Comments that don't warrant a thread - Part 4

[Superstar Sleeze]

I have only deeply watched two Johnny Ace tags from 1994 recently but I have to say I was pretty impressed. Could keep up with the workrate and the stiffness. In the December 1994 tag, he heel'd it up like a champ. Working perhaps the greatest heel spot in the history of Japan...maybe the world. I marked out like crazy when I saw this. 

[cactus]

Just given this my yearly rewatch. I love everything about it, from how it's shot to how they managed to cram so much action and drama into a sub five minute match. Would anyone here know how I can get my hands on some full Futen shows? Can only find individual matches on YouTube and Ditch's site.

[cm funk]

Wasn't sure where to put this, but Shad Gaspard is missing after being pulled out to sea on Sunday afternoon.  Doesn't sound good

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8331477/Former-WWE-star-Shad-Gaspard-goes-missing-pulled-sea-Venice-Beach.html

 

[Boss Rock]

Terrible news, was always a big fan of Larry's reviews. https://411mania.com/wrestling/larry-csonka-has-passed-away/

[C.S.]

2 hours ago, cm funk said:

Wasn't sure where to put this, but Shad Gaspard is missing after being pulled out to sea on Sunday afternoon.  Doesn't sound good

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8331477/Former-WWE-star-Shad-Gaspard-goes-missing-pulled-sea-Venice-Beach.html

This is sad, especially since he directed rescuers to save his 10-year-old son first (which they did).

Really hoping and praying for a miracle. 

[Strummer]

4 minutes ago, Boss Rock said:

Terrible news, was always a big fan of Larry's reviews. https://411mania.com/wrestling/larry-csonka-has-passed-away/

Really gutted by this. Been reading his reviews for probably 20 years or so. Devastating news

[The Thread Killer]

Larry Csonka seemed like a really decent human being. I loved his reviews, his reports have been the only way I have kept up with WWE programming the past couple years. I followed him on Twitter and was amazed at how positive he was after losing his leg to necrosis last year. He always tweeted cute pictures of his pets and stories about his kids. His poor family must be devastated right now. This is so unexpected and such a shock, he just posted some news items on 411 earlier today. Unbelievably sad. 

EDIT: I just saw that his final tweet less than 24 hours ago was complaining that he was really tired and didn't feel well.

[cm funk]

I used to post on the old 411 forums where Larry was a regular.  Had a lot of interaction and rasslin talk with him back in 03-06 or so.  We were both regular TNA watchers at the time.  Good guy.  Was amazed a number of years back to see he was still around and reviewing shows.  Very sad.  RIP

[Mad Dog]

2 hours ago, C.S. said:

This is sad, especially since he directed rescuers to save his 10-year-old son first (which they did).

Really hoping and praying for a miracle. 

Honestly, they are probably going to be lucky to even find his way. 

[The Thread Killer]

22 hours ago, cm funk said:

I used to post on the old 411 forums where Larry was a regular.  Had a lot of interaction and rasslin talk with him back in 03-06 or so.  We were both regular TNA watchers at the time.  Good guy.  Was amazed a number of years back to see he was still around and reviewing shows.  Very sad.  RIP

It's nice to see guys like Chris Jericho, Kevin Owens and Austin Aries express their condolences.  EVOLVE, Impact and MLW have also paid respects. I thought it was classy of Dave Meltzer and Bryan Alverez to pay tribute as well.  I am glad to see that somebody started a GoFundMe for Larry's daughters and that it seems to be doing well.  It did strike me today when I went to 411, that without Larry Csonka writing there, I really don't have any reason to go there anymore.  With all due respect, the rest of the so-called "writers" on that site are pretty much garbage.

[C.S.]

A great but heartbreaking read about Shad Gaspard.

https://www.espn.com/wwe/story/_/id/29194379/wwe-shad-gaspard-man-supposed-be 

[C.S.]

Shad Gaspard's body was found this morning.  

[World's Worst Man]

Definitely not trying to do the edgy "Why are people grieving someone they didn't know" schtick, but - It seems like the amount of reaction and outpouring on r/SC was much larger with him than with other pro-wrestling deaths in the recent past, which made me curious as to if there was any special significance to Shad Gaspard's career or personal life? I really don't know anything about him other than he was with Cryme Tyme, but I don't know anything about their run either.

[PhilTLL]

I think r/SC's demographic leans heavily towards people who came of age and became wrestling fans during Crime Time's heyday.

Plus that story is just extremely sad.

[World's Worst Man]

Ah yea that would make sense. I am becoming an old, out of touch SOB. Or maybe it's the children that are wrong.

[Superstar Sleeze]

I think also the way he died asking for his son to be saved from the riptide and him ultimately drowning makes this a story much bigger than wrestling. He could have been just a random Dad showcased on the local news and I would have been moved by the story. An inspiration to all fathers and a real hero.

[sek69]

Plus it seems like everyone who ever met him has tons of cool stories about what an awesome guy he was, seemed like one of the rare folks in the biz no one had a bad word to say about. 

[CarpetCrawler]

John Cena may have stealth-donated $40,000 to Shad Gaspard's family memorial fund to help it real its goal.  This dude is too good for this world.

[WingedEagle]

I'm watching Summerslam '88 and was surprised to see Baron Von Raschke managing the Power of Pain.  How long was he in for?  I had zero recollection of him being in the promotion and thought the PoP were operating on their own until the angle with Fuji at Survivor Series.

[The Thread Killer]

26 minutes ago, WingedEagle said:

I'm watching Summerslam '88 and was surprised to see Baron Von Raschke managing the Power of Pain.  How long was he in for?  I had zero recollection of him being in the promotion and thought the PoP were operating on their own until the angle with Fuji at Survivor Series.

I remember that quite clearly, for some odd reason. Summerslam 88 was actually "The Baron's" debut as their manager (if I recall correctly) but it lasted less than three months.  He came in around the end of August 88 and was gone by early November, I think.  I remember the whole idea seemed really goofy.  I thought The Powers of Pain were awesome, but they had The Baron in that robe with the hood, and you could barely see his face.  I assume they brought The Baron in because neither The Warlord or Barbarian could talk. (Well, I guess The Barbarian could talk, but you could barely understand what he was saying.)  The WWF really didn't do well with babyface managers (aside from Elizabeth.) at that time...remember when Oliver Humperdink managed Bam Bam Bigelow and Paul Orndorff briefly?  That seemed to last about as long as "The Baron."

I assume the WWF really wanted somebody with those guys who could talk for them. I remember the Powers of Pain came in as babyfaces, but then at Survivor Series 88 they turned heel and aligned themselves with Mr. Fuji.  The thing that struck my friends and I as really dumb was that Mr. Fuju managed Demolition who were the Tag Team Champions at the time.  He turns on them, and aligns himself with The Powers of Pain, who were not the champions and never would be. So the brilliant, devious mind of Mr. Fuji concocts a plan to stop managing the champs and take up with a team who can't beat them?  This is 32 years ago, so my memory isn't exactly vivid, but I recall Fuji's explanation for turning on Demolition being that "they wouldn't listen to him" or something like that.  I got why they turned Demolition babyface, because fans were starting to cheer them...but I never understood why creative never had Demolition turn on Mr. Fuji, not the other way around.

[WingedEagle]

2 hours ago, The Thread Killer said:

I remember that quite clearly, for some odd reason. Summerslam 88 was actually "The Baron's" debut as their manager (if I recall correctly) but it lasted less than three months.  He came in around the end of August 88 and was gone by early November, I think.  I remember the whole idea seemed really goofy.  I thought The Powers of Pain were awesome, but they had The Baron in that robe with the hood, and you could barely see his face.  I assume they brought The Baron in because neither The Warlord or Barbarian could talk. (Well, I guess The Barbarian could talk, but you could barely understand what he was saying.)  The WWF really didn't do well with babyface managers (aside from Elizabeth.) at that time...remember when Oliver Humperdink managed Bam Bam Bigelow and Paul Orndorff briefly?  That seemed to last about as long as "The Baron."

I assume the WWF really wanted somebody with those guys who could talk for them. I remember the Powers of Pain came in as babyfaces, but then at Survivor Series 88 they turned heel and aligned themselves with Mr. Fuji.  The thing that struck my friends and I as really dumb was that Mr. Fuju managed Demolition who were the Tag Team Champions at the time.  He turns on them, and aligns himself with The Powers of Pain, who were not the champions and never would be. So the brilliant, devious mind of Mr. Fuji concocts a plan to stop managing the champs and take up with a team who can't beat them?  This is 32 years ago, so my memory isn't exactly vivid, but I recall Fuji's explanation for turning on Demolition being that "they wouldn't listen to him" or something like that.  I got why they turned Demolition babyface, because fans were starting to cheer them...but I never understood why creative never had Demolition turn on Mr. Fuji, not the other way around.

Thanks for that.  Summerslam commentary suggested the Baron was debuting, but I couldn't recall seeing him on TV at all so wasn't sure it lasted but knew he was gone by Survivor Series.  I definitely remember Humperdink as Bigelow's mouthpiece for a bit.  Never mind the character, but the look of the Hump next to this fire-scalped bad ass who could fly around the ring didn't make much sense, even to an 8 year old.

[Superstar Sleeze]

What did people think of Louie Spicolli in 1997? I remember him in WCW as Hall's lackey in what early 98 during or around the time Dusty joined the NWO. I remember online there was a decent buzz around him as a good heat-seeking heel. Madonna's Boyfriend is such a great fucking name for a pro wrestler even if I have never seen any of that work. Ive never seen Rad Radford either. The reason I bring him up and I have been binging on a lot of ECW recently and he was going a really strong push against Dreamer. Injuring Beulah's neck with the Death Valley Driver and taking part in the big Wrestlepalooza 1997 angle. I dont remember reading about his ECW run at all. I imagine he went to WCW for the money. It is absolutely horrible what happened to him and that he died so young. Do people think he was going to be big a star? Was he Kliq-adjacent? I know there is the core 5 of the Kliq but it seems like certain people are a bit more friendly with the Kliq than others like the New Age Outlaws and Justin Credible. Was Spicolli one of those? I ask because the Dreamer feud starts because Spicolli is being a prick and asking Dreamer to "Too Sweet" him and Dreamer and breaks his fingers. Spicolli keeps throwing up the Kliq hand sign. The fact they align him with Hall pretty much immediately in WCW makes me wonder if he was legit boys with The Kliq? Long story short whats the PWO take on Louie Spicolli?

[Laz]

He was a Kevin Steen before there was Kevin Steen. One hell of a worker that understood how to get heat, at least in ECW, but his addictions got the better of him. An underrated midcard hand, for damn sure.

[El-P]

1 hour ago, Superstar Sleeze said:

Do people think he was going to be big a star? 

No. Midcard at best. Super solid worker, decent character but not exactly oozing with charisma either. Nothing special on promos. Your typical good hand that would have had a bunch of really good matches maybe if the other guy would be giving enough and maybe a handful of fun angles. I don't see him moving much past that point. I doubt he would get ahead of D-Lo level in 1998 WWF for instance.

I remember liking him already as Rad Radford but also immediately spotting him as former jobber Louie Spicolli back then, so even I, as unsmart as I was, was smart enough to see he wouldn't get anywhere despite the gimmick revamping. He was part of the "workrate JTTS crew" from 95 with Candido, Horowitz, Hakushi. He would be probably remembered more if he stayed in ECW longer, as he almost immediately jumped to WCW to be Hall's lackey, a role in which he was quite good, but not exactly super memorable.

Really good worker, but midcard guy 4 Life, as they said.

[Log]

Didn't Zbysko say something shitty about him on the air when they announced he'd died?