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ISSUE 3363
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Mark R
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Oct 14, 2009 16:13 PDT
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+++ ONE OF MY FAVORITE MANAGERS PASSES AWAY. Captain Lou Albano passed
away at the age of 76 earlier today. There is no word on what his cause
of death was and honestly that doesn't matter. Lou Albanon was one of
those old timers in the business when I was growing up that made "it"
not through his incredible talent inside the ring but because he managed
to carve a niche for himself as a mouthpeice talking for other men that
had limited speaking abilities. Not many of todays fans get to see
talent like Lou Albano because the art of the 'male manager' has been
lost in the wrestling business over the last decade. Yes that is a
shame but I am not here to debate whether or not that is good or bad. I
am here to put over Mr. Albano.
Albano was a pro wrestler and worked in a tag team named "The
Scicillians" with Tony Altimore. Albano wasn't ever confused with an
athlete inside the ring and he wasn't particularly talented inside the
ring either (compared to his peers). The team held the U.S. Tag Titles
and the Midwest tag titles but nothing major in any major wrestling
promotion (i.e. WWWF or NWA). Once Albanon's in ring days were over
(and they were always known to be numbered) he stuck around as a
'manager'. The way he got in to managing was because one of his friends
(Bruno Sammartino) called in a favor and put him over to the front
office as a "good bullshitter". Bruno convinced McMahon Sr. to give
Albano a shot and Albano became famous for his off the wall yelling
promo's. When he was workiing for Sr. he was used primarily as a heel
manager for heel tag teams (usually monsters teams) and led most of them
to tag team gold. He managed The Wild Samoans, The Moondogs, Fuji &
Saito and The Valiant Brothers all to tag team gold in WWWF/WWF. The
history books list that he led 15 individual tag teams to tag team gold
(might be more in truth) but he also managed Ivan Koloff when Koloff won
the World Title in WWWF over Sammartino and also Don Muraco, Greg
Valentine and Pat Patterson to the IC Title.
When the 80's rolled around and Jr. bought out Sr. the writing was
clearly on the wall that Lou's days were numbered because he was part of
the old guard that was being phased out by Jr. for Jr's attempt to go
national. But something happened Albano was giving a new life, mainly
because of his connection with David Wolf & Cindy Lauper. It was Albano
that arranted for most of the Rock N Wrestling hoople to take place and
got Lauper involved with WWF and WWF more or less involved with MTV.
Albano was in Lauper's "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" video playing the
part of her father in the video. This led to incredible exposure for
WWF and at the time put them on the map with the Hulk Hogan v. Roddy
Piper feud that carried off on MTV and also Piper v. Mr. T later on down
the line. It also kicked started the idea Jr. was kicking around to
start a tradition known as WrestleMania and with out the MTV/Lauper
connection, WM may never have happened.
As a babyface Albano managed George Steele, Andre The Giant, British
Bulldogs and I beleive Paul Roma before calling it a career in 1989.
He returned in the 90's to lead The Headshrinkers to the WWF tag team
gold and was later inducted in to the WWF Hall of Fame in 1996.
What happened for Lou was his connection with Lauper got him noticed and
it led to him appearing in a few Hollywood productions. He played
"Frankie the Fixer" in "Wiseguys" a movie that starred Danny Devito &
Joe Piscopo as wannabe mobsters (very funny movie and still one of my
favorites to date). Albano then turned his natural look in to a starring
role as "Maria" in "Super Mario Brothers" childrens series. Albano had
incredible presence in movies and tv and was an absolute good actor. He
appeared in wrestling related movies "Stay Tuned" and "Bodyslam" playing
characters based off of his wrestling persona.
He also authored parts of "Idiot's Guide to Professional Wrestling" with
Burt Sugar and can add that to his resume. I also beleive he appeared
in some of the music video's WWF did in the 80's and may have sung as
well. Albano also authored "Often Imintated, Never Duplicated" and
published it himself (his autobiography).
Albano was a human being who spent endless hours fighting for causes and
helping people raise money for charities that he cared about and he was
a well liked personality inside and outside of the wrestling business.
He was absolutely adored by most everyone that ever met him and he was
an awesome interview in and out of the business.
+++ SMACKDOWN SPOILERS. First, Jim Ross was not doing his color on the
show as he requested the night off and was given the night off. This
was a planned night off he wanted due to it being his anniversary and
has nothing to do with his status with the company.
They brought back the "Dirt Sheet" with John Morrison & The Miz to hype
their match at the PPV. Good segment as expected.
Drew McIntyre beat Ron Killings to make it on Team Smackdown.
Batista & Misterio did some more promo work about being good friends and
were scheduled to fight later on in the show. I think one is turning. I
hope its Rey.
Undertaker promo about having to take on Cm Punk in a submissions match
with Scott Armstrong as the ref and how Long & Punk & Armstrong are
tempting fate by doing that.
Misterio beat Batista by pin and they remained friends after the match.
Batista left for the back and Misterio was attacked by Punk and Dave
made the save.
UT worked a dark match title defense against Punk and looked horrible
and could hardly move. His hip is that bad and the thought now is that
he may have to retire at WM.
+++ ECW THOUGHTS. E. Jackson beat Goldust. Goldust worked like a
veteran and put over Jackson big time but Jackson still has a lot of
work to do and looked green in spots. He has awesome presence and his
clotheslines are stiff as hell. In the end Kozlov hit his finish on
Goldust as well to send the locker room a message. I don't have a
problem with them using Goldust in this fashion but they have to be
careful and promote him as well so when he puts over younger talent it
means something.
Regal & Ryder promo with Ryder sticking it to Regal until the heavy's
came in and then Regal telling Ryder he's beneath him. Good stuff.
Regal's great in this role.
Sheamus promo about how he lost to Shelton Benjamin on Superstars by DQ.
He said Shelton came to WWE ten years ago with incredible talent but
has done nothing with it (that's hilarious considering Shelton never got
a push by the company past a certain level.. gotta love how creative
does this). Sheamus said he was going to the top unlike Benjamin.
Paul Burchill beat Hurricane. The story was that Burchill is going to
prove Hurricane is Helms but then after he won, nothing happened.
Segment with Tatsu & Christian. Christian asked Tatsu if he is ready, no
he asked him, ARE YOU READY??! Oops. Sorry. Yoshi was not answering as
he was focused. He said he was focused and nervous. Christian wanted to
know what he was nervous about and Yoshi started speaking Japanese.
Christian seemed to understand I guess and said Yoshi should be the
number one contender.
Yoshi Tatsu & Christian beat William Regal & Zack Ryder. Ryder turned
on Regal and led to the loss and pin by Christian on Regal.
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