The Machines (professional wrestling)

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The Machines
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Stable
Members Super Machine
Big Machine
Giant Machine
Billed from "The Orient"
Former member(s) Piper Machine
Animal Machine
Hulk Machine
Crusher Machine
Debut 1986
Disbanded 1986
Promotions WWF

The Machines was a stable of masked wrestlers that worked in the World Wrestling Federation in 1986 and 1987 and consisted of well-known WWF wrestlers working under a mask which strongly resembled that worn by Super Strong Machine (Japanese wrestler Junji Hirata) in New Japan Pro Wrestling at the time. The gimmick was very much tongue-in-cheek, as the identities of the masked men were obvious to the fans but frustrating to the heels when they were unable to prove them, similarly to the “Mr. America” angle Hulk Hogan participated in in 2003. The Machines was the last tag team Capt. Lou Albano managed in the WWF until he returned in 1994 to manage The Headshrinkers.

Contents

[edit] Story

After feuding intensely with André the Giant for more than a year, Bobby Heenan's Heenan Family challenged André and a partner of his choice to face King Kong Bundy and Big John Studd in a tag team match on April 26, 1986.[1] When André did not show and was replaced by Ted Arcidi,[2] Bobby Heenan launched a campaign to get him suspended from the WWF.[3] After deliberating on the matter, WWF President Jack Tunney was forced to suspend him for missing the tag team match and subsequent matches against the Heenan Family.[4] (This was, of course, only a wrestling storyline.)

Less than two months after the suspension was announced, vignettes appeared on WWF Television hailing the debut of a masked tag team from the Orient, known as ”The Machines”: Giant Machine and Super Machine. The team announced that they were coming to America soon with their manager Lou Albano[5] and that their only mission was to prove that they were the number one tag team in the world.[4] Super Machine was played by Bill Eadie with his name being a play off his previous gimmick of “Masked Superstar”. Giant Machine was quite obviously Andre the Giant which made Bobby Heenan irate although the commentators tried to imply that it may be Giant Baba and not Andre under the mask.[6] In the following weeks Heenan kept claiming that Giant Machine was Andre the Giant trying to circumvent his suspension, he even went so far as to introduce his ”New team from Korea” on an episode of Jesse Ventura’s ”Body Shop” and then brought out King Kong Bundy and John Studd with paper bags over their heads to illustrate just how obvious the ruse was.[7] Heenan's claims led to Jack Tunney decreeing that if the Giant Machine was revealed to be Andre the Giant then his suspension would be for life.[8]

On August 5 (shown August 23) The Machines made their WWF debut with Super Machine wrestling in a singles match while Albano and Giant Machine were at ringside.[9] Later that night, Bobby Heenan sneaked around at ringside taking pictures of the Giant Machine to try and prove his true identity.[10] A week after the debut of the Machines Lou Albano introduced a third Machine to the WWF: Big Machine. Big Machine was played by Blackjack Mulligan and was brought in to reduce the number of times André would wrestle. André had been suffering from severe back injuries for a while, injuries that would later force him to undergo painful back surgery.[11] "The Machines" angle was designed to put him in a lighter tag-team role. Due to the severity of the back injury, Mulligan was brought in to reduce Andre's wrestling role even further, thereby keeping the popular superstar on TV.[11]

Big Machine and Super Machine would wrestle the majority of the matches against Bobby Heenan's men, occasionally with Lou Albano joining them to face Bundy, Studd and Heenan in six man tag-team action.[12] Soon other masked wrestlers would appear and team with the Machines temporarily. On September 10 Big and Super Machine were joined by Animal Machine to defeat King Kong Bundy, Big John Studd and Bobby Heenan. .[13] On September 16 the Machines were joined by the 6'8" Hulk Machine as the trio defeated the Heenan Family.[14] The Hulk Machine would return on September 22 and help the Machines win in the main event at the Madison Square Garden.[15] A few weeks later the Machines received help from the kilt-wearing Piper Machine.[16] On a house show in St. Paul, Minnesota the Machines even got the help of wrestling legend Reggie ”The Crusher” Lisowski who appeared for one night only as Crusher Machine, pinning John Stud to gain the victory for his team.[17] On October 28 the Machines wrestled their last match under that gimmick, a loss to Bundy and Studd. This also marked the last appearance as a manager in the WWF for Lou Albano.[18]

After the Machines last match was shown on November 23 the angle was ended and Andre was announced as being reinstated on November 29.[19] In the following weeks the mystery of why Andre the Giant was reinstated built up until it was revealed that Bobby Heenan had arranged for the suspension to end so he could turn on Hulk Hogan in the build up to WrestleMania III. After the angle ended Super Machine was repackaged as Ax, one half of Demolition while Big Machine worked for the WWF as Blackjack Mulligan in late 1986 and the first half of 1987 before leaving the promotion.

[edit] In wrestling

[edit] References

  1. ^ Graham Cawthon (March 31). WWF Show Results 1986. Retrieved on 2007-07-01. “(Shown; April 19, 1986) Big John Studd & King Kong Bundy as guests of the Piper's Pit in which they challenge André the Giant and a partner of his choice to face them the following week”
  2. ^ Graham Cawthon (March 31). WWF Show Results 1986. Retrieved on 2007-07-01. “(Shown; April 26, 1986) Hillbilly Jim & Ted Arcidi (sub. for Andre the Giant) defeated Big John Studd & King Kong Bundy via disqualification at 2:33 when Studd & Bundy illegally double teamed their opponents and attacked referee Gilberto Roman”
  3. ^ Graham Cawthon (April 21). WWF Show Results 1986. Retrieved on 2007-07-01. “(Shown: May 3) during the bout, Bobby Heenan did guest commentary and mentioned he was meeting with WWF President Jack Tunney in an attempt to have André the Giant suspended”
  4. ^ a b Brian Shields (4th Edition 2006). Main event – WWE in the raging 80s. Pocket Books, 56-57. ISBN 978-1-4165-3257-6. 
  5. ^ Graham Cawthon (June 24). WWF Show Results 1986. Retrieved on 2007-07-01. “(Shown: July 5) featured Vince McMahon interviewing Bobby Heenan in which he showed Heenan footage of Gene Okerlund finding the Machines in Japan, with the Machines saying they were coming to the WWF and would have Capt. Lou Albano as their manager”
  6. ^ Graham Cawthon (June 24). WWF Show Results 1986. Retrieved on 2007-07-01. “(Shown: July 5) Heenan was irate after seeing the footage and claimed that Giant Machine was Andre the Giant; during the closing moments of the show, McMahon & Bruno Sammartino speculated that Giant Machine was Giant Baba:”
  7. ^ Graham Cawthon (July 7). WWF Show Results 1986. Retrieved on 2007-07-01. “(Shown: August 2) Heenan introduced two new wrestlers from Korea - King Kong Bundy & Big John Studd wearing paper bags over their head; it was an attempt by Heenan to show how obvious it is that Giant Machine is really Andre the Giant.”
  8. ^ Graham Cawthon (July 15). WWF Show Results 1986. Retrieved on 2007-07-01. “(Shown: July 26) Bobby Heenan then came in and said that Andre was obviously one of the Machines, with Tunney responding that if Andre was proven to be one of the Machines he would be suspended for life”
  9. ^ Graham Cawthon (August 5). WWF Show Results 1986. Retrieved on 2007-07-01. “(Shown: August 23) Super Machine (w/ Capt. Lou Albano & Giant Machine) pinned Tiger Chung Lee at 2:30 with a swinging neckbreaker”
  10. ^ Graham Cawthon (August 5). WWF Show Results 1986. Retrieved on 2007-07-01. “Bobby Heenan was shown at ringside taking photographs of the Giant Machine, in hope of trying to prove that it was actually André the Giant”
  11. ^ a b "André the Giant". Biography. A&E Network. 1999-01-13.
  12. ^ Graham Cawthon (August 28). WWF Show Results 1986. Retrieved on 2007-07-01. “(Shown: September 16) Big John Studd, King Kong Bundy, & Bobby Heenan defeated Big & Super Machine, & Capt. Lou Albano (w/ Giant Machine) via disqualification at 7:49 when Giant Machine interfered, as Studd was in the ring illegally, and single-handedly beat down and cleared the ring of the opposition”
  13. ^ Graham Cawthon (September 10). WWF Show Results 1986. Retrieved on 2007-07-01. “The Machines & George Steele (as the Animal Machine) (sub. for Capt. Lou Albano) defeated Big John Studd, King Kong Bundy, & Bobby Heenan”
  14. ^ Graham Cawthon (September 16). WWF Show Results 1986. Retrieved on 2007-07-01. “WWF World Champion Hulk Hogan (as Hulk Machine), Big & Super Machine defeated King Kong Bundy, Big John Studd, & Bobby Heenan”
  15. ^ (1986). Hulkamania 2 [VHS]. Hartford, Connecticut: Coliseum Video. Retrieved on 2007-07-01.
  16. ^ (1987). Best of the WWF Vol. 12 [VHS]. Hartford, Connecticut: Coliseum Video. Retrieved on 2007-07-01.
  17. ^ Graham Cawthon (October 5). WWF Show Results 1986. Retrieved on 2007-07-01. “Big, Super, & Crusher Machine defeated Big John Studd, King Kong Bundy, & Bobby Heenan when Crusher pinned Studd with a bolo punch”
  18. ^ Graham Cawthon (October 28). WWF Show Results 1986. Retrieved on 2007-07-01. “(shown November 23: King Kong Bundy & Big John Studd (w/Bobby Heenan) defeated Big & Super Machine (w/ Capt. Lou Albano) at 3:01 when Bundy scored the pin after Studd came off the top with a forearm blow (Albano's last match as a manger)”
  19. ^ Graham Cawthon (November 19). WWF Show Results 1986. Retrieved on 2007-07-01. “(shown November 29: included footage, via satellite from London, England of Gary Davie interviewing Andre the Giant, where it was announced that Andre had been reinstated”

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