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53-418: In the main event , WWF World Heavyweight Champion Hulk Hogan defeated Rowdy Roddy Piper by disqualification to retain the title. The undercard featured a 16-man tournament , where The Junkyard Dog defeated Randy "Macho Man " Savage in the finals of the tournament. The event also included a fan competition for a Rolls-Royce . Following the success of their first pay-per-view (PPV) WrestleMania ,

106-618: A DDT . Dynamite Kid then faced Nikolai Volkoff (without manager Freddie Blassie ); Dynamite Kid attacked Volkoff, who had just finished his customary singing of the Soviet national anthem , with a missile dropkick from the top turnbuckle and then quickly scored the pinfall in a match that lasted about six seconds (the official time given was nine seconds, equaling the record King Kong Bundy had set at WrestleMania ). Randy "Macho Man " Savage (with Miss Elizabeth ) then defeated "Polish Power" Ivan Putski , though Savage had both his feet on

159-449: A bearhug on Piper. Piper responded with a sleeper hold . The referee was knocked out and Piper hit Hogan with a steel chair before Hogan applied a sleeper hold of his own on Piper. Bob Orton came out and hit Hogan with his cast. The referee saw this and disqualified Piper in the process. Piper and Orton continued to assault Hogan until Paul Orndorff came out and cleared the ring. The semi-final match between Randy Savage and Dynamite Kid

212-423: A midcard and a lower card , according to the perceived importance of the matches. Promoters schedule matches to occur in ascending order of importance. The undercard, or preliminary matches (sometimes preliminary card), consists of preliminary bouts that occur before the headline or "main event" of a particular boxing , professional wrestling , horse racing, or other sports event. Typically, promoters intend

265-627: A tag team with Jesse Ventura . The team was called the "East-West Connection" because Adonis was from New York (in the Eastern United States ), while Ventura was billed from California (in the Western United States ). The East-West Connection was awarded the AWA World Tag Team Championship on July 20, 1980, when Verne Gagne (one half of the tag champions with Mad Dog Vachon ) was unable to defend it because he

318-503: A "dream fight" and multiple title defenses. Adrian Adonis Keith Adonis Franke (September 15, 1953 – July 4, 1988) was an American professional wrestler , better known by his ring name , "Adorable" Adrian Adonis . He was best known for his appearances with the American Wrestling Association and World Wrestling Federation throughout the 1980s. Adonis debuted in 1974 under his real name, until he adopted

371-757: A "duel" between the two talk segments, injuring his leg, covering him in lipstick and damaging the Pit set. A week later, Piper destroyed the set of The Flower Shop with a baseball bat. It was never rebuilt. On the October 4 Saturday Night's Main Event VII , Piper struck Adonis with a crutch, resulting in a two-month absence from TV with an alleged separated shoulder. In reality, Adonis was fired but quickly rehired when Piper's house show matches vs. Don Muraco and Bob Orton Jr. didn't draw. After Adonis returned in November to attack Piper on

424-561: A brief return to the AWA and would make appearances in small promotions until his death in a car accident in 1988. His career was a subject of a 2023 episode of Viceland 's documentary series, Dark Side of the Ring . Franke was born on September 15, 1953, in Buffalo, New York. He was the adopted son of Kenneth and Hortense Franke, and had two sisters, Karen and Susan. He went to Kenmore East High School in

477-487: A judge was at ringside and that JYD's count was legal. Tito Santana and Paul Orndorff fought to a double count-out, eliminating both wrestlers from the tournament in the process and allowing The Junkyard Dog to advance to the finals. This led to Bobby Heenan's $ 50,000 storyline bounty on Paul Orndorff not being collected. In the main event, which was a non-tournament match, Hulk Hogan defended his WWF World Heavyweight Championship against Rowdy Roddy Piper . Hogan applied

530-516: A lead-up towards the centrepiece tournaments, such as physical disability rugby league , masters (over 35, typically retired professional players), university , police teams, and armed forces teams. The opening act is a similar concept in non-sports entertainment. A main event usually takes place as the final match of a title-match-system sporting event. The term occurs primarily with reference to combat sports such as boxing, professional wrestling and mixed martial arts . The main event, generally

583-655: A tag team with the Texan Dick Murdoch , called "The North-South Connection". The team debuted in late 1983. Around this time, Adonis (who had previously been a muscular, stocky, and well-conditioned wrestler) gained a considerable amount of weight. On April 17, 1984, The North-South Connection defeated Tony Atlas and Rocky Johnson to win the WWF World Tag Team Championship . They held the title until January 21, 1985, when they were defeated by Barry Windham and Mike Rotunda . The team split shortly after

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636-645: Is no support race on the day of the feature (as in the case of the Cup Series, where all support races are held on days leading to the feature, although it can be run on feature day if inclement weather forces such). Since 2008, the Rugby League World Cup has been aggregated with the World Cup competitions for women's and wheelchair rugby league in an arrangement known as the " Festival of World Cups ". The festival includes support tournaments that are held as

689-652: The Formula One World Championships , although the latter is considered to be a feeder series (for young drivers who desire to make the final step to Formula One). The Indy Lights series supports the IndyCar Series , and the NASCAR Xfinity Series and Craftsman Truck Series effectively support the top-tier NASCAR Cup Series . In some series (most notably on oval tracks), the support races take place on both practice and qualifying days, and there

742-716: The IWGP Tag Team Championship . On June 26, teaming up with Murdoch against Kengo Kimura and Yoshiaki Fujiwara , which ended in a draw. With hopes of rejoining WWF and having lost weight, he worked for Dave McKigney in Newfoundland and wrestled against Hartford Love. On July 4, 1988, in Lewisporte, Newfoundland , Franke was in a minivan with fellow wrestlers, and twins William "Mike Kelly" Arko, Victor "Pat Kelly" Arko, and Dave McKigney . Franke, McKigney, and Victor Arko were killed when Victor Arko, allegedly blinded by

795-507: The Pit , the two agreed to a hair vs. hair match at WrestleMania III . Piper won the bout with help from Brutus Beefcake , who cut off the majority of Adonis' hair afterward. Adonis then began a feud with Beefcake but was fired in May 1987 for what the WWF claimed were "dress code violations". Franke (now with a shaved head) left the WWF shortly after WrestleMania III and returned to the AWA, where he

848-513: The WWE Network . In the finals of the tournament The Junkyard Dog wrestled Randy Savage. Shortly after the match began, Gene Okerlund joined the commentary team. Junkyard Dog hit a back body drop on Savage off the top rope who landed on the arena floor. Savage was unable to get into the ring and was counted out. As a result, The Junkyard Dog won the match and the tournament. Many wrestlers received pushes by this tournament. The Junkyard Dog ,

901-488: The WWF Tag Team Championship at WrestleMania 2 in 1986. Pin – pinfall, Ref – referee's decision, CO – countout, DQ – disqualification, DCO – double countout. Card (sports)#Main event In sports, a card lists the matches taking place in a title match combat-sport event. Cards include a main event match and the undercard listing the rest of the matches. The undercard may be divided into

954-625: The World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) scheduled a series of five special pay-per-view airings to be titled "WrestleVision". In a September 1985 interview with Electronic Media , Vince McMahon stated the first WrestleVision event would feature "the most prestigious wrestling tournament ever devised," and would feature Hulk Hogan and André the Giant . The subsequent four events were announced for January, March, May, and August 1986. The first WrestleVision event, The Wrestling Classic,

1007-532: The development of WrestleMania . In the main event of the first-ever WrestleMania , Hogan and celebrity Mr. T defeated Piper and Paul Orndorff . Hogan feuded with Piper and Cowboy Bob Orton for the rest of the year and often got disqualification victories over them, leading to a WWF World Heavyweight title match between Hogan and Piper at the Wrestling Classic. Despite being for the Championship, this bout

1060-402: The "North-South Connection", winning the WWF Tag Team Championship . In 1986, Adonis underwent a gimmick change as an effeminate, flamboyant wrestler who wore pink clothing and garish makeup , adopting the "Adorable" Adrian Adonis name. He would be involved in a feud with Roddy Piper , which culminated in a hair vs. hair match at WrestleMania III . After he was fired in mid-1987, he made

1113-534: The Adrian Adonis name in the late 1970s. He later began working for the American Wrestling Association (AWA), forming a tag team with Jesse Ventura called the "East-West Connection", winning the AWA World Tag Team Championship . They debuted for the World Wrestling Federation in late 1981, but Ventura stopped wrestling regularly due to injuries. After this, Adonis began teaming with Dick Murdoch as

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1166-831: The Champions . Promotions outside the United States also run annual supercards. The two largest lucha libre promotions in Mexico, Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) and Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide (AAA), respectively run the CMLL Anniversary Show and Triplemanía . New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) runs the January 4 Dome Show (branded since 2007 as Wrestle Kingdom) at the Tokyo Dome . In other sports, such as boxing and mixed martial arts, supercards occur more rarely. They usually involve

1219-532: The Sheik appeared without Freddie Blassie). The match began with Sheik choking JYD with his jacket. He applied a camel clutch on JYD before releasing the hold. JYD quickly hit a headbutt on Sheik and pinned him to win the match. Moondog Spot and Terry Funk 's (with Jimmy Hart) match was next. It appeared that neither of them wanted to wrestle, so at Funk's suggestion they both left the ring. As Spot started to leave, Funk attacked him from behind and tried to re-enter

1272-671: The character of a brawling, leather jacket -clad biker . In Pacific Northwest Wrestling , Adonis formed a tag team with Roddy Piper . He later split from Piper and became a fan favorite , teaming with Ron Starr to win the NWA Pacific Northwest Tag Team Championship from Piper and Killer Brooks before losing the title to the Kiwi Sheepherders . In the late 1970s, Adonis joined the Minneapolis -based American Wrestling Association . In 1979, he formed

1325-474: The class of 1971. A gifted amateur wrestler, he won a section VI title in 1970. However, he dropped out as he grew bored with school. For a short time, Adonis played football in the Canadian Football League before focusing on a wrestling career. Franke trained under Fred Atkins and debuted in 1974, wrestling under the name Keith Franks. In the late 1970s, he adopted the ring name "Adrian Adonis" and

1378-469: The end in succession. This can be billed as a "double main event" or "double-header" or (rarely) as a "triple main event" or "triple-header". Advertising for sporting bouts focuses primarily on their main events. A supercard consists of a title match combat sport event which comprises multiple high-level matches and/or special attractions. Promoters advertise supercards heavily, and tickets typically cost more than at standard-card events. Supercards serve as

1431-449: The experience of the boxers in those matches (entry-level boxers, often making professional debuts, have four rounds, while boxers at the intermediate level are given between six and eight rounds), with some undercards on major championship cards being ten rounds if the boxer is at the advanced level but not participating in a championship match. If an undercard match is a championship match (less popular weight class or regional championship),

1484-585: The fact that he retained considerable athleticism and agility in the ring. He defeated Uncle Elmer in quick fashion at WrestleMania 2 and feuded extensively with the Junkyard Dog and George "The Animal" Steele , while also unsuccessfully challenging Hulk Hogan for the WWF Championship on multiple occasions. In May 1986, during Piper's five-month hiatus from the WWF, Adonis (with Hart) debuted his own talk segment, The Flower Shop . These segments were

1537-498: The fame and quality of performance of the wrestlers involved. WWE's NXT brand (which was originally positioned as a feeder for its main Raw and SmackDown rosters) previously held events in its " TakeOver " series as support for its flagship pay-per-views ( Royal Rumble , WrestleMania , SummerSlam , and Survivor Series ); these events were held on the day prior to the PPV, and typically shared

1590-404: The focal point of professional wrestling promotions and can function as a primary source of revenue for such promotions. Mainstream American pro wrestling holds supercards at least annually and broadcasts them on pay-per-view (PPV) television. The largest company, WWE , runs PPV events every month. Alternatively the second-largest, All Elite Wrestling (AEW) initially ran 4 annual PPV's over

1643-481: The gimmick of the effeminate "Adorable" Adrian Adonis, bleaching his hair blonde and wearing pink ring attire, as well as scarves, leg warmers , dresses, hats, and clownish amounts of eye shadow and rouge . At this time, his weight further ballooned, peaking at over 350 lb (160 kg; 25 st). He also ceased his prior weightlifting regimen, stopped tanning, and removed all of his body hair. The result made him appear pale, soft, rotund and flabby, despite

The Wrestling Classic - Misplaced Pages Continue

1696-493: The level of WrestleMania. With TNA's 2013 change to running only four PPVs a year, all four are now considered supercards: Genesis (not a supercard before 2013), Lockdown , Slammiversary , and Bound for Glory . All four events were first held in 2005, and all have taken place annually since then except for Genesis, which was not held in 2008. Examples of non-pay-per-view supercards include Saturday Night's Main Event and Clash of

1749-565: The loss. In late 1985, after being briefly managed by Bobby "The Brain" Heenan and adopting the DDT as a finisher, Adonis' gimmick began to change. First, Jimmy Hart became his manager when Hart traded King Kong Bundy to Heenan in exchange for Adonis and The Missing Link . With Hart in his corner, Adonis defeated Corporal Kirchner to advance in The Wrestling Classic pay-per-view tournament in November, then lost to Dynamite Kid in

1802-454: The match. Ricky Steamboat then faced off against Randy Savage. The referee was distracted by Miss Elizabeth as Savage took advantage and pulled out brass knuckles from his tights and hit Steamboat before pinning him to win the match. The Junkyard Dog then defeated Moondog Spot after a head butt. Strangely, there was no referee for this match and JYD counted the 3 himself. Commentators Gorilla Monsoon and Jesse Ventura then announced that

1855-421: The middle rope for leverage. Ricky Steamboat faced Davey Boy Smith in a rare match pitting two fan favourites against each other. The match moved back and forth until Smith landed in the ropes trying attack Steamboat, but Steamboat sidestepped and Smith injured his groin and was unable to continue, so Steamboat was awarded the match by forfeit. The Junkyard Dog then faced The Iron Sheik (like Volkoff,

1908-432: The most prestigious match on the card, has the most promotion behind it. The match commonly involves a contest for a top championship , but may feature another special attraction. The headliner is a similar concept in non-sports entertainment. Sometimes, multiple matches of equally high importance take place on a card, occasionally at intervals throughout (to sustain spectator interest for its duration), but generally at

1961-463: The primary backdrop for Paul Orndorff 's slow-building heel turn against his friend Hulk Hogan, with Adonis relentlessly needling Orndorff about living in Hogan's shadow. In August, shortly before Piper's return, Adonis obtained the services of Piper's bodyguard, "Cowboy" Bob Orton , who took to wearing a pink cowboy hat. A feud with Piper heated up when Adonis, Orton, and Don Muraco attacked him during

2014-571: The quarterfinals. After taking Heenan as his manager in July 1985, Adonis started carrying a briefcase. Eventually, the briefcase had the phrase "Relax with Trudi" on it. In September 1985, Hart would become his manager and he would also eventually carry a spray called Fragrance. During an edition of Piper's Pit which aired in January 1986, Adonis gave his signature leather jacket away to host Roddy Piper (who wore it for years afterward). Adonis then adopted

2067-410: The ring for a countout win, but Spot prevented him from entering the ring and Spot himself won the match by countout after Funk backdropped him into the ring before the ten count. WWF Intercontinental Heavyweight Champion Tito Santana then faced Magnificent Muraco (with Mr. Fuji ). Muraco appeared to have pinned Santana but as his feet were on the ropes, the match continued and Santana rolled up

2120-483: The same episode, Hayes announced a group of 16 wrestlers. Of the wrestlers announced, 15 of the original appeared in the tournament as initially announced with only Moondog Spot replacing The Missing Link (wrestler) . Neither Hulk Hogan nor André the Giant appeared in the tournament as McMahon had announced to the press in September in his interview with Electronic Media. The main feud heading into Wrestling Classic

2173-512: The same venue (or, at the very least, host city) as the corresponding main roster event. In auto racing, support races occur not just before the feature race, they occur on qualifying day where attendances are typically low and after the completion of the feature race, purposely to lessen the effect of traffic congestion outside venues common in major championship rounds, as spectators make their way home. Examples of notable support races include Porsche Supercup and FIA Formula 2 , both supporting

The Wrestling Classic - Misplaced Pages Continue

2226-495: The surprised Muraco with a quick small package , scoring the pinfall. Santana suffered a groin injury that would hamper him later in the tournament. The final match of the first round pitted Paul Orndorff against Cowboy Bob Orton . Orton was disqualified after he hit Orndorff with his cast. The quarterfinals began with Adrian Adonis facing Dynamite Kid. During the match, Adonis accidentally collided with his manager Jimmy Hart. Dynamite Kid took advantage and pinned Adonis to win

2279-424: The undercard match is also twelve rounds, owing to regulations. In professional wrestling, undercard matches usually last for five to ten minutes: the audience does not have to wait too long for the main event and the promoters often have to fulfill contractual television agreements. Professional wrestling unofficially subdivides the undercard into uppercard, midcard and lower card matches, which roughly correlate to

2332-405: The undercard to provide fans with an opportunity to see up-and-coming fighters or fighters not so well known and popular as their counterparts in the main event. The undercard also ensures that if the main event ends quickly fans will still feel that they received sufficient value for the price of their admission. In boxing , undercard matches usually last between four and eight rounds, depending on

2385-831: The winner of this tournament got a push as he became the man to win the first-ever major tournament in WWF history. Randy "Macho Man" Savage went on to win both the WWF Intercontinental Heavyweight Championship from Tito Santana on February 8, 1986 and the WWF World Heavyweight Championship in a similar tournament at WrestleMania IV in 1988. Ricky Steamboat also won the WWF Intercontinental Heavyweight Championship, by defeating Savage at WrestleMania III in 1987. Dynamite Kid and Davey Boy Smith who together were The British Bulldogs would go on to win

2438-554: The year ( Revolution , Double or Nothing , All Out and Full Gear ), though added Forbidden Door as a fifth annual PPV in 2022 in collaboration with Japanese company New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). Elsewhere, Impact Wrestling (formally TNA), formerly ran monthly PPVs, but now only runs four a year. Wrestling supercards often recur annually; WWE's WrestleMania , arguably the most famous of these, has run since 1985. WWE runs three other supercards per year ( Royal Rumble , SummerSlam and Survivor Series ), but does not promote these at

2491-536: Was between Hulk Hogan and Rowdy Roddy Piper , with the two battling over the WWF World Heavyweight Championship . In 1985, Piper became the top heel of the promotion after he spoke out against the burgeoning Rock 'n' Wrestling Connection , which led to a confrontation with Hogan. In February, they faced each other at MTV special The War to Settle the Score for Hogan's WWF World Heavyweight title, in which Hogan retained his title by disqualification . Their feud led to

2544-576: Was held on November 7, 1985, at the Rosemont Horizon in Rosemont , Illinois . It was the WWF's second-ever PPV produced following WrestleMania. However, unlike WrestleMania, The Wrestling Classic was a one-off event and the remaining four WrestleVision branded events did not take place as announced by McMahon. Electronic Media stated in March 1986 that "WrestleVision, which followed [WrestleMania] in November,

2597-761: Was managed by Paul E. Dangerously during 1987. He maintained his "Adorable" Adrian Adonis gimmick, feuded with Tommy Rich and lost the final match of the AWA International Television Championship tournament to Greg Gagne in December 1987. While there, he lost one hundred pounds and hoped to return to WWF. With his ankle fully recovered, Franke wrestled a tour for New Japan throughout May and June 1988. During that tour, he would not use his North American "Adorable" gimmick and teamed up with Owen Hart and D.J. Peterson . On June 23, he and Murdoch unsuccessfully challenged Riki Choshu and Masa Saito for

2650-483: Was next. Dynamite Kid superplexed Savage off the top rope but Savage countered it into an inside cradle for the victory. As part of the show, a fan competition was held. One of over 250,000 fans won a Rolls-Royce . This segment was cut from the Coliseum Home Video release for time. However, it was restored when the show aired on WWE Classics on Demand , WWE's archival video on demand service, as well as on

2703-422: Was not announced on WWF television until the October 26, 1985 edition of Championship Wrestling, less than two weeks prior to the event and the tournament took precedent in the promotion of the card. The card consisted of fifteen matches and included a 16-man tournament dubbed "The Wrestling Classic". In the first round of the tournament, Adrian Adonis (with manager Jimmy Hart ) defeated Corp. Kirchner with

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2756-416: Was something of a dud" and quoted McMahon as saying "all of our guns weren't loaded for WrestleVision as they were for WrestleMania" in reference to the remaining four events' cancelations. The promotion of the event began on the October 5, 1985 episode of WWF Championship Wrestling , with Lord Alfred Hayes announcing that there would be a 16-wrestler tournament and that a fan would win a Rolls-Royce . On

2809-541: Was vacationing in Europe. They held the belts until June 14, 1981, when they were defeated by Greg Gagne and Jim Brunzell . Adonis and Ventura debuted in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in October 1981, working both as a team and in singles matches. Adonis was a frequent challenger of WWF Champion Bob Backlund and WWF Intercontinental Champion Pedro Morales throughout the first half of 1982. When injuries caused Ventura to stop wrestling regularly, Adonis formed

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