The Oral History of WrestleMania — Part Three: What The World Is Watching
The following is a continued oral history of unsourced quotes from numerous interviews over the years about WrestleMania 2 and WrestleMania III, assembled by Wrestling Club with Darren & Brett, part of the non-profit radio station, WFMU.
Read Part 1: The Granddaddy of ’Em All
Read Part 2: Bigger. Better. Badder.
A CHAMPIONSHIP VACATED
KEVIN ECK (writer)
“The first meeting between Hogan and Andre since their Wrestlemania III clash was televised live, primetime on NBC, and drew an estimated audience of 33 million, making it the most viewed match in wrestling history. The storyline was that Andre wasn’t in it for the glory this time — he was in it for the money. Before the bout, Andre made a deal to sell the WWF title, if he defeated Hogan, to ‘The Million Dollar Man,’ Ted DiBiase.”
ROBERT HILBURN (writer, Los Angeles Times)
“Hebner was across the ring, trying, it appeared, to keep an ally of the giant from interfering with the match. When a frustrated Hogan walked over to talk to the referee, Andre, miraculously recovering from his beating, attacked the champion from behind, and leaping on top of him. Hogan clearly lifted his left shoulder after just two seconds. Hebner continued to count to three, making Andre the new champion.”
KEVIN ECK
“Just like that, Hogan’s championship run of more than four years was over, and Andre’s lone title reign lasted about a minute. Moments after the match, it was revealed that Hebner was the ‘evil twin’ of assigned referee Dave Hebner. WWF president Jack Tunney later ruled that Andre could not sell the championship, and he vacated the title and ordered a tournament to determine a new champion be held at Wrestlemania IV.”
CLASH OF THE CHAMPIONS
DAVE MELTZER (journalist)
“When Vince blocked Starrcade with Survivor Series, it was a good business move.”
BRYAN ALVAREZ (reporter, wrestler)
“Like McMahon with the first WrestleMania, Crockett was betting his company’s existence on this show being a success. McMahon, knowing the stakes were high for Crockett’s company, announced a few months later that he was going to be running a Thanksgiving night pay-per-view as well, the first annual Survivor Series. Crockett, not wanting to run head-to-head with McMahon, who was doing great pay-per-view numbers at the time, offered to move the Starrcade show to Thanksgiving afternoon. But Vince had other ideas.”
DUSTY RHODES (wrestler, booker)
“Jim and I knew they weren’t going to run our pay-per-view because Mr. McMahon backed them into a corner.”
DAVE MELTZER
“When [Vince] ran the free Royal Rumble opposite the Bunkhouse Stampede, it was nothing more than sabotage.”
JIM CORNETTE
It was the first time I ever stepped foot in [Long Island’s Nassau] Coliseum. We had no business being there. It was enemy territory. People didn’t get or like wrestling, they liked sports entertainment. It was Vince’s town. This was definitely the beginning of the end. Vince sabotaged their efforts to get the show on pay-per-view systems to aid the Royal Rumble, which was running the same night.”
PAT PATTERSON
“We had a special — I think it was the first-ever special live on USA Network — and it was a live show from Hamilton, Ontario. Dick Ebersol, for some reason, didn’t feel the card would be that exciting. Vince turns around and goes, ‘Pat, why don’t you tell Dick Ebersol your stupid idea.’ So I turned around and looked at Vince and I said, “Well first of all, it’s not a stupid idea.” I described what the concept would be and Dick Ebersol went crazy. He loved it. He said, ‘That would be so great for live television. Every two minutes another wrestler comes running in and you don’t know who it is until you hear the buzzer!’ So Vince went, ‘You’re on your own. You’re going to have to do it yourself. You’re going to have to produce it.’”
BRET “THE HITMAN” HART (wrestler)
“What makes the Royal Rumble exciting is the surprises. Who’s next? Who’s going to be eliminated? It’s really exciting. The buzzer goes and it’s like, “Wow, this guy’s in now!” And a lot of times, we have guys who left the business and we bring them back for one night and things like that. There’s always action going on in the ring and it’s a long match — it’s over an hour, you know, for one match. One hour. [Laughs] It’s a lot of fun. Hard to put together, but it’s a lot of fun when you watch it.”
DAVE MELTZER
“When Crockett ran the Clash against Wrestlemania, it was retaliation.”
DUSTY RHODES
“We went to the Turner network executives and said, ‘Let’s have a free show [against WrestleMania IV], and they were immediately onboard.”
JIM CROCKETT JR. (promoter)
“During Vince’s WrestleMania IV pay-per-view, we went on TBS and had a Clash of the Champions special. There were no commercials during the wrestling, and we got great TV ratings.”
TOM JOHNSON (former CNN president)
“Ted Turner is a genius. He was exceptionally important in the media landscape.”
TED TURNER (television executive)
“I’ve always subscribed to the notion that calculated risk is necessary to achieve any real success in business. Once you’ve weighed the possibilities, you have to take that final leap of faith, which is something I’ve done with some of my biggest business decisions, including the creation of CNN. The ultimate success I experienced with my purchase of the MGM library, TCM, CNN, TBS and the other networks is all the vindication I needed.”
JIM CROCKETT JR.
“Ted Turner was the Hoover vacuum cleaner. Anything that could work on his [channels], he wanted to own it.”
ERIC BISCHOFF
“When I first got to [Jim Crockett Promotions], the consensus amongst many of the employees, talent included, was that Turner wasn’t as concerned with making a profit. Drawing eyeballs, that was first and foremost, and profitability was probably second.”
VINCE MCMAHON (owner, promoter)
“After he bought [Jim Crockett Promotions], Ted Turner called me and said, ‘Guess what, Vince, I’m in the ‘rasslin’ business!’ I said, ‘That’s nice, Ted, I’m in the sports entertainment business.’”
WRESTLEMANIA IV
BRUCE PRICHARD (producer, manager)
“By running Trump Plaza in Atlantic City, [the WWF] felt they were bringing Mania back to the Northeast and also giving the show a “big fight feel.” The venue offered to pay for the show and pick up all the hotel expenses, which was a pretty handsome deal.”
TOM BUCHANAN (photographer)
“[The Atlantic City Convention Center] was a terrible venue for Wrestlemania, with its carpeted floor. From what I remember Donald Trump brought it there because his kids liked wrestling.”
BRUCE PRICHARD (producer)
“WWF had to pour a lot of effort into making it look as nice as it did for the show. Everything you see in the building on screen was added by WWE.”
TOM BUCHANAN
“It was my job to escort Andre up the elevator (at Trump Plaza) to meet Trump’s kids. When we got there, I remember Trump’s kids looking up at Andre, and as the Giant leaned forward, with that thick French accent of his, he only said one thing to the kids: ‘Your mother eats shit.’ His accent is so thick, they may not have understood what he said, and I doubt that Trump ever found out.”
HULK HOGAN (wrestler, actor)
“I didn’t see or hear any real wrestling enthusiasts in the first seven or eight rows. The people there weren’t cheering and screaming at the top of their lungs and stomping and making the building shake. They were Donald Trump’s friends and the high rollers who frequented his casino — people who didn’t follow the wrestling storylines and didn’t know what was going on — so it was a much more sedate and unemotional atmosphere. Usually, all you would have to do is point at a guy to get a reaction…”
JAKE “THE SNAKE” ROBERTS (wrestler)
“Wrestling [Rick] Rude [at WrestleMania IV] was very interesting. We went a twenty-minute broadway, and trying to hold on to him was damn near impossible! He was in such great shape. Coming out of the ring after that match, Ivana Trump was sitting there, and she wouldn’t even look at the ring. It really pissed me off. Rude, too! You were throwing it all out there, and she wasn’t even looking our way, so when we left the ring, I ‘accidentally’ swung the snake around, and it hit her. She was sitting in a chair, and she had her little champagne glass in hand, and everything and she went ass up over end and lost it. Donald ran down the aisle after it happened. A couple of years later, I found out that she actually tried to get a couple of her security guys to take me out- do away with me, you know? She was quite pissed off! And I became a favorite of Donald’s over that.”
20-MAN BATTLE ROYAL
BRET “THE HITMAN” HART
“Vince said, ‘You get even more mail than Hogan. I’m going to split The Foundation up! I’m going to give you that big push that you’ve deserved for so long.’ At WrestleMania IV, he explained, Bad News and I would team up at the end of the battle royal to eliminate Junkyard Dog, but News would double-cross me and throw me out. The battle royal went as planned, and when I broke the sturdy trophy into pieces, I got a rousing cheer and, just like that, became a babyface.”
THE ULTIMATE WARRIOR vs HERCULES
CHRIS JERICHO (wrestler, musician)
“If you were a WWF fan in the late 80’s, [The Ultimate Warrior] was god. His heavy metal hair, off the charts.”
THE ULTIMATE WARRIOR (wrestler)
“The Ultimate Warrior was a frenetic, energetic character.”
HORNSWOGGLE (wrestler)
“I didn’t have superheroes. I didn’t have Spider-Man or Batman. I had the Ultimate Warrior that was my guy. Growing up I was a Warrior fanatic. I didn’t care about Hulk Hogan. Only the Ultimate Warrior.”
BRET “THE HITMAN” HART
“To me he was a coward, a weakling and a phony hero”
BOBBY “THE BRAIN” HEENAN (manager, announcer)
“Nobody ever wanted to be around the guy.”
“MEAN” GENE OKERLUND (interviewer)
“I couldn’t make heads or tails out of anything that the Ultimate Warrior said.”
WWF INTERCONTINENTAL CHAMPIONSHIP: BRUTUS “THE BARBER” BEEFCAKE vs THE HONKY TONK MAN
RICKY STEAMBOAT (wrestler)
“My son was born in 1987, and I asked for time off. Here I am, the Intercontinental Champion, and back then, whenever you had that championship, the company was looking at you pretty hard and grooming you to be the next [world] champion. But it was short-lived, because I wanted to be there when my son was born.”
LANNY POFFO (wrestler)
“Vince McMahon doesn’t take time out. I don’t think he goes on vacation. When you say, ‘I want to take a vacation because my son is being born,’ Vince says, “OK, you have to lose the belt.’ And then the Honky Tonk Man beats him.”
HONKY TONK MAN (wrestler)
“They were trying to figure out what to do with the [the Intercontinental title]. We were standing around and Hulk Hogan happened to walk by and said to McMahon, ‘What about him?’”
BRUTUS BEEFCAKE (wrestler)
“I became ‘The Barber’ after WrestleMania III. But looking at these 30,000 people arenas, I realized this small pair of scissors that I would come out with wasn’t cutting it. I came up with the idea of the [garden] shears. The people loved it. Since then, everywhere I go I carry the shears with me.”
KOKO B. WARE & THE BRITISH BULLDOGS vs THE ISLANDERS & BOBBY “THE BRAIN” HEENAN
RIC FLAIR (wrestler)
“[Haku] was the toughest son of a bitch I’ve ever met in my whole life.”
HAKU (wrestler)
“I had a Samurai mentality, a third-world mentality, and never forgot where he came from. It wasn’t because I wanted to be the toughest.”
JAKE “THE SNAKE” ROBERTS
“If I had a gun and was sitting inside a tank with one shell left and Haku is 300 yards away? Well, the first thing I’m gonna do is jump out of the tank and shoot myself because I don’t want to wound that son of a bitch and have him pissed off at me.”
WWF TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP: STRIKE FORCE vs DEMOLITION
BILL “AX” EADIE (wrestler)
“People didn’t know about me because until that time I always had the mask on [as The Masked Superstar]. I met with Barry at a restaurant in Charlotte. I knew of him, but I didn’t know him and after I told the office I found a guy who I think would work, and there we were.”
BARRY “SMASH” DARSOW (wrestler)
“At first, they gave us Jimmy Valiant as a manager and that was not going to work and it’s not anything against Jimmy, but Jimmy is a cartoon character. We looked around and saw someone as vicious as us, there was Mr. Fuji.”
“CLASSY” FREDDIE BLASSIE (manager)
“The man was incorrigible. If you were sitting across from Fuji, drinking a cup of coffee, he was liable to slip in some laxatives when you weren’t looking. It would be time to go to the ring, and you’d be on the toilet, shitting your guts out. If he heard you on the phone, making airplane reservations, he’d call up the airline after you hung up, and cancel your trip.”
TITO SANTANA (wrestler)
“I got along pretty good [with Rick Martel]…I get along with everybody, you know? We were told immediately that we were going to get the belts. I guess Vince had confidence that we would get over.”
RICK MARTEL (wrestler)
“I preferred wrestling with Santana much more than I did with Tom Zenk.”
BARRY “SMASH” DARSOW
“To win the tag team titles at WrestleMania, that was the biggest thing that could have happened in my career.”
WWF CHAMPIONSHIP TOURNAMENT
BRET “THE HITMAN” HART
“Ted [DiBiase] was brawny, with chiseled features, and was always immaculately groomed. He’d been taught by the Funks and was being positioned to become the next NWA world champion when Vince changed all that.”
TED DIBIASE (wrestler)
“[Vince] said ‘I got something for you.. just based on what I have seen from you, and your work — you are articulate. One thing everybody hates is someone who by virtue of their wealth thinks they are better than everybody. You know, that cocky, arrogant, nose in the air, ‘I am better than you,’ [kind of guy].’”
BRUCE PRICHARD
“‘Everybody’s got a price for The Million Dollar Man,’ that was straight from Vince.”
BRET “THE HITMAN” HART
“He had his own personal valet named Virgil, worked by Mike Jones, which was a dig at NWA booker Dusty Rhodes, whose real name was Virgil Runnels.”
VIRGIL (wrestling superstar)
“We’d go to the airport and when the red caps would take our bags, Ted would go, ‘Give him 100 bucks, Virgil.’ We kept our character.”
TED DIBIASE
“Vince instructed, ‘Everywhere the public sees you they are going to see the appearance of wealth … and then the flash cash.’ I said, ‘Flash cash?’” Vince said, ‘Go to a restaurant, have Virgil with you, and just get up and announce yourself, and say, “Folks, it is your lucky day. I am the Million Dollar Man from WWF, and I’m picking up your tab.’
BRUCE PRICHARD
“We were flying [first class] and the guy sitting back in 2B takes a cigarette out [and] lights the cigarette. Vince is peeling off hundreds to give this guy money to put his cigarette out. And I just looked down, I go, ‘Fuck, man, you are The Million Dollar Man!’ That was real life shit that actually fucking happened.”
TED DIBIASE
“There was a lot of talk that at Wrestlemania IV, the tournament — that I would win it. That was the initial plan. I would win it and have my run with Hogan…”
“MACHO MAN” RANDY SAVAGE
“They wanted to get the belt off Hogan. I guess he didn’t want to lose it so they put it up in a tournament. Right before it, there was an Intercontinental Title match between me and Honky Tonk Man. You know, Honky just had this attitude that he didn’t want to lose [the Intercontinental Title]. So, I went and did the business move and Honky Tonk Man kept his crackerjack title.”
HONKY TONK MAN
“It did Savage’s career better than mine because he became World Champion as opposed to being the Intercontinental Champion again.”
BILL SIMMONS (sports analyst)
“Savage had so much talent that even the ‘mean-spirited, potentially abusive boyfriend’ gimmick couldn’t hold him down. How many wrestlers could have parlayed that into ‘good guy’ status?”
LANNY POFFO
“[Elizabeth] was always playing herself, which is this sweet, innocent, darling person, and he was the mean, vindictive bully. But then when he changed, he changed toward her and then people went crazy. All was forgiven.”
“HACKSAW” JIM DUGGAN (wrestler)
“Randy was always wound very tight. He may have been even more wound up than usual at WrestleMania IV.”
TED DIBIASE
“When we got together to actually talk over this match — and this is like, this is at WrestleMania IV. I told him, I said, ‘Randy, I understand your need for laying it all out. I get it. But here’s all I’d like you to do. Give me this liberty, because I’m not used to doing that. I’ll do this, but as we’re [wrestling], if I feel something and I say let’s do this, know that we’ll do that. But then we’ll get right back to what we’re scripting here.’ It was kind of funny. He kind of looked at me, and he looked over at Elizabeth. Elizabeth said, ‘Randy, you can do that.’ He looked at me and said, ‘OK, brother. I can do that.’”
BRUCE PRICHARD
“Putting DiBiase in that role, he was easy to hate. He was easy to believe. You wanted someone to kick his ass and give him his comeuppance. And you believed when Randy said he was gonna kick his ass, because he did.”
GARRETT GONZALES (writer)
“Hogan vs. Andre was an awful punch fest that turned into a double disqualification that caused most of the fans in the Trump Plaza to groan. Both Hogan and Andre were eliminated, and DiBiase would get a bye into the finals. The problem with having Hogan only there for one match is that WWF fans were always trained to understand that Hogan would be in the main event, thus making them stick around until the end. This time, Hogan was gone early and it caused a lot of the fans to not stick around.”
“MACHO MAN” RANDY SAVAGE
“I kept going back in my dressing room after every match and changing outfits. One of the people who didn’t like me locked me in my own dressing room before the fourth match, hoping that I couldn’t get out of there. But I busted that door down because I had so much enthusiasm in me. I think I could have gone through two of them. Just making it harder for me, well, the harder the conflicts, the more glorious the triumph. It made it even more worthwhile.”
TED DIBIASE
“I wasn’t even working for the WWE a year earlier when they set the attendance record, and now, I would be in the feature match at the end of the night. It was one of those ‘pinch me, is this really happening?’ moments for me.”
“MACHO MAN” RANDY SAVAGE
“I think everybody should get that buzz feeling when they win [the World Title]. Even though this is entertainment, it still means something. Winning it isn’t enough…but taking the pressure, wearing it well… it’s like finishing your term as president of the United States. You want to hand over a lit torch.”
MACHO MADNESS
“BROOKLYN BRAWLER” STEVE LOMBARDI (wrestler)
“When [Randy Savage] was world champion, he carried that title and he carried it well. He not only talked the talk, he walked the walk. Randy Savage was a special talent.”
“HACKSAW” JIM DUGGAN
“Hogan’s Hogan, but Macho filled his shoes as best as anybody could. I don’t think anybody else could have stepped up as well as Macho did. Hogan was twice his size. But Randy carried the persona in a different way. Randy carried the persona with his outfits, his voice, his interviews.”
JAKE “THE SNAKE” ROBERTS
“There were a lot of pieces that were working quite well right then. There was a lot of great talent on all the shows. I think if things had fell off, there would have been a panic button hit pretty quick, though.”
“MEAN” GENE OKERLUND
“Randy always looked the part of a champion. He didn’t look like, you know, a bum coming off the street. He always had very extraordinary attire. When you wear yellow boots and a yellow hat, and green spandex in between. And he did have a way of entertaining people like Regis Philbin, and certainly myself because he had a little more latitude there on ‘Friday Night Videos.’ But Randy fit right in on those shows. He did very well. Probably even as well as Hogan in many instances.”
HULK HOGAN
“Well, first off, when you work with Randy, it’s intense. The only other person that I could call at three or four o’clock in the morning to talk about wrestling and would even answer their phone is Vince McMahon. And that’s how Randy was. Except Randy called me! ‘Hey brother. Got an idea.’ So when you got in bed with Randy, you were in it for the long haul. Good or bad, brother. He’s going to drag you through the mud, whether you like it or not.”
DENNY BURKHOLDER (writer)
“The Mega Powers were the ultimate dream team. For all of their differences, Hogan and Savage were both colorful, eye-catching performers. Teaming them together with Elizabeth in the middle of it all almost didn’t seem fair to their opponents. Their promos were absurd, yet exciting. Each promo was punctuated by an exaggerated handshake to symbolize the might of these two singularly powerful men forming an alliance.”
JAKE “THE SNAKE” ROBERTS
“Hogan was put in a certain position to do certain things, and he carried that out well. He knew exactly what Mr. McMahon wanted, and that’s what he had to do. But Randy was the spark, he was the fire, he was the loose cannon, he was the thing that was always questionable.”
DENNY BURKHOLDER
“The Mega Powers got their big win over Andre the Giant and Ted DiBiase at SummerSlam. The finish came when Elizabeth distracted the heels by walking across the ring apron and removing her skirt. With the heels’ eyes averted, Hogan and Savage attacked for the win. After the match, Hogan and Elizabeth shared a hug while Savage looked over his shoulder at them and saw the embrace. In the midst of the big babyface post-match celebration, the old Macho Man showed up ever so briefly.”
“MEAN” GENE OKERLUND
“That look, that glance, I remember it like it was yesterday. It was very telling.”
TED DIBIASE
“They teased it, and they teased it, and they teased it.”
JAKE “THE SNAKE” ROBERTS
“They went into it real slow and they carried it off for a year. They’d give it a poke when they needed to poke it, and smooth it over when they needed to smooth it over, man. That’s the one thing about the main event, brother. They’re gonna put all the time in the world in to make sure that thing comes off right.”
BILL SIMMONS
“Miss Elizabeth got knocked out cold [during a match], with a crying Hogan carrying her backstage for medical attention and Savage eventually ditching the match. After Hogan finished off the Twin Towers by himself, he confronted Savage backstage, with the Macho Man snapping and unleashing his most inspired monologue ever. ‘Lemme tell you why you’re out of line, man. You got JEALOUS eyes!’ We knew what was coming and loved it anyway: Savage sucker punched Hogan and beat him senseless, just a virtuoso performance, one of the defining buddy-turning-on-buddy events of the past 30 years.”
VINCE MCMAHON
“You had the woman between the two guys, and that always led to one thing or another, which made it a far more interesting scenario. The subject matter was a bit adult in terms of the love triangle, but the way it was executed really wasn’t. If you’re writing well, there are double entendres that can mean one thing to a younger audience and something else to an older audience.”
BRUCE PRICHARD
“I thought it was done to perfection because there were so many small nuances that were done through an entire year to build up to that angle. I just thought it was expertly done. It was a great moment of storytelling all the way through.”
WRESTLEMANIA V
DONALD TRUMP (former U.S. President, businessman)
“I believe I’ve had more Mike Tyson fights than anybody and he was a monster in terms of his draw. I would say that WrestleMania was at least as good and maybe in certain ways even better. We did so well in Atlantic City with WrestleMania IV that our customers demanded that we bring WWE back for WrestleMania V.”
DARRYL “DMC” MCDANIELS (musician)
“I was a huge WWE fan as a kid. I used to get the wrestling magazines and draw Bruno Sammartino. I started working out because of Hulk Hogan. Performing at WrestleMania V was better than winning a Grammy, an American Music Award, or being at the Super Bowl. It’s one of the top five events of my life.”
BRUCE PRICHARD
“In those days, Morton Downey was the hottest thing on TV. So you take the biggest mouth that we had at the time — which was me [as ‘Brother Love’]— you take the biggest mouth from the past, that everyone was compared to — that was Piper — then you take the single biggest, hottest mouth that was on television at the time. It was perfect because Morton Downey felt he was the king and no one could touch him. Obviously, Morton hadn’t met Roddy before.”
“ROWDY” RODDY PIPER
“Brother Love, Morton Downey, Jr. and I are on, and I immediately say to Downey, ‘Don’t blow smoke in my face anymore. When I used the fire extinguisher on him, he went low and grabbed behind my ankle… .it’s going to be a single leg tak down. Oh,Downey let go and that was the end of it. If it hadn’t been for that the fire extinguisher would have accidentally landed on his head.”
BRUTUS “THE BARBER” BEEFCAKE vs TED DIBIASE
TED DIBIASE
“The question was posed to me: ‘What would get you more heat, Ted, If you didn’t win the belt? Or if you created your OWN belt…’ The Million Dollar Belt made me more money than the WWF Title ever would have.”
HERCULES vs KING HAKU
HAKU
“When they gave me the opportunity to take the title as ‘King’ from Harley Race, wow. I know his work, I know his wrestling, but I know my respect for this man. I sat back and took a few deep breaths. That was something in my heart… it was an honor to be the next ‘King.’”
THE BUSHWHACKERS vs THE FABULOUS ROUGEAUS
BUSHWHACKER LUKE
“I got a phone call from someone named Pat. The voice in the background said, ‘Hey Kiwis,’ and that was Vince McMahon. At that time, the Crocodile Dundee movies were out, so we did skits along those lines. Two boys from Down Under, coming to America where cars were on the other side of the street. We’d never seen a microwave, a pop machine, we did all these crazy vignettes like that.”
RAY ROUGEAU
“They were characters, they were gimmicks. They had their own style. It’s not like you go out and you can build a big story. They make people laugh. So it wasn’t very intense. They were a pleasure to work with, two very nice guys. It’s not something that stands out in my career, it was just fun to work with them.”
STRIKE FORCE vs THE BRAIN BUSTERS
TULLY BLANCHARD
“[The Four Horsemen] was exactly like what we talked about during the television interviews. I got drunk a lot, I got high a lot, and I had lots of women.”
ARN ANDERSON
“Our sole purpose was to go on that TV, piss a lot of people off, go to the live events at night and just get our ass handed to us.”
TULLY BLANCHARD
“When Turner was hiring and buying [Jim Crockett Promotions], he was signing people to big contracts and other people had got the contracts, and they didn’t sign Arn and I to a contract. I said that I don’t need to work here. And Arn and I dropped the titles the next night in Philadelphia.”
ARN ANDERSON
“Every wrestler aspired to eventually end up in ‘New York.’”
TULLY BLANCHARD
“We ended up being on Saturday Night’s Main Event on NBC four times in 1989, which is where we won the tag titles. It was very exciting to be the first tag team in the history of wrestling to be first NWA, WCW, WWF champions.”
RICK MARTEL
“Wrestlemania V, of course, is where I became ‘The Model,’ and I remember before that match in Atlantic City, a lot of people didn’t agree with what I wanted to do. Vince, for example, didn’t think that I was going to be able to pull it off. But when I walked out of the ring that day [leaving partner Santana to battle Anderson and Blanchard single-handedly], the reaction was instant, with the people already booing me. And the first person that came to me in the dressing room was Hulk, who told me that I had got a great reaction, and that he thought I’d accomplished it.”
THE BLUE BLAZER vs MR. PERFECT
CURTIS AXEL (wrestler)
“My Dad [Curt Hennig] became Mr. Perfect. His athletic ability, and the way he looked pissed people off. He had that bleach-blond hair, bright tan, and wore bright outfits. He was always walking cocky and chewing gum all the time. You automatically hate that guy.”
LEONICE HENNIG (Curt Hennig’s wife)
He was what he said he was. Absolutely perfect.”
BRET “THE HITMAN” HART
“Curt Hennig’s joy was in the wrestling ring and the dressing room. He loved the fun in the dressing room–and going out and having a few beers with his crew from Minnesota. If I could have one match with any one guy–Curt Hennig and my brother Owen would be the first two guys.”
JIM ROSS
“Owen Hart [was] classic. I loved Owen. Owen Hart is one of the few guys, Mark, I’ve been in the business since 1974, and he is probably in one handful of guys that I can honestly say I’ve never heard any of the boys knock, or diss, or say anything bad about, and that’s highly unusual.”
MARTY JONES (wrestler)
“He was a hell of a grafter — someone who could work as a heel or a babyface, a good workman, like a carpenter.”
JIM CORNETTE (manager, promoter)
“Owen crashed the stereotype that Canadians are bland and boring.”
X-PAC (wrestler)
“Owen Hart and Curt were two of the best ribbers, but they were very different kinds of ribbers. Owen was a mind-fuck ribber. Curt would drop a turd in your bag or put a padlock on your luggage.”
VINCE MCMAHON
“One time he and Davey Boy Smith put goats in my office, and they made sure those goats were well fed beforehand. You can imagine how it stunk.”
BRET HART
“Owen, now under a mask and cape as The Blue Blazer, worked with Curt Hennig, who was fast becoming the best wrestler in the company. Owen had recovered from his injury; he anticipated an action-packed match with Curt, but they were only allotted eight minutes. Curt was good enough to give Owen more than his fair share. “
THE HART FOUNDATION vs RHYTHM & BLUES
HONKY TONK MAN
“Rhythm and Blues thing was something that was going to rejuvenate both myself and Greg Valentine. But Greg was always very much ‘I’m Greg, I’ve got blond hair, my father’s Johnny Valentine, I’m a wrestler.’ I said ‘Listen, if you don’t do this, dye your hair black and at least give us a shot, he’s gonna fire both of us.’ And that’s eventually what happened, because Greg just did not try to make it work.”
GREG “THE HAMMER” VALENTINE
“I hated the black hair; I didn’t think I looked good. But I did not mind the character because it was a lot of fun. I was always a dead serious, stone-faced, stoic competitor, but this gave me a chance to smile, to act goofy a little bit, and it loosened me up as well.”
BRET HART
“The Hart Foundation had been re-formed again, and we were more than deserving of a break. I was anything but optimistic about being given any kind of spot, and my doubts were confirmed when they put The Foundation with Honky and Valentine, now known as Rhythm and Blues, at the house shows leading up to WrestleMania. The four of us tried to pretend that it might mean something on the big show, but we all knew that it didn’t.”
WWF INTERCONTINENTAL CHAMPIONSHIP: THE ULTIMATE WARRIOR vs “RAVISHING” RICK RUDE
BRET “THE HITMAN” HART
“Rick Rude was anything but rude. You can’t pick your family, but you can pick your friends. Rick Rude was one of the best picks I ever made.”
BOBBY ROODE (wrestler)
“Rick Rude was a larger than life character, and he was one of those guys who was different from everyone else. He looked the part, he was a legitimate tough guy, and he carried and presented himself in a way that really stuck out. As I progressed in the business, and really studied certain guys, Rick was one of the guys I studied.”
BARRY “SMASH” DARSOW
“Rick was a very honorable guy. In wrestling, he’d take care of you, he’d expect you to take care of him and wanted to have the best match. That’s what a lot of us guys from Robbinsdale were like. Warrior probably nailed him a few times but Rick didn’t take it out on him in the ring. Then he came back in the dressing room and set him straight.”
BRUCE PRICHARD
“When Ultimate Warrior working with Andre The Giant, he would bring Andre a special bottle of wine every single night they worked. Rude sees this and Rude got upset thinking, ‘I worked with this son of a bitch every night, took all of his shit, busted my ass trying to get him over,’ he goes, ‘I don’t drink fucking French wine, but I didn’t even get a bottle of Gatorade from the motherfucker.’ It was kind of that, ‘I’m out there getting your ass over and you don’t do shit for me. But for Andre, you’re afraid of getting the shit beat out of you.’”
THE ROCKERS vs THE TWIN TOWERS
SHAWN MICHAELS (wrestler)
“You never forget your first Wrestlemania.”
BRET “THE HITMAN” HART
“There were two new pretty boys from the nearly defunct AWA: Shawn Michaels and Marty Jannetty, a high-flying tag team known as The Midnight Rockers. Neither was as innocent as he looked: they came in with a notorious reputation for rocking after midnight.“
MARTY JANNETTY (wrestler)
“I was teaching [Shawn] a lot in the younger years. He eventually passed me, and then I was learning from him.”
SHAWN MICHAELS
“I had to make sure I was very good just to keep up [with Marty]. He was always a ton better than he was ever, ever given credit for.”
TERRY TAYLOR (wrestler)
“[Big Boss Man] was so big, so strong, that he had ‘it’, that intangible that a star [has]. It was kind of weird when a guy was that shy, but you could tell. You could tell with Ray that he was going to do very well.”
JIMMY HART
“He was one of those country-strong guys that nobody could make him do anything he didn’t want to do. Nobody.”
SLICK (manager)
“They were really getting ready to end the One Man Gang contract. So when I came up, I went to George, and I said, ‘Man, I think I came up with a way to convince Vince of how you can really blow up and make money.’”
ONE MAN GANG (wrestler)
“Vince came over to me and casually asked me do I know how to dance. I thought he was just joking around. I go, ‘No. I don’t know. I’m not a good dancer.’ He goes, ‘Well, you need to learn.’ And he walked off. I didn’t understand it. I called Slick over and asked, ‘What’s going on?‘ He goes, ‘Oh man, we got this great idea that I went to Africa and I found your roots and we’re gonna turn you into a black man and you’re gonna be Akeem. You know, the African Dream and all that. You’re gonna be dancing and talking jive with me and everything.’ I thought he was just ribbing me. I thought it was a big joke. Sure enough, three weeks later, they were calling me up to get fitted for the Akeem outfit or whatever and it went on from there.”
MARTY JANNETTY
“I’d flown my girlfriend in, and Shawn brought his wife. But we were just so on edge. I was so nervous the night before. My girlfriend and I got into an argument and I went storming off around midnight. I went downstairs to gamble and drink, and I started laughing when I saw Shawn outside the elevator. He’d got in an argument, too. We said the hell with it, had a handful of drinks, and before we knew it, it was curtain call and time to get to the show.”
SHAWN MICHAELS
“I’d like to think we had a real good match with The Twin Towers.”
MARTY JANNETTY
“We knew we needed one big thing against these two monsters. I said to Shawn that I’d see plenty of wrestlers do a dropkick from the top rope, but I’d never seen a double one from the top. Shawn looked at me with this long glare and said, ‘There’s a reason you haven’t, but that does sound pretty good. Let’s try it.’ We knew it had to be timed right so no one would get hurt, and we figured we could get it. To this day, people still ask us, ‘How the hell did you pull that one off?’”
JAKE “THE SNAKE” ROBERTS vs ANDRE THE GIANT
JAKE “THE SNAKE” ROBERTS
“When you get in the ring with Andre the Giant for WrestleMania, I mean, my God! Give me a break, bro. I would never have thought that in a million years! Just an incredible moment. And when we got into the ring, he did what he wanted.”
“HACKSAW” JIM DUGGAN
“[Andre] used to like to knock you down and of course when you hit the mat, your hair would be on the mat. He would step on either side of your head and stand on your hair. Then he’d grab your arms and pick you up.”
JAKE “THE SNAKE” ROBERTS
“I can hear my hair popping like piano strings…”
TED DIBIASE
“It was just his way of just having fun with you.”
JAKE “THE SNAKE” ROBERTS
“One night a snake got [Andre] and broke two fangs off in his shoulder. I was afraid to go into the locker room as I thought Andre might kill me! I walk into the locker room and peak around the corner and go, ‘Andre are you okay?’ He goes, ‘Yeah, why?’ I go, ‘Well the snake bit you’ and he goes, ‘Oh yeah, the snake was hungry!’ and just laughed about it. Then Rick Rude walks over to Andre who’s playing cards and he pulls out one fang and then another fang that’s five inches long and puts it on his shoulder and Andre just laughed. He appreciated me, and I tried to make myself available for him wherever he was at in the ring, making sure we didn’t go up and down too much because he couldn’t do all that anymore, you know? It was just such a great honor.
“RUGGED” RONNIE GARVIN vs DINO BRAVO
RON GARVIN
“I knew I didn’t fit there. Macho Man fit there with all his robes and the fancy stuff. I had a different style of wrestling. Being on the mic was not the best thing for me. All the entrances and the flashy stuff — it didn’t matter because if the people want to see a fight than they’ll see a fight. If you want to see me dance then you are in the wrong place because I don’t do that.”
JACK TUNNEY (promoter)
“I remember Dino when he was a skinny little kid 22 years ago. What I’ll remember is a dedicated athlete who worked very hard. I hope that people celebrate Dino’s life and not the tragic way it ended.”
WWF TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP HANDICAP MATCH: DEMOLITION vs THE POWERS OF PAIN & MR. FUJI
THE WARLORD
“I was living in Minnesota, and The Road Warriors, along with Nikita (Koloff), Rick Rude, and Curt Hennig, they all came out of Minnesota about five years ahead of me…The WWF called Barbarian, out of the blue. Barb was told that Vince would like to meet with us, and wanted us to fly to Atlanta — but we weren’t to say a word to anybody. So, the only one we talked to was Animal, because we talked to Joe all the time. Joe just said, ‘Do it guys. Do it!’ So we flew in and there was a limo waiting for us that took us to a hotel. We get up to this room and there’s sitting Vince [McMahon], Pat Patterson, and Hulk Hogan at the table. Wow, y’know! So we sit down and they go through this spiel, and said they would like us to start next Monday. Then Barb, who never spoke, goes ‘We be there.’ And I never knew Barb to talk, especially in that environment. So, we flew back into Baltimore and had this incredible match with The Road Warriors. Then afterward, later that night, Barb goes up to Dusty and he says, ‘Dusty… we go to WWF on Monday. Thank you. Goodbye. And they were like, ‘What?!’ cause they had all these things planned for us.”
BILL “AX” EADIE
“To this day we don’t really believe that we should have switched [to babyfaces] because what was going on in the arenas was that we could’ve done anything to anyone we were working with and the people were cheering it. I still think and so does Barry that we could have gone two or three years longer as heels and then when we finally did make the switch it would have been even bigger.”
“HACKSAW” JIM DUGGAN vs BAD NEWS BROWN
TED DIBIASE
“[ Jim Duggan] was one of the most colourful characters that I think our business has ever had.”
“HACKSAW” JIM DUGGAN
“Bad News Brown was a quiet guy, and I didn’t know him well.”
BAD NEWS BROWN (wrestler, Olympic Bronze Medalist)
“[WWF] never kept their word. I was just sick of the lying all the time. That was two and a half years of my life that I really didn’t enjoy. I was making a lot of money, but I had to fight with Vince all the time for my money.”
THE RED ROOSTER vs BOBBY “THE BRAIN” HEENAN
TERRY TAYLOR (wrestler)
“Chief Jay Strongbow told me if Vince gives you an idea for a character, go with it. Vince pulled me in and said, ‘Terry, I’ve been watching what you do. I’ve seen you walk, and you kind of bob your head and it reminds me of a rooster. I want you to be The Little Red Rooster.’ For more than eight years I had been working my tail off trying to make people believe that what we did had some sort of credibility and that we do work hard. When he did that, my heart sank. But my wife was pregnant and we were broke. I had to have a job.”
BRUCE PRICHARD
“I know Terry and everybody thought that it was a rib, [but] it was not a rib! No, it was [McMahon] saw [Taylor] as this cocky rooster, this cock of the walk.”
VAUGHN JOHNSON
“[Red Rooster] beat Bobby Heenan in 30 seconds at the event, which didn’t do him any favors because Heenan was a manager, so no one even cared.”
TERRY TAYLOR
“I was immature and I didn’t get it. They were good to me, I mean, they gave me opportunities. Heck, they gave me Bobby Heenan, and I worked with Curt. What’s better than that? I didn’t see it at the time and a year later I quit.”
WWF CHAMPIONSHIP: HULK HOGAN vs “MACHO MAN” RANDY SAVAGE
LANNY POFFO
“Randy had a really bad elbow [at WrestleMania V]. He went out there and wrestled against Hulk Hogan in Atlantic City and never missed a beat, even though he was in excruciating pain. He was a pro from the word go. He cared about the fans.”
HULK HOGAN
“He had a bursa sac that was broken and infected with Staph. He should have had the bursa sac removed and everybody told him to do it. The doctors told him, “It can rot the bone, the bacteria.” But Randy, being a total pro, said, ‘Oooooh, not Randy Savage, brother. I’m wrestling Hogan.’ That’s what I remember. Him just being in so much pain and having that crazy elbow of his swollen and infected, and still going through all the craziness we went through that night and not complaining, moaning or whining, but just really being a pro. That’s the first thing I think of when I think of that.”
BRUCE PRICHARD
“You look at WrestleMania V with Hogan and Savage, one of the greatest buy rates and biggest gates that we ever had in the history of the business. So I think Randy Savage, in that run, definitely held his own.”
HULK HOGAN
“I would probably say the best wrestler I ever faced was ‘Macho Man’ Randy Savage.”
CHAMPION vs CHAMPION
THE ULTIMATE WARRIOR
“At that time the typical storyline for WrestleMania was that one of Hogan’s friends would turn on him and set up a good guy-vs-bad guy scenario. But if WWF had done that with Ultimate Warrior, they would have been slicing their wrists, because merchandising was getting ready to go through the roof. So instead it became the Hulkamaniacs versus the Warriors.”
BRET “THE HITMAN” HART
“Hogan was clearly afraid that this was a sign that he was on the way down. It was the first time I saw Hulk Hogan second-guess himself. He was still the WWF’s biggest draw and worked whenever he felt like it. He still had his own limo, and a manservant named Brutus Beefcake who carried his bags, and flew on a Learjet.”
DAVID SHOEMAKER
“The Warrior gave a weird interview before the match in which he talked darkly about going into the cockpit of Hogan’s plane, taking the controls, and crashing it.”
BRET “THE HITMAN” HART
“I think wrestling fans were beginning to see them both for what they really were, two colossal steroid freaks who did little or no actual wrestling.”
HULK HOGAN
“The WWF were trying to make Hulk Hogan disappear. But the fans didn’t want that. I can go down and give you every single beat where they wanted to give a bullet to Hulk Hogan, but it’s just not happening, brother. I’ve been around so long.Whether you like my work or not, the fans respect me.”
BRET “THE HITMAN” HART
“Although Hogan was still deeply respected, to the boys he had become a guy we used to know. On the other hand, most of us couldn’t stand Warrior, who had blossomed into a grunting prima donna. He flew first class with a paid valet, traveled to the arenas by limo, and had his own private, ‘I’m-the-star’ dressing room. He never sat with us in the locker room bullshitting or playing cards. In the war Vince was launching, we were still rooting for Hulk.“
THE ULTIMATE WARRIOR
“Because of our tour schedules, Hogan and I only had about 45 minutes to go over the match. We met in an old barn-like place where they used to train pro wrestlers down in Tampa and walked through what we were going to do. I didn’t see him again until WrestleMania.”
WRESTLEMANIA VI
JIMMY KORDERAS (referee)
“Being able to perform in front of over 68,000 fans live is a natural high that is undescribable.”
EDGE (wrestler)
“I was a huge WWE fan growing up in Canada. I went to the Guelph Memorial Gardens and watched WrestleMania IV on closed-circuit. I remember listening to WrestleMania III on the radio. When my mom found out that WrestleMania would be in Toronto, she knew I had to be there.”
BRET “THE HITMAN” HART
“I invited my parents, Stu and Helen. Many of the local fans knew Stu because Stampede Wrestling aired across Canada. Others had become acquainted with him through Jesse Ventura, who never missed an opportunity to say I’d come from Stu’s dreaded dungeon, the toughest wrestling pit of ’em all. I could see it meant the world to my parents that the fans regarded them kindly. That evening in the lobby lounge, Stu and Barry Darsow took to rolling around on the carpet, even knocking chairs over. The wrestlers were cheering, and Barry had the look on his face of a guy who didn’t know what he’d gotten himself into. He was grateful when my mom broke it up.”
DIAMOND DALLAS PAGE (wrestler)
“I was at WrestleMania 6 and I was Diamond Dallas Chauffeur. I literally drove the ’62 pink Cadillac with Honky Tonk Man, Jimmy Hart and Greg Valentine.”
JIMMY KORDERAS (referee)
“Among the celebrity guests that day were Steve Allen, Rona Barrett, Mary Tyler Moore, and singer Robert Goulet. Goulet was scheduled to sing the Canadian national anthem to kick off the show. One small problem though: Robert goulet didn’t know the words to ‘O Canada.’ Pat Patterson found me that afternoon and asked me if I knew the words, and if I could teach it to Mr. Goulet. I thought Pat was kidding, but he insisted it wasn’t a rib and took me to the singing legend. It was somewhat intimidating meeting him without the added pressure of teaching him the anthem. After a few minutes of reciting the words, I had a brainstorm. ‘Why couldn’t they just put the words up on the Jumbotron and Mr. Goulet could read them from there?’”
KOKO B. WARE vs “THE MODEL” RICK MARTEL
RICK MARTEL
“My character turned into ‘The Model,’ and with that personality, you sometimes start believing it… When I switched from the babyface to the heel, it was time to experience a new challenge. I was the one who went to Vince, and, at first, Vince couldn’t believe it. He said, ‘Rick, I don’t see it.’ He had to be convinced. But I told him, ‘Vince, if you don’t do it, I’m going to do it somewhere else.’ I quit, and a few weeks later, he called, and he said, ‘OK, let’s give it a try.’ I fell right into it. I loved doing that character.”
HERCULES vs EARTHQUAKE
JIMMY HART (manager, musician)
“John [Tenta, aka Earthquake] was an attraction. He was somebody that when he walked through the airport or walked into a room, he got everybody’s attention. Not by saying anything, just by his size and his look.”
THE HART FOUNDATION vs THE BOLSHEVIKS
BRET “THE HITMAN” HART
“Pat had told me that our WrestleMania VI match with The Bolsheviks would only be about fifteen seconds long; it seemed a shame to me to be such a non-factor in a big show in Canada.”
BORIS ZHUKHOV (wrestler)
“They wanted all the time they could get for Warrior and Hogan. These pay per views are timed from beginning to end. They wanted me to turn on Nikolai on the next upcoming tv taping, plus push The Hart Foundation for the tag belts with Demolition. I could have said no. But I would have been fired on the spot, I was just playing a part so I did it. Besides I thought the world of Bret and Jim, I did it for them.”
WWF TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP: DEMOLITION vs THE COLOSSAL CONNECTION
HAKU
“[The Colossal Connection] was great. Bobby Heenan was always a joker. I think in those days we were always running, and was competing for the business today. We run long on business days on the road. Bobby was very good with taking our minds away from the long tours, or whatever. He always told jokes. He was a good man.”
BARRY “SMASH” DARSOW
“The whole year kind of worked all the way up to the WrestleManias … so the other pay-per-views were kind of just matches to get a story going towards WrestleMania. I remember a lot of them, it’s almost like you can remember every match, but to wrestle Andre at SkyDome with that many people and everything, and then beat those guys, that was pretty big.”
HAKU
“At the end, I guess it was meant to be a short run, but again, Vince McMahon was in control of everything. I was surprised that we went all the way into WrestleMania VI. Andre never tagged in. It is exactly what Andre had wanted. We were going to be having our last match together. He wanted me to be strong, you know? It was our last match, and he didn’t know whether or not I was going to end up being a babyface, but at WrestleMania VI he told me to carry the match and to keep going. That was what he wanted me to do.”
JIM ROSS
“With Andre living with his physical ailments that were essentially a death sentence, and then taking that one last major trip to the ring definitively displayed the true character of this extraordinary human being.”
BRET HART
“I spent many hours working on a special cartoon for André, a montage of every name wrestler who had worked in the WWF since I’d been there. In the dressing room before my WrestleMania VI match, I passed around the framed drawing for all the wrestlers to sign. Finally, I brought it over to André, who grasped it in his big hands and turned it over in order to sign it too. I stopped him and said, ‘It’s for you, boss. That’s you there, right in the middle, carrying everyone on your back.’ Suddenly I realized that André was fighting back tears and frantically looking for an escape: He had way too much pride to break down in front of the boys. I quickly pointed out to him, and everyone else who was staring, my caricature of Adrian Adonis with angel’s wings atop a cloud plucking a harp. André gave me a big smile and said, ‘Thank you, boss.’”
BRUTUS “THE BARBER” BEEFCAKE vs MR. PERFECT
BRUTUS BEEFCAKE
“We had a great chemistry in the ring. We could walk in the ring without speaking and get in the ring and have a classy WrestleMania match anytime, anywhere.”
LANNY POFFO
“[The WWF run] ended at WrestleMania 6 and I got faded out. But it was fantastic and I drank from the silver chalice of success for one shining moment.”
BRUTUS BEEFCAKE
“They didn’t tell [Lanny] I was gonna cut his hair after the match…he was panicking to get away from me. And I was panicking to get him back… I literally, physically dragged him back to the ring and cut his hair. And Randy attacked me in the dressing room after the match. Lanny was crying. He was like ‘What were you doing?’ I go, ‘Don’t jump me, go talk to your boy Pat Patterson who set the finish up and is ribbing your brother.’”
LANNY POFFO
“Brutus Beefcake cut my hair. Now a quarter of a century later, my hair grew back and he’s balding. Karma?”
“ROWDY” RODDY PIPER vs BAD NEWS BROWN
DAVID SHOEMAKER
“At WrestleMania VI, [Roddy Piper] was wrestling Bad News Brown, who was presented as a black street thug, was actually half black. Piper — who, it should be said, was the good guy in this feud — came to the ring with his body painted half black, down the middle.”
BAD NEWS BROWN
“He was bitching and complaining, he didn’t want to lose…I ain’t gonna do no job for him if he ain’t gonna do one for me, so we had a double count-out.”
“ROWDY” RODDY PIPER
“They had a special concoction made for me that when you sweat, it won’t rub off. They had a solvent to take it off. Then Andre The Giant and Arnold Skaaland took the clear solution out and put water in it. So I finish the fight, I go back to the makeup lady. I spend 10 minutes [scrubbing]. ‘Excuse me, I’m starting to bleed!’ Now I’m pretty P-O’d. I’m in Toronto going to Portland, Oregon via Chicago. So, I’m not in the best of moods anyway. Next morning, I’m getting up to catch my plane. You have to imagine this scene, I’m half-black, I have Mickey [under my arm] and I’m coming to Customs. I put down my passport, and the guy just looks at me, and stamps my passport. I get on the plane. ‘Sir, you’ll have to check Mickey.’ I ain’t checking Mickey.’ ‘You’ve got to check Mickey.’ ‘How much is a seat?’ I buy Mickey a first-class seat.”
TITO SANTANA vs THE BARBARIAN
TITO SANTANA
“When Strike Force, Santana and Martel, broke up I asked Vince McMahon to be the heel but I guess they had it all worked out that Rick Martel was the heel. But I always wanted to be the heel because the heels always seemed like they had to have the most fun.”
THE ROCKERS vs THE ORIENT EXPRESS
PAT TANAKA (wrestler)
“I’m not sure who campaigned for me to be in WWE but it was Vince McMahon’s decision to have us there and his idea for the name of the Orient Express.”
BIG BOSS MAN vs AKEEM
BRUCE PRICHARD
“This match was cut short for time. I felt more should have been done with the angle given how over the Twin Towers were over.”
“HACKSAW” JIM DUGGAN vs DINO BRAVO
“HACKSAW” JIM DUGGAN
“Dino, the world’s strongest man. I enjoyed working with Dino. Especially back in the day, in Toronto, Winnipeg, anywhere that they didn’t have the U.S. flag, I’d start the ‘U.S.A.’ chant and they’d boo the heck out of me.”
MIXED TAG TEAM MATCH: MIXED TAG TEAM MATCH: DUSTY RHODES & SAPPHIRE vs “MACHO KING” RANDY SAVAGE & SENSATIONAL QUEEN SHERRI
JIM ROSS
“[Dusty Rhodes] was arguably the most charismatic performer of all time. His amazing unique verbal styling will never be duplicated or exceeded. He was exactly what he portrayed on TV: A blue-collar, common man, who rose from being the son of a farmer to being a part of American pop culture, whose memory will live forever. Therefore, for many he was truly the American dream.”
DUSTY RHODES
“I think around 9 or 12 years old, I’d been working in the summer for my dad. He was a plumber, I wasn’t a plumber by no means. I was a ditch digger. I’d worked with a man named T.C. Lee down in Austin, and T.C. Lee would be in the ditch all day long and he’d be working there, and I’d be digging the ditch and he’d be standing on the shovel, and he said, ‘Someday, man, you’re gonna get that American dream…’ and it hit me. In 1974, talking with the late great Gordon Solie down in Florida. And I said one day, ‘I’m the American Dream, Dusty Rhodes,’ not thinking what was going to happen. I’ve become the American Dream for the common man, the common folk.”
“STONE COLD” STEVE AUSTIN
“He would tell these stories, and the way he was with his inflections and his tone and his pauses, and the way he would speed up and slow his cadence, he would just rope you in. So, as far as telling a story in the ring, to me, seems like the best storytellers are some of the best workers in the business.”
BRUCE PRICHARD
“I believe Dusty called Vince, because he was having trouble in Atlanta. He would have called Vince and asked him if there was any interest with him coming in and doing business, and the answer was of course, yes. At the time, if you remembered, we wouldn’t use guys and their gimmicks that previously had that gimmick. Vince had to change everybody and make them his own, but he let Dusty use his name and the gimmick. Again with Vince having to put a twist on things, he became that common man, as that guy with vignettes as the Americana Plumber, the Americana Butcher, just making him that common man that everybody can relate to.”
VINCE MCMAHON
“People thought I wasn’t serious about the character. And that wasn’t true. We did some vignettes with Dusty, who’s just so entertaining. At that juncture, he was no longer a spring chicken, so I wanted to go with more fun, rather than the athleticism.”
MISSY HYATT (manager, commentator)
“[Sensational Sherri] knew how to enhance the people that she managed, get heat, and to never gain sympathy when the babyface finally catches her.”
LITA (wrestler)
“Women like Sensational Sherri and Luna [Vachon] were so inspirational — they set the precedent, so the fact that they were so cool to me really made me believe that I could make it in wrestling,”
DR. TOM PRICHARD (wrestler)
“She had a heart and a passion that matched the most passionate men in this business. I mean, it was really a man’s sport back then, but she pulled her weight and didn’t ask for any shortcuts.”
DAVE MELTZER
“During the period Elizabeth was gone, Savage became the Macho King Randy Savage, managed by Queen Sherri”
VAUGHN JOHNSON
“This was Dusty Rhodes’ WrestleMania debut and he was all decked out in those horrible polka dots. Horrible polka dots aside, he was apart of history during this event as he teamed with Sweet Sapphire to go against Randy Savage and Queen Sherri in what was built as the first-ever mixed tag match in the WWE.”
DAVE MELTZER
“[Juanita] Wright was a long-time wrestling fan out of St. Louis who got involved in local indies doing some wrestling and more refereeing under the name Princess Dark Cloud. When Rhodes went to WWF and they were trying to humiliate him with an Aunt Jemimah-looking love interest/manager, Terry Garvin, who was working the WWF front office at the time, suggested Wright, who he remembered as a long-time fan. Ironically, the gimmick got over pretty big and Sapphire got very popular during her short run.”
DUSTY RHODES
“[Savage] was a good dance, a good partner. If you made a mistake, he would let you know. He battled his way to where he was. When I came over from another company, my only WrestleMania was in Toronto in the SkyDome and it was a mixed tag match against ‘Macho Man’ Randy Savage. He was very focused. Even though he was younger than me, I learned a lot. I didn’t listen to a lot of people, but I listened to him. We had a good dance. He was a good dance partner.”
MILLION DOLLAR CHAMPIONSHIP: JAKE “THE SNAKE” ROBERTS vs TED DIBIASE
TED DIBIASE
“People at these conventions often ask me what my most memorable match at WrestleMania is, and obviously my first WrestleMania which was IV, but my favourite, I tell people, was against Jake at WrestleMania VI. Wrestling Jake was almost effortless, working with him, we could go out there without even saying a word.”
JAKE “THE SNAKE” ROBERTS
“When we wrestled we never said a word. He let me guide the ship and take us to where we needed to go and most guys have been that way with me.”
“SUPERFLY” JIMMY SNUKA vs “RAVISHING” RICK RUDE
BRIAN SHIELDS
“The two evenly matched Superstars traded moves unti Snuka missed one of his high-flying moves and Rude took advantage by nailing Superfly with his Rude Awakening, picking up the pinfall victory.”
WWF & INTERCONTINENTAL CHAMPIONSHIPS: HULK HOGAN vs THE ULTIMATE WARRIOR
THE ULTIMATE WARRIOR
“I remember at WrestleMania, when the production people came to my dressing room and told me they had a cart to take me to the ring. I was having the paint put on my face at that point, and was already getting caught up in my character. I just glanced up and told them I was going to run to the ring. They were like, ‘Oh, shit, he’s going to run to the ring?’, and then left and told Vince McMahon. Right before my match I was walking backstage and I heard Vince yell, ‘Warrior!’ I turned and said, ‘Vince, I’m running to that f uck ing ring!’ And Vince turned around and said, ‘Boys, you heard him, he’s running to the ring.’ It was an incredible match — all the excitement, all the drama of the false finishes, and then the first time Hogan lost clean, and that really meant something.”
VAUGHN JOHNSON
“The Hogan-Warrior match wasn’t a technical masterpiece, but like Hogan-Andre, it served its purpose. It put more than 67,000 butts in the seats and told a story that had a lot of drama attached to it. This was the first time two fan favorites went at it in the main event, which split the crowd, but still added to the drama.”
EDGE
“It was a neat time to be a fan because the crowd was so split.”
PAT PATTERSON
“I remember telling Vince I wanted to see the end by being in the crowd. As I watched the match, I started to cry. I looked over and Vince was standing next to me, and has tears in his eyes.”
DAVID SHOEMAKER
“The Ultimate Warrior emerged victorious — earning a handshake from Hogan after the match, and the proverbial torch had been passed. As Hogan stepped back from the limelight, it seemed that the Warrior Era had begun.”
HULK HOGAN
“I said, ‘Well how about this?’ When I put him over and I hand him the belt, and everybody’s cheering for him, and I get halfway down the aisle, but I just turn around and go just grind him. And I wanna be Hollywood Hulk Hogan, the ultimate bad guy.’ And he goes, ‘No that’ll never work.’ I said, ‘Vince, I can be a bad guy, I used to be a bad guy when I worked for your father. I know how to do it.’ And he goes, ‘No, no no, that’ll never work.”
PAT PATTERSON
“[Seeing the Ultimate Warrior alone backstage], I said, ‘I’m happy for you.’ And he wouldn’t put his head up. And finally, I lift up his chin. And he was crying like a baby. He was so happy; he was actually crying. He said, ‘Pat, I can’t believe this happened to me. I am so happy. Thank you. Thank you.’ That’s something that not too many people see.”
BRET “THE HITMAN” HART
“After the match, Hogan said to me, ‘You watch. Warrior will fail. And Vince’ll be calling me, begging me to come back.”
THE ULTIMATE WARRIOR
“These guys make it look like it was an absolute flash in the pan and it was a joke. I just find it weirdly ironic that for years everybody has talked about how much of a basket-case I am and how self-destructive I am and what a loser’s life I lead, but nobody has one bit of proof. Nobody has provided one single bit of proof. Nothing. Not even a traffic ticket. Yet, here you have on display a whole year’s worth of self-destructive life behavior [from Hogan].”
JEFF HARDY (wrestler)
“Warrior was always such a weird, methodical type character anyway, but he was coming out of his realm and being human for a moment and hugging Hulk Hogan. That’s still one of my favorite moments from Wrestlemania.”
Back to PART ONE: The Grandaddy of ’Em All, PART TWO: Bigger. Badder. Better.
Wrestling Club with Darren & Brett is a podcast produced by WFMU.
