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Going by your info from being there, they had more people there than it looked like on TV, IMO.

I don't understand why there were people sitting in the bleachers behind me when there were empty ringside seats. Maybe that's why they moved people down for the last show. I'll have to look at some of that footage, to see how much of the ringside area the cameras capture. I think there were at least 6 rows of ringside.

 

I would also like to put forth that I am a terrible judge of how many people are in a crowd. I've tried estimating at my local indy and I always fall short of the actual attendance. Like the Observer polls in the newsletter used to say "Statistical margin of error: +-100%". :)

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I absolutely agree! It was pretty sad to watch.

 

Here's a question that struck me a few weeks ago. As the story goes, Hulk Hogan was scheduled to headline AWA shows in December 1983. Jumbo Tsuruta grabbed the AWA title in February 1984. Has anyone ever heard when the Bock to Jumbo title switch was agreed upon? I find it interesting that Jumbo may have been AWA Champion while Hulk Hogan, a New Japan headliner, was in the AWA.

 

Just wondering if the timing of these events has ever been investigated. Would Jumbo have won the AWA title if Hogan had stayed in the AWA instead of jumping to the WWF?

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  • 1 month later...

Lord Alfred Hays vs Bobby Heenan (01/13/80)

 

What a fun way to start the set! I thought this would be all schtick, and while there is quite a bit, there is also some good wrestling. His Lordship has some fun, tricked out holds, and Bobby Heenan can throw a surprisingly good punch. I'm not a fan of babyfaces using the ropes for leverage as a rule, but this is an exception. It's a manager's match, and if it's not at least partially worked around who the better cheater is, what's the point?

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I suspect that Bobby Heenan is one of the all time overlooked workers. There's very little prime footage of him but what I've seen is very good. But that aspect is completely dwarfed by memories of his managing/announcing career.

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Greg Gagne vs Super Destroyer Mark II (05/01/80)

 

This match had hot periods and parts where it seemed like not much was happening, but in the end, it was a good match overall. Slaughter gave a really inspired performance and took about 90% of the offense. I wouldn't call Greg awkward, and I didn't get that feeling from him at all. But I didn't think he really did much here except fill a role. Felt very much like a solid Slaughter carry job, but it also felt like an extended squash at times because Gagne's comeback teases were too few and far between. Bobby Heenan sure can heat up any situation and was great here.

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Verne Gagne vs Nick Bockwinkel (07/18/80)

 

I was really impressed with this match. I think I agree with Pete that the Greg/Slaughter match is above this, but this was really impressive. I keep going back to that word, but I think that's the best way to describe this. These two cut quite the remarkable pace and showed their cards really well. If anything, it was too fast paced, which is a strange complaint to make about a match with 2012 eyes, but that's because they did so much cool stuff but quickly moved on to the next thing. This is the kind of match I liked now that I think I'll love after getting more comfortable with the AWA style. I find it interesting that Bockwinkel is a faster wrestler than Flair or Steamboat during the same time period.

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Lord Alfred Hays vs Bobby Heenan (01/13/80)

 

What a fun way to start the set! I thought this would be all schtick, and while there is quite a bit, there is also some good wrestling. His Lordship has some fun, tricked out holds, and Bobby Heenan can throw a surprisingly good punch. I'm not a fan of babyfaces using the ropes for leverage as a rule, but this is an exception. It's a manager's match, and if it's not at least partially worked around who the better cheater is, what's the point?

I've seen very little Al Hayes footage, but thoroughly enjoyed his match with Steve Veidor that aired on TWC over here in the UK.
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I had no idea Loss was going to tackle this bad boy. That's awesome.

 

Pretty psyched about diving into this myself. Busting open a new 80s set is always good times.

I'll put it aside when the 1990 Yearbook comes out, plow through that, then come back to this. :)

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I finished disk one and headed over to DVDVR to see what people were saying so far. I feel like I am on the complete opposite side of most people so far on my thoughts on rankings. I even watched a couple matches twice to make sure. Majority seems to be raving about certain matches where I thought it wasn't that great. Taking the stance of just watching the stuff on my own and if my ballot (whether I actually submit one) is way different than so be. Matt D's ballot seems to be as close to mine as possible though I rated the Heenan stuff higher. Bobby is pretty great on this set and probably my MVP. I've also been surprised with Gagne and down on Bockwinkle so far but trying to keep an open mind for the whole set.

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I finished disk one and headed over to DVDVR to see what people were saying so far. I feel like I am on the complete opposite side of most people so far on my thoughts on rankings. I even watched a couple matches twice to make sure. Majority seems to be raving about certain matches where I thought it wasn't that great. Taking the stance of just watching the stuff on my own and if my ballot (whether I actually submit one) is way different than so be. Matt D's ballot seems to be as close to mine as possible though I rated the Heenan stuff higher. Bobby is pretty great on this set and probably my MVP. I've also been surprised with Gagne and down on Bockwinkle so far but trying to keep an open mind for the whole set.

You are in bad shape if you're voting like me, pal. You're going to love the 3/13/83 Six Man with Bobby on Disc 2 though.

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I finished disk one and headed over to DVDVR to see what people were saying so far. I feel like I am on the complete opposite side of most people so far on my thoughts on rankings. I even watched a couple matches twice to make sure. Majority seems to be raving about certain matches where I thought it wasn't that great. Taking the stance of just watching the stuff on my own and if my ballot (whether I actually submit one) is way different than so be. Matt D's ballot seems to be as close to mine as possible though I rated the Heenan stuff higher. Bobby is pretty great on this set and probably my MVP. I've also been surprised with Gagne and down on Bockwinkle so far but trying to keep an open mind for the whole set.

 

Put in a ballot. We don't want unanimity for the sake of unanimity. To be honest I get the distinct feeling that this set is going to have VERY FEW consensus picks.

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I'm finding this set really easy to digest so far. It kinda has what wrestling is supposed to offer folks. You know the analogy of the 3 ring circus. I mean we have had some good technical bouts, bloody brawls, tag team wrestling, fun 6 man stuff, characters like Mad Dog and the Crusher, seeing Hogan truly loving wrestling. Heck he was probably still in love with his wife at this point in time. This is just after 2 discs and 2 matches on a 3rd. I love 80's territorial wrestling. For me AWA is full of hidden gems. Years ago I got some comps of Bock, Bock vs. Hennig, and Midnight Rockers vs. Rose and Somers from K-Hawk, great stuff by the way. So the only other AWA I've seen was their t.v from ESPN when they were on their death knell, a WWE produced DVD, and some World Pro shows. So this set is cool as shit.

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I thought we had a big Jerry Blackwell thread but I can't find it. This is tangential. It's actually St. Louis stuff, but do we have any of the Harley Race/Jerry Blackwell feud over the St. Louis title on tape?

A quick check showed me at least one match is available. No idea without watching it again if it's clip or a full match.

 

Dylan did a Blackwell for HOF-style thread not too long ago so that thread should be around somewhere close.

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