I'm confident in the Saints too, but six points is all the Colts will score, Hulkster? I hope that Saints secondary has been saying their prayers, taking their vitamins, and believing in themselves.
HULK HOGAN, Wrestler New Orleans, 35-6. New Orleans has an amazing new energy this year, both as a team and a city. They survived Hurricane Katrina, and if they could survive that, they can survive anything.
Vince McMahon and Hulk Hogan are widely credited for mainstreaming professional wrestling by taking the "sport" national and away from regional promotions generally associated with the National Wrestling Alliance.
A major factor in bringing the form of entertainment to the masses was by associating its promotions and events with popular celebrities of the era. This was never as evident as the early-80's WWF "Rock N' Wrestling" connection that was prompted by the appearance of manager (and Mario Mario portray-er) Captain Lou Albano in the iconic rocker Cyndi Lauper's Girls Just Wanna Have Fun video.
Lauper went on to feud with her cynematic step-father by partnering up in the Fed as Wendi Richter's manager (with Albano siding up with octogenarian heel extroidinaire the Fabulous Moolah). Promotional wiz McMahon ran with it, and soon he was rolling out 80's-era celebs at the first Wrestlmania in 1985, featuring WWF personalities in 3 other Lauper videos and animating his already cartoonish athletes into "Hulk Hogan's Rock N' Wrestling" series.
Truth be told, the WWF was as un-Rock N' Roll as it was the antithesis of professional wrestling itself.
Legendary grapplers, many of whom VKM would later scoop up into his own promotion, were getting into blood fests and fist fights that would make any self-respecting real rocker blush, all the while taking their cues from not only 70's super groups, but also Southern rock legends and hair metal glam rockers.
It's easy to point to this influence with the obvious types, including the Midnight Rockers and the Rock N' Roll Express.
Another obvious influence was due to the fact that unlike the WWF, they were smaller, regional promotions and not widely televised. Wrestlers in the NWA and other territories were able to use well-known licensed songs as their entrance themes. Most remember the intimidating Road Warriors coming to the ring with Black Sabbath's Iron Man blaring.
A more recent example is the now-WWF owned, once Philly-based Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) whose superstars throughout the mid-to-late 90's came out to just about every well-known metal song ever written. Eventually, ECW signed a national deal and had to opt for original tunes. (A great list of ECW themes can be found here.)
While Vince and Hulk and the WWF take credit for the Rock-N-Wrestling connection, there were a great number of non-WWF wrestlers who took their images, names and gimmicks directly from real rock and roll royalty - and did it much more convincingly.
Below are our favorites.
Bad Company, I can't deny. Bad, Bad company, Till the day I die
Tag Team: Bad Company (AWA): Pat Tanaka & Paul Diamond (Manager Diamond Dallas Page) Inspiration: Bad Company
Are you worried what your friends see? Will it ruin your reputation lovin me 'cause Im a dirty white boy?
Wrestler: Dirty White Boy (USWA, Smokey Mountain) Inspiration: Dirty White Boy (Foreigner)
Are you tough enough to still remember me?
Tag Team: The Fabulous Freebirds: Michael PS Hayes, Terry Bam Bam Gordy, Buddy Roberts, Jimmy Garvin (AWA, NWA, UWF, WCCW) Inspiration: Freebird (Lynyrd Skynyrd); The Fabulous Thunderbirds
Wrestler: Midnight Rider (NWA): After Dusty Rhodes was suspended by the NWA, the masked Midnight Rider burst on the scene to feud with Ric Flair, fooling no one. Inspiration: Midnight Rider (Allman Brothers Band)
Boogie Woogie Man from Tennessee, yeah baby.
Wrestler: Jimmy "Boogie Woogie Man" Valiant (NWA) Inspiration: The Boogie Woogie Man (Albert Ammons); Boogie Woogie Country Man (Jerry Lee Lewis)
Finally, we'd not be doing our readers any justice if we didn't mention some of these later-year non-WWF Rock N' Rock ripoffs.
The Boy Band Legacy
Tag Team: 3 Count (WCW) Inpiration: NKOTB, 'N Sync, Backstreet Boys
He'd be no worse a lead singer for the band than Gary Cherone
Wrestler: "Heavy Metal" Van Hammer (WCW) Inspiration: Van Halen
Race & Culture Wars
Stables: No Limit Soldiers: Master P, BA, Chase Tatum, Konnan, Rey Mysterio, Jr., Swoll, 4x4; The West Texas Rednecks: Curt Henning, Bobby Duncum, Jr., Barry Windham, Kendall Windham, Curly Bill (WCW) Inspiration: Master P
With the 25th Anniversary of WrestleMania taking place this Sunday, HHR looks back at the greatest moments from the first 24 shows.
WrestleMania
The star-studded spectacular at MSG that started it all, WrestleMania ushered in the 80's era industry standard of "rock 'n wrestling." It also made Special Delivery Jones a household name when King Kong Bundy squashed his ass in a record 23 seconds.
WrestleMania 2
Coming off the initial success of Wrestlemania, the WWF upped the ante by hosting the follow-up at 3 separate venues, the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale, New York, the Rosemont Horizon in Rosemont, Illinois, and the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena in Los Angeles, California.
Channeling their inner Wahoo McDaniel, NFL players Jimbo Covert (Chicago Bears), Harvey Martin (Dallas Cowboys), Ernie Holmes (Pittsburgh Steelers), Bill Fralic (Atlanta Falcons) and William "Refrigerator" Perry (NFL player - Chicago Bears), paved the way for the legendary feud between Mongo McMichael (Chicago Bears) and Kevin Greene (Carolina Panthers).
WrestleMania III
Billed as the he largest recorded attendance for a live indoor sporting event in North America, Wrestlemania 3 is best remembered for the "Full Nelson Challenge" between Billy Jack Haynes and Hercules Hernandez.
WrestleMania IV
Taking place at Trump Plaza in beautiful Atlantic City, NJ, the show featured a 14-man tournament for the vacated WWF Championship and a 20-man battle royal. If you laid money on Bad News Brown winning said battle royal, you have a gambling problem.
WrestleMania V
People around the world shelled out hard-earned cash for an event that pitted a man dressed like a rooster against a 55 year old man in a singlet.
WrestleMania VI
The Hart Foundation defeat The Bolsheviks. The Canadian government then takes credit for doing its part in helping end the Cold War, and celebrated it as the country's first ever military victory.
WrestleMania VII
After witnessing the Nasty Boys defeat the Hart Foundation, Hulk Hogan became so infatuated with Brian Knobbs that he made him his personal man-slave.
WrestleMania VIII
Racial stereotypes aplenty, we saw Australian Bushwakers, a Mexican Matador, a Native American Tatanka, a black slave, a Canadian Mountie and a backwoods Skinner. If any of those people could afford pay-per-view, I am sure they would have been offended.
WrestleMania IX
Held in Caesar's Palace, the WWF promoted the event as the "World's Largest Toga Party."
WrestleMania X
The main event featured a match between Yokozuna and Bret Hart, with guest referee Roddy Piper, guest ring announcer Burt Reynolds and guest timekeeper Jennie Garth. When asked about the experience, Reynolds told reporters, "Ha. Jap sumo wrestler. That's funny. Like a big hat. Funny."
WrestleMania XI
Lawrence Taylor defeated Bam Bam Bigelow in the main event and then proceeded to do 10 lines of blow off of guest valet (from earlier in the night) Pam Anderson's ass.
WrestleMania XII
Held at at the Arrowhead Pond in Anaheim, California, production featured stock footage of the LAPD freeway chase involving O.J. Simpson for the backyard brawl segment. Double murder = funny.
Post-event, Iron Mike Tyson dubs the new WWF champion "Cold Stone" Steve Austin.
WrestleMania XV
In a pre-show battle royal for the rights to compete for Tag Tiles later in the night, D'Lo Brown defeated a bevy of wrestlers you barely remember including Brian Christopher, 8-Ball, Skull, Droz, Gillberg, The Godfather, Mideon, Rocco Rock, Johnny Grunge, Tiger Ali Singh, Scott Taylor and Viscera.
WrestleMania XVI
T & A (Test and Albert) defeated Head Cheese (Al Snow and Steve Blackman with Chester McCheeserton). Marketing icon Chester Cheetah was found dead later in the night of apparent auto-erotic asphyxiation gone awry.
WrestleMania XVII
Shane McMahon defeats Vince McMahon. Vince McMahon defeats the hearts and souls of wrestling purists everywhere.
WrestleMania XVIII
Rikishi breaks Yokazuna's WrestleMania record for fattest ass ever aired on pay-per-view. Wrestling historians note that this is akin to Cal Ripken breaking Lou Gehrig's iron man record.
WrestleMania XIX
Former NCAA Champ Brock Lesnar defeats former Olympic Gold Medalist Kurt Angle. And no one cared.
WrestleMania XX
Chris Benoit defeated Triple H and Shawn Michaels, but the WWE has since erased every record of this ever happening.
WrestleMania XXI
Billed as Wrestlemania goes Hollywood, the WWE promoted it with a series of parody movie trailers, including Pulp Fiction featuring Eddie Guerrero and Booker T playing the roles of John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson.
WrestleMania XXII
5'6" 175 lb Rey Mysterio defeated Angle and Randy Orton to win the World HEAVYWEIGHT Title. When asked how it felt Mysterio screamed "I'm going to Disney World, but I'm too small to ride any of the grown-up rides so I'll just settle for Dumbo!"
WrestleMania XXIII
23 took place on April 1, 2007 at Ford Field in Detroit, Michigan, setting off Ford Motor Company and Detroit's plummet into corporate irrelevance. Fans started chanting "We Want Repo...We Want Repo!"
WrestleMania XIV
5' 8" in Floyd Mayweather, Jr. defeated the 7' 441 lb Big Show and Paso Dobled his way into hearts of gays and housewives everywhere.
There was a line in the report that stood out and bears investigating:
"While these accounts hold the Hulkster's money, Terry Bollea doesn't control them. Instead they're in the hands of his close friend and business partner, Eric Bischoff."
That's right. Close friend and business partner, Eric Bischoff.
What other "associates" of Hulk's are bound to come out?
Our guesses...
Financial Adviser, Ted DiBiasi Accountant, Irwin R. Scheister Speech Therapist, Alfred Hayes Body Guard, Virgil Garbage Man, Duke Drose Handy Man, Dusy Rhodes Spiritual Adviser, Reverend Slick Pimp, The Godfather Barber, Brutus Beefcake
Today, ESPN.com features a link for something called "Celebrity Car Parade" in its Autos section.
Who else would be more appropriate to spotlight on the main page than the guy whose family is embattled with legal and image issues due to a near-deadly auto accident?
Last night on MSG WWE Classics, I watched the "incredible" Hulk Hogan defeat champion Iron Sheik (from Tehran, Iran) to kickoff the birth of Hulkamania.
I texted Fat Willard the following:
"Horseshit. In a matter of 3 minutes Hogan breaks out of a Boston crab and the camel clutch, yet Sheik can't kick out of a G-damn leg drop."
And with that ridiculous sequence, the greatest American hero was born.
As if it isn't comedic enough thinking that I once bought into this crap, what really had me laughing was the ensuing celebratory interview with Mean Gene Okerlund.
Not only is does he projectile spit on Okerlund, but he is doused in champagne by an incoherent Frenchman and powerful Pollack (and even we catch a quick glimpse of the Rock's daddy). Mean Gene then brings in "Mr. and Mrs. Hogan" who rave about their son's impact on the "sport" only to be typically cut off by their attention-starved offspring.
Our buddy Eric from phillyBurbs' Camel Clutch tipped us off to Hollywood Hulk Hogan's heart-tugging, tear-inducing appearance on Larry King Live noting:
I watched Hogan on Larry King and he is truly a pathetic human being. To know the real Hulk Hogan is to know Hogan the wrestling politician. There isn’t a throat he would have stepped on to get to the top. This man would not know sincerity if it slapped him in the face. To Hogan, everything is a work. Amazing how Hogan saved those tears until the end of the show wasn’t it?
It would not surprise me at all if Hogan knew well in advance of the chances that those recordings would be public record. Hogan is an evil, calculated, self-promoter and what better way for Hogan to get in the news. It wouldn’t be the first time that this “over-protective father” got some publicity at the expense of his family.
Last night Headline News' Showbiz Tonight had a panel of pundits breaking down the Hulkster's LKL appearance where all three agreed that his crying was a great, great act.
The segment got me thinking of where this ranks among Hogan's best acting moments (in no particular order).
While crash victim John Graziano lies in a permanent vegetative state in a hospital with a hole in his head, Hulk Hogan says that God laid some "heavy s**t"on him because of things that he was "into." Nick agrees, saying John was a "negative person."
What was the kid into? Drugs? Like which kind? The bad kind, like cocaine, which ruins your life or the good kind, like painkillers and steriods, that make you a national icon?
If only poor John were more positive. He could have encouraged Nick to drive a little faster, win the illegal street race, and avoid the accident that ruined his life.
Hogan has something else to thank God for; the Internet came well after his wrestling heyday because it would be impossible to make Hogan 'a face' when it would have to be attached to his drug-taking, wife cheating, cradle-robbing, saggy-titted body.
Right. When you worship cartoons, I suppose you would think that way.
Anyway, below is a clip from the soon-to-be-released (5/30) movie "Bigger, Stronger, Faster*".
"At its heart, this is the story of director Christopher Bell and his two brothers, who grew up idolizing muscular giants like Hulk Hogan, Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger, and who went on to become members of the steroid-subculture in an effort to realize their American dream. When you discover that your heroes have all broken the rules, do you follow the rules, or do you follow your heroes?"
While I am not an expert on early North American history by any means, I do consider myself a seeker of knowledge. For the last 8 years Willard and I have sought to uncover the secrets of the ancient Yapapie Indians known for their brutal, ritualistic strap matches.
This has bewildered us. Every since Hollywood Hulk Hogan brought up the tribe in a Nitro promo years ago, we have sought to enlighten ourselves (and the world) on this extinct culture.
To date, we have been unsuccessful. In fact, the only known mention of the tribe has been on the aforementioned Nitro broadcast, and perhaps an occasional DDTDigest post (long live Charlie & Chan).
If you have any information about the Yapapie Indians, or if in fact you are a Yapapie Indian (or descendant of one), inquiring minds want to know. Please contact us.
Between Nick's reckless driving suit, Brian Knobbs eating him out of house and home, and the little doubt that Linda is going to milk his orange ass dry, Hogan will shill for anything these days. Even fantasy fishing. You read that right.
Maybe he can tuck a few dollars away in his fanny packs.
A more recent example is the now-WWF owned, once Philly-based Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) whose superstars throughout the mid-to-late 90's came out to just about every well-known metal song ever written. Eventually, ECW signed a national deal and had to opt for original tunes. (A great list of ECW themes can be found here.)
Tag Team: Bad Company (AWA): Pat Tanaka & Paul Diamond (Manager Diamond Dallas Page)
Wrestler: Sting (UWF, NWA, WCW)
Tag Team: 3 Count (WCW)
What other "associates" of Hulk's are bound to come out?
Last night on MSG WWE Classics, I watched the "incredible" Hulk Hogan defeat champion Iron Sheik (from Tehran, Iran) to kickoff the birth of Hulkamania.
Our buddy Eric from phillyBurbs' Camel Clutch tipped us off to Hollywood Hulk Hogan's heart-tugging, tear-inducing appearance on Larry King Live noting:
