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Post by Deleted on Aug 11, 2020 11:19:25 GMT -5
Who owned this? This was one of the first WWF videotapes I imported. We had a licensee here in the UK called Silver Vision. They released a lot of Coliseum releases, but didn’t release all of them (they got the licence in 1989 - and didn’t want to flood the British market with LOTS of videotape releases, so they chose a few such as certain PPVs and HULK HOGAN: REAL AMERICAN). I bought BLOOPERS, BLEEPS AND BODYSLAMS via eBay around the late 90s. The tape featured a lot of wacky clips from the WWF, including from TUESDAY NIGHT TITANS. I lost the will to live when I watched this. It was too much of a good thing. Fact is, while I love 80s WWF, at times the humour just didn’t work for me. I could appreciate some aspects, e.g. the Bushwhackers, but silly weddings and juvenile behaviour just became tedious and outstayed its welcome.
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Post by codystarbuck on Aug 11, 2020 12:05:07 GMT -5
Ugh......hated Tuesday Night Titans. I was so happy when they dropped it in favor of wrestling matches. The later incarnation, with Heenan and Monsoon worked better; mostly because Heenan was genuinely funny and Monsoon made a good straightman for him. Vince's idea of humor involves humiliation and was formed as a toddler and never evolved. Plus, the man wore the ugliest sport coats and suits imaginable, in that era.
I preferred NWA and AWA wrestling, but their video output was far behind Vince, until the Monday Night Wars era. If anything, I usually watched the Starrcade videos, for the matches.
Most of the videotapes I owned (as opposed to copied, from a rental) were bootlegs of Japanese and Mexican matches, plus a few compilations (like one with a Chris Champion shoot interview and footage of the New Breed and Champion in Memphis and in WCW, as Yoshi Kwan). I had stuff like the 1994 Super J Cup tournament, won by Chris Benoit, after defeating Great Sasuke, in the finals. That tournament also featured Dean Malenko and Eddie Guerrerro, as Black Tiger. I had compilations of Tiger Mask, Ultimo Dragon, Misawa vs Kawada, the J-Crown tournament, one of Universal pro Wrestling, the lucha-oriented company promoted by Gran Hamada (featuring Yoshihiro "Ultimo Dragon" Asai, Great Sasuke, Super Delfin and several luchadores from Mexico, including Blue Panther), and Jushin Liger. The Tiger Mask one was great, as it not only had the matches with Dynamite and Black Tiger (Marc Rocco), it had ones with Villano III, showing off Tiger Mask's lucha training, and one against British wrestler Pete Rockets, so Sayama could mat wrestle. There was also one of Sayama against Bret Hart, before he went to the WWF.
I won the Super J Cup video from the old Wrestling Observer eYada internet show, when I got a trivia question right. The question was to name the first gold medal winner to wrestle int he WWF, and, at first I was answering Muhammad Ali; but, he only refereed and Dave stated that on the show, saying he wants someone who wrestled. I recalled that he had fairly recently mentioned a judo player and grabbed my copies and found his bio piece on Willem Ruska, a Dutch judo champion who won Olympic gold and wrestled for Vince Sr, then in New Japan, for Inoki.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 11, 2020 13:14:45 GMT -5
Be careful what you wish for. I’m not sure TUESDAY NIGHT TITANS made its way over here, so I only saw it on videotape years later. I wish I could unsee it. I lost the will to live.
The WWF has done humour well at times. Wrestling doesn’t have to be serious. But things like the Gobbledly Gooker and the like just irked me.
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Post by codystarbuck on Aug 11, 2020 15:04:52 GMT -5
Wrestling has always had comedy; but, there's a big difference between what Vince thinks is funny and what the audience does. Vince thought that butt-kissing bit, on RAW was funny; the audience crapped all over it. Cornette crowing about a celebration for the Midnight Express being the Mid-South tag champs and then getting his face shoved int he cake by the Rock N Roll Express was funny; AND, it furthered their angle.
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Post by codystarbuck on Aug 12, 2020 15:25:46 GMT -5
Some early Undertaker.
As a rookie, in Texas, under a mask, as Texas Red, vs the Spoiler (Don Jardine)
It has been stated in kayfabe that Jardine trained him, but that was not the case. Take did pattern some of his ring style after Jardine, who was a big guy for his era and copied his walking of the ropes, while an opponent is in arm arm wringer. Taker took it further by walking the ropes and leaping off the middle, into opponents.
The Punisher (aka Dice Morgan) vs young Steve Austin (under his real name, Steve Williams)...
Steve Austin was born Steve Anderson; but his parents divorced and his mother remarried to Ken Williams and Steve would take his surname, until wrestling, as Steve "Dr Death" Williams was already a big name and Dutch Mantell named him Austin. Steve hated it, so Mantell gave him until his match to come up with something better. He didn't and was stuck with it.
His debut in Memphis (then known as the CWA) as Master of Pain, claiming to be an ex-con who killed two men.
A pre-WWF Percy Pringle III (there were two other managers to use the Percy Pringle name, in the Southeast, prior to William Moody).
To me, he will always be Percy Pringle, playing Paul Bearer. i first heard of him from his stint in Florida, managing Rick Rude and Jack hart, aka Barry Horowitz. He went from there to Dallas, where he had a long stint as a heel manager. From there it was the WWF, following on the heels of Mark Calloway leaving WCW for the WWF, to become the Undertaker (introduced by Ted DiBiase & managed by Brother Love)) and to start the role of Paul Bearer.
Mean Mark Callous, replacing Sid Vicious, with Dan Spivey, as the Skyscrapers, in WCW....
Terry Funk gave him the name. Jim Ross brings up the Spoiler and would kayfabe that the Spoiler trained him, which people took as gospel. he actually started training under Buzz Sawyer, who ran off with the money, after barely providing any training. Gary Capetta, in his memoir, told the story of driving with Caloway and that he seemed very quiet and was brooding. Buzz Sawyer had come into WCW and Caloway was looking to settle the score; but didn't want to jeopardize his career in WCW. He told Capetta what Sawyer had done. He eventually confronted Sawyer, who had no memory of what happened, but was willing to take his ass-whipping, as he was so far gone, messed up on drugs that he didn't care. Caloway just walked away, since he could tell Buzz's pilot light was out.
Debut as the Undertaker...
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Post by Deleted on Aug 13, 2020 13:35:33 GMT -5
WCW’s NEW BLOOD RISING aired on PPV twenty years ago today: If you ask me, WCW’s last great PPV was SPRING STAMPED 1999, which aired in April of that year. Everything that came afterwards was crap. It went from bad to worse. Being the hardcore completist I was, I did watch things (usually renting videotapes and the like), but I’m surprised anyone paid for WCW PPVs after late 1999. The only memorable thing about NEW BLOOD RISING was probably the Major Gunns/Ms. Hancock mud wrestling match. For obvious reasons! Trust me, there is nothing else of note on this PPV. Even Booker T’s defeat of Jeff Jarrett (WCW World Championship match) was unmemorable. No matter the talents, WCW was toxic for everyone from 1999-2001. You can have the best ingredients in the world to make a meal, but if you cook it in a pan of horse manure, it’s gonna be crap. The talents on this card (Booker T, Lance Storm, etc.) could do nothing with this turd of a card. If I’d paid for it on PPV, I’d have been begging for my money back. Oh, and Sting beat Vampiro in a match that lasted less than the time it takes me to brush my teeth. There were bad cards prior to this (FALL BRAWL 1993 was another turd). But I could make the case for NEW BLOOD RISING being one of the worst cards ever produced by WCW.
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Post by Batflunkie on Aug 14, 2020 7:49:49 GMT -5
Famously, New Blood Rising was the first and only WCW PPV to get a DVD release, but only in Japan
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Post by Deleted on Aug 14, 2020 8:27:04 GMT -5
Famously, New Blood Rising was the first and only WCW PPV to get a DVD release, but only in Japan Typical WCW inconsistency. Meanwhile, the WWF had licensees all over the world. From late 1993 to early 1997, WCW released no videotapes here in the UK. They had no licensee. You’d have thought they might have cared about that. They didn’t. And when they released tapes, they were edited. The SUPERBRAWL II tape featured Terrence Taylor cutting a promo for his match that night (against Marcus Bagwell). Only that match was omitted from the tape, so viewers of that tape saw him cut a promo for a match they never saw. Like I said, typical WCW inconsistency.
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Post by Batflunkie on Aug 15, 2020 17:56:00 GMT -5
Was watching some old clips of Dusty Rhodes yesterday when I stumbled across a tribute video by DDP, very emotional
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Post by Deleted on Aug 15, 2020 18:20:43 GMT -5
Loved the photo of DDP and Jesse Ventura!
DDP is a real inspiration to me in many ways, going back to his WCW days when he entered the main event picture in his late forties.
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Post by Batflunkie on Aug 15, 2020 18:28:58 GMT -5
Loved the photo of DDP and Jesse Ventura! DDP is a real inspiration to me in many ways, going back to his WCW days when he entered the main event picture in his late forties. It's a real shame how WWF/WWE handled him, but he doesn't seem too particularly bitter about it, which is refreshing
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Post by Deleted on Aug 15, 2020 18:31:19 GMT -5
Good. I mean, the storyline they gave him (stalking the Undertaker’s wife to gain notoriety, right?) was super-lame, but he seemed to rise above the material.
His match against Randy Savage at SPRING STAMPEDE ‘97 was one of my favourite WCW bouts of the late 90s.
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Post by Batflunkie on Aug 15, 2020 18:36:54 GMT -5
Good. I mean, the storyline they gave him (stalking the Undertaker’s wife to gain notoriety, right?) was super-lame, but he seemed to rise above the material. His match against Randy Savage at SPRING STAMPEDE ‘97 was one of my favourite WCW bouts of the late 90s. I remember some interview, can't remember what but it was a Randy Savage documentary, where Arn Anderson asked Randy who was going over and Randy said DDP. Much like Terry Funk in ECW, it's refreshing when the older generation of wrestlers realize what little time they have left and utilize it to help make new stars to help further the business instead of stifling it by being apart of the old guard who want to retain their spot until they die
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Post by Deleted on Aug 16, 2020 5:42:29 GMT -5
I’m a Hulkamaniac but I definitely think Hogan could have done a lot more for the newer generation in WCW.
I accept that, initially, he was there to kick ass by beating the likes of Ric Flair. But it got silly. Convoluted title matches where the belt wasn’t on the line. Beating Vader in a strap match by dragging Ric Flair around the ring (how on Earth can you win a match by doing something to someone who isn’t even part of the match?). Not putting Vader over even once.
And killing momentum. It was great to see Lex Luger win the world title form Hogan on a summer episode of NITRO. But, a week later, Hogan had to regain it from Luger at ROAD WILD.
He could and should have passed the torch. By 1999/2000, with things winding down, it’d have been the ideal time to think about passing the torch. The nWo angle was dead. People had zero interest in any more of it. I’m not saying Hogan should have dropped the belt in 5 minutes to Rey Mysterio Jr. on an episode of THUNDER, but he’d run out of steam at that point. Yes, he would have a resurgence of sorts by returning to the WWF in 2002, but 1998-2000 should have been about him passing the torch in WCW.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 18, 2020 15:18:34 GMT -5
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