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Aaron Wood Presents The WWE Vintage Collection: Ep. 4 (Rougeaus, Santana, Race & The Machines)
By Aaron Wood
Again, I am one of the busiest of men, so no long intro. I will just say that I have a new audio up on ClubWWI (or if it isn't up at the time of writing, it will be soon) and that I shall be back later tonight with the Real Time coverage of Night Of Champions.
Mean Gene Okerlund gives us our usual introduction from WWE Studios. The month...September. The year...1986. This week...we'd be seeing Hulk Hogan, or should that be "Hulk Machine" as we'd never seen him before. Well, that would mean when he wrestled as Hulk Machine, I'm guessing. But more on that later. Also, we'd see Tito Santana against King Harley Race. However, we're starting things off with a Canadian tag team flavour, as the Rougeau Brothers take on The Hart Foundation. The Rougeau Brothers vs. The Hart Foundation (Originally aired on the MSG Network on September 22nd, 1988) Monsoon and Alfred Hayes are calling the action at ringside. This was apparently The Rougeaus MSG Debut as well. That's what my research (I do indeed do some you know) told me. We join just after bell, and Jimmy Hart's loudhailer is in full force. The Rougeaus quickly clear the ring of the Harts, dumping Jim out and giving Bret a double dropkick. Anvil brings in Bret. There's something of a standoff between Bret and Jacques. They lock up, but Bret grabbed arm an arm, although Jacques countered out, back flipped and hit a dropkick, sending Bret out the ring again. Raymond comes in on the tag. He and Bret lock up and Rougeau gets the headlock. However, Ray Ray soon scores yet another dropkick, which for a third time sends Bret out the ring. The Harts tease leaving, but come back again. Both sides make tags, bringing in Anvil and Jacques. For some reason, Anvil shows off his gut, before Jacques fails to knock him down, which draws Jacques over to his corner for advice. Another shoulder block failed to knock down Nattie's daddy. However, Jacques leapfrogged over a charging Anvil and gave him a scoop slam, before putting on a Boston Crab. Bret broke that up within seconds, kicking Jacques in the chest. Bret came in off the tag and a double team elbow drop by Bret scored a 2 count for the Foundation. Kick to the gut downs Jacques, who rolls to the outside. Anvil comes down and hits a scoop slam on the concrete floor. Raymond protected his sibling as we hit a break. We come back as Anvil rolls Jacques back in for Bret to put on a chinlock. Jacques hit a monkey flip to create some separation. However, he gets sent towards Jim Neidhart, who runs over and prevents the tag, putting on a front chancery. Bret totally distracts the ref, allowing a sneaky double team behind his back. Bret hit a cheap knee to the back allowing Jim to work over Jacques in the corner. Jacques gets sent into the corner, but Jacques goes for a turning crossbody out the corner, but it missed. Bret was tagged back in. Jacques tried fighting back, but again, the Harts distracted the ref and the tag couldn't be made. A cover by Anvil saw Jacques get his foot on the ropes. Bret came back in again. Bret set Jacques up in the ropes and hit a crossbody. Backbreaker by Bret sees him go to the second rope, but an elbow drop missed. Anvil came in off the tag, but couldn't prevent Raymond from tagging in this time. Raymond worked over both Harts. Ray sent Anvil into Bret shoulder first. Ray then hit an elbow drop a 2 count, broken by Bret. Whip off the ropes by Ray saw him grab a sleeper. Bret broke that up, and Jacques gave chase to the Hitman, but found himself down. However, as Bret was being taken to his corner by the referee, Jacques, who was the illegal man, hit s vaulting sunset flip on Neidhart, pinning him for the three count! WINNERS - THE ROUGEAU BROTHERS After the break, Gene welcomed us back as we'd be seeing two future Hall Of Famers, who were indeed inducted on the same night in 2004. Tito Santana became the first Latino wrester to win the Intercontinental Title, on this night, he's be facing King Harley Race, who won the Tournament 2 years previous. He would go onto feud with The Junkyard Dog, Jim Duggan and Hulk Hogan. Race, after he retired, remained active in the wrestling community (indeed, it was his school that Trevor Murdoch came out of). Anyway, TO THE RING! Tito Santana vs. King Harley Race (Originally aired on the MSG Network on September 22nd, 1988) Again, we join just after the bell as Santana hits a dropkick, slam and then an armdrag on Race. Bobby Heenan gets on the mic at ringside to put over his charge Race. Race hits a clothesline, but is caught with another series of moves, ending in another armdrag. Race got up and took Tito into the corner. A reversed whip sees Santana whip Race up and over the top rope. However, when Race got back up, Tito found himself tripped up and dragged out. Tito's head was hit off the guardrail. Race then hit a headbutt on the downed Santana. Race broke the count, but Tito reversed an attempt to send himself into the ringpost, sending Race into it instead as we took another break. We re-joined them sometime later as both men were in the ring and Race was in control, having apparently just hit a suplex. A couple of elbow drops scored a 2 count for Harley. Both men bumped heads and Race went over the top and to the floor when Tito was downed in the ring. However, Race recovered first and hit Tito with a headbutt. Race went up top, but was caught and Santana slammed Harley off the top. Tito went for a Figure Four, but it was blocked. Race hit a piledriver. However, Harley's big falling headbutt missed as Tito just avoided it. Tito started blocking shots and started a comeback. After a whip into the corner, Santana put on a sleeper hold. Race dropped to his knees, but hit a sneaky low blow to break it up. Uppercut by Race put Tito on his back. Atomic Drop by Race was countered into one of Tito's own, but the cover saw Harley get his foot on the rope. Race telegraphed a backdrop, kicking Santana in the shoulder. Knee drop by Race was followed by another headbutt from the top, but again, it was missed. Heenan jumped on the apron as Tito went for the Figure Four. Race grabbed Tito and rolled him up for the three count, although Tito's shoulder may have been up. WINNER - KING HARLEY RACE Right away, Santana went right after Race, but after getting a few shots in, Race managed to escape before being confirmed as the winner. We come back from break, and Scheme Gene has some explaining to do. Hulk Hogan was known worldwide, but how many people knew of the "Hulk Machine"? Well, it was Hogan under a mask, where he would join with the Super Machine and Big Machine to take on King Kong Bundy, Big John Studd and that other behemoth of men, Bobby Heenan... Now, basically, for those of you who aren't up to speed, this was a whole big angle leading up to Wrestlemania 3 and Hogan vs. Andre. Andre had gotten himself suspended (storyline wise) for failing to appear for a match. However, in the old wrestling tradition, a mysterious team suddenly had their debut hyped up and they were oddly enough, under masks. And one of them was Andre. Heenan sent a good while trying to prove it was Andre so Andre would then be fired. Once this "Machines" team started, various babyfaces, including Hogan and Roddy Piper, would don masks and become other machines. Then later in the year, Andre found himself un-suspended, and it became clear after that that Heenan was the one who brought him back so he could turn on Hogan, setting up their epic encounter. However, as a little treat, before we hit the ring, Gene told us that it was customary to hear from each side before the match. We cut to Monsoon and the heels. Heenan talked about making the challenge, and that he wasn't worried about them getting Hulk to be the Machines partner. Heenan claimed he'd take apart the Machines by himself. Bundy and Studd step in. Bundy put over Heenan before Studd claimed that Monsoon disliked them because Heenan was a better announcer and they were better wrestler than Monsoon ever was. We then cut to the Machines with Hogan's back to the camera and a mask on. Hogan was gibbering in Japanese and hitting karate-like stances. Hogan then jumped in a cut a promo without any pretence of it being not being Hogan. Mr. America was more convincingly not Hogan. Also, instead of a normal wrestling mask, Hogan was clearly wearing a balaclava with the eyes cut out so he could wear sunglasses! Anyway, Hogan talked about how he could bench press 1 more pound then Hogan and found his pythons were a half of an inch bigger than Hogan's were. If this weren't supposed to be stupidly comic, this would be incredibly racist... We'd to go the match after the break. Hulk Machine, Big Machine & Super Machine vs. King Kong Bundy, Big John Studd and Bobby Heenan (Originally aired on the MSG Network on September 22nd, 1988) This match has Super Machine and Big Machine, who were Ax and Blackjack Mulligan respectively. It should be noted that Hogan was now wearing a proper mask and the same attire as his team mates. We joined the match with the Machines in control as Hulk sent Bundy out of the ring with punches in the corner. Studd and Bundy had a chat on the outside. Things settle down and Hulk and Bundy are in the ring. Bundy takes Hogan into the corner, but Hulk Machine hits a bodyslam. Studd tried coming in, but wasn't allowed to do so until he tagged in, which he later did. Hogan took Studd into the face corner, bringing in one of the other Machines. Big Machine apparently. Bundy tagged in with Big. A big shoulderblock sent Bundy to the canvas. Super Machine was tagged in, but Bundy took him into the corner, tagging in John Studd. Crossbody by Super only scored a 1 count. Super went for a bodyslam, but Studd blocked it as we took a final break. We came back with Studd dropping Super Machine before Bundy came in, despite the crowd's chant for Weasel. Super tried to work the leg of Bundy, but it didn't work and Bundy tagged in Studd, who hit an axe handle to the back of Super. Studd worked him over some more and Heenan now took a tag. He stomped and hit headbutts. However, the headbutt sent Super into Hulk Machine, who tagged in. Hogan worked over everyone. Hogan prevented Heenan from making allowing a double team stomp. However, Heenan then tagged in Bundy, who went against Big Machine, and Big found himself in the wrong part of tow, where Studd was tagged in. However, Big Machine managed to get some blows in and tag Super Machine. Super went for a bodyslam, but Studd shifted weight and squashed him for a 2 count. King Kong Bundy came back in, and he worked over super with splashes in the corners. Studd came back in, but there was no tag made, so as the referee dealt with that and made sure there was a tag, the bright orange Hogan traded places with the bright pale Super Machine in an old switcheroo. Studd then came in off the tag properly, and not realising his opponent had changed colour, went for a whip, but Hogan hit a bodyslam and a leg drop for the win. WINNERS - THE BIG, SUPER & HULK MACHINES After the match, Hogan's music played and he posed and cheekily de-masked off camera. You know, in the same way that got him fired as Mr. America. Gene told us that the Heenan Family were outdone, but Hogan and Heenan would entertain us for a long time to come. See you next week! OVERALL - Fine show this week, nicely featuring some different people. Variety is the spice of life and all that. The first two matches were fine and the last was OK, given the comedic and work-rate deficient circumstances. Good show overall. I'm really enjoying these. Aaron Wood is gearing up for a long night, since he's got the Night Of Champions Real Time to come and then, maybe 2 hours sleep, if he's lucky, and then he has his final day of work. Aaron is still spun out by the illogicy of this idea. Fools. He also massive enjoyed the Doctor Who episode that aired last night and can barely contain himself for the finale next week. When he's bored, and he gets bored easily, you can normally find him on the WWI Forums or playing "Wrestler" on Facebook with many of his WWI friends. Or he'll be playing one of his many PS3 games, which include Burnout Paradise, Unreal Tournament 3, Uncharted, Gran Turismo 5: Prologue and GRAND THEFT AUTO IV~!~!~!~!. You can find him with the username "aaron24wood", if you want to so battle with him. Aaron's mood today was...anticipatory... Alphabetical Listing of Guests You Can Hear on ClubWWI.com : Aaron
Aguliera Christian
Cage Jackie
Gayda Chalie
Haas B.G.
James
Bruno
"Harvey Wippleman" Lauer Rodney
Mack One
Man Gang Diamond
Dallas Page Harley
Race Sylvester
Terkay
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| All content contained here Copyright 2008 by James Guttman *** World Wrestling Insanity and ClubWWI are not affiliated with any wrestling promotion. |
