We one time had a "fans bring the thumbtacks" match. Who do you think got to shuck all those boxes? I had very colorful shoe bottoms that night.
To reiterate, I am not saying Michaels was not a good wrestler or a good worker. I am saying I was never a fan of his style, which pre-dates his rise; the wrestlers who performed in that high-flying style were never my favorites. Randy Savage was the exception, but his style, despite having a lot of high spots, was pretty different from the usual high flyers.
I would also put Brian Pillman as an exception, at least before his major injuries. I like Micheals work just fine. Not as a main event single.
To me Terry Funk is the greatest of all time. So when you see that I don't mind a great variety in my wrestling that's probably the reason. Nobody excelled in more different types of pro-wrestling than Terry Funk. (For the record, the only era of Funk that I don't like his is FMW hardcore stuff in Japan.)
I cannot watch FMW. I have seen too many as it is. They almost killed Ed Farhat(and to this day I have no idea what he was thinking). Sabu got messed up to make his rep. Onita seemed to have a death wish.
That's the only time I have been able to tolerate that spot. The amazing thing is how Mick Foley was able to remember grabbing the bag during the match. He certainly forgot about it afterwards as there are many stories of him asking people if he remembered to do the thumbtack spot.
Funk has two of my favorites sells/submissions to a finisher ever, the first being when he loses the NWA title to Race in the late 70s (that was a clinic on how to sell a finisher and then give up, while making it look realistic), and the second being in the I Quit match with Flair. I am not a fan of the modern tap out shtick where the wrestler taking the finisher holds their arm up in the air for 30 seconds to tease the drama of "will he or won't he tap out?" Writhing in pain like a fish out of water and fighting it like crazy like Funk did to Flair's figure-four looked like a realistic reaction to being put in an extremely painful submission hold, and while we all know pro wrestling is scripted, I feel it works best when there is at least a bit of realism to it.
just an observation and wondered if anybody else noticed this. is it me or did ric flair age a ton from 2003-2006 and raven from 2000-2003?
There is a local guy here Tank who has some notoriety as a death match guy, but every time he comes out I immediately check out of the match because if he just tries to wrestle it is awful and the rest of the time it's just plunder and falling through stuff.
Without a doubt. You can see Flair’s ageing dramatically if you just take a look at July 2002 to July 2003. It’s shocking within one year. Raven’s timeframe I would move slightly. I thought he still looked good in 2003 when he feuded with Jeff Jarrett. Take a look at the difference between him then and 2006, however.
very odd . not knocking anyone appearance just saying both guys seemed to age about 10 years within a matter of 2-3 years
I'm not sure if this was shared on the thread before but this footage came up on YouTube last year. It is interviews with the fans queuing outside Madison Square Garden before the first WrestleMania. I love it.
I love the guy (Herb?) who responds to the interviewer's baiting questions about isn't this fake with, "So is Starsky and Hutch! So is the Love Boat!" That dude gets it. There's a moment in Thor Love & Thunder when someone gets hurt. If we think logically about it, we know that nothing can ultimately happen to them (because of other things going on in the story). But the moment is done well enough that I responded emotionally - and so have a number of the reactors I watched. That's what wrestling does. When it's good, we forget that it's "fake" and just get sucked into the emotions. Several people said something similar in this 1985 interview. Plus: A comment on the video points out that this guy probably didn't stand outside of David Copperfield shows and ask the people why they wanted to see fake magic.
Agreed he did as well . It’s so odd it happens to certain guys and others it doesn’t . I’m more upset that the wwe has never released any match by Graham on any dvd after he dropped the karate gimmick and came back as the bald Graham. They own all that footage . I get it wasn’t his best stuff but they’ve released a dozen of his matches including one with the dumb karate gimmick but none when he came back and his influence was even more noticeable on certain wrestlers
I think it’s exactly that - the matches were awful. And also, he didn’t have that many that were taped at this stage, at least ones that weren’t squash matches.
The match I always wanted to see was Superstar Graham challenging Kerry Von Erich for the NWA title during his one championship leg in Florida.
I agree. As a kid, I loved Kerry Von Erich and it was mostly from the Legends of World Class shows on ESPN every afternoon. His defenses that were taped vs Flair, Gordy and Tsuruta were all better than his title win vs Flair. He also defended vs Ron Bass and Mike Rotunda and those weren't taped.
IMO both were mid carders. Kerry Vs the former WWWF champ Superstar however WAS of interest. I am shocked there was NO video or film of this once in a lifetime match. Not sure if I ever saw a photo in any of the mags. And did Billy ever talk about it?
No, I was just pointing out the other defenses he made in Florida. I never heard Graham in interviews talk about it, but it might be an era he doesn't remember too well.
to add more about raven i wonder if TNA noticed his change as he was huge in the company until 2006 and then from what i remember fell to mid carder status
