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DrVenkman PhD

The SHOWDOWN at SHEA

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Seeing Vince McMahon do ring intros is great.

 

Michael Cole and Mick Foley do commentary for the show. I'm only 4 minutes in but so far they're spending more time talking about the history of the event than what's going on the ring (and not much is so far). It's actually pretty interesting.

 

Angel Marvilla's jumping flying headbutt is awesome.

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I'll correct this if it's wrong, but based on the first 3 matches and what's been advertised as being shown, this is the 24/7 version of the card:

 

Un-aired:

Greg Gagne vs. Rick McGraw

 

24/7 Aired Version:

 

1. Jose Estrada vs. Angel Marvilla

2. Dominic DeNucci vs. Baron Mikel Scicluna

3. World Wrestling Federation Junior Heavyweight Championship: Tatsumi Fujinami © vs. Chavo Guerrero.

4. World Wrestling Federation World Martial Arts Championship: Antonio Inoki © vs. Larry Sharpe.

5. World Wrestling Federation Tag Team Championship - Best 2 out of 3 Falls: The Wild Samoans Afa and Sika © vs. World Wrestling Federation Champion Bob Backlund and Pedro Morales.

6. Pat Patterson vs. Tor Kamata

7. World Women's Champion The Fabulous Moolah and Beverly Shade vs. Kandi Malloy and Peggy Lee

8. Wolrd Wrestling Federation Intercontinental Championship: Ken Patera © vs. Tony Atlas

9. Ivan Putski vs. Johnny Rodz

10. The Hangman vs. Rene Goulet

11. Hulk Hogan vs. Andre the Giant

12. Steel Cage Match: Bruno Sammartino vs. Larry Zbyszko

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It's possible - I was basing it on the match order listed on wikipedia and the fact the show started with Jose Estrada vs. Angel Marvilla. The order I assumed is already wrong as the tag title match airs before Hogan/Andre.

 

Random note: apparently if you preface it "The old", you can say "WWF" to your hearts content.

 

Edit: Fixed. Indeed, Greg Gagne vs. Rick McGraw is the only cut.

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I've been looking forward to seeing this card for a long time, mainly to finally see the Bruno/Larry Z cage match. Hulk Hogan, JR, and the WWE are trying to alter history by saying 36,000 people were there to see Hogan/Andre but any real fan knows that they were there for one reason and one reason only and that was to see the Bruno/Larry cage match.

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Heyman's OVW booking was some of the best the company ever did, but once he left for the new ECW and Gagne took over the booking that show went straight to hell. Like night and day different.

 

Anyway I am looking forward to watching this show, heard about it for years but never have seen any of it.

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This is, by far, the funniest commentary track I have ever heard.

 

"Rene Goulet going to sleep like many of the 36,000 fans in attendance".

 

I enjoyed Cole pointing out all the odd people wandering around ringside. "As the Bee Gees look on from ringside...."

 

Put him in a relaxed setting and with someone like Tazz or Foley and Cole can be a funny SOB.

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I'm almost certain no one with any authority listened to that recording. Cole's line about wondering who is going to yell at Vince McMahon about announcing the wrong thing is classic.

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The main event was odd; Bruno throws Larry into every side of the cage and bloodies him before just waltzing out as Zbyszko stands there. Then Larry exits the cage and takes a few more shots before raising Bruno's arm in respect and leaving. I guess the story was Bruno teaching Larry a lesson about respecting one's elders, but it just came off really, really weird.

 

It was a pretty decent show on it's own, but Cole and Mick's commentary make it a classic. I'm probably going to watch it again this week and record it.

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Yeah, I've heard the ending was strange. The clip I saw on the Bloodiest Cage Matches DVD has Bruno walking out of the ring after a few head stomps. Maybe it was just Bruno's style. That same DVD has the first ever MSG cage match between Bruno and Ivan Koloff. Bruno dominates virtually the entire match, throwing Ivan into the cage constantly and then walking out. A few of the guys at the Kayfabe Memories message board (great message board btw) said it should have ended with either Bruno taking Larry out with a long bear hug or beating him to a bloody pulp.

 

The only thing I can think of for the anti-climatic finish was that Larry was apparently supposed to get a major babyface push after the cage match and they wanted to keep him strong. Of course, that didn't come to fruition and to this date, Larry has never returned to the WWE.

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I guess in that era cage matches were meant to be more decisive without screwy finishes. Zbyszko actually had a brief run against Backlund, and that was it. Odd that it turned out to be the apex of his career. Going to '80s AWA will do that to you.

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I guess in that era cage matches were meant to be more decisive without screwy finishes.

Absolutely. Back in the 80s, Cage Matches were the gimmick match. It was the match that settled all feuds that couldn't be settled in regular matches. It was then what Hell in a Cell is today.

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Yeah, the runner of Cole coming up with names for the people wandering around (including the guy not following the dress code!) was something else.

 

Speaking of which, what was up with all those random people showing up at "ringside"? What were they doing there?

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I watched some of Showdown at Shea and I enjoyed it. I got a kick out of the Foley (funny he keeps popping up) and Cole commentary. Cole was actually entertaining and Foley is Foley. He does hint at some of his problems with Vince during it. Also got a kick out of how they made fun of Vince and points to Cole for actually acknowledging the bad blood between The E and Bruno.

 

Shea made for a cool place to have a wrestling card.

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I had a blast watching this show. Some of the action was actually quite good (Chavo/Fujinami, main event, IC and tag title matches) while the bad matches were made truly hilarious by the Foley and Cole commentary. I wish they would do joke commentary more often for these crappy old school shows from the 70s and early 80s that had plodding wrestling.

 

Call me crazy but I didn't think Goulet/Hangman was nearly as bad as they were acting. In fact I'd say it was better than the first two matches on the show, Patterson/Kamata (more of an angle than match though), and maybe even Inoki/Sharpe.

 

I did record the show, so it's a fun addition to the wrestling collection.

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I've had 24/7 for over a year and this is the first thing that's made me regret not owning a DVD recorder. I've seen a ton of stuff I would've recorded, but this is the first full show I've seen on the network I feel I would revisit. And that's all because of the commentary. There's some interesting match-ups and within the context of the era, this was a huge show full of big matches. But it's the commentary that makes it for me. Foley and Cole obviously respect (and know) the historical importance of this show and many of the participants. But they also realize how the style is, for the most part, too slow and plodding for viewers familiar with the current product. Because of this, their lighthearted commentary is a delight. I didn't know Cole was capable of being humorous.

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The second half convinced me that I need this event preserved on DVD. The commentary during the Hangman/Goulet match is too much. I love how exasperated Foley gets any time the shirtless guys are on camera.

 

If anyone who put this show onto DVD wants to mail it to me, I can make copies for anyone on the board who wants to cover the S/H.

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