WWE NETWORK HIDDEN GEMS

[Matt D]

Fine, no one engage me on Studd.

Today, we get a (new) two hour Omni show from December 1983 with a Rich vs Flair title match on top. Hell of a thing.

Here's just a bit of Georgia TV leading up to it (there might be more out there, but it's a bit scattered)

 

 

Edited May 23, 2019 by Matt D

[Matt D]

Tomorrow:

12/14/1954 – The Legend of The Sheik [Duration: 11:09] On his path to achieving legendary status as one of the pioneers of hardcore wrestling, The Sheik faced Juan Humberto at The Sportatorium.
02/22/1955 – The Bull is Loose [Duration: 21:30] Danny Savich looks to tame one of the sport’s founding fathers of the hardcore style when he faces Wild Bull Curry from Dallas.
03/19/1957 – Becoming a Mad Dog [Duration: 14:34] Before becoming known worldwide as the Mad Dog, ‘Mad’ Maurice Vachon took on The Amazing Zuma in this rarely seen contest from Texas.

As a reminder, the Curry vs Valentine match is amazing. And that's 15 years later.

 

[Matt D]

Holy fuck. They just dropped four hours of the 86 Crockett Cup. We had ~1:45 on a VHS previously with everything clipped. This is one of the biggest things they could drop that we knew they had.

[NikoBaltimore]

4 minutes ago, Matt D said:

Holy fuck. They just dropped four hours of the 86 Crockett Cup. We had ~1:45 on a VHS previously with everything clipped. This is one of the biggest things they could drop that we knew they had.

Oh, shit.  I'll have to check that out.  Thanks for the heads up.

[Raziel]

It opens with the Fabs vs. Fantastics, so FUCK YEAH!

 

[The Man Known as Dan]

Buzz Sawyer with some of the craziest fucking bumps you will ever see in match 2, my christ. 

[odessasteps]

4 hours ago, Matt D said:

Holy fuck. They just dropped four hours of the 86 Crockett Cup. We had ~1:45 on a VHS previously with everything clipped. This is one of the biggest things they could drop that we knew they had.

This remarkably goes against what I had recently asked both Cornette and Dillon about, both of who, doubted the footage existed in whole. 

[hammerva]

Well I don't believe it is "in whole" as I think I heard the first 4 or 5 first round matches are missing.  More like 80% whole which is still probably 4 times more than we thought was out there.

 

 

[Matt D]

Really, of those, we lose only two meaningful matches: Taylor/Williams vs Dundee/Landell and Guerreros/Sheepherders, which are still big losses but considering how much we got...

Edited June 20, 2019 by Matt D

[The Man Known as Dan]

I’ve watched most of the show, and it’s enough to convince me that A: The Fantastics we’re easily the nights MVPs and B; This is the best night of Bobby Fulton’s career.

[DreamBroken]

Great, I know what I'm watching tonight. Always loved the Crockett Cup, '87 being one of my all time favorite VHS's to watch over and over back in the day. Hope they eventually upload all 3.

[clintthecrippler]

I am okay with no commentary on raw footage uploads, but part of me was a bit wistful that we didnt get an opportunity to hear what likely would have been a very vocal orgasm from David Crockett as Dr. Death Steve Williams and Nikita Koloff stared down for the first time, and once more so on that incredible dropkick Dr. Death threw.

And 100 percent agreed on the Fantastics' performance. Much had been made of that Sheepherders match thanks to Meltzer's live review but I enjoyed the match against Tully and Arn just as much. Two very different but both equally excellent and compelling matches. 

Did Ron Garvin and Rick Steiner ever have any one-on-one matches in 87/88 JCP? Because the limited exchanges they had here consisting of hard chops and stuff strikes were absolutely magnificent. 

Lots of fun moments throughout and lived up to what I think we were hoping an entire show upload would be, missing first round matches aside, even if the finals were a bit heatless due to being face vs face and the crowd being tired by that point. 

 

[clintthecrippler]

P.S. Someone pointed out that pro-edit clips of the missing first-round matches did show up on the JCP commercial tape, so I'm guessing that there either has to be an issue with the master tape for the afternoon session, or the ringside camera feed of the matches we do have is all they have found in the library.

 

[Matt D]

22 minutes ago, clintthecrippler said:

 

And 100 percent agreed on the Fantastics' performance. Much had been made of that Sheepherders match thanks to Meltzer's live review but I enjoyed the match against Tully and Arn just as much. Two very different but both equally excellent and compelling matches. . 

 

It's not like Fantastics vs Fabs wasn't awesome too. (I'm only up to the start of their Arn/Tully match myself.)

[Niners Fan in CT]

So someone is clearly reading this board right?   We were JUST talking about the Crockett Cups in here or maybe the general thread a few weeks back.   This is awesome.  

[The Man Known as Dan]

Honestly thinking about it, the Fantastics performance in this tournament kinda makes it clear as day to me they are probably the 2nd best babyface tag team ever. Hell, if you ever wanted to make the argument they were better then the R&R’s your Exhibit A should just be labeled “Crockett Cup 86”

3 really great matches worked in 3 different ways. Great shit.

[LoneWolf&Subs]

Watched some of that Stampede Wrestling pilot. The highlight so far is “Badlands” Bill Rodgers doing a steroids injection to his ass hand gesture to mock Achim Albrecht AKA Brakkus. 

I’m surprised a gif of that hasn’t popped up yet.

Edited June 21, 2019 by LoneWolf&Subs

[Johnny Sorrow]

That Williams/ Taylor vs. The Koloffs match was fucking awesome. I had the VHS of this when I was 16,  and only watched it all the way through once. The other times were probably me fast forwarding to the Fantastics/ Sheepherders match a lot to show it to my friends. 

And while I'm sure the clipped version of that Koloffs match was fun, this was fucking amazing. Ivan Koloff is a heel Ricky Morton here. He was amazing.

Edited June 22, 2019 by Johnny Sorrow

[Hamhock]

I loved all of the odd matchups that occurred (Magnum TA wrestling Misawa! Ronnie Garvin gently exchanging with Giant Baba!), and greatly enjoyed Dusty waffling the referee with his boot, and the ref’s slow unconscious fall backwards.

[LoneWolf&Subs]

I just got a huge laugh when right before the Horsemen Vs. The Fantastics, Bruce Pritchard fucks up by not mentioning Tully’s National Championship when introducing him. A visible upset Tully yells, “JJ tell him to do his fucking job!”.

[Johnny Sorrow]

38 minutes ago, LoneWolf&Subs said:

I just got a huge laugh when right before the Horsemen Vs. The Fantastics, Bruce Pritchard fucks up by not mentioning Tully’s National Championship when introducing him. A visible upset Tully yells, “JJ tell him to do his fucking job!”.

I'm thinking the reason the CC turned up was them looking for old Prichard stuff and they stumbled upon it.

[KidNatural]

I had a thought about that it would be a neat kind of podcast trilogy if Ross, Schiavone, and Prichard all covered it on their pods. I know most people here aren't fans of Conrad, but it would be fascinating listening.

[odessasteps]

Cornette talked about it on his mailbag show on Monday. 

 

[Pete]

The new clip of motherfucking 1971 AMARILLO with Dory Funk Sr working out Terry and Dory Jr is why I just can't quit the Network no matter how hard I try, dammit. Sr comes off as such a cool cat in the clip... it really makes you wish he'd survived to lead the promotion through the 70s and into the cable years. Also amused to see Steve Stack as the commentator... I've always dug him.

[clintthecrippler]

Two complete shows from the 1986 Great American Bash tour coming tomorrow!

Two NWA World Title matches with Ric Flair in a cage, the Baby Doll/Jim Cornette feud also playing out inside the cage, the Road Warriors vs The Koloffs in a Russian Chain Match, two Wahoo vs Jimmy Garvin Indian Strap matches, two Ron Garvin vs Tully Blanchard stipulation matches, but most importantly...

BOTH matches from the Jimmy Valiant vs Paul Jones' Army hair vs hair series!