Welcome back to the Rotten Ink Arena. As you can tell, this “R.I.W Wrestling Legend” update has a theme as the bales of hay are being used as seats and the fried pig parts are at the snack bar and all the people in overalls are square dancing. It’s not the Arena’s normal look, but it’s a perfect atmosphere for tonight’s main event star as the one and only Uncle Elmer will be making his way to the ring and will show us all a good old hillbilly good time! So I am not sure about you, but I think I am going to go buy some fried pig parts as well as a Mountain Dew to drink and then will find our seats as this is clearly one of those themed events that you have to take part in as where else can one eat such a great cuisine? The house lights are going down and the music has started, so let’s get to our seats and see what Uncle Elmer has in store for us.
Uncle Elmer started his in ring pro career in 1960 and would mostly work the Southern territories as the Country Plowboy and would be booked strong as he stood over 6’10” and weighed almost 500 pounds! Early on he worked for many NWA promotions and would not only wrestle as Plowboy but would also wear a mask and a stripped uniform and call himself The Convict and would work as a heel. And during this journeyman routine he wrestled many big names like Bobo Brazil, Gentle Ben The Wrestling Bear and The Satan Medics before having a good run as The Convict for NWA Hollywood and tangling with names like Ernie Ladd, Mil Mascaras and Chief White Eagle. He found his next big run in 1976 working for NWA Mid-America where he would team with Jerry Lawler as Plowboy Frazier and would be used by Lawer as a hired muscle. He would first be a heel until he found out he was being used and would turn baby face and feud with Lawler. In 1977 he would start working for CWA still as Plowboy Frazier and would stick around until 1980 before having a run in GCW (Georgia Championship Wrestling) before returning to CWA in 1981. Once in CWA again he would work under many names like Stan Frazier, Plowboy Frazier as well as Kamala II, The Giant Rebel and The Lone Ranger with the latter having him dress as a out of shape mask wearing hero. He would stick around CWA up until 1985 and would have matches against names like Tom Prichard, The Rock N Roll Express, Jerry Lawler, The Phantom, Mr. Onita and Gypsy Joe to name a few. He even got to wrestle in Japan as The Convict character. But being a man of many gimmicks and being over with fans and a big attraction wrestler due to his size and weight, it was only a matter of time before New York came calling. But keep in mind during his run in the NWA territories, he would win many Tag Titles!
Starting in 1985 and now going by Uncle Elmer, he would work in the WWF as a member of the stable called The Hillbillies that included Hillbilly Jim, Cousin Luke and Cousin Junior and he would wrestle the company’s top heels, dance in the ring and even eat from a giant bucket that read “Uncle Elmer’s Fried Pig Parts” and was well loved by fans who could not get enough of this mountain of a man. He would work the house shows at the start and would get wins over names like Tiger Chung Lee, The Spoiler, Moondog Spot and even Big John Studd! He would make it to TV as well and would be featured in matches as well as segments including getting married on “Saturday Night’s Main Event II” that aired in 1985. And during the marriage angle he would be made fun of by Jesse Ventura and as well Roddy Piper and this would find Elmer on the loosing end of many of the matches. He would then go on to have a match against Adrian Adonis at “WrestleMania II” in a losing effort and shortly after he would have his final match for then in early 1986 against King Kong Bundy on “Saturday Night’s Main Event VI”. During his WWF run he would have matches against the likes of Greg Valentine, Brutus Beefcake, Rene Goulet, The Hart Foundation, Iron Sheik, Iron Mike Sharpe and Bon Orton Jr. to name a few. While in the WWF he was a super popular baby face whose good nature and big man brawling style made the fans cheer.
After leaving the WWF in 1986 Uncle Elmer would head back to Continental Wrestling Association (CWA) and would change his name to Giant Hillbilly Elmer and team with Jerry Lawler and would even win Tag Titles with him. He would stick around CWA until around 1988. While working in CWA he would be featured in some big matches but was not an upper-card draw as his health was starting to fade. He would however have matches against names like Austin Idol, The Red Demons, Bam Bam Bigelow and The Mod Squad. He would then start working for USWA after CWA and it merged and would stick around until 1989 before fully retiring from wrestling in 1991. And in the end of his career, he also had his own small promotion and would have a hand in training Bob Holly. Uncle Elmer who suffered from lots of health issues due to his weight as well as diabetes and on July 1, 1992 he would pas away from kidney failure at the age of 54. Over his career, Uncle Elmer would win many titles including the CWA World Heavyweight Title twice. He is not as of this updates posting put into the WWE Hall Of Fame.
Uncle Elmer is a wrestler I remember as a kid and was never a big fan of as I found him to be boring in the ring as he wrestled a very slow and sloppy big man style and besides Hillbilly Jim I just was not much into the whole mountain folk country boy gimmicks that took place in that time in the WWF. But I should say that I did however enjoy Uncle Elmer and his Hillbilly family’s antics as their simple nature made for cartoonish good times. And while I do still laugh about his Fried Pig Parts bucket of food, I still could never get past just how very below average he was in the ring and yet some how he was booked strong and was beating guys way more talented then him! And I get that his massive sized made him limited in the ring and that he was more of a character then a worker, I just could never imagine why he was a bigger mid-card worker for awhile in companies like the WWF. While I mostly know him as Uncle Elmer his work as Lone Ranger, Kamala II and even one of his many Plowboy names is just as silly and as limited in his move set showing that he never made a effort to try and get better over his many years in the business and never learned how to use his size to his advantage to at least have good matches. There is also lots of bad stories about Elmer that include him selling bootleg products to even treating some different race workers badly, and it was also said that many of his opponents hated working with him because he was to sloppy and hard to work with. And while I was never a fan, Uncle Elmer had his fans and was a memorable Superstar who helped make the 80’s WWF what we all know and love, as I mean come on he got married on TV and the fans ate it up!
We are now at the point of this review were we will be taking a look at the DVD set and review some of the matches on the discs like always between 4 to 8. I want to thank Coliseum Of Wrestling & Boxing for having this set in stock and also want to thank Uncle Elmer for his hard work in the world of wrestling. I also want to remind you that I will only be breaking down randomly select matches from this set and will be breaking down the match and will be rating the matches on a 5 Star rating system. I also only choose from Single matches, as I want to break down his matches that showcase his style. Here is what the stars mean ½ Means a really terrible match, * Means a bad match, ** Means a below average match, **1/2 Means a good average entertaining match, *** Means a good match, **** Means a great match, ***** Means an epic match. So if you are ready lets step into the ring with Uncle Elmer.
Best Of Uncle Elmer
Match 1: Uncle Elmer vs. King Kong Bundy
As soon as the bell rings the two lock up and neither get the advantage and they keep locking up and then breaking apart as Elmer flexes up. Bundy then hits the ropes and tries to shoulder tackle Elmer but it has no effect as he is just to heavy to move like that. Bundy tries again to hit the ropes and shoulder tackle him, but like before Elmer does not move. Bundy then racks the eyes of Elmer and this drops the big man and Bundy then starts pounding on him as well as chokes him…keeping Elmer on the mat. Bundy kicks Elmer in the face and the big country boy is hurt, he does try and make a comeback as he fires off some punches and his butt corner bumps but Bundy cuts it off after Elmer misses a corner splash. Bundy then hits a dropping elbow and gets the win via a three count. This is a hoss fight as Bundy does his best to work with the very massive, limited and slow Uncle Elmer who mostly just throws a few punches and hits his big butt bumps in the corner. Bundy’s elbow drop looks good and packs an impact and really Bundy carries the match and has to even work a slower move set than normal. The fans in attendance are kind of into the match as they pop for Elmer’s silly antics as well as his corner butt bumps, but over all they are not overly loud throughout. The match is what it is and if you like matches that are slow that pit two massive men against one another then this one is for you, for me it was just kind of around and an attraction match that was to showcase the power of Bundy and the size of Elmer.
Grade: **
Match 2: Uncle Elmer vs. A.J. Petruzzi
Before the match Uncle Elmer dances around the ring with Hillbilly Jim and the fans are eating it up, and once the bell rings A.J. hits the ring ropes and runs into Elmer and bounces off him. Elmer and A.J. then lock up and Elmer is able to turn the lock up into a headlock and he keeps the move on and works it. Elmer breaks the hold and bonk’s A.J. on top the head and also rams his head against his belly. Elmer then drops a leg drop and then goes for the pin and gets the three count and the win. This is pretty much a squash match and yet it was kind of entertaining as Elmer even with his limited moves as able to hit some moves that looked impactful like his leg drop and headlock and A.J. does a fantastic job of selling for his massive opponent. The fans seem to be into the match and on the side of Elmer. The bad in the match is Elmer’s hits and belly bump look very off and cartoonish in a cringe way. But while the match is not perfect it still did its job of entertaining me.
Grade: **
Match 3: Uncle Elmer vs. Bigfoot
When Elmer gets into the ring he chases Bigfoot out of it as the bell rings, Bigfoot gets back into the ring and they lock up and Elmer wins and knocks him to the ground. They next do a test of strength and Elmer shows he is the stronger of the two and even pulls Bigfoot into his belly and Foot ends up bumping. Elmer gets Bigfoot then into the corner and lands some big splashes, and Elmer even does a backdrop on Bigfoot. As Bigfoot is down on the mat Elmer drops a leg drop and gets the win via pin. This is another squash match that allows Uncle Elmer to use his power moves and brawling style to make quick work of Bigfoot who by the way is better known as Rip Morgan to wrestling fans. Elmer uses his size to hit moves like splashes, belly bump and leg drop. While Bigfoot gets no time to shine as he throughout the match just gets beat up and beat. This is a silly and goofy match that was used to promote and push Uncle Elmer and the fans really did get behind Elmer throughout it. I really think that they should have had Bigfoot join the Hillbilly Family as he would have fit in! Over all an ok match that is booked well to work around the limitations of Elmer.
Grade: **
Match 4: Uncle Elmer vs. Jerry Valiant
The Hillbilly Family come down to the ring and all dance around as the fans cheer, as the bell rings Jerry charges in and Elmer catches him and slams him to the mat and then goes for the pin and gets the win! This is 100% the definition of a squash match as Uncle Elmer gets the win in seconds and only hits one move a body slam in order to get the win, the fan in attendance loved this super quick match. The bodyslam while sloppy was effective from Elmer and we see nothing that Jerry brings to the table as he is able to do nothing. The fans love the quick win and the pop for his win making the match effective for the most part. This match did a great job of showing the power of Elmer as well as mask his limited in ring moves. Nothing special here but did its job for sure.
Grade: *1/2
Uncle Elmer was a massive man both in weight and height and because of this it made him very limited in the ring. He was like the second coming of Haystacks Calhoun when it came to his in ring work, but I feel Elmer did not have the personality of Haystacks who I think should have been part of the Hillbilly Family in WWF at the time as he could have been a cousin and the patriarch of the family. And with Uncle Elmer, you knew you were never going to get 3-5 Star matches out of him, but you did know that you would at least be entertained by his matches. Well this R.I.W Wrestling Legend update event is over and this also wraps WWF WrestleMania Month 2024 up so as we make our way to the exit doors, I would like to tell you that our next update will bring us back to the world of Horror Comic Books as well as Silent Horror Cinema as I will be talking about the 1925 film Wolf Blood: A Tale Of The Forest and the Blood Scream Comics adaptation of it! So until next time, read a comic or three, watch a wrestling match or two and as always support your local wrestlers! See you next update for a spooky good time with a Canadian Werewolf!
Rotten Ink 