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[1990-09-15-WWF-Superstars] "THAT'S TONY ATLAS!"


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  • 2 months later...

Tony Atlas, perhaps in disgust with the line of questioning in Dawna's ICW Teen Report, reinvented himself as Saba Simba and went to the WWF. This is on here because of Roddy Piper having a real problem with his gimmick, pointing out that he's Tony Atlas and he has no idea why they're calling him Saba Simba. Vince says he legally changed his name. He actually could have been a decent midcard heel during this time period had they let him cut heel promos, but this gimmick was all wrong. Horrible squash, but Tony Atlas didn't need to be good in the ring to be effective during this time period.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Piper may be the reason people get yelled at today on commentary as you can almost picture Vince snapping his fingers at him in the booth telling him to shut up. Simbas dance was awful. Sad to see Atlas in this fashion. I don't think I was as blown away with his promo stuff as most but it was good and certainly deserved better than this.

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 2 years later...

What I want to know is how fast Vince had to think on his feet to come up with the stuff about Atlas being proud of his heritage and legally changing his name. I'm almost sure he didn't mean for there to be any connection between Saba Simba and Tony Atlas until Piper started in; you can tell that we're supposed to believe that this is a totally new wrestler who's never competed in the WWF before.

 

I can almost picture Vince making the remark about Piper wearing a kilt while holding up a card that only Piper could see saying "SHUT THE HELL UP OR YOU'RE FIRED!" Piper goes into obedient shill mode quick, fast, and in a hurry, although he does get in one last zinger about the headgear, which looks absolutely ridiculous.

 

One other question: Why not simply dub in new commentary, with Heenan filling in if necessary? They could have made up some excuse for Piper's temporary absence. Maybe Vince felt he needed to give at least passing acknowledgment to Atlas's past, since the magazines would no doubt reveal his true identity soon enough.

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  • 1 year later...
  • 8 months later...

Howard Finkel makes the introductions and Vince McMahon says to take a look at this ‘Saba Simba making his initial appearance right here on the show’. Roddy Piper is having none of that and says it’s not Saba Simba, it’s Tony Atlas walking around looking like a bird with all of those feathers. McMahon claims that he’s proud of his heritage, and although they haven’t seen him for four years he’s legally changed his name to Saba Simba. Piper responds ‘that’s ridiculous’, he says that Tony Atlas is a great competitor and why would Saba Simba walk around like that? He looks like a fool! Pretty quick squash with Simba winning after a Samoan Drop and he does a little tribal dance afterwards in celebration.

 

Wow! I knew about Piper referring to him as Tony Atlas, but had no idea he rubbishes and kills the gimmick out right before the match even starts! I presume he hadn’t run this by McMahon by the way Vince was trying to cover for everything that Piper was saying. Had no-one seen him in the ICW? Clearly not, as no idea how someone could think this was a better gimmick that ‘the man’ he was doing there. They do try to put over Atlas’ strength here, but there was nothing in this squash that would make you think he’ll be doing much in the WWF.

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  • 2 months later...

Piper hardly killed the gimmick. The gimmick killed Tony Atlas really. What the Hell was the point of dressing a guy with the promo chops Atlas had like this exactly? Was this where Vince started to protect himself with the "You didn't make you, I made you" kind of shit he does all the time now?

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  • 2 months later...
  • GSR changed the title to [1990-09-15-WWF-Superstars] "THAT'S TONY ATLAS!"

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