Here are 3 of biggest stars
in the early 80s!
[Unlike other sites, this was my idea from the get go, to write Terry`s bio before the big Wrestlemania boom, this was my original idea and unless it`ll be needed I won`t add the rest of his history, I update his matches, and from the matches you can learn alot, this page, the matches page and the titles page, where all done after long--long time of research, so if you take anything from me, be honest with yourself and give credit where it`s due. I can continue and write up to date about Terry`s career and bio, but I won`t, because it wasn`t my original idea, I hope that answers all your questions regarding this issue.]
Q:Why did Hogan leave the WWF?In 91 and 94 Terry was involved in the steroid trial, here you can read the 94 transcript. Important notes are, Terry is involved in many charity organizations, such as the Make-A-Wish Foundation, in which most big two wrestlers are involved, others like Pediatric AIDS Center, Special Olympics and the Starlight Foundation. Terry is married to Linda and has two kids, son Nick(9) and daughter Brooke(11). I stand corrected about Terry being Super Destroyer, as he wasn`t under a mask, rather in his usual outfit, while wrestling for Hiro Matsuda in Tampa, before he quit and returned. This happened, before Terry officially went to a big terittory and I did not count it, as this was only a gimmick while he was training in Matsuda`s school, so again I stand corrected, as Terry indeed was nicknamed Super Destroyer at around 76-77 while working and training for Matsuda`s school. To see Terry`s PWI awards, click here. Click here to read the lyrics from the 'Real American' theme song.
- Hulk Hogan FAQ
Q:How did Hogan get that shiner at Wrestlemania
IX?
A:Couple days earlier, he got into a bar room
fight with Randy Savage, after Savage found out, his wife, Liz spent the
night with Hogan, while she and Randy had problems. Randy apologized shortly
thereafter and they`re good pals till this day(unfortunetly
the last month, august 99 they had a fight, and Savage is getting on everyones
nerves, if he doesn`t want to work, then he should quit, I mean he`s 4
years older than Terry, can`t control his temper,words or hands and after
his push that didn`t give the fans a chance to let him get over expects
something big.Note that this was settled as we speak and Randy apologized
to Terry, because it isn`t Terry who`s incharge, but it`s Bischoff and
Terry can`t promise stuff he can`t do.)
and Randy said he didn`t punch Terry because he thought he slept with Liz,
he knew Terry will never do so, but because he was jealous.
YOU CAN FORGET THE ABOVE WRITTEN BY SCOTT KEITH,
AS IN HIS E! SPECIAL ON DECEMBER 19TH, 1999 TERRY REVEALED IT WAS A WAVERUNNER
ACCIDENT THAT BROKE HIS EYE SOCKET AND HE HAD THAT TIME OVER 100 STITCHES
AND STILL WORKED THE MATCH, AND NEARLY LOST THE EYE.
Q:How did Hogan got that shiner he sported on
Thunder in Paradise?
A:That episode was taped before WM IX and was
as I mentioned above from Randy`s right hand.
Terry worked for McMahon while doing the series
and finished working on it, before joining WCW.
The series where taped during summer 93 to summer
94, with them being shown from after him joining WCW for the next year.
The series where on Turner`s behalf and that was one of the reasons Terry
wanted to leave WWF, but once again, he did not leave WWF, wanting to go
to WCW.
--THE TIME IS TRUE, HE WAS WITH WWF DURING THIS,
AND IT HAPPENED ALMOST A MONTH BEFORE WM IX, WHICH EXPLAINS THE EYE PATCH.
Q:What do you know about Terry`s brothers?
A:His brother Allan, the father of Mike(Horace)Bollea
died in 86, I was told he`s got another brother-step brother from his mother`s
previous marriage, but I don`t have any info on him.
Thanks to "L" who named Terry`s other brother,
and his name is Kenny, and he lives now in
Washington. Credit to "L" for that info.
Q:Does Ric Flair hate the Hulkster?
A: No, the Nature Boy respects Terry alot, maybe
not because he`s a great technicial, but because he knows how hard it is
to stay up top, besides they worked together and each respects the other
a great deal.
Q:What happened between Jesse Ventura and Hulk
Hogan that they hate each other today.
A:As far as I know, both of them are guilty.
Let me explain.
Back in the AWA days, as Terry mentioned many
times, they were pals, and always hang out with each other.
Then in the WWF, Jesse went more for political
ways and offered a union in 87, from there all trouble start, when Terry
refused, because he believed it could hurt his status and the WWF`s. No
body agreed with Jesse as far as I know, from there Jesse proved to everybody
that he`s a hollywood star and got fired and later won a suit over using
his commentating by WWF.
What not many know is that Ventura blaimed Terry
for him being fired, because he was too much over at hollywood land.
From 87, as far as I know Jesse and Terry haven`t
spoken since.
Then in 91 when Jesse campaigned for mayor of
Brooklyn Park, MN, he called Terry to help him out and made some appearences
to draw crowd, but Terry refused.(Would any
of us help someone who hasn`t bother to explain why he hates us? or why
he calls after 4 years when needs help?)
Terry claims he has a friend who ran against
Jesse, but nobody can know for sure if it`s the truth, I can`t know.
I guess Terry refused, because of Jesse`s law
suit, with Terry being in the middle of it and McMahon talking smack about
Jesse, I only can guess that.
The facts are when Jesse worked as commentator
for WCW and Terry came in, it`s rumoured that they had a fight and of cource
Jesse was released.
I`m not taking sides, since both are guilty,
it`s obvious Jesse`s idea of the union, could`ve ruined Terry`s future
and that might be the basic of the feud.
In my opinion Jesse tried to be pals again by
calling Terry for his campaign in 91, but Terry refused and that`s where
it all again became even more heated hatred. The fact that Jesse was released
from WCW is another big factor, but we`ll never know all facts. I wish
the two could sit down and solve their problems, it`s a shame, since Terry,Jesse
and Billy Graham are my 3 favorite charismatic colourfull wrestlers of
all time.
Q:Has Hogan injured his knee before (99)?
A:Yes, twice before, first time in 76 when he
trained in Tampa and trainer Hiro Matsuda almost broke his leg, when Terry
didn`t know how to block, 2nd time in 86 when he faced the late great Big
John Studd, where he fell on his knee to the outside in a bad way and had
to get surgery on his knee, the same one
that has bothered him for years and took it`s
toll this year, when Terry went skiing.
Q:Why did they book Sid Vicious to kick out of
Hogan`s Leg drop at Wrestlemania VIII?
A:It wasn`t booked that way! "Papa Shango" Charles
Wright, was late, he was planned to pull Terry by his feet out of the ring,
before the3 count, he was late, resulting the first ever kick out from
the
Hulkamania hero Hulk Hogan.(note
that before Terry became the king of Hulkamania, his finisher was the Axe
Bomber-Lariat and he used the Legdrop often and almost always the opponent
would kick out, either in Japan or AWA, earlier as you can read in the
matches page or above this page, he used the Bear Hugg, only from his match
with Killer Khan he started using the move).
Leg Drop.
Q:You list Hulk as a former AWA champ, why isn`t
he listed anywhere else?
A:This is similar to the Jarrett-Holly and Goldust-Vega
switches, or the Backlund-Inoki-Duncam switches, however this is very known
for Bockwinkel to get his strap back because he wants so.
Bockwinkel was the top heel and Heanen managed
him, they had to have more heat.
That night, Hogan pinned Bockwinkel with a foreign
object which was thrown by Heanen, reff Lord Bleard found it in Hogan`s
tights, however allowed the title switch, Hulk Hogan went out of the arena,
with the AWA World Heavyweight belt, you can say whatever you want, but
if a person is recognized by the referee as the champ, he goes out with
the title with the fans cheering and believing he`s the
champ, the record books can kiss my @$$. Not
that the title win is so important or something, I insist on it because
it shows Terry`s hight in the AWA, that he was so popular and over, they
had to give him the strap. They although didn`t recognized him as he was
booked for Japan and it was the main reason.
I still believe they`d kept him the champ if
not him going to Japan, however his japanese deal was locked as far as
I know long before the title match plan.
Q:Hogan played in some band when he was in high
school, what was it?
A:The bands that Hulk Hogan were in are as follows:
Koko, Ruckus & Infinity's End.
He also recorded an album around 82 in Japan.
Thanks to Janice
Marie Provetti for helping with this information.
Q:Why did Hogan turn at Bash at the Beach 96?
A:As far as I know, Bret Hart was scheduled,
and he talked with Bischoff and Bischoff allready made plans, but Bret
in the last second decided to stay in the WWF and Bischoff hadn`t have
a choice but to ask Terry to turn heel. Terry who actualy was little sick
from the yellow and red and from critics, turned heel and gave a great
extra push to his legendary career.
Q:Was he offered to come back to the WWF?
A:Yes, during Holloween Havoc 96, Terry`s contract
was done, just when he finished
Santa With Muscles and 3 Ninjas with Lonnie Anderson,
he was offered 4.5 Million from Vinnie Mac, and would`ve signed, but when
he heard that the new Bret Hart contract that he signed instead of being
the 3rd nWo man, had a line saying 'if Hogan comes back to WWF, this will
obligate a win over Hogan' meaning Bret is promised a pinfall win over
Terry. Terry did not liked it, and somebody leaked it to him and resigned
for 3 years at Havoc!
Q:Is it true Terry can`t call himself Hulk, because
of Marvel?
A: Yes and No. First I thought that Terry turned
because of this, but I now know the story, it goes like this. When Terry
signed with WCW, Turner bought all rights to use Hulk for Hogan and Marvel
Inc started collecting money from Turner, which wasn`t a problem at all,
when Terry turned heel, he had a great idea, to save Ted`s money, by changing
his name, since it made sense and with him being heel.
From then Turner stopped paying, now with Hulk
Hogan back, Turner is once again has to pay to Marvel, which again, is
not a problem at all.
If you don`t know, Marvel Inc, own the right
to Incredible Hulk comic stuff, so Hulk`s name is copyrighted, that`s why
Turner and McMahon in his time had to pay.
By the way, what Terry said about Turner owning
Marvel isn`t true, Marvel is owned by ToyBiz, however Turner does bussiness
with them and has no problem to pay whatever for the use.
Q:Why couldn`t Hogan use his 'real american' theme
song when he came to WCW?
A:As far as I know, Jimmy Hart wrote the song,
however when Terry asked McMahon and told him he`s joining WCW, it`s told
that McMahon copyrighted the theme exclusive for his WWF and thus
breaking any good left feelings among the two
and for Terry being unable to use the song, since
Hart did legaly make the song for McMahon.
Q:If so, why won`t he use the Eye of the Tiger
for his theme?
A:There`re couple of reasons, he used that theme
in the AWA, shortly in the WWF and in Japan till 85
The song is copyrighted to the Rocky movies,
so at the time, he was also promoting Rocky, when he
changed his theme song to 'real
american'(lyrics) or 'real american' (*.wav
format).
At the time, with the WWF enjoying their great
boom, no one cared about Stallone or Rocky, nor thought of it, I`m sure
if Terry would`ve asked to use the song, they`d let him, after some copyright
payments, but Terry released his own CD(click
here to see it) and his theme song was American Made, which is to be
honest, a little rip off the real american theme song. Terry along with
Jimmy Hart and crew, released it during his signing with the WCW, and of
cource promoted the CD that way
and there`s no reason in my opinion he should`ve
done any different.
The Hulk Hogan everybody knows - red&yellow
Hulkamaniac is recognized with these 2 theme songs, and I can`t see any
other themes he can go out with.
Q: I watch Hulk Hogan for long...... I wonder
how he does the blade during his matches?
A:A simple example is SuperBrawl, when he sat
in the corner, got out the taped blade, which is fully taped and only a
mini-mini edge is out that only can cut the eye brow and can`t cut anything
else, he put it out, making us believe he`s holding his four head in pain,
while actualy he cuts himself with that razor.
Terry always had hard time to get the thing out,
you can see WM VII against Slaughter where the blade is seen iobviously
and Earl Hevner has to pick it up, or kick it to the outside.
Terry also sometimes as the rest of the wrestlers,
blade when they`re face down, which is easier.
Q:What is Hulkamania and when was it born?
A:Hulkamania, is the Hulkster running wild, pumping
the crowd and going wild, it`s also when the adrenaline starts flowing
and Hulkster doesn`t feel pain and Hulks up, it`s also believing in your
hero-Hulk Hogan, like you believe in Santa Clause, never hurts, only good!
Hulkamania was born in the AWA, Hogan was still
a heel when Rocky III came out, the fans went crazy every time Hogan entered
the arena and he was turned face, and became the most popular wrestler.
Hulk used Hulkamania in his interviews in the AWA, saying that he`s the
president of the Hulkamaniacs and always talked about the fans and made
new things communicating with the fans, thus pushing Hulkamania into another
level.
Newer fans(or who haven`t watched all that stuff
I have) know Hulkamania from the win over Iron Sheik, however that was
Hulkamania running in the WWF, Hulkamania ran wild in the AWA first.
Q:Who are Hogan`s best friends in real life?
A:Jimmy Hart met Hogan in a bar where he played
and I believe they even played together in a band, that was after 76, maybe
77 after Terry`s Hiro Matsuda stint.
Terry`s first big appearence in Dothan, Alabama,
also had Ed Leslie backstage, they lived near by and travelled together,
since then they`re best pals(they actually went to school together and
are childhood friends). Hogan met Jimmy Hart again in memphis, as far as
I know they since then best pals also. Terry has better friends outide
of the bussiness, but these 2 are
his best friends.
Q:Has Terry used any other drugs besides steroids?
A:Yes, marijuana, during his band days, early
AWA days. He quit using steroids in mid 90 when they
became illegal.
Q:When Did Hogan Appear on Sports Illustrated
and What Was The Cover Story?
A:Hulk Hogan appeared on the cover of Sports
Illustrated on april 29th, 1985. next to the
swimsuit issue, the above issue with the Hulkster
was 1985's best seller.
(Thanks to nobody, 2 months
I asked you to help, I had to search 2 days and turn my room upside down
to find the mag)
Q:Do you think that Hulk Hogan will ever return
to the WWF?
A: Never say never, but his contract ends december
2001, at this point I can`t see him jump to the WWF, and I know he doesn`t
want to go to the WWF, but I won`t be surprised if he`d one day be put
in the WWF Hall of Fame and end his career in the WWFand be both WCW Hall
of Famer and WWF Hall of Famer, I hope so, because Vince apreciates Terry
as well as I do and after all set and done, the above is the best thing
to do.
Q:Can you please tell me about that case where
a woman accused Hulk of sexual harrasment in 96?
A:That happened in the beginning of january 96.
In the Twin Cities, a woman by name of Kate Kennedy claimed that she was
sexually assaulted by Terry. Terry officialy told she`s trying to extort
money from him. Terry filled a counter suit couple days later in the U.S
District Court in Minneapolis,
alleging that Kennedy and her attorney threatened
to initiate criminal proceedings against Terry unless he agreed to a large
financial settlement.
Note that it happened over Labor Day weekened
for a WCW Nitro at the Mall of America, where Kennedy was managing promotional
merchandise for the event.
Terry`s later Geoffrey Jarpe got the truth out,
and Terry`s suit was rulled in his favour, with facts being that Terry
didn`t sexualy assautled her and that she indeed was after his money.
Q: Is it true that Terry played in a commercial
that aired during SuperBowl XXX?
A:I don`t know much about Football or SuperBowls,
but thanks to Mike and Dan who helped me with it, Terry was in the commercial
during the 1991 Super Bowl, it was for the Right Guard!
Q:I hear many people say that by signing with
WCW, Hulk Hogan ruined the company, is it realy true for most people?
A:A while back I read a rant from "Netcop" and
wrestlemaniac`s own, a long timer on the net,
Scott Keith about how WCW was about to die and
came back again. I couldn`ve out it better myself,
I knew the bellow information, but I wouldn`ve
put it in any better way on paper than he did. Read and
understand.
--->>
The Background
In 1992, Bill Watts was given the
reigns of WCW, in a move that yielded great results creatively and
athletically, but was a total disaster
financially. Ron Simmons was given a run at the top in order to
promote a "black friendly" image
for the company, but the house shows he headlined barely drew 1,000
people on a good night. The signing
of Jake "The Snake" Roberts provided a much needed boost in
revenue for a short period, but
his personal problems sent him crashing out of wrestling again for a long
time. However, the seeds of thought
had been planted in the Turner hierarchy, and that's always a
dangerous thing with them. And
so, shortly into 1993, Bill Watts was fired for having too much
independent thought, the Ron Simmons
title reign was trashed, and a new era of frivolous spending and
corporate mentality would begin,
one that would very nearly sink the company in record time, even for
WCW.
The Players
Ted Turner, eccentric billionaire
with an army of yes-men to implement his every whim.
Eric Bischoff, former coffee-boy
and junior-announcer, turned Executive Vice-President of Wrestling
Operations.
Big Van Vader, WCW World
champion and eventual scapegoat.
Cheatum, evil midget.
Cactus Jack, loyal company
man and amnesia victim.
Sting, even more loyal company
man and bad plot device victim.
Sid Vicious, multimillion-dollar
free agent and amateur surgeon.
Davey Boy Smith, non-player-turned-multimillion-dollar-free-agent
due to Turner's spending spree.
Fred "Shockmaster" Ottman,
Rhodes family member and hopeful World title contender.
The Hollywood Blonds, most
over tag team in 10 years and the one sure-fire, can't miss prospect of
the whole bunch.
Paul Roma, ex-WWF jobber
turned Four Horseman.
Ric Flair, washed up ex-champion
who can't draw anymore.
The Story
In January of 1993, the firing of
Bill Watts sent shockwaves through the Turner organization, and sent
everyone into frantic pangs of
butt-kissing in order to be the Chosen One who would be given the task
of
running the company. Tony Schiavone
assumed he was next in line, but in fact the job was given to
unknown commodity Eric Bischoff,
whose only previous experience in running a wrestling company was
the self-destruction of the AWA
in 1990, and who had been brought into the company as a friend of
Diamond Dallas Page. He also had,
according to Jim Cornette, "hair that didn't move, even if he was
standing in a wind tunnel." With
those credentials, WCW figured they couldn't lose.
Vader
The first order of business was
to clean up the messy threads remaining from Bill Watts' tenure as
Executive VP: The World title was
taken off Ron Simmons and put back onto Vader, who was no more of
a proven draw than Simmons was,
but at least he was marketable.
But they needed a challenger.
And, oh, where does one start with
this...
Sting. Superbrawl III saw
WCW doing what worked before: Putting Sting in the plucky challenger role
by having him foolishly sign a
strap match with Vader. Sounds fine on paper, so what does WCW do?
Film a mini-movie, of course. Vader
invites Sting to his "White Castle of Fear," and even sends him a
charter helicopter. So the helicopter
flies Sting out to the Rocky Mountains, where Sting confronts Vader,
Harley Race and Cheatum (the Evil
Midget) in a mountain hideaway. They talk. And talk. And then they
get into a tug-of-war with the
strap, which snaps in a flash of lightning ... and the movie ends. So,
uh, how
did Sting get home? Did he walk?
But never mind petty details like those. The match itself was terrific,
one of their best ever. So of course
WCW needed a newer, better challenger. Someone preferably from
the WWF...
Davey Boy Smith. Never mind
that he had never headlined a card before outside of England, or
captured the World title, or proven
himself to be a marketable commodity. No sirree, logic like that didn't
stop WCW from signing the British
Bulldog to a ridiculously overinflated contract and pushing him right to
the main event against Vader for
Slamobree 93. So that bombed, big surprise, right? So what does WCW
do? Build up a reputation for Smith
as an actual contender by having him defeat top talent in the
promotion? No, silly, that would
require the so-called "talent" to lie down for Smith, a name WWF guy,
and that was unacceptable.
No, WCW had a much better idea:
FILM ANOTHER MINI-MOVIE! Yee-haw! So here's the deal: Given a
budget estimated at anywhere between
$100,000 and $1,000,000 depending on which side of the story
you're getting, WCW set up an epic
battle between the Masters of the Powerbomb (Sid and Vader) and
the Allied Forces (Sting and Smith).
First, they FILMED a press conference with Vader and Sid
announcing their alliance. I'm
not talking about the usual videotaped vignettes that you see on Monday
nights, I'm talking an actual filmed
segment using a professional movie camera and actors and
everything. People thought that
was pretty bad. What did we know?
Because a short while later, we
got the sequel: Davey Boy and Sting are on an unnamed beach playing
volleyball with a group of orphans
(I am not making this up), only to see the vile team of Sid (wearing the
FLIP-FLOPS OF DOOM!) and Vader
(still wearing his mask/jockstrap, even on vacation) pulling up in a
luxury yacht to torment the faces.
While Sid (flip-flop, flip-flop) and Vader saunter onto the beach and
appear to challenge Sting and Smith
(and talk...and talk...and talk), it's actually a DIVERSION, you see.
Because Cheatum, the Evil Midget
has a large bomb (helpfully rendered as a large black ball, just like in
Mighty Mouse cartoons) that he
places under Sting's boat. One of the orphans alerts Sting just before
he
gets onto the boat, but the bomb
still explodes and the faces are presumably trapped on the island
forever as the heels sail off into
the sunset.
This was actually supposed to make
people BUY the pay-per-view. Seriously. This is also why people
are constantly complaining whenever
WCW tries "sports entertainment," because they suck at it. If you
feel otherwise, please re-read
the preceding paragraph, and draw pictures to help bring the point home
if
need be. Sadly, the heroes were
NOT trapped on the island, because they escaped and had a crappy
match at Beach Blast with the heels
and triumphed. No one cared. No one bought the show. A new
challenger was obviously needed.
Someone new. Someone different. Someone with missing teeth and a
huge ass. Someone like...
Cactus Jack. I honestly
still don't know how they managed to screw this one up. Here's the scenario,
and we'll follow with a short quiz
to test your booking acumen: Vader and Jack have a pair of matches on
WCW Saturday Night, which was at
that time the centerpiece show for WCW. The first match is
inconclusive and Jack is given
a good run at Vader. In the second match, which is even more brutal,
Vader ends up powerbombing Jack
on the exposed concrete floor in a sick spot that sees Jack's head
land on the floor with an audible
"thump." The show is stopped as an ambulance is called in to carry Jack
off. Vader even seems a little
concerned. The fans are in shock. The internet eats it up with a spoon
and
some actually look up Mick's home
number and call to see if he is all right. It turns out that it's a work
to
give Mick a few weeks off to heal.
Now, POP QUIZ, HOTSHOT! Mick comes back a few weeks
later...what do you do?
a) Have
Foley return, kick ass, and trick Vader into signing a hardcore rematch,
where Foley uses
his strengths
to overcome Vader and triumph for the title.
b)
Have Foley return and lose to Vader in a tough rematch where Vader works
on the neck
mercilessly
to reinforce the idea of Vader as a soulless machine.
c)
Have Foley return, but with amnesia and a small bag of something vaguely
associated with his
son. Have
a ditzy "reporter" named Catherine White find him on the streets of Cleveland,
thinking
himself
to be a former sailor who can only remember the word "Dewey." Have him
suddenly regain
his memory
after an actress playing his wife triggers his recovery. And, oh yeah,
stick Chris
Champion
into the feud as a Japanese guy named Yoshi Kwan as his first challenge
from
Harley
Race. Then have Jack reveal that the preceding three months was all mindgames
on his
part as
part of an ultimate plan to get Vader at Halloween Havoc in a dumb gimmick
match. Then
have him
lose the match anyway.
If you said c), send your resume to:
World Championship Wrestling
attn: Eric Bischoff
1 CNN Center
Atlanta, GA
It should be noted that Halloween
Havoc 93 was an excellent match that gave Jack instant credibility as
a contender and name value. He
was fired less than a year later after being stuck in the tag team ranks.
Now, if you've been paying attention,
I bet you're sitting there thinking to yourself: "Hey, self, why didn't
they get some other big fat guy
like Vader, give him a stupid gimmick, and then let him take a run at the
title?" Well, since this is WCW,
that's exactly what they did.
You've probably heard of the guy,
too.
Fred Ottman. What? You're
telling me you've never heard of Fred Ottman, who is Dusty Rhodes'
brother-in-law and is thus pushed
to the upper card by divine right on a regular basis? Well, maybe you've
heard of his rather famous gimmick.
See, Sting and Davey Boy Smith needed a partner for WarGames
93 against the evil heel team,
and WCW wanted a big surprise for when they announced it. So they took
poor Fred (last seen in the WWF
as Typhoon ... are the pieces fitting yet?), stuck him in a stormtrooper
helmet that was covered in tinfoil,
and gave him instructions to wait for Sting to announce his name, and
then burst through a breakaway
wall onto the set.
Well, that was the plan at least.
Sting dramatically announced that his partner at WarGames would be ...
THE SHOCKMASTER! No one knew the
name. No one cared. And then, to top it off, Fred burst through
the wall ... and tripped. He fell
flat on his face, losing his helmet in the process, while Ole Anderson
continued doing his voiceover off-camera,
unaware of the botched entrance. Most of the other wrestlers
nearly fell to the ground with
laughter at the situation. The Shockmaster was a flop (literally!) not
5
seconds into his run in WCW.
Fred Ottman's career never recovered,
as he was stuck in the midcard ranks as a clumsy oaf named
Uncle Fred after the incident.
It's too bad -- I was personally looking forward to seeing Vader v.
Shockmaster headline Starrcade
93. It couldn't have been any worse than we almost got ... because
there was one final hope for the
World title. And this one COULDN'T miss. The one guy who could CUT
through all the nonsense, grab
his SLICE of the pie, and take a STAB at dethroning Vader once and for
all.
Ric Flair.
Okay, well, Flair lost his first
shot at it, but there was always another guy.
Sid Vicious. Since Vicious
was the only guy in the promotion booked to not look an idiot half of the
time, he started drawing consistent
face pops. And so in late 1993, after a quick face turn that was
essentially a formality, Sid challenged
Vader to a title match at Starrcade, where Sid was booked to win
the title, and everyone lived happily
ever after.
So how come that Flair guy got the title shot instead?
Oh, see, silly me. I forgot to mention
that about two weeks before Starrcade, Sid got into a fight with Arn
Anderson in a hotel room while
they were in England, and nearly stabbed him to death with a pair of
safety scissors after things got
ugly. The fact that he actually found something to top the squeegee
incident boggles my mind almost
as much as the stupidity of stabbing someone with SAFETY scissors,
but Sid never did play by the same
rules as the rest of us.
So after taping a few weeks of footage
with Sid as champion, WCW was now left without a viable
contender to the title for the
biggest card of the year. And that, my friends, is the most suitable ending
to
the year that I think anyone could
have thought up. WCW would have gone bankrupt had Starrcade
bombed, and Bischoff would have
been out of a job. But as usual, Ric Flair bailed them out, and then
Hulk Hogan "saved" them in 1994.
But that's 1994, and we're making fun of 1993 right now.
NWA R.I.P.
As 1993 began, the recently-resurrected
NWA had put its World title on The Great Muta, and WCW, its
largest member, wanted to pass
the title to WCW wrestler Barry Windham. The NWA agreed with this.
Then WCW decided that they were
now too big for the NWA, and pulled out while Windham was still
champion. The NWA had more of a
problem with this idea. Then WCW declared that the World title belt
was actually owned by them anyway,
so they were keeping it when they left. This pissed off the NWA
royally and lawsuits started flying.
The end result was that the NWA got to promote its own World
champion, and WCW had to stop using
the NWA name. By this time, Ric Flair had possession of the
belt again.
So what did WCW do? Once again, I present a Booking Quiz:
a) Drop
the whole stupid idea since no one cared anyway and just use the big gold
belt for the
WCW World
title.
b)
Have Flair come on WCW Saturday Night and toss the belt in a garbage can,
then challenge
Vader
for the real World title.
c)
Create a phony "International Board of Governors," who then recognize Flair
as the "WCW
International
World champion," a title which was supposed to be roughly equal in stature
to the
WCW World
title, but in fact meant nothing. Have said title be defended for nearly
another year
before
being mercy-killed and merged with the actual World title.
Once again, if you said c), type up your resume, because you have a future with Turner.
Dizneeland
Vince McMahon was once quoted as
being the "Walt Disney of wrestling," but WCW took that a little too
literally near the middle of the
year.
The WWF used to do one live RAW
per month, and tape the next three weeks around that live show. It
was very cost effective, if totally
stale. WCW decided to take that one step further: They would rent out a
studio in Florida on the Disney
World location, and then tape THREE MONTHS of television at a time for
their syndicated programs.
People attending the tapings were
specifially told who to cheer and boo. Signs and shirts were carefully
handed out. Wrestling fans were
quite specifically screened out of ticket lines for fear of having
inappropriate reactions to things.
It was a farce, a parody of a wrestling show and a joke on the industry
for years to come.
Wrestling fans who DID manage to
attend these shows reported to the internet and elsewhere that nearly
four months' worth of title changes
had been given away by the shows. They reported that then-current
tag champs the Hollywood Blonds
would lose to Paul Roma and Arn Anderson, who would lose to
the Nasty Boys, who would hold
onto the belts through October. These shows were taped in July, to help
put this in perspective. Then-current
TV champ Paul Orndorff would lose his title Rick Steamboat, who
would lose to Steven Regal, who
would still be champ at the end of the year. Then-current champ Barry
Windham would lose the title to
Ric Flair, who would in turn lose to Rick Rude, who would have the
title as the year ended. Vader
was reported as having his title all the way through the October-themed
tapings. The US title situation
was uncertain even to WCW, and no segments using it were taped.
This was, to be blunt, the most
horrible break of kayfabe ever seen in wrestling to that time. Now not
only
was the business obviously exposed,
WCW could no longer book "shock" title changes because their
title runs were now literally set
in stone. WCW tried a swerve early on by having the Horsemen lose their
scheduled title match against the
Hollywood Blonds, with the plan being to put the titles on them at a
later Clash of Champions. However,
Brian Pillman suffered an injury between those matches, and
Steven Regal had to be subbed in
(and thus given 1/2 of the tag titles by proxy) because footage with
the Horsemen as champs was scheduled
to start circulating on the syndicated programming the next
week!
WCW never tried a major swerve of
that magnitude for the remainder of the year, and the end result was
pathetic efforts by all involved,
and zero intrigue with the fans, most of whom had already heard the
results leaked and thus knew well
in advance of Fall Brawl, for example, that three titles would change
hands. None of the other workers
could be bothered to make any effort to improve between tapings,
because by necessity no one who
was not filmed with a belt could win one for any length of time. Thus
you had Marcus Bagwell & 2
Cold Scorpio winning the tag titles and losing them a week later so the
taping rotation wouldn't be ruined.
By 1994, WCW got smart and stopped
taping major angles at these things, but the damage had been
done.
And speaking of damage done...
The Hollywood Blonds
You know why Steve Austin was so
bitter towards WCW after his run? It wasn't because of the injury,
oh no. It was because of something
far stupider and narrow-sighted on WCW's part.
In 1992, the year ended with Barry
Windham and a newly heel-turned Brian Pillman challenging
champs Ricky Steamboat and Shane
Douglas in ****+ matches on a regular basis. Windham was
informed that he'd be moved up
to the NWA World title, so Pillman needed a new partner. Austin needed
a new direction, so they were put
together and called themselves the Hollywood Blonds. The gimmick
was simple: They were jerks and
people hated them. I mean really, really *hated* them. So much so that
by the time April rolled around,
they were so over due to a great catchphrase ("Your brush with greatness
is over!") and unsurpassed matches
with the champs (many of which approached the magical ***** level
on a regular basis) that WCW had
no choice but to put the titles on them.
And WCW didn't want to do that,
because they had built their following on hard work and decidedly
ignoring everything WCW told them
to do to get over. And thus WCW would have to admit that they were
wrong. And so, after a mere two
months with the titles, the Blonds were jobbed to the Horsemen in a
poor match for both teams, and
Pillman was turned face (in the single most disastrous turn of his career),
with grand promises to Austin of
World title shots that never happened. Austin and Pillman, quite
possibly one of the greatest tag
teams in history, had been jobbed out due to politics, and neither man
ever forgave WCW for that. Especially
Austin. What is even more ridiculous is that they lost the titles to
Arn Anderson and ... Paul Roma?
Paul Roma: Horseman for Hire
So in mid-'93, WCW decided to reunite
the Horsemen for their inaugural Slamboree PPV. They had Ric
Flair, Ole Anderson and Arn Anderson
in their employ already, now all they needed was a fourth.
Tully Blanchard? Retired and preaching
in Texas, although WCW certainly tried throwing money his
way. Barry Windham? The storyline
said that he was a lone wolf, and there was no reason for him to
suddenly rejoin the Horsemen. Of
course, there was no reason for him to have joined the Horsemen in
the first place back in '88, but
that's another story. Lex Luger? Off to the WWF, fighting Yokozuna. So
it had to be someone new. And since
they had just signed a couple of new talents, the choice was
obvious.
Paul Roma.
Yes, Paul Roma, who was about half
the age of any of the team, and had never done anything more
notable than beating the Rockers
at SummerSlam '90, was the surprise fourth member of the most elite
team in wrestling history.
Boy, you can imagine how well THAT
decision went over with the internet crowd and live crowds in
general.
Despite not drawing any heat to
speak of (well, no POSITIVE heat, at least), Roma and Anderson were
given the tag titles for a good
three months, before the negative reaction to Roma got so overwhelming
that he was dumped and the entire
Horsemen team was disbanded not six months after the "reunion."
The 1993 version is generally regarded
as the weakest Horsemen unit ever.
Long Way Down (One Last Thing)
Just to add some final perspective
to the whole mess that was 1993, this was also the year that saw the
WCW debuts of:
Maxx Payne: Guitar Playing
Villain
The Equalizer (later renamed
Evad Sullivan), quite possibly the worst wrestler ever not named "Giant
Gonzalez"
The Awesome Kongs (two fat
guys who make Bigelow look like a ballet dancer by comparison),
Ice Train (catchphrase:
"Choo choo!" I'm not making that up.)
The Honky Tonk Man ... as
a serious contender to the TV title.
Road Warrior Hawk ... as
a singles wrestler.
Ray Traylor, as The Boss
... Man, is he big.
All these people were actually hired
and paid good money. Some of them even had matches against
each other. All of them were pushed.
They all sucked. No one cared or paid attention to their lack of skill
and/or heat, because all that mattered
was finding a good gimmick, because that's how the WWF did
things.
And that was the problem with WCW
in 1993. They desperately wanted the success and formula that the
WWF had, but none of the people
hired to run the promotion had the brains to pull it off. Least of all
Ole
Anderson and Dusty Rhodes, the
men hired to book for most of '93. As a rough guide, most of the really
sucky years for WCW came under
Dusty Rhodes.
The Fallout
After all the damage had been done,
the financial losses due to poor buyrates, nonexistant house show
revenues, and generally insane
spending habits from the controlling powers left WCW nearly 23 million
dollars in the red at the end of
the year. Obviously a major change was needed, and Bischoff can be
thankful that for once management
didn't start by firing the Executive VP, like they usually did.
So with his job secure, at the end
of 1993, Bischoff did the first smart thing of his tenure and gave the
book to Ric Flair. Flair booked
himself to win the title from Vader in a "title v. career" match, then
proceeded to clean the dead weight
out of the upper card, putting Steve Austin in Dustin Rhodes' spot
as US champion (and grooming him
for a World title run), putting Arn Anderson in Johnny B. Badd's
(another Rhodes favorite) spot
as TV champion, and moving Rick Steamboat back into contention as a
singles competitor, leading to
a classic match at Spring Stampede '94.
In the end, however, none of it
mattered to Bischoff or his higher-ups, because what they wanted was
mainstream success, and there was,
in their eyes, only one man for the job: Hulk Hogan. They had
almost lost the kingdom for the
want of a nail, and now they were about to gain an even bigger one with
the help of Hogan.
This basicly means that Terry`s main stream success
saved WCW, although Steve Austin didn`t
get what he want, WCW was saved and Terry Bollea
was the savior! WCW owe him alot!
While I personaly love watching wrestling itself,
there`s no doubt that Hulk Hogan in WCW brought
the main interest, I only wish that things would`ve
been booked differently by Bischoff to combine
story-lines with wrestling hard hitting workrate
action! So next time when people say Hulk Hogan
ruined WCW, tell them that if not him, there
wouldn`t be any WCW today and sure as hell there
wouldn`t be any WWF Attitude which came off the
nWo success!
This business owes alot to Terry Bollea, and
even if you hate him, you should appreciate what he
did, and still tries to do for it!
If you`ve got anything to add, answer a question,
add a question, ask a question, e-mail
me
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