JerryvonKramer

I knew I'd got that name wrong, had a feeling but ... what's the pun? Been thinking about it for 5 minutes now and still can't work it out.

Was he ever above jobber level in any portion of his career? Just seems like he might have been an old territorial star or something (thinking Georgia?), he's definitely a notch or two above your average scrub.

I was in South Wales and yeah, American Gladiators was on after it and Prisoner Cell Block H before it. Thursday in the wee hours. Then, like I said, it switched to Saturday or Sunday afternoon around early 94. I don't think I ever saw any pro but I started watching around late 91 because Rude had just debuted. Remember it very well, the Dangerous Alliance just seemed like the coolest guys on earth to me at that age, especially remember when they all came in their tuxedos. My folks never had a satellite dish so no old WCCW for me. One of the things I'm looking forward to with these Yearbook sets is seeing how much WCW TV changes over the Herd era into 91 and then into Frey, Watts, and early Bischoff. I'm also really looking forward to seeing a lot of the big-time Japanese stuff I've never seen. My exposure to date is literally just the 80s All Japan DVDR set.

- Arn and Flair vs. Stallion and Kernodle and heels a lot more dominant. Kick the shit out of Stallion. Awesome double chop at one point. Unhappy with Kernodle here because he tags out after less than a minute after a beaten-up Stallion tagged him in -- he was the fresh man, why tag out?! Easy win for the Horsemen. Faces got nothing here. - Arn vs. Bill Mulkey, the ultimate wimpy wimp. Anyone play the Punch Out!! games, this dude is probably worse than Glass-eye Joe or Gabby Jay from the sequel. Arn: "this is your one shot at stardust right here". Massive right hand from Mulkey!! Arn is pissed. Jawing the fans. Viscous shots on Mulkey, playing with him almost. Crowd wants Arn to break Mulkey's arm, ha ha ha. Massive powerslam. Gordbuster. Cocky pin. Best Arn jobber match yet. - JJ Dillon is so awesomely smarmy around this time. Seems to me that he's more the manager of Tully in Jan-Feb 86 than of all four Horsemen. "Tully Blanchard Enterprises" - Arn really was the working champ, taking on Sam Houston now, who had not long won the Mid-Atlantic title back from Krushev. Arn is FIERCE in this time frame, an extra notch of aggression from him. Houston is one of those guys who just never seems to fill out, still looks 18 -- reckon Baby Doll had a schoolboy fetish. Match suffers when Houston is on offense. Very lame "Let's got Saaa-am, let's go" chant breaks out, sounds like there are a lot of kids in the crowd. Arn NAILS Houston in the gut. Injures Houston's arm which they broke last year, who sells it like a total pro. This chant could not sound any gayer. - Anyone got any info on Mike Jackson? He doesn't look like your typical jobber, seems like he'll have some interesting history judging by greying beard and custom-tights with "MJ" inscription -- looks a bit like how I'd imagine David Crockett to look as a wrestler. Cursory google search not much help. Got a reasonable about of token offense in during this match -- more than in your average SD Jones match. Never get tired of seeing the slingshot suplex. - Oooohhhhh, debut of the BIG GOLD BELT. Wow. "$40,000 of 24 carat gold." Noticed they spelt Flair's name on the plaque with a "k": "Rick Flair". Pretty awesome to see this.

Pretty sure we got Worldwide or World Championship Wrestling rather than Pro. I used to tape them on the same tape every week too, in a double header on LP with Prisoner Cell Block H!! Distinctly remember Jim Ross and Jesse Ventura being the hosts, so it wouldn't have been Pro. UNLESS they showed Pro in 91, and switched to one of the others in 92. Wouldn't put it past ITV, they were always cocking around with that slot - it would be 2am one week, 4am the next week. Then around late 93/ early 94 it switched to something like Sunday afternoon without warning.

- Arn promises that Ole will be back from injury in time to defend the National tag titles within the 30 days, pretty sure he's wrong on that. - Awesome Flair promo where he has a radio playing "The Wanderer" before claiming he's going to get off with Raquel Welch. I'm sure he mentions Raquel Welch in his book or on the 12-hour shoot intereview somewhere. - Could watch Arn Anderson jobber matches all day long. The beef with Baby Doll is an interesting little sub-story. Dusty Rhodes looks about 400lbs in jeans and lumberjack top. - Flair sporting an interesting shirt-jumper combo PLUS suit jacket number. I might bring that back when September comes around with the Top Gun shades and gold chain. - Arn is pretty pissed off A LOT around this time. Then his prick heel smugness and laughter at the ruling against Dusty Rhodes's steel boot is absolutely awesome. Then David Crockett gets in his face about it. I absolutely love this 80s JCP product, absolutely LOVE it. Crockett makes fun of Flair in the next segment as they show Garvin laying him out with his own show. "What happened Ric, did you slip?". Ha ha. Flair: "Tony Schiavone, you tell your wife I said hello brother, wooo". - JJ Dillon compares Baby Doll to a "Brontosaurus Rex". I'm not an expert in Dinosaurs but I'm pretty sure he's wrong on at least three levels there. A random girl from the crowd comes and gets off with Tully Blanchard. Flair: "I might even consider that blonde for Space Mountain sometimes". - Arn and Tully tagging now, against The Italian Stallion and Don Kernodle. Man, Kernodle has sure slipped down the card since the glory days of Final Conflict. David Crockett seems really on Tully's back, as always. He didn't like any heels, but he ESPECIALLY HATED Tully, for some reason. Faces look pretty good here. Awesome spot where Kernodle catches Tully coming from the top and powerslams him, double gordbuster on the Stallion to finish. At least a ***

Where the Big Boys Play #11 – Great American Bash 86: Part 1 Brian, Chad and Parv travel across 14 different cities over 33 days (well just 3 cities actually) to bring you the first part of their look at the Great American Bash 86. In this episode: speculation over where the 1986 Crockett Cup is now, how well the GAB 86 tour drew across different towns, Parv rails on Tommy Young (yet again), Brian on his experiences as a “bald-headed geek”, the greatest haircut in the history of US wrestling, and the continued devaluing of the TV title.

I only ask that because even right now, in the middle of the Olympic games and probably at the height of British national sentiment, don't think most Brits would care if they saw a Union Jack or St. George's Cross being burned. I'm sure some would, but reckon most wouldn't.

Out of interest, would you care if someone burned the US flag? Would it rile you up etc?

I don't really see a problem. Some of the shit Ted DiBiase did in those skits was pretty despicable if you think about it. What about Vince's kiss my ass club? If heels have to go a step further to get over and piss people off now, why not? That's what heels are meant to do.

I think the storyline was DiBiase claimed Luger had joined, but it was a swerve and Tatanka ended up turning on Luger and joining the Corporation. Luger allied with the Dungeon of Doom and tagging with Sting was 95/96, after he returned to WCW and before the start of the NWO angle. I think Luger has to win the award for most "turnable" guy then. Like there was always a question mark over his allegiances. Even if it wasn't a full turn, the potential for a turn was always there. For sure, he's not 100% heel when he's with the Dungeon of Doom.

Thanks a lot guys, high praise indeed. I'm a big fan of Dre and Blackcat's Old-school Wrestling Podcast too, and of Place to Be, Wrestling Culture with Dave and Dylan and wherever and whenever the man himself, Will / goodhelmet, makes an appearance. Agree with Chad that Brian adds a lot to these shows, I'm learning a lot from him too. GAB 86 part 1 should be out later tonight.

In Excel arena about to see the wrestling, lots of Americans around. Lots of Iranians too

What's more amazing is how they didn't get or give loads of kids (and Sean Mooney) diseases from actually LICKING them. The main difference between Mid-south Hacksaw and WWF Hacksaw is the in-ring work, and the intensity. It's more about working Watts style vs. working WWF style.

Didn't he ever join The Million Dollar Corporation? Also, when he's allied with Sullivan and still tagging with Sting, when was that?

I'm not typing it all out, but I'd put money on Luger being the most. At least as many as Show.

After The Olympics, I'm going to start THE NEW DISCIPLINE. In any given week I hope to watch: One episode of Tuesday Night Titans or Prime Time One NWA / PPV for podcast At least an hour of AWA for DVDR 80s Project At least an hour of 1990 yearbook. That's roughly 5 hours of wrestling spread out over the week. It will be humanly possible!

Do you think Jimmy Valiant would have got a title run with 00s-style booking?

Does anyone know exactly how many matches Ted DiBiase and Bret Hart had? Seems like those two had good chemistry. Up until recently, I thought there were just two - the one in 89 from Odessa and the one from 91. But there's also a random one from an MSG in 91 where Bret is the IC champion and -- weirdly -- Ted is challenging for it (weird because he never seemed like he was ever in the IC division). Sherri is with him. How many other Bret-Ted matches are out there? And did ANY of them have a result or were they all draws?

I have a vivid memory of a WCW News piece presented by Solie circa 1992 of a martial arts master coming to wreak havoc. I thought he name was "Kwang" but that was the WWF guy from Rumble 94. Does anyone else remember this? He was given a decent amount of hype.

Does anyone have any footage of that fat guy?? Iceman?

Awesome. This was the one I was waiting for, resisting the urge to dig into 92, so I could do the yearbooks in order.

I think there is a difference between the guys I was on about and the Hardy Boyz though. I don't think the analogy is perfect. Hardys were a value add in an already hot promotion. JYD, DiBiase, Jake, Rude, etc. etc. were robbing the opposition of their draws and then using those same draws to break certain towns AND they were a value add in an already hot promotion. I guess, there's an argument to say that once towns are established as WWF towns, then there's no more need for your JYDs and Duggans and so on ... I can go along with that. Buttttt .... I was actually making ANOTHER point: - How do you draw in a random viewer flicking over channels and keep them watching? It's the show vs. the button on the remote control. - My argument is this: that if you have colourful characters like a Million Dollar Man, or a Bossman, or a Brutus Beefcake, or whoever, then you've got your hook for the random channel surfer. 5 minutes in and he's see a rich man humilate a jobber, now he's watching a promo from Demolition! Now after 10 minutes he's getting his first look at Hulk Hogan who he's heard so much about. And maybe he sees enough to come back next week. What hooked YOU as a fan to start off with? What I'm saying is that if you switch on any random 5 minutes of Raw or SD now, you don't have that. You just don't. There's no hook there. I can't quantify that, but I do think it's been the trend for a decade now. This is kind of "the bland era" now, it's almost back to Backlund levels of dull. Feel free to disagree. My view is that the 80s boom was built on a combination of things: Hogan yes, to an extent the thing with buying regional stars, yes, but also that any kid turning on Primetime saw a host of colourful and interesting characters that held their interest long enough to get into a story. That's how they got from a standard wrestling audience to a mass mainstream audience.

Yeah I'm not disputing that. I'm saying that your Dibiases, Jakes, Duggans and so on could be billed as main events for a house show and draw 8000+ crowds. I'm saying Sheamus vs. Ziggler couldn't do that and it's not even sold like that, it's sold on "Raw is coming to town" or the WWE are doing a show. That's how they get their house show numbers now.