$heriff Tom
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Post by $heriff Tom on Oct 12, 2007 13:01:58 GMT -5
Most people remember Billy Jack Haynes as a soft-spoken good guy who left territorries almost as soon as he came in. A main purveyor of the full-nelson. But for a short spurt in the late 80s, he made a damn good nasty heel. In fact, among traders his heel run in Portland is considered some of the best heel work ever done.
I got a couple of discs, one featuring his initial heel turn, and the second a return to the area to pick back up where he left off with a stint as the masked Black Blood in WCW and a knee injury in between.
He turned heel in the funny "during a tag match the bad guys threw a garbage can in the ring, one of the bad guys hit him with it from behind, and before Billy turned around one of his partners picked up the can so he thought his partner hit him" gag.
Billy went bezerk. He was swinging around a kendo stick, beating Rip Oliver and his 19 year old chubby son who was just new to wrestling to a pulp. But it was his initial heel interviews which were a kick.
He screamed. He was menacing. He told the crowd to shut up, and called them scumbags. Made fun of everyone and their food stamps and welfare checks. He said "Oregon sucks" and ripped up all his Oregon gear. He bullied around the announcer, the 80 year old ring announcer and company owner Don Owen, and slapped Owen's promotor son in the face.
He ran in on the matches of others, and disrupted interviews. He was NASTY. It was such a difference from his mumbling, soft-spoken, let me shake the announcers hand when I am done interviews it leaves me stunned.
Great stuff here.
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Post by thecaptain15 on Oct 12, 2007 13:39:38 GMT -5
Man from his work in Florida and WWF I never would have thought he was capable of that.....
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$heriff Tom
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Post by $heriff Tom on Oct 12, 2007 13:54:28 GMT -5
He was walking around in a shirt that said OREGON SUCKS and telling people to stick stuff "up their ass." His interviews were screamed, and he had these crazy man sideburns and his hair was never as long. He looked scary, and acted scary. The announcer was selling it bigtime too, talking about how "dangerous the atmosphere" was whenever Billy Jack was around.
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$heriff Tom
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Post by $heriff Tom on Oct 19, 2007 15:25:20 GMT -5
So the other night I was watching a bit of my July 97 tape, and this was when Brian Christopher had first showed up, and he and Lawler were working together, while not admitting they were father and son. It was silly, perhaps a takeoff on Lawlers real-life concerns in ever admitting he was his son to that point, cause he did not want to appear "old."
Well, Christopher had a little feud going with Ivan Putski's son Scott at this time - not sure if ya'll really remember him, but he is infamous for apparently doing a porno scene with Missy Hyatt at some point.
Well, after Putski caught a beating from Brian and Jerry, he recruited - who else, Ivan, to help him out. So on Raw the Putski's went up against the Lawlers. The highlight was pre-match, when Ivan grabbed the mic and sang some Polish polka songs, while Scott pumped his arms with joy.
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Post by sancho231 on Oct 19, 2007 16:47:17 GMT -5
i saw a match later on in 97 , i think where Putski battled Brian Christopher, where putski fucked his knee up. that s my main memory of Scott putski.
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$heriff Tom
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Post by $heriff Tom on Oct 23, 2007 8:50:44 GMT -5
I have that match on tape, as well.
So check this out. Last night I threw on my "Best of Can-Am Connection/Best of Strike Force" videotape, and I was in the time period where Strike Force was just kicking up. This followed an attack by the Islanders on Rick Martel, who was recently abandoned by his old partner, Tommy Zenk.
Anyway, Tito was dabbling in Spanish announcing while not in the ring, and on one occassion the nasty Islanders and Bobby Heenan stalked him as he was at his little table. Of course, Santana, being the hothead he was, jumped up and started swinging. The beatdown was on, as the 3 men started putting the proverbial boots to Tito.
Who decides to intervene but chubby Pedro Morales, who was at the announce table trying to do his job next to Tito and some other latino man. Well, this was funny - Pedro gets up all big and bad and one punch was all it took - Morales went down like he was shot, and lay there against the chair and desk, quivering like he was blasted with a taser. Holy Hell, he sold that to high heaven.
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$heriff Tom
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Post by $heriff Tom on Oct 30, 2007 8:10:30 GMT -5
So I got a heap of DVDs from one of my trading pals yesterday, and Dana and I, as a prequel to Raw, enjoyed an hours worth of "Mr Kennedy in OVW." Yes, a compilation of Ken's work in the WWE minor leagues. Very interesting to watch. There is also a similar comp out there with Brock Lesnar tearing through that same fed I may look into.
This was a well done comp, with menus and everything. 2 discs, a couple of hours each. It opens with what may have been his first match down there, and he was sporting dark hair! And going by his given name, Ken Anderson. Within a couple of weeks he ended up not only with the blonde hair, but a Scott Steiner blonde beard! He looked pretty silly, actually.
Once the promos started, you could see the morphing into the Kennedy character. I skipped ahead a little just before we watched Raw to watch "Ken Anderson becomes Mr Kennedy!" Basically he came out on TV and talked about a short stint he had just had with the Smackdown brand, and how Vince had told him that "Ken Anderson" was not a money name. So, taking this to heart, he was going to use the middle name of that great name as his new tagline.
In this early stint seeing a lot of Ken mixing it up with future Spirit-Squader Johnny Jeter and Matt Capotelli, who, sadly, was soon diagnosed with a brain tumor he has been struggling to battle through.
Jim Cornette was a major presence at this time, as he was helping to book the shows, and was pretty much a main character and announcer, along with Al Snow and some guy with a barbershop mustache who is still there to this day. Its funny to hear names dropped during the matches who were there at the time and are now WWE/ECW staples, like Elijah Burke. Kennedy was even running with a couple of beefy blonde men and Jillian Hall, who came out for a promo wearing nothing but the tag belts over her wherewithalls.
This was a supremely fun watch, and considering I got these for around 2 dollars a disc, a bonanza.
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Post by thecaptain15 on Oct 30, 2007 9:35:43 GMT -5
Dana and I, as a prequel to Raw, enjoyed an hours worth of "Mr Kennedy in OVW."
I wish I could get my wife to do that ;D
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Post by Ms. Jericho on Oct 30, 2007 9:40:17 GMT -5
He didn't "get me to do" anything. I just love that Mr. Kennedy.
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$heriff Tom
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Post by $heriff Tom on Oct 30, 2007 9:50:56 GMT -5
Yeah, its when I throw on tapes of Nick Bockwinkel vs Baron Von Raschke that she tunes out.
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Post by Ms. Jericho on Oct 30, 2007 9:51:36 GMT -5
;D It's true.
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$heriff Tom
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Post by $heriff Tom on Nov 5, 2007 9:19:33 GMT -5
Ah, the latest offering I tackled over the weekend was a "Best of Nailz" compilation I got recently. I basically paid like 2 bucks for it. These are a nice stroll down memory lane, I enjoy these comps. Here's the deal on this one - it kicks off with Nailz storming into the ring during a Bossman squash, and absolutely destroying him. At one point during the attack Vince howled that it was the worst beating anyone put on another in WWF history! He was choking out Bossman with the stick, kicking him all around the ring, and he even cuffed him. Slaughtered him. After the beating (which put Bossman on the shelf while Nailz built up anticipation by taking his beatings around the fed) there are a heap of Nailz squash matches. Nailz was just battering guys. Punching, kicking, choking. He was being sold heavily by the announcers as a destroyer. You know the story - he was a guy in Bossman's clink, and apparently he claimed Bossman put the screws to him and now he was getting revenge. They even mentioned his sentence a couple of times, it was over 2000 days. Heenan was funny, on more than one occasion throughout this hour plus disc he claimed the reason Nailz was sent away was cause one Mothers Day he parked outside a florist illegaly to pick up flowers for his Mom, and he was railroaded into the system. After a series of straight squashes, Nailz was matched up against Sgt Slaughter on TV, and he ripped through Slaughter with ease, beating the Hell out of him, and choking him out. He was unstoppable. His match against Virgil from Summerslam 92 was on here, he blitzed right through the guy. This comp ends with a "Nightstick on a Pole" match vs Bossman, at the Survivor Series. Bossman eked out the victory in a match that was not nearly "violent" enough considering the setup of the feud. Around this time, in real life, they were setting up a Nailz / Undertaker feud. Apparently there was a staredown on TV which did not make this comp. But before the feud got started Nailz got into a fight with Vince backstage that turned physical. Apparently the fight was due to money, but Nailz later claimed Vince was coming on to him. That has since been dismissed by many as absurd. Either way, agents ran in to find Nailz with his hands around Vince's neck. Nailz was obviously fired, and later on came back to testify against Vince in the steroid trials of the 90s. Ironically, his testimony was so scattered that he came off helping Vince, as the jury could not believe him cause his stories kept changing. he comp ends with his one-shot appearance in WCW, in a "bounty match" against Sting. Nailz was in the same outfit, but wrestling as "The Prisoner." Sting beat him handily, and that was the end of our orange jumpsuited friend. I remember Nailz even earlier as "Magnificent Kevin Kelly" in AWA, where he was managed by Sherri Martel. He was always a a big lug, but as Nailz it worked.
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Post by thecaptain15 on Nov 5, 2007 17:41:15 GMT -5
Yeah, its when I throw on tapes of Nick Bockwinkel vs Baron Von Raschke that she tunes out. How can anyone not like the Big Baron goose stepping? ??
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$heriff Tom
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Post by $heriff Tom on Nov 19, 2007 20:41:46 GMT -5
So I just watched another match off my Tito comp. It was from the Spectrum in January of 1980, as Tito (who was a tag champ with Ivan Putski at the time) teamed with Gorilla Monsoon (described as "everyone's favorite") against...The Wild Samoans!
I'll tell you, the Philly crowd was way into Monsoon. Everything he did was over. But I can not get used to Gorilla the wrestler. Not only does he look like someones kindly grand-dad, but we all know him as the jovial announcer. But he threw some cool chops, and took a Hell of a bump over the top rope after one of the Samoans headbutted him while the ref's back was turned and Gorilla had the other Samoan in a bearhug.
Cap, your referee was Dusty Fellmeyer? Do I have that spelled right? I remember old Dusty a bit. Here he was.
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Post by $heriff Tom on Nov 26, 2007 10:28:23 GMT -5
Finishing up my July 97 comp over the weekend, saw a niftly little match between Hitman Hart and The Patriot. I was a Patriot mark, spurned off his run in Global Championship. Its funny, these days Patriot Del Wilkes is one of the anti-steroid crusaders (recently seen in the CNN documentary DEATH GRIP) and has sold his Patriot getup to Tom Brandi, who uses it on the Indy circuit to this day.
Before the match Hart ,who was heeling strong at this stage, had the Canadian Anthem blared through the building. When Patriot marched out, he demanded the American Anthem be played. Of course, as it was playing and Patriot was standing at attention, Hart attacked him. During the match Hart put on that dreaded leglock around the post, I loved that move. HBK was at ringside, being a nuisance. There was a ton of heat around all this, the fans were rabid, and the real hatred between Hart and Michaels was at its professional peak.
At one point the ref went down, allowing HBK the chance to scurry in and count the pin for The Patriot (this was leading into Summerslam the next week, where HBK was reffing the Hart/Undertaker battle) - it was funny to see Hart lose leading into his big match (and eventual title win) but the heat was on how HBK was going to behave as ref.
Big win for The Patriot, and he celebrated to what later on became Kurt Angles entrance music.
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Post by MSBNYY on Nov 26, 2007 10:44:11 GMT -5
The Patriot rules. Too bad he got hurt and never came back to the WWE. I heard he used to train with Mr. America and Hulk Hogan.
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Post by massyanksfan on Nov 26, 2007 11:24:36 GMT -5
lol @ the Patriot's thumbs up. I thought that Angel's music seemed familiar, but now I remember it being Patriot's
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$heriff Tom
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Post by $heriff Tom on Dec 2, 2007 11:35:18 GMT -5
Watching some interesting stuff on my July/Aug 97 comps early in the weekend. Over on Nitro there was a mismatch of sorts as the NWO sent The Great Muta against the Giant. Got a cool peek of what it actually looks like under the ring, as during the match Muta scampered under to get away, and the camera sort of followed him. It was barren under there, except for what looked like a huge vaccum hose.
Muta ended up coming out the other side while the doofy Giant was doing the old "Look down and wonder where he went" gag.
Over on Raw around the same time British Bulldog and Ken Shamrock were going at it in an arm-wrestling challenge. It was a spirited battle, but predictably as Shamrock headed towards a win Bulldog nailed him with a headbutt over the table, then a chairshot. Bulldog beat him down a bit, then (and give Shamrock credit for taking one for the team) he dumped DOG FOOD all over Ken. It was disgusting, it was that sloppy kind that looks like browned vomit.
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Post by $heriff Tom on Dec 14, 2007 14:03:17 GMT -5
So last night I threw my Tito Santana comp on for a match. You'll be seeing a lot of Santana stuff in this thread, I have 19 discs and about 200 matches of his at the ready.
Check this out - The Spectrum, early 84. Tito teams up with Rocky Johnson and Jimmy Snuka (accompanied by Buddy Rogers) against the evildoing Wild Samoans and Ivan Koloff. Sika was not on hand, the story was he was very sick with flu. Odd they addressed that on commentary, I always read fool the fans, as a sick wrestler garners sympathy. Koloff was stepping in along with Afa and Samula.
2 of 3 fall match. They made a point of announcing that due to the longevity of previous matches on the eve, "the 11PM curfew is being waived." The crowd applauded this. But whats funny is during the first fall I saw the clock reading 20 to 11, and snickered that they would not see the curfew anyway.
First fall was a good old fashioned DQ as one of the Samoans lifted Rocky up and deposited him on the top rope, crotching him. Our favorite, Dick Woehrle, was the ref, and not putting up with it. He called for the bell and the Samoans and Ivan were down a fall.
Snuka was getting the mad pops. The fans were happy to see Rocky (who got a beating all match, and was called "the Rock" a bunch of times by Gorilla on commentary) and Santana, but when Snuka tagged in the crowd exploded.
There was a mixup, as Snuka scored a pin to win the match, but the guys kept wrestling and Snuka got to do his splash, and Woehrle counted 3 again. So the good guys actually won 3 falls to zero.
Your announcers were Gorilla and Vince, always a fun pairing. Good match live from the Spectrum, next up on that DVD is Santana vs John Studd, from the Garden I believe.
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$heriff Tom
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Post by $heriff Tom on Jan 22, 2008 9:41:51 GMT -5
So this weekend, on a whim pretty much, I DVRd the 3 hour "Lucha Libre" telecast on Galavision this Saturday afternoon. I had been reading spates about what was going on over there in the Observer, figured I could spin through and check a few things. I know, for one, Judas "Ricky Banderes" Mesias has been wreaking some havoc over there.
Holy Hell. First off, for all you Sabu marks, he is on there, partaking in calamity. I did not really watch all this just yet, I basically just went through seeing what it has to offer later. They showed a sick bump which looked to be a total accident, with someone slipping off a ledge and landing on their back. But also, one of the sickest things I have ever seen in wrestling.
There was a beatdown going on, and a table made its way into the ring. Well, the old 'douse the thing with gas' went on. And they lit it up, and did they ever. It made the old Dudley flaming tables look like a lit cigarette. This was a WALL OF FIRE. And then Mesias picks up some dude and slams him through the table...the guy was not wearing any kind of shirt. Apparently he was burned hardway, for real. They showed backstage clips of a melted back, all blotched and bubbly. It was either real, or the best makeup job I have EVER seen.
Pretty sure I had read in the Observer it was real in that the guy is now out for like 4 months.
Nothing beats this flaming table spot. Its sorta whats wrong with wrestling, its spots for spots sake, but it looked sick, and kind of cool.
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Post by thecaptain15 on Jan 22, 2008 11:07:03 GMT -5
I do sometimes stop and watch some Lucha Libre when I am channel surfing and I see it on......
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$heriff Tom
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Post by $heriff Tom on Jan 22, 2008 11:26:45 GMT -5
Cap, it may be worth a tape/burn next week to see if they are still showing this fire footage. Or maybe check "Mesias fire" and such on YouTube, and see if its there. It was beyond insane.
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Post by sancho231 on Jan 23, 2008 2:29:25 GMT -5
the AWA that shit is rough for me. cant get too much into that shit. i dont give a fuck how uch you like wrestling that shit can be slow. i've bee watching the AAA from mexico didnt see the fire bomb spot but teddy and sabu looked great. back on topic wasnt the 1990 Royay rumble theme awesome!
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Post by Chris on Feb 1, 2008 12:04:33 GMT -5
Last night I watched a Dr. Death Steve Williams match on ESPN classic.
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$heriff Tom
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Post by $heriff Tom on Feb 1, 2008 12:13:25 GMT -5
I tell you, I was impressed by an intense promo he cut on one of those shows shown recently. He was on the mark, and came across as major league, and badass. At the time that promotion, UWF, was as ghetto as it gets. Williams deserved a better spot, but had serious Japan commitments building up. As the 90s progressed, he became one of Japan's all-time American born legends.
He had a cool feud with Mr Wonderful Paul Orndorff in the UWF, a couple of matches (including a bloodbath) have been shown.
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Post by Chris on Feb 1, 2008 12:19:30 GMT -5
I like him because (and we've discussed this before)...
...although wrestling is "fake" and entertainment, I like the wrestlers who at least make an effort to portray the matches as legit athletic contests. And the costumes go a long way for me. I've always had a liking for the guys who wear legit amateur wrestling singlets: Dr. Death and Rick Steiner immediately come to mind.
The Hillbilly Characters in overalls and the "Urban" characters wrestling in gang attire (Konan comes to mind) always seemed lame to me, and those are the matches I'd traditionally tune out.
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$heriff Tom
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Post by $heriff Tom on Feb 7, 2008 10:15:36 GMT -5
So last night I threw on my "NEVERMORE - BEST OF RAVEN" DVD. This was a partial nod to his release from the company this week....his contract expired, and they decided not to renew.
Watched a spirited 4-way battle between Raven, Abyss, AJ Styles, and Ron "The Truth" Killings. This was when Vince Russo was an on-camera "director of authority" and he was in the booth with Tenay and West. Sting was the "outside the ring enforcer." This was the Wednesday weekly PPV era.
A fun brawl. Good snappy ending, Raven got the duke. The next match up is another 4 way, same guys with the exception of Chris Harris in the Ron Killings role.
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$heriff Tom
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Post by $heriff Tom on Feb 25, 2008 11:28:14 GMT -5
So, Cap, you were on hand the night Hogan vanquished the Sheik, and Hulkamania circled the globe...remember any of the rest of the show that night? Watching my Tito Santana comps the other night, and there was a match from that very card against a bearded Magnificent Muraco.
Wierd sort of match, they kept it to the ground, there was a long series of headlock spots that would have got both men shot at today. Santana just locked in the headlock, had Muraco face-down on the mat, and just kept working it. I mean, this went on for like 10 minutes. I am used to slow "catch-as-catch-can" style, and it was testing MY patience, especially as I know for fact Muraco and Santana shared some legendary battles.
Ref ended up throwing out the match as both men ended up fighting outside the ring after the match heated back up. I have another MSG match from the pair on the disc which took place just one month later, so I am looking forward to the continuation of that burgeoning feud.
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Post by thecaptain15 on Feb 25, 2008 11:38:44 GMT -5
Tom back in those days I went every month for a few years straight so it is hard for me to remember the actual cards.....With Muraco it seemed in those days besides battling Snuka it seemed it was him vs. Tito Santana or Pedro Morales every month for the IC belt.....Back in those days all the fueds usually went 3 months before they were settled..the first month would be usually a DQ or a win with some sort of chicanery and the second month would almost always be a DQ of some sort and then the blow off would be either steel cage, Texas Death Match or the like....
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Post by $heriff Tom on Feb 25, 2008 12:12:34 GMT -5
Oh, Cap, I know all that. I am a wrestling fan from the get-go. I just thought it was entertaining as I settled in to watch this 20 minute chess-match, I realized you were there in attendi.
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