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FEBRUARY 2024 Wrestling Talk

Dolfan in NYC

By Dolfan in NYC
in The PROFESSIONAL WRESTLING

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zendragon

zendragon

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, AxB said:

Flair, when asked, always said the 89 Steamboat feud was nowhere near as good as the 1979 Flair vs Steamboat matches.

how many of those made tape?

  • Thanks 1
Elsalvajeloco

Elsalvajeloco

Posted
Posted
22 minutes ago, Log said:

He was a trainer for OVW for a long time. He was also helping out in some capacity in Derby City Wrestling when it was running. Not sure what he’s currently up to.  
 

He’s fun to talk wrestling with because he apparently has a photographic memory. I mentioned a date that Poffo’s ICW did at my hometown high school in the early 80’s and he busted out the exact date and the card. 

His podcast has popped in my youtube feed a bunch.

I just so happened to watch the Raw from 2/20/1995 last night (it's the Raw where Sid returns to WWF as Shawn's bodyguard). Who happens to be on the show as enhancement talent? The Hustler Rip Rogers! Cornette is on commentary since I believe it's a new taping cycle. He is so excited about Rip being there and puts over Rip as being the pride of Seymour, Indiana instead of John Cougar Mellencamp.

I wonder if Jim helped Rip get booked.

  • Like 1
Technico Support

Technico Support

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Dolfan in NYC said:

SRS is reporting Josh Alexander has asked TNA not to pick up his option year. 

He's going to test out the FA waters.  

I thought the story was he asked them not to re-up, but they did it anyway.

Dolfan in NYC

Dolfan in NYC

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Posted
1 hour ago, Ramo2653 said:

Yeah, considering TNA made a post about extending Josh, that's what I gathered from it.

Apparently they announced they picked it up before they actually had.  Josh's wife publicly corrected them, then they took the announcement down.  And... Here we are.

  • Like 1
John from Cincinnati

John from Cincinnati

Posted
Posted
6 hours ago, Dolfan in NYC said:

SRS is reporting Josh Alexander has asked TNA not to pick up his option year. 

He's going to test out the FA waters.  

Ethan Page is licking his chops somewhere at the prospect of more TV time. 

  • Like 1
zendragon

zendragon

Posted
Posted
6 hours ago, Elsalvajeloco said:

His podcast has popped in my youtube feed a bunch.

I just so happened to watch the Raw from 2/20/1995 last night (it's the Raw where Sid returns to WWF as Shawn's bodyguard). Who happens to be on the show as enhancement talent? The Hustler Rip Rogers! Cornette is on commentary since I believe it's a new taping cycle. He is so excited about Rip being there and puts over Rip as being the pride of Seymour, Indiana instead of John Cougar Mellencamp.

I wonder if Jim helped Rip get booked.

All the job guys with jobs (goon , pug eat Al) where Corney guys do it’s likely

Cobra Commander

Cobra Commander

Posted
Posted
9 hours ago, Elsalvajeloco said:

Who happens to be on the show as enhancement talent? The Hustler Rip Rogers!

A WWF show in Macon, Georgia in 1995 means an assortment of dudes getting to work the card who are available.. running down the matches with at least one enhancement guy from Macon and Augusta (the next night)

Quote

 

WWF @ Macon, GA – Coliseum – February 20, 1995 (2,751; heavily papered)
Jeff Barber & Jim Steele defeated Barry Horowitz & the Brooklyn Brawler; Barber & Steele used Jimmy Hart’s “Crank it Up” song as theme music
Mike Unabomb (Glen Jacobs) defeated Reno Riggins
Hakushi defeated Bobby Hayes
Charlie Hunter defeated Bob Cook at 13:00

Bam Bam Bigelow (w/ Ted Dibiase) pinned Gary Sabough at 3:54 with the diving headbutt;
Adam Bomb pinned Rip Rogers with a clothesline off the top at 3:25
Jacob & Eli Blu (w/ Uncle Zebakiah) defeated Leroy Howard & Mark Starr when Starr was pinned following a legdrop at 4:20;

2/27/95 – Owen Hart defeated Larry Santo via submission with the Sharpshooter
Doink the Clown (w/ Dink) pinned Bob Cook with the Whoopie Cushion
Kama defeated Ken Raper via submission with a modified STF

3/6/95 – Bob Backlund defeated Buck Quartermaine via submission to the Crossface Chicken Wing

WWF @ Augusta, GA – Civic Center – February 21, 1995
WWF Superstars taping:
Erik Watts & Chad Fortune defeated the Brooklyn Brawler & Barry Horowitz
Michael Hayes defeated Ken Raper; Hayes played the babyface for the match
Mike Unabomb defeated Buck Quartermaine

3/11/95:
Doink the Clown defeated Charlie Hunter
Bob Backlund defeated Ken Raper

3/18/95:
Man Mountain Rock defeated the Black Phantom
Kama defeated Leroy Howard

3/25/95:
WWF Tag Team Champions the Smoking Gunns defeated Rip Rogers & Chic Donovan
Henry Godwinn defeated Mark Starr

 

running through the names..

that would be Jim Steele's tryout, about 7 months after his last WCW match and during a time when he was working matches in All-Japan

Jeff Barber doesn't have a CageMatch profile. WrestlingData insists that Jeff Barber is Jeff Farmer.

Sabough would be the legend himself... Italian Stallion

Various guys who would be best known for jobbing in WCW: Leroy Howard, Mark Starr, Bobby Hayes jobbed in WCW a bit in 1995, Bob Cook is a legend in the community of WCW jobbers, as is Larry Santo.

Charlie Hunter would be better known as Jeff Bradley or Dudley Dudley

Riggins pretty much remained exclusive to the WWF in regards to jobbing. Mike Unabomb, like you're trying to act like Unabomb is a plausible surname.

Rip Rogers actually jobbed at Center Stage a few weeks before showing up to job on WWF TV (Nasty Boys vs Greg Sawyer and Rip Rogers)

Someone gave Ken Raper a ride so he could do some TV jobs outside of Tennessee

and the Black Phantom would be... Gangrel

Chic Donovan would go to North Charleston the next night to job to Davey Boy on a card with a job crew of Larry Santo, Todd Morton, Chic Donovan, Charlie Hunter, Barry Horowitz, Brawler, Major Yates who doesn't have a CageMatch profile, and Bob Hayes.

It feels like a Rip Rogers/Chic Donovan tag team would enrage any VFW Hall in the South. Also the Gunns vs Rip/Chic match only went 2 minutes so it might not be worth watching March 1995 WWF Superstars for that match.

Chic and Rip worked together on TV in WCW in 1993 (Jim Neidhart and JYD vs Chic and Rip in the spring) and they worked together some in February 1985 in Championship Wrestling from Georgia. But that 1995 match was their last time together.

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Elsalvajeloco

Elsalvajeloco

Posted
Posted

Oh yeah, it's a bunch of guys who I am seeing on WCW syndicated TV and Saturday Night doing jobs. Plus guys like Sabaugh bringing his crew everywhere. Also, someone give Major Yates a Cagematch profile. Man has been jobbing his ass off in WWF forever by that point.

Early 1995 seems like the first time since late 92/the first half of 1993 where they branch out from doing tapings outside the Northeast for an extended period of time. The sign of times for WWF business is Survivor Series 1994 where the show is in Texas and for the first time ever, they don't do tapings in or near the place where the PPV is. They did the PPV in San Antonio and then immediately went back to the Northeast or in close proximity.

I can see it where after a dismal last half of 1994 or since these venues are booked in advanced expecting to completely drain the Northeast dry. How many times can you run the Mid-Hudson Civic Center, Westchester County Civic Center, the Lowell Auditorium, Stabler Arena, etc. when your business isn't hot? I mean it gets so bad that now they're doing tapings in high school gyms. To start off 1995, they show tapings in Florida after the Rumble, they do shows in Texas, and then Georgia. I mean the ticket sales suck, but you can tell in Vince's voice that he is happy to be somewhere where the few fans who are watching are appreciative. Now that said, I've been noticing that the last show of each taping cycle is deader than it usually is. And that's saying a lot cause even in the glory days, they had to crowd sweeten every show like that. However, at some point in 1994 when you get less stars or less over talent working these tapings, it feels like they believe themselves to being held hostage. In actual arenas, you can get away with that. Doing that with roughly 1500 people in smaller venues when ECW does way more with less, you can't hide there are mausoleums with livelier atmospheres.

 

Cobra Commander

Cobra Commander

Posted
Posted

Michael Hayes working a dark match in 1995 does open up a universe where either Hayes or Dok Hendrix is working matches in 1995 WWF until it becomes obvious that his back is too bad to work

If I had to guess, Ken Raper might be getting WWF work in 1995 maybe because Kama is just starting and Raper worked Soultaker a few years before, or maybe through Todd Morton, I was thinking Hayes might have brought Raper along but CageMatch doesn’t think Raper was working Memphis when Hayes was there

Elsalvajeloco

Elsalvajeloco

Posted
Posted
34 minutes ago, Cobra Commander said:

Michael Hayes working a dark match in 1995 does open up a universe where either Hayes or Dok Hendrix is working matches in 1995 WWF until it becomes obvious that his back is too bad to work

If I had to guess, Ken Raper might be getting WWF work in 1995 maybe because Kama is just starting and Raper worked Soultaker a few years before, or maybe through Todd Morton, I was thinking Hayes might have brought Raper along but CageMatch doesn’t think Raper was working Memphis when Hayes was there

Yeah, I don't think Hayes fit what Vince was looking for at the time. Bad back or no bad back, Michael had a much better shot filling out the announce team than he did wrestling. It's unfortunate you get punished for not having a certain chemically enhanced physique but looking like you're in your mid 40s when you're actually in your mid 30s is a death sentence. He is the same age as Nash and younger than Scott Hall and Bret. However, once Vince or Bruce saw him doing his "rasslin" bits, it would have been an automatic no.

Elsalvajeloco

Elsalvajeloco

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Technico Support said:

Cries in Arn Anderson

I think if Arn had to cross the aisle in 1995, he probably would have been better off than Hayes cause he had ALWAYS been that. Even through his brief stints in Georgia and Southeastern. He would have been the respectable veteran you can tuck away in the Million Dollar Corporation, especially since Ted was his mentor early in his career.

Listening to Bruce and how he tells the story, they saw Michael and immediately wanted to change his look and name based on Vince's whims of Michael looking and acting outdated. And that was just so he can be in a non wrestling capacity.

  • Like 1
AxB

AxB

Posted
Posted

The PS in Michael PS Hayes stood for Purely Sexy and it was not, originally, ironic. But those three vitamins, A G and E came for him quickly.

Log

Log

Posted
Posted

As a kid, I found Hayes so unbelievably corny. Now, don't get me wrong, the Freebirds early run is all-time great stuff. It's just that by 88 or so, he seemed so dorky.

He and Garvin as the Freebirds reminded me of those middle aged dudes who get divorced and try to become "cool" again and fail miserably.

  • Like 6
Elsalvajeloco

Elsalvajeloco

Posted
Posted

I think it's tough for guys like Hayes and like Tommy Rich or anyone back then who got over at an extremely young age when most guys are 30 and over already. You're always going to be judged on when you're were a prodigy and not "people get old naturally and times change". This goes especially if you live a crazy party lifestyle.

Now that said, Hayes in his later NWA/WCW run was really over still. Whenever they were running the old Georgia Championship Wrestling area or the surrounding territories, the Jimmy Garvin version of the Freebirds were always cheered even if they were heels. It was super corny, but it was still over.

  • Like 1
Technico Support

Technico Support

Posted
Posted
3 hours ago, Elsalvajeloco said:

Listening to Bruce and how he tells the story, they saw Michael and immediately wanted to change his look and name based on Vince's whims of Michael looking and acting outdated. And that was just so he can be in a non wrestling capacity.

 

56 minutes ago, Log said:

As a kid, I found Hayes so unbelievably corny. Now, don't get me wrong, the Freebirds early run is all-time great stuff. It's just that by 88 or so, he seemed so dorky.

He and Garvin as the Freebirds reminded me of those middle aged dudes who get divorced and try to become "cool" again and fail miserably.

I can absolutely understand VInce wanting to change Hayes' look.  When it's the mid-90s and you're still walking around looking like the bass player for Runnin' with the Devil: A Loving Tribute to Van Halen, you need to switch that shit up.

  • Haha 2
J.H.

J.H.

Posted
Posted (edited)

Michael Hayes feels like he could show up on According To Jim as a cocky singer who tries to be Jim Belushi's blues band new singer but gets kicked out when Courtney Thorn Smith finds coke in his banana hammock

James

Edited by J.H.
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