alberttribute

During every atomic rise in the WWF's recent history, there has been one constant variable that has helped distinguish Mr. McMahon's empire from all imitators: the hairy wrestler.

In the mid 1980's, while Hulk Hogan was selling out the Garden, George "The Animal" Steele wowed crowds with his hairy torso and penchant for taking a bite (or six) out of the turnbuckle. At the start of this most recent boom, Miguel Perez, Jr. of Los Boriquas distinguished himself as a "major" player. Did the fans notice his wide arsenal of moves that included a fine standing moonsault? No...they were wowed by his incredibly hairy Latino torso. When Miguel decided to shave his trademark fur in mid 1998, he fell out of favor with management and was soon gone from television. With his departure, fans soon began to worry. Where would the next great hairy wrestler come from? George Steele was brought back for a brief run with the Oddities, but the fans were just not impressed with his graying locks of fur. The fans began calling for a new hero to represent the hairy men of America, and soon their prayers were answered. Enter Prince Albert.

Prince Albert entered the WWF as a piercing protégé of Darren Drozdov. The two former gridiron stars wowed the fans of Sunday Night Heat with their unique wrestling skills. As would be expected when you combine such unique personalities, the new team soon found enemies who did not approve of their piercing ways. The Godfather and Val Venis, also known as Supply and Demand, being the paragons of virtue that they are, took the Prince and Droz to task for their perverse forms of self-expression. One of the Godfather's hoes fell victim to an attack from Albert, as Droz held on. Their next victim was the Big Valbowski himself, who ended up with a pierced nose, helping him realize that he was messing with the wrong guys. However, the next night on Raw, Val actually tattooed his initials on Prince Albert's buttcheeks! Oh, the humanity! This was one of the darkest days in the history of the WWF, as Albert and his legions of fans were truly humiliated. This incident has not been brought up since. The legendary feud continued with Droz and Albert being forced to dress like common prostitutes...with Droz actually liking it! Albert, being the man's man that he is, was less than thrilled with partaking in such acts. This legendary feud finally ended with Droz and Albert's drug dealer Pillsbury Doughboy friend Vic Grimes making about two appearances before leaving for Extremely Crappy Wrestling.

Droz and Prince Albert would make only one pay per view appearance together, bowing out to Edge and Christian at the 1999 SummerSlam spectacular in a tag team turmoil match. After the event, Droz and Albert began to test the singles circuit. Albert appeared to be headed for a program with the Big Show, but Droz's paralysis changed everything. Albert lost a few revenge matches to D'Lo Brown, and was soon relegated to Heat and Jakked. Albert dominated the likes of Stevie Richards and the Blue Meanie, but couldn't get the high profile matches his fans knew he deserved. Albert wouldn't see the pay per view spotlight again until this year's Royal Rumble.

The Prince finally got a career break when Trish Stratus entered the WWF and formed T&A, consisting of Test and the newly named Albert in March of this year. Despite the fact that Albert now had to wear a shirt, thus covering his hairy attributes, his fans seemed pleased at this new opportunity. The duo defeated one of the great teams of our time Head Cheese at WrestleMania 2000. Their luck on pay per view continued at Backlash with a win over the Dudley Boyz. Then something happened: Test and Albert soon became lackeys for the McMahon-Helmsley Faction, and not very good lackeys at that. The team's momentum was halted while Test and Albert got punked out by every major babyface in the company. Trish began spending more time with Val Venis, forcing Albert to hit the Jakked circuit once more. The trio did fight Lita and the Hardy Boyz at Fully Loaded, but just as they had done the previous 84 times the teams had met, the Hardy's were victorious.

T&A continued to flounder in the tag team division for the rest of 2000, occasionally picking up a victory over other struggling teams like Too Cool. Then, in December, Trish became involved in a storyline relationship with Mr. McMahon, leaving Albert to hold the team together. Eventually, Albert grew tired of Test's continued ineptitude and one Albert (or now Baldo) Bomb later, T&A was history.

Of course, as is customary when all teams experience a messy break-up, Test and Albert embarked on a long and bitter feud...oh wait, no they didn't. However, Albert did team with Trish to score a victory in a handicap match against their former partner, and that was that. That match would be the last time that Albert and Trish were seen together on camera as a cohesive unit, as Trish became more involved with Vince and Albert focused on being the king of Jakked/Metal. He compiled an impressive record in early 2001, and even made a fine showing for himself at the Royal Rumble by finishing fourth in terms of time spent in the ring (behind Kane, The Rock and Bradshaw).

After an embarassing loss to Billy Gunn, Albert disappeared from WWF television for a few weeks before appearing to assist the newly formed team of X-Pac and Justin Credible in a match against the Hardy Boyz. With that assist, the X-Factor stable was born. Thus far, X-Factor's has gained its greatest fame for having probably the worst theme music in history, but nonetheless, true Albert fans appreciate the increased exposure that the furry wonder has attained due to this alliance. Will Albert eventually tire of carrying X-Pac and Justin, or will they avoid the fate that befell Test a few short months ago? Stay tuned...