June 08, 1987
- Rewinder note: No rewind posts next week or the week after, as I'll be traveling for the holidays. We'll resume after the new year on January 7.
- The biggest story of the week is Jim Duggan and Iron Sheik arrested on drug charges. They were arrested at 2:20 pm on May 26 in Middletown New Jersey on their way to that night’s show. When pulled over they were discovered to have been smoking marijuana, and Duggan had been drinking a bottle of beer while driving. They further found more marijuana on Duggan and three grams of cocaine in Sheik’s shaving kit. They were released later that day and worked the show, but it also hit the news in several major cities. And since the two were in a major feud, this is doubly embarrassing to WWF that they were traveling and doing drugs together. News reports all had it that they’d been suspended, but WWF fired both later that week. Dave’s understanding is that Sheik is highly unlikely to work for WWF ever again (he’ll be back in February). Dave is more optimistic that Duggan will eventually be brought back, though he imagines it will require a character tweak. This is extra embarrassing for Duggan, because his home town of Glens Falls, New York was scheduled to have Jim Duggan Day this week. Also Jim Duggan Sr. is the chief of police in Glens Falls.
- How fans will treat this is unknown, but in the long run, this should be pretty meaningless. The kayfabe issues here won’t be a big deal, because the fans who do believe choose to believe and will eventually forget about this. Some fans may lose confidence in wrestling, and this does hurt Duggan’s character, at least in the short-term. Dave doesn’t know if WWF had rules about faces and heels traveling together, but he’s pretty sure that’s not allowed anymore due to the high publicity of WWF’s guys. WWF has also begun fining faces and heels who drink together in public. While this will be forgotten soon (Hi past Dave, it hasn’t), it does serve as a reminder that wrestling is big enough right now that it can’t afford too much of these kinds of incident. Imagine if it were Hogan in Duggan’s place and the effect it would have on WWF.
- WWF’s Director of Operations, Jim Barnett, attempted suicide this past week. There was a point where it was uncertain he’d make it following an apparent self-induced pill overdose. Barnett is one of the biggest names in the business. He graduated from Harvard and got in the business with Fred Kohler in Chicago in the early 50s, becoming one of the most powerful promoters in wrestling over the next 30 odd years. His reputation is one of being in the right place at the right time, and he had a knack for building up a promotion big in the short term before bailing out before burning out the territory. He and Kohler attempted a national promotion through their tv exposure on the Dumont Network in the early 50s, but when they lost tv that fell off. From there he went to Detroit and built them up before the bottom fell out in the early 60s, after which he went to Australia and supposedly made millions before leaving due to tax issues. He next went to Atlanta and ran Georgia Championship Wrestling in the 70s, before losing control of the promotion to Ole Anderson in the early 80s, after which he went to WWF right at the cusp of their initial moves toward going national.
- New WWF hires this week include Rick Rude and the Midnight Rockers, both of whom were tag team champions with the NWA and AWA, respectively at the time of signing. Rude just up and disappeared this past week with no reason given and missed his NWA dates. Over in Crockett country, they subbed Vlatimir Petrov in for him on May 24, then announced Ivan Koloff was replacing him as Manny Fernandez’s partner on the May 26 taping. At both shows they announced Rude as injured, which will make them look like dopes if he debuts on WWF tv within the next two weeks. As for the Rockers, on May 25 they dropped the belts on their way out to Boris Zhukov and Soldat Ustinov, before debuting five days later by challenging the Hart Foundation to a title match. Rude probably won’t be a huge loss for NWA, but the Rockers were the biggest draw in AWA and WWF probably found them very appealing after Curt Hennig backed out of signing.
- Over in Japan, the big story is that Genichiro Tenryu seems to want to leave All Japan. Tokyo Sports reported that Tenryu went to Baba several times wanting singles matches against his usual tag partners Jumbo Tsuruta and Hiroshi Wajima, but was refused, and so he’s looking to get out. Tokyo Sports speculates that if he leaves, many of the younger wrestlers will follow his lead out of loyalty to their friend. At this point more losses could well kill All Japan. Meanwhile, Riki Choshu is rumored to have approached Tatsumi Fujinami about starting a new promotion.
- Regarding Piper’s appearance in Portland recently, Dave has seen the tape and thinks most of the rumors are unfounded. Piper wasn’t familiar with the angles or the younger wrestlers and just ranted and raved as usual, which made the show a lot better but makes no implication that he’s joining them regularly. The talk show interview also doesn’t seem to indicate much to Dave. Dave’s sure Piper will eventually return, but not as a promoter in the Portland circuit. Also, he broke his wrist 10 days before Wrestlemania and wrestled the match anyway because too much was on the line. He’s also recently filmed an ABC pilot with Lyle Alzado, a former NFL player. And speaking of wrestlers turned actors, by the time you read this you can see Jesse Ventura in the new movie Predator.
- Dave finally got a new typewriter. Reading these issues just got ten times easier.
- The tv tapings this week should give a good idea of how some of the new WWF hires will be used. DiBiase and Bigelow will be mostly in Japan until August, but with Duggan out and Jake Roberts undergoing surgery on June 4, there’s a lack of drawing babyfaces, so Savage may make his turn soon to fill that gap. The Rockers coming in is probably the end of any hope for Martel and Zenk as major team (and when Martel and Zenk came in, the Rougeaus were the team with the rocket). They just never got as over as hoped, and it’s obvious that WWF fans don’t really see tag teams as a draw but rather as interchangeable, so if the Rockers want to get over they’ll probably need to have a big breakout win early. Like the tag titles.
- JYD and Paul Orndorff will be coming back to WWF in mid-June. Orndorff didn’t get the recommended surgery and just rested up for 11 weeks. To Dave’s surprise, they’re giving JYD another chance.
- [UWF] Sting turned face at the May 31 tapings. He had a match with Terry Taylor, then got beat down by Taylor, Eddie Gilbert, and former partner Rick Steiner. Chris Adams made the save for Sting, so it’s looking like we have a new team and some potential feud configurations.
- Missy Hyatt is back in UWF as of MAy 30. They’ve given her a Piper’s Pit format show, but this time they’ve put her in her element as “a heel bitch type.”
- UWF had a big card on May 27 headlined by Ric Flair vs. Jim Garvin and a bunch of other big names but only drew $23,000. Dave wasn’t impressed until he realized they had 8 inches of rain and a tornado that night. The Tulsa show the next night had even more issues, as the weather kept Luger, Flair, Taylor, and Gilbert from making it, and they offered a $3 discount for seats at the next Tulsa show as a make-good.
- Congratulations to Mike Rotunda and his wife, because they just had a baby boy. This makes Blackjack Mulligan a grandfather. Yowie wowie.
- Happenings in Florida: a bounty from Sir Oliver Huperdink on Ed Gantner (they love bounties in Florida), a Rotunda-Dory Funk match for the Florida title that was really good, rookie Johnny Ace getting a push, and lastly Kevin Sullivan’s promos have gone really weird. He’s started calling Dory Funk “Terry” and when asked about his match with Ed Gantner in Lakeland started talking about fighting Badnews Allen in Daytona Beach that night. Only, that match happened in February.
- Jerry Jarrett’s CWA is clearly working with AWA, as he did an interview for AWA tv and Jeff Jarrett has been named AWA rookie of the year. Dave says Jeff may be the lightest wrestler anyone is attempting to push on a national level. Meanwhile, Tommy Rich was doing an autograph signing for some girls when one of them attacked him and it was Jerry Lawler in drag.
- Not much news in AWA land, but we do get to look forward to Madusa Miceli challenging Sherri Martel for the women’s title on June 28.
- Riki Choshu’s latest supposed debut date is June 12 against Tatsumi Fujinami. This match will be under the IWGP tournament final which will probably have Inoki and either Masa Saito or (Dave cannot believe he’s saying this) Konga the Barbarian, but it will have all the interest if it happens. Speaking of guys Dave can’t believe are going to be working New Japan’s July tour, Dingo Warrior is scheduled and is getting a big build up which shows how out of touch with the American scene New Japan is.
- The opening night of All Japan’s latest tour did a terrible 4.7 rating on tv. Dave credits the worst lineup of foreigners in recent memory and a bunch of Japanese wrestlers with no charisma.
- All Japan Women’s tv is consistently doing better ratings than the men lately. Unlike the men, women pro wrestlers will be eligible for the women’s amateur freestyle wrestling tournament on June 21, so AJW will be sending seven wrestlers for the tournament. Dave’s incredulous that a pro promotion, especially one as popular as AJW, would send their wrestlers to compete legitimately and potentially get beaten. 17-year old rookie Chiaki Ichikawa, who just made it through AJW’s grueling try-outs, is the odds-on favorite to win the whole thing. Get out of the way, Inokiism, Matsunaganity is running wild.
- In other joshi news, Devil Masami is in her last year wrestling as she’s now 25 years old. Unless AJW makes an exception, she’ll hit mandatory retirement age when she turns 26. She’s planning to tour Canada in July. AJW has also recently had four injuries, including serious injuries to Bull Nakano and Liones Asuka. On May 22, Chigusa Nagayo and Yumiko Hotta wrestled Yumi Ogura and Kazue Nagahori for the latter’s tag belts in a best of three falls match that Dave is told is one of the best matches of the year. Also Shinobu Kandori has decided to unretire and will be rejoining JWP on May 27.
- Owen Hart had a really good match in Stampede recently against Angel of Death. He put his North American Title on the line against Angel’s wager of $10,000 and won, but was then attacked by Jerry Morrow, who stole the money after headbutting Owen in the balls repeatedly. Owen won with a tombstone piledriver.
- Observe this, brother: Dave is surprised that Stampede Wrestling acknowledges the Observer on air and in its programs. He never thought he’d see the day when a promotion would acknowledge the Observer.
- Wrestling historian Tom Burke writes in about pro wrestling behind the Iron Curtain, as raised in a letter from the April 6 issue. The short answer for Cuba is no, but several Eastern Bloc countries have, including Poland, Hungary (where tournaments were held on Sunday mornings to try and counter the popular appeal of Sunday mass. Ross Hart wrestled in one of these tournaments), and Yugoslavia in the 1960s and 70s. Burke asks Dave if he ever foresees a return of regional promotions as the dominant force, as well as a return to “the art of wrestling” in terms of style. Dave doesn’t see it happening, because technology has come to wrestling and is necessitating the industry adapt or die. On the same token, Dave expects wrestling to evolve at least for the near future toward a faster-paced display with less actual grappling.
- Dave is bored of the NWA. The only thing they’ve got going on right now that keeps him awake is Jim Cornette, and even Ric Flair’s promos are getting tiresome.
- Scott Steiner, who won the World Wrestling Association World Heavyweight Championship in his first pro match last year, lost the title to Greg Wojokowski. He’s said to be moving in with his brother Rick, so we might expect him to pop up on UWF cards now and again.