#51 – In Defense of Demolition, Demolition v Brain Busters, July 29, 1989
We dedicate the first half of this episode to a wonderful piece of feedback we received from Dr. Dead Reckoning responding to our remarks regarding Demolition during the WrestleMania IV episode in which he defends the merits of the leather-bound gentlemen, followed by our review of the tremendous Demolition/Brain Busters match from Saturday Night’s Main Event on July 29, 1989.
I will agree with Dr. Dead Reckoning that Demolition were one of my favorite tag teams growing up, however they are not one of my all time favorites. I would put the Bulldogs, Hart Foundation and the Steiner Brothers above them. I think one of the reasons why Dead Reckoning was not a fan of the NWA product was that it did not look as good as WWE’s product television production level wise.
I do believe that since the Road Warriors were put in the WWE Hall of Fame this year that Demolition also belongs in the hall of fame too.
Demolition first won the tag team titles at Wrestlemania IV on March 27, 1988 and then lost them to the Brain Busters on the episode you just reviewed for a reign of 478 days which is the longest tag team reign in WWE history. Demoliton did get the belts back in the Superstars episode you mentioned and lost them to the Colossal Connection AKA Andre the Giant and Haku before getting them back at Wrestlemania VI. Crush joined them in June due to AX’s medical issues and they held the belts until Summerslam 1990 where the lost the belts to the Hart Foundation in a 2/3 falls match.
Eadie is pronounced as Edie as in Edie Falco. Bill Eadie actually had an allergic reaction to shellfish while in Japan which caused his heart problem and the plan was for him to have a backstage position which fell through. His last appearance in WWE was at Survivor Series 1990. Of course WWE explained his absence by having WWE president Jack Tunney say that there could only be two members of Demolition.
Bill Eadie and Barry Darsow were both NWA Tag Team champions at one time, not together of course.
The Demolition double turned happened at Survivor Series 1988 when Mr. Fuji left them to manage the Powers of Pain. Demolition did wrestle in Japan, for example there is a match of them from right after they won the belts at Wrestlemania VI against Andre the Giant and Giant Baba. Smash and Crush also wrestled in Japan for the SWS in 1991 before breaking up.
I’m sure the good Dr. will be happy that his favorite tag team will be in the next WWE video game, WWE 12 which comes out on November 22nd with a release in the UK on the 25th.
The turn happened at WM 5.
You are correct. The turn was at Survivor Series. This crow tastes awesome.
– I think that part of my problem with Demolition is the number of other tag teams in the WWF at the time that I enjoyed that much more…Bulldogs, Hart Foundation, Killer Bees, and even Strike Force.
– The production quality of NWA never bothered me. It’s hard to believe I was a “work rate mark” at the age of 10, but I think I really was.
– I’m trying to decide if I’m going to spend the money on WWE 12. Any idea if the game play is any better?
Also thanks for the picture of Demolition with Lord Alfred Hayes (who said FU to Vince and quit when Vince tried to to decrease his pay along with other important behind the scenes people who worked for Vince in the early 90’s) along with the promo at the end of the show with a heel Lord Alfred with Billy Robinson. I’ve enjoyed whatever heel Alfred Hayes I can find on Youtube.
Oh and I laughed at the Warrior’s PSA, not the message but the person delivering the message. That did remind me of Flair’s promo at the end of the 1992 Royal Rumble.
I will forever be entertained by Warrior promos. They never get old.
I literally had no idea that Hayes ever managed Billy Robinson, or indeed that Robinson had a run in the WWWF. If you haven’t seen it, Robinson vs. Nick Bockwinkel from 1980 in All Japan is an all-time classic. Probably wouldn’t make for an entertaining podcast, but definitely worth seeing as a wrestling fan.
I’m 100% with Dre on this. Demolition fucking sucked. Only ever did lame double axe handles and forearms. And like you said, they looked like fat jobbers.
Oh and by the way, I have a suggestion for a little mini-cast: the series of skits that Ted DiBiase did in late 1987, early 1988 to introduce the Million Dollar Man character and then the similar series of skits that introduced Mr. Perfect later in 1988-9. Those are GOLD and I think all of them are on youtube:
DiBiase at the pool: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_7PB3XEW4U
DiBiase at the Restaurant: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPDzMDjfU-Y
DiBiase Basketball skit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwoQ2b3k8Uo
RVD kisses DiBiase’s foot: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXCy4NyadQ8
“Buying” Hercules: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJn81pWi7Fs
Creation of the Million Dollar Belt: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMDRdnMDSto
Shopping with DiBiase: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhYJGmUFRYs
Mr. Perfect …
Football: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iK7vRYeY3U
Basketball: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DZSL-ThllQ
Baseball: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFoEH4DsJU0
Golf: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_oe1YoGsVY
Table Tennis: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAuaR-5XWWo
Horseshoes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgemKnN80c8
Hockey: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-W9JG8-dW8
Chess: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfzspEQj6UE
Bowling: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mBjbI6CARo
Just thought it might be something a little bit different and quite a lot of fun too.
Couldn’t agree more. Dibiase had the most sinester bad guy laugh ever recorded. A true villan who was way over considering he didn’t have that superstar build that McMahon loved in the 80s. He was the quintesesntial bad guy that everyone paid to see get ran over by a garbage truck.
We loyal listeners love to give suggestions to Big Dre and The Black Cat, but part of the excitement of wating patiently for a podcast is what do these guys have in store for us. You do cover quite a bit of the Crockett/WWF from the 80s, mixed in with WCW, but if I may be bold and have a request, there were many different areas in the mid 80s I would read about in PWI, that I would have loved to have seen, such as Colon/Butcher blood baths from WWC, or the old Mid South fueds with Austin Idol and Jerry Lawler.
Like I said, its your show, I’m gonna listen regardless.
I think we’ll be our selection in the near future. Memphis, mid-south, Texas, AWA, continental. The stuff we’ve done is what we’re comfortable with. I want to take on some of the other stuff as a research project more than anything else.
Great podcast guys, I had to stop it several times just so I could stop laughing before I moved on. But even though the podcast was great I still hate Demolition. It always seemed to me like Vince threw a hissy fit because the Road Warriors wouldn’t, or couldn’t, work for him so he decided that he would show them by creating the worst rip off of a wrestling gimick EVER! If you saw the WWE dvd Greatest Superstars of the 90’s they had a montage of the worst charecters of the 90’s. They should’ve had a special “we’re sorry” montage on the Greatest Superstars of the 80’s dvd specially dedicated to Demolition. They were aweful and I hope we never see anything like them again.
Thanks Jam, here is one more reason to hate Demolition. The make up they used was just ordinary everyday grease paint you could buy at Haloween. Halfway through the match it would smear all over their opponents tights. The Road Warriors, Sting, and even The Ultimate Warrior used the real war paint that would peal off during an epic battle.
Current score: Demolition zero
I never knew that Demolition’s music’s lyrics referred to them as the Demo’s. I always thought that was an “insider” way to refer to Demolition, kind of like calling the Midnight Express the Midnights or calling the Rock ‘N Roll Express the Rock ‘N Rolls.
The production on the flashback scene was pretty darn cool. I think it’s interesting you replayed one of the few times I’ve ever heard Black Cat curse.
I can confirm I was a fan of Demolition. If necessary, we can discuss this further in another time and place.
I mentioned this before, but I love that Dre keeps mistakingly calling Dead Reckoning the Dead Reverend.
I will confess that the WWF was the first time I ever saw the Brain Busters.
Not good Jesse Ventura impressions 🙂
When I first saw the Dusty Rhodes vignette introducing him to the WWF audience, I’d heard of him but wasn’t familiar with him. I wondered if there was something wrong with him because of those vignettes. There’s another where it ends with him saying “you can’t beat my meat”. 31-year-old Hardcore finds that way more funny than 9-year-old Hardcore did.
Loved the Pat Patterson leading a sensativity seminar scenario! Is Patterson somehow linked to sensativity training or was that just an excuse to get Dre to do the impression?
I’d never heard Lord Alfred Hayes as a heel manager before. Thank you for finding and including that.
Thank you Hardcore, you just helped me win a $50 bet.
And we WILL discuss your love of the Demos…
Dre is referring to the fact that he said you’d totally call him out on catching his Dead Reverend slip-up. I, of course, knew there was no way you’d miss that and told him, quote, “There’s no way I’m taking that bet.”
If there’s a show dedicated to the “defense of Demolition,” wouldn’t it be fair to do a show dedicated to the defense of the Road Warriors?
There is nothing to defend about the Road Warriors, so there will never be a show defending them. 😉
How about having a show dedicated to the “defense of the Freebirds,” simply because there’s no better trio than the Freebirds? 🙂
Chaps, one and all,
It would be somewhat remiss of me if I failed to comment on this of all podcasts. After all, it was based on my clumsily written post about my love of the mighty, nay legendary, Demolition.
Apologies for the the delay in posting but I was on holiday when the podcast went up and I needed a few days to recover before giving it my full atteniton as it deserved.
Please allow me to clear up a few things
It’s true, Dre did get my name wrong repeatedly but seeing as I stole the moniker from the movie Land of the Dead so I can’t really be too picky about it . I only added the Dr because someone had already taken the ID Dead Reckoning (what are the odds?) so I added Dr out of necessity rather than any formal medical qualifications, so Dre, misname me at your will!
I would like to apologise to the fine blokes who post here. I mean no disrespect if you have defended Demolition on the message board, it is merely like the way that the multitude of novels that comprise the Star Wars ‘Universe’, or as per the WWF edict “if it didn’t happen on TV, it didn’t happen”, if Dre and the Black Cat didn’t acknowledge the Demo support on the podcast, they didn’t acknowledge it at all.
Some of you may be shocked at my reaction to the Road Warriors but you have to understand that in the UK in the late 80’s, for all intents and purposes, the NWA did not exist, nor the USWA, AWA, GWF or PDQ (what?). In fact, I was the first of my friends to even be aware of any no WWF organisations and my, how did I lord it over my friends! At least, I sort of did – most of my friends had moved on to girls at the time, tsk, losers! However, at the time, the NWA was alien to me and the Road Warriors looked like pale imitations of the Powers of Pain. I did not know better and Demolition were the champions at the time so as far as I was concerned, this was bush league. I know better now of course but give me credit, I was a child. Well early teen, ok I was a mid teenager on the cusp of adulthood and I should have known better – don’t judge me!!
I am ecstatic that our hosts got the joke. The only reason I included ‘People’ in the categories was that Ineed an extra P for the word CRAPPIE. Did terry Gordy have a lot of personaliy Black Cat? Perhaps I have cunningly managed to miss the many electrifying promo’s he did, but you still cannot deny that Barry D wins that category if only for sheer volume. Apologies for forgetting Krusher Kruschev,
Unlike Dre, I was not a big workrate fan at the time – I preferred the facepaint and gimmicks over a well timed drop toehold but I was something of a neanderthal at the time. I’m fully aware in retrospect the Demo’s were not exactly Tsuruta-esque in their ability but dammit, they were my limited fat guys!!
Pronunciation note, I wrote that Crush was Shite. This is pronounced shyte rather than shit-eee. Its an English way of saying someone is really, really shit. That said though, Crush wore the day glo spandex with aplomb.
I thought the WWF missed a trick by not using Demolition as a franchise-type deal where there would be new members every couple of years. They had already set the precedent of a new member, why not keep rotating guys in, have a sub-team such as Demolition 2, or ‘Destruction’ or ‘Structurally Unsafe’. It would have been an easy way to give guys a refreshed character by putting them in facepaint and leather – I’m looking at you Barry Horowitz and Steve Lombardi (although these two would have been the lowest rung of the team, perhaps called “Hard Hats Must Be Worn in this Area”)
All in all, a fantastic episode and one that I will personally treasure. I would like to promise that this will be my last last overly wordy post but that would be a bare faced lie, and I would never fib to such a fine body of men as the OSWP listenership.
I love the idea that you had to recover after listening to the show. We are exhausting, I know. 😉 There’s a specific reason that Dre messed up your name, but Hardcore Badass is the only one with the insight to that information. I like your Star Wars universe analogy.
And Terry Gordy gave some phenomenal promos in WCCW and UWF. Seriously, he was one unintentionally intimidating dudes I ever saw on TV.
Sorry about the shyte mishap. That prononciation actually did make it over to the States a few years back.
Thanks again for your contribution. We look forward to hopefully more in the future!
I fully agree with Dr. Dead Reckoning. I also grew up in an unnamed Country that is not the USA. Much like many foreigners, the only wrestling we had the opportunity to watch while growing up was the WWF: “The ‘Fed”. Growing up I could find the occasional NWA/WCW VHS tape at a rental store but it was always a bit of a novelty because we didn’t know many of the characters and their backstory. No offense, but it always just looked like a cheap imitation of the real thing. We couldn’t get anything other than WWF on cable and I don’t recall any NWA merchandise at the local department store or Sears Catalog.
It’s probably for this reason that I was a huge mark for Demolition. The comparison to the Road Warriors doesn’t factor in for me because I didn’t grow up watching other promotions. And personally, I don’t think that Demolition was a direct rip-off of the Road Warriors. The Road Warriors were a rip off of the Mad Max movie character, and they were agile, quick, mean and built. Demolition were sloppy old greasers in heavy metal bondage atire and remind me more of something out of a horror movie like Friday the 13th or Texas Chainsaw Massacre than Mad Max. On the OSWP premise that they are a rip-off artist, the Powers or Pain were far more off a rip off of the Road Warriors than Demolition.
Vince obviously fashioned Demo in the style of the Road Warriors but much like all of his creations he put his own spin on the theme. For me, the fact they look like “you’re uncle dressed up in S&M gear” is actually kind of disturbingly awesome. Furthermore, to a 10 year old kid they still looked pretty big and built even if they weren’t as chiseled as the rest of the roster.
Another aspect of Demolition that was very memorable was that they had a great finisher, some great signature moves, and they did great promos. Just the fact alone that they walked to the ring with black hockey masks on was seriously intimidating and cool to a 10 year old kid, and frankly it’s still cool to me now.
Their theme song was sick, don’t even pretend it wasn’t.
There is nothing about the Road Warriors in-ring ability that reminds me of Demolition. When “LOD” finally made it to the Fed their short run was a bit lackluster as it was plagued by injuries and Hawks “demons”. Not to mention they pretty much just plowed through everyone and everything and didn’t get a lot of proper fued action going on. In the history of the Fed’ Demolition definitely had the stronger and more memorable run.
It’s true that while watching old tapes of the Road Warriors (in their prime) that they were pretty unforgettable and definitely the originators of the gimmick, but for my money if you brand Demolition as merely a joke/rip-off, all it says is that you are a huge Road Warrior mark who is in denial.
Here’s a few valid Demo points:
*They sold a ton of merchandise and made a ton of money for Vince.
*They held the championship for a “record amount of time” at one point, possibly still a record, im not sure.
*They were one of the first heel teams to get super over with the fans, eventually forcing them to turn face. .
*They are still out on the circuit today, putting on the makeup, working for peanuts and signing autographs for the fans and grown up marks like me.
I give em 4 out of 5 stars.
I can’t believe I just wrote that. I’m a f#$%ng loser.