In the run-up to SummerSlam '94, I didn't really understand why I was supposed to buy that Walter Payton could definitely neutralize Shawn Michaels at ringside in the IC title match. Payton was a running back who was smaller than Michaels. Obviously he was great, but why was I supposed to think that he could fight?

"A lot of things on this program make no sense; we've said that many, many times." -Tony Schiavone, 11/10/97 Nitro

Every so often, I'll go check out the earliest thing on the Network if it's something I haven't seen before.

1951 - Lou Thesz defends the NWA Championship against Ray Gunkel (2 out of 3 falls)

They go a little over a half hour with Thesz being awarded the third fall because Gunkel could not continue after a body slam. Yes, that's right. Thesz slammed him and pinned him to take the second fall and Gunkel had to be carried out, not on a stretcher, but over the shoulder of two guys. The body slam caused such injury that Gunkel could not continue.

It's probably not something that most people here would want to watch in full in this day and age, but I just found the finish fascinating.

I've watched that match. Time capsules are pretty cool to drop in on now and then. I couldn't sit and binge-watch 1950s wrestling, but these random highlights from the era can be fun.

They put the beginnings of WWF Wrestling Challenge from 1986 on the Network. I did not realize that Dan Spivey took Barry Windham's place in the U.S. Express, but that rendition of the U.S. Express is in the opener. Kind of an oddity as well that the opponent is Don Muraco and...Iron Mike Sharpe. They got a jobber entrance without music, and it's as if Muraco was a jobber himself at this point, but Fuji was already his manager. I don't know.

Harley Race's coronation. For some reason they removed the third rope. I've never seen the ring look that way.

I remember being introduced to Spivey that way. Was not a fan. Now the lines are very much blurred, but I've always wondered what, back then, made them do random heel vs heel matches.

I was introduced to Spivey as Waylon Mercy in 1995, and I was a fan. Then he lost to Savio Vega on his one and only PPV, and I realized that there was nothing to get invested in. To be fair, he was completely done in the ring at that point, so the only thing I was into were his promos.

Interview with the Hart Foundation on the 9/13/86 Wrestling Challenge. Jim Neidhart angrily, earnestly looks into the camera and rants, "People are calling us nasty boys! We are NOT nasty boys! What is so NASTY about us?!"

What an odd promo. And it looks from Wiki like the Nasty Boys actually had formed in 1986 and were wrestling under that name (spelled as Nasty Boyz) in AWA.

https://variety.com/2021/digital/new...ng-1234890954/

For those of us in the U.S. still paying $10/month for this, apparently we'll only be paying $5/month soon, and will get Peacock Premium.

Nice bit of news, especially since I've been missing my perpetual access to all seasons of The Office but haven't been willing to pony up for yet another streaming service.

I'll probably pay the 9.99 for the no commercial option. Interesting development. WWE network being shut down is quite surprising to me. At least the content will still be available.

Oh damn, I missed the ad part. Okay yeah me too, I'll just keep paying the same. The addition of Peacock for no charge is still nice, like when my Spotify Premium pulled in Hulu.

Yeah, I havent paid a dime for the network and Peacock is free with my cable package so this is pretty great for me if all the same content is available

When they say WWE network will migrate over to Peacock, I hope they're not planning on changing anything on the Network.

In other news, watched something awfully confusing on the network last night.

Muhammad Ali vs non-descript wrestler in 1976.

Dick the Bruiser in the corner of the wrestler. So far, so good.

Freddie Blassie in the corner of Ali, shouting out boxing instructions (WTF? - is Ali the heel here?)

Verne Gagne is the ref (Was Blassie in the AWA at this time.)

Erupts into a brawl, after which the champ, Nick Bockwinkel, along with his manager Bobby Heenan enter the ring and trash talk with Ali (So it definitely is an AWA event and Blassie was the babyface?)

After which, Vince McMahon interviews Ali, who calls out all the best wrestlers, face or heel. (Now I have no idea what's going on.)

I remember Gorilla Monsoon, seemingly working face, getting to run Ali off and then cutting a promo about how Ali was in over his head in the WWF. I found it bizarre too, but I guess having seen that I'm less surprised at these examples you name.

Monsoon was one of the "wrastlers" he called out, so this must have been prior to that.

What do you mean by change? I'm pretty sure they are getting rid of the actual network and app

I mean I'm comfortable with navigating through it at this point and I hope they don't remove any footage, while continuing to add older stuff.

You will have to get used to a new interface, and unfortunately, Peacock's is not great. But the current setup, including interface and such is likely to change since they went be using the mlb.tv player anymore

So The Islanders were originally faces? Interesting. Also, on the 9/20/86 Wrestling Challenge, Gorilla Monsoon is pronouncing Toma's name as Tome-a rather than Tomma. During WrestleMania IV, Jesse pronounces it the way Gorilla is pronouncing it here, and Gorilla corrects him, causing Jesse to lash out and declare that the right pronunciation is whatever he says it is.

I've kind of just never understood the concept of Greg Valentine at the most basic level. Like, why is he a person? Was he really necessary to the eco-system? But beyond that, there's just nothing resembling an interesting wrestling character. "The Hammer"? What is that? Why should anyone hate this guy? Not one ounce of heel charisma. The only thing he does to draw heat is "existing." He doesn't really do anything dastardly. And the attempt to have him work babyface in 1991 was just absurd.

He was solid in the ring, to be sure. But like TradeOC, I just never even understood what he was supposed to be.

I felt similarly about both he and Tito Santana. He just felt like generic wrestler #1. I will at least say on Valentine's behalf that he had at least one very memorable match at Starrcade with Piper.

I wasn't some huge Tito fan, but I liked him and thought he was a lot more fun to watch in the ring. I didn't really see him as completely uncharismatic in the same way. He had one IC Title match with Mr. Perfect in 1991 that I thought was really good (either on Superstars or SNME), and not just for Perfect carrying the match or anything.

I didn't think he sucked or anything, just very generic. On another note, I met him at a local autograph signing when I was a kid (which must have been around '87 because Tim Teufel was there too and there were jokes being made about an error he made in the '86 series). Tito was a hell of a nice guy and one of those people you don't realize is very large in real life because the wrestlers were so much bigger then, but there was never really a Tito Santana match or feud that was very memorable...and the El Matador gimmick...ugh.

I remember Jesse saying on somebody's podcast once that he and Tito were very close, which is why he was so rough on him as an announcer. Basically, those are my memories of Tito, Jesse's commentary, which would now certainly be called ethnic slurs.