January 12, 1987
- The big story of the week comes out of UWF - both Jim Duggan and the Fantastics have been released effective February 1. Duggan’s the biggest star in UWF, so this is a huge development. Duggan’s been wanting to go to WWF for the past three months, so that might just happen. As for the Fantastics, they seem to have no plans and there really isn’t anywhere for them in the current landscape. Duggan’s exodus from the company comes right at a time when a lot are feeling Steve Williams is ready to be the main babyface of UWF (and while Williams is a better wrestler, Duggan has so much more personality). The real question is how Duggan will fit in with WWF. They can’t do the wild brawler and not too many in WWF are likely willing to take full force chairshots to the head. Since he’s familiar to the tv audience in a lot of markets, it’s a tossup if sticking him with a gimmick will help or hurt, especially since his best work has been built on having no gimmick and just being a wild tough guy. Duggan’s request for release came in September. He had just signed a two-year contract in April, and Watts refused the release. WWF backed off, showing for the first time in the three years of the wrestling war that a proper contract could forstall talent raids. Losing Duggan will hurt UWF, but after five years on top it was probably about time for him to be cycled down the card a little. Williams did just sign a deal with NJPW, though, UWF will have to deal with him being gone three months a year. Ted DiBiase could benefit by being pushed as the number 2 face, but he also has a lot of Japanese commitments.
- As for the Fantastics, they face the struggle of being young and hungry to improve with nowhere to do that in the US. WWF, JCP, and UWF really don’t have any use for them (and WWF’s big guy fetish means they’re too small to get a push). JCP has the Rock’n’Roll express and AWA has the Midnight Rockers, so no room there. Tommy Rogers appears to be heading to Florida in search of a new gig and Bobby Fulton looks like he’ll start a promotion in Ohio.
- Dynamite Kid is out of the hospital. He’ll be in traction for about five more weeks in Calgary. Dave remains disgusted that WWF keeps plugging him for title defenses this month. No matter how well Vince handles business or how he’s shaped wrestling (and looking at crowds now vs. crowds before him, you could argue Vince has been bad for wrestling on the whole), this is straight lying. Crockett did the same thing in early November with Road Warrior Hawk (he was out with a broken leg and they would explain his absence as “transportation problems”), and it just shows how the promoters don’t care at all about the fans. WWF people have been joking that fans will still get ⅔ of the British Bulldogs (Davey and Mathilda) and Dave wonders if Mathilda’s getting $5000 a week if she’s just as important as Davey and Dynamite. There has been some speculation that they might bring Johnny Smith in from Calgary to sub in for Dynamite.
- Saturday Night’s Main Event from January 3rd (taped December 14th) is in the books. It left Dave cold, but was still very technically impressive. Savage did a great job carrying George Steele, Adrian Adonis might not have much endurance anymore but he can still impress. Dave feels bad for Paul Orndorff, because every punch he threw showed how bad his nerve damage was. Blackjack Mulligan is out of shape, Roddy Piper’s timing is off, and Harley Race has become ridiculous. TV industry folks have told Dave that the tie in the Hogan/Orndorff cage match that looks like an amazing feat of timing was really just editing tricks. You start the film out to where it looks like a dead heat then rewind and start both guys at a point where it’ll end as a tie. This does give them an out in case Andre can’t work Wrestlemania 3, but it’s still 97% certain Andre and Hogan will close that show.
- Crockett came to California last week and did well at the gate, though the San Francisco show Dave saw was pretty poor. He rates the matches, the best of which was Road Warriors vs. Midnight Express at 3.25 stars. The crowd was still pretty happy, as it was better than the standard WWF house show, but not by much. Babydoll got a bigger reaction than either Warlord (who she managed) or Dick Murdoch.
- Last week Dave got a letter asking what ever happened to Baron Scicluna (a 60s-70s wrestler who was a former WWWF Tag Team champion). He’s apparently doing well as a truck driver for a Newark newspaper and works small shows in the New York area. The same paper also employs two other ex-wrestlers: Davy O’Hannon and Manuel Soto, who also seem to do occasional independent dates.
- Dave is giving himself the poor taste award for last week’s comments on the death of Mike Bellew. He knew ahead of time that editorializing about the death of the editor would be in poor taste, and then doing it anyway shows his own stupidity. He doesn’t take anything back, but he wishes he hadn’t said anything that week and says that he’s sad to hear of Bellew’s death. He didn’t know Bellew personally, but Bellew was a subscriber to the Observer and Dave kind of feels that makes him a friend. He thanks Bellew and Wrestling Eye magazine for all they’ve done to help the Observer, and credits Bellew for being responsible in a big way for many people finding out the Observer exists.
- Apparently Crockett’s new guy Vladimir Petrov is not John Nord but a Twin Cities bouncer named Al Blake. He just had his first pro match on Saturday, and was trained by the Road Warriors. He’s being put in a major angle right away, being set to feud with Nikita Koloff. Hope he’s a fast learner, because Koloff won’t help him any. Dave supposes he could get over if he can get his facial expressions figured out and get a couple moves down and look convincingly mean doing them. But this is a ridiculous push for a guy who literally just got trained.
- Misc. notes: Big Bubba missed a lot of Christmas week due to a fever. Word is Ken Patera will be starting in WWF around March.
- WWF’s Fox deal is going well so far. It’s keeping the competition from getting on a strong station, and in some markets WWF is dropping off strong stations in favor of Fox (a better station). In Dallas WWF getting on Fox means they’re on the station that used to carry wrestling every night (Crockett, AWA, and UWF) and everything non-WWF has been dropped, so now Crockett has no tv in Dallas.
- Dave believes Duggan will stick around in UWF through the January 24-25th tv tapings. Could be a problem, since UWF likes guys to job on the way out.
- Chris Adams should be back in UWF in about a month and is said to be in good shape. Probably because he hasn’t lost his ring yet, so he can keep training at home.
- UWF didn’t just get Steve Williams in with New Japan, but Rick Steiner and Bill Irwin too. Steiner could be a huge star there, and he and Williams could become a team if the talk is to be believed.
- UWF negotiations with Bam Bam Bigelow have stalled. He wants more money than they’re offering him, and that seems to be the key point.
- Bruno Sammartino and Randy Savage had a match on December 30th in Baltimore. They had another on January 3rd in Boston. Dave thinks they might have done these just because of Bruno’s drawing power in the Northeast (Baltimore drew $93k and 8000 fans for this match).
- In Alabama they did something new. In a Head Hunters vs. Tennessee Stud and Robert Fuller cage match, one of the Headhunters hid under the ring and Kevin Sullivan teamed with the other in the cage. The one under the ring eventually broke through the bottom of the ring, through the boards and the canvas itself, and interfered to help his team win. So if you ever wondered where in the future things like that originated, here you go. The Headhunters did it first in Alabama.
- Boris Zhukov is coming to Florida. That is all the news for Florida.
- From the letters, someone who regularly deals with the wrestlers and promotions writes in about New Mexico. Crockett came back for the first time in 6 months and the crowds were just rabid for it, much more than for any WWF show they’ve gotten lately. There was a bad Dusty/Flair match, and Schiavone was a great ring announcer who was very grounded and polite to fans (they had to have security escort him to the back because fans went after him like savages - I guess they liked him that much). In 1986 AWA came and failed (but did better than they’re doing most places now). WWF did great in 1986, but their cards have been declining in quality significantly since and all the sparkle is gone. NWA came twice in 86, but seem to have nothing lined up for 87. UWF is coming in February. In short, New Mexico is completely open territory.
- Credit to the AWA for airing the entirety of the 60 minute Hennig vs. Bockwinkel match on tv. Those who loved long matches loved it, those who hate long matches hated it, and that seems to be the general split. Dave hasn’t seen it, but he heard the last ten minutes were extremely good. Airing it on New Years Eve might not have been the best decision, though.
- World Class is in bad shape. They ran a show on the 29th of December with a two-ring battle royal, a Von Erichs 6 man tag title match, and other stuff, and they admitted kids free and gave the kids unlimited soda and popcorn. No word on crowd size, but they didn’t run a show the 22nd at all, and the show on the 15th drew 150. So probably dismal numbers as WCCW continues their death spiral. They’re going to have a long, torturous death just like WCW would undergo just over a decade later.
- As for World Class booking, it looks like Bruiser Brody or George Scott will be the next booker. Scott has a conflict of interest, considering WWF runs tv in Waco and Scott is the owner of a big chunk of McMahon’s Toronto office. Fingers crossed it’s Brody.
- Jesse Ventura is filming another movie with Schwarzenegger called Running Man. Predator will be out later this year.