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VogeGandire posted:My new hobby is "if there's nothing worth watching on TV, watch WCW midcard." Can someone explain the La Parka character for me? I might be missing something but it seems like he is just a guy in a skeleton suit who plays a pretty rad steel chair guitar. Not that there is anything wrong with that.
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Mar 9, 2013 20:25
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CaptainRapesAlot posted:Can someone explain the La Parka character for me? I might be missing something but it seems like he is just a guy in a skeleton suit who plays a pretty rad steel chair guitar. Not that there is anything wrong with that. In lucha kayfabe, he's like a luchador psychopomp. In WCW he was just a guy in a skeleton suit who played a  steel chair guitar. And he was doing that.
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Mar 9, 2013 20:29
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La Parka was a mystery. He was this fat skeleton who was always forced to wrestle in Crusierweight matches just because he was Mexican when he was clearly too big for the division. So he made the most of it by dancing like a mofo, bringing a steel chair to the ring and just being the most fun a wrestler could possibly be without saying a single, solitary word.
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Mar 9, 2013 21:13
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Oh, yeah, that too. He had a good 30-40lbs on every other cruiserweight.
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Mar 9, 2013 21:21
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When Russo came in, he gave La Parka the Kaientai translated promo gimmick, but with an obnoxious Brooklyn accent. Somehow this was perfectly fine by me. Years later in Mexico he started doing these elaborate dance routine entrances with a Michael Jackson impersonator. Basically, La Parka rules.
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Mar 9, 2013 21:24
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Animal-Mother posted:When Russo came in, he gave La Parka the Kaientai translated promo gimmick, but with an obnoxious Brooklyn accent. Somehow this was perfectly fine by me. Years later in Mexico he started doing these elaborate dance routine entrances with a Michael Jackson impersonator. Basically, La Parka rules.
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Mar 9, 2013 22:19
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LividLiquid posted:That happened before Russo, and even before Kaientai, though I think Russo might have brought it back. No, I'm pretty sure that every stupid thing that happened in WCW from 1990 to 2001 was Russo's fault.
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Mar 9, 2013 23:01
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La Parka was a Luchadore in the sense he was from Mexico and had a mask, but he certainly wasn't a Cruiserweight. If you haven't seen La Parka lately as L.A. Park, he has had some amazing, bloody feuds with La Messias (Judas Mesias from TNA) and La Parka (The AAA wrestler who inherited his name). I was kind of surprised finding out that La Parka had transitioned into such an incredible brawler/hardcore wrestler. Maybe I shouldn't since he always carried around a chair, but his stuff post WCW was excellent. La Parka went on to put on some great matches against ECW guys in the MLW promotion, but almost every single video is taken down. I'm going to see if I can find and reupload them, because his match against Sabu was surprisingly amazing. La Parka & Silver King vs Damien 666 & Cicolpe (The Brain and Tony absolutely lose their poo poo in this match) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BksvEZ1o6ps
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Mar 9, 2013 23:03
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I was always so happy watching Nitro or Thunder as soon as I heard the words "Mexican Deathmatch". Because, people criticise luchadores for working super light. Maybe so, but not with weapons. They absolutely smack the poo poo out of each other with weapons. Brain and Tony trying to keep it together while they're both cracking up during that match is amazing.
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Mar 9, 2013 23:15
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MrBling posted:No, I'm pretty sure that every stupid thing that happened in WCW from 1990 to 2001 was Russo's fault. Then I learned that he is truly awful.
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Mar 9, 2013 23:33
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Flameingblack posted:La Parka was a Luchadore in the sense he was from Mexico and had a mask, but he certainly wasn't a Cruiserweight. If you haven't seen La Parka lately as L.A. Park, he has had some amazing, bloody feuds with La Messias (Judas Mesias from TNA) and La Parka (The AAA wrestler who inherited his name). Sweet Jesus, that chairshot to Ciclope is no longer as funny as Bobby and Tony think it is.
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Mar 9, 2013 23:38
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Damien apparently willing a trashcan into reality at 2:07 is brilliant. But yeah, that chairshot at 3:11 is  -level. And the one at the bell is totally unprotected.
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Mar 9, 2013 23:48
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LividLiquid posted:I was a big defender of Russo's (Excluding New Blood Rising) pre-TNA, and this is part of the reason why. Most of Kevin Sullivan and Kevin Nash's run is blamed on him, as well as stuff from before Bischoff was even fired. The guy booked a grand total of around ten months of WCW and it was even nonconsecutive. His first run was also a giant step up from what they were doing at the time with Sting Vs. Hogan in the Fall of '99 with Hogan as the face. It was a seriously awful show, and got even worse once he left in January with poo poo like The Dog.
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Mar 9, 2013 23:58
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UltimoDragonQuest posted:Russo is a bad booker for sure, but Summer 1999 and then January-April 2000 were so loving boring. As was TNA"s "good period" before Russo arrived and TNA now without Russo.
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Mar 10, 2013 00:05
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Super Ninja Fish posted:As was TNA"s "good period" before Russo arrived and TNA now without Russo.
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Mar 10, 2013 02:06
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I'm watching a Nitro from June '96 right now, it's the one where John Tenta delivered the awesome "I'm not a fish!" promo. I totally forgot that he was feuding against Boss Man and the Giant, who were apparently best buds, which makes the coffin surfing incident a couple years later much more hilarious than it already is. Meng and the Barbarian just beat the living hell out of High Voltage in one of the most brutal one sided tag matches I've ever seen. High Voltage were actually pretty swole looking dudes, making the beatdown even more fun to watch. I'm pretty sure Hall and Nash show up later, I'm having way too much fun with this.
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Mar 10, 2013 09:53
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tzirean posted:Sweet Jesus, that chairshot to Ciclope is no longer as funny as Bobby and Tony think it is. I hated how they'd treat hardcore matches as comedy time. Especially with the poo poo they pulling out on each other.
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Mar 12, 2013 20:46
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quote:They passed out Hogan merchandise to the fans near ringside. The Hogan lookalike fan, who is a guy originally from Detroit who moved to Atlanta and calls himself Roddy Hogan, was moved around by WCW officials several times before the show as they wanted him in a position to be on camera as much as possible. Hahaha me and my buddy met this guy, years ago. He told us how he was a superfan and in with WCW, he ended our conversation asking if it would be cool if he slept on our hotel room floor.
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Mar 12, 2013 20:54
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cZtuwjdPJU
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Mar 12, 2013 23:01
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New back issue is out! I'm going to try to do Nitro tomorrow night, but it may have to wait until Thursday night. Quotes from the 1/15/96 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: quote:Results from Monday Nitro on 1/8 in North Charleston, SC (about 5,000 in the building; 2,300 paid; $28,000) saw Chris Benoit pin Alex Wright in 6:40 with a dragon suplex in a very good match hurt by the announcers who literally still can't call a match (***1/2). Brian Pillman was at ringside and from the commentary by Eric Bischoff, it sounds like he isn't long for WCW. They kept talking about problems with the Horseman. They cut off the camera mic when Pillman was at ringside and after it was over and Pillman spat on Wright, Bischoff said, "Don't be surprised if you don't see Brian Pillman in WCW a lot longer." The irony on Pillman is that the more out of control he gets, the better he is as a heel and he's probably the best heel in the business right now but everyone is afraid of him because they think he's out of control. Benoit was cheered in this match. Eddie Guerrero pinned Steve Regal with a backslide in 8:08. No heat at all. There was some good wrestling and some missed spots but the storyline they were trying to get over (Guerrero as the underdog pulling a major upset) didn't work either live or on television because 98% of the viewers had to figure going in Guerrero was going to win. Big disappointment (**1/4). Sting & Lex Luger did an interview with Luger acting as a heel and everyone booing him but Sting not figuring it out. Luger asked Sting to form a tag team with him starting at the Clash and Sting agreed. This would have made more sense if they hadn't already announced the match on television two days earlier, but what can be said at this point? Sting beat Dallas Page with the scorpion in 6:20. Not good. Crowd still dead (*1/4). Main had Hogan & Savage over Flair & Anderson in 14:28 when Hogan legdropped Anderson. This was just terrible. The crowd appeared mixed on television but talking to those live said it was decidedly pro-Flair and what sounded like a reaction for Hogan was actually cheers for Flair (hey, that's what I was told from those who were there live). People left the arena really mad because Flair does the exact same spots with Hogan every time out and when you see it three out of four weeks, overexposure doesn't even begin to describe it. It wouldn't be so bad if the crowd was getting off on it, which they don't, or if the wrestling was stiff so there's believability, which it's anything but. It just gets sloppier, slower and more transparent by the week. Before the show, they did a test of crowd reaction because they were going to have Hogan & Savage do an interview to air during "Thunder in Paradise" but the crowd booed the mention of Hogan & Savage's name so much they decided against it. Hogan sold even less this week including popping up immediately from Arn Anderson's spinebuster, this time without even taking a two count before making the comeback. They really need to hide these guys because they're exposing their weaknesses to everyone, particularly Hogan and Savage, whose performances both gave the WWF skits portraying them as has-beens an awful lot of credibility. Pillman & Benoit tried to do a run-in but were stopped by Kevin Sullivan & Zodiac. The Giant then attacked Hogan and Savage and choke slammed them both, but then Zodiac stopped Giant (Hogan wants him back as a babyface with a push with the argument that Eric got his friend Page into a good spot so why can't he get his best friend into a good spot, forgetting that Page may have been given a chance against a lot of people's wishes, but he delivered whereas Zodiac has been given a zillion shots and failed to deliver). (*). I want to see this match. quote:Public Enemy was supposed to debut on the show but Ted Petty was snowed in so they had Johnny Grunge team with Bobby Eaton in a dark match against Nasty Boys which was described as a collection of mistimed spots. quote:They had a long boring interview with Mike Ditka on the Saturday Night show where he talked mainly about football, although they tied it into the show bringing up Steve McMichael. Apparently this will be a four-part deal with the idea that it's a Super Bowl tie-in. quote:Nitro started on 1/1 in Germany and the WCW announcing team includes a 16-year-old boy who doesn't know anything about wrestling nor care about it. He's the son of producer Dieter Krapp. On the first show he spent half the time talking about basketball. Two of the other announcers, Peter William (co-owner of CWA with Otto Wanz) and Nic Heldt are doing a gimmick feud during the show with William doing a gimmick pretending to be drunk on the air. quote:In regard to the Hogan lawsuit, Gene Okerlund claimed he was with Hogan the entire day in question and nothing happened and he'd be a character witness in court. That's just what Hogan needs is Okerlund in a courtroom as a character witness. The last guys who did something that stupid were named Ken Patera and Masa Saito and they wound up in prison for three years. There is also a story about how WCW turned a profit in 95, but only because of the shell game of putting several salaries on other Turner books and certain expenses not going on the books until 96. Looks like WCW is going to need a big year if they want to stay profitable! quote:The profit, said to be rather small, came despite added expenses of producing a live television show weekly and in a sense even saying the company was profitable should have an asterisk beside it. As part of a large corporate structure, there are ways of putting expenses on others' books, and it is rumored that perhaps the biggest expense of all, the Hulk Hogan salary, is largely on the Turner Home Entertainment books. In addition, Turner Broadcasting now pays WCW approximately $4 million per year for its three cable television shows which obviously makes all the difference in the world as if that was done during the Bill Watts or Jim Herd eras, the company would have at least come close to profitability several years. The other key reasons the company was profitable are a major video games sale, which without it, the company even with all the changes would have still lost money this year; and the fact that the PPV money from Halloween Havoc (with the Flair-Hogan retirement match) and Starrcade in 1994 didn't come in until 1995, while the 1995 Havoc, World War III and Starrcade, which produced far less profit, will count on the 1996 books. In addition, ridding the company of big salaries, Big Van Vader, Steve Austin, Rick Steamboat and Dustin Rhodes in particular has been mentioned as a reason the company didn't lose money, although the theory behind paying someone a big salary is that they are worth that much and more in revenue coming in or they shouldn't be getting that big salary, so in theory the company if they had those performers on the big shows should have taken in more revenue as well. Lex Luger probably came in making more money than any of the above mentioned names except Vader, and there were numerous part-time additions, along with the key acquisitions of Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit, although the latter two didn't come in at anywhere near the dollar figure the guys like Austin and Rhodes were making. The company was also said to be holding off numerous other expenses and a few other additions until the first of 1996 in order to make sure it would be profitable this year, since with the Turner/Time-Warner merger, there is more pressure on the individual companies to show a profit. That last line is interesting, imagine if WCW couldn't play that shell game and the Time Warner merger axed it months before the nWo kicked off. Doesn't seem too likely given Turner was very invested at this point.
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Mar 13, 2013 02:14
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Wouldn't have the insanely huge contracts offered to Nash and Hall during this period have been seen as an enormous risk that Bischoff shouldn't have been allowed to take? Well, I guess we're only a few months from that so I guess I'll see? Also interesting to see that Vader was making more than Lex Luger at this point, which seems odd to me since WWF probably couldn't offer that much more than WCW and yet Vader still jumped. Vice-versa for Luger jumping from WWF to WCW. I get that both were very disgruntled at this point and weren't going to go anywhere in their respective positions, but I don't see either guy making a big jump in pay by moving. Shiki Dan fucked around with this message at 03:44 on Mar 13, 2013 |
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Mar 13, 2013 03:40
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Note: I have pretty much every issue of Observer from 1984 to 1993 - if you guys have requests for any news/show reviews, just let me know and I'll post them here.
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Mar 13, 2013 03:45
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Shiki Dan posted:Wouldn't have the insanely huge contracts offered to Nash and Hall during this period have been seen as an enormous risk that Bischoff shouldn't have been allowed to take? I think by then it becomes clear that Turner still has control of his networks and properties and Turner is still dedicated to stomping Vince, so the money isn't an object. He did want them to keep going live because he thought Raw was on its last legs at the end of 95 and didn't want to let up.
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Mar 13, 2013 03:51
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I guess Ted Turner would STILL be fighting Vince today if he was in control. He probably would actually be winning at this point.
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Mar 13, 2013 03:54
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Shiki Dan posted:I guess Ted Turner would STILL be fighting Vince today if he was in control. If Bischoff and Russo managed to lose 65 million of his money (in one year) I think he would have given up as well. WCW was always worth it to him losing around 4 to 5 million because the TV ratings were worth that. 65 million... that's just crazy.
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Mar 13, 2013 03:57
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MassRayPer posted:If Bischoff and Russo managed to lose 65 million of his money (in one year) I think he would have given up as well. WCW was always worth it to him losing around 4 to 5 million because the TV ratings were worth that. 65 million... that's just crazy. It's right there in Bischoff's book, about 20 pages before he mentions that Fuscient bailed after inspecting WCW's horrendous balance sheets. Dave really needs to get around to tearing into the other half of that book.
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Mar 13, 2013 04:03
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UltimoDragonQuest posted:Those numbers were made up by dirtsheets! Read Death of WCW when it's reissued.
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Mar 13, 2013 04:10
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LividLiquid posted:The second edition of Death of WCW promises to do just this, as well as correct some errors. That's comforting to me, as Bryan's my boy, and reading that book, I read things I knew not to be true just by memory. He later came out and said that the reason a lot of those things happened is that entire half-chapters were left out. This happens in the editing process. Its a bitch. IIRC the amount of typos in the first edition is rather shocking, too, from what I remember.
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Mar 13, 2013 04:58
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Bischoff said in the rise and fall of WCW (Or maybe it was legends of wrestling) that he low balled Luger hard to convince him not to come to WCW but Luger still accepted the offer.
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Mar 13, 2013 04:58
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That line about how Page got his spot because of his friendship with Bischoff but actually delivered in said spot, unlike Brutus, needs to be repeated EVERY time somebody points out how he got his push.
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Mar 13, 2013 05:06
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Paper Jam Dipper posted:Bischoff said in the rise and fall of WCW (Or maybe it was legends of wrestling) that he low balled Luger hard to convince him not to come to WCW but Luger still accepted the offer. It sounds like this is a mix of fact and fiction. They lowballed Luger at first and wanted him just as a JTTTS, but after Vader got suspended him his leverage improved and they brought him in as more of a main guy.
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Mar 13, 2013 05:12
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LividLiquid posted:The second edition of Death of WCW promises to do just this, as well as correct some errors. That's comforting to me, as Bryan's my boy, and reading that book, I read things I knew not to be true just by memory. He later came out and said that the reason a lot of those things happened is that entire half-chapters were left out. This happens in the editing process. Its a bitch. I also love Controversy Creates Ca$h for very different reasons.
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Mar 13, 2013 05:12
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Paper Jam Dipper posted:Bischoff said in the rise and fall of WCW (Or maybe it was legends of wrestling) that he low balled Luger hard to convince him not to come to WCW but Luger still accepted the offer. I remember this from the Monday Night War DVD. Now that piece of work is another story entirely, but I remember that line.
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Mar 13, 2013 05:13
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MassRayPer posted:It sounds like this is a mix of fact and fiction. They lowballed Luger at first and wanted him just as a JTTTS, but after Vader got suspended him his leverage improved and they brought him in as more of a main guy. Was there even enough time to decide that? Wasn't Luger going from WWF to WCW like a weekend decision? UltimoDragonQuest posted:I also love Controversy Creates Ca$h for very different reasons. The best story in the whole book was the first story about attacking a bully from behind because he knew he was leaving Michigan.
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Mar 13, 2013 05:14
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Paper Jam Dipper posted:Was there even enough time to decide that? Wasn't Luger going from WWF to WCW like a weekend decision? http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3246153&userid=22064&perpage=40&pagenumber=7#post408901940
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Mar 13, 2013 05:34
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They lowballed him and wanted him as a midcarder, then brought him in and had Hogan tap to him? Uh...?
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Mar 13, 2013 14:03
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Paper Jam Dipper posted:The best story in the whole book was the first story about attacking a bully from behind because he knew he was leaving Michigan. Isn't that the plot to Max Keeble's Big Move?
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Mar 13, 2013 14:21
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I can't wait to see the Observers when the NWO angle kicks off. For you all that know, did business almost immediately pick up (in turns of tv ratings and live gates) when the angle started (when Hall showed up)? I'm going to guess that while it caused interest, the business got real hot after the "official" dubbing of the NWO at Bash at the Beach.
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Mar 13, 2013 14:40
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ColonelJohnMatrix posted:I can't wait to see the Observers when the NWO angle kicks off. For you all that know, did business almost immediately pick up (in turns of tv ratings and live gates) when the angle started (when Hall showed up)? I'm going to guess that while it caused interest, the business got real hot after the "official" dubbing of the NWO at Bash at the Beach. I'm pretty sure that there is something in Death of WCW on this going along the lines of: business DID start to pick up, but not so much because of the NWO, but because of a hot program on top of the house shows (Savage-Flair, I think). Bash would be when the NWO deal really took over.
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Mar 13, 2013 16:04
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I'm going nuts because I can't remember if it was on the radio or in the Observer back issues, but recently Meltzer was talking about the horrible Doomsday Cage Match and revealed that apparently Hulk Hogan REALLY REALLY wanted Brian Pillman to be in that match as one of the numerous people Hogan squashed because he was so threatened by Pillman's outsider act getting over. Like, to the point where Hulk and the front office were calling Pillman almost every day begging him to take the match so Hogan could squash him. Pillman, always smart, decided to get his voicebox surgery during that period instead so that he could claim he wasn't medically cleared to wrestle.
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Mar 13, 2013 22:19
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