June 22, 1987
- We’re two weeks away from July, and that means Crockett is in heavy hype mode for the Great American Bash tour. The big angle is Dusty Rhodes vs. Tully Blanchard following their June 6 match in Greensboro. Dusty won that match, but after the three J.J. Dillon stole the $100,000 while Blanchard got his foot on the rope. Referee Tommy Young saw the foot after Rhodes chased down Dillon, and then ordered the match restarted, and Rhodes was counted out while he was in the parking lot. So this year’s tour figures to be a good one for you if you’re a Dusty fan, because he’s going to main event nearly every show in a cage or a barbed wire match against Blanchard. If you aren’t a Dusty fan, July might be a good time for a break, because Dusty is someone they’ve centered everything around. Every promo from last Saturday’s show (with the exception of Jim Cornette’s promo) focused on Rhodes and making him the sympathetic center of attention. They’ve even been putting in Dusty and Flair clips on the UWF shows, and Dave’s sure that Rhodes will eventually put himself at the center of everything in UWF, just like he did with Florida.
- Dave figures, based on the cards available to him, that July 18 in Charlotte and July 19 in Chicago will probably be the best shows of the tour, with the edge going to Charlotte (should have over 20,000 fans and Chicago will be the second show of the day, following one in Roanoke, so some of the guys could be tired or possibly late). Charlotte is scheduled with Rhodes vs. Blanchard in a Lights Out barbed wire ladder match for $100,000 as the main event. Chicago will also have a barbed wire match between Rhodes and Blanchard for the main, as well as Flair defending the NWA title against Road Warrior Animal. Dave gives credit to Crockett for not repeating last year’s mistakes (ticket prices were too high, they overestimated how big a venue they could sell out, and they tried too hard to mix country music and wrestling which plays well in North Carolina but not as well elsewhere).
- I really hate to go on-and-on about Fritz, because he’s not worth the space, but this TV show where he starts on his “World’s greatest father” act is hard to take. Forget about the fact that Ray Charles could have seen Mike’s downfall. Forget about it being totally obvious that Kevin has no interest in what’s going on when he’s in the ring. The question I want answered is--If your own son had his ankle and foot nearly destroyed, would you push him to return to the business that was responsible for the death of two of his brothers? If Kerry Von Erich (and this goes for Magnum T.A. although at least in his case, he’s going to be the one who decides when and if he can return) can return and be as good as he was, than [sic] he deserves all the credit and praise in the world. If he can return and even be an average performer, he deserves lots of credit. But I keep remembering back to the last 90 seconds of his match in February with Brian Adias, when the novacain or whatever wore off, and he was left helpless, limping on one leg trying to work a match. The thought of watching someone who at one time was a great athlete, having to do that because of parental pressure is so sad. It’s even sadder when it’s a family that doesn’t need the money. If he puts his mending leg on the line simply to be a younger version of Ox Baker, then I can’t even think of words to describe my feelings about a father who wouldn’t try and stop his son from doing it; worse yet, encourage it.
- Terry Taylor was seriously injured in a car accident on June 11. He was traveling with Eddie Gilbert and Missy Hyatt and a car pulled out in front and side swiped them. Hyatt and Gilbert were shaken up, but Taylor’s abdominal muscles were severed and he had to have surgery to remove part of his intestine. It’ll be anywhere from two to four months before he’s back in the ring, and it’s a terrible time for him because he just became one of the hottest heels around.
- WWF has some big angle planned for the late summer/early fall. Dave’s not sure what it is, but he’s guessing something like Hogan/Andre matches at baseball stadiums with Mr. T as a referee. Mr. T is still a hot commodity, so he’s pretty sure they’re going to build something with him as a referee. They’ve booked Exhibition Stadium in Toronto for August (I’m guessing that might be canceled later, as it’s nowhere on cagematch) and Dave can’t think of what else they could do to pack it, so he’s guessing it has to be Hogan/Andre.
- Miscellaneous WWF updates: Steamboat’s sabbatical should be about 6 months, so he’ll be back in 1988. Jake Roberts is expected back in the ring by the end of July, so while he’s recovering he’s been touring and being in different guys’ corners as they take his place in matches. Harley Race tore some ligaments in his knee and missed this past week. Freddie Blassie is “easing back into wrestling.” Dave doubts he’s going to take an active role in front of a camera, but rather just be a good-will ambassador. Dave gives -1½ stars to Billy Jack Haynes vs. Danny Davis at the June 7 Sacramento house show because “how else can you rate an 8:00 match when they never touched until 7:35 and on the second move, Hernandez interfered for the dq.” Also Leilani Kai and Judy Martin are being billed as world tag team champions to defend against the Jumping Bomb Angels in July.
- Due to Lawler’s lawsuit, WWF has changed their billing of Harley Race. Rather than Harley “The King” Race, he is now “King Harley Race.”
- Madison Square Garden will be “torn down” and replaced in 1991. Just gonna be some big renovations, Dave.
- In Florida, Mike Rotunda is champion again after beating Dory Funk on June 7. They’re also mentioning Terry Funk a lot, so he’ll probably be teaming with Dory against Dusty Rhodes and Kevin Sullivan at the Orange Bowl what with Sullivan’s hinting that he’ll help Rhodes against the Four Horsemen.
- Dave plugs a new newsletter that’s started up: Pro Wrestling Digest. The price is $1.75 and it’s put together by some guys Dave met at the first Crockett Cup. One of them is an ex-wrestler, so Dave hopes that his negativity about things will be dismissed by saying “he’s just a mark” like some of Dave’s detractors in the business tend to do to him.
- In Oregon, rookie Art Barr is looking really good. Art is the son of Sandy Barr and brother of Jimmy Jack Funk.
- AWA is really testing viewers’ patience. Their June 12 Denver show had two title matches promised, but neither title wound up defended. The Russians were to defend the tag titles against D.J. Peterson and Jimmy Snuka, but Snuka no-showed. Peterson got beat up a lot until Wahoo McDaniel came and made the save, got added to the match, and the babyfaces won. But since that wasn’t the scheduled match, no title change. Curt Hennig was supposed to defend against Greg Gagne, but before the match he said he didn’t feel like defending, so it was non-title. Also, the reason the Rockers left is they were repeatedly promised guaranteed contracts but it never happened.
- JCP has a new match idea scheduled for July 4 at the Omni called “The Match Beyond. Two teams: Road Warriors & Dusty & Nikita & Paul Ellering vs. The Four Horsemen & J.J. Dillon. Two rings, one cage with a roof covering both rings. Two men start for five minutes, then the team that wins a coin toss (the heels) get to put a man in for two minutes before the second face enters, repeat until all five are in after 21 minutes and then someone can actually win. From the 21 minute mark, they go on until one person surrenders (Dave firmly expects it to be Dillon surrendering to Dusty). It’s a unique gimmick, but fans it Atlanta are a bit disappointed, as they were hoping for a new match-up rather than a new gimmick match. WARGAMES!
- Here's Dusty Rhodes talking about the creation of WarGames
- [WCCW] Dingo Warrior is still billed as Texas State champion. When he left in April, they declared the title vacant, but now that he’s back they’ve quietly forgotten about it. Dingo’s trying new moves, but they don’t look good yet. He won a battle royal and will be facing Kevin Von Erich when Kevin returns from Japan.
- Red Bastien is promoting tough man contests in California. They’re drawing decent crowds.
- Someone writes in about the Duggan/Sheik firing saying it proves Vince McMahon thinks the U.S. Constitution is a work. He then explains that Duggan and Sheik fraternizing has nothing to do with it, it’s just the drugs, and some other stuff (and constantly uses Sheik’s shoot name because of course he does). Dave patiently explains that pro wrestling isn’t a sport, it’s entertainment, and that it’s about marketing and that while the drugs partially limit WWF’s ability to market the Duggan character they have been selling fans on, getting caught with Sheik was the bigger hindrance to WWF’s ability to market him. Dave thinks this sucks for Duggan and Sheik and may not have been entirely fair to them, but time and again McMahon has been more than fair to wrestlers in the majority of cases when it comes to drugs. He’s given a lot more second chances than Dave would have - but those wrestlers didn’t have their issues aired in public in the way Duggan and Sheik did, which kept their stories from reaching the kids who idolize them and the parents who want athletes to be role models. Wrestling is lucky that nobody with an axe to grind against the industry has tied together the names of guys who died of drugs or went to rehab and made public. But promoters and wrestlers should be aware of that possibility.
- Another letter from Chicago notes that the tv viewing demographic for wrestling in the area is 28% black, but in attendance at events that number is around 2%. He wonders about the discrepancy and thinks that it might be down to the lack of promoting a major star who’s black. He’s rooting for Ron Simmons or Bill Tabb to be that guy and “correct years of past injustice that even an old white southerner like me can see.” Dave thinks that having black wrestlers who don’t play demeaning sterotypes is a part of it, but getting past that is going to require having more black promoters and bookers.
- Francisco Flores, founder and promoter of UWA in Mexico, died on May 8.