Haven't done one of these in awhile, but next month is Ric Flair themed. I'm interested to see how far back they'll go to dig up some oldies. For instance, I don't believe I've ever seen any 70's matches with Flair.

But for now we're still in August and "Destination:Worldwide", the international theme. They regurgitated "WWF World Tour 1992" again...which includes perhaps THE worst match of the last 25 years: Texas Tornado vs. Da' Mountie from somewhere in England.

I watched an episode of Stampede from 1986, last night. Previously, they showed some old 70's Stampede, which sorta' got a free pass from me, considering its age. But damn, this 1986 stuff was some Awful Shit.

Of note:
-Mike Shaw as Mahkan Singh. From the Apter mags, I thought I remembered Singh as being some sort of Afghani character. But Ed Whalen announces that he's just from "Saginaw, Michigan". Singh himself makes no attempt to speak in a accent, either.

-But Singh does cut a decent heel promo, with some good put-downs. It was Halloween, so Singh slams Bill Kazmaier, saying: "I heard he dressed up as a wrestler, tonight. Who will believe that?!"

-I guess it was a staple of Stampede to not show entire matches. Makes sense, since it'd get fans to actually go out and buy tickets to the live show.

-Dynamite Kid's name was dropped roughly 6 times. Depsite the fact that he'd been in the WWF for almost 2 years at this point.

-Dr. Drago Zhivago: a scrawny blonde-haired Canadian guy with no mic skills. He was supposed to be a heel manager and leader of the "Red Brigade". But the guy couldn't present himself well and had no physical or vocal presence. With a name like that, you'd expect him to be a phony foreigner, but he speaks with a Canadian accent. About as threatening as a Wendy's drive-thru clerk.

So I've been watching the Wrestling Challenge episodes on 24/7 Online. They really need this and Superstars on the 24/7 Service more than Primetime and TNT. The pace is a lot better and I actually feel like I'm getting angles on Challenge. I wish they could figure out how to get Superstars on there. The only really annoying thing is they have to bleep out any mention of WWF.

Nice Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling. They need to play this all the time on 24/7.

Most of the good angle advancement on "Superstars" and even "Challenge" gets picked up by PTW, shortly after WrestleMania IV. Which is about six months' time from what they're currently airing.

They'll bleep out the WWF mention, but they'll also have to blur out the "Superstars of Wrestling" banner. Some of the matches they've shown on PTW have had this effect. Juts kind of weird... I remember a recent match with Ron Bass, where Bass' head happened to be in front of the banner. It was a weird edit job, with the blurry halo floating around Bass' grill.

I will always hate PTW for the endless Young Stallions vs. the Shadows matches.

Aw nerts, not again! I was all psyched up to go home and watch the PTW that's available this week. Way to poop in my pinata, Doggy! I don't even think two Scott Casey matches or Tiger Chung Lee can cheer me up.

Episode 4 of Wrestling Challenge is quite interesting. It boasts the debuts of the Honky Tonk man, as a face too, and the Natural Butch Reed.