Posted on by bdamage1
Brian Damage
August 1st, 2021 marks the 40th anniversary of the groundbreaking channel known as Music Television or more affectionately known as MTV. A network that was a very big part of many young lives growing up. The network has certainly changed over the years and for many, it devolved into a channel of horrible reality shows and no longer focuses on music videos. Many Generation Xers will say that MTV’s greatest years were from 1981 until 1999. Regardless of how we may personally feel about the channel, it definitely has a very rich history of helping promote professional wrestling.
As crazy as it might sound to some, I feel that MTV has more to do with pro wrestling’s explosion in pop culture than Vince McMahon and Hulk Hogan combined. It all began in 1983, when there was a chance meeting on an airplane between music producer/manager David Wolff and wrestling manager Captain Lou Albano. Wolff who managed the career of singer Cyndi Lauper…was a big wrestling fan. He offered Lou Albano an opportunity to appear in a Lauper music video ‘Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.’ Albano’s appearance in the video, led to an avalanche of cross promotions between MTV and the World Wrestling Federation.
It was the combination of the popularity of Cyndi Lauper and MTV that helped bring national attention to the ever expanding WWF. That partnership would grow and MTV would air a couple of WWF specials starting in 1984 with The Brawl to End it All. A show that saw Hulk Hogan defeat Greg Valentine and Wendi Richter become the WWF women’s champion by beating the Fabulous Moolah. The event became the most watched show in MTV history.
With the success of The Brawl to end it All, MTV and the WWF partnered up again in 1985 to air another event called The War to Settle the Score. It saw Hulk Hogan with Cyndi Lauper, David Wolff and Capt. Lou in his corner defeat Rowdy Roddy Piper and Wendi Richter lose her WWF women’s title against Leilani Kai. Several celebrities were in attendance for this event including artist Andy Warhol and actor Danny DeVito. Roddy Piper was even used as a guest VJ on the channel in 1987.
MTV helped promote the WWF’s first huge event called Wrestlemania in 1985 and definitely helped the wrestling promotion go into it as being both hip and trendy. Without MTV’s exposure….who knows if the first Wrestlemania would have succeeded the way that it did. The WWE/MTV relationship was on and off for a number of years after Wrestlemania I. It aired WWE’s reality series called Tough Enough and also Sunday Night Heat. The WWE also allowed characters like Stone Cold Steve Austin and Chyna be used in MTV’s Claymation series called ‘Celebrity Death Match.’
While WWE and MTV had a strong relationship through the years, they weren’t the only company to get exposure on the music video channel. WWE’s main rival…World Championship Wrestling also formed a partnership with MTV for a time. WCW’s boss Eric Bischoff made a deal with them to air specials on the network including wrestling shows during MTV Spring Break called Beach Brawl and Snow Brawl during the wintertime. WCW even hired MTV VJ Riki Rachtman to be a backstage interviewer on Monday Nitro telecasts in 1999-2000.
WCW and MTV co promoted the very disastrous event called Ultimate Video Bash that was done outside during a heavy rain storm in New York City. MTV had wrestlers like Diamond Dallas Page and Raven appear on MTV shows like Total Request Live.
The partnership with WCW didn’t seem nearly as successful as the one MTV had with WWF/WWE…but MTV always held pro wrestling in high regard. It certainly helped in MTV bringing in a couple of upstart wrestling promotions to their brand. The first happened in 2007 with Wrestling Society X that featured wrestlers like Tyler Black, Jack Evans, Vic Grimes and Vampiro. Unfortunately, the company didn’t last long and were gone after just 9 episodes.
In 2010, MTV once again attempted to bring non WWE wrestling to the network with a show called “Lucha Libre USA: Masked Warriors.” A hybrid type of wrestling show that combine Mexican Lucha Libre with modern pro wrestling here in the United States. The show only lasted one and half seasons on MTV before being cancelled.
In 2020, MTV’s parent company Viacom had shows MTV aired like Brawl to end it All and War to Settle the Score pulled from the then WWE network over certain copyright issues. Regardless, as you can see, professional wrestling always did have a place on MTV and vice versa in its 40 plus year history.
