Best of SNME DVD

[Bix]

The matches are uncut?

Yes.

 

Interesting, any commentary or unaired banter during the dead spots where the commercials were inserted live to tape?

[Al]

The matches are uncut?

Yes.

 

Interesting, any commentary or unaired banter during the dead spots where the commercials were inserted live to tape?

 

Oh I thought you meant not in clipped form. The matches are shown as aired on the networks, so when there's a break we just skip til afterwards.

[JHawk]

The matches are uncut?

Yes.

 

Interesting, any commentary or unaired banter during the dead spots where the commercials were inserted live to tape?

 

Oh I thought you meant not in clipped form. The matches are shown as aired on the networks, so when there's a break we just skip til afterwards.

 

Which is usually about three seconds later anyway.

[Bob Morris]

I got the set today and watched the first disc.

 

The gist of what Al is saying is that the commercial breaks were plopped in spots where the match slows down a bit, usually when there is a transition.

 

Example: In the Savage-Hart match, the commercial break comes shortly after the spot where Savage injures his ankle outside the ring, and when you come back, you have Elizabeth tending to Savage and the action about to pick up again. It's pretty slick editing on the part of the WWF production team and you hardly miss anything, as compared to when shows became live and the commercial breaks would sometimes come at inopportune times.

[JMFabianoRPL]

I tried two Best Buys in the area (one had it for $19.99)...both of them...COMPLETELY SOLD OUT. I have a feeling this will be one of the biggest WWE releases yet.

[jdw]

I finished watching this last night. Some thoughts:

 

- Savage is well-represented on this set. I think maybe only Hogan is shown more. Jake Roberts also puts him over as having his best match of his career with Savage. They also put over his title run in 1988. I'm more optimistic now that the Savage 3-disc set may indeed happen. Hope I'm not jinxing anything here.

I have a feeling that the 3-disk Savage will be okay as well. I think they want to make $$$, and Savage will likely sell.

 

Match selection will be intesting, but I suspect that for a lot of it they'll use the old CHV as a starting point. And there's a lot of good Savage on those sets.

 

 

- I find myself agreeing an awful lot with John on the matches he mentioned earlier. Especially the inclusion of the Rockers-Brain Busters match. I'm thinking it was included to show a tag match on SNME that Shawn Michaels won. But it's nothing compared to their other matches from the year.

Yeah... it's too bad they didn't put on the one earlier in the year. It's pretty damn hot even if short.

 

 

- Finally, if John is still doing his 80s stuff at tOA, he should throw the eye at Savage-Honky and Hogan-Bundy. I thought the former is the closest thing I've seen of Honky's resembling a "good match" and Hogan-Bundy is much, much better than their WM2 cage match. (I have no idea if John will think the same way, but it'll be interesting to hear his thoughts.)

Still working on it. Just started the Hogan-a-thon section this past weekend.

 

Had not thought of watching Hogan-Bundy, though probably should since it was a Big Match. And then look at their SNME matches... I think they had two.

 

There's a Hogan-Savage from MLG that I need to watch, the Philly Hogan-Orndorff cage match, and then it's Hogan vs Race time.

 

I really need to figure out the best Hogan-DiBiase matches. DM.com has both the MSG pre-cage match between Hogan and Bossman along with about 6:30 of their Boston cage match (DVDVR had the MSG cage, while the SNME cage is the famous one and out there through I don't think I've hit that matches either).

 

Lots of fun stuff to watch. At some point I need to wallow in all the bad tag team work. That was some of the most painful stuff on the original set. Even the "good" stuff like Busters vs Rockers that I've watched since then is disappointing when you're use to MX vs Rockers and Fans, and even stuff like Garvin & Windham vs Ivan & Murdoch is really good.

 

So I keep looking for good stuff. Anytime someone wants to point out some 80s WWF worth watching/tracking down, I'm willing to give it a look see.

 

What's fun about it is that it's not like you're looking for the Missing Great Jumbo Tsutura Matches. You're looking just for some solid wrestling that might have gotten forgotten.

 

I really enjoyed Hogan & Piper vs Orndorff & Race at MSG. It's not a great match. But it's decently worked. Hogan & Piper work a good "uneasy partners" storyline that one wishes they went deeper with from there into the following year. We got a FIP section that was perfectly okay for a short match. Perfectly watchable.

 

I'd rather watch Backlund vs Valentine if you're asking me about great work. But stuff like that tag, or Tito & Bruno vs Savage & Adonis in the cage... I don't mind seeing that either. Entertaining spectacles.

 

 

John

[Bob Morris]

There's definitely plenty of entertatining matches on the SNME DVD... but that's mostly what we remember SNME for: the entertainment value.

 

I agree with Marty that the Hogan/Bundy match is quite good. Hogan/Funk was a fun match as well.

 

I dug watching Roberts/Savage... clearly this was the match that indicated that the fans would be willing to cheer Jake. I believe they kicked in his face turn a couple months after this.

 

While the Hogan/Hennig match wasn't much to write home about, I think it was good it was included because you get to compare and contrast Hogan's earlier work with the work he was doing at that point of his career. The Hennig match was the point when Hogan's match were getting too formulaic... compare that to the earlier matches in which Hogan tends to mix things up a bit, sometimes opting for a finish other than with the legdrop, and also doing more to incorporate "false comebacks" to keep the fans on their toes.

 

The Bulldog/Michaels match is in some ways similar to the one they had on Raw a couple years later... but the Raw match was the better of the two. But it's interesting to note how the two worked in some of the same spots.

 

I don't get the inclusion of a couple of the matches from the 2006 run... sure, it was going to be included to an extent, but Shawn/Shane is just another pointless exercise in what type of nutty stunts Shane can do and the novelty of that wore off for me a long time ago. And the DX vs. Spirit Squad match... it's clear the crowd never bought into the Squad having any chance of winning so it's mostly a heatless match with fans popping for spots.

 

Edge/Cena was solid and I do think Cena deserves more credit than he gets for his workrate. And really, the Five Knuckle Shuffle is no worse than the People's Elbow... and if I'm not mistaken, Cena has never won a match with the Shuffle, while we all know Rock won several matches with the Elbow.

[jdw]

I dug watching Roberts/Savage... clearly this was the match that indicated that the fans would be willing to cheer Jake. I believe they kicked in his face turn a couple months after this.

Yeah... Jake was a strange tweener space before they fully turned him. Savage and Roberts had what looks like some "trial runs" on 10/22/86, 10/23/86 and 11/03/86 before their SNME matche taped on 11/15/86 and airing 11/29/89. At the time he was feuding with JYD, but also started working a bit with Savage and various faces like Tito and Koko.

 

Take a look at his opponents into 1987:

 

January 1987

Randy Savage

Billy Jack Haynes

George Steele

King Kong Bundy

Butch Reed

Cpl. Kirchner

Paul Orndorff

Hulk Hogan

Tony Garea (sub. for the Junkyard Dog)

Roddy Piper

 

February 1987

Tito Santana

Kamala

Pedro Morales

George Steele

Ted Arcidi

King Kong Bundy

Butch Reed

The Junkyard Dog

Hulk Hogan

 

March 1987

Kamala

w/ Piper vs Harley Race & Adrian Adonis

w/Duggan vs Hart Foundation

Iron Sheik

w/ Martel & Crusher vs Adonis & Race & HTM

w/ Steele & Crusher vs Orndorff & Race & HTM

Honkytonk Man

 

I think it was when Honky hit him with the guitar that he fully turned face. That was taped 1/27/87 and aired 2/22/87, setting up their Mania match. By March he was 100% face, but even in late February he was working with Hogan.

 

The way the WWF and even Crockett were booked in 1986/87 was amazing in how things were all over the place. Since they worked some cities monthly, other ones less often, and storlines getting ahead in some cities, you'd have things like:

 

01/11/86 Tito vs Savage - Boston

02/08/86 Tito vs Savage - Boston

03/08/86 Tito vs Savage - Boston

 

12/07/85 Tito & Atlas vs Savage & Ventura - Spectrum

03/07/86 Tito vs Savage - Spectrum

05/07/86 Tito vs Savage - Spectrum

05/31/86 Tito vs Savage (No DQ) - Spectrum

 

03/16/86 Tito vs Savage - MSG

04/22/86 Tito vs Savage (No DQ) - MSG

05/19/86 Tito vs Savage (Lumberjack) - MSG

06/14/86 Tito & Bruno vs Savage & Adonis - MSG

07/12/86 Tito & Bruno vs Savage & Adonis (Cage) - MSG

 

Things are blown off in Boston before they even start in New York, and the blow off in Boston is only a day after the singles feud starts in Philly. Neither Boston nor Philly get the tag matches with Bruno. Instead, the Hogan-Savage feud in Boston mophs via a tag match into the Savage-Steele feud.

 

I'd love to see how they mapped this all out. In the middle of his feud in Boston with Tito, Savage in New York is feuding with Hogan. In the middle of his feud with Tito in NY, he's feuding with Hogan in Boston. They must have had a great chart of all this stuff.

 

Crockett did the same stuff.

 

John