vikingsfan73

I don't understand why there were people sitting in the bleachers behind me when there were empty ringside seats. Maybe that's why they moved people down for the last show. I'll have to look at some of that footage, to see how much of the ringside area the cameras capture. I think there were at least 6 rows of ringside. I would also like to put forth that I am a terrible judge of how many people are in a crowd. I've tried estimating at my local indy and I always fall short of the actual attendance. Like the Observer polls in the newsletter used to say "Statistical margin of error: +-100%".

I was at the last two TV tapings in Rochester. For the first one (June 1990?), we walked up 15 minutes before the start of the show and had ringside seats. We were right behind where they cut all of the ringside interviews. There might have been 150 people there. It was really hard to tell, because the Mayo Civic Center was a pretty big arena, they had lots of it curtained off, but there were bleachers behind ringside. There were only ringside seats on 3 sides, with their hard camera on the fourth side. I think that show had the Harley Race vs. Larry Zybszko match, and I was disappointed when Race & Nikita didn't show up at the following taping. Like Khawk mentioned, they got a lot of mileage out of their footage, making it seem like guys were in the territory for much longer than they really were. For the last show (August 1990?), we again walked up and had to settle for second row seats. Before the show started, they had everyone from the bleachers move down to ringside to fill the empty seats. Might have been 100 people in attendance. Seemed a lot more empty than the prior show. That's how I remember it, but I was 16 and a lot of damage has taken place to my memory since then.

The History of the WWE site doesn't have the results of the first house show I went to, which was featured the British Bulldogs challenging Valentine & Beefcake for the tag titles, but here's the second and third shows I went to (thanks to the thehistoryofwwe.com): WWF @ Minneapolis, MN - Met Center - August 17, 1986 (11,500) Cpl. Kirchner defeated Tiger Chung Lee Hercules defeated Tito Santana via count-out B. Brian Blair & Jim Brunzell fought Mike Rotundo & Danny Spivey to a draw The Iron Sheik & Nikolai Volkoff defeated Greg Valentine & Brutus Beefcake; the winners of this match were to meet the winner of the Killer Bees / Rotondo & Spivey match to determine who would get a tag team title shot at the 10/5 show but because the previous match went to a draw Sheik & Volkoff automatically won the title shot King Kong Bundy & Big John Studd defeated Big & Super Machine via disqualification Paul Orndorff defeated WWF World Champion Hulk Hogan via disqualification WWF @ St. Paul, MN - Civic Center - October 5, 1986 (8,000) Big, Super, & Crusher Machine defeated Big John Studd, King Kong Bundy, & Bobby Heenan when Crusher pinned Studd with a bolo punch WWF Tag Team Champions Davey Boy Smith & the Dynamite Kid vs. Nikolai Volkoff & the Iron Sheik WWF World Champion Hulk Hogan defeated Paul Orndorff via count-out The Met Center show was my 13th birthday present from my parents. I was so surprised when Valentine & Beefcake were the faces against Sheik & Volkoff. I hated the Dream Team because of their feud with the Bulldogs, who were my favorites at the time. I actually liked the Iron Sheik because of his cool suplexes. Ken Resnick was ring announcing, and he got doused with a beer that was aimed for Volkoff during the Russian National Anthem. It took me a few minutes to realize that in the battle of "bad guy" teams, the foreign villians will still get booed, while the US villians get the cheers! Giant Machine was at ringside for the tag match, which was the only time I ever saw Andre live, from what I remember. Even from far away from ringside, he looked giant. The Civic Center show had a number of no-shows, including Terry Funk, who was supposed to team with Dory against the Killer Bees. The tag match ended up being broke into a couple of singles matches. The Machines match with Crusher Machine was hilarious, because Crusher Machine had a cigar stuck in the mouth of his mask. And then he'd turn to the crowd and lift the match, just so we knew it was the Crusher! Heenan was going nuts on the ring apron, shouting "It's the Crusher!" After 2 indecisive finishes in a row, the Hogan vs. Orndorff match went to the steel cage the following month. Unfortunately, I didn't get to go to that match. I loved Paul Orndorff in that feud. Also, saw a few AWA house shows in high school gyms and hockey rinks, plus an indy show around 1990 in a high school with no one I'd ever heard of. In the 90s, I attended 4 Ilio DiPaulo Memorial shows in Buffalo that were put on by WCW. They brought in some legends, and did some nice tributes to DiPaulo, was a community legend. By the last one, they had really downplayed the legends aspect, and it ended up being a Thunder taping.

I don't know what their TV situation is, if any, but there's a group called IWA Unlimited out of Olney, IL, that runs a $5 show every Sunday and a free show every Wednesday night. CodySave might know more about them, as he's more on top of the Midwest indies than I am. Not sure if they're following the Memphis model you're speaking of. One would think the free shows on Wednesday are setting the stage for the Sunday paid shows, regardless if they're on local TV or the internet.

If you're interested in the Jeremy Wyatt vs. Mark Sterling 3XW feud, I'd recommend picking up the "3XW Greatest Feuds - Wyatt vs. Sterling" DVD. It's a great recap of the August 2010-January 2011 series Wyatt & Sterling had, which culminated in the Iron Man Match that's been discussed here. I own all of the matches on singles DVDs already, and I grabbed this at last month's 3XW show. It was definitely worth it. Looking forward to this weekend's 3XW show. I think Gage Octane will match up well with Perry Saturn. And I'm always excited to see Devin Carter & Casanova back teaming up!

The Nasty Boys vs. Cactus/Payne and Cactus/Sullivan feud was my favorite series in '94. I love the match from Slamboree.

I attended the last two AWA TV tapings in 1990. I just confirmed with my brother that the battle royal was the last match at the taping, hence the last AWA TV match ever. I couldn't remember if it was that or the tag team title change between the Destruction Crew and DJ Peterson & Trooper. I'm glad you're including the Saito vs. Zbyszko matches and Race vs. Zbyszko. Showing one of the final matches from the tapings would be cool too. The only other match from the AWA that year that I thought stood out was Tony Denucci vs. Johnnie Stewart from the Light Heavyweight tournament. It was actually a pretty fast paced match for the AWA.

I haven't watch Raw in about 4 years. I'm seriously considering watching it for the Muppets. Last Raw I watched was the old-school one they did last year or the year before. But yeah, the Muppets might be enough for me to watch Raw once more. This will be the greatest Raw ever! My son always watches Raw off of the DVR, and I rarely pay attention. I definitely be paying attention on Halloween!

That dropkick is brutal. I love that match.

Every match with Ron Trongard had a great call. I remember that he could never keep the Road Warriors straight. He switch between calling the same guy Animal or Hawk during the course of the match. Always brought a smile to my face! And I agree, the 9/28/85 Jumbo vs. Martel match is awesome!

I agree, this is pretty cool series of matches.

That NCAA Wrestling Championship recap on the front page today is pretty bad. Not sure who wrote it, but they're talking it up like they have some amateur wrestling knowledge. First, they said Cael Sanderson went to Iowa. Sorry, he went to Iowa State. Then, they said the only colleges who have won the NCAA championship who weren't Midwest schools were Penn State, Arizona State, and Cornell. The Cornell that won the NCAA Wrestling Championship isn't Cornell University, but Cornell College, which is a small private school in Iowa. It's something that's talked enough about in wrestling magazines like WIN that anyone attempting to cover college wrestling should know the true story. Of course, Dave got Iowa and Iowa State mixed up in his NCAA preview in this week's Observer, so maybe he did write it!

You didn't mention that Mick Karch does the AWF commentary. Awesome! The AWF show is really nicely put together. Cruz vs. Daivari and Sailer vs. Page are both good matches too, btw. It's weird seeing Sailer as a face after his slow building heel turn in 3XW over the past year.

I got this for Christmas, and just finished looking through this last night. Each month is analyzed with comments from Jerry Jarrett and others, then that month's programs are presented in chronological order. Some of the commentary jumps around a little bit, getting ahead of itself at times, but when you're talking about angles that lasted a month or two, that's bound to happen. Definitely worth picking up.

I'll back up CodySave's statement, the Iron Man Match between Jeremy Wyatt and Mark Sterling was an amazing match! Definitely the greatest match I've ever seen live, topping the ladder match at July's 3XW 5th year anniversary show. Both wrestlers did a great job of keeping the crowd into the match. It was very well paced, and didn't drag or slow down. I thought the finishes for the falls were very creative, and both guys came out looking strong. What I think says a lot about 3XW is how the "little things" really add up. What I mean is that in the year that I've been attending shows, I've probably seen a total of 5 chair shots. When you see something dastardly like a chair shot or a low blow, it really means something. The Iron Man Match was advertised as no DQ, no countout, but there wasn't a bunch of garbage style brawling or weapons. One chair was involved, and one table came out, and they had a purpose. IIRC, it was the only time I've ever seen a table used. I really recommending picking up this event when it comes out on DVD, along with the 5th year anniversary show and last April's Spring Showdown, featuring Jeremy Wyatt vs. Tyler Black.

My son & I started attending shows back in March after reading some of Cody's posts. If you're in the area, check out a show, you won't regret it. Great action, family friendly atmosphere, and pretty solid booking. And all of you should go to the 3XWrestling website and order a copy of the 5th anniversary show from July. It was the best show I've ever seen live, and it beat the heck out of a lot of the PPVs you'll ever see. Simply a great show from start to finish, topped off by an amazing ladder match between Jeremy Wyatt and Rory Fox. We're looking forward to Friday night's show. Not sure if Connor will dress up, but we'll be there! I think the strangest thing I've ever seen at an indy show was the chair throwing incident mentioned early. As we were leaving, I joked with my brother, "must have been so and so's relative." Who knew? And Cody, if drunk midgets ever call you about renting the ring again, PLEASE let me know. I want to be there!

"Suck it, weirdo." That's exactly who I was thinking of!

My son & I have attended the last two 3XW shows in Des Moines, and we've had a great time! I would strongly suggest that anyone in Central Iowa should check out their next show on May 7. My son is 10, and he's really enjoyed seeing wrestling up close, as opposed to the RAW & SmackDown tapings I've taken him to before. I grew up attending AWA shows in high school gyms and hockey arenas, so this takes me back to those days. I think the wrestling action is very solid, with only one match that I'd classify as really bad, and I won't name names. In the tag title change in March, after some brawling outside the ring, the wrestlers rolled back into the ring and the heel pinned the face after a simple kick to the groin. Nothing crazy, not a bunch of wild interference. Very fun time!

I remember the Hashimoto bio being really short, like he was going to write the second part the following week, which often happens. Except part two never came.

And this week we have the Baron Mikel Scicluna bio. I don't think we're getting a Doc bio. I don't think he's dropped the ball this bad since Hashimoto's bio.