Darth Pipes

NWA wasn't bad for this week. Both Flair and Dusty drop shoot comments about not jobbing in an arena with 70,000 people in it and Dusty warns Flair about running up money on his credit card. The highlight again is Jim Cornette's commentary and the Midnight Express squash.

If Muraco and Fuji were wrestling now, the skits would have made them so popular they would have become faces.

The Luger and Savage feuds are inexplicably ignored for the Flair DVD. I guess that shouldn't be a surprise considering what the WWE thinks of those two. That being said, we are finally get the first Clash match with Sting and the Great American Bash match with Terry Funk. I've seen highlights of the Flair and Von Erich 2/3 Falls match and it looks pretty damn cool. Seeing Mid-Atlantic stuff with Brisco and Race should be a treat too.

Loved the Film Room segment. It was just awesome to see a NWA vs WWF match with Harley Race (who was just plain awesome) and Superstar Graham at the height of his career. I'm not a fan of the way Florida used to tape their matches (it just takes you out of the action) and I wish we could have seen a complete match but this was pretty damn cool just the same. Can't wait for Bockwinkel next month.

Yeah, I have to admit that watching him during this time in the NWA, he seems credible to me. But then again, he won the title more than a year-and-a-half later and didn't defend it for two months. That really did a number of him. The Flair/Morton match was great and I totally wasn't expecting it.

Anyone watch the new Prime Time this week? Monsoon and Heenan are always gold but on this week's episode, they're even funnier than usual. They're on from beginning to end. Liked the bit where Monsoon told Heenan to stop showing his "horrid kisser" from the cover of the WWF Magazine. Another funny bit is Heenan saying that Virgil asked Jacque Rougeau whether he wanted to buy a hockey puck. "Sure, I'm from Canada. I'll be a half-dozen hockey pucks."

I kind of like how Jones was beating up his wrestler's opponent and the ref doesn't disqualify him.

Paul Jones and his stable were just bizarre. Jones was really a buffoon as a manager and I don't get the whole Hitler thing.

Speaking of Piper's Pit, I noticed they beeped Piper when he called Adonis a faggot. That reminded me of something that really irks me about 24/7...censorship. It's bad enough that the DVDs are now being censored (the cursing/naughty words, Austin flipping off people) but I find it completely inexcuseable to be doing it for 24/7. 24/7 is an On Demand service that you have to specifically order. The people ordering it are adults with credit cards. I think it's a safe bet to say these adults have been long-time WWE fans. 24/7 was created to reach these fans who want to watch the wrestling they grew up with. I sincerely doubt the ten-to-twelve-year-old John Cena fans out there give a damn about anything that happened five years ago. I understand the copyright issues, particularly in regards to music. It's unfortuneately happening with a lot of television shows that are being released on DVD. I understand blurring the logo. I don't like any of that but I understand it. But to go beyond the uncontrollable and start censoring language and obscene gestures on a channel watched primarily by adults is stupid and inexcuseable. I'm paying money to watch this channel so I can see the wrestling I used to watch many years ago. I'm not paying for an over-the-top censored and filtered version of it. The WWE is absolutely terrible in this regard. Is there anyplace I can e-mail them and complain? It won't make a damn bit of difference but I'd like my complaints to be heard nonetheless.

That was a great Piper's Pit. Piper was not as entertaining as a face then he was as a heel but early in his face turn, he still had some of Heel Piper still in him. Only downside is that Orndorff came off as looking like a buffoon.

Still delays but they got the full update list up by Thursday night. Hopefully it will get better from here. I never did get the Film Room with Gordon Solie though.

Agreed 100%. The Boo Bradley segment was pretty damn good. But Red Power Ranger...that's an interesting gimmick to say the least.

JR talked about watching this event again on 24/7 and remembered how much he enjoyed it and how much he enjoyed working with Terry Funk.

I finally got the LA house show and Tuesday Night Titans update. Though I never got the Film Room one. I'm annoyed at that.

Some of the things Vince put on television during the 80s were weird. Then again, you can say the same for some of the things he puts on now.

The new Prime Time episode was good. Featured Honky defending the IC title against Tito Santana. It also focused some time on Savage's anger at HTM for claiming he was the best IC champ of all-time. Mike McGuirk was in the broadcast booth with Gorilla for the matches and God, was she atrocious. Definitely better as an announcer. Interesting bit as Gorilla and Heenan keep talking about this being the first Prime Time episode at its new day on Thursday. It's funny, I started watching Prime Time in mid-87 and I never remember them airing on Thursday. Must have been a short-lived experiment.

This week's edition was very good. First, you have a truly bizarre promo and apparent heel turn by Pez Whatley on Jimmy Valiant. Very strange. Valiant gives an equally weird promo with the censors at the time editing his comment that the shock of Pez's attack could only be compared to "coming home and finding your wife in bed with another man." Very strange stuff. The highlight of the show is Flair giving commentary during the Rock N Roll Express match, with hysterical comments about partying with the women. This leads to an awesome confrontation between Flair and Ricky Morton.

My section seems to be mostly complete, although the last I checked I don't have Film Room or Raw. EDIT: Just checked and I have the new Raw up. The Film Room isn't there. What section is it under?

Well, a big reason Hart got in then-and-there was because Flair was suffering from an inner ear injury and needed some time off. Flair said the match was terrible and it never aired on TV. Hart doesn't seem to be happy with it either. It's funny...I recently saw the match for the first time. Flair was a little slower than usual and maybe the match wasn't a five-star classic but it was still a damn good match. It turned into a Colesium Home Video exclusive. Flair also mentioned that his title victor over Randy Savage never aired but it did air on Prime Time Wrestling a few weeks later. Flair talks about these matches in his book and the one with Savage is an unusal one.

The Jake segment was dead. Jake said on his DVD that the cobra died right after that segment. He also said he really struggled to get it off Savage's arm.

Plan to watch it soon. I look forward to seeing this show. Scott Keith brought up a great point...if Tully hadn't tested positive for drugs, we probably would have gotten Arn and Tully vs The Steiners. Imagine THAT dream match.

You see, I don't mind them using someone's retirement as a storyline. It's not even the same thing as exploiting a real-life death. Flair's gone storyline-wise (and not dead thankfully) but the reverberations continue to be felt. I thought the Batista/Michaels segment was great, save for Batista's diamond earrings and Michaels stupid hat. That being said...Batista doesn't have much of a leg to stand on. Flair asked Michaels to give him all he had and even if he had laid down for Flair, the next guy might not do that. Flair could have won only to lose the next night on Raw. Flair's career was living on borrowed time so it's really pointless to get angry with someone for retiring him.

I have the Cablevision problem. I have an imcomplete Legends section, I have a mostly complete Big Ones section, and I have a shorties section with only one entry. I don't have a TV show section.

I remember being surprised when Bret won the title. He was a guy I saw as an IC wrestler. But I was happy when he did. He had a brief feud with Razor Ramon I think but he didn't have a sustained feud, you're right. His thing was taking on all comers and he was a champion you got to see wrestle on television on a fairly regular basis. I was a fan of his first run as champion. By reign two, he was totally legit to everyone. Hart/Savage at WM9 would have been good. Savage could have done a quasi-heel run in the weeks leading up.

I think that was one thing Vince wouldn't tolerate. Hogan got away with rarely defending the belt in WCW and rendered that title meaningless. But Vince wasn't going to let him sit on the WWF Championship for very long.