[1990-09-15-WWF-Superstars] "THAT'S TONY ATLAS!"

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Tony Atlas, perhaps in disgust with the line of questioning in Dawna's ICW Teen Report, reinvented himself as Saba Simba and went to the WWF. This is on here because of Roddy Piper having a real problem with his gimmick, pointing out that he's Tony Atlas and he has no idea why they're calling him Saba Simba. Vince says he legally changed his name. He actually could have been a decent midcard heel during this time period had they let him cut heel promos, but this gimmick was all wrong. Horrible squash, but Tony Atlas didn't need to be good in the ring to be effective during this time period.

[PeteF3]

Piper completely shits all over this gimmick in pretty hilarious fashion. Vince manages to shut him up with a zinger about Piper wearing a kilt. Duffy amazingly doesn't destroy his arm on the fallaway slam finish.

[soup23]

Piper may be the reason people get yelled at today on commentary as you can almost picture Vince snapping his fingers at him in the booth telling him to shut up. Simbas dance was awful. Sad to see Atlas in this fashion. I don't think I was as blown away with his promo stuff as most but it was good and certainly deserved better than this.

[Zenjo]

They gave the African tribal native a go, but it wasn't racist enough so they came back with Kamala. Vince desparately trying to justify this rubbish whist Piper shits all over it is funny stuff.

[Kevin Ridge]

Tony, oh Tony. This isn’t the same Tony I have grown to enjoy. Piper isn’t a fan of this gimmick for Tony and pretty much says how dumb it is. Quick squash with Simba almost breaking poor jobber’s arm with a fallaway slam.

[garretta]

What I want to know is how fast Vince had to think on his feet to come up with the stuff about Atlas being proud of his heritage and legally changing his name. I'm almost sure he didn't mean for there to be any connection between Saba Simba and Tony Atlas until Piper started in; you can tell that we're supposed to believe that this is a totally new wrestler who's never competed in the WWF before.

 

I can almost picture Vince making the remark about Piper wearing a kilt while holding up a card that only Piper could see saying "SHUT THE HELL UP OR YOU'RE FIRED!" Piper goes into obedient shill mode quick, fast, and in a hurry, although he does get in one last zinger about the headgear, which looks absolutely ridiculous.

 

One other question: Why not simply dub in new commentary, with Heenan filling in if necessary? They could have made up some excuse for Piper's temporary absence. Maybe Vince felt he needed to give at least passing acknowledgment to Atlas's past, since the magazines would no doubt reveal his true identity soon enough.

[PeteF3]

I think that whole thing was planned out, and this was a fancy way of doing a quick "Curt Hennig->Mr. Perfect" transition. Piper's quick "nevermind" had to have been a direct reference to the Emily Litella character on SNL. I doubt Vince gave two shits what the magazines were printing.

[Dooley]

I remember seeing Atlas at a small house show earlier in the summer under his own name. He got a decent reaction, considering it wasn't exactly his backyard and he'd been gone from TV for so long. Have to scratch my head at how a gimmick like that goes beyond the initial pitch.

[(BP)]

Atlas trying to get into the ring with the head dress on is priceless. I'm surprised they didn't revive this when the Lion King came out.

[drew wardlaw]

I've never seen Saba Simba before now and only knew it as an unfortunate gimmick that Tony Atlas had in WWF. This truly is unfortunate. Roddy doesn't appear too pleased either.

[GSR]

Howard Finkel makes the introductions and Vince McMahon says to take a look at this ‘Saba Simba making his initial appearance right here on the show’. Roddy Piper is having none of that and says it’s not Saba Simba, it’s Tony Atlas walking around looking like a bird with all of those feathers. McMahon claims that he’s proud of his heritage, and although they haven’t seen him for four years he’s legally changed his name to Saba Simba. Piper responds ‘that’s ridiculous’, he says that Tony Atlas is a great competitor and why would Saba Simba walk around like that? He looks like a fool! Pretty quick squash with Simba winning after a Samoan Drop and he does a little tribal dance afterwards in celebration.

 

Wow! I knew about Piper referring to him as Tony Atlas, but had no idea he rubbishes and kills the gimmick out right before the match even starts! I presume he hadn’t run this by McMahon by the way Vince was trying to cover for everything that Piper was saying. Had no-one seen him in the ICW? Clearly not, as no idea how someone could think this was a better gimmick that ‘the man’ he was doing there. They do try to put over Atlas’ strength here, but there was nothing in this squash that would make you think he’ll be doing much in the WWF.

[dawho5]

Piper hardly killed the gimmick. The gimmick killed Tony Atlas really. What the Hell was the point of dressing a guy with the promo chops Atlas had like this exactly? Was this where Vince started to protect himself with the "You didn't make you, I made you" kind of shit he does all the time now?

[flyonthewall2983]

Tony was on an episode of MTV's True Life about pro wrestling around a decade or so later after this, and said this was only meant to be a temporary gig, as he was in financial trouble, and McMahon threw him a rope.

[DeanColes1987]

Never got the big deal with this, if Vince didn't want anything airing on his shows then it's edited out very easily

 

Plus Vince himself admits on Wrestling Challenge that Saba Simba was Tony Atlas