WebRightfully so, because the legendary Captain Lou Albano will always be one of a kind. Either way, the duo made it to WWE then known as the World Wide Wrestling Federation in the late 1960s and ended up capturing the WWWF United States Tag Team Championship, splitting once Albano transitioned into becoming a manager. The pro wrestling manager is not a new invention, and one of the most iconic of all time was Captain Lou Albano, who spent the 1970s and 1980s as a top heel manager in WWE. Need help? This angle led to the MTV special The Brawl to End It All, wherein Wendi Richter (representing Lauper) defeated The Fabulous Moolah (representing Albano) for the WWE Womens Championship. PWInsider - WWE News, Wrestling News, WWE. Over the course of the decade, he would lose more than 150 pounds and by 2000 he did seem to have considerably improved his health. In 1969, he began the second phase of his professional wrestling career as a manager. However, he eventually took up wrestling. He was kind of a wild and crazy guy. Albano made his screen debut in 1952 in CBS The Jackie Gleason Show. On the latest edition of VOC Nations Wrestling With History, Bill Apter and Ken Resnick discussed the career of WWE Hall of Famer Captain Lou Albano, the story behind Captain Lou Albanos face rings, some Albano drinking stories, and more. Later, a masked man who looked just like Andre showed up wearing a mask and calling himself the Giant Machine. Lou Albano was inducted in the WWE Hall of Fame in 1996. Davey Boy went on to even bigger success in later years. I lean towards pre because he wasnt constantly waking from night terrors shivering and screaming about carnivorous fungi and flame belching, man-sized lizard people. The 1980s stood in such stark contrast to the 2000s in that a big, fat, hairy, sweaty dude with rubber bands stuck to his face could be a pop icon. The attack made Albano a babyface character, and he went on to manage other babyfaces like Andre The Giant and The British Bulldogs, the latter of whom ended up becoming tag champions under his management. http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Wrestling/CaptainLouAlbano. You need to enable JavaScript to use SoundCloud. Drives a giant gun that launches chezburgers at a frightening velocity, Ah.. the Mario, an often misunderstood and overlooked dance. It's too bad. RELATED:The 10 Best Intercontinental Champions From The PG Era. Lou then managed the team on to three WWE World Tag Team Championship reigns. He worked alongside Danny Wells, who portrayed Luigi.In addition to He has worked as a journalist for over 20 years, first in the world of print journalism before moving to online media as the world changed. In 1994, however, Albano made an official return to the company, managing the Headshrinkers tag team in order to help solidify their face turn. In the course of serving advertisements to this site, our third-party advertiser may place or recognize a unique cookie on your browser. The British Bulldogs would have been Yorkies without Lou. Shortly after Albanos baptism, which was performed in the Vatican itself, Albanos parents returned to the US and began living in the Mount Vernon area. All Rights Reserved. Later in the '80s, Albano once again managed Blackjack Mulligan, but he wore a mask and went by the name Big Machine. He not only participated in the track and field events, but was also picked as the captain of his schools football team. One of his first clients was Crusher Verdu, a wrestler from Spain whose English abilities werent all that great. Louis Vincent Albano was born in Rome, Lazio, Kingdom of Italy on July 29, 1933. He met Willie Gilzenberg, a boxing promoter who would later serve as the titular president of World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF), an early version of WWF/E. Considered to be the forefather of the 1980s Rock 'n' Wrestling Connection for his elongated beard, rubber band facial piercings, and loud outfits, he played a pivotal role in mainstream audiences embracing professional wrestling. i figured Id get a jump on all the "balloon boy" comics that will be out on Monday. When he first made his way back to WWE after his stint in the NWA, he signed with Capt. Sadly, a second heart attack would claim his life on October 14th. Outside of the wrestling world, he is best-known for playing Mario (both in live-action and animated segments) on The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! They then took shelter in a bar nearby and were bombarded with mud and objects until the police arrived. Lou Albano agreed with the change in career path, especially because football injuries were taking a toll on his body. He also managed a former world champion and a pair of IC Champions, proving to be one of the best and most iconic managers in WWE history. He then enlisted in the US Army. Lou Albano manageda world heavyweight champion. WebAlbano, whose real name was Louis Vincent Albano, died in Westchester County in suburban New York, said Dawn Marie, founder of Wrestlers Rescue, an organization that Captain Lou Albano guests on a 1984 segment of Pipers Pit. Some say it was in piercings but I think they were tied into his beard hair. Lou Albano managing the tag team champion U.S. Express (Mike Rotundo and Barry Windham) at WrestleMania I (1985). I wonder if Captain Lou's segments are in there with them? Fair well paisano. https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/lou-albano-12451.php. Even though the Captain Lou Albano death story occurred years ago, he is still fondly remembered to this day by wrestling fans. you take that back! Captain Lou Albano, who became one of the most recognized professional wrestlers of the 1980s after appearing in Cyndi Laupers Girls Just Want to Have Fun music video, died Wednesday. Captain Lou Albano dead at 76. photo: wwe.com. He was 76. In 1986, Captain Lou Albano left the World Wrestling Federation to pursue other interests, but he still occasionally made appearances at ringside. Balloon boy could also be a reference to someone who loves or smuggles heroin. Later, Valentine moved on to Jimmy Hart as his manager, and Albano soon became a babyface. He used to hang out with Vince, Gorilla, and Arnold Skaaland at the old Holland Hotel wrestling office; they would all smoke and play cards and everything, and he was part of that group., Apter on the story behind the rubber band rings on Albanos face: He was very strong into the fight against multiple sclerosis with Cyndi Lauper. RELATED: The 10 Greatest Pipers Pit Segments Of All Time. Copyright 2023 411mania.com, LLC. He is also remembered for his appearances in Cyndi Laupers music videos, particularly Girls Just Want to Have Fun. WebAlbano ballooned to well over 300 pounds in later years. Visionaries that they are, NRBQ saw Lous wrestling managerial skills and realized he could easily take that same kind of hustle and bravado to the record game. Please download one of our supported browsers. Lou Albanos first success in wrestling would be as a tag team specialist, as he teamed with Tony Altomare as a duo called The Sicilians throughout the 1960s. By 1986, Lou Albano was gone from WWE, save for one-off appearances here and there. Copyright 2010-2023 TheSmackDownHotel.com. RELATED:10 Best Submission Finishers In TNA History, Ranked. He had a heart attack in May 2005. WebPaul E Dangerously and Captain Lou Albano face to face. On the latest edition of Wrestling with History, Bill Apter and Ken Resnick talked about their time with WWE Hall of Famer Captain Lou Albano. 1987 - YouTube 0:02 / 1:23 Paul E Dangerously and Captain Lou Albano face to face. Lou Albano (October 14, 1959 - June 7, 1997) Captain Lou Albano (May 22, 1972 - October 29, 1986) Height 5 ft 10 in (178 cm) Find out how to play and win at top paying online casino NZ from our guide. photo: wwe.com. Muraco went on to feud with former Albano wrestler Superfly Jimmy Snuka. Unique lists featuring pop culture, entertainment and crazy facts. TVTropes is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. They met and agreed to work together sometime in future. He had eight siblings, four of whom survived childhood. Albano was so convincing on the microphone that in January 1971, after his client Ivan Koloff defeated Sammartino, ending his seven-year reign as the WWWF Heavyweight Champion, a riot broke out in Madison Square Garden. In honor of such, the NRBQ lads penned this miraculous number about Lou, who intros and outros the song in maniacal fits of self-proclamations and percentages while referring to himself as the guiding light and a bitch on ball bearings, brother, a motherf***er on wheels. Im just glad I found this one early on in my writing, so as to provide the perfect soundtrack for such an important list. Shown here are three shows of Buddys Corner, leading up to this insane angle One of the three managers collectively known as the Triumvirate of Terror, Albanos clientele included 15 tag teams and four singles champions. If you like wrestling, you should try online games. But the injuries that he had sustained during his football days forced him to accept an honourable discharge after just eight months. He was freakin MARIO for Toads sake. He was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 1996. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65uNCLBTje0&fe. Is this something Capt. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); No spam. Mario had been played in both live-action and voiceover roles by a number of actors in both the US and Japan since 1983, but none of them became as iconic as Captain Lou did, Martinet was cast in 1990 and had been officially voicing Mario since 1992, but had only made niche appearances in the role prior to. This was one of the most popular tag teams in WWE during the '80s, and also one that was short-lived. Albano was arguably the best of the three. In WWE, a storyline began to build around the two, with Albano claiming that he had written all of Laupers songs and she owed all her success to him. Excellent! These companies may use information (not including your name, address, email address or telephone number) about your visits to this and other Web sites in order to provide advertisements on this site and other sites about goods and services that may be of interest to you. Pat Patterson was the first-ever WWE Intercontinental Champion, and he went on to enjoy a WWE Hall of Fame career before taking a role backstage as one of the top producers. I never knew when it was on (I found out later that's because it was in syndication after only having one season), but I always enjoyed it, despite supporting the losing side in the console wars (Sega). Blackjack Mulligan and Blackjack Lanza won their first WWE tag team titles in 1975 from Dominic DeNucci and Pat Barrett. WebApter on why Albano wore the rubber band earrings on his face: He was very strong into the fight against multiple sclerosis with Cyndi Lauper. sniff why couldn't it have been John Leguizamo or Bob Hoskins?. Due to his busy schedule as a WWF employee, it would take him another 37 years to land his first significant credit. Trying to figure out what to do next, Albano harboured boxing aspirations for a short while. Fanscontinue to watch Captain Lou in the movies that he appeared in during his lifetime, includingBody Slam and in reruns of Miami Vice and The Super Mario Bros Super Show. Get the occasional email with the latest wrestling tributes and memorials, Search by ring name, real name, cause of death, organization, time period (2000s, etc) or specific year, WWE Hall of Famer Ravishing Rick Rude was an amazing individual in and out of the ring. Louis Vincent Albano (July 29, 1933 October 14, 2009) was an Italian-American pro wrestler and dance choreographer best known for his appearances as "Captain" Lou Albano. Broadcast live on MTV, it gave WWE the opportunity to access the coveted young adult demographic. I distinctly remember getting a little too excited every time SMB came on television. Google image search Captain Lou Albano. WebOne of the most famous angles in WWWF history. In 1986, Andre took time off from WWE to makePrincess Bride, and a storyline was created that had WWE suspend Andre for no-showing an event. His health again took a sharp decline in 2009. The have the live-action, the cartoon, the commercial for the next Legend of Zelda episode in some, and of course, the credits featuring Lou doing the Mario. Flashback: Albano and Lauper Engage in Father-Daughter Smackdown in Pipers Pit, 6-year-old boy floats away in homemade helium balloon, Balloon Boy Gets Fresh Prince Treatment on Facebook, Balloon Boy: We did this for the show., http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65uNCLBTje0&fe. [Insert gay plunder reference]. Captain Lou was a big, fat reason wrestling blew up to become the pop culture crossover phenom of the mid-80s, back when pile-driving was a fad. Yes! I will be over here too, doing the Mario as mournfully as possible. 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