Post by hoskotafe3 on Aug 12, 2020 22:21:15 GMT
Some facts that will interest you:
he was Hulk Hogan's 4th highest drawing prigram behind Savage, Andre and Orndorff.
He and Jerry Lawler drew a 6500 crowd when they toured a town of 5,000 people. They also sold out the Memphis auditorium in 1983, one of the last matches to do so.
His feud with the Von Erich's was one of thw biggest drawing programs in WCCW history.
He refused to deal with WWE again after Summerslam 1992 after he received $15,000 for his match while his opponent, The Undertaker, reportedly received only $500.
awesome stuff.
i found this a bit shocking - what's your view on this -
i know Kerry was really screwed up (i.e. drugs) - and wasn't really dependable (i.e. would show up to matches out of it) - but apparently in his dying WWF days - Kamala was going over him during house shows. i know Kamala was a big name - but I just felt Von Erich was bigger and it was a missed opportunity by WWF just giving him the IC strap.
it's amazing - during that time WWF had Martel (AWA Champ), Hennig (AWA Champ), Von Erich (WCCW Champ), Flair (NWA Champ)
They were looking for a pay day between the Ultimate Warrior and Kamala so they needed Kamala winning every match he was in. Kamala was a guy you bring in for a few months, have him squash some mid carders and then lose to a Hogan or Warrior in WWF or Sting/ Flair/ Rhodes in WCW. If you have him losing to mids it just reduces your pay day and hurts his marketability next time you bring him home.
That's not to say they handled Von Erich well: they didn't. Hitting him with a stupid Texas Tornado gimmick, not properly building up his feud with Hennig (a territorial dream match really) or putting him in a meaningful well built feud with Martel, not making anything of he and Michaels both having WCCW roots to build up a marquee match there. Not turning him heel when his lame gimmick wasn't working. Think of the possibilities of a heel turn: Piper, Hart, Bulldog all could have been rivals.
In short there was more they could, and should, have done with him. Their mistake was putting him in matches with Kamala when his career was still salvagable, not having Kamala beat him. Only people who should be beating Kamala is whatever big star you had him come in to lose to.