20 More Surprising WWE Facts You Probably Didn't Know
1. The Rock N' Wrestling Connection Wasn't Vince McMahon’s Idea
In the latest episode of my ongoing series, ‘Why Vince McMahon Isn’t The Creative Genius You All Think He Is’, exhibit 1923b: the Rock N’ Wrestling Connection.
For those of you unaware of some of your wrestling history, the Rock N’ Wrestling Connection was the nickname given in the mid-to-late eighties for the collaboration between MTV and the WWF, kicked off when eighties pop sensation Cyndi Lauper used wrestling manager Captain Lou Albano in her video to ‘Girls Just Wanna Have Fun’.
In an interview with Pitchfork a year ago, Lauper’s then-manager Dave Wolff goes over the backstory as to how his former client (and former girlfriend) came to be kicked in the head - twice! - by ‘Rowdy’ Roddy Piper.
The story has always been that Lauper ended up sitting next to Albano on a plane and inviting him to appear in her pop video, but the truth makes a lot more sense. Wolff had been a wrestling fan since he was a little kid, and grew up in what would later become the WWF’s stomping ground, Stamford in Connecticut. He was already a fan of Captain Lou when he became involved with Lauper personally and professionally, and when she found out about his wrestling fandom, she mentioned - as an amusing anecdote - that she’d actually met the man on a plane coming back from Puerto Rico.
That set Wolff thinking, and he ended up suggesting trying to get the man to play Lauper’s father in the ‘Girls Just Want To Have Fun’ video in summer 1983. The video’s producer, Ken Walz, actually knew Vince McMahon: he got in touch and arranged permission to use Captain Lou for the video, which opened up a line of communication.
More importantly, when Wolff saw how natural it was for a wrestler to appear in a pop video, it set him thinking about where they could take it next.
The way Wolff tells it, he came up with the angle used to kick off the Rock N’ Wrestling Connection: that Captain Lou would claim to have been her manager and the author of all her songs, beginning a feud between the two that would be settled in the ring. Mere fantasy booking… except that Wolff had the connections to get it done.
Captain Lou loved the storyline, and Wolff convinced Walz to contact McMahon again to arrange a meeting. Wolff and Vince and Linda McMahon went out to dinner, and after a few more meetings McMahon was sold on the idea, Wolff offering to be the intermediary to take it to the media and - specifically - to MTV themselves.
It was Wolff who met with MTV’s head of programming Les Garland, Wolff who then met with MTV’s heads of department to sell them all on the idea, and even Wolff who came up with the name ‘Rock N’ Wrestling Connection’.
MTV aired two wrestling specials: The Brawl To End It All in July 1984, and The War To Settle The Score in February 1985, in which Lauper was front and centre. One thing led to another, and the first ever WrestleMania followed hot on their heels… and the rest is (revisionist) wrestling history, in which Dave Wolff, his imagination and his networking skills are barely a footnote.