I had blocked this whole Duggan/Bubba/VK WallStreet/Evad Sullivan/Rabbit angle out of my mind because it had go away heat with me and thinking about too much would have driven me mad, but the first two and a half minutes of this video are hilarious.

Proof I wasn't the only who thought this. The rumor was floating around out there. Also, JJ > Sting when it comes to a theoretical non-Hogan Third Man.

Started listening to John McAdam's Stick To Wrestling. For those who don't know McAdam was THE go to guy for 80s territorial wrestling tapes at the turn of the century. Got a bunch of Memphis, Mid South/UWF, and SMW tapes from him. And Tony Khan was his webmaster! Anyway, he has a revolving door of cohosts and largely specializes in mid 70s-late 80s wrestling. Mostly before my time but I still find it interesting. They come from a completely different world than I do. I find a whole lot of their takes head scratching (Mike Rotunda as a potential NWA Champion!), but I'm sure they'd find most of my takes equally bizarre, and at least it's something different than the umpteenth Montreal Screwjob take.

God dammit.

MarkyD really is the Tupac of WrestleTubers. I haven't thought of Mideon for years (I refuse to believe Phineas is the same person) until The Big Show thread when surprise! Here's a Mideon career retrospective on YouTube.

Jan 31, 2023 2:51:18 GMT Baker said:

Started listening to John McAdam's Stick To Wrestling. For those who don't know McAdam was THE go-to guy for 80s territorial wrestling tapes at the turn of the century. Got a bunch of Memphis, Mid South/UWF, and SMW tapes from him. And Tony Khan was his webmaster! Anyway, he has a revolving door of cohosts and largely specializes in mid-70s-late 80s wrestling. Mostly before my time but I still find it interesting. They come from a completely different world than I do. I find a whole lot of their takes head-scratching (Mike Rotunda as a potential NWA Champion! ), but I'm sure they'd find most of my takes equally bizarre, and at least it's something different than the umpteenth Montreal Screwjob take.

I've listened to STW since the beginning. I forget about it because it is the most absurd hot take I ever heard & I have tons of respect for John but WOW!

Been slacking on Ring of the Hawk lately. Pete just brought me back. I was not disappointed. "Mideon has to be one of the most useless wrestlers of all time."- The Hawk once again showing why he is a great sage of the modern age.
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Ed in John's defense there's a 50% chance his cohost made the Rotunda claim. Tbh I was even more taken aback by a later "Dick Slater coulda/shoulda been NWA Champion" claim which, again, may have come from a cohost. The logic behind Rotunda (and Slater) hearkens back to the pre-Flair era when credible, but bland, NWA Champions were all the rage. Rotunda was explicitly compared to a Dory Jr./Jack Brisco style champion in this scenario.

For decades the ideal NWA Champion had to straddle that fine line between retaining that all important credibility so they could continue to draw all over the world while also making all the locals heroes look like a million bucks so they could continue to draw on a weekly basis*. Rotunda was certainly bland enough that they would never have to worry about him outshining the local stars. And he did have credibility from his days as an amateur standout at Syracuse. A classic NWA Champion also had to work that brutal schedule which automatically rules Slater out in my book. The NWA Champ had to be reliable and Slater's nickname was literally "Mr Unpredictable!"

*Which is why Dibiase is always the top choice when it comes to "shoulda been NWA Champion's." Listened to a podcast recently with the premise being Flair retired after the 1975 plane crash and the hosts were asked to fill the void by coming up with 3 long term NWA Champs who never won the title irl and 3 short term champs who never won it irl. Dibiase was exempt from the thought experiment "because it would be boring since he's everyone's #1 choice."

And who am I to cast aspersions on others given my penchant for wild hot takes? Why I've thrown out many ideas right here on PW which make perfect sense to me, yet are met with head scratching and lol's.

I'm saying, Captain Mike, felt like a step above jobber in my eyes. I was listening to the mid-Atlantic podcast a while ago. Mike sounded like such a cornball. I thought to myself, if they are hoping that this dweeb might have a shot to fill Jack Brisco's shoes someday, they are mistaken. Unless that was a similar deal to any or most babyfaces in WCCW that seemed like they were heartthrobs, just not dreamboats like the Von Eric boys. Mike has almost always stunk to me.

Oh GTFO

MarkyD, I know you're here. Reveal yourself!

We're now covering the What era?! If he starts covering the Dangerous Alliance, it's over.

Ace Darling on the latest Cafe De Rene live stream.

This is timely because I was just thinking about the 90s Indies with guys like Devon Storm, Simon Diamond, Reckless Youth, Mike Quackenbush, Donovan Morgan etc. making the rounds.

A double whammy in this one - Darling buries Ice Train and Paul London talks about how difficult Tajiri was to work with.

They even went after the Super Diva Quincy Elliott and him motorboating his opponents with his moobs.

Neat interview so far 30 or so minutes in. Ace talks about working the Bastion Boogers, Skinners, Diesels of the WWF and coming up around the same time as Stevie Richards.

Nice find Big Pete . I got an hour and twenty minutes in before taking a break. You know I'm all about that late 90s indie talk. Actually listened to a (mediocre) podcast covering every single ECWA Super 8 just last week. This one had me hooked within the first few minutes when Ace mentioned Yoko, Quebecers, and Doink (unfortunately as guys who roughed up jobbers). Borga would later get a mention as well. Somebody has been reading my 1993 Favorite Wrestler list!

It goes from double whammy to three strikes and your out when London bashes the great Matt Hardy! I realize it's practically his gimmick at this point, but it still hurts.

London is a big New Generation/Beverly Brothers fan. Love how he perks up whenever the New Gen is brought up. Dupree gets the same way when talk turns to the Golden Age. London also seemed genuinely impressed upon learning Ace Darling won the inaugural ECWA Super 8. Easy to see why that would have been a big deal to a guy like him. I also popped for the Apter Mag talk.

Unfortunately it's pretty clear London is the only one in the group with any idea who Ace Darling was and what he (and guys like him) meant to a certain admittedly small segment of the wrestling fanbase.

Ace later drops the ultimate bombshell. It was either "ECW killed wrestling!" or "ECW was the worst thing to ever happen to the wresting business!"

Sadly had no luck finding the Ice Train/Darling match

Been months since I clicked so quick.

The channel "Dave Knows Wrestling" did a video recently on the history of the Funk family. With Terry's passing today, I figured it'd be a fitting add to the YouTube wrestling thread.

Stevie Richards knows how to grab my attention...



I didn't know Barry came back for a match in Impact earlier this year. Against Johnny Swinger of all people!
 
Also recommended for lockup marks. Wonder if Stevie got it from Raven? People always bring Austin up as the premier lockup mark, but Raven was actually the first big Lockup Guy I ever came across. 

I've been keeping Stevie alive in my own logrithims. Who wouldn't watch a video on Bret's superplex?

Stevie Night Heat's newest video talks about Goldberg ending the Goat's career.

Not sure how many have seen it yet, but former WWE wrestler Maven (i.e. the first guy to win Tough Enough) has been uploading a lot of interesting content on YouTube.

His channel: youtube.com/@mavenkhuffman?si=UT8S2f3Az3PqOfFN

A video where he discusses how pay works in WWE:

Maven, Stevie and the occasional Grilling JR clip is all the wrestling content I need.

Don't know whether to be more disappointed in myself or with PW for failing to bring this to my attention. Because nearly 3 months ago Chris Jericho put himself in the GOAT discussion by tracking down one of the most reclusive stars of the 90s for an extensive chat. I'm talking about the man, the myth, the legend...
THE GAMBLER~!



And that's only scratching the surface. There's an entire 44 minute podcast! You guys, I repeat. There is an entire 44 minute podcast of Chris Jericho chatting with THE GAMBLER~! Dreams do come true.

Quick Synopsis: The Gambler is every bit as cool as I always knew he would be. Super humble. Knew his role. Made his money and got out with no regrets. A credit to the roster. A credit to the business. If I'm starting a promotion I'm taking The Gambler over CM Punk every single time.

He puts Ole Anderson over big. OK, that's a little weird, but the rationale works for him. Also puts Pez Whatley over huge and briefly touches on being cool with Ice Train. Gambler's best friend in the business was Max Muscle. Bagwell was up there, too. 

Further proof WCW deserved to fail...The Gambler never worked a Nitro, PPV, or even a Thunder. TRAGIC! Shame on WCW for not being able to at least squeeze The Gambler into one World War III.

Only downside to those 44 minutes of Gamblermania were a poor connection. Our hero was hard to hear at times. Still, this has my highest recommendation.
===================
Today must be my lucky day because Markyd dropped a (very critical) video on Loch Ness' WCW run AND Shane Douglas put Henry Godwinn over big time.

 

Oct 5, 2023 12:59:48 GMT Baker said:

Don't know whether to be more disappointed in myself or with PW for failing to bring this to my attention. Because nearly 3 months ago Chris Jericho put himself in the GOAT discussion by tracking down one of the most reclusive stars of the 90s for an extensive chat. I'm talking about the man, the myth, the legend...
THE GAMBLER~!

Oh WTF?

I remember writing a lengthy post about the momentous occasion and Pdubya must have swallowed it! I do recall feeling like my post wouldn't do it justice and you needed to hear from the man himself and his respect for Double A and Buff Daddy.

You could almost make an entire forum out of the posts that just disappeared into the ether.

FYI, I co-sign MarkyD's assessment of CM Punk's AEW run with a few exceptions here and there. There were some matches he was higher on like the Moxley match, but then he was also much lower on the Kingston match which I found shockingly passable and I'm not a Kingston guy by any means.

I love that Stevie's channel is basically "let's admire the goat and here's why he is #1"

Oct 15, 2023 0:49:14 GMT @ness said:

I love that Stevie's channel is basically "let's admire the goat and here's why he is #1"

He did put Brett Hart over pretty hard. You love to see it. 
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Been a Greenwich coupla days with some vintage Hunter Hearst Helmsley last night and Markyd taking a trip to the Mean Streets earlier today...



Spoilers: He gave the awesome MSP vs. Kaientai match an A.
So then I had to watch it....again. And then I just had to make gifs. Love those guys.

Can't explain it but I was always a Rodney mark. Until today it never dawned on me it's prob the Zack Morris look.

I always knew you were a Preppy, Ness.

If MarkyD reviewed that Papi Chulo vs. Joey Abs match from Sunday Night Heat, it would have bumped them up a grade.

Love this troll job Jeff at OTRSCentral has been doing lately. YOU KNOW YOU WANT IT.

Been a long time since I clicked so quick. JBL & The Mountie together will do that. Honestly wasn't that great though. Too much focus on the Dynamite attack & Jacques pinning Hogan in Montreal stories I've heard a thousand times before. Both of those are great, great things that should be celebrated, but Jacques did so much other interesting stuff that even he himself glosses over. Sad.

Okay might as well.

A cool channel i just discovered recently called "The WCW Feed", that has a lot of videos of pre-show footage before Nitro and Thunder would go on air.

youtube.com/@thewcwfeed?si=zHPDBL5hPFl_FceY

I used to watch Markyd vids a lot, it's nice to see what's basically a dedication thread to him on here.

His hilarious TNA/Russo deep dives are what first got me into his content. Off to go binge the fuck out of his new stuff, thanks for reminding me PDub.

Clicked so quick. It really isn't that interesting beyond one great Hawk line- "This whole thing was extremely jarring. It felt like Doctor Who from the 70s."  :lol:  That explains so much about my high DoD tolerance. Pertwee 4 Life.