Classic Wrestling Discussion (as in non-current): Part II

[Roo Returns]

Cornette is very opinionated and his politics aren't for everyone but as a storyteller and a link to the wrestling we knew and grew up with, he's the best. I've learned about the lives of like Tojo Yamamoto, Bill Dundee, Phil Hickerson, Eddie Graham, Sputnik Monroe, Thunderbolt Patterson, etc. from his Podcast. He also talks a lot about psychology and his behind the scenes feud with Jim Herd stories are amazing. I never knew about Rick Rubin and SMW either. Really interesting stuff especially for me because it seems the initial talks were around the time Rubin was working on Blood Sugar Sex Magik (spring 1991) which is my favorite album.

AWA was "traditional" but amazing talent. Bockwinkle top 3 all time. Unfortunately many younger people know it as an internet video because of the WrestleRock Rumble rap (where Bockwinkle as a 52 year old out raps guys 20-25 years younger than him LOL). Even after Hogan left and took his crew, they still had so much talent from 84-87.Problem was from a production standpoint, no one is better than Vince so it was only a matter of time.

My personal favorite outside of WWF as a kid was WCCW. Somehow in the NY in the late 80s/early 90s they'd show it on Sportchannel at midnight on Friday. My introduction to Cactus Jack, the Von Erich's, Skandar Akbar, Jerry Lawler would show up from time to time, a baby face Jeff Jarett coming out to Simply Irresistible, and the biggest babyface was a guy named Eric Embry who was managed by Percy Pringle III who we all would later know as Paul Bearer.

 

[Normand Lacombe]

Yeah, there was a lot of talent in the AWA. Andre the Giant, Dusty Rhodes, Mean Gene, the Gagnes, Harley Race, Hulk Hogan, Iron Sheik, Jake "the Snake" Roberts, Jerry Lawler, Mad Dog Vachon, Mil Mascaras, Nikita Koloff, Ole Anderson, Ric Flair, Randy "Macho Man" Savage, the Road Warriors, Baron Von Raschke, Black Jack Lanza, Sgt Slaughter, Ricky "the Dragon" Steamboat, Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka, "Superstar" Billy Graham, Jim Brunzell, Russ Francis who played for the Patriots, and the list goes on and on. Bockwinkel and Stevens is my all time fav tag team.

Unless they were enhancement talent at the very beginning of their careers, I have never heard of Jake Roberts and Savage wrestling in the AWA. I could be wrong.

 

[sabremike]

I wish mother****er. Thank you **** you BYE.

I do listen to Cornette's drive thru most weeks, rarely listen to his Thursday show but I have heard some of his AEW stuff. He's been quite generous to them from what I've heard and it's hard to argue with what he's said. One thing I always disagreed with Cornette on was his Omega take, but since he stopped complaining about the match with the little girl (which I enjoyed) and started on about "Kenny Olivier", something I have complained about regarding Omega before, he's pretty effectively burying Omega. You can see very clearly that Cornette does want AEW to succeed.



I don't think that people who dislike Cornette can even disagree with him most of the time. Of course you'll get excessive praise for some crappy elements of old rasslin that he liked and you'll get some over the top takes, but that's all part of the experience. You certainly don't have to agree with Cornette in order to be entertained by him. The guy is a great talker and has a tremendous amount of wrestling knowledge. Even when he's dead wrong it's worth a listen.

 

[Ben Grimm]

Unless they were enhancement talent at the very beginning of their careers, I have never heard of Jake Roberts and Savage wrestling in the AWA. I could be wrong.

Nope, you're right and I'm wrong. Good job. I edited my post. List of former American Wrestling Association personnel - Wikipedia

 

[JackSlater]

Alright... ?

 

[boredmale]

Nope, you're right and I'm wrong. Good job. I edited my post. List of former American Wrestling Association personnel - Wikipedia

If you want to get technical Randy Savage wrestled in Memphis which in the 80s sort of had a working agreement with the AWA to the point many of their titles were named the "AWA Southern...."

 

[sabremike]

Signed up for the Highspots streaming service mainly because they have virtually the whole ECW Fancam library so it's like a $10 per month storage fee of a giant tape collection. Anyways I saw there was a series of ECW roundtables hosted by my old friend from the bus trip days Mike Johnson. These things are freaking amazing, but the absolute highlight of these is New Jack. I swear to God: there were tons of amazing promos in that era and none of them were better than New Jack. He really should've been one of the biggest stars ever with his promo ability and charisma but he pretty much wrecked his own career with his crazy behavior. One story he told: when he used the staple gun and he had no problem with the guy he was working with there were no staples in the gun and it was a work. If it was a guy he hated he would load the gun with staples and shoot staple the guy. Normally you might think that's him tossing out a porker but given his track record (Gypsy Joe, that kid whose skull he bashed in, Chad Austin, ect.) I absolutely believe it.

 

[JackSlater]

Signed up for the Highspots streaming service mainly because they have virtually the whole ECW Fancam library so it's like a $10 per month storage fee of a giant tape collection. Anyways I saw there was a series of ECW roundtables hosted by my old friend from the bus trip days Mike Johnson. These things are freaking amazing, but the absolute highlight of these is New Jack. I swear to God: there were tons of amazing promos in that era and none of them were better than New Jack. He really should've been one of the biggest stars ever with his promo ability and charisma but he pretty much wrecked his own career with his crazy behavior. One story he told: when he used the staple gun and he had no problem with the guy he was working with there were no staples in the gun and it was a work. If it was a guy he hated he would load the gun with staples and shoot staple the guy. Normally you might think that's him tossing out a porker but given his track record (Gypsy Joe, that kid whose skull he bashed in, Chad Austin, ect.) I absolutely believe it.

(In)Famous New Jack promo from ECW-South.

 

[koyvoo]

I’ve thought for a long, long time that no wrestler has even gotten as much true heat from crowds as New Jack did from those SMW fans.

 

[sabremike]

I’ve thought for a long, long time that no wrestler has even gotten as much true heat from crowds as New Jack did from those SMW fans.

And it bombed as bad as any angle can bomb and contributed to the death of the company. I think there's a lesson here about good heat, bad heat and what does/doesn't draw money.

 

[koyvoo]

And it bombed as bad as any angle can bomb and contributed to the death of the company. I think there's a lesson here about good heat, bad heat and what does/doesn't draw money.

As bad as any angle could bomb?

That’s heavy hyperbole. I mean, do you remember that mummy character or whatever they had in 92 or 93. Or anytime Tim Horner spoke?

To hear Cornette tell it, the biggest contributor tontura death of the company was Rubin pulling his financial backing. I’ve never heard it suggested that Rubin backed out because of the angle. And, for sure those Appalachian folk didn’t stop coming to shows because of it. Those folks only ponied up more for the opportunity to possibly see someone like Smothers give New Jack the beating they were so venomously hoping he’d receive.

 

[sabremike]

As bad as any angle could bomb?

That’s heavy hyperbole. I mean, do you remember that mummy character or whatever they had in 92 or 93. Or anytime Tim Horner spoke?

To hear Cornette tell it, the biggest contributor tontura death of the company was Rubin pulling his financial backing. I’ve never heard it suggested that Rubin backed out because of the angle. And, for sure those Appalachian folk didn’t stop coming to shows because of it. Those folks only ponied up more for the opportunity to possibly see someone like Smothers give New Jack the beating they were so venomously hoping he’d receive.

The business from that angle did initial business but fell real bad very quickly. Meltzer goes in depth on it on the December 4th, 1995 WON if you have access to the archive. The great irony is that The Gangstas went to ECW and after the obvious program with TPE ended up gigantic babyfaces. If you were doing a list of the most over faces in ECW history New Jack would easily be top 5.

 

[Emperoreddy]

Just here to say f*** New Jack

 

[les Habs]

Just here to say I came up with three fantasy draft matches for New Jack after watching that promo.

 

[Emperoreddy]

OSW review for Survivor Series 93 is up on their website.

I love this new gen stuff. The Hart vs Shawn and his knights match was ridiculous.

 

[BostonBob]

OSW review for Survivor Series 93 is up on their website.

I love this new gen stuff. The Hart vs Shawn and his knights match was ridiculous.

A bit of trivia for you - the 3 Knights were Greg Valentine ( Blue Knight ), Barry Horowitz ( Red Knight ) and Jeff Gaylord ( Black Knight ). More trivia - Terry Funk was originally scheduled to be the Red Knight but pulled out about a week before the PPV.

 

[Emperoreddy]

A bit of trivia for you - the 3 Knights were Greg Valentine ( Blue Knight ), Barry Horowitz ( Red Knight ) and Jeff Gaylord ( Black Knight ). More trivia - Terry Funk was originally scheduled to be the Red Knight but pulled out about a week before the PPV.

Apparently Snooka was supposed to be the black knight.

I had completely forgot Shawn took King’s Spot in this match. A lot of this King/Bret feud melted together in my mind. It wasn’t the best time for Bret. Dentist Kane is coming.

I did begin to remember how much I enjoyed young heel Shawn. He is such a POS

 

[Unholy Diver]

I cancelled my Network due to my disgust in the current product, but after probably less than 2 months I decided I missed the classic stuff too much and reupped

Watching a WCW Saturday night from 1993, featuring a match between Tex Slazenger & Shanghai Pierce (The Godwinns) Vs Erik Watts and Robby V (RVD) this stuff is just too good to miss

 

[JackSlater]

I cancelled my Network due to my disgust in the current product, but after probably less than 2 months I decided I missed the classic stuff too much and reupped

Watching a WCW Saturday night from 1993, featuring a match between Tex Slazenger & Shanghai Pierce (The Godwinns) Vs Erik Watts and Robby V (RVD) this stuff is just too good to miss

WCW Saturday Night - it's where da big boys play daddeh.

 

[tony d]

WCW Saturday Night was a watch for me often as a kid. It was probably the WCW's top show until Nitro came along.

 

[boredmale]

Warning: don't click the link unless you want one of Wrestling biggest secrets exposed.

 

[Unholy Diver]

I'm watching WCW Mayhem 99 on the network and Ed "Oklahoma" Ferarra announced a match between Berlyn and Vampiro and he might actually an upgrade over current day JR

 

[Brodeur]

I guess I never went back to watch the old WCW PPVs, but I looked up the Rodman nWo stuff with ESPN debuting the 1997-98 Bulls documentary. I look forward to see if Rodman's wrestling stint gets mentioned. I was surprised to see Rodman take some respectable bumps.

 

[alko]

There was a time, when they try it also with UFC guys, wasnt it?

 

[alko]

Mr. T - looking to his profile on Wikipedia, he was a really tough guy. How good was he as a wrestler?