The Checklist: The A-Team (S4 Ep7) “Body Slam”
WrestleMania Week continues here on Bulletproof Action and in this installment of The Checklist we are going to take a look at an episode of The A-Team that was tailor made for this week…
The episode entitled “Body Slam” was the seventh episode of the fourth season. It originally aired on November 12th, 1985 and heavily featured the World Wrestling Federation, which at the time was also on NBC with their monthly Saturday Night’s Main Event specials.
- SYNOPSIS: WWF Champion Hulk Hogan’s favorite charity, a community center for kids in Venice Beach, is getting strong armed by some local criminals. They want to buy the property and they have stopped asking politely. Hulk calls on his old friend B.A. Baracus, who he met while serving in Vietnam, to come to the aid of the community center. Can B.A. and the rest of The A-Team save the day?
The table is set, now let’s see just how A-Team this episode of The A-Team is…
1. Were there any notable guest stars?
As you probably gathered from the synopsis, Hulk Hogan makes a guest appearance. This came in the same year that Mr. T actually made some appearances for the WWE (then WWF) and actually formed a tag team with The Hulkster to square off against the tandem of “Rowdy” Roddy Piper and Paul “Mr. Wonderful” Orndorff in the main event of the first ever WrestleMania in March of 1985. Other wrestling superstars like Big John Studd, Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat, The British Bulldogs, Cpl. Kirchner, Bobby “The Brain” Heenan and “Mean” Gene Okerlund also made appearances.
An honorable mention also goes to Michael Gregory, who appeared in some major action blockbusters through out his career including Robocop and Total Recall. 1/1
2. Was Hannibal in disguise?
At the beginning of the episode, while B.A., Face and Murdoch are enjoying the wrestling excitement of Hulk Hogan vs. Big John Studd, Hannibal disguises himself as a vendor so he can keep his eyes open for the military police. Later, when it is time to confront Papa Kotero, the man who wants to buy the land that the community center is on (his partner back in the day buried gold on the property), Hannibal and Face both pose as F.B.I. agents. 2/2
3. Were any catchphrases used?
Surprisingly, Hannibal did not say “I love it when a plan comes together!” Hannibal doesn’t even appear in the final scene, which is commonly where that phrase gets used. We did get some classic Hulk Hogan “train, say your prayers and eat your vitamins” but this is an A-Team Checklist, so that doesn’t count. 2/3
4. Was the casualty count zero?
There wasn’t a ton of gun fire in this one, but it only takes one shot to kill someone, however nobody was shot or killed in this episode of The A-Team. We did see some good old fashioned fist fights and some defenestration courtesy of the Hulkster. For those of you not in the know, defenestration is the act of throwing someone or something out of a window. 3/4
5. Did Col. Decker make an appearance?
With an assist from the F.B.I. not only does Decker make an appearance, he also for a brief moment in time captures The A-Team. This is the equivalent of that one time that Wile E. Coyote caught the Road Runner, but like the Coyote, Decker took too long to finalize the deal and The A-Team (thanks to Murdoch) was able to escape custody. Not sure why Decker or the F.B.I. didn’t figure they were heading to the Los Angeles Sports Arena to watch Hulk battle Greg “The Hammer” Valentine, but that’s neither here nor there.
The wrestling nerd in me would like to point out that the actual match footage from Hogan/Valentine was from a match the two had at the world famous Madison Square Garden and not the Los Angeles Sports Arena as depicted in the show. But the match that kicks off the show, that was said to be taking place in San Diego, did actually take place at the L.A. Sports Arena.
And since it is WrestleMania Week, I should also point out that the L.A. Sports Arena played host to both WrestleMania 2 and WrestleMania VII. 4/5
- Final Score = 4/5 (80%)
