Thanks again to Matt Peddycord for this. If you've never read his reviews, he's certainly done a lot of them over the years: http://pdrwrestling.net/

 

Where the Big Boys Play #33 – Chi-Town Rumble 89

 

 

Chad and Parv welcome WCW PPV reviewer extraordinaire Matt Peddycord to take a look at the Chi-Town Rumble. In this show: assessing the influence of Scott Keith, Greensboro vs. Atlanta as the heart of JCP/WCW, Mike Rotunda: Greatest TV champ ever (up till 89)?, Barry Windham: Greatest US champ ever (up till 89)?, Jack Victory: the amazing utility man, George Scott’s love of armwork and weird finishes, Chad and Parv disagree on Steiner vs. Rotunda, and in-depth analysis of the first match in the ‘holy trinity’.

Listening to this right now. You might want to kill me for suggesting this Parv, but given how much time is dedicated to him and that Bash 89 is his all time favorite WCW/NWA show, you should probably ask Scott Keith to do that podcast with you guys. If anything it might make for entertaining listening. I do think he's learned a little bit but I was a fan back in 98 of his and he did introduce me, like so many others, to the smark perspective so I'm probably a little more generous than you although I agree with the general criticism of his books.

Am i the only one having a problem subscribing to this podcast? It doesnt let me download the newest episode.

I'm kinda surprised that their was no mention of Meltzer marking out in the front row (unless I zoned out) . Plus I have to give Parv credit for sticking to his guns on the Mike Routunda vs. IRS argument. I thought seeing Flair on his knees with his head down on the ropes realizing he lost the world title is just an epic moment.

Damn Shoe, we were talking about Meltzer live before we went on air and then whiffed.

Dave sold each and every chop in the Flair/Steamboat match, which was tremendous. I haven't listened to the podcast yet, but will do so, as I have it downloaded. That finish is one of the smartest of the era, because they were signaling to their fans that they were past the Dusty era. I wouldn't be surprised if Dave was the one who suggested it.

What were your previous thoughts on the PPV as a whole Loss and Shoe? NWA seems kind of weird in these past few shows where I would have been satisfied if I bought the show but it feels like the potential for an all timer is there and they are just missing the mark.

My memory was that the main event was worth the price of admission, and Luger/Windham, the MX match, and the Road Warriors vs Varsity Club were all fun at the very least. Luger/Windham was a match in particular that probably would have been GREAT with 10 more minutes. They had a lot of ideas they were cramming into a 10-minute match that didn't have time to play out. Luger was very motivated to put on a good performance and try new things.

Listening to the show now. At this point, I don't believe it was known Windham was on the way out. Within the month, it was clear he was leaving, so they bumped Hayes up to take his spot. I'm pretty sure there was talk of Flair and Windham feuding after Flair turned face. I think the idea was even tossed around of Windham beating Steamboat to take the title, followed by babyface Flair chasing Windham.

I also wanted to add that I thought Matt Peddycord was fantastic as a guest and I hope you'll have him on again. Does he post here?

I echo Loss pretty much. The main event was tremendous. The MX 6 man was a ton of fun. Windham/ Luger was pretty good that deserved more time. I haven't seen the Roadies match in a while , but thought it was solid .

Meltz is awesome at the Chi Town Rumble but I don't know if it's as great as him marking out for Hornswoggle's act at a SD taping six or seven years ago in San Jose.

 

 

Yeah and Dave has such a proud look on his face at the end of Flair/Steamboat. Brad Muster kinda looked like Christian Bale

We genuinely talked about Meltzer being on the show for about 3-4 mins before we started recording, funny how none of us thought to mention it again. There was a lot of technical difficulty during the recording of this show and it kind of threw us a little bit because we had to keep stopping and starting.

 

Dave sold each and every chop in the Flair/Steamboat match, which was tremendous. I haven't listened to the podcast yet, but will do so, as I have it downloaded. That finish is one of the smartest of the era, because they were signaling to their fans that they were past the Dusty era. I wouldn't be surprised if Dave was the one who suggested it.

Do you think George Scott was reading the Observers in 1989?

 

I kind of feel with Scott that it's one step forward, two steps back. Yes, a lot of Dusty's bullshit is gone, but in its place we've now got this oldschool obsession with armwork, weird dated-feeling finishes on the undercard (I'm going to call them "George Scott finishes"), Hiro Matsuda, and Steamboat booked and marketed pretty much as a 70s babyface.

 

I know Scott's stint didn't last long in 89 but I can't say it's felt like a total success. I feel these recent cards have been "almost but not quite". The TV title finish sort of made sense because Steiner is meant to be an idiot, but I'd have liked the Luger-Windham match a lot more if that finish hadn't been so strange and so soon after the TV title finish. Like I said on the show, I have no idea what it's meant to be achieving. You make Luger look weak or lucky which isn't getting his title reign off to a great start and Windham, the heel, can legitimately say he had Luger beat. Just goes against all booking logic.

 

@ shoe - re: Scott Keith, I am admittedly a bit ambivalent about asking him on given what I've said about him on here and on the show itself. We have guests lined up until Wrestlewar 90 now, but y'know "never say never". If Chad went and asked Keith to come on the show and he said yes, I wouldn't say no. But I'm not going to seek him out or anything

Flair very well may have come up with that finish himself, or someone other than George Scott could have suggested it to Flair for him to decide to do. It could have even been something that was called as an audible. Things like that happened then. For example, Flair was supposed to beat Luger completely clean at Starrcade '88 and put his feet on the ropes anyway so Luger would have an out.

Flair very well may have come up with that finish himself, or someone other than George Scott could have suggested it to Flair for him to decide to do. It could have even been something that was called as an audible. Things like that happened then. For example, Flair was supposed to beat Luger completely clean at Starrcade '88 and put his feet on the ropes anyway so Luger would have an out.

Never knew Flair called an audible like that on Starrcade 88. That is great at showing how awesome Flairs instincts could be inside the ring.

I know it was in the WON that Luger had cold feet about doing a clean job after some vets got in his ear, which is why they did it. Years later, in a post on Classics, Dave confirmed that Flair did that so Luger would have something from the match. It could be that some combination of both are true - that Flair knew people were in Luger's ear and did that for him so he would feel better about the finish. I'm not sure.

Whichever way they got there, that finish to the Luger match at Starrcade remains one of my favourite finishes. And certainly the best non-clean finish we've seen on this shows for the podcast.

 

I like the finish to Flair-Steamboat at Chi-Town too.

Finished the whole podcast today. I sort of agree with about George Scott Parv, but I would put it as two steps forward and two steps back. I guess the clean finishes mean that much to me, although really how much more clean is the shoulder lift finish I guess?

 

Do we have any Observers at this time to know when Windham was on the way out? Because yeah he really should have put Luger over better than this, it was surely counter-productive if this was the case.

 

The thing I like most about this series (and the reason I think most smart fans love it) is because it's just about the closest wrestling post 84 comes to being plausibly real. You can genuinely feel the competition between both men from bell to bell and it's not a "you turned on me I want to kick your ass" sort of wrestling hatred it's the same sort of rivalry you get when Larry Bird and Magic Jordan played each other (Or Tom Brady and Peyton Manning, though they never technically play against each other I guess so poor analogy there). It's genuine desire to be the best and god Flair plays his frustration to the hilt very well. Put me down as thinking this is the best match of the series to be honest.

 

 

When you get to Beach Blast 93 here's a funny story to share. For literally every week for five years I had a close friend on my street who got NWA wrestling but whose parents were sort of anti social and never let his friends in the house. Week in and week out I had to hear how great NWA/WCW was and how cartoonish WWF was and how it didn't take wrestling seriously enough. I finally got cable in the summer of 93 and the very first WCW thing I ever saw was..........The Beach Blast mini movie. I didn't let him live that one down for years afterwards.

If it means anything to you Brain, one of my most vivid WCW memories is Abby getting fried in the chamber of horrors that I can't wait to share on the Havoc 91 pod.

If it means anything to you Brain, one of my most vivid WCW memories is Abby getting fried in the chamber of horrors that I can't wait to share on the Havoc 91 pod.

I watched that live thanks to my cable company at the time showing WCW PPV's for free every now and then. I was also incredibly stoned that night. So the combination of a free PPV and being higher than a hippie in a helicopter leads to the fact that I LOVED the Chamber of Horrors match then, and I still love it now.