SteveJRogers Posted June 27, 2013 Report Share Posted June 27, 2013 So, I'm looking at Solie.org's title histories site for the NWA National Heavyweight Title and come across this: 47.Kevin Northcutt 04/14/2000-N. Richland Hills, TX Kevin Northcutt held the following titles in conjunction with the NWA National Heavyweight Championship: The NWA Texas Heavyweight Championship won 04/08/2000 at Galviston, TX. There is a question about whether or not this match ever actually took place Strikes me as a bit funny given that while not as big as it is today, but the information superhighway was still pretty darn big in 2000 that is would be hard to kayfabe away title changes in matches that didn't occur! I mean, its one thing for the 1979 Rio de Janerio tournament to declare the first WWWF IC champion when the only real coverage would be whatever local paper prints results of events, so the "wink wink, nudge nudge" is easy to play when your in a time and "place" where results would be hard to transmit from. But today, or well 14 years ago, one would think it would be harder with record keeping (even in Rio today), and world wide information transmission of just about anything you want to find out to kayfabe something that didn't happen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goc Posted June 27, 2013 Report Share Posted June 27, 2013 It's pretty easy to pretend a title change happened in some podunk indy because there's probably only 50-100 people in the crowd that could have witnessed it anyway. Hell, the title change COULD have happened but in front of a group of 30 people and none of them wrote about it online. Kind of the old "if a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it" deal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted June 27, 2013 Report Share Posted June 27, 2013 Most wrestling fans don't pay close attention to what they're watching, which makes it easy to do stuff like this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eduardo Posted June 28, 2013 Report Share Posted June 28, 2013 R. Bruce Tharpe, old Florida announcer and the man behind the new NWA, used to have a promotion named IWF in South Texas. Their champion left after a dispute, so he just made up a story on TV that Chavo Guerrero Sr. defeated the champion "in Mexico". Chavo Sr. came to the promotion, apparently all wasted, defended the title that one time, and then disappeared. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JerryvonKramer Posted June 28, 2013 Report Share Posted June 28, 2013 I like the entirely fictional idea of "the world" in wrestling. Shit like the 1992 Tournament for the NWA World Tag Team Championship where like 2 guys from Japan, a pair of Mexicans and the Malenko brothers are meant to represent "the rest of the world". Which gives the commentators ammunition to talk about how it's a truly international sport, etc. etc. I enjoy this total myth making. I don't know if anyone's ever watched any snooker, but the "World title" in that is typically contested between 95% people from the UK. In the 90s, there was one dude from Canada and one dude from Thailand and so much weight was placed on them to carry the torch of it being an "international" competition. These days there are loads of Chinese players, so the diaspora is a little wider, but still. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeCampbell Posted June 28, 2013 Report Share Posted June 28, 2013 Gabe and ROH used to always try to kayfabe fans about things. Gabe claiming ROH was making the first ever match betwee Naomichi Marfuji and Go Shiozaki, which was well documented as having happened several times in NOAH. This was so well known as bullshit that Gabe actually apologized the next day for making the claim that it was their first ever match. When McGuiness went on a NOAH tour, ROH's announcers would talk about how he was defending the Pure Title to add to it's value. Well, the ROH title history page (which was always kept immaculately current for reigns and defenses) never listed a single Nigel defense in NOAH. Amongst other things to be found in their history was a Samoa Joe title defense in the NJPW USA fed, and also a Jay Lethal Pure Title defense on some Upstate, NY indy fed. Those ridiculous "Who attacked Lucy?" inserts in every DVD, where they'd ask fans for their tips. As though there were just random fans walking around backstage in the area Dayton and happened to see the whole thing. The claim that it was Low Ki who attacked Jay Lethal at the Trios Tourny backstage. When it was common knowledge that Ki was on a major NOAH Budokan show on the same day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anarchistxx Posted June 28, 2013 Report Share Posted June 28, 2013 I don't know if anyone's ever watched any snooker, but the "World title" in that is typically contested between 95% people from the UK. Snooker is a lot more international now. It certainly isn't as embarrassing as the 'World Series' of baseball. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JerryvonKramer Posted June 28, 2013 Report Share Posted June 28, 2013 I remember reading somewhere that "World Series" refers to a brand or something, not to the actual world. Snooker has grown a lot in the last decade it's true. Wonder if our American friends have even heard of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anarchistxx Posted June 28, 2013 Report Share Posted June 28, 2013 Pretty sure they will have heard of billiards/pool, which is the same principle if completely different rules. In Australia they have pool tables in most sports bars as I remember. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Death From Above Posted June 28, 2013 Report Share Posted June 28, 2013 Baseball has been more international than cricket for absolute ages now. Snooker is good, but it will never catch on. Though claiming it's more international than baseball would take some serious recreational blow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimmy Redman Posted June 28, 2013 Report Share Posted June 28, 2013 I think the most ridiculous example of a sport claiming to have a "World Cup" is rugby league, which is contested by Australia, NZ, England and the various Pacific Island nations that they beat in the group stages as tune ups. And yes, pool tables are pretty common in pubs and bars in Australia and everyone has heard of it. Not that it is in any way popular as a sport though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anarchistxx Posted June 28, 2013 Report Share Posted June 28, 2013 Baseball has been more international than cricket for absolute ages now. True, but that isn't the point. The point is that there is a 'World Series' where only two countries have entrants. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JerryvonKramer Posted June 28, 2013 Report Share Posted June 28, 2013 Imagine how much less cool The Color of Money would have been if Tom Cruise and Paul Newman had been playing snooker. Ha Ha. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happ Hazzard Posted June 28, 2013 Report Share Posted June 28, 2013 What about Darts? Couple of Dutch guys, one Australian, all the rest English. I don't even recall any current Welsh or Scots players off the top of my head, obviously in the past there was Jocky Wilson. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NintendoLogic Posted June 29, 2013 Report Share Posted June 29, 2013 Guys repeatedly getting away with cheating never really made sense from a kayfabe standpoint, but it's even worse now that just about every sport has instant replay. It makes wrestling look behind the times. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goc Posted June 29, 2013 Report Share Posted June 29, 2013 Guys repeatedly getting away with cheating never really made sense from a kayfabe standpoint, but it's even worse now that just about every sport has instant replay. It makes wrestling look behind the times.Actually they just did an instant replay finish in WWE at the Extreme Rules PPV with Del Rio & Swagger. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JerryvonKramer Posted June 29, 2013 Report Share Posted June 29, 2013 Tully Blanchard vs. Barry Windham for the Western Heritage States title from 01/23/88 has a replay finish. There's this shot over Tommy Young's shoulder as he watches it back on the monitor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimmy Redman Posted June 30, 2013 Report Share Posted June 30, 2013 Guys repeatedly getting away with cheating never really made sense from a kayfabe standpoint, but it's even worse now that just about every sport has instant replay. It makes wrestling look behind the times.Actually they just did an instant replay finish in WWE at the Extreme Rules PPV with Del Rio & Swagger. The thing I don't like about this is that, even with the lax continuity laws of wrestling, if they can do that for one match, why can't they do that for every other match? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clayton Jones Posted July 1, 2013 Report Share Posted July 1, 2013 It's also a stupid comparison because pro sports don't have instant replay across the board for every possible blown call. The majority of missed calls mirror pro wrestling logic- "the ref can't be everywhere at once" aka "he didn't see it, it didn't happen." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimmy Redman Posted July 1, 2013 Report Share Posted July 1, 2013 Maybe they should introduce an appeals system like they have in a lot of sports now, whereby if a wrestler thinks he has been cheated on, he can appeal, get a replay and a decision made. (I'm kidding, but it is interesting to think how to apply these sorts of things to pro wrestling) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Log Posted July 1, 2013 Report Share Posted July 1, 2013 They've kind of gotten away from it now, but there used to be the ol' "I got hit from behind by a heel, but when I turn around, my partner is standing there and we have a misunderstanding" thing. Then the incident would be shown a number of times on television, but the dude who got hit would refuse to believe it wasn't his buddy that hit him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NintendoLogic Posted July 1, 2013 Report Share Posted July 1, 2013 It's also a stupid comparison because pro sports don't have instant replay across the board for every possible blown call. The majority of missed calls mirror pro wrestling logic- "the ref can't be everywhere at once" aka "he didn't see it, it didn't happen." In the NFL, every scoring play is reviewed. Using that logic, every pin should also be reviewed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveJRogers Posted July 2, 2013 Author Report Share Posted July 2, 2013 They've kind of gotten away from it now, but there used to be the ol' "I got hit from behind by a heel, but when I turn around, my partner is standing there and we have a misunderstanding" thing. Then the incident would be shown a number of times on television, but the dude who got hit would refuse to believe it wasn't his buddy that hit him. Or my favorite variation, partner goes for heel, heel ducks and the guy's partner gets hit and we have the misunderstanding, despite obvious evidence. Entire blood feuds have been based around this sort of shenanigan! Good example would be Shawn Michaels' heel turn at SummerSlam 1997 when he hit Undertaker by accident to give Bret Hart the title. It was never declared by Shawn that he did it on purpose, i.e. saying "Screw you 'Taker, if anyone is going to drive Bret Hart out, it's gonna be ME" but their feud was centered around Taker thinking Shawn purposely screwed him out of the title. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goc Posted July 2, 2013 Report Share Posted July 2, 2013 I never got the impression that Taker wanted to kill him because he thought it was on purpose. Accident or not someone hitting you with a chair and costing you the title is a legit reason for a feud. Shawn being a dick about it didnt help either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JerryvonKramer Posted July 6, 2013 Report Share Posted July 6, 2013 I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but moves that require the opponent to be in a prone position that ONLY EVER OCCURS BEFORE THAT MOVE. Example, Bossman's move when the guy is hanging over the bottom rope and he comes over with his leg. When have you ever seen a guy hang over the bottom rope like that other than just before that move? Some of Rey's moves are also of this variety. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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