Posted May 29, 201411 yr comment_5605105 Are there any good detailed write-ups on the TSWA / WWA / early ECW days in Philly in 90 - early 93? Would love to read about how these all worked and what was going on in each in terms of booking and matches and such...fascinating to me and I can only find small bits and pieces here and there about it as almost every BIG detail starts in April of 93 with ECW, along with Match listings for the TSWA shows, but nothing else...
May 29, 201411 yr comment_5605135 Fin Martin did an excellent write up in the late 90's of hardcore wrestling, which in part covered the TWA in depth. The articles also included some excellent photography.
May 29, 201411 yr comment_5605158 Fin Martin did an excellent write up in the late 90's of hardcore wrestling, which in part covered the TWA in depth. The articles also included some excellent photography. He did, but that was 15 years ago and unless someone is scanning old issues of Powerslam and posting them on line that's not doing much for Smack2k. Are there any good detailed write-ups on the TSWA / WWA / early ECW days in Philly in 90 - early 93? Would love to read about how these all worked and what was going on in each in terms of booking and matches and such...fascinating to me and I can only find small bits and pieces here and there about it as almost every BIG detail starts in April of 93 with ECW, along with Match listings for the TSWA shows, but nothing else... There's probably not as much about them as you'd think. Although I'm willing to be proved wrong. TWA was this super indy dream match promotion. They ran quarterly shows, loaded with famous names that weren't under contract to WCW or the WWF. They got alot of coverage in the sheets and the Apter Mags. Mainly for how wild the shows were in comparison to WCW and the WWF. But the Cactus Jack/Eddie Gilbert feud was a stand out and resulted in both men getting job offers to return to WCW and the Owen Hart/Takashi Izuka match, genuinely blew people away at the time. TWA went under in early 1992, promising a match between Buddy Landell and Buddy Rogers! And from their ashes rose ECW. Except it wasn't the ECW that you would think. It was the local philly guys, Sandman, JT Smith, Johnny Hotbody etc and old washed up WWF guys like Don Muraco and Jimmy Snuka. The first year of ECW didn't really get any coverage. Because it was the very definition on unremarkable indy. The first ECW thing that got some sort of meaningful coverage from the sheets and the Apter Mags was was the Terry Funk/Eddie Gilbert Texas Chain Match. The WWA never got any sort of meaningful coverage from the sheets or mags. There might be some dream match i'm blanking on, but if there is, any buzz was down to the participants and not the fact that it took place in the WWA
May 30, 201411 yr Author comment_5605180 Thanks, that is the info I had found already as well.... ECW in late 92 and 93 was just another show, but the TWA and WWA are two I'd love to know the insides of, as they got along at first ( The Battle of the Belts co show) and then became bitter rivals with ECW and WWA, before Heyman got ECW to join the NWA.. Would love to know some of the things done (probably not great, but underhanded) by each (ECW and WWA) to try and gain control of the Philly Indy Scene with talent as well as with the promoters (Gordan and Coraluzzo)
May 30, 201411 yr comment_5605213 ECW got television coverage very early on thanks to Sportschannel 48 (which at the time I believe was the biggest Philly area sports network outside Prism, which was subscription). I think that set them apart from the TWA's which only ran periodic shows. As far as I remember. Mick Foley's first book has some recollections of his TWA stint. The description of having an indy show with a "last blood" battle royal is a hoot.
May 30, 201411 yr comment_5605217 The opening chapters of John Lister's "Turning the Table" talks about the TWA days.
May 30, 201411 yr comment_5605219 You know I have a book that covered early ECW and the Gordon/Coraluzzo war pretty in depth. I know I will forget to post the book's title unless I write this post. Details forthcoming.
May 31, 201411 yr comment_5605275 The late 80's and early 90's were my favorite period for indy wrestling. The business for indies was still strong and with a few names you could draw a thousand or more people. I was going to a ton of indies around that time and huge into tape trading so I recall a bunch of matches that were talked about in the small community of traders.
June 5, 201411 yr comment_5605823 You know I have a book that covered early ECW and the Gordon/Coraluzzo war pretty in depth. I know I will forget to post the book's title unless I write this post. Details forthcoming. Are you referring to HARDCORE HISTORY by Scott E. Williams ? I purchased a copy several years ago. It is a great read.
June 9, 201411 yr comment_5606402 A couple of weeks ago I did enter the WWA shows on Wrestlingdata. I did notice that there are some old newsletters on prowrestlinghistory.com which might help with promotions like Liberty All-Star Wrestling, there are some 1995'ish sheets where seemingly somebody involved (Ray Bagni? I have to look again) sent in reports. Hopefully in those reports you will have more than enough gossip, having read a fair number of sheets you can't deny that like half of the correspondents liked to influence coverage to their liking and grudges were common. I'm still pissed that MySpace is pretty much gone, I was able to get 90s results of Regional Championship Wrestling from there. Doing independent companies is insanely difficult.
June 12, 201411 yr comment_5606986 Trying to find that book in stores...may have to order it. The book is for sale on Amazon.
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