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Titans of Wrestling #29, Part 1: Georgia Championship Wrestling


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http://placetobenation.com/titans-of-wrestling-29-part-1-georgia-championship-wrestling/

 

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Join us as the Titans of Rasslin visit Earth II, where Pete doesn't exist (actually he is trapped under a pile of thousands of wrestling DVDs, updates throughout), and the team of Kelly, Parv, Johnny and Marty Sleeze explore the amazing world of Georgia Championship Wrestling on TBS! And for the first time ever, the material covered on the show is so vast that a second part is required (look for it in about two weeks).

 

On the docket tonight:

 

1979 Ole Anderson promo / Bobby Heenan and Ernie Ladd promo

1979 Ernie Ladd attacks Chief Jay Strongbow
1980 Tommy Rich vs. Dennis Condrey TV title match
1980 Ole Anderson turns on Dusty Rhodes + Ole falls out with Lars and enlists the aid of Terry Funk
1980 Mr. Wrestling II and The Assassin discuss why they wear a mask

 

Also on tonight's show:

 

-A look at the history of GCW, its important relationship with Ted Turner-owned television stations, and the role it played in the story of WCW

-In-depth discussion of Mr.Wrestling II and Tommy Rich

-Stongbow's humiliation makes Parv...uh, giddy

-Fantasy Blaxploitation booking: Ernie Ladd is "The Big Cat of Harlem"

-A show-ending comparison of early-80s GCW and WWF

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Great show!! I prefer the southern wrestling reviews to WWF since I'm from the south.

 

I LOVE Ernie Ladd. He's a 6'9 Fred Sanford.

 

I also loved the Mr. Wrestling II / Assasin interview. I liked them calling each other "sir" even though they hated each other. II had it coming though....he started the whole thing. The Assasin was DRAGGED in the ring and merely had to defend himself and in the process of trying to lift up Wrestling II the mask "accidentally" came off.

 

That's what I saw.....

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Awesomely entertaining show as per usual, gang. Really dug the love for Ladd as well.

 

That whole segment about the Blaxpoitation project was freaking phenomenal. It's audio ecstasy, folks. The funky music interludes bridged it all together and MADE the damn thing a winner for me. Make no mistake - the "Big Cat of Harlem" is something that must be made a reality in some conceivable shape, form, or fashion.

 

Parv gushing and giggling over heel beat-downs never gets old. He sure has turned up the hatred on Backlund and Strongbow. Sure sounds like Rich is the latest to land on that list.

 

Great to hear you guys just kind of collectively mark out for the Assassin. He certainly was a tremendous talker. And, regarding Parv's question about whether there was more footage of him doing interviews & whatnot out there, I know for sure he's got at least a handful in the "1984 - A Year of Transition" series that's up on YouTube. I haven't seen the stuff in over a year, so I can't clearly recall whether it's a lot of substance or just short, condensed interview pieces to hype the next show.

 

But the Assassin definitely does some talking - SUITED AND BOOTED there as well - for his tag team throughout the whole Paul Jones Army, Boogie Woogie Jam, Valiant beard shaving saga around that time.

 

And Parv, have you seen much Bill Eadie? I only ask, 'cause the Masked Superstar's whole shtick and spiel is REAL similar to what ya get from Jody Hamilton. Those guys are cut from the same cloth. Never overly verbose, just for the sake of sounding wordy. Never reaching to seem intelligent. Never pandering for acknowledgement of his IQ. Just a couple of well-spoken, articulate, condescending pricks really.

 

And there's always the angle that Eadie teased as Masked Superstar, hinting and teasing that he was actually someone of fame or notoriety under the hood. At one point they were talking like he was a legitimate pro athlete or medalist. It was a clever way of lending credibility and an explanation for WHY someone so smart would CHOOSE to walk around and work under a mask. Great stuff.

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-Parv, as a professor you should know the pratfalls of encyclopedic research from Britannica to Wikipedia! I've been using http://www.solie.org/titlehistories/ for title research for years.

 

-Speaking of podcast and Place To Be Nation Turf Wars, you should reach out to Mr. Wrestling III for the show (actually be PERFECT for him to stay in the gimmick for an appearance on Titans of Wrestling now that I think of it), whom is officially endorsed by Mr. Wrestling II (who recently had a tribute show done in his honor, even though he is still living), and has a pretty good spin on the "why the mask" gimmick. A very well known heel donning a masked babyface persona to "atone" for his heelish ways throughout his career.

 

-When Ole was turned into a defacto face after getting turfed from the Horsemen, was it actually in storylines that no one wanted to team with him because of his heelish ways (which I'd assume would go all the way back to the Dusty angle discussed on the show), or was that just joking comments made about the fact that Ole was a loner for that run as he was legit scaling back from his on screen/in ring persona?

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-Parv, as a professor you should know the pratfalls of encyclopedic research from Britannica to Wikipedia! I've been using http://www.solie.org/titlehistories/ for title research for years.

 

-Speaking of podcast and Place To Be Nation Turf Wars, you should reach out to Mr. Wrestling III for the show (actually be PERFECT for him to stay in the gimmick for an appearance on Titans of Wrestling now that I think of it), whom is officially endorsed by Mr. Wrestling II (who recently had a tribute show done in his honor, even though he is still living), and has a pretty good spin on the "why the mask" gimmick. A very well known heel donning a masked babyface persona to "atone" for his heelish ways throughout his career.

 

-When Ole was turned into a defacto face after getting turfed from the Horsemen, was it actually in storylines that no one wanted to team with him because of his heelish ways (which I'd assume would go all the way back to the Dusty angle discussed on the show), or was that just joking comments made about the fact that Ole was a loner for that run as he was legit scaling back from his on screen/in ring persona?

 

We have reached out to # 3 and he has agreed to come on as a guest. So we just need to hammer out time and date. So thanks for the idea.

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Damn, I love that album too. Didn't draw the connection.

 

Reading about this more on Classics (http://wrestlingclassics.com/cgi-bin/.ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=129396;p=0), apparently Ernie Ladd said he got it from Terry Funk who said he took it from Johnny Cash. Ernie Ladd is so cool.

 

The moment when the GCW crowd busts out the "egg-sucking dog" chant during the Funk and Ole run-in is one of my favourite ever chants.

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This was a good listen and overall view of the Georgia territory.

 

Parv's crusade to devalue Rich was a little perplexing to me. When he did fall from the main event scene, he fell pretty hard but a five year run on top is nothing to sneeze at and he is still recognized as a household name for a lot of people my dad's age down here.

 

Also, an underrated Kelly line as Parv was trying to find a location where RIch wouldn't be well known and he throws out North Dakota. Without skipping a beat, Kelly says "he was big in North Dakota.""

 

"one of the more sophisticated wrestling angles, ironically coming from Georgia" What the hell Kelly? I expect that nonsense from Parv but expect more from you.

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I completely don't understand where this idea that I was trying to devalue Rich on this show comes from and it's slightly pissing me off that people keep claiming this.

 

The part where I'm going around different locations asking if people would know Rich there was to establish how big a star we were talking about. I think it's difficult to get a measure of how big Rich was in his prime (say 79-83). I was trying to ascertain the extent to which he was a national star as opposed to a territorial star. I don't know why that has been seen as a crusade to de-value him. Completely bizarre accusation.

 

Then, later, all I was saying is that after 1984, when GCW no longer existed, Rich never again rose to national prominence in the same way. A claim so fucking uncontroversial that it is tantamount to a statement of bald fact. I don't know how anyone could say it was a knock. My point, that I was trying to get out before Johnny and co starting getting all defensive, was that Crockett was not prepared to push him as a top star and didn't seem to want to give him a job. He didn't return to JCP/ WCW until 1989, after Turner had already taken over, by which time he was firmly on the (lower) undercard as we've seen on WTBBP. The point was, that whatever he did in Memphis, he wasn't getting any national exposure, and didn't get the call from New York while he was basically shut out of Atlanta under Crockett, where he made his name. So he was only really a big star during his Georgia run.

 

None of this stuff is a "crusade". I don't get where any of these charges are coming from.

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