WRESTLING ON THE INTERNET NOT FROM THE NOW

[Cobra Commander]

Rick Rude vs Kensuke Sasaki:

Two Hours of Mark Henry:

 

[Cobra Commander]

this week's World Championship Wrestling match is the Garvin/Windham vs Midnights match for an entire hour (ish) of show thanks to the Braves chopping off half of the show

 

[Cobra Commander]

Best of the WWF Vol 20

And the 1989 Great American Bash

 

[The Green Meanie]

Sadly, Vol 20 was the last in the series.

[Cobra Commander]

yeah they're not working in any sort of numeric order for the History of WWF videos they're dropping on the Vault.. but I think we got a few weeks of WCW GAB uploads this year

[The Green Meanie]

Sometimes YouTube algorithm pays off. Here's episode 1 of the "Western Wrestling Alliance" a promotion I had never heard of based out of Houston, from 1990. As is tradition, they market themselves frequently as "HOUSTON WRESTLING", talk about wrestling being the "way it used to be" and for all non-WWF wrestling promotions, they ran shows out of the old Sam Houston Coliseum. Johnny Valiant is on commentary and he has difficulty pronouncing the company name several times, and almost calls it the WWF.

 Match listing:
The Star Man & The Driller vs The Royal Family (Jack Victory & Rip Morgan) w/ Lord Littlebrook
Lord Littlebrook & The Royal Family interview
G.I. Bro (Booker T) vs The Coyote
Card rundown for June 22nd Sam Houston Coliseum
Thor vs The Cherokee Warrior
The Guerreros (Eddie Guerrero & Hector Guerrero) vs Frogman LeBlanc & Terry Hogan
Super Collider (Stevie Ray) vs Ken Johnson

In between matches there's a commercial for the "Western Wrestling School" being ran by Ivan Putski(?!) Native Houstonians will definitely recognize the announcers voice as a mainstay for Houston commercials for decades. Apparently the school was being run out of the Coliseum itself.

[Niners Fan in CT]

Last year they uploaded two GAB's from the '86 tour and a full version of the 1985 GAB.  I am hoping there's more where that came from. 

[Cobra Commander]

2 hours ago, The Green Meanie said:

"Western Wrestling School" being ran by Ivan Putski(?!)

Ivan Putski going from Poland to Texas a long time before this. And there's the one RAW from middle of 1997 where Ivan Putski shows up because Scott Putski was just starting, so these people in San Antonio are getting Ivan and Scott Putski vs Jerry Lawler and Brian Christopher

Assorted Ivan Putski matches from Texas that are not likely to be in any filmed format

• San Antonio, 1982: SWCW Southwest Tag Team Title: The Dynamic Duo (Gino Hernandez & Tully Blanchard) (c) defeat Ivan Putski & Terry Funk by DQ
• Houston, 1981: SWCW World Tag Team Title Best Two Out Of Three Falls Match (Special Referee: Lou Thesz): Ivan Putski & Wahoo McDaniel (c) defeat The Dynamic Duo (Gino Hernandez & Tully Blanchard) by DQ [2:1]
• Dallas, 1977: Fritz von Erich, Ivan Putski & Moondog Mayne defeat Black Gordman, Gary Hart & Great Goliath
• Houston, 1973: Six Man Tag Team Best Two Out Of Three Falls: Ivan Putski, Jose Lothario & Ruben Juarez defeat Black Gordman, Blackjack Mulligan & Great Goliath [2:1]

[odessasteps]

I wonder how many people have never seen the “mighty Igor” phase of putski’s career. 

[Cobra Commander]

4 minutes ago, odessasteps said:

I wonder how many people have never seen the “mighty Igor” phase of putski’s career. 

there's a Bugsy McGraw vs Ivan Putski match from Texas in the early 80s which is a great matchup of two guys who worked a similar gimmick before

also the AWA 1974 pic on Putski's Wikipedia makes him look like a muscular Herb Abrams

[odessasteps]

Bugsy going from the Brute to wacky Bugsy is one of those late career gimmick shift that rivals the Sheepherdders. 

[Cobra Commander]

5 minutes of Heel Lord Alfred from 1980 Florida:

 

[Dragon]

WWF Wrestling Challenge 02 12 1990

Dustin Rhodes W/ Dusty Rhodes vs The Genius

 

[twiztor]

18 hours ago, The Green Meanie said:

Sometimes YouTube algorithm pays off. Here's episode 1 of the "Western Wrestling Alliance" a promotion I had never heard of based out of Houston, from 1990. As is tradition, they market themselves frequently as "HOUSTON WRESTLING", talk about wrestling being the "way it used to be" and for all non-WWF wrestling promotions, they ran shows out of the old Sam Houston Coliseum. Johnny Valiant is on commentary and he has difficulty pronouncing the company name several times, and almost calls it the WWF.

 Match listing:
The Star Man & The Driller vs The Royal Family (Jack Victory & Rip Morgan) w/ Lord Littlebrook
Lord Littlebrook & The Royal Family interview
G.I. Bro (Booker T) vs The Coyote
Card rundown for June 22nd Sam Houston Coliseum
Thor vs The Cherokee Warrior
The Guerreros (Eddie Guerrero & Hector Guerrero) vs Frogman LeBlanc & Terry Hogan
Super Collider (Stevie Ray) vs Ken Johnson

good find! i am SO watching this later.

[OGpistolpete]

Awesome PBS North Carolina documentary that just dropped on Mid-Atlantic’s Dorton Arena. Touches in its unique design, wrestling culture in the territory, the Buddy Landel v. Ric Flair feud, JCP’s fumbling of their expansion and inevitable death of regular weekly shows at the arena, and what’s being done today to keep the spirit alive. 

 

[Niners Fan in CT]

Maybe it's me but I always viewed Alfred as a heel.  Couldn't stand him. 

[The Green Meanie]

8 hours ago, twiztor said:

good find! i am SO watching this later.

There's a playlist of 5 more episodes that I skimmed through the other day. Was fairly surprised at some of the names that turned up.

 

Edited June 8 by The Green Meanie

[Cobra Commander]

Look at the adjective. WCW Vault uploaded the 6/10/96 Nitro today

 

[SirSmUgly]

On 6/7/2026 at 9:35 PM, Cobra Commander said:

5 minutes of Heel Lord Alfred from 1980 Florida:

 

It's nice that he properly called them soccer players, but he failed to add the necessary article before the word "hospital," so he's definitely a mega-heel. 

(It's weird seeing Hayes heel it up rather than being a doddering old babyface no matter how often I see the former.)

Edited June 10 by SirSmUgly

[SirSmUgly]

46 minutes ago, Cobra Commander said:

Look at the adjective. WCW Vault uploaded the 6/10/96 Nitro today

 

If he'd said, "Look at the adjective: big. They don't come any bigger than me."

OR

"Look at the verb: play" before the rest of his line, it would have worked out okay.

But he split the difference, and the flub actually enhances how memorable this is. 

[Cobra Commander]

the flub does cover for Nash's cringey Marge Schott line that the Vault likes to edit out of that segment (EDIT: for the record, they didn't edit the Schott line in the 6/10/96 Nitro they just posted but they edited it a few times in summary videos)

Also, loving the "once a show" Hulk Hogan videos they ran on May 27th and June 10th, 1996 Nitros... just to keep Hogan's name out there just in case

Edited June 10 by Cobra Commander

[Dragon]

 

[Cobra Commander]

Today on the WWE Vaulf

Bret vs Bam Bam from KOTR 93

And October 1984 Mid-South

 

Edited June 11 by Cobra Commander

[SirSmUgly]

Houston wrestling post-Boesch: 

Man, Paul Orndorff worked everywhere back in the early '90s. 

Also, has Booker ever told the story of how he briefly became G.I. Bro in 2000 WCW? Like was the plan for him to join the Misfits, and he decided to let Russo know that he'd worked a military gimmick a decade ago, or did Russo somehow know about G.I. Bro beforehand?

[Zimbra]

My recollection from the time is that Russo knew about GI Bro, either from prior knowledge or Booker telling him about it, and then the misfits flowed out of that because Russo thought Booker was boring without a gimmick.