May 11, 1987
- [Memphis] The big headline this week is more on Lawler getting his head shaved. The match was set up so Lawler would lose his hair if he lost or the fans would be refunded and Idol would be shaved if Austin Idol lost. It’s the first time Dave’s ever heard of a refund stipulation, and the promotion hyped things further by saying that the head shaving would not air on local television - you had to be there live. So 9,500 filled the Mid South Coliseum for the match. Paul E. Dangerly threw powder in Lawler’s eyes, Lawler pulled down the strap, there was a ref bump so nobody to count Idol down after a bunch of piledrivers. And the cage actually came down to the floor, about a foot away from the apron on all sides, which facilitated Tommy Rich coming out from under the ring and helping Idol win. The crowd was so whipped up they kept the heels in the cage for like 30 minutes after the shaving for their own safety. Also Bill Dundee is back in the territory only a few weeks after Lawler blasted him on the radio for being too old.
- Watch: Jerry Lawler vs. Austin Idol, hair vs. hair and refund steel cage
- Dallas Cowboys owner Bum Bright has bought into WCCW. WCCW’s tv will change production companies and move from the Dallas Sportatorium to a tv studio type building in Irving, Texas at the end of the month. Bright’s involvement is spurring speculation that WCCW might get the cash to hire talent and compete with McMahon and Crockett, but that’s speculation made by people who haven’t thought things through very well. Between McMahon and Crockett all the talent you could make something out of is pretty well locked up, so if that is Bright’s role, he’s 18 months late. That’s assuming Bright actually wants to shell out money for talent, and besides, WCCW is basically rock bottom. They need more than money. They need someone who knows what they’re doing to even climb back to being a minor league again.
- The David and Mike Von Erich Memorial Parade of Champions is a perfect example of how far WCCW have fallen. Crowd size was estimated at 6000, and they had been hyping a special $100 ticket special allowing fans to sit in the private boxes and enjoy a private meal with the Von Erichs and other wrestlers and then watch the show with the Von Erichs. They only sold 14 of these and had to cancel the whole thing. Dave goes over the results. Red River Jack did not have to unmask. Mil Mascaras looked terrible. There was a Canadian Lumberjack match (lumberjacks had belts to whip the wrestlers with). Dave has a couple notes about this match, because Kerry Von Erich was a lumberjack because of the private box thing being canceled. He’s got blood flowing to his bad foot again, but still needs crutches when not seen by wrestling fans. Dave issues a correction about his recent recap of Skip Young’s promo about Brian Adias - he was too hard on him last week, as he didn’t say Adias was responsible for Mike’s suicide, but rather that Adias had used the Von Erichs to get a leg up. The Nord vs. Kevin Von Erich title match went to a double countout and Dave is convinced something went wrong, because the only Von Erich wrestling this show did not get the win. Either that or Brody worked real hard to get his friend Nord a draw against Kevin here. As for the mud battle royal, Candi Divine won and the match ended when the girls ganged up on referee Percy Pringle and dunked him in the mud.
- WWF held a Saturday Night’s Main Event taping on April 28. The show sold out, but sales were super low with just a few days left, so they advertised a dark match with Hogan and a mystery partner vs. Andre and Heenan (who was replaced with Hercules. The walkup was amazing following tv and newspaper advertisements for this match in the final week, so even though less than 2000 tickets had been sold by a couple days out, all 9345 seats were sold by bell time. Ken Patera partnered with Hogan for the dark match. There was a Jake vs. Kamala match to further the Jake/Honkytonk feud, Steele and Savage had their last match (a lumberjack match) which set up a Danny Davis/Steele feud, the Bulldogs won two straight falls over the Harts but didn’t win the tag titles because the first fall was a disqualification, and it was really sad watching Dynamite work. Not a lot else of note, but Duggan was positioned as a person who had paid to get in and he got to interfere twice, which Dave won’t even comment on what kind of impression that must give fans.
- AWA’s Superclash II show drew a little under 3000, and even though the matches were mostly terrible, it was still more enjoyable than recent Crockett shows in the Bay Area despite the Crockett matches being better. Sheik Adnan vs. Buck Zumhofe gets -1 star, Sherri Martel and Madusa Miceli (who has been wrestling for a couple weeks now and knows nothing) had a dud that was a tremendous carry job by Martel to get Madusa to that level of quality. The AWA World Title has been held up as a bunch of officials were consulted following a dirty finish (Hennig turned heel and used a roll of dimes to get the win). Hennig’s turn has been rejected, as the crowd almost unanimously booed Bockwinkel and cheered Hennig. Jerry Blackwell and Boris Zhukov got -2 stars. The rest of the card isn’t anything to write home about.
- Watch: Curt Hennig vs. Nick Bockwinkel for the AWA World Title at Superclash II
- The last big show of the past week was New Japan’s Sumo Hall show headlined by Inoki vs. Masa Saito. The match ended with Hiroshi Hase handcuffing them together, leading to Inoki using the cuffs on Saito’s face while he bled buckets and Hase had to throw the towel in for Saito as a result. After the match, Hase and Tatsumi Fujinami helped Saito to the back where Riki Choshu decked him (a picture of this appeared in the Tokyo papers), and this should kick off a hot angle because Choshu and his guys are supposedly cleared to compete in New Japan.
- WWF has fired Adrian Adonis. They’ve instituted a new dress code (no, the wrestlers don’t have to wear dresses, Dave clarifies) where the wrestlers have to arrive in nice clothes, and Adonis was just violating this way too much. That’s the apparent reason, but others are saying gross misbehavior or unreliability. Blackjack Mulligan has also walked out.
- Roddy Piper and Lou Albano are on Hollywood Squares the week of this issue. The week will be over by the time you read this, though. News travels slow when it takes 32 years to get your issue.
- Watch: Captain Lou and Roddy Piper on Hollywood Squares
- Curt Hennig has signed with WWF. Word was that with the heel turn he was going to be champion by the end of the summer. Rumors were flying after Superclash wrapped, but it’s confirmed now that he’s WWF-bound. Dave hates to think what the future of AWA will look like with Hennig gone, but they’ve lost every major star they’ve had in the past except Bockwinkel, so they’ll probably just limp through this loss as well. (spoiler alert: Hennig's going to back out of this).
- The Saturday Night’s Main Event episode mentioned earlier aired on May 2 and did a 9.5 rating with a 26 share. This is down from the previous three, but is very good considering it’s the first episode not to feature a Hogan match on tv. This should be read as a good sign for WWF being strong even without always having Hogan on deck.
- Dave’s been getting reports on WCCW’s stadium show and the match quality. He hasn’t seen the show yet, but he’s heard the scaffold match was better than the Starrcade scaffold match between the Road Warriors and Midnight Express. Brody’s matches were also bloody and good, while everything else is potentially in the negatives.
- It looks like Ted DiBiase is signing with UWF. Dave’s last word was that he was close to signing, and he gave hints of turning heel in Tulsa on May 3. UWF seems to be setting up DiBiase and Steve Williams for a number one contendership match. Also some of the UWF guys like Sting, Rick Steiner, Williams, Chris Adams, and Terry Taylor will be working JCP/NWA’s Chicago show on May 24.
- Big Bubba as UWF Champ has already become laughable. He’s been jobbed out to all the major Crockett faces, which makes it seem as if Dusty is trying to bury the UWF through booking. Have everyone in the NWA beat the UWF champ and you establish the UWF as second tier. The seeds you sow will bear fruit, Dusty (and consider this a warning you won’t listen to, Vince).
- Alabama notes: Since they can’t get Ric Flair, they’ve named Nick Bockwinkel world champion and he’s supposed to be on the May 11 show. Bill Dundee was supposed to be coming into the territory with the Mod Squad and Dundee would be booker, but with his decision to go to Memphis that’s been scrapped and the Mod Squad have decided to stay in Florida.
- A couple letters about the Von Erichs. A high school teacher and some of his editing students made a music video for World Class set to the Wang Chung song “Everybody Have Fun Tonight,” which got Fritz Von Erich’s attention and they’re going to broadcast the video during the tv show as well as play it on the big screens for the fans at the Mike and David memorial show. Another letter expresses hope that Fritz, Kevin, and Kerry can get out of the wrestling business before it’s too late for them too.
- Another writer feels that eventually the controversy around Choshu’s departure from All Japan will dissipate. He also feels that New Japan is trying to be like WWF a bit, building around a single star (Inoki) who is not a good wrestler but whose press is so good that it becomes fact in the mind of the less discerning fan.
- A reader from California notes that the Argentina show with the Invisible Man mentioned a couple issues back notes there were other bizarre gimmicks as well. You had Pepino the wrestling clown, Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, the Wrestling Executive (who wrestled in a business suit and had a son named Baron), a guerilla terrorist, a caveman, a mummy (or was it a yeti?), flower children, and a space monster that hypnotized opponents with a space gun. He also weighs in on the Misty Blue situation (we’re still seeing letters about this, holy shit). He was glad they cut away from the match because the match was bad because Misty can’t work. All she can do is stand around and look photogenic - Barry Windham and the Jumping Bomb Angels can do that and other things like work good matches.
- [Memphis] Dave has some praise for Jeff Jarrett. You know how it is with promoters. They push their sons, their sons suck, it hurts the promotion, and the sons continue to find themselves pushed way above their level. Jeff is not that guy - he’s one of the best young wrestlers in the business. So good on Jeff.
- The Montreal territory (International Wrestling) is in danger of going under. Just another casualty of the war.
- Attendance in Florida is down. Crowds are only good when Dusty and co. are on a card.
- Miscellaneous Japan notes: Dick Murdoch is expected to jump from New Japan to All Japan. That giant from Pakistan mentioned last issue is training under Giant Baba and will have a May 1 exhibition match. He’s going by the name “Laja Lion” for wrestling. That’s how Dave’s writing it, but I’m going to go with the less Engrish “Raja Lion” for the Rewinds.