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clintthecrippler

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Posts posted by clintthecrippler

  1. 2 hours ago, SirSmellingtonofCascadia said:

    Smelly's end-of-1982 Mid-South Trends:

    TRENDING UP

    • Ted DiBiase - He's come into his own a bit. Started the year as a bland, dull babyface, and ended up being a decent stooging, ducking, cheating heel. Feels more big time with Duggan and Bourne backing him up. Going from clean-shaven to a five 'o clock shadow to a full beard to match the heel turn was a nice touch. 
    • Mr. Olympia - This guy fuckin' rules so hard. Great worker, great look, can take a beating with sympathy and his offensive flurries on comebacks are great. I think he's setting up for a heel turn in '83, so we'll see if his work translates. I have never seen Jerry Stubbs without the mask and will make it a wrestling-watching priority to do so in the next month or two. 
    • JYD - Seriously one of the best babyfaces ever. I could watch this guy eat up pinballing heels all day. The Thump is a great finish, too. 
    • Kamala - Younger, slightly faster and more agile Kamala is actually pretty fun. I saw dude take a wild bump to the floor that I didn't know he ever had in him. 
    • Bob Roop - Bob Roop is great. Kurt Angle wishes he was one-tenth of the greatness of Bob Roop. I would like to watch more Bob Roop. 

    IDLING

    • Hacksaw Jim Duggan - He had the Gorilla Suit Incident, which was amazing, and he's a really good visual heavy for DiBiase. Thing is, he is a shit worker and no matter how much Watts tries to get the spear over as a move, it sucks. No, Duggan barely flicking a guy's forehead with his fingers does not look devastating whatsoever.
    • Mr. Wrestling II - I know the guy is older at this point, but I do not get it at all. Sweet kneelift, but everything else about him comes off second-rate. His popularity must be a Gulf States thing. Still, the crowd loves this guy, so I'm willing to see more and be open-minded.
    • One Man Gang - His run here was short and felt underwhelming. He's clearly an interesting talent, but he's still putting it together. I know he comes back at one point in a year or two and really takes off, though. Excited to see him grow as a worker (and wondering what I should see of his from between 1983 and 1985 both stateside and in Japan to get a fuller sense of his progression).
    • Matt Borne - One of those guys who is so clearly talented, but he's very awkward on the mic and is still finding his way. Having him mostly tag with DiBiase is probably the way to go. I just watched a bunch of Borne Doink squashes and see the glimmer of talent as well as the fine form on the Bombs Away/Whoopee Cushion already. Anyway, it's the same with him as with the Portland stuff I've seen him in; clearly, he's going to be very good, but you can tell his inexperience in things like being in the right place for a key spot or cutting an effective heel promo. 
    • The Grappler - At one point, there is one too many Grapplers. I enjoyed the first one being a shitbrick, but add a second Grappler and they're just an ineffective job tag team that doesn't really do much, and that's a shame. 

    TRENDING DOWN

    • Paul Ellering - I knew he did a whole Superstar Billy Graham thing before he tore his knee up one too many times and switched to managing, but I didn't comprehend how bad, how excremental, how unwatchable it was until watching through this year. My God. Dude shaved his head and picked up a WSJ and immediately became about a trillion times cooler. 
    • Buck Robley - Here's another guy at the end of his career who I should be nicer about, but mannnnnn the yellow t-shirt, the shitty sleeper, the brace he uses as a weapon...why does anybody cheer this man as a babyface? I appreciate that he was apparently instrumental in helping some talented guys get their breaks, but IDK, man, I liked him less and less as the year went on and thought that if they'd have had Dick Murdoch or Karl Kox in his spot for the bulk of the year instead, things would have been better. 
    • Boyd Pierce - He's better than heel Michael Cole, but only because he talks far less than heel Michael Cole did. 

    EXCITED TO SEE MORE OF

    • Dr. Death Steve Williams - Obviously going to be fucking great at pro wrestling even as a green college student wrestling in the football off-season. Clearly is thinking through what he's doing as he's doing it, and still is compelling. 
    • Marty Lunde - I wonder if he's always an enhancement guy in Mid-South or if he gets a tiny push? Anyway, you can already see the natural heel coming through in his work, his bumping, his selling. 
    • Buddy Landell and Tim Horner - Both are clearly talented workers who are putting it together each week. 
    • Everyone in Trending Up + Borne and OMG - This is a nice core the company would have if they could keep it together with any consistency. 

    1982 JYD and Kamala were absolute revelations to me when I started my Mid-South watch last year, and I strongly recommend checking out their highlights from this year to anyone. 

    1982 JYD was an incredible force of charisma and still very athletic at this stage of his career, to the point where I firmly believe the 1982 version of JYD would be a huge star in 2022 without much tweaking at all.

    1982 Kamala is incredible to watch too and the combination of speed and size here is some of the absolute scariest shit on the planet. 

    I think you're being a bit harsh on Duggan and Boyd Pierce, but I agree that Paul Ellering during this time frame is some absolute cringe wrestling television and I have no idea why anyone thought he should be a babyface. 

    Fast-forwarding to where I am at in my current watch point of 1985, if anyone out there is looking for a highly entertaining stand-alone episode of wrestling television, the February 14th, 1985 episode of Mid-South Wrestling may be a new all-time favorite for me. In the span of 45 minutes you get:

    -the first of the Hacksaw Duggan/Ted DiBiase "Best Dressed Man" contests leading into the Tuxedo Cage blowoffs.

    -Butch Reed vs Kamala in a hard-hitting battle that ends in one of the wildest multi-man brawls in a territory known for them while tying together multiple feud threads seamlessly.

    -a helluva sprint between Jake Roberts and Brad Armstrong with a particularly venomous pre-match promo from Jake.

    -damn great tag team wrestling between the Rock N Roll Express and The Guerrero (Hector and Chavo) in a feud that honestly deserves to be much better remembered than it is.

    And you also get the debut of The Dirty White Boys against baby Shawn Michaels teaming with Tim Horner.

    • Like 1
  2. My tournament:

    First round:

    The Assassin (Jody Hamilton) vs. The Assassin (David Sierra)

    Tito Santana (WWF) vs. Tito Santana (AAA)

    Doink The Clown (Matt Borne) vs Doink The Clown (Steve Keirn) - Special Guest Referee Doink The Clown (Ray Apollo)

    Dangerous Doug Gilbert vs. Gashouse Doug Gilbert

    Second Round:

    Doink The Clown (Matt Borne) vs. Dangerous Doug Gilbert (Doink goes over here after a switcheroo with Keirn Doink)

    Tito Santana (WWF) vs. The Assassin (Jody Hamilton)

    Finals:

    Tito Santana (WWF) vs Doink The Clown (Borne) vs. Doink The Clown (Keirn) in a 3-way hastily thrown together after the shenanigans of the previous round. WWF Tito goes over. 

    • Like 1
  3. 1 hour ago, Log said:

    I'd love to just see one cage match that's just the two competitors beating the ever-loving crap out of each other in a cage.

    That's honestly why I ended up loving The Last Battle of Atlanta when it finally popped up after so many years of mythologizing based on the magazine coverage of the era and that "no footage exists" was the mantra for so long. There were some that felt let down after building up what the match was in their heads all those years, but I loved that the entire match is Tommy Rich and Buzz Sawyer simply punching and kicking at each other and ramming each other into the cage to draw blood, with the fanciest move of the entire match being a rock-solid piledriver.

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  4. I am always happy to see that Bruno/Hansen match get posted. It somehow both redeems WWF/E doing "leave the cage" rules but also exposes why just about every one of them comes off hollow in the years since.

    Bruno cage matches weren't about a race to be first out of the cage. Bruno cage matches were about Bruno finally getting the heel locked into a situation that they can't get out of, getting his revenge by beating the piss out of them and leaving them bloody, and then casually walking out of the cage once his thirst for revenge is satiated. ELEVENTY BILLION STARS.

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  5. The point about Triple H being a damn fine "TV match" worker is well boosted by the fact that those watching in real time STILL remember the title defense against Taka Michinoku to this day, which I think may be an all-time "modern era guy working like an NWA Champion" match-up.

    I do also think though that the No Mercy PPV (2007?) that started with Cena vacating the WWE Championship, Hunter beating Orton to claim the title, successfully defending against Umaga, and then losing to Orton in a bloody Last Man Standing match also somehow fell backwards into being "TNA-level overstuffed booking but done damn well and better than TNA ever pulled off". 

    As champion main eventers go, I have to go with Hunter over Jarrett there. 

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  6. On 11/3/2022 at 11:28 AM, SirSmellingtonofCascadia said:

    Man, I popped huge for the 4/10/82 - 4/17/82 Mid-South angle with Ernie Ladd hiring the Assassin to help him against Akbar and the Samoans, then Akbar hiring the Assassin away, and Ladd going back to find a partner and coming back with PAUL ORNDORFF. That is how you turn two heels face without betraying entirely how they behaved as heels.

    I have been doing a watchthrough of the weekly Mid-South TV over the last year and this was easily one of my favorite 1982 angles. I am a sucker for angles that are essentially "scumbag heel got usurped by an even bigger scumbag".

    Don't get too attached to The Assassin though, he pretty much only pops in for a few weeks specifically for this angle. Though if my memory is correct The Samoans and Orndorff aren't too long for Mid-South either and book it for Georgia themselves, which leads to Bill Watts being super-salty and taking pot-shots for about six weeks straight about how "the toughest competition in wrestling is here in Mid-South because we put competitive matches on TV every week unlike the cable wrestling from Atlanta". 

    • Like 2
  7. 16 hours ago, zendragon said:

    What was his "On the road" segment. I have no memory of this 

    These where the 1-800-COLLECT promos where Lee would call in from the town that Nitro is in next week to talk about how excited everyone in that town was that Nitro is coming, and would typically be tagged with a "weasel" joke at Heenan's expense. 

    Poor Lee Marshall, never actually did get to see a live Nitro. 

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  8. 4 hours ago, Craig H said:

    If I were to guess, one of the big drama points in the 6th season, which I assume will be the last, is Johnny not knowing if he should leave the country with being so close to the birth of his child or going overseas to see Robbie compete in the Sakai Takai.

    I am already assuming that a major development in Season 6 will be Miguel's dad coming for Carmen either as Johnny is in Japan or about to hop on the flight. 

  9. Its funny in hindsight that with such an incredible leap in video quality from VHS to DVD, that for my friends to take the plunge on buying a DVD player it was initial releases like the Matrix and the Lord of the Rings movies, but for me, the "killer app" that got me to join the DVD generation was the 2002 release of the Hulk Still Rules DVD set. 

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  10. 1 hour ago, Technico Support said:

    Note to self: drop the junk food and take up the "liquor and ring rats" diet.

    But if Terry Taylor is to be believed, don't forget the pot of coffee that you drink when you roll into the arena at 6PM still hungover from the night before and have to hit the ring around 9PM to go 45-60 minutes. 

     

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  11. Learning that Grim Reefer's full legal name is "Grimmace Reefer" was quite the fun joke.

    As stated earlier, I dug the Court gimmick overall, though it lost some steam as the show went on, and the "objection" gimmick seemed to do more to grind matches to a halt as an unnecessary complication than adding to the gimmick. I could see that working out great as a 13-episode hourlong gimmick like the Masked Wrestler, but I could see this becoming a drag if they keep it up over multiple 3-hour shows.

    • Like 1
  12. The "GCW Court" gimmick they are doing for this show is my exact kind of inspired stupid. Loving that once the "court" began the "trial phase" that wrestlers started coming to the Peoples Court theme, presented arguments and counter arguments before the matches and have Jordan Cassel doing the "on the way out" interviews. 

    • Like 1
  13. I have such a reverence for Wrestlemania III (primarily for being the perfect age for it - 9 years old - and being a Michigan kid) that it is easily my most watched and rewatched wrestling event of all time for me, and I have joked with multiple friends about how if I am in the hospital and they are going to pull the plug, throw Wrestlemania III on and let me die with that on in the background.

    Just don't let me die during Billy Jack vs Hercules. I am pretty sure you go to hell if you die during that match.

    P.S. Holy shit the earlier review of the Harley/JYD match is 100 percent spot-on. Its like Harley took every over-the-top bump he would normally take in a 30-minute NWA World Title match making the local hero a star and jammed them into the 5 minutes allotted because he knew that was the only way to salvage a match against 1987 JYD.

    And on the topic of Duggan's post Mid-South selfishness, goddamn I want to know what Vince told him to go along with getting absolutely destroyed by Yokozuna the way he did. Vince probably promised Duggan a title program after Yoko got the belt knowing damn well that he had no intention of putting Hacksaw in that position. 

     

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  14. Venues i still need to see live wrestling in:

    Korakuen Hall - for the obvious reasons of its history because I think every important pre-2000's wrestler worked there at some point except for maybe Rock and Hunter. 

    Kyoto KBS Hall - for the obvious reasons of beauty.

    Center Stage Theater - have gotten to see concerts there but not wrestling yet but even seeing the seating and knowing immediately what every view for watching wrestling in that building was like still gave me chills when I walked in.

    And the next two are primarily because they tie into the "when did you become a wrestling fan" conversation:

    Mid-Hudson Civic Center - again, pretty much every major WWF name from 1984 (the year I started watching wrestling as a child) through 1995 wrestled in that building at some point and I love that Northeast Wrestling still runs some of their more loaded shows there.

    Spartanburg Memorial Auditorium - same as above, but for every major JCP name between 1973 and 1990 and many moments for me watching Worldwide Wrestling in 1985 and 1986, and the acoustics still sound awesome when I watch live streams of modern indie shows there when the crowd is hot.

    Nashville Fairgrounds - I didn't have the pleasure of getting to watch the Memphis stars as a kid but the classic footage became some of my favorite to seek out when I started tape trading and the fact that its the one classic "CWA/USWA/Championship Wrestling" venue where wrestling still runs fairly regularly is awesome.

    Venues i have had the pleasure of watching wrestling in:

    Reseda American Legion - got to attend plenty of shows between 2008 and 2012 and yeah the vibe in that room combined with cheap Legion Hall beer was fucking incredible. I have been to The Globe Theater a couple of times since the move. The shows are still great but the vibe will never match that tiny building in Reseda.

    ECW Arena/Hammerstein Ballroom - got to cross both of these off during that first ECW One Night Stand weekend and experience arguably the most high-energy of the myriad of ECW reunion shows and FRONT ROW for Samoa Joe vs Necro Butcher holy fucking shit.

    Madison Square Garden - I finally got to cross this off the list with the NJPW show in 2019, though it would have been much more satisfying to get there when they still had the old center entrance setup, there were still a lot of chills for me walking into that arena. 

    P.S. when I went to Mania weekend 2016 in Dallas, I made sure to take a few minutes to walk around the vacant lot that used to the home to the Dallas Sportatorium and pay my respects.

    P.P.S. I will also totally shout out the Ukrainian Cultural Center, current home to GCW's Los Angeles events which is as gorgeous of a room as it looks on the live streams and really way too nice of a room for that sort of skullduggery. 

    P.P.P.S. oh yeah, I just remembered I got to cross off some old-school style STUDIO WRESTLING in 2003 when The Sheik's son was running his AWWL shows in Michigan at the ABC affiliate in Lansing. Getting to see Sabu, Jerry Lynn, and Kevin Sullivan tear it up in a traditional studio wrestling environment was a damn fine way to spend a Saturday morning. 

    Wrestling's pretty awesome sometimes, you guys!

    • Like 4
  15. On 6/4/2022 at 1:53 PM, odessasteps said:

    Kris P just uploaded the first (of 8 or 9) episodes of Austin Idol's 1993 Alabama promotion. 

    These shows were very educational. For example, I learned that Joey Maggs (excuse me..."Magnificent Magliano") defeated Negro Casas at the Cow Palace and Akira Nogami at "The Budokan" in the qualifying rounds if the U.S. Junior Heavyweight Championship Tournament - source: "Magnificent Magliano"

    These ended up being some damn fun background noise viewing. Junkyard Dog and Iron Sheik seem shockingly motivated, almost as if they were treated this as a potential gateway to that "one last big run" that every wrestler thinks they have, even if their bodies aren't cooperating anymore (especially so in the case of the Iron Sheik).

    And if you like jobbers getting destroyed, there are some incredible beatings administered by Steve Doll and Rex King (the future Well Dunn), which makes the casting of aspersions by babyfaces in promos about the two of them being "a little funny" even more dissonant on top of simply "being from another time". It's wild watching Steve Armstrong and Wendell Cooley talk about Doll and King being partners "outside the ring" as an insult after Doll and King just committed attempted manslaughter on their opponents. 

    Also, did you know that Austin Idol was in a horrific car accident in 1991? If not, you sure will after it gets referenced five times per episode in some television formatting that would make Dusty Rhodes say "dial it down a little bit, Austin". 

    And you have ring announcing duties being handled by Mike Jackson!

    Come for the above selling points, keep returning for every time the Iron Sheik shouts "camera man, ZOOM!" at the ringside camera man directly in front of him but the director maintains the hard-cam wideshot instead.

    An entertaining run of studio wrestling television despite the bummer of knowing in hindsight that the big "Battle at Boutwell" supercard that all of this was building to was canceled due to a freak once-per-century snow storm that dumped 13 inches of snow on Alabama that weekend, and the promotion aired one last TV and went out of business from there ☹ 

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