Rougeaus vs. Bushwhackers at WrestleMania V:
Jesse: "After all, the Rougeaus are Americans now!"
Gorilla: "No they're not."
Jesse: "Wait a minute, didn't your parents come from another country?"
Gorilla: "Yes, but I was born here."
Jesse: "Oh, so as far as you're concerned, let's just tear down the Statue of Liberty?"
Gorilla: "Jess, we've already got all the tired and poor."

That’s Heenan-esque right there from Gorilla.

I thought it was pretty MAGA-esque myself. But I guess they were in the right venue for that.

Red Rooster, after a nasty breakup with Bobby Heenan, is setting up to face him at WrestleMania V. Just a stellar promo by the Rooster here.

Gene: "It's a classic case of the student meeting the teacher."
Rooster: "That's right, I'm gonna meet the teacher, and I'm gonna teach him something he never taught me: and that's how to lose!"

Hell of a dig. Is "how to lose" something most managers teach their wrestlers?

Looking forward to HBK vs RVD matches after Survivor Series 2002, what a match up!

Scott Steiner has returned and he must've put implants in those ridiculous biceps lol

25 years ago today.



I do believe Brain’s “spoiler” is less egregious due to his lifetime of hating Hogan and always assuming he’s a fraud who acts in bad faith.

It was horrendous, and I think people look for reasons to give Heenan a pass on it because of how incredible he was for most of his career.

I do not think almost anyone else would get these apologetics if that was their line, even given the same Hogan-hating background.

Have read that back then WCW did not inform announcers of story plans to elicit authentic surprise. Even if true, should Heenan know better?

I’ll allow that my reverence for Heenan probably clouds my judgment here.

From his standpoint, it would be defensible to utter that line if he was oblivious to reality and was just doing the usual Heenan thing and throwing out an absurdity for reactions. But I really, really don't think he was fully oblivious when he said it - even if unspoiled, he absolutely had to at least suspect a turn was a live possibility - so he went ahead and uncorked a line that could really only have the effect for some fans of taking some air out of the shocking moment that followed.

In a scenario where he was just trying to be funny there - a scenario I don't at all believe exists - it was not the time for it. And it's clear that he recognized that, because he was hyper-serious about the Outsiders threat to WCW all night.

A person can offer a logical justification of it that passes some level of muster, but I don't think even a person who believes that would also believe that he enhanced the moment by saying it. And I really can't imagine any scenario where a commentator basically saying "hey, this guy might be turning heel!" right before a sudden heel turn could ever be a good thing.

Right. All he had to do was not say anything for ten more seconds.

I always thought that Hogan and Heenan had to be good real life friends for the amount of heat Heenan always gave Hogan on camera. Was listening to a podcast recently (JR?), which said that was not true and there was actually some real life friction there.

I definitely saw a Heenan shoot where he called Hogan a great guy and waved away the amount of heat he gets backstage.

Then again, relationships do change over time, and a snapshot of one given moment can be misleading. I get the impression there are moments in time when Savage would have said kind things about Hogan...and definitely many more moments when he would have said unkind things.

But Heenan being very kind to him in that one shoot indicates that there were at least times when their relationship was good.

Heel Backlund was fantastic...

https://youtu.be/lSyDy3kIvgQ

Heenan and Hogan were good friends, in fact Hogan wrote the forward to Heenan's book. Hogan was the one who got Bobby hired at WWF.

In Heenan's book, he was upset about the Hogan heel turn because he said had he known Hogan was turning heel, he never would have said the line. They didn't even know Hogan was in the building that night because he was kept in a limo away from the venue.

I notice that in 1998, Larry Zbyszko was no longer saying "New World ODOR" on commentary at all, let alone spamming it into the conversation every five minutes like he was doing in 1996.

Since he seems like a lummox incapable of actually figuring out that his joke was painfully unfunny and beyond played out, I'm assuming that someone on the production side finally told him to STFU.

Scott Steiner out with Buff Bagwell for a match against Public Enemy. Heenan starts comparing the now-feuding Steiner Brothers, and starts talking about Scott.

Bobby: "Don't forget: Rick Steiner's a little more off-the-wall than this man. This man is an athlete...so is Rick Steiner. This man's in tremendous shape...then again, so is Rick Steiner. But this man knows how to wrestle."
<leaves a deliberate pause that Tony picks up>
Tony: "So does Rick Steiner!"
Bobby: "But this man has an IQ of over 9."
Tony: "...stop it, Brain."

Fantastic.

lollllllllllll

Brain on Prime Time Wrestling was just consistently, flippantly hilarious

Some nice foreshadowing in 1986 too where, after a King Tonga win vs Tiger Chung Lee, he mentions that with the right manager he could be successful.

I've been watching a lot of Bad News Brown shoot interviews on You Tube

Some real quality insights from him, seems like he was a great guy too

Been doing the same thing with Greg Valentine . Two of my favorites for shoot interviews

No way to start the show from the beginning until it's over?

On Peacock it doesn’t seem like it, unfortunately.

It can't still be live, can it? It says started 4h42m ago

Gotta love The Cock.

That's incredible- no way to tune in after the start time and watch from the beginning?

I guess a person should just plan on either watching live or watching the next day. Wow.