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Old School Observations/Questions 2022

BruiserBrody

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[quote author=BRODY link=topic=7317.msg606823#msg6
Charlie Norris and Chris Chavis both got tryouts in early 91. I am curious if the Indian gimmick was up for grabs and Vince was going to sign the best prospect. (To then shelve for a year before debuting)

Gary Albright got a tryout in early 91. I'd' imagine Vince would have to gimmick him up as the NCAA suplex machine probably wasn't going to fly. (*Pictures Albright as Big Bully Albright or Skinner...)

Skip Young was also given a tryout. Considering he was 40 I wonder if it was Bruce or someone getting an old hand a shot(Texas/WCCW/Boesch connection maybe)? The job squad had a number of territory mid carders in it, so he could have joined Pistol Pez, Bucky Zoom Zoom, Scott Casey, Ted Oates and others in staring at the lights after 90 seconds of work.

Ricky's brother Vic Steamboat was given a tryout in the summer under an assumed name.

Kurgan got a tryout in late 91! I didn't realize he was even working yet at that point. Another random thing to dive into. Odd he wasn't brought in on his size alone in WWF or WCW.

Del Wilkes AKA the Patriot got a bunch of tryouts after the AWA died for good. He was tall, decent in the ring and roided to the gills. How was he not signed? WWF tried to push Chris Walker in early 92, so the roid bodies were not yet taboo (if they ever really were as we recently dove into).

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Among the last matches of Adrian Adonis' career before his sudden death were a series of six mans in Japan where he teamed with Dick Murdoch and.... Owen Hart!?! Just a blend I didn't expect.
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I didn't realize the Bobo Brazil Jr featured in so many results in PWI in the mid 90s was the legit son of Bobo. He wrestled for decades, but apparently only one recorded match of father and son as a team exists. Since Bobo Sr wrestled FOREVER you would think he'd have latched on to his kid and booked themselves as a tag team in the late 80s into the early 90s.

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AJPW Champion Carnival 1991 - Day 10
1991/04/04 @ Okayama Budokan in Okayama, Okayama (Japan)
André the Giant and Johnny Smith defeated Rex King and Steve Doll

Andre worked WELL DUNN

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The good ol' Mongolian STAMPer headlines over Harley Race!
 

snuffbox

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A few pages later Eddie Ellner quipped the whole thing would just end up taken over by a flamboyant bird.
 

King Kamala

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Other thought...couldn’t you order whatever the next PPV with the press of a button by ‘98? I’m trying to think of when it was no longer necessary to call your local cable operator to order the PPV and I think it was sometime during the MNW.


More weird territory stuff. Grizzly Smith’s failed attempt at reviving the Mid-South territory in 1990.
 

Epic Springs

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My family definatley still ordered PPVs using a 1-800 number through the 90s and early 2000s. It wasn't until DTV where I could just select the event on the screen and push a button to order.
 

King Kamala

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By the time I started ordering PPVs on my own in '02, you could definitely push a button to order so it must've happened between '98 and then.
 

Valeyard

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I had Primestar and it was as easy as using the remote in 1995. Ain't no way my mom was calling a human being to order How To Make An American Quilt on a Tuesday afternoon.
 

King Kamala

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Another attempt at reviving Mid South. Featuring Terry Taylor and a surprisingly coherent Jake the Snake.
 

King Kamala

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Does anyone want to see a 1998 Iron Sheik Vs Jimmy Snuka match? Anyone? Anyone at all? No?

It's wacky how much crappier indie wrestling used to be in the '90s for the most part! And ykw? Wrestling was so hot in the late '90s that sometimes it still drew pretty well!
 
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King Kamala

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TIL (wrestling edition)... Rikishi did an evil pimp gimmick in Memphis (leading his heel stable BSK. Hmm that sounds familiar...) before his WWF comeback.

I guess that observation leads to a question...did the STWW on Rikishi cover him having to go back to development in the late '90s? It seems really odd that a 10 year+ vet would have to go back to the minors but it ended up paying off huge with the biggest run of his career.

I'm surprised that JR didn't point to Rikishi as a positive example to Kronik and all of the WCW vets who bitched about getting sent to development.
 

Valeyard

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He's putting the dogs in the enclosed pool area.
 

Laz

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TIL (wrestling edition)... Rikishi did an evil pimp gimmick in Memphis (leading his heel stable BSK. Hmm that sounds familiar...) before his WWF comeback.

I guess that observation leads to a question...did the STWW on Rikishi cover him having to go back to development in the late '90s? It seems really odd that a 10 year+ vet would have to go back to the minors but it ended up paying off huge with the biggest run of his career.

I'm surprised that JR didn't point to Rikishi as a positive example to Kronik and all of the WCW vets who bitched about getting sent to development.
It's not that outlandish, really, because he (like Kane) had so many failed gimmicks that the company probably wanted to see exactly how else they could use him. As it turns out, letting somebody with a decent sized personality cutting loose? Tends to work pretty well in the wrestling game.

And now I'm annoyed we didn't get a Godfather/Rikishi feud over who was the better
[]D[][]\/[][]D [])/\[])[])\\//
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King Kamala

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WWE really had way more patience with talent development in the '90s and '00s. We'll never ever ever see a guy like Mark Henry again.

Of course, Mark Henry was a friggin Olympian so they were going to see if they could make it work as long as he was still interested in trying to make it work.

Maybe Titus O'Neil is the last of this type of roster member who they just kind of let do whatever and hope something sticks. However, I think he's more of a modern day equivalent of SD Jones than anyone they ever intended to be a major star.
 

Valeyard

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Mark Henry had that ridiculous contract, though. They had to justify it.
 

SFH

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There's no reason why they couldn't book Titus as the franchise player with the right opponent to cover his weaknesses and a good agent. The dude looks like and acts like someone you want to put on the Lex Express and do nation wide tours, meet and greets, and every sort of good will event you can think of. Throw a big gold belt on him and merchandise will fly.

You can't convince me otherwise that a heel Daniel Bryan, CM Punk, and a few other technical guys that have passed through the last 12 years couldn't make Titus look at least like $500,000 in the ring. He doesn't even need a gimmick. Good guy Titus just has a great appeal.


But I'm obnoxiously an idealist when it comes to my fantasy booking.
 

HarleyQuinn

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Is there any reason they didn't make it to Summerslam as a match? Dibiase pivots to Dusty at the event and Bossman was plugged into Tugboat's spot.
Has anybody said what the issue was with Summerslam 1990 in general? (Pritchard or anybody in the WWF booking area around then). Was it a glut of late injuries? Low ticket sales (Cawthon's site, presumably from Meltz, looks like there were almost 1K in papered sales)? Just Vince changing his mind very late on booking ideas to push into Survivor Series or WrestleMania 7?

Concise card wrestling-wise (half the card is 5:30 or less), two title changes with the IC Title & Tag Titles, Bossman is not only a guest referee for Jake/Bad News but then joins Hogan later on, Dibiase's buying Sapphire and being interjected with Dusty, etc.
 

snuffbox

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I don't think we ever got a lot of answers when we tried to figure that out a while ago. Tugboat being dropped from the show has been credited to some attitude issues (I've always found that one hard to believe but it's an explanation at least). And I think an injury derailed Martel-Santana. Injuries to Shawn and Savage shortened their matches, and the last-minute thing probably explains the length of the IC match. But no idea why DiBiase and Boss Man didn't have matches (for example, a blowoff of their own feud). An LOD match would've sold a few more tickets.
 

King Kamala

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I don't think we ever got a lot of answers when we tried to figure that out a while ago. Tugboat being dropped from the show has been credited to some attitude issues (I've always found that one hard to believe but it's an explanation at least).
They wrote Tugboat off a week before the show on Superstars by having Earthquake & Dino Bravo beat down Tugboat

History of WWE said:
Taped 7/16/90; Omaha, NE; Civic Auditorium
8/18/90 - featured Jesse Ventura's last appearance on WWF TV for nearly 8 years; included Earthquake, Jimmy Hart, & Dino Bravo as guests of the Brother Love Show; included WWF IC Champion Mr. Perfect & Bobby Heenan accepting Kerry Von Erich’s challenge from last week, with an IC title match being announced to take place at Summer Slam:
Bret Hart & Jim Neidhart defeated Tom Stone & Al Burke at when Bret pinned Stone after the Hart Attack at 1:41
Randy Savage (w/ Sensational Sherri) pinned Jim Evans with the flying elbowsmash at 1:11; after the bout, Sherri attacked Evans with a stuffed Randy Savage buddy doll
Shawn Michaels & Marty Jannetty defeated Black Bart & Tom Bennett when Michaels pinned Bennett after a fistdrop from both men from the top rope, following the Rocker Dropper from Jannetty at 1:59
Bad News Brown pinned Jim Powers with the Ghetto Blaster at 3:23
Tugboat defeated Bob Bradley via disqualification when Dino Bravo interfered at the 47-second mark; after the bout, Tugboat was double teamed by Earthquake and Bravo, with Earthquake hitting two sit-down splashes before the Big Bossman made the save; moments thereafter, Tugboat was taken backstage on a stretcher; this incident forced Tugboat out of being Hulk Hogan's corner man at Summer Slam

From what I remember from the STWW on SummerSlam '90 (which well...you know, can be taken with a grain of salt), I think they wrote off Tugboat cause he just wasn't getting over and they didn't feel like he was quite ready to be the sidekick in a main event level match plus having him beaten down helped ratchet up the intensity for Hogan-Earthquake (First they injured him then they injured his new best buddy!)
 

snuffbox

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Doesn't appear that airing that angle the week before the show (but taped more than a month prior) helped it any. Good thing Tugboat became a totally over, seasoned vet within a month, in time to co-headline the Octoberfest SNME with Hogan, be part of the Hulkamaniacs Survivor Series team and then the heel turn and tag push in 91.
 

King Kamala

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afaik, Tugboat was still a potential challenger for Hogan at WrestleMania VII in the Fall of '90 so I don't buy the "he wasn't ready" card either. He was still getting featured p. prominently as a midcard Hogan sidekick until winter of '91.

I don't think they really thought "Hmm. Maybe there's not a future for him a singles star." until spring '91 when he got left off the giant WrestleMania VII card entirely. IIRC, wasn't Tugboat penciled in to face The Undertaker at VII at one point?

Worst aspect of SummerSlam '90 is the awful thrown together Vince & Rowdy Roddy Piper commentary team. Absolute worst commentary of any golden era WWF PPV besides WrestleMania 2. Piper eventually became a passable color commentator but at this show, he was just cracking jokes and putting himself over and Vince just seemed too overwhelmed to direct him. It added to the frazzled nature of the show.
 

Valeyard

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Vince and Piper don't bother me much at all if I don't think about how Jesse isn't there. Show goes from good to great with Jesse, easily. But

I love Summerslam '90. I was shocked how much I love that show.
 

Gert

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I almost think that writing Hogan off with the injury angle also hurt Warrior's run with the title. I'm not sure that it ever would have succeeded with the way the wrestling business was at the time, but I'm thinking that it still made Hogan look like as big of a deal as Warrior that he was getting hurt by this monster heel so he could go film SC, while Warrior was making his first title defenses against Haku and Mr. Perfect.
 

King Kamala

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Double main event aspect of SummerSlam '90 and Survivor Series '90 just crippled Warrior's main event run. It really didn't seem they were ready to move on from Hogan like you'd think after WrestleMania VI.

By the fall of '90, Warrior is even kind of playing second fiddle to the hot new tag team LOD.

Seeds for the mid '90s decline were planted in how poorly they handled (or really DIDN'T handle) the Hogan to Warrior transition in '90.
 
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