El Monstro vs Valenzuela.mpg

[DBADD]

Any video el monster vs Andre ?

[DBADD]

Thank you, this is classic!! I've been waiting to see the Monster in action since 1983.

[dewilder11]

I didn't know this stuff existed before Russo

[BHoz77]

The Monster vs the ECW Zombie would have been a match for the ages.

[chemochinga]

That's Cornelio "TONY" Hernandez from Phoenix, Arizona.

[MrCarl220]

@chemochinga He played a inmate in the movie 'Losin' It'

[elc1960]

This was a sad ending for the NWA Hollywood promotion. They went from The Sheik and Freddie Blassie tearing each other up and packing the place to the rafters, to a guy in a Frankenstein mask moving like his feet were anchored in concrete. This, boys and girls, is what they mean when they say "throwing something at the wall to see if it sticks". Holy shitballs, this was bad!

[BrianS]

They claimed he was built in a lab! The bastards!

[excelsior331]

Understand although it is awesome to watch now. When this came to LA it was pre-sports entertainment and it really turned a lot of fans off.

[taylorcorney]

Check out what appears to be a fan convention. They look thrilled, don't they?

Also listen for someone to call out 4 minutes to go at the 3:40 mark.

[taylorcorney]

Check out what appears to be a fan convention. They look thrilled, don't they?

[HELPGODHELPMYFACE]

finest dropkick and roll in the business.

[MsLuckyPierre]

THANK YOU Jelly Beans for posting this gem! Actually, this was mid 1981... The Monster turned babyface around October. I saw The Monster live many times, and have seen no video footage to look back fondly on! TOO MUCH! I've told so many friends about The Monster, and everybody wanted to see that the gimmick really happened!

[MrDavidBix]

@MsLuckyPierre And check out Goliath's awesome lilac New Japan jacket!

[meekrob]

VQ on this is awesome, where's it from?

[DaveInOCNJ]

Even though kayfabe was still alive & well back then, and I was just a 10yo who believed everything he saw in wrestling...something still reeked of "fake" to me when I saw The Monster wrestle on tv.

And btw...first chokeslam ever at 3:10 ?

[gregr2]

Honestly, I want to see McMahon try to top this. He hasn't yet and probably never will.

[kacilover05]

Boy, was that like a time trip. Watching the G.Golith working was always something.

At the old San Bernardino arena in Calif he could turn a crowd on like nobody's "biz"

On some Sunday nites he could get the whole building in an uproar.

Frank M

[andymann05]

I was just glad that the monster finally caught the guy.I was getting bored watching him throw drop kicks and roll away all the time.

[timjdodson]

My trainer The Great Goliath and Tony Hernandez as the Monster. This is what I grew up watching and still wanted to wrestle. Amazing. Ken Farber as referee, too.

[gristleizer]

Ahh....and I was thinking for years that I had only had a nightmare about watching The Monster wrestler. Thanks for posting this...finally proof that someone wasn't lacing my Cookie Crisp with acid back in the day.

[jellybeans178]

Yep, This was the time wrestling was going on the back burner in L.A

[coconutsavage]

This was when I knew that the proud tradition of the NWA territory in L.A. was over and that the last days of that franchise had come.

[DavidFullam]

OMG, I heard about this! Who was the man under the mask? Was this before the Memphis Frankenstein?

[MrDavidBix]

@DavidFullam After. Tony Hernandez was The Monster here.

[excelsior331]

Wow I have not seen this in years, this is the angle that runied LA for me. ANYMORE???

[BaronTurco]

@excelsior331 It certainly helped. I wrestled there very briefly during the dying days and LeBell still had booker Tom Renesto fire me, because I was working for Ripper Leone one night a week in Bakersfield (and making more than I did for a week from LeBell). Everybody in the dressing room seemed to hate each other during the dying days. LOL

[excelsior331]

@BaronTurco hey Baron I heard LA lost its KCOP program because of a Greg Valentine promo any truth. Funniest part of the Monster thing was when Andre knocked his mask off and wouldn't let Hernandez put it back on.

[BaronTurco]

@excelsior331 I've heard that as well, but don't know for sure if it's true. When I got to L.A. they were already on KMEX (in Spanish) only. I remember Sal Lothario being El Monstro at the end and hating doing it. I'm sure Hernandez wasn't crazy about it either. At one point they brought in Lars Anderson as the "Bionic Wrestler, who supposedly had a bionic arm that he would use illegally. Lars hated the gimmick and they low payoffs so much that he left the territory after a couple of weeks.

[coconutsavage]

@BaronTurco Yeah, Lars had a guy at ringside in a white lab coat with a clipboard/computer who was presented as Dr. Manfred Crystal. It was an AWFUL gimmick and I remember it ended quickly. The death throes of a once great franchise.

[elc1960]

@BaronTurco People seem to have very little good to say about Mike LeBell, but they pretty much universally praise Mike's brother Gene, saying that he was a "give you the shirt off his back" type of guy. I know Gene was good friends with George Reeves, and was even one of Reeves' pallbearers back in '59. He was in many movies and TV shows. (I think he was the guy who wrestled Herman Munster in that episode of "The Munsters" - was that where they got the idea for this gimmick?)