Letters from Kayfabe

[jpchicago23]

I remember having World Tour 96 as a kid. It had a Bret/Austin match on it where Bret wins with the sharpshooter. Heading into Mania 13 I would always tell my friends that Bret already made him quit when they would constantly push the fact that Austin had never given up

[JRH]

Speaking of those coliseum "profile" tapes, im surprised they never made one for Tito Santana. Would have been better than that awful George Steele video (where he LOST the majority of matches featured on that tape).

[BigBadMick]

I'm digging the theme of early 90's UK fandom that's emerging in this show. To that point - Alan, what time period were you referring to when you talked about PPVs airing on a delay on Sky Sports? How early on did that happen?

[The Russian Daydream]

I'm surprised by the negativity Parv had as a child towards The Heavenly Bodies. I think we are roughly the same age (34) and I first started getting into wrestling proper when NWA came on ITV in 1989. The Midnight Express and Jim Cornette were a big part of that scene throughout 89 and 90 before Cornette and Lane left. A couple of years later, I was still a WCW guy all the way but read every wrestling magazine I could get my hands on. The Apter mags and Superstars of Wrestling always had good coverage of Smokey Mountain and I just saw the Heavenly Bodies as a direct descendent of The Midnight Express. When my parents got Sky in 1993, the first WWF PPV I watched was The Survivor Series and here were The Bodies vs The R&R Express in the match of the night. From that point on I always looked forward to The Bodies and enjoyed them a fair bit. Looking back now as an adult, I still enjoy watching them and always get a kick out of Jimmy Del Ray's sleaziest man alive character.

 

At the time I never saw them as an inferior talent but that might be because of the way I had hardly seen any WWF until just as they were coming in and they wrestled a style that was very comparable with what I was used to from WCW.

 

Fun show once again by the way.

[Grimmas]

Fact check, the first three CHV tapes (Bloopers, Hulkamania, & Best of the WWF) all came out on the same day.

[BigBadMick]

I'm surprised by the negativity Parv had as a child towards The Heavenly Bodies. I think we are roughly the same age (34) and I first started getting into wrestling proper when NWA came on ITV in 1989. The Midnight Express and Jim Cornette were a big part of that scene throughout 89 and 90 before Cornette and Lane left. A couple of years later, I was still a WCW guy all the way but read every wrestling magazine I could get my hands on. The Apter mags and Superstars of Wrestling always had good coverage of Smokey Mountain and I just saw the Heavenly Bodies as a direct descendent of The Midnight Express. When my parents got Sky in 1993, the first WWF PPV I watched was The Survivor Series and here were The Bodies vs The R&R Express in the match of the night. From that point on I always looked forward to The Bodies and enjoyed them a fair bit. Looking back now as an adult, I still enjoy watching them and always get a kick out of Jimmy Del Ray's sleaziest man alive character.

 

At the time I never saw them as an inferior talent but that might be because of the way I had hardly seen any WWF until just as they were coming in and they wrestled a style that was very comparable with what I was used to from WCW.

 

Fun show once again by the way.

Yeah, Superstars of Wrestling certainly gave Smoky Mountain plenty of positive play in 1993, and I thought the Steiners-Bodies match was the 2nd best thing at Summerslam (behind Bret-Doink/Lawler).

[JerryvonKramer]

I never saw WCW until 91, so missed any 89-90 stuff on ITV. So when the Steiners came I saw that as a big deal, but when Heavenly Bodies turned up I saw them as being from the lower leagues. I associated Cornette more with Yokozuna than anything else.

[Matt D]

I was in a similar boat. I had become more casual in 92 (my high point as a kid was fall 90-fall 92 really). Survivor Series was in Boston in 93 and thanks to my friend who had an uncle that worked for Titan I got to go for free (And to go backstage beforehand so there's a picture of twelve year old me with the Smoking Gunns somewhere). I had only been watching casually, but I had zero interest in the RnR vs Bodies match. As a kid, it felt hugely out of place and bush league compared to everything else. I think I was most excited for the Rocekrs' theme and then tuned out. Now, if I was going to Quantum Leap back into my 12 year old self, it'd probably be the match I'd be most excited for.

[BigBadMick]

I never saw WCW until 91, so missed any 89-90 stuff on ITV. So when the Steiners came I saw that as a big deal, but when Heavenly Bodies turned up I saw them as being from the lower leagues. I associated Cornette more with Yokozuna than anything else.

What about the WCW videos? I remember getting them all ASAP as they came out.

[JerryvonKramer]

 

I never saw WCW until 91, so missed any 89-90 stuff on ITV. So when the Steiners came I saw that as a big deal, but when Heavenly Bodies turned up I saw them as being from the lower leagues. I associated Cornette more with Yokozuna than anything else.

 

What about the WCW videos? I remember getting them all ASAP as they came out.

No don't even remember those being around. Woolworths, which was about the biggest shop in my town, didn't really sell even WWF videos. Had to go to a WH Smiths in a bigger town or else Cardiff / Swansea.

 

I didn't know anyone who had heard of WCW. Flair wasn't on anyone's radar till he came into WWF. Even in 92/3, I'm not sure I knew anyone else who had any sense of who Sting or Ron Simmons were. WCW being on at 2am on HTV probably had a lot to do with that.

[The Russian Daydream]

 

 

I never saw WCW until 91, so missed any 89-90 stuff on ITV. So when the Steiners came I saw that as a big deal, but when Heavenly Bodies turned up I saw them as being from the lower leagues. I associated Cornette more with Yokozuna than anything else.

What about the WCW videos? I remember getting them all ASAP as they came out.

The videos were a big part too. The first tape I bought was Great American Bash 90 and the first match on it was Midnight Express vs The Southern Boys. I loved it and still call that one of my favourite matches 25 years after I saw it. That match played a big part in me appreciating The Midnights and in turn being excited to see the Heavenly Bodies as their direct descendants.

[BigBadMick]

 

 

I never saw WCW until 91, so missed any 89-90 stuff on ITV. So when the Steiners came I saw that as a big deal, but when Heavenly Bodies turned up I saw them as being from the lower leagues. I associated Cornette more with Yokozuna than anything else.

What about the WCW videos? I remember getting them all ASAP as they came out.

The videos were a big part too. The first tape I bought was Great American Bash 90 and the first match on it was Midnight Express vs The Southern Boys. I loved it and still call that one of my favourite matches 25 years after I saw it. That match played a big part in me appreciating The Midnights and in turn being excited to see the Heavenly Bodies as their direct descendants.

 

Any idea when they came out? I'm sure it was sometime in 91 but can't quite remember.

[The Russian Daydream]

Around then I think. My first tape was GAB 90 as I mentioned. I got it either for my Christmas in 1991 or my birthday in the summer of 92. Memory is a bit hazy, but I would guess they came out towards the end of 91 or early in 92.

 

Like Parv, they weren't easy to come by for me, I'd have only become aware of them if my parents took me on a shopping trip to the big city of Dundee where they had a John Menzies.

[BigBadMick]

Took a quick look through some Superstars of Wrestling and they reviewed GAB 90, Havoc 90 and SuperBrawl 1 and 2 in August 1992.

 

WrestleWar 90 and 91 were reviewed in January 1993 (That sounds about right - I remember thinking it was odd that WrestleWar 90 was released way out of sequence).

 

Then SuperBrawl 3 was covered in September 1993, and mentioned that 1992's WrestleWar, Beach Blast and Starrcade were also available.

 

Then Beach Blast 93 and Fall Brawl 93 were reviewed in April 1994.

 

I don't think any other titles were given official releases until 1998.

[GSR]

Starrcade 90 was released over here in the UK because I had a copy. The UK releases were all edited or had matches cut from them which, as a completist, made me avoid getting them as I always wanted to see the card in full. That Starrcade for some reason wasn't and was the only WCW video I owned amongst a slew of WWE ones.

[GSR]

Bash 91 too.

[BigBadMick]

Oh yeah, all PPVs from Starrcade 89 to Fall Brawl 93 (with the exception of Slamboree 93) were released, with varying degrees of editing.

[BigBadMick]

I meant to say I don't think any other titles post Fall Brawl 93 were released until 1998.

[JerryvonKramer]

I later had a copy of Starrcade 89: Future Shock, and when I was collecting tapes that one seemed abundant and was cheap.

 

WCW distribution seemed quite random. Woolworths had those cards with top trump style values on them. I remember Ron Simmons, Sting and the Steiners were in the pack but that was the only WCW merch I remember seeing.

 

Our video shop had some WWF tapes to rent, but no WCW.

 

I had to go to Swansea to get SNES and NES games and that was usually my chance to look for wrestling tapes. But earlier WWF tapes from the initial 1988 run seemed harder to come by. I never once saw Summerslam 88 in the shops and had to pay something like £15 or £20 for it years later.

 

I may have seen WCW tapes in Swansea, I seem to recall seeing Luger on the front of one. But it's kinda hard to think back to being 10-11 years old. WCW felt like it had very little presence on the shelves.

[skipps04]

Ive been loving the show so far. A topic that might be fun to discuss is Jake Roberts in 1991, after the death of Damian and his heel turn on the Warrior and stuff with Savage and Undertaker. Keep up the fun stuff!

[cheapshot]

I just want to publicly thank everyone for taking the time to listen and to write in questions and praise the show. Honestly, I've been taken aback by it all, and rather humbled.

 

So again, thank you brothers! Lots and lots more shows planned where you'll see more of your listener questions read out and answered on air.

 

(As well as the weekly Chadley question of course!)

[Britwresdvds]

(As well as the weekly Chadley question of course!)

 

My favourite wrestler is the 'Suicide Kid' Danny Allan. Can you tell me whatever happened to him please. I heard he presents some podcast or other, but would be grateful for confirmation of this. Thank you.

[JerryvonKramer]

Episode 5:

 

http://placetobenation.com/letters-from-kayfabe-5/

 

 

Allan and Parv continue their exploration of Parts Unknown.

 

1. The Mailbag: Brookyln Brawler in 89-90 / One Man Gang becomes Akeem / Reverend Slick teams up with Kamala

2. The Event Center with JT Rozzero: RAW from October 9th 1995 from Grand Rapids, Michigan

3. The Long Topic: Pipers Pit

 

To write in to the mailbag, tweet @allan_cheapshot or @JerryvonK

 

Follow along on YouTube:

 

Piper's Pit:

[cheapshot]

[Cross Face Chicken Wing]

Kamala AND Akeem in the same segment?!?! I may not be able to handle this level of amazing!