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Dolfan Watches Every Wrestlemania On Lockdown


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8 hours ago, Dolfan in NYC said:

DAY 19

I'm fascinated to see when they started adding in music (it can't be the "My Way" X7 video can it?).  

It probably was or was at least one of the first times they did it with non in house music. I doubt any use of music they technically don't own in the modern era was pre 1999. I remember recording a best of WWF in 1998-1999 on tape (Google shows it's WWF Eve of Destruction) back in the day that was on MTV (or USA), and that was basically nothing but music videos/montages. They were using shit like Battleflag by Lo Fidelity AllStars for Austin beating Vince's ass at St. Valentine's Day Massacre.

I vaguely remember an early Wrestlemania had a "Don't Stop Believin'" montage at the end on the Coliseum Video edition. I highly doubt that's going to be on the network version. That probably also applies to other earlier attempts at that.

5 hours ago, Dolfan in NYC said:

WRESTLEMANIA VII

So...  yup, this was supposed to be in the LA Coliseum, but "security concerns" (about the low ticket sales) forced them to move to the LA Clippers' Arena.  (Probably because the Lakers had a game that night.) 

1. They had already been there for Wrestlemania II. 

2. They can at least say they are in Los Angeles proper as opposed to Inglewood where the Great Western Forum was. Small victories? Also, wrestlingdata.com shows that WWF only did one show at the Forum in the 80s (1984 with Hogan/Studd on top for 12k) and they went back a handful of times between 92-94. Their first show back after an eight year absence? Headlined by Warrior vs. Papa Shango in June 1992 for 5,800. WWF came back in the summer of 94 and did 7,000 for Bret and Owen only to come back and do 2,500 for Diesel vs. Backlund on top. Oof. WCW was running there and kept doing even worse even going back to JCP. However, when they came during the NWO era, they were doing crowds up over 10,000 every time.

Now if you juxtapose that with WWF running the Los Angeles Sports Arena and look at their numbers, you will see why they decided to do it there instead. It appears they had a much greater relationship with that particular venue. Either that or they could run it with impunity for less money. In addition, by then, it was the venue much more synonymous with professional wrestling. You can say it was the Olympic Auditorium, but even when they brought back high level championship boxing back to the Los Angeles area, it was mostly at the Forum for the Forum Boxing shows. So basically what happened was, when people stopped running the Olympic Auditorium, the Fabulous Forum got WCW, the Lakers, the LA Kings, championship boxing and the Los Angeles Sports Arena got the Clippers, WWF, lucha libre, and some boxing.

 

 

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2 hours ago, Elsalvajeloco said:

It probably was or was at least one of the first times they did it with non in house music. I doubt any use of music they technically don't own in the modern era was pre 1999. I remember recording a best of WWF in 1998-1999 on tape (Google shows it's WWF Eve of Destruction) back in the day that was on MTV (or USA), and that was basically nothing but music videos/montages. They were using shit like Battleflag by Lo Fidelity AllStars for Austin beating Vince's ass at St. Valentine's Day Massacre.

There's "Highway to Hell" for Summerslam 98.

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24 minutes ago, Robert s said:

There's "Highway to Hell" for Summerslam 98.

Yeah, that might be patient zero as far as when they started getting frisky with non public domain stuff for video packages. It's also the first "we can use this very popular song so we're going to play it a million times and run it into the ground' track.

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Yeah, I think Highway to Hell was a turning point because it was so mutually beneficial. There was a renewed interest in AC/DC after they found a new audience from that exposure, and other artists and record companies followed suit. 

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DAY 20

Alright, I'm knee deep in Mania 7, so let's keep going. 

I'm genuinely surprised in the pre-match interview that both Knobbs and Sags look pretty svelte compared to where they'd be a few years later. They're challenging the Hart Foundation for the tag titles.  Without knowing much of where this was going to go as a kid, I was pretty sure this would have been a relatively easy defense for the Harts.  However, Vince has decided it's time for Bret to begin his singles push, so... let's get those pesky belts off.  One thing, I will note on a tangent here, Jimmy Hart has moved into the phase of his managing career where he has a different outfit for each of his clients.  This match he's wearing a quite awesome motorcycle helmet/leather jacket combo. That helmet, of course, would prove key as after a very good match (maybe the best of the Nastys' careers) Neidhart gets the El Kabong treatment with the helmet and we've got new champs.  Since the Hart Foundation broke up soon after this, I'm kind of surprised they didn't have a turn. 

We are running the setup video for the Jake Roberts/Rick Martel blindfold match, but it feels like they cut out the final 30 seconds of it.  I will note, whichever producer found those scary "blind" contact lenses for Jake, kudos.  They're STILL disturbing to look at today.  

So the match itself, a few thoughts.  First, Jake, through no fault of his own accidentally gives away that they can see through the shrouds he and Martel are wearing because you can clearly see his hand inside it when he adjusts it on his head. Second, Jake's pointing and having the crowd help was a very cute bit.  And third, and I think this is the universal criticism of this match, it went 8:30 or so according to Wiki, but it felt like 8 eons.   It should have been Jake pointing, attacking, and missing, Jake pointing, attacking, and getting hit by Martel, Jake pointing, attacking, DDT.  Five minutes at the absolute max.  I get what they were going for, but this really needed to be planned out better by the agents. 

 

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THE STREAK~ BEGINS!  Jimmy Snuka is wearing boots.  WTF is that about?  Well, here's Undertaker, still showing signs of his ginger beard as I guess the hair dye for the beard isn't that effective. So there's squashes and then there's this. I can literally count the number of offensive moves Snuka gets on one hand. Undertaker is very much the heel at this point, and them showing scared kids in the crowd confirms that.  But that crowd reaction is 50/50 at best as Taker is definitely getting cheered by the end.  And speaking of the end, it kind of looks edited, because it looks like Snuka kicked out of the Tombstone?  I definitely see his shoulder at the three count.  

Okay, I'm at about 35-40 into my ride and I decide to plow ahead, even though i know what's next is long and historic. 

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Warrior/Savage, Career for Career.  I don't recognize any of the jobbers carrying Savage and Sherri to the ring, though the one on the left does look familiar. I didn't remember if Warrior charged or not, and I thought to myself, he should SLOWLY walk to the ring because that's a good sell of the severity of what's on the line.  And he does! Well, Warrior's version of walking, which is slow jogging.  

God, this match is amazing. Warrior beating up Savage with Randy bumping like a fucking madman.  Savage outsmarting Warrior and beating the unholy piss out him.  Sherri being a constant nuisance outside. BTW, there are some shots of Sherri in her dress that rival softcore porn because the "dress" isn't much more than strings of crystals and she bends over leaving nothing to the imagination. (I've been in quarantine too long.)  Also funny, there's a spot where Sherri is trying to take off the dress because it's clearly limiting her mobility, but Randy SCREAMS "Let's go" and she does the planned bit perfectly, regardless.  

The 5 Flying Elbow false finish had everyone (including the recently seated future POTUS) believing Warrior was dead and buried.  As I kid, I remember thinking, wtf, is Warrior getting fired?  Oh but no 15 year old Dolfan, here he comes with his Hulk Up routine. See ya later Macho.  Boom wham, Gorilla Press, 1, 2,  KICKOUT!  That got an even BIGGER reaction as the crowd gasped.  The fuck did Randy do that!  

The finish is oddly... off?  It feels like it should have been something FUCKING epic but the three shoulder tackles will have to do.  Because the angle that follows...  Wow. 

Elizabeth has been shown in her floor seats all match and of course Sherri's not taking Savage's loss well.  Beth makes the save and of course, Savage comes close to clocking her.  Here's what I found amazing. Randy has to get across, completely without words:

  • He doesn't know who attacked him, 
  • He's sad his career is over,
  • He figures out what happened, and
  • He's sorry for every stupid thing he's done. 

He does it so fucking well, he's literally got people weeping when he and Elizabeth reconcile and hug.  God fucking damn it, Randy was amazing. 

The room I'm in also suddenly got fucking dusty as fuc... aw fuck it... yeah, I teared up. Sue me. 

Day 20 is in the books. 

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2 hours ago, Dolfan in NYC said:

 Jimmy Snuka is wearing boots.  WTF is that about? 

Snuka was on like reinvention #2550 with each of them being diminishing returns. I would think changing his appearance every once in a while was an attempt at making him seem less like a relic. 

Edited by Elsalvajeloco
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I always got the "Evil Snuka" vibe when he wore a goatee. Now that I've seen his late 70's / early 80's stuff, I know that he wore one going way back, but 13 year old me took it to be like some soap opera evil twin-type shit.

Edited by grilledcheese
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17 minutes ago, grilledcheese said:

I always got the "Evil Snuka" vibe when he wore a goatee. Now that I've seen his late 70's / early 80's stuff, I know that he wore one going way back, but 13 year old me took it to be like some soap opera evil twin-type shit.

Something tells me he didn't need the goatee to have that particular effect.

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8 hours ago, Elsalvajeloco said:

Snuka was on like reinvention #2550 with each of them being diminishing returns. I would think changing his appearance every once in a while was an attempt at making him seem less like a relic. 

Did Snuka ever go back to wrestling barefoot after he switched to the long tights? I wonder if he made the switch to cover up knee and/or ankle braces. 

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6 hours ago, happjack said:

Did Snuka ever go back to wrestling barefoot after he switched to the long tights? I wonder if he made the switch to cover up knee and/or ankle braces. 

ISTR he worked barefoot during his ECW run.

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40 minutes ago, happjack said:

He was in long tights and boots for the Tommy Dreamer kicks out of the splash angle. 

But he was back in trunks and (I think) barefoot the following year at my first ECW show. So heel Snuka = boots, face Snuka = barefoot.

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12 minutes ago, MoeCristyV.1.6 said:

Did he wear boots that night in the hotel?

That'd be a good Observer mailbag bit...

Bryan: This person asks; 'Did Jimmy Snuka wear boots in the hotel on the night that he killed Nancy Argentino?'

Dave: I don't know, you'd have to ask him.

Bryan: He's dead.

Dave: Well, there you go.

Edited by PetrolCB
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17 minutes ago, PetrolCB said:

That'd be a good Observer mailbag bit...

Bryan: This person asks; 'Did Jimmy Snuka wear boots in the hotel on the night that he killed Nancy Argentino?'

*Dave goes into a long ass unrelated story/anecdote that's mostly nonsensical and has all his typical verbal crutches*

Dave: How fucking stupid can you be?!....Uh, what was the question again?

Bryan: They asked about Snuka wearing boots when he killed his girlfriend.

Dave: I don't know, you'd have to ask him.

Bryan: He's dead.

Dave: Well, there you go.

FTFY

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DAY 21

So it's clearly intermission time, because they run some longish interviews.  And I'd forgotten this was the debut of Crush as we're getting shitty Demolition 2.0 here.  Tenryu and Kitao are "interviewed" by Regis and the only words they say in English are "Kathy Lee?"  It is unclear if they meant Gifford or Crosby.  We go back for another comedy promo with Alex Trebek interviewing Jake & Damien.   The pay off is Heenan laughing his head off at the announce tables saying he'd set everything up and was trolling the directors and interviewers (and 28 years later, me).  

Oy.  That was a slog.  

Demos vs. Tenryu & Kitao are on now. As good as heel Demolition was back in the first run, was as bad as they are here.  And Kitao is somehow worse.  It looked like they were going for power vs. power, and we just got K no selling Demo-fucking-lition...  Ugh. Tenryu is trying his goddamned hardest in here, but no one aside from Smash is remotely able to vibe with him. I did giggle at Monsoon not knowing what an enziguri was and calling it a "reverse crescent kick".  Followed by a power bomb that looked like Smash had roughly .001 seconds to get himself set for, because his head *barely* cleared.  

Thank god that was over.  

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