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here's a quickie:In October 1994, Luna Vachon and David "Gangrel/Vampire Warrior" Heath were married. i keep running across references to this appearing on WWF tv, but it's always referred to in a vague sense, never a date or show listed. Any ideas if this actually aired and when?

 It absolutely aired, but it was just a just a quick little 1:00 piece on Superstars. I cant remember WHY precisely it aired, maybe just a generic personality profile thing or something, but I remember recognizing Heath as Vampire Warrior from USWA.
There's an oblique reference it in the 11/21/94 Observer:

Dave Heath, who married Luna Vachon, clips of which aired on WWF television last week, debuted as The Vampire, dressed up with hair like Vachon but didn't get over. He also worked as a jobber Black Phantom on the same tapings.

There's a lot of Superstars episodes up on Dailymotion, but I haven't been able to locate any clips of this in particular from Nov 1994 episodes.
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Did anybody do the babyface save better than Jimmy Valiant? So much energy and charisma and the way he showed serious concern for his beaten down comrade was great.

Man, Valiant was the GLUE of that midcard. But I wonder why they paired him up with someone as charisma-less as Paul Jones when there had to be better choices out there (in terms of managers) to be his antagonist.

 

Paul Jones' story in the Mid-Atlantic documentary extras about his turn on Ricky Steamboat is one of the single greatest things ever, though. 

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Back in the UWF Fury Hour days Herb Abrams used to tease Ultimate Warrior as coming soon or negotiating or something along those lines.  Was Warrior in the UWF even a remote possibility or was this all just Herb being Herb?

 

Probably the latter, though Herb could very well have believed that it was a possibility.  Who knows what went on in that guy's head?

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Did anybody do the babyface save better than Jimmy Valiant? So much energy and charisma and the way he showed serious concern for his beaten down comrade was great.

Man, Valiant was the GLUE of that midcard. But I wonder why they paired him up with someone as charisma-less as Paul Jones when there had to be better choices out there (in terms of managers) to be his antagonist.
Cause Jones was such a stick in the mud, joyless, square. Jimmy's total opposite.
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Watching some December 1984 Florida and had a few questions.

 

Anyone know who Mad Max was?  I did a google search & found some 10 year old posts on either WC or KM but no one seemed to know other than it wasn't Eli.  This was a short powerlifter dude who after a week or so started wearing face paint.  He was teamed with King Cobra who was George Weingeroff with a bleach job (as opposed to the Black King Cobra from Memphis). 

 

Also there was a segment where The Saint, Krushchev & Neidhart went to a local gym & found a powerlifter named Jeff McGruder who did a squash match where he was totally without a clue & stiffed some poor jobber who was attempting to carry things.  Any idea if this guy had any training at all or was he in & gone within weeks?

 

Regarding Jay Youngblood, he was horribly out of shape by this point and I see that he lived another 9 months after this.  For anyone with insider knowledge at the time, what were the thoughts on him at the time?  Were his drug issues well known?  Did any promotion attempt to help the dude or they just let him go from promotion to promotion as he self-destructed?  Seems like a really rapid descent from spring of 83 which had to be his career peak to toiling in FL midcard a year & half later with his brother around to babysit.

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Watching some December 1984 Florida and had a few questions.

 

Anyone know who Mad Max was?  I did a google search & found some 10 year old posts on either WC or KM but no one seemed to know other than it wasn't Eli.  This was a short powerlifter dude who after a week or so started wearing face paint.  He was teamed with King Cobra who was George Weingeroff with a bleach job (as opposed to the Black King Cobra from Memphis). 

 

Also there was a segment where The Saint, Krushchev & Neidhart went to a local gym & found a powerlifter named Jeff McGruder who did a squash match where he was totally without a clue & stiffed some poor jobber who was attempting to carry things.  Any idea if this guy had any training at all or was he in & gone within weeks?

 

Regarding Jay Youngblood, he was horribly out of shape by this point and I see that he lived another 9 months after this.  For anyone with insider knowledge at the time, what were the thoughts on him at the time?  Were his drug issues well known?  Did any promotion attempt to help the dude or they just let him go from promotion to promotion as he self-destructed?  Seems like a really rapid descent from spring of 83 which had to be his career peak to toiling in FL midcard a year & half later with his brother around to babysit.

 

I've been trying to figure out who the Fl Mad Maxx was for years, and never gotten a definitive answer.  Wasn't Eli.  I've heard it might have been Dewey Robertson (The Missing Link), but I don't think it was.  Robertson worked Mid South as "Max the Missing Link" in 1983 and showed up in Florida (as Link) around the same time Madd Maxx disappeared.  In any case, Madd Maxx only made a couple appearances in Fl.

 

Jeff McGruder only wrestled two tv matches + a video package. The week after that jobber match, Michael Hayes squashed him.  As far as I'm aware, he never worked anywhere after that.  He had virtually no training.  Supposedly, he was a musclehead that met a few of the wrestlers at a gym they all used and impressed Michael Hayes (Hayes was booking at the time).  I've heard Hayes had plans for him, but changed his mind after the awful jobber squash.

 

Youngblood's issues were well known by the time he got to Florida.  From all accounts, he was a mess inside and outside the ring the last couple years of his life.  Ricky Steamboat has said the reason he (Steamboat) broke up the tag team was he didn't feel he could "babysit" Jay any more.  Apparently, it had turned into a full time job.  From what I've heard, people reached out to him and offered him help, and he refused.  I don't think he left FL on good terms, but I've never heard specifics.

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Reading the Observer got me to thinking about Jack Tunney.

 

What was the reason he was summarily removed from WWF? His Wiki page points out that nobody from WWE attended his funeral nor was it mentioned on the website that he passed? You have to assume some bad falling out had to occur.

 

Related, was there ever any particular reason why VKM never acknowledged himself as the owner of the company until '96ish? I know it was something we all just knew, and even on something like at WM 3 it's more or less implied he's the promoter but has that ever been explained?

 

Also related, when exactly did it get acknowledged he was the owner? Everyone tends to think that Montreal was the first time, but I'm sure going back to '96 and even Diesel's heel turn speech in '95 that it was more or less referenced on TV.

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Watched some more of the Florida.  This Mad Max was most definitely no one I had ever seen before, certainly not the Link.  He was much ticker, with like a Ted Arcidi type look.  I had no idea Hayes was booking it, I was trying to figure out the Freebirds timeline & just kind of assumed that maybe he stopped thru the area for a few weeks around Christmas.  Off the top of my head, this would be before AWA for them?  When did the ill-fated WWF run come in?  I guess I need to go research some Freebirds.  I'm also really liking this babyface Dutch Mantel run.

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Reading the Observer got me to thinking about Jack Tunney.

 

What was the reason he was summarily removed from WWF? His Wiki page points out that nobody from WWE attended his funeral nor was it mentioned on the website that he passed? You have to assume some bad falling out had to occur.

 

Related, was there ever any particular reason why VKM never acknowledged himself as the owner of the company until '96ish? I know it was something we all just knew, and even on something like at WM 3 it's more or less implied he's the promoter but has that ever been explained?

 

Also related, when exactly did it get acknowledged he was the owner? Everyone tends to think that Montreal was the first time, but I'm sure going back to '96 and even Diesel's heel turn speech in '95 that it was more or less referenced on TV.

 

Officially, he was let go as a cost cutting method.  WWE was having financial problems at the time.  Unofficially, it was probably a combination of things:

 

-- His cousin, Eddie, was Jack's business partner in Canada.  Eddie basically got cut out of the deal with McMahon and later sued over it.  Eddie got a sizable settlement out of the lawsuit.  At one point, Eddie Tunney also trademarked the term "WrestleMania" in Canada and Vince had to buy the rights from him.  Apparently, the company held that against Jack,

 

-- The Terry Garvin/Mike Clark sexual harassment scandal.  Tunney supposedly witnessed Garvin proposition Clark and was prepared to back Clark in court.  Apparently, Tunney had heat with the company over this as the company "allegedly" believed that both Jack and Clark should tow the company line and let the incident pass.

 

-- Office politics.  According to the Observer, Tunney believed it was Bret Hart who got him fired (Hart denies this).  Tunney didn't think Bret would ever draw money and complained publicly about various Hart-related issues.  By the time Bret became the top guy, Tunney was unpopular with the faction in the office who got along with Bret.

 

-- After he was let go, Tunney was said to be quite bitter and almost never said a good word about the McMahons or the WWF after that.  He apparently badmouthed people in the company on a few occasions.

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here's a quickie:In October 1994, Luna Vachon and David "Gangrel/Vampire Warrior" Heath were married. i keep running across references to this appearing on WWF tv, but it's always referred to in a vague sense, never a date or show listed. Any ideas if this actually aired and when?

 It absolutely aired, but it was just a just a quick little 1:00 piece on Superstars. I cant remember WHY precisely it aired, maybe just a generic personality profile thing or something, but I remember recognizing Heath as Vampire Warrior from USWA.

 

There's an oblique reference it in the 11/21/94 Observer:

Dave Heath, who married Luna Vachon, clips of which aired on WWF television last week, debuted as The Vampire, dressed up with hair like Vachon but didn't get over. He also worked as a jobber Black Phantom on the same tapings.

There's a lot of Superstars episodes up on Dailymotion, but I haven't been able to locate any clips of this in particular from Nov 1994 episodes.

 

 

watched WWF Superstars from 11/5, 11/12, and 11/19 and Wrestling Challenge from 11/6, 11/13, and 11/20.

finally, while watching WWF Action Zone on 11/6, cohost Todd Pettengill mentions that he recapped Luna's wedding to a vampire yesterday on WWF Mania.

 

unfortunately, i can't find any WWF Mania episodes online anywhere, so if anyone runs across the 11/5/94 episode of WWF Mania, please let me know.

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At the World Class Star Wars show on Christmas '84 the following match happened:

 

Terry Gordy, Buddy Roberts & Chick Donovan vs. Skandor Akbar, Missing Link & Mr. X

 

Two questions: Why was longtime GCW jobber Donovan teaming with the Freebirds, and who was Mr. X?

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