November 23, 1987
- With all the major promotions running Thanksgiving, there’s an illusion of choice for viewers. Of course, there aren’t choices for most of the public. Even so, the promotions are getting into it as if there is one. The Mega Powers and Sam Houston’s theme (the Midnight Rider theme) are both WWF taking a dig at Crockett, while Manny Fernandez is making comments with clear anti-Dusty subtext in Memphis. Dave’s not going to try to speculate or predict what comes out of any promotion for Thanksgiving, but he does note a couple things. WWF has never produced a major spectacular with a heel winning the main event. Crockett has. That said, if they want to build a Hogan/Andre rematch for Wrestlemania, it would make sense to have Andre go over here. The trick is hiding Andre’s physical problems, because if the viewership catches on to those, it could ruin Wrestlemania. That’s unlikely to happen, but it’s possible, and that’s the risk of building heavily around a guy who probably shouldn’t be categorized as an active wrestler these days.
- Starrcade clarification: they’ve announced Wilbur vs. Ivan Koloff, but that’s a preliminary match at one of the other sites and won’t air for the closed-circuit audience. The announcement has confused some people, and Dave’s not sure how they could have not seen confusion being the result. Tickets for Chicago have nearly sold out, by the way, and now it looks like they could probably have gotten a bigger venue and sold out rather than going with the Pavillion, even with the earlier start time. They’ve also opened the Aragon and Regal theaters in Chicago as closed-circuit locations for those who can’t attend the live card.
- New Japan’s Japan Cup tournament started on November 9 and they ran two major angles at the start of the tournament. The first was an injury angle to Fujiwara, leaving Inoki with no partner. Before the end of the show, Inoki asked Dick Murdoch to be his partner (so you can probably expect Inoki/Murdoch vs. Choshu/Saito in the finals). Murdoch was originally to team with Scott Hall, but now Hall will team with Sakaguchi. The bigger story, however, is Choshu and Saito wrestled Fujinami and Kimura, with Kimura pinning Choshu in the biggest upset of the year in Japan. Fujinami and Kimura at present lead the tournament with 10 points, with Keiji Mutoh and Nobuhiko Takada in second with 9 points.
- WWF taped Saturday Night’s Main Event for November 28 in Seattle on November 11. They sold out 16,000 at the Seattle Center Arena, and Jesse Ventura did color instead of Heenan. The matches don’t sound that hot, unfortunately. Probable airing matches include Ted DiBiase over Hillbilly Jim in three minutes with a clothesline. The heat it did get came from Ted insulting Brian Bosworth and getting the crowd behind Bosworth more than they were for Hogan later in the night. Randy Savage beat Bret Hart in what’s said to be the best match on the card, a 15 minute match full of Bret working the ankle and Savage making the comeback after the commercial to win with a small package. Bam Bam pinned Hercules. This match had a double countout at three minutes, then after the commercial they restarted the match and Bigelow pinned Herc with a slingshot. Harley Race and Jim Duggan went to a disqualification of some kind (some confusion over the exact result), with Duggan not looking great. Bundy beat Hogan via countout and Hogan has now suffered his first national tv loss since becoming the big star. Andre did some interference and got sent away, and Heenan eventually held Hogan’s leg to keep him out of the ring. Word is only Hogan and Savage’s matches had any heat, so they’ll definitely need to sweeten the sound. The next Saturday Night’s Main Event will be taped December 7 for a January 2 air date, with a Hogan/Bundy rematch headlining.
- Dave reviews Crockett’s November 9 San Francisco show. They drew just under 2,000 for a $25,000 gate. It was their first show in the area in four months and had both Flair and the Road Warriors, so that has to be a disappointment. Nothing to write home about this one. The only good matches were Nikita Koloff vs. Eddie Gilbert (“basically a good match” at 2.75 stars), Barry Windham vs. Larry Zbyszko (3 stars), and Ric Flair and Lex Luger vs. Ron and Jimmy Garvin (3.5 stars). Ron Simmons vs. Black Bart got -1 star. Between his physique and his background, Ron Simmons should be a superstar, but Dave questions that whenever he sees him live because Simmons just hasn’t been improving from where he was when he started over a year ago. Bart stalling out the entire 11 minute match just made things worse. Overall, Flair saved the show and made it good, but the card itself was bad otherwise. Crockett next returns in February because they don’t think they can come back any time sooner and actually draw. So there won’t be a Bunkhouse Stampede show, which would have been an easy $60,000+ gate. San Francisco is the only city left where battle royals are sure draws (AWA is doing a show next Saturday that’ll prove that, Dave says, but he’s going to be very wrong on that front), but Dave’s pessimistic about Crockett even drawing 2000 next time.
- TV ratings are down a lot for Crockett, and that’s worse news than the recent bad houses and unrest among some of the bigger name talent. Neilsen’s weekly syndication reports of the top 15 syndicated networks saw Crockett drop out of the listings entirely very quick. The Wrestling Network had consistently been holding around number 7 and peaked at number 4, and now it’s out of the top 15 and even behind number 14-ranked All-Star Wrestling Network (which includes POWW, Pro Wrestling This Week, and AWA). Crockett’s package is on 200 stations, while All-Star’s package hits a combined 123 stations, so having fewer viewers than them has to be a bit of an embarrassment. All told, the ratings for Crockett’s package have dropped about 40% in two months, all leading up to their biggest show of the year and November sweeps. The timing could not be worse, and Crockett had bought UWF primarily to improve the tv network. The results speak for themselves, though and it’s clear Crockett will lose affiliates if the ratings don’t make a big turnaround. Crockett’s got affiliates in every major market except Boston, so that should illustrate the state of the numbers. WWF probably earns $13-15 million per year off television, and buying UWF was Crockett’s gambit to be getting into that level of business. But viewers are sending a clear message, and tv ratings are the most important barometer in this day and age for determining public interest in a promotion. Live gates being down can be explained by a lot of things (unwanted matches, bad economy, competition, etc.), but if tv ratings are down it says people are turned off by the product itself. With all current plans, nothing can be done until after Thanksgiving, because Starrcade is already planned and it’s too late to throw out a last-minute big angle. Unless a lot of things happen that bring fans back into the arenas, though, 1988 could be a rough year for Crockett (that it will be). Dave hopes they don’t look at Starrcade and their show at Nassau Coliseum, which should both do well, and think they’ve just solved things.
- AWA also has bad news, which includes lots of shows being canceled. As of Dave’s most recent report, only two shows are booked for December, which is traditionally one of the best months for wrestling in the midwest, so something is really wrong. The wrestlers who don’t have weekly guarantees are going to be hit real hard and won’t be able to survive the month. Lots of stories about guys quitting, coming back, quitting, and whatnot. Tommy Rich is gone, D.J. Peterson has given notice, Steve DiSalvo left after one night, Jerry Blackwell is gone, and there are three more uncertain (one of which is probably Ray Stevens, who is scheduled for WWF’s old timers’ battle royal). The San Francisco show on Saturday should answer some of the questions on who’s staying and who’s going. Some are talking about coming in, but that won’t be until 1988 at least, as it looks like there’s no money to be made in December. The big story for AWA on that front, and it makes sense for both, is that the Midnight Rockers are negotiating a return in January. Guess January being when hell freezes over was obvious in hindsight, as that’s when they were supposed to return.
- Let’s hope 1988 is a year that turns things around for wrestling, because the negativity isn’t fun.
- WCCW’s Von Erichs Over America tour opened on November 7. With the amount of advertising Bum Bright and his people have poured in, you have to figure they’re disappointed by gates of $4,000 on November 7 and $16,000 on November 11. They’re handling the booking, advertising, and paying wrestlers around $200 per show guaranteed.
- In Memphis they did some interesting stuff with Jeff Jarrett and Jimmy Jack Funk this week. Last week Funk stole Jarrett’s title after their match, and Eddie Marlin (Jarrett’s grandfather) came out and ordered Funk to return the belt. Well, Funk hit both Marlin and Jarrett with the belt, then tried to hang him with a noose. When he threw it up around the lights, he wound up losing the whole rope and someone (Dave thinks Bobby Jaggers) had to throw him another rope from off camera to try again. Anyway, Marlin broke things up and Funk beat him up more, and Marlin suspended Funk but Jarrett begged them not to suspend him because he wanted to beat Funk up at the next show. That sounds like a classic, simple angle right there to me.
- No major update on Steve Estes’s court date on his robbery charges. He did plead innocent on a misdemeanor charge of writing bad checks (for our younger readers, checks are a slip of paper you used before debit cards were a thing). His trial begins in early December sometime.
- Aileen Eaton, former boxing promoter at Olympic Auditorium and mother of Mike and Gene Lebelle, passed away about a week ago.
- The November 8 Crockett show at the Omni is really only notable for what they’re doing with Ric Flair. Flair’s match was called a “workout”, as originally Flair and Ron Garvin were scheduled for a non-title match but instead fans were to be treated to “pre-Starrcade workouts” in handicap matches against jobbers. Garvin won his match against the Gladiators. Flair’s workout was a handicap match against Kendall Windham and Italian Stallion. Flair dominated Stallion and sold heavy for Windham, and the match wound up with an Arn Anderson run-in finishing things up. Ric Flair isn’t even being given clean wins against jobbers, if that tells you anything about this company.
- After just a day in the AWA, Steve DiSalvo returned to Stampede on November 6. He has the potential to be one of the better heels in the business, as he has both the muscularity of Don Muraco and can carry himself with the most arrogance and condescension of any human alive. But he’s not a good worker, and absolutely whollopped Biff Wellington with one of the stiffest clotheslines Dave has ever seen in his debut match on October 24.
- WWF injury updates: Ted DiBiase is 100% and back in action. Billy Jack Haynes collapsed November 6 after his match at Nassau due to dehydration and potassium deficiency. He didn’t miss any matches but Ken Patera had to carry him in tag matches over the weekend and he’s now loading up on bananas to get his potassium up.
- Bob Orton got detained by customs on his way back to the States from Calgary after the November 8 show. He missed several shows as a result.
- Nothing much from All Japan this week, but more details on their tag tournament to come next week. Those details are mostly just some results, so again, not much detail there.
- [Oregon] Steve Doll and Scott Peterson won the Pacific Northwest tag titles on November 7. They’re dressing like the Midnight Rockers and calling themselves the Southern Rockers now.
- WWF’s old-timers’ battle royal has now gained Gino Brito, Ray Stevens, and The Crusher. Expect a full report on that show next issue.
- A letter asks for clarification on the Midnight Express, since there are a couple different versions, and Dave gives the rundown on what and who and why there are so many Midnight Expresses. Short version, Dennis Condrey, Randy Rose, and Norvell Austin were the original team as a three-man group in Southeastern (now Continental) Championship Wrestling (Alabama territory) in the early 80s. Condrey and Bobby Eaton got together in 1983 as the Midnight Express for Mid-South (later UWF) and then went to WCCW in 1984 and JCP in 1985. Condrey left the team in March and Stan Lane replaced him. Then Condrey resurfaced with Randy Rose and Paul E. Dangerously in the AWA a few months back. NWA never trademarked the name, so nobody has any grounds to sue anyone over use. Also Dangerously’s real name is Paul Heyman, and he used to edit Wrestling Power and Double Action Wrestling, and was an associate editor of Norm Keitzer’s Wrestling News.
- Dave also clarifies his position on Dusty Rhodes in response to another letter about him. Dave has nothing against Dusty being a star. Dusty has charisma in spades and can cut a promo like nobody else. But Dave has a lot against Dusty being the star, since he doesn’t appeal widely enough and he likes to hold back those who threaten his position. Put simply, it’s easy to get fans to cheer a face and boo a heel, since they’ve already paid and fans like to play along. Jimmy Valiant and George Steele get cheers, but they don’t draw. Dusty pushes himself as the star, so he gets big cheers because audiences see him as the star, but his appeal is closer to a George Steele than a Hulk Hogan. Pushing Dusty as the main face of Crockett’s promotion holds back pushing someone who could sell more tickets and help keep the promotion alive. Marks hated The Sheik, loved Dick the Bruiser, and loved the Von Erichs, but those guys also ran off other fans and killed their territories because they couldn’t gain the wide appeal that a promotion needs to thrive. When you have limited appeal as a promotion, your only audience is marks and hardcore fans, and to be majorly appealing you have to reach the average person, not just marks and hardcores.
- Dave finally finishes his run-downs of Award favorites, and says he’ll include a complete list of categories next issue, and will begin accepting ballots. For Best Technical Wrestler, Dave gives it all to Japan, as Fujiwara, Maeda, and Takada outclass anyone in North America (though Owen Hart makes a close fourth place for Dave). For Worst TV Announcer, the past few weeks have led Dave to only one conclusion: David Crockett. Best Booker is a field with few choices this year. Inoki has dropped the ball in many ways, and Dusty was the best last year but has been near the bottom this year. Lawler and Jarrett have a good show, and Eddie Gilbert was good at putting together live shows. But on the strength of his television show’s production and the genius booking of Hogan/Andre, Dave can’t believe he’s doing it, but he’s saying Vince McMahon. For Worst on TV Interviews, Dave gives the Japanese wrestlers in Calgary like Hase and Yamada a break on their English and instead picks Bugsy McGraw, who is not funny at all.
- John Nord’s getting over great in Minneapolis as a face largely because of his commercials for his father’s car dealership. There are three commercials, all with the slogans “No credit? We don’t care!” and “Don’t make payments? Then we care!” He does wrestling moves in the commercials, piledriving a guy onto the hood of a car in one, bodyslamming a guy through the windshield in the second, and suplexing a guy onto the hood in the third. Dave likens Nord’s performance to an impersonation of what it would be like if Jim Duggan impersonated Bruiser Brody.
- Watch: Nord Motor Company commercial
- Genichiro Tenryu beat Hiroshi Wajima on November 7 in their first match. This is especially interesting because of their histories in Sumo before they went to pro wrestling. About a decade ago they were top stars in the world of sumo, and Wajima was ranked above Tenryu (Tenryu’s highest rank was Maegeshira 1, which is top of the 5 rank of the highest division, while Wajima was the 54th Yokozuna and competed for 8 years after attaining that rank). Wajima was a nine-time Grand National champion in Sumo, which is why he was such a big deal when he came over to pro wrestling in 1986. Tenryu was a big-name, but he never was allowed to break into the elite, which is why he turned to pro wrestling.
- Watch: Tenryu vs. Wajima
- Ray Stevens got a deal where he’s working the old-timers’ battle royal for WWF but will stay with AWA.
- Bob Orton is still missing dates, so no idea if he’s suspended or fired from WWF.