The SmarK 24/7 Rant for Tuesday Night Titans - 9/20/85
- Yay, cable is hooked up again after the move, so it's back to WWE 24/7 and more cheesy talk-show goodness with your hosts Vince McMahon and Lord Alfred Hayes.
- Tonight's first guests are Johnny V and the newly crowned tag team champions, Greg Valentine & Brutus Beefcake. To celebrate the victory, we get clips of a squash. Vince is aghast at the way they won the belts (lit cigar to the face of Barry Windham, which is a finish surprisingly not stolen since then), but Valentine claims that it was just good hard work. Wisely, Beefcake keeps quiet because he couldn't cut promos worth shit back then. So Vince shows the title change like he's an investigative journalist and it's some big surprise that it would be shown, and the champs find it hilarious. It just proves that smoking really IS dangerous. Johnny V elaborates on the Dream Team's previous lies, noting that he doesn't partake in either tobacco or alcohol and only stays at non-smoking hotels. We get an interview with Windham, who is wearing an eye-patch like he's Scotty Riggs or something, and he of course vows to return. They ALL say that. Windham in fact did NOT return, and jumped back to the NWA, leaving Rotundo stuck with Danny Spivey as his new partner. Valentine gets a parting shot, accusing Windham of trying out a new pirate gimmick, and they storm off to end the segment.
- Down in Tampa, we get footage of B. Brian Blair and Paul Orndorff helping to train kids for amateur wrestling. Orndorff accuses one of the 10-year olds of having a loaded kneepad, but not much else of note here.
- Now we're really scraping the bottom of the barrel, as the next guest is jobber Steve Gatorwolf. Vince talks about breaking the stereotypes of the Indian wrestler, and then we get a clip of Gatorwolf winning a squash doing nothing but chops and wardancing. The irony is not lost on me. His victim is the ultra-generic Mr. X, it should be noted, who looks more like a star than the pudgy and bland Gatorwolf did. Gatorwolf gives an interview about living up to the standards set by Jay Strongbow (himself just a WWF-ized ripoff of Wahoo MacDaniel) but ended up as a jobber just weeks after this.
- Next up, Magnificent Muraco and Mr. Fuji, as I hope for some Fuji Vice to save this show. Sadly no, as Muraco squashes Jimmy Jackson with a tombstone instead. Alfred is scared for the health of the jobber, and Muraco chalks it up to years of practice at hurting people. Vince questions the acting skills of Fuji and Muraco (as if he's one to talk) and apparently next week they'll get to demonstrate with a performance of Fuji General Hospital. That's a pretty funny one, so I'm looking forward to it. And with that, we wrap it up.
The Pulse:
Bah, nothing to work with in this one. Next week has potential, however.
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`Tags: 24, 24/7, Dream Team, Greg Valentine, Lost, NWA, Rants, TNT, Vince McMahon, WWE, WWF
Great Job Scott! Im amazed you stayed awake through the whole show. The recap would have been funny if you were falling asleep at random intervals. Vince talks about breaking zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz….snort..sorry breaking stereotypes.
I started watching just before the Dream Team broke up, and the “New Dream Team” formed. However, anytime I see an old Dream Team match, I’m usually thoroughly impressed. Did they always bring the goods, or is it just that the better matches have crossed my path?
The Dream Team were a case of Valentine bringing the goods and Beefcake being smart enough to stand on the apron and let him carry the team. What they did, they did very effectively.
The Dream Team definitely brought the goods and I watched all of their run. They may not have been the awesome force that Demolition and the Hart Foundation were who followed them as top heel tag team, but they were a million times better than the Sheik / Volkoff team whose spot they took as top heel tag team. Yes, Valentine carried the in ring work, but Ed Leslie had a definite look and showed flashes of what would later get him over huge as the Barber. I would have rather given them Jimmy Hart or Heenan as a manager because I never got into Valiant, but it was the heat of the Dream Team that got the Bulldogs over so big when they hit the WWF.
Some other thoughts / questions:
1. Who was Steve Gatorwolf? I do not remember him at all. McMahon seems to love the Native American stereotypes. I am not into political correctness so I do not get offended by it, but I find it dull (see Tatanka) because if you have seen the act once you have seen it a million times.
2. Did Brian Blair work Orndorff as a single? I only remember Blair in the Killer Bees in the WWF. I mark out hard for Blair no matter what Iron Sheik thinks of him. That 10 year old with the loaded knee pad was lucky to be taught the basics by these 2 legends.
3. Was Fuji General Hospital as good as Fuji Vice? I did not have cable back when they did those skits. I cry now whenever I watch Fuji Vice, it was awesome. Those type skits would have made Muraco a bigger face than his tye dye / steroid combination did.
The one thing I remember beefcake doing well was the high knee. Thats about it. Oh and Im sure Scott remembers the swank hammerlock he threw on dynamite kid, where he grabbed him in the hammerlock and lifted him in the air and just dropped him on the arm. I remember seeing that as a kid and thinking how sick that was.