Matt D

I don't like it because the Von Erich's had great matches. But I kinda like it because that makes the next logical step that the Dems are the Freebirds. Michael Hayes is Bernie Sanders? By this logic, Killer Khan is James Comey.

At the end of the day and with all details aside, the service was the most I enjoyed wrestling in a long time. It was something to look forward to every week if not every day. I know not everything probably went how you thought it might, but there's never really been footage quite like this (I stand by that), and we've seen enough of it to recreate a clear and vivid image of Paul Boesch's Houston Wrestling, something that had been lost relative to other "territories." We're going to carry that forward, like we do with Portland or Memphis. I hope we get more. But I'm glad that we were able to see what we did.

The build was for something more than a Brock match. They didn't deliver.

She did basically get Sasha's top of the card heel run on Raw, no?

Is there more from the 50s than the 60s?

I think he's going to do fine on the indies.

crossposting: Simple, straightforward wrestling works for a reason. This was meat and potatoes. Roddy started strong. Roode kept getting advantages by taking a powder or using space or the ref as a distraction. The babyface outwrestles the heel in the shine. The heel gets advantages in underhanded (but not necessarily chickenshit) ways. The face powers through it. Roode was great at stooging throughout this, at drawing heat, at making the babyface look good. Their timing and crispness was solid the whole match. There was polish throughout. Everything looked like it it like it was supposed to but always organically. There was just base professionalism in that regard. Strong made up for the size disadvantage with speed and finesse and by focusing right from the get go on the back. The first act ends with a bit of heat and comeback/cut off spots before Strong's comeback. He gets his foot caught in the stairs. Roode capitalizes and we're into act 2. Legwork is used so often for a reason too. It's highly visual, with the whole body coming into play. There's a ton you can do to the leg (and Roode does both simple and more complex things). The selling works for the back rows. And it's so, so easy to set up cut off spots with it. Even a crowd so smarky can be taken up and down (especially given the emotional build and use of the family), and they do that, with Roddy fighting back repeatedly, occasionally getting in shots on Roode's back, only to get cut off with a kick to the leg, or by not being able to lift Roode up correctly. They use this to foreshadow him eventually hitting moves, thus giving everything meaning. Ultimately, that sort of thing is what I loved about this match the most. Nothing in the match happened without reason. They didn't do any spot just to hit a spot. Everything had a narrative reason behind it or at least in shaping it. Nothing was done because it was cool. I'm not just talking about transitions here. The first glorious DDT didn't end the match because Roode had just eaten a bunch of backwork and made sure to sell just for a couple of seconds before trying for the pin. It wasn't just another finisher kick-out; it was worked as part of the match. That foreshadowing? It was for a fireman's carry lungblower, and when Strong DOES hit it, it's by the ropes and Roode rolls out. By the time Strong gets him back in, he can't get the 3 count. It protects the move, protects Strong to a degree (if only he hit that in the middle of the ring!), makes Roode seem both vulnerable and canny at the same time, and furthers the escalation of the match. The kickouts, even finisher kickouts, aren't WWE MAIN EVENT STYLE (or, I assume, NJPW style), but instead something explained and organic. It's not about workrate or fighting spirit. It's about storytelling. That's why this works.

Early 1984 Dave was fairly energized/optimistic by/about Hogan. It didn't last (to the point where he does his "retirement" issue, what, a year later?). I think that even if current Dave might give Hogan a specific sort of credit, he wouldn't have love for some of the actual matches (let's say... oh, Quake, Slaughter, Bossman) that some of us thoroughly credit and enjoy. I'm not even sure he could understand WHY we enjoyed them, even if we tried to explain it to him.

Cagematch is an awesome resource but their 2000 indy results are fairly spotty. To be fair, everything about indy wrestling after 2000 is fairly spotty.

Opinions are opinions, but 1.) That's probably true. It syncs up with pretty much all of the 90s WON comments on lucha and a whole bunch of other things and 2.).. what a shitshow that this guy was and is the driving force on pro wrestling commentary forever and always. What a terrible, empty, way to gauge good pro wrestling.

There's a difference between Bix chastising Kris for not watching Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego as a kid or Kris explaining some element of sportsball to Bix (who has just confused two people he probably shouldn't confuse) or a discussion of why Blockbuster went out of business and what I brought up, in 2017. That said, I've got the 15 second jump button on my phone. So the onus is ultimately on me to use it. I was just voicing a preference as it's an element that disrupts something a show I otherwise enjoy. On a positive note, I thought they really painted a vivid picture of the dire position WCW was in during this specific period due to the overexposure of injured Sting (which really isn't talked about) and the lack of built heels. Until Russo comes on, there might not be a more "WCW, Everybody" year than 1990.

In truth, I'm not actually sure Casas had a better 2014 than anything in Michaels' career but you could at least have that argument I think.

Michaels never had a year as good as Casas' 2014, let alone the 90s.

Take this as constructive, but if I never again hear Kris earnestly wondering what some female from 20 years ago looks like now (let alone the outright talk about what's shown and not shown in a playboy spread, but I feel like that'd veer more into nonconstructive criticism), it'd still be too soon.

I almost cried at Elliott's 5000-word rationale for why Sasha Banks is better than Bret Hart when I saw it this in my inbox this morning.

Transparency is a pretty basic necessity, and to be honest, it'd probably garner a lot of good will.People are generally forgiving if they're communicated with openly. That said,if WWE made a better offer, we probably would have seen

I get that it's the holiday weekend and all, but since we haven't had an upload in a week+ now, it would have been nice to get something to celebrate the two year anniversary. This has absolutely been the best thing about wrestling over the last two years. Nothing else is even close.

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/340417-trump-takes-down-cnn-in-mock-wrestling-video This is only slightly more surreal than him tweeting praise for JBL.

This is shocking and terrible. I might have more to say at some point but for now, that's where I am.

Life is super busy but I did catch these on tuesday and enjoyed them a lot. This was one main event away from being a sort of ideal drop. Solid undercard match with a rare wrestler. Total oddity trainwreck. Midget match. Serrano's heat was so enjoyable. He made more out of a choke than almost anyone I can remember. Just the guy's look and how brazen he was and how he worked the ref and the crowd was a lot of fun. It's strange Pritchard didn't become a bigger deal in Houston. They could have built him more. He definitely had the talent and the crowd behind him. The Slater match was insane. It was like.. bad accidental shoot style. I've never seen a guy blow spots like that and still have his opponent try to work with him. It was obvious he didn't know how to do a single thing. He couldn't hit moves. He couldn't take bumps. He couldn't do spots. Just insane. I kept expecting Slater to start killing him (though maybe the guy was legit good enough that he didn't dare). Weirdest match on the whole service maybe. The midget match was solid but a lot more of what you'd normally expect than the usual fare in Houston. Little Tokyo was awesome in his precision shots, laying in the kicks in the chops and Boesch was as entertaining as ever on commentary but it lacked some of the novelty we've seen elsewhere.

I've gotten good with the 15 second jump button.

Heard most of the first part and I'm with Jerome here. Past hanging out with Flair, Conrad comes from a pretty similar place to the rest of us when it comes to knowledge and remembrance. As such he actually ends up asking Tony a bunch of the stuff that we probably would or mentioning certain things that we'd mention. If nothing else, he's got the incredibly detailed notes of someone who recently watched that really long "Best of the Four Horsemen comp" that starts in 85 with everyone disparate and runs through that year's TV. So it ends up as a much deeper dive than you'd expect. You could have forgiven him for starting with the Flair turn, for instance, but they hit a lot of other things instead. You have Tony basically corroborating each thing along the way. Ultimately, if you didn't learn anything new from this, it's because there was nothing new to learn but you did get a lot confirmed by a deeply inside source and Tony's memory for this stuff is very vivid and the emotion he's able to bring back to it is enjoyable. Unless you wanted to get deep into match quality or squashes or run through every available promo or something, so far it's everything you could possibly want from something like this and, to me, a lot more enjoyable than Tony going through a generally disconnected Nitro era PPV. I get that the format's working for them, but they'd do better with themed shows focusing on specific feuds or talents or whatever.

Notice from a local paper from 1970 on Boesch giving a seminar to a women's club: https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth566901/m1/1/?q=%22Paul%20boesch%22 A sum up of the same topic (at more length) from a talk he gave at Rice University in 65: https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth244949/m1/8/?q=%22Paul%20boesch%22 Here's one from 52 about Boesch's dogs performing for kids (no lie), also a Laff of the Week for Johnny: https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth577320/m1/2/?q=%22Paul%20boesch%22 Looking through those local papers it's crazy how often Boesch shows up, either talking to kids at the American Legion or donating half the money for local wrestling mats at a high school or dedicating a new school gym or being the MC at some ceremony or competing against a bunch of housewives in a trivia contest. It's also hugely apparent how thoroughly he was able to promote the womenly art of self defense thing.

Looks like he's in St. Louis that night: 11/02 St. Louis, MO Dick the Bruiser & Kerry Von Erich(sub for David Von Erich) beat King Kong Brody & Gama Singh(sub for Ox Baker)

Sorry to disappoint. but the midget match is from the Nov 2 1979 card. Same card as these 2 matches. - Tor Kamata & Little Tokyo vs Tiger Conway Jr & Coconut Willie - Ernie Holmes vs Killer Brooks If you look on youtube and search 'Houston Wrestling circa 1979' there is a Mark Lewin/The Spoiler vs. Jose Lothario/El Halcon match. That is from the 6/1/79 card. Do we have any idea what the main event of that card was? It looks like it was sandwiched between a Harley vs Brody feud, with the big "Mexican" six man the week before.