#259 – Rocky Johnson v Don Muraco, March 6, 1983
We are joined by our resident expert of all things early-80s WWF, Jon Boucher, to discuss Rocky Johnson’s career and a match for the IC title between Rocky and champion, Don Muraco. Please support the OSWP by visiting patreon.com/oswp. Thanks for listen and we’ll see you…at the matches!
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This was a couple years before I got into WWF so it was interesting to learn about this era. I’ve only ever known Captain Lou to be a “good guy” manager and his old stuff always messes with my brain. The “Don Muraco as drug dealer enforcer” bit was great. Kinda surprised Vince didn’t use that as a gimmick ~5 years after Miami Vice went off the air. Well, I guess he had Razor Ramon then so close enough.
This show got off to a hot start. Black Cat was playing the theme song to the sopranos. This was such a creative start to the show. I was ready to give this episode 5* right out of the gate. But in reviewing this podcast I have learned there things can go downhill quick. So the OSWP boys get talking about mafia movies and shows. Dre believe it or not keeps the five star train rolling by saying Goodfellas is his favorite movie. I keep asking myself if I am listening to the first five star OSWP. But then just like that Dre completely turned this podcast into a nightmare by saying he does not like The Godfather movies. This completely ruined all momentum for this podcast.
As the show progresses we get insight from Connecticut native John Boucher. John is an old school wwf historian. He has way more credibility that last week’s guest. As we get into the show we hear about Rocky Johnson’s background. This is a very timely episode as Rocky has just passed. The boys did a great job covering him and eventually got off on a rant about paper boys. Black Cat noted he was carrier of the year around 1994. I spoke to several people in the area and many noted that Black Cat “was one of the greatest paper boys in the history of the profession.” To the surprise of nobody Dre had plenty to complain about.
We get to another game of 20 questions. I heard from someone close to the situation that “yeah baby they just go and make up the rules as they go along daddy.” This was quite the item that Boucher had brought for the show. You must listen to find out what it was.
The show closes with the Sopranos theme. I thoroughly enjoyed the start and finish to this show. There were good enough parts in the middle for me to give 4* for this episode. We did have the major flop from Dre but still the boys did enough for me to justify this rating.
When you guys were talking about great dropkicks, obviously Rocky ranks right up there with Okada, Styles & Brunzell…even though I believe Black Cat was thinking of Brunzell when he mentioned “Brian Blair”.
However, Ricky Morton has the worst dropkick ever. I realize it’s the Rock n Roll Express’ finishing move, however, when Ricky dropkicks he lands flat on has ass! It’s the laziest dropkick in the business.