Tag: dragonkingkarl classic wrestling show
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DragonKingKarl Greatest Kayfabe Tournament: John Cena vs. Sting
Image: WWE The Greatest Kayfabe Tournament continues this week with one of our most interesting matches ever. John Cena vs Sting. From two different eras but two wrestlers very similar in many ways. Both were, at times, the franchise players for their promotions. Neither were technical masters but both were exceptionally popular with fans. You…
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DragonKingKarl Classic Wrestling Show: WWC Aniversario 1985 review
Today’s episode of the DragonKingKarl Classic Wrestling Show features a fun retro review of the 1985 WWC (Puerto Rico) Anivesario Show which recently appeared on YouTube. The show includes a wild barbed wire tag team match between The Sheepherders (the future Bushwhackers) and The Invaders. Plus, Abdullah the Butcher faces Carlos Colon, an NWA World…
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DragonKingKarl Greatest Kayfabe Tournament: Funk Jr. vs. Vachon
Match number 27 in the Greatest Kayfabe Tournament takes place this week and pits two contemporaries against each other: NWA World champion Dory Funk Jr. vs. AWA World champion Mad Dog Vachon. The two actually met several times in real life and — surprisingly — it appears one is undefeated against the other. Let’s talk about…
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DragonKingKarl Classic Wrestling Show: The death of Eddie Gilbert
From the pages of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, we go over Dave Meltzer’s obituary of Eddie Gilbert on today’s episode. Gilbert was a good southern style brawler wrestler and studied the wrestling business. By his late 20s he had already booked in Memphis, Watts’ UWF, Continental, WCW, and the early days of ECW. He was…
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DragonKingKarl Classic Wrestling Show: Mid-Atlantic retro TV review
This week on the DragonKingKarl Classic Wrestling Show we take a look back at Mid-Atlantic Jim Crockett pro wrestling from May 1986. The episode features Boogie Woogie Man Jimmy Valiant, Hector Guerrero & Manny Fernandez as a tag team, Jim Cornette and The Midnight Express (Bobby Eaton & Dennis Condrey) doing battle with The James Boys/Gang (Magnum…
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DragonKingKarl Classic Wrestling Show: History of wrestling hillbillies
We continue our down home country month with Karl Stern taking a look at famous pro wrestling hillbilly gimmicks, including the incredible story of Elvira Snodgrass, a pioneer in women’s wrestling who partnered with her hillbilly husband Elmer. Elvira was married several times, had a car wreck. and literally cut her own arm off to…
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DragonKingKarl Classic Wrestling Show: December 1981 in pro wrestling
On this episode of the DragonKingKarl Classic Wrestling show, we finish going through the year of 1981. NWA World Champion Ric Flair tours Florida, Bob Backlund battles Don Muraco in the WWF, and Bruiser Brody & Jimmy Snuka win the annual All Japan tag team tournament. Plus, Sports Illustrated does a story on Andre the Giant,…
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DragonKingKarl Classic Wrestling Show: Death of Jerry Blackwell
Today we return to the pages of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter for another biography/obituary from Dave Meltzer. This time we look at the Mountain From Stone Mountain — Jerry “Crusher” Blackwell. Blackwell was a big star in the AWA and remained loyal to them for most of his career, though he did also have success…
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DragonKingKarl Classic Wrestling Show: ECW TV pilot review
Now for something really scary. Oh boy, maybe you were a fan of the counterculture ECW promotion back in the 1990s, I know I was. Well, be glad the original pilot episode never aired. It is very indierific. We have Sandman before he was a hardcore legend and was just a surfer dude, assorted northeast…
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DragonKingKarl Classic Wrestling Show: WCW Uncensored 1996 Doomsday Cage match
Now for something really scary! In 1996, Hulk Hogan, running on fumes with the red and yellow Superman gimmick, decided it would be a good idea to just destroy all the heels in one match and even import a few. So, Hogan grabbed partner Randy Savage and a three-story cage gimmick was built. The Dungeon…
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DragonKingKarl Classic Wrestling Show: 2020 Observer HOF ballot discussion
It’s time for historically our most popular show of the year. Karl Stern (DragonKingKarl) has been a voter in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame for over a decade and every year discusses the ballot on his podcast. If you’ve ever wondered about the wording, criteria, and structure of the ballot — all is…
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DragonKingKarl Classic Wrestling Show: Minus Five Stars – Hogan vs. Warrior
Our retro wrestling review today continues our look at Wrestling Observer MINUS FIVE STARS rated matches. We travel back in time to WCW Halloween Havoc 1998 on this episode. WCW had been on a hot run in 1998 but cracks were beginning to show and a big chip fell off when Hollywood Hulk Hogan tried to…
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DragonKingKarl Classic Wrestling Show: Fall of 1980
This is part six of our look at the year 1980 in pro wrestling and we are up to the fall. Austin Idol sort of wins a World title in Memphis. The Freebirds are in Georgia. SECW debuts its classic TV show including all of Alabama and the Florida panhandle with Bob Armstrong as the top…
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DragonKingKarl Classic Wrestling Show special: Rest in peace Bob Armstrong
Southern pro wrestling legend and WWE Hall of Famer “Bullet” Bob Armstrong has died at the age of 80 following a battle with bone cancer. Bullet Bob is a man I met many, many times, worked around at many shows, and grew up watching. His sons Scott, Steve, Brad, and Brian (Road Dogg) all had…
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DragonKingKarl Classic Wrestling Show: From the pages of the Observer – Boris Malenko & Art Barr
Today on the DragonKingKarl Classic Wrestling Audio Show, host Karl Stern dives back into the pages of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter for Dave Meltzer’s biographies on Boris Malenko (the father of wrestler and future agent Dean Malenko) and Art Barr. The death of Barr was treated as a huge loss for pro wrestling at the…
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DragonKingKarl Greatest Kayfabe Tournament: The Rock vs. Dick the Bruiser
Round one of the GKT: Greatest Kayfabe Tournament continues as we ask the question: if pro wrestling were real (not a shoot but the characters as presented real) who would win? On this episode. The Rock vs. Dick the Bruiser! You have voted and I have the results. The most electrifying man in sports entertainment and mega-movie…
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DragonKingKarl Classic Wrestling Show: Old Tyme Wrestling Hour
This week, Karl Stern brings you a new Old Tyme Wrestling Hour Podcast. On this episode: the pioneer era of wrestling in Mexico isn’t what I expected. In fact, it appears Asian in origin with links to jiu-jitsu and American frontier wrestling combined into one thing. It gets weird. Also, a man died during a match…
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DragonKingKarl Classic Wrestling Show: Bruno Sammartino loses title to Ivan Koloff
We continue to celebrate my birthday all week long at When It Was Cool by looking back at the year 1971. Today on the DragonKingKarl Classic Wrestling Show, I look back at a match that is still remembered 49 years later for the reaction it invoked. Bruno Sammartino was the WWWF Champion and had been dominant, dispatching…
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DragonKingKarl Classic Wrestling Show: 1981 – Flair wins his first World title
On today’s show, we pick up our longform history of pro wrestling series in the late summer of 1981 and cover August and September. Bob Backlund’s reign as WWF Champion continues, Nick Bockwinkel has a largely forgettable feud with Sheik Adnan, and Dusty Rhodes as NWA World Champion has a run through Florida until losing the…
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DragonKingKarl Greatest Kayfabe Tournament: Austin vs. Hansen
The battle for Texas rages in the latest installment of the Greatest Kayfabe Tournament, a podcast series at WIWC and Wrestling Observer asking the question: If pro wrestling were real (not a shoot, but the characters as presented were real) who would win? This episode features two of my favorites: “Stone Cold” Steve Austin and…