soup23

Just saw my email from Gabe about the Wrestlemania shows and $100 for front row tickets to DGUSA and Shimmer? I can't fathom paying that for one of those shows.

Hollinger at 20 hours a week sounds like a good barometer that i don't meet. I'm honestly at around 8-10 hours a week probably. Some weeks more, some weeks less of course.

On the docket tonight: 03-26 BRUNO SAMMARTINO vs IVAN KOLOFF MADISON SQUARE GARDEN This didn't set my world on fire. Bruno's arm work was very good but seemed more like a means to an end and way to kill time than anything substantial with it. This also had some kind of awkward moments like the spot with Bruno on the outside and Ivan perched on the top rope for 25 seconds. Finishing bump for Ivan was cool though. **1/2 03-26 ALBANO/VALIANTS vs ZBYSZKO/GAREA/DUSTY RHODES MADISON SQUARE GARDEN I was pumped for this. Guys I am familar with but in different settings. Then Dusty started out jiving around and playing to the crowd and I was all in. These guys fooled me. The finish to the first fall was a disaster. Second fall was better and the finish with the Valiants running into each other was pretty neat. I still don't know how the third fall got so screwed up but it was another trainwreck and besides Albano running to the back, I was not amused by this. 17 minutes but it felt way longer. *1/2 03-26 PETER MAIVIA vs IVAN PUTSKI MADISON SQUARE GARDEN This was a match. Maivia clubbed Ivan. Ivan returned the favor. The referee turning into a judge and declaring Ivan the winner seemed pretty stupid to me. Weird MSG card overall with 4 relative big matches but nothing really clicking. * 03-79 VALIANTS/ALBANO, PUTSKI, MAIVIA/BLASSIE PROMOS WWF TV I can't believe how botched these promos are. There would be a million GIF's of something like Maivia's promo if he stopped in mid sentence today. I also wasn't as high on the Blassie promo as everyone else on the show even though it was ok. Albano was drunk off his ass and Putski said nothing. 04-14 GREG VALENTINE vs SD JONES CHAMPIONSHIP WRESTLING Jobber match that gets a slight bump with Greg's elbows looking good and the post match promo from Greg. 1/2* 04-79 TED DIBIASE, VALIANTS PROMOS WWF TV Decent babyface promo by Ted talking about scouting the Valiants. Valiants didn't say a lot and Albano mispronounced a name which Vince pounced all over. 04-14 VALIANTS vs TED DIBIASE/FRED CURRY/STEVE TRAVIS CHAMPIONSHIP WRESTLING Now we are talking. Wicked fun studio brawl with Travis showing some fire, Curry bringing energy, and the Valiants being the scuzziest heels alive. Using the tag rope and the ring rope and constantly interfering and clubbing the faces. Huge brawl as the credits start rolling. ***1/2 06-02 NIKOLAI VOLKOFF vs JOSE ESTRADA CHAMPIONSHIP WRESTLING Volkoff looked strong as hell in this match. Not a ton other stuff in this and Volkoff's back breaker finisher looked weak. * 06-04 BOB BACKLUND vs GREAT HUSSEIN ARAB WWF TITLE MADISON SQUARE GARDEN Beautiful pro wrestling match that builds and build to a chaotic finish. mat work was competitive and fierce. The spot with the full nelson that Johnny and Pete marked over on the podcast was straight amazing. Once the chair enters the frey, the crowd was ignited and I didn't have a problem with the officiating since he let it go on both sides. Atomic drop is still not a very good finisher but worked better here than in the Valentine rematch. Just great stuff. **** Conclusions: Not digging any of the three wise men so far and have the big Backlund matches ranked 1. one hour draw vs. Valentine 2. vs. Hussein Arab 3. rematch with Valentine.

Thank you for the feedback Midnight Lee

Two shills this morning. First, the second episode of the Brad and Chad show is posted with minimal wrestling talk. http://placetobenation.com/the-brad-and-ch...final-podflict/ 00:00:00 – 00:06:20 – Intro and shill for placetobenation.com 00:06:21 – 00:15:15 – Best and Worst of PTBN (some Breaking Bad non spoiler and WreslteMania 30 talk) 00:15:16 – 00:59:32 – Sports talk. Fantasy football and whether it saves or ruins marriages. Pro and college football overall landscape predictions 00:59:33 – 01:02:58 – Paying the Bills 01:02:59 – 02:14:45 – EMMY PREVIEW Part 1 with Ben Morse. Why Ben hates “The Office” and rundowns of the best supporting actor and actresses in comedies/dramas. 02:14:46 – 02:20:46 – Wrap up and preview of episode 3 Second is yesterday's PTBN Daily Update: PTBN's diva expert Ben Morse reviews the penultimate episode of Total Divas: http://placetobenation.com/total-divas-wat...vas-week-seven/ Maurice Pogue made his PTBN debut looking at stealth games of 1998: http://placetobenation.com/the-15-year-ann...8-stealth-game/ The Place to Be Podcast previews Night of Champions and NFL week 2: http://placetobenation.com/place-to-be-pod...mpions-preview/ The Kings of Sport also break down week one in the NFL with their latest podcast: http://placetobenation.com/the-kings-of-sp...7-marvins-room/ We Found New Music has a live set by The Lucky Lonely: http://placetobenation.com/we-found-new-mu...ky-lonely-live/

Weird Jaze, what platform are you going through?

I think the match getting slept on is a combination of the fact that 1. Luger gets some hate 2. In looking at the total landscape of WCW 1990 on the surface it looks like Sting's year so its kind of easy to skim over the Luger vs. Flair series unless you really pay attention and 3. The Ultimate Challenge happened at the same time and tons of people are nostalgic for that. I am a huge fan of the Garvin vs. Flair title win for Garvin and think that is a more obscure since people that do watch this match both now and live rated it well, but it is a forgotten classic in the whole vacuum of the IWC.

It really is a fairly clever BS finish that makes Luger look like a loyal friend to Sting. As stupid as Luger looks jumping around like a maniac with a countout victory vs. Yoko, he looks every bit dignified and valiant here.

I will say that joshi is certainly not the sole reason I pick up the yearbooks i have so far, but it is the thing along with USWA/US indies and lucha as the thing I am most interested in watching because it is mostly all new to me and I especially in regards to joshi, I doubt I will ever pick up whole shows of it.

Rude/Fernandez vs. Rock N Roll Express 12/6/86 That is the best one in my mind. It goes really long and may not be for everyone and I do prefer the Russians tag but I know Parv and others hold this one dearly and it is a great match in my opinion.

Big Day at PTBN! Andrew Riche reminisced about Mid South Wrestling: http://placetobenation.com/an-ode-to-mid-south-wrestling/ Richer and the Mailman recap a heart pounding episode of "Breaking Bad": http://placetobenation.com/richer-the-mail...and-friendship/ Scott Reviewed last nights Raw: http://placetobenation.com/scotts-raw-recap-9913/ Scott also gears you up for tonight's Son of Anarchy season premiere: http://placetobenation.com/ridin-through-c...ons-of-anarchy/ Weber has issues with Forever Evil #1: http://placetobenation.com/weber-has-issues-forever-evil-1/ The Flagship Place to Be Podcast returns with a Vintage Vault recap of Fully Loaded 2000: http://placetobenation.co

I thought about this a good bit but for me it went with a tag team that I would be challenging to make my top 5 tag teams of all time vs. a tag team that has a legit case at top 3. Shawn/Marty had some all time classics with Blood in the Sand/ the 2nd cage match. They also had a some other matches that hovered around **** with Rose/Somers on the AWA set. There WWF stuff I have watched a bunch of either independently or in conjecture with the yearbook. There is a whole lot of good to very good in those matches but probably my highest ranked match is vs. the Orient Express at Royal Rumble 1991 which is ****1/4. RNR has the Russian match, Midnights WWar90, and Ragin and Ravishing match as all timers. Under that, they also have just as much if not more good to very good stuff as the Rockers. Having watched both fairly recently, I would take something like Doom vs. RNR from GAB 90 over Rockers vs. Demolition from 12/88 in MSG.

It's the White tux that puts it over the top. Doom looked like the most bad ass prom dates in history on this show. Which is your favorite Fantastics/MX match. The only one for me that rivals the RNR/MX match here is the clash 1 one but they have had a ton of great matches. I didn't want to belabor the point on the show since we were going long (go figure) but I agree with you on the talking to especially in regards to hearing Patrick's instructions prior to the main event. That gave that match a big time and important feeling.

Andrew Riche wrote a article in parallel to the dvd release talking about his encounter with JYD. Link is Here: http://placetobenation.com/an-ode-to-mid-south-wrestling/

I enjoy Ivan over Sting and Nash but I am surprised to see you use the tremendous adjective when discussing him Parv. I would have Ivan as a good worker that executed his role really well but I doubt if I made a top 50 GOAT list, he would be in contention at all. For instance someone like Atlantis seems like a better worker to me based on available footage seen.

Havent seen enough Mascaras to judge but Dave saying that La Sombra is better than Mascaras ever was seems a little suspect.

I will probably have to go back and think about it somewhat but I don't see an easy answer to a PPV besides Bash 89 that is better than this one so far (some contenders seem like Havoc 89, Chi Town Rumble, Bash 88). It is carried by two matches for sure but those take up a ton of time and everything besides Norman vs. Cactus was at least decently ranked for me. I actually still really believe that Freebirds tag would have been good if 10 minutes and the Zenk FIP spot had been cut out.

Whenever I comment on a match, it has my full attention. If I am watching Smackdown, Raw, or some random stuff (non yearbook, podcast, or stuff I know Im going to post on) then I will browse the internet and zone out a bit. I understand where if you watch and read a blow by blow account of the match, it can seem boring. The first 40 minutes besides Valentines work don't have a lot of substantial stuff to it, but I also think that in the context of this match and the promos leading up to it that it makes perfect sense for Backlund to use his definitive advantage to slow the match down, show his superior wrestling ability, and not get caught in any power moves or prolonged leg work by Greg. That is why even at half the time, the rematch felt to me like more fat added. What is Greg trying to accomplish by going after the front facelock so many times? He had some great elbows to gain the advantage so why not go for the knockout blow? That match does ratchet up with the leg work but I didn't have any logic gaps in the draw like the front face lock motif in the rematch.

What is the cutoff year wise for the Historical and Modern performers? Seeing Ivan Koloff in the same category as AJ Styles and Edge seems odd.

I agree with you on Bret in 1989. He was mixing it up with a good many singles stars sort of as a template of what he could do as a singles. I was mainly focusing on 1990 where it seems like they back track and he is predominantly with Anvil. I don't really know what the reasoning was for the Hart Foundation to get the win at SummerSlam 1990 as honestly the Rockers winning at that point could have been built up and they could have done a good lengthy reign. In watching the 1990 yearbook, it didn't really feel like Bret was sticking out as a singles star until he got the rub in the 1990 Survivor Series match. Really think/hope you do jump to the Road Warriors vs. Demolition stuff now. I think from what we saw (again only inclusive of the 1990 yearbook which I do think is a fair sampling to analyze), the program was a dud all around for all parties involved. Warrior looked weak as the champion getting involved in this stuff that was below both Hogan vs. Quake and the impeding Slaughter stuff. Even worse, at the tail end of the year it looked like he was avoiding Slaughter and Macho to be involved in a multi tag team feud. The Road Warriors have an awesome moment where they come in at SSlam to a huge pop, but otherwise they were marginalized and quite frankly just not as over/cool as they were a few years earlier. Vince did make them goofier and that combined with what we are seeing of them as a performer (they are still pushed in early 1990 WCW but not as the be all end all they once were and more as a way to elevate Doom). Demolition really has a "Freebird" fall from grace as after the SSlam loss to the Harts, they seem finished and extremely old with Crush coming in as an inferior member and them trying to hang on until the WM 7 defeat. I know in the battle royal to determine who would face the harts at WM 7, Demolition felt around the 5-6 most important tag team in the match which is shocking considering where they were at a year before. Thanks for the words on the article. I have a lot of fun piling through these results and do think the potential is in WWE now to make the tag division an important facet of the overall company.

Anyone voting for AJ Styles for the WON HOF is just comically bad.

In doing research for this, I found two things interesting. 1. How Demolition was positioned throughout the cards in mid-late 1988 and how the matches vs. The Powers of Pain on the surface felt weaker positioned than the Demo vs. Strike Force rematches 2. How truly rare a PPV like Wreslewar 1990 is in WWE. That show has a ton of long matches with 4 15minute plus matches and three of them being tag matches. WWE PPV's can have a good amount of wrestling but they still are a company that mainly has PPV's where they get their shit in as far as skits, diva matches, etc. 2009 is a little bit of a blindspot for me and I kind of dred watching 2009 DX but it was a time period in the fall where it looks like they were pushing tag team matches and tag teams well.

01-27 LARRY ZBYSZKO vs JOHNNY VALIANT ALL STAR WRESTLING For a match introducing you to some of the main components to WWF, this wasn't awful. Johnny V looked good in his opening attack slinging Larry viciously into the turnbuckles with good desperation and then fairly terrible the rest of the match with the dreaded nerve hold and some other goofy selling on the outside from Zbyszko punches. Larry I thought showed good fire and was an effective babyface overall. Match ends with a double countout on the outside in a big schmooz. I liked Larry Z's flustered babyface promo immediately after the match. The less said about those Albano kicks, the better. 01-27 LARRY ZBYSZKO vs IVAN KOLOFF CHAMPIONSHIP WRESTLING Heck of a cape on Ivan. Some basic chain wrestling to start that culminates in Larry busting out a leap frog and monkey flip that seemed very uncharacteristic for him. Albano seems more active giving instructions to Ivan in this match than he was Johnny V in the previous one. Lou trips Larry and he bails. What a wimp. Oh no, he just brings out Miss Elizabeth, I mean Tony Garea as backup to neutralize Lou. Every time that Ivan consults with Lou, he gains the advantage which is a nice touch. Ivan really amps up the pace and slings him into the turnbuckle, throws some snap mares, and is generally clubbing him pretty good. Larry comes back with an armdrag and continues with the onslaught in the corner leading to a back body drop, stomp, and bodyslam. Lou tries desperately to get in but can't with Garea there. Larry falls to the outside and Albano is able to get in one quick kick. Ivan does a couple of minutes of clubbering and as soon as Larry makes a comeback and puts on the abdominal stretch, Lou has had enough and charges in the ring creating a four man melee and another cheap finish. Again if this was on Raw it would be nothing memorable but certainly passable and for what they were trying to accomplish, this match did a good job. I can't understand how the match ended in a draw though. 02-79 BOB BACKLUND, GREG VALENTINE/WIZARD PROMOS WWF TV Very straight laced Bob promo talking about the figure four and the danger that is involved with the hold. Valentine gives a cool promo talking about the power of his leglock. wizard sits back and laughs. Cool to have this inserted James as set up for the MSG match. 02-19 BOB BACKLUND vs GREG VALENTINE WWF TITLE MADISON SQUARE GARDEN First I want to mention Vince. he does a great job flying solo on commentary for an hour allowing the action to breathe. It is truly amazing that the same person putting over hashtags and yelling at announcers every Monday to fill in the dead air is the same person calling this match. I thought this match was outstanding and kept my interest level up for the entire hour. The opening with Bob trying to slow Greg down after the promos was well done and showed that Bob paid attention and was actively scouting his opponent. Greg's work on the midsection was good as was the arm scissor. This is definitely a hold oriented match but they kept it compelling and it worked within the theme. We then get a great king of the mountain spot and Greg goes to work. I think this match is very basic in stature on the surface but rich with understated subtlety underneath that really puts it over the top. I had a feeling that if Greg would have focused on the leg and not betrayed his game plan, he would have won the belt. Bob felt like a champion with some flaws but who was still resourceful and not going to go down easy. Both men came out looking good and I'm ready to see what I think of the rematch. 4.5 stars or so from me if grading. 03-24 TONY GAREA/LARRY ZBYSZKO vs VALIANTS TAG TITLE CHAMPIONSHIP WRESTLING Jimmy valiant uses his brains????? The Valiants win the belts and get pelted with some garbage. 03-26 BOB BACKLUND vs GREG VALENTINE WWF TITLE MADISON SQUARE GARDEN Vince is playing up that the curfew has been waved which usually means a shorter match coming off a draw. Really surprised to hear that James, Parv, Brad either have this equal or ahead of the hour draw. I thought Valentines control in particular with the front face lock was much more meticulous. He was doing those clubbing elbow on the back of the head but the work and overall story of the match seemed a bit off. The Transition to the leg work was much more engaging. Bob makes a quick comeback and we sort of reset. Still don't know how i feel about the see saw spot they did as I have never seen that before but it looked kind of odd. Backlund getting the figure four in to a huge pop from MSG was a cool visual moment and bit of revenge. I still even with Loss's logic am not crazy about the ref pulling Valentines hands away. He had both hands clenched and if you want people to get tangled up to the ropes to break, give him a chance to do that you know? valentine pushes him away and then is able to hook in the single crab for a bit before retreating to the outside to work out his leg. Finish as has constantly been over is just stupid as all hell. I know backlund used the atomic drop and we are talking about 1979 but I just have big problems with that as a finisher. Even a body slam can be effective if you are working on the back in the course of the match. This was fairly disappointing overall with them getting thirty minutes. The focus and intensity seemed less than in the draw which is strange since they went half the time. Overall would probably only barely classify this as a good match mostly for Hammer's elbows and his leg work. 3-3.25 stars overall.

PTBN Daily Update: Total Divas Recapping Total Divas looks at episode 6: http://placetobenation.com/total-divas-wat...divas-week-six/ Our 2013 Television Coverage begun with a preview of tonight's The League: http://placetobenation.com/2013-fall-tv-preview-the-league/ Justin recaps a wrestling heavy edition of Ring Of Honor: http://placetobenation.com/justins-ring-of...or-recap-83113/ The NFL Staff gives out awards and playoff predictions: http://placetobenation.com/nfl-2013-season...rd-predictions/ T.J. McAloon has his latest podcast discussing discussing football: http://placetobenation.com/t-j-mcaloon-and...ode-81-w-joe-b/ Catch up with all the grappletalk rewind episodes: http://placetobenation.com/grappletalk-rewind-volume-1/

Today's PTBN Update! Scott Keith makes his PTB debut with a look at ten match finishes that drive him crazy! http://placetobenation.com/10-mind-blowing...so-in-the-face/ Episode five of Richer & the Mailman has the guys talking more Breaking Bad, Mila Kunis and some "football". http://placetobenation.com/richer-the-mail...premier-league/ Weber has issues this week, and his issue is the God of Thunder, Thor! http://placetobenation.com/weber-has-issue...p-thor-artists/ Leda Clark talks the Mighty #9 Kickstarter Project: http://placetobenation.com/mighty-no-9-a-mega-redemption/ Your PTBN 2013 NFL Preview continues with a look at the Panthers & Texans! http://placetobenation.com/nfl-2013-season...houston-texans/ How will Triple H continue to torture Daniel Bryan and intimidate the Raw roster? Check out Scott's Raw Recap! http://placetobenation.com/scotts-raw-recap-9213/