Pro Wrestling

I seem to remember reading something like this happening in the early 90's but for the life of me cannot remember anything more than this. Did it happen? Was anybody of note also there? What was it even for?

I believe it matters, but how much? Is match order simple fodder for us fans/armchair QBs to easily obsess about? Or can it make a measurable difference in taking a show from average to good, good to great, great to epic? An analogy I'll use is batting orders in baseball. Fans obsess over their favorite team's batting order. Who should lead off? Who should hit cleanup? Why is this guy hitting seventh instead of fifth? It's easy fodder for talk radio and blog posts. Most studies show that batting order does make a difference, but not nearly the difference most fans think it does. It definitely doesn't make enough of a difference to justify the amount of ink spilled…

Do think this deserves its own discussion and I've been thinking about it all day. Here are some matches I've been thinking about: Jumbo vs Tenryu 89 Ted DiBiase vs Jim Duggan multi gimmick tuxedo match Flair vs Vader 93 Flair vs. Lawler in Memphis. The first two of these matches are five star in my view, which are enhanced by context, but the rating does not reflect that because the matches themselves tell their own story perfectly. Knowing the context makes them "better", but the rating is not affected. Flair vs. Vader might be the match in wrestling history that has most affected me emotionally. I cried first time and then years later cried again. In …

As mentioned on last week's podcast (which you can find in my sig if you'd like to check it out), we're doing a show on the top Summerslam matches of all time this week and did a panel voting on the top 20 matches. Below is the outcome, based on the mean average score of the votes. For the podcast, besides a debate on the final outcome below, we'd like your thoughts on which matches you rate higher or lower (and more importantly why), or if you think any should be on the list that aren't. As always we'll be reading the best contributions on the show and crediting you accordingly. 1. Shawn Michaels Vs. Triple H (2002) 2. Bret Hart Vs. Mr. Perfect (1991) 3. Bret Hart Vs. …

So I'm going to interview Bruce Tharpe on Monday for the local newspaper. I will ask him a little bit about his old IWF promotion, to keep it local, and other stuff, but will mainly be talking to him about NWA Classics. Do y'all have any questions you would like me to ask him, about NWA Classics or really, anything?

Honestly I would prefer the useless bars on the side like WWE tragically used to put on their DVDs releases. Something shot in 4:3 needs to be shown in 4:3.

Here's where my issue comes into play. I on average have 6-8 hours a week where I have the time to watch some wrestling. I'm good at sitting down and actually watching stuff but I seem to have severe ADD with it. I'll be starting to make progress on say WWF TV and then I just start getting the urge to watch something else. So I either start bouncing around and making no progress or I get so indecisive with what to watch that I take a few weeks off. I really like sticking to one promotion at a time because I like being immersed in it but the lure of all the footage I have it always calling. My newest idea is to set landmarks in my viewing and taking breaks when I…

Play-by-play Ichiro Shimizu (1972-78) Takao Kuramochi (1976-1990) Kenji Wakabayashi (circa 1985-1995) Akira Fukuzawa (1989-1997) Colour Takashi Yamada (1972~) Hiroshi Tatsuruhama (1972-85) Kosuke Takeuchi (early 90s) Basically, there would be a main announcer and a secondary announcer who worked for NTV and then colour commentators who were sports writers or worked for the magazines. The dates are a bit rough, but somewhere within that ball park. Kuramochi and Wakabayashi are the most famous All Japan play by play announcers and Kuramochi & Yamada the most popular pairing among fans. Akira Fukuzawa often gets the credit for Wakabayashi's work.…

This was on the New Zealand Herald's website this morning -- http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=11497352

Whether that be because it was short, forgettable or ill timed there are many examples of a chapter in a wrestlers career which are often forgotten about. FUNB era Hogan in 2000 WCW for example being referenced as being Terry Bollea on commentary. Wearing a tacky looking shirt and jeans to the ring, the entire episode would have been completely forgettable if it wern't for the fact it was so bad.

Drago & Goya Kong & Dinastia & Pimpinela Escarlata vs. Daga & Sexy Star & Mini Psycho Clown & Mamba Cibernetico & Chessman & Averno vs. Jack Evans & Fenix & Angelico vs. El Hijo del Fantasma & El Texano Jr. & Pentagon Jr. (Trios Titles) Blue Demon Jr. & La Parka vs. Mesias & Electroshock Los Villanos III & IV & V vs. The Psycho Circus Alberto El Patron vs. Brian Cage (Hair vs. Hair) Rey Mysterio Jr. vs. Myzteziz There will also be a Hall of Fame induction ceremony for both Perro Aguayo Jr. and Hector Garza.

There's some really interesting stuff in here (like him owning 11% of Houston at one point), and i came across the link off of a classics post and then used the wayback machine and there was only one hit, so I wanted to pull it back out here so it's preserved. Interview with former AWA Champion Nick Bockwinkel July 11, 2001 By Denny Burkholder WrestleLine Staff Writer Back when the WWF, NWA, and AWA were the Big Three, there were a handful of world champions that dominated the wrestling world for over a decade. Bruno Sammartino and Bob Backlund in the WWF. The Funk brothers and Harley Race in the NWA. And Nick Bockwinkel and Verne Gagne in the AWA. Bockwinkel in pa…

Introducing my sister to some of the older stuff on the network. Can anyone suggest the true stand out stuff to catch from any ppvs, clashes, WWE, WCW or ECW? There is so much on there it's hard to whitle down.

For our podcast this week, we're going to be talking about WWE's revisionist version of history and stances on different wrestlers and events, and in particular the ones we disagree with, and want to get some feedback from you guys - what myth that WWE propagates do you disagree with the most, or in particular bothers you when they try to force it on the general public? I saw a similar thread that pertains to the entire business elsewhere on the forum, but thought this would be good to narrow it down to WWE's. Whether it's something small on a DVD or documentary that strikes you as bullshit, or just a WWE/Vince trait that rattles your cage, what WWE company line or me…

Last night I was watching Roddy Piper's old Coliseum Video (autographed) as a tribute with a couple of wrestling friends. They posed a question to me I want to offer to the group. In their mind the top 5 Hulkamania era WWF wrestlers were Hogan, Piper, Andre, Savage and Warrior (in terms of the biggest stars). With 4 of those 5 deceased, who would your top 5 living be? It has to be for stuff done in the WWF only in Hogan's 2nd run (January 84-WM VIII) and only wrestlers, no Vince, managers or commentators. Guys like Flair, Shawn Michaels or Undertaker just weren't around long enough. I feel like Jake Roberts and Ted Dibiase are now slam dunks for this. Beyo…

On this week's Between the Sheets there was a mention of the FCC removing laws in 1984 that allowed for the proliferation of infomercials, and also allowing Vince to buy TV time to air his products - if this law hadn't passed, one would have to think it would have hampered Vince's national expansion. Doing a show on wrestling what-ifs soon - are there any more like this, where something seemingly unrelated to wrestling ended up having a major impact?

I wanted to, but despite my provider being listed as carrying it, they have a nobody's-buying-this TNA One Night Only show listed that day.

I am in the mood for a laugh, so what is some of the most stupid decisions in wrestling history? I am sure we can fill 20 pages of Russo crap alone.

Compared to what I've seen so far (Beyond The Mat and Wrestling With Shadows), I think it is. It has some dubious qualities to it, mostly in the production of it but I thought it was quite a startling look at the sad story of the Von Erichs

https://twitter.com/danawhite/status/627301270248751105?lang=en Apparently Dana has set off a small controversy after calling wrestling fake. This has lead to fans calling him names, posting pictures of Brock Lesnar and asking him to get in the ring. It's also caused a bunch of wrestlers to go after him for the comments. I hate to say it, but I'm siding with Dana on this. Aside from his choice of words, he's not really all that hard on the profession and wrestlers and wrestling fans have this weird hang up about the word fake. I wanted to ask: is there a difference between fake and scripted? Are wrestlers making fools of themselves by posting pictures of injuries they s…

I think this would be a fun thread, post old school matches and I'll watch them and tell you what I think. I'm only 19 and haven't seen a lot of things.

So I am sure most if not all of us run across popular opinions on the net, or frequent themes that we just don't understand or completely disagree with. This thread is where you can just confess all your 'sins' as a wrestling fan and get that weight off your shoulder. -I am actually not all that interested in discussions of best ever __. It's a very frequent theme on wrestling message boards to quantify who is the best wrestler today, who is the best promo, who is the best WHATEVER and I generally don't find the discussion interesting outside of when I can read about guys I don't know much about. -I am jealous of people like Dylan Waco and ohtani's jacket who seem…

What are some finishing moves that wrestlers used for only a short time? For example, when Diesel first started wrestling in the wwf, his finisher was a heart punch before he switched his finisher to the jackknife powerbomb soon after. Also, didnt Big Show use an inverted ddt variation called "the final cut" for a few months?

As the standard bearer for "entertainment" round these parts, I thought I'd share with you my journey through the sheer cheese that is WWF TNT and the only marginally less cheesy (but awesome) Prime Time. I did not acquire this material for the wrestling, I acquired it for ... everything else. Vince's ridiculous chat show. The "expert panel" on Prime Time. The skits. This is my sole reason for owning all of this. That said if a good match DOES turn up somewhere, it surely can't hurt. As ever, I will not so much review or recap these shows, as I will simply provide a kind of stream-of-consciousness running commentary of what I'm seeing. January 4th, 1985, TNT - Vince …

Are there any particularly good resources for finding results/match listings for 1980s TV shows/events that are non-WWE or JCP? I ask as I'm looking for GCW and Mid-South TV listings - I seem to be able to find things in dribs and drabs, but thought that some of you would have a better knowledge of these type of resources. Thanks