WRESTLING ON THE INTERNET NOT FROM THE NOW

[Elsalvajeloco]

Man those carts were flying double time, which is another thing I noticed for the first time after watching this show countless times. It would have to be someone with incredible aim and impeccable timing. Otherwise, you would hit one of the female ring attendants (or the cart driver) as one of the wrestlers or managers were exiting the cart to enter the ringside area.

[Zimbra]

On 3/28/2026 at 1:57 PM, Elsalvajeloco said:

Pez is a guy who was probably born twenty years too late because he is the archetype of  the guys who had some success in the late SEG era/early Zuffa owned UFC. He had an amateur wrestling background and was compact with a good center of gravity. If he could take a punch or have decent BJJ/submission grappling skills, he would have enough success where he might mess around and be a mid tier contender. There were lesser guys in terms of athleticism who were able to make that claim.

I wonder how they explained the rules to him because he definitely stances up like he's going to punch but doesn't really throw any strikes, which was a bummer.

Gotta assume that being the first Black wrestler at UT-Chattanooga Pez could handle his business.

[Mister TV]

1 hour ago, Elsalvajeloco said:

How the fuck did they go from Ray Charles to Aretha Franklin to Gladys Knight to a very nervous Rockin' Robin who looked like she was about to vacate her bowels? I am guessing their first dozen choices called out or NCNS'd, and they just asked if anyone in the back knew how to sing. Then to have Jesse flat out say she did a terrible job was probably one of the things that has aged even poorer than some of the old school mimimalist wrestling. 

I can see Vince not wanting to pay two music acts, so Rockin’ Robin got the job. WMV was pretty light on the celebs, just Run DMC and Morton Downey Jr.

WMVI when the WWF was at its peak of marketing to kids, had celebs lifted from a 1973 episode of the Merv Griffin Show! Nine year olds in Warrior face paint were so excited for Robert Goulet, Steve Allen, Rona Barrett, and a surprise appearance by Mary Tyler Moore!

[Elsalvajeloco]

20 minutes ago, Mister TV said:

I can see Vince not wanting to pay two music acts, so Rockin’ Robin got the job. WMV was pretty light on the celebs, just Run DMC and Morton Downey Jr.

Along with John Turturro's bro, Morton Downey Jr. is the most sign of the times celeb they had for WrestleMania. That said, Run DMC is a great get for 1989. So light is probably an overstatement. Run DMC probably cost them more than any other act they had up to that point. With that in mind, they probably felt nothing else was needed other than hour long intermission with Piper, Brother Love, and ole Morton that went way too long.

20 minutes ago, Mister TV said:

WMVI when the WWF was at its peak of marketing to kids, had celebs lifted from a 1973 episode of the Merv Griffin Show! Nine year olds in Warrior face paint were so excited for Robert Goulet, Steve Allen, Rona Barrett, and a surprise appearance by Mary Tyler Moore!

Steve Allen actually did an amazing job. Mary Tyler Moore pretty much saying wrestling was fake but she still enjoyed it and also having to (poorly) pretend she knew who the fuck some of these people were was flat out hilarious. Was it Mooney who just kept asking her questions to kill time? Man, at least prep them before you do shit like that. It was not as awkward as the guy at King of the Ring 94 who said Hulk Hogan was his favorite wrestler when the man had just signed with WCW and the New Generation was in full swing (even though the main event for that particular show was Jerry Lawler vs. Roddy Piper lol). However, it was certainly up there.

 

[Dragon]

AJPW New Year Giant Series 1.19.1995 

Giant Baba and Jumbo Tsuruta and Mitsuharu Misawa vs Jun Akiyama and Takao Omori and Tamon Honda

 

[twiztor]

On 3/31/2026 at 5:30 PM, Elsalvajeloco said:

the guy at King of the Ring 94

"how much does that guy weigh?"

[Elsalvajeloco]

4 minutes ago, twiztor said:

"how much does that guy weigh?"

Surprisingly, this wasn't an Art Donovan screwup. For some reason, they sent Pettengil to interview the governor of Maryland. The first thing he says is that. KotR 94 is the Murphy's Law of WWF PPVs.

 

[Cobra Commander]

also somehow Art Donovan was not the oldest man who was a local guest at that PPV

One of these Thursdays, I hope the WCW vault just unleashes a bunch of Cactus Jack since they didn't give us a separate video of the awesome Cactus/Orndorff SB93 match

I think the only Cactus/Vader TV/PPV match they haven't given us on YouTube is the one with the stretcher job at the end. Like I think they even put the Worldwide match from 94 in a video. I don't think there's a hard line on the WCWSN rematch but it might be weird for their monetization to feature a match where Jesse Ventura rides off in the ambulance with Jack at the end.

Cactus getting killed by the powerbomb makes the list of "amazing moments where they didn't have a good idea of how to correctly follow up on it", I'd think

[Cobra Commander]

there is a fun art to the whole concept of working 10ish minutes and touching really only a few times (never mind that you see how the hood was gimmicked before the match starts)

 

[Cobra Commander]

and I hadn't actually seen the Firefly Fun House match from Wrestlemania-COVID19 until just now

yeah, feels like what happens if you smoke bath salts and watch wrestling, horror movies, and Adult Swim at the same time

this might have been the one way to make the Brayverse work, or at least work better than it usually worked

the match feels like the sort of thing that comes together in a really weird lucid dream... also Firefly Fun House and Noo Yawk Rules both believe in counting your own pinfalls

Edited April 3 by Cobra Commander

[Elsalvajeloco]

1 hour ago, Cobra Commander said:

there is a fun art to the whole concept of working 10ish minutes and touching really only a few times (never mind that you see how the hood was gimmicked before the match starts)

 

It's amazing that for years Vince/the WWF braintrust poked fun at southern wrestling but this is some shit straight of the rasslin' playbook. Matter of fact, folks in the territories would still be like, "hey, doesn't this seem hokey to you?". They still would have did it to draw a house during a relatively slow period, but I don't think they would be too jazzed about being that desperate.

[Cobra Commander]

The “on this day in history” leads to the Vault posting a Dusty vs Ivan Koloff match from the Main Event

edit: this was also on a Dusty DVD

Edited April 3 by Cobra Commander

[Dragon]

WWF WrestleMania XV  "The Ragin' Climax"

Triple H vs. Kane

 

[Cobra Commander]

On 3/30/2026 at 7:11 PM, Cobra Commander said:

 

Note from watching the rest of that video: Tiger Jackson was the creepiest looking wrestler. His combo of look and outfit looks like someone was wrestling while doing chemo.

okay, maybe the less offensive nicer comp here is that Tiger Jackson looked like Peter Garrett (Midnight Oil singer)’s mini

just a weird look for someone working in 1993 WWF. No wonder he did most of his work in an outfit (as Dink)

[Dragon]

AJPW Pro-Wrestling Love In Ryogoku 2013 ~ An Abiding Belief

AJPW World Junior Heavyweight Championship

Yoshinobu Kanemaru (c) vs Minoru Tanaka 

 

[twiztor]

13 hours ago, Cobra Commander said:

there is a fun art to the whole concept of working 10ish minutes and touching really only a few times (never mind that you see how the hood was gimmicked before the match starts)

 

i unironically love this match. the way the guys play to the crowd is top notch. the crowd is 100% bought in and it makes for a glorious experience.

every other blindfold match i've seen is so far inferior that they're not even comparable.

[Cobra Commander]

It wouldn't shock me if the Prince of Darkness/blindfold matches that Dusty did a few times were amazingly great since Dusty's entire style already involves lots of pointing and gesturing without having a blindfold on... like Dusty probably pointing his elbow in specific directions to try and gauge location by crowd pops

but some of those matches probably don't translate on tape and are a lot better live

a blindfold match in a brightly lit Wrestlemania arena is sort of a contrasting visual but the thing about WM7 is that you know damn well which WM it is by how that arena was decked out for the show

[Elsalvajeloco]

Had Watts stayed in WWF longer than three weeks, we probably would have gotten a redo of the JYD blinding angle with like Jean Pierre Lafitte and some babyface culminating with a series of blindfold matches on the house show loop and then the eventual blowoff on a IYH PPV. Hell, that might have been the first feud for Ahmed Johnson since he was JYD version 18. 

[Cobra Commander]

Razor Ramon vs Goldust with a blinding subtext as Scott Hall tries to get out of the company faster

[Cobra Commander]

another remarkable part of the Firefly Fun House match is that (1) they got "Obsession" by Animotion into the match and (2) they kept it in the video six years later

although there might be some complex pricing from Animotion about using their song for this show (assuming they actually got permission this time) but not using it on the SNME on the network

[Hamhock]

16 hours ago, Cobra Commander said:

there is a fun art to the whole concept of working 10ish minutes and touching really only a few times (never mind that you see how the hood was gimmicked before the match starts)

 

One of my favorite comedy spots at 3:17 - Martel shoots Jake off the ropes for a backdrop, and Jake just jogs off in a different direction, leaving Martel bent over and confused.

[Cobra Commander]

8 minutes ago, Hamhock said:

One of my favorite comedy spots at 3:17 - Martel shoots Jake off the ropes for a backdrop, and Jake just jogs off in a different direction, leaving Martel bent over and confused.

which, might be a solid spot to occasionally do in non-blindfold matches if the backdrop was too telegraphed and the guy didn't/couldn't do a leapfrog. Like Orange Cassidy could just hit the ropes and walk in the other direction

(it's possible that spot could make some people think about the logic of irish whips off the ropes but hey)

[zendragon]

On 3/28/2026 at 11:31 AM, Cobra Commander said:

Bad News Brown vs Macho Man in a street fight from Hamilton, Ontario in January 1989:

later tonight on the WCW Vault: Tully and Ole have a dispute of some kind and well..

First off Macho hurting his own elbow from hitting Brown in the head is some old timey wrestling racism

Second, Tony on the call makes me think of an alternate universe where he sticks around and takes over for gorilla instead of Vince.

[Zimbra]

5 minutes ago, zendragon said:

First off Macho hurting his own elbow from hitting Brown in the head is some old timey wrestling racism

Second, Tony on the call makes me think of an alternate universe where he sticks around and takes over for gorilla instead of Vince.

I had to explain the Wrestling Racial Skull Hardness scale to my wife and it was a humiliating experience for both of us.

[AxB]

1 hour ago, Cobra Commander said:

which, might be a solid spot to occasionally do in non-blindfold matches if the backdrop was too telegraphed and the guy didn't/couldn't do a leapfrog. Like Orange Cassidy could just hit the ropes and walk in the other direction

It's a Lio Rush spot, hitting the ropes and then turning 90 degrees on a dime and hitting the side ropes instead. Only he does it at like 100 miles an hour, so it's easy to miss.