Looking Down the Hall

One thing I'm hoping will become a regular feature here at Pun's House is the guest column done by some of our regular posters at the message board.  Our first one is from the esteemed Chad D. Aaron, aka TexShark.  And remember, if any of you have anything you would like to write about, feel free to drop me a line and let me know.  And now....

Looking Down the Hall


There is a lot of buzz around the announcement that Edge and The Four Horsemen will be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame this year. Both choices are pretty well universally praised. One could argue that Edge could have waited a couple of years, particularly until WrestleMania is held in Toronto again (rumored to be relatively soon), but both are clearly deserving of induction. We also have the announcement in Mexico that Mil Mascaras is going in, as well as a strong rumor that Carlos Colon gets the nod this year as well.


What I’ll attempt to do here is make a case for people who I think are undervalued and overlooked, and make a case that they should be included in the WWE Hall of Fame one day.


I do recognize that there is more than one “Hall of Fame” for Professional Wrestling. Primary among these is the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame, which (as opposed to the WWEHOF) has a physical location in New York State. But in reality, the casual and average wrestling fan will have only heard of the WWE Hall, so that’s where I’m focusing.


My first candidate is a former World Champion, World Television Champion and a 3-time World Tag Team Champion. He spent the most visible part of his career as one of the more solid mid-card heels in wrestling. Like so many, an injury forced him into an early retirement. Despite English not being his native language, he eventually became a very good interview/promo guy. In-ring he was one of the best, working long running programs and matches with some of the best brawlers and technical wrestlers of his era.


Richard Vigneault, better known as Rick Martel.


Martel began his career in the territory days, and had a lot of success. His background as an amateur wrestler helped make him a popular draw. He held titles in Georgia, New Zealand, Hawaii, several Canadian territories and the Pacific Northwest territory, where he really began to develop into a bona fide star. He spent time with Stu Hart’s Stampede Promotion and Carlos Colon’s World Wrestling Council. He even had a short stint as a booker in Hawaii.


In July 1980, he came to the WWF and was soon paired with Tony Garea, a tag team veteran with three title runs to his name at the time. It didn’t take long for them to become top contenders and in November they won the WWF World Tag Team Championships, holding them for 5 months. They regained the championships later in 1981 for a second reign, this one nearly 2 months long.


In 1982 he headed back west, this time for the AWA. Martel quickly became a crowd favorite and before long was challenging Nick Bockwinkel for the AWA title. When Bockwinkel dropped the title to Jumbo Tsuruta, Martel quickly stepped in as Tsuruta’s top challenger. Sure enough, a couple of months after Hulk Hogan ushered in a new era of pro wrestling by taking the WWF title off the Iron Sheik, Martel claimed the AWA World Championship from Tsuruta.


This is when I became aware of Martel. Up until here, I have no firsthand recollection of his career, just what I have seen in old videos, read in magazines and online. Clips of Martel’s win were shown on ESPN. As a young fan, I knew nothing of who Tsuruta was at the time. All I knew was this guy Martel was pretty good.
As I became a regular reader of the Apter magazines, I read of AWA/NWA Title Unification matches. Whoa! I was a young Ric Flair and Four Horsemen fan, I would literally walk around my elementary school putting up 4 fingers at people. This guy was going head to head with Flair? And when I read about Martel and Flair going to Double-Countouts and Time Limit Draws? Holy Cow, this guy must be just as good as Flair! And he vaulted up my favorites list.


Much like Flair matches on WTBS were few and far between, Martel didn’t wrestle on ESPN a lot. If we were lucky, we’d see clips of him facing Bockwinkel or someone else, but I made a point of keeping up with him through the magazines.


Martel’s AWA title run lasted over a year and a half, which was pretty a-typical for the AWA title. Martel’s 595-day reign ranks as the third longest run of it’s kind, trailing only Bockwinkel & Verne Gagne. If you know anything about Verne, you know he was a huge fan of guys who could wrestle. Verne keeping the title on Rick that long says something to me about his in-ring prowess.


Martel dropped the title via submission to Stan Hansen. I remember a huge write up in one of the magazines about Martel when he lost. It really painted a picture of him as a sympathetic figure, and being the young fan I was, I bought into it. He was solidly one of my favorite wrestlers.


That’s all well and good you say, but this is the WWE Hall of Fame. What did he ever do during the WWF television era? Why should the average fan know his name?


Martel was soon back in the WWF, recycling a tag team he had in Montreal with Tom Zenk, the Can-Am Connection. They were hugely popular and really good. I was happy, as they were regulars on WWF’s USA programs. The Can-Am was short lived, but following that was one of the more popular tag teams of the 80’s: Strike Force.


Tito Santana and Rick Martel were even more over with the crowds than Martel and Zenk. They were they young, pretty boy tag team and both men could go in the ring as well. They had a number of matches with the Islanders and eventually turned their attention to the Hart Foundation. They succeeded in unseating The Harts as WWF Tag Team Champions, and even faced off with them at the famous February 5th “The Main Event” on NBC. (This is where Andre defeated Hogan for the WWF title then “surrendered” the title to Ted Dibiase,). I remember being extremely upset that the show ended in the middle of the Strike Force/ Harts match. Demolition ended the Strike Force reign after about 5 months.


Shortly after that, Strike Force split up and Martel became “The Model;” spraying “Arrogance” perfume at his opponents and being the classic narcissistic heel. He had a series of solid matches with Santana and Jake "The“Snake” Roberts, as well as Shawn Michaels in a rare (for the time) heel v heel feud. This was the late 80’s / early 90’s WWF, filled with over-the-top characters, and Martel fit right in. I hated him for breaking up Strike Force, but still the guy was great in the ring. He never won singles gold in the WWF, but was one of the go-to guys when a champion needed to look good in a match (Bret Hart, Razor Ramon among others).


During this time, Martel’s promo/interview skills were top notch. No one is ever going to confuse him with Flair, Rock, Foley, or any of the best mic men in the business, but he made huge strides, as his character necessitated him talking down to his opponents and extoling his own virtues. Going back now and listening to some of his early-career interviews, you can tell he is not comfortable talking in front of a camera, but back then, you could be a legit superstar based on ring work alone. When forming Strike Force with Santana, he gave a passionate interview about “Striking back with force” that coined the team’s name. The improvement over time was evident, but he still had leaps and bounds to go with that side of the business. As the Model, he became a much better interview and really helped get his character over


Martel vanished for a few years and the business changed. He re-emerged, kind of out of nowhere, in WCW in the late 90’s and had a couple of really good matches with Booker T. Martel won the Television title from Booker. Martel was booked to beat Booker and Perry Saturn consecutively just a few days later. Martel injured his knee, and lost the title back to Booker. He and Booker called that finish on their own, as the injury occurred mid-match, and Booker and Saturn were then forced to improvise their match as well, since it was to have been Martel v Saturn. Martel re-injured himself in his return match and a very successful career was cut short.


Martel was one of the 80’s and early 90’s most successful wrestlers. With his clean cut image and good physique, he was the epitome of the white meat babyface for much of his career, but showed his versatility by transforming into a heat-drawing heel. Martel had classic wrestling matches with legends like Flair, Bockwinkel, and Bret Hart and was able to go with the best of the brawlers like Hansen and Roberts. An in-ring great, he developed into a solid promo guy as well.


I submit to you, Rick Martel, as a cadidate for inclusion in the Hall of Fame.