Wrestling Observer Rewinder

April 13, 1987

Jim Crockett Promotions has bought the Universal Wrestling Federation (formerly Mid South) from Bill Watts. The deal has not been signed at the time of writing, but the ink will be dry by the time you read this. This will probably be the biggest story of 1987, but Dave can’t get into details on the deal yet, so that will have to wait, but it leaves the fate of pro wrestling in two men’s hands: Vince McMahon and Jim Crockett, who will likely make roughly 90-95% of all money made in wrestling in the U.S. for the rest of the year. They also have under contract nearly every major wrestler in the country.
Dave isn’t sure what to make of the deal yet. The plan seems to be to keep UWF on as its own entity, similar to how Crockett is running Florida (and the blueprint for how WWF intended to run WCW 14 years later after buying them out). All UWF wrestlers should be given the chance to stay on, but there are a number of questions now. The Freebirds were planning to trim their schedule in UWF down to just major shows, which may not fly with Crockett. WWF is known to want Steve Williams as a heel, but since he’s contracted to UWF it’s unclear if Crockett will have to renegotiate contracts or if he just owns the UWF contracts outright. Williams is in a great bargaining position with his drawing power in Japan and being a guy Crockett will want to build around. Also the JCP talent roster is now the deepest on the continent with the addition of the UWF guys. Not the strongest, because Hogan’s draw is so great, but certainly the best talent as far as producing quality wrestling.
The big thing for Crockett, though, will be picking up UWF’s tv outlets. UWF has over 100 syndicated markets, which ought to put Crockett roughly equal to WWF in terms of overall television. Wrestlemania has proven that WWF is in a league of its own for promotion, though, so it’s likely they’re going to be the untouchable number 1 promotion for several years (yep). Starrcades, Bashes, and Crockett Cup tournaments should be much stronger overall shows, which may help with competing against the WWF juggernaut.
The buyout also means that Bill Watts will be out of the business by the end of the month. Bye, Watts, until you get brought in to try and fix WCW. More info to come about who will be sticking around and who is going, and also what this might mean in terms of overall organization for Crockett’s main promotion as well as Florida and UWF.
Otherwise, there’s not really much in news. Dave briefly revisits Wrestlemania’s critical reception. It’s a unanimous success. Dave does, however, want to make one comment after rewatching a video of the show: he was too hard on Andre and Hogan. It wasn’t a good match, and Andre clearly had no business wrestling, but Hogan worked really hard to hold things together and so -4 stars was unfair. Dave revises his rating to 1 star. Everybody Dave has talked to was impressed by the show overall, and felt that even if Hogan/Andre was bad, the atmosphere of the show made up for any bad matches.
As for Wrestlemania 3’s attendance, Dave was reported a paid attendance of 90,873 which would make an all-time record for any pro wrestling event anywhere. The live gate at the Silverdome was $1.599 million (shattering the live gate for Inoki vs. Spinks and Akira Maeda vs. Don Nakaya Neilsen on October 9, 1986 at Sumo Hall ($837,000 when converted to dollars). Wrestlemania got another $5.17 million from 163 closed-circuit sites (460,000 attendance), and pay-per-view figures should be in around two weeks from now. Dave’s been getting some scattered reports, though, and thinks his estimate of $10 million from pay-per-view might be low, and estimates a final total over $20 million after the dust has settled. WWF’s overall gross should probably be in the $12-$14 million range, meaning roughly $6 million in profits at Dave’s best guess. No question we’ll see Wrestlemania IV next year, and Wrestlemania has firmly been established as an annual spectacular akin to the SuperBowl, where it’ll do good business even when it’s got a poor card and even if WWF is not quite hot overall.
Dave does a rundown of the 10 largest gates of all time in wrestling. Wrestlemania 3 is obviously the top of the list, and the aforementioned Inoki/Spinks match is second. At 3rd is the show headlined by Hogan vs. Orndorff from August 28, 1986 in Toronto. In terms of a breakdown, WWF owns 5 of the spots (spots 1, 3, 5, 7, and 9) with Wrestlemania I ranking 7th (live gate $502,000) and Wrestlemania II’s Nassau Coliseum location at #9 ($430,000). New Japan has 4 spots (numbers 2, 4, 6, and 8), and World Class has the 10th spot for Ric Flair vs. Kerry Von Erich on May 6, 1984 ($402,000). To add further evidence that the current climate is more lucrative for the big promoters, only three of the top ten gates pre-date the current wrestling war: Sammartino vs. Zbyszko (August 8, 1980) at #5, Inoki vs. Muhammad Ali (July 26, 1976) at #6, and Flair vs. Von Erich (May 6, 1984) at #10.
Number four on that list, a New Japan show in Osaka Jo Hall, happened just three days before Wrestlemania 3 and there was a riot. Dave doesn’t have a lot of info yet, but this seems to have been similar to a riot that happened after one of the Hogan/Inoki matches held in Sumo Hall a few years back. Those always had inconclusive endings because both guys are huge egomaniacs, and one time the crowd got so rowdy after that they tore up the hall and the Sumo Association refused to rent to Inoki for a while. This latest show, which grossed $700,000 at the gate, had Inoki vs. Masa Saito in the main event, with Inoki winning via DQ when Saito accidentally hit the referee. They hyped this match and the history between the two men hard (Saito and Inoki have history dating back to shortly after the 1964 Olympics when they were tag partners) and also Saito has the factor of being Riki Choshu’s teacher, making him even bigger now than at his peak. After the match, Masked Viking attacked Inoki (Japanese magazines are speculating a lot of guys as possibilities, but Dave thinks the most likely guy is Kengo Kimura, based on having seen him in person and noticing how he walks). As for the riot, some 3000 fans tore up the ring and threw chairs in protest, and police and the fire department had to be called in to calm things down. The IWGP tag titles also changed hands on the show, going to Akira Maeda and Nobuhiko Takada, and Miss A defeated Harley Saito in the first women’s match on a men’s card in many years in Japan.
[JCP] Stan Lane has replaced Dennis Condrey, forming the New Midnight Express with Bobby Eaton. Condrey and Eaton won the tag team of the year in the 86 awards, and word is Condrey was trying to get out of his contract and looking to join WWF. It’s unclear if he was fired or if he quit. Stan Lane gets to be managed by Jim Cornette now, which he missed out on in Memphis several years ago when he and Steve Keirn were slotted for a heel turn but the office felt they were too over and nixed it.
We’re real close to the Crockett Cup, and Magnum T.A. has been announced to be at the show. Dave thinks it positions Dusty Rhodes and Nikita Koloff as the favorites to win, and Dave has no clue what’s going to happen here because Lane joining the Midnight Express breaks up his existing team while Dutch Mantell has himself double booked with a show in Alabama and may not actually show up, (he’s one half of the Jayhawks). Dave guesses Dusty and Nikita will beat the Midnights in one semifinal while Rick Rude and Manny Fernandez will beat the Armstrongs, leading to Dusty and Nikita winning the final. But his predictions last year were way off, so grain of salt and all.
The schedule in the Atlanta area is a bit silly looking, now that UWF and JCP aren’t competitors anymore. UWF has a show booked for April 12, while Crockett just ran March 27 and April 5 at the Omni and a show in Marietta on April 12. Crockett’s idea had been to burn out the local market against UWF, but oops they own UWF now so that’s not good. Also Continental (Alabama) has an April 24 show coming up too. At the April 5 show, Crockett’s ring announcer repeatedly insisted that “there will be no wrestling in Atlanta until May 1” which is the next date Crockett has the Omni booked.
WWF is a sleeping giant right now. All is quiet as they’re deep in their post-Wrestlemania break, but Dave’s gotten it from a source that there appears to be a July 4 date scheduled for Shea Stadium, which he figures must be an Andre/Hogan rematch. With as much as they made off the match, as long as Andre can walk even a little, it’s going to be sound business to do the match again. Dave figures we might see two or three matches in baseball stadiums where they do big business before Andre retires (and maybe they’ll turn him face in the final match, too). JYD seems to have been let go, and Orndorff isn’t scheduled for anything so maybe he’s got time off for his shoulder. Dave has more to say, but he’s not sure if he’ll get to it later this issue or in the next week or two. Hogan’s work looks mostly to be against Harley Race once they come back, with occasional matches against Kamala to spice things up. Jake Roberts vs. Honkeytonk man is going to continue, and Jake losing at Wrestlemania kept that feud hot and gave them some legs.
Florida notes: Scott Hall seems to be getting phased down in Florida. Perhaps even out. He’s tumbling down the card lately. Also the Southern Title has been kind of forgotten. Kevin Sullivan recently quipped that Mike Rotunda doesn’t even own the “O” to his name, a reference to his WWF name Mike Rotundo. It seems likely WWF trademarked the Rotundo name, which prevents Rotunda from using it. But he can use Rotunda since it’s his real name.
World Class is full of Bruisers Brody. First there’s Bruiser Brody. Then there’s Red River Jack, who’s literally also Bruiser Brody under a mask. Then you have Nord the Barbarian, who’s also basically a Brody clone. And now there’s Eli the Eliminator, doing the same basic deal.
Anyway, World Class is gearing up for their May 3rd Texas Stadium show and they’re pulling out all the stops. Mil Mascaras is being brought in. They’re also advertising a 6-woman mud battle royal for $10,000 featuring Candi Divine, some girl she’s been training, two of the ring girls who take the wrestlers’ jackets, and two GLOW girls.
Central States is getting back on tv in its home of Kansas City on May 7. That will make four promotions running in the area, as Crockett/WWF/UWF also do. And yes, even though Crockett owns UWF, they’re still both going to be running shows, it seems, which Dave thinks is a bit ridiculous. With Central States running against Crockett, that means Flair can’t work there anymore, so Bob Geigel has brought in Nick Bockwinkel and recognized his AWA World Title as the world championship.
[JCP?] So Dave’s not even sure what to call Crockett’s promotion anymore. In theory the NWA includes Florida, and Jim Crockett Promotions should now include both Florida and UWF, but UWF seems to be its own thing so it’s not NWA like Florida maybe is. So Dave’s just calling the Charlotte-based part of the whole mess NWA now. Anyway, they did their debut show in Boston on April 4 and it drew pretty well ($142,000 with 11,000 fans), considering their only tv in Boston requires cable and picking up a weak signal from Worcester. The U.S. tag titles have been held up following a storyline suspension of Dick Murdoch so he can go to Japan, and Dave thinks this might be the end of the titles since it’d be silly to hold a tournament right after the Crockett Cup (these belts are going to hang on until 1992). At the very least they will probably be forgotten while the Road Warriors hold the International tag titles, because what promotion needs three sets of tag titles? I mean, at least they don’t have five (stares at WWE).
Dave saw a tape with a few shows from Montreal recently. Some notes: their commentator, Milt Avruskin is incredibly annoying, but at least he gets into the action. Floyd Creachman is his partner on commentary, and he’s also the heel manager, but he’s no Bobby Heenan. Creachman’s clan includes four guys: Kendo Nagasaki (who spits green mist that Creachman explains away as polluted Montreal air), Richard Charland, Bruiser Brody, and Buster Brody (Bruiser’s brother who escaped the asylum, played by Tim Brooks). Buster Brody is all gimmick - the act is good with the mismatched socks and tennis shoes, but Tim Brooks is not good in the ring.
Michael Hayes’ Badstreet USA single has sold 100,000 copies. I have no idea how good that is in the context of the music industry of the time, but the number seems surprisingly high to me.
Memphis’s show this past week was canceled due to a snowstorm. They did do a crazy angle for tv on April 4 where Downtown Bruno offered $5000 to anyone who would unmask B.T. Express and prove he was Billy Travis. Paul Diamond did it, turning heel, which led to Pat Tanaka getting upset he didn’t get the money, and this has turned into a three-way feud between Tanaka, Diamond, and Jeff Jarrett.
[AJW] Dave saw the February 26 Lioness Asuka vs. Chigusa Nagayo match and gives it the full five stars. He says it was “another of their annual five star matches” and had more moves than any match you will ever see. This match is available for download on the March 16 issue - it’s ridiculously hard to find online and isn’t available nearly anywhere. I’m pretty sure I caught my download during a brief window when the match was available on vimeo before getting taken down. Anyway, this gives me a chance to mention that it’s really hard to go archive diving in classic joshi stuff and folks like u/Xalazi are way better at tracking these down than I am.
[NWA] The Road Warriors debuted a new finisher on TBS on Saturday. It’s the one where Hawk comes off the top and clotheslines the opponent off Animal’s shoulders. They did it again in Japan, along with a bunch of other new moves. They’ll probably give it some dumb name like the Reckoning Mechanism or something like that.
Bunch of letters, no real major things in any of them. One guy wants to sing the praises of Continental (Alabama) as possibly the best smaller promotion, and if the Fullers don’t sell to Crockett, they could re-form an NWA with Geigel, Don Owens, Carlos Colon, whatever’s left of Montreal, Deep South, and the NWF. Maybe even the AWA could be involved. Another writer comes in with some anecdotes about state boxing commissions from Thomas Hause’s book The Black Lights which shows some of the more ridiculous things that state boxing commissions have permitted. Examples include a fighter with a pacemaker passing his physical, no ID required so one guy fought with one name then reversed first and last name for the next one, Ray Seales memorized the eye chart to cheat eye tests and get licensed despite being blind in one eye for almost two years, and no consistency on how long a fighter has to wait after being knocked out before fighting again.
Dave does a rundown of recent AJW and NJPW tv and gives five stars to Mutoh & Koshinaka vs. Maeda & Takada for the IWGP tag titles in the finals of a tournament. He calls it a candidate for match of the year. At least this one is on youtube.
Watch: Keiji Mutoh & Shiro Koshinaka vs. Akira Maeda & Nobuhiko Takada for the IWGP Tag Titles
Deep South Wrestling is having problems. Their top guys have all left to work Alabama, and it’s so bad that they had to cancel shows because they lack Tommy Rich (he’s primarily in Memphis now) and Mr. Wrestling II. Fun fact, though - Channel 36 in Atlanta shows both Deep South and Memphis on Saturday nights as a marathon block, but when they do they edit out all of Tommy Rich’s Memphis promos that show he’s a heel.
Right before publication, Dave has gotten the plan for UWF. UWF and Crockett’s NWA will remain separate circuits, but there will be talent exchanges. Eddie Gilbert will stay booking UWF.
[WWF] Pau Orndorff was going to have surgery to repair his shoulder. He backed out though after learning there was a chance it could lead to some degree of paralysis.