Matt D

Go get him, Parv.

Sorry it took me SO long to get to this, guys. It's been a bit of a tumultuous month for me. Thanks tremendously for the shout. Made my day to hear it. I really want to tackle the Piper/Rose and Martel/Rose feuds the same way I did the Rose in 79 essay, but we'll see if I get to it. Anyway, thoughts: First and foremost, I'm really glad you guys are watching this stuff. I enjoyed it a ton. It's really a treasure of a territory between Buddy, the logical builds, the amount of time given to matches, Bonnema and Barr and the family feel. Everytime I see people complaining about current wrestling, I just want to shout at them to watch this stuff. It's also interesting to see the difference in backgrounds in watching this. I've seen a ton of Rip Rogers, for instance and a lot of other stuff that was really out there before this dropped by some of you hitting the older stuff more piecemeal prioritize differently and all of the different backgrounds creates a plurality of thoughts. I don't have a ton of other comments since I think, from reading my write-ups, we were on the same page on a lot of things: -How great the callbacks in the Portland matches are (like the headbutt in the first one). -How weird it was to see Adonis as a face but that it very much worked. -How the second Adonis/Buddy match wasn't as strong as the first, but instead served its purpose -How great Piper was here (and yeah, it's totally okay for Piper to be an asshole in a way that it's not quite as okay for Greg Gagne or Shawn Michaels to be) -How Portland had to balance the TV and setting up the Tuesday shows and the loop. Owen claims that the big matches on TV are for the sponsors' sake and that may be kayfabe bs or it may be actually true. -I didn't love the Martel vs Race match though I did think Bonnema was great in calling the armwork that was most of the first fall as "control and containment" since it's really what it was. It sure didn't go anywhere. This was part of a huge push for Martel. He comes in very shortly before this and is a major babyface for the first half of 80. I get the feeling that Race enjoyed him as an opponent but I'm not sure about that. I do think it got Martel over in the territory almost immediately. -I really like Stasiak as a Rose opponent and I think OJ actually said something similar recently. He had a different sort of presence. I haven't seen a lot of his other stuff but he did pissed off old guy well. It could be a real testament to Buddy mind you. Most things are. Anyway, great job. Sorry it took me so long to get to it.

Last I read secondhand on the internet is that they're not confident he's 100% healed and they want to make sure he's healed enough, at least, that he's not risking more damage.

Yes, but how big was Airwolf. That's the question. Did you get Alf? I bet you would have liked Time Trax and Kung Fu: the Legend Continues.

Well hell, if they're talking to Sullivan for anything, they need to bring him in for the King Curtis "chairman of the board" role for Wyatt. EDIT: I've never heard Sullivan say this quote before: "A lot of people think wrestling is Sir Laurence Olivier doing “Hamlet,” but it’s Monty Python doing silly walks."

Aha. Money Laundering. It's what TNA is most useful for.

They can buy it so no one else shows it and thus gets a terrible idea of what sports entertainment is. It's like how we pay farmers not to farm.

Considering how much work Martel seemed to put into his comeback, I don't think his leaving the business was totally his call. He seemed to even regret going so deep into real estate in the early 90s though obviously it worked out for him in the end.

Have you seen the 1979-80 Portland stuff from Piper? It's really a revelation.

Thanks for sending this. I read through about the first half on my commute in and it was pretty interesting. you can really see how the regulations (like wrestling not be allowed on TV in Mexico City) shaped the industry. I'd really love to hear more about the wrestlers' union.

Tito Santana is the guy that every wrestler talks about.

It might be worth it just for a public bonfire.

Mocho Cota is totally on my list, whatever it is.

If we're turning this into a Q+A thread, how did people follow things in mexico in the 80s? There are definitely storylines where one match leads to the other and what not. Did big newspapers report on things? What were the lucha mags like? The Apter mags is our general point of reference. What was the format of weekly TV like? Do we have any idea of how big ratings were? Etc.

Seriously, feel free to write long rants. That was very helpful. Thanks.

I actually thought that they should have put the Wyatts against Bryan the night after Summerslam to get him away from Orton but it's just a hilarious notion now.

I think a lot of that is us not them. I'm not sure there are five wrestlers in the world that I'd rather see over Goldust. Wrestling is a craft. So long as you're not totally unable to physically function, being older often just means you're better at understanding it. I think there were rarely promotions in all of wrestling history where on average the 28 year olds were better than the 38 year olds.

Fuck, most of us would rather them push pre-heart attack (and even post maybe) Lawler over the entire roster. Or Finlay. Or Regal. We like old wrestlers who are amazing. We like watching old Wahoo and old Bock in the 80s and plenty of people on the board think the best wrestlers in the world right now are 50+ lucha guys. I don't have WWE stock. I want to watch Dustin Rhodes get a ton of TV time and be awesome. They can screw everything else up but that and honestly? They'd STILL have a better batting average than at other various points of my life.

Geez, in the span of about three months in 1980, Portland loses Martel, Piper, Wiskowski, Rip Rogers and the Sheepherders. At this point the faces are basically Jonthan Boyd, Mike Popovich, and Joe Lightfoot, with Dutch Savage "injured" and semi-retired. The army is Rose, a newly debuted Rip Oliver and Cortez the Cuban. And the Popovich thing is about to explode in Portland's face. Are there drawing figures from this era? I'd love to see if Buddy can hold the fort down.

Do we know who's the lead creative voice on NXT now? There's a lot that they really do well like setting up matches for the next week and seeding future feuds.

I'd love to hear Kris' take on the question, then. I've thoroughly enjoyed hearing the background he adds on the lucha podcasts so far and it's been as big help. Likewise, I'd like to hear more from Childs since he raised the question.

My real pie in the sky stuff would be them having Regal go Mr. Wrestling II heel on Bryan for a few months, but obviously we're not getting that.

What I'm hearing from OJ here is that any title match at seems particularly heated or aggressive or intense or anything that's not, you know, Rheingans vs Martel with the world's biggest stakes (and I say that as someone who could appreciate it as much as the next guy and more if the next guy is some of you), is an outlier and exception and not really indicative of most title matches.

and then Edge!

When does Sheamus come back? HE'd be a good heel opponent for Bryan for a few months.