Sean Liska

Standout is a bit of a relative term for this stuff but something like Travis/Putski-Scicluna/Coage from 4/14/79 is an example of some matches being much more fun than we expected.

I will qualify that they need to establish its more than a normal ROH house show to do that, whether its Omega or some big NJPW names or hot indy and European names. But if they establish this as indy Mania, or more specifically - anti-WWE Mania, I'm not betting against 10k, 2018 has blown my mind too many times already for me to bet against it. There are so many more hardcore fans than ever due to technology who will pay big money for things they perceive as big. The Rumble this year had the highest secondary market prices in WWE history and the lineup was nothing special. NJPW instantly sold 4,500 tickets for their LA show with nothing announced. ROH just sold out the Hammerstein immediately for a show with nothing big on it. I'm not betting against Progress drawing 8k for their big show this year. I was looking at Money in the Bank tickets for also here in Chicago - $80 for mediocre upper deck seats! Crazy times now.

2018 is so insane that I'll make my prediction here that they sell at least 6,000 tickets the first day. This is going to be indy fan Mania, they'll come from around the world. Unless it comes out that the lineup is going to be really weak, no Omega, etc.

For those of you involved in the Yearbook project, I recommend supplementing your All-Star watching with that, fills in gaps with some Championship Wrestling footage and MSG shows. Like, I'm in June 79 on All-Star, and it looks like Championship Wrestling got a Dibiase-Patterson match that weekend. Being able to see the weekly TV and then see the big house shows is a New York only thing that we have now for 79-80.

Watching a fun Tito-Rodz match. Rodz and Estrada were really the key to whether you're going to get a good show in what I've seen of 79, whether you'll get a fun competitive match. You learn something every day.

It did; only the once mind on a Nassau Coliseum show from 2/10. I have zero idea if it would've been taped though. I love this place.

I've seen clips of WWF TV and I've seen all the MSG shows but I'm really enjoying Vince in his role here. He might have only been behind Lance, right there with Gordon. The disgust with the heels is great. I love when Blassie goes on a long offensive rant and Vince just says, "Thank you very much, Mr. Blassie" and sends to commercial.

I've watched the first 5 months of 1983 Mid-Atlantic and it just hasn't been anything special. The matches feel like everyone is still half asleep for the morning shoot. I just keep wishing I wss watching Memphis or Alabama. This at least had very low expectations so it's more about pleasant surprises. And there's actually been more good matches than Mid-Atlantic, I can feel Bruce Mitchell cursing me somewhere for saying that.

ignore this one.

I saw a Johnny Rodz match from 79 where he was like a total workrate guy. Now I wish Rodz-Fujinami happened in 79.

Why are there always a few peole booing when Gary Michael Cappetta introduced himself. What the hell.

Honestly the Travis/Putski-Bad News/Scicluna match from the 4/14/79 show is more fun than anything I can remember from the first 5 months of 83 Mid-Atlantic. Didn't expect to say that. It's that gritty NY punch and kick style but it's fast paced, fun, hot crowd, I'm pleasantly surprised.

There are more name vs name matches than I expected. Not big names but fun enough non-squashes sprinkled in.

It's what you would expect but I'm getting a kick out of Vince in the Lance Russell role jousting with heels during promos.

Lets do this!

Memphis people. In 81-84 you were getting hot Nitro/Raw caliber stuff every week. The highest local TV ratings for wrestling ever. But they had the benefit of each TV being used to build to a specific show that week and being able to do hot angles and promos instead of doing more general TV with different loops running. But yes this drop tomorrow will be great, we'll have to start a thread for hidden gems.

I mean the shows are going to be mostly terrible, most non-Memphis TV of that era wasn't enthralling and New York was really rough. That said, I'm going to enjoy the hell out of digging through this history and finding gems.

I don't know if they badly need it, I think Vince could find a way to structure WWE to make money with $700 million in revenue instead of $800 million, he's a sharp business guy, but when someone is offering you that much extra pure profit, requiring barely any extra expenses on your part, hard to turn down. Everyone knows the show is too long. HHH even admitted it on Austin's podcast. But it's a lot of pure cash profit.

Raw on the Fox Network is a wild possibility. UPN doesn't county, that would be the best exposure for wrestling since the days of the Dumont Network. Could really legitimize them further with important people. The rapid decline of TV ratings on cable and network TV has put WWE in one of its healthiest spots ever. Who knows how long this era lasts.

Love love love this trend of more classic stuff and less original programming that no one watches. The Florida TV dream is still alive.

They have me intrigued with how Cena going to SD is supposed to help him get to Mania.

Golden Lovers at that first Honor Rising show were like watching the Fabs in 1983. NJPW has them, Naito, Okada, Tanahashi still valuable, they're looking good.

The SD main event is Styles vs Nakamura so they are trying to give you your wrestling while getting their mainstream press. Actually pretty clever. And Takeover the night before Mania based on track record has like a 99% chance of being a great straightforward wrestling show.

I think they're hitting home runs with all of their key angles right now going into Mania and are going to be very successful. I don't know how Ronda will do post HHH/Stephanie feud but they're finally cashing in on the *years* of Authority running RAW and every week starting with a HHH/Steph promo and Steph so rarely selling for anyone. Makes it almost worthwhile.