#89 – Road Warriors v Powers of Pain Benchpress Contest, January 30, 1988
This week on the podcast we review a classic non-wrestling moment, the night the Road Warriors battled the Powers of Pain for $50,000 in a benchpress contest to determine who was the strongest mohawk, face-paint wearing, muscle-bound freaks of nature. We also catch up with the Roughneck Jay Ryan aka Zero to hear his great story about how he got us the Goldust opener for the show and the American Dream stops by the studio to do a live in-studio performance of some of his most recent work. Please support the podcast by visiting flairchop.com where you can buy our tremendous “mail-order wrestling gimmicks” t-shirt, posters, and the box set of our first 50 episodes. You can also get a free OSWP sticker by leaving a comment on the iTunes store.
This episode has been archived. It is available either by ordering the physical “OSWP Season 3 box set” with episodes 76-100 or it can be instantly downloaded in a digital version of the “OSWP Season 3 complete set” with episodes of 76-100. The physical box set will always be our favorite, as it comes with a full color booklet featuring art by our friend Dean Stahl and looks great on your bookshelf next to your coliseum home videos. The instant digital download version also comes with high resolution PDFs of the booklet that you can view on your computer. Both the physical box set and the digital download come with two bonus episodes featuring our reviews of the Clash of the Champions 9 and the Royal Rumble 1988. These episodes have never been available on flairchop.com. But if you only want to hear this one episode, we also offer the option of instantly downloading just the individual episode for a small price.
Jackie Crockett’s Library Card showed me this angle and what got me was how into it the crowd was, even before anyone did anything. This commentary on it and Dre’s were very similar so it didn’t come as a surprise to hear Dre was mainly regurgitating what JCLC had told him.
I had no idea the Road Warriors owned the Zubas company. That explains so much.
Just great hearing Jay Ryan on the Old School Wrestling Podcast. The Goldust opener is awesome and to me is a close second to Booker T.’s.
I haven’t heard my “DVD” commercial in forever. Thanks for including!
In reference to Dre breaking his jaw whilst weightlifting, have you considered taking a Lloyd’s of London policy out on your jaw? Black Cat would then be forced to podcast solo or, even worse, try to find a replacement tag team partner, ala Power Warrior.
Black Cat nailed it; what a FUN episode! Great job, as always.
This great wrestling “event” personifies what was great about old school wrestling. You could entertain the fans with stuff like this, whereas now we get Miz TV. Granted the episode where Miz got tooled and destroyed was great, but were any of the others?
I was never aware of this weight lifting display. But I am very aware of Dino Bravo’s weight lifting display at the Royal Rumble. And while Bravo’s segment went a bit (or a lot) too long, it was great entertainment. And I can only imagine that #1 Paul Jones made this segment great.
And Dre, I can, with all confidence in the world, assure you that my mother in no way had anything to do with ECW almost getting pulled from Pay Per View. I doubt if she even knew how to order Pay Per View. Or that they were on Pay Per View. She probably thought they were a bunch of degenerates that went around to random rec centers cutting each other open with no regard for human decency. Ok, so that’s basically what it was. But she had no idea about Pay Per View!
Please tell the Moonchild hello for me next time you see him. If you weeeel.
Hey guys loved the podcast as usually. I do think this happend at the Greensboro Colisume. I think the Road Warriors were by far the more intimidating team just for the shoulder pads alone. By the way has the warlord ever raised his arms over his head?
Great Show
I definitely agree that the Road Warriors are far more intimidating then the Powers of Pain. I don’t remember ever hearing either Warlord or Barbarian cut a promo. The Road Warriors however cut their own promos and had the man power to back their words up. I’ve always enjoyed the Road Warriors’ promos especially Hawk’s promos. My favorite promo was the one they did at Royal Rumble 1992.
I would pay one of you guys if you would call me at 4 AM to talk about Zubaz pants. Maybe even just a text?
This past Christmas, my brother and I exchanged the holy grails of wrestling bibles. I gave him a copy of the Bret Hart book while he gave me a copy of “The Road Warriors: Danger, Death, and the Rush of Wrestling.” Needless to say, we will be continuing this Christmas wrestling tradition of exchanging wrestling pearls in the near future.
As soon as I heard this podcast, I grabbed my Road Warriors book and looked up this event. Fact check report.
1. Road Warrior Animal broke his orbital bone on January 28 and not during the bench press competition. In said six man tag with Paul. Warlord attempted a Samoan Slam but land on Animal’s head. Quote from the book, “Aw, shit man. I think my eyeball’s hanging out of my head.” The bench press competition was used as a reason for Animal’s legit injury. Makes his first lift very impressive.
2. The bench press competition was for $10,000 asked suggested to Dusty by Animal.
3. The first lift was 475 pounds and not 470 pounds.
Animals also mentions the officials running over to stop the rolling bar of doom from “flattening the ringside fans.”
Great podcast guys. Keep up the great work.
-JakeDDT87
Zubaz company, at it’s height, brought in over $100 MILLION dollars in a YEAR. Yet…somehow…they went bankrupt a mere 4 years after that. Bankrupt! After selling $100 million dollars of sweatpants that maaaaybe cost 50,000 to make! Oooooooooof.
I wore Zubaz to school many times in middle school and our basketball team had ‘warm up’ pants that were all coordinated school colors Zubaz. I am always sure to give that disclaimer before I make fun of any fad that my kids want to get into.
AWESOME idea for an episode. I love when you guys cover these fun types of things. The Yokozuna slam was great as well. I’m hoping you find a few others to make sure to keep the lighter side of things fresh in our minds. Perhaps Fuji Vice? Or the time Sid and Vader tried to bomb Daveyboy at the Beach? Andre/Big Stud bodyslam challenge?