With much love, Jabroniville scored about a 6.9 on the Richter Scale, but I think I can get us past the 7.0, so HEEERE’S EARTHQUAKE!
Dave Newman
Conversations with Conrad and JIM HERD!
I heard rumbling a little while back that Conrad Thompson, mortgage man, podcast impresario and Flair family member, was launching a new podcast separate to anything he was doing with Brother Bruce, Eric Bischoff, Tony Skeevone or Jim Ross. Turns out he’s doing interviews with famous and infamous figures like former Executive Vice President of WCW at the start of the Turner years Jim Herd, who’s in his eighties. The trailer was juicy enough to promise some fun in the main interview, so here it is.
Herd in ’91, revealing that Ric Flair has left WCW:
Herd in ’20, shooting:
WWF Prime Time Wrestling – Sep. 09. 1991
Apologies to Scott and Brian for possibly treading on their turf, but when I heard that new episodes of Prime Time were up from the period when I got into wrestling I had to look it up. At this point, it was in the short-lived period with guests and a studio audience, launched around March and dropped not long after this for a panel show format. It was goofy, but I enjoyed it, hence why I carried on watching.
Legends of the Superheroes – The Roast!
Having failed to defeat the superheroes in the last episode, the villains take advantage of their comedy chops by inviting them to… a roast!
Legends of the Superheroes – The Challenge!
I want to get back into looking at some Super Friends episodes and thought this would be an interesting link to them. A live action version of the show with Adam West, Burt Ward and others in the roles of heroes and villains. First up today is The Challenge, tomorrow is The Roast.
ROH Straight Shootin’ Series w/Jim Cornette & JJ Dillon – 16/07/06
Writing this on the weekend and posting during the week to see if it makes a difference with views. I tried a few different shoots to review but it just wasn’t working, so I’ve gone for this one which is ostensibly Jim interviewing JJ. JJ had written his book Wrestlers Are Like Seagulls around this time, which was very good, and he was open as always to doing interviews to talk about it. Scott reviewed an interview with him that went about five hours back in the day. This ONLY goes three, so it won’t be word-for-word and will be highlights for some things and then greater focus on stuff towards the end of his career.
Thundercats – Ho! Starring the New Thundercats!
I’ve previously reviewed some five-parters from the first season of Thundercats, but this is the five-parter that kicked off the second season with a whole bunch of new characters, firstly the new Thundercats. There are also going to be a lot of guest characters from the prior season as the cast is pretty extensive by this point, so pretend we’ve met them already and let’s get ready for some fun!
Wrestling Rarities – The Midnight Express
After a busy week and a few aborted attempts to write some reviews of cartoons, shoot interviews and YouTube compilations, which I might return to another time, I figured I’d have a palate cleanser and review some good old fashioned rasslin’! This is a set produced, published and sold by Jim Cornette via his website, with some more obscure footage. I’m skipping the first disk for now as it’s got four Rock ‘n’ Roll Express matches and two Road Warriors matches and the second disk has a more varied collection of stuff.
Wrestling on Donahue, ’92!
I thought I’d have a look at this as it’s a definite historical curiosity and quite controversial at the time.
The setting: The Phil Donahue Show, talk show with an increasing interest on tabloid stories.
The agenda: Discuss the issues regarding possible gay sex abuse/harassment and steroid usage in the WWF with a number of different players from both sides.
The players:
- Phil Donahue – host
- Murray Hodgson – would-be WWF lead announcer
- Vince McMahon – owner of the WWF
- Barry Orton – semi-active pro wrestler
- Tom Hankins – retired pro wrestler
- Dave Meltzer – premier wrestling journalist
- John Arezzi – wrestling radio show host
- Superstar Billy Graham – former WWWF champion, wrestling icon
- Bruno Sammartino – Living Legend, longest-reigning WWWF champion ever
Let’s get to it!
Upcoming reviews
Hope you enjoyed the assorted animation, film and wrestling reviews this past week. As I head back to work, my reviewing regularity will reduce, but I have a few things in mind to review. Let me know in the comments section if there are any you have preference for seeing.
Great North Wrestling Shoot Interview with Raymond Rougeau
Getting towards the end of my week off, this is an interview from 2016 by Hannibal, who isn’t really a good interviewer, but Ray is an excellent and detailed speaker, so he more than makes up for it. The interview is held at his lovely home in snowy Quebec, with his personalised seaplane down the hill!
Halloween Special – Cartoons of the Witch!
One more collection of Halloween-themed episodes before I wrap up for the week and head back to work on Monday. It’s been fun, and I’ll put up a post tomorrow to get requests for stuff to look at the next time I’m off.
Halloween… The Night Cartoons Come Home!
Continuing the Halloween theme, I’m going to look at four episodes from different shows today and another four tomorrow. If they suck and couldn’t even scare a baby, then it’s a dirty TRICK, but if they totally work and are fun to watch then they’re a TREAT. Let’s hope we head home with sweets in our bags and not rocks!
Willow – Forget All You Know Or Think You Know, Or Some Old Bollocks…
When I signed up for Disney+ earlier in the year I was surprised to see that the film Willow was on there, but then it is the bastard child of George Lucas, trying to reproduce the success of Star Wars and Indiana Jones. I think I became aware of the film originally through adverts in comics like Masters of the Universe and Transformers in the UK, then through little polystyrene figures and bases in cereal boxes, so asked my mom to take me to see it. Her was along the lines of “Really? Alright…”.
It’s been 32 years since I last saw the film. I’m going to be honest, it’s probably going to be longer than that until the next time…
Halloween Havoc Special – Ghostbusters!
Apparently last night was Halloween Havoc, three nights early! Well, got something saved up for the real Halloween night, a selection of tricks and treats, but for now if there’s something weird in the neighbourhood, better call… the Ghostbusters!
DC Showcase Animated Original Shorts – Superman/Shazam!: Return of Black Adam!
Mentioned I’d take a look at this after the Death in the Family review the other day, so no need to waste time, let’s get to it!
Four reviews in a day! Have I mentioned it’s my week off?!
Hulk Hogan’s Rock ‘n’ Wrestling!
James Fabiano asked for this when Scott posted an email about the show recently, and when I say he asked for this he really asked for this!
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – Heroes in a Half Shell!
I think it’s inevitable that I’ll be reviewing the 1990 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie soon, so I thought I’d review some episodes from the first few (good) seasons of the cartoon, which I took a minute to get into, but when I did I was into it I was REALLY into it!
Flash Gordon – Remember, He Save Every One Of Us!
So, I compared Masters of the Universe to Flash Gordon and someone loved the reference and said “Do Flash Gordon!” – you don’t have to tell me twice!
Filmed in 1980, there’s been a 40th anniversary Blu-Ray release of this recently, but I’m looking at the silver anniversary DVD from 2005, including an awesome Mike Hodges (director) interview, which I’ll make reference to after the review of the film.
DC Showcase Animated Shorts – Batman: Death in the Family!
Just picked this up and thought I’d watch and review it – the main feature is an adaptation of a classic Batman story with a twist to match the original. The rest are shorts that appeared alongside previous DC animated movie releases, and in some cases were better than those main features!