Dave Reviews Wrestling — page 2

A mini-review and advert of sorts for a new channel on YouTube, courtesy of Steve Anderson, who was Bobby “The Brain” Heenan’s friend and co-writer of his two awesome books. They had a lot of phone conversations and chats that were recorded so that the book could be organised and written. I wanted to look at a few as a taster for other checking them out themselves. Bobby was so good that a lot of the time he didn’t need editing, they just put his stories in his books verbatim. Here’s a few for you.

This week the All American review comes from 1989 on July 4th weekend. Luckily this episode is from a newly-uploaded batch courtesy of Aaron Scott – thanks for keeping me in business a little longer with a YEAR’S WORTH of material.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xueg_XtG1qs

I’m breaking the back and forth through the eighties and nineties rule already five reviews in because there’s not a lot of nineties episodes out there to peruse, so the later episodes might be confined to a once-a-month specials, or maybe I might mix things up by putting the SPOTLIGHT on some other CHAMPIONSHIP contenders with ALL STAR rosters. We’ll see!

The go home show for WrestleMania 2 this week, with a very interesting collection of opponents.

A potpourri edition of All American Wrestling this week, with a mix of matches, interviews and angles from across the span of the show.

This week we’re at the tail end of All American, with perennial host Mean Gene heading to the competitor, so the weird dynamic of the next best thing (and next guy to jump) being a heel host. Let’s see how it goes.

Back to the genesis of the show this week, with a slightly different format at this point in the show’s history, a focus on Jimmy Snuka. This is quite ironic, as the Superfly’s ramblings in 1990 to the people out there in TV wonderland was the worst part of last week’s episode, but what was he like when he was effectively the top star in the promotion? Let’s see.

A new addition to the review line-up, I’ve considered doing this for a while. In the era of the WWF running Prime Time, Superstars and Wrestling Challenge, All American Wrestling was the distinct number four show with some recycled matches and an exclusive match of some sort. As the full run of episodes is not on the Network or YouTube, I’ll be bouncing back and forth through the decade it aired, this one coming just after the Ultimate Challenge at WrestleMania VI.

Four weeks away from WrestleMania XXXIX, here is an interesting one from 1991, produced over the summer and part of the short-lived Hot Ticket series, of which another feature was Hulk Hogan: A Real American Story (and if I find that I’ll be reviewing it). It’s a look back over the first seven WrestleManias, with assorted stars from the time providing links between the matches and features. I’m not going to offer massively in-depth commentary on the things that have been reviewed a thousand times before, but I will try and capture some quotes from the wrestlers and managers.

Actor/comedian Richard Belzer died earlier this week. I knew him best from Homicide: Life on the Street, which when I was the right age for it was one of the coolest shows I’d ever seen, with Belzer as Munch being a big part of it.

I’d also heard during the nineties, via the Jonathan Ross interview I reviewed a few weeks ago, of Hulk Hogan going on a chat show and accidentally hurting a man and having to pay a small fortune to settle it. I never knew until later that the host was Belzer!

Luckily, David Bixenspan has uploaded the longest clip available of that infamous episode, so I’m reviewing it for stuff I’ve already seen and some “new” content as well. Enjoy, plus a bonus at the end!

Former WWF female referee Rita Chatterton has recently reached a settlement for millions of dollars with Vince McMahon regarding allegations that she was assaulted by him while working for him in the eighties. When the scandals regarding steroids and sex abuse came up in the nineties, leading later to the steroid trials and a downturn in the WWF’s fortunes, Rita Marie turned up alongside the likes of Superstar Billy Graham, Dr. D David Schultz, Murray Hodgson and others to spill the beans.

One of the most famous occasions of the TV tabloids casting their eyes over the tempest was Donahue giving us the surreal experience of Dave Meltzer sitting Vince and contradicting him on a lie he’d told, plus Bruno continuing his argument with McMahon on Larry King. Geraldo did his bit on Now It Can Be Told, but I didn’t know he also featured the WWF woes on his own show, this is a mini-review or partial review of that, with reference to the other non-related guests on the programme as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=deVZ-zQIHNQ

A little bit of nostalgia on a Sunday, with his interview conducted in 1993 with Hulk Hogan by famous British TV presenter Jonathan Ross for his interview series on the BBC. For the uninitiated, Ross is a guy prone to daftness and clowning, but is really into and knowledgeable about a lot of esoteric stuff, so wrestling falls under that for him. Hulk would be at the very end of his WWF run and not yet with WCW.

A little Christmas present on Christmas Day, the post-Christmas episode of World Championship Wrestling from 31 years ago.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slxC4nEctko

The review of the Stampede episode of this show seemed to prove popular, so on this quiet weekend I thought I’d have a look at the latest episode, looking at World Class. A lot has been produced already about the Von Erich promotion in the epic Heroes of World Class and by WWE as well as Mickey Grant’s Gentleman’s Choice, so I’m not expecting a lot more, but let’s see.

I haven’t been watching this series, with all reports indicating it isn’t a patch on Dark Side of the Ring, but the collection of interviewees for this episode piqued my interest, so let’s see how it goes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJcXtBhB4HA

YouTube can present a lot of fun stuff when you least expect it. Last Sunday I was able to check out MTV True Life – I Am a Pro Wrestler on my cellar phone, this week I’ve had this particular show pop up. Kind of a contrast piece to the famous Louis Theroux’s Weird Weekends wrestling episode, Anglo-American actress and broadcaster Ruby Wax spends some time in the company of Madusa, Leilani Kai, Strawberry Fields and Angel Amoroso. As far as I’m aware this is the first time it’s been uploaded in years other than in clip form on Ruby’s YouTube channel, so let’s see how long it lasts.

Kevin Nash and your boy Sean Oliver are top of the charts when it comes to wrestling podcasts right now, so it’s time to dip in to some of the choice nuggets of gold he’s dropping while also looking at his matches, taking in a few of his different personas.

This Work and Shoot article has come about because for a long time there’s been a talking point about Tito Santana, originating him from himself, that has seemed highly spurious, and finally it’s been debunked a little, so this week it’s some clips and matches from the Matador himself – arriba! Ole!

The short run of episodes and reviews comes to an end as the content uploaded to the Network has met an end for now, but Superbrawl IV is history, Ric Flair escaped the revenge of Vader, and newer, worse challenges are on the horizon for the Nature Boy, brother!

Of all the people, Rene Dupree and Paul London have been knocking it out of the park on YouTube with their show (technically it’s Rene’s Cafe de Rene, but London is omnipresent on it as his wingman), which is low on technical quality but high on the quality of gossip and shit slinging, so here’s a collection of some of their spicy clips and their work, which almost feels secondary.