I know this is a comics board, but there's some pro wrestling fans here, too. I've started checking YouTube for vintage wrestling TV and am creating "Pro Wrestling 40 years ago this week" playlists. If you interested, feel free to check it out. And if you've found matches or episodes I missed, please let me know and I'll add them.

Here's the first - Dec 1-7th, 1983: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNpH ... _RQg8vr0cf

World Class (Texas)
- Black Gordman & Tonga John & Boris Zhukov vs. Jose Lothario & Mike Reed & John Mantell
- Mike von Erich vs. Skandar Akbar (Mike's debut match)
- Junkyard Dog & Iceman King Parsons vs. Super Destroyers

Mid-South (Oaklahoma/Louisiana)
- Krusher Darsow - vs. Doug Vines
- Nicolai Volkoff vs. Dr. Death Steve Williams
- Midnight Express vs. Lanny Poffo & Joshua Stroud
- Magnum TA vs. Frank Lavert
- Mr. Wrestling II vs. Missing Link
- Jim Duggan vs. Tom Lintz
- Carl Fergie & Tonga the Barbarian vs. Rick Rood & Mike Jackson

Mid-Atlantic (Carolinas)
- Jimmy Valiant vs. Magic Dragon
- Kevin Sullivan & Mark Lewin vs. John Bonello & Rick McCord
- Ricky Steamboat & Jay Youngblood vs. Gary Royal & Kelly Kiniski
- Greg Valentine vs. Keith Larsen
- Mark Youngblood vs. Bill Howard
- Dick Slater vs. Vinnie Valentino

WWC (Puerto Rico)
- John Bonelo vs. Mercenario #1
- Pierre Martel vs. Mercenario #2
- Johnny Rivera & Gino Della Serra vs.Mr. Tempest & El Scorpio
- El Gran Apollo & Princess Victoria vs. The Dallas Cowgirl & Dick Steinborn

All-Star (Vancouver)
- Mike Dupree vs Randy Rich
- Moretti vs Joe Cagle (arena highlights)
- Moondog Moretti vs. Precious Peter Flowers

AJPW (Japan)
- Genichiro Tenyru vs. Barry Windham
- Bruiser Brody & Stan Hansen vs. Mils Mascaras & Don Caras

Thumb tags, my friend.

Also added match lists. So many cool wrestlers, and that last Japanese match is gonna be a blast.

Nice thread.

Mid-Atlantic represent!

My favorite was Wahoo McDaniels. Can't remember if he had hung up the headdress by 1983.

Wahoo McDaniel played for the NY Jets!

Hacksaw Jim Duggar is from Glens Falls NY! Where I was born!

What organization was Jerry Lawler in Memphis? I've seen a lot of that now from the Andy Kaufman docs.

He was still competing in 1989 for the AWA. I think he became a road agent for Crockett/Turner after that. He's awesome.

The first wrestler I was a fan of was Greg Valentine (after renting the VHS of WrestleMania I).

CWA. I couldn't find an episode for this week. Next week there will be a clip of Macho Man Randy Savage raiding the CWA studios calling him out, and then a cage match between the two in Savage's family promotion the IWA. After that, there should be full episodes pretty regularly.

At this time, I think Mid-Atlantic had the best wrestling in the USA but Memphis had the most entertaining TV show.

Japan had the best wrestling overall. They had access to pretty much every wrestler on the planet at the time and they didn't use jobbers. There were a lot of dream matches over there - The Funk Brothers vs. The Road Warriors, AWA Champ Rick Martel vs. NWA Champ Ric Flair, etc. They recorded almost everything so they still exist in full. I mean, look at the last match on this week's list. How cool is that??? The baddest 'rasslers from Texas battling two absolute legends from Mexico.

A couple for Jay:

Wahoo's retirement annoucement:



And I think this is his last televised match, from AWA in 1989 on ESPN:



And one for me, my favorite Wahoo match. 2/3 falls for the NWA World Title against Ric Flair in Tampa, Florida.

I enjoyed Wahoo. He would roll into Minneapolis and wrestle in the AWA for a month or three then disappear for awhile.
Back in the early 1970s, I had no idea that there were different wrestling promotions in other parts of the States/world
and that wrestlers would rotate through the circuit.

I think the AWA existed in some form or another from 1960 until 1991, but it was pretty much over when most of their
talent jumped ship to the WWF in the early 1980s.

Still, if you stumble across a 40-year old AWA match or two, I'd be interested in seeing it. By then, I was in college and
never caught much wrestling. But, as I said, most of their big names have left. They still had semi-stars like Jim
Brunzell and Greg Gagne, Nick Bockwinkel, Billy Robinson, Jesse Ventura, Mad Dog Vachon & Baron Von Raschke,
the later who I met at college while we were filling our cars at a gas station.

Next week will have Nick Bockwinkel vs Rick Martel for the AWA Title.

I didn't see AWA wrestling until 1988 and it was on its last legs by then. I remember loving the Midnight Rockers vs Badd Company feud, though. Eventually I got to see older shows and enjoyed a lot of it. 1986 in particular was awesome. Bockwinkel, Stan Hansen, The Midnight Rockers, Buddy Rose, Curt Hennig - great stuff. The 1987 Bockwinkel vs Hennig hour draw is still one of the best matches I've seen on video.

Yeah, Curt Hennig was good, and drew larger crows than Larry the Axe Hennig did. Although Larry developed
into a more brutal wrestler later on and joined forces with Harley Race. By then, Larry was known as "Pretty Boy."

I heard recently that Larry's granddaughter was apparently wrestling as (Amy) Ms. Perfect. I should look if she's got
a match online to watch.

Yeah, she looks quite a bit like Curt.

Any interest in me doing a similar thread to boxing fights starting in the new year?

When I first discovered wrestling, my only options were Continental Championship Wrestling out of Knoxville, which would have been my local NWA promotion, and whatever the WWF Saturday program was. Looking back at it, I would have killed to have watched the other promotions too.

I freakin' LOVE Continental (Southeastern) Wrestling. To hell with production values, it was much, much better than the WWF product at the time IMO. That promotion will start showing up soon, too. I just couldn't find the episode from this particular week.

I've never had any interest in boxing except for a few months when they were showing some small card matches on ESPN
and me and my room mate--completely oblivious to who the boxers were--would wager one dollar on every match. Yeah,
we were kind of bored that month.

Yeah, WWF had better production, but even as a kid it was a little too over the top for my taste. I might have my timeline messed up a bit, but I think when I first started watching the Nightmares were still a tag team, and Ron Fuller had recently stopped wrestling and just managed the Stud Stable, if even that.

That sounds around about 1986-88. Bullet Bob and the Armstrong boys, Robert Fuller, The Nightmares, the Rich family, Jimmy Golden, etc.

Btw, love the Bone avatar. Great comic.