Brainwaves: Game Changer

I could probably expound upon the virtues of the movie Predator from now until the day I die. In my opinion it is one of the best action movies ever made. I have seen it countless times and if it were on right now, I’d probably stop typing and watch it.

But recently while watching an episode of Prime Time Wrestling on the WWE Network, a light bulb went off in my head.

Prime Time Wrestling is #1 on my list where wrestling programming is concerned. And it’s not because I was sitting on the edge of my seat watching Scott McGhee and Johnny K-9 do battle, it was because of the hosts of the program, Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby “The Brain” Heenan.

Let me give you a little history lesson about this show.

The show premiered on the USA Network on January 1st, 1985. The original hosts were Jack Reynolds (from my hometown of Cleveland) and Jesse “The Body” Ventura. Eventually Gorilla Monsoon would take over for Reynolds. Monsoon and Ventura were a proven combination having called the very first WrestleMania together as well as working with each other on the syndicated All-Star Wrestling.

But in the spring of 1986, Ventura stepped away from the world of professional wrestling and headed south to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico to film Predator and that opened up the door for a game changing moment.

Now it didn’t happen right away. Ventura was replaced by “The Mouth of the South” Jimmy Hart for a few weeks, then Lord Alfred Hayes filled in for a week. But on April 28th, 1986, Bobby “The Brain” Heenan sat next to the Gorilla for the first time and professional wrestling history was changed forever.

The combination of Monsoon and Heenan was pure magic. There have been other great broadcasting duos in wrestling (Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler comes to mind), but none of them can even touch Monsoon and Heenan.

Ventura would eventually return to wrestling and joined Vince McMahon as the color commentator on their top syndicated show at the time, Superstars of Wrestling. He would also work with McMahon on NBC’s Saturday Night’s Main Event and he was the color commentator for all WWE pay-per-view events until his exit in 1990.

So in addition to all the wonderful lines and scenes the movie Predator gave to the world. If not for Predator, wrestling fans may never have experienced the broadcasting combination of Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan. Those two gentleman may have never become the close friends that they did.

Predator you were truly a game changer and I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

RANDOM THOUGHTS

• Welcome to the Jungle: While it is not the norm to recommend non-action movies on the site, I just spent the bulk of this post talking about professional wrestling so why not continue to go against the grain? I would recommend the comedy, Welcome to the Jungle, currently streaming on Netflix. Now there is a pretty big action element in the film and that would be none other than Jean-Claude Van Damme himself. JCVD does a great job in his comedic role and I have to say the PowerPoint presentation he delivers at the beginning of the film is the most entertaining PowerPoint presentation I’ve ever seen. As an added bonus the Van Damme kids are in the film too!

• Happy Birthday Lorenzo: Today is Lorenzo Lamas’ 57th birthday. You may have seen Chad’s review of the Lorenzo Lamas film, The Rage, posted earlier today. While researching Lorenzo’s IMDB filmography, I came across a breakdancing movie he did in 1984 titled Body Rock. I’ve never seen it, but from the photos I’d suggest that Lorenzo, who may be a great Snake Eater and an even greater Renegade, leave the poppin’ and lockin’ to a true professional like Adolfo “Shabba Doo” Quinones. He’s the real!