**WWE NETWORK THREAD**
Didn't see a thread yet, interested in hearing your thoughts and expectations on the new network comin next month.
https://youtu.be/fgdHDewjQqc?si=8o8Hh2SM...
Holy **** Jesse’s heel commentary for Uncle Elmer’s wedding is peak devastation.
The Bagwell Dark Side is what I assume it would look like if someone were to attempt to parody Dark Side.
Is he the first one to participate in his own bashing?
Im excited that I can watch Bret Harts first title win vs Ric Flair on the Coliseum video release, Smack Em asnd Whack Em!
Looks like the show has some other interesting matches too, Crush vs the Berserker was a cool match up, surprised Berserker jobbed out to Crush's skull crusher finisher. Berserker had just lost Mr Fuji as his manager so was on his way down the card.
Some funny chat between Gorilla and Lord Alfred around the Berserker's origin from the nordic countries. Hayes mentions that he speaks nordic but he is not sure what "Huss" means.
Interesting tidbit on John Nord after wikipediaing him during this match
After the American Wrestling Association closed in 1991, Nord joined Pacific Northwest Wrestling as "Nord the Barbarian". He formed a tag team with The Grappler called "The Breakfast Club". After winning matches, Nord and The Grappler would humiliate their opponents by pouring Cheerios and milk on them.
Another interesting fact about Mr Nord...
The words "star" and especially "legend" doing some yeoman's work there.
I've seen Starcade '83 before, but never with this much context.
I had always believed the first few Starcades were an event where all the NWA territories came together for a supercard, but this is entirely a Mid-Atlantic event, aside from a single Abdullah vs Carlos Colon match and bringing in Gordon Solie to commentate.
Wikipedia states that either Dusty Rhodes or Dory Funk Jr. booked the show, though the latter would make much more sense because at least he was more strongly associated with the territory at the time. My thoughts on Dory were that he appeared this kindly old gentlemen, almost like somebody's grandfather. He was so quiet, you never even realized he was there in interviews, where Paul Jones did all the talking until he turned face. There was really nothing heelish about him. Terry got all the charisma in that family.
I'll likely follow up with match reactions when I'm done with the entire show in the next day or two.
The second match of Starrcade '83 features Sullivan and Lewin, who were doing more of a crazy than a dark gimmick at this point, against two enhancement talent. After the match, they bloody one of the enhancement workers (Scott McGhee) until Angelo Mosca comes out to make the save and gets stabbed in the arm.
Third match is Abdullah/Colon. Blood, of course.
Next comes the backstage interview of the year. Notice how they just left the bloodied Scott McGhee sitting in a corner.
(Best quality I could find.)
Wahoo and Mark Youngblood face Orton and Slater next with Charlie Brown from Outta Town beating Kabuki for the TV title next. Nothing particularly interesting about either match.
Match of the night and the one that made Starrcade a thing is next. Piper & Valentine in a dog collar match. This feud ran the entire year of '83. However, both were already on their way out the door to WWF. So, despite Valentine being the champion, this was made a non-title match. (Valentine would drop it a few weeks later. before leaving.) Knowing they had no reason to kill themselves in this match and could have easily phoned it in before leaving makes it even better.
Steamboat and Youngblood win the tag titles from the Briscoes. Wikipedia says Steamboat temporarily retired after this match. It's also Mosca's 3rd appearance of the night, as he was the special referee.
Finally, Flair beats Race in the cage for the title. The entire night was set up for Flair.. The match itself wasn't one of Flair's greatest and the finish was an awkward cross body. They had to change the special referee here to avoid any bias. This may have been the first time I heard Flair use entrance music, but it stops as soon as he appears through the curtain, not when he gets into the ring.
...former NWA World Champion Gene Kiniski as the special referee (another former NWA World Champion, Pat O'Connor, was originally set to be the special referee, but it was discovered that O'Connor (along with Race, Bob Geigel, and Verne Gagne) owned the Central States territory so the change was made (kayfabe) to avoid a conflict of interest).
Angelo Mosca makes his fourth appearance of the night, as he's the first one in the ring to pick up Flair.
Mid-South is doing a story where Lanny Poffo came to Mid-South to escape the bad influences from his family.
He forms a tag team with Magnum T.A., who is being "coached" at this point by Mr. Wrestling II, who is against this formation because Poffo comes from a bad family.
Bill Watts mentions that Lanny's father is Angelo Poffo and his brother is Randy Poffo, otherwise known as Randy Savage.
Were people meant to know Randy's real name at this point or was Watts taking it upon himself to break kayfabe? Randy and Angelo weren't even part of the territory.
Crusher Darsow comes into Mid-South as a heel and he's pummeling everyone for a month until he runs into the Junkyard Dog and loses his first match.
The next week, JYD is being attacked on TV when Darsow comes out to save him. He gained a lot of respect for the Dog after being beat by him.
About a month after that, he runs into Nikolai Volkov, who is being pushed as a monster heel. Darsow gets his second loss.
The next week, Volkov has a match against Dr. Death. Darsow attacks Dr. Death and helps Volkov win the match. He had so much respect for Volkov's power after beating him.
I really hope they keep this up and have him turn to be on the side of whoever beats him every time.
Oscar from Men on a Mission really got a front row seat to the ridiculous Mania 9 ending.
On the last episode of Mid-South in 1983, Jim Ross is cycling through different guest commentators in every matchup. For Hacksaw Jim Dugan v Crusher Darsow, Jerry the King Lawler is on the call. Had to be the first time these two were paired together. The King was a very different personality in that era. It was nothing like the duo they would go on to be a bit over a decade later.
Any rendition of King that isn't squealing "PUPPIES!" is an improvement from what he contributed to the duo later in life.
Backlund dropping the title to Sheik had to be one of the biggest shocks in wrestling history up to that point. People had to be stunned. Curious why Sheik, who we now know was a bit of a loose cannon, was chosen.
It fits from an anti-American standpoint. The clubs were an easy injury out for Backlund and they were in a program at the time. It all first perfectly from that angle, but what made Vince sure he could trust Sheik, even for a month? (Didn't Verne offer him $$ to legitimately hurt Hogan?)
Thinking of other potential options, just off the top of my head:
Sgt Slaughter - I guess they didn't want to squash him a month later.
Big John Studd - Ditto
Muraco - Had the IC title and was feuding with Snuka at the time.
Ivan Koloff - This would have fit the anti-Ameican angle too. He has previously had a short reign too a decade ago.
I guess Vince wanted to give the Sheik a bit of a push, but also wasn't opposed to squashing him a month later. Think Sheik went into teaming with Volkoff soon after anyway.
Sheik getting that transitional reign and then getting the tag titles shortly after dropping the world belt seems like evidence enough that he wasn't THAT much of a loose cannon from the office's standpoint. I honestly don't know if young Sheik was that crazy.
Backlund dropping the title to Sheik had to be one of the biggest shocks in wrestling history up to that point. People had to be stunned. Curious why Sheik, who we now know was a bit of a loose cannon, was chosen.
It fits from an anti-American standpoint. The clubs were an easy injury out for Backlund and they were in a program at the time. It all first perfectly from that angle, but what made Vince sure he could trust Sheik, even for a month? (Didn't Verne offer him $$ to legitimately hurt Hoga
If it wasn’t for Arnold Skaaland throwing in the towel, Backlund might still be champion today.
The funny thing about that is that managers used to walk to the ring with their guys during house shows and then go to the back. They really didn’t start staying out there during matches until after that.
I don't know very much about wrestling before like 1988 so it's always hilarious to me that Backlund was such a long reigning champion given that he was usually portrayed as a doofus in the 90s and doesn't look like an imposing champion either.
I don't know very much about wrestling before like 1988 so it's always hilarious to me that Backlund was such a long reigning champion given that he was usually portrayed as a doofus in the 90s and doesn't look like an imposing champion either.
I think this is mainly after his feud with Bret Hart culminated.
Backlund’s heel turn/reinvention is actually my all time favorite in wrestling history (maybe not the objectively best, but my favorite nevertheless). Mark Henry’s Hall of Pain is probably a close #2.
Still why I’m bitter that his transitional title reign after Survivor Series ‘94 only lasted 3 days and ended in a house show.
Well before the Bret feud, they actually just tried him as a straightforward babyface, and it was disastrous. He wasn't being portrayed as a doofus at that point, but it's 100% how he came across. Heel Razor Ramon was getting outcheered by him at WM IX. Also he was the worst recipient of an Evil Doink prank when he tried to simulate slipping on a banana peel and failed miserably.
With Mid-South getting some turnover at the end of '83, I went down a bit of a rabbit hole with the Midnight Express debuting in December.
It appears as if Bill Watts was the person to put the trio of Cornette, Eaton and Condrey together. He had made a talent exchange with Memphis, trading Jim the Anvil Neidhart, who had just broken up his tag team with Butch Reed and attacked him, and Rick Rude, who had been a babyface enhancement talent up until that point, for three individuals he put together as a tag team and manager. It sounds like their feud with Watts and The R&R Express will dominate Mid-South in '84. I find it odd that Watts is the first to move away from the big muscular guys to smaller, more athletic ones.
Matt Hardy strongly dislikes mustard
I still have no idea how Rikishi did his back flip axle bump to a clothesline. Ridiculous athleticism for a 350 low centre of gravity pounder
Is Undertaker vs Brock vs Batista vs Kane the GOAT final four in Royal Rumble history? 2003 was a spectacle for sure!
