More Strike Force
By Scott Keith on 16th December 2017
Scott,To follow up on the previous e-mailer's question about Strike Force, I was curious if you had any insight on when the decision was actually made to split up the team. If Martel had stuck around past June 1988, would they have done the breakup at say, Summerslam, of that year? Once they jobbed to Demolition, it didn't seem like there was much more for them to do, especially considering that the Rockers and Powers of Pain entered the company as face teams just after WM IV (plus, the Harts turned face that summer). Then again, you had the Rougeau Bros. turn heel and the Bulldogs leave the company, so there may have been a need for an upper-midcard face team for awhile. (And if you replace the Young Stallions with Strike Force at the 88 Survivor Series, the 20-man match becomes that much more awesome).When Martel came back in early 1989, was there ever any consideration to giving Strike Force another run or was it pretty much decided from the beginning of his comeback to turn him heel? I would think the latter, but I checked the Observer flashbacks for that time period, and there didn't seem to be much foreshadowing for the turn before WM V.
For me, I was pretty sure that Martel was only returning to screw Santana over, and I was a 15 year old teenager at the time. It seemed like a pretty obvious setup for a feud, even at the time without the benefit of hindsight. I think Vince would have indeed split them up much sooner if Martel hadn't been hurt.