Tim Evans 368 Posted January 24 Share Posted January 24 14 hours ago, Zakk_Sabbath said: Quick question for anyone who was around at the time: What promotions other than GWF and AWA aired on ESPN? Ive found a few sources online saying USWA and WCCW but mostly just reddit threads, nothing too concrete. Herb Abrams UWF did for a while on ESPN classic. And I swear I remember mid south airing on the channel on Saturday mornings back in the early 2000s Link to post Share on other sites
J.H. 1,845 Posted January 24 Share Posted January 24 1 hour ago, Tim Evans said: Herb Abrams UWF did for a while on ESPN classic. And I swear I remember mid south airing on the channel on Saturday mornings back in the early 2000s Wasn't that the Sklar Brothers doing their MST3K thing with sports shows? James Link to post Share on other sites
Eoae 1,168 Posted January 24 Share Posted January 24 16 hours ago, Zakk_Sabbath said: Quick question for anyone who was around at the time: What promotions other than GWF and AWA aired on ESPN? Ive found a few sources online saying USWA and WCCW but mostly just reddit threads, nothing too concrete. The four you mention all ran on ESPN. The only other promotion I can recall is UWF (Herb Abrams version). In the mid-90's, ESPN2 aired edited versions of existing Fury Hour episodes. The original episodes were 60 min long; ESPN edited them down to 30 min. IIRC, they ran the show five days a week and only had a small number of episodes, so they burned it out fairly quickly. Same eps ran on ESPN Classic years later. 1 Link to post Share on other sites
clintthecrippler 1,928 Posted January 24 Share Posted January 24 My memory of the ESPN timelines is that AWA ran from Fall 1985 through its closure at the end of 1991. And then World Class Championship Wrestling joined the lineup alongside AWA in July 1986, at least thats how I remember it, joining in after Kerry already had his motorcycle accident. I have in my head that at the time the ESPN show was a one-week delayed airing of the already-existing nationally syndicated show. And World Class evolved into USWA over time, while also picking up daily ESPN slots for old footage through the "Legends of World Class" series. The main USWA series on ESPN was always from Dallas, except for the few months that Jarrett stopped running Dallas during the second half of 1990. But even then, we never got Memphis studio stuff on ESPN, it was dedicated TV tapings in the Tennessee area just for the ESPN slot. They also filled out several weeks of TV with the big USWA World Title Tournament from the Mid-South Coliseum that Mark Callous competed in between the WCW run and becoming The Undertaker in WWF. Once Jarrett moved back into Dallas at the beginning of 1991, USWA continued on ESPN until the summer, when GWF took over Dallas and the ESPN deal, starting out its with four original episodes per week in the Monday through Thursday afternoon slots with footage from weekly TV tapings. I believe that continued well into 1992, before becoming one original episode and repeats throughout the week, before wrestling finally disappeared from ESPN sometime in 93ish, and then GWF basically continued as a glorified Dallas indy for a while with local TV 3 1 Link to post Share on other sites
Zakk_Sabbath 3,479 Posted January 24 Share Posted January 24 (edited) 3 hours ago, J.H. said: Wasn't that the Sklar Brothers doing their MST3K thing with sports shows? James Cheap Seats def played at least one UWF episode, but I wasn't sure if it ever aired outside of that either until @Eoae confirmed above Edited January 24 by Zakk_Sabbath Link to post Share on other sites
Eoae 1,168 Posted January 24 Share Posted January 24 I really dug the ESPN shows when they first aired. Up to that point, I had really only seen WWF and JCP/WCW (I started watching JCP on TBS shortly before it was rebranded). I really didn't realize there were other promotions in the US, much less overseas, so it was kinda new watching AWA and Global and seeing mostly wrestlers I had never seen before. And Legends of World Class was basically my first exposure to the Von Erichs, Freebirds, Bruiser Brody, etc. Later, i watched more territories wrestling and got smartened up to the fact that the ESPN shows were basically what was left after Vince and Turner raided their rosters and reduced them to shadows of their former selves. That diminished the nostalgia hit for me, but I still have a later-day WCCW and GWF and their oddball wrestler of "should have never been" stars ("Maniac" Mike Davis, babyface ace Eric Embry and his real hair color, the Rattler - who was definitely not Jake Roberts under a mask, etc.) 1 Link to post Share on other sites
kafkonia 942 Posted January 24 Share Posted January 24 2 hours ago, Zakk_Sabbath said: Cheap Seats def played at least one UWF episode, but I wasn't sure if it ever aired outside of that either until @Eoae confirmed above The Sklars have been posting (not-great-quality) recordings of Cheap Seats on their Youtube channel, if anyone's interested. 3 Link to post Share on other sites
Zakk_Sabbath 3,479 Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 I had a few AWA VHS given to me as a kid of various TVs along with Superclash III and that was also my first real exposure to any American wrestling outside of WWF/WCW/ECW. But that was way after they shut down, at least 6 or 7 years. Link to post Share on other sites
GuerrillaMonsoon 3,377 Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 How did they explain Earl Hebner still being allowed to referee after SNME? Link to post Share on other sites
Shartnado 776 Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 6 hours ago, RolandTHTG said: How did they explain Earl Hebner still being allowed to referee after SNME? I doubt they really ever did. But just like Danny Davis eventually returned to his reffing duties, despite being banned for life, I guess they just figured he had learned his lesson after certain amount of time had passed? Maybe their eyesight had also detoriorated further during this time so they fit their job description even better than before, so WWF figured what the hell, let's just give them their old gigs back. Link to post Share on other sites
colonial 325 Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 Didn't Dave Hebner get legit injured around the time of the "evil twin" angle? I recall reading (forget where) that there were plans to keep the "evil twin" bit going a bit longer, but Dave's injury forced the WWF to have Earl essentially "play Dave" and work as a face, and the angle was dropped without explanation. 3 Link to post Share on other sites
Mister TV 537 Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 32 minutes ago, colonial said: Didn't Dave Hebner get legit injured around the time of the "evil twin" angle? I recall reading (forget where) that there were plans to keep the "evil twin" bit going a bit longer, but Dave's injury forced the WWF to have Earl essentially "play Dave" and work as a face, and the angle was dropped without explanation. I remember Earl being "Dave Hebner" for at least a year or two, once and awhile the announcers would comment on him being fingerprinted prior to the match. 1 Link to post Share on other sites
Shartnado 776 Posted January 26 Share Posted January 26 18 hours ago, Mister TV said: I remember Earl being "Dave Hebner" for at least a year or two, once and awhile the announcers would comment on him being fingerprinted prior to the match. Damn! I do remember that all of a sudden after a while it is actually Dave Hebner who stops appearing and Earl becomes the senior referee, eventually. I did not know that it was Earl being called Dave for a while. The fingerprint comment is a very nice touch. Sounds like something Gorilla would say, or come up with. Link to post Share on other sites
Curt McGirt 13,554 Posted January 27 Share Posted January 27 On 1/24/2021 at 4:17 PM, Eoae said: GWF and their oddball wrestler of "should have never been" stars Don't forget Buff Bagwell as the Handsome Stranger And I think I remember the Patriot being on those tapings? I watched a bunch of it when I was laid up with a broken arm a couple years ago and they mysteriously reappeared. It was... not great. Link to post Share on other sites
Ace 5,077 Posted January 27 Share Posted January 27 The Patriot won both of GWF's title tournaments. IIRC, those were his initial appearances as The Patriot. 2 Link to post Share on other sites
Shartnado 776 Posted January 27 Share Posted January 27 7 hours ago, Ace said: The Patriot won both of GWF's title tournaments. IIRC, those were his initial appearances as The Patriot. I seem to recall the last ever AWA tag team champions being DJ Peterson & The Trooper. I read somewhere that The Trooper in question eventually became The Patriot. So, did Del Wilkes work as The Trooper prior to becoming The Patriot, or am I just remembering wrong? Any validity to that? Link to post Share on other sites
Technico Support 10,896 Posted January 27 Share Posted January 27 41 minutes ago, Shartnado said: I seem to recall the last ever AWA tag team champions being DJ Peterson & The Trooper. I read somewhere that The Trooper in question eventually became The Patriot. So, did Del Wilkes work as The Trooper prior to becoming The Patriot, or am I just remembering wrong? Any validity to that? Yep, he was The Trooper first. Patriot winning both initial GWF title tournaments for both belts sure was something. 1 Link to post Share on other sites
Shartnado 776 Posted January 27 Share Posted January 27 Did Handsome Stranger and The Patriot interact at all during their time in GWF? Stars N' Stripes teaming or colliding before they were a thing in WCW? Link to post Share on other sites
Eoae 1,168 Posted January 27 Share Posted January 27 17 minutes ago, Shartnado said: Did Handsome Stranger and The Patriot interact at all during their time in GWF? Stars N' Stripes teaming or colliding before they were a thing in WCW? Didn't team together or face each other in Global. I don't remember any out-of-ring skits or segments. They did work several of the same tv tapings in the fall of '91. Link to post Share on other sites
odessasteps 14,353 Posted January 27 Share Posted January 27 Even in the early 90s, the Patriot not wanting to win a title due to benefitting from chicanery got him heat, not plaudits. Link to post Share on other sites
tbarrie 1,012 Posted January 27 Share Posted January 27 Yeah, people suck. And they started sucking long before the 90s. 1 Link to post Share on other sites
Hayabusa 247 Posted February 3 Share Posted February 3 Spoiler Stupid cell phone FUCKING BOONIES Who came up with the no ropes-barb wire match first? Any chance it's on YouTube or daily motion by chance? Link to post Share on other sites
Shane 351 Posted February 5 Share Posted February 5 Are there any “key” Al Madril matches worth tracking down? I’m mostly familiar with him in later-era World Class and never really thought much of his work. He was near the end of his career by that point, I guess. Thought he was a decent promo, though. I know he featured in Portland, but I’m not sure where to start. I ask because I’m currently watching some Texas All-Star Wrestling that someone put up on YouTube and there’s an angle with he and Chavo Guerrero as partners, with Chavo turning face after Madril and Black Gordman beat down Gory Guerrero. Super hot angle and the promos around it have got me hooked. Link to post Share on other sites
Matt D 13,858 Posted February 5 Share Posted February 5 26 minutes ago, Shane said: Are there any “key” Al Madril matches worth tracking down? I’m mostly familiar with him in later-era World Class and never really thought much of his work. He was near the end of his career by that point, I guess. Thought he was a decent promo, though. I know he featured in Portland, but I’m not sure where to start. I ask because I’m currently watching some Texas All-Star Wrestling that someone put up on YouTube and there’s an angle with he and Chavo Guerrero as partners, with Chavo turning face after Madril and Black Gordman beat down Gory Guerrero. Super hot angle and the promos around it have got me hooked. I think this is the one. There might be a match a month off I’m thinking of though. Link to post Share on other sites
Shane 351 Posted February 7 Share Posted February 7 On 2/4/2021 at 9:13 PM, Matt D said: I think this is the one. There might be a match a month off I’m thinking of though. This was awesome and I thank you for the recommendation. Fantastic heat, with two faces that are extremely talented at building the sympathy of the crowd. Awesome punching by Murdoch and Lothario in particular as well. This also has what might be the biggest bump I've ever seen Gary Hart take. He's Gary Hart, so he doesn't actually sell it much, but you have to expect that with him. As an aside, it's early 1978 and Bronco Lubich still looks and moves like he's 100 years old. Heh. 1 Link to post Share on other sites
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