Hawkeye12 Posted April 4, 2019 Report Share Posted April 4, 2019 Looking forward to this batch of gems, I didn't realize they'd gone so far as to have Piper give Razor his match before they had to scrap it. And I've always wanted to see the dark matches for Wrestlemania 6-10 (can see the end of 10 in the background of the pre-show at least), so happy to see Tito vs Papa Shango added. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sek69 Posted April 4, 2019 Report Share Posted April 4, 2019 They were running the angle for a while with Razor and Goldust, and I'm pretty sure the story was Scott Hall didn't like the homoerotic undertones of it and managed to get himself conveniently suspended. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hawkeye12 Posted April 4, 2019 Report Share Posted April 4, 2019 11 hours ago, sek69 said: They were running the angle for a while with Razor and Goldust, and I'm pretty sure the story was Scott Hall didn't like the homoerotic undertones of it and managed to get himself conveniently suspended. That's been a longstanding myth, but don't think it played any role or they wouldn't have gone back to the Goldust feud for WM to begin with (he feuded with 1-2-3 Kid the month before). In reality he told Vince he was leaving for WCW when his contract expired, so he conveniently got drug tested, failed, and was suspended for a six weeks, and lost out on the biggest payday of the year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sek69 Posted April 4, 2019 Report Share Posted April 4, 2019 My theory was always something like this: after he puts in his notice that he's going to WCW, Vince being Vince (and it sometimes gets forgotten how crazy vindictive even by his standards Vince was around this time) decides to put him in a high profile match at Mania for him to to the job, Hall balks for whatever reasons, and Vince just happens to schedule a drug test. It just kind of fits all the personalities involved. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeteF3 Posted April 5, 2019 Report Share Posted April 5, 2019 Shango-Santana was better than I expected, with both guys working hard for a match not intended to be seen. JR calls the match straight-laced but has some amusing one-sided conversations with Bruce Prichard along the way, telling him he'll "work on that" in response to some instruction or another and asking what Santana's finish is called. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hammerva Posted April 10, 2019 Report Share Posted April 10, 2019 Well we aren't getting THE Tom Magee match but a rather interesting one tomorrow Wrestling Challenge Taping 12/07/1988 – The Mystical Magical Magee [Duration: 09:55] WWE Hall of Famer ‘Million Dollar Man’ Ted Dibiase battles the mystical Tom Magee in this never-before-seen contest from Challenge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hawkeye12 Posted April 10, 2019 Report Share Posted April 10, 2019 This is the Tampa match Xpac referred to on Twitter a few weeks before the Hart-Magee "find" came to light. Said Ted was great and had him convinced Magee was the next big thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GSR Posted April 10, 2019 Report Share Posted April 10, 2019 9 minutes ago, hammerva said: Well we aren't getting THE Tom Magee match but a rather interesting one tomorrow Wrestling Challenge Taping 12/07/1988 – The Mystical Magical Magee [Duration: 09:55] WWE Hall of Famer ‘Million Dollar Man’ Ted Dibiase battles the mystical Tom Magee in this never-before-seen contest from Challenge. That is some coincidence and certainly adds credence to what Bix said on the page before my post https://forums.prowrestlingonly.com/topic/15404-holy-grails/?page=12 I spoke to Richard Land about this after the Magee/Bret tape was discovered and he had missed Sean Waltman's tweet and hadn't heard of any Dibiase/Magee match at that point. Of course someone in the selecting panel could've gone looking for it after seeing his tweet, but Sean didn't give a date (I took an educated guess) and there were more than one taping in Tampa during Magee's run with the WWF. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peachchaos Posted April 10, 2019 Report Share Posted April 10, 2019 22 minutes ago, GSR said: That is some coincidence and certainly adds credence to what Bix said on the page before my post I've made some cryptic posts in the past, and there's really no need for conspiracy theories at this stage. I can say 100% that we're all playing for the same team. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt D Posted April 11, 2019 Report Share Posted April 11, 2019 All I'll say to that is that it's pretty great to have that "opening a pack of trading cards" feeling every Wednesday as news of the weekly Hidden Gem waits to drop. It really helps a guy get through the middle of the work week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt D Posted April 11, 2019 Report Share Posted April 11, 2019 Match is ok. Magee comes off like the world's biggest Brady Boone. There were athletic things he did (just backflips off the rope or whatever) which were like nothing anyone would see, especially with a guy that big, during that era, but a lot of the times they seemed completely detached from the match itself. Dibiase would shrug him off and he'd take three steps back and THEN back flip, that sort of thing. Some things looked great. Some (the superkick and the spin wheel kick) looked rough, but I doubt anyone cared in 1988. They'd just be amazed to see it. The match itself was weird and I wouldn't particularly say it was a miracle carry job or anything. Dibiase filled time well, bumped well, reacted, sold, with his own offense looking good, but there wasn't a single hope spot/cut off. It meant for a lazy sort of layout (and Dibiase's back elbow off the second ropes is really the worst transition spot). A lot of the stuff that stood out the most with Magee wasn't bumping or offense but the bells and whistles so it's not necessarily anything Dibiase was doing except for giving him space. All that said, Dibiase had a lot of heat and Magee got a really nice ovation after the match. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dale Wolfe Posted April 11, 2019 Report Share Posted April 11, 2019 It was really interesting I thought. You could see flashes of why they thought Magee could have been something special- he can't half move for a big man so to speak. But yeah, detached is the right word. Reminds me a bit of someone like Chuck Palumbo or Stasiak for some reason, who never seemed quite locked into a match, depsite the obvious wwf attributes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hawkeye12 Posted April 11, 2019 Report Share Posted April 11, 2019 Thought the match was pretty good. I'm less sold on him being "carried" since DiBiase didn't do anything particularly more than usual and the high spots Magee did would draw the same reaction no matter who was in the ring with him. I'll bet the Bret match shows the same thing, the flashy spots would be the attention grabber, he just happened to be in the ring with Bret Hart first when he did them so Bret would take credit for it. He just seemed like a better looking, better physique version of what Poffo, Boone, and then the Blue Blazer were doing so I'd imagine he'd have gotten over very well during that time if he was even a decent promo. Him and Owen teaming up might've been a good combo in 1988 (Magee was a Stampede guy to start his career after all, having teamed with Bruce and Keith Hart previously). Definitely wish we'd seen more of him though based on what we saw in this match. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Viking Hall Posted April 11, 2019 Report Share Posted April 11, 2019 19 minutes ago, Hawkeye12 said: Thought the match was pretty good. I'm less sold on him being "carried" since DiBiase didn't do anything particularly more than usual and the high spots Magee did would draw the same reaction no matter who was in the ring with him. I'll bet the Bret match shows the same thing, the flashy spots would be the attention grabber, he just happened to be in the ring with Bret Hart first when he did them so Bret would take credit for it. He just seemed like a better looking, better physique version of what Poffo, Boone, and then the Blue Blazer were doing so I'd imagine he'd have gotten over very well during that time if he was even a decent promo. Him and Owen teaming up might've been a good combo in 1988 (Magee was a Stampede guy to start his career after all, having teamed with Bruce and Keith Hart previously). Definitely wish we'd seen more of him though based on what we saw in this match. I would go along with this entirely. He looked pretty great. I would imagine DiBiase put together the match in terms of structure, but as you say, there's nothing here that suggests Magee wasn't holding up his own end and wasn't at least competent in the ring. When you consider some of the lumbering lumps that got WWF airtime and pushes in the eighties and nineties I have a hard time believing that Magee was any worse than a lot of those... hell, based on this appearance alone, I'd say he was far better than The Ultimate Warrior and he got to the very top of the mountain. And while we're on that train of thought, how about that for an alternate timeline seeing as Magee arrived months before Hellwig... similar builds and look, Hellwig probably had him tipped on weird charisma but I'd go with Magee when it came to at least vaguely interesting matches. Think there's more to this than he was just a bad wrestler. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt D Posted April 11, 2019 Report Share Posted April 11, 2019 Remember too that this was more than two years after the Bret match. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Al Posted April 11, 2019 Report Share Posted April 11, 2019 It was a good match. I don’t think Magee’s lack of success is anything more complicated than he was a bad wrestler though. His selling is completely off. There’s no doubt he had potential and no wonder Vince tried him out, but it never completely clicked. Given pro wrestling in 2019 though, I expect to see someone book Tom Magee vs Nick Gage or David Arquette or someone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peachchaos Posted April 12, 2019 Report Share Posted April 12, 2019 1 hour ago, Al said: Given pro wrestling in 2019 though, I expect to see someone book Tom Magee vs Nick Gage or David Arquette or someone. At the very least, Conrad should take advantage of this moment and book him for Starrcast II in a booth with Bret and do a Q&A and everything. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul sosnowski Posted April 18, 2019 Report Share Posted April 18, 2019 For Thursday April 18, 2019 HOLY CRAP....NWA Tri-State Championship Wrestling (before Mid-South) Witness one of the surviving episodes of Championship Wrestling from the McGuirk territory featuring Paul Orndorff, Ernie Ladd and more. 1978 Leroys Lasting Legacy – 08/12/1978 ( – Springfield, MO) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WrestlingPower Posted April 19, 2019 Report Share Posted April 19, 2019 Does this pre-date what was available previously in the Watts collection? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul sosnowski Posted April 19, 2019 Report Share Posted April 19, 2019 I'm not an expert, but as far as I know the earliest Mid-South TV we have is December 1979 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bix Posted April 19, 2019 Report Share Posted April 19, 2019 16 hours ago, WrestlingPower said: Does this pre-date what was available previously in the Watts collection? Yes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sek69 Posted April 19, 2019 Report Share Posted April 19, 2019 Fascinating how this show was pretty much the same format as most Mid South TV. I wonder how hands on McGuirk was at this point since it seems like Watts was steering the ship. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WrestlingPower Posted April 21, 2019 Report Share Posted April 21, 2019 I was thinking that too. Wondering if Watts had taken control of the TV and shaped it in his image or if this format was McGuirk's and Watts just carried it forward. This was a neat show to see, with the Georgia footage in there too. I had never seen Bob Ellis before nor Bugsy as The Brute. I much prefer him as Brute as his odd mannerisms seemed to go better with crazy heel (dangerous) as opposed to crazy, screwball mental patient (more comedic). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul sosnowski Posted April 24, 2019 Report Share Posted April 24, 2019 Thursday April 25, 2019 07/28/1985 – Mid-South Wrestlefest 1985 [Duration: 01:46:23] Dusty Rhodes battles ‘Nature Boy’ Ric Flair, while Ted Dibiase faces Jake ‘The Snake’ Roberts in this star-studded spectacular. -------------------- Al Perez vs. Mark Ragin One Man Gang vs. Wendell Cooley Barbarian (John Nord) vs. Brickhouse Brown The Fantastics vs. Eddie Gilbert & Jerry Gray Ted DiBiase vs. Jake The Snake Roberts Dutch Mantell vs. Butch Reed NWA World Champion Ric Flair vs Dusty Rhodes Bill Watts, Hacksaw Duggan, & Dick Murdoch vs Kareem Muhammed, Kamala, & Skandor Akbar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sek69 Posted April 24, 2019 Report Share Posted April 24, 2019 I could be convinced that Al Perez is a time traveler and he's currently Seth Rollins. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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