2024 Pro Wrestling Thread

What a killer compilation. And they showed the head shots!!!

 

I had Shane throwing the NWA belt down as No. 2. They also missed the Rotten Brothers’ Tapei Death Match in which they had taped fists of broken glass. They also, understandably, didn’t have the Mass Transit incident. Otherwise, great list.

 

House show fun. Earlier, Punk beat Kaiser with Cena's moves of doom.

 

I was hoping that clip ended with him gyrating like Val Venis.

 

Much kudos to all involved. Little Brodie was also the "little buddy in the front row" that Cody referred to last night.

 

They mentioned this last night, and I flipped over to YouTube to watch it instead of the last 30 minutes of Smackdown.
It's the Bob Backlund-Iron Sheik championship match, followed by Hogan-Sheik. Perhaps two of the most pivotal matches in wrestling history, but it's interesting to watch them back-to-back like this. Only a month apart, but the difference between the two is noticeable and stunning and really shows the changing of the guard.

Backlund-Sheik is slow, plodding, mat-based wrestling. Very old school, very 1970s. The crowd is behind Backlund, but pretty quiet most of the match.
Hogan-Sheik is fast-paced, high-energy, and athletic. Very theatrical, very 1980s and much more modern. It's largely a squash that lasts about five minutes, but the crowd is way more into it than at any point in Backlund-Hogan. The fans absolutely erupt when Hogan wins.

Like I said, just interesting to watch and compare these two matches in this format. One month apart, and it feels like they might as well have been 20 years apart.

 

If this is a long-scale story, it would be glorious to see Toni be named wrestler of the year for 2024 and rookie of the year for 2025.

 

Ha. The other three guys did a Shield Bomb to Moxley.

 

I know it's the big Max simulcast debut, but they basically use the PPV main event to set up a free-TV match. Sure.

But at least we get this:

 

LOL, I did the same thing. I watched this instead of the last part of SD.

Backlund/Sheik is a very unique match that’s rare even now, but was nearly non-existent back then. Think Cena vs. Lesnar from a few years back when Lesnar hits 15 suplexes and dominates Cena. You don’t expect that to happen. You mention that the fans weren’t very loud for that match. One reason is that they’re telling one helluva story with Backlund’s neck. Backlund barely gets in any offense, mostly counters and when he does do anything, he’s in pain from the neck injury. So the fans really aren’t given much to cheer about. Plus, the atmosphere is just different than normal. The lighting is different. Freddie Blassie was allowed to remain at ringside for that match, back when heel managers usually went back to the dressing room after intros as Vince Sr. didn’t want to provoke fans into rioting,

Backlund’s neck injury itself is a several months’ storyline. It started when Eddie Gilbert (pre-Hot Stuff), was in a legitimate car accident and injured himself for real. After time away, Gilbert came back, and was treated like a protege of Backlund’s. The Masked Superstar (Bill Eadie, later the Super Machine and Demolition Ax) had the neck breaker as his finisher, and hit Gilbert with it on the concrete floor (a “very serious” thing back then). Backlund went for revenge, had the neck breaker hit on him, but won anyways.

Then Sheiky comes in with the Iranian Club routine, and Backlund, with his neck already somewhat “injured”, tries it and ends up having one of the clubs allegedly landing on his neck and hurting him worse (Well, it was supposed to land on his neck, but they’re legitimately heavy; Sheik attacked him when the clubs were in front of Bob, who put them on the mat first and then covered himself with one of the clubs in an effort to salvage things). This led to Backlund being hurt going in the match and losing.

I think I mentioned this before, but the finish would have made one helluva Dusty Finish if the face/heel roles were reversed. Imagine the babyface locks in the submission. Heel can’t escape. Heel manager throws in the towel. Only he hits the babyface in the face with the towel when he throws it in. Face lets go of the hold as the ref rings the bell. Ref raises babyface’s hand. Babyface starts celebrating.
Fans go nuts. Babyface takes the belt, starts waving it around. Ref takes belt back, hands it to heel. Ref tells ring announcer that the heel was disqualified because his manager hit the face with the towel. Fans go nuts and nearly riot until the face punches out the heel manager to calm them down. Next week, on TV, babyface demand submission-only rematch with no DQ. Match made. Next show’s a sellout.

Anyhoo, then Backlund brings in Hogan to back him up but is too hurt for the rematch, so Hogan takes his place. Why Backlund is OK to wrestle on TV, but not at MSG is one of those pro wrestling loose ends from back then that most fans ignored but would be pointed out endlessly today in the IWC.

One other thing that I hadn’t noticed until watching both matches is how Sheik attacks Backlund before the bell and choked him with his robe; then Hogan does the same thing with Sheik. Never noticed it before, but a true symbol of changing of the guard.