As Piper’s music sounded through the arena at the RAW Family Reunion I instantly marked out for a true wrestling legend and as Money Inc and Arn Anderson strolled to the ring to force back the Spirit Squad it got me thinking of a simpler time…
It was a time when wrestling was the most talked about thing in the playground. When Jake set his pet snake onto Savage days before Survivor Series 1991, when two friends collided for the Intercontinental Title – twice – in Piper and then Davey Boy, both against Bret Hart. When Earthquake squashed Hogan, when Papa Shango caused Warrior to convulse. When Flair showed up in WWE and told everyone he was ‘the real world champion’. I could go on for ages about some of the memorable moments that got me going as a pre-teen. I wasn’t smart to he business back then. I knew it was a work but I didn’t know how it was all done and it is a time I often long for as a wrestling fan.
I’m not going to get into a debate about what era was better as I don’t truly know where my own opinion is on that subject so I’m just going to talk about some of my favourite stars from days gone by. Anyone who reads my columns regularly will not be surprised to read that most of my faves were great workers and they’re not the cartoon conveyor belt of gimmicks such as Doink, Repo Man, Nailz, etc.
My first favourites from the late 80s are unfortunately all no longer with us. Mr. Perfect Curt Hennig, Texas Tornado Kerry Von Eric and Ravishing Rick Rude were my favourite singles stars when I first started watching wrestling…closely followed by one of the inspirations for this column – Ted Dibiase. I always gravitated towards the heels…I still do! Kerry Von Erich aside, I always loved watched the promos of three of the companies top heels in Dibiase, Hennig and Rude and most of the wrestling industry today couldn’t touch them for promo skills…and wrestling too for that matter but I said I wasn’t going to go down that road!
As I continued to watch wrestling I began to love the work of mainstays like Randy Savage, Jimmy Snuka and another inspiration of this column – Roddy Piper. I couldn’t help but love Davey Boy, initially due to his English heritage then due to his ability and I loved The Rockers, then later, a cocky young ultra heelish Shawn Michaels. Later I enjoyed the young Owen Hart’s wrestling ability and was lucky enough to see if heel turn in late ‘93 (I think) before I stopped watching wrestling again until 1999.
Before that though, as I got access to WCW footage, I learnt that WWF weren’t the only mainstream American wrestling organisation. The Four Horsemen, particularly Blanchard, Arn and Flair, Ricky Steamboat, Nikita Koloff, ‘Stunning’ Steve Austin, Ron Simmons, Cactus Jack and Big Van Vader were all favourites of mine.
Let’s not leave it at that though. The legends didn’t just grace the ring. Gorilla Monsoon, Jesse Ventura, Mean Gene Okerlund and Bobby Heenan were awesome announcers and Heenan was also a legendary manager. That profession is also strongly represented by Jimmy Hart, Jim Cornette, Mr Fuji and Paul E Dangerously.
Everywhere you look in the late 80s and early 90s there were guys that have become etched in wrestling folklore. I haven’t even mentioned other legends such as Hogan, Big Boss Man, Sting, Bret Hart…again the list is endless but I have used this column to talk about the legends I loved and while those guys and many more are equally legends, some more than others, I wanted to remember the legends I loved. Unfortunately some of them are no longer with us but through their footage (I now have a collection of every WWF / WWE pay-per-view from the late 80s onwards thanks to my good mate Speedy) we can remember them in all their glory back when they were the best the business had to offer.
fye@wrestle-zone.co.uk
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