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Holy Grails


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That quoted piece was from the Observer reporting the title switch. The story given to the attendees was that Jack Tunney had decided that the Disasters had gotten enough title shots and switched the match around. But the story later on TV was that Jimmy Hart double-crossed the Disasters and engineered the switch in challengers himself, prompting the Disasters face turn. Naturally with the change in direction, there was no way to air the footage even if they had it.

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Different times. Things had changed from the Old West-type days of truly independent contractors, but wrestlers still had some semblance of leverage back then. In particular, the Roadies could have simply sat out the remainder of their contracts, which expired in June, and waited for big-money offers to come from New Japan or WCW (with Herd out and Jim Crockett back in power, Dave said they were likely to get signed if they wanted to jump).

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Yeah, almost anything from before about 1981 that didn't air on AJ or NJ Classics, or any JWA stuff that hasn't been released somehow already. JWA is absolutely crawling with major matches that aired on TV that haven't been seen since, including incredibly rare footage of guys like Danny Hodge in their prime.

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There a good number of AJ matches from the 90s that have been mentioned before.

When their weekly TV show got cut to 30 minutes in 1994, lots of main event showcase matches

were clipped, if they were shown at all.

 

With Misawa, Kawada, Kobashi, and Taue in the Champion Carnival, there simply was not enough

time to showcase them all properly.

 

The real question that needs to be answered is: What does NTV have in their video library?

They have released footage from the 50s and onward, but it would be nice to see a comprehensive look at what they have.

 

Dan

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My personal grails:

 

 

1. Studio Wrestling from Pittsburgh, assumed to be lost/taped over but clips have popped up in the Bruno DVD he was selling on his website a few years ago. I'm holding out hope he had a personal stash that WWE might have obtained in his HOF deal.

 

2. Hope that whoever holds the various rights to Memphis gets their shit together and/or cashes out to WWE. They love to focus on WWE guys in their Vault section and there's tons of guys who either started there or passed through at some point.

 

3. One day someone decides to start a project where they go around to all the stations that used to air wrestling back in the territory days and ask if they have any idea what happened to it. As a video game enthusiast, a popular genre has popped up on YouTube where people travel to far flung locales looking for rare games and systems, something similar could be a fun idea for rare footage.

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A couple I can think of is any possible handheld footage of Hogan/Big Boss Man vs. Andre/Haku just before WrestleMania VI, and Ultimate Warrior/Kerry Von Erich vs. Mr. Perfect/Rick Rude leading up to that year's SummerSlam which I think might have occurred at a TV taping. In 1992 there was a match with Hogan and Savage against Jake Roberts and the Berzerker that happened too, that I think was at a TV taping as well.

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I am not sure if I mentioned it earlier in this thread, apologies if I did, but Verne Gagne vs. Mad Dog Vachon for the AWA title in the Montreal Forum from 1972 exists. I saw a two second clip about 17 years ago and had it confirmed last year that the match itself has survived. Aaron Wiess owns it. He aired it at a sports festival last year in Toronto and I have not run across anyone that actually saw it but it was advertised along with a few other gems.

 

So, it's a match I know exists, and I am hopeful that Aaron puts it out there in a place more people can see it someday. Verne and Dog had a historic AWA feud and aside from seeing them actually match up vs. each other, it would be nice to put some context to how big a deal it was when Verne and Dog eventually got together in 1979 and won the AWA Tag titles.

 

There are other things out there that may not exist that the LBOA release has given me hope on, such as Bock-Backlund from Toronto in 1979 and of course Flair-Backlund from the Omni. But I know Verne-Dog exists, which makes seeing it something more tangible for me at this time.

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3. One day someone decides to start a project where they go around to all the stations that used to air wrestling back in the territory days and ask if they have any idea what happened to it. As a video game enthusiast, a popular genre has popped up on YouTube where people travel to far flung locales looking for rare games and systems, something similar could be a fun idea for rare footage.

I contacted WMC-5 in Memphis and was told they have "very little"

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If we widen it out from just matches, of all the old territories, I feel like the one I'd lose my shit over most would be the old NWA Amarillo Funks territory.

 

Just seems like it would have a perfect mix of technical wrestling, wild brawls and gimmick matches and a lot of talent passed through there. Plus you have Dory and Terry of course. When I look through results, those are the cards I look at with wonder sometimes.

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Who ended up with the rights to that stuff? It seemed that other than Dallas, all the Texas territories ended up in a mis-mash.

I don't think they really taped anything. Last owners were Murdoch and Blackjack Mulligan and I want to say Flair also had points?

 

There's ONE tape of TV from that era circa 79, which we reviewed here: http://placetobenation.com/titans-of-wrestling-47-nwa-western-states-amarillo-in-1979/

 

And then literally the only other thing I've seen from there is Dory vs. Red Basteen which is mysteriously shown in a clip on Tuesday Night Titans in 1984.

 

Since Basteen was the guest, I don't know if the footage was his?

 

But, yeah, that promotion looks like it would have been awesome in its heyday.

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Spent some time thinking about it and this is my list so far for Holy Grails:

 

Misawa vs Kobashi, 3/97 (Carnival match - Kobashi's first win over Misawa; NOT the finals)
Backlund vs Race, 11/7/80 (St. Louis rematch)
Backlund vs Race, 2/23/78 (Florida)
Fantastics vs Sheepherders, 4/19/86 (Crockett Cup)
Rogers vs Sammartino, 1963
Sammartino vs Morales, 1971 (Shea)
Sammartino vs Hansen, 1976 (FULL neck-break match)
Backlund vs Masked Superstar, MSG, 11/83
Memphis Texas Death Tag match
Hogan vs Jake Roberts, Providence(?)
Flair vs Windham, 90-min draws
Hogan vs Race, St. Louis, 10/83
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