Wrestling Observer Rewinder

March 09, 1987

The biggest story of the week is still developing, but it’s being reported in Japan that Riki Choshu will be joining New Japan. For the past two weeks there have been rumors that Choshu or Masa Saito would face Inoki on the March 26th show. Saito showing up at Inoki’s 44th birthday party helped fuel these rumors, where he shook hands with Inoki and challenged him. All Japan was supposed to start their new series the night of that party, and missing from the card was Choshu, with the excuse that he had a bad cold. There’s all kinds of bullshit being called on this by reporters in Japan who have noted that he hasn’t missed an All Japan date since late 1984. It’s said that he tried to recruit a number of other wrestlers to join him in New Japan, but they turned him down, and no official announcement has been made by New Japan or All Japan about Choshu. The biggest factor here is that TV-Asahi has been considering canceling New Japan’s tv, so Inoki is trying to pop some big ratings to save the network slot.
In US news, we still don’t know the status of the Florida territory. No official word, and all three scenarios in play last week are still in play.
Back to Choshu, Japan seems on the cusp of its biggest feud since the Shingun-Seikigun feud of 1983-1984. Back then New Japan was drawing ratings on the level of a top-five show, not lurking near cancelation. Potential feuds with Maeda and Fujinami among others have the potential to be huge business for New Japan, and the arrival of Choshu could set up a power-struggle for who will replace Inoki as the face of the company. Choshu is far more popular than Maeda and Fujinami. It’s too early to speculate if they might jump ship at some point if the writing is on the wall about Choshu taking that spot.
AWA drew big at the Cow Palace with a $100k+ gate and a solid draw in Minneapolis against a WWF show in St. Paul. AWA drew 4500 in Minneapolis to 6500 for WWF (headlined by Hercules vs. Hulk Hogan), and the Cow Palace show was topped by a traditional battle royal. And if one thing is certain in wrestling, it’s that traditional battle royals always draw well at the Cow Palace. AWA is pumping money into radio and newspaper ads, and there was a lot of media coverage for the Minneapolis show.
Wrestlemania 3 has sold roughly 50,000 tickets so far. Randy Savage was reported to be scheduled for knee surgery after Wrestlemania, but Dave’s sources say that’s not true (lots of Canadian readers phoned in about this report, so Dave’s taking the time to dispel it). They hinted on tv at an extra-large belt being made for Andre to work the semi-smart crowd into thinking Andre’s going to win the title. Dave expects we might see the giant belt on tv the week before Wrestlemania. He also notes that all reports suggest Andre won’t be wrestling after that match and that there’s concern about him making it through Mania without exploding.
[WWF] Dave runs down and rates the Feb. 23 Madison Square Garden Show. Not a lot to report here. Roddy Piper/JYD/Ricky Steamboat vs. Randy Savage/Harley Race/Adrian Adonis wins the match of the night with an exceptional 4 star showing, while Jake Roberts vs. King Kong Bundy was so atrocious it got -1.5 stars.
Assorted WWF notes: TV has it looking like Beefcake will be turning face and starting to feud with Adrian Adonis, which kind of spoils the result at Mania for Adonis/Piper. Alice Cooper will be in Jake Roberts’ corner. JYD and Harley Race now has a stipulation of the loser bowing to the winner. Expect more stipulations announced to help boost ticket sales.
As Dave has been typing the newsletter, he’s gotten word confirming that JCP has bought the Florida territory. There may not be much of a shakeup, but Kevin Sullivan will be assistant booker (with Dusty as head), and Gordon Solie has been invited to stay on as announcer. Lots of potential new faces to be brought up for the Crockett Cup.
[JCP] The Ole Anderson face turn has happened, and it’s kind of dumb and reminds Dave of some of Vince’s dumber moments. So Ole’s been absent lately, apparently due to going to watch his son compete in local wrestling tournaments, and Tully made a crack about it so Ole punched him. Later J.J. Dillon asked Ole to apologize, so Ole called him a scumbag and punched him too. Dave thinks the turn was great, but he just can’t buy Ole as a face, and the McMahonish thing is how they’re having the guys talk about the “10 year” history of the horsemen when they never used that word until January 1986. It’s like when Paul Orndorff fired Bobby Heenan as his manager after the first Wrestlemania, ending the “long association” that never started since Heenan never managed him before the firing skit.
[JCP] Dave puts his foot in his mouth hard regarding Misty Blue. She was wrestling Linda Dallas and they interrupted the match and never aired or announced the finish on tv in order to focus on the Horsemen angle. I bring this up because Dave’s comment is going to spark some controversy within the letters section over the next several issues (there will still be letters touching on this in May), so we’re going to cover it in the rewind. Dave’s own words:
With the exception of Brenda Britton, Misty Blue has to be the ugliest girl ever described as beautiful in the human race. Her and Linda Dallas is almost embarrassing how bad it is. They are literally doing nothing but selling their asses. The best thing about Saturday’s show was they interrupted that match for the Ole Anderson angle.
There was an injury at the UWF show on February 24. Dark Journey jumped on Michael Hayes’ back and Hayes threw her to the mat, but she landed wrong and had to be carried out. Word is she’s got a broken back and she’ll be replaced by Baby Doll (using the name “Nickla” since she needed to drop the Baby Doll name to get out of her contract with Crockett).
Dave reviews the Cow Palace show the AWA put on. Notable events include Sherri Martel retaining the women’s title in a 2 star match against Candi Divine, a Bockwinkel/Hennig double countout for the AWA title at 3 stars, the Midnight Rockers retaining the tag titles against Zhukov and Somers in a really bad match. The main event battle royal saw Jimmy Snuka win, but it was bad. Dave also finally saw the full 60 minute draw between Hennig and Bockwinkel and he thought it was superb. The match built heat through the tension of the match’s length. Lots of people don’t like restholds, but Dave notes that the problem with restholds isn’t the holds - it’s when the guy in the hold doesn’t sell that he’s in pain. If both wrestlers have their working boots on, they can make a resthold as exciting as a top rope dive. But it’s rare to see guys actually work a hold these days. (Dave may have accidentally been glimpsing at 2019, because the same applies today).
One of Florida’s last shows independent of JCP saw an unusual happening. Bruiser Brody and The Sheik had a two minute match that ended in a double countout. They then spent the next 8 minutes in a wild, arena-sprawling brawl that went all the way into the popcorn stand. Brody got over massively, more than any babyface in the territory since Virgil. Dave gives the whole thing 4.5 stars.
[Florida] So the dream date with Ed Gantner thing has a winner. It’s Adrian Street. They’re also building a feud between Gantner and Scott Hall. Hall talks a lot about how they grew up as best friends, which could make for a great story, except his tone is less that there’s been a falling out and more of a “my good buddy wants to prove he’s better I guess, so that’s neat.” No wonder there’s no heat, it’s being booked like a WWE face vs. face feud.
Stampede Wrestling seems to be cursed, at least as far as the Viet Congs are concerned. Cong #2 (Fumihiro Nikura) never came back from Japan, which means they’re holding up the tag belts and putting on a tournament. Apparently Nikura had some kind of heart issue in December. So they brought in a young guy named Matsuda (no relation to Hiro Matsuda) as Cong #3. He nearly died of a brain hemorrhage in training and will probably never wrestle again. Nobody has volunteered to be Cong #4.
[Memphis] They did a really cool finish to a Lawler/Bockwinkel vs. Austin Idol/Humongous match. Lawler and Bockwinkel hit a double suplex on Humongous, only Lawler never fell back. So Lawler goes to the ropes to do his fist drop, but jumps just as Bockwinkel covers and so Lawler hits Bockwinkel. Bockwinkel leaves Lawler high and dry to get double-teamed, and now we have an angle between Lawler and Bockwinkel.
Speaking of Lawler, he got on the radio and did a bit of an expose. Talked about Randy Savage hitting the fan in Miami, Bill Dundee being Bobby Eaton’s father-in-law, how Sam Houston is Jake Roberts’ brother and married to Baby Doll, made fun of Jake, Ric Flair, Roddy Piper, Michael Hayes, and Hulk Hogan’s real names, and said that Ricky Morton is married and has two kids (this last one was news to Dave). These young kids are exposing the business, I tell you.
[NJPW] Another development since the first page was typed. Inoki vs. Saito has been signed as the main event of the March 26 New Japan show. That same show is set to feature a World Karate Association Cruiserweight title bout, an International Boxing Federation Lightweight title bout, and Shinobu Kandori defending the UWA (Mexico) Women’s title (first time a men’s and women’s title will be defended on the same show in Japan). Dave says the Takada/Koshinaka match from the February 5 Sumo Hall show was a match of the year contender, by the way, and gives it 4.5 stars. Inoki/Bigelow wasn’t as good, and Bigelow isn’t a Steve Williams or Bruiser Brody… yet.
Future Dude with Attitude, ECW Tag Champ, and 1992 WON match of the year participant Doug Furnas is trying to break a weightlifting record. He’s training up for the World powerlifting championship this May (he won last year’s as a superheavyweight, benching about 650 and squatting 975). He wants to beat Bill Kazamaier’s total in bench, squat, and deadlift, and if he breaks the record, it’s likely he’ll take up wrestling full time (he works once or twice a week in Continental) with a legit World’s Strongest Man gimmick. Dave’s curious about this especially because Furnas, who’s 5’11” and 270 lbs with most of the weight in his legs, is the most flexible and agile big man Dave’s ever seen. He’s super green, but he does the splits and moves nothing like most of the stiffs and does a better top rope leg drop than Bobby Eaton. His height may work against him, but he’s a guy to keep an eye on (see you in 1992, Doug).
Some quick hits: Congratulations to Bill Apter on the birth of his first son. Sadly, Hulk and Linda lost their baby. There’s a guy in Montreal doing a gimmick where he’s the insane cousin of Bruiser Brody, Buster Brown Brody. WWF is suing George Napolitano and Bert Sugar (magazine publishers) for putting together some kind of book that uses WWF trademark names or something.
In the letters we get a small victory for Crockett in the wrestling war. Seems that Angelo Mosca’s NWA show has bumped WWF out of two of its three weekend time slots in Winnipeg, leaving only the 11 am slot for WWF (taking 6 pm Saturday and 1 pm Sunday). The commentary is shit, but it’s a small battle won against WWF.
Another letter asks some questions about New Japan and All Japan as they compare to the major US promotions in terms of finances. Dave notes that they’re definitely ahead of all US promotions except WWF and possibly JCP. There’s also a question about if it would hurt All Japan if WWF signed Riki Choshu, and Dave thinks it would hurt initially but not much in the long run as All Japan has a great well of talent to draw from to replace him if necessary.
Dave liked to do quizzes back before everything was easily available online and offers one at the last page of this issue, all answers due by May 1. The winner will get 20 free issues. Some questions from this quiz, let’s see what you’ve got: Who was the last wrestler to score a clean pin on Hogan/Andre/Choshu/Brody? Name every masked man to hold an NWA/AWA/WWF World title. Name 5 wrestlers who have scored clean wins on Andre the Giant. Only one wrestler has scored a clean pin on one of the Road Warriors on national US tv - who is he?