![]() One week later, Albano introduced a third Machine to the WWF: Big Machine, who was played by Blackjack Mulligan. Later that night, Bobby Heenan sneaked around at ringside taking pictures of the Giant Machine to try to prove his true identity. ![]() On August 5 (shown August 23), The Machines made their WWF debut with Super Machine wrestling in a singles match while Albano and Giant Machine were at ringside. Heenan's claims led to Jack Tunney decreeing that if the Giant Machine was revealed to be André, André's suspension would become permanent. The team was merely King Kong Bundy and Big John Studd wearing paper bags over their heads. To illustrate the obviousness of the ruse, Heenan went so far as to introduce his "new team from Korea" on an episode of Jesse Ventura’s Body Shop. In the following weeks, Heenan made repeated claims that Giant Machine was André the Giant attempting to circumvent his suspension. Though it was clear that Giant Machine was none other than André the Giant, commentators sold that Giant Machine might be Giant Baba, and not André, under the mask. His ring name was a play on his previous gimmick "Masked Superstar". Super Machine was portrayed by Bill Eadie. The team announced that they were coming to America soon with their manager Lou Albano and that their only mission was to prove that they were the number one tag team in the world. Less than two months after the suspension was announced, vignettes appeared on WWF television hailing the debut of a masked tag team from the Orient, known as "The Machines", Giant Machine and Super Machine. He was also beginning to develop health problems from the gigantism that caused his size that led him to having major back surgery and limited his wrestling ability at that time. This was part of a wrestling storyline, to allow André time off for production of the film The Princess Bride which was being filmed in the UK and also to allow him to fulfill a contracted tour of Japan. After deliberating on the matter, WWF President Jack Tunney was forced to suspend him for missing the tag team match and subsequent matches against the Heenan Family. When André did not show and was replaced by Ted Arcidi, Bobby Heenan launched a campaign to get him suspended from the WWF. Lou Albano managed in the WWF until he returned in 1994 to manage The Headshrinkers.Īfter feuding intensely with André for more than a year, Bobby Heenan's Heenan Family challenged André and a partner of his choice to face King Kong Bundy and Big John Studd in a tag team match on April 26, 1986. ![]() The gimmick was very much tongue-in-cheek, as the identities of the masked men were obvious to the fans but frustrating to heels when they were unable to prove them. The team consisted of well-known WWF wrestlers working under masks which strongly resembled that worn by Super Strong Machine in New Japan Pro-Wrestling at the time leader André the Giant had faced Hirata and two other Strong Machines during tours of NJPW in 1984, getting the idea for the masks. The Machines were a professional wrestling stable who performed in the World Wrestling Federation in 1986. Professional wrestling stable The Machines
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