Thoughts about WWE. Who is your current favourite?

["Issues"Mcgee]

Papa Shango.

[AngeloV]

The 70's and 80's were the golden decades of wrestling IMO, enjoyed the Love Brothers, Johnny Powers, Edward Carpentier, the Beast etc.
The 1980's brought Hulk Hogan, Beefcake, Bundy, Orndorff, The Ravishing One etc, however it was the comedic genius of many of yesterday's managers that made the difference for me starting with Bobby "The Brain" Heenan who was the absolute best, Luscious Johnny Valiant, Classy Freddie Blassie, Slick and Jimmy Hart.

To be totally honest, I hated when Jack Tunney brought WWF into this market in 1984. I used to love going to the Gardens for Maple Leaf wrestling shows featuring the stars of Mid Atlantic championship wrestling. We went from having a Gardens show every 2nd or 3rd Sunday, with Ric Flair in his prime wrestling great 30+ minute matches against the likes of Ricky Steamboat, Roddy Piper, Greg Valentine, Wahoo McDaniels..just to name a few, to watching Hulk Hogan wrestle for 8 minutes with 15 minutes of posing after the match. It just wasn't nearly as entertaining and they had considerably less Gardens shows as well.

[Argo57]

To be totally honest, I hated when Jack Tunney brought WWF into this market in 1984. I used to love going to the Gardens for Maple Leaf wrestling shows featuring the stars of Mid Atlantic championship wrestling. We went from having a Gardens show every 2nd or 3rd Sunday, with Ric Flair in his prime wrestling great 30+ minute matches against the likes of Ricky Steamboat, Roddy Piper, Greg Valentine, Wahoo McDaniels..just to name a few, to watching Hulk Hogan wrestle for 8 minutes with 15 minutes of posing after the match. It just wasn't nearly as entertaining and they had considerably less Gardens shows as well.

Hogan benefited from his "Thunderlips" character in the Rocky film which helped propel him to stardom in the WWF.
His ring skills were always limited but he had the look and some charisma.

[rdavies]

Does anyone remember The Superstars of Wrestling back in the 1970s with George Cannon, El Santo #1, El Santo #2, etc., Otto Von Heller, Edouard Carpentier, Mad Dog Vachon and many others?

Mad Dog Vachon came 40 years too early. He would have been perfect for UFC. He was an accomplished amateur wrestler (7th in the 48 Olympics and British Empire Games Gold medalist in 1950) and one of the most vicious bar fighters of all time, a lethal combination, and he was only 5'7"

Legend has it that at the Olympics he was screwed out of getting to the semi finals and the official Olympic record does bear that out. He would take on all comers and old timers are surprised that he never killed anybody.

[Will]

To be totally honest, I hated when Jack Tunney brought WWF into this market in 1984. I used to love going to the Gardens for Maple Leaf wrestling shows featuring the stars of Mid Atlantic championship wrestling. We went from having a Gardens show every 2nd or 3rd Sunday, with Ric Flair in his prime wrestling great 30+ minute matches against the likes of Ricky Steamboat, Roddy Piper, Greg Valentine, Wahoo McDaniels..just to name a few, to watching Hulk Hogan wrestle for 8 minutes with 15 minutes of posing after the match. It just wasn't nearly as entertaining and they had considerably less Gardens shows as well.

There is no disputing that the quality of match one got from many of the existing NWA territories was superior to the WWF's product. I thought WWF had a Toronto show once every month at least (at the beginning). I count close to 20 cards in 1985 which is more than 1 a month. From what I understand, once Vince McMahon started expanding nationally, the Mid-Atlantic promotion decided to hold many of their top stars from Toronto shows which had the adverse effect of pushing Tunney to the New York camp.

I understood the purpose of WWF Superstars because the emphasis in the 1980's was still very much on the house show, but I don't understand why someone would fork out money to watch dozens of two minute squash matches? Remember that they filmed several episodes at a time.

[ArgoRavi]

Used to love that show.

Crude, Rude and Ignorant..Milt used to use that line for Sailor White.

Milt was a great wrestling announcer. When he called Montreal based International Wrestling, he had Cowboy Trey Travis as the colour commentator. Had the pleasure of getting to know him about 10 years ago, a very nice, yet scary man. Even in his 60's not someone you'd want to mess with. He had a boxing background and the biggest fists I have ever seen.

Sailor White from Newfoundland had a younger brother who he tag teamed with. Otto Von Heller was the one guy who especially frightened me as a young child. When I was 7 or 8, I thought that I would not want to see that guy walking down the street.

I remember the International Wrestling from the 1980s although I didn't get to see much of it as I had to work on Saturday afternoons when it aired. I had a friend who was really into it though so he would update me each week on what had happened. We actually had two International Wrestling events in northeastern Ontario where I am from and we went to both of them. My friend even handed a wrestler a chair to use when all kinds of chaos broke out at the end of one of those events.

[AngeloV]

Sailor White from Newfoundland had a younger brother who he tag teamed with. Otto Von Heller was the one guy who especially frightened me as a young child. When I was 7 or 8, I thought that I would not want to see that guy walking down the street.

I remember the International Wrestling from the 1980s although I didn't get to see much of it as I had to work on Saturday afternoons when it aired. I had a friend who was really into it though so he would update me each week on what had happened. We actually had two International Wrestling events in northeastern Ontario where I am from and we went to both of them. My friend even handed a wrestler a chair to use when all kinds of chaos broke out at the end of one of those events.

Their fans were real diehards. I remember watching on TV when Abdullah the Butcher laid a serious beating on Jaques Rougeau, and all the ringside fans started throwing their chairs into the ring at Abdullah. The next week, the Rougeau brothers got their revenge on Abdullah, as well as pummeling 60+ year old manager Eddie Creatchman. That was absolutely hilarious and had the good story of the baby faces getting their revenge.

[rdavies]

The next week, the Rougeau brothers got their revenge on Abdullah, as well as pummeling 60+ year old manager Eddie Creatchman. That was absolutely hilarious and had the good story of the baby faces getting their revenge (see Dynamite Kid reference below).

Great interview with Ray Rougeau on YouTube. While Jacques was self admittedly "a lover not a fighter" mild mannered, polite Ray was a renowned tough guy not to be messed with, in the business.

In the interview, he recounts a story of straightening out Zarinoff Lebeouf who had taken advantage of an inexperienced Armand Rougeau and of course details the story of the infamous Jacques Rougeau/Dynamite Kid incident for 30 minutes. That story never gets old and of course ol' Ray is there backing up the family.

[AngeloV]

Great interview with Ray Rougeau on YouTube. While Jacques was self admittedly "a lover not a fighter" mild mannered, polite Ray was a renowned tough guy not to be messed with, in the business.

In the interview, he recounts a story of straightening out Zarinoff Lebeouf who had taken advantage of an inexperienced Armand Rougeau and of course details the story of the infamous Jacques Rougeau/Dynamite Kid incident for 30 minutes. That story never gets old and of course ol' Ray is there backing up the family.

Yes, I had recently seen that interview. It was pretty good stuff.

[Will]

Papa Shango.

"Man, I'd hate to meet Mama Shango" - Bobby Heenan, Wrestlemania VII