Migs

I don't think there's a Blu Ray for this one.

Also, they were going nowhere with Daniels on top - that story was done when he won the belt. In a company that struggles to create real heels, Cody has fairly decent heat, so they can get mileage out of babyfaces challenging him for at least six months I'd wager.

This is something I think about every time I watch Total Divas. Old school wrestling had a lot of proto-reality show aspects - characters playing enhanced versions of themselves, situations that are setup but not "scripted" per se, the performers insisting on the reality of the situation in interviews... it's really pretty easy to translate. And it could help broaden the market... I know a lot of people who watch Total Divas but not the main shows.

Hoping these are the full shows... the 1 hour versions they were dropping at the beginning were a bit silly. Wonder if this was in any way inspired by how much has been going up on Youtube.

Agree with everything in the post, but wanted to pull this because this is a fundamental issue with a lot of WWE's booking around titles. They hotshot a first title win and then try to regain the drama for the third win, when it's just not going to be there. To be fair, wrestling used to have the opposite problem of delaying the first win too long (see Luger, Lex), and I'm not sure which is worse. But it's distressing after they've done this so many times that they haven't been able to course correct.

Lots of really interesting stuff. Great job from WWE to really dig for us nerds.

Ive not checked the network out in a while because Firefox just takes ages and ages to load the video up but any ideas what years they've covered so far? I know they first started with 1986 so was curious if 87, 88 & 89 all turned up. They're up to July of '89. I think they finished up with the episodes that have the Bobby Heenan Show as a piece of them.

Weird to hear Dreamer come out to something other than Man in the Box. Maybe some in-joke? Corino's promo is spectacular, particularly the kissing up to Taz ("favorite ECW champion ever!"). Really, his performance through the whole match is masterful. Dreamer is good too, although in the weird homophobic babyface bully act that doesn't hold up well. The WWF imitating is also pretty lame, but the crowd eats it up. If this is Corino with a less broken down baby face, this might have been great, although maybe Corino wouldn't have pushed to do so much if he wasn't in there with Dreamer.

I have never heard of this promotion, or that the ECW guys were working it. Some Googling suggests this is in Wayne, NJ, and that Big Dick Dudley and Rocco Rock were also on this card, as was Jimmy Snuka v. Tony Atlas. These guys obviously have great chemistry (although it's interesting to see it worked in reverse of the way their matches usually went in terms of the heel-face dynamic). Very solid match.

Agreed, I'd just expect that they'll do another show for a bit before getting back to that. Would like to have more WCW Saturday Night up there.

What suggests that? They did about two years of it a month ago.

Regal's pre-match promo is terrific. I liked this a little less than the first match - the interference felt off, and it felt like the match could have evolved more based off of what happened in the first one. Could have used Lance Russell for sure.

I really dug this - very nicely told the young guy v. legend story, even better than Youth v. Regal on the same day, which tells it well too.

This match is non-stop action, and a great indication of how Sabu was a progenitor for the early 2000s indy style. It's really nice to see him working at a level where he can still keep up with these guys, given what he'd put his body through over the last decade. Other than what looked like a botch on a dive, Ki is just awesome here, too (as is Billy Reil, who works the entire match with an open dress shirt, a surprisingly cool look). Didn't love Sabu kicking out of the Ki Krusher (not that Ki should have gone over, I'd just have not used it). I'm not sure I was quite as high on this as Loss, but it felt right in the vicinity of ****.

This is some bad indy announcing. I like that this is non-stop action but still maintains a decent structure. Dragon and Spanky both hit most of their stuff pretty cleanly, although there's some sloppiness (I noticed Dragon just letting the outside guy come in to make the save). The turn seemed to come out of nowhere, both from Spanky and then the Dragon upping the violence level. The Cop Killer on the chair looked brutal.

I like this setup better than the old Memphis TV studio, which felt anachronistic when watching the 1998 Power Pro stuff. Looks exactly like Wildside, though. This is fun. It's nice to see Reckless working with someone who uses a more traditional style - creates a nice contrast, as opposed to Reckless' normal indy spotfests. He has surprisingly good selling and facials that you normally wouldn't get to see on the indies.

I've seen Tazz v. Awesome many times, but I don't think I've ever seen this whole sequence. Love Corino invoking his feud with Taz in the opening promo to bring him to mind for the crowd. The actual Tajiri v. Dreamer match is their typical good brawl. I liked the visual of Corino being on the top rope with Tajiri before the double stomp through the table. Sandman's music hitting always works when it's not totally expected (i.e. when he's not directly called out by the heels, which happened way too often). He even gets to the ring pretty quickly! The escalating brawl is a Paul Heyman classic. This is one isn't as good as Wrestlefest '97, but it's still really effective in heightening the energy in the crowd. Love how the crowd is so hyped that Awesome walks right by people without them noticing, creating a holy shit moment when he actually hits the ring. Then the challenge, and the Tazz pop is massive. Nothing match, but an amazing moment. Well worth the run time.

Flair is wrestling in street clothes for some reason. The Shane Douglas mark in me is totally stoked for any interaction between Flair and Shane, I have to admit. There's an initial energy when they first touch, but it quickly becomes a standard tag match. (I did like the "Fuck You Flair" in the corner.) The finish is just pointless Russo nonsense.

"This is a traditional move - da chin lock." I'm guessing Douglas and Candido were signed by WCW and fulfilling dates here, as the match is pretty lackluster. I mean, I've seen worse, the pacing seems completely off. Or maybe they just knew the first part of the match was going to be irrelevant. Sabu hits the ring, and Douglas just sort of leaves the match, for reasons unexplained. Sabu hits his spots, which keeps this at least somewhat entertaining. Douglas turns back and forth, I think. Whatever. Douglas cuts an acceptable program that makes no sense if you know any backstory, as it's based on Candido and Sabu having never wrestled for a title, when of course Sabu and Candido wrestled for titles a bunch in ECW.

Yeah, if Also it looks like there is a youtube uploader https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHDjwPjvzrJhAx4wvRmKdRg that has practically copied the entire Landy channel minus the Coliseum video stuff so at least all of Richard's stuff is out there still. That guy's channel is complementary to Landy's - totally different stuff. Although, he has a great collection too and might fill in the gaps left by Landy's channel being pulled. I love Wrestling Collector but he's been putting up SNME episodes. Might be a little too close to the sun for WWE to ignore. Yeah, if I were these guys I'd steer clear of anything on the Network. While it's nice to have the original broadcasts, it seems like there's not much of a moral leg to stand on when the same material is available commercially.

Slaughter over Warrior at the Royal Rumble in '91 was insane. Like, Slaughter just did not seem like he should be able to hang with Warrior, and him winning the title was bonkers.

The pre-show is a separate program, which might have caused that weirdness in being able to resume. It should be available on demand afterwards, though.

Also it looks like there is a youtube uploader https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHDjwPjvzrJhAx4wvRmKdRg that has practically copied the entire Landy channel minus the Coliseum video stuff so at least all of Richard's stuff is out there still. That guy's channel is complementary to Landy's - totally different stuff. Although, he has a great collection too and might fill in the gaps left by Landy's channel being pulled.

I would think it's faster than that - Rude gets the belt in the fall after he's done with Roberts, posedown at the Rumble, Warrior gets the belt at WM V.

Cornette had a match against Lothario. Jimmy Hart won a battle royal. Liz was in a mixed tag at WM 6.