I won't lie, I am a massive fan of the wrestling. Not Greco Roman, Not Catch as Catch can, not even freestyle...PROFESSIONAL WRESTLING.

Most have caught a glimpse of pro wrestling on the tube while trying to catch the late edition of "Sportscentre" and saying to themselves "God damn it, it's not even a real sport". Some may be more open to wrestling as it reminds them of their childhood days and think to themselves "Back when I was young...".

Well this past Saturday, the WWE returned to NBC for one of their most popular events from the 1980's and 90's, "Saturday Night's Main Event"!



Back in the 80's, WWE chariman Vince McMahon was able to strike a deal with long time friend and NBC programming head, Dick Ebersol to have a wrestling special 4 times a year to go in the slot of "Saturday Night Live", during the week it took a break. The ratings were tremendous and the show was a hit. Moreso than anything, this NBC exposure opened the WWF product to a brand new audience and made household names out of the likes of "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan, Jake "The Snake" Roberts and many more.

Here now is a look at some of the more outrageous characters in the history of this program, that you probably never cared to hear from again!


"MACHO MAN" RANDY SAVAGE


One of the biggest names from the WWF in the 1980's was Randy Savage. Often accompanied with real wife, Elizabeth, Savage was one of the craziest characters in the WWF sporting ridiculous shades and oversized sequin capes. A lot of people say that the best characters are based on the person with the volume turned up, for Savage, his on air character may have been the volume turned down. After leaving the WWF in 1993 to join the rival World Championship Wrestling, Savage went through a divorce to Elizabeth and saw his career wind down. In 2003, Savage came out with his own rap album with the title song "Be a Man" in which he calls out former buddy Hulk Hogan to fight. Aside from a cameo as Bonesaw McGraw in the 2002 "Spiderman" movie, Savage has largely fallen off the face of the earth with many in the industry convinced he has lost his mind. Sadly, Elizabeth passed away in 2003 after hooking up with another former wrestler, Lex Luger, and passing away from an overdose of pills mixed with alcohol.


BRUTUS "THE BARBER" BEEFCAKE


This "barber" from San Francisco was originally patterened after a gay stereotype and given an outfit to support that theory. Real name Ed Leslie, Beefcake literally made a career out of being the legit best friend of top star, Hulk Hogan. Leslie followed Hogan everywhere he went in his career with Hogan opening up doors for the untalented barber. So after years of working for both the WWF and WCW and putting away money, what is Leslie doing now? He's a subway attendant in Boston with a cocaine addicition. A few years ago Leslie was busted for having cocaine on the job, but see this was right around 9/11 and when the authorities saw Leslie with a ton of white powder, they assumed it was anthrax and arrested Leslie. Not even the Hulkster could get him out of that one.


JIM "THE ANVIL" NEIDHART


The man attached to the hip of Bret Hart for most of his Bret's early
career, the Anvil was most known for his long beard and easily excitable tendancies. NeidHart was not much of a wrestler and hit the prime of his career while teaming with Bret as The Hart Foundation from 1986-1991. Back in 2004, Anvil was charged with stealing some jewlery from a neighbours house before charges were dropped. NeidHart is one of the many wrestlers who continues to work on the independent circuit, long after they should ever be stepping inside a ring. His daughter Nattie NeidHart is currently trying to get into the industry, working in Calgary and Japan.


"SUPERFLY" JIMMY SNUKA


One of the most nonsensical wrestlers to ever pick up a microphone, the Superfly was one of wrestling's weirdest dudes in an industry full of the odd and bizarre. Snuka was best known for his splash off the top ropes (his most famous being a leap off the top of a steel cage onto Don Muraco during a show at Madison Square Garden). Snuka was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 1996 and continues to wrestle to this day. Snuka's adopted son, Deuce Shade is currently working in the WWE's developmental system called Ohio Valley Wrestling and is expected to debut in the WWE very soon. Snuka's
career was heavily plagued by a ton of drug use during his heyday and sadly he is another wrestler that continues to wrestle at a very old age.


NIKOLAI VOLKOFF


During the height of the Cold War, there was no one better for the WWF to use as a top heel than the Soviet Union comrade, Nikolai Volkoff. Volkoff is ironically not only an American citizen but is planning to run for office in Baltimore in their next election. Volkoff was your traditional foreign heel (or bad guy) during the 80's before turning babyface and forming a tag team with American patriot, Jim Duggan.


THE IRON SHEIK


Khosrow Vasiri came along during the Iranian hostage crisis and became one of the most hated villians in the WWF with his manager "Classy" Freddie Blassie. Sheik won the WWF Title from Bob Backlund in December of 1983 but only kept the title for a month before losing it to Hulk Hogan in January of 1984. In 1988, Sheik was caught doing drugs in a car with Jim Duggan and were both fired from the company, not for doing drugs but because a babyface and a heel were caught travelling together. As the years have gone by, Sheik has gotten more crazy as evidenced by this INTERVIEW
CLIP.


KOKO B. WARE


Koko be where? Koko was one of the all time favorites in the WWF along with his companion, Frankie the parrot. Sadly, Frankie passed away in a fire in 2000 and Koko has had to find a new bird for his matches (yes he still wrestles). Koko was fired by the WWF in 1991 after an altercation with a WWF agent backstage. He was then re-hired in 1993 and one half of a the High Energy tag team with Owen Hart. His last appearance on national TV was in 1998 when he appeared on TV under a mask as The Blue Blazer.


THE ULTIMATE WARRIOR


No one in the history of pro wrestling has been more insane than this guy. He has legally changed his name to "Warrior Warrior" so as not to lose the rights to his name. Since leaving wrestling he made the natural transition in a right wing political speaker at local schools (where in 2004, his comments were deemed racist and offensive, that the school had to issue an apology in a press release for letting this nut speak). In 2005, the WWE paid tribute to the former Jim Hellwig with a special DVD tribute called "The Self Destruction of the Ultimate Warrior" where the entire company buried the Warrior and made fun of his lack of ability and non sensical interviews. Mr. Warrior Warrior is currently involved in a lawsuit with the
company over the DVD.

Those are but a few of the stranger characters from your wrestling youth. Unfortunately for this generation, the legacy of "Saturday Night's Main Event" doesn't look to have the cultural impact as ratings for both NBC in the U.S and CityTV in Canada tanked for the special, coming no where near the numbers of the 80's or 90's shows.

Next week folks, BITE TV is opening up the pocket books and having me do a very special indepth edition of "15:01" on the stars and failures to come out of Chicago! They are even sending me all the way to Chicago for authenticity's sake. So next we, live from Chicago...it's the J-O-P-O!



JOPO