Savage with an awkward top rope elbow.
ALOHA~!
In the immortal words of Chuck Rhoades Sr. "Honey, I popped a pill." Not in that way, I am not sitting here with a mistress in a hotel room but am instead sitting here with her in my office. Of course that mistress is the graps as it is late night on Labor Day, my Ritalin is coarsing my veins and I have another disc of McAdam to watch. This is the second disc of the May to June 1984 collection. Much like VHS, DVDs have their own levels of compression and while McAdam may have been recording on SLP or EP, these DVDs are clocking in at just two hours each. So lets quit the jabbering and get right into it!
The second disc opens with Savage in the ring with Scott Shannon. This starts off slower as Shannon has a slow offense and they want to show him as getting the better of Savage. The second Savage gets the better of him he throws him to the outside and comes off the top rope. That double axe handle from the top rope to the outsie is something that always was so impressive and you never really see anymore and Savage was doing this to the outside onto concrete! Imagine how that feels on your feet and ankles! One funny thing Savage does during this match is the way he will slide into the ring so the ref sees him and then sneak out the other side and crawl so the ref doesn't see him and blindside Shannon with strikes. This becomes an absolute mauling by Savage once he takes over. He hits the flying elbow from the top rope, catching his feet and then laying down with the elbow which feels like either he is still getting used to the elbow at this point or had no interest in bumping in this ring. Shannon starts his comeback on the outside and Savage does a great job of selling for him. Savage really was an absolute madman as he turns and starts swinging wildly near the crowd and for a second you really question as a person in the front row if you're going to catch a stray. Shannon blocks an illegal piledriver with a back body drop which results in a double down. The referee gets distracted by Savage as he gets up and Angelo gets in the ring and hits Shannon with his cane. They call out that Shannon's hand was under the rope but the ref kept counting. This also surprised me that Savage wouldn't pull it in and that the ref didn't notice. Good call out by Lance Russell asking why the ref kept counting.
We jump right into this one as well with Humongous already having Lawler down. I love that 84 Memphis has a guy named The Original Road Warrior wearing gear similar to what Demolition will wear a few years later. Memphis ahead of its time. Lawler randomly throws down the strap in this match and immediately rips off Humongous' mask. In modern times you would probably be like "Wow, look at this guy" but in the age of re-dubbed VHS, the grainy footage just has you saying "Holy shit, I didn't realize Sloth wrestled." Lawler lays some hits into Humongous but Humongous recovers and immediately gets his mask back on. Good call. Calhoun got knocked down in the fray and when Humongous attempts to revive him, Lawler grabs a chair that was already in the ring and smashes it over Humongous' head. Likely due to the chair shot, the promoter holds up the Southern Heavyweight Championship. This is the morality play in wrestling that Jesse Ventura was always so great at calling out. Why is it okay for Lawler to the use the chair for the fans when if his opponent did it, there would be outrage and boos? I'll let you come to your own conclusions on that.
We then get a segment with Lawler and Lance going over the match. This takes an immediate turn as Lance asks Lawler's thoughts on Andy Kaufman's recent passing. Lawler stays in character and says they didn't like each other and he wouldn't be the one to ask on his thoughts of his passing.
We transition to Neidhart sitting in the middle of the ring with his legs crossed and Lance calling him a spoiled child. Austin Idol shows up and Neidhart starts yelling at him while Idol walks over to Lance. Idol tries to stay on topic discussing his upcoming match with Randy Savage but Neidhart won't let him. Idol calls Neidhart a habitual loser saying he couldn't cut it in football and can't cut it in wrestling. He looks like a caged rhino in the ring listening to Idol before jumping out the ring and attacking him. His chairshots could use some work but if he is playing to the studio crowd with the desk hiding the shots and the sound they made, that crowd had to have thought that Neidhart murdered Idol. If they would have used the roaming camera to just show Neidhart laying in the chair shots with the desk obscuring it, I imagine even the crowd at home would have assumed that Idol was going to be dead or popping up with a face full of crimson. Lawler runs out and makes the save to scare Neidhart away to end the segment.
Our first shot of AWA with the final few moments of the match. Sheik Adnan tries to interfere but Greg Gagne stops him. While this is going on, King Kong Brody climbs into the ring and starts attacking Jim Brunzell. Gagne tries to make the save but ends up getting beat down. Sheik Adnan holds Greg Gagne's leg down and Brody drops a knee on it immediately hurting him. Brunzell tries to save his partner but takes a beating of his own. Brody leaves them laying as they make a rush for the announcer's table. As Sheik Adnan lays out his plan, Wally Karbo interjects and sends them away and claims that Brody is done wrestling in the AWA.
Another Sheik Adnan team in Ken Patera and Jerry Blackwell. We are in an arena instead of a studio for this one and the crowd is eating up the Mad Dog's offense. Blackwell cannot bring Vachon down no matter what he tries and takes a series of headbutts for his efforts. Mad Dog busts open Blackwell but this is a one camera shot from the hard cam so there are no close ups to give you any indication. Martel is a lot more high energy than Vachon in this but it takes a lot more for him to get a response from the crowd than it does Vachon. He hits a back body drop on Jerry Blackwell which excites the crowd and is also a little bit surprising not so much that Blackwell could take the move but that Martel would be the one to deliver it. I had to do the math here in this and Mad Dog Vachon would have been 55 years old in this match and he is the one getting the shine more than Rick Martel in this. The finish comes when Vachon hits a piledriver on Patera and then catapults Rick Martel in to get the pin on Patera. AWA does not seem in good shape here.
Seeing Ric Flair in his robe in front of the World Championship Wrestling logo is so iconic. Flair tells Solie the match won't take long and walks out of the interview area and to the ring where Television Champion Ronnie Garvin is standing. This is a Television Title match with a 10 minute time limit. Ole is on commentary with Solie here and Ole is going over the merits of Ron Garvin and talks about the points of why Garvin will beat Flair. Flair starts hot but Garvin uses those hands of stone to get the advantage on Flair. Solie has a good line about how football on average has about 14 minutes of contact and says that is the same as a typical wrestling match but without the breaks and time outs. I like that comparison. Flair tries to throw Garvin to the outside similar to what we saw with Kerry in World Class but Garvin lands on his feet and gets in and throws a barrage of punches at Flair. The match with the smaller Garvin is much different than his match with Kerry. They go for the bridge spot but it looks like Garvin, under Flair, has his shoulders on the mat but the referee acts like he is checking his shoulders and claiming they are not down. They seem down. This sets up the bridge spot between the two. They wrestle at such a high pace even while showing some fatigue that it makes you forget that there is the ten minute time limit. Flair is able to get Garvin on the outside and throws Garvin shoulder first into the ring post to gain the unfair advantage. Flair suplexes Garvin back into the ring and starts to pick Garving apart. Ole notes that this is after Kerry's run, noting that Flair has already beat Kerry to win back his title. Solie points out that there isn't much time remaining on this match reminding you of that 10 minute time limit and just as you start to question how much time is left and what the sprint will look like, the bell rings signaling the time limit expiration. Garvin isn't ready to let this go though as he continues beating on Flair with those hands of stone. Flair gets backed out of the ringside area by Ole and a ref while Garvin paces in the ring wanting to continue.
Moving on, we get Intercontinental Champion Tito Santana against Cowboy Bob in New York. The picture looks grainy and for a second I think we are getting Tito Vs. Terry Funk which has me excited but then I get less enthused when I see it is Orton. Before the match can start, we get Hulk Hogan coming out ringside for the match, greeting Tito and then just going to the back. I need to go back and watch WrestleMania 2 to see that interaction now. Apparently Funk and Tito also had a match for an independent promotion in 94. Anyways, they are wrestling in a pony ring which makes them look huge. The match is alright but I'm still disappointed that I thought this was Terry Funk so, eh. Orton takes some great bumps during this and Tito hitting the flying elbow that sends Orton flying out and hitting the timekeepers table which ultimately leads to the double countout is an exciting spot. The match just seems so much slower paced after watching all of the other territories though. I also don't fully get why Tito rolls out of the ring and stays out for the ten count. New York booking, I guess.
We transition to some scrambled video with tracking lines and women in bikinis and I start to get worried that we being hit with the first accidental porn of our videos but it ends up being the a music vide of the Boogie Woogie Man to Joe Walsh's "Life's Been Good" which is a song I was just thinking about a few days ago. Timing. Lot of beach shots, good song, fun video.
We get a shot of the Guerreros but then cut to a promo of Kevin Sullivan getting told he is going to do a hangman's noose match with Blackjack Mulligan. The Twilight Zone music in the background with Sullivan and his crazy look and creepy dialogue talking about killing a rat with a stick and choking himself is such amazing television. Floria Sullivan is so good, it is disappointing we got the hokey Taskmaster in WCW because this creepy fuck could have scared the shit out of a generation. Find the promo with the music, this is so good.
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Dusty Rhodes does a voiceover of Blackjack Mulligan getting hit with a spike in the heart by Sullivan. This tape really feels like watching a bunch of GIFs as this is really just showing the piece of the angle before transitioning. Dusty says Blackjack gets lacerated with the spike in the heart which sounds so scary and Dusty sells it with this promo so well.
We cut to a promo for Dallas from Ric Flair in front of the World Championship Wrestling backdrop with Gordon Solie. I love these little cross promotional bits we get even if it really is nothing. Ric, back with the gold, says his sights are on Mike Von Erich next. He says he plans to come into Dallas and beat up little Michael. Solie finishes it up by saying lightning could strike twice with another Von Erich beating him in Texas. Flair walks out with this comment.
From one backdrop and Gordon Solie to another as we get Solie sans WCW backdrop interviewing Michael Hayes. Hayes cuts his promo with Badstreet playing in the background. Two very different promos between Flair and Hayes but both with their different merits. The Freebirds are over in front of this crowd and Michael Hayes tells the Road Warriors that if they really want to find out how bad they are then they need to come take a walk down the Badstreet.
"Krusher" Kruschev Vs. Terry TaylorTalk about colorful, we go from some colorful characters to Boyd Pierce in one of the loudest suit jackets I've ever seen. This is a Mid South Television Title match. I wondered if we were going to see any more Mid South on this tape after the very short segment at the beginning. I guess this is less compartmentalized updates like an Observer issue and more in order which I guess makes sense considering we saw the beginning and end of Kerry's title reign within this tape. Darsow and Taylor less than a decade later would get a groan from me but in front of this Mid South crowd with a different intensity is actuallyu pretty good. Nobody is sitting on their hands, you can see the crowd interacting, and they are very pro-USA. Kruschev puts some heat on Taylor who sells it well and gets some small shine spots that gets an audible reaction from the crowd. Young babyface Taylor isn't much to look at but the crowd sure loves him. Once it looks like he is really getting the upper hand, Nikolai Volkoff jumps in the ring to get the DQ. Butch Reed comes in to continue to help with the beatdown but Taylor is able to get the better of all three of them. Really? Was Taylor booking this? Dr. Death comes in for the apparent save after Taylor has already handled all three. This leads to a promo by Dr. Death telling Darsow (not Kruschev) that if he wants Dr. Death's All American medal then it will be tied around his neck.
We get a promo for a Superdate at the Superdome for Saturday June 16, 1984 where all unmarried females aged 18 and older can submit a picture and in 25 worlds or less say why they should win the date with the Rock and Roll Express. I guess Watts really took that "Where's the blowjobs" comment from the Memphis office to heart. I can only imagine the types of photos they got. How did they confirm that the women were unmarried as well? I need to know if there was a follow up for this contest and if there were any unexpected surprises in the Rock N Roll Package that the women received. Okay, I'm done. Think the date involved any glass tables? Okay, now I'm really done. Sorry Ricky and Robert.
We get the end of a Rock N Roll match where Mr. Wrestling and Mr. Wrestling II come out and demand a tag title match from them. Ricky says all they have to do is sign on the dotted line. Mr. Wrestling says fine and proceeds to tell the Rock N Roll Express they will but that they won't be leaving with their ring jackets and proceed to rip them apart. Something so simple to build a match. This isn't a shampoo commercial, it is jackets that the Rock N Rolls paid for and get hot about. After the commerical, Jim Ross interviews Mr. Wrestling in the ring before Mr. Wrestling 2's match against Magnum T.A. Ross asks why Wrestling ran when the Rock N Rolls came back. Before we really get an answer, Magnum TA storms the ring and Ross kicks out Mr. Wrestling so the match can start.
Magnum TA Vs. Mr. Wrestling IIMagnum is a house of fire in this match but still looking rough around the edges. He hits a rough looking leg lift that does the job. Mr. Wrestling II takes over and delivers knees to the midsection of Magnum. Wrestling II gets Magnum in a bearhug but stops just short of letting the arm fall three times with a strong fist that he uses to break the hold. Wrestling II gives him a small amount of shine before going right back into the bearhug. Magnum catches the belly-to-belly out of nowhere but before he can get the pin, Mr. Wrestling jumps into the ring to break up a pin and attacks Magnum. Wrestling II uses a foreign object from behind to give them a short advantage that gets broken up by the Rock N Rolls for the save. Match wasn't great, I assume this was included to further the story of the Rock N Rolls and Mr. Wrestling and Wrestling II. Fun to see the young Magnum before his Crockett run though.
This is joined in progress from the Tulsa State Faigrounds on May 13th. Watts notes this is mother's day and talks about the wrestlers not getting the chance to be home for these holidays. Thanks Bill. Magnum gets busted open on the outside. This is a single camera shot from a roaming camera so you get some grainy close ups but it is still hard to see the blood which is also probably due to the lighting which I really enjoy but makes it harder to make out what is going on because it also darkens parts of the ring. Magnum has a great fire up and intensity. Wrestling gets Magnum in an abdominal stretch but when Magnum hiptosses Wrestling to get out, Karl Fergie gets taken out allowing Mr. Wrestling II to attempt to interfere. This distraction also helps Wrestling load up his kneepad but he misses and catches Wrestling II. This allows Magnum to roll up Wrestling and Fergie, writhing in pain one second immediately leaps over to count the pin and award Magnum TA the North American Championship. One thing that I love is how the second Magnum wins the house lights come on and you see a gigantic crowd erupting for the title win. Some people love the way current arenas are lit but I love when they were like this because you didn't have everyone in the crowd attempting to get themselves over, it allowed you to focus on the match and hear the crowd but not deal with signs and bullshit. You then bring them in for the only part that they really need to be featured for which is the eruption and cheers. I wish we could normalize this again.
We are joined by Junkyard Dog talking to Lance Russell in Memphis before getting interrupted by Buddy Landell. This leads to Butch Reed attacking him from behind and saying that he has painted Dog yellow all around the world. This time instead of painting him yellow like they just had done on Mid South television, Reed and Landell tar and feather him. You have to love Junkyard Dog's promo style. I wish he would have stayed in better shape because a JYD with better cardio and this promo style would have been golden for a lot longer than he was.
We get $50K put on the line by The Midnights against the Rock N Roll's tag titles. Before the match, the Rock N Roll's get presented with new ring jackets which I'm assuming were the jackets that got ripped by the Mr Wrestling and Wrestling II. These four wrestled each other so many times that I imagine they can anticipate what the other is going to do before the other does it. You always hear the old timers talk about being able to go in cold against someone and how that art is lost. I wonder how much of that has to do with working with another person so much that you know everything they do and can anticipate exactly how they do it. Not to discount the guys that could go in there cold with a stranger and call everything in the ring but in a match like this where you know these guys have went around the horn in multiple territories multiple times, they know exactly what to expect when someone calls something. I guess that is a long winded way of saying this match is as smooth as butter. Eaton tries to ram Robert into the ring post but gets reversed and busted open. Morton sees Condrey about to come off the top rope onto a prone Gibson but Morton covers over Gibson to save him in a fun spot. Gibson gets a sleeper hold on Eaton but they knock the referee out of the ring. Cornette uses this time to spray a rag down with a substance and puts it over Gibson's face until Gibson is unconscious. Eaton is able to roll over and gets the pin on Gibson, awarding the titles to the Midnights. This is a fun ending to the match with the assist going to Corny. This was no disqualification so I guess it didn't need the ref bump but it was still fun here for Cornette to cheat.
We get treated to a Cornette promo where he is paying Butch Reed to team with the Midnights against the Rock N Rolls and Jim Duggan. They spend the time talking about how dumb Duggan is and emphasizing that the money will protect Cornette.
Back to New York with Mean Gene promoting a July 20th show for the Kiel Auditorium. We get an interview with Jesse Ventura who will be challenging Ivan Putski in an arm wrestling match. Jesse "The Body" makes fun of Paduski and his five foot body. This cuts mid-promo.
From one mouth to another when we get Jimmy Hart combing his hair and talking about Bob Geigel ripping off his wrestlers The Grapplers. This is a Central States promo. Jimmy says he is a busy man and can't deal with this and talks about all of the men he manages. This also cuts off and we get a bunch of short jumps before landing us back in New York.
Sgt. Slaughter Vs. Iron SheikWe are in the World's Most Famous Arena for the boot camp match. There has been such a range of matches and styles on this card for just these two months and it is interesting to see the different reactions from all the crowds and just how big many of them are. Slaughter coming out battle ready with the helmet and attacking Sheik with it is great. This good versus evil battle in New York City has the crowd on their feet and cheering like mad. I love Slaughter putting the helmet on and headbutting Sheik with it. Sheik is so great at selling in this match and Slaughter's bump going over the ropes in the corner to the outside is fun. I also love the randomness of Sheik with the belt over his trunks just to use to whip and beat Slaughter with. One thing I like about the belt around the throat rest hold is that you actually feel like Sheik is choking out Slaughter so you are invested rather than watching two guys sit in a bullshit hold that neither are selling. This has a good pace to it and the crowd and action keeps you into it. Sheik flying outside the ring multiple times is such a sight to see considering less than twenty years later he could barely walk to the ring. Slaughter is such a good face in peril in this as well and Sheik spitting on him after busting him open is a fun sight. The second the blood gets flowing there is a second wind for the fans, especially with how much blood is flowing. I am curious what an alternate universe would look like if Slaughter got the Hogan push. I don't think he is a giant killer like Hogan was but could he conceivably have been as big as Hogan? I think Hogan had to be there for the rock and wrestling so they are not as big in the MTV era but could there have been a pivot to the children, GI Joe, and patriot crowd that could have made him just as big? Sheik gets busted open and this bloodbath and the intensity has me sitting all the way forward in my seat. I do laugh about the loading up of the boot, especially when Sheik pulls it off and loads it by hitting it against the turnbuckle. I would love a spot where he tries to load it up but it doesn't work. Slaughter steals the loaded boot and hits Sheik with it to put him down for the pin. Absolutely masterful match. It has been so long since I've seen this and it still holds up. USA! USA!
This tape ends with Captain Lou Albano getting interviewed by Mean Gene. Gene asks if Albano can control "Bulldog" Buzz Sawyer. Why do I not remember Buzz coming into WWF? Albano goes on and on about a psychologist reviewing Sawyer to determine his mental health and says as long as he controls him, everything will be fine. We see how that worked out. Albano says he has hypnotized him to help make him function as a human being. Mean Gene questions how this will go. So do I.
We then transition to another promo with Captain Lou where Piper calls out the actions of Cyndi Lauper. Did Captain Lou actually associate with Buzz Sawyer or was this dropped for the Lauper angle? I'm going to need to dig into that even more. Piper talks with Lauper and Lauper challenges Albano to find a woman wrestler to challenge a woman wrestler that Lauper will second. Albano calls Lauper a disgrace to her family and accepts the challenge. The promo ends with him spilling milk all over himself as gets more and more hot about the challenge.
I loved watching the territories like this. This felt like watching a great collection of Twitter posts of what is going on in wrestling without all the doomscrolling and occasional shitty opinion. I know that this is also constantly called out but it is also crazy to think that people would wait weeks to months to get this VHS tape just to find out what was going on in their favorite territories. In the 80s, people would see what PWI reported on their territory which was already a few months behind and then get a compilation like this shortly after. In the 90s into the early 00s, the early portions of the internet would get a road report (Shoutout DVDVR Playaz~! ON THE ROAD) and have to wait for a bulk buy or VHS to be released. Nowadays if it takes a few days for CZW to get Tournament of Death cut and uploaded, people lose their mind (or not, CZW is no longer quite screaming relevance outside of bloodthirsty fans). I look forward to seeing more McAdam comps, hopefully I run across them in this everflowing mountain of wrestling goodness!
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RESPECT TO THE DEATH VALLEY PLAYAZ~!