Jump to content
DVDVR Message Board

WWE NETWORK HIDDEN GEMS


RIPPA

Recommended Posts

I'm hoping they put together a doc on Pedro. I know they already had most of the Bruno (canceled DVD) and Gene (already planned Network special) docs ready to go and Pedro isn't AS important to the company's history, but he was still the second guy to play the Ace role, and the first Triple Crown winner in the WWWF/WWF. So, I know it'll take a little time, but I hope they put something together that does him justice.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Quote

WWE Network News reported that tomorrow’s Black History Month-themed additions to the Network’s Hidden Gems section are:
Ernie Ladd & Art Thomas vs. Dusty Rhodes & Dick Murdoch (AWA, 1972)
Thunderbolt Patterson & Bill Watts vs. Ole & Gene Anderson (Georgia Championship Wrestling, 1977)
Big Daddy Ritter (Junkyard Dog) vs. Jim Neidhart (Stampede Wrestling, 1979)
Booker T and Craig PIttman “engage in some friendly amateur wrestling at the WCW Power Plant” (WCW, 1998)

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

14 hours ago, RIPPA said:

WWE Network News reported that tomorrow’s Black History Month-themed additions to the Network’s Hidden Gems section are:
Ernie Ladd & Art Thomas vs. Dusty Rhodes & Dick Murdoch (AWA, 1972)
Thunderbolt Patterson & Bill Watts vs. Ole & Gene Anderson (Georgia Championship Wrestling, 1977)
Big Daddy Ritter (Junkyard Dog) vs. Jim Neidhart (Stampede Wrestling, 1979)
Booker T and Craig PIttman “engage in some friendly amateur wrestling at the WCW Power Plant” (WCW, 1998)

Quick notes:

Ladd and Thomas vs Outlaws is a match that we probably had but that no one's seen. It's a classic match because of an angle at the end. There's no sound which is a shame as Ladd is an awesome babyface monster and the Outlaws are the craziest heat-seekers you've ever seen. 

Sound isn't great for the Omni match. It's always cool to see the Wrecking Crew do their thing. Thunderbolt of 77 is somewhat better than Thunderbolt of later years. BS finish which would have better if the sound was better.

The Booker/Pittman thing is just an interesting slice of life sort of thing in watching the guys interact. Mainly positioning. I'm 95% sure this is when Booker was out with his knee injury that meant Stevie Ray Lost the TV title to Jericho. If he's injured, he doesn't really show it. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So if you thought the pilot for the AWA TV show Hidden Gems was weird as fuck wait until you see the new one from the AWA in 1989

Quote

 

THE BATTLE OF BREAKFAST CEREAL

MAY 01, 1989

Legendary superstars such as Nutra Rockne, Total the Terrible and Hondo the Honeybee compete in this bizarre battle for breakfast supremacy.

 

Whoever is deciding these Hidden Gems really was not a fan of Verne or the AWA 

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh hey! Khawk (the biggest AWA expert there is) was talking about that the other day and how it was his most elusive potential find and that he had almost once gotten a track on it from inside a cereal company or some such but the deal was kiboshed because someone got cold feet. That's great.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, hammerva said:

So if you thought the pilot for the AWA TV show Hidden Gems was weird as fuck wait until you see the new one from the AWA in 1989

Whoever is deciding these Hidden Gems really was not a fan of Verne or the AWA 

Fuck. I am on the train to work now but am seriously considering faking illness and taking a sick day so I can discover the Wrestlecrap with you guys.

Also holy shit folks at the Network are totally reading these boards. I absolutely refuse to believe that Khawk posted about this thing NO ONE had heard of in the "Holy Grails" thread last week and that coincidentally this is on the Network one week later.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

26 minutes ago, West Newbury Bad Boy said:

Link?

Whoops. Got my message boards crossed for a minute, my post was referencing the "Holy Grails" thread on the Pro Wrestling Only message board.

A thread started in 2012 of "lost"/"possibly untaped" matches that people wanted to see as a speculative thread in 2012, one year before the WWE Network launched.

https://forums.prowrestlingonly.com/topic/15404-holy-grails/

AWA expert khawk20 posted this on the thread last week:

"I'm not looking back in the thread and I may have posted about this previously in this thread, but I became aware of the existence of AWA guys wrestling a paid show at a Cereal convention circa 1988-89. The wrestlers had names given to them of cereal mascots of the day (Greg Gagne introduced as "Captain Crunch" for example). I had a line on the tape but the guy I was discussing it with worked there and it would have been a possible get-fired risk had he sent me the tape, so he didn't end up doing it. 

I lost track of him years ago, but knowing the tape exists makes me hope it somehow gets out someday."

And then nine days later, it's up on the WWE Network!

  • Like 1
  • Thanks 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I would love to think that there is a mole on the PWO board that works on the selection of WWE Network Hidden Gems.   But likely it is because today's fake holiday  is National Cereal Day.  Unless they decide to show us how they make Bootyos (which I probably don't want to know ?  ) the pickings for a hidden gem tied to cereal seem to be slim.   

now if they even decide to have National One Hit Wonder day on a Thursday then maybe we will get that Bret vs Tom Magee match.  Because I don't see our mole banging on that drum lately ?  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So, this cereal stuff just appears to be a Kellogg's sales and marketing meeting that AWA was hired to do entertainment for, with General Mills positioned as heels, and company motivational speakers essentially cutting promos. VERY bizarre. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, MORELOCK said:

So, this cereal stuff just appears to be a Kellogg's sales and marketing meeting that AWA was hired to do entertainment for, with General Mills positioned as heels, and company motivational speakers essentially cutting promos. VERY bizarre. 

It's the best thing I've seen since they found The Last Battle Of Atlanta.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

This was all fun and games and good for a laugh until I saw that Wahoo McDaniel got roped into this and then i got sad.

I am also bummed that Tom Zenk is dead so i cant hear him pop up on a podcast and do a crazy person rant about wrestling in a tag team called "S&M" at a corporate sales conference for a cereal company.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I feel like the AWA being hired to do random corp shit was so common, Zenk probably didn't even realize how crazy it all was.  I bet they did the same thing for a half dozen MInneapolis companies (without it being taped.)  This was WWF running RAW at high school gyms.  They were so desperate for anything, they took what they could get while pretending they were doing them a favor.

Wahoo going all out really was a bummer though.

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Also, it's just really fucking weird that the Minneapolis wrestling company was hired by the Michigan-based cereal company to put together a show in Minneapolis attacking the Minneapolis-based General Mills. It would still be really strange if it was a General Mills paid show, but at least you could follow the logic a little bit. Why the hell was Kellogg's running this convention in their hated rivals backyard?!?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 hours ago, clintthecrippler said:

This was all fun and games and good for a laugh until I saw that Wahoo McDaniel got roped into this and then i got sad.

 

Especially when you see this British sales manager cut these promos about their competition saying stuff like "stories as fake as this joke over here".   tells you how desperate the AWA was that a Verne Gagne run company that has Wahoo McDaniel in it (maybe even booking it) would allow people openly tell you that their product is fake.    Maybe the wrestlers were all getting shit faced at the lobby bar while all of that was going on.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It was sad seeing Wahoo as part of this but I can't complain about him giving it his all.  Was to me the best match of the show though that may or may be low praise considering the show.

The show itself was wacky and well worth watching.  The marketing speeches were whatever but the first guy actually did a helluva promo on General Mills.  Having the one team being called "S&M" would have been one helluva spittake if I was drinking water.  And it seemed that's how AWA wanted it as at no point did they say one guy was Sales and the other was Marketing.  They just kept mentioning the team name instead and I couldn't help but laugh.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

See, this is why I can justify the $10 a month for the Network.

Give me a random gem like this, the occasional one or two matches I'm interested in seeing each month on the PPVs and then toss in the backlog of Coliseum vids and I'm set.

I do like the fact that Badd Company said F it...we aren't getting paid enough in 1989 AWA to buy new color coded ring gear for this one show.

Edited by The Great ML
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...