December 29, 20222 yr comment_5996668 Life in 2022 means YouTube recommends me an August 1995 Wrestling Challenge with a thumbnail of JR and Michael Hayes doing commentary and I'm sucked in for an hour. Anyone ever watch this era? I'm watching a Barry Horowitz-Hakushi banger in front of a red hot crowd. JR and Hayes sound just like their 1986 UWF selves! Was this when Watts was around? I was expecting them to be much more WWE-fied. Its so fantastic but weird to be watching this be labeled Wrestling Challenge, I need to see how long they worked together here. Edit: Ah, just saw Wikipedia had the history of announcing on that show and this only lasted a month. Damn. Thought I might have 4-5 months of peak Watts feeling TV I had not seen. I put the JR/Hayes team up there with Vince/Jesse and Gorilla/Heenan and JR/King for great heel commentator announce teams.
December 30, 20222 yr comment_5996686 I hope WWE have some sort of tribute to Pele, and say he was the special guest timekeeper when Pat Patterson won the Intercontinental title.
December 30, 20222 yr comment_5996687 On 12/28/2022 at 6:03 AM, strobogo said: How on earth would a promoter in Mexico be a huge fan of Jake Roberts but have never even heard of Terry Funk? Probably just means he paid attention to the WWF in the late 1980s.
December 30, 20222 yr comment_5996697 One of the most incredible things about the 83-94 period (Vince’s first decade) is that one still even now after years of on and off again obsession can find obscure corners one did not know about. Tonight, I fell down the rabbit hole of All-American. Random discoveries: - Bad News Brown had a physical altercation with Jack Tunney some time in 1987. I had never seen that before. - Tugboat “transformed” into Typhoon on an Ep of Prime Time in 91. And is introduced to the studio by Jimmy Hart and Earthquake. - Just before Wrestlemania IX on the March 28th 93 episode of All American, Heenan and Okerlund infiltrate WWF headquarters in search of Jack Tunney. The link segments definitely worth a watch with some cameos in there from Steph, Sarge and others. - Around the late Summer of 1994, Ted DiBiase “bought the set” of All-American, decked it out with new chairs and displayed the Million Dollar Belt on it. This is a schtick maintained until the final show which has the set literally dismantled on air with Todd Pettigall delighted and Ted with head in hands. That final show has clips from the previous decade. Quite interesting. The DiBiase set running gag reminded me a little of the Ian Mooney stuff on Spotlight. Completely random in-show angle lost to the mists of time.
December 30, 20222 yr comment_5996702 4 hours ago, JerryvonKramer said: One of the most incredible things about the 83-94 period (Vince’s first decade) is that one still even now after years of on and off again obsession can find obscure corners one did not know about. Tonight, I fell down the rabbit hole of All-American. Random discoveries: - Bad News Brown had a physical altercation with Jack Tunney some time in 1987. I had never seen that before. - Tugboat “transformed” into Typhoon on an Ep of Prime Time in 91. And is introduced to the studio by Jimmy Hart and Earthquake. - Just before Wrestlemania IX on the March 28th 93 episode of All American, Heenan and Okerlund infiltrate WWF headquarters in search of Jack Tunney. The link segments definitely worth a watch with some cameos in there from Steph, Sarge and others. - Around the late Summer of 1994, Ted DiBiase “bought the set” of All-American, decked it out with new chairs and displayed the Million Dollar Belt on it. This is a schtick maintained until the final show which has the set literally dismantled on air with Todd Pettigall delighted and Ted with head in hands. That final show has clips from the previous decade. Quite interesting. The DiBiase set running gag reminded me a little of the Ian Mooney stuff on Spotlight. Completely random in-show angle lost to the mists of time. Seems like topics for Letters From Kayfabe.
December 30, 20222 yr comment_5996718 JJ Dillon is in that segment on All American as well from 93. His only on screen appearance from from his 89-96 run.
January 1, 20232 yr comment_5996834 I stumbled upon this blog site looking for information about the backstage fight between Kandori and Hokuto at Big Egg Universe. The blogger often includes excerpts from interviews and books when doing his match reviews -- http://konjyaku.blog.jp/
January 1, 20232 yr comment_5996838 On 12/30/2022 at 1:25 PM, Strummer said: JJ Dillon is in that segment on All American as well from 93. His only on screen appearance from from his 89-96 run. I'm almost positive JJ popped up once or twice as part of a mass of agents
January 1, 20232 yr comment_5996842 27 minutes ago, ohtani's jacket said: I stumbled upon this blog site looking for information about the backstage fight between Kandori and Hokuto at Big Egg Universe. The blogger often includes excerpts from interviews and books when doing his match reviews -- http://konjyaku.blog.jp/ Wait, what was the Kandori/Hokuto fight?
January 1, 20232 yr comment_5996845 58 minutes ago, strobogo said: I'm almost positive JJ popped up once or twice as part of a mass of agents He was one of the Suit Brigade and would show up in the background for contract signings and whatnot, but Okerlund actually addressed him as "Mr. Dillon" which is one of the very rare instances of him being acknowledged by name. (Another was Pillman's contract signing.)
January 4, 20232 yr comment_5997059 Hopefully this means the MAGICAL GIRL will be returning Stateside. A 12 noon start time on a Friday is a bit of an odd choice, though. They must think their US fanbase is comprised mostly of NEETs.
January 7, 20232 yr comment_5997293 Raven's promos actually fucking suck. ECW and WCW. I will never understand how he got the reputation as this great promo/psychology guy.
January 7, 20232 yr comment_5997306 He was of his time and the delivery was what made him. Looking back at his promos is gonna always paint him in a worse light.
January 8, 20232 yr comment_5997322 RIP to Johnny Powers, who reportedly passed away on the 30th. Here is a Greg Oliver obit.
January 8, 20232 yr comment_5997327 13 hours ago, strobogo said: Raven's promos actually fucking suck. ECW and WCW. I will never understand how he got the reputation as this great promo/psychology guy. The Raven character was 90s grunge in human form, more or less, especially in ECW.
January 8, 20232 yr comment_5997332 15 hours ago, strobogo said: Raven's promos actually fucking suck. ECW and WCW. I will never understand how he got the reputation as this great promo/psychology guy. I never, not for a single second, believed in the Raven character. It always felt like try-hard cosplay by a rich kid.
January 8, 20232 yr comment_5997333 3 hours ago, C.S. said: I never, not for a single second, believed in the Raven character. It always felt like try-hard cosplay by a rich kid. Which was why the WCW reveal that he actually was a try-hard cosplay by a rich kid hilarious. I'm pretty sure that actually was part of the character initially in ECW but was dropped early on. But anyway, the content and delivery of Raven promos were garbage. Even the grunge deal had peaked and was on the way out when the Raven character debuted in ECW. I've seen most of his ECW/WCW/WWE/ROH/early TNA work and I can't think of a single stand out Raven promo or promo that sold me on needing to see a Raven match. Luckily with the right guys he could have pretty solid matches at least for a while, but his promos always sucked.
January 8, 20232 yr comment_5997334 Grunge was still big when Raven made his debut, but I'd argue it had more to do with Raven's look than his promos. Raven delivered low rent Jake Roberts promos. He ended up being a step or two below early Taker interviews. Not even sure he was better than Hellwig, to be honest.
January 8, 20232 yr comment_5997336 By the time Raven debuted in January 1995, Kobain was dead, Pearl Jam was basically blacklisted in the US due to the war with Ticketmaster, Soundgarden was winding down, AIC was on hiatus, and pretty much all genres of rock had completely fallen off the charts. The time for a timely grunge gimmick was definitely not 1995.
January 8, 20232 yr comment_5997338 19 minutes ago, strobogo said: By the time Raven debuted in January 1995, Kobain was dead, Pearl Jam was basically blacklisted in the US due to the war with Ticketmaster, Soundgarden was winding down, AIC was on hiatus, and pretty much all genres of rock had completely fallen off the charts. The time for a timely grunge gimmick was definitely not 1995. are you saying that Vince was also behind the times in April of that year when he brought us Rad Radford?
January 8, 20232 yr comment_5997339 Johnny Powers "was a quick study, learned the business quick. He was actually out on the road within two years". Bought a tear to this old-timer's eye.
January 8, 20232 yr comment_5997346 1 hour ago, Blehschmidt said: are you saying that Vince was also behind the times in April of that year when he brought us Rad Radford? For Vince and a pop culture gimmick, he's 10 years ahead of the curve on Rad Radford.
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