clintthecrippler

Complete with a post-match brawl where a woman that wasnt even in the original match gets her top torn off by two Male wrestlers like it was an R-rated 1980s college comedy. This show also has an early appearance by "Pro Wrestling Illustrated's Joey Styles" as a guest heel commentator on a couple of matches and yes it was as awful as that sounds. And Double Tables has the infamous match where Cactus Jack straight up brained Sandman with a frying pan.

Yeah, it was awesome those first few weeks that Conrad reformatted the program and JR sounded refreshed but it really didnt take him long to fall back into "grumpy grouch bastard" mode.

Followed by a two-hour rant on why it was different when he wrestled a Ninja Turtle.

Peter Motts = Perry Saturn?

GCW did a great job building up to their first match in the promotion and presenting Rickey Shane Page as just a complete dickhead that should be loathed by everybody over the last few months. I've been saying for a while now that GCW has managed to become the "next ECW" but did it without TRYING to become the next ECW, but by being the first GCW. The main event last night though was as gloriously overbooked as the greatest overbooked ECW matches, and save for one glaring hole that is still eating away at me a little bit today, that overbooking hit beat-for-beat, and the combination of violence, heat, big-fight atmosphere, and build, and even with the one glaring hole, I'm still ready to declare this an all-time Top 5 (maybe even Top 3) U.S. deathmatches.

FWIW, the promoter of the Prime Time Pro/Faye Jackson shows that weekend is spinning the move of those shows as a dispute over space. What's presented here, it sounds like they expected the brewery to have/give space inside the main bar, while the brewery wanted them to be outdoors.

I think I missed how the conversation over wrestlers from generations past faring in the modern product, but the one I keep thinking about lately is how Bob Backlund circa 1978-1982 would fare in 2020. I think athletic freak/strongman grappler Bob Backlund would be a major cult draw in today's indie scene, seeing him grapple with folks like Thatcher and participating on shows like Bloodsport and WxW Ambition, and being strong enough to pull off strongman spots against folks like Walter and Jeff Cobb, and being the guy that grounds flippy dudes and forces them to adapt to him, I think he would be a buzzworthy guy now. Maybe not a draw/main eventer in modern WWE, but maybe as a hired gun assassin in AEW, or the designated shooter in an NJPW stable, and definitely someone that would shine at BOLA weekend and other indie showcase type events, etc. Hell, the dude still seems like he's in good enough shape that I could see him pulling off a 10-minute exhibition-style grapping-oriented match at Bloodsport in 2020 Barnett booked him. EDIT: ah shit, I now saw the original post saying "today's WWE" but fuck it I'll still be fantasy booking 1981 Bob Backlund on Bloodsport 2020.

As a USC alum, that's what made watching Ed Orgeron with a championship with LSU this year so much more bittersweet. Ed steps in as interim coach after they fire Lane Kiffin, does respectably well and is endears himself to USC fans and players, but the administration already locked in on poaching Steve Sarkisian from day one and kicked Coach O to the curb, and USC has been struggling to regain the past glory ever since. Problem now though is that Clay Helton clawed his way back to ending this season a JUST respectable enough winning record where you cant justify firing him, even though students and alumni are still lukewarm on him because we still are nowhere near close to scratching BCS contention, and that is enough to hurt recruitment. Those of you still asking why elite prospects are picking Southern and Midwest schools? Because that's where the national championships are being won and the most high-profile games on a national television level are happening right now.

Maybe my favorite "non-Liger" NJPW junior's match from this era.

On the topic of "awesome minimalism", sadly not on YouTube but a great revelation to me recently was from the August 1977 MSG show on the WWE Network, with a match where Superstar Graham defends the WWWF Title against Ivan Putski. Without spoiling and going into too much detail, the match structure is beautifully simple but every beat is hit perfectly and when the big move comes, it gets one the loudest non-Bruno pops I have heard on those 70s MSG shows.

I wouldn't be surprised to see NJPW/ROH try to do a show in Long Beach given their history there, but either WrestleCon or Collective running there I think would hurt either one. Long Beach is a good 25 miles and minimum hour-long drive from downtown LA and longer from Hollywood if traffic is good, and way too far for an Uber ride for tourists coming in from outside the city. Train ride is comparable in length as well if venues are close enough to stations, a much bigger hassle than trying to do Manhattan to Jersey City which was the distance from Wrestlecon to Collective when it was in NYC last year. My "fingers crossed, shoot for the moon" scenario - besides of course everything somehow booking in walking distance to each other which I doubt will happen - is that Wrestlecon will run in Hollywood and Collective will run in DTLA (or vice-versa) which are each connected by a 20-to-30-minute train ride. Bar Wrestling's proper Los Angeles venue is along the same train line though too small for either of the larger gatherings, and if WWE centers Axxess/HOF/Takeover around Staples Center/LA Convention Center, is also easily accessible along that route.

Hell WWE Network will get another month out of me even with a single-cam 60-minute catch session like that Regal/Robbie Brookside Power Plant video that leaked a year ago.

What's the deal with that show anyway? The majority of posts I have read seems like they are leaning into it being more of parody show, like Beyond doing a tongue-in-cheek version of Beyond Monday Night Raw.

Doesn't Conrad Thompson have it in his belt collection now?

Damn. Was hoping I was reading too much into Nick Gage's comment at GCW about the show helping him "forget what my brother did today"