The Wrestling Professor sent this in:
Welcome to the Armpit wrestling quiz for Monday, January 26. Since last Friday was the nationwide release of ?The Wrestler,? this week’s quiz is based on ?Films with Wrestlers.?
I won?t spoil the ?The Wrestler? for you, but it really is something you need to see. It’s definitely not a feel-good movie, but it’s very real and Mickey Rourke is outstanding. What impressed me most aside from Rourke’s work is just how dead-on it portrays the wrestling lifestyle. I was lucky enough to hang out backstage at some ECW shows in the mid 90s, and for those of you who have been inside locker rooms at indie shows or have been to autograph shows, you?ll immediately notice how authentic the movie scenes are.
Not only that, but it features just about the greatest soundtrack ever. Forget Springsteen, this movie is chock full of heavy metal party anthems from Quiet Riot, Guns N Roses, Slaughter, Ratt, and Cinderella. You can?t ask for more than that. Oh wait, yes you can. You can ask for a scene in which Kurt Cobain, the 90s, and grunge music are dissed, and amen brother, this movie has that too. Seriously, it’s like this movie was designed for 80s metalhead wrestling fans. If that’s you, then go see the movie.
Answers from last time:
-Clash #28 featured Hogan, Flair, and Antonio Inoki.
-The special guest ref at Clash #29 was Mr. T.
-Clash #30 and WrestleMania IX both took place in Las Vegas, NV.
-The Renegade took his own life in the late 90s.
-The Blue Bloods were Bobby Eaton, Steve ?William? Regal, and David Taylor.
-The two women in Flair’s corner at Clash #33 were Nancy ?Woman? Daus/Benoit/Sullivan and Elizabeth.
-Speaking of Woman, the undercard at Clash #34 featured two of her husbands: Chris Benoit vs. Kevin Sullivan.
-The ending scene at Clash #35 was Sting in the rafters with a bird, interrupting an nWo celebration. The lights go out and the bird appears in the ring, freaking out the nWo. Quite an appropriate ending to the Clash series.
Here are this week’s questions. No winners will be declared. We’re just doing this for fun and to honor the forgotten world of wrestling history.
1. Reports say that ?They Live? is getting remade. ?They Live,? of course, featured Roddy Piper and got good reviews across the board. What is Piper’s famous line, regarding bubblegum, in that movie?
2. Only in wrestling can you be in an episode of ?Perfect Strangers? one week and main eventing SummerSlam ?89 another week. Yes, Tiny ?Zeus? Lister once appeared alongside Balki and Cousin Larry before he appeared alongside Randy Savage and Sherri Martel in the WWF. Zeus played Hulk Hogan’s evil villain in the WWF and also the movie ?No Holds Barred.? What was Hogan’s character’s name in that movie?
3. I remember watching ?No Holds Barred? in the theater with my friends, but the place was mostly empty. The movie didn?t do well at the box office or with the critics, which was surprising because the WWF was very hot at the time in syndication. Name the current SmackDown headliner who is listed in the credits of that movie, though his role was almost non-existent.
4. ?Wrestling with Shadows? was the best movie ever done on wrestling, at least until a year later when ?Beyond the Mat? took that crown. On the losing end of a wrestling war, Vince McMahon was desperate for any and all exposure and granted backstage access to the film’s makers. This coincided with the Montreal screwjob, which was captured in detail in ?Wrestling with Shadows.? What person in the movie (besides Bret) smelled the screwjob a mile away and even lectured those involved on camera (perhaps the lowpoint of HHH’s career)?
5. ?Beyond the Mat? set the standard for wrestling movies, and when you see ?The Wrestler,? you?ll notice many similarities, especially the scenes with Jake Roberts with his daughter and Randy the Ram with his daughter. What task are Jake and his father (Grizzly Smith) performing in one uncomfortable scene in which neither is talking to the other?
6. One character from ?Beyond the Mat? received almost cult status in some circles. Who is Dennis Stamp?
7. The movie ?Ed Wood? featured what former WWE star from the 80s?
8. Chris Kanyon is coming out of retirement. It wasn?t that long ago he was on Stern saying he was looking forward to living in Atlanta and getting a regular job and finding a boyfriend. He’s so talented and it’s a shame he has the rep of being the guy who claimed that his homosexuality led to his demise, because the truth is that the lame WWE writers were so blind to talent that they couldn?t see what they had in Kanyon. Anyway, Kanyon is a great trainer, having showed Jay Leno and Dennis Rodman the ropes in WCW. He also did lots of choreographing for what wrestling movie in 2000?
9. While not a movie, ?Married with Children? was one of the best sit-coms of all-time, before it jumped the shark in the mid 90s when it became too much of a farce. The Bundys were named after King Kong Bundy, who made guest appearances on two episodes. There was also a pro wrestling storyline in the episode where Peg flies to Vegas with neighbor Marcy Rhoades (named after Dusty?). Al follows her there and loses everything gambling. But if he survives a match with a woman wrestler named Big Bad Mama, what would Al get as a prize?
10. The questions of wrestlers in film are endless, so maybe we?ll do a part 2 next time. For this last question, let’s go back to the 80s. The NWA got some exposure on a syndicated sitcom called ?Learning the Ropes.? The show was not a prime time sitcom, and instead was syndicated for weekend airtimes throughout the country like ?Charles in Charge? and ?Small Wonder? were. Is this bringing back memories or what? ?Learning the Ropes? was about a wrestler who lived at home with his family, and cameos by guys like the Road Warriors were not uncommon. The show wasn?t very good, but wasn?t really meant to be, and it was cool to see the NWA get any sort of media attention. Who was the lead actor on this show?
Answers will be posted next time.
The Armpit
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