The Machines (professional wrestling)

The Machines
Stable
Members	Super Machine Big Machine Giant Machine Hulk Machine Piper Machine Animal Machine Crusher Machine
Billed from	"The Orient"
Debut	1986
Disbanded	1987
Years active	1986-1987
Promotions	WWF

The Machines were a professional wrestling stable that performed in the World Wrestling Federation in 1986 and 1987. The team consisted of well-known WWF wrestlers working under masks which strongly resembled that worn by Super Strong Machine (Japanese wrestler Junji Hirata) 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 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 Machines was the last tag team Capt. Lou Albano managed in the WWF until he returned in 1994 to manage The Headshrinkers.

After 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. When André did not show and was replaced by Ted Arcidi, Bobby Heenan launched a campaign to get him suspended from the WWF. 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. 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. 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.

...
Wikipedia