In April 1999, 40-year-old Rick Rude was found dead in his home.
Generally speaking, super fit 40-year-olds don’t just die of natural causes. So what happened to the former WWF Intercontinental champion?
In this week’s DragonKingKarl Classic Wrestling Show, I look at that week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter and how Dave Meltzer discussed the life, death, injuries, and career of a man who wrestled in Florida, WCCW, Memphis, Crockett, WCW, WWF, ECW, and WCW and was a star in every place.
This is the story of WWE Hall of Famer “Ravishing” Rick Rude.
On the new DragonKingKarl Classic Wrestling Show, I talk everything that happened in December 1982 in pro wrestling.
That list includes the infamous Jack Veneno vs. Ric Flair NWA title match; why a Jacques Rougeau by any other name is still Jacques Rougeau; Bob Backlund vs. “Superstar” Billy Graham redux, World Class Star Wars, Jerry Lawler kinda wins the AWA World title, and more!
Round two of the Greatest Kayfabe Tournament on the DragonKingKarl Classic Wrestling show continues with two very different pro wrestlers: the bloodletting Abdullah The Butcher vs. the blood-spilling Keiji “The Great Muta” Mutoh.
Will the versatility of Mutoh be able to overcome the girth and brutality of Abdullah?
You, the listener, voted, and we have our result. Join me as I talk about the career of two of the most polar opposite wrestlers that have faced off yet in the #GKT!
Left My Wallet is back with our very own DragonKing: Karl Stern!
The host of both the DragonKingKarl Classic Wrestling Show and DragonKing Dark is here to talk about some Alabama football, wrestling figures, and more.
We start by talking about the Crimson Tide, Nick Saban, following the myriad of players to move on to the NFL, and the rich tradition of Alabama football.
We then move on to talk about Karl’s time working in independent wrestling and some of the famous workers he has had the chance to work with.
We then talk about the classic Remco AWA figures, what made them so special, and what led Karl doing a show specifically about them. We then switched to video games, the great video game crash of 1983, and the over saturation of games that led to it.
Karl talked about what his block of wrestling was on Saturday morning growing up and some underrated workers he loved growing up.
Finally, the talk turns to the Wrestling Observer Hall of Fame as we discuss some interesting potential candidates and what Karl thinks should be considered when putting in your ballots.
Not only does Karl do his two podcasts for our website, but he also expands on many of these fun topics on his very own When It Was Cool Patreon.
This was one of the most fun episodes I have done on this website and I think you’ll enjoy it as well.
On this week’s DragonKingKarl Classic Wrestling show, I look at two very different biographies from a classic edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter as Dave Meltzer looks at the in-ring death of Japanese female wrestler Plum Mariko (possibly the first in-ring death ever in Japan) and the death of former WWWF champion Stan Stasiak.
On a new DragonKing Dark, I continue our weekly look into the 100 darkest moments in pop culture history.
This time, I explore the fatal accident of Dale Earnhardt in Daytona Beach, FL, at 2001’s NASCAR Daytona 500 when 17 million people witnessed the death of the most popular driver in the sport.
Some say this crash changed NASCAR forever as it became much safer although the popularity plummeted. Join me as I look at one of the darkest moments for auto racing with the death of Dale Earnhardt Sr.
We are up to April 1982 on this week’s DragonKingKarl longform history of pro wrestling with tons of interesting stuff happening at that point of time.
Jerry Lawler has his famous first match against Andy Kaufman in Memphis; Andre The Giant won what is now called the G1 Climax in New Japan; it was the 26th anniversary of Arena Mexico; the Midnight Express were doing their thing in Memphis; Ric Flair was feuding with Butch Reed; Hulk Hogan was feuding with Nick Bockwinkel, and Harley Race won another World title, but not the one you might be thinking of.
Let’s look back at April 1982 in the wide world of pro wrestling.
This week’s DragonKingKarl Show is not family friendly. Sorry, but sometimes I need to say something with an exclamation point.
I’ve been around F4W Online before Dave Meltzer even arrived and now, we have a johnny-come-lately who has been passively aggressively messing with me for some time. After his latest little jab, I ain’t taking it any more. This show will either make the Best of 2021 or get me disappeared from over here.
Also, there is wrestling history and the dream of Bob Backlund.
It’s an unforgettable show and one I hope makes you laugh. Or, mad. Or, whatever.
From the pages of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, I take a look back at the obituaries, biographies, and history pieces written by Dave Meltzer.
On this episode, I discuss the life and career of Big John Studd via Dave’s obituary from the March 27, 1995, Observer. He was a memorable TV character from the Hulkamania era and famous for his feuds with Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant.
This week kicks off our discussion of the year 1982 in pro wrestling by taking a look at January when Ric Flair was NWA World Champion, Bob Backlund was WWF World Champion, and Nick Bockwinkel was AWA World Champion.
Additionally, 1982 kicks off a really strong couple of years for Southeastern Wrestling, Jerry Lawler was feuding with Dutch Mantel over the Southern title, and Sam Muchnick called it quits.
This is a packed show that kicks off an incredible several year period in pro wrestling so join me as I pour through the early days of newsletters, magazines, video, and more to chronicle pro wrestling history.
We continue our countdown to episode 250 of DragonKing Dark where we will be starting a new fresh season of our podcast.
This week, we present a special edition called Night of the Bullshido where I take a look into the fictional world of not so effective martial arts. We look at some martial arts “masters” who claim fantastic or supernatural powers and how this scam became so widespread, especially in the 1970s and 1980s.
Grab your nunchucks and ninja stars and let’s go defend our style and school.
For your Halloween week enjoyment. let’s talk about a spooky match: the first-ever Buried Alive match at 1996’s WWF In Your House between Undertaker and Mankind.
Mankind was being managed by Paul Bearer at the time and both men were exceptionally good…despite the match being ridiculous. The match itself also featured appearances by Hunter Hearst Helmsley, Justin Hawk Bradshaw, Goldust digging holes, and Terry Gordy with a bag over his head.
The old Sloss Furnaces steel mill in Birmingham, AL, was a brutal place to work.
While the steel industry built Birmingham, it wasn’t an easy life and many died working in the horrible conditions there. Several TV shows and documentaries have covered their old mill as one of the supposedly most haunted places in America.
Join me and Tonya as we traveled there on a stormy night. This is what we found.
This week on the DragonKing Dark Podcast, we have two retro TV reviews for you of very differing types.
Pulled from our Patreon archives at WhenItWasCool.com, I look at one of my favorite TV shows: the gothic vampire soap opera Dark Shadows. Then, I am joined by Tonya from WIWC to discuss the witch themed sitcom Bewitched.
Join us for a conversation about two very different shows and both with Halloween themes.
On an Old Tyme Wrestling Hour edition of the DragonKingKarl Classic Wrestling Show, I look at the massive decline in WWE’s pop culture popularity and a new documentary that takes a look at the life of former lucha and WCW star Vampiro.
Then, Kid Zombie (aka Matt Mann) joins me to discuss some of our favorite angles of the 1980s and to gush over The Fantastics, the UWF and mid-1980s AWA.
