INTRO
Takes me back to fonder days in the business. Waking up weekend mornings to tune into Saturday and/or Sunday morning rasslin. NWA World Wide Wrestling was a staple for Jim Crockett Promotions going back to 1975, and continued on under Turner Broadcasting’s ownership in some form or another through it’s sell to the WWE. World Wide would generally have at least one, if not several “feature matches” that pitted top stars against one another, rather than just the usual squash matches we were accustom to on WWF syndicated programming. This particular video and theme came from a memorable time in the NWA’s run, stretching from their boom period in 1986 and running well into 1989.
SEGMENT OF THE WEEK
In honor of our feature match later in today’s program, I present to you an odd piece of footage from the Global Wrestling Federation in the early 1990’s. Global was the successor of USWA Dallas, which was the successor of World Class. The GWF aired 5 days a week at 4pm eastern on ESPN, back when you could get your wrestling fix any day of the week. At this point, “Raging Bull” Manny Fernandez had forced his way into a booking position with the company after it’s initial boom period had went bust. This particular segment features the very capable “Maniac” Mike Davis playing his version of the “special” character, later made famous by people like Dave Sullivan & Eugene. Mike had spent most of the 80’s as a journeyman wrestler, and had mild success as one-half of the Rock & Roll RPM’s (along with Tommy Lane) in places like Memphis, Dallas, and the AWA. Davis had turned into this mentally challenged character as part of a fun-loving baby face character that was very interactive with the fans. As we headed into the 90’s, one of the hot new trends was Bungee Jumping, or anything to do with Bungee Cords. In this segment, Mike gets slingshotted by a Bungee Cord into the sky where he proclaims he visited the moon, and brings back a “Moon Rock”. This moon rock would become part of Davis’ character, almost like pet of sorts. It’s definitely a unique segment, check it out below.
SQUASH OF THE WEEK
If we’re going to do this thing, let’s do it right. When you talk squash matches the first names that come to your mind (other than the jobbers) should be the Road Warriors. There was nobody who did the squash match better. They no sold everything thrown at them, and treated the matches as if they were real fights, at times beating the holy hell out of their opponents (legit) and throwing them around without a care for their well being. Well if this was a real sport their behavior would make complete sense, but since it’s not I have to pity everyone who agreed to step in the ring for these beat downs. Imagine, knowing in advance you have a LEGITIMATE chance of having your neck broke, or spending the rest of the day in the Emergency Room for shitty payoffs just to say you were on TV. Their squashes certainly added reality to the sport. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not knocking their squashes, coming from this side of the TV screen, I can say that I loved the old Roadie squashes. Here’s one of my favorites as Hawk & Animal destroy poor Roger Bond & Jason Walker.
MUSIC VIDEO OF THE WEEK
Last week, I touched on how big World Class Championship Wrestling was in bringing in the modern era of the cameras, theme music, and all that good stuff. Another thing that WCCW perfected in the early years of the 80’s was music videos. Michael Hayes will brag until he’s blue in the face about how much he played a part in bringing Rock & Roll to wrestling, and in many ways it’s true, Hayes was a big supporter of combining the two. I don’t know how hands on Fritz was in selecting 1980’s pop music, but here we go with an oldie but a goody… It’s a music video featuring all the stars of WCCW set to the tune of “You Might Think” by the CARS. Fair warning, anyone with epilepsy may want to avoid this particular video, as the zooming in and out can screw with the eyes.
INTERVIEW OF THE WEEK
This is one of my personal favorites dating back to… well… when it first aired back in 1995… In this interview we have Al Snow & Unabom (Kane) cutting a promo on the Rock & Roll Express, who they’d been in a heated feud with at the time. Al Snow was never short on words, the SMW roster would actually come and watch Snow tape some of his promos due to how entertaining they could be. In the years before scripts, when wrestlers were not only permitted, but encouraged to cut their own promos, there were very few better than Al Snow. Al’s promos were creative, passionate, and in this instance, HILARIOUS. Watch as Al & Unabom put on wigs and pretend to be Ricky Morton & Robert Gibson. The future Kane doesn’t really say much, but he does cross his eyes to mock Gibson. Snow’s tirade that follows had me trying to catch my breath as I was laughing so hard. This was at a time when you just didn’t hear things like this in wrestling, everything was so cartoony in WWF land at this time. It was totally unexpected, it caught me off guard and had me in stitches. Snow cracks some jokes on both the R&R members, and even pulls out a letter written by “Robert Gibson’s mom” that he claims was “written in sign language” (because she’s deaf). Enjoy!
BLAST FROM THE PAST
I’ve added another feature to Memory Lane. I think this feature truly captures the “Memory lane” feel as we go back in time for a black and white classic from the old days. This week, I just had to dig up this classic match between big Moose Cholak vs. “Arriba” Luis Martinez. You’ll see Moose enter the ring with a MOOSE HEAD the size of his entire 300+ pound body. It’s really awkward and looks like it would topple the big man. This is clearly where Vince got the idea of Mantaur wearing the Buffalo head in his early matches. Truly a sight to behold, and it’s followed by the two legends of the Great Lakes area going one-on-one.
FEATURE MATCH OF THE WEEK
I warmed you up earlier in the program with “Maniac” Mike Davis taking a slingshot ride into space via the bungee cord. Well here’s part 2 of the Bungee deal. You didn’t think they rented a Bungee Cord for just ONE segment did you? No-no-no… This is the FEATURE Bungee presentation. The first, and to my knowledge only, BUNGEE CORD MATCH featuring “Teen Heartthrob” Chaz taking on his arch-rival Steven Dane. These two had quite the rivalry going on, without getting too detailed into their issues let’s just say a lady named “Alexis” played a part in their rivalry. This feud would become so epic that only one type of match could contain them. No, not a Steel Cage match. No, not even the dreaded Shark Cage Match, but you’re getting close. The Bungee Cord match would take Dane & Chaz several dozen feet in the air, where they would proceed to “fight” on a caged platform not unlike the shark cage. The goal? To throw your opponent off the platform, thus forcing them to Bungee Jump. I won’t spoil the fun, so check out the match and I’ll get back with you on the other side of things.
Did you see that? Seriously, did you see that? They rent a bungee cord from a CARNIVAL, so you know that’s safe. Then they proceed to tussle around until Dane takes the plunge. But that’s not the kicker… As the machine is lowering the cage, mid-way down Dane “yanks” Chaz off the platform. Chaz comes falling out of the platform at a random height, with the bungee cord wrapped around his shoulder to shorten the length in order to prevent him from smacking the ground. No measuring, no planning involved, Chaz just falls at a random point and PRAYS he has just enough slack to bounce, but not make a splash on the ground. Lucky for Chaz, he made it. His daddy Tug Taylor should be proud!
I hope you’ve enjoyed this week’s random hodgepodge of wrestling goodness, I’ll be back next week with a new episode and a good wrestling match as the feature, I PROMISE. As always, 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!
