Really into learning about wrestling history lately.
 

Been on an old WWWF/early 80's WWF kick as of late. Lots of interesting things about that era. Probably the most interesting thing of note I learned that Captain Lou Albano basically saved the WWF from going into bankruptcy in 1985 and that without him there would have been no Wrestlemania and the company wouldn't have made it out of 1985 even with Hogan.

Anybody else into this kind of stuff?

I kind wore myself out from that period and needed something else. Some crazy stories from the 70's and 80's

Here's one. The night before Billy Graham was going to drop the title to Backlund he was facing Bruno in a cage match. Both thought Backlund was going to be a terrible champ (and he was), so the two made a plan to have Graham "accidently" knock Bruno out of the cage and Bruno would win the title. Bruno ended up changing his mind minutes before their bout. Apparently Vince Sr and Bruno HATED each other.

I literally JUST put in the Rise and Fall of WCW DVD. Watching it now.

Such a great DVD.

One time Shawn Mikeals put Marty Janety through a window at Brutuses house.

Should check out the Art of Wrestling podcasts with veterans like Dibiase and Regal. They talk a lot of history in those.

Some of the Andre the Giant stories are hilarious. He was a nasty, dirty guy.

Its good but not near as good as The Rise and Fall of ECW

I like the rise and fall of WCW. Always wondered how a billion dollar company can get flushed down the toilet without anybody getting arrested. And they fell inside 8 years. Unheard of for a company that big.

Just found out the UK wrestler Big Daddy was trained by George Hackenshmidt. Seems surreal. I also probably spelt that wrong.

I love learning anything new about wrestling history.

it's pretty fucking crazy that before going national that WWWF ran its offices out of a rat infested hotel.

also it would've been pretty surreal to see Vince Sr & Phil Zacko standing in a room cutting checks with one lonely lightbulb.

Think anything related to the Monday Night Wars era has been the stuff I've read about the most in general.

Always enjoyed the stories from wrestlers when it came to gags or funny incidents.

I'm into Trish Stratus' feet.

i kind of wish they would've been able to include an interview with hogan/hall/or nash in it, since they were a gigantic part of it toward the end

as a novice historian I was dissapointed that Rise and Fall of WCW seemed to gloss over stuff prior to 1983ish

The absence of Sid Vicious' penis in the video must have also made you quite upset

What did you think of the Superstar Billy Graham DVD

I watched hour 1 last night and enjoyed it.

I wouldn't want to have been a jobber in the 70s. that story Superstar told about Baron Scicluna was kinda sad.

most likely the job guys were paid very little and under appreciated.

Yeah Scicluna was a former tag champ, but was generally first-second on the card. Ended up being a New York Times delivery man in 83 and probably made a ton more money doing that.

also it seems like not many have good things to say about Dick The Bruiser.

He seemed to be an asshole and an egomaniac.

Lol love the Billy Robinson story

lol I did too.

I love the story of how Backlund never let someone get a two count on him in fear of being screwed out of the title, like with Inoki

Kayfabe Commentaries is doing a Bruno Sammartino 1960's Timeline and a Roddy Piper 1984 Timeline.

Will definitely be buying these.

Lol poor Backlund. He must of knew he was drawing terribly. Can't believe Vince Sr stuck with him for so long.

What was it?

Can you elaborate on this?

Captain Lou met Cyndi Lauper on a airplane in 81. They developed a friendship and Lou ended up in Cyndi's videos. Lou then got Lauper into the WWF. Now Lauper at the time was the bigggest female star in the world. Without Lauper there's no MTV specials, without those Wrestlemania doesn't get off the ground. Vince had been sinking money into buying T.V time, and without the success of zwrestleman,ia the company wouldn't had made it out of 85.

Def the worst rasslin forum there is

Those tapes sound pretty good. Where can I buy them?

Superstar and Robinson were scheduled to fight. Robinson was notorious for hurting wrestlers and hated muscle guys. So before the match Graham taped a razorblade to his thumb in front of Robinson and told him if he even thinks of hurting him that he'll cut his eyes out. Needless to say, Robinson barely touched him lol

Kayfabecommentaries.com

They are actually really interesting.

Only off by a "c", not too bad. :y:

Watching the 1997 one right now. Pretty good shit. Cornette has a poop mouth.

The Kevin Nash one is even better.

Have to check that one out too. 1995 was such a shitty year for rasslin. Saw a WCW house show at cobo arena in February and it was all kinds of suckiness.

WCW @ Detroit, MI - Cobo Arena - February 26, 1995 (3,500) (matinee)
WCW TV Champion Arn Anderson defeated Johnny B. Badd
Marcus Alexander Bagwell & the Patriot defeated Steve Austin (sub. for Bobby Eaton) & Lord Steven Regal
Alex Wright defeated Paul Roma
WCW Tag Team Champions Harlem Heat defeated the Nasty Boys in a No DQ match
WCW US Champion Vader defeated Jim Duggan
Randy Savage & Sting defeated Avalanche & Big Bubba
WCW World Champion Hulk Hogan defeated WCW US Champion Vader via count-out

But back to the rasslin tapes, I like what I've seen so far. Think it's a little overpriced for two dudes just sitting talking. Next time I'm up in Michigan I'll pick up a bunch from you. Give you $5 a tape!

I really hope Vince McMahon writes his memoirs or something before he dies. I'd also love for them to do some roundtable discussion with him.

I want to hear the business aspect and how close he came to going under at various points.