Ricky Jackson

Watched this today. God, Wanz sucks. Like, the worst ever Bob Backlund. Horrible babyface. Slaughter is great and tries to make something of the match, but it is an impossible task. This is the first full Wanz match I've ever seen, so please, someone point to something worthwhile from the footage available of him. I dont want to be a total dismissive jerk

CARNYLAND...uh Tag main was pretty good, but not much of a show otherwise

Yeah, May Valentine quickly becoming one of my favorite gimmicks. Hilarious

Episode 89 https://soundcloud.com/prowrestlingonly/world-cast-89 January 28, 1984 The boys look at an interesting offering from WCCW. Not particularly good, but interesting... -Ron Cheatham: an unknown great worker...who proceeds to drop off the face of the earth after two matches in the territory -Chief Whitecloud: No, not THAT Chief Whitecloud -Let's make the matches more snappy to appeal to the new marks -And a pretty fun main event with a babyface superteam going against Devestation Inc.!

https://soundcloud.com/prowrestlingonly/international-house-of-combat-5 Kelly and Steve venture Down Under, a relatively obscure place for wrestling, and also visit the Land of the Rising Sun, with both stops connected by the awesomeness of NWA champion Harley f'n Race! Viewed and commented upon... Mario Milano vs Bulldog Brower, Mark Lewin vs Abdullah the Butcher (Australia, circa 1972-74), Harley Race vs Ron Miller (Australia, circa 1977) & Harley Race vs Jumbo Tsuruta (Japan, 1977) The blood streak continues, great promos are plentiful, and Harley shows why he was one of the all-time greats. Watch along at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLV6RCTo_Cd0Bo314nxGlwPp-IfC14LctC or on World Cast Twitter!

Ok, cool. I checked earlier and Cagematch had two matches between them. Good to know this could be new to the scene

Oh probably. I just meant new to YouTube, or this channel at least

For those who can, I suggest a watch-along thread for Super Powerrr this coming Tuesday. I think it's the last bit of footage they have in the can and who knows when they'll tape again. It will be fun to watch something "new" with an actual crowd again

This bad boy just turned up yesterday Has anyone committed the time and know if it's worth a watch?

I used to think so myself until actually getting to know a few people in the last decade who became fans in adulthood. One even trained to be a wrestler and worked for a few years, and the other ended up becoming a pretty massive fan of Japanese wrestling and a lot of non-WWE wrestling in general. A fellow wrestling-loving friend of mine helped convert them through his enthusiasm, but they were both really intigued by realizing wrestling is theatre, with all the possibilities that entails, and disregarding the negative perceptions of wrestling that are often a barrier to people getting into it

Episode 88 https://soundcloud.com/prowrestlingonly/world-cast-88 January 21, 1984 The boys review a super fun show this week. Andre the Giant is in town, so it's time to get down and jive! -Rick "Rudd" pops in for a match. Too bad Kamala doesn't have the atomic drop in his arsenal -Has Bill Mercer been hitting the bottle? -Kevin has been hitting "the Shine" too hard and now he's addicted -Plus a wild main event between Andre/Iceman and the Super D's. The snowflakes may want to skip the post-match though!

So, are they actually going to charge full price for an empty arena PPV? I kinda feel like it should be discounted, but I haven't been watching Dynamite, so I dont know if the product they are putting out is drastically less enjoyable without a crowd. Thoughts?

From a pure practicality perspective, yes, there were enough other stadium/arena options in the area. But you would think the cachet of running at Yankee Stadium, a legendary, world famous venue, would've been attractive at some point. The WWF would've gotten a bigger "rub", so to speak, from running a show where Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, etc and great Yankee dynasties called home. It would've made them seem more important than running at Shea

Good question. I guess there are a few reasons. I believe only two wrestling cards were ever held at the old, pre-2009 (or pre-1976 if you consider the result of the massive renovations in the 70s a completely new stadium) Yankee Stadium - one in the 30s and one at the peak of the Rocca era in the early 50s, and both pre-McMahon family promoting. Neither drew well, and as a result the stadium was never looked at as an option for future cards. The big cards of the 70s were all held at Shea Stadium instead, although I think Bruno once pitched the idea of a dream match between him and Andre being held at Yankee Stadium. Some major Ali fights were held at Yankee Stadium in the 70s. So I guess the lack of history is one factor. For years there was the concern of poor weather for a Mania in the New York area, until 2013. One of the reasons they ran MetLife that year was because they wanted to beat the NFL to the punch, (they held a Super Bowl there in 2014), which at times has been a Vince obsession regarding Mania sites. If the mindset regarding running a Mania in colder weather was different around 2010, there may have been a good chance they ran a Mania at Yankee Stadium then, when the new version had recently opened. Lower attendance for Yankee Stadium compared to MetLife and perhaps difficulty scheduling an event there with the MLB season starting around the same time are other factors

It's so silly that there is an actual edict Reigns' name cannot be mentioned on TV, he's been removed from Make a Wish videos, etc. Next Vince will have him edited out of everything on the Network like he's a Russian general from the 1930s who Stalin had purged and removed from photographs

Episode 87 https://soundcloud.com/prowrestlingonly/world-cast-87 January 14, 1984 An extremely hot beginning to a feud highlights an otherwise blah offering from WCCW this week, as the boys finally welcome in 1984... -Bill Mercer scolds the Birds for tainting Santa Claus to a generation of Texas children -Nice to see the pointless 10-minute draw is still a thing -Adams vs Garvin is still going strong -And Kerry vs the Missing Link in a crazy main event that kickstarts a new war in Dallas!

Flair in 1988 WWF has always been difficult for me to visualize booking wise. The road to Hogan vs Savage was already well underway, or was at least the plan for Mania V, by Summerslam. So what would Flair do right away? Maybe feud with Savage in the spot Bad News had? Feud with Hogan instead of Bossman? Presumably he would've dropped the NWA strap before coming over unlike in 91, so he wouldn't be working a counter-world champ gimmick. Would he have been paired with Heenan? Would he have been associated with Arn and Tully? He just doesn't seem to fit in 1988-89 WWF, at least as someone who would get a run with the belt. But who knows, maybe he would've had a better run than he did years later. He could've still won a Rumble, unless they were dead set on Studd winning in 89. So many questions

https://soundcloud.com/prowrestlingonly/international-house-of-combat-4 This week Kelly and Steve venture to the wilds of 1980s Canada to examine tag team wrestling obscure and(in Quebec at least)legendary! Viewed and commented upon... Ricky Steamboat/Jay Youngblood vs Ray Stevens/Jimmy Snuka (Toronto, 1980) & The Rougeau Brothers vs Ron/Jimmy Garvin x2 (Montreal, 1985) The Toronto tag is a really good match and the Montreal footage is CRAZY! Watch along here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVy--0-BicE&list=PLV6RCTo_Cd0Bo314nxGlwPp-IfC14LctC

Episode 86 https://soundcloud.com/prowrestlingonly/world-cast-86-christmas-star-wars-1983 December 25, 1983* Red hot WCCW draws its third monster house of 1983 at Reunion Arena for Christmas Star Wars, and the boys provide a monster-sized ep to break it all down! They review 87.5% of the card (just missing Mike Reed vs the Mongol, which we can only assume was a classic) and discuss all the hits and misses Seven huge matches: Johnny Mantell vs the Missing Link Iceman Parsons/Adias vs the Super D's, American tag team titles Kerry Von Erich vs Kamala Jose Lothario vs Black Gordman David Von Erich vs Ric Flair, NWA title Kevin/Mike Von Erich vs Terry Gordy/Buddy Roberts, Loser Leaves Town Jimmy Garvin vs Chris Adams, American title + Sunshine gets 5 minutes with Precious if Adams wins Fun was had by all as the boys discuss bad hair, bad wrestlers, bad promos, as well as good hair, good wrestlers and good promos...so it all balances out. See you in 1984! *12/31/83, 1/7/84 & first match of 1/14/84 on the Network

It's not a must listen episode or anything, but things do get fun around the 80 minute mark when JR finally snaps on the creative bankruptcy of 2009-2010 WWE after so many of the angles Conrad brings up keep repeating themselves and getting less and less logical. Good 5 minute plus tirade

https://soundcloud.com/prowrestlingonly/international-house-of-combat-3 Kelly and Steve are back, and this week they explore two different countries, which share a language but interpret wrestling in different ways Viewed and commented upon... Carlos Colon vs Dick Murdoch--Barbwire match (Puerto Rico, 1991) & El Hijo del Santo vs La Parka (Mexico, 2001) Two countries united by language and by BLOOD! Watch along here https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLV6RCTo_Cd0Bo314nxGlwPp-IfC14LctC

I'm done for now and have been since the Rumble, but I haven't had much love for several years really. Something may pull me back some day. Right now I really want nothing to do with WWE. The combination of lackluster product with so much Vince real world bs makes me really dislike the whole thing

I wasn't watching back then, but apparently Tonga was working WWF house shows at least as early as May 83 and looks to have debuted on TV in August. Argentino's death was May 10, so he may have been there?

Episode 85 https://soundcloud.com/prowrestlingonly/world-cast-85 December 24, 1983 It's Christmas Eve and Santa Fritz delivers gifts ranging from good to crappy for the boys to discuss... -A David music video with an extremely unfortunate choice of dub job. (and the original song was also unfortunate in hindsight) -The Missing Link makes a memorable splash in his debut -Ernie Ladd is here, and Johnny does an impression of him for the ages (and throws in Kevin and David Manning as a bonus!) -Plus a red hot main event between Adams/Mantell and Gordy/Garvin

Finally caught up with Power today. Was holding off knowing it may be a long time before we see another ep or the Crockett Cup. Fuck it sucks