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  • 2 weeks later...

WWE.com teaser listing for the All Star collection lists an episode with a Roddy Piper match from 1979. Only other Piper 79 footage floating around is a pre-match bagpipe segment from a Championship Wrestling episode and a few seconds clip from a newscast of that night's MSG show so it looks like the dump isn't just recycled from what was posted to 24/7 a few years back, and there may be other hidden gems in there that are "new".

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Watching some old World Class and if there's anything more 80s pro-wrestling than giant redneck Buddy Roberts managing and dressing like The Samoans while wearing a Stars and Bars bandanna underneath some sort of Samoan head dress I haven't seen it.

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Watched the one 1975 episode and the first 1976 episode.  The one job guy in the handicap match with Ernie Ladd that kept jumping through the ropes was funny.  Crowd shit on him good and even McMahon had to chuckle at him.  A young Kevin Sullivan in a tag match vs Crusher Blackwell and Bugsy McGraw was cool too.  Weird seeing Blassie take bumps but felt like yelling at the TV watching the refs ignore the managers basically walk into the ring and interfere in the match

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4 minutes ago, elizium said:

I started with the first one from 75. Antonino Rocca is nearly incomprehensible as a colour guy, but he keeps calling Vince "Junior" and you know he must have haaaaated that.

Between Rocca, Patterson and Sammartino they loved having guys with thick accents doing the colour on their shows

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4 minutes ago, Serious Darius Bagfelt said:

Watched the one 1975 episode and the first 1976 episode.  The one job guy in the handicap match with Ernie Ladd that kept jumping through the ropes was funny.  Crowd shit on him good and even McMahon had to chuckle at him.  A young Kevin Sullivan in a tag match vs Crusher Blackwell and Bugsy McGraw was cool too.  Weird seeing Blassie take bumps but felt like yelling at the TV watching the refs ignore the managers basically walk into the ring and interfere in the match

I watched the same two. Young Sullivan was weird, it was like watching chubby rookie Ric Flair. Highlight between the two episodes is definitely the battle for the best hair: Andre's Cocker Spaniel look from the first episode and Bobo Brazil's classic Brylcreemed tight waves.

2 minutes ago, Serious Darius Bagfelt said:

Between Rocca, Patterson and Sammartino they loved having guys with thick accents doing the colour on their shows

It makes sense, seems like every second wrestler that shows up is Italian. They definitely knew their audience.

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I hope some indie commentators watching the WWE Network watch the January 10th 1976 show and try use Antonio Rocca's line in the beginning that is something like "you gave me a bunch of beautiful flowers with this.  I might take my shoes off and enjoy this"   :lol:

It is strange in 2018 watching Ernie Ladd in 1976 call Bobo Brazil an Uncle Tom but that is what heel that don't give a fuck do  

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On 3/5/2018 at 11:17 PM, Serious Darius Bagfelt said:

Weird seeing Blassie take bumps but felt like yelling at the TV watching the refs ignore the managers basically walk into the ring and interfere in the match

The refereeing is so bad. So many times they just watch as Albano or whoever just lays the boots to an opponent on the outside. Letting tag teams double team at will.... Some weird decisions too.

The WWWF aure loved handicap matches. Every second show has one. Even with guys who you wouldn't think would be getting that gimmick. Sure Spiros Arion is "The Iron Greek", but he's not imposing enough to be taking out two like size opponents.

This is some of the worst wrestling I've ever seen, but they better add more because it is so fun.

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2 hours ago, hammerva said:

They got Jim Cornette for one of those Photo Shoot shows that is premiering tonight.  So they are still getting some more use of him.  

 

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I'm glad you linked that, I forgot that was a show.  Really fun 20 minutes.  Crazy to think Cornette's biggest moment ever probably was fighting in the WMX7 Battle Royale.  

I loved how they asked for his thoughts on Vince Russo and the response was "Yeah....no..."

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Other All Star thoughts:

* Young Boy Larry Zbyszko is real bad on the mic. He would obviously turn into a pretty decent promo guy, but at this point he talks like Robert De Niro trying to pick up Cybill Shepherd in Taxi Driver.

* Even with just sporadic episodes over 4 years, it's easy to see just how strongly they stuck to a pattern with the tag team titles for several years.

Randomly paired babyfaces hold the belts > Albano introduces monsters (Executioners/Yukon Lumberjacks/Whomever) > Monsters hold belts for a couple months > Lose to different randomly paired babyface team > Monsters disappear > Repeat

Blassie sneaks a win in there with Fuji/Tanaka, but otherwise that's the pattern until the 80s when the Samoans and Fuji/Saito get a few reigns each.

* Do I have to turn in my wrestling fandom card if I admit that I find Blassie and Albano to be kind of terrible? Maybe I'm spoiled comparing them to Heenan/Cornette/Dangerously, but all their promos are just random asides about nothing. Anyone who insults the Grand Wizard gets a punch in the face though. Such a great character.

* Though there is one funny Blassie promo that has him and Fuji admitting that they've been giving Tanaka ginseng with "something extra" to make him strong, but that Tanaka thinks its just regular ginseng. The implication being that Tanaka doesn't understand English and has no idea what they're talking about. That would be great if Tanaka didn't start speaking perfect English later in the same damn promo.

* Stan Stasiak is the coolest, most intimidating wrestler whose body looks like a melting candle. Watching the progression of his handlebar moustache has been an absolute joy.

* The crowd is pretty great. Any wrestler who wears jumpsuits to the ring (Ken Patera, Larry Sharpe) get catcalled when they try to peel them off.

* Butcher Vachon is too nice looking to be nicknamed Butcher. He looks like a jovial uncle.

* SD Jones and Jose Estrada are the JTGs of their day. I'm also watching 89 WWF and those fuckers are still around.

* And just to finish with The Golden Tara, the dude's finisher is a stomach claw....from the second rope. You're digging into some tummies, let's not make it convoluted.

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On 3/13/2018 at 2:35 AM, elizium said:

Other All Star thoughts:

* Do I have to turn in my wrestling fandom card if I admit that I find Blassie and Albano to be kind of terrible? Maybe I'm spoiled comparing them to Heenan/Cornette/Dangerously, but all their promos are just random asides about nothing. Anyone who insults the Grand Wizard gets a punch in the face though. Such a great character.

I've been pretty unimpressed with Blassie too.  There's an episode where Bruno is interviewing him and Blassie is just rambling on and on, and then he starts calling Bruno "McMahon."  And Bruno just stops the interview dead and ridicules him for making such a dumb mistake and Blassie can't think of anything on his feet at all.  Then to make matters worse, he calls Bruno "McMahon" AGAIN in the same interview.

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