The Bolsheveiks

[Deleted]

now I know the idea of forming this team is similar to Demolitions origin in that Vinnie tried to sign Ivan and Nikita and they wouldnt budge.

but I often wondered why he made the Bolsheveiks into total jobbers?Jesus they got squashed by everyone didnt they?

discuss.........

[Raine]

Not the greatest team were they, everytime I watched them they lost, Bushwhackers, Harts, Rockers always went over. Thought they would have had a bit more about them seeing as Volkoff was a former co-holder of the tag titles with Sheiky baby.

Power & Glory were the team that I wish could have done more, I think when L.O.D squashed them at WM7 that was the end of the road for the potential that team had.

We seem to be pretty similar in terms of wrestling interests. How long you been into "this business" mate?

[Deleted]

Aug 2, 2010 10:44:38 GMT -5 Raine said:

Not the greatest team were they, everytime I watched them they lost, Bushwhackers, Harts, Rockers always went over. Thought they would have had a bit more about them seeing as Volkoff was a former co-holder of the tag titles with Sheiky baby.

Power & Glory were the team that I wish could have done more, I think when L.O.D squashed them at WM7 that was the end of the road for the potential that team had.

We seem to be pretty similar in terms of wrestling interests. How long you been into "this business" mate?

lemme see......my Da got sky in 88(I was 8)and the first wrestling I seen was WM5 in 89.I was hooked ever since.

yeah Power and Glory got totally flattened by LOD didnt they?there was a trend here.......I was just like the Bolsheveiks against Harts the year before when the Harts were being pushed towards the taggers

[Raine]

Your about 18 months up on me mate, my first PPV was Survivors 1990. I've been into WWF (will always call it that) since Undertaker debuted thinking about it.

Dunno about you but it was always exciting as a nipper to go back through old PWI mags and stuff and see about old feuds, and also discovering NWA/WCW and reading up on that was great too. I only really liked to go back as far as about WM3 cos before that to me the WWF weren't that great compared to the 1987-92 era which was just awesome. I've really lost interest in the WWF/E since about 2002, just not been the same, dunno if its because the net has spoiled wrestling as a whole, with kayfabe being killed off and being able to read about who is to feud with who. Perhaps its just because the 87-92 & Attitude/Monday Night Wars era was so good, nothing can compare to it, especially nowadays with Cena, Orton, etc are just pale imitations to the headliners during the boom period.

[Deleted]

I discovered PWI in the summer of 1990......and I used to get it religously with my pocket money every month or so when it was out.

it was my only way to find out about Sting etc too......great times....started getting WCW magazine instead of WWE magazine too because it kept me aprised of WCW news and I already knew what was going on in WWF.

[Johnny Lawrence - Cobra Kai]

Aside from the fact that Nikolai Volkoff was pretty played out by the time they teamed him with Boris Zukhov ('88, wasn't it?), the whole "evil heel Russians" gimmick itself was starting to age, too. People weren't as reflexively hateful of Russian heels by '88 as they were in the... well, any time from about 1985 backwards.

So the gimmick (and one of the wrestlers) were both getting stale, on top of the fact that on their best day, Volkoff and Zukhov couldn't hold a candle to some of their tag team competition in those days (Harts, Rockers, Bulldogs, Demolition, etc.), and the odds against the Bolsheviks were pretty long from the very start.

[Deleted]

Aug 3, 2010 18:40:37 GMT -5 Johnny Lawrence - Cobra Kai said:

Aside from the fact that Nikolai Volkoff was pretty played out by the time they teamed him with Boris Zukhov ('88, wasn't it?), the whole "evil heel Russians" gimmick itself was starting to age, too. People weren't as reflexively hateful of Russian heels by '88 as they were in the... well, any time from about 1985 backwards.

So the gimmick (and one of the wrestlers) were both getting stale, on top of the fact that on their best day, Volkoff and Zukhov couldn't hold a candle to some of their tag team competition in those days (Harts, Rockers, Bulldogs, Demolition, etc.), and the odds against the Bolsheviks were pretty long from the very start.

good post man-great points.

[carly1988]

Aug 3, 2010 18:40:37 GMT -5 Johnny Lawrence - Cobra Kai said:

Aside from the fact that Nikolai Volkoff was pretty played out by the time they teamed him with Boris Zukhov ('88, wasn't it?), the whole "evil heel Russians" gimmick itself was starting to age, too. People weren't as reflexively hateful of Russian heels by '88 as they were in the... well, any time from about 1985 backwards.

So the gimmick (and one of the wrestlers) were both getting stale, on top of the fact that on their best day, Volkoff and Zukhov couldn't hold a candle to some of their tag team competition in those days (Harts, Rockers, Bulldogs, Demolition, etc.), and the odds against the Bolsheviks were pretty long from the very start.

Spot on. You could tell once the Cold War ended, which it was pretty much done in the late 80s, Russian wrestlers really had no gimmick to fall back on. The USSR looked weak as did their wrestlers. Even Nikita Koloff couldnt regain any momentum he had. You can just look at how Volkoff feuded with Hogan in the early 80s to tell that the guy had a semi decent drawing power, but then again it was clearly ran off the Cold War.

[nibs92]

another problem, apart from the cold war, was there wasn't any super over patriot american teams that would have played off the bolshevik team.

still one of my guilty pleasures in wrestling.

another team from that era i'd have liked to have seen do something was the conquistadors!

[slappy]

Such a shame, because Nikolai Volkoff was awesome.

[Rob7274]

I like it when every wrestler/team could win a match instead of getting beat every match.
Shame they got beat by everyone as I really like Volkoff!

[Deleted]

I just watched them geing hammered by the face Powers of Pain at Summerslam 88.......

[Burger Lad]

Raine and JokerFC - I'm close to you guys as we got Sky in October 1990 and my first PPV was seeing Survivor Series in two parts on Sky One. I was hooked!

I always loved the Wrestlemania (was it 6?) when the Hart Foundation beat them in a matter of seconds although was a bit of a waste of the Foundations appearance at a WM.

[June]

Boris Zukhov was only brought in to the WWF just to further weaken the AWA, Boris at the time of his signing with the WWF, was one half of the AWA tag champs.

Vince often just took guys from other promotions with no real plan for them, but at least he used Zukoff and a way past his prime Volkoff to put over their amazing collection of face tag teams.

[Deleted]

Oct 16, 2010 10:49:26 GMT -5 Burger Lad said:

Raine and JokerFC - I'm close to you guys as we got Sky in October 1990 and my first PPV was seeing Survivor Series in two parts on Sky One. I was hooked!

I always loved the Wrestlemania (was it 6?) when the Hart Foundation beat them in a matter of seconds although was a bit of a waste of the Foundations appearance at a WM.

yeah that was WM6 man. a strong(but quick)outing for the Hartsto set them up to feud with Demoliton.

[Burger Lad]

A bit off topic but for me I don't think you can have a more golden age than between Wrestlemania 6 and Wrestlemania 8.

Around that time I went on a few UK events at Wembley, NEC and NIA and saw pretty much everyone apart from Hogan and Slaughter. Always a regret not seeing Hogan live.

Was lucky to see Warrior vs Undertaker in '91 though.

[Deleted]

WM4 to 8 is my favorite time for that era-great suff repeatedly

[Burger Lad]

Oct 17, 2010 14:25:35 GMT -5 JokerFC said:

WM4 to 8 is my favorite time for that era-great suff repeatedly

Yes I do like WM4 - my mate had the big VHS boxset and we used to watch it loads

[Deleted]

WM5 is my fave from that time.