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Post by codystarbuck on Dec 26, 2020 20:37:25 GMT -5
I posted an obituary in the RIP thread; but, amateur and pro wrestling legend Danny Hodge passed away on Christmas Eve... That is the cover of Sports Illustrated. Hodge is the only amateur wrestler ever featured on the cover (Hulk Hogan was, as a pro, at the height of Hulkamania). You can read a lengthy obituary here, at Slam Wrestling.Hodge was a wrestler's wrestler, a real shooter who was the top of the legit world and was the NWA World Junior Heavyweight Champion when that meant something (mainly due to Hodge holding the title, over the years). He was a mainstay of the Oklahoma region, under promoter Leroy McGuirk, an inspiration for the young Jack and Jerry Brisco and Jim Ross, who started out as a referee, for McGuirk. Every year, the NCAA awards the Hodge Trophy to the Top Collegiate Wrestler of the Year. None of them can touch his record: 47-0, and was never taken off his feet. That's why they name trophies after you in the legit sports world. Hodge is one of the last true legends in the sport, from before the more modern WWF era. You don't find many shooters in wrestling anymore; but, when you do, the name Danny Hodge is spoken with deep respect.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Dec 26, 2020 21:25:04 GMT -5
Inside the Ropes published its 4th issue recently. They did a Top 50 wrestlers, no doubt inspired by the PWI 500 (which I always found to be cumbersome). These are the top ten: 1. Drew McIntyre 2. Bayley 3. Cody Rhodes 4. Chris Jericho 5. Randy Orion 6. Kota Ibushi 7. Jon Moxley 8. Hangman Page 9. Sasha Banks 10. Will Ospreay (Pac was #50, by the way) Interesting list... you don't see Page get alot of props in the 'dirt sheets' (I love him, but seems like he doesn't get much press) Also, I had those Remco figures! The Road Warriors, Rashke, Martel and Flair for sure. I LOVED Rashke having the claw hand. I had guys for the High Flyers and the Long Riders as well.. not sure if they were a different line or not though
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Post by codystarbuck on Dec 26, 2020 23:13:08 GMT -5
Inside the Ropes published its 4th issue recently. They did a Top 50 wrestlers, no doubt inspired by the PWI 500 (which I always found to be cumbersome). These are the top ten: 1. Drew McIntyre 2. Bayley 3. Cody Rhodes 4. Chris Jericho 5. Randy Orion 6. Kota Ibushi 7. Jon Moxley 8. Hangman Page 9. Sasha Banks 10. Will Ospreay (Pac was #50, by the way) Interesting list... you don't see Page get alot of props in the 'dirt sheets' (I love him, but seems like he doesn't get much press) Also, I had those Remco figures! The Road Warriors, Rashke, Martel and Flair for sure. I LOVED Rashke having the claw hand. I had guys for the High Flyers and the Long Riders as well.. not sure if they were a different line or not though Nope; same line. The only other wrestling figure line in the US was the LJN figures, for the WWF (until WCW later came out with action figures, in the late 90s) and Greg Gagne never wrestled for Vince Jr (he did work MSG, for Vince Sr, as did Jim Brunzell, who did wrestle for Jr, with Brian Blair) and Scott Irwin died before brother Bill turned up in the WWF, as The Goon. As I recall, the Greg Gagne figure had way more muscle tone than the man ever had! Here's the checklist of the figures.The High Flyers were a two-pack in series one, and the Long Riders in series 2. I find it interesting that Series 3 had Carlos Colon vs Abdullah the Butcher, from Puerto Rico's World Wrestling Council. Now, Verne sent talent to Puerto Rico, for some of their big cards; but, the only time Carlos Colon ever wrestled anywhere near the AWA was in 1985, at Star Wars, in the Brendan Byrne Arena, in New Jersey. That was a Pro Wrestling USA card, which was the genesis for a few figures here, including Ric Flair. For those who missed the 80s wrestling boom, or only saw the WWF; when Vince started encroaching on the other territories and promotions, a few of them tried to work together as a joint venture, and return fire. The main bloc was the AWA, Jim Crockett Promotions (the NWA promotion that, by then, encompassed the Mid-Atlantic territory and what remained of Georgia, having bought the World Championship Wrestling tv slot from Vince, after he failed there), Memphis and lesser involvement from World Class and Kansas City (both NWA promotions). The World Wrestling Council, aka Capitol Sports, was an independent, though affiliated with the NWA. Flair had defended the NWA title in Puerto Rico and had a match against Carlos, as WWC Champion, to determine the first "Universal" champion (basically, the promotion renamed their top title and Flair jobbed to Colon, who co-owned the promotion). Colon was part of the first Starrcade card; but, his background was actually the WWWF, under Vince Sr (Gorilla Monsoon was originally a partner in the Puerto Rico operation, which was why the Capitol Sports name, which was also the business name for Vince Sr's promotion). The venture fell apart pretty quickly, after a couple of tv tapings and super cards, featuring both NWA and AWA talent. Jarrett pulled out pretty quickly, recognizing that the AWA and NWA promoters were incapable of cooperating for long (each was jockeying for talent, with Crockett outright offering bigger money to some of the AWA performers, which led to the Road Warriors leaving the AWA to go work for Crockett). Pretty soon, it was just Verne and Crockett, with some other talent brought in for big cards, then just another AWA show, filling the PR USA timeslot, in syndication.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 27, 2020 10:31:49 GMT -5
Starrcade 1995 aired on PPV 25 years ago today: The “World Cup of Wrestling” saw various WCW wrestlers battle NJPW wrestlers, with Sting beating Kensuke Sasaki in the finals. In the main event, Ric Flair defeated Randy Savage for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship. This is one of the best WCW PPVs ever.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Dec 27, 2020 10:59:06 GMT -5
Those are definitely them! I think I had the Freebirds as well, now that I see the list. None of the ones past the 2nd series though, but that time I was more into WWF and was getting the giant hard rubber guys Fun seeing young(ish) Sting there.. I'm still at a loss what the heck he's going to do in AEW... he clearly can't wrestle (or can he?)... I'm not sure a manager feud with Taz is worth it... and Darby Allin doesn't need a mouth piece, if that's the plan.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 27, 2020 11:10:55 GMT -5
Speaking of figures, remember the Galoob line for WCW (early 90s)? Solid plastic with ZERO articulation. Yes, the WWF’s Hasbro figures were solid plastic, but they had a) finishing moves, and b) limited articulation. Sure, it was not totally possible to get Bret Hart to put the sharpshooter on Andre the Giant, but you could do something with them. With the WCW figures, though, they were “attractive desk ornaments” but no way could you have matches with them. You can do something with these guys: You can’t actually have matches with these figures:
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Post by Calidore on Dec 27, 2020 13:11:28 GMT -5
It's currently lighting up the wrestling boards that Jon Huber (Brodie Lee/Luke Harper) has tragically passed away at age 41 from a "non-Covid lung issue".
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Post by Deleted on Dec 27, 2020 16:08:52 GMT -5
My condolences to his loved ones. He had an incredible presence in the ring.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 27, 2020 16:11:48 GMT -5
Who's going to win Royal Rumble 2021? That might be a good time for me to get reacquainted with RAW.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 27, 2020 16:15:58 GMT -5
Bill Goldberg. And he’ll challenge Roman Reigns for the Universal Championship (that’s my wish, anyway).
Hope you get acquainted with Raw again, Rags. Three hours is far too long for one show, especially when it is weekly but I watch a highlights show for the most part - and keep up with all pertinent happenings.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 27, 2020 18:05:47 GMT -5
3 hours wasn't the problem for me....the line-up just wasn't as interesting for me anymore. In my teens, the Attitude Era was the best....some of these new wrestlers are just a pain to watch....no real mic skills, no personality....
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Post by Deleted on Dec 27, 2020 18:10:52 GMT -5
I like some such as Roman Reigns, Drew McIntyre, Goldberg and others. But they don’t feel as larger than life as those from the Attitude Era (and my era, the Federation Era).
I do miss some of the characters and gimmicks. What year did you first start watching wrestling?
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Post by Deleted on Dec 27, 2020 18:20:56 GMT -5
Chris Jericho caught my eye when he first appeared as Y2J and I had a teenage crush...long hair, good looking, muscles and a HEEL lol Back then my brother and his friends used to watch wrestling every week and they'd meet up and we'd have a great dinner, but now I had a reason to watch too
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Post by codystarbuck on Dec 27, 2020 20:53:53 GMT -5
Man, I feel ancient. I first saw wrestling in the mid-late 70s, when it was briefly on a local station, to promote a couple of shows; but, they didn't come back, so they didn't continue to buy air time. I caught a little and my grandparents house; but, it was the Indianapolis promotion, run by Dick the Bruiser and Wilber Snyder. It wasn't exactly a top territory and you had a lot of guys who were winding down their careers or young guys who never had much of one.
Around 1981, we got the Poffo family ICW show, with the Macho Man as the top heel, brother Leaping Lanny Poffo in a tag-team, with George Weigeroff (a 2nd generation wrestler, son of manager Saul Weingeroff), The One Man Gang Ronnie Garvin (before his hands turned to stone, for Crockett Promotions), Pistol Pez Whatley (before he became Shaska Whatley, Wille B Hurt, or went back to being just Pez Whatley), Hustler Rip Rogers (who trained many WWF guys, like John Cena and Randy Orton, at Ohio Valley Wrestling), and father Angelo Poffo, under a mask, as The Miser. The production values were pretty low rent; but, the action was good and Savage and Garvin were memorable, while Lanny, Weingeroff, Rogers and Whatley were all great workers and decent talkers. Pez and Ronnie Garvin had some great mat matches, as Pez was a collegiate wrestler, at the Univ of Chattanooga, and Garvin had learned proper technique in Canada. Also working for them was a rather large guy, named George Gray, who wrestled under the name Crusher Broomfield, acting as Savage's lackey and muscle, until freed from his contract by Ronnie Garvin (it was an old angle from the Knoxville territory). Broomfield stuck around for a bit, then turned up in Mid-South and World Class, with a mohawk and black tights, with skulls and crossbones, as The One Man Gang. He ended up in the WWF, as One Man Gang, then was remade as Akeem the African Dream.
Garvin and Whatley went to work for Georgia and then Crockett (after he bought what was left of Georgia), while Angelo, Lanny and Randy worked in Memphis, after several years of running in opposition to them. Randy was the top heel there, fighting Jerry Lawler, Austin Idol and the Rock N Roll Express. That got him into position for Jimmy Hart to put a word to Vince, about Randy, leading to the legend coming to the WWF. Lanny soon followed, and stuck around as The Genius.
One interesting thing about ICW; later on in their tenure, they had this pretty young woman host the taped interviews they used to promote local cards, in between the tv matches. She then began to introduce the show, when they stopped taping in a tv studio and started showing tapes of matches at arenas. Her name was Liz Hulette, and she was from Lexington, KY, where the tv show was taped, when they were still in the studio. Turns out, she was the girlfriend of a wrestler: Randy Savage. When he debuted in the WWF, they did an angle where all of the managers are vying for his contract. He then came out to the ring and introduced his manager and out came this stunning woman. She was all glammed up; but, I could tell it was the same Liz Hulette. She was announced as Miss Elizabeth and was the Macho Man's valet/manager from then on. She was also Mrs Randy Poffo, as they had married in 1984.
If it hadn't been for the Poffos, I probably wouldn't have become a fan, as the WWA had been pretty dull and the WWF was pretty boring, when I first saw it in 1982.
Here is Miss Elizabeth, when she was just Liz...
(pretty crappy quality)
The guy wrestling the bear is Crusher Broomfield, aka One Man Gang, aka Akeem the African Dream.
Ronnie Garvin is the guy fighting Andre the Giant, in footage from the old Knoxville territory, where he actually had a pinfall win over Andre, which Andre had agreed to, as it was off the beaten path. Andre liked Garvin (who was from Montreal and spoke French) and did him a favor that he only did for a couple of people, before losing to Andre (he was also pinned by El Canek, in Mexico, and at least once in Japan, I think).
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Post by codystarbuck on Dec 27, 2020 21:24:59 GMT -5
This was the WWA, from Indianapolis, in 1982, when they were back on our tv, just before the Poffos started...
That opening match has babyface Spike Huber, who was one of the few young guys, who just happened to be Dick the Bruiser's son-in-law. The other young guy who was pushed was a blond guy, called Steve Regal (not to be confused with Englishman Darren Matthews, who wrestled as Steve Regal, Lord Stephen Regal and William Regal), who teamed with Huber as the Young Lions. Regal was the son-in-law of the other owner, Wilber Snyder. Huber never really made it big in wrestling, working for some of the territories; but, never on top, except in his own small promotion, in Southern Illinois & Missouri. Regal wrestled a bit in the AWA and held the tag-titles, with Jimmy Garvin, when the Road Warriors left (improbably losing the belts to Garvin & Regal).
The Masked Strangler was Gentleman Jerry valiant, of the Valiant Brothers, whose real name was Guy Mitchell. He had wrestled in Canada and the Midwest and did some work as enhancement talent for the WWF). He was usually a mid-card heel, along with Dr Jerry Graham JR, who wasn't related to the real Jerry Graham, or Eddie of Superstar Billy.
If you can stay awake through the slow wrestling and Sam Menacker's announcing (which wasn't bad, when he had better matches to call), you can see Moose Cholak, who was a mainstay of the Midwest, wrestling for Fred Kohler's Chicago promotion (which was long gone), the AWA and WWA, as well as some shots for the Poffos, as they used some Midwest guys, especially when Detroit was on its last legs. Moose came to the ring with a huge moose head, draped over his head and shoulders. Moose was a legit S#$%kicker; he owned a bar and was known to clean house when it got rowdy. Also, later, is Sheik Ali Hassan, a supposed Iranian, who was actually an Illinoisan, from Danville, named Jack Krueger, who would also wrestle and Sheik Abdullah in Kansas City and Sheik Ali Hassan, in Portland. He would also work, under his own name, as a referee, in the WWF.
In the early 70s, Indianapolis was a fairly hot promotion, thanks in large part to one guy, the best worker in the area, if not the business: "Pretty Boy Bobby Heenan
Back then, Bobby Heenan managed teams like the Valiant Brothers (Luscious Johnny and Handsome Jimmy) and the Blackjacks (Jack Lanza and Blackjack Mulligan). He was often getting his face bloodied by Dick the Bruiser, calling out announcer Sam Menacker (who wrestled in the 40s and 50s) until he got involved and came out of retirement. In that one clip is Cowboy Bob Ellis, who was a big star throughout the Midwest, Southwest and some other territories, using the Bulldog headlock.
Heenan was one of the best bumpers in the business, often better than the guys he managed. No one could clear the top rope like Heenan, something he did until his neck injury ended his ring career. Man, I miss The Brain!
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