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Post by héad.casé on Dec 25, 2011 18:45:50 GMT -5
I was watching my Tagged Classics DVD of the '93 Rumble, and when Carlos Colon came out, even though I know who he is and what he's done throughout his career now, I remember as a kid, not knowing who the hell this guy was and laughing when Gorilla Monsoon called him a 'youngster'. I also remember thinking the same about Dick Murdoch in the '95 Rumble, but again, I know who he is and what he's done now, but I didn't then.
Did anyone else feel this way?
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MolotovMocktail
Grimlock
Home of the 5-time, 5-time, 5-time, 5-time 5-time Super Bowl Champion 49ers-and Wrestlemania 31
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Post by MolotovMocktail on Dec 25, 2011 18:55:52 GMT -5
In the Apter mags, Puerto Rico got some coverage, so I knew who he was, and when they advertised him, I was excited to finally see what he could do.
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Jimmy
Grimlock
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Post by Jimmy on Dec 25, 2011 19:15:46 GMT -5
I first watched the 1993 Royal Rumble early on into my fandom in the early 00's, I thought Tenryu was about as significant in wrestling as Funaki. I was surprised to learn later on he's a big deal in Japan and elsewhere in the world.
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MolotovMocktail
Grimlock
Home of the 5-time, 5-time, 5-time, 5-time 5-time Super Bowl Champion 49ers-and Wrestlemania 31
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Post by MolotovMocktail on Dec 25, 2011 20:12:03 GMT -5
I remembered Tenryu from Wrestlemania 7, so I marked at the idea of him coming back. But yeah, I didn't know he was God in Japan.
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Post by jason1980s on Dec 25, 2011 20:54:05 GMT -5
Tenryu came back a few times so he must've had a good working relationship with WWF.
Colon and Tenryu at the 1993 Rumble was the start of outside wrestlers in the rumble for a few years. It bothered me as there were others on the regular roster who were overlooked in favor of them. 1993 could've had Kamala, Crush or Duggan. Kamala was in between managers and Crush and Duggan weren't injured by Doink or Yokozuna yet.
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Post by mrtuesday on Dec 25, 2011 21:37:13 GMT -5
laughing when Gorilla Monsoon called him a 'youngster'. To be fair, there were very few in the business at the time older than Gorilla, so to him he was a youngster.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 26, 2011 8:31:38 GMT -5
Tenryu came back a few times so he must've had a good working relationship with WWF. Tenryu left All-Japan to lead the SWS (Super World Sports) promotion in 1990, a competitor to All-Japan & New Japan. The company bought out quite a few of the stars. They had a working agreement with the WWF as well, as some of their wrestlers would work for him; notably King Haku, Earthquake & Typhoon. The economic downturn in the early '90s resulted in the promotion closing. (On a side note, it was this "raid of talent" that caused Shohei Baba to finally book Japanese wrestlers against each other; prior to this he stuck with the old "safe" booking of home stars against foreign talent.) I liked seeing "different" guys in the Royal Rumble. It made it seem really important, that even international stars wanted a crack at it. And, I might have been the only guy hoping Doug Gilbert would have a decent showing that one year, until Vader just dropped him like a sack of flour. Ouch.
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Post by jason1980s on Dec 26, 2011 9:23:00 GMT -5
[I liked seeing "different" guys in the Royal Rumble. It made it seem really important, that even international stars wanted a crack at it. And, I might have been the only guy hoping Doug Gilbert would have a decent showing that one year, until Vader just dropped him like a sack of flour. Ouch. I can see why one would like it as Vince noted with one of the Rumble's, either the 96 or 97 something like 'wrestlers are coming from all over to participate in the 1996(7) royal rumble' so it did have some importance past the WWF to it. But I just didn't like seeing guys, even if jobbers with gimmicks or names, lose out on a spot. Although I don't think there were many options in the 1996 rumble as Sid was gone, Bam Bam was gone along with Waylon Mercy, Bundy, Blu Twins and they had to scrape by with Kama and Tatanka. But it was bad to hear Vince and Mr. Perfect try to put over the newcomers. Mr. P did a good job with Vader but they didn't know Omari (shouldn't Vince the owner know these hired talents?), Perfect had no clue about the Squat Team and Pefect made Doug Gilbert seem important but Vince couldn't. It just seems weird and even though I'm sure Vince isn't completly a put over home talent only it seemed like he would surely want to put Stalker or Justin Hawk Bradshaw or Well Dunn or Bushwhackers in a Rumble over some random talents.
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Post by walsh7637 on Dec 26, 2011 10:03:39 GMT -5
laughing when Gorilla Monsoon called him a 'youngster'. To be fair, there were very few in the business at the time older than Gorilla, so to him he was a youngster. What? Gorilla would've been in his early to mid-50's (he was just over 60 when he died in '99) in 1993. That's pretty surprising if most people in wrestling (esp. behind the scenes) back then were well under 50.
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skulldouggory
Unicron
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Post by skulldouggory on Dec 28, 2011 20:41:47 GMT -5
Omari is my favourite obscure rumble entrant. It is awesome to see him in Noah or Zero-1 and recognise him as the 1996 youngster.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 28, 2011 21:26:18 GMT -5
Tenryu came back a few times so he must've had a good working relationship with WWF. Colon and Tenryu at the 1993 Rumble was the start of outside wrestlers in the rumble for a few years. It bothered me as there were others on the regular roster who were overlooked in favor of them. 1993 could've had Kamala, Crush or Duggan. Kamala was in between managers and Crush and Duggan weren't injured by Doink or Yokozuna yet. Actually, the Doink-Crush angle happened on Superstars a week before the Rumble and was the explanation for Crush not being in the match. The Duggan-Yokozuna angle had been taped on January 6th but did not air on TV until February 6th, two weeks after the Rumble.
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Squirrel Master
Hank Scorpio
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Post by Squirrel Master on Dec 28, 2011 22:21:02 GMT -5
I had already seen Carlos Colon live on the island in the 1980s feuding with the likes of Hercules Ayala, Bruiser Brody, Chicky Starr and Abdullah the Butcher. He matched these guys in their violent styles. So I was excited to see him in the Rumble, although he didn't do much.
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Post by jason1980s on Dec 28, 2011 23:19:20 GMT -5
I had already seen Carlos Colon live on the island in the 1980s feuding with the likes of Hercules Ayala, Bruiser Brody, Chicky Starr and Abdullah the Butcher. He matched these guys in their violent styles. So I was excited to see him in the Rumble, although he didn't do much. He's great alright but it's just weird, especially in the days where fans might not even know about another promotions stars to see him come in only for one shot and never be seen again. It's funny to see the Lex Luger wrestling buddy from WCW as I think he was always listed as Narcissist and not Lex Luger for the unveiling. The Bushwhackers could have gone in place of Tenryu and Colon. They weren't doing much at the time but would be on a lot of shows with Tiger Jackson in 1993. Or Duggan and Kamala would be good. Duggan could start his fued with Yokozuna if it hadn't been done already on TV or it could be furthered and Kamala gets attacked by Giant Gonzalez and instead of Heenan noting Giant only went after Undertaker he could say right after Gonzalez attacked Kamala he went right after Undertaker only. I know it shouldn't matter. It's not like the Bushwhackers would have been much better than Tenryu or Colon but I'd just rather see regular roster guys get a PPV appearance and pay day.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 28, 2011 23:31:05 GMT -5
Wasn't Carlos almost/already 40 when the Rumble happened? Since when does that qualify a man as a "youngster"?
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Post by celticjobber on Dec 29, 2011 1:08:30 GMT -5
I read PWI and Inside Wrestling mags, so I knew who most of the international stars were, even as a kid.
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Post by Cieto on Dec 29, 2011 6:03:40 GMT -5
Tenryu came back a few times so he must've had a good working relationship with WWF. Colon and Tenryu at the 1993 Rumble was the start of outside wrestlers in the rumble for a few years. It bothered me as there were others on the regular roster who were overlooked in favor of them. 1993 could've had Kamala, Crush or Duggan. Kamala was in between managers and Crush and Duggan weren't injured by Doink or Yokozuna yet. I believe crush was injured by doink, about two weeks before the rumble in a plaster cast attack. I remember mean gene on the royal rumble report announcing he would no longer be in the rumble and revealing someone in his place.
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Post by jason1980s on Dec 29, 2011 9:38:59 GMT -5
Tenryu came back a few times so he must've had a good working relationship with WWF. Colon and Tenryu at the 1993 Rumble was the start of outside wrestlers in the rumble for a few years. It bothered me as there were others on the regular roster who were overlooked in favor of them. 1993 could've had Kamala, Crush or Duggan. Kamala was in between managers and Crush and Duggan weren't injured by Doink or Yokozuna yet. I believe crush was injured by doink, about two weeks before the rumble in a plaster cast attack. I remember mean gene on the royal rumble report announcing he would no longer be in the rumble and revealing someone in his place. Amazingly there were a lot of guys slated for that Rumble according to the WWF magazines and Coliseum Video box, like Big Bossman, Bam Bam Bigelow, Kamala, Crush, Duggan, Nailz and even Ultimate Warrior and British Bulldog were in ads in the magazine. Terry Taylor and Max Moon were schedule for a match. How many lower card guys like Skinner, High Energy or Virgil would have been out of the rumble to make room for Bulldog, Warrior and more?!
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Turd Ferguson
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John Cena: Colossal Douche
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Post by Turd Ferguson on Dec 29, 2011 9:58:28 GMT -5
Even if you didn't know who he was, he looked old at that point. I always felt it was a Mr Burns moment for ol Gorilla.
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Post by jason1980s on Dec 31, 2011 11:51:54 GMT -5
I watched his entrance on the DVD the other night and when Carlos comes out Gorilla goes "It's...It's Carlos Colon." Everyone else he or Heenan immediately blurt out the name, even Gorilla knew Tenryu most likely from the past. Usually the first "it's" comes from when the buzzer goes off and the wrestler is still behind the curtain.
Sure didn't seem like Gorilla knew Colon or if he did from being a legend it took him a second or two extra to think since he wasn't a regular. The WWE Encyclopedia refers to Colon make some appearances in the 90s with the most noteable being RR 93 though that seems like it was just used to give value to him being in the Rumble. The "E" is funny how it usually takes off or adds a year to the wrestler's time with WWF like Bastion Booger coming in 1994 (came in 1993) and leaving 1995 (left 1994) or Blu Twins leaving in 1996 (left 1995). Those are the ones off the top of my head. Great book though!
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Cranjis McBasketball
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Post by Cranjis McBasketball on Dec 31, 2011 15:00:12 GMT -5
Tenryu came back a few times so he must've had a good working relationship with WWF. Colon and Tenryu at the 1993 Rumble was the start of outside wrestlers in the rumble for a few years. It bothered me as there were others on the regular roster who were overlooked in favor of them. 1993 could've had Kamala, Crush or Duggan. Kamala was in between managers and Crush and Duggan weren't injured by Doink or Yokozuna yet. I believe crush was injured by doink, about two weeks before the rumble in a plaster cast attack. I remember mean gene on the royal rumble report announcing he would no longer be in the rumble and revealing someone in his place. Actually Doink tore his own arm out of the socket and beat Crush with it. I still have no idea why Vince wouldn't give this idea up. At first, ok you play it like you don't know, but when Doink is two handing Crush with gthe fake arm, Vince is still carrying about how Doink tore his own arm off to beat Crush.
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