Loss Posted July 17, 2006 Report Share Posted July 17, 2006 I picked up the entire 1989 run of the NWA shows on TBS a little while back and I'm loving this stuff. How is it that two hours of squashes and promos from the big stars is a more entertaining and focused presentation than two hours of matches featuring big names opposite each other in 2006? Some random thoughts: * Steamboat winning the belt at Chi-Town Rumble was one of the best moments in wrestling history. The atmosphere for that entire show is just off the charts anyway, but the fuck you to the previous regime where they teased the Dusty finish but didn't deliver it was just awesome. * You just don't get interviews of this quality anymore - from anyone. Flair, Cornette and Hayes could come out 2-3 times a show and talk 2-3 minutes and manage to get themselves, their opponents, their storylines and sometimes even other people's storylines as well. * Hiro Matsuda buying the Horsemen from JJ Dillon is the lamest thing I've ever seen, because Hiro seems like he has no idea where he is or even that he's on TV. * THE IRON SHEIK! KEVIN SULLIVAN! Modern wrestling needs more madmen. * Subtlety. Flair mentions that Matsuda treated he and Barry Windham to a night on the town, and he only thought he'd lived until he experienced the wonder of a Japanese woman. He doesn't beat the point over the head. On RAW, they assume their audience is full of imbeciles and would make it a huge comedy skit that took up six segments throughout the night instead of just letting the viewer figure out that Flair was treated to booze, sex and money, and had no problem offering his services to the Yamazaki Corporation as a result. * Paul E. Dangerously to Jim Ross at the beginning of an episode of Main Event: "Where's that Italian guy?" JR: "He's long gone" ... in reference to Tony Schiavone jumping to the WWF. It was funny because one week, Schiavone and JJ Dillon were hosting the show, and the next week, they both completely disappeared and Ross and Paul E. were in their place. * Barry Windham disappeared at his zenith as a character. Too bad. He was awesome for a few years after this, but I think the moment to make him the top new star in wrestling passed when he jumped to the WWF. Interesting to see who would have been pushed in the long run with Sting, Luger and Windham all very over in their roles. I believe the original plan at the time was for Windham to take the title from Steamboat and then feud with a babyface Flair that summer, according to people like John McAdam who spoke to Meltzer on the phone regularly back then. * Paul E. obviously has a lot of charisma, but he can't compare to Jim Cornette. He's great in so much of this, but Cornette is on a completely different level as an interview. * Midnight Express squashes are awesome! Barry Windham against George South with BW still selling his hand injury from Chi-Town Rumble is pretty fucking great for a five-minute match too. George South could go the few chances he got a time to show it. * Missy Hyatt! There will never be another person who plays the blond skank whore so well. She's sleazy even as a babyface. Humorous. * Michael Hayes was having a major hair crisis at this point. But Hayes is pretty awesome on most of this so far too, as long as he's not having 15-minute matches with guys like Russian Assassin #2. I got a kick out of Hayes announcing himself as Luger's partner on the Paul E.'s Danger Zone talk show segment, but Hayes was all up in Luger's face and so was Paul E. and Luger was visibly annoyed and so distracted he could barely put together a sentence. Funny. * Sting explains wrestling in 60 seconds. "It's not interesting when you have two people the crowd likes, and I get most excited when a good guy faces off with a bad guy. That's when the people buy tickets and a fire lights up in me! So THANK YOU, Butch Reed!" * Flair is the best ever. Someone is better than him at almost everything, but no one else is as great at pretty much everything. "I'm a multi-millionaire! Bad things do not happen to millionaires! My days are structured and planned. This is not right!" in response to losing to a debuting Ricky Steamboat in a tag match * The Flair/Windham/Gilbert/Steamboat feud should have gone on for months. Flair dropping the knee on the back of Gilbert's head and breaking his nose, while Jim Ross goes insane, is an awesome angle no one ever talks about. * Again, Flair rocks. He's doing this promo going on and on about winning the belt back from Steamboat, then finishes by saying that while he's at it, he's going to take Luger's US title too, since Luger being a champion of anything is annoying. No other reason, but just because it annoyed him. * "For years everyone held up four fingers, and we broke that in half! They said rock and roll will never die, and we killed it ... we got hard heads, we do things our way and our way only, and we've won every title, accolade and award we can possibly win in wrestling because we're good and because we can." Again, Cornette is amazing. * The Road Warriors/Varsity Club feud is kind of a sleeper feud. Great promos from both sides on TV, and the 7-minute match they had on TBS to set up Chi-Town rocked as a crazy, super-stiff brawl. I'm only to March. I'm anxious for them to get out of the Techwood Drive studios and move to Center Stage. A few more episodes away from that. 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sek69 Posted July 17, 2006 Report Share Posted July 17, 2006 * Hiro Matsuda buying the Horsemen from JJ Dillon is the lamest thing I've ever seen, because Hiro seems like he has no idea where he is or even that he's on TV. I know he trained a lot of people, but was this some sort of deal where his service to the business was rewarded with that run? Cause I have no idea otherwise why they'd not only put Hiro on TV but have him manage the Horsemen. * Barry Windham disappeared at his zenith as a character. Too bad. He was awesome for a few years after this, but I think the moment to make him the top new star in wrestling passed when he jumped to the WWF. Interesting to see who would have been pushed in the long run with Sting, Luger and Windham all very over in their roles. I believe the original plan at the time was for Windham to take the title from Steamboat and then feud with a babyface Flair that summer, according to people like John McAdam who spoke to Meltzer on the phone regularly back then. One of the saddest things I've ever experienced in wrestling was realizing that the guy set to debut in the WWF was a complete shell of the guy who up to that point was my favorite wrestler ever. * Missy Hyatt! There will never be another person who plays the blond skank whore so well. She's sleazy even as a babyface. Humorous. It's easy when you live the gimmick. No one's played the role as well as her because no one's been as skanky as her, unless Courtney Love suddenly decides to change careers I don't think anyone ever will outskank her. The Flair/Windham/Gilbert/Steamboat feud should have gone on for months. Flair dropping the knee on the back of Gilbert's head and breaking his nose, while Jim Ross goes insane, is an awesome angle no one ever talks about. Did Eddie piss someone off? Cause it seemed that he fell off the face of the earth (or at least out of WCW) not to long after that. * The Road Warriors/Varsity Club feud is kind of a sleeper feud. Great promos from both sides on TV, and the 7-minute match they had on TBS to set up Chi-Town rocked as a crazy, super-stiff brawl. I think that feud's been overshadowed because it was used to turn Teddy Long from a ref to a manager. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest teke184 Posted July 17, 2006 Report Share Posted July 17, 2006 When you get to about August, watch for an Eddie Gilbert vs. Great Muta match with Falls Count Anywhere rules. That match is a forgotten precursor to much of the booking Eddie brought to ECW. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strummer Posted July 17, 2006 Report Share Posted July 17, 2006 * Hiro Matsuda buying the Horsemen from JJ Dillon is the lamest thing I've ever seen, because Hiro seems like he has no idea where he is or even that he's on TV. Seriously what the hell was going on with Matsuda? I was watching some stuff from this time period and he appears to be totally out of it. A lot of the time he seems to be wandering around the ring having no idea what's going on around him. BTW, what was the reaction at the time to JJ and Windham going to the WWF? I know Windham had heat with Vince for flaking out on the road in 85 and bolting. Plus with the trouble Kendell and his father got into, he must have known he was going to be buried. JJ just didn't seem to be the right fit for the WWF. Amazing he lasted there almost 10 years as Vince's right hand man. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted July 17, 2006 Author Report Share Posted July 17, 2006 Regarding Gilbert, Ric Flair and Jim Ross supposedly didn't like him at all because they felt he was trying to get them removed as bookers so he could take over. Gilbert also had heat with a lot of people in the company for talking to Dave Meltzer too much, which is really hilarious when you consider that Ric Flair, Terry Funk, Ricky Steamboat, Jim Ross, Jim Cornette and Brian Pillman were all in important roles all year long and they're some of the Meltzertalkingest people ever. Gilbert was supposed to turn on Sting at Bash '89 and align with Muta, but Flair apparently felt they made it far too obvious in the TV build and killed it. I'm sure he was also looking out for himself, as the whole Flair/Funk/Muta/Sting thing would have lost something if they had done a major turn earlier in the night with Gilbert. I have no idea what was going on with Hiro Matsuda, but yeah, he was pretty useless. I guess when JJ jumped with basically no notice, they felt they had to come up with something pretty quickly to explain where he was since he was managing the top two singles champions, and maybe Matsuda was available. Funny how by summer of '89, all of the Horsemen except Flair were in the WWF. I don't know about the reaction of JJ jumping, but I recall the WWF doing handstands when Windham jumped because he was so red hot in 1988. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mad Dog Posted July 17, 2006 Report Share Posted July 17, 2006 It makes me sad when I look back at what wrestling used to be. Everything just seemed to be so much more important in those days. It seems like even some of the jobbers on shows had more of a connection with the crowd than a lot of current WWE mid-carders do. It's always funny seeing Scott Hall back in the 80s too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kjh Posted July 17, 2006 Report Share Posted July 17, 2006 To add to what Loss said about Eddie Gilbert, Missy Hyatt in her autobiography, who was married to Eddie at the time, claimed that Kevin Sullivan constantly undermined him on the booking committee, getting all his ideas nixed, which fuelled his depression and paranoia that led him to eventually quit the company. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted July 17, 2006 Author Report Share Posted July 17, 2006 Gilbert says in his shoot interview with Bob Barnett that if you pay attention to Flair's interviews in late '87 around Starrcade, he is throwing shoot comments left and right at all the UWF guys coming in. I need to pick those up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Mike Campbell Posted July 17, 2006 Report Share Posted July 17, 2006 The big question, Loss, is whether or not you've got the debut of the Ding Dongs with Jim Cornette doing color commentary. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mad Dog Posted July 17, 2006 Report Share Posted July 17, 2006 I've got that one. The most heat the Ding Dongs got was the crowd cheering that their bell broke. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted July 23, 2006 Author Report Share Posted July 23, 2006 I've now made it all the way up to the show the Saturday after Wrestle War '89. This is when it really gets awesome. Terry Funk, Terry Gordy, Teddy Long becoming a manager ... and the Dynamic Dudes "Iko Iko" video! 1989 did so much to rebuild everyone, with all the fresh faces coming in, the facelift, the move to Center Stage away from the studio. They also seem to be doing a Crash TV format years before it was popularized in the Monday Night Wars, with the main difference being that the matches are more acceptable short since they're squashes anyway. But they cut quickly from interview to squash to interview and keep the show moving at a pretty steady pace. The main event is always 8-10 minutes at the very least. But anyway, there's such a sudden and awesome jump in production values sometime in April. "The Final Countdown" video for Flair/Steamboat at Wrestle War '89 remains the best music video I have ever seen in wrestling and it had me psyched to watch a match I've seen a million times and don't even love anymore. I also must admit the early Norman The Lunatic stuff with him doing psychotic promos as an escaped mental patient are a guilty pleasure of mine. I'm ready for the cheesy Scott Hall video of him jogging on the beach at sunset, if I remember correctly, and the aviator stuff for Brian Pillman. Those Sid squashes with jobbers doing 360 bumps off the clotheslines are coming up too. The only thing this show needs to be complete at this point is for Flair and the Midnights to return, which is coming, although the Midnights were buried all year, sadly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goodhelmet Posted July 24, 2006 Report Share Posted July 24, 2006 Are you only covering the Sat Night shows or do you have all of the Pros and Worldwides as well? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted July 24, 2006 Author Report Share Posted July 24, 2006 Most of the Pros and Worldwides are on the way, but at this point, Saturday Nights are all I've seen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goodhelmet Posted July 24, 2006 Report Share Posted July 24, 2006 I'm ready for the cheesy Scott Hall video of him jogging on the beach at sunset, if I remember correctly, I was converting some 1989 NWA TV and came across this video. It is as cheesy as it sounds and wouldbe a must have for any Scott Hall comp ever made... "When the Going Gets Tough, The Tough Get Going..." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MyOwnSummer Posted July 25, 2006 Report Share Posted July 25, 2006 How much did it cost you to get all of that Loss? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted July 25, 2006 Author Report Share Posted July 25, 2006 $100. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Primo Matarazzo Posted July 26, 2006 Report Share Posted July 26, 2006 I was going to comment on that blonde skank Missy Hyatt but Sek already beat me to it. It's not hard to excel at that role when you're not really acting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sek69 Posted July 27, 2006 Report Share Posted July 27, 2006 Saw this on the WWC TV report on the Observer site: Video is shown for the 33rd anniversary show with Ric Flair, Terry Funk, the Iron Sheik (where else will you see those three names together?) ...and I realized the answer was "NWA 1989" May 7, 1989 - WrestleWar: Music City Showdown in Nashville, Tennessee: The Great Muta b Doug Gilbert, Butch Reed b Ranger Ross, Dick Murdock vs Bob Orton Jr went to a NO CONTEST in a Bull Rope Match, The Dynamic Dudes (Shane Douglas & Johnny Ace) b The Somoan Swat Team, Michael Hayes b Lex Luger to win the United States title, Sting b The Iron Sheik to retain the Television title, Ric Flair b Ricky Steamboat to capture the World Heavyweight title (Terry Funk attacked Ric Flair after the match), The Road Warriors b The Varsity Club (Mike Rotunda & Steve Williams), Eddie Gilbert & Rick Steiner b Kevin Sullivan & Dan Spivey to retain the United States Tag Team titles, The Oak Ridge Boys also put on a concert at the event Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted August 5, 2006 Author Report Share Posted August 5, 2006 Can't believe I didn't mention the whole Rick Steiner/Woman thing, which played out over 6 months of TV and started with her as a dorky girl in the audience who just liked Rick Steiner slowly morphing into a very different "Robin Green" and finally becoming Woman and having a feud against the Steiners. That whole angle was so brilliant from start to finish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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