As always your pieces both educate and entertain me. I love wrestling and love your take as a fan whose lived in the business. Another stellar piece as always my friend
Glad you enjoyed it! I often start these pieces wondering if I have enough material for a detailed enough story to be written and they end up being quite long when they’re finished. I find I have far more to say about the wrestler I’m writing about than I originally thought I did.
High fives to the Warlord for being a wrestler from the 1980s who remains alive. I dearly wish that could be a joke, but in this case it's a legitimate compliment. This must've been a man really one with himself to avoid falling into all the pro wrestling vices that gripped almost everybody else, and I respect that.
As for his career, I think he's the first human you've written about on here who I can honestly say ought to be satisfied with their career. He was always better in the tag team, and always needed a manager, but neither of these things are insults in this business (both of these things are also true about Bobby Eaton, for example, who is beyond reproach in wrestling). I don't think he ever should've been split out of a team. When they did he got a good little run out of it, but they could've got more out of a tag team featuring him, I think. Considering he's still alive, he maybe (big maybe) could've stayed past 1992 when the WWF was looking to ditch all the 80s stars ASAP for legal reasons.
This is an entirely random booking idea with an even more random name drop, but imagine if the Warlord got a little guy who could talk for him and constantly write cheques that the Warlord had to cash, like Al Snow. It worked well for Al and Kane in SMW. It doesn't have to be exactly Al Snow. In 1992 I'm not sure who else it could've been, but it could've been any slimy little weasel who could've always been there to ensure that the big matches were always tags, in theory because everybody wants this stooge in the ring but in reality because the Warlord is better in tag matches. Thinking currently, somebody like Lio Rush (is he still wrestling?) would've been absolutely perfect to fit with the Warlord. You'd know the 1990s independent guys better than me.
Modern wrestling needs more of these half manager, half tag team partner relationships in my opinion. When you look back in history, they always worked really well. It's a perfect spot to stick great talkers who are also great wrestlers but are not physically big enough to be main eventers on their own (Lio Rush, Adam Cole, Mark Briscoe, either Matt or Nick Jackson if they had no twin, etc.), and people like the Warlord are perfect to attach this type of person to.
What I'm getting at is that the spot the Warlord used to fill doesn't really exist in wrestling anymore, so I'm glad he came along when he did.
The Warlord was at the right place and the right time, so to speak, both to be discovered by Road Warrior Animal and also in an era where he would be streamlined to a national promotion and put on TV from the beginning.
However, at the same time, one could ponder that in some ways if he had come along about a decade or so later perhaps he would have had a more diverse career presentation and longer run in the majors. Perhaps he would have been used with the idea you suggested and excelled in that role and gotten to show a different side of his personality.
Either way, he likely had a lot more wrestling years left in him when he retired initially in 1995 due to the injuries from the car accident, as he was only 33 at the time, and likely would have remained in WCW during the height of the Monday Night Wars that followed not too long after his retirement.
What is it with the 80s man? Even the guy who was able to remain alive had to wind it down at just 33 years old. I stand by my point that he can sleep at night satisfied with his wrestling career, but imagine if he'd made it to his prime (which in wrestling years tends to start around 37). Maybe he'd be remembered differently.
I can't believe they never tried the Warlord as a truly imposing bad guy, aside from the one run with the Road Warriors. Maybe in the 1980s WWF, 6'5" just wasn't quite tall enough for that role. I know he kind of was an imposing bad guy, but he was never presented as a real threat, mostly losing even in the middle. That's why I thought of the tag partner idea. It'd be a good way to make the Warlord intimidating to have a small human standing in front of him.
It's always a shame to lose somebody from the wrestling world before their prime even starts, but it's common in this profession because there's SO much learning that has to be done before a prime can truly start. If only there was a way to streamline the learning process, but you can't know until you know.
As always your pieces both educate and entertain me. I love wrestling and love your take as a fan whose lived in the business. Another stellar piece as always my friend
Glad you enjoyed it! I often start these pieces wondering if I have enough material for a detailed enough story to be written and they end up being quite long when they’re finished. I find I have far more to say about the wrestler I’m writing about than I originally thought I did.
High fives to the Warlord for being a wrestler from the 1980s who remains alive. I dearly wish that could be a joke, but in this case it's a legitimate compliment. This must've been a man really one with himself to avoid falling into all the pro wrestling vices that gripped almost everybody else, and I respect that.
As for his career, I think he's the first human you've written about on here who I can honestly say ought to be satisfied with their career. He was always better in the tag team, and always needed a manager, but neither of these things are insults in this business (both of these things are also true about Bobby Eaton, for example, who is beyond reproach in wrestling). I don't think he ever should've been split out of a team. When they did he got a good little run out of it, but they could've got more out of a tag team featuring him, I think. Considering he's still alive, he maybe (big maybe) could've stayed past 1992 when the WWF was looking to ditch all the 80s stars ASAP for legal reasons.
This is an entirely random booking idea with an even more random name drop, but imagine if the Warlord got a little guy who could talk for him and constantly write cheques that the Warlord had to cash, like Al Snow. It worked well for Al and Kane in SMW. It doesn't have to be exactly Al Snow. In 1992 I'm not sure who else it could've been, but it could've been any slimy little weasel who could've always been there to ensure that the big matches were always tags, in theory because everybody wants this stooge in the ring but in reality because the Warlord is better in tag matches. Thinking currently, somebody like Lio Rush (is he still wrestling?) would've been absolutely perfect to fit with the Warlord. You'd know the 1990s independent guys better than me.
Modern wrestling needs more of these half manager, half tag team partner relationships in my opinion. When you look back in history, they always worked really well. It's a perfect spot to stick great talkers who are also great wrestlers but are not physically big enough to be main eventers on their own (Lio Rush, Adam Cole, Mark Briscoe, either Matt or Nick Jackson if they had no twin, etc.), and people like the Warlord are perfect to attach this type of person to.
What I'm getting at is that the spot the Warlord used to fill doesn't really exist in wrestling anymore, so I'm glad he came along when he did.
The Warlord was at the right place and the right time, so to speak, both to be discovered by Road Warrior Animal and also in an era where he would be streamlined to a national promotion and put on TV from the beginning.
However, at the same time, one could ponder that in some ways if he had come along about a decade or so later perhaps he would have had a more diverse career presentation and longer run in the majors. Perhaps he would have been used with the idea you suggested and excelled in that role and gotten to show a different side of his personality.
Either way, he likely had a lot more wrestling years left in him when he retired initially in 1995 due to the injuries from the car accident, as he was only 33 at the time, and likely would have remained in WCW during the height of the Monday Night Wars that followed not too long after his retirement.
What is it with the 80s man? Even the guy who was able to remain alive had to wind it down at just 33 years old. I stand by my point that he can sleep at night satisfied with his wrestling career, but imagine if he'd made it to his prime (which in wrestling years tends to start around 37). Maybe he'd be remembered differently.
I can't believe they never tried the Warlord as a truly imposing bad guy, aside from the one run with the Road Warriors. Maybe in the 1980s WWF, 6'5" just wasn't quite tall enough for that role. I know he kind of was an imposing bad guy, but he was never presented as a real threat, mostly losing even in the middle. That's why I thought of the tag partner idea. It'd be a good way to make the Warlord intimidating to have a small human standing in front of him.
It's always a shame to lose somebody from the wrestling world before their prime even starts, but it's common in this profession because there's SO much learning that has to be done before a prime can truly start. If only there was a way to streamline the learning process, but you can't know until you know.