#96 – Jake Roberts & Ultimate Warrior v Ted DiBiase & Akeem, March 6, 1990
This week we have a fun conversation about a handful of late 80s, early 90s WWF superstars including the four men in the match along with Slick, Virgil, Sean Mooney, Lord Alfred Hayes, and special guest referee the Big Bossman. Join us for this trip down the toy aisle as we reminisce about some of these classic WWF characters. In the second half of the show new listeners or old-time lurkers can find out how they can win a free copy of the Atomic Elbow zine. 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This episode has been archived.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.
Haven’t even listened to this yet, but thank you for putting AKEEM on a podcast. When I was a kid I loved Akeem. I’m sure he was no good and just, as Dre would call him, “a fatty”, but he was the man. Dancing and jiving and just not giving a darn. I’m sure he most likely took the pin in this match, unless it was a DQ. Can’t wait to listen and find out!!!
http://wrestling-is-fake.tumblr.com/post/33533097943/an-all-time-great-angle-the-big-boss-man-turns
Great Episode as Always Guys,
Dre with the John Facenda impression!, much better than his Bruno!
the WWF Music factory definetly belted out some classics,
Live soul Bro, Grab them Cakes & Land of 1,000 dances were on par with the Motown classics.
Money Money Money Money Moneeeeey!(is that the actual title?) was one of the better ones for sure, but was more on par with the british invasion.
who wrote all these songs?
Dre with the John Facenda impression!, much better than his Bruno!
would have prefered “The Autum Wind is a Raider” but the “frozen tundra of green bay” wasnt bad at all.
The Akeem Vingnette was one of the best things the WWF did in the late 80s.
Hey podcast dudes , just finished listening to the show and got some words
1. Match took place threw days before I was born so thsts kinda cool to me
2. The record store story reminded me of a simular story that happend to me . Bout a year ago me and my bro whent to a sports card show . Dude had old sports lilastrateds so I asked if he had the hulk hogan one , he was like no but I did get like 7 old school wrestling mags from that dude
3. Glad y’all brought up the introduction of Akeem as that clip be awsome . Hell slick is awsome
4. Cool random match to pick , nothing like hidden random gems on the YouTube
5. I’d love to see y’all take that dude who gave u the thunder challenge up
That’s for produceing this podcast as it got me going for my day and never fails to entertain me
Did you mean to mute out Scar’s name when you were discussing who else in Jook’s town would’ve been seeking out wrestling related vinal records? I thought I heard a hiccup in the audio right after Dre said his name.
JBLCENAFAN’s post proves my memory isn’t so photographic, but since I had already written the following out, I’m going to post it. I remember an interview segment on WWF TV that may have had something to do with Big Bossman’s turn to the good side during this time. Jake the Snake had taken Ted Dibiase’s Million Dollar belt and Dibiase hired Bossman to get it back. However, either Bossman got the belt and put it in Damien’s sack and dared Dibiase to get it himself, or Jake put the belt in the sack and Dibiase tried to make Bossman get it and Bossman told him to get it himself. At Wrestlemania VI, I believe Jake took on Dibiase and Bossman took on Akeem, so this tag match certainly had Wrestlemania implications as they like to say today.
Although the Black Cat does like to censor me in post production, this time it was just a Skype connection glitch. We had all intentions to name Steven Hall as the only other person in town who would buy the Jessie Ventura picture disc.
Good to see some of the other feedback has been added, especially the Boss Man face turn background. I should note the “Twin Towers Explode” match at WrestleMania VI was a GIANT letdown from anyone expecting a really good hoss fight.
Two things I wanted to note — Black Cat mentioned the story of Ultimate Warrior during a UK tour drinking a bunch of coffee before a match. The story comes from a YouTube self-interview Warrior did after Randy Savage died two years ago, and the incident as he tells it happened before their WWF Title match at SummerSlam 1992. Black Cat is right in that both guys essentially split a restaurant-size coffee urn before that match, so I’m sure they were more hyped than usual.
The second, related note: You can totally tell Dre is a dad since he described Warrior as making the “choo-choo” sign when he is standing on the apron. It’s essentially the same thing he would do with two arms to “summon the power of the Warriors” or whatever, but he could only do it one handed since he was holding the tag rope with the other.
Also, it’s probably clear from the audio on the VHS (in my basement) if not the YouTbe version that Mooney and Hayes were not in the arena but recorded the audio for this match in the studio after the fact. That was one of the many things that bugged me about the old non-PPV Coliseum Video releases.
And finally, if you’re ever hard up for a show topic, you should review one of these old Coliseum Tapes in their entirety. It’s always an eclectic mix of matches, but the extra segments they have in the middle (like bowling with the Bushwhackers, Brutus Beefcake’s grooming tips or the trick-or-treating at Roddy Piper’s house with young Stephanie McMahon) are as campy as all get out.
One more thing! When you were doing the match intro, I was thinking it odd they didn’t bring out Boss Man as a surprise after everyone was in the ring, thinking how great the heel reactions would have been, especially DiBiase. But then I realized how stupid it would be to play any music after the Warrior’s entrance. That is all.
I would love if you guys would review one of the old WWF World Tour VHS tapes they put out (I have two, I could email you Black Cat about them, if you will) and I also have the WWF SUPER TAPE 2 where the last match on the tape was, the one Dre talked about, the MACHO KING and ZEUS versus HULK HOGAN and BROTHER BRUTI! Yes, I have that match, and I bought that tape off of Amazon.com because of that match.
So, you guys mentioned a ranking of top WWF superstars of this time frame. Well, looking at the WrestleMania VI match listing, here’s a quick listen I came up with and would like your (as the fans and Dre and the Black Cat’s) opinion on the ranking, who should be on here and who shouldn’t:
[1] Hulk Hogan — WWF Champion
[2] Ultimate Warrior — Intercontinental Champion
[3] Jake “the Snake” Roberts
[4] Roddy Piper
[5] Million Dollar Man Ted DiBiase
[6] Akeem
[7] Big Bossman
[8] Rick Rude
[9] Jimmy Snuka
[10] Mr. Perfect
[11] Brutus “the Barber” Beefcake
[12] Bad News Brown
I’m sure I’ll have some controversy with this list, but that’ll be good discussion, right? It’s just a quick list and didn’t have much time to look more in detail on every guy on the Mania VI card on who should be ranked where. Obvioulsy, the champs are the dudes who walked into Mania with the belts, not out, since I’m not a huge fan of the World and mid-card titles being unified (the Warrior was a bad choice of the man to unify them and I WISH HOGAN WOULD OF TURNED HEEL ON THE WARRIOR AFTER THE MATCH TO SET UP FOR MANIA 7!!!!!!!).
Hey guys,
Love the show. I got a little busy over the last month, so I doubled up on the ECW and Jake the Snake podcasts. While doing some home landscape work, I listened to both. First, I really enjoyed both shows. Second, whenever I look at my wife’s lilies, I will think of your podcast. Not sure what this says about me.
The ECW show brought back some great memories. I grew up close to Cleveland, Ohio – but somehow picked up the ECW show on my Grandma’s TV (the one that still had the antenna). On a related note, when I was younger I would always volunteer to stay the night at Grandma’s. The reason was simple: she had cable and I loved NWA/WCW. She thought I was such a great grandson.
Anyway, about ECW – my first memory was watching a Tommy Dreamer match where Raven sat at the top of the bleachers just watching. Sometime later, Sandman did his Sandman thing and in between was a host of filler – but still, at the time this was the most bizarre yet intriguing thing on TV. Yes, most of the matches were either extraordinary or completely forgettable. There were definitely some iconic moments (the Foley promo, Dreamer getting caned, anything Francine did in the ring) but also some real crap. However, what ECW did (or at least tried to do) was probably the last original thing that ever happened in wrestling.
Flashing back to the Jake/DiBiase/Warrior/Akeem match, I completely forgot just how racist that gimmick was. Of course, being a middle class white kid in the 1980’s is pretty different socially and culturally than being a full grown adult now. It’s astounding to view this match from a 2013 racial context (Akeem, Slick, Virgil). Today, WWE corporate would have to issue a thousand apology tweets. Of course – either now or over twenty years ago, wrestling isn’t exactly the measuring stick of racial equality.
Loved the description of Mean Gene “in the ghetto.” Leave it to Vince McMahon to hammer home that visual of a guy in a tux standing in a bad part of town with African dancers. Of course I never realized it as a kid, but Mean Gene was basically doing an old Vegas schtick back then – like a hack comic or something. But then again, on the Legends of Wrestling Roundtable, it’s like he hasn’t changed.
Again – great show. I always look forward to more. Keep up the hard work.
Thanks,
Tits
PS – I’m going to be pretty upset if someone already thought of this name. That would be the direct opposite of Tits…McGee.
I’m still trying to understand Akeem’s dance move and why it hasn’t re-emerged as an internet meme. Let’s make this happen.
BTW – peep the sync on the Snoop song and Akeem’s moves in this video – amazing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhctIj6iCDU
Chaps, I’ve been playing catch up for months now but finally caught up.
Still enjoying the show but have to question something you said on this show: was Dibiase really a C-level guy in your view? He main evented PPVs and was consistently in the World Title picture.
Number 1 or 2 heel from 88-91.
No, Million Dollar Man is a top guy. The c-level thing was a misstatement. We love Ted.