August 29, 1988
- This week’s issue is kind of weird, since Dave starts it off by printing a letter he received last week. It’s a long-winded letter that takes up most of the first page of the issue. At issue is the lawsuit in which Jim Wilson, a former NFL player-turned wrestler who got blacklisted from the NWA in 1973 and filed an antitrust lawsuit which was settled in 1985, and also the blacklisting of Eddie Mansfield after his 1982 run in Georgia. The writer feels that Dave too casually brushes off their claims due to the fact that neither was a top guy and, while Dave does show some sensitivity to the plight of wrestlers as a labor force, focuses too much on documenting the more easily researched and public-facing aspects of wrestling (results, contracts, etc.) and not enough on offering an interpretive context for the news it reports that doesn’t boil down to being a mark for the business itself. “Your capacity to dig for facts usually is commendable,” the writer says, “as is your, for some reason unremarked, ability to make the Observer a personally profitable venture.” The writer cites how Dave often writes about how such and another thing “exposes the business” or “hurts the business” and calls it out for being the language of promoters, how Dave calls on readers to contact stations and video merchants, the routine of reporting gate figures without discussion of how much of that money gets distributed to wrestlers and in what proportions, and so on. Does Dave describe the genuine persistent abuses of the business, reflect on the material conditions of the business and how they contributed to the deaths of Bruiser Brody or Adrian Adonis, touch on the lack of pensions and medical insurance for wrestlers, or call on readers to contact labor unions who might be encouraged to organize wrestlers (the writer notes some historical instances of attempts to start unions including that of Ted “King Kong” Cox in the 40s, Sgt. Slaghter talking about it a few years back, and Wilson and Mansield registering one in Georgia in 1981 that died after its initial members, which included one Randy Poffo, gave up when no mainstream labor union would support their efforts)? No, he does not, the writer says. Indeed, the writer notes how Dave’s own language used to describe Brody mirrors the language of promoters by calling him an “outlaw,” a “renegade,” and “hard to deal with.” Ultimately, the writer says to think the Observer has a reputation in the business as some pernicious thing is a total work. Dave exposes some secrets, but he doesn’t expose the real ones. The letter all but calls Dave the useful idiot and the wrestling industry’s media arm.
- Needless to say, Dave takes some exception to this and believes some of these things are mischaracterizations, but he also says that since it’s a bit of a slow news week, he wants to discuss some of this in depth and has wanted to for a while now. He disputed that Eddie Mansfield couldn’t find work after his Georgia stint in 1982 and cites seeing Mansfield in 1983 at a tv taping for Tully Blanchard’s promotion before disappearing and no-showing the next two weeks. He discusses Wilson and Mansfield’s appearance on 20/20 at the end of 1984, where they, to use the terminology used by both wrestlers and promoters, exposed the business to John Stossel, whom Dave describes as having “developed a hard-on for destroying the business” after getting slapped by David Shults in the dressing room at Madison Square Garden. Dave says he talked to Stossel a few times and tried to correct his presentation of the business as a monopoly, since by then the promotional war was really getting underway, but notes that Stossel never really pressed on some of the anticompetitive practices of the business beyond noting the promotion-arena exclusive contracts. To that end, Dave reflects on what he wrote at the time about the 20/20 piece, noting he said that Mansfield told the truth in the interview, but that in hindsight he was wrong about thinking Mansfield’s exposure of the business wouldn’t affect the business when it wound up drawing more attention and fueling the growth of the wrestling boom.
- Watch: A clip from the 20/20 episode in question, the longest one I can find
- Dave moves on to discuss the history of litigation against promoters. He touches on the Justice Department’s investigation of the NWA in the 50s which was settled and the NWA never had to admit to its antitrust violations and blacklisting in exchange for rewriting their bylaws to prohibit those actions (though they did them anyway). He talks about Bruno suing Vince Sr., Ron Starr suing Leroy McGuirk, and other instances. Moving on from that, Dave says Wilson and Mansfield’s attempt at a union was “almost a joke” (he never elaborates on that, which weakens his argument, imo) and says that a union is good in theory, but few wrestlers he’s talked to are even willing to entertain the idea that one could be successful. Even so, Dave does want to talk about some of the abuses, and highlights that treating pro wrestlers as independent contractors when they simply aren’t is one of the biggest. It means they both lose wages and have to foot the bill when they’re hurt, causing them to return prematurely and either work at diminished capacity or hurt themselves again. It means they have to cover their own hotel, rental cars, and other living expenses on the road, killing their paychecks. The travel schedule is inhumane. Then there’s the pressure from promoters to pursue unnatural physiques and use and abuse steroids, with detrimental health effects. All good points, but I wish he’d push this further rather than spending another page and a half responding. Dave doesn’t think wrestling is any different from other sports in that regard, though, which reads a little like excusing wrestling for not being better than other sports. He agrees that it is indefensible that wrestlers don’t have any kind of medical insurance and rarely get paid while hurt and recovering, but doesn’t see the business as stable enough to offer pensions (two promotions folded in the past few weeks, after all, and probably only WWF is operating at a profit today). Honestly, it’s nice to see Dave try a bit to discuss labor rights and wrestling a bit here, but some of his points are kind of facile and I don’t think he presses enough when he can.
- Dave’s response is still ongoing on page 3 as he discusses the term “The Business,” used in the letter and his response, and how it’s an error to present the wrestling industry as any kind of monolith. Sure, promoters may individually agree with other promoters on not using certain wrestlers, but no coordinated efforts exist nowadays to blacklist wrestlers because there is zero unity of purpose among promoters. Dave also feels there’s a difference between a “marginal performer,” as he had previously described Jim Wilson, feeling like he cannot find work, and a major attraction getting blacklisted.
- Dave then goes on a long tangent about a soccer player he covered for his college newspaper who was both an incredibly talented athlete and a total fuckup, George Best. And there is a point to it, though I’m still not sure what Dave’s opinion on the matter is. Best had so much early success in his career that it took a toll and led him to having major issues with alcohol dependency, and eventually he got sacked by Man U, got brought in by a bunch of teams over the next several years effectively to draw people to games but never remained anywhere for long, and in his mid-30s was a washed up drunkard playing for the San Jose Earthquakes, but even then he still had enough flashes of his star performer quality that despite screwing up at every turn, he never got blackballed. Dave says if he weren’t a star attraction but more moderate in his talent, he wouldn’t have lasted in the sport and would have been gone 16 years earlier, rather than still having a place (and eventually he started missing games in San Jose as a habit and wound up gone from there too). See Bruiser Brody. Brody was a great athlete and had incredible marketability. If he hadn’t been so talented and didn’t have such striking character, image, and star quality, he wouldn’t have lasted in wrestling and been able to make his own rules. Few in the wrestling industry, Dave says, ever have a bad thing to say about Brody. He was a smart man and genuinely friendly, but he played hardball with promoters and chose to be an outlaw rather than having that label forced upon him. In a roundabout way, I guess the moral of the story is this (and Dave seems to imply it, but doesn’t say it outright): if you have star quality, you’ll have a million chances thrown at you no matter what, even if you actively play hardball in business negotiations and stand your ground against those with hiring and firing power, and even if you are a fuckup on a personal level (I’m not trying to pick on Jeff Hardy here, but he’s the first example to come to mind of someone who has had his issues continually plague his career, while remaining highly successful despite those issues being sufficient to end the careers of others). Meanwhile, people perceived to have less star quality won’t be given those chances, even if they have their shit together, if they so much as step one toe out of line (Zelina Vega feels appropriate for a recent example). Is it fair? Dave doesn’t ask the question. I don’t think it is, personally. Does it make a certain sense, if you analyze the situation only in terms of the monetary value you can extract from having X performer employed vs. Y performer? Yes, but again, Dave doesn’t ask that question, and I consider capitalist reasoning to be inherently flawed, so if something only makes sense when analyzed via profit motive, that says to me that it only makes sense if we all pretend capitalism and profit motive makes sense. I don’t. Dave, who does make a profit off the Observer and thus has a profit motive, seems to, and in that respect I think the writer is correct in judging that while Dave tries for factual accuracy, he doesn’t analyze the facts sufficiently to really present what they mean.
- Here, have a documentary about George Best
- Finally, Dave responds to the letter’s charge that the business loves the Observer. “The Business” has no opinion on the Observer, he says. People within the business have opinions, some who like the Observer, many who hate it, including those with major power over promotions. Wrestling is a business. Ostensibly, there’s a profit drive there, though as many promotions seem to be driven by ego as by profit motive, he notes. Dave feels it’s unfortunate that wrestlers are often sold a false bill of goods by promoters, but he doesn’t see a difference between wrestling and Hollywood in that regard - for every actor who makes it big, there are a thousand starving. All of sports and entertainment are equally guilty of the kinds of abuses the wrestling business inflicts upon its performers. The average pro football career spans only four years, the sport is so brutal. Minor league baseball players toil in obscurity for a hotdog and a handshake in the hope of getting into the Majors, just as minor league wrestlers do. And like the Observer, entertainment exposes don’t tend to dwell on the specifics of how an actor’s contract screwed them over, but more focus on the backstage drama or whether the movie was good or bad or whatever. In the end, Dave concludes by saying he’s nothing more than a reporter trying to do “as accurate and honest a job as possible in covering a business in which accomplishing those goals is impossible.” And whatever our opinions on Dave and whether he truly hews to that, I can honestly say that that’s a spot on description of the dilemma facing anyone trying to provide any level of journalistic insight into the wrestling business. Wrestling is a business predicated on lying about what it is and what is happening behind the curtain at every turn. Trying to get a clear sense of what’s behind that curtain is almost a fool’s errand. It doesn’t mean you have to cape for the industry and deflect to how it’s not any different from other sports and entertainment fields when its abuses and excesses are called out, though.
- On to the actual news, now that half the issue is gone. The deal between Turner and the NWA has not been completed, but it appears the time is near, as Ted Turner has apparently set Friday as some kind of deadline for negotiations. Dave’s sources within Turner say that paperwork could be signed as soon as Monday, though there are still small hold-ups. A bunch of wrestlers met with Jack Petrick, who would oversee wrestling operations upon the completion of the sale, and Ric Flair and Dusty Rhodes both met with Billionaire Ted himself. Dave anticipates finalization of a sale to result in big changes within the first 3-4 months, particularly with an eye toward boosting tv ratings and national visibility, which would help improve on its dismal ppv showings in the Northeast and West Coast.
- WWF won the bid to co-promote the Sugar Ray Leonard boxing ppv on November 7. It’s the first time WWF has gone into boxing, but their success at promoting ppv helped them win over both HBO and Viacom. Worth noting, WWF’s involvement is strictly on the ppv end of things and publicity. If nothing else, it’ll add more fuel to the Hogan/Tyson rumors. Additionally, Vince McMahon is now co-producing a tv show (Bob Costas has a new talk show on NBC), so along with the boxing ppv and the Hogan movie, which has people wondering if he’s spreading himself too thin and if WWF can survive Vince exploring interests outside wrestling? Does he think wrestling has peaked and he’s looking for the next big thing? No way to say whether Vince can do it all yet, so we’ll just have to wait and see. Spoilers: Vince’s non-wrestling ventures have never been what one would call the biggest of successes.
- UWF’s August 13 show in Tokyo was a big success. Tickets sold out two months ago, all 12,000 in a span of six hours. The show was even shown in three other locations via closed-circuit, bringing the total gate to a reported $800,000, making it the biggest money show ever put on by a promotion outside the WWF and NWA. Maeda made karate champion Gerard Gordeau submit in the fourth round of their match, and Maeda even sold a lot for Gordeau to make the match, though he apparently got beat up pretty hard for real in the process. In other matches, Kazuo Yamazaki pinned Nobuhiko Takada, Norman Smiley made Yoji Anjyo submit, and Shigeo Miyato made Tetsuo Nakano submit. Their next show is going to be in September, with Mada vs. Yamazaki headlining, while world sambo wrestling champion Chris Dolman will face Maeda at a future event before the end of the year.
- Former tv announcer Jim Carlisle, who worked the Georgia NWA territory from 1969-1984, died this past weekend. His heyday was before the days of tape trading, so he’s mostly well known in the Georgia area. He was 49.
- Iron Mike Sharpe’s father, Mike Sharpe Sr., died of a heart attack at the age of 67. He and his brother Ben were a major tag team on the West Coast in the 50s and even had some notoriety in Japan for their role in helping get wrestling going in Japan. They even main evented the first major wrestling card in Japan, according to Dave, back in 1954.
- Steve Williams was brought up on charges this past Tuesday of drug trafficking. Allegedly he was carrying 3g of cocaine, 23g of marijuana, and a small amount of mushrooms to Japan. The story hasn’t gotten much press outside the Detroit area, where he’s being arraigned, and Dave suspects this is in part because he doesn’t work for WWF, which would make the story bigger news and probably lead Vince to let him go if he worked there (and probably bring him back, a la Duggan and Sheik). Williams has not been let go by the NWA.
- Col./Cpl. Kirchner was sentenced to 180 days in prison in Florida for non-payment of child support. He’s also been ordered to undergo rehab.
- NWA’s Luger/Flair rematches are getting over really well, in part because each city is selling their show as their “only rematch.” Dave further remarks about the ending to the Bash ppv, and says that whatever he thinks about the execution or even if it was a good idea, the fact that the rematches draw means that the Bash ending knocked it out of the park. Forget about the idea that it pissed off fans - they’re eager for more.
- Ron Garvin and Tim Horner are gone from the NWA. Garvin is apparently AWA-bound and was either fired over a misunderstanding or quit. Tim Horner was supposed to do a job as part of an angle and for footage to be used in the show “Learning the Ropes,” but well, he didn’t want to so he’s gone and Trent Knight subbed in for him. He might head to Continental.
- David Sheldon, who plays the role of Russian Assassin in the NWA, is learning Russian to be more believable in the role. Good on him.
- AWA’s August 20 taping was their biggest crowd in a while, which is telling about how little they were able to utilize Curt Hennig as a draw. The only no-show of the night was Jimmy Valiant. Looking at the results, nothing really of note. Col. DeBeers is managed by Diamond Dallas Page and got a lot of heat, but otherwise meh.
- Verne Gagne has been saying that the NWA is about to fold and he’s going to pick up pretty much everyone but Flair, Dusty, and Tully Blanchard. Sure you are, Verne.
- AWA’s ppv has been moved from November to December 26, the same date TBS has an NWA ppv scheduled for. Dave quips he’s sure that Verne had no idea about that overlap and will just have to find another excuse to reschedule.
- Brother Love’s guest at Summerslam will apparently no longer be a wrestler. The word going around is that it will be Jessicha Hahn, who is famous for her case against Jim Bakker and her subsequent spread in Playboy last year. Even though that’s the word, it’s not clear that negotiations with Hahn have been finalized. This isn't going to happen and we'll just wind up with Jim Duggan shouting "Hooo!" a bunch for no real reason. Honestly, I'm not sure why they didn't just scrap having a Brother Love segment at all, given these options.
- Verne Gagne apparently said that if they hadn’t suspended Curt Hennig, he would have gotten beat by Rocky Mountain Thunder anyway. Okay, who spiked Verne’s apple juice with drugs this week?
- Dave got to watch the Barry Horowitz vs. Owen Hart match from LA last week and gives it 3 stars. They sold really well, but it could have been much faster paced.
- Notes from Puerto Rico: Both the July 29 tv taping and August 6 stadium show had ticket prices cut in half (from $6 to $3 and $8 to $4, respectively) to encourage crowds. Despite crowds being down since Brody’s murder, they’re not as down as anticipated.
- All Japan announced the card for its Bruiser Brody Memorial Show. The card itself is nothing special, but it will include a memorial service for Brody, and his wife and son will be brought in. There’s talk of the show selling out Budokan Hall, which last happened for wrestling around a decade ago.
- The saga of the Lawler/Von Erich title unifications continues, as Lawler was the apparent winner of the World Class title on August 15 in Memphis and August 16 in Louisville. The finish both nights saw the two referees knocked out, leading to Billy Travis counting Von Erich down despite his foot being on the ropes. They awarded the title to Lawler both nights, and on tv over the weekend they announced that Lawler reviewed the tapes and returned the belt to Kerry because he didn’t win fairly.
- Cactus Jack Foley, a top independent worker from the Northeast, has started in Memphis as a member of the Stud Stable. Dave says he “looked okay in his TV debut.”
- Memphis is absolutely murdering Brickhouse Brown’s face run by having him go on tv begging Black fans to support him. They’re trying to get him over as a Black babyface star, Dave says (though honestly, if this is trying, then I’d hate to see what it would look like if they put no effort into this). Especially considering this week they re-aired the watermelon angle (which got mentioned a few issues back) as part of an interview with Brown to help get him over. Dave says if they hadn’t told anyone Brown was Black, “even the folks in Memphis would have been smart enough to figure it out on their own.” Damn, that was a pretty sick burn. Anyway, if you're interested in seeing what they did with Brown this week, here it is below, replay of the watermelon angle and all. I don't know about you, but it sounds like Dave is basing his characterization of Brown as "begging for Black fans' support" here is probably based off faulty reports from viewers in the area, because I didn't quite take putting the weight of his people on his shoulders as begging for support.
- Watch: Watermelon angle and aftermath part 1
- Watch: Watermelon angle and aftermath part 2
- Bill Kunkel, a former wrestling journalist, comic book artist, and video game journalist (he even has his own wikipedia entry), writes in this week about Bruiser Brody. He feels that Brody was trapped, almost, by his stardom in Japan, and that the attempts by Japanese wrestling promotions to outsmart the generally smarter fans in Japan have led to results like Brody not feeling like he could sell for midcarders on the other side of the world if Japanese photographers were around. He considers this evidence that American fans smartening up could have unforseen negative consequences on the business. Dave responds to point out that while Japan has a higher proportion of fans smart to the basics of the business, that ought to mean mean they’d understand Brody selling for midcarders in photos more readily than un-smartened up fans, wouldn't it? Contrary to Bill, Dave thinks Japan’s a good case study on how wrestling can flourish even with smart fans and magazines revealing the intricacies of how it all works and the backstage stuff.
- Ken Mantell is rumored to be opening a new promotion outside of Texas. If he does, expect a lot of his talent roster to come at the expense of World Class.
- In Continental, Paul E. Dangerously probably had the line of the week, maybe the month. Ron West threatened to suspend him and Eddie Gilbert, to which Dangerously responded “You can suspend us, but we’ll just do what everybody else does, we’ll come back as the Midnight Rider.” Yeah, it’s no “MY HOLE!” but it’s a damn good line. Joe Pedecino followed that up by saying it wouldn’t surprise him if Eddie Gilbert did “something as low class as come back at the Midnight Rider.” Unfortunately, I couldn't find this online - the best youtube channel for CWF shows has August 20 and September 3, but doesn't have August 27, so if someone has CWF August 27, 1988, they have the episode with this line. Please share it if you have it.
- Tv show “A Current Affair” has interviewed both Lou Thesz and Bruno Sammartino for a segment on Bruiser Brody’s death.