WWF/E Tidbits from the past

[Boner Kawanger 0]

A wizard named Russo did it

[muda345 0]

Was Vince really considering Zeus vs Hogan for the Main Event at WMVI? I had always heard that Warrior was pretty much penciled in right after SummerSlam '89 to become the new champ. Looking back in hindsight obviously it was the wrong call, but I could certainly see at the time how it made sense

[King Kamala 0]

(see Old School Wrestling questions thread)

 

Wow- two posts, both dedicated to Zeus! I commend your efforts, sir.

[muda345 0]

(see Old School Wrestling questions thread)

 

Wow- two posts, both dedicated to Zeus! I commend your efforts, sir.

 

 

 

Lol thank you King...new at this, obviously still working out the kinks. Please don't think I am a Zeus fan hahah

[BUTT 0]

It's too bad Zeus never wrestled Hercules. They could have sold out the Acropolis with that match.

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

Was Hercules supposed to be the Hercules, or just a strong man with a nickname? I thought it was the latter, but there are some promos where he talks about Mount Olympus and such, it's quite bizarre.

[The Mist of Kwang 0]

Since there's a wealth of awesome information in this thread (just read page 1-41, newbie but learned a lot), I will pose a random question that always has been in the back of my mind.

 

Where did the idea of having Bret Hart wear his pink glasses come from?

 

I know, totally obscure, but I've always wanted to know.

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

The glasses were used to hide his eyes during his first promos (and were given to him by Neidhart) but ended up remaining a part of the character. It was either because he was nervous or was really bloodshot, I forget which. The pink is because, as Bret said at the 2006 HOF, he "just likes pink".

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

Was Hercules supposed to be the Hercules, or just a strong man with a nickname? I thought it was the latter, but there are some promos where he talks about Mount Olympus and such, it's quite bizarre.

I'd guess the latter. When he debuted, Fred Blassie went on and on about how he discovered a latin superstar.

[Enigma 0]

The glasses were used to hide his eyes during his first promos (and were given to him by Neidhart) but ended up remaining a part of the character. It was either because he was nervous or was really bloodshot, I forget which. The pink is because, as Bret said at the 2006 HOF, he "just likes pink".

 

Don't forget, when Bret started wearing those type of sunglasses, they were silver and not pink.

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

I mentioned it in the WWE.com Legacy thread months ago, but speaking of bad venues, there is one that they taped some Raw's from in 1994 that looks like they booked an area warehouse to have it's stock removed and seats for fans put it. It's awful looking.

 

Like when they ran Poughkeepsie and the like? Yeah, those venues looked like shit. It was depressing. Why didn't they just stick with the Manhattan Center?

 

I'm watching an episode that has the "Wearhouse Arena" look right now and it's from Alexandira Bay, NY.

 

[Damaramu 0]

Yeah I got the RAW 15th Anniversary DVD. When Vader kills Gorilla Monsoon they looked like they were in a bigger version of the Manhattan Center.

 

-Didn't they get to the point where they were filming 4 RAWs at a time? How did marks not become smart when they would say "Next week this match will happen!" or "He'll return in 2 weeks!" and suddenly he's back in two hours or the match is happening in an hour?

 

-I was thrown off by how long the Manhattan Center tapings went on because of the fact that some of those places look like it. But, I noticed that after they moved out of the Manhattan Center they went to some really small arenas, then in 96 they moved into some even smaller "warehouse" arenas.

 

-When did RAW become 2 hours? 97? Because I always wondered why we never got a RAW in OKC until 97. I used to think it was because the Cox Center, which holds 12,000, was too small (the Ford Center which I believe holds close to 20 wasn't built yet, and it hosted a PPV in 05 or 06) but now I realize that it was too big for RAW! They'd have had to have done RAW at the Lloyd Noble Center where OU plays basketball! That'd be more there size for the time.

 

-But seriously, where did they dig up some of these tiny arenas? I mean what are these places used for? They seem too small to even run a college basketball game in, and you know they damn sure weren't used for any pro sports.

 

-They seemed to run in small arenas back then for In Your House. I mean some of the arenas they run RAW in these days are bigger than the arenas they used for PPVs back then aren't they?

[FroGG_NeaL 0]

I always assumed the small arenas were used for theatre.

[CookieMueller 0]

-Didn't they get to the point where they were filming 4 RAWs at a time? How did marks not become smart when they would say "Next week this match will happen!" or "He'll return in 2 weeks!" and suddenly he's back in two hours or the match is happening in an hour?

 

The rise of the internet in 96-97 is what put a stop to that. Before that it was fairly easy to keep it to a small amount of fans who did go on the internet. The people at the shows knew they were watching a months worth of Raws though, they didn't (and couldn't) hide that fact. Eventually they just started taping two weeks at a time. The MNW lead them to doing it live every week.

 

And some of those venues were just convention centres. Where they have festivals, job fairs, public speaking and stuff like that. It's the same kind of venues that ECW played around the country at their peak.

[daileyxplanet 0]

An interesting note. Right before the first round of the 1997 King of the Ring match-up between HHH and Ahmed Johnson Lawler is pushing himself being in the tournament.

 

Sure, Hunter would be a great king, but he wouldn't be the King of Kings like I am.

 

One of the most random acts of foreshadowing in wrestling. Unless Hunter heard this and held a grudge for about 10 years...

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

Reading the Feb 12/1992 WON, apparently there was concern LOD would be jumping to WCW, hence their sudden title drop to the not even debuted on TV Money Inc.

 

Some correspondent from Salt Lake City also gave a Tito / DiBiase match -****, but he gave Animal vs. Earthquake **1/2. Highly dubious.

[Enigma 0]

Yeah I got the RAW 15th Anniversary DVD. When Vader kills Gorilla Monsoon they looked like they were in a bigger version of the Manhattan Center.

 

That venue was the Civic Center in Lowell, MA. It was also the arena where HBK did his "lost my smile" speech, The Rock beat HHH for his first I-C Title, and the one where HHH and HBK did the fake European Title match.

[Damaramu 0]

Quick WWF question. When Ahmed joined the Nation of Domination wasn't he supposed to face the Undertaker at King of the Ring 97 and not Farooq? Then the famous Ahmed injury bug reared it's ugly head didn't it?

[Richard 0]

Ahmed was supposed to face Taker at Canadian Stampede, but he got hurt and Vader took his place.

[Damaramu 0]

Ahmed was supposed to face Taker at Canadian Stampede, but he got hurt and Vader took his place.

 

Then why does the original King of the Ring poster have a picture of Taker and Ahmed on it?

[BruteSquad_BRODY 0]

As far as the special ref for the Hogan vs. Justice match at Mania, sources at Top Rank boxing (Bob Arum's promotion) have confirmed that Arum received an offer last week for George Foreman to be a guest referee at Wrestlemania. Arum thought it was okay if it would make Foreman money but Foreman turned it down. The rumors going around, which make a lot of sense, are that Lou Ferrigno will be the guest ref.

[Richard 0]

Ahmed was supposed to face Taker at Canadian Stampede, but he got hurt and Vader took his place.

 

Then why does the original King of the Ring poster have a picture of Taker and Ahmed on it?

 

I don't know, but Ahmed did wrestle on the KOTR ppv, losing to HHH in one of the semifinals. He turned on Taker and joined the NOD 8 days afterward.

[Enigma 0]

Ahmed was supposed to face Taker at Canadian Stampede, but he got hurt and Vader took his place.

 

Then why does the original King of the Ring poster have a picture of Taker and Ahmed on it?

 

I don't know, but Ahmed did wrestle on the KOTR ppv, losing to HHH in one of the semifinals. He turned on Taker and joined the NOD 8 days afterward.

 

He didn't really turn on Taker. He came out and told him to stop listening Paul Bearer, who was commanding him to beat the shit out of Faarooq after beating him. When he kept ignoring Ahmed, Ahmed beat the shit out of him. It didn't come off like an official heel turn because he didn't show any compassion to Faarooq.

[pochorenella 0]

I remember that Ahmed actually defeated Hunter on RAW to qualify for the KOTR but then I don't remember what happened and Hunter replaced somebody on the tournament (don't remember who) and not only beat Ahmed in the semis but went on to win the whole thing. Can somebody explain all these strange turn of events? Certainly Hunter was not the original winner of the tourney since he didn't even qualify originally?

[Beto Chavez 0]

Helmsley was allowed another spot in the tournament because he was not properly instructed prior to his match with Ahmed Johnson the previous week that he could be eliminated via disqualification and thus threatened the WWF with legal action; Vader was originally in this spot, but sustained a broken nose after his No Holds Barred match with Ken Shamrock at In Your House: A Cold Day in Hell on May 11. This gave Helmsley the opportunity to fill in the vacant space and face Crush. Vader fought Ahmed on the May 26 episode of Raw for his spot, but lost.

[theone 0]

Helmsley was allowed another spot in the tournament because he was not properly instructed prior to his match with Ahmed Johnson the previous week that he could be eliminated via disqualification and thus threatened the WWF with legal action; Vader was originally in this spot, but sustained a broken nose after his No Holds Barred match with Ken Shamrock at In Your House: A Cold Day in Hell on May 11. This gave Helmsley the opportunity to fill in the vacant space and face Crush. Vader fought Ahmed on the May 26 episode of Raw for his spot, but lost.

Isn't that IYH: Cold Day in Hell match the one where you can hear Vader telling the ref to tell shamrock to ease up and not be so stiff?

[johnson316cane 0]

Helmsley was allowed another spot in the tournament because he was not properly instructed prior to his match with Ahmed Johnson the previous week that he could be eliminated via disqualification and thus threatened the WWF with legal action; Vader was originally in this spot, but sustained a broken nose after his No Holds Barred match with Ken Shamrock at In Your House: A Cold Day in Hell on May 11. This gave Helmsley the opportunity to fill in the vacant space and face Crush. Vader fought Ahmed on the May 26 episode of Raw for his spot, but lost.

Isn't that IYH: Cold Day in Hell match the one where you can hear Vader telling the ref to tell shamrock to ease up and not be so stiff?

 

Yep, that’s the one. Then when Shamrock kept stiffing him, Vader just unloaded on him with a brutal right hand. They went home pretty much right after that. I was at that event, wasn’t half bad live. The Taker/Stone Cold match was really good as was Vader/Shamrock. Ahmed Johnson's gauntlet challenge against the Nation was pretty interesting as well. Matches weren't good but the crowd was pretty into the final match of it b/c if Ahmed beat Farooq then the Nation would've disbanded. The rest was pretty forgettable though but we did get to see a Rock/Mankind match and I got to chant Die Rocky Die.

 

[BruteSquad_BRODY 0]

WWF @ St. Louis, MO - Arena - March 14, 1985 (9,000)

 

WWF World Champion Hulk Hogan defeated Paul Orndorff via disqualification after Bobby Heenan tripped Hogan from the outside; the bout was broadcast over local radio station KMOX with Bob Costas & Dan Dierdoff on commentary

 

WHAT~?

[Diamonddust 0]

WWF @ St. Louis, MO - Arena - March 14, 1985 (9,000)

 

WWF World Champion Hulk Hogan defeated Paul Orndorff via disqualification after Bobby Heenan tripped Hogan from the outside; the bout was broadcast over local radio station KMOX with Bob Costas & Dan Dierdoff on commentary

 

WHAT~?

 

Yeah, that used to happen in St. Louis... not sure if other cities did it as well.

[BruteSquad_BRODY 0]

Dan Dierdoff.... Had to have been horrid