Jump to content
DVDVR Message Board

WWE NETWORK GENERAL DISCUSSION THREAD


RIPPA

Recommended Posts

Just now, The Green Meanie said:

Absolutely loved the special. I was really happy to see Magee at the end. Dude seems like a genuinely nice guy, and doesn't appear to hold any grudges on what could have been.

A little confused at X-Pac's inclusion on this special, though. His talking as if he was in the company during the timeline - was that intentional? I thought he didn't come in till around 1993.

 

He would have been like 14 at the time of the match I think?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

X-Pac was on there because he was at the Florida taping where McGee vs DiBiase took place, and he remembered it.

Good match, and Bret's story of "tell me three things you do well, and we will work those in" clearly happened. Hip toss, dropkick and sunset flip would be my guess for the three things he told him he could do. Hip tosses looked great, got good height on the dropkick, and the sunset flips were good too. He was a naturally athletic guy, who apparently could not pick up the psychology of wrestling to make it big. Seems like a nice guy, and glad that he got a payday out of this.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

My thoughts on the match...

This match was very modern. That’s the best way to tell it. It didn’t feel like a 1980s match at all.

However, the biggest thing that stands to mind is that there’s no way it would have worked in North America. One thing to keep in mind about the match: I don’t think Magee even throws a punch in the match. This would be a problem, because punches and kicks are so important in North American (and Japanese) wrestling, again especially at this time. It does seem like, if Magee went to Mexico (where's less punches/kicks) he could have been HUGE.

In addition, there was still the proof that Magee had flaws in his system in the match. He did a lot of dropkicks, and his dropkick was…not very good. It wasn’t Erik Watts-bad, but it wasn’t well-done. Most of the big stuff was armdrags, sunset flips, and very flippy floppy moves (again, it felt very "modern" in that aspect.)

Ultimately, I think that this proves that Tom Magee could have been a star, but the fact he wasn’t was the big tragedy of the WWE’s national rise. If WWE didn’t cannibalize the territories, he would have probably been able to learn how to throw better punches and kicks, been able to learn how to sell better- and he would have been a VERY BIG DEAL

Magee just happened at the worst possible time. If he came up in the 1970s, he’d have his weaknesses eliminated by the territories. If he came up in the 2000s, he’d have went to developmental and probably could have been awe-inspiring. But in 1986…he just didn’t have anywhere to truly LEARN THE CRAFT.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest Edwin

I'm with @SorceressKnight's on this; the match was very modern and Magee's dropkicks did look pretty bad even though he did get some height on them. The match was alright, but there was still the novelty of actually getting a chance to actually see it. The special they did was quite neat with DBS Jr. dressed as Teddy Hart being the highlight of it.

Also, Magee looks like he would have fit into the 2010 Spain World Cup squad as he looks a lot like Fernando Torres with Carles Puyol's hair.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I found a match between Magee and Arn that was a similar level of carryjob on YouTube. As far as I can tell, he was very carryable but his moveset is almost non-existant. And yeah, he has no concept of psychology.

If he was around today, they’d stick him in NXT for a few years, he’d get good working with top level workers every day and then they’ll randomly have him flip off a ladder onto a crowd of people on RAW to build to MitB and he’ll be a star. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Overly Critical Man said:

I found a match between Magee and Arn that was a similar level of carryjob on YouTube. As far as I can tell, he was very carryable but his moveset is almost non-existant. And yeah, he has no concept of psychology.

If he was around today, they’d stick him in NXT for a few years, he’d get good working with top level workers every day and then they’ll randomly have him flip off a ladder onto a crowd of people on RAW to build to MitB and he’ll be a star. 

Well, from all signs of the big ones, it was Bret -> DiBiase -> Arn.

This makes some sense, since Bret/DiBiase were technical wrestlers (can play to Magee's strengths), and Arn was a bit more of a brawler (which played into Magee's biggest weaknesses: He couldn't sell well and his strikes were atrocious.) 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The "next Holy Grail" discussion was brought up on WReddit and several suggested Hogan appearing on the Snake Pit and the crowd cheering when Jake attacked, and then the match the two had to follow up on that. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, MonteCarl said:

The "next Holy Grail" discussion was brought up on WReddit and several suggested Hogan appearing on the Snake Pit and the crowd cheering when Jake attacked, and then the match the two had to follow up on that. 

The finish of one of their house show matches (promoting the rematch) is on YouTube.  I have always wondered if that footage got lost too because that very angle was brought up on Jake's DVD and there was no footage of any kind to back it up.  It was just Jake talking about it.

As far as WWE matches go, Sammartino-Morales is the biggest one I'd like to think might be out there (even though I've always heard the match wasn't all that great.)  Granted it would have to be fan shot, but that's how he got Bruno/Koloff.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, MonteCarl said:

The "next Holy Grail" discussion was brought up on WReddit and several suggested Hogan appearing on the Snake Pit and the crowd cheering when Jake attacked, and then the match the two had to follow up on that. 

It always seems weird just being local to the area about this being a potential holy grail, since all signs about the Hogan Snake Pit moment as a holy grail continue to say "that Snake Pit segment absolutely made air in the Providence, RI market [because it happened there, and the subsequent rematch happened there to blow it off locally.]"

Considering that it makes perfect sense [local previews were a big part of syndicated  TV at the time and hyping up the next show that'd be there, so they would bring that to those syndicated promos]", it seems like a Waterworld "dry land is not a myth, I've seen it"- it makes sense it's out there, and Providence is such a sneaky GOOD wrestling city that there's bound to be someone who has tape of it if it was there. (Throw in how small New England is and how it is not hard to get Providence stations in Boston or vice-versa, and between two top-tier wrestling cities, SOMEONE has to have this in their collection.) 

Edited by SorceressKnight
Link to comment
Share on other sites

26 minutes ago, Brian Fowler said:

Can you imagine a black belt, powerlifting, gymnast who is 6'5", 275 lbs coming around today?

Honestly, it probably would have fixed most of the weaknesses.

Again, the big weakness with Magee was probably that he WAS a black belt- he was so shitty at punches because it just seemed like the guy was too afraid of hurting his opponent to really go all in on punches (and we've seen from so, so, so many great strikers that the secret to how amazing their punches or kicks are boils down to "...they're really punching you/kicking you as hard as they can".) 

Whether it's through the territories and all the badasses who came up from there, or the modern era with all the other martial arts trainees/people who do MMA, there would be a lot of people who would have told Magee "it's cool. You can really punch/kick me, I'm fine with that", and he'd be instantly a top star in the making.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

23 hours ago, odessasteps said:

With the Battle of Atlanta and the Bret/Magee match bei g unearthed, what are the remaining undiscovered rarities?

I know we have done this before, but I think a while ago. 

from my personal want list:

Roddy Piper playing the Mexican National Anthem/La Cucaracha on bagpipes for Chavo Guerrero (Los Angeles - footage likely doesn't exist and wouldn't be in WWE's library anyway)

Sabu beating Mike Rapada for the NWA World Title (Florida, 2000. no idea if this exists and again, not in WWE's library)

WCW's Pay-Per-Listen events. synching up any video footage available with the audio broadcasts would be crazy.

the WCW matches from Inoki's World Wrestling Peace Festival in '96. i don't think these have ever been unearthed.

eh, that's all i got off the top of my head.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
×
×
  • Create New...