The Viceland Wrestling Documentaries

[SirSmUgly]

This episode just makes me wish we could channel Jim Barnett's spirit somehow and get him to do a whole special. The stories that Barnett could tell, whew.

[Cobra Commander]

18 minutes ago, hammerva said:

what would have happened if Crockett and I guess Turner just let WWF in Georgia die a horrible death and didn't give Vince a million dollars to get the time slot back

Would Watts have had the money to get that time slot? He was on WTBS during this time and was drawing ratings.

Also, you gotta remember that this was a valuable-ish timeslot so there is a real reason to not want an albatross there.

I’m guessing the number of Saturday Night episodes abbreviated by Atlanta Braves games increased once the Braves stopped playing in the NL West and had more 7pm Eastern starts. But until then I’d think that if no wrestling show could claim that spot from Vince, TBS would have rather aired live sports or movies on that spot

[odessasteps]

10 minutes ago, SirSmUgly said:

This episode just makes me wish we could channel Jim Barnett's spirit somehow and get him to do a whole special. The stories that Barnett could tell, whew.

I thought I saw someone say on Twitter there was going to be a future episode of Barnett. Just an hour of people doing their impressions.

[Cobra Commander]

Looking at Bryant Anderson’s CageMatch and found a Bryant Anderson/Tully Blanchard tag team for a NWA Dallas taping which is a team that probably doesn’t respect 1987 JCP storylines

But yeah, I can see reasons why Bryant might have decided quickly that he didn’t really have a future in the WWF/WCW and that he should bow out of Smoky in 3 months.

Now the alternate universe where Bryant Anderson goes to 1995 ECW and we get Ole on the mic would have been weird. But I guess if traveling to Knoxville was too much, Bryant wasn’t gonna be going to Philly.

[odessasteps]

We could also have had Bryant team with Gene’s son Brad (aka Zan Panzer) as the new Minnesota Wrecking Crew (not to be confused with the Minnesota Wrecking Crew 2). 

[Cobra Commander]

In the spirit of tag team names that could get a company sued by a rock band.. the Atlanta Wrecking Section

[Curt McGirt]

Bob looked goddamn enormous in the ring there, way bigger than in the old footage from the Florida show, but then he was younger in that. 

The biggest "what if" is probably what if Ole never started a stink in the first place because he was the root of all this shit hitting the fan. Barnett keeps Georgia, Vince never gets a shot. No test run on a takeover. Does he try somebody else or is he locked out? Does the USA deal and the celebrity pushing still put New York over the top? Barnett is still in power with all those contacts to work against him too -- he got what, 80% of the vote to push out Ole behind his back from those alone? All kinds of scenarios there.

[SirSmUgly]

Roop is extremely wide. He's like a human version of Strong Mad.

https://pm-universe.fandom.com/wiki/Strong_Mad

 

[Cobra Commander]

gonna summon the person who named wrestlers in the 1990s WWF to refer to an extremely wide wrestler as The Steamroller. Maybe do the log roller. After seeing someone do a form of the Logroller in Women of Wrestling last night, it makes me realize that could be a good dick heel move to pull out on smaller opponents

You think Roop found it funny that people were head-faked into thinking Ole was in the episode by how Bob looks?

Another thing with Bryant and Ole, for as much of a crusty bastard Ole seemed like, Bryant really does love the guy and see the best in him

And Louise.. I'm guessing every business south of Cincinnati has had an old southern woman like Louise working as a secretary/office person

Also, Ted Turner absolutely wouldn't have done interviews for this episode if he could because he absolutely doesn't care enough about Vince to act like Vince is a rival, but this whole thing makes me remember how much it sucks that Ted has Lewy Body Dementia because Ted's an amazingly creative-ish business mind and someone who shaped a lot of the current world. Not saying he was 100% good in how his channels shaped things but he made an impact

Edited May 8 by Cobra Commander

[assfax]

 

[zendragon]

Haven't watched the episode yet but just finished Ole's book and he goes into great detail about Black Saturday and Jim Barrnett 

[Cobra Commander]

guessing they couldn't just use AI to recreate Ole's voice and have AI Ole read from his book

[SirSmUgly]

23 minutes ago, Cobra Commander said:

guessing they couldn't just use AI to recreate Ole's voice and have AI Ole read from his book

Ole's son sounded just like him. Have him read it.

[Curt McGirt]

What was up with the secretary's mask? Is she just one of those chin-wearers who never figured out your nose needs covering or did she have some nasty surgery she didn't want on the air?

[Cobra Commander]

27 minutes ago, Curt McGirt said:

What was up with the secretary's mask? Is she just one of those chin-wearers who never figured out your nose needs covering or did she have some nasty surgery she didn't want on the air?

i'm guessing a combination of her being really old and maybe they filmed her stuff a few years ago

[RazorbladeKiss87]

2 hours ago, Curt McGirt said:

What was up with the secretary's mask? Is she just one of those chin-wearers who never figured out your nose needs covering or did she have some nasty surgery she didn't want on the air?

That was my first thought and it bugged me every time she was on screen. I see so many people wearing masks on their chins and mouth on the bus every day.

[odessasteps]

The irony of having Bob Roop on an episode about stealing a territory. 

[Curt McGirt]

[Cobra Commander]

If you were curious, The last episode of World Championship Wrestling pre-Black Saturday:

For all the “GCW didn’t have as much talent in 1984” talk, they had a few guys that would have blown down the doors in the 1984 WWF.

It’s possible the biggest failure by the WWF wasn’t in the TV ratings of their TBS show but in their inability to get more GCW guys to jump to the WWF in 1984.

[Mister TV]

21 hours ago, hammerva said:

I guess we got another great What If on this show because what would have happened if Crockett and I guess Turner just let WWF in Georgia die a horrible death and didn't give Vince a million dollars to get the time slot back.   I guess it really depends on how much of that money went to Wrestlemania 1.  Plus to be honest I am sure Turner would have given Vince a million dollars a month into the disaster much less a year.

Turner was kind of doing that since he couldn't boot the WWF until the original contract GCW had with WTBS expired, but it didn't really matter to Vince since re-running tapes of matches from other arenas and the occasional in studio match were cheap, plus he was keeping the competition off the #1 cable channel during a prime time slot. Crockett really wasn't in any position to influence Turner to "wait things out" he didn't get pulled into it until late in the game when Jim Barnett looking to sell the time slot, if he didn't buy it someone else would have.

 

[Curt McGirt]

If Vince had taken the time to get GCW guys to jump and THEN put out a broadcast with them on it, well shit. 

[Cobra Commander]

38 minutes ago, Curt McGirt said:

If Vince had taken the time to get GCW guys to jump and THEN put out a broadcast with them on it, well shit. 

Or if they had closed the deal while the Road Warriors were solidly in the GCW fold and they got them to jump.

Knowing what we know now, it’s interesting that they switched the National and Tag Team titles days before Black Saturday (Garvin/Oates over the Road Warriors and Spoiler over Brad Armstrong). Of course Spoiler was one of the guys to actually jump.

[Curt McGirt]

The old guys knew they should probably cash out while they could. Smart.

[Cobra Commander]

Looking at CageMatch, I must clarify that Wrestling II wasn’t in GCW when Black Saturday happened.

He last worked Mid-South in July, was in Southeastern in August/September, and was in the WWF by October 1984 and stuck around there until December 1985.

CageMatch has Spoiler match results in Georgia post-Black Saturday which makes me think CM assigned matches with a fake Spoiler to Jardine. Spoiler was in the WWF from August 1984 to December 1985.

Jack and Jerry didn’t work between Mid-Atlantic in May and WWF in September. Which would make sense with the ongoing legal actions.

[Technico Support]

Just your weekly reminder of what a raging narcissist Vince is.  Promise Turner first run, good wrestling and then give him stuff you've already aired or straight up house show garbage.  And on top of that, go into this with the nerve of thinking "they won't want their wrestling anymore once they see ours!"  Like TBS fans are going to be just over the moon watching Jose Luis Rivera draw vs Rene Goulet.