Ric Flair’s North Carolina Lottery Commercial.

It’s not WOOO its WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Stan Hansen is an interesting fellow. Considered by many to be one of the best overall workers in the history of the business. His runs in Texas, the AWA, a short sting in WCW, and big runs New Japan and All Japan Pro Wrestling have made him legendary.

Known to have influenced such workers as Barry Windham and John “Bradshaw” Layfield (both of which incorporated the “Lariat” into their arsenal of moves), Hansen seems to be a forgotten legend to most casual fans. I can’t blame them too much though; he was before their time.

He knew how to sell, he knew how to put together a main event caliber match, and he knew how to make everything he did look real. His punches looked like they would knock your head off, and at times they did. It was a well-known fact that Hansen was blind. I mean, not Helen Keller blind, but he couldn’t see very well. So when he’d throw out his arm for a looping right hand or a Lariat, he swung it as hard as could and made sure it connected. He would rather have knocked somebody unconscious and protected the business than have missed completely and made it look fake. This subsequently led to Hansen accidentally knocking Vader’s eye out of it’s socket in a match in Japan.
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In the 80s, when two big champions squared off face to face – it was a big deal and almost always guaranteed a sell out.

Today we present a face to face back and forth promo between WWWF Champion Bob Backlund and NWA World Heavyweight Champion “Nature Boy” Ric Flair, hyping up a big unification match to happen on Independence Day – July 4th, 1982, at the Omni in Atlanta, GA. In the early 80s, Georgia was one of the hottest territories in the country and the Omni was a perfect building to host this big match.

Thanks to Jared Cheeseman for the heads-up

One of the absolute best promos in the history of the business courtesy of the greatest of all time…

Thank You Sweet William…

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

July 14th, 1984 is a DAY… WHICH WILL LIVE… IN INFAMY!!!!

It is called by NWA marks as “Black Saturday”. The “World Championship Wrestling” 6:05 timeslot on Saturday nights, which throughout history was under the stranglehold of primarily Georgia Championship Wrestling and the NWA, was purchased by Vince McMahon and the World Wrestling Federation as part of the WWF’s national expansion, or as some call it, takeover.

Jack Brisco and Gerald Brisco were both co-owners along with Ole Anderson before the Brisco’s sold their stock of Georgia to Vince McMahon (including the timeslot), which explains why Gerald is still seen as a “stooge” and has a job for life. This was somewhat of a “double-cross”, but hey, business is business.

Georgia Championship Wrestling was one of the cornerstones of the NWA in the late 70s and early 80s, providing a rougher, more athletic pro wrestling show rather than the WWF’s over the top steroid bodies and cartoon gimmicks.

Ironically enough, the WWF show, for perhaps the first time in company history, EPICALLY FAILED when compared to a REAL wrestling product and became a ratings disaster. The other real issue with it was that the content that McMahon provided to Turner was essentially “re-runs”, a.k.a. matches and promos that already aired in other markets in syndication or on the World Wrestling Federation’s television network.

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In 1987, the WWE created The Survivor Series to combat the NWA’s Starrcade. It was a Thanksgiving wrestling war, but in reality it was a Thanksgiving PPV war. Vince McMahon used his leverage as the king of PPV wrestling to strong arm the cable companies to only show his Survivor Series instead of showing both since the NWA was willing to move their show to earlier in the day (I think it was earlier).

My dad used to give blank tapes to a friend who had one of those pirate boxes and she recorded Wrestlemania III for me that way. Back in 1987, I didn’t know that Vince McMahon was telling cable companies that they had to only show his Survivor Series or else miss out on Wrestlemania IV. And really, they should’ve missed out on that terrible show. I was heartbroken when my tape showed Starrcade 87 instead of the Survivor Series. I wanted Hulk Hogan, not Dusty Rhodes. My cable company decided to call Vince’s bluff and showed Starrcade 87 instead which in retrospect wasn’t so bad at all because I really liked Starrcade even if history tells you that Chicago didn’t necessarily love it. And looking back, I can see why.

Even as an 11 year old boy, I knew that not putting the belts on the Road Warriors was a mistake. They were over big time live and the Dusty finish just left everyone watching really deflated. And though I thought Ronnie Garvin was a legit contender to Ric Flair’s throne, I don’t think the older wrestling fans did. Flair was getting cheered in their World Title cage match. But still, I was into it. I was always curious about why Dr. Death Steve Williams wasn’t ever in the title picture because on that night, I thought he looked like the toughest wrestler I ever saw after destroying Barry Windham. I wonder what would’ve happened if it was Dr. Death booked against Flair instead of Garvin.

I didn’t get to see WWE’s alternative until it came out on video tape many months later. But they were laying the seed to a Hulk Hogan vs. Andre The Giant rematch after Team Andre defeated Team Hulk in their match. Hulk wasn’t even around for the finish. I just remember Bam Bam Bigelow doing somersaults.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.