Dave Reviews Wrestling — page 4

An interesting find here, courtesy of uploader Liam Savage, with some post-WCW compilation of interviews, angles and matches from Eddie Graham’s promotion, presented in an interesting retrospective way, because, well, just look…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BweXPTHvkA0

I was asked if I’d thought about reviewing any XWF episodes recently. I hadn’t, but I’ll give it a shot. Of the three episodes produced, I’m going for the middle one, with the idea of catching the train while it’s rolling, not while it’s starting or stopping. I’m also including some interview clips with people involved with or talking about the promotion too.

Here’s a review from the minimal post-1990 episodes of Prime Time on the Network, this one selected as it’s the buildup to Hulk Hogan’s last appearance, because he went to Hollywood and became a star and was never seen again… Anyway, it’s the thirtieth anniversary of this episode, a time when I was a young and very keen fan, so let’s give it a look.

Ohio Valley Wrestling came up for some brief discussion in one of the threads this week. I’ve always liked Jim Cornette and won’t deny that it was the training ground for some of the biggest stars of the last twenty-plus years, but I’ve never actually liked the promotion itself. Corny says his best booking was in OVW, although I think it was just the promotion he put the most effort into the incredibly over-choreographed matches while screaming like a banshee on commentary. So, I thought I’d have a look at an episode from July of 2000 and see whether I’d been too harsh or was spot on.

Maffew has been looking at some UWF shows shot at Universal Studios, which WCW became infamous for shooting at with the giveaway results months ahead of time that didn’t always end up matching big plans when real life happened. However, another group also filmed at Universal Studios, namely the not-late Eddie Mansfield’s IWF group, which ended up producing the likes of Kevin Kelly and the Smoking Gunns as well as housing some other stars after their time in the sun was done. So, here’s a June 1992 episode to look at.

Found another show from 1991 from the independent scene, South Atlantic Pro Wrestling from the Carolinas, taking over some old Jim Crockett timeslots and using a lot of local talent as well as some young stars who would go onto greater fame. Let’s have a look.

Striking while the iron is hot. Here’s the second part of DuhHannibal’s interview with the world’s strongest man, Kenneth Patera, still in a hotel room. Plus some bonuses. Not seen all of this, but I know there are some howlers in there.

Babyface Ken Patera is no fun.

Cranky octogenarian Ken Patera is LOTS of fun, so here’s a recap of a shoot interview with him from 2020 with infamously terrible Hannibal, who manages to fuck up from the beginning by calling him Ken Pat-ee-ra.

Below the shoot review, some famous and infamous bits involving the Olympic strongman.

Another bit of a companion piece to Maffew’s UWF reviews, as 1991 was the year I got into wrestling and it’s a weird time for promotions trying and dying. Don Owen’s Pacific Northwest Wrestling had lasted for over sixty years in some form or another before the money dried up and they closed the doors at the end of ’91. It definitely had a legacy, with stars like Roddy Piper cutting their teeth there, but this is the beginning of the end. I’ve not watched a lot but was becoming aware of the PNW name at this point, so it’s worth a look and I’ve picked an episode from the same time period as Maffew is working through.

Always enjoy reading Maffew’s UWF reviews, as knee deep in shit as he often is with it. 1991 was the year I became a wrestling fan too, so I entered into picking up Inside Wrestling and The Wrestler and PWI as well as the official magazines. Finding out about the UWF and GWF and USWA and the like was strange to me without the TV access to them, but definitely fascinating.

At the same time, I also became aware of IWCCW, which previously had been ICW, run by the Savoldis. A few WWF guys like Tony Atlas and Tito Santana were getting extra bookings there with their stars fading. They weren’t the only ones, so when I saw something particularly corny I thought I’d put together a companion review to come out alongside the Fury Hour.

Well, after the disappointing showing of the WWF Mania tape, I thought I’d review some Coliseum Video matches with the unlikely pairing of Johnny Polo and Gorilla Monsoon on commentary, which you would think would be a disaster but actually made for some comedy gold. Dual purpose here is to review the matches and recap some of the gems between Scott Levy, channeling Bobby Heenan as best as he can in absentia, and a checked out but amused Gino.

Got to put the pause on the WCW reviews with a work colleague leaving and my workload getting a lot bigger, but fancied giving this a watch just over 25 years to the day of Raw beginning to change into the multi-hour show it is now, when that was a good thing. In the UK at the time we were experiencing a weird one week delay with violence cuts, so this was edited down to an hour, but by the middle of March we were back up to schedule with some creative editing and doubling up (the European Championship show was presented as a separate event).

One night before WrestleWar ’91, hopefully with some setup for that event!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wd0KEQC6uLQ

Hey everybody, hope you’re having a good weekend. Remember how the last two episodes were building towards WrestleWar? Well, there’s a show at the Omni, so, you know, priorities!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57O8h0TbJsw

Good show last week, bolstered by the Naitch, so let’s see if it’s more of the same this week.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwFmVbSuL2s

The Clash is past and the Dream is back, because the most you can say about putting a tag team wrestler in a match against the world champion and the top two faces in a tag team championship match is that it’s different.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJl5DOEw2hQ

Oh, there’s a pigging story with this one!

You may remember I started on this voyage a month ago, to recap the year of WCW where they lost their perennial biggest star, Ric Flair. OK, a month out of sync, with reviewing January episodes in December, but I had a few reviews in the bag.

Then Scott had the problems with the site, and much like Maffew’s UWF review this one disappeared too. Was going to knock it on the head as fate, but I can’t have the Rapmaster as my avatar for nothing, so let’s keep on going until we can’t.

As a reminder, the rating system is Because WCW (shit) and The Greatest… (good).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQR4Rvb_vtQ

It was interesting to watch Lou Thesz’s UWA promotion from the seventies last week, so I was similarly pleased to discover some of the WWWF programming from the sixties and immediately spotted a familiar face, so let’s have a look at that.

Before I even knew there was an internet, my wrestling fandom comprised watching the WWF on Sky, WCW on ITV and German satellite channels, All Star Promotions at the local theatre, and picking up the magazines that were out there, with books like Pro Wrestling Illustrated being the ones that gave you a wider world view of wrestling. One of the interesting articles from 1994 looked at the post-WrestleMania X tour of Japan and the Pacific, which was pretty much the brain child of JJ Dillon, assisted by Akio Sato. Some really interesting matches, including one man’s WWF hurrah of sorts, but I didn’t know until yesterday that some of them were recorded, so I’m going to review four ones that piqued my interest.

The last episode of this short run now. Hope you’ve enjoyed them while they’ve lasted.