This day in wrestling history is one that changed commentary forever and introduced us to the first truly great color commentator who happened to be a heel to boot.
Jesse Ventura was the epitome of heel commentary as well as the first, and he’s one of the best ever with Bobby “The Brain” Heenan and Jerry “The King” Lawler.
Jesse had been one of the best and most flamboyant wrestlers at the time, but a series of injuries and illnesses ended his in ring career.
A fresh idea
At the time, wrestling commentary was pretty straight forward. There was the play by play and the color commentators like in any sport, but Vince McMahon had an idea for a twist and he knew who would be perfect for the part.
Special thanks to @awrestlinghistorian for the following excerpt.
“I never got my matches with Hogan. I guess I must have lost about a million dollars on that deal. It was a chance of a lifetime, gone. I was stuck at home recuperating, face-to-face with he fact that even if I was able to get back in the ring after this, there would eventually come a day when I couldn’t wrestle anymore. It’s a traumatic moment for any professional athlete to face. What do you do when it’s over? What happens when your body can’t perform anymore? What do you put on your resume? Where to you go from here?
“Now, long before this, even before I realized to what depths I was getting shafted by wrestling’s powers that be, I had already been making plans for the inevitable day when I had to move on. But what I had come up with on my own, before the blood clots took up residence in my lungs, would never have taken me where I went next.
“One afternoon when I was pretty close to being fully recovered from the emboli, I got a call from Vince McMahon. (This was before I sued him, remember.) He said, ‘I have an idea. There’s never ben a bad guy on the microphone. Somebody who will do color commentating and side with the villains. Do you think you could do it?’ I said, ‘Sure I can.’ And that’s how I started making my transition from the mat to the microphone. Out of that adversity came my broadcasting career.” – Jesse Ventura, I Ain’t Go Time to Bleed book.
Jesse made his debut as a heel commentator on All Star Wrestling using every trick in the book to get heat from the fans.
He argued with Vince and Gorilla Monsoon when the timing was right, and insulted face wrestlers in ways that wouldn’t be appropriate today.
I have plenty of fond memories of Jesse in action, and somewhere there’s Gorilla Monsoon’s voice saying, “Will you stop?”
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