YR's Pro Wrestling of the Day

[MichaelWinicki]

I think the idea is that the blueprint was there...WCW should be the babyfaces and in the end...they win the war. And in the meantime they get new young stars over from the rub of the older stars like Hogan, Piper, Flair, Nash, etc.

But, Hall and Nash didn't want WCW being the faces and winning the war. And guys like Hogan weren't going to make young superstars for anybody.

In essence, the Hogan turn was basically feast then famine. Yeah, it drew a lot of money in the short term, but the refusal for Hogan to genuinely put young guys over met that they were dead in the water for the future. And it seemed like to me that many of the younger guys knew it and to appease them they just put them in the nWo because it was a better deal than being stuck with lame duck WCW. And then the entire angle failed to make any sense and it really lost its luster.

For instance, they had a great opportunity to make Bagwell a big babyface. I'm not a Bagwell fan, but he had some face heat to him and then when he injured his neck it was the perfect opportunity to turn him face and get him over big time. Instead, they had him go to the nWo.

IMO, they needed to figure out a way to get Hogan to put a young talent over. Perhaps promise him a big payday on a rematch after he jobs to somebody like a Booker T...but never give the rematch.

From there they should have probably put a few of the better workers on the nWo side to help even things out in terms of in-ring ability since Hogan and Nash were pretty lousy.

I would have probably divided the nWo into one group:

Hogan
Savage
Nash
Hall
Syxx
The Giant
Scott Steiner
Chris Benoit (he did win the WWF junior title in 1991)
Jericho

With the WCW group being:

Piper
Flair
Sting
Booker T
Rick Steiner
Bagwell
Mysterio
Guerrero
Goldberg

From there you could have the 2 big stars to take over the company for the future in Goldberg and The Giant along with new main eventers like Booker T, Jericho, Bagwell and Mysterio.



YR

Great analysis Rich!

They forgot the 1st rule of pro wrestling, eventually the face has to win. They may be beaten from pillar to post from match to match for a time period... But heel-heat only lasts for so long. 2, 3, 4 months, the face needs to have some convincing wins and the fans need to feel redeemed. The only time that didn't apply was when the champion was a heel like Bockwinkle or Race when they made opponent (either face or heel) look like this was going to be their night until they came within a whisker of winning the title.

Vince Sr. had it figured out. If it was a low-heat heal the champ would win convincingly the first month. If it were a mid-heat heel, the champ would get beaten up the first month and then come back with convincing wins in month two. But if it were a high-heat heal, then month three would feature the cage match or no-DQ match, where the champ got the clean win.

 

[Yakuza Rich]

Great analysis Rich!

They forgot the 1st rule of pro wrestling, eventually the face has to win. They may be beaten from pillar to post from match to match for a time period... But heel-heat only lasts for so long. 2, 3, 4 months, the face needs to have some convincing wins and the fans need to feel redeemed. The only time that didn't apply was when the champion was a heel like Bockwinkle or Race when they made opponent (either face or heel) look like this was going to be their night until they came within a whisker of winning the title.

Vince Sr. had it figured out. If it was a low-heat heal the champ would win convincingly the first month. If it were a mid-heat heel, the champ would get beaten up the first month and then come back with convincing wins in month two. But if it were a high-heat heal, then month three would feature the cage match or no-DQ match, where the champ got the clean win.

What's interesting is that the NWA was a heel territory and the WWWF was a babyface territory. And while the fans have moved to more heel type of personas, I think that the heel territory concept is dead. It's more like watching an action hero movie. Everybody knew that John McClain was going to come up victorious at the end of each Die Hard sequel, but it was more about who the villain was and how John McClain was going to come out victorious in the end.

There was just a severe lack of leadership in the company at the time and Bischoff could never reign the talent in and create that clear path for long time success.




YR

 

[MichaelWinicki]

What's interesting is that the NWA was a heel territory and the WWWF was a babyface territory. And while the fans have moved to more heel type of personas, I think that the heel territory concept is dead. It's more like watching an action hero movie. Everybody knew that John McClain was going to come up victorious at the end of each Die Hard sequel, but it was more about who the villain was and how John McClain was going to come out victorious in the end.

There was just a severe lack of leadership in the company at the time and Bischoff could never reign the talent in and create that clear path for long time success.




YR

Yep. Hogan not willing to put anyone over was a huge problem for the company. And guys not putting over is still a problem today.

But it's a problem that's been in pro wrestling for a while. The original "Sheik" screwed up his area of Detroit & Toronto because he wouldn't lose cleanly. In the early 70's he was like 50 some years old and they brought in a young Andre the Giant. The Sheik thows a fireball and the match is over with just like that. Ruined wrestling in Detroit for a long time.

 

[Yakuza Rich]

The monster heel gimmick has been a consistent draw since the beginning of pro wrestling. However, it’s not always easy to pull off because not only do you need a large man to pull off the gimmick, he also has to appear legitimately scary to the fans. Combine that with the difficulty of not selling as much and being selective as to when and for whom the monster heel leaves his feet for but still making the top babyface look good it’s like most things in life…the good things don’t come easy.

Perhaps my favorite monster heel of all time is Jos Leduc.

Leduc was born Michael Pigon and grew up in Montreal. He studied judo and became an incredible athlete. I think judo is the most overlooked sport when it comes to developing great athletes and it should be no surprise that the Great Muta, another incredible athlete, was a practicioner of judo.

Eventually Leduc made it to Calgary Wrestling where he had the Canadian Lumberjack gimmick. Most people don’t realize that the lumberjack occupation is one of the most dangerous occupations in the world. And in Canada, particularly in the 70’s, lumberjacks were revered as some of the toughest and grizzliest people in the country.

One of the things that helped get Leduc over when he came over to the US was the gimmick of him displaying feats of strength. This is simply something that pro wrestling hasn’t done in the past 20 years or so and I really think it’s to their detriment. Especially in the WWE where big wrestlers can look pedestrian compared to other big wrestlers. But, when you show an incredible feat of strength it makes it easier for the audience to clearly distinguish the wrestler from the rest:



I think those that followed Leduc’s career would agree that his feud with Jerry Lawler was his best work. Here we got to see Leduc at his finest, both in terms of in-ring skill and mic work.



This is a perfect example of Leduc’s great mic work to get his monster heel gimmick over. There was no attempt to be funny or cute in this promo. It’s just a build to an intense promo and make himself look like not only a gargantuan man, but a gargantuan man who will not stop at anything until the job is done.

Of course, it wasn’t quite as intense as this great promo.



At the end of that video you see some of Leduc’s great skill in the ring. He was insanely powerful, but could just about touch the Mid-South Colisseum’s ceiling when he took that back body drop.

Outside of Brock Lesnar, pro wrestling has missed out on the monster heel for the past 20 years. Jos Leduc gives a beautiful blueprint of how to do it and how to draw money with it.




YR

 

[Yakuza Rich]

I didn't watch a lot of Memphis wrestling growing up because it wasn't always easy to get and I preferred more of the hard hitting action and realistic storylines going on in World Class, Crockett and Florida.

However, it was easy to really enjoy good announcing regardless of where it came from. And Lance Russell was one of the very best. Particularly when you consider there was so much to Memphis wrestling I didn't like and I wasn't always keen on the product. That's why the announcer's job is so difficult, more often than not they are only as good as their product.

For instance, I think Mike Tenay is a very good announcer, but he's been involved with a terrible product almost everywhere he's gone and there's only so much a person can shine up that turd and the fans vastly underrate Tenay. The same with Tony Schiavone who lost a lot of credibility in the latter days of WCW when the product was terrible. Lance Russell on the other hand was widely beloved despite the Memphis product often times not being very good.

I tend to think of announcers as having 3 jobs:

1. Calling the match in the ring.

2. Interviewing wrestlers

3. Providing the occasional monologue on what happened.

And it's all done to get the wrestlers over as heels and babyfaces along with getting the product as a whole over. Lance was about as good as anybody at all 3 facets of the game but I don't believe there was anybody as good as Lance at #2.

Lance Russell's real job was as the program director for a local Memphis TV station. What has been a delight in the sad passing of Lance is hearing all of the stories from people that knew and worked with Lance because there are so many stories of how he helped people with their careers without being prompted to do so. He liked helping people, particularly in the TV business and the wrestling business. And while he was not a TV anchor himself, you could see how he was so well suited to be a behind the scenes program director.

There was Dave Brown, Lance's wrestling co-host, who was a local Memphis radio DJ. Lance liked Dave's work and felt that the radio business was dying and wanted to see if Dave was interested in co-hosting a wrestling show. When Dave balked at the idea, Lance explained that it's a great way to get into the TV business and to see not only if Dave likes television, but if television likes Dave. That turned into Dave getting a 30+ year career as a very popular weatherman (despite not having a degree in Earth Science and meteorology) in Memphis.

One of the people that discussed Lance's influence on him was Steve Beverly. He said that the greatest thing that Lance taught him was to not treat the camera as a camera nor should you treat it like you have millions of people watching you. Instead, treat the camera like an individual person that you are trying to talk to. That's what will resonate with the audience. And nobody did it better than the master himself.



But personally, I always enjoyed Lance's interviews with wrestlers. I always thought Gene Okerlund was probably the 2nd best interviewer, but he was far behind Lance. One thing that both guys had was they knew how to react to promos and knew when to butt in.

While somebody like Renee Young or Byron Saxton may look good, without being able to properly emote and react to promos, not only are they worthless but they are actually detrimental to the interview. If the interviewer doesn't react then the audience doesn't have a reason to react as well. It's sort of like they say about stand up comedy...it's not about what you are saying as much as how you are saying it. And that's why for years sitcoms provided laugh tracks to their shows in order to further illustrate the point.

I think Lance is really terrific in this video here because he displays the right type of facial expressions that he cannot believe that Bockwinkel isn't going to defend the Southern Heavyweight Championship in Memphis...but isn't all that surprised that somebody like Bockwinkle would screw the fans over. And then he butts in at the perfect time expressing that.



Or in this video where Lance is disgusted that Tommy Rich hid under the ring prior to the cage match between Jerry Lawler vs. Austin Idol and Lance begrudgingly interviews Idol, Rich and Paul E. Dangerously.



I do disagree with Dave Bixenspan's commentary that Memphis was not built around the face getting his revenge on the heel in a violent fashion and was more about the face embarrassing the heel.

Memphis was very much built on the inferiority complex the area had being known as a bunch of dumb hillbillies. Gary Hart pointed this out in his book about how much he hated Tennessee and Tennessee wrestling and claimed that every other territory thought Tennessee wrestling was so bush league that when a silly idea or a poor match went on that wrestlers would refer that to as being 'too Tennessee.'

In order to work that to his favor as a babyface, much of Memphis wrestling was about Jerry Lawler being the identifiable every day Memphis man that was raised in Memphis. And the heels would come in and tell Lawler and the fans how they were nothing but a bunch of dumb rednecks and in the end it would be Lawler that would out-smart the heel.

Lance played into that role so well:



In the end, it built up an unbreakable bond of credibility and friendship between the fans and Lance. And it always seemed to make wrestling enjoyable even when it wasn't.






YR

 

[MichaelWinicki]

The monster heel gimmick has been a consistent draw since the beginning of pro wrestling. However, it’s not always easy to pull off because not only do you need a large man to pull off the gimmick, he also has to appear legitimately scary to the fans. Combine that with the difficulty of not selling as much and being selective as to when and for whom the monster heel leaves his feet for but still making the top babyface look good it’s like most things in life…the good things don’t come easy.

Perhaps my favorite monster heel of all time is Jos Leduc.

Leduc was born Michael Pigon and grew up in Montreal. He studied judo and became an incredible athlete. I think judo is the most overlooked sport when it comes to developing great athletes and it should be no surprise that the Great Muta, another incredible athlete, was a practicioner of judo.

Eventually Leduc made it to Calgary Wrestling where he had the Canadian Lumberjack gimmick. Most people don’t realize that the lumberjack occupation is one of the most dangerous occupations in the world. And in Canada, particularly in the 70’s, lumberjacks were revered as some of the toughest and grizzliest people in the country.

One of the things that helped get Leduc over when he came over to the US was the gimmick of him displaying feats of strength. This is simply something that pro wrestling hasn’t done in the past 20 years or so and I really think it’s to their detriment. Especially in the WWE where big wrestlers can look pedestrian compared to other big wrestlers. But, when you show an incredible feat of strength it makes it easier for the audience to clearly distinguish the wrestler from the rest:



I think those that followed Leduc’s career would agree that his feud with Jerry Lawler was his best work. Here we got to see Leduc at his finest, both in terms of in-ring skill and mic work.



This is a perfect example of Leduc’s great mic work to get his monster heel gimmick over. There was no attempt to be funny or cute in this promo. It’s just a build to an intense promo and make himself look like not only a gargantuan man, but a gargantuan man who will not stop at anything until the job is done.

Of course, it wasn’t quite as intense as this great promo.



At the end of that video you see some of Leduc’s great skill in the ring. He was insanely powerful, but could just about touch the Mid-South Colisseum’s ceiling when he took that back body drop.

Outside of Brock Lesnar, pro wrestling has missed out on the monster heel for the past 20 years. Jos Leduc gives a beautiful blueprint of how to do it and how to draw money with it.




YR

I didn't get to see much of Leduc.

 

[MichaelWinicki]

I didn't watch a lot of Memphis wrestling growing up because it wasn't always easy to get and I preferred more of the hard hitting action and realistic storylines going on in World Class, Crockett and Florida.

However, it was easy to really enjoy good announcing regardless of where it came from. And Lance Russell was one of the very best. Particularly when you consider there was so much to Memphis wrestling I didn't like and I wasn't always keen on the product. That's why the announcer's job is so difficult, more often than not they are only as good as their product.

For instance, I think Mike Tenay is a very good announcer, but he's been involved with a terrible product almost everywhere he's gone and there's only so much a person can shine up that turd and the fans vastly underrate Tenay. The same with Tony Schiavone who lost a lot of credibility in the latter days of WCW when the product was terrible. Lance Russell on the other hand was widely beloved despite the Memphis product often times not being very good.

I tend to think of announcers as having 3 jobs:

1. Calling the match in the ring.

2. Interviewing wrestlers

3. Providing the occasional monologue on what happened.

And it's all done to get the wrestlers over as heels and babyfaces along with getting the product as a whole over. Lance was about as good as anybody at all 3 facets of the game but I don't believe there was anybody as good as Lance at #2.

Lance Russell's real job was as the program director for a local Memphis TV station. What has been a delight in the sad passing of Lance is hearing all of the stories from people that knew and worked with Lance because there are so many stories of how he helped people with their careers without being prompted to do so. He liked helping people, particularly in the TV business and the wrestling business. And while he was not a TV anchor himself, you could see how he was so well suited to be a behind the scenes program director.

There was Dave Brown, Lance's wrestling co-host, who was a local Memphis radio DJ. Lance liked Dave's work and felt that the radio business was dying and wanted to see if Dave was interested in co-hosting a wrestling show. When Dave balked at the idea, Lance explained that it's a great way to get into the TV business and to see not only if Dave likes television, but if television likes Dave. That turned into Dave getting a 30+ year career as a very popular weatherman (despite not having a degree in Earth Science and meteorology) in Memphis.

One of the people that discussed Lance's influence on him was Steve Beverly. He said that the greatest thing that Lance taught him was to not treat the camera as a camera nor should you treat it like you have millions of people watching you. Instead, treat the camera like an individual person that you are trying to talk to. That's what will resonate with the audience. And nobody did it better than the master himself.



But personally, I always enjoyed Lance's interviews with wrestlers. I always thought Gene Okerlund was probably the 2nd best interviewer, but he was far behind Lance. One thing that both guys had was they knew how to react to promos and knew when to butt in.

While somebody like Renee Young or Byron Saxton may look good, without being able to properly emote and react to promos, not only are they worthless but they are actually detrimental to the interview. If the interviewer doesn't react then the audience doesn't have a reason to react as well. It's sort of like they say about stand up comedy...it's not about what you are saying as much as how you are saying it. And that's why for years sitcoms provided laugh tracks to their shows in order to further illustrate the point.

I think Lance is really terrific in this video here because he displays the right type of facial expressions that he cannot believe that Bockwinkel isn't going to defend the Southern Heavyweight Championship in Memphis...but isn't all that surprised that somebody like Bockwinkle would screw the fans over. And then he butts in at the perfect time expressing that.



Or in this video where Lance is disgusted that Tommy Rich hid under the ring prior to the cage match between Jerry Lawler vs. Austin Idol and Lance begrudgingly interviews Idol, Rich and Paul E. Dangerously.



I do disagree with Dave Bixenspan's commentary that Memphis was not built around the face getting his revenge on the heel in a violent fashion and was more about the face embarrassing the heel.

Memphis was very much built on the inferiority complex the area had being known as a bunch of dumb hillbillies. Gary Hart pointed this out in his book about how much he hated Tennessee and Tennessee wrestling and claimed that every other territory thought Tennessee wrestling was so bush league that when a silly idea or a poor match went on that wrestlers would refer that to as being 'too Tennessee.'

In order to work that to his favor as a babyface, much of Memphis wrestling was about Jerry Lawler being the identifiable every day Memphis man that was raised in Memphis. And the heels would come in and tell Lawler and the fans how they were nothing but a bunch of dumb rednecks and in the end it would be Lawler that would out-smart the heel.

Lance played into that role so well:



In the end, it built up an unbreakable bond of credibility and friendship between the fans and Lance. And it always seemed to make wrestling enjoyable even when it wasn't.






YR

Lance was great... No two ways about it.

I'd put him just a notch below Gordon Solie.

 

[Yakuza Rich]

The first really big feuds I was introduced to as a pro wrestling fan were Buzz Sawyer vs. Tommy Rich, The Freebirds vs. The Von Erichs and Piper vs. Hogan. Growing up in New York, I didn’t quite have the exposure to Sawyer vs. Rich and The Freebirds vs. The Von Erichs as I did Piper vs. Hogan. And I feel that without Roddy Piper the WWF never becomes what it is today.

Roddy Piper was born Roderick Toombs and grew up in Winnipeg. His father was involved with law enforcement and after a fight with his father he found himself kicked out of the house and then in a youth hostel. From there Piper learned how to box and eventually started to get involved with pro wrestling where in his first pro wrestling match he lost to Larry ‘The Axe’ Hennig in 10 seconds.

Piper did an inordinate amount of traveling as a wrestler, even for the territory days. He found himself all over Canada, then San Francisco, then LA and back up to Portland. He had the ability to make a name for himself wherever he went, mostly wrestling up in San Francisco as a babyface for Big Time Wrestling and being a top heel in Portland for a short time before turning babyface. And in Los Angeles he was a top heel that incited Hispanic crowds. There was one instance where Piper got tremendous heat for insulting the Mexican fans and Piper apologized and as a sign to show goodwill he wanted to play the Mexican National Anthem in the bagpipes. When the Mexican fans obliged, Piper then played La Cucaracha which started a riot.

When he made it to Georgia, Piper soon became a top heel mostly from his work as a color announcer alongside Gordon Solie. But then Piper soon became a top babyface as he developed a friendship with Solie and later stood up for Solie after he was being bullied by Don Muraco.



This to me is why Roddy Piper was one of the greatest wrestlers of all time…he understood the drama.

He understood the drama of cutting a promo.

He understood the drama of being a heel.

He understood the drama of being a face.

He understood the drama of interacting or brawling with a wrestler.

He understood the in-ring drama that works in conjunction with the storyline to the feud.

And he took that everywhere he went. Particularly when he left for the WWF. And we would be foolish to not mention his first big feud in the WWF versus Jimmy Snuka.



I always kinda laugh when non-wrestling fans still think that was a ‘worked’ coconut. As I always say, Pro Wrestling is not 100% real. It’s just not 100% fake. But the beauty of that is how Piper sets up that angle by dropping coconuts on the table. As you hear each coconut thud onto the table, it subconsciously lets the audience know how hard those coconuts are. And when Roddy gives…in his words…the best Nolan Ryan impression it just makes for a stunning moment that is forever remembered by wrestling fans.

As I always say, wrestling is about character development and getting the fans to start to question how real it is. When the fans start to have more doubt and start to think it’s more real, provided you have quality character development…the more tickets they buy.

While I’m impressed by the athleticism of today’s wrestlers and like a good 450 splash as much as the next guy, I’ll always take the guy that can build the drama and wrestle a match that stays in line with the drama that has been built. And that’s what led to Hogan vs. Piper being so great. But first, he had to smash a record over Lou Albano’s head.



It’s a bit funny because for all of the talk of Madison Square Garden and what the WWF (and WWWF) became you would think that MSG had the hottest crowds of all time. However, they were usually fairly tame from my experience. But nobody got the MSG crowd riled up with hatred like Piper (outside of Larry Zbyszko)



One of the big things that gets left out with the Piper vs. Hogan feud is that Hogan and Vince immediately wanted Piper to job to Hogan. While I’m sure there was ego involved, I still think that Piper understood that a quick job to Hogan would have killed the feud for good. And that’s why without Piper, I think the WWE is nowhere close to what it is today because nobody drew the heat with Hogan like Piper did. But it was predicated on Piper being a crazy heel that wasn’t afraid to step to Hogan instead of being the cowardly sissy that ran from Hogan.



He made fans hate him and the fans that were rooting for the heels would go thru a wall for him. And he wasn’t just a great heel, he was a great face that could transition from the heel spot without losing his fans. While I thought the nWo angle was a mess, I always dug him as a babyface and felt it was tood bad they could not have made him a face and Hogan a heel 7 years ago when they could still move around the ring.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwEUIQPTDL0

Of course, he had been doing effective babyface work for years back in Portland.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jj7c-3eW0c

As far as his in-ring work goes I always thought it was underrated. I like to watch this match from WrestleMania 3 against Adrian Adonis. It’s not filled with hammerlocks, drop toe holds and Phoenix splashes, but the crowd is into it all of the way and neither guy takes more than 1 back bump. That’s what the element of the WORK is all about.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TZBcCacJd4

Of course, it was all built by the great drama that Roddy was a genius at figuring out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUHPjGqR2nA

The passing of Piper was a difficult one for longtime wrestling fans because he did wrestling at its very best. In many ways he appeared to be psychotic edge of the common man. He could present you some of the most enjoyable moments in wrestling and some of the most shocking and appalling moments in pro wrestling. He was the wrestler for everybody.






YR

 

[Yakuza Rich]

The Freebirds vs. The Von Erichs was the first feud that drew me into pro wrestling. And I think it was one of the most brilliant feuds in the ways it was set up and the potential drawing power that could come from it.

The Von Erich’s started with the father, Jack Adkisson. Adkisson was a former football player and discus thrower at SMU who later turned to pro wrestling where he became a German **** named Fritz Von Erich. One of the common themes that former World Class wrestlers have discussed is just how stiff they worked in World Class. One old saying is that in World Class you didn’t kick a guy hard enough until there was imprints of his laces on his boots on the man’s skin.

You can tell this came right from Fritz as each of the Von Erichs were known to be stiff, but to get it as good as they gave it. And that’s because Fritz was a helluva stiff worker himself:



And that’s what set the tone for World Class. It was nearly as moveset heavy as Mid South or Crockett Promotions was. It was a lot of brawling, but it was good ole fashioned Texas punches, stomps and kicks that the fans believed in because there was plenty of reason to believe in them.

What most fans don’t realize is that the Freebirds actually first came into World Class as babyfaces. Unfortunately, I cannot find video of the Ric Flair vs. Kerry in a cage match at Christmas Star Wars. But Michael Hayes comes in as the special referee in the match as a friend of The Von Erich’s. And when Hayes has enough of Flair’s antics and decks Flair and Kerry refuses to get a cheap victory, all hell breaks loose and the infamous shot of Terry Gordy slamming the steel cage door on Kerry and that allows Flair to get the victory. And now the heat has shifted from Flair vs. the Von Erich’s to The Freebirds vs. the Von Erich’s.

***​

I think Michael PS Hayes is the most underrated worker on the mic in pro wrestling history. He is easily a top-5 mic worker in the history of pro wrestling in my book. He was flat out incredible as a heel on the mic. He knew how to get himself, Terry Gordy and Buddy Jack Roberts while making you hate them enough that it turned an average babyface into a big babyface.



But what makes Hayes such a great mic worker is that he was great as a babyface as well.



And that’s a big reason why the Freebirds vs. Von Erichs took off. The Freebirds were babyfaces and ‘friends’ of the Von Erich’s. Hayes’ ability to work the mic as a babyface and to get over their friendship with The Von Erich’s. Then when they turned on The Von Erich’s it drew an intense hatred from the fans which Hayes just amplified with his incredible heel mic work.

I honestly believe that Michael Hayes was a better all-around mic worker than The Rock. And I don’t even think it is close.

The problem with Hayes is that he wasn’t not the most willing participant in the ring. I actually liked his in-ring work more than just about any wrestling fan I know. He usually had very good psychology and since he usually played the heel role I would assume he was calling the matches. But even I can concur that Hayes did everything he could to not bump or do anything that might be somewhat painful.

That is what led to the 3-man group for The Freebirds. Michael could bring them into the building, but they need two good workers in Terry Gordy and Buddy Roberts to keep the fans coming back for more.

Buddy gets overlooked, but his importance cannot be understated. Not only could Buddy work really well, but he was the guy that would take the beatings and get pinned. You couldn’t have Terry Gordy lose because of his size and how he added intimidation to The Freebirds. And not only was Hayes not wrestling enough to get beat, but he was considered to be, more or less, the leader of the Freebirds and you always save the babyface beating the leader of the villains for last.

Gordy was an interesting story because he was about 6’5” tall and weighed about 300 pounds. He started wrestling when he was 14 years old and was widely considered one of the greatest big men workers of all time.

Gordy’s purpose was mostly as ‘the muscle’ for the group. But for that time he moved unlike any other big man. Today you would see guys his size do moonsaults and the sort. But that would never be encouraged (especially on those stiff World Class rings) and to see Terry move around like that as well as having these brutal looking power moves was a sight to behold.

And when you take a look at all 3 guys, they were just different enough from each other while carrying their own individual personalities with enough swagger that they made you either hate them or love them.

***​

The Von Erich’s on the other hand were all actual blood brothers. But like The Freebirds, they knew enough about wrestling on how to differentiate each other just enough so they could stand out and each brother could have their own following as well as the group of brothers had their own following.

Jim Cornette would say that Ricky Morton and Robert Gibson had more sex on the way to the ring than most people had in their entire lives. The only wrestlers that I think could compare, if not outshine, were Kerry and Kevin Von Erich. I’ve seen women pass out after touching, kissing or whatever with Kerry Von Erich as he went to the ring.

David was the best worker of the bunch. I had always thought he was the oldest brother, but come to find out that Kevin was the oldest.

David most closely resembled his father and David was very decidingly Texan.



He was also best worker of the bunch. Combine that with his ability on the mic and being so ‘Texan’, he was massively over with the fans.

Kevin didn’t have the personality on the mic, but was a good looking guy and he wrestled barefoot which was just enough to make him intriguing.

And then there was Kerry, the Modern Day Warrior. The heavyweight wrestler with a bodybuilder physique who moved like a junior.

***​

To me, the beauty of the feud was that it set up for all of these different types of matches.

The big one is that it set up for 6 man tag matches. Tag matches and tag teams are great to have on a roster because it’s much easier to have a tag match that tears the house down than it is for a singles match to do so. But when you incorporate the 6 man tag match that makes it even more exciting.

Just like this great match:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QQUU5HpAfE&t=528s

I love how the Freebirds come out to Willie Nelson. I remember telling my friends that The Freebirds didn’t always come out to Lynard Skynard’s Freebird and for decades they never believed me, but now I have proof.

Anyway, I also love how Kevin grabs the mic and says that ‘this isn’t about a war between Texas and Georgia. This is a war between DECENCY AND FILTH!’
None of this pitting one group of fans versus another group of fans. It was about 3, red blooded, decent American men who were brothers against the vile, filthy and deplorable Freebirds.

And from there you could setup regular 2 man tags (usually Buddy and Terry) as well as a variety of singles matches.

Unfortunately, David died. Gary Hart who booked all of the initial stuff left town and World Class wasn’t the same under Ken Mantell’s booking. Then with all of the other subsequent deaths of Gino Hernandez, Mike Von Erich and Bruiser Brody it forever tarnished World Class in Texas.

It’s too bad because not only did World Class have a bright future, but it’s history of incredible wrestling, booking, packed house, the Sportatorium and one of the greatest feuds in the history of the business is now tarnished by tragedy and scandal.

Stick to the good memories, I know I do.







YR

 

[DanteEXT]

I didn't watch a lot of Memphis wrestling growing up because it wasn't always easy to get and I preferred more of the hard hitting action and realistic storylines going on in World Class, Crockett and Florida.

However, it was easy to really enjoy good announcing regardless of where it came from. And Lance Russell was one of the very best. Particularly when you consider there was so much to Memphis wrestling I didn't like and I wasn't always keen on the product. That's why the announcer's job is so difficult, more often than not they are only as good as their product.

For instance, I think Mike Tenay is a very good announcer, but he's been involved with a terrible product almost everywhere he's gone and there's only so much a person can shine up that turd and the fans vastly underrate Tenay. The same with Tony Schiavone who lost a lot of credibility in the latter days of WCW when the product was terrible. Lance Russell on the other hand was widely beloved despite the Memphis product often times not being very good.

I tend to think of announcers as having 3 jobs:

1. Calling the match in the ring.

2. Interviewing wrestlers

3. Providing the occasional monologue on what happened.

And it's all done to get the wrestlers over as heels and babyfaces along with getting the product as a whole over. Lance was about as good as anybody at all 3 facets of the game but I don't believe there was anybody as good as Lance at #2.

Lance Russell's real job was as the program director for a local Memphis TV station. What has been a delight in the sad passing of Lance is hearing all of the stories from people that knew and worked with Lance because there are so many stories of how he helped people with their careers without being prompted to do so. He liked helping people, particularly in the TV business and the wrestling business. And while he was not a TV anchor himself, you could see how he was so well suited to be a behind the scenes program director.

There was Dave Brown, Lance's wrestling co-host, who was a local Memphis radio DJ. Lance liked Dave's work and felt that the radio business was dying and wanted to see if Dave was interested in co-hosting a wrestling show. When Dave balked at the idea, Lance explained that it's a great way to get into the TV business and to see not only if Dave likes television, but if television likes Dave. That turned into Dave getting a 30+ year career as a very popular weatherman (despite not having a degree in Earth Science and meteorology) in Memphis.

One of the people that discussed Lance's influence on him was Steve Beverly. He said that the greatest thing that Lance taught him was to not treat the camera as a camera nor should you treat it like you have millions of people watching you. Instead, treat the camera like an individual person that you are trying to talk to. That's what will resonate with the audience. And nobody did it better than the master himself.



But personally, I always enjoyed Lance's interviews with wrestlers. I always thought Gene Okerlund was probably the 2nd best interviewer, but he was far behind Lance. One thing that both guys had was they knew how to react to promos and knew when to butt in.

While somebody like Renee Young or Byron Saxton may look good, without being able to properly emote and react to promos, not only are they worthless but they are actually detrimental to the interview. If the interviewer doesn't react then the audience doesn't have a reason to react as well. It's sort of like they say about stand up comedy...it's not about what you are saying as much as how you are saying it. And that's why for years sitcoms provided laugh tracks to their shows in order to further illustrate the point.

I think Lance is really terrific in this video here because he displays the right type of facial expressions that he cannot believe that Bockwinkel isn't going to defend the Southern Heavyweight Championship in Memphis...but isn't all that surprised that somebody like Bockwinkle would screw the fans over. And then he butts in at the perfect time expressing that.



Or in this video where Lance is disgusted that Tommy Rich hid under the ring prior to the cage match between Jerry Lawler vs. Austin Idol and Lance begrudgingly interviews Idol, Rich and Paul E. Dangerously.



I do disagree with Dave Bixenspan's commentary that Memphis was not built around the face getting his revenge on the heel in a violent fashion and was more about the face embarrassing the heel.

Memphis was very much built on the inferiority complex the area had being known as a bunch of dumb hillbillies. Gary Hart pointed this out in his book about how much he hated Tennessee and Tennessee wrestling and claimed that every other territory thought Tennessee wrestling was so bush league that when a silly idea or a poor match went on that wrestlers would refer that to as being 'too Tennessee.'

In order to work that to his favor as a babyface, much of Memphis wrestling was about Jerry Lawler being the identifiable every day Memphis man that was raised in Memphis. And the heels would come in and tell Lawler and the fans how they were nothing but a bunch of dumb rednecks and in the end it would be Lawler that would out-smart the heel.

Lance played into that role so well:



In the end, it built up an unbreakable bond of credibility and friendship between the fans and Lance. And it always seemed to make wrestling enjoyable even when it wasn't.






YR

I loved that wrestling when I was little. Called it Channel 3 wrestling as that was the station in Louisville you had to point the antenna towards to watch the weekly show. Lance Russell was great.

 

[Yakuza Rich]

When we think of iconic pro wrestling champions and great in-ring workers, the name that comes to mind is Ric Flair. But before there was Flair there was Harley freaking Race.


For those that weren’t around or don’t remember, pro wrestling worked in a territory system and most of the territories either worked under the National Wrestling Alliance or had some affiliation/working relationship with the NWA.


The promoters didn’t compete against each other in a particular territory and these territories would work together helping exchange talent or move a talent to a certain territory or help discipline talent. As part of the NWA there was the World Champion. Each promotion could have their own heavyweight champion (and TV Title Champ, Tag Champs, etc), but the World Champion was indeed the champion of the entire World.


In order to become the World Champion, the promoters would decide what wrestler could be the champion and for how long as well as set up booking dates for that champion to wrestle in each territory. The promoter of the territory (or the champion himself) would then pay a $25K fee to become the World Champion and the champion would get that fee back, plus interest, when he returned the belt to the NWA. Thus, the NWA and the person who paid the $25k fee had the best interest of the business to do the right thing.


The World Champ had a base territory that they would work in like Flair with the Crockett Promotions or Jumbo Tsuruta in All Japan or Lou Thesz in St. Louis. But they would also have to defend the title in various territories either for a night on a big card or for a couple of weeks. The benefit to the World Champion is that he would get a percentage of the gate (I can’t remember what the exact % was) and thus be in for some huge paydays. Thus, it was not uncommon to see Ric Flair wrestle primarily for the Crockett promotions in the Mid-Atlantic region and then make a trip to Kansas City for a night to wrestle Bulldog Bob Brown and then another trip to Texas to wrestle one of the Von Erichs and then go back to Crockett before going out to Oregon to defend the title against a Buddy Rose.


But again…before there was Flair there was Harley Race.

***​

Harley came out of St. Louis. The St. Louis territory was ran by Sam Mushnick who may have been the most well respected pro wrestling promoter of all time. St. Louis ran pro wrestling as close to a legitimate sport as one could find. Not only was the in-ring style very serious and realistic, but Mushnick’s payoffs were similar to how old promoters used to pay boxers where Mushnick would detail down to the penny how much revenue was brought in and how much the wrestler got. Mushnick also curried a lot of favor with the St. Louis press and they treated pro wrestling in St. Louis as serious as baseball or football.


Part of the prerequisite of being the World Champion is that you needed to know how to defend yourself in case you went to a territory and your opponent wanted to make a name for himself and beat you. Harley was considered one of the legitimately tougher men in the business as he was trained by Stanislaus and Wladek Zbyszko, both of whom were legit ‘shooters.’ But it also helped that Harley was crazy enough that he brought a pistol with him and would have used it if he felt it was necessary.


Another prerequisite was the champ had to be a great worker because you never know what type of stiff the local territory throws at the World Champion and if the match is lousy, then they cannot book the rematch and it can kill the territory as a whole. Once again, the brilliance of the NWA was here as it would behoove both the NWA and the World Champion to be able to carry lesser talented wrestlers to keep the territory alive and to allow the champ to make more money.


A lot of people label Flair as the greatest worker ever. Many people favor Jerry Lawler or the Dynamite Kid or Shawn Michaels. Personally, I would make a case for Harley because Harley could carry just about anybody, work in any type of promotion, prevent injuries and could switch up his style of matches enough to not keep people bored.


Personally, I like to watch Harley in the WWF when he was in his 40’s…before he had the intestinal/hernia issues.





The announcers like to refer to Harley as methodical and there has always been a lot of talk about Harley and his ‘efficiency of movement’, but I think what Harley did was he had a lot of offense that he changed around from time to time and more importantly…he stuck to offensive moves that he could execute well.


That’s one of the things that has been missing from pro wrestling for past 20+ years…wrestlers sticking to offensive moves that they execute well. Instead, you see a lot of wrestlers trying moves that they either have a difficult time executing consistently or they can only execute it well when they have clear help from their opponent…which still looks awful.


If you’re a small wrestler and don’t throw a good dropkick…don’t throw a dropkick. Go to another move that you execute well. If you’re a power wrestler and your gorilla press looks like crap…don’t use the gorilla press.


Harley had a great head butt that he could do off the top rope or even off the apron to the outside. He had a great looking knee drop that looked like a caved his opponent’s head in. He had a great looking piledriver, butterfly suplex and cradle suplex. This is where Harley wins points over Flair for me as far as in-ring performance…Flair’s offense was too weak too often and after awhile his ability to win cheaply made the opponents look stupid. Flair also used a template to work with certain wrestlers and Harley’s matches were much more unpredictable as to how he would wrestle the opponent.


Harley didn’t quite have Flair’s promo style, but he was effective nonetheless.


Why/


Because Harley’s promos were INTENSE:








And he wasn’t the guy you wanted to make mad either:





It’s why Harley was ‘the man.’ His matches were almost always great to watch. He could work with just about anybody, anywhere and any style. And his promos treated his matches with a seriousness that can be believed and respected.


You knew that when Harley Race came into town that it was something important in pro wrestling going on.






YR

 

[MichaelWinicki]

When we think of iconic pro wrestling champions and great in-ring workers, the name that comes to mind is Ric Flair. But before there was Flair there was Harley freaking Race.


For those that weren’t around or don’t remember, pro wrestling worked in a territory system and most of the territories either worked under the National Wrestling Alliance or had some affiliation/working relationship with the NWA.


The promoters didn’t compete against each other in a particular territory and these territories would work together helping exchange talent or move a talent to a certain territory or help discipline talent. As part of the NWA there was the World Champion. Each promotion could have their own heavyweight champion (and TV Title Champ, Tag Champs, etc), but the World Champion was indeed the champion of the entire World.


In order to become the World Champion, the promoters would decide what wrestler could be the champion and for how long as well as set up booking dates for that champion to wrestle in each territory. The promoter of the territory (or the champion himself) would then pay a $25K fee to become the World Champion and the champion would get that fee back, plus interest, when he returned the belt to the NWA. Thus, the NWA and the person who paid the $25k fee had the best interest of the business to do the right thing.


The World Champ had a base territory that they would work in like Flair with the Crockett Promotions or Jumbo Tsuruta in All Japan or Lou Thesz in St. Louis. But they would also have to defend the title in various territories either for a night on a big card or for a couple of weeks. The benefit to the World Champion is that he would get a percentage of the gate (I can’t remember what the exact % was) and thus be in for some huge paydays. Thus, it was not uncommon to see Ric Flair wrestle primarily for the Crockett promotions in the Mid-Atlantic region and then make a trip to Kansas City for a night to wrestle Bulldog Bob Brown and then another trip to Texas to wrestle one of the Von Erichs and then go back to Crockett before going out to Oregon to defend the title against a Buddy Rose.


But again…before there was Flair there was Harley Race.

***​

Harley came out of St. Louis. The St. Louis territory was ran by Sam Mushnick who may have been the most well respected pro wrestling promoter of all time. St. Louis ran pro wrestling as close to a legitimate sport as one could find. Not only was the in-ring style very serious and realistic, but Mushnick’s payoffs were similar to how old promoters used to pay boxers where Mushnick would detail down to the penny how much revenue was brought in and how much the wrestler got. Mushnick also curried a lot of favor with the St. Louis press and they treated pro wrestling in St. Louis as serious as baseball or football.


Part of the prerequisite of being the World Champion is that you needed to know how to defend yourself in case you went to a territory and your opponent wanted to make a name for himself and beat you. Harley was considered one of the legitimately tougher men in the business as he was trained by Stanislaus and Wladek Zbyszko, both of whom were legit ‘shooters.’ But it also helped that Harley was crazy enough that he brought a pistol with him and would have used it if he felt it was necessary.


Another prerequisite was the champ had to be a great worker because you never know what type of stiff the local territory throws at the World Champion and if the match is lousy, then they cannot book the rematch and it can kill the territory as a whole. Once again, the brilliance of the NWA was here as it would behoove both the NWA and the World Champion to be able to carry lesser talented wrestlers to keep the territory alive and to allow the champ to make more money.


A lot of people label Flair as the greatest worker ever. Many people favor Jerry Lawler or the Dynamite Kid or Shawn Michaels. Personally, I would make a case for Harley because Harley could carry just about anybody, work in any type of promotion, prevent injuries and could switch up his style of matches enough to not keep people bored.


Personally, I like to watch Harley in the WWF when he was in his 40’s…before he had the intestinal/hernia issues.





The announcers like to refer to Harley as methodical and there has always been a lot of talk about Harley and his ‘efficiency of movement’, but I think what Harley did was he had a lot of offense that he changed around from time to time and more importantly…he stuck to offensive moves that he could execute well.


That’s one of the things that has been missing from pro wrestling for past 20+ years…wrestlers sticking to offensive moves that they execute well. Instead, you see a lot of wrestlers trying moves that they either have a difficult time executing consistently or they can only execute it well when they have clear help from their opponent…which still looks awful.


If you’re a small wrestler and don’t throw a good dropkick…don’t throw a dropkick. Go to another move that you execute well. If you’re a power wrestler and your gorilla press looks like crap…don’t use the gorilla press.


Harley had a great head butt that he could do off the top rope or even off the apron to the outside. He had a great looking knee drop that looked like a caved his opponent’s head in. He had a great looking piledriver, butterfly suplex and cradle suplex. This is where Harley wins points over Flair for me as far as in-ring performance…Flair’s offense was too weak too often and after awhile his ability to win cheaply made the opponents look stupid. Flair also used a template to work with certain wrestlers and Harley’s matches were much more unpredictable as to how he would wrestle the opponent.


Harley didn’t quite have Flair’s promo style, but he was effective nonetheless.


Why/


Because Harley’s promos were INTENSE:








And he wasn’t the guy you wanted to make mad either:





It’s why Harley was ‘the man.’ His matches were almost always great to watch. He could work with just about anybody, anywhere and any style. And his promos treated his matches with a seriousness that can be believed and respected.


You knew that when Harley Race came into town that it was something important in pro wrestling going on.






YR

I consider Harley the greatest of all time. And no he wasn't the flashiest (by far) but if you were to describe the perfect pro wrestler from the say the '60 until the 80's it would be this guy.

As you pointed out he was a legitimate tough guy. But he wasn't a traditional brawler using kicks & punches from start to finish he used a variety of moves from suplexes and headbutts to that devastating looking knee drop. And he's one of the few guys that used the Indian Death Lock as a submission hold.

The biggest compliment I think you could give the guy is that he made his matches look real. And that's something that has been lost in wrestling for the past 20 years.

Oh and Harley would put someone over. He wasn't like Hogan or many of the current stars who will not lose cleanly. Harley would and I applaud that.

 

[Yakuza Rich]

Magic Johnson once said ‘there will never be another Larry Bird’ and that’s how I feel about Andre Rene Roussimoff…there will never be another Andre the Giant.

Born in northern France, Andre quit school in 8th grade as he did not think that a high school education would benefit him working on a farm. Due to gigantism, he was spotted by a local promoter and trained on how to wrestle. Back in those days, Andre’s pure size alone would have made him money as a wrestler. But, Andre was actually a talented and charismatic talent and that’s what made him a legend instead of another freak in the freak show.

Most people remember Andre from his older days when he was not very mobile, but they don’t realize that Andre could move around quite well in the 70’s. In fact, he could throw a textbook dropkick.

But what made Andre so good is that he knew how to play the role of a giant and he knew how to play a giant as a babyface or as a heel.

First, Andre was ENORMOUS.

He was often listed at 7’4” tall, but he was actually 6’10” in reality. While 6’10” tall is nothing to sneeze at, there have been wrestlers taller than that. Paul Wight (The Big Show) is closer to 7’0” tall. And the Giant Gonzales was a legitimate 7’7” tall. But none of them had the pure size of body parts and combining that with strength that Andre had. Here’s a pic of Andre holding a beer:

Typically, I try to avoid outside-the-ring stuff in these posts, but with Andre it was quite prevalent because he had a well known reputation for his ability to drink and eat and that would only add to the mystique of Andre.

There’s the sit downs of 6 *bottles* of wine, 100+ cans of beer, *bottles* of tequila, etc.

And that was the thing about Andre…as a babyface he came off as this teddy bear of a personality with the fans but he was also cool as hell. You wanted to hang out with Andre, you wanted Andre to protect you and you wanted Andre to unleash his fury on anybody that crossed him.

That’s why when he got his hair cut but Ken Patera and Big John Studd, it was not only shocking, but appalling.



And that’s a big part of why this got over…Andre had MYSTIQUE. He wasn’t overexposed and wasn’t on Twitter trying to garner fans and stay ‘relevant’ in social media. Somebody like The Big Show people have already had their fill of. They know who Paul Wight is and where he came from. They know that if he’s a babyface (or a heel) he is being paid to be one. All the fans knew about Andre was this enormous man who wasn’t afraid to let his actions speak for him and always did the right thing.

This video below is one of my favorite Andre segments because he didn’t let Piper get the best of him. Typically, Piper would say something so clever that it would embarrass the babyface. Andre understood you couldn’t win a war of words with Piper, so he didn’t say much because he didn’t have to in order to get Piper to shut up.



As Andre turned heel, the beauty was the transition was seamless. The dead stare that scared the heels away was now scaring the babyfaces



The knock against Andre was that he could only be used effectively as an attraction instead of having to work programs like The Big Show. However, his program with Hogan and then later Jake the Snake and Hacksaw Duggan showed that to be a fallacy. His only issue was that at this time he was so broken down with a bad back that he was no longer the in-ring performer that he once was. But, he was still legitimately feared and respected. And people still came out to see Andre The Giant.

On a side note, my friend's cousin died of cancer about 20 years ago and was buried with an Andre The Giant t-shirt as that is how much he loved the man. And my friend Jason had the best impersonation of Andre that I have ever heard. And he would start talking to teachers in the Andre voice much to their befuddlement and me and my friends amusement. So Andre always has a special place with me.







YR

 

[MichaelWinicki]

Magic Johnson once said ‘there will never be another Larry Bird’ and that’s how I feel about Andre Rene Roussimoff…there will never be another Andre the Giant.

Born in northern France, Andre quit school in 8th grade as he did not think that a high school education would benefit him working on a farm. Due to gigantism, he was spotted by a local promoter and trained on how to wrestle. Back in those days, Andre’s pure size alone would have made him money as a wrestler. But, Andre was actually a talented and charismatic talent and that’s what made him a legend instead of another freak in the freak show.

Most people remember Andre from his older days when he was not very mobile, but they don’t realize that Andre could move around quite well in the 70’s. In fact, he could throw a textbook dropkick.

But what made Andre so good is that he knew how to play the role of a giant and he knew how to play a giant as a babyface or as a heel.

First, Andre was ENORMOUS.

He was often listed at 7’4” tall, but he was actually 6’10” in reality. While 6’10” tall is nothing to sneeze at, there have been wrestlers taller than that. Paul Wight (The Big Show) is closer to 7’0” tall. And the Giant Gonzales was a legitimate 7’7” tall. But none of them had the pure size of body parts and combining that with strength that Andre had. Here’s a pic of Andre holding a beer:

Typically, I try to avoid outside-the-ring stuff in these posts, but with Andre it was quite prevalent because he had a well known reputation for his ability to drink and eat and that would only add to the mystique of Andre.

There’s the sit downs of 6 *bottles* of wine, 100+ cans of beer, *bottles* of tequila, etc.

And that was the thing about Andre…as a babyface he came off as this teddy bear of a personality with the fans but he was also cool as hell. You wanted to hang out with Andre, you wanted Andre to protect you and you wanted Andre to unleash his fury on anybody that crossed him.

That’s why when he got his hair cut but Ken Patera and Big John Studd, it was not only shocking, but appalling.



And that’s a big part of why this got over…Andre had MYSTIQUE. He wasn’t overexposed and wasn’t on Twitter trying to garner fans and stay ‘relevant’ in social media. Somebody like The Big Show people have already had their fill of. They know who Paul Wight is and where he came from. They know that if he’s a babyface (or a heel) he is being paid to be one. All the fans knew about Andre was this enormous man who wasn’t afraid to let his actions speak for him and always did the right thing.

This video below is one of my favorite Andre segments because he didn’t let Piper get the best of him. Typically, Piper would say something so clever that it would embarrass the babyface. Andre understood you couldn’t win a war of words with Piper, so he didn’t say much because he didn’t have to in order to get Piper to shut up.



As Andre turned heel, the beauty was the transition was seamless. The dead stare that scared the heels away was now scaring the babyfaces



The knock against Andre was that he could only be used effectively as an attraction instead of having to work programs like The Big Show. However, his program with Hogan and then later Jake the Snake and Hacksaw Duggan showed that to be a fallacy. His only issue was that at this time he was so broken down with a bad back that he was no longer the in-ring performer that he once was. But, he was still legitimately feared and respected. And people still came out to see Andre The Giant.

On a side note, my friend's cousin died of cancer about 20 years ago and was buried with an Andre The Giant t-shirt as that is how much he loved the man. And my friend Jason had the best impersonation of Andre that I have ever heard. And he would start talking to teachers in the Andre voice much to their befuddlement and me and my friends amusement. So Andre always has a special place with me.







YR

Many fans know Andre from his later WWWF work from the early to mid 80's. But move the calendar back a decade and Andre was a good athlete who could even deliver a drop kick. Don Leo Jonathan, "The Mormon Giant" and he had some terrific battles in the early 70's. Then in the mid to late 70's he and Ernie Ladd battled in various territories.

 

[MichaelWinicki]

A side note on the Harley Race post...

I've spent some time watching early Race matches and it's given me an appreciation for guys like Dory Funk Jr., Jack Brisco and "Big Thunder" Gene Kiniski... Those guys were tough!

 

[Yakuza Rich]

Growing up the premier tag team in terms of being able to work tag matches to a fever pitch while showing excellent athleticism was the Midnight Express. Eventually the Hart Foundation came along and in terms of working tag matches they were almost on par with the Midnight Express, but I don’t think eitehr was quite the athlete that Bobby Eaton or Stan Lane were. However, with the Hart Foundation came the British Bulldogs and you started to see two wrestlers that able to work tag matches while being better athletes than the Midnight Express and being substantially larger than either Bobby Eaton or Stan Lane. And that led to my fascination with one key member of the Bulldogs, The Dynamite Kid.

The Dynamite Kid was born Tom Billington in England. Supposedly in England, due to its rigid class structure, they take family heritage very seriously and the Billington family heritage traces back to a family that specialized in the executioner business. Make no mistake about it, while the Dynamite Kid was a fantastic wrestler, he is a terrible and sadistic human being. It’s no surprise to me that he comes from a family of sadists. However, I’m here to talk about his greatness as a wrestler.

What’s funny is that the Dynamite Kid has inspired so many wrestlers, either directly or indirectly, yet so many of them have little clue as to what made him so compelling and such a great draw. They think it is the crazy bumps, the quickness and arsenal of moves he had.

As you can see with this famous match against his greatest rival, Tiger Mask, that the pace and movement was incredible.



And this occurred back in *1982*. I can assure you that wrestlers back in 1982 never moved like this. In fact, you would have a hard case to seeing wrestlers move this quickly in 1992.

But what made the Dynamite Kid so intriguing is that it looked like he was trying to kill his opponent. Sure, there was plenty of participation going on in the ring, but they were so good at what they did that it didn’t look like participation. And when DK would strike his opponent, be it a punch to the leg, a stomp to the back or that patented takedown lariat…it looked like he was going to injure his opponent’s leg or back or neck.

This made for a unique character because he was smaller than most of his opponents for that era, but moved at such a breakneck pace with such explosiveness and did things so viciously that you could not only easily imagine him being able to hang with the bigger wrestlers, but you could see a bigger wrestler legitimately fearing him.

Years later when I got to see DK’s work in Portland, I really appreciated this. This was DK when he was at his best, substantially bigger than he was when he started out as a wrestler, but not this roided up monster bursting from the seams that couldn’t move quite like he used to.

Portland used DK the right way. They posed him as this incredible athlete that struck fear into other wrestlers and would be a feather in the heels’ cap to have on their side.



They also let DK speak on the mic. And even though it wasn’t easy to make out what DK was saying due to his accent…like his in-ring work his mic work was equally vicious.




And all of that made the Dynamite Kid such a great wrestler to watch. He could practically work with anybody. He could work with big gas monkeys like Billy Jack Haynes or great workers that were bigger than him like Curt Hennig. And he could still work with white meat babyfaces like Tiger Mask because he could work their style while just being different and vicious enough to be the heel. And then he was this incredible tag wrestler with his cousin, Davey Boy Smith.

Certainly a horrible human being, but it still doesn't take away from how great of a performer he was.






YR

 

[Yakuza Rich]

I always say that the only wrestlers that I saw as over with the female crowd as Kerry Von Erich was is the Rock-n-Roll Express.



It’s funny to go back and watch old wrestling, particularly in the south, as the one thing that stands out is how many females are in the audience. By most estimates, the females used to make up roughly 60% of the wrestling audience. And I think that is something that wrestling stupidly destroyed in the 90’s and I don’t think they’ll ever get back.

It’s stupid because it’s the same theory that has led to great business for the bar and nightclub industry for years…get the attractive female fan showing up to your business and the men will also follow. Hell, I remember in 5th grade when Randy Savage attacked Ricky Steamboat in the throat with the timekeeper’s bell and the girls in my class and the 6th grade class were talking about how they hated Randy Savage more than the boys did.

And outside of Kerry Von Erich, nobody got the female support like the Rock-n-Roll Express.

However, in order to get that vigorous, undying support from fans, you need a really good heel that the fans hate and don’t want to see the babyface lose to. And nobody got that heat like Jim Cornette led by his Midnight Express.



This is why I’m such a huge Cornette mark and I still think he was better (albeit slightly) than Bobby Heenan. Mind you, Cornette will say that Heenan was the better manager and I fully concede that it is splitting hairs and any Heenan advocates are certainly supporting an incredible talent. But Cornette had a knack for knowing what to say that could provoke a fan to want to legitimately attack him and thus pay money to see their favorite wrestlers beat the Midnight Express and get their hands on Cornette.

***​

To me the beauty of the Rock-n-Roll Express vs. the Midnight Express is you had a bunch of guys that were huge wrestling fans growing up and got involved with the business in their teenage years that became involved with tag teams and they made tag team wrestling an art form that they expanded upon and advanced like no other tag team.

Ricky Morton was the most beloved of the bunch. He was the son of a pro wrestling referee. And you don’t get behind a babyface that much if they can’t sell. Like I always say…they call it ‘selling’ for a reason.

It sells tickets.

And Ricky was arguably the greatest seller of all time. In today’s game where everybody thinks that bumping is selling, Ricky showed how one can sell without taking all of those unnecessary bumps that take a toll on your body.

Robert Gibson’s older brother, Ricky Gibson, got into the business when Robert was a teenager and Robert perfectly played the tag partner role to Ricky Morton. He didn’t looked misplaced nor was he overshadowed. And the big thing is that they kept Ricky and Robert together for a long time, thus making their relationship special.

Bobby Eaton was a middleweight that moved around like a junior heavyweight during those times. He got involved in the business as a teenager as well and ended up marrying Bill Watts’ daughter. He was the perfect heel because he represented this hired hand that rarely talked. When he did talk, he had a thick country boy southern accent and the fans often wondered why he would hang with a guy like Cornette.

Cornette was raised on southern wrestling, particularly Memphis wrestling. He was a photographer who kept ridiculous notes for every card he worked where he would identify the wrestlers in the match, who won and who lost the match, the length of the match, what the finish was and who booked the finish. He would later uses this extensive note keeping to use in booking finishes in the matches between the Midnight Express and the Rock-n-Roll Express.

And who here didn’t love the Midnight Express theme music from Giorgio Moroder?



Between the two groups, you had this amazing ability for them to tear down the house in the ring night-after-night. They knew how to work the craft of a tag match while not relying on the same formula. But the best part was that they really started to define things and elevate concepts like the ‘hot tag.’

Most wrestlers refer to the ‘hot tag’ as a tag where the babyface tags their partner after being beaten down by the heel for a while and their partner comes in fresh and on fire:



However, the Midnight Express and Rock-n-Roll Express found a more effective way to use the hot tag. They used the hot tag where the Midnights would get one of the RnR in the corner after having beaten down on him for a while. And then somehow the RnR wrestler is able to escape being cornered by the Midnights and make the tag to his partner. This is sort of an example as to how it’s done (although the wrestler isn’t cornered by his two opponents).



Little nuances like that which can turn an okay into a huge pop. It also allows for more ways to be creative than the standard ‘hot tag’ where both wrestlers are down and the face makes the tag in the nick of time.

All of this created a feud that sold tickets for nearly 20 years (and in the 90’s when long lasting feuds were almost extinct). They sold tickets in World Class, they sold huge in Mid-South, they sold enormous for Crockett and they continued to sell out 5,000+ venues when the RnR Express began to feud with the Heavenly Bodies in Smoky Mountain Wrestling.





YR

 

[JohnnyTheFox]

Good post^^^

Saw the Midnight Express once and cant recall why but Cornette was barred from the match, then the Express started getting their tails whooped lo and behold there was Cornette dressed up as an elderly lady in the audience with his tennis racket in a huge purse. Cornette cleared the ring {with some help from the racket} and the crowd went bonkers, I was at the time infuriated. Cornette catches a lot of flak but he is one smart cookie, spent a whole night listening to his podcasts and it was worth every minute.

 

[MichaelWinicki]

Ricky Morton was great at selling... Always a great match between he and Flair and who was going to out-sell who.

In the span of a week he & Flair had like 5 "Broadways" (one hour time limit matches)... Amazing.

Cornette tells the story of how well Ernie Ladd sold to Rickey Morton– Making it believable that the less-than-six-foot-tall, 200lb, Morton was actually hurting the 6'9", 320lb Ladd.

 

[Yakuza Rich]

Ricky Morton was great at selling... Always a great match between he and Flair and who was going to out-sell who.

In the span of a week he & Flair had like 5 "Broadways" (one hour time limit matches)... Amazing.

Cornette tells the story of how well Ernie Ladd sold to Rickey Morton– Making it believable that the less-than-six-foot-tall, 200lb, Morton was actually hurting the 6'9", 320lb Ladd.

One of my favorite stories is Ricky working with Bill Dundee and telling Dundee he should start throwing 'shoot' punches. Dundee asked 'why?' Morton replied 'cuz your working punches are KILLING ME.'

Ricky was so great at selling. Him and Steamboat were the best sellers I ever saw.






YR