June 06, 1988
- Dave opens this issue with a note that the week is super slow with news. He then says to just skip ahead to the letters if you’re so inclined. Hooray, nothing I’m about to type matters. And, now that I've typed the whole thing up, none of the letters matter either. This issue has little going on, so feel free to berate me in the comments or something.
- The big news on the possible Turner acquisition of the NWA is that there is no news. The story made the front page of the Charlotte Observer, but that’s about it. June 6 is the earliest anyone can expect a sale, and even then there’s a chance that it takes until July or gets dropped by then. The paper reported a $10 million price tag, though Dave’s sources say that’s way off. He doesn’t know if that means too low or too high, but the UWF purchase last year cost Crockett $4 million, which gives us a ballpark to base guesstimates off. Dave also issues a correction - apparently Turner is looking to buy the company outright, including Jim Crockett’s shares. The paper also quoted Frances Crockett as denying the existence of any negotiations.
- Expect some “world title unification” matches over the next month between AWA champion Jerry Lawler and World Class champion Kerry Von Erich. They’re set for the Sportatorium on June 17 and Kansas City on June 23. No word on a date for Memphis. We’re on the road to the USWA, kids.
- Electronic Media Magazine ran a front page story on pro wrestling with Randy Savage and Elizabeth on the cover. It was basically a WWF press release plus some quotes from Jim Crockett. Crockett’s contributions amounted to saying the NWA was looking into making some non-wrestling adventure movies. The funniest part, to Dave, was how the story claimed top wrestlers could earn $10 million. Maybe if your name rhymes with Bulk Bogan. Anyway, the magazine also had a full page ad for that Learning the Ropes show Crockett’s involved with. Dave talked to some people with tv industry connections and they didn’t have much that was nice to say about the show.
- Brickhouse Brown is the new CWA champion in Memphis. Max Pain had to relinquish the title due to an apparent legit leg injury (they did an angle to write him off by having him suffer an injury during a match with Scott Steiner). They wound up giving the title to Brown via forfeit due to Pain not being able to compete. On the whole, a fairly solid way of handling the title switch.
- Stampede held a B’nai Brith benefit show on May 15 in Calgary. They drew 150 fans and the show was almost all heels because Jason the Terrible and Owen Hart were already gone for Japan while Bruce Hart, Brian Pillman, and Brick Bronsky didn’t show because of something to do with a fist fight between Pillman and Bronsky a few days earlier.
- Stampede appears to be heading in a less proto-ECW direction. Stu Hart showed up on the May 20 show and said that they were going back to “family entertainment as it used to be,” which basically means no more wild brawling and heavy bloodshed.
- Les Thornton will have his first show up against Stampede on June 11.
- New Japan’s current tour began on May 20 with a sellout at orauken Hall. Some notes from the show: Tatsumi Fujinami beat jr. champion Hiroshi Hase. Riki Choshu beat Shiro Koshinaka to set up matches against Fujinami for Fujinami’s IWGP title. The Pirates (Billy, aka Bob Orton, and Barry, aka Jason the Terrible/Karl Moffat) beat Masa Saito and Super Strong Machine, Kengo Kimura beat Adrian Adonis in Adonis’s first match since breaking his ankle in January, and Owen Hart and Keiichi Yamada beat Kuniaki Kobayashi and Hiro Saito.
- The internal family squabbling in Stampede has resulted in Keith Hart replacing Bruce Hart as booker. Dave anticipates definite changes to their presentation (less out-of-the-ring action, less blood). Brian Pillman also tore his tricep, so he’s out for 8-12 weeks, which means the international tag titles are vacant.
- Not much going on in All Japan. Their current tour is doing okay, but nothing worldshaking.
- Eric Embry and Scandor Akbar have taken over booking in World Class. Michael Hayes and Chris Adams are out of the promotion. Hayes due to frustration, Adams because he’s promoting a live show in early June. Here’s hoping he’s got a ring sorted out. World Class will now be running a July 4 show about half a mile away from the NWA Great American Bash show at Reunion Arena that day. I wonder how badly they’re going to be crushed.
- Downtown Bruno is out of Continental. You can probably expect him to show up in Memphis again soon.
- Dave recently got to catch up on the last month of Continental’s tv show. Pros: more entertaining, more interesting angles, and less predictable than whe Rob Fuller was booking. Cons: lighting and overall production isn’t that great, not enough wrestling.
- Boris Malenko returned to in-ring action on May 28 for Global. From reports, he still looks pretty good and got over with his 60s-era throwback style. He’s got to be in his mid-50s, based on his son Joe’s age. There’s actually a good bit about the Malenkos here. So they were carrying the tag titles, but the match where they won the titles they pinned the wrong guy. It’s unclear whether it was the office catching that and deciding to change things or if they plan a title change at an arena show between the episodes they taped on May 28, but the Malenkos came out for the part of the taping with the belts and came out later without. For some reason, they also had some alignment issues: Dean and Joe are faces, but were being managed by Ox Baker while Boris managed the heels Rusty Brooks and Jumbo Baretta. By the second part of the taping, they swapped managers. They also did an angle where Brooks burned Dean’s eye with a cigar, so Boris teamed with Joe against Brooks and Baretta, with Dean interfering to cause the disqualification while wearing an eyepatch.
- Watch: Rusty Brooks and Jumbo Baretta vs. Boris and Joe Malenko
- Also in Global, their valet Ann Marie no-showed, so they replaced her and the new valet was kidnapped as part of an angle. The kidnapping occurred during a tv title match featuring Lord Henry Norman (Smiley). Norman was a face last taping. He’s a heel now. This promotion is run by Dr. Red Roberts, the guy I mentioned before who would go on to serve as expert psychological testimony in the Lionel Tate case. And if you haven’t guessed by the inability to remember who is what alignment week to week, the focus of these tapings is basically just being the Red Roberts show. Mostly I included this bit because I wanted to take note of Norman Smiley, because he was a bright spot in the doldrums of WCW's attempt at making the hardcore title a thing.
- Dave has been told the odds of Koji Kitao becoming a pro wrestler are under 50% right now. He’s got too many other options to make more money, it would seem. Next year, Dave.
- Roddy Piper’s Buy and Cell movie was a bomb.
- Bruno Sammartino’s son Darryl placed eighth in the NCAA Division II nationals for javelin. Highest place a freshman got in the event. Didn’t know there was another Sammartino out there.
- A new all women’s promotion is starting up in the Houston area. They’re calling it Fabulous Ladies Appearing In Ring, or FLAIR. Dave assures us that he is not making this up.
- Over in Puerto Rico, Dave really misses Hugo Savinovich. Hugo became iconic for fans in Puerto Rico and a cult figure for many others after a particular match he called in which he cut his own hair off. I tweeted at Dave to try and get more info but he probably didn't see it so yeah, apparently Hugo Savinovich cut his own hair while calling his own match, I guess.
- UWF took in a gate of $79,840 for their debut on May 12. Not bad at all. Dave watched the Maeda vs. Yamazaki match. Stylistically, not appealing to a general U.S. audience. Even though it was very quiet at points, Dave thinks the quiet heat was there and talks about how this is the kind of heat that old timers used to work for - to get the fans so absorbed in the action being intense and realistic that they were captivated and just following along rather than reacting to every little thing. Sounds like much better heat than fans threatening to murder you to me. Anyway, Maeda didn’t look great because ring rust and Yamazaki did a lot of the work of making the match feel intense, and Dave thinks if his performances don’t improve from this level Maeda can kiss his status as the most over man in Japanese wrestling goodbye.
- Dave notes that readers Mike and Karen Tenay have a photo of them published in the June 9 Weekly Gong issue. They’re cheering for Riki Choshu at the Las Vegas show.
- Lots of unhappy campers in the NWA. None of the balloon payments due to several of the wrestlers on May 1 have been paid, with at least 10 guys waiting on big money (at least one of whom is apparently north of 6 figures owed). Lots of talk about quitting if the money doesn’t come, but don’t count on it unless WWF comes calling first. And WWF isn’t looking to add too many guys at this time. If WWF really wants to hurt the NWA, this would be the best time to do it and sign away a bunch of key talent. Steve Williams wanting out is an open secret, and he’s been pulled from the main event of the second Clash and replaced with Dusty Rhodes.
- Only one interesting letter this time around, from someone who thinks Dave should keep his opinions limited. All right, let’s read this one in full. I think this is the first time I’ve ever seen anyone go after Dave on his knowledge of wrestling history.
- First off, I have a lot of respect and admiration for Dave Meltzer for his ability to crank out the Observer weekly and make a profit. It’s something we couldn’t do. Being in his shoes, I know how hard it is to put out a bulletin monthly, let alone weekly. The Observer is well read inside the wrestling community from Ed Farhat to independent jobbers. In many camps Dave isn’t well thought of. Like all of us he has his favorites like DiBiase, Watts, Brody, Dr. Death and Japan wrestling. However the problem is we don’t have a newsletter to rebut. He does have his letters pages, but many times he edits the letters. Sometimes you may not get the whole pie. Doing a newsletter I had my favorites and not so favorites. I called Vince McMahon, Hitler Jr. when he began his takeover. With Dave schooled in journalism he knows the importance of controversy in selling a paper. I feel anything before 1974 Dave doesn’t have the knowledge to make a fair judgement about those days of wrestling or wrestlers. One of the common views I hear about Dave is that people like getting the Observer because it’s very update and timely, but people say Meltzer is too opinionated.It’s Dave’s view and nobody else’s. Give the results, keep to the facts and limit your opinions.
- NWA is back to building up a tv show for a main event and starting the main event match with only two minutes left in the show. Last weekend it was a Luger/Rhodes/Koloff vs. Horsemen six man tag, and this week it was the Midnights vs. Fantastics. Dave wonders if it’s someone’s job to schedule these things for maximum annoyance?
- Speaking of annoying the fans, NWA is recycling finishes again. May 29 was the NWA’s first show in Greensboro since the Crockett Cup, which was the first one since the Clash. They did the Midnights vs. Fantastics and Powers of Pain vs. Road Warriors in rematches (adding Ivan Koloff to PoP and Sting to the Road Warriors for this show) from those shows and used the exact same finishes.
- Rick Rubin of Def Jam Records says he’s very interested in the NWA and wants to start a rock’n’rap group called The Four Horsemen. He also talked about perhaps buying the NWA someday, though Dave thinks that was less serious than the Four Horsemen talk. This winds up becoming a thing in 1989.
- Listen: Shelly, by the Four Horsemen
- Revised injury timeline for Brian Pillman. He’ll be out around four weeks due to a torn right tricep.