Matt D

The fans coming unglued for Johnny Rich's return is the absolute definition of how you can basically get anything over if you push it as important for weeks on end. Basically putting over Tommy Rich over three guys is a hell of a way to get him all the more over too. I love the sort of Memphis way they keep the storytelling going. Rich wins a check, he then puts half of it up against Fuller.

Not really. There have always been "workrate" (before it turned into an ugly word in the mouth of our brand new crowd of retrohipsters) territories and promotions where doing as little as possible wasn't gonna fly. Hence the differences between Memphis, Mid-south, Mid-Atlantic, AWA, New York, 80's New Japan etc... Doing what is necessary, depending on the context and what you want to achieve. I'd say "as possible" can be flexible. You stick to the spirit of the thing.

What's sad is if Rip can't somehow make money off of this, even if it's through managing some old school sort of protege. Even Vader was able to manage that, and he can barely figure out how to use Twitter.

Part of it is that we've been around this circle so many times. It's a spectrum. One of my bugbears is reading 80s Observers and see Dave basically shitting on "the old tricks" for the sake of workrate. Another is my feeling that everything should have meaning and a third is the primacy of fiction over sport. A fourth would be efficiency. When you combine all the things I value in wrestling, you get a picture that is very different than what's prevalent now in a lot of places (but not all places or not all situations and far more with younger wrestlers, sure). I think the point of pro wrestling is to achieve as much as possible while doing as little as possible, endowing everything with meaning, purpose, and consequence, sustaining it over time, and creating compelling narratives that touch hearts in the process. That to me is the craft of it. It's the art of pro wrestling, of manipulating a crowd. It's a screenplay, directing, and acting over special effects and costumes. You can have a sci fi movie with special effects and costumes that still has a great screenplay, directing, and acting and more power to it. You can have something devoid of special effects that doesn't have a great screenplay, directing, or acting. But if you have a narrative that focuses so much on the special effects over the storytelling, then there are inherent problems with that. We've been around this circle so many times.

I wish we had more of him in ring. He's phenomenal here: I'm still holding out hope that we get the Jay Youngblood and Tiger Conway Jr. (78 and 80 respectively) matches from Houston. But uh, we'll see.

I think Orton should lean into this and start being more of an outright troll on screen.

I think it's easy for him to see the value in Funk vs Race or what not, as a tie to the history and grandeur of the NWA. I hope he sees the value in continuing to allow out (steadily) the undercard matches.

Look at Ambrose? They've basically made him into babyface (not even heel) Doink because of how toothless everything is.

Hopefully nothing changes. There's nothing even close to it in wrestling fandom right now. Not even a tiny bit.

I want him commentating on 205 live.

I mainly listen in the car. I can make it through Between the Sheets, Space City, and whenever Stacey and Elliott post a new pod in a week, basically. And that's on 1.5x speed. I'm full up.

A better verb would be "Ziggling."

Do you disagree? I love the show. One of my favorite podcasts. I just find it puzzling that the same people bash it every week yet continue to listen. Must love punishment I wish there was simple adware free place where all of the newsworthy/interesting bits from Prichard/Tony/Jericho/Ross/Bischoff/etc.'s podcasts could just posted quickly by someone in quick list form. I don't have hours and hours to listen to this stuff but I'd be curious if we learned something new about a production meeting Bischoff had with Tony about Glacier or something (I don't know). I could absolutely see people try to listen to something like Bruce's show for new information and not necessarily entertainment.

The long squashes are something to get used to. I liked how the Bill Ash vs Walker match ended. Obviously, as the new Jr. champ, Ash had to win somewhat definitively, so he had to cut off the babyface comeback somehow. A rope reversal is a pretty normal way to do so, but I liked that he did a dropdown after that to set up his head drop finish. It was a little savvy, technical thing you don't usually see heels do in that part of the match that made him stand out as a guy who sort of deserved the belt. Also, T.Buff is amazing. Austin Idol calling the feud/battle royal between the babyfaces and the Tennessee Stud Stable "WAR GAMES, BABY" was interesting for 85.

When I'm casually listening, Bob Armstrong sounds a lot like Steve Austin with just a slightly different accent. It throws me. I loved him explaining what a Small Package was in the least meaningful way possible. I'm still getting used to the studio set up, the way they'll do a lot of promos and things in the middle of big matches (not sure if that sticks). Two episodes in, I was more comfortable with the Southeastern format (though I'm not saying it was necessarily better, just more familiar). I can't get enough of Tommy Rich shouting "FIRED UP" for no reason. The Flame shooting promo remains the best, most striking thing.

I started with the first episode before it became Continental and I was not expecting that Boomer Lynch (Oh hey, it's Tom Lintz) promo. Welcome to Alabama I guess, right? I shouldn't have been laughing at the suggestion that Cash somehow had an illegal head. Humungous/Armstrong vs Fuller/Flair in a cage sounds like the coolest thing ever.

There's nothing quite like Johnny talking about midgets, I guess.

I haven't had a lot of time to comment. I was really high on Tiger vs Tully too. I think we've been underrating Tiger a bit. There's a way he slips into holds that feels so natural. Very little in that match seemed rote or staged or like something they'd done a thousand times. It was all organic pieces, capitalizing on specific moments, even if it meant that they came at something in a slightly unique angle or in an order that was a little unorthodox. That layered a believably onto everything, bolstered by the selling and the reactions. It's the sort of thing you get out of a match from 1981 that you'd almost never see in even the best matches today. And Nick, I do wonder if it's a case that main events were just on different reels? Maybe they weren't aired as much as a way to drive people to go to the live show? They'd air everything but the main events sometimes? (even if he had them). It does feel like we haven't been getting those main events lately. The Gino vs Wahoo match from this show, for instance, was the one that Boesch was talking about the next week, lauding Gino for how tough he was and how much he bled. Obviously, I want Wahoo vs Bockwinkel as much as anyone in the world, and Funk vs Wahoo sounds as good as anything we've gotten. That's not to say we haven't gotten great stuff, the Duo vs Casey/Tiger and Tully vs Tiger matches were both 4* from Pete, and well deserved. The midget stuff was great (again, with a bunch of different and unique spots), and I enjoyed Robinson vs Dory too, especially Boesch's commentary. But boy do those main events ever sound great.

A lot of that is that we haven't seen Santo like we have some of the others. It'd be a fun project, though, to do a mini GWE style thing (or a tournament) with the Parent/Child combos.

Hey, I don't even have a list of quality singles matches that do involve gimmicks.

I appreciated that he made an attempt to work like the Spoiler what with the stomach claw used so heavily and some of the top rope offense (though not much). I always hate when you get a fake Destroyer who doesn't work at all like the Destroyer, for instance. I'm only through the singles midget match but I love how we see spots in these that we've never seen before. It really does feel like the circus coming around every year and having to change up the act at least a little. Boesch really seemed to appreciate it as well with his "There IS something new under the sun!" line.

The talking point is that his deal is having good gimmick matches but not much else. I'm not sure if that actually holds up.

Bob Orton, Sr./Jr. Have to be up there too. Shame we don't have more of Sr. I mean, same with Warren/Nick Bockwinkel. Or Gory Guerrero/Pick a Kid. Really, though. The answer has to be Johnny/Greg Valentine, right? No one listed here feels all that close in ring from the footage we have.

Hey, awesome. Welcome to the club. Let us know what you think of some matches once you start watching.