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2021 Wrestling RIP Thread


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I just realized how few members of the WWF-era Heenan family are still alive. Wikipedia lists 14 members until and including 1987 and of those 14 wrestlers only four are still alive (Haku, Tama, Sivi Afi and Ken Patera - apparently Polynesian genes not only effect your weight but also help you survive wrestling). Buddy Rose, Big John Studd, Paul Orndorff, King Kong Bundy, Missing Link, Adrian Adonis, Hercules Hernandez, Harley Race, Andre the Giant and Rick Rude all are dead.

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On 7/13/2021 at 10:31 PM, Kuetsar said:

Although 71 is too young, by 80's wrestler standards that's a pretty good run. RIP.

Yeah, when you get to a real life retirement age and pass that by a good few years, you are definitely ahead of the pack, as sad as that may be.

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17 hours ago, BrianS81177 said:

Buddy Rose was in the Heenan Family? Is this mid 80s? Because I don't remember blow away diet Buddy being anything more than a jobber

I can't have lasted long, Wikipedia says Heenan started managing him in December 84 and Rose was gone by April 85 (he only had one more match in WWF after Wrestlemania).

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21 hours ago, hammerva said:

 

Interesting that it sure did sound like Todd Pettengil was the narrator in this

I dont think it's Pettengil, it sounds more like one of the guys from the Bump

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19 hours ago, BrianS81177 said:

Buddy Rose was in the Heenan Family? Is this mid 80s? Because I don't remember blow away diet Buddy being anything more than a jobber

I don't remember Sivi Afa being a Heenan Family member in '87.   Anyone care to refresh my memory?

If the Heenan Family wiki page is accurate (it's supposedly based on the WWF Encyclopedia), 11 of 23 Heenan Family members are still alive.  Besides the Polynesians and Patera, Barbarian, Flair, Luger, Arn & Tully, Brooklyn Brawler, and Terry Taylor are still living.

Granted, a couple of those guys (Flair & Luger) were managed by Bobby but I don't really consider them Heenan Family members.  

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17 minutes ago, Eoae said:

I don't remember Sivi Afa being a Heenan Family member in '87.   Anyone care to refresh my memory?

That was all of one six-man tag match, but Heenan did indeed introduce him as the third Islander. And this was cut short pretty quickly, as Tama left WWF and Haku became a King, not necessarily in that order.

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I can't put up the link on the phone, but there is a Pipers Pit from December 1984 that featured Buddy Rose and Heenan. The pairing didn't last long ... not sure if Rose even had a TV match with Heenan managing him.

 

UPDATE: Here it is ...

 

Sivi Afi was a one-shot with Heenan for TV. I remember Heenan introducing him as being just as evil as Haku and Tama, then Afi walks to the ring, slapping and shaking hands with the crowd. No wonder it was a one shot

 

Edited by colonial
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I barely remember that!  The most I remember of Sivi Afi was that he was brought in as Snuka's cousin to "even the odds" against Piper and Orton, but in non-kayfabe, it was probably to fill in when Snuka no-showed.  ?  The young mark that I was, it was so cool that there were "TWO SUPERFLYs" for a bit.

That Heenan Family wiki article needs a layout like most bands' wikis have, where the X axis is years and the Y axis is members, so we can really see the overlap.  For example, it lists  Flair, Haku, Barbarian, and Hennig as being Heenan Family members in 1991 but I doubt all were there at the same time, though that would have been a badass stable.

 

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10 minutes ago, colonial said:

I can't put up the link on the phone, but there is a Pipers Pit from December 1984 that featured Buddy Rose and Heenan. The pairing didn't last long ... not sure if Rose even had a TV match with Heenan managing him.

 

Sivi Afi was a one-shot with Heenan for TV. I remember Heenan introducing him as bring just as evil as Haku and Tama, then Afi walks to the ring, slapping and shaking hands with the crowd. No wonder it was a one shot

 

Rose might have had Heenan in his corner the same taping that the Piper's Pit was recorded. 

The early expansion has a lot of weird manager-wrestler combos, like Heenan with Rose, Adonis and Link, and Hart with Bundy.

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48 minutes ago, Technico Support said:

Even some of the later managerial stuff was weird, like Johnny Valiant managing Demolition for their debut before swapping him out for Fuji, Slick managing Hercules Hernandez, and Fuji managing Bob Orton in 1987.

Yeah, Slick sold Herc's contract to Heenan making Hercules the only guy in WWF history to be sold TWICE and on the latter time into slavery.

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4 hours ago, Johnny Sorrow said:

Tonga Kid was the cousin brought in to help Snuka. Sivi Afi was Vince's "replacement Snuka" after Snuka left. 

AH!  You’re absolutely correct.

4 hours ago, Shartnado said:

Yeah, Slick sold Herc's contract to Heenan making Hercules the only guy in WWF history to be sold TWICE and on the latter time into slavery.

The whole “manager” thing made no sense to me, even as a kid.  Half the time, wrestlers would hire and fire managers, so they’d be akin to sports agents.  But the other half of the time, managers would fire, trade, and sell wrestlers’ contracts, so managers could be seen as something like a sports team GM and their stable was their team.  You’d have both happen in the same promotion.

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4 hours ago, Johnny Sorrow said:

Tonga Kid was the cousin brought in to help Snuka. Sivi Afi was Vince's "replacement Snuka" after Snuka left. 

Afi's MSG debut where he was announced as SUPERFLY (pop and dramatic pause from The Fink) ..... SIVI AFI which caused the crowd to groan audibly was a freaking hilarious moment. I wish it was still online.

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11 hours ago, colonial said:

Sivi Afi was a one-shot with Heenan for TV. I remember Heenan introducing him as being just as evil as Haku and Tama, then Afi walks to the ring, slapping and shaking hands with the crowd. No wonder it was a one shot

 

Against a young, mulleted Steve Blackman no less

 

 

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