Jimmy James Posted January 9, 2017 Report Share Posted January 9, 2017 Rewatching some early 90s WCW since it's a WCW period I'm weak on (grew up with the received wisdom that Jim Herd/Bob Orton WCW was horrible). Clash XVII was such an entertaining show that now I'm looking for WCW Saturday Night shows around it. I want to see where the Sting/Rude program goes! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
victory Posted January 11, 2017 Report Share Posted January 11, 2017 Rewatching some early 90s WCW since it's a WCW period I'm weak on (grew up with the received wisdom that Jim Herd/Bob Orton WCW was horrible). Clash XVII was such an entertaining show that now I'm looking for WCW Saturday Night shows around it. I want to see where the Sting/Rude program goes! Early 90's WCW is so much fun. Some great stuff there. Even the bad stuff is part of the charm of WCW for me. Love that era! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stro Posted January 11, 2017 Report Share Posted January 11, 2017 Rewatching some early 90s WCW since it's a WCW period I'm weak on (grew up with the received wisdom that Jim Herd/Bob Orton WCW was horrible). Clash XVII was such an entertaining show that now I'm looking for WCW Saturday Night shows around it. I want to see where the Sting/Rude program goes! Early 90's WCW is so much fun. Some great stuff there. Even the bad stuff is part of the charm of WCW for me. Love that era! 1992 into very early 1993 WCW is probably the greatest year from a wrestling quality standpoint ever produced from a US stand point. Dangerous Alliance, peak Vader, arguably peak Sting (ring wise), peak Cactus, the Steiners, Gordy/Doc, Steamboat, Dustin coming into his own. It's a magical time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrianB Posted January 11, 2017 Report Share Posted January 11, 2017 Rewatching some early 90s WCW since it's a WCW period I'm weak on (grew up with the received wisdom that Jim Herd/Bob Orton WCW was horrible). Clash XVII was such an entertaining show that now I'm looking for WCW Saturday Night shows around it. I want to see where the Sting/Rude program goes! Early 90's WCW is so much fun. Some great stuff there. Even the bad stuff is part of the charm of WCW for me. Love that era! 1992 into very early 1993 WCW is probably the greatest year from a wrestling quality standpoint ever produced from a US stand point. Dangerous Alliance, peak Vader, arguably peak Sting (ring wise), peak Cactus, the Steiners, Gordy/Doc, Steamboat, Dustin coming into his own. It's a magical time. Superbrawl III seems like the marker. And I wonder from the declining business if Sting beating Vader would've been the right call. It's sort of blasphemous because Vader's 1993 is so great and I love Vader vs. Flair (I know your opinion differs stro, at least on the match). I think I'd still take 1989, but I've got to see more of the overall TV of both periods, especially since WCW had so many different shows in both periods. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Migs Posted January 11, 2017 Report Share Posted January 11, 2017 Rewatching some early 90s WCW since it's a WCW period I'm weak on (grew up with the received wisdom that Jim Herd/Bob Orton WCW was horrible). Clash XVII was such an entertaining show that now I'm looking for WCW Saturday Night shows around it. I want to see where the Sting/Rude program goes! Early 90's WCW is so much fun. Some great stuff there. Even the bad stuff is part of the charm of WCW for me. Love that era! 1992 into very early 1993 WCW is probably the greatest year from a wrestling quality standpoint ever produced from a US stand point. Dangerous Alliance, peak Vader, arguably peak Sting (ring wise), peak Cactus, the Steiners, Gordy/Doc, Steamboat, Dustin coming into his own. It's a magical time. Superbrawl III seems like the marker. And I wonder from the declining business if Sting beating Vader would've been the right call. It's sort of blasphemous because Vader's 1993 is so great and I love Vader vs. Flair (I know your opinion differs stro, at least on the match). I think I'd still take 1989, but I've got to see more of the overall TV of both periods, especially since WCW had so many different shows in both periods. The B-shows are definitely better in 1992. Just tons of Dangerous Alliance matches tossed off - pretty much every episode of TV has something in the *** range. 1989 has better big show matches, on the whole. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cap Posted January 12, 2017 Report Share Posted January 12, 2017 Decided to catch up on some indy wrestling recently. I subscribed to floslam and beyond and have more or less been cherry picking. I just don't have a ton of time to sit down and watch full shows, but I have made it through a few. I was a little down on Sabre after the CWC. He can get a bit cute, but watching his Evolve and Beyond stuff reaffirmed my faith in him. His matches with Gresham were lights out. He brings out the best in Ospreay to me and had good matches with lots of people in Evolve. Of course the Hero and Strong matches are still real standouts. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to catch Mercury Rising yet (not on FloSlam). I had Styles as my wrestler of the year a few weeks ago, but Hero has to be my MVP now. Maybe I am a prisoner of what I have recently watched, but Hero seems to have a really high floor right now. He just can't have a bad match. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sek69 Posted January 12, 2017 Report Share Posted January 12, 2017 I never really understood the appeal of Tommy Rich in the early 80s since it was just before my time as a fan, but it makes sense now after watching GCW tv from 1982. His babyface promos were perfect, apologizing to the fans for losing the National title and thanking Gordon Solie for his time after the interview. Also this is probably peak coked-out Roddy Piper as he is basically Tazmanian Devil in a suit any time he gets worked up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peachchaos Posted January 13, 2017 Report Share Posted January 13, 2017 Been plowing through the 90's Yearbooks. Started with 1993 sometime in 2015 and have been chugging along ever since. Once I reached the Nitro Era I started watching all the WWF, WCW, and ECW TV to round out the experience. Currently finishing 1996 with the RWTL finals (!), IYH: It's Time, and Starrcade closing out the year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BruiserBrody Posted January 13, 2017 Report Share Posted January 13, 2017 http://culturecrossfire.com/wrestling/wrasslin-october-1984/We set the wayback machine to October of 1984 as we travel to each major territory to examine the happenings. This month includes an NWA feud being settled on WWF TV, Roddy Piper gets rowdy with the Tonga Kid, several more major stars jump to the WWF, St. Louis fans are spoiled by having two top caliber main events go down in one night as NWA legends clash with the AWA's top stars, 3 promotions promise to trade talent to fend off the WWF invasion, Brody no shows a ton of scheduled AWA main events, the AWA crushes Vince in Chicago, Verne screw over his paying audience intentionally, a glimpse of "Psycho" Bob Backlund is seen, an infamously poor wrestler gets a Memphis push, the Von Erichs headline a stadium show, a famous Mid-South feud restarts, JCP has to rearrange their title scene after losing more talent to the WWF, Starrcade is set up and much more!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Evans Posted January 18, 2017 Report Share Posted January 18, 2017 Been continuing my Memphis Championship Wrestling watch from 2000. Up to July 2000 and it truly has turned into WWF developmental. The highlights include the great Reckless Youth vs Steve Regal series. They had 3 matches and all 3 were really good. Saw Regal mention the matches on Twitter recently. Other highlights include a young masked wrestler named the American Dragon and the Fabulous Rocker's "big" brother Spanky. The lead heels of the promotion are K Krush(who is on his way up to the WWF) and the Mean Street Posse. Joey Abs wasn't that bad of a wrestler and Rodney got better than he was in WWF. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parties Posted January 18, 2017 Report Share Posted January 18, 2017 Cody Rhodes vs. Ricochet (WhatCulture, 1/6/17) Will Ricochet be the first wrestler to have an entire career without working any actual feuds? I like some of his matches, but he is the poster child of an end to face/heel dynamics, matches-as-fake-fights, matches-as-something-you-don’t grin-through-nonstop, etc. It’s not necessarily wrong, or even un-sports when you consider how many pro athletes approach their work, but I do continue to wonder why I should care about anything in his matches, or if “caring” (meaning emotional investment) is even the point. Totally forgettable match of highly choreographed spots and dull brawling outside the ring: this was the worst post-WWE Cody that I've seen. Bad food, and such small portions: this felt abbreviated even for indie darlings collecting a paycheck. Drew Galloway vs. Bully Ray (WhatCulture, 1/6/17) This is a match where the face joins the crowd for a beer. It is one of multiple nut shots. Of a long heel promo in which Liverpool is praised and promises to be broken are made. Of mugging to the crowd and foreign objects. Whereas Rhodes-Ricochet was no story, this is all story. A wild brawl through the crowd, with Bully doing hardly more than throwing punches and gouging eyes. Timeless characters played very well by both: Galloway is less obvious, but he is a killer babyface here as he gives Ray a ton and sells so believably. Not sure who the two small money mark looking dudes were at the end, but this also had an ending and post-match angle that felt big and crazy yet totally worked, presenting a big star who seems way better suited as a heel than his usual role as a face. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
khawk20 Posted January 19, 2017 Report Share Posted January 19, 2017 Watched the last Southeastern TV show form June 1985 followed by the first three Continental shows right after. Pretty fun stuff and very cool to see clips of things like Bob Armstrong and Humongous vs. Flair and Fuller in a cage, The Nightmares vs. The Rat Patrol, Tommy Rich coming in to take up for his cousin Johnny, Bill Ash, the Flame shooting fire with a purpose and Flair being trotted out to put over the new NWA-affiliated Continental promotion with such gusto. Sometimes a little too Armstrong-heavy for me but it was overall fun and I thought a solid kickoff to the "Continental" brand at the time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parties Posted January 22, 2017 Report Share Posted January 22, 2017 Rampage Brown vs. Matt Riddle [Atlas Title] (PROGRESS, 1/15): Starts with good grappling from these two after a long feeling out process, followed by a long struggle for position on a German that the two abandon to start chopping one another in the throat. Some interesting moments where Riddle hurt his foot and Brown capitalized. Palm strikes and chops aplenty, along with the signature Fisherman Buster from Riddle. The finish is meant to feel a bit MMA, but the result made this feel too short and abrupt for me. With every Riddle match being a possible MOTY, it likely creates an unfair expectation, as this was quite good, but maybe not the transcendent moment from two of the best workers of recent years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parties Posted January 24, 2017 Report Share Posted January 24, 2017 Shibata vs. Riddle [british Title] (RPW “High Stakes”, 1/21): Dream match delivers - my favorite yet of 2017 thus far. (Seems like the whole card looks real good, actually.) Even the nitpick things that I initially thought problems actually worked, like the stretch where they alternate armbars, or Riddle’s loud selling. This goes into a whole other gear in the second half, starting with a massive showdown of strikes. First a huge run by Shibata, then the tide turns for Riddle and we gets crazy kicks and suplexes. Tremendous finish and post-match stuff from both – I won’t say how this ends beyond that it came as a cool surprise to me. Would not mind seeing this rematched at next year’s Dome show. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rzombie1988 Posted January 24, 2017 Report Share Posted January 24, 2017 Shibata vs. Riddle [british Title] (RPW “High Stakes”, 1/21): Dream match delivers - my favorite yet of 2017 thus far. (Seems like the whole card looks real good, actually.) Even the nitpick things that I initially thought problems actually worked, like the stretch where they alternate armbars, or Riddle’s loud selling. This goes into a whole other gear in the second half, starting with a massive showdown of strikes. First a huge run by Shibata, then the tide turns for Riddle and we gets crazy kicks and suplexes. Tremendous finish and post-match stuff from both – I won’t say how this ends beyond that it came as a cool surprise to me. Would not mind seeing this rematched at next year’s Dome show. I reviewed Riddle/Shibata here: http://prowresblog.blogspot.com/2017/01/revolution-pro-wrestling-1212017.html Some shots from it: Overall thoughts: Katsuyori Shibata beat Matt Riddle with a choke. This was fine but nowhere near the MOTY many people are making it out to be. No disrespect to the UK fans but they are passionate about hyping matches up they like and usually, the hype doesn't match the quality. This match was basically built around no selling. Shibata sold very little of Riddle's offense which ruined the match. Having just seen Goto/Shibata a few weeks ago, I didn't think this was anywhere near that and it was just a long squash. Shibata and Goto can no sell some and get away with it, but in the end, both are going to nail each other so hard and go on for long enough that you will buy into it, while this didn't really go to that length to get there. Shibata just never really sold and never got me to the point where I thought "Riddle has got this". Easy night for Shibata and Riddle does have some of the traits to being a star with looks, charisma and legitimacy but he has to work on his striking first. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeteF3 Posted January 25, 2017 Report Share Posted January 25, 2017 Just got through yet another PWO Yearbook. Find out who I think the 1998 Tag Team of the Year is in a shitty year for tag teams, why I hate Val Venis, or argue over why I left Kanemoto/Wagner off my MOTY list here, if you wish. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WingedEagle Posted January 25, 2017 Report Share Posted January 25, 2017 Just got through yet another PWO Yearbook. Find out who I think the 1998 Tag Team of the Year is in a shitty year for tag teams, why I hate Val Venis, or argue over why I left Kanemoto/Wagner off my MOTY list here, if you wish. Always enjoyable to follow you through the year and see your recaps. Looking forward to '99. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parties Posted January 26, 2017 Report Share Posted January 26, 2017 CZW “Awakening”, 1/14 - David Starr vs. Alexander James: Really good opener to this show. James is pretty good working as the sleazy aristocrat, taking all these shortcuts and maintaining Tully vibes even after doing a piledriver on the apron. Starr was a lot of fun live in EVOLVE, and here you get a sense of his fast topes, bumps, and quick slams. Told a good story for a rematch in the finish. Bonus points if you’re following David Starr on Twitter and read his political views, giving this match an added lens of a tenacious Bernie Bro looking to uppercut a Hamiltonian snob who looks like he could be Mitch McConnell’s grandson. Anthony Henry vs. Sean Carr: Overblown. Henry was flying around setting up a ton of spots, but it all looked telegraphed and odd. A series of kicks and flips, and Carr seemed like a real scrub, which is unfortunate as he appears to be all over upcoming northeast indies. Ace Austin vs. Jimmy Floyd, and then Tim Donst vs. Tony Deppen were both mediocre in different ways. Donst-Deppen is more just kind of indistinct, bad only because it’s boring and rote and not of anything they were doing technically wrong. Donst gets at least one good running splash in the corner, so they got going for ‘em, but this match was long and felt that much longer. Austin-Floyd was watched to get a further sense of Austin, who I saw live at Battle Club Pro the previous night, but he and Floyd quickly go to an interference no contest that was pretty weird and almost uncomfortable in putting over the interfering tag team. I kinda half-heartedly watched the rest of the show, but to be honest this was so listless and dreary that it isn’t worth going through. From what I gather on YouTube and elsewhere, CZW has a pretty bad rap, but I’ve never watched enough of their stuff to understand why. In even the camerawork and production, it feels grimy and third-rate in all the wrong ways. This was the wrestling equivalent of porn with the lights on and raccoon-eyed performers who look miserable, or one of those shows that play at 4AM on MSNBC about how boring it is to be a meth addict. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BruiserBrody Posted January 29, 2017 Report Share Posted January 29, 2017 http://culturecrossfire.com/wrestling/wwf-madison-square-garden-11261984/A wild night at MSG sees the return of Jimmy Snuka as he joins his cousin The Tonga Kid for a bout with Roddy Piper, accompanied by Ace Orton. Tito Santana and Greg Valentine steal the show with an intense 25 minute war of attrition, plus David Schultz has bizarre bout with Rocky Johnson, Bruno Sammartino returns to aide his son David against Ken Patera, plus Barry Windham debuts and more! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CarpetCrawler Posted January 31, 2017 Report Share Posted January 31, 2017 Prepping for a huge project of the WWF in the Rock'n'Wrestling era by watching random stuff from 1982-83. I absolutely love Dick Graham and Kal Rudman on commentary together. Two dudes who are clearly having a blast and it shows. When Gorilla is hanging out with them it's just as fun too. I love these arena shows when it's just the guys shooting the shit and having casual discussion while Johnny Rodz is putting some dude in a headlock for five minutes. Breaks the monotony up quite a bit and reminds me of the silly discussions I have with friends while casually watching. I've grown to appreciate the hell out of Dick Graham/Kal Rudman/Gorilla Monsoon/Gene Okerlund/Alfred Hayes a lot for this reason. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peppercorn Bing Bong Posted February 22, 2017 Report Share Posted February 22, 2017 Super Dragon & Excalibur vs. Rising Son & TARO - XPW 5/26/01 Probably the best XPW match ever. Which is amazing given the amount of talent that was available in SoCal during the early 2000s. While it might not "technically" be a great match, it is an absolute blast to watch. Probably the most you can get out of a 10 minute match. A completely action packed 10 minutes at that, very little down time. There were just a bunch of things that clicked in this match. All the spots were hit clean (besides a flub right before the finish, but Super Dragon covered that well). The crowd popped huge for everything too, it seemed no matter what move was hit it got a nice "OOH!" for it. Plus all four dudes (but mostly Dragon) have really good and interesting offense. I would say that Super Dragon definitely seemed a step ahead of the other three, he already seemed like a star in the making here and his offense and selling were a lot tighter as well. Not to say that everyone else is bad, but there were moments where they appeared to get a bit lost. Why did TARO or Rising Son never get anywhere bigger? They played the part of defacto sympathetic babyfaces well. I'd have to say my biggest criticisms were that there was some no-selling/moving to the next spot to quickly and also during parts where the partner was supposed to break up the pin they would come in a bit late. But besides those two things awesome match, definitely worth watching if you have 10 minutes to kill. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BruiserBrody Posted February 24, 2017 Report Share Posted February 24, 2017 http://culturecrossfire.com/wrestling/best-eddie-gilbert-volume-one/ The Best of Eddie Gilbert - Volume One includes his TV debut in the late 70's, his violent feud with Tommy Rich, the Concession stand brawl, Gilbert's famous WWF angle with the Masked Superstar, Wrestling a fan in Continental, tons of promos, and of course a heavy dose of the never ending Jerry Lawler vs. Gilbert feud that raged in Memphis for 10 years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
...TG Posted February 26, 2017 Report Share Posted February 26, 2017 Someone put a ton of the Evansville feed of Memphis TV up on Amazon Prime. I'm currently going through 1985. It's great of course, the only downside is there's poorly dubbed music over the pop songs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebrainfollower Posted February 27, 2017 Report Share Posted February 27, 2017 That's a cool find but............is that legal? Putting stuff up on amazon prime and charging for it? Or was it put up by whoever the heck owns the rights to the Memphis footage? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Migs Posted February 27, 2017 Report Share Posted February 27, 2017 I'm guessing it's someone who allegedly owns the footage. Looks professional enough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.