Remember when WWF, WCW was a big deal?

This would have been early 80's & 90's. It was the anything goes era. Now days have the stuff they did wouldn't fly. It would be considered inappropriate or offensive. Akeem The African Dream and Kamala the Ugandan Giant come to mind. Not to mention Abdulla the Butcher. It's fun going back and watching old matches/interviews/promos on Youtube. WCW hasn't be on the air for years and the modern incarnation of WWF/WWE just doesn't have the same bite as it used to.

 

My interest was when I was maybe 10 & 11 years old in '90 and '91 (1990s) or maybe even before that. I remember the Ultimate Warrior, Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, and Jake the Snake Roberts, as well as the Rockers who were a tag team duo. Coco Beware too.

I was into it, but I wasn't really into it after that. 1992 and 1993 were tough years (twelve and thirteen). I started getting in trouble and didn't watch wrestling. It was WWF back then.

 

I watched wrestling back then, still do a little. Sometimes I'll record it on my DVR, when I watch I fast forward through all the matches that suck. Back then I never thought pro wrestling would go politically correct but it has and it sucks. I even remember a Colonel DeBeers from South Africa, a racist supporter of apartheid who would refuse to have a black referee in his matches.



Of course no wrestler would dare do something like this today. It pissed me off back then. But it shows how daring the story lines were in those days.

 

They were a little looser with the rules back then. I don't know if any of Greg Valentine's promos are still available but there was some racial undertones. This would have been Georgia wrestling. Back when they had Ivan & Nikita Koloff the Russians. Evidently Andre the Giant had said a few things that would never be allowed these days. "Stone Cold" Steve Austin as well.

 

I seem to recall it on Saturday morning with the cartoons. The antics of the colorful villains really made it a show. Bobby the Brain, Jimmy Heart, Rowdy Roddy Piper...

 

Yes. 11 am if I remember correctly. You knew it was over when Soul Train started. Hulk Hogan vs Andre the Giant. Randy "Macho Man" Savage, etc

 

That's Jesse "The Body" Ventura, ex-governor of Minnesota, in the pink suit.

 

Before all that pc bullshit. It's entertainment and if folks were offended they didn't have to watch it. I never took it all that seriously. The whole thing with Steve Austin and the Mohammad Hassan thing I think that did cross a line. Notice the gimmick was dropped very quickly. The actor was Italian not Arab by the way. Now days they wouldn't be able to get away with a lot of shit they did back then. Some of it was funny and some of it was just cringeworthy. One Man Gang becoming Akeem with his manager Slick. A stereotypical black dressed like a pimp. People complained about The Sopranos and perhaps they had a point but wrestling? Give me a fucking break. Lol.

 

I remember too the barber beefcake. Brutus*

 

Chief Jay Strongbow. He'd go into a war dance during the match and hit you with a "Tomahawk Chop". And the guy was no Indian, he was Italian! Not at all PC.

 

Was a huge fan in throughout the 90s. Still have some of the older ppv tapes from that era.

Awesome matches from awesome characters:

 

Undertaker vs Yokozuna was on a Saturday, early 1994 in Providence, RI. I was there!

 

^^ Must've been a pretty spectacular event to see. I felt Royal Rumble 94 and 92 were the best ones.

 

The Full Blooded Italians...I always laughed when I saw them. Especially Nunzio/Little Guido. Chuck Palumbo was okay and Johnny The Bull the powerhouse. I thought that having Big Vito wear a dress was tasteless. It was in my opinion one of the dumbest gimmicks I had ever seen and there have been some stupid ones. The Boogie Man comes to mind.

 

Old school pro wrestling back in the day was a hoot. I liked the fact that a show lasted about an hour. That was, in my opinion, just long enough. It sure has changed over the years in both style and substance. Some of the wrestlers were just goofy and that was part of the fun. Just when it looked like Hogan was about to lose the match he'd "Hulk" up and do a leg drop across his opponent. Disco Inferno or Papa Shango were really goofy as well.

 

To me, it's unlike the WWF of old I remember. I just remember when they named it "Smack Down", and I thought "how very Heroin of them...".

 

Lol. They used to do all that crazy stuff back then. Like when the villain would run in and smack someone with a folding chair causing a dq or something like that. I think The Heartbreak Kid, Shawn Michaels, might have even "super-kicked" Brutus Beefcake through a pane of (sugar) glass.

 

I remember the big scissors (Brutus)...

 

I watched this man and many others when they used to televise wrestling on Saturday afternoons.