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Traina Thoughts: One of the Best Things About the WWF in the '80s Were the Heel Gimmicks
1. Watching my favorite sports morning show Wednesday—Good Morning Football—I saw co-host Kyle Brandt bust out a Rick Rude impression while the cast was talking about wrestlers who would be good ambassadors for NFL teams.
This made me think of how freaking great Rude's gimmick was back in the day. As a kid in the '80s, you hated the heels, but you were still riveted to the TV every time Rude came to the ring and would perform his, "What I'd like right now, is to have all the fat, out-of-shape pigs to keep the noise down while I take my robe off," routine. It was the perfect heel gimmick and it had nothing to do with his opponent or a finishing move. It was just a simple tactic to get "heat" as they say in the wrestling business.
So, since everybody loves a list, here are the five best heel gimmick moves to generate heat from '80s WWF wrestlers.
5. George "The Animal" Steele eats the turnbuckle during his matches. When you were a kid, you actually thought this was a vicious move that would cause serious damage to the oppoent Steele would slam into the exposed turnbuckle.
4. The Iron Shiek and Nikolai Volkoff sing the Russian national anthem before their matches.
3. Jake "The Snake" Roberts takes Damien out of his bag and taunts the crowd and opponent with the python.
2. Ted DiBiase offers fans the chance to perform random tasks for cash before thrwating their efforts and not paying up.
1. Rick Rude's disrobing while insulting the crowd. The fans ate this up each and every time. It was the perfect gimmick.
2. The newest SI Media Podcast features a conversation with comedian Bill Burr, who was simply hilarious during the 60-minute chat. Burr riffed on everything from sports fans who get into arguments with friends to why he can't get into soccer to why he hates touchdown celebrations to Tom Brady. He also discussed the state of comedy, how the politically correct climate affects him and much more. You can listen to the podcast below or download it on iTunes.
3. Brilliant move by LeBron to tweet this so his absence from the Christmas party seems legit.
4. Russell Westbrook explained his new "rock the baby" celebration to Jimmy Fallon Tuesday night and it was pretty great. “I’m pretty big for my position, and I would say I’m probably stronger than other guys at my position," Westbrook said, "so when I have smaller guys on me, you have to treat them like babies.”
5. From the "it's better to be lucky than good" department, Utah's Joe Ingles threw an alley-oop pass that ended up being a three-pointer Tuesday night.
6. Bears quarterback Chase Daniel has moves.
7. RANDOM YOUTUBE VIDEO OF THE DAY: PETA came out with this ridiculous request to clean up our language when it comes to animals.
For some reason, this reminded me of the Sopranos scene when Tony kills Ralphie after Ralphie questions Tony for being so into a horse.
Traina Thoughts is the best of the Internet, plus musings by SI.com writer, Jimmy Traina. Get the link to a new Traina's Thoughts each day by following on Twitter and liking on Facebook. Catch up on previous editions of Traina Thoughts right here.And make sure to listen to and subscribe to the SI Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina.
IN CLOSING: Just because the Redskins said they considered signing Colin Kaepernick doesn't make it true. Personally, I don't believe it for a second.
