I can vivdly remember watching WWF t.v from Hershey Penn, and then an occasional SNME, on Channel 10 in Sydney..yes there was almost nothing but squashes...BUT...we did get to see some red hot talent and here are my favourties
I have been a BIG fan of Andre since he was at Flemington Markets chucking Big Bad Johns boys around...SO, to say I was stunned when he turned on Hogan is an understatement..I pride myself on being able to picture the progress of a storyline before it happens...
BUT....I didnt see the outcome of that Pipers Pit ...the match at WM 3 was pretty good, considering Andre could barely move, his run with the twin ref swerve and selling the bellt to Ted was sheer brilliance...truly one of the wrestling worlds unique personas.
I can remember Sarge showing up on WWF tv and giving Vinny a earful about his haircut and dress code, he had a fued with Pat Paterson that stemmed from Sarge not releasing the Cobra Clutch as quick as he should, they had a absolute bloodbath at MSG in the streetfight, that they amazingly worked with no ref, so not only didnt they have a "go home" call, thay had to gauge the crowd while beating each other barmy...then he did that turn on t.v when Kosrow blocked his way, he got to the ring and recited the Pledge of Allegiance and everyone in the building joined in...this led to a couple of amazing brawls, once again at MSG, his work in the NWA and AWA wasnt too foul either tagging with Don Kernodle in NWA and winning the tag belts and carrying on his fued with "Foreigners" in Verne's promotion.....
and just when you thought he was done, he carried on into the 90's as a UBER heel...but thats another blog altogether.
WEASEL...WEASEL...WEASEL....
How good was Bobby Heenan...he was in Vernes promtion one minute and the next thing I see him on channel 10 cutting Andres hair in the lead up to WM One...Heenans Family were a deadset thorn in the face's side in those days, he had Bundy, Studd, Tully & Arn, Orndorff and Ric Rude at various times in the era...pretty much any heel Vince wanted to get over got put with Heenan...then he gave commentary a go with Gorilla and they formed a legendary combo before Bobby went to WCW and got treated like crap ...his not been well these past few years...but, to me his always gonn abe the Brain.
The Greatest Intercontinental Champion of all time....BAAHAHAHAHA...yeah righto, whatever you reckon...Honky showed up in 1986 supposedly to be face, but the crowd didnt buy it, and thus they started the vote of confidence angle..which pissed more people off......his first big fued was with Jake Roberts after he bashed Jake over the head ( and busted his neck legit) with a guitar on the snakepit talk show..trouble was it wasnt the worked guitar..not Honkys fault though...ended up at WM 3 versus Jake who had Alice Cooper in his corner and they got Damian drapped over Jimmy Hart....
THEN...when Ricky Steamboat wanted a break, they put the I-C belt on him and thus began an 11 month run as IC champ...the length of which still astounds me, even today...mind you it was mostly DQ's and count-outs...Honky was alos part of the angle that formed the Mega Powers when him and the Hart Foundation were beating Savage up and Liz went and got Hogan to help out........at Summerslam 88, when Beefcake couldnt make their match, he called out the locker room...the Warior answered the challenge and 31 seconds later he lost the belt ......then came the Rhythm & Blues tag team with Valentine and was part of Dibiases "Million Dollar team at Survivor Series 90...he finished his WWF stint as a pro heel clor guy working with Vince...he then left the WWF...he wasnt everybodys cup of tea, but he had his moments...and just quietly he does a good shoot interview.
Hogan had a couple of stints with WWF, one in '79 when he was a heel fueding with Andre..and then, probably, his most famous run from 83-91..when he pretty much ruled the storylines, on e in particular is my favourite, when Hogan and Orndorf were tagging against The Family and Mr Wonderful turned on him and dropped him on his head and then there was his go around with Piper leading up to WM 1, that included Orton, Orndorff , Snuka and actor Mr T...this
was aruagbly his best storyline...
its when I first saw him and to be fair, I liked him for the first couple of years of his run, but then all that "Hulking" up shit and not selling stuff that he shoulda got on my nerves something chronic....he had a good run with Dibiase and Andre that led up to WM 3..and also had som ecracking matches agaist Muraco, Bundy and Orndorff...then he saved Macho from a beating from the Hart Foundation and Honky which led to The Mega Powers forming and dissolving ....his run with Savage was pretty good as was their fued afterwards...Hogan got his 2nd belt when he pinned Macho at WM 5...then came the 90's...but thats anothe rblogaroo.
The Snake...one of my favourite stick men in wrestling history...no shouting, no histrionics, no blatant threats..just cool , calm delivery that had you convinced he was just pure evil.....Jake was just awesome, he had the most devastating finisher (dont care what DDP says) in the DDT...and when he brought it to the WWF..he brought Damian with him....Jake started out as a heel...but for some reason, the crowd dug him and Vince had no alternative but to turn him...
Some people think that Jakes recognised former problems with drugs and shit came from when Honky cracked him over the head with the wrong guitar..I dunno about that, Animal from the Roadies says that Jake was a bit of a wildman when they were in the Legion of Doom together...maybe the busted neck made his intake increase...Jake had a few damn fine angles while he was in the WWF in the 80's...Like when he had the toodoo with Steamboat, where famously, on a SNME he almost caved in Rickys head with a DDT..which got the move REALLY over ...then he had a stink with Ric Rude who made the error of cracking onto Jakes wife, who slapped the "Ravishing one" right in the moosh....he then had a stink with Andre were he sed Damian to scare the Giant birko....this led in the 90's ...so more Snakish stuff later.
The Brandon Bull showed up in McMahon land after a sterling run in NWA & Mid South...
He debuted at the Garden the night Hogan beat Sheik for the strap..then beat Tony Atlas on "The War to Settle the Score" show...then with Roddy Piper as his manager, he made the main event of the 1st WM ...were he was ditched by Piper and Ace Orton...this led to a face turn and a partnership with Hogan...Heenan put a $50 k bounty on Paul after he fired The Brain as his manager..needless to say , no one collected....the turn against Hogan began when Adrian Adonis started calling Paul "Hulk Jnr" this was furthered when Orndorf called Hulk, who couldnt come to the phone cause he was under a ton on the weight bench...A couple of tag matches folllowed were Orndorff didnt tag Hulk in at all winning both of them..
Then , Hogan and Paul got The Heenan Family in a tag match on tele...Hulk knocked Orndorff off the apron and while Bundy and Studd were doubvle teaming Hulk , Orndorff was claiming his eye was hurt...BUT, he got back in and chased off the Heenan guys...THEN...clotheslined Hulk and piledrived him...this led to the fued of the year, which saw them work in front of 76, 000 people in Torontro...they had a cage match on SNME which Hulk won the Legdrop of Dumb ...I still say to this day that Paul shoulda got a run with nthe belt during the fued...maybe Hogan was paranoid that the fans would ditch him for a champ, who could do more than 4 moves, and looked like a serious arsekicker to the fans....Orndorff hurt his arm during the fued but couldnt take time off to get it seen to...his last big show was Survivor 87 as a member of Hogans team were he got eliminated by Ric Rude with a roll up....
I can remember seeing Savage show up on WWF tv and the ongoing nfrenzy among the the managers to sign to a deal BUT he went with Liz and he was almost immediatley over at Casa Del Recky...his stink with Tito for the IC belt was brilliant as well as his casual fueds with Sammartino and George Steele....mind you, I dont think George deserved those title shots at his age...BUT what do I know...
..He was a whirling bloody dervish in the ring and he kept on dropping that briliant Jay Lethal style elbow on everybody, cant say I was a big fan of his promos EVER...BUT, his ring work was brilliant...his fued with Steamboat and Hogan made a couple of Wrestlemania must see.......He dumped Liz for Sherri and then worked an angle with Hogan and giant goof Zues, culminating at Summerslam 89...Randys stellar work carried on into the 90's ...but thats for later on.
Just after he got smashed up in the dog collar match with Valentine, Roddy headed north to the WWF...he was a manager at first, with Dr D and Orndorf while his ear healed....Vince gave him the Pipers Pit segment and he took the ball and ran with it...and stirred up Mr T by shaving a midget and smashed a coconut over Snuka's noggin...this led up to the first Wrestlemania main event....He also had a stink with Bruno around this time...His fued with Mr T ( who he didnt like for real) culminated at Wrestlemania 2 in that ridiculous boxing match, Roddy says they taped his thumbs up in the gloves and he couldnt save himself when he got chucked through the ropes..I dont if that is either here nor there so anyway.
Roddy took a break after Wrestlemania 2 and when he returned to a tv taping, the crowd "POPPED" big time..and shortly after Roddy turned face and began a angle with Adrian Adonis that culminated in the Hair V Hair match at WM 3......Vince also used Pipers Pit to forward the angle between Hogan & Andre....Pipers Pit made an appearance at WM 5 when Roddy hosed down loudmouth shock tv host Morton Downey Jnr with a fire extinguisher....Roddy then joined Gorilla on Primetime and this helped the angle that Ric Rude was having with the Warrior..Piper interfeared in the match at SummerSlam that coast Rude the IC belt...the angle carried on with Heenan and Roddy which culminated in Piper bashing Heenan senseless and getting sacked from Prime time...this led into the 90s and his fued with Bad News Brown, but later for that one.
Ric had a reasonably short stint with Vince in the late 80's, only 4 years (87-90)...BUT....he had some wicked angles while he was there, with Warrior and Jake Roberts..The warrior one had many fine hitouts the posedown, the match at Summerslam and a couple when when Warrior won the big belt.
..BUT...the fued with Jake Roberts was the classic, started out with Jakes missus slapping the taste out Rudes yap after she knocked him back on some lip action, this annoyed Jake BUT when Rude put Cheryl on his tights, that lit the fuse that only ended when Jake DDT'd him at Survivor Series.......he was gonna have a blue with Bossman and had even started the angle, but left WWF suddenly and spent a year on the Indys and in ECW..which I cant figure out...if someone knows why he split, let me know
Even thought Ted had worked in the WWF in 79..his second run from 87 to 96 was the classic...He came in as the character that Vince always saw himself as ...an arrogant millionaire who thought he could buy anyone...he spent many the interview section and vignette sneering at the middle classes and ripping them off on promised funding... Vignettes included, the manager of a local swimming pool to close for the day so he could have the pool to himself, or when the honeymoon suite in a hotel was already booked, he bribed the desk clerk to have the couple already in there thrown out. Other skits featured DiBiase traveling in limousines, giving $100 tips to waiters, and using $100 bills in convenience stores for small purchases like chewing gum.
. In reality, DiBiase's road travel was deliberately booked for first-class airplane flights and five-star hotel accommodations, and he was given a stipend of petty cash from the WWF Offices so that he could "throw money around" in public ....His first big angle was the attempt to purchase the title from Hogan, which Hogan knocked back and Andre was brought in, he pinned Hogan with some help from the Hebner boys and gave the belt to Ted...this led to the belt being held up and the tournament at Wrestlemania 4 to be run.
He had a minor fued with Hercules after Heenan sold him the contract and he told people that herc was his slave..the fued ended at Survivor Series 89 when he eliminated Herc...then he bought #30 of Akeem at the 89 Rumble but got chucked out by Big John Studd...A little while later after beating The Blue Blazer on SNME he debuted the diamond encrusted Million Dollar belt...and into the 90's Ted travelled with Virgil and a real flash belt.
Fresh from WCCW into WWF came the Dingo Warrior..thankfully Vince changed his name and gave hime some really cool intro music or he woulda been dead in the water, his initial fueds were with Hercules and Dino Bravo...neither of which were wrestling classics as you can imagine.......9 or so months into his run, he answered the Honky Tonk mans open challenge and 26 frenetic seconds later a new IC champ was crowned...
As champ he captained a team at Survivor Series, eliminating Ron Bass and Greg Valentine for his team win...Ric Rude pinned him for the IC belt (with some weaselish assistance) shortly after this BUT Warrior turned it around and took the IC belt back at Summerslam 89....then he had a run with Andre, to get him over as really indestructible, and apparently he wouldnt listen to Andre in the ring so one night the Giant cracked his paint with a straight right, he listened after that...Once again he captained a team at Surivivor versus a Andre captained team, Warrior pinned Arn Anderson and Bobby Heenan to win the match...and into the 90's he charged with the big belt on the horizon
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