Old School Questions and Observations in 2025

[Valeyard]

Flair/Savage at Wrestlemania is my favorite match of all time and, to me, the perfect Flair match. The bumps, blood, character work-- it's peak in my mind and absolutely the one Flair match I'd show someone to introduce them. Hell I can argue it's a perfect gateway match all around.

Bret though was having classics with big names and hidden gems with footnotes for years. The well is so deep and even the shitty matches where he'd phone it in back in the day are fascinating.

 

[JHawk]

I will say, the "Ric Flair can never hit a top rope move" trope was greatly exaggerated. He hit all kinds of top rope axe handles in 90s WCW and even hit a flying crossbody on Vader!

It wasn't until he got to WWE did they play up him always being slammed off the top for attempting a high risk maneuver. May have started towards the end of WCW's existence too.

One thing I noticed over the years is Flair hits them more often than not when he's a face and gets thrown off the top more often than not when he's a heel.

 

[Valeyard]

So I'm guessing it's coincidence, but the Mississippi promoter George Culkin is in no way related to Macaulay or Kieran, right? I'm bored at work.

 

[snuffbox]

Probably not. Big brother Buzz might've made a good wrestler but suburban Chicago is a long drive from the Mississippi circuit.

 

[Valeyard]

Buzz has Bruiser genes somewhere.

 

[Valeyard]

Also, is there a story as to why the move was named the DDT? Like i assume it is named after the poison but is that just it or was there some impetus

 

[Hawk 34]

He said he wanted to name it because of the poison and that would effectively be the end for his opponents. The DDT was also an accidental invention he says that came from a botch.

Myself like many others growing up thought it was a reference to Damian but that wasn’t the case.

 

[One Epic Winter (OEW)]

I remember someone on another board years ago swore it stood for "Damien's Dinner Time" and claimed there were some early Jake matches where the commentators called it such biut I've never seen or heard that.

 

[SFH]

The Damien Dinner Time explanation landed on my childhood radar as well.

 

[BruiserBrody]

Downward Dome Thrust sounds feasible based on wiki.

Black Gordman was doing it in the 70s, but I wouldn't be stunned it is much older. Thesz was using power bombs and such long before the Jumping Bomb Angels and Sid made it popular in the late 80s.

IIRC Adrian Adonis was also using it quite a bit in WWF

 

[Big Papa Paegan]

Jake's seen as the innovator of it, having done it by accident early on in his career. Black Gordman may have done it first, but Jake started doing it not long after. According to Roberts, he named it after the poison.

Co-signing Thesz on the powerbomb. He invented it by accident when going to piledrive Antonio Rocca, who pushed up too aggressively and caused Thesz to lose his footing. IIRC, it was originally called the Drip Drop suplex.

 

[Valeyard]

See Gordman is the first and why it was the Gordbuster first. I always figured that while he probably hit it as a botch by accident, it was already an over death move he accidentally just brought it to a new area. Mix of both stories.

 

[Valeyard]

Does any footage of Bobby Shane exist?

 

[Big Papa Paegan]

 

[snuffbox]

I'm surprised there's not as much as I assumed, it's not like he was wrestling when Lincoln was around.

 

[Valeyard]

I just am not in a position to actually look at anything at the moment. Besides pre 1975 outside of the big names can be more difficult than it should be sometimes.

 

[Big Papa Paegan]

I'm sure someone at PWO could dig some up, if they're not too busy watching French catch from the 1960s.

 

[Sex Machine Gun]

Man, I always thought it was G-o-u-r-d-buster, with "gourd" being some figurative term for your stomach. Am I even thinking of the right move?

 

[Valeyard]

I always thought it was your head being crushed like a gourd. Or Gordman was Americanized into Gourdman somewhere

 

[Valeyard]

What was the first title change captured on film? Or to air on television, really

 

[JHawk]

First title change on film that I'm aware of was Earl Caddock-Joe Stecher in 1920 which is on Youtube. Televised? I know Pat O'Connor-Buddy Rogers in 1961 for sure, not sure if there was anything before that.

 

[JN News]

Back in 1997, during the whole Hart Foundation angle, were there any plans to have Bret Hart and his Hart Foundation form an alliance with The Commandant and his Truth Commision?

 

[snuffbox]

I don't remember ever hearing about that, but I've thought about it way too much since you posted it last night.

 

[One Epic Winter (OEW)]

The original leader of the Truth Commission was some actor Bret befriended but when they wanted him to take bumps, they gave the role to Don Callis as the Jackyl.

 

[alkeiper]

First title change on film that I'm aware of was Earl Caddock-Joe Stecher in 1920 which is on Youtube. Televised? I know Pat O'Connor-Buddy Rogers in 1961 for sure, not sure if there was anything before that.

The 1950 AWA title switch between Gorgeous George and Don Eagle exists, that would've been televised.

 

[Valeyard]

The original leader of the Truth Commission was some actor Bret befriended but when they wanted him to take bumps, they gave the role to Don Callis as the Jackyl.

That dude has a small part in Ernest Goes to Africa. Kayfabe died when Varney got in in that truck.

 

[One Epic Winter (OEW)]

I remember watching the dude's debut promo on TV and being really confused and thinking he was a slimmer Sgt. Slaughter. Friend at school the next day thought the same.

 

[BruiserBrody]

TIL what may have been the first televised professional wrestling match. As part of Catch-As-Catch-Can Wrestling, then-NWA British Empire/Commonwealth champion Earl McCready faced Percy Foster in a match broadcast live on BBC television on 12th March 1938.
by u/Minardi3000 in SquaredCircle