One of the most classic wrestling moments of all time! DiBiase uses his money to get plastic surgery on some guy, hires Andre to beat Hogan, and then buys the Title belt. How much more could you put over the Million Dollar Man gimmick? So awesome!
Sucks to hear that Dave is in poor health. He was responsible for the greatest fan experience I ever had. Back in late 99 or 2000 the WWF did a house show in my area. It wasn't a stop they did often. To put it into perspective. They did three house shows in the span of 3 or 4 years and haven't been back since. We had a contact at the airport who let us know when the wrestlers would be arriving. So my friend and I along with a lot of other people were at the airport waiting. The wrestlers all went by on their way to pick up their rentals. We chatted with many of them and got a few pictures with them. We had been there for probably 20 minutes or so when we spied who we thought was Earl Hebner at the rental agency counter. Being that we were Canada and even though it had be 2 - 3 years since the infamous Montreal screw job, we decided to have a little fun with Earl. We weren't going to be jerks or anything. We weren't mad about the screw job. We weren't even mad when it happened. We got to Earl just as he finished up with the rental agent. He turned and saw us and knew what was coming and smiled. Before we go a word out he said, "hey guys, I'm Dave! You guys probably know my brother Earl. He screwed Bret!". Dave took a look at our group and noticed that one of the group was visually impaired. One of my friends in the group was legally blind. Dave asked how many there was in our group going to the show. We told him there were five. Dave pulls out a business card and hands it to us and tells us to show it to security when we get to the building and ask to see Dave. We got to the building that night and did what Dave said and we were all taken to a conference room in the building where there was already a young boy in a wheelchair and his parents already waiting. We waited for a little bit then Dave walks in with Chris Jericho right behind him carrying some merchandise. We had met and spoke to Jericho earlier at the airport which was a story all it's own. Jericho autographed a shirt and hat which he gave the kid in the wheelchair and he autographed a bobblehead doll which he gave my visually impaired friend. Then Dave asked to see our tickets. We handed our tickets to him and he tore them all up and handed us new tickets that were front row seats! We had a fantastic night all thanks to Dave Hebner and yes, we finally got to have some fun with Earl Hebner too. When he came out to ref his first match for the night we started chanting "you screwed Bret" at him. He heard us and walked over to the side of the ring facing us. He looked down at us and gave us a crotch chop and yelled "suck it" at us.
3:56 This was definitely Hulk Hogan’s line backstage with Mr. Okerland, immediately following his historic loss of the precious Winged Eagle. I remember thinking at 5 years old, “what is plastic surgery?”
They started using Earl Hebner as a referee, but still referring to him as Dave Hebner. They pretended that they didn't just hire the "evil twin" after he screwed Hogan. After a couple of years, without any explanation, they started referring to him at Earl Hebner as though the "evil twin" angle never happened.
Was anybody else a young kid during the heyday of SNME? Anybody else know that struggle to stay up late enough to catch it in the days before DVR? Remember the heartache of waking up the next morning in front of the TV having fallen asleep before getting to see Hulkamania run wild on Saturday Night? PAIN!!!! I mean sure, we had VCR’s, but dad would have whooped my arse if I recorded WWF over his John Wayne or Clint Eastwood movies. Besides, I had already by that time recorded WWF over my own kindergarten graduation (to the shock and horror of my mother). So the VHS tapes were stored where I couldn’t get to them! Lol.
I was born 88, for some reason my family recorded 89 rumble I probably watched that back 100 times, I also know the struggle of recording over the families home movies lol they were not happy. Started punching out the black tabs on all the blank tapes to keep me from recording over lmao.
I was a kid during those days. I didn't start recording SNME until Season 2 (I think). My parents bought me my own VHS tapes for the specific purpose of recording SNME. I have just about everything from Hogan vs Mr. Wonderful (right after Orndorff's heel turn) to just before the cancelation of the program. There's a few that I missed (I got confused as to which Saturday it was supposed to be), and one year they started broadcasting during the summer (before then they had always gone by TV season scheduling, thuse no SNME during the summer months). But other than that I've got a pretty solid collection. I really wish I had thought to record that first season though. I'd still have video of Andre The Giant wrestling as a babyface then.
@@rickydominy9284 I used to jam wadded up paper in those slots on cassette tapes and it would allow you to record the radio over some unfortunately terrible cassette you bought. I wonder if that worked on VHS tapes too. I never tried it. Prolly because most 80’s movies were BANGERS!
I am from germany, me any my girl Cousins stayed at grand aunt overnight. She let us watch it live from midnight to early morning. Also knew, but never broke kayfabe. Only a minor thing we remembered when we list the great Lady last not long ago.
I was 12 at the time. I can still remember trying to call all my friends at commercial break and everyone having busy signals. Then hanging up my phone, and immediately it would ring. We were all trying to call each other at the same time and none of us had call waiting. Magical memory. This angle can never be replicated. Arguably the greatest angle in pro wrestling history. NOBODY saw this coming.
I forgot all about it. I was just a little kid and I only remembered after seeing this post that my older brothers were absolutely shook. I mean they took it personally. 😆
That had to be the funniest promo I've ever heard Jim Cornette do on his show! That had me in stitches!!! I had no idea men could have checkerboard pattern baldness?!?! 🤣🤣🤣
I remember sitting in a room full of guys at a kegger watching that show when it happened and it just popped the room ...... Still one of my favorite angles
Jim's story about the trade show reminds me of the Wrestlecrap induction of AWA's "Battle of the Breakfast Cereals" show, in which the faces represented Kellogg's and the heels represented General Mills. If you're curious, yes, it was during AWA's dying years.
To answer your question about who said "How much did they spend on the plastic surgery?" Corny. That was Hogan himself during the post match interview.
Seriously that was a really bad decision on their end. I'm sure if they had asked WWE would have given them a license to print and sell authentic merchandise. Instead they did it underhanded. Ruined their entire legacy and futures for a couple grand...
man the two hebners was epic. as a kid in the northeast i was barely aware of JCP and certainly not familiar enough to know the refs. Dave Hebner was a mainstay on WWF tv so, as a 5-year old i fell for the angle 100%. sometimes great angles are dampened by the performers involved, the event they occur at and/or the execution of the angle. i don't know if any angle was as well pulled off as the 2-hebners
I know Jim has mentioned some crazy towns but I can only imagine working in Mississippi. I went through an area called Yazoo City in 2017 and I felt like I was in the 1950s. Even Tunica is a weird mix of Children of the Corn and some alternate universe 80s Vegas.
That had to be one of the greatest angles in wrestling. When I was a kid I actually thought The Million Dollar Man really did pay for someone to have plastic surgery.
I loved Saturday Night's Main Event because I remember sometimes SNL wouldn't be shown because NBC I guess would want to show SMNE the same time that SNL came on and SNL would be shown next Saturday night.
I would love to know who booked classic WWF back then (Hogan vs Heenan Family, Hebner angle, Danny Davis angle, Savage, etc). Was it solely Vince and if so... WTF happened?!
Speaking of referees.. Why aren't referees inducted into pro wrestling Halls of Fame? Everyone from the wrestlers to managers to ring announcers to commentators to promoters to chauffeurs to celebrities who appeared for 5 minutes on a show to people who have nothing to do with pro wrestling have been inducted. But why not the referees? (TNA did induct Earl Hebner into their HOF. But that's the exception.)
@@thesupervisor3270 i was just saying if you've watched anything on vince your know this has been going on, he has covered up a murder, a ring boy scandel, and other sexual assaults.. no need to be a prick.
Nothing to see there; the woman was paid handsomely with his own personal money. They can't touch Vinnie Mac, nor would his longtime lawyer Jerry McDevitt let it happen. Three cheers for GRAPEFRUITS!
The build up to Hogan vs. Andre in early '87 through Hogan vs. Savage at WM 5 always felt like one big storyline to me. And was the highlight of the WWF in the 1980s.
The storyline of Hogan savage when he won the belt at wrestlemania 4 then forming the mega powers with hulk then going through royal rumble summer slam survivor series where savage was getting more suspect of Hogan's intentions towards Liz leading to the mega powers explode at wrestlemania 5 was a year long storyline I think the best in WWF history
