Pro Wrestling

I thought having a thread here to be pinned would be a great reference. I'll post the ones I follow later.

Parv had this idea on the last AJ Excite Series and I thought it was pretty neat. So, here is a thread to list your 5 and 4 3/4 star matches. You can come back and edit as you discover more. It will be neat to see what people have as bench marks and what trends come out of this.

Just putting this here to make sure everyone sees it.

WTF? How long has this trendy behaviour been going on and who started it?

So here’s an interesting fact that many are not aware of. Back in the 1950s and 1960s, the UK and France were not the only European countries that had pro wrestling on TV. Switzerland, Luxembourg and Monaco did as well. In fact, at times more wrestling was airing on TV in those countries than it was in France. I was aware of catch (pro wrestling) being on TV in those three countries, but had never looked into it, because I was under the assumption the stuff that aired there might’ve just been repeats of the French catch TV. Well, now having searched the TV listings from that period, I can say that my assumption was wrong. Most of the advertised matches that I found, …

Hey! Doing some research on something that has got nothing to do with wrestling I came across the webpage for INA (French National Institute of Media). If you go to their webpage http://www.ina.fr and search for "catch" or "catcheur" you can find a few clips, nothing much and no entire matches, but really interesting so I thought I'd share it here with an audience that will appreciate it. Most of you probably have no idea about this, but France is one of the few remaining "treasure trove" collections left anywhere in the world that we have nothing about other than a couple of clips. The French being French, meaning very well organized and protective of their history, …

Ballots were sent out today This is our ballot for the 2025 Hall of Fame. This ballot is being sent out to major wrestling stars, past and present, major management figures in the industry, writers and historians. If you are getting this, you are being asked your opinion on who should be inducted into this year's Hall of Fame class. The criteria for the Hall of Fame is a combination of drawing power, being a great in-ring performer or excelling in ones field in pro wrestling, as well as having historical significance in a positive manner. A candidate should either have something to offer in all three categories, or be someone so outstanding in one or two of …

I don't watch, but I see a lot of people posting in the old TNA thread do and seem quite into it. So maybe it's at last time for a new thread? I'll change the title (we can do that now right?) as the quality warrants

Over the past few days, I've been thinking about exploring the subgenre of 'cartoon wrestling' to expand my palette a bit. I was interested in recommendations for promotions that, like Chikara, DDT, or 80s WWF, used this type of presentation. Another point that interests me a lot is whether there were any territories that adopted this style. Thank you very much in advance.

GWE is over, we can now focus on current wrestling. Cubsfan puts up everything weekly on youtube, so there is no excuse to not watch a little. Here we are, current lucha talk. What did you watch? What are you looking forward to? News, rumours, etc...

Decided to start this thread since both Stardom and Pro Wrestling WAVE now have their own streaming services, plus the Real Hero google drive makes it easier to find shows from other groups. Just finished watching the opening night of the 5*GP. Thought it was a fine show, but nothing memorable. Storm/Bito, Hojo/Wolf, and Iwatani/KLR were all good yet would say that you have to rush out to see any of them. The only bad match was Blanchard/Watanabe, which was a mess. Courtney Stewart looked good having a short, solid match with Jungle Kyona. The show ended with promos from Kay Lee Ray, Toni Storm, and Io Shirai whom I assume they are teasing as being in the finals.

(If this belongs somewhere else, please put it there) In this thread we discuss all the wacky random stuff we find from WWF/E, WCW, AEW b-shows. Stuff like Worldwide, WCW Saturday Night post-1995, Power Hour, All American Wrestling, Heat, Shotgun/Metal/Jakked, Velocity, AEW Dark, and such. I'll start with this odd pairing, Raven vs Kaz Hayashi from WCW Worldwide: This is a pretty well known match actually due to the insane bumps Kaz took, and even though it's short, it definitely made me wish both men had had a longer match in the company, sadly, they never met up again AFAIK. Feel free to share and discuss any oddball stuff from b-shows as well.

Been watching ECW chronologically since the network put all the first shows up. A few questions: 1. Who was the Dark Patriot #2 and Super Summer Sizzler Spectacular that wrestled Murdoch? Looks like Neidhart 2. So does anybody know the real reason Eddie Gilbert split with ECW before SuperClash? I have heard 2 different scenarios a. Heyman convinced Gordon he should be booker and pushed Gilbert out b. Gilbert left because he didn't want to be a part of the NWA and associated with Crockett's startup

I made a topic about this in the hidden board, but since nobody ever looks there, I figured I might as well make one here, because it's quite the interesting subject. Apparently the NWA ran some wrestling shows in the early 1980s in the Philippines. The country was still under a dictator then, who apparently gave his explicit permission for the shows to be run because he was taking some heat for an assassination. There was a Jr title tournament, and apparently even a Harley Race title defense. Raven Mack talks about it here a bit, and reviewed a tape of the lightweight tournament: https://web.archive.org/web/20121004044522/http://deathvalleydriver.com/dvdvr…

TMZ is reporting that Hulk Hogan passed away this morning, at age 71, from cardiac arrest. It is getting picked up more and more.

Yeah, this is a big one

A while back I did a big article on the history of pro wrestling (or catch as they used to call it there) in Greece and in the process of doing so I came across some mid to late 1980s and early 1990s footage from Greece. It occurred to me just now that some people here might find the footage interesting so I thought I'd share it here, along with some info on the featured wrestlers. Most of the footage is handheld as local wrestling never aired on TV in Greece (apart from a couple of TV specials, I think). Some things were taped for VHS as well. Catch took off in Greece in the 1930s and reached its peak in the 1950s, 60s and 70s when during the summer months there wou…

Hogan's death got me thinking about this, how will future generations of fans see guys like Hogan, Savage, Andre, Flair, the Von Erichs, Austin, Rock, Goldberg, etc? Will they still be considered legends, or will they eventually go the route of guys like Thesz, Verne Gagne, and Bruno, where they're known to be big stars, but the fans have never seen their matches (though the fact that all those guys have much more available and higher quality footage than Thesz, Verne, and Bruno does help)? As for wrestlers, will we see wrestlers influenced by them (even if just partially), or will they be more influenced by the guys of the 2000s on up?

Decided to give Egypt its own thread after coming across a couple more clips of Mamdouh Farag in action. To fill you in, Egypt had the odd foreign tour back in the Monarchy days but was "dark" from the Revolution under Nasser up until Camp David when the country opened up again to the west and tours resumed. At around that time. Farag was a popular babyface in Germany and decided in the early 80s to set up a scene of his own back home in Egypt. Farag had won a European championship and took it back home from where, as national hero, he took on foreign heel challengers from both Europe and America. Farag continued with this into the Nineties when he retired and…

Bounced from the French Catch thread: Why did the three lighter weight titles get bounced off to Mexico in the late 1930s with the NWA World Light Heavyweight Championship following in the late 1950s? Why was America unable to come up with its own versions of George Kidd. Rene Ben Chemoul, "Le Petit Prince" Daniel Dubail, Johnny Saint etc etc. Was George Bothner a household name and pals with Babe Ruth like Strangler Lewis was? Why did Europe, Mexico and Japan managed to make stars in the lighter weights but not America?

He passed away on July 28. Probably a name most are unfamiliar with. He was originally from Martinique but wrestled a ton in Western Canada, eventually becoming a citizen, and he died in Calgary. When I started watching Stampede in 1986 he was there as a babyface, and had been a fixture in the territory since the 70s. He turned heel in early 1987, shocking 9 year old me. As a heel he became "Champagne" Gerry Morrow, and his promos, if you can find them, are hilarious, as he brags about his lavish lifestyle filled with money and, of course, plenty of champagne

Following in the vein for the GWE, the GME is here. It's going to be hosted on a new board. http://gweproject.freeforums.net/ Rules are similar. All laid out on the board. Join, discuss, have fun.

I have just watched Dragon Lee vs Kamaitachi from Jan 24th 2015. I felt for a 6 minute match, it was a whole heap of fun. (See below) It got me thinking, what are some great sub 10 minute matches? Off the top of my head, I'd go with: Hashimoto v Zangiev from 4/24/89 Tiger Mask vs. Dynamite Kid from 8/30/80 Owen Hart vs. 123 Kid from KOTR 94 6/19/94 http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xzmseo_owen-hart-vs-1-2-3-kid-semi-final-king-of-the-ring-1994_sport Daisuke Ikeda vs. Takeshi Ono from 10/26/14 KENTA vs. Ricky Marvin from 10/15/09 There's also the Lawler vs. Snowman match that was so different to anything el…

Now, I dont really mean tag matches, but all of these matches with 3,4, or more wrestlers at once. It was a good novelty when it started, and there have been matches where that format works, but it's gotten way too overused now, plus it seems like a way to protect certain guys (while also making the guy who gets pinned essentially a third wheel). If anything, they should at least save them for PPV/PLE and leave them off weekly tv.

Post-70s... U.S. Junkyard Dog vs. Michael PS Hayes (Superdome 8-2-80 Steel Cage Dog Collar Match) Harley Race vs Ken Patera (St Louis 8-8-80) -jdw Harley Race vs Bob Backlund (St. Louis 11-7-80/1-4-85) -Tabe Ken Patera vs. Pedro Morales (MSG 12-8-80 IC Title Change) -MikeCampbell Bob Backlund vs Don Muraco (MSG 8-24-81 Hour Draw) -jdw Bob Backlund vs Don Muraco (Boston Garden 12-5-81 Steel Cage Match) -jdw Bob Backlund vs Jimmy Snuka (MSG 4-26-82) -Qaenos High Flyers vs Strike Force (AWA St. Paul July82/JIP) -khawk20 Ric Flair vs. Bob Backlund (Omni 7-4-82) Ric Flair vs. Stan Hansen (Omni 10-3-82 & 6-3-84) …