What are you watching?

[Phil Austin]

Watching the IVP Video bluray from this month's Puro box. Currently watching Muta v Sting from the 1991 Tokyo Dome show

[alexoblivion]

Rewatched the Ricky Santana/El Texano hair match from the CMLL anniversary show in 94 as given the talent involved its one I really want to like, but it falls flat for me. I found it weird that Santana didn't blade in that one as well. Just to show how fucked my memory is, I actually misremembered it as being two out of three falls when it is just one. So I guess all the hair matches that week were one fall. The post-match celebration was cool though, as Miguel Perez comes out and rudo cowbell fan is feeling it, even going up to congratulate Santana. The 4/18/93 AAA show has Latin Lover somberly coming down on crutches to Whitney Houston's I Will Always Love You before a six-man, which is either the greatest or most ridiculous moment I've seen. What was shown of Parka mocking and subsequently attacking Lover was amusing though.

[BruiserBrody]

http://culturecrossfire.com/wrestling/wcw-bash-at-the-beach-1994/#.Vaoz4_lViko

Hulk Hogan debuts to save WCW from the wrath of good workrate as he battles Ric Flair in the Match of the Century! The Dragon collides with Stunning Steve, Cactus Jack and Kevin Sullivan take on a Pretty Wonderful tag team, Lord Regal grapples with Johnny B Badd, Dustin Rhodes continues his war with the Studd Stable - this time taking Arn Anderson on as a partner, Vader tries to bully the Guardian Angel and more!!

[NotJayTabb]

Been working my way through some of the treasures on Dean Allmark's YouTube channel, he seems to put up a lot of matches from All Star shows around the country. Currently halfway through a show from Croydon last year, which was headlined by Robbie Dynamite vs Jushin Liger. Just watched a Danny Collins vs David Finlay Jr match that was a lot of fun. It's a well-worked "vet vs rookie" match, with Collins vowing pre-match to get revenge for all the blood he'd shed at the hands of Finlay's father.

[khawk20]

Finally watched "K.C. : On the Mat", the Kansas City wrestling history doc that was produced in 2009 and aired at Memorial Hall in KC when it premiered. It was quite good and they spent a good deal of time discussing the development of the area and it's stars from Orville Brown through Bob Geigel through Harley Race and onward. A lot of guys that worked there only got cursory blurbs but they spent a decent bit of time on who they identified as the main players throughout the years, including Roger Kirby, Rufus Jones, Bob Brown, the aforementioned Geigel and the Browns, Percival Friend, Race and more. The extras had highlights and speeches from the premiere night and there were several extra stories on the bonus disc as well. Also a nice photo gallery. It's a nicely produced piece that is interesting whether you've not seen much of Central States wrestling or if you grew up with it.

Match clips were sparse, there were a few here and there but not a ton. It doesn't hurt the doc but an older match or two on the bonus disc would have been nice. Aside from that, I recommend it for sure.

[goc]

Finally watched "K.C. : On the Mat", the Kansas City wrestling history doc that was produced in 2009 and aired at Memorial Hall in KC when it premiered. It was quite good and they spent a good deal of time discussing the development of the area and it's stars from Orville Brown through Bob Geigel through Harley Race and onward. A lot of guys that worked there only got cursory blurbs but they spent a decent bit of time on who they identified as the main players throughout the years, including Roger Kirby, Rufus Jones, Bob Brown, the aforementioned Geigel and the Browns, Percival Friend, Race and more. The extras had highlights and speeches from the premiere night and there were several extra stories on the bonus disc as well. Also a nice photo gallery. It's a nicely produced piece that is interesting whether you've not seen much of Central States wrestling or if you grew up with it.

Match clips were sparse, there were a few here and there but not a ton. It doesn't hurt the doc but an older match or two on the bonus disc would have been nice. Aside from that, I recommend it for sure.

I watched this a few weeks ago and also thought it was very well done. Seems like it went under the radar when it first got released, I would have though something this well done would have gotten a little more buzz when it came out.

 

I did my own part in helping to get a few more people to check it out.

[khawk20]

One bit I found interesting was their little piece on Mike George. Harley Race was being as nice about it as possible but he couldn't hide his disappointment that George never became the star he thought he would and could become. I don't think there was any personal heat behind that bit, but I got the impression that stuff had happened with George that Harley saw as impeding his ability to rise higher than he did.

 

I never looked at George as having any sort of Superstar potential personally.

 

Roger Kirby was also put over to the point that I wish there was more footage available of his prime years (is there any?). What I've seen from Kirby is from his later years and he looks decent, but the commentary made me think he had a lot more when he was younger.

[goc]

One bit I found interesting was their little piece on Mike George. Harley Race was being as nice about it as possible but he couldn't hide his disappointment that George never became the star he thought he would and could become. I don't think there was any personal heat behind that bit, but I got the impression that stuff had happened with George that Harley saw as impeding his ability to rise higher than he did.

 

I never looked at George as having any sort of Superstar potential personally.

 

Roger Kirby was also put over to the point that I wish there was more footage available of his prime years (is there any?). What I've seen from Kirby is from his later years and he looks decent, but the commentary made me think he had a lot more when he was younger.

Yea honestly I was like "man I want to see more Roger Kirby" after hearing Race talk him up but then after that he said all that stuff about Mike George and I was like "well..now I don't know." Because I never saw Mike George like that at all. I mean he looked good in the early 80s footage I've seen but not anything that'd make you think he was a superstar.

[goc]

Been messing around with twitter lately after never really doing anything with it. Today I happened to stumble across a guy asking for retweets for his Chilean wrestling videos which led me to this. This looks pretty good actually I'd go to one of these shows if it wasn't like 1,000 miles away:

 

 

Their most recent video had some fun stuff like a hair vs. hair match and a match that included a dude getting a giant photo of himself broken over his own head. That's pro wrestling, I can't care what country it's from!

[TravJ1979]

Just watched Slamboree 1997. Very surprised of how good of a show it was. Regal/Dragon was excellent, Yuji Yasuraoka/Rey Jr. was good, Dean/Jarrett was very good, Meng/Benoit beat the shit out of each other ... even the lesser matches weren't embarrassing. Kevin Greene and Reggie White did great in their roles.

[Zoo Enthusiast]

Love that show.

[SomethingSavage]

Agreed.

 

I really like the Great American Bash from that year, too. Ultimo and Psicosis have a really fun opener, Akira Hokuto and Madusa have one of my favorite women's matches to ever occur on US soil, Benoit and Meng maul each other in their rematch, the Piper and Flair rift angle is decent enough for what they wanted to do, and then you end it all with a Savage and Page "attitude era" brawl before those things wore out their welcome.

[Karl]

Just watched the recent Suzuki v Takayama from Noah....loved every moment of it.....perhaps my favourite match of the year so far. Not necessarily the best, but the one I have enjoyed the most.

[BruiserBrody]

http://culturecrossfire.com/wrestling/clash-of-the-champions-28-hogan-vs-flair/#.VbV3S_lVikq

A huge Clash Special sees Hulk Hogan defend his crown against former champ Ric Flair, Antonio Inoki makes a special appearance to grapple with Lord Steven Regal, Dusty Rhodes returns to the ring to team with his son to battle the Studd Stable, Ricky Steamboat has one last great match with Steve Austin and the Nasty Boyz brawl with Paul Roma and Paul Orndorff.

[Tim Evans]

Benn watching some 2001 IWRG. More specifically, the 3 week feud between El Dandy and Scorpio Jr. I love me some over the hill brawling Dandy and he was going after Scorpio's IWRG IC title. They had two really bloody 6 mans with guys like Mr. Niebla, Rambo, Tony Rivera and my favorite Jerry Estrada clone, Crazy 33. Haven't watched the title match yet but looking forward to it. IWRG in the early 2000's is a weird place. You had indie guys that faced CMLL guys but AAA had nothing to do with the promotion till like 2010. They had some of my favorite old time indie guys like Rambo, Mosco de la Merced and one of my favorite discoveries since I've started watching these shows, Super Parka. Such a fun gimmick and I think I like him more than LA Park.

 

I've also been watching some 1999 AAA. Big fan of Pena bringing back the micro mini's who had a brawl at a kids amusement park on the toy horses. Also Felino in AAA.

[WingedEagle]

Just watched the recent Suzuki v Takayama from Noah....loved every moment of it.....perhaps my favourite match of the year so far. Not necessarily the best, but the one I have enjoyed the most.

Where is this available? Been hoping to check it out but haven't come across it. The absence of Suzuki has definitely been a loss in njpw this year.

[JerryvonKramer]

This awesome playlist of Bockwinkel and Heenan promos with Okerlund doing the interviews:

 

 

One of the great three-way acts on screen, tremendous chemistry (although Blackjack Lanza is often standing there too). Okerlund's timing and facial expressions are perfect.

 

Heenan is generally a bit more irate than he would be in WWF. The AWA Heenan seemed to shout a lot more than the WWF Heenan. He has less of the con-artist about him, and is a bit more serious in general. I probably opt for the WWF Heenan over this incarnation, but both are gold.

[...TG]

Incredible stuff Parv, thanks for posting. And thanks to the youtuber for editing those together. With title and end cards!

[khawk20]

I've talked with the uploader, he's a nice guy. He uploaded a ton of AWA TV taped out of the Twin Cities from 1983 a few years ago with local promos that probably haven't been seen since they originally aired. I wish he had more but he said he pretty much emptied his AWA cache on the uploads.

[Cap]

I went on a starcade kick recently, watch Tully/Magnum, Vader/Flair, and Piper/Valentine.

 

Been wanting to rewatch El Samurai vs Koji Kanemoto so that is probably next.

[iamthedoctor]

On my ongoing saga to go through weekly WWF TV from 83 - 94 the first match that came on last night was Piper vs Conquistador.

[GSR]

Been going through some OVW TV from 2009. It's after the time WWE pulled out of using them as a developmental territory, so there are not really any 'names' there anymore. Nick Dinsmore was around the start of the year doing the U-Gene gimmick, as was Idol Stevens (Damien Sandow) whilst Mike Mondo was there for a bit, but i think these were all OVW originals or Danny Davis trainees.

 

As a result there is a real mixed bag of guys there. Some chap called Damon Lewis is doing a knockoff Goldberg act, the wonderfully named Igotta Brewski is ridiculously jacked, Fang looks like the lightest wrestler ever, Jamin Olivencia is all over the shows (along with his entourage Benny the Producer and Andrew the Director), whilst Dave Mastiff and the Blossom twins (from the UK) turn up towards the end of the year. Less said about Twinkletoes, the commentator come manager from the UK the better!

 

The best thing though was what a tremendous promo Dean Hill is. There's a fairly long running storyline involving the Insurgency (an Iraqi sympathising group), where eventually Bin Hamin (the leader of the group) bloodies up Hill. It leads to an unsanctioned fight where Hamin shaves off Hill's handlebar moustache. He then cuts this incredible promo about how his grandfather was the sheriff of Louisville and he had a handlebar moustache, so when he joined the police force he grew it as a tribute to him. How his wife and children had never seen him without it and how his grandchild didn't recognise him. Just phenomenal stuff. Eventually Hill gets his retribution and shaves Hamin in a cage match. I wasn't expecting much from this stuff, but Hill's promos and performance blew me away.

[goc]

I love that a dude whose name is probably Benjamin took the Spanish pronunciation and turned it into terrorist Bin Hamin. If I could get everyone to use the Spanish pronunciation of my name I wouldn't shorten it to Ben.

[BruiserBrody]

http://culturecrossfire.com/wrestling/wcw-fall-brawl-94/#.Vb39Y_lViko

WAR GAMES sees Dusty and Dustin Rhodes team with the Nasty Boyz to battle the Studd Stable, Sting and Vader have yet another PPV battle, Steve Austin wrestles Ricky The Dragon...or does he?...Kevin Sullivan brawls with Cactus Jack, Johnny B Badd attempts to out grapple Lord Steven Regal, and more!

[Mad Dog]

Back to 1987 WWF TV. Hart Foundation vs. Islanders from the 2/21 Superstars is easily the best match I've watched since starting these. I was pleasantly surprised as I haven't thought much of the Islanders and they have a way of fucking with any good potential match ups that there's been in the match. Harts and Islanders had some great chemistry in the ring.