Not many WWF matches at this point were great, but they were big time – when it was time to be great too, maaan were they ever. But usually – LONG HOLDS. Like the AWA but somehow worse. Outside of that, it’s all about the presentation and the WWF was BIG. Sometimes the matches weren’t amazing, but you show me a picture of anybody of note and I will tell you exactly who that motherfucker is. Guys had shticks, were big and colorful, did weird shit on TNT. It’s cliche today, but the WWF really made superstars.
The Main Event
First there was Bruno, then there was Backlund, and in 1984 in came Hulk Hogan – the WWF Champ and top guy as of January 23, 1984. TNT 7/3/84 has the title win over Iron Sheik and post-match promos, along with the initial discussion and hard sell of Hogan by Vince McMahon and Lord Alfred Hayes. Early WWF Hogan is great, all amped up to be the top babyface with promos and crowd work on another planet. The title win is a legitimately great match, a perfect New Hero beats Heel Dirtbag match- very reminiscent of Hogan doing the favors for Bill Goldberg over 20 years later. Hogan also has an awesome match with “Dr. D” David Schultz (TNT 7/3/84) where he does the ultimate Hogan comeback where he gets revenge on every single thing Dr. D did to him, including drawing a bunch of blood. Hogan trying to train Mean Gene on TNT 8/21/84 is must-watch too.
Andre the Giant is the second-in command face, usually headlining the shows Hogan didn’t. Big John Studd keeps calling him out, then adds Bobby Heenan as his manager and things really start cooking. Andre had a pretty regular schedule opposite a rotating cast of bad guys like Studd, Orndorff, Piper, Kamala, and Muraco. The year ends with Heenan offering $15,000 to whoever can slam Studd and a famous angle where Studd and Ken Patera beat Andre down and cut his hair. Andre also joins the set for TNT 7/24/84 and it’s legendary.
After coming to the WWF after being tied up in a dog collar at Starrcade 1983 in December, Rowdy Roddy Piper was taking off: soon after the infamous Piper’s Pit with Jimmy Snuka and coconut angle (TNT 6/26/84), he begins rivalry with Cyndi Lauper of all people. He’s also feuding with Tonga Kid and S.D. Jones and whoever – guy is in another world and whenever he appears he just outshines everybody in the room. The wrestling is sparse but the promos are incredible. TNT 7/17/84 has an incredible angle where Piper joins the set and after being accused by Vince of not being able to play bagpipes, he wings it and plays terribly causing Alfred to tell him he has no dignity. Piper responds by slapping him in the face and gets banned from the show. The slap is brutal – coconut angle is famous, this is even better.
Rock n’ Wrestling is happening too. In December 1983, Captain Lou Albano had a cameo in Cyndi Lauper‘s “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” music video, which was all over MTV. Her boyfriend and manager at the time, Dave Wolff, was a big wrestling fan and some folks got talking leading to a stretch in the mid-80s where WWF wrestlers appeared on MTV and MTV aired two supershows (Brawl to End it All and War to Settle the Score), while Lauper became a character on WWF TV and basically core focus of every major angle: she feuded with Piper, took Hulk Hogan on as her bodyguard, and managed Wendi Richter to the WWF Women’s Title.
TNT 7/3/84 has a lot of fun stuff with Albano and Piper being total dicks, Albano taking credit for Lauper’s success and Piper being condescending. Lauper is the ideal wrestling guest star – she sold everything well and was a legitimately a great promo. The crowd on her Piper’s Pit appearances is going bananas. Rock n’ Wrestling was really a right place right time type of thing, highlighted on TNT 7/17/84 and TNT 7/31/84.
Sgt. Slaughter turns face early in the year and goes all in as the American Hero, with features on TNT 10/16/84 and TNT 10/30/84. He feuds with Iron Sheik and eventually Nikolai Volkoff, though there isn’t much footage on TNT. Slaughter and Sheik had their famous Boot Camp match – HOW IS THIS NOT ON THE WORLD WRESTLING ENTERTAINMENT NETWORK!? Slaughter seems primed for big success but the WWF had become Hogan Country and G.I. Joe was offering him a pretty sweet endorsement deal. He left at the end of 1984 for the AWA and wouldn’t return until the big heel run in 1991 opposite… Hogan.
Bob Backlund also continues to headline through June before he leaves as well. TNT 8/28/84 actually has his last WWF match for 8 years – against SAL BELLOMO.
Iron Sheik spends the year reeling from his title loss, both being de-emphasized but also getting re-built. He feuds with Slaughter, squashes babyface jobbers, and takes the occasional finish from Andre or Hogan or Tito. At the end of 1984 he’s paired with Nikolai Volkoff and weird magic is created.
The Midcard
1984 is owned by Tito Santana and Greg Valentine, the workhorses endlessly feuding over the Intercontinental Title and having great match after great match doing it. TNT 10/16/84 has some stuff on the pair. Tito takes the IC Title from year-long champ Don Muraco in February, then after a few tries Valentine wins it later in the year. Both Santana and Valentine are are ideal guys to center your midcard around, both awesome for different reasons with a perfect wrestling dynamic: Tito the fired up babyface that’s actually likable and sells big and occasionally kicks ass, Greg the plain basic boring as shit asshole who’s a lot of fun to watch when getting his ass kicked.
Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka had done the splash off the cage the previous year and feuded with Piper in this one, and plays the role of dance partner for heels before they move up to Hogan. He goes to rehab later in the year and that’s kind of that for main event Snuka.
Paul Orndorff comes in and gets THE PUUUSH, with features on TNT 6/12/84, 6/26/84 and 11/27/84. He’s got the act down from day one, a total douchebag of a man who for a while there could go hard in the ring – great stalling, but when it was time to bump this man bumped. He mostly squashed guys and teamed with Piper, occasionally losing to Hogan or Snuka on spot shows. He has an incredible match for the IC Title with Tito Santana in the summer too that should also be on the World Wrestling Entertainment Network. His promos and skit on TNT are tremendous, and he has a pretty sweet brawl with Tony Atlas following an oiled-up pose-down on TNT 11/27/84. The “PAU-LA” gimmick was in full tilt here too – so dumb, so classic. He lost to Hogan a lot too before their more notable feud a couple years later.
Like Orndorff, a lot of the other primary midcard guys are there to beat people up and lose to Hulk Hogan.
“Dr. D” David Schultz‘s Hogan match that airs on TNT 7/3/84 on is one of the best Hogan matches there is and he’s a consistently great presence on TNT, a straightforward bitter asshole of a man. He got fired at the end of the year for slapping John Stossel backstage at MSG.
Big John Studd is a big deal too, eventually managed by Bobby Heenan who is pushing the Body Slam Challenge. He isn’t the most exciting but he’s a really really tall fella who cuts promos like he’s a total dick. He spends his time calling out Andre and taking leg drops on the road.
Nikolai Volkoff is re-introduced in the fall, shedding his previous gimmick of a Mongolian and becoming a Soviet managed by Freddie Blassie. Early TNT was great at showcasing the colorful new talents the WWF was bringing in, and Nikolai’s interview and match on TNT 8/21/84 is a fine example why. Volkoff squashed fools, sang the Russian National Anthem, and was a frequent opponent for Sgt. Slaughter and Hulk Hogan as he tested out a new tag team with Iron Sheik.
While he seemed primed to be another guy on the other side of Hulk Hogan’s leg drop, 1984 ends up seeing the last gasps of Jesse “The Body” Ventura‘s in-ring career as he comes to the WWF in May (see TNT 7/31/84) and feuds with Ivan Putski (see TNT 12/18/84), but by September he has to retire and soon finds his calling as a color commentator alongside Vince McMahon or Gorilla Monsoon.
Finally, Brutus Beefcake comes in during the summer with “Luscious” Johnny Valiant as his manager and does some really weird shit on TNT 10/30/84. He’s mostly just gaining steam and squashing guys, and after taking some falls to Hogan he’d team up with Greg Valentine pretty soon.
The Tag Teams
Tag teams in 1984 were how they are nowadays, and by that I mean nobody could really care about more than two at a time.
The North-South Connection, Adrian Adonis & Dick Murdoch are the WWF Tag Team Champions for most of the year. They defended against any pair of WWF babyfaces the WWF decided on – though usually it was The Samoans. Adonis and Murdoch are a great act, with a ton of fun tags that are super basic but also over the top in the best wrestling ways, causing any shlub in the ring with those two to look like a world-class tag team wrestler. Adonis & Murdoch are a hoot out of the ring too, though it’s gotta be said just real briefly how racist Dick Murdoch was. Either way, TNT 7/31/84 and TNT 10/2/84 have great stuff with visits to each guy’s home – Adonis in NYC, Murdoch in Texas.
Rocky Johnson & Tony Atlas are firmly planted in the midcard after losing the Tag Titles to Adonis & Murdoch earlier in the year, though their title win over The Samoans from late-1983 (aired on TNT 5/29/84) gets the biggest most wonderful reaction. After the tag run they were split and usually faced guys getting shined up for Hogan. The Wild Samoans (Afa & Sika) go babyface in the middle of the year, as Captain Lou Albano turns on them on TNT 10/16/84 so they don’t beat Adonis & Murdoch for the Tag Titles. They become Adonis & Murdoch’s most frequent opposition.
Barry Windham & Mike Rotundo come in during the fall as young sexy babyfaces on the way up. Stampede Wrestling gets bought by Vince in 1984 too, and the British Bulldogs come in towards the end of the year. Their only match on the Network from 1984 is from Maple Leaf Gardens 10/21/84, before they had matching gear or a tag team name.
The Managers
God bless the managers.
This whole thing doesn’t work without the managers.
Captain Lou Albano, Bobby “The Brain” Heenan, “Classie” Freddie Blassie, “Luscious” Johnny V – the true GOAT’s. Give it up for Grand Wizard too, who passed away in 1983 and likely would’ve been a big part of this whole thing too.
Lou Albano is all over TNT and a walking breathing nightmare in all the greatest professional wrestling ways – a slob with rubber-bands attached to his face who can talk a mile a minute. He first manages the Wild Samoans, but when they turn babyface he concentrates on Greg Valentine, Ken Patera and Fabulous Moolah before going babyface himself as an ally of Cyndi Lauper.
Bobby Heenan comes in as Big John Studd’s manager and talking up the Body Slam challenge – the work is great, a fully formed character as soon as somebody said “action.” 1985 would be a big year, and so would the rest of them.
Fred Blassie had full-on just turned his back on his country at this point and manages Iron Sheik, Nikolai Volkoff and Kamala. He wears sequin-coated jackets and pants as he holds his hand to his heart during the Russian National Anthem and it is the greatest.
Johnny V could cut a promo too.
Mean Gene Okerlund had come in from the AWA at the start of 1984 and does commentary and interviews, a gig he’d perfect. He has an angle as a partner of Hulk Hogan too, leading to a show in Minnesota (AWA’s territory) headlined by Hogan and Gene vs. George “The Animal” Steele & Mr. Fuji. It all blesses us with a Hulk Hogan/Mean Gene training video on TNT 8/21/84.
The Other Wrestlers
There’s a ton of other guys around, waiting for their shot.
Cowboy Bob Orton begins getting built up. George “The Animal” Steele‘s still here, on the tail end of his heel run. Ken Patera is showcased on TNT 8/7/84 and starts teaming with Studd towards the end of the year against Andre, but he disappears pretty soon. Magnificent Muraco has lost his IC Title to Tito Santana and doesn’t wrestle in 1984 after August, eventually finding his way back into the limelight with Mr. Fuji as his sidekick and manager.
David Sammartino starts with the WWF in the fall of 1984 and gets a very awkward initial push, with a will-they-or-won’t-they over-sell him being Bruno’s son being the theme of his run (they do). Butcher Vachon is lurking on the undercard, and at the end of the year they milk two TNT shows out of him getting married. B. Brian Blair is brought in and Vince attempts to give him a push (see TNT 10/2/84). There are occasional references to Big Jim on WWF TV towards the end of the year, a guy shown in the crowd during matches that is eventually introduced as Hulk Hogan’s buddy Hillbilly Jim.
Rock n’ Wrestling featuring Wendi Richter and Fabulous Moolah was basically the entire women’s division, but Velvet McIntyre & Desiree Peterson held those WWF Women’s Tag Team Titles the entire calendar year with absolute grit.
Ivan Putski, Tiger Chung Lee, Blackjack Mulligan, Sal Bellomo, Tonga Kid, S.D. Jones, Iron Mike Sharpe, Rene Goulet, and even Pvt. Terry Daniels all had a moment or two in 1984. We can’t forget the enhancement guys either: Steve Lombardi, Billy Travis, Nick DeCarlo, Ted Grizzley, Quickdraw Rick McGraw, and Gentleman Jerry Valiant to name a few.
Those That Made it Worth It: WWF in 1984
Best Wrestlers
1. Tito Santana
2. Dick Murdoch
3. Adrian Adonis
4. Hulk Hogan
5. Greg Valentine
6. Paul Orndorff
7. Sgt. Slaughter
8. “Dr. D” David Schultz
9. Ken Patera
10. Cowboy Bob Orton
Best Tag Team
- Adrian Adonis & Dick Murdoch
- The Wild Samoans
- Barry Windham & Mike Rotundo
Best Manager
- Captain Lou Albano
- Bobby Heenan
- “Classy” Freddie Blassie
Quietly Impressive
- Tonga Kid
- Magnificent Muraco
- Brutus Beefcake
Hit-and-Miss
- Iron Sheik
- Nikolai Volkoff
- George “The Animal” Steele
Good at Entertainment
- Rowdy Roddy Piper
- Andre the Giant
- Jesse Ventura
Best Jobbers
- Rene Goulet
- S.D. Jones
- Gentleman Jerry Valiant
