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Post by The Hammer on Jul 21, 2005 12:16:22 GMT -5
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Post by bluedevil71 on Jul 21, 2005 12:28:02 GMT -5
Truly sad news. My fondest memories of Lord Alfred will be his 1981 feud with Johnny Weaver.
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Post by ssteward on Jul 21, 2005 12:35:09 GMT -5
He was one of those 80s WWF announcers that had an un-mistakeable voice
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Post by bobbyryates on Jul 21, 2005 16:43:23 GMT -5
in MACW, he was the colour commentator with bob caulde in '81. then he began managing after a heel turn. he had chris markoff-nikolai volkoff, billy robinson, and King James I of Wrestling (before he became the boogie woogie man).
alfred was good.
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Post by bluedevil71 on Jul 21, 2005 17:23:06 GMT -5
King James, boy that lasted long didn't it. Sad part is I remember seeing that gimmick at an arena show one night.
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Post by bobbyryates on Jul 21, 2005 18:05:15 GMT -5
lucky you. i loved that gimmick. valiant played it good. and alfred just made a good fit with him.
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Post by bluedevil71 on Jul 21, 2005 19:08:40 GMT -5
Bobby, it was a total surprise. He wasn't on the posters. That whole show, except for the main event, IIRC, was messed up. Jay Youngblood was to take on Austin Idol that night. I was SOOOOOO looking forward to that. But no, Idol no-showed and we got ... Ali Bey. Nothing against Bey, but that was a letdown.
Now, back on subject, I got to see Hayes once that I recall. He teamed with Markoff and Volkoff in the main event against Weaver, Paul Jones and Jake Roberts.
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Post by bobbyryates on Jul 21, 2005 19:57:29 GMT -5
yeah, that six-man went around a lot during that hays-weaver feud. weaver teamed with either of youngblood-roberts-jones just about everywhere.
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Post by thegreatbologuy on Jul 22, 2005 7:34:34 GMT -5
Yes, I can still heard Lord Alfred calling Johnny, "M...i...s...t...e...r Weaver."
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Post by dortonarena on Aug 20, 2005 2:01:58 GMT -5
He might have said it this way:
And please remember that it is delivahed in character as the Noble Lord.
Gentlemen, and I use that term MOST advisedly, your attempts to honour the Noble English Lord Alfred Hayes are appreciated. It is rare that commoners from the rebelious colonies recognize the worth of a true gentleman.
Aw, what's the use? I can't stay in character even if I could get all of his vocal inflections and mannerisms down. Lord Hayes was one of my heroes. Someone pointed out (quite correctly) that His Lordship debuted in Mid-AtLAHNtic in 1981. I cahn't recall if there was any sort of buildup prior to his arrival. It's one fan's recollection (and we all know how reliable those can be 20-something years after the fact) but they came on the air and 0 - instead of David Crockett - there was Bob Caudle and beside him ..... Lord Hayes!
I literally bounced off the couch. I'd seen him on some CWF shows that aired on Ch. 12 in New Bern months after they ran in Florida. And there'd been a piece on him in one of the Apter mags as well. But he was here. And boy did he make his presence felt.
Hillbilly English (if you want to call it that) was no longer heard on the MACW set. By George, it was the King's English or no othah. And instead of fawning over these over-rated COMMONERS, there was a gentlemen extoling the virtues of - dare we say it - rulebreakers!
'Weavah, Taylah. They are of no consequence. They're both commoners.'
And William Robinson was 'of the yoeman clahss that put the Great in Britain.'
Or, to Weavah, 'Kindly remove your grubby hahnds from my person. I am a Noble English Lord. I cannot be bothahed with your common American sweat!'
And my absolute favorite. It comes from one of his first appearances in Raleigh. Cahn't put a date on it but it was the fall of 81. His Lordship strolled down the aisle wearing a hearld tunic bearing the St. George's Cross over his ring attire. Naturally, he was matched up with Weavah.
Some kid at ringside hollered 'You look like the Keebler elf!' Lord Hayes never broke character. He burst into clearly sarcahstic laughter and responded 'Haw haw haw. Oh do shut up!'
And once both were in the ring, Tommy Young was doing the patdowns. And did that ever leave Lord Hayes with an opening:
'Now see heah! I want you to keep a strict eye on him because he CHEATS! I don't break the rules. Why should he?'
Who won isn't important. But what was important was that it made me a fan of Lord Hayes for life.
Here was a guy who could rip off the best one-liners, snub Weavah simply by lifting his nose into the air and saying nothing, and refer to Volkoff and Markoff as 'Yes, they are barbarians. They're fine fellows.'
And of course the abortive 'King James the First of Wrestling' gimmick. Might have worked better with THE Austin Idol or one of those mid-card heels who so often made quick appearances in MACW.
I couldn't go but they did a promo for a match in Raleigh between King James and, I believe, Weavah. The King struck the Noble Lord pose and was instantly as much of a snob as Lord Hayes and he never said a word!
I guess it was too good to last. Lord Hayes disappeared as quietly as he arrived. And his next destination was no improvement.
I seldom watched Tuesday Night Titans. After all that was rasslin night at you-know-where. But the few times that I watched it, it seemed (to me at least) that Lord Hayes wasn't enjoying himself. He'd always been the manager who led the heels to the ring and took heat off his men in classic fashion. He'd gotten in the best insults and made the college kids laugh. And now he was referred to as 'the sidekick (to Vince McMahon) who looks like Ed McMahon on a diet.' And that was in a review, if you want to call it that, in an Associated Press article. Oh, well. We cahn't all be Noble Lords.
My roommate and another friend became hooked on Lord Hayes almost as quickly as I did. We referred to ourselves as 'The Noble English Lords' and referred to everybody on our hall as 'commoners.' We're all well past 40 but we're still the Noble English Lords. Accents and the pose, please, gentlemen.
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