Dolfan Watches Every Wrestlemania On Lockdown

[The Man Known as Dan]

Rick Rude from 90-92 is an interesting case for “greatest wrestler with the shortest peak”. For 3-4years he was all world, but he didn’t compete for almost a year of it. He was probably the best guy in the Dangerous Alliance, who might be the most talented stable ever with the Horsemen.

[thee Reverend Axl Future]

I still think Rick Rude's 1983-87 WCCW/CWF runs are amazing in that they contain they gestating seeds of his gimmick and after that his ring skills just improved.  I even remember stories about him when he was in (Lawler's) Mid South in the Apter mags, as "Rick Rood" until he turned heel. Remember when the mags had a three month publication lag? Anyway, Rood/Rude was already noticed by the bookers and mag writers even at that early stage of his career. Rude was so good, that even his half-assing it was brilliant, and he certainly went above and beyond more times than he had to.

- we are all sweathogs,

RAF

[Dolfan in NYC]

Okay, let's wrap this fucker up.  I'll be caught up then.  

As much as I say Bad News Brown was ahead of his time, I'll say Hacksaw was OF his time.  There is zero chance a flag waving charismatic, yet limited moveset/promo tough guy would get over as a mega-babyface in the 2020's.  We're just way too cynical at this point for this character on someone new.  Like when crowds come back, I'm FULLY expecting Rob Gronkowski to be booed out of the building, whether he wants to be or not.  My musings belie how bad this match is as BNB looks thoroughly uninterested in being there, while Hacksaw is laying in the lumber.  At the end, literally.  

Christ... Terry Taylor is bobbing his head back and forth like a chicken.  He's squashing Bobby The Brain for firing him because he sucked?  Look, I'm no wrestling historian, but I'm pretty sure the Weasel was 100% right in that call.  

Now comes the reason why everyone's here.  Macho and Hulk.  THE MEGAPOWERS EXPLODE.  If Savage isn't coked out of his mind, he's doing a damned amazing facsimile of someone who is. Interesting as each person comes to the ring, Trump Plaza security is actually escorting them... which is odd because they haven't done this for anyone else. In fact, it's so odd that it looks like Vince quietly came out behind the Macho Man to make sure Security did their job on the way to the ring.  Frankly that's a little scary.  

Savage is so god damned great at this point, he's jawing at Hogan from the second his music hits to the moment the bell rings.  Hogan is also interesting as he's clearly taking a back seat to Savage and letting him do the heavy lifting in this match. And as this is Randy's show, he's barking at anything that moves.  Especially, and most notably, Elizabeth.  There's a point mid-match when she has "interfered" on both men's behalf and Randy really, really looks like he's about to slap her. And though Jesse doesn't advocate it, he  does justify it if it happens.  It's very uncomfortable.  

The birth of the Reviving Elbow meme starts here as no one could no sell a finisher like Hulk could.  And in 1989, kicking out of a finisher was.... well, it just wasn't done.  As a kid, I really, really wanted Savage to win and was pissed when Hogan did.  Of course, looking back on this now, yeah, Hogan getting the belt back was definitely the right call.  He's better with the belt than without it, and the fans went apeshit for the finish.  

Well, that's it for Mania 5.  I don't have to see Trump's face again for a few weeks at this rate, so that's good.  This was probably the best of the Mania's to this point as an overall show and even though there are some SHIT matches, the tag matches are ALL great, the main event delivered in spades, and the Ultimate Warrior lost.  

Good, good show.  Mania VI begins tonight. (Or tomorrow if I'm feeling lazy.)

 

[(BP)]

Whenever I think of Hogan doing the poses and ear cupping, the victory celebration from WrestleMania V is what comes to mind. It’s one of the most electric crowds I’ve ever seen, and he really does have them in the palm of his hand. 

[PetrolCB]

1 hour ago, Dolfan in NYC said:

Well, that's it for Mania 5.  I don't have to see Trump's face again for a few weeks at this rate, so that's good.

He's front row for Mania VII.

[Guest Stefanie Without Stefanie]

8 hours ago, Dolfan in NYC said:

Then there's a Hogan interview that takes like 5 minutes and is just flaming death.  I'm pedaling and on my phone on Instagram... "OOH! Peanut Butter flavored hot sauce!"

...

thank you for your sacrifice, because now I want a bottle of that hot sauce.

[Dolfan in NYC]

2 hours ago, Stefanie the Human said:

...

thank you for your sacrifice, because now I want a bottle of that hot sauce.

https://www.amazon.com/OBAID-Peanut-Butter-Hot-Sauce/dp/B07ZPFVLNQ/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=obaid&qid=1586574383&sr=8-1

 

[Brian Fowler]

I don't recall Valentine and Honky being Heart & Soul, but I'm pretty sure they eventually became Rhythm & Blues

[PetrolCB]

4 hours ago, Brian Fowler said:

I don't recall Valentine and Honky being Heart & Soul, but I'm pretty sure they eventually became Rhythm & Blues

They did.

In an alternate universe, Hart & Soul became the new name of the Hart Foundation after they ditched Jimmy and hired Slick.

Edited April 12, 2020 by PetrolCB

[SirSmUgly]

Rude's 1992 is maybe my favorite wrestler/year combination ever...and he gets hurt right before he's set to take the WCW gold off of Ron Simmons, which was about the only way as a kid that I would have taken that loss even reasonably well. 

[Pete]

On 4/9/2020 at 11:38 AM, Dolfan in NYC said:

Mr. Fuji "runs a 5k" segment is next.  My only desire is to find some interview of Fuji, who was born in Hawaii, speaking without his over the top Japanese accent.  It has to exist.   And it has to be as unnerving as hearing George Steele or Kamala speak in their normal voices.  Or in Kamala's case... singing!

 

On 4/9/2020 at 1:32 PM, odessasteps said:

The one for me is Ivan 

 

Mine is Gorilla Monsoon singing after I read about how he sang at Giant Baba's wedding.

[Dolfan in NYC]

DAY 15

WRESTLEMANIA VI

Welcome to SkyDome for WrestleMania 6.  And here (at least in my memory) is the zenith of 1980's WWE... in 1990. Seems like that happens again in X7, which I'm probably about a month away from. I need to mention the crowd, because god damn, they're electric. 

Alright, skipping Robert Goulet singing O Canada...

We begin with Koko B. Ware & The Model Rick Martel. Koko gets some token offense in, but his is a squash for Martel.  Who is *significantly* more jacked than he was a year ago when he walked out on Tito. Martel does his thing and wins via a Boston Crab, which, I'm genuinely shocked they didn't give it a cute name like the Runway Turn or the Model Lock... Oh well. 

HERE COMES THE AX, HERE COMES THE SMASHER.... Demo's cut a longish promo basically as an excuse for giving the Tag Team champs the jobber entrance.  I kid, but I'm sure that's mainly to not have Andre come out on live TV and show that he's basically a cripple.  MVP of this match is definitely Haku as this was a de facto handicap match since Andre never tags in, and god damn does he pull through in spades.  The Demos get their third title, a very big deal in 1990, and the crowd goes fucking apeshit. 

After the loss, it's time for Andre to end his career as a babyface.  So Heenan starts chewing him out hard about not helping Haku, including a very audible "I'm the fucking boss!" while poking him hard in the chest.  Then he slaps him.  And then he dies because 'dre's had QUITE enough of that.  The crowd is probably going MORE nuts for this and Andre leaves on the cart angry and defiant, and redeemed.  Great moment. 

[Nice Guy Eddie]

I guess it's still having nostalgia for them as a kid, and being a MAJOR Demolition mark, but WM 4-6 are still my favorites, then probably followed by 17, 18, and 20.

Edited April 13, 2020 by Nice Guy Eddie

[Nice Guy Eddie]

On 4/11/2020 at 4:09 PM, Brian Fowler said:

I don't recall Valentine and Honky being Heart & Soul, but I'm pretty sure they eventually became Rhythm & Blues

and Valentine would dye his hair black and as Gorilla Monsoon would say, "look like a fat Roy Orbison"

Edited April 13, 2020 by Nice Guy Eddie

[PetrolCB]

1 hour ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

and Valentine would dye his hair black and as Gorilla Monsoon would say, "look like a fat Roy Orbison"

He'd call him "Boxcar" too. Whatever that means.

[Nice Guy Eddie]

1 hour ago, PetrolCB said:

He'd call him "Boxcar" too. Whatever that means.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boxcar_Willie

[Dolfan in NYC]

We're continuing on as Hercules enters his last Wrestlemania as a face, and he's here to get beat down by the new boy on the block Canadian Earthquake.  Quake actually does a pretty long promo before the match which was a little hokey, but it's 1990, so it's fine. Anyways, the most interesting thing in this match is Tenta apparently got his mouth busted at some point that I can't quite pick out because at a random point his mouth is just dripping blood. Also, it's very interesting to see that even though as a kid, Quake's finisher looked devastating, you can actually see it's probably one of the safest things that happens in the match. 

Now we got Beefcake and the undefeated Mr. Perfect.  Hennig is seconded by Lanny Poffo during his Genius phase which I'm still pretty sure happened because Vince watched this cartoon:

Spoiler

Anyway, this match is interesting because Hennig is VISIBLY frustrated by Beefcake messing up 3 spots in the first 30 seconds of the match.  At one point he bails and apparently decides he's just going to do everything himself, because he goes into super duper oversell mode (and for Curt Hennig, that's saying something). God, I really didn't remember Beefcake being this bad.  So, Hennig posts himself and Barber wins on a fluke, giving him his first televised WWF loss. And now Poffo gets sleepered and sheared, and again, I really don't remember these segments being so long as a kid as Beefcake just has trouble getting his hair to cut.   

Better times (mostly) would be ahead for Curt.   That's it for Day 15.  Next up... oh boy... 

[Dolfan in NYC]

DAY 16

Bad News Brown is up now and he's facing Rowdy Roddy Piper.  And yes, this is that match.  Piper for some reason has decided to wrestle in half-blackface (and arm and body). I genuinely do not get why Piper did this. Apparently the crowd doesn't either because the crazy raucous crowd fell uncomfortably quiet during the match.  And frankly, Brown would have been WELL within his rights to kick Piper square in the balls and walk out. 

The match itself is atrocious because it's like 4 minutes of a pull apart brawl where the ref, the newly reformed Danny Davis, was interjecting himself way too much and way too physically. And ultimately this ends up in a double countout.  And they continue to brawl down the aisle.  Brown was a fucking trooper to put up with this. 

Of note a large PIPER FOR PM match.  But that's silly because the PM of Canada would nev.....  oh... right.  

[Curt McGirt]

At least we have the pleasure of knowing the paint wouldn't wash off Piper so he had to fly around in that shit. 

[Gordi the former AEW fan]

Here's an excerpt from an interview I did with Bad News back in 2004:

One other thing I’ve always wondered, how did your family react to Roddy Piper painting himself half black?

My family didn’t like it, I didn’t like it, but him and Vince thought it was a great idea. I figured that if he was going to do that he was taking his life into his own hands, plus I didn’t like Piper anyway, he was a racist, so I figured if he got beat up for it or whatever, he deserved it.

What were they going for there?

I have no idea. I don’t know if it was just to make fun of us, I don’t know what they were trying to prove.

[Brian Fowler]

Fuck, I'm half surprised Bad News didn't just beat the hell out of Piper legit.

[Curt McGirt]

I read an interview where Piper babbled about quoting Mandela and trying to dance like MJ to the ring around the same time, like that somehow justified it. He also said he wasn't racist because he was born in Saskatoon and it was too cold for black people to dare to come up there? Ooooooookay...

[BurningBeard]

I always thought it was an atrocious attempt at showing a form of racial unity ala Michael Jackson’s black or white song. But... yeah.

I will say one thing, it was one of the most iconic WM images growing up 

[LoneWolf&Subs]

6 hours ago, gordi said:

I have no idea. I don’t know if it was just to make fun of us, I don’t know what they were trying to prove.

That answer could be used for the recent pandemic response.

[NikoBaltimore]

4 hours ago, Curt McGirt said:

I read an interview where Piper babbled about quoting Mandela and trying to dance like MJ to the ring around the same time, like that somehow justified it. He also said he wasn't racist because he was born in Saskatoon and it was too cold for black people to dare to come up there? Ooooooookay...

 

31 minutes ago, BurningBeard said:

I always thought it was an atrocious attempt at showing a form of racial unity ala Michael Jackson’s black or white song. But... yeah.

I will say one thing, it was one of the most iconic WM images growing up 

Both posts are correct.  I just read a book his kids did on Piper (great book BTW, highly recommend it)  And while they talked fondly of Roddy they in no way defended what he did.  They felt it was him using tactics that worked in California against Guerrero and taking it to 1990 WWF.  And boy did that fail.  The story of it did start with him saying "Hot Rod, what were you thinking?" so looking back even he realizes how dumb it was.

The Mandela part was brought up after saying that Roddy respected the way that Nelson treated people.  Which led to the story about Piper helping Virgil after he broke away from Dibiase.  The kids realized it was his way of trying to talk himself out of a really bad situation and mentioned the promo Piper did with Virgil.  I would hope Piper wasn't truly a racist but it's hard to argue against what he did.  I honestly think despite that he was a great guy but was to say the least complicated.  And he sure had thoughts that should have been best left in his brain though this was the worst.

Edited April 14, 2020 by NikoBaltimore