WWF: Hulkamania era (1984-`1992)

[Hawk 34]

UR FOOKED

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1702101552159142200

There is something funny in a horrible and petty way about Bad News Brown being replaced by Akeem the African Dream.

Akeem was basically a JTTS by the Fall of ‘90. There’s no way that this wasn’t an FU to BNB.

 

[BruiserBrody]

Here's the WM 8 match that was destined not to be. Taped in April. Aired in July.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

Besides the Performance Center WM, I don't think there was a more tinkered with WrestleMania card than VIII. It seems like Bret/Piper and Taker/Jake were the only two matches that were penciled in a few months before that ended up being on the actual card.

13 is up there too but this isn't the Attitude Era or New Generation era thread.

 

[Valeyard]

9 is worse.

 

[BruiserBrody]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1703500910817579191

 

[BruiserBrody]

Interesting that they let a jobber have the full Indian gimmick with Strongbow still doing shots and Steve Gatorwolf also floating around.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

Vince really brought in whoever he wanted during the '84-'85 boom.

"Who do you want next, Vince?"
"LET'S BRING BACK EDOUARD CARPENTIER! HE'S A GREAT ATHLETE DAMMIT!"
"He's 59 years old!"
"I DON'T CARE, PAL!"

According to Cagematch, this was a one off so I think he was brought in for CanCon purposes during that weird era where WWF tapes in Branford, Ontario.

 

[BruiserBrody]

The Wrestling Memory Grenade Pod this week played a fun JYD Maple Leaf Garden promo from Nov 87 where he does a "Eh...Eh" Stu Hart impression as he talks about his Stampede gimmick of Big Daddy Ritter.

 

[Valeyard]

Carpentier is one of the best ever so I don't care. 30 years ahead of his time.

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

Carpentier is one of the best ever so I don't care. 30 years ahead of his time.

Shit, at least! I can't imagine what it must have been like to see Carpentier in his prime. It would have been like if Antetokounmpo got sent back in time to 1966; they must have thought that aliens landed in Montreal.

 

[Valeyard]

There's an MSG show where he's busting out cruiserweight moves in the 70s and the crowd doesn't know what to do. It's fantastic.

 

[JHawk]

Carpentier was on the French language commentary team at the time of the above match, so it's not like they were calling any kind of favor to bring him in

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

considering one off nature of it, I wonder if something was scrapped last minute and they called upon him to fill in some time.

I love Jesse marking out for him. It veered past putting him over and he just sounded like a fanboy.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

Vince looks about as enthused putting over the Von Erich Brothers as if he was forced to go on the air to read a PSA about the dangers of eating too much protein.

Sidebar: After reading the Tod Gordon book, I hate the narrative that "ECW was the first promotion to use popular music to try and get the action over." WWF was doing it ten years earlier and WCCW and Memphis before that IIRC. ECW was just able to get away with it in the '90s cause they were so low on the radar that record companies either didn't notice or didn't think they'd be able to get any money from them! ECW might have done it best but it annoys me when people try and say they did it first.

 

[Valeyard]

ECW were the first ones to not pay for it.

 

[Valeyard]

Vince liked Fritz and the Von Erichs, from what I recall. Kerry was one of the names I see thrown around if Hogan didn't work out, although that would've killed the business in five years at least. Vince's respect for a lot of these promoters gets left out of the narrative. He pillaged and ruined, sure, but he actually respected Fritz, Watts, and a few others from what I remember.

I think he respected Verne to an extent but Verne was Verne.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

ECW were the first ones to not pay for it.

There is no way Fritz, Jerry Jarrett or Vince were paying for it in the ‘80s.

 

[Valeyard]

Vince I think might've. But regardless they didn't rely on music close to as much as even early ECW.

Sarge at least stole the valor of public domain.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

We've been watching dubbed over versions for 35+ years that I think we have forgotten that copyrighted music was quite crucial to WWF"s success in '84-'85. Hogan using "Eye of the Tiger", WrestleMania I using the "Easy Lover" instrumental" as the theme for WrestleMania I Differences between WWF using copyrighted music in the mid '80s and ECW using it in the mid-late '90s was 1. WWF didn't really use it as much or as creatively as ECW did. It was just purely hype up music. 2. Once rubber hit the road and they had to stop or at least drastically reduce the use of copyrighted music, WWF had a much greater capacity and ability to create memorable original music than ECW did.

No disrespect to Harry Slash and the Slashtones, @Laz .

 

[Valeyard]

Using music for big events when they only had one or two a year isn't too bad. "Miserlou" every week is different.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

WWF used music just as much as ECW in '84 and early '85 but outside of a few instances, it wasn't nearly as memorable. Not many people remember Greg Valentine briefly using Autograph's "Turn Up The Radio" as his entrance music. But you know I'll never forget.

 

[SuperMachine#1]

WWF used music just as much as ECW in '84 and early '85 but outside of a few instances, it wasn't nearly as memorable. Not many people remember Greg Valentine briefly using Autograph's "Turn Up The Radio" as his entrance music. But you know I'll never forget.

WWF used music just as much as ECW in '84 and early '85 but outside of a few instances, it wasn't nearly as memorable. Not many people remember Greg Valentine briefly using Autograph's "Turn Up The Radio" as his entrance music. But you know I'll never forget.

Adrian Adonis used Carly Simon's "Your So Vain" for a little while,The Dream Team used Queens "We Are The Champions" as a entrence song and Sivi Afi had Issiac Hayes instrumental version of "Shaft".

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

SIvi Afi's MSG debut is GD hilarious. Howard Finkel emphatically says SUPERFLY and the crowd goes apeshit then says "Afi" and crowd instantly flips and showers him with boos. Idk if I have heard anything like it.

 

[Valeyard]

Sivi Afi is one of those few workers I fucking despise. Awful.

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

Sivi Afi is one of those few workers I fucking despise. Awful.

Huh. I've said before that I "followed" Tully and Arn to New York, so Sivi Afi was already gone by the time I started watching WWF. The first time I saw a Sivi Afi match was on the Network, and I don't recall him being that bad?

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

Sivi Afi emulated Snuka right down to being in trouble with the law. Unlike the original Superfly though, he didn’t get away with his crime and ended up in the slammer.

 

[alkeiper]

I’m not sure that Afi was a BAD worker. But he really brought nothing to the table besides being a dollar store Snuka and the fans saw right through it.

 

[Valeyard]

He is one of the least charismatic people to get into the company. His gear was obnoxious to the eye. He looked old compared to everyone in a weird way. Worked as bland as one can and never had a good match nor tried to.

 

[Big Papa Paegan]

Re: ECW and music
When people say "nobody did before ECW," they mean tying the feel of the era's music into the product. There were plenty of territories and bookers that used licensed music, legally or not, before ECW; there weren't any that used it as an integral part of the programming until ECW.