I finally found a copy of Ric Flair's book the other day at the used bookstore and picked it up, it was a pretty good read, one thing that I was wondering about was when he talked about the time WCW had him in an "asylum", he says that Scott Hall was shown in the skits, I vaguely recall that but I don't ever remember there being a reason for it.

 

Was there one or was it just WCW being WCW?

Just WCW being WCW. Nash thought it would be funny if he showed up without explanation.

Was it true that the toxic shock that spelled the beginning of the end for Mike Von Erich came from a shoulder that became infected from the mats when World Class did their tour of Israel, or was that another cover for a drug story?

He really had toxic shock. Coming back too soon from drug rehab wouldn't have caused as many physical problems as his return did.

I know he had toxic shock, but did it really come from an infection from dirty ring mats, or was it from possibly dirty drug paraphenalia?

 

I'm just wondering since *everything* seemed to be a cover for a drug story when it comes to the Von Erichs.

From Irv's article:

 

At Tel Aviv Stadium, a bad bump in a rock-hard ring caused Mike?s bum shoulder to pop out again. Following an operation on the shoulder as soon as he returned to Texas, he somehow contracted one of the rare male cases of toxic shock syndrome, a form of blood poisoning most commonly associated with tampon use. Transferred to Baylor University Medical Center with a 105-degree fever, his kidneys next to useless, Mike clung to life as calls from concerned fans flooded the hospital switchboard. (The Von Erichs, with characteristic modesty, say the outpouring exceeded that which accompanied President Kennedy?s trip to the Parkland Hospital emergency room in 1963.) The Von Erichs held a press conference for their fans to thank them for their prayers. ?Folks, let me tell you, a miracle took place, just that we have Mike today,? Kevin said.

http://www.hack-man.com/Wrestling/NewsArti...9-VonErich.html

Vince loves Andre and probably wanted to find a way to increase his posthumous legend even more than he already has.

It's too bad he didn't think that way when he was jobbing Andre out to the Warrior. I still hate Warrior and Vince for that.

That was probably more to get the Warrior over than anything else. Even though Andre could barely move at that point, he was still built up as a powerful force. For the Warrior to take him down in short order was probably viewed as a good way to further solidify Warrior's rising star.

 

Speaking of Andre, I recently got a stack of old PWIs and had to laugh at a column that lambasted Andre over his inflating weight (this was circa 1985 or '86).

They thought Warrior was the successor to Hogan. Understandable why they made the choice they did at the time. The whole reason Andre and Haku won the tag titles from Demolition before WM VI was that Andre was about to retire, and Vince felt he should get a belt before finishing up.

Someone over at DVDVR made a throwaway comment about the Akeem The African Dream gimmick being a rib on Dusty. Is that true?

 

I remember being stunned even as a kid at the blatant racism of making a white guy a jive talking African, but looking back damned if he isn't doing a dead-on Dusty impression.

 

Considering the whole "Virgil" thing, why did Dusty do a run with the WWF?

 

That reminds me of another question, I happened to notice while watching the "DiBiase buys Sapphire" angle that Dusty suddenly dropped the polka dots and came to the ring with his old NWA tights with the "DR" script. Did they drop the polka dot gimmick when she left?

Someone over at DVDVR made a throwaway comment about the Akeem The African Dream gimmick being a rib on Dusty. Is that true?

 

I remember being stunned even as a kid at the blatant racism of making a white guy a jive talking African, but looking back damned if he isn't doing a dead-on Dusty impression.

 

Considering the whole "Virgil" thing, why did Dusty do a run with the WWF?

 

That reminds me of another question, I happened to notice while watching the "DiBiase buys Sapphire" angle that Dusty suddenly dropped the polka dots and came to the ring with his old NWA tights with the "DR" script. Did they drop the polka dot gimmick when she left?

Not sure about the last part, but yes, Akeem was intended to be a parody of Dusty Rhodes.

Brought back from the dead!

 

I was wondering, I recall back in my PWI reading days that one of their heel columnists (Eddie Ellner maybe?) made a comment stating that he was sure Lazer-Tron was really a "hooded Hector Guerrero".

 

Finding out years later that he was in fact Lazer-Tron made me wonder why would PWI spill the beans on someone who was in the NWA when they were way more accomidating to the Apter mags than the WWF was. Hell, I think Tron was the NWA World Jr. champ at the time. It wasn't part of any angle, it just seemed like a huge breech of kayfabe from the one place that defended it to the death.

Maybe they did it for balance. After all, they did expose Giant Machine in Japan.