Andre the Giant Page #6

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great championship card

of professional wrestling.

I knew exactly what

I wanted to do.

And I wanted to compete

with everybody.

And all the regional guys

in the little territories,

some of them even did

television out of a studio

and had a painting of

an audience in the background.

Commentator:

They're tearing up

about $175

worth of clothes

off of him!

Commentator #2:

A match that you probably

never thought

you would see

on television.

A match that could fill

in any arena,

anywhere in the world,

as two champions battle

for supremacy at the...

The audience had never seen

our show before.

And it was vastly better than

anyone else's,

because we put

production value in it.

Commentator:

Superfly on his shoulders!

Right now, he's got 'em.

One, two, three!

The top stars from

all these territories

were calling up

Vince McMahon saying,

"Hey, I want to come work

for you."

Announcer:

The "Macho Man" Randy Savage.

Paul Orndorff!

Tito Santana, making

his initial appearance...

Ring Announcer:

Magnificent Muraco!

There was talk at this time

about cable television

becoming a reality.

What would happen

if suddenly there was

a TV station

that would be seen all over

the country?

How would that

affect wrestling?

Announcer:

Remember when TV was

its own little world?

Now with cable TV,

the world has gotten

a whole lot bigger. Cable TV.

Cable, all of a sudden,

gave you national distribution

of your wrestling product.

That's when those territories

went down the tube.

These networks were looking

for programming.

They bombarded

the USA Network.

They were on all the time.

Hello everyone this is

Vince McMahon in the studios

of the USA Cable Network!

Welcome to the Superstars

of Wrestling.

This is Vince McMahon

at ringside.

Welcome to

All-American Wrestling.

Hello, everyone,

welcome to Tuesday Night Fight.

Shoemaker:

Before, your only outlets

for self-promotion

were the pamphlets advertising

the wrestling matches

or the magazines

that would sometimes

be national.

Now you're on cable TV

once a week.

Your face on every television

in the country.

You can't have any better

self-promotion than that.

Combination

of cable penetration

and syndication

really brought

Vince and the WWE

to the forefront.

And all of a sudden

you had a universe.

Shoemaker:

He gets Bobby Heenan,

Jessie "The Body" Ventura

from the AWA.

He gets the Junkyard Dog

and King Kong Bundy

from Mid-South.

He goes

to the Crockett territory

and gets Ricky

"The Dragon" Steamboat,

Greg "The Hammer" Valentine,

and Rowdy Roddy Piper.

One of the most

integral figures to the WWF

becoming the cultural force

that it was, was Hulk Hogan.

McMahon, I found a man

out in my backyard,

Venice Beach, California.

I seen this man over there

pressing 615 pounds,

620 pounds...

Shoemaker:

You looked at Hulk Hogan,

you see everything

that Vince McMahon wants

a pro wrestler to be.

He's big, he's tan,

he's got the long blonde hair.

He was an action figure come

to life in the wrestling ring,

and he was young

and vital in a way

the wrestlers that

were famous

under Vince Sr.

weren't necessarily.

Man:

The Hulk is supported

by tree-like legs

that can leg press

over 1900 pounds.

Hogan:

My real name is

Terry Gene Bollea,

but when I first got

into the wrestling business

they gave me

the name Sterling Golden.

Announcer:

And it is Sterling Golden

catching him

with the golden squeeze.

Hogan:

I went to Memphis

with Jerry Lawler,

wrestled as

Terry "The Hulk" Boulder,

and then Vince McMahon Sr.

grabbed me and gave me

the name Hulk Hogan.

And when I asked him why Hogan,

he said,

"Well, we have all these

ethnic type wrestlers.

Chief J. Strongbow

for the Native Americans,

Bruno Sammartino

for the Italian-Americans,

Ivan Putski

for the Polish-Americans,

and you're Hulk Hogan

for the Irish-Americans."

It was the character,

the look, I grew up

watching this stuff.

And so I would take a little bit

from Dusty Rhodes, a little bit

from Superstar Billy Graham...

I'm gonna bury the man.

I'm gonna put my fist--

You know what

a fist sandwich is?

I heard about it.

Salt, pepper, tomatoes,

lettuce, ketchup...

Billy Graham one time said,

"I can pull the bumper off

a Cadillac, Jack."

But to me it turned into,

( huskily) "I can pull the

bumper off a Cadillac, Jack!"

And when I said it

I wanted it to be something

you never forget.

With all the fans,

in every arena,

I feel like a thousand

Hercules in one.

The 24" Pythons

are undefeatable.

Hogan was picked

to be in "Rocky III."

Sylvester Stallone

wanted to do a boxer

versus wrestler scene.

Movie Announcer:

Tonight we have a most unlikely

match for you.

The boxer against the wrestler.

I'm comin' after you, Balboa.

Let's call it off.

Aw, come on,

it's for charity.

Back in the day

when wrestling was

still regional and territorial,

it was just

a one-dimensional audience.

When they saw me standing

in the ring with Stallone,

the tan, the full head of hair,

35 years ago,

I think it made wrestling more

than one-dimensional.

They went, "Oh, my God, that's

what a wrestler looks like?"

Aaaah!

Hogan:

It's all fake, meatball!

All fake!

Thunderlips has gone

absolutely berserk!

Ow! Ahh!

Run for your life!

I think it changed the dynamics

of what wrestling was

to the mainstream audience.

Somebody hand me a hatchet!

No one can believe

the superhuman strength

of Thunderlips!

- Adrian!

- Rocky!

- Aaaah!

- Rocky:
Catch me!

Announcer:

That's incredible!

Balboa was just heaved

clear into the fifth row!

Hogan:

And the movie hit,

that Hulkmania thing

took off like crazy.

Then I think Vince McMahon

saw it, that's why he talked

to me about coming back

to do this global takeover

that we did.

Announcer:

Hulk Hogan once again

with the Sheik.

And a big knee right

to the throat area.

He's got him!

We have a new champion!

As Hulk Hogan....

Hogan wins the title

from the Iron Sheik

in Madison Square Garden,

and they have

the big celebration

and Andr's there essentially

endorsing him.

Andr the Giant

congratulating

the new heavyweight

champion of the world.

That's nice of you.

I'm really proud of you!

Pouring the champagne

on him and everything

like that

to make sure

that everyone knew that

Hogan is the golden boy now.

Lawler:

The next thing you see

are Hulk Hogan action figures,

Hulk Hogan in music videos,

Hulk Hogan everything!

He was a marketable commodity.

Hogan:

I was getting

a lot of momentum.

You know, we had mainstream

coverage with MTV

and they were the new kid

on the block

as far as TV content,

they were red hot.

It was just a perfect storm.

It all just came together

at the right time.

When it broke loose

it really exploded.

I know I was there

for "WrestleMania I,"

and that was absolutely

the biggest thing

I'd ever been involved in

in professional wrestling.

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