Heroes of Wrestling
| Heroes of Wrestling | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Information | ||||
| Promotion | Heroes of Wrestling | |||
| Date | October 10, 1999[1] | |||
| Attendance | 2,300 | |||
| Venue | Casino Magic[1] | |||
| City | Bay St. Louis, Mississippi[1] | |||
| Pay-per-view chronology | ||||
| ||||
Heroes of Wrestling was a professional wrestling pay-per-view event that took place on October 10, 1999 from the Casino Magic hotel and casino in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi.
Overview
Playing off the resurgence in popularity of pro wrestling at the time, Bill Stone, president of Fosstone Productions organized what was intended to be a series of pay-per-view (PPV) events consisting of wrestling stars from the 1980s and early 1990s. Stone had three subsequent PPV shows (to be broadcast on a quarterly schedule) already in the planning stages if the first one achieved the break-even point of 40,000 PPV buys.[2] Heroes of Wrestling received only 29,000 PPV buys, so Stone scrapped all future shows. In addition, Stone was furious with the lackluster show itself, and especially the antics of Jake "The Snake" Roberts. The show was heavily criticized and ridiculed by the wrestling press,[3] some going as far as calling it the worst wrestling event ever produced. Heroes of Wrestling was declared a failure by the wrestling mainstream and was recognized as the worst major wrestling PPV of 1999 by the Wrestling Observer newsletter,[4] and throughout the years has called the tag team match between the Bushwackers and Sheik/Volkoff one of the worst wrestling matches ever if not the worst. Observer editor Dave Meltzer gave that match the number of "Absolute Zero" on a scale of one to five stars, while Bryan Alvarez of Figure Four Weekly gave it "minus more stars than there are stars in the universe, and the universe is infinite".
Controversy
The most memorable and controversial moment of the show involved what proved to be the last match of the evening.
Heroes of Wrestling was supposed to feature a double main-event, with Jake Roberts scheduled to face Jim Neidhart in the first match while King Kong Bundy was to take on Yokozuna in the other match. Before his match, Roberts was to cut a promo in which he was supposed to taunt Neidhart. Roberts showed up to deliver the promo in a highly intoxicated state. As the interview progressed Roberts became hostile towards the interviewer Michael St. John and struggled to finish his promo because he was so intoxicated his words were slurred. The interview became infamous not only for its unscripted nature but for Roberts' only fully intelligible sentence, an attempted analogy about playing cards as the event was being held at a casino:
"You don't want to play cards with me because I'll cheat. Okay? I cheat. You wanna play 21? I've got 22. You want to play blackjack? I've got two of those too!"[5]
After the interview, Roberts walked to the ring with the snake he was going to use for that night's match. However, once he got to the ring, he put the snake down and walked back up the ramp for no apparent reason. Roberts then reversed course and came back down the ramp, staggered around the ring to greet the fans, and then grabbed a female fan and had her rub her hands across his chest. Later during the "match," Roberts pulled the snake out of the bag, stuck it in between his legs in a suggestive manner, and began stroking it as if he was masturbating. While he was doing this, the home audience instead saw wide shots of the crowd as the producers did not wish to show Roberts doing what he was doing. Further along, he collapsed in the middle of the ring with the snake draped over his body and tried to kiss it with his tongue.
In an effort to salvage the match with Roberts in no condition to wrestle, the promoters announced on the fly that the match had been changed from a singles bout to a tag-team match, and sent out Bundy and Yokozuna to team with Neidhart and Roberts, respectively. Bundy pinned Roberts by hitting him with a splash after Roberts had staggered and fallen around the ring several times, despite Roberts not being the legal man in the ring.[6] The pay-per-view immediately cut out following the match as Roberts attempted to disrobe in the middle of the ring.
The show also suffered from changes to the advertised show. In addition to the announced main event (Bundy vs. Yokozuna) not occurring, Gordon Solie was advertised as the show's commentator, but did not appear due to declining health. No announcement was made of the change before the show, and Solie was never mentioned at all during the broadcast. Critics panned the performance of Solie's replacement, Randy Rosenbloom.[7] During one match, Rosenbloom called a dropkick a "flying leg kick", and later as a "leg drop".[8]
Results
| No. | Results | Stipulations | Times |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Samoan Swat Team (Samu and The Samoan Savage) (with Paul Adams) defeated Marty Jannetty and Tommy Rogers | Tag Team Grudge match | 10:00 |
| 2 | Greg Valentine (with Sensational Sherri) defeated George Steele | Single Grudge match | 06:37 |
| 3 | Too Cold Scorpio defeated Julio Fantastico | Single Grudge match | 09:37 |
| 4 | The Bushwhackers (Butch Miller and Luke Williams) defeated The Iron Sheik and Nikolai Volkoff (with Nikita Breznikoff) | Tag Team Grudge match | 08:42 |
| 5 | Tully Blanchard defeated Stan Lane | Single Grudge match | 07:04 |
| 6 | Abdullah the Butcher (with Honest John Cheatum) fought One Man Gang to a double count-out. | Single Grudge match | 07:34 |
| 7 | Jimmy Snuka (with Captain Lou Albano) defeated Bob Orton, Jr. | Single Grudge match | 11:46 |
| 8 | Jim Neidhart and King Kong Bundy (with "Mini Bundy") defeated Jake Roberts and Yokozuna | Tag Team Grudge match | 16:34 |
| |||
Other on-air talent
- Randy Rosenbloom (commentator)[9]
- Dutch Mantel (commentator)[9]
- Captain Lou Albano (commissioner)
- Crisper Stanford (in-ring announcer) [9]
- Michael St. John (backstage interviewer)
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Historical Cards". 2007 Wrestling Almanac & Book of Facts (Kappa Publications). p. 160. 2007 Edition.
- ↑ "Reasonable goal for Heroes of Wrestling". Retrieved 2007-05-13.
- ↑ Heroes of Wrestling: Sucked Long Before Jake Used a Snake as a Penis
- ↑ "Heroes PPV a disappointment". Retrieved 2007-05-13.
- ↑ "Jake interview" (REALMEDIA). Retrieved 2007-05-13.
- ↑ OO Column: Online Onslaught by Rick Scaia (Pro Wrestling News, Analysis, and Commentary... WWE, WWF, WCW, ECW, The Rock, Brock Lesnar, Triple H, Rob Van Dam, Hulk Hogan, Undertaker, Trish Stratus, Lita, Stacy Keibler, Divas, RAW, SmackDown, WrestleMania
- ↑ Keith, Scott (2002-07-28). "The SmarK Retro Repost – Heroes Of Wrestling". Retrieved 2007-05-13.
- ↑ "Rosenbloom messes up basic move names" (REALMEDIA). Retrieved 2007-05-13.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 "The Furious Flashbacks - Heroes of Wrestling". Retrieved 2007-05-13.