RIP, Chief Jay Strongbow

Somewhere, Spiros Arion is laughing.

 

<i>When he was with the WWF, he'd frequently was used as the guy (along with Gorilla Monsoon, who was one of the minority owners) to test a heel to see if they were over enough with a crowd to have a run with the champion.</i>

Somebody has been kayfabing you, son. Those things were planned before the challengers ever came into the promotion. Vince McMahon Sr. used to give the heels a start and end date when they agreed to come in. They had things mapped out well in advance.

 

Depended on the wrestler. With Billy Graham, they were. But other wrestlers had plans changed depending on how over they were with the crowd.

Larry Zbyzsko told a couple of stories in his book about it. One was that they brought in Ox Baker to build up because the Vinces weren't convinced that Zbyszko would be an effective heel. The way Larry Z told the story, Baker had a horrible match, and was soon sent on his way.

Larry also mentioned how, after the Bruno program, he was supposed to have a run with Pedro Morales that should have been three MSG matches. Instead, they wanted him to lose right away, meaning that the program would end quickly. Larry protested, and pointed out that Bruno never pinned him, and would be mad if Pedro did. That ended Larry's run right there.

Another example was Morales, who told Bret Hart (in Hart's book) after teh Montreal Screwjob that that he didn't know he was dropping the belt in 1973 to Stan Stasiak until the night of the show. And Stasiak didn't know he was winning it either until that night:

http://www.wrestlingclassics.com/mu/mu-st/mu-st-stasiak.html

As for Strongbow, he was considered the No. 2 babyface in the company in the 1970s:

http://www.f4wonline.com/more/more-top-stories/118-daily-updates/25011-long-time-wwe-regular-chief-jay-strongbow-passes-away

Freddie Blassie also mentioned him in his book, although I can't recall if he wrote that Strongbow was the set-up guy before the champion, or if he was the guy the heel wrestled after the champion on his way out of the territory.

 

I still say the Montreal Screwjob was a work. Maybe a worked shoot but still, in the end, a work.

 

I don't think so. Personally, I believe it was done for a few reasons:

1) Fear - While Bret had never given Vince to be worried about taking the belt to WCW for various reasons, Vince became so paranoid that he assumed the worse. It's kind of like a dog that's been beaten most of it's life by it's previous owners. When it finally does get a new owner that will care for it, the dog will still fear the owner will beat it. With so many people screwing him over in the past (And Vince screwing people in return), I don't think Vince felt it was possible someone would leave peacefully and honorably.

2) Shawn Michaels - With the WWE starting to go in a different direction, he saw Michaels as the leader of the new movement. Meanwhile, Bret, seemed to be against a low of the new ideas. I'm not going to try and imply that Michaels was the evil mastermind or anything, but if he let Vince know he wanted to win the strap, I think Vince would rather keep him happy than Bret.

3) How things used to be done - It wasn't that long ago that owners would screw their wrestlers over if they didn't get their way. Vince may have found it disrespectful that Bret wasn't willing to do anything he wanted to do. So he may have felt Bret should have just fell in line and be a good little soldier. Once Bret showed that he was going to use his creative control, Vince was set to make sure he wouldn't.

 

You also have to take into context where the WWF was at at that time.

1. WCW was beating the living shit out of them in the ratings, primarily because the NWO storyline, which, because they didn't have a clue how to end it in a satisfying way for the fans, ended up being one of the reasons why they collapsed. But Vince didn't know that at the time.

2. Austin, who was going to be Vince's top star, had been hurt by Owen, legitimately. They didn't know if he was coming back, or how he would be if he did.

3. While smart fans knew Vince was the owner, the casual fan pretty much just knew him as this annoying announcer. It would have been quite a stretch for them to predict that having the owner turn evil would mean big ratings.

4. After the Screwjob, the wrestlers were close to a revolt, not only because they liked and respected Bret, but because they knew it could happen to them too. They did back down after Vince twisted their arms, but that was about as close as they were to being unified. They probably should have formed a union at that time, but it was a missed opportunity.

5. It took 13 years for a Bret/Vince match. If they were trying to work everyone, that's a heckuva long time to build up for a match.

So, all-in-all, I still think it was a shoot. Now, of course, Vince and others have repeated it as a storyline a half-dozen times and become a rather lame work.

 

>>>Freddie Blassie also mentioned him in his book, although I can't recall if he wrote that Strongbow was the set-up guy before the champion, or if he was the guy the heel wrestled after the champion on his way out of the territory.<<<

Standard business. The next challenger would beat a babyface who had credibility on the way up, then lose to those guys on the way out.

BTW, beware of what you read in wrestling books. On the rare occasions when guys actually remember things, they spin them to make themselves look good. It's a bullshit business filled with con men.

 

Two out of three falls and three out of three foreign stereotypes. Only thing missing was Nikita Koloff and Nikolai Volkoff running interference at the end.

 

Koloff and Putski had decent matches in their own right.

 

You must be thinking of Ivan Koloff, Nikita's "uncle".

Nikita never was in the WWF.

 

Nikita has pushed out a story in which Vince wanted to bring him in and build him to a Wrestlemania II main event with Hogan. You wonder how much business they could have done with that, because Nikita was a much more intimidating wrestler and figure than Volkoff, who was a borderline comedy heel with his mangling of the Russian national anthem. Nikita was a Soviet Goldberg.