Posted on by bdamage1
Brian Damage
In the late 1980’s and into the mid 1990’s, the World Wrestling Federation was geared as family sports entertainment. While we know that the WWE usually frowns upon the use of blood in matches and storylines…it was still used sparingly throughout the years when absolutely necessary. Back in 1988, the company set up an angle that, quite frankly was so brutally vicious by WWF standards, it surprised many…including the participants involved.
It all started in 1987, when the WWF hired the ‘Outlaw’ Ron Bass. According to Bass, he was brought in to the company with big plans. He was going to feud with Blackjack Mulligan for who was the roughest, toughest Texan. Eventually, the two would form a partnership and they would add a manager…who was reportedly going to be the real life wife of wrestler ‘Black Bart.’ Bass claimed he was going to be groomed to challenge Hulk Hogan for the WWF title. All those plans were ultimately scrapped, when Blackjack Mulligan was fired for having an argument with Pat Patterson. Bass said he lost a lot of potential main event money because of Mulligan.
Not only did Ron Bass lose out on a program with Hulk Hogan, he also found himself nowhere near the main event. He languished on the lower to mid card status. Bass felt that since he was friends with Blackjack Mulligan, Patterson took it out on him since he was still on the roster. Outlaw Ron Bass never got past the mid card of the WWF in his tenure there.
On the flip side of Ron Bass, was Brutus ‘The Barber’ Beefcake, who was rising up the ranks as a singles wrestler. Beefcake was being groomed to become the number two babyface in the company behind his good friend Hulk Hogan. He was booked for an Intercontinental title match against the then champion Honkytonk Man at SummerSlam ’88. According to Beefcake, he was scheduled to defeat the Honkytonk Man for the title and then have a six month feud across the country with HTM in the semi and main events.
Despite the WWF heavily advertising Beefcake vs Honkytonk Man for the IC title at SummerSlam, the match was abruptly dropped in favor of the Ultimate Warrior challenging for the title. Brutus Beefcake claimed that the Ultimate Warrior threw a fit and demanded he be added to the show and challenge Honky for the belt instead. To Beefcake’s surprise, Vince McMahon relented and gave the Warrior…Beefcake’s spot on the show.
Since Brutus Beefcake was already advertised for the match with Honkytonk Man, Vince McMahon needed a creative way to get Beefcake out of the spot. That is where Ron Bass came in. At the time, Bass was in a sort of creative limbo and not doing very much. Bass was brought in to start an impromptu feud with Beefcake. An idea was hatched to have Bass choke out his opponents after the match with his trusty bullwhip he called “Miss Betsy.” After a match against enhancement wrestler named Jim Evans, Bass used Miss Betsy to strangle Evans. Being the babyface he was, Brutus Beefcake ran out to make the save and in doing so, used his shears to cut up Miss Betsy.
To further the feud, Beefcake won a squash match and was attacked from behind by a livid Outlaw. Bass began pummeling Beefcake what was left of Miss Betsy. As the referee Jack Kruger tried to intervene, Bass tossed the referee over the top rope on to the arena floor. As Beefcake was laying on the mat groggy, Ron Bass took out a boot spur and proceeded to slice up Beefcake’s forehead with it. Of course, there was a blade job involved with Beefcake’s forehead drawing blood. The attack by Bass was so graphic, that the WWF needed to add a warning on TV and blocked the actual bloody Beefcake with a censored graphic. What might have been tame in some other wrestling promotions, was by far a very graphic segment by WWF standards at that point in time.
The idea for the angle came supposedly came from Ron Bass who suggested it to McMahon. Vince who was desperate at that point for an excuse to make the SummerSlam switch agreed to it, much to the surprise of both Bass and Beefcake. Naturally, the angle was originally supposed to be more vicious looking and lasted a bit longer than what was aired on WWF television. McMahon made sure there was serious editing and cut shorter. The feud between Bass and Beefcake would last until the fall of 1988 and culminated in a hair vs hair match on Saturday Night’s Main Event…in which Beefcake was victorious. To this day, the Ron Bass attack on Brutus Beefcake is ranked as one of the most vicious assaults in WWE history.
