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I always thought a book or full length documentary with interviews with the wrestlers about this would be really interesting. Between 30 for 30, 3 major streaming services, wwe network and cable movie channels how has no one done it yet? North Korea has been a pretty hot topic for the last 20 years. Most sports fans were probably interested in wrestling for some period of time, even if it was just a few years as a kid or getting caught up in the monday night wars. Hell, Ric Flair is in the main event against a Japanese politician. That's the kind of story you couldn't make up if it was fiction because people would call it ridiculous.
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Mar 20, 2019 05:29
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I remember the PPV dropping out of nowhere in 1995. WCW PPVs were selling for something like $25-30 at that point, but I think this one had a price of $15. There were commercials for it on WCW television, but I'm pretty sure none of the announcers mentioned it.
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Mar 20, 2019 06:10
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The American Dream posted:I always thought a book or full length documentary with interviews with the wrestlers about this would be really interesting. Between 30 for 30, 3 major streaming services, wwe network and cable movie channels how has no one done it yet? A lot of the wrestlers from that time are dead and it sounds like there was zero video or photos of the event, which wouldn't help matters.
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Mar 20, 2019 12:43
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DJExile posted:A lot of the wrestlers from that time are dead and it sounds like there was zero video or photos of the event, which wouldn't help matters. The entire show is on video.
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Mar 20, 2019 13:03
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Benoit, Hawk and Hashimoto are the only ones from that card that are dead. Unless I've missed some news.
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Mar 20, 2019 13:27
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MassRafTer posted:The entire show is on video. is it really? poo poo I legit never knew this. and yeah the more I think about it i guess more are still around. I'm dumb then!
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Mar 20, 2019 14:18
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DJExile posted:is it really? poo poo I legit never knew this. You can watch it on the WWE Network in fact!
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Mar 20, 2019 15:05
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NJPW World has a few of the matches as well https://njpwworld.com/search/tag/box_72_en
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Mar 20, 2019 16:02
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The best story of the NK show is Hawk harassing Scorpio so Scorpio made a shiv and was going to kill him until someone convinced him that North Korean jail is a bad place to be
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Mar 20, 2019 19:13
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Smoking Crow posted:The best story of the NK show is Hawk harassing Scorpio so Scorpio made a shiv and was going to kill him until someone convinced him that North Korean jail is a bad place to be The best story is Sasaki and Hokuto meeting, having really loud sex all night and getting engaged the by morning.
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Mar 20, 2019 19:24
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To echo the post upthread, I'd love to see a documentary about that show. 
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Mar 20, 2019 19:37
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DJExile posted:A lot of the wrestlers from that time are dead and it sounds like there was zero video or photos of the event, which wouldn't help matters. I think we just naturally assume that most of the wrestlers from a show in 1996 are dead at this point.
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Mar 20, 2019 20:10
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Akira Hokuto rules. If she were younger, she would be awesome as a scarier Asuka in current WWE.
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Mar 20, 2019 20:37
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The American Dream posted:I think we just naturally assume that most of the wrestlers from a show in 1996 are dead at this point. I feel like this is a p safe assumption
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Mar 20, 2019 20:58
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and yet Hogan isn't. 
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Mar 20, 2019 21:01
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BGrifter posted:and yet Hogan isn't. With how much drugs he took it’s not like it was due to lack of trying
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Mar 20, 2019 22:01
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BGrifter posted:and yet Hogan isn't. infernal contracts are fuckin bulletproof, brother, and it didn’t even cost him anything that he really valued :smughulkhoganemote:
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Mar 20, 2019 23:23
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RC and Moon Pie posted:Sports Illustrated ran a good oral history of the event in 2015. Norton's among the interviewees. They even talk to CNN guys who traveled with them. Thank you for posting this I really enjoyed it Everything surrounding Collision In Korea is a truth is stranger than fiction masterpiece
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Mar 21, 2019 00:32
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Ric Flair is only alive because he embraced the eternal wisdom of Juche Thought.
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Mar 21, 2019 01:12
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Because of the dead crowd and the problem that the workers were probably worried about offending the government, the actual show is unfortunately not very good. Also it made me laugh that SI was able to identify how much of a bullshitter Bischoff is. quote:Bischoff: Ric is the type of guy—he likes the adventure. He likes to do something new and different. He certainly loved the idea of wrestling Antonio Inoki. He knew that would be a classic kind of matchup for him. Antonio was an icon and a big part of wrestling history, especially as it pertains to Japan. So Ric was excited about that. Ric was not excited about going to North Korea because there was so much he didn’t understand or know. Quite frankly, if he would have understood and did know anymore than he did, he wouldn’t have gone. quote:Flair: I don’t have any fond memory of that trip whatsoever. *jerkoff motion*
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Mar 21, 2019 01:43
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Re: The New WWE Network dump. This is the famous WCW Thunder were Kevin Nash joined commentary during his last day as booker and crapped on everything http://network.wwe.com/video/v2523612483
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Mar 21, 2019 03:57
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Sodomy Hussein posted:Because of the dead crowd and the problem that the workers were probably worried about offending the government, the actual show is unfortunately not very good. Is the Flair-Inoki match as good as the article says it is?
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Mar 21, 2019 04:13
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rujasu posted:Is the Flair-Inoki match as good as the article says it is? It's not good.
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Mar 21, 2019 04:17
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rujasu posted:Is the Flair-Inoki match as good as the article says it is? Actually, you can see for yourself. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZUCt2zcxas Skip directly to Flair/Inoki if you'd like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZUCt2zcxas&t=5607s The main thing is that at this point WCW doesn't have the production value to get across how big the crowd is or how crazy the idea of this show is. So the wrestlers generally come off as off-key in what looks like a room of no more than a couple thousand people.
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Mar 21, 2019 04:32
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Sodomy Hussein posted:Also it made me laugh that SI was able to identify how much of a bullshitter Bischoff is. Ric Flair, "To Be The Man" posted:Personally, I didn't need North Korea on my resume to say I had a good life. Nor was there any monetary incentive. I went because it was an opportunity to associate myself with someone like Muhammad Ali as an international sports dignitary and represent professional wrestling to a huge population to had never seen it. Flair also doesn't like admitting that he had some autonomy over his career. He was head booker at this time. In another claim in his autobiography, quote:Eric told me that George Foreman had been approached first, but wanted too much money. Same thing with Hulk Hogan. I later discovered Sting was also asked to attend, but declined. In reality, I was Bischoff's fourth choice. Jimmy Carter, Ted Turner and Jane Fonda were supposedly on the list of attendees but backed out. So the two biggest names at the festival were Muhammad Ali and "Nature Boy" Ric Flair. Of course, Inoki was a bigger name in that situation. Sting could have actually been ahead of him on the list. Sting was still a huge name for WCW in 1995 and Flair was storyline retired when much of the planning would have happened. No clue as to the veracity of anything else. Everything else in Flair's bio matches up with the Sports Illustrated story. And a slight correction from the article. Sports Illustrated incorrectly said the PPV was two months after the show. It was 3.5. The PPV aired in August 1995. The shows were April 28-29.
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Mar 22, 2019 02:42
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RC and Moon Pie posted:Flair also doesn't like admitting that he had some autonomy over his career. He was head booker at this time. Sting was in no shape or form a bigger star than Flair in 1995.
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Mar 22, 2019 02:53
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MassRafTer posted:Sting was in no shape or form a bigger star than Flair in 1995. Inoki was #16, and the Steiners were #15 and #19. Poor Ric wasn't even the most powerful wrestler on the card.
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Mar 22, 2019 05:15
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MassRafTer posted:Sting was in no shape or form a bigger star than Flair in 1995.
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Mar 22, 2019 11:42
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MassRafTer posted:The best story is Sasaki and Hokuto meeting, having really loud sex all night and getting engaged the by morning. I had no idea this happened on the Korea show, nor that they got engaged right afterwards. I only heard the story of the sex that woke everyone up. HulkaMatt fucked around with this message at 12:06 on Mar 22, 2019 |
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Mar 22, 2019 12:03
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I hope he was bellowing with manly laughter the entire time.
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Mar 22, 2019 12:13
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This would also have been right in the middle of the pretty strict "no dating" rules for joshi wrestlers, but you try telling those two they can't be together.
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Mar 22, 2019 16:44
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jesus WEP posted:was he a bigger star than flair any year? arguably the back half of 97?
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Mar 22, 2019 16:52
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Sting was definitely a bigger star in 97. Flair was probably third on the babyface depth chart behind Luger and Sting. They figured out how to book both guys perfectly for most of 97. That came crashing down pretty quickly though! With that said Flair was a big ratings mover on average maybe #2 behind Hogan.
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Mar 22, 2019 16:59
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MassRafTer posted:Sting was definitely a bigger star in 97. Flair was probably third on the babyface depth chart behind Luger and Sting. They figured out how to book both guys perfectly for most of 97. That came crashing down pretty quickly though! With that said Flair was a big ratings mover on average maybe #2 behind Hogan. Sting didn't need to be written on the card, it was assumed that he would be appearing on Nitro and PPVs and get one of the biggest pops of the night. I don't know if he appeared at all of them. I'm sure they sold plenty of tickets to house shows with people hoping The Stinger was gonna come from the rafters of the Biloxi Civic Center on a saturday afternoon. By the end of 97 was DDP probably the #4 face? I know that time period was him making his ascension to the main event. Goldberg was super hot and probably selling some tickets and I'm sure pulled great ratings for his quarters. You couldn't miss that 3 minute entrance and 4 minute match every week.
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Mar 22, 2019 22:06
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One of the biggest missed opportunities is that we never got to see any kind of closure to the years-long Sting/Luger friendship/foe angle.
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Mar 22, 2019 22:40
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It’s been fun seeing that they actually did a pretty competent job of building Luger up as the big babyface in 1997. Most of my memories of him were as the punchline he eventually became. It’s a little startling just how over he was. Crowds went apeshit for him just standing in the ring posing. Still a goofy looking fucker though. Sting was insanely over in 1997 too. Flair felt more like he was coasting on his reputation. All the stuff with Jarrett and Mongo was pretty lame. Switching Jarrett for Curt Hennig helped a bit, but that’s just because Mr Perfect was vastly more talented.
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Mar 22, 2019 22:52
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I was never a huge Luger fan, but it still baffles me that in the middle of that "Sting is gone for a year" angle, they had Luger defeat Hogan for the title to a GIGANTIC pop and within a week he'd lost the title and looked like a loving idiot.
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Mar 22, 2019 23:54
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What was the point of that. I thought it was odd having hogan fight lugar that night when he had a title shot 6 days away. Was it just to pop the ppv buyrate?
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Mar 23, 2019 02:45
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I watched Nitro 1996-1997 recently for the first time and I was surprisingly into Luger. They book him incredibly well, essentially doing a series of Goldberg-esque squash matches with him where he gets a new opponent each week and puts em in the Torture Rack. It rules, despite me knowing Luger is a dweeb.
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Mar 23, 2019 03:06
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Luger's music from that period was some top-notch generic rock music though, that's probably why he was so over
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Mar 23, 2019 04:10
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