Observations from watching more weekly December 1986 Wrestling Challenge:

The main storylines were Roddy Piper vs Adrian Adonis, Randy Savage vs Ricky Steamboat, and Andre the Giant being reinstated.

Other storylines were Danny Davis as an evil referee and the Honkytonk Man turning heel.

Jobbers to the Stars (JTTS) like Paul Roma, Lanny Poffo, and S.D. Jones were much more exciting than the pale skinned or overly hairy local jobbers.

Harley Race’s reputation for making a broomstick look good in the ring as an opponent is true: Harley yet young Paul Roma knock him out of the ring, and actually put on the crown!

Slick sold Hercules to Bobby Heenan in a funny skit.

Jimmy Hart really helped Honkytonk Man with interviews and got him over quickly since Hart was a top manager.

Mid-carders: Billy Jack Haynes, Butch Reed, Koko B. Ware, Pedro Morales, Tito Santana, Junkyard Dog

The late Dino Bravo was bad on the microphone, but had the muscles.

PHASED OUT

The Machines gimmick was just stopped; Blackjack Mulligan “returned” without his mask with a series of vignettes cutting wood, hammering iron, and rounding up cattle. Andre the Giant was “reinstated”, so the Giant Machine no longer had a reason to exist. Mulligan would mention King Kong Bundy, ironically enough (they feuded with the Machines storyline.)

King Kong Bundy went to singles after the Machines feud. Speaking of Bundy, there was a nice brief heel vs heel confrontation with Kamala. Big John Studd wasn’t mentioned.

Hillbilly Jim’s family: Jim teamed with other partners and singles, and his extended hillbilly family were no longer mentioned.

The Hulk Hogan-Paul Ordorff feud was taking a break on Wrestling Challenge as they were wrestling each other at house shows across the U.S.

Captain Lou Albano’s wrestling career came to an end on Wrestling Challenge, which was kinda embarassing for such major player. He won a six man tag team match with the British Bulldogs vs The Dream Team and Johnny V. Behind the scenes, Albano wanted to cash in on his fame and make movies and TV shows on his own, so that’s why he got the shaft at the end- Vinnie Mac style.

My other Wrestling Challenge articles:
Wrestling Challenge 1
Wrestling Challenge 2

Still watching WWF Wrestling Challenge from 1986- the last time I watched straight episodes like this was when I was a kid. Here are is my first post: WWF Wrestling Challenge.

Bobby Heenan was more concerned with managing Paul Ordorff and Harley Race than announcing.

Wrestling Challenge was a very long TV taping that was made into weekly episodes, with the same wrestlers and jobbers. The audience began to lose their enthusiasm for a few wrestlers after a while. I heard the infamous “BORING CHANT” for the following wrestlers: Sika, Dick Slater, and the Killer Bees. “The Natural” Butch Reed had no heat, and his interview on the Snake Pit sucked.

Jimmy Jack Funk (Jesse Barr) had reduced to a Jobber to the Stars (JTTS), in this case the Junkyard Dog.

Moondog Spot, also a JTTS at that time, was capable of putting on a good match. So was Tony Garea. You can really see how Vince McMahon was phasing out former WWWF tag team stars.

Kamala got some good heat when he did his big splash. He was very agile for a big man, and his acting skills were great although he never spoke. In theory, the Wizard (King Curtis Iaukea) should have been a great mouthpiece for him, the Wizard had no heat in 1986. Speaking of the Wizard, he mentioned the famous manager Grand Wizard, which was rare since WWF didn’t mention the late Ernie Roth who had died in October 1983 after their 1983 tribute. Also in another rare situation, WWF aired old TNT footage of Kamala from his previous WWF run (when he ate a live chicken). Usually, the WWF didn’t acknowledge previous runs.

The evil referee Danny Davis was a hot angle.

The Machines (Super Machine and Big Machine) were getting pushed pretty hard. They received a run from being associated with Giant Machine (Andre the Giant), but Andre stopped working. As Super Machine, this was Billy Eadie’s gimmick before Demolition. Big Machine (Blackjack Mulligan) said some racially insensitive things pretending to be a Japanese man.

Billy Jack Haynes had the look, but never got the push he deserved due to backstage politics and his own personality. His actual matches were OK.

After Roddy Piper was “injured” by Adrian Adonis, Bob Orton, Don Muraco, and Jimmy Hart, Orton and Muraco started to become a tag team. Mr. Fuji got some work.

Good in the ring: Harley Race, Rougeau Brothers, British Bulldogs, Greg Valentine, Bret Hart, Randy Savage, Koko B. Ware, Killer Bees, Iron Sheik.

Bad in the ring: Junkyard Dog, Honkytonk Man, Brutus Beefcake, Sika, Jim “The Anvil” Neidhart, Butch Reed, Nikolai Volkoff, Giant Machine

Managers (in order of push):

Bobby Heenan’s Heenan Family: Ordorff, Race, King Kong Bundy and Big John Studd (feuding with the Machines)

Jimmy Hart: Adrian Adonis, Hart Foundation, Bob Orton

Lou Albano: British Bulldogs, Machines, George Steele

Slick: Iron Sheik and Nikolai Volkoff (w/Fred Blassie), Butch Reed, Hercules

Johnny V: Dream Team, Dino Bravo

Wizard: Kamala (w/Kimchee), Sika

Mr. Fuji: Magnifient Muraco

More Wrestling Challenge 3

I was watching late-1986 WWF Wrestling Challenge (from Episode #1 and forward) recently. Wrestling Challenge was WWF’s B-Show. At the time WWF Superstars (hosted by Vince McMahon, Jr., Jesse Ventura, and Bruno Sammartino) was the A-Show, and WWF Saturday Night’s Main Event was the special show. The format of the 45-minute show was to have a handful of squash matches to showcase their talent (like Randy Savage vs Tony Garea and Koko B Ware vs The Gladiator), tag teams,  occasionally a non-title feature match (like British Bulldogs vs Iron Sheik and Nikolai Volkoff), studio interviews, promo skits, and highlights from WWF Superstars. Challenge didn’t create any new storylines, it reported the happenings from around the WWF.

Some random thoughts:

The late Gorilla Monsoon was always bashed on the Internet and wrestling newsletters for not being a good announcer, but to me he WAS the voice of the WWF. He will always be an A+ announcer to me. For the first few episodes he teamed up with the heel Johnny Valiant (vulgar and not funny) and the late Ernie Ladd as a face. Ladd was over-matched as a color commentator, unfortunately.

The late Lord Alfred Hayes was the ring announcer for the first few episodes, and he forgot a jobber’s name (J.J. Jackson), and has some fairly odd pronunciations (like Kamali instead of Kamala).

Ken Resnick was a solid interview conductor. I noticed so many interviews were improvised by the wrestlers, and Ken really helped some guys who were coked out to stay on track.

The graphics, presentation, and production quality were very good for 1986, and totally destroyed the TV shows from the NWA, AWA, and other regional wrestling territories at the time.

The main storylines were Hulk Hogan vs Paul Ordorff and Roddy Piper’s face turn vs Adrian Adonis, Bob Orton, and Jimmy Hart.

Great on the microphone:  Roddy Piper, Jake Roberts, Randy Savage, Jimmy Hart, Bobby Heenan

Bad on the microphone: Corporal Kirchner, Nikolai Volkoff, Magnificent Muraco, Dick Slater, Iron Shiek,  Big Machine (Blackjack Mulligan), Lou Albano (overrated), Rougeau Brothers, Bob Orton, British Bulldogs, Hart Foundation

Although Sheik and Volkoff were bad in the mic, they at least got heat just for being Iranian and Russian!

Jobbers who eventually made it one day: Troy Martin AKA Mike Kelly= Shane Douglas; Jack Foley = Cactus Jack; Lucius Brown = Virgil. Shane took his bumps, but REALLY looked like a scrub- pale, no physique, bleached blond hair- ugh. No wonder he wasn’t hired, and was forced to use steroids to get noticed. Cactus Jack didn’t even look like a TV scrub, however. Announcer Johnny V said he looks like he should be mowing a lawn. Virgil had the nody, but no skill- he didn’t sell right (take his bumps convincingly). There was no way ANYONE could have predicted the success of any of those three (especially Cactus Jack, who went on to become WWF World Champion and a New York Times Bestseller).

Speaking of Virgil, ring announcer Mel Phillips called his LUSCIOUS Brown instead of LUCIUS Brown. Kind of DISGUSTING considering the rumors that Mel was gay and the urban legend that Pat Patterson has sex with Virgil to get him the job.

I miss total squash matches with jobbers in 2009. The squash matches in Challenge only lasted a couple of minutes and have fans an opportunity to see all the moves of the wnner, and the matches helped get wrestlers over with the audience.

The Wizard (King Curtis Iaukea) had no heat in this WWF run as manager of Sika and Kamala. He had a lot of interview, promos, and did everything a manager should do, but his ranting and raving was over everyone’s heads.

Honkytonk Man’s face push totally backfired. I don’t know if that was the plan, but WWF kept running his promos, and there was no connection with the fans of 1986 (HTM acted like a good-guy Elvis impersonator). His first match on Challenge had no heat.

This era was frustrating because the WWF never (or rarely) recognized the accomplishments of “newcomers” from other wrestling leagues, and treated them like rookies. Even as a kid I had read about all the wrestlers from the magazines, so it kinda sucked for big names to be treated like openers or to “make their debut”.

Slick really was being phased in as Fred Blassie was nearing retirement. So hard to believe just 2-3 years ago, Blassie and the Sheik were top heels.

The 80’s were truly a decade of excess; everyone in the WWF was making money hand over fist thanks to Hulk Hogan selling out arenas, and it’s kinda sad to see some guys knowing their futures (see The Wrestler movie to see the final outcome for “retired” wrestlers.) I doubt any of the wrestlers realized that they would fade away and get reduced to being jobbers or small town gyms, even though their older squash opponents had distinguished careers and were now nothing.

Harley Race was at a disadvantage since he was a 7-time NWA World Champion, and was at the tail end of his career, so the WWF made him the King of Wrestling as a compromise. It’s a shame we were not treated to a more serious version of Handsome Harley Race in 1986 WWF.

“Mr. Wonderful” Paul Ordorff truly was an amazing heel, and a great nemesis to Hulk Hogan. The Ordorff-Hogan feud on the house show circuit (there was no PPV) was the last of its kind, and generated the most money in WWF history for untelevised house shows.

Wrestling Challenge has Jake “The Snake” Roberts’ talkshow “The Snake Pit”. Jake usually would cut very dark and twisted promos like “Men are born out of passion…”, and he made a lot of drug and groupies references that probably were over a lot of kids’ heads.
See MORE Wrestling Challenge 1986 thoughts and here.