Vince McMahon's Amusement

[NintendoLogic]

New Japan owned the rights to the name Big Van Vader, so he had to change it when he left. He was Super Vader in UWFi.

[cm funk]

Irwin R. Schyster

Was IRS a direct response to the steroid trial stuff, kind of like when the Lakers beat the Nuggets on RAW? I don't know when the government started getting on Vince, so I don't know if it's even possible for that to be the case.

 

Rotunda started with the gimmick in 1991 and I believe it was in response to what McMahon felt was harassment in the form of annual audits

[Al]

Vince was born in 1945. So he grew up largely in the 50s and early 60s. Watching WWF in the 1990s, it's obvious the gimmicks that would appeal to a kid of that era. The hillbillies, the Smoking Gunns, etc.

 

There could be a whole category on Dusty Rhodes btw. The polka dots, Akeem, Reo Rogers, Virgil

[Matt D]

re: IRS, He really loved when the fans chanted IRWIN

[ohtani's jacket]

What a great thread. Perhaps the barometer is his "here he comes" call.

[Strummer]

There was a JJ Dillon interview a few weeks ago where he said that Vince thought the Gobbleddy Gooker was going to get over huge. Now I wish it was Vince on commentary instead of Roddy and Gorilla putting that over with his hearty laugh and guffaws.

 

 

Tugboat is a good one. Vince really got a kick out of that gimmick. "Here comes the Tugster!"

 

he seemed to like babyface Doink quite a lot.

 

Andre is an obvious one

[Strummer]

Vince was born in 1945. So he grew up largely in the 50s and early 60s. Watching WWF in the 1990s, it's obvious the gimmicks that would appeal to a kid of that era. The hillbillies, the Smoking Gunns, etc.

This is why the Deuce, Domino and Cherry characters were created a few years ago To make Vince feel nostalgic about his teenage years

[Cross Face Chicken Wing]

Andre is an obvious one

I don't really see it with Andre. Obviously, I'm sure Vince was proud of what he did with Andre, but did Vince really do all that much to truly shape Andre's character? It seemed like Andre's character was mostly just Andre being Andre.

 

I'm talking more about guys with obvious gimmicks, silly or otherwise, that Vince likely came up with and was convinced that they were amazing ideas. I mentioned Tugboat. Akeem is another good example. Who in their right mind besides Vince would think taking a 450-pound dude known as the One Man Gang and transforming him into some sort of traditional African character who kept trying to dance with strange hand motions was a good idea? Yet, Vince loved it whenever Akeem came out with the Slickster. He got that barritone voice going and just seemed to mark right out.

[JerryvonKramer]

Andre is a Vince Sr era guy. While Vince always treated those guys reasonably well and with respect, I don't think he gets that warm glow feeling he gets when thinking about his golden era guys. Especially 85-86 guys, but that era probably stretches as far as 91.

 

What about Liz? Vince was never at his more pervy, marky or excitable when "the lovely Miss Elizabeth" was around.

 

I think we could probably do another thread on "Vince and Morality", but his sense of right and wrong has never been more twisted and worrying than when Liz was involved -- especially when Savage was a heel.

[Matt D]

Andre is a Vince Sr era guy. While Vince always treated those guys reasonably well and with respect, I don't think he gets that warm glow feeling he gets when thinking about his golden era guys. Especially 85-86 guys, but that era probably stretches as far as 91.

 

What about Liz? Vince was never at his more pervy, marky or excitable when "the lovely Miss Elizabeth" was around.

 

I think we could probably do another thread on "Vince and Morality", but his sense of right and wrong has never been more twisted and worrying than when Liz was involved -- especially when Savage was a heel.

That's what Jesse was best at. He'd catch Vince in a morality trap and point out something absolutely valid and Vince would just go "Well, i don't know about that, but..."

[flyonthewall2983]

Jim Cornette said Vince wanted to rename him Mastodon.

You've just reminded me of that and it could possibly have worked just as well...

 

Ugh, I'm glad they didn't. It's bad enough towards the end that he was jobbing out to Kane and Mark Henry, but to see him re-branded with something too comfortably close with Mantaur would have been the shits.

[rainmakerrtv]

Wasn't Tugboat originally billed as "Tugboat" Thomas?

 

Which I guess is a play on "Sailor" Art Thomas. Maybe Vince had fond memories of him.

I figure the big , rough-and-tumble sailor is a reasonable wrestling archetype, Tugboat just seems to me to be a cartoonish variation on that archetype.

[JerryvonKramer]

Wasn't Tugboat orginally a "fan in the crowd" like Hillybilly Jim though? Correct me if I'm wrong but I remember a whole angle about him being Hogan's best buddy and him being into the fued against *I think* Earthquake and Dino Bravo. Then turned on Hogan and sided with Earthquake in 91.

[Cross Face Chicken Wing]

Wasn't Tugboat orginally a "fan in the crowd" like Hillybilly Jim though? Correct me if I'm wrong but I remember a whole angle about him being Hogan's best buddy and him being into the fued against *I think* Earthquake and Dino Bravo. Then turned on Hogan and sided with Earthquake in 91.

I don't believe so. I think he just debuted on a Superstars show. Not 100% on that, though.

[Marty]

Wasn't Tugboat orginally a "fan in the crowd" like Hillybilly Jim though? Correct me if I'm wrong but I remember a whole angle about him being Hogan's best buddy and him being into the fued against *I think* Earthquake and Dino Bravo. Then turned on Hogan and sided with Earthquake in 91.

Earthquake was a "fan in the crowd" (I'm assuming that's what you're thinking of). The angle was a push-up contest between Warrior and Bravo, they found a big man in the crowd (Tenta), who jumped on Warrior when his push-ups were attempted, and debuted right away as a heel.

 

I don't recall Tugboat turning on Hogan. They fought during that battle royale in 1991, but I don't recall a full-fledged turn. The turn I recall was on Superstars against the Bushwhackers. If memory serves, it was Tugboat and the Bushwhackers against Earthquake and whoever Jimmy Hart's team was (I'm assuming the Nasty Boys).

[Marty]

Oh, and Hunter Hearst Helmsley.

[Matt D]

Wasn't Tugboat orginally a "fan in the crowd" like Hillybilly Jim though? Correct me if I'm wrong but I remember a whole angle about him being Hogan's best buddy and him being into the fued against *I think* Earthquake and Dino Bravo. Then turned on Hogan and sided with Earthquake in 91.

Earthquake was a "fan in the crowd" (I'm assuming that's what you're thinking of). The angle was a push-up contest between Warrior and Bravo, they found a big man in the crowd (Tenta), who jumped on Warrior when his push-ups were attempted, and debuted right away as a heel.

 

I don't recall Tugboat turning on Hogan. They fought during that battle royale in 1991, but I don't recall a full-fledged turn. The turn I recall was on Superstars against the Bushwhackers. If memory serves, it was Tugboat and the Bushwhackers against Earthquake and whoever Jimmy Hart's team was (I'm assuming the Nasty Boys).

 

The rationale was, of course, that Hogan didn't visit Tugboat when he was in the hospital.

 

And there is this, months later: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNkmwtixtXs

[JerryvonKramer]

Wow, my memory on the Tugboat stuff is awful. It's all there but the details are massively jumbled up.

 

Guessing old Mr Ottman is not going to be featuring much on the 1990 or 1991 yearbooks.

[Matt D]

Best Ottman match I can suggest right now is Summerslam 92 Disasters vs Beverly Brothers. Totally slept on match. Honestly, the disasters were pretty great. I don't think there's anyone in 92 WWF I would rather watch than Quake. He was the Mark Henry of the early 90s. Maybe Nord.

 

Typhoon also had the best big splash in wrestling history. And there's ONE jobber match in 92 where he does this crazy cool double underhook roll-back move that he never does again. Best jobber match of theirs is 10/3/92 vs Horowitz and Bob Bradley.

[Cross Face Chicken Wing]

Earthquake was great. My favorite Earthquake moment was at WM6 when he sat on Duggan like 5 times. When he did it the fifth and final time, Monsoon says, "And here's the replay of what just went down." Jesse has to correct him and say, "No, Monsoon! He's doing it again! This is live!"

 

Classic.

[El-P]

I loved the Natural Disasters. Quake was a good worker, Typhoon was crazy strong and could do some cool power stuff. I agree Natural Disasters vs Beverly Brothers was really fun, but honestly I enjoy most of their stuff. Ottman in solo wasn't much of anything while Tenta was always a cool worker.

[flyonthewall2983]

Tenta had some really good mic skills as Earthquake. I loved the ones where he'd be doing his jumping thing and whoever was interviewing was scrambling to get the mic up close.

 

It's really sad he never had a long-term program with Yoko when he was champ.

[JerryvonKramer]

If anyone hasn't seen the Tenta match from the 80s All Japan set, suggest you track it down. From 1988 tagging with Yatsu against Tenryu and Hara. He sells a suplex in that match.

 

Tenta is undoubtedly one of the smarter big men. It's not often talked about but he was quite motivated in 1994 in both WWF and WCW. Has some good stuff from that year.

[Ditch]

Tenta's athletic ability definitely separated him from the typical 300lb+ "fat guy" types (ie. Mike Shaw).

[Victator]

His match with Sting at Starrcade 94 is really good. He also had a very good match with Macho Man on the Saturday Night show.

 

I remember reading originally Vince was bringing him back as Earthquake in 98 to take on Austin, but thought he was too skinny at that point. So they put him in the Golga mask.

 

I wish Vince had put together a Murderer's Row of fat monsters from the past. That would of been a fun few weeks.