Titans of Wrestling #1

[JerryvonKramer]

In this new podcast, James (aka Brickhithouse) and myself focus on an under-appreciated era in WWF's history: 1979-83. Starting in January 1979, each week the show discusses some of the matches and angles that took place during this time frame. It will also provide histories for the wrestlers of this era.

 

 

http://placetobenation.com/titans-of-wrest...-to-march-1979/

 

On the docket tonight:

01-27 LARRY ZBYSZKO vs JOHNNY VALIANT ALL STAR WRESTLING

01-27 LARRY ZBYSZKO vs IVAN KOLOFF CHAMPIONSHIP WRESTLING

02-79 BOB BACKLUND, GREG VALENTINE/WIZARD PROMOS WWF TV

02-19 BOB BACKLUND vs GREG VALENTINE WWF TITLE MADISON SQUARE GARDEN

03-24 TONY GAREA/LARRY ZBYSZKO vs VALIANTS TAG TITLE CHAMPIONSHIP WRESTLING

03-26 BOB BACKLUND vs GREG VALENTINE WWF TITLE MADISON SQUARE GARDEN

 

Some other topics include:

- James's background as a fan and his reasons for making the 79-83 WWF comp

- The Three Wise Men of the East

- Arnold Skaaland and his cushy job

- The many partners of Tony Garea

- Late 80s Vince's evil conspiracy to bury the atomic drop as a finisher

- How cards were structured and whether we can truly credit Backlund with drawing during his reign (and considering Larry Matysik's take)

[Ricky Jackson]

Good first show guys. You'll need to learn to love those Backlund headlock spots though.

[shoe]

Good opening show. I thought the draw smoked the rematch. This is a little blurb I wrote about the matches in the microscope. To me they have had good to great matches from every match I have seen except the March of 79 match coming off the amazing 60 minute match . I didn't hate the rematch it just didn't resonate with me like all the others. They were working front face locks which might be the hardest position in the world to work a match around.

 

Also about Dean Ho, he was a mentor to Steamboat in Florida. They drove together and Dean Ho helped him work the karate into his gimmick. Plus according to Steamer Ho's wife was a tremendous cook.

[Johnny Sorrow]

Brick sounds like Corrolla. Great voice.

[Johnny Sorrow]

I love that Parv wants to fuck young Greg Valentine.

[Johnny Sorrow]

Backlund was fucking over and had a ton of personality. Saying he was as boring as Dory jr is silly. And the reason why guys looked like gangsters was cause they were. And Skaaland managed Bruno as well as Backlund. He totally was a wrestler , and a good one.

[Johnny Sorrow]

The guy from the country that idolized big daddy not getting Backlund is fantastic.

[Johnny Sorrow]

Parv, you answer your own question. If the crowd was hot for it....it was successful.

 

You can't compete Backlunds WWWF face title run with Bockwinkel's AWA heel title run. And Garea ruled.

[soup23]

Sweet debut. Looking forward to this oft not talked about era of "New York"

 

I enjoyed the mixing of the rap/ wrestling tie in interspersed throughout the show. I agree with Sorrow that James has a Corolla type voice.

 

I am going to have to pull out that Backlund vs. Valentine hour draw. Probably been around 3 years since I last saw it but I thought it was a classic as of last watch. I was not too surprised about the criticisms on Backlund just knowing Parv's wrestling tastes. I think he did have a ton of personality but understand how the howdy doody type character may not play as well either a. in the modern era where "grey-slanted" characters are preferred and b. to a non US individual. I can see Parv getting more into maybe Backlund's stuff with Muraco but I am interested to see his journey as these shows will be filled with tons of Bob.

 

Keep it going.

[khawk20]

Parv, you answer your own question. If the crowd was hot for it....it was successful.

 

You can't compete Backlunds WWWF face title run with Bockwinkel's AWA heel title run. And Garea ruled.

Backlund gets a lot of flack for his silly facial expressions (did he ever take a decent action photograph in the ring where he wasn't making some weird face?), his over-produced falling down and selling spots, and his weakness as an interview subject, and those were indeed quirks of his wrestling style.

 

New York/WWWF fans ate it up though, which is what matters at the end of the day. They probably envisoned an alternative where Chief Jay Strongbow was the WWF Champion and embraced Backlund because of it.

[khawk20]

...and I like Backlund and most of the matches from his title reign. Solid stuff...but I do recognize that the flaws people point to when talking about why they didn't like him are real.

[bradhindsight]

I believe this is the Cappetta interview you were referencing Parv:

 

http://placetobenation.com/place-to-be-pod...chael-cappetta/

 

Good listen and he covers in detail his WWWF time.

[adamsfan]

Good show... I grew up in the Boston market and started watching in October of 81' i've attended all of the boston garden shows until about halfway thru hogan's first year as champ.I have some comments on backlund.and wrestling in the northeast at that time...Backlund was over... And 99 percent of the time, his matches were billed as the main event... Unless there was some rare angle that overshot the championship match. The champ was almost never on tv, except for interviews, making backlunds presence and the title matches feel important. I can see why many would consider " New York" style boring. It is a slower pace,,, the mentality in the area was that pro wrestling is a more legitimate contest - at least in the world title matches... We had no access to wrestling in other parts of the country at the time.i will concede that backlund needed to be fed strong heel's to draw people in as well. I can tell you that the garden fit just under 20.000 in attendance and it was nearly sold out every month. Also, wwwf tv mostly consisted of squash matches and interviews hyping the monthly card. Also, there were mostly only one or two angles that would last five or six months in the territory only... Title matches were the main draw in the bigger cities. The world champ would almost never appear in a spot show. The best territory comparison would be 70's- early 80's AWA.

[thebrainfollower]

This doesn't work for me and when I try to click the download feature it tells me the website has been suspended.

[bradhindsight]

This doesn't work for me and when I try to click the download feature it tells me the website has been suspended.

Thanks. The site where the files are held has indeed, at the moment, been suspended. We're working on resolving.

[JerryvonKramer]

Hi guys, I've run into a problem with my web hosts over the past few months. New eps of Where the Big Boys Play receive too many hits and once it reaches a certain threshold they suspend the site without warning.

 

I've tried to work this out with them, but looks like the best solution will be to leave and find a new server.

 

SoundCloud is one of the options we are looking at. As a little trial run and a workaround, I've uploaded the first Titans show to this:

 

https://soundcloud.com/jerryvonkramer/titan...restling-1-wwwf

 

Should we make this switch, access to old WTBBP shows will be limited until I can re-upload them all.

[JerryvonKramer]

The ipage site is back up and running too. At least for now.

[thebrainfollower]

Good to know. I snuck in a listen while it's still up. Here's my only thought on the whole did Backlund draw at MSG issue? Clearly he did more often than not, but was Bruno's returns a contributing factor to there not being a few months of poor attendance once in a while? Not really sure about that.

 

This was a good listen and I enjoyed it, though I should have watched the matches in question first, as I haven't seen that one hour match in years, possibly a decade or so.

[BrickHithouse]

Here's my only thought on the whole did Backlund draw at MSG issue? Clearly he did more often than not, but was Bruno's returns a contributing factor to there not being a few months of poor attendance once in a while? Not really sure about that.

 

This was a good listen and I enjoyed it, though I should have watched the matches in question first, as I haven't seen that one hour match in years, possibly a decade or so.

Thanks brain, and to everyone with the comments so far.

 

Adamsfan, do you happen to know why Boston shows from this timeframe are generally non-existent in the trading community? All I could really find were film clips (with that terrible commentary), no full shows or video that is easy to find. Boston seemingly would have had a healthy amount of people watching and recording the shows, assuming they were broadcast on NESN or something.

 

It's a good question about Bruno, and who exactly drew, if Bob did or didn't, if it was Bruno, if Larry Matysik just has an ax to grind with Bob. It's something I'd like to find out. Tried researching gate numbers but didn't get too far - Graham's site generally doesn't list attendance figures for 79-81. WON's don't exist (or simply aren't easily available) for these years. Is there any place that has MSG, Spectrum, Boston numbers? Maybe we can figure something out starting with the attendance figures, if they can be found.

 

My hypothesis is Bob drew just fine on his own, but it would be nice to have a little more info before chiseling that in stone.

 

There is one particular incident that happened in 1981 that kind of ties into whether Bob was a draw or not, but I'll save that for when we get to it.

[Ricky Jackson]

Boston shows were not televised on NESN until 1985, May 18 to be exact. There is footage of Tito winning the IC belt in Feb 1984, but that was a ringside camera of some sort IIRC and not a TV shoot. That's all I know about that.

 

Bob was a draw, end of story. The strong undercards helped, but Bruno, Superstar and Pedro had strong undercards during their reigns as well. Vince Sr was just a damn good promoter and knew how to put together cards that drew money.

[JerryvonKramer]

Should note that Matysik's axe to grind is with people who argue AGAINST Backlund as a draw. His entry is overwhelmingly pro-Bob and takes a defensive stance against those who would knock him. It's Greg Oliver and Steven Johnson who include more guys having a go at him (e.g. Billy Graham, Angelo Mosca).

 

On an unrelated note, I am short on SD Jones detail, as well as stuff on Fred Curry, Jose Estrada, and Steve Travis. These guys don't make the books. If anyone knows stuff about them, PM me and I'll be sure to include your contribution in my notes.

 

I do have more "Gentleman" Jerry Valiant stuff for the next show though. I can almost feel the anticipation for it.

[BrickHithouse]

Should note that Matysik's axe to grind is with people who argue AGAINST Backlund as a draw

Shit, first show and I'm already getting stuff mixed up.

[Johnny Sorrow]

I've been power watching this to get ready for the next show, and it's fucking great. I feel like I'm 9 again, as a lot of wrestling then to me was just something on TV I'd watch occasionally on WOR, and I liked it..but it hadn't really grabbed me yet as I was way more into anything animated or reading comic books, so it's mainly hazy memories of certain guys and characters. This is filling in those memories so amazingly.

 

I'm not gonna spoil anything....but that Backlund/ Hussein Arab match is fucking awesome. I can't wait to talk about it.

[Superstar Sleeze]

I love that Parv wants to fuck young Greg Valentine.

 

This a million times. I was laughing so hard when he was discussing how Valentine was actually good-looking. I have seen that match and I remember Valentine looking as he always looks. The dude is truly ageless.

 

Anyways, I really like 1979 match, but I actually like 1984 MSG match a bit better. I know jdw and a host of others disagree with me, but I think 1984 match is one of the best WWF matches of the decade. I also like 1978 Inoki 60 minute match better than the 1979 Valentine. I don't know if you guys wanna check that out on your own to see a really good broadway from Backlund.

 

I am really excited for this podcast because it really fills in a huge blind spot for me. I have checked a lot of the Backlund stuff and Backlund is friggin bitchin as all hell. I think you will learn to love him as matches with Patera and Hogan in 1980 are really incredible.

[Ricky Jackson]

Nah, Valentine in 79 looks like a baby compared to the years and years of 3 packs a day and God knows how much booze Greg from ten years later.

 

My favorite Backlund/Valentine match is 11/23/81 for the held-up-in-NYC-only WWF title. Awesome crowd heat, and the fans go crazy after the match when Bob holds up his reclaimed belt for all four sides of the arena to a big pop each time. One of Bob's greatest moments as champ I think. I really liked the 1979 60-minute draw and the 1984 match as well. I must admit I wasn't blown away by the Inoki 78 draw. I think I went into it expecting a match of the 70s contender and was kinda let down. But I'm a guy who thought Bob's 1980 title vs title match with Race was really good, and I never really see that match receive much praise at all. Oh, and the Hogan matches from Philly are really good too, especially 5/10/80.