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JUNE 2020 WRESTLING DISCUSSION


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9 hours ago, Wyld Samurai said:

I've been watching a bit of 88-89 WWF last few days. 

Strike Force was my favorite tag team as a kid - and Tito vs Martel was such a great simmering feud when they split. You just loved seeing Tito get his licks in against Rick whenever that scenario could happen... and damn was Rick Martel good.

Demolition was a far better tag team than The Road Warriors. I never really understood the comparison other than they both had a Mad Max look... Demolition could actually work.

Greg Valentine vs Ronnie Garvin. They pulled zero punches. It's pretty damn awesome watching those two go at it. 

Bobby Heenan working in the 89 Survivor Series in place of Tully... if it's been a few decades since you've seen that - the little bits that Bobby does as a ring worker is phenomenal considering he's a fulltime manager. Arn Anderson absolutely owned that match... and I'm thinking he was barely 30 at the time. 

-- there's also a moment where Bret and Savage square off in their Survivor Series match... and they totally made it up to be a big deal. I don't really recall Bret being a big deal at that time - but damn was that a fun interaction.

Wrestling was so tight back then. A lot of people shit on the critics of today saying that it's an evolution of pro-wrestling and it's for the better... but when you actually go back and watch something from the late 80s damn near everything done had a purpose and it looked so much tighter and realistic. 

I've been doing the same. No matter what I think of WWE now, I will always love 88-89. The Mega-Powers build up through their split is one of the most perfect angles WWE has done. All of the ppv's back then are breeze to get through and is a great way to kill time.

Martel and Slick was a great pairing. I wish they weren't split so soon.

Demolition has my undying loyalty over the Road Warriors. They were such better workers and always made their opponents look good.

Looking back, I love the Garvin/Valentine feud. They didn't hold anything back against each other.

I also love the Bret/Savage exchange. Even in defeat, Bret looked great. He made you believe he could beat Savage.

Watching Arn and Haku in the '89 SS main event is such a joy. They were king sized. It's ashame Arn left right after. Imagine Arn and Haku working Demolition instead of Andre.

Edited by Nice Guy Eddie
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The Demos are great when you want a competitive semi-main, but give me the Road Warriors all day, every day when I want to see five minutes of a dominant tag team eating up their opponents. 

When they turned heel in 1988 and started murdering teams, honestly, I enjoyed that better than anything the Demos have ever done. And I like Demolition!

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2 hours ago, Zimbra said:

Was Tajiri the first to wear the trash bag pants?  That was definitely a thing for a while.

I feel like a bunch of ECW guys had them. Chris Chetti and I think Nova may have experimented with them at one point. The case could be made for some of Sabu's stuff but that's cheating . I remember a trash bag short variant trend in WWE for a while in the 00s with Miz, Kendrick/London and others

Edited by Zakk_Sabbath
Actually, what about Mike Quackenbush? I feel like I saw pics of him rocking them in PWI a year or two before Tajiri switched away from the blue trunks
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24 minutes ago, Zakk_Sabbath said:

I feel like a bunch of ECW guys had them. Chris Chetti and I think Nova may have experimented with them at one point. The case could be made for some of Sabu's stuff but that's cheating . I remember a trash bag short variant trend in WWE for a while in the 00s with Miz, Kendrick/London and others

I only remember Nova with the comic book bodysuits in ECW but you may well be right.  I had forgotten that  Chris Chetti existed so you may be right there, as well.  Like Mark said I don't think Quack started wearing them until 2000-01 or so.

I guess if we want to get real technical EZ Money/Jason Jett had a huge influence since he made gear for a bunch of the ECW and northeast indy guys.

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Chris Hamrick wore the baggy pleather pants with a sleeveless pleather shirt in his ECW run. First I remember seeing it. 98ish. Maybe 99. But it's pleather, not trash bags lol. I feel like so many indy guys went that way because of Tajiri getting that sick sound off his kicks, slapping the pleather. Annnddddd one of the most influential wrestlers of all time... Rey Mysterio started wearing them in his WWE run. And most everyone on the indys wanted to be Rey when they started.

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14 minutes ago, NoFistsJustFlips said:

Chris Hamrick wore the baggy pleather pants with a sleeveless pleather shirt in his ECW run. First I remember seeing it. 98ish. Maybe 99. But it's pleather, not trash bags lol. I feel like so many indy guys went that way because of Tajiri getting that sick sound off his kicks, slapping the pleather. Annnddddd one of the most influential wrestlers of all time... Rey Mysterio started wearing them in his WWE run. And most everyone on the indys wanted to be Rey when they started.

I thought Rey y HBK started wearing the baggy pants to hide their knee braces?

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Considering how many of the small-time workers used pleather pants, it's more of a question if it counts as inspiring for a look.

If you're going for shindy workers there, every small-time indie in the world has at least one "local drug dealer who owned a trampoline, buys pants at Hot Topic and has a sheer mesh shirt", but since most of those guys will never leave their local VFW hall, it doesn't exactly make Jeff Hardy particularly inspirational.

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49 minutes ago, NoFistsJustFlips said:

Chris Hamrick wore the baggy pleather pants with a sleeveless pleather shirt in his ECW run. First I remember seeing it. 98ish. Maybe 99. But it's pleather, not trash bags lol. I feel like so many indy guys went that way because of Tajiri getting that sick sound off his kicks, slapping the pleather. Annnddddd one of the most influential wrestlers of all time... Rey Mysterio started wearing them in his WWE run. And most everyone on the indys wanted to be Rey when they started.

Good call I think I might've mixed him up with some of the other dudes I mentioned

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1 hour ago, SorceressKnight said:

Considering how many of the small-time workers used pleather pants, it's more of a question if it counts as inspiring for a look.

If you're going for shindy workers there, every small-time indie in the world has at least one "local drug dealer who owned a trampoline, buys pants at Hot Topic and has a sheer mesh shirt", but since most of those guys will never leave their local VFW hall, it doesn't exactly make Jeff Hardy particularly inspirational.

MIKAMI feels real triggered right now

mikami.jpg

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The Hardy Boyz definitely popularized that mallpunk look, if not pioneered it. The took a (suburban) street look to the ring as an integral part of thier gimmick and lo, a thousand ballchain choker/baggy pants/fishnet forearm sleeves were bought and worn in rings from VFW halls to The Big Two.

- RAF

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11 hours ago, odessasteps said:

My problem at the time was

”but it’s the masked superstar and Khrusher Khrushchev” 

in my teenage anti-WWF “gimmick repackaging” dislike mindset. 

This. The gimmick seemed like a poorly conceived rip-off and the costumes and makeup were so cheesy that I had a hard time getting into Demolition, even knowing they were better in-ring than the Roadies.

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3 hours ago, thee Reverend Axl Future said:

The Hardy Boyz definitely popularized that mallpunk look, if not pioneered it. The took a (suburban) street look to the ring as an integral part of thier gimmick and lo, a thousand ballchain choker/baggy pants/fishnet forearm sleeves were bought and worn in rings from VFW halls to The Big Two.

- RAF

I can’t tell you how jarring it was the first time they came out dressed like every guy in my fifth grade class. 

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5 hours ago, DangerMark said:

MIKAMI's just gutted that his ladder got more over than he did.

In defense, that also takes away the inherent "this guy totally only got booked on the show because he's selling everyone else on the card drugs afterwards" vibe of the fake Hardyz.

Much like Salvador Dali, DDT doesn't need drugs. They are drugs.

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