NWA On Demand

[BruceTharpe]

Dusty - Patera is LIVE!

[shoe]

Great Malenko vs Paul Boesch

 

What a great comedy match. Malenko was incredible in his roll in stooging, comedy spots were great. On top of It Malenko on commentary was tremendous. Boesch was good in his role as local hero, but Malenko carried this. The interactions he had with the ref was pure gold. I was legit laughing the whole entire time. It had a very vaudville feel to it. 8 million stars.

 

 

Also the news interview with Boesch was awesome, and I always pop at the earring commercial.

[BruceTharpe]

I am through just the first two falls of the DUSTY - PATERA match and it is awesome. I had no idea that Ken Patera was such a great worker - on the mat with Dusty - facials - etc. And if you weren't sure how legit strong Patera is / was - watch how easy he lifts Dusty up for the bodyslam - and look how long he holds Dusty in mid air during the bear hug. And the second fall finish - WOW.

[shoe]

Dusty vs Ken Patera

 

This was a match that had both guys working really hard. Patera is a guy who a lot of people have missed the boat on or have forgotten what a great performer he was. From 78-82 he was one of the best heels in wrestling. Dusty is one of the all time great babyfaces. So put peanut butter and jelly together and the results will be good. The pace in the 1st fall is a lot quicker than I was anticipating. I loved all of Patera's mannerisms through out the match. Right off the back Patera is softening up the neck for his finisher. Dusty counters with some real fun arm work and both guys are really game here. The 1st fall did a good job of laying the ground work for the match.

 

The 2nd fall had some real interesting stuff to it. For starters Patera works over Dusty's leg to slow him down. Dusty sold this really well. Then Patera goes back to the neck. He was constantly trying to hook on the Full Nelson. Eventually he goes for the bear hug, and the guys do some real interesting stuff with the bear hug.

 

The 3rd fall and you're wondering what type of screwy finish might be up the booking sleeves. Overall though these guys had a great match 3 1/2*

[NickH]

If anyone wants some dates for curry/valentine & boesch/malenko.

 

6/20/69 Houston –
Bull Curry NC Johnny Valentine
Wahoo McDaniel W Gary Hart
Buster Lloyd W George Gaiser
Thunderbolt Patterson W-DQ Baron von Raschke
Reggie Parks D Alex Perez
Danny Plechas W Gorilla Lopez

 

5/15/70 Houston, TX @ Sam Houston Coliseum
Texas Death Match
Wahoo McDaniel beat Johnny Valentine
Killer Kowalski beat Nick Kozak
Public Workout
Great Malenko drew Paul Boesch
Killer Karl Kox beat Eduardo Perez
Ripper Secuna beat Cyclone Soto
Lord Charles Montague beat Juan Sebastian

[Tim Cooke]

Brisco/Spoiler is a decent comp to Baba/Race from October 79. Both use a side headlock to kill a decent portion of the match and both have some interesting offense. I love basic work but there wasn't a heck of a lot going on with the Brisco side headlock. Not to steal a jdw talking point but it's not like Race was great with a side headlock yet the Baba match felt like it kept moving, even if it was worked at a slightly slower pace. I also don't get Brisco making his comeback, getting a nice reaction, and then using a snap mare right into a chinlock.

Spoiler has been okay in the footage from Houston but hasn't been a stand out like Lothario.

Also, Gary Hart has not been impressive at all in this footage. Besides Cornette, Jimmy Hart in Memphis and possibly JJ Dillon in the NWA, I'm not huge on managers but Hart has done not anything to put himself remotely close to those guys. Heck, even Paul Heyman was able to have two interesting heel manager runs with the OMX and then the Dangerous Alliance and I wouldn't say Heyman was anything other than average.

Bull Curry vs. Johnny Valentine was fun. For 1969, I thought they actually worked at a better pace than Brisco/Spoiler did.

Looking forward to watching Dusty vs. Patera later today.

[Bix]

With Gary Hart, this footage is lacking promos and pre plane crash stuff so shouldn't we expect him to disappoint? He couldn't do much at ringside after the crash.

[Matt D]

There are ways that a manager can be entertaining and engaging and effective without necessarily taking bumps, be it reactions or interference or distractions or crowd interaction. I don't agree with everything Tim said in his post, but I do absolutely agree with him that Hart's on the disappointing end when it comes to most of those physical low-impact things as well, especially when compared to his rep.

 

I burned through Dusty/Patera before bedtime last night so it's all a bit blurry but I'm not sure I've ever enjoyed Dusty's elbows more or if they ever looked grittier. Speaking of Dillon, I thought he was really good here. The fact that he basically does it all with the cigar in his mouth is funny. Patera fed for Dusty's strikes so well, too, and he gave back just as well. Some really solid bursts of brawling. I liked the way Patera went from the leg to the neck to the bearhug too. It was a really well worked bearhug which is not the most common thing in the world. Like I said, it's a bit of a blur but it was a lot of fun.

 

EDIT: Just looking at results, I hope we get the two Brass Knucks title matches between Patera and Manny Fernandez from 81 at some point. Manny has some interesting stuff in 81-82. A Funk match, a few Gino matches, a couple of Tully matches, a couple of Slater matches, Duo vs Chavo/Manny, Ciclon Negro/Manny, and Mil/Manny, one against Black Gordman, and short feuds with Mil and Chavo.

[shoe]

Thanks

[grapplin' apple]

Hey Bruce,

I love this service, but with the new interface, is there a way to access all of the matches in the chronological order they have been posted? I sometimes get behind on my viewing, and I like to go back through and watch the videos in the order they had been posted. Also, I would have missed the Greg Valentine vs. Wahoo match from Mid-Atlantic if it hadn't been pointed out to me on a FB group.

 

And thanks to Shoe for posting reviews for every single match. It's the way I largely decide what to watch on this service.

 

 

Thanks!

[Tabe]

Hey Bruce,

I love this service, but with the new interface, is there a way to access all of the matches in the chronological order they have been posted? I sometimes get behind on my viewing, and I like to go back through and watch the videos in the order they had been posted. Also, I would have missed the Greg Valentine vs. Wahoo match from Mid-Atlantic if it hadn't been pointed out to me on a FB group.

I would agree with this. The web site interface, both old and new, seem to almost be designed to prevent you from finding things.

[shoe]

With the Bruce and HHH pic popping up on twitter you start to wonder about the Houston Library, among other things.

[khawk20]

[Matt D]

How great was the Boris Malenko commentary? I want to learn more about Mortier as Montague. It was all a lot of fun and I can never get enough of Boesch's office.

 

As for the rest... I'm just going to keep looking forward to new matches as we get them.

[goc]

With the Bruce and HHH pic popping up on twitter you start to wonder about the Houston Library, among other things.

I suppose that would be good for Bruce but most likely bad for the rest of us. Not only would that likely mean the end of new footage popping up, what's already up on the site would likely disappear because I don't see WWE really caring enough to upload the 300+ Houston matches to the Network that are already up.

 

I'd rather think Bruce met HHH to discuss some kind of Evolve type working relationship with the NWA.

[shoe]

Per the Observer

 

Bruce Tharpe, who has the rights to the NWA Classics subscription site with the Paul Boesch Houston tape library, was in Orlando meeting with Levesque. According to Tharpe, Levesque invited him to visit the Performance Center and they had a great meeting discussing the NWA and future plans and he said they treated him very well. He said the NWA On Demand service regarding the Boesch library “will most definitely continue.

[MikeCampbell]

If anyone wants some dates for curry/valentine & boesch/malenko.

 

6/20/69 Houston –

Bull Curry NC Johnny Valentine

Wahoo McDaniel W Gary Hart

Buster Lloyd W George Gaiser

Thunderbolt Patterson W-DQ Baron von Raschke

Reggie Parks D Alex Perez

Danny Plechas W Gorilla Lopez

 

5/15/70 Houston, TX @ Sam Houston Coliseum

Texas Death Match

Wahoo McDaniel beat Johnny Valentine

Killer Kowalski beat Nick Kozak

Public Workout

Great Malenko drew Paul Boesch

Killer Karl Kox beat Eduardo Perez

Ripper Secuna beat Cyclone Soto

Lord Charles Montague beat Juan Sebastian

 

Thanks for posting, I was looking for the date!

[Tabe]

Did we ever decide on an exact date for the Race/Funk match?

[BruceTharpe]

I am back from Florida guys. HHH is an awesome pesron and he has tremendous respect for wrestling history. We spent much of our meeting talking about Wahoo! New Spoiler match going up either late tonight or early tomorrow.

[BruceTharpe]

Awesome Match ONLINE NOW from June 20, 1979: "MANIAC" MARK LEWIN vs. TOM JONES!

[Matt D]

I guess you have some more reason to look forward to those Wahoo vs Harley matches?

 

Glad to see we're still in business here.

 

I thought the Jones match was a solid Lewin showcase. If you want to know what Lewin is all about, this match will tell you. He's a one trick pony here, with the chops and nerve holds and what have you, but he's so persistent that it's effective. In general, I thought his cutoffs were very strong. The story wasn't the most exciting in the world, but it was a good use of Hart and of all sorts of tricks to get back to the point of karate thrusting and what have you. I always appreciate solid, straightforward wrestling. Jones worked very well from underneath too. I haven't seen too much of him but he had a good amount of charisma and helped to make both Lewin and Hart look effective.

 

Results say this was third from the top and it was probably a palette cleanser before Brody vs Spoiler. Anyway, It's nice to see a solid showcase match like this now and again.

[BruceTharpe]

$50,000 Bounty Match from November 22, 1985.Online Now: Dick Slater vs Butch Reed!

[shoe]

I really liked the bounty match. Flair has put a bounty on Reed and Slater is trying to collect.My father, myself and brother went to this show. One of the 2 times my father attended a wrestling show. My brother and I were so angry that Flair put a bounty on Butch. It opens with a quick intense brawl. Then it settles down and Slater starts to go after Reeds neck. Reed has a neck brace on so that's a no brainer. I loved how Slater would cut off Reed's comebacks. Slater going back to the leg makes sense since he's trying to soften up Reed for Flair. Though when Reed made his comeback it was intense.Reed had some nice revenge spots on Slater's neck. Reed bloodys up Slater. Reed is just going after the cut. The crowd was pretty hot the whole way. These got across that they hated one another. We also get some really good post match interviews. 4*

[BruceTharpe]

The rematch between SLATER and REED for the North American Title from November 29, 1985 is now online!

[BruceTharpe]

And the uploads continue! Online now: The Mongolian Stomper, managed by Don Carson, vs Cowboy Scott Casey! Two of three falls from July 16, 1982.