Written By: Greg Stephens
RAMBLE ON–Separated at Birth?
By Greg Stephens
Welcome to ‘Ramble On’. It seems that within the past few weeks, the fans continue to grow restless with the runaway freight train that has become the WWE creative team, as evidenced by the increasing amounts of negative and critical articles on websites such as this one, and virtually every other wrestling website on the net. Granted, my first two articles have ranked among those critical pieces, although I have attempted to maintain distinctions in my writing style. This week, I thought I would go a different route with the column and focus on a wrestler that most of us recognize for his talent and star potential.
It’s hard to believe that it has been eight full years since a wrestler named Adam Copeland debuted, after a fairly successful Indy career, in the then-WWF as a man named Edge. Like most of my fellow wrestling fans and readers of this column, we have seen little Adam grow. After a brief singles beginning in WWF, Edge teamed up with his long-time Indy tag-team partner, Christian (Cage), and helped revive the sorely missed and lost art form known as tag-team wrestling. Not since the nineteen eighties with the Road Warriors, the Midnight Express, the Rock and Roll Express, and the Hart Foundation had tag-team wrestling been so exciting as those days when Edge and Christian would feud with the Hardy Boyz over the tag titles. No one will ever forget the most famous ladder match in wrestling history that these two teams of warriors bled and sacrificed in at No Mercy, 1999.
Of course, the Hardy Boyz feud wasn’t the only great feud Edge and Christian enjoyed. We shall never forget those modern classics Edge and Christian had against the post-Attitude Era version of the Road Warriors–the Dudley Boyz. Also pay appropriate homage to the matches that featured all three legendary tag-teams, as those matches could entertain even the staunchest of wrestling fans over and over again.
By 2001, the act began to break up. Edge was starting to embark on his path of singles superstardom, while Christian was starting to embark on his path of gross misuse and bad booking that caused the WWE to lose one of the greatest assets of potential it had ever had. In those five years, Edge would find singles success, winning the Intercontinental Title numerous times, the U.S. Title, the King of the Ring, and the ever famous first money-in-the-bank match, as well as a very devout fan base that love him when he is the face, and love to hate him when he is the heel. One of the greatest barometers of a wrestler’s success is how much fans miss him when is he out injured. In 1975, when Ric Flair was laid up with a broken back from the plane crash, the fans who hated him could not wait to see him return. When Steve Austin was out with his broken neck, the entire wrestling world was on hold waiting for the Texas Rattlesnake. When Edge was out in 2003 with his neck injury, his fans eagerly counted down the days until his return.
So where is this ramble about Edge going? Have I come to praise Caesar, or to bury him? Momentarily, I will offer one of the greatest praises any modern wrestler can receive, to one of the most hated wrestlers in the game. As I sat reflecting on Edge’s career, the resemblance was too uncanny to ignore. Edge is the 2006 version of one of the greatest wrestlers of the kayfabe era–Tully Blanchard.
Back in early 1983, the USA cable network carried, for only a few months, telecasts of Joe Blanchard’s Southwest Championship Wrestling from Texas. There are a lot of things to remember about the days of Southwest Championship Wrestling. I remember seeing the Sheepherders for the first time. I remember young Eric Embry and old Bob Sweetan, the perennial face of the territory. I remember the Masked Grapplers. I even remember Adrian Adonis winning the first ‘Undisputed World Heavyweight Championship’ over Bob Orton, Jr. I remember the hideous looking tag team belts–cowhide belts shaped like a big square with round dishes in the middle. I remember the young stud tag-team that held those belts–’Georgeous’ Gino Hernandez and young Tully Blanchard.
That’s right. Tully Blanchard existed before the Four Horsemen. He and Gino were arrogant, cocky, good-looking, cheating heels that were the absolute best thing going in the territory. Had these two stayed together, their names would have been as synonymous with eighties tag-team wrestling as the Warriors, the Briscos, and Steamboat and Youngblood. Instead, Tully went to the greener pastures of Crockett-land, while Gino enjoyed huge success in Von Erich’s World Class territory, feuding with Chris Adams, the Von Erichs and Ric Flair, before meeting a far too early demise.
The thing about Tully Blanchard was that he was one of the few wrestlers that enjoyed great success as a tag team wrestler and as a singles wrestler. That is one of the rarest feats any wrestler can accomplish. Ric Flair, while he held a couple of ‘World Tag-Team Titles’ with Mulligan and Valentine, will always be known as the greatest singles wrestler of all time. The Road Warriors, while they each had shots at Flair’s World Title, never had success as anything other than tag wrestlers.
Tully Blanchard was one of the greatest tag wrestlers of all time with Gino and later with Arn Anderson, his ‘Brainbuster’ buddy. You mention Tully’s name, the tag team with Arn is the first thing you think of. We tend to forget he also had some classic singles feuds with Ric Flair, pre-Horsemen, Wahoo McDaniel, Dusty Rhodes and Magnum T.A. If the most gruesome match in the history of Crockett wrestling was the dog collar match between Piper and Valentine, number two was Blanchard and Magnum’s Starrcade 1985 ‘I Quit’ match. He held the United States Title, the National Title, and the World T.V. Title when it meant something. Tully could do it all and make the fans eat it up every single night. Much like the current Edge, Tully even had a period of time where he had a female ‘valet’–the oft forgotten Baby Doll.
Edge has the same charisma as Tully Blanchard. You believe his character and you react to his character in every single thing he does. He can wrestle. He can fight. He’s not big. He’s not little. He can sell a tag-team. He can sell himself as a single wrestler. He can carry lesser guys to great feuds. He can turn programs with great wrestlers into classics. Are he and Tully Blanchard separated at birth, give or take twenty years? I believe wrestling history may well prove that to be the case and, for Edge, that will be the ultimate compliment. Until next time, keep reading and keep ramblin’ on.
Greg Stephens
Gstep77507@aol.com
