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February 2, 2007 Who Needs WWE 24/7? I love what I've seen on WWE 24/7 when I watch it at Lance's house before pay per views but I'm too cheap to order it for myself. YouTube makes 24/7 largely irrelevant anyway. There's a ton of classic footage available on YouTube, especially old NWA stuff from the 80's, my favorite. Sure the video mostly sucks but you can't argue with the price. Here's a sampling of the cool old school shit I've checked out. They don't wrestle like this anymore. Nikita Koloff vs. Magnum TA Magnum T.A. is pretty much a forgotten man. In the mid-80's he was one of the hottest babyfaces in the NWA. I remember losing my shit when Magnum belly to belly suplexed Kamala and beat him at Starrcade '85. By 1988, due to a car accident, he was pretty much crippled and retired. He was kept involved in the NWA and WCW in the late 80's and early 90's but he was a lost part of the NWA's history by the time the nWo angle started and WCW reached its zenith. But if there's one thing Magnum is most remembered for, besides his mullet and Tom Selleck mustache, it's his best of 7 series with Nikita Koloff for the U.S. Title in 1986. A decade before Benoit vs. Booker, Magnum and Nikita trailblazed the best of 7 format. I watched Match #7 where Koloff won the series thanks to interference by Ivan Koloff and Krusher Kruschev. A highlight was Magnum covering Nikita after a dropkick and Ivan breaking up the pin. In response, Magnum jumped out of the ring and gave Ivan a piledriver on the arena floor (no mats back then). Hardly a reasonable response to an old man but Magnum was a pissed off redneck who'd been dealing with Russians interfering in seven straight matches. Even better was a two out of three falls rematch that Koloff won when Magnum got pissed and hit him with the belt for the third fall DQ. This match pretty much sums up how good both these men were in their prime. They basically beat the shit out of each other for over 20 minutes. Everything they did meant something, the selling was off the charts, the crowd was completely with them the whole time, and they told a hell of a story: Can Magnum the pissed off redneck overcome Nikita the pissed off Russian superman? The answer was yes but not where it counted. Nikita retained as Magnum's temper got the best of him. This was as good a one-on-one knock-down slobberknocker as you got in the 80's. Also, Nikita's clothesline finisher was called the Russian Sickle, one of the coolest names ever. Before he was the Big Boss Man or dead, Ray Traylor was Big Bubba Rogers, the bodyguard of Midnight Express manager Jim Cornette. This six man was a bunkhouse brawl, which was basically the forerunner of ECW Extreme Rules but with a redneck twist. It allowed for use of weapons and encouraged the practice of wearing kneepads over blue jeans. The Rock and Roll Express and the Midnight Express have certainly had far better matches than this but this match was still entertaining for the following reasons: 1) Between Ricky Morton, Robert Gibson, Loverboy Dennis Condrey, and Beautiful Bobby Eaton (before he became The Earl of Eaton), you have four of the most glorious mullets you've ever seen dancing around that ring. 2) This match is a terrific example of what master showmen these guys were, especially Dusty. Dusty, a big fat ass, couldn't, can't, and will never do 450 splashes or triple jump moonsaults. Most guys back then couldn't. The stars of the 80's got over by knowing how to tell a story and connect with the crowd. Watch how Dusty catches Bubba on the top and waits before tossing him so the crowd can see Bubba's terrified facial expression. Or the finish when Dusty gives Bubba a piledriver, holds him up in position, and then sidesteps in a circle so all four sides of the ring get a look at Bubba before his spine gets compressed. It's all about the little things. The WSX kids throwing themselves through tables could learn a lot from watching stuff like this. I'd heard the stories of Dynamite Kid's legendary matches with Tiger Mask in Japan for 20 years so I was pretty thrilled to have the chance to see one. One thing I have to say about Tiger Mask: he's exactly what he's billed as. He does indeed wear a mask shaped like a tiger's head, unlike "Dynamite Kid", which is metaphorical. Most of my memories of Dynamite take place after he was essentially crippled at WrestleMania 2 . To see Dynamite in his prime, pre-British Bulldogs, is unreal. Did Chris Benoit drink Dynamite's bottled sweat so he could look and move just like him? Dynamite and Tiger Mask were ahead of their time and moved even faster than many cruiserweights today. But they weren't just about aerial spotfests. There's an impressive amount of matwork and submission wrestling on display. It's also very evident how Dynamite's drug problems started. No one then or now should be suplexed so their back lands on the top rope and then tumble out to the floor into the ringside barricade. Falling on an unprotected arena floor is what eventually did Dynamite in. The British Bulldogs vs. The Rock & Roll Express And now for the biggest letdown I've run across on YouTube. I had no idea these two 80's superteams ever locked horns but I was pretty excited to see 8 minutes of this dream match in Japan from 1988 was available. I believe this is the one and only time the Rock & Rolls and the Bulldogs wrestled each other. The dream match turns out to be a bit of a nightmare. Both teams were pale shadows of their former selves. The Bulldogs looked blown up and sluggish while Morton and Gibson were even more out of shape than usual. They all looked and wrestled like shit. Worst of all is the match ending in a time limit draw. What the fuck is that? A draw will fly for Portia Perez vs. Ariel since their match kicked ass but this match was garbage. Also, both Bulldogs having mullets weirded me out. As far as real-name trivia goes, Wikipedia says Robert Gibson's real name is Reuben Kane. He's named for a sandwich and a big red machine. That's right up there for weirdness with Sabu's name being Terry Brunk.
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