Courtesy of Shocky Muraco, the OWW Forums editor:
I’ve just finished watching a six part series on that National Geographic channel called ‘The ’80s, The Decade That Made Us’. The doco looks at the US, how the Ronald Reagan era changed everything for the better and how Reagan used Hollywood and pop culture to accomplish that through a film like Back to the Future – rediscovering ones history to find ones self again, the Cosby Show – the first African American middle class TV family, action heroes like Rambo and Michael Knight and MTV – Walk This Way – the collaboration between Aerosmith (rock n roll) and RUNDMC (hip hop) which broke musical barriers. The Pro Wrestling Boom coincided alongside these pop culture icons that went global.
Each part opens with these lines read by the narrator –
What made the 80s; the 80s?
New beginnings …
New ambitions …
New coke …
New money …
New freedoms …..
These all exemplify Vince McMahon Jr’s vision, and Hulk Hogan, the rock n wrestling connection should have been covered somewhere in the six part series.
The wrestling boom would have never worked in any other decade before or after. The Reagen era created new leaders, new inventions, challenged people to break down social barriers. It took a decade like the 80’s that was steeped in bravery to encourage new leadership and produce other leaders and take risks.
Discuss this now in the OWW Forums:
http://forums.onlineworldofwrestling.com/showthread.php/100-The-1980-s-Wrestling-Boom?p=279#post279