June 15, 1987
- Rewinder note: Rewinds will resume on January 7. Happy holidays, everybody.
- The Honkytonk Man has become WWF Intercontinental Champion. This was a surprise title change, occurring at the June 2 Buffalo tapings. It should air the weekend of the 13th/14th. The main reason behind the change is that Ricky Steamboat is going on a sabbatical due to the impending birth of his first child. With Steamboat heading out, WWF has taken massive hits to its babyface roster. Aside from Hulk Hogan, only Ken Patera currently stands a chance of being a significant babyface draw out of their current healthy face roster. Losing Roberts, Duggan, and Steamboat so quickly means they need to scramble. The time might be right to turn Randy Savage, and this also partially explains the return of Junkyard Dog recently (he was already gonna be brought back, but they might have sped this up after the Roberts shoulder injury and Duggan arrest).
- Speaking of Duggan and Sheik getting arrested. According to Dave’s source, they have been fired and “Will never work for Titan again.” Wrestlers have been told neither name is to be mentioned in promos or otherwise ever again. The obvious leap is for Duggan to go back to UWF, but Dave finds that unlikely. Dave doesn’t think Duggan’s going to be in too much legal trouble over a little marijuana, unless a judge wants to make a reputation for himself. Sheik might be in deeper trouble. As for what his source has to say, Dave says to remember that when it comes to wrestling, never say never.
- The Rock’n’Roll Express won the NWA tag titles for the fourth time, but not in the way you’d think if you just watched the tv shows this weekend. Rick Rude left Crockett without dropping the title, and on tv last week they announced Manny Fernandez would team with Ivan Koloff as the new tag champ due to Rude’s “injury.” They were supposed to drop the titles to the Rock’n’Rollers on May 30, but Fernandez went AWOL. So they announced on May 2 that Morton and Gibson beat Rude and Fernandez (both seemingly gone now) to win the belts, and they aired a match where the title changed hands. That match looked familiar because it was taped last winter and aired in Japan in February, and Dave’s pretty sure it originally was a non-title match. Fortunately for Crockett, the belts were going this way anyway, so no big changes. Manny Fernandez may just be up and out of Crockett - no mention of him on any shows this weekend, and Paul Jones is now managing Koloff and Vladimir Petrov. We should know for sure by next week since Fenandez was still advertised for house shows as late as this weekend.
- Meanwhile, everyone expected Tully Blanchard to drop the TV title to Dusty Rhodes but he didn’t. Blanchard and Rhodes met on June 6 in Greensboro in a “$100,000” winner-take all match where Rhodes got counted out chasing J.J. Dillon, who stole the bag of money from Magnum T.A. Dave thinks they’ll keep Blanchard and Rhodes feuding through the Great American Bash tour and have Rhodes win by the end. This would lead to fewer Rhodes/Flair matches, which Dave was afraid would dominate all of July. Dave gives some dates for the tour that are confirmed, and the only confirmed card he has yet is the July 2 show, which will feature “a cage match with the Four Horsemen against the Road Warriors-Dusty Rhodes-Nikita Koloff.” No, it’s not WarGames yet, but we’re on the way to it.
- In tv related news, Crockett’s syndication package debuted i Electronic Media Magazine’s ratings at number 11 last week. The package includes the two JCP shows (NWA Pro and Worldwide), the Florida shows (Southern Pro and CWF), and the UWF shows (UWF and Power Pro). Crockett’s Wrestling Network covers 77% of the country in terms of availability. WWF’s syndication was ranked number 3 and is available to 93% of the country.
- Canadian tv has a few debuts coming up. Power Plus Wrestling, a more Canadian-focused version of Pro Wrestling this week will debut on June 10. TSN Wrestling (a weekly 90 minute Stampede show) will debut July 20 at 5 pm Monday, Toronto time.
- Eddie Sharkey, who trained guys like the Road Warriors, Jesse Ventura, Rick Rude, and more was arrested on May 31. He got in a fight with a local promoter in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, leading to the promoter (Dave Streckor) being hit with a beer bottle and needing 30 stitches. Sharkey spent the night in prison and was charged with felonious assault and attempted extortion, while his story is he was standing up for his guys when the promoter tried to screw them.
- More on Lawler’s claim of gimmick infringement by Harley Race. Dave saw a news piece where WWF was ordered to drop the gimmick on May 20 because Lawler claims to hold exclusive rights to the name “The King of Wrestling” and this infringes on Lawler’s registered trademark. A Memphis judge signed a temporary restraining order on WWF prohibiting them from promoting Race as the “King of Wrestling” and prohibiting Race from wearing a crown or cape at any wrestling event in Tennessee. Nashville and Memphis arenas are also enjoined not to disburse ticket income to WWF until the court can calculate monetary damages due to Lawler. Dave guesses this only applies to Tennessee, since WWF is still promoting Race as the King.
- Rumors still fly that Verne Gagne is trying to make a national thing with Jerry Jarrett (Tennessee), Don Owen (Oregon), Bob Geigel (Central States/Kansas City), and Ron Fuller (Alabama). The story Dave has is that Gagne’s AWA and Jarrett’s CWA will merge in September with the other groups coming on board in early October and that WGN in Chicago and the Chicago Tribune Company are behind this. There’s a whole lot of bizarre stuff in this story - that the goal is a “scripted” tv show focusing more on entertainment than athletics with Jimmy Snuka and Curt Hennig as featured performers, that they’ve made big money offers of $1 million per year to Ric Flair and the Road Warriors (turned don, naturally), that they’ll be getting a lot of talent to jump from Crockett and McMahon. Dave is highly skeptical and reminds that tales of big money backers and promotional cooperation almost never materialize, and also these promoters have had their business go down the toilet in recent years because they couldn’t figure out how to adapt, so clearly putting them all together’s going to fix things. Dave will keep us posted on the rumors until when/if this gets off the ground.
- WWF notes on Junkyard Dog and Billy Graham. JYD is on 90 day probation - if he can make it without any unexcused missed bookings he has a job and maybe a decent push as the token black babyface. If he misses a show without prior notice, he’s gone and won’t be asked back. As for Billy Graham, they’ve been doing comeback segments complete with showing footage of his hip replacement surgery. Dave’s loved the segments, though he’d rather not watch the operation, and thinks Graham will get over great, though he wasn’t a great worker before the artificial hip so that’s probably not going to change. The template has been laid for HHH’s return vignettes following his quad surgery in 2001.
- Uncle Elmer/Stan Frazier has started a new promotion in Mississippi. Showing great originality, he’s named it Mid-South Wrestling and he billed himself for the first show as WWF World Superheavyweight champion. His son, Chris, debuted andis believe it or not, a pretty-boy type of babyface. He’s super green.
- [Florida] Kevin Sullivan is still lost in time. He demanded this week a match against world champion Dusty Rhodes and was confused when told Ric Flair was the champ. He’s wearing a lot of makeup to look like he’s not slept in weeks, and it looks like this might lead toward a face turn for Sullivan.**
- Bruiser Brody has cut down his booking with WCCW to about once every other week. “This territory is left with almost nothing.”
- Brian Peters, a 25-year old trainee of the Hart Dungeon who was set to debut last week, was killed by a shotgun blast on May 21 in Calgary. The shooter has been charged with murder. Peters was considered one of the best prospects of recent Dungeon trainees.
- [JWP] Shinobu Kandori made her comeback on May 27 in Korauken Hall in front of 1800 fans and beat Miss A. Her next match is June 1 against Lola Gonzales. Meanwhile, Jackie Sato & Harley Saito & Sochi Hamada (Xochitil Hamada, daughter of El Gran Hamada and older sister of Ayako Hamada) did a double count out finish on the show against Gonzales, Nancy Kumi, and Vicki Caranza.
- UWF lost a June 23 date in Albuquerque set up with a big card featuring Flair vs. Windham, Steve Williams vs. Dick Murdoch and a whole bunch of other big matches. Somebody never told the state commission, and the commission instead approved a June 16 WWF date and with some behind the scenes magic involving promises of the Hulkster, WWF has blocked UWF out until July 31.
- Dave points out some issues with UWF’s tv production on their recent show. First, the Steve Williams vs. Eddie Gilbert match didn’t come off well. There were two major focal point spots in the match: Williams knocking himself out by running into the ringpost (which leads to Gilbert controlling most of the match) and Williams making his comeback. Both of those happened during ad breaks. Second, they had Brad Armstrong and Tim Horner win the tag belts from Rick Steiner and Sting. It was a good match, great in the arena, but didn’t work on tv because they announced the title change two weeks earlier on tv. Makes the viewer feel like they’re watching dead material.
- Manny Fernandez’s no-shows this past week turned out to be due to a family illness. He’ll be back soon.
- Dave thinks there might be a connection between Florida rookie Johnny Ace and Johnny Weaver. Weaver’s first ring name was Johnny Ace, and Ace uses Weaver’s sleeper to finish matches. And he’s allowed to win matches, unlike other rookies in Crockett’s stable. Gordon Solie makes a big deal about his charisma (what he needs is a charisma transfusion). He’s a good looking kid like Ricky Morton, but 8 inches taller. He’s pretty good considering his experience level. Makes sense, he’s got that people power.
- Hisako Uno (Akira Hokuto) suffered a neck injury from a top rope tombstone delivered by Yumi Ogura on April 27. She may be forced to retire, but definitely won’t return until 1988. Ogura’s not going to be doing that move in the future.