Wrestling Observer Rewinder

May 16, 1988

The big stories this week really won’t hit until late in the issue, so read down I guess.
[NWA] The Midnight Rider angle lasted just a whole two weeks after his initial arrival. The whole thing began just four or five weeks back with a baseball bat and punching Magnum T.A., and all that work was wasted when they pulled the plug. The Midnight Rider gimmick just wasn’t working, so they did an official announcement that Paul Boesch convinced the NWA board to reinstate Dusty. All the panicked decisions lately leave Dave with the impression that the NWA is in worse shape than they seemed to be a few weeks back, and things don’t look likely to change any time soon. More of a surprise to Dave than the fact that it wasn’t working is the fact that they did it so quickly when the angle was supposed to last through the summer. He thinks that has to be hard on Dusty’s ego. So them setting up a feud between Dusty and Barry Windham when the logical feud should be Luger and Windham seems a desperate move to placate Dusty. And there’s no predicting what the NWA will do next, because the people in charge don’t seem to know what they’re doing week to week.
Ex-NFL star Steve Courson makes his pro wrestling debut this week at a Pennsylvania independent show. He’s barely trained and being rushed into the ring to capitalize off his NFL fame. The guy was a heavy steroid user back in the NFL and admitted as much, and his career ended due to health issues a couple years ago. Nevertheless, he’s got an anti-steroid book about to hit bookshelves. Seems carny enough for the business.
Roddy Piper showed up at Don Owen’s April 30 card in Portland. Billy Jack Haynes’ rival promotion debuted on May 7 and starts its tv program on May 14. Haynes claims he didn’t delay a week due to Piper’s April 30 appearance, but because his ring lights were late in arriving. They were lighting Chris Adams’ ring, I’m sure. Anyway, Piper showed up in the interview area and never entered the ring, and when Mike Golden told Piper to scram during his interview, Piper acted passive and backed off to help put Golden over. Golden then produced a contract for a match on May 7 and tried to goad Piper into a match, to which Piper retorted he’s lost a lot of weight and isn’t a fighter anymore, only to finally get into it with Golden after more taunting and Golden spitting on him. Fans left with the idea that Piper would fight Golden, but Piper never appeared on May 7 and no announcement of them having a match took place.
Variety Magazine reports that all the weekly pro wrestling shows have dropped out of the top 15 in syndicated ratings. So the real story is the way that the wrestling shows made it into the top 15 in the first page. The WWF network had 5 shows, Crockett network had 4, and All-Star Wrestling network had at least 6, and each of those packages added up the ratings of all the shows in them and reported that rating. Compare to say, Wheel of Fortune, which is just the one show, and so you had the combined ratings of anywhere from 4-6+ shows trying to act like all the shows in that package were competitive ad space to a show like Wheel or Jeopardy, which is unfair to those single shows that pull in massive ratings. Anyway, those who calculate ratings have done away with those network packages in their calculations to level the playing field, so WWF isn’t getting ahead of Oprah and her single show’s 9 rating by combining five shows to pull a 10 rating anymore. Superstars, which is definitely WWF’s most watched show, doesn’t even come close to the top 15 on its own. For Dave, this isn’t a big deal, other than that it’ll be harder to track ratings, which are the best way to measure interest at the moment. Dave’s tv industry contacts think this is a big blow to wrestling as an industry, however, and more damaging to Crockett than McMahon since Vince has sold most of his ad slots for the year already. Nothing has materially changed, but advertisers are going to see wrestling as less hot, and their places in the top 15 have been taken by shows like Love Connection, Star Search, and Hollywood Squares. A wrestling network package might offer the same number of viewers, but advertisers look at the rankings to decide what’s hot, and wrestling’s not going to appear there anymore, and their ads in trade publications won’t be able to boast WWF or NWA as among the highest rated networks in syndication. Long story short, Promoters are going to have to chase advertising dollars rather than advertisers chasing promotions, and that spells an eventual downturn for the business.
[NWA] Clash of the Champions II, called Miami Mayhem, has been announced for June 8. Dave gets the feeling that it won’t be as hot a show as the first Clash and that those in the company think they might have given away too much on the first and thus hurt themselves at the gate. Dave thinks they did indeed give a lot, but they also failed to take advantage of a lot. Like, the barbed wire match was the end of a feud and they didn’t even know it because despite the heels being beaten quick and clean, they’re still running the match when there’s no point in continuing the feud. Dave thinks they had a lot of momentum coming off the first clash and they squashed it by downplaying everything in favor of the now-aborted Midnight Rider angle.
Randy Savage is now being billed as Undisputed WWF Champion. They’ve dropped the word “heavyweight” and Dave’s been told they’re planning to no longer use it, for whatever that’s worth.
WWF is working on a bunch of non-wrestling specials. Kind of like the Slammy Awards in the way they’ll sell the shows and in their hopes for ratings. Dave hopes not similar in terms of quality, at least.
Managers Mr. Fuji, Jimmy Hart, and Frenchy Martin appeared on WWF’s May 7 Boston house show. No idea if it’s just certain New England cities they’ll appear in or what, but yeah, that’s the update on the managers at house shows thing.
Dave and his friends were joking that Ultimate Warrior vs. Andre the Giant would be the worst possible match this generation. Lo and behold, Dave found out that they put that match on a few weeks back in Switzerland on a European tour. Dave asks “What did the Swiss ever do to Vince McMahon?” I can't find anything from Switzerland, but I did find a clip from Italy on that same tour.
Watch: Andre vs. Warrior
Dave saw the program for the Central States April 28 show in Kansas City and it’s the funniest thing he’s seen in a while. The program talks about the Freebirds (supposed to be coming in) and says they’re managed by Michael Hayes, and it has a picture of Hayes taken from their original heel days in Georgia in 1980. Bob Geigel runs the promotion and makes his own programs, and it’s good to see how up to date he’s managed to be.
Ken Mantell sent a letter to every promotion except WWF and NWA offering for World Class to work with them. World Class isn’t running a full-time schedule, so Mantell’s looking for ways to get his guys out there, but they only have a couple guys with any significant name value. Michael Hayes, Terry Gordy, Terry Taylor, and maybe Chris Adams could give a boost to a promotion getting into things with a local babyface, but just sending Taylor and Adams to have a match against each other won’t help anyone (they did that for the May 2 show in Memphis). Talent sharing isn’t helpful to the other promotions unless they can do a tv angle or work several shows rather than a one-off date (with the rare exception of a Michael Hayes date in Atlanta, or Gordy doing an independent show with a match against Brody or Abdullah).
[Memphis] Eddie Gilbert beat Jerry Lawler on May 2 to keep Missy Hyatt’s hair on her head. The finish saw Lawler punch Paul E. Dangerously (who manages Gilbert in Continental) after Missy failed to distract Lawler with her open shirt trick. Dangerously showed up when Lawler went after her, and then Kenny Dee, who was managing Lawler, threw powder in Lawler’s eyes, leading to Gilbert getting the pin. Money wound up changing hands from Dangerously to Hyatt to Dee after the match, so Kenny Dee is a newly minted heel manager.
Also in Memphis, the Iceman King Parsons vs. Kerry Von Erich match from the same show got little reaction. People came to see Lawler and Gilbert, not them, and Dave still doesn’t understand putting this match on and billing Parsons as a world champion when the next show is Lawler vs. Hennig for the AWA World Title. It’s just undercutting that match to act like the WCCW title is a world title and then turn around and go “Well here’s a different world title” and being very inconsistent in their recognition of world championships.
More on the special referee poll for the May 9 Lawler/Hennig match. They’re running the poll from a 1-900 number (which means a cost of $1 per phone call), so the company was profiting off the poll. That explains the amount of promotion they were doing saying that Larry Hennig was winning the poll by a narrow margin due to fans in Minnesota flooding the line with votes for Hennig. They were doing no such thing, but it’s a smart way to bilk the local fan base. In Memphis, they run their tv show live, so when it started at 11 am, they did a segment where they said the poll would close at noon (Hennig still leading the results) to keep fans voting until the last minute, even doing another segment at 11:45 am. At noon, Lawler came out and acted all serious with his best Bad News Barrett impression and said he was afraid he had some bad news. “Bad news for Curt Hennig, that is,” and announced Jackie Fargo was the winner of the referee poll. Dave guesses the reason for the charge is probably to drum up enough money to pay Curt Hennig enough to be happy, but this sure is a new way to try and make money off wrestling.
There’s a newcomer in the Oregon territory named Steve Austin. No, he’s not stone cold, but he’s also used the name Steve Winters (Dave believes this is his real name), and he’ll wind up wrestling for Stampede in the future under the name Lance Idol. Dave’s seen him a bit before in his early days in the Bay area and recalls him being a good worker trying to emulate Ray Stevens in style.
Don Owen’s May 7 show had the best case for allowing blading that Dave has ever heard of. They had a Northwest Tag Title cage match with Steve Doll and Scott Peterson beating Avalanche and Mike Golden to regain the titles. Owen believes you need blood in a cage match, while the Oregon commission has banned blading, so how do you suppose Owen got around the issue? Mike Golden got bloody hardway, and they wanted Peterson to bleed too, so they had Golden and Avalanche try to hardway Peterson with potatoes to the forehead. Dave hears they did some 14 hard punches to Peterson’s head and none of them opened him up. One did bust up his nose a bit, though. This is what happens when blading is banned and wrestlers feel the need to get color - they’re going to be really unsafe and hurt themselves.
Tatsumi Fujinami beat Vader by countout on April 27, in a show that drew 5,000 in Osaka. For comparison, All Japan’s Brody/Tenryu match there last month drew 4,000. Fujinami had vowed to retire if he couldn’t beat Vader, so they kind of had to have that finish if they wanted Vader to keep his monster aura without honoring a retirement. Anyway, Dave isn’t sure if this is legit or just an angle, but Fujinami is being reported as trying to make a play for the top spot now that Inoki’s foot is broken. He’s even got a new haircut to symbolize his change from being a young disciple of Inoki to being his own man.
All Japan Women’s May 15 show has a hell of a triple main event lineup. At the top of the card you have the Crush Girls vs. the Jumping Bomb Angels. Then you have Mika Suzuki vs. Kaoru Maeda for the jr. championship (not a weight class, but rather a title exclusively for wrestlers with under 2 years experience). Lastly, Erika Shishido and Nobuko Kimura defend the AJW tag titles against two of the standout rookies from the class of 1987 who are getting their first crack at major exposure, Manami Toyota and Toshiyo Yamada. Erika Shishido, by the way, is a 17 year old from the class of 1986 and the company has big plans for her as a future heel star and partner for Bull Nakano. You may know her better as Aja Kong.
Windy City Wrestling drew remarkably well, drawing $40,000 at International Amphitheater in Chicago. It’s the largest gate Dave’s ever heard of for an independent promotion. The card had Col. DeBeers, Candi Divine and Debbie Combs, Paul E. Dangerously, Buddy Rose and Doug Somers, and a bunch else going on. Based on ticket prices, they pulled an audience of over 4,000 people. The promoter sold the show to the venue for $10,000, so they made a big profit on the event. WWF has taken notice and already there’s talk of them running the same venue, because they believe it may tap into a different crowd than the Rosemont Horizon.
[Stampede] Owen Hart’s reign as North American champion has ended as of May 6. He dropped the title to Makhan Singh, whom he beat for the title on April 10, 1987. Definitely a step toward Owen’s departure from the promotion here, as his last match with Stampede if he does go to the WWF will be on May 14 before he does the IWGP series for New Japan. Owen did agree to go to the WWF for a masked gimmick, either a Tiger Mask or Mighty Mouse type, but he’s apparently having second thoughts, perhaps related to a personal goal he supposedly has of having the match of the year with Ric Flair. Sadly, Owen’s never going to get that match. Bret and Davey Boy Smith are pushing hard for Owen to come to WWF.
Heading to Stampede is Steve Blackman. Blackman’s done some jobs for WWF in the past and is kind of a powerlifter type. He’s being paired with Brick Bronsky, whom Dave describes as an untalented lifter type (Dave rates the May 7 Edmonton match between Kerry Brown and Bronsky at -3.5 stars and calls it one of the worst matches Stampede will ever have), and their team name is the Abortion Alliance. Jeezus, Bruce.
A new women’s wrestling promotion is supposed to start up, doing tapings at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas. Wendi Richter and Misty Blue are said to be the top stars and Gordon Solie is said to be on board for announcing, and there’s supposedly tv contracts lined up.
Ted Turner is working on a new cable station called TNT. It’s gonna have a lot of MGM movies and sports events, and probably eventually some Crockett wrestling. The FCC is expected to change some regulations, which would put WTBS back to only being Atlanta-local and all the superstations will revert to local tv.
Looks like a lock that Financial News Network will be taking on Continental by the end of the month or early June. As for a deal with New Japan, that seems to be on hold, as neither side could come to an agreement.
Lawsuits corner. WWF is suing FNN over their Hulkamania package. Larry Sharpe is suing Bam Bam Bigelow for breach of contract. Sharpe was Bigelow’s real manager back in Japan.
The best match on an independent show in Brooklyn on April 29 saw Lou Fabiano (a former WWF jobber) team with Cactus Jack against George Skaaland and Tom Brandi. Cactus Jack is a trainee of Dominic DeNucci, and Dave hears that he’s a top flight worker.
Word is that Futahaguro (real name Koji Kitao), the yokozuna who got kicked out of sumo, is reporting to the Monster Factory in New Jersey to train under Larry Sharpe. He’s in New York this week on other business (mostly talk shows), so no definite word, but that’s the rumor coming out of the area.
The Von Erich Parade of Champions drew an estimated 7,000 fans. Dave anticipates a more accurate estimate and gate next week. The show was… Let me just give some highlights. The first match was terrible. The second match was mostly rest holds and had no heat, and after winning the match Mike George grabbed the mic to make sure the fans knew he was recognized as World Champion in Kansas City. Nobody cared because nobody cares about the Kansas City promotion. Steve Casey was supposed to challenge Eric Embry for the light heavyweight title, but he came in 1.5 pounds over the weight limit. After the crowd heckled Embry, he agreed to a non-title match, which Casey won in 19 seconds. That extra weight made all the difference, I reckon. Bill Irwin vs. Black Bart was fair. Then you had Michael Hayes vs. Terry Gordy in a triple tower of doom and Dave says that while there was heat, the gimmick’s a total dud because you can’t do any moves or take any bumps the way it’s all structured. They then gave the crowd something good, as Terry Taylor beat Chris Adams to keep the Texas title in a great match. The Texas roundup in the triple tower of doom, on the other hand, was the opposite of great. If Dusty plans to actually use this concept, he’s got a lot of work cut out for him, because not one fan in the building understood what the hell was going on. Bruiser Brody carried his match teaming with Kevin Von Erich against Buddy Roberts and Solomon Grundy, and nobody cared about Kevin. They had to replace Schaun Simpson with Terry Gordy due to injury suffered in the Texas roundup for the Wild West/Texas tag title unification match, and Gordy/Simpson won by disqualification. It’s unclear if that makes the Simpsons Wild West tag champs and Gordy/Simpson Texas tag champs, or if it unifies the titles on the Simpsons, or what. In the end, Kerry Von Erich regained the WCCW title. Nobody cares. World Class is every bit as fucked as WCW in 2000.
Dave’s got the lineup for the second Clash, and he thinks the NWA is now afraid to put on a hot show. Windham vs. Ricky Santana, Koloff vs. Al Perez, Dusty vs. Larry Zbysko, the Garvins vs. Rotunda and Rick Steiner, the Fantastics vs. Sheepherders for the U.S. Tag Titles, and Blanchard/Anderson defending the NWA tag titles against Sting and Steve Williams. No Flair, Luger, or Road Warriors in sight.
When the NWA announced Dusty’s reinstatement, the reaction was pretty negative. After a moment of silence, one woman cheered and two more joined her, and they were swiftly drowned in a chorus of boos.
Night 2 of the Crockett Cup grossed $115,000 at the gate. The Cup as a whole managed a combined gate equal to the merch sales gross at Wrestlemania.
They’re building a new Coliseum in Charlotte, North Carolina, and it’s supposed to open in the fall. Word is that WWF will get the first two shows there and Crockett will be relegated to the 2,500 seat Charlotte Park Center, since the old Coliseum building will be torn down. WWF can’t run the existing Coliseum for the same reasons Crockett can’t touch Madison Square Garden, but the new Coliseum has different management with no relationship to Crockett, so they’re going to give WWF a chance.
Gordon Solie and Mike Graham’s new Florida Championship Wrestling has opened up and did their first tv taping on April 30. They’re looking to run five days a week in central Florida starting real soon.
Antonio Inoki’s injury has led to New Japan declaring the IWGP Title vacant. Tatsumi Fujinami battles Vader on May 7 for the title. Seems to be a lot of behind the scenes tension between Fujinami and Choshu as well. Fujinami walked out after the April 27 show, leaving only Choshu of the original four top draws in the company.
Tiger Mask (Mitsuharu Misawa) is getting married on May 10 and will unmask for the wedding. He’s marrying movie star Tomomi Shiina. After the wedding he may stop wrestling as Tiger Mask and go back to his real name.
As soon as TNT is available in 30 million homes, Crockett’s tv will be moved there. All kinds of rumors are swirling about Crockett and Turner, but as far as Dave’s aware no firm deal of any kind has been reached.
The NWA, Mike Rotunda, Kevin Sullivan, and the city of Albany are all being sued for “torturous acts and personal injury” by 16 year old Mike Strickland. Strickland alleges that on February 9 he was patting wrestlers on the back when city police officers working security for the show seized him and arrested him, then took him to a secluded area where Rotunda and Sullivan “wilfully, intentionally and purposefully assaulted and attempted to commit violent and illegal physical injury” on him and that the police did nothing to stop the beating.
Dave wants us to know that although it was extremely predictable, he found the Midnight Express’s party on the WTBS show really entertaining. Yeah, when you have a cake in wrestling it winds up in the heel or announcer’s face, but the banter between Cornette and Stan Lane was really fun.
Watch: Jim Cornette gets caked
Ted Turner’s got some kind of package deal he’s pitching, using the July NWA ppv as incentive to get cable systems to buy in on TNT. Or maybe it’s the other way around. Dave understands that the cable companies will likely get a higher share of revenue for the PPV from the show than the usual 50/50 split, and Dave says this show is really do or die for Crockett.
Abdullah the Butcher and Kamala no-showed Jerry Blackwell’s May 8 show. They had turned down a spot at the Von Erich Memorial Parade of Champions to do that show, so that’s ironic.
”JERRY LAWLER PINNED CURT HENNIG TO WIN THE AWA TITLE ON 5/9 IN MEMPHIS BEFORE 9,500 FANS." The match was apparently “not great” and saw Lawler win by grabbing Hennig by the knees and kangaroo flipping him headlong into the ring post for the pin. Great reaction to the finish, but yeah, Lawler is the new AWA champion. More on this next week.
Watch: the finish to Lawler vs. Hennig
One letter writer chimes in that “loser groups” like GLOW and POWW don’t deserve time in the Observer. In fact, he hopes they lose their time slots in New York and Boston to Continental and Memphis to give WWF real competition. Yeah, because those groups are going to be able to do that.
Still a bunch of letters sniping back and forth about Clash vs. Wrestlemania. One says they can’t believe anyone could think Flair/Sting was the best match they’ve seen in years. Another says that for “Vince McMahon to put WWF fans through that show constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.” As usual, wrestling fans are level-headed and gracious in their disagreements. It warms my soul to see us carrying on this proud tradition of sober discourse on reddit in 2020.