Well Tuesday night Smackdown will be broadcast live, yes live, from Toronto. In hornor of that city from my wrestling memories I present the following. This one also falls under the category of most surprsing moments.
The stage was set for Wrestlemania 6, live from Toronto's Skydome, now renamed The Roger's Centre (doesn't have the same ring). A record setting crowd of approximately 67 000 gathered for a main event that at the time was breaking new ground. World Heavy Weight Champiom Hulk Hogan would face current Intercontinental Champion The Ultimate Warrior, both titles were on the line.
To my knowlede we hadn't seen anything like this before. First of all, we had two major faces taking on each other. Secondly, we had someone walking away with both titles at the end of the evening. I had assumed that this was the (then) WWF's way of setting up the immortal Hulk Hogan to complete a task never before accomplished and he would be hulking it up at the end of the night with two titles raised in the air. To be honest, anticipating this outcome bored me and left me a little disappointed in the main event. Even though I was intrigued in the set up of two faces and two titles on the line I had grown tired of the same old Hulk Hogan act long ago.
Well, much to my surprise it was The Ultimate Warrior pinning Hulk at the end of the night and it would be him with both belts. It was an exciting moment. I hate to sound so hard on Hulk again but there are only a few matches he was in that I consider truly memorable and this was one of them. Of course Hulk was gracious in defeat and the next Wrestlemania he was crowned champ again. The Ulitmate Warrio's title reign was memorable but his career kind of floundered ever since he dropped the title later that year to Sargent Slaughter, which would set the stage for Hullk to win it back at the next Wrestlemania.
I am sure tomorrow night's Smackdown won't as memorable but it is gearing up to be very interesting for sure. Back later this week with thoughts on Smackdown and tonight's Raw.
The world of wrestling has certainly changed and evolved over the years and for the most part I think that it is much better now than it was back then. And that is no disrespect to the glory days, because I loved that time too and it’s what got me hooked on this crazy stuff in the first place.
However, there are a few things I do miss from days gone by. One of those is a meaningful tag team division. I love tag team wrestling!! I loved it when teams were teams and they entered the ring together, had their own entrance music and a unique team finisher. It was a rare thing for one of them to compete in singles competition. Days of the Hart Foundation, The British Bulldogs, Demolition, The Road Warriors and The Rockers will be hard to beat. Recently we had Kofi Kingston and Evan Bourne win the titles after just a brief time teaming together. This type of scenario has not been uncommon over the years. I am sure the two and their opponents will bring some exciting moments but old school tag teams just worked for me much better.
In honour of Bret Hart’s appearance on Smackdown tonight a few words about one of my all time favourite tag teams.
In the mid 80’s the original Hart Foundation consisted of tag team partners Bret “The Hitman” Hart and Jim “The Anvil” Neidhart managed by “the Mouth of the South”, Jimmy Hart. The wrestlers complimented each other well and young stars had Jimmy Hart to take care of a lot of the mic skills, although the guys weren't too shabby either. Bret always had it in him and Jim had the trademark and almost psychotic laugh as he stroked his lengthy goatee. I loved their promos. They had a great finisher when the more powerful Jim would hold up an opponent in bear hug fashion and Bret would fly off the ropes connecting with the clothesline. The two went on to hold the titles twice. The first happened on television when they defeated the British Bulldogs and the second happened during 1990’s Summerslam with a two out of three falls victory over Demolition. Through much of their time teaming together they were classic heels making cheating an art. Later they would often be found with other members of Jimmy Hart’s stable including crooked referee turned wrestler Danny Davis and the Honky Tonk Man. Of course this was only the beginning of what would be a legendary and hall of fame career for Bret Hart.
Always look forward to seeing Bret on T.V. and WWE announced on its website earlier this week that The Hitman would be the special GM for this week’s edition of Smackdown in his hometown of Calgary. It should make for an entertaining program. Of course later this weekend I hope to post thoughts on the show.
Have a good one!
