May 25, 1987
- Curt Hennig is now the AWA Champion. This will be announced on tv this weekend, and they’re going with the story that the AWA championship committee voted 4-2 in Hennig’s favor that there was no interference and the tapes do not clearly show any foreign object in the May 2 match (Dave notes that this is legit, the tapes do not clearly show anything period). The behind the scenes is, of course, more interesting. Hennig had agreed to jump to WWF just a few days before the match, apparently sick of waiting to be AWA champion. It seems that they enticed him to stay by promising to give him the title immediately, though Dave thinks this makes AWA look bush league. At the very least they could have done the hold up to lead to a rematch where Hennig wins cleanly to give the belt some shine again, because kayfabe committee vote title changes always take away prestige from the titles. Hennig is now the champion recognized by more promotions than anyone in the world, because the AWA belt is also the world title for the Alabama, Memphis, Oregon, and Kansas City territories.
- Ted DiBiase, one of the five best wrestlers in the world, has signed with WWF. He had just a few days earlier made a handshake agreement to stay in UWF for a reported $250,000 guaranteed contract for the next year while allowing him to go to Japan and honor his (lucrative) commitments there. The size of this deal suggests DiBiase would have been a huge star for Crockett and key to a lot of upcoming UWF plans. WWF did not offer a guaranteed contract, but he must feel he’s going to be pushed huge and make a lot of money to drop that contract. The only things Dave has heard from WWF sources regarding what’s coming is that DiBiase will be a heel and will have a unique gimmick (Dave wonders if that gimmick will be having good matches). DiBiase will probably debut in early June at the next set of tapings, along with another debutant: Bam Bam Bigelow.
- Bigelow and DiBiase signing with WWF raises questions about their status in Japan. Both have extensive commitments, so it’s pure conjecture what they’ll do about those. Bigelow has been heavily pushed by New Japan and has had a standing offer to join WWF, but no clue if that means he’s out of his New Japan commitment or not. Ted DiBiase is a current PWF tag champion with Stan Hansen in All Japan, and word is DiBiase will fulfill his commitment over the summer and after that it’s likely he stays in the WWF bubble (DiBiase and Hansen will drop the titles and win them back in July before DiBiase leaves and All Japan will vacate the belts, only for Hansen and Austin Idol to be awarded them in August. Hansen will be a four time champion with these belts after having won only two matches for them, as he and Ted became champions when they put Ted with him after Brody left).
- Von Erich news: Kevin Von Erich collapsed in the ring during an eight-man tag match on May 11. Ringside reports have Kevin turning blue in the face and being revived by CPR from Tommy Rogers, and the official story is he took a blow that gave him a concussion and a broken jaw. Kevin will be out for four weeks, putting him out of the IWGP tournament. To give a sense of what was understood about concussions at that time, Dave says “While it is possible, although quite rare, for a wrestler to suffer a concussion from a blow, let’s just say that those who were there live seem to dismiss the possibility that’s the real story.”
- WCCW’s deal with Bum Bright has not fallen through, so Dave’s speculation there was wrong. Fritz, a guy from Bright’s organization, and WCCW’s office (both wrestlers and officials) met on Tuesday to make plans and the wrestlers were told the deal will make them “bigger than Vince.” Also Brody was fired as booker and replaced with Gary Hart, though it looks like Brody’s going to stay on as a wrestler.
- Another rumor making the rounds is AWA has some kind of big money backing them now and are offering guaranteed contracts. Dave’s hearing that they’re planning to open a new west coast territory and that Wahoo McDaniel will be the booker, with Verne, Jerry Jarrett, and Ron Fuller involved. Something about prelim guys earning around $60k, a schedule that lets the wrestlers be home several days a week, etc., etc. Dave’s only reporting it because more than a half-dozen sources have come to him in the last four days saying several of Crockett’s guys are interested in jumping. Dave won’t believe it until he sees it, because he’s always skeptical of mystery backers and also never trust promotions working together - there’s always some grift, historically. Lending some credence is the fact that Ron Fuller did work the May 2 San Francisco show for AWA. Dave is right to be skeptical - this never pans out to more than just a rumor.
- Missy Hyatt has quit WWF before ever debuting on television. Creative differences seem to be the word - WWF had a character in mind, but she thought she’d be more effective just being herself. Dave guesses between all the articles and magazine profiles and such that Missy may have had the most ink spilled about her debut of anyone to never actually debut. You were so patient, and you waited for so long.
- More confusion surrounding Riki Choshu. On May 8, three days before the start of the IWGP tournament, Baba, Inoki, and Seiji Sakaguchi met to try and settle out of court on Chochu’s contract. No word on what was said, but Choshu did not appear at the press ceremony on May 10 where Inoki announced the beginning of the IWGP tour, so rumors started fllying he wasn’t in the clear and could miss the tour and that’s a disaster Inoki can’t afford. To give an idea of Choshu’s draw, up until he left All Japan’s tv ratings were solidly in the 12-15 range. Since he’s been gone, they’ve dropped to half that.
- The Jumping Bomb Angels will be in WWF from June 25 through the first week of August. They’re quite small, and Dave thinks perhaps too small to go against Moolah’s girls, especially considering their style would be negated pretty hard by working with them. Dave thinks they’d be better off wrestling each other because even slowed down to 30% speed they’d be the best match on a WWF show. Word is Vince is trying to change up the face of women’s wrestling by pushing prettier girls and phasing out the Moolah types, basically doing a GLOW but with less risque costumes. Dark Journey had an interview with WWF, but it fell through because she wants to be a valet and not a wrestler. Meanwhile Dump Matsumoto and Bull Nakano appear to be building toward a hair vs. hair match in AJW.
- [All Japan] Yoshiaki Yatsu, who recently was probably the best in Japan, has severely slipped in terms of his quality. Dave isn’t sure why, maybe it’s the falling out with Choshu or not getting eligibility for the Olympics, but he’s gotten out of shape and just stunk up the joint for the past two months and it’s a real shame.
- Also signing with WWF is Dingo Warrior. Dave’s not sure what name he’ll use, but he’s told that Warrior will basically be kept on as a prelim guy like Tom Magee without tv exposure until he learns to wrestle. The problem with that thinking is few people actually get better once they sign with WWF. Magee was better in his first match back in 1985 than he is now.
- Update on the pay scale form WCCW’s Texas Stadium show. Most guys got $250-300, so that’s pretty much why guys like Nord, Eli, Jeep Swenson, and Black Bart have all left. Dave also saw the first hour of that show on tv and the Brody vs. Swenson match wasn’t bad (mostly because Brody managed to bleed before the match even started). The scaffold match wasn’t as good as some that Dave’s seen before, and he hates watching them because they’re so dangerous. As dangerous as they are, Dave can only think of Cornette and Koko Ware as people who’ve been hurt in them, so the safety record with them is surprisingly high.
- [Alabama/Continental] is off tv in Minneapolis. Dave’s looking for someone who can supply tapes regularly since his usual source will no longer have them. Also Buddy Landel no-showed a recent tv taping and is probably gone from the arena. The issues he has are mostly self-created, but he’s talented so it’s a shame he’s got stuff going on. Anyway, they’re hyping an August 2 show to be called Beach Brawl.
- Several JCP/NWA wrestlers are upset with how big a contract Steve Williams got. That’s the problem with signing guys to big contracts - those who have been there a while and feel they’re as good get jealous and have a bad attitude if they aren’t making similar money. Meanwhile, this lets Crockett run big shows that’ll include a wide pool of talent, and that’s the benefit of running three groups - unbelievable live cards when they pool the talent resources together.
- The Kansas City Promotion (which still calls itself the NWA) is doing a Piper’s Pit type segment with Brenda Britton hosting. They’re calling it Brenda’s Beauty Shop. Dave doesn’t want nasty letters coming in, so he’s going to hold his tongue about his reaction. Maybe he learned something from the Misty Blue comments.
- Watch: Brenda’s Beauty Shop
- Not a lot going on in Oregon and Florida, and Dave just has some cards without results from Puerto Rico and some results from an Australian promotion. There’s a wrestler named Bruiser Davis in Australia and he’ll be teaming with his father, Grumpy Davis, at the next show. That’s the most interesting bit of any of that.
- Not a lot in the letters. One writer notes that Crockett would be up shit creek without Cornette involved. He argues that you need great heels to make great faces, and that it doesn’t work the opposite way. Dave agrees that you need to put heat on the heels to get fans to return and to build your faces if you’re going to drama, and that’s something Crockett has not been doing well of late. It’s different for WWF, which goes for entertainment rather than drama, so they don’t need the heels to be strong (plus they cycle through enough wrestlers that they can bring different crews in each month). If you run somewhere regularly, like the Memphis territory does, you need heat on the heels to keep interest. Lawler on top has had ups and downs for the past year, but when the heels have real heat for him to work with, the circuit is hot. Then again, Hogan proves that you don’t need great heels for a babyface to be hot. You just need a one-in-a-million face (which is why Roddy Piper wasn’t able to stay hot as a babyface).
- If you want an idea of what wrestling tapes cost back then, Dave’s got an ad for the Austin Idol vs. Jerry Lawler Hair vs. Hair cage match. He’s taking orders on behalf of Independent Media Marketing, a company based in New Jersey, and the tape has 30 minutes of highlights and promos setting the stage for the match and then the remaining 30 minutes have the match, head shaving, and riot after. The tape costs $55.20 at retail, but ordering through Dave will save you $10 (I’m guessing that’s why they’re having Dave take orders - discount for his readers, and this is how you can ensure only his readers get a discount).
- Watch: Looks like someone did a longer version of this and put it on youtube
- [UWF] Chris Adams is injured. They’ve written him off with a piledriver on the outside. They’ve also done an injury angle with Steve Williams, who isn’t actually injured. Magnum T.A. is doing interviews and does a great job so far, though Dave thinks they should wait until he’s in position before cutting the camera to the interview because he finds it incongruous to have Magnum’s voice so strong but then see him moving so slowly.
- WWF has picked up Joel Watts. He was the mind behind UWF’s video production and was a whiz at stitching together highlight videos and vignettes. Expect WWF’s post-production quality to improve and be more creative.
- [WWF] Jake Roberts has a shoulder injury and will be out for about six weeks. The problems started when he took that guitar shot from Honkytonk Man.