Comments that don't warrant a thread - Part 4

[Edwin]

I've been re-watching/watching the little footage we have of the Russian Red Bull Army from 1989 New Japan and 1993 U Inter and Zangiev is slowly peaking in to become one of my all-time favorites. I've really enjoyed watching him throwing folks around.

[SPS]

On 4/1/2020 at 5:38 PM, Edwin said:

I've been re-watching/watching the little footage we have of the Russian Red Bull Army from 1989 New Japan and 1993 U Inter and Zangiev is slowly peaking in to become one of my all-time favorites. I've really enjoyed watching him throwing folks around.

Me too, just watched his tag against Choshu/Fujinami last night. I loved him in UWFi and hadn't got to see much of his NJPW stuff but he was fantastic everywhere. I'd love to have a career set of all his matches that made tape because he's fantastic.

[sek69]

So I fell into a rabbit hole of Kevin Sullivan in Florida, and the whole Army of Darkness stuff was quite the ride. The angles they did were brilliant: Luna being introduced as a nearly unrecognizable interviewer looking like every woman in the 80s giving an award to Kendall Windham, which led to Kevin and his army crashing the party and Luna getting slapped (hard) by Kevin which somehow leads to her wanting to join his crew. Kevin trying to gouge out Blackjack's eye with a broken bottle, the NWA giving him "the largest fine in history" and Kevin's response being to take the letter it was written on and turn it into a paper airplane. All great stuff. Everyone played their roles perfectly, and you can even see where he'd get the idea for the Varsity Club years later with Bob Roop as the Olympic wrestler turned evil by the sinister mastermind.

However....holy crap do Kevin's promos not hold up AT ALL. Watching a compilation you can see how he just recycles the same points over and over about taking the cosmic cookie (a not so subtle drug reference) to enter the Amazon River of his mind (what?) to speak to Abbuda Dein and/or the Chairman of the Board (which in the ICW footage was shown to be King Curtis, not sure if that part ever made it to Florida or not). That was literally every promo he did during the entire run. Which would be fine in a "people in the 80s would not have been watching it all in one lump like this" if it wasn't for the other part: the running themes of abusing women and racism.  I'm not talking stuff that just doesn't look good with 2020 eyes, but stuff that didn't really fly in the 80s either. The whole deal with Luna turning to the darkside was basically Kevin saying she put her hands on him (she was trying to break up the melee) so he treated her like he would a man in that situation. It goes on to be a recurring theme that Kevin believes women need to be handled roughly and that they all secretly enjoy it, and all the while Nancy is right there and it's just too UHHH to handle with modern eyes.  Then there's the feud with Tyree Pride, the Bahamas champion and a black man from Haiti. Kevin cuts a promo saying he normally wouldn't put his hands on "his kind of people"  before devolving into the typical 80s southern promotion using race to get heel heat, brother. 

In all it was quite a strange trip. Kevin Sullivan might be one of the best brawling type wrestlers I've ever seen, with an amazing mind for booking, and quite possibly the worst promo ability of anyone ever given a major push in any territory. 

[Stiva]

Not to distract from Sullivan talk but isolation means I can watch some long matches and Backlund/Valentine in the draw is an incredible long match. When they worked 4 different Full Nelson reversals in the opening minutes, I knew I was in for a good one.

[TheDuke]

Does anybody know why that 80's Florida stuff is not on the WWE Network? I thought Vince owned all the 80's Florida footage as well. 

I was watching some "Old School" 80's house show matches and was thinking it would be great if we had the local promos from the syndicated TV for the specific house shows that we do have on the Network. I understand that there are a lot of local promos from different syndicated shows and it wouldn't make sense to put them all up. But for the specific house shows they do have up, like the March 85 MSG show, it would be cool if they put up the syndicated TV or promos from the TV that aired on the local New York TV from the month or so leading up to it. As a child, the local promos was usually my favorite part of the syndicated TV,  and being able to see those promos, followed by the actual matches they were promoting,  would be lots of fun.

[khawk20]

There were a few Florida eps up on the old 24/7 channel but I don't think it's been done much on the network. Not many plans to expand thenold school stuff on demand at the moment. 

Regarding the promos, if other territories are like the AWA then what your suggesting likely won't ever happen. The AWA promo reels were filmed separately from the tv show and each market got their promos sent along with the tv on a different reel. So ifthe reels are still around (and most aren't) it becomes almost impossible to match them up properly, at least it's more work than anyone would pay to get done I suspect. Plus i think most of the reels with promos didn't make it back to the minny vault. 

Did local interviews in other areas bicycle the same way? I don't know but possibly.

 

there are probably some territory sets out there with promos put together with matches as you've described. I've done a few like that for the AWA and it's definitely a lot better way to watch things. Puts the bouts in context like you noted.

[Dav'oh]

Halfway through "Powerbomb" (2020), starring Matt Cross and Britt Baker (in an Adam Cole T-shirt, so far) and Adam Cole popped up too. Seen far worse. I can understand why IMDB's 24 voters give it a 2.8, but as a wrestling fan it's instantly a million stars. (Available at your friendly neighbourhood torrenting site.)

From IMDB: Powerbomb is the story of an independent wrestler on the verge of breaking into the big time, but he's contemplating leaving it all behind to spend more time with his family. When our wrestler's biggest fan hears the news, he decides to take matters into his own hands to ensure that his champion gets to the top by any means necessary.

(Couldn't find a movie thread, so I put this here.)

[Migs]

Every time I go back and watch Dangerous Alliance era WCW (which is not infrequently, it's one of my favorite eras), it always bums me out that there's months of WCW TV from that period where they decided they just didn't need color guys, and the announcing is just really dull. It just makes some great matches a bit less enjoyable than they otherwise could have been. (Although not as bad as the WCW Saturday Night episodes with musicians or Jason Hervey on color.)

[C.S.]

On 4/9/2020 at 10:08 AM, Dav'oh said:

Halfway through "Powerbomb" (2020), starring Matt Cross and Britt Baker (in an Adam Cole T-shirt, so far) and Adam Cole popped up too. Seen far worse. I can understand why IMDB's 24 voters give it a 2.8, but as a wrestling fan it's instantly a million stars. (Available at your friendly neighbourhood torrenting site.)

From IMDB: Powerbomb is the story of an independent wrestler on the verge of breaking into the big time, but he's contemplating leaving it all behind to spend more time with his family. When our wrestler's biggest fan hears the news, he decides to take matters into his own hands to ensure that his champion gets to the top by any means necessary.

(Couldn't find a movie thread, so I put this here.)

Where is this movie available to watch legally? (I'm not interested in torrent piracy stuff.) 

[Dav'oh]

5 hours ago, C.S. said:

Where is this movie available to watch legally? (I'm not interested in torrent piracy stuff.) 

https://watchfreenet.com/powerbomb-2020/ should work fine. The movie definitely winks or outright talks to "smart" fans. 

[Coffey]

Are the 1987 Great American Bash Wargames matches on WWE Network? I Googled it & just found out there were more than one GAB events that year, and it was pre-PPV. But ever since WWE Network changed their layout, I can't find shit anymore. The search feature is worthless. 

Any help?

[Alucard]

24 minutes ago, Coffey said:

Are the 1987 Great American Bash Wargames matches on WWE Network? I Googled it & just found out there were more than one GAB events that year, and it was pre-PPV. But ever since WWE Network changed their layout, I can't find shit anymore. The search feature is worthless. 

Any help?

The 87 matches are no longer on the Network. They previously had two of them as part of the "WarGames Collection" but since the collections section was removed in the Network overhaul last summer,  for whatever reason those two were never added back as far as I know. The earliest Wargames still up is from one of the '88 tours that was added as a hidden gem late last year.

[Coffey]

Balls.

Thanks for the answer though, I appreciate it. 

[Dav'oh]

Random questions:

Does anyone know why there's a Tommy Rich Inn in Kyoto, Japan?https://www.tripadvisor.com.au/Hotel_Review-g298564-d1080616-Reviews-Tommy_Rich_Inn_Kyoto-Kyoto_Kyoto_Prefecture_Kinki.html

When did Vince first show interest in signing Ric Flair? He took his sparring partners like Valentine, Steamer and Piper - was there any attempt to get Flair back then?

The thing that I always noticed most about Steve Dr. Death Williams was the size of his trunks - they are humungous. It's like he's wearing a small tent. I recently watched some latter Kobashi matches (for better or worse) for the first time, and noticed he had impressively large trunks, too. Not really a question, but outside of your giant-types, I believe Steve Williams had the biggest trunks in wrestling

 

 

[The Thread Killer]

2 hours ago, Dav'oh said:

When did Vince first show interest in signing Ric Flair? He took his sparring partners like Valentine, Steamer and Piper - was there any attempt to get Flair back then?

I saw an interview with Flair where he claimed he came close to signing with Vince a couple of times during the WWF’s 80’s boom. I don’t know the dates but I think Vince definitely tried to get Flair a few times and made it pretty clear the WWF door was open whenever Flair wanted to come. I have heard Flair say several times that he regrets not going to the WWF much earlier than he did and that he wishes he had taken advantage of one of those earlier opportunities.  

The thing is at the time I think Flair was perfectly happy staying with the NWA when the NWA was actually a functioning organization and then later when the territories died and the NWA was basically JCP.  My impression was always that it wasn’t until JCP sold to Turner that Flair had any interest in jumping ship, more for creative reasons than anything.

 

[gordi]

2 hours ago, Dav'oh said:

Random questions:

Does anyone know why there's a Tommy Rich Inn in Kyoto, Japan?https://www.tripadvisor.com.au/Hotel_Review-g298564-d1080616-Reviews-Tommy_Rich_Inn_Kyoto-Kyoto_Kyoto_Prefecture_Kinki.html

When did Vince first show interest in signing Ric Flair? He took his sparring partners like Valentine, Steamer and Piper - was there any attempt to get Flair back then?

The thing that I always noticed most about Steve Dr. Death Williams was the size of his trunks - they are humungous. It's like he's wearing a small tent. I recently watched some latter Kobashi matches (for better or worse) for the first time, and noticed he had impressively large trunks, too. Not really a question, but outside of your giant-types, I believe Steve Williams had the biggest trunks in wrestling

 

 

Nikolai Volkoff had some pretty big trunks, too.

The Tommy Rich Inn is in a very nice neighbourhood in Kyoto, near the Manga Museum and the Kaleidoscope Museum. I used to teach at a language school near there once a week. Not sure about the name. There is also a cosmetics brand in Japan called Rich Tommy which always cracks me up when I see it. 

[Dav'oh]

46 minutes ago, The Thread Killer said:

I don’t know the dates but I think Vince definitely tried to get Flair a few times and made it pretty clear the WWF door was open whenever Flair wanted to come

Cheers. Reading through the archives here, it was mentioned that Ted DiBiase was pretty much the last person taken from the UWF (behind even Dick Slater, for example) so the question was raised as to how badly Vince really wanted him. I thought there were parallels to Flair in that sense. Thanks for clearing that up.

32 minutes ago, gordi said:

Nikolai Volkoff had some pretty big trunks, too.

That brought a smile to my face. He's definitely a contender.

All I could find on Tommy Rich in Japan was two tag matches for AJPW in 1988, so I didn't think he was exactly a wrestling god over there. Maybe he is to one person...?

[gordi]

9 minutes ago, Dav'oh said:

Maybe he is to one person...?

That makes sense. I mean, I really like Masashi Aoyagi, Masato Yakushiji, and Alexander Otsuka. Why shouldn't Tommy Rich be one of some Japanese hotel owner's favourite wrestlers?

[MoS]

From what I remember from reading the Observer, the first time WWF and Flair came really, formally close to talking about him jumping was some time shortly after Arn and Tully jumped. It was when the relationship between Flair and Dusty was probably at its nadir, and I guess Flair was just tired of it. But then Turner decided to buy the company and made it abundantly clear that it was contingent on Flair being there. I think this was around the same time Dusty wanted Flair to put over Rick Steiner in 4 minutes at Starrcade. 

[Dav'oh]

Thanks for that. I didn't want to bump the Ric Flair (sigh) thread because bumping it startles people.

[PeteF3]

In the build-up to SummerSlam '88, the identity of Brother Love's guest was kept secret and even hyped as "someone who had never appeared in Madison Square Garden before." This was apparently supposed to be Ric Flair's debut, but it didn't happen and we got an underwhelming interview with Hacksaw Jim Duggan instead. But for them to kinda-sorta hype a special debut on television meant that things had to be very, very close to happening.

(Yes, yes, Flair had worked an MSG shot in 1975--in that continuity it didn't count.)

[The Thread Killer]

1 hour ago, PeteF3 said:

In the build-up to SummerSlam '88, the identity of Brother Love's guest was kept secret and even hyped as "someone who had never appeared in Madison Square Garden before." This was apparently supposed to be Ric Flair's debut, but it didn't happen and we got an underwhelming interview with Hacksaw Jim Duggan instead. But for them to kinda-sorta hype a special debut on television meant that things had to be very, very close to happening.

(Yes, yes, Flair had worked an MSG shot in 1975--in that continuity it didn't count.)

Oh yeah you’re right. Even Prichard admits that was supposed to be Flair but the deal fell through at the 11th hour.

[ohtani's jacket]

Flair jumping to the WWF in 1988 would have been horrific. I cannot imagine a world where Flair's 1989-90 NWA/WCW output is erased. Thank god Dusty jumped instead. 

[C.S.]

38 minutes ago, ohtani's jacket said:

Flair jumping to the WWF in 1988 would have been horrific. I cannot imagine a world where Flair's 1989-90 NWA/WCW output is erased. Thank god Dusty jumped instead. 

But then WrestleMania 6 likely ends up being Hogan vs. Flair, and maybe Warrior is relegated to a higher-profile version of Tom McGee instead of ever winning the WWF Title. It's a fun "what if?" because that shift alone affects so many other future developments.

[Loss]

Ric Flair was never going to be Ric Flair working for Vince. He'd get a push and be a guy at the top, but he'd never be Ric Flair. We have proof of that.