Westlemania III

(by Chris Corridan, July 2000)

In March of 1987, Alice Cooper was a participant in a WWF wrestling pay-per-view event called Wrestlemania 3. That event set an indoor attendance record of 93,173 paid. Amongst wrestling fans, Wrestlemania 3 remains one of the most revered of events (arguably the most worshipped event of the entire history of wrestling pay-per-views, which now boasts a total of over 250 such events, including 16 annual Wrestlemanias.)

Alice was "in the corner" of Jake "The Snake" Roberts (real name, Aurelian Smith Jr), as Roberts locked horns with The Honky Tonk Man (real name Wayne Farris.) Naturally, Alice got a huge response from the crowd, as it was at the Pontiac Silverdome, just outside of Detroit - a city synonymous with Alice.

At the time, Roberts was one of wrestling's most popular good-guys, known for bringing a live snake in a bag for each match. After winning a match, Jake would ceremoniously dump the python on top of a beaten foe. The Honky Tonk Man was the perfect rival -- he was a cowardly Elvis-wannabe character, noted for having smashed an acoustic guitar over Jake's head weeks before the event. What better way to get even with the phony musician than for Jake to enlist a REAL heavy metal icon to watch his back. It was oldies versus heavy metal! Woo-hoo!

Unfortunately, Jake Roberts lost the match via pinfall. However, the fans were not entirely disappointed. Alice and Jake had a few laughs trying to introduce The Honky Tonk Man's pesky manager, Jimmy Hart, to Jake's pet python named "Damien."