The swing of the holiday season always brings of memories of my childhood and things I miss. As a child, the best part of the holiday was expecting the unexpected in presents. As a teenager, I looked back in fondness to my younger years and now as an adult I hope to pass on and create new memories. With that said, obviously I would not be writing a wrestling column today, if I did not look back at my memories glued in front of the television with great remembrance of the squared circle. This time of the year was always particularly exciting growing up. First, the Thanksgiving, then Thanksgiving Eve, to now whenever it is convenient spectacular, the Survivor Series. Having off from school, then having the guarantee of great food, family and a pay per view I had to bug my parents for was always a must. Getting the 87-91 anthology on DVD reminds me of this (except for 91, they were shilling the Tuesday in Texas PPV the whole time). Although the original Thanksgiving spectacular, Starrcade to me was a post-Christmas tradition for me by the time I was old enough to bug my parents to dish out some cash (especially difficult given the fact that “Santa” already spent enough money on me). I loved this pay-per-view regardless of the Jim Herd years and WCW’s stupidity through the years. I was on Christmas break and Starrcade was usually the only pay-per-view that I could watch without the repercussion of school the next day. I can still fondly recall what I thought was a washed-up Ric Flair defeat Vader (I was off on Flair for about 15 years). Just when break was over and I was tired of playing with my new toys, January gave me something to get excited about with the Royal Rumble. The Rumble has always been one of my personal favorite PPVs ever. Great moments like Ax and Smash of Demolition drawing numbers 1 and two and dishing it out on one another was unheard of in 1989. Hogan and the Warrior from 90 is another stand-out moment and who can forget Ric Flair’s performance in the 92 Rumble? More so, who can forget Bobby Heenan commentating on that match, he seemed as though he was going to lose it at any time, arguably his best commentating performance ever.
This leads me to a small gripe with the internet wrestling community. Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve seen headlines on Bobby Heenan (on websites including this one) and what he looks like today with the term “very graphic” attached. Is this really necessary? Unknowingly aware of the progression of his condition, I watched the Bobby Heenan Day video from Milwaukee with King Kong Bundy a few weeks ago and it was sad to see Bobby not be able to say anything beyond, “Thank You.” While the video was kind of grainy, I was able to see The Brain and he did not look same guy I remember that always made me laugh as the comic foil growing up. I don’t know though, something about posting pictures of him in his condition today irks me. I don’t want to say it’s exploiting someone just to get another “hit” on a page, but a lot of sites do that. It just really sucks that one of my favorite wrestling personalities ever has the one thing that made him who he is taken away…the gift of the gab. Dare I say one of the only reasons I have kept Classics On Demand for 3 plus years is to hear Bobby and Gorilla Monsoon’s hilarious banter on Prime Time. The Hall of Fame ceremony just isn’t the same without him doing an induction. You are in our prayers, Brain…
I didn’t mean to end on a low note, but I just felt like posting about what was once my favorite swing of the wrestling year. The Survivor Series, Starracade, Royal Rumble swing would usher us into Wrestlemania. Now with Starrcade gone and the Survivor Series not really standing out much anymore there isn’t as much to get excited about. I doubt TNA aka Hogan & Friends will give a PPV in December to compete. Well, we’ve always got the Rumble…
In honor of Christmas and wrestling’s two greatest talkers (Bobby Heenan and Roddy Piper), here is one of my favorite clips ever from Primetime’s Christmas special circa 1989…
