DAMN!

I will say, Sandy Scott was a fairly ridiculous commissioner for Mid-Atlantic. Dude can't talk even a little bit, and makes Jack Tunney seem like a charisma machine by comparison.

I've arrived at where Mid-South content begins on Peacock. Interested to see how much I like it compared to Mid-Atlantic.

Are you guys watching territories straight through before moving onto the next or in chronological order, meaning all shows for all companies for a given week or month? Is there a way to even watch everything in a given week or month before moving onto the next or does the network make that too difficult to figure out? I think I would rather do it that way to make guys moving from one spot to another more interesting.

I do it chronologically by week. I watched the Mid-Atlantic episodes starting in September '81 until December '81, and now there's Mid-South episodes so I'll go back and forth. Like Dynasty, I'll add WCCW in January '82 and do a three-show rotation for each week.

I'm basically on a three show rotation too. Though, if I watch Mid-Atlantic's episode for 1/20 before Mid-South's episode for 1/10, that's not a problem.

I will make sure to finish all of January for all three promotions before watching a single February episode for any of them.


And, Sandy Scott annoys me too.

A couple of episodes ago he was setting up a Piper-Steamboat match, called Piper "Rodney Piper," causing Bob Caudle to try to straighten it out with, "Ah, okay, Roddy Piper," and then Sandy called him Rodney again directly after.

The Hot Rod put the fire out at Wrestlemania 5!

I think that'll be the one I rewatch next. I had 6 on VHS and watched it frequently as a kid. Love 4, 5 is good too. 3 is awesome. Have only seen 2 once, and have actually never seen the first one.

It took me quite some time to get around to watching the original WrestleMania. My hometown's video store had it, but I'm pretty sure every time the box caught my eye I immediately went reacted with, "A tag team main event? GTFO." I rented V the most, rented IV a lot, rented III a handful of times, 2 I might have only rented the once. I've seen all of them additional times since the Network became a thing.

Took a long time for me to get to WM VI since the local video store stopped bothering to buy wrestling tapes after 1989. Was floored when I finally saw it and Hogan-Warrior was somehow awesome.

I was never big into Hulk Hogan as a kid, and I always tend to source it to Jesse Ventura's commentary at WrestleMania V. He eviscerates the ever-living **** out of Hogan, and it all sounded so credible that I couldn't ever get it out of my head. I think it really affected my ability to really ever become a fan.

Lol, that's awesome.

I marked out for the Coliseum Videos of those glorified house shows that had one-off matches that had no prior feud/history to them

Texas Tornado vs. Ted DiBiase, wOaHhHhHhH!

Me too! Loved those random competitive matches. They seemed so cool since I was watching the Superstars smash jobbers mostly. Tito Santana vs Kamala! Andre the Giant vs Hacksaw Jim Duggan!

Wrestlemanias 4 5 and 6 are like comfort food for me

January 1982 Territory Thoughts

I'll try to keep these comments without any substantial spoilers. If I say too much, just let me know and I'll rein it in next month.

Mid-Atlantic
It seems to be the Crockett style to have too many titles. This was certainly true at the start of 1982 with the NWA World, United States, Mid-Atlantic, NWA TV, World Tag Team, and Mid-Atlantic Tag Team.

In addition, Billy Robinson was promoted as a British/European Champion and Terry Taylor was billed as the NWA Rookie of the Year.

Belts and Titles for half the roster!!!


Ric Flair never makes and appearance and is rarely mentioned. However, he's promoted for the first show in February. It would have been good to watch this show starting years earlier when Flair was building his reputation to become NWA champion.

Sgt. Slaughter was a great heel. I saw him in 1980-81 in the WWF and the evil marine drill instructor gimmick worked beautifully. He reuses his Cobra Clutch challenge here. In the WWF, it sparked his big feud with Pat Patterson.

Roddy Piper is great. But, I'm not that into him as an announcer. He's certainly far better than Caudle and Crockett. But, he's not up to the Ventura/Heenan standard. (and Piper was just plain bad as a babyface announcer in the WWF)

Ricky Steamboat's mustache makes it's first appearance. I don't like it.

Blackjack Mulligan Jr. (Barry Windham) looks a bit odd emulating his father. He was definitely right to retool his image a year later in Florida.

I don't like Jimmy Valiant and he's going to be a big star here for years to come. It probably doesn't help that he's got a generic over-dubbed music entrance.

Jake Roberts was okay as a young babyface. But, his Texas gimmick was no good. He clearly was right to turn heel and dump the cowboy hat. Also, his kneelift finisher is great.

Ray Stevens was way past his prime. Likewise, Paul Jones and Johnny Weaver don't do anything for me.

Ninja is lame. But, the Great Kabuki and Gary Hart will arrive in about a year.

I believe Gene Anderson was genuinely injured and that was the reason for announcing a World Tag Team title tournament.

The structure of this tournament is ridiculous. Did the fans really buy it? It's even worse than saying Pat Patterson won the Intercontinental title in Rio de Janeiro.

I do like that they showed footage of Adrian Adonis and Jesse Ventura from the AWA. Also the Jack and Jerry Brisco match from Florida had a great pinning combination by Jack Brisco. I've never seen that before.

Apparently, Ole Anderson (the booker) really tried to make a ridiculously large tournament happen and some of it actually took place. But, it's going to all fall apart and be a big dud.

The generic opening theme is lame.

This is the original theme of Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling


Mid-South
Mid-South offered great action this month with some "fan voted dream matches".

All the Ted Dibiase - Paul Ordorff stuff is excellent. It's a bit amusing that Ordorff and Roop "discovered a counter to the figure four leglock". 1982 seems very late to be doing that angle.

We missed the Dusty Rhodes - Great Kabuki match. But, we did get a very bizarre Dusty Rhodes interview.

Junkyard Dog, Dusty Rhodes, and Andre the Giant vs. Ernie Ladd and the Wild Samoans really could main event anywhere in the world. And, we got a good clean finish.

Not all of the top TV matches on Mid-South get good finishes. But, enough do to be satisfying.

Some of the old timers aren't working for me. Dick Murdoch is okay. But, Bob Roop is not generating any excitement.

Cowboy Bob Orton must have given his notice on his way to the WWF. He's getting jobbed out big time.

The Iron Shiek is doing his Persian Club challenge. But, by the end of the month I don't understand what's happening with him. Maybe he left Mid-South.

Bill Watts is known as a rambling commentator. This month he goes on about Cat Zaboulas the Welcher. It's some type of inside commentary.


World Class
World Class still has too many of it's old timers and hasn't yet embraced the youth movement.

Jose Lothario is already 47. So is Arman Hussein. At least they move like they're still 40-45 years old.

Tim Brooks is only 35. But he also moves like he's 40-45.

Tom "Boogaloo" Shaft is also old and slow in the ring. But, he can at least talk. In a year, he'll be replaced by the much younger Iceman Parsons who may have stolen his butt-butt finisher from Boogaloo.

Gene Goodson is a terrible announcer. Bill Mercer will be better when he arrives. Though, I was never a big fan of his either.

For some reason, WCCW is using two referees in tag team matches. It's dumb and clutters up the ring. Of course, using old and slow Bronco Lubich as a referee is even dumber.

I'm intrigued by Big Daddy Bundy as a babyface. He won't stay that way long but he seems to have the fans behind him now.

Kevin and Kerry Von Erich look good. But, David is not seen or mentioned. He must already be in Florida working as a heel.

The Great Kabuki seems to be the most interesting heel at the moment. He apparently recently blinded Fritz Von Erich with the green mist. But, we haven't seen footage of it.

Kabuki is unique in appearance and style. He's a great guy to have on the roster.

Kabuki's match with Kerry Von Erich was the highlight of the month.

Carlos Zapata works as a jobber here and in Mid-South. What a career.



This took too long to write.

I grew up (and still live) between Greensboro and Charlotte. I was about 10 during this time and just started watching on Saturday mornings. For some reason, the Boogie Woogie Man, Jimmy Valiant, became my favorite wrestler.

This was his theme song, that I just loved.



I was so jealous when my friend got a little red tape recorder for Christmas like the one he carried to the ring.

We went to several matches at the Greensboro Coliseum to see the likes of Wahoo, Ricky Steamboat & Jay Youngblood, Sgt. Slaughter and Don Kernodle, and Ivan Koloff. But it was the Boogie Woogie Man who I always wanted to see.

Lmao, I loved renting those when I was a kid. Even bought a few.


Watching Raw last night when Erik nearly fell on his head reminded me of when Kevin Nash tried to Jackknife The Giant and dropped him in horrific fashion. I remember watching it live.

I hadn't seen it in forever, so looked it up last night. I was getting anxious watching the match leading up to what I knew was coming, even though I know he doesn't get injured.

Oh Jesus Christ! I haven't seen that.

Is that... Dolph on the receiving end?

It's Bob Holly.

*was Bob Holly

jeeeesus

At least he parlayed it into a WWE Title match at a Big 4 PPV

(though he has to be in the top 5 least-likely to win PPV title contenders conversation)

Thurman Plugg baby!

I always have secondhand embarrassment for ol' Thurman that they attempted to shoehorn him into the closing celebration at WM X.

Man the Randy Orton injury angle in 2002 with his self important updates are gold! This was his 1st real push after bring a generic young babyface earlier

Also lolling at Matt Hardy Mattitude gimmick with random as facts about Matt in his entrances

Some good stuff in 2002 and 2003 so far