WWF January 1987

About once a year I like to go back to where it all began for me. Last night was one of those days. Ended up finding a cool Youtube channel which posts monthly highlights of classic WWF stuff. So let's go back in time to pick through the highlights of the very first pro wrestling shows I ever saw....

Video was 80 minutes long. I only planned to watch the first half or so before going to sleep. One minute in we get Meatloaf (yes, THAT Meatloaf) on drums while a bunch of WWF wrestlers sing that Na, na na na na song, and Mr. Wonderful flexing in time to the music. I quickly realize I am definitely going to be watching this entire video. Did just that. Ended up getting even less sleep than usual. But it was worth it. Love this stuff. This is Pro Wrestling done right. Storyline driven face vs. heel stuff with larger than life characters and fans reacting accordingly.

The main focus was on the Danny Davis "heel referee" and Hogan/Andre angles.

Kamala won a squash with a picture perfect top rope splash. Kamala had a great presence.

Rougeau Brothers also won a squash. I will never be able to get into the Rougeaux as babyfaces. It's just too weird.

Most of the star vs. star matches (and there were far more than I was expecting) featured Danny Davis as ref and the ensuing shenanigans caused by his controversial reffing style. Highlight of the Davis stuff was the Dangerous one DQing the Killer Bees for "illegal masking" in a glorious piece of pro wrestling b.s. Guys like Orton, Tito, and the Can Am Connection (Martel was out there throwing Frankensteiners in 1987, while Zenk did the cool old school flying headscissors) looked sharp in the limited time they were given. Bulldogs & Iron Sheik also hit some cool 80s suplexes during a 3 minute tag match. Bulldogs, Bees, Can Ams, Hillbilly Jim, Tito & Pedro Morales were some of Davis' victims on this video. While the beneficiaries of his questionable reffing included Sheik & Volkoff, Valentine & Beefcake, Dino Bravo, Don Muraco & the overly nicknamed "Ace Cowboy" Bob Orton.

Due to Danny Davis I paid a lot of attention to ref's as a kid. Davis was obviously the "bad guy" ref. To kiddie me, Joey Marella was the equally corrupt "good guy" ref due to Ventura always claiming he was in Hogan's pocket. Dave Hebner was neutral until his evil twin brother Earl showed up. Dick Woehrle (sp?) also made an appearance on this video. I do not remember him at all. BUT I once went to an ECW Arena in 2000 where they made a big deal about him reffing a match in his 5th (or whatever) decade. The Arena crowd chanted "We Love Dick" in honor of this guy I had never heard of until that day.

Vince, Gorilla, Bobby & Jesse are just classic pro wrestling commentators. Man, this stuff takes me back. Even Bruno was surprisingly good during....

Billy Jack Haynes vs. Harley Race. Which was the best match on this video. Race took 4 or 5 big bumps, including that HHH 'flip over the turnbuckle' bump. I hadn't realized how much HHH and Flair stole from Race. Yet "The King" was surprisingly outdone in the bump department by BJH when Haynes took a nasty spill through the ropes and landed back first on the side of the ringside steps. OUCH! It was like a primitive version of Foley's Nestea Plunge. Haynes spent the rest of the match selling his back. In spite fine efforts from Messrs. Shelley & Cobb, I’m pretty sure there was more selling in this one match than the entire 4 hour ROH show I attended the other night lol. Bruno really put Race over hard on commentary while never betraying his babyface status. You could tell Da Brune respected The King. Finish came when BJH locked in the full nelson only to have Heenan run in for the DQ. Haynes then put "The Brain" in the Nelson....

This lead to an irate Heenan purchasing the services of Hercules from Slick. I did not remember that at all. Always thought Herc came into WWF with Heenan as his manager. And now I know the origin story of the memorable Haynes/Herc feud!

Herc won a squash with a Full Nelson of his own. Commentary reminded us Herc had previously used a Backbreaker as his finisher. Herc then challenged any man in the back to break his Full Nelson. BJH took up Herc's challenge. Rather than going through with the challenge, Herc the Jerk LEVELED Billy Jack with a JBLesque clothesline. THEN he applied the Nelson on an already wounded Haynes. Good stuff. Was BJH actually good? This admittedly small sample size says "yes." 

Paul Orndorff entered to "Real American" and gloriously hammed it up in a battle between the future members of Pretty Wonderful. What a...ahem....wonderful heel he was. Orndorff made quick work of a young Paul Roma, ending it with his patented Piledriver.

Roma was still down when they came back from break. He was then attacked by Steve Lombardi! Jobber feud! YES! Koko came out for his match with the future Brawler wearing white gloves and an UGLY singlet. I don't remember either of these things. Must have been a short-lived experiment that didn't last.

Koko vs. Lombardi was a 1987 version of an actionfest with the future Brawler getting in a surprising amount of offense. Koko eventually turned the tide, hit a sweet Rude Awakening, and won it with his trademark Missile Dropkick, which was neck and neck with the Superplex as the coolest move in 1987 wrestling to a young Baker.

Roma & Lombardi then cut promos on each other. Jobber feud! YES! Again!

Three Jake Roberts 'Snake Pit' segments made this video. One featured Blackjack Mulligan, who I don't remember at all from watching this era in real time. This was honestly pretty bad. Another featured Butch Reed. This one was a mutual admiration society between the two Mid South alums. And finally we had Jake interview Sal Bellomo. I didn't get what they were going for with this one. Jake insulted Sal's physique and home country of Italy. Sal put over both Italy and his new home of Pennsylvania. So you'd think this would set Sal up to be the babyface. But then Sal disses the beloved Bruno Sammartino! And starts comically flexing his less-than-stellar physique in a heelish sort of way. Very odd and confusing segment which seemed to serve no purpose. My working theory is Sal Bellomo is just THAT eccentric. Hey, I once saw him randomly show up dressed like a viking on a 1996 ECW show. Pretty sure the guy is just weird.

Butch Reed won a squash. Prior to the match the ring announcer introduced "the legendary Andre the Giant." Andre came out. Waved to the fans. And left. That's it. Also weird!

Heenan was great at selling his indignity over Hogan getting a bigger trophy than Andre. Between his managing, commentary, and work in the Andre angle, Heenan was the MVP of this video.

Goofy segment with Jesse at a hotel. A bunch of giddy women come out of an elevator. Jesse is sure "Macho Man" Randy Savage (who was conspicuous by his absence on this video) had arrived. Wrong! It's those heartthrobs, the Can Am Connection (Rick Martel & Tom Zenk)!

Honkytonk Man & Jimmy Hart did a bunch of bad segments goofing on Elvis.

Steamboat had an equally not good segment involving a bunch of school children.

Outback Jack also had a mediocre vignette. This one was marred by his theme music loudly playing while he was speaking, making him very hard to hear.

A few wrestlers talked about their New Year's Resolutions.

Hart Foundation was also strangely absent on this video.

We oddly only got one Piper's Pit. It was the one where Andre received his trophy. No idea why the uploader didn't include the oft-referenced Hogan trophy presentation as well.

Jack Tunney appeared in one inset promo where he was interrupted by "The Brain."

We'd frequently get a Howard Finkel voiceover hyping upcoming house shows at high schools. This is so strange to me. WWF was regularly selling out 10,000+ seat arenas during this period. Yet they're still running house shows too. These shows were even in the general NYC area! And featured such names as King Kong Bundy (who was also absent from the video), Iron Sheik & Nikolai Volkoff. These dudes were big stars! So they're likely working in front of 10,000+ one night and a few hundred in a high school gym the next. Weird! 

*Came across this interesting little tidbit while looking for something else.... On January 10, 1987 WWF & NWA both ran shows in Philly. WWF drew over 14,000 to the Spectrum. NWA drew a very respectable 11,000 to the Philly Civic Center. That means on one day in 1987 over 25,000 people attended dueling house shows in the same city. That's insane. Just goes to show how hot wresting was in 1987.

Feb 12, 2020 3:39:59 GMT Baker said:

WWF January 1987

About once a year I like to go back to where it all began for me. Last night was one of those days. Ended up finding a cool Youtube channel which posts monthly highlights of classic WWF stuff. So let's go back in time to pick through the highlights of the very first pro wrestling shows I ever saw....

Video was 80 minutes long. I only planned to watch the first half or so before going to sleep. One minute in we get Meatloaf (yes, THAT Meatloaf) on drums while a bunch of WWF wrestlers sing that Na, na na na na song, and Mr. Wonderful flexing in time to the music. I quickly realize I am definitely going to be watching this entire video. Did just that. Ended up getting even less sleep than usual. But it was worth it. Love this stuff. This is Pro Wrestling done right. Storyline driven face vs. heel stuff with larger than life characters and fans reacting accordingly.

The main focus was on the Danny Davis "heel referee" and Hogan/Andre angles.

Kamala won a squash with a picture perfect top rope splash. Kamala had a great presence.

Rougeau Brothers also won a squash. I will never be able to get into the Rougeaux as babyfaces. It's just too weird.

Most of the star vs. star matches (and there were far more than I was expecting) featured Danny Davis as ref and the ensuing shenanigans caused by his controversial reffing style. Highlight of the Davis stuff was the Dangerous one DQing the Killer Bees for "illegal masking" in a glorious piece of pro wrestling b.s. Guys like Orton, Tito, and the Can Am Connection (Martel was out there throwing Frankensteiners in 1987, while Zenk did the cool old school flying headscissors) looked sharp in the limited time they were given. Bulldogs & Iron Sheik also hit some cool 80s suplexes during a 3 minute tag match. Bulldogs, Bees, Can Ams, Hillbilly Jim, Tito & Pedro Morales were some of Davis' victims on this video. While the beneficiaries of his questionable reffing included Sheik & Volkoff, Valentine & Beefcake, Dino Bravo, Don Muraco & the overly nicknamed "Ace Cowboy" Bob Orton.

Due to Danny Davis I paid a lot of attention to ref's as a kid. Davis was obviously the "bad guy" ref. To kiddie me, Joey Marella was the equally corrupt "good guy" ref due to Ventura always claiming he was in Hogan's pocket. Dave Hebner was neutral until his evil twin brother Earl showed up. Dick Woehrle (sp?) also made an appearance on this video. I do not remember him at all. BUT I once went to an ECW Arena in 2000 where they made a big deal about him reffing a match in his 5th (or whatever) decade. The Arena crowd chanted "We Love Dick" in honor of this guy I had never heard of until that day.

Vince, Gorilla, Bobby & Jesse are just classic pro wrestling commentators. Man, this stuff takes me back. Even Bruno was surprisingly good during....

Billy Jack Haynes vs. Harley Race. Which was the best match on this video. Race took 4 or 5 big bumps, including that HHH 'flip over the turnbuckle' bump. I hadn't realized how much HHH and Flair stole from Race. Yet "The King" was surprisingly outdone in the bump department by BJH when Haynes took a nasty spill through the ropes and landed back first on the side of the ringside steps. OUCH! It was like a primitive version of Foley's Nestea Plunge. Haynes spent the rest of the match selling his back. In spite fine efforts from Messrs. Shelley & Cobb, I’m pretty sure there was more selling in this one match than the entire 4 hour ROH show I attended the other night lol. Bruno really put Race over hard on commentary while never betraying his babyface status. You could tell Da Brune respected The King. Finish came when BJH locked in the full nelson only to have Heenan run in for the DQ. Haynes then put "The Brain" in the Nelson....

This lead to an irate Heenan purchasing the services of Hercules from Slick. I did not remember that at all. Always thought Herc came into WWF with Heenan as his manager. And now I know the origin story of the memorable Haynes/Herc feud!

Herc won a squash with a Full Nelson of his own. Commentary reminded us Herc had previously used a Backbreaker as his finisher. Herc then challenged any man in the back to break his Full Nelson. BJH took up Herc's challenge. Rather than going through with the challenge, Herc the Jerk LEVELED Billy Jack with a JBLesque clothesline. THEN he applied the Nelson on an already wounded Haynes. Good stuff. Was BJH actually good? This admittedly small sample size says "yes." 

Paul Orndorff entered to "Real American" and gloriously hammed it up in a battle between the future members of Pretty Wonderful. What a...ahem....wonderful heel he was. Orndorff made quick work of a young Paul Roma, ending it with his patented Piledriver.

Roma was still down when they came back from break. He was then attacked by Steve Lombardi! Jobber feud! YES! Koko came out for his match with the future Brawler wearing white gloves and an UGLY singlet. I don't remember either of these things. Must have been a short-lived experiment that didn't last.

Koko vs. Lombardi was a 1987 version of an actionfest with the future Brawler getting in a surprising amount of offense. Koko eventually turned the tide, hit a sweet Rude Awakening, and won it with his trademark Missile Dropkick, which was neck and neck with the Superplex as the coolest move in 1987 wrestling to a young Baker.

Roma & Lombardi then cut promos on each other. Jobber feud! YES! Again!

Three Jake Roberts 'Snake Pit' segments made this video. One featured Blackjack Mulligan, who I don't remember at all from watching this era in real time. This was honestly pretty bad. Another featured Butch Reed. This one was a mutual admiration society between the two Mid South alums. And finally we had Jake interview Sal Bellomo. I didn't get what they were going for with this one. Jake insulted Sal's physique and home country of Italy. Sal put over both Italy and his new home of Pennsylvania. So you'd think this would set Sal up to be the babyface. But then Sal disses the beloved Bruno Sammartino! And starts comically flexing his less-than-stellar physique in a heelish sort of way. Very odd and confusing segment which seemed to serve no purpose. My working theory is Sal Bellomo is just THAT eccentric. Hey, I once saw him randomly show up dressed like a viking on a 1996 ECW show. Pretty sure the guy is just weird.

Butch Reed won a squash. Prior to the match the ring announcer introduced "the legendary Andre the Giant." Andre came out. Waved to the fans. And left. That's it. Also weird!

Heenan was great at selling his indignity over Hogan getting a bigger trophy than Andre. Between his managing, commentary, and work in the Andre angle, Heenan was the MVP of this video.

Goofy segment with Jesse at a hotel. A bunch of giddy women come out of an elevator. Jesse is sure "Macho Man" Randy Savage (who was conspicuous by his absence on this video) had arrived. Wrong! It's those heartthrobs, the Can Am Connection (Rick Martel & Tom Zenk)!

Honkytonk Man & Jimmy Hart did a bunch of bad segments goofing on Elvis.

Steamboat had an equally not good segment involving a bunch of school children.

Outback Jack also had a mediocre vignette. This one was marred by his theme music loudly playing while he was speaking, making him very hard to hear.

A few wrestlers talked about their New Year's Resolutions.

Hart Foundation was also strangely absent on this video.

We oddly only got one Piper's Pit. It was the one where Andre received his trophy. No idea why the uploader didn't include the oft-referenced Hogan trophy presentation as well.

Jack Tunney appeared in one inset promo where he was interrupted by "The Brain."

We'd frequently get a Howard Finkel voiceover hyping upcoming house shows at high schools. This is so strange to me. WWF was regularly selling out 10,000+ seat arenas during this period. Yet they're still running house shows too. These shows were even in the general NYC area! And featured such names as King Kong Bundy (who was also absent from the video), Iron Sheik & Nikolai Volkoff. These dudes were big stars! So they're likely working in front of 10,000+ one night and a few hundred in a high school gym the next. Weird! 

*Came across this interesting little tidbit while looking for something else.... On January 10, 1987 WWF & NWA both ran shows in Philly. WWF drew over 14,000 to the Spectrum. NWA drew a very respectable 11,000 to the Philly Civic Center. That means on one day in 1987 over 25,000 people attended dueling house shows in the same city. That's insane. Just goes to show how hot wresting was in 1987.

I saw one of these types of videos pop up in my YouTube feed the other day, and I was intrigued save for the run time. Now you've got me reconsidering my stance. Even if they miss certain key things, seems like excellent strolls down memory lane and/or highlight recaps for months (or even years) that have been seen in sparse quantities.

Feb 12, 2020 13:13:41 GMT 🤯 said:

Feb 12, 2020 3:39:59 GMT Baker said:

I saw one of these types of videos pop up in my YouTube feed the other day, and I was intrigued save for the run time. Now you've got me reconsidering my stance. Even if they miss certain key things, seems like excellent strolls down memory lane and/or highlight recaps for months (or even years) that have been seen in sparse quantities.

Strong recommendation for this guy's channel www.youtube.com/channel/UCHO8RIhwvgKcK6GBV__cUsQ/videos

While he does miss some key stuff, and makes the occasional odd choice, these videos are a neat synopsis of where WWF was at a given time in its history. Last night I already started on....

WWF February 1987

We kick things off with Koko B. Ware vs. "King" Harley Race. This was a neat little bout on the 1987 WWF tv match sliding scale. You know any star vs. star match is only going 2-5 minutes with an screwy finish. Particularly when Danny Davis is the referee as is the case here. Race takes another high back body drop, hits a textbook belly to belly, and misses a picture perfect top rope falling headbutt. Finish comes when Heenan pushes Koko off the top rope right in front of Davis. The Dangerous one then does a fast count. It's easy to see why my brother and other normal people HATED Danny Davis. I remembered him being all over TV in the early days of my fandom, and these videos confirm it. His shadiness becomes more and more apparent with each passing match. Postmatch sees Junkyard Dog run out to check on Koko. JYD then gets into a heated discussion with Davis ending in the Dog hiptossing Davis. HUGE pop. People were literally jumping out of their seats for this. Guessing this also kicked off the JYD/Race feud in a roundabout sort of way.

Decent power squash by Hercules highlighted by a press slam and ending in a full nelson. Hulk Hogan cut a really good inset promo putting Herc over huge as a potential challenger. 1987 me would have totally bought Herc as a serious threat to Hulk after hearing this one little 30 second promo. I also like how nearly every new heel calls out Hogan right away. Butch Reed did it in the January video, for example. It makes Hulk and the belt seem like the biggest, most important thing in the world. WWF got so many of the little things right back in the day.

Billy Jack Haynes wins a glorified squash over Jimmy Jack Funk. This was similar to the Herc squash. Highlight was a big press slam and BJH won with the Full Nelson. I don't remember ever seeing JJF on tv as a kid, though I must have done so. Herc & Heenan watched this match from the aisle. BJH challenged Herc after his victory. Herc seemed rarin' to go but Heenan would not allow. Also like how the Herc/BJH is getting a lot of airtime simply because that too jibes with my memory. Kiddie me thought Herc/Haynes was the 4th or 5th biggest match at WM 3.

*Johnny V was on commentary with Gorilla. He is just as bad at commentary as he is at managing. A true sub-Harvey Whippleman "talent." Though he did mention his new tag team of "The" Demolition. So that's something else to look forward.

Islanders get screwed by Danny Davis in a loss to Iron Sheik & Nikolai Volkoff. The big takeaway here is Haku as you do not remember him. Here he's a much slimmer than you remember white meat babyface throwing dropkicks. Unless he turned face in late 90s-early 2000s WCW, Haku/Meng played a heel in the Big Two for 14 straight years (minus a 2 year absence in between WWF & WCW). That has to be approaching some kind of record. Anyway, Tama had Sheik pinned with a Superfly Splash. Danny Davis conveniently looks the other way while Slick comes in to hit Tama with his cane, leading to Sheik scoring the victory. Danny Davis is the best. I remembered him being arguably the biggest heel in the company and these videos are confirming that memory.

An unintentionally hilarious/bad Can Am Connection vignette airs. It's somewhat reminiscent of the old Fabulous Ones videos in Memphis. I'm a little surprised these two weren't immediately booed out every building in two countries. They certainly would have been if they did this gimmick 10 years later.

Hillbilly Jim introduces Outback Jack. It's Outback's debut. Fun Fact: My cousin called him Outhouse Jack. This was not meant as an insult. He genuinely thought that was his name. Ditto for Brutus Briefcase and RIS. Outback's debut is against Steve Lombardi. I can see why Jack got a bad reputation. For starters, his look isn't much. He's pretty tall but doesn't have that late 80s WWF physique. He's also missing at least one tooth and wearing khakis. His one bump/sell is a bad one. He runs into a Lombardi back elbow. Then he sort of....dances and falls gently on his butt. He also throws a weak clothesline. The WWF production team does him no favors by putting that wimpy clothesline in the replay. I never had much nostalgia for "The Brooklyn Brawler" Steve Lombardi. Always thought he was, well, a bum. But I can see why WWF kept him around for so long. He's a loud obnoxious heel who knows his role in the ring. He's very booable. He also takes a neat 'shoulder to turnbuckle' bump off an Outback atomic drop before going down to an actual nice looking bulldog (which the commentary team called a clothesline to the back). Outback was pretty bad to a nitpicky astute fan, but the average fan of 1987 WWF honestly wouldn't have noticed....based on this one match.

*More to come later....probably

Still staying in 1987 WWF. Wish my brother were around to watch this stuff. He'd have loved it. This era was to him what 95-96 wrestling is to me. Hoping he did discover those monthly recap videos before he passed away. Anyway, I got sidetracked from those monthly recap videos with a Kamala binge.

Kamala is so Pro Wresting. Love it! He had a great act with The Wizard and Kim Chee. The Wizard: Also pure Pro Wrestling. He was also The Master in The Dungeon of Doom. And what is more Pro Wrestling than the Dungeon? Not much. That's for sure. 

I spent some time this afternoon binging on Wizard/Kamala promos. The Wizard shouting a bunch of pseudo mystical nonsense and making PG 13 threats towards Hulk Hogan while Kamala wears that creepy/badass tribal mask and makes weird animal noises in the background is the very definition of Pro Wrestling.

Kamala is also a fabulous squasher. But you already knew that. His aura was second to none. Everything from the tribal music to the mask to the entourage just works. And his top rope splash is honestly a thing of beauty. Prime Kamala ruled. I will hear no argument.

*Tomorrow I'll either get back to the random 1987 WWF stuff or go in for a Hogan/Kamala match or two. Fun Fact: The very first wrestling show I ever attended (33 years ago tomorrow!) was headlined by Hogan vs. Kamala in a Steel Cage.

Feb 12, 2020 13:13:41 GMT 🤯 said:

Feb 12, 2020 3:39:59 GMT Baker said:

WWF January 1987

About once a year I like to go back to where it all began for me. Last night was one of those days. Ended up finding a cool Youtube channel which posts monthly highlights of classic WWF stuff. So let's go back in time to pick through the highlights of the very first pro wrestling shows I ever saw....

Video was 80 minutes long. I only planned to watch the first half or so before going to sleep. One minute in we get Meatloaf (yes, THAT Meatloaf) on drums while a bunch of WWF wrestlers sing that Na, na na na na song, and Mr. Wonderful flexing in time to the music. I quickly realize I am definitely going to be watching this entire video. Did just that. Ended up getting even less sleep than usual. But it was worth it. Love this stuff. This is Pro Wrestling done right. Storyline driven face vs. heel stuff with larger than life characters and fans reacting accordingly.

The main focus was on the Danny Davis "heel referee" and Hogan/Andre angles.

Kamala won a squash with a picture perfect top rope splash. Kamala had a great presence.

Rougeau Brothers also won a squash. I will never be able to get into the Rougeaux as babyfaces. It's just too weird.

Most of the star vs. star matches (and there were far more than I was expecting) featured Danny Davis as ref and the ensuing shenanigans caused by his controversial reffing style. Highlight of the Davis stuff was the Dangerous one DQing the Killer Bees for "illegal masking" in a glorious piece of pro wrestling b.s. Guys like Orton, Tito, and the Can Am Connection (Martel was out there throwing Frankensteiners in 1987, while Zenk did the cool old school flying headscissors) looked sharp in the limited time they were given. Bulldogs & Iron Sheik also hit some cool 80s suplexes during a 3 minute tag match. Bulldogs, Bees, Can Ams, Hillbilly Jim, Tito & Pedro Morales were some of Davis' victims on this video. While the beneficiaries of his questionable reffing included Sheik & Volkoff, Valentine & Beefcake, Dino Bravo, Don Muraco & the overly nicknamed "Ace Cowboy" Bob Orton.

Due to Danny Davis I paid a lot of attention to ref's as a kid. Davis was obviously the "bad guy" ref. To kiddie me, Joey Marella was the equally corrupt "good guy" ref due to Ventura always claiming he was in Hogan's pocket. Dave Hebner was neutral until his evil twin brother Earl showed up. Dick Woehrle (sp?) also made an appearance on this video. I do not remember him at all. BUT I once went to an ECW Arena in 2000 where they made a big deal about him reffing a match in his 5th (or whatever) decade. The Arena crowd chanted "We Love Dick" in honor of this guy I had never heard of until that day.

Vince, Gorilla, Bobby & Jesse are just classic pro wrestling commentators. Man, this stuff takes me back. Even Bruno was surprisingly good during....

Billy Jack Haynes vs. Harley Race. Which was the best match on this video. Race took 4 or 5 big bumps, including that HHH 'flip over the turnbuckle' bump. I hadn't realized how much HHH and Flair stole from Race. Yet "The King" was surprisingly outdone in the bump department by BJH when Haynes took a nasty spill through the ropes and landed back first on the side of the ringside steps. OUCH! It was like a primitive version of Foley's Nestea Plunge. Haynes spent the rest of the match selling his back. In spite fine efforts from Messrs. Shelley & Cobb, I’m pretty sure there was more selling in this one match than the entire 4 hour ROH show I attended the other night lol. Bruno really put Race over hard on commentary while never betraying his babyface status. You could tell Da Brune respected The King. Finish came when BJH locked in the full nelson only to have Heenan run in for the DQ. Haynes then put "The Brain" in the Nelson....

This lead to an irate Heenan purchasing the services of Hercules from Slick. I did not remember that at all. Always thought Herc came into WWF with Heenan as his manager. And now I know the origin story of the memorable Haynes/Herc feud!

Herc won a squash with a Full Nelson of his own. Commentary reminded us Herc had previously used a Backbreaker as his finisher. Herc then challenged any man in the back to break his Full Nelson. BJH took up Herc's challenge. Rather than going through with the challenge, Herc the Jerk LEVELED Billy Jack with a JBLesque clothesline. THEN he applied the Nelson on an already wounded Haynes. Good stuff. Was BJH actually good? This admittedly small sample size says "yes." 

Paul Orndorff entered to "Real American" and gloriously hammed it up in a battle between the future members of Pretty Wonderful. What a...ahem....wonderful heel he was. Orndorff made quick work of a young Paul Roma, ending it with his patented Piledriver.

Roma was still down when they came back from break. He was then attacked by Steve Lombardi! Jobber feud! YES! Koko came out for his match with the future Brawler wearing white gloves and an UGLY singlet. I don't remember either of these things. Must have been a short-lived experiment that didn't last.

Koko vs. Lombardi was a 1987 version of an actionfest with the future Brawler getting in a surprising amount of offense. Koko eventually turned the tide, hit a sweet Rude Awakening, and won it with his trademark Missile Dropkick, which was neck and neck with the Superplex as the coolest move in 1987 wrestling to a young Baker.

Roma & Lombardi then cut promos on each other. Jobber feud! YES! Again!

Three Jake Roberts 'Snake Pit' segments made this video. One featured Blackjack Mulligan, who I don't remember at all from watching this era in real time. This was honestly pretty bad. Another featured Butch Reed. This one was a mutual admiration society between the two Mid South alums. And finally we had Jake interview Sal Bellomo. I didn't get what they were going for with this one. Jake insulted Sal's physique and home country of Italy. Sal put over both Italy and his new home of Pennsylvania. So you'd think this would set Sal up to be the babyface. But then Sal disses the beloved Bruno Sammartino! And starts comically flexing his less-than-stellar physique in a heelish sort of way. Very odd and confusing segment which seemed to serve no purpose. My working theory is Sal Bellomo is just THAT eccentric. Hey, I once saw him randomly show up dressed like a viking on a 1996 ECW show. Pretty sure the guy is just weird.

Butch Reed won a squash. Prior to the match the ring announcer introduced "the legendary Andre the Giant." Andre came out. Waved to the fans. And left. That's it. Also weird!

Heenan was great at selling his indignity over Hogan getting a bigger trophy than Andre. Between his managing, commentary, and work in the Andre angle, Heenan was the MVP of this video.

Goofy segment with Jesse at a hotel. A bunch of giddy women come out of an elevator. Jesse is sure "Macho Man" Randy Savage (who was conspicuous by his absence on this video) had arrived. Wrong! It's those heartthrobs, the Can Am Connection (Rick Martel & Tom Zenk)!

Honkytonk Man & Jimmy Hart did a bunch of bad segments goofing on Elvis.

Steamboat had an equally not good segment involving a bunch of school children.

Outback Jack also had a mediocre vignette. This one was marred by his theme music loudly playing while he was speaking, making him very hard to hear.

A few wrestlers talked about their New Year's Resolutions.

Hart Foundation was also strangely absent on this video.

We oddly only got one Piper's Pit. It was the one where Andre received his trophy. No idea why the uploader didn't include the oft-referenced Hogan trophy presentation as well.

Jack Tunney appeared in one inset promo where he was interrupted by "The Brain."

We'd frequently get a Howard Finkel voiceover hyping upcoming house shows at high schools. This is so strange to me. WWF was regularly selling out 10,000+ seat arenas during this period. Yet they're still running house shows too. These shows were even in the general NYC area! And featured such names as King Kong Bundy (who was also absent from the video), Iron Sheik & Nikolai Volkoff. These dudes were big stars! So they're likely working in front of 10,000+ one night and a few hundred in a high school gym the next. Weird! 

*Came across this interesting little tidbit while looking for something else.... On January 10, 1987 WWF & NWA both ran shows in Philly. WWF drew over 14,000 to the Spectrum. NWA drew a very respectable 11,000 to the Philly Civic Center. That means on one day in 1987 over 25,000 people attended dueling house shows in the same city. That's insane. Just goes to show how hot wresting was in 1987.

I saw one of these types of videos pop up in my YouTube feed the other day, and I was intrigued save for the run time. Now you've got me reconsidering my stance. Even if they miss certain key things, seems like excellent strolls down memory lane and/or highlight recaps for months (or even years) that have been seen in sparse quantities.

I've also had these videos come up on my recommended over the last several months. So far I've watched monthly recaps from November 1991 to January 1993, they did a great job of editing together key moments from Superstars, Prime Time, Challenge and now Raw. I haven't had time to catch up on the older ones yet but that was a fun read from Baker .

Going to ignore Emp's wrong and unnecessary crack at The Real World Champ for the time being in order to get down to business....
-----------------------------
Still on a 1987 WWF/Kamala binge. I've been skipping around more and focusing on the stuff I personally find interesting.

Hulk Hogan vs. Kamala- Madison Square Garden 12/26/86
Hulk Hogan vs. Kamala- MSG 1/19/87- No DQ Match

I didn't plan it this way, but my recent 1987 WWF/Kamala binge coincided beautifully with the 33rd anniversary of my first live wrestling show....a show main evented by a Hogan/Kamala Steel Cage Match. Sadly, a quick Youtube search revealed no Hogan/Kamala Cage matches. But I did find these two...

Think I saw at least one of these on an old Coliseum Home Video circa 95-96. If so, I would have watched it at the 'wrong' time....a time when I dismissed 80s WWF (being a diehard 80s NWA guy at the time), most big men, and Hogan in particular. 

But now I've come full circle and actually have more time for Hogan today than at any other point in my life. A lot of things about The Hulkster I once took for granted have become more impressive with the passage of time. 

Both matches were more action packed than you'd probably expect. There was really no downtime in either one. Both were under 10 minutes, with the second being the longer of the two. Crowd was hot throughout both bouts with frequent "Hogan" chants and huge pops for any Hogan comeback, or even hint of a comeback.

The biggest highlight of either match was a Kamala leapfrog(!). Hogan threw good punches, but terrible chops. The first match ended in DQ when the interference of Kamala's manager The Wizard and handler Kim Chee became too much for the ref to take. A post-match attack came dangerously close to ending Hogan's career. Wizard & Chee had Hogan prepped for Kamala's dreaded Top Rope Splash, but Hulk managed to fight them off and escape just in the nick of time.

The second match was a little better than the first. Hogan comes out wearing 'war paint' in the style of Kamala. Hell yeah! Kamala hits an early Splash (his finisher) for two. I didn't mind Hogan's kickout for once. It was early in the match. Hogan hadn't been terribly wounded. And the Splash came outta nowhere. Kamala then goes up top for the dreaded Top Rope Splash. Hogan cleverly rolls out of the way. Kamala climbs down. Loved this. The implication being not even The Almighty Hulk Hogan could have survived the Top Rope Splash. We also got two cool missed moves with Hogan just dodging another Kamala splash and Kamala just dodging a big Hogan elbow. Kilgore pretty sure this is the "Hogan hurts his arm" match you once mentioned. After the missed elbow drop, Kamala bites Hulk's arm in an amazing bit of psychology playing on Hogan's arm injury and Kamala's cannibalism. Hogan is in trouble. So he does what he always does. CHEAT! Hogan goes to his tights for a handful of powder. He throws it in poor Kamala's face. BOO! Then Jerk Hogan goes to the floor to punch The Wizard and poor Kim Chee. Now the man is assaulting innocent bystanders! Unbelievable! Hogan decks Kamala with The Wizard's magical horn for the 3 count.

Oh, one of these matches also had a pretty cool Hulk Up as such things go. Hogan kicked out of the Splash at 2.9. But he was still hurt. The Hulk Up didn't come until like a minute later when Kamala was punching away. Hogan also changed up his finishing sequence. The bodyslam, big boot, and leg drop weren't in the normal order, and didn't lead to the finish. It's always nice to see Hogan change it up a little.

The second match saw Andre The Giant come out when the bout was over to give Hogan the belt in a slightly aggressive manner after looking it at the title for a good long time. Epic foreshadowing what with Andre's turn only being a few weeks away. Crowd caught on quickly. There were definitely some audible boos. 

Verdict- Must watch for any Hulkamaniac. Even non-Hulkamaniacs should be able to find something to enjoy. 
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In The Future To Come: A SNME Battle Royal and a famous Snake Pit segment. Demolition debuts. More Kamala! And his new friend Sika. Bobby Heenan takes an insane bump. The Can Am Connection will be in action. I share a discovery about Butch Reed and revisit my first on screen burial. Plus King Kong Bundy squashes a midget! 

Ooh yeah! I just can't get enough of that 1987 WWF. One day soon I'll have to write a lengthy rant years in the making on my wrestling philosophy. The gist of it being, after growing up on this stuff, how can I be expected to care about a parade of bland wannabe gymnasts do-si-doing in search of golf claps while nothing of any import is at stake?
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20 Man Saturday Night's Battle Royal- 3/14/87

The ROH Battle Royal I saw last weekend was better than this. It got more time, told more stories, and the wrestlers did more (in a good way). But this was an embryonic version of that ROH Battle Royal. The blueprint was laid here. 

We're only 15 days away from Wrestlemania III. So the focus is on Andre & Hogan, as it should be. They're kept apart for the first few minutes. Andre eliminates Sika, probably a few others, and most notably, Lanny Poffo. Andre headbutts the Poet Laureate of WWF out of the ring. Lanny is busted open on the floor. Medics attend to him. Blood on NBC! That would never happen today. This does a great job of putting Andre and his headbutt over as killers. Meanwhile, Hogan eliminates Honkytonk Man first in a good bit. See, because HTM was a wimp. Both the bookers and Honky himself understood that about his character. So Hogan eliminating him first (even before Lanny Poffo!) was perfect. Hogan also eliminates his longtime nemesis Mr. Wonderful Paul Orndorff to a big pop. But wait! Andre grabs Hogan from behind! Headbutt to the back of the head! Andre then unceremoniously dumps Hogan as if he is a piece of garbage. Andre glares at Hulk with a look of utter disdain. Then he does this awesome 'brush off' taunt. All this was glorious. Andre and his headbutt have been put over huge on this night. He just handed Hogan a rare defeat and barely had to break a sweat in doing so. Andre was the star of this match. 

It would have been easy to go all the way with Andre with his nemesis now eliminated. But no! The WWF booking team had other ideas. And good for them! Why give one guy the rub when you can give two guys the rub? After eliminating Hogan, the other 8 or so wrestlers, faces and heels alike, ganged up on Andre to eliminate him. And why not? Andre just wrecked Lanny Poffo and singlehandedly eliminated the nearly unbeatable Hulk Hogan. He is clearly the biggest threat in this match. The only holdout from the anti-Andre gang was Andre's Heenan Family stablemate Hercules, who was late to the save. 

Final Four was Herc, his rival Billy Jack Haynes, and the odd duo of Demolition Smash & Koko. It turns into an impromptu face vs. heel tag. Koko is quickly eliminated. Smash is then tossed after heel miscommunication. So it comes down to the feuding Herc & Haynes. BJH has the match one when Herc's manager Bobby Heenan gets up on the apron. Haynes goes after "The Brain" leaving BJH open to a Herc attack. That Herc attacks come, and BJH is eliminated. Hercules is your winner!

The wrestling wasn't much beyond punches (nearly all of which looked good), kicks, and Andre's headbutts, but the storytelling was top notch with the Hogan/Andre and Hercules/Haynes feuds being furthered. I had been indifferent to Herc dating all the way back to my childhood days, but he has impressed me on these videos if for no other reason than he throws the hardest clotheslines I've seen thus far in 80s WWF.

Jake Roberts Interviews Honkytonk Man on The Snake Pit- Superstars 2/21/87

This is a famous segment which solidified Jake's face turn, may have lead to his demons (more on that in a bit), and turned HTM into one of the most hated men in the company. Jake is honestly being a bit of a dick, taunting the equally dickish HTM. Jake chases Honky off the set. But, and this a thing I remembered for 33 years, HTM sneaks in behind Jake using the previously unsuspected "back door" while Jake is still jawing at the "front door." HTM absolutely WRECKS Jake with a super stiff ungimmicked guitar shot. This looked brutal. HTM continues the assault. Great angle. This was Honky's first big hit. Many more would follow.

Now for the real life part of the story.... According to Jake, the guitar shot broke his neck, and lead directly to his drug dependency. HTM disputes all of this and does bring up some good points in his counter arguments. I don't know who to believe, and I'm not going to take sides. What I will do is share the clip. You guys have to see this guitar shot. Not hard to imagine this messing Jake up for real.

*Youtube has been weird for the past few days and won't let me start in the middle of the video. So just skip ahead to about 2:36 if you only want to see the guitar shot heard 'round the world.



Kamala/Sika/Wizard Promo- WWF Superstars 2/7/87

I was looking for a disturbing promo I remembered from my youth where Kamala & Sika fought over, and ate a "live"....animal. This promo did its job in grossing me out and making me think these two were unhinged nutjobs. I mean, I still remember it, albeit vaguely, some 33 years later. Unfortunately, I could not find THE promo in question. But I did discover other people who remember it, though the details vary. I thought the animal in question was a chicken. Some say it was a fish. Others a lobster. But this promo definitely left a lasting impression on an entire generation of wrestling fans. 

The promo I had to "settle" for is another gem. Kamala & Sika make a bunch of weird noises and goofy faces while The Wizard rants and raves about how they're "communicating on the highest plane of existence- the 39th level." Mean Gene does his usual stellar job as the straight man.

This episode of Superstars also had the Hart Foundation/Bulldogs title change, Andre's official heel turn, and.....Outback Jack's debut. Meaning its in contention for GOAT edition of Superstars.

Kamala & Sika w/Mr. Fuji & Kim Chee vs. Can Am Connection- Wrestling Challenge Early May 1987

Boo! The Wizard > Mr. Fuji. Fwiw I also watched the promo where Wizard gifts Kamala & Sika to Fuji. Highlight there was Kamala in the rare green face paint.

Truth is I didn't think much of Sika as a kid. Sure, he grossed me out that one time, but I always thought he was kind of a jabroni. Kamala was the biggest, baddest man in the promotion (pre-Andre turn) and even as a Kamala-fearing kid I thought him teaming with Sika was a major step down (though I wouldn't have been able to word it as such).

The Can Am Connection are Rick Martel & Tom Zenk. I have trouble telling them apart. Need 🤯 to give me a tip the way he did for The Dawsons (which I don't remember, by the way  :lol: ). The only thing I have to go is Rick Martel wrestles southpaw while Zenk is a traditional righty.

Oh, that earlier part about Sika "sucking" was a lead in to how he surprised me in this match with above average clubbering. I like how Kamala & Sika use each other's heads as weapons. Martel & Zenk had good white meat babyface fire. But the size and savagery of Kamala & Sika looks to be too much. They seem to have the match won with Sika prepping Kamala for the big splash. But no! Martel trips Kamala! Rick then goes up top for a big cross body on Sika. 1-2-3! The 471 pound Can Am Connection just upset the 705 pound monster duo of Kamala & Sika! HUGE POP! People were jumping out of their seats for this.

Finishing stretch wasn't executed well. Kamala still landed on Zenk after the trip lol. Not a splash, but definitely a falling headbutt. Then Sika was waaaay too close for the finishing cross body. He had to back up. Why didn't he just reach out and punch Martel instead? Still, this was classic monster heel vs. pretty boy babyface stuff.

The Burial of Tom Zenk- Yikes! This was just as brutal as I remember it. The Can Am Connection were penciled in as the next tag team champs. WWF commentary was putting them over huge. Even heel commentator Jesse Ventura would grudgingly give them compliments. I distinctly remember this from my childhood fandom. It made the Can Ams stand out as big deals to young me. They scored pinfall wins over Orton & Muraco at WM 3 and the monster duo of Kamala & Sika as written about above. Then Zenk quit over a pay dispute. No notice or anything. He was there one day and gone the next. WWF commentary and even Rick Martel in promos absolutely buried him. They called him a "quitter" without ever referring to him by name. In a roundabout way, they even put over the heel talent in the process. See, Zenk couldn't cut it against all that tough competition. So he tucked his tail between his legs and ran away. Not until the equally savage Billionaire Ted skits in early 1996 would WWF so brutally bury a guy. As a kid it was burned into my brain that Tom Zenk (who was now He Who Must Not Named) was a quitter and a wimp.

Fwiw Tito Santana replaced Zenk as Martel's partner a few months later in a new team called Strike Force. Plans more or less remained the same with Strike Force beating the Hart Foundation for the Tag Team Championship before the end of 1987. 

Demolition w/ Johnny V vs. Mario Mancini & Salvatore Bellomo- Superstars 1/17/87

This is Demolition's debut. They're only half formed at this point. This time around it's Fuji > Other Manager. Smash was played by Moondog Rex rather than Barry Darsow (something I didn't learn about for at least 20 years). Their facepaint is also much different than you remember. They have dyed hair and are wearing furry boots.

But the black, studded leather outfits are there. As are the pre-match masks, badass clubbering style, and Demolition Decapitation finisher.

I discussed Sal "Blowmo" in another post. Now let's talk about Mario Mancini for a bit....

This guy.... :lol:  He was the ultimate wimp (which is what we called jobbers in those days). Mancini was a regular on WWF tv in the early days of my fandom. Hell, he may very well have been on Superstars & Challenge more than anybody. Yet unlike other commonly seen jobbers such as Horowitz, Lombardi, Poffo, Brady Boone, and Iron Mike Sharpe, Mancini never received a push, got put over by the commentary team, or even to the best of my knowledge landed a single offensive move. As I mentioned earlier, he was the ultimate wimp. Even humble Reno Riggins would get the rub of Heenan mention his (mythical?) RenoPlex. Mancini did not even get the courtesy of having a fictional suplex named after him. So let us now pay tribute to this jobbiest of jobbers. Here's to you, Mario Mancini. The heels of the age would have been just the slightest bit less over if you hadn't done such a great job of getting your butt kicked week after week.
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*That's enough for tonight. Next time we'll Focus on the Family. The Heenan Family, that is! I'll talk more about the greatness of the Hogan/Andre feud. Explain how both guys were justified in their actions and revisit a cool moment of real sports build~! that has stuck with me for 33 years. Then I'll move on to the weirdness of the Heenan/Patera feud before finally getting to King Kong Bundy squashing a midget! And if I haven't burned myself out I'll discuss One Man Gang's most memorable WWF moment in that character. This time machine back to 1987 has just landed, folks. I get the feeling we're going to be partying like it's 1987 for a long time.....

Baker-man, Bald = Dave!

More 1987 WWF

Hogan vs. Andre: The Build- I've mentioned before how the heel is justified in many of my favorite feuds. Here is another example. It's easy to understand Andre's gripes. Why was Hogan's trophy bigger than his? Sure, being WWF Champion for 3 years is impressive. But is it really more impressive than being undefeated for 15 years? And why did Andre, who was undefeated for 15 years, after all, never get a title shot at The Hulkster? 

With that being said, watching through it again, this is one feud where Hogan was NOT a jerk. In the words of Hogan himself, "all you had to do was ask, brother." It really was just a misunderstanding between friends. I feel like these two probably could have worked things out if not for Heenan sticking his nose in and poisoning Andre's mind. Andre ripping off Hogan's necklace and drawing accidental(?) blood was another great moment....one which marked the point of no return. 

Say what you will about the matches, but strictly in terms of build, storytelling, and Bigness, this feud may never have been topped. Fwiw I think I had it around #10 the last time we did a Greatest Feuds Countdown. 

Haven't found the video (yet) but another cool thing I remember from this feud in real time was a Tale of the Tape between these two for some of that Real Sports Build the kids are always going on about these days. Fwiw I don't remember WWF ever doing anything again like this until an Action Zone segment hyping the HBK/Owen match in February 1996. Andre had Hogan beat in every single category.....except biceps where Hogan's 24 inch pythons topped Andre's guns by 2 inches. And you could make a strong argument that Hogan parlayed this one advantage to victory by using those 24 inch pythons to hoist Andre up for The Bodyslam Heard 'Round The World. 

The Ken Patera Story- Again, I could not find the actual Ken Patera Story in full....yet. For those who don't know, this was a series of videos which aired for several weeks on WWF programming chronicling Patera's rise and fall. The rise included an appearance in the Olympic Games and an IC Title run. The fall sent him to prison. 

Even as a dumb kid who was still pretty new to wrestling, I almost certainly knew Patera was being set up to be a big deal. I recently learned the idea was to make Patera the #2 babyface in the company. Living through that era, and even for many fans looking back, this was a true Golden Age where WWF could do no wrong, and everything they touched turned to gold. Now a lot of this is true. But it wasn't ALL sunshine and roses. In reality, they spent most of 1987 desperately searching for a #2 babyface....

Andre turned heel early in the year. Piper retired at WM 3. Steamboat permanently lost Vince's trust after requesting time off shortly he defeated Savage for the IC Title at WM 3. JYD was already on his way down the card due to (alleged) drug problems and getting himself into bad physical shape. Many allegedly thought Duggan was going to be the guy. But he would soon be fired for the double whammy of getting busted for drugs while riding with the heel Iron Sheik. Jake was too risky because of injury issues due to Honky's guitar shot. Patera didn't get over quite the way they wanted for reasons I'll explain in a bit, and WWF moved on from Patera when an injury sidelined him for two months from August-October. By then, WWF had positioned the newly acquired Bam Bam Bigelow and the recently turned Randy Savage into the latest candidates vying for the coveted #2 babyface spot. As we all know, Savage won out, and everything did indeed turn out all sunshine and roses in the end.

So why did Patera flop? Well, for starters, he wasn't the most charismatic guy in the world. To call his promos 'average' would be generous. But I think the real reason he flopped was his "babyface ex-con" gimmick. I suppose I should award WWF points for originality and boldness. But even the tremendous WWF marketing machine couldn't get 80s fans to truly invest in an ex-con babyface.

I wish I could find the Ken Patera Story in full. From what I remember, it had Mean Gene delivering 'ominous' narration about how Ken Patera was ACTUALLY the good guy for throwing a boulder through a McDonald's window because they wouldn't serve him a cheeseburger after hours. Anyway, Ken Patera legitimately did almost two years in prison. 

This is all lead to The Great Debate between Patera and his ex-manager Bobby Heenan with the storyline being "The Brain" had corrupted the former All American Olympic athlete. Like Heenan was the devil on Patera's shoulder leading him into a life of crime and depravity. And then the kicker. Heenan abandoned Patera when Ken needed him the most.

Here is The Great Debate in full. Come for the stellar Heenan speaking performance. Stay for Heenan's sick bump around 3:47. Be amused by Patera's mic work. One line in particular is a real lol moment. Patera is like the anti-Heenan when it comes to wit. The inevitable fisticuffs begin around 3:30 with Heenan actually being the aggressor. Enjoy!



Another cool thing about The Great Debate is large portions of Heenan's speech were CENSORED in real time. This was another great promoting job by WWF (similar to the Ron Bass/Beefcake CENSORED 'spurs' incident). Not showing everything is a good and underrated storytelling technique. It's the same psychology Jaws used to become the first summer blockbuster. It's the same technique Lovecraft (and other classic horror writers) used to great effect. And....well, you get the point. Censoring what Heenan said allowed our imaginations to run wild. Nothing he said in real life could have lived up to the pure HEINOUSNESS concocted in the minds of millions of wrestling fans watching at home. WWF had a then-rare ball drop by not shilling an UNCENSORED version of this segment. I'm tellin' ya. Millions of people would have called into The Hotline or bought the tape just to hear Heenan bound-to-be R rated rant. 

Anyway, this incident was followed by The Heenan Family whipping Patera with a belt (psychology!) a short time later. Heenan's bump also lead to the neck brace he was forever wearing over the next year or so. So while this feud never lived up to the high hopes WWF had for it, you can't say it wasn't without its moments.

King Kong Bundy Squashes A Midget- Wrestlemania III

Time for another iconic moment all fans of this era are likely to remember. This was a 6 man 'mixed' tag featuring KKB & Two Midgets against Hillbilly Jim & Two Midgets. Rules were Big Guy vs. Big Guy and Midgets vs. Midgets. Couldn't find the full match. Just clips.

It's primarily Bundy vs. Hillbilly in the clip I watched. KKB looked good with solid big man clubbering. Hillbilly Jim, not so much. He definitely bumps and clotheslines like a graduate of the Outback Jack School of Wrestling. But all that is just noise. I'm here to see Bundy squash a midget. You're here to see Bundy squash a midget. We are all here to see Bundy squash a midget. And you know what? Little Beaver deserved it!

I already mentioned the rules of the match. Little Beaver spends much of this 3 minute clip blatantly breaking those rules. He's constantly entering the ring illegally to harass Bundy. KKB showed considerable patience in not swatting the little pest far earlier. But KKB is only human. Eventually Beaver goes too far. So Bundy does what any self respecting monster heel would do. He snatches up the Little Bastard for a textbook bodyslam and then squashes him with a picture perfect elbow drop. Little Beaver spent 3 minutes poking the bear and got what he deserved in the end. Sorry. Not sorry.

KKB quietly had a pretty good Wrestlemania career. Record setting squash of SD Jones at WM 1. Main event loss to Hogan at WM 2. Memorably squashed a midget at 3. Undertaker Streak victim at 11. Sure, a 1-3 record is nothing to write home about, but all those matches are either historically significant, or memorable in their way.

One Man Gang Lives Up To His Name- Superstars 8/8/87

I had actually forgotten about this one. For decades my lasting memory of OMG's pre-Akeem WWF run was simply being the first guy I ever saw jump from a non-WWF promotion to WWF. One day he is UWF Champion. A few weeks later he is in WWF as Slick's latest charge.

But this segment did a great job of refreshing my memory. It starts out as a standard squash. OMG makes quick work of a ham and egger named Dave Stoudemire, finishing him off with a front suplex (I refuse to call it a Gourdbuster since all fans of 1987 WWF know a Gourdbuster is "Outlaw" Ron Bass' proto-Pedigree finisher). But we're not done yet. OMG gives poor Stoudemire another front suplex. Now the ref is all "Come on, man! That was uncalled for." So HE gets a front suplex. OMG! The original OMG just attacked a ref! That was HUGE to 1987 me. This guy is outta control! But the fun has just begun. Another jobber, this one with more guts than brains, runs in to save his jobbing brethren. He too eats a front suplex. Now two more jobbers run in. They get the same front suplex treatment. So the OMG just wrecked 5 guys, including a ref, in like 2 minutes. He is now a made man as a monster heel.

Many times I have prattled on about being a young heel fan. But it's not as if I liked EVERY heel. Some were just boring. Some crossed the line of acceptable heel behavior. And then there were the heels I genuinely feared. Typically the "outta control/scary" heels like Kamala, Killer Khan, early Demolition, and, yes, the One Man Gang in the immediate aftermath of this carnage. Truth is I know for a fact I rooted for Hogan against the monstrous Kamala at my first live wrestling show using the "lesser of two evils" principle. Like "If not even HULK HOGAN can stop 'The Ugandan Headhunter,' who possibly could??" Same deal with Hogan vs. that mist spewing creep Killer Khan. And I would have rooted for Hogan over OMG in the immediate aftermath of this using that same "lesser of two evils" principle. 
===========================
*I am now caught up in writing about all the (notable) wrestling I watched over the weekend. Will probably continue this trip down 1987 WWF memory lane. There are about 10 random matches I distinctly remember from 1987 Superstars or Challenge episodes that I haven't written about on either PW yet. May try seeing how many of them I can find. Or maybe I'll just write about Jesse Ventura vs. The Masked Marauder? Idk. Tune in next time to find out....

Loving these recaps from Baker-man. Man, it's a great time to be alive on PW!

Feb 18, 2020 0:25:33 GMT 🤯 said:

Loving these recaps from Baker -man. Man, it's a great time to be alive on PW!

Thank you! But you may be a little less enthusiastic when I tell you NWA Powerrr suddenly seems boring, dull, and pointless in comparison to the origins of my wrestling fandom. Look, I have to get it all out of my system when I go on these hardcore nostalgia kicks. And there's no telling how long that might take....

Feb 18, 2020 0:17:32 GMT Baker said:

There are about 10 random matches I distinctly remember from 1987 Superstars or Challenge episodes that I haven't written about on either PW yet. May try seeing how many of them I can find. 

Bam! EPIC success on my very first try. I can't believe some absolute champion out there actually uploaded this one particular throwaway match. But first...

Bam Bam Bigelow w/ Oliver Humperdink vs. Nikolai Volkoff w/ Slick- Superstars 9/12/87

It's insane how much random wrestling stuff I remember from 33 years ago. I swear if I could remember "important" things the way I do wrestling stuff I would have already found a way to cure cancer and discovered a way to fly manned rocket ships to Mercury in my spare time. What's even more impressive is I the way I can recall the matches and episodes I didn't see (Islanders heel turn says hello).

See, for some reason I missed all the WWF shows the weekend before this BBB/Volkoff match aired. By this point, the first thing I did when I got a new TV Guide every Sunday was to scour the listings for all the wrestling shows. If you were lucky, they'd include a brief show description. This was one of those lucky weeks. It said something like "WWF Superstars featuring Bigelow vs. Volkoff." WHAT?!? I must have missed something big.....

For months one of the big storylines was "The Battle For Bam Bam" where all the heel managers claimed to have acquired the services of the hottest free agent in wrestling, one Bam Bam Bigelow. As the weeks passed, the managers were whittled away one by one until finally Slick was the last man standing. This must have occurred on the 8/29 episode of Superstars when the other top managerial candidate for The Bammer's services was dismissed. The implication being BBB had chosen Slick....

I missed the 9/5 episode where BBB turned down Slick, saying he was the last man who would EVER manage him. BBB's choice? Oliver bloody Humperdink. Let's talk about Da Dink for a minute.....

He had one of the weirdest pushes of this era. He came in outta nowhere to manage Paul Orndorff immediately after Mr. Wonderful turned face on Heenan. Now just a few short weeks later he had come out of left field to win The Battle For Bam Bam. To this day I really don't know what was going on with this Humperdink push. My only theory is they saw him as a Captain Lou replacement. Humperdink had no history with the company. Babyface managers suck as a rule. He even looked like a heel with those outlandish outfits. This 'Dink experiment ended as quickly as it began. It was a colossal flop.

Anyway, this is the grudge match from BBB rejecting Slick. And it's not good! Volkoff sucks. Truly one of the worst wrestlers of this or any era. He really brings nothing to the table. His bumps suck. His clubbering sucks. His offense is even more limited than most of his peers. BBB's offense consisted mostly of punches, gut kicks, and headbutts. He did slip in a dropkick and a cartwheel. But this was still meh.....The rare 4 minute match that still went too long. BBB wins with a stupid jumping headbutt. Like a regular headbutt, but with a totally unnecessary jump. This inauspicious debut (in a star vs. star match no less!) would be a sign of things to come for The Bammer, whose first WWF run would be a bust of Akili Smith-like proportions.
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Junkyard Dog vs. Al Navarro- Wrestling Challenge 1/24/87 featuring Storytime w/ My Family

This is the match I was referring to in the opening. Can't believe some legend posted this! The match is nothing special. It's the memories surrounding the match that make it....uh....memorable.....

This is one of those moments in my life where I can recall most of the details with pinpoint accuracy. For whatever reason, the events surrounding this random throwaway jobber match left a lasting impression on me. Challenge aired at 4 pm on Channel 45*** in those days. It must have been dinner time because I distinctly recall eating hot dogs on a tray in my own idiosyncratic 1987 way. See, I wouldn't eat hot dogs on a roll/bread like a normal person. NO! I had to have them cut up into little pieces. Then I would eat them one by one after dipping them into a puddle of ketchup. I was sitting on the floor doing just that when the Junkyard Dog wrestled Al Navarro. My brother was sitting next to me eating off a tray of his own, most likely in the style of a normal human being rather than....me. Both of my parents were sitting on the couch behind us. This memory is burned into my brain. Let's talk about the rest of my family for a minute.....

I've mentioned my brother in regards to 80s wrestling many times. So I won't harp on him too much. He was primarily a normal babyface fan who loved Hulk Hogan (like literally every single other wrestling fan I knew in the 80s) and The British Bulldogs, Dynamite Kid in particular. 

My parents were not wrestling fans by nature. But they were good parents. So they would at least feign an interest in wrestling during the 80s since that's what my brother and I were into. My dad in particular frequently watched the weekend WWF shows with my brother and I during that first year or so. My mom less so, but she would pop in to check out the action from time to time. 

My dad was a Hulkmaniac and babyface fan like literally everybody else I knew. Other favorites of his included Ricky Steamboat (who he probably liked even more than Hogan tbh. He'd always pop big for Steamboat's "Skin The Cat" spot), Hacksaw Jim Duggan, and George "The Animal" Steele (another beloved figure among my peers in the 80s. People LOVED his 'eating the turnbuckles' shtick).

My dad was the first person to tell me wrestling was "fake." I'm guessing this occurred about 6 months after we started to watch. My theory being he thought we were taking this wrestling phase a bit too far and wanted to nip it in the bud. If so, it obviously did not work. As far as I know, the last time my dad watched ANY wrestling was bits and pieces of Barely Legal when I got it on tape a few days after it aired. That's certainly the last time I remember him watching any wrestling.

My mom's favorite wrestler was The Ultimate Warrior   I don't know why. But she got a kick out of the Warrior. My mom was so out of the loop by the Attitude Era that she famously thought Triple H's gimmick was "guy obsessed with the letter H" like he was some sort of Sesame Street character when she overheard my cousin and I discussing HHH some time in the late 90s-2000. She also just assumed wrestling in the Attitude Era was the same as it had been when she occasionally watched way back in the late 80s.

Yet she has watched wrestling more recently than my father. About 6 years ago she called or texted me one night to say she watched a few minutes of wrestling. It was an ROH tv match. She said "it was more like kickboxing than wrestling." From her descriptions, I think the match in question was Jimmy Jacobs vs. A Briscoe. Before that, the last time she watched wrestling would have been when she walked in on us some time in 95-96.

Perhaps my parents watching this show with us is what lead to them taking my brother and I to our first (and last as a family) wrestling show some 3 weeks later? 

ANYWAY, Al Navarro is a big boy. Especially for a jobber. Billed at 265 pounds. Flexes before the match. I instantly wonder why this guy never became any bigger than a jobber. Then I saw him wrestle and immediately understood. Yikes! Dude was sub-Volkoff in there. He punches worse than Bateman and runs the ropes worse than Nikki Cross. JYD looked like Flair by comparison, even if all he did was punch, headbutt, and The Thump. Referee being Danny Davis at least added a little flair to the match. But not even the shady stylings of "Dangerous" Danny could prevent JYD from steamrolling Big Al. In spite of a trademark Davis slow count, The Thump (powerslam) was enough to earn JYD a trip to the winners pay window. Highlight of the match was JYD giving Davis a death glare during the slow count. Like you just KNOW JYD wanted to pop the corrupt official.

Now if only I can track down Koko vs. Big Burly Bearded Biker Guy......new Holy Grail??
=========================================
***Wrestling TV Lineup circa 1987 as best I can remember

UWF aired Saturday mornings at 10 a.m. on Channel 54

WWF Superstars aired Saturdays at either 11 am or noon on (I think) Fox 45....actually, this may have even been pre-Fox. Man, I'm old

WWF Challenge aired Saturdays at 4 pm also on Channel 45

WWF Wrestling Spotlight aired Saturday nights on DC Channel 20 some time between 10 pm and Midnight. I didn't watch this one very often. Once a month at most. Probably more like once a season tbh. The picture wasn't the greatest and I may not have always been awake that late at night. My lasting memory from watching this at home during the 80s was a Bad News Brown vs. Jim Neidhart match.

HOWEVER, this show also may have been where I first saw the Beefcake/Bass "spurs" angle and Brother Love "Jezebel" segment. I saw that one late at night with my mom, brother, and older cousin's/godmother's house (the mother of my more famous wrestling cousin) at the older cousin's parents house. Fwiw this older cousin wasn't a huge wrestling fan, but she would watch it from time to time just because it was the trendy thing. She was approximately 27 years old at the time and once went on a date with Tom Selleck (long story). The one thing I remember from the one time I remember discussing wrestling with her during this period was that she HATED The Honkytonk Man lol. I also think it was a Wrestling Spotlight at yet another cousin's house (I had a lot of cousins, kay?) where I first saw the One Man Gang's transformation into Akeem.

Another WWF Show aired again Sunday mornings at 11 am on extremely grainy Channel 8 out of Harrisburg, PA. Can't remember if it was Superstars or Challenge. But I'd occasional watch listen in the style of radio if I missed the Saturday show just so I could be caught up on the storylines. Fwiw it was not at all uncommon for me to miss wrestling shows due to sporting events, or just normal family outings. 

NWA aired Sundays at noon on either Channel 45 or 54. Don't recall the show name. Worldwide, probably.

GLOW aired Sundays some time between 4-6 pm. Don't remember the channel. Only watched occasionally. Don't remember much from real time other than my girl Mt. Fiji, some woman suffering a gruesome injury, and rooting primarily, if not exclusively, for the babyfaces. Fwiw I thought GLOW was the most "hardcore" of all these promotions  due to that poor woman's Sid-like injury. In reality GLOW was pretty much the "softest" promotion ever.

AWA aired on some weeknight (probably Thursdays) at 6 pm on grainy DC Channel 50. But I wouldn't really get into AWA until 1989.

Even #NWAPowerrr doesn't trump the power of nostalgia, so I totally get it. Honestly, if given a this or that, I'd pick nostalgia eleven times out of ten.

1987 WWF makes me feel warm inside, brother. I don't remember a lot of stuff before 1989, but devouring Coliseum Videos in 88/89 I got to experience most of 1987 in what felt up-to-date. The funny thing is, 1986 and 1985 seemed ancient compared to 1987 around that time. Like pre-WWF Hulkamania is still basically the '70s. Even most of movies were still the '70s. The '80s hadn't full formed yet. So even after Hulkamania was the slow transition into '80s ness and the small difference between 1986 and 1987 seemed like a different era to young me. I think a lot of it was just lights, simply enough. You watch '70s matches and arenas are really dark. Even Wrestlemania 1 and 2 are relatively dark. Then by WM3 the lights are brighter and much of the '70s style wrestling is dead at the same time. Anyway, I don't know what the hell I'm rambling about at this point. I want to tell Baker I love these updates and I don't think that was the Hogan hurts his arm match. My memory was the arm put him in much more peril whereas that match Kamala did some arm work then it was over two minutes later. My guess is it must have happened later like they were still figuring this match out and Hogan eventually started selling it like a dead limb. Or not! I haven't seen the match since 1989ish.

This is getting out of control. Now I’m watching 1987 WWF matches on my break at work. Hart Foundation bouts to be specific.

I almost feel like this journey warrants its own dedicated thread. Not because it's high jacking this multi purpose thread, but because it's such a great and well written nostalgia trip on a specific time period (perhaps the GOAT period?) that it truly deserves its own shrine IMO.

After much research, Baker-man, the conclusion is...

There is no difference and thus no way to tell Zenk and Martel apart.

They might as well have just been called Can Am #1 & Can Am #2 a la the Squat Team or Pitbulls.



Breaking away from Jabroni Zenk and tagging and turning on Tito and eventually becoming the Model was all a godsend for Martel.

Feb 18, 2020 7:39:51 GMT Kilgore said:

The funny thing is, 1986 and 1985 seemed ancient compared to 1987 around that time. Like pre-WWF Hulkamania is still basically the '70s. Even most of movies were still the '70s. The '80s hadn't full formed yet. So even after Hulkamania was the slow transition into '80s ness and the small difference between 1986 and 1987 seemed like a different era to young me. I think a lot of it was just lights, simply enough. You watch '70s matches and arenas are really dark. Even Wrestlemania 1 and 2 are relatively dark. Then by WM3 the lights are brighter and much of the '70s style wrestling is dead at the same time. Anyway, I don't know what the hell I'm rambling about at this point. 

Not rambling. This post makes perfect sense. I always thought the same thing. Also immediately thought "It's the lighting!" when I started reading your post. Then BAM! You made the same observation. There really is something to be said for Vince's oft-cited claim about taking wrestling out of smoke-filled dimly lit arenas.

Maybe tomorrow I'll take a trip to the Dark Web (Dailymotion lol) in search of a Hogan/Kamala match with more arm work.

Feb 18, 2020 14:02:13 GMT 🤯 said:

I almost feel like this journey warrants its own dedicated thread. Not because it's high jacking this multi purpose thread, but because it's such a great and well written nostalgia trip on a specific time period (perhaps the GOAT period?) that it truly deserves its own shrine IMO.

Excellent idea! This will also give me a chance to practice my mod skillz. Will see what I can do either tonight or tomorrow.

Glad I am not alone on not being able tell the members of Strike Force apart. Now I have another tough one for you. The Young Stallions. They're just as difficult as Strike Force for me.

*Will be back in a bit with looks at Killer Khan and the Hart Foundation.

Feb 19, 2020 1:27:45 GMT Baker said:

Feb 18, 2020 7:39:51 GMT Kilgore said:

The funny thing is, 1986 and 1985 seemed ancient compared to 1987 around that time. Like pre-WWF Hulkamania is still basically the '70s. Even most of movies were still the '70s. The '80s hadn't full formed yet. So even after Hulkamania was the slow transition into '80s ness and the small difference between 1986 and 1987 seemed like a different era to young me. I think a lot of it was just lights, simply enough. You watch '70s matches and arenas are really dark. Even Wrestlemania 1 and 2 are relatively dark. Then by WM3 the lights are brighter and much of the '70s style wrestling is dead at the same time. Anyway, I don't know what the hell I'm rambling about at this point. 

Not rambling. This post makes perfect sense. I always thought the same thing. Also immediately thought "It's the lighting!" when I started reading your post. Then BAM! You made the same observation. There really is something to be said for Vince's oft-cited claim about taking wrestling out of smoke-filled dimly lit arenas.

Maybe tomorrow I'll take a trip to the Dark Web (Dailymotion lol) in search of a Hogan/Kamala match with more arm work.

Feb 18, 2020 14:02:13 GMT 🤯 said:

I almost feel like this journey warrants its own dedicated thread. Not because it's high jacking this multi purpose thread, but because it's such a great and well written nostalgia trip on a specific time period (perhaps the GOAT period?) that it truly deserves its own shrine IMO.

Excellent idea! This will also give me a chance to practice my mod skillz. Will see what I can do either tonight or tomorrow.

Glad I am not alone on not being able tell the members of Strike Force apart. Now I have another tough one for you. The Young Stallions. They're just as difficult as Strike Force for me.

*Will be back in a bit with looks at Killer Khan and the Hart Foundation.

Feb 19, 2020 1:27:45 GMT Baker said:

Feb 18, 2020 7:39:51 GMT Kilgore said:

The funny thing is, 1986 and 1985 seemed ancient compared to 1987 around that time. Like pre-WWF Hulkamania is still basically the '70s. Even most of movies were still the '70s. The '80s hadn't full formed yet. So even after Hulkamania was the slow transition into '80s ness and the small difference between 1986 and 1987 seemed like a different era to young me. I think a lot of it was just lights, simply enough. You watch '70s matches and arenas are really dark. Even Wrestlemania 1 and 2 are relatively dark. Then by WM3 the lights are brighter and much of the '70s style wrestling is dead at the same time. Anyway, I don't know what the hell I'm rambling about at this point. 

Not rambling. This post makes perfect sense. I always thought the same thing. Also immediately thought "It's the lighting!" when I started reading your post. Then BAM! You made the same observation. There really is something to be said for Vince's oft-cited claim about taking wrestling out of smoke-filled dimly lit arenas.

Maybe tomorrow I'll take a trip to the Dark Web (Dailymotion lol) in search of a Hogan/Kamala match with more arm work.

Feb 18, 2020 14:02:13 GMT 🤯 said:

I almost feel like this journey warrants its own dedicated thread. Not because it's high jacking this multi purpose thread, but because it's such a great and well written nostalgia trip on a specific time period (perhaps the GOAT period?) that it truly deserves its own shrine IMO.

Excellent idea! This will also give me a chance to practice my mod skillz. Will see what I can do either tonight or tomorrow.

Glad I am not alone on not being able tell the members of Strike Force apart. Now I have another tough one for you. The Young Stallions. They're just as difficult as Strike Force for me.

*Will be back in a bit with looks at Killer Khan and the Hart Foundation.

Strike Force? Or Can Am Connection?

Let's see about these Stallions...

Young Stallions are Strike Force is Can Am Connection.

See below for proof:



Tito & Chico Santana with more gimmick changes in their careers than Primo & Epico Colon. Sheeesh!

^Err...I meant Can Am Connection. Even I can tell Strike Force apart. Good luck with the Stallions.

Killer Khan w/ Mr. Fuji vs. Outback Jack- Superstars 7/4/87 

Before covering this memorable encounter I want to set the table by sharing a paraphrased version of an interesting and accurate post I found over at PWO....

"The big four Hogan opponents in 1987 were Kamala, Harley Race, Killer Khan, and One Man Gang. What is interesting is that you don't think of these four (maybe Harley) as classic Hogan opponents but they were. 1987 is so dominated by Andre and the Megapowers, but those are just one off things. Hogan needed opponents around the horn and these were the guys that provided that."

What you're about to read is the story of the match that turned Killer Khan into a viable Hogan opponent. But let's talk about Khan for a minute first....

He was basically Kin Corn Karn from the NES classic, Pro Wrestling. Meaning if he had come around a year or two later this Pro Wrestling enthusiast would have been all about some Killer Khan. But this was pre-Pro Wrestling so he didn't get that rub.

Khan was a Japanese born veteran winding down his career (he would actually retire for good later in '87) who did a "mysterious Mongolian" gimmick which had been a popular pro wrestling character for decades. He had a famous feud with Andre in early 80s WWF but I doubt most of the 1987 WWF audience knew anything about it. I certainly didn't, and would not learn of it until 95-96. And now for his opponent....

Outback Jack was WWF's attempt to capitalize on the Australiamania which swept America during the 80s in the wake of the wildly popular Crocodile Dundee movie(s). For a deeper look at this phenomenon I highly recommend the classic Simpsons episode Bart vs. Australia. Can confirm the existence of Australiamania. For "Straya" was the dream vacation destination of every friend and relative I had during this period of time.

Outback Jack is infamous in the annals of wrestling lore. WWF had big plans for the guy. He had months of introductory vignettes. But WWF management seemingly forgot to see if he could actually wrestle. He couldn't. And that lead to him being crucified by the Meltzer's of the world.

I actually didn't mind Outback Jack. I didn't give a hoot about wrestling ability. He seemed like a nice enough lad to me. More importantly, he didn't really beef with any of my favorites. So Outback Jack was ok in my book. Not a favorite by any stretch of the imagination, but I didn't mind him. And perhaps even I was afflicted with a mild case of Australiamania. It's entirely possible....

This is yet another match I can visualize watching in real time in my head. Saw it in my basement sitting on the floor next to my brother while our old man was sitting on the couch behind us.

Khan had returned to a very different WWF about a month earlier after an absence of 5 or 6 years. He was just a guy up to this point. Basically Generic Foreign/Monster Heel #8 even in real time. Outback Jack had been undefeated for about 5 months after what felt like more 5 months of introductory vignettes. Khan is also undefeated in this run. Iirc they were supposed to wrestle the previous week but that match got thrown out when Khan jumped Outback before the bell. So this is a pretty big match for Superstars. Two undefeated wrestlers with heat locking horns on free tv. Nice!
-------------------------------
Khan basically does Yoko's pre-match ritual. Didn't remember that. The match itself is bowling shoe ugly. They do that 'knee to the gut off an irish whip' spot. The victim is supposed to do a somersault after hitting the knee. Well, Jack just sort of crumbles into a heap. But he's Ric Flair compared to the abysmal Khan. Jack has a bit of fire and his clubbering actually looked (and sounded) good. Perhaps the clumsy oaf was just potatoing Khan? It's very possible given his reputation. Yet Khan doesn't sell or bump for anything. The lowlight being this "bump" (and I use that term only in the academic sense) he took off a Jack clothesline. Outback Jack called Killer Khan "the laziest guy I ever worked with" in a shoot and I can believe it. Meaning Khan just got dunked on by OUTBACK JACK! :lol: Whatta loser!

After 2 or 3 minutes of bad action comes the moment we're all here for.....the reason I remembered this match for 33 years. Killer Khan debuts the deadly GREEN ASIAN MIST~! Commentators and Jack himself via selling put this over HUGE. Khan quickly finishes with his also dangerous top rope knee drop finisher. Killer Khan has just ended Outback Jack's undefeated streak! And in doing so gained the gimmick that boosted him from an afterthought into a VERY DANGEROUS future Hogan foe.
--------------------------------
Not gonna lie. The mist freaked young me out. I already knew wrestling was "fake," but unironically still treated it as real, and for the life of me could not figure out HOW they did the mist. My old man either didn't know as well, or he kayfabed it. I'm REALLY hoping he kayfabed it. That would be awesome. But I'll never find out because there is no way in hell he remembers Killer Khan and his mist   Anyway, my big take away from this in real time was "....maybe Killer Khan really does have supernatural powers?" This made him VERY DANGEROUS. 

It's hilarious in hindsight that this middle aged skinny fat guy with a goofy haircut who flat out refused to bump freaked me out. But it is 100% true. I feared Killer Khan. (same deal with Muta over in NWA a few years later) That mist, man.....'twas the mystery I just could not solve.

This also marked the end of the failed Outback Jack experiment. He hung around for another year or so as a lower card babyface having no memorable matches or feuds before leaving with his only real impact being this match and a few chapters in the Book of Wrestlecrap.
============================
*Next Time: Focus on the (Hart) Foundation featuring the British Bulldogs, Killer Bees, Grandmom, and the lookalike Young Stallions.
Then I plan on writing about just how BIG WWF and Hulk Hogan were with a trip back to 1986 and stories about wrestling before I watched wrestling. 

EDIT

I guess I'll post this part of my post here now since Baker used his magic mod skills.


These 1987 WWF reviews are great reads, some comments.

Jake was messed up long before that guitar shot. Having Grizzly Smith as your father speaks for itself and Animal documents in his book that Jake was into hard drugs when they were rooming together in Georgia. Jake got Hawk into that scene and exasperated it further 8 years later when they were in the WWF.

More behind the scenes stuff on the Piper's Pit angle. Just shows Hogan's attention to detail and selling the moment:



Looking back it seems any event held at the Sports Arena in LA had great lighting, just think back to Wrestlemania II for starters. Late 85 into 1986 anyway felt like we were coming out of the dark ages with the Big Blue Cage, LJN's and those neat Hostess Chips stickers I used to collect. I had my He-Man lunchbox covered in them.

Did a lot of driving the past two days. Spent most of that car time listening to Bruce Prichard & Conrad discuss this era. Both the videos I'm about to share are highly recommended.

 

Naturally the first video sent me down a Ted Dibiase rabbit hole. I was unable to find a good playlist of Dibiase vignettes to share so here is the next best thing....a sort of Dibiase greatest hits compilation which aired at Survivor Series 1987.



*Might be back later tonight with some Hart Foundation stories & match reviews.

Focus on the (Hart) Foundation

British Bulldogs (c) vs. Hart Foundation w/ Jimmy Hart- Superstars 2/7/87- Tag Title Match

This is a pivotal match/moment in my wrestling fandom. I had only been watching for five weeks and did not have a particular favorite wrestler up to this point. I just watched every week because "Yay! Wrestling!"

This was also so early in my fandom that I literally did not know how championships worked  I thought the champions were champions....forever? I mean, the Hulk Hogan & British Bulldogs LJN figures came with the belts! That was all the proof I needed. Feel free to question the intelligence of 1987 me what with not knowing how championships worked and thinking Killer Khan probably did have supernatural powers. 

Watched this in the basement with my brother and old man, which seems to be the norm for 1987 WWF.

The wrestling here in this 4 minute match is decent, but the storytelling (and that's the important thing) is brilliant. Everything about this was HUGE to 1987 me....and 2020 me tbh. 

I've noticed is Matilda The Dog is an excellent performer. I saw her immediately rush Slick at the start of another match, and here the Bulldogs bulldog mascot makes a bee line straight for Jimmy Hart. 

Dynamite Kid has a major real life injury so he's taken out of the match very early with a Jimmy Hart megaphone shot. They should do more stuff like this in the modern era. Unless some big angle is planned, surely having the title change hands on tv is a million times better than having a wrestler vacate the belt due to injury, right? Oh, and by the way, the referee is DANNY F'N DAVIS at the peak of his powers. So he naturally doesn't see J. Hart attack Dynamite.

From here on out it's Davey Boy valiantly fighting against the Hart Foundation in a de facto handicap match. DBS holds his own. He slips in most of his trademark offense- vertical suplex, dropkick, powerslam, and his patented running powerslam. He even gets a visual fall or two while Danny Davis is conveniently "tending" to Dynamite or talking to Jimmy Hart. The Harts were honestly out of position a few times. They had a lot of 'heels run into each other' spots set up but they didn't come off very well. The Harts were a good team. No doubt. But they really should have watched more Quebecers matches in order to become a great team. I'm just saying....

Anyway, DBS eventually gets caught with the dreaded DOUBLE DDT. OMG! Jake's DDT is the most over finisher in the company. And this is a DOUBLE DDT! How is DBS still alive?!? (Wonder if Jake got mad about this irl?) Well, DBS isn't in the game for much longer. Bret & Anvil follow up the deathly Double DDT with their Hart Attack*** finisher a few seconds later to become the first NEEEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWWW Champions I ever saw.

WHAT?!?! Titles can change hands? MIND BLOWN! This was the biggest thing in the world to me at the time. I felt like I had witnessed real history being made. In terms of Bigness, the Hart Foundation beating the Bulldogs was right up there with the hated New York Mets winning the World Series, New York Giants winning the Super Bowl, and Penn State being crowned the champions of College Football.  

I also had my first ever Favorite Wrestlers. Yeah, call me a bandwagon jumper if you want. It'd be fair. But you never forget your first time. And the Hart Foundation were now Gods to me. I would never (Jericho voice) EVER forget the match in which they won the belts.

They'd remain my favorites until their stablemate, The Honkytonk Man, beat Steamboat a few months later for the IC Title in an equally shady manner. Damn. Throw in Andre's win over Hogan the next year and it's no wonder I got hooked on this stuff. Those are three of the all time great title changes from a bullshit heel perspective. And given my tastes.....

Fwiw my Bulldogs-loving brother was pissed, and my dad at least kayfabed like he was also upset. Being a natural born contrarian/troll, this just boosted the Hart Foundation's status even more in my eyes.

This also marked the culmination of the Danny Davis angle. Even JESSE VENTURA admitted the Harts victory wasn't 100% clean. And the next week Danny Davis was "banned for life" from refereeing by Jack Tunney in a rare arena appearance before "Dangerous" Danny was set to officiate a Tito/Jobber match. 

They packed a ton of storytelling and payoff into this one memorable little 4 minute match. Pro wrestling the way it oughta be, folks.

***Did they ever actually call it "the Hart Attack?" I mean, I'm sure they did. But I have yet to hear their finisher referred to by name during this 1987 watch through. In fact, until the mid-90s, I had no idea their finisher had a name. Ditto for the so-called "Demolition Decapitation" and "Doomsday Device." I just always referred to those moves as "The Hart Foundation," "The Demolition," and "The Wrecking Ball" (Destruction Crew 4 Life). 

Hart Foundation (c) w/ Jimmy Hart & "Dangerous" Danny Davis vs. Killer Bees- Superstars 6/27/87 (non-title match)

Right off the bat I take note of the splendid attire on display. You've got Davis in his resplendent (and vaguely 'sparkly') referee-themed gear. The Harts in their iconic pink & black singlets. And the Bees in their highly underrated yellow & black "bee" themed attire. This too being vaguely sparkly. Soooo much better than Johnny Blacktights vs. Joey Blacktrunks. WWF was very good at making their wrestlers standout by mere attire alone. The NWA by comparison was terrible at this.

So this match isn't much. Just 4 minutes of whatever. High spots include the ref kicking out Danny Davis after The Dangerous One interferes. He is escorted to the back by ACTUAL POLICE OFFICERS. Awesome! This wasn't just indie wrestlers playing the part. The Bees put on their masks and pull a switcheroo (I HATED The Bees for this reason. They were cheaters! Yet most fans, my brother included, loved those cheaters. I could not stand the hypocrisy.) The finish is pretty cool. Bee #1 goes for a sunset flip on Bret. Bret fights it...still fighting. When Bee #2 hits a sunset flip while Bret is still fighting off Bee #1's sunset! Don't recall ever seeing that before. Anyway, 1-2-3! Bee #2 has just pinned Bret Hart! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was apoplectic (story to come). My beloved Hart Foundation had just lost their tag team championship to the hated Killer Bees. BOO! Why this was even worse than that time the Mets beat the Red Sox to win the World Series! But there was a silver lining.....

For this is when I learned about non-title matches. I had heard the term before, but didn't know what it meant (ditto for "this match is scheduled for one fall"). Whew! Turns out my Hart Foundation dodged a bullet (I also remember HTM dodging a similar bullet against Hillbilly Jim some time later). 

Storytime: Grandmom Turns Heel

My grandmother (Grandmom) was a nice old lady, as grannies tended to be in the 80s. Her hobbies included cooking (for which she was renowned), going to church, watching soap operas and Channel 13 news (it was ALWAYS Channel 13), still speaking the language of The Old Country when conversing with the fellow grannies in her neighborhood, and spoiling her many grandchildren. This grandmother was basically considered a saint by all who knew her. Her "saintliness" is very important to the payoff of this story.

Now lest you think I'm putting over my "saintly" grandmother for biased, nepotistic reasons, I will nip that in the bud by saying my other (admittedly equally cool, if not even cooler) grandmother was the polar opposite when it came to "saintliness." Other Granny (Mimi) was a feisty old dame who cursed like a sailor (perhaps because she was married to a literal sailor?). My friends thought she was HILARIOUS and frequently accompanied my family and I on Saturday afternoon trips to her house in 95-96 (where we would watch WCW Saturday Night) just for the entertainment she provided. I'm telling ya. Mimi could have made millions as a 70something year old vulgar, R Rated comedian.

So I watched the Harts/Bees match at Grandmom's house. Don't know where my parents and brother were. Chances are I opted out of whatever they were doing for the sole purpose of watching my already-beloved WWF. For the next 9 years I would plan my Saturdays around wrestling. Like the stuff I did just to watch muh wrestling could be a book in and of itself. 

Grandmom was not a wrestling fan. I doubt if she even would have understood the concept. This is the only time I can recall watching wrestling at this particular house (though I did watch some 1993 wrestling when she awesomely lived in an apartment above a bar owned by another relative). This first locale didn't have any walls between the kitchen/dining room and living/tv room. Meaning you could see from one end to the other. 

I was sitting in a chair (perhaps Grandmom's beloved rocking chair?) watching my beloved WWF. Grandmom was doing her thing in the kitchen as usual. I was surely very animated during the Harts/Bees match. For wrestling was already a matter of life and death to me. Grandmom must have quietly been paying attention to my completely sincere antics. When the Harts lost I probably let out a "NOOOOO!" and/or stomped my foot on the floor. Wouldn't be surprised if I was near tears tbh 

Then it happen. My saintly, beloved 78 year old Grandmom walks in from the kitchen and BLOWS A RASPBERRY RIGHT IN MY FACE! She may have even let out a Nelson Muntz-like "Ha Ha." I just sat there frozen to the chair. I had no response. This was shaping up to be the worst day of my life.....

Hart Foundation (c) w/ Jimmy Hart & Danny Davis vs. Young Stallions- Wrestling Challenge 3/21/87

I was looking for a memorable Harts/Stallions match with a similar finish to the Harts/Bees "Granny heel turn match." This isn't it!

For those who don't know, the Stallions were lookalikes Paul Roma & Jim Powers. When I began watching wrestling, Roma & Powers were in the top tier of babyface jobbers alongside SD Jones & Lanny Poffo. But they were still jobbers who lost literally every match. The only difference being Roma & Powers would get in more offense than your run of the mill jabronies. Within a few months, they started teaming and got a push. I was a Stallions hater simply because they were a threat to the Foundation. And while I wouldn't see the Rocky movies for another 5 or 6 years, I already understood the "Rocky" psychology. For it was that same 'worst to first' story which would soon make me a HUGE fan of the 1987 New Orleans Saints. So even as an otherwise dumb kid who didn't understand such simple concepts as championships, non-title matches, and the mystery of Killer Khan's mist, I did understand the logic behind the Young Stallions push. And I thought they were going to be huge. 

But this must be well before that because the Harts make quick work of the proto Stallions here. One of the Stallions hits a beautiful picture perfect dropkick. Aside from that, it's all Harts. The Hitman & Anvil systematically dismantle the Stallion who hit the sweet dropkick before pinning him cleanly and anticlimactically with a textbook Hart Attack. The Harts version of that move still looks like an awesome and believable finisher while every other version I've ever seen pales in comparison at best, and outright sucks at worst. 

Verdict- Total Squash. I was expecting a much more competitive bout. So watching this was like picking up a cup expecting it to be tea and then being surprised with coke. It wasn't necessarily bad. It just caught me off guard. So let's try again to find that "memorable" Harts/Stallions match.....

Hart Foundation (c) vs. Young Stallions- Saturday Nights Main Event 10/3/87- Tag Title Match

This is a famous edition of SNME which featured the memorable formation of the Mega Powers. It happened earlier in the night during the aftermath of a Savage/HTM IC Title Match. HTM & The Harts jumped Savage. The Harts prepped him for a Honky guitar shot. Elizabeth got in the way. HTM shoved her down to nuclear heat. Liz ran to the back. And emerged with HULK HOGAN! Hulk made the save. Hulk & Macho shook hands. And something magical had begun.

Mean Gene is AWESOME selling his indignity at the actions of the Hart Foundation in a pre-match promo with the Harts. Gene ends up throwing his mic down out of disgust and walking off. Why was everybody AMAZING in 1987 WWF??

Gene and the announcers do a great job of selling the Harts being in real peril without Jimmy in their corner. See, because Jimmy Hart was cruelly abused earlier in the night during the big Savage angle. I almost certainly thought this was going to lead to a title change in real time. Guarantee you I was biting my nails watching this while my heart was racing a mile a minute.

Here's something I had long forgotten about, and even now only vaguely remember in spite of this memory refresher.....another little wrinkle to this mini-feud involves theme theft~! One team stole the others theme. Now the way I (extremely vaguely) remembered it, the Harts stole the Stallions theme. But no! Turns out the Stallions stole the Harts theme. And the kicker? The theme was sung by none other than Jimmy Hart himself! How are the Stallions babyfaces here?!?! They stole a theme intended for another act performed by that very act's manager! That's SUPER heelish if you ask me. 

Anyway, this is also not the match I was looking for! But the match in question did set this one up. So I'm getting closer! This is far more competitive than the last Harts/Stallions match I wrote about, as the Stallions are well into their push by this point. The Stallions even score a good nearfall off a drop down into a powerslam. That's a perfectly acceptable finisher in 1987. But luckily for 1987 me, the Anvil saves Bret from being pinned at the last split second.

Harts win it after slyly using this non-Danny Davis official as an unaware dupe. When the ref escorts one Stallion out, the Harts hit their once again excellently executed finisher behind his back. With the other Stallion having just been escorted out of the ring, he is now in a terrible position to make the save. And he doesn't! The 3 count comes before the other Stallion can save his partner.

I'm probably reading waaaaay too much into this, but the Hart Foundation/Danny Davis mark in me is going to chalk up the Harts clever use of the referee to Danny Davis' kayfabe training. Either way, the Harts pick up a rare victory without the aid of Jimmy or "Dangerous" Danny to prove they are indeed worthy of carrying the prestigious WWF Tag Team Championship. You love to see it.

Match was better than the Bees & Other Stallions matches, and on par with the Bulldogs match, though infinitely less memorable than that title change.
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Next Time: A strictly Storytime edition as I will write about wrestling before I watched wrestling with the purpose of giving some anecdotal evidence to "prove" how completely WWF & Hulkamania had already permeated pop culture.....or kiddie culture at the very least.

Thought I'd post this passage from Bret's book where the Foundation debuted the pink tights on Saturday Night's Main Event

Judy, the seamstress who made our wrestling gear for us, had mentioned to me that she had a nice new color she wanted Jim and me to try: neon bubblegum pink. After careful consideration we realized wearing pink would get us instant heat and give us a new look for our SNME debut. Still, in the dressing room in San Diego where we were doing pre-tapes for SNME, Jim and I felt funny pulling on those pink tights. I was dressed and picking up my tray in the cafeteria when Vince, who was sitting with Dick Ebersol, head of NBC sports, yelled at me, “Stop! Don’t move!” Heads turned. It got suddenly quiet. I thought we were in some sort of trouble, and I  couldn’t imagine why. Vince stood up and circled around Jim and me grinning, “Don’t ever change that color! That color is you! It’s what you guys have been missing all along! From now on I don’t want you to wear anything but pink!"

When I see the Hart Foundation pre-1987 in Black and Blue, or that Black with the Pink stripe, while I think it still looks pretty cool, it's jarring. Bubblegum pink is where it's at. I don't know when they started calling it the Hart Attack. That's interesting. I can't imagine Gorilla Monsoon ever saying it, is it maybe Schiavone a couple years later? Lord Alfred might have called it the Hart Attack. Bret's book makes it sound like it was named the Hart Attack from day one, but that doesn't mean commentary was calling it anything other than "GOT HIM UP ... CLOTHESLINE!"

Feb 21, 2020 7:08:29 GMT Kilgore said:

Thought I'd post this passage from Bret's book where the Foundation debuted the pink tights on Saturday Night's Main Event

Judy, the seamstress who made our wrestling gear for us, had mentioned to me that she had a nice new color she wanted Jim and me to try: neon bubblegum pink. After careful consideration we realized wearing pink would get us instant heat and give us a new look for our SNME debut. Still, in the dressing room in San Diego where we were doing pre-tapes for SNME, Jim and I felt funny pulling on those pink tights. I was dressed and picking up my tray in the cafeteria when Vince, who was sitting with Dick Ebersol, head of NBC sports, yelled at me, “Stop! Don’t move!” Heads turned. It got suddenly quiet. I thought we were in some sort of trouble, and I  couldn’t imagine why. Vince stood up and circled around Jim and me grinning, “Don’t ever change that color! That color is you! It’s what you guys have been missing all along! From now on I don’t want you to wear anything but pink!"

When I see the Hart Foundation pre-1987 in Black and Blue, or that Black with the Pink stripe, while I think it still looks pretty cool, it's jarring. Bubblegum pink is where it's at. I don't know when they started calling it the Hart Attack. That's interesting. I can't imagine Gorilla Monsoon ever saying it, is it maybe Schiavone a couple years later? Lord Alfred might have called it the Hart Attack. Bret's book makes it sound like it was named the Hart Attack from day one, but that doesn't mean commentary was calling it anything other than "GOT HIM UP ... CLOTHESLINE!"

Funny, I was just watching part of a 2006 shoot with Bret and Jim and left off with Bret mentioning that they didn't feel like they became a true team until they started doing the Hart Attack finisher. He even admitted to getting the idea for the move from the Road Warriors as that was what they were using at the time. Also the genesis of the Hart Foundation is a real interesting story. It's funny to hear Bret basically asking permission from Jim if he wanted to go through with the idea. Bret was pulled off of TV tapings at the time while Jim was getting a moderate push as a heel managed by Jimmy Hart. Bret didn't want to fuck up Anvil's push was what it came down to.  Bret came up with the idea first after being wary of the cowboy gimmick but George Scott just brushed him off saying he couldn't be a heel. Fast forward to this time when Bret was basically doing nothing and George came back and said the rest of the agents thought it was a great idea.

I feel like Baker-man, between two entirely separate threads, has perfectly summed up every modern era WWE/NXT/AEW/ROH/NJPW/etc. match by giving us:

Johnny Blacktights vs. Joey Blacktrunks in swing dance wrestling matches.

No need to ever watch any of that shit now. Live in the glorious past forever. This is also what made Aron Stevens' nude tights the greatest ring attire of the modern era.

I am about a third of a way through another Bruce & Conrad podcast on this era. This time the focus is on Survivor Series 1987. Gotta love that all WWE Hall of Fame babyface squad of Savage/Steamboat/Jake/Duggan/Beefcake in the opener.

A lot of people seem to have grown tired of Bruce & Conrad, but I'm only a sporadic listener who binge listens once every few months, and only then to topics which interest me, so they have yet to lose their appeal as far as I am concerned. Anyway, here it is. Once again recommended.

  

*Found a bunch of 1987 WWF Storytimes/Reviews I wrote in the Match Review thread. Moving them over here to keep all the 1987 WWF goodness in one place.

Hulk Hogan vs. Bob Orton- WWF Superstars 5/23/87

Kicking it old school this morning after a conversation with my brother who loves 80s WWF the way I love 90s WWF.

This is a match I actually remember as I'm pretty sure it was the first time I ever saw Hulk Hogan on my beloved WWF Saturday syndicated shows. It was a really big deal at the time. What I remember most about this match is the rope breaking which lead to Jesse complaining about the unfairness of Orton now being unable to perform his "superplex" finisher. This was my first time ever hearing of such a thing. Now I didn't know what a superplex was (though I'm pretty sure I had a good idea) but you better believe I was intrigued since it sounded super cool.

While I remember an absurd amount of stuff for a tv match I haven't seen in 30 years, I can't say I remember Bob Orton all that well. He's one of those 80s WWF guys I always seem to forget about (like when I came up with my Greatest WWE Wrestler ballot, for example). His WWF peak came before I started watching, and he was winding down by the time I became a wrestling fan in 1987. He also loses points for being "Bob Boone Jr." in AWF, which was a Higher Power-level disappointment to 1995 me. Orton is a good hand though. Fun Fact: Gorilla Monsoon described Orton as "The Excellence of Execution" at least as often as Bret Hart, and Orton very well may have received the moniker first. Orton is out with Mr. Fuji. Fuji managing Orton is yet another thing I had forgotten about.

Jesse & Vince are on commentary. Jesse claiming he paid the ultimate sacrifice when Vince said Hogan had dedicated this match to the veterans who actually did so would likely get "The Body" nuclear heat in certain circles today. Oh, Bruno is there too. He has to be one of the worst commentators ever for the simple reason that it is literally a commentator's job to talk. Yet Bruno rarely did so. I always had this idea that famed NFL announcer Pat Summerall would doze off while John "Motormouth" Madden was "BOOMing" away and talking about players big butts for 10 minutes straight. Occasionally Madden, or more likely a producer, would poke Pat to wake up him. Summerall would then utter a guttural "EMMITT!" (whether the Cowboys were playing or not) and go right back to sleep while Madden deftly slipped into another ten minute rant about Gilbert Brown's girth. Bruno Sammartino is the Pat Summerall of wrestling announcers. shinobimusashi would understand what I'm talking about here.

Hogan enters waving a big ol' American flag on Memorial Day weekend to his usual big pop, and it just doesn't get anymore gloriously 80s WWF than that. Nice ovation for The Hulkster, of course, but it's honestly not quite as big as I was expecting. The heat machine seems to be in full effect as well. Although some of the video's commenters who were at this show live (lucky bastards) swear Hogan was ridiculously over, and I am certainly not going to doubt that. So maybe it's just a few fans in the front row looking rather bored while the folks up in the nosebleed sections are losing their minds?

Orton resembles a young Terry Funk in build, hair and attire. Hogan controls early. His punches look a little more intense than usual. Orton bumps in that exaggerated manner of Funk/Race/Flair/Slaughter/Perfect with a lot of excessive bouncing and flopping around. Sure enough, the ropes do indeed break on a Hogan corner clothesline. And Jesse does bemoan the fact that Orton cannot hit his superplex finisher with the broken ropes. Score two points for me. Orton takes over when Fuji lands a cheap cane shot or two on The Hulkster after Orton had knee lifted Hogan out of the ring.

This was going fine up until the ropes broke but now it's kind of a mess. Orton stupidly tries running, and even climbing, the ropes a few times, but it's just not working. These things are super saggy and loose. Orton's execution is most certainly not excellent in this bout. He does this weird suplex slam thing like he couldn't make up his mind whether to do a suplex or a slam. Then he does a super slow motion version of John Morrison's Moonlight Drive. It would normally be cool to see a move like that in an 80s WWF match, but this one was slowly done and immediately blown off as just another move. A young Randy Orton looks on enthralled as his daddy locks on a chinlock or two. Orton tries climbing the ropes. Fails again. Settles for a leg drop. Hogan Hulks Up, and rightfully so! As stealing another man's finisher is just bad form. Hogan hits a much stiffer than usual big boot before finishing with the big leg drop for the 1-2-3. Pop. Pose. End.

Verdict- Below average match but it's hard to be too critical of the wrestlers because it was going fine up until the ropes broke. Didn't seem like they knew what to do after that, Orton in particular.

Brutus Beefcake vs. Dino Bravo w/ Johnny V- Wrestling Challenge 5/23/87

I do not like Brutus Beefcake. He has a shot to crack my all time Bottom 10, though I think he just misses. Hated the obnoxious Barber gimmick. Hated his WCW run, the Booty Man in particular. Hated how he only had a job/push because he was a friend of Hogan back when I thought Hogan was the worst person on the planet. With all that being said, I don't think Beefcake is anywhere near the worst wrestler of all time.

Dino Bravo gets nearly just as much hate as Brutus Beefcake from old school fans. I don't get it. It has nothing to do with being a big Dino Bravo fan growing up (which I totally was). It's more a case of WHY Dino Bravo? What makes him worse than, say, Hercules? Hillbilly Jim? The Warlord? Those guys more-or-less get a free pass from the same old school curmudgeons who seem to take great delight in shitting on poor Dino Bravo.

I am on record saying Brutus Beefcake has the greatest ring name of all time. I mean, I am not going to argue if you happen to prefer "Macho Man" Randy Savage (he's both a macho man AND a savage!), Razor Ramon, Bam Bam Bigelow, Cueball Carmichael, etc. Those are all fantastic ring names too. So long as a ring name has alliteration, and sounds tough, it is a contender.

But, yeah, Brutus Beefcake is my choice. For starters, Brutus is a great name that is long overdue for a comeback as a human name. It has sadly fallen out of fashion as a name for homo sapiens post-44 B.C. I hear the name Stella has made a comeback. That's a grandmother's name! And if Stella can make a comeback, so too can Brutus. Now I have encountered a dog or two called Brutus....but even that may only be from the Clifford The Big Red Dog series of books. I forget. Anyway, the fabulous Brutus is followed up with the equally awesome Beefcake, creating perfection in nomenclature. The Beefcake name also works on multiple levels. As a kid I didn't really know beefcakes were a real thing. So a cake made out of beef rather than, say, chocolate was hilarious to me. And also kind of awesome. Plus the name is obviously slang for heartthrob, which I also did not know as a kid. So here you have a guy with a tough first name in Brutus and a playboy-ish last name in Beefcake. Yep. Perfection in nomenclature. It works for me whether I am 8 or 30something. And that's why it is the greatest ring name of all time.

Dino Bravo is also a quality wrestling name, though it does work better for a face character. Dino Bravo sounds like a hyperactive children's show host. A Mr. Rogers on speed. Anybody over the age of 8 is going to find this Dino Bravo incredibly obnoxious. But he'd be HUGE with the 8 and under demographic, peaking with the 3 year olds who would practically worship the guy. OR you can tweak it by pronouncing it Dyno Bravo. This version of Dino Bravo would obviously be a happy dinosaur (perhaps a young Triceratops?) whose curiosity is always getting him into pickles where he needs to be saved by the older, wiser dinosaurs. Dino Bravo learns a lesson every episode. Then everybody laughs. Children buy his merchandise in bulk. It's a win-win.
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This is a grudge match stemming from the build to Wrestlemania III, and the events which transpired at that show. Beefcake had been one half of a championship duo with Greg "The Hammer" Valentine called The Dream Team. During the build to WM, the Dream Team's manager Johnny V brought Dino Bravo in as the 3rd member. Valentine was cool with this, but it did not sit well with Beefcake. Then Beefcake accidentally cut their ally Adrian Adonis' hair, creating more heat. The final straw came at WM 3 when Beefcake turned face on his former allies following a match with the Fabulous Rougeau Brothers.

Johnny V is another in a long line of shitty/worthless managers. Here he is sporting a truly hideous haircut. It's long in the back but shaved on the sides. It's the sort of haircut only a wrestler or member of a rock band could ever get away with. Beefcake would actually be doing Johnny a favor by cutting his hair.

Beefcake comes to the ring wearing some very stylish forearm accessories. No surprise given that (I think*) his original gimmick was 'the fashion plate of WWF.' Check out some of his stylish Dream Team outfits. Early Beefcake may even put the mighty Ric Flair to shame when it comes to amazing attire.

*Pre-Barber Beefcake was mostly before my time, but I'm pretty sure he was supposed to be WWF's fashionista.

The famed duo of Gorilla Monsoon & Bobby Heenan are on commentary.
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This is perfectly acceptable wrestling. Nothing I'm going to remember tomorrow but it was hardly offensive.

Highlights- Beefcake hits a nasty inverted atomic drop on Bravo. Dino hits a high leg drop, one of his beautiful elbow drops, and the always cool gut wrench suplex. I love how Dino does these little dances after his moves. He always seemed so happy to be there. How can anybody hate this man?!?

Lowlights- A horrible, generic, horribly generic Rougeau Brothers inset promo. These guys were approximately 1,000,000 times better as heels. Bravo's missed moves were pretty hilarious. Like he'd aim a foot over Beefcake's head with wild punches and clotheslines as if he were attacking an invisible Andre the Giant. He also took a wimpy bump on a Beefcake back body drop.

The Weird- Dino hits his Side Suplex (Sidewalk Slam) finisher on Beefcake in the midst of the Rougeau Brothers inset promo. He does not go for the cover, and the announcers do not make a big deal about it. So I'm guessing this wasn't his finisher yet? But it was still pretty weird. Like watching an early HBK match where his Superkick is treated as just another move.

Beefcake eventually locks in his lame Sleeper finisher. But Greg Valentine runs out for the DQ before Bravo can be put to sleep and risk losing his hair. Johnny V and the New Dream Team dish out a perfectly acceptable poor man's Horsemen beatdown on "The Barber. Valentine locks in his Figure Four finisher while his mates stomp away. The crowd starts cheering....

And it's the Fabulous Rougeau Brothers in for the save! This no doubt set up a series of 6 man tags on the house show circuit that I can almost guarantee were heated and well received by the paying customers who were lucky enough to see WWF live in 1987.

Verdict- *1/4

Ricky Steamboat (c) vs. Honkytonk Man w/ Jimmy Hart- WWF Superstars 6/13/87- Intercontinental Championship Match

Let's go back and revisit the most memorable 1987 Superstars match yet. For here is where one of wrestling's all time great title reigns began.

We're just a few months removed from Steamboat besting his nemesis Randy Savage for the Intercontinental Title in a classic match at Wrestlemania III which featured a then-unprecedented 21(!) two counts. I was too new to wrestling to have any real opinions on the matter, but general consensus held "The Dragon" was in store for a lengthy reign, as was the style at the time.

Meanwhile, HTM had actually come into the company as a fan favorite (which was something I didn't learn about until over a decade later), but the fans didn't take to him. He lost a "vote of confidence" where more fans expressed a dislike for the Honkytonk Man than support for him. This lead to a heel turn, and HTM adopting the hated Jimmy Hart as his manager. He immediately got big time heat. His first feud as a bad guy came against Jake "The Snake" Roberts. It began when Honky decked Jake with his soon-to-be trademark guitar on a memorable edition of Jake's "Snake Pit" talk show. This lead to a Wrestlemania III match where Honky scored the upset. So HTM was actually fairly hot at the time. Yet it seems as if nobody, not even the most hardcore fans, expected him to beat Steamboat for the IC Title.

While I don't remember for sure, I am fairly certain I was already a HTM fan going into this. He just seemed like my kind of wrestler. But he still would have been below the Hart Foundation, "Dangerous" Danny Davis, Andre, "King" Harley Race, and Savage on a Favorites depth chart.

Vince & Jesse are on commentary. Vince is appalled at the very idea of the "undeserving" HTM getting an IC Title shot. While Jesse, always the voice of reason, reminds the viewing audience that Honky DID beat Jake Roberts at Wrestlemania III. That's a pretty big deal.

HTM is booed and Steamboat is cheered, but not to the extent the heat machine makes it sound. Y'know, a part of me misses the heat machine. If you didn't know any better, and I didn't for the longest time, it makes everything seem more over....a little bigger....a little more important. HTM has a fabulous pre-match outfit. WWF had a great costume department during this period.

This is another action packed match for the 4 minutes it lasts. No downtime. HTM jumps Steamboat before the bell. Yet the "better man" Steamboat soon changes the tide after skinning the cat (taking the interfering Jimmy Hart out in the process) and back body dropping a charging HTM over the top rope, and out of the ring. "The Dragon" controls most of the way with punches and chops. His offensive highlights include a nice back suplex and the old Mr. Perfect rolling neck snap. HTM will take over here and there on cheats, Hart interference, or just pure luck, like the time he kicked out of a Steamboat roll up which just so happened to propel the Steamer into the turnbuckles. HTM pays lip service to working over Steamboat's famed injured throat, but it never really goes anywhere. Steamboat quickly comes back whenever HTM does gain control. One time he easily back body drops his way out of a Shake Rattle & Roll attempt. Another time he dodges HTM's second rope elbow drop. This is a really hard ring. HTM SPLATted on that missed elbow. Steamboat has Honky pinned following his big flying chop. But Jimmy Hart has the ref distracted! Steamboat goes to deck Hart. Now HTM is up. Steamboat with an inside cradle. 1-2-HTM reverses-3? The bell rings. Huh? What's going on here? There is a moment or two of confusion before Howard Finkel announces your winner.....

and NEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWW Intercontinental Champion, the HONKY TONK MAN!

YES! YES! YES! Markout city! See, I was a heel fan. But I think even more than that, I just liked seeing stuff happen. When 95% of matches are star vs. jobber, even small happenings take on a bigger significance. And a title change was no small thing. It was HUGE! I remember my dad and brother being so pissed. My dad was not a wrestling fan by nature, but he did watch with us from time to time in the early years. I remember him liking Duggan, the Hulkster and George "The Animal" Steele, but Steamboat was his favorite. Hmm...perhaps he was an early smark? And this result legit pissed him off. You know it's a great moment when you can get a reaction out of a 40 year old man who didn't even really like wrestling, and rarely tired of telling his children it was "fake."

The longtime rumor is Butch Reed was supposed to win the IC Title from Steamboat here but he no showed these tapings so they went with HTM instead. I don't know if that's true or not. Many, including HTM himself, have "confirmed" this particular rumor. But nearly just as many have "debunked" it as "internet b.s." I'm glad things turned out the way they did though. No way a Butch Reed reign would ever have approached the epicness of Honky's. He drew nuclear heat and big houses against the likes of Randy Savage during his glorious 454 day reign as IC champion all while writing the book on how to be an "undeserving" heel champion. Who knows? Without HTM maybe we never get JBL's awesome WWE title reign or His Lordship as perennial WCW TV Champion?

Verdict- TV match of the week-type stuff by 1987 standards with the added bonus of being historically significant.

At some point we're gonna get to 1988, and the lighting will keep improving