WRESTLING ON THE INTERNET NOT FROM THE NOW

[Cobra Commander]

35 minutes ago, zendragon said:

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

also a certain amount of fun with production to have a match that occurred on January 16th 1989 commentated on by a man who didn't leave the NWA until February 89. They did a similar thing with Jim Ross commentating on WWF matches from late 92 for tapes released late in 93. Although they were reasonably generous with a match released on tape in September 93 between Flair (who was the Zombie NWA champ when they recorded the commentary) and Tatanka (who was getting the undefeated push through 93)

then again Ross and Heenan also made a joke about the idea of Typhoon tripping on a tape that was released a few weeks after Shockmaster's debut

[Niners Fan in CT]

On 4/2/2026 at 1:25 PM, Cobra Commander said:

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

I quite enjoyed the "hunt for Cactus" thing they were doing and his promos where he says "why do you call me by that name".  I think the problem with it all is they never had any intention of Jack beating Vader so it just fizzled out after.  

[Cobra Commander]

a bunch of WWF stars have thoughts about a Bunkhouse Brawl at the Cow Palace (coincidentally the WWF ran a bunch of bunkhouse matches around the time of the NWA Bunkhouse PPV)

 

[colonial]

Backstage at WM1 with Regis Philbin ...

[odessasteps]

 

[Cobra Commander]

Big Show thankful he didn't get the name "Mr. Blobby" in March 1999

[Cobra Commander]

It's on YouTube in a few other places but i'm amused that a video with the Shawn/Razor WM10 ladder match doesn't have that match mentioned in the title

 

[Cobra Commander]

Memphis Wrestling, Evansville edition (4/5/1986):

Quote

We got the Memphis Vice! Jos Leduc! The King and Dutch! The Mod Squad! Tony Falk! Billy Travis beat Abdul Gaddafi! The Mod Squad is the Tag champs. Eddie Marlin has an apology to Lance, and then they show Bill Dundee slapping Lance Russell from last week. They fined Bill and Buddy $1000 each. But if they do it again, it's a 5 year ban. The Memphis Vice taking on Keith Eric and Jim Jamison.  Memphis Vice win after Bryant hits a clothesline off the ropes. Billy Travis gets an interview with his new title belt. And here comes Abdul Gaddafi to beat him up. Wednesday Night in Evansville, it's Texas Death between Lawler and Dutch against Bill and Buddy. It's elimination rules too. Bill and Buddy have bandaids on their heads. Bill and Buddy come out in suits, and here comes the "THE BILL AND BUDDY SHOW" table. That's some impressive woodworking on that table. Jos LeDuc comes out for a handicap match against Garman and Trailer. WCW would have had better ratings if the NWO just brought out a table to take over Nitro in December 97 (yeah I know the NWO took over the table a bunch of times for 18 months in 96/97). Jos LeDuc threw a dropkick (we think, the camera didn't catch all of it). Jos LeDuc just threw one of those guys over the top onto the other and that's the most brutal over the top DQ i've seen in awhile. Jos LeDuc joins Bill and Buddy as people check to see if the job guys are alive. Full card for Wednesday in Evansville. But there'll also be a show in Marengo, IN and Ferdinand, IN. Pat Rose and Tony Falk vs Tojo and Frank Morrell. Jos LeDuc vs 10 people trying to pull his arms apart. Billy Travis vs Abdul Gaddafi. The Mod Squad vs Diamond and Lee. And the Texas Death main event. Bill and Buddy are not doing a Jerry Lawler video until they were told that they had to run the commercial for the Jerry Lawler video. I'm sure this Lawler video is on YouTube but I can't figure out how to find it yet. Bill and Buddy are asleep after the Lawler promo video, but here's Lawler and Dutch vs the Rose Brothers. Amused at Lance and Dave still being at their table during all this. Also amusing how much of the commentary involves Bill and Buddy outraged over Jerry throwing punches. Lawler and Dutch leave the ring and the Rose Brothers get a countout win. Then Jerry and Dutch come back out to break up the Bill and Buddy show. Hitting a table with a stool is one way to destroy it, Jerry. Pretty sure OSHA disapproves of having a smashed table out there like that. So here's a brawl with Lawler and Dutch against Bill and Buddy with the Rose Brothers and others showing up. The Mod Squad is in action against David Johnson and Henry Rutledge. The Mods just showed up in JCP in March 87 on the WCW Vault releases of Saturday Night. The Mods are the tag champs here because the Fantastics are no longer in Memphis. JD Costello yelling into the mic. JD has a jacket that looks like he stole wallpaper. Amused at how tired Lance sounds about JD after Lance had to deal with Bill Dundee. Mods win with a clothesline and elbow drop. At least JD's jacket and tie match. JD insists that the Mod Squad's victory was on the front page of the USA Today sports section. Another promo for the Evansville show. Here's some words from Lawler and Dutch, whose shirts are the same color as the background. You see, the difference from last week to this week and that this week is elimination rules and last week wasn't. "Wednesday Night's a good night for fighting" - that's not the Dynamite theme song for some reason. Paul Diamond and Mike Lee vs Tony Falk and... some words from Tony Falk first. Tony Falk is teaming with the Masked Patriot (the graphic says he's teaming with the Destroyer) in an expiration of time match. Diamond and Lee win the first fall and that's the end of our video.

40 years (and a week) since the Bill and Buddy Show

[Cobra Commander]

More wrestling!

World Wide Wrestling, 4/5/86: 

 

Quote

Last week, Pez Whatley turned heel on Jimmy Valiant and this week Pez is in Paul Jones Army. Jimmy Garvin beats Ben Alexander quick with a brainbuster. Ronnie Garvin has some words about Ric Flair. We got some big shows coming up. Monday April 7th in Fayetteville. Wednesday April 9th at Dorton. Magnum TA joins David for some words. Magnum is sick of the Koloffs. Ronnie Garvin beats Ron Rossi quick by punching him in the head and teabagging him. Tully and JJ have some words with David. Hector Guerrero in there with Vernon Deaton. Hector wins with a cool looking splash. "Hector Guerrero, an hombre from South of the Border" (that's not grammatically correct, David). Paul Jones and Shaska Pez Whatley have some words about the Dorton show. Shaska calls Sam Houston an undercover hillbilly. Arn has some words about Wahoo McDaniel. This video leaves in an ad for Conner homes and the Durham Bulls. We got some news about changes in the Crockett Cup card from the UWF (Duggan vs Slater! Terry Taylor is now teaming with Dr. Death). This video cuts out a Wahoo match and leaves in a block of commercials. The Koloffs join David to talk about their current problems. More commercials. Hey they're airing Baltimore Orioles games on this North Carolina station (WLFL). Wahoo joins David to talk about Jimmy Garvin. Shaska Whatley is whupping Rocky King's ass. Some more words about Fayetteville and Dorton. Ric Flair joins David. Magnum beats Tony Zane quick. Even more words about Dorton Arena. Wahoo has some words about Arn and he insists he takes 30 minutes to get going. Magnum has some words for the Magnum/Manny vs Midnight Express match. Commercial for blank cassette tapes. Flair/Arn/Tully taking on George South, Gene Ligon, and Italian Stallion. That cuts off.

You know, some other people could have taped Worldwide in 1986, right?

[Cobra Commander]

randomly watching Jim Crockett losing money trying to promote Dallas wrestling

NWA Championship Wrestling, 11/19/1994:

the card:

• Tony Norris (the future Ahmed Johnson) vs Greg Valentine
• Curtis Thompson vs Dapper Danny Davis
• Big Al Walker vs Rod Price
• The Hard Riders vs the Youngbloods
• Tully Blanchard & Chris Adams vs Michael Hayes & Scott Putski
• Junkyard Dog vs Black Bart

Quote

Joe Pedicino is announcing this and we are in the Sportatorium. Tony Norris is The Regulator. Tony Norris has an inset promo. Norris has long tights and a weightlifting belt (or a wide belt over his back). Joe saying Curtis Thompson is taking on "Big Ed Rock". Ahmed Johnson hitting football shoulderblocks looks like a bad time. Tony Norris wins with a schoolboy despite interference. Skandor Akbar looking younger than Valentine and Greg Valentine has turned on Akbar. Black Bart runs in and attacks Akbar too. Stay tuned to try and figure out who is the face here. The ref is standing outside the ring looking confused.

Yeah DeVry would run ads for this promotion. Tully Blanchard is guest commentating this match between Curtis Thompson and Danny Davis. Tully doing his best to pretend that Jim Crockett Promotions is a big thing in 1994. Thompson wins with a crossbody. Boni Blackstone interviews Tony Norris. November 25th, Corsicana Texas! Otto Baker's Central Texas Coliseum doesn't have any google results and Otto died in 2015. Tickets available at the box office or at Sonic. Imagine trying to get wrestling tickets from Sonic. A series of books on how to do home improvement projects, just months before this stuff was probably put on CDs so you could put it in the computer instead of reading it. Get this tape measure free! Time Life has been gone for 3 years. Greenville Middle School Gym got a show!

Michael Hayes guest commentating this Al Walker vs Rod Price match. Michael Hayes saying hello to his grandmother (because he's 35). Michael Hayes doesn't know what the deal is with Tony Norris. Who are actually faces or heels in this promotion because Tully and Hayes are facing each other and they were both heelish on commentary. Michael Hayes is actually a good commentator at talking about this Al Walker vs Rod Price match. Rod Price wins with a boston crab. Boni talks to Tully Blanchard. "It's been a long long time since I stood before a camera on a pro wrestling show" (Tully, you were on Slamboree 6 months ago). God Almighty has brought Tully back to wrestling, as Tully is essentially cutting a heel promo because Tully always comes off like a heel. The Tom Joyner Morning Show on 100.3 Jamz. Has anybody stepped into the void of selling the stuff that Time-Life was selling in the 90s. Or do we just use Spotify playlists for 40 song Christmas playlists these days. What's a better deal, 3 cassettes of Christmas music for 19.99 or 2 CDs for 24.99?

Michael Hayes is still at ringside for this Hardriders vs Youngbloods match. Hardrider Rick and Hardrider Frank. Michael Hayes popping for Chris Youngblood chopping a Hardrider Rick to the ground. Mark Youngblood tags in and he's a house of fire. Hardriders run into each other. Chop off the top and the Youngbloods win. What is a Hardrider anwyays. Boni and Greg Valentine in the same shot is AMAZING hair. Boni talks to Greg Valentine and Black Bart. Greg Valentine has changed into a suit for this interview. Dusty couldn't get the Black Bart/Greg Valentine team together to work WCW Worldwide in 1996. Tickets available at Bud's Discount Center in Greenville, Texas! What the fuck, the music got really loud on this ad for KPLX 99.5 Country (this might be an overdub due to copyright). Dorf goes fishing! I gotta imagine every Dorf video is on YouTube by now. Dorf Goes Fishing: not available in stores (you also get a free keychain). Got a show on Corsciana too.

Time for Tully/Chris Adams vs Hayes/Putski. Who is the 2nd most likeable person in a tag team match with Tully, Chris Adams, and Michael Hayes? Tully's strut looking like a dad celebrating a strike in bowling. Presumably Chris Adams is promoting all these shows in small towns that are close to Dallas. Scott Putski looking like a mini-Ultimate Warrior. Joe doing his best to make sense of that clothesline out of the corner (it's a "double clothesline"). Wonder if this ring is the exact same one from the 80s because they bolted the ring to the ground in the Sportatorium. Man that Chris Adams enzuigiri looks fucking nasty in a good way. Skandor Akbar has requested interview time. I think Hayes is working in comfortable pants tonight. I think Hayes and Putski are the faces here because Putski isn't a heel. Tully accidentally elbowdrops Adams. Hayes accidentally punches Putski. Tully and Adams win. Hey it's Marc Nulty from WrestlingClassics with a ringside interview. Boni must be preparing for Skandor. Tully asking Chris "Did you learn anything tonight". Tully is his charming usual self talking to Chris Adams. Then Michael Hayes calls Scott Putski a pollack as everybody hates each other in this match. Tonight at the Sportatorium, Hayes vs Scott Putski. NordicTrack is still in business (in a sense). You can burn up to 1100 calories per hour with Nordictrack. Monday at 6 on News 4, an undercover report on Curanderos. A replay of Black Bart and Greg Valentine attacking Akbar earlier. Skandor Akbar is unhappy with Black Bart and Greg Valentine. He's bringing someone big into this promotion to go after Black Bart and Greg Valentine. Gospel's greatest hits CD. Good thinking by this CD commercials to not air too much of songs that they would get their audio zapped on YouTube 30 years later. A guy named Otto Baker could have had a good name for a car lot. Otto Baker's Auto Lot.

Our main event is Junkyard Dog vs Black Bart. I think Bart is the less fat of these two. JYD without hair (on his head or face) looks like someone who was playing in the NFL in the 70s and makes personal appearances to talk about the good ol times. Next week, Akbar announces his new protege. Hey, we're still doing "you can't headbutt black guys" in his promotion. Greg Valentine does look nice in a suit. Maybe he could have worked out as a Horseman in 1988. Did Black Bart have too much going on to become part of the Stud Stable in 1995? Black Bart wins after JYD gets tripped. Tony Norris makes the save. Mark Nulty gets some words from JYD and Tony Norris postmatch as the credits run.

Aside from some ambiguity on who is actually good or evil on this show.. it's a cross-section of people that were available and in Dallas in 1994

[odessasteps]

On paper, love seeing a “who was better partner for Gino” tag team w Tully and Adams.

[Elsalvajeloco]

I love that there was a conversation about Jericho peaking early on this forum while Michael Hayes was doing commentating and wrestling on small ass shows in Texas in the remnants of the Dallas territory and largely done as a serious wrestler and thought to be well past his prime at 35. Meanwhile, the WWF champ (Bret Hart) was 37 and the guy who would beat him at Survivor Series that year would be 45 years old. And the guy who would take the title from him would only be three months younger than Hayes at the time. Keep in mind, just shortly down the road, he would show as Dok Hendrix as if Michael Hayes never existed.

Life comes at you fast.

[Cobra Commander]

WCW Vault did a perfect job titling and thumbnailing the video for this Nitro:

And here’s 23 minutes of Sid squashes

 

[Cobra Commander]

the super-weird visual of WWF promos on the Houston Wrestling set during their brief collaboration

 

[Johnny Sorrow]

20 hours ago, Cobra Commander said:

More wrestling!

World Wide Wrestling, 4/5/86: 

 

You know, some other people could have taped Worldwide in 1986, right?

Apparently not. This guy is the only source and he's clipped everything that got a flag from YouTube. 

[Cobra Commander]

take your pick on what kept territory syndication off the network between (1) interest level, (2) having to work around all the unlicensed music, (3) the shows being 30 minutes long without local promos, or (4) not having every week in their vault

hell, in the case of syndicated WWF TV, they probably realized quickly how much of a time-suck it would be to work around the fact that they were using unlicensed Michael Jackson songs into 1986

usually Worldwide/Pro is better than the 6:05 show because insane Carolinians are a larger wrestling audience than the groups lured to Techwood. Not saying the Techwood crowds are bad, but there's like 4 rows in that studio and the community centers in NC treated JCP TV tapings like the biggest thing to ever happen to their city

although I wonder which recent-ish WCW TV is just totally absent from the WWE vault or YouTube. Gotta be some week of dying days Worldwide where nobody gave enough of a fuck to tape it

Edited April 6 by Cobra Commander

[Cobra Commander]

Hogan vs Slaughter from WM7. Goodness, Hogan hit a pretty good bladejob for this one

 

[AxB]

Fit Finlay vs Franz Schumann, Reslo, 1992.

[Corwo]

PCO vs. Osamu Nishimura:

 

[Dragon]

NSBW New Gate '94 

Yoshiro Ito vs. Keisuke Yamada

 

[Dragon]

Rikidozan Memorial (6/30/96)

Genichiro Tenryu and Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Riki Choshu and Koki Kitahara

 

[Cobra Commander]

there might be a slight optical illusion with the height of the wrestlers but the thumbnail makes this cage they used in dying days Los Angeles look massive

also, very similar to the big blue cage that had it's debut in 1986 in... Los Angeles

[Curt McGirt]

On 3/25/2026 at 11:48 AM, Web Conn said:

The world needs to know how good this match is 

 

There's two things I really love about this match (which I have to have seen before)

1. Tenryu throws the world's fastest enzuigiri, and Jumbo hits the two hardest jumping knees I've ever seen him hit. He actually pins in the air and gets hangtime on the second one. The enzi, I had to immediately rewind. 

Then at the end 

Spoiler

Yatsu threatens to get in the ring and the entirety of the AJPW tracksuiters watching jump up on the apron like riot cops ready for the fight. And then they fight. 

It also made me think of a wrestling gimmick where you have to work an opponent's particular limb for the match, like say, a "leg match". Someone could be a specialist at each body part and have to switch up their moveset. And they couldn't focus on anything else! It might even be the most interesting between two guys known for enormous movesets that don't focus on limbs at all, like say, a Konosuke Takeshita, who I don't think has a sub in his entire game. 

[Web Conn]

On 4/6/2026 at 2:09 PM, Cobra Commander said:

Hogan vs Slaughter from WM7. Goodness, Hogan hit a pretty good bladejob for this one

 

Remember the first season of Tough Enough they asked that guy I believe his name was Daryle what his favorite match was he said Hogan vs Slaughter and Tazz asked him “why”?

[Cobra Commander]

20 minutes ago, Web Conn said:

Remember the first season of Tough Enough they asked that guy I believe his name was Daryle what his favorite match was he said Hogan vs Slaughter and Tazz asked him “why”?

presumably he wasn't talking about the Desert Storm match in June 91 which was better than the WM7 match

Edited April 8 by Cobra Commander