November 14, 1988
- It is now official: Jerry Jarrett owns a controlling interest of World Class, though the deal was perilously close to falling through when we last touched this. On October 27 a deal had been reached, but the Von Erichs demanded that after a period of time controlling interest in the company would revert to them. Jarrett refused that and told them if they didn’t accept his offer by the following morning, they should never come to him again. Kerry Von Erich called the next morning and agreed to Jarrett’s terms, making Jarrett 60% owner of the company while Kevin and Kerry each own 20%. With his share of the money put up to clear company debts, Jerry Jarrett has also apparently saved the company’s channel 11 tv time slot in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, their most important time slot and one which the NWA was eyeing.
- Most would say this deal has saved World Class from going under, as their creditors were calling for payment and the company had no way to do so without this deal. Indeed, even making it to Superclash III seems to have been a dicey prospect. Impressively, and proof that Jarrett really did get what he wanted in this deal, the new deal allows Jarrett to fire the Von Erichs as wrestlers if they miss dates or they start performing poorly, a first ever, as the Von Erichs have maintained an iron claw on being the focus of the wrestling in World Class. Given the ailing state of World Class’s tv show and live attendance numbers, fixing those needs to be Jarrett’s first priority, and it appears he’s going to run Memphis and World Class in a promotion vs. promotion feud as the main attraction, with each area’s guys playing faces at home and heels in the other territory. Televised roller derby actually did a similar concept with the Bay Bombers of San Francisco, the New York Chiefs, and the Chicago Pioneers alternating face and heel status depending on the market, and while it was interesting it wasn’t able to keep televised roller derby afloat - within two years roller derby was gone from tv. That’s not to say this killed roller derby, but it is to say that it’s probably not a viable long term strategy.
- Of course, Jarrett buying World Class only complicates the title unification situation further. AWA’s tv runs nationwide on ESPN, Memphis really only airs in Tennessee and Kentucky, and World Class runs in a number of markets both of the others air in, including directly in Memphis. This is all important, because on ESPN (so national), Kerry got disqualified but kept his World Class title in a match from Nashville. Then on World Class’s tv show we had a double disqualification and both titles were held up, except both Lawler and Von Erich kept defending their titles in various cities. Then at the Cotton Bowl show, Kerry won via fast count by Frank Dusek and they announced that the AWA refused to recognize a title change because Dusek isn’t an AWA licensed referee, but did hold up the AWA title and said Lawler wasn’t champion anymore. Only they let Lawler keep defending the title elsewhere despite airing the finish and announcement of the hold up nationwide. Then on October 23 in Memphis they had the cage match that Lawler won, unifying the belts, which they aired in Dallas. All the while, AWA continued to advertise Kerry as World Class champion on ESPN, Lawler as AWA champion, and that Superclash III would be the unification match. Somehow, from October 23 through November 4, Kerry defended the World Class title (which he no longer held, officially speaking, every night, and the only cities in either territory to recognize the change were Dallas, Fort Worth, and Memphis. And even after airing the clip in Dallas showing Lawler unifying the title, they’re still advertising a unification match, and at the November 4 show in Dallas, Von Erich pinned Lawler but only won the World Class title. If you were able to keep up with this, your university must have been highly educated, because this is a complete mess.
- They Live opened this past Friday to mixed reviews. Dave’s seen critics giving it anywhere from 0 stars to 4 stars, and reviewers are similarly mixed on Piper. Of the six reviews Dave saw, two ignored Piper’s existence completely, two said he was great, one hated him, and one said he had no personality. The box office is the thing to watch, of course, so we’ll see if it’s on track to make money soon enough. Interestingly, the WWF was offered the opportunity to do a promotional tie-in, but they turned it down, which led to the studio offering the same deal to the NWA, which accepted. Anyway, Dave watched the movie and enjoyed it, and apparently the audience in the theater popped for Piper doing his suplexes during the big fight scene, despite the crowd not being wrestling fans. I guess now we know why movie theater audience pops mean something to Dave and why he thought Roman not getting a pop during Hobbes and Shaw meant anything.
- Speaking of Piper, his movie from last year, Buy and Cell, never did make it to theaters, but has been picked up for a direct to VHS release.
- TBS held a press conference officially announcing the purchase of Jim Crockett Promotions and the establishment of the Universal Wrestling Corporation. Jack Petrick is president of the UWC, and Jim Crockett is vice president. Dusty will remain on as booker through the end of the year at least.
- Last week Dave mentioned Jesse Ventura’s appearance on The Fan Speaks Out, an FNN phone-in show. Ventura talked about wrestling and steroids, and handled himself well, but he didn’t say too much of interest. What stood out included roasting Verne Gagne as a promoter, calling Hulk Hogan the greatest wrestler he’d ever wrestled, saying that all promos were off the cuff (not true), that wrestling was more honest as a business than rock and roll, and his exaggerated claim that 70% of today’s pro wrestlers are college graduates. Before Dave caught the show, someone had told him Ventura claimed there was no steroid problem in the WWF, but that was not quite right at all. Ventura in fact said that he’d estimate steroid use in wrestling as on par with football and said “I’m sure it’s abused everywhere” and that he has no idea if the WWF tests for steroids. Part of the reason for this interview is the fact that Ventura is an FDA spokesperson about the dangers of steroid use, which is surely important, but given his job and the role he plays on tv hyping up the steroid-enhanced physiques of so many wrestlers, maybe he’s not exactly the best spokesperson?
- FNN will be running a one-hour special on Bruiser Brody on November 12.
- The report Dave got from Stampede’s October 30 show in Camrose saw Rhonda Singh vs. Lola Gonzales in the best match on the show, better than the Chris Benoit match against Johnny Smith. I only pulled this because while I know how good Monster Ripper was in her heyday, I didn’t think I’d see a mention of one of her matches with “best match on the card” after it when there was a Benoit match on the same card. So, that’s pretty cool.
- Watch: This may be from the match in question
- Kerry Von Erich won the World Class title from Lawler on November 4 with a small package after the match restarted due to his foot being on the rope when the referee counted three. The pre-match is where this got really weird, because he took the mic and said he was going to kick Lawler’s ass and also he was filing for divorce and would be in the back after the match taking phone numbers now that he’s single. Kind of kills his All-American boy-next-door appeal, and the promotion was apparently not happy about this.
- Mel Saraceno’s new Pacific Coast Wrestling debuts on November 8 and will run cards in Salem and Eugene, Oregon. The commission apparently gave the okay to license the promotion after making Moondog Moretti, who is the promotion’s booker, promise not to push himself because booking and wrestling at the same time “just causes problems.”
- This past Saturday’s NWA show on TBS had the Road Warriors/Midnight Express title change, and Dave says it was one of the best done things the promotion has put on in a long time. Big credit to whoever laid out the match, and to all six involved in pulling it off, because successfully turning both teams in the same match so effectively was a feat of brilliance. And later in the show they did the bit with the original Midnight Express attacking Cornette’s Midnight Express in a really hot start to the angle, and the fact that Cornette and Dangerously will be going against each other on the mic is something Dave is loving. They’ve also got Ric Flair teasing that the Warriors will join the Horsemen.
- Watch: I think this is the finish to the match
- In Continental, the Bullet unmasked. It turns out he’s Bob Armstrong. Who knew?
- Over in Florida Championship Wrestling, Lord Humongous unmasked and was revealed to be Scott Hall. Also, Scotty the Body is probably the best newcomer the promotion has.
- Kimala’s coming back to World Class in the next week or two. He’s been wrestling over in West Germany lately, using the Kimala name but wearing a singlet, boots, and no face paint while wrestling a technical style. I’m really hoping someone can find a clip of this, because I'm not finding one unfortunately.
- Sid Eudy, the Lord Humongous of Continental, is going to be brought into New Japan soon as the “Vicious Warrior” and will get a Bruiser Brody type build up and presentation. So that’s where the “Vicious” starts with him.
- The most interesting letter this week is a suggestion that the NWA “practice ethnocentric practices” to improve its appeal. To clarify, the NWA has a tendency to emphasize the wrestlers’ backgrounds including what college they played sports for, while WWF promotes their international talent pool. The writer suggests the NWA should lean into this and bill jobbers as foreigners to show that foreign talent is second-rate, plant in their fans the idea that American wrestlers are superior to foreign wrestlers, and put down WWF for relying on overhyped foreigners. Just… What the fuck.
- Back to awards favorites, and I can’t wait for these to be done because they just take up space (only three more weeks). For Most Charismatic, Dave gives it to Akira Maeda, followed by Sting whose charisma is helping buoy him even though the promotion isn’t helping, and finally Ultimate Warrior, who seems to be on the rise. For Best Worker, a number of candidates come to mind, including Bobby Fulton and Owen Hart, but the one who stands out most is Samson Fuyuki of the Foot Loose. For Best Gimmick, it’s worth noting that this is for the best gimmick that has gotten someone over who otherwise wouldn’t or for the overall most entertaining gimmick. Beefcake’s gimmick may not be particularly entertaining, but it’s elevated his position far beyond where he has any right to be. Dave considers Kimala, Ted DiBiase, and Willie B. Hert, but ultimately gives the nod to Big Van Vader, because it “unquestionably worked, and took someone with very little ability and turned him into a major superstar and he wouldn’t have been anything without the gimmick.” Well, fortunately for Vader, he does eventually grow into the gimmick and get there skill wise.
- About a dozen WWF wrestlers reportedly got let go effective at the end of the month, with Brian Blair, Ken Patera, and Jim Brunzell being among them. Blair and McMahon apparently had a confrontation about this, and Blair is being replaced at Survivor Series by Lanny Poffo.
- Ron Garvin is coming to WWF around Christmas, and Tim Horner has started.
- An inside report indicates that WWF will lose at least $2 million on the Sugar Ray Leonard fight. Expect WWF to claim a much higher buyrate than reality, seeing as Jim Troy told media just this afternoon that sales were going better than for Wrestlemania IV. Closed circuit locations for the fight have been canceled around the country, and Leonard's opponent apparently has a forged record with wins against people who don't actually exist, so this is a big mess. In Dave's words: "Vince is going to show a lot of guts and maybe a lack of brains if he tries another boxing venture because this most likely will be a major financial bloodbath."