Wrestlers on nwaclassics.com

[shoe]

Their have been a lot of wrestlers we've been exposed too because of this service. Some of the standouts to me have been

 

Jose Lothario

 

The promotion is obviously behind him. in accordance they highlight his strengths like his punches, and his timing. The talent goes out and tries to have good matches with him. I've seen the exact opposite when he did some shots in WCCW and worked Hayes, and Jimmy Garvin. Those guys were about themselves and getting over . Lothario was a part timer there. So to see him in Houston is refreshing.

 

Gino Hernandez

 

Man what a natural. He had charisma. He had agressivness. He was a good bumper. He carried the heat. An awesome promo. His psychology was tremendous here. He truly was the prototype. He's a better Tully.

 

The Spoiler

 

We only have gotten one match, but it was a doozy. He seemed ahead of his time. Big man with incredible agility. Can't wait till we unearth more gems of his. Maybe a footage resurgence might help his cause to be in the WONHOF.

 

Wahoo McDaniel

 

The footage has shown what an incredible worker he is. The way he would sell and sell was underrated. Then the way he would time his comeback was a thing of beauty. He was more than a guy with a stiff chop.

 

Their are plenty of other wrestlers, but thought I'd start a more specific thread to flesh them out.

[goc]

The Guerreros

 

Besides the guys you listed like Jose & Gino the biggest standouts so far to me have been Hector & Chavo Guerrero. They have some good singles stuff on there (and I haven't seen Chavo/Bock yet) but their tag stuff is a real revelation to me. They could do pretty much anything you needed from a tag team whether it's being ass kicking babyfaces, sympathetic underdogs or bumping and stooging heels. They were really great at working around Jose Lothario's limitations and creating a ton of movement around him so he could just hit his punches and look good without trying to expose him like the Dallas stuff that shoe mentioned. It's a shame these guys didn't get more opportunities to tear it together as a tag team in the late 80s. Chavo seemed to kind of disappear from the scene while Hector hopped around places like Memphis and USA Championship in Knoxville but they could have been a shot in the arm to the weak talent pool of the AWA or helped bolster the strong tag scene in JCP. Certainly would have been made a bigger impact than Lazertron teaming with Jimmy Valiant.

[Memphis Mark]

The Spoiler was awesome. I have some footage of the Spoiler working in Florida . I think he also worked as as the Super Destroyer for Crockett .. The Spoiler had a big run in Texas. He also worked for the old Tri - State promotion of LeRoy McGuirk. If I recall the Spoiler was managed by Gary Hart when he work in the Southwest. He was a great promo man .Loved his matches against Eric Emery in Florida.

[goc]

Well I can say for sure after reading Gary Hart's book and his hatred for Joe Blanchard that Gary didn't work in Southwest. The Spoiler did work for Fritz in World Class (or technically Big Time Wrestling as it was called pre-World Class) managed by Gary Hart though.

 

Gary talked up The Spoiler a lot in his book and was one of the few people Gary wrote about in his book that he didn't eventually "turn on" by saying "but then he didn't listen to me one time so I never spoke to him again."

[JerryvonKramer]

I thought that Blanchard worked with Boesch in the early 80s and that Gary Hart is a part of those cards.

[goc]

Gary is on the late 70s cards (and in a 6 man tag with Fritz himself on one of them) so that would definitely be before the big split.

[Matt D]

I'm very interested in seeing more Tiger Conway, Jr. at this point. I thought he looked pretty good in the match we saw and I don't think he'd a name in Houston for so long if there wasn't something to him.

[shoe]

I'm very interested in seeing more Tiger Conway, Jr. at this point. I thought he looked pretty good in the match we saw and I don't think he'd a name in Houston for so long if there wasn't something to him.

 

 

Well his Dad was a sponsor for the shows.

[Matt D]

Hey, nepotism gave us Gino too.

[shoe]

I've liked Jr. too.

[stomperspc]

How about El Bracero? He has only been in two matches on NWA Classics but I thought both were excellent performances. His athletic spots are great on their own but in both the Tully & MX matches I also thought he used those athletic spots very well to maximize crowd reactions. With the Guerreros, Fantastics, Eaton, Poffo, ect. around there were plenty of guys with flashy (for the time) offense but Bracero has stood out above them all for the execution and timing of that offense. Really fun undercard worker. Looks like he mainly worked Detroit and WWA so this is probably the best chance to see him.

[shoe]

I've loved Bracero too, and a guys reaction that was bigger than his push.

[conker8]

The Guerreros were back in EMLL by 1989.

 

It's funny to see that the Spoiler, Wahoo & Chavo are big discoveries. Guys in the business and older fans always thought highly about these guys.

[Matt D]

We trust our eyes the most.

[shoe]

The Guerreros were back in EMLL by 1989.

 

It's funny to see that the Spoiler, Wahoo & Chavo are big discoveries. Guys in the business and older fans always thought highly about these guys.

 

This is a place that watches a lot of wrestling . Their isn't tons of Spoiler in his prime same for Wahoo . Especially in an arena setting. I like to watch the footage as do a lot of people here and judge for our selves. Like Matt D says . I prefer judging them through my eyes. Not based on others opinions.

[shoe]

Plus if we took everything at face value we'd accept Hogan was the 1st to slam Andre, and Jake was the man who invented the DDT. Both statements have been proven false by watching the Houston footage.

[goc]

Yea I know Chavo has a good rep but who ever pimps The Guerreros as a team when they're talking about great 80s tag teams?

[NickH]

Talking about face value, Ive yet to see a match to say Harley Race was the toughest man going around. All the matches Ive seen of him all he does is bump and make the challenger look good. I want to see him kicking some ass and hopefully his matches against Wahoo in 78 & 79 will show this.

 

Speaking of the Spoiler, I love his offense, using the ropes, getting the most out of his moves, really ahead of his time and hope to see his matches with Brisco and his NWA title match against Race from 79.

[goc]

The "Harley Race is a really tough bad ass" stuff is more about real life Harley Race on the road and backstage and not about him in the ring. From all the Harley stuff I've seen, I wouldn't expect to see that "myth" of Harley in his matches.

[shoe]

Talking about face value, Ive yet to see a match to say Harley Race was the toughest man going around. All the matches Ive seen of him all he does is bump and make the challenger look good. I want to see him kicking some ass and hopefully his matches against Wahoo in 78 & 79 will show this.

 

Speaking of the Spoiler, I love his offense, using the ropes, getting the most out of his moves, really ahead of his time and hope to see his matches with Brisco and his NWA title match against Race from 79.

Parv and I were just saying that we hope a few of the Harley/Wahoo matches show up. I really want to see Spoiler against a variety of opponents. He really strikes me as a super versatile type worker.

[shoe]

Butch Reed

 

 

Here is another guy who has had a great career. We've seen a lot of footage throughout the years as a potential top 100 GWE. The Houston footage is cementing this, and even expanding on it. We've seen him work heel and babyface effectively. We've seen him excel in singles and tags. He's been great in working a gimmick match along with a straight match. Can't wait to see more of him.

[JerryvonKramer]

Talking about face value, Ive yet to see a match to say Harley Race was the toughest man going around. All the matches Ive seen of him all he does is bump and make the challenger look good. I want to see him kicking some ass and hopefully his matches against Wahoo in 78 & 79 will show this.

 

Speaking of the Spoiler, I love his offense, using the ropes, getting the most out of his moves, really ahead of his time and hope to see his matches with Brisco and his NWA title match against Race from 79.

Try the matches from 1982 I reviewed here: http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/19186-harley-race/?p=5680924

 

Vs. Flair, vs. Jumbo and vs. Kerry von Erich. All were from after he'd lost the NWA belt.

 

While still not exactly an "ass kicker", he worked a lot stronger than he typically did as travelling champ.

[DKM]

I have to say Race vs Gino and Bockwinkle vs Dusty have two of my favorite matches so far. Although a bit small, Gino could of been a world champion in my book.