FLIK Posted October 21, 2012 Report Share Posted October 21, 2012 Heart attack yeah, happened last year Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted October 22, 2012 Report Share Posted October 22, 2012 Dustin Rhodes interviews Barry Windham, wow Barry got fat Pretty cool to see. Barry looks like Blackjack Mulligan now, but I'm glad he recovered from the heart attack. Seriously one of my favourite wrestler ever (especially after going through WCW 1990-1993, which only reinforced my fandom for Barry). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JerryvonKramer Posted October 22, 2012 Report Share Posted October 22, 2012 Anyone else getting this "Account suspended" note for DVDR? This doesn't look good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KrisZ Posted October 22, 2012 Report Share Posted October 22, 2012 Yeah everyone is getting it I'm sure Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KanadianKrusty Posted October 22, 2012 Report Share Posted October 22, 2012 yup! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FLIK Posted October 22, 2012 Report Share Posted October 22, 2012 it's back up Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mad Dog Posted October 22, 2012 Report Share Posted October 22, 2012 To go with Warlord because the artwork is really good. Blackjack Mulligan got announced today for the 12th expansion of the Legends of Wrestling card game. Giant Bernard has also been announced. Here's Blackjack: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goc Posted October 23, 2012 Report Share Posted October 23, 2012 Speaking of Blackjack Mulligan, has anyone ever seen him where he doesn't look terrible? What I saw from him in the 80s in WCCW and Florida was awful. I didn't think he looked good in the matches I saw him in on Cornette's Garbage Tapes either, which seem to be from the mid 70s. Dude throws some of the worst punches I've ever seen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coffey Posted October 23, 2012 Report Share Posted October 23, 2012 So now Vickie Guerrero is the "managing supervisor" of Monday Night RAW. So is that above or below General Manager? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mad Dog Posted October 23, 2012 Report Share Posted October 23, 2012 Speaking of Blackjack Mulligan, has anyone ever seen him where he doesn't look terrible? What I saw from him in the 80s in WCCW and Florida was awful. I didn't think he looked good in the matches I saw him in on Cornette's Garbage Tapes either, which seem to be from the mid 70s. Dude throws some of the worst punches I've ever seen. He was pretty past his prime by the 1980s. I think the mid 70s were probably his peak as a worker. He's not an all time great but he's a really good promo and overall wasn't awful. His WWWF stuff and Crockett stuff isn't completely terrible. That Florida run is pretty bad though, he seemed really old and like he didn't give a fuck. Look for some of his tag work, you might like him better there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sek69 Posted October 23, 2012 Report Share Posted October 23, 2012 His AWA work in the 70s was pretty good too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeteF3 Posted October 23, 2012 Report Share Posted October 23, 2012 I like Mulligan just fine on the Crockett films. Active as a heel, even jumping off the top turnbuckle, and as a babyface was a really good proto-Boss Man in that he was able to project vulnerability and sympathy despite being towering. Babyface Mulligan vs. Heel Paul Jones absolutely should not have worked at all. It wasn't a great match, but it did work. There's also a really awesome, bloody Mulligan vs. Rusher Kimura match on one of the IWE sets. He did fall off a cliff work-wise as the '80s dawned. He looked okay in his one match on the AWA '80s set but that's about his peak. Always a good interview, though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JerryvonKramer Posted October 24, 2012 Report Share Posted October 24, 2012 What's the full story about Ricky Morton? Why does he have such financial troubles? His much-mooted coke addiction? The child support payments? Why did the RnRs fall to near-jobber status in the two major feds in the 90s? Some of the feud / legit beef with Nash over the last couple of years is very sad to see. You think about the life he's leading and in some ways it is worse than what we see in The Wrestler. On a quite different note, stumbled on this: http://mustachiosaurus.wordpress.com/tag/wcw/ Pretty entertaining. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bix Posted October 24, 2012 Report Share Posted October 24, 2012 The financial problems got really bad because he left his child support unupdated after he left WCW. It's unclear why let it get so out of control, and it spiraled from there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moonsault Marvin Posted October 24, 2012 Report Share Posted October 24, 2012 Why did the RnRs fall to near-jobber status in the two major feds in the 90s? They were 30 year old guys who looked like they were in their late 50s. The Rock N' Roll gimmick had passed them by, and their attempts to change, like the "Richard Morton" gimmick, were failures. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted October 24, 2012 Report Share Posted October 24, 2012 Why did the RnRs fall to near-jobber status in the two major feds in the 90s? They were 30 year old guys who looked like they were in their late 50s. The Rock N' Roll gimmick had passed them by, and their attempts to change, like the "Richard Morton" gimmick, were failures. Not exactly. Morton was 40 in 1996, and still a very good worker, as showed by the Nitro match he and Robert had as JTTS. Yeah, their gimmick was dated for a national promotion, but what do we had at the same time in WWF ? The fucking Godwinns, the Smoking Gunns and the Body Donnas. Yeah, great relevant gimmicks that aren't cheesy as hell by the standart of the time. WCW had the Steiners, whose peak happened in the early 90's, the Road Warriors, whose peak happened in the mid-80's (contemporary to the R'nR), the Nastys Boys who really look like late 80's Ninja Turtle like cartoon punks, Meng & Barbarian who were the same age as Morton more or less... Really, the Rock'n Roll, as "dated" as they were by that point, could have fit in any of the two, and probably work circles around most of their teams too. As late as 1990, the Rock'n Roll were super over in WCW, and had excellent to great matches. Their stint in SMW (at least up to 1993, but I have no doubt it won't evolve much in the bad way as I watch the rest) showed that they were still a really good team, mostly thanks to Morton of course, able to get over big time in the South. They could have been given a role as a veteran team role stint, especially in WCW, and it would have certainly produced some good stuff. If they had been seriously pushed in WWF in 1998 along Cornette, Jarrett and Windham, they could have delivered too, but that wasn't gonna happen under Russo who was just goofing at the old NWA. As far as Richard Morton, it wasn't a failure. Morton was excellent as a heel, had tons of good TV match in this role teaming with Tommy Rich, and got heat. But the York Foundation was never pushed higher than low-undercard, it wasn't supposed to accomplish much to begin with. Not to mention that Ricky Morton was also an excellent promo. Both office had preconcieved notion, Vince because Rock'n Roll was an old NWA team, and Bischoff, well, for the same reason, plus he hated tag teams anyway. I wish Morton had a stint in ECW, it would have been pretty fun. He left after one TV taping or so. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted October 24, 2012 Author Report Share Posted October 24, 2012 As late as 1995, they were being pushed in SMW and were very valuable to the promotion. There's no reason they couldn't have continued. The difference is that wrestling had changed, and they were no longer national stars. They were regional stars, and wrestling didn't really have a place for strong regional stars to go anymore. The Rock & Rolls are part of it, but guys like Tracy Smothers and Tony Anthony would have had much better careers if the territories would not have died too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted October 24, 2012 Report Share Posted October 24, 2012 The Rock & Rolls are part of it, but guys like Tracy Smothers and Tony Anthony would have had much better careers if the territories would not have died too. Oh man, watching SMW totally opened my eyes to Tony Anthony. That a man that good of a worker and promo was used the way he was in WWF (a dirty plumber and Uncle Cletus) was a complete disgrace. Add Dutch Mantell too, which was a great color man and promo (and was quite the worker too). Smothers had a nice little run in ECW too, and although I wasn't always a fan of his work there (way too much stalling at times), it's too bad he left and kinda vanished. As late as 2000, Smothers got one hell of a match out of RVD, which is a guy I couldn't bare to watch by that point. I wish Smothers had remained in ECW for the entire run of the promotion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JerryvonKramer Posted October 24, 2012 Report Share Posted October 24, 2012 It really does suck that a guy who bust his ass for the business got so fucked over by it. Morton is the wrestling equivalent of Boxer the horse from Animal Farm. Just used up and thrown on the scrap heap with scarcely any thanks. I can see why he's bitter at Nash. Why aren't the RnRs inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame yet? Couldn't he be a road agent or something? It's bizarre that guys like Harvey Wippleman have got a job there and there's no place for Morton. It's heartbreaking too. Couldn't WCW have utilised him in the Cruiserweight division in 1997? Think of the matches he would have had. This is one of those things that's very hard to accept. One of the legit greatest workers couldn't get a job when he was 41? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted October 24, 2012 Report Share Posted October 24, 2012 Why aren't the RnRs inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame yet? Couldn't he be a road agent or something? It's bizarre that guys like Harvey Wippleman have got a job there and there's no place for Morton. It's heartbreaking too. Old company stooge vs Old NWA worker. Couldn't WCW have utilised him in the Cruiserweight division in 1997? Think of the matches he would have had. This is one of those things that's very hard to accept. One of the legit greatest workers couldn't get a job when he was 41? He wouldn't have worked well in the cruiserweight division in 1997, as his style really wasn't adapted to the lucha/japanese infused wrestling these guys practiced. Hell, his only really disapointing time in WCW came when he worked the lame "lightheavyweight" division in 1992. But I can totally see him work effective as a grumpy heel for instance, at least on SN and later Thunder, working with younger guys to teach them the ropes. Bobby Eaton was basically a TV jobber in 1996, which was sad since he was still very good, but at least he had a job. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cox Posted October 24, 2012 Report Share Posted October 24, 2012 It's cliche to say this, but Ricky Morton really was his own worst enemy. Bix told the story of the child support. For anybody who subscribes to the WON website, the past few weeks one of the main stories is how Ricky Morton cost himself two jobs, as one of the top babyfaces in Smoky Mountain and one of the top heels in the USWA, because his girlfriend got into a fight with Tracy Smothers' girlfriend and he couldn't figure out a way to reconcile amicably. Talk to any southern indy guy to come along in the last 20 or so years (Jingus?) and I'm sure they have a story of Ricky Morton acting like an asshole. Bobby Eaton kept his job in WCW well into the late 90's not because he was a great worker, as WCW fired plenty of great workers during that time period, but because he was a hell of a nice guy and everybody loved him. Ricky Morton couldn't hold a job after 1995 because he was an asshole. Speaking of Ricky Morton, one of my favorite random pieces of wrestling trivia is that the Rock 'n' Roll Express actually wrestled at a Wrestlemania. They wrestled in the tag team battle royal at Wrestlemania XIV. For some reason, this boggles my mind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FLIK Posted October 24, 2012 Report Share Posted October 24, 2012 Not exactly. Morton was 40 in 1996, and still a very good worker, as showed by the Nitro match he and Robert had as JTTS. Yeah, they had a couple month run in WCW around 96 but it never amounted to much. Kinda want to go re-watch their Nitro match vs Arn & Flair that got like 20 mins and see if that was any good. He wouldn't have worked well in the cruiserweight division in 1997, as his style really wasn't adapted to the lucha/japanese infused wrestling these guys practiced. Diffrent style, but Morton was really awesome in the few FMW tours he did in 96 & 97, wish he'd have stuck around thear longer then he did. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted October 24, 2012 Author Report Share Posted October 24, 2012 I have such a ridiculously high opinion of Ricky Morton that I think he's entitled to carry himself like he's somebody, since he is. He probably is an asshole, but in some ways, maybe it's justified. Pretty much everything he ever says about wrestling is 100% correct in every possible way. Morton calmly describing how wrestling booking is like a pyramid in the shoot with Manny Fernandez was such a brilliant moment. I wish there was a way to harness his wrestling mind a little more, because guys who know their craft that well and take that much pride in it are a dying breed. The bitterness doesn't wear well on him, but he's absolutely entitled to it. It's one thing for a 190 lb guy to get over in such a prominent spot in 2012, but Morton did it in an era where it was even less common. As he has (correctly) said, even bookers who tried to bury him could never quite do it because he was too smart in the ring and knew how to get over. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted October 24, 2012 Report Share Posted October 24, 2012 Ricky Morton couldn't hold a job after 1995 because he was an asshole. Well, maybe he was, but plenty of rabid assholes kept their jobs in both WCW and WWF at the same time. But yeah, probably didn't help him because he was not a political asshole, which you needed to be then. I totally can understand the bitterness toward a guy like Nash too, although not saving money was stupid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dylan Waco Posted October 24, 2012 Report Share Posted October 24, 2012 One of the legit greatest workers couldn't get a job when he was 41? It's not that hard to understand when you take into account that he was primarily viewed as a tag wrestler, he was from a bygone era, and he hadn't been featured prominently on national tv half a decade or longer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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