Loss

Here's Tully Blanchard being a jerk. Click through for more.

Larry Zybesco.

Click through to check out this thread for buried treasure from UWF 1.0.

On the plus side, Championship Wrestling From Florida did a great job booking/building up their Brian Blair vs Jesse Barr title feud on top at the end of 1984. On the downside, that's the feud they're stuck with after Dusty takes half the territory & leaves for JCP.

Hey, Undertaker.

-- Watching Jim Neidhart and Krusher Kruschev cut the One Man Gang's hair! Didn't realize there was an angle that resulted in OMG's changed look. (Also had never seen much of him as a babyface, but he's pretty good!) -- So Junji Hirata was really good for a long period of time. I think it's hard sometimes to make those connections with people who spend a lot of time working in masks, but I guess at least the 1984-1996 period, he was on top of his game and one of the most fun guys in NJPW, right? (This observation was prompted by me absolutely loving the Strong Machines tag team and their crazy manager.)

They should call her Sally Jesse Rude. "So cute, it's almost like you're a real person."

Macho Man fun:

Here's Mike Graham. He might be a flight risk.

Misspelling aside (it's Mark RAGIN), check it out:

It would be a good time for wrestling to make this type of rally cry, workout, "I'm coming for you" thing a staple again to build matches. Cobra Kai is showing it still works.

Click through to hear the rest of this INCREDIBLE Jimmy Hart promo:

Two acts working everywhere in the summer of '84 that seem desperate for something to click somewhere: JYD and the Freebirds. The Freebirds-Von Erichs feud was getting old and JYD at a minimum needed a break from Mid South. So they show up here and there on pretty much everyone's TV.

The Wendi Richter timeline in 1984 is still crazy. She's on WWF TV in May, but doing her cowgirl gimmick and just in an attraction match. Does a major angle as a heel at the Superdome in June for Mid South. Then gets glam rock makeover & huge push with MTV special in July.

An assortment of fun stuff.

-- Fun fact: Roddy Piper's last JCP appearance aired on the same weekend as his first WWF appearance on Championship Wrestling (at ringside with David Schultz). -- Rude's Memphis debut! He enters the studio to "Everybody Wants You". Lance: "That's the Fabs' song!" Hart: "You idiot! That's Billy Squier's song!" Proceeds to make fun of Lance and intentionally pretends that point he was making was that Fabs were the ones singing. -- Imagine a world where everyone paid such attention to detail and clearly loved their craft as much as ring announcer Joe McHugh.

Copying and pasting a Twitter thread: Having gone through pretty much all the footage out there now for 1980-1983, I've come to the conclusion that 1983 is really the best place to start if anyone wants a chronological understanding of modern wrestling. Here's why. You could theoretically start with 1984, but what you lose some of in that sense is a few things. #1, you see Vince McMahon moving and shaking, but you don't really see the strength of the system he's trying to bend to his will. 1983 was a banner year for many territories. There were major stars and big gates. I wouldn't say that every territory had their greatest year, but even the ones who were weaker than in previous years had at least one truly great moment. Also, if you start with 1984, you don't see that Vince really built an empire around (mostly) established stars. I can see how for those who grew up on 80s WWF, it might be jarring to look at other territories and see later WWF stars/mainstays like Duggan or Piper presented on (somewhat) equal footing w/people like Brad Armstrong, the MX, or others that some fans may think of as "regional". Anyway, I think Starrcade '83 was the precise moment wrestling stopped being what it was and started being what it is. But events throughout '83 shaped what Starrcade became. 1980-1982 is really a continuation of the 70s in approach and philosophy, even if new stars like the Freebirds, Tommy Rich, Barry Windham, Von Erichs, etc were emerging in various places. If you want a global analogy, the "War of '84" that continued through Turner buying WCW in '88 was WWI and the Monday Night Wars were WWII. Since then, we've generally been in postwar landscape.

An incredible and impassioned heel promo I wish I had more context for, but Frank Dusek is amazing here.