Wrestling Observer Rewinder

December 16, 1991

It looks like the end of the road for Portland Wrestling, which has aired for 38 years in the state of Oregon. High production costs and declining ratings have led KPTV to cancel the show after nearly 4 decades. Promoter Don Owens doesn't know if the cancellation is the end of the promotion (it pretty much was) but Owen Promotions is probably the oldest active wrestling company in the world, dating back to the mid-1920s. Live shows will continue every Saturday night at the Portland Sports Arena but without TV to promote it, that can't last long. Aside from ratings and production costs, the show's sponsor, Tom Peterson recently filed bankruptcy, leaving the show without sponsorship money. Word is KPTV is negotiating with both WWF and WCW to air their shows in the Saturday time-slot, which would give them wrestling on the same night, without the production costs. If this does signal the end of Owen Promotions as a company, it would leave Lawler/Jarrett's Memphis promotion USWA as the only surviving regional territory.
This isn't in the Observer, but Wikipedia says that at the time of it's cancellation, Portland Wrestling was the longest running non-news show on television and the third longest overall behind Meet The Press and CBS Evening News. To this day, it's still one of the top 20 longest running shows in television history.
Dynamite Kid announced his retirement this past Friday after completing the All Japan tour. A back injury 5 years ago turned him from one of the best wrestlers on earth to a shell of his former self and he also is plagued by neck, shoulder, and knee problems. The neck injury is what caused doctors to tell him one more bump could paralyze him. Dave goes on to write a long piece about Dynamite Kid that is basically the same as every obituary he writes when a guy dies. Notable mentions are given to "the greatest bump ever taken" when he apparently did a diving headbutt from the top rope to the outside of the ring on concrete (which I couldn't find video of) and of course, the back injury in 1986 that almost ended his career.
The Tuesday In Texas PPV took place in front of a sellout crowd of 8000 people (which Gorilla Monsoon repeatedly announced as "over 20,000" just in case you think the announcing nowadays is ridiculous). Buyrate-wise, the show seems to have been a pretty big success, doing solid numbers despite having no budget or promotion going into it. As predicted, the main event led to the WWF title being held up for the Royal Rumble. Also, the Jake Roberts/Macho Man angle, with Roberts slapping Miss Elizabeth was one of the most dramatic angles in WWF history.
The WCW/New Japan show for 1/4 has been booked and they're hoping they can equal or break the attendance record of 64,500. Jim Ross on television claims 40,000 tickets have already been sold but Dave doesn't know if that's true.
Apparently there's a story going around that Mike Tyson challenged Hulk Hogan to a match, but there hasn't been any negotiations for anything like that to happen. The PPV potential is obviously huge though.
Superstar Billy Graham finally broke his long silence in a 3-hour interview with Inside Edition. Clips of it are set to air in a segment on the show in early January.
There was a big newspaper story about steroid use in the NFL, which isn't directly wrestling related but shows that steroids are still a major news story in the media and wrestling can't hide from it forever. One story mention in the article is about how some members of the Philadelphia Eagles cheated a steroid test by bringing a guy in who inserted a catheter tube into each player, withdrew the tainted urine and then pumped the players bladders full of clean urine so they could pass the test. Holy shit.
In Japan, SWS officials arranged a meeting during the All Japan tournament and tried to get 5 of All Japan's top foreign stars to jump ship to WWF and also work for SWS. Three of them declined but word is that two others were very interested and the announcement could come as soon as this week (I don't think anything ever came of this).
Reporters in Japan are pissed because after Hogan won the title from Undertaker at Tuesday in Texas, SWS informed the media that Hogan would be defending the title against Tenryu at the Japan show. Of course, the next night on WWF TV, the title was vacated, so Hogan will not be the champion when he comes to Japan. The media feels like SWS spread the story in order to sell more tickets, despite knowing that Hogan would be stripped of the title the next day.
In more Japan news, at an FMW show, The Sheik threw a fireball which ended up legitimately causing a decent sized fire in the ring and causing panic until someone got a fire extinguisher and put it out. Just wait another 6 months....
On the debut taping of Smoky Mountain Wrestling, Jim Cornette cut a promo going off on WCW, WWF, cartoon wrestling, steroids, and more.
WCW is showing interest in The Patriot so he may be heading out of GWF soon.
The ever delightful Herb Abrams sent a threatening letter to the father of a 15 year old kid who criticized him in his homemade newsletter and now he's claiming to have both Jimmy Snuka and Hercules signed to 1-year contracts. Given that both guys are actively wrestling under contract in WWF right now, take that as you will.
Ultimate Warrior's wife Shari is featured in this month's Playboy Lingerie magazine (I googled this...because of course I did...and it's Warrior's first wife. They actually got divorced in early 1991, so at the time this was written, they weren't married anymore. But hey, if anyone wants to try to find that...)
At the latest TV tapings, Shawn Michaels turned on Marty Jannetty, who then jumped through the Barber Shop window in an act of cowardism. Also, Brian Lee, Kevin Von Erich, Chris Adams, The Harris Brothers, and Charles Wright got tryouts. Wright is likely going to be hired and may get turned into a voodoo man gimmick (and so he did).
Sid Justice is expected to return at the Royal Rumble.
WWF got into some trouble in Vancouver when the Bushwackers led the crowd in a chant of "faggot!" at the Beverly Brothers, which upset some people. The city of Vancouver is demanding WWF make a public apology.
Harley Race is staying with WCW, though no longer with Luger. He'll be managing Vader and Mr. Hughes.
On the Wrestling Hotline, Jim Ross acknowledged some possible wrestlers coming to WCW. He said Ultimate Warrior was "a big long-shot" but that Terry Gordy, Steve Williams and Scott Norton were possibilities and that Great Muta will be back in early 1992.
In Florida, due to the possible regulation being considered, both WWF and WCW have been posting signs outside the venue alerting fans of possible match changes and no-shows, which they aren't doing in any of the other 49 states.
Update on the charity thing from Starrcade to the Starlight Foundation, it's actually either 8 cents per PPV buy or 16 cents, depending on who you believe, which would be anywhere from $12,000-$24,000 for the charity. In exchange, WCW is hoping to get a major celebrity like John Candy to be a part of Starrcade but that doesn't seem likely. Word is the charity will send a minor celebrity instead (I'm not sure if they did?).