Now here we go... this week's update has "Black Saturday", along with the first-ever episode of Prime Time Wrestling. I watched PTW last night and it's very different from what we're used to. Jesse's rather low-key and it's just some worthless bumper material wrapped around an MSG show from late 1984. I also suspect that the intro and outro music is dubbed over (they play the music from 1987, but I think it was originally something different). I took notes, so expect a review sometime this week.

They're also showing other crap, like the Undertaker's debut .....AGAIN. All in all, it looks like a fun theme this month. My enthusiasm for the channel has died down with all the recent holiday-themed crap (October through December), but this has me perked up.

I'm with you.....this is really the first time in about a month or so that I was actually psyched up to watch something on there.

I was really let down by the content on Black Saturday, I could see why fans would turn on it.

I'm also surprised that Vince still did the announcing in front of the World Championship Wrestling banner, and didn't replace it with a WWF one

Yeah, but if you think about, the banner was actually the name of the show. Like "Superstars of Wrestling". So since there wasn't a big ol' NWA logo up there, the WWF probably thought they could still use the familiar "World Championship Wrestling" banner as the storefront. Even though what was inside the store was completely different.

Like walking into a store with a big KMart banner, but once you're in there you realize it's Target.

Watched "Black Saturday" tonight. The "feature match" is probably Bobo BRazil vs. Big John Studd. Match-wise, the show is incredibly awful, but it's worth watching just to see the familiar WCW graphics and music, wrapped around a WWF package.

They've also added the premiere episode of TNT, this week. It's equally awful (TWO hours), but has a somewhat funny vignette at Dr.D David Schultz's home.

Remember, it's the premiere episode...as in, FIRST. But they answer fan mail, adressed to TNT. Riiiiight. One fan asks about the lack of facepainted wrestlers in the WWF, saying that KISS were the originators. Fairly true, as KISS and the movie "Road Warrior" probably had the biggest effect of anything on 80's wrestling.

Odd Coincidence: During the MNW episode for this week, Lawler makes a comment about HHH during a King of the Ring Qualifier:

"Hunter Heart Helmsley would make a great King, but he'll never be a King of Kings like me, JR."

I watched the 3/35/80 MSG house show and really enjoyed it. Sure, it has back-to-back SAMOAN MATCHES in the middle, but the rest is a decent card. Duncum/Patera vs. Andre/Patterson, Hogan vs. Santana and an entertaining match between Bruno and Larry Z with a hot crowd.

Plus, the MSG debut of Kerry Von Erich. Good stuff for the time period. The only thing missing is Swede Hanson.

I'm really starting to hate the Samoans. Their matches usually stink and the only reason they're in there is due to their look and gimmick. I never felt one way or another about them before, but WWE 24/7 has made me add them to my Stable of Suck: with Marty Jannetty, Raven, the Barbarian and Shawn Michaels.

I caught the legends roundtable today about the territories. Pretty good overall, but FUCK did Tazz suck balls on this one.

Oh, and E.....The Barbarian is awesome.

Watched PTW from 8/24/87 last night. Lot of transitional angle development. Ted DiBiase has his first TV match-- the one where he pays a jobber to take his place and the jobber proceeds to lose the match.

Rick Martel gets attacked by the Islanders, which brings out Tito Santana to make the save. Crowd goes NUTS for Santana, as he seemed to be fairly over until early 1988 or so.

On a Very Special Podium Interview, Paul Orndorf fires Bobby Heenan (again) to very little pop. Orndorf then introduces his new manager, Oliver Humperdink...and that gets a slightly bigger pop than the face turn.

Other crap of note: Brutus Beefcake FINALLY wrestles someone-not-named-Johnny V.... and loses, via pinfall, to Harley Race. Plus, Johnny V is eliminated from the Bam Bam Bigelow sweepstakes, Macho Man continues his face turn, and more matches called by Lanny Poffo and Don Muraco! Those two guys are okay-- they bring up good points and follow the match well-- but their vocal delivery is terrible.

I also watched the Strongbows vs. Mr. Fuji & Mr. Saito for the tag titles. Plus, OnDemand had a TNA match that I actually enjoyed: Sting vs. Abyss from "Against All Odds 2007". Sting does a flying bodypress onto a table, from the top of a big dumpster. He's also wearing Abyss' mask throughout the match in a cool psyche-out job. Stinger's just great...he always plays his role well and knows how to tell a story. Even in the stupid angles that seemed to follow him (Black Scorpion, Vampiro, Abyss, Impostor Sting), he always did well.

I didn't catch the entire PTW so I only heard a bit of the commentary with Muraco and Poffo, but man did Muraco sound fucked up.

Yeah, even the Brain mentioned that Muraco was "having some trouble with his throat". Muraco sounded even worse on previous weeks, though. Like he was completely sloshed. With all the guys they had hanging around the roster, it's perplexing why they'd let Muraco on commentary in that condition.

Sad thing is I was thinking sloshed or not why the hell they'd have Muraco and Poffo on commentary period.

They had some WEIRD commentary teams in the second half of 1987. Ken Resnick had just left them, but he wasn't a huge void to fill. Craig DeGeorge was well spoken, but his voice was too soft for wrestling play-by-play.

In addition to Poffo and Muraco, they also tried out: Jake Roberts, Sherri Martel, Pete Doherty, Slick (early in 87), Nick Bockwinkel (!) and even Mike McGuirk (several months before she debuted as a ring announcer). Johnny V was still doing commentary, but was being phased out.

I've heard Mike McGuirk on some stuff, but I don't remember any of the others that you mentioned. Weird.

Jake was in the booth with Muraco on a PTW which aired a few weeks back. They covered a JYD-One Man Gang match and it was AWFUL. Jake kept talking about storylines that had no bearing on the match. Like: "hey, what do you think about this Danny Davis guy?"

Nick Bockwinkel did some houseshow broadcasts in late 1987. Around November or October. It's just weird, because Nick had been active in the AWA about three months earlier. It's a definite "WTF moment" to hear him.

Sherri did some very limited commentary. I think she was a face, even. Doherty, too...but he was a heel and had a nasally voice, almost sounding like a cartoon con-man. Both did houseshows, but pop up on some of the exclusive Coliseum Video matches. I think you can hear Doherty and McGuirk on snippets during the "VCR WreslteMania Game".

I think I have some tapes with Doherty on them and he was pretty fucking bad.

I remember the VCR Wrestlemania game as a friend of mine found it when he was cleaning out a storage room in his house. We ended up watching a lot of the tape, but it was pretty bad considering it's just match clips.

There were some odd matches on there. I know I have that game, somewhere.

I remember Scrooge did a review of the actual tape, about two years ago. It's buried in our "Reviews & Columns" somewhere.

Another weird thingie this month: during the 1/21/85 MSG show, Heenan says Patera will Andre and that it will: "be like those two towers in Manhattan imploding".

Don Muraco and Pedro Morales also make their returns to MSG, while Brett Hart and Jim Neidhart both debut in singles matches. The "main event" is JYD/Snuka vs. Piper/Orton. I'm pretty sure JYD was a sub for the Tonga Kid who flaked out and left the WWF. There's also a Spoiler match...just weird, because that guy seemed to pop up everywhere.