bradhindsight

Anyone ever play Wrestling Revolution or Booking Revolution on iOS/android (or OUYA)?

I finally listened to this one as I haven't got to watching the third disc yet. For the prior two I went in having already viewed the matches - which definitely seems the way to go since most everyone else is enjoying them for the first time when they discuss. Love that Johnny is defending my turf and putting over the Spectrum and the Philadelphia fanbase. I was six months old when these matches too place but good to know the crowds back then weren't too different. And that guy with the 8mm camera was probably one of the founding fathers of tape trading. He was PWO 30 years too early. (the line about diabetes claiming both of his feet by now was $$$ Johnny. Literally laughed out loud there).

I need to rewatch the 4-14 tag match. I loved the studio brawl but , other than the tag rope, didn't note much from the main portion of the match. Other than that, we are almost identical on our ratings there Chad.

I was at a WWE house show a year ago (main was Punk vs Ryback in a lumberjack match to prep for their Cell disaster) and Sandow was so over as a heel the crowd started a loud JTG chant. Was unbelievable.

Shawn makes sense given HHH's line to Bryan in the opening segment about "Shawn didn't teach you that this was the right way" (or something to that effect). That was the first they mentioned that relationship, which was pretty cool.

Centurion Negro vs. Gran Hamada (2/14/82) Parv will make a note about the ref's shirt - mark it down right now. We get a good 6-8 minute of trading leg work on the mat to start.The double arm overhead suplex into a double-arm submission was pretty sweet and then we get a big back body drop for the first fall for Negro. hoping there's a call back later to all that early leg work.Hamada's turn to shine in the second fall - working a solid neck vice (but then goes back to the leg for a sec too). He also takes some big back drops but reverses to his feet on the last one and hits a back suplex for the second fall. Ah ha, this is also how he pinned Perro in the first match so I'm sensing a Bob Backlund-Atomic Drop-esque mediocre finisher here.I really liked Negro's first sequence in the final fall where he finally works a bridge pin attempt and after a kickout quickly jumps on top of Hamada for the lateral press. I've noted the realism in how this one has been worked so far. Camera almost misses a big dive from Negro and man is it muddy and dangerous outside. Hamada reverses a second flying headbutt and dumps Negro so he can go for his dive and it almost seems like Negro spikes him to the pavement. Selling is very liberal here. Negro kicks out of the back suplex finisher this time (!). Cool crossbody into a sunset flip barely gets the three for Hamada. Another thing I like - guys kicking out *just* after the three count. Negro did a nice job there. Really liking Hamada so far. All that mat work led to nothing though but the third fall was worth the wait. ***

Ok so with my good friend soup's urging, i'm going to post my thoughts here as well. I do want to note, similar to James, these are some of the first Lucha matches I've seen in their entirety (I did watch some of the last CMLL show and of course have seen youtube clips before - oh and that video game AAA Lucha Libre). I started the podcast but want to re-listen entirely after I watch some of the matches - one of those "applied learning" scenarios where I can get some real practice in. Satoru Sayama y Gran Hamada vs. Perro Aguayo y Baby Face (4/13/80) In thinking back on this match, the story I mainly followed was Perro vs. Hamada - which pretty much starts when the opening bell hits with some great kicks and just keeps going. Those two tell a great story with the other guys pretty ancillary (Baby Face was good at holding Hamada for Perro though). I recognize that to be fair to Lucha I need to understand that some of the falls are just kind of "meh" and that's how it goes (like the crossbody into an armbreaker out of nowhere by Sayama). I loved the bump Hamada takes off the turnbuckle to the floor inbetween the second and third falls. And then they really ratchet it up with the blood and him getting his revenge (even though Perro hits a big plancha). The arm drag sequences and some of the more planned out stuff in the middle of the match are crazy when you realize this is 1980 (and watching 1979 WWWF). I went a solid *** with an asterisk that this may need revisiting once I have more to reference. Andre the Giant y Cien Caras vs. Alfonso Dantes, Herodes y Sangre Chicana (1981) Throwing this out there - WTF is up with the mirrored camera angle where Andre will be on the bottom right and then they'll switch and he's on the bottom left? Trippy man. Andre is great here with awesome comedic spots and the rudos really play along well. I was also quite amused when they would be working over Caras and at time the ref would walk Andre back and at other times he would just be like "fuck it" and come in and break up their hold. So far on the set the refs have been pretty lax on this so I have subtitled the set 80's Lucha: SPRING BREAK NO RULES. I was very entertained and was happy this made it **1/2.

They've got three weeks in-between PPVs here so they need to speed up the Rhodes story so it can be a part of Battleground in Buffalo. Stripping Dusty of the NXT commish role was pretty awesome.

Actually, I think that's how Cody gets his job back. Even though it makes no sense timeline wise. I think the "business" Steph wants him to do is to announce the Dusty Finish himself. This would be amazing.

Seeing RVD's "thrust" kicks and then watching ADR kick is like night and day. So crisp.

Yeah I think the "Luger is a choker" label that was pretty prevalent in the late 90s shrowds this match a bit. I mean, people know he never won the title from Flair so maybe this gets a little lost historically. I wanted to comment on his face turn a bit. James has a promo Luger did (possibly from the pre-show?) where he sternly maintains his disdain with the Horseman and how he wants the title - not caring if people cheer him or not (I thought that last piece was pretty good). His PPV promo is nails - he doesn't get all blowjob babyface talking about Sting or anything. So while he was shoehorned into the feud, at least he didn't do a complete BS face over-the-top turn. Then during the match the crowd kind of naturally turns him but STING really turns him with the motivational speech/hulk-up segment. This makes him leaving and getting counted out a bit more logical as now he wants to really help the face Sting - and the crowd eats it up. GREAT face turn imo - esp given the circumstances.

Doom looked like waiters from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (pun intended). I finished up watching this (James has all but the opener on his 90 WCW set - so huzzah) and really enjoyed listening to the show. I also came away wondering where this ranked for two hour PPVs all-time? Really damn good event. MX/RNR was pretty much tag wrestling 101 (and managerial studies 101) and an easy **** for me also. I had real high hopes for the Freebirds/Pillman-Zenk match going in and was glad to hear I wasn't the only one underwhelmed. Just never kicked into the gear I thought it was capable of on paper (but the conversation around the Freebirds drop off by 1990 was very good. And Jimmy Garvin SUCKED here). I liked the Steiners/Andersons a bit more **3/4 than everyone. I thought the story of the aging Andersons not being able to overcome the power of the Steiners was half decent. I thought the botch Charles talked about with the leg vine cut-off move was actually to show that the Anderson's regular tag moves were being thwarted by the younger, better team. I had never seen a finish like that with the roll-up on a guy ducking from the other guy coming off the ropes. Post match angle was decent. Main event - ****1/2 here and like Chad said, this is a fast 38 minutes. You guys nailed the analysis - Flair wrestled Luger as his equal and made him look like a million bucks. Especially with the powerful visual pinfalls at the end + the rack then. Great match from Flair and when the ref wakes up and Flair is in the rack you get a sense for a second that the ref bump was a red herring and he may very well win it. Of course Sting is there and Luger drops him to attend to him. I liked the ending even with the booking. I had never seen this one before - looking forward to the Capital Combat match now.

I can't fault them for helping out the local food bank while papering the arena like they would anyway. But you'd think with the importance of these tapings they would have scheduled this out in more of a TNA-strong foothold (if that is a thing).

Agree 100% shoe when it comes to the great opinions here. Fun stuff. I've enjoyed your work on the Titans pods so far! Here's my kayfabe Valentine reasoning: in the first match Backlund controlled with the front headlock for 30 minutes. Valentine couldn't get on track with the leg stuff until way late - not even getting the figure-four on until after the bell (a spot I loved after the draw). In the rematch, Valentine works on top with the headlock to be able to wear Backlund down with the elbows, softening him up for the eventual heavy leg work he couldn't get on in the first match. Sure the match only went 30 minutes, but Valentine's kayfabe mindset going in is the possibility of another 60 minute match.

Good stuff here: A Blind Eye to the Blind Tag

That's a good recap there Chad. Good discussion. I may need to re-watch but what differentiated the two Backlund matches for me was the control stuff in the rematch with Valentine doing most of the damage came off more effective then Backlund trading headlocks and burning up time in the draw. It seemed like a good continuation from where the first match left off and Greg had smartened up and was taking the action right to the champ. Told a bit of a different story there and we finally got the figure-four payoff since that started so late in the first one. I thought the leg work overall was better than what was done in the draw. Wonky finisher aside, Bob still hits it clean to retain so I can't take too much away (even with the dumb "taps his back" spot ). I mean it is a pretty BIG atomic drop

This = amazing

How about Triple H getting his own stooges a la Patterson and Brisco, but the old DX crew? Why not have Dogg / Gunn / X-Pac be their pack of dogs and let the Shield go get back to their own thing... Again, if they could split the shows, they have soo much to use right now that both shows could be really good on their own. It's much more believable when the Shield beats down Bryan as they've been built as huge threats that have had a good amount of success. Having old dudes out there fending off the top babyfaces would be disastrous. The internet would implode.

I'm with Johnny - wonky ending or not, I still liked that Valentine / Backlund rematch a lot - and put it right there (rated the rematch **** with the draw at ***3/4) with the Sheik match (***3/4ish) Just finished listening - glad Parv had everyone talk about the big three we've seen so far. Blassie as a Batman villain (pretty much The Penguin with the "MCMAHON" stuff) was $$$