Don Muraco

Right on.

And as we're recording, it's the 77th birthday of Don Morocco.

This show won't come out until about a little over a week after that.

But what do you think about Don Morocco's LJN figure with that black shirt and magnificent Morocco on it?

3.5.

And how about the macho man, Randy Savage?

I'll tell you, as wrong as this may sound, I'll tell you what we finally had to do.

There was, like, Bobby Orton, Morocco, Fuji.

We brought Bret Hart into it, myself, and, oh, Adrian, you know, and a couple names that kind of...

What we finally had to do, because there was so much trouble, is every night, somebody would pick the... would surrender their room.

When Vince and Hogan first started their play in the WWF, They couldn't get anybody over Shnuka.

He was so over.

So what they did is they put Shnuka in a cage match against Morocco.

And one of the most fantastic things I've ever seen.

"Oh my God, everyone knows Hulk Hogan." "Superfly Jimmy Snuka." He says, "Everybody knows Superfly Jimmy Snuka." So, you know, I, I always use that as my barometer, but everybody obviously knows him.

One of the all-time greats, just, just synonymous with WWF, synonymous with the cage, synonymous with Don Muraco.

There's so many different things with Superfly, but what was he like really? I mean, uh, obviously you're his son.

What was he like at home? What is the, you know, the real Superfly like?

Peter Maivia, very important figure, generations before The Rock emerged as one of the biggest stars in the industry.

Of course, add in Roman and The Usos and Nia Jax continuing that lineage of Pacific Island representation at the highest level, and Paul Levesque specifically acknowledged Don Muraco, Hawaiian wrestling legend, on this radio interview.

And for WWE, there's obvious promotional advantage for emphasizing those connections.

We see The Bloodline piece has been essential to their storytelling for the longest time.

Died at 51 years old in 1985.

Wrestling great, "The Magnificent" Muraco, Don Muraco, was born today in 1949.

He is 77 years old.

Joe Perry was born today in 1950.

Well, he would then leave WCW, where he would go international, appearing in Australia, Europe, and Japan.

Uh, one of the most notable things was, uh, he would win the American Wrestling Federation Heavyweight Championship in Australia in March of '93, defeating one Don Muraco.

Uh, after touring Europe, he would also make an appearance for New Japan Pro Wrestling, and, uh, he would then move on in 1993 to 1994, he would appear for the now WWE acquired Triple A. Um, he would make his debut in '93, and became in a, involved in a major storyline with Konnan.

His Mexican run would give him the opportunity to work in front of a very different audience, and in a promotion that was becoming increasingly international in its appeal.

Yeah.

You know, like he's got that trip down memory lane and photos mean a lot to Uncle Max where, you know, my collection, like Uncle Max is tied to me getting into wrestling because he was watching WrestleMania 4 and I was living with him at the time as mom had passed and Don Morocco came out and he's laughing with his big laugh.

I got his laugh on film today and it made me so happy.

He was laughing at Adora.

And he loved Morocco because he's a beach bum.

And Uncle Max lives in Frankston, which is a beach town.

And Uncle Max just thought it was hilarious.

I didn't get from Don Morocco in hindsight that he's a beach bum.

He had Orndorff, Dr.

D, David Schultz, Morocco, the Max Superstar, Greg the Hammer, Valentine, Roddy Piper.

um bob orton eventually i mean you're just awesome guys they're also an iron chic rematch so you just had all these awesome guys if they're awesome guys even kamala at that point too in that year so just legendary and you had that stacked up here for warrior basically at haku And then you went back to Roode.

So you didn't really have many guys that was lined up and a lot of heels, a lot of dragons for the Warrior to slay as world champion.

I enjoyed the segments I think, and that, that was where I stood anyway.

Yeah, I mean it's, that it was the next iteration of, you know, Piper's Pit 'cause obviously Piper was gone and that really never came back and if you go back even earlier than that you had the Body Shop with Jesse in like '85 in the Canadian markets and then, and then Magnificent Moments which is highly underrated 'cause I, I've, I've a big mark for Don Muraco just even though at that point he had ballooned up so much.

Just Don Muraco in general is definitely, uh-

The hoses man, the hoses.

[laughs] Uh, at that point, you know, the blue tints did flare and, you know-