Pro Wrestling Updates

[kristie]

 

[MichaelWinicki]

From Houston, 1-30-81...

Courtesy of David Baker

From Sam Houston Coliseum

1) Eddie Mansfield beat Juan Reynosa

2) Black Gordman vs. Tiger Conway Jr. ended in a draw

3) Chavo Guerrero beat Larry Lane

4) Scott Casey beat Tank Patton in a 2/3 falls match

5) Southwest champ Tully Blanchard beat Ivan Putski by disqualification

6) Wahoo McDaniel beat Gino Hernandez in a 2/3 falls match

Not a great card. Could have used a big name from outside the territory. Most of these guys came from the San Antonio territory.

Eddie Mansfield is infamous for being one of the first, if not the first to "shoot" on the business.

Chavo, Scott Casey and Tully were excellent workers.

Wahoo and Gino could be a good match, just needed one more headlining match.

The use of "two out of three" falls in something other than a championship match is interesting. Didn't see that often. I like "two out of three" fall matches. More likely to see clean pins and submissions.

 

[timb2]

From Houston, 1-30-81...

Courtesy of David Baker

From Sam Houston Coliseum

1) Eddie Mansfield beat Juan Reynosa

2) Black Gordman vs. Tiger Conway Jr. ended in a draw

3) Chavo Guerrero beat Larry Lane

4) Scott Casey beat Tank Patton in a 2/3 falls match

5) Southwest champ Tully Blanchard beat Ivan Putski by disqualification

6) Wahoo McDaniel beat Gino Hernandez in a 2/3 falls match

Not a great card. Could have used a big name from outside the territory. Most of these guys came from the San Antonio territory.

Eddie Mansfield is infamous for being one of the first, if not the first to "shoot" on the business.

Chavo, Scott Casey and Tully were excellent workers.

Wahoo and Gino could be a good match, just needed one more headlining match.

The use of "two out of three" falls in something other than a championship match is interesting. Didn't see that often. I like "two out of three" fall matches. More likely to see clean pins and submissions.

Yesterday Viceland showed a documentary on Gino Hernandez's death which was very interesting. Viceland also showed about the Montreal Screwjob and the real person who thought of it was Jim Cornette.

 

[MichaelWinicki]

From Utica, NY 2-4-82

Courtesy of The History of WWE

From Memorial Auditorium

1) Baron Mikel Scicluna (sub. for Laurent Soucie) defeated Jose Estrada

2) Steve Travis defeated Charlie Fulton

3) Rick McGraw defeated Johnny Rodz

4) Adrian Adonis & Jesse Ventura defeated Rick Martel & Tony Garea

5) WWF tag team champs Mr. Fuji & Mr. Saito defeated Dominic DeNucci & Tony Altimore (sub. for SD Jones)

6) Intercontinental champ Pedro Morales defeated Killer Khan

7) Greg Valentine defeated Tony Atlas via countout

A fair card all in all.

Rick McGraw is another one of those guys in the business who died way too young... And hit the "juice" (steroids) way too hard in order to get bigger.

Ventura was a blank in the ring, but Adrian Adonis could legitimately wrestle and was a heck of a worker will to take some nasty bumps. Unfortunate that he's mostly remembered for his cartoonish persona before he died in that car wreck.

 

[big dog cowboy]

4) Adrian Adonis & Jesse Ventura defeated Rick Martel & Tony Garea

I would have loved to seen that match.

 

[MichaelWinicki]

Charlotte, NC 2-5-84

Courtesy of David Baker

From the Coliseum

1) Keith Larson beat Tony Russo

2) Jeff Sword beat Bubba Smith

3) Ernie Ladd beat Angelo Mosca Sr. by disqualification

4) Mid Atlantic champ Angelo Mosca Jr. beat Ivan Koloff

5) Bruiser Brody & Stan Hansen beat Mark Youngblood & Tim Horner

6) The Assassins beat Dusty Rhodes & Jimmy Valiant

7) U.S. champ Dick Slater beat Greg Valentine

8) NWA World Champion Ric Flair & Wahoo McDaniel beat NWA World tag team champs Don Kernodle & Bob Orton Jr.


A terrific card even without a match for the NWA World title...

I'd pay just to see Brody & Hansen, which IMO is one of the greatest teams of all-time.

Slater and Valentine were two of the best ring technicians ever.

Having Ladd, Rhodes and Wahoo on the card was simply icing on the cake.

Charlotte was just so over with Pro-wrestling... Drew like crazy in Charlotte.

 

[MichaelWinicki]

I would have loved to seen that match.

At one time Tony Garea was considered for a title run in the then WWWF... But it was felt with his accent and tat's (At that point in time mid-70's, tattoos weren't looked on as being favorable by Vincent McMahon Sr) he wouldn't be "over" as he should as champion.

 

[big dog cowboy]

Bruiser Brody & Stan Hansen

I could watch that all day!

 

[big dog cowboy]

With subscriptions down 10%, WWE says they’ll pursue strategic alternatives to the Network

By Cain A. Knight Feb 6, 2020, 10:05am EST

WWE has released their earnings results for the fourth quarter of 2019, as well as an outlook on their 2020 business expectations.

https://www.cagesideseats.com/wwe/2...tegic-alternatives-network-subscriptions-down

-------------------------------------

Really good article if your into the financials of the business. Ticket sales were down do to fewer live events but the big thing is subscriptions to WWE Network dropped 10%. Considering it's only $9.99 a month I'm surprised. JMO but that a steal for what you get. We watch the PPV each month for the price of a cheap pizza.

Key take away from the article:

"The Company is pursuing several strategic initiatives that could increase the monetization of its content in 2020 and/ or subsequent years. These include distribution of content in the Middle East and India as well as the evaluation of strategic alternatives for the Company’s direct-to-consumer service, WWE Network. At this time, the outcome of these initiatives is subject to considerable uncertainty."

Want to know why they go to Saudi Arabia and Australia each year? Now you know. It's no different than the NFL wanting to expand. It has to go out of the country.

 

[Stash]

With subscriptions down 10%, WWE says they’ll pursue strategic alternatives to the Network

By Cain A. Knight Feb 6, 2020, 10:05am EST

WWE has released their earnings results for the fourth quarter of 2019, as well as an outlook on their 2020 business expectations.

https://www.cagesideseats.com/wwe/2...tegic-alternatives-network-subscriptions-down

-------------------------------------

Really good article if your into the financials of the business. Ticket sales were down do to fewer live events but the big thing is subscriptions to WWE Network dropped 10%. Considering it's only $9.99 a month I'm surprised. JMO but that a steal for what you get. We watch the PPV each month for the price of a cheap pizza.

Key take away from the article:

"The Company is pursuing several strategic initiatives that could increase the monetization of its content in 2020 and/ or subsequent years. These include distribution of content in the Middle East and India as well as the evaluation of strategic alternatives for the Company’s direct-to-consumer service, WWE Network. At this time, the outcome of these initiatives is subject to considerable uncertainty."

Want to know why they go to Saudi Arabia and Australia each year? Now you know. It's no different than the NFL wanting to expand. It has to go out of the country.

I know why they go to Saudi Arabia. They make sick money by holding a glorified 'house show'. That's why long-retired guys like Goldberg, Hulk Hogan, Shawn Michaels, and others make appearances there, because the Saudi's are big fans of wrestling from 20 years ago and more.

 

[timb2]

 

[timb2]

 

[timb2]

 

[MichaelWinicki]

I could watch that all day!

Yep, me too.

They were very "stiff" meaning they really looked like they were hurting people... And they were all offense all the time.

Just a great tag-team.

 

[MichaelWinicki]

Two results for you to enjoy from 2-6-77

Maple Leaf Wrestling - Toronto, ON - Maple Leaf Gardens

1. Chris Tolos and Baron Von Krupp vs. The Beast and Steve Bolus ended in a time limit draw at 15 minutes.

2. Ivan Koloff defeated Lou Klein at 7:51.

3. Michele Barone defeated Bill Morgan

4. Édouard Carpentier and Gino Brito defeated Tarzan Tyler and Reginald Love by disqualification

5. Jay Strongbow and Stan Stasiak defeated Ivan Koloff and The Wolfman at 11:48.

6. International Tag Team Titles (Toronto-Version) Match: The Crusaders (Billy Red Lyons and Dewey Robertson) (c) defeated the Kelly Twins (Pat and Mike Kelly)

7 NWA United States Heavyweight Title (Toronto-Version): Bobo Brazil defeated The Sheik to win the title at 4:49 minutes.

8. NWA World Heavyweight Title Match: Harley Race defeated champion Terry Funk to win the wold title at 14:10.


AWA - Minneapolis, MN - Auditorium

1. The Iron Sheik vs. Larry Hennig ended in a time limit draw

2. Angelo Mosca defeated Pierre Poisson

3. Bill Francis vs. Jim Brunzell ended as a no contest

4. Greg Gagne defeated Roger Kirby

5. Pedro Morales defeated Moose Morowski

6. Ray Stevens defeated Baron Von Raschke

7. Two-Ring Battle Royal: André the Giant and Angelo Mosca defeated Baron Von Raschke and Bill Francis and Greg Gagne and The Iron Sheik and Jim Brunzell and Larry Hennig and Moose Morowski and Pedro Morales and Pierre Poisson and Ray Stevens and Roger Kirby and ???

8. André the Giant defeated Angelo Mosca


Both were cards I would have liked to have been at.

The Toronto card featured (as it quite often did) a mix of local, NWA and WWWF talent. Obviously Harley Race winning the World Title was huge. The back story behind that is there were 3 choices for the NWA board to consider for the title change: Jack Brisco, Harley Race and surprise! Bob Backlund. It basically came down to Harley getting the title by one vote over Backlund. The bottom line was that Backlund did not get the title because Vince McMahan Sr. wanted Backlund as his next "face" WWWF Champion.

One issue I could see with making Backlund the NWA Heavyweight Champion is that he would need to be both a "face" and a "heel" depending upon who he was wrestling. Backlund had not been a "heel" at all up to that point in time. Jack Brisco was much more a face than he was a heel, but could be "heelish" if that's what was needed.

Dewey Robertson is a guy who doesn't get enough credit. He was great in the ring and became several different persona's over the course of his career. His most famous role outside of Canada and the Mid-Atlantic area was a the Missing Link.

 

[timb2]

They need to get Io Shirai vs Asuka.

 

[timb2]

WWE is still screwing talented wrestlers over. Ember Moon vs Asuka in NXT was awesome and Moon can't even get on TV.

Vince really has been using Asuka to get over Becky and Charlotte hoping that would be like Trish vs Lita back in the day. It is not working!!

Too many talented wrestlers are wasted in the WWE. Why is Bayley champ?? She is boring as can be!! Braun Strowman should be the champ over Lesnar. Others not even getting a push. Keith Lee needs to be called up.

 

[timb2]

I also want Hana Kimura still in the WWE.

 

[MichaelWinicki]

Louisville 2-14-81
Courtesy of Kris Zellner

From the Convention Center

1) Doug Vines defeated Ric McCord

2) Crusher Broomfield defeated Ricky Starr

3) Lanny Poffo defeated Rip Rogers

4) Ronnie Garvin & Pez Whatley defeated Bob Orton Jr. & Jeff Sword in a Texas Tornado match

5) Bob Roop defeated Randy Savage by disqualification

Kind of a meh card. Some good, some OK, some not so good.

Bob Orton Jr. doesn't get the credit he deserves– Great worker. A legit wrestler.

Bob Roop is another guy who could legitimately wrestle who isn't well known today.

 

[Rockport]