Ricky Jackson

This will be the ongoing thread for my new show with Superstar Sleeze (Marty Sleeze in the Titans universe) that will focus on historical tag team wrestling. Beginning with 1985 WWF, the plan is to eventually look at other territories (Carolinas, AWA, WCW, etc) and likely other countries (Japan, Mexico, etc), examining how tag team wrestling varied from place to place and from era to era. The pilot episode, released last month, is available here http://placetobenation.com/titans-xtra-tag-teams-back-again/ Episode 2 http://placetobenation.com/tag-teams-back-again-episode-2/ Join the "New Dream Team" Kelly Nelson and Marty "Superstar" Sleeze as they continue to examine tag team wrestling from 1985 WWF! Today, the focus turns to makeshift/short-lived tag teams, with discussion on a collection of matches featuring some of the biggest names in wrestling history. Tito Santana & Ricky Steamboat vs ??? & ???, 3/25/85 Brantford, Ont Andre the Giant & Paul Orndorff vs Roddy Piper & Bob Orton Jr, 8/10/85 MSG Tito Santana & Tony Atlas vs Randy Savage & Jesse Ventura, 12/7/85 Spectrum Andre the Giant & Hulk Hogan vs Big John Studd & King Kong Bundy, 10/31/85 SNME Bruno Sammartino & Paul Orndorff vs Roddy Piper & Bob Orton, CAGE MATCH 10/26/85 Spectrum Playlist http://www.dailymotion.com/playlist/x3odmk_kelly1977x_ttba/1#video=x4c6n1

Also, here's some hilarious footage of Larry in Bruno's International Wrestling

Whoops...The 1979 WWF tag champion Valiants were Johnny and Jerry, Kris. Not Johnny and Jimmy. Better brush up your knowledge before March 28 and BRAINBUSTER! Great stuff on the Bruno-Larry feud, man

Sweet find with the Rodz match! It's been added to the rotation of my Rodz thread. Going to listen to this shortly. Larry Z rules

Despite Parv's disdain, I will continue to plug away with WWF tag teams, now on TWO podcasts - Titans of Wrestling, reviewing the admittedly lackluster early- 80s scene AND the brand new Tag Teams Back Again, with Marty Sleeze, currently analyzing the mid-80s scene! Was WWF tag team wrestling always crappy? Did they experience a Golden Age in the late-80s? Is Tony Garea's hair magnificent or merely just awesome? Follow PTBN to find out!

Just watched this match in its entirety for the first time last night. What an amazing clusterfuck! It takes Buffer about 5 minutes to explain the rules.This has to be one of the most convoluted gimmick matches in history, an overbooked mix of War Games and the Royal Rumble with three teams and multiple stipulations that would make Vince Russo proud. Anyway, fun stuff once Rodman gets involved and all the wrestlers have entered the match. Super memorable finish and surely one of the greatest peaks of the NWO angle and WCW as a whole

Here's the complete playlist for part 1 and 2. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLp4lsXgSXkFA7W36th1gzmaw2I2Sl2obK

Also excellent in North By Northwest

Bob Backlund vs Ken Patera, TEXAS DEATH MATCH 5/19/80 MSG vs Killer Kahn, 12/29/80 MSG vs Dusty Rhodes, 5/27/80 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWTrMvJEOVE vs Sgt Slaughter, CAGE MATCH 3/21/81 Spectrum https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcky6VoQdg4 vs Hulk Hogan, 4/12/80 Spectrum http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2hicim_bob-backlund-vs-hulk-hogan-wwe-championship-match-full-match_sport

Time for some Bruno love... vs Larry Zbyszko, 3/24/80 MSG vs Spiros Arion, 2/17/75 (not 8/17 like the video says) and 4/14/75 (GREEK DEATH MATCH) MSG - JIP https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vr-3-IQ1PqE vs Giant Baba 3/7/67 w. Tito Santana vs Adrian Adonis and Randy Savage CAGE MATCH 7/12/86 MSG http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xwiacn_randy-savage-adrian-adonis-vs-bruno-sammartino-tito-santana_sport

What's the story on Richie Steamboat's and Brett DiBiase's career ending injuries? Funny, just realized yesterday that Steamboat had dropped off the face of the earth and remember him once being considered a good prospect.

It's not a gimmick, it's a state of mind

Kris, we discussed this last night and we determined you're too good a shooter to ever be allowed to compete.

Eh, I had it won in regulation and almost got screwed out of it because Johnny needed to get in his classy Benoit tribute

Verne's 89 and was in main events maybe as early as 1949. Only Jonathan is close in that regard, and he is about 5 years off

Anyway... There is a new king of the wrestling nerd mountain, and I plan on staying on top for a while

I may be wrong, but I think Verne is the last one left from that era.

Giant Baba was a fairly big star in the States in the early-60s, much bigger than Inoki or Muta, and once headlined against the WWWF champ in MSG (Bruno), the NWA champ in St. Louis (Thesz) and the WWA champ in LA (Blassie-this belt was considered by many the #2 title in the country at the time) in the same month. Sleeze and Grimmas, you think you can take this man down tonight?

Awesome. Thanks for sharing. This is a great doc

They have built somebody, in their minds anyway. Reigns. He's going over at Mania. No alternatives.

The Legend of Java Ruuk, Part 2 The next chapter in the Ruuk story takes place in Los Angeles in 1976. The first result I have for Ruuk in Mike LaBelle's California territory is 1/6 in San Diego, defeating Tony Rocco. The next night, he wrestled at the legendary Olympic Auditorium for the first time. Nine days later came perhaps the biggest moment of Rodriguez's career, at least from a kayfabe standpoint. On 1/16 at the Olympic Auditorium, Ruuk won the prestigious annual battle royal. At this time, the Los Angeles battle royal was one the most hyped matches of the year, not just in LA, but also nationally in the magazines. Previous winners included Rocky Johnson, Bruno Sammartino, Victor Rivera, and Andre the Giant. I thought there was footage of this battle royal on You Tube, as there is a video listed as "1976 Los Angeles Battle Royal - Andre the Giant, Java Ruuk". Alas, after watching and being confused by the finish where it was clear a fiery babyface appeared to win before the footage cut off, a little research revealed that the video is actually of the 1974 battle royal, not 1976. (The fiery babyface was Victor Rivera, and he actually didn't win - Black Gordman did after blindsiding Rivera with a chair and tossing him out) Winning the battle royal would seem to indicate big things were planned for Ruuk, but looking at the results, he lost the next week at the Olympic, and after a 2/10 result in San Diego he is absent from the territory for three months. However, during this short initial stay in LA Ruuk did play a significant role in the emergence of one of the all-time greats of wrestling. Roddy Piper, heretofore mostly used as a JTTS in the AWA and Texas, among other places, arrived in LA around the same time as Ruuk. I'm not sure of the exact story, but a popular version, and the one told by Piper and fans from the time, is that he debuted in the territory as a babyface JTTS. Shortly after, booker Leo Garibaldi decided to turn Piper heel and give him a push. To do so, he booked Piper to be absolutely destroyed by Ruuk on TV. The next week, Piper came out as Ruuk's manager, explaining if he couldn't beat him he would join him. He would tag with Ruuk often as well. From this point on, Piper of course got over huge as a heel in LA, and would do so in every subsequent territory he wrestled in, on his way to a HoF career. Based on the image of the program I posted previously, I'm guessing they ran an angle where Ruuk was suspended in February and that suspension was lifted in May. Clawmaster's results on the wonderful Sports & Wrestling site http://sportsandwrestling.mywowbb.com/forum2/14053.html have Ruuk wrestling in May and nothing further. Again, there seems to be a missing piece to the Ruuk puzzle. I did stumble upon an interesting piece of history from this time though, a Village Voice review of LA wrestling by Richard Meltzer, Dave's rock critic uncle, from May 17, 1976. https://classicwrestlingarticles.wordpress.com/2014/06/14/this-may-be-the-nadir-but/#more-4661 (My fellow Titans Parv and Pete will likely get a kick out of his scathing opinion of 1976 WWWF) However, Ruuk did return to LA for one last run in 1978. Online records from this time are sparse. Ruuk did resume his partnership with Piper and was involved in his lengthy and legendary feud with Chavo Guerrero. Here is the only footage of Ruuk from LA I could find online, from his 78 run: I have no idea how long Ruuk's 78 LA run lasted. Clawmaster has him losing a loser leaves town match to Piper on 9/21 in Bakersfield, CA, so it appears he was turned babyface near the end of his run. This was not the end of Ruuk though. He had one last run in him, in Montreal in 1980. Next time I will attempt to document this run, which may prove difficult because of lack of resources. One thing is for sure about this run though...the Unpredictable One gets to wear gold!

If I don't win Brainbuster on Saturday I'll take off my mask and throw $1000 into the crowd

El-P, you really have turned the negative review into an art form. Seriously, I'm not being sarcastic, you're the master. Still, I don't care how bad this show may have been. I was stuck at an Oscar party with no free Wi-Fi, so I couldn't watch FastLane on my phone. No way in hell was it a worse experience than having to sit through that horrible 3 1/2 hour long piece of shit.

Amazing sentence

Technically, half brother