14 minutes ago, strobogo said:

Could have sworn there was a long stretch on the internet where Natalya was hyped up as an all time great female worker

She had a really good match with Awesome Kong about a year before getting signed and then had a solid stretch where just doing basic stuff competently made you look like a genius. Then good workers started coming up to the main roster and she got exposed as not being that great and she's just needed a break for a long time.

34 minutes ago, KinchStalker said:

I've had Fujinami's attempt to sing his own entrance theme ("Magic Dragon", a lyrical rewrite and rearrangement of an Eddy Grant song) stuck in my head for the past three days. I had to know more about this song, which conjured images of Fujinami laying it down in a recording studio whilst Inoki cheered him on in the booth (à la Boogie Nights). So I looked into it, and found out some funny stuff.

1. The vocal version was only used once (oh, to have been in that crowd), after which an instrumental version was hastily substituted. Fujinami refused to release it on CD a few years later, so it languished in obscurity until it was released on a 1999 King Records compilation.

2. Kengo Kimura said "that's not singing, that's noise." Ever hungry to outshine his tag partner in something, put out a pair of his own singles (here's one of them). However, as Inoki told him, “there is a difference between ability and popularity,” and sure enough, Fujinami’s single outsold his.

3. Kendo Kashin used it as entrance music during a 2004 European excursion and the 2005 G1 Climax, and remarked that “no matter where in the world you play it, it will make the audience laugh.”

4. According to an uncited claim on its Japanese Wikipedia page, it has gained a minor resurgence in recent years through being featured on “Tatsuro Yamashita’s Sunday Songbook”, the radio show of the King of City Pop himself.

It wouldn't fit on this forum (maybe DVDVR?), but I think there's some potential for a tongue-in-cheek thread evaluating the musical forays of vintage puroresu. Though of course, joshi made an entire cottage industry out of it and any examination of the subject would be incomplete without them.

This channel is amazing -- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZCzVeidYnFshsihtS9RXsQ/videos

Wow, that is an amazing channel! 

I found a clip of a Japanese TV comedian doing a Fujinami impression on a karaoke bit.

10 hours ago, strobogo said:

Could have sworn there was a long stretch on the internet where Natalya was hyped up as an all time great female worker

There's still a lot of outspoken fans that think Shawn Michaels is the greatest wrestler of all-time. I remember the Natalya talking point as well. Just different corners of the internet, I reckon.

On 5/2/2021 at 9:25 PM, NintendoLogic said:

Bret indeed says in his book that he insisted on cutting Austin because Austin told he him he had never bladed before and too much was at stake for him to try it for the first time at Mania. Of course, that's nonsense since Austin had bladed plenty of times in WCW.

Didn't Austin tell a story of how he sort of worked Bret into thinking that, because if Bret was the one holding the blade he would be the one who got any heat over it?

9 hours ago, Coffey said:

There's still a lot of outspoken fans that think Shawn Michaels is the greatest wrestler of all-time. I remember the Natalya talking point as well. Just different corners of the internet, I reckon.

It's my understanding that's very much her reputation inside WWE, or at least was at one time. It's been topped many times since, but a lot of that comes from the Charlotte match in NXT, along with her training Ronda Rousey.

I wonder how much of Nattie's rep comes from being a Hart and training in the Dungeon.  In WWE canon anyone who's ever been there is automatically an all time great. 

This is more of a "question that doesn't warrant a thread" but I've seen several matches referred to as "Houston" matches when they look to be Mid-South matches on Mid-South cards, only in Houston, as opposed to NOLA or Oklahoma.  Did Watts co-promote with Boesch?  Or was there an actual Houston organization?  And where does Southwest fit into all of this?  Did they have the same type of arrangement with Boesch as Watts did?

Thanks

IIRC, Boesch ran shows in Houston but it wasn't a promotion in the sense of having their own titles, he just had exclusivity to promote shows there. Watts would have his guys do those shows and air them in part or in full on Mid South tv. It helped both since his TV would drive interest in Houston shows, and getting on a Houston show helped a feud get "this is a big time match" rub. 

I always saw it as Boesch being the last leftover of the early days NWA where membership granularity went down to the city level, in some cases. He was to 80ies territories what Liechtenstein or San Marino are to today's European political map, a remnant of the past that somehow got passed by during the big unification phase.

Houston was like St. Louis in that it booked talent from all over the country rather than having its own crew of workers. It was part of the NWA until 1981. After Harley Race no-showed a title defense, Boesch withdrew from the organization and recognized Nick Bockwinkel as his champion. He also entered into a business relationship with Watts. After the sale of Mid-South to Crockett, he joined up with the WWF, which is how Bruce Prichard got his start with the company.

At some point in the early 80s, Boesch went with Watts for talent. Prior to that I believe he was with Joe Blanchard from San Antonio, and Fritz Von Erich in the 70s. But with Watts, Houston basically became part of Mid South/UWF, whereas with the previous arrangements, it was independent and ran its own programs and main events 

Thanks for this.  Sometimes I get confused when I see "Houston Wrestling" as a match descriptor when it's Mid-South wrestlers in matches booked by Mid-South bookers and shown (in some cases) on Mid-South television programs.

Speaking of old territory wrestling, I read somewhere that the Von Erichs were extremely popular in Boston in the 1980s and a lot of fans from that era have fond memories of them. How did that happen? Dallas is a long long way from Boston. Did World Class air in that market?

5 minutes ago, MoS said:

Speaking of old territory wrestling, I read somewhere that the Von Erichs were extremely popular in Boston in the 1980s and a lot of fans from that era have fond memories of them. How did that happen? Dallas is a long long way from Boston. Did World Class air in that market?

World Class was one of the bigger non WWF syndicated shows. They were aired all over the world and had a habit of getting super popular in far away places. That's also why they were big in Israel in all places.

lol wut? How? Just cuz both of them have a paunch?

Probably because Dave has been pointing out that old farts of the time were down on Harley for being too flippy, especially for a guy his size. 

It's probably the paunch + KO always lands flat on his back bumps just like Harley. Also tough guy tats. 

No. Just no. Who in modern wrestling is a legit tough guy in a bar fight whip you sense, can talk, can work against anybody, bumps his ass off, and has the size to be physically imposing? Nobody, and Steen checks like one of those boxes.

6 hours ago, joeg said:

No. Just no. Who in modern wrestling is a legit tough guy in a bar fight whip you sense, can talk, can work against anybody, bumps his ass off, and has the size to be physically imposing? Nobody, and Steen checks like one of those boxes.

Minoru Suzuki. He might not check the size box though. 

14 hours ago, MoS said:

Speaking of old territory wrestling, I read somewhere that the Von Erichs were extremely popular in Boston in the 1980s and a lot of fans from that era have fond memories of them. How did that happen? Dallas is a long long way from Boston. Did World Class air in that market?

The Lapsed Fan goes over their TV really well. They got backed by the Christian Broadcasting Network around 1981 and got syndicated and some absurd amount of money for production like 20k an episode. 

Kevin Owens strikes me as a modern day Jerry Blackwell, though I think a few here will see that as heresy as well. No one is Harley. If they were they would be world champion right now.

He’s Bull Ramos before he got old, like in that one Inoki/Baba tag we have.

2 minutes ago, Matt D said:

He’s Bull Ramos before he got old, like in that one Inoki/Baba tag we have.

I've only seen pictures of Ramos, but I like that comparison.