"This past Friday, at the USA Pro Wrestling show at The Elks Lodge in Queens, NY, It was announced that Bam Bam Bigelow is retiring due to much needed back surgery. He forfeited his title and it was put up for grabs in the Sandman vs. Sabu TLC match later on in the night."
That's sad for me to see. Truly a shame to see Bam Bam go, especially since he had so much potential when he first debuted. Much like Big Show today, Bam Bam never truly lived up to his awesome potential and turned into a huge disappointment.
But nonetheless, there are some good memories of Bam Bam Bigelow. What are your memories of the Beast From the East?
For me, it'll always be Bam Bam's unique counter to the Tazmission: falling back and falling right through the ring! It's been a feat that's never been duplicated since.
I remember that for weeks all the old WWF heel managers were saying that they were bringing a monster named Bam Bam Bigelow to the WWF. Fuji, Slick, Heenan, Hart...they all claimed that they had him. Then pictures of him started showing on Superstars. Here was this huge tattooed monster that was going to destroy everyone. I remember as a kid I was freaking out b/c I knew this guy was going to destroy all the faces. However, Oliver Humperdink came out and said that Bam Bam was his. Bam Bam was now instead of a monster heel a monster face. However, as good as he was, he disappeared soon after (apparently due to the fact that he felt he was being held down by management). But, for that short time in the WWF in his first trip there, he was solid gold. Good luck Bam Bam! Maybe you'll end up in Major Payne 2!
I remember his WWF start with the promos. They had his forehead primarily in the shot with really mean eyes staring. His first televised match was a quick dismissal of one of the Russians...Nikolai Volkoff I think...who did a "who do you think you are" promo to make the challenge. That's my entire recollection of Bigelow's WWF tenure.
Bigelow's drop of Taz (the spelling at the time) through the ring was mind-blowing because...where had you ever seen THAT before? We had a PPV party and the room went DEAD silent. Awesome spot. And then they wrestled the next match on the card with the yellow "Do Not Cross" tape around the hole. Hysterical.
Bigelow's tossing of Spike Dudley four rows deep into the crowd at another PPV was also cool. It was a rematch after Spike actually beat Bigelow with his new Acid Drop move. It was Spike's first big ECW win that I can recall.
Bigelow once called himself "wrestling's most expensive jobber". He put a lot of guys over and he was damn cool.
Boy, when you consider Vince's love of big guys, you have to wonder why Bam Bam was never a major player in the WWF. His original run in the 1980's was terribly booked, and his mid-90's run was held back by Kliq politics. I'd put Bam Bam behind only Vader as the best "big man" wrestler ever.
I was born in a manger, like that other guy. You know, he wore a hat?
When I started watching wrestling in 1997, Bam Bam Bigelow wasn't in either of the Big Two.
My first exposure to Bigelow actually occurred in a WWF video game for Genesis, the name of which escapes me at the moment. It was a very arcadey game, and I pretty much sucked with every character other than Bigelow. I used Bigelow's flaming punch to defeat all of my opponents when I played as him, though.
I later saw some footage of him during his WWF days, main-eventing WrestleMania 13 in an infamous match against Lawrence Taylor. But I never actually saw him every week until he started feuding with Goldberg in WCW.
Too bad Bigelow was booked to be more of an annoyance to Goldberg instead of an actual enemy. The feud wasn't kick-started until after Goldberg lost the title. Another piece of brilliant booking by WCW.
“When am I gonna meet someone normal for a change?” --Tommy Vercetti, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
Two-Time, Two-Time Randomly Selected Wiener of the Day, 5/27/02 and 7/3/02
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I used to beat the crap out of everyone with Shawn Micheals and his baseball bat ;)
It's like WWE dangling a shiny gold coin in one hand while giving you an enema with the other, which I'm assuming is quite hard to do, but WWE is pulling it off - SKLOKAZOID
Eke Bammer main-evented 11, not 13. 13 was...sigh...Taker and Sid.
I liked Bammer. His King of the Ring push in '93 was fun, as was his late '93 to early '94 promo about how he has "feelings" which led to him bringing out his "main squeeze". It's just a damn shame that had to be Luna Vachon. I lost 20 bucks swearing up and down that it was going to be either Precious or Baby-Doll.
My best Bam-Bam memory: the original Wrestlemania game for Nintendo. The first Nintendo. The 8-bit system. It had like, 6 guys I think. Andre, Hogan, Savage, Honky Tonk Man, Ted Dibiase and Bammer. One of Bammer's moves was a cartwheel. To a 5-year-old, having the power to make a fat man do a cartwheel on command was both intoxicating and euphoric.
My best quotes from the NOV. 21 Smackdown Recap: -"a bath sponge is a King-Size bed to Rey Mysterio Jr" -"He stands on the apron for the west-coast-pop, a cool move with a very, very homosexual name." -"Through this felled wall we see Crash Holly lying on a table being orally pleasured by the trainer." -"Here comes Benoit! Crisp Benoit! Why do I call him Crisp? Because everything he does is CRISPY CRISP!" -"The shmuck in the Andre suit comes down. They hug. I find myself strangely aroused."
Originally posted by VanillaSkyI remember that for weeks all the old WWF heel managers were saying that they were bringing a monster named Bam Bam Bigelow to the WWF. Fuji, Slick, Heenan, Hart...they all claimed that they had him. Then pictures of him started showing on Superstars. Here was this huge tattooed monster that was going to destroy everyone. I remember as a kid I was freaking out b/c I knew this guy was going to destroy all the faces. However, Oliver Humperdink came out and said that Bam Bam was his. Bam Bam was now instead of a monster heel a monster face. However, as good as he was, he disappeared soon after (apparently due to the fact that he felt he was being held down by management). But, for that short time in the WWF in his first trip there, he was solid gold. Good luck Bam Bam! Maybe you'll end up in Major Payne 2!
And, in the ideas that never made sense department: Sir Oliver Humperdink was a heel manager before arriving in the WWF/E (House of Humperdink). Why they brought him in as a face manager always made no sense to me. And of course, who can ever forget when Bam Bam became a Communist in Texas as a rookie, and changed his name to Crusher Yurkov.
I want you to know, I agree with everything I've just said.
Funny how I never much cared for BBB when he was in the WWF but I'm a huge fan of his work in ECW.
When you ask who my favorite wrestlers are, I'd never mention him. But ask me what my favorite matches are, and he's in more than almost anyone else. Besides the matches with Taz and Spike, which have already been mentioned, one of my top three matches ever is the night Rob Van Dam defeated him to win the TV Title he would go on to hold for a year. I just wish Sabu hadn't interfered but what the hell.
And from the Taz/BBB match, what impressed me more than Taz getting put through the ring was when Taz T-bone Tazplexed him off the elevated ramp onto the floor. I belived that was the night the crowd created the, "_insert name here__'s DEAD!" chant.
Yeah, that and he was in my favorite stable ever, the Triple Threat".
In the late eighties, Jerry Lawler was in the midst of a great MONSTER feud with Austin Idol and Tommy Rich. I rememebr thinking Jerry needed an awesome tag team partner to help him out...
...and suddenly bursting onto the scene was Bam Bam Bigelow. I don't think he was around the mid-south very long. But that was one of my first exposures to Mr. Bigelow.
Oh flaming box of stuff, is there no problem you can't solve?
"This past Friday, at the USA Pro Wrestling show at The Elks Lodge in Queens, NY, It was announced that Bam Bam Bigelow is retiring due to much needed back surgery. He forfeited his title and it was put up for grabs in the Sandman vs. Sabu TLC match later on in the night."
Thus officially making Bam Bam Bigelow the last person to know about his own retirement.
While other "bad-asses" and "tough-guys" have worn pony-tails, earrings, and hair-dye, this guy has gone around with mad-ass tattoos on his skull. He deserves props for that alone. But jobbing to Larry "the crack-head" Taylor shows what a true unseflish pro he is.
"What do you mean 'Parts Unknown'? Are you telling me he doesn't have a social security number so we can track him down? How does he get a paycheck?" - G. Monsoon
"I remember that for weeks all the old WWF heel managers were saying that they were bringing a monster named Bam Bam Bigelow to the WWF. Fuji, Slick, Heenan, Hart...they all claimed that they had him. Then pictures of him started showing on Superstars. Here was this huge tattooed monster that was going to destroy everyone. I remember as a kid I was freaking out b/c I knew this guy was going to destroy all the faces. However, Oliver Humperdink came out and said that Bam Bam was his. Bam Bam was now instead of a monster heel a monster face. However, as good as he was, he disappeared soon after (apparently due to the fact that he felt he was being held down by management)."
My favorite BBB memory too.
DMC
"Well I'm here to tell ya, that as you go out into the world you're gonna find, that you're not gonna amount to JACK...SQUAT!!!" -Matt Foley, motivational speaker
Nobody except ECW (and Japan) ever seemed able to be able to figure out whether to book him as a mid card monster or go the full on main event push. I guess it's hard to be a monster heel only in the mid card though.
My favourite memory of him is seeing some Jap video where he's beating the crap out of everyone and the audience!
Originally posted by Hogan's My DadEke best Bam-Bam memory: the original Wrestlemania game for Nintendo. The first Nintendo. The 8-bit system. It had like, 6 guys I think. Andre, Hogan, Savage, Honky Tonk Man, Ted Dibiase and Bammer. One of Bammer's moves was a cartwheel. To a 5-year-old, having the power to make a fat man do a cartwheel on command was both intoxicating and euphoric.
When he got screwed over by Slick in the first round of the WrestleMania IV title tournament, I remember feeling so sorry for him asa young mark. If he had won, he'd have gotten the bye through to the semifinals to face Savage. Of course, young markish darryl hadn't yet realized that faces never fought faces (unless it was a PPV main event). After that, I kept rooting for Bam Bam to get his revenge but instead he put over the debuting Big Bossman that summer and soon after vanished. I know he went to the NWA but since NWA came on late Friday Night/Early Saturday morning on the ABC affiliate we got back then, WXYZ-TV Detroit, and my bedtime was 10 or so, he may as well have vanished.
Originally posted by cactuspeteWhile other "bad-asses" and "tough-guys" have worn pony-tails, earrings, and hair-dye, this guy has gone around with mad-ass tattoos on his skull. He deserves props for that alone. But jobbing to Larry "the crack-head" Taylor shows what a true unseflish pro he is.
Who the heck is Larry Taylor? I believe he jobbed to Lawrence Taylor at Mania XI
Originally posted by cactuspeteWhile other "bad-asses" and "tough-guys" have worn pony-tails, earrings, and hair-dye, this guy has gone around with mad-ass tattoos on his skull. He deserves props for that alone. But jobbing to Larry "the crack-head" Taylor shows what a true unseflish pro he is.
Who the heck is Larry Taylor? I believe he jobbed to Lawrence Taylor at Mania XI
Larry is short for Lawrence....
Triple H's Theme ----------------------
Time to flame the lame... time to flame the lame
It's all about the game, and how you play it I hunger for control, That why I'm with Stephanie It's all about the lame,and Vince has gotta pay me... I am the lame... you don't want to like me... I want control I used to do Joanie... I am Kev's bitch... But people still hate me I am the lame... and Zenk is going to flame me
Originally posted by cactuspeteWhile other "bad-asses" and "tough-guys" have worn pony-tails, earrings, and hair-dye, this guy has gone around with mad-ass tattoos on his skull. He deserves props for that alone. But jobbing to Larry "the crack-head" Taylor shows what a true unseflish pro he is.
Who the heck is Larry Taylor? I believe he jobbed to Lawrence Taylor at Mania XI
Larry is short for Lawrence....
Ah, really? Ya learn something new every day I guess..