Dave Reviews Wrestling

This weekend I’m looking at WWF Shotgun Saturday Night, but not the version in the clubs and at remote locations, instead after they’d given up with the ECW-lite pretences and just started filming extra matches in and around their Raw tapings. This was a show we didn’t really get in the UK, instead getting a combination of a Wrestling Challenge recap show and some of the less edgy stuff to put on at the weekends during the day as Shotgun Challenge, which actually sounds far more edgy than it comes across. Russian roulette, anyone?

In addition, a mini review of an episode of the visually rebooted Batman: The Animated Series from 1997, The New Batman Adventures.

This weekend, after a Friday night spent watching the awesome Superbrawl 2, takes in an episode of WCW Main Event from a few weeks prior (on my dad’s 40th birthday, in fact) as well as a quick look at the animated adventures of Eek! The Cat.

This weekend I’m looking at an episode of WWF Wrestling Spotlight from 1987 as well as an episode of a cartoon that aired the same year, Around the World with Willy Fog, plus the usual bits and pieces paying for promotional consideration.

This weekend it’s a collection of matches from WCW Worldwide in June of 1999 along with a bit of cartoon action from Batman Beyond and a look at some commercials from the year.

I want you. I want you. We ALL want you.

Welcome to the first edition of a new take on reviewing some classic wrestling action as well as capturing a little bit of the time period it happened in!

For the last few months I’ve been reviewing episodes of WWF All American Wrestling and noticed there was really some interest in the commercials left in the old recordings that had been uploaded. A lot of the shows were on the weekend or at the tail end of a Saturday morning block. So, it’s going to be a mix up of wrestling, adverts and some of the programming that you would find on at about the same time.

This weekend it’s some USWA action from late 1991 plus a quickie review of an animated show that debuted that year, Super Mario World. Enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XlrcgSICeI

Over the last few months I’ve been reviewing WWF All American Wrestling and some of the other weekend shows, which will continue in a more varied form next week. What seems to have been a “high spot” is when the person recording the show has left commercials in, so that will be a major inclusion too, but this week I thought I’d have a look specifically at some of the LJN and Hasbro commercials for WWF figures as well as a few others.

Check out the kisser on that kid!

One more JUST All American review, ahead of WrestleMania V, before I try to add a few more bells and whistles from next week with some back in the day inclusions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTOICPzwvUs

I think this is going to be the penultimate exclusively All American review before a bit of a relaunch in September for all of you weekend warriors and Saturday morning disciples, so watch out for some new additions because YOU demanded it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=it6kCcFDDJA

A variation this week, as I’ve switched for the WWF Sunday show to the WCW Sunday show for a look. Let’s see what we see.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5WVVG3xo7o

This week’s episode review is in the wake of the 1989 Royal Rumble. I’m probably going to see the summer through with a few more around the remaining big four of the year (Summerslam already in the bag a while ago) and then possibly change things up a bit. Let me know in the comments section if there’s anything you want to see reviewed that’s a bit of a departure from the norm.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyBQsL0ZHCk

This week it’s an All American episode from later in 1985, which was already a lot different than the first half of 1985. For those watching the episode, apologies for picking one with a constant tracking hiss.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHV6bVIX1sk

Once again, a diversion from All American, as one of the uploaders on YouTube has begun to put up episodes of WWF Mania. Mania fell into a similar boat as All American, mostly comprised of replays of matches from the other shows, sometimes including a bonus match (but not for long). It was especially important to people in the UK because it showed us footage from the nascent Monday Night Raw, which we didn’t get until the new fall season in September, 1995, at which point I’m sure the viewership went off a cliff.

So, this week it’s Mania, with an interesting episode that included a very important announcement later in the show.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jAxGuv6XYU

Back to All American after a detour into All Star last week. This recently uploaded old episode is labelled as Championship Wrestling and has no intro, but Gene is in the studio for the links later in the video.

A little bit of variation from All American Wrestling this week, as I accidentally started watching an episode of All Star Wrestling and thought I’d just go with it. Fifty-nine minutes of goodness including commercials.

This week’s All American is from the day before Summerslam ’89, so should be in full final push for the show. Also, a strangely shorter episode this week, so will be curious as to if anything has been cut out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ic2usKxkCx4

To the nineties this week, just before Summerslam, and an episode I definitely would’ve watched at the time when I became a quick fan just after WrestleMania VII.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSdZpGvobhg

Dark Side of the Ring is back, but it seems like they’ve been holding the better episodes back, so I’ve been looking forward to this one in the same way I was looking forward to the Dino Bravo one, with a man lost to the nineties, but with an enduring legacy.

To February of 1984 this week, where who knows what was happening at this time. Am I doing that right?

This week we’re going towards the end of the All American Wrestling run. Interesting cold open as Roddy Piper crashes through a window in a warehouse in a car stunt, then calls out for himself to be president of the WWF. Eighteen months later, he was!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqZxJQomijw

Here’s a good one from a relatively low-key uploader, with the tracking all over the place, but we would’ve watched through a snowstorm when we really loved it. Late 1987, running up the inaugural Survivor Series.