Darth Pipes

I think they just liked getting Monsoon and Heenan out of the studio once in a while. The trip to Atlantic City before WMIV was very entertaining.

Looks like this week's Prime Time has skipped even further to 2/6/89. WTF? EDIT: Checking on the program guide, I understand why. This episode was another Monsoon/Heenan road trip, this time on the "Hollywood" set of a Western. It fights with the current theme of the month. So we should go back to 1988 afterwards.

Any easter eggs?

Fun Prime Time this week. It's the WM4 special from Trump Plaza. Heenan is in rare form, along with Monsoon. I always enjoyed the road trip edition of Prime Time. -The Killer Bees vs The Conquistors was a fun match that did a good job utilizing the mask gimmick. -During Steve Lombardi's match, Monsoon made his usual reference to Lombardi being a graduate of the "Terry Garvin School of Self-Defense." Interesting bit was that during the match we have a segway where Heenan and Monsoon bet on whose going to win. Heenan goes with SD, surprising Monsoon. Monsoon says that Heenan had said that he might manage a guy like Steve Lombardi. Less than a year later, he would do just that. -We get another Ultimate Warrior vs Harley Race match, this time from the Boston Garden. It's a good match with Warrior winning in a way you wouldn't expect from him.

Looking forward to this update. Included is the Prime Time Wrestling where Monsoon and Heenan are at Trump Plaza before WM4. Always liked when the two of them took a road trip. Also, the Shorties section has a real classic. Adrian Adonis and Dick Murdock defending the WWF Tag Team Championship against The Briscos at MSG in December of 1984. Saw this on MSG Classics and it was a kick ass match.

I started watching after the first Clash of the Champions in 1988. What I always remember was "Fishing with Orlando Wilson" always came on before the NWA. "I'm going fish-ing again..."

Forgot to mention...Bad News Brown cuts a long and entertaining promo after defeating Outback Jack.

The build to WMIV continues. Interesting match...we have the Ultimate Warrior vs Harley Race but sadly, it barely lasts a minute.

They should have put a Rock N Roll Express vs The Midnight Express match on that DVD. Maybe the match were the Midnights won the title on TBS. Also, The Briscos vs Murdock and Adonis from MSG in 1984 was a classic. Otherwise, this looks to be a pretty stacked set.

I've definitely been enjoying all the build to WMIV (which, like WMII, was better than the actual show itself) and all the Monsoon and Heenan bickering over it. Also, I have to say that the Harley Race and Hercules vs The Bulldogs match was pretty good. Harley and Dynamite always brought it. Anyone catch when Davey was running very slowly after Heenan, someone threw a drink at him? BTW, speaking of Harley and the Bulldogs, Race wrote in his autobiography that the only time he used steroids was in the WWF and that he received them from the Bulldogs. He was stunned when the bottle read something like "do not inject directly into the horse." He went on to write that he used it for about five weeks and got bigger but it caused his lower back too much pain and he never tried them again.

I have to admit, I've gotten used to it. Jones is a buffoon manager but it's kind of funny. At least it's a well-done, drawn out feud. I enjoyed the show a few weeks ago where it was the focus of attention. Like I said then, the inclusion of Rick Rude and Manny Fernandez into the Army improved it immensely. I can't wait till the NWA shows start getting longer. BTW, at the end of the show, Ivan said that Nikita must be punished "old country way." Thankfully, he didn't imply what that meant...

The 1989 match betwee Terry Funk and a young, small, non-juiced Eddy Guerrero is awesome.

Checking out the latest update, now we're back to the beginning of the Monday Night War. Not that it's not cool to see but why the **** are they going backwards when they're almost at the point of the Attitude Era took off? Is this more of their "family-friendly" programming? What, is the Attitude Era stuff now banned?

If you ever want to listen to a match where the Brain was hammered, watch the Flair/Guerrero match on the latest Eddie Guerrero DVD. He's completely smashed and Tony and Dusty have to work off him. That was Road Wild 96, the night NWO Hogan won the WCW title.

Saw that Roma match for the first time in years. Yeah, Roma made him look bad, didn't cooperate with him on moves (like that hiptoss) and could have hurt him. The crowd loved it though.

Here's the Mid-Atlantic blog discussing how they did handle it... http://midatlantictelevision.blogspot.com/ Interesting bits... -Magnum's last TV opponent was a jobber named The Grim Reaper -Looks like JCP showed Vince McMahon-like levels of sensitivity by talking about Magnum's injury and then cutting straight to video footage of the Horsemen attacking Dusty and breaking his arm. -The Koloff face turn takes place shortly after this.

I enjoyed the look back at Gino Morella, the intelligent 1961 heel.

Another interesting bit is Flair talks about potential opponents and mentions Magnum. He says he'll hurt Magnum so bad he'll never be able to challenge him for the title again. Two days later... It's going to be weird not seeing Magnum on these shows anymore. He was such a big part of JCP during this time and he was getting bigger and bigger with every appearance.

Apparently they're censoring blood now on 24/7. I think we should rename this channel WWE Censored Classics on Demand.

A new Prime Time is up. The first thing that you'll notice is Vince McMahon is in Monsoon's chair at the beginning. He really doesn't seem to fit well with this show. Later on the show is The Honkytonk Man vs Ricky Steamboat in a lumberjack match for the IC title.

Another short episode of World Championship Wrestling but a good one, surprisingly because of Paul Jones's Army. They dominate this episode and with the addition of Rick Rude and Manny Fernandez, they're a hell of a lot better. There's also a development with Baron Von Rascke that I never knew happened. -This show aired shortly after Magnum's accident and this is acknowledged by the fact that during Magnum's final interview, a small crawl on the screen lists the date it was filmed as October 12th or 13th. That makes it a day or two before his accident. -Jimmy Valiant appears in a segment you would expect from the WWE. -the Midnight Express have a less than one minute squash.

This isn't a cable provider problem but can the WWE get that ****ing new logo off24/7? The thing is huge and actually blocks wrestlers faces during promos. It's bad enough they censor language but now faces are getting obscured and the logo is damn distracting.

HBK/Taker was an absolute classic and worthy two of the most legendary (and longest-tenured) WWE stars. Hats off to both of them. Rick Steamboat showed why he's a Hall of Famer by busting his ass off tonight. I wish they had just made it Jericho vs Steamboat with Flair in his corner. I actually enjoyed Cena/Edge/Big Show. Show was utilized well here. HHH/Orton was a disappointment. Orton should have went over and it won't matter if he wins it at Backlash. They blew their chance to take him to the next level.

I still anticipate a full on "What?" response from the crowd. It did sound like the fans were a lot more under control this year. I liked ths speeches tonight.

I saw that HOF video for The Fink. Typical Vince. Honor one of your long-time employees and then dedicate 90% of the induction video on him being made a fool out of on national television.