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My favorite Wrestlemania match ever, and the fact it's a Warrior match of all things makes that astounding
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Mar 28, 2018 22:27
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Top 5 Mania match for me, and probably the best to date at this point. It's so good. I also love Savage's gear in this match, it always stuck out to me for some reason.
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Mar 28, 2018 23:21
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It's too bad that WM6 Warrior/Hogan is the match that everyone remembers and goes nostalgic for, because this is far superior in every possible way from buildup to epilogue. I guess it doesn't help that Warrior and Savage both ended up at the top of Vince McMahon's shitlist until literally the month before they each died, which is why they never promoted it on "Best of WM" preshows and videos. Like Warrior's trunks say, the match is about more than just the title, it's about everything these two believe in, and that's really all you need to sell a loving wrestling match. Which is something WWE desperately needs to remember today, especially when it comes to selling a Wrestlemania. What does it matter when we see HHH or Roman Reigns fight for their 11th title? Or John Cena overcome the odds for the 1001th time? What do these guys really believe? Randy Savage was the loving master at making you believe, and he along with Rick Rude (as I mentioned long ago) were the only two guys who gave enough of a drat to bring out the best of The Ultimate Warrior and actually add the depth to his character to make him relatable. Which is part of the problem with Warrior's run with the WWF Title. They never developed his character enough to make fans connect with him on a deeper level. If they had this kind of match during Warrior's run it would have drawn plenty and he could have been just as successful as Hogan. Which is probably why it didn't happen for the title, brother. And yeah, best WWF match of the Hulkamania era and I stand by that. Even if 5 Elbow Drops was a bit ridiculous for Savage to degrade his finisher, but hey, he was the only person to kick out of Warrior's finisher so fair enough. Shiki Dan fucked around with this message at 00:26 on Mar 29, 2018 |
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Mar 29, 2018 00:16
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I mean, when you're retiring, does it matter how valuable your finisher is?
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Mar 29, 2018 01:01
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I just adore how Savage managed to piss Warrior off so much he changed his entire MO for this match. No running around like a lunatic (not even for his entrance), just being a brick wall that eventually beat Macho unconscious.
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Mar 29, 2018 02:35
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DeathChicken posted:I just adore how Savage managed to piss Warrior off so much he changed his entire MO for this match. No running around like a lunatic (not even for his entrance), just being a brick wall that eventually beat Macho unconscious. The slap after Warrior caught Savage cemented that for me. 'Beat you? No, I'm going to loving unman you.'
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Mar 29, 2018 03:22
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One of the things that's so great about the match is that Warrior and Savage genuinely liked each other. They were good friends. They were on Hogan's level in terms of status, but didn't treat each other like how Hogan treated them. They gladly allowed each other to look great and gave us a classic. Something worth mentioning right now as Rarity just finished Warrior vs. Savage is that we've hit intermission. While I'm sure that's very apparent for Rarity, she still dodged a bullet. See, sometimes WWE removes stuff from their PPVs, whether it's DVD or WWE Network. For WM7, there was a 5-minute comedy debate sketch where Vince McMahon (his only appearance on the show), George Steinbrenner and Paul Maguire discussed whether or not WWF should do instant replay. It was the new hotness in NFL and they tied it into Warrior's title loss. The whole thing was so painful and bad that they removed it from all versions of the PPV. So count your blessings, Rarity. You missed out on a bad comedy bit where the punchline was the Buswhackers dressed as referees, playing around in loose video tape.
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Mar 29, 2018 05:25
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Yet they left the Wrestlemania Rap in for WM5 
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Mar 29, 2018 06:13
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Rarity posted:Yet they left the Wrestlemania Rap in for WM5 As bad as that was, it was short and Run DMC was a pretty huge get for Wrestlemania. The Instant Replay skit was bad dry humor that felt like fifteen minutes when it was only five. Now, as for Wrestlemania music segments so awful that you can't officially see them anywhere, there was once a rendition of "America the Beautiful" that was so horrendous that the crowd booed it and rightfully so.
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Mar 29, 2018 07:04
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Gavok posted:As bad as that was, it was short and Run DMC was a pretty huge get for Wrestlemania. The Instant Replay skit was bad dry humor that felt like fifteen minutes when it was only five. The DX band? Only one that comes to mind.
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Mar 29, 2018 12:42
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Oh yeah, Warrior also cut some amazing promos leading up to all this. Main thing that made them awesome was that you'd think they were just the usual Warrior ramblings first looking at them, then in hindsight he was foreshadowing the entire feud. Paraphrasing one of them from memory "The doctors wanted to remove the bits of scepter from my skull. I told them to leave one in. That crystal foretold the future! We will do battle, Macho King. You will fall, I will take everything from you! But you'll regain something you lost..."
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Mar 29, 2018 14:06
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I forgot to ask this when it got posted, but why did Jimmy Snuka wear boots for his match against Undertaker? He never wore them otherwise.
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Mar 29, 2018 14:40
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Gavok posted:One of the things that's so great about the match is that Warrior and Savage genuinely liked each other. They were good friends. They were on Hogan's level in terms of status, but didn't treat each other like how Hogan treated them. They gladly allowed each other to look great and gave us a classic. Oh my god I remember that.  Is it on youtube? I can't look right now.Rarity posted:Yet they left the Wrestlemania Rap in for WM5 That was perfectly fine and Run DMC is perfectly fine. 
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Mar 29, 2018 15:35
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ShadowedFlames posted:The DX band? Only one that comes to mind. Yup. I'd love to see a master list of PPV stuff omitted from the Network. fart blood posted:Oh my god I remember that. I tried to find it, but no dice. Years ago I saw it on Dailymotion, but it's no longer there. Best I can find now is a description off Wrestlecrap.
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Mar 29, 2018 16:33
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Hockles posted:I forgot to ask this when it got posted, but why did Jimmy Snuka wear boots for his match against Undertaker? He never wore them otherwise. Near the end of his run, Snuka changed up his looks, growing a goatee, wearing tights instead of trunks, and started wearing boots.
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Mar 29, 2018 20:23
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Snuka also wore boots sometimes early in his career. This is from 1981: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GThnsJ4tptk I always thought Jimmy Snuka owned as a kid. He was this crazy dude who was jacked but did top rope moves and flying karate chops and poo poo! That was before it became public knowledge that he was probably a murderer. 
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Mar 29, 2018 20:32
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Wrestling is one of the best examples for that whole "never meet your heroes" thing.
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Mar 29, 2018 20:35
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I don't know about you guys but that last match has me pretty wiped out. Luckily, the WWF have been thoughtful and scheduled an intermission so we get a chance to catch our breath. Gino asks Heenan about Curt Hennig's upcoming title defence against the Big Bossman and Heenan's not worried about it. Want to know why? MOST OFFENSIVE COMMENT Bobby Heenan: “They know how to handle law and order here in Los Angeles” Jesus. Jesus! For those of you who aren't aware this show is happening less than a month after Rodney King was the victim of a vicious beating from the LAPD for the crime of being black. Holy poo poo, you can't say that! This is worse than when they gave A.W. a live mic. Gino turns his attention to the WWF title match where Heenan is backing Slaughter because he “doesn't know the word 'give up'”. Um, I've spotted one crucial flaw in your logic there. Over to the back we go for some special celebrity action. Regis is with the Undertaker and Paul Bearer to discuss their match but they're not very interested in talking. Bearer keeps mugging for the camera while Taker starts measuring Regis up for a coffin. Hehehe. Regis mutters that he's “played some dead rooms before”. Now you'd think shoving your new monster heel into a throwaway comedy bit would ruin their aura but to his credit Taker makes it work.  Bearer does his fair bit to help as well Meanwhile, Trebek is with Demolition and Mr. Fuji and he is all about Jeopardy tonight. He talks about the skills needed to win his game show and he thinks that they transfer to wrestling but Demolition quickly shut him down. Smash claims that Fuji is the only one who has all the answers and Crush adds that Fuji knows all about “pain, torture and suffering”. Why yes, that is how it feels when I watch you guys wrestle. This whistle-stop tour of interviews continues as we return to Regis who is with a couple of Japanese lads, Genichiro Tenryu and Koji Kitao. Straight off the bat I can see these guys are actually Japanese so we're already one step ahead of the Orient Express. Regis asks them questions but we're keeping up this bit where everyone ignores him. Tenryu and Kitao whisper to each other in Japanese. They seem to be wondering where Kathy Lee. Regis asks them if they speak any “Engliso” and devolves into shouting the names of Japanese motoring companies at them. Godammit, Regis. How would you like it someone chased after you screaming 'Microsoft' over and over? Don't worry, we're almost done. Just one last check-in with Trebek who's with Jake “The Snake” Roberts following his victory. Trebek is petrified of Damien so Jake takes the opportunity to taunt him mercilessly. He explains that Damien is a big Jeopardy fan with his favourite category being Reptiles of the World. Damien wants to ask if he can be a contestant and Trebek does a runner. Hey, he couldn't do worse than most of the dreck you let on there, Trebek.  I'll take 'Which annoying celebrity should get off my wrestling show?' for $500 please, Alex And so we finally come to the big team team blow-off. Demolition come out with Fuji in tow and that means it's time for the stiff-rear end hoss off the wrestling world has been anticipating for the last four years. That's right, it's time for... Demolition w/ Mr. Fuji vs. Genichiro Tenryu and Koji Kitao ...WAIT WHAT? NO! BUGGER. But wait, seriously? After all this we're not doing Demolition and LOD on the biggest stage of them all? And instead we've got these two generic as hell Japanese guys? Not meaning any offence to Tenryu and Kitao cause it's cool we've got some face Japanese dudes but really, what the gently caress is this? The one time I've ever cared about a Demolition match and you go ahead and blueballs me. Wow. Well, all right I guess we're going ahead with this one then. I suppose there's a chance it might be a good. A really, small, tiny, infinitesimal chance but let's roll with it. Demolition are out first and now that they're heels they're not allowed that super-popular hair metal anthem as their theme so they've switched to this really dull instrumental that sounds like its been ripped off the latest Friday the 13th movie. It's constant tense synths and drums and it sounds like the blonde cheerleader's about to get her throat sliced. I get why they've made the change but it's not good. Tenryu and Kitao follow them out and they're special enough to get their own theme. It's pretty generic with a vague twist that might be Asian but might be Latino. What I'm saying is it's either these dudes coming out to this music or it's Juventud Guerrera. Now I've got no clue who either of these guys are so I'm guessing they never did much but I'm sure this is the bit where you tell me about their classic matches with Antonio Inoki or something. SIGN OF THE NIGHT  Look guys, it was a bad night for signs. Take what you get. Before the bell rings Demolition start things early by jumping Tenryu and Kitao. However, they don't get to keep the advantage long as Kitao is strong enough to stand up to both dudes. Luckily, Fuji is on hand to whack him with a cane to get things back on track. Crush nails a double axe handle and Demolition keep Kitao isolated until he connects with a clothesline to Smash and makes the tag. This is completely basic, it's like Baby's First Tag Team Match over here. Gino says that Tenryu is the most popular wrestler in Japan. Oh really, Gino? More popular than Jushin Liger? More popular than Stan Hansen? More popular than the Great Muta? Yeah, I know my puro history. Tenryu whiffs a flying back elbow and Smash replies with a back suplex. Demoltion set up for the Demolition Device but Kitao runs interference so Crush takes him out instead. Crush goes back up top but Kitao shoves him off to the outside and Tenryu hits an enziguri and a powerbomb for the win. Did I just see Demolition get jobbed out in under five minutes? What beautiful brave new world is this? Ok, so story time. Months ago I did a Google search looking for something to put in this thread and I stumbled on an image showing Demolition and LOD and the WM7 logo. Because of this I've spent months now thinking that this match would happen on this show. I'm stunned to learn that's not the case. What we got instead was a whole lot of terrible. The joy I got from seeing that Demolition are on their way out is heavily outweighed by the pain I got from having to see a Demolition match. As for Tenryu and Kitao, they didn't stand out at all so I'm not expecting much out of them. And this is the bit where I ask someone to link the blow-off Demolition/LOD match because I do actually want to see it.  Why did you lie to me? Ax isn't even in Demolition any more! Addendum: And if it wasn't clear from the way they were jobbed out to a couple of nobodies I can now officially announce that Demolition are on their way out because this is the last time we'll be seeing them on PPV. Which makes sense because now that we have LOD on the roster these guys really have no purpose any more. Now, I know that Crush and Smash will both be returning in one form or another but like the Harts I felt that Demolition deserved their own moment of reflection. Because holy poo poo, these guys were total rear end. From the moment they first walked into the ring they epitomised the dreadful 80s style of wrestling that I despise. But worse than that they were such an obvious rip-off for LOD that they were always going to look underwhelming in comparison. It's such a shame that they were put in the spot they were because they prevented a number of talented teams from getting the push that they deserved.
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Mar 30, 2018 21:52
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Rarity posted:
At this point. he probably is more popular than all of them. Kitao amounted to nothing really, but he was a disgraced Yokozuna. Tenryu on the other hand is the man and would continue to be so for many years hence. He only retired in 2015 and he was a staple on top of cards wherever he went. This was a really weird little cameo to me as well and I still don't understand them not giving the Warriors the squash. remusclaw fucked around with this message at 22:34 on Mar 30, 2018 |
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Mar 30, 2018 22:15
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Koji Kitao is most remembered for the time he tried to shoot on Earthquake at a cross-promotion SWS show. From what I heard, Demolition-LOD was tried at house shows but didn't really work because hoss-offs often aren't as satisfying as they're repeatedly made out to be. So it seems like they built up to it and tried it on house shows to a tepid response. I kind of wonder if they were only really keeping Demolition around for that purpose, and when it didn't work this is what they decided to do with them.
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Mar 30, 2018 22:33
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Tenryu is also responsible for the Japanese promotion that gave Lance Storm and Chris Jericho some of their first notable bookings (and in doing quick research, he's also responsible for mah boy the Stone Pitbull Tomohiro Ishii).
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Mar 30, 2018 22:33
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I mentioned a while back that Ultimate Warrior's title run was cut off at the knees with the Rude feud (as good as Rude was, that chapter was long closed). Another thing that screwed it up was that they had him join LOD to feud with Demolition, which is why that Survivor Series match happened. Having your champ as the odd man out in a tag feud isn't the best way to use your talent. With Ax gone, Warrior wasn't needed. I seem to recall LOD vs. Demolition being blown off on a random episode of Superstars or Challenge with LOD winning. Considering those shows are for jobber squashes and angle-building, seeing a feud killed off like that is kind of surprising in retrospect.
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Mar 30, 2018 22:53
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Feuds almost never seemed to end on PPV. Blow offs were mainly a house show thing until what, the mid 90's?
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Mar 30, 2018 22:58
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remusclaw posted:At this point. he probably is more popular than all of them. Didn't Kitao end up being bad in some MMA appearances back when it was still called NHB? One of the early UFC tournaments (possibly the one from Buffalo with Shamrock vs Severn) and also early Pride against future WWE superstar Nathan Jones I think. And yeah, Tenryu is a pretty legendary figure in Japan, he had a promotion after SWS called Wrestle and Romance, aka WAR, which is about the best wrestling promotion name except maybe Big Mouth Loud.
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Mar 30, 2018 23:21
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4NlQbUmyJA Seems pretty popular to me, I guess 
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Mar 30, 2018 23:21
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dsriggs posted:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4NlQbUmyJA Pfft, anyone can seem popular if they have 30 thousand people cheering their entrance at the Tokyo Dome 
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Mar 30, 2018 23:28
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remusclaw posted:Kitao amounted to nothing really, but he was a disgraced Yokozuna. Tenryu on the other hand is the man and would continue to be so for many years hence. He only retired in 2015 and he was a staple on top of cards wherever he went. This was a really weird little cameo to me as well and I still don't understand them not giving the Warriors the squash. Fun Fact: Tenryu was such a big deal that his retirement match was against Okada and won Tokyo Sports' Match of the Year.
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Mar 30, 2018 23:34
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Tenryu also held the NWA 6 Man tag team titles with The Road Warriors
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Mar 31, 2018 00:14
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Just put on Wrestlemania VII at the bar, and people are loving it.
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Mar 31, 2018 03:03
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Open Marriage Night posted:Just put on Wrestlemania VII at the bar, and people are loving it. Sounds like a happening.
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Mar 31, 2018 03:06
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The Rockers are over, Nasty Boys are gross looking, and everyone is nostalgic about Macho and Warrior. It's fun watching wrestling with people who don't watch this dumb, fake sport.
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Mar 31, 2018 03:54
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As far as I'm concerned Savage is the best pro wrestler to ever live, so they should be 
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Mar 31, 2018 04:33
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There's a shitload of backstory to this meaningless, lovely 4-minute tag match that was put on during intermission (you can even see half the crowd walking around in the background) with no build-up. As to why not LOD/Demolition...the fact that they already tried it on house shows and it dramatically underperformed (even Ax admits in shoot interviews that the matches really sucked and was disappointed himself), there's the issue of the fact that they needed a team for this cross promotion match. While the match itself was no big deal, the fact that Vince McMahon and the WWF were entering a partnership with Tenryu and the SWS/WAR was really supposed to be. Much like WCW and their long partnership with New Japan (which lasted even until late 2000 with even loving MUTA on WCW programming), this deal was supposed to be the WWF's way of gaining a foothold into the red-hot Japanese market, which was seen as so important that Vince even swallowed his pride and co-promoted shows with SWS and lent out talent to WAR for years. Of course, it didn't last long or amount to much, partly because the Japanese market would eventually slowly decline from its peak period of the late 80's-early 90's, but also because SWS/WAR really sucked and went out of business even before the downturn. Because other than Tenryu, the owner and ace of the company, they had no real stars or even notable names other than Kitao (who was famous in Japan for the WRONG reasons, due to being a total piece of poo poo and the only Yokozuna in Sumo history to never win a tournament and be banned from the sport for assaulting his stable master's wife during one of his many temper tantrums) To give an analogy, Tenryu and SWS in Japan at this time would be like if at this point in history in North America that Ric Flair decided to leave WCW and form his own wrestling company--having ridiculous luck and connection to find a money-mark corporation to back everything for him and bankroll lucrative contracts to try and tempt other stars from the Big Two (WWF and WCW in NA::All Japan and New Japan) to join. Only problem--none of the other big stars bite and turn over. Mostly because they're already in good position, or due to loyalty, or because they recognize the fed for the 2nd-rate show it is, or all of the above. Sooooo instead of guys like Sting or Hogan or Warrior or even Lex Luger...this 3rd promotion only entices the way-past-their-prime veterans like Dino Bravo, Greg Valentine, Tony Atlas, or Junkyard Dog. That's essentially SWS/WAR in a nutshell. Well, then comes back to this match. Tenryu and Kitao are the only names in the promotion still worth a drat, and they want a Wrestlemania spot to promote themselves in exchange for Tenryu giving Vince a foothold. Why they then agree to an idiotic and embarassingly stereotypical comedy skit (especially when both Kitao and Tenryu were fluent in English, as Chris Jericho notes in his 1st book) is beyond me. Problem is, the only teams on the WWF roster that meant anything in Japan were the LOD (who were absolutely HUGE) and Demolition (just by virtue of being Road Warrior ripoffs). And well...can't job out LOD, especially to a bunch of foreign guys that mean nothing to the US audience. So that left Demos in that spot, who were already on their way out anyways. Shiki Dan fucked around with this message at 04:57 on Mar 31, 2018 |
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Mar 31, 2018 04:45
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Gaz-L posted:It's bullshit either way, but I THINK Gorilla means that WMVII had the largest POTENTIAL PPV audience ever. As in it was available to the most number of people, so would be the biggest if every possible one bought it. Because that's at least plausible to claim in the moment. Claiming it has the most buys WHILE THE SHOW IS AIRING? That's absurd because that's not how calculating that works. They wouldn't know that for at least a few days if not a few weeks. Bruce Prichard mentions this in his Mania 7 podcast - Gorilla said it had the "Largest PPV audience ever" because it was being broadcast (for free) on the Armed Forces network to all troop stations and bases, so the audience of (everyone who bought the show + the entire US military, potentially) meant that it was the largest audience to view a PPV. Conrad then asks how you can consider that audience since they didn't pay and Bruce basically says that they never said it was the most PPV BUYS.
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Mar 31, 2018 05:11
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I was thinking about how Wrestlemania 7 has "Grand Spectacle," the iconic WrestleMania theme that they used for just a few years. Then I realized how it was replaced for Wrestlemania 9 and... So I know that this thread is just for PPVs and all, but petition for Rarity to listen to and possibly review Wrestlemania: The Album prior to Wrestlemania 9. That whole production is pure  and could very well break her.
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Mar 31, 2018 06:03
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She should also play Wrestlemania: The Arcade Game when appropriate. She doesn't have to experience everything, but there's things, like Wrestlefest, that most fans during the time had some experience with. I'd also put Bret Hart's Simpsons episode on that list.
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Mar 31, 2018 06:10
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I won't give them full write-ups but for added pop culture stuff just tell me about it at the correct points and I'll try to track it down  Definitely seen the Bret Simpsons episode
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Mar 31, 2018 06:31
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God, that Savage/Elizabeth segment 
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Mar 31, 2018 06:45
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Jason Sextro posted:Koji Kitao is most remembered for the time he tried to shoot on Earthquake at a cross-promotion SWS show. What the gently caress CubsWoo posted:Bruce Prichard mentions this in his Mania 7 podcast - Gorilla said it had the "Largest PPV audience ever" because it was being broadcast (for free) on the Armed Forces network to all troop stations and bases, so the audience of (everyone who bought the show + the entire US military, potentially) meant that it was the largest audience to view a PPV. This is dumb and bad and doesn't change how poorly it comes across on TV
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Mar 31, 2018 06:50
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Rarity posted:What the gently caress I don't expect write ups, I just want to make sure you get the full experience. Now that we're firmly in the 90's, I'll be able to contribute more.
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Mar 31, 2018 07:04
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