CUE OPENING VIDEO
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBs7BJaLATA
And that my friends was the opening to World Class Championship Wrestling. Man consider WCCW the precursor to many ideas taken by Vince McMahon and his expanding World Wrestling Federation. From multiple camera setups, to the close-up handheld camera, to mic’ing the ring to make the sounds larger than life, to full time entrance music for several of the wrestlers. While always a successful territory based out of Dallas, Texas, World Class really took off to national and international stardom in the early and mid-80’s with the rivalry of the Von Erichs vs. The Freebirds, as well as stars like Bruiser Brody, Gino Hernandez, Chris Adams, Iceman Parsons, and “Gorgeous” Jimmy Garvin. Many would argue that WCCW may have been the best promotion going in the early to mid-80’s, and you’d find very few hard-pressed to argue that opinion. Yes sir, there will never be another World Class Championship Wrestling, and that is truly unfortunate.
SEGMENT OF THE WEEK
Here’s our classic angle of the week, it’s one of my personal faves. We head down to Memphis, TN and WMC TV-5 Studios where Jerry Lawler is getting ready to be presented with the “Most Popular Wrestler of the Year” award…. Most Popular Wrestler in Memphis? Well that goes without saying. Most Popular Wrestling in the States? That’s debatable… No, no, this award comes straight from…. MEXICO…. Yes, even though CWA Championship Wrestling couldn’t be viewed outside of their booking region, somehow the people of Mexico had become so enthralled with the Kingfish to the point that they sent last year’s “Most Popular” winner, Diamante Negro, up from Mexico to present Lawler with the plaque in person. The King, being as full of himself as he is, doesn’t realize that this entire situation makes absolutely no sense, so he enters the studio to accept his award. Lawler is announced as the first ever “Non-Mexican” to win this very prestigious award. You may have said to yourself, “I don’t recall a Diamante Negra”, well there’s good reason for that… See what happens next below…
If you were questioning the validity of this Diamante Negra, you were right to do so, because he doesn’t exist… That’s right! It was all a ruse! Diamante Negra BREAKS the plaque over the head of the King and continues to beat him down Several wrestlers rush out to save Lawler, including Hector Guerrero. There’s a very famous moment when Lance Russell says to Hector “Tell him (Negra) in MEXICAN just to get outta here”. Not in Spanish, tell him in MEXICAN. Classic Lancer. Negra unmasks to reveal AUSTIN IDOL. Idol cuts a promo on the King to end a very good segment. Amazing what you could pull over Jarrett Promotions at the time.
SQUASH OF THE WEEK
With the recent return of Jake “The Snake” Roberts at Old School Raw, and the discussion of his potential appearance in this year’s Royal Rumble and/or Hall of Fame, what better week to present a Jake the Snake squash match? And who better to put in the ring with Jake than jobber extraordinaire “Iron” Mike Sharpe. Now before anyone gets their panties in a bunch, I’m well aware of Sharpe’s second generation history and the “success” he had in places like the Mid-South, but we’re far removed from that by this point in the summer of 1990. Jake prepares for his match with Bad News Brown at SummerSlam by going up against “Iron” Mike here as part of the SummerSlam Fever USA Special, aired in August of ’90. Watch the king of psychology in action below.
MUSIC VIDEO
I can’t believe nobody brought this up last week! How can we take you back on a trip down Memory Lane without the token WRESTLING MUSIC VIDEO each week? Well it’s here now, so worry no longer. Every week I’ll be posting yet another exciting, enthralling, corny, cheesy music video. And what better way to kick it off than with one of the most controversial, yet awesome wrestling characters of all time, “Exotic” Adrian Street. Not only was Street a hell of a wrestling performer, he fancied himself as somewhat of a singer. From “Breaking Bones” to “Sweet Transvestite with a Broken Nose” (Yes, that’s a real song of his), Street was never short on creative songs. My personal favorite truly stands the test of time, it only gets better with age. It involves Street admiring himself, from staring into mirrors, to playing with bubbles in the bath. MTV truly missed out on a hit here. Without further delay, here’s the Exotic one, with “I’m In Love With Me”!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8A3ZUMK74s
INTERVIEW OF THE WEEK
One man that pretty much everyone considers a master of the microphone is the Hot Rod, “Rowdy” Roddy Piper. True, Piper is hit or miss over the last long while (and more miss than hit), but in his heyday, there was NONE better. You want to talk about true heel heat, I’m not sure there were many better. There’s good reason Piper never worked much in the Mid-South territories, he would have never lived to tell about it. Piper even once worked a tour of Puerto Rico & Trinidad with Ric Flair in the early 80’s… Let’s just say he was lucky to sneak on a plane and get out of the islands with his life. Yes, there were very few better, many would argue non better, than Hot Rod when it came to talking on the stick. I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the segment that brought Roddy’s “ability” to the spotlight on a national basis. I’m talking Piper’s Pit! From Frankie Williams to Superfly Snuka, there have been many memorable Pits. It’s the most beloved, and most imitated wrestling talk segment of all time. Here’s a classic from 1984 when the Hot Rod interviews Andre the Giant. Roddy tries to get funny with the Giant, and Andre has none of it. Check out how the Giant handles the Piper.
FEATURE MATCH OF THE WEEK
In honor of tomorrow’s “Royal Rumble” event, I felt I should stick with the theme and make this week’s feature match of the Battle Royal persuasion. We take a trip back to october 18, 1984 to a Battle Royal so big, it had to be placed into two parts. Well technically, it’s only about 15 minutes and could have easily been placed into one video, but some people insist on dividing things up into parts. It’s from the AWA as they ran a TAG TEAM BATTLE ROYAL from the Winnipeg Arena featuring the likes of The Road Warriors, The Fabulous Ones, Larry & Curt Hennig, Boom Boom (King Kong) Bundy & Jerry (Crusher) Blackwell, Nick Bockwinkel & Mr. Saito, Larry Zbyszko & Billy Robinson, the Crusher & Baron Von Raschke, as well as the team of “Jumping” Jim Brunzell & Tony Atlas. What ‘s that? You don’t remember the legendary team of Brunzell & Atlas? Well, neither does anyone else. But they were bodies and fan favorites, so the audience didn’t question it. If you’re wondering why Crusher Blackwell is Jerry Blackwell here, that’s because Da Crusher was also in the territory. If you’re wondering why the hell King Kong Bundy is called Boom Boom Bundy, well that’s because Bruiser Brody was using the King Kong Brody moniker, and if you’re wondering why Brody was called King Kong instead of Bruiser, well that’s because of Dick the Bruiser. Make sense? Yeah, The Crusher & The Bruiser forced everyone to change their names! Not only did they refuse to sell in the ring, they refused to sell their gimmick names as well.
The rules are simple, when one team member is eliminated, they’ve both got to go! If the guys in the ring weren’t a star-studded ensemble to begin with, your Special Enforcer Referee for this match is the former NWA World Heavyweight Champion “Big Thunder” Gene Kiniski! You can view both parts of the match below, Part 2 features the explosive finish.
PART 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuiFwrhOY4w
PART 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vyf2g3oMFzk
A fun match with a finish to put over one of the newer, unique, choices of a Tag Team. With Vince coming in and raiding the talent at the top of the year, Verne was still holding on at this point with a fairly solid roster. As far as this match goes, there was lots of talent involved and they separated the eliminations and knew just how to work the crowd to make this feel like more than just your average Battle Royal. This told a story and was fun for me to watch. I hope you enjoyed it as well. After that Shark Cage match on Last Week’s Episode of Memory Lane, I felt it was necessary to treat you to a match with more action, I hope this did the trick!
I’m open to your ideas for future matches/angles to appear as part of this column, so feel free to send in your picks or comment below!
