Jump to content
Pro Wrestling Only

What are you watching?


Tim Cooke

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 1.6k
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic



A special look around June 1983 sees Harley Race and Ric Flair having a historic St Louis encounter, The Von Erichs fall into legal troubles over drugs, The Road Warriors debut, Two Memphis legends battle in a "Loser Leaves Town" match, Buddy Rose turns face in Portland, Jimmy Snuka and Don Muraco kick off their famous feud, plus I review the WCCW Star Wars Event from June with the Von Erichs, Kamala, Brody, Chris Adams and others battling in front of over 20,000 rabid fans!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites



July of 1983 sees Harley Race and Ric Flair headline a pair of stadium shows, Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair compete in the same tournament with the Missouri title hanging in the balance, Verne Gagne came out of retirement...again..., Nick Bockwinkel and Ted Dibiase align to go after Dusty Rhodes, Hacksaw Duggan and JYD headline a loaded Superdome card, Stan Hansen and Ole Anderson take aim at the Road Warriors, Andy Kaufman TEAMS with Jerry Lawler, plus a full blow by blow review of the WWF's event from the Philly Spectrum and much more news and notes!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites




August of 1983 sees Ric Flair having his neck injured in a heinous attack, Barry Windham's bid for the NWA World title headlines a big Florida card, Hulk Hogan adds David Schultz to his hit list, Rick Martel is brutalized on AWA TV, Japan sees two legends retire in their prime, Lou Thesz appeared in Memphis, The Road Warriors receive their first NWA World tag title shots at the Briscos, Bob Backlund faces a wide range of opponents before a new challenger arises and many other news bits and results!

Link to comment
Share on other sites



September of 1983 sees Ric Flair retiring due to injury, Dusty Rhodes finally ends his war with Kevin Sullivan, Masked Superstar tries to cripple Bob Backlund's friend, Vince's expansion plans start to become very evident, Duggan and Dibiase reach a climax in Mid-South, Andre faces monsters across the wrestling landscape, The Heenan Family implodes, plus an EPIC Dusty promo and lots of other news and notes!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

BrusierBrody:

 

I wanted to let you know that I'm really enjoying these monthly recaps you're doing! Thanks for your efforts!

 

I am having fun putting things together. I plan on doing it up to 1990 as of now.

 

The WON notes start becoming available in Dec 83, so that'll add to the series as well.

Link to comment
Share on other sites



The half of October of 1983 sees Harley Race facing off with talent from across the country as he prepares for his "Starrcade" match with Ric Flair. Stan Hansen and Jesse Ventura invade Memphis, the WWF declares war on Ole Anderson, Don Muraco takes part in one of the most famous squash matches ever, The Freebirds almost come to the WWF, JYD faces set backs in his feud with Butch Reed, among lots of other news and tidbits....then I do a full review of the MSG show for the month which features Snuka's epic steel cage match with Muraco, Bob Backlund vs. The Masked Superstar, Andre and much more!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I didn't think this was especially worth starting a thread for, but I was watching WrestleRock '86 and it got to me to thinking about Little Mr. T.

Obviously he was in Mr. T's corner at WrestleMania 2 after Roddy Piper cut his hair on Piper's Pit, but does anyone know if he had Mr. T's blessing to do the gimmick? I can't imagine in the outlaw world of wrestling that he would have paid for the rights to it, and by the time WrestleMania III came around, he was back to being the Haiti Kid. I figure that was partly because he'd already been the Haiti Kid in the WWF, and partly because Mr. T wasn't with the WWF at the point.

I wonder if he would have been Little Mr. T had the PIper-Mr. T cage match happened instead of Piper-Adonis? Also, did he resume the Haiti Kid gimmick full time at that point, or did he carry on being Little Mr. T elsewhere? Even if Mr. T/The A-Team were rapidly on the way out in 1987, I figure that wrestling often being so far behind the pop culture pulse that he would have just carried on using the name into the 90s.

On a related note, I thought Cowboy Lang looked pretty good in that WrestleRock match. Does anyone know if that troupe used to do "serious" matches anywhere? I realise they were a once-a-year sideshow attraction in most places, but did the guys ever get tired of doing the same comedy spots in every town and decide to tear it up one night, or get booked in any programs that would have seen them do returns?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

On a related note, I thought Cowboy Lang looked pretty good in that WrestleRock match. Does anyone know if that troupe used to do "serious" matches anywhere? I realise they were a once-a-year sideshow attraction in most places, but did the guys ever get tired of doing the same comedy spots in every town and decide to tear it up one night, or get booked in any programs that would have seen them do returns?

 

There was a 2/3 falls title match between Lord Littlebrook and Bobo Johnson from NWAClassics that's worked about 85% straight.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It was Haiti Kid who was in T's corner, not Little Mr. T

 

Haiti Kid is Little Mr. T. Maybe it's just how I worded it (and I did not that he was back to being Haiti Kid by Mania III, at least in the WWF) but I was asking if the Mania 2 association was how he got the gimmick and if he had Mr. T's blessing on it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

 

It was Haiti Kid who was in T's corner, not Little Mr. T

Haiti Kid is Little Mr. T. Maybe it's just how I worded it (and I did not that he was back to being Haiti Kid by Mania III, at least in the WWF) but I was asking if the Mania 2 association was how he got the gimmick and if he had Mr. T's blessing on it.
I think the point is that Little Mr. T in the AWA was another person, not the Haiti Kid. Although I'm not 100% if that was the case though
Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

 

It was Haiti Kid who was in T's corner, not Little Mr. T

Haiti Kid is Little Mr. T. Maybe it's just how I worded it (and I did not that he was back to being Haiti Kid by Mania III, at least in the WWF) but I was asking if the Mania 2 association was how he got the gimmick and if he had Mr. T's blessing on it.

2 completely different vertically challenged people.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In that case, were there two Little Mr. T's? Or is this a case of multiple online sources listing the same wrong information? I guess the confusion comes from Haiti Kid being paired with Mr. T?

Edit: I've also just read this on a decade-old WrestlingClassics thread which probably explains a bit of it: "Someone just tipped me off that Little Mr. T was NOT in fact the same person as the Haiti Kid, which is something I have believed for almost 20 years as one of the first smarky details I ever learned."

Link to comment
Share on other sites



The second half of October sees the "Last Battle in Atlanta" take place as Buzz Sawyer and Tommy Rich wage war in a covered cage. JCP continues the road to Starrcade, Snuka and Muraco engage in a bloodbath, Magnum TA and JYD are in the middle of a Mid-South title controversy, Jimmy Garvin fends off a surprise opponent in WCCW, Memphis has a huge tag team mega match and much more!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Today, I watched Billy Robinson & Horst Hoffman vs Dory & Terry Funk from All Japan's Tag League 1977. It lasted about 50 minutes but it was very well-paced. Slow & methodical but very enjoyable. It picked up in intensity at about the 38-minute mark and the last 10 minutes are very good as well. I had rarely seen pre-1989 footage from Terry Funk and it was a great discovery for me to see him work a more scientific match. Highly recommend it for those who haven't seen it yet.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I wouldn't trust certain conceptions about undercarders. How many of you know that there were two Ivan The Terrible midgets? Currently I'm doing 70's Farhat'ish shows and not only do they give a crap if it's Kurt or Karl for certain nazi gimmicks, I've even had a case where I think it was Karl Von Brauner was written down in a source as Kurt Von Steiger or something like that. Often enough nobody gives a single damn about those who never came close to main events, so I wouldn't necessarily be surprised about misconceptions. With midget's I wouldn't count on pictures being correctly labeled, either. And maybe Lord Littlebrook used the Moolah technique of randomly renaming the people in his troupe to obscure the fact that they always wrestle each other. Because that's what she did, just check out Moolah's troupe around 1967-1972 and you will have lots of aliases being used that nobody ever gave a damn about.

Link to comment
Share on other sites



November of 1983 sees JCP's biggest show ever, the first Starrcade! The Von Eriches dominate Ric Flair, a legendary tag team makes their Mid-South debut, Andy Kaufman ends his Memphis saga, an infamous heel retires after a long career, the Road Warriors go to war with a pair of brothers, Hulk Hogan leaves the AWA, and more news and notes. Then I take a look at the full WWF Philly show from this month with Backlund vs. Iron Sheik, Pat Patterson facing Ivan Koloff and other action!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

"St. Louis held two cards in November. Fans who came to the event on the 4th saw Missouri Champ David Von Erich upset Ric Flair. The rest of the card was pretty bad with Dick the Bruiser facing Scott Farris (who?), Barry Windham beating Karl Krupp, Bruiser Brody bested The Mongol, Buck Robley went over Doug Somers, plus other action. Bleh!"

 

Scott Ferris would best known as a jobber in the AWA under the name Earthquake Ferris, he was not Jim Neidhart.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.


×
×
  • Create New...