Tag: dragonking karl classic wrestling show
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DragonKingKarl Classic Wrestling Show: Wrestling Superstars from fall 1983
Karl Stern returns with another classic magazine review. Just in time for the release of my new book, DragonKingKarl’s 1983 Pro Wrestling Omnibus, let’s review the Fall 1983 issue of the Apter magazines’ quarterly special: Wrestling Superstars. This issue focused heavily on Georgia Championship Wrestling who was going through some things in 1983. Yes, the “Last Battle of…
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DragonKingKarl Classic Wrestling Show: History of pro wrestling at MSG in 1877
On this week’s DragonKingKarl Classic Wrestling Show, we travel back in time to the pioneer era of wrestling — 1877 — to see the first actual non-tournament pro wrestling cards at New York City’s Madison Square Garden. At this point, MSG was still known as Gilmore’s Garden but these shows were drawing sizable crowds for…
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DragonKingKarl Classic Wrestling Show: The death of Giant Baba
Dave Meltzer’s Giant Baba obituary from the February 8th, 1999, Wrestling Observer Newsletter may be one of his most massive obituaries in his history. The size of a small book, the story of Baba is woven into many of the most important stories of pro wrestling history, especially that of Japan. We all know Dave is a…
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DragonKingKarl True Crime Wrestling Stories: The case of Mr. Wrestling 2, pt. 1
Welcome to the first of a three-part series focused on Mr. Wrestling 2 as part of my true crime stories from the world of professional wrestling — a series that is not for the kids or faint-of-heart as we will be discussing some very heavy themes. This focuses on a little-known assault story involving Mr. Wrestling…
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DragonKingKarl Classic Wrestling Show: WWF Superstars, new rap
On this week’s DragonKingKarl Classic Wrestling Show, I present to you another, hopefully laugh-filled, retro wrestling review. This week, we travel back to May 1994 when the then-WWE was really struggling to come up with something. Scandal had eroded public popularity and troubles were everywhere. So, they tried to freshen things up with a Puerto…
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DragonKingKarl Greatest Kayfabe Tournament: Chris Jericho vs. Jushin Liger
Round two of our GKT Greatest Kayfabe Tournament continues, pitting Chris Jericho against Jushin Thunder Liger. Though these two are contemporaries, they have actually wrestled far fewer times than you might imagine and only once in a singles match. Liger has been a favorite of mine since his debut and Jericho, I believe, is actually…
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DragonKingKarl Classic Wrestling Show: The true crime story of Jeff Gaylord
I didn’t start doing these pro wrestling true crime podcasts to be funny but then, there’s Jeff Gaylord: pro wrestling star and bungling bank robber. I had always heard that Gaylord was a little, well, not so bright. As it turns out, that was accurate. I lost count of how many banks he robbed along the…
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DragonKingKarl Classic Wrestling Show: May 1982
We take a deep dive into May 1982 when 21,000 people turned out to the Superdome in New Orleans to see the Junkyard Dog & Mr. Olympia battle The Samoans. Plus, the Buzz Sawyer vs. Tommy Rich rivalry was raging on in Georgia, Jimmy Garvin won the Florida title, Hulk Hogan was chasing AWA World Champion Nick Bockwinkel,…
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DragonKingKarl Classic Wrestling Show: Florida wrestling in August 1985
On this edition of the DragonKingKarl Classic Wrestling Show, I put a spotlight on southern wrestling as we visit the Florida wrestling territory as it begins its fall after the death of Eddie Graham. It was still a viable territory at this point with NWA World Champion Ric Flair coming to town to face Wahoo McDaniel…
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DragonKingKarl Classic Wrestling Show: The true crime story of Jose Gonzalez
Image: NotiCel We all know the story of the killing of Bruiser Brody. In this latest true crime deep dive, I focus in on his killer (Jose Gonzalez) instead of rehashing the whole story once again. The popular version of that story is that Gonzalez murdered Brody in a shower by stabbing him and then was…
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DragonKingKarl Classic Wrestling Show: April 1982 in pro wrestling
We are up to April 1982 on this week’s DragonKingKarl longform history of pro wrestling with tons of interesting stuff happening at that point of time. Jerry Lawler has his famous first match against Andy Kaufman in Memphis; Andre The Giant won what is now called the G1 Climax in New Japan; it was the…
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DragonKingKarl Classic Wrestling Show: March 1982
I continue with my longform history of pro wrestling podcast series with a look at March 1982. Bob Backlund was WWWF champion and feuding with both Jesse Ventura and Adrian Adonis, Ric Flair was facing many different opponents including a memorable series with Butch Reed, and Nick Bockwinkel reigned as champion over the AWA. Plus, I discuss Jerry…
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DragonKingKarl Greatest Kayfabe Tournament: Steamboat vs. Angle
Image: WWE This edition of the GKT (Greatest Kayfabe Tournament) features two of the best workers in modern history: Ricky Steamboat and Kurt Angle. Between the two, they have a library of some of the best matches of the last 40 years so what happens when they collide? The listeners voted and we have a…
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DragonKingKarl Greatest Kayfabe Tournament: AJ Styles vs. Booker T
The votes are in and you have chosen a winner in match 26 of round one of The Greatest Kayfabe Tournament: AJ Styles vs. Booker T in a clash of two modern era wrestlers. Styles started off in the Georgia indies, got a small break in WCW, but really came into his own in TNA.…
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DragonKingKarl Classic Wrestling Show: UFC Ultimate Ultimate 1996
I had press passes to the UFC Ultimate Ultimate tournament 1996 in Birmingham, Alabama, a show that featured Don Frye, Tank Abbott, Ken Shamrock, Kimo, Gary Goodrich, and others. I met and talked to all of them, as well as Dan Severn who was at the show with one of his trainees and a fellow…
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DragonKingKarl Classic Wrestling Show: American Gladiators
American Gladiators was a weird hybrid athletics show that combined a game show with basically pro wrestling style entertainment. There were even crossovers between the two, and American Gladiators was clearly marketed toward pro wrestling fans. On this retro episode, Karl Stern takes a look back at this quirky game-sport.
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DragonKingKarl Greatest Kayfabe Tournament: Antonio Inoki vs. Harley Race
It’s time for match 22 in round 1 of the Greatest Kayfabe Tournament, a fun way to do some pro wrestling biographies. On this edition, we have a very close match-up: Antonio Inoki vs. Harley Race. Inoki was the ace (and founder) for New Japan Pro Wrestling for many years. In storyline, he also was…
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DragonKingKarl Classic Wrestling Show: History of the NWA title, pt. 4
The fourth part of my historical look at the NWA World heavyweight title covers the legendary Ric Flair era with the belt. Who was really promised what? Why Ronnie Garvin? This episode looks at the most famous era of the National Wrestling Alliance World heavyweight championship including the switch from the 10 pounds of gold to the big gold…
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DragonKingKarl Classic Wrestling Show: The Lawler-Idol hair vs. hair match
Image: Scott Bowden Straight out of 1986-87, this week’s DragonKing Karl Classic Wrestling Show takes a deep dive into the Jerry Lawler vs Austin Idol hair vs hair match that took place in a steel cage. I had such fun putting this show together and I encourage fans of both classic and modern wrestling to…
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DragonKingKarl Classic Wrestling Show: Spring 1981 in pro wrestling
The spring of 1981 saw Harley Race continue his run as NWA World champion, Ron Fuller losing his smile and going home, Junkyard Dog cranking it up in Louisiana, Hulk Hogan battling Jerry Lawler in Memphis, a big name wrestler appearing on a game show, Sgt. Slaughter becoming a force in WWF, Don Muraco heading to WWF, and…