Comments on: The SmarK 24/7 Rant for PrimeTime Wrestling – September 1 1991

By: Jabroniville2

Jabroniville2 — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 20:09:44 +0000

Wow, Herb Kunze. That brings back memories… I remember being in University and reading the entire archives of his Wrestling Tidbits. He all of a sudden quit around the Stephanie McMahon era, and I’ve never heard word one from him since. I guess he permanently stopped watching or left the IWC by that time. He always had good commentaries on the events at the time.

By: dwarzel

dwarzel — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 15:33:04 +0000

I remember hype (either on TV or in WWF Magazine) for the main event of Summerslam 91 (Hogan/Warrior vs. Slaughter/Mustafa/Adnan), where it was mentioned that this was the first tag team match featuring four WWF champions. Whether *that* was true or not, who knows, but this was a case of WWE acknowledging Mustafa’s past.

Now if they had acknowledged Gen. Adnan’s former identity as WWF tag team champion Billy White Wolf, *that* would have been something.

By: Kenny

Kenny — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 03:08:18 +0000

I only ever knew Steamboat as Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat before this thread. I’ve never really watched anything from the NWA, though.

By: Sturm316

Sturm316 — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 01:10:54 +0000

“Eddie Ellner” is actually real person Eddie Ellner:

http://www.layogamagazine.com/issue43/departments/eddie_ellner.htm

By: musicnerd

musicnerd — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 21:28:10 +0000

VKM mentioned it on one of the shows shortly after the Simba gimmick debuted.

“Eddie Ellner” from PWI had the greatest synopsis of Saba Simba. “Simba stants for See I’m Makin’ Bucks Again”.

By: manwithnolife85

manwithnolife85 — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 20:03:28 +0000

Weird, it’s on mine at the very end. The copy I have is from the original 1991 “bigger box era” release.

By: manwithnolife85

manwithnolife85 — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 20:02:29 +0000

“Piper sometimes goes into business for himself on commentary (Hey it’s Tony Atlas!).”

True, but WWF Magazine from early 1991 (I have it, I just forget the issue) blatantly states that Saba Simba was Tony Atlas. Something about going to Africa and getting his headdress and how his name means seven lions, etc etc. So I don’t think they were necessarily trying to keep it a giant secret.

Likewise at Summerslam ‘91, ‘The Dragon’ is referred to as a former IC champ.

I don’t think they really tried to go out of their way to acknowledge the past, but I don’t think they made too big a deal about hiding it either, at least regarding the guys discussed above…

By: pure_dynamite

pure_dynamite — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 12:50:05 +0000

Its not on my Coliseum release.

By: chrisC

chrisC — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 07:31:08 +0000

I just mentioned it because they were straight forward acknowledgements that even mentioned specific matches from years prior. In contrast was Harley Race, who was just “an international superstar in other organizations”.

Also, if it was Vince’s intent to make to completely re-invent Steamboat, he didn’t do himself any favors because both he and Piper on commentary would refer to him as “Steamboat” instead of “The Dragon” at times. I remember Vince, months into Steamboat’s 1991 run, introducing a match on Prime Time Wrestling and calling him Ricky ‘The Dragon’ Steamboat instead of just “The Dragon”.

By: DrVenkman

DrVenkman — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 06:39:28 +0000

It may be on the Coliseum release. It’s not on the recent DVD though