The Viceland Wrestling Documentaries

[sydneybrown]

1 minute ago, Casey said:

Didn't that episode of 20/20 air in December 1984? Schultz was still wrestling house show matches for the WWF up until the end of February '85.

The 20/20 episode aired in Feb 1985.  BTW, the footage they showed of Schultz firing his gun and Vince losing his shit aired on TNT after David had already been fired.  It's his last WWF appearance.  He's even joking about the Stossel incident in the interview.  3/1/85 on the Network.  He pulls a gun on Vince during the interview.  Not kidding.

[Cobra Commander]

59 minutes ago, Casey said:

Didn't that episode of 20/20 air in December 1984? Schultz was still wrestling house show matches for the WWF up until the end of February '85.

EDIT: IMDB says it aired 12/28/84.

the timeline on HistoryOfWWE

Quote

WWF @ New York City, NY - Madison Square Garden - December 28, 1984 (26,092, including several thousand at Felt Forum; sell out for both the arena and Forum)
It was backstage during this event that ABC '20/20' reporter John Stossel was assaulted by David Schultz during an interview in which Stossel asked Schultz if wrestling was fake; as a result of the incident, Stossel filed suit against both the WWF and Schultz
Japanese TV - 1/4/85; Prime Time Wrestling - 2/19/85: World Martial Arts Champion Antonio Inoki pinned David Schultz at 5:16 with an enzuiguri (Schultz and Inoki's last MSG appearance)

Quote

WWF @ Los Angeles, CA - Sports Arena - February 11, 1985 (15,217)
David Schultz was fired after attacking Mr. T in the locker room and the audience during the show

Quote

2/21/85: ABC's "20/20" aired a segment on pro wrestling, during which footage was shown of David Schultz hitting reporter John Stossel backstage at Madison Square Garden.

Schultz was being subbed out on February cards after the 13th.

Quote

On topic, what happened to Dr D in Japan? The show mentions him slapping a Japanese reporter and Dr D just makes a dismissive face about his time in Japan, like things didn't work out or something, and then they drop the topic completely. 

Also, Cagematch doesn't have Schultz working in Japan until March 1985. So they fucked the timeline up on when he was in Japan post-Stossel too.

[Southside Jim]

I like how Meltzer was all dismissive of the Schultz and Abrams episodes, and then the Dr. D episode gets the second highest ratings.

 

Pretty sure the UWF episode will get another big rating.  Dr. D and Abrams may be "microscopic" in terms of importance on wrestling history, but they're entertaining stories, which the Dino Bravo and Brawl For All stories weren't.

[Jiji]

I am so hyped for the Abrams episode. I hope everybody in the world watches it and they make a made-for-tv movie about it.

[Cobra Commander]

255k does beat the non-Benoit viewer record by a little bit. The Benoit episodes got 320k.

The S2 episodes ranked by number of viewers: Schultz, New Jack (229), Brawl for All (226), Bravo (221), Snuka (209)

Season 1 got between 154k and 234k with the Von Erichs the top episode, followed by Gorgeous Gino (225), Brody (214), Moolah (200), Montreal (181), and Savage/Elizabeth (154). The two lowest rated episodes were also the first two episodes of S1.

So I'm guessing Road Warriors gets higher ratings than Abrams and the Owen one might be the top non-Benoit episode.

[Curt McGirt]

2 hours ago, sydneybrown said:

The 20/20 episode aired in Feb 1985.  BTW, the footage they showed of Schultz firing his gun and Vince losing his shit aired on TNT after David had already been fired.  It's his last WWF appearance.  He's even joking about the Stossel incident in the interview.  3/1/85 on the Network.  He pulls a gun on Vince during the interview.  Not kidding.

So if Vince really wanted to fuck over Dr. D he could have told the cops he really had done all that shit. Man.

...well, I guess it wouldn't have stood up in court, so nevermind

Edited April 30, 2020 by Curt McGirt

[sabremike]

1 hour ago, Southside Jim said:

I like how Meltzer was all dismissive of the Schultz and Abrams episodes, and then the Dr. D episode gets the second highest ratings.

 

Pretty sure the UWF episode will get another big rating.  Dr. D and Abrams may be "microscopic" in terms of importance on wrestling history, but they're entertaining stories, which the Dino Bravo and Brawl For All stories weren't.

His dismissiveness of both episodes was based on personal taste because one was on a subject that had been extensively covered and the other was on someone he considered an insignificant boil on the ass of pro wrestling. He has more of an interest in learning things than entertainment and these two leaned heavy in the entertainment direction. And honestly I myself said from the start the one I was most interested in was the Herb Abrams one because it's guaranteed to be hilarious (even moreso with Mick Foley involved).

[Evil Otto]

Since we're all talking about David Schultz:

-I always thought Schultz's second turnbuckle flying elbow drop was excellent.  Such sharp, pointed execution.  I swear I haven't seen other wrestlers copy the move, or do it quite the way he did.  Am I wrong?  

-Dr. D will always be one of the greatest "what if?" wrestlers in history to me.  His bloody matches with Hogan were wild battles of attrition, really setting up Hogan as a legit champion in his early days, even though as a teenager I still always wanted Hogan to lose.  I really wonder what would have happened to Schultz if this incident never occurred, maybe making his way into JCP , going back to AWA eventually, or Japan under far better circumstances.  I tend to agree with Cornette on this one, though;  likely Schultz would have gotten into some other altercation at some point which would eventually turn promoters away.  

What a presence, though.  The dude is/was legit scary.  The perfect "Southern guy who gives zero fucks" archetype.  

[Curt McGirt]

What are some good Dr. D matches? I checked the '80s AWA set and he doesn't exist on it. 

EDIT: Well, I did find this from the Portland set

 

Edited April 30, 2020 by Curt McGirt

[BurningBeard]

I’m disgusted there was an entire episode on the Stossel incident without an appearance or insight from Professor Steve Austin 

[clintthecrippler]

17 hours ago, Curt McGirt said:

My parents were plenty lenient but I managed to really get their goat (heh) with the first Deicide album. Had to lie through my teeth about that one

Sounds like the opposite reaction of my Mom. When I was a teenager I showed my Mom a picture of Glenn Benton with the inverted cross branded into his forehead and her exact words were "oh, he's not scary-looking, he just looks like a DOOFUS."

 

[Jiji]

6 hours ago, BurningBeard said:

I’m disgusted there was an entire episode on the Stossel incident without an appearance or insight from Professor Steve Austin 

You'd think he would've reached out and just phoned vice's offices without introducing himself and just asked after a long awkward pause, "so, what do you think of the Stossel incident?" Perhaps it was because he didn't introduce himself that they just kept hanging up on him? 

[odessasteps]

Maybe something in his deal with Vince prevents it. 

[The Great ML]

8 hours ago, BurningBeard said:

I’m disgusted there was an entire episode on the Stossel incident without an appearance or insight from Professor Steve Austin 

Professor Austin wasn't available because he was still too busy asking people about the damn KLIQ.

[Technico Support]

1 hour ago, Oyaji said:

You'd think he would've reached out and just phoned vice's offices without introducing himself and just asked after a long awkward pause, "so, what do you think of the Stossel incident?" Perhaps it was because he didn't introduce himself that they just kept hanging up on him? 

 

1 hour ago, The Great ML said:

Professor Austin wasn't available because he was still too busy asking people about the damn KLIQ.

And after that, he was busy asking "was that a shoot?"

[Technico Support]

15 hours ago, Hayabusa said:

On topic, what happened to Dr D in Japan? The show mentions him slapping a Japanese reporter and Dr D just makes a dismissive face about his time in Japan, like things didn't work out or something, and then they drop the topic completely. 

Meltzer mentioned this on last night's show.  Apparently the Japan thing was an angle.  Stossel called him asking how to get footage because it would help his lawsuit, and was disappointed to find it was a work.

[odessasteps]

FWIW, I sent a tweet to Austin asking if he watched it.

Not expecting a response, but you never know. 

[Jiji]

52 minutes ago, odessasteps said:

FWIW, I sent a tweet to Austin asking if he watched it.

Not expecting a response, but you never know. 

"was it a shoot tho"

[Johnny Sorrow]

The man built his house with his bare hands and was gonna go up on the Space Shuttle. And his wife has a rope belt!

[quackhell]

Was the footage of Schultz as a bounty hunter just a news story or a failed attempt at an early reality show? I would have watched the hell out of that show.

[Cleavy]

9 hours ago, quackhell said:

Was the footage of Schultz as a bounty hunter just a news story or a failed attempt at an early reality show? I would have watched the hell out of that show.

I want a Schultz-New Jack bounty hunter show

[thee Reverend Axl Future]

I started a new thread about Wrestling Ephemera, check it out. Cross posting this here, scope it out over there for some amusing details.

a little batty from this quarantine thang aren't we all but still "productive",

RAF

[Mister TV]

On 4/30/2020 at 2:14 AM, Evil Otto said:

Since we're all talking about David Schultz:

-I always thought Schultz's second turnbuckle flying elbow drop was excellent.  Such sharp, pointed execution.  I swear I haven't seen other wrestlers copy the move, or do it quite the way he did.  Am I wrong?  

-Dr. D will always be one of the greatest "what if?" wrestlers in history to me.  His bloody matches with Hogan were wild battles of attrition, really setting up Hogan as a legit champion in his early days, even though as a teenager I still always wanted Hogan to lose.  I really wonder what would have happened to Schultz if this incident never occurred, maybe making his way into JCP , going back to AWA eventually, or Japan under far better circumstances.  I tend to agree with Cornette on this one, though;  likely Schultz would have gotten into some other altercation at some point which would eventually turn promoters away.  

What a presence, though.  The dude is/was legit scary.  The perfect "Southern guy who gives zero fucks" archetype.  

Looking back I could see Schultz getting teamed up with Beefcake over Greg Valentine, remember The Hammer was still IC Champ when The Dream Team was formed so Vince keeping him as a single with Dr. D around makes some sense, also Beefcake sucked and needed to be in a tag team.

[hammerva]

What was the  promotion that they were showing of Dr D David Schultz and what looked to be Lee Marshall as part of his "blackballed" phase?  I don't think it was AWA

[Log]

Didn’t Schultz have an on-air association with Piper? Seems like he was being pushed hard enough before the Stossel and Mr T stuff, that he could’ve possibly been Piper’s partner at WM instead of Orndorff, perhaps?  If that’s the case, I don’t see them turning him face afterwards like they did Mr Wonderful.