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Pete

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The full commercial tape of a crowning Nagasaki achievement, with ads for more indy sleaze, a prelim tag match with Kendo adding carny toeholds to his veteran brawler arsenal as he stretches Gannosuke, and training footage prior to the main event. A tape trading classic, with Nagasaki delivering potatoes to go with all the fruit stand body slams, and featuring sound fx, slow mo recaps with Clapton-lite guitar soundtrack, and Yamakawa getting stitches!

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The Soul Patrol were my pro wrestling heroes when I was a kid.  It kinda broke my heart to learn later on that Johnson and Atlas could not stand each other, but Atlas had a drug problem he refused to deal with and his unreliability killed the chemistry..

At the height of their run, it was cool to see guys in the ring that looked like me, handled business, and were the biggest baby faces in the fed.

My favorite Soul Patrrol match would naturally feature the Rock's dad vs. the Rock's uncles.

RIP, "Soul Man" Rocky Johnson.

 

Edited by J.T.
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Darkly amused at the WWE obit for him. Former America's champion, held dozens of titles everywhere he worked and broke the color barrier in a handful of states by doing so, one of the biggest singles stars in the 1970s, but he FOUND HIS HIGHEST LEVELS OF SUCCESS! when he won the tag straps with Tony Atlas, a dude he legit hated. Even by their wonky history kayfabe, that takes the cake.

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8 minutes ago, Pete said:

Darkly amused at the WWE obit for him. Former America's champion, held dozens of titles everywhere he worked and broke the color barrier in a handful of states by doing so, one of the biggest singles stars in the 1970s, but he FOUND HIS HIGHEST LEVELS OF SUCCESS! when he won the tag straps with Tony Atlas, a dude he legit hated. Even by their wonky history kayfabe, that takes the cake.

It's all that 95% of their fanbase has ever known about him. That and Rock's dad. 

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1 hour ago, Pete said:

Darkly amused at the WWE obit for him. Former America's champion, held dozens of titles everywhere he worked and broke the color barrier in a handful of states by doing so, one of the biggest singles stars in the 1970s, but he FOUND HIS HIGHEST LEVELS OF SUCCESS! when he won the tag straps with Tony Atlas, a dude he legit hated. Even by their wonky history kayfabe, that takes the cake.

Well, Atlas had a growing drug problem that he refused to deal with and it made him very unreliable.  In the usual he said manner, Atlas blamed Rocky for not sticking up for him or defending him during racially charged incidents in the locker room.  Atlas has always maintained that it was a toxic environment that caused him to quit and not that the was shitcanned for no-showing due to his drug problem.  The truth is somewhere in the middle.

From what I've heard, the years have healed some of the wounds and Tony has been very respectful of Johnson's legacy in recent interviews.

 

Edited by J.T.
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41 minutes ago, Matt D said:

It's all that 95% of their fanbase has ever known about him. That and Rock's dad. 

But they've been better than that recently. To the point of name-checking indy groups and dialing way back on their usual carny "history is written by the victors" BS.

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4 minutes ago, Pete said:

But they've been better than that recently. To the point of name-checking indy groups and dialing way back on their usual carny "history is written by the victors" BS.

I think they're still not nearly as good when you go back into the 70s-80s. Buddy Rose's induction video mentioned briefly that he was a regional star but was mostly about the blow away diet. 

Just from watching him in Portland and Houston, it's obvious that Johnson was more special than he gets credit for and I wish someone was doing the legwork at just how big a draw he was. 

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By the way, if you see Johnsons recent book, grab it. I dont think its come out yet, but either scott teal and/or brian last said that the book has been pulled from the shelves and could become "gary hart book" rare.

Theres a bunch of johnson footage from various places online, including a 1970 match from LA with japanese commentary. 

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Brian Last's 605 Podcast did a observer HOF special a few weeks ago. Ironically I just finished the 2nd part of the episode Sunday and He brought up Rocky Johnsons career and one of the guests brought up his book, and its seems like a good book from this bit of what he brought up. He seems to have an interesting lineage himself as well.

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On 1/16/2020 at 10:52 AM, Matt D said:

I think they're still not nearly as good when you go back into the 70s-80s. Buddy Rose's induction video mentioned briefly that he was a regional star but was mostly about the blow away diet. 

Just from watching him in Portland and Houston, it's obvious that Johnson was more special than he gets credit for and I wish someone was doing the legwork at just how big a draw he was. 

Meltzer talked about him quite a bit on Wednesday night's show.  He focused on his pre-WWF stuff quite a bit and helped paint a picture as to how much of a draw he was.  I'm in the newsletter he'll have more details on that.

I only saw his WWF work when looking things up but am curious to check out his stuff before then.  He seemed like a guy that went through a lot of shit but seemed like he was doing relatively fine the past decade or two.  It bums me out that he put off seeing the doctor and that's part of what led to him passing away.  It reminds me of my father in law who just wouldn't go to a doctor and by the time he had to it was too late.  Much like him it makes me wonder how Rocky would fare if he did go when he was first having issues.  Either way it sucks that he passed.  RIP, Rocky.

Edited by NikoBaltimore
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Hercules Ayala has passed away.  Statement from Cauliflower Alley

We heard this morning that Ruben Cruz, better known to wrestling as Hercules Ayala, passed away last night due to heart issues at the age of 69. Born in Puerto Rico, Cruz wrestled all over the world, winning dozens of titles in his career. We offer our condolences at this time

Edited by paul sosnowski
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