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WWE Hidden Gems


NickH

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Yeah there's a couple of the episodes that didn't make it. They said all the footage they have is uploaded so those must have been lost or didn't meet VQ quality standards.

Angle wise, yes it's the beginning of the Jimmy Valiant/Paul Jones feud that went on for years. The Assassins (well #1 since he's the one who did the promos) would talk about their unfortunately-named-for-2019 "registry" of people they are out to get. Dusty was #1 on that list because of course he was, and when Jimmy came out to save him from a beatdown he became their main target.  It built up to the mask vs hair match on this show, and then after another guy was brought in as Assassin #3 (which was weird since #2 was gone), then led to a side angle where Johnny Weaver stole #1's mask and started wearing it as the "Ultimate Assassin". 

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For Thursday August 22, 2019 --  SUPERSTARS ON THE SUPERSTATION

NWA World Tag Team Title: The Rock ‘n’ Roll Express (Ricky Morton & Robert Gibson) (c) vs. The Midnight Express (Bobby Eaton & Dennis Condrey)
The Road Warriors (Road Warrior Animal & Road Warrior Hawk) vs. The Russians (Ivan Koloff & Nikita Koloff)
NWA National Heavyweight Title: Dusty Rhodes (c) vs. Tully Blanchard
NWA World Heavyweight Title Match: Ric Flair (c) vs. Ron Garvin

Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling 02/07/1986 – Superstars on the Superstation [Duration: 01:28:02]

Ric Flair puts the title on the line against Ron Garvin, while Dusty Rhodes battles Tully Blanchard in this star-studded extravaganza.

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I'm a little behind on the Gems because I was out of town for a few weeks, so I just finished the 4/19/85 PWUSA show. No love for Backlund vs Larry Z or the Birds vs Flyers/Tonga Kid? I thought those were really good matches. Bob v Larry was worked especially well, with Larry having to toss Bob over the top rope for a dq to save the title he was on the brink of losing. That's a much better use of the rule than the dumb babyface tossing the heel over. Sarge vs Kamala was good too, but basically just a bridge to the next match between them, which I think was a Boot Camp match in a cage.  I really want to see that one, and hopefully the show surfaces, because I've really been digging the PWUSA shows and matches from the Meadowlands we've been getting 

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29 minutes ago, Ricky Jackson said:

I'm a little behind on the Gems because I was out of town for a few weeks, so I just finished the 4/19/85 PWUSA show. No love for Backlund vs Larry Z or the Birds vs Flyers/Tonga Kid? 

Bob Backlund vs. Larry Zbyszko

MD: This is definitely a Matt D match: wrestled title style with compelling matwork and chain wrestling to start, full of emotional selling (from Zbyszko who almost didn't stall enough to create the proper payoffs in the early going, but that was 100% on in every moment of the match), a good heel control segment (including a mini-King of the Mountain where Larry just crushed Backlund's head on the apron with a knee and well-worked, if not at all over, heel headlocks), and some callback spots in the comeback (both a revenge pile driver and face splitter/twister). It could have used some more compelling transitions, a babyface that the fans actually wanted to get behind (though most of the stuff Backlund actually did was spot on), and a finish which wasn't so damn AWA. It never wore out its welcome and it was a good Zbyzsko showcase. You watch this and you wonder, once again, at the idea that Backlund was WWWF champ for so long. Even when he's good, which is often, he comes off as such a goof. I will say this, no other combination in the world could have delivered an atomic drop quite as good as these two.

Freebirds vs. High Flyers/Tonga Kid

MD: This was a unique match up, at least. This was a pretty weird Pro Wrestling USA. Instead of JCP, you get the Samoans and the proto-Islanders and Backlund. It makes sense for the Meadowlands, I guess? This was the footage shown in Highlander, by the way, and you get a zooming camera over the top of the action sometimes. More on the overall camera work later.

This was a fun novelty, but I don't think ever really reached any level of greatness. Tonga was legitimately over and his initial exchange with Hayes, with them trading moonwalks, was memorable. Brunzell looked like a world-beater in the shine (thanks mainly to Gordy's basing). Maybe they went heel-in-peril a little bit long, but all the faces had to get a moment and the Freebirds were great stooges. 

They had a little heat segment on Brunzell and a longer one on Gagne. The crowd wanted Tonga back in but that didn't 100% translate to getting behind Gagne. I thought camera angle from ringside sort of hurt this. Gagne already wrestles at odd angles, but now we were seeing things from odd angles as well. Usually that doesn't bug me but here it took me out of the match. It was the usual elaborate High Flyers build to a hot tag, but maybe they could have removed a wrinkle, even if Gordy's side slam and especially Budro's bulldog looked great. The crowd came unglued for Tonga but then the ref threw it all out a minute too early and it was a lot less satisfying than if he had just waited for the chairs to come in or if it was worked towards a twenty minute draw since that's exactly as long as it went anyway. 

PAS: This had a bunch of fun moments, but never really came together as a great match. I really enjoyed Tonga Kid, he had some flash which as much as like the High Flyers, they clearly lack.  His pop and lock response to Micheal Hayes's moonwalk was the high light of the match. I think Gagne is a good wrestler, but he clearly didn't connect to a Jersey crowd which hadn't been following his family for years. I thought the Freebirds were cool, but this wasn't one of their most energetic performances, finish really was terrible, this match was too long to build to a lame cop-out like that.

https://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2019/07/new-footage-friday-slaughter-kamala.html

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For Thursday 8/29/19 ---    LATEST WWE NETWORK HIDDEN GEMS TO FOCUS ON ADRIAN STREET AND RARE OVERSEAS CHAMPIONSHIP DEFENSES

Stampede Wrestling 10/30/1981 – Street’s Stampede [Duration: 03:34] 
Two of Britain’s best square off when Adrian Street faces Davey Boy Smith from Stampede Wrestling.

Mid-South Wrestling 10/01/1984 – “Exotic” Adrian Street vs. Bobby Fulton [Duration: 15:27]
“Exotic” Adrian Street battles Bobby Fulton of The Fantastics in this exciting match from Mid-South Wrestling.

Mid-South Wrestling 12/02/1984 – Terry Taylor vs. Adrian Street [Duration: 12:02]
Terry Taylor takes on one of wrestling’s most interesting characters in Adrian Street in this bout from Mid-South Wrestling.

WWF Live Event Ontario 11/30/1991 – The Undertaker vs. British Bulldog for WWE Title [Duration: 12:07] 
The Undertaker defends his WWE Championship against the British Bulldog in this rarely seen contest from Canada.

WWE Live Event Nottingham 04/13/2008 – Randy Orton defends WWE Title against Triple H [Duration: 27:54] 
Randy Orton looks to successfully defend his WWE Championship against Triple H across the pond.

NXT Live Event Cardiff 12/15/2015 – Bálor defends NXT Title vs. Samoa Joe & Zayn [Duration: 29:49]
Finn Bálor puts the NXT Championship on the line against Samoa Joe and Sami Zayn in a Triple Threat Match.

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Do we have any sense of the mid-south matches? I know we have at least one Taylor vs Street match from that era. 

It's weird they have the main of that Nottingham card. It's also kind of annoying as literally every other match on the card is more interesting than Orton vs HHH:

WWE (Raw) @ Nottingham, England - Arena - April 13, 2008
DH Smith defeated Carlito Caribbean Cool
Paul Birchill defeated Val Venis
Santino Marella pinned Brian Kendrick with a roll up and grabbing the ropes for leverage
WWE Raw Tag Team Champions Hardcore Holly & Cody Rhodes defeated Lance Cade & Trevor Murdoch; after the bout, Cade and Murdoch argued over the loss
ECW World Champion Kane pinned Chavo Guerrero Jr. with the chokeslam
WWE Women's Champion Beth Phoenix pinned Mickie James with the cradle suplex; prior to the bout, Beth attacked Maria, who had been throwing t-shirts into the crowd
John Bradshaw Layfield pinned William Regal with the Clothesline from Hell in a No DQ match; the match came about when JBL cut an in-ring promo on England
WWE IC Champion Chris Jericho & CM Punk defeated Umaga & Snitsky when Jericho pinned Snitsky with the Codebreaker
Triple H defeated WWE World Champion Randy Orton via disqualification when Orton hit the challenger with the title belt; after the match, Triple H hit Orton with the belt and dropped him with the Pedigree

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18 hours ago, Migs said:

Have seen hints that this week's shows might be the MTV specials from 1985.

They're pushing the IC title hard on the website, so I'm holding out for some rare matches with the belt (maybe even some Patterson). Otherwise, of course, the hope is the first few King of the Rings. MTV shows would be a disappointment. 

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On 8/28/2019 at 2:24 AM, paul sosnowski said:

NXT Live Event Cardiff 12/15/2015 – Bálor defends NXT Title vs. Samoa Joe & Zayn [Duration: 29:49]

Finn Bálor puts the NXT Championship on the line against Samoa Joe and Sami Zayn in a Triple Threat Match.

I was at this show (it was the day before Takeover London) but I can’t remember a thing about this match. 

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19 hours ago, Migs said:

Have seen hints that this week's shows might be the MTV specials from 1985.

My gut: it will be the full MSG Network broadcasts of those two shows and not the specific MTV specials because there's a *ton* of music copyright hurdles they'd need to go through to the point where just dubbing in their own music would be so much work it'd be a useless endeavor.  Which is a shame because those specials are absurd fun where you get stuff like "Roddy Piper is the way he is because in Glasgow the water is polluted".

I'd LOVE to be proven wrong though because as of right now only the last quarter of The Brawl to Settle It All MTV broadcast is currently available (and has only been available for about less than a year now) and having that available would be a pretty big piece of wrestling history finally surfacing in full.

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10 minutes ago, CarpetCrawler said:

My gut: it will be the full MSG Network broadcasts of those two shows and not the specific MTV specials because there's a *ton* of music copyright hurdles they'd need to go through to the point where just dubbing in their own music would be so much work it'd be a useless endeavor.  Which is a shame because those specials are absurd fun where you get stuff like "Roddy Piper is the way he is because in Glasgow the water is polluted".

I'd LOVE to be proven wrong though because as of right now only the last quarter of The Brawl to Settle It All MTV broadcast is currently available (and has only been available for about less than a year now) and having that available would be a pretty big piece of wrestling history finally surfacing in full.

There's no way it'd be the MTV broadcasts and not the MSG shows. 

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On 9/2/2019 at 8:17 PM, Migs said:

Have seen hints that this week's shows might be the MTV specials from 1985.

And right you were,  albeit not specifically the MTV-only specials so it seems...

 

WWF 02/18/1985 – The War to Settle the Score [Duration: 02:20:28]
The rivalry between Hulk Hogan and “Rowdy” Roddy Piper reaches a fever pitch on the road to WrestleMania.

 

7/23/84 Brawl to End It All

Ron Shaw vs. Sika
The Iron Shiek vs. Tony Garea
WWF Intercontinental Championship: Bob Orton Jr. vs. Tito Santana ©
Bob Backlund vs. Butcher Vachon
WWF World Heavyweight Championship: Greg Valentine vs Hulk Hogan ©
WWF World Martial Arts Heavyweight Championship: Charlie Fulton vs Antonio Inoki ©
WWF World Tag Team Championship: Sgt Slaughter and Terry Daniels vs Adrian Adonis and Dick Murdoch ©
WWF Women’s Championship: Wendi Richter vs Fabulous Moolah ©
Chief Jay Strongbow vs. Paul Orndorff
Afa vs Rene Goulet
A 20-Man Battle Royal

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1 hour ago, JerryvonKramer said:

Does anyone have a definitive list of what has been released that is BRAND NEW?

 

I've dug sniffing around this Hidden Gems section since getting the Network again. It's phenomenal.

Don't know of any list. Honestly, your best bet is going through this thread. We hit most of the marks.

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4 hours ago, Matt D said:

The best thing about these (or Superstars on the Superstation/Summer Slam Specatculars,etc.) is that there's a finite amount of them, so every one that they put up takes us a step closer to getting something from the archives we didn't have available before.

I find it curious we haven't gotten the USA PPV specials from before 1993 though. 

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