Time to check in on the East Side Kids, aka The Bowery Boys.
Huntz Hall makes his debut in the series in 1941's "Bowery Blitzkrieg", in which Muggs (Leo Gorcey) steps into the boxing ring, competing in the Golden Gloves under the sponsorship of the NYPD. Keye Luke (billed as "Key" Luke) appears briefly as the owner of a pool hall.
Ernest "Sunshine Sammy" Morrison (ex-Our Gang) is part of this group. Edited for broadcast when it aired on channel 5 in NYC back in the day.
Ah, the good old days of wrestling, when your weekend programming consisted of jobber matches filling out an hour of action, mostly as an infomercial for pending shows in the broadcast area.
Pete Doherty, aka "The Duke of Dorchester", in reference to his Massachusetts hometown, was one of the more famous jobbers, working for the 3WF, and getting a bone tossed his way with a win in front of the partisans every so often. Doherty retired from the ring in 1997, and was inducted into the New England Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2010.
From 1980, Pete has his work cut out for him against Andre The Giant. Joe McHugh's intro is already in progress as the video begins.
From season 1 of The Flintstones:
Barney (Mel Blanc) buys Betty (Bea Benaderet) an engagement ring (??), and has Fred (Alan Reed) hold it for safekeeping. Wilma (Jean VanderPyl) finds the ring, and assumes Fred bought it for her. Uh-oh!! Now, Fred, who doesn't have the money to buy a 2nd ring, talks Barney into an exhibition boxing match with the champ. The girls ask the champ's manager to let Barney win the fight, but Barney's clowning proves costly. Believing they've been double-crossed, welllllllll......
Lucha Libre USA: Masked Warriors was MTV's last contribution to the wrestling business.
The series aired on Friday nights and, at first, Saturday afternoons on MTV2. Season 2 Saturday replays aired in the morning, hence its inclusion here.
Lalo Gonzalez & Nigel Sherrod were the announcers, with Sherrod doubling as ring announcer, in season 1. When the series returned, ex-WWE announcers Kevin Kelly & Todd (Steve) Romero took over. However, Romero didn't last long, and when the series transitioned to Hulu to finish the season, ex-WWE, ECW, & TNA wrestler Stevie Richards took over on color. By season's end, Alex Abrahantes, recently released by AEW, replaced Kelly.
The roster was stocked with ex-TNA, WCW, & WWE talent, including Marco Corleone (Mark Jindrak), Tigresa Caliente (Trenesha Biggers, formerly with TNA), Petey Williams (now a WWE producer), and Chi Chi (Allan Funk, aka Kwee-Wee in WCW & Bruce in TNA). It wasn't until Robert Rodriguez bankrolled Lucha Underground in 2014 that the lucha style finally caught on with American audiences once more.
Let's take you back to the series opener.
As a founding member of the heel tag team Midnight Express, Dennis Condrey was a decorated wrestler in the 80's, winning the NWA tag titles with Bobby Eaton under the leadership of motormouth manager Jim Cornette.
Condrey left the team in the mid-80's when he left the NWA, then returned with Randy Rose as the Original Midnight Express, first in the AWA, then back in the NWA, with Paul E. Dangerously (Paul Heyman), a Cornette clone at the time, except that his weapon of choice was a cordless phone as opposed to Cornette's tennis racquet.
We are sad to report that Condrey, 74, who last appeared at an AEW event a couple of years ago as a guest of FTR, has passed away. Following is an angle from Mid-South Wrestling, circa 1984, involving Magnum TA and Mr. Wrestling II:
While "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan was tearing it up in Mid-South Wrestling, Glens Falls' other gift to wrestling made her TV debut with World Class Championship Wrestling.
Misty Blue leads off this card from September 1985. I don't think Misty ever followed Duggan to the WWE.....
Vincent J. (Jess) McMahon was never satisfied with 1 syndicated program. He needed to have 2.
In addition to Championship Wrestling, there was also All Star Wrestling, a title used by other promotions in other parts of the country, including the AWA. You'd get the occasional competitive feature match, but most of the hour was loaded with jobber matches, the likes of which you don't see anymore.
From 1978, you'll see 2 former champions, Ivan Koloff and Stan Stasiak, in separate bouts, the latter in the opener vs. Larry Zbyszko. Also on the card is Jerry "Crusher" Blackwell, who would later become a babyface (good guy) in the AWA in the 80's after turning on Sheik Adnan El-Kaissie. Once Blackwell lost a title match vs. then-champ Bob Backlund, he left the 3WF.
Vincent K. McMahon solos on commentary.
Think of this as found media.
Everyone, I'm sure, knows that Allen Coage was signed away from Stampede Wrestling in Canada in the late 80's, and memorably feuded with Bret Hart, whom he knew from Stampede, and Roddy Piper. Then, he was known as Bad News Brown.
But, a decade earlier, he had been signed to the then-WWWF, and given Fred Blassie as a manager, when he didn't have a mouthpiece during his later run. Coage was also allowed to use his own name. The "Bad News" nickname was his own, but, by 1989, trademark-happy Vincent K. McMahon needed to merchandise anything & everything about all of his wrestlers.
Check this match from March 1979. Coage actually has to redirect Blassie toward the camera during the introductions. Seems the dude had more on the ball than his manager before the match vs. Tony Garea.....
The National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) had their own television programming opposite the AWA and the WWWF during the 70's. During the territory era, the NWA had programs geared for specific territories such as Florida, Georgia, and, here the Mid-Atlantic, which covered territory between Maryland & the Carolinas.
Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling began airing in 1973, and ran for 13 years, ending when promoter Jim Crockett began to consolidate his programming to counter the at-the-time WWF (now WWE) and its national expansion.
Bob Caudle was the play-by-play man, often working solo, often with guest analysts until the 80's, when David Crockett began as a color analyst, a gig he also would have with World Championship Wrestling on TBS for a few years.
Let's go to 1983 for this sampler with the likes of Rick Steamboat, Greg Valentine, and Sgt. Slaughter.
The late WWE Hall of Famer Iron Sheik was never a babyface in WWE. But, like fellow heel King Kong Bundy, advertisers saw value in the Sheik in doing commercials.
So, when Toyota introduced the Bundera LandCruiser in 1985, they eventually got in contact with Vince McMahon, who not only loaned out the Sheik, but announcer Gene Okerlund, who handles the voice over for this super short (15 second) spot.
Yeah, it's back to school season for parents.
In 1987, Mead touted its 5-Star line of notebooks & binders, using clever commercials like this one. James Harder narrates.
Following is what appears to be a VHS compilation from Hulk Hogan's Rock 'n' Wrestling. Saban, which did not co-produce the series, seems to have gotten the rights, along with Sony (Coca-Cola Television), before the rights went to WWE.
"All Time Champ" is a compilation of three episodes from the series, which, it seems, was bumped down to the lunch hour death slot for season 2 to make room for Pee-Wee's Playhouse. Hogan (Brad Garrett) narrates.
Among the features is a Robin Hood parody. Head writer Jeffrey Scott, who came to DIC in 1983 (The Littles) had done something similar with the Super Friends six years earlier.
Individual title cards were edited off in the VHS release.
Most wrestling fans know the story of how Brutus Beefcake had become disfigured in a parasailing accident. As Beefcake recovered, Vince McMahon needed to do something with the former tag team champion, so he had disguised Beefcake as a masked mystery man who attacked heels such as Rick Martel and the late Earthquake. The then-heel Slick was also a victim of a man fans began calling "Furface", but was meant to be either the Avenger or Mariner. I'll explain after the video compilation.
Bill Mercer wasn't just a wrestling announcer. He was a legend in Texas, as he covered a number of different sports.
Wrestling fans, though, remember him as the voice of World Class Championship Wrestling, which went into national syndication, arriving in the 518 in 1984. Mercer passed away over the weekend at 99, a long, successful life lived. Mercer also helped launch the sports journalism program at the University of North Texas.
In his memory, we present a World Class show from 1983.
When Bruce Prichard left the then-World Wrestling Federation and his Brother Love persona behind, he had gone to Global Championship Wrestling, which had a TV deal with ESPN. However, as Global was slowly tanking, Prichard fled and returned to the WWF.
Instead of resuming his Brother Love role, Prichard was asked to create a parody of Dusty Rhodes as a talk show host. The end result was Reo's Roundup, which was a clear case of Vince McMahon scraping from the bottom of the barrel, since Roddy Piper, Jesse Ventura, and Jake Roberts, some of his best talkers, were all gone, although Piper would return.
Prichard's mimic of Dusty was so blatant, it isn't a surprise viewers turned away. In this installment from the fall of 1993, Reo's guests are Shawn Michaels and Razor Ramon.
Next week marks 38 years since the World Wrestling Federation (now WWE) rebranded their syndicated programming. Championship Wrestling was rebooted as Superstars of Wrestling. All Star Wrestling, which had been using Michael Jackson's "Thriller" as its theme music for 2+ years, now would go by Wrestling Challenge. Both series would last until the 90's.
Gorilla Monsoon was entrusted with the play-by-play, and, for the opener, was partnered with Ernie Ladd and Johnny Valiant, himself rebranded as Johnny V, likely because kayfabe brother Jimmy had trademarked the Valiant name in the South, or something.
He took his ring name from the late punk rocker from the Sex Pistols, and made his own legend.
Sid Vicious (Sid Eudy), or, in WWE, Sid Justice or Sycho Sid, made his debut in 1987 on the independent circuit, including a stint in Memphis, before signing with the NWA and World Championship Wrestling.
At first, Vicious was part of a tag team, the Skyscrapers, with former football player Dan Spivey. managed by Teddy Long. However, after a few months, Vicious left, with Mean Mark Callous (Mark Calaway, aka The Undertaker) replacing Vicious. By the time Vicious returned, the Skyscrapers were no more, and Vicious instead joined the Four Horsemen.
In the summer of 1991, however, Vicious came to the then-World Wrestling Federation as Sid Justice, enabling Vince McMahon to copyright the new persona. Sid started as a babyface, and in one of his last matches in that role, took on Big Bully Busick (Nick Busick) in the latter's final match.
Paramount's Famous Studios served up "Rabbit Punch" as part of its Noveltoon line in 1955. As these shorts were incorporated into The New Casper Cartoon Show 8 years later for ABC, these were rechristened, Harveytoons.
Moe Hare & Tommy Tortoise square off in the boxing ring in a take-off on Aesop's classic The Tortoise & The Hare, which WB had parodied with Bugs Bunny and Cecil Turtle on a couple of occasions.
We had heard that Afa Anoia, 1/2 of the legendary Wild Samoans tag team, had been in ill health and in and out of hospitals the last few months. We didn't know that his brother and tag team partner, Sika, was also in ill health.
We've learned in the last few minutes that Sika has passed away.
The brothers began wrestling as a tag team in 1973, their exploits taking them through the NWA and then-World Wrestling Federation, where they made their debut in 1980, managed by Lou Albano.
By 1991, WWF Superstars of Wrestling experimented with a 3 man broadcast team. Roddy Piper was now a color analyst between movie gigs. "Macho Man" Randy Savage was the other analyst flanking Vince McMahon.
Early in September, former NWA champion Ric Flair came to the company, carrying with him the NWA World title, billed as the "real World champion". Flair had left the NWA/WCW two months earlier in a dispute with WCW executive Jim Herd. Flair & Piper were old friends off camera, and Piper would be Flair's 1st feud during his nearly 2 year run. He would return to the company in 2001.
As you'll see, Piper, after getting battered by Flair, nails McMahon in the back with a wooden chair. It was the first time McMahon had "taken a bump", as they say in the wrestling business.
