Impossible to believe but apparently true – while I’ve referenced this bit on the site countless times, apparently I’ve never actually INDUCTED it. At least that’s what I’ve been told. So yes, after 26+ years, we are finally giving George “The Animal” Steele becoming a genius via shock therapy its proper due. If you’ve never seen this one before, all I can say is buckle up…and maybe put in an occlusal guard. (Look it up, kids!)
But before we get there, a bit of background. This is yet another nugget from the supplier of never-ending WrestleCrap, the old Tuesday Night Titans (TNT) Show. It really is the gift that keeps on giving, and although I’ve covered tons of stuff from it over the years, I’m willing to bet I could fill a year with just stuff from it. Tonight, Vince gives a long-winded soliloquy about how George Steele isn’t the most stable of personalities and thus his manager, Captain Lou Albano, is looking to help him out by scheduling a trip to a doctor. Namely, a combination gynecologist/psychiatrist.
So we are properly introduced to Dr. Sigmund Ziff in his very 1980’s living room “office” who is going to cure George of his…instabilities, shall we say…via SHOCK TREATMENT. Ziff is very blunt in his assessment: by using electrical diodes attached to The Animal’s noggin, he will achieve GENIUS levels of intelligence!
Vince isn’t sold at this point, and questions Albano about actually allowing this to happen to one of his men. Albano babbles as he is wont to do, spouting gibberish left and right, finally noting that he fully trusts Ziff with George’s medulla oblongata. But what about the upper part of his brain, Albano? Is he going to a different quack for that?
For his part, it appears George doesn’t have much to say. To be fair, he never did really aside from…
…MINE…
…and ELIZABETT. And SPEAKING OF Elizabett (just trying to write it like George pronounced it), anyone else ever find it weird that months and months of Randy Savage’s prime were spent in horrific matches with George Steele? That can’t just be me, right?
Back to the matter at hand. The, well, not so good I would say doctor attempts to put a metal contraption on George’s head, but he will have none of it. So Ziff pulls out a pocket watch and hypnotizes The Animal in the span of about two and a half seconds. As dumb as all this is, I do have to admit I laughed hard at George immediately being mesmerized by the watch swinging back and forth.
Dr. Ziff does eventually convince Steele to put on the shock helmet as we get electricity zapping along in the background. No idea what that device sitting on the table pretending to be a shock generator actually is, but the one sitting in the cabinet behind George has to be an early VHS recorder.
And then a miracle happens – George begins to SMILE! Likely due to the fact that Vince went to the effort of having an actual Jacob’s ladder zapping voltage up v-shaped wires, like something out of Boris Karloff’s Frankenstein. Going forward when people ask me how the WWF gained so much traction due to superior production values, I will now point to that as example one. So George utters his “first” word, that being WHOM. Not gonna lie, I don’t get the joke there with it being the first thing out of his mouth…can anyone explain this one to me in the comments below? As Roddy Piper would say, please and thank ya.
But it doesn’t stop there. Indeed, George is now getting smarter by the nanosecond, and is now able to formulate full sentences! We get a “How now brown cow” as Albano dances about as if he just inherited a rubber band factory. It’s a miracle!
But as is the case with any mad scientist, Ziff isn’t content with that – he wants more. So he reaches over and cranks up the dial, with one goal in mind – to quite literally amp up Steele to super genius level. Vince questions Ziff’s tactics, but he is undeterred and throws enough electricity at Steele’s brain to light the Griswold house at Christmas. Sadly this goes exactly as you’d expect, with George reverting back to full Animal, tossing off the helmet, and running for the hills.
Albano is of course apoplectic, and reads Ziff the riot act, claiming that he’s probably just a vetrenarian! Hey stupid – you’re the one that brought him an Animal. Isn’t that what you SHOULD be looking for? But that was that. George was back to being a neanderthal and I’m pretty sure we never saw Dr. Sigmund Ziff again. And I think that it’s time to leave the realm of TNT for a while…or I might need shock therapy myself!