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This week saw the passing of one of professional wrestling’s icons, Captain Lou Albano. Starting as a wrestler, I first knew him during his managerial days. Yet some others will know him for his portrayal of Mario, Nintendo’s mascot, on the Super Mario Brothers Super Show, where he voiced the character in animated segments and acting in live sketches alongside Danny Wells (Luigi). Tonight, however, I wish to showcase his wrestling persona, by bringing you a movie that I feel is underrated. It’s not going to win any awards, and wasn’t trying to. It was just meant to be a fun flick for wrestling fans.
YouTube is hosting the movie, thanks to “Impact” (whomever they are), but they’re not allowing embedding. That’s disappointing, but at least you can see the movie, right? So click the movie poster below (image obtained from this site) to check out Body Slam!
click to watch tonight's Showcase
(I’m not going to get the chance to screencap this. Too bad, I had a good “Starbuck” joke for the scene where Harry was wearing a dress. Also, as of March 12, 2011, the link is currently not working because it’s “private”, which I assume means a pay-per-view deal or something like that because why would the company have it up?)
Nobody watches Body Slam for the story, and if you do, you may be disappointed. It’s fun and all, but if your not a wrestling fan there’s not much there for you. It’s your standard “sports celebrity wanna-bes and their manager try to rise from obscurity and learn something about themselves”. In this case, the “sport” is pro wrestling, which is more like an ad-lib stunt show with a predetermined result. (However, if you think these guys are just a bunch of fakers with no real skill, try being one for a while. You wouldn’t survive half of what these guys put themselves through. I wouldn’t even be that lucky.) This movie was designed with wrestling fans in mind, back when the business didn’t take themselves so seriously. More on that in a moment.
They may not have gotten the “A” list of the acting world, but some favorites snuck their way in. I really only know Tanya Roberts because anyone who likes heavy metal videos talks about her dancing on some car. I don’t follow the genre. Barry Gordon has played a number of supporting characters over the years, but I know him most as the voice of my favorite Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, Donatello, in the original cartoon. Billy Barty, the midget little person whatever term is “PC” these days (like I care) wrestling analyst, is in a similar boat. He never played a Ninja Turtle, but he actually did more voice acting than I ever knew about. Charles Nelson Reilly may be most known for the game show Match Game, once you see him in action, you never forget him. Dirk Benedict, of course, plays the same kind of character he always does, but he’s good at it. The only surprise was a young Kelly Martin as Roddy Piper/”Quick” Rick Roberts’ niece, Missy. Even more surprising is this wasn’t her first gig.
However, we’re here to see the wrestlers. Rowdy Roddy Piper is mostly known for two things in the world: pro wrestling, and John Carpenter’s They Live. (Or to be more precise, this scene.) Sam Fatu is more well known as the Tonga Kid or as Tama, one half of the tag team “The Islanders”. The odd part is seeing them as a tag team here when their wrestling personas didn’t get along. There are plenty of other cameos throughout the movie. Try and spot them all.
(My biggest wonder is if “Kick” was a real band or not.)
However, we’re all here tonight to see Captain Lou in action. He’s actually had a minor acting career. In addition to Mario Mario, he’s also known for appearing in music videos, playing the father of Cindy Lauper in a number of her videos. Even though he’s using a different name (Captain Lou Murano…not a big stretch there, huh?), this is most definitely the Captain Lou we all knew and loved. He was a presence in professional wrestling for many, many years, being inducted into the WWF (now WWE) Hall of Fame in 1996.
You won’t see things like this these days. Nowadays, professional wrestling takes itself too seriously. (Which is odd since they now admit to be “sports entertainment” and not a full sport like its cousin, boxing, or Olympic/collegiate style wrestling.) Between that, the more adult themes and language, and just not being able to tell who the heroes are (thanks in large part to the aping of the “hardcore” style (although the Associated Press reports the WWE may be returning to its “family friendly” roots). It hasn’t been fun for me in years, and most of the action seems to take place outside of the ring nowadays, rather than inside fighting over the titles.
And so we bid farewell to one of the great names in sports entertainment. Wear a rubber band in his memory.
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