JerryvonKramer Posted January 15, 2014 Report Share Posted January 15, 2014 http://placetobenation.com/titans-of-wrest...september-1980/ Parv, Johnny, Pete and Kelly take another trip to MSG in 1980 for a look at the historic Backlund vs. Race, WWF title vs. NWA title match. On the docket tonight: 09-06 HULK HOGAN INTERRUPTS ANDRE THE GIANT INTERVIEW CHAMPIONSHIP WRESTLING 09-13 ANDRE THE GIANT vs HULK HOGAN CHAMPIONSHIP WRESTLING 09-20 HULK HOGAN vs STEVE KING / ANGELO GOMEZ ALL STAR WRESTLING 09-80 BOB BACKLUND, HARLEY RACE PROMOS WWF TV 09-22 ANDRE THE GIANT vs HULK HOGAN MADISON SQUARE GARDEN 09-22 BOB BACKLUND vs HARLEY RACE WWF CHAMP vs NWA CHAMP MADISON SQUARE GARDEN Highlights include: - Bio for jobber Steve King and his residency at "Steve King's House" aka The Zembo Mosque - The secret sex life of Classy Freddie Blassie - Pete finally re-reviews Hogan vs. Andre from Wrestlemania 3 - Kelly's history lesson: WWF title vs. NWA title matches down the ages - Parv takes on all comers like Andre vs. an army of jobbers as he rants about one of his all-time least favourite matches The PWO-PTBN Podcast Network features great shows you can find right here at Place to Be Nation. By subscribing on iTunes or SoundCloud, you’ll have access to new episodes, bonus content, as well as a complete archive of: Where the Big Boys Play, Titans of Wrestling, Pro-Wrestling Super-Show, Good Will Wrestling, and Wrestling With the Past. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveJRogers Posted January 15, 2014 Report Share Posted January 15, 2014 I feel like starting the Countdown To Thunderlips Clock with Hogan. According to Graham's site, we have until the early June of 1981 Japan tour for Hogan appearances, and the last one in the States is April 18th in Landover, MD. And he is jobbing like crazy towards the end as I look through the 1981 results! Oh, and for your information (since Parv HATES acronyms, even ones that have been in the lexicon long before private internet and mobile network based conversations), Rocky III was released on May 28th 1982. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shoe Posted January 15, 2014 Report Share Posted January 15, 2014 I hope you aren't referring to Johnny,Kelly, and myself to jobbers . Kelly might take it as a compliment, but Johnny and I don't . Lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveJRogers Posted January 15, 2014 Report Share Posted January 15, 2014 Thinking about it, this could be a good talking point for the June 1981 podcast. If Hogan had stayed, could they have been able to turn him easily in order to do what Vince Jr. wanted to do in 1984? Did Hogan need to "leave" and start his meteoric rise as a face in the AWA? Thing that makes it kind of interesting is that while during the height of the MTV and WrestleMania era, Hogan's first run was completely ignored, BUT in those early days of his return, his previous run WAS actually brought up in promos and interview segments. So the whole "retconing the kayfabe cannon" didn't happen right way when it came to Hogan's time with the company. I mean, sure it would be hard to pretend that he was a different "Hulk Hogan," but they didn't HAVE to reference his past in a "we know that you know, but for the sake of what we're trying to do, we're not going to acknowledge it" sort of way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ohtani's jacket Posted January 15, 2014 Report Share Posted January 15, 2014 The debate wasn't as heated as advertised. Poor old Parv sounds more fired up on paper than Skype. Why do you care so much, Parv? Is it because you wanted it to be some kind of amazing title vs. title match or because you just don't like Backlund? Everybody agrees that it's not that good a match, but it's hard to see why you're so offended by it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shoe Posted January 15, 2014 Report Share Posted January 15, 2014 Parv to answer your question Hogan did work Memphis for a tad in 81. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ricky Jackson Posted January 15, 2014 Report Share Posted January 15, 2014 Also, and I didn't know this until just looking, Hogan wrestled on a bunch of shows in Florida in June/July 1981, including having a match against Lawler in St. Petersburg July 18. His last match for WWF appears to be 4/18 in Philly, losing to Tony Atlas. His first match in the AWA was 8/1 in Millwaukee. His time as a heel in the AWA didn't last long, by the end of the month he was booked as a face. Here's the card for that MLG show I mentioned featuring the WWF vs AWA title match: Toronto, Ontario - Maple Leaf Gardens - March 25, 1979 John Yachetti defeated Terry Yorkston at 5:48 Dewey Robertson defeated Al Costello at 8:29 Moose Morowski defeated Steve Bolus at 7:05 NWA Tag Team Champions Jimmy Snuka & Paul Orndorff defeated Ken Patera & Big John Studd at 20:04 WWWF World Champion Bob Backlund fought AWA World Champion Nick Bockwinkel to a double count-out at 39:10 when both men began brawling on the floor Greg Valentine defeated Canadian Heavyweight Champion Dino Bravo via disqualification at 14:19 NWA US Champion Ricky Steamboat defeated Ric Flair at 18:06 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveJRogers Posted January 15, 2014 Report Share Posted January 15, 2014 Also, and I didn't know this until just looking, Hogan wrestled on a bunch of shows in Florida in June/July 1981, including having a match against Lawler in St. Petersburg July 18. His last match for WWF appears to be 4/18 in Philly, losing to Tony Atlas. His first match in the AWA was 8/1 in Millwaukee. His time as a heel in the AWA didn't last long, by the end of the month he was booked as a face. Here's the card for that MLG show I mentioned featuring the WWF vs AWA title match: Toronto, Ontario - Maple Leaf Gardens - March 25, 1979 John Yachetti defeated Terry Yorkston at 5:48 Dewey Robertson defeated Al Costello at 8:29 Moose Morowski defeated Steve Bolus at 7:05 NWA Tag Team Champions Jimmy Snuka & Paul Orndorff defeated Ken Patera & Big John Studd at 20:04 WWWF World Champion Bob Backlund fought AWA World Champion Nick Bockwinkel to a double count-out at 39:10 when both men began brawling on the floor Greg Valentine defeated Canadian Heavyweight Champion Dino Bravo via disqualification at 14:19 NWA US Champion Ricky Steamboat defeated Ric Flair at 18:06 Ever get the feeling you get ignored on message boards... I feel like starting the Countdown To Thunderlips Clock with Hogan. According to Graham's site, we have until the early June of 1981 Japan tour for Hogan appearances, and the last one in the States is April 18th in Landover, MD. And he is jobbing like crazy towards the end as I look through the 1981 results! Oh, and for your information (since Parv HATES acronyms, even ones that have been in the lexicon long before private internet and mobile network based conversations), Rocky III was released on May 28th 1982. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ricky Jackson Posted January 15, 2014 Report Share Posted January 15, 2014 Yes, the Philly show on April 18th is listed as a matinee, so the Landover show was the second of two held that day. The subject of Rocky movies came up at work the other day and I busted out a spontaneous Thunderlips impression. My Tor Kamata was better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JerryvonKramer Posted January 15, 2014 Author Report Share Posted January 15, 2014 Oh, and for your information (since Parv HATES acronyms, even ones that have been in the lexicon long before private internet and mobile network based conversations), Rocky III was released on May 28th 1982. lol, how did I get this rep? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zoo Enthusiast Posted January 15, 2014 Report Share Posted January 15, 2014 I try to stay an episode behind at all times to avoid the depression that comes with there being no more new episodes to listen to, but the teaser pic posted in the Episode 17 thread is making it difficult to resist catching up completely. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveJRogers Posted January 15, 2014 Report Share Posted January 15, 2014 Oh, and for your information (since Parv HATES acronyms, even ones that have been in the lexicon long before private internet and mobile network based conversations), Rocky III was released on May 28th 1982. lol, how did I get this rep? When you shot me dirty looks for referring to Where The Big Boys Play as WTBBP! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Ridge Posted January 21, 2014 Report Share Posted January 21, 2014 Haven't listened to show yet but can I assume you guys went out and watched the full version of Backlund/Race match and not the silent film clip job that was included on set? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ricky Jackson Posted January 21, 2014 Report Share Posted January 21, 2014 Yeah, we all watched the full version. It's on dailymotion if you don't have it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bradhindsight Posted January 21, 2014 Report Share Posted January 21, 2014 Enjoyed Kelly's history lesson especiallly since you guys always talk about what is available to seek out and watch also (unfortunately little of those unification matches). If I could make a sports metaphor for Race/Backlund: sometimes we enjoy our home team playing a great back and forth game against a tough opponent (Die Hard example - better narrative) and some times you get games where your team just blows out the other guy and the crowd goes nuts because their team looks great. I'm sure you see this in soccer also - just an off-night for the visiting team and what should have been an even game ends up 5-0. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JerryvonKramer Posted January 21, 2014 Author Report Share Posted January 21, 2014 Yeah I get it Brad, I just don't like it as a narrative. You never watch a sports film where the narrative is "Rocky just went out there and destroyed Apollo Creed / Mr. T / Ivan Drago" because film producers understand that as narratives go, that's just not very compelling. I understand that wrestling isn't a movie, but it's not real sports either. In a way, it's cool that they created the perception that -- just like in real sports -- something like this could happen. But honestly, I think that's to give the bookers and the workers involved here too much credit. Backlund works dominant always, Race works from underneath always. Vince Sr books his champ as being Superman always. So this wasn't a turn up for the books, it was ENTIRELY predictable. And that's why I hate it so much. If Race had kicked Backlund's ass to within an inch of his life and Bob had come back heroically -- that would be unexpected, a different narrative to the one that Bob's been giving us for going on 18 months now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Ridge Posted January 22, 2014 Report Share Posted January 22, 2014 It is nice to hear folks not completely burying Hogan versus Andre from WrestleMania. I don't see a whole lot of good things being said about it normally. Would have loved to hear Monsoon doing commentary looking back at matches he refereed himself. Well he was consistent at least in his bias towards good guys for both in the booth and as a referee. That fast three count was awful. Another miscarriage of justice. MSG match was still the better of the Hogan/Andre matches from 1980. Blassie was a riot during the interviews. Was funny to hear them refer to Vince's jacket as canary yellow. A shout out to Parv. I had to take a time out during the Toots Mondt discussion as was laughing so hard. Loved the idea of him being a gangster but gambling all his money on wrestling while picking the jobbers to win. Vince Sr. would have played that one well in gaining control. Great stuff on the Unification matches. I did not know that WWF was back under the NWA banner at this point. Would have loved to seen Bockwinkel versus Backlund one. Watched the 8MM clipped matched first and sat there wondering what the big deal was since it was so edited. So did check out the full thing on Daily Motion. Probably the worst part of the very long headlock was that Daily Motion has 30 second commercial breaks every five minutes so it felt like it was dragging things out even more for me. Race got so little sustained offense in match. He could maybe piece together two moves before Backlund went back to the advantage. That ended being my biggest problem with the match. Harley dropped a wicked knee right to Backlund's head and only got a quick one count out of it. My unofficial score card had Backlund making 22 pinfall attempts to only 8 from Race. There was enough action in the later part of match but still ends being below average. I agree with most of Parv's points and sounded like others especially Pete did too. But not the point about the MSG crowd. You can watch old matches, read bios and history around the match. But you can't put yourself in the crowd unless you were there at the time. These fans loved seeing their good guys like Bruno and Backlund look strong and beat the crap out of the rule breaker. Were some excellent points brought up about this match not even airing on MSG. This match was strictly for the paying MSG crowd to see their champion look the best guy out there with the belt. I'll miss not having Race around due to Johnny's great impressions of him. The unspecial show planned sounds very interesting! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ricky Jackson Posted January 28, 2014 Report Share Posted January 28, 2014 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robertsilva Posted February 2, 2014 Report Share Posted February 2, 2014 http://placetobenation.com/titans-of-wrest...september-1980/ Parv, Johnny, Pete and Kelly take another trip to MSG in 1980 for a look at the historic Backlund vs. Race, WWF title vs. NWA title match. On the docket tonight: 09-06 HULK HOGAN INTERRUPTS ANDRE THE GIANT INTERVIEW CHAMPIONSHIP WRESTLING 09-13 ANDRE THE GIANT vs HULK HOGAN CHAMPIONSHIP WRESTLING 09-20 HULK HOGAN vs STEVE KING / ANGELO GOMEZ ALL STAR WRESTLING 09-80 BOB BACKLUND, HARLEY RACE PROMOS WWF TV 09-22 ANDRE THE GIANT vs HULK HOGAN MADISON SQUARE GARDEN 09-22 BOB BACKLUND vs HARLEY RACE WWF CHAMP vs NWA CHAMP MADISON SQUARE GARDEN Highlights include: - Bio for jobber Steve King and his residency at "Steve King's House" aka The Zembo Mosque - The secret sex life of Classy Freddie Blassie - Pete finally re-reviews Hogan vs. Andre from Wrestlemania 3 - Kelly's history lesson: WWF title vs. NWA title matches down the ages - Parv takes on all comers like Andre vs. an army of jobbers as he rants about one of his all-time least favourite matches Hey parv, what happened to the hip hop interludes? I really enjoyed them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Solomon Posted February 11, 2014 Report Share Posted February 11, 2014 Just off the cuff here a bit, but I have watched several of these Backlund matches starting in Jan 79-Feb 80 (you tube) and I am really impressed with Bob. I have always loved Backlund but this just reaffirmed it. To me he exemplifies what a Champion should be in Pro Wrestling should be: 1. Great offense- Far superior to that of Harley, Hogan, Bruno or Flair. I give him the edge over Savage too. Bob has incredible power which allows him to execute moves with Snap and explosion. I love his mat work as it always seems active. I don't have a problem at all with mat work as that is the foundation of Pro Wrestling, everything else is an add on to give the match seasoning. I can only think of Patera and Studd as being opponents that were stronger than physically than Backlund. I see Flair in jobber matches in the WTBS studios and think "man that jobber can probably take Flair legit", not so with Backlund. 2. Substance over style-While a great promo is entertaining at the end of the day we are all here to actually watch the matches themselves and this is where I believe Backlund delivers in spades. While a Hogan or Bruno may have the ability to talk the fans into the building I find Backlund's matches more detailed and less formulaic. Let's see Backlund has great matwork, great moves and good brawling. His selling can be goofy. He also has great fire in the ring. While his promos are subdued Backlund goes by the old saying "Walk softly and carry a Big Stick". Dusty and Hogan may have more energetic promos but Backlund does his talking in the match and to me delivers a far more varied, fast pace and explosive type of match where Dusty, Race and Hogan can have downright lethargic matches at times. 3. Bland Vanilla Babyface a Myth-For all this talk from people about Backlund being bland and vanilla, I sure don't see that once Backlund is in the ring, he wrestles with the mean streak of a Junkyard Dog. Bob shows unreal intensity in the ring. He loved being Champion. I'm much more scared of a pissed off Backlund kayfabe wise than a Hulked up Hogan or a jiving Dusty. Bruno would scare me. Even his promos, while subdued which is what they were going for, show an underlying intensity. I really believed Backlund could have pulled of the tweener role in the NWA. Backlund I thikn had the one thing Steamboat lacked as Champion a certain "meanness" 4. Overness with the fans- Let's face it, Backlund was over as hell. As a young fan reading the Apter mags in the 80's I was under the false impression that guys like Jimmy Snuka were getting a loot of the cheers when they faced Backlund, not so when you watch the matches. I'm still waiting to see the match where the Fans "turned on Backlund". 5. Credibility- If a fan ever wanted to try and convince someone that Pro Wrestling was even somewhat a shoot Backlund would be the guy they can point to cause no casual fan in their right would think that Harley Race could be a legit champ. Harley may be loved by his peers and have a tough guy rep but his work in the ring and his look don't exactly scream "World Champion" Hogan and Savage are guys that fit the comic hero type champion and Bruno and Morales "Ethnic Heroes". Backlund was a guy that would impress someone who was skeptical about Pro Wrestling and come away with a respect for his athletic ability. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Solomon Posted February 11, 2014 Report Share Posted February 11, 2014 btw, I loved both Inoki-Backlund matches on that you tube set. Backlund made those matches and showed he could heel up when needed. Great power moves. To me it showed the big gap between Backlund as a worker and Inoki. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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