From Episode 487 of the Jim Cornette Experience
Artwork by Travis Heckel!
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who did Dusty bring in 1984?
It's good that people like Eddie Graham are dead and no longer ruining wrestling.
Statistically if a member of a family suicides, it becomes more likely for others.
Even tho they weren't real grahams…..
At a tender age I came up through The Cornette Boys Ranch
I think another factor for Eddie going to Florida and seeing it as a promising territory is that the travel was good. Orlando is a good centerpiece (although they were HQ'd out of Tampa) as Jacksonville and Tampa are 90 minutes away. Miami is about 3-1/2 hours away from Orlando. Ft. Myers is about 2 hours from Tampa. Eddie and the workers could also fly around from show to show.
Oof, this was a tough one…
These reviews are a must listen even if you seen the episodes just to fill in the gaps ..
I understand that you can only cram so much in 45 minutes, but what I hate is when they spend 75% on one thing and then try to cram 20 years of events into the last segment. VH1 Behind the Music was the best example of how to balance a career over an hour.
Eddie Graham as head of McMahon's creative is one of the biggest what-ifs in wrestling.
He went Terminator 2 hospital scene on them . What a badass
In regards to falling out with Graham, you have to look at the head coach effect in football. At one point in time Tom Landry and Vince Lombardi were coordinators on the same team. Neither one had full control. That can't last with talented people. You teach Bill Watts and Dusty Rhodes and Kevin Sullivan….. they're not going to stay without getting the creative control to draw money
Love you Jim, but have to make a big correction since I'm a Tampa boy.
Between 1950 and 1960, Tampa nearly overtook Miami to become Florida's most populous city, and Jacksonville became a distand third. So although Florida might not have been as prosperous of a territory as some of the others, it's just factually incorrect to say that Florida was mostly a swamp outside of Miami Beach,
Stampede Wrestling and Florida reused the film at a rapid pace out of financial necessity. The cameramen filmed the third fall in progress. Some of the "smarter" cameramen would anticipate the high spots and just film them. The result made a match with Harley Race vs Dusty Rhodes looks like a light heavyweight match when you clip the high spots together
The ONLY thing I didn't like was how they tried to make Dusty the bad guy for the reason why Florida Wrestling failed
Old wrestlers kinda sound like douche bags lol.
This might have been the darkest episode of dark side yet. It’s unbelievable. 5 people, 4 generations all committed suicide. That’s just terrible especially for one family. Also Brian’s imitation of Jericho is completely over exaggerated. Jericho isn’t that bad. There’s plenty of things to shit on Jericho for but this isn’t one of them.
If anyone knew about not drawing a dime it would be Mike Graham
that part about not being recognized in a restaurant in like 1983 when everybody knew you in 1973 was rough.
Why was “Superstar” Billy Graham not included? Unless they plan to make an episode just on him, which would be appropriate.
Rasslin is for 40 year old virgins
Brian hates people who are more successful than he is.
I could listen to Cornette talk classic wrestling for hours and hours
I don't know which family is more fucked up, the Graham's, the Von Erichs, or mine.
Eddie Graham and all those salty old shooter’s nack for stretching the guys who wanted to be wrestlers inspired The Power Plant in WCW.
So not everything they did for wrestling was so wonderful and good for the business.
brian please stop kissing jim's ass all the time thank you
Born and reside in Southwest Florida yet knew nothing about this fascinating history. I happened to drive by the Tampa armory two days ago!
I hope before he passes away, Vince gives us a thorough interview about his dealings with all these players in the territory system.
I still have my wrestling magazine from back then showing he passed away which was very sad. I always hated seeing the covers of the magazines with those who died such as my other one of David Von Erich. Mike Graham was Rookie of the Year in 1972 when he started wrestling and he earned that trophy, it was not given to him. He was hungry in the ring and his dad expected nothing less and was proud of him I am sure of. Four generations dying by suicide is just…it is very selfish and not right. I feel for them, but they were not thinking about those who loved them and those they were leaving behind. Suicide is never the answer, it is a quitters way of escaping problems instead of taking them on head first and takes a lot of courage to do that. I just hope anyone ho watched the video, or this show too knows that there are people out there who can help you and talk to you. Sometimes it is not easy to talk about problems and even can make you feel weak, but it isn't. If you are suicidal and push yourself to talk to someone you have more guts than you realize and takes a lot of courage to submit yourself to the aid and arms of your family, friends, and loved ones. I lost a friend who would tell me everything and one day she didn't and someone asked me to check on her and as I entered her house I heard a gun shot and I was seconds late from saving her from a terrible fate. She was beautiful, inside and out, but ashamed she was in the habit of drugs and more ashamed to tell me above all others because we had a special friendship. Seeing the aftermath was an image I will never forget, and I don't want anyone else to go through what I witnessed, let alone be the one who puts a bullet in their mouth. I lost someone kindred to me, I want to share that story out there in case others have felt those bad thoughts of doing something selfish. Your family, friends, loved ones even should never have that memory of you being the last memory of you.
CWF greatest promotion ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Only true "rasslin" marks think Dusty could have been the star nationally that Hogan was.
Crockett didn't buy jack shit. Buddy Colt said they closed the promotion in December 1987.
Didn't Hulk Hogan get his leg broken by Hiro Matsuda in Florida?
This was a good episode, I even think Brian Blair was very good on it
Great video clip about Eddie and Mike Graham from Dark Side of the Ring Season 4 Episode 3.
Jerry Graham was crazy. That was so sick what he did. Not funny, just sad and disturbing
One of the ways you legitimize pro-wrestling is by promoting and elevating collegiate and high school wrestling. That was something you would NEVER see Vince McMahon do. I remember in the early years of Mid South Wrestling, when Bill Watts was doing the commentary, he would always give the scores of college wrestling teams and name drop coaches he knew, and if a wrestler in the ring had an amateur background, he would go out of his way to mention that fact—even if he was a scrub that got beat all the time. That was something Watts learned from Graham
"They were all fiefdoms and thieves!" says the man who failed at all employment and business startups until his dad gave him a job.
I don't care about Vince McMahon getting a lucky break from his dad, I'm just annoyed that he used it to destroy other's peoples' businesses and then feels the need to justify it via their failings as people, as if Vince Junior wasn't a borderline delinquent.
Very sad episode. What a lady Nicole is. She's been through all that heartbreak,sorrow, anger and darkness and she's still so level headed and optimistic.
That bit where Eddie Graham was doing the interview by the ring and said " and that's the bottom line ", well if I had my eyes closed i would have been convinced that it was Stone Cold Steve Austin.
Personally, I think Jericho is pretty good narrating these episodes. I think that he's getting criticism, not for his narrating, but for people just generally disliking him.
Vince really went after the Florida market aggressively. He started with the east coast of the state. He got his TV on in 1984 and by 1985 started running monthly cards in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach and Jacksonville.
You guys are the biggest babies when it comes to Jericho. It's like he owns you.
I really liked the episode, especially focused on Mike Graham daughter.