Wrestling's Greatest Moments

Mike Rickard

Description

Every fan of professional wrestling remembers the moment that captured their heart forever and hooked them for life. Mike Rickard's Wrestling's Greatest Moments brings readers all the controversial and memorable events from modern wrestling history.

Sujets

• Lucha libre profesional
• Wrestling

Informations

• Publié par: Ecw Press
• Date de parution: 15 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781554903313
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

WRESTLING’S GREATEST MOMENTS
WRESTLING’S GREATEST MOMENTS
MIKE RICKARD
Copyright © Mike Rickard, 2008
Published by ECW Press 2120 Queen Street East, Suite 200 Toronto, Ontario, Canada M 4 E 1E 2 416.694.3348 / [e-mail]
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any process — electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise — without the prior written permission of the copyright owners and ECW Press.
LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION
Rickard, Mike Wrestling’s greatest moments / Mike Rickard.
ISBN 978-1-55022-841-0
I. Wrestling — History. I. Title.
GV11 95. R 53 2008                  796.812                   c2008-902418-4
Editor: Michael Holmes Cover Photos: Matt Balk Typesetting: Gail Nina Printing: Printcrafters
This book is set in Adobe Garamond and Trajan
PRINTED AND BOUND IN CANADA
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
Introduction
CHAPTER ONE: THE GREATEST MOMENTS
CHAPTER TWO: THE SUPERCARDS
CHAPTER THREE: THE TERRITORIES (1977–1983)
CHAPTER FOUR: TELEVISION
CHAPTER FIVE: THE ROCK AND WRESTLING ERA (1984–1989)
CHAPTER SIX: THE MATCHES
CHAPTER SEVEN: THE BEATDOWNS
CHAPTER EIGHT: THE TURNS
CHAPTER NINE: WE CAN’T HAVE ANYTHING NICE AROUND HERE! (CELEBRATIONS GONE WRONG)
CHAPTER TEN: THE INDUSTRY STAGGERS (1990–1994)
CHAPTER ELEVEN: THE PIER SIX BRAWLS
CHAPTER TWELVE: THE MONDAY NIGHT WAR (1995–2001)
CHAPTER THIRTEEN: HE’S NOT SUPPOSED TO BE HERE!
CHAPTER FOURTEEN: CONTEMPORARY (2001–PRESENT)
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Success has a thousand fathers, and failure is an orphan. . . .
I’ve always wondered why so many writers have phonebook size acknowledgments, now I know. This book would never have happened without the help of many, chief among them Derek “The Dean” Burgan and Sir James Guttman. Derek got me started writing about wrestling for his site Gumgod.com and James encouraged me to write for World Wrestling Insanity. Both are great guys, and both represent the new generation of wrestling journalists — people who respect the sport but aren’t afraid to question. Thanks also go out to Stu Saks from Pro Wrestling Illustrated for giving me a shot as well.
Special thanks to my editor Michael Holmes who was nothing short of amazing in helping to make this happen. His guidance and encouragement helped keep this project on track and helped me keep my sanity. Thanks also to Mallory Mahling who read the book back when it was still just a manuscript. Thanks to David Dale for proofreading and offering some much needed constructive criticism. I’d also like to thank the legions of fans online that filled me in on angles I hadn’t had the chance to see.
During the last year, I’ve had a lot of encouragement from friends and family. Thanks to my parents, my brother Dave and his family, Laura, Tabby, Mighty Mel, Chris, and everyone else who asked, “How’s the book coming?” and rallied me to make it the best it could be.
Of course, none of this would have happened without my grandmother; she got me hooked on wrestling and believed in me when not too many other people did. This book is for her and the generations of fans who have enjoyed the sport of kings.
And, last but not least, thanks to the men and women who have given so much to make professional wrestling one of the greatest forms of entertainment in the world.
INTRODUCTION
Hey! Gotta gotta pay back!! (The big payback) Revenge!! I’m mad (the big payback) Got to get back! Need some get back!! Pay Back! (The big payback) That’s it!! Payback!!! Revenge!!! I’m mad!!
—“The Payback,” James Brown
At its heart, professional wrestling is about two men (or women) settling their differences through violence. There is no problem that can’t be settled by pinning someone’s shoulders to the mat or beating a foe senseless within the confines of the squared circle. This formula has sustained over the sport for its 100-plus year history and continues to do so today.
In the beginning, ticket sales were the lifeblood of the wrestling business. While “putting asses in the seats” might not be recognized as a classic business model, it sums up the foundation of any successful wrestling promotion. With the advent of television and pay-per-view, ticket sales to live events, while still important, were no longer the only way for a promoter to bring in money. Nevertheless, promotional angles are still what draw in the fans, whether they’re buying a ticket, ordering a pay-per-view, or watching television.
What makes a promotional angle (hereafter referred to simply as an “angle”) great? For the purposes of this book, I’ve considered their originality, impact on future generations, and box-office success. Not all great angles have led to big bucks at the box office, but they’ve been memorable nonetheless. Even when a storyline is executed perfectly, all sorts of external factors can affect its success. At the same time, some historic angles were seen by a relatively small audience, but were just as important as those seen widely today: the proof is in the fact that their quality was recognized and later copied by others.
So sit back and let’s revisit some of wrestling’s most memorable moments from the last thirty years.
CHAPTER 1 THE GREATEST MOMENTS

All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players: They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts . . .
— As You Like It , William Shakespeare
When the principles play their parts well, professional wrestling is a thing of beauty, as much an art form as anything else seen on stage, television, or in the cinema. Professional wrestling elicits strong emotions, whether it’s hatred for a heinous act committed by a heel (wrestling slang for villain) or delight in a babyface (the wrestler playing the hero)’s hard-fought victory. That, combined with the amazing displays of athletic ability makes professional wrestling unique. Whether it’s called performance art, soap opera, or sports entertainment, wrestling is a complicated art form that has entertained people from all walks of life for generations.
In The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories , Christopher Booker posits that all of the world’s narratives can be broken down into any one of seven categories (such as overcoming the monster, rags to riches, and the journey/quest). While this may be true, storytellers have had no problem keeping things interesting. By the 1980s, film critics proclaimed the western dead, only to see a resurgence in the genre with movies like Silverado , Young Guns , Tombstone , and Unforgiven . People weren’t tired of westerns; they were just tired of the bad westerns Hollywood had been producing for so long.
With wrestling, it’s easy to see that there are classic storylines, angles exploited time and time again — the quest for a championship, revenge for being wronged, and the friend-turned-enemy (or the enemy-turned-friend) are just some of the most obvious. Anyone who has watched wrestling for a while has seen the same stories played out time after time, but they can still be entertained — as long as each new story is told well. That’s the secret of good storytelling and it’s the secret of good promotion. The same fans who watched Paul Orndorff turn on his friend Hulk Hogan could be entertained years later when Shawn Michaels turned on his partner Marty Jannetty. The story was essentially the same, but it was just as fun to watch because of how it was told.
While what goes on inside the ring is important, the story behind the match is just as crucial. Before a wrestling card or program can take place, the stories and angles that establish the motivation for the confrontations in the squared circle have to be put in place. Two wrestlers can put on an excellent in-ring exhibition but, with few exceptions, the best matches are the ones with compelling storylines driving them. A match does not have to be a five-star classic to succeed. Some of the weakest matches in terms of workrate or technical prowess have been considered classics because of the buildup behind them. Consider the showdown between Andre the Giant and Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania III . While the match itself was nothing special in terms of the action (nor was it, as it was billed at the time, their first meeting), the buildup was so strong the WWF sold out the Pontiac Silverdome and made millions off pay-per-view buys. The story of Hogan defending his WWF belt against his former friend and mentor, the undefeated Andre the Giant, became the stuff of legend.
What follows are the very best wrestling stories from the last thirty years. Every one changed the industry and the people involved and around them. These angles took wrestlers to new levels of fame and in some way transformed the industry.
1. WRESTLEMANIA
When there was not enough whale oil or coal oil, there were not enough lamps to go around. Some said that what was needed was social engineering, to move more people to the lamplight available. What was really needed was one Edison.
—R. Buckminster Fuller
Inspired by the success of a rival, Jim Crockett Promotions ( JCP ), and its big wrestling show Starrcade, and driven by his dream of transforming the World Wrestling Federation ( WWF ) from a regional promotion into a national one, Vince McMahon met with advisors in the fall of 1984. Under discussion were plans for a show he hoped would make Starrcade look like the high school gymnasium cards the WWF ran in small venues for fundraisers. Starrcade had brought in over half a million dollars of additional revenue by airing on closed circuit television in arenas across three states. McMahon was going to outdo JCP by broadcasting his show across the country, and in the process establish the WWF as a national brand.
While he’s often referred to as Vince McMahon Jr., the WWE chairman’s full name is Vincent Kennedy McMaho