I'm sure just about everybody here has seen this video from 2002. It's a brief history of the WWF with Kid Rock's Lonely Road of Faith as the background music.





You probably haven't seen this. It's a WCW version

I'd never even heard of the WWF/E one before. I just finished the WCW version and honestly, it reminds me why I fell in love with wrestling. So many great moments there. I love the visual of Ric walking the aisle in Texas Stadium...a god. #nostalgia. Will watch WWE version later tonight. Thanks for posting

I just Masato Tanaka vs Mike Awesome at ECW Heatwave 1998

This was one hell of a match!!

They have a rematch the next year (I don't want to spoil exactly when it is ) that's one of the best ECW matches ever. Their chemistry was off the charts.

Who was the most over babyface of all time? It's possibly Chigusa Nagayo, one half of the Crush Gals (with Lioness Asuka) from All-Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling. I don't think Hulk Hogan or Stone Cold Steve Austin ever had an audience behind them nearly as much as Chigusa did.

Here's a good example of the insanity.

Crush Gals vs. Jiumping Bomb Angels

Another gem I found on theditch.biz. I've never been a super-huge fan of Kawada, and while Jumbo was awesome, I often get annoyed at just how dominant he is in matches (usually in tags moreso than singles). But in this match, Kawada looks like a million bucks and Jumbo really has to dig deep to put away the younger challenger. Kawada does a few things in this match I can't remember ever seeing him do (like a Cactus Jack-style elbow from the apron to the floor). Also, this match includes one of the most bad-ass slaps you'll ever see.

Bruno Sammartino vs. Larry Zbyszko Feud, Part 1




Part 1 (of 2) covers the setup to the feud, Zbyszko's heel turn, and early matches at the Philadelphia Spectrum and Madison Square Garden.

It also has lots of interviews by Vince McMahon wearing his trademark yellow suit.


(1-12-80) Larry Zbyszko challenges Bruno Sammartino
(1-12-80) Closing comments from Bruno Sammartino
(1-19-80) Closing comments from Bruno Sammartino
(1-26-80) Zbyszko vs. Beauford, Larry face to face with Bruno
(2-02-80) Bruno vs. Larry, with extended ending
(2-09-80) Bruno Sammartino empty arena interview
(2-16-80) Larry Zbyszko vs. Masters, Larry interviewed
(2-16-80) Larry Zbyszko MSG Promo
(2-23-80) Larry Zbyszko vs. Berger, Bruno comments
(2-23-80) Larry Zbyszko Promo
(2-23-80) Larry Zbyszko vs. Beauford
(3-01-80) Bruno vs. Larry (Spectrum)
(3-08-80) Bruno Sammartino MSG Promo
(3-08-80) Larry Zbyszko MSG Promo
(3-15-80) Bruno/Larry MSG Promos
(3-22-80) Bruno/Larry MSG Promos
(3-22-80) Larry Zbyszko MSG Promo
(3-24-80) Bruno vs. Larry (MSG)

Just finished watching Crush vs Glen Ruth from 1993

Nice little squash match to put babyface Crush over

https://youtu.be/9GTjfvrMSaU

I've been working my way through all the Saturday Night Main Events. And I'm up to Jan 7, 1989. I just finished watching Beefcake cut off all the hair of Ron Bass. I guess the thought was the feud was going to continue after that, but it was quietly scrapped, and Bass left shortly after the Royal Rumble that year.

I just imagine Vince telling Bass, let's cut your hair, but you'll get to give him his receipt later on. Then, they shave him bald, and give him his walking papers. Obviously more to the story than that, but yeah.

Also, the number of semi-racist to straight out racist angles in 1980's WWF is...something. A glaring example of this is when Million Dollar Man (A White Man) bought Hercules (A White Man) from Bobby Heenan (A White Man) to be his slave. Hercules doesn't want to be his slave, so Ted has Virgil (A black man) wrestle Hercules. If Virgil wins, Hercules will become Ted's slave. During this segment, I swear Virgil gives some looks like WTF is this **** to the camera, instead of his usual stern face he always had.

Hercules was latino wasnt he?

Possibly/Probably. He was born in Tampa, FL, not sure where his parents are from.

Still, weird angle.

His real name was Rey Hernandez, I believe, so that would make him Latino

Ray Fernandez.

Lol being a little preinternet 10 yr old in NZ meant I had no idea the racist elements of some of these storylines. Its funny to reflect back on some of them

I remember enjoying the Dibiase slave angle and rooted hard for Herc to take them out

Bruno Sammartino vs. Larry Zbyszko Feud, Part 2





Part 2 has rematches at the Spectum and Madison Square Garden as well as their final match at Shea Stadium in a steel cage.

You also get to see Zbyszko start his feud with former tag team partner, Tony Garea. They were champions together from 11/78 to 3/79.

(3-29-80) Bruno Sammartino Spectrum Promo
(3-29-80) Larry Zbyszko Spectrum Promo
(4-05-80) Bruno Sammartino MSG Promo
(4-12-80) Bruno Sammartino MSG Promo
(4-12-80) Bruno Sammartino vs. Larry Zbyszko (Spectrum Rematch)
(4-21-80) Bruno Sammartino vs. Larry Zbyszko (MSG Rematch)
(5-17-80) Bruno Sammartino Promo
(5-17-80) Larry Zbyszko vs. Angelo Gomez
(6-14-80) Bruno Sammartino Promo
(6-14-80) Larry Zbyszko MSG Promo
(7-80) Bruno and Larry Shea Stadium Promos
(7-19-80) Bruno Sammartino Shea Promo
(7-19-80) Larry Zbyszko Shea Promo
(7-80) Bruno in-ring weigh-in for Shea Stadium match
(7-26-80) Larry Zbyszko Shea Promo
(7-26-80) Bruno Shea Promo, responding to Larry
(7-26-80) Larry refuses to talk to Tony Garea
(8-09-80) Larry Zbyszko vs. Berger, attacks Garea
(8-09-80) Bruno Sammartino vs. Larry Zbyszko (Shea Stadium)

I had my first itch to watch some classic wrestling in a couple of months and watched Sting vs. Cactus Jack from Beach Blast 1992. This is one of my favorite matches, ever. There was a funny moment before the match where Gary Michael Kapetski introduces Sting. Usually he says "This is Sting!!!". Here he says "America! This is Sting!". I want to summarize the match:

Cactus bumps
Cactus bumps
Sting bumps
Cactus bumps
Cactus bumps
Cactus bumps
Cactus bumps
Cactus bumps
Cactus bumps
Cactus bumps
Cactus bumps



As a kid, Cactus' WCW music creeped me out:


.iso rating: 4.5*

After that I was onto another Sting match. Kapetski dropped "America" when introducing him this time:
Vader vs. Sting from Starrcade 1992 for the King of Cable trophy.

This was only the second time I've watched this match. I liked this match more than the previous one. These two guys threw everything at each other and just couldn't put the other away. Eventually Vader made a mistake and lost the match. It told a great story and was fun as hell to watch. At the beginning of the match I came out of my seat when Sting was making a comeback and actually german suplexed this beast. If you haven't seen this, you need to watch this.



.iso rating: 4.5*. I'd give this higher but despite the finish making sense, the execution of it was weak af.

Just watched this match and some of the promos leading up to it. I loved this promo:https://youtu.be/XeilXeRPdYE in particular. This is how you make a match feel huge, and how you build up a monster heel.

^ Vader in the parking lot reminded me of that Jim Cornette story where Big Bubba got his ****ing hand slammed in a car trunk and no-sold it until they got into the arena and out of the fans' sight (at which point he understandably wailed in anguish), since Bubba's gimmick was to no-sell everything, and selling the smashed fingers would break kayfabe. God I love that story.

Today is the 40th anniversary of Bob Backlund's WWWF title win over Superstar Billy Graham.

Here's a compilation video of some events leading up to the title change and what happened afterwards.




(1-14-78) Graham refuses to shake Backlunds hand
(1-28-78) Backlund MSG Promo
(2-78) Grand Wizard MSG Promo
(2-18-78) Graham, Backlund MSG Promos
(2-20-78) V1: WWWF World Champ Graham vs. Backlund
(2-20-78) V2: WWWF World Champ Graham vs. Backlund
(2-20-78) V3: WWWF World Champ Graham vs. Backlund
(2-25-78) Interview with Grand Wizard, Superstar Billy Graham, Luke Graham
(3-18-78) Superstar Billy Graham vs. Tony Garea
(4-78) 4 clips of MSG Promos with Graham, Wizard and Backlund
(4-24-78) WWWF World Champ Bob Backlund vs. Graham in a steel cage match

Still working through the AJPW archive ... these two matches took place back-to-back on the same card in July 1993. Ye Gods.

Then a month later we get this No. 1 contenders match between Kobashi and Dr. Death. The finish ... I can't even ...

(These two also wrestled a famous title match in 1994.)

I remember that Williams/Kobashi match. There are a lot of people that consider that the GMOAT. It's a miracle that Kobashi wasn't killed with the suplexes.

I don't remember too much about that July 93 match between Misawa/Kawada. I do remember their first singles match in October 92 is one of my favorites between those two. Their most famous match is coming up sooooooon.

No love for another one of my favorites and one that seems to be forgotten because it has no Misawa/Kobashi in it: Hansen vs. Kawada from 2/28/93. It's is easily in my top 20. It's a fun and crazy ~20 minute brawl.

I watched and enjoyed it (hard not to enjoy a Hansen-Kawada slugfest), just didn't post it. There's probably 50 matches from 1988-1993 from NJPW that I could have posted. It's all anywhere from very good to insanely great.

Good example was a tag match with Miracle Violence Connection vs. Hansen and some dude I had never heard of, where Gordy clotheslines Hansen as soon as Hansen steps in the ring, and it's just 10 minutes of MVC obliterating Hansen, who gets turned (for one match) into an underdog babyface. Hansen eats the pin, gets no offense in, and it's fantastic. Bizarro-land, but still fantastic.

That sounds like a match I need to see. I'll search ditch for obscure wrestler and Hansen . edit: found it 6/27/93. Will be watching later tonight .

I'm not sure Kawada and Hansen ever had any other interaction aside from that. I'd guess that Hansen left shortly after because I don't recall any other Hansen matches from 94 or after. Need more Kawada vs. Hansen in my life.

edit 2: apparently there's a Kawada/Hansen match at the 94 CC. Gonna watch that too.

edit 3!: in 98 Hansen and Vader team up for RWTL. That has gotta be awesome. 3 matches up with them.

You sent me down the damn rabbit hole!

It's glorious, isn't it?