February 09, 1987
- This is the February 9 issue, but I am a dumbass who punched the wrong date in.
- WWF had the Bulldogs drop the tag titles to the Hart Foundation at the latest tv tapings. They flew Dynamite in and he had to be carried piggyback to the ring, where he was immediately knocked off the apron at the start of the match and stayed down the whole time. Dave expects the Hart Foundation to be transitional champs and lose to the Can-Am connection by March, if not sooner. (Yeah… that’s not exactly how it all went down in the end, because the Hart Foundation really take off with this reign). Danny Davis was the referee for the match, missing Davey Boy’s pin attempt while tending to Dynamite. Interestingly, his heel referee gimmick has come to its end at this taping. Between the tag title and a Tito Santana match where Davis tried to interject himself, they did an angle where Jack Tunney fired Davis as a referee. Later in the taping, during a Hart Foundation title defense against the Islanders, Jimmy Hart introduced Davis as the newest member of the Hart Foundation. So that’s where that angle is going.
- Watch: The Hart Foundation win the tag titles
- Hulk Hogan will be working very few dates after Wrestlemania through the end of 1987. Apparently WWF wants to put together a Hulk Hogan movie and Hulk will have little time for wrestling the rest of this year. Dave notes that if they’re doing a movie, that should pretty much put an end to any rumors of Hogan dropping the belt this year. I can’t find anything about this supposed movie (was this canned and only revived as an idea by the one they’re going to do with Chris Hemsworth?), but Dave is right that Hogan won’t drop the title this year. Jim Duggan is coming in at exactly the right time, it looks like. Sure, you have Piper (as if he’ll actually retire), Steamboat, and Martel/Zenk, but Piper’s not working as a face, Steamboat’s hot because of the angle, and Martel/Zenk are just on the cusp of a push. Duggan has all the qualities to get and stay over, though obviously not the drawing power of Hogan. There’s also going to be a Hulk Hogan ice cream bar (suck it, Punk!)
- Hulk Hogan Ice Cream Bar ad
- Jim Neidhart has been indicted. The trial will probably be shortly after Wrestlemania. Chris Adams had a similar incident and went to jail for 90 days, so unless there’s some kind of way Jim gets out of serving jail time, bet on the Hart Foundation dropping the gold to Martel & Zenk. Maybe even before Wrestlemania.
- There are rumors of Vince McMahon actually wrestling at Wrestlemania. Dave doesn’t believe it and refuses to until it’s confirmed. A Minneapolis tv station reported Vince would wrestle Jesse Ventura. Imagine that, Vince McMahon wrestling, at Wrestlemania. There’s no chance in hell that will happen, though. Definitely not four times, either.
- JCP looks ready to abandon the former territory of Central States Wrestling. For those too young to remember, Central States/Heart of America/Kansas City was the territory that got the ball rolling on founding the NWA. They were run by Bob Geigel from 1963-1986 when Geigel sold to Jim Crockett Jr. JCP has been running Central States as part of their national expansion since September, but it’s been a death zone for them and it seems they’re going to pull the plug. Expanding nationally is hard. Word is Crockett’s going to take his guys out of the area by the end of February, transfer the base of operations to Nashville, and Bill Dundee will book the territory opposite Jerry Lawler’s booking of the Memphis territory.
- The Midnight Rockers just won the AWA Tag Titles and have given notice. They beat Doug Somers and Buddy Rose on January 27, and they’re expected to be gone in early March. The title change may be a ploy to get them to stick around longer, and Dave’s not sure either JCP or WWF would find a spot for them, which is a negative consequence of the business becoming centered around just two major promotions.
- The AWA has also hired a new CEO, Gary Rawn. He’s a local radio guy from the Twin Cities and president of Star Communications. He’s bought into the AWA (Verne still owns the majority), and he’s going to be in charge of tv syndication and territorial expansion. They’re looking at a talent overhaul, but Dave doesn’t see many guys they could get and push to turn things around who aren’t already signed to WWF, JCP, or UWF.
- JCP is gearing up for turns. The end result of the Four Horseman angle looks like Ole turning babyface as a result of the others turning on him. Jimmy Garvin’s recent interview on the Sunday TBS show suggests he’s turning. Dick Murdoch turned heel on Baron Von Raschke (Dave is praying they don’t do a feud, as Murdoch will do horrible in matches with Raschke).
- The Rock’n’Roll Express fan club is grossing somewhere around $100k weekly right now. That’s a lot of cash.
- Magnum T.A.’s physical therapy is going well and he walked 20 steps in a row. Wrestling still looks out of the future (yep), but who knows (it’s out of the picture).
- A young Calgary wrestler named Chris Benoit has been wrestling in New Japan for a few weeks. He left Calgary this summer when Owen Hart started (Owen made him expendable, because he was a hot new rookie), and has been studying under Inoki and Fujinami for the past several months. With that kind of pedigree, he should be pretty killer by now.
- Injury in All Japan: Giant Baba, who just turned 49, suffered a leg injury and is out of action.
- To give an idea of how AWA is doing, they did a show January 27 at the Met Center. It costs more than $10,000 to rent that venue. The gate was about $8,000. Also, although Scott Hall has left for Florida (they’ve announced him as “irreparably damaged”), he’s still being billed for main events throughout February against Bockwinkel.
- Speaking of Florida, Luger’s out and everyone’s getting in parting shots on him. During Luger’s last week with Florida he had a cage match with Bruiser Brody where things got kind of nuts. Brody wasn’t selling for Luger and basically spent the match humiliating him to the point where Luger was supposed to have two more cage matches with Brody and he just no-showed. Apparently, near the end of the match Luger screamed loud enough fans by ringside could hear him say “Get the door open, he’s nuts” before booking it to the back faster than he has run since Packers training.
- Crowds in Florida are huge since Sullivan got the book. That said, Dave points out it’s all been cheap and gross ploys. Scott Hall basically ripping off Hogan complete with a shitty leg drop, Florida vs. Southern champion vs. champion match where it looks likely they’ll pretend the result (Badnews pinning Sullivan to win both belts) didn’t happen, Sullivan cutting Bill Alphonso’s hair and using a cobra hold on a jobber until he foamed at the mouth. Dave thinks Sullivan’s doing a great job at being a completely evil and despicable heel, but the way he’s doing it will eventually narrow the audience and limit drawing potential.
- We’ve got three NWAs right now. Florida and Continental (that’s the Alabama territory’s working name, brother) both call themselves the NWA, while JCP has the NWA Championship. Speaking of, since JCP has Flair and they’re on the outs with Florida, it looks like Florida may try to align with WCCW and will bring Kevin Von Erich in as World Champion.
- There’s a new ninja in UWF and it’s Kengo Kimura. Dave goes on a brief ramble about ninja gimmicks and how every promotion except WWF has had one the past few years and it always sucks and never draws (unless the ninja is the Great Kabuki). Like, yeah, Kimura probably couldn’t get over in UWF as just “Kimura, that guy who wrestles” but making him a ninja just dooms him. Sticking him in a mask when facial expression is so important is a terrible idea.
- Both the New York and Ontario athletic commissions have banned Jake’s snake. If you think it’s an innuendo, too bad, you have to wait for Heroes of Wrestling. Dave is certain Jake is about to turn face soon.
- Dave’s getting conflicting stories on exactly what’s up with Lawler. Until he gets confirmation, who knows.
- AWA has done the right thing and pulled Scott Hall’s name from ads and replaced them with Curt Hennig. They were still stupid for having him win a battle royal giving him a title shot when he was leaving two weeks later (and it was reported he was leaving two weeks before the battle royal, so they knew he was leaving). Even when they do the right thing, it’s kind of only a half measure.
- ”New Japan claims Kimura is in Los Angeles training with Chuck Norris to beat Fujinami.” I don't even think I can add anything there.