CarpetCrawler

Let me tell you, Gorilla Monsoon and Gene Okerlund as a two man commentary combo is incredibly underrated. I love listening to them just shoot the shit while Jose Luis Rivera has a headlock going for five minutes. They definitely make those mid-80s MSG and Boston Garden shows a lot easier to sit through. For that matter Alfred Hayes isn't bad either on those shows, and Pat Patterson with Gorilla was a fun combo too. There's something really fun about the unbuttoned attitude people have calling those arena shows. And then there's Dick Graham and Kal Rudman who are at the top of the list of commentary teams I stop and listen to. Two dudes having an absolute blast calling wrestling.

"I WANT MY COUNTRY BACCCCCCKKKKKKKK" is one of the most oft-repeated running gags I have with my friends.

Mauro has his odd quirks and irritating habits, but he's still the best by far. You generally won't get that opinion on a board that worships the rancid Booker T though. I like that he actually talks like a human being. He doesn't speak WWE which makes him refreshing. He also seems to genuinely enjoy what he's watching unlike any of the main roster guys. Even Graves seems like he's been infected by Cole's shittiness. I only really get to watch the PPV shows anymore so I only have those to go off on. Is it just me or has Graves really been regressing as bad as he has on the PPVs? Is he this rough on RAW and Smackdown too? He spends more time dunking on Saxton than he does calling the match sometimes. It's getting to be way overkill. He used to mock Tom in NXT but it wasn't 2-3 minute rants that occurred every few minutes like what's been happening now.

Bruce when he's justifying things by letting you look into the mind of Vince McMahon is fascinating. There's a clip out there of him explaining the rationale of Vince calling Terry Taylor "The Red Rooster" and his insistence that it wasn't a rib. I don't fully believe that, but him describing how Vince justified it to guys like Pat ("he thinks he's the cock of the walk, he's the rooster that fucks all the chickens") was FASCINATING. I also really enjoy whenever Bruce talks about his early time in the WWF when he was more on the production and performer side than the creative side. I feel like he tends to be more truthful there because he doesn't feel the need to justify anything he wasn't really a part of. For example, episodes of his show with Conrad about Prime Time Wrestling/Bobby Heenan/early RAW were extremely fascinating. There's a great bit where he talked about the origins of working with Piper in preparation for Wrestlemania V in one episode that was also incredibly interesting. Loved him talking about how they picked out The Manhattan Center as the venue for RAW. Those are the stories I am interested in hearing about. His stories and recounting of how much of an important friend Roddy Piper was to him was very touching and endearing. I recognize that the Meltzer bashing is what his listeners are there for though and that he capitalized on the anti-Meltz crowd, but man, it's so tiresome when Conrad does his "Meltzer said..." and then you hear Bruce sigh and then the show grinds to a halt so Conrad can repeat a Meltzer opinion or rumor for Bruce to waste time complaining about. The only full shows of Bruce's that I've listened to are the ones that tend to be from the late 80s/early 90s when he was more performing and producing. Otherwise I'm perfectly content to just listen to the clips that get put up on the YouTube channel. I get the tidbits of Vince McMahon's mindset and perspective when he created this character/show/angle that I find ultra fascinating without all the BS. I do tend to think he's stretching the truth more often than not (even Cornette admits Bruce is claiming Jerry Jarrett wasn't taking over from Vince if he went to jail solely because he (and Pat Patterson) dislikes Jerry) and watching him get heralded as an honest podcast by his fanbase who feel the need to @ Meltzer and respond to every single one of his tweets by attacking his credibility is a little ridiculous. I have seen a lot of "Bruce said..." stuff that obviously isn't true that is being passed around as fact now. Bruce talking about his early run in the WWF (1987-93 or so) is a lot of fun in small doses but otherwise I don't really pay too much attention to him. I've tried but I'm good with sticking to only a certain type of episode. As for his credibility, I don't think he's any more credible than other backstage people in shoots and podcasts. You get a sprinkle of truth in between doses of BS. People just think he's more truthful because his show is more entertaining. Love him or hate him, I don't think anyone will disagree with the take that his fanbase is atrocious.

Received what looks to be a satellite feed (????) copy of the first Wrestlemania. Never thought I'd see the full intermission (the 1997 boxset shows about 40 seconds of it) but that's included in here as well which is really cool in a completionist sense. You'll be happy to know a badly looped instrumental of "Caribbean Queen" was one of the songs used during the intermission.

Cornette confirmed this story in his 1997 Timeline as well I think. Guess I'll pass on this episode then if no major ground gets covered.

For awhile there I was trying to collect all media related to The Wrestling Album that I possibly could. I have the album as well as every single released off of the album, as well as the CD version. Just need the cassette and I'll be set. For some reason they released singles for not just Land of 1,000 Dances, but Grab Them Cakes and Don't Go Messin' with a Country Boy as well. Otherwise mostly scattered random CDs including The Anthology Collection and random WWF The Music volumes. For my favorite thing in the entire world, I do own one of these:

They say that kid is the son of one of the referees. I liked the other explanation I just saw on Twitter: "What if Nicholas is Braun from the past?" Good for him then. The kid is cool as hell to me. Ten year old me would've been so fucking stoked to tag champ with a monster like Braun.

I know people aren't happy about it but I think Strowman picking a kid out of the audience and now it being on record that this kid and Braun are tag champs together fucking rules. I love the idea that Braun is like Godzilla that is a friend to all children.

That fucking ruled. Nicholas and Braun Strowman are the best tag team of all time.

Super unrelated but I felt like this was a good thread to share it in. a dude on Reddit posted pictures he took at Wrestlemania 3 and they're pretty damn cool: https://imgur.com/gallery/eUre9

I've finally been listening to earlier episodes if they're topics I'm into (IE. the Prime Time Wrestling episode, which was a lot of fun. And Bruce discussing how they chose The Manhattan Center for RAW as so fascinating. I wish the show was just stuff like that) and I'm finding enough neat stuff to listen. But as someone who is just kinda neutral on Dave Meltzer the over the top schtick dislike of Dave really turns me off. I get that it's schtick and this is what most of his listernerbase is honestly the most into and it's what keeps people listening, but man. Sometimes you get a real good discussion/insider look into the mind of Vince McMahon and then Conrad mentions Dave and Bruce has to go into his usual "sigh and then complain about the dirtsheets not knowing anything" and I find myself just skipping over it until he's done. The official YouTube channel is really nice because it gives you snippets from episodes so I get a lot of stuff I'm interested in without all the fat.

I was misremembering. Dave was indeed claiming it was the Silverdome that said The Pope drew 95,000 so that wrestling couldn't claim the attendance record. Carry on.

Do we know for sure that the Pope wouldnt work his numbers? I think Dave has said that he heard the PR people involved with the Pope's appearance worked his numbers solely so they could say they beat the Wrestlemania III number.

Yup, he did blame Vince for the falling out; David had talked about it in the past. As far as I know they still don't speak to each other.

Definitely isn't about disliking Jesse IMO. Jesse and Bruno did matches together for Prime Time in 1987-88 and Bruno is shockingly really good and had some great chemistry with Jesse. I think Bruno had a harder time having a voice in the three man booth era with Jesse in there to talk over Vince and after awhile just decided that he didn't need to bother anymore. Jesse used to have to guide him into saying anything sometimes by basically keying him to call the instant replay. I swear there's an episode of Superstars in 1988 where Bruno says one thing the entire broadcast. I like Jesse but you cannot do a three man booth and have Jesse Ventura in there. You won't get a word in. I will say Bruno didn't like all the gimmicks. There's a story George Steele told about how Bruno went up to him in 1985 or 86 around when he was finally quitting teaching and joining the WWF full time. Bruno vented to him about how cartoonish the WWF was becoming, and then after viewing Steele's match Bruno went up to him and said "you're one of them too!!" But also I imagine Bruno had little motivation to keep working for Vince after David left anyway. When did David have that fight with a fan in 1988? Wasn't it around the same time Bruno bounced from the WWF?

Yeah. I forget the reasoning behind it but they brought him back for their tag team championship run and then he was one of the guys they cut for budget reasons in 1995. He also cameo'd on an episode of RAW in 1994 or 93 picking a fight with Blassie.

Vince Jr. and Albano had a love-hate relationship as much as Albano had with Vince Sr. He couldn't stand Albano when he was drunk and thought he was a slobby loudmouth (but otherwise did get a kick out of Albano's schtick). Larry Zbyszko tells a great story in his timeline of all of the guys (Vince Jr. and Sr., Blassie, Bruno, Gorilla, Albano, etc.) being together for a late night dinner and Albano is just completely hammered and cursing out the McMahons and chewing them out over absolutely nothing while everyone besides Bruno and Vince Jr. is just sitting there totally ignoring it with a straight face. Observers from around when Albano retired in 1986 seemed to indicate that Vince wasn't happy with how Albano was finding success outside of wrestling with his acting and various pop culture ventures and that he was more than happy when Albano announced his retirement in November 1986. Vince felt that Albano was getting too big for his britches. They always had a complicated relationship. He almost brought Albano back in to manage The Nasty Boys when they were turned babyface in late 1992 and then Albano did something again that caused another rift.

I think I remember that was because someone backed out that year? And they just decided to make Dibiase the main inductee. Warrior I think was who they were aiming for?

Was Bundy the one who said that WWE asked him if he wanted to be in and he turned them down? I could swear I heard a story like that about him.

This is my viewpoint on this too. I'm beyond excited to see some more nice quality WWWF TV. I've grown a major soft spot for 70s WWWF in recent months and have wanted more.

That's a bummer. I was so excited for this one and bought it immediately when it became available. Still haven't watched yet. How's the Bundy one?

Was recently extremely lucky to be able to get my hands on one of these and it's maybe one of my favorite pieces of wrestling memorabilia I've ever owned.

Vince promised Sid the main event of Wrestlemania 8 with Hogan as a way to get him to sign with him in 1991, so there's that as well. And yeah I know Vince isn't exactly known for keeping promises, but I have to figure that Sid and Hogan was clearly the endgame plan almost immediately after Sid became available.

JUST watched this match like a few days ago and I will co-sign this, this match rules. I mentioned it in another thread but there's a March 1982 Capital Centre show that has Backlund and Adonis in a Lumberjack Match as the Main Event and it's also an extremely good match.