When we were kids, the then-World Wrestling Federation (now World Wrestling Entertainment) had a regular presence on weekends. In the mid-80's, they actually came up with marketable titles for their weekly programs. What used to be known as Championship Wrestling was rechristened Superstars of Wrestling (later shortened to Superstars, a title revived two years ago for WGN America). Vince McMahon, long before he rebooted himself as the devious corporate baron in charge, was the play-by-play announcer, and assigned retired grappler Gorilla Monsoon the same task on Wrestling Challenge (formerly All-Star Wrestling). The genius pairing of Monsoon & manager-color analyst-house comic Bobby Heenan was a perfect counterpoint to McMahon's over-the-top announcing, regardless of who had to share the booth with him.
Let's take you back to 1990. Future Hall of Famers Roddy Piper and the Honky Tonk Man are in the booth with Vince:
As Monsoon would say, this wasn't a feast for the eyeballs, but it was escapist fun. A few years later, McMahon began transitioning his programming to cable, and thus the weekly squash matches showcased on this program and Challenge became a thing of the past. In time, McMahon would relaunch his syndicated programming under different titles, but pulled them from syndication again by 2005.
Rating: B--.
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