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I will refrain from starting a new topic until necessary, but just wanted to put some more stuff out about the '93 WWF rosters' physiques. Gee, it was pretty hard to come up with a top 5, let alone a top 10 from that era! Lex Luger and Scott Steiner are the obvious top 2, depending on whether you appreciate mass or definition, who do you consider number one. Rick Steiner, Crush and Virgil (all very different physiques at that) are the rest of the top five.

Tatanka, Adam Bomb and a bit later on Ludvig Borga (yay Finland!) would be other contenders, but holy crap that was a bad year for bodies, for obvious reasons. By late '95 things look a lot different, but this '93(or early'94 ) is the closest to clean or natural WWF you will ever see!

Now, I'm not against steroids per se, I'm just against lying about using them, because that creates so much confusion about what is and isn't possible without chemical help. Nobody on the top 5 is clean, no-one in the potential top 10 would be, but this rather unimpressive era features guys using less PED's than 70's, and they give a glimpse of how these guys would look, if they were regular people.

Ok, so I'd also like to apologize for boring people with this subject, but I'm as interested with the "body talk" as people seem to be with the "art talk" before the thread got shut down. But I have been into the small but muscular guys since age 9 (not that way, not that there's anything wrong with that, really), and even more now for the past 8 years that I have seen and felt how damn hard it is to try and make any of that business happen in real life, without a needle in your ass!

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1 hour ago, paintedbynumbers said:

September classic content= 10 episodes of Velocity.   Not bad but was hoping for Prime Time or WCW.  

This makes me sad. Velocity can evoke nostalgic feelings in some, but I have little to no connection to it. Considering I have so much stuff that I haven't gotten around to watching from the time period, Velocity wouldn't be all that high on my list of "priorities", if you can call it that.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I started randomly watching some '87 Prime Time episodes (well, matches from episodes) and am shocked at the amount of feature matches per episode, compared to '89 (which is still better than what '92-'93 Superstars, for example, offered). I saw Hart Foundation vs Strike Force and vs Rougeaus, Demolition vs Islanders, Strike Force vs Islanders and Islanders vs British Bulldogs (well, that was mostly the dognapping of Matilda angle, more than a match) in a span of a few episodes.

Some of the featured singles matches are such that I won't go there sober (Outback Jack, Killer Khan, JYD and Nikolai Volkoff among others featured), but this coinscides with the exact time when I first became a wrestling fan, I think I have to sit through these at some point.

Side note: I do vaguely remember hearing an instrumental version of Demolition's theme during some of their early entrances. This was when Darsow had already become Smash, but they weren't accompanied by Mr Fuji yet (nor Johnny Valiant anymore). Well, here it was and I think it suited the heels better. Face Demolition was infinitely better with the theme with lyrics, however.

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I had that same experience. I expected lots of squashes (as this is what I grew up on when I started watching WWF TV in 93) and PTW had almost none of those.

What seems strange to 2020 eyes is that sometimes they put in 1-2 year old matches and pretend that they are new (I remember a Desiree Peterson vs. Judy Martin match from mid 1985 that they aired in 87, for example). One of the weirder shows had three straight matches with Sika, Sivi Afi and the Islanders.

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3 hours ago, Robert s said:

I had that same experience. I expected lots of squashes (as this is what I grew up on when I started watching WWF TV in 93) and PTW had almost none of those.

What seems strange to 2020 eyes is that sometimes they put in 1-2 year old matches and pretend that they are new (I remember a Desiree Peterson vs. Judy Martin match from mid 1985 that they aired in 87, for example). One of the weirder shows had three straight matches with Sika, Sivi Afi and the Islanders.

Yeah, like the two Hart Foundation matches I mentioned. The Rougeau Bros match was a non title match and it was actually emphasized that they were the NEW tag team champions. Next week, they air the Strike Force match, which was a title change! If I remember correctly the Harts' first reign was like 10 months long, so something REALLY doesn't add up there!

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Wow, I usually try to stay as positive as I possibly can as far as any programming I decide to watch, but the new Velocity batch that just dropped...ooh, boy! I stated earlier that I have very little emotional connection to this show and if I wanted to see material from that era, there's plenty of RAW's, SD!'s and PPVs from that era which I've yet to watch. Furthermore, it was just 8 rather random episodes. So, I skimmed through the entire batch and decided that there was not a single match I wanted to devote any of my free time to.

Quite a waste of a "classic material drop", especially if we have to wait until October for anything worthwhile! There were so many better options, even if one was to just consider the WWF/WWE material they could have updated.

Aside from the shows I have mentioned before, WWF Wrestling Challenge, All-American Wrestling, WWF Mania, WWF Action Zone, the Colosseum Home Video classics (let alone WCW Main Event, Power Hour etc.)

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we should know by Oct 3 what October's will be.  I am leaning towards it being WCW related since it's been awhile since a WCW drop.  Most of the Colosseum home videos are on there already.  I have fun watching these even if most matches end in DQ or countout.   Funny how 80's and early 90's WWF had so many main event caliber matches end in DQ or countout.  Watch SNME shows and count how many matches end via countout or DQ.  

 

 

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21 hours ago, paintedbynumbers said:

we should know by Oct 3 what October's will be.  I am leaning towards it being WCW related since it's been awhile since a WCW drop.  Most of the Colosseum home videos are on there already.  I have fun watching these even if most matches end in DQ or countout.   Funny how 80's and early 90's WWF had so many main event caliber matches end in DQ or countout.  Watch SNME shows and count how many matches end via countout or DQ.  

 

 

True about Colosseum Videos, but WrestleFest'94 still isn't there yet and we all need more Steiners vs Bret&Owen in our lives! Yeah, when there's an "ooh, this could be interesting"-match from 80's and early 90's the best you can get is a time limit draw! Maybe, a cheap pin every now and again, but plenty of DQ's and irritating double count-outs!

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3 hours ago, Shartnado said:

True about Colosseum Videos, but WrestleFest'94 still isn't there yet and we all need more Steiners vs Bret&Owen in our lives! Yeah, when there's an "ooh, this could be interesting"-match from 80's and early 90's the best you can get is a time limit draw! Maybe, a cheap pin every now and again, but plenty of DQ's and irritating double count-outs!

Also really want the Wrestlefest where Warrior stuffs Heenan in the Weasel suit.  I will reccomend Invasion of the Bodyslammers. I remember it being a really good show. 

 

I loved the Steiners/ Bret and Owen. Shame they didn't tour the house show loops with that match. 

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7 hours ago, paintedbynumbers said:

Also really want the Wrestlefest where Warrior stuffs Heenan in the Weasel suit.  I will reccomend Invasion of the Bodyslammers. I remember it being a really good show. 

 

I loved the Steiners/ Bret and Owen. Shame they didn't tour the house show loops with that match. 

I remember Bobby flailing around in his suit after the match, but don't recall the match itself. Maybe I've only seen the clip of an ending somewhere? I think I did have all of the wrestlefests on tape at one point. Invasion of the Bodyslammers was one of the elusive tapes I never owned myself, so I totally watched that once they updated the colosseum video library to the Network, I remember it being good, as well!

How about Bret & Owen, Steiners, Quebeckers and Jannetty& 123-Kid going around the loop with alternating pairings on each of the shows? That's more of a what if, but THAT would have been very cool too!

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20 hours ago, Shartnado said:

I remember Bobby flailing around in his suit after the match, but don't recall the match itself. Maybe I've only seen the clip of an ending somewhere? I think I did have all of the wrestlefests on tape at one point. Invasion of the Bodyslammers was one of the elusive tapes I never owned myself, so I totally watched that once they updated the colosseum video library to the Network, I remember it being good, as well!

How about Bret & Owen, Steiners, Quebeckers and Jannetty& 123-Kid going around the loop with alternating pairings on each of the shows? That's more of a what if, but THAT would have been very cool too!

Damn....Steiners vs Jannetty/123 probably would've been really, really good.

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9 hours ago, Infinit said:

Damn....Steiners vs Jannetty/123 probably would've been really, really good.

Yeah, same for Bret/Owen vs Kid/Marty! And if those would have happened they would have ended up on one Colosseum Video or another and the world would be a better place due to it!

Considering how that RAW match with Kid & Bret and the KOtR semifinal with Kid & Owen turned out, I feel that would have been a legendary match. 

Edited by Shartnado
Remembered Kid vs Bret and Kid vs Owen
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24 minutes ago, paintedbynumbers said:

October classic content is more WWF Superstars.  Looking to be 10-14 episodes.   Not too bad. Would still prefer some WCW or finish the ECW superstars, but it could always be worse. 

This is good news as far as I'm concerned. It's familiar territory for me, but I bet I there will be a bunch of stuff I have not seen  yet. I used to have a bunch of Wrestling Challenges and All-American Wrestlings from summer of '93 taped from TV, but very few Superstars.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Network has added Timeline episode featuring Yokozuna. Sadly, the matches are exactly what you'd expect, with no surprises. It just got me thinking (again) that it really took me a good while to appreciate him as a worker and this was mostly due to the presentation.

The whole character probably would have worked a great deal worse without them, but for a teen-age Shartnado the sumo gear, hairdo and lame theme music were poison. If he had say black trunks, the beard and hair he had in '95 (and in NJPW), a heavier, more threatning version of his theme and stayed in his '92 weight and mobility, it would not have taken me well into the 2000's to appreciate his obvious talent. He probably would not have been nearly as over, and most likely never been the WWF champion that way. But hey, appeasing one particular Finnish wrestling fan's sense of aesthetics instead, would probably been a worthy trade-off.

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On 10/14/2020 at 6:47 AM, Shartnado said:

Network has added Timeline episode featuring Yokozuna. Sadly, the matches are exactly what you'd expect, with no surprises. It just got me thinking (again) that it really took me a good while to appreciate him as a worker and this was mostly due to the presentation.

The whole character probably would have worked a great deal worse without them, but for a teen-age Shartnado the sumo gear, hairdo and lame theme music were poison. If he had say black trunks, the beard and hair he had in '95 (and in NJPW), a heavier, more threatning version of his theme and stayed in his '92 weight and mobility, it would not have taken me well into the 2000's to appreciate his obvious talent. He probably would not have been nearly as over, and most likely never been the WWF champion that way. But hey, appeasing one particular Finnish wrestling fan's sense of aesthetics instead, would probably been a worthy trade-off.

It took me a while to appreciate Yokozuna too. Even as a 14-year-old Michigan kid who was still several years away from being on the Internet, the whole "foreign menace" thing was super played-out and corny to me and more of a turn-off than a hook. Outside of the deal where he squashed Duggan and left him with "internal injuries", Yokozuna at the time was never someone I truly bought as the guy that should be WWF Champion and dominating everyone else on the roster.

It also didn't help that he was WWF Champion at the same time that Vader was WCW World Champion, and was straight-up destroying people every week on their television to the point where I was legimately wondering when I was going to see someone die on WCW Saturday Night. I definitely recognize how great of a worker that Yokozuna was now, but in the moment, he paled as a "monster heel champion" in comparison to Vader.

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14 hours ago, odessasteps said:

I wonder if they would break kayfabe by highlighting any of his Kokina matches. 

Well, by 1996 face turn he spoke English on at least one promo and was even said to hail from Samoa instead of Japan  (not sure about ring introduction, though) , so featuring some Kokina matches wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility!

Also, I misspoke when calling that feature with Yokozuna a Timeline episode, it was just a best of compilation. Given the material they have, I was almost expecting something like a Kokina match in there.

Edited by Shartnado
It was a Best of Yokozuna...
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