Welcome to the second installment of “Moments That Changed The Wrestling World”. First off, I do acknowledge the infamous “Montreal Screw job” on November 9th, 1997 at the Survivor Series as a key moment in wrestling history, but last year I vowed in one of my 1 Wrestling columns to never again publicly describe the 1997 incident. I am holding true to that word, so don’t expect to see it as part of this series. Also, the night that Scott Hall arrived in WCW is a well documented event in wrestling history and therefore will not be covered in this series.
APRIL 5TH 1992-“Sid Vicious throws out the script”- In probably the oddest moment in the history of Wrestle mania , Sid Vicious kicks out of Hulk Hogan’s infamous leg drop. Why so odd?…It wasn’t planned. Much to the shock and surprise of Hulk Hogan and even Sid’s own manager Harvey Wippleman, Sid said “To hell with it”. The fiasco got so out of hand that for no reason what-so-ever (on a story line level) superstars like The Ultimate Warrior and Papa Shango came flying down to the ring (apparently to ensure that the move didn’t go sour). It turns out that it was the last day of Sid’s contract and he figured that there would be no repercussions to his actions. Boy was he right. Not only were there no repercussions, Sid returned a few years later and his “punishment” was 2 World Titles and main event pushes against the likes of The Undertaker and Bret Hart. Even in WCW after stabbing Arn Anderson in a hotel room hallway, Sid was merely fired and re-hired years later and “punished” with yet another main-event push and YES…another World Title.
DECEMBER 29th 1998-“Mick Foley Wins The World Title”-No doubt in my mind one of the most shocking moments in wrestling history. During a Monday Nitro broadcast Tony Schiavone announces to everyone (mockingly) to “make sure they turn on Monday Night Raw because Mick Foley (a.k.a Cactus Jack) has just won their World Title”. Well, they did. The ratings shift in that 15 minute span was the highest ever in the history of The Monday Night Wars. To me that truly showed how sad WCW’s product was becoming. The fact that people were changing the channel to see Mick Foley’s victory speech was nothing short of sad for WCW and their (at the time) pathetic “flag-bearer” Bill Goldberg. Nonetheless, that was just the first of 3 (in my opinion undeserved) World Title reigns for Mick and a future spot in the Pro Wrestling Torch “Hall Of Fame”.
November 23rd 1996-“Mass Transit turns into mass tragedy”-For the first noted time in pro wrestling history, a fan learns about the dangers of pro wrestling first hand and an owner learns to be a helluva lot more careful on who he lets in the
ring. ECW wrestler Axl Rotten wasn’t able to make it to an ECW show and Paul Heyman was stuck and didn’t have a tag team partner for D-Von Dudley who was set to take on The Gangstas. To his rescue came an extremely large kid equipped with fake I.D. and a father who would vouche for his age. Now truth be told, Kulas had no wrestling experience other than wrestling midgets under the name “Mass Transit” and was in fact only 17. Kulas proceeds to tell Heyman what his ring name is and that he was trained by Killer Kowalski (which was also false). Heyman agrees to give him a shot. Kulas had no arguments about the match that was about to take place other than the fact that he “never bladed before” which New Jack said he’d have no problem remedying that situation. Kulas was not greeted kindly by the ECW crowd and proceeded to yell back at the crowd. As you might have guessed, Kulas was pummeled and bladed as his father was outside the ring screaming “He’s only 17…STOP!” Those cries fell on deaf ears as they could not be heard over the extremely loud and bloodthirsty ECW fans. Kulas received over 50 stitches and lost pints of blood during the match. Heyman and New Jack were pleased with their work either way as Heyman was quoted in saying that he had paid his “initiation dues”. Kulas and family later sued Heyman and tried to press criminal charges against New Jack (a.k.a Jerome Young ). All charges were thrown out of court. Kulas died on May 12th 2002 at the age of 22.
November 25th 1985- “It’s all about the Moolah”-Although this event is not widely known by wrestling fans world wide, it is a significant event because it was the actual “predecessor” to the “Montreal Screw Job”. Wendy Richter was at the peak of her career in 1985 and was the WWF Women’s Champion. Set to defend the title in New York City’s Madison Sqaure Garden, Richter inquired to Vince McMahon about who her opponent that night would be and how the match would go. Vince gave Wendy shallow details and told her to “just go to the ring and take it from there”. Richter thought this was odd but brushed it off and headed the ring to defend her title. Her opponent that night would be an unknown wrestler simply known as “The Spider Lady”. Within seconds of the match starting, Richter was pinned (with her shoulders up). The Spider Lady then unmasked to be revealed as the Fabulous Moolah. It turns out that Richter was in talks with Vince McMahon about getting paid a higher salary (Richter claimed she was getting paid “opening match worker’s money”) and Vince didn’t feel she deserved more money and decided to let her go the hard way. Richter left The Garden that night, never to again return to the World Wrestling Federation.
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