Match of the Day - The WM7 Blindfold Match

"We always do it better in the dark" - Jake Roberts

Jake "The Snake" Roberts vs. "The Model" Rick Martel - Blindfold match - WrestleMania VII (1991)

Many consider this little gimmick match at the All-American/Undertaker streak debut WrestleMania to be a pretty crappy match. Yes, it does feature two athletes who could wrestle the hell out of each other with bags over their heads, but that's looking at the whole scheme of things out of context. Without the knowledge of the feud these two had between each other in 1991 and the back story, a back story literally built months in advance, one should not assume this match was picked from a raw roulette wheel in the back featuring two guys Vinny Mac forgot to put on the card that year. 

Okay then... the back story: 

Some time after "The Model" Rick Martel introduced his very own line of cologne - properly named: "Arrogance", which was kept in a large atomizer, Martel began using it arrogantly on his opponents by spraying it into their eyes. One night during The Brother Love show with special guest, Jake Roberts, Martel sneaked up behind Roberts while he was dropping a stunning promo about love or something and sprayed his pet snake, Damien with the perfume. Before Roberts could retaliate he was sprayed directly into his eyes, blinding him! Eventually Roberts appeared to be healed, but only to reveal that he had snake eyes! Dun dun dun. Roberts and Martel would feud with one another all throughout 1991, including facing off at Survivor Series with their own respective teams (Robert's team was called The Vapors and Martel's team was called The Visionaries, a rib on Roberts and his blindness). Eventually, the two would settle their differences once and for all at the WM in a match right up Roberts alley. Seeing as Roberts now had an extra sense because he was some sort of blind snake metaphor, it was only fitting that he challenge Martel in a blindfold match where The Model would have to experience the darkness that Roberts was living in for months. 

Now don't get me wrong, this is a silly match for WrestleMania. If you look at the events leading up to this match, however, it really does make sense. Hell, I think it would have been even more interesting if the whole arena was pitch black so everyone could see what it was like to be blind. Image that: a blindfold lights out match. Genius! 

Theme results:

WreslteMania: WM IV

Match of the Day - Rocky's debut

In honor of The Rock's win last night at the Royal Rumble while he takes a short break from making Disney action adventure movies and shitty sequels to mediocre franchises, here's Rocky's debut way way back in the year 1996.

"Wildman" Marc Mero's Team (Mero, Rocky Maivia, Jake Roberts, and "The Stalker" Barry Windham) vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsely's Team (Helmsely, Goldust, Crush, and Jerry Lawler) - Survivor Series match - WWF Survivor Series (1996)

Shortly after Dwayne Johnson showed off his agility and awkward dropkicks at USWA, owned by Jerry Lawler at the time who happens to be in this match, the first 3rd generation superstar was ready to grace the squared-circle deep in the belly of Madison Square Garden where his father and father's father had previously made a name for themselves.

And since Rocky Johnson and Chief Peter Maivia had made a name for themselves, it was decided that Dwayne Johnson take the name of Rocky Johnson and mash it together with Peter Maivia to create - Rocky Maivia. Honestly though, it really didn't matter if he had named himself Peter Johnson at this point, he was a 3rd generation superstar; he was going to be used whether he could wrestle or not.

Whether or not he was going to eventually break out of the spotlight of his elders and become his own on star is another story for another day. Many people can argue when exactly Rocky Maivia became The Rock, the people's champ, but this match is no way near that time. This was the blue chipper era for Dwayne Johnson - long before he could ever image starring in Walking Tall remakes or Mummy spin-offs...

This match consists of a team made of heels captained by Marc "I don't know how to be anyone except Johnny B. Badd" Mero and his rival at the time, Hunter Hearst Helmsely and his team of stalkers, drunks, and Rocky Maivias. Along with Rocky in this match, there are three other 2nd generation wrestlers: Goldust, son of Dusty Rhodes, Barry Windham, son of Black Mulligan, and Jake Roberts, son of Grizzly Smith. 

Side note:

Also at this time, Jake Roberts was having a small feud with Jerry Lawler in an angle where Robert's "Demons" were openly discussed and paralleled his real life battles with alcohol and cocaine (which they didn't mention of course). This sort of art imitating reality type situation was an early element of the Attitude Era and the more Jerry Springer/soap opera style of wrestling we say from the late 90's (onward basically). The "demons" angle where a wrestler legitimately has a problem and it is thrown into their onscreen character has also been used on Road Warrior Hawk and his much more exploited drug/alcohol problem in the heart of the Attitude Era as well as Scott Hall's drinking problems all throughout his WCW/NWO career. I want to say there was also a small bit where Rowdy Roddy Piper would just get drunk on the Smackdown Brand revamp of Piper's Pit every week, but maybe that was just me subtly wishing I had something to take to get through that Mr. America gimmick. Ayeyeye.

Anyways, here's Rocky Maivia's debut. He wins the match and no one really hates the guts of his gimmick yet.

Enjoy.

Match of the Day - The Snake vs. The Dragon!

Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat vs. Jake "The Snake" Roberts - WWF Saturday Night's Main Event (1986)

This classic between Ricky Steamboat and Jake Roberts, best known as the match Steamboat would reveal his own mascot, is the feud's so-called rubber match; a match that settled the score after Roberts had attacked Steamboat before their match on Saturday Night's Main Event a few months back (remember when feuds lasted longer than a few weeks?) in the incident where Roberts DDT'ed Steamboat on the floor (something that had never before been seen) and then Steamboat later getting a win over Roberts in a no DQ Snake Pit match on The Big Event.

While this grunge match saw Ricky Steamboat as the victor, Jake Roberts as the heel he was continued to attack Steamboat after the match. Roberts eventually looks to finish off Steamboat with his snake Damien but is taken aback as Steamboat pulls out his own secret weapon from a bag on his corner of the ring in the form of a komodo dragon! Jake the Snake then tucks his tail between his legs and flees the ring leaving Steamboat and his "dragon" to celebrate the end of this well played out feud.

Overall reaction to this match: Personally all I have to say about this match is that growing up I always thought that Steamboat's dragon was a crocodile. That being said, I actually have a little bit of fear of giant lizards like komodo dragons which is funny in an almost sad way because Mattel recently released a Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat action figure that comes packed with a playful looking green komodo dragon... putting a fear of mine pretty much to shame:

What a minute... that's definitely an alligator or crocodile of some kind!

Despite the package of this action figure mentioning Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat's memorable komodo dragon moment on SNME w/ Jake Roberts, I'm pretty sure that that is the alligator/crocodile (with the red thingy attached to it) from a different Jake Roberts/Ricky Steamboat confrontation.

Clearly I was not the only one to notice this as Tomopop, a "Collectible Toy Culture" review site also caught this lil' tidbit as well. Check it out!

I've still yet to find what what match that was were this alligator in question comes from and if it was ever taped but once I do I will most definitely share my finds right here on NFT's Song and Match of the day!