The Twin Towers

[koreygunz]

Ive been watching 80s anthology DVDs lately, and there was somethng that always bothered me.

The Twin Towers were a good tag team and made for decent heels for Hogan and Savage, but I always wondered, if the plan was to team these two up, why did they make One Man Gang into Akeem? It would seem to me that a team of a "street thug" and "crooked cop" would make more sense. Was this a type of punishment for OMG over something? Or just a very weird decision by Vince?

[Grumpyoldman]

Vince just wanted to make his own character out of the One Man Gang. He did it to a lot of wrestlers.
Big Bubba Rogers was the Big Boss Man.
Ted DiBiase was The Million Dollar Man.
The Big Steel Man was Tugboat/Typhoon.
Steve Keirn was Skinner.
Kevin Kelly was Nailz.
Tony Atlas was Saba Simba.
Bad News Allen was Bad News Brown.
The Dingo Warrior was The Ultimate Warrior, etc.

Very rarely did he hire a guy & not change his name or image. Such are the cases of Rick Rude, King Kong Bundy, Jimmy Snuka, Ric Flair, Sgt. Slaughter, Ivan Putski, etc.

[twinn]

Jul 28, 2011 17:18:38 GMT -5 Grumpyoldman said:

Vince just wanted to make his own character out of the One Man Gang.

Yeah, but Akeem had been wrestling as the One Man Gang in the WWF for quite awhile before being turned into Akeem. It would seem the One Man Gang and Big Bossman would have made for a better match, but I'm actually glad that OMG became Akeem. The Twin Towers are one of my Top 5 favorite tag teams ever and it wouldn't have been the same without The African Dream.

[Raine]

I'm sure George Gray was being punished (reason escapes me) and was told they were changing him from OMG to Akeem. Supposed to have been heartbroken when he found out.

[bountyhunterblood5]

Great tag team I gotta admit they were a great pair.

[machoking]

I think it was another "attack" against Dusty Rhodes. Everyone know of the Virgil deal but Akeem was suppose to be a joke too. I mean think, Rhodes, the American Dream was always jiving and dancing in the NWA...Then we get an African Dream that jives and dances in the WWF.

[Raine]

Jul 29, 2011 7:39:17 GMT -5 @machoking said:

I think it was another "attack" against Dusty Rhodes. Everyone know of the Virgil deal but Akeem was suppose to be a joke too. I mean think, Rhodes, the American Dream was always jiving and dancing in the NWA...Then we get an African Dream that jives and dances in the WWF.

Could be a possibility that, when you throw in the Virgil inside joke, why the hell did Dusty sign for Vince in 1989?

[Deleted]

Jul 29, 2011 7:17:57 GMT -5 Raine said:

I'm sure George Gray was being punished (reason escapes me) and was told they were changing him from OMG to Akeem. Supposed to have been heartbroken when he found out.

yup.

Jim Duggan talks about it on his shoot.he says it was after Gray took some time off unexpectedly.

when he came back he was told OMG was history.insanely stupid move by Vince.

[koreygunz]

I knew it had to be something like that. Kudos to OMG for making it work as well as it did. I mean, heck, he was still involved in a main event feud with the Mega Powers for a bit before WM 5.

[STING]

In my opinion, I actually liked the Akeem character better than the One Man Gang. To me, he was more entertaining as Akeem. Just my opinion though.

[twinn]

Jul 29, 2011 17:39:20 GMT -5 STING said:

In my opinion, I actually liked the Akeem character better than the One Man Gang. To me, he was more entertaining as Akeem. Just my opinion though.

I totally agree. I love Akeem, but I never cared for OMG.

[Deleted]

The Twin Towers were such a great team and they were so entertaining when they were on The Arsenio Hall Show! I loved it when Bossman made Arsenio run and then BBM kicked a piece of the set's furniture! I bet Arsenio crapped himself! lol

[CMPunkSavior]

Jul 29, 2011 10:54:02 GMT -5 Raine said:

Could be a possibility that, when you throw in the Virgil inside joke, why the hell did Dusty sign for Vince in 1989?

Dusty has said he had about 500,000 reasons to sign for Vince.

[Deleted]

I loved akeems dance someone shud put a clip up ..

[marino13]

I've always had the same question and I guess know I know. Thanks for asking cause I've been meaning to and kept forgetting.

[jason1980s]

I think One Man Gang was great for his time in WWF post wrestlemania destroying guys even in handicapped matches. He was supposed to have a tag team match with Nikolai but Nikolai stepped aside to let Gang beat both guys. I don't think the Akeem character would've meshed well with Nikolai, Sheik (out of Slick's group by time Gang came though) or Boris. Maybe Butch Reed since he danced to the music. I don't see Akeem being as big a threat to Hogan as One Man Gang could've been. I don't see Akeem going to the semi-finals in the WM tournament.

I would've thought Gang would be better with Bossman than Akeem but since Akeem came second I guess he found a nice place in the group. I think for the time period with the characters taking over Akeem was better off than One Man Gang. I think of Gang much like King Kong Bundy where he was a scary, huge newcomer destroying jobbers than once he lost to Hogan there wasn't much more to be done but comedy (Little Beaver match for Bundy, Akeem for George Gray).

I would like to know why Gang never last long in WCW during the 90s. He was scheduled for the Halloween Havoc 8 man electric chair match but didn't make the show. He may have been gone from WCW by that time but I remember a commercial for Battle Bowl where his trading card was featured along with other wrestlers scheduled. In 1995 he won the U.S. title but was gone a few months later.