Wrestling Observer Rewinder

September 07, 1987

”If everyone in this business was like Paul Boesch, this would be the greatest business in the world.” -- Jerry Brisco from the book Professional Wrestling (not published) by Ray Tennenbaum. That’s how Dave introduces this issue and begins his coverage of the Paul Boesch farewell show. The show had a sellout crowd of 10,000 at Houston Coliseum, and WWF brought in dozens of notable wrestling figures to Houston to attend the show. Among the big names were Lou Thesz, Gene Kiniski, Verne Gagne, Jose Lothario, Ernie Lad, Tiger Conway Sr., Red Bastien, Billy “Red” Lyons, Jack Tunney, Sputnik Monrow, Bronko Lubich, Boris Malenko, Nick and Jerry Kozak, Cyclone Anaya, Mike Mazurski, Danny McShane, Stu Hart, Jesse James, Jim Casey, Ox Anderson, Pat Patterson, and more. Tiger Conway Sr, Cyclone Anaya, and Danny McShane in particular all got huge reactions for their appearances. The show had an appropriate dose of nostalgia that the crowd enjoyed as much as the matches, and the whole thing had the look and feel of a big event and therefore came across as the big event it was. Vice President George Bush sent a telegram to Boesch to congratulate him on his 55 year tenure in the wrestling industry. More on the show itself later in the issue.
Dave’s been to a lot of WWF and JCP/NWA shows the past few weeks, and the promotions seem almost like night and day to him. They’re different enough that Dave thinks they probably aren’t really competing for the same audience in the way many people believe, but rather that they attract entirely different types of people. Their live shows have different atmosphere and production, and the things Dave likes and dislikes about each promotion are more obvious to him now than ever. In terms of matches, while WWF has some great wrestlers (Ted DiBiase for instance) and JCP has some lousy ones (Bugsy McGraw, for instance), by and large the more intense, less botchy, more competently executed matches on average belong to the wrestlers in JCP. Dave was surprised how many wrestlers, even though their pace was much slower than JCP’s standard, blew up after five minutes at the Boesch farewell show, which suggests that there’s a significant lag in cardio for WWF.
Otherwise, WWF has numerous obvious advantages. The way they present shows, whether they’re a small spot show, a tv taping, or a big show like the Boesch farewell always comes across as major league. They have a better behaved, though “for the most part ignorant of the wrestling aspect” crowd. All of that combined with the more upbeat atmosphere makes them much more attractive to a person who is coming to watch wrestling for the first time. Dave went to three WWF shows this past week. One was a small spot show that had almost no bumps and nearly no high spots, but the crowd reacted because they were invested in personalities and it was even fun for Dave because of that until a disastrous Hart Foundation/Rougeaus match. He went to the Aug 24 tv tapings in San Francisco, and that was a bad show (Dave’s already gotten dozens of letters and phone calls about it) where the crowd of 14,700 were drained by the third hour. Most of them had come for Hogan and had not realized three tv shows and an MTV video were being taped, so they felt used. The Boesch farewell, by contrast, came off well and the crowd enjoyed it quite a lot. Even though the matches were not great, what Dave did figure out is that since they were taping for tv in some capacity, the wrestlers worked hard. That said, it shows that even when they put in the work, the average WWF wrestler just isn’t of the same caliber in the ring as the competition.
WWF’s tv production gets a whole big paragraph about what makes it great. Dave isn’t sure what they spend per taping, but wouldn’t be surprised if the figure exceeds $100,000. The quality of the production means that from a casual fan perspective it’s simply leagues better than the competition because it has the glitz, the timing on entrances, interview insets and other distractions from bad matches, short matches that keep attention to the entrance, and overall production value to cover over the weaknesses. Between better presentation and better marketing, it’s no wonder WWF is number one by a large margin. The fact is quite simply, with some notable exceptions of markets that were hot for high-action wrestling), match quality does not bring fans back. What brings fans back is an upbeat atmosphere and WWF is great at having an upbeat atmosphere - it’s more important to have the faces stand tall than to have tons of great matches.
Dave’s overall conclusion is that when you consider WWF and Crockett outside the areas where they have that initial territorial advantage (so outside Georgia, New England, the Mid-Atlantic states), Crockett has greater appeal than WWF to people like Dave and the readers of the Observer and one other group. That is, hardcore fans who want action and those who like a little more sleaze in their entertainment. Dave’s accepted blading and the resultant scarred foreheads as just part of the business (like knee injuries to football, elbow and shoulder issues to baseball, etc.) after being around wrestling and a fan for so long, but to the general audience that sort of thing comes across as a bit sleazy. And with AIDS in the picture today, it seems very dangerous if the wrestling industry isn’t implementing AIDS testing. One of Dave’s friends who is a huge JCP fan and hates WWF even noted to him that between the constant swearing and flipping off of fans which is done by the faces even more than the heels (because the faces in JCP get sidetracked hard when the fans cheer for the heels over them), too much blading, Space Mountain, Dusty Rhodes, and the women’s match where it just built to Misty Blue ramming a flagpole up Mad Dog Debbie’s crotch it’s just not the sort of thing Dave or his friend would let their kids watch. And all those antics get a great reaction from the live show and there’s a big audience that loves that stuff, but it just reads as bad to the general public and keeps wrestling’s reputation in the dungheap. If both promotions were running a big show with equivalent lineups on the same day in San Francisco, Dave would pick the Crockett show because he wants good wrestling over good atmosphere, but he would be in the minority - WWF would draw a bigger crowd guaranteed. What has been keeping Crockett successful in the face of WWF’s advantages, Dave believes, is the better wrestling, not the sleaze.
Dave does some plugs for other newsletters, and particularly commends Pro Wrestling Digest. He’s friends with the guys who put it together, and it’s mostly discussion/opinion on the current scene rather than news and results, but it’s really interesting reading and Dave says the most recent issue was more interesting than any other newsletter he’s seen including the Observer. Part of the credit for that goes to the fact that they’ve got five people putting their views in, whereas most newsletters only have the one.
The Paul Boesch farewell show is in the books. We’re still before the era of having multiple ppv shows, so I’ve got to work a little to find times to say that about shows and keep the tradition alive. The opener was good for WWF as Sam Houston beat Steve Lombardi. It was a bit of a mismatch - Houston loves bumping wildly, but Lombardi’s offense doesn’t really allow for that. Bruno beat Hercules Hernandez, and Bruno’s still got a good flurry of punches, but unless you grew up in the northeast, he just seems like a slow old man to crowds. Andre the Giant came out and the crowd booed him, so he stormed to the back. He’s looking slimmer and in much better shape since his operation. Dave hears he’ll be back in action in about three months. Brutus Beefcake beat Johnny V in a hair match and they shaved Johnny V bald, which was the only part that got heat. Ted DiBiase brought a kid out to sing “Yellow Rose of Texas” after giving a promo insulting Houston’s economy, then refused to pay the kid the $300 he promised. Ted’s routine was the best part of the show. Tom Prichard beat Mark Lewin in a short match that was all action but didn’t invest the crowd. Hogan beat One Man Gang in his typical match, deafening reaction. Dave gives the match 3 stars which puts it at match of the show. Sherri Martel beat Moolah in a match where, believe it or not, Moolah actually looked real good even though, for some reason, she was playing babyface. They fucked up the finish and Moolah wound up just laying down and telling Sherri to cover her. JYD (and Dave reveals that his poll on whether to keep nicknames were 117-19 in favor of keeping him as Junkfood Dog) and Tony Atlas (managed by Ernie Ladd) beat Kamala and Sika in four minutes. JYD blew up over the 90 seconds he was in the match. Kamala tried to leap frog JYD, but JYD forgot to duck and Kamala nearly killed him as a result. Terry Funk beat Chavo Guerrero, and Funk even kicked out of Chavo’s swan dive from the top. They introduced all the retired wrestlers. Thesz and Kiniski were introduced as former world champions, but Gagne was not. Boesch gave a retirement speech. Ted DiBiase beat Jim Duggan and it was good, but more bad luck for Duggan. He hasn’t wrestled in three months and looked like he was around 310 lbs, and he blew up faster than expected. DiBiase helped him through, but then Duggan’s hamstring went out and DiBiase had to go to the finish. You could see Duggan’s pain clearly and it was the first time the crowd had ever seen Duggan pinned clean, so they were shocked. Tito Santana and Mil Mascaras (managed by Jose Lothario) beat Demolition by DQ. Great pace, but botchy because Mascaras doesn’t work well with others. Mr. Fuji tripped Satana and got Demolition disqualified, but they botched that too as the spot was supposed to be 90 seconds earlier when Santana did a stumble off the rope with no Fuji around him to have tripped him.
UWF’s Night of Champions from August 29 in Houston is also in the books. Misty Blue beat Comrade Orga in a bad match that ultimately led to Misty (who was billed as defending the NWA World Women’s Title) crotching Mad Dog Debbie with a pole as mentioned above. Shane Douglas beat Pez Whatley with an inside cradle to retain the UWF TV Title. Ron Simmons beat the Enforcer with a flying tackle off the middle rope. Simmons lost his footing and more fell than flew into the tackle. Steve Cox beat Gary Young with an inside cradle to win the rookie of the year trophy. Lots of missed moves, mainly by Cox, but he’s also only been working for six months. Brad Armstrong and Tim Horner beat Black Bart and The Terminator (Mark Laurinaitis, brother of Johnny Ace and Road Warrior Animal) to retain the UWF Tag Titles. Horner dropkicked Terminator from the top rope all the way to the other side of the ring where Terminator was standing by the ropes. Terry Taylor beat Chris Adams. Taylor still gets lots of cheers from women in the crowd, and the match was all action and superb action at that. Four stars from Dave. Steve Williams retained the UWF Title against Big Bubba Rogers. Sting downed Eddie Gilbert in a Texas Death match. They both bled, Sting bleeding real bad. There was a ref bump, interference, and when the ref came to both men were down so the ref declared that whoever found their feet first was the winner. Dusty Rhodes beat Lex Luger (spelled Lugar on his robe) by DQ in a US Title match. They had Lex at 268 and Dusty at 265 which is just laughable. JJ Dillon interfered just before Luger would have lost to the sleeper. The Rock & Roll Express retained the NWA Tag Titles against Blanchard and Anderson in another excellent match. Ricky Morton was particularly impressive, doing all kinds of new moves he’s never done including a flying headscissors into a Mexican rollup. Four stars from Dave for this match too. Ric Flair pinned Barry Windham, and it was great but they recycled the finish from the same building in June when Flair beat Michael Hayes (the end of the sequence saw Flair and opponent collide, with Flair falling on top for the pin) which pissed a lot of fans off. Four stars from Dave for this one too, despite the finish looking stupid.
Wrestlemania 4 will not be at the Silverdome due to a conflict with the NCAA. The regional playoffs will be there that same day, so where Wrestlemania will be is up in the air.
Silverline Comics has inked an agreement with Big John Studd. They’ll be doing a full-color monthly adventure-wrestling series and a Big John Studd graphic novel in June. Studd will be portrayed as a 6’11” babyface wrestler who freelances as an undercover investigator.
WWF finally did the Bam Bam debut thing with the surprise twist of rejecting Slick and bringing out Sir Oliver Humperdink as his manager on the August 25 Superstars tapings in Fresno. They did a grudge match later in the taping against Nikolai Volkoff (managed by Slick) where Bigelow squashed Volkoff.
Watch: Bam Bam Bigelow debuts in WWF
WWF taped lots of videos for MTV this week, including Koko B. Ware lip synching the song Piledriver at the Cow Palace and getting booed heavily during the taping. They’ll probably sweeten the crowd to get it to sound okay on tape. Most of the arena were booing, but about 200 fans right up front were bouncing like it was a rock concert. Not a lot know this, but Koko used to sing in a four-part black gospel band and he supposedly has a fairly good singing voice.
Watch: Piledriver, the music video
Dave runs down WWF’s San Francisco tv tapings from August 26. Rip Oliver debuted, but half the crowd was buying snacks. Match would have been okay with any heat. DiBiase wasn’t over at all here, but wrestling against Lanny Poffo didn’t help. Dave gives Killer Khan vs. Darrell Nickel -3 stars. Nickel couldn’t even walk. Seeing Ric Rude up close, Dave corrects himself that Rude’s physique does look better than Hercules’s does. He also thinks Rude will do better than he had expected in WWF, but doesn’t see him going beyond the level Hercules is at.
[JCP/NWA] Paul Jones is bringing in a new wrestler next week. Dave believes it will be Steve Disalvo. Good on interviews, potential to be a decent name, but bad in ring.
[JCP/NWA] Starrcade has officially been announced for Chicago on Thanksgiving, and will be available on national ppv. Remember that last bit as we get closer to November. Chicago was probably picked to make it look more major league to suits, but Dave thinks it would probably be more impressive to suits if they had a show that sold out with a $380,000 live gate.
The reason why there’s no more Crockett content on Pro Wrestling this Week is because Jim Crockett pulled the plug. Pro Wrestling this Week joined up with Dave McLane’s POWW and the AWA to make a joint advertising network like Vince’s WWF network and Crockett’s Wrestling network (that is, their syndicated packages). To Crockett, that was PWTW declaring direct competition against Crockett for advertising, so he’s pulled the tapes.
Jim Barnett is now working for Crockett out of the Dallas office.
[Florida] Kevin Sullivan now enters the ring on a motorcycle. What an American badass.
[AWA] Larry Nelson’s heart attack was actually an ulcer attack. Similar symptoms to a heart attack. Anyway, he’s back now.
[AWA] Madusa Miceli is managing Nick Kiniski and Kevin Kelly now. She’s still green at the ringside role, but she’s getting good heat.
There’s talks of George Cannon helping AWA by promoting them out of Toronto with what’s left of the Montreal territory. That may be just talks at this point. It may be nothing.
UWF will be debuting tv in New York on Saturdays at noon starting on September 19. Since it’s New York, they’re going to include all the big JCP guys (Road Warriors, Dusty, Horsemen, etc.) in addition to the main UWF guys (Williams, Gilbert, Taylor, Windham, etc.). They’re also going to have tv again on channel 36 in San Jose, in an 11 pm Saturday slot.
New Japan’s latest tour opened with a crowd of 1840 at Korauken Hall on August 24. With Kimura needing knee surgery, Masa Saito’s green card problems, and Inoki pulling a muscle on August 20, they were all out for the show and they had to change the card. Riki Choshu/Akira Maeda/Osamu Kido beat Seiji Sakaguchi/Yoshiaki Fujiwara/Kantaro Hoshino in the main event, and FujinamiMurdoch went to a double countout. Mutoh and Keiichi Yamada beat Mark Rocco (former Black Tiger) and Owen Hart with Mutoh pinning Rocco (so Owen didn’t have to do the job on his first match in).
I’ve kind of avoided bringing this in yet, because it’s only been lightly alluded to and never actually described in the Newsletter, but there’s been a trickle of letters and even the occasional comment by Dave about Ric Flair and Precious. For the Great American Bash tour, Crockett promoted a Flair/Garvin match where if Flair won he’d win the services of Precious, and we got a really, really off the wall Ric Flair promo involving a mannequin and Flair “practicing” for his dream date with Precious. This is one of the inciting incidents behind letters asking about whether Crockett is appropriate for children and if this is hurting their ability to expand their audience. Anyway, we have another letter in this issue (by one of the editors of Pro Wrestling Digest) touching on the Flair/Precious skit and bringing up that it really helps WWF/Hogan because what parent is going to want to watch two self-professed sex fiends fight over a woman when they can see Hogan and the All-American image he presents. Dave responds by noting that properly promoted wrestling can hit a lot of demographics, and it’s just bad business to completely alienate a demographic. It may be impossible to please everyone, but that’s no excuse. When wrestling gets hot, it’s the kids and teenage audience that grows most because they’re most easily swayed into getting on board with what’s hot. So Dave doesn’t think wrestling should be G rated and Mickey Mouse, but it’s also a clear mistake to go R rated and do stuff that’ll make parents turn off the tv or not bring their kids because of poor taste. Also, next issue of Pro Wrestling Digest is going to have a big article on AIDS and wrestling that will stir controversy. I’ll see about tracking it down and adding it as a supplement to a future issue.
Watch: Flair practices for Precious and Flair’s dream date with “Precious”
Another letter asks what Dusty must have been thinking when booking WarGames 2. Paul Ellering is a manager. Why not have him submit to Flair? Then again, having the manager submit to the world champion heel must be unconscionable to Dusty. Sure, Big Bubba Rogers was under a mask as War Machine, but everyone knew it was him. So what must Steve Williams be wondering about what being UWF Champion really means? Also, the Crockett shows in Stockton are good because Eddie Gilbert’s booking those.
Ted DiBiase won’t be returning to Japan for at least two years, so All Japan has officially vacated the PWF World Tag Titles. Hansen and Dick Slater will go against Jumbo Tsuruta and Tiger Mask II to decide the new champions.
Also in All Japan, they did a neat feud thing on August 21 involving Great Kabuki, Genichiro Tenryu, and Toshiaki Kawada. Kabuki and Tsuruta teamed against Ashura Hara and Tenryu, with Kabuki misting Tenryu before the match even started. So then he and Tsuruta beat up their opponents until Kawada (who’s just a prelim guy) comes out to help Tenryu. Samson Fuyuki runs out to even things up and they made a six-man match out of it, and Tsuruta pinned Kawada. Then Tenryu got mad at Kawada for losing the match and kicked him off the team and told him to go back to Tsuruta’s dressing room. When Kawada arrived, Tsuruta and Kabuki wouldn’t let him in, so now Kawada has no friends and is on his own.
New Japan’s tv will move from Tursday nights to Monday nights in just a few weeks. Choshu is still banned from wrestling on tv and there’s no end to that situation in sight.
JWP continues to fall apart. Jackie Sato has now quit, joining Shinobu Kandori, Xochitl Hamada, Estelle Molina, Gran Hamada (trainer and promoter), and Nancy Kimi as major recent departures. They’re certainly experiencing financial problems, and they never got a tv deal, so they were pretty doomed from the get-go. They’re pushing Rumi Kazama as the major star and the new front office has signed a deal for Rumi Kazama comics in Japan. She’s a very small girl who got some fame from martial arts movies and delivers kicks like Sayama does.
The Road Warriors and Michael Hayes have both signed long-term contracts with JCP. The Road Warriors should now get a big push and used better and more regularly in the process. Terry Gordy has not signed, because he doesn’t want to give up his Japan commitments.
Thanksgiving should be interesting, because in addition to Crockett doing Starrcade it’s looking like WWF also has some big plans. Dave’s speculating, but he wouldn’t be surprised to see an Andre-Hogan rematch booked to take eyes from Starrcade. Crockett has three venues booked for Thanksgiving: the Pavilion in Chicago, Greensboro, and the Superdome. This right here and the bit earlier about Crockett getting ppv for Starrcade is the beginning of one of the most significant stories of the year and the birth of Survivor Series.