Wrestling "History" That Ain't Exactly Right

[Johnny Sorrow]

I thought of this the other night as I was continuing to watch Will's Horsemen set while drinking heavily. Most of the set is stuff I remember watching but when it get's to Ronnie Garvin winning the belt from Flair, it's in the era of my life where I wasn't really watching wrestling regularly anymore. Me and my pals would occasionally catch a show in Philly, but overall, I had stopped watching. I remember finding out that Garvin won the belt, and we actually did go to see Starrcade 87 on closed circuit TV at the Philly Civic Center where the Philly crowd was cheering like mad for Flair like we always did, and booing Garvin.

 

Looking back, everyone seems to go on about how Garvin winning the belt came out of nowhere. But they actually had been having Garvin fueding with Flair off and on for years. Especially on TBS, as opposed to Worldwide where Ronnie Garvin was non existant around 85 except as Miss Atlanta Lively. Even the Flair/ Jimmy Garvin fued now looks like just a build up to another Ronnie/ Flair program. And after finally seeing the match where Garvin wins the belt, holy shit the crowd was HOT for Garvin. And he DID defend the belt during his reign instead of the "history" of him not defending it to get ready for Starrcade. Anyway the thing was, that Chicago crowd was all about Flair, just like the Philly crowd was, and everyone still goes on about how Garvin was a terrible choice at the time, when he actually was perfect, considering that there was no one else at the time. They were just setting up Luger for the turn and eventual program with Flair. I guess Windham would have worked, but they really did have a long history of Garvin being a thorn in Flair's side.

 

I'm not saying that the Ron Garvin Title reign was some great deal, but "history" seems to say "They picked a guy randomly to beat Flair and lose it back at Starrcade" when the fact is they had been building Ron Garvin to beat Flair for years.

 

Any other stuff that is considered "common knowledge" that maybe just isn't on the mark?

[rovert]

Did you finish last night's Segunda Caida yet, Johnny? There was discussion in this vein on the "common knowledge" being Memphis was all gimmicks, all brawling, no bumping which at the very least disproved. Additionally you have the Dynamite Kid-Tiger Mask series being held up as a classic series in ring which may people who viewed the NJ 80 set heavily disagree with.

[Bob Morris]

Let's try this one: Some people think that history proved, whenever Lex Luger had a good match at any point of his career, it was because his opponent made him look good.

 

Indeed, as I look back on some of the matches Luger had in his earlier years, he's more than doing his part to make the match good.

 

Of course, Luger wasn't the same after his motorcycle accident (in fact, that was probably the reason why he could no longer do an effective clothesline) and then, in his later WCW years, he just quit caring. Yet everybody wants to judge his history based on what happened during the Monday Night Wars period, as opposed to the years in which he most certainly was working hard.

[goc]

Yea there were essentially two different Lugers. Luger before he ever went to WWF and Luger during and after WWF.

[El-P]

WWF does that to you. TAKA Michinoku was ruined by the WWF.

[kjh]

Regarding Luger: Some people also think that history proved that Luger was overpushed in the late 80s too.

[Johnny Sorrow]

Did you finish last night's Segunda Caida yet, Johnny? There was discussion in this vein on the "common knowledge" being Memphis was all gimmicks, all brawling, no bumping which at the very least disproved. Additionally you have the Dynamite Kid-Tiger Mask series being held up as a classic series in ring which may people who viewed the NJ 80 set heavily disagree with.

Yeah, I did. (It's a great show btw, for those who haven't heard it yet.) I have to laugh at the "no bumping" in Memphis deal. And as far as Luger goes, one thing I noted from the Horsemen set is that his initial face turn made him look like a dick. It's a Bunkhouse Stampede match, the final four guys are Luger, Ar, Tully, and JJ Dillon. JJ tells the ref that it's over and they'll split the money. The ref says there must be a winner, so JJ asks the guys for a favor. Can he have this one? Arn and Tully are all, "You got it, Man." and jump over the top rope. Luger doesn't and tosses JJ. I hadn't seen this since it happened and I was thinking, "What a dick Luger is." Then they went back and taped an interview where Luger tells JJ he doesn't want anymore outside interference in his matches and showed it as a "lost" interview or some such thing, and they had Luger cut the babyface turn promo of all time on TBS.