The Old School Questions thread

[Liam]

Watching mid 86 WWF and had two questions.

Was Orndorff the first time that the WWF had used the 'friend of Hogan turns on Hogan' - I feel like it is, but might be forgetting something.

Similarly, was it the first time they'd done the 'face returns under a mask' when it came to The Machines gimmick?

[clintthecrippler]

9 hours ago, Liam said:

Watching mid 86 WWF and had two questions.

Was Orndorff the first time that the WWF had used the 'friend of Hogan turns on Hogan' - I feel like it is, but might be forgetting something.

Similarly, was it the first time they'd done the 'face returns under a mask' when it came to The Machines gimmick?

Yes to both questions. 

[Southside Jim]

Does anyone remember the title of a hardcover coffee table book of George Napolitano photos that came out circa 1987-88?

 

I remember it had photos of Dusty Rhodes posing in front of a gold curtain while wearing the big gold belt, Rick Rude sitting across the laps of a group of ring rats, Lex Luger with a beard, but the real highlight was a photo of the battle royal from WrestleMania 2 where William "The Refrigerator" Perry was diving off the top turnbuckle to deliver a double axhandle.  

 

Napolitano was standing directly behind the ringpost, so you saw this cool shot of all the wrestlers and football players looking in awe as Perry dove off.

[PetrolCB]

Is this the photo, or was he mid move?

Edited April 8, 2020 by PetrolCB

[elizium]

1 hour ago, Southside Jim said:

Does anyone remember the title of a hardcover coffee table book of George Napolitano photos that came out circa 1987-88?

 

I remember it had photos of Dusty Rhodes posing in front of a gold curtain while wearing the big gold belt, Rick Rude sitting across the laps of a group of ring rats, Lex Luger with a beard, but the real highlight was a photo of the battle royal from WrestleMania 2 where William "The Refrigerator" Perry was diving off the top turnbuckle to deliver a double axhandle.  

 

Napolitano was standing directly behind the ringpost, so you saw this cool shot of all the wrestlers and football players looking in awe as Perry dove off.

 

Wrestling: The Greatest Stars

I own it, I don't remember when I got it but definitely when I was a kid, so around its release in 87. It is pretty thin, but there's some great photos, with a little write up of each person featured.

Edited April 8, 2020 by elizium

[elizium]

1 hour ago, PetrolCB said:

Is this the photo, or was he mid move?

That's a great pic, but not it. He's directly behind the turnbuckle and Fridge is just starting his leap off.

[elizium]

1 hour ago, Southside Jim said:

I remember it had photos of Dusty Rhodes posing in front of a gold curtain while wearing the big gold belt, Rick Rude sitting across the laps of a group of ring rats, Lex Luger with a beard, but the real highlight was a photo of the battle royal from WrestleMania 2 where William "The Refrigerator" Perry was diving off the top turnbuckle to deliver a double axhandle. 

Too big to fit on my printer to scan, so just took a quick pic with my phone. Bearded Lex and Chilling Rude are together. There's no way any of those girls are older than 14.

[Southside Jim]

Thanks guys!

[Southside Jim]

Does anyone remember a indy show angle from circa 1994-1996 featuring Tom "Johnny Gunn" Brandi?  I remember reading a post on RSPW, possibly from Jeff Amdur, about it.

 

The angle went like this:

 

The show opens with the announcement that Johnny Gunn, one half of the tag champs, has won the promotion's main singles title.  Johnny comes out and the ring announcer reminds him that the promotion's rules dictate he can't hold two titles, and will have to vacate one of the belts.

 

Johnny calls his tag partner to the ring, apologizes to him, and vacates the tag titles.

 

The partner says he understands completely and wishes Johnny good luck in the main event, when he'll be defending his new belt in a rematch against the previous champion.

 

Of course, in the main event, the tag partner turns heel and costs Gunn the title, than cuts a promo about how bitter he is that Gunn vacated the tag titles.

 

 

I'm just trying to remember what promotion that was.  I want to say it was Cueball Carmichael's IPWA, but it may have been Pennsylvania Championship Wrestling as well.  Either way, I thought that could be a good angle to rehash in AEW: Kenny Omega wins the AEW title, but Tony Khan tells him he has to choose between the AEW Title or the tag titles.  

 

Kenny chooses the AEW title, and a bitter, drunken Hangman Page cements his heel turn and helps Chris Jericho regain the AEW World Title later that night.

[Southside Jim]

On 9/2/2019 at 7:07 AM, BurningBeard said:

I'd rather have a stable of Bellasario themed wrestlers.

You could have your Sam Beckett stall during a match to get advice from a hologram/thin air on how to win the match, a bit like a more ludicrous version of the York Foundation.

 

 

 

You're one of those people who sends Cornette video of every single "invisible hand grenade" indy match to purposefully piss him off, aren't you?

[MORELOCK]

Any idea involving Adam Page turning heel is terrible at this point, but especially one involving Kenny being the angle's babyface and World Champion.

[Gordi the BJW fan]

8 minutes ago, MORELOCK said:

Any idea involving Adam Page turning heel is terrible at this point, but especially one involving Kenny being the angle's babyface and World Champion.

Now *that* is an interesting old school question!

[MORELOCK]

Fair enough, but I'm not the one who fantasy booked AEW in the Old School thread.

To answer that guy's question, though: No, no one remembers any angles involving Tom Brandi, but I bet with some hyper-specific searches you could find that RSPW post archived.

[colonial]

7 hours ago, elizium said:

That's a great pic, but not it. He's directly behind the turnbuckle and Fridge is just starting his leap off.

I don't recall Refrigerator Perry hitting a top-rope move in the battle royal. He entered the ring, I believe, next-to-last (before Andre) by jumping off the top rope, landing on his feet. I don't think he climbed the ropes during the match (only wrestler I recall trying a top-rope move was Bret Hart, when Andre caught him on the turnbuckle and launched him into Neidhart).

[elizium]

7 hours ago, colonial said:

I don't recall Refrigerator Perry hitting a top-rope move in the battle royal. He entered the ring, I believe, next-to-last (before Andre) by jumping off the top rope, landing on his feet. I don't think he climbed the ropes during the match (only wrestler I recall trying a top-rope move was Bret Hart, when Andre caught him on the turnbuckle and launched him into Neidhart).

You are correct, I had completely forgotten the context of the pic (should have realized since Mean Gene is still standing in the ring).

[BurningBeard]

On 4/8/2020 at 7:49 AM, Southside Jim said:

 

 

You're one of those people who sends Cornette video of every single "invisible hand grenade" indy match to purposefully piss him off, aren't you?

No Southside Jim I am not. I’ve just been around @BEN! for too long

[Brian Fowler]

Backing up to the Backlund stuff... Now that I think about it, Bret never really got revenge on Owen from that, did he? I mean, they didn't reunite for another two and a half years, but that was pretty much the last major moment in their year long story/10 month feud.

[Liam]

Question that has been bouncing around my head for a bit - considering they ran an angle to have Andre the Giant suspended in 1986 pretty much immediately after Wrestlemania II, at what point did they decide that they'd bring him back (if you ignore the Machines run) as a heel? It is great, year long booking, but I can't help but feel that it is more than likely that they stumbled into it more than got their by choice.

[Brian Fowler]

9 minutes ago, Liam said:

Question that has been bouncing around my head for a bit - considering they ran an angle to have Andre the Giant suspended in 1986 pretty much immediately after Wrestlemania II, at what point did they decide that they'd bring him back (if you ignore the Machines run) as a heel? It is great, year long booking, but I can't help but feel that it is more than likely that they stumbled into it more than got their by choice.

If you believe Vince, the whole thing was because he felt Andre was giving up on life, and he wanted to give him something big so Andre would keep going despite all the pain he was in.

[Liam]

1 minute ago, Brian Fowler said:

If you believe Vince, the whole thing was because he felt Andre was giving up on life, and he wanted to give him something big so Andre would keep going despite all the pain he was in.

Interesting. Was it the plan all along from April 86 though? Or did the decision to turn him heel come later in the year - perhaps after they'd run the Machines feud?

I'm aware there may be no clear time exactly, I've just never really heard too much about that decision.

[PetrolCB]

4 hours ago, Brian Fowler said:

Backing up to the Backlund stuff... Now that I think about it, Bret never really got revenge on Owen from that, did he? I mean, they didn't reunite for another two and a half years, but that was pretty much the last major moment in their year long story/10 month feud.

Owen (and Bob) interfered in Bret's title match (along with many others) and in retaliation, Bret attacked Owen as he was entering the Rumble (he was chucked out quickly). You're right though. It's kind of weird that it was just killed off like that.

Obviously a rematch from X at XI would've saved us from that shitty submission match Bret had. Owen benefitted that night though, getting the tag straps with the returning Yokozuna, which was an alright big guy/little guy team. Mainly due to Owen being Owen.

Edited April 9, 2020 by PetrolCB

[Southside Jim]

12 hours ago, Brian Fowler said:

Backing up to the Backlund stuff... Now that I think about it, Bret never really got revenge on Owen from that, did he? 

 

No, they aired a "No Holds Barred Match" on the 3/27 RAW where Bret decisively beat Owen, forcing him to submit to the Sharpshooter and then holding the move forever while a gaggle of referees tried to pry him off.  

 

That was basically the end of the feud, as Owen transistioned into a tag team with Yokozuna while Bret focused on Lawler/Hakushi/Pierre Ouellet.

 

 

[Southside Jim]

What are some examples of feuds/storylines that got blown off in WWF Magazine and were barely acknowledged on TV.

 

Off the top of my head, I can remember from Spring 1988, an article revealing that Dave Hebner had an evil brother named Earl, and Dibiase had bribed him and kidnapped Dave.  This got mentioned by Jesse Ventura once on WWF Superstars when they would do one of those "check out the newest issue of WWF The Magazine" inserts during a squash.

 

In 1989, on an episode of Prime Time Wrestling, Gorilla Monsoon mentioned casually that Danny Davis had been reinstated as a referee by Jack Tunney, and had been required to take an oath vowing never to do anything heinous or nefarious in his career again, or he'd be banned for life for a second time, and that you could read about it in the newest issue of the magazine.

 

And probably most famously, after WrestleMania 8, they did an article where Randy Savage burst into the magazine offices and angrily tossed down the "original, undoctored" photos of Randy and Elizabeth lounging around his mansion, which Flair stole and paid someone to doctor the photos to look like it was Flair and Elizabeth together.

 

Am I missing any?

[Southside Jim]

Please tell me I'm not crazy: 

 

I distinctly remember that there were two versions of the Great American Bash 86 and Starrcade 86 commercial tapes, with extra matches added to the start of the tape.

 

The first video store I ever frequented had copies of both tapes that opened with the music video intro before cutting to the announcers, while after I moved, I found a video store that had a copy of Bash 86 that opened with Flair vs. Hawk from Philadelphia, and then cut to the intro, and the Starrcade 86 copy opened with Wahoo McDaniel vs. Rick Rude and then cut to the intro.

 

Does anyone else remember this?

[GuerrillaMonsoon]

13 hours ago, Liam said:

Interesting. Was it the plan all along from April 86 though? Or did the decision to turn him heel come later in the year - perhaps after they'd run the Machines feud?

I'm aware there may be no clear time exactly, I've just never really heard too much about that decision.

The WWE official line is that Andre was done with wrestling, and from there either a) needed back surgery after filming Princess Bride and Vince agreed to pay for it if he came back or b) needed time off to film Princess Bride and only agreed to come back if Vince paid for the surgery.

Splitting hairs either way, but get the feeling Andre would have stayed in Hollywood had he not needed the back surgery.