Thursday, August 23, 2012

As A Fan II

On of the elements of pro wrestling I was always interested in was stables. There are the obvious favorites (The Four Horseman, NWO, and Heenan Family) but some were great to me off potential albeit realized or not. Please allow me to list my top 5 Wrestling stables.

The Dangerous Alliance
The Living Legend Larry Zbyszko, Beautiful Bobby Eaton, Ravishing Rick Rude, Paul E Dangerously, The Enforcer Arn Anderson, Stunning Steve Austin, and Madusa

All these dudes were tremendous talent, and Paul E's schtick with the cell phone was so captivating to me at the time. The seemed to be running shit in 91' & 92. I don't recall any major feuds with the whole alliance but I do remember a War Games match with them. I don't think I have seen that since the event itself, so yeah imma need WWE to get on that WAR GAMES DVD / BluRay pronto! Anyways I do remember Rick Rude always bringing it to Sting. I even got to see a house show in 92 that was headlined by a Sting v Rude steel cage match. Yes it was awesome (so I remember). Overall I wish they could of had a more impactful angle, but they were quite the force of top level talent.


Natural Born Thrillers


Johnny The Bull, Mike Sanders, Reno, Chuck Palumbo, Mark Jindtrak, Sean O'Haire, and Sean Stasiak

Ok, so the dying days of WCW were notoriously bad. Just about every storyline was dogshit, and confused the fuck out of everyone watching. Hell it even turned me from loyal viewer to casual viewer. The one thing that I did like was The Natural Born Thrillers. This was kinda like an early Nexus the big difference was Mike Sanders could cut a good promo. Ok let me come clean tho, when I went to add them to the list I totally forgot who Reno was. So yeah this is a group I liked for their potential not really their accomplishments. WWE gave the big dudes a shot when the bought WCW, but I would of liked to see Mike Sanders playing a similar role in WWE.


The Nation of Domination
Faarooq, Clarence Mason, PG-13, Crush, D'Lo Brown, Savio Vega, Kama Mustafa, Ahmed JohnsonThe Rock,Mark Henry, Owen Hart

If just by description the WWF's Nation of Islam meets Black Panther stable should of been a disaster, but those involved made it one of the best of all time. Sure the Nation had it's rivals and that came off boarderline tasteless in what came off more as a race war, but the real beauty of the NOD was the inner workings itself. Faarooq was a great powerful leader but it was his opposition as leader that let The Rock develop to the mega personality he became.


The Dudley Boys
Buh Buh Ray Dudley, D-Von Dudley, Big Dick Dudley, Dudley Dudley, Spike Dudley, Sign Guy Dudley, Joel Gertner, and many many more.

A fun act that developed to one of the best shticks of all time. Each individual was great in their role for what it was. Joel Gertner was one of my favorite managers of all time. Little Spike Dudley was a GREAT character and no one can deny the all time great tag team status of Buh Buh and D-Von.


The Radicalz
WCW idiocy led to arguably the fore most proficient wrestlers at the time to be so fed up they got a release and headed to WWE in arguably the biggest acquisition in the most competitive time in current wrestling history. If you don't know these guys just leave now. Their force in the WWF instantly made them more credible in WWF than they were with titles in WCW. They arguably reached their greatest success with this move, and whoulda thunk some vanilla midgets could be so revered. 


Leave a comment with your favorites.
Thanks

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

DVD Rewind Review: WWF Invasion 07.22.01


Ok, ok everyone considers the Invasion to be the biggest flop in the history of pro wrestling but for what it was this PPV was pretty fun. For how big this event was there was no BIG match. I have never been a fan of top single wrestlers coming together for a tag team match to headline a card, So Invasion's main event wasn't the draw for me it was the over idea of the event. RVD vs Jeff Hardy, for sure. Tazz vs Tajari, yes please. Mike Awesome & Lance Storm vs Edge & Christian, yuuuuup!. Hold uo tho Nick Patrick vs Earl Hebner, WTF I forgot all bout this one! Earl Hebner has always moved like a marionette operated by someone with tourettes, and Nick Patrick has always come across as a smug SOB. Yeah buddy this had to be one for the ages, how did I forget?!

Jim Ross: "Mick Foley is one of the fairest men I have ever known"
It is important to call it down the middle in such a highly contested matchup. Mick who tore it down in all three organizations (WCW, ECW, & WWF) was the perfect special guest referee. 

Nick Patrick don't play. He pops Hebner right in the mouth off top!

Hebner musters up the strength of a man fighting off a stroke, stomps a mudpuddle in Patrick pulls him out of the corner and goes for the pin. No dice.

 Mudpuddle stompage continues til Patrick has enough and kicks Hebner out of the ring. Typical heel shenanigans when WCW refs try to rough up your boy ol Earl, but Foley ain't fuckin around and ejects the WCW ref's.

While Patrick is givin Foley an earfull about ejecting his comrades, that sneaky Earl takes advantage and hits what is a mix between a shoulderblock and maybe a spear to put out Patrick for the 1-2-3. I have no idea if this settled the score or what the score really even was, but in front of a soud out house in Cleveland Ohio, they did the damn thing!


 I swear to god the crowds pop for Earl's victory was better than any pop I have heard on Raw in years.


The result of the rest of the card is somewhat meaningless because the WWF shit all on the legacy of the WCW so any victories are void til this day. There was no HUGE match, and thats a shame. The Invasion event tho was pretty damn entertaining, regardless of the outcomes. Check it out again, well worth it.



3 / 4

Friday, August 10, 2012

GWF TV Title Finals



I wish there was enough time to include the coin flip to determine the matches for the finals. Great end to a solid tournament. Pretty entertaining. Please leave your thoughts on the GWF TV title tournament in the comments section!


Global Wrestling Federation TV Title Tournament Semi Finals

Patriot vs. Chris Walker
Patriot vs. Buddy Landell

Thursday, August 9, 2012

GWF TV Tournament Semi Finals



Not a bad semi finals for a new company in 1991. I love the overselling of how "GLOBAL" the Global Wrestling Federation is. The Patriot was a great gimmick for the times, and you can tell the direction the company is heading. Watching and listening to Makhan Singh I wish WWF would of better utilized him. Sure Bastion Booger was an epic character, but Norman / Makhan Singh was capable of so much more.


Global Wrestling Federation TV Title Tournament Semi Finals

Patriot vs. Billy Black
Makhan Singh vs. Chris Walker
Buddy Landell vs. Adrian Street


Tuesday, August 7, 2012

GWF TV Title Tournament Round Two Recap



In round two we see Billy Black execute a clean moonsault, Patriot do his thing, and this really makes me wonder how Rasta never ended up in the WWF. Long live Terry Tate! For 1991 this wasn't a bad tournament. The commentating team wasn't bad either.

Global Wrestling Federation TV Title Tournament Round Two Recap

Billy Black vs. Randy Rhodes
Patriot vs. Bill Irwin
Makhan Singh vs. Terry Garvin
Chris Walker vs. Rip Rogers
Adrian Street vs. Rasta the Voodoo Mon
Buddy Landell vs. Big Bully Busick

Monday, August 6, 2012

As A Fan



We all have our reasons and moments that make us fans of pro wrestling, as we have the reasons we can hang out heads in shame. Different companies have held different ideal in what makes for a successful promotion or caters to a unique audience. Plenty of people can generalize "rasslin" fans of one group but we know it is quite z diverse bunch. What I want to know is in what order do you value the presentation of your pro wrestling programming? I have ranked my importance as to what I like to see out of a pro wrestling company and program.

01. Broadcast Production
The look and feel of an event has to be there. This can be done with the lighting, this can also be done with commentating. WWE has set the bar for almost all sports production and even they have room for improvements. The crowd lighting at Wrestlemanias or RAW match promo bumpers WWE never sacrifices their look. Pyro has been ridiculous at times but it all makes sense once you are in your seat at the arena and the boom hits.

02. Storyline / Angles 
Weather it is Jake the Snake going blid from a face full of arrogance, to Hogan and Macho beefin over Miss Elizabeth, to Goldbergs streak, give me a reason to give a fuck and I am there. Granted it seems there are far more bad than good, but thankfully I forget 90% of the shit.

03. Characters 
Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, Stone Cold, The Rock, Spike Dudley, Jim Cornette, Undertaker, Road Warriors. Unique individuals that all bring something special to the table.

 
04. Technical Ability 
Now a GREAT match can take this #4 spot to #1. Who gives a fuck about the setting if the action is there. Playing drums on buckets can still be amazing, so can 2 prolific athletes putting on a show in a rec center.

Saturday, August 4, 2012

GWF TV Title Tournament Round One Recap (1991)



I have searched the internets for some time looking for GWF's ESPN program from 1991. I never hear people speak fondly of the GWF, but when I first caught the show in the summer of 1991 I was hooked. Maybe I had / have low standards but I enjoyed the attempt of putting importance of every wrestler. The were building interesting characters and bringing in decent current and new talent. Sure some of it came off corny but what at some point didn't. To kick off the fed from the "Global Dome" they held the TV Title Tournament. A good mix of names in the tournament for a new company with future tournaments (World / LH / Tag) would add even more interesting names. A great starting point for a company was this TV Title Tournament, and a great starting point for this blog. Please share your thoughts and memories of the GWF.


Global Wrestling Federation TV Title Tournament Round One Recap

Billy Black vs. Brian Adias 
Randy Rhodes vs. Sweet Daddy Falcone 
Patriot vs. Stan Lane
Bill Irwin vs. Fantasma
Terry Garvin vs. Zebra Kid 
Makhan Singh vs. Terry Daniels
Chris Walker vs. Doug Somers
Rip Rogers vs. Hitman
Adrian Street vs. Axl Rotten 
Rasta the Voodoo Mon vs. Jeff Gaylord 
Big Bull Busick vs. Jimmy James 
Buddy Landell vs. Gary Young