Pro Wrestling

In this thread, I'd like to profile the WWF TV programming before RAW aired in 1993. Other PWO members are encouraged to share trivia, memories and so on of these shows. Championship Wrestling (1972-86) This was the weekly syndicated A-show recorded in Allentown, PA Agricultural Hall featuring Joe McHugh as the ring announcer. Vince McMahon was the play-by-play commentator for the entire run, initially with Antonio Rocca on color, who was later replaced by Bruno Sammartino (1976-80, 84-6) and Pat Patterson (80-83). Up until 1984, this show has a very specific look and feel. But then the title theme changed to an instrumental version of Michael Jack…

Needless to say, this could obviously have a major effect on pro rasslin' and its fraudulent "independent contractor" bullshit - at least in the state of California. More at the link: https://www.sfchronicle.com/business/amp/Senate-passes-AB5-gig-work-bill-turning-14430204.php

The thread title should be self-explanatory. My picks: WWF/E title: HBK/Mankind, Mind Games NWA title: Flair/Funk, 89 Bash WCW title: Vader/Sting, 92 Bash Triple Crown: Misawa/Kawada, 6/3/94 GHC title: Kobashi/Takayama, 4/25/04 WWWA red belt: Kong/Kansai, 8/30/95 WWWA white belt: Devil/Chiggy, 8/22/85 WCW/WWE cruiserweight title: Eddy/Rey, Halloween Havoc IWGP junior title: Liger/Sano, 8/10/89 WWF/E tag titles: HBK/Diesel vs. Ramon/Kid, Action Zone AJPW tag titles: Misawa/Kobashi vs. Kawada/Taue, 6/9/95 All Asia tag titles: Kobashi/Kikuchi vs. Can-Ams, 5/25/92 WWWA tag titles: Toyota/Yamada vs. Ozaki/Kansai,…

And now the most important topic... I feel that's a decent group to choose from, but feel free to submit a write in vote

I'm finding myself falling out further and further from modern day wrestling and its fans. I don't like the current style at all. I think there's some positives to it like people trying to give the fans their moneys worth and not being lazy, but those things are being sacrificed for good booking, good character development, believable wrestling and good mic skills. I'd even go so far as to say that matches are consistently better now than they used to be, but the best matches of this generation doesn't touch the best of previous generations. While I haven't seen the match yet, I already am seeing people blow their loads all over Omega/Okada and have seen multiple …

What are some of the stupidest things non-wrestling fans say to you once they learn you watch wrestling? The top three I hear are: 1. You know it's fake, right? (My reply: Are you sure? Really? Well, that's disappointing to hear.) 2. This stuff is still on TV? (My reply: Yeah, it's managed to stay on the air somehow.) 3. Ketchup! (when a wrestler bleeds) (My reply: Nope. It's spaghetti sauce. Usually Ragu.) Bonus: 4. You're watching this shit again!? (It's my wife who says this often. And I can't blame her.)

Ive got to go with Hogan and Jimmy Hart 93-95 what was the point? why pair the most annoying wimpy git with your monster face? how about you guys?

I was wondering how this works exactly. GCW is running Shin-Kiba 1st ring later this week and I don't understand how the revenue generated from the shows could come close to covering expenses. Could somebody with more insight into the workings of the business fill me in on how GCW, CZW, Chikara, and ROH all run shows overseas without losing an arm and a leg doing so.

Following from here: Welcome to Secret Santo for the 2018 Holiday Season. Rules are as follows: 1. You let me know that you are in. 2. I use a randomizer to create pairs. 3. You do a modicum of research into your partner using the board and suggest a match. It should be something easily available and not of an unreasonable length. You guys can talk it over via PMs if you want. 4. Your partner selects a match for you. 5. Both of you take the week to watch and review the matches here or in its respective match thread. Because of the time limit, the sooner you guys get each other your matches, the better. 6. I reshuffle the deck and w…

I'm curious to read the opinions of what the posters here think about Vince Russo. I watched the Rise and Fall of WCW on Netflix today, and for the most part, people were pretty negative toward him. Jim Cornette is famous for verbally lambasting the man as well. A lot of people would even argue that Vince Russo is a big reason, if not the sole reason, why TNA is unwatchable. Thoughts on Vince Russo?

There are some posts on the last page of the Current New Japan thread in the Megathread Archive about the G1 Climax but I think it deserves its own thread. Going to be a barn burner this year. A Block: Hiroshi Tanahashi, Kota Ibushi, Kazuchika Okada, Will Ospreay, EVIL, Sanada, Bad Luck Fale, Zack Sabre Jr, Lance Archer & KENTA B Block: Juice Robinson, Tomohiro Ishii, Toru Yano, Hirooki Goto, Jeff Cobb, Jon Moxley, Tetsuya Naito, Shingo Takagi, Jay White & Taichi Pretty stacked. They did a good job with the blocks, too. You have some money matches in the A Block & you have new & interesting matches in the B Block. Then they hav…

Hi everyone, First, I want to compliment the amazing forum posters here. The depth of knowledge that posters have is amazing. In attempting to research a particular point (buyrates under Vince Russo's WCW), I came to the startling fact that has long been known, namely that buyrate percentages are meaningless without knowing the size of the PPV universe. In fact, I'm almost of the feeling that they're of limited utility. Consider the following example. The list at the following link seems perfectly plausible: http://www.the-coli.com/tsc/6747-wwf-e-ppv...ml#.T_0WDPUtcv8 [.] This link claims that the 1997 Survivor Series (headlined by Bret/Michaels) did 250,000 …

Show starts at 9pm EST (AAA tends to run late a lot), and will be available on Twitch. They have separate Spanish and English channels, but don't bother with the English feed since Vampiro is still under the impression he's doing the commentary and the most memorable thing from the last time he did it was him audibly farting on air. Plus Hugo is more or less the JR of lucha and he's great even if you don't know any Spanish. The card: Dr. Wagner Jr vs Blue Demon (hair vs mask) Pentagon Jr/Fenix/Laredo Kid vs Young Bucks/Kenny Omega Psycho Clown/Cain Velasquez/Cody Rhodes vs Texano Jr/Taurus/Mystery Guy Ladder match for AAA Women's title wit…

Hi guys, I returned opening the comparisons about who is a better in ring performer? The criteria are storytelling, in ring psychologhy, selling, quality of matches, workrate, cleaning in the execution of moves. The comparisons are: Bret Hart vs Ric Flair Kazuchika Okada vs Toshiaki Kawada Mitsuharu Misawa vs Kenta Kobashi Bryan Danielson vs Jumbo Tsuruta Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Akira Taue Thank you very much

AEW, the NWA, and Dash Wilder of The Revival have Tweeted that Harley Race has passed away. That's one of wrestling's all time great's gone. Rest in Peace Champ.

Haven't seen this around here, but some interesting inductions from the Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame a couple of months back Pioneer Division - Charlie Fox and Baron Michele Leone Television Era - Lord James Blears and Abdulla the Butcher Modern Era - Ronnie Garvin and Owen Hart So Owen gets into a Hall! Territory/Journeyman/Colleague Division - Bob Roop International Division - Gory Guerrero Executive Division - Wally Karbo Tag Team Division - The Midnight Express (Dennis Condrey, Randy Rose & Bobby Eaton) No Jim Cornette?! Has Jim said anything about this? I'm very surprised since he was one of those "I don'…

So. There. I mean, Ric Flair ? Really ? Have at it.

Inspired by a Dave post on Twitter where he mentioned he had 30 channels in the 70s and 5 carried wrestling, I thought it would be interesting to see what options there were for folks here growing up. For me as a kid in Pittsburgh in the 80s we had: WWE syndicated TV on local NBC station on Saturdays USA had Prime Time Wrestling as well as (I think) All-American Wrestling on Sunday afternoons TBS had World Championship Wrestling at 6:05 Saturday and Main event on Sunday nights. Local independent channel had World Wide on Saturday nights at 11pm, then GLOW on after at midnight Different local independent channel had World Class on Satu…

CMLL announced that Paco Alonso passed away yesterday, he was only 65. He was only the third person to run CMLL in its 86 year history after his father Salvador Lutteroth and his son Salvador (Chavo) Jr. His daughter Sophia has been more visible recently as the face of the company in terms of management, but Paco was always a hands off guy and there was no indication he was battling any health issues. Even the announcement of his death to the crowd at yesterday's show seemed to be kept secret, as the roster was in the ring for it and more than a couple seemed to react like they were hearing about it for the first time. It will be interesting to see how it changes …

Anyone who's seen Stardom's streaming service knows they have English subtitles for the talking segments, which really helps following the stories for those of us who don't speak Japanese. I've had this idea of asking someone to translate promos from famous matches and saving them somewhere, like I've always wondered what Misawa is saying in the post-RWTL interview that gets such a big response from the crowd, or what exactly is being said in the Queendom tag post-match. 1. Has this already been done, does anyone know? 2. Does anyone know an English/Japanese speaker who might do it? What fees they'd want? 3. If anyone else is interested I was thinking peopl…

With half the year out, was wondering if anyone wanted to share their picks for some of these categories. Match of the Year Best Major Wrestling Show Best Promotion Best on Interviews Feud of the Year Most Improved Wrestler of the Year Here's a video with my picks:

The Perros del Mal group put out a notice that Perro passed away at age 73. He has reportedly been battling dementia for a long time (I remember when his son died there were reports that they didn't even want to tell him at first) He was probably the biggest non-masked star ever in Mexico, and nearly everyone who does the lucha-brawler style owes him a debt of gratitude.

The patriarch of the Rougeau family, Jacques Sr, father to Jacques, Raymond, Armand and sister Joanne (who was the WWF promoter in Montreal in the 90s) passed away on Monday at age 89. Most definitely lived in the shadow of his illustrious brother Jean/Johnny but he was quite a formidable tag team wrestler in his heyday.

Is anyone here familiar with the Fire Pro Wrestling video game series? If you're burned out on the WWE 2K games, these are an awesome antidote. You won't get the most realistic or "next-gen" graphics, but what you do get is incredible sim-like gameplay and the best editing suite of any wrestling game series in history. Fire Pro Wrestling World just came out on Steam in Early Access and it's coming soon to PS4. It's the first new Fire Pro Wrestling game in TWELVE years - since Fire Pro Wrestling Returns on PS2 (re-released digitally on PS3 as a "PS2 Classic" a few years back). I remember talking about FPW Returns at the time on another board with none other than The Blue…

Link: Wrestling Inc.: Fans Advised To Get Tested For HIV And Hepatitis C After Extreme Indie Event, Promoter Comments You can read the full details above. Basically, fans may have been exposed to blood at an "extreme" indie wrestling event, which featured a "Fans Bring the Weapons" match, a thumbtack match, and a "Panes of Glass" match. The Health Department of Floyd County, Indiana is encouraging everyone to get tested for Hepatitis C and HIV. The promoter responded on Facebook: WOW! This really calls for the CM Punk "Yeah. Ok, pal" gif. …