[Random stuff you remember that hardly anybody else does]

My favorite WCW stock music moment was when La Parka's WCW theme (which had also been Sabu's theme during his short WCW run) got used as background music on WWF television in an ad for their call-in hotline. 

[WWE Network Conversation]

21 hours ago, Curt McGirt said:

The first card actually has a "Catfight Humiliation Match". Jesus.

Complete with a post-match brawl where a woman that wasnt even in the original match gets her top torn off by two Male wrestlers like it was an R-rated 1980s college comedy. This show also has an early appearance by "Pro Wrestling Illustrated's Joey Styles" as a guest heel commentator on a couple of matches and yes it was as awful as that sounds.

And Double Tables has the infamous match where Cactus Jack straight up brained Sandman with a frying pan.

[2020 Wrestling podcasts thread]

13 minutes ago, Dewar said:

Catching up on JR's podcast. It's getting deleted from my podcast feed. His weekly whine about "thimbledicks from twitter" who think he is not good at commentary anymore has broken my will to listen to the show. 

Yeah, it was awesome those first few weeks that Conrad reformatted the program and JR sounded refreshed but it really didnt take him long to fall back into "grumpy grouch bastard" mode.

[FEBRUARY 2020 WRESTLING GIFS]

3 hours ago, ReiseReise said:

I guess I know what people will be sending to Cornette to rile him up next... 

Followed by a two-hour rant on why it was different when he wrestled a Ninja Turtle.

[FEBRUARY 2020 Wrestling Photos]

Peter Motts = Perry Saturn?

[2020 INDIE WRESTLING]

GCW did a great job building up to their first match in the promotion and presenting Rickey Shane Page as just a complete dickhead that should be loathed by everybody over the last few months.

I've been saying for a while now that GCW has managed to become the "next ECW" but did it without TRYING to become the next ECW, but by being the first GCW.

The main event last night though was as gloriously overbooked as the greatest overbooked ECW matches, and save for one glaring hole that is still eating away at me a little bit today, that overbooking hit beat-for-beat, and the combination of violence, heat, big-fight atmosphere, and build, and even with the one glaring hole, I'm still ready to declare this an all-time Top 5 (maybe even Top 3) U.S. deathmatches.

Spoiler

It really bugged me that Gregory Iron and his cronies were able to come out a second time to interfere after being run off by the entire GCW locker room the first time they ran in. And of course, a minute or two after the final pin, the GCW locker room comes out a second time to run them out. Somehow, three guys were able to escape getting beat up or run off by the entire locker room to interfere long enough (at least a couple of minutes) to help RSP win the title.

I am okay with RSP winning the first GCW match and keeping the chase going, but it's frustrating because they still could have done all of the ref bumps and the Eric Ryan turn and gotten to the same destination without Iron and company coming back out, and the crowd STILL probably would have thrown trash in the ring like BATB 1996.

 

[2020 Mania Week Shows]

FWIW, the promoter of the Prime Time Pro/Faye Jackson shows that weekend is spinning the move of those shows as a dispute over space. What's presented here, it sounds like they expected the brewery to have/give space inside the main bar, while the brewery wanted them to be outdoors.

 

[FEB 2020 WRESTLING DISCUSSION]

I think I missed how the conversation over wrestlers from generations past faring in the modern product, but the one I keep thinking about lately is how Bob Backlund circa 1978-1982 would fare in 2020.

I think athletic freak/strongman grappler Bob Backlund would be a major cult draw in today's indie scene, seeing him grapple with folks like Thatcher and participating on shows like Bloodsport and WxW Ambition, and being strong enough to pull off strongman spots against folks like Walter and Jeff Cobb, and being the guy that grounds flippy dudes and forces them to adapt to him, I think he would be a buzzworthy guy now. Maybe not a draw/main eventer in modern WWE, but maybe as a hired gun assassin in AEW, or the designated shooter in an NJPW stable, and definitely someone that would shine at BOLA weekend and other indie showcase type events, etc.

Hell, the dude still seems like he's in good enough shape that I could see him pulling off a 10-minute exhibition-style grapping-oriented match at Bloodsport in 2020 Barnett booked him.

EDIT: ah shit, I now saw the original post saying "today's WWE" but fuck it I'll still be fantasy booking 1981 Bob Backlund on Bloodsport 2020. 

[NCAAF 2020: OFFSEASON]

3 hours ago, Dolfan in NYC said:

Hi. 

As a USC alum, that's what made watching Ed Orgeron with a championship with LSU this year so much more bittersweet.

Ed steps in as interim coach after they fire Lane Kiffin, does respectably well and is endears himself to USC fans and players, but the administration already locked in on poaching Steve Sarkisian from day one and kicked Coach O to the curb, and USC has been struggling to regain the past glory ever since.

Problem now though is that Clay Helton clawed his way back to ending this season a JUST respectable enough winning record where you cant justify firing him, even though students and alumni are still lukewarm on him because we still are nowhere near close to scratching BCS contention, and that is enough to hurt recruitment. 

Those of you still asking why elite prospects are picking Southern and Midwest schools? Because that's where the national championships are being won and the most high-profile games on a national television level are happening right now. 

[What Is Better Than This?]

Maybe my favorite "non-Liger" NJPW junior's match from this era. 

[WRESTLING ON THE INTERNET NOT FROM THE NOW]

On 2/10/2020 at 4:30 PM, Matt D said:

Awesome minimalism

On the topic of "awesome minimalism", sadly not on YouTube but a great revelation to me recently was from the August 1977 MSG show on the WWE Network, with a match where Superstar Graham defends the WWWF Title against Ivan Putski. Without spoiling and going into too much detail, the match structure is beautifully simple but every beat is hit perfectly and when the big move comes, it gets one the loudest non-Bruno pops I have heard on those 70s MSG shows. 

[FEB 2020 WRESTLING DISCUSSION]

59 minutes ago, Ace said:

GCW already has a venue for L.A. shows. Best bet would be to run the Long Beach Convention Center, like NJPW did the first time.

 

I wouldn't be surprised to see NJPW/ROH try to do a show in Long Beach given their history there, but either WrestleCon or Collective running there I think would hurt either one. Long Beach is a good 25 miles and minimum hour-long drive from downtown LA and longer from Hollywood if traffic is good, and way too far for an Uber ride for tourists coming in from outside the city. Train ride is comparable in length as well if venues are close enough to stations, a much bigger hassle than trying to do Manhattan to Jersey City which was the distance from Wrestlecon to Collective when it was in NYC last year.

My "fingers crossed, shoot for the moon" scenario - besides of course everything somehow booking in walking distance to each other which I doubt will happen - is that Wrestlecon will run in Hollywood and Collective will run in DTLA (or vice-versa) which are each connected by a 20-to-30-minute train ride. Bar Wrestling's proper Los Angeles venue is along the same train line though too small for either of the larger gatherings, and if WWE centers Axxess/HOF/Takeover around Staples Center/LA Convention Center, is also easily accessible along that route.

[FEBRUARY 2020 Wrestling Photos]

37 minutes ago, Edwin said:

HIDEKI SUZUKI PERFORMANCE CENTER SIGHTING!

I'm all for 20 minute iPhone videos of these 4 rolling at the Performance Center. 

Hell WWE Network will get another month out of me even with a single-cam 60-minute catch session like that Regal/Robbie Brookside Power Plant video that leaked a year ago. 

 

[Wrestling belts, designs and reigns.]

23 hours ago, AxB said:

Beyond Championship Wrestling (which is Beyond Wrestling rebranding since they're finally crowning their first champion March 1st, on the TV pilot) have shown the plates of the belt on twitter. Can't link from phone, but there's a seahorse, a Pegasus and a Gryphon on there. Because when you're World champion, you're champion of Land, Sea and Air.

They have not yet revealed the strap, so it might possibly be pink and green tiger striped leather. But probably black or white, most likely.

What's the deal with that show anyway? The majority of posts I have read seems like they are leaning into it being more of  parody show, like Beyond doing a tongue-in-cheek version of Beyond Monday Night Raw. 

[Wrestling belts, designs and reigns.]

3 hours ago, Brian Fowler said:

It very much has a "can we make it look like the WWF belt without actually ripping off the WWF belt?" vibe.

I wonder whatever happened to the belt. Like, did it go into a Turner warehouse? Included in the WWF sale? Did Ric just keep it after unifying it with Big Gold? In which case, how much did he pawn it for?

Doesn't Conrad Thompson have it in his belt collection now?

[Your Wrestlers RIP Thread]

10 hours ago, paul sosnowski said:

Meltzer said on WOR that Justice Pain jumped off the Walt Whitman Bridge in Philadelphia.   He is survived by two children

Damn. Was hoping I was reading too much into Nick Gage's comment at GCW about the show helping him "forget what my brother did today"

[2020 Mania Week Shows]

Chris Dickinson is also booked against Shingo at Pancakes and Piledrivers so he may be the front runner for biggest indie weekend in terms of momentum coming out of it. I would love to see him end up with a full time Japanese gig if this Mania weekend goes well for him, his match against Sekimoto at Beyond's Americanrana show was one of my favorite heavyweight matches of 2019. 

[AEW Dynamite - 1/22/2020 - Aboard the Norwegian Pearl]

I've said this elsewhere, but given the crowd reaction increasing for Hangman Page these last few weeks since they slightly tweaked his character...if the path was initially to end with Page turning heel on Omega, they are fools if they follow through with that in the immediate future. If anything, they would probably be better off turning Omega if they absolutely have to. It would give an edge back to Omega and they could call back to the feelings of doubt they played up during the early goings of AEW, and I think even workrate fans could be potentially swayed to boo Omega if they really committed to it. I think his aloof promo style wouldn't need much tweaking to adapt to being an American wrestling heel.

And seriously, who would WANT to boo the guy that celebrates a title win by crowd-surfing and drinking a beer while doing it?

[JANUARY 2020 Wrestling Photos]

23 hours ago, Curt McGirt said:

There's four of them. I want people going in MULTIPLE pools.

Indian Strap Match rules but it's the first wrestler to toss their opponent into all four pools.

[JANUARY 2020 Wrestling Discussion]

9 hours ago, The Great ML said:

Yes, but what about Justin Liger?

Did he ever wrestle Dave Mysterio?

[JANUARY 2020 WRESTLING GIFS]

29 minutes ago, Curt McGirt said:

Them going into the crowd and the bumps they took would have been shat on from a great height. At the same time I honestly think it's a good match, even though it's a train wreck. The finish with the guy with the broken jaw getting cracked in the mouth works perfectly on a psychological level, and it seemed like nothing else was gonna bring down Sabu. The image of a destroyed Sandman standing there the picture of agony with barbed wire hanging around his head, the crowd starts to murmur and Joey just quietly goes "oh my God..." -- that is a hell of a moment. 

Why someone would wrestle on LSD is completely beyond me. But then, this is the same dude that had Raven fix him up with a megadose of Oxys in a gas station bathroom and then died twice from it. 

Stairway to Hell at ECW Arena is incredible but the match I was talking about and the one I am pretty sure is the LSD/Godzilla match was the November to Remember disaster. 

[MLW Deserves Its Own Thread]

I wouldn't be surprised if maybe the Showtime deal wouldn't be for a weekly show but maybe a place where they are putting the type of specials that are currently FITE.tv PPV's. Like a Saturday night at 10PM two-hour MLW special once a month with some sort of blood and guts match with Contra Unit seems like it could potentially be a good fit. 

[JANUARY 2020 WRESTLING GIFS]

1 hour ago, Curt McGirt said:

I'm not sure if this was from the Stairway to Hell match or not. I was just thinking about that the other day. It was Godzilla that Sander thought Sabu had turned into. The end of that match was one of only two times I ever saw the ECW crowd get disturbed by, the other one being Born to Be Wired. 

I can imagine the Twitter/Reddit reaction today if a match with a wrestler that was so obviously as off as Sandman was took place on a major show or even higher-profile indie. I rewatched that match for the first time in quite a few years recently and was even more horrified by how completely not conscious Sandman seemed during the match, between him just falling down when getting whipped into the ropes and his selling consisting of just standing there zoned the fuck out. Even concussed Kairi at TLC didnt seem as gone as Sandman here. 

At least Necro Butcher a couple of weeks ago was just skinny and gaunt but he never looked like he was possibly not aware that he was in a wrestling ring. 

[JANUARY 2020 Wrestling Discussion]

5 hours ago, AxB said:

Everyone's assuming he's talking about Young Bucks vs Best Friends vs Santana & Ortiz vs Omega & Page. But like half an hour after he tweeted it, NXT had a 'Winner Gets a Title Shot Championship Opportunity' match between Lio Rush, Tyler Breeze and this Isiah Swerve bloke that played out the same way.

I had that same thought. When I first saw the uproar the morning after I had in the back of my head, "are we sure this wasnt a jab at the NXT 3way?"

Which really does tell you the relevance gap between AEW and NXT right now among the more hardcore/active fans in the online community. I am enjoying both shows and more often than not the only comment I have at the end of the night was "that was a damn fine night of televised wrestling" but the plot twist of NXT being the more purely in-ring based product, centered around championships and tournaments, is one that I dont think anyone was expecting, but at the end of the day that presentation does seem to have a ceiling when there isnt integration with the Raw and Smackdown rosters.

I personally think that NXT Cruiserweight 3-way was incredible. It was a go-go-go spotfest, but it never stopped moving and everything they were going for hit perfectly, and the finish was well-timed and well-plotted.

I have no doubt if that exact match happened in AEW that it would have been an incredibly polarizing match, with supporters of it ready to declare it an early MOTYC, and detractors decrying it as "dance wrestling" and saying it's the shit that is killing our business (nevermind the "business" as those folks know it has been dead for twenty five years now). 

But because it happened on NXT, it's just a match that happened. 

[WRESTLING ON THE INTERNET NOT FROM THE NOW]

6 hours ago, J.T. said:

True enough, but that's three times in two weeks that Johnson pinned Bruiser Brody and two of those pinfalls resulted in a title change.  That's got to be worth something.

This was also all before his first All Japan tour in 79, and I feel like I have read that the stubbornness about not jobbing didnt really start getting rampant until after his career there took off. I know one of the Texas Championship Wrestling posts from Hidden Gems last year has Brody jobbing to Stan Stasiak in the second half of 1980.