Pro Wrestling History Thread

[DannyBoy1985]

I came across this nice old photo, which was posted on of all places, findagrave. Walter Palmer wearing (what i believe is) his World Heavyweight Championship belt, circa 1940's. Here's a bit of trivia, Palmer innovated the spinning toe hold.

 

[Its Me Austin]

I still can't get over how shitty most belts looked until the 80's.

 

[DannyBoy1985]

I still can't get over how shitty most belts looked until the 80's.

What exactly is your issue with how old time championship belts looked? They generally look just fine to me. Is this one that Matty Matsuda is wearing more to your liking?

 

[DannyBoy1985]

I came across this nice old photo, which was posted on of all places, findagrave. Walter Palmer wearing (what i believe is) his World Heavyweight Championship belt, circa 1940's. Here's a bit of trivia, Palmer innovated the spinning toe hold.

Hans Schnabel also wearing that World Heavyweight Championship belt, which he and Palmer traded a couple of times.

 

[Its Me Austin]

What exactly is your issue with how old time championship belts looked? They generally look just fine to me. Is this one that Matty Matsuda is wearing more to your liking?

No, that one looks like ass too.

 

[ventrue]

Sorry to spam up the thread, but I was just in a mood to hunt down some old wrestling matches I remember as a child.



This wasn't the match I saw in Houston, but it was pretty similar. It was pretty damn cheesy, but I will never forget that night.


My favorite scaffold type match was probably New Jack getting revenge on Vic Grimes, fo rgiving him brain damage, in the Danbury Fall. Grimes was pretty damn luckjy to hit part of the rope, imo.

One last match I remember was Ric Flair vs. Wahoo McDaniel here in Houston 1985. I can't find any video for it, though, without paying a lot of money for a disc.

 

[44nutman]

Since everyone knows that I know have been watching some old AWA on ESPN Classics. I came across a match with King Kong AKA Bruiser Brody/Barbarian vs
Greg Gagne/Superfly Snuka match.
Growing up I did not see Brody wrestle much. I watched Florida, WCW and WWF and it always seemed like he would pop up and not be around long. I just remembered he looked intimating. I also read as a I got older he had a bad rep of not working with opponents.
Well the above match he was selling his ass off for a 100 lbs lighter Greg Gagne and Snuka who is more believable than Greg. I don't know if he did it for fear Verne would beat his azz, he was having a good nite or he being tough to work with in the ring a big myth because he stoned Lugar in a match and the Harley Race quote.

 

[DannyBoy1985]

Sorry to spam up the thread, but I was just in a mood to hunt down some old wrestling matches I remember as a child.



This wasn't the match I saw in Houston, but it was pretty similar. It was pretty damn cheesy, but I will never forget that night.


My favorite scaffold type match was probably New Jack getting revenge on Vic Grimes, fo rgiving him brain damage, in the Danbury Fall. Grimes was pretty damn luckjy to hit part of the rope, imo.

One last match I remember was Ric Flair vs. Wahoo McDaniel here in Houston 1985. I can't find any video for it, though, without paying a lot of money for a disc.

That was just totally unprofessional and wrong what New Jack did to Vic Grimes in that match. Anyhow, Grimes didn't give Jack brain damage, Jack really did it to himself because he pulled Grimes off the scaffold in the infamous "Danbury Fall". New Jack has said as much himself, in one of his shoot interviews he told about how Grimes was going around saying he hurt New Jack after the "Danbury Fall" and Jack confronted him and said something like "you didn't hurt me, i hurt me".

Since everyone knows that I know have been watching some old AWA on ESPN Classics. I came across a match with King Kong AKA Bruiser Brody/Barbarian vs
Greg Gagne/Superfly Snuka match.
Growing up I did not see Brody wrestle much. I watched Florida, WCW and WWF and it always seemed like he would pop up and not be around long. I just remembered he looked intimating. I also read as a I got older he had a bad rep of not working with opponents.
Well the above match he was selling his ass off for a 100 lbs lighter Greg Gagne and Snuka who is more believable than Greg. I don't know if he did it for fear Verne would beat his azz, he was having a good nite or he being tough to work with in the ring a big myth because he stoned Lugar in a match and the Harley Race quote.

Brody could be difficult to work with inside the ring and outside of it, doesn't mean he always was though. He did balk at doing jobs many times and often walked out on promotions before having to put guys over on his way out of the territory. There's various stories about him and that kind of stuff. Brody once got into a backstage fist fight with Dick the Bruiser either because he didn't wanna put DTB over or because of money. At any rate, Brody found out that DTB was one guy he couldn't intimidate or bully or push around or whatever. Antonio Inoki once said in an interview that Brody was the wrestler he hated the most because he'd ask to get a raise right before the match or he'd boycott it.

 

[Its Me Austin]

Not saying he deserved it, but no wonder he got shanked.

 

[BeltFanDan]

Here is a blog article I did on the WrestleMania 5 Winged Eagle belt, and the misconception about it becoming the WWF Hardcore Championship

http://belttalk.com/blog/?p=18

A full gallery of current pictures is available on my forum too:
http://belttalk.com/phpBB3/gallery/album.php?album_id=57

Teaser:

 

[Gregolian]

How expensive are those things? Hope not very cause if it's a fair stack of money seems a bit of a waste just to have a guy take a hammer to it after not too long.

 

[Its Me Austin]

Well a real Winged Eagle would run you about $2700 ($1000 less without the WWF logos).

http://wrestlingsuperstore.com/wwewingedeagleheavyweightrealbelt.aspx

 

[BeltFanDan]

I've spoken to Reggie Parks before. He estimates he made WWF 30+ Winged Eagle belts between 1988 and 1998. Many were customized for wrestlers such as Hulk Hogan. Randy Savage destroyed 2. One was too big, so he added extra snaps to it, and later velcro. He tried using brasso to clean it and removed the gold plating on another.

There were custom ones for Ultimate Warrior (Colored straps), and he also gave a few away to sick children.

Then they just used a ton of them for various other things including promotions or gimmicks like breaking it for the Hardcore title, which was purposely destroyed for that. It is NOT this belt that I have that Mr. Perfect destroyed.

WWF/WWE obviously doesn't pay $2,700 a belt. Back then, they were only around $800 or so from Reggie

 

[Its Me Austin]

Didn't Reggie make a double plated WE for the WM4 tournament?

 

[BeltFanDan]

The first few Winged Eagle belts were dual plated. It didn't go all gold until a few years later. Also they had the WORLD banner as a stacked plate, and the gold tip had fins on it. The original logo plates said Hulk Hogan instead of Champion. Ultimate Warrior had custom logo plates on his belt too.

 

[BrooklynBomber]

Since everyone knows that I know have been watching some old AWA on ESPN Classics. I came across a match with King Kong AKA Bruiser Brody/Barbarian vs
Greg Gagne/Superfly Snuka match.
Growing up I did not see Brody wrestle much. I watched Florida, WCW and WWF and it always seemed like he would pop up and not be around long. I just remembered he looked intimating. I also read as a I got older he had a bad rep of not working with opponents.
Well the above match he was selling his ass off for a 100 lbs lighter Greg Gagne and Snuka who is more believable than Greg. I don't know if he did it for fear Verne would beat his azz, he was having a good nite or he being tough to work with in the ring a big myth because he stoned Lugar in a match and the Harley Race quote.

Just because he knew that Verne gave him good payouts and that if he didn't sell and bump around for Greg he'd burn that bridge and lose substantial income. Verne wasn't a guy to fear in 1986 on a physical level.

 

[combat_rock]

Since everyone knows that I know have been watching some old AWA on ESPN Classics. I came across a match with King Kong AKA Bruiser Brody/Barbarian vs
Greg Gagne/Superfly Snuka match.
Growing up I did not see Brody wrestle much. I watched Florida, WCW and WWF and it always seemed like he would pop up and not be around long. I just remembered he looked intimating. I also read as a I got older he had a bad rep of not working with opponents.
Well the above match he was selling his ass off for a 100 lbs lighter Greg Gagne and Snuka who is more believable than Greg. I don't know if he did it for fear Verne would beat his azz, he was having a good nite or he being tough to work with in the ring a big myth because he stoned Lugar in a match and the Harley Race quote.

I finally caught an AWA on ESPN and saw this. What struck me as funny about the whole thing though was Colonel DeBeers calling out Scott Hall for steroid abuse. Could you even imagine WWE (or TNA for that matter) trying a storyline like that now?

 

[DannyBoy1985]

I finally caught an AWA on ESPN and saw this. What struck me as funny about the whole thing though was Colonel DeBeers calling out Scott Hall for steroid abuse. Could you even imagine WWE (or TNA for that matter) trying a storyline like that now?

No, but times are much different now. Between Vince McMahon being put on trial in 1994 for distributing steroids and the various wrestlers who have passed at an early age due to years of steroid use/abuse, steroids have become a taboo subject within pro wrestling. Not-to-mention them being banned substances and tested for by both WWE & TNA (even though TNA's drug policy and wellness program is something of a mystery). It's really just not a subject you'd want anything to do with in a storyline in this day & age of pro wrestling. Where as in the mid-80's, steroids weren't banned and from the way a lot of wrestlers tell it, using them certainly wasn't frowned upon either. Add to that that steroids weren't even a controlled substance in the US at that point.

 

[Its Me Austin]

The first few Winged Eagle belts were dual plated. It didn't go all gold until a few years later. Also they had the WORLD banner as a stacked plate, and the gold tip had fins on it. The original logo plates said Hulk Hogan instead of Champion. Ultimate Warrior had custom logo plates on his belt too.

Oh man I'd love to get the double plated tag belts that the Bulldogs had.

 

[DannyBoy1985]

I've spoken to Reggie Parks before. He estimates he made WWF 30+ Winged Eagle belts between 1988 and 1998. Many were customized for wrestlers such as Hulk Hogan. Randy Savage destroyed 2. One was too big, so he added extra snaps to it, and later velcro. He tried using brasso to clean it and removed the gold plating on another.

There were custom ones for Ultimate Warrior (Colored straps), and he also gave a few away to sick children.

Then they just used a ton of them for various other things including promotions or gimmicks like breaking it for the Hardcore title, which was purposely destroyed for that. It is NOT this belt that I have that Mr. Perfect destroyed.

WWF/WWE obviously doesn't pay $2,700 a belt. Back then, they were only around $800 or so from Reggie

Speaking of prices, out of curiosity, do you know what's the most a wrestling company has ever paid for a title belt? How about the most any collector has ever paid for an original, used wrestling title belt?