Grapple City Rewind
Taking you all the way back to the VHS era PPVs that shaped wrestling history. Created by Bradley Palermo & Aaron Fink.
Grapple City Rewind
Skateboards, Santa, and Steel Chairs - Clash of the Champions IX (1989)
We're kicking things off with our WrestleMania 41 predictions—Bradley Palermo and Aaron Fink break down the full card from Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. We’re talking Cody Rhodes vs. John Cena, CM Punk vs. Roman Reigns vs. Seth Rollins, Jey Uso vs. Gunther, Charlotte Flair vs. Tiffany Stratton, Bianca Belair vs. Rhea Ripley vs. IYO SKY, Logan Paul vs. AJ Styles, Jade Cargill vs. Naomi, LA Knight vs. Jacob Fatu, Dominik Mysterio, Penta, and more.
Then we take you back to 1989 with our full rewind of WCW Clash of the Champions IX: New York Knockout, featuring the infamous Ric Flair vs. Terry Funk I Quit Match, Road Warriors vs. Fabulous Freebirds, a bizarre Santa Claus cameo, Lex Luger smashing Brian Pillman, and the debut of the Frankensteiner.
This chaotic TBS special includes appearances by Ron Simmons, Butch Reed, Jim Cornette, Woman, Midnight Express, Dynamic Dudes, Scott & Rick Steiner, Dr. Death Steve Williams, and commentary from Jim Ross and Gordon Solie.
Email: Grapplecitypod@gmail.com
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Music by Bradley Palermo & The Shadow Queens.
Created by Bradley Palermo & Aaron Fink.
00:00:00.70
Aaron
Okay. Hey everyone, this is Aaron Fink from Grapple City Rewind. If you like what you hear on this episode, give us a follow, leave a review, cut a promo on us, anything goes. It'll go a long way in helping us to be discovered by more wrestling fans like you.
00:00:11.84
Bradley Palermo
Thank you.
00:00:13.71
Aaron
Alrighty, let's cue that music.
00:00:15.31
Bradley Palermo
hello and welcome to grapple city rewind taking you all the way back to the iconic pay-per-views and television specials that shaped wrestling history this week we're rewinding to november 1989 when wcw lights up tbs with a night of chaotic blood-soaked fights and mullets and coors light wrapped ring posts and santa claus cameos and A promo from Terry Funk that hits harder than a steel chair.
00:00:44.70
Bradley Palermo
Clash of the Champions 9 is everything crazy that we love about 80s wrestling. We got Flair versus Funk in an I Quit match. all It's all out war, but we'll talk about that later. I'm Bradley Palermo here as always with Aaron Fink. And Aaron, before we get into all the fun of Clash of the Champions 9, we have found ourselves in pro wrestling's biggest week of the year. It's WrestleMania week. So should we run through the card and see if we've got some predictions?
00:01:11.15
Aaron
Absolutely. i love it. Let's do it.
00:01:13.68
Bradley Palermo
As always, you can look us up on Instagram at grapplecitypod or call our promo line to leave your thoughts on our show at 626-657-SLAM. So wrestlemanian WrestleMania is coming up this weekend what the nineteenth and the twentieth of april
00:01:29.48
Aaron
hu
00:01:30.56
Bradley Palermo
And it is at the Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada. Night one. Let's see. i want to make some predictions here.
00:01:42.12
Bradley Palermo
Let's see. We all the United States Championship. LA Knight versus Jacob Fatu. what do you think on that one?
00:01:48.09
Aaron
I don't know, actually. Could go either way. my i'm going to say Jacob Fatu gets the win.
00:01:54.23
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, I feel.
00:01:54.49
Aaron
Just because I think he needs it a little more than LA Knight does.
00:01:54.89
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
00:01:57.59
Aaron
not that he Not that either of them need it, but I just think it would be more interesting if LA Knight lost.
00:01:57.86
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
00:02:03.25
Bradley Palermo
And how cool would that be for Jacob Fatu to go from, I mean, not even a year ago, bouncing around GCW and then holding gold in WWE?
00:02:08.71
Aaron
Mm-hmm.
00:02:12.31
Bradley Palermo
I feel like LA Knight, you know, is a very popular guy. He can maybe move on someday to like more of like a World Heavyweight Championship type of situation.
00:02:22.21
Aaron
Mm-hmm.
00:02:22.75
Bradley Palermo
so yeah, I agree.
00:02:23.80
Aaron
Yeah.
00:02:24.23
Bradley Palermo
I'm going to go Fatu on that one, too. um Tag team match, War Raiders versus the New Day, who gives a shit is what I would say on this one.
00:02:32.34
Aaron
Well, it's for the championship. So I think this one, I'm going to continue on with the heels winning.
00:02:34.30
Bradley Palermo
Oh, okay.
00:02:39.04
Aaron
I'm going say new day. um I think the new day is doing really well as heels and they're getting a lot of heat.
00:02:46.99
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
00:02:47.28
Aaron
um But this, I definitely think would send it over the edge, but i don't know. I mean, I, that's just, yeah, that's my guess is new day.
00:02:55.58
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, I've never been into like, um I guess I didn't even know the war raiders were champions.
00:03:01.43
Aaron
We're back.
00:03:02.47
Bradley Palermo
And I just know that they're not as like Viking like now they're more just, you know, hairy guys or whatever.
00:03:08.47
Aaron
Normal dudes.
00:03:09.30
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
00:03:09.63
Aaron
Yeah, well, they're more like what they were like in NXT um around 2016, 2017.
00:03:13.29
Bradley Palermo
Right. and
00:03:16.33
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
00:03:16.68
Aaron
i really enjoyed them when they were in NXT. They haven't had the same level of excitement, I don't i don't think. I mean, the to be honest, that the whole tag team division in WWE wwe on both shows has been a little lackluster.
00:03:32.23
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
00:03:32.30
Aaron
Not for lack of trying. I mean, they brought in the Motor City machine guns and They've got Penta and Rey Fenix there now, and I assume at some point we'll see the Lucha Brothers tag teaming.
00:03:42.58
Aaron
So they're starting to like align some pieces and stuff, but yeah, I'm a little, don't really care about this match.
00:03:46.51
Bradley Palermo
yeah Right now I kind of, all right. um I'm a little, okay. This one I'm kind of excited about for some reason. Um, Singles match with Rey Mysterio and El Grande Americano.
00:04:00.97
Bradley Palermo
What do you think about that?
00:04:02.88
Aaron
I think, again, I'm going to say Heels win El Grande Americano, but probably this should be the moment where it's revealed that El Grande Americano is Chad Gable.
00:04:16.30
Aaron
We'll see if that happens, though.
00:04:17.95
Bradley Palermo
So I've seen some people saying, and you know, last last episode we talked about the other time that WrestleMania, the only other time WrestleMania was in Las Vegas, back in whatever, 19-something, the 1900s.
00:04:18.11
Aaron
1993. 1993.
00:04:30.27
Aaron
ninety ninety three
00:04:32.51
Bradley Palermo
And they had a double doink. And I feel like with Chad Gable, you know, El Grande Americano, in the mask, we could have a a double, we could have a throwback.
00:04:46.13
Bradley Palermo
We could have a callback to sort of the double doink mirroring himself.
00:04:48.15
Aaron
Yeah.
00:04:49.100
Bradley Palermo
We could have Chad Gable winning our Grande Americano winning by having another Americano come out. Or we could have El Generico come out.
00:04:56.87
Aaron
Maybe.
00:05:00.35
Bradley Palermo
and Because Sami Zayn's not on this bill.
00:05:00.76
Aaron
Oh my god.
00:05:02.75
Bradley Palermo
So like where the fuck is he? i hope he comes out. Maybe he can save. I just kind of want to see what happens. but um But yes, I'm going i'm going with Chad Gable, a.k.a. El Grande Americano. I assume that's who it is on that one.
00:05:18.13
Bradley Palermo
WWE Women's Championship. ah Tiffy Time versus Charlotte. I think I will... I always i think they always ah always give the belt to Charlotte.
00:05:27.63
Bradley Palermo
So I think if she's there, she's there to it's a take that back. Right.
00:05:33.33
Aaron
If you think about it from a business perspective and you try to not just be a fan for a second, what other reason would there be for Charlotte to come back and face Tiffany?
00:05:39.48
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
00:05:43.78
Aaron
If Tiffany just beats her at WrestleMania, there's like nothing for Tiffany to do.
00:05:48.48
Bradley Palermo
Right.
00:05:48.67
Aaron
So I think Charlotte needs to beat her. Charlotte wins new WWE women's champion. And then that gives Tiffany something to chase. Maybe they have their rematch at SummerSlam in a few months or something.
00:06:01.45
Bradley Palermo
yeah but as we you know as as we've predicted so far that would be night one you well well i mean you've already got the belt switching they got three people title changes in the first like hour of wrestlemania which could be kind of interesting you know um jade cargill versus a naomi i guess cargill's
00:06:06.13
Aaron
Four heals? Yeah.
00:06:16.34
Aaron
It could be.
00:06:21.20
Aaron
I don't know about this one. Probably Cardgill? Yeah.
00:06:24.71
Bradley Palermo
um i would I would say probably. i don't know. She's the she' a big star and and Naomi's kind of...
00:06:29.74
Aaron
They're trying to build her up.
00:06:31.75
Bradley Palermo
Yeah. Naomi's kind of like a kind of a sidekick, right? A little bit. Yeah.
00:06:37.73
Aaron
Well, this is an opportunity for her to be a little bit more in the spotlight as as her own person. I mean, when she was in TNA for the last couple of years wrestling as Trinity, I thought she did excellent work.
00:06:49.89
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
00:06:50.80
Aaron
She hasn't necessarily had as much of an opportunity at wwe WWE to do that same kind of stuff, but I think this is ah an effort in an effort to get us to that place, you know to get her to that place.
00:06:59.57
Bradley Palermo
Yeah. Yeah. Cause she was, she was attached to Banks for a while. It's been attached Belair, but yeah, i' I'm, I'm going to say Cargill on this one. Um,
00:07:10.88
Bradley Palermo
Gunther versus Uso. Jay has to win.
00:07:15.17
Aaron
he has to.
00:07:15.94
Bradley Palermo
i mean, all this hype, all this yeeting.
00:07:19.52
Aaron
He will.
00:07:20.18
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
00:07:20.46
Aaron
He will.
00:07:21.54
Bradley Palermo
And let's see. Triple threat match. Roman versus Punk versus Seth Rollins for the main event that night. Which is weird that the guy who won the Royal Rumble isn't the main event.
00:07:35.42
Bradley Palermo
It's stolen.
00:07:36.81
Aaron
It is weird. It's not.
00:07:37.90
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
00:07:38.44
Aaron
we Sort of. you know and i will i will give a shout out to Busted Open because they've talked about this this past week.
00:07:40.54
Bradley Palermo
yeah
00:07:46.98
Aaron
It's not. Most of the time we hear, oh, if you win the Royal Rumble, you get to main event WrestleMania. or they phrase it as they get their choice of champion to face at WrestleMania.
00:07:58.21
Bradley Palermo
right
00:07:59.18
Aaron
So they always kind of go this way, that way with it. They did very clearly say that he was going to, that Jey Uso by winning the Royal Rumble was going to main event WrestleMania. And they did walk that back.
00:08:13.03
Aaron
So that is annoying, but they have, there have been times winner of WrestleMania,
00:08:13.09
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
00:08:18.57
Aaron
the Royal Rumble, isn't necessarily automatically in the main event of WrestleMania.
00:08:23.35
Bradley Palermo
Right.
00:08:23.65
Aaron
They have precedents for that. It's just, that's what we normally associate with it because it has happened that way.
00:08:31.89
Bradley Palermo
Right. And in this case, you got the guy who's called main event, Jey Uso, who's been confirmed as main eventing WrestleMania. and then But I mean, I've also seen them say it's a double main event tonight, folks. like They can say whatever they want. you knows
00:08:47.73
Aaron
Yeah.
00:08:48.28
Bradley Palermo
That's why it's called creative. I guess you can use your creativity to make that make sense. But The triple threat match with Reigns, Punk, and Rollins. And it's it's kind of like... It's almost like which you don't win a belt. You win Heyman, sort of. is If you get this...
00:09:06.61
Aaron
I don't know.
00:09:06.79
Bradley Palermo
ah Who gets Heyman? You know, I'm going to go with...
00:09:12.09
Aaron
yeah it's like, who do I want to win versus who is actually going to win?
00:09:12.45
Bradley Palermo
Punk.
00:09:15.09
Aaron
Because who I want to win is Punk, obviously.
00:09:16.90
Bradley Palermo
Yeah...
00:09:17.75
Aaron
But who's actually going to win? I don't think it's Rollins. I think we can agree that it's not Rollins. And that's, again, not taking away anything away from Seth. But I think it's Punk. I think it's got to be Punk. And and it's probably going to be...
00:09:32.90
Aaron
a result of payment doing something, whether or not it's a big thing or a little thing.
00:09:36.36
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
00:09:37.74
Aaron
I think Heyman will be involved in the finish in some way.
00:09:40.88
Bradley Palermo
I feel like in triple threat matches, you know, it's usually not the guy who, you know, scored his finisher that wins, right? It's like the sneaky bastard that capitalizes on what else, what what someone else managed to pull off.
00:09:52.97
Aaron
Yeah.
00:09:53.86
Bradley Palermo
Right. So, and there's no DQ. So there's just, there's a lot of room to do some funny business, but I'm going to go with you on that CM Punk.
00:10:01.21
Aaron
yeah
00:10:03.07
Bradley Palermo
Thanks to Heyman. Um, And then on night two, and then on night two this is what i i mean this is what I found online.
00:10:06.33
Aaron
that's night one.
00:10:09.78
Bradley Palermo
I don't know if these matches are actually correct on what's night one and what's night two. Yeah.
00:10:14.09
Aaron
I think they are. They announced them on SmackDown, so I'm pretty... I don't know about the order that that we have, but I think these are the matches that are supposed to be on each night.
00:10:18.52
Bradley Palermo
yeah
00:10:22.10
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, I mean, i literally just put this this order in, um I think it was just, I tried to put the bigger matches towards the end, so I would talk about them later. So yeah, I can't guarantee the order for sure.
00:10:34.69
Bradley Palermo
And I don't know if... Well, it's accurate enough. So so night two, Sunday, April 20th, we have the Intercontinental Championship with Braun Breaker versus Penta versus Finn Balor versus Dominic Mestadio.
00:10:50.48
Bradley Palermo
um I don't know. That's too many dudes in one match. I don't and don't really give a shit on this either.
00:10:56.30
Aaron
I, uh, it's a little, uh, it didn't need to be a fatal four way. Um, but there were little, I mean, it didn't need to be this way, but there were certainly story threads for each of these people that kind of wove in and out. And, and so it makes sense that the four of them are having a match.
00:11:16.61
Aaron
My prediction for this is, uh, Dominic Mysterio.
00:11:21.88
Bradley Palermo
Right.
00:11:22.68
Aaron
And I got this from somebody online, so it's not entirely me. I just, I i heard the rationale and I agreed with it. Who out of the four needs this win the most? I feel like it's Dom.
00:11:34.53
Aaron
Because Braun Breaker is going to be huge no matter what.
00:11:38.67
Bradley Palermo
right
00:11:38.78
Aaron
And doesn't need the the Intercontinental Championship. He could even go after J for the World Heavyweight Championship once J wins at WrestleMania.
00:11:47.06
Bradley Palermo
Right.
00:11:47.54
Aaron
Yeah. um Penta, he's so over. He doesn't need it either. Finn, you know, he's been there, done that. I feel like this is the this is the time for Dom because, again, how much heat how much jeat would he get if he won?
00:12:00.31
Bradley Palermo
yeah He had a lot of heat with that, but just carrying around that NXT United, whatever the hell, North American champion.
00:12:01.99
Aaron
Oh, my God.
00:12:06.12
Aaron
North American.
00:12:07.46
Bradley Palermo
That was like just obnoxious to see him without, so it would be good. Penta's probably going have tag team gold went once his brother teams up with him. And... and
00:12:16.57
Aaron
Mm-hmm.
00:12:18.20
Bradley Palermo
And also, you know, Penta's not really doing a lot of a lot of English stuff. i mean he's not I mean, I know he can speak a little English, but it's not like he's doing a bunch of promos. and He can't go around and taunt you with that belt, really.
00:12:28.87
Aaron
Yeah.
00:12:29.81
Bradley Palermo
So, yeah, I like that idea.
00:12:29.85
Aaron
Yeah.
00:12:32.69
Bradley Palermo
But it's like the last person I would have. I just kind of dismiss it when it says Dominic, you know, like, ah fucking Dominic.
00:12:38.52
Aaron
Yeah, but but he I mean, you have to give Dominic credit. He i think him turning heel whenever that was, I think it was maybe Clash at the Castle a couple of years ago.
00:12:49.57
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
00:12:49.64
Aaron
i was the smartest thing they could have done with him because before that he was just Ray's kid. And now he's his own guy and he he's gets more heat than just about anybody.
00:12:54.95
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
00:12:59.67
Aaron
And he's good in the ring.
00:12:59.73
Bradley Palermo
I mean, um the first time I saw him was at at Allegiant Stadium, like, and I don't know, 2021 or 2022 or something. And he was teaming with his dad. And I was just like, fuck this kid. Like, as a baby face, you're just like, this is your little weird little prepubescent son in there. Like, there's like nothing to it. And now...
00:13:23.35
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, now he's such a badass. Well, at being ah um obnoxious and healed. um and I saw him at a house show versus Punk, which was kind of fun, too.
00:13:32.66
Aaron
Oh yeah. Oh, yeah. We were there at that that show together.
00:13:34.48
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:13:35.46
Aaron
Yeah, that was really fun.
00:13:37.68
Bradley Palermo
um
00:13:37.71
Aaron
December thirtieth of that show, 2023. Valkyria.
00:13:39.57
Bradley Palermo
Oh, yeah. Yeah, that was a good one. WWE Women's Tag Team Championship, Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez versus Bayley and Lyra.
00:13:52.02
Bradley Palermo
but how do you say it lyra valkyria um yeah i don't know some of these man i guess it's the build lot of these i don't really have strong feelings about i guess um can't change the belt every time i'll keep it on uh raquel and live yeah
00:13:53.32
Aaron
valkyria
00:14:13.40
Aaron
I agree. um Again, if you've been watching SmackDown, they've done a little bit of setup for this. Not a ton, but they did have a gauntlet match this this past Friday that saw Bayley and Lyra as a tag team and they beat four or five other tag teams to get this opportunity after having a match against each other, Bailey and Lyra on raw that same, this, this past week on Monday, for Lyra's women's intercontinental championships.
00:14:37.50
Bradley Palermo
and
00:14:43.44
Aaron
So there's like, you know, there's a little bit, but it's, yeah, it's one of those ones where they didn't have as much time to devote to it as some of the bigger matches, but I agree.
00:14:45.51
Bradley Palermo
yeah
00:14:52.11
Aaron
I think, uh, heel champions retain.
00:14:56.04
Bradley Palermo
Singles match AJ Styles versus Logan Paul. Logan Paul's kind of, kind of getting cold a little bit. Like he would him him coming in is like the big social media guy with all like the, the stunts with his phone out and stuff. Like they kind of need to bring him.
00:15:10.63
Bradley Palermo
think they need to bring him back. Give him a big win. get good Get us pissed off again.
00:15:14.47
Aaron
Yeah.
00:15:16.02
Bradley Palermo
Some.
00:15:16.11
Aaron
Yep.
00:15:16.54
Bradley Palermo
So
00:15:16.61
Aaron
Yep. I think it's pretty clear he's going to beat AJ, which sucks because I love AJ and I don't want AJ to lose, but AJ is on his way out and it's, it's the right thing to do for business.
00:15:18.43
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
00:15:24.15
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
00:15:28.54
Bradley Palermo
women's world championship EO sky champion versus Bianca Belair, Rhea Ripley. Um, I wish the champion wasn't in this match. I wish this was Bianca versus Rhea Ripley. Those are like the two that, you know, I'd really like to see.
00:15:44.23
Bradley Palermo
So I hope, um, I hope EO retains.
00:15:44.64
Aaron
Yeah.
00:15:47.33
Bradley Palermo
I think she will, but I hope Bianca and Rhea fucking each other over in that match. Uh, somehow ignites something where we see those two and nothing against Io it's just Bianca and Rhea are the ones that i I just I think they both have some of my favorite matches and I want to see them do a big one
00:15:54.43
Aaron
Is the reason why. Yeah,
00:16:06.85
Aaron
yeah i I agree. I want Io to win. Um, but I want Io to win because I don't want her to drop the belt. I think Io deserves time with the belt. And I agree with what you said that, um, if Io does win, it should be because Rhea or Bianca could not get over one another.
00:16:25.28
Aaron
And that was their downfall.
00:16:26.12
Bradley Palermo
Right. Yeah.
00:16:27.57
Aaron
Um,
00:16:28.24
Bradley Palermo
So hopefully that's the way they plan it out. Um, Damien Priest versus Drew McIntyre, Sin City Street fight what are they going to beat each other with, um, casino, uh, slot machines or something?
00:16:41.45
Aaron
They're a little heavy.
00:16:42.98
Bradley Palermo
Um, I don't know what kind of shit you can throw under the ring that poker chips.
00:16:48.00
Aaron
Yeah, I don't know. it'll be it'll be a whatever.
00:16:49.59
Bradley Palermo
Um,
00:16:50.87
Aaron
i you know, I like them both. um
00:16:54.68
Aaron
I don't know.
00:16:55.30
Bradley Palermo
I think Drew, Drew.
00:16:55.40
Aaron
Drew?
00:16:56.38
Bradley Palermo
yeah drew Because at least Drew...
00:16:58.16
Aaron
But Drew kind of needs it less. like It would be more useful if to Priest if Priest won. ah just This doesn't feel like a culmination. It feels like the start of something.
00:17:08.80
Aaron
So yeah, probably Drew.
00:17:09.57
Bradley Palermo
Yeah. I feel like Damien Priest, you know, that time that he had the he had the belt and he like forgot to kick out and they hit all the way to three.
00:17:19.71
Aaron
Yeah.
00:17:20.48
Bradley Palermo
i don't know. He just cannot be trusted after that. I feel like, okay, you can wrestle, but you you know you have to do the job every time. If I'm booking it, you know.
00:17:31.06
Aaron
I'd feel bad, but maybe, who knows.
00:17:32.80
Bradley Palermo
um Undisputed WWE w Championship, Cody Rhodes versus John Cena. I have to say that i like John Cena more than I ever have before as as an asshole, as a heel.
00:17:46.95
Aaron
Nice.
00:17:49.87
Bradley Palermo
And think...
00:17:50.10
Aaron
I'm proud of you. You've grown.
00:17:51.51
Bradley Palermo
i think um that John Cena has made some cutting points about Cody Rhodes that he's actually changed my feeling about Cody. I'm like, this guy is kind of a poser, sort of a wannabe with an unclear gimmick who wishes he was, and mean, something more than just...
00:18:12.07
Bradley Palermo
a nepo baby combination and like he wishes he could be someone that came up and just made his own thing um he has he does have the world's worst tattoo right on his neck it's like a transformers type of thing or something and he's like dresses like a nutcracker and he's all in red white and blue like are what are you are you like mr america like i was like wait a second i was crying for cody's win last time and now i'm kind of like Cena's on to something. this guy fucking This guy's a fucking loser. i hope I hope he gets squashed by Cena and Cena runs off with that belt.
00:18:46.93
Bradley Palermo
And I think he's going to win. I think Cena's going to win.
00:18:50.04
Aaron
I do also think Cena is going to win. it it would certainly be more interesting if he won. i just, again, what do you do with Cena if he loses?
00:19:02.69
Aaron
Like, he's got another six months. You know, it just doesn't make sense.
00:19:05.12
Bradley Palermo
Right.
00:19:06.77
Aaron
I feel like he's going, Cody is going to lose. Cena's going to win. It's most likely going to be from some shenanigans that
00:19:14.03
Bradley Palermo
Right.
00:19:14.11
Aaron
whether it's the rock or somebody aligning themselves with rock and Cody that we didn't know was previously aligned or something like that.
00:19:21.92
Bradley Palermo
Right.
00:19:22.18
Aaron
I mean, that's what makes the most sense to me. If Cody won. yeah It's just like, if Cody wins, then what, what do you do with Cody?
00:19:30.94
Bradley Palermo
Right.
00:19:31.71
Aaron
What do you do with John?
00:19:34.02
Bradley Palermo
Yeah. And Cody, I mean, it's going to Cody will be more interesting when he loses the belt. It's like, he's had it when the, it so it's always like, I think we've talked about this before, at least maybe not on the, on the air, but um and it's baby face championship runs just aren't quite as exciting.
00:19:51.90
Bradley Palermo
Like it's more fun sometimes to watch the baby face chase.
00:19:53.41
Aaron
Yeah.
00:19:55.100
Bradley Palermo
yeah. I don't know.
00:19:56.95
Aaron
Mm-hmm.
00:19:57.69
Bradley Palermo
I feel like this, this mania, I know we're going a long time talking about this, but it's, it's fucking WrestleMania week. So it's worth it. But I think this mania is setting up a lot for the year. I know WWE has been pretty hot this year and they've already kind of given us a lot on Netflix. A lot of feuds have already kind of paid off.
00:20:17.47
Bradley Palermo
The bloodline thing was sort of wrapped up early in the, early in the year and ah Seth and uh CM Punk feud has played out on TV a bunch already so I think this mania has an opportunity to like sort of kickstart a whole nother year of crazy feuds but maybe like the build itself isn't like the culmination like it's I don't think it's gonna a culmination of a lot of things I've been waiting to see boil over I think it's kind of the start of a bunch of stuff
00:20:44.99
Aaron
Yeah.
00:20:48.04
Aaron
Yeah, I agree. this um I think a lot of people have been saying that the build this year, it's not bad, but it's just if you compare it to the year before, it's... Nowhere close, but that was because we had so much story built into it with Cody and WrestleMania 39 with his match against Roman Reigns.
00:21:03.28
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
00:21:06.91
Aaron
So this, yeah.
00:21:07.18
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, it was like a two-year build. Yeah.
00:21:09.38
Aaron
And so obviously when you compare a two-year build to a one-year build or even like a six-month build, it's not going to be the same.
00:21:15.97
Bradley Palermo
Right.
00:21:16.14
Aaron
I'm still excited. I still think it's going to be fun. These these ah w WWE premium live events do not disappoint for the most part in the Triple H era.
00:21:26.24
Aaron
So I'm i'm excited.
00:21:26.81
Bradley Palermo
Right.
00:21:29.04
Bradley Palermo
Sorry, I'm just seeing where I'm at.
00:21:32.44
Bradley Palermo
All right, should we get into the rewind?
00:21:32.87
Aaron
Yeah.
00:21:34.82
Aaron
Yeah. Sorry. i Do one more time. I stepped over you.
00:21:36.91
Bradley Palermo
Okay. All right, let's get into the rewind. The event is not a pay-per-view. It's a television special. Okay.
00:21:44.91
Aaron
Yeah. Sorry. I kind of, we're infringing on our own gimmick. That's my bad.
00:21:47.96
Bradley Palermo
No, I like it. No, I like it. I think we can do that. um I was surprised. It was it was interesting. So it's called it's Clash of the Champions um from ah Troy, New York.
00:22:01.37
Bradley Palermo
The theme was New York Knockout. um It's not... Okay, hold on. Let me a second. I'm stumbling here. What I'm trying to read, which screen...
00:22:12.85
Bradley Palermo
um
00:22:13.98
Bradley Palermo
All right, so it's Clash of the Champions 9 New York Knockout, November 15th, 1989 at the Houston Fieldhouse in Troy, New York with Jim Ross and Gordon Soley on the commentary team.
00:22:27.90
Bradley Palermo
We have a small auditorium, smoky hot lights, Coors Light ads wrapped around the ring post, no logos on the ring apron, no logos on the ring apron real bare bones set up.
00:22:41.90
Bradley Palermo
It opens with a you know cheesy 80s music and those world title belts that looked particularly great during this era.
00:22:45.91
Aaron
Yep.
00:22:51.18
Bradley Palermo
So it's it's showing that that especially the world television title and the tag titles back then, they look nice.
00:22:51.57
Aaron
yeah
00:22:57.76
Bradley Palermo
So were we're breaking it open with um promos right off the right off the bat.
00:22:58.78
Aaron
They do.
00:23:02.87
Bradley Palermo
We got Terry Funk and Ric Flair cutting promos. Terry's like, and don't want I don't want your belt, ah your family, your money. ah want your pride. And Ric Flair is putting over you know pride, faith, guts, legacy, dynasty, um because they're going to be in a I quit match tonight, which will finally put put their feud to rest once and for all.
00:23:29.16
Aaron
Yeah, this was ah this was fun. Like you like you said, you know technically this is not a pay-per-view. It was broadcast on TBS at the time. But I do want to say that these felt Clash of the Champions in general felt more like more than just a regular TV show. you know There was usually ah pretty big story progression moment or like some event during these Clash of the Champions televised specials that propelled things forward to the next pay-per-view. Yeah.
00:23:56.77
Aaron
I also noticed the 80s music. It was the perfect amount of cheese. Big fan.
00:24:01.12
Bradley Palermo
yes
00:24:02.05
Aaron
And yeah, after those promos, we started off with the first match of the evening, which was the fabulous Freebirds, Michael Hayes and Jimmy Garvin against the Road Warriors with Paul Ellering in their corner.
00:24:13.50
Aaron
i Got a Freebirds suck chant right at the beginning, which I enjoyed. And man, the Road Warriors sure are over, or as I wrote, over.
00:24:25.30
Aaron
OVAH. My God, those guys, they always talk about the road warrior pop. You know, if you're a fan of wrestling, it's just that the road warriors, no matter where they were, they probably sold out the building they were performing at and got the loudest reaction of any crowd that they were ever a part of.
00:24:32.36
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
00:24:44.23
Aaron
So we saw that here. um This was fun. You know, lots of quick tags, the classic tag team strategy, as mentioned by Jim Ross.
00:24:54.79
Aaron
And yeah, this it was a little short for my liking, to be honest. ah The Freebirds had control of the match for a few minutes. And then Hawk just finally got pissed off, got ran into the ring, threw the referee out of the way because he wanted to attack the Freebirds. And so the Freebirds win by disqualification. But, you know, anytime the Road Warriors do anything, the crowd's just going crazy for him.
00:25:20.36
Bradley Palermo
Did you notice the Freebirds were introduced as tag champions, even though they were not the tag champions at the time?
00:25:29.45
Aaron
Oh, I didn't hear that. No.
00:25:31.58
Bradley Palermo
I don't believe they had the belts, but they were introduced to the champions. At this time, the Steiner brothers were the tag champions, but because it hadn't the tape hadn't aired on TBS yet, they had to pretend like the Freebirds were so... I guess back then when everything was on tapes and and everything, you just...
00:25:50.48
Bradley Palermo
you know you just
00:25:50.52
Aaron
Yeah, they had to figure out how to get the info out in the right order.
00:25:51.88
Bradley Palermo
right Right. We switched the belts, but this is, yeah. So I thought that was kind of, i thought that was kind of fun. A little fact. um Also the free birds are from bad street, Georgia.
00:26:04.50
Bradley Palermo
I, I was curious where that was. It turns out it's not a real place, but yeah.
00:26:10.99
Aaron
You don't say.
00:26:13.32
Bradley Palermo
Um, LOD got DQ'd on this, right. For tossing the referee.
00:26:17.46
Aaron
yeah yeah.
00:26:17.95
Bradley Palermo
Yeah. Yeah.
00:26:18.02
Aaron
Hawk came in and and just threw the ref out of the way.
00:26:18.23
Bradley Palermo
Okay. Oh, right.
00:26:22.04
Aaron
Like he was in the ring.
00:26:22.33
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
00:26:23.30
Aaron
He just threw him to the corner and then started attacking the free birds. And then, yeah, DQ.
00:26:28.69
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
00:26:28.87
Aaron
Kind of a strange finish to an opening match. Like, you know, when I play my GM mode on WWE 2K25, they're always like, your opening match needs to be hot and get the crowd going.
00:26:39.61
Aaron
And I was like, yeah, okay. I mean, this got the crowd going, but then all you remember is the finish, right? And the finish was like, know, so don't know.
00:26:45.99
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
00:26:47.79
Aaron
It was weird.
00:26:47.92
Bradley Palermo
And it's, yeah, little quick five-minute thing, but I don't know, man. We get... ah
00:26:56.28
Aaron
You want me to
00:26:57.26
Bradley Palermo
Oh, I'm just trying to figure whose turn it is to do what all the time. sorry Sorry. So we have some and award ah we have some awards after this match, which is, i think it's super goofy, but um the most popular wrestler, I guess, but as determined by the fans, what they call like a 900 number or something.
00:27:01.15
Aaron
do it?
00:27:08.55
Aaron
No,
00:27:14.02
Aaron
you're good. Yeah, the most popular NWA wrestler as voted by the fans was the first award.
00:27:21.28
Bradley Palermo
Yes, and it goes to Sting, and he's given a trophy and gives kind of an uninteresting speech.
00:27:27.24
Aaron
wow
00:27:32.26
Bradley Palermo
i And then they have to announce the wrestler of the decade. ah
00:27:37.50
Aaron
PWI wrestler of the decade. Pro Wrestling Illustrated still in existence today as highly coveted back then as it is now.
00:27:41.80
Bradley Palermo
um my God.
00:27:46.57
Bradley Palermo
God, yeah. So Ric Flair, he also gets a trophy. So we'll see what happens to those trophies before the night's over, but they both got one.
00:27:56.01
Aaron
They did.
00:27:57.20
Bradley Palermo
And then we go on to, uh, to doom, which is Butch Reed and Ron Simmons versus Tommy rich and Eddie Gilbert.
00:28:07.84
Aaron
Yes, don't forget about women's pre-recorded promo, though, about how Doom is going to ruin the wrestling world.
00:28:07.94
Bradley Palermo
Um,
00:28:14.72
Aaron
it was It was not the best ah as far as promos go, but the thing that made me laugh the most was after that promo, they came back to the arena and Gordon Sully says, well, I tell you, Jim, she's an evil person, but she sure is pretty.
00:28:31.20
Bradley Palermo
You know, and woman's promo, I mean, she's like sitting there in like this, I guess she's wearing just like a black bra and she's sitting on like some tacky, you know.
00:28:40.22
Aaron
hotel couch or something
00:28:41.47
Bradley Palermo
Yeah. And and she she almost looks like one of the girls from like those 900 numbers back then when they late at night, when they try to give you, you know, pick up the phone.
00:28:54.00
Bradley Palermo
She kind of has that vibe about her. And she's like, and she's saying weird shit like, you know, Rick Steiner, i got something big and hard for you.
00:28:56.00
Aaron
mm-hmm
00:29:02.90
Bradley Palermo
I'm like, what does she have for Rick Steiner? like And then she comes out She comes out. It looks like, I guess Doom is it's them coming out, but it looks like it's Woman.
00:29:12.64
Bradley Palermo
like this This character called Woman.
00:29:14.36
Aaron
Yeah.
00:29:15.05
Bradley Palermo
She's coming out. She's got like guys all around her and stuff. She's coming out to the ring like she's going to fight. and And then then these these two guys in masks, I guess you know Ron Simmons and Butch Reed. Oh, they're the wrestlers. I thought Woman was about to come out.
00:29:30.15
Bradley Palermo
And why is she talking about the Steiner brothers if they're about to go after Tommy Rich and Eddie Gilbert? I don't know. I was getting real confused at the beginning.
00:29:36.22
Aaron
Yeah.
00:29:36.48
Bradley Palermo
Like what the fuck is all this, but.
00:29:38.21
Aaron
I think there was a pay-per-view. ah I'm pretty sure this was after 1989's Halloween Havoc. And I feel like there was some stuff that went down and a lot of these things were a result of that.
00:29:52.39
Bradley Palermo
I see. I see.
00:29:53.56
Aaron
Yeah. That was actually the first Halloween Havoc ever, by the way. 1989. 1989.
00:29:57.22
Bradley Palermo
Oh, yeah.
00:29:57.26
Aaron
nineteen eighty But yeah, this this match, um this was Doom's second appearance in WCW, which I did not know. And the first one was at Halloween Havoc because I think there was something going on with the Steiners and women at Halloween Havoc. And then she brought out Doom and they attacked him.
00:30:16.25
Bradley Palermo
Yeah. um I wrote down that Tommy Rich
00:30:20.78
Bradley Palermo
had oh he had like a real like dumb and dumber style mullet it was like blonde but it had like the total like you know weird bowl cut mullet so you know it was kind of funny and he's the one that like think he was like 30 years old but he looked like really old like like he kind of he kind of had a vibe like he was like I thought I was like why did they let the 70 year old in this match you know
00:30:29.26
Aaron
bowl cut. Yeah, yeah.
00:30:39.59
Aaron
So much older. Yeah.
00:30:49.12
Aaron
Yeah, the grit. He looked like the grizzled vet. I think it was just a combination of his outfit and like the shape that his body was in at that moment.
00:30:52.56
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
00:30:57.47
Bradley Palermo
Yeah. I mean, he was, he wasn't like fat, but he was like, he was just real baggy, you know, like skin just sagging everywhere. Real pale. Just, I mean, the guy like fucking looked terrible, but, um but yeah, that was probably, Doom wins quickly, you know, no real surprises here.
00:31:07.66
Aaron
and
00:31:16.76
Aaron
Yeah.
00:31:17.32
Bradley Palermo
They're the dominant force and that worked out for Doom.
00:31:20.73
Aaron
Yep. And, um, and then, uh, after that match, we had, um, a brief little backstage interview with Lex Luger talking about defending the U S title. And we also had Cornette interviewing the Steiners. This was, uh, out on stage. Um, what did, what did Cornette call this? Uh,
00:31:41.07
Aaron
Louisville slugger, I think is the name of this, this talk show quote unquote.
00:31:42.32
Bradley Palermo
Oh, yeah.
00:31:45.67
Aaron
And, uh, the Steiner brothers, first of all, they both just come across like they're dumb as a pile of bricks.
00:31:54.65
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, you're kind of playing like the dumb jock gimmick, which I like.
00:31:54.82
Aaron
That's number one. And the,
00:31:58.49
Aaron
Yeah. And then Rick, ah the father of Braun Breaker, for those who are current fans, he just he acts like he's like this.
00:32:08.68
Aaron
He's like he rides the slow bus. this like He's on the special bus.
00:32:10.93
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
00:32:12.76
Aaron
he's like
00:32:12.91
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
00:32:13.31
Aaron
Well, you know, she did. She said this and then I said that. It made me laugh. I just wrote LOL to this this whole entire interview because.
00:32:21.45
Bradley Palermo
But this is this is an important interview because this is the first time that their move was named publicly. Yeah.
00:32:29.96
Aaron
Oh, that's right. Yeah. ah Jim Cornette does ask Scott Steiner about his now famous Frankensteiner move. And yeah, the ri Rick's explanation of how he came up with that, how they came up with that name was was pretty funny. You know, it's it's weird because.
00:32:49.88
Aaron
They're great wrestlers. They're great in the ring. But the characters that they have in WCW just leave a lot to be desired. And I wonder if that's why they eventually jumped ship.
00:33:01.69
Aaron
But then I think about who they were in WWF and they weren't all that different.
00:33:02.03
Bradley Palermo
right
00:33:05.64
Aaron
I mean, if anything, they probably talked less in WWF.
00:33:09.88
Bradley Palermo
yeah it's weird because they're great and they're great to see but like god damn i mean but that we've seen them now what is this like our sixth episode fifth if you don't count the bonus one so like five pay-per-views in mean we've seen them more
00:33:24.82
Aaron
think they were in four out of five or something.
00:33:26.54
Bradley Palermo
i I was going to say, we have to see them more than anyone else so far. And they're always like kind of the mid card and they carry it and they're, they're cool and all, but I'm like, holy fuck. Um, it's a lot of Steiners and, and you know, this, this pay-per-view is, or this, uh, television special is got a lot of tag team matches on it too.
00:33:49.10
Bradley Palermo
So I'm just kind of like, come on Lord.
00:33:49.28
Aaron
It does. Yeah. Yeah.
00:33:51.23
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
00:33:51.78
Aaron
And of course, after the Steiners finish their interview with Cornette, we don't get the Steiners match. We get the the Midnight Express, ah Bobby Eaton and Stan Lane version with Jim Cornette in their corner against our favorite tag team, the Dynamic Dudes, Shane Douglas and John piece of shit, Laurinaitis.
00:33:56.66
Bradley Palermo
no
00:34:11.17
Aaron
Uh, there was some interesting interplay with Cornette in this match where he was sitting in the neutral corner. Like he was not on the midnight expresses side, like normal, I guess maybe he had some kind of issues with them in previous episodes or maybe in Halloween havoc, but, um, this was a high flying fast paced match.
00:34:34.28
Aaron
And one thing that I noticed, um, is that the pacing of this match felt so much more quick than lot of matches in current day.
00:34:46.08
Aaron
And it's not so much like, I don't mean in terms of frequency of moves, right? Because nowadays matches tend to have a lot more moves put together. I think it's more about how quickly...
00:34:59.06
Aaron
like pivotal moments in the match happen and how the production and the commentators don't necessarily call as much attention to it. So for example, in this match, it was fairly even for most of it, but then there was this moment where, uh, one of the members of the midnight express had one of the dynamic dudes. They were sort of grappling and they were up against the ropes and,
00:35:21.04
Aaron
And the referee had been distracted by Cornette, so he was not looking at them. And then one of the other members of the Midnight Express, you know, smacked that Dynamic Dudes guy over the over the the head and while the ref wasn't looking.
00:35:34.94
Aaron
And that happened so quickly that, like, if you weren't paying super close attention as a viewer, you would have missed it. And that one thing, like... turned the entire tide of the match.
00:35:46.06
Aaron
And, you know, ultimately the midnight express get the win in this match because of some interference from Jim Cornette. But that moment really stood out to me as being sort of like a blink and you'll miss it kind of moment.
00:35:57.67
Bradley Palermo
Right.
00:35:58.80
Aaron
And it's probably a result of the fact that like production nowadays, video production has advanced quite a bit, but that kind of moment in current day wrestling gets a lot more attention so that like you as the audience member cannot miss it.
00:35:58.86
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
00:36:12.98
Aaron
And, I think part of that is obviously production, but part of that is the wrestlers like slowing down and making more of a moment out of these types of things. So that was, that was something that I, that stood out to me and I was like, wow, this was a fun match.
00:36:22.28
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
00:36:26.25
Aaron
But like, if you're not paying full attention the whole time, like you could miss something like that.
00:36:32.02
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, it seemed like there was a lot of chain moves, like headlocks, hip tosses, everything kind of like flipped into the next thing.
00:36:38.48
Aaron
Tons of tagging.
00:36:39.67
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, it's kind of good when we think about it.
00:36:41.22
Aaron
Fun match.
00:36:42.64
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, like, um as far as the goofy stuff goes in this match, I i feel like with a dynamic dudes, they both had skateboards coming down the the ramp. But like, I forget which one.
00:36:53.00
Aaron
Yep.
00:36:54.09
Bradley Palermo
One of them is clearly afraid to get on that thing because the one dude is on the skateboard. The other guy's like, look at me. I'm holding a skateboard, which is kind of...
00:37:01.46
Aaron
I think it was Shane Douglas, not on the skateboard, Johnny Ace on on the skateboard.
00:37:04.11
Bradley Palermo
Okay. Johnny Ace was was...
00:37:06.42
Aaron
Yeah.
00:37:06.80
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, so... um Yeah, and the Midnight Express had... I like their pink and blue robes with the sparklies and it's very 80s.
00:37:14.27
Aaron
Love their music.
00:37:15.33
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
00:37:15.71
Aaron
Midnight Express music is awesome. um
00:37:19.21
Aaron
Yeah. Fun match.
00:37:20.95
Bradley Palermo
Then we get into a promo, I believe, where Steve Williams is... Who who did they fucking...
00:37:31.63
Bradley Palermo
promo steven stevenson yeah
00:37:32.96
Aaron
You know, I actually, so I didn't see this. So we could pause. You don't have to put this in the, there were some promos that like you had written down that I didn't see in, in the peacock version.
00:37:46.52
Bradley Palermo
okay so maybe it's not in there maybe i uh
00:37:49.89
Aaron
Did you grab stuff from like Wikipedia or something?
00:37:52.08
Bradley Palermo
I mean, chit chat, and also chat GPT, like, please write us a breakdown of what was on there. And some of that stuff I don't see until I actually get in here.
00:37:58.88
Aaron
Okay. Okay.
00:38:01.08
Bradley Palermo
don't. i don't
00:38:04.38
Aaron
I don't remember the promo for Steve Williams being hyped, but maybe it was, maybe it was, it was there. If you want to just go into the match, you can do that.
00:38:12.06
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, okay. So um it's super confusing for me too to like look like at the notes that I've written for both of us versus myself. I'll have to find a better way to streamline this. but okay so then we get into the Super Destroyer versus Dr. Death, Steve Williams. a Super Destroyer is kind of a lump of a lucha no entrance music. we just He's in there.
00:38:34.30
Bradley Palermo
ah he's ah He's, for all intents of purposes, there just to be a jobber. And then Dr. Death, Steve Williams, the barrel-chested, dark mullet-bearded guy, um comes out for a quick squash match.
00:38:50.17
Bradley Palermo
But not before Santa Claus makes a weird cameo. yeah I don't think he did anything.
00:38:54.83
Aaron
Yeah, well, what was that about?
00:38:57.07
Bradley Palermo
Who was that? I know he's... I've seen that guy's face. He was a wrestler. I've seen that guy's face on...
00:39:02.72
Aaron
I think he might have been Steve Williams' tag team partner, but I don't remember what tag team that was.
00:39:05.64
Bradley Palermo
Hmm... Yeah. So that whole thing, i mean, that was a minute and 41 seconds.
00:39:12.55
Aaron
Yeah, it was it was a little squasher. the i wrote down, Dr.
00:39:15.80
Bradley Palermo
but
00:39:16.66
Aaron
Death is a strong dude.
00:39:18.98
Bradley Palermo
and And this whole thing did feel like a pay-per-view, but like there's some things that remind me of of tv that that makes you reminds you that it's TV um like having a squash match.
00:39:24.62
Aaron
Yeah.
00:39:28.22
Bradley Palermo
um They do go to to commercial breaks, but that at least they do it in between the matches.
00:39:33.76
Aaron
Matches.
00:39:34.18
Bradley Palermo
They don't do it like right in the middle like they would on ah like modern stuff. um
00:39:38.68
Aaron
Mm hmm. Mm hmm.
00:39:40.07
Bradley Palermo
But...
00:39:40.24
Aaron
Yeah. Just kind of a nice little fast squash. I don't i don't really know what the point of it was other than to get Steve Williams over, but it kind of seemed like he already was.
00:39:49.32
Bradley Palermo
Right.
00:39:49.60
Aaron
And and then we had our next match, which was the skyscrapers versus the Steiner brothers. Skyscrapers was ah Sid Vicious and Dan Spivey, our favorite softball enthusiast, Sid Vicious.
00:40:01.98
Bradley Palermo
Oh, yeah.
00:40:02.93
Aaron
And yeah, this was another one short, you know, about six minutes. But the Steiners are big time and like, you know, ah despite what we so what we think, looking back on everything in hindsight about how they were used with their characters are like, they were over the crowd love the Steiner brothers. So, you know, this was an exciting match. It.
00:40:27.01
Bradley Palermo
We got the peanut head chance.
00:40:27.39
Aaron
yeah We did get the peanut head chance because this yeah the skyscrapers were accompanied by their manager, Teddy Long, who you might remember from our second episode with this his peanut shaped head and his triple crown made of plastic.
00:40:45.28
Aaron
So, ah yeah, after about six minutes, ah the Steiner brothers win via disqualification because Doom runs into the ring per the request of woman and attacks the Steiners.
00:40:58.86
Aaron
But then um just it's more and more people. and I think the road warriors come out after doom and but get another road warriors pop.
00:41:05.51
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
00:41:07.62
Aaron
Like we're, I'm watching all the craziness where the Steiners are getting their asses kicked and then the crowd just starts erupting and you're like, what's going on? And then there's, there's the the road warriors.
00:41:18.94
Bradley Palermo
It was a full tag team orgy situation. You had about every tag team guy from this tag team pack show in the ring at the same time. You have Hawking Animal coming out, doing like an unintelligible promo, just fucking screaming random shit in the mic.
00:41:36.36
Bradley Palermo
So, um, yeah, that was, that's,
00:41:37.44
Aaron
Cocaine's a hell of a drug.
00:41:43.09
Aaron
Fun match. And yeah, like lots of chaos but for sure.
00:41:48.61
Bradley Palermo
And then we set up the S television title, which is, we're going to have Brian Pillman.
00:41:55.00
Aaron
it's U.S. heavyweight.
00:41:57.09
Bradley Palermo
Oh,
00:41:58.00
Bradley Palermo
Okay. The U S okay. The United States. Then we set up the NWA United States heavyweight championship. Lex Luger. Who's the champion versus flying Brian Pillman.
00:42:10.60
Bradley Palermo
Um, quick, quick entrance for Pillman. Uh, uh, luger's uh luger's got the big pyro the big country music looking robe looks like something out of like a 90s country music video it's got the leather and the sequences um yes
00:42:27.83
Aaron
Yep. He's the total package here in WCW, not the narcissist like in the thing in WrestleMania 9 that we watched last episode.
00:42:35.50
Bradley Palermo
yeah and he's uh he's a lot bigger than pillman but you know luger's not he's not quite the wrestler that Pillman is. so and It's a good matchup.
00:42:45.95
Bradley Palermo
luger use or Luger uses more of the power moves.
00:42:46.15
Aaron
Yeah, you know, sorry, you can finish your thought.
00:42:51.94
Bradley Palermo
Pillman's got the speed and the agility is all I was going to say.
00:42:56.21
Aaron
Yeah, you know, i i felt like it was another solid match for from Luger. Again, because of the time period, we're seeing a lot of Lex Luger. um I don't know why, but I used to not think very highly of Lex Luger. I think maybe it was when I was, i mean, it was certainly when I was younger. Maybe when he was in WCW, part of the NWO, he wasn't,
00:43:20.92
Aaron
really wrestling as much Luger's heyday was more late and late 80s early early 90s um I'm not sure why I thought that but I feel like I was wrong watching the amount of Lex Luger matches that we have you know he's I mean he's not a Brian Danielson or whatever but like he knows how to use his size he knows how to get heat he's not incompetent like his stuff looks real he makes mistakes but everyone does like so It was a pretty good back and forth match. The crowd certainly was engaged in this one.
00:43:53.86
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, for sure. um
00:43:56.28
Bradley Palermo
Let's see. There's a ref bump. There's a ref bump. There's multiple pins without the ref. um that's lugger use the woods like
00:44:02.34
Aaron
Yep. Yep.
00:44:06.50
Bradley Palermo
Basically, Pillman's getting the pins, right? Here?
00:44:08.43
Aaron
Yeah, yeah. So the ref gets knocked out and Pillman, you know, if the ref was not knocked out, Pillman probably would have pinned Luger two separate times.
00:44:09.15
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
00:44:18.76
Bradley Palermo
Right.
00:44:18.89
Aaron
And after that happened, Luger gets super pissed. He goes out to the outside, grabs a chair, which are not the chairs that you're used to from the mid to late 90s and onward.
00:44:28.95
Aaron
This chair was like big and bulky.
00:44:30.47
Bradley Palermo
Big ass, yeah.
00:44:31.70
Aaron
And yeah, he hits Pillman in the head with it. And the ref is still unconscious, but then miraculously starts to stir once that has happened. And Luger gets the win.
00:44:44.24
Aaron
um After the match, Luger is still mad that even though he won, he got pinned twice and he grabs the chair again. He hits Pillman twice with it, like in the back and then torture acts him.
00:44:57.49
Aaron
And then we get more. This is like the the Clash of the Champions 9, all the run-ins is what they should have called it.
00:45:03.83
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, right.
00:45:05.05
Aaron
Because once Luger is torture-wracking Pillman, Sting comes down to the ring to save Pillman. He confronts Lex Luger, who runs like a heel should. And Sting manages to chase after him, get a good punch.
00:45:19.38
Aaron
But Luger retreats again. And yeah, fun match. um A little bit longer. i was like a 12-minute match.
00:45:28.32
Bradley Palermo
Oh yeah. And then we get into Ric Flair versus Terry Funk for the i quit match.
00:45:32.58
Aaron
hu
00:45:36.03
Aaron
Yeah, this was a fun one. We did get a pre-tape from Ric Flair talking about, you know, to be the man, you got to beat the man and he's going to make Terry Funk say I quit.
00:45:47.33
Aaron
So, so
00:45:50.35
Bradley Palermo
flair's flair's obviously the baby face in this and he's coming out and he's bedazzled baby blue robe and funk's got the is the heel and all black and the cowboy look and the way that they've kind of like split it up with the two of them is that you you know flair cares all about the money and the girls and he flies first class but funk he's you know he flies He flies coach and he drives a pickup truck. and
00:46:20.37
Aaron
It's a man of the people.
00:46:21.53
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, but he's he's kind of he's supposed to be the bad guy.
00:46:23.35
Aaron
But he's still a heel.
00:46:24.42
Bradley Palermo
but Yeah, but hes he's more relatable, I guess, than than Flair.
00:46:24.50
Aaron
Yeah.
00:46:27.89
Bradley Palermo
like The way that Funk was kind of putting it in his promos, I was like, all right, well, Funk seems like the relatable dude, but... Oh, he's...
00:46:35.29
Aaron
Flair was the guy, though.
00:46:36.30
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, Flavor's the man. And Gary Hart was with Funk, that that creep that we've talked about before. He's got all the... Just a fucking gnarly, scary-looking dude. um So he...
00:46:46.29
Aaron
Yeah, he's big. Big and bald.
00:46:47.29
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, yeah. Added to the ah the heat of ah Funk's shit. But this is... This is a great match. I mean, like hard hitting, legit feeling.
00:46:56.11
Aaron
Mm-hmm.
00:46:58.53
Bradley Palermo
Everything looks real. They're choking the shit out of each other and chopping the shit out of each other.
00:47:04.42
Aaron
Yep.
00:47:04.77
Bradley Palermo
like real aggression. And the crowd is like pissed. You know, if people are screaming and pointing and little fingers.
00:47:11.52
Aaron
Mm-hmm.
00:47:12.53
Bradley Palermo
And i was just thinking like, you know, you don't really get that kind of energy anymore ever.
00:47:20.07
Aaron
Yeah. Yeah. It's not the same. I mean, there towards the end of the match, will I won't skip over the middle, but just wanted to point out towards the end of the match, there's some interference and somebody comes down and they try to grab a chair.
00:47:34.06
Aaron
There's ah an audience member who's like holding onto the chair and like, won't let go. And I'm like, wow, I haven't, like, you don't see that. Like people aren't that mad that they want to intervene anymore.
00:47:45.51
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
00:47:45.68
Aaron
And,
00:47:47.24
Bradley Palermo
People now, they'll they'll put their thumb, you know, they their boo, they'll stick their thumb out at someone with like a big smile on their face. like Like, see, buddy, I'm giving you heat.
00:47:56.30
Aaron
Yeah.
00:47:57.71
Bradley Palermo
Ha ha ha. I'm like, no, I mean... you know you gotta you gotta lean into it even in the crowd like if you're gonna you're gonna be pissed at someone like fucking give it to him be like me with hulk hogan you know in that in that tiktok reel that went viral over one million views now yeah got you you gotta give it to him man
00:48:08.97
Aaron
Yeah.
00:48:13.25
Aaron
Yeah.
00:48:20.28
Aaron
Yeah, fun a very fun match, ah of another back-and-forth match. um One thing that I liked about this, because it was an I Quit match, a microphone was a part of the match, and it its it played a part. you know it It created a different vibe for this match as a whole, which I thought was kind of fun.
00:48:36.88
Aaron
you you know We, um as modern-day fans, are privy to a lot more of the conversations that happen into in the ring. And, you know, throughout the years, the amount that we hear has changed.
00:48:49.52
Aaron
It has ebbed and flowed. But here in this point in time in 1989, that is a lot more audible talking during a match than people are used to. And what's more is the people in the arena were also able to hear all of that talking.
00:49:06.53
Aaron
So I thought it was fun. You know, Funk is really hamming it up with the microphone like,
00:49:12.52
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
00:49:13.21
Aaron
I'm about to pile drive him. Ask him if he could. He's like, he has Ric Flair up in a pile driver and it's like, ask him.
00:49:23.57
Bradley Palermo
yeah
00:49:23.77
Aaron
It's just, it was very funny, especially when Funk even used the microphone as a weapon. And I think JR was like, well, you're not supposed to do that. I know it's no disqualification, but, but geez, like whatever he said.
00:49:35.58
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, and Gordon Sully is like, well, and in this situation, when your life or your career or your very existence is on the line, maybe, you know, they're like, they don't know what to say because they're like, yeah, it's no DQ, but don't beat each other with the microphone.
00:49:46.04
Aaron
Yeah.
00:49:51.17
Aaron
But it's bad. Yeah.
00:49:52.15
Bradley Palermo
and Yeah. Yeah.
00:49:53.63
Aaron
Yeah.
00:49:53.65
Bradley Palermo
So it's kind of like they're working out some of that stuff. And they're really playing up the fact that like Terry Funk's the the son of you know Texas Deathmatch King. Who's his dad?
00:50:03.92
Bradley Palermo
ah The Funk?
00:50:04.49
Aaron
I think it's Dory Funk senior.
00:50:05.92
Bradley Palermo
Dory Funk Sr. Yeah, that sounds right.
00:50:07.59
Aaron
I think, um,
00:50:09.05
Bradley Palermo
So they're like, this is not the normal kind of stuff you see in WCW or in the in the it's not a normal NWA style match, as as ah JR said.
00:50:16.20
Aaron
It was...
00:50:17.99
Bradley Palermo
um And it did feel a little... I mean, it wasn't like ECW hardcore, but it was... It was, i mean, it was pretty brutal.
00:50:24.60
Aaron
it would Yeah, they did some stuff that ah to a modern day fan probably is like, oh, no big deal, you know, but they used a table. I don't think they use tables very often back then.
00:50:35.44
Aaron
um You know, no one went through it in the traditional way that we now know. But yeah, there was there was a ah ah period of time where Flair was like real fired up and doing all kinds of stuff that for the time seemed extra brutal, you know, fighting on the outside and using tables and
00:50:41.67
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, it was.
00:50:53.56
Bradley Palermo
It kind of made me realize, like, because, you know, we started seeing Flair well into his career. You know, I mean, I guess he's already, what, 40 at this point. um
00:51:03.31
Aaron
Late thirty s yeah. was 40 exactly.
00:51:04.97
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, but... yeah he might i might have looked it up but he i think he was but anyways he yeah he's fucking good i mean i know that ro oh really rick flair is a good wrestler but like you kind of see why he's one of the best like it's just the way he puts himself into it it it does look yeah it looks really legitimate it's like really super athletic it's just
00:51:23.20
Aaron
Yeah.
00:51:29.28
Bradley Palermo
I don't know. I can't describe it.
00:51:30.43
Aaron
yeah
00:51:30.92
Bradley Palermo
The rest of this thing with all the tag team, like jabronis the whole night was kind of, I mean, it was, I was kind of like, this shit's kind of sucks. Like it's, it's fine. There's some good wrestling, but like, like it had like a hokey feel.
00:51:43.45
Bradley Palermo
And then when you see like flair and, and a funk come out there, you're like this, no, this is another level. These, these guys are like the real fucking deal.
00:51:50.61
Aaron
Yeah.
00:51:52.94
Bradley Palermo
And, um, yeah.
00:51:53.52
Aaron
Yeah, it has it has gravitas. You can tell it feels like a main event.
00:51:56.42
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
00:51:58.58
Aaron
The crowd is very much excited as if it was a main event. And yeah, I mean... Once Flair really fired up, the crowd got super hot and he started, you know, working the leg for the figure four.
00:52:13.82
Aaron
And Funk tried to, you know, delay it as much as he could. But inevitably, Flair gets the figure four on Terry Funk in the middle of the ring. And before long, Terry Funk says, i quit.
00:52:26.94
Bradley Palermo
Did you know this was the same? ah This is only a few months after Terry Funk ah came out starring in the movie.
00:52:38.93
Bradley Palermo
What's one with Patrick Swayze?
00:52:41.17
Aaron
Roadhouse.
00:52:41.20
Bradley Palermo
Roadhouse. Yeah. so which He was pretty badass in that.
00:52:43.30
Aaron
Nice.
00:52:44.90
Bradley Palermo
So he's a movie star at this point, you know.
00:52:46.90
Aaron
Yeah. This is also like three or four months after the, what did we watch? The Great American Bash, that first one.
00:52:54.97
Bradley Palermo
Right. Yeah.
00:52:56.32
Aaron
Yeah.
00:52:57.06
Bradley Palermo
um Just in case I need it later, i don't even think i said NWA, WCW. so I'm just going to say covering NWA slash WCW's Clash of the Champion 9.
00:53:10.28
Bradley Palermo
Just so I have that clip. Sorry.
00:53:11.66
Aaron
Sure. Now you're um so Funk quits in the figure four. And as promised before the match, Funk said that if he lost, he would shake Ric Flair's hand. So Funk shakes Flair's hand, doesn't get much of a crowd reaction, a very slight, you know, level of excitement.
00:53:33.49
Aaron
But then Gary Hart attacks Funk and Flair attacks heart, then the great Buddha shows up and attacks Flair, then Sting shows up and saves Flair, then Luger shows up and takes a chair and attacks Sting. It's just absolute fucking madness at the end of this show.
00:53:50.68
Bradley Palermo
It's so many run-ins at this point, WCW. Yeah.
00:53:53.62
Aaron
Yeah.
00:53:54.45
Bradley Palermo
But... Flair... This was ah this was a ah babyface turn for funk. Yeah.
00:54:01.51
Aaron
It certainly seemed that way.
00:54:03.33
Bradley Palermo
Because, yeah, I mean, his manager turns against him.
00:54:03.80
Aaron
Truong- Daniel Truong-
00:54:06.23
Bradley Palermo
He does the honorable thing, shakes the hand. So, and then as for as far as my understanding, this was the this was the end, what, the blow-off match for Funk and Flair.
00:54:16.77
Bradley Palermo
So, there's a lot of there's a lot of important moments. is Even though this was um TV, it was, I think there was a lot of turning points here. And, and you know, was...
00:54:29.66
Aaron
not Not to mention that, you know, even though there were 15 run-ins in this show, all of these run-ins did eventually play a part in setting up the card for the next big pay-per-view, which was Starrcade 89.
00:54:44.56
Bradley Palermo
yeah
00:54:44.60
Aaron
I believe in that pay-per-view, there were two tournaments. There was a tag team tournament with all of these tag teams that we saw interacting with each other. to try and get the tag team titles. And then there was also a United States ah heavyweight championship tournament with Luger, Sting, Muda, somebody else as well.
00:55:03.27
Aaron
um So it kind of makes sense. Like if you know what's about to happen, that all of this crazy shit went down, but to the uninitiated and to us just watching it in a bottle, it was kind of like, huh? Yeah.
00:55:13.30
Aaron
lot of run-ins. Jeez. Yeah.
00:55:14.58
Bradley Palermo
What were are they talking about? i I know we had ah an episode where we've talked a lot about Yokozuna being fake Japanese and and and and Hulk Hogan you know kind of using slurs in Japanese. but I know Muda's Japanese, but why were why were the announcers being like, and the Japanese has got a hold of him?
00:55:34.39
Aaron
ah Because it
00:55:35.21
Bradley Palermo
Is that because his manager is called the Japanese or the team is called the Japanese? Yeah.
00:55:39.98
Aaron
I think they were just referring to them as both being Japanese.
00:55:43.44
Bradley Palermo
Oh, like multiple people that are Japanese.
00:55:45.11
Aaron
yeah yeah, I don't think it was...
00:55:45.73
Bradley Palermo
They're like, oh,
00:55:47.29
Aaron
I forget what this manager's name was, though. Hold on.
00:55:50.02
Bradley Palermo
But they kept they kept saying that. And now in the Japanese, or gar i not Japanese, I've got a hold of them. The Japanese in the solar plexus by the Japanese.
00:55:57.43
Aaron
I'm going to crazy.
00:56:01.35
Bradley Palermo
What the fuck? um Yeah, it's funny. So I don't know. And then in the post-match, I don't know how much of this we've covered, but because there's so much to happen. But the trophies do get broken by Luger. He makes sure those...
00:56:16.99
Bradley Palermo
whatever the matt the um sorry my dog is trying to get up um whatever whatever lyric flair and lex luger or sting one from rick melzer or dave melzer or some shit that all gets broken
00:56:31.97
Aaron
yeah Here, wait, I'll do it. I'll do it.
00:56:37.39
Aaron
Don't forget that after all of the chaos, after all of the interference and run-ins, Luger is walking down the aisle with a steel chair and he sees those beautiful, magnificent, three feet tall trophies that Sting and Ric Flair won from the the voting of the fans for the best wrestlers and Luger destroys them with the chair.
00:57:00.93
Aaron
Pretty funny. ah Just seemed like a petulant child at the end there, but I guess that's how you get heat.
00:57:08.16
Bradley Palermo
i like I like to see, like, even when dumb shit happens, like those trophies being awarded, you know, at least at least they tied it. At least they wrapped it up. At least there was a reason they were there. It gave Luger something to do or something to break, so.
00:57:17.91
Aaron
in
00:57:20.74
Bradley Palermo
so
00:57:21.33
Aaron
Yeah. Yeah. I love, I mean, think it probably goes without saying that most people love planting and paying things off, you know, in wrestling, especially in movies and books, everything.
00:57:28.24
Bradley Palermo
Right. Right.
00:57:31.19
Bradley Palermo
So now it's time for the grapple grade where we rate the episode by fast forward, which is the lowest rating you could possibly have play, which means thumbs up and and rewind, which means watch it, watch it over again.
00:57:47.52
Bradley Palermo
Double, double thumbs up. Um, what do you think? what do you think, Aaron? What do you, giving this one? Fast forward, play or rewind? Mm-hmm.
00:57:55.82
Aaron
I'll give this one a play. I think it's got some fun stuff. The Ric Flair versus Terry Funk match is definitely the best match of the whole show.
00:58:06.85
Aaron
But, you know, it's, again, fun to see some of the people that we don't see a lot. um Flying Brian Pillman. I got to see the Midnight Express, which I don't think we have seen yet in any of the shows that we watch.
00:58:16.12
Bradley Palermo
Oh, yeah.
00:58:20.09
Aaron
So got to see the Road Warriors.
00:58:21.02
Bradley Palermo
ah yeah
00:58:22.28
Aaron
It was fun. You know, is it... Life changing? No. Is it the worst thing you've ever seen? No. It's pretty firmly in the middle. So I would say hit hit the play button if you're interested.
00:58:35.02
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, I think that world title match was amazing. And it may have been best match. I don't Maybe it's because I just watched it. But it feels like it's the best match I've watched so far while we've been doing this podcast.
00:58:51.26
Bradley Palermo
As far as the pay-per-views we've watched, it was just it was incredible. But like the rest of this was Just kind of eighty s into the 90s, like wacky wrestling spectacle, which I love.
00:59:06.87
Bradley Palermo
But I mean, you could kind of just find that in this era on any old thing. so
00:59:12.99
Aaron
Yeah.
00:59:13.01
Bradley Palermo
um So, I mean, too many tag matches, lots of stuff that felt repetitive, but one hell of a match at the end. So I'm going to give it the play rating as well.
00:59:27.57
Aaron
Sweet. Well, oh, go ahead.
00:59:28.30
Bradley Palermo
Now ah good and now ah let's get into some emails, calls, correspondence. Let me me pull up what we've got here. and it is going to take me a minute because I didn't really...
00:59:40.06
Bradley Palermo
We didn't get any...
00:59:40.28
Aaron
That's fine. This is the magic of editing. I'm going to little high
00:59:44.78
Bradley Palermo
Yeah...
00:59:45.79
Bradley Palermo
All right, we got Nick in New Haven, Michigan. He wrote in he asked us, can you please cover Royal Rumble 1991 me? I'm gonna listen to your podcast for a long, long time.
01:00:00.27
Bradley Palermo
And Nick, I did write him back, but i do like the idea of watching all the Royal Rumbles. And 91 sounds interesting. We'll probably have what, some Sergeant Slaughter, probably some Hulk Hogan.
01:00:13.35
Bradley Palermo
yeah but But no, it's it's it's a good era. um I also wanna watch 92 Royal Rumble, because that was ah the Ric Flair wire to wire one.
01:00:25.04
Bradley Palermo
um so yeah that would be cool um appreciate you writing in and giving us a new i i do i do keep a uh i do keep a file here with everything that everyone suggested so far um and we will get to all these pay-per-views i'm excited there's just so many um
01:00:46.94
Aaron
Yeah. Well, what do you want to cover next?
01:00:49.67
Bradley Palermo
um
01:00:50.63
Bradley Palermo
First, I want to finish correspondence stuff.
01:00:52.85
Aaron
Oh, my bad. Yeah.
01:00:54.38
Bradley Palermo
No, you're good. Oh, and my friend Marcus... stopped by my shop the other day to tell me in person he didn't write in he just stopped by and said he he was at wrestlemania 9 the one we covered last week and kind of shit all over and he was like dude if you were there it was fucking fun if you were a kid and you were in vegas outside at this wrestlemania he's like all those characters he's like it was just like the coolest shit and um yeah
01:01:14.73
Aaron
yeah
01:01:20.58
Aaron
I believe it. I believe It doesn't change how I feel about it in the in the vacuum that I watched it, but I believe him. You know, the ah ah you we didn't talk about this before we hit record, but I did watch the ah the Peacock documentary that they put out about WrestleMania 9.
01:01:35.49
Aaron
Like, yesterday i watched it.
01:01:36.97
Bradley Palermo
Oh yeah. yeah
01:01:38.21
Aaron
Yeah, it was ah it was pretty funny, especially because we just covered it, and the documentary really makes it seem like it's this... fantastic, amazing thing. And, you know, i guess it, the way that they framed it, which did make sense to me was that this was the first time that WrestleMania was really a spectacle where like you had all this over the top, lavish entertainment type stuff.
01:02:03.87
Aaron
And that if they hadn't done this, that who knows, you know, if they would have gotten to the kind of entertainment that they do today. So I understood that point. And I was like, okay, I'll concede that like, if you look at it like that, the fact that they were able to do this, like as a production entity and make it go off without a hitch, like that was cool.
01:02:20.80
Bradley Palermo
yeah
01:02:24.15
Aaron
The content looking back on it is stupid, but I'm i'm glad your friend had fun.
01:02:27.34
Bradley Palermo
so they don't in the in the documentary they don't admit that it was kind of a shit show and like it was booked poorly i mean you you think like nowadays it's it's been long enough with then with the dark side of the ring and like everyone talking about like sort of the turmoil of of different situations and wrestling like they you'd think there'd be someone that'd be like fuck dude like nobody knew what the hell was going on but that's not the case right they're just
01:02:50.31
Aaron
Yeah, they they i mean they they created drama in some instances. you know they They had Taker talk about the match with Johnny Gonzalez, and he pretty much maintains the same you know stance that he's had, which is like, yeah, this wasn't very good.
01:03:02.13
Bradley Palermo
yeah yeah
01:03:05.40
Aaron
ah And then you know the other interesting thing, they talked they did talk about Hulk's injury. and how people thought that it was Macho Man. But then, you know, Hulk gives his big long-winded explanation of, well, i was on the jet ski and this and that, and I flew over and the jet ski hit me right in the face.
01:03:21.11
Bradley Palermo
oh god
01:03:22.24
Aaron
and but And, you know, Brutus Beefcake backs him up in an interview saying like, yeah, it was crazy that that happened. anddada dust So,
01:03:29.26
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, but I mean, Brutus just has been on his dick the whole time. That's way Brutus ever got a job was just following around Hulk Hogan.
01:03:34.92
Aaron
Yeah. Yeah.
01:03:36.12
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
01:03:36.94
Aaron
So, you know, they did that. They, and then the other interesting thing was they managed to make Bret Hart look fucking old and grumpy again, because according to him he didn't know that Hogan was coming back until the Friday right before WrestleMania.
01:03:45.78
Bradley Palermo
yeah
01:03:53.55
Aaron
And that same day was also when he found out that he'd be dropping it to Yoko. And then Hogan would be picking it up right after. Brett was not happy with either of those things. And I can't say that I blame him because
01:04:03.13
Bradley Palermo
Yeah. Yeah.
01:04:05.46
Aaron
You know, he he even said, I asked Vince, are you unhappy with the work that I've been doing? And Vince's response was, no, we're just looking for a change in direction, which if you know anything about what was happening at that time is is a lie, because the truth is that when Hogan left, and they talk about this in the documentary too, when Hogan left, they stopped making as much money.
01:04:26.16
Aaron
They didn't sell places out as much. You know, they were trying to get the new guys over and to start the company over with the Bret Hart's, the Shawn Michaels, the Undertaker's, the Razor Ramones, the Crush's, the Tatanka's.
01:04:39.51
Aaron
And it just wasn't working in the same way that Hogan was. You know, um they even mentioned that when the tickets were announced for WrestleMania nine, after the first weekend, they had only sold 3000 or something, you know, out of 16 plus that they were trying to sell.
01:04:53.05
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
01:04:56.18
Aaron
And so they eventually got Hogan on the card and boink, they sold out.
01:04:59.99
Bradley Palermo
All right, so next week's episode, I think we need to it's going to be, it's it's been a lot of WWE. It's WrestleMania season. It'll be over.
01:05:09.58
Bradley Palermo
WrestleMania season. WrestleMania will have culminated by the time we get back at you. So I think a little palate cleanse is in order. We're going to go kind of anti-WWE, even though they fucking own it ah now, and go get into ECWs.
01:05:26.73
Bradley Palermo
Very first pay-per-view, which is called Barely Legal. It's 1997. ECW was kind of known as a bingo hall promotion back then with too much blood and barbed wire. And it was hard for them, from my understanding, for the to get into the pay-per-view sphere.
01:05:44.69
Bradley Palermo
fear And um they did with ah Taz and Sabu colliding, Terry Funks in this one, Paul Heyman is there to prove that, you know, he's in it to win it.
01:05:48.18
Aaron
huh
01:05:58.16
Bradley Palermo
Extreme isn't just a gimmick. You know, he's the he's the new in town. he's the new guy in town It's a revolution. and um
01:06:04.46
Aaron
Hell yeah.
01:06:05.69
Bradley Palermo
It's ah unhinged from what I hear. i have not seen it. I've only read about it. So next week we'll do ECW. bawell next Next episode we'll do ECW barely legal 97 if you want to watch along.
01:06:20.11
Bradley Palermo
And if you have thoughts on that pay-per-view or if you have thoughts on who Clash of the Champions 9, if you agree with us or disagree or you want to cut a promo on us,
01:06:31.63
Bradley Palermo
626-657-SLAM. And you can leave a message on our Google voice line. We will maybe roast you or maybe we'll cry or maybe we'll, um you know,
01:06:43.20
Aaron
I'll cry. have a very sensitive, sensitive soul. Don't hurt me, please.
01:06:47.42
Bradley Palermo
But either way, we will we will play it on the show. And you find us ah or you can find us on social media at grapplecitypod.
01:06:51.35
Aaron
Yeah. Call in.
01:06:57.87
Bradley Palermo
As always, grapplecitypod.com. You can always find our episodes there or wherever else you listen to podcasts. And do you have any other final feelings, thoughts, or emotions, Aaron Fink?
01:07:13.85
Aaron
I don't know. i don't think so, Bradley Palermo. I enjoyed this episode and i'm excited for WrestleMania. And yeah, i am ah i'm ah I'm an ECW fan. I was too young to watch it when it was happening, but I became a posthumous fan.
01:07:28.37
Aaron
So I'm stoked for ECW Barely Legal 1997.
01:07:32.35
Bradley Palermo
Fuck yeah, let's do it and Thanks, everybody. We'll see you next time.
