The Old School Questions thread

[Curt McGirt 13,163]

I looked it up and the only place he ever wrestled in the US before that was Memphis on excursion. The other two places were Stampede and WWC. 

And get this, the Three Musketeers (Hash/Chono/Mutoh) were actually formed in Puerto Rico! 

Edited March 20, 2020 by Curt McGirt

[FluffSnackwell 819]

This is really more of an observation. I rewatched the Savage/Warrior retirement match from WrestleMania VII, and it occurred to me that at the moment in the match where Warrior's gods seem to be urging him to leave the ring, it is actually Jim Hellwig's god telling him he should immediately go to the back and hold up Vince for $50,000 to finish the match. 

[BloodyChamp 184]

I remember a thread on the old board that was kinda sorta about how Luger/Simmons from Halloween Havoc wasn’t bad. I haven’t seen the match myself.

[GuerrillaMonsoon 3,295]

Backlund getting the title back in 1994 just seems really odd.

Turns up back in late 92, does nothing of any real note, putting over midcard guys, goes off and has the 6 man run with the Warlord and Putski, then out of nowhere gets pushed to the moon as the big heel......for all of five minutes, gives Bret his win back at Mania in a really unconvincing fashion, and that's it?

Seems really surplus to needs in the context of either continuing the Owen feud, or Diesel winning it over Bret instead, and fast tracking the Shawn program instead?

 

[elizium 2,493]

I always figured that he was a benefactor of good timing. By the fall, the Owen feud had run for half the year, Lawler was done to death (and they'd return to him later with Bret), Yoko was tied up with the Undertaker, Shawn and Diesel were focused on the tag and IC titles and they were getting ready to turn Diesel, Tatanka was freshly turned and paired with Luger and Double J wasn't established enough. That basically leaves Backlund and Bam Bam as your top heels remaining, with IRS and King Kong Bundy around as well. Bam Bam would have been cool, but if they already had the Taylor match in mind, you probably don't want him beating a former champion at WM. IRS was pretty midcard and had just started promos talking about how you still owe taxes after death, so they were clearly planning on pairing him with the Undertaker after the Yoko feud. Bundy gives you a similar angle as Backlund with a much worse match. Backlund was 45, so why not try and see what you can get out of him before he's done?

I've always assumed that he wasn't originally going to win the title, but once George Foreman won the heavyweight title at 45 at the beginning of November, they decided to pull the trigger. Plus, depending how far in advance they had decided that they were going to throw in with Diesel, Backlund is not someone who would get hurt by a transition reign, since he's not going to be in your long term plans.

Edited March 27, 2020 by elizium

[(BP) 5,748]

I do think Backlund was supposed to be them biting off of the Foreman win, but generally he was a transitional champion to protect Bret while getting the belt on Diesel. They obviously wanted Nash to win in dominant fashion, and there weren’t a lot of guys in that vulnerable period that could both go over Bret and lose in seconds to Diesel. (Although, I’m pretty sure they jobbed Yoko out to jackknife in seconds too during the Diesel run.) Plus, they got to play into the towel throwing thing from Backlund losing his first title to jumpstart the Owen feud. 

[Liam 347]

Watching mid 86 WWF and had two questions.

Was Orndorff the first time that the WWF had used the 'friend of Hogan turns on Hogan' - I feel like it is, but might be forgetting something.

Similarly, was it the first time they'd done the 'face returns under a mask' when it came to The Machines gimmick?

[clintthecrippler 1,901]

9 hours ago, Liam said:

Watching mid 86 WWF and had two questions.

Was Orndorff the first time that the WWF had used the 'friend of Hogan turns on Hogan' - I feel like it is, but might be forgetting something.

Similarly, was it the first time they'd done the 'face returns under a mask' when it came to The Machines gimmick?

Yes to both questions. 

[Southside Jim 209]

Does anyone remember the title of a hardcover coffee table book of George Napolitano photos that came out circa 1987-88?

 

I remember it had photos of Dusty Rhodes posing in front of a gold curtain while wearing the big gold belt, Rick Rude sitting across the laps of a group of ring rats, Lex Luger with a beard, but the real highlight was a photo of the battle royal from WrestleMania 2 where William "The Refrigerator" Perry was diving off the top turnbuckle to deliver a double axhandle.  

 

Napolitano was standing directly behind the ringpost, so you saw this cool shot of all the wrestlers and football players looking in awe as Perry dove off.

[PetrolCB 9,492]

Is this the photo, or was he mid move?

Edited April 8, 2020 by PetrolCB

[elizium 2,493]

1 hour ago, Southside Jim said:

Does anyone remember the title of a hardcover coffee table book of George Napolitano photos that came out circa 1987-88?

 

I remember it had photos of Dusty Rhodes posing in front of a gold curtain while wearing the big gold belt, Rick Rude sitting across the laps of a group of ring rats, Lex Luger with a beard, but the real highlight was a photo of the battle royal from WrestleMania 2 where William "The Refrigerator" Perry was diving off the top turnbuckle to deliver a double axhandle.  

 

Napolitano was standing directly behind the ringpost, so you saw this cool shot of all the wrestlers and football players looking in awe as Perry dove off.

 

Wrestling: The Greatest Stars

I own it, I don't remember when I got it but definitely when I was a kid, so around its release in 87. It is pretty thin, but there's some great photos, with a little write up of each person featured.

Edited April 8, 2020 by elizium

[elizium 2,493]

1 hour ago, PetrolCB said:

Is this the photo, or was he mid move?

That's a great pic, but not it. He's directly behind the turnbuckle and Fridge is just starting his leap off.

[elizium 2,493]

1 hour ago, Southside Jim said:

I remember it had photos of Dusty Rhodes posing in front of a gold curtain while wearing the big gold belt, Rick Rude sitting across the laps of a group of ring rats, Lex Luger with a beard, but the real highlight was a photo of the battle royal from WrestleMania 2 where William "The Refrigerator" Perry was diving off the top turnbuckle to deliver a double axhandle. 

Too big to fit on my printer to scan, so just took a quick pic with my phone. Bearded Lex and Chilling Rude are together. There's no way any of those girls are older than 14.

[Southside Jim 209]

Thanks guys!

[Southside Jim 209]

Does anyone remember a indy show angle from circa 1994-1996 featuring Tom "Johnny Gunn" Brandi?  I remember reading a post on RSPW, possibly from Jeff Amdur, about it.

 

The angle went like this:

 

The show opens with the announcement that Johnny Gunn, one half of the tag champs, has won the promotion's main singles title.  Johnny comes out and the ring announcer reminds him that the promotion's rules dictate he can't hold two titles, and will have to vacate one of the belts.

 

Johnny calls his tag partner to the ring, apologizes to him, and vacates the tag titles.

 

The partner says he understands completely and wishes Johnny good luck in the main event, when he'll be defending his new belt in a rematch against the previous champion.

 

Of course, in the main event, the tag partner turns heel and costs Gunn the title, than cuts a promo about how bitter he is that Gunn vacated the tag titles.

 

 

I'm just trying to remember what promotion that was.  I want to say it was Cueball Carmichael's IPWA, but it may have been Pennsylvania Championship Wrestling as well.  Either way, I thought that could be a good angle to rehash in AEW: Kenny Omega wins the AEW title, but Tony Khan tells him he has to choose between the AEW Title or the tag titles.  

 

Kenny chooses the AEW title, and a bitter, drunken Hangman Page cements his heel turn and helps Chris Jericho regain the AEW World Title later that night.

[Southside Jim 209]

On 9/2/2019 at 7:07 AM, BurningBeard said:

I'd rather have a stable of Bellasario themed wrestlers.

You could have your Sam Beckett stall during a match to get advice from a hologram/thin air on how to win the match, a bit like a more ludicrous version of the York Foundation.

 

 

 

You're one of those people who sends Cornette video of every single "invisible hand grenade" indy match to purposefully piss him off, aren't you?

[MORELOCK 3,141]

Any idea involving Adam Page turning heel is terrible at this point, but especially one involving Kenny being the angle's babyface and World Champion.

[El Gran Gordi 1,782]

8 minutes ago, MORELOCK said:

Any idea involving Adam Page turning heel is terrible at this point, but especially one involving Kenny being the angle's babyface and World Champion.

Now *that* is an interesting old school question!

[MORELOCK 3,141]

Fair enough, but I'm not the one who fantasy booked AEW in the Old School thread.

To answer that guy's question, though: No, no one remembers any angles involving Tom Brandi, but I bet with some hyper-specific searches you could find that RSPW post archived.

[colonial 320]

7 hours ago, elizium said:

That's a great pic, but not it. He's directly behind the turnbuckle and Fridge is just starting his leap off.

I don't recall Refrigerator Perry hitting a top-rope move in the battle royal. He entered the ring, I believe, next-to-last (before Andre) by jumping off the top rope, landing on his feet. I don't think he climbed the ropes during the match (only wrestler I recall trying a top-rope move was Bret Hart, when Andre caught him on the turnbuckle and launched him into Neidhart).

[elizium 2,493]

7 hours ago, colonial said:

I don't recall Refrigerator Perry hitting a top-rope move in the battle royal. He entered the ring, I believe, next-to-last (before Andre) by jumping off the top rope, landing on his feet. I don't think he climbed the ropes during the match (only wrestler I recall trying a top-rope move was Bret Hart, when Andre caught him on the turnbuckle and launched him into Neidhart).

You are correct, I had completely forgotten the context of the pic (should have realized since Mean Gene is still standing in the ring).

[BurningBeard 4,316]

On 4/8/2020 at 7:49 AM, Southside Jim said:

 

 

You're one of those people who sends Cornette video of every single "invisible hand grenade" indy match to purposefully piss him off, aren't you?

No Southside Jim I am not. I’ve just been around @BEN! for too long

[Brian Fowler 15,429]

Backing up to the Backlund stuff... Now that I think about it, Bret never really got revenge on Owen from that, did he? I mean, they didn't reunite for another two and a half years, but that was pretty much the last major moment in their year long story/10 month feud.

[Liam 347]

Question that has been bouncing around my head for a bit - considering they ran an angle to have Andre the Giant suspended in 1986 pretty much immediately after Wrestlemania II, at what point did they decide that they'd bring him back (if you ignore the Machines run) as a heel? It is great, year long booking, but I can't help but feel that it is more than likely that they stumbled into it more than got their by choice.

[Brian Fowler 15,429]

9 minutes ago, Liam said:

Question that has been bouncing around my head for a bit - considering they ran an angle to have Andre the Giant suspended in 1986 pretty much immediately after Wrestlemania II, at what point did they decide that they'd bring him back (if you ignore the Machines run) as a heel? It is great, year long booking, but I can't help but feel that it is more than likely that they stumbled into it more than got their by choice.

If you believe Vince, the whole thing was because he felt Andre was giving up on life, and he wanted to give him something big so Andre would keep going despite all the pain he was in.