‘WWE Vintage Collection TV Report #72 – October 18^th, 2009

Shown on Sky Sports in the U.K.

By Stephen Lyon.

This week: The continuation of a Halloween-themed month of shows. This week’s sub-theme was ‘Monsters & Oddities’. Matches featured were: Andre the Giant & Special Delivery Jones vs Big John Studd & Ken Patera (Famous ‘Studd cuts Andre’s hair’ angle; WWF 1984); Hulk Hogan & Sting & Randy Savage & Lex Luger vs Kamala & Meng & The Shark & The Zodiac (War Games Cage Match, WCW 1995); and The Undertaker vs Mankind (WWF 1996).

The Show:

Show opened with the first of two skits from 1995 WCW. Dramatic, Lost-esque music played, as King Curtis Iaukea appeared. He was covered in grey paint and cobwebs, as if he were some ancient relic come to life. He commanded ‘Sullivan’ to come to him. Shots aired of Kevin Sullivan, looking unintentionally comical wearing nothing but his short wrestling trunks and boots, running through the forest, looking for Iaukea. He finally found Iaukea in a cave setting. Iaukea asked him to defeat Hulk Hogan, and Sullivan insisted he couldn’t, that nobody could. Iaukea urged him to ‘take the final step’. Sullivan jumped through a hole in the wall, there was a bang and a cloud of smoke, and Sullivan reappeared wearing a hooded red jumpsuit, and had black ‘devil horns’ painted on to his face. Iaukea re-christened him ‘The Taskmaster’ and named him leader of the ‘Dungeon of Doom’, and gave him the orders to end Hulkamania.

This skit was on a par with the Papa Shango stuff from a few weeks ago, but it was pretty amusing in hindsight. Total Wrestlecrap.

1) Andre the Giant & Special Delivery Jones defeated Big John Studd & Ken Patera (w/Bobby Heenan in their corner) via disqualification. This match was from the December 1^st, 1984 edition of ‘WWF Championship Wrestling’, taped in Poughkeepsie, New York on November 13^th, 1984. Announcers for this match were Vince McMahon & Bruno Sammartino. A short match that led to the main angle. Hillbilly Jim (not acknowledged) was shown in the crowd as ‘a fan’. The heels worked over Jones, with Patera backdropping Jones over the top rope to the outside. Andre tagged in and dominated Patera, but Studd jumped him, and both Studd & Patera overpowered Andre. The referee disqualified the pair for their constant double-teaming of Andre. Patera held Andre, as Bobby Heenan at ringside took out a pair of scissors and handed them to Studd, who then proceeded to cut off most of Andre’s huge afro hairstyle. The crowd weren’t happy at all and began throwing things at the ring, as Vince on commentary went crazy, screaming about how Studd & Patera were ‘raping Andre of his dignity’.

The second of the 1995 WCW Dungeon of Doom skits aired. The Taskmaster & King Curtis Iaukea commanded that Hulk Hogan come to visit them in the cave. A big cloud of smoke blew up, and Hulk Hogan fell through a hole in the cave wall. Hogan then displayed all of his Oscar-worthy acting ability that made films such as ‘Mr Nanny’ such box office hits. “Where am I? There’s no Hulkamaniacs here! I’ve never been here before. What is this place? I know you (pointing at Taskmaster). I know you too (pointing at Iaukea)!” Suddenly, most of the Dungeon of Doom appeared, The Shark (John Tenta), Kamala, and The Zodiac (Brutus Beefcake). The Taskmaster began ranting at Hogan, brandishing a big stick at him. Suddenly there was another cloud of smoke (they liked to use a lot of smoke effects in these skits, didn’t they?), and then, in a Shockmaster-like entrance, the wall exploded, Hogan was knocked down, and The Giant (Big Show) made his debut, coming through the hole in the wall. The Giant choked out Hogan, then ranted, “My power is a million times greater than the power of Hulkamania. I am the greatest giant to ever walk the face of the earth. And I am the one true immortal!” Giant and Taskmaster then stood there, laughing hysterically.

2) Hulk Hogan & Sting & Macho Man Randy Savage & Lex Luger (w/Jimmy Hart in their corner) defeated Kamala & Meng & The Shark & The Zodiac (w/The Taskmaster in their corner) in a War Games Cage Match. This match was the main event from the ‘WCW Fall Brawl 1995’ pay-per-view event, held in Asheville, North Carolina, on September 17^th, 1995. Announcers for this match were Tony Schiavone & Bobby Heenan. Match was joined in progress, with both Zodiac & Shark double-teaming Sting. The Stinger tried to fight back, as Randy Savage made his entrance to even the odds. Savage pounded on Shark, then placed Zodiac in a Boston Crab. Meng & Kamala tried to interfere from outside the ring, grabbing Savage’s leg and dragging it underneath the cage’s edge. Kamala entered and stomped on Sting. Lex Luger came in for the save, and attacked Zodiac. Luger inadvertently struck his team-mate Savage (there had been dissension between the two prior to this match, with Savage insisting that Luger was untrustworthy) and the two began brawling, with Sting struggling to split up his teammates. Meng came in and attacked Sting. Hulk Hogan was the final man to enter the cage, and he immediately dominated most of the heels. He attacked Kamala, then placed Zodiac in a reverse chinlock. Zodiac, whose lame gimmick was that all he ever said was “Yes! No! Yes! No! Yes! No!” ad nauseum, was asked if he submitted by the referee. You can imagine his response. After a few seconds of ‘Yes-No’ comedy, the referee called for the bell anyway, and Hogan’s team won the match.

As per the pre-match stipulation, as a result of winning, Hogan got five minutes in the cage with The Taskmaster. Sullivan tried to run away, but Doug Dillinger and security brought him back to ringside, and Sting threw him back into the ring. Hogan beat up Taskmaster for a few minutes, as the fans in the front row unfurled a huge ‘HOGAN’S A BUM’ banner. Hilariously, Heenan pointed it out, saying that he gave those fans a few bucks to display the sign. Eventually, the Giant came out, climbing into the cage and showing his agility by leaping over the ring ropes to reach Hogan. The Hulkster attacked him, but the Giant no-sold the blows. He choked Hogan to his knees, then twisted his neck, which Hogan sold huge. Sting & Savage & Luger finally ran out for the save, as Giant & Taskmaster made their exit. 

3) Mankind defeated The Undertaker (w/Paul Bearer in his corner). This match was from the ‘WWF King of the Ring 1996’ pay-per-view event, held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on June 26^th, 1996. Announcers for this match were Vince McMahon, Jim Ross and Owen Hart. With Mankind already in the ring, Paul Bearer came out in the dark for the Undertaker’s entrance. However, the lights suddenly came on, and Undertaker was already in the ring, perched on the top rope, and took Mankind down with a flying clothesline to start the match. Mankind came back into the match, brawling with ‘Taker and throwing him to the outside. Mankind retrieved a chair from under the ring and tried to use it, but ‘Taker kicked the chair into Mankind’s own face. Undertaker threw Mankind into the ring apron, then backdropped him on to the concrete floor. Undertaker struck Mankind with chairshots in the ring, used a big boot and attempted a tombstone piledriver. Mankind managed to escape, and instead gave ‘Taker a swinging neckbreaker. After a commercial break, Undertaker was trying to fight back with a flurry of punches, but Mankind still managed to drag him to the outside. Mankind did a running charge into ‘Taker, planting his knee into ‘Taker’s head that was placed against the ring steps. With Undertaker flat on his back in the aisle way, Mankind did a running elbowdrop off the ring apron, but ‘Taker brought up a chair and batted Mankind away. Back in the ring, Mankind held on to the bottom rope and squealed like a pig. Undertaker nailed him with a running clothesline off the ropes, but seconds later and out of nowhere, Mankind executed a spike piledriver on ‘Taker. Mankind grabbed the urn from Paul Bearer and attempted to use it as a weapon, but Bearer snatched it back. Mankind placed Undertaker in the mandible claw, but Undertaker grabbed Mankind by the throat. Paul Bearer tried to hit Mankind with the urn, but missed and hit ‘Taker instead, and Mankind won by submission, applying the mandible claw for the victory. This was a very good match. 

Gene Okerlund closed the show by mentioning that next week’s shows’ Halloween theme will be ‘The Best of WCW Halloween Havoc’.

Closing thoughts: This show was a lot better than I thought it was going to be, given the ‘Monsters & Oddities’ theme. The Andre-Studd angle was interesting to see, and the Undertaker vs Mankind match was very good. Obviously the Dungeon of Doom nonsense permeated the show. As ridiculous as it was, it really hammered home how much wrestling has changed over the last 14 years. Comic book storylines and cartoon characters dominated the show, and whilst it didn’t lead to many five star matches, was this always necessarily a bad thing? It’s a thin line that is walked between creativity, and material than turns off wrestling fans/makes them embarrassed to be a fan, but at least the shows back then could never be accused of being ‘boring’, or ‘the same old stuff every week that never changes’, a malaise that sadly affects much of today’s product.

Match Results:

1) Andre the Giant & Special Delivery Jones defeated Big John Studd & Ken Patera via disqualification (‘WWF Championship Wrestling’ – Poughkeepsie, New York: taped on 13/11/84, aired on 01/12/84). 

2) Hulk Hogan & Sting & Macho Man Randy Savage & Lex Luger (w/Jimmy Hart in their corner) defeated Kamala & Meng & The Shark & The Zodiac (w/The Taskmaster in their corner) in a War Games Cage Match (‘WCW Fall Brawl 1995’ pay-per-view event – Asheville, North Carolina: 17/09/95). 

3) Mankind defeated The Undertaker (w/Paul Bearer in his corner) (‘WWF King of the Ring 1996’ pay-per-view event – Milwaukee, Wisconsin: 23/06/96). 

Please note: I DO NOT sell DVDs or tapes of any of these shows. Sorry!

I hope you enjoyed this week’s report. For other reports like this one, be sure to check it out my website archive at http://www.classicwrestlingreports.com .

It’s no longer updated, but this website carries all of my previous WWE Classics tv reports that have been featured on the old WrestlingObserver.com website.

As always your questions, comments and thoughts are always welcomed, and you can contact me at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Until next week, have a good week.

Stephen Lyon,
St Helens, England, U.K.