Wrestling Observer Rewinder

Note: This is the start of the original Wrestling Observer Rewinds by /u/daprice82.
If you'd like to start chronologically, older Rewinds by /u/SaintRidley begin here.

January 08, 1991

So I have a whole bunch of old Wrestling Observer newsletters from the early 90s, chock full of Meltzer's inside info. They're long and sometimes boring to read in full, so I figured I'd start going through them and posting highlights in this thread. With the benefit of 20+ years of hindsight, a lot of this stuff is pretty interesting. Starting at the very beginning of 1991 and going week-by-week. I'll try to post these once a day if I can (and if people are into it) and we can discuss them in the comments.
Dusty Rhodes contract with WWF is almost up. His last scheduled appearance will be at the 1991 Royal Rumble and then it's almost a certainty that he will be going back to WCW to take over as head booker, despite being fired by them 2 years earlier for nearly booking Crockett into bankruptcy. But, yanno, LOLWCW.
Joe Pedicino is in talks to buy out Jerry Jarrett's USWA and start a company called Global Wrestling Federation and has stars like Terry Funk, Steve Williams, Konnan, One Man Gang, Terry Gordy and Scotty The Body (Raven) and Cactus Jack as planned members of the roster. They're doing TV tapings in Dallas and trying to leech the remaining WCCW fans in the area, since Dallas is still a hotbed for wrestling, and hoping to air it on ESPN.
Andre The Giant won't be in the Royal Rumble because of a leg injury suffered in Japan.
Honky Tonk Man has quit WWF over a money dispute.
Lou Thesz, at 74 years old, came out of retirement to wrestle in Japan and put over Masa Chono, becoming the first person to wrestle in 7 different decades. (And to date, he's arguably the only person to have ever truly done so. It's possible Mae Young broke the record, but it's debatable. WWE claims she started her career in 1939 but according to Meltzer, there's no evidence that shows that and the first record of her ever having a match is around 1941. And although technically she had a "match" on Raw in 2010 , I don't see how anyone can truly call it anything resembling a real match. So if you don't count that, then Mae Young ties Lou for wrestling in 7 different decades. Lou Thesz' final match in 1990, while not a classic or anything, was at least an actual match.)
The "Catch Cup 90 Tournament" took place in Europe for an organization called CWA the month before and featured Scott Hall, Fit Finlay, Vader, Terry Funk, Owen Hart, Chris Benoit, and more.
Back to WWF, Percy Pringle will be starting as a manager at the TV tapings this week and he may come in as a babyface manager for Rick Rude. Bwah?
Virgil is filling in for Ted Dibiase on house shows due to Dibiase getting arthroscopic knee surgery. He also beat Dusty Rhodes in about 1 minute in Dusty's last few house show matches, as they're jobbing him out before he leaves.
Jobber Chuck Austin was injured in a match with the Rockers and suffered a "broken back," requiring 6 hours of surgery to relieve pressure on the spinal cord. I'm sure we'll be hearing more about that...
Hulk Hogan is hoping to get his weight up to 330lbs by Wrestlemania. Gee, I wonder how.
Kerry Von Erich may be on his way out of WWF soon (spoiler: nope. he stuck around for another year+)
The Steiner Brothers haven't signed their new contracts because WCW is trying to cut their percentage of merch down and also add a clause saying that if they get injured and are out for more than a month, WCW won't have to pay them. Steiners are refusing to sign it, naturally.
In the letters section, Karl Gotch (google him) sends in a long letter trashing Bruno Sammartino.
And that's it for this issue!