"Hulkamania" was running wild going into 1986 as Hulk Hogan had been WWF Champion for two years and was still the company's top draw. One person who wanted to put a stop to "Hulkamania" was manager Bobby "The Brain" Heenan. Heenan and his stable of wrestlers known as The Heenan Family were hellbent on destroying Hogan.
In early 1986, Heenan enlisted the services of 450 + lb. King Kong Bundy to take out Hogan. On an episode of Saturday Night's Main Event, Bundy ambushed Hogan during his match with the Magnificent Muraco as he constantly gave Hogan a barrage of avalanches and big splashes, story line breaking Hogan's ribs and putting his career in jeopardy.
For the second year in a row, WrestleMania was the big show card and for the first time it was broadcast live on pay-per-view, a practice that still remains to this very day. WrestleMania 2 was held on April 7, 1986, but there was a catch.
This year, WrestleMania was held at three different venues: Nassau Coliseum in Long Island, NY, the Rosemont Horizon from Rosemont, Illinois, and the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena from Los Angeles, CA. Each venue would hold a bunch of matches and each featured a main event. When one city was done, they showed the next and then the final city.
In Long Island, the main event was Roddy Piper vs. Mr. T in a Boxing Match, which Mr. T won by disqualification when Piper could not control himself and performed wrestling moves and bodyslammed Mr. T.
In Rosemont (near Chicago), the main event was a match for the WWF Tag Team Championship between the champions The Dream Team (Greg Valentine and Brutus Beefcake) against The British Bulldogs (Davey Boy Smith and Dynamite Kid) with rocker Ozzie Osbourne, where the Bulldogs defeated The Dream Team to win the titles.
The final main event was held at Los Angeles and it was Hulk Hogan, taped ribs and all, defending the WWF Championship against King Kong Bundy in a Steel Cage match. Bundy hit Hogan with an avalanche and a big splash, but Hogan "no sold" the move and began to "Hulk Up,"
Hogan then gave Bundy a Powerslam and then the leg drop and began to climb out of the cage. He was caught by Bundy as he grabbed his leg, but Hogan managed to kick him off and climbed out of the cage to win the match and retain the title. Hogan then grabbed Bobby Heenan and threw him into the cage where he proceeded to attack him.
There were a couple of other big matches on the card as "Macho Man" Randy Savage defended his Intercontinental Championship against George "The Animal" Steele in Long Island, which Savage defended the title by having his feet on the ropes, which is illegal, while pinning Steele.
The other really big match was a 20-man battle royal in Chicago that featured many WWF wrestlers and NFL players, including Chicago Bears' own William "Refrigerator" Perry. Andre the Giant won the battle royal when he threw both members of The Hart Foundation (Bret "Hitman" Hart and Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart) over the top rope.
Andre took some time off after the event as he was filming the movie "The Princess Bride" as well as needing some time off for health reasons as he was beginning to feel the affects to the terminal known as acromegaly, which caused his abnormally gigantic size.
Hulk Hogan would have a new rival as his ally Paul Orndorff turned on Hogan during a match as he clotheslined him and gave him a piledriver. To make matters worse, Orndorff joined forces with Bobby Heenan. Hogan defended the title against Orndorff for the rest of 1986, which ended in a Steel Cage match on the January 3, 1987 episode of Saturday Night's Main Event, which took place on December 14, 1986.
Both Hogan and Orndorff climbed over the top of the cage and touched the floor at the same time, resulting in a draw. The match was ordered to restart as Hogan gave Orndorff the leg drop and easily escaped the cage to win the match and retain the title and ending their feud.
"Macho Man" Randy Savage made a big splash in 1986 as he defeated Tito Santana to win the WWF Intercontinental Championship on February 8, 1986 from the Boston Garden. Savage came into the WWF in 1985 as he was proclaimed to be the "hottest free agent" in professional wrestling as many of the top managers tried to become Savage's manager.
Savage turned them all down. Instead, he chose to bring in his then-real life wife Elizabeth Hulette to be his valet as she was simply known as "Miss Elizabeth." Elizabeth was the most beautiful woman in the industry as many of the fans, wrestlers, and even announcers would be drooling over Elizabeth. I'm not going to sugar coat this, she was hot back then watching the old clips.
Savage was a jealous and over-bearing heel who was overprotective of Elizabeth and threatened anyone who even dared to look at her. He mistreated her and many were upset at Savage for doing so. Savage's story line jealousy of Elizabeth was not much different than in real life as he was jealous of all the wrestlers who eyed her in the back and this friction eventually led to their divorce in later years.
Savage drew plenty of attention with his wild and colorful outfits and high-flying wrestling style. Savage's in-ring performance and out of the ring charisma eventually made him a main event superstar. He made the Intercontinental Championship, which was secondary to the WWF Championship, a big time title due to his style and caliber of matches he had.
Savage had a feud for most of 1986 with George "The Animal" Steele over Steele's love for Elizabeth. Steele was big, bald-headed, hairy bodied weirdo who could not speak words and had a green-tongue and even ate the turnbuckle padding. Savage defeated Steele in his first WrestleMania match and would feud with him over Elizabeth into 1987.
Another newcomer into 1986 made headlines and would be one of the promotion's top draws and that man was Jake "The Snake" Roberts. Roberts defeated former CFL football player George Wells at WrestleMania 2 in his WrestleMania debut when he gave Wells his patented DDT finisher (front face lock where he drops his opponent on his face and head).
After the match, Roberts took out his giant python snake Damien and wrapped him around Wells' head and made Wells foam from the mouth. Roberts usually did this by defeating an opponent with the DDT and then putting Damien around an opponent's head and neck and making him foam from the mouth.
No question about it, Roberts was one of if not the top heel in the industry. His first high profile feud was with the squeaky clean Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat. During a match between the two on an episode of Saturday Night's Main Event in May, Roberts gave Steamboat the DDT onto the concrete floor outside the ring, knocking Steamboat out and legitimately giving him a concussion.
Just before he gave him the DDT, Roberts pointed to Steamboat's wife Cheryl, who was sitting at ringside to watch her husband get slammed headfirst into the concrete. He even put Damien in Steamboat's mouth. Steamboat retaliated by unveiling a Komodo Dragon and Steamboat won the majority of the matches.
Roberts even began hosting a talk segment on WWF TV called "The Snake Pit", where he tried to push heel wrestlers and managers and demean the face ones. Although his tacts made him a heel, Roberts began to see a surge in popularity due to his character being so amazing.
Roberts took on Randy Savage for the Intercontinental Championship on an episode of Saturday Night's Main Event late in 1986. Both men were heels, but announcers Vince McMahon and Jesse Ventura predicted the crowd would back Savage. However, the fans were firmly behind Roberts as the match ended in a double disqualification.
Roberts was set to have a feud with WWF Champion Hulk Hogan. However, after he gave Hogan the DDT during an episode of the Snake Pit, the fans cheered Roberts and McMahon scrapped the plans for this and eventually turned him into a babyface.
Showing posts with label Andre the Giant. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Andre the Giant. Show all posts
Thursday, October 6, 2016
Wednesday, October 5, 2016
WWF 1985: the Birth of WrestleMania and the "Rock 'n' Wrestling Connection; Wrestling Becomes a Major Force in Sports Entertainment; Business Mixed with Pleasure; Celebrities Such as Mr. T and Cyndi Lauper Involved; Saturday Night's Main Event
As we left off in 1984, Hulk Hogan was the WWF Champion and the top face ever in the company. "Rowdy" Roddy Piper was the top heel and Hogan's archenemy. Also, the WWF grew more mainstream as they had a connection with MTV as it would become known as the Rock 'n' Wrestling Connection.
It didn't help matters that Cyndi Lauper was involved in storylines involving Piper and Hogan at the end of 1984 going into 1985 which created The War to Settle the Score that was televised on MTV. The event was broadcast from New York's legendary Madison Square Garden on February 18, 1985.
The main event of the event saw Hogan defending his WWF Championship against Piper. Hogan won by disqualification when Piper's allies Paul Orndorff and "Cowboy" Bob Orton attacked Hogan. Hogan's friend and actor Mr. T was sitting at ringside as he along with Lauper ran into the ring after the match, only to be attacked by Piper and his cronies.
This setup the main event of the inaugural WrestleMania event live from where else? Madison Square Garden on March 31, 1985 in front of 19,121 fans. Vince McMahon wanted his own pay-per-view (PPV) super card event to respond to Jim Crockett's Starrcade event that was created in 1983. This started the annual biggest event in the WWF/E that still runs to this very day.
The inaugural WrestleMania was not shown on PPV as it was instead shown on closed-circuit television. In addition to Mr. T and Cyndi Lauper appearing, other celebrities such as former World Heavyweight Boxing Champion Muhammad Ali, Liberace, and New York Yankees manager Billy Martin all appeared at the inaugural WrestleMania event.
Hogan teamed with Mr. T to take on Roddy Piper and Paul Orndorff in the main event. The end came when Orndorff held Hogan as Bob Orton climbed to the top rope in an attempt to hit Hogan with the cast on his arm. Hogan got out of the way as Orndorff was hit with the cast. Hogan pinned Orndorff as he and Mr. T won the match.
Lauper accompanied WWF Women's Champion Wendy Richter as she defended the title against Leilani Kai who had former Women's Champion the Fabulous Moolah in her corner. Lauper prevented Moolah from interfering as Richter defeated Kai to retain the title.
Another big match that occurred at WrestleMania was the $15,000 Body Slam Challenge between the giants of the industry at that time, Andre the Giant and Big John Studd, managed by Bobby "The Brain" Heenan. Andre had to bodyslam Studd and if he did he would win $15,000. If he didn't, then he would have to retire from wrestling.
Andre bodyslammed Studd to win the match and the $15,000. Andre took the duffle bag with the $15,000 and started throwing the money into the audience. Heenan eventually grabbed the bag with whatever money was left and ran backstage.
Hogan and Mr. T continued to feud with Roddy Piper and Bob Orton after WrestleMania and pretty much for the remainder of the year. Hogan gained a surprising ally in his fight as Paul Orndorff joined forces with him after being betrayed by both Piper and Orton.
Vince McMahon was losing money on his deal with Ted Turner following the purchase of Georgia Championship Wrestling and was looking to get out of the Saturday evening time slot he had on TBS. McMahon sold the time slot to Jim Crockett Jr. and Jim Crockett Promotions for approximately $1 million to run his show during this time slot.
Eventually, Turner bought out Crockett and owned World Championship Wrestling and started a big rivalry with McMahon and the WWF until McMahon purchased Turner's WCW in 2001. Fortunately the run on Turner did not hurt McMahon and his programming on the USA Network. McMahon needed the money to launch Saturday Night's Main Event on NBC.
McMahon came up with Saturday Night's Main Event to be run on NBC during the late-night time slot when they would air reruns of the hit show Saturday Night Live. Then-SNL executive producer Dick Ebersol agreed to air the show after seeing the high ratings of the two WWF special events run on MTV in 1984-85.
The first episode of Saturday Night's Main Event was held on May 11, 1985 as the event was actually held the night before on May 10, but aired tape-delayed on Saturday night. Hulk Hogan defended the WWF Championship against Bob Orton and won by disqualification.
Saturday Night's Main Event ran until 1992 (which the final year was broadcast on Fox) before it was brought back for a couple of years starting in 2006. The event was usually tape-delayed as the event itself was actually held earlier that week or even sometimes a month before the actual showing. The event was held about 4-5 times a year and was a tremendous ratings success for NBC.
On November 7, 1985, the WWF had its very first event broadcast on pay-per-view called The Wrestling Classic from the Rosemont Horizon in Rosemont, Illinois. There would be a 16-man single elimination tournament held that night. Also, Hulk Hogan defended his WWF Championship against arch nemesis Roddy Piper. The WWF even gave away a brand new Rolls Royce to some lucky fan.
The Junkyard Dog defeated newcomer "Macho Man" Randy Savage by count out in the finals to win the match and the tournament. Hogan defeated Piper by disqualification when Bob Orton hit him with his cast and the two double-teamed him until Paul Orndorff ran in to help Hogan.
It's interesting to see the tandem of Hogan and Orndorff work together going into 1986 as well as the rise of the young Macho Man Randy Savage.
It didn't help matters that Cyndi Lauper was involved in storylines involving Piper and Hogan at the end of 1984 going into 1985 which created The War to Settle the Score that was televised on MTV. The event was broadcast from New York's legendary Madison Square Garden on February 18, 1985.
The main event of the event saw Hogan defending his WWF Championship against Piper. Hogan won by disqualification when Piper's allies Paul Orndorff and "Cowboy" Bob Orton attacked Hogan. Hogan's friend and actor Mr. T was sitting at ringside as he along with Lauper ran into the ring after the match, only to be attacked by Piper and his cronies.
This setup the main event of the inaugural WrestleMania event live from where else? Madison Square Garden on March 31, 1985 in front of 19,121 fans. Vince McMahon wanted his own pay-per-view (PPV) super card event to respond to Jim Crockett's Starrcade event that was created in 1983. This started the annual biggest event in the WWF/E that still runs to this very day.
The inaugural WrestleMania was not shown on PPV as it was instead shown on closed-circuit television. In addition to Mr. T and Cyndi Lauper appearing, other celebrities such as former World Heavyweight Boxing Champion Muhammad Ali, Liberace, and New York Yankees manager Billy Martin all appeared at the inaugural WrestleMania event.
Hogan teamed with Mr. T to take on Roddy Piper and Paul Orndorff in the main event. The end came when Orndorff held Hogan as Bob Orton climbed to the top rope in an attempt to hit Hogan with the cast on his arm. Hogan got out of the way as Orndorff was hit with the cast. Hogan pinned Orndorff as he and Mr. T won the match.
Lauper accompanied WWF Women's Champion Wendy Richter as she defended the title against Leilani Kai who had former Women's Champion the Fabulous Moolah in her corner. Lauper prevented Moolah from interfering as Richter defeated Kai to retain the title.
Another big match that occurred at WrestleMania was the $15,000 Body Slam Challenge between the giants of the industry at that time, Andre the Giant and Big John Studd, managed by Bobby "The Brain" Heenan. Andre had to bodyslam Studd and if he did he would win $15,000. If he didn't, then he would have to retire from wrestling.
Andre bodyslammed Studd to win the match and the $15,000. Andre took the duffle bag with the $15,000 and started throwing the money into the audience. Heenan eventually grabbed the bag with whatever money was left and ran backstage.
Hogan and Mr. T continued to feud with Roddy Piper and Bob Orton after WrestleMania and pretty much for the remainder of the year. Hogan gained a surprising ally in his fight as Paul Orndorff joined forces with him after being betrayed by both Piper and Orton.
Vince McMahon was losing money on his deal with Ted Turner following the purchase of Georgia Championship Wrestling and was looking to get out of the Saturday evening time slot he had on TBS. McMahon sold the time slot to Jim Crockett Jr. and Jim Crockett Promotions for approximately $1 million to run his show during this time slot.
Eventually, Turner bought out Crockett and owned World Championship Wrestling and started a big rivalry with McMahon and the WWF until McMahon purchased Turner's WCW in 2001. Fortunately the run on Turner did not hurt McMahon and his programming on the USA Network. McMahon needed the money to launch Saturday Night's Main Event on NBC.
McMahon came up with Saturday Night's Main Event to be run on NBC during the late-night time slot when they would air reruns of the hit show Saturday Night Live. Then-SNL executive producer Dick Ebersol agreed to air the show after seeing the high ratings of the two WWF special events run on MTV in 1984-85.
The first episode of Saturday Night's Main Event was held on May 11, 1985 as the event was actually held the night before on May 10, but aired tape-delayed on Saturday night. Hulk Hogan defended the WWF Championship against Bob Orton and won by disqualification.
Saturday Night's Main Event ran until 1992 (which the final year was broadcast on Fox) before it was brought back for a couple of years starting in 2006. The event was usually tape-delayed as the event itself was actually held earlier that week or even sometimes a month before the actual showing. The event was held about 4-5 times a year and was a tremendous ratings success for NBC.
On November 7, 1985, the WWF had its very first event broadcast on pay-per-view called The Wrestling Classic from the Rosemont Horizon in Rosemont, Illinois. There would be a 16-man single elimination tournament held that night. Also, Hulk Hogan defended his WWF Championship against arch nemesis Roddy Piper. The WWF even gave away a brand new Rolls Royce to some lucky fan.
The Junkyard Dog defeated newcomer "Macho Man" Randy Savage by count out in the finals to win the match and the tournament. Hogan defeated Piper by disqualification when Bob Orton hit him with his cast and the two double-teamed him until Paul Orndorff ran in to help Hogan.
It's interesting to see the tandem of Hogan and Orndorff work together going into 1986 as well as the rise of the young Macho Man Randy Savage.
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