WRESTLING ON THE INTERNET NOT FROM THE NOW

[Elsalvajeloco]

On 5/22/2025 at 11:07 AM, Cobra Commander said:

20 minutes of Earthquake dark matches: https://youtu.be/00KQGR2NuDg?si=Vsk_wX8rm2ZrgAf-

John Tenta with a killer belly to belly.

interesting managerial pairing/music for him in the second match as he looks like he could be part of a flannel tag team/trio with Ottman and Mike Shaw

and his 2001 dark match

John Tenta was only like 37 or 38 in 2001, which would place him in the middle of the pack in terms of age on any today's non NXT wrestling rosters. That means he was in still in his late 20s/early 30s when he left WWF the first time.

[The Green Meanie]

On 5/22/2025 at 11:07 AM, Cobra Commander said:

20 minutes of Earthquake dark matches: https://youtu.be/00KQGR2NuDg?si=Vsk_wX8rm2ZrgAf-

Earthquake doing a lumberjack gimmick paired with Slick of all people was an odd pairing to say the least. I get it that they were just trying to flesh out him and his persona, but that wouldn't have worked in the long run.

[Cobra Commander]

Earthquake and Jos LeDuc as lumberjacks was Plan F for the Quaker (yeah I know LeDuc's brief WWF run did not line up with Quake being there)

also, I can see how trying to get into the WWF at the end of 2001 was baaaad timing since there were a lot of people trying to get in there

guessing that Quake's only opening to go into ECW involved being willing to job to Spike Dudley

[Mister TV]

1 hour ago, The Green Meanie said:

Earthquake doing a lumberjack gimmick paired with Slick of all people was an odd pairing to say the least. I get it that they were just trying to flesh out him and his persona, but that wouldn't have worked in the long run.

Slick had Akeem and still heel Big Boss Man under his tutelage in the fall of 1989, so Earthquake would have fit into that stable. I guess they moved Quake over to Jimmy Hart since it was The Mouth of the South's turn as the heel manager opposing Hogan.

[Cobra Commander]

also Hart was with Bravo and Quake came in to team with Bravo against the Warrior

you also had Martel with Slick for a time in 1989

[Cobra Commander]

Vader vs Cactus from Worldwide in 1994 is wild because of the contrast between the action and the setting, like you're in a theme park and you end up being sent in to see a dude get powerbombed on the floor in a Texas Death Match

wilder than all the awesome WCW Lucha that vacationeers got to see in 5 minute increments in 1997

[RazorbladeKiss87]

I just watched the episode of Primtime with the Jumping Bomb Angels vs the Glamour Girls (fun match) with Lanny Poffo on commentary.  Outside of not being able to keep the JBA's straight, he's pretty good at it. Was he in the booth very often?

[The Green Meanie]

Rarer then Howard Finkel and Mike McGurk.

[RazorbladeKiss87]

Well, that's a bummer. One thing I'm enjoying about the 80s WWF tv I've been watching is the sometimes random pairing of commentators.  

[The Green Meanie]

For every gem like Howard Finkel we'd also have to suffer through garbage of a Ron Trongard.

[Cobra Commander]

one thing I've spotted in various 1992 WWF stuff I've seen lately is JJ Dillon getting to be part of the group of suits coming out at various times, which makes me wonder how many spots did they give to people way worse than JJ because JJ's job was so big that they couldn't give him an on-screen job too

like JJ probably would have been a way better 1991 manager for Mr. Perfect than John Tolos

or all the awful C-Show hosts they used in the mid-90s

[Curt McGirt]

6 hours ago, Cobra Commander said:

the Quaker

I didn't read it all so for a half second I thought you were saying that Vince wanted Jos to dress up as a quaker for another profession/identity gimmick, but I knew he was gonna be "the Maniac". Whatever that was supposed to be. So now I'm imagining Jos LeDuc with a buckle hat and a blunderbuss haha

Big John being that young in 2001 amazes me.

[odessasteps]

If JJ was head of talent relations, he may have been too busy in Stamford to always do TV. He didnt need to be on camera like JR when he did both jobs. 

[Doragon]

WCW Fall Brawl 1997

The Giant vs. Scott Norton

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wA0UEyStypg

[Cobra Commander]

1 hour ago, Curt McGirt said:

I didn't read it all so for a half second I thought you were saying that Vince wanted Jos to dress up as a quaker for another profession/identity gimmick, but I knew he was gonna be "the Maniac". Whatever that was supposed to be. So now I'm imagining Jos LeDuc with a buckle hat and a blunderbuss haha

Big John being that young in 2001 amazes me.

the 1988 Jos gimmick in the WWF was the Headbanger

a pacifist gimmick would have been something for the 1980s WWF

then again I just suggested an AEW gimmick of a wrestler who wins in upsets but loses to lesser opponents, (Mister "Plays up/down to the competition"?)

[Curt McGirt]

I swore in Bret's book he said he was the Maniac. That was where he told the story about how the boys dared Jos to take a certain amount of pills, he passed out in the airport lounge or something and Vince saw him and fired him on the spot. 

[RazorbladeKiss87]

12 hours ago, The Green Meanie said:

For every gem like Howard Finkel we'd also have to suffer through garbage of a Ron Trongard.

The worst I've heard so far is the Duke of Dorchester on a Houston show. 

[The Green Meanie]

I'd pick even him above the combo of Trongard and Billy Graham.

[Elsalvajeloco]

10 hours ago, RazorbladeKiss87 said:

The worst I've heard so far is the Duke of Dorchester on a Houston show. 

Yeah, McGuirk and Prichard make sense on commentary even though Bruce is absolutely horrendous (he even admitted as such). They're both from that part of the country with Bruce actually being from Houston and having worked for Boesch. The fact that Doherty did commentary and also got to have a brief squash match on the very first SNME show makes me believe Pete Doherty must have had the first intel on Vince McMahon. There is no other explanation.

[Cobra Commander]

Forgotten giants of the ring: From the WWE Vault: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KW9GTbRK2oQ

one of the top comments: "how dare you insinuate that i forgot about Kurrgan"

[RazorbladeKiss87]

As much as I love the uploads, I think the Vault intern is really stretching the idea of a "gem."

[Cobra Commander]

It's more vault than hidden gems, there's a finite number of actual hidden gems.. like most of the wrestling they have that isn't on YouTube probably isn't all that interesting either

then you have the WCW channel where they will be able to upload some full WCW shows from 1995 to 2000 because of how WCW would randomly not book Benoit since the WCW YouTube channel is avoiding Benoit stuff (which... probably isn't all that bad an idea)

[RazorbladeKiss87]

2 hours ago, Cobra Commander said:

It's more vault than hidden gems, there's a finite number of actual hidden gems.. like most of the wrestling they have that isn't on YouTube probably isn't all that interesting either

then you have the WCW channel where they will be able to upload some full WCW shows from 1995 to 2000 because of how WCW would randomly not book Benoit since the WCW YouTube channel is avoiding Benoit stuff (which... probably isn't all that bad an idea)

I won't lie. I saw that video in my youtube feed and your post and both times thought it said "Forgotten GEMS of the ring" hence my post .

[Cobra Commander]

WWE Vault gonna start fishing for YouTube views with videos about which WWE stars are like the characters from Jem and the Holograms and other old cartoons

not to be confused with how Tom Green's YouTube is getting views off of videos about jobbers

[The Green Meanie]

5 minutes ago, Cobra Commander said:

not to be confused with how Tom Green's YouTube is getting views off of videos about jobbers

Not that Tom Green