Wrestling Observer Rewinder

August 10, 1987

”It’s unusual when the result of a match is the top story of the week, but it isn’t everyday [sic] that Bruiser Brody gets pinned. Brody went down for the three count on July 27 against Abdullah the Butcher in Fort Worth. It’s the first time he’s been pinned in nearly seven years (fans today would be dying if Roman Reigns or Okada, or Becky Lynch or someone went almost seven years between being pinned). Dave figures this streak is probably one of the longest of its kind in wrestling history. The match was a cage match with no disqualifications and Abby’s Brass Knuckles championship at stake. For the finish, Brody had Abby pinned, but Gary Hart got on the apron and Brody fought with him through the cage, which allowed Abby to hit him with a foreign object to the throat to get the pin. Dave figures this must be setting up another cage match in the future at a big show - maybe the Labor Day show in Fort Worth.
Going off that, there are only four wrestlers active today who are in a position where they do no jobs at all: The Road Warriors, Hogan, and Riki Choshu. Hogan’s last job (a submission in the middle of the ring) was 5½ years ago to Antonio Inoki (who had a five year streak of his own until this past June, when he took the fall in a tag match to Masa Saito). Choshu’s last job was three years ago and to Inoki as well. The Road Warriors did their last job just under two years ago, losing the AWA tag belts to Jim Garvin and Steve Regal (to clarify, AWA’s Steve Regal is not a real man’s man). Andre, surprisingly, did his last job before Wrestlemania only ten months earlier, also submitting to Inoki in June 1986. Andre’s last job before that was in February 1984 when El Canek pinned him in Mexico City, and that was the first job Andre did since getting pinned by Inoki about six years previous. For contrast, Ric Flair’s last job was against Dusty Rhodes (pinfall) a few weeks ago in Greensboro, and he’s also lost falls in tag matches but isn’t doing that anymore, it seems.
Corrections - Dave had some errors regarding Houston last week, including some names he erroneously said were coming in to WWF. First, August 28 will indeed be Paul Boesch’s last card at Sam Houston Coliseum, but they aren’t (yet - next week this changes) advertising the show as Boesch’s retirement. You’d think they’d make a big deal of him, since he’s been a fixture of Houston wrestling for almost 40 years, but no. Anyway, several of the wrestlers coming to work that show are being booked as independent workers, not being brought into the WWF as part of the roster, and that means Tom Prichard, Mark Lewin, and Jim Duggan are only scheduled for this show. Tony Atlas is being brought in for this show as well. There are no plans whatsoever, Dave’s told, to bring Duggan back. Notable matches will include Hogan vs. One Man Gang, Sherri vs. Moolah, Duggan vs. DiBiase, Bruno vs. Hercules Hernandez, and Beefcake vs. Johnny V in a hair match. With the update on Duggan, Dave thinks it’s a major mistake if Crockett doesn’t hire him ASAP. Negative press has blown over and he has a huge following in UWF cities and is now known nationally thanks to his short WWF run.
[WWF] Dave really hates Mr. T. “In 1986, when Mr. T nearly single-handedly made a travesty out of Wrestlemania II, there were many of us who thought that pro wrestling would be rid of this egomaniacal idiot. Thankfully, it took 15 months before Titan forgot that in almost every city, the fans cheared its No. 1 heel, Roddy Piper, instead of this supposed media-made face and that the card was hardly a box-office success.” Tell us how you really feel, Dave. Mr. T has been back as a referee for WWF for two weeks, and while Dave can’t say he’s been an anti-draw, it’s clear he’s not putting asses in seats and now even WWF can see it. His return to WWF a couple weeks ago in Toronto drew 6000 fans, which sounds good except it’s the lowest they’ve drawn in Toronto in years (the card was weak, so Dave can’t blame T for that). Dave goes through attendance numbers and every show except the July 24 Baltimore show had him refereeing Savage vs. Honkytonk and the crowd being well below average. So once this tour is done, that should put an end to Mr. T’s time in wrestling. At the same time, it raises big questions on Savage’s ability to draw as a babyface, though that probably shouldn’t be judged until he makes his official return.
WWF’s MSG show on July 25 was a big success, drawing 18,100 paid and $221k at the gate. Ricky Steamboat main evented against Honkytonk, and it’s the biggest crowd and gate for WWF since Wrestlemania. Dave will have a complete report next week.
On wrestlers in Hollywood, Roddy Piper has just started or is about to start filming his third movie in Rome. It's titled Buy and Cell and stars Robert Carradine. Lou Albano is doing a movie with a bunch of no-names called Complex World, and Pat Roach (an English wrestling star from the 70s) is in a movie directed by Ron Howard called Willow. Roach has a regular role in the tv show Robin Hood as well. Dave figures Piper’s continued steady work in Hollywood means time to return to wrestling and do anything meaningful is limited, if he even wants to come back.
Watch: Buy and Cell trailer
[JCP/NWA] July 31 saw the Great American Bash tour end with a bang. An announced crowd of 17,251 (probably around 16,000 in reality) and probably a record gate for wrestling at the Orange Bowl. Barry Windham did an amazing carry job with a guy called Incubus who is absolutely terrible, but with Windham was able to have an almost average match. Kevin Sullivan and Dory Funk had a Texas Death Match that Sullivan won when Funk couldn’t answer the ten count and then they had a post-match brawl that went nearly as long as the match. Both bled buckets and it was good. WarGames 2 gets five stars from Dave. Everybody bled except Ellering and Luger, and Blanchard had the performance of the match. Bubba wound up submitting after six straight clotheslines.
Watch: Partial raw footage of WarGames 2
[WCCW] The biggest surprise of the week is that Fritz Von Erich told the truth for once. The first time he ever told the truth was pretty funny - he said that telling the truth makes him look even stupider than if he had lied. Anyway, on the Ask Fritz segment of their tv show this past week, he answered a question about whether Lance Von Erich was really his nephew and said “I believe the boy’s real name is William Vaughn and he is in no way related to us and he can’t use that name anymore because I copyrighted it.” Dave finds it incredibly stupid, but also notes that it’s no coincidence he said this on the same weekend that Lance made his tv debut for Wild West Wrestling. And of course, no Von Erich coverage would be complete without noting how shitty a dad Fritz is, so another letter asked Fritz if his son Chris (currently a senior in high school) will go to college. Fritz’s answer amounted to something along the lines of how that would be “nice, but Chris already knows what he wants to do.”
It looks like WWF is planning a greater emphasis on women’s wrestling in the next few months now that Sherri Martel is in and champion (you might even call it a revolution). After a few (Dave prays for very few) rematches, maybe Moolah will even retire. She did hit Social Security collection age on July 21, after all. Dave’s heard that Devil Masami might be in for a tour soon and the Jumping Bomb Angels will return in the fall after having a very successful tour with WWF. They had the best match of the show on virtually every card they appeared on (not as big a compliment as it sounds, Dave notes). Additionally, Olympia from GLOW is training to wrestle for WWF and Les Thornton in Calgary has several prospective young women in his current class. The Crush Gals will not be brought in, though, as the WWF office thinks they look too boyish. Dave would have something negative to say about that except he’s gotten innumerable comments saying that the JB Angels “are so much better looking than those Crush Girls they had in last year.”
Watch: The Crush Gals in their WWF tour from 1986
[WWF] Andre the Giant had back surgery more than a week ago. It’s uncertain if he’ll wrestle again, but what does seem certain is that he probably won’t be back any earlier than the winter.
[WWF] Tito Santana will be taking Tom Zenk’s place as Rick Martel’s tag partner. They’ll get a new name, something like Attack Squad or Strike Force (Dave got it right with the second one).
[WWF] Chief Jay Strongbow was hospitalized earlier this week for heart issues.
[Stampede] The Viet Congs have broken up. They lost the International tag titles to Brian Pillman and Bruce Hart on the July 24 show. Hart pinned Cong #2 (Shinji Sasazaki, who had knee surgery after the match). Sasazaki attacked Cong #1 (Hiroshi Hase) after the match, and another guy in a Viet Cong Express outfit attacked Hase as well. They referred to him as Viet Cong #3 and he was unmasked as Gama Singh. They unmasked Hase, who kept his face covered, and Keiichi Yamada ran in to make the save. Yamada teamed with Owen Hart against Gama and Mukham Singh in the main event, which saw Jerry Morrow interfere by low-bridging Yamada and piledriving him on the floor twice before all three heels ganged up on Hart, leading to Hase unmaked making the save. So for the July 31 show we have Hase/Yamada/Hart vs. the Singhs and Morrow.
The North American Wrestling Association out of Edmonton is not out of business, Dave was wrong about that last week. Dave Schults and Johnny Rods walked out on the promotion, but the Western Canadians are still working. They start tv in two weeks, and Dave got a copy of their tape early and he says it is the best wrestling program on the market today.
Making her pro debut for Wild West Wrestling on August 18 will be Robin Smith. She’s Jake Roberts and Sam Houston’s sister.
Kevin Von Erich’s two year old child was run over in an accident last weekend ago and is now out of critical condition. That same weekend, Kerry, his wife, his baby, and brother Chris were in a boat accident. Kerry crashed into a dam and all were thrown into the water. No serious problems, but Chris needed ten stitches for a cut on his head.
Adrian Adonis has arrived in AWA, managed by Paul E. Dangerously (who now uses a mobile phone as a gimmick). Adonis is still doing the gay act. His weight has ballooned and he’s said to weigh over 350 lbs now.
The only other major change in AWA are the return of Jerry Blackwell and that Madusa Maceli has replaced Sherri Martel as Kevin Kelly’s valet. If they can find another woman to work there, they’ll probably give her the AWA Women’s Title too. Dave says if she ever learns she has the potential to be an effective valet, but she’s green and really only has looks and the ability to act arrogant right now. And she’s trying to be Sherri Martel, which is not going to work for someone so green.
[Florida] Terry Funk appeared on the July 29 tv taping in Tampa during a Mike Rotunda Florida Title defense against Dory Funk. He attacked Rotunda with a branding iron and then Dory stole the belt and they did some off the wall promos.
[JCP/NWA] They’ve fired Dark Journey. Part of it was simple business, part of it was personality conflicts. Suffice to say, she never got much of a reaction in Crockett country and the booking idea of pairing Tully with a black valet for heat just didn’t work. Dave’s heard two stories - she’s either going to California and opening a shop of some kind or going to Texas to work with Ken Mantell’s Wild West promotion if she stays in the business. Spoiler alert: this is Dark Journey’s goodbye to wrestling. She’s going to California, where she’ll manage a clothing shop for a while before getting licensed as a massage therapist and also doing “colon hydrotherapy” and working as a naturopath in the L.A. area today.
Letters this week are all over the place. One is fantasy booking an angle where Vince brings in Hector Guerrero (who’s still doing a spaceman gimmick in Crockett) to face Hogan, with a whole elaborate angle (featuring Hogan attacked by aliens, Howard Finkel abducted and held hostage, Hogan refusing to negotiate with terrorists, and a stipulation that if Hogan loses Finkel will be disintegrated live on tv) that leads to proving that even Hector can be dragged down to a lousy match and beat with the leg drop.
The other big letter in this issue takes issue with Inoki’s ego. The writer cannot believe they tossed aside the angles they set up just to keep Inoki in the main event, and calls him a “slimmer version of Virgil Rhodes.
Otherwise the letters mostly focus on awards thoughts, one asking Dave to give up the disparaging nicknames like Junkfood Dog and Outhouse Jack, and one taking exception to Dave not naming names on WWF’s drug testing. That last writer feels that the readers of the Observer “should be entitled to this information” after the first test and that Dave is wrong for not wanting to print the names of drug suspensions. A final writer, who went to the Chicago Bash show, wonders about if all the blood in wrestling might be a vector for AIDS transmission and feels some caution must be taken.
The Midnight Rockers are wrestling at the August 8 WFIA convention against Doug Somers and Ken Timbs. There’s no word yet on where they’ll land, but Crockett already has Morton and Gibson, while WWF doesn’t seem to want them and AWA definitely won’t want them back. Looks like their prospects are pretty dried up.
UWF commissioner John Ayres signed a contract to play this season with the Denver Broncos.