The No Holds Barred Angle

[The Brain]

In the summer of 1989 Vince McMahon executive produced No Holds Barred which was Hulk Hogan’s first starring role. WWE’s hyping of their movies today is nothing compared to the hype No Holds Barred got in 1989. I hate the cliché ‘shoving it down our throats’ but if there was ever a time to use the term it would have been then. They even went so far as to make an angle out of the movie that lasted throughout the second half of the year.

The story was Zeus (played by Tiny Lister) and Hulk Hogan did not get along on set. There was a disagreement as to who was the true star of the movie and Zeus’s psychotic personality was often hard to control. After finishing the movie (in which of course Hogan came out on top) Zeus headed to the WWF to prove who the tougher man really was. Any way you look at it this was a strange angle but what made it more strange is that Lister continued the role of Zeus while in the WWF suggesting that the Zeus we saw in the movie was Lister’s real personality.

Zeus was booked as a monster that was invincible. He no sold just about every offensive move inflicted on him and because he had zero wrestling experience his repertoire was limited to chokes and double ax handles. If ever there was a guy who got by on looks and hype it was Zeus. Zeus wasn’t supposed to be a wrestler though. His entire purpose was to sell the movie. He formed an alliance with Randy Savage (because he needed an excellent worker to carry the load during a match) and challenged Hulk Hogan and Brutus Beefcake to a match at SummerSlam 89. After the highly anticipated SummerSlam match Zeus’s services were purchased by Ted Dibiase for Survivor Series. Eventually Zeus and Savage had a steel cage rematch with Hogan and Beefcake and Zeus disappeared from the WWF forever.

What did you think about this angle? It really was strange. Would it have been better if Lister just played himself instead of the Hollywood created Zeus? I could believe that Lister and Hogan may have had problems on the set of No Holds Barred and maybe Lister felt he could succeed on Hogan’s turf. On the other hand wrestling has always been about characters and it’s not like Lister was a household name. I suppose the WWF felt they could get away with portraying Lister’s personality as the psychotic Zeus. If Zeus had been played by a better known actor this angle wouldn’t have worked.

What did you think about the main event scene being dominated by a Hollywood actor for the sole purpose of hyping a movie? I’m sure it is the nature of the IWC to hate on something like that while claiming that someone more deserving should have had that spot. While I understand that point of view you have to keep in mind that the ultimate goal is to put on an entertaining show that people want to see. I can’t provide the financial details but from an entertainment aspect SummerSlam 89 was awesome in my opinion.

 

[Defekt]

I think it worked for the time. The WWE was very cartoonish in the 80's and 90's, and back then the fans would accept that the real Zeus was the same as the movie version.

Now days the WWE would probably attempt to portray a storyline like this in a more realistic way, but back then it wasn't necessary.

I can see why they would want to hype the movie. Hogan was a huge star and his was the WWE's first film. Although it ended up not happening, the WWE stood to make alot of money if the movie was successful.

As for a Hollywood actor dominating the main event scene, in this case I don't have a problem with it. Hogan feuded with a ton of huge guys who couldn't wrestle, and most people probably thought Zeus was a wrestler anyway.

One thing I've always found funny about Zeus is that despite being booked as an invincible monster, he actually lost every WWF match he had.

 

[Monkey_Mania]

Honestly I felt the whole angle was a bit presumptuous. I realize as wrestling fans that our intelligence gets insulted from time to time, but to take something out of a movie, and try to have it make sense the way they did was just Trash. Novel idea but in the long run it just didn't make that much sense. If they did this, then why didn't Jacob Goodnight make his on screen debut? He was better then Zues.

 

[George Steele's Barber]

I don't mind anyone in the ring as long as they can either perform convincingly or don't overstay their welcome.

I mostly enjoyed the angle. However, even though I was still a kid I had a hard time with the actor using his character's persona. It would have made more sense to sell him as Tim "Tiny" Lister, an ego-maniac with tremendous athletic ability that wanted to show the WWF that he was tougher than all of their stars, even their biggest star. Lister was a physical specimen with a lazy eye that screamed dominate heel. The feud was memorable for what WWF was trying to do but it was far from great mostly due to Zeus and his inability to perform in the ring.

 

[Richard Blonoff]

The hype from it worked at first. SummerSlam actually had more PPV buys and a higher attendance than Mania that year. The numbers for Survivor Series dropped off by a decent number though. The actual movie doubled its budget in ticket sales and opened at #2 behind The Last Crusade. Vince spent so much money promoting the movie though that he barely broke even when it all came out

The actual angle worked better at the time than it would be today. I think it would have worked better if they had just had Lister play himself. Plus I think it would have played out better if he has any skills. IIRC in his Survivor Series match all he did really did was get mad, shove the ref and get DQed and in his match at SummerSlam and the movie/PPV combo he basically just got beat up by Hogan while Beefcake and Savage put on decent matches

 

[Headman]

I was 10 so I loved it. Watching it now, I still enjoy it actually. Savage was a good enough wrestler to make up for Zeus' lack of training. They did a good job protecting him the entire angle by putting him in multi-man matches. And he was used sparingly so it's not as if we had to endure too much of the "Human wrecking machine". And honestly, Summer Slam 89's tag match, the survivor series match and the cage match were not horrible matches. So all in all, I liked it. Good times!

 

[Cookie14]

I think this was a fued ahead of its time, but was also carried out slightly wrong as well.

Just imagine, if you will, an action film starring a small time actor with an impressive physique fighting against one of wrestlings biggest stars. Of course, the wrestling star comes out on top (in the film). But then the actor, as himself, starts appearing on wrestling shows battling against the wrestler in no-holds barred matches to see who is the better man 'when there is no script'. Eventually, the wrestler (the good guy in the film) defeats the actor, causing him to leave.

It's like a sequel, but as a weekly drama as opposed to another movie.....

 

[HBsam31]

I at the time was 9, and even then I think i just took it as a continuation of the movie. By then I had read this small kids book I found in the library simply called Hulk Hogan so I knew his real name was Terry Bollea (spelling?) I also read the credits after the movie and saw Zeus was played by Lister. I didn't see the two as being any different. To me it was still two guys with stage names wrestling a match, mind you I still thought it was a real fight and the outcomes were not predetermined, but the older people in my life were beginning to tell me it was all "fake". That being said I really enjoyed the angle, my dad took me to see the movie, and was nervous when I saw zeus standing outside the cage with the shoulder pads on at sat night's main event. (am pretty sure that was the first time he was seen). I saw him as a real threat to Hogan who was my favorite at the time. I didn't really see anything strange about it at the time at all and enjoyed each match he was in.

 

[THTRobtaylor]

As a slightly older fan then, nearing my teens the only thing I found dumb was renaming Hogan in the movie if Vince was actually making it. Sure they needed the Brother to kidnap etc but to me it made no sense calling him "Rip" when Hogan had played himself in the A-Team and gotten involved in plots. Zeus in the WWF was what it was, a gimmick and a good way to keep Savage strong after losing the belt. Zeus himself was awful in the ring, but by then so was Andre who was too banged up to take the role... Personally I'd have preferred to have had Ted DiBiase as Savage's partner...and Jake Roberts as Hogan's...

 

[Arsenal]

I thought it was great, but I was 9 years old at the time. I don't have too many bad memories of that era, but maybe that's because of nostalgia. Larger than life characters and creative storylines, even if they aren't super realistic, are entertaining to me.

Zeus looked like a legit badass, and since I always rooted for the bad guys, I wanted him to end Hulkamania. The only thing I was disappointed about was that Hogan came out on top again!

 

[THTRobtaylor]

By then I think they had it in mind that it was Warrior who was going to end Hogan's title reign, so Zeus was an opponent who left no problems by losing and got them through to the Rumble, which was when the Warrior/Hogan stuff started. They used Mr. Perfect as a stop gap feud for Hogan and Brutus, so it served a purpose to create a new Midcard star too.

To be honest I was more disappointed with how 1990 played out than the No Holds Barred feud... nothing post Mania worked... and a lot of bad calls were made.

 

[legendkiller1979]

I wonder how I would fee about this if I had been old enough to know better. Since I wasn't, I thought was amazing. This is my earliest vivid memory of watching the WWF.
(My first memory is of Ted Dibiase and Andre the Giant attacking Randy Savage in the summer of 1988) I wanted so badly to get summerslam 89 on pay per view because, for me, the WWF did a great job of making zeus unstoppable. I didn't think Hulk Hogan could lose but I didn't see how he could hurt zeus after smashing him with a chair and zeus smiled at him. (If you look back at the video, Hogan swung the chair completely flat, a shot that wouldn't have hurt at all) Let me say again that I was not old enough to know any better. We have all been there. With that said, this will always be special to me since this is when I first started watching wrestling. A true classic.

 

[The Idiot]

I was 9 at the time so I didnt understand workrate or any of that stuff. Zeus scared the shit out of me...the character was a perfect foil to Hogan. His no-selling made him look invincible...but if he was around today he wouldnt last a second and would be absolutely murdered by the IWC lol. Zeus was perfect for the time during the "cartoon era." Being a young kid all I cared about was my guys winning, didnt care or understand "quality matches."

By the way, since were on the topic of SS '89, big shout out to the Rockers/Rougeaus 6 man tag!