10 Fascinating WWE Facts About WrestleMania 8

WWE Network: Undertaker vs. Edge: SummerSlam 2008

SummerSlam 2008

August 17th

Conseco Fieldhouse 

Indianapolis IN

Crusher, Bruiser & Little Bruiser vs Black Jacks & Bobby Heenan

Yukon Moose Cholak

Today March 17th would have been the 84th birthday of wrestling legend "Yukon" Moose Cholak

(born Edward Cholak in Chicago IL)

Undertaker - The Streak 2-0 (Wrestlemania VIII)

The streak moves into its second year as the "Dead Man" meets Jake "the snake" Roberts.

Wrestlemania VIII

Indianapolis,  IN

The Hoosier Dome

April 5th 1992

Match of the NIght (The Valiants)

This is from Indianapolis again and this includes tv announcer Sam Menacker giving the famous line...

"We will bring you as much of this match as time will allow"

The Valiant Brothers

(Handsome Jimmy and Luscious Johnny)

vs

Wilbur Snyder and Dominic DeNucci

Match of the Night (Cowboy Bob Ellis vs Bobby Heenan)

Indianapolis, Indiana 

Approx 1973-74 

Air Conditioned Expo Center

"Cowboy" Bob Ellis

vs

"Pretty Boy" Bobby Heenan

 

Match of the Night (All Star Championship Wrestling)

From Indianapolis in the Mid 70s, this is why I fell in love with wrestling.  Watching All Star Championship Wrestling with Sam Mennaker.
Great legends like we see here along with Bruno Sammartino, The Valiant Brothers, Dick The Bruiser, Ox Baker, Baron Von Raschke, Ernie Ladd, Pretty Boy Bobby Hennan and the list goes on...it was a great time to be a kid and watching wrestling on TV.

"The World's Most Scientific Wrestler" Wilbur Snyder

and

Pepper Gomez (The Man With the Cast Iron Stomach)

vs

Mitsu Arikawa and Great Saki

Your Match of the Night

You always knew it would be a sellout crowd at the "air conditioned Expo Center" when Andre the Giant came to town.

Friday Night SmackDown - August, 3 2012

From Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. I took my family to see this live in person on Tuesday night July 31st. We all had a great time. Decent show and much better in person because you dont have to suffer through Michael Cole for 2 hours.

Battle of the Bruisers

From approx. 1980 is a match where Dick the Bruiser was seeking "revenge" for Brody and Jimmy Valiant breaking Spike Huber's leg in a match a few months earlier.  Huber was the #2 face in the territory behind Bruiser and was his son in law at the time.
There had been a series of matches between King Kong Brody and Dick the Bruiser a couple of years earlier with the gimmick that they were battling for the use of the name "Bruiser".   Brody was never able to use "Bruiser" in the Indianapolis promotion owned by Dick the Bruiser but everywhere else in the world he used that nickname.
Tells you the power of Dick the Bruiser and his money in getting Brody to agree to use only King Kong while working for him.
As a kid watching this I had never seen anyone like Brody and he was fascinating and thrilling to watch.

Wrestlemania 8(Macho Man vs Nature Boy)

March 24th 1991 Hoosier Dome, Indianapolis Indiana

Macho Man Randy Savage vs Nature Boy Ric Flair

Wrestling Legend Joe Blanchard Passes Away

Here from Slam! Sports is a tremendous article on the career of Joe Blanchard (father of Four Horseman Tully Blanchard).   Its really interesting to know who much he loved Indianapolis and fondly recalled it in one of his last interviews.

CANOE -- SLAM! Sports - Wrestling - Joe Blanchard passes

Today in Wrestling History January 26th

1987 - At a WWF television taping in Tampa, Florida at the Sundome, The Hart Foundation (Bret Hart & Jim Neidhart) defeat The British Bulldogs (Dynamite Kid & Davey Boy Smith) to win the WWF World Tag Team Championship. Manager Jimmy Hart knocked out Dynamite (who was injured and couldn't wrestle) with his megaphone before the match, and heel referee Danny Davis paid no attention to the Hart Foundation illegally double teaming Smith before counting the pin following a Hart Attack. This ended the Bulldogs' only WWF World Tag Team Title run, and was Bret Hart's first WWF championship of any kind.
This would air on tv Feb 7th 1987





1999 - Prior to an edition of Raw in Tucson, Arizona, WWF filmed an Empty Arena match in which Mankind pinned The Rock with a wooden palette on a forklift to win the WWF World Heavyweight Title.  The match was aired on January 31st as a "Halftime Heat" special, set up to air during halftime of the Superbowl. 





And Sadly today is the anniversary of the death of the legendary Andre The Giant in 1993.
Here is a great clip of Andre teaming with one of my very favorites, Dick the Bruiser in Indianapolis from 1976.

Match of the Day - Randy Savage

With the sad and untimely passing of a legend in "Macho Man" Randy Savage I am giving him the Match of the Day for the next few days.
Today we start with his WWF Title win at Wrestlemania 8 in Indianapolis Indiana at the Hoosier Dome.