grapplin' apple

Bret Hart vs. Vince McMahon is another one. That was just painful to watch.

I really hate Bam Bam Bigelow vs. New Jack from Wrestlepalooza '98. It represents the worst in ECW: bloodletting with no purpose, stupid garbage brawls, and dangerous spots for the sake of a spot. A clearly woozy from blood loss New Jack jumping from the balcony to the concrete just to hit Bam Bam with a guitar is one of the most unnecessary and dumbest spots I've ever seen.

I always enjoyed Minnesota Home Wrecking Crew as a take-off. Also, Holy Demon Army and Miracle Violence Connection as mentioned before. The Assassins also sounded menacing.

I would give it a very mixed review. I was really looking forward to it, and it disappointed me. One, it is a series of essays which generally works for what he is trying to do. The most interesting parts were talking about compiling the territorial rankings for PWI, and the early days of publication of PWI. His tone is very second and third book Jericho in that he constantly puts himself over and who he knows in the wrestling industry. I don't mean this as a compliment. He talks about he good he is at impressions. A lot. To the point of annoyance. I don't really know how else to say this, but it lacks maturity. There is very little reflection, and you get the feeling he wants to be the cool kid at the party telling everyone what wrestlers he knows. On a more positive note, I read "Drawing Heat" last week and that is an excellent book. A really good look at running an outlaw territory while all of the territories were drying up in the late '80s. A fantastic look at the Sheik as well. Has anyone read Dean Silverstone's book? It looks interesting, but I don't know much about him.

I have to agree with this. I've tried to watch my fair share of Lewin over the last two years (including the clips of his stuff in Australia), and I just can't get into him. In Australia, he literally does the same spots in the same sequences over and over again. He's better in tags where people can hide his weaknesses. The Funk match on NWAClassics is the best I've ever seen of him, and that is mostly Terry Funk making him look good. I read Dusty's book last year and he said he was the best Babyface he has ever seen, but I'm highly skeptical. Tiger Conway Jr. is definitely a shining star on NWAClassics. Not as bright as Gino or Butch Reed, but a very good worker for that time period.

No one ever mentions this one, but Jody Hamilton's "Man Behind the Mask" from Crowbar press is one of the best territorial wrestling books. It has a distinctive voice and lots of good stories, especially about the Georgia wrestling wars in the early '70s. Don Fargo's book is well worth reading, but it's utterly crazy. Dude had a hell of a career and it has great description of territories that aren't covered in depth elsewhere (Gulf Coast, WWA, etc.), but there are parts that make you cringe. The Grappler's book is extremely well written, compelling, and has a detailed history of Portland in the late '80s. His opinions on Don Owens are way different from anything else I've read. I know this is a controversial figure, but Ole's book is one of my favorites. Super distinctive voice, great insights on how booking should work, and his version of what happened with the Georgia buyout is fascinating. I've read it at least 4 times. Another one I recommend that just came out is "Front Row Section D" by John Hitchcock. Not only is it one of the funniest wrestling books I've read, it's a great look at the history of the Mid-Atlantic territory plus North Carolina indy wrestling in the '90s. It's one of the few books that is written from a fan perspective. It's also short and very readable. I think Stan Hansen's book is boring. In my opinion, he was holding back on opinions. It seems really guarded.

I loved this podcast. One interesting fact that I found out about Mark Lewin last year was that Dusty in his book said that he was the best babyface that he has ever seen.

I used to hate Jimmy Valiant as well based on how awful his feud was with Paul Jones' Army and how much I despised it when I was a kid. To me, it was the one very bad spot on Saturday Nights. However, I have since seen his footage from Memphis, and it made me completely re-evaluate him. He was unbelievably great as a character and on the mic there. Personally, I despise the Hardys. Big Show is up there as well. I also really, really dislike Bugsy McGraw.

As a kid when I actively suspended my disbelief, nothing shocked me more than the original Midnight Express and Paul E. Dangerously attacking Jim Cornette's Midnight Express live on TBS. The build up was great as well with Cornette receiving the mysterious phone call moments before. Also, Hall walking into the ring on Nitro and Nash showing up a few weeks later. The 123 Kid beating Razor Ramone on Raw immediately comes to mind as well.

I'd agree with Scaffold matches if I hadn't seen the Don Greene vs. Jerry Jarrett Scaffold match from the DVD that comes with Cornette's Louisville book. It's one of the best worked gimmick matches I've seen. Another dumb gimmick I've only seen once: Detroit in the '70s had Chief Jay Strongbow and Don Kent in a shark cage. It's an extremely small cage that allows for no movement.

Prince of Darkness match. Does anything even come close to this style of match in pure awfulness? One of my favorite matches of the '80s (and of all time) is Duggan vs. Dibiase in a Coal Miner's Glove Tuxedo Steel Cage Loser Leaves Town match, so I know those matches can be executed well. But, yes, I never understood why that glove is particularly devastating, but I'm also not from a region that produces a lot of coal.

I'd say that alcohol has greatly inhibited my ability to watch wrestling live and coherently and, even in some cases, follow the match. I drink way less than I did say 20 years ago, but the times I do seriously drink (generally 3-4 times a year) are confined to when I go to live wrestling with friends. I've found (and even this is true when I watch on television) that when I'm drunk I favor matches that have bigger spots than matches that are well put together with lots of psychology.

I'm guessing 1988 for me. I regularly watched WWF Primetime, Superstars, Sunday Morning show, and SNME. I also watched NWA Saturday Night and NWA Main Event. We had AWA locally and on ESPN, and I would watch World Class after school on ESPN. I also watched Chicago Championship Wrestling that aired on the Chicago sports channel.

As a huge Memphis fan, I can't say enough about this book. The part I really like is that all of the results are augmented by Cornette's ridiculously detailed notes of what angles were happening at the time, crowd reactions, etc, so it's not just a record book with photos. I have the DVD as well, and am looking forward to watching it.

I think the SNME DVD WWE put out a couple of years ago is the best WWE produced DVD in terms of match selection and angles. I still watch it all the time.

Hi, I just finished the Bob Backlund book which I loved. It's highly recommended as it's one of the most detailed wrestling books I've read, plus it seems like it is a fairly honest account of his run. I didn't feel like I was being "worked" while I read it. The book isn't big on hyperbole, which I appreciated. I was wondering if the footage of him vs. Crusher Blackwell exists anywhere? I'm super interested in this as I'm a big Jerry Blackwell fan and would love to see him against Blackwell. I've looked on YouTube, Daily Motion, etc. and I can't find it. I'd also be interested if anyone has seen these matches and their thoughts on them. Thanks!

I guess I just saw certain sides of him that were amplified in Mid-South that you could see briefly in the Georgia feud, like the general crankiness. My main exposure to him was through what is in Mid-South, and his very brief run in Southeastern in '84 which I acquired last year, so that is what I'm going to base my perception of him on. I'll admit that I just briefly watched the 2 vs. Assassin feud. So, the footage that I've seen him as a heel has framed my perception of him. I've seen very little of him as a face, except on NWAClassics. He was an amazingly good asshole though. I'm someone who has cheered for heels since I was about 9 in '87, and even I hate Wrestling 2 as a heel in Mid South and Southeastern. And, yeah, I love the Assassin's heel promos.

After watching a bunch of Mid-South from '84 and on NWAClassics and a little bit of his feud against the Assassin in Georgia in the early '80s, Mr. Wrestling 2 seems like a real asshole and someone that was a natural heel.

I don't know if this counts since it didn't technically originate on PWO-PTBN, but this Wrestling Culture podcast about late '80s/early '90s Texas wrestling is one of the best territorial summary podcasts I've listened to about an extremely confusing topic: http://recordings.talkshoe.com/TC-112658/TS-691364.mp3

It also sounds like the material will be properly cataloged, inventoried, and taken care of at UT-Arlington by trained archivists and librarians. It's important for more Universities (particularly Public Us) to be involved in preserving pro wrestling history so that multiple narratives (rather than just WWE's) are given showcase.

yeah, I'm not happy about it either. I was trying to get through all the episodes and generally enjoyed it.

They just took down all of the Stampede stuff, which is disappointing because I was only able to watch 2 episodes and I haven't seen much Stampede.

I thought the tequila bottle over the head of Jushin "Thunder" Liger was one of the worst in-ring angles I've seen in 30 years of watching wrestling. Tori Wilson in a fat suit was appalling as well.

I lived in eastern Iowa in the '80s and we received AWA Superstars through a local station. I remember watching some of these episodes back then.

I'm going for Sasha/Bayley, but mainly because it's the match that made my daughter a wrestling fan. So, emotionally, it's a pretty special match for me.