Matt D

Google hits are interesting here. The top guys I found were Dibiase and Sheik, though nicknames make it a little tricky especially for a guy like Jake who looks to be on the next tier with Duggan. But Dibiase is well above a lot of others.

One real takeaway I had from watching the AWA 80s set was that in 80-83 or so, there seemed to be a real fear of letting the heels get heat in the arenas in any meaningful way. It was striking. That could have been selection bias but I watched some TV as well. When you combine that with the idea of bringing in old timers to pop houses, it's a fun little comparison.

Can someone tweet Tharpe about the 3 day tournament that Tito Santana won in 81-82 (I assume it's the "Gold Cup" thing up there) to celebrate Boesch's 50th year in wrestling. Presumably, because it was something that was obviously important to Boesch, there's a good chance it's taped right? EDIT: here's what Boesch wrote right before staging it: http://www.wrestling-titles.com/personalities/boesch_paul/career.html Think I've got results: 10/30/81 Houston, TX(1st Night of Gold Cup Tournament) Wahoo McDaniel draw Nick Bockwinkel(20:00) Dos Caras beat Bull Ramos Dick Slater beat Evan Johnson Manny Fernandez beat Terry Allen Gino Hernandez double countout with The Sheik Tully Blanchard draw Mike Graham Gene Kiniski beat Tank Patton Moon Mulligan beat Kelly Kiniski Tom Pritchard beat Don Serrano Tiger Conway, Jr. beat Ray Hernandez Scott Casey beat The Spoiler 10/31/81 Houston, TX(2nd Night of Gold Cup Tournament) Nick Bockwinkel beat Wahoo McDaniel Ernie Ladd beat The Sheik by DQ Gino Hernandez beat Hiro Matsuda Verne Gagne beat Dick Slater Dos Caras beat Tully Blanchard by DQ Ken Patera beat Evan Johnson Mike Graham beat Don Serrano Tom Pritchard beat Nick Kozak Gene Kiniski beat Moon Mulligan Manny Fernandez beat Bull Ramos Tiger Conway, Jr. beat Kelly Kiniski Scott Casey draw Tank Patton 11/1/81 Houston, TX(3rd & Final Night of Gold Cup Tournament) Tito Santana won 12-man battle royal for Gold Cup Trophy EDIT2: Apparently, Verne wrestled Kiniski on the 11/1 show too.

You're just burnt out. Hardly a good judge unless you're agreeing with me.

Ironically, you're still in the Southwest.

Yes, and you guys are killing me by not adding in a second opinion

Hey guys.. So, stop what you're doing, whatever it is, and watch Reed vs Santana. It's pretty damn great. What really makes it is the struggle that they put into every hold. You can see it on their faces and it's worth its weight in gold. I'm pretty certain that it's a match we didn't have before.

The idea is the he holds WMIV in scorn when the issue was the Clash

Tournaments don't draw.

The insane political bs is part of what makes wrestling so fascinating.

He needs an Anchor Tattoo on his arm. That'd help.

Yes? Do you know someone? Would you like to share with the class?

Obviously they should cycle Sting back into the tag match for name value and move Ambrose, wearing a Hot Rod shirt, into the title match so he can have a one month exploitative reign.

Paul Boesch is pretty much King Candy from Wreck it Ralph

I think it might be 6/29 actually. I'd love to know who Valentine was wrestling that night. 6/29/79 Houston Bruiser Brody beat Mark Lewin Mil Mascaras vs El Gran Marcus

There's a big difference between Jersey All Pro Wrestling and fucking Memphis though. Xavier winning the ROH belt does not equal Tommy Rich's mother showing up to help him turn face, you know? I get what you were going for and it worked great from what I've heard so far, but I think maybe Memphis deserved more. 1989 NWA has a higher Q-rating but that's sort of exactly why 1980 or 1993 Memphis needs more focus.

No idea about the battle royal they just posted. It had Gino, Tiger Conway, Tom Jones, El Halcon, Mil Mascaras, Gran Markus, Greg Valentine, Brody, Andre, Spoiler, Gary Hart, Tim Brooks, Peper Gomez maybe, and Lewin, and a few other guys, with the ladies making a cameo. I know Andre vs the Spoiler was on the card too since Boesch mentioned it. I don't see Greg Valentine on any of these cards. They date it as May 19, 1978 and that doesn't seem to sync up with the card listed since that has Ivan Putski and Krupp and Madril and David Von Erich and other guys completely so that has to be wrong.

I swear to god that the Valentine vs Brody exchange in the battle royal might be the best I've ever seen Brody look. That was pretty awesome. I badly want to see a Valentine vs Brody match now

I love the Bruise Brothers funeral stuff so, so much. I'm 50 minutes in and really, I think I would have much preferred a year by year breakdown like the Crockett stuff. I know that there's only so much time in the world, but Memphis packs so much in. It's great, some of my favorite Will-on-a-podcast I've heard, but yeah. I want more.

Can someone post this to YouTube? That's how this thing works, right?

He moved to the flying clothesline in 93 after Tatanka started using the Samoan drop and won fairly often with it.

It's a smokescreen since he's working for them again...

I'd actually kind of be interested in a Cena/Sheamus match right now.

It'd be funnier if he had the Cowboy gimmick Vince wanted to give him.

It does take a lot to stay in the big leagues. And even more to stay for any length of time or a massive length of time.