Jump to content
Pro Wrestling Only

WWF/WWE/WCW TV and house show rarities


pantherwagner

Recommended Posts

Do you have any favourite oddities or rarities from WWF, WWE and WCW TV or house shows that you know from back in the day or that you have found killing time on youtube or at thehistoryofwwe.com?

 

The well known (at least around here) Arn Anderson vs Tom Magee match from European TV would be a perfect example for this thread.

 

Some rare stuff:

- This is now on Dailymotion but Tenryu had a couple of matches that were shown on the European version of Superstars, one against a jobber called The White Shadow and other vs The Brooklyn Brawler. The latter would have been a fine SWS/WAR main event for a minor spot show in rural Japan. I still have those two matches in VHS tapes but only recently found out that they were European exclusives.

 

- Another Tenryu rarity that I recently found on History of WWE is that in 1991 there was a house show in Hawaii (Aloha Stadium) with Flair vs Hogan where the opening matches were Tenryu beating Haku and Kerry defeating Kabuki. Interesting that they put both Japanese against opponents that they were very familiar with.

 

- I also didn't know until recently that the three members of the Orient Express reunited for a few matches. There's one match on tape from the Summerslam Spectacular 91 where Sato, Tanaka and Kato wrestle Steamboat, Kerry and Davey Boy. It would be cool to have these pre-PPV "Spectaculars" on the WWE Network...

 

- Hogan and Backlund teamed once in early 84 on All-Star vs. Tiger Chung Lee and Mr. Fuji. This can be easily found online. Hogan is trying too hard to show how much he likes Bob. Match starts with Lee, a Japanese-Korean, holding Mr. Fuji's Imperial Japan flag. I guess that's right there with JYD asking Killer Karl Kox for help against Ladd and Leroy Brown (I loved the "JYD logic" explanation from Digging in the Crates: well, this guy may not like me, but he sure HATES them).

 

- Actually this is not WCW or WWF/E but for whatever reason Tatsumi Fujinami was in one of the first five or six ECW shows ever at the Original Sports Bar. Main eventing, no less!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

my all-time favorite example of the WWF's booking of short-term main-event heels:

 

sika gets to headline a SNME vs. hogan in '87 (granted, as a replacement for kamala, but still). afterward he steadily drops down the card...culminating in a house show where he jobs clean to SD jones. i swear i'm not making this up - it used to be on youtube but appears to be gone from there now. it's not the prime time match between them, that one's a sika squash. i think it may have been a show in the west indies where they decided to book a "hometown" win...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Looking down the record, and he actually got a few wins over Sika that year, as well as over Fuji, Tiger Jeet Singh, Frenchy Martin and Jimmy Jack Funk.

 

What does surprise me though are that two of the wins over Sika took place in ... France and Italy.

 

One in Paris one in Milan.

 

Had no idea WWF toured Europe in 1987

Link to comment
Share on other sites

One of the all-time WTF results for me remains the '89 Survivor Series Showdown, where Big Boss Man did a pinfall job to Tito Santana. Santana wasn't a total job boy yet, but he'd already been left in the dust by Martel and Boss Man was still feuding with Dusty. It wasn't a clean job--Rhodes hit BBM with the nightstick and put Tito on top for the cover--but if I have things right, it was the very first time Boss Man had taken a pinfall on television. And it came to Tito Santana of all people.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Regal vs Goldust in coliseum

 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5BcGx-7U1yQ

 

Would be a pretty sweet venue for a WWE network special.

 

For a second I thought you were talking about Rome, but I thought that would be impossible. Of course this is the Nimes one in the south of France, which is regularly used for concerts. I have been there, and I'm with you, it would make for a really cool Network special.

 

I miss the WCW shows in different locations.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Funk doc, the Paris match aired on Prime Time Wrestling on 1/18/88.

 

I have that and can upload it if you really really want. Match goes 4 mins with Jones going over.

 

Parv, you should check The Best of WWF Vol. 16 video tape. It's the only one that WWE COD never broadcasted most likely because there is a New Japan match and an All Japan Women match. This is the line-up:

 

Best of the WWF #16 (WF056)

09/13/85 Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Giant Machine

1980s Jumping Bomb Angels vs. Bull Nakano & Condor Saito

1980s Mr. Fuji vs. ???

10/19/85 The Killer Bees vs. Mike Sharpe & Barry O

04/88 The Ultimate Warrior vs. Hercules

04/88 Andre the Giant vs. Jim Duggan

1980s Several Outback Jack skits

10/23/87 Junkyard Dog vs. Harley Race (special referee Andre the Giant)

10/23/87 Jacques & Raymond Rougeau vs. Dino Bravo & Greg Valentine

 

First two matches are from other promotions. Mr. Fuji's match is from somewhere in the Middle East. The 85 match is from the Puerto Rico rainstorm card that you may have already seen. The 1988 matches are from Italy and the 87 matches from Paris.

 

It's a cool tape because they left the original commentary in all the different languages. If I remember correctly the matches from France had a ring skirt with a giant CANAL+ logo, so that was quite a different setting for the WWF.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was at the 1/15/12 WWE house show in Oakland where Primo & Epico win the tag titles off of Air Boom. I taped the match but got lazy and never uploaded it anywhere. As far as I know WWE showed next to no footage on TV, and I don't remember there being cameras there. So I have - somewhere - a copy of an unaired title change.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

speaking of tito and weird results, i have to throw in the obligatory mention of his 1992 pinfall win over the undertaker. that one was in barcelona, so they were clearly going for some sort of local appeal with the matador thing. stuff like that is why i could actually buy him being considered for the world title that year - if they were planning to do more international tours, his gimmick would've gotten over in a number of places.

 

another less obscure but funny one: bastion booger's first televised match was a clean job to virgil. in 1993. you know, the same year that virgil was doing jobs to blake beverly.

 

also parv, i don't need you to upload the match but i'm glad it exists =)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

He was actually still Strike Force Tito in Barcelona, which just makes it weirder.

 

The Booger thing seemed like it was just a way to establish him as, "This guy isn't a total jobber, but don't hold your breath waiting for main events." Same thing they did with Koko B. Ware, teaming him up with Paul Roma to put over the Hart Foundation in his debut. Both guys lost but got heat afterward--Koko cleared the ring of the Harts, Booger went over Virgil next week.

 

Incidentally one of Tito's very last matches in the company was putting Booger over on a house show, which had to be his lowest point.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It was in 1991 when Tito defeated Taker. I was there! Tito was pushed as the Spanish speaking star on that tour and it worked, though to be fair, wrestling was so hot back then that they would have drawn a gigantic number without him. Funny thing is that I was feeling hyper while leaving the stadium but A LOT of people were upset because they thought that they would be seeing Hulk Hogan and Ultimate Warrior (who were never advertised).

 

On the 2nd Barcelona tour (1993) Tito was El Matador and he didn't get nearly the reaction. Wrestling wasn't as popular and the bullfighter gimmick is a terrible fit for Barcelona (it would be like trying to get a NASCAR driver gimmick over in New York or Los Angeles). He was supposed to wrestle Bigelow and Hart would wrestle Razor Ramon, but for whatever reason Razor didn't come so it was changed to Tito vs Doink and Bret vs Bigelow.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 5 weeks later...

I've found so many random and obscure stuff over the years of WWF stuff and put online. Someone mentioned the Tenryu WWF matches from 93, the Arn Anderson vs Tom Magee match. I even found the Andre the Giant vs Bret Hart match from Italy that WWE took from my Youtube page and put on one of Bret's DVDs a few years ago because I guess they don't have their own copy?

 

Other stuff like Undertaker's WWF Title defense against Bulldog in 1991 which only aired in France and several cool matches from the WWF 96 tour in Kuwait. I could go on and on...

 

I even recently came across that full Paris show from 1987 someone mentioned, which has Nikolai Volkoff jobbing to Outback Jack on it also, I guess I should upload that one soon as well.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've found so many random and obscure stuff over the years of WWF stuff and put online. Someone mentioned the Tenryu WWF matches from 93, the Arn Anderson vs Tom Magee match. I even found the Andre the Giant vs Bret Hart match from Italy that WWE took from my Youtube page and put on one of Bret's DVDs a few years ago because I guess they don't have their own copy?

 

Other stuff like Undertaker's WWF Title defense against Bulldog in 1991 which only aired in France and several cool matches from the WWF 96 tour in Kuwait. I could go on and on...

 

I even recently came across that full Paris show from 1987 someone mentioned, which has Nikolai Volkoff jobbing to Outback Jack on it also, I guess I should upload that one soon as well.

Your channels are tremendous - looking forward to those uploads. I had no idea about that Undertaker title defense. The WWE Network should hire people like you and the dude that runs Monsoon Classic to collect all kinds of cool/weird/forgotten stuff from their library.

 

Bix's theory is that the WWE has got all of that stuff but that the international tapes probably haven't been digitised and/or catalogued... though I'd have imagined that they'd have a method to easily locate stuff like Andre vs Hart if they were really looking for it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've found so many random and obscure stuff over the years of WWF stuff and put online. Someone mentioned the Tenryu WWF matches from 93, the Arn Anderson vs Tom Magee match. I even found the Andre the Giant vs Bret Hart match from Italy that WWE took from my Youtube page and put on one of Bret's DVDs a few years ago because I guess they don't have their own copy?

 

Other stuff like Undertaker's WWF Title defense against Bulldog in 1991 which only aired in France and several cool matches from the WWF 96 tour in Kuwait. I could go on and on...

 

I even recently came across that full Paris show from 1987 someone mentioned, which has Nikolai Volkoff jobbing to Outback Jack on it also, I guess I should upload that one soon as well.

channel name?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

I've found so many random and obscure stuff over the years of WWF stuff and put online. Someone mentioned the Tenryu WWF matches from 93, the Arn Anderson vs Tom Magee match. I even found the Andre the Giant vs Bret Hart match from Italy that WWE took from my Youtube page and put on one of Bret's DVDs a few years ago because I guess they don't have their own copy?

 

Other stuff like Undertaker's WWF Title defense against Bulldog in 1991 which only aired in France and several cool matches from the WWF 96 tour in Kuwait. I could go on and on...

 

I even recently came across that full Paris show from 1987 someone mentioned, which has Nikolai Volkoff jobbing to Outback Jack on it also, I guess I should upload that one soon as well.

channel name?

 

 

rland1987 on Dailymotion

Richard Land on youtube

 

Tons of great rare footage.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...