Comments on: Wrestling promo botches

Wrestling promo botches

Trurl — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 08:33:07 -0800

Any shortlist of the top wrestling promo botches in history would include Lex Luger's t-shirt and the debut of the Shockmaster. But it is unlikely that anything will ever surpass Hulk Hogan setting up his Wrestlemania XIX feud with Vince McMahon.

By: fairmettle

fairmettle — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 08:39:24 -0800

Heh - - I wouldn't call that Luger clip a botch - - I enjoyed his blundering charm.

By: running order squabble fest

running order squabble fest — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 08:41:55 -0800

OMG the Shockmaster. Obviously, the falling over was a mistake, but the silver Stormtrooper helmet? That was planned. They thought that a glitterbombed Halloween mask would get the menace and mystery of the Shockmaster over just so. That's the amazing part. (Also, I have no idea who Ashley Think is, but Hulk Hogan really doesn't seem to like her. He keeps saying "F you, Ashley Think"...)

By: Trurl

Trurl — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 08:51:17 -0800

Of course, that was not Hogan's first trip to Botchville.

By: asnider

asnider — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 08:51:31 -0800

Personally, I think the debut of the Shockmaster is way worse than Hulk Hogan accidentally calling himself gay. Although, he flubbed more lines than that, from the sound of it -- "I had a match with a rock!" But, like running order squabble fest says, Shockmaster's costume is just awful. The falling can be overlooked, the helmet cannot.

By: Venadium

Venadium — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 09:26:22 -0800

I am so. Upset.

By: maurice

maurice — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 09:29:38 -0800

Gene Okerlund swears on camera Owen Hart promo

By: running order squabble fest

running order squabble fest — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 09:38:52 -0800

That having been said, there's something very nostalgic in that glitterbombed Stormtrooper helmet - it really speaks to an age when the audience of a wrestling match were asked to do a lot of the conceptual work, to make up for what they were actually seeing. It reminds me a lot, in fact, of "tendon strength". When you had a wrestler who looked like the archetypal "brawler" at the point where the bodybuilder physique was starting to become the norm rather than the exception - the commentators would speaking in awestruck tones of their "tendon strength" - to explain why, despite having very little muscle tone, they were able to match heavily-muscled types blow for blow. This seemed to happen in particular with second-generation wrestlers on the southern circuit - Erik Watts, Barry Windham, Dustin Rhodes - perhaps because they moved into the main events before their physiques had caught up, or because the South was the last flower of the Brooklyn Brawler/Arn Anderson line of wrestling manhood.

By: kuanes

kuanes — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 09:41:00 -0800

@maurice - Thank you for the Gene Okerlund clip. I just laughed for about 5 minutes over a 29-second clip.

By: uncleozzy

uncleozzy — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 09:46:17 -0800

I'm sure you guys know about Botchamania, but if you don't ... there goes the rest of your day.

By: cjorgensen

cjorgensen — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 09:52:10 -0800

It's too bad pro wrestling isn't still around. Those were some entertaining days.

By: Trurl

Trurl — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 10:02:13 -0800

Personally, I think the debut of the Shockmaster is way worse than Hulk Hogan accidentally calling himself gay. You have to distinguish between the lameness of the gimmick and the lameness of the execution. Other than tripping over a 2x4 that hadn't been there during rehearsal, the Shockmaster correctly did what was asked him - as admittedly little as that was. Hogan, on the other hand, was a heavily seasoned veteran trying to set up a match for the promotion's most important annual event. And not only did he botch "right man at the right time", he clumsily set it up for a second try and then botched that. "Gay" for "guy" coming after that was just the cherry on the sundae.

By: three blind mice

three blind mice — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 10:48:05 -0800

way worse than Hulk Hogan accidentally calling himself gay. I don't get it. Yeah, I get that he botched his line. Hogan was supposed to say "some guy" and he said "some gay". Must be some pun. I never get puns. Oh, now I get it, Hogan's supposed to a straight character and he says he's gay by accident. How embarrassing for him. I can see how that shall never be surpassed.

By: The Hamms Bear

The Hamms Bear — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 11:43:58 -0800

Don't forget Booker T.

By: Splunge

Splunge — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 12:48:08 -0800

Hulk's new idea falls short.

By: mannequito

mannequito — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 15:37:41 -0800

Hey does anyone have a working link for this awesome video posted last February ("That's the most illegal thing in the history of Wrestling!!")?

By: running order squabble fest

running order squabble fest — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 15:41:49 -0800

Try this? That little head-in-hands, turning away from the camera (presumably because corpsing) moment from Booker T after he N-bombs Hulk Hogan is kind of adorkable.

By: churl

churl — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 15:43:16 -0800

Sure, it's right here.

By: scaryblackdeath

scaryblackdeath — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 17:31:57 -0800

This doesn't seem like that much of a blooper. Just seems like a bit of a tied tongue. Now, the time Vince ran up to the ring, jumped in and tore his ass muscles? That was priceless.

By: milquetoast

milquetoast — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 19:06:18 -0800

The Shockmaster Returns.

By: uncleozzy

uncleozzy — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 05:05:52 -0800

It's not so much a botch as a terrible promo, but our man Johnny Ace has some instructions for us with regard to getting it.