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Commentary: WWF vs WCW


JRH

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He really needs Kal there imo. Making random noises, inappropriate comments, unintentionally breaking kayfabe and just generally being hilarious.

 

Kal also very funny as a creepy interviewer. He's a close talker, as Seinfeld might say.

 

Kal is a frighteningly creepy interviewer. Pure entertainment.

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I still like Jim Ross, but as I've watched more stuff, he's definitely someone with some huge holes in his game, where I used to see him as the perfect wrestling announcer. That old UWF stuff -- how much can one guy yell? A lot, apparently.

 

Oh yeah, Ross was almost unbearable in UWF. The story of Rosss being that all-time greatest announcer ever really derives from WWE history again. He could be great. He could be downright annoying and grating too at points.

 

 

He had the rep building before he went to the WWF:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Wrestling_Observer_Newsletter_awards#Best_Television_Announcer

 

That's without winning in 1986-87 in the UWF when people (at the time) thought he was pretty good.

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The most underrated announce duo of all time are, of course, Dick Graham and Kal Rudman.

 

Best bad announcing team of all time. Just a joy to listen too, even more so the wackier they got.

 

titans20.jpg

"He hit him THERE!!!!!" -Kal

 

[few minutes later]

 

"He hit him There AGAIN!!!!!" -Kal

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He really needs Kal there imo. Making random noises, inappropriate comments, unintentionally breaking kayfabe and just generally being hilarious.

 

Kal also very funny as a creepy interviewer. He's a close talker, as Seinfeld might say.

 

Kal is a frighteningly creepy interviewer. Pure entertainment.

 

 

Kal interviewing Muraco was the best. He loved Don, and would just beam at him while Don tried to collect his coked out thoughts. Pure magic.

 

 

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One of the things I love about this is that that screengrab that jdw has posted was done by me and used as a front cover for an episode of Titans.

 

jdw clearly has no clue about that and has listened probably to not one second of any podcast that I've ever done, but I just love that the top image search for those two comes from us.

 

I'm also glad to see Dick and Kal getting the love they deserve.

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Kal Luv is so old at this point it's a cliche, a bit like Fujiwara Luv, Lawler Luv and Backlund Luv. In fact, my pointing to that interview is a cliche at this point:

 

"Don is clearly one of Kal's favorites and he digs interviewing him. Don has a great buzz going on, and is having a hell of a good time." -2011
http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/14127-tony-schiavone-and-early-90s-wcw-announcing/?p=5475983

 

:)

 

 

Kal has long been a barrel of fun for some of us. Here's a departed good friend of a lot of us, Iron Chad:

Barry Windham v. Dick Murdoch, WWF, Philadelphia Spectrum, 2/16/1985

 

This match is on the DVDVR 1980's WWF set, and you should seek it out there if only for the Kal Rudman interview of Barry that's included. I can do it no justice here, it's creepy and horrible as Kal is too effusive in his praise of Barry as Kal's "favorite wrestler". I wonder what Barry was thinking while it was going on. Can't find it on Youtube or anywhere like that. This won't be the last time I mention Kal, though.

 

[...]

 

Barry rolls out of the ring where he's met by Kal who reminds Barry that it doesn't matter he just took a beating from Dick because he just won the match. Barry seems to get away from Kal as soon as humanly possible.

 

 

God... that reminds me how much I miss Chad. :(

 

 

Exceptional Creepy Kal Rudman pre-match interview with Muraco and Fuji, with Fuji calling Kal "Boy-San" several times, and Muraco putting over Fuji's "sumotari" body... what ever the hell that means. He goes on about how hard Fuji has been training with the rice and sashimi for lunch. Kal has a shit eating grin through all of it, and you just know from other interviews that Muraco is one of his favorite wrestlers for all his wackiness. Just one of those great, goofy Philly pre-match interviews from the era.

 

 

 

Cool post match as they cut to Kal Rudman who is in position to interview Don right at the MSG curtain. Kal and Don is always solid gold, and Don's all fired up here. But the great thing is the shot shows right up the aisle to the ring, and you can see Bob getting more and more pissed. You can see him move through the ropes, and MSG Production cuts to a ringside camera just in time to see Bob coming off the apron to the floor. Don is still on the mic talking to Kal when Bob comes running up behind Don to nail him. Kal is awesome:

 

"Call security!!! Call security!!! Call security!!!"

 

Good job of showing how much Don has pissed off Bob.

 

 

I can't remember which was my favorite Creepy Kal rif:

 

 

Larry farts away the first four and a half minutes between eating a fireman's carry, arm drag and monkey flip. Play-by-play man Dick Graham sounds annoyed by it, while the great color man Kal Rudman rambles something about Backlund penetrating Larry.

 

 

 

Kal Rudman is usual creepy self on color commentary, here talking about how Bob "ruined" Sarge with the Driver and the image that comes to mind is that Kal is implying Bob just deflowered Sarge with the with move.

 

 

Kal was just fucking solid gold.

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WCW never seemed to drop pop culture references as much as WWF did. I was watching some match from 91 WCW and Larry Z drops a William Kennedy Smith rape trial reference and poor Tony is left flabbergasted as to what to say. I guess Heyman tried to work in pop culture references but with the WWF team it was pretty constant. Especially when Raw started

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I've also never done coke, but if you can cut a promo that good while stoned they ought to lace the RAW catering with the stuff.

 

Performers have been doing amazing shit on coke and other mind altering substances for a century.

 

One can quibble whether Rumors is a great album or the Beatles output was great or Bob Dylan's 60s output was great, or this actor or that directors work in a specific movie was great like DeNiro and Marty's work between Mean Streets-Taxi Driver-Raging Bull or various Peter O'Toole performances, but...

 

All of us are 100% certain to have something that we love quite a bit that was created / performed while higher than a kite or more stoned out of its mind than a rock quarry or dunk as a fucking skunk. Shit that looks pretty damn lucid, in fact.

 

More than that, we're all big enough non-naive boys to know that at this point. No one should be surprised.

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WCW never seemed to drop pop culture references as much as WWF did. I was watching some match from 91 WCW and Larry Z drops a William Kennedy Smith rape trial reference and poor Tony is left flabbergasted as to what to say. I guess Heyman tried to work in pop culture references but with the WWF team it was pretty constant. Especially when Raw started

 

Meltzer spent most of the 90s complaining about Heenan dropping *dated* references in WCW.

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WCW never seemed to drop pop culture references as much as WWF did. I was watching some match from 91 WCW and Larry Z drops a William Kennedy Smith rape trial reference and poor Tony is left flabbergasted as to what to say. I guess Heyman tried to work in pop culture references but with the WWF team it was pretty constant. Especially when Raw started

 

Meltzer spent most of the 90s complaining about Heenan dropping *dated* references in WCW.

 

And still complains today about JBL's occaisonally dated references.

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I never had a bug up my ass about the comments as much as Dave did. There were times when Heenan made a reference that was "WTF"? But I also grew up listening to Vince Scully and Chick Hearn reference old time stuff, especially past players of the Dodgers and Lakers. History is okay. :)

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Dave's own references are rarely hip or current, other than MMA and Wrestling references.

 

Even with wrestling he'll toss out references to things of the past all the time. When trying to get across how over someone is, the standard comp to being monstrously over is Austin or Rock. 1999 was a while ago: "Believe", "Baby One More Time", "Livin' la Vida Loca", "Genie in a Bottle" and "Smooth" were the big singles of the year. That's a long damn time ago. :)

 

Maybe on the podcast he tosses out lots of hip references. Does Dave toss out a lot of Empire or Big Bang Theory references on the podcast, or MCU riffs, or Mad Men / Game of Thrones / Walking Dead riffs?

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