fraserbee

I have not bought the magazine for a while and thought I would check the latest issue out.

This was until I read the above post mentioning Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao.

Since when is this fight a wrestling or MMA fight?

I have zero interest in buying a boxing magazine.

That's a bit of a rash decision to not buy a magazine based on one article not being as interesting as the rest. There's plenty that looks like it'll be a good read this month - I'm particularly looking forward to the Flair piece.

 

I liked Norman until he became a trucker

Same. He was a favourite of 7 year old me back when WCW first appeared on ITV. He also had a really fun match with Brian Pillman on either a Clash or PPV(I can't remember the event) back in 89. A talented wrestler, saddled with some horrible gimmicks I think.

People who don't work for the company, or have been banned, walking out to an entrance video or music. All for a cheap pop, and totally shatters any suspension of disbelief. This is the kind of thing that mainstream TV does everything it can to avoid, yet wrestling lets it fly because "hey, it's wrestling.

Any run in really. Surely they are meant to be unplanned events so why would this music be cued up? It's so silly. It comes under the same umbrella as the back stage skits where two heels devise some dastardly plan pretending that the cameraman is not there in the room.

Raw being three hours long. Fucking hate it. I don't even bother to watch it on fast forward. I just avoid it. Every weekly wrestling show (NXT, TNA, Lucha Underground, Smackdown etc) should be one hour long and Raw should be 2 hours. If Raw overuns by a few minutes then it's longer than The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. No wonder Lesnar's the only guy they have who's properly over, he barely even shows up on Raw. How is somebody meant to be entertaining, must see, and relevant when they've gotta go out and do 20-minute segments every week?

I absolutely agree 100%. I have a full-time job, a wife, a young child and a Labrador that needs walking. I simply do not have 3 hours to sit and watch a wrestling programme every week.

Another thing which I hate is the Heel Authority Figure gimmick. Vince McMahon and Steve Austin had an amazing run in 1998/99 but it feels like that basic premise has been the template for the booking of WWE, TNA and countless other groups ever since and I can't stand it. Why can't we just have a Jack Tunney-like guy who pops up to clear up controversies but otherwise stay well clear?

It's not really Steph McMahon I hate, it's the whole concept. I am completely fed up with the heel authority gimmick controlling everything. I can remember a time before Sergeant Slaughter got stunned by Steve and made look like a fool by DX when authority figures were played like legit executives who popped up to clear up some controversy then disappeared again. The whole concept has become the template that too many wrestling companies are built around and it just feels so lazy to me.

Regal's just tweeted a picture (from a PowerSlam piece I wrote nonetheless) of a match he had with Hashimoto and noted that he passed on the trunks and boots to a young Daniel Bryan, who wore them for most of his ROH run.

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Are we sure Regal's not pulling our collective leg? It is an identical outfit but surely Regal would be like a giant standing next to Bryan. There's no way they have the same boot size for a start.

I'm really looking forward to reading about the Weekly Pro Wrestling Tokyo Dome show. I've always wanted to watch that event but never had the chance to. Looks like a good issue all round though.

"Great American Bash 1991" is far from being the worst PPV ever. Watch it on the Network if you can. Diamond Studd vs Tom Zenk is a great match. Luger - Windham was better than I remembered. Only right stinker was that scaffold match. What the fuck was that about?

 

Big cut in the WWE Network version when the "Yellow Dog", during his match with Johnny B Badd, shouts "JOHNNY B GAY!!' into the camera and half whispers "faggot" as he's walking away. Cut right out. It's on the UK VHS version.

. I watched this a few months back for the first time in around 20 years and thought exactly the same thing. Also, Ricky Morton vs Robert Gibson is pretty good too - Gibson sells his knee so believably.

 

The Luger Windham match is really odd though. Why have a cage match and not use the cage once? If anything it restricted them. Weird.

Wasn't sure whether this warranted a new thread or put it in random thoughts or what, but as Foley's at the top I went with here. I've only just come across this finding... According to mookieghana, Mankind was technically the best-drawing WWF champion as far as attendance goes.

 

https://sites.google.com/site/chrisharrington/mookieghana-prowrestlingstatistics/avghouseshow

 

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Some of those figures don't look right at all, though. And there are mitigating factors there, I'm fairly sure a lot of shows during Mankind's title runs were headlined by Austin matches, and during Big Show's reign, wasn't he working midcard matches with Bossman?

Is this an average of all house shows during a champions reign or just the ones the champion appeared on? During Hogan and Savages reigns there were three house shows per night - only one with the world champ appearing.

I watched Clash of the Champions 16 from September '91 a couple of weeks back.  During the show, Foley is involved in two angles with Sting, firstly where Cactus Jack jumps out of a gift box attacking Sting.  Cactus does a mental elbow drop off the middle rope, over Jim Ross' head at the announce table onto Sting on the floor.  Later on the show, Sting jumps out of another gift box and attacks Cactus.  During the second angle, Cactus takes a high back drop on the rampway and is then hip-tossed off it onto the exposed concrete floor.  He's up on his feet again in a matter of seconds and they brawl to the back.  It was incredible the crazy risks he would take in an angle like this, let alone a match. 

A huge shame. I've been a regular reader since 1995 (and an irregular one since 1992). I still enjoy Powerslam, not so much for the news these days, but more for the historical articles such as The History of PPVs, The History of the WWE title and the article a few years back about blading. Never an issue has gone by either, without there being published at least a handful of amazing action photographs, which were another highlight.

 

If they read this, very best wishes to Fin Martin or anyone involved with PS over the years.

Poor thing must have been pretty young when her dad was killed.

TNA crowd from Aberdeen MD at the top, PWS crowd from the same weekend at the bottom

 

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BpvFHdACYAAMGKz.jpg

 

By the way, If ever a pic could become an internet meme, this is it.

 

Can you believe this man was in a headline match at WrestleMania a few years back? Gunner thought this outdoor show was 'a bit like WrestleMania' so perhaps Bobby was feeling nostalgic.

Warrior death even got into the local Glasgow newspapers up here. Shows you the scope of the man.

He had a 1/3 page obituary in The Daily Telegraph on Thursday, probably the most serious, middle class paper in the country. It was very respectful too.

Why is anyone who's not The Undertaker having a coffin match in the first place?

Am I right that Hogan was younger in that run than HHH is now?

 

No - Hogan was 49 (according to his Wiki), and Trips is now 45. Not far off, though.

It's scary how old wrestlers have gotten. Back in the late 90s Terry Funk looked so old and fragile. I was constantly thinking "please be careful with him". This year's WrestleMania is likely to have a fair handful of middle-aged gents of similar age to Funk's age then in prominent positions.

They also had Spin The Wheel, Make the Deal at Halloween Havoc.

I thought that was a cool idea. If I recall, the downfall of the concept was WCW's failure to gimmick the gimmick, so the result of the wheel spin was legit. This led to Sting and Jake Roberts having a crap Coal Miner's Glove match, probably the least interesting stipulation on the wheel.

where's the Hard Cam set up? I can't make out on either picture.

I think it is directly opposite the first picture. I actually think, when viewed from that angle, the place might look pretty good.

Interestingly, there's talk of Jarrett starting up a new company. I wonder if AJ not re-signing (again) has had anything to do with Jeff handing his notice in. They are long time pals.

That thought crossed my mind too.

I would like to see the "Greetings Grapple Fans" articles expanded and put into a book.

The more readers that tell us they'd buy such a book, the closer it comes to happening.

Put me down as another potential customer.

Variety is the spice of life, WWE seem to think formula is the key, sadly.

I think this is the key, and is what Austin dislikes about today's product. Yes, there have been some excellent matches on TV over the last few years, but they do feel (to me at least) to lack a raw, spontaneous, and real feel. I know wrestling isn't real, but I want to watch it and forget. I would like to believe that two guys didn't like each other and were both trying everything the can do to win, rather than working together to put on the best match possible. To me, it's not meant to look slick.

Undertaker and Kane used to set people/sets on fire and magically teleport everywhere. But that is more ridiculous than that gif.

 

 

 

Totally seething with sarcasm of course. Nothing wrong with that spot when seen within the context of the match itself.

 

You should be arrested.

In fairness, it is about the audience and promotion too. This type of spot is accepted or even encouraged in ROH. It's not acceptable in the WWE, so they won't try anything like it there. It's about being able to fit your act to your audience - it remains to be seen how Edwards and Richards cope with this.

 

Paul O'Grady doesn't do dirty Lilly Savage jokes on Channel 4 at tea time. It's the same sort of thing.

Didn't he get hurt during his run with Hogan that left his left hand side withered or something among those lines? He just looks like any other old bloke to me.

Yeah, he had some sort of nerve damage in one shoulder. He injured it during his run with Hogan in 86 but because they were doing such amazing business he never took time off to have it fixed. By the time he finally gave in and took time off, his shoulder was completely ruined. He pretty much retired after that to run a chain of 10-pin bowling alleys. When he eventually did return in WCW in the early 90s, it was really obvious that one arm was significantly more muscular than the other. That he was able to work to the standard that he did until the middle of the decade, with what must have been a significant disability really is a testament to the man.

 

Edit: it took so long to type that on my iPad that TheShowOff beat me to it.

If he were to dye his hair and stubble black, Hall wouldn't look all that much older than he did in the late 90s, which is amazing considering the water that's flowed under the bridge in the decade-and-a-half since then.

I have to agree with the consensus here. The WWE were right to let Hero/Ohno go. He was given a tremendous opportunity, but he is in a class of tremendous talents who embraced the opportunity given to them and he didn't. Given that he was working full time in the best, most well equipped training facility ever put together for professional wrestlers, and still couldn't get himself into good shape, what chance would he have if he was touring four or five days a week with the main roster? It was just not going to work out.