What are you watching?

[thebrainfollower]

Caught the June 83 Philly WWF Show. Awful show. Andre-Studd is WORSE than the Cap Centre card the Titans buried if that's possible

[Ricky Jackson]

That's the one with the legendary front facelock nap by Andre that he hadn't yet perfected in the Cap Centre match

[thebrainfollower]

I think Andre went down a last minute 5 spots on GWE for me based on that headlock alone. Backlund-Ivan was decent but nothing special. Not a card anybody needs to check out.

[JerryvonKramer]

I think Andre went down a last minute 5 spots on GWE for me based on that headlock alone. Backlund-Ivan was decent but nothing special. Not a card anybody needs to check out.

Sounds ripe for the Mystery Theatre!

[PeteF3]

Eight Yearbooks--960 hours--down. Someone pray for me.

 

Just two to go--until somebody comes out with 2000 or '89 or whatever else. Observer Awards for 1997.

[ButchReedMark]

Just watched the Morton Downey Jr episode on Pro Wrestling again. It's essentially a cacophony of arseholes screaming and shouting over Jim Wilson who was totally overmatched by Dr D Dave Schultz being Dave Schultz (which, to be fair is awesome. Not much beats Dr D cutting a total bastard promo in full flight). The only person on Wilson's side is T-Bolt Patterson, but unfortunately Patterson is Patterson and comes off more like a carny than someone rightfully pointing out racial injustice in wrestling. Tony Altomare appears, Dennis Coralluzo, Larry Sharpe, Captain Lou, and Paul E. They all come off like dicks. But no-one more than TED FUCKING ARCIDI of all people, who rips into T-Bolt for not getting the opportunities he may well should have had because he "wasn't a draw". That's TED FUCKING ARCIDI calling Thunderbolt Patterson not a draw. The audience seems to be made of every deluded, angry and seemingly drunk mark in the Tri-State area. It's still real to them. And seemingly it is to chainsmoking arsehole Morton Downey Jr too.

 

It's an hilarious 45 minutes of television.

 

[texaspedro]

This week I've been watching a lot of Amapola matches from CMLL for this week's Mark Out Mania issue (she's the cover feature) and today I finally got around to watching a match I had heard about for decades but never made the time to watch in some form or another: Mascara contra Mascara, El Hijo del Santo vs Espanto Jr from 1986. Wow! Such an incredible match I am kicking myself for waiting so many years to sit down with it.

[Johnny Sorrow]

Just watched the Morton Downey Jr episode on Pro Wrestling again. It's essentially a cacophony of arseholes screaming and shouting over Jim Wilson who was totally overmatched by Dr D Dave Schultz being Dave Schultz (which, to be fair is awesome. Not much beats Dr D cutting a total bastard promo in full flight). The only person on Wilson's side is T-Bolt Patterson, but unfortunately Patterson is Patterson and comes off more like a carny than someone rightfully pointing out racial injustice in wrestling. Tony Altomare appears, Dennis Coralluzo, Larry Sharpe, Captain Lou, and Paul E. They all come off like dicks. But no-one more than TED FUCKING ARCIDI of all people, who rips into T-Bolt for not getting the opportunities he may well should have had because he "wasn't a draw". That's TED FUCKING ARCIDI calling Thunderbolt Patterson not a draw. The audience seems to be made of every deluded, angry and seemingly drunk mark in the Tri-State area. It's still real to them. And seemingly it is to chainsmoking arsehole Morton Downey Jr too.

 

It's an hilarious 45 minutes of television.

 

We covered this on an episode of Titans. I actually watched this live on TV when I was in High School.

http://placetobenation.com/titans-of-wrestling-33-unspecial-too/

[BruiserBrody]

http://culturecrossfire.com/wrestling/wwfinphilly2191983/#.VxEchjArLIU

I'm kicking off a new project as I take a look around the wrestling world month by month as Vince McMahon steamrolls the territories. Each major territory has their main cards and angles looked into for the month as I make the journey through time. I'm kicking off with February of 1983. The WWF has a huge 10 man tag in Philly, JCP is setting up the Final Conflict, the AWA is running on Hulkamania, St Louis is dying, World Class is on fire thanks to the Freebirds vs the Von Erichs, JYD is waging war with the Rat Pack, Lawler is chasing the AWA title and much more!

Additions and further info is more than welcome!

PS - Vince vs The World thread is a great aide!!

[BruiserBrody]

http://culturecrossfire.com/wrestling/wrasslin-nwa-final-conflict/#.VxpTADArLIU

March of 1983 sees the NWA hold the "Final Conflict" Steel Cage match between Sgt. Slaughter and Don Kernodle against Ricky Steamboat and Jay Youngblood, the AWA has another chapter in the endless Mad Dog Vachon war with Sheik Adnan's army, A big controversy follows the National title in Georgia, The Freebirds and Von Erichs continue to go to war, The WWF has another huge multi-man match, plus news on Florida, Mid-South, St. Louis and Memphis as the biggest stars in wrestling crisscross the nation!

[GSR]

I'm up to August 1994 in my Smoky Mountain Wrestling watching and it's getting a real struggle at the moment. Where at one point I could easily work my way through several episodes a day, at the moment it is taking me several days to get through a single episode.

Cornette's booking just seems incredibly lazy at the moment with the never ending Bob Armstrong vs Cornette feud going round in circles and a mere four months after losing a 'loser leaves SMW' cage match, the Heavenly Bodies are back in the promotion. His answer to everything seems to be a gimmick match of some description and the recent Summerblast tour was overkill with penalty box matches, piledriver matches, dock fights, cage matches and mixed tags. Despite what others say, Tracey Smothers is just someone who I don't get and struggle with, and when the Dirty White Boy's challenger and top heel in the promotion is Bruiser Bedlam, you know you're in trouble. FITE is one of the worst factions imagineable with Killer Kyle even worse than Bedlam, and Chris Jericho's injury means that we're now getting Lance Storm in singles matches and as the 'Beat the Champ' TV title holder. Brian Lee has turned face which is an incredibly strange decision when you think back to the beginning of the promotion, the Rock & Roll Express feel stale too and the loss of Dutch Mantel on commentary has been far greater than I would've thought.

Thankfully there are a couple of bright spots. Chris Candido has been one of the best things in the promotion since he debuted and whilst his work has always been first rate we're starting to get plenty of interviews from him as well. Tammy Fytch is always entertaining, though I'm really not sure about Boo Bradley (who has just debuted on a Personality Profile segment), and New Jack's promo's are one of the highlights of each show. The Rock & Roll Express are just round the corner for them, so hopefully the Gangstas can breathe a bit of life into them.

I was contemplating taking a break from this and watching something else instead (ECW from the start or the complete run of AJW Classics) as a way to recharge my batteries, but likelihood is if I give up on this I won't go back to it for some time, and it was always my intent to try and get it finished before the year is out.

[goc]

The "Heavenly Bodies were only gone 4 months" thing is understandable as long as they didn't try to sell it as a "forever" stipulation during the buildup. The territories almost always had time limits on the "Loser Leaves" stipulations. Like I know in Memphis they were always 90 days.

[GSR]

The "Heavenly Bodies were only gone 4 months" thing is understandable as long as they didn't try to sell it as a "forever" stipulation during the buildup. The territories almost always had time limits on the "Loser Leaves" stipulations. Like I know in Memphis they were always 90 days.

 

Whilst I don't think they ever outright said it was 'forever', the implication and the way they built everything was that it would be. When the Rock & Roll Express are flat out saying that they will retire and quit wrestling if they lose this match because they don't want to wrestle anywhere else other than SMW, you get the impression that the losing team will be leaving the promotion permanently. On the back of Bob Armstrong losing a similar stipulated match and returning almost immediately with no hint of secrecy or mysticism as The Bullet, then The Bullet losing his mask in a match only to be wearing another mask underneath, you get tired fast of these stipulations not being honoured and wonder what the point of them in the first place is? Not to mention only a few months after this we get the Ricky Morton's hair vs Tammy Fytch's hair tag match debacle when Chris Candido got shaved that people believe they never really recovered from.

[BruiserBrody]

http://culturecrossfire.com/wrestling/wrasslin-awa-super-sunday/#.VyNU-DArLIU

Our visit through history stops in April of 1983 where we look into the AWA's love affair with HULKAMANIA and the blood feud of Mad Dog Vachon and Jerry "Fatwell". Things come to a head at "Super Sunday". The Mid-Atlantic continues to push Ricky Steamboat and Jay Youngblood's issue with Kernodle and Slaughter, the Mid-South sees JYD headline another Superdome show, Tony Atlas chases World Champ Ric Flair in the Omni, World Class sees a famous "spanking" angle, St. Louis has a World title match as well as imports from around the rest of the nation, MSG has a former WWF champ return to challenge Bob Backlund, Jerry Lawler tries to beat AWA champ Bockwinkel and deal with Andy Kaufman, among a lot of other happenings!

[Gutenberger]

I'm trying to work my way through the WWE Network chronologically, and I'm stuck in '84 right now, having watched the first 4 episodes of TNT. It isn't that it's bad or something, but it is just kind of there, whick makes it hard to motivate myself watching it, when so much other good stuff is all around the interwebs... Just gotta muster the strength to barrel through one TNT at a time.

[Ricky Jackson]

I love TNT as much as anyone but I don't think binge watching it is the way to go. Just watch one every once and a while to retain your sanity

[Gutenberger]

I guess that would be the "normal thinking guy" way of doing it, which just doesn't work for me. I've startet chronologically, I'll get to the finish that way or die trying.

[MikeCampbell]

Sheamus vs. Roman Reigns (RAW 12/14/15)

 

Goc pointed this out as an example of Roman pulling his weight, after I remarked in the Payback thread that Roman didn't seem to be able to do so when he was working in main events. I'll admit that this match did a lot more for me than Roman's matches with HHH and Styles, but, it didn't feel like Roman was performing marginally better, or different. The few things that he was given to do were well done, like putting over the midsection after Sheamus did rolling senton, and he was good about milking the near falls at the end. But, that's part of the problem I've had with him, he doesn't seem to have much at all to do other than his four main moves (drive by, jumping lariat, Superman punch, and spear). Now granted, the angle here is that Vince is trying to stack the deck against him, so, it makes sense to have him behind the 8 ball for most of the match. But, the finish run kicked off with a Superman punch near fall with Vince pulling out the ref, and it's not like the Superman punch has ever been made out to be a potential finisher.

[goc]

Sheamus vs. Roman Reigns (RAW 12/14/15)

 

Goc pointed this out as an example of Roman pulling his weight, after I remarked in the Payback thread that Roman didn't seem to be able to do so when he was working in main events. I'll admit that this match did a lot more for me than Roman's matches with HHH and Styles, but, it didn't feel like Roman was performing marginally better, or different. The few things that he was given to do were well done, like putting over the midsection after Sheamus did rolling senton, and he was good about milking the near falls at the end. But, that's part of the problem I've had with him, he doesn't seem to have much at all to do other than his four main moves (drive by, jumping lariat, Superman punch, and spear). Now granted, the angle here is that Vince is trying to stack the deck against him, so, it makes sense to have him behind the 8 ball for most of the match. But, the finish run kicked off with a Superman punch near fall with Vince pulling out the ref, and it's not like the Superman punch has ever been made out to be a potential finisher.

I see this frequently used as a criticism of Reigns yet how is not applicable to like 90% of the roster? Especially when people bash Reigns with that criticism and then go "and that's why Ambrose should be pushed over him" when Dean's offense is also really limited and none of it looks good.

 

Using the "limited moveset" criticism against anyone in WWE feels like an "I already decided not to like him so now let me work backwards to justify it" type of thing. That's how WWE style works, they have guys stick to a few big moves.

[AJS]

I've been watching John Cena matches recently. I posted in the wrestlers you hate thread saying he's a guy I just don't get. Someone mentioned the Umaga RR match, so I checked it out and enjoyed it far more than I thought I would. From there I thought it might be interesting to delve into Cena PPV stuff from a period i'm very unfamiliar with, namely anything from 2010 onwards.

 

It started pretty well but went down hill quickly for me. I quite enjoyed the Extreme Rules match with Bastita but I thought that the Sheamus and Wade Barrett bouts were quite dull. Then I went and watched the Miz Mania match. Well that well and truly sucked! Not sure that I want to continue along these Cena path after that.

[soup23]

I'm trying to work my way through the WWE Network chronologically, and I'm stuck in '84 right now, having watched the first 4 episodes of TNT. It isn't that it's bad or something, but it is just kind of there, whick makes it hard to motivate myself watching it, when so much other good stuff is all around the interwebs... Just gotta muster the strength to barrel through one TNT at a time.

 

We are stuck at this moment in the PTBN Excellent WWE Network Adventure and I feel your pain. TNT has some humorous segments but at 1:30, it was really bloated.

[Gutenberger]

 

I'm trying to work my way through the WWE Network chronologically, and I'm stuck in '84 right now, having watched the first 4 episodes of TNT. It isn't that it's bad or something, but it is just kind of there, whick makes it hard to motivate myself watching it, when so much other good stuff is all around the interwebs... Just gotta muster the strength to barrel through one TNT at a time.

 

We are stuck at this moment in the PTBN Excellent WWE Network Adventure and I feel your pain. TNT has some humorous segments but at 1:30, it was really bloated.

 

I know, I'm reading along. Interestingly, I'm, without planning on it, at the exact same point where you are now, although I've been having to catch up at first and had some advance after that...

[MikeCampbell]

BROCK LESNAR vs. ROMAN REIGNS (vs. SETH ROLLINS)

 

Another Goc recommendation, but, I liked this one a hell of a lot more. Reigns still isn't doing the heavy lifting as far as offense goes, but, it makes a lot more sense against Brock. The little bit of offense that Roman shows feels more natural (for lack of a better adjective) this time around. When Brock takes the header into the post, it makes perfect sense for Roman to start teeing off on Brock with his best strike. Roman dodging Brock's shoulder tackle on the apron and pelting him with kicks is another smart moment like that. It's a great example to show that it doesn't necessarily matter *what* one is able to do, as long as they're smart about how they do it, like Roman is here.

[BruiserBrody]

http://culturecrossfire.com/wrestling/wrasslin-wwf-capcenter83/

May 83

A busy news month sees Jimmy Snuka arrested, a serious car accident for another smark favorite, a new Russian enters the horizon, JCP blows off one of their biggest feuds ever, Hulk Hogan leaves the AWA...the first time...., Mid-South lands two major new babyfaces, Bobby Heenan has a great angle with Ken Patera, Adrian Adonis wins a World title in Texas...., Andy Kaufman is back in Memphis, plus I look at a WWF house show in full from the Cap Center!!!!

[Gregor]

The WWF toughman contests from late 1996 are really fun. I love the name, I love the heel vs. heel matchups, and I love that even someone like Owen Hart got to show his nastier side.