So what I've been doing the last several months is trying to make sense of my personal collection of footage. That has meant compiling everything in a chronological way, finding the versions of things that aired using the best possible quality and the most complete version, and all of that. Putting together a global chronological footage timeline for pro wrestling. I did this off the radar for the pre-80s a few years back, and while I do still have a few gaps, I'm fairly confident I've accounted for about 95% of what exists.

As I'm doing this, I'm also trying to eliminate filler. To be clear, my definition for filler is pretty low and doesn't mean "only keep the 4* matches" or anything close. If it is competitive (or even if it's not, but is interesting or important), I'm trying to keep it and eventually build a master list. 

Here's how I explained it all on Twitter a while back:

"When I first came online, one of the most fascinating sites in the world to me was the old John McAdam site -- he was a tape dealer who had these really amazing matchlists of things I didn't know existed & offered witty opinions and cool tidbits of info next to each match. Anyway, it has made me eventually want to do something that stands not as a site to sell tapes, but just as a tribute to that format. Listing a curated list of matches in chronological order (as he usually did) and providing 1-2 lines of commentary for most of it. The goal would simply be to create a place for wrestling fans to EXPLORE. I've been watching since I was 3 or 4 years old and have been a massive hardcore fan for probably the last 25 yrs or so of that. And I *still* regularly get blown away at matchups that exist on tape I had no idea about. I don't have any thoughts about the right format or place to do it & I don't even see it as a profit venture necessarily as much as a labor of love. And hopefully I can one day make it a reality in some form."

I've been using Twitter to do random thought dumps or observations as I go through this footage. To be clear, I'm not really sitting and watching matches in full but I am going through what I have and trying to make sense of it, and in doing that, you pick up on a lot of peripheral things. So don't think of this as a thread of match recommendations but more as a thread of general observations going through footage. I'll try to share them here and on Twitter as I come across them. Some things that may be of interest that I've already uncovered or said I'll cross-post below just to put it all in one place.

When I'm done here, I'll do this and then the 90s, and then the 00s, and then the 10s, and then we'll see.

4 minutes ago, Loss said:

"When I first came online, one of the most fascinating sites in the world to me was the old John McAdam site 

Man, I spent SO MUCH time browsing through McAdams site, it was indeed totally fascinating to me too (although his views on pro-wrestling seemed dated already by the standards of those times, and I mean 99/00).

#boomer (well, no, late X-Gen, really, but to those young people it's all and the same I guess !)

Some of his views are outdated which I'm guessing even he would admit, but they also serve as a great time capsule for conventional wisdom at the time.

John's podcast Stick To Wrestling is great, by the way.

Here's a thread of Memphis bumper reactions, circa 1980-1981. Click through to see more because I think I compiled just about all of them here for 1980. I could strangely watch these for hours.

 

The biggest joy in all of these was finding a pre-wrestling career SHERRI MARTEL looking a total superstar while just being there as a fan.

 

 

Random thought: The uneven production, near constant debuts & lack of discipline around language that they are famous for (they call it "professional wrestling") makes 1984-86 WWF pretty fascinating to watch. The Big Event would probably mark the end of this first phase of Vince going national. A switch flipped in fall, when Championship Wrestling and All Star Wrestling were replaced by Superstars and Challenge, and when NBC changed the lighting on SNME. From there on, most WWF TV was run off of a template that they've just kept refining for the 35ish years since then.

Tony Atlas puts it all out there.

 

A 3-part musical look at the Dennis Condrey/David Schultz tag team in 1979-80 Memphis. Click through to see the other parts. Marvel at the use of an instrumental version of "Good Times" by Chic in wrestling. It seems surprisingly progressive for wrestling, especially in 1980.

 

Austin Idol's tribute band offered a diss track, which would be a really cool thing to see more of in wrestling.

 

One of the great early music videos in wrestling. 

 

Random thought: For all the reputation of Memphis, it's so weird going through 1980 footage when they became more serious and wrestling-driven because Billy Robinson was the top star, while Georgia Championship Wrestling was BY FAR the wilder show. That's not a quality statement. I love both in different ways. Just not what you'd expect. GCW is more likely to be the show with fans screaming and fists flying w/the ring full of people in street clothes at that point.

Random thought: I always knew a clipped version of Backlund vs Spiros Arion from MSG existed but had no idea where it came from, so I was happy to find it on an episode of All Star Wrestling from 1980 on the Network.

Click through to see Tommy Rich's AWESOME return to Georgia Championship Wrestling in 1981, in all 3 parts.

 

Quote of 1980: "No matter how long the match lasts, Rick Martel and Tony Garea are in there the entire time." -- Vince McMahon on All Star Wrestling, seeking inspiration where he can find it.

Here's Adrian Street in an alternate universe, doing "Pomp and Circumstance" in the Los Angeles territory years before Savage ever used the track.

 

Here's Terry Funk being Terry Funk.

 

Some random thoughts:

- Early 80s guy who should have been a bigger star: Bobby Jaggers. Really good in the ring and an even better talker.

- Who does everyone think was the best of the late 70s/early 80s WWF JTTS crew? I really like Denucci, Estrada and Scicluna. The WWF TV format was a tough one but their matches were usually very well-worked.

Always watch Bob Armstrong.

 

Thought from December:

Interesting watching all the 1981 TV I can find. By late spring, Flair was wrapping up most of his issues in JCP & was being introduced in other territories, winning matches every week but mostly being kept above the fray. Doing occasional strategic jobs to set up challengers. I'm guessing this was the basic formula for introducing new NWA champs every time going back pretty far but Race and Rhodes were established, so it had been years since they had to do it, and Baba and Rich never really left home with the title.

Other thoughts:

- Almost finished with 1981 stuff, and I'm pretty sure Rick Martel and Tony Garea are teaming in perpetuity in Allentown, PA.

- Steve O is likely the most forgettable semi-pushed wrestler in history.

- Now wondering if late '81 Georgia Championship Wrestling has the most great talkers assembled in one place. Flair, Dusty, Piper, Hayes, Idol, Bob Armstrong, Ole, Rich, Jonathan Boyd, Mr. Wrestling II ...

- I don't want to jump to huge conclusions just based on the limited stuff we have, but Wrestling at the Chase and whatever other St. Louis footage we have has often been so underwhelming.

- Jimmy Garvin is one of the best examples ever of a guy hitting paydirt with a new gimmick. He'd been languishing in opening matches for years and years. Suddenly, he's in demand everywhere and hitting magazine covers.

 

I was tempted to compile all of these like I did for the Memphis bumpers, but couldn't do it. Still, watch Southwest. I think newer fans would enjoy it. Very heavy workrate territory with a lot of smaller guys and heavy focus on action.

 

I wish we had more footage of All Star on Screensport in 80s UK. The little I've seen more closely resembles American wrestling than the stuff broadcast on WOS -- more booking/angles, sharper face/heel contrasts, more partial announcers, etc. Wish more of it was out there.

Starting to think it doesn't feel right to just think of WCW as  having continuity with JCP. Crockett folded in Mid South, Florida, and GA before the sale, so maybe a historic view of WCW that covers the pre-1988 sale period should also include all of those places.

Not entirely comfortable thinking of "WCW" as being that all encompassing, but at least thinking out loud about it. At a minimum, GCW and Mid Atlantic should both be considered part of WCW lineage.

FWIW, when Dave did his WCW history piece when Vince bought the company, his starting point was not Jim Crockett Sr.'s foray into pro wrestling, but rather the launch of WTBS in 1972.

I really love 1983 heel Jacques Rougeau in Memphis because he gets all this heat just for being a total idiot. Hard to think of someone comparable. He plays his own entrance music by holding up a microphone to a boom box, people. His entrance music was "Dirty Laundry" by Don Henley.