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Primetime Disscussion Thread

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I like how they keep driving the point home that Andre's in the best shape of his life, when the complete opposite is true. And Boris Zukhov's main appeal was apparently his huge head.

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You're right about Andre. He has his back surgery in 1987 but he wasn't going to get any better. I don't remember but I've heard that Andre's Survivor Series performance was so bad that it was two months before they showed any footage from Survivor Series on WWF TV.

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The 6/4/86 TNT is really fun. First we have a delightfully evil Roberts showing off a bunch of snakes, followed by an interview with team charisma Spivey and Rotundo. Then Savage steals the show ,from his "HULK WHO?" shirt, to his insane speaking ,and yelling at Mean Gene for taking audience questions. The best guest since Paul "How many apartment buildings do you own?" Christy. Watch it and you'll see what I mean.

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Just watched TNT and Savage was hysterical. His reactions to everything were great and I forgot how cracked out his interviews used to be. There's even an acknowledgement of Savage's baseball career. I beleve he played in the minor league before wrestling. Savage alone was enough for that show but it began with a terrific Jake Roberts interview and footage of his ongoing feud with Ricky Steamboat. Rotundo (who looks like he should be murdering couples in their hotel room) and Spivey were indeed the great void.

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The 6/4/86 TNT is really fun. First we have a delightfully evil Roberts showing off a bunch of snakes, followed by an interview with team charisma Spivey and Rotundo. Then Savage steals the show ,from his "HULK WHO?" shirt, to his insane speaking ,and yelling at Mean Gene for taking audience questions. The best guest since Paul "How many apartment buildings do you own?" Christy. Watch it and you'll see what I mean.

Paul Christy is one of the WrestleCrap entries this week, I believe. That's where I saw it for the first time, and holy shit, it's crazy brilliant in spite of (or because of?) Paul's completely awkward ineptitude. It's must see.

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You know, watching the newest Prime Time made me realize something. Not only was Prime Time a place to recap matches and angles, it was also a place to shill any and every WWF product imaginable. Calenders, dolls, toys, video tapes, music, even ice cream bars. Along with their great banter, Monsoon and Heenan were practically in the home shopping business. I'm surprised Vince never made them wear WWF t-shirts either.

 

I can't remember when they started but I'm looking forward to some of the Prime Time's where Monsoon and Heenan hit the road.

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I think in some pre-PPV episodes Monsoon is decked out in an event hat. I like how the set is now gradually showcasing merchandise... based on episodes I've seen from 1989 (SummerSlam special, Christmas special) that set starts looking like a big display case.

 

On the note of Prime Time's future, when did it become the "it" show. I mean, I realize that the main angles happened on the syndies right up until Raw, but I know there's a time in the future where PTW showcased the name vs. name matches from the TV tapings. Granted, these are names like Haku vs. El Matador, but I used to have a tape showcasing SummerSlam 92 dark matches. You also see the Prime Time banner in some mid-90s build-up packages, showing matches like Bret Hart vs. Ric Martel for the IC title. I guess my question is, when does PTW stop plucking matches from televised house shows (mixed in with Syndie squashes) and become complete "TV taping" showcase?

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My somewhat educated guess is they started showing more matches from the syndicated tapings when they started phasing out televised house shows (They stopped airing Boston Garden and Spectrum shows in '89 and MSG would follow in '92).

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Makes sense. I'm pretty sure one of the PTWs I received on tape (because we didn't get the show in Canada so my cousin received them from friends of the family in Michigan) from 1992 still had a house show match, but it was from MSG (Snuka vs. New Heel Michaels, who I recall having some funky almost-Narcissist like music).

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I always remember with Prime Time was that during this era, Saturday morning was the big time for the WWF. Matches on Prime Time, many of which came from arena shows, were never acknowledged.

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Heheh. Yeah, that was classic.

 

Interesting thing I realized...Savage's Survivor Series team was made up of guys he either feuded with (Steamboat) or guys who would later feud with (Roberts, Duggan, and Beefcake).

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Amazing Heenan / Monsoon banter this week. It's always awesome when the Terry Garvin School of Self-Defense comes up, but to me, the highlight was one of those segments you could tell was completely improv (I think Heenan once said most of their stuff was). It's the segment discussing Jive Soul Bro becoming the National Anthem that somehow ends with Heenan declaring Atlanta as South America.

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Amazing Heenan / Monsoon banter this week. It's always awesome when the Terry Garvin School of Self-Defense comes up, but to me, the highlight was one of those segments you could tell was completely improv (I think Heenan once said most of their stuff was). It's the segment discussing Jive Soul Bro becoming the National Anthem that somehow ends with Heenan declaring Atlanta as South America.

 

I liked when Gorilla just sat back and told Heenan to play host for a while. Bobby looking into the wrong camera while Gorilla chuckles is great.

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He did that during a 1986 ep too. Monsoon left the studio and Heenan had no clue what segment was coming up. He was in a panic shuffling papers trying to throw it to a segment that aired 20 minutes ago. Good stuff.

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They did the same thing with Heenan on All-American Wrestling in 1993 (might have been after Mean Gene left) where he was trying to host the show solo and would be doing stuff reading the paper unaware they were back from commercial breaks.

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