I realize steroids were legal then, but mentioning them usually not something done by the announcers.

Well Mid-South and Memphis were two territories that tried to present things in a realistic fashion and not insult the fans intelligence (well at least when Jerry Jarrett was booking, Lawler got a little too into his comic book & monster movie fandom at times) so acknowledging that two obviously roided up guys were on steroids fits that mentality. It's not like the fans couldn't tell. I remember Bill Watts himself talking about steroids on the shows at times but I can't remember the exact context like the one of Hercules talking about doing dianabol or Phil Hickerson's promo from Memphis.

A 5/1/90 episode of USWA Challenge is up, with Steve Austin vs. Bill Dundee.

Not to rain on the parade because I am also thrilled to see this stuff posted, but doesn't it look like there's going to be very little connection between episodes other than NWA World Championship Wrestling?

 

Like Mid-South has random episodes featuring future big stars like Warrior and HBK spreading from '82 to '86. Are they going to fill in all those gaps? SMW is all 1994 right now so I guess they may upload that entire year eventually.

 

This is awesome, but man I wish they'd just do it all in order so we can watch storylines and angles over the course of weeks and months.

I'm recalling a promo from Col. DeBeers in the AWA about Scott Hall being on steroids and demanding that he be drug tested.

Question about the Mid-South shows, do all of the ones uploaded so far feature a match or something else from the DVD released a few years ago? Better yet, are there shows that weren't on it at all?

Question about the Mid-South shows, do all of the ones uploaded so far feature a match or something else from the DVD released a few years ago? Better yet, are there shows that weren't on it at all?

That's pretty much what I was assuming the deal was on those Mid-South shows, it was stuff they already converted for DVD releases.

Did you ever think you would see even a slice of the Austin vs Chris Adams USWA feud on this Network? Man I hope Austin worked on a couple weeks when the John Tatum angles really went nuts

This Stampede footage is absolutely beautiful.

Did you ever think you would see even a slice of the Austin vs Chris Adams USWA feud on this Network? Man I hope Austin worked on a couple weeks when the John Tatum angles really went nuts

Yea more people need to see when John Tatum picked up a jobber and threw him over the barricade AT the fans. No, not into. At.

Anyone with a Roku having problems watching any of the stuff they uploaded. I was fine yesterday. Right now nothing is loading for me except for a promo for one of their other shows on the network.

Not to rain on the parade because I am also thrilled to see this stuff posted, but doesn't it look like there's going to be very little connection between episodes other than NWA World Championship Wrestling?

 

Like Mid-South has random episodes featuring future big stars like Warrior and HBK spreading from '82 to '86. Are they going to fill in all those gaps? SMW is all 1994 right now so I guess they may upload that entire year eventually.

 

This is awesome, but man I wish they'd just do it all in order so we can watch storylines and angles over the course of weeks and months.

This stuff has to get views for more to come, like Loss said. The best way to do that is at first put stuff up featuring guys the average subscriber is familiar with to get their attention. It's actually pretty smart, as apposed to the initial launch with some WCCW shows featuring no one a modern audience is familiar with.

As down as I am with all this classic footage. I'm bothered by the notion that USWA is being categorized as "Global Wrestling Federation"

Now it's working

They fixed the error with that one episode of World Championship Wrestling being listed in the wrong year.

I'm about to put on some stuff in a bit. I want this to keep going. It's ridiculous it took them so long to get any of this stuff out.

I hope they move the USWA into a category of it's own, and actually upload some Global as well. I need some Dark Patriot in my life.

Sylvester Ritter vs "Irish" Paddy Ryan on 11/12/78 Stampede is a fun, messy five minute brawl with Ryan bleeding all over the place

Did the Stampede show originally have no music in the opening credits, or was there an edit?

They were like that on Classics on Demand, too. Originally it was this song.

I figured there had to be an edit, funny they just didn't dub it like everything else.

 

Also I'm glad these shows are back since Big Daddy Ritter was such a great heel.

I was pleasantly surprised by how good JYD looked.

Imagine if I described a wrestling show as follows:

 

~1 hour show (so 45 mins of actual time)

~first 25 mins are an angle recap including lengthy replays from the previous week with a super cheesy pre-taped video segment added for good measure

~on screen (and off-screen) authority figure shoehorning himself into a program with a top character and dominating the show
~a video package highlighting the career of said authority figure, aired twice on the same broadcast

~one advertised match that was a total bait-and-switch and didn't occur

~a second advertisted match that went all of a minute before becoming a total schmoz

~roughly three minutes total of actual bell-to-bell wrestling, two of which were a jobber squash

People would probably lose their minds if you presented that today, and yet the second episode of Mid-South they have up (forget the date, sorry) is exactly that. It was also a hell of a piece of business, so I'm not complaining. Taken in a vaccum it reads like every bad opening to Raw from the last 15 years, but because it was the exception and not the norm for MSW, it's fine. WWE could learn so much from all this archival footage if for no other reason than it shows a zillion different ways to approach TV without falling into a stale formula, to the point that what LOOKS like stale formula on paper isn't, provided it's mixed in on occassion and not the standard format.

The Stampede footage is gorgeous. Cold Canadian winters must have been good for storage.

Bix made this note on twitter and it's something i've also said (and agree 100%): Yes, it'd be nice if they put these up in order, but it's really understandable why hand-picked episodes would center around WWE superstars before their run.

 

Hopefully this is a tipping point where they see a boost in viewership and go heavier then.

 

I can't get over these GWF Best of Comps from 92 - so random.

Are the Stampede episodes posted so far stuff that aired on Classics on Demand, or is there footage that is completely new to the world since its original 1970s airing?

 

Khawk, where did "AWA Superstars" fit into the run of AWA TV? I was aware that "AWA Championship Wrestling" was the ESPN Program and "AWA All-Star Wrestling" was their syndicated show, but where does "AWA Superstars" fit? Was it a show for secondary syndicated markets, or something for Canadian TV perhaps?

 

Just fired up the Best of USWA Vol. 1 under the GWF banner, had no idea that Terry Gordy & Steve Williams dropped by USWA Dallas. Was this just a one-shot or did they have an actual run there?