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Post by MT on Sept 14, 2013 6:57:12 GMT -4
It seems like The Patriot is one of the biggest stars of the 90s who has become largely forgotten about since. I was a fan of his going back to the GWF on ESPN, and I remember him being right in the mix at the top of the WWF in the feud with the Hart Foundation, even getting pinfall wins over Owen and Bret at different times (with distractions from Stone Cold and Shawn respectively, but wins nonetheless). He was there with Austin and Shamrock as the big babyface forces for a little while there right as the Attitude era thing was about to take off. It seems like he should be a bigger part of the discussion when talking about the WWF in the 90s, but he's not. For that I blame the Honky Tonk Man (and Del Wilkes himself, but it's fun to blame HTM).
Honky Tonk Man loves to make a big deal that he "bought the rights to the gimmick". That's a claim Tom Brandi made previously and went around the country tainting the image of Del Wilkes by masquerading as a poor man's Patriot. Wilkes denied ever selling the rights, but a lot of poor bastards have gone believing they saw the Patriot when it was actually shitty Tom Brandi. I have no idea how Honky Tonk Man went about acquiring rights to the mask (or even if he really did), but I know for years he's had made and sold a shit ton of Patriot masks at independent shows. This murky rights issue is, I believe, one of the factors that keeps the WWE from merchandising a guy who was briefly one of the bigger stars in the company. There have been no Patriot "Classic" action figures (in a line that was so extensive they even made an action figure of Tank Abbot), no Patriot trading cards in any of the classic or legends lines, nothing at all. Out of sight ends up equaling out of mind in this case. Besides a match with him and Bret being on last year's Bret Hart: Dungeon Collection DVD set, the Patriot's image has been almost completely out of sight as far as WWE is concerned.
So in summary, because of this "right to the gimmick" issue Honky Tonk Man gets to sell a bunch of cheap Patriot masks, Tom Brandi ripped off fans for a few years who thought they were paying to see an exciting performer and got him instead, and fans don't get action figures of a character who looked like a walking action figure.
Discuss.
Or Not.
I've said my piece.
For now.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Sept 14, 2013 7:07:31 GMT -4
Del was the Patriot in All Japan, right?
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Post by MT on Sept 14, 2013 7:11:45 GMT -4
Yes, he was. Also for the record, he did himself no favors when he was interviewed for that CNN show after the Crippler CB deal, but the WWE has rebuilt bridges and done business with guys who said a lot worse about the company(Superstar Graham and even Roddy Piper come to mind).
Still, I blame Honky Tonk Man.
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Post by maddog1981 on Sept 14, 2013 7:14:31 GMT -4
The thing with his WWF run, his run was only 3 months long before he suffered that injury. Though it is weird that he's so forgotten with as much impact as he had whole Rick Martel is hailed for his WCW run in 1998.
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Post by MT on Sept 14, 2013 7:17:34 GMT -4
Patriot got hurt, but he was involved in the main storyline of the time. Martel in WCW is not a fair comparison.
At any rate, Patriot had quite a career in GWF, Japan, and WCW prior to that. Anyone else with that kind of position in the 90s seems to be more well remembered.
Blame Honky.
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Post by maddog1981 on Sept 14, 2013 7:26:07 GMT -4
The problem with his WCW run is he was mostly involved in that boring as shit feud with Paul Orndorff and Paul Roma. I think his WWF run is hurt by it's length and the fact that his entire run gets compacted historically into the Montreal Screwjob.
He's one of my favorites. I would love to see a Legends card for the guy pop up at some point.
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Post by MT on Sept 14, 2013 7:29:01 GMT -4
You think Stars and Stripes versus Pretty Wonderful was "boring"! Hell, that was one of the reasons I was watching WCW Saturday Night at all at one point.
I've got a Patriot card in the works, actually. That's part of what caused this thread. I don't think an official card will ever happen as long as the rights issue exists.
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Post by maddog1981 on Sept 14, 2013 7:38:49 GMT -4
I thought the Orndorff/Roma side was boring.
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Post by maddog1981 on Sept 14, 2013 7:39:33 GMT -4
Maybe the Patriot will pick up some steam now that GWF is on ESPN Classics.
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Post by MT on Sept 14, 2013 7:40:07 GMT -4
I thought the Orndorff/Roma side was boring. Your bat cowl is too tight! Also, GWF has been on and off various ESPN channels since it was in its first run. It hasn't seemed to help, but who knows?
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Post by maddog1981 on Sept 14, 2013 7:40:50 GMT -4
It's not as the Patriot but he was fun as the Trooper in the AWA. Him trying to capture the tag titles with a different partner at the end of the run was pretty good.
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Post by maddog1981 on Sept 14, 2013 7:41:16 GMT -4
I thought the Orndorff/Roma side was boring. Your bat cowl is too tight! Also, GWF has been on and off various ESPN channels since it was in its first run. It hasn't seemed to help, but who knows? Come on, it's Paul fucking Roma!
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Post by maddog1981 on Sept 14, 2013 7:42:18 GMT -4
I think it will help, it really created a level of awareness about the AWA that didn't previously exist as far as the net goes.
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Post by MT on Sept 14, 2013 8:01:01 GMT -4
GWF was amazingly influential to wrestling in the 90s and beyond, in as much as a lot of great talent got raided from there by WCW and WWF. Patriot, Scotty Anthony (Raven), Booker T and Stevie Ray, Handsome Stranger (Marcus Bagwell), Cactus Jack, Soultaker (Papa Shango), Lightning Kid, and John Hawk Bradshaw all got their first national exposure from GWF on ESPN. The wrestling landscape might have been a whole lot different if not for Global, especially if Lightning Kid Sean Waltman never got discovered. I dare say the smaller guys never would have broken through like they did if he didn't set the standard. Before him "light" on a national scale was 235.
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Post by tyguy on Sept 14, 2013 9:38:54 GMT -4
The Patriot was in Altoona last month where I met Flair and Funk. I'm pretty sure it was Tom Brandi lol.
I made these dvds because I like the real Patriot, Del Wilkes.
THE PATRIOT IN ALL JAPAN
Volume 1 Running Time: 1:59
5/17/92 Patriot, Johnny Smith vs. Jumbo Tsuruta, Akira Taue 5/24/92 Patriot vs. Steve Williams 5/31/92 Patriot, Johnny Smith vs. Mitsuharu Misawa, Toshiaki Kawada 6/14/92 Patriot vs. Kenta Kobashi 7/12/92 Patriot, Richard Slinger vs. Mitsuharu Misawa, Toshiaki Kawada 7/26/92 Patriot, Billy Black vs. Giant Baba, Akira Taue 7/28/92 Patriot vs. Stan Hansen 8/2/92 Patriot, Sonny Beach vs. Stan Hansen, Johnny Ace 8/16/92 Patriot, Kenta Kobashi vs. Abdullah the Butcher, Kamala II 9/13/92 Patriot, Jackie Fulton vs. Jumbo Tsuruta, Akira Taue 9/20/92 Patriot, Kenta Kobashi vs. Steve Williams, Terry Gordy 10/4/92 Patriot, Johnny Smith, Dory Funk Jr. vs. Giant Baba, Jun Akiyama, Masa Fuchi 10/21/92 Patriot, Kenta Kobashi vs. Steve Williams, Dan Spivey 11/22/92 Patriot, Eagle vs. Mitsuharu Misawa, Toshiaki Kawada 12/6/92 Patriot, Eagle vs. Stan Hansen, Johnny Ace 12/13/92 Patriot, Eagle vs. Steve Williams, Terry Gordy
Volume 2 Running Time: 1:55
2/19/93 Patriot, Eagle vs. Steve Williams, Terry Gordy 2/25/93 Patriot, Eagle vs. Kenta Kobashi, Tsuyoshi Kikuchi 5/14/93 Patriot, Eagle vs. Steve Williams, Terry Gordy 5/20/93 Patriot, Eagle vs. Doug Furnas, Dan Kroffat 8/20/93 Patriot, Eagle vs. Steve Williams, Tracy Smothers 8/23/93 Patriot, Eagle vs. Toshiaki Kawada, Akira Taue 8/31/93 Patriot, Eagle vs. Jun Akiyama, Tsuyoshi Kikuchi 9/3/93 Patriot vs. Kenta Kobashi 9/29/93 Patriot, Eagle vs. Dory Funk Jr., Takao Omori 11/13/93 Patriot, Eagle vs. Steve Williams, Bubba Rogers 11/17/93 Patriot, Eagle vs. Stan Hansen, Giant Baba 12/1/93 Patriot, Eagle vs. Mitsuharu Misawa, Kenta Kobashi 2/20/94 Patriot, Johnny Ace vs. Stan Hansen, John Nord 2/27/94 Patriot, Eagle vs. Toshiaki Kawada, Akira Taue
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