They’ve seemingly stopped uploading classic content altogether. They were at least consistently putting up some paltry number on the last Monday or Tuesday of the month for a long time, but they’ve skipped the past two months now. Pretty shameful if they’re just going to sit on the rest.

I’ve been intermittently watching chronologically through 1989. Unfortunately the 1/1/90 Prime Time is the end of weekly uploads, and it’s just a scattered handful after that. Guess a chronological watch of 1990 won’t take very long.

I'm actually surprised they haven't started removing content, while charging more. Still don't understand how something called the WWE Network has hardly any content from that organization from '82-'84, which is the period of time where they went from being regional to national. Hulk Hogan's re-debut in '83. Not there. Jimmy Snuka babyface turn. I'm assuming Piper/Snuka/Coconut & Andre's haircut match are missing too.

Also, the Hidden Gems were some of the best content on the Network pre-cock. All gone.

December of '82, Bob Orton gives his first babyface promo. Talks about not always being such a nice guy, but having a little boy has made him change.

Randy's first storyline...

Must not of liked the kid too much though because he lasts less than a year as a good guy.

Maybe that's why that boy now hears voices in his head.

Valentine and Flair do some job on Piper's face.

Stumbled across and thought you might like this since you going through it:

Looks like good stuff, but I don't know if I can give this 2 hours on YouTube in this format. I know all of the events pretty much, I just want to see them as they occurred.

Watched the Freebirds turn on the Von Erichs again for like the 3rd or 4th time (this is generally where i picked up the daily shows on ESPN when I was a kid, where they were airing the WCCW library in the late 80s/early 90s).

It was a 2 hour (2 part) show with the 2nd hour completely dedicated to Flair/Kerry in the cage, but to add an extra layer of this (something either I'd forgotten) was that David subbed for Buddy Roberts in the 6 man tag in the first hour. They said it was for some set of titles, but their opponents were Iron Mike Sharpe, Kelly Kininski (Gene Kininski's son being billed as Ben Sharpe for some reason) and the guy who goes on to become Cousin Luke.

You can basically call this the Iron Mike Sharpe hour because despite being a Mid-South talent, he's in this championship match and also the runner up in the other match in the hour, which was a battle royal that turned into a pole match for $10K with three men left, which must have been written by Vince Russo.

Anyway, the Birds + David win the belts and David relinquishes his belt to Buddy Roberts because the Freebirds are stand up guys and would do the same for him. Michael Hayes seems pleasantly shocked by the gesture (and of course, tries to repay this by knocking out Flair for Kerry later in the night).

Thus begins one of the great rivalries/feuds in wrestling history. It's my opinion that the Freebirds were the original "cool heels" more than a decade before the NWO.

These are great. Looks like 1 will come out per week. Part 2 ('85-'87) just hit 2 days ago.

From 1989-1992, the thing I cared most about in wrestling was seeing Randy Savage succeed. From 1992-1993, I shifted my preference so that my biggest priority was seeing Curt Hennig succeed. But after SummerSlam 1993, the point at which Hennig was gone and Savage was fully relegated to part-time work, nothing mattered more to me than Bret Hart being stopped. I came to hate him the way I hate my least favorite sports teams.

There is no greater indictment of 1996 Shawn Michaels that I converted from hating Bret Hart to an unprecedented extent to not only preferring him in the WM XII, but being so passionate in my preference that I became a Bret Hart fan from that point on. And honestly, it's fair to say that this is just as much an indictment of Jose Lothario as probably the worst corner/manager/valet in wrestling history.

Why were you so vehemently against Hart if your trend was that you seemingly wanted the top workers to keep advancing?

I was a kid and wasn't really thinking in terms of ringwork. Savage and Perfect were elite personalities, and that was the draw. Bret, on the other hand, was an utterly dull personality who I felt was nonetheless being shoved down my throat.

Thing is that I was definitely a big Hart Foundation fan; that was maybe my favorite tag team when I first started watching. But the Anvil was the personality of that team, and if anything just seeing a big dude throwing dropkicks was more compelling to me than everything that Bret did in the ring. So when they split off, it felt like they ended my favorite tag team and then started pushing the boring one.

And one of the first things they did with Bret in singles was to make him by putting him over Mr. Perfect at SummerSlam '91, which I was NOT on board with (I was already annoyed by the SummerSlam prior where Perfect had to do the same honors for Kerry Von Erich, who I also regarded as dull). So I was not behind Bret as IC Champ, and after he lost it for the second time to British Bulldog I assumed they were finally done shoving him down my throat so relentlessly...and then suddenly one week on Superstars, they announce him as world champion! WHAT?!

And then they went the whole "fightingest world champion" ever route, and they were having him do things like having him defend the world ****ing title against goddamn Virgil and giving up offense to him in the process. They never just let him dominate anyone, and it always made him seem weak on top of being boring. So after 4-5 months, they pull the plug on world champion Bret Hart, which I'm good with, and at this point I'm excited for the possibility of Mr. Perfect winning the first (to what was my knowledge at the time) King of the Ring tournament. Nope! He's gotta put over Bret again.

I did not enjoy watching him, and they wouldn't stop pushing him, and the momentum of my animosity toward him just kept growing and growing. Until it came time for him to be the Shawn Michaels alternative, at which point everything flipped.

Watched yesterday. Blew away my expectations.

Good explanation LKJ and I tend to agree. As a kid I never really got the Hitman hype, but I've grown to appreciate him more and more as an adult. I did love Perfect too, and Rude and Warrior were other faves from that era, but after that, we differ. HBK is my favorite wrestler of all time.

Maybe I appreciated Bret as a kid since he got shafted more than any other upper mid-card/main-event babyface (losing the IC Title to the Mountie wrestling with the flu, salt in the eyes at WM9, having to share the Rumble win with Luger, his brother and tag partner turning heel on him, losing the title to Backlund after his mother got gaslit into throwing in the towel)

I remember even only being 11 when he won the world title and thinking "this little bitch won the world title from Ric Flair". Just couldn't find him believable and always wanted him to lose it. Looking back and knowing the situation about firings, I feel different but it was a weird transition.

To be clear, I have great appreciation for HBK's body of work. Including, maybe even especially, in 1996 as an in-ring performer. But his 1996 character was the most ****ing grating thing ever. Absolutely insufferable beyond words.

Far from the only WWF/WWE personality to go from great to absolutely putrid after a face turn though. But my about-face on Bret felt so stunning that it could only be understood by someone who existed in my filled-with-Bret-hate brain at the time.

I was always happy to root for a heel over an insufferable babyface, and in the run-up to WM XII they essentially kinda sorta framed Bret as the de facto heel for the match despite him never doing anything heelish. Unlike the build to WM VI, where the build was "OMG which one of these absolutely undefeatable gods could possibly prevail??" the build to WM XII was completely fixated on the "Shawn Michaels's boyhood dream" bullshit.

Watched The Iron Claw. Definitely enjoyed, thought it delivered well.

This isn't really a spoiler because it's a complete throwaway line that has nothing to do with anything, but I guess it does give a scope of the movie's included timeline, so:

Heard they basically cut MJF out of the movie.

Oh I didn’t realize that was him. Yeah, very brief appearance.

Honestly the scene they do give him is weird because there’s no context for the average viewer. Even I, knowing the basic story, was left going, “I’m guessing that’s supposed to be Lance Von Erich…?”

There was supposed to be a storyline where Kevin (?) was very upset about bringing Lance in.

The scene does demonstrate that much, which is the point of having still included it. It shows Kevin on the apron getting pissed while Lance - refusing to tag out - finishes off a match.

The whole Lance thing really could have merited more time because of how stupid it was and how it helped mark the downturn of WCCW. But it was a 2:15 movie as it was, and I understand the need to edit some things down. The movie has its pacing issues. And it has an issue where the dude who plays Ric Flair is borderline atrocious at it (thankfully in just one sequence of the overall movie).

Otherwise, though, movie delivered nicely. Holt McCallany was pitch-perfect for Fritz, I thought.

I thought he would kill it. That was my favorite casting of the whole movie. Good to hear that Jeremy's size didn't throw things off.

I mean that part might still bother you, but I just didn't find it too noticeable. He's not much shorter than Efron, and the wrestling matches just serve to push the family story along.

It did amuse me that they actually made a point of highlighting in the movie that Kevin was shitty on the mic. That was very noticeable to me from the WCCW that I watched.

Kevin had some speaking lines on AEW last night. I muted it cause it was so bad and I think it ended up being like 3 lines

January '83...the great Dizzy Hogan makes his Mid-Atlantic debut in a body slam contest against One Man Gang. He fails, but is the only one of the three contestants (Iceman Parsons and the future Boris Zhukov) to get him off his feet.

First WCCW show of '83 features a six man elimination match for $5K with a powerhouse lineup:

Kerry, Andre, Gordy, Bundy, McGraw & Irwin

Kerry goes right after Gordy, but self-eliminates pretty quickly, hopping the top rope chasing after Hayes.

Once Gordy is free, Andre slaps on a choke hold, lays down...and stays there virtually the entire match.

Even when it's down to him against 3 heels. They attacked him, he fought them off and laid right back down with the choke on Gordy.

Andre, also self-eliminates by going after Hayes too eventually, leaving a Bundy/Gordy final (Gordy won).

Looked, but couldn't find any story on this match. The attraction that Andre was in that era, I can't believe this is what they wanted for him in a rare Texas appearance.

There has to be some story here. Was it personal heat with Gordy? Was it because he wasn't going over? Was he mad at one of the bookers?

There was the old rumor that Andre got the Freebirds fired from WWF just a year later, but I think that's been debunked by Hayes.