| No doubt when you learned this week that Fabulous Moolah had passed away, many thoughts probably raced through your head. Her contributions to women’s wrestling, perhaps. Maybe her build-up to WrestleMania I with Captain Lou, Cyndia Lauper, and Wendi Richter. Or maybe, since you are hanging out at a site called “WrestleCrap”, her antics with Mae Young. Believe it or not, when I heard she had gone to the great ring in the sky, I didn’t think of any of those things. In fact, I thought of two, only two things: Spider Woman and Fuji Bandito. Let’s tackle Spider Woman first, because odds are you’ve never even heard of her. For those of you who weren’t around back in the mid 1980’s, Wendi Richter was looked at by many in the business as being just as big a deal as Hulk Hogan. While I was never a subscriber to that theory, trust me, she brought a lot of kids and especially young girls to WWF events. So why, you are no doubt asking, did she more or less vanish within months of the big show? One word: Montreal. Only in this case, Montreal was taking place in New York City. Confused? Good, I’ve done my job. The story here is that Richter was in the process of negotiating a contract with Vince & Co.. Just prior to heading out for her match at Madison Square Garden, she was asked again to sign the new deal. She declined, saying she needed more time to think about it. Once in the ring, Richter found herself on her back for what was supposed to be a two-count. Instead, with her shoulder up clearly at two (in fact, she was almost to her feet!), the ref counted three and awarded the match – and the WWF Women’s Title – to Richter’s opponent, Spider Woman. In other words, Richter got screwed – a full dozen years prior to Bret Hart going through basically the exact same thing in Montreal. Richter never appeared in a WWF ring again. The only real difference is Bret didn’t rip off Shawn Michael’s head to reveal Fabulous Moolah. That would have been very weird. That is, however, what happened with Richter, who pulled the mask off Spider Woman to discover Moolah. Richter was gone, and Moolah was back in charge of the WWF Women’s title. There’s your history lesson for today. Now what’s this Fuji Bandito you mentioned? Ah yes…that’s a much more pleasant memory. And one that, while not Crap per se, is a fun, fond memory that I have of Moolah, and one that I will induct in her honor. In the mid 1980’s, the WWF had a weekly television series they called TNT: Tuesday Night Titans. Now we’ve discussed this show before, and we’ve even inducted it as a whole and a few individual segments as well. Basically, it was a personality profile show for people on acid. By that I don’t mean that the folks on the show were on acid. Sure, some of them probably were. What I meant was that it was a showcase of the absurd, with characters becoming more “fleshed out” in the most bizarre manners possible. We had George Steele going through psychiatric evaluations, Capt. Lou baking Christmas cookies, and Adrian Adonis getting a makeover. Every week it was something patently absurd. Sometimes it was funny. Sometimes it wasn’t. But it was always, always, always stupid. My favorite of these skits? No doubt the ongoing trials and tribulations of “Magnificient” Don Muraco and his manager/agent Mr. Fuji as they attempted to get careers in acting. Each week we’d get a new “pilot” they were filming, such as Fuji Vice (a Miami Vice spin-off with Don & Fuj wearing pastels) and Fuji General (soap opera). The pair would “act” in the most horrific manner possible, delivering lines so stoically that you’d think Muraco was half-Hawaiian, half-evergreen. It was great, great comedy. While Fuji General and Fuji Vice are generally known, a much more obscure bit was Fuji Bandito. In this one, Muraco is the vile Muraco Kid, and Fuji is a Mexican. Let that sink in for a minute. Oh yeah, and the Fabulous Moolah was Lil, Muraco’s girlfriend. And that’s your connection. 8)
And that was the end. There was never any follow up, so we don’t know what happened to the Kid. I’d like to think he stowed away on that train from Back to the Future III. It would explain how he wound up facing Dino Bravo at Summer Slam ’88. As I wrap this up, no doubt you may be asking, “Why, RD? Why bother with something so lame and not really crap?” The answer, dear Crapper, is simple. While it’s something you might think was stupid, and maybe not even worth your time to read about, to me…it will always be Moolah. And just thinking about it, it never fails to make me laugh. Thank you, Moolah. Thank you.
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Fuji Bandito
