Bockwinkel v. Lawler talk from the other thread has me curious about what the best thing to trickle out of the archives has been so far? I can't remember anything this interesting, though some of the 80/81 MSG cards have been interesting to me. I've only had the service for two years though. Anything top the Lawler/Bock match?

Bockwinkel v. Lawler talk from the other thread has me curious about what the best thing to trickle out of the archives has been so far? I can't remember anything this interesting, though some of the 80/81 MSG cards have been interesting to me. I've only had the service for two years though. Anything top the Lawler/Bock match?

A Thesz/Rocca match comes to mind. The Film Room program showed Jack Brisco vs. Johnny Valentine not too long ago.

Thesz-Rocca was already around, I believe, and more complete than the 24/7 version (more than just the 1st fall).

Brisco/Valentine has been around, too.

 

The biggest find so far is probably the Backlund/Valentine 1-hour draw from 1979. I think Backlund/Koloff from the same time period is also "new."

 

Oh, and the complete Starrcade '83 in perfect VQ, and a complete Wrestling Classic, and a complete Big Event.

The biggest find so far is probably the Backlund/Valentine 1-hour draw from 1979.

This is a good choice.

Backlund vs. Ivan has been around for a while. I'm sure McAdam had it out there forever. Frank made it one of his keynotes in the Backlund & More tape, pairing it with Bruno vs. Ivan from 3/79. Looking at my Pegasus archive, it looks like Frank sent that tape out initially in September 2003, and that tape got resonably well circulated for a non-shilled item.

 

Bob vs. Valentine is a good answer. That was a Holy Grail, and given how much *hasn't* come out that you think would (such as Bob vs. Harley, or the Bob vs. Muraco 60 draw in MSG), it's pretty amazing this got out there. Doing it as a standalone match at that length rather than tying it to an MSG card... it's beyond amazing. One could only think that Greg spoke highly of it around the time he went into the HOF. They couldn't put it on the HOF DVD, so they tossed it out there. I can't think of any other reason they would have done it.

 

 

John

Complete Starrcade '85 was a holy grail - they did a good job scrambling the CCTV that year so only the edited comm tape was available.

Oh, and the complete Starrcade '83 in perfect VQ, and a complete Wrestling Classic, and a complete Big Event.

What's missing from the Coliseum VHS of the Wrestling Classic? Are there entire matches missing, or are the ones on the tape clipped?

Oh, and the complete Starrcade '83 in perfect VQ, and a complete Wrestling Classic, and a complete Big Event.

What's missing from the Coliseum VHS of the Wrestling Classic? Are there entire matches missing, or are the ones on the tape clipped?

 

It's been a long time since I saw the Wrestling Classic, but I do remember that they cut out entrances and some introductions for wrestlers during the tournament matches.

 

There may have been a couple of clipped matches, but I don't remember for certain if any were.

There may have been a few clips, but since most of the matches ran 2 minutes or less it wasn't an issue.

 

I wouldn't call the show a holy grail or anything but it was the "first" wrestling PPV, so it's significant for that fact alone--and as far as I know the complete PPV version had never been available.

The PPV version had been floating around a little bit, as Dan had a 1st gen from Scott Betschel (I had it on VHS from my 1st trade w/ Dan 6 years ago), but obviously 24/7 is better for VQ reasons.

They've shown almost half of the matches from the DVDVR WWF 80's list. Um, I mean, someone who kept track of ridiculous stuff might know that. They're not really "holy grails" for traders but it's kind of notable. Maybe someone out there at the office is checking them off.