Wrestling Observer Rewinder

May 02, 1988

[NWA] The biggest story of the week is Barry Windham turning on Lex Luger to join the Four Horsemen on the April 20 WTBS taping. They made it meaningful. Windham and Luger were challenging Tully and Arn for the tag titles and they posted Luger, who bled for the first time in seven months. And Windham tried to make the tag on two occasions, but Luger wasn’t there, and J.J. Dillon got in his ear and with a bit of encouragement he lariated Luger so Arn could get the pin. Luger and Brody doing clean jobs in the same week has Dave joking the Road Warriors will be next. Anyway, Midnight Rider followed Windham into the heel dressing room and was jumped by all the heels, who unmasked him. But the faces saved him before we could find out who this mysterious enforcer of what’s right could have his face caught on camera. Windham rode off in the Four Horsemen’s limo holding the mask to close the show. Given the cards they’ve got set up all around the country for May, Dave thinks this must have been a spur of the moment thing, but by all accounts it came off fantastically.
The Crockett Cup, on the other hand, did not come off fantastically. At least not on the first night. Totally disorganized is the phrase Dave uses. The wrestling was excellent and the second night was a very good show, with the exception of having a half full arena. The first night had nearly a full house. The only good thing about the show, aside from the wrestling, is really that the right team won. Dave reviews both nights. Anyway, main things of note: Tony Schiavone announced at the beginning that Windham had pulled out and that Luger would pick a new partner, which everyone assumed would be Midnight Rider and would lead to them going to the end. The bracket was a mess and basically wasn’t really used. The first match was a forfeit since The Green Machine didn’t make it to the building on time (he was there by 8 pm when the tickets said the show would start, but the show started at 7 so yeah). Music miscues happened, the Mexican delegation was Curtis Thompson and Gene Ligon in red versions of the Cruel Connection’s outfits, and the Japanese team was Johnny Ace and John Savage because the actual Japanese team “missed their flight” or so they said. Steve Williams and Ron Simmons took on Rick Steiner and Mike Rotunda at the point the intermission should have happened and was supposed to be the final second round match according to the program, but yeah let’s roll with it. The crowd cheered the announcement that Ron Garvin was injured (following the use of the spike by Kevin Sullivan in the aftermath of the Prince of Darkness match, which meant Sting had no partner. Well, Lex Luger’s looking for a partner, so here we are, the beginning of Sting and Luger as the worst best friends. The final match of night one should have been the Midnight Express vs. the Varsity Club, since they were the only remaining teams left not to have second round matches. For some reason we got the Midnights vs. the Sheepherders instead, and this counts enough, because it’s how the Midnights made it to the quarter finals. Oh, and Flair, who won Most Hated Wrestler by the PWI this past year, gave a promo and got a standing ovation. Very hatred indeed.
And that’s just night one. But before night two, Dave talks about Ricky Steamboat’s gym in Charlotte. Dave went to pick up some t-shirts because those make great gifts. Well, the guy at the front desk refused to sell Dave anything because it was 5:01 pm and the gym was closed. “I flew in from California just to buy t-shirts” was not a convincing argument either.
Anyway, night two of the Crockett Cup began with announcements, and the crowd was buzzing because word of Barry Windham’s turn was starting to get around. But since it hadn’t aired, pretty much everyone was going off secondhand information. Anyway, the first announcement had to do with Garvin’s injury and the crowd cheered again. Then they announced Windham was out and had joined the Horsemen, and people were beside themselves hugging and cheering this news. And when Sting and Luger were announced, the women in the audience punctured everyone else’s eardrums. Night 2 sees a much improved quality of matches. The Fantastics vs. Varsity Club get 4 stars and Dave notes they had the best opening match he’s seen in years. Sting and Luger beat the Midnights in a 3.75 star match and Dave praises Sting (not “one of the elite workers in the world yet” but definitely on his way). Road Warriors vs. Powers of Pain used the over the top DQ Dusty finish they used last month for Midnights/Fantastics in the same arena, and Dave can’t believe the booking there. Arn and Tully beat the Fantastics in a 3.5 star match.Flair and Nikita Koloff had a completely predictable, watchable, ho hum match. The finals saw Sting and Luger beat Arn and Tully in another 3.5 star match, and Luger put some work into this one (he wasn’t in much at all in the earlier matches, and he blew up after 10 minutes in this one.
Dave guesses that the reason the finals drew so poorly comes down to a few factors. Nobody believes the $1 million prize, for one thing, and tournaments don’t draw without a really strong bracket. Nobody cares about Flair vs. Koloff. Midnight Rider isn’t doing anything for anybody and they put all their tv energy into that. The Crockett Cup has a three year history and has yet to sell out a building once. It’s time to re-evaluate. Fewer teams and matches would be a good start, and that would allow a meaningful world title match on night one. Getting outside teams would be good too because it would provide some drawing power by putting on the show people the crowd is not used to, but easier said than done.
Akira Maeda’s UWF sold out its debut show for May 12 in 15 minutes. Dave thinks this might be a record for pro wrestling. Fans camped out on April 15 outside the Korauken Hall box office to get tickets the next morning, and more than 6,000 fans were turned away once the show sold out. This news is forcing some re-evaluation of opinions on UWF. With this, Maeda is now the hottest guy going in Japan. It’s leading to demand for UWF to have television, and Tokyo Channel 6 wants to broadcast specials. They’re looking at the 11,000 seat Ariake Coliseum for August. Dave personally thinks UWF will attain a cult following for its hyper-realistic style, but it’ll lose the mainstream general public because of the lack of flash, high flying, and showmanship. That said, a Japanese reporter told him that if Maeda becomes “cool” in the eyes of Japan, he’s going to be “cool” regardless of what his style is and people will follow what he’s doing. If something is “in” in Japan, everybody follows it, according to the reporter. UWF gaining a following will likely hurt Baba and Inoki because they’ll look fake by comparison, and it’d wreck any plans WWF might have of entering the Japanese market beyond a week’s tour a year. Money shouldn’t be a big issue - they only have six wrestlers on contract and two front office people, so they can reinvest profits into the company heavily. That said, they only have three guys (Maeda, Nobuhiko Takada, ad Kazuo Yamazaki) with name value, which only gives them three options for main events, so staleness is a possibility. Only time will tell.
War is brewing in Oregon and Roddy Piper has thrown a spanner in the works. He’s appearing on April 30 for Don Owen. Piper turned down lucrative offers from the WWF and NWA in the past year, so this definitely feels like a personal favor to help out Owen, who gave Piper his big break in the late 70s. Even when he worked for WWF, Piper refused to work in Washington or Oregon because they weren’t Owen’s shows right up until the end of his career, when he worked a couple shows in Seattle and Tacoma after Owen had given up running those cities. He even worked Owen’s 60th anniversary card in 1985 when he was the top heel for WWF. Piper’s appearance has forced Billy Jack Haynes to push his debut card back a week to May 7, and Owen’s bringing in Tom Zenk and Curt Henning for that night.
[All Japan] Bruiser Brody jobbed clean by pinfall to Jumbo Tsuruta on April 19 to lose the International Title. The finish was a back suplex and it’s the first pin he’s taken in Japan since 1980.
Watch: Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Bruiser Brody
[WWF] The April 30 Saturday Night’s Main Event was taped on April 22. Results saw Beefcake beat Danny Davis and cut his hair. This was supposed to be HonkyTonk vs. Beefcake, and they ran ads for it all the way to the last minute, but Honky didn’t wrestle Beefcake. He did work both the taping and the taping from the night before and never dropped the Intercontinental Title, though. Duggan beat Hercules by DQ. Demolition beat the Bulldogs by DQ in a non-title match. Ted DiBiase beat Don Muraco. Randy Savage retained the WWF Title against One Man Gang. Andre the Giant squashed Jake Roberts, who got his heat back after the match with the snake.
Former Atlanta promoter Paul Jones passed away on April 17 at the age of 86. When they announced his passing at Jerry Blackwell’s tv taping in Marietta for his promotion some fans cheered because they thought the announcement was about the NWA manager Paul Jones.
There’s a movie called Tokyo Pop coming out shortly and a few joshi have non-speaking roles. Bull Nakano is among them. It’s apparently not a very good movie, and not worth it if you just want to see Bull.
The Edmonton Athletic Commission has warned Stampede that no spitting, swearing, or brawling in the crowd will be allowed going forward.
[Stampede] Wayne Hart and Gary Allbright (the latter to make his debut as Volcan Singh) injured their knees in training. Referee Hermann also has a bum knee that’s keeping him out, so yet another brother (Ross Hart) is filling in.
Apparently Owen Hart is having second thoughts about going to WWF. Three Japanese tours a year and working the rest of the year apparently seems pretty satisfying to him.
On April 23, Memphis formally announced a talent trade deal with World Class. Jerry Jarrett has taken over as booker for Memphis from Jerry Lawler, and he made the announcement that the Von Erichs, Michael Hayes, Terry Gordy, Chris Adams, Terry Taylor, and “World heavyweight champion” and “first Black World champion ever” Iceman King Parsons would be coming in shortly. World Class has cut down Fort Worth shows to every other Sunday, which frees up some Mondays to come over to Memphis for work. Most of the guys in World Class could use the dates, because just working for World Class means they aren’t making any money. TV fans had no reaction to this, apparently.
[Memphis] Downtown Bruno called out Jerry Lawler on tv on April 23 while dressed kind of like Ric Flair. This led to Robert Fuller jumping Lawler from behind and putting a noose on him and dragging him around before choking him over the ringpost. Jeff Jarrett made the save. Continental did the same angle in Birmingham on April 18 with an airdate of April 23 with Tony Anthony and Tom Prichard, and since some cities get both shows some are upset at Fuller and Bruno doing it and copying the deal. Nobody seems upset at the whole lynching aspect, just at the copycat thing.
Watch: Robert Fuller hangs Jerry Lawler
Continental’s version of the noose angle got a lot of heat. Dirty White Girl/Lady Mystic (she’s used both names) came out with a black eye and pleaded with Gordon Solie to get Tom Prichard through two whole matches, with the idea that Tony Anthony (whom she valets) punched her. Eventually Solie gets Prichard and Anthony sneaks up behind him and handcuffs him then ties a noose around his neck and drags him to the ring where he hangs him and blood comes from his mouth. They destroyed the old set during the brawl, which is leading to the rename of the promotion as the Continental Wrestling Federation and the building of a new set.
Watch: Tony Anthony hangs Tom Prichard
Continental is doing a tournament in late May for a new CWF champion. Whoever holds the title will also be number one contender in the area for the AWA World Title, which Continental now recognizes as the world championship of record.
[All Japan] Brody and Tenryu’s title unification match drew 4,400 fans out of a capacity of 7,000 and ended at 30 minutes in a double countout. Since Brody dropped the title to Tsuruta, that means that the big une 10 Budokan Hall show will be headlined by Tenryu putting up the PWF and United National titles against Tsuruta’s International title.
All Japan’s ratings have dropped significantly since being moved from prime time to Saturday nights at 10:30 pm.
May 20 to June 26 are the dates for this year’s IWGP tournament in New Japan. Announced names include Billy Gaspar (Bob Orton), Owen Hart, Adrian Adonis (who has lost something like 80 lbs according to those in touch with him), Mr. Pogo, El Canek, Dr. Wagner Jr., and more.
New Japan is doing a big show at Ariake Coliseum on May 7. Inoki will defend the IWGP title against Vader, and Keiichi Yamada will challenge World Karate Association champion Don Nakaya Nielsen for his title. Nielsen had a famous match in 1986 against Akira Maeda which really helped establish Maeda’s popularity. Dave thinks it’s likely Yamada will be the first pro wrestler (to his knowledge, anyway) to do a job to someone from a different sport in one of these mixed matches, which would set Nielsen up for another mixed match in August against a bigger name wrestler.
watch: Nielsen vs. Maeda from 1986
Antonio Inoki gave a guest lecture at a school recently and a kid asked him if he could beat Giant Baba. Inoki said if he met Baba and couldn’t beat him, he’d kill himself.
WWF won syndicated ratings again for the week including March 27, taking third place overall with a 10.9 in 255 markets. Crockett got 6th place with an 8.4 in 183 markets, and All-Star Wrestling Network got a 5.6 in 164 markets. These numbers are for the weekend of Clash and Wrestlemania, and WWF predicts a new record for the following week, but we’ll see how that works out for them.
Adrian Adonis has either threatened to or already gone through with filing a lawsuit against the AWA over his ankle injury in January. That injury cost him a tour of Japan
There was an angle in Southern Championship Wrestling on April 17 where Mr. Atlanta knocked out Mr. Wrestling II and tried to unmask him. Out of nowhere comes a second Mr. Wrestling II to make the save. They’re calling the new guy Mr. Wrestling, and he’s being played by Joe Powell. Interestingly, over a decade ago Powell worked as an imposter Mr. Wrestling II.
Nearly everybody Dave said was gone from WWF in the past couple issues is still around. Outback Jack and Mike Sharpe were on tv recently in jobber roles, while Terry Gibbs and Craig De George did tv interviews. And even Hulk Hogan appeared as a surprise on April 21 to squash Boris Zhukov. He’s not booked for any other shows until the end of May, but obviously that doesn’t mean as much with the surprise appearance on the table.
Harley Race was hospitalized and had to have a foot of intestine removed.
Butch Reed was apparently fired along with Sika and S.D. Jones.
At the Superstars taping, Savage vs. Andre for the title was the dark match. It went three minutes and Andre choked Savage from the jump, and the fans just chanted for Hogan the whole time. Savage got DQed for hitting Andre with a chair when he started chasing Elizabeth.
Mel Phillips has been replaced as ring announcer by Mike McGuirk. Aside from messing up a couple tag team introductions, she did a good job on her first day.
A possible hint for the role of Big Bubba Rogers. Jimmy Hart said he’s looking for a bounty hunter to get Beefcake for what he did to Hart’s hair, so that might be him.
Dave responds to a letter asking him not to cover POWW or GLOW and requesting his opinion on the long-term effect of Wrestlemania IV sucking. Dave thinks it’s obvious at this point that Wrestlemania won’t have much long-term negative effect and that Crockett has already squandered whatever positives they had coming out of Clash by failing to realize that building the entire show around one person is the opposite of what they should do. Like a skilled politician, Dave argues that Vince can tell everyone his show was a success so often and convincingly that they forget, while Crockett too often fails to follow through and correctly take advantage of anything they manage to get hot.
Another letter heaps praise on the Malenko brothers for not needing a gimmick. “The Malenkos have a gimmick called wrestling, a term that seems to be forgotten, but as long as the Malekos are around there is still a chance it won’t be extinct.” I like me some Dean Malenko, but “guy who wrestles good” is a terrible gimmick if you have nothing else going for you, and Dean’s no font of charisma. There’s a reason he had a ceiling.
Owen Hart is rumored to be debuting for WWF in July as a masked wrestler with a gimmick something along the lines of Tiger Mask in terms of appeal to children. Dave thinks this would work great if he had people capable of working at his level and if WWF would let him do his good moves rather than try and quash his style to keep the rest of the crew from looking bad. And thus we have the first early mention of the Blue Blazer.
WWF is thinking of running a Randy and Elizabeth tv special. Dave thinks it might be a possible head to head against Crockett’s July ppv. Not until Summerslam 1991, Dave.
Starting with Survivor Series, WWF will be on tv in France.
Dave speculates that Crockett turned Windham due to unimpressive house show attendance. The April 17 Charlotte show drew “one of the smallest crowds in years” and the April 24 show at the Omni only drew 1,400, or less than 10% capacity, for what was an excellent show. Dave heard from someone in attendance that the Midnight Express vs. The Fantastics was a five star match. They had three shows booked for May, but after how poorly this show did, they cancelled two of them.
Crockett’s July ppv is tentatively scheduled for July 10. That’ll be the first Great American Bash ppv, and Dave’s guessing that they’ll keep the same plan for the main event and go with Flair vs. Luger.
Finally, the most important news of the year is in. WWF’s new tv announcer is Sean Mooney. He used to produce This Week in Baseball and co-hosted Light Moments in Sports with Joe Namath.