Matt D

I'm curious what the buyrate will be here. Between the weak card and the football game (And they never seem too aware of context), I could sort of see it being under one of the Bryan-helmed, Cenaless PPVs. What would that tell them?

Basically they panicked due to ratings and the fact they need strong numbers right now for the TV contract renewal/network launch and are putting together the only thing they think that will actually draw, right? That's the narrative I'd pick up from all the notes around here lately at least.

Survivor Series card looks like it'll be full of good matches to me. A little boring, but past the divas match, everything should be good and that should at least be quick and full of pinfalls.

It does. It's basically a heel hope spot (which is then cut off, though the idea of cut off is really implicit in the hope spot) which happens during a shine or a more extended heel-in-peril segment. Another good example which is full of them is the first fall of the Portland 2/3 Falls Race vs Martel match from the very beginning of 1980.

When writing about matches and breaking down common elements, we, as a community, have a lot of terms that are useful. Face-in-peril, heat segment, hot tag, shine, transition, cut-off, etc. These are all various narrative tools that we've found used in multiple matches, enough so that we decided to use terms to classify them. They help us understand what we're watching and portray it to others. One of these is "hope spot," namely being when a babyface who is getting dominated by a heel (either in a standard heat segment or a face-in-peril scenario) fights back to the point where the crowd experiences hope that he'll be able to gain the advantage or make the tag. This ultimately ends in a cutoff spot where the heel stops the babyface and recovers the advantage. This is generally done multiple times to crank up the heat and make the babyface's final, successful comeback resonate more when it finally happens. The timing, number, and ingenuity of hope spots has a lot to do with how successful a match will be as, generally, the heat segment is the longest part of the match. My question is this. What should we call the same functional idea as hope spots in a match that has a section where a face is dominating, usually by locking on a long, generally controlling or limb weakening hold? While it's usually structured with the hold as a base and the heel trying to escape and then getting cut off and put back into it, I don't think a hope spot is accurate. It's not about giving the fans hope. It's instead about showing the dominance of the babyface through the cut offs or countering the vulnerability of the heel by letting him make some strides in getting out. It's also, sometimes, just a way to kill time with them basically saying "this is the match." It can be comedic or be a way to rise the heel's ire and frustrate him to the point of brutality when he finally takes back over. I'm just crowdsourcing for a better way of saying "hope spot" in this heel-in-peril comeback/cutoff scenario. "Transition tease" or "escape attempt" are the best I can come up with. The first is obtuse and the second isn't entirely accurate as it doesn't necessarily have to be a hold-based scenario. The face could just be beating on the heel in other ways.

You know I did see this Billy Robinson vs Nick Bockwinkel match tonight.

Corrected. Ha, very good. I always sort of see the two of you as a tag team.

Bock/Lanza vs Funks - AJPW - 12/5/78 I don't have time to really write this up but I liked it a ton. It was best when Terry and/or Bockwinkel was in there but the other two did their part as well. The basic story was that the Funks outwrestled Bockwinkel and Lanza but Bock and Lanza were able to use heel tactics and smart tag wrestling. The best stuff was the early armwork, the great transition where Lanza took over on Funk by tossing him out (huge bump) and slapping the claw on the outside and the FIP segment that followed and the return of the claw at the end of the match, which had some real drama. Bockwinkel and Funk especially worked the holds so well and Lanza looked positively deranged with his balding crazy hair when he was using the claw. Bockwinkel vs Robinson - AJPW - 11.12.1980 You crazy folks are really telling me there are 14 80s AJPW matches better than this? Really? Holy crap. The sense of struggle in this match is amazing. In the beginning you see one of the best worked headscissors ever followed by one of the best worked headlocks ever and it just goes up from there. There are so many moments in this thing, the european uppercut followed by Bockwinkel's return punch, Bock trying to get out of the headlock but getting taken back down and in a moment later again and again, the sheer desperation once he goes to the leg the first time and starts to get some traction only to be unable to keep it up (and the way he RUSHED back to the leg after the ref broke it was just brilliant as ever Bock), again the sense of struggle in things like the piledriver reversal and even a whip into the corner. They don't half ass anything and the attention to detail adds so much emotion. When Robinson's leg finally goes out on the second Robinson backbreaker, and then Robinson after the figure four fighting on one leg with his own sense of desperation. The finish is downright beautiful with the two of them punching away as the time goes out, both half dead from the war, and ending up collapsed against each other in the ropes, even though they'd just been trying to kill each other. They didn't want to be there in that sort of kindred embrace but their bodies gave them no choice. It makes the shake of the hand that follows even more poignant.

I think the match quality is extremely high but there's also a higher level of difficulty from a novice. You're dropped into these not knowing who you're looking at a lot and also the matches tend to go longer. Well worth it though, and the DVDVR notes and a lot of the podcasts help. I still wish someone would write a match by match cheat sheet.

It kind of feels like that's almost been done already though. Especially if you believe the reports that they are blaming weak buyrates in the last 3 PPVs on Daniel Bryan and not Randy Orton. Bryan hasn't had nearly as much of a chance to prove himself as a draw as Randy. Randy however has shown he ISN'T a draw, especially when they tried to move him to Smackdown and make him the "ace" and house show ticket sales dropped off big time. Obviously that was Christian's fault.

In my rush to get out of the office I left disc 5 at work and I won't be back there for a week. I was JUST to the Chicana vs Perro match too and was very eager to watch it.

I've gone over my complex booking plan using Eddie Gilbert as a smokescreen to put the belt on Barry.

I think Cody's actively better at switching his stuff up than he was even three months ago. Really, where the lack of Goldust was felt the most to me was in the six man with Rey and the Usos.

If I wanted to spend $15 a month on wrestling, I could think of better ways to do so.

It's a really simple hold but there's something almost elegant about the top wristlock.

Unlike the Piper and Martel series, I do think there's been improvements from match to match with Youngblood, yeah. Buddy Rose vs Matt Borne - 2/3 Falls - June 6, 1981 Apparently Buddy opened up Tony borne last week. Tony Borne is with Matt and Buddy won't start the match until he leaves (which is of course dickish and ironic considering how Buddy always has the army with him). Buddy heads to the back. Tony follows him and basically chases him back in, right into Matt's hands. VQ is tough here, but he beats Buddy a bit until Buddy manages to disengage. Borne's in charge here, tossing Buddy out, tossing him back in, hitting a knee drop, slamming, stomping, etc. Bonnema goes on about a new Portland newsletter and I wonder if anyone has those. It's a bit of a distraction from Borne I THINK biting Buddy in the corner out of nowhere. Buddy checks for blood and Borne hones in with some elbows, and after a back body drop some stomps and nice looking punches. There's definitely the impression he's trying to open Buddy up. Borne sure has a goofy big splash with his legs spread wide. After a two count he goes right back to the forehead. He goes for an airplane spin off the ropes but Buddy slips out to hit the Robinson backbreaker in a really beautiful spot, but it's basically the only damage he did to Borne so far this match and he kicks out. Buddy is pissed and hits a HUGE back body drop. Borne really flies. Buddy hits an atomic drop (goofy sell by Borne) and another Robinson backbreaker and this time it's a three count. Still, Borne kicking out of that even once was a big deal. Bonnema puts him over between falls, likening him to Jimmy Snuka as someone who would go far. Hey, apparently Roddy's coming back in for a few spots with the US title. I wonder if any of that made the TV show. Borne starts the second fall going for a bodyslam but his back's too hurt and he can't manage it. Buddy chucks him across the ring and starts to really hone in on the back. This is his bread and butter and Borne sells it well. Buddy still does little things to put over Borne, like jumping big when Borne kicks out on him. He's dogged on the back however, including one of the best Irish Whips into the corner I've seen in forever and a beautiful high vertical suplex. Buddy goes for a second suplex, but Borne's slowly started his comeback and Borne reverses, hitting one of his own. He's still hurt though. Buddy gets up first, goes for the Robinson backbreaker again but Borne's out over the top. He hits a huge atomic drop. Buddy begs off. Borne is selling big, hanging on to the ropes, but he makes it across the ring and starts unloading on Buddy, including a back body drop and some typical babyface mauling. He goes for the slam again, hitting it this time and following it with a kneedrop. Buddy reverses a whip and goes for another Robinson backbreaker but Borne floats over and hits the airplane spin for the quick pin. Nice short momentum change fall. I like how they played on the first fall. Oh, apparently Velvet Mcintyre and Princess Victoria will be coming in soon too. Women, midgets and Andre. So it goes. Buddy gripes more over the break, this time about Borne pulling his tights to get out of the backbreaker. Buddy starts the third fall slinking out to stall as we get another lecture about not leaving your seat or throwing things. Buddy gets a takedown and then immediately pulls the trunks to an extreme level to try to get a pin. This goes on for a while until the fans were pissed off and Sandy Barr catches him and breaks the pin. Buddy rolls back out to reset. Buddy starts on the arm, really working a standing armbar. This is a perfectly fine shift after going for the backbreaker too many times cost him. Fans are very much behind Borne here. Buddy keeps trying to take him over with a top wristlock but they have Borne bridge back up. Borne finally reverses it and stomps Buddy in the face. Well worked little exchange that moved the crowd. Buddy checks his nose and then comes back with a big bite. Buddy's pissed off now and smells blood. He starts to dismantle Borne with bites and kicks and then a nasty neck wrench. Buddy doesn't do a ton with it, but he doesn't have to. Borne sells it well and it just looks disquieting. Borne starts to fight up. Buddy comes back with a bite and Borne, having had enough, bites right back. Finally, Buddy ends up bleeding which has a real sense of culmination here. Borne hones on in with elbows, punches, and more bites, as well as a nice dropkick. Borne tosses him out and follows right behind. He slams Buddy's face right into a front row chair. Borne tosses him back in and sits behind him, just elbowing away at the wound. Borne lifts up a knee to the face and Buddy ends up tied up in the ropes. Barr is trying to stop this so he can look at Buddy's cup. Borne charges in but thanks to the distraction, Buddy (still tied up in the ropes) gets his feet up at the last second. Both guys are selling the war weariness well. Buddy is a crimson mess. He has the advantage but he can't press it, having to rear back and sell after each shot. Borne starts to fight back again, finally locking on the airplane spin again but Rip Oliver comes out to break it up for the DQ. Tony Borne rushes out to even the odds to set up a tag match for the following week. Another really good match. There are some things that Borne did that I didn't entirely agree with, not even that he did them, but when he did them. For the most part though, this was a really great coming of age showing for Borne. Excellent stuff.

As for Taft, i would be amazed if 10% knew the bathtub story. Was it mentioned on Friends maybe? I bet they all know who Hulk Hogan is though. Sure. People are idiots. I think that's the note we should tie this thing off with. All 16 pages of it.

And I think that if you go back as far as you can, not only is a lot of the oldest stuff fun and enjoyable (as much so as almost anything you'll see), but you'll witness a richer, more drawn out narrative. You can watch Flair in 1977 feuding with Steamboat. You can watch Flair close the house down in 2001.

I bet they all know who Hulk Hogan is though.

I really like the torture rack (and the pop that always went along with it) and actually, I'm a bit annoyed it's not a move that's been used a lot in WWE Main event style matches more, because I think it'd be fun to see different reversals out of it and into other things and what not.

I was born in 81 and anecdotally, I think most people I went to high school/college with would know what The Breakfast Club or Ferris Bueller was, but not necessarily who John Hughes was. Actually, I'll ask my wife later, but my stepson is named, in part, after a Ferris Bueller character and she can quote parts of the movie, and she probably doesn't know who John Hughes is. She knows who Molly Ringwald is, but she just doesn't care all that much who wrote or produced something.

I love it when people start posts with "Matt, you are gonna love" I'm looking forward to seeing that match as much as anything in wrestling right now.

I'm not watching this stuff unless it's for a zany Crossfire podcast with Johnny.

Alright, so with the gaps we have here I'm trying to make sense of things. The feud with Youngblood lasts at least into May here. Buddy threw the belt into the river and was fined $2500 which was used to make a new belt (apparently he also put up $2500 of his money saying Oliver could beat Youngblood. I don't think it was the same $2500). He blindsided Youngblood when Owen told him to personally hand over the belt and he was suspended (and thus went to Hawaii for a couple of weeks). Andre comes in for a few shots and feuds with Buddy (and a battle royal). The highlight from what I've been able to see are two pretty good Strap matches (one vs Oliver and one vs Destroyer) where Jay wins. Then the Destroyer beats Jay for the belt for a week. So, the Destroyer: I actually thought it was Beyer at first. There was just something old and gritty about the guy in his ring work and interviews and he was working in Canada at this point, so far as I can tell. It wasn't that out there, really. Apparently, though, it's David "Fidel" Sierra (the Cuban Assassin) and man, that's a confusing proposition considering "The Cuban/Fidel Cortez" was in the area. Sierra would have been around 20-21 and you have to think Cortez was a big influence on his later character. He's pretty good this early into his career regardless. Anyway, our next bit of Buddy footage takes us all the way to May 1: this means we miss out on Jan 10: Jay Youngblood, Joe Lightfoot & Ricky Romero defeat Buddy Rose, Rip Oliver & The Destroyer... Jan 17: n/a Jan 24: Buddy Rose defeats Jay Youngblood... Jan 31: Jay Youngblood & Ricky Romero defeat Buddy Rose & Rip Oliver by DQ Feb 7: Buddy Rose & The Destroyer vs. Buzz Sawyer & Matt Borne - Draw Feb 14: Buddy Rose vs. Buzz Sawyer - Draw Feb 21: Buddy Rose defeats Siva Afi Feb 28: Andre The Giant defeats Buddy Rose March 7: Buddy Rose & Rip Oliver vs. Buzz Sawyer & Matt Borne - Draw March 14: Buddy Rose vs. Johnny Boyd - Draw March 21: ? March 28: ? April 4: ? April 11: ? April 18: ? April 25: ? After a certain point, Cagematch starts to fail me here. But here's what I do see from wiki: Title history: The Destroyer March 14, 1981 Jay Youngblood March 21, 1981 Buddy Rose April 9, 1981 Jay Youngblood April 11, 1981 Buddy Rose April 21, 1981 Matt Borne April 29, 1981 Buddy Rose April 30, 1981 It feels like Memphis style hotshotting of the belt here. The Borne one night run is interesting. Anyway, Buddy Rose © vs Jay Youngblood - 2/3 Falls - Title Match - May 1, 1981 Buddy finally has music. I think it's I'm Coming Out by Diana Ross. Bonnema complains that the acoustics in the arena are not that good. Owen's out to announce that Buddy had just won the title in Salem on Thursday so this is now for the title (originally when booked it actually had Buddy CHALLENGING so that's the irony, I guess). Buddy's wearing the ceremonial Indian headdress and who knows how he got that. I like the look of the new belt even if it's a little busy. The underlying story here is that Buddy is proclaiming that he's going to fly over Mount St. Helens (which, remember, erupted in 1980) and toss the belt into the volcano the next day (like he did over the Freemont Bridge with the old belt. Bonnema says he went along on the ride for that since he didn't think Buddy would actually do it). So basically, Youngblood is fighting to save the belt by winning it here. Jay gets on the mic and promises the fans to defend the honor of the belt and the promotion and whatever else. They're also building to an already signed Strap match, probably on the upcoming Tuesday. Rope running to start including a huge sunset flip by Jay that has the crowd going nuts. Buddy disengages and tries to calm them down. Jay hits a quick backslide for two and Buddy disengages again, huffing and visibly frustrated, trying to calm the crowd down. Buddy puts on a full nelson and quickly turns it into a backslide for only two. More frustration. Buddy goes for a grounded crucifix and Youngblood keeps rolling it into a pin attempt of his own and Buddy's putting on a great emotive performance here. I'm not sure I've seen a Buddy match START with a pin attempt sequence like this before (also remember we're in 1981 here). Jay locks on a full nelson of his own and unlike Buddy he tries to work it. Buddy drops down and tries to kick back but Youngblood turns it into another near fall. They disengage again. I like the way they're going in and out of these. Putting some space in the middle makes everything resonate more than some of the sprintier pin attempt wars I've seen. Another bit of solid rope running culminating with a Youngblood cross body and another pin attempt and, of course, more Buddy frustration and disengagement and stalling. Buddy goes for a headlock to slow things down but gets tossed off and they do a bit more rope running with Buddy hanging on to the rope to avoid the chop and jive walking around the ring in celebration. Buddy drives him to the ropes but actually makes a clean break and jive struts a bit more. Jay drives Rose back to the ropes and instead of breaking chops him right over the top rope. Buddy's irate outside as Jay celebrates inside the ring to the fans' elation. Buddy's back in and as Jay's sort of looking to the crowd, Buddy grabs Youngblood's legs and catapult's him into the corner. He goes for a dropkick but Jay gets his legs and catapults him right outside. Buddy comes back in and complains some more. Finish to the fall has Buddy sneaking around Youngblood and hitting an O'Connor Roll out of the corner. He rolls through twice though, which is kind of novel. I really liked the first fall. I know lots and lots of people who wouldn't. It was almost all pin attempts and schitck/stalling/character work but the thing breathed really well and the pin attempts were very competitive and they managed to stick enough other STUFF in there to be interesting. Very enjoyable if you like storytelling. Second fall starts with a headlock base. Bonnema plays up that Jay has to win two straight falls to regain the title. Buddy's great at working from underneath in a headlock so this is all really good with the highlight being Buddy almost hitting the Robinson backbreaker off the ropes but Jay taking him around in a huge headlock takeover and going back to the base. Bonnema's solid here explaining how the first fall was ultimately a failure for Youngblood so he's come out with another strategy. He's grinding away with the headlock as Buddy sells and stooges and tries to get out only to end up back in it. At one point Jay makes the fans count thirty times as he grinds down with the headlock. Buddy sells it like death to his neck, which leads to a great legrop by the ropes by Youngblood. They end up back in the headlock and he grinds AGAIN all the way to forty this time. It's a spectacle at this point and that's it for Buddy. He gets pinned after Jay lets him go. Pretty awesome stuff. Buddy's able to fight back with an ambush from the get go in the third fall. He does this great drop kick while Jay's on the apron and Youngblood goes sailing to the floor. Jay makes it back to the apron and they fight for a bit until Jay goes for the sunset flip in and Buddy just moves out of the way. Jay hooks on the most meaningful late match headlock ever, but Buddy tosses him off and goes for the Robinson backbreaker. Jay floats over but can't lock in the sleeper but does get a shoulder block off the rope. He hits the ropes. Buddy goes for a punch or clothesline, and Jay slides through his legs and drags him down into a sunset flip position again for the pin as the crowd goes absolutely nuts. Really brisk third fall but it paid off a lot of stuff from earlier in the match. Post match, Buddy destroys Youngblood and Sandy Barr with the belt, but he returns it to Barr in the end. Youngblood saved the title. This was probably one of the best Buddy matches I've ever seen. In the top ten maybe, which is saying a lot.