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I've watched a bunch of Georgia lately and am working through this stuff. What if I suggested Vince was a better territorial announcer than Gordon Solie. Am I going to hell? Lance Russell smokes them both of course, entirely in his own class.

 

 

Vince was great, the only issue I have with him is he needs to be paired with someone as he will go quiet for long periods of time. A lot of the time the person he's paired with is awful though.

 

 

What cracks me up is in these days TV built to the houseshows, and so far WWWF TV was far more exciting than any of the MSG shows that have appeared so far.

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I've watched a bunch of Georgia lately and am working through this stuff. What if I suggested Vince was a better territorial announcer than Gordon Solie. Am I going to hell? Lance Russell smokes them both of course, entirely in his own class.

 

Vince was great, the only issue I have with him is he needs to be paired with someone as he will go quiet for long periods of time. A lot of the time the person he's paired with is awful though.

 

 

What cracks me up is in these days TV built to the houseshows, and so far WWWF TV was far more exciting than any of the MSG shows that have appeared so far.

If you're talking about the akward silence on these Network All-Star shows, I think that's where localized promos were inserted for each market.

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I've watched a bunch of Georgia lately and am working through this stuff. What if I suggested Vince was a better territorial announcer than Gordon Solie. Am I going to hell? Lance Russell smokes them both of course, entirely in his own class.

 

Vince was great, the only issue I have with him is he needs to be paired with someone as he will go quiet for long periods of time. A lot of the time the person he's paired with is awful though.

 

 

What cracks me up is in these days TV built to the houseshows, and so far WWWF TV was far more exciting than any of the MSG shows that have appeared so far.

If you're talking about the akward silence on these Network All-Star shows, I think that's where localized promos were inserted for each market.

 

The silence at the beginning of the match was where they would insert a voiceover promoting the cards coming to your area. Spent many a Saturday morning listening to Howard Finkel letting me know which bouts I would be seeing at the Erie County Fieldhouse.

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I still don't know why Rocca calls Vince McMahon "general" in the January 10th 1976 show but it is hilarious. Someone on the main roster has to start doing that

 

Nothing says bad ass heel that Ernie Ladd calling Bobo Brazil an Uncle Tom and a stooge for Bruno Sammartino. Pretty sure he was the only one allowed to do that.

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Given how awful commentary is on the current product I wish there were silent gaps more often. Like in the entire match

 

Curious is the WWWF the first promotion to use instant replay? They do it too often though especially in the middle of the match

 

 

If they weren't the first they had to be a close second. It does come off like they got a new toy and can't stop playing with it.

 

 

Also I'm pretty sure Rocca is calling Vince "Junior" in his mangled English, everyone who worked with Vince Sr called him that and it's the reason VKM has PTSD about calling anyone a junior to this day.

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That same 7/14/79 show has an SD Jones-Pat Patterson match. Pat Patterson seems like he was such an amazing worker, and this was the end of his career. If you watch the other SD Jones matches from this TV, you appreciate all the tricks Patterson used to pull a fun match out of him. I bet he had so many classics in his career that we'll never get to see.

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Skandor Akbar vs. Billy White Wolf. What does through your mind when you're an Iraqi immigrant dressed as a stereotypical native American and you look across and see a Texan dressed as a maniac from Saudi Arabia?

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Skandor Akbar vs. Billy White Wolf. What does through your mind when you're an Iraqi immigrant dressed as a stereotypical native American and you look across and see a Texan dressed as a maniac from Saudi Arabia?

 

 

Probably "this is the most pro wrestling thing possible".

 

At least Akbar was of Lebanese descent which was as close as you were going to get in those days to being culturally accurate.

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Man, I wonder if Iron Sheik had to go by Great Hussein Arab in WWF because Arion was the billed as the Iron Greek. I've always wondered why he used a different name there and was Sheik everywhere else

The crazy thing is that he was in the WWF for most of 79 and early 1980 as things were really starting to pick up in Iran. Not sure if they didn't lean into the whole thing more because of security or good taste or Sheik actually having been a bodyguard for the Shah or that he started in the fed as an 'Arab' from Iran so he couldn't drop the Arab stuff. But they tried to get more heat off of Arab/OPEC issues over that time. To put it in context, the Hostage crisis started in November 1979 while he was still in NY and getting occasional matches with Backlund

 

It took until 1982-ish in Florida for the Killer Karl Kox using FOIA to dox the Iron Sheik. So perhaps they had to wait for things to cool a little to not seem so exploitative.

 

Then again... some of the same people brought Sheik back in 1991 as an Iraqi, because I'm guessing the talent pool of people they could bring in to tag with Slaughter (or tag with Adnan) was a bit thin.

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So I'm watching the 79 TV and then watching the Spectrum and MSG shows chronologically with them and having the time of my life. Just watched the June 79 Spectrum show, it was wild. Dibiase and Patterson had a great match. Strongbow-Valentine was like a slower version of a Memphis brawl with Strongbow using any weapon he could find at ringside to bloody Valentine, it was awesome. Then we had Backlund/Putski vs The Valiants - Backlund gets injured and taken to the back mid-match but returns for a wild finish. And at the finish a fan tries to hit the ring and makes it to the apron before 10 guys tackle him. I'm gaining new respect for the NY territory for sure. It's just so fun to be able to watch complete territorial TV and then the arena shows, we've never been able to do that before.

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