Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Dec 26, 2022 12:17:27 GMT -5
I've been binge watching, starting in December 1981 and currently in July of 1982. The world tag team tournament had to be one of the biggest debacles in wrestling history and stu I'd really like to get your opinion on this - since this is the promotion you grew up with. - Brainchild of Ole Anderson, very innovative but obviously too ambitious. - Ole Anderson & Stan Hansen won two of the 'city' tournaments to qualify for eastern finals. - Mike Graham & Steve Keirn win a 'city' tournament but were left out of the eastern finals. - Jim Nelson is the guy who really got screwed, as he won TWO 'city' tournaments (one with Kernodle and one with Slaughter) and neither team made the eastern finals. - Angelo Mosca & Killer Khan made the eastern finals after winning a 'fictious' Canadian tournament. RIO anyone? - Wahoo McDaniel & Don Muraco won the entire 'fictious' western bracket. Now that's RIO! - A jobber team, which they billed as The WILD SAMOANS, won NOTHING and made the eastern finals. Huh?!? - Ole and Stan beat Jack & Jerry Brisco to win the eastern bracket and will face Wahoo & Muraco in best of seven finals. Which NEVER happens. - Ole either quits or is fired from the booker spot in Mid-Atlantic and heads to Georgia where he was also booking. - Ole leaves area and goes to Georgia where he and Stan are recognized as World Tag Team Champions. - The whole thing is glossed over and never mentioned again in Mid-Atlantic, huh?!? This had to be confusing to fans that couldn't watch any other promotion. - Wahoo wins US title from Slaughter and he & Muraco break up and feud. - Hansen leaves for Japan, like always, leaving Ole with no partner and titles are in turmoil AGAIN! - Titles return to Mid-Atlantic when SLAUGHTER & KERNODLE win a 'fictious' tournament. Gotta love the 'territories'! Take aways so far (other than that debacle) A young cowboy JAKE ROBERTS is VERY good and smooth, and you can see why he became the star he did. RICK STEAMBOAT was absolutely one of the best EVER! SGT SLAUGHTER was a vicious monster that stiffed his competition. BRUTAL! ANGELO MOSCA was STIFF...! and didn't sell too much. RODDY PIPER was MONEY $$$$$$$ JACK BRISCO was a throwback in a changing time and seemed boring to me. WAHOO MCDANIEL was tough but again boring IMO. IVAN KOLOFF was always a solid worker. Rookie MIKE ROTUNO looks great, even being so green. I did like how they gave the enhancement talent interview time, made them seem tougher. |
|
|
|
Post by lankylefty17 on Dec 27, 2022 16:23:19 GMT -5
Funny, I was just re-watching this too...
- My favorite part of this time period was Piper on commentary- he was so good as a heel color guy and you can tell a lot of guys copied him later on. - Totally agree on Jake- this version is actually my favorite version- I love his running knee lift finisher.
- That tag tournament is an all time dumpster fire. You missed the fact that they advertised Patterson and Stevens participating and then they never had a match... - Wild Samoans were actually pretty big in Mid South, Watts billed them as the top heel team during their run.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Dec 27, 2022 16:30:31 GMT -5
Wild Samoans were actually pretty big in Mid South, Watts billed them as the top heel team during their run. Afa and Sika was in Mid-South, these Wild Samoans were nobody jobbers just billed as the WILD SAMOANS. Yeah, Patterson and Steven's were mentioned, as were Adonis & Ventura and neither were on TV or competed in the 'tournament'. |
|
|
|
Post by TTX on Dec 27, 2022 17:14:39 GMT -5
That infamous tag tournament. Great idea, super poor execution before Ole flaked out. I've been reading some at Mid Atlantic Gateway...fun times.
|
|
|
|
Post by "Emperor Norton" (Mark T) on Dec 27, 2022 19:32:59 GMT -5
JACK BRISCO was a throwback in a changing time and seemed boring to me. ............................................ I suppose I'm in agreement with you on ALMOST everything. Not this, but it's just personal opinion/preference. Jack and Piper did some great stuff there around 82. I'm deeper into the 80s Mid Atlantic right now, up to almost 86, but I recall the turmoil that was the booking during that time period you're watching. So much of it makes no sense and seems to change on the fly. Those ongoing tournaments never worked out no matter what territory did them because of all of the variables. What will really smack you in the face a few years past what you're seeing now is how drastic it changes the instant Dusty takes the book. |
|
|
|
Post by Pete on Dec 27, 2022 20:10:30 GMT -5
Some thoughts of my own:
- Most of the enhancement talent interviews didn't go out to the whole territory--that spot was where most markets got the localized promos hyping the next card.
- But...going back to the George Scott era of booking (which I think was up to the fall of '80): Mid-Atlantic generally did not have "jobbers." They had pushed wrestlers and they had undercarders. TV matches were almost always at least semi-competitive and these undercarders faced each other in the pre-intermission matches at house shows and traded wins there. Essentially, the entire enhancement crew was at least on the level of your Iron Mike Sharpes and Lanny Poffos.
- There would be occasional exceptions to the above. Guys like Jimmy Valiant who needed protecting wouldn't have to work long-ish competitive matches on TV and got to just come in and squash guys. Ditto for monsters and even guys like Jim Brunzell, who was brought in with a singles push where his dropkick was put over as an insta-KO move and he'd win his squashes in 30 seconds.
- MA usually ran 3 shows a night and was not really a "seven-course meal" promotion: cards were sold on the main event and maybe one or two semi-mains, and that was it. Matches before intermission had strict rules about doing spots on the mic, fighting outside the ring, cheating in general, etc. That was all to establish that the rules mattered and to build up to the post-intermission grudge matches, where it meant something if Tim Woods grabbed a chair or if Ric Flair pinned someone with his feet on the ropes.
- That said, once Scott leaves, a lot of that detail work goes by the wayside, and frankly...yeah, Ole's run as booker is a mess. In addition to the tag tournament debacle, you have a bunch of stuff that doesn't go anywhere like Austin Idol filming matches. The best thing about those early shows, by FAR, is Slaughter. He's the best personality, talker, and maybe even TV worker in the entire promotion.
- When Ole leaves in August or September of '82 the TV gets a lot better and more focused--maybe because we don't have a guy in charge who's booking both Mid-Atlantic and Georgia at the same time. At some point Dory Funk, Jr. becomes the booker but I don't know if there was an interregnum period or not. But in any event you have the Piper babyface turn, the birth of Slaughter & Kernodle as a permanent team, and better work on TV in general. Plus Humperdink managing most of the heels, and even though he's not really a favorite of mine he does give the promotion something to focus on.
Funny...KB's views on Brisco being a man out of time is how I've always evaluated Rotunda, especially as a babyface. I only really ever liked him as the BMOC jock a-hole character he had with the Varsity Club. Maybe Jack will have a similar transformation when we get to the Briscos heel turn.
|
|
|
|
Post by Pete on Dec 27, 2022 20:11:51 GMT -5
As for these "Samoans"...I'm not sure I've seen them specifically, but I'm assuming that if they're not Afa or Sika or any of the Anoi'a family that they're Tio and Tapu?
|
|
|
|
Post by "Emperor Norton" (Mark T) on Dec 30, 2022 7:53:12 GMT -5
In another thread It was jokingly asked if the Alabama junior title was going to be defended at the first ever matchup between George South and Mike Jackson (maybe should be the junior senior title), but it got me thinking: did Mid Atlantic/Crockett do more harm to the idea of the junior heavyweight division than anyone?
Alabama junior champ never won on TV, world junior champ was always someone like Mike Davis or Denny Brown who never won on TV. I can't recall them even wearing a title belt on TV. At least when the WWF had a junior title in the states they featured competitive matches with the champ and didn't belittle them by making them the fodder in a tag team squash or something. Never did really understand why they seemingly went out of their way to discredit the idea of a junior division.
|
|
|
|
Post by stu on Dec 30, 2022 19:48:43 GMT -5
Well, I'm late to the game, as haven't been on the boards as much lately due to Xmas visits, etc. Great topic, however, and enjoy all the discussion on it. I don't have a whole lot more to offer, other than some random thoughts. MACW booking did get better after Ole left, as this was clearly not their finest moment. And I think Pete's right, in that Ole was booking both Mid Atlantic and Georgia, so he had to be stretched creatively. But, yes, after he leaves we get Slaughter and Kernodle, and eventually the whole legendary tag feud with Steamboat & Youngblood ensues, etc. And, again, no, this wasn't a real great time in MACW, heck I don't think I was watching it much at all during this time (probably because it just wasn't good), and certainly doesn't hold up with what came before, and what came after. In my opinion, MACW was at its ever loving best in the mid-70's, which is when I was watching it the most (the correlation on that is not entirely coincidental!  ). That's when you had Wahoo at his peak (Wahoo was fantastic during this time), Flair was coming into his own, Greg Valentine was starting to make waves, Steamboat was ascending. I do wholeheartedly agree with you on Steamboat; he's an all-timer. I know Flair said the one knock against Steamboat was he never worked heel, and that's true...he didn't. But for what he did, hardly anyone did it better. And he was a great athlete to boot. 2 other random thoughts. Wholeheartedly agree with you on this version of Jake Roberts. That persona, or those early years, just gets forgotten in comparison to who he became, which is a shame, as he was darn good! Very good worker then, and yes, you can totally see the foundation being established for his star run a little while later. And on Jack Brisco...well, I am admittedly a Jack Brisco mark, as evidenced by my avatar, so just keep that in mind! But, he was still doing some very good work, and I think still had the glow, or at least the afterglow, of being the great NWA champion that he was. His work a little while later as a heel with his brother was fun, and unexpected, and really capped off his career. And, during this time period, he had some great bouts with Piper and Paul Jones, so there was that. I do understand what you're saying though, in terms of him being a throwback...I get it. But, I still liked his work during this era, which was at the tail end of his career. Great topic, loved the discussion! |
|
|
|
Post by pikemojo on Jan 1, 2023 21:54:11 GMT -5
Is this available on YouTube or somewhere else online?
|
|
). That's when you had Wahoo at his peak (Wahoo was fantastic during this time), Flair was coming into his own, Greg Valentine was starting to make waves, Steamboat was ascending. I do wholeheartedly agree with you on Steamboat; he's an all-timer. I know Flair said the one knock against Steamboat was he never worked heel, and that's true...he didn't. But for what he did, hardly anyone did it better. And he was a great athlete to boot. 