Today In Wrestling History 7/30: Randy Savage Introduces Miss Elizabeth, Many Others Make WWF Debuts

* 31 years ago in 1984, the WWF's Championship Wrestling tapings officially moved to the Mid-Hudson Civic Center in Poughkeepsie, New York after many years at Agricultural Hall in Allentown, Pennsylvania. In the ring, the news centered around various debuts as the national expansion ramped up.

Ken Patera returned after three and a half years gone to defeat Billy Travis. Patera had been in the AWA for the most part, and it turned out his WWF run was on borrowed time. In April, he and Mr. Saito had been arrested in Waukesha Wisconsin after an altercation with employees of a McDonald's that had just closed turned into a brawl with police. They were convicted in June of 1985, and you can read more about that in the Today in Wrestling History from June 6th, which covers the verdict.

Brutus Beefcake also made a few of his first appearances, first walking around ringside during other matches and later making his in-ring debut by defeating Jose Luis Rivera, He had just come off of a tour of Germany and Austria for Otto Wanz's CWA. Before that, he had most recently worked some NJPW tours as well as in Alabama for a while, but he hadn't had worked full time in a territory for several months.

Early on, his gimmick was, more or less, that he was a really sleazy meathead of a male stripper. They didn't do much to get that across later on, but this obscure and uncomfortably long vignette at a strip club does it disturbingly well.

Nikolai Volkoff and The Spoiler also made their debuts/returns via the purchase of Georgia Championship Wrestling. The Spoiler was initially billed as National Champion, the title he held in Georgia at the time of the sale, but nothing was really made of it. He was used as a filler heel and little more, and while he was getting up there in years, he had more to offer than that

Volkoff, however turned out to be by far the biggest beneficiary of the sale, becoming an iconic character of the expansion era. He was in the Hulk Hogan's Rock 'n' Wrestling Cartoon, he got his tag title run with The Iron Sheik, he lasted into the '90s, and moved onto a nice, normal life as a code inspector in Maryland. Job well done.

A new version of the WWF Women's Championship belt also made its first appearance on this taping. With Fabulous Moolah having lost the blt to Wendi Richter, Richter's manager Cyndi Lauper and Lauper's manager David Wolff helped her unveiled a new belt to replace the one that had Moolah's picture on it. This one lasted until the division as abandoned for the first time in 1990 and Rockin' Robin took the belt with her on the independent scene.

* 30 years ago in 1985, the WWF ran...another Championship Wrestling taping at the Mid-Hudson Civic Center in Poughkeepsie, New York. The big news was that in the last hour of the taping, Randy Savage was going to announce who he had picked as his manager. After debuting at the last set of tapings, all of the incumbent managers (Bobby Heenan, Jimmy Hart, Freddie Blassie, Mr. Fuji, and "Luscious" Johnny V) starting bidding for his services, an angle they repeated (albeit with a babyface turning them down) in 1988 with Bam Bam Bigelow and in 1991 with Andre the Giant (presumably before it was decided he was done wrestling for them).

So then the time came for Savage to introduce his manager. The bidders were in the ring and he thanked everyone for what they taught him so far, though Jimmy Hart "just freaked me out." But he wasn't picking any of them: His new manager was about to walk through the Mid-Hudson Civic Center's orange doors: A beautiful woman dressed to the nines in an evening gown who we later learned was named Miss Elizabeth. Color commentator Bruno Sammartino asked "Who's this, a movie star? Who is this?"

It's largely been forgotten that originally, Elizabeth was supposed to be a more direct answer to the feuding female valets that were popularized by World Class Championship Wrestling, just classier (pun not intended). In fact, WWF booker George Scott wanted then-WCCW valet Missy Hyatt for the role before Savage suggested hiring his wife instead. She was supposed to be a full heel, a ruthless business manager inspired by the prime time soap operas of the day like "Dallas" and "Dynasty." Obviously that didn't last long, and she settled into the demure, possibly abused babyface girlfriend of the heel role.

Also on that taping, Les Thornton got a rare spotlight when he appeared on Piper's PIt. Thornton was one of the few Georgia wrestlers who went to the WWF after Black Saturday, and at the time, he held the version of the NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship that was recognized in the United States. In the WWF, he was billed as the Junior Heavyweight Champion even though they had an actual WWF Junior heavyweight Championship that was controlled by NJPW. Here, he's billed as WWF Light Heavyweight Champion, but that didn't solve anything because that title already existed in Mexico via their affiliation with the UWA. So for a good year or so, the WWF had, depending on the billing, two conflicted, disputed claims to the same title.