Merry Christmas.

Watch some wrestling.

I found a Terry Gordy vs. Bruiser Brody barbed wire match from who knows where on YouTube that was pretty entertaining. Two of my personal faves.

I got a bunch of stuff from Walmart thanks to my discount card. I found some oddity called the Glory Days of Wrestling. One disc is crap but the other has Gorgeous George vs. Jessie James, Killer Kowalski vs. Ed Carpentier and Buddy Rogers vs. Pat O'Connor.

I'm getting Lockdown 2006 for Christmas, so I'll have that to watch soon. I'm also planning on watching the second disc in the Foley dvd to do a review and also the Global Warning Tour show (that is if I can get a VCR going down here).

That, and I want to spite some people over at TCE. Someone said my Foley review was one of the worst he'd ever seen and another person was bitching about me bumping a two month old Global Warning tour thread that was still on the first page. And people wonder why I like DWB better...

I watched of little of the Pillman disc last night. Pretty good so far.

The guys at TCE really like to share their opinions. Whether you want them or not.

Watched "The best of Joel Gertner" on YouTube, as well as the first half of Wrestlemania X-7

What's TCE? Is that "Cage Classic's" crappy forum? That was probably one of the worst forums I've ever stumbled across. Seriously immature crap and a buncha' braindead douchebags.

Plus, I could never figure out why somebody (a guy no less) would continually show a picture of himself nekkid with a fake WWF belt. I mean, even as big of a dork as I am, I've never had a desire to take a picture of myself, starkers, wearing nothing but a copy of Avengers #4.

Anybody want to see picture of me wearing only a bass?

only if it's the fish, and not the instrument

I had a good chuckle because I imagined you saying that making the same facial expression as your avatar.

And back to the subject at hand, I'd rather not see that photo, I'm still trying to forget Cage's naked title belt picture.

Amazing match right here. Kobashi and Tenryu bring the stiffness and Nakajima gets destroyed. I need some more Kensuke Office if it's that good.

Ok match I guess. I'm not that big of a fan of ROH because it's basically the same type of match all the time. It's still better than anything TNA does but not my cup of tea. KENTA gets injured about halfway through. OH, and the ROH commentary team needs to be shot.

One of the Top 5 matches of the year no doubt. I don't watch a lot of ROH but I know the storylines. I don't watch CZW at all but this match was a great brawl. The pop Homicide gets is just amazing. I think TNA is really dropping the ball on him. BJ Witmer impresses me a lot in this match.

Another Nice little match. KENTA is just out of this world above everyone else in NOAH and ROH it's amazing. Davey holds his own and will be big in the future I beileve. Some brutal kicks and chops in this match.

So in my other selections from Walmart I grabbed that Wrestling Gold set that had two SMW shows and the AWA DVD. Good viewing all around for the most part.

And watched some random 70s NWA tape that included a bunch of promos.

Some of the tape includes

Johnny Valentine vs. Lou Thesz
Bearcat Wright/Bobby Shane © vs. Jack Brisco/Bob Roop in a Tag Team title match
Danny Hodge vs. Gerry Brisco
The Zodiac (Bob Orton, Sr.) vs. Hiro Matsuda
Jack Brisco vs. Dory Funk, Jr.
Gerry Brisco vs. Dory Funk, Jr. in a Submission Match
Jack Brisco/Paul Jones vs. Johnny Valentine/Buddy Colt
Buddy Colt vs Jack Brisco © for the NWA title
Don Muraco vs. Jack Brisco for the NWA title
Dusty Rhodes/Buddy Colt vs. Eddie Graham/Paul Jones in Lights Out Match
A bunch of Interviews and Segments with The Andersons
A press conference with Jack Brisco as NWA champion
An interview with Paul Orndorff and Jimmy Snuka as World Tag Team champions, and both look a lot smaller in their NWA run than what we all knew themfor in the WWF.


I also watched some 70s California. I've only watched a few matches on it so far and only a few things stand out.

Roddy Piper vs. Terry Sawyer with Hector Guerrero - during the Piper/Guerrero feud
Hype for Pat Patterson vs. The Canadian though interviews and matches
Mando Guerrero vs. The Canadian © for the Americas title in a Cage Match

Good shit, Plague. I've been in an oldschool mood lately, I need to bust out some 70's AJPW with the Funks, Briscoes, and Jumbo.

Just watched KENTA vs. Bryan Danielson from NOAH. Great stuff by two top workers in the world. Watching this< I realized that I was watching the next Benoit and Eddie. Man, TNA's gotta grow up quick, cause Vince isn't putting real wrestling on TV anytime soon.

They're Ring of Honor match is even better, I thought.

Just watched the AWA DVD that the WWE just put out.

Overall really good stuff. I tmay even be my favorite DVD they've put out besides the 3 disc sets....

I had mixed feelings on the AWA DVD. The Gagnes were definately full of shit and almost everything out of their mouth was a total lie. Though I found this DVD to be one of the few times Lawler was useful as he was really honest about why he bailed with the title. I found Hogan and Ross to also be the most honest on the DVD. Ross was dead on when he pointed out how stupid it was to put the title on Stan Hansen and then be surprised when he jumped to Japan.

Honestly, thought that Vince and the Gagne's were the most full of shit out of anyone on the DVD myself. I would have to agree with everything else you said though.

I also find it funny that they really avoid talking about the NWA in this as well. What people seem to forget is that when Vince was doing his talent raid in 83 was that at the time the NWA owned the US. That's why Vince raided the AWA first, as he would have had a hell of a time trying to raid the NWA because guys were getting paid big bucks. Also, I like on the DVD how they credit Bobby Heenan as the only guy that finished his contract with the AWA before he left. Especially if you've ever heard the story of how Verne and Greg threatened to throw him out a window when he gave them notice.

The AWA in the 70's though was fucking badass.

Yeah, ignoring the NWA was pretty stupid. But really if I had to guess the AWA of around 1983 probably was the No. 5 promotion behind even Memphis and Mid-South. I know at least Mid-South was doing better business wise. Hell Mid-South slaughtered the WWF ratings wise when they were both on TBS in 1984-1985.

Yeah, although Mid-South would probably be considered a branch of the NWA.

Memphis drew well in their region, but I would argue that AWA was drawing better than them in a bigger territory.

Looking back on the fall of the AWA I see 4 big events and a few smaller events that led to the demise of the AWA title and the promotion as a whole.

1. Vern Gagne winning the title and then retiring with it in 1980. This isn't as important as the next three but it was the start of the belt losing credibility. This was bad for several reasons. Gagne was really old and the idea of him beating anyone let alone a world champion was laughable. It also presented a terrible ending to0 what was probably the greatest AWA World Title run ever in Nick Bockwinkel.

2. Not putting the belt on Hulk Hogan. This alienated the fanbase big time. They felt screwed over by the dusty finishes. Had Gagne not been so greedy and not tried to get a piece of every wrestling related income Hogan had then maybe he wouldn't have jumped to the WWF.

3. Putting the title on Stan Hansen. Anyone should've seen that he was going to be taking orders from Giant Baba and not Gagne. Gagne also screwed himself there by trying to double cross on a deal he made with Baba. This led to Bockwinkel as champion again and I think the fans were just tired of him after a solid decade of him in that role.

4. Putting the title on Jerry Lawler. This was bad for the following reasons. 1. Why put the title on someone and then screw them out of money first thing. Who wouldn't expect Lawler to refuse to defend the belt if he's not getting paid. 2. Kerry Von Erich was a much bigger name nationally at the time than Lawler was. Von Erich was on a severe downside career wise at this point and Lawler was easily a better worker but I still feel that Von Erich brought more short term star power. Lawler would've been easy to build up but do it without the title.

This of course leads to Larry Zbyszko as champion. I think he's a great heel but not someone you build a promotion around. He's that heel who stays in the secondary title picture and you build up to be the first challenger for a new face champion.

Otto Wanz was also another big misstep for Gagne in the 80s. This is another example of Gagne putting short term monetary gain over the long term good of the promotion.

I watched some SHIMMER last night with Plague. It included a very enjoyable match between Cheerleader Melissa and MsChif, Lacey vs. Sara Del Ray, and Alison Danger vs. Beth Phoenix. I also really enjoyed Team Blondage.

If the WWE really wants to hire 20 new divas, they should be raiding SHIMMER and not model agencies. A lot of, if not most, of the SHIMMER girls look like divas anyhow.

Dude, before I respond you are right on. Nice observations.

It was nice to do this for Verne and his fans, but horribly for business. One of the biggies in wrestling is that NOBODY should ever retire a title. Nobody gets over and the title loses crediblity. Also, it WAS the end to the greatest AWA title run of all time by Bockwinkle.

Damn straight. Hogan should have had the title and actually should have kept it until they brought in Brody and had him take it away. If AWA would have been the company to do the Hogan/Bruiser Brody feud they would have toppled the WWF in the 80's mark my words.

They did it out of despiration. But that doesn't mean that it was a good idea. They seriously have should have never done it, although it's not the most admirable thing on Hansen's part....they knew where his loyalties lied.

Exactly. Lawler may have been the better worker, but Von Erich had all the star power needed to carry a company. I honestly think one of the things that kept the title away from Kerry was the fact that Verne had to have known about his drug issues. Otherwise, it would make NO sense to put that title on a regional guy like Lawler.

Zbyszko was a terrible choice as he was only a great heel during the Bruno feud in 80 and that had to do more with Bruno than it did with Larry Z. He's one of the most overrated guys in the history of wrestling.

Ok, so I'm going to be taking advantage of the IVP deal going on and getting either 30 or 40 DVDs. So recommend me stuff. Especially NOAH and Dragon's Gate stuff.

Almost done with the Pillman disc, nothing mind-blowing.

Plague and I watched a tape he acquired that was filled with 1970's NWA Mid-Atlantic bits. Mostly interviews and clips of matches, but filled with some early Flair, Johnny Valentine, Super Destroyer, Wahoo McDaniel, Sunny King, and fat-ass Haystacks Calhoun.

Then we watched FMW's Yokohama Deathmatch tape. That had some pretty sick stuff in it.

So I just dropped $300 over at IVP. I went a little nutty but I'm now the proud owner of a butt load of puro. Here's a list of what I bought:

Best of Bucanero &amp; Guerrero (2 Discs)
Best of Mistico V.1
Best of Mistico V.2
Best of Mistico V.3
Best of Mistico V.4
Toryumon 04/16/2006 April 16th 2006 (2 Discs)
Toryumon 08/06/2006 September 6th 2006
Toryumon 07/03/2005 July 3rd 2005 (3 Discs)
Toryumon 06/03/2006 June 3rd 2006
Toryumon 07/02/2006 July 2nd 2006 (3 Discs)
Toryumon 06/16/2006 June 16th 2006
Toryumon 05/10/2006 May 10th 2006
Toryumon 04/23/2006 April 23rd 2006 (2 Discs)
Toryumon 03/17/2006 March 17th 2006 (2 Discs)
Toryumon 03/09/2006 March 9th 2006
Toryumon 01/27/2006 January 27th 2006 (2 Discs)
Toryumon 01/08/2006 January 8th 2006
Toryumon 12/27/2005 December 27th 2005(2 Discs)
Toryumon 12/26/2005 December 26th 2005 (2 Discs)
NOAH 11/05/2005 November 5th 2005 (2 Discs)
NOAH 03/05/2005 March 5th 2005 (2 Discs)
NOAH 07/18/2005 July 18th 2005 (3 Discs)
NOAH 01/22/2006 January 22nd 2006 (2 Discs)
NOAH 09/09/2006 September 9th 2006 (2 Discs)
NOAH 01/23/2005 January 23rd 2005 (2 Discs)
NOAH 05/07/2005 May 7th 2005 (2 Discs)
NOAH 05/08/2005 May 8th 2005 (2 Discs)
Best of Kobashi: Complete GHC V.1
Best of Kobashi: Complete GHC V.2
Best of Kobashi: Complete GHC V.3
NJPW 08/06/2006 August 6th 2006 (2 Discs)
NJPW 08/10/2006 August 10th 2006
NJPW 08/11/2006 August 11th 2006
NJPW 08/12/2006 August 12th 2006 (2 Discs)
NJPW 02/19/2006 February 19th 2006 (2 Discs)
NJPW 05/03/1997 May 3rd 1997 (2 Discs)
NJPW Airforce Wars J (10/10/97 to 10/27/97)
AJPW 07/26/2005 July 26th 2005 (2 Discs)
AJPW 08/27/2006 August 27th 2006 (2 Discs)
AJPW 07/03/2006 July 3rd 2006
AJPW 02/13/2000-02/27/2000
AJPW Excite Series 1999
AJPW TV April to July 1993
AJPW TV February to April 1993
AJPW TV July to September 1993
Best of NOAH GHC 2001
NOAH 09/18/2005 September 18th 2005 (2 Discs)
AJPW Classics 001
AJPW Classics 002
AJPW Classics 003
AJPW Classics 004
AJPW Classics 005
AJPW Classics 006
AJPW Classics 007
AJPW Classics 008
AJPW Classics 009
AJPW Classics 010
AJPW Classics 011
AJPW Classics 012
AJPW Classics 013
AJPW Classics 014
AJPW Classics 015
AJPW Classics 016
AJPW Classics 017
AJPW Classics 018
AJPW Classics 019
AJPW Classics 020
AJPW Classics 021 and 022
AJPW Classics 023 and 024
AJPW Classics 025
AJPW Classics 026
AJPW Classics 027
AJPW Classics 028
AJPW Classics 029
AJPW Classics 030
AJPW Classics 031 and 032
AJPW Classics 033 and 034
AJPW Classics 035
AJPW Classics 036
AJPW Classics 037
AJPW Classics 038
AJPW Classics 039 and 040
AJPW Classics 041 and 042
AJPW Classics 043 and 044
AJPW Classics 045 and 046
AJPW Classics 047 and 048
AJPW Classics 049 and 050
AJPW Classics 051 and 052
AJPW Classics 053 and 054
AJPW Classics 055 and 056
AJPW Classics 057 and 058
AJPW Classics 059 and 060
AJPW Classics 061