This started as the year I was least interested in exploring from the decade. However, now I'm confident this will be the best yearbook yet, and definitely the one with the most hidden gems.

What is the connection between Connie Chung and Tod Gordon? What about between the Ultimate Warrior and Phil Collins? Between Kerry Von Erich and Perestroika? Who wins when WCW and GLOW face off on Family Feud? What happens when WWF wrestlers hit late night TV? How do Sam Houston and Rockin' Robin celebrate Mothers Day? Who would say such mean things about Ox Baker? Owen Hart in Europe? Rip Rogers in the Maritimes? What collective considers themselves, quite simply, dynamite? WCW has more advanced production than Madonna concerts? Gary Young wants to destroy your eyeglasses? Jerry Lawler works a fake shoot with a guy who was later accused of pawning the USWA belt for crack? Steve Austin collaborated with a mortician in drag? Sean Waltman would like to sell you hair? Who exactly will "all be doing that ... Wild Thing"? A teenage girl got TV time for that? You mean the Freebirds aren't huge rock stars? Shoes for your feet and pockets for your stuff ... Why, that sounds too good to be true!

Soon, it will all make sense.

Awesome. This was the one I was waiting for, resisting the urge to dig into 92, so I could do the yearbooks in order.

I cannot wait. I decided I wanted to buy all of the yearbooks in sequential order so I've been waiting for the 1990 yearbook to come out for some time as my first foray into this, and the Memphis stuff that you've described alone makes me really want this. The minute it's released, I will be ordering my copy!

Giggity.

Man, I totally forgot about the Ultimate Warrior-Phil Collins bit until Loss mentioned it above.

Awesome.

Sounds fantastic. I haven't bought any since the 1996 set for funds reasons, but I think I will follow some of the guys in this thread and jump in chronologically.

Dawwwwwwnaw?

I'm currently watching the complete 1990 WWF season, strictly for nostalgia purposes. It was far from a great year for WWF, but there's plenty of under-the-radar type of stuff that I imagine will make the WWF's showing on the 1990 yearbook turn out just fine and even raise a few eyebrows.

The most depressing part of 1990 WWF, however, is seeing an extremely obese Buddy Rose jobbed out and mocked and ridiculed by Vince on commentary.

How does polka dot Dusty hold up?

Yes! The ICW TEEN REPORT. Just wait until you see her interview Tony Atlas, if you never have.

For 1990, the WWF is the promotion I've probably *watched* the least of in preparation. So a lot of it will be new to me too. That said, this is the first yearbook with lots of SNMEs the way we remember them, and I am a big mark for those quick cut intros they used to do to start every show, so we hope to capture all of those. Also, Wild Kingdom, which had a lot of silliness and three really good matches. I think that's the best SNME ever.

There looks to be some really good MSG and Coliseum Video matches from '90 as well.

I need to look at WWF match listings and suggest some things. I thought you were further along in the process for some reason. I know I suggested at least a couple over in the DVDVR note but I can do better than that.

Most importantly, I hear the set has lots of Demolition.

Demolition vs Kane, with a Tony Kozina RESPECT-in?

Actually not too bad so far. I mean, it's bad, but Dusty makes it work better than anyone else could have. Sapphire is atrocious, however. I didnt remember her being so god-awful when I was a kid.

Honestly, it shouldn't. Past MAYBE the LOD/Warrior Six Man which is fun and maybe worth a look there isn't really a set worthy WWF Demos match in 90. There's a great Colossal Connection match that happens a few days before the first of the year, but that wouldn't count. A lot less footage in 90 and a ton of what we do have is Smash/Crush. They just weren't on MSG shows (only on three, one being the six man, another the Orient Express match). A lot of the other avenues had dried up by 90.

There are a TON of Hart Foundation vs Demos matches from throughout the year that weren't taped that are probably great, but the one that was taped is a Smash/Crush match and isn't nearly as good as people remember. But they feuded from Mania to Summerslam. It's a shame we don't have any of those. Likewise how the Colossal Connection feuded with Demos from the first of the year to Mania. If the December MSG match is any indication, they probably had some other really good ones.

Demos vs Rockers (the Third MSG match) and Demos vs Tito/Brunzell (A PTW match) are both Smash/Crush and while they're both fine, the lack of Ax shows. Neither are close to set worthy. I need to watch Smash/Crush vs Bushwhackers but I don't have high hopes.

There are some neat oddities I wish made tape like all the Shawn and/or Marty vs Smash matches. There's an Ax vs Animal match I'd be curious to see and certainly the Warrior Six man where Savage filled in for Ax. But none of this stuff was taped.

They ran a lot of LOD vs Demolition and LOD/Warrior vs Demos matches during tapings, but most of those haven't been released as best as I know. Just the MSG and a few Demos vs LOD matches that aren't really worth seeing (most being Smash/Crush).

I can go into more detail why I think the Summerslam or Orient Express matches aren't great, if anyone wants, but I don't know if it's necessary.

Honestly, I think the best and most interesting Demos match in 90 is vs Baba/Andre. If anything goes on, that should I guess, maybe the Brother Love Show Turn, the Harts/Rockers SNME match with interference and maybe, if you can find one, a Perfect + Demolition pre-Survivor Series promo just for the oddity of Hennig with those three. The reuniting with Fuji is kind of cool too to see them with the Orient Express as a unit but it's hardly necessary.

Just a bad luck year between the lack of taped matches in the Andre/Haku and Harts feuds and Ax going down with his condition/injury.

Oh, we are pretty far along. This is within a few weeks of release. It's just that I had to watch a lot more from other places because there were less recommendations. But this is pretty far along.

Good. I have AWA to focus on here, but I'll take a quick look to see if I had missed anything. The only thing I'd really fight for off the top of my head is the 12/28/90 MSG Piper vs Perfect match which is one of Curt's best in the WWF.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzPqpqNFvfk

I think one of the interesting things to watch for is how the "major" promotions that are tracked through the decade all started the process of transitioning from the past to the future:

WWF: Hogan / Warrior
WCW: Flair / Sting
NJPW: Fujinami & Choshu / Three Musketeers
AJPW: Jumbo (& Tenryu) / Misawa
AJW: Crush Girls / Bull

The Crush Girls didn't pass it as their period essentially wrapped in 1989, but the era shifted.

Looking forward to this set as outside of WWF and couple WCW matches, I've seen very little from other organizations for this year. It will be interesting to see what will be included for other American wrestling groups.

Definitely looking forward to this one, going in I think it may not compete to top tier matches as some other years but the difference promotions and the whole "changing of the guard" theme will be awesome to watch.

It may not compete from a match quality perspective, but it just might! EMLL had a ridiculously hot year with tons of great matches. Probably a better year for relative lucha novices to really dive in than 1992-1996. That said, I have no idea what my MOTY will be. None.

I plan on doing a Top 100 PROMOS for the year on this set, not just matches.

Just to clarify, we are well past the point where we are seeking recommendations. We have more than enough to fill a yearbook, and are now in the editing phase. The good news is that unlike previous yearbooks, there are not very many matches that go 30 minutes or more.

Totally blanked on CMLL when thinking about high end matches from the year. The little I have seen of El Dandy vs. Azteca has been fantastic and a true MOTYC.

1990 CMLL is fucking outstanding, yeah. I haven't watched any of it in about 4 years, but I've been waiting for this yearbook to drop so I can go back and watch it all again. All of the USWA stuff sounds tremendous as well, and I've more or less seen none of it. Zero.

I might try and get through at least a fraction of the unwatched stuff I already have here before buying this, so I don't know if it'll be a first day purchase (although I'll wait until I see the final list first), but it'll be in my hands eventually.

Is there any of the Arn Anderson vs Terry Taylor TV title series from Pro on it?

The more Pro the better, I could listen to the announce team of Lance Russell with Michael Hayes and Jim Garvin all day.

Unfortunately we only have the last 8 weeks of the year of that version of Pro (plus the first 2 weeks of 1991). The set that's floating around is made up of the WPIX NY and WGN Chicago localized versions with different commentary. For whatever reason, the Lance & Freebirds stuff is VERY hard to find.

Man, if that Rip Rogers maritimes match makes it on that's awesome

Yes.

I forgot to make a request for possibly a 1990 hype podcast.

Now I hear that I regret my father taping over Pro every week with the new one when they were shown on network TV in the UK at 2am or so back then. Fantastic commentary team.

Pretty sure we got Worldwide or World Championship Wrestling rather than Pro. I used to tape them on the same tape every week too, in a double header on LP with Prisoner Cell Block H!!

Distinctly remember Jim Ross and Jesse Ventura being the hosts, so it wouldn't have been Pro. UNLESS they showed Pro in 91, and switched to one of the others in 92. Wouldn't put it past ITV, they were always cocking around with that slot - it would be 2am one week, 4am the next week. Then around late 93/ early 94 it switched to something like Sunday afternoon without warning.

Worldwide was on Saturday Afternoons from about 1992 until late 1995 for the majority of the ITV network with heavy editing unless you were in the Granada region and another couple of regions which received Worldwide in the early hours on a Wednesday or Thursday before American Gladiators under the name of Superstars of Wrestling in advertising. And prior to that a lot of the network shown Pro (which annoyingly wasn't at the same pace as Power Hour on satellite). Central also showed Dusty Rhodes' Florida project with DDP murdering commentary, Jackie Pallo's WAW, and some old Crockett tapes. Other regions showed the Australian WWF Wrestling Challenge.

Until 1991 or so there was wrestling everywhere, especially if you had a satellite dish. The ladies channel Lifestyle was showing 1982 WCCW tapes for one.

I was in South Wales and yeah, American Gladiators was on after it and Prisoner Cell Block H before it. Thursday in the wee hours. Then, like I said, it switched to Saturday or Sunday afternoon around early 94.

I don't think I ever saw any pro but I started watching around late 91 because Rude had just debuted. Remember it very well, the Dangerous Alliance just seemed like the coolest guys on earth to me at that age, especially remember when they all came in their tuxedos. My folks never had a satellite dish so no old WCCW for me.

One of the things I'm looking forward to with these Yearbook sets is seeing how much WCW TV changes over the Herd era into 91 and then into Frey, Watts, and early Bischoff.

I'm also really looking forward to seeing a lot of the big-time Japanese stuff I've never seen. My exposure to date is literally just the 80s All Japan DVDR set.

Being in North Wales by Wrexham we got Midlands TV (Central), which was wrestling gold in 1990 onwards, you'd have got HTV I imagine, and they used the Granada night time feed which would probably explain it.

Fuck the WCW talk... I want to hear you Euro dudes talk about watching World of Sport or discovering some Reslo or French wrestling on some random channel.

I can't remember what's year it was, but if you do a Euro set, the Kendo Nagasaki unmasking is a complete must, one of my favourite bits of British wrestling. We have been spoilt here in the UK with having WOS returned for so long, imagine of in the if Crocketts TV was re-aired in the Mid Atlantic area for 3 hours a day. It's great getting home from work and finding another Royals brothers tag match on TV.

For those that haven't seen it, here you go....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vz01e1wB898...be_gdata_player

Being Welsh I got more than my fill of Reslo (watching Kung Fu spend ten minutes massaging Mick [Or "Mic" in Welsh] McManus' balls with his feet for 10 minutes under the auspices of "comedy"), but in 1990 or so some promotion from France or somewhere started up on Satellite with Tony St. Clair, Danny Boy Collins and the like emanating from France. The champion was Flesh Gorden, and even as a 6 year old I knew he was booking the fucker.

Did you mean fucking the booker?

Couldn't help myself and had to look up the phil collins/Ultimate warrior collection. That was awesome and I got to show some restraint from trying to find other stuff until this is released.

Don't tempt me! I had to go look this up after your post. Pretty damn funny.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcpUFvQOsyg

WILD THING!

Hey homeboy!
Gather around!
Some serious stuff
Is gonna go down

Wrestle War '90
The kings of the ring
All come together
And do the wild thing

Lex Luger, the Steiners, Nature Boy, Sting
They all be doing that
Wild thing (WHOO!)

Yeah, they'll all be there
With something to prove
Brimming with intentions
To bust a move!

It's pay-per-view excitement
From T.H.E.
For more information
Call your cable company

(WHILE-WHILE-WHILE-WHILE-WILD THING!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCqcv5BOSLg

Hey homeboy!
Gather around
Wrestle War '90
Is about to go down

Ric Flair
The Champ!
Testiment to biology
Meets Sting
The Dream
Of entymology

Lex Luger
The belt!
His holy grail quest
Is scheduled for an operation
On Dr. Death

Road Warriors
Survivors!
From a place time forgot
Plan to reduce Skyscrapers
To parking lots

The Steiners
They're brothers!
They wrestle as one
But they do not scare
The brothers Anderson

Wrestle War '90
A "Wild Thing" you see
Available through
Your cable company

Pay-per-view
Excitement
From T.H.E.
Going down the 25th
Of February

WILD THING
WILD THING
WILD THING
WUH-WUH-WUH-WUH-WILD THING

You know what would have been cool extras for the 1992 set? Scans of the Marvel WCW comic. This is the only equivalent I can think of for 90, but they were actually a big deal. May have been part of what got me into wrestling.

There's always the WWF Battlemania comic for 1991.

I hope to eventually do a PDF that's a definitive guide to 1990s pro wrestling (or something else ridiculously grandiose) and will keep that in mind. It would ostensibly also be a guide to watching all of the yearbooks. Anyway, I think that is likely a better platform for multi-media ideas than a DVD, but either way, it will make a nice companion.

So before you make your next move ...

...
...
...

THINK IT OVER, CREEP.

So, obviously whoever wrote that rap wasn't aware of what "doing the wild thing" meant...


....or were they?

Any update? My money is ready.