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.
"In a letter to Office of National Drug Control Policy Director John P. Walters, Chairman Waxman summarizes results of the Committee’s investigation into steroid use in professional wrestling and requests that ONDCP examine the widespread steroid abuse and systemic deficiencies in testing policies and practices."
The letter notes that the reports and investigation were a response to concerns about the incident on June 24, 2007 in which "Chris Benoit, a professional wrestler with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), killed his wife and son and hung himself. According to press reports, Mr. Benoit's testosterone levels were ten times normal levels when he committed suicide."
"In response to concerns about this incident, the Committee wrote to the WWE, Total Nonstop Action, and other professional wrestling organizations requesting information on their steroid policies and their knowledge of steroid abuse within their organizations. The Committee also conducted transcribed interviews with WWE Chairman Vince McMahon and other professional wrestling officials."
From reading the Vince McMahon interview, the WWE Chairman seems content on blissful ignorance. Claiming repeatedly that he is a "layman" and if the Committee wants to know about the effects of steroid use they should consult the FDA and not him.
The report summary shows:
In the first year of the WE's testing program, which began in March 2006,40% of wrestlers tested positive for steroids and other drugs even after being warned in advance that they were going to be tested.
Six months after the WWE announced its 2006 steroid testing policy, it relaxed the policy to allow wrestlers suspended for steroid abuse to participate in "selected televised events" and "pay-per-views."
The WWE hired four of five wrestlers who tested positive for steroids in "pre-contract" testing conducted in2007 and 2008.
The WWE regularly approved "therapeutic use exemptions," explicitly allowing the use of steroids as part of a "testosterone replacement acceptance ptogtam" for wrestlers who abused steroids in the past.
Test results from the 'WWE's top competitor, Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, reveal that a large proportion of TNA wrestlers have also tested positive.
As reported in the New Hampshire's Examiner, in his forthcoming book Don't Start the Revolution Without Me! due out April 1, former wrestler and Minnesota governor Jesse "The Body" Ventura writes, "As I begin to write this book, I’m facing probably the most monumental decision of my 56 years on this planet. Will I run for president of the United States, as an independent, in 2008? Or will I stay as far away from the fray as possible, in a place with no electricity, on a remote beach in Mexico?"
Obviously this venture would require obscene amount of financial backing. So who better to bank roll the campaign then Vincent K. McMahon who pledged to back Ventura's campaign "100 percent, with everything I’ve got."
due out April 1, former wrestler and Minnesota governor Jesse "The Body" Ventura writes, "As I begin to write this book, I’m facing probably the most monumental decision of my 56 years on this planet. Will I run for president of the United States, as an independent, in 2008? Or will I stay as far away from the fray as possible, in a place with no electricity, on a remote beach in Mexico?"