July 06, 1987
- This is such a slow week there isn’t really even a top story. The closest thing is what’s going on in New Japan, which for the first two weeks of June was the hottest promotion going, but they’ve since dropped the angles they were looking toward (Choshu vs. Fujinami, as well as Choshu’s army vs. the UWF army) and instead grouped Fujinami and Choshu together. And now Fujiwara and Seiji Sakaguchi have made their own group in all of this. Nothing about what’s happening in New Japan makes any sense to Dave, and at surface level it looks like Inoki’s ego is wrecking everything - if Choshu wrestled Fujinami or Maeda, Inoki would be pushed too far down the card and into the background for his comfort level. The likely quality of those matches over an Inoki-Choshu match would also raise the question of whether Inoki is too old (he’s 44) and calls for him to step aside. But now all the young guys are together in a group and Inoki is the clear star on the old guys’ team (if only WCW would learn from this when they made the New Blood).
- Terry Taylor and New Breed injury updates. Taylor had 6 inches of small intestine and 4 inches of large intestine and his appendix removed and has a 9-inch scar. He’s already announced for the July 25 Bash in Philadelphia, which seems really soon but “wrestlers do have amazing recuperative powers.” On the New Breed’s accident, their car hydroplaned and they were thrown through the windshield and cut up badly. Then the car exploded. Had they been wearing seatbelts, they wouldn’t have gotten out of the car in time to avoid the explosion.
- Ted DiBiase’s debut vignettes have begun airing. He’s going to be getting a huge push, and already some of the WWF guys are bitter about it. Dave doesn’t get why - it’s not like DiBiase can’t work or talk. Take note of his muscular chauffeur, Virgil, who will certainly be living the American Dream. Come August DiBiase will be tossing a few hundred dollars out into the crowd at matches and should get over big. Dave’s been told the new character is one part Ric Flair (rich playboy) and one part Vince McMahon (genuinely believing everyone has a price and you can buy anything).
- Here’s the deal with how the Midnight Rockers got fired from WWF. After the Duggan and Sheik incident, the powers that be gave a speech about it and warned the guys that sort of behavior wouldn’t be tolerated. Well, after the Rochester house show, the Rockers publicly behaved as if that didn’t apply to them. Turns out it did. Speaking of Sheik, after his year probation if he keeps his nose clean the cocaine possession charge will be expunged from the record. As for Duggan, his case hasn’t been resolved yet, but he expects to be back with WWF when it’s all blown over.
- Also on the outs with WWF is Jim Barnett. Barnett recently attempted suicide, and the word Dave has is that he tried to make some sort of power play within WWF that didn’t work shortly before this. Where he’ll turn up in the future is an unknown.
- Just an extremely minor note I’m remembering to include: in the Billionaire Ted skits in 1996 the Hulk Hogan parody is called The Huckster. That’s something Vince ripped from 80s issues of the Observer. I bring this up because the Hogan and Race match from the last MSG show caught my attention. Highest rated match on the card (3 stars, all for Race, Dave says), and Dave calls Hogan the Huckster. There really is nothing going on in this issue, so I have to find something to talk about for you.
- Badnews Allen might be the original cool heel over in Stampede. On June 5 he wrestled Mr. Hito and absolutely annihilated him, then wouldn’t stop and attacked Keiichi Yamada (who tried to make the save) and just beat the shit out of him too. Allen got cheered through all of this up until Owen Hart came out and cleared the ring. Anyway, this was all to set up the main event angle where Allen interfered in Hart’s North American Title defense and brutalized Hart to the point where he was written off the next show on June 12 (really so he could take a vacation in Hawaii). Speaking of Stampede, All Japan is sending John Tenta to Stampede to learn American style before he returns in October.
- Paul E. Dangerly has been fired from Memphis. He and Tommy Rich are both gone after the June 23 card in Louisville which was headlined by a tag team double scaffold match (Lawler and Bill Dundee vs. Rich and Austin Idol). The scaffolds were separated by three feet of air. Well, so far Dave's (incorrect) information currently is that Rich didn’t show up so Dangerly went up the scaffold and down and was then fired following a confrontation with Lawler.
- Watch: Lawler and Dundee vs. Rich and Idol, double scaffold match
- Dave’s area no longer gets UWF tv, so he’ll be about a week behind on them going forward. Speaking of them, Dave’s having second thoughts about if Steve Williams is actually a good choice for a world champion. He’s a phenomenally good wrestler, and all signs are pointing toward a title change on July 11, but it’s just that when he opens his mouth…
- Dave also has some concerns about UWF’s production process. They referred to Barry Windham as Western States Champion on the most recent episode Dave saw, and Windham did win the title in the tournament in Houston on June 20. But this episode was taped June 11. It’s great that they planned everything out (forethought is a really great thing to have when doing any kind of narrative, kids), but what if Windham had gotten in a car accident between those shows? Or injured some other way? As we’ve seen recently, that’s not a terribly remote possibility for wrestlers.
- JCP/NWA has Flair booked in tag title matches for the Bash tour. Dave is confused what sense it makes to have Flair challenge for tag titles, when it’s well established that you can’t hold two titles at the same time (see Ron Garvin giving up the Mid Atlantic belt when he won the tag titles). And Ric’s sure as hell not going to give up the World title.
- WWF did an unannounced drug test on the wrestlers on June 23. Dave isn’t sure what to think yet. On the one hand, wrestling has a huge drug problem and anything promotions can do to avoid a scandal of it is fine by him. At the same time, he finds it just a tad hypocritical considering how blatant WWF is about encouraging steroid use.
- WCCW’s fall continues unabated - on June 22 Lance Von Erich no-showed his scheduled return match from elbow surgery, so Kerry was sent out to make what he called “the most embarrassing announcement of my career.” In the ring he said “William Vaughn, who you know as our cousin Lance Von Erich, isn’t here tonight because he chickened out of a match with Brian Adias.” Of course, Lance’s real name is Kevin Vaugn, not William Vaughn. And he never agreed to appear in the first place because he signed on with David Manning, who’s trying to start a new promotion in Dallas with Lance as the top star. So Fritz is trying to bury Lance. And Dave guesses if Manning’s promotion ever gets off the ground Lance will use the name Lance Vaughn, though if Manning wants to use Lance as his top star it won’t ever get very far off the ground at all.
- In other Von Erich news, Kerry’s surgeons said there’s no hope for him returning to the ring and there’s a Von Erich autobiography scheduled for a Christmas release. Kerry and Fritz are said to be devastated by the doctors’ prognosis, though on TV they’re acting like he’ll be back any week. Dave expects gimmicks to keep him involved, but it’s all very pathetic. As for the autobiography, Dave hears the book will be mostly about religion and not really touch on wrestling. Someone who knows more about it than Dave has told him it’s basically fiction.
- The rumor with AWA this week is that Verne Gagne, Ray Stevens, and Wahoo McDaniel are going to open an office in San Francisco and leave the AWA to Greg Gagne.
- According to Japanese Wrestling Journal, the entire situation in New Japan is a public airing of a power play behind the scenes to take control of the company from Inoki. They announced some shows on June 23 with matches, but then Choshu, Fujinami, Kimura, and Maeda showed up at a press conference and said they wouldn’t show up for the tour unless the cards were changed to meet their demands. They want the main event matches to be singles matches among themselves and to have tag matches with Choshu/Super Strong Machine, Maeda/Takada, and Fujinami/Kimura as teams in three headline feuds. There was also a secret meeting on June 20 between Fujinami and Tenryu. Basically, all the young talent frustrated by being in the shadow of Inoki and Baba are apparently making moves to gain control of Japanese wrestling. If Tenryu does join up with Choshu and the others, there’s a strong belief that the young guys will split from New Japan and start their own promotion. The fireworks are only beginning.