Wrestling Observer Rewinder

September 21, 1987

Dave is annoyed because on WTBS Crockett did that thing that always annoys Dave: fuck up when airing taped footage. They were hyping a match between Arn Anderson and Barry Windham for the Western States Title on Saturday’s show, and they even had Arn do an interview in studio about how he was going to win the title. So far, all good. Missy Hyatt and David Crockett come out and talk about the match. Missy predicts a title change. All good, she’s a heel and it’s her job to do that. Then they showed the match. And it was taped earlier in the week in an arena. It was a bit of a disappointing match on its own merits, and it went to a draw. Now you have a problem. The issue is that they obviously cut to taped footage but had Arn in studio talking about the match like it was yet to happen. Dave Crockett and Tony Schiavone were both in studio, and they did the commentary on this taped match. It takes just one brain cell to have figured out it was taped, so why have Arn come out and talk about winning or Missy predict a change when the match was already done? They could at least have pretended the match was live and they were getting a feed from the arena, but that would involve not having Arn in studio doing that promo and they botched that up too. This is the kind of stuff that frustrates Dave the most, it seems.
Tired of hearing about Survivor Series and Starrcade? We’re not getting off that train for another eight weeks. Starrcade hype has begun on tv this weekend and should get everyone interested. Dave is guessing they’ll formally announce the Pavillion in Chicago as the venue this Sunday at the NWA show there. Those in Greensboro who already know are not pleased, but Dave’s curious about the more general feeling there. There will be a live show that night with several arena matches and a live closed-circuit of Starrcade at the Pavillion (just like the closed-circuit feed there from the Omni the previous two years), so maybe it’s not as big a deal as Dave thinks. Dave is confident that Crockett will be able to hype it up enough to be very successful on pay-per-view and closed circuit, though how much it’ll be affected by Survivor Series (from the Richmond Coliseum) airing on ppv the same day is to be determined [Rewinder: hahahahaha]. The first almost certain match to happen will be a TV Title unification between Nikita Koloff (NWA TV Champ) and Terry Taylor (UWF TV Champ). Dave expects Andre/Hogan 2 still for Survivor series. On the one hand, Wrestlemania is such a juggernaut already that WWF takes off the week before and several weeks following the show because everything they do is pointed toward that show. Survivor Series, even with Hogan/Andre, simply can’t do that level of business, Dave thinks. On the other hand, it should definitely be profitable. Whether Crockett turns out profitable with Starrcade is another question. Dave does note that last year’s Wrestling Classic, WWF’s only other attempt to do a ppv outside Wrestlemania, was a total bomb (in terms of money, Dave thought it was very good as a show) that killed a deal they’d struck to do bi-monthly ppv events. The Wrestling Classic wasn’t given the hype of Wrestlemania or Starrcade which was probably the biggest reason it failed. Crockett’s wrestlers may not be as over to a general audience as Hogan or Andre, but that doesn’t mean Starrcade won’t be successful, especially since they have lots of tv time in nearly every major tv market and can use it to get the hype train rolling. Given the different audiences they appeal to, Starrcade may be hurt a little by Survivor Series airing the same day [Rewinder again: HAHAHAHAHAHA], but maybe there will be bigger media publicity if the media plays up the fact that there’s a choice. But that’s unlikely. Dave’s gut says if Wrestlemania got to 515,000 homes (8.5% of available ppv market), both WWF and JCP should get around 3-5 percent of available market. Assuming $15 for a viewing (Dave thinks it’d be a mistake to charge $20 for a ppv as the public will not see either show as being worth spending what they spent for Wrestlemania), that’s probably a national audience of between 180,000-300,000 viewers buying the ppv per company (Dave expects Crockett to do around 3.5% and WWF may get around 5% of available homes) and you do the math on what that might total and how profitable these shows might be.
And while we’re looking ahead, Wrestlemania IV is being planned as a big media bash like the Super Bowl. WWF plans to run events at the live site (site likely to be announced by the end of the year) for a week leading up to the show, including media parties, sponsor parties, and a 10k run which WWF says will include some of the wrestlers. And so the idea of what Wrestlemania is today has begun. Wrestlemania IV will take place on March 27, 1988.
WWF-related tidbits: King Kong Bundy will be in a multi-million dollar ad campaign for Vendex Pacific’s Headstart system and Easy Does It peripheral computers. Looks like the doll market has bottomed out, because WWF wrestling figures (the LJN line, specifically) are being sold below cost across the country. They were big sellers in the 1985 Christmas season. And Gene Okerlund’s son Todd is part of the U.S. Olympic hockey team that’s currently on tour.
Watch: Head Start Computer make King Kong Bundy smart
Ken Patera and Masahiro Saito have all remaining legal troubles stemming from the incident that got them put in prison settled on September 5. The two had brawled with officers Jacalyn Hibbard, who suffered a broken leg in the fight, and John Dillon. Hibbard will receive $25,000 and Dillon will receive $5,000. Hibbard’s injuries forced her to retire from the police force, and she and Dillon had sued for $1.2 million in amages. Patera and Saito are also on the hook for $35,000 in attorney fees for the officers, and Employers Insurance of Wasau will receive $30,000 of the total $95,000 settlement. On the two counts of battery to police officers and other crimes, Patera and Saito were both convicted and each served roughly 18 months in prison before being released in December. Patera is now touring with WWF, though inactive due to his elbow injury. Saito is still in the U.S., apparently to settle out this case, before he can return to Japan later this year.
[WWF] Billy Graham and George Steele failed the New York State Athletic Commission’s physical. Graham failed due to his artificial hip. Dave thinks the commission may have been inspired to examine the health of wrestlers a little closer than before following the death of British wrestler King Kong Kirk of a heart attack a few weeks back. Graham and Steele are of similar age to Kirk, who died at the age of 51, so it seems somewhat reasonable.
[WWF] Bruno Sammartino won’t be wrestling for the next few weeks either. He’s been working a nearly full schedule the past few months, so it’s mainly recuperative. Dave doesn’t know it yet, but Bruno has already wrestled his last WWF match.
[WWF] Koko B. Ware missed several matches recently with an eye injury. No word on how serious that is yet.
Terry Gordy and Chris Adams can be added to Buddy Roberts as having left UWF. Michael Hayes is sticking around, but Dave wouldn’t be surprised if he worked out of the Charlotte area instead of UWF going forward.
The Sheepherders debuted in UWF on September 9, with Johnny Ace as their flag waver. Looks like the whole face turn they were working on for him in Florida has just been abandoned. He’ll probably wind up a face down the line, but it’s not likely to be any time soon now that he’s in a new area.
Michael Hayes did color commentary with Jim Ross on the September 9 UWF taping and is back in the top 10 rankings in UWF. There was apparently legitimate heat on Hayes’s part about none of the Freebirds being in the top 10. He also did two interviews explaining why the Freebirds broke up and that Gordy and Roberts are gone.
Dave puts over New Japan as being the best promotion in the world and having the best television too. He says the quality of their wrestlers is so high it means there’s no comparison right now. Is this 1987, or 2017, Dave?
[NJPW] Keiichi Yamada (he’s still a few years from being Liger yet) beat Mark Rocco of England with the “shooting star” move. It’s one of the wildest finishers Dave’s ever seen Yamada comes off the ropes looking like he’s going to land on his back on his opponent, but does a complete flip and lands in a forward splash. Yamada’s been teaming with Keiji Mutoh, who does a different kind of flip splash (that’s a moonsault, Dave), and they finish by each hitting their opponents with their finishers and it looks really cool.
Owen Hart still hasn’t appeared on television for New Japan yet.
[NJPW] When Masa Saito comes back next month, rather than teaming with Inoki he’ll be feuding with him. Inoki’s gotta make sure anyone coming in with heat is his enemy and that he’s the guy everybody’s chasing. Bizarre as it is, the strategy may even be working, because Weekly Pro Wrestling did a poll recently where Inoki won best wrestler in the world even though he didn’t place in the top 5 for most popular for the first time in years (the top 5 were Choshu, Tenryu, Chigusa Nagayo, Mutoh, and Kazuo Yamazaki). On the top 5 foreigners list you have Bam Bam Bigelow at the top with more than double the votes of the second place Road Warriors, Buzz Sawyer, Leilani Kai, and Dick Murdoch. Stan Hansen has been number one or two for the past several years, so that’s a big hit in popularity there for him.
[All Japan] Tenryu and Ashura Hara are the new PWF Tag champions. They beat Stan Hansen and Austin Idol by countout on September 3. Ted DiBiase vacated his half of the tag belts when he left All Japan, so Hansen picked Austin Idol as a replacement partner. Idol isn’t regarded well in Japan because he only knows a few moves and so relies a lot on punches, but Japanese style is to only sell for wrestling moves and not for punches so fans think he sucks. Tenryu is getting over big as a heel (yes, he’s the second most popular wrestler in Japan, but Japanese fans appreciate good heels and cheer for them, something catching on in the U.S. with guys like Flair and Savage), and after the match he threw down the belt and said he wasn’t happy because the match was terrible and they only had one opponent (Hansen). Way to bury Idol.
[AJW] The Jumping Bomb Angels are looking even more impressive here after coming back from working their WWF tour. It seems they got a big confidence boost from the time in the States. Before the tour, they were always looked at as beneath Chigusa Nagayo or the other popular wrestlers, so even though they were well-liked, they were not breaking through in any way. Now that they’ve done a tour with WWF, they seem to be thinking they’re hot stuff and it’s translating well. They work the crowd better now, and they control the flow of their matches better now too rather than let their opponents set the pace.
[AJW] Angie Minelli, in as Leilani Kai’s tag partner on this tour, is way out of her depth. She just does not have the ability to keep up in the world of joshi wrestling and really should go home. Leilani Kai is one of the very few Americans working today who can go into an AJW ring and keep up.
[Alabama] Jerry Lawler was being announced as coming in. He’s not anymore.
[Memphis] Downtown Bruno, Alan West, and Mark Starr are all gone. Bruno is heading to Central States, West hoping to sign with AWA, and Starr (New Breed member Chris Champion’s brother) “is departed for an unknown destination, perhaps to the year 2002.” I have no idea what the hell Dave’s joke there is supposed to mean.
[Memphis] On September 7 they had a special card called the “Wheel of Torture.” Among the punishments for match losers were things like getting poked with a cattle prod, tarred and feathered, or having to eat dog food. And for the first time in several years for a major card anywhere, all the matches were won by heels.
Watch: Wheel of Torture
[JCP/NWA] The Four Horsemen are the first American group to get over like Choshu’s Army in 1983-84 as heels who are cheered by a large portion of the audience. Dave compares Arn and Tully to Yatsu and Animal Hamaguchi - solid workers who aren’t major stars on their own but are very good as part of a larger group. Flair is the Choshu analogue. Flair’s a better worker, but Choshu’s more popular. That makes Luger the Killer Khan, with the difference being Luger’s got nicer hair in exchange for Khan being a better worker.
Someone writes in with a lot of info about the pilot episode Roddy Piper shot earlier this year. The pilot is for a show called “The Highwayman.” From what the writer understands, Piper is playing a cop going undercover as a trucker (Piper actually turns out only to be a guest star in this episode and plays a preacher). There was a rumor a while back that Brandon Tartikoff wanted to give Piper a prime-time series. No way to know if this is it, but it could be. We also get some early info about the plot of Buy and Cell. David Carradine’s character is a stock broker who gets framed for a crime and thrown in jail, then teaches the inmates how to make big money buying and selling stocks. Piper’s got a pretty big role in it.
Dr. Ken Leistner, who Dave describes as one of the leading authorities on strength training today, writes in about a poor experience with an AWA show. He was visiting in-laws a few weeks back and his local station in New York advertised an AWA show in Wabash, Indiana for August 26, so he called the chamber of commerce and learned where the show was to be held, called the venue for ticket info, confirmed date and time and such and was told day of the show that there should be no difficulty purchasing tickets at the door. So he and his son drove 80 minutes and arrived to an irate crowd. Turns out the promoters never showed up to set up the facility, hadn’t called the venue, and just no-showed entirely so the show got canceled because nobody showed up to even put on a show. This is the kind of thing that causes wrestling to come off second rate to non-fans, and it’s all too common.
Dave continues giving thoughts on his favorites for the various awards. Dave thinks Flair is the clear top pick for Most Outstanding Wrestler. His number two pick is Nobuhiko Takada. Takada’s got more impressive offense, does more moves, and works more realistically, but Flair sells better, carries better, has better psychology, and works a harder schedule. He debated between Owen Hart, Bobby Eaton, and Barry Windham for number three and went with Windham because of consistency of having great matches. For Best Flying Wrestler, Dave thinks Owen is the definite number 1 with his variety and frequency of pulling off cool moves, Bobby Eaton is second, and then Keiichi Yamada because his superplex is absolutely nuts. Biggest Shock of the year is tough because nothing has really shocked Dave this year. Honkeytonk winning the Intercontinental Title is probably the winner there - things like Choshu jumping, Wrestlemania’s success, UWF selling to crockett, even Mike Von Erich’s death weren’t terribly surprising to Dave. Worst Gimmick Performer is kind of open, but Adrian Adonis, Ninja Jimmy Bush in World Class, Brickhouse Brown as an intellectual all come to mind. Dave goes on a bit of a tangent here on a gimmick he just doesn’t like: heel referees. Having referees who are heels just ruins the credibility of a promotion for Dave.
[Deep South] They did an angle where Ranger Ross and C.W. Style brawled with the Nightmares and it was sick. One of the Nightmares (I guess? Dave just says masked guys and clarifies that this is not the same duo from Continental, so I’m assuming he means the Nightmares here) pulled out Styles’ glass eye and it rolled around on the mat.
The scoop on Survivor Series at present is that Hogan and Andre will each captain a team. They’ll probably have matches from the teams then. Dave isn’t sure of how it will work yet, but he’s imagining a format like what New Japan does with two teams of five guys: “let’s say Hogan picks Savage, Orndorff, Patera and Billy Jack and Andre picks Bundy, Rude, Race and Hercules. Each guy puts down a line-up card and let’s say it opens with Race vs. Billy Jack and Race wins, then he faces the second guy on Hogan’s team, let’s say Savage, and if Savage wins, he faces the second guy on Andre’s team, etc. until all members of one team lose.” Dave thinks it will depend on the lineup, but this is something that has been very successful in Japan and it’s very exciting, but he thinks there’s a chance that it’s too abstract to pop a big buy rate for WWF. Dave’s not sure that’s how it’ll work, or if they’ll do a normal card and just have the team concept spread throughout the matches as feeding the Hogan/Andre feud. And the answer will turn out to be neither.
Jim Duggan made a surprise appearance at the September 13 WWF show at Nassau Coliseum and beat Danny Davis. He’s back.