Old School - all wrestling until 1994 - includes WWF, NWA, Stampede, AAA, etc

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Sweetheart
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Feeling wistful, wanting curl up next to the radio and listen to Good Ol' JR talk about the territories. Want to talk about the breaking up of the Mega Powers, Gorgeous George? Four Horsemen? Dusty Rhodes? Mad Dog Vachon? Piper?

Kick up your feet, stay a while.

 
Been watching 86/88 CWA (Memphis) and still in the early quarter of the year for both and I love the simple, effective, episodic format of the territories.

86's first major storyline involves Buddy Landell/Bill Dundee running roughshod on Memphis forcing the owner to bring back Jerry Lawler who teams up with Dutch Mantel. Great promos and Jeff Jarrett as a ref who then begin his rookie year as a pro wrestler later on. The Fantastics were the main tag team in Memphis during the time and are pretty good from the footage I see of them.

88 is AWA incorporated into the fold with the Midnight Rockers as heels dominating the tag scene and get a small glimpse into heel Shawn Michaels who would become one of the best heels of all time later on in his career. There's also the likes of Jimmy Jack Funk and Teijho Khan causing havoc. Lawler/Dundee are re-feuding over the title. Also, the 'Renegade Rampage' tournament is on very similar to the Bound for glory series that TNA done in the past is also happening in this time.

This is only early part of the respective years, but by 88 it looks like the talent took a drop in quality. To go from Landell/Dundee/Lawler/Mantel to Lawler/Dundee/Jimmy Jack Funk/Teijho Khan is a bit of a drop for now. Perhaps the talent quality improves later on in the year I might see eventually. Also,a young Scott Hall is in Memphis despite being green shows the potential he grow into as he comes into his prime later on.

Skip 87 but will get back to it once I go through 86/88, tend to skip a year when watching old school wrestling as major changes tend to be more evident over a 2 year gap than 1. There is always a transition year in every promotion which sees a steady influx of new talent and the easing of old which makes for interesting viewing to see how it effect the promotion and if it was more entertaining with the new changes.
 
Random post: I used to tape Saturday Night's Main Event (it was on too late) and then I would watch them over and over again. One of the first matches I remember from that time period was Hogan vs. Nikolai Volkoff in a flag match (just a regular match where the winner got to waive his flag at the end). Spoiler alert: Hogan won. He then ripped the Soviet flag off the flag pole and used it to shine his boots. I was almost 6 when the match happened, and I remember legitimately thinking that the Hulkster's actions degrading the Soviet flag would lead to them bombing us and starting World War 3.
 
To me nothing hits me in the childhood then mid 80s to early 90s NWA/WCW. Early 90s WCW is severely underrated IMHO. The talent that was there or later came from there is amazing to say the least. You had

Austin
Rude
Sting
Cactus Jack
Vader
Arn
Pillman
Steiners
Medusa
Prime Missy Hyatt
Paul E. Dangerously (Heyman)
Jim Ross
Ron Simmons
Dustin Rhodes
Barry Windham
JYD
Steamboat
Luger
Flair
Sid

I could go on.
 
Id like to get my paws on the early 90's WCW weekly shows
The last storyline I remember seeing was the J Tex Corporation until I came back around during the Nitro era
 
I lived for WCW Saturday Night back then (before Nitro). The best you can do on the Network is the Clashes.

I marked big time when the Steiners won the titles from the Freebirds on the Power Hour too. It's funny to think about having to wait almost a full week to get the results from a PPV lol. Saturday morning after a PPV was a HUGE deal around here..
 
Or waiting all week during the JCP era for the results of some big showdown at the Omni the weekend before only to have the show completely pre-empted by a frickin braves game that went too long
AARRGGHH!!!!!
 
Or waiting all week for the results of some big showdown at the Omni the weekend before only to have the show completely pre-empted by a frickin braves game that went too long
AARRGGHH!!!!!

605 pm EST, been there many times (and I'm a Braves fan too lol)
 
Also, the ONLY reason I know who Orlando Wilson is is because his fishing show came on right before the Power Hour Saturday morning on TBS.
 
3:05 pm out here
I hate fishing but damned if I didnt watch Fishing With Roland Martin/Orlando Wilson every week just so my sister wouldnt have the tv when rasslin started lol
 
HA! didnt even see your fishing post before I wrote mine
 
80's Memphis and WWE are cut from the same cloth but presented differently, WWE went with the cartoon larger than life approach while Memphis was more outlandish but grittier form of presentation. Each roster had there fair share of larger than life characters but just presented in a different manner.

Explains why Memphis was a developmental territory back in the day for the WWE due to the similar philosophies and approach to the business.
 
88 Memphis just picked up big time in my viewing with Eddie Gilbert returning to the territory to begin his feud with Jerry Lawler. One thing I like about the territories, it when things become a bit stale or hit a lull they inject new talent to freshen things up. In particular, a big time heel who can come in for a while and stir things up fro the promotion and have fresh matches/storylines.

Modern day WWE knows it's stale but it doesn't care about it, aleast the territories knew they always had to change one way or another. Sometimes it work, something it doesn't but aleast they tried and not get complacent like the modern product.

Eddie Gilbert is a awesome heel, I recall watching early ECW and his fued with Terry Funk was the first major fued of the promotion. Also, he and Cactus Jack had a 2 out of 3 fall match which was was a awesome match and at the time one of the best independent wrestling matches ever.
 
Or waiting all week during the JCP era for the results of some big showdown at the Omni the weekend before only to have the show completely pre-empted by a frickin braves game that went too long
AARRGGHH!!!!!

I know those feels bro. I used to like how they would sometimes put a little teaser clip on before the opening credits of something big that happened that week.
 
I know those feels bro. I used to like how they would sometimes put a little teaser clip on before the opening credits of something big that happened that week.

The one I remember the most was Paul E. saying "We have a new WCW Heavyweight Champion, and is name is..." cut to opening credits lol. That was when Luger beat Windham for his first WCW title (the one where he was supposed to wrestle Flair but Flair went to WWF with the Big Gold).
 
I grew up watching wrestling. In fact my username 'TCE' comes from pro wrestling. It stands for TestCrushEdge, 3 of my favourite wrestlers. I use TCE for everything now even though I stopped watching it in 2004.

The early 90's to after the Attitude era were the best years, in my opinion.

Anyone remember Battle Royal at the Albert Hall in 1992, I believe?

Also, Royal Rumble 1994 when Diesel eliminated like 15 wrestlers? Haha and Yokozuna got a fuck load of wrestlers to attack the Undertaker in their casket match.

Those were the days.
 
I was also a huge fan of Big Van Vader and Cactus Jack.

I remember I had a 1990 VHS of a WCW event. It was a two ring battle royal with the likes of Lex Luger, Sting, Mick Foley and Abdullah the Butcher.
 
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