Ricky Jackson

Holy crap was there some serious heat during the pre-match introductions. Wizard pelted with garbage. Pedro as beloved as Bruno in MSG. Fun match. Mulligan green but super over as a heel. Great size differential to make Pedro look even more impressive in victory. Worked at a brisk pace for the time. Pedro was a pretty strong babyface at this point, much more impressive than 10 years later as IC champ when he was often phoning it in

Episode 45 https://soundcloud.com/prowrestlingonly/world-cast-45 February 5, 1983 (WCCW 58) The Freebirds are takin' ovah! NWO, eat your heart out, the 'Birds have a ton of gold and are running the Sportatorium by the end of the show. Things are not looking good for our heroes, that's for sure! Also on this episode... -The Great Yatsu continues to impress, and perhaps inspires Brian Adias to start looking for a new territory in the process -More change in Dallas, as THE Checkmate departs (unfortunately after a mess of a match with David) -Lunch with the Freebirds -A hot main event between Kevin and Terry Gordy for the American title

Throw out the Hell in the Cell stupidity bookending things, this was a very good show

Awful

And some say the NWA title match at All In was overbooked

Great match

Total Divas: we've come a long way baby

How does anyone follow that? Seriously, one of the dumbest finishes I've ever seen

Well, I've never seen that before, if nothing else

I think a lot of old promoters like Watts valued the Observer as a directory for other territories, which was important back in the days of slower communication, and that's why they subscribed more than anything

I collected Wrestling Eye at the time and was only 9/10 years old. I remember feeling it was different than the other mags but not being sophisticated enough to understand a lot of the content. It was where I learned Randy Savage and Lanny Poffo were brothers, which felt like privileged information at the time because it was never mentioned on WWF TV

Awesome

Too bad his work in 82-83 is channel-changing bad, looks like he had an interesting career

I think he means Snuka's loss to Muraco was designed to make Snuka less over so that Hogan could come in and be the number 1 guy, which doesn't even make sense because Snuka came out of that loss more over after the Superfly Splash off the cage

Episode 44 https://soundcloud.com/prowrestlingonly/world-cast-44 January 29, 1983 (WCCW 57) 1982 feels more and more like a distant memory as the boys review a fairly exciting episode of WCCW. Among the highlights... -The Great Yatsu debuts and he's awesome (despite being saddled with Armand Hussein) -Hayes and Lothario rip it up in the best time limit draw ever (OK, slight exaggeration) -Bundy and Mercer: Underrated comedy duo -Farewell to Bugsy and Good Ol' Al, maybe -Also, who was the best heel in wrestling in 1983? World Cast: Now in 4th place and only 8 games out

Incredible match. Great story. Fast-paced. Hot crowd. Dream plays mind games on Gargano, taunting him as "Johnny Failure". Gargano slowly becomes more and more frustrated throughout the match as he is unable to finish off Dream, to the point he's on the brink of snapping and becoming no better than his arch foe Ciampa. The referee talks Gargano back to reality, and in a great moment, Gargano embraces his young mega-fan at ringside whose heart would be broken if his hero went bad. It was all for naught though as Gargano, still not focused, is then suckered in by Dream and finished off for a clean win Loved this match. Great action and great drama, similar to the tag between Moustache Mountain and UE from a few months back. Huge win for Dream and another chapter in the long Gargano saga going back more than a year when he returned to TV after Ciampa turned on him. It can only end with him finally vanquishing Ciampa and finally winning the NXT title, right? ****1/2

I've been out of town and just got around to seeing it, but holy crap Gargano vs Dream was freakin' great. Where's the love PWO?

Great stuff, Marty! I would expect no less than 64 volumes for your life's work, brother

Wow, thanks for the compliment and thanks for the info on CBC. They potentially could have a goldmine in their archives. Northland is probably the most obscure territory of them all. I know next to nothing about it. And yes, there is a new Mount Olympus in the works. The idea of even one per season has been difficult to maintain lol. Expect it to drop in October. Right now the plan is for a show completely about the year 1966 in wrestling. Why the hell did we choose that subject? Tune in to find out!

Well, he was a manager, so he kinda needed to talk, and be good at it. Did you mean to type George Steele? He talked from his debut in the late-60s up to the early-80s. It was only his last run in the WWF where he could only say a few words

Episode 43 https://soundcloud.com/prowrestlingonly/world-cast-43 January 22, 1983 (WCCW 56) This show was really all over the place, featuring... -A nice surprise, one last X-mas gift from Star Wars, a good match between Bundy and Kevin for the American title -An all-time amazing trainwreck in the form of Kerry in a swank fur coat narrating footage of the Star Wars cage match -A reminder of how great Terry Gordy was -David Manning given too much mic time, again -"Devastation Inc.": One man? A stable? The mystery continues World Cast: God's favorite pod!

That was Saldi referencing Georgia wrestling where Piper was managed by Hart. Saldi was a big reader of the mags and could afford TBS with his NFL salary. Lewin wrestled in Dallas a lot prior to 1982, but he doesn't show up in late-82 despite being promised by Mercer on TV

Dizzy never made it to Dallas in 82 and neither did Fishman or Mark Lewin in case you were curious

Well, he his from Saskatchewan

I think it was more because Mania was considered a bonus show that month and the show with the Tito vs Valentine Lumberjack was the regular show