Educate me on the 70's and 80's

[Con T.]

[YOUTUBE]1SpDr9FOIPI[/youtube]

If you want to watch a pretty good summary of the 80s, at least related to the WWF, might I recommend this series?

http://www.blip.tv/oswreview2

Really good reviews, they come extremely smarky at times, especially around the time Wrestlemania 5 hits, but they're very comprehensive. They review the pay per views, but they also give all the background and goings on in professional wrestling

 

[Mr. Artistic guy]

Watch a bit of the legends of wrestling roundtable. The relevant ones. I think it's a matter of looking at the relevant performers to get a good picture. Piper, Flair, Rhodes, The Funks, Briscos, The Erichs, Rock,n,Rock express, Midnight express, L.O.D, Harley Race, Andre and so on. It seems from the point of view of someone who isn't an expert, it's an era where you were more assured to get the very best at the top, that's how the territories seemed to work so the top performers could almost guarantee you the best viewing pleasure.

As you asked, the story about Piper as I understand it is that he was a reckless young man who had very little in the way of things he wouldn't do to get heat. I heard him tell a story about how one of the older guys acknowledged how good he was but tried to sabotage him to keep his own spot safe. Freddie Blassie I believe. Story goes that Roddy with his heritage was a very good bagpipe player. One night when he was in the throngs of getting a big break, he was instructed to play the bagpipes to entertain the audience. Freddie Blassie filled the bagpipe tubes with paper to make sure it would all fall flat. From that day, knowing what other guys would do according to Roddy it turned him into a meaner guy and really laid the seeds for him to be a great heel in wrestling history. If you really want tyo know more about him then I suggest going back and watching Ric Flair's introduction for him at the 2005 HOF ceremony.

 

[Lee]

Yeah the legend of wrestling series is really good, makes you appreciate people like Slaughter a bit more.

 

[PsychoBlack]

Like I said before you can't go wrong with Flair or Bockwinkel. I understand that every one just cant get into Hogan for whatever reason but trust me Flair is every bit of awesome as advertised. Check him out against Steamboat, Luger, Windham, Sting and anyone else who called there self a pro wrestler in the 80s.

Bockwinkel vs Lawler or Hennig is just a classic combination that you cant go wrong with. He also had a few great matches with Bruiser Brody and Stan Hansen. He even had a great match with Ric Flair but only the second half is on tape. His promos inspired a lot of what you see today with guys using an extensive vocabulary and wearing expensive business suits. A lot of Bockwinkel's best work is hard to find though seeing as how he began wrestling in the 50's.

 

[shattered dreams]

Shouldn't you have a clue about today's product

Not if he wants to keep his job.

Someone get Gelgarin back in here, I didn't expect anything of interest to come from this thread but now I crave more.

 

[Chrome]

If someone offers to teach you about the 70's, run in the other direction. America in the 70's is an exceptionally dull subject. Most of the territories are stagnating, both the WWF and Jim Crockett don't start being interesting again until the dawn of the 80's. AWA is pretty much the only place where anything interesting was happening.

Superstar Billy Graham promos were great something to research as so many copied him later on in the 80s

 

[PsychoBlack]

Superstar Billy Graham promos were great something to research as so many copied him later on in the 80s

Hell they still copy him until this day.