Pro Wrestling
-
@Nepia said in Pro Wrestling:
Reading back through the thread a number of posters mention watching Wrestlemania on TV. I don't remember ever seeing a Wrestlemania on TV, I can only remember them on video and having to book them out. IIRC Wrestlemania was already a couple of years old when WWF Superstars of Wrestling started on TV in NZ. (Looking at Wrestlemania 1 on wiki and not many of the wrestlers are still alive. Mr T is the only one from the main event.
Is my memory faulty or others?
Hart Foundation and Bret Hart were always my favourites, even when they were heels.
TV2 had golden era PPVs for about 18 months - SummerSlam 89 to Royal Rumble 91, including Wrestlemania VI which had the main event of Hulk Hogan vs Ultimate Warrior, title for title (WWF and intercontinental titles). Later (1997-2002 or so), TV2 had WCW PPVs while TV4 had WWF/E including Wrestlemania starting with Wrestlemania 14 (main event of Stone Cold vs Shawn Michaels, special guest referee Mike Tyson). As the Attitude Era tapered off after WWF/E bought WCW, it all moved to Sky.
Loved Bret and the Hart Foundation generally as a kid. Hart Foundation winning the tag team titles from Demolition at Summerslam 90 is still one of my favourite matches - they get a great pop when Bret pins Crush in the third fall.
-
-
-
@MN5 said in Pro Wrestling:
@Kruse said in Pro Wrestling:
Holy shit.
Wrestlemania 1 - StarSpangledBanner sang by Mean Jene Oakland
When I went in 2017, the USAF was involvedKing Kong Bundy beat Special Delivery Jones in 9 seconds
That Valentine / Junkyard-Dog ruling was outrageous. Never seen the like.
-
-
@MN5 said in Pro Wrestling:
@Kruse said in Pro Wrestling:
Holy shit.
Wrestlemania 1 - StarSpangledBanner sang by Mean Jene Oakland
When I went in 2017, the USAF was involvedKing Kong Bundy beat Special Delivery Jones in 9 seconds
Had to rewind to find that... and yeah...
Did Daniel Bryant v UnderTaker take that record?
I tried to google... but A"I" has broken the internet, and I can't be arsed to disable it.
Might have had a joint. Can't believe that it would be professional wrestling to finally tip me over the ... fuck it... -
WT..A...F... original Wrestlemania - finally got to main event - Liberace "guest timekeeper (???)", Muhammad Ali "assistant refereee", Mr-T tag-team partner with Hulk Hogan... I shouldn't be baked about to watch this... already overwhelmed
Edit: confirmed - shouldn't have watched that baked -
-
@Kruse said in Pro Wrestling:
WT..A...F... original Wrestlemania - finally got to main event - Liberace "guest timekeeper (???)", Muhammad Ali "assistant refereee", Mr-T tag-team partner with Hulk Hogan... I shouldn't be baked about to watch this... already overwhelmed
Edit: confirmed - shouldn't have watched that bakedTo be fair the Wrestlemanias improved hugely, then declined.
Hogan was a MASSIVE draw despite contemporaries like Randy Savage, Rick Rude and Curt Hennig all being far better ‘wrestlers’ than he ever was ( those three making up 75% of my own personal Mt Rushmore ) and his finisher was lame as fuck ( Hulking up, punch punch punch, into the ropes, big boot, leg drop, pin )
He was the man though.
Wrestling was so fun in that period.
Just watched this, an even worse wrestler than Hogan and sounded like a bit of an arsehole.
But he made amends late in life and by golly I had tears in my eyes watching that bit where he was in the ring for the last time knowing he died so shortly afterwards.
-
@Frank said in Pro Wrestling:
Ultimate Warrior promo lines.
Genius cocaine inspired madness"Come on in, where nightmares are the best part of my day"
"In my final meeting with the gods from heaven above"
"The family that I lives for only breathes the air that smells of combat"
No sleep no food, just Maniacism
-
Wrestlemania III - 30 minutes in, we have King Kong Bundy + 2 midgets vs Hillbilly Jim + 2 midgets.
Solid entertainment.
Rowdy Roddy Piper giving Adonis a haircut. After what was presumably a Brutus-Barber-Beefcake heel->face turn triggered by previous match?
Classic.
That Hart Foundation win... outrageous
Smoked some weed... comments from here on in...
"The Birdman" - Coco B Ware - I never got this guy. I seem to remember even as a kid, I was "huh?". How/why is this guy a favourite? Weird bird-fetish-guy. -
@Kruse said in Pro Wrestling:
Wrestlemania III - 30 minutes in, we have King Kong Bundy + 2 midgets vs Hillbilly Jim + 2 midgets.
Solid entertainment.
Rowdy Roddy Piper giving Adonis a haircut. After what was presumably a Brutus-Barber-Beefcake heel->face turn triggered by previous match?
Classic.
That Hart Foundation win... outrageousWhat an understatement.....
Jesse the Bodys commentary makes it even more awesome. When King Kong Bundy slammed the hilariously named Little Beaver even the midgets on his team turned against him !!!!
Like a lot of "heels" Bundy sounds like he was a great guy in real life. After wrestling he was a stand up comedian and he also owned 10 cats that had to be rehomed after he passed.
Moved pretty damn well for a huge guy too.
-
Wrestlemania III - Part Two
Some fucking classics...- Macho Man Randy Savage v Ricky 'The Dragon' Steamboat - complete with George-The-Animal besotted by the lovely Elizabeth
- Jake the Snake Roberts, with Alice fucking Cooper in his corner - vs Honky Tonk Man... complete with Jimmy Hart cheating to get the win, then having Damian thrown all over him
- Tag team - between the team which should be named "The Evil Foreigners" - The Iron Sheikh and Nikolei Volkoff - with Hacksaw Jim Duggan running down to interrupt the Russian national anthem... fucking up the match, and starting a "USA! USA!" chant afterwards. While the "Killer Bees" (?) were the actual combatants.
- And main event - Hulk Hogan v Andre the Giant - hits all the classic notes, but over in a little over 10 minutes. If only the modern script-writers could learn from that.
-
@Kruse said in Pro Wrestling:
Wrestlemania III - Part Two
Some fucking classics...- Macho Man Randy Savage v Ricky 'The Dragon' Steamboat - complete with George-The-Animal besotted by the lovely Elizabeth
- Jake the Snake Roberts, with Alice fucking Cooper in his corner - vs Honky Tonk Man... complete with Jimmy Hart cheating to get the win, then having Damian thrown all over him
- Tag team - between the team which should be named "The Evil Foreigners" - The Iron Sheikh and Nikolei Volkoff - with Hacksaw Jim Duggan running down to interrupt the Russian national anthem... fucking up the match, and starting a "USA! USA!" chant afterwards. While the "Killer Bees" (?) were the actual combatants.
- And main event - Hulk Hogan v Andre the Giant
I alway remember B Brian Blair of the Killer Bees, but have no idea who the other guy was.
-
@Kruse said in Pro Wrestling:
Wrestlemania III - Part Two
Some fucking classics...- Macho Man Randy Savage v Ricky 'The Dragon' Steamboat - complete with George-The-Animal besotted by the lovely Elizabeth
- Jake the Snake Roberts, with Alice fucking Cooper in his corner - vs Honky Tonk Man... complete with Jimmy Hart cheating to get the win, then having Damian thrown all over him
- Tag team - between the team which should be named "The Evil Foreigners" - The Iron Sheikh and Nikolei Volkoff - with Hacksaw Jim Duggan running down to interrupt the Russian national anthem... fucking up the match, and starting a "USA! USA!" chant afterwards. While the "Killer Bees" (?) were the actual combatants.
- And main event - Hulk Hogan v Andre the Giant - hits all the classic notes, but over in a little over 10 minutes. If only the modern script-writers could learn from that.
Rightfully regarded as one of the greatest matches of all time.
I absolutely loved the Macho Man. He literally had it all. The look, the promos ( he was the best at these ), the in ring ability, the incredible intensity and the charisma. The only two who competed in terms of ALL those qualities were Rick Rude and Mr Perfect.
Savage was better than both Hogan and Flair.
Hogan/Andre is a bit lame to look at now, even then Andre was pretty immobile but that body slam was iconic.
-
Wrestlemania 3 is one of the all time great wrestling PPVs/PLEs. Hogan vs big heel was a cliche by the end of his WWF run, but Hogan vs Andre was absolute box office. Did make it difficult to run Hogan vs big heel after that - once he slammed and pinned Andre, there wasn't a long list of plausible big heel challengers.
-
@Godder said in Pro Wrestling:
Wrestlemania 3 is one of the all time great wrestling PPVs/PLEs. Hogan vs big heel was a cliche by the end of his WWF run, but Hogan vs Andre was absolute box office. Did make it difficult to run Hogan vs big heel after that - once he slammed and pinned Andre, there wasn't a long list of plausible big heel challengers.
Yeah he feuded with Ted Dibiase and then had a big fall out with the Macho Man. He then feuded with Zeus whose main issue was he couldn’t actually wrestle.
There was also talk of him taking on Rick Rude but after he legitimately beat up the Ultimate Warrior backstage that was scrapped. The Warlord was an option but unfortunately the steroid scandal put paid to that. Who else was there ? Earthquake ? Big boss man ?
I lost track after he went to WCW.
