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January 2022 Discussion of Wrestling


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@cwoy2jmentioned the Apter mags above. Those and the Napolitano mags were super important to my young fandom as well. I couldn’t tell you the first time I actually saw, say…Jerry Lawler wrestle (probably a clip from Pro Wrestling This Week?), but I already knew all the major beats of his character and moveset and big feuds. I was practically a fan before I ever even saw him. There are hundreds of examples of that for me.

Really helped to have a passing knowledge of people when they eventually popped up in territories I could actually watch. Probably another negative towards WWF programming, too, as you’d be reading about the Sheepherders/Fantastics blood feud one month and then get the Bushwhackers debuting the next! 

 

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2 hours ago, AxB said:

I grew up on World of Sport wrestling. The first time I saw WWF wrestling I thought it was some sort of a parody. A bad, unfunny joke.

This is something that isn't brought up often enough, Re: structural changes to their corporation (the cuts). Why bring in people that aren't weaned on WWE in the first place? If they have a different idea of what wrestling is supposed to be, doesn't giving them a job defeat the purpose? You kind of have to give the devil his due in this respect. 

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I watched WWF as a kid, but my southern grandma was into JCP/WCW and had cable, so I watched that with her. I loved both of them, so there was no issue there for me. They were different, but I enjoyed the difference, I think. 

I was more into thinking about all the dream matchups between the wrestlers that I liked in both companies (which was exacerbated by my discovery of PWI and their consistent "dream match" articles). 

To follow up on what @cwoy2jand @Shanesaid about the Apter mags, I am in that boat as well. I didn't see Lawler wrestle until his WWF run and didn't see him wrestle in Memphis until the Andy Kaufman Comedy Central doc, but I knew all about him from PWI. Same with Bill Dundee. If you had asked me as a kid who Lawler's greatest rivals were, I would have told you they were Bret Hart and Bill Dundee even though I had never seen any Memphis. 

 

Edited by SirSmellingtonofCascadia
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91-95 were my childhood wrestling days and WWF was the one I watched most and loved, but I did see some WCW, some USWA and the PWI type mags. I wouldn't have been able to identify the differences at the time, but looking back now I think I thought that the other promotions were a bit more grittier and sleazier. Guys like the Freebirds or Dirty Dutch Mantell just looked like gross dudes whereas most of the WWF guys were oiled up bodybuilder types. Plus you'd see more violence in the Apter mags than you would see in WWF. It gave the sense that the other promotions were a lot wilder.

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So, as a kid we had WOMETCO cable out of Fayetteville, Ga. I still remember their office on the square. Every saturday the cable access channel had a 3-5 hour block of pro wrestling. We got WCW Worldwide, WWF Wrestling Challenge, USWA, Smoky Mountain, and another WWE or something. They had the old school hosts and everything. I was enraptured by the "Dirty White Boy" Tony Anthony, Buddy Landell, PG13, and all the people I'd only heard about in the Apter mags to that point. 

 

Then WOMETCO got bought up by BellSouth after the FCC ruling stuff. All that cable access stuff became a thing of the past. Sad.

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19 minutes ago, odessasteps said:

On one level, it’s amazing Tammy is still with us. 

Was just about to bring her up for the “best women’s promo/mic work” topic, too...

[“manager” qualifier notwithstanding]

Edited by BobbyWhioux
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I guess we'll find out soonish if there's a specific date that someone pivots from OnlyFans Mature(*) porn to unsuccessful candidacies for public office? probably still more money in the former than the latter and a lot less scrutiny of how you spend money from the former than the latter.

(* - I had to use a different word than the standard word for 40somethings with lots of nudes online since I don't think she had any kids before the cervical cancer in 2013)

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20 hours ago, L_W_P said:

Good topic for conversation actually - How did you all perceive WWF vs WCW growing up? Did having access to one or the other make you appreciate a certain style more?
 

As a kid I would track down any wrestling I could find. Every Sunday when the paper came I would yank the knock off tv guide and search for anything wrestling related. The VHS tape was your friend and I remember not only watching NWA/WCW and WWF, but also got my hands on UWF, GWF and some Memphis footage. I was big on babyface Jarrett

WWF stuck to the script. Early 90s WCW rewarded you for your devotion because it was always a little chaotic/random. The thrill people have today revisiting WCW B/C shows existed back then as well. You never knew what you were going to get. I still remember Owens brief NWA run leaving an impression on me. You'd find a syndicated show on at 1 in the morning and 92 Benoit is throwing dragon suplexes. 

In the late-90s I was WCW all of the way. Again, I liked the randonmness of it all and the quality of some of the match ups. I only changed channels for Stone Cold because he was a force of nature. 

Edited by JohnnyJ
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3 hours ago, SirSmellingtonofCascadia said:

The Apter mags made Yoshi fucking Kwan look like a bloodletting killer, man. They were these incredible hype machines for me as a kid.

Because of the Apter mags, I'm still waiting for Wildcat Wendell Cooley to jump to one of the Big 2 and win the IC or US title.

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On 1/12/2022 at 8:18 PM, L_W_P said:



Good topic for conversation actually - How did you all perceive WWF vs WCW growing up? Did having access to one or the other make you appreciate a certain style more?

I wonder how kids these days are with the differences between WWE and AEW.

I had WWWF, Florida, and Olympic Auditorium Spanish International Network shows on UHF when I was a kid. Florida seemed special because they showed clips of the house show matches. Florida also had the NWA title and lots of magazine stars. WWWF had much more talent than The Olympic at the time. Victor Rivera was a main eventer in LA, but a semi-final or tag team champ in WWWF. WWWF prelim guys went to LA and got pushes as Pork Chop, Java Ruuk, and Butcher Brannigan. However the LA TV show was more enjoyable than WWWF. LA was really weak when young Roddy Piper came in. Some shows he had a match, multiple interviews, and would just walk out in the middle of a match and walk outside the ring playing the bagpipes. They just needed to fill in time. There were jobbers that wrestled early in the show and wrestled again with a mask later.

In the 80's when Vince Jr. took over it was never the same when the promotion no longer was based around the MSG show every 4 weeks.

Into the 90's, ECW was never the same when the promotion no longer was based around the ECW arena show every 3 weeks.

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i'm incredibly jealous of a lot of you that had so many wrestling choices. we either didn't get anything except WWF Superstars. and even that was inconsistent (or maybe i just preferred cartoons to pro wrestling?).

it wasn't until post-internet times when i got to discover all of these other promotions. but what an education!

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17 minutes ago, Ace said:

So this would be at least her 13th arrest in 10 years.

 

She is, to this day, the only person in the pro wrestling industry that I ever wrote a fan letter to.

Boy was I smitten when I was 15. 

Boy do I feel stupid about that these days.

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