Brisco

I plan to squeeze this in between North and South and The Mote in God's Eye. Hoping to finish around the middle of May.

I'm in.

I read David Gemmell's Legend and very much enjoyed it, however it felt like a 4+ star match with the cheapest of cheap DQ finishes. Gemmell's writing style is very simplistic storytelling where he crams 1000 pages worth of action into 400 pages. Druss is a man among men and by far my favorite character in the book. He also has my favorite quote maybe ever. I followed Legend with Atonement by Ian McEwan. I found part one difficult to get through but the novel picked up from there and by the end I was dying to see how it ended. McEwan developed a great deal of depth in his characters and seeing the events from several viewpoints made for an interesting read. I love how McEwan throws tiny blurbs of information that call back to information provided earlier in the novel or historical notes that emphasis the approach of the second world war. McEwan is a fantastic writer, providing me immense enjoyment out of a novel I did not expect to like at all.

The Warrior match was available before. I saw it uploaded to on DM after Warrior's passing. How many of these World Class episodes were available beforehand? I am hoping all of them will eventually see the light of day.

This feels like it was a DVD they had in production and things changed after Warrior's death and, as noted, is a great way to honor his memory. Seeing the All-Japan footage should give hope to those clamoring for the WCW/NJPW shows,

Starrcade 84 is just plain bad. There is a good Blanchard/Steamboat TV Title match but it isn't as amazingly mind blowing and the main event just blows. Not an event that I wish to revisit anytime soon. Working on Wrestlemania now and I have been wondering what was the deal with the rubber bands stuck to Albano's face? Also I wish the Santana/Valentine match would have been blown off here even if it would have shown up the main event.

There are two pretty good midcard matches on the 10/22/84 MSG show. Valentine battles a returning Tito Santana, who seemed to be a surprise opponent, in a hate filled battle. Their are very few if any holds in this match and it closer resembles a boxing match. The hatred is so rich and so strong that it is all that is needed for a great match. In a nice spot Valentine tries to go for Santana's injured leg but Tito fights him off. I gave this ***1/2 even with the BS DQ finish, though it continues the feud building to the eventual cage match. I gave a Nikolai Volkoff match *** which is something I never thought I would say. The match has a good story and the high rating is as much for the greatness of the Sarge as it is for the suckiness of Volkoff. Nikolai works the back in a variety of hold though the problem comes from most of his offense being rest holds. When given the chance Slaughter does all he can to make Volkoff look like a killer bumping all over the place. This match also ends in a BS finish with Sarge getting counted out after he gets the cobra clutch locked on while he is on the ring apron. This is worth a look.

I am more forgiving than most but watching Wrestlemania VOD if the stram goes down is not an issue. I have enough discipline to avoid spoilers.

Internet fans hate Cena but that doesn't stop him from being awesome.

Happy Birthday Phil

Terry Gordy is a trend setter by wearing a WCW shirt in 1983.

Still slowly making my way through the World Class footage and King Kong Bundy is still amazing. Any time he has interview time he never fails to entertain. Bundy feels like he would be a cool friend but you may be forced to keep him out of fights for the protection of the patrons in the bar. Bundy isn't a hard character to get behind, he is just a hard working joe trying to make his money. Al Medrill is pretty good in the ring, sadly he seems to hate the wrestling business now according to his wiki entry. The WWEN recently uploaded one of the shows leading into the Flair/Von Erich Star Wars title match. It has a great confrontation between Fritz and Flair where Flair angers Fritz to the point where the old man sounds like a demon by the end. The entire angle was well thought out seemingly months in advance and every step is taken in a logical direction.

Posted in the incorrect thread.

Minus five stars for not including DDP in the illuminati video.

The game sucked so major changes are coming apparently. http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/03/10/sonyas-gone-aback-to-the-drawing-boarda-to-make-driveclub-agreata

Who is man enough to tell Shamrock he doesn't belong?

I don't care about anyone's politics but being glad someone is dead is sad even for the internet. Looking at some of the stuff in this thread it is no wonder HHH hates internet wrestling fans.

I watched RAW and Main Event all in one sitting last night. The WWE is a lot of fun right now. I am all for this more action oriented product.

I have been going through my history of wrestling watching everything in chronological order. Everything about the King Kong Bundy explanation of the Ric Flair Bounty on WCCW episode 48 is everything I love about Pro Wrestling. Bundy is involved in a labor dispute with H&H Enterprises so Mercer has to find him on a loading dock to get Bundy's take on the bounty situation. Bundy took the check from Flair to give to Hart but he made a copy of it first. He then makes a copy to sell to the Von Erichs. He makes a quasi-face turn challenging Kabuki but runs down Fritz for not paying the amount Bundy originally asked for. Before watching this I had no idea Bundy was this good in an interview. This entire segment is simply amazing.

The Piper-T boxing match is atrocious.

I cheer Von Erichs, why would I not want to be like the Von Erichs

Think I will do this in the style of Sydney Brown from almost a decade ago (can't believe its been that long). The Good The Opening 6-man: I loved what these guys were able to accomplish even with the screwy finish. Hayes was complete and total Michael Hayes strutting around and generally having a good time. Sting looks green here but the crowd was already into him. The crowd ate up the near fall Hayes has on Zbyszko close to the end. I love moments like that. I think they had a great match going but the last two minutes ruined it especially the rest hold in the last 30 seconds to a minute which seemed to throw off the timing. Wrong finish aside they put on an entertaining 15 minute match. Brainbuster vs Road Warriors: Not much to add to what has been said about this one. The match is better served being viewed in a vacuum otherwise you will be pissed at the screwing of the Road Warriors. Garvin/Flair: Loved this match and I love the hotshot into the cage. This match is a forgotten gem in both men's careers. Eh Scaffold Match: While I do not believe this is an all time great match, it is the best scaffold match I have ever seen. As a kid the leg scissors/tennis racket combo was exciting and a lot more fun than the 1986 match. As an adult I still enjoy it for what it is though I wish one of these matches would have one of the faces thrown off first to add drama to the match. Taylor/Koloff: Slow but good wrestling with a nice Russian Sickle finish. I would expect this type of long, slow wrestling match would be the standard fare at a NWA house show but wish they brought more to the party for the big unification bout. Luger/Rhodes: The match was slow and not sure the right man went over, but I liked the ending. Sucked Balls Williams/Windham: This should have been so much more. There are better ways to get where they were going. While the match was never going to be a 40 minute classic, 10 could have been taken away from the TV title match and put here to give the match more to build on. Overall: As a kid I thought this was a good card and as an adult it does hold up as a fun 3 hours. If the booking would have had a more "give the fans what they want" mentality this could be more than a card that flies under the radar. This card would get a recommendation from me provided you can deal with BS booking.

Until I watched the show this week, I had not realized the headbutt to the groin was a work with an angle building out of it. The interviews were not on the commercial tape.

Starting my History of Wrestling via the Network project. Watched the 03/17/75 pretty soon after the Network came online and it is a pretty forgettable card. Finished the MSG 06/27/77 card and it is much better. Unlike the '75 card this features the entire night of wrestling and it is of better quality too. Tony Garea vs George 'The Animal' Steele is my match of the night. This was my first time viewing Garea or pre Rock N Wrestling Steele and both were impressive here. Garea is the perfect firey babyface and he had the crowd eating out of his hand at one point. My only experience with Steele has been as a lovable goof but he completely gets The Animal gimmick over in this match. He is so primal in everything he does from vicious attacks to cowering in fear when Garea gets fired up. Even at a short 7 minutes I thought they worked hard at making the match entertaining. I gave it *** making it my current frontrunner for 1977 MOTY. I need to watch more wrestling from this era. The rest of the card features a good Andre tag, the debut of Peter Maivia, a power vs power world title match and a sometimes painful Raschke/Putski 30 minute draw. To be fair Putski did show flashes of being a firey babyface which I loved but this match just dragged along with a lot of rest holds. While I didn't find anything that blew me away outside of the Garea match it is an entertaining card that is a good capsule of wrestling at the time.

I think you are only limited to GAB 89 and Starrcade 89, of which the Bash is the better match.