again and Gibson in a repeat of the spot where Gibson injured himself -- nice call back. Meanwhile, Eaton is bleeding. Condrey comes off the top to knee drop Gibson but Morton dives across to make the save and take the hit. Gibson gets a sleeper on Eaton. Cornette has a rag doused in anasthetic. That's it for 3 and new tag champs. That was his plan all along. Very fun action-packed 12-minute match with Cornette's masterplan paying off. Very good booking here too because he's just had his comeuppance so now he needs a win to build him back up. **** Christ, I love Mid South. Next time: New Japan.

He must also do an armdrag too.