Mr. T or Cyndi Lauper: Who Had The Bigger Impact?

[The Brain]

In the mid 1980s the World Wrestling Federation formed an unlikely but hugely successful relationship with MTV. This relationship gave us the Rock and Wrestling era and launched the WWF to unprecedented levels of popularity. All of a sudden it was cool to like professional wrestling. It was as big a part of pop culture as anything else at that time. Men, women, children, celebrities, they all loved pro wrestling and weren't shy about saying so. We all know that the first WrestleMania was supposed to be a Superbowl type event that combined wrestling with entertainment and permanently solidify the WWF's spot in pop culture. There were many celebrities at the first WrestleMania but the key to its success was the actual physical involvement of two of the most popular personalities of that era leading up to the big event.

Mr. T was one of the biggest names in Hollywood at the time. He had recently starred in Rocky III and at the time was starring in the very popular A Team tv show. He had a unique look and attitude and upon first glance it looked like he fit in more with WWF than he did Hollywood. When Mr. T jumped in the ring to save Cyndi Lauper and Hulk Hogan from an attack from Roddy Piper, Paul Orndorff, and Bob Orton, there was an energy in Madison Square Garden that had never been felt before. This brief physical confrontation led to the first WrestleMania main event where Hogan & T went against Piper & Orndorff. Mr. T's celebrity status and Hollywood credentials gave the WWF tremendous exposure and made WrestleMania a major success.

In 1984 Cyndi Lauper burst onto the music scene winning the award for best new artist at the 1985 Grammy Awards and was accompanied on stage by Hulk Hogan to accept the award. Captain Lou Albano appeared as Lauper's father in the award winning video for Girls Just Want To Have Fun. She formed a close friendship with Albano and got involved in the WWF putting the rock in rock and wrestling. Lauper brought a whole new fan base to the WWF and made it cool to be a wrestling fan. She was even willing to get a little physical and got into some scuffles with Roddy Piper making him wrestling's most hated villain. Lauper wasn't one of these celebrities that phoned it in for WWF. She was constantly talking about the promotion when she wasn't on WWF television and always stayed in character. She never joked about it or tried to hide from it. She made everything seem real.

Each of these celebrities had an enormous impact on the WWF and helped make the company what it is today. Which one do you feel made a bigger impact at the time? It's easy to say Mr. T since he actually wrestled in the WrestleMania main event with Hulk Hogan but I think Lauper made the bigger impact. I think she was probably a bigger name than Mr. T at the time and helped to create more new fans. It's likely that people that enjoyed the Rocky movies and the A Team might already be watching pro wrestling. Lauper being a big star on MTV reached a whole new audience. After all it was the rock and wrestling connection and Lauper was the rock in rock and wrestling. We always give credit to Hogan for being so popular and Piper for being so hated, and rightfully so, but I think Lauper played a big role in making Hogan so popular and making Piper so hated. I know a lot of fans don't see the need for celebrity involvement in wrestling and sometimes roll their eyes at it but both the people deserve all the praise in the world for bringing the WWF into pop culture.

 

[THTRobtaylor]

You can't say either was bigger than the other in terms of impact, cos they were the two sides of the same coin.

The whole package was put together very deliberately because Wrestlemania I was as much about Closed Circuit as Pay Per View... If people weren't gonna watch at home it was seats in a theatre or stadium...and those needed to be filled by a wide range of people.

Vince was going for EVERYONE as a demographic at that time. Hogan had the kid appeal but he also wanted to hook teenagers into the mix... He also had those "old school" fans, generally blue collar guys who would go to the matches and get ripped on beer so someone had to cater for them...

If you look at that period, there were more than 2 celebs involved but Lauper and T are the ones most remembered... but every celeb, even down to the John Stossell incident or Richard Belzer being choked out by Hogan served a purpose.

Lauper was someone to hook the teens and the girls into the product, they had Wendi Richter and Moolah who was considerably older... so bringing Cyndi in to back Wendi up was smart as it made Richter "appear" younger and thus give some "Youth vs Age", "Rock v Establishment" to that feud and to the shows...

T was there to cater to the others, the boys, teenage or good Ol' who probably sat down with the kids to watch The A-Team or loved Rocky where T would batter Stallone... It's wrong to say Cyndi was bigger than T because there was no bigger show on TV at the time than the A-Team, it was popular with parents, kids and everyone in between. So bringing T in alongside Lauper caught all those demographics... those more interested in Music were covered, those who watched TV were also covered...

Liberace was there for the moms (few ever dreamt he was gay at the time) and then for those old school/sports fans there was Ali... universally respected as a great sportsman and personality. Schultz slapping Stossell, even if Vince threw him under the bus or Hulk dropping Belzer may have cost some dough... but the mainstream exposure was priceless from them too... overall the impact was the number and calibre of celebs in one place at one time taking part in Wrestling, not just showing up in the crowd or the D listers of Wrestlemania X for example (Burt excluded) but proper pop culture icons of the time, they managed it till 3 and then it got a bit "low rent" for many and the calibre of celebs dropped.

 

[Makaveli31]

When I was younger I thought Mr. T had the bigger impact. We all heard about the mega WrestleMania main event with Mr. T and Ali but now that I think about it it HAS to be Cyndi Lauper. She was the "Rock" in the Rock n Wrestling Connection that gave the WWF access to a fledgling music channel.....MTV. It introduced WWF programming to an entire generation. Think about it.....

The kids who watched the War to Settle the Score and the Brawl to End it All on MTV were 10-12 year olds. By the time those kids were 18 the WWF had seen unprecedented growth....the first WrestleMania, the introduction of Saturday Night's Main Event, WrestleMania III, the Main Event on NBC, and it all culminated with WM 6 at Sky Dome. Those kids were the original "Hulkamaniacs" that served as the foundation for the "Golden Age" in the mid-late 80's and it was ALL made possible by the WWF going on MTV.

 

[klunderbunker]

"Thank you so much and Roddy Piper you're going to get yours!"

This was the end of Cyndi Lauper's speech at the Grammy Awards. Think about this for a second. It's the GRAMMY AWARDS. The biggest night in music, and Cyndi Lauper is talking about RODDY PIPER. This led to one question the next day: who in the world is Roddy Piper?

This was the selling point for Wrestlemania: Roddy Piper getting his. Piper had gone after Lauper and kicked her int he head in Madison Square Garden, setting off their war that brought in Mr. T. and Hulk Hogan. Mr. T. was there, but you could have easily done Piper vs. Hogan and not had Mr. T. involved. However, without Lauper saying she was coming after Piper, the masses would never have known what was coming. That got people to watch and Mr. T. blew their minds. It's Lauper though, in the same kind of answer of Hogan or Austin: without Hogan, Austin doesn't have the platform.