khawk20

Not sure where else to throw this up, but I found this on a 1985 Vancouver all star wrestling disc tonight. I had no idea this existed. Mad Dog vs Crusher was the all time AWA blood feud, and this was likely one of their last battles before Vachon turned face. It’s not either man’s prime (their 1969-71 feud is spoken of with extreme reverence among the old-old guard) but this clip is still AWA gold. I wish there was more. Al Tomko, who was promoting Vancouver at this time, was Vernes Winnipeg promoter for a good while so this explains him having access to this. I do wonder how much video he kept for himself before parting ways with Verne…

He was 72. His sister is 74 and says he was 2 years younger than her. Lots of confusion on his age though, yeah.

Always good to see different channels posted here. I have a sub to one of them but the others I don't, so it'll be fun looking around in them later. Thanks.

https://www.youtube.com/@alessio5083 sheik75 found this channel and sent me the link. Not sure if it's in this thread already but its a very cool glimpse into wresting in a lot of places that you don't normally see that have pro wrestling. Short clips for the most part but worth a peek.

Hogan was no longer with the Evil Empire, he was in WCW so “he’s ok now” would have been a big part of the publications mentality there. when Vince banned photographers and wrestler access to the Weston mags in 84, it set the tone for how those mags reported things for decades. WCW was always, always better, even when they reported something that sided with the WWF. funny how those mags still ran Hogan on the cover (often in badly cut out photoshops) every second month anyways though. I was as “i hate the territories dying” of a fan as anyone more than a casual fan could have been, but it was even ridiculous to me what those mags were doing with the “NWA/WCW is better” mantra.

For that to work, Daddy would have had to come to North America and done something extraordinary in the ring first. Calhoun had extreme size (especially via weight billing) which made him an attraction. Andre was actually a very good wrestler before his size overtook his ability to use his body to be extraordinary in a moves-and-holds sense. He was a legitimate yet oversized contender for many years all over the continent. This allowed for his end of night tags to have an aura of “bad guys will get their come uppance” and send the fans home happy as you say. He was credible. I don’t see any scenario where Big Daddy would have been remotely credible to North American fans. None. He was ridiculous in an ultimate warrior gets a voodoo curse put on him by papa shango kind of way, which for me translates as “turn off wrestling for a few years because I feel embarrassed watching this.” I don’t know how he got over like he did in Britain, but he never would have gotten near that here. An outback jack career arc is about as good as I can see a wwf 80s stint going for him. Best case.

The KC Timeline Series was fantastic, probably my favourite shoot series.

Sky Hi Lee has some matches available from Chicago in the 1950's, for what it's worth.

Mike George was the WWA champion in Central States in the late 80’s. In that time frame noted there, I remember him more for being in Mid South. Obviously he worked for Geigel ad well and probably started there. George also competed in IWE Japan near the end of its run, and in the AWA near the end as well. I have a hard time with that match length, between those two, with no TV or even a real reference to that match anywhere else I’ve ever seen. I’ll stand corrected of course but I’d be more apt to buy it if it was at memorial hall in KC itself given the territory. thwre are a few others on that list that make no sense to me either, especially in that they weren’t celebrated after the fact on tv as monumental events, at least what I’ve seen of those areas tv.

There are two Blackwell vs Mulligan matches on YouTube, one from mid Atlantic tv and one arena footage from St. Paul several years later. As I recall Blackwell gets squashed pretty good in the St. Paul match and I don’t think fared much better in the macw encounter.

That cover thing was advertised in PWI itself back in the 80’s by my memory. You send them the pic, they put it inside the generic PWI cover.