Today's tribute is for one hell of a singles, AND tag team competitor, Rick Martel, also known as Rick "The Model" Martel.
Name: Rick Martel aka Rick "The Model" Martel
Height: 6'0
Weight: 226lbs
From: Quebec City, Quebec Canada
Finishing Move: The Boston/Quebec Crab
Career Highlights: 3 time WWF Tag Team champion (2 w/ Tony Garea, 1 with Tito Santana), 1 time AWA World champion, 1 time WCW Television champion, member of the AWESOME Strike Force tag team w/ Tito Santana.
Martel Moments
Strike Force!
Strike Force is one of my all-time favorite tag teams, and was when I first got to see Martel's career as it was going on, being young at the time. They used a somewhat high flying, and lightning quick style that made for exciting matches, and got them over with fans in short order. In November of 1987, the duo got their chance to face another favorite team of mine, the then WWF Tag champs, and top heel team, the Hart Foundation in a title match. Fans had been clamoring for the Foundation to lose the gold since they won it early in the year, and on this night, they got their wish. Rick Martel had the Boston Crab locked on Jim Niedhart I believe, as Tito held off the Hitman, with fans going NUTS, as the Anvil submit! The fans went even more wild, as new champs were crowned. Strike Force would hold the titles until Wrestlemania of the next year, dropping the belt to my # 1 favorite team, Demolition.
The End of Strike Force
After losing the tag gold, an injury put Martel on the shelf, and out of action for many months. When he came back, he wanted nothing more than to reform Strike Force, and the reunited team would face off with The Brainbusters at Wrestlemania 5. During the match, Martel, not happy with how things were going, decided to just take off, leaving Tito to be beaten by their opponents! After the match, Mean Gene tried to find out Rick's motives, and he declared that he was tired of carrying the team, and was done with Strike Force! This not only turned Rick heel, but kicked off the next phase of his career.
Enter the Model
Now on his own, Rick took on an arrogant persona, then started claiming he was a glamorous model! Rick "The Model" was born, and is one of my favorite heel gimmicks ever. Rick would go on to have a seemingly ENDLESS (not that I'm complaining) series of matches with former partner Tito Santana, that saw poor Tito lose every damn time. Then, to further play up his model-ness, Rick unveiled to the world, his own cologne!
Arrogance
Rick's new cologne was known as "Arrogance", which he carried in a big blue atomiser, and spritzed freely on people, especially using the canister, and spray to win matches. Rick even ran tv spots for Arrogance, parodying fragrence commercials. It was Rick's nefarious usings of Arrogance that led to his awesome feud with Jake "The Snake" Roberts.
Martel vs Jake
This feud started in mid 1990 when Rick sprayed Arrogance in Jake's eyes during a heated run-in on the Brother Love show. Jake was, and still is, one of my top faves, so I was easily into the feud. Jake showed up soon after, with his eyes all white, having been blinded by the lethal fragrance. Rick, being the ultra jerk he was, showed up to help Brother Love taunt the blind Jake on Love's show. Jake tried to fight, but since he couldn't see, he got the worst of a Martel beating. As he recovered, he reached up, and made a grab, to try and grab Rick, getting Brother Love instead, then PLANTING him with his much beloved DDT finisher! The fans, and I at home went wild over this, since Brother Love was as hated as anyone, so while Martel didn't get his, at least Brother Love did. To further rub in the fact he blinded Jake, Rick named his Survivor Series 1990 team "The Visionaires", not only to say they were so great, but meant as a funny, but totally dickish hidden insult, since they could see, while Jake was still feeling the effects of the blinding. Jake still had all white eyes, and only partial vision, as he was on the opposing Survivor Series team against the Visionaires. Nothing got settled however, as Jake & Martel ran off after each other during the contest. The Feud would have to be resolved at Wrestlemania 7 the next year, in an interesting match, the blindfold match! This was at Jake's request, so Martel could experiance what it was like for Jake when he was blind. Jake, having been through blindness before, was a natural, and used that to his advantage, winning the match, serving as the blowoff for the rivalry.
The WCW Comeback
Rick stuck around the WWF through the mid 90's, leaving in 1994, seemingly retiring. But, in 1998, Rick laced up the boots again, and returned in WCW for a short run, where he not only looked fantastic, but wrestled as good as ever. Being such a fan as I was of him, watching him win the WCW Television title was an amazing moment for me. This would be the capper of an excellent career, and one of wrestling's greatest comebacks.
