Here's a pretty interesting historic article from the wwe.com crew about rare titles from the '70s/'80s:
http://www.wwe.com/classics/classic-lists/10-titles-you-never-knew-existed
A good read for those of us who didn't get into wrestling until the '90s.
And, there's a clip of this Jumping Bomb Angels/Glamor Girls tag title match included in the article:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x54slb_royal-rumble-1988_sport#.UUt4fVfRP-s
I was fairly surprised at how good (great?) it was considering it's a WWF women's match. Might be a good match of the day candidate for the blog.
A good read for those of us who didn't get into wrestling until the '90s.
And, there's a clip of this Jumping Bomb Angels/Glamor Girls tag title match included in the article:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x54slb_royal-rumble-1988_sport#.UUt4fVfRP-s
I was fairly surprised at how good (great?) it was considering it's a WWF women's match. Might be a good match of the day candidate for the blog.
As a belt mark, that was some good stuff. And I kinda love that there's an actual backstory to the mysterious Rio De Janeiro tournament that created the IC title.
And yeah, that tag match was YEARS ahead of its time. Blew my mind back in 1988.
This is kinda validating considering I've told that South American story on here twice and been told I was full of shit. The only thing this awesome article is missing would be The Spoiler's run as WWF National Champion in the mid-80's..
ReplyDeleteWhat story, exactly, did you tell? It's accepted that the backstory of the IC title was a tourney in Rio that never happened. WWE.com is keeping kayfabe with their little blurb here. It was a fairly common plot device back in the day to crown a champion based on unverifiable results from a tourney in some "obscure" country. I would also wager a guess that the women's tag title change in Egypt in '85 mentioned in the article was another phantom match, but I'm sure someone else around here knows better than I.
ReplyDeleteAs usual, wwe.com is putting out more great content. Kudos to Joey Styles. But I do wish they'd include full matches in their video playlists. They're losing traffic when I have to head over to youtube/dailymotion to watch that tag match in its entirety. Plus, it's annoying. And a lot of this stuff will never see the light of day on disc.
ReplyDeleteI know it's a different lineage, but I wish WWE would go back to the belt in the shape of the mainland for the US title. Those old belts in geographic shapes were great.
Scott mentions the Egypt tourney in his review with the comment "I guess Egypt is near Rio De Janeiro" or something to that effect, so I'm guessing that was a phantom tourney as well.
ReplyDeleteThe merging of the SA & NA titles. That story. It wasn't a tournament for a "new" title. It was the NA title being consolidated with the phantom SA title.
ReplyDeleteIt is, at the very least, unverified by anyone who actually saw said tournament. So yes, probably they just made it up.
ReplyDeleteI was hoping they'd touch on the early version of the Light Heavyweight title which later merged into the J-Crown Championship. I've always kinda wondered if Ultimo Dragon actually had a WWF title with him while on Nitro around 96-97.
ReplyDeleteSince WWE only ran Egypt for the first time last year, then yes, it's a phantom switch.
ReplyDeleteI would have backed you up, I heard that story eons ago. I didn't think that it was rare knowledge.
ReplyDeletePretty sure that they advertised their debut in Egypt just last year or the year before.
ReplyDeleteI guess they don't know their own history.
Yeah, I thought that was the story the whole time as well. Maybe the confusion stems from this promo:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xx7geOFXC04
Patterson suggests that since he's been crowned IC champ they'll need a tourney to crown a new NA champ, suggesting the belts are totally separate.
I couldn't stop laughing when they said the Glamour Girls won the titles in Egypt in 1985. It's more of a running gag at this point than anything else.
ReplyDeleteI remember that Canadian Hwt match they showed. I was always surprised that they never made a belt for that title.
ReplyDeleteJumping Bomb Angels were the shit. So ahead of their time.
ReplyDeleteI thought it was ugly, but to each their own.
ReplyDeletethats not rare.
ReplyDeletei though that was smark fact
After some brief research it appears in fact he did have the WWF Light Heavyweight Championship on WCW TV.Evidently it became part of the J Crown after a Mexican promotion UWA folded. NJPW then took over the belt and returned it to WWE in 97 after there partnership ended. This is odd as a I thought WCW had a working partnership with WCW long before 97.
ReplyDeleteWCW DID have a working partnership with WCW long before that... in fact WCW was part of WCW from day one!
ReplyDeleteMan am I funny and not at all obnoxious for pointing that out.
They can keep Kayfabe about it though. Last year was the WWE debut. Doesn't mean they never "went" there.
ReplyDeleteSure did; they had the first Japan Supershow (which I think was the annual January dome show for NJ) in 1991.
ReplyDeleteYeah plus it made both belts seem more "exotic" and "prestigious" by having them change hands in wired foreign countries.
ReplyDeleteWWE has been pumping out some crazy awesome content with these crazy history lists. Joey Styles is awesome and clearly Vince is napping during most of this.
ReplyDelete