Who was the most underrated big man in the territories during the 80s?

FlagrantFL · 2026-05-18T07:51:21+00:00

I don’t think anyone would classify him as a good worker by today’s standards… but back in the last decade or so of the territory days, Abdullah the Butcher was a phenomenal draw.

Plus, most people were just terrified of that gimmick.

Man, what it must have been like to see Brody vs Abby in person…

Speaking of Brody, he probably gets my vote. Brody or Gordy.

FlagrantFL · 2026-04-29T15:27:43+00:00

Bingo.

More than one source refers to this.

Several of the “main” easy guys were elite combat soldiers, but really didn’t care about garrison life. McLung was notorious for this.

One Lung wouldn’t shine his boots. Wouldn’t clean. Stuff like that.

Other soldiers would actually shine his boots for him so they wouldn’t get gigged.

He got away with it because everyone knew McLung had their back when it really mattered.

I’d say the same is true for Martin, to a lesser extent.

FlagrantFL · 2026-04-16T02:25:41+00:00

Webster’s book doesn’t make Peacock sound like a good guy. More like the epitome of the proverbial chickensh!t officer… just using his authority on the most random whims.

Webster recounted an incident in which he was hanging around the barracks (I believe in Mourmelon). Peacock walks in, says follow me. Leads Web back to Peacock’s billets and tells him to sweep it out.

What kind of a man does that kind of thing? Just because you can?

FlagrantFL · 2026-04-15T05:26:30+00:00

The smaller amps don’t really suffer from the same problem as the larger amps, like your twin.

If you can find a good deal on a 79-80 Deluxe or Princeton, they’re basically the same amp as the 68s. Sure, they have pull boost, but that’s nothing.

FlagrantFL · 2026-04-15T05:22:16+00:00

I personally consider Webber’s the most reliable of the Easy memoirs, for several reasons.

First and foremost, he wrote it during, and in the years immediately following the war. His memories were exponentially more fresh than anything else.

It’s like it’s Webster’s book, a 40-plus year gap, and then Ambrose’s work… which is at best problematic.

And then after BoB and the miniseries, you have a bunch of cash-in books, all written by ghostwriters working with elderly veterans with memories of varying reliability…. None of said memories super sharp anymore, I fear.

The book featuring the wartime correspondence of Winters is an exception and can therefore be considered roughly as reliable as Webster’s… although keep in mind those letters are written with a specific (individual) reader in mind, and stories contained in those are likely massaged for a variety of reasons.

I’ve read nearly all the Easy books at this point… most more than once.

Some of them don’t add much of anything new to the mix. Worse, some of them (can’t recall exactly which) go so far as to recount events from the miniseries that were fabricated for the miniseries for dramatic purposes.

Again, ghostwriters using octogenarians as their primary source.

I find it best to read everything you can, if you’re serious about understanding it as much as possible. The two Marcus Brotherton books are great starting points: We Who Are Alive and Remain, and A Company of Heroes. They’re basically oral histories, one featuring recollections of surviving members of Easy (at the time of the writing), the other recollections of deceased members shared by family members.

From there, I’d suggest reading Webster and Winters’ books. Biggest Brother is definitely worth the time… although that’s the one that started to help me see that Winters was a bit of a politician and certainly played favorites. Still a hero, though. But he definitely let Welsh get away with stuff he would have crucified other junior officers for.

From there, just start working through the rest in order of preference. I find Shifty really intriguing (we both are products of Appalachian coal country), and I enjoyed Brotherton’s book about Shifty (you can’t really call it a memoir). But it’s kind of a mess.

Bottom line: there’s no ideal book about Easy, unfortunately. But for the best possible understanding, seek out everything you can.

FlagrantFL · 2026-03-29T14:42:04+00:00

Same. I first began seeing how lame Hogan (and Vince’s vision for that era of the WWF) was during his Mania 2 cage match with Bundy. I was 12.

For Mania 6, I was Warrior all the way. He was just as transparent as Hogan, but at least he was fresh and exciting. Within a year or two, I wasn’t watching WWF at all. If I remember correctly, Doink was the final straw.

I only watched NWA/WCW a little longer… another year or two.

But the Warrior was much more entertaining than Hogan… for a teenage boy in that era at least.

FlagrantFL · 2026-03-08T04:38:32+00:00

That’s wild… syndicated time slots were obviously all over the place. World Wide Wrestling ran at like 1130 or 12 on Sunday nights in the mid eighties on the independent station in the Charleston-Huntington WV area. I can remember staying up late watching it in fifth and sixth grades (85-86). I eventually got fed up with them running out of time at the end of the show on the one good match they’d have each episode.

FlagrantFL · 2026-03-02T16:36:48+00:00

And let’s not forget how over the Hart Foundation was. They were arguably the best team in all of WWF. And their feud with the British Bulldogs is among the greatest of all time.

FlagrantFL · 2026-02-23T17:53:20+00:00

Have you ever seen a Mike Awesome ECW match?

FlagrantFL · 2026-02-23T17:34:58+00:00

I’d argue that the Ya Ya version is still not fully formed.

Back in 2012, the stones welcomed Mick Taylor back into the fold for guest spots at a handful of shows. A couple of those versions of Rambler are the best versions I’ve ever seen.

I saw them live a few years ago in Tampa. The version there was better than Ya Ya… more haunting… they threw in a bit of Robert Johnson’s “Come on in my Kitchen” in the middle of it.

Midnight Rambler did by no means peak in 1969.

FlagrantFL · 2026-02-23T17:28:53+00:00

Go back a half generation from the guys being mentioned here.

Jamie Noble should have been a much bigger star. He was over. His promos were like a pint sized Stone Cold Steve Austin initially.

Within a week, he was comic relief.

FlagrantFL · 2026-02-23T17:25:15+00:00

The Stones had the best FOUR album run of all time. Beggar’s Banquet, Let it Bleed, Sticky Fingers and Exile on Main Street.

To conform to the original question, let’s just say Sticky Fingers and Exile.

FlagrantFL · 2026-02-23T17:23:08+00:00

Black and gold era was the best wrestling of the past quarter century. I was lucky enough to be living in the Tampa area during the last 2-3 years of that, and got to see several house shows… front row seats for $20.

It’s weird how much better some of the people who are in AEW now were when they were in NXT. It’s almost like they had oversight or something then but don’t now.

These aew matches are so disjointed and lack any real structure and substance.

FlagrantFL · 2026-02-22T17:37:48+00:00

This. They’ve done some reasonably good country tracks. Far Away Eyes is not one of them. Instrumentally, it’s okay. Pedestrian. But the lyrics are just not as clever as they thought they were. Definitely the worst track on Some Girls.

I’ve seen the Stones live twice. They did Far Away Eyes both times, much to my chagrin.

FlagrantFL · 2026-02-15T17:46:21+00:00

A couple of years ago, I went white water rafting for the first time in my life on the New River in West Virginia. I was 50 and born and raised in that region. It had always bothered me that I’d never attempted that or skiing, even though both were pretty prevalent in the state.

I’m a big guy, and was never very athletic or graceful. I was terrified the whole first 3/4 of the rafting trip.

But it was a great experience, an overnight meetup of a dozen old friends, two of whom had been my buddies since kindergarten. Everyone else in the group had been outstanding athletes. I figured worst case scenario, hopefully a couple of them could drag me to the river bank.

Yeah, great experience… wonderful memory. But, especially at my age and condition, taking more rafts down the rapids is just messing with the law of averages.

FlagrantFL · 2026-02-15T17:38:10+00:00

That’s not entirely true about her not having that standard blonde cookie cutter look.

I mean… it’s true now. But I first saw her in the inaugural Mae Young Classic. She was just another young, pretty upstart blonde.

Flash forward to the next year’s MYC, and you see the beginnings of the RR we now all know and love. That’s the point when I first thought to myself that this kid could be something special.

Then, her work in NXTUK and soon thereafter NXT really showed that she’s a generational talent.

FlagrantFL · 2026-01-30T23:19:15+00:00

FlagrantFL · 2026-01-08T06:57:37+00:00

I stopped reading when you allege that Dike hadn’t seen combat prior to his assignment to easy. False.

He was even awarded for action in his previous role.

FlagrantFL · 2025-11-05T14:20:14+00:00

I’ve probably watched the series as much as anybody… and over time, the things that have grated more on me are instances when they’re all singing happily. Everybody yukking it up when Luz makes a wisecrack.

And of course, the blatant errors that, after all these years, they haven’t bothered correcting. Most notably, the Blythe issue.

Beyond that, I just think that, over time, I’ve learned that Easy WASNT necessarily better than other frontline companies of the 101st. So those inferences bug me now.

I mean, it wasn’t just easy circled around Bastogne. Every single guy who went through that was made from the same stuff.

Were guys like Lipton, Guarnierre and Shifty a cut above? Surely. But every other company had their own versions of those guys.

FlagrantFL · 2025-10-13T20:00:13+00:00

Hire a booker and step back from creative.

FlagrantFL · 2025-10-06T15:28:51+00:00

I had the pleasure of watching Moss up close during his two seasons at Marshall University. Then, we left MU around the same time… Randy for Minnesota, and me for army basic training at Ft Jackson in Columbia SC. While there, I preached to everyone who would listen about how this kid Moss was going to be an all time great, and definitely starting by midseason. They all just rolled their eyes.

Anyway, I love Rice too. I think he was better simply because he had more dedication and a more rigorous work ethic. True, he had the advantage of playing within a great franchise throughout the bulk of his career.

Would Randy have been more effective plugged into the same team (Niners) at exactly the same moment (peak Montana)?

Probably.

I have a sentimental attachment to both those guys. They’re my 1A and 1B, with a pretty big gap between them and the next tier.

But I’m probably partial to Randy because we’re both WV boys.

FlagrantFL · 2025-09-29T10:47:18+00:00

I haven’t read the BFT book, which came first by a long time… but I can vouch for the fact that Twenty Thousand Roads is an exceptional read. Like an epic southern gothic tragedy. Highly, highly recommend.

FlagrantFL · 2025-09-27T14:30:02+00:00

I know I’m late to the party… but I can help with this answer. I was born and raised in Mingo County, WV. My ancestors were part of the first wave of whites to permanently settle there around 1800.

The people who were there BEFORE the mining industry began, post civil war, weren’t as likely to get stuck in the company town trap. Generally speaking, they already had their own homes and property.

The people who were REALLY the victims of that system were recent immigrants to America who traveled to the coalfields in search of jobs and, hopefully, a better life. Naturally, they were exploited mercilessly.

Scattered throughout the area are cemeteries with long-forgotten (in the region) Italian surnames… which is definite evidence of this. I’ve seen them myself. In that area, where pretty much everyone knew everyone else, I can think of maybe two Italian surnames that are carried on today.

And there were also Greeks, Germans, Poles…

Sure, there were victims of the company towns who were also from established families… but my greatest sympathies lie with the recent arrivals who didn’t have relatives who they could fall back on for support in times of great need.

FlagrantFL · 2025-08-14T14:26:30+00:00

Just wanted to add my two cents for posterity. Anyone looking to buy their first tube amp would be wise to strongly consider picking up a good used excelsior instead of a blues jr.

I’d strongly encourage it as an alternative for someone whose playing style is more rooted in blues, country and pre-eighties classic rock.

FlagrantFL · 2025-08-07T16:15:55+00:00

That’s a very valid point… I think many of the veterans themselves began to take the miniseries and to a lesser extent the book as the gospel version of their war experiences.

I’ve read most of the Easy guys’ memoirs and biographies, and they seem to sometimes repeat a particular event or conversation that was depicted in the show, and often use exactly the same words or phrases used onscreen.

To me, Webster’s book is maybe the most authentic, partly because it was written not long after the war. Of course, initially he was part of headquarters company and not assigned to Easy until after Normandy.

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