R.I.P Hendrix

Ayo Jimi - you died 40 years ago this week, you made some pretty amazing music including a Bob Dylan cover which made the original superfluous (always a good thing because nobody really enjoys listening to Bob Dylan, do they?), you were sampled on classics by Tribe, the Beasties, and one of the few old UK rap joints I liked (I know I'm supposed to pretend that I love Blade, Hard Noise, and Gunshot, but gimme I'm Ready and 20 Seconds To Comply by Silver Bullet anyday), and, most importantly of all, a song of yours became Hulk Hogan's entrance music during the n.W.o era in WCW when he turned heel and couldn't really come out to Real American by Rick Derringer anymore. The fella who does the nWoClassics channel on Youtube is a deity walking amongst us stinking apes for upping the very first time Hogan came out to Voodoo Child (Slight Return) on the 1997 WCW Nitro episode in Chicago when the n.W.o unveiled Dennis Rodman as their newest member :



When wrestling buddies up with other sports it usually ends up having to take one for the team, with wrestlers either having to job to "proper atheletes" or being the victims of unfortunate name-mangling faux pas like the time Mike Tyson accidently called Stone Cold Steve Austin "Cold Stone Steve Austin" live on tv at least twice (Rodman calls Lux Lugor "Lex Luthor" here on two seperate occassions), but this clip features one of the very few instances where wrestling emerged victorious via an epic pwn by Hogan, as Rodman was supposed to lead the n.W.o out to the ring through the entrance but at the very last second Hogan barges past him and gets a larger pop than Dennis in his own backyard. Man, this is such a bittersweet clip because they were all on top o' the world, ma' here but so much tragedy has followed in the thirteen years that've followed : Bischoff ran WCW into the ground and went grey, Miss Elizabeth died; Hogan ended up broke due to divorce and subsidising Paul Wall & Beenie Man guest verses/Scott Storch production for Brooke's ill fated music career; Hall is virtually unemployable due to his drinking and has blown all of his oppurtunities with the WWE and TNA, Syxx came back from the indignity of shagging Chyna and news of his failed suicide attempt going public only to be diagnosed with Hepatitis C this year; and Rodman ended up playing second fiddle to Pete Burns in the crossdressing stakes and getting blue balled by Chantelle on Celebrity Big Brother.

But back to Jimi; always a flamboyant dresser during his brief career, it'd have been interesting to see which sartorial path he would've taken into middle age, especially in comparison to two of his peers : would he be a fashion god in Japan with a wardrobe to die for like Eric or would he be a street walkin' cheetah with feet full of Crocs and a body covered by Raoul Moat's orange muscle shirt like Iggy?