wccw usually had national cards with the nwa for a few years and they just missed the ppv era by a year or two
Yeah, the guy’s name was Will Sasso, and that’s the only thing I know him from.
Hmmm, it appears that Dish Network lost El Rey sometime after the end of the last LU season. Another reason to not cord cut removed, I guess (though Dish does appear to get the crappy network Impact is about to move to–somehow they keep managing to find more and more obscure networks to move to…)
It’s been rumored for awhile now, but it was officially announced today; Cody Rhodes is launching his own promotion, All Elite Wrestling, with the owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars providing the financial backing. Not much was announced today aside from the name and that the first AEW show will be called “Double or Nothing”, but there’s a press conference set for next Monday which is expected to offer up a lot more information.
All In was certainly a well-produced and entertaining show, so I’m interested in seeing what Cody can do as a full-time promoter. Dusty would be proud.
He’s apparently doing some kind of rally for it or announcements or something this coming Monday (I think…I’m too lazy to look). It’s weird they’d announce it with so little fanfare without any real semblance of a roster or (most importantly) a TV deal in place
I don’t participate in this thread since I’m an old school territory fan, but I just saw that former WWE announcer Mean Gene Okerlund has passed away. I’m sure many of you in this thread are familiar with him. RIP.
That’s a tough one because he was still active on the Network/TV.
It was cute at the time, but Legends House is going to look really sad here in a year or three…
Aw man, Gene Mean (as the Iron Shiek called him) was the best!
He used to host a Saturday afternoon show on USA network. It was usually a recap of the week’s matches, but he threw in some corny jokes and bits to stir things up a little. He used to have a segment where he’d call a female celebrity and pretend to have an intimate conversation with her, then act like he didn’t realize he was on the air. “Yes Tammy Faye, I do like the black hose. Oh yes, the red garter belt is nice too. You know what I really like? Oh! (looks at camera) You didn’t hear any of that did you? (to phone) Call you back.”
RIP Gene Okerlund
MEEEEEEEAAAAaaan, by GOD, GENE!
How he kept it together during those cocaine fueled Macho Man and Nature Boy interviews is beyond me.
I remember him from the AWA to the WWF to WCW and back to WWE. Truly the best!
My favorite Mean Gene moment was when he interviewed Hulk Hogan just after he joined with The Outsiders.
“Look at all this crap that’s being thrown in the ring! This is what awaits you!”
Then Hogan gets this ‘a-ha!’ look in his eyes and replies, “As far as I’m concerned, all this crap in the ring represents these fans out here!” Good ad-lib, if ad-lib it was.
RIP Mean Gene.
Fan of his since his AWA days.
An iconic voice. He and Bobby Heenan could make anyone laugh at any time. So many faces from my past gone today; “Captain” Daryl Dragon (The Captain and Tenille), Bob “Super Dave” Einstein, and of course, Mean Gene. All 76. Not a good start for the year.
Heenan: “Repo Man! Last week, the guy repo’d his own car. This man is nuts!”
Okerlund: “About five years ago, he got my mother-in-law’s.”
Heenan: “About four years ago, everyone got your mother-in-law.”
Okerlund: [maniacal laughter]
They’re both gone now. It’s sad.
As a kid I chuckled at the goofy little guy trapped between those gigantic men. Poor guy. Of all the places in the world to be!
Years later, I recognized that many times Gene is the one that kept things going in the right direction.
He played his part so well, and the wrestlers fed off that. Can you imagine if Hogan was standing there and not going “Well you know Mean Gene! (start rant)”
Or him setting up Hart, Macho or any of the others?
He was as much part of WWF’s golden era and Rock-n-Wrestle as the wrestlers themselves.
Now I want to call the WCW hotline for the latest news on the nWo…
Rumor of the day: Chris Jericho is one of the competitors on The Masked Singer, which might make sense if he still has any ties (or wants to remake them) with WWE, what with Smackdown moving to Fox in October. IIRC, Vince let him have it with both barrels when he hosted a game show on ABC while the WWE had some deal with NBC at the time.
WWE has voting for end of 2018 NXT awards, but it requires Twitter. I don’t use Twitter, and never want to. Is there a quick emulator I can use?
Anyone catch Wrestle Kingdom? If not track down the Jericho/Naito and Omega/Tanahashi matches. Two 5 star classics. I don’t like how Meltzer hands out 5+ star ratings on occasion but I could see doing it for Omega v. Tanahashi. And Jericho still brings it after three decades in the business. Definitely worth your time to see these matches.
WWE wishes they could put out matches like these.
WWE could put out matches like these, but doesn’t. NXT comes closest, but they don’t get the time these two matches had.
The worst part is that with their roster, they could.
[rant from an old territory guy] I keep up with WWE through YouTube videos and stuff like this thread. I have Hulu and stopped watching the WWE shows last year.
All the major feds over the years have made the same mistake; thinking that the initials are more important than the wrestlers.
I didn’t turn on TBS at 3:05 (PST) because NWA or Georgia Championship Wrestling was on. I turned it on because I got to find out if Dusty Rhodes finally got over on that snake, Tully Blanchard. What evil things did The Road Warriors do? Even though the Midnight Express were “cheaters,” did they deserve THAT level of brutality?
The squashes weren’t that entertaining but they weren’t meant to be. The TV shows were just an ad (aah trayluur, if ya will) for the live shows.
So, now the TV show is the thing, how do you replace squash matches with competitive matches that aren’t part of an angle?
Just an idea; give every belt a “top ten.” Every belt has nine people directly under them and the top five can challenge the belt holder, OR anybody in the top ten can challenge above them for their spot. No personal feuds, but lots of matches.
Sorry for the rant - DESK[/rant from an old territory guy]
Old Territory Guy, you should look up Jim Cornette’s podcasts on YouTube. He hates modern-day wrestling as well and frequently talks about the good old days.
He has plenty of anecdotes about what went on behind-the-scenes in GCW, Mid-Atlantic, Mid-South, and WCCW. He said the GCW jobbers were from Alabama wrestling. They’d all get in a van and drive over to the TBS studios to get their asses whupped by the Road Warriors and the Steiners. He has stories about the infamous scaffolding match between the ME and RWs, and how Dusty booked it, including how Cornette was supposed to be caught by Bug Bubba after he dropped from the scaffolding, but Bubba couldn’t see because of his Secret Service sunglasses and missed him.