As a fan of Wrestling I recently enjoyed re-watching the 1994 WWF King of the Ring Pay Per View event on VHS. It stands out as a great WWF PPV show for a number of reasons - Owen Hart winning the tournament being one of them. But the best part of it in my mind is that one of the commentators for the event was a Baltimore Colts American Football Legend, one Art Donovan. The fact was he knew very little about professional wrestling, the WWF or the wrestlers involved in the show. This, combined with one of his fellow commentators, WWE Hall of Famer Gorilla Monsoon, ignoring his questions for most of the show. For fans of wrestling (and Wrestlecrap 'quality' stuff) then I highly recommend you dig out a copy of the show.
If you've got 12 minutes to spare/waste then check out this YouTube video showing the 'highlights' of Art Donovan's WWF commentating career!
After watching the tape I headed online for more info on the event, why Art was booked, and who exactly was Art Donovan! My search led me to a number of sites, one of which is the brilliant "How Much Does This Guy Weigh?" blog by Art0Donnell. The name of the author of the site is a play on words based on Gorilla Monsoon's incorrect introduction of Art Donovan on the show (he called Art, "Art O'Donnell". Not a good way to start off a broadcasting relationship). Check out Art0Donnell's blog post about Art Donovan at "King of the Ring 1994: Enter Donovan".
The Art0Donnell blog is full of brilliant old school wrestling reviews and nostalgia and other stuff. As a big fan of underdogs (those loveable Ham & Eggers) one of my favourite posts is of "Jobbers of '93", which gives a rundown of all the enhancement talent local athlete jobbers that 'competed' on WWF Monday Night Raw in 1993! Brilliant stuff.
Links:
- WWE
