The (very) loose ties between MST3K and Minnesota-flavored pro wrestling go back to the KTMA days, when Mick Karch’s Saturday Night at Ringside show was bumped back to make room for a new show idea local comic Joel Hodgson had just hatched. And in the just-released S13E1, I couldn’t help but notice the vintage AWA patch on the blazer of “Mean” Jonah Heston.
My personal favorite MN wrestling reference was when someone would receive a blow, and Tom would pipe in “That’s gotta hurt. I don’t care what your background is”. AWA fans would recognize that as one of announcer Rodger Kent’s pet phrases.
This is sort of a post that also belongs in the “MST3K In Other Media” thread, but the “match” between “The Huckster” and “The Nacho Man” on the pre-game show of WWF Wrestlemania XXII was done in MST3K silhouette.
This was in an era where WWF was losing the ratings battle to rival WCW. Here were Vince McMahon and Jerry Lawler riffing a bad-on-purpose parody of a WCW match in an MST3K theater (incidentally on a “Hollywood” themed Wrestlemania).
The humor is petty and tasteless so I won’t embed here. In spite of the nod to MST3K, it wasn’t one of the company’s better moments. But the fact someone convinced the notoriously out-of-touch McMahon to do this in 1996 is borderline miraculous.
Can I just say… I think it interesting to see a MST3K riff session where the “experiment” would just be a compilation of bad/crazy/weird wrestling promos/interviews.
That said… Can you riff on top of Steiner Math?
And what hasn’t been riffed on the debut of the Shockmaster?
Watched the opening scene of “Robot Holocaust” this afternoon and there were two mentions of the WWF and Bobby “The Brain” Heenan (who was himself a legend in the AWA).
Safe to say rasslin’s been a staple since Season 1!
One that jumps to mind is Servo’s “The birth of the World Wrestling Federation!” from The Unearthly.
And the end fight from Godzilla Vs. Megalon was built around the scaffolding of pro-wrestling commentary.
Tom: “So, what will Godzilla bring to this fight?”
Joel: “He’ll bring the legend that is Godzilla!”
Crow: “Yep, he’s the policeman; I don’t always agree with his methods, but I respect him.”
Crow: “He’s got a tree! He’s got a tree!! This is not the Godzilla we know; he’s fighting dirty!”
Servo (as Jet Jaguar): “A tree? That is not like you!”
Joel (as Godzilla): “You’re right, it isn’t even the right club for this hole. Now let’s win it our way!”
Joel: “This is what it all boils down to, a little game of life that we call character.”
Crow: “Yeah, even if Godzilla doesn’t win this fight, he’s still aces in my book!”
I love in Godzilla vs Megalon where they ask what Godzilla is doing now and the response is that he became a used car salesman.
I’m not 100% certain this is the case, but I believe this was a reference to Greg Gagne, son of AWA owner and top babyface Verne Gagne. Greg was never as successful as his father and when the AWA wasn’t able to compete with WWF, not long before the episode, he became a car salesman for Minnesota Mitsubishi.
Tonight’s short, “Pipeline To The Clouds”, ends with (I think) Servo shouting “DAM!” in a very Ron Simmons way…I wonder if this is indeed the case (and, futhermore, if it was also Devon’s idea)
…
One of the MST3K puppeteers spent several years as a ringside/backstage interviewer for Championship Wrestling from Hollywood. I don’t remember who though.
Also, there’s the riff from Final Sacrifice during the scene where Rowsdower is trying to get away from the cult members:
“No one leaves the World Wrestling Federation”