KB8

Buddy Rose & The Sheepherders v Sam Oliver Bass, Roddy Piper & Red Bastein (Portland, 10/27/79) Am I overrating this to the moon, or did anybody else think it was fucking awesome? I searched the thread to see if Dylan or anybody else talked about it already, but I couldn't find anything. It's 2/3 falls, and the first fall would've been a great ten minute tag on its own. Rose and the Sheepherders just stooge like crazy early on. I was hoping Williams and Miller would come out acting half as crazy as they did in the promos leading up to it (Williams looks and sounds like a complete maniac, all toothless and grinning), and was sort of disappointed initially at them begging off as much as they were, but it was some great begging off so I took to it in time. Rose is Rose and is just a God at begging off and stooging. There's one bit where he walks along the apron and doesn't realise Bass is walking along his end at the same time, so when he reaches the post and looks up to see Bass standing there he jumps off the apron and literally sprints halfway back towards the dressing room. They eventually take over on Piper and Rose repeatedly crotches him on the post. Piper is a really good face in peril, always trying to scurry back to his corner and make the tag. I'm not sure if it was here or a little later when they're working over Bastein, but Williams does this thing where he drops his shoulder strap and uses it to choke whoever he's in there with. I don't remember seeing anybody do that before, but it was cool as shit. Crowd just loses it any time Buddy or a Sheepherder tries to sneak in the ring behind the ref's back. I mean any time there's even the CHANCE one of them will try a cheapshot the crowd are all over Sandy Barr to turn around. Eventually Piper makes the hot tag and in comes Bastein who puts Buddy out with the sleeper for the first fall. The bit in between falls with Sandy Barr having to wake up Buddy and Buddy taking a swing at one of his partners because he doesn't know where he is is great shit. Second fall is short, but the finish to it with Buddy picking up Bastein and giving him two backbreakers over Miller's knee before a final one over his own knee was a great way to even the score. Third fall picks up where the second one left off, with Bastein still hurting from the triple backbreaker and being worked over. This continues for a few more minutes before he tags in Bass, although it sort of looked like Williams was supposed to cut him off before that. Either way, Bass comes in swinging and the heels are bumping all over the ship. Things break down and they do an awesome spot where Piper cocks his fist like he's ready to punch Buddy, but instead pokes him in the eye (Piper has a GREAT eye poke, maybe the best ever), and as Buddy stumbles backwards he trips up schoolboy style over Miller who's just crawling around in a daze after being lit up by Bass. Match gets tossed out when Sandy can't reign things in, and Buddy is amazing at desperately trying to fight out of the sleeper hold at the end (although he's eventually saved by a Sheepherder, anyway). Show goes off the air with Buddy and the 'Herders shouting and screaming about something that I can't make out. Hell of a match. I wouldn't exactly say I was in shock watching it, because I've seen enough of this late 70s Rose stuff now to know that Portland were constantly pumping out good-great shit on TV with him in it, but I wasn't expecting to watch it and think it was right up there with just about anything I've seen from that year. Also, the promo Rose cuts after the hair match with Steve Pardee a month earlier was AMAZING. Maybe the best Rose promo on the whole set (Goodhelmet's, obv) up to that point.

Not related to the current discussion, but how much Hansen are we likely to see on the finished AWA set? I'd assume there'll be at least one of the Hennig matches that were talked about in this thread and the Slaughter match Dylan spoke about in the Hansen thread a number of months back...what else?

Yeah, this USWA stuff sounds incredible. Stoked for the '90 yearbook.

Koshinaka during the WAR feud is my favourite Koshinaka by quite a large margin. The New Japan set turned me off him big time, but all of the stuff in the WAR feud is really entertaining. I mean, WAR v New Japan is probably my favourite feud ever, but still, he shows up and potatoes dudes and gets potatoes right back, so he's all good with me when he does that. Also, while I'm here, Hector Guerrero is fucking awesome. That Guerreros/Landel v Lothario/Dundee/Brickhouse match on the Mid-South set is ridiculously fun and Hector is basically Eddie Guerrero before Eddie Guerrero. And, well, Eddie Guerrero is my all-time favourite wrestler so there's no way I wouldn't dig that.

Working my way through some stuff on the Mid-South set again. Butch Reed came out of that set the first time as my all-time favourite wrestler behind only Eddie Guerrero, and re-watching some of the '84 stuff over the last week or so, I'm reminded why I became a huge mark for the guy in the first place. A lot of peoples' eyes were really opened to Chavo Guerrero thanks to the set, and I went and tried to seek out a bunch more Chavo after watch it all myself, but watching the Guerreros/Fantastics match from 10/12/84 last night makes me want to go and watch a ton of Hector Guerrero from around this time as well. I remember his singles match with Buddy Rose on Will's Rose comp being a lot of fun, and I've seen some other bits and pieces from elsewhere (the Hector part on the Memphis Extra Extras discs was awesome), but there has to be more out there worth tracking down.

I'll take a crack at this as well. If I had to come up with a top 10 favourite matches list, at least half of mine would

I went back and watched a good deal of mid-late 80s Hogan for the Smarkschoice poll a few years back and came out of that really digging a lot of it. The Savage matches around the horn were all at least "fun," and there were a few I thought were pretty awesome. I generally like Hulk quite a bit at this point. The Inoki match on the New Japan set was one of my absolute favourites on that. This is fucking awesome.

Well, the only guys there whose stuff from '95 I've seen in the last few years (if at all) are the WWF guys, so I'm really interested in seeing what the others bring when I get around to watching this, Morton and Flair especially. I mean, I don't think I've seen any Morton from '95 at all, and other than re-watching some bits and pieces I don't remember having watched any Flair from that year since it actually aired. When I watched a good deal of 1995 WWF for a WWF/E Matches poll a couple years ago (and for the Smarkschoice poll a couple years before that) I thought Bret was the best WWF guy that year, but there was plenty of Michaels stuff that I really liked, too. Actually wasn't a huge fan of the ladder match with Razor, but the Jarrett match was either my WWF MOTY or runner up behind the Bret/Davey match from In Your House. The "Owen & Davey Boy & Yokozuna vs Diesel & Shawn & Undertaker (WWF RAW 10/09/95)" match you've got at #92 sounds really fun, and it's something I'm pretty sure I haven't seen before.

I haven't started watching this yet, but I don't think I'd ever even heard of that Action Zone tag before. Loss, after having watched all of this now, who would you say was the best worker in the US that year? Judging from the WWF matches I'd assume you thought Bret was the best in his own company, at least. Is there anybody in WCW (or indeed WWF if you don't think Bret was the best guy there), ECW, wherever else that you thought was better?

I don't think I've heard the Sting/Slater story, either. I feel so useless.

What's this all about? Pretty sure I've never heard this story before. Okay Holly was on the road with Dupree and had the rental car in his name. A tornado was about to hit Mobile so Holly had to go home early. He gave Dupree the keys to the rental car. A month later Holly gets a summons to appear in Oregan (where the car was rented). Dupree fucked up the car and got a bunch of tickets. Holly is fined 10,000 dollars and has to fly up two or three more times on his off days. He tries to find out what happened from Dupree who keeps ducking him. Til finally they are in the ring and Holly kicks the shit out of him. Yeah, I'd definitely never heard that story. I mean, I don't know the extent to which Holly tore into him, but if that happened to me I'd absolutely be pissed as well.

I remember being a big Wrath fan back then. I loved Adam Bomb as a kid so it basically carried over from that. I don't remember him jobbing out to Nash, though. I probably would've been pissed. In North Wales to twat someone in the face is to hit them in the face. I assumed it'd be the same everywhere. Typo on my part. What I meant to say was, "that sure as shit isn't an unusual use of the word 'twat'".

What's this all about? Pretty sure I've never heard this story before.

Only time I got to see Flair was in Aberdeen about 5 years ago. He wasn't wrestling, but he was hosting some bikini contest shit and he wooed and strutted around like a psycho pervert. Best part of the night.

Yeah, I'm from Scotland and that sure as shit an unusual use of the word "twat".

I thought that might've been the idea when I watched the feud again a few year ago, but then I read Bret's book and I don't remember him making any reference to that. Given the amount of detail he goes into on pretty much everything, I just assumed that wasn't the plan after all. Shit, the way I recall him describing it in the book makes it seem like was a tad bitter about the whole deal (as in, him being given the belt after Diesel more or less for the purpose of dropping it to Shawn a few months later), and the build-up on screen sort of reflects that.

Looking at a handheld list, there doesn't seem to be anything in 1989 or 1990. The two matches involving the teams that seem to be available are the 1/15/90 and 2/19/90 matches at MSG. WWF @ New York City, NY - Madison Square Garden - January 15, 1990 (11,500) Televised on the MSG Network - featured Gorilla Monsoon & Hillbilly Jim on commentary: The Powers of Pain defeated Shawn Michaels & Marty Jannetty at 9:59 when the Barbarian pinned Michaels with an elbow drop (SuperTape 2) WWF @ New York City, NY - Madison Square Garden - February 19, 1990 (13,800) Televised on the MSG Network - featured Gorilla Monsoon, Lord Alfred Hayes, & Hillbilly Jim on commentary: Jim Duggan, Shawn Michaels, & Marty Jannetty defeated Mr. Fuji & the Powers of Pain at 16:38 when Jannetty pinned Fuji after Duggan used his 2X4 as a weapon Gotta think the Rockers and Powers were working most of that second match given the length. John The second match is on the Rockers set I bought from Corey a few years ago. I don't remember anything about it now, though. I go back and watch the first match semi-regularly, so I'm assuming I didn't think the six-man hit that level whenever I first saw it (I remember watching it, just nothing specific about it).

I don't care how bad Warlord was at his worst; the PoP v Rockers match from the 1/15/90 MSG show is just about my favourite match ever and he threw Michaels about 12 feet in the air with a backdrop. He's above criticism in my eyes after that match. Actually, upon checking Cawthon's site it seems there were a bunch of Rockers/PoP matches that month. I reeeealy hope there's a handheld or two floating around out there.

I don't know whether or not he realised it, but he really did come across as a bit of an ass. There's one of the training videos where seems particularly insecure and takes a bunch of little jabs at Shawn. It's probably unintentional (as in, it was probably more of a roundabout way of taking more jabs at Michaels), but he does a fair bit of ripping on Mexican wrestling as well. All that "Mexican wrestlers aren't tough" shit.

Flair wrestled Hashimoto? Thought this was pretty fun. Finlay is such a mean little fucker and Savage comes out of this looking like he had to really fight, which was all I really wanted out of a 6 minute match between them.

*British thing. They show that shit in Scotland, too . Oh man... I love SportsNation (although it's always on when I'm at work), but I had no idea he was ever even on that. Michelle's "This guy might be an honest to goodness lunatic" face in the background makes it even better.

Was Superstar better than Hillbilly Jim? Or was the one show I remember Hillbilly Jim doing commentary on the ONLY show he did commentary on and therefore wouldn't really be someone worth talking about in a discussion like this? Didn't Neidhart do a few MSG shows in '91? I could swear he was with Monsoon and maybe Jesse for a few matches on Will's Steamboat set.

I'm not saying he was a certain top 5 in the world, as I would put several japanese workers above him in that context, and I'm not familiar with Mexico, but he's at least Top 2 as far as the US goes. I've thought Eaton was the best in the US in '90 for a couple years now. The MX run that year was really great, and Eaton is just HUGE for all of it. I mean, shit, I probably like Stan Lane more than 90% of the people here, but Eaton was on a totally different level the whole time they were together that year. Like in the Bash match opposite the Southern Boys -- Lane's karate "stand-off" with Smothers is a moment I've always marked for, but other than that, Lane doesn't really do anything of note the whole time. Eaton is pretty clearly carrying his team, and that match is fucking awesome largely because of him and Smothers. I get the sense I'd think his case is only strengthened if I were to get a hold of all the TV from that year. I'd say Dandy, Jumbo and Fujiwara were definitely ahead of him worldwide. I've got a ton of CMLL TV from '90 sitting here that I haven't started working my way through yet, but there are other guys that have looked great in what I've already seen (largely the 1990 stuff that made Will's Dandy set. There being a good deal of trios matches on that set gives you a good look at a decent amount of guys). Don't really know shit about joshi for that year, though. Basically, if he's not a lock for the top 5 worldwide, he's got enough good-great performances/matches that he at LEAST deserves consideration. And limiting it to the US he has a strong case for #1.

Apparently Hogan is appearing on that Loose Women show tomorrow as well. I found that pretty funny when I read about it, like, 10 minutes ago.

I ordered this last week as well. Still plugging through '93 and '96, but I'll get started on this one as soon as it arrives, too.