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BArthur

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  1. This is really tough as Rude is my #3 all time personal favourite. I would absolutely give him the nod in a peak vs peak competition. JerryVonKramer made a good point though that pre and post peak, Dibiase takes it for sure. I think overall, strictly in-ring I'd rank Ted higher. I think Rude was better at playing his character. My bias leans toward Rude, but my head ultimately says Dibiase.
  2. I've always loved the David vs Goliath formula. While obviously not specific to wrestling this is still my #1 match dynamic. The reverse take on it can be great as well. Bret vs Diesel at Survivor Series 1995 comes to mind, with Bret playing the subtle heel for most of the match. WM11 was similar but Shawn turned himself mid-match. Can anyone think of any other good small heel vs big face matches? Preferably with completely non-tweener roles i.e pure babyface big guy vs pure heel smaller guy.
  3. Was watching the Giants doc on the Network and it got me curious to see some of Andre's earlier work. I'm only really familiar with him in his 87-90 run in the WWF. I've mostly just seen clips from pre-1985. Andre the Giant vs Stan Hansen- 9/23/1981- AJPW This is the earliest non-clipped Andre match I've seen. Previously was from 1983 Mid-South. The crowd goes pretty crazy for Hansen but are in mostly silent awe of Andre. Andre is actually working heel here and my fuck could he move. He charges Hansen from the go, but Hansen fights back with some stiff elbows. Andre hits the corner and the whole ring bounces. It's kind of fucked seeing Hansen work from underneath as a babyface. Andre gets an armbar and some nasty headbutts. Andre misses charge to the corner and takes a nice bump to the apron for a quick hope spot. This is awsome seeing Andre working the arm like he's Arn Anderson or something. His heel expressions are totally different from his WWF run as he has some great villainous looks and taunts the crowd often. More badass and less of the laughing ogre type heel Andre here. Holy fuck Hansen slams the fuck out of Andre during the second comeback spot and Andre bumps like a champ. They brawl outside for a DCO but neither man will accept a draw so the match continues! Hansen charges and hits a stiff as FUCK knee. Andre counters with some equally nasty looking headbutts. Andre bumps out of the corner like Curt Hennig, damn. Back and fourth until Andre his back to the arm. LARIATO! Andre bounces off the apron to the floor, holy shit. Hahaha Andre gets frustrated and just lariats the shit out of the ref for the DQ. Huge brawl afterward with trainers and refs getting thrown all over the place. I need to further educate myself but this was so far the best Andre match I've seen, I'd go ****. It cut a crazy pace for two guys that size, stiff as hell all the way through. I liked the story of Hansen trying to hit big impact moves throughout the match, while Andre works the arm and tries to wear him down with his size. Andre doesn't change his strategy in time and falls victim to the Lariat, then purposely gets himself DQ'ed. Face Hansen vs heel Andre was a really fun dynamic and I'm looking forward to checking out more of Andre's stuff from the 70's and early 80's.
  4. Fair Point, I did look up some stuff from the PYT Express that I enjoyed, after seeing the promo that the Network had up in Feb.
  5. Right. I knew that and it somehow didn't register. Blanked out on that one.
  6. goc, I'm way behind you, and couldn't do any better on the recaps anyway. I'm just going to add a few thoughts on the 1986 episodes as I watch them 1/11/86- -The opening squash match ends with the Nightmares attacking Tommy & Johnny Rich, and they actually tar and feather Johhny. There's something I've never seen before in wrestling. Great segment. -This is pretty much the first I've seen of Adrian Street. First thought, he might have one of the best entrances ever. His theme "Imagine What I Could Do to You" got robbed in the Greatest Theme tournament. Aside from that, his mannerisms and overall work are pretty damn entertaining. -Sorry but I'm not really digging Norvell Austin. Need to form a more educated opinion I suppose. From what little I've seen though, he's not much on the mic and his offence looks pretty weak. Maxine totally has all the heat here. - Actually I'm surprised Lady Maxine never had a run in the WWF. Seems like someone Vince would have pushed pretty hard. She had the cartoon character kind of appeal they were all about in the 80's, plus seemed very charismatic. She could talk too. - Can't get over how much I love the bumper music being "Party All the Time" - Perennial WCW jobber/JTTS Tim Horner is more over here than 90% of the WWE roster is now. -The crowds here make the bad stuff good and the good stuff great. As far as my enjoyment of wrestling goes, I value crowd heat greatly. That and commentary are usually make or break factors for me. Which brings me to another reason I love this promotion so far, Gordon Solie. Night and day from 90's Worldwide, which is the only other perspective I have on him. -I've never heard of Boomer Lynch before, but his promo was pretty damn hilarious. -Robert Fuller is amazing, I can't even articulate how awsome he is with the cocky heel gimmick. Can't wait to go through more of these.
  7. I just watched all the 1986 CCW I could find last year. You might be interested in checking out my thread while you're going through the year: http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/25678-southeasterncontinental-championship-wrestling/ Awsome, yeah I'm just starting 1986. This weekend I plan on going through a good chunk of it. It's a really fun little show so far.
  8. This is so cool. Winnipeg's my hometown but I missed out on the AWA. Saw quite a few WWF house shows, and the godawful IYH IV in that arena though.
  9. I just got about 70-80 hours of CCW TV from 1986-89. I haven't seen anything really from there before. If I'm not mistaken it was a precursor of sorts to ECW, very angle heavy. Should be interesting either way. I'm not gonna recap every little thing just offer a few thoughts on each episode as I watch. The first episode I have is from 1/11/86. I love this from the start as the opening theme is the first 30 seconds of Eddie Murphy's "Party All the Time" Gordon Solie as host. I'm 30 so he was a little before my time, I've only really heard him sporadically throughout the years, but I always kind of found him a little on the boring side. I'll admit to mostly hearing him way late into his career though. You can totally see the early similarities with ECW here. Highlights based, angle-centric TV program. Super hot crowds in a tiny building. Music videos. Not saying the angles are the same, just that you can see a general template for the layout of 90's ECW TV. Most of the show featured promos/highlights from a feud between Norvell Austin and Adrian Street. Austin recently defeated Street for the Southeast Title and the rematch is being built,including a feud between their valets (Lady Maxine & Miss Linda) These guys are both great interviews and the studio crowd is going nuts for everything. I really liked this and will definitely watch more of these episodes. The only problem is they're 30 year old VHS rips and the quality very randomly ranges from VG to complete garbage. If the first episode is any indication, I'll be able to watch about half of every hour, which still isn't so bad considering this shit is awsome.
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  11. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUCFS2E0oL4 Name of Workers: Midnight Rockers (Shawn Michaels & Marty Janetty) Promotion: CWA (Memphis) Year: 1988 Why I think it's great: Well for starters, aside from the novelty of seeing them as heels, it's just a perfect example of one of the most basic, but successful character motivations in wrestling. They are arrogant pricks who think they can beat anybody. I also like the somewhat unique, almost talk show-like format of the interview, with a studio audience. Also, on a more personal note, I couldn't stop laughing at Michaels referring to Scott Hall as a "big spoon-headed guy".
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  13. Randy Savage vs Hercules Ayala- March 2/1985 -Awsome pre-taped promo from Savage to start about how he's the worlds greatest athlete, sexiest wrestler, and Ayala is nothing. Possibly shot in the office of a neglected community center though. Somewhat subdued compared to Savage's WWF mic stuff but the groundwork was there -For the WWC North American Belt -From an 80's commercial release by Eddie (Grimes?) productions with awful-ish dubbed in commentary. Awful-ish because despite the fact that they (I don't recognize the voices or hear the names of these two guys) put over the characters well, their voices and delivery are SO grating. -Pretty Good Heat for Savage as fans are in his face, and throwing garbage as he walks to the ring. -If you're not familiar, Hercules Ayala is a bigger brawling type, who kind of looks like a Puerto Rican version of Steve Williams. -Savage stalls and parades around for a bit, they brawl around outside to start. Once they get going, Savage dominates for the first 6-7 min followed by a bit of back and forth until Savage takes a sweet looking bump off a missed charge and ends up upside down in the ropes. Ayala makes the comeback until Savage pulls a chain from his tights and nails Ayala with it to regain the advantage. Savage does the "hide the object" routine with the ref. Flying Elbow misses but Savage uses and hides the chain again for 2. This routine would work better if this referee wasn't so shitty at looking away. Savage tries to go for the chain again but Ayala wrestles it away. He hits Savage with it in front of the ref who stares blankly at them with no attempt to look away, before counting the 3. Ayala wins the title and the fans go fucking crazy. -The crowd is standing room only, and very vocal throughout the match which adds to the atmosphere immensely. Savage is his typical awsome 80's self, bumping as well as HBK or Hennig ever did. Ayala plays his role well, if unspectacular. I liked his expressions during the comeback. For the under 15min length, I liked that there wasn't a very extended middle heat segment. That's to say I thought the timing of the false comebacks really kept the crowd invested. Something I'm missing when I see current product is guys only playing to the hard camera and not the live crowd.
  14. Carlos Colon vs Boris Zhukov- 1986 -I've seen absolutely nothing of Zhukov outside of his Bolsheviks run, -Colon, I've seen a little bit of his stuff now and the more I see, the more I like -This is from a large basketball arena and the seats go right up to ringside, giving it a big match feel. -Seriously these Puerto Rican crowds are nuts, I'm one of those guys that uses crowd heat as a big factor in my enjoyment of a match. --Hammerlock reversal sequence to start. Zhukov gains control and works on the arm, and continues do so until missing a charge into the corner, which generates a big pop. Colon throws punches in the corner before beginning to work on Zhukov's arm. This sequence goes on for quite some time, until Zhukov hits a headbutt to the gut out of the corner. Zhukov with some stiff elbows and a hangman for 2. He throws Colon to the outside. After being knocked off the apron twice Colon makes it back into the ring. They trade punches in the corner. Colon gets the advantage, and the crowd comes un-fucking-glued. Colon charges the corner and gets hit with a knee from Zhukov, which gets 2. Colon is tossed into the ropes and comes back with a Sunset Flip for the win. -Fairly short at under 10min, but great heat, and no restholds. -Pretty stiff strikes here from Boris Zhukov, and I didn't think much of him during his WWF run. -I could see how Colon's over-expressive, cartwheel filled comebacks wouldn't be for everyone but you can't argue that they work in this time and place. I'm digging them more as I watch these matches just for the crowd reaction alone.
  15. This is one of the specific reasons I got an account here. I've been watching a lot of old WWC stuff lately, solely on the recommendation of the Colon/Hansen feud, which I enjoyed the fuck out of. I'll post some thoughts on matches I've watched that haven't been covered in this thread already.
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