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Zooming in on Wrestling - Forgotten Moments
November 10, 2005 by Euan Williamson

Pretty much everyone here will remember Austin striking a deal with the devil himself, Mr. McMahon, to defeat The Rock at WrestleManiaX7. I'm also sure pretty much everyone will remember or have at least seen Hogan slam Andre at WrestleMania III. These are the kind of moments that are immortalised in wrestling history and if you didn't see them happen live, then you more than likely to see them in a WWE produced montage or by purchasing the DVD or video of said event. In fact, sometimes, these kind of legendary events can be impossible to avoid. However, the topic of this article is one of forgotten moments.

Stuck in my mind I have a collection of random events that have taken place in the history of the WWE and many of them are insignificant or never spoken about . It's because these random events hold absolutely no importance in the legacy of WWE's history and, at face value, pall in significance to the legendary moments such as the ones mentioned in the first paragraph, To me, however, they are as important. They allow me to go back in time to another period of my life and remember where I was when I saw them and, for some odd reason, they can remain fresher in my mind than some of the firework inducing moments of WrestleManias and SummerSlams. Conversely, some of these moments can be nothing but the vaguest of memories, yet when we think wrestling they pop into our head .The annoying thing is that most of them are lost to the archives of the WWE and will never be seen again, except, perhaps by fluke on the 24/7 channel on cable. I'm sure that every one of you has these kind of moments stuck in your head and, most likely, they will mean nothing or not even be remembered by the next person. What I want to do is share some of mine with you and see if any of you remember them and for you to post and give me yours and maybe we'll all learn some new stuff or be able to talk about them if we share some of these forgotten moments! Anyway, here's a list of my little moments that will be stuck in my head till the day I die...

1. Berzerker and the Undertaker. It's the early 90s and Undertaker is of course on top of the WWE. Meanwhile, a fairly new wrestler called 'The Berzerker' is making some waves through the lower to mid card. The event takes place on Prime Time or SNME when, during a match between the two, Berzerker clocks Undertaker with an illegal object. Undertaker is flat out on the mat and Berzerker travels to the top rope with his sword held aloft and attempts to impale the 'Deadman' to the canvas. At the last second, Undertaker moves and we're left with a sword driven five inches deep into the ring, and a retreating Berzerker. HUSS! HUSS!

2. British Bulldog and RepoMan. Again it's the early 90s and all I remember is watching it at my friends house when I was about 11. Anyway, with the help of the Nasty Boys, RepoMan attaches his hook and rope to Davey Boy's dog collar and launches him over the top rope. For a good 5 minutes the heels pull back on the rope and we have close ups of Bulldog's face turning blue and contorted as he is literally hung! Cue the refs and that silly guy with the poodle like blond hair and glasses running to the ring to try and sort it out. Priceless!

3. The Mountie and Sgt Slaughter. Slaughter's fighting a random match on PrimeTime when The Mountie saunters to ringside with what looks a bit like a guitar case. Five minutes later, with Slaughter lying on the top buckle like a beached whale, Mountie opens the case to reveal a super turbo charged cattleprod and electrocutes the hell out of Slaughter. Ouch!

4. The curse of Papa Shango. Ultimate Warrior's being interviewed when, bizarrely, a black ooze starts to run down his face from his hairline. 'Mean' Gene is hysterical and Warrior's confused but its all part of Shango's voodoo curse. A week later, the bald 'Mean' Gene falls victim when the ooze runs out of his suit sleeves onto his hands! Scary stuff.

5. Damien Demento. Enough said.

6. Earthquake kills Jake's snake by doing his finishing manoeuvre on it. 'Pansnake' anyone"!

7. Big Bossman and Nailz. I remember it crystal clear. I was at my babysitters flat which I loved because she had Sky television. After months of strange letters etc threatening the Big Bossman it all kicks off one random Saturday when, after winning his squash match, Big Bossman is jumped by a tough looking sod in a red boiler suit and mercilessly pummeled by his own nightstick. Tough injustice!

8. Razor Ramon and The Kid. After suffering an embarrassing defeat to a mere kid, Ramon offers a financial inducement to tempt the Kid in facing him again. This was on very early days RAW. Accepting the challenge, The Kid proceeds to make off with the money without keeping up his end of the bargain. If only X-Pac was still as entertaining!

9. Crush and Yokozuna. Early RAW as well and I recently found it on a 12 year old tape. BONUS! The dominant Crush gets a chance at Yokozuna and is faring very well until...Fuji cracks him with his cane and Yoko proceeds to give him at least six Banzai drops as referees and wrestlers are unable to help until Savage chases them away with a chair. A 'dead' Crush is stretchered away, probably because he's 'stoned'. I believe WWE wrote him out for months here because he'd been caught in possession of marijuana.

Well, there you go. You may remember them anyway, you may just have been reminded of them or you might not remember them at all, but they are some of the small things that won't leave my head. I think these kind of things are age dependant but I look forward to hearing from anyone of all ages with their memories from any era! Peace!

by Euan Williamson ..

Jon wrote:
It's strange, I talk to a lot of wrestling fans online and face-to-face and you are the first that has remembered about the Berserker sword incident!! I must say I remember all of these incidents with a lot of clarity as it was around 1989 that my interest in wrestling picked up and the early nineties were a well-remembered high point for me. I was just growing up into my teen years and it all seemed so cool...

Thanks for the memories and for letting me know I'm not the only sad git who remembers the more trivial storylines, not just the headlining moments!!

PS: Are you euanzoom of IMDB fame" I enjoy your posts on there too, you know... I am known as Jon_E_Lymm...

patrick mills wrote:
So-so list. You left out so many it reveals your youth.

1. Jim Cornette and the Midnight Express- Arguably the greatest tag team ever. Find a DVD of their matches vs the Rock and Roll Express or the Four Horsemen. That trio DEFINES tag team wrestling.

2. The Road Warriors- Nuff said.

3.Ric Flair-Name one wrestler today that hasn't modeled their career after this man. HE IS WRESTLING.

4.Shawn Michaels-Showstopper, Icon, Rocker, Midnight Rocker, whatever. He's the closest thing to Flair in this industry. He's wrestled and beaten the best. Tells a great story and bleeds the sport. He reminds the fans that it isn't all about size, it's the talent and the ability to be believable.

5.Jim Ross- From Mid-South to WCW to WWE he has called all the greats. The Voice of Wrestling.

6. The Four Horsemen I ( Arn, Ric, Tully, Ole)- the most powerful faction in pro wrestling EVER. The clip where they handcuffed Dusty Rhodes and smashed his hand with a bat was classic. Promotions are still trying to copy the impact they had (ie nWo, DX)

7. Raven- Did anybody give a damn about Extreme until he did the damn thing"

Quiksilver wrote:
I have one memory in my mind that sticks out like any other. The event was WCW Nitro and I had not been watching wrestling very long at all, and the match was Scotty Riggs vs Saturn for the TV title, I had never seen Riggs before and he was looking pretty good in there against the TV champ, and then he done the most awesome thing i had ever seen at that time, he was on the top rope and was about to jump on Saturn, but instead he leapt to the outside, over the guard rail and out onto the flock, it was insane, I became a Riggs fan instantly and he was my favorite wrestle for about 2 years after that. I have never seen any replays of that, and I cant even find any information about it anywhere on the internet, but it definently sticks out in my mind more than anything else I've ever seen in wrestling.

Justin Parsley wrote:
Wow the big bossman and nailz thats a rivalry i remember well when nailz jumped him and all the tension before he was in the wwf. Bossman with the pictures of him from the police report being beat up with the black eye's and swollen face, busted lip from a convict called nailz coming to his home threatening his family classic stuff. -- that brings back some memories when i was 9 at that time.

Others i remember well are

1. Hacksaw came to the ring with the the red white and blue and yokozuna was raising the Japanese flag. Hacksaw didn't like yokozuna disrespecting the usa flag and was trying to raise the red white and blue higher, but mr fuji hit hacksaw in the chest with the flag knocking him down and then being Banzai droped three times by yokozuna causing internal bleeding to hacksaw and coughing up blood and the refs trying to get him out of the ring.

2. Before Wrestlemania 8 the immortal hulk hogan had an interview on usa network before the ppv hogan was talking to mean jean okerlund and was saying he didn't know if he was going to live after this match like sid was going to kill him, the tone of voice and the look on his face makes it a instant classic.

Grant Molina wrote:
Pretty good list. But I must add on to it.

1. Vader and El Gigante. Vader proceeds to attack El Gigante and put his face into the smoke of his mastodon mask.Classic.

2. Jake "the Snake" Roberts versus Rick "the Model" Martel in a blindfold match. Not very realistic, but entertaining.

3. "Bad News" Brown and his feud with Jake "the Snake" Roberts. This feud deserved more attention.

4. Lex Luger and his partner Sting and their matches with the Steiner brothers. They had too many great matches to point one out.

5. The Patriot ( Del Wilkes ) had a singles match again Sean Waltman ( at the time he went by the gimmick of " Lightning Kid") at Global Wrestling in the early 90's. The Patriot did the Patriot Missile shoulder tackle off the top turnbuckle to the outside of the ring. Needless to say, the Kid was annihilated.

devonandleah wrote:
In response to patrick mills: Hence the title Forgotten MOMENTS. Not people. He was trying to point out matches and moments that people don't think about. For you to say "it reveals your youth" is pointless. He wasn't trying to point out big names, or tag teams, it's all about the moments. next time, think before you go writing stuff that is totally wrong.

Kevin Coles wrote:
My thoughts exactly devonandleah, I don't think he even read most of the article. There is no right or wrong its a personal list of moments that stick in your mind but probably not everybody elses so were not talking about PPV's really.

A few things I always remember...

1. Marty Janetty's return after the famous barber shop incident where the rockers split up, we never saw Marty for months. As the HBK gimmick started taking off I thought wouldn't it be great to see Marty come back... then out of nowhere as Shawn is posing with Sherri in a full length mirror before a routine match Marty runs through the crowd and gives Shawn the fright of his life to see his former tag team partner behind him in the mirror about to kick his ass. Classic stuff.

2. Speaking of the Rockers I remember the build up to their split very clearly espiecally the first meeting of a very young Shawn Michaels and Ric Flair where marty came to help shawn but ended up putting him back into the ring only to get pinned which caused more decention between them. Also that great tag match between the Rockers and the Tag champs The Legion of Doom for the titles which proved to be yet another nail in the rockers coffin. I think the whole storyline was played out brilliantly

3. The best addition of prime time I ever saw was just before Survivor Series 1991, it was scheduled to be Warrior and Savage against Razor Ramon and Ric Flair at the PPV but the Warrior dissapeared AGAIN so savage had to look for a replacement tag partner. With Mr Perfect having been out of action for a long time and sat in the main studio next to Bobby Heenan it was great TV. Savage was in one studio saying he wanted Perfect as his tag partner whilst Flair and razor in a separate studio tried to convince him otherwise. Of course at this time Perfect was Flair's "personal consultant"" (or some other fancy name)... so to see Perfect's face turn which ended in him pouring a glass of water over Bobby Heenan's head and accepting the offer was a moment I will never forget.

4. I could carry on all day with this but I'll do one more... from around the same time (I loved this era as it was when we first got cable TV)... I loved the build up to the Flair/Savage Wrestlemania encounter, with the interviews of Flair saying "she was mine big man before she was yours"...and then the following week a distraught randy and Liz denying the allegations. Ah them was the days, they don't write it like that anymore.

wrote:

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