Ricky Jackson

I actually think the tag titles probably were a draw at times. The thing with mid-70s era MSG seems to be that they ran a lot of non-title tag matches month after month. I don't have numbers to back me up, but I'm guessing when the titles were actually defended, after months of non-title matches, they drew because a tag title match was a rare thing and something special. That said, I'm not sure how much one can credit a belt for drawing. It was definitely a factor, and I think much more so, for example, with Backlund than with Bruno or Hogan. At the end of the day, I think hot angles and charismatic stars are still the main factors in drawing, at least when it comes to the difference between 15,000 and a 20,000 + sellout at a place like MSG. And even Bruno and Hogan couldn't automatically sell MSG out. At times it seemed like they could, but with a lesser opponent and without a hot angle, the place wasn't going to be packed. For example, during his second reign between 1974-77, Bruno headlined a ridiculous amount of sellouts at MSG--the hottest run of his career. During this time he was involved in hot programs with a who's who of big stars--Jonathon, Kowalski, the Valiants, Arion, Koloff, Graham, Ladd, Hansen, Patera, etc. In the middle of this run (9/6/75) he was scheduled to face Bugsy McGraw at MSG. McGraw had wrestled all over the place in the previous decade and had headlined in San Fran as the Brute just before coming to New York. However, the fans didn't see him as anything special, and two weeks before the show the advance was so poor that McGraw's manager, Lou Albano, was added to the match in an attempt to stimulate sales. Even then, the show didn't sell out, one of the few that didn't during Sammartino's second reign. One thing is certain,Vince Sr (and Jr at first) protected his belts so well, especially the main title. The booking of the WWWF/WWF title from 1963-1988 is actually a thing of beauty to look at. 9 men (not counting Inoki's secret reign) held the belt in 25 years. Throwing out the short reigns (Rogers, Koloff, Stasiak, Sheik), 5 men dominated, and if you throw out Graham's 10 month reign, 4 men monopolized the belt for essentially 24 of those 25 years. And it wasn't until late-91, when the title began to bounce around beginning with Hogan-Undertaker at Survivor Series, that the Era of Great Reigns came to a close. Amazing.

Hey ceejay, great post man! Awesome story. I grew up in Calgary and became a big fan of wrestling in 1986, watching both WWF and Stampede religiously. I never went to a Stampede card during its proper run. I think I was too young to get why you would want to go see something live that was already on TV. Plus my dad hated wrestling and I think he was leery of going to a show with the riff raff at the Victoria Pavilion near the skid row Victoria Park area of Calgary. I went to a couple WWF shows in early 1989, and I did go to the Stampede reunion in early 1992 at the Pavilion put together by Bad News Allen, where Jericho met Benoit for the first time according to his first book. My friends and I went to several Rocky Mountain Wrestling cards in 93, which were a blast. Migs post about the Megapowers rings true. I was a big Savage fan and didn't really dig Hogan that much - too powerful, like Superman. I totally thought Savage was in the right and Hogan was being a dick. I lost interest in wrestling after Mania V and I think Hogan returning to the top was a big reason why. It was easy to become a heel fan in the early 90s because most of the babyfaces were stuck in the 80s cartoons and pretty lame. I hated it when WWF kept turning heels I liked (Ramon, Luger, Doink, Diesel) faces. I was a total heel fan as a teenager. I even liked Ludwig Borga.

Awesome Loss, they just played that song on the radio here

Here's a link to the massive old school newsletter collection where the publications discussed on the show came from: https://docs.google.com/folderview?id=0Bwz_9MY5fi58ZGIxYjlmYzgtMTJhYy00YzBhLTg0NGQtNDFiODgxNGUwNWIw

The world's coolest book club. Or nerdiest

I know, silly me...

Hey Johnny, get going on your quest to accumulate Valiant-Jones feud footage for a Titans special, I want to see this stuff Savage is describing.

I totally agree Pete. I think Steamer would have been huge in NYC as a long-term champ in the late-70s/early-80s. That was the peak era of his drawing power in the Carolinas/Toronto I'm also listening to the show right now and I have to say Dusty would have been a great choice, as he was already a big star in NYC and in his prime IIRC, Vince Sr wanted Jack Brisco when he first envisioned his post-Bruno headliner, or at least the All-American stud athlete type that Brisco represented. Eventually he settled on Backlund as a "top prospect" in much the same way Bruno was in 1963 Superstar Graham/Meltzer tell the story that Vince Sr had already decided Bob was going to be his guy by October 76, when he explained his plan to Graham in Florida, even having the exact date, February 20, 1978, when Bob was going to win the strap already set (Sr believed it would take about a year for Bob to get over at a level where the fans actually wanted him as champ - Bob debuted on WWF TV in March 77) Edit: Just checked, Backlund actually debuted on WWWF TV in December 76

Strongbow is the anti-DiBiase for you Parv. While Ted can do no wrong, Jay can do no right.

Thanks for the awesome comments Kev, especially your take on Best Hair.

At the time everyone wanted the original group back, and it seemed like they were kind of pushing that idea. Going with Roma was bush league. Dustin Rhodes would have actually been a brilliant idea booked as a long term angle with either an eventual heel turn by Dustin and the rest of the Horsemen on Dusty or with the Horsemen turning on Dustin in a more drawn out version of what they did with Sting. I thought the Jarrett angle with him trying to weasel his way into the Horsemen was actually quite good at the time

Yep, we will be covering the Ali-Inoki match when it comes along, including the build (which is actually pretty cool). We have the footage of Andre-Wepner, but as far as I know nothing else of the live card exists, although Johnny swears he has seen at least the finish of Bruno-Hansen. As far as 72 goes, I don't know of any footage existing. Tons of photos of Bruno vs Pedro out there though!

If not Baron Scicluna, then who?

I must have watched that Patera feat of strength bit with Vince and the van dozens of times back in the day on the great "The Biggest, the Smallest, the Strangest and the Strongest" CHV tape. One of Vince's greatest performances.

Cheap plug, but Parv has an awesome bio of Joe McHugh on a future episode of Titans - an all-Allentown spectacular with challenges, chairs, blood, jobbers, masked jobbers and Dominic "The Van" DeNucci

If he took on the "Bryan Scicluna" gimmick suggested by the spolier photo he could work for another 30 years and not have to worry about taking bumps. Wrestling could also use a new master of the foreign object

http://placetobenation.com/titans-of-wrestling-29-part-2-the-birds-go-down-to-georgia/ The Titans of Rasslin wrap up their look at Georgia Championship Wrestling with an in-depth examination of the Fabulous Freebirds arrival on the scene and the mayhem they inflicted on the areas top good guys (Ted DiBiase, Robert Fuller and...dear God...Stan "Uncle Elmer" Frazier). The "Titans Assemble" call is put out as Kelly, Parv, Johnny, Pete AND Marty Sleeze gather for the usual tons of insight and tons of laughs. The 3hrs just fly by! On the docket: 1980 Mr. Saito vs Steve Keirn $5000 challenge/ Saito vs Mr. Wrestling II $5000 challenge 1980 Freebirds promos 1980 Ted DiBiase vs Terry Gordy 1980 "Two-Ring, Triple-Chance Battle Royal" (???) 1981 DiBiase/Robert Fuller vs Freebirds x2 Omni footage 1981 DiBiase/Stan Frazier vs Freebirds 1981 JYD promo/Mid South blinding angle (!!!) 1981 JYD/DiBiase vs Freebirds 1981 Ted in the hospital Also on tonight's show: -Unanimous praise for Michael Hayes and the Freebirds in general -Debating the merits of JYD as a worker -Stan Frazier makes his case for the WOAT -DiBiase takes a beating in more ways than one

In the 90s I called a hotline in Calgary where the guy just recapped WO news. This went on for most of the decade

I have no idea who that is, but "Total" Lee Awesome is a fantastic name.

Heh, yeah my quip implying Georgians are unsophisticated was uncalled for. Sorry man. Feel free to make Canadian jokes on the next WTBBP

Part 2 drops Tuesday. Again, you can watch the footage discussed in the episode (unlike the WWF stuff, where you can only dream of someday seeing the greatness ) Start around the 54 minute mark with Mr. Saito vs Steve Keirn

He is James' favorite wrestler

And as the Midnight Rockers in the AWA they were heavily pimped by the mags. Conversely, Rose and Somers were treated as jokes and always ranked below the Rockers in the tag team top ten even though they were the champs IIRC

Please let that match exist