Ricky Jackson

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

https://soundcloud.com/prowrestlingonly/international-house-of-combat-2 Kelly and Steve are back for another trip around the globe, this time focusing on Japanese wrestling from the 70s and 80s! Viewed and commented upon this week... Giant Baba vs Dick the Bruiser (1975) & Jaguar Yokota vs La Galactica (1983) Both matches are awesome, featuring cameos aplenty from other wrestling stars, blood, and scissors, among other highlights. Follow along with the playlist here! https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLV6RCTo_Cd0Bo314nxGlwPp-IfC14LctC

Episode 84 https://soundcloud.com/prowrestlingonly/world-cast-84 December 17, 1983 At long last, the boys are back! They pick up where they left off, with the clock ticking down on 1983 and the build for Christmas night at Reunion Arena in full swing. Highlights include... -The disfigurement of Iceman Parsons -The life and times of Doug Vines -Bill Destroyer and his swank sense of style -Kevin Von Erich giving Buddy Roberts about 2 seconds of offense -And a wild main event featuring the shocking return of a man nobody wanted back World Cast: What did we miss while we were away?

This will be the first Mania I will not watch at least part of live since 2006 and I'm totally fine with that. I wasn't going to watch even before the world went sideways. The last few Mania's left me hating WWE so I finally had enough

Whoops. Yeah, I thought I was forgetting something https://soundcloud.com/prowrestlingonly/international-house-of-combat-1

Join Kelly Nelson and Steve Wille (of "The Main Event" on PTBN Wrestling) for a new podcast adventure--an exploration of the wonderful world of historical international wrestling! Each episode will be a watch-along of matches from around the globe. For the debut, Kelly and Steve examine two contests... Wayne Bridges vs The Mississippi Mauler (England, 1981) & Al Hayes vs Guy Robin (France, 1957) YouTube playlist with the matches to watch along at home! https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLV6RCTo_Cd0Bo314nxGlwPp-IfC14LctC

Well put. 100% agree. Being a huge Bret fan, that was such a fun time. I ordered all the main ppvs, watched Raw every week and was also live for Canadian Stampede. Total investment. So much so, I remember being very pissed off that (of all things) Bret didnt finally win PWI wrestler of the year. I dont think he even placed! And then of course it all came crashing down in Montreal and my fandom has never been that intense for one wrestler and one promotion ever again. Great, great year

@JKWebb I haven't plugged this here, or really anywhere other than a couple tweets, but if you enjoyed that Savage pod from years ago (it was actually with Grimmas not Parv), and you have a copy of the Savage Unreleased dvd, you may be interested in me droning on as I watch all the matches. New ep every couple days https://m.soundcloud.com/prowrestlingonly/sets/the-greatness-of-randy-savage

Thanks for sharing that brother. Your contributions to this board over the years detailing the history of Puerto Rican wrestling have been super valuable and much appreciated

Nothing has changed for me, still overwhelmingly pre-1996 That said, I'm much more into modern stuff than I was in 2014. I'm a big fan of NWA, AEW, check out New Japan big matches from time to time, and was a weekly viewer of NXT from 2015 until around the start of the Wednesday War when I finally burned out on the epic match main event scene. My heart is still with the old stuff though

It's funny, I've been watching WCCW from Feb 84 this past week and Fritz aired a show hyping a David vs Flair match eight days after David had died. That's the bar for extreme promoter tastelessness Vince needs to clear in the next 10 days or so in case anyone was wondering

Marc, that post brightened my day and made me smile remembering some of the names that used to post here a lot and some of the crazy debates (often started by jvk) that once took place on a seemingly daily basis. While not what it once was for various reasons, this place is great and, similar to what Matt D wrote, is where my fandom hit another level. Many "real life" friendships emerged from here and PWO provided the springboard for one of my main passions in life, podcasting. Great memories. Thanks man

Yeah, I was thinking you still need to have probably more than 50 people, counting the wrestlers and all the production staff, to put on the show. So shouldn't that technically not be allowed? Plus, do we really want to see Mania this way, with no audience? It's been bad enough the last several years in packed football stadiums

I think this is Vince just buying a little more time before having to announce "Well, I tried to put smiles on people's faces, but the God damn state of Florida wont let me", and being forced to cancel/postpone

Haha are they seriously going to do 7 hours in an empty arena???

UFC finally, with gritted teeth, threw in the towel. That basically leaves Vince and Mania the last holdout

My wife and I couldn't of timed the sale of our condo in the city and move to her family farm two months ago any better. We also spent a month in Europe (during which time we were on a cruise and visited Spain, France and Italy) but got back Feb 26 and just missed the craziness. I've been self isolating since March 1, but that's because I have no job to go to nor the means to get into town on my own. I previously worked in grocery stores in Vancouver for eight years, so that's another thing I've luckily missed out on. I really feel for those having to work there, especially those in large cities who rely on public transit, as I did. It's going to be a long few months. Who knows how long, really