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Your Wrestlers RIP Thread


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On 11/25/2020 at 10:21 AM, Matt D said:

Ryder was a presence if you were on Prodigy in the mid-to-late-90s certainly. There was a lot that made one be uncomfortable about the guy but he was a presence. It’s weird to lose him and Hyatte in the same year.

His website was 1wrestling.com, right? Bob Ryder later went on to work for WCW in there web department or something along those lines.

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Well when that gets posted I have to post this

From DVDVR #168

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Abdullah the Butcher vs. Zeus – WWC 7/7/90 [by RIPPA]
Rummaging through my old unlabelled CDs, I found three discs of wrestling downloads from when the Matches folder first went up, which was like four or five years ago. One of the matches was labeled “Abdullah the Butcher vs. Zeus”. Like any sane human I thought “well that clearly isn’t right”. Of course, who ever uploaded this match hates me and the Baby Jesus because they made it a .rm file. (Just for the record – I am blaming Doug Corti until otherwise notified.) After cursing YouTube for not having it (I mean, fuck, you recommend me 424 different Test matches just because the guy died but not one fucking person would be like “If I put Abdullah the Butcher vs. Zeus up, I so can get more hits that the Don’t Tase Me Guy or the new Simpsons opening or whatever the fuck the kids watch these days”. I bite the bullet and download Real Alternative… again, which I am sure will crash my ITunes… again. Unlike when Meltzer says now in the Observer “No, not THAT Zeus” when referring to the Zeus who shows up in Hustle, I totally mean THAT Zeus. As in Tiny Lister, President of the Universe, Zeus. The interwebs tell me that it is from the 1990 WWC Anniversary show so we will go with that. Sometimes bad wrestling makes you feel oh so good. This is one of those times. Zeus does three things in this match – a bear hug, unintentional shoot headbutts and the worst punch/overhead smash strike you will ever see. The best way I could describe them is a guy in need of bifocals on a bad acid trip trying to fend off the wolf spiders. There is also Abby choking himself which is all sorts of great because Zeus isn’t capable of figuring out how to apply a choke. Man, Abdullah must have felt all sorts of bad for Zeus since he does his darndest to make him look good. And of course since this is Puerto Rico and Abby there is blood. Mind you – it would be hard for him not too between the aforementioned shoot headbutts and the fact that Abby thought “I have a good idea. I will let Tiny stab me with my own pencil!” Zeus is gassed two minutes which makes me feel better about myself since I know that back in 1990 I had better cardio that Lister. For all intents and purposes this is an enjoyable, amazingly sloppy 10 minute brawl which is totally made by Abby going “Okay, Fuck It. Let’s see where this goes.” Of course, it ends in a no contest/double countout as Zeus had to be protected and… well… it is an Abdullah the Butcher match.

 

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One of my fondest childhood kayfabe breaking memories of wrestling involves Zeus.  My friends and I had talked the nice Middle Eastern gentleman who ran the corner store into carrying wrestling magazines.  Did he get PWI?  No.  The Wrestler?  No.  Wrestling 87?  Haha nope.  He got WWE Magazine. 

Since it was the only magazine he carried, he paid no attention to street dates and just put them up whenever he got them in.  The issue he happened to start selling whenever was one in which Hulk Hogan was interviewed about Zeus' heinous attack on him before a match on SNME.  The only thing was, the show wouldn't air for another few weeks.  Tremendous.

Thank you Mr. Lister for all you did and thanks for fucking up that jabroni Hulk Hogan.

Edited by Technico Support
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From the WON that just went out

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Tom “Tiny” Lister Jr., who as Zeus, was the lead heel in the Hulk Hogan movie “No Holds Barred,” and later wrestled a handful of high profile matches, passed away on 12/10 at the age of 62.

Lister, who was 6-foot-4 ½, was a Division II national shot put champion in 1982 at Cal-State Los Angeles, who went into acting. After being Hogan’s rival in the movie, they made him a monster pro wrestler. He wore huge lifts in his boots to make him tower over Hogan and was billed as 6-foot-10. He no sold Hogan’s offense in an angle to set up the match, and the 1989 SummerSlam was a big PPV success with Hogan & Brutus Beefcake beating Zeus & Randy Savage in the main event. He also wrestled at that year’s Survivor Series in a match where Hogan & Jake Roberts & Demolition (Bill Eadie & Barry Darsow) beat Ted DiBiase & Zeus & Warlord & Barbarian. Zeus was disqualified early on for choking Hogan. This set up a third PPV match, a package deal with the movie followed by Hogan & Beefcake over Zeus & Savage in a cage match.

He later did some matches in WWC in Puerto Rico, including with Abdullah the Butcher. Hogan brought him back to wrestling in 1996, where he used the name Ze Gangsta, for the March 24, 1996 WCW Uncensored show in Tupelo, MS. He was in a two vs. eight triple deck doomsday cage match where Hogan & Savage on their own beat Lex Luger & Ze Gangsta & Ultimate Solution (Jeep Swenson) & Meng & Barbarian & Ric Flair & Arn Anderson & Kevin Sullivan. If Hogan had his way, it would have been two vs. nine because Brian Pillman had gotten hot on television doing his Loose Cannon gimmick. Pillman found out Hogan wanted to leg drop him before his character had gotten out of the blocks so he had surgery to remove polyps from his throat. He did need the surgery at some point, but not at that point immediately. But once he had the surgery he couldn’t get cleared for the match.

Lister was best known for the character of “Deebo” in the first two Friday movies, “Friday” and “Next Friday.” He was also a klingon in the pilot of “Star Trek: Enterprise.” He later had legal problems, convicted in 2012 of conspiracy in a mortgage fraud scheme.

Lister had fallen ill with COVID-19 symptoms this past week and canceled a film shooting. Friends had noted he didn’t respond to any calls or messages on the evening of 12/9 and called police to do a check on him. Police found him dead at his home in Marina Del Rey, CA.

 

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I'm honestly shocked @The Natural hasn't come in here for Lister yet.  After all, it's a testament to the performer and the actor that he was, that in what is the best superhero movie ever made, the director had the absolute faith in him to carry the film's most important moment:

Rest in Power Mr. Lister. 

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I still remember the day I found out that was him in Dark Knight.  Was very happy for that as like you said it was a very pivotal moment in the movie.  If anything I remember him from that mainly because I haven't seen the Friday movies (I know, I know.  I should fix that once I'm done with Christmas movies)

But I was on board with No Holds Barred even if I wasn't allowed to see it at the time.  But it was wild seeing Zeus in WWF as he looked such an intimidating threat that had partners in Savage and Sherri.  So that was fun.  And even though the movie is awful even by late 80s standards it still has that cheese that I can't help but love.  And honestly as bad as it was I thought he did a pretty darn good job with the role.  RIP, Zeus.

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I've seen Friday countless times. It was one of the key movies of my adolescence and I watch it again pretty much any time it's on TV. Actually didn't see Next Friday until years and years later but it's great too. 

Putting "Tiny Lister filmography" into Google reveals a slew of wild films he was in. I remembered Dark Knight but forgot about Jackie Brown ("I find people"), Posse (which was on just last month), and Trespass; he was also in (among others) The Fifth Element, Little Nicky (ugh), Beverly Hills Cop 2, Universal Soldier, Don Juan Demarco, The Human Centipede 3 (HAVE to see that), Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead, Wishmaster 2, Barb Wire (haha), the awesome Prison, with Roddy Piper in Immoral Combat, and, just in time for the season, with Goldberg... Santa's Slay. 

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1 hour ago, Curt McGirt said:

The Human Centipede 3

*record scratch*  Wait, you're saying they made THREE of these movies?!  I would have figured one was bad enough and two is pushing it.  But three?  Fucking hell, man.

But anyway, I was kind of thinking of seeing Santa's Slay for the sheer WTF factor.  So if I do I'll be sure to keep an eye out for him.

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34 minutes ago, NikoBaltimore said:

*record scratch*  Wait, you're saying they made THREE of these movies?!  I would have figured one was bad enough and two is pushing it.  But three?  Fucking hell, man.

But anyway, I was kind of thinking of seeing Santa's Slay for the sheer WTF factor.  So if I do I'll be sure to keep an eye out for him.

I see what you did there.

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I'm guessing Hogan and pretty much nobody in WCW power in 1996, realized that they could have made Zeus slightly more relevant if they had him portraying Deebo from Friday teaming up with the Dungeon of Doom, Luger, Flair/Arn, and the Ultimate (not Final) Solution in the cage match. You could have had a Nitro send with Deebo showing up to take Hogan's motorcycle, and then the Uncensored match would end with Hogan knocking out Deebo and retaking his motorcycle.

Those wrist strikes to Abdullah's head sure were something. To Zeus' credit, he wasn't throwing illegal closed fist shots when he was hitting Abdullah's head/shoulders with his wrists. Also the rare match where there's bearhug spots being applied by the wrestler who isn't fat.

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Ugh, this blows. The voice of lucha libre and maybe the best non-US commentator ever, especially with Leobardo Magadan as his color man.

QEPD Dr Morales. Que barbaro.

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