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Technico Support's 80's/90s WWF nostaligia tour


Technico Support

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After looking at the matchups, I'm kinda looking forward to Survivor Series 89.  4 on 4 with tag teams mixed in is so much better than 5 on 5 with tag teams getting their own 5 teams vs 5 teams (so 20 wrestlers overall) match.  SS '88 only had 4 matches but the in-ring time was roughly two hours.  89 is 6 matches but the in-ring is less than an hour and a half.

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I enjoy these write ups immensely. I am sort of doing a similar thing with WWF and started with 1986 PTW. I am currently at the January 87 mark. You are nearing one of my favorite time periods but sadly WWE has yet to upload all the 1990 PTW episodes ?   Sure 1988/89 gave us the mega powers exploding but 1990 had a lot of good mini angles. The Warrior-Hogan,  Martel blinding Jake,  Dusty-Savage,   Demolition-Harts with LOD debuting,  Perfect's IC title reign.   So much good stuff in 1990. I also am a huge fan of the 1990 rumble. Hard pressed to find a more star studdled Rumble match. 

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11 hours ago, twiztor said:

please tell me you'll be watching the Hogan/Beefcake vs Savage/Zeus cage match after Survivor Series. i don't know if it's on Peacock (it was on the WWF Supertape Coliseum Home Video way back when), but i consider it essential viewing.

The Match/The Movie isn't on Peacock. But maybe the Coliseum Video collection is. I need to go check. I was bummed not to be able to see this on Peacock a couple months ago.

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7 hours ago, SirSmellingtonofCascadia said:

The Match/The Movie isn't on Peacock. But maybe the Coliseum Video collection is. I need to go check. I was bummed not to be able to see this on Peacock a couple months ago.

it's not on youtube, i got got

 

but it is on dailymotion!

 

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x49p6y

Edited by porksweats
added proper link, vetted and all
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16 hours ago, twiztor said:

please tell me you'll be watching the Hogan/Beefcake vs Savage/Zeus cage match after Survivor Series. i don't know if it's on Peacock (it was on the WWF Supertape Coliseum Home Video way back when), but i consider it essential viewing.

 

4 hours ago, SirSmellingtonofCascadia said:

The Match/The Movie isn't on Peacock. But maybe the Coliseum Video collection is. I need to go check. I was bummed not to be able to see this on Peacock a couple months ago.

 

3 hours ago, porksweats said:

I will absolutely watch this on YouTube after Survivor Series!  Thanks, all!

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6 hours ago, porksweats said:

I'm not going to take my thanks back, but it's just some dude talking about wrestling. ?

I've done this before, too, where I'm like OOH I FOUND IT because I just saw the title and I didn't hit play, and then I go back and hit play and it's some dude telling me his opinions about wrestling that I don't care about...or worse, it's a WWE 2K sim of a match that I desperately wanted to see IRL. 

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16 minutes ago, SirSmellingtonofCascadia said:

I'm not going to take my thanks back, but it's just some dude talking about wrestling. ?

I've done this before, too, where I'm like OOH I FOUND IT because I just saw the title and I didn't hit play, and then I go back and hit play and it's some dude telling me his opinions about wrestling that I don't care about...or worse, it's a WWE 2K sim of a match that I desperately wanted to see IRL. 

I editted the above post, it's on Dailymotion. Checked myself, that's what I get for trying to link at work sight unseen.

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I went down a sweet YouTube wrestling rabbit hole the other night where I watched:

Flair vs George South from 88 (I think this is the “tonight, you’re Steamboat” match)

A 12 minute version of the Flair/DiBiase/Murdoch Mid South angle (AWESOME, creative way to use a world champ’s visit to build a completely different angle in your territory that’ll go on after he’s gone)

DiBiase vs Duggan tuxedo cage coal miner’s glove loser leaves town match (I’d always heard of it, never seen it.  Fun match but I need to know more about the buildup)

Edited by Technico Support
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Bill Watts is a genius because IMO the only time Duggan was remotely worth a watch was Mid-South. He booked him in a handful of memorable angles and worked to Duggan's - er, I mean DOOgan's - strengths. 

Even someone like JYD, who isn't the greatest talent in-ring, has the limited Stampede stuff I've seen where he looks like a future star, so Watts's booking of him isn't as miraculous as it is Duggan's, but it's still booking that enhances him immensely. Or, shoot, take Butch Reed, who I'm a big fan of, but who really was only consistently awesome in DOOM outside of his Mid-South stuff. Watts was really good at getting the most out of the guys he pushed. It feels like he could get almost anyone over in his day. 

Edited by SirSmellingtonofCascadia
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11 minutes ago, Technico Support said:

Cool!  What was the angle in Memphis?

When Tom Renesto was the heel matchmaker and wanted Lawler to defend his belt vs the Stomper, but Lawler didn’t want to, since being champ meant facing Flair for the world title. 
 

 

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On 9/21/2022 at 8:13 PM, odessasteps said:

When Tom Renesto was the heel matchmaker and wanted Lawler to defend his belt vs the Stomper, but Lawler didn’t want to, since being champ meant facing Flair for the world title. 
 

 

That's a crazy angle to work with a babyface.  I'd call it misguided or ill thought out, but it was a different time and place and I guess it worked for Memphis.  But with 2022 eyes, the idea of a babyface champion backing down from a local company's title match because he might lose and, in turn, lose his shot at a bigger promotion's better title, is crazy.  A babyface should never back down from a match, let alone a title defense.  Renesto is fully in the right here and Lawler comes off as whiny.

That would make an awesome local heel gimmick, though.  Heel blows into town, comes right out and professes his dislike for this podunk territory and its low-level title, but admits that he needs that belt as a stepping stone.  Wins it by cheating and then uses every trick in the book (intentional DQs, walkouts, cheating to win, etc.) to keep it so he's champ when the NWA champion comes to town.  Take it a step further and make it like he's a carpetbagging politician, like he chose this territory specifically for its weak competition.

Edited by Technico Support
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1 hour ago, odessasteps said:

And everyone agrees what Lawler is doing is the right thing. Because everyone wants Jerry to finally win the world title. 

Right!  But it's crazy because you could use that to add heat to every title defense.  "Jerry has never won the big one and his shot at Ric Flair is in jeopardy every time he defends his Mid South title.  Come on down to the Mid South Coliseum and pay to cheer Jerry on!  He needs you!"  To me, that's how you do it.  Not have your top face champion back down for fear of losing his shot.  Were these people behind him no matter what?  What if they did an angle where he won it and then refused to defend it at all?  Or swore to only defend against jobbers?  This angle is boggling my mind.  I makes no sense but, again, if it worked, so be it. 

Edited by Technico Support
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And now it's time for Survivor Series 1989!  I'll tell you right now, it's difficult to write about elimination matches like this.  Unless somebody puts together a good storyline that runs through the match, it's kind of just guys doing spots until a finish.  I'll do my best but I can't promise really good in depth match analysis, as opposed to stray observations, dick jokes, and bullshit.  Happy Thanksgiving, America!

We start off with a vignette featuring various wrestlers saying what they're thankful for.

  • Hogan kicks it off quite fittingly because, with his overdone tan and copious amounts of sweat and baby oil, he looks just like a juicy basted turkey fresh out of the oven.  And now I'm laughing to myself imagining Vince pouring melted butter over Hulkster between takes.
  • Rick Rude wet and greased his hair back and it sucks because his massive poofy mullet was the shit.
  • I'm always struck by how tiny Ted DiBiase's eyes are.  My grandmother used to watch with me when I was really young and one time she, bless her heart, asked if he was "a Chinaman."
  • Dino Bravo pronounces "Earthquake" as "HER-KWAY!"  Speaking of which, we're probably at the tail end of the very short "Canadian Earthquake" era as there's a really obvious audio edit in the part where Vince, in voiceover over the match graphics, announces the lineups and clearly "Canadian Earthquake" was cut.
  • I'm really struck by how weird this all is.  People decried WWF back then for being a "cartoon, " but that's exactly what this is.  All these guys are 1000% in character, being thankful for [insert character trait] and it's like they're just TV characters, not athletes who actually exist outside the context of wrestling.  It's bizarre. 

Dusty, Beefcake, Rooster, and Santana vs Bossman, Honky Tonk, Martel, & Bad News

  • Bad News is filling in for Akeem.  Wikipedia doesn't say why, in the Survivor Series 89 entry, Akeem is out, and his personal entry skips right from Mania 5 to early 1990.
  • I spent the match wondering why, in kayfabe, they'd pick Bad News when he walked out on his team the prior year.  Honky was even on that team!  So what happens here?  He walks out again.  LOOOOOL.  I just had to go look up Survivor Series 90 to see if Brown did it for a third time, and Wikipedia tells me he left a while before the show because Vince had failed to live up to his claims he'd make him his first black world champion.  1) at least he left before and not during this time! 2) I never heard that Vince promised him that and nothing about it adds up.  Just an old worker telling stories, maybe?
  • Taylor has a big ol' kneebrace from his SummerSlam injury. 
  • HTM has "Twist and Shout" on his tights.  Which is not an Elvis song. 
  • Martel is incredible in his new heel role, just preening and acting smug all over the place.  Damn.  Was he ever a heel anywhere before this?
  • Bossman is just bumping and selling like crazy, taking an armdrag like a guy 150 pounds lighter and, twice, bouncing off the middle rope like Rey Mysterio.  And this is before he lost weight.  Guy was a fucking prodigy.
  • Sapphire is in the audience as Dusty's biggest fan.
  • I haven't talked about the match yet?  Exactly.  There's not much to say.  Everybody was fine.  Nobody fucked anything up.  Nothing stood out.  Dusty and Beefcake were the final survivors after Big Dust hit Bossman with a running crossbody.  Dusty and Bossman continued their program on house shows, as was the practice in those days.

Randy Savage's Team vs Duggan's team is up next.  I was going to complain about Savage being in the midcard already but it turns out Hogan is in the midcard on this show, too.  I guess this was a throwaway show to see how things would go with Warrior in the main?

Edited by Technico Support
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I absolutely love old school Survivor Series where there were nothing but elimination matches, and 1989 is one of my favorites.  It's, IMO, the best show for the Monsoon/Ventura team, their back and forth during both Hogan's and Warrior's matches is fantastic.

59 minutes ago, Technico Support said:

Randy Savage's Team vs Duggan's team is up next.  I was going to complain about Savage being in the midcard already but it turns out Hogan is in the midcard on this show, too.  I guess this was a throwaway show to see how things would go with Warrior in the main?

That's probably part of it, I wonder if it had been decided yet that Warrior was getting the World Title run at Mania.  There are a couple of other reasons though too, it allowed them to run a small post-match angle to help build up the No Holds Barred PPV, and it allowed them to talk about dissension in the Heenan Family throughout the show to explain Tully's absence.

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Bad News had a house show run with Savage early in Savage's World title run. There's a really awesome street fight between the two on some Coliseum Video tape I once saw. Anyway, story goes that before they were deadset on the Savage heel turn, Bad News as transitional champ from Savage back to Hogan was discussed.

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2 hours ago, The Comedian said:

Bad News had a house show run with Savage early in Savage's World title run. There's a really awesome street fight between the two on some Coliseum Video tape I once saw. Anyway, story goes that before they were deadset on the Savage heel turn, Bad News as transitional champ from Savage back to Hogan was discussed.

That’s got to be one of those apocryphal wrestling stories.  It’s petty obvious Savage’s entire run was booked toward Hogan getting the belt back specifically from Savage.  How would a “Bad News as transitional champion” timeline even work?

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Bret Hart gives a secondhand account of News walking out on Vince in which he reports News claiming that Vince broke a bunch of promises. 

Man, News was so cool. Young me was a massive fan

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Let's continue Survivor Series 1989, shall we?

King's Court (Savage, Earthquake, Bravo, & Valentine) vs The 4x4s (Duggan, Bret, Herc, & Garvin)

  • Duggan's team does a march/jog to the ring, all with 2x4s, and then they try to do a drum major deal in the ring where they toss the boards to each other.  It goes about as well as you'd expect, and in short order.
  • Danny Davis is reffing this match.  I vaguely remember him being reinstated on a probationary basis.  Speaking of refs, Shane McMahon is the ringside referee!  I didn't think he showed up as a ref until Mania 6's dark match.
  • Apparently Earthquake is a replacement for Barry Windham as Barry left the month prior due to his family's legal entanglements.  Say what you want about Blackjack Mulligan, but the dude definitely knew how to make money.  Womp womp.
  • Ah!  And that's why Vince's voiceover in the promo package sounded to weird.  Not because he eliminated the "Canadian" form the name.  It was because he'd already done the VO with Widowmaker on the team and had to go do a pickup.
  • I'm sad we missed out on getting some possible Windham vs Hart segments.  But at the same time, this was overweight, unmotivated Windham, so maybe we didn't miss much.
  • Don't listen to the old heads telling you nobody sells today, everyone's exposing the business, etc etc, part 5,837: The Garvin Stomp is fucking stupid.
  • Herc has apparently given up thinking more PEDs = a push as he is noticeably softer here and with the beginnings of the belly that would become a prominent feature in his run as the Super Invader in WCW in a few years.
  • I love Survivor Series's goofy-ass quick eliminations.  Bravo reverses a Herc buckle whip and the sheer force of hitting the buckles is enough to keep Hernandez down for the minute or so it takes to take in Quake and have him hit the Earthquake splash.  He pins Herc with his cock and balls directly on Herc's chin and mouth area and that couldn't have been pleasant.
  • There's a funny moment when Savage is tied in the ropes and Duggan gives him a 12 to 6 elbow from behind and Savage completely forgets to sell it.
  • Old guy moves some modern dude needs to steal, part 2: Savage's move where he grabs a guy by the hair and jumps over the top, necking him on the top rope.
  • Duggan was just kind of passable in the ring but I can't deny his charisma.  Guy was over as fuck and was perfect in that role of midcard face who can occupy and warm up your upper midcard heels until it's time for something else.
  • Match is typical 80s WWF.  Nothing offensive, quality wise, but also nothing amazing.  The best parts are when Savage or Hart are in, but you already knew that. 
  • Duggan is left in a 3 on 1 disadvantage when Sherri lets him know it's really FOUR ON ONE, DUMBASS as she low bridges him in the ropes to get him out of the ring.  Quake gloms him from behind from the apron and we get a heel win via countout.  Duggan clears the ring with the 2x4 to keep the program going and/or start a program with the Evil Canadians, not sure which.

The Million Dollar Team (DiBiase, Zeus, & Powers of Pain) vs The Hulkamaniacs (Hogan, Demolition, & Jake)

  • Warlord is eyeballing Zeus and is secretly overjoyed about this being the only time he wasn't the most limited guy in the match.
  • All the babyfaces get their own separate entrance music and, for the first and probably only time, we get back to back Rick Derringer! 
  • Wikipedia lists this match as the main event.  Was it promoted as such?  That's hilarious.
  • Gorilla: WHAT KIND OF BELT IS THAT, JESSE???  Jesse: IT'S A ZEUS BELT, GAHRELLAH!  IT HAS A Z ON IT!
  • This is a boring, not very good match. I know what I'm getting with elimination matches.  Not a ton of story; just more of a "greatest hits."  But some matches are definitely worse than others and this is one of those. 
  • Zeus does that move they do in movies to break dudes' necks and one hit kill them, on Hogan, and I laugh like "oh well, guess Hogan is dead now and the program is over."
  • Zeus beats up Hogan and shoves Hebner twice, getting DQ'd.  I'd be a little pissed if I watched this hoping for some kind of big rematch/showdown between the two and all I got was a quick angle to advance the storyline, get Zeus out of there fast, and sell the next PPV.
  • Smash's elimination is fun, as he's nailed unawares with a Barbarian flying clothesline.  Again, I'm all for guys getting pinned because another guy hit a move on them when they didn't expect it.  Bring that back.  Less is more.
  • Weird to see the Powers beat Demolition, the champions, and have nothing come of it afterward.
  • PoP are both DQ'd for beating up Hogan too much, eventually hitting a spike piledriver.  I hate that shit.  What's the point of having a legal man and non-legal men if more than one person can be DQ'd at the same time?  So stupid.  I know it gets worse down the line when Flair wins a Survivor Series match after everyone else is counted out at the same time.  Jesus.
  • Virgil interferes and gets DDT'd because somebody had to get DDT'd.  DiBiase pins him with his feet on the ropes to keep the program going.
  • So it comes down to Hogan and DiBiase and I FFWD a good deal of this, because the outcome isn't in question and it's just going to be The Hogan Formula.  Funny how Hogan got to be the sole survivor on his team.  I'm legit surprised he didn't go down 4-1 before beating all the heels.

Two matches to go and they have to be better than that last one, right?

Edited by Technico Support
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