From: hekunze@watmsg.waterloo.edu (Herb Kunze) Newsgroups: rec.sport.pro-wrestling Subject: Wrestling Tidbits - 04/05 Keywords: WWF,NWA,CNWA,Wrestling Message-ID: <35986@watmath.waterloo.edu> Date: 5 Apr 90 12:51:17 GMT Sender: daemon@watmath.waterloo.edu Distribution: rec Lines: 463 Posted: Thu Apr 5 13:51:17 1990 - Some interesting news (finally!) in the Canadian wrestling scene and it all comes out of Calgary. In the CNWA, the Benkei Sasaki story has finally reached its conclusion. As I mentioned before, Benkei has become somewhat uncontrollable in the past little while, first double-crossing Skull Mason with a high-flying manouever and breaking Skull's nose, then beating Akam Singh so heavily that Akam was covered in welts. On this week's episode, Benkei faced young Mike Lozanski. Benkei clearly wasn't working with Mike, who tried to improvise away many of Benkei's 'errors.' Eventually, they cut the match and a severely pissed Ed Whalen came on to say that Benkei lost control and gave Lozanski such a beating that he was rushed to the hospital and his future is being questioned. Benkei has been suspended indefinitely from the CNWA, and, according to Ed, will never be back. Apparently, Ed has a fair bit of pull and just blew up when Sasaki lost control yet again. The CNWA had been hinting that former Stampede stars would be joining the talent roster in the future. Well, I guess promoter Fred May's wallet wasn't opened wide enough to attract them, or maybe, heaven forbid, there's still some loyalty in the wrestling world. Bruce Hart, booker for the dissolved Stampede Wrestling run by his dad Stu, has re-opened Stampede's doors. Talent returning to Stampede includes: Bruce Hart, Johnny Smith, Angel of Death, Jerry Morrow, Biff Wellington, Chris Benoit, Larry Cameron, Dynamite Kid, Ben Bassarab, and Owen Hart. This is cause for rejoicing. - It seems that Paul E. Dangerously is being fought over between the NWA and the WWF. At first I'd heard that the WWF wanted him in as a commentator - they will afterall be losing Tony Schiavone. Now I hear that the NWA wants him in to manage Mean Mark Callas, who may be pushed as a contender to Luger's belt should Luger beat Flair. - The Tokyo Dome card on the 13th of April was to be a WWF title match between Hogan and Terry Gordy. By the way Byron, I really bought your "This might become a shoot" article. In any case, rumours have Hogan facing someone else (who's willing to job?) in place of Gordy - I hear Dusty Rhodes, which really scares me. The undercard has such notable matches as: Warrior vs. DiBiase, Giant Baba & Andre vs. Demolition, Genichiro Tenryu vs. Randy Savage, and Tiger Mask vs. Brett Hart (!). - What's on the Hulkster's agenda now that WM VI is over? He's still booked for two solid months of wrestling action before he can escape the ring and film a movie. Vince is going to let Hogan feud with the Earthquake over the next couple of months - I would think Hogan would try to get the Quake over as a contender to the UW. However at a house show in Syracuse two days after WM, Hogan stomped all over the Earthquake. - Other WWF house show news: The UW defended his IC belt against Rick Rude and had little trouble beating him. Vince might have some unexpected trouble with his new champion - the crowd cheered Rude! Hulkamaniacs don't seem to forgive and forget. The Bolsheviks started fighting with each other after their taped match - a split could be looming. - Now that WrestleMania's history, are you ready for: - Paul Diamond's jump from the AWA to the WWF. - The WWF's 900 number. - The WWF's bodybuilding magazine (No, I don't think it's called Roids ;-) - Two months of Andre as a face. His contract expires in two months, and hopefully he'll still be able to hang up his boots. - Curt Hennig and Lanny Poffo to break up. - I hope it ain't true, but rumours are that the NWA brass is going to split up the Midnight Express. Bobby Eaton is slated to join up with Ric Flair as a horseman, while Stan's future is unclear. Cornette will probably be kept around to do colour commentary. - More NWA rumours have Buzz Sawyer being fired, Danny Spivey being fired again, Scott "Flash" Norton coming in, Bigelow starting real soon as a heel (with Oliver Humperdink as manager) as potential Luger opposition, and Abdullah coming in as face, teaming with Norman, turning heel, feuding with Norman, and leaving. - The saga of the evil twin referees continues. It seems that Dave Hebner has actually left the ring for a comfortable administrative job with Titan Sports. Earl is still refereeing, but is called Dave. - Ric Flair was apparently in Toronto on Sunday, and rumours have it that he caught the big event but was really here to chat with Vince about joining the Circus. It seems that Ric's contract with the NWA is up in May and his request for a two-year renewal was rejected. I have this chilling fear that Vince might bring in Ric to job for the Warrior and try to put him over as a legitimate wrestler. Ric is the only person who could perform this Herculean task, but I hope he has too much self-respect. An 'insider' reports that Flair was wined and dined by the top NWA brass after the mega-card. Furthermore, Flair was so impressed with the offer given him that he has accepted and signed on the dotted line with the WWF. The NWA's next big card is on April 26th at the Meadowlands, where Flair is expected to drop the NWA strap to Luger and jump ships. Since Flair has the largest following of any wrestler, some interesting crowd reactions could occur if the jump takes place and Flair faces off with UW. - WWF-Mania: With WrestleMania VI having been held in Toronto, you can imagine the number of wrestling articles that the local paper's published on the weekend. I thought I'd present excerpts from some of these (totally without permission...). Of course, it's up to you astute net fans to spot the errors in these articles (there are only some small ones as far as I can tell). Away we go: -------*-------*-------*-------*-------*-------*-------*-------*-------- To millions of screaming wrestlemaniacs he's the Hulkster, the one and only Hulk Hogan. But to the folks back home in Tampa, Fla. he'll always be Terry Gene Bollea, the quiet kid who was more interested in rock'n'roll than sports. In fact the folks back at Robinson Senior High School in Interbay remember his last day at school all to well. "He streaked the graduation ceremony," chuckles on Wolf, the school's activities director. That was in 1971 when Bollea scooted through the stadium packed with up to 4000 students, teachers and parents. "We knew someone was going to do it, too," says Wolf. "We had guards everywhere but he did it." The high school prank was a glimpse into the showman who would later become the Hulk. In Tampa, Bollea is also remembered as a top Little League ball player - a pitcher who threw "gas" and a batter who hit the long ball. "They had a deal at Burger King that whenever a player hit a home run, the team would get free Whoppers. Man, we were there every Saturday because of Terry," said Jim pitisci, whose dad, Vince, coached Bollea on the Lil' General's team from 1965-67. Bollea was about 12 years old then, recalls Pitisci, and grew up much like everybody else in Interbay, a peninsula between St. Petersburg and Tampa. It was an idyllic existence, with quiet tree-lined streets, parks and the ever-present Florida sun. Bollea's family still lives in the same modest wood-frame house he grew up in and the Hulk himself has a condo in St. Petersburg. But early on there was something different about Bollea - his size. At age 12 he was hitting 5-foot-10 and by his teems he was 6-foot-7. The World Wrestling Federation puts his current height at 6-foot-9. It's no surprise, though, that Hulk Hogan should come from the high school which could be called Wrestling High USA. The list of pro-wrestlers who graduated the school is long: Mike Graham (Gossett), Steve Keirn, Dennis McCord (Austin Idol), Dick Slater and Ed Leslie (Brutus Beefcake). Richard Blood (Ricky Steamboat) and Bob Orton, Jr. went to a rival school across the street. Bollea, however, wasn't interested in wrestling then and shrugged off the coach's attempts to draft him onto the school team. At the time he played in the Varsity Band, blowing trombone. At night his heart belonged to rock'n'roll. "They were really successful around here," said Dave Lawson of the band. Lawson played in other bands around Tampa at the time. "They played 1960's material - Stones, Beatles, Byrds and stuff." Two years at Junior College was followed by two more years at South Florida University and in 1975 Bollea finished school with a commerce degree - and a passion for weightlifting. Instead of settling into a career, Bollea focused on his newly acquired passion and even opened a successful gym in Vero Beach. "He was playing at a bar called The Other Place and my brother, Jack Brisco, a former world champion wrestler, told him: 'With your size, you should be a wrestler,'" said Jerry Brisco. "Terry said that was what he always wanted." But his first introduction to wrestling under famed trainer Hiro Matsuda was painful - he broke an ankle. "No one expected him back," said Brisco. "It was August in Florida, and the gym had no air conditioning. It was 106 degrees. But there was Terry, his ankle taped up and ready to go." He worked hard and trimmed his figure to 220 pounds and by 1977 was on the USWA circuit out of Memphis, playing to 3000-seat halls. "He couldn't really wrestle but he looked good and drew crowds," recalls promoter Gerry Jarrett. Under Jarrett, Bollea used the named Terry Boulder and Sterling Golden. He played the villain, and worked small towns around the south. In 1979 a video tape of him in action caught the eye of Vince McMahon Sr., who re-christened Hulk Hogan. About that time he started to bulk up, reaching 320 pounds at his peak. After a couple of runs through the northern circuit, Hogan was kissed off as expendable. Dejected, he called American Wrestling Association president Verne Gagne. "He said he wasn't making it, could we help," recalls Gagne. "He was terrible at first, couldn't walk and chew gum at the same time." Under Gagne's expertise, Bollea developed further and by the early 1980's he was sent on a tour of Japan, where the Japanese revered him because of his size. "Things were really starting to happen for him," says Dave Meltzer, who writes a national wrestling column and also publishes the Wrestling Observer. "He made the Rocky III movie in 1982 but things were really happening before that." On his return, he was "stolen" by Vince McMahon Jr., who by then had taken over his dad's business. It was McMahon - a bodybuilder himself - who started the move to bigger and better bodies, a trend which dominates wrestling today. By 1984 Hogan was firmly established with his own legion of Hulkamaniacs and McMahon picked him to anchor the WWF empire because of his drawing capacity. Since then he's become an icon but to folks like Dave Dennison, who grew up with Bollea, he hasn't changed. "He is the nicest guy, soft spoken, no ego and he still treats his old friends right," he said. "He'll never be Hulk Hogan to me - he'll always be Terry Bollea." -------*-------*-------*-------*-------*-------*-------*-------*-------- Just call the Ultimate Warrior "doc." The heir-apparent to the World Wrestling Federation title has magic fingers. Those grappling hooks can also bring relief to opponents in the locker room. That's because the Ultimate Warrior, a.k.a. James Hellwig, trained to be a chiropractor in Atlanta, Ga. before pursuing a career as a bodybuilder. Today Hellwig lives in Grapevine, north of Dallas, Texas with his wife Sherri, a beautiful dancer. The path to wrestling was a strange turn for a man who started out to be a chiropractor, studying for four years at the Life Chiropractic College. In real life, Hellwig is no neanderthal. To be accepted at the school students need two years of college with mandatory science credits and a 2.25 grade point average. In 1984 Hellwig suddenly quit his studies and headed for Los Angeles and Gold's Gym. A long-time friend who knew him and Sherri during those years says the dream of being a bodybuilder was just too strong. He "fell" into wrestling when a promoter dropped by the gym and picked out the four biggest guys. A few weeks later Hellwig enrolled at a California training camp under tag-team wrestler Red Bastien. "He came in about six weeks late because one of the guys dropped out," says Bastien, who held the 1968 world tag-team championship with partner Billy "Red" Lyons, of Dundas, Ont. After training, Hellwig started out with three other wrestlers, the Power Team USA. James "Justice" Hellwig, Steve "Flash" Borden (now wrestling as Sting in the National Wrestling Alliance), Garland "Glory" Donoho and Mark "Commando" Miller were touted as the "Ultimate American Athletes." "He didn't have a lot of talent, but he did have determination," said Bastien. "Talent doesn't always mean anything these days anyway. He stuck to it and would work on moves until he got it." Gerry Jarrett of the Championship Wrestling Association picked up Borden and Hellwig but recalls they were a disaster. "They had great bodies, looked like a million dollars, but couldn't wrestle a lick," he said. After three months he dumped them and Hellwig drifted out to Oklahoma where he wrestled under the name Bladerunner Rock. He moved to Dallas in the summer of 1986 with World Class Championship Wrestling but things weren't easy and his wife Sherri worked as a dancer at clubs like the renowned Million Dollar Saloon in Dallas to pay bills. When Hellwig was refused a salary raise to $450 a week, he quit. He then went to New York, where he signed with the WWF, was renamed the Dingo Warrior and worked the "D" Team - warmup matches. But, such was his appeal to the fans that by 1988 Vince McMahon Jr. dubbed him the Ultimate Warrior and moved him up to top billing. Yet, some things never change, says Dave Meltzer, publisher of Wrestling Observer. "He's better than he was, but he's still a poor wrestler," he said. "In fact, when Hellwig first started wrestling in the WWF in 1987 he was an outcast," says Meltzer. "They resented that he was getting breaks because of his body and not his wrestling ability." But looks, not talent, had become the main selling factor of the WWF. Hellwig, however, was not deterred by the rejection by his colleagues. "He started helping the other wrestlers with their backs and injuries, using his chiropractic skills," says Metzler. "He won them over." -------*-------*-------*-------*-------*-------*-------*-------*-------- They call him The Man. That's all. Short, concise, direct. You don't cross The Man. It's simple. It's understood. You wrestle when your wife is nine months pregnant, because you have to. You wrestle with pneumonia, because you have to. You wrestle when your muscles are so sore that even the staged moves bring tears to your eyes, because you have to. You wrestle because The Man says you wrestle. Vince McMahon. The Man. Godfather of professional wrestling. The creator of a billion-dollar business known publicly as the World Wrestling Federation. Ask about The Man and almost everyone has an opinion. Genius. Greedmonger. Monopolist. Paradox. The descriptions all apply to Vince McMahon, a complex, confusing and brilliantly successful 42-year-old man who in the past seven years has transformed wrestling from schlock sport to high-priced industry. Today, at SkyDome, the live gate of some $5-million will only begin to touch the surface of the total take of WrestleMania VI, the Ultimate Challenge. The ultimate challenge for McMahon is revenue, and today's exhibition of strength, science, and soap opera could score more than $30 million in receipts when the vast totals are amassed. Through manipulation of television, his vast understanding of cable and pay-per-view, his ability to create wrestling attractions and his keen eye for promotion, packaging and glitz, McMahon has become the only wrestling promoter that matters in a game where many previously flourished. "He's the Howard Hughes of promotion," said Mike Trainer, attorney for boxer Sugar Ray Leonard, who knows of McMahon's reclusive ways, But even Trainer is somewhat surprised by them. On one side, McMahon is his company's No. 1 television announcer, a very public position. On the other side, he is a man who shuns publicity. He rarely grants intervies and when he does he is hardly revealing. Through a WWF spokesman, he sent word he did not wish to be interviewed for this story. Trainer worked with McMahon on the promotion of the Leonard-Donny Lalonde fight. McMahon's Titan Sports, the parent company name of the WWF, held television rights to the fight and Trainer came away with some insights into McMahon. He has nothing but admiration for the business acumen and promotional skills the boss of wrestling possesses. "If he ever went into boxing, with his zeal, he'd wipe out Don King and Bob Arum in a moment," said Trainer. "When you sit back and consider what Vince McMahon has done, not just in the U.S. but on a world scale, you can't help but be amazed. "The thing about McMahon is his great understanding of television. He has a studio in his facilities in Connecticut that is better equipped than what NBC has. If such a thing as a television expert exists, that expert is Vince McMahon." And it was through television the WWF was launched into a financial orbit. Wrestling, before McMahon, was primarily a regional attraction. Every area had a promoter, a circuit, and a champion all its own. McMahon, whose father, Vince Sr., was the regional promoter in New York area, set out to change all that when he succeeded his father in 1983. Using his Ivy League background and his prior career as rock concert promoter, McMahon utilized a national cable wrestling show, a weekly Johnny Carson-like WWF talk show and regular weekend syndicate wrestling programs to flood the market with his product: a higher scale, glitzier, cartoon-character-like event, rendering the competition to near submission. Out were the blood capsules of days gone by. In were big, stronger, bodies with better gimmicks. And always, the quality of the television program mattered most. The quality of wrestling mattered least. "TV is what matters to Vince," said Trainer. "He has an incredible eye about what works on television and what doesn't. I remember before the Leonard-Lalonde fight and he's talking to the announcers we're using, experienced guys like Roy Firestone. And he's telling them things that really matter. He's very hard on his TV people." McMahon's television programs have had such an impact in America that his No. 1 commentator, Jesse (The Body) Ventura, has been able to translate his wrestling career into an acting career, which includes television commercials, and a place on the broadcast crew of the NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers. In the realm of popularity, Ventura is almost as recognizable as football's John Madden and more recognizable than most American announcers. When it comes to television and promotion, McMahon doesn't simply have an eye for what works, he has an uncanny sense of what sells. He has so many strengths: understanding the story, developing characters and plot, and maintaining subplots and rivalries. He is not only promoter but playwright. He views society through his sharp vision and shapes his wrestlers accordingly. When the Iran hostage crisis was angry news in the U.S., McMahon took advantage of it, utilizing an Iranian bad guy called the Iron Sheik as his feature attraction. The Iranian vs. The all-American hero. Perfect pathos for the staged violence that is professional wrestling. Nothing like political turmoil to bring out the best and worst of the paying public. First McMahon employed an army man, Sergeant Slaughter, as the foil for the Sheik. Later came the Real American, Hulk Hogan, who seven years later is still making a seven-figure salary living off his original act. The interest in trends remains. During the Elvis-is-alive period, an Elvis act-a-like, The Honky Tonk Man, became prominent. When Donald Trump became big news, so did a wrestler, the Million Dollar Man. And even in failure, McMahon can be entertaining. When the movie Crocodile Dundee was doing boffo business a few years back, McMahon introduced an Aussie of his own, Outback Jack. The fact Jack didn't make it was more a tribute to his lack of charisma than it was to McMahon's idea. The rest of the wrestling business, so put off by McMahon's success and the manner in which he has operated, has taken to bad-mouthing the big act. In deference to the WWF, where story is more important than style, the chief competitor - the Ted Turner-owned National Wrestling Alliance - introduced an advertising campaign intended to steal fans. "We're the NWA," the ads read. "We wrestle." The points were made. But the business hasn't changed. The NWA struggles. The WWF doesn't. All because of McMahon, and the creatures he's created, and the way he has disarmed the competition. Red Bastien, a former wrestler and local American promoter, has all but given up. He is now working with wrestlers in Mexico, carefully avoiding the WWF. "If I step on McMahon's toes, he'll step on my neck," says Bastien. Of all the characters McMahon has come up with Hulk Hogan remains not only the most successful but the most remarkable. Some will insist that Hogan's persona was purely a McMahon creation. But Verne Gagne tells a different story. Gagne, who heads up the struggling American Wrestling Association, says McMahon stole Hogan from him, seriously harming his promotion. "Wrestling was a handshake business until this kid (McMahon) came along," said Gagne. "Then he took a lot of us (promoters) by surprise. He started stealing our best performers "I developed Hulk Hogan. When he came to me he was almost begging for a chance. He couldn't even do an interview, let alone wrestle. We had to have a manager do the talking for him. We had to teach him everything. "He was developing into a pretty polished star - we taught him to pose and all that stuff he does now - and they just took him, without warning or anything. We had him booked in for a number of big cities and were left with egg on our faces. Sure, they're (WWF) successful, but without the people they took from us, they wouldn't be anywhere today. "You can call that smart. I call it greedy business. I can't say anything nice about the way this all came along." Other than Hogan, the list of Gagne graduates on the WrestleMania stage are many. Announcers Ventura and Mean Gene Okerlund started with Gagne. So did Mr. Perfect, Curt Hennig; Bobby (The Brain) Heenan; The Rockers and Rick Martel. "Hell, he hired a number of people who worked in the office here, he even hired the guy who puts up the ring." McMahon now employs more than 400 people and there are only slight indications he is slowing down. Ad the other wrestling organizations have died, so has the pool of wrestlers shrunk. "One day, he's not going to have anyone to steal wrestlers from, there won't be any wrestlers left," said Gagne, "and he hasn't developed any on his own." Knowing The Man, he will come up with something. The Godfather of wrestling always finds a way. -------*-------*-------*-------*-------*-------*-------*-------*-------- How am I going to explain this to my three-year-old? How can I look him in the eye and tell him all is not well in the world today? How do you tell a three-year-old that Hulkamania is dead? In this historic sporting season in which Mike Tyson went down and the Maple Leafs went up, there is only depression today. Hulkamania is dead. And even the return to wrestling of the lovely Miss Elizabeth could not alter that cold, harsh reality. The champion is gone. There is nothing left to believe in anymore. For years, a legion of wrestling fans said their prayers, ate their vitamins. did their exercise. What now is there left to cheer for but a painted-faced phoney. What is there for our children, the next generation, to believe in? In the screaming frenzy of a sold-out SkyDome, our man Hogan was beaten, defeated, downed, trounced, bounced, and everything else by a chemical creation called the Ultimate Warrior. The Warrior is a screaming savage who scares children - the reason I know this is my three-year-old, a budding Hulkamaniac, cries every time the Warrior is seen on television. My three-year-old calls the Warrior "Damien," which happens to be the name of Jake Roberts' snake. The little guy knows a painted snake when he sees one. The Warrior, in case you're not educated to the ways of the wrestling world, is supposed to take over as the new hero of the World Wrestling Federation. This is regrettable. Besides, it won't work. You could tell by the reaction in SkyDome, not just from the kids, but from the big kids disguised as adults. There was no hysteria when the Warrior pinned Hogan. Only remorse. Wrestlers invariably need one of two skills to be successful in this hyped religion: either their act is so good they can't miss or, God help us, they can actually wrestle. As wrestlers go, the Warrior has no skill. As gimmicks go, his is annoying. As personalities go, he doesn't have one. The WWF, which has ridden the Hulk Hogan gravy train through a run of success, is about to find itself in difficulty. It won't be able to sell The Warrior as its largest attraction. It won't be able to pull in large network audiences for this screaming madman. And even the predicted entrance of Ric Flair to the WWF - who many believe is the best combination wrestler-personality in this so-called sport - may not be able to add life to what will likely become a struggling product. As for Hogan, we are told he is on his way to the world of Disney. The deal, we've heard, is signed, sealed and delivered. You can't blame Hogan for wanting to move on. A wrestler's life is not an easy one. But you can't help wrestling fans for wanting him to stay. Especially the kids. Cartoon characters, not even Ninja Turtles, get any better than this. The Warrior won't take Hogan's place. He's not qualified. In fact, we loathe such a move. In Hogan, there was a symbol. We watched him go bald, but we still believed. We watched him deal with every conceivable challenge, and we still believed. We watched him get beaten up, but never beaten. Until yesterday, when this fairy tale ended without the happily ever after. My three-year-old will never understand. -------*-------*-------*-------*-------*-------*-------*-------*-------- As always, comments, etc. are appreciated and encouraged. Herb... *********************************************************************** * Herb Kunze * "Whether you like it or not, * * Applied Math Department * learn to live with it, 'cause * * University of Waterloo * I'm the best thing going today!" * * hekunze@watmsg.waterloo.edu * - Ric 'Nature Boy' Flair * ***********************************************************************