Maniac Wrestler

cultmotel — Mon, 01 Apr 2019 19:17:30 +0000

Maniac Wrestler was a short film starring John Minton, better known as wrestler Big John Studd. It was inspired by a 1980 poolside story about Studd’s days as “Executioner #2” in World Wide Wrestling Federation’s The Executioners tag-team.

A “Hollywood heavyweight” drafted a short screenplay during an extended stay at the Motel. American Wrestling Association (AWA), Studd’s promotion at the time, partnered with us to create Cult Motel Media. We handled creative and they financed a featurette version of the film. AWA owner Verne Gagne envisioned the film as a springboard to a national audience, with Studd as his own version of Schwarzenegger.

The revenge-tale’s elevator pitch went something like “The Hulk in a Charles Bronson flick.” Sadly, studios passed on the script, believing that the focus on wrestling, still a very regional business, would only draw marginal crowds.

Rocky III debuted in 1982 with its own crazy wrestling Hulk – Hulk Hogan – as Thunderlips. By now, everyone knows that Hogan had taken the role while wrestling for World Wide Wrestling Federation and that Vincent McMahon, Sr. was displeased and released the young star. Hogan not-so-coincidentally landed with AWA, where owner Verne Gagne brought in Hogan as a villain, hoping to parlay the role into a new opportunity for Maniac Wrestler. Some close to the situation believe that Thunderlips was a heavily re-worked version of the Maniac Wrestler. Remember that “Hollywood heavyweight” writer?

Vince McMahon, Jr. would soon purchase WWWF from his father and reacquired Hogan from a struggling AWA promotion that overextended itself with the investment into Maniac Wrestler. It’s never been disclosed before now, but Vince made two other major acquisitions at the time:

Vince saw value in the intellectual property and acquired the rights to and all materials associated with the production company and the film itself. Confidentiality agreements prevented anyone from mentioning the film’s existence.

Vince’s new World Wrestling Federation signed several AWA wrestlers, but specifically re-signed an aging Big John Studd for his third tenure with the company. Studd received a major push, becoming a dominant force in the WWF for several years.

Maniac Wrestler remained shelved, but the film made two major contributions to the success of the WWF. The Cult Motel Media logo was literally turned upside down to create the iconic WWF branding and both the film’s title and logo were scrambled anagram style to create the greatest wrestling event of all time: WrestleMania!

The Motel would close in the aftermath of the acquisition. Again, confidentiality agreements prevented all involved from discussing. Motel staff moved on to other ventures.

The McMahons divested their rights to the film, its assets, and effectively, the gag order during Linda’s nomination process to head the Small Business Administration in 2016. This story might have died when Verne Gagne passed in 2015, but after a few years of careful legal maneuvering, Cult Motel has been reborn!

Maniac Wrestler later found itself revived and re-worked into a second feature film, also starring Hogan. 1989’s No Holds Barred included a heavily edited and sanitized variation of the Maniac Wrestler plot.

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Maniac Wrestler