JerryvonKramer Posted July 27, 2013 Report Share Posted July 27, 2013 Loss - funny enough I'm reading the January 8th 1990 Observer and Meltzer mentions the Pat Tanaka story shortly after noting Gary Hart's firing. It seems like Tanaka would have been AS WELL AS Dragon Master rather than instead of him. Looking at the cards, Dragon Master was actually positioned in an upper midcard slot. He was having semi-main tag matches with Sawyer and doing things like jobbing to Sting in main events at house shows. He's got to be one of the most anomalous guys from that time-frame. I always point to Col. Mustafa being in the main event of Summerslam 91 as being some truly WTF shit, but I reckon Dragon Master in 90 is even more puzzling. I struggle to think of someone so utterly incongruous in a promotion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RWOOD Posted July 29, 2013 Report Share Posted July 29, 2013 I always thought the Bossman and his main event push in 1998 - 9 was strange. Pretty much everything Bossman did during that run was odd and slightly offensive I guess. Facing Austin in the first round of the Survivor Series tournament, alright runs with the tag team and hardcore titles, hanging out with the Undertaker his his most dubious Wrestlemania match, killing Al Snows dog, tormenting the Big Show about his dead father and then getting a title shot at the first Armageddon in 1999. Weird. At one point I remember him having a match with the Rock on TV. That was okay. I didn't like Goldberg in WWE. Too much time had passed. I cannot wait to find out the context of Mark Henry as Santa and Tony Atlas as Rudolf. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt D Posted July 29, 2013 Report Share Posted July 29, 2013 Loss - funny enough I'm reading the January 8th 1990 Observer and Meltzer mentions the Pat Tanaka story shortly after noting Gary Hart's firing. It seems like Tanaka would have been AS WELL AS Dragon Master rather than instead of him. Looking at the cards, Dragon Master was actually positioned in an upper midcard slot. He was having semi-main tag matches with Sawyer and doing things like jobbing to Sting in main events at house shows. He's got to be one of the most anomalous guys from that time-frame. I always point to Col. Mustafa being in the main event of Summerslam 91 as being some truly WTF shit, but I reckon Dragon Master in 90 is even more puzzling. I struggle to think of someone so utterly incongruous in a promotion. Adnan is weird to me. If someone told you in, let's say 1988 that Adnan Al Kassie was going to be in the main event of Summerslam in 91, that would be weirder to me than saying Mustafa would be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rzombie1988 Posted July 29, 2013 Report Share Posted July 29, 2013 DP Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rzombie1988 Posted July 29, 2013 Report Share Posted July 29, 2013 Also, the Tony Atlas signing because Vince randomly decided that his favorite time period for wrestling was 1979-1985. I thought they could have done more with Atlas. He and Henry were a great pair: I second this....they should have brought the act for a Main Event fun on RAW for a few months...they were a GREAT team...they should Booker with him (Henry) now and do that same type thing on the big show... I actually took the first one years ago, and I'm surprised to see it still floating around. I found this one too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Sorrow Posted July 29, 2013 Report Share Posted July 29, 2013 As far as Bossman in 99 goes, I always figured that Vince always liked him, didn't have a problem with him leaving and going to WCW (besides the Boss copyright infringement ), and was willing to showcase him to stick it to WCW by showing that they wasted this guy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted July 29, 2013 Report Share Posted July 29, 2013 Adnan is weird to me. If someone told you in, let's say 1988 that Adnan Al Kassie was going to be in the main event of Summerslam in 91, that would be weirder to me than saying Mustafa would be. Well, at least Adnan had been the manager of Slaughter for a while, so that at least made sense. But to have the Iron Sheik, from Teheran, Iran, come back pretending he was an Iraki military was just like, WTF ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JerryvonKramer Posted July 29, 2013 Report Share Posted July 29, 2013 Iranians, Arabs, what's the difference right? In the wolrd of wrestling anyone from east of Berlin is Russian, and anyone from the Middle East is an arab. My dad is Iranian, so I can speak a bit of Farsi. When they did the Muhammad Hassan run, Davari did his rants in Farsi and I could understand bits of what he was saying -- mostly incoherent stuff. Hassan was meant to be an Arab (who tend to speak arabic), so unless he could speak fluent Farsi presumably couldn't understand what he was saying. These are two examples where the deep historical, linguistic and cultural differences of Persians and Arabs -- which are far bigger than those between, say Americans and Canadians or even Americans and Mexicans -- were collapsed into one big racial Other. "What's the difference, they're all the same ain't they" That was the part of the Hassan angle I found offensive, not that it was the 00s and they were running an angle where the crowd was meant to be cheering pretty far rightwing views (it's wrestling, I expect that), but that it was the 00s and they were still openly conflating people of wildy different cultures and races in stereotypes under the guise of a character supposedly attacking that very thing. Found it really insidious and dark. Anyway, the worst part of the idea of Sheik becoming Mustafa is that the Iran-Iraq war had just been going on for 8 years. It was long, bloody and bitter. The idea that an Iranian would support Saddam Hussein in 91 is insane -- probably more so than the idea of an American being a sympathizer. Col. Mustafa would have been the biggest heel of all time in Iran - they should have done a tour there, it would have drawn big. Did they ever recognise that Mustafa was Iranian, not an Iraqi on TV? The character is pretty sickening if you think about it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted July 29, 2013 Report Share Posted July 29, 2013 Interesting stuff here Jerry. When they did the Muhammad Hassan run Well, Hassan was played by an... italian-american. Anyway, the worst part of the idea of Sheik becoming Mustafa is that the Iran-Iraq war had just been going on for 8 years. It was long, bloody and bitter. The idea that an Iranian would support Saddam Hussein in 91 is insane -- probably more so than the idea of an American being a sympathizer. Well, deeply kayfabe-wise, we can say that Mustafa was also a turn-coat on in own country, just like Slaughter did. So the whole thing would somewhat make sense. Col. Mustafa would have been the biggest heel of all time in Iran - they should have done a tour there, it would have drawn big. I don't think Sheiky baby would have been open to such an idea. Did they ever recognise that Mustafa was Iranian, not an Iraqi on TV? The character is pretty sickening if you think about it. Now that you ask about it, I wonder if they didn't mention he was the Iron Sheik the first time he showed up. Maybe I'm mixing up with the French announcers who indeed said he was a former WWF champion, which baffled me at the time (I had a very vague notion to say the least of anything pre-1990). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ricky Jackson Posted July 29, 2013 Report Share Posted July 29, 2013 I think Piper blurted out "It's the Iron Sheik!" during his first appearance as Mustafa. Can't remember how often it was referenced after that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrickHithouse Posted July 29, 2013 Report Share Posted July 29, 2013 It was definitely mentioned that Mustafa was Iron Sheik on his Superstars debut, after that they never mentioned it. Or if they did, it was once or twice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted July 29, 2013 Report Share Posted July 29, 2013 As far as Bossman in 99 goes, I always figured that Vince always liked him, didn't have a problem with him leaving and going to WCW (besides the Boss copyright infringement ), and was willing to showcase him to stick it to WCW by showing that they wasted this guy. Yeah, Boss Man had quite a bit of respect within the company for drawing so big on house shows against Hogan a decade earlier. Vince was a big fan. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdw Posted July 29, 2013 Report Share Posted July 29, 2013 Iron Sheik in WCW was pretty batshit. Of course this one: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RWOOD Posted July 29, 2013 Report Share Posted July 29, 2013 I think Piper blurted out "It's the Iron Sheik!" during his first appearance as Mustafa. Can't remember how often it was referenced after that. Piper was notorious for calling out 80s wrestlers on their 90s gimmicks. I recall him having a very negative reaction to Tony Atlas as Saba Simba on commentary which Vince quickly refuted... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RWOOD Posted July 29, 2013 Report Share Posted July 29, 2013 As far as Bossman in 99 goes, I always figured that Vince always liked him, didn't have a problem with him leaving and going to WCW (besides the Boss copyright infringement ), and was willing to showcase him to stick it to WCW by showing that they wasted this guy. Yeah, Boss Man had quite a bit of respect within the company for drawing so big on house shows against Hogan a decade earlier. Vince was a big fan. I guess it is less of puzzling signing and more puzzling use. I remember suspending my belief as a smarky teen and saying "... but Bossman was so mad when Heenan was talking about his mom" during the Big Show angle. Ha. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted July 29, 2013 Report Share Posted July 29, 2013 As far as Bossman in 99 goes, I always figured that Vince always liked him, didn't have a problem with him leaving and going to WCW (besides the Boss copyright infringement ), and was willing to showcase him to stick it to WCW by showing that they wasted this guy. Yeah, Boss Man had quite a bit of respect within the company for drawing so big on house shows against Hogan a decade earlier. Vince was a big fan. I guess it is less of puzzling signing and more puzzling use. I remember suspending my belief as a smarky teen and saying "... but Bossman was so mad when Heenan was talking about his mom" during the Big Show angle. Ha. Ha! I remember being upset that they didn't explain how Rick Rude was able to get Jack Tunney's ban lifted when he returned as Shawn Michaels' insurance policy nearly 7 years later. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moonsault Marvin Posted July 29, 2013 Report Share Posted July 29, 2013 Piper was notorious for calling out 80s wrestlers on their 90s gimmicks. I recall him having a very negative reaction to Tony Atlas as Saba Simba on commentary which Vince quickly refuted... I always wondered whether Vince knew what Piper was going to say ahead of time, Vince didn't really care, or they were just too lazy to retape the commentary. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeteF3 Posted July 29, 2013 Report Share Posted July 29, 2013 During the Simba match, Vince rebutted Piper with a seemingly scripted zinger about Piper always wearing a kilt (in reference to Atlas "getting back to his roots"). Sounded like the whole thing aired exactly as planned. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
artDDP Posted July 30, 2013 Report Share Posted July 30, 2013 I have a VHS tape of a Superstars telecast where Roddy outs Mustafa as the Iron Shiek and mocks the whole gimmick. Vince simply replies, "Yes, indeed, a former WWF champion now calling himself Colonel Mustafa." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JerryvonKramer Posted July 30, 2013 Report Share Posted July 30, 2013 I've put some more details on the Mustafa run here: http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?s=&a...t&p=5554000 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Death From Above Posted July 30, 2013 Report Share Posted July 30, 2013 Bossman was a good hand for a long time but he was just put in the wrong role in '99. The HIAC match had no chance of being good, but even less so because I don't think anyone took him seriously as a threat to Undertaker, because Bossman's gimmick was basically "being a lackey/bodyguard to more important people in The Corporation". Which doesn't scream "I'm going to knock off Undertaker". The less said about the Big Show and Al Snow angles the better. Just unfortunate he got saddled with those. Actually in terms of a signing maybe the stranger one for him was ending up in All Japan, complete with pseudo-cop outfit in the early 90's. He had a couple fun little matches there, but it did seem a little weird seeing him still in WWF garb in that setting. Baba seemed to like cowboys and cop gimmicks. Who can say why. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted July 30, 2013 Report Share Posted July 30, 2013 Bossman was put in awful angles one after another, but what bothered me even more was his outfit. This stuff was supposed to stop bullets, so those damn punches had to hurt the guy... Most interesting thing I heard about Bossman during those years is the close friendship with Terri Runnels. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stiva Posted July 30, 2013 Report Share Posted July 30, 2013 The less said about the Big Show and Al Snow angles the better. Just unfortunate he got saddled with those. The Pepper stuff is really shitty but god bless Snow and Bossman for that angle in the hotel room. Snow takes a bump right on his head for no reason whatsoever and Bossman is trying so hard to be the biggest dick in the universe. "He's at the groomers, he's going to look great for you?" "The groomers? He doesn't have any hair" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
s1rweeze Posted July 30, 2013 Report Share Posted July 30, 2013 Bossman was a good hand for a long time but he was just put in the wrong role in '99. The HIAC match had no chance of being good, but even less so because I don't think anyone took him seriously as a threat to Undertaker, because Bossman's gimmick was basically "being a lackey/bodyguard to more important people in The Corporation". Which doesn't scream "I'm going to knock off Undertaker". If I remember correctly, many people at the time agreed with this sentiment and as a result were expecting a huge bloodbath of a brawl (since it was in Philly) to make the match worth a crap. Instead we got... yeah... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JerryvonKramer Posted July 30, 2013 Report Share Posted July 30, 2013 Did they ever recognise that Mustafa was Iranian, not an Iraqi on TV? The character is pretty sickening if you think about it. In an amazing turn of events, the Iron Sheik thread has led us to unearthing footage in which the Farsi / Arabic point is mentioned on air, see here: http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?s=&a...t&p=5554045 Thanks a lot Pete! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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