NWA On Demand

[shoe]

Texas Tornado match.

 

This is a Texas Tornado match. Right when Another One Bites the Dust plays the crowd goes crazy. This is super heated. We get a super fun spot to start. Then the rest is kick punch and it works. These guys though come across that they hate each other. That's the key. It's all in the drama. Post match Butch Reed joins the Russians and the heat turns into an inferno. We get trash thrown into the ring. Tito Santana out to even the odds. Post match promos from the faces to boot. 3 1/4*

[BruceTharpe]

There was mega heat as they went into the finish. This is the exact formula that would cause fans to snap and hit the ring to "help" the babyface. Notice how the police circled the ring. Seriously - I was expecting a fan to hit the ring at any time!

[BruceTharpe]

Special Sunday MAIN EVENT MATCH Online NOW - From November 14, 1986: Vintage STING and RICK STEINER vs. TERRY TAYLOR and SAVANNAH JACK!

[shoe]

Man when Taylor saw the booking sheet he must have wondered who he pissed off. Two green opponents, and a partner the boss wants over and he's green too. I thought Rick Steiner was pretty good here. I dug him trying to trick Taylor into their corner. Taylor did a good job ring leadering this. Both teams worked the arms. Their was one ugly spot with Sting. They also got Jack the pin so overall mission accomplished. Solid match. 2 1/2*

[Matt D]

The Tornado Tag was a blast. I asked Pete and apparently neither of us liked the follow up much, which is a shame. Sometimes you just want heated main event heavyweight wrestling, with all the stakes and emotional weight and clash of the titans feel and that was what this was about. Plus how amazing were Reed's shoulder tackles? I'm not sure if it was just Dr. Death taking them or what, but they were dynamic.

 

As for the Savannah Jack tag, I envision this world where Magnum doesn't get hurt and Rick Steiner gets brought in as his understudy. I try not to imagine it too thoroughly though as it's a scary world. Taylor was pretty explosive. That's the main takeaway I had on that one.

[BruceTharpe]

Reed's shoulder tackles were awesome - but props to Dr. Death for selling them the way he did with those amazing bumps.

 

Just released: Vintage CHAVO GUERRERO vs. RICK STEINER from May 9, 1986 - Buzz Sawyer in Steiner's corner. Original commentary by Paul Boesch and Jim Ross!

[shoe]

This is a match that was set up because Rick is Buzz Sawyer's protege. So Buzz wants Rick to cause some damage to Chavo because they meet in the 1st round of the UWF tournament later in the month. Rick Steiner is green here. Though he seems to be developing a character. People remember as this great tag worker . He 1st broke out because of his character work in Crockett with his imaginary friend Alex. The match was ok. Though the post match was where the story was. They end up laying out Chavo. Rick even holds him down and eats the pin.

[BruceTharpe]

Spectacular DOUBLE FEATURE Release ONLINE NOW! From October 19, 1979: JOSE LOTHARIO vs. GRAN MARKUS!

Followed by: GINO HERNANDEZ vs. MIL MASCARAS!

[Matt D]

Can't wait to catch those tonight. Every Lothario match we get is another piece of gold and every indication we've had so far shows that Mil was more than willing to work with Gino and was probably a great foil for him in another singles.

[shoe]

Mil vs Gino

 

I was looking forward to this and it I was right to look forward to it. We some mat work to start. Mil focusing on the arm and back was fun. Gino is so great at putting all of this over. His facials here are just off the charts. We get a lot more of this and it's all great. When Gino goes on offense he's after the mask. Marcus and Lothario are out and they play into the finish. Post match brawl to boot. 2 3/4*

[shoe]

Lothario vs Gran Marcus

 

Another good match. Loved the opening interaction of Gino and Jose. Extra points for Gino's old school shirt. Gino's and Jose's blood feud has been incredible. Marcus and Lothario had a lot of highs. A total roller coaster ride. Some serious ups and downs. I loved some of the traditional Lucha spots in the match. The punch spots were incredible and made the crowd insane. The one time when they fought each other to the ground was amazing. A lot of great stuff to invest in. 3*

[shoe]

Gino vs Mil 11/26/82

 

We start out with a Mil Mascaras promo where he puts up his mask verse Gino with Tully suspended in a cage above the ring. Then the Dynamic Duo come out and they are incredible as is Paul Boesch. That was an incredible segment.

 

The match starts and we see Mil just own Gino on the mat. The 1st few minutes it's just Mil tying Gino up like a pretzel and stretching him on the mat. Gino would escape and ask Tully for advice. Rinse and repeat. Mil then using some really stiff strikes . Gino uses some rough house tactics on his heat segment. We get a ref bump. Mil gets the brass knucks and uses them on Gino and gets the win. The promo segment was amazing, the match could have been more hate filled. 2 1/2*

[shoe]

Tully vs Scott Casey

 

Tully is a great heel. Scott Casey is a solid babyface. Casey has a early shine segment. Tully cheats his way to a heat segment and does a real good job working over Casey's leg. The work is really heelish like dead legging the leg. Tully has a way to get under the fans skins. I really liked Casey's comeback. He focused on Tully's leg and did some really neat revenge spots. Then we build to the finish. 2 3/4*

[goc]

Dynamic Duo vs Mil Mascaras/El Gran Apollo

 

Another Dynamic Duo tag and another good match. I know Goc in his fantasy league was wanting to make El Gran Apollo his latin star of his promotion. So my thoughts on Apollo. He has a great look, solid charisma, his moveset was limited, needs work in his FIP work, needs to tighten up some of his work, has a good drop kick and forearm, and worked the apron well. Mil in Houston has bemuch better than I've seen in NY, Dallas and other areas besides Japan. I loved the Duo stooging for him and shining him up. I loved Mil's screwdriver to the ears of Tully trying to cauliflower them. Mil's reverse Dragon Sleeper made me pop. Apollo's FIP work in the 1st fall didn't show enough vulnerbility. I loved how Gino just beat Mil's ass in the 2nd fall. I liked how it continued in the 3rd fall. Mil's FIP work was done well. The hot tag to Apollo was really good along with the early teases. We get a good post match brawl with Ken Lucas where the ref reverses his decision and DQ's the Dynamic Duo. That was a crappy finish. 3 1/4*

I'm finally able to jump back into the NWA On Demand awesomeness and it should come as no surprise to anyone that this was the first match I watched with my new sub.

 

Apollo was actually better here than I expected. He's certainly not Ricky Morton during his FIP work but his selling was much better than what I've seen from his Puerto Rico work, certainly better than the Barrabas match. His offense was better than I expected too especially the forearms.

 

I know everybody likes to hate on Mil Mascaras but I've actually liked him in most of the Houston footage and this is no exception to that. I liked seeing the Dynamic Duo stooge for him a bit in the first fall especially the thing where he kind of teased Tully by letting him get so close to tag out while he had him in the hold just to pull him away. And yea, that weird Dragon Sleeper type hold was pretty boss. I liked Apollo chasing Tully around during the 2nd fall although it ended up kinda screwing up the finish as Apollo was right there to save his partner from being pinned but didn't.

 

Apollo looked pretty good in the 3rd fall getting the crowd hyped for the hot tag and then looking good when he finally got in. This is either the best or 2nd best look we have of Apollo in an actual longish match (the other stuff being from Puerto Rico TV) and I feel pretty confident that he could have lived up to the stuff I've had him doing in fantasy Southwest. Not a bad hand when he isn't cosplaying Kevin Von Erich on one of the days he didn't want to sell at all.

 

I didn't really hate the finish either as far as finishes from the 80s goes it wasn't all that bad. Well until they reversed the decision because that was pretty stupid. Enjoyed the Ken Lucas cameo and I plan on digging into his matches next.

[shoe]

Welcome back.

[Matt D]

Very quickly, I watched both Jose vs Markus, loved Gino's shirt, remark again how great Lothario was, even when next to nothing was happening in the match (not to mention his cool dropkick and the amazing punch, etc). I did think that it was very interesting to see the lucha pushes here since I don't remember them in any other Lothario match. Just a fun twelve minutes of wrestling.

 

Our air conditioner broke so I'm a bit behind on everything else. I did catch the Gino/Tully promo though and man was that great. Gino was just electric.

 

As for Mil, I do think he's come off fairly well here relative to other territories. Some of that might be the 2/3 fall nature of a lot of his matches which allows for more selling to build into the comeback. It'd be funny if the reason we've been so negative on Mil over the years was because he was mainly shunted inappropriately into single fall matches.

 

With Brody, he's had moments throughout but I've thought him best in the earliest footage before his initial face turn.

 

Bruce, I'm dying to see another list of what's in the pipeline.

[goc]

Bruce, Matt D and shoe let me know what matches have been uploaded in the last 6 months or so that I need to watch first. I'm gonna watch everything Jose Lothario related that I haven't seen yet because it's Jose but any other recommendations would be greatly appreciated. I haven't been following this thread as much so the only match that I remember seeing as a big find was the Ricky Morton vs. Bockwinkel match.

[peachchaos]

Were you around when Funk-Lewin or the end of Funk-Race dropped?

[Matt D]

Goc, will get back to you. (But the answer is "everything Gino" for now).

 

So Sting/Steiner vs Taylor/Parsons just went up. I didn't see the card on the list so I did a little digging.

 

[BruceTharpe]

For me . . . off the top of my head - the Bull Curry vs. Johnny Valentine match from 1969 was an awesome find - as was Paul Boesch vs. the Great Malenko from 1970. Also Jack Brisco vs. the Spoiler!

[BruceTharpe]

ONLINE NOW From Halloween Night - October 31, 1986: TERRY TAYLOR / ICEMAN KING PARSONS vs. STING / RICK STEINER (with Eddie Gilbert)!

[Matt D]

I don't have time to dig back and want to do a proper job of it so I will later, but Dusty vs Brody was a really cool, historical find.

[Phil Schneider]

Bull Curry v. Johnny Valentine was fucking awesome

[shoe]

October 31, 1986: TERRY TAYLOR / ICEMAN KING PARSONS vs. STING / RICK STEINER (with Eddie Gilbert)!

 

At this point in time, Rick Steiner is way above Sting as a worker. They do a a real good job of hiding Sting here. It looks like Taylor's job is to coach these guys. I love Taylor coming out in a mask and the crowd pops when he takes it off. Gilbert sells the reveal big. I thought the shine was good solid stuff. I thought Rick Steiner looked agressive as hell. With real sniff strikes. He did a version of a Steiner Line that looked great. Sting would get his spots here and there. Here he looks like he almost breaks Taylor's ribs on a Stinger Splash. I loved the Eddie Gilbert involved finish. Taylor really was a ring general here. 2 1/2*

[goc]

Wifi here at the motel went to shit over the past 2 days so haven't been able to really watch anything. I did see that a new Apollo match just got uploaded today which I can only assume was Bruce's welcome back present to me. Looking forward to watching that Tito Santanta/Apollo/Ken Lucas vs. Duggan/Sweetan/Mike Boyer match as soon as I get a halfway decent connection.