Loss Posted February 13, 2021 Author Report Share Posted February 13, 2021 Click through to check out this thread for buried treasure from UWF 1.0. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted February 13, 2021 Author Report Share Posted February 13, 2021 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted February 13, 2021 Author Report Share Posted February 13, 2021 Larry Zybesco. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted February 13, 2021 Author Report Share Posted February 13, 2021 Here's Tully Blanchard being a jerk. Click through for more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted February 13, 2021 Author Report Share Posted February 13, 2021 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted February 13, 2021 Author Report Share Posted February 13, 2021 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted February 13, 2021 Author Report Share Posted February 13, 2021 -- Was excited to come across a Tito Santana vs Jesse Ventura match because it means maybe Tito got at least some measure of revenge for Jesse always mocking his first name. -- The footage of Gorilla Monsoon and the WWF logo at the Techwood Drive studio doing a TBS show with the same World Championship Wrestling music is still jarring and surreal over 35 years later. -- Tux Newman is just an amazing manager in 1985 Memphis. Worked his ass off in every segment and could cut one incredible promo. He didn't last, though. The Jimmy Hart void was just really, really hard to fill. -- Barry Windham and Mike Rotunda really did get a monster push in 1985 WWF, didn't they? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted February 13, 2021 Author Report Share Posted February 13, 2021 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted February 13, 2021 Author Report Share Posted February 13, 2021 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted February 13, 2021 Author Report Share Posted February 13, 2021 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted February 13, 2021 Author Report Share Posted February 13, 2021 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted February 13, 2021 Author Report Share Posted February 13, 2021 Randy Savage was just incredible in 1983-1985 Memphis, and they understood every bit as well how to get the most out of him and book him the right way as the WWF. However, Savage had to move on. He was meant to be a gigantic superstar for the masses, not a cult favorite. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted February 13, 2021 Author Report Share Posted February 13, 2021 New Japan was really reeling after everyone bolted with Choshu to AJPW or left to form the UWF. They also lost some Hogan access as his popularity continued to soar stateside. That meant they were having to use foreigners like Hacksaw Higgins and Billy Jack Haynes as headliners. Brody jumping came at a great time for them and the reception he got when he showed up in the audience was massive. But Brody wouldn't last because of conflicts with NJ talent. The story of NJ from 1984-1989 or so is a company that keeps hitting major (major) and mostly self-inflicted bumps in the road and then getting extremely lucky by having something fall in their lap. Almost an annual event. So when NTV aired All Japan Classics, they cut a lot of Choshu and Tenryu footage because of bitter feelings over how they left AJPW. Just imagine if NJPW had cut everyone out who had ever screwed them over. Classics would have just been Fujinami matches. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted February 13, 2021 Author Report Share Posted February 13, 2021 And with that, I'm caught up on everything so far. Will post new stuff as I think/find it in real time from here forward. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ricky Jackson Posted February 13, 2021 Report Share Posted February 13, 2021 52 minutes ago, Loss said: Some random thoughts: - Early 80s guy who should have been a bigger star: Bobby Jaggers. Really good in the ring and an even better talker. - Who does everyone think was the best of the late 70s/early 80s WWF JTTS crew? I really like Denucci, Estrada and Scicluna. The WWF TV format was a tough one but their matches were usually very well-worked. I'm biased because I used to be part of a podcast about the Backlund-era, and while the match quality for MSG, Philly, etc, undercards could be extremely poor at times, matches with the JTTS crew on regular TV were often pretty damn good. Even the midcard vs midcard matches on TV could be much better than matches between the same talent on a house show. I think there was definitely something to the idea that undercard wrestlers on house shows were often careful not to upstage the main event, but on TV they let loose a bit more Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted February 13, 2021 Author Report Share Posted February 13, 2021 I think they realized they had to do more on TV. Even if you're getting squashed, if you're booked to go 7-10 minutes, as was often the chase, you have to be able to mix it up some. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ricky Jackson Posted February 13, 2021 Report Share Posted February 13, 2021 Also, great stuff Loss. I've been following along on Twitter already. Keep it up Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Badlittlekitten Posted February 13, 2021 Report Share Posted February 13, 2021 Still making my way through this. Great stuff Loss! Thanks. The Austin Idol diss track and Sherri Martel sighting are phenomenal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SirEdger Posted February 13, 2021 Report Share Posted February 13, 2021 1 hour ago, Loss said: I really love 1983 heel Jacques Rougeau in Memphis because he gets all this heat just for being a total idiot. Hard to think of someone comparable. He plays his own entrance music by holding up a microphone to a boom box, people. His entrance music was "Dirty Laundry" by Don Henley. Holy shit, I need to see this! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted February 13, 2021 Author Report Share Posted February 13, 2021 1 minute ago, SirEdger said: Holy shit, I need to see this! The story here is that he asked for entrance music and was told no. Only top guys got entrance music at that time. So on his own, he decided to give himself music and started just carrying the boombox out with a microphone held up to it to play his song. It clicked! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SirEdger Posted February 13, 2021 Report Share Posted February 13, 2021 A lot can be said about Jacques Rougeau but he always knew how to portray a solid chickenshit heel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Dunk Posted February 13, 2021 Report Share Posted February 13, 2021 2 hours ago, Loss said: Click through to see Tommy Rich's AWESOME return to Georgia Championship Wrestling in 1981, in all 3 parts. Rich returned to Georgia from Memphio a week early. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clintthecrippler Posted February 14, 2021 Report Share Posted February 14, 2021 On the topic of 79/80 WWF JTTS, I have been doing a 1979 WWF watch project the last few months. I am almost through the end of the year and I have become a big fan of Johnny Rivera on the face JTTS side. Short, energetic spark plug of a wrestler that puts up a bit more intensity than the average face jobbers of the time period, and you could buy him picking up a win against someone else on his level every now and then. This past week I saw a helluva face vs. face TV match against Larry Zbyskzo (starting to approach the heel turn but not there just yet) that might have been the closest thing to a "workrate match" that WWF had all year outside of the Backlund vs Patterson matches. And thank you for sharing that Randy Savage "wash dishes" promo from Memphis. Thats been my favorite Savage promo ever since I first saw it during the Death Valley Driver 80s Memphis project and I love showing that to people who have never seen Memphis Macho. It really is wild how fully-formed he was by the time he made it to national television, watching him in Memphis its no shock that he rocketed pretty quickly to being a prominent part of WWF television and their continuing expansion. Loving this thread and digging the mix of chronological documentation and stream of consciousness thoughts. Keep em coming! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeteF3 Posted February 14, 2021 Report Share Posted February 14, 2021 This thread might be the first outright defense of Baron Scicluna as a worker. That's not me being snide, just an observation. There is a squash or two on All-Star Wrestling where he surprisingly does some solid wrestling, instead of going straight to the foreign object shtick. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sek69 Posted February 14, 2021 Report Share Posted February 14, 2021 2 minutes ago, PeteF3 said: This thread might be the first outright defense of Baron Scicluna as a worker. That's not me being snide, just an observation. There is a squash or two on All-Star Wrestling where he surprisingly does some solid wrestling, instead of going straight to the foreign object shtick. He always struck me as a guy who probably was better in the era before footage was available. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.