Comments that don't warrant a thread - Part 4

[Mad Dog]

Is there much Jose Lothario out there from the 70s? He's consistently one of the best guys on the shows. He actually made me enjoy a Bugsy McGraw match. 

[WrestlingPower]

Not to be morbid but thinking about Silver King dying in the ring and Terry Funk saying multiple times that he wants to go out that way.  I heard Terry hasn't been doing well lately and also heard that he has a booking coming up, not sure when.  Hope nothing happens.  Part of me hopes an athletic commission steps in.

[Blehschmidt]

1 hour ago, Mad Dog said:

Is there much Jose Lothario out there from the 70s? He's consistently one of the best guys on the shows. He actually made me enjoy a Bugsy McGraw match. 

I almost mentioned that I was shocked at how much I enjoy Lothario on the early World Class shows, my only previous exposure to him being HBK's creepy hanger on in Mid 90's WWF.

[Mad Dog]

12 minutes ago, Blehschmidt said:

I almost mentioned that I was shocked at how much I enjoy Lothario on the early World Class shows, my only previous exposure to him being HBK's creepy hanger on in Mid 90's WWF.

He is so great at taking the 8 minutes he's given and just doing something entertaining. Even tags later in the year are still a lot of fun with him. 

[Blehschmidt]

I did just watch Gran Markus drag him to a pretty unwatchable singles match, but otherwise, very impressed with everything I've seen.

[Ricky Jackson]

Check out the Boesch era Houston footage if you want to see really awesome Jose matches 

[Mad Dog]

Awesome, I will check that out.

I also love World Class for the random appearances of luchadores that I haven't seen very much of. Like I don't think I had seen Blue Demon Sr. before he popped up in World Class.

[Mad Dog]

God, Kerry is such a terrible promo. Kevin isn't any great shakes but he's at least coherent, same with David.

[Blehschmidt]

15 minutes ago, Mad Dog said:

God, Kerry is such a terrible promo. Kevin isn't any great shakes but he's at least coherent, same with David.

I hear ya. I have Kerry and Kevin in the 1984 writing project currently going on in the Armchair Booking forum, and every time I have to write a promo for them. I just include the words Brothers, God, and Texas and then attempt to formulate sentences around those words while channeling the pothead half wits I used to work with when I managed a Domino's Pizza in my 20's. It's really effective.

[Mad Dog]

Like Al Madril isn't great by any means but he sounds like a rocket scientist next to Kerry.

[Mad Dog]

How much Portland footage still exists and where is the best place to start with it? 

[khawk20]

There is a set of footage available starting circa 1977 which is about as early as there is for footage en masse (was originally buddy rose's  footage, converted by hoops Johnson, as I recall).After that "The Buddy Rose tapes" continue with a large amount of shows beginning in 1980 that are out there (hoops may have converted these too). There are also compilations from the 80s available from various sources including the dvdvr project which is probably the best of the "best of" Portland stuff. There are also the Verne siebert tapes which are mid and later 80s for the most part covering the latter part of the decade. 

So....from my own memory of what is out there I would go in this order for Portland stuff:

 

1) hoops 70s set

2) buddy rose 80s 

3) dvdvr project for best of 80s

4) siebert later 80s shows

5) special mention to the bix beta classics which als has some nice quality 80s Portland as I recall.

[Matt D]

It's amazing watching Buddy Rose in front of the same crowd week to week against a variety of opponents. You would do yourself a massive disservice trying to cherry pick.

[Blehschmidt]

Another thing World Class is teaching me is about the long standing feud between Mongolia and England as Chris Adams and The Mongol face each other more times than Kevin Von Erich and Bill Irwin did the year before.

[Ricky Jackson]

Serious candidate for least interesting feud of all time 

[Robert S]

8 hours ago, Blehschmidt said:

Another thing World Class is teaching me is about the long standing feud between Mongolia and England as Chris Adams and The Mongol face each other more times than Kevin Von Erich and Bill Irwin did the year before.

What's with all those fake Mongolians in 70ies and 80ies pro wrestling anyway? It's not as if there was any current or former political conflict to draw heat from nor are Mongolians these mythical characters that create instant interest.

[Mad Dog]

3 minutes ago, Robert S said:

What's with all those fake Mongolians in 70ies and 80ies pro wrestling anyway? It's not as if there was any current or former political conflict to draw heat from nor are Mongolians these mythical characters that create instant interest.

The idea of Ghengis Khan and Mongolia was popular in a lot of pulp novels which bookers in the 70s probably grew up reading. It's exotic and foreign but also kind of legit because it's something a little more random as far as the country selected.

[sek69]

At least Killer Khan was Asian,  most of the other "Mongolians" were random white dudes. Like no matter how hard you kept kayfabe, that would have most folks going "uhhhh"

[Mad Dog]

Hey, Nikolai Volkoff kind of sort of grew up almost sort of close to a country that was close to Mongolia...

[Al]

Wrestling Mongolians are a fantastic mix of races. You’ve got Volkoff (Yugoslavian) and Newton Tattrie (French Canadian). Tattrie is later joined by Bill Eadie, from Pennsylvania. Killer Khan was Japanese, while El Mongol in Georgia was a Mexican. 

And yeah, it’s Genghis (and Kubla) Khan coupled with Mongolians not being prevalent enough that Americans know what they’re supposed to look like.

[Blehschmidt]

The Mongol in WCCW was Gene Petit from Mississippi.

[Ricky Jackson]

The original Mongols in WWWF got over HUGE in 1970, so everyone copied the shit out of the gimmick for years 

Even earlier, El Mongol was a big star in the South 

[Johnny Sorrow]

You can hear Kelly (Ricky Jackson), Pete (Shoe), and me talk about all this early World Class insanity on World Cast, one of many great podcasts on the PWO podcast network.  Even if you think I'm an asshole, check it out. We're fun!

[NintendoLogic]

According to Dave's Geeto obit, the Mongols idea came when he came across a book on Genghis Khan in a library. And as Ricky said, the success of the Mongols tag team led to legions of imitators the same way the success of the Road Warriors led to legions of juiced-up muscleheads in face paint.

[Mad Dog]

Magic Dragon is also another great worker on 1982 WCCW. Consistently good TV performances.