[1992-06-27-WWF-Superstars] Tatanka vignette

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Tatanka visits a reservation and signs autographs. He's not a good speaker.

[Tim Evans]

I like how he just walks around and talks to the kids in his ring attire like it's normal.

[Kevin Ridge]

I was actually thinking from these WWF segments so far that he looked the most normal in his setting with his gear on. But then everyone else is in jeans and sneakers and he does look awkward doing his speech.

[WingedEagle]

Tatanka goes to some Native American festival. Completely stereotypical, and the mic is not his strong suit.

[PeteF3]

This comes off as pretty patronizing, as the Awkwesasne Reservation is on the U.S./Canada border. It'd be like pushing the British Bulldog as a hero in Italy. Throw in some noble-savage rhetoric from Okerlund and Tatanka's rambling pep talk and this is all pretty bad.

[MikeCampbell]

Tatanka, in gear, visits a reservation and gives a lecture to the kids. Goofy stuff, but it fits the time period.

[garretta]

I'm not sure I believe that this took place where they say it did. I don't mean to sound like one of those people who think that everything in wrestling at this time takes place within twenty miles of Stamford, but I think it fits here. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the "reservation" was a green screen. Think about it; why would this tribe accept a visit from someone who's not their own and than let him wander around the reservation half-naked, assuming they even know who he is or what he does? It doesn't sound very smart to me.

 

I'm adopting a rule of thumb: If a guy's in his robe or gear, whatever "on location" interview he's doing is being shot in the studio at Titan Towers. If an audience is needed, it's either local schoolkids or paid extras. In case you're scoring at home, that means that the only vignettes from around this time I might agree were actually done on location are Hall's. I may be all wet, of course, but someone's going to have to prove that I am before I'll believe differently.

 

As far as content goes, Tatanka did the best he could, but the issue between him and Martel wasn't exactly heated or destined to mean much in the long run. As a point of reference, at this point in the Jake feud give or take a few weeks, Jake was DDTing Brother Love and still had sunglasses and a cane. Of course, that was Jake, a proven moneymaker and ten times the performer Tatanka ever was or ever will be. Jake/Martel may have been the second most heated issue in the company in its time after Hogan/Sarge; this was just another midcard feud that no one cared about while it was going on, let alone today.

 

On the off chance that this really was a location shoot, how typical of Vince to use a reservation on the Canadian border. Canadians have their natives too, but I'm sure they also have their own native heroes. They don't need ours to be forced down their throats, especially when the one in question hadn't really accomplished anything in the WWF (or anywhere else in wrestling) yet.

[dawho5]

I don't even know what to think about this.  I certainly hope that this was green-screened.  Otherwise the leaders of this reservation had a guy pass off a wrestling promo as wisdom to all the kids.  And walk around half naked while they were dressed like normal people.

[xlynwoodx]

Tatanka visits a reservation and gives a terrible speech.  There are reservations in Connecticut much closer to Stamford who probably wanted nothing to do with this.