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Kayfabe Code-Breakers

February 17th, 2010 Leave a comment Go to comments
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Neal Snow of All-Star Championship Belts continues his series of mocked-up Apter magazine covers that threaten to break the kayfabe code.

Bill “Superstar” Dundee had it all: the gift of gab, a creative mind, excellent psychology, desire, superior in-ring ability, a great-looking right hand and a natural charisma as either a heel or a babyface. Well, almost everything. At around 5’6″, “the scrappy little Australian” (as Lance Russell often referred to him) was too short to be taken seriously as a big star anywhere but Memphis,  a territory that catered to smaller workers. To his credit, Dundee had several outstanding bouts with the likes of AWA champion Nick Bockwinkle, which drew very well in the area. Memphis fans absolutely believed in the Superstar, but if he’d have been about 6 inches taller, Dundee could have been a headliner nationwide. (Conversely, if I had been about six inches shorter, I’d have been more effective as a manager.)

At the height of his feud with Ronnie Garvin in ICW, Randy Savage was arrested for shoplifting a steak from a Kentucky grocery store. (Hey, the ICW heavyweight champion of the world should never have to pay for anything.) Instead of ignoring the publicity over the incident, which made the area newspapers, Garvin announced the news to ICW audience to humiliate his rival-good stuff. (For more on Savage’s early starving-artist days, click here.) Apparently, the Macho Man liked his steak rare.

Oh, what could have been. Gino Hernandez oozed heel charisma. He wasn’t a great worker by any means, but his promos and heat-inducing nastiness more than made up for it. If the partying and substance abuse hadn’t been issues, Gino would have been a major player in the industry in the mid- to late ’80s. (Granted, I could say that about plenty of guys, including the late Eddie Gilbert.) Instead, Gino passed away of a cocaine overdose at the age of 28 in 1986; however, some speculate he was murdered.

  1. Cleatus
    February 17th, 2010 at 19:19 | #1

    I’m still trying to wrap my head around the logistics of stuffing a steak into one’s pants. A filet mignon I can see…but any other cut and he’d have to stuff the raw meat directly….

    This is why I love pro wrestling. It’s the only sport where a world champion can try to steal meat from a grocery store, fail, and really not shock anybody. They may be world champions, but they never specifically said which world they represent. I love it.

  2. Steve
    February 19th, 2010 at 05:26 | #2

    Funniest thing Garvin said about Savage’s arrest(I remember seeing this incident on TV): “Here’s what’s interesting…the steaks were on sale.”

  3. admin
    February 19th, 2010 at 08:49 | #3

    Steve, are you suggesting that the ICW World champion wasn’t making huge payoffs? Savage stole the steak out of principle-the World champ doesn’t pay for meat. Dig it!

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