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WCW was amazing. I mean, it's bad enough that guys like Hulk Hogan and Kevin Nash had creative control and could refuse to do jobs, but even guys like Johnny B. Badd and Diamond Studd (when he was a nobody) had enough clout to refuse to jobs and had lucrative contracts. If only Evan Karagias and Lenny Lane had thrown more tantrums they could have been World Heavyweight Champion. From reading the old Observers lately, it's pretty hilarious to see Johnny B. Badd treated with kid gloves by the management while Steve Austin is jobbed out to loving Renegade and Jim Duggan.
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Aug 15, 2012 23:22
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Tato posted:From reading the old Observers lately, it's pretty hilarious to see Johnny B. Badd treated with kid gloves by the management while Steve Austin is jobbed out to loving Renegade and Jim Duggan.
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Aug 15, 2012 23:35
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Tato posted:WCW was amazing. I mean, it's bad enough that guys like Hulk Hogan and Kevin Nash had creative control and could refuse to do jobs, but even guys like Johnny B. Badd and Diamond Studd (when he was a nobody) had enough clout to refuse to jobs and had lucrative contracts. If only Evan Karagias and Lenny Lane had thrown more tantrums they could have been World Heavyweight Champion. According to Bischoff only Hogan had creative control.
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Aug 15, 2012 23:36
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Cromulent posted:Raw was literally in high-school gyms No it wasn't.
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Aug 16, 2012 03:31
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Karmine posted:No it wasn't. His timing was a little off, and it was hardly a regular thing, but they taped four weeks of Raw at Liberty High School in Liberty, NY in December of 1994.
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Aug 16, 2012 04:00
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I posted:Impossible. No one is worse at wrestling than Ron Reis. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Reis quote:Reis' next television appearance was at World War 3 1995, where he participated in the 60-man battle royal, billed as the Yeti but now dressed like a ninja. He made his second and final appearance in the ninja costume, billed as The Super Giant Ninja, on WCW Saturday Night in early 1996 losing against the then United States Heavyweight Champion the One Man Gang, before the character was dropped. 
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Aug 16, 2012 04:04
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Shiki Dan posted:Ron Reis is Evil 
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Aug 16, 2012 11:49
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Karmine posted:No it wasn't. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BD3XoWPIks 6/5/95; Struthers, OH; High School That's what History of WWE lists. It doesn't quite look rinky-dink like ECW with the backboard and the like, but it only has bleachers on two sides and nothing on the other two sides so it's quite clearly a gym of some sort. edit: a lot of great Nitro chat on the current Observer Radio algebra testes fucked around with this message at 13:07 on Aug 16, 2012 |
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Aug 16, 2012 12:05
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LordPants posted:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BD3XoWPIks They did a really good job of making it look bigger than it actually was for most of it. Somehow managed the opposite of the TNA Impact Zone effect. It was also really weird to see Tatanka tagging with heel Sid because I don't remember that at all.
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Aug 16, 2012 17:07
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Sid and Tatanka were in Money INC before the faction fell apart. It was around the time they realized it would be better value for Ted Dibiase to manage guys who were actually over but bad at talking (123 Kidd included)
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Aug 16, 2012 19:05
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Using the Wayback Machine, I can go to my nostalgia filled youth and read old IGN wrestling reports! Here's a ratings breakdown of the Monday Night War from 2000 : http://web.archive.org/web/20000619132223/http://wrestling.ign.com/news/19109.html Nitro Ratings Breakdown: Hour 1 – 2.9, Hour 2 – 2.7 Overrun – 2.8 Nitro kicked off the opening segment with a 2.5 rating for the Bischoff/Jarrett etc. interview. The ratings rose to a 2.7 for the Terry Funk vs. Norman Smiley/Ralphus Hardcore match, then peeked at 3.2 for Ric Flair’s interview segment. The 3.2 rating carried over into the next segment featuring The Total Package and Chuck Palumbo. Hour two began and so did Raw. Nitro didn’t suffer too much in the first quarter-hour though, slipping to a 2.9 rating. Nash called out the Filthy Animals and DDP took on Mike Awesome in the stretcher match in this segment. Nitro’s sixth quarter hour continues to be the segment where the damage is done. This week, Scott Steiner occupied that time slot and the rating dropped to 2.3. On the other channel, The McMahon-Helmsley Regime conducted a promo that saw Raw’s rating rise by 1.5. This week though, unlike previous weeks, Nitro was able to recover from this almost immediately. The next quarter-hour jumped right back up to a 2.9 rating. The Kronic tag match and Steiner vs. Tank’s angle continued were featured during this segment. The final quarter hour slipped to a 2.7 and the overrun, featuring Sting vs. Jeff Jarrett, rose slightly, finishing with a 2.8 rating.
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Aug 16, 2012 20:03
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That wayback machine is awesome. It's so weird reading through those old reports.
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Aug 16, 2012 20:36
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Huh, I always thought Bagwell's calf implants were just a hokey myth.
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Aug 16, 2012 20:46
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coconono posted:Huh, I always thought Bagwell's calf implants were just a hokey myth. I read in The Death of WCW that one of The Harris Boys had pec implants that resulted in an off-center nipple.
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Aug 16, 2012 20:56
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Mr. Carlisle posted:They did a really good job of making it look bigger than it actually was for most of it. Somehow managed the opposite of the TNA Impact Zone effect. There's some camera work going on but it's mostly the audio that sells the image of a larger venue. Good sound people are worth their weight in shoe kept meat snacks. ECW had a good one too, but these days anyone not WWE either doesn't know about this or doesn't care enough to spend money on it (UFC is notorious for bad spatial audio) maniacripper fucked around with this message at 21:00 on Aug 16, 2012 |
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Aug 16, 2012 20:58
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Audio is such a afterthought in video production... I work in Post, people will drop $25,000 on a video but only give themselves a $200 music budget or something crazy low
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Aug 17, 2012 04:12
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Or you can be like ROH and have a $200 budget for the entire event
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Aug 17, 2012 13:53
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Dave Meltzer, don't sue me now! From the June 26th, 1995 Observer:quote:Behind the scenes the show wasn't nearly as smoothed as it appeared on camera. As expected, Marcus Bagwell's leg infection caused Jim Duggan to replace him in for international amateur star Craig Pittman's first career major show match. For reasons that are a bit more confusing, Road Warrior Hawk, who was to do a live radio spot, work a squash match on television and shoot an angle for an impromptu PPV match, wasn't in Dayton. Apparently he stayed home in Minneapolis to hang with his father since it was Father's Day. As of Sunday night, the general impression around WCW was he was through, but by Monday everything had been smoothed over. Hawk's last-second challenge match with Bunkhouse Buck was changed to a tag match with Buck & Dick Slater vs. Harlem Heat. But perhaps the biggest changes of all came due to an article in the local newspaper written by former Miami Herald reporter Alex Marvez, who had just recently started working in Dayton. Marvez' article listed what apparently what he expected would be the finishes to every match on the show. Since WCW gave away a few finishes already at the last television tapings, putting together a reasonably good set of guesses would be pretty close to correct. In this case, too close. WCW officials totally panicked since apparently Marvez' finishes were 100% on the money and everyone was trying to guess who it was that leaked them to Marvez. While I don't know for sure, I'm relatively sure there was no leak and Marvez just deduced, and considering he had Dallas Page vs. Dave Sullivan in the article as a wrestling match rather than arm wrestling, I would deduce there was no leak. We have differing versions of this story but the consensus seems to be that booker Ric Flair and others were so mad that he wanted to make sure Marvez' story didn't have any credibility by changing one or two finishes, one of which was in his main event match (Marvez had predicted a Flair win due to outside interference rather than using Angelo Poffo's cane). This naturally made Savage a happy camper since up until Thursday he was supposed to beat Flair, then it was supposedly changed to him losing due to outside interference at a booking meeting because everyone realized Flair badly needed a credibility boost and outside interference was a set up for their gimmick match in July. Then it was changed again with Flair winning, but not only without any help, but with his own father's gimmick being used on him. Before the end of the night, some of the more paranoid among the boys were suggesting that it was Flair himself who actually told or had leaked to Marvez the finishes, having orchestrated the whole deal himself, so he could have an excuse for winning in that matter. That all sounds like a brilliant story except that none of it is true. quote:3. Jim Duggan beat Pittman via DQ in 8:13. The graphic underneath Duggan read "Marcus Bagwell" twice. Speaking of trivia, Pittman's nickname "Pit Bull" was not a pro wrestling creation but was a nickname given to him as an amateur. Fans were chanting "USA" which was more moronic than usual given Pittman's Marine Corps gimmick (which is a shoot). The match got awful as time went on. Pittman got the Code Red on Duggan, who made it to the ropes but Pittman didn't break it for the DQ. After all the pushing of how Pittman went through UFC competition, he can't even beat Duggan. This finish was changed from the original plan either due to the Marvez article or other forces within the company wanting to save Duggan from doing the submission. DUD. quote:5. Renegade (Richard Williams) beat Arn Anderson (Marty Lunde) to win the WCW TV title in 9:07. Anderson probably worked about as well as I've ever seen anyone work in a negative star match. Like Wright, this match was a terrible expose of just how badly the Renegade gimmick is catching on as the biggest pop was when Anderson hit the spinebuster, which he kicked out of, not to mention exposing that this guy isn't ready for prime time. Also, the guy is shrinking by the week which is for the best but kills him as a Warrior clone. Renegade won with a splash off the top rope. -1/4* quote:The situation with Marcus Bagwell's leg infection went something like this. Bagwell had calf implants put in (I can understand a competition bodybuilder, but why a wrestler who wears long tights would want calf implants is harder to figure) in late May. He was in pain almost from the beginning and had circulatory problems and I guess he got infected from the operation and if he hadn't had them taken out, the infection could have ended his career. From a Vince McMahon interview that week: quote:He [Vince McMahon] said that WCW was making a big mistake with its new Monday night show going head-up with his highest rated show. He said that Turner can package wrestling but has no idea how to package it creatively and has no idea how to correctly sell Hogan. He criticized Hogan for not telling the truth about his steroid use until the trial (look up the yiddish word Chutzpa in the dictionary for that one) and said something to the effect that Savage's jump was like jumping off a ledge as a career move but indicated he felt he and Savage were estranged friends and that Savage was more honest than Hogan, who he also knocked as being past his prime.
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Aug 22, 2012 00:59
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These old observers are starting to become really hilarious.
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Aug 22, 2012 05:08
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I can't really figure out why Duggan of all people was so protected in WCW, but then again WCW.
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Aug 28, 2012 03:03
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OneThousandMonkeys posted:I can't really figure out why Duggan of all people was so protected in WCW, but then again WCW. Could have been Southern loyalty since he was an old Mid-South guy. Also, he was former WWF, and WCW loved its former WWF guys.
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Aug 28, 2012 03:36
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OneThousandMonkeys posted:I can't really figure out why Duggan of all people was so protected in WCW, but then again WCW. Friend of Hogan.
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Aug 28, 2012 03:37
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MassRayPer posted:Friend of Hogan. clap, clap, clapclapclap
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Aug 28, 2012 03:44
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MassRayPer posted:Friend of Hogan. Much more embarrassing than being a Friend of Dorothy.
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Aug 28, 2012 03:56
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MassRayPer obviously forgot, but here is the highlight of the retro observerquote:Steve Austin suffered a bicep injury while in Japan and will be out for several weeks. 
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Aug 30, 2012 05:45
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LordPants posted:MassRayPer obviously forgot, but here is the highlight of the retro observer I don't understand what about that deserves a staredog? Help me out.
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Aug 30, 2012 13:55
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Strenuous Manflurry posted:I don't understand what about that deserves a staredog? Help me out. Pretty sure this is the injury that leads to Bischoff firing Austin
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Aug 30, 2012 13:57
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triplexpac posted:Pretty sure this is the injury that leads to Bischoff firing Austin Ooooooooooooooooh, thank you.
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Aug 30, 2012 14:01
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The best part of having an Observer subscription is getting to read the retro reports every few weeks like it's happening in "real time." They still don't know the name or format of the WCW monday night show. I wonder what it will be like! The downside is I think I'll be dead by the time Dave posts enough retro Observers to catch us up to present day.
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Aug 30, 2012 14:53
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Yeah, the rate the retro Observers are coming out is worse than WWE 24/7 used to be. I understand him doing it this way though, if he put them all up at once there would be a torrent pack out within the day.
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Aug 30, 2012 14:57
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I've only started subscribing within the past couple of years so forgive me if this has been answered a million times by Dave, but is there a reason the back issues just start in 1991? Does he not have digital copies of the stuff prior to that or did he just figure people would care more about the issues from 91 onward? Just wondering if the only way we'll ever get those is by getting them on eBAY.
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Aug 30, 2012 15:00
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Tato posted:I've only started subscribing within the past couple of years so forgive me if this has been answered a million times by Dave, but is there a reason the back issues just start in 1991? Does he not have digital copies of the stuff prior to that or did he just figure people would care more about the issues from 91 onward? Just wondering if the only way we'll ever get those is by getting them on eBAY. Pretty much. When the Observer first merged with F4W, it was said that anything before '91 was typewritten, and not on computer.
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Aug 30, 2012 18:22
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Welp, new back issue is up and how's that Austin guy doing these days?quote:Those of you waiting for the reformation of the Hollywood Blonds, don't hold your breath. Steve Austin is out for at least another five weeks with a muscle tear in his arm. By that point if there is a new booker and that idea was from the old booker (well, actually it wasn't but it was the old booker who was planning it) so you know how those things go. Not saying it isn't going to happen, just don't bet money on it. Pfffft. That jobber. Also, more on that new show that'll probably last 5 years at most. quote:Bischoff first wouldn't confirm the Monday Night TNT show, then talked a lot about it but acted as if the Monday night was just a coincidence with Raw asking why wouldn't we want to try it if we were offered a slot in prime time? Daniel Bryan fucked around with this message at 01:36 on Sep 6, 2012 |
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Sep 6, 2012 01:33
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I liked this one even more:quote:The 7/1 WCW Saturday Night show was among the worst ever. They did the Dave Sullivan-Diamond Doll date segment where Dallas Page and Max Muscle jump Dave on the street. They spliced in kung fu movie sound effects when Page and Max threw their blows making it even stupider looking than it looked on the surface. To their credit, reports from the road over the weekend were the Sullivan-Page matches were pretty good. The Vader/Dungeon of Doom video was if anything, even dumber. The best thing on the entire show was a new Slim Jim commercial where two high schoolers are acting in a play doing Romeo and Juliet and Randy pops up asking, "Art thou bored?".
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Sep 6, 2012 02:01
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MassRayPer posted:Art thou bored? http://youtu.be/PXTagE7BtRU This. This is the best thing. We can all go home now.
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Sep 6, 2012 02:07
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Halloween Jack posted:http://youtu.be/PXTagE7BtRU Hahaha, it's been years since I've seen or thought about that video.
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Sep 6, 2012 02:10
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Really? I just kind of assumed that "ART THOU BORED?" had permanently entered the lexicon of every group of nerdy wrestling fans in this country. I do not know that I say it anymore, but I probably still think it several times a week.
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Sep 6, 2012 02:31
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Are those Flair / Savage house show matches the ones that started to turn business around for them?
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Sep 6, 2012 06:24
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WCW PPV main events confuse the poo poo out of me sometimes. I just watched Halloween Havoc 1997. So it's Piper vs. Hogan in a cage, but not for the title. They start the match with the referee not even in the cage, implying they have to escape the cage. The ref is outside the ring and locks the cage, but opens the cage to let them out and to win the match I think? Also, wrestlers can call the ref into the ring to count a pin or call a submission. Piper and Hogan then leave the cage at the same time, so they are allowed to fight outside the cage until they decide to go back inside. Then when the ref is in the ring the door is just wide open. Then I start laughing when Savage runs down and starts climbing over the cage to get in, right next to the wide open door. I'd love to say that Savage redeems himself by then jumping off the top of the cage, but it's incredibly shaky and looks dangerous as hell as when he jumps off this cage he has to clear not only the ropes but the turnbuckle too.
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Sep 6, 2012 06:27
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he injured himself on that jump too, for bonus points, if i remember correct
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Sep 6, 2012 06:48
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