peachchaos

I'm sure the WWE did lift this from the CHIKARA pilot but it's also similar to Matt Riddle's Bloodsport and in some ways Lucha Underground. It also seems similar to that pilot a lot of guys did with the Young Bucks like 10 years ago.

Should it really even be a surprise to us that Dominick is actually good? On a show with so much hoopla and shenanigans, what stuck out to me was how this silly eyeball angle is the only wrestling on the whole show. So much of what I saw tonight felt like...television. The production is American Idol/AGT nausea, the interviewers are straight out of TMZ, the announcers are closer to QVC hosts, except for Joe and only when they allow Joe to actually be himself. And they did and it was probably the highlight of the night. But man, even if everything Dominick related felt like a home run tonight, I just don't know how I feel about hotshotting Rey's kid to a top spot at Summer Slam. With Seth Rollins. Because then what? I fail to see the appeal of Drew on any level. I've never seen it, certainly not now. Clearly Bobby Lashley in a suit is your top guy, should have been the one to beat Brock etc.

I sure did. So the new faction is a group of CRUISERWEIGHT VANDALS? Hard pass.

Camerawork sucks and the segments are too short but I see potential for this Raw Underground nonsense. Which of course means we’ll never hear about it again.

The new stable?

Jason Cross has been pretty adamant that this was Ray Apollo, according to Ray himself speaking casually in a dressing room in front of a group of respected European veterans. I have no reason to disbelieve Jason and there are no serious hallmarks of Keirn's work within the match. Sort of odd to consider Ray taking two weeks off working for Vince to go to Germany during the holidays, but not out of the question I suppose. There's is a bit of an interesting conflicting date (or confirmation depending on your view) earlier in the year on 9/10/94 where the WWF Doink is working Munich and the CWA Doink is in Hanover (a 4 hour train ride). I tend to think this confirms it was Ray, who had a history of working Germany back in 1991. Keirn seems to be finishing up by this stage in his life and I just don't see him taking bookings in Europe when he hardly ever left Florida in the first place. Any thoughts here?

Claudio’s run was legendary. King’s title chase and win is a treasure. King of Trios was the most consistent annual independent show for a few years there. The comic book gimmicks were a breath of fresh air in the era of handshakes and workrate. Maybe not a top tier indie promotion, but it paved the way for the entire modern scene in a lot of ways. I never got back into it after the break and there was never much of an emotional attachment to begin with. The concept of wrestling being “fun” will live on with more aware promotions like F1RST and many many others.

Loved that promo from Jericho. Playing up the Cornette-style loathing for an act is a card they can play once and this is smart use of it.

Thank you

I liked the idea of Taz as the mouthpiece for Cage, but in practice it just comes off flat. Taz is a solid hand on commentary but has no business doing in ring promos. Just find another way to not have Cage talk.

“When we decided to have the greatest tag team match ever, we did pretty much decided to do it and did it” Gonna take the bait. Can someone tell me what match Kenny is referring to here?

Another rough day in a seemingly endless string of hard times. It’s a shame it ever had to come to this point but this will be for the best. A lot of this goes way beyond wrestling and yet I don’t feel comfortable supporting a fandom for an industry that has been so dark for so long. For its entire existence, wrestling has been a boy club dominated by bullies and predators who brag in shoot interviews about sexual conquests and mean spirited pranks. For this all to be exposed is nothing new to any of us; they’ve been flaunting this in our faces for decades. And they kayfabed themselves into believing this had to be part of the business. That, to me, is the saddest part. That isn’t manhood. It certainly isn’t work. We are looking at young men and women who have suffered varying degrees of abuse, assault, and worst of all they were never going to talk about any of this until now. Of course this isn’t just in wrestling. Of course there will be some false accusations and some names that don’t deserve to get dirty will get dragged through the mud. None of this is fun. I watch and follow wrestling to escape all this nonsense. Seriously, I use it when I need to disassociate completely. Today sucked. I’ve watched the Danielson-Ki tap out match probably 20 times because I don’t know what else to do. I won’t name names but I have no problem losing some heroes. This isn’t a moment for us to cry about losing our favorite action figures. I’m also getting over the shock of each individual name showing up and looking forward to industry wide reform on so many levels. These next few months as shows start back up will be very telling. Also worth noting the main twitter account announcing these things went down about an hour ago.

Fantastic thread. Hard to disagree with anything here as you lay it out. Some really cool choices (like Scorpio-Windham) and I popped for every five star drop. I didn’t read through nearly everything, but every review I read was maybe the most pointed take I’ve seen on a lot of these matches. The more I think about it, the more accurate your final rankings seem. Somehow you have guided us through the fog. And of course there’s so much here I need to revisit. Great stuff, mate.

Is there a list somewhere of the footage they haven't uploaded yet?

There was a comp of the Patriot-Dark Patriot feud on YouTube but it appears to have been taken down.

Their best stuff was in Minnesota indies in 1990, but they had a a few decent matches in GWF. 7/13/91 (Light Heavyweight Tournament Finals) & 12/27/91 (2/3 Falls with a weird finisher stip) The first one without the gimmick is way better but the second one is on the Network.

Obviously I had no idea when I wrote that post above. I mean that changes my entire perception of his work tbh. I won't be passing Mr. Wrestling II onto my son, etc.

One of the very best talkers of his era. Not a holds or moves guy but could work the crowd into a frenzy. Lived the gimmick. We absolutely do not have his best stuff on tape, and even the cranky old man era is fantastic. The Magnum team and feud is a high water mark in a hot period for Mid South/Houston. Anytime II shows up at the WTBS studios you can expect gold. Imagine the expansion happens in the 70's, he's a national star. By the time he did get a sprint in New York, he was at the end of the line but could still get things going in front of a new audience. I don't know much in terms of his biography really, but my impression is he got out of wrestling and must have done something right to live this long. Always interesting how many 80's wrestlers didn't make it out of the gate while the prior generation mainly enjoyed long lives post wrestling. Also, Gordon's call of II's finisher ("a high HIGH vertical knee lift") is transcendiary on every level.

His overness is easily explained by his status as a celebrity athlete prior to wrestling and the appeal of that persona. I have to say I see the glass more than half empty when I look at that account: there is evidence here that Mongo was the worst wrestler ever pushed on a national platform.

on the Network, aired 6/19/82