It's a shame that so many of them were roided, pilled up messes. Wrestling maybe fake but the wrestlers are very good athletes no denying that. They destroy their bodies just as badly as football players, if not worse. It's a shame that so many of the old school guys are dead, mostly way too young. Sounds weird to say that even though it's fake I totally respect what they do, they kill themselves to entertain people.
I got to see Mick Foley's stand up show at SPAC up on Long Island when he was touring. He was very entertaining, but he's just so beat up. I was in pain just looking at him trying to get from a sitting to a standing position. Without breaking out into tears and shouting, "It's still real to me damnitt!" I totally get it. It's not as bad as when LT was treated like a total joke for daring to take a one night 6 figure pay off and enter the ring, but its still definitely the redheaded stepchild of sports and entertainment, which is fine except there's something lost to a lot of people in how much these guys physically put it on the line.
I still remember some guy using a hidden razor blade to cut himself to make it look like black jack mulligan was making his temples bleed from 'the claw'.
Piper was a lousy wrestler, but the Pit was always awesome.
Macho Man was my all time favorite. I was madly in love with Elizabeth.
The greatest rivalry of all time was Undertaker vs Mankind. Their matches were brutal. You were just waiting for one of them to get killed.
Me and you both. I loved everything about Macho, from Elizabeth, to how high strung he always was, the crazy promos, the outfits. He was just the complete package. Even the small stuff like when he'd take his glasses off and his eyes would dart back and forth like something was up and someone was coming after him.
Definitely Takers best rivalry. Foley was the first guy that would actually fly around the ring for Taker and really sell his excrement. Taker up until that point had really worked in monster vs. monster matches with either guys that had no ability like Giant Gonzalez, guys that were too selfish at that point to sell his excrement and were worried about self preservation like King Kong Bundy, or in matches where it actually made sense for say Yokozuna or Hogan to not look ultra vulnerable because they have the belt.
I love the look on Takers face in the Hell in the Cell match when Mankind goes through the cell. It's a great, "Ohhh fuckkkk" face, as while the first bump over was planned, that wasn't.
A lot of wrestlers back in the day would file razor blades to little shards and cut themselves for the effect. If you look at an old wrestlers forehead you can see where they cut themselves.
As soon as I read this, I got an image of Dusty Rhodes forehead and all those gig marks. I always appreciated Bret Hart for how good he was in terms of me watching his match and never being able to spot when he bladed. Then of course there's Captain Lou Albano (RIP) who may have gotten a little too loaded before a match with Snuka and decided, "ah freak it I'm just gonna start cutting myself and I don't give a excrement who sees me." Hilarious footage now, but I'm sure at the time people were probably like, "why is Captain Lou cutting himself?!"
Apparently for laughs, if you happen to be at the blackjack table with Abdullah the Butcher, he'll take a casino chip and fit it in one of the divots on his head.
I'm convinced Puck wanted to bang Ravishing Rick Rude.
"What I'd like to have right now, is for all you fat, out of shape, Winnipeg wimps, keep the noise down while I take off my robe and show you all what a real man is supposed to look like!"
He's getting in the WWE Hall of Fame tonight, but like so many others of course its posthumously. Bittersweet.
