Rock & Wrestling Gone Wrong

by Jonny Rokket

In wrestling, such as in life, there are only a few things you can count on. You can always count on Jonny Rokket to know about all things historical about rock & roll and wrestling. By the same token, there are just the plain facts and it's a historical fact that two things exploded in the '80s: wrestling and MTV. With that in mind yours truly decided to hit up YouTube to see what "classic" rock and wrestling combination videos were available. The results were, to put it mildly, humous, and in many cases, painful. Thes are just a few.

Not all music related clips from the time period were WWF clips. Check out this promo music clip from Southern Championship Wrestling in Georgia. The clip is from the late 80's and the song is 38 Special's "Wild Eyed Southern Boys". The wrestler? "Wildfire" Tommy Rich. I believe a couple of the clips may be from Augusta.



While we all know that The Freebirds brought rock & roll into wrestling, it was the WWF's hook up with Cyndi Lauper that made for wrestle-rock history. Of course Lauper had one of the first "created" for vids on MTV as Captain Lou played her pops for "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun." This next video is a Lauper promo for the movie "The Goonies" and this clip features both parts played on MTV as a special! The videos feature Captain Lou, the Iron Sheik, Freddie Blassie, Nikolai Volkoff, Rowdy Roddy Piper, Andre the Giant and more! To bad it sucked but you be the judge. Love the "you haven't had gas until you've had mom & pop's" store sign though!



Not to be outdone, original Freebird Michael P.S. Hayes did a video for Freebirds theme song "Badstreet USA". This clip was eventually used to make another, very controversial clip. Love ya Michael but this is proof positive why rock died for a while in the early 90's.



Of course WWE title holder the Ultimate Warrior couldn't let another "long-hair" out-rock him so he went out and picked up the biggest baddest most hard rockinest musician on the planet to film a music video with. Phil Collins. WHAT? WAIT? OH DAMN!



Now I could get excited that clip is done but folks, it only goes downhill from there! Check out these next two clips from the WWE. Clip one is a gaggle of WWE wrestlers performing "Land of 1000 Dances" with backup help from Rich Derringer and Meatloaf with band. YIKES!



Next is the legendary (hack) "Stand Back" video from 1987. McMahon sings, dances and makes gay faces while Hulk Hogan "bass-synchs" along. Jesse Ventura's intro is spot-on.



Finally...we have even more Hogan for you courtesy of this more recent clip of Hulk Hogan's Wrestling Boot Traveling Band. The songs' "The Hulksters in the House" and it appears to have been filmed at a Hard Rock Cafe, probably Orlando or Miami. What a combo: Bad food AND bad music!



Well kiddies, I guess that's all the ear-bleeding I'll force upon you on this day. But stay tuned...you never know when I'll be back with more painful sounds for your delicate ears!

Rokket Out!

Augusta: The Great Wrestling Metropolis?

By now you've surely heard Watts and myself go on and on and on about that historic night in 1981 when Tommy Rich defeated Harley Race to win the NWA World title. You may have heard us recently comment that the only reason we continue to bring it up is because "it is the only significant wrestling moment to ever happen in Augusta, Georgia." Well I decided to investigate and after some online searching on YouTube of "Augusta Georgia Wrestling" I have come to the conclusion that Watts and I have made a serious error in judgement.

Take the below clip into consideration. Here we have a match from an event held on March 9th, 1993 at the Augusta Richmond County Civic Center (now know as James Brown Arena). This match from a WWF All-American Wrestling broadcast was, according to the YouTube poster, originally broadcast on the USA Network on April 11th, 1993. But WHICH USA Network? Judging by the commentators, not any USA Network I was watching! THIS version is from an international broadcast on what looks to be "Canal 1 RTP" and is commentated in Spanish, I believe, by one Tarzan Taborda. That's right folks, "Luta Livre Americana (RTP1) - Damian Demento vs Jim Duggan" from none other than Augusta, Georgia! Wonder what the banditos thought about this "classic" Demento/Duggan match from "Jorgia"? Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe this was just a special Grovetown Cable broadcast.



Now how can one not get excited when tipped off that a new wrestling organization could be "invading" the CSRA? I know that I for one would be excited. Imagine my hypeness level when I came across this clip on YouTube from a user called "CSRAwrestling" (isn't that the address of this blog page?) claiming to "invade and take over Southern Style Wrestling"? Southern Style Wrestling? Is that a description or an organization? The description says "will they succeed or fail?". Well this clip was posted 8 months ago, we've never heard of CSRAwrestling OR Southern Style Wrestling (unless you mean the road weary Tommy Rich) so my vote would be: THEY FAILED. The 14 second clip also on the CSRAwrestling YouTube site posted a month ago and titled "Coded Message to AWF!" doesn't make me feel any different about my decision either.



What could be more significant than a local federation wrestling show hosted by a guy named Fury? Furthermore, what could be more interesting than brutal matches beld outdoors in and out of something that resembles a cattle pen? While there's no titantron there's an explosion of plywood entrance banners and plenty of mother nature. But if you think that no actual wrestling ring appears in this video, think again. Well, it actually looks like ring ropes around an unflated kiddie pool but hey I gotta give out a B- for creativity. You be the judge.



What could be more groundbreaking than a major wrestling organization holding a major pay-per-view in Augusta, Georgia? Such was the case a couple of years back when ECW held "December to Dismember" following a WWE total makeover. It was massive! OK, the event itself was not, but the main event match held outside the ticket box office was hardcore at its best. HOLY SHIT! HOLY SHIT!



Sadly enough, aside from a mega ton of GCW clips (yep, that's right!), this is about all that comes up when searching for "Augusta Georgia Wrestling". Well that and a clip of Stud McCoy nailing a newscaster over the head with a guitar. Even the classic Race/Rich championship clip in Augusta from 1981 didn't show up. Disrespect.

Hmmm...maybe we were right in the first place...so for your viewing pleasure, wrestling history in the making: Tommy Rich vs then Champion Harley Race April 27th, 1981 in Augusta, Georgia as commentated a few days later by the legendary late Gordon Solie and Tommy Rich himself.




Jonny Rokket...Rokket Out!