Jim Cornette on Philadelphia Wrestling History
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- Опубликовано: 30 сен 2024
- From Episode 196 of Jim Cornette's Drive Thru
Artwork by Travis Heckel!
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That Philly crowd knows what they like and aren't scared to tell people that
And then Bill Burr told em 😂
@@DarkNorthEmperor Fucking annihilated them with the Rocky statue 🤣
And or they can smell Horse Crap a mile away, a promoter better know better by now than to debut a Goofy Gimmick in Philly.
Bunch of marks
Being the heel mark town is the most Philadelphia thing ever.
I’ll give Philadelphia this. At least it has its own identity.
Jim is correct. The Civic Center fans loved The Horseman. However, the biggest "pop" was for The Road Warriors.
Correct me if I'm wrong. At the one shows The Road Warriors I believe faced The Midnight Express and tossed them around. The Midnight would have been the heals. However, that town and that building loved The Road Warriors. Those were truly the good old days. Loved going to the Civic Center.
Born and raised in Philly area. Was at many of the Goodhart shows and ECW. Great time to be a wrestling fan in Philly
I used to call his radio show a lot.
ECW was garbage.
So that’s why Johnny Ace’s voice is like that
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
"Can we switch places tonight Shane? My throat is killing me." - Johnny Ace
Yup. They called him Johnny Laryngitis (Laurinaitis).
And I'm proud to be born and raised in this crazy fucking city .
Goodhart had a radio show that discussed pro wrestling and it was popular in Philly. Problem was he had no mind for business. He insisted that they had to run these types of 'all star' shows or nobody would show up. Tod Gordon was a financial backer of Goodhart's and Goodhart asked for more money but Tod told him he was only going to give him what he promised him.
Jim doesn't like Tod, but I think that's more because Jim didn't know Tod and looked at him like an outsider. It also didn't help that Tod and Dennis Corralluzzo didn't get along at all (honestly, I don't understand Jim's fond memories of Corralluzzo, he was a con man that ran embarrassing mud shows off NJ rest areas and none of the boys respected him outside of his lackies).
But Tod wanted to create a territory and cited Jerry Jarrett as inspiration. He knew the area loved wrestling and there was a market for it. He didn't give Eddie Gilbert the book to re-create Memphis. He gave Eddie the book because Eddie told him that he would need somebody there to write for TV full time and deal with the local channel which Tod agreed with as Tod had to run his store. It was Eddie that took the book and tried to re-create Memphis. That wasn't Tod's vision and when he confronted Eddie about it Eddie went nuts and burned bridges.
Going national wasn't Tod's vision either. But Heyman had that vision and was rapidly growing the company. If AEW had 1/10th the growth ECW had under Heyman, they'd be popping champagne bottles.
It wasn't so much about 'dream matches' and the sort as it was to getting back to more NWA style wrestling. Yes, the Philly fans still loved the WWF, but when WCW started to copy the WWF it was an insult to the Philly fans that also loved Crockett. Keep in mind, at one point in the 80's one could get WWF, Crockett, World Class, Mid South, CWF and Memphis all on their regular TV setups each week. By the 90's that was gone and the Philly fans yearned for those things that you would never see in the WWF like hard hitting action, blood, violence, great technical wrestling, etc.
think the radio show was called beyond the squared circle and was on wip saturday mornings .. listen to it on my drive to work .. only place that talked mostly non-wwf ..
@@trendkill7781 You might be thinking of their store in the I-95 Marketplace called The Squared Circle, which was also the name of their radio show's fan club. The name of the show itself was Rasslin Revue on WTTM first, then Rasslin' Radio on WDTV and later WIP. The shows were written by Carmela Panfil, and her husband Paul was the silent partner. Joel was brought into the business because he was their insurance guy.
I remember that. Good memory.
I listened Saturday mornings. I don't remember it on during the week. It wasn't 610 WIP. It was a different station. Lol. I think
Philadelphia, Chicago and Baltimore really embraced Crockett in the 80's after the WWF became a cartoon.
That WWF cartoon is better than the crap we have now
Brian never not laughs at the mention of that sign 😂😂😂
Corny has told that Dynamic Dudes story a hundred times and it’s still funny to me.
😂
Me too
Still went back and replayed it. 🤣
😂😂😂
@@ralphhernandez3366 replayed a couple times for my pops lol
Corny was right. I was from the PA area between Philly and Baltimore and we loved the NWA over the WWF. We loved the wrestling over gimmick
Philadelphia was always a violence first, storyline second fan. Nasty Boys as an example, defined what Philly wantrd in wrestling.
When we 1st got Crockett TV in Philly on WPHL I loved every second of it then Channel 57 started showing Mid-Atlantic it was fun and it was crazy.
Big old Butz
Cool..... I love all this history man ❤️
I remember seein Smoky Mountain on like channel 48 later on
we also got WCCW/VonErich show and UWF in the mid-80s.
I stayed in the South East in the black belt region when I was a kid and I remember watching Jim Crockett promotions on Saturday Night at 5:05 (Alabama is Central Standard Time) on Channel 14
I was born in Philadelphia and raised in South Jersey. Prior to Allentown and Hamburg, WWWF TV was recorded in Philadelphia at The Arena. The Gorilla Monsoon/Muhammed Ali incident took place in Philadelphia at The Arena. WWWF was doing monthly spot shows in Wildwood Crest, NJ in the summer months. They had a convention hall on the boardwalk. They'd also run Fornier Hall in Wilmington, Zembo Mosque in Harrisburg, The Cherry Hill Arena/Centrum in Cherry Hill, NJ.
Joel Goodhart took a bath on those shows. He lost money...a lot of money. He was Tony Khan before Tony Khan. He took money from his dad's insurance company to pay for Wrasslin' Radio and then his promotion. He'd go on his show and bitch about his poor houses.
The best period of wrestling in Philly was 1985/1986. On TV you had WWF, NWA Mid-Atlantic, World Class, Mid-South/UWF, Georgia.
Coralluzzo was a scum bag. And did Frank Chille give you guys the leg saddle?
Was he the guy who ran his wrestling radio show on 610 WIP on Saturday mornings in like the early 90s??
I remember Goodheart standing outside the Spectrum for house shows. I also remember WWF running the Wildwood boardwalk. That was a long, long time ago
Philadelphia is Oakland east, that town is NUTS
Philadelphia is just as important as Los Angeles, Atlanta, Boston, Baltimore, Cleveland .... Wrasslin' Fans wanted their old school entertainment (same with Roller Derby!)
Oh I loved Roller Derby
Philadelphia was unique, as most nights, WWF and WCW would go head-to-head on the same night, as WWF would book the Spectrum and WCW booked the Civic Center.
As a Philly wrestling fan, Philadelphia has a wrestling culture all their own. Hardest but best fan base there is in all sports.
If your sixers end up losing another game 7 there will prob be murder in the streets.
@@johngallagher72 my dad was at Game 5 and it was baaaaad.
Thinking of going to see a show 2300 Arena for MLW, any good? Jan 6 show...
I grew up in Philly, not too far from the ECW arena. ECW was destined to succeed because of the Broad Street Bullies (the Flyers of the 70s), and whoever decided to take ECW in that direction absolutely knew what they were doing.
To clarify: As a territory.
ECW was destined to succeed? Are you still living in the year 1997? In case you didn’t know, It didn’t end well for ECW.
I’m kidding. I get what you are saying. ECW should have been able to last longer. If anything caused ECW to not reach its potential, it was the PPV company. That was a crooked industry right there. You run a show, cover all expenses etc. and they keep half the money, and then pay you your half at their leisure. I’m shocked they weren’t sued for anti-trust issues. The OPV company knew the good days were over when WWE opened up their streaming channel. They were so mad, they wouldn’t carry Wrestlemania on ppv, for the few fans that would pay $90 bucks for one show, instead of getting the channel for 9 months.
Corny 2024
Hell yes! That is great idea.
"I would have helped the Marine" - Shane Douglas
Is that a real quote?
What's the marine?
It’s a reference to a marine kicking Michael’s ass in Syracuse.
I bet the majority of the locker room would’ve tbf
@@akamiguelsanchez9985 Especially Bret
“Eating fromunda cheese in the septic tank of a slaughterhouse in the summertime”. Corny is the Shakespeare of profanity.
Corny speaks the truth, Philly is STILL a huge heel town even to this day.
Ur gat damn right it is
I'm never a fan of the heals even if they are great at what they do
It definitely seems as if Jim knowledge of Philadelphia wrestling is quite vast
Philadelphia is a rough place
@@500ccRabbit Yea, but it's our crap hole :)
Crockett came into Philadelphia in the mid 80s, and drew well at the Civic Center. I was there for every show. I hated WWF at that point, thought Hogan had made it too cartoonish.
The Goodheart Jim references is Joel Goodheart, who had a radio show called "Rasslin' Radio" on WIP on Saturday mornings. From that show came Tri-State Wrestling, which evolved into ECW.
ECWA
@@bobwatson1162 Carmela Panfil
Randy Savage was cool though
I can’t imagine how awful some of those WWF house shows were in the mid-80’s… especially when compared to thr Crockett shows in the same town. WWF show main event? Bundy & studd vs hillbilly Jim & uncle Elmer?? Kamala vs George steele? Then Crockett comes to town & headlines with something like a Flair vs Windham Broadway
@@teslafan6969 Devon storm, ace darling, cheetah master & mr ooh lala lmao
Yes, Paul was owed millions. The problem was that he owed several more millions to various people.
@ Viola Greene Yeah I remember hearing that most of the wrestlers were living from paycheck to paycheck but they loved working for Paul E. and he did his best to pay them.
Did they have DVDs? I honestly don't know.
Paul is a crook !
Go Birds
Those old crowds sound very fun
any Philly wrestling event is fun
Wrestling in Philly didn't TRULY take off until The Birds of War made their debut.
@lanny TY you're completely correct
I knew this shit wasn't fake!
The Maniac loves you
Even though I grew up in New Jersey, I always went to the Philadelphia WWE shows whenever they were in town
Same here, grew up in Cherry Hill, NJ. I regret not going to any shows lol.
I’m from New Jersey (unfortunately) and I grew up going to shows in the 1980s at MSG & The Philadelphia Spectrum. Philly always felt like a second home for WWE/WWF. My Grandfather would tell me stories about going to shows in Philly throughout the 50s, 60s & 70s and seeing everyone from Bruno (his hero) to Dusty to The BlackJacks to Argentina Rocca. He still quotes Dusty Rhodes & Superstar Billy Graham (from their promos when they feuded over the title) every time I see him, lol
I went to the Philadelphia Civic Center to watch Crockett wrestling in the 80's. I also saw the Starcade that Dusty beat Lugar on closed circuit. Loved going there
The “Johnny sucks dick” chant story never , ever gets old
The WWWF T.V. tapings in the 70s were a couple blocks from my home. The Philadelphia Arena.
Spectrum
I believe
This is the stuff I love to hear jim talk about.
Gordon was the financial backer. He never wanted to run a wrestling promotion, esp not full time. When ECW started trying to stretch down south and out west he had to bail.
#threecountcommentaries
Lol there's a door dash ad before this and the guy says he gets paid $20 to drive around Philly I'd say that's not enough money.
Always was at the Philadelphia civic center when the NWA come in…………. Me and my grandma
Grew up in philly all my life, our fans know our sports and know what we want. Philly is the number 1 heel state of the United states lol
Philly created the United States 😎.
In the late 80s the WWF used to show the house shows from the Spectrum on Prism. It was similar to HBO and Cinemax. Only cheaper and no soft core porn after 10pm.
remember it well...and Phillies, Sixers, and Flyers home games. Ed Snider owned TheSpecturm , Prism, and Flyers.
I created a few photo audio projects covering Philadelphia wrestling history. Wrestling dates back in Philadelphia to late 1890s and 1929 with the boxing wrestling combine promotion which became the national wrestling association. The original arena opened in 1929 and hosted nwa association shows till Capitol wrestling Vince sr started in early 1960s. Which then transferred to the spectrum.in 1974 wwwf
Saw it was good.
Best manscaped promo ever!!
I was at that Halloween Havoc show as well and remember vividly that heel team being cheered. I remember Arn Anderson having no choice but to play to the crowd like a babyface. It was unreal at the time. I wonder if Brian remembers the fight that broke out in the crowd during the Ron Simmons/Rick Rude match. That happened about 3 rows behind where I was sitting and it grabbed the entire arena's attention and even Rick Rude had to look up to see what was going on.
I disagree with Jim on NYC. There were plenty of us here that loved The NWA. Pro Wrestling USA which was a combined AWA/NWA drew well at the Meadowlands for much of 85 & 86. The problem with the Nassau Coliseum was that it was located in the middle of nowhere. Even with that they drew 13,000 at Nassau the night before Starrcade 87. There were plenty of fans in the NYC area that preferred Crockett style to Vince
Same ...here in Toronto lots of us either followed the NWA through the Apter mags or trying to find taped footage wherever we could. I agree with you about Jim not realizing lots of us in the Northeast liked the NWA style. The problem was Vince had almost exclusive rights to all the big arenas.
Macho was over back then and was neck and neck with Hogan
Also, there are a lot more families in Long Island compared to say Brooklyn, so a crowd at the new UBC Arena perhaps given on the show and crowd could be different than The Barclays Center.
as seen in Highlander the movie.
As much as Philadelphia is known as a tough crowd, they also appreciate really good wrestling. For example if New Japan booked the beginning of the G1 at the Wells Fargo Center, Philly wouldn't boo Natio v. Zack Sabre Junior, I don't believe
Philadelphia is the town that boos kids on Easter for not finding any eggs.
- Bob Uecker,
Best description I’ve ever heard for it.
I used to love those Civic Center shows & those Joel Goohart Tri State Wrestling shows. I saw The Sheik vs Abdullah in a barbed wire cage match. And, Eddie Gilbert vs CactusJack best of three matches night.
They love Southern Heels up North.. They get the biggest pops..
Southern heels had more swagger than the northern ones.
@@natebaxter9551 I don't know. Bockwinkel had some.
@@maxxdahl6062 he and Heenan were the rare exception.
@@maxxdahl6062 Bockwinkle is a Mid-West heel. With Herman, they had ALL the swagger!
@@natebaxter9551 Wouldn't NWA champions though also be somewhat northern champions too? St. Louis and Ohio were NWA.
Midnights were always over in Philly.
cornette is spot on again. THANK YOU JIM. Joel Goodhart was more golden era brawling then ecw hardcore.
I live 25 miles south of Philadelphia (Wilmington, Delaware) and was able to attend quite a few PW shows in the late 90s all the way up til today. The RoH shows at 2300 Arena are/were always a blast. Attended Wrestlemania 15.....at least I can say I have been to a Wrestlemania....oh, and I guess that I got to see Austin and Rock main event, lol. ECWA (Jim Kettner's promotion) ran right around the block from my house. Those shows were honestly amazing. I got to see so so many future stars before their "big breaks" (Low KI, Billy Kidman, Chris Daniels, Reckless Youth, Christian, and many more).
SPECTRUM WRESTLING on PRISM!!!! #GloryDays
Dick Graham on the mic with Gorilla Monsoon
Shit I forgot about Prism
Where else could you see Paul Roma vs Steve Lombardi on tv?
@@michaelmarino7391 and Cal Rudman!!!👍
@@CleveTime lol or SD JONES WIN a match over a worse jobber than himself!?!?!?!?🤔
Joel Goodhart had a Saturday morning radio show on 610 WIP called 'RASSLIN RADIO when sports talk radio was in it's infancy. He decided to create his own promotion called the Tri-State Wrestling Alliance. He put on some good shows with some beg names at the time including some up and coming stars like Owen Hart and Cactus Jack. But he soon ran out of money and sold his shares to his partner who re-branded as Eastern Championship Wrestling, or, ECW who eventually went extreme.
I advertised on it,I miss Joel
This question was sponsored by the Philly Diner
I. Don't understand why people root for the heals I understand there interesting but O always root for the baby faces even of their not as interesting
I used to go to the cap center in landover, MD!
Me too! The only thing harder than getting to the Cap Center was getting out of there after a show!
Philadelphia fans are the Millwall (look it up if you’re not from the UK) of US sports. 😂
You're calling the good people of Philadelphia racist, homophobic, xenophobic, skinhead, low-class, cockney, illiterate hooligans who only care about football, beer, and swearing?
@@JustMe-yu6uu well we're some of those things. Not all, but more could be added to this list as well tbf 😂
DC Drake was a great Philly heel
Hell yeah! He was..
Seems like it was a battleground between the NWA and WWF in the 80s---the two sides were fighting for control because it was sort of the 50 yard line between the North and South
This channel is my therapist.
Born and raised in Philly, and NEVER liked McMahon's side show. My fondest childhood memories are going to the old Civic Center and going nuts over the NWA.
Me and my pal Joe grew up at Crockett shows at the Philly Civic Center. We also went to WWF shows at the Spectrum, but the Civic Center was an EXPERIENCE
Last time I went to a Philly show was Money in the Bank with the Mark Henry retirement pink suit thing. Everybody was booing the shit out of Cena of course, but Mark was straight over with people chanting his music so loud: "beat him up, break his neck" lol
Man I loved the pink suit promo. Mark Henry should have won imo.
@@treehugger7976 completely agree, but John "shovel2.0" Cena had to win of course...great username
Love the promo Roman had to the Philly crowd when he won the title from Sheamus after McMahon shenanigans. When he talked about how relieved he was that they cheered after previously booing him like crazy during the Rumble a couple years prior, you knew he meant every word because of how hard that crowd is to win over.
@@psychobluesfxt Gotta be a good feeling
@@psychobluesfxt Also, the pre-show had Shield defending belts against Usos. One of the best matches that night tbh. They did the 4 man superplex as well lol
Ace and Douglas being skateboarders was terrible. Poor Jim he was in their corner 🤣🤣
Here in Philly we are nuts about everything,including wrestling.
Even if you take out pre-ECW wrestling out of the equation, it's not surprising that the city that gave the world the Broadstreet Bullies would give birth to a company like that.
Yeah, back in the day, Philly fans cheered when visiting players got injured in football & hockey. If you can't beat 'em, beat 'em up.
@@damien5138 he was late and had an attitude about it
Broad St. Bullies man, terrorizing the league all the way to the top lol
@@damien5138 it was a drunken fan dressed as Santa.
The thing about Philly is... those people are crazy.
Jim, I wish I could talk to you about Philly wrestling
The thing that gets me about ECW is that they had a TV deal with TNA or Spike or whatever it was called before they went under. Paul E. had a shot with real tv crews and lower tier network money.
The channel was TNN it was originally called The Nashville Network. It was rebranded as The National Network once ECW got on it. After they were booted off in favor of WWE it was then rebranded as Spike TV
Gag a maggot off a gut wagon! I'm DONE! OMG! Bahahahahahaha!!
We know our sports
Do Boston wrestling history next
Shane douglas is massively underrated
I am surprised that WWE/WWF or any other highly noteworthy wrestling company he has one of those careers you could name anyone who he faced it would be a high 9 or a guaranteed 10 on my rankings
Trips owes him his career
@@bloodeagle6458 I almost forgot about that little knowledge nugget but damn straight he does
As a douchebag yes
He had 2 much heat backstage
Was Philly the only place where Dusty Pfelbomber (sp?) was a referee? Was it a gimmick or his real name?
Dusty Fellbaumer, Wee Willy Webber, Barnet Solomon & Dick Kroll. Phila. Arena WWWF😊
LONG LIVE WEED
It's ironic that Shane Douglas got booed out of the building as a Dynamic Dude then went to ECW and essentially became the company's top guy.
He got over as heel. ECW Shane Douglas was ruthless.
Although Shane Douglas was a good performer he was not top guy great in any wrestling promotion period. His ego is way bigger than it should be.
What u talking about? He was ecws top guy for years. Sometimes it's better to stay quiet and look stupid instead of opening ur mouth and removing all doubt
Man I love when someone mistakes subjective opinion for objective fact.
And then it gets even better when they try to throw objective facts in and still get that wrong. Shane was a top guy in ECW.
I’m not even a fan of the guy, but Jesus..
You were backstage at ECW with shane douglas?
He was champ multiple times and lead a faction he was a top guy
@@blueweegie6541 yeah he was booked on top, for no reason, no one liked him and he wasnt a draw. he probably sold coke to paul e.
To our friend in Murfreesboro, The City Philadelphia has a metropolitan population of 5 million people. The WWWF ran a once a month major show in Philadelphia, always with a title match. First at the Philadelphia Arena, 45th. and Market, 6,500 for 76rs. basketball, or 8,500 for wrestling or boxing. When the WWF moved to the new Spectrum, they now sent away thousands once a month after filling the place with 17,500 fans. Before there was Raw and Smackdown the McMahon’s taped their television shows in Philadelphia and Allentown or Hamburg Pa. The WWWF was built around the return match, 3 or 4 months with the same two in the championship match culminating in the steel cage, or Texas Death match, always a bloody mess, with either Sammartino, Morales, or Backlund walking out victorious. This set the stage for ECW, which went much too far in the blood and guts.
James!!!!
"Travis, you didn't include the full size of Jim's sign."
*Listens to the segment in full
"Oh...that's why."
I’m from Philly and South Jersey and in the 80s I loved to take my son to the old Philadelphia Civic Center to see the NWA matches it was so much better than going to see with WWF
Civic Center have been to many shows, JC and the Midnight Express came out, the roof went off,the starting beat of the music was unbelievable
Both NWA and WWF would stay at the Philly Airport Marriott in late 80’s. There was a Saturday night where NWA was at Civic Center and WWF was at Spectrum, both venues sold out. I remember the group of ‘smarts’ at the Marriott bar. Philly loved wrestling back then
Good question.
living in NEPA its good to hear some history of philly wrestling beyond Ecw and comparing myself and my gram to cornettes opinion of philly fans hes pretty accurate lol.
I saw a LOT of great shows in the Civic Center in Philly. Even had front row one night and got a personal pose from Jim Cornette!
Did you see his bulge? Heard Slim Jim was packing
The eagles
That advertisement more manscape was the funniest commercial ever!!!
Marine..... I mean marines. Plural. Lol. Where was Shane Douglas when we need him.
Can somebody tell me the podcast video where Jim and Brian listen to Wednesday Night in wrestling heaven
Bill Burr cut the best promo in Philly history and he's a comedian.
Philly fans of any sport are my favorite because they have a unique way of their own.
Always think Bill Burr now when Philly gets mentioned
And finally when will we ever hear heyman's opinion of smoky mountain wrestling
Wrestling from the Spectrum is some of my fave 70s-early 80s wrestling to watch. Love the stuff with Graham and Snuka and the Wild Samoans when I can find it. Pre-Rock n Wrestling WWF from Philly is so good, Hogan/Junkyard vs the Funks is a great match you can check out here too.
How many title defenses did the Iron Shiek have ? . Pretty sure he defended for first time against Tito in Philly
How did Vince Sr and Vince McMahon do when they came to the Southeast/Atlanta?
7 another example of lion Brian just told this story several times even not too long ago maybe 2-3 weeks ago he talked about this with bra with what I came and did to him
@Aaron Lassiter sorry it's voice-to-text which sucks
They were just talking about that story Jim told about what Paul did to him to screw him over.
not that long ago your gear Brian cleans gym never told it before.
he's been doing that kind of thing a lot lately
I often wonder if that Dynamic Dudes incident had never happened would we ever have gotten "The Franchise"
You can tell he remembered that when he used to shit on the crowds.
Anyone know how many title defenses the Iron Shiek had? If he only had the one it would have been against Tito in Philly which would be kind of historic.
I'd think Iron Sheik had to have had at least two if he was champ for four weeks...his defense against Santana is bonus material on a WWE DVD.