A few weeks later, he's the jobber for another Kamala match. This time the on-screen graphic calls him "Nick Foley." The ring announcer calls him "Nick Faley." In both cases, Kamala laid him out and left him needing medical attention.

I have no idea if he was supposed to be the same person both times in canon.

This is the first time I've gotten to watch the build to Hogan-Andre at WM III. Obviously I'd seen the Piper's Pit where Andre challenges Hogan, but I had always assumed that this came out of nowhere when it happened...instead, they were very plainly teasing a Heenan/Andre alliance for like six weeks before it got an on-screen reveal. Surprised by that.

I remember a series of Piper's Pits with phony awards, where Hogan kept showing up to upstage Andre and make it about himself (most of the heel turns against Hogan were really brought on by his own ego I felt, even as a child). I don't actually recall any previous Heenan involvement other than his regular vitriol on Hogan while commentating.

Andre had been suspended (I'm not clear on the kayfabe reason). Then one week they announced that his suspension had been lifted. Jesse got a scoop that Bobby Heenan had attended the meeting where the suspension had been lifted, and Andre wasn't there. Andre confirmed the truth of this, but wouldn't say anything else. On commentary, Gorilla kept pressing Heenan for info on what happened at this meeting, and Heenan kept 100% no-selling Gorilla's questions and pretending he wasn't being asked. This went on for weeks prior to the Piper's Pit segments. One week, Heenan confronted Jack Tunney and told him that Tunney assured him that his attendance at that meeting would be confidential, and that Tunney must have leaked it. Tunney denied leaking it.

When Hogan received the award he did, Heenan went on commentary in the following match and railed on about how ridiculous it was that Hogan received an award for being a champion for three straight years when Andre had been undefeated for 15 years and hadn't received one. He kept couching it in, "Look, Andre and I are not friends, but I'm just standing up for what's right."

So there was a bunch of overt hinting about Heenan aligning himself with Andre.

I don't remember the Andre suspension at all. I do recall from recent documentaries that Andre was in really bad shape and Vince had to beg him to come back for his WM III program with Hogan, so maybe they did come up with some kayfabe reasoning for him being away. Then again, I wasn't paying much attention beyond watching the Saturday morning shows in that era either.

So I guess here's how this went:

5/3/86:
5/24/86:
6/21/86:
7/26/86:
So really not much of a story. They suspended him for no-shows in kayfabe, which likely just means what you said about them giving him time off because he was in rough shape. I see they went the silly route of Heenan getting him suspended and then him rejoining the company with Heenan in his corner. I'm caught up on the newest episodes they've posted, so I don't know if there will be more of an explanation as to Andre's choice to join Heenan.

Okay, I do vaguely remember the Machines storyline as they were feuding with Bundy, Studd and Heenan in six mans. The funny thing is the dates you posted are so far before WM III that I didn't put all that together as part of the same storyline, but with just an hour or two of TV back in those days and mostly squash matches, you could easily extend these storylines for months to a year at a time.

Lol Gorilla talking about how he was licking the sweat off Bruno during his 1.5 hr epic match and quipping that Sammartino thought he was coming out of the closet

That is gold

Was just listening to a podcast that explains Andre's kayfabe suspension as when he went to make the Princess Bride.

Which kinda makes me believe that story about Vince begging him to come back for Mania despite his ailing back is a bit of bullshit, since it wasn't like he had retired to the country or anything. He was working for WWF, went and made a movie, then came back.

That has always seemed like an odd story - Vince having to beg - given that it's bookended by reports that he was upset when Vince stopped letting him wrestle after WM VI when he was becoming more and more immobile.

From the Princess Bride wiki, which says it filmed in late 1986: "André the Giant had undergone major back surgery prior to filming and, despite his great size and strength, could not support the weight of Elwes during their fight scene or Wright for a scene at the end of the film. For the wrestling scene, when Elwes hangs on André's back, he was actually walking on a series of ramps below the camera during close-ups. For the wide shots, a stunt double took the place of André. When he was apparently carrying Wright, she was actually suspended by cables."

I'm a big fan of Randy Savage suddenly interjecting "YOUR MUSTACHE IS CROOKED!" and Mean Gene being unable to let it go, to the point that Savage was on his heels and hoping they would just move on.

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xdl7up

Very random, but I remember seeing this as it aired and hadn't seen it since.



Far classier than Craig Kilborn, who used Owen's death as a punchline in his monologue. Some joke about how the Blue Blazer had fallen to his death but some other clothing garment had luckily survived.

WWE did heel vs heel matches in 84?

Watching most wanted treasures and they showed a clip of The dream team vs Iron Shiek and Nikolai Volkoff

Here's the ultimate: heel vs. heel AND jobber vs. jobber.



(To be fair, Horowitz seems to have kind of been working as the default face here.)

This was fantastic, thanks.

IIRC Iron Mike Sharpe was a solid mid-card heel in the early 80s—he’s managed by Lou Albano here—who transitioned to exclusively jobber status as the decade wore on.

Did he always use the blatantly missed clothesline (or whatever that was) as his finisher?

By the way, been watching some early '98 stuff and I had zero recollection of this thing where Rick Martel launched a comeback in WCW and actually won the TV Title before having his comeback cut short when he tore his knee up in a match. He was 42 and he looked quite good, so that injury sucks. Bizarre to me that I didn't even remember him showing up in WCW, even though this run only lasted a couple of months.

I remember but you also have to remember WCW had so many guys at one point it was so hard to remember all of them

Mike Awesome vs Masato Tanaka at ECW November to Remember '99, holy ****. Had a blast watching last night.

Their match at the ppv before was also an incredibly fun match. Anarchy Rulz 1999.

All of their matches were great

Yep, no wonder Mike Awesome passed early

Insane battles

Dusty Rhodes joining the nWo was possibly the single dumbest defection in that entire angle. I think it tends to get a pass because of how little impact it had.