SteenBTW Posted January 2, 2014 Share Posted January 2, 2014 http://asklogo.com/images/W/wwf%20184%20logo.jpg Pop & Wrestling Era (1985-1987) 1985. Vince McMahon has done, almost done: the WWF is ready to land in ppv. Only 3 years ago McMahon bought the WWF from his father, Vince Sr., with the aim to become competitive on a national scale. Then existed unwritten rules of "wrestling territories", which prohibited a company to emerge from their state of origin to avoid competition with each other and providing for an intense exchange of athletes. Constraints are too tight for the ambitious McMahon, who, strong high monetary liquidity, began to pillage the rosters of the other promoter and to offer money to the various regional television, forbidding them to broadcast local companies in favor of the WWF. The WWF needed to stand out, to become unique for a local audience that had passed, or attempted to do so, at national level. Was the right choice to cram the product with as many celebrities as possible, the so-called binomial Rock & Wrestling, which, however, was only sketched and then abandoned to make room for substantial Gimmick or was Hulkamania Era. That was a pretty serious error, as the WWF would have to press hard on the similarity with the VIPs of the "real world", making the period of the PPV debut of Pop & Wrestling Era, where "Pop" does not mean of course the musical style but the adjective "popular". In short, everything that was famous and who was a tendency in the media field at the national level here is what he had to join the WWF. It 'a "sottoera" of the Gimmick It was, no doubt, and is modeled on many aspects. But it is a prerequisite for a process of nationalization of the product. Singers, actors, athletes: the WWF had to be (and was) filled with similar characters, known to all and able to intrigue the audience. So you get the interest of some skeptics, those who the "real wrestling" they have it in the house, and the casual fan, the true catchment area from which to draw in the eighties as the pro wrestling was not (yet ) synonymous with scandal and bullshit circus. I want to clarify: the appearance in the ring, although in 1985 with a roster that has few all-time workers, it fades into the background. But, conscious of the superiority of the other companies, you have to attract fans with another. They come for the celebrities, are to have fun. And for wrestling, hopefully. An era that needs to take advantage of all the trends of popular culture: a country where they sing patriotic "Born In The USA" by Bruce Springsteen, where cable television and MTV have reinvented the way people entertain, where Michael Jackson revolutionized music with "Thriller", where Madonna is having a great success, where the sex symbols are the physical sculpted to Arnold Schwarzenegger, where Mike Tyson was so hard to put all knockouts. This is my audience, an audience that is attracted to this type of characters, and this is the phase where you should match the stars to the WWF in order to make the seconds of the characters larger than life in the eyes of the fans, what that will happen later with the Gimmick was when stereotypes come in their full glory. ROSTER Captain Lou Albano Andre the Giant British Bulldogs Brutus Beefcake Dynamite Kid “Classy” Freddie Blassie Matt Borne King Kong Bundy Executioner Fabulous Moolah Bret Hart Jimmy Hart Bobby “The Brain” Heenan Hulk Hogan The Iron Sheik Junkyard Dog Leilani Kai Lord Alfred Hayes S.D. Jones Gorilla Monsoon Jim Neidhart ”Mr. Wonderful” Paul Orndorff "Cowboy” Bob Orton "Rowdy” Roddy Piper Wendi Richter Mike Rotundo David Sammartino Bruno Sammartino Tito Santana Ricky Steamboat Big John Studd Greg "The Hammer" Valentine "Luscious" Johnny Valient Jessy "The Body" Ventura Nikolai Volkoff Barry Windham Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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