Hey Scott,
The incredible speed of the whole Tiger Woods meltdown got me to thinking about what would have happened if the technology of today was available in the 80's. Would Hulkamania have taken root, or would the coked out parties and steroid injections have been captured by an intrepid fan, posted on YouTube, and snuffed it out in its infancy? Or would Fritz von Erich have been able to spin the media to protect his sons, or would footage of _their_ drugged out escapades do an end run around the spin and shut down World Class early on as well?
I'm convinced that the whole wrestling boom of the 80's, fueled by keyfabe hero worhship, would never have happened, and that pro wrestling today would probably have evolved from the NWA. If anything, Ric Flair's bad boy reputation would have been enhanced by all of the paparazzi coverage, and the dominant form of wrestling today would probably be some combination of Mid-Atlantic booking and ROH athleticism.
Or am I simply underestimating Vince's power to manipulate people, and everything would have played out just the same?
Well for example, there were well-circulated stories of Kerry Von Erich’s foot falling off during a match with Col. DeBeers, but no one believed it at the time because it was so preposterous to think about. And the internet was alive and well in 1997 when the Montreal Screwjob went down, but even with all the footage available people still didn’t get the whole story (or choose to believe it in some cases) until years afterwards. So I think it’s as much a product of the fan mindset as it is a product of the technology that things have changed into a TMZ-fueled world. Hell, I watch TMZ every day, so I’m as guilty as the next person of getting dragged into it. Point being, one thing is not independent of the other. Even with the technology available, people would have chosen to still believe in Hogan no matter if he was caught with a needle in his ass (like he practically was on the Arsenio Hall show that one time).
OK, let your boy know…
his foot falling off? I’m only going to assume he has a prosthetic foot?
I’ve never followed anything from World Class, so I know nothing of the Von Erichs.
In 1986, Kerry suffered severe foot and ankle injuries in a motorcycle accident. He endured numerous operations over the next two years, but at some point during that period, doctors had to remove it (it’s unclear exactly when).
Seeing as Kerry was considered as a “Von Erich god” for WCCW, at least to his dad (which is a whole different long story), and Kerry didn’t know much else, he was rushed back into the ring by ‘88. He wore a prosthetic boot, with tassels streaming down to help cover it up, and limped around the ring as best he could.
Somewhere in ‘88, during a match at a house show, another wrestler grabbed Kerry by the foot as he was attempting to get back into the ring. Ostensibly, that wrestler didn’t know about the missing foot, and the boot came off, just leaving a sock-covered stump. Kerry quickly grabbed his boot, put his legs under the ring apron, and put the boot back on. Needless, to say, those who saw it were shocked as all hell.
As for how many people knew about it beforehand, that depends on who you talk to. But WCCW was pretty fanatical about keeping this and other Von Erich “mishaps” under wraps, no pun intended. Kerry kept wrestling upon the prosthetic boot, even in the WWF, until he killed himself in Feb. ‘93. Just a sad story all around.
The wrestler in question was Col. DeBeers, so this must have been during the WCCW/AWA/CWA alliance days since I’m sure DeBeers was working for Verne Gagne in 1988. Which probably explains how the story got out, because if it had happened in World Class, the wrestlers would have taken a vow of silence and the fans would have dismissed it as another trick by those lousy Freebirds.
I’m exaggerating, of course, but not by much.
The Von Erich thing in Texas was really beyond belief. Hulk Hogan was a life-sized cartoon character that kiddies loved and their parents found entertaining. The Von Erichs were beloved and revered. My favorite (possibly apocryphal) Von Erich story is Kerry shwoing up zonked out of his mind for a match with Flair- Flair carries him to a 30 or 60 minute draw where Kerry is obviously out of it. After the match, Flair throws the NWA belt on the floor of the dressing room, saying that Kerry had disrespected all the guys who worked so hard and did so much to make it the top prize that it once was.
The topper of it all is that Fritz then has the balls to show the match on TV and discuss how Kerry heroically wrestled the match with a 102 degree fever. That was one messed up family.
Flair talks about that in his book, he claimed at one point Kerry did a sunset flip to Flair and rolled him up for a pin. Only he didn’t roll Flair up for a pin, but some invisible person next to Flair.
Pretty messed up if you asked me.
Kerry also spent the first 30 minutes of the match more concerned with finding some cute girl he met before the show, believing her to be in the crowd.
All the TMZ-style video in the world wouldn’t have done much to burst the Von Erich bubble – Fritz was VERY well-connected in the DFW Metroplex, and the local media there were all too willing to present whatever spin he wanted them to. Even Irv Muchnick’s article in Penthouse had very little effect at the time it was published.
Also, Kerry’s amputation was known within the business. Most of the guys had noticed that he didn’t shower backstage without his boots on. It was kayfabed not because of any potential embarrassment, but because there were still state athletic commissions who wouldn’t license amputees.
While I don’t think the exposure of professional wrestling’s underbelly would have completely stopped its’ growth (it certainly didn’t during the late 1990’s), it might have required a different approach by Vince McMahon since the ‘good clean family entertainment!’ line might have been harder to swallow if some ringrat had produced a cellphone video of the Hulkster snorting coke to Hard Copy. Or if some WWF minion decided to spill the beans about the alleged sexual abuse and misconduct backstage to ET. Or if one of Piper’s supposed ‘male companions’ sold his story to A Current Affair. And so on. Plus, one would think that such technology would have made building a solid case against Vince much easier for the feds, but then again one should never underestimate the government’s capacity for failure.
Speaking of which, I’m actually surprised that we still haven’t seen an E! True Hollywood Story: World Wrestling Entertainment episode yet.
While I was reading Hogan’s newest book, where he admits to all the drugs and booze he did in the 1980s and 90s, I kept thinking about how he would never be able to get away with that in today’s environment and I can’t imagine Hulkamania getting as big as it got if the cameras and everything were as bad then as they are now. I felt the same thing reading Bret Hart’s book. Mostly, it left me feeling a bit empty. I watched and worshipped these guys growing up and now, all of a sudden, I find out that “take your vitamins” actually meant steroids and blow. Heartbreaking.
Ehh, I reconciled the fact that celebs and athletes behave badly a long time ago. If I worried about who did drugs all the time I wouldn’t have any music to enjoy.
Amen
100% on the money.
Not only that, if any of us had millions of dollars and hot ass women were throwing themselves at us…I would say that the vast majority would not pass on that situation.
I’ll tell you who’s figured this game out, Derek Jeter. The guy is banging some hot new piece of ass every other week and is single, so no headaches. He’s been quoted as saying that he won’t settle down until after his playing days are over. Now that’s smart…and I hate the Yankees.
Derek Jeter is a piece of shit. Nevertheless, he’s smart on that angle. Its why he’s never going to be involved in a Tiger Woods-esque angle. If you are famous and rich and male, never get married until you are out of the spotlight.
That being said, Jeter manipulates the media a lot, with his teammates being accomplices. He parties very hard, but the media refuses to report it since he willingly gives up interviews to them. David Wells covered for him saying Jeter doesn’t party like he does, when Jeter closes down places long after Wells leaves. Jeter’s also been known to take a crack at other guys’ women—teammates, other celebrities, etc. He’s just too damn slick to piss off anyone worth caring about.
I think everyone has lost perspective because there was a ton of negative stuff that came out about the WWF and wrestling in general throughout the 80s. Remember when Hulk Hogan beat up that comedian? Dr. D slapping John Stossel? Jim Duggan & Iron Shiek getting arrested with pot? Everything that happened with the Von Erichs? And let’s not forget the Vince/steroid stuff was going on for a long time before it actually came to trial. This stuff made news in the 80s.
Maybe I have a different view since I lived near NYC and the NY Post & NY Daily News were tabloids but I remember reading about a lot of WWF/wrestling scandals as a kid in the 80s.
We act like there wasn’t tabloid journalism before TMZ…it’s always been there, it’s just that we get more of it. For example, if this Tiger Woods thing happened in say, 1985, there would still be a shitton of coverage on it. And it’s the same news…it just keeps getting repeated over and over and over again. Today’s scandals are the same as yesterday’s scandals.
The conclusion to my rambling rant….Hulk Hogan coming off of Rocky III would have been a huge megastar no matter the time, place, culture, etc. and no scandal short of a Benoit situation would have stopped him.
All good points. Hard Copy and Inside Edition in the 1980s were to what TMZ is in the here and now. Lots of crazy stories were told and forgotten about the next the day or talked about for awhile and it’s no different now. Small hand-held camera’s have certainly led to more incriminating evidence in some cases, but for the most part it’s still basically the same stuff.
The big scandals make the big news anyways — I think the only story that non-wrestling fans will be able to recall in the future is the Benoit situation (only it’ll be “that wrestler guy that killed his family”).
What scandals have really impacted wrestling anyways, in terms of popularity?
I don’t think the steroid stuff hurt the WWF that much — by the time they put the title on the Warrior, business was on a downward trend and that continued through and beyond the most damaging news reports on steroid abuse. I think people were just getting sick of wrestling, as it was seen as mostly a fad. We went from having people like Muhammad Ali involved with WrestleMania to having substantial mic time for D-list guys like Chuck Norris and Lou Ferrigno at WrestleMania 7.
Do you think that the Benoit murders impact the WWE’s bottom line?
I would argue that the internet DOES make a difference though. When I was watching wrestling in the 80s I didn’t see any of these stories outside of Schulz and Stossel. The tabloid journalism shows like Current affair and Hard Copy didn’t hit until the early 90s and I argue that most wrestling fans were not their audience. Mainstream news shows (which again I would argue that wrestling fans are generally not huge viewers of the nightly news) hardly touched on the scandals. Now with 24 hour news cycles that always need something to fill up time and an internet where you can type in keyword “wrestling” and see tons of stories about the lurid past and present of wrestling, most wrestling fans are up on the bad stuff. I think NYC may have given a different view with the tabloids and being the center of the WWF universe. I think people are forgetting how 1985 really was. Celebrity stories were not what they are now. People didnt’ know the term paparazzi. E network was not around. You had local news and a 30 minute national news on 3 networks. Fox didn’t exist. CNN was just starting out and ESPN was minor leagues still. A so called “big story” like Vince and steroids probably got played the first time the case was filed for 30 seconds on the nightly news. Subsequent mentions would have only been if the case was settled. And not to be mean to NWA88 but Hard Copy and Inside Edition both started in 1989. And they tended to focus more on lurid crime stories and political scandals unless it was mega huge like Rob Lowe. They kind of stuff TMZ does, focusing on the day to day doings of Lindsey Lohan and Paris Hilton was not the focus of those tabloid tv shows.
Nah, you are right. I was generally thinking late 1980s anyways and not so much in the run-up to Hogan’s big push. There was surely even less of this kind of stuff in 1983/1984. Not to pick nits, but I believe Inside Edition started a few years before Hard Copy did. Even still though, as you said more in the prime of Vince-A-Hulka-mania than in the lead up to it.
I’m just saying that these stories certainly made the rounds back then as they do now and have a similar amount of impact. There might be a TON more information out there, but as you said — people have to type in “wrestling” in Google to find it. Even though it’s much more easily accessible doesn’t mean that most people give a crap about looking for it. There are lots of other things to look up, such as whether Lindsey Lohan is still alive today or if Adam Lambert has made out with any other male band members on stage. Wrestling still seems pretty low on the food chain of trash-tv.
True. And don’t forget that the news media often treats celebrities and sports stars with kid gloves, and their reporting on those issues is very light. Despite these industries being multi-billion dollar cash cows with huge effects on the population, you’ll never hear of a network reporter doing undercover work on players throwing games, movie studios paying for hookers and blow for stars, etc. Network guys focused on politics.
It sounds like we may have lost Umaga. A damn shame if so.
The problem discussing this is that what has changed is not just the advent of the internet/twitter/cable TV etc, but also the whole phase wrestling went through in the 1990s of destroying keyfabe in order to appeal to a new generation of fans.
As anyone who posts here and is British knows during the 1970s and early 1980s there was a legendary wrestler on the British scene called Kendo Nagasaki. He was an insanely over heel whose gimmick was that he wrestled under a mask (simplier times – with 20 years hindsight the mask was clearly knitted by his mother). But the point is that he managed to keep keyfabe for over a decade without his identity getting out. Its hard to imagine a wrestler agreeing to do that now, especially as so much of their income comes from merchandsing, DVDs, appearances and even books.
Obviously its virtually impossible to keep things like Jeff Hardy’s arrest under wraps anymore, but it is still possible for the industry to key keyfabe if they really want to. The best example of that was John Cena entering the Royal Rumble when the WWE managed to keep that completely quiet. Right now if I was them I would be doing the same thing with Edge and telling all the fans that he is not due back until WM26, when they can bring him back fresh for the Royal Rumble or No Way Out (or Elimination Chamber if its called that now) either as a face or a heel.
RIP Umaga… I try to feel sad but I can’t anymore as this is just the usual news we receive every 9-12 months of a young wrestler losing their life unnecessarily. To be fair WWE tried to help him and he refused.
My thoughts and prays are with his family.
Wow, I’m just reading about this, but sites are reporting different things. Was Cocaine involved?
Looks like two heart attacks (the second coming in the hospital).
Speaking of time machines, it looks like you came from the future to report his death before it’s been officially confirmed?
Either way, no sympathy from me, because unfortunately these days with wrestling, you just have to assume before hearing the details that it was his own stupid decisions that caused this.
His passing has now been confirmed. As red29 said, he had a second heart attack while in the hospital.
It’s terrible that he died, but he could’ve prevented it, for sure. That being said, I absolutely LOVED the Umaga gimmick. He made a great monster heel & wasn’t too shabby a worker either.
Damn. He took a gimmick that nobody a chance to right up to the main event. But he wouldn’t have been at the bottom of anybody death pool.
I wish people would take better care of themselves.
RIP Umaga. When he made his debut as the Samoan Bulldozer, I rolled my eyes and assumed it would last a few weeks. Eddie Fatu got the character over and was an excellent wrestler. Everytime he was on Raw or Smackdown, I made sure I watched his match.
Feel very sorry for the way his wife found him.
I can’t believe Umaga died. It just doesn’t stop.
Kind of ironic that this news item comes up, given the topic of the blog entry…
This sucks. Umaga was my favourite wrestler during his first run. I like the Samoan guys, and Umaga made it even better by beating the tar out of Jeff Hardy and John Cena. His chemistry with Hardy was great.
A few years ago, my favourite wrestlers were Benoit, Angle, and Guerrero. More recently, it was Umaga, Finlay and MVP. I guess the best I can say now is that some of them are depushed and/or crazy, but at least alive. Yay.
Umaga is dead RIP.
His last match was against Ken Kennedy… his real name was Eddie.
Eddie Guerrero’s last match was against Ken Kennedy before he died.
If your name is Eddie NEVER wrestle KK.. it maybe your last.