There were a ton of premature deaths in pro wrestling in the 1990s, but one that often gets washed over is Louie Spicolli. He was only 27 when he passed, and it seemed he had the whole world in front of him, as he was making his name in the wrestling business, having been in ECW, WWF, and WCW at such a young age.
During his time in the WWF, he was known as Rad Radford, and was Vince McMahon’s idea of what a grunge rocker would be. I could go into greater depth, but Art has this one covered in his induction of Rad rightchere. Besides, I’d rather spend our time today discussing how Jim Ross educated Gorilla Monsoon about Courtney Love and Hole! Yes, kids this was a thing that actually happened during this match. Gorilla noting he couldn’t use a CD in his 8-track player is absolutely incredible.
Rad’s opponent for this one would be a very young Jeff Hardy. And when I say very young, I mean VERY young, as Hardy was just eighteen years old at the time! He goes after Rad with a lockup, but gets tied up in knots, then slapped in the face repeatedly. I can only surmise that he told Rad that Nirvana sucked.
Radford jumps outside the ring, and Hardy goes after him, only for Rad to lay the boots into Jeff as he comes back in. A front face suplex right into the ropes follows, and Rad tosses him outside the ring like yesterday’s garbage.
We then get a really nice dive through the ropes that looks to have completely demolished Hardy. Holy cow that looked awesome! I really miss Spicolli, he was great.
At this point, you can tell Radford is just kinda playing around with him, nailing him with move after move. And check out that dropkick! It’s a beaut, Clark!
Playtime ends with a spinebuster that would make Arn Anderson smile and a northern lights suplex. Rad celebrates with some headbanging, but the fans don’t want to play along. What a bunch of losers – Rad’s theme song rocked!