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1980s Wrestling Party Podcast #9


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Alright, show starts in about 75 minutes. We have 8 matches on deck...

 

Ric Flair vs. Magnum TA (9/28/85)

Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Rick Martel (9/29/85)

Jimmy Garvin & Steve Regal vs. Scott Hall & Curt Hennig (11/14/85)

Rick Martel vs. Boris Zuhkov (Cage Match) (11/14/85)

Steve Regal vs. Buck Zumhofe (11/28/85)

Nick Bockwinkel vs. Ric Flair (1/17/86)

Stan Hansen vs. Curt Hennig (2/1/86)

Stan Hansen vs. Sgt. Slaughter (2/2/86)

 

http://www.talkshoe.com/talkshoe/web/talkC...6382&cmd=tc

 

Right now, we have myself, Johnny Sorrow and Kris Z confirmed and goc may grace us with his presence as well. Feel free to jump in if you have nothing better to do on a Friday night!

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That one is Dylan's fault. I refuse to let him say otherwise. He came up with some logic that it had to be represented and these aren't, of course, the 150 best AWA matches of the 80 but ... I don't know. I'm late to these projects. I reluctantly bought whatever he was selling on this one.

 

anyway, I'll listen monday. This has been useful since I have a honed list of stuff to rewatch now.

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Kris mentions it on the show and it isn't the first project we have done that with. We represent memorable match-ups because people should get the chance to judge them. It is the reason we put so many Tiger Mask-Dynamite Kid matches on the NJ set. If Zumhofe-Regal was a famous feud, it should be represented.

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Looking forward to this show as it will be the 1st one that I can listen to while watching the matches fresh as this show has been on pace with my viewing since I was on episode #8. Looking forward to my 1st experience of just listening to a podcast synched up while watching the matches. Loving this concept.

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Man I ended up falling asleep around 7 and just woke up and missed it. I'm sad I missed the skewering of the Regal/Zumhoffe match. I despise that match and it will absolutely be my 150.

We are probably going to do another one on Tuesday so try and join us then.

 

I might but I'm disappointed all my good Steve Regal material is now wasted. I wanted to riff on how calling him Mr. Electricity is about as accurate as calling Rey Mysterio the Mexican Monolith or the Tijuana Tower. Or calling Miz the Excellence of Execution.
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  • 2 weeks later...

I stopped once I hit Regal weeks ago. Starting to listen again now:

 

Kris knows a lot of stuff. We all know this but still. It's worth mentioning. Also, he does a great evil Russian heel. I'm kind of disappointed that when Johnny brought up Regal as a Horseman we didn't get a Regal/Roma comparison which would be kind of apt.

 

The Martel vs Boris cage match is my working #47, so it just made my top third. I think it's such a great showcase for Martel as champ. Zhukov is sort of the guy who looks the best on the set relative to the fact that he is Boris Zhukov. The cool thing about Volkoff is that he hated the USSR. He was a defector who defected during an int'l athletic competition and he saw his heel act as a way to really strike back against the Soviets. Kris continues to foreshadow the finish gloomily. This is one of those matches that is going to probably get knocked down a few slots when I reevaluate things. It's the AWA. All finishes are basically shit. The fans loved this one at least. I'm glad Kris isn't a fan of the midget match either since I have that relatively low.

 

And I just laugh at you poor fools having to watch Regal vs Buck. And Kris is a jerk for saying "Lawler/Dundee" in the same sentence as this. I love how Buck would come out with the ghettoblaster boom box and then be playing Santa Claus is Coming to Town or whatever. That old Continental sounds so cool. Oh come on, there are plenty of AWA matches that I've seen that are LOADS better than this and that belong on the set more than this. Both with importance and quality, Hall vs DeBeers belongs. That ladies tag match no one else cares about belongs. Some of the Andre stuff belongs more than this. For historical value Bock vs Adnan maybe. Even Larry vs Ledoux because it's a great Larry performance. The Slaughter/Blackwell vs Roadies tag. One of Lawler's random defenses against Teijo Khan. ANYTHING. Anyway, this is my #147. It's functional. Boring as hell with one or two fun things. But functional at least. It was a wrestling match. Kind of. Anyway, no wonder Will's other kid wants nothing to do with wrestling. This is probably the sort of stuff he was combing through will making comps during sensitive formative times.

 

I don't think the JIP hurts Flair vs Bock much since it's such high end stuff. It hurts it as in it could be top ten if not for the cut, but it's still top 40 with it. I always consider the leg loop in way to put on the Figure Four the "Ron Garvin" way to do it. I think Flair's way is much more visual. I need to see the Backlund vs Race match. I disagree a little about Johnny's comment "Or if you hear us going OOH OH OOOOH OH." To me that could well mean that they're just hitting each other hard and bleeding, or that it's particularly spotty. Not that it's necessarily a good match. Sometimes I think that guys punching each other hard for ten minutes is the 1983 equivalent of a headdroppy Indy Spotfest and that is enough for some people.

 

I'm ok with Hansen vs Hennig being mostly Hennig since Hansen is a totally different animal than Hennig and sometimes you need to get over the champ strong early on. Also because this ends up part of the longer Hennig story. I think it fits well with Hansen in general. How Bock wrestles him, how Leon White does. How Hennig does next time. God, Hansen's title run is actually pretty compelling as a whole. I'm less okay because it seemed like the point of it was to get over Hall as a potential challenger.

 

Slaughter said he gave all of his Pretty Boy gear to Jesse Ventura. Nord is really good by 91. I get that he wasn't yet here. Imagine a Brody that bumps crazy for people and has killer offense. This is my #48

 

3. Nick Bockwinkel vs. Ric Flair (1/17/86)

4. Stan Hansen vs. Sgt. Slaughter (2/2/86)

5. Rick Martel vs. Boris Zuhkov (Cage Match) (11/14/85)

7. Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Rick Martel (9/29/85)

8. Ric Flair vs. Magnum TA (9/28/85)

10. Stan Hansen vs. Curt Hennig (2/1/86)

14. Jimmy Garvin & Steve Regal vs. Scott Hall & Curt Hennig (11/14/85)

16. Steve Regal vs. Buck Zumhofe (11/28/85)

 

Don't think I need to necessarily rewatch any of this stuff.

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  • 1 month later...

Taking little 15-20 minute breaks from studying to watch some AWA and synch up is great therapy for me. I blew through this show in the past couple of days.

Here is my ranking of the disc:

 

1. Ric Flair vs. Magnum TA (9/28/85) - I guess the crowd was burnt out from all the mayhem that ensued before this but I loved the way this match was worked and this felt like the definitive match between these two. Probably a top 30 candidate.

2. Stan Hansen vs. Sgt. Slaughter (2/2/86) - Pretty gritty brawling and it looked like the first of a trio of matches to come. Hansen sold well for the Sarge and Sarge looked credible in the match.

3. Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Rick Martel (9/29/85) - I really enjoyed this and have liked Martel on the set but one thing that is kind of distracting from me is that his matches with Bockwinkle and Jumbo kind of run together in my eyes. I was looking over my rankings and could only vaguely distinguish certain matches in the series only a month from when I last watched them.

4. Nick Bockwinkel vs. Ric Flair (1/17/86) - Shame this wasn't in full but I'm glad we got at least a good chunk of it. I must be honest and didn't totally dig some Bock stuff in this match as his selling at times bordered on cartoonish for me in the figure four. I thought Flair looked great.

5. Rick Martel vs. Boris Zuhkov (Cage Match) (11/14/85) - Fun ass match. Absolutely horrible finish that rightly got skewered. I like how Kris kept warning about the ref and at the beginning Will and Johnny were justifying but by the end , everyone was on the same page that he sucked.

6. Stan Hansen vs. Curt Hennig (2/1/86) - Agree that this was essentially a squash but fuck if Hansen mauling people and hennig selling was at least very fun to watch. Will's analogies to current WWE were spot.

7. Jimmy Garvin & Steve Regal vs. Scott Hall & Curt Hennig (11/14/85) - Solid tag and I liked the mis communication between Regal and Garvin. I honestly thought while Regal was not good in this match he wasn't complete dogshit. I also do think Garvin is being sold short for the 1980's as I have liked a lot of the stuff he has been in.

8. Steve Regal vs. Buck Zumhofe (11/28/85) - My last place match so far. Dreadfully boring, I can understand why it went on for importance but damn if this was these guys' best, I would hate to see the worst.

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1. Ric Flair vs. Magnum TA (9/28/85) - I guess the crowd was burnt out from all the mayhem that ensued before this but I loved the way this match was worked and this felt like the definitive match between these two. Probably a top 30 candidate.

If this is referring to the crowd seeming very quiet during this bout, it's the way the show was taped more than anything else. None of the matches sound like there's more than a few hundred people watching it in my eyes.

 

Good chance the crowd was actually very loud and into this bout, as well as most of the other ones.

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  • 2 months later...

DVDR seems to having database problems. Brilliant.

 

Comment for Hall/Hennig vs. Garvin/ Regal

 

Hall is STACKED here. Shades of Billy Jack.

 

Nice. Big. Crunchy. Headlocks from Hall on Garvin here.

 

Nice 5-7 minutes feels like a whole bunch of nothing.

 

Garvin's flying forearm was good.

 

-----

 

How bad is Steve Regal! Dear god. I actually thought this was better than the Freebirds matches.

 

D

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