Observer tidbits I have seen

thats for now

You know Vince, he loved his foreign heels

Sorry cant resist....

''F*** the Brian Blair!''

I kind of like the idea of Vince vs. Jesse at WrestleMania. A battle of the commentators with Gorilla Monsoon as the special guest referee. During the match, it looks like Vince has Jesse beat, then out comes the weasel Heenan and he helps Jesse secure the win. Gorilla would catch Jesse every time he tried to cheat in the match, giving Vince a chance, so Heenan comes out to distract the big ape so Jesse can cheat and get the win. 

---So after Wrestlemania, what’s next? Andre and JYD seem to be heading out, and Piper’s gone for a while. Adonis vs. Beefcake is an obvious, though sure to disappoint feud. Duggan has some options, but you can’t push him to the top of the card right away. Jake Roberts vs. Honkytonk isn’t headline material because of Honkytonk. Bulldogs and Hart Foundation has too much else going on, and it’s not going to headline either. Outside of Hogan feuds, the only headline feud Dave sees possible is Savage vs. Steamboat, and that already peaked. Fortunately WWF has a month off to figure out how they’ll rebuild from here.

----Regarding the Freebirds in UWF, their status is unclear. They’ve been released from their contracts, but they’ll work full time through the end of April. Also Hayes’s album is coming out soon, and everyone knows he wants to make it in music. Terry Gordy’s big concern is his Japan deal, and working nightly in the US with a bad knee won’t be great for his chances there, so he might want to work limited dates.

====Junkyard Dog seems to be out the door while Ken Patera is in the door of WWF. JYD had a best of tape in production, but WWF halted production a few weeks back.

---[WWF] Dave thinks Roddy Piper might actually be hanging it up. For now. His last Pit was real good, and didn’t set up a return angle. Dave is skeptical Piper can get the wrestling disease out of his system for good, but it’s possible he’s the rare one who can. L

----A young fellow named Paul E. Dangerously has been managing a 6’8” rookie named Lord Humongous in Memphis. Humongous is humongously bad, but reports say Dangerously is dangerously good.

this is for APRIL 1987



Jim Crockett Promotions has bought the Universal Wrestling Federation (formerly Mid South) from Bill Watts. The deal has not been signed at the time of writing, but the ink will be dry by the time you read this. This will probably be the biggest story of 1987, but Dave can’t get into details on the deal yet, so that will have to wait, but it leaves the fate of pro wrestling in two men’s hands: Vince McMahon and Jim Crockett, who will likely make roughly 90-95% of all money made in wrestling in the U.S. for the rest of the year. They also have under contract nearly every major wrestler in the country.

Dave isn’t sure what to make of the deal yet. The plan seems to be to keep UWF on as its own entity, similar to how Crockett is running Florida (and the blueprint for how WWF intended to run WCW 14 years later after buying them out). All UWF wrestlers should be given the chance to stay on, but there are a number of questions now. The Freebirds were planning to trim their schedule in UWF down to just major shows, which may not fly with Crockett. WWF is known to want Steve Williams as a heel, but since he’s contracted to UWF it’s unclear if Crockett will have to renegotiate contracts or if he just owns the UWF contracts outright. Williams is in a great bargaining position with his drawing power in Japan and being a guy Crockett will want to build around. Also the JCP talent roster is now the deepest on the continent with the addition of the UWF guys. Not the strongest, because Hogan’s draw is so great, but certainly the best talent as far as producing quality wrestling.


We’re real close to the Crockett Cup, and Magnum T.A. has been announced to be at the show. Dave thinks it positions Dusty Rhodes and Nikita Koloff as the favorites to win, and Dave has no clue what’s going to happen here because Lane joining the Midnight Express breaks up his existing team while Dutch Mantell has himself double booked with a show in Alabama and may not actually show up, (he’s one half of the Jayhawks). Dave guesses Dusty and Nikita will beat the Midnights in one semifinal while Rick Rude and Manny Fernandez will beat the Armstrongs, leading to Dusty and Nikita winning the final. But his predictions last year were way off, so grain of salt and all.

Florida notes: Scott Hall seems to be getting phased down in Florida. Perhaps even out. He’s tumbling down the card lately. Also the Southern Title has been kind of forgotten. Kevin Sullivan recently quipped that Mike Rotunda doesn’t even own the “O” to his name, a reference to his WWF name Mike Rotundo. It seems likely WWF trademarked the Rotundo name, which prevents Rotunda from using it. But he can use Rotunda since it’s his real name.

[NWA] The Road Warriors debuted a new finisher on TBS on Saturday. It’s the one where Hawk comes off the top and clotheslines the opponent off Animal’s shoulders

Jim Crockett Promotions reportedly bought Mid-South Sports (the Universal Wrestling Federation) for $4 million. The deal was finalized on April 9, and Dave hasn’t seen the actual paperwork but he calls bullcrapon that price. No way was it that high, and Dave has some sources who say the real price was a lot less than you’d think, but it looks like nothing has ever truly come out since to contradict the $4 million number. The purchase agreement was officially for the assets of Mid-South Sports: more than a dozen rings, plus tv and arena contracts. Crockett didn’t purchase the contracts of the wrestlers, and will instead negotiate with them individually (and probably be able to offer more than they were making with UWF). The Universal Wrestling Federation will shamble on as a zombie promotion. They’ll remain separate, though they will recognize Ric Flair as world champion, and the UWF title will be a “stepping stone” to the NWA title with the UWF champion as designated number one contender. Sounds like a promotion of midcarders. Crockett will be moving the UWF headquarters to Dallas, and Dave supposes this means all of JCP tv headquarters might be there (though they’ll still produce the shows in Charlotte). Talent will move back and forth between UWF and JCP/NWA, and the Rock’n’Roll Express was supposed to head in for May, but with Ricky Morton’s eye injury (more on that later) that’s uncertain. Bill Watts also signed a no-compete clause preventing him from promoting wrestling. Dave’s heard two different versions, with one saying that the clause is for two years and the other for ten. The debts of UWF were not purchased, nor was the tape library, so both of those remain in Watts’ hands (Watts loses the tape library to his ex-wife Ene in their divorce settlement. Ene then sells the rights to WWE in 2012, which is how UWF/Mid-South made it onto the WWE Network).

The zombified corpse of UWF is shambling about in the news still. The April 18 tapings of Power Pro Wrestling have happened, and several Crockett ideas have been implemented. UWF will now have longer ring introductions (fans aren’t happy but will probably get used to it), Jim Ross has been put at ringside for ring announcing duties rather than having a podium in the back, and Big Bubba Rogers is the only JCP/NWA guy to come over so far. Magnum T.A. will be the new color commentator starting at the next tapings, and John Ayres of the San Francisco 49ers will be the new commissioner (his teammate, Russ Francis, has been doing color for AWA tapings in Vegas and refereed a few matches as well, and later on we’ll note he’s making his wrestling debut on the May 2 card there). Ayres was a teammate of Tully Blanchard, Manny Fernandez, Ted DiBiase, Tito Santana, and Kelly Kiniski in his college days at West Texas State. Ayres has talked about jumping to pro wrestling when his football career is done (which Dave figures is probably a year or so from now). Popping ahead to the future: Ayres won’t go on to a pro wrestling career after his football career, and will retire following his jump to the Broncos and loss in the SuperBowl in 1988.



Dingo Warrior was fired in WCCW for refusing to job to Nord the Barbarian

Memphis: Paul E. Dangerously has been renamed. He’s now Paul Dangerly, and he’s managing Austin Idol.

June 1987

--The Global Wrestling Alliance is the first wrestling promotion to be syndicated and have a public stock option. They went public at 10 cents a share, then wound up opening at 30 cents a share. As of two weeks ago, they were 80 cents a share. And that’s where the good news ends. They did their first taping on May 10, intending to tape four hours of shows, but due to many problems only got two hours. Most of the big names they had advertised no-showed. They did manage to get Ivan Putski, Angelo Poffo, and Boris Malenko (who was supposed to wrestle but instead managed his sons Joe and Dean). And the Malenko boys broke the ring.

---Dingo Warrior turned down WWF’s offer to be a non-televised prelim guy. He’ll be back in WCCW by the time this issue is out. Also WCCW is dwindling significantly - they drew 50 for their May 14 show in Shreveport for a card meant to be headlined by Kevin Von Erich vs. Nord the Barbarian (both of whom no-showed due to Nord leaving and Kevin being injured). They’ve also canceled the annual July 4 Star Wars card.

---The biggest story of the week is Jim Duggan and Iron Sheik arrested on drug charges. They were arrested at 2:20 pm on May 26 in Middletown New Jersey on their way to that night’s show. When pulled over they were discovered to have been smoking marijuana, and Duggan had been drinking a bottle of beer while driving. They further found more marijuana on Duggan and three grams of cocaine in Sheik’s shaving kit. They were released later that day and worked the show, but it also hit the news in several major cities. And since the two were in a major feud, this is doubly embarrassing to WWF that they were traveling and doing drugs together. News reports all had it that they’d been suspended, but WWF fired both later that week. Dave’s understanding is that Sheik is highly unlikely to work for WWF ever again (he’ll be back in February). Dave is more optimistic that Duggan will eventually be brought back, though he imagines it will require a character tweak. This is extra embarrassing for Duggan, because his home town of Glens Falls, New York was scheduled to have Jim Duggan Day this week. Also Jim Duggan Sr. is the chief of police in Glens Falls.

---The tv tapings this week should give a good idea of how some of the new WWF hires will be used. DiBiase and Bigelow will be mostly in Japan until August, but with Duggan out and Jake Roberts undergoing surgery on June 4, there’s a lack of drawing babyfaces, so Savage may make his turn soon to fill that gap. The Rockers coming in is probably the end of any hope for Martel and Zenk as major team (and when Martel and Zenk came in, the Rougeaus were the team with the rocket). They just never got as over as hoped, and it’s obvious that WWF fans don’t really see tag teams as a draw but rather as interchangeable, so if the Rockers want to get over they’ll probably need to have a big breakout win early. Like the tag titles.

----JYD and Paul Orndorff will be coming back to WWF in mid-June. Orndorff didn’t get the recommended surgery and just rested up for 11 weeks. To Dave’s surprise, they’re giving JYD another chance.

---[UWF] Sting turned face at the May 31 tapings. He had a match with Terry Taylor, then got beat down by Taylor, Eddie Gilbert, and former partner Rick Steiner. Chris Adams made the save for Sting, so it’s looking like we have a new team and some potential feud configurations.

---Scott Steiner, who won the World Wrestling Association World Heavyweight Championship in his first pro match last year, lost the title to Greg Wojokowski. He’s said to be moving in with his brother Rick, so we might expect him to pop up on UWF cards now and again.

---Speaking of Duggan and Sheik getting arrested. According to Dave’s source, they have been fired and “Will never work for Titan again.” Wrestlers have been told neither name is to be mentioned in promos or otherwise ever again. The obvious leap is for Duggan to go back to UWF, but Dave finds that unlikely. Dave doesn’t think Duggan’s going to be in too much legal trouble over a little marijuana, unless a judge wants to make a reputation for himself. Sheik might be in deeper trouble. As for what his source has to say, Dave says to remember that when it comes to wrestling, never say never.

--Dave thinks there might be a connection between Florida rookie Johnny Ace and Johnny Weaver. Weaver’s first ring name was Johnny Ace, and Ace uses Weaver’s sleeper to finish matches. And he’s allowed to win matches, unlike other rookies in Crockett’s stable. Gordon Solie makes a big deal about his charisma (what he needs is a charisma transfusion). He’s a good looking kid like Ricky Morton, but 8 inches taller. He’s pretty good considering his experience level. Makes sense, he’s got that people power.

--We’re two weeks away from July, and that means Crockett is in heavy hype mode for the Great American Bash tour. The big angle is Dusty Rhodes vs. Tully Blanchard following their June 6 match in Greensboro. Dusty won that match, but after the three J.J. Dillon stole the $100,000 while Blanchard got his foot on the rope. Referee Tommy Young saw the foot after Rhodes chased down Dillon, and then ordered the match restarted, and Rhodes was counted out while he was in the parking lot. So this year’s tour figures to be a good one for you if you’re a Dusty fan, because he’s going to main event nearly every show in a cage or a barbed wire match against Blanchard. If you aren’t a Dusty fan, July might be a good time for a break, because Dusty is someone they’ve centered everything around. Every promo from last Saturday’s show (with the exception of Jim Cornette’s promo) focused on Rhodes and making him the sympathetic center of attention. They’ve even been putting in Dusty and Flair clips on the UWF shows, and Dave’s sure that Rhodes will eventually put himself at the center of everything in UWF, just like he did with Florida.

---WWF has some big angle planned for the late summer/early fall. Dave’s not sure what it is, but he’s guessing something like Hogan/Andre matches at baseball stadiums with Mr. T as a referee. Mr. T is still a hot commodity, so he’s pretty sure they’re going to build something with him as a referee. They’ve booked Exhibition Stadium in Toronto for August (I’m guessing that might be canceled later, as it’s nowhere on cagematch) and Dave can’t think of what else they could do to pack it, so he’s guessing it has to be Hogan/Andre.

Miscellaneous WWF updates: Steamboat’s sabbatical should be about 6 months, so he’ll be back in 1988. Jake Roberts is expected back in the ring by the end of July, so while he’s recovering he’s been touring and being in different guys’ corners as they take his place in matches. Harley Race tore some ligaments in his knee and missed this past week. Freddie Blassie is “easing back into wrestling.” Dave doubts he’s going to take an active role in front of a camera, but rather just be a good-will ambassador. Dave gives -1½ stars to Billy Jack Haynes vs. Danny Davis at the June 7 Sacramento house show because “how else can you rate an 8:00 match when they never touched until 7:35 and on the second move, Hernandez interfered for the dq.” Also Leilani Kai and Judy Martin are being billed as world tag team champions to defend against the Jumping Bomb Angels in July.

--In Florida, Mike Rotunda is champion again after beating Dory Funk on June 7. They’re also mentioning Terry Funk a lot, so he’ll probably be teaming with Dory against Dusty Rhodes and Kevin Sullivan at the Orange Bowl what with Sullivan’s hinting that he’ll help Rhodes against the Four Horsemen.

---JCP has a new match idea scheduled for July 4 at the Omni called “The Match Beyond. Two teams: Road Warriors & Dusty & Nikita & Paul Ellering vs. The Four Horsemen & J.J. Dillon. Two rings, one cage with a roof covering both rings. Two men start for five minutes, then the team that wins a coin toss (the heels) get to put a man in for two minutes before the second face enters, repeat until all five are in after 21 minutes and then someone can actually win. From the 21 minute mark, they go on until one person surrenders (Dave firmly expects it to be Dillon surrendering to Dusty). It’s a unique gimmick, but fans it Atlanta are a bit disappointed, as they were hoping for a new match-up rather than a new gimmick match. WARGAMES!

---Update on the Terry Taylor car accident. Last week Dave mentioned that Taylor was injured, but didn’t have much in the way of details other than the story that they were side swiped. We now know that he was riding in the back seat and Gilbert slammed the brakes when the car pulled out in front of them. Gilbert hit the brakes so hard that the seat belt around Taylor’s waist cut him from the impact (Dave says he “was literally cut in two by the belt around the abdomen”). The shoulder straps on Gilbert and Hyatt kept them from suffering similarly, and it’s likely if any of them hadn’t been wearing their seatbelts they would not have survived. He spent the past week in a New Orleans hospital and had part of his intestine removed, as well as his appendix, in addition to the repair work on his abdominal muscles. His earliest return date is speculated to be September, but November is much more likely. UWF plans include several interviews and promos to keep him fresh in viewers’ minds. What’s going to be tricky is that he had just made a major heel turn (Dave would say his newly turned character was the hottest act in UWF), but coming back from an injury like this is going to mean he’s an automatic babyface upon return. So that’s going to be a hell of a needle to thread. Taylor’s surgery required 18 staples in his stomach, and if the injuries had been even slightly more severe his career would be over.

--Dave spent the weekend in Houston, Texas with a few readers at Crockett’s Western States tournament card on June 20. The show drew about 3,400 fans for a $20,000 gate, and the show was good, but UWF is hurting for main event heels without Taylor. Black Bart of all people was in the finals. Dave thinks Crockett should make a play for the Midnight Rockers and turn them heel. By the way, Dave didn’t mention it last week, but the Rockers don’t have jobs anymore. He makes a joke about it when talking about Shane Douglas (who was in the opening battle royal on this show), and says that Douglas in two years might end up where Shawn Michaels is now (not out of a job, but as a star teenybopper babyface who puts on good matches). Anyway, he reviews the rest of the show as well and the final of the tournament saw Barry Windham beat Black Bart in a match where 20% of the crowd left before it even started. Surprisingly the match wound up really good anyway.

---WWF debuts: Chavo Guerrero is set to debut at the June 23 tv tapings. Billy Graham will be on the following tapings on July 15-16. Jack Hart will be coming in from Memphis in mid-July, but since they have Bret and Jimmy, they’ll probably want to give him a new last name. Dingo Warrior is in WWF on the c-team level (more on him when we get to World Class).

--[WWF] Ted DiBiase has made some c-string appearances for WWF already, working as a babyface. But he’ll be pushed when he gets to television in early August as a heel with some kind of rich playboy gimmick

---So Dingo Warrior is out of WCCW. He went to the Von Erichs and demanded a guaranteed contract and something like $1500/month (hardly unreasonable) but was turned down. He went to UWF, but they didn’t want him. He finally settled on the WWF c-string deal where he’s not on tv and not getting a push. He was supposed to have a world title match with Kevin Von Erich, but that’s been scrapped and World Class has announced that Al Perez beat Dingo Warrior “in the Carribean” for the Texas Title.

August 1987

-Sherri Martel made her WWF debut on July 24 and defeated the Fabulous Moolah for the WWF Women’s Title. Martel leaving AWA (and she did so while still AWA Women’s Champion) isn’t a surprise, though. Dave thinks she’s easily the best all-around performer of all U.S.-based women, but going to WWF’s low workrate style and being a face could diminish her performance quick. She got great heat (but unfortunately wasn’t able to translate that into being a draw) in AWA mainly through her colorful language, and that won’t fly as a WWF babyface. Regardless, anything is better than Moolah, even Ronnie Garvin in drag.

--The Great American Bash continues to draw big for Crockett. The Greensboro show on the 11th drew $150k and Charlotte on the 18th drew $175k according to Crockett (Dave questions the latter, as the latter number translates to about 16000 tickets when all crowd estimates he had were between 20-24k people). July 20 in Greenville was an all-time record for the city at $70,000 and the Dallas show on July 23 also drew about $70k. Dave has a big report on the July 25 Philadelphia Bash, which drew about 8500 people, but probably didn’t top the record for highest gate in the city. The Lex Luger dating game bit went off without an angle, surprisingly, and it was made to look legit to the fans (but the girls picked for the game obviously knew about the game in advance). Nothing really huge of note on the matches themselves, other than that Nikita Koloff beat Luger in a cage match by DQ when Luger used a foreign object which is only notable because I forget sometimes that you could get disqualified in cage matches back then.

--Jim Duggan should be back to work with WWF at the end of August as a babyface. Dave is glad about this because the suspension only happened due to an incredible string of bad luck in the first place.

--Variety magazine had a review of Body Slam which Roddy Piper and Sam Fatu (Tama the Islander) filmed on their summer vacation last year and is due out next month. The review was surprisingly favorable, and Dave’s never heard of a wrestling movie getting good reviews even when the movie is okay. Most people Dave knows loved The One and Only (which Piper had a small role in and Henry Winkler played a Gorgeous George type character) and Paradise Alley (starring Sylvester Stallone and featuring a great performance by Terry Funk) was at least average, but critics panned both. Anyway, other wrestlers also appeared for cameos like Ric Flair and Bruno Sammartino, and Dave wonders about Piper’s prospective future in Hollywood. No doubt Piper could play wrestler in Hollywood - he has a lot of experience playing wrestler in wrestling land. The real questions are if he can make enough just doing that, and if he can be good in roles that aren’t just playing wrestler.

--Houston has become the major battleground between WWF and NWA. Both companies held shows there on the 24th (Crockett with a Bash, WWF with the Martel title win and Mr. T as referee between Savage/Honkytonk). Dave has no gate figures yet, but he expects NWA to have won the day due to their deeper lineup. They go head to head in Houston again on the weekend of August 29, as WWF brings Hogan vs. One Man Gang on the 28th, as well as Duggan vs. DiBiase (Houston has long been where Duggan is most popular), Moolah vs. Martel in a rematch, and Bruno Sammartino vs. Hercules Hernandez. The NWA/UWF card for August 29 doesn’t have a complete card, but they’re calling it Champions Night and have six title matches scheduled including Steve Williams vs. Bubba Rogers for the UWF title, Luger/Koloff for the US Title, Sting/Eddie Gilbert for the UWF tv title, and Rock’n’Roll express vs. Arn/Tully for the NWA tag titles).

--Terry Taylor returned to UWF at the July 23 Bash show in Dallas. He ran into the ring and attacked Chris Adams, leading to Black Bart and Eddie Gilbert beating Adams and Windham. He’s scheduled to make his in-ring return on August 8, and should be okay as long as he doesn’t stretch his abdomen or take any shots in that region.

--[Alabama] Scott Hall starts next week and taking up the Lord Humongous gimmick. That should tell you everything about how far his star has fallen. This time last year he was primed to be a world champion and all the major promotions wanted him, but now this.

--It’s unusual when the result of a match is the top story of the week, but it isn’t everyday [sic] that Bruiser Brody gets pinned. Brody went down for the three count on July 27 against Abdullah the Butcher in Fort Worth. It’s the first time he’s been pinned in nearly seven years Dave figures this streak is probably one of the longest of its kind in wrestling history. The match was a cage match with no disqualifications and Abby’s Brass Knuckles championship at stake. For the finish, Brody had Abby pinned, but Gary Hart got on the apron and Brody fought with him through the cage, which allowed Abby to hit him with a foreign object to the throat to get the pin. Dave figures this must be setting up another cage match in the future at a big show - maybe the Labor Day show in Fort Worth.

--Corrections - Dave had some errors regarding Houston last week, including some names he erroneously said were coming in to WWF. First, August 28 will indeed be Paul Boesch’s last card at Sam Houston Coliseum, but they aren’t (yet - next week this changes) advertising the show as Boesch’s retirement. You’d think they’d make a big deal of him, since he’s been a fixture of Houston wrestling for almost 40 years, but no. Anyway, several of the wrestlers coming to work that show are being booked as independent workers, not being brought into the WWF as part of the roster, and that means Tom Prichard, Mark Lewin, and Jim Duggan are only scheduled for this show. Tony Atlas is being brought in for this show as well. There are no plans whatsoever, Dave’s told, to bring Duggan back. Notable matches will include Hogan vs. One Man Gang, Sherri vs. Moolah, Duggan vs. DiBiase, Bruno vs. Hercules Hernandez, and Beefcake vs. Johnny V in a hair match. With the update on Duggan, Dave thinks it’s a major mistake if Crockett doesn’t hire him ASAP. Negative press has blown over and he has a huge following in UWF cities and is now known nationally thanks to his short WWF run.

--[JCP/NWA] July 31 saw the Great American Bash tour end with a bang. An announced crowd of 17,251 (probably around 16,000 in reality) and probably a record gate for wrestling at the Orange Bowl. Barry Windham did an amazing carry job with a guy called Incubus who is absolutely terrible, but with Windham was able to have an almost average match. Kevin Sullivan and Dory Funk had a Texas Death Match that Sullivan won when Funk couldn’t answer the ten count and then they had a post-match brawl that went nearly as long as the match. Both bled buckets and it was good. WarGames 2 gets five stars from Dave. Everybody bled except Ellering and Luger, and Blanchard had the performance of the match. Bubba wound up submitting after six straight clotheslines

--[WWF] Tito Santana will be taking Tom Zenk’s place as Rick Martel’s tag partner. They’ll get a new name, something like Attack Squad or Strike Force (Dave got it right with the second one).

--Adrian Adonis has arrived in AWA, managed by Paul E. Dangerously (who now uses a mobile phone as a gimmick). Adonis is still doing the gay act. His weight has ballooned and he’s said to weigh over 350 lbs now.

--The only other major change in AWA are the return of Jerry Blackwell and that Madusa Maceli has replaced Sherri Martel as Kevin Kelly’s valet. If they can find another woman to work there, they’ll probably give her the AWA Women’s Title too. Dave says if she ever learns she has the potential to be an effective valet, but she’s green and really only has looks and the ability to act arrogant right now. And she’s trying to be Sherri Martel, which is not going to work for someone so gre

--[WWF] The August 28 show at Sam Houston Coliseum will indeed be Paul Boesch’s last card as a promoter. It was made official last week in Houston. Boesch will be turning 75 in October and has been in the business for over 50 years as a wrestler, announcer, and promoter. He worked for UWF up until the Crockett buyout when he signed on with WWF. He promoted four shows for them before deciding to retire, and he’ll be selling the Gulf Atlantic Club (which promoted Houston wrestling) to WWF. Apparently the driving factor was that at this stage it was no longer fun for Boesch to promote, and he’s been contemplating retirement for a long time. Mil Mascaras and Terry Funk are expected to be on the card, and names like Ernie Ladd, Gene Kiniski, and Verne Gagne are expected to make appearances. Gagne showing up on a WWF card is something Dave never imagined he’d see, and Crockett plans to counter the next night with a Flair/Windham main event. Flair was already announced to be in Japan on tour that night, so we’ll see if the tour is canceled or if it’s just Flair who will be pulled.

--The Road Warriors will be meeting Vince McMahon this week. They’ve already talked to AWA recently about leaving Crockett and are reportedly looking to ask Vince for $1 million each to jump. If they get this, they’ll be the highest paid act in wrestling history if they get that for a year. Dave’s sources don’t lead him to believe WWF will actually agree to those terms, but maybe there could be a compromise. They’re said to have been offered something around that much in the Tribune deal with AWA (which again, still looks like a nothingburger), but while that might have been talked about nobody ever talked about it with the Road Warriors or they’d have signed by now.


--Shane Douglas is now UWF TV Champion. He beat Eddie Gilbert on August 3 and was a replacement for Sting, who got clobbered a little too well by Gilbert (Dave comes in with a correction on this next week) with a chair, as he needed 18 stitches.

--Highlights from the most recent WWF tv tapings include Paul Orndorff turning face. The turn is built around Heenan calling Rick Rude the best built guy in pro wrestling today, which made Orndorff come out with his new manager Sir Oliver Humperdink. Dave finds it funny because one of Heenan’s other guys (Hercules Hernandez) is better built than either Rude or Orndorff. Humperdink joining Orndorff seems to be a last minute change of plans in response to Bam Bam Bigelow missing the first day of taping (Dave assumes transport issues from Japan) and them changing things on the fly. Orndorff was going to turn anyway, though, and he’s also opening a bowling alley in Atlanta. Ken Patera is legit injured, which will mess with main events for the next month or so. He apparently went to toss a jobber across the ring and one of his arms gave out. Severe tendon and ligament damage requiring reconstructive surgery that will keep him out of the ring until around Christmas.

--WWF is ceding Baltimore to Crockett, at least a little. With Crockett running monthly, WWF is going to cut down on shows there. They are also planning to increase their schedule to six shows a day (three matinee and evening combos) on Saturdays and Sundays, which means most of the guys will be working double shifts on weekends.

--Dave went to the August 10 Stockton, California and the August 11 San Jose Crockett shows and for whatever reason Stockton tends to get very good wrestling coming through. He didn’t see every match, but others in attendance filled him in and all the ratings for this show are basically by committee. He runs down the card. Dave still thinks Ron Simmons has potential, but isn’t quite as good as he had thought earlier. Rick Steiner was injured (pulled muscle or something in his right leg), so Sting got bumped into subbing for Ricky Morton against Arn and Tully. The Steve Williams and Terry Gordy vs. Eddie Gilbert and Dick Murdoch bunkhouse match wins the honors for match of the night. The San Jose card wasn’t as good and the crowd had trouble getting into the matches. It was also an outdoor show, and Dave has decided that outdoor shows tend to suck after this. UWF doesn’t air in the area, so the UWF matches didn’t really have any familiarity for the crowd. If the area had localized tv (the NWA show that airs on channel 26 in San Francisco plugged the card, and that channel isn’t even on cable in San Jose, nor is San Jose channel 48 which is where San Jose fans can watch NWA, so there was basically no localized advertisement) they could probably draw some people, but the only advertisement that San Jose fans could have seen was from WTBS. Only notable thing here is that in the main event between Williams/Morton/Gibson and Arn/Tully/Lex, Williams no-sold a piledriver.

--WarGames 3 took place in Chicago on August 16. Ron Garvin was in for Paul Ellering, as Ellering appears to be injured for real, on the babyface side. Animal caused Bubba/War Machine to submit after taking a spiked wristband to the eye. They definitely fudged the clock a bit on the entries, as the match ended in 19:38 but according to the rules the Match Beyond doesn’t even start until 21 minutes in. Lots of blood (six of the ten guys bled), and universal acclaim that the match was great. The undercard, though, was said to be disappointing.

--WWF erased the tape of Ted DiBiase’s first match at Madison on August 4 because he got too strong a babyface reaction. The match with Jerry Allen that aired on Superstars 49 (taped that same day in front of the same crowd) and was promoted as his first match was actually his second, and they took steps to make sure he’d be booed. Dave saw the skit where he made a woman (2020 note: some people believe this was Linda McMahon) bark like a dog and those who watched with Dave started to hate him for not paying her, so the tweak to the character seems like it should work. Dave doesn’t expect he’ll toss money into the audience like he was originally supposed to (can we take a moment to note that Vince apparently thinks giving away free money is a heel act?). Some WWF wrestlers are jealous of DiBiase because in order to make the character more legit he’s being shuttled around in a limo and getting put up in the best hotels, which only Mr. T and Hogan get.

--WWF] ”Mark my words, Rude will not get over as a major attraction here.” Rick Rude’s gonna need more than abs to do that, and Dave watched with some marks who thought it was comedy that they were talking about his great physique on tv. Apparently, Rude has the body of someone with scurvy according to the mark

--Curt Hennig vs. Jerry Lawler for the AWA Title in Memphis on August 10 was kind of crap. Hennig retained after Brickhouse Brown (dressed in drag) attacked from the audience and gave Lawler a piledriver. Almost everyone knew Brown was in the audience in drag, so the ending was obvious. They’ve storyline suspended Brown for 30 days for this. Otherwise, nobody from AWA except Wahoo McDaniel worked on the card, so that’s a real strong alliance happening.

--Many readers think if the Road Warriors jumped to WWF it would kill the NWA. Dave disagrees. Sure, it would hurt the NWA in the midwest and elsewhere, but only Hogan has the ability to completely upend the current status quo. WWF survived the loss of guys like Piper, Snuka, Slaughter, and other once hot commodities and didn’t seem to miss a beat, and Crockett’s talent pool is deep enough to weather the same storm. Other fans think they need to be heels to be the biggest they can be, but Dave thinks it just wouldn’t work. The Road Warriors have the look and feel of being mean and sinister while still being faces and it works because “we are in the era of the anti-hero” and only Hogan is a bigger face act than the Road Warriors. Turning them heel in NWA and putting them against Dusty/Nikita would just turn a large number of fans against Dusty. There’s nothing wrong with lots of fans cheering heels (it’s happening with the Horsemen right now, for instance), but if it kills the popularity of your babyfaces with the majority, then you do have a problem and it’s going to be a long-term problem. Just look at the AWA. The Fabulous Freebirds could have been great there, but getting put in a feud with the Road Warriors killed their appeal. Greg Gagne and Jim Brunzell were very popular as the High Flyers for almost a decade, but making them faces against the Road Warriors as heels killed them both so hard that neither has been able to come back from it. The same thing would happen to the Rock & Roll Express or any other babyface in either NWA or WWF bar perhaps Hogan, Roddy Piper, or a babyface Ric Flair if put against heel Road Warriors.

--Sticking to Crockett through October ultimately puts the Road Warriors in a better bargaining position. Starrcade hype will have started by then, so their absence would be notable to Crockett fans, and if Chicago is chosen to host Starrcade then a Road Warriors match is essential. The door is still open with WWF, though, so if they eventually do want to jump, they can. That means the Road Warriors are in the unique position of being a major attraction working in either JCP or WWF but under no contractual restriction forbidding them from jumping at any moment. At present, it looks like they’re sticking with Crockett because of the greater creative freedom, better schedule, and freedom to tour Japan.

--[JCP/NWA] WarGames 3 in Chicago drew $155,000 and about 2,000 shy of a sellout. Weather and ticket prices, as well as the Bears playing their first tv game of the season are the main reasons for not selling ou

--In order to avoid confusion with Rick Martel, WWF is calling Sherri Martel the “Sensational Sherri” now

Sept 1987

--”If everyone in this business was like Paul Boesch, this would be the greatest business in the world.” -- Jerry Brisco from the book Professional Wrestling (not published) by Ray Tennenbaum. That’s how Dave introduces this issue and begins his coverage of the Paul Boesch farewell show. The show had a sellout crowd of 10,000 at Houston Coliseum, and WWF brought in dozens of notable wrestling figures to Houston to attend the show. Among the big names were Lou Thesz, Gene Kiniski, Verne Gagne, Jose Lothario, Ernie Lad, Tiger Conway Sr., Red Bastien, Billy “Red” Lyons, Jack Tunney, Sputnik Monrow, Bronko Lubich, Boris Malenko, Nick and Jerry Kozak, Cyclone Anaya, Mike Mazurski, Danny McShane, Stu Hart, Jesse James, Jim Casey, Ox Anderson, Pat Patterson, and more. Tiger Conway Sr, Cyclone Anaya, and Danny McShane in particular all got huge reactions for their appearances. The show had an appropriate dose of nostalgia that the crowd enjoyed as much as the matches, and the whole thing had the look and feel of a big event and therefore came across as the big event it was. Vice President George Bush sent a telegram to Boesch to congratulate him on his 55 year tenure in the wrestling industry. More on the show itself later in the issue.

--Dave’s been to a lot of WWF and JCP/NWA shows the past few weeks, and the promotions seem almost like night and day to him. They’re different enough that Dave thinks they probably aren’t really competing for the same audience in the way many people believe, but rather that they attract entirely different types of people. Their live shows have different atmosphere and production, and the things Dave likes and dislikes about each promotion are more obvious to him now than ever. In terms of matches, while WWF has some great wrestlers (Ted DiBiase for instance) and JCP has some lousy ones (Bugsy McGraw, for instance), by and large the more intense, less botchy, more competently executed matches on average belong to the wrestlers in JCP. Dave was surprised how many wrestlers, even though their pace was much slower than JCP’s standard, blew up after five minutes at the Boesch farewell show, which suggests that there’s a significant lag in cardio for WWF.

--The Paul Boesch farewell show is in the books. We’re still before the era of having multiple ppv shows, so I’ve got to work a little to find times to say that about shows and keep the tradition alive. The opener was good for WWF as Sam Houston beat Steve Lombardi. It was a bit of a mismatch - Houston loves bumping wildly, but Lombardi’s offense doesn’t really allow for that. Bruno beat Hercules Hernandez, and Bruno’s still got a good flurry of punches, but unless you grew up in the northeast, he just seems like a slow old man to crowds. Andre the Giant came out and the crowd booed him, so he stormed to the back. He’s looking slimmer and in much better shape since his operation. Dave hears he’ll be back in action in about three months. Brutus Beefcake beat Johnny V in a hair match and they shaved Johnny V bald, which was the only part that got heat. Ted DiBiase brought a kid out to sing “Yellow Rose of Texas” after giving a promo insulting Houston’s economy, then refused to pay the kid the $300 he promised. Ted’s routine was the best part of the show. Tom Prichard beat Mark Lewin in a short match that was all action but didn’t invest the crowd. Hogan beat One Man Gang in his typical match, deafening reaction. Dave gives the match 3 stars which puts it at match of the show. Sherri Martel beat Moolah in a match where, believe it or not, Moolah actually looked real good even though, for some reason, she was playing babyface. They ed up the finish and Moolah wound up just laying down and telling Sherri to cover her. JYD (and Dave reveals that his poll on whether to keep nicknames were 117-19 in favor of keeping him as Junkfood Dog) and Tony Atlas (managed by Ernie Ladd) beat Kamala and Sika in four minutes. JYD blew up over the 90 seconds he was in the match. Kamala tried to leap frog JYD, but JYD forgot to duck and Kamala nearly killed him as a result. Terry Funk beat Chavo Guerrero, and Funk even kicked out of Chavo’s swan dive from the top. They introduced all the retired wrestlers. Thesz and Kiniski were introduced as former world champions, but Gagne was not. Boesch gave a retirement speech. Ted DiBiase beat Jim Duggan and it was good, but more bad luck for Duggan. He hasn’t wrestled in three months and looked like he was around 310 lbs, and he blew up faster than expected. DiBiase helped him through, but then Duggan’s hamstring went out and DiBiase had to go to the finish. You could see Duggan’s pain clearly and it was the first time the crowd had ever seen Duggan pinned clean, so they were shocked. Tito Santana and Mil Mascaras (managed by Jose Lothario) beat Demolition by DQ. Great pace, but botchy because Mascaras doesn’t work well with others. Mr. Fuji tripped Satana and got Demolition disqualified, but they botched that too as the spot was supposed to be 90 seconds earlier when Santana did a stumble off the rope with no Fuji around him to have tripped him.

--Silverline Comics has inked an agreement with Big John Studd. They’ll be doing a full-color monthly adventure-wrestling series and a Big John Studd graphic novel in June. Studd will be portrayed as a 6’11” babyface wrestler who freelances as an undercover investigato

--Dave runs down WWF’s San Francisco tv tapings from August 26. Rip Oliver debuted, but half the crowd was buying snacks. Match would have been okay with any heat. DiBiase wasn’t over at all here, but wrestling against Lanny Poffo didn’t help. Dave gives Killer Khan vs. Darrell Nickel -3 stars. Nickel couldn’t even walk. Seeing Ric Rude up close, Dave corrects himself that Rude’s physique does look better than Hercules’s does. He also thinks Rude will do better than he had expected in WWF, but doesn’t see him going beyond the level Hercules is at.

--The Road Warriors and Michael Hayes have both signed long-term contracts with JCP. The Road Warriors should now get a big push and used better and more regularly in the process. Terry Gordy has not signed, because he doesn’t want to give up his Japan commitments.

--Thanksgiving should be interesting, because in addition to Crockett doing Starrcade it’s looking like WWF also has some big plans. Dave’s speculating, but he wouldn’t be surprised to see an Andre-Hogan rematch booked to take eyes from Starrcade. Crockett has three venues booked for Thanksgiving: the Pavilion in Chicago, Greensboro, and the Superdome. This right here and the bit earlier about Crockett getting ppv for Starrcade is the beginning of one of the most significant stories of the year and the birth of Survivor Series.

--November 27 is looking to be really interesting, because WWF has just announced a show called “The Survivors’ Series” to be broadcast on pay-per-view. That puts two big shows in competition with each other for the evening, and it’s clear that WWF’s show is an attempt to counterprogram Starrcade, which will be Crockett’s first attempt at a pay-per-view show. No lineup or venue has been announced yet for Survivor Series, but WWF is coming off the biggest pay-per-view show in history (Wrestlemania 3 grossed $10.3 million) which was headlined by Hogan/Andre. A rematch could potentially stall Crockett’s attempt to get Starrcade on ppv. If given the choice between Andre/Hogan 2 or the unknown commodity of JCP, cable companies will almost certainly make the easy and obvious choice. WWF is also offering this show as part of a package deal to cable companies that includes the right to air Wrestlemania 4 (this point becomes very important soon). There should be some very interesting developments in this story in the coming weeks.

---It looks like the Florida Championship Wrestling office will be basically finished by the end of this month. Crockett’s booked only ten dates in Florida for October, and it’s expected they’ll fill those cards entirely with wrestlers from the Charlotte office. Regular monthly shows will only happen in the major Florida cities. Rumors have swirled for a while that Florida was dying, as the local wrestlers have failed to draw ever since Crockett took over the territory earlier this year. Here are a couple lessons to the industry - fans won’t support a local group when outsiders (Crockett’s Charlotte guys) come every month. When Ric Flair, Dusty Rhodes, etc. are on the cards, local main eventers become curtain jerkers and fans lose their heat for them. So ultimately, the fans stop investing in the local guys and wait for the monthly shows with the big stars. Dave hopes this doesn’t happen with the UWF area. If JCP book there in a way that makes the NWA guys seem like bigger stars in the old UWF territory, fans will do exactly what was described above - stop going to shows without the big stars. Several Florida guys look UWF-bound (The Sheepherders, Kevin Sullivan, and Dory Funk) and a few NWA-bound (Mike Rotunda, Bugsy McGraw), and others will be let go. Blackjack Mulligan walked out on August 29 because he wasn’t happy with his paycheck, and both Mike Graham and Steve Keirn probably won’t go anywhere because they’re past the point of their career where the travel requirements of a major promotion are really worth it to them.

--WWF’s third annual King of the Ring Tournament took place on September 4 in Providence, Rhode Island to a sellout 12,000 fans. Lots of surprises and a reportedly good show. Haku vs. Brutus in the first round was the worst match of the show, and Haku was eliminated in round two after a 15 minute draw with Rick Martel (also eliminated). Randy Savage’s face reactions continue to grow, and surprisingly Jim Brunzell got booed more than any other heel on the night during his match with Savage. In the end, Savage beat Bundy in the finals. Dave thinks a lot of the fun for fans is the novelty of the tournament setup allowing face vs. face and heel vs. heel matches they don’t normally see, as well as other matchups you don’t get often, both of which break away from the usual formula of WWF matches.

--”Duke” Pete Doherty has been added to WWF’s announce team as a heel color commentator, likely to replace Ventura if the latter’s movie career takes off. Doherty’s got a “unique” voice, but he doesn’t seem to show much promise yet.

--Randy Savage’s face turn should be expected on the September 23 taping gainst Honkytonk Man. Dave’s not sure it’s the best idea to turn Savage with Honkytonk as the opponent, as they haven’t been drawing great. Turning against the wrong heel can kill your draw as a face.

--WWF will be running a new concept, the “Royal Rumble,” in St. Louis on October 4. What Dave hears is something along the lines of a combination of a battle royal and a non-violent WarGames. The format as Dave understands it right now is there are 12 guys who each draw a number, and two start for 5 minutes under battle royal rules. Every 2 minutes after that a new guy’s number is drawn and he joins until only one man is left after over the top eliminations.

--Terry Taylor has become UWF “World” (Dave’s sick of all these titles getting the word World thrown in) TV Title, winning it from Shane Douglas on September 2. Douglas had a bad hand injury from the night before, and Taylor was working with a hyperextended knee. Eddie Gilbert hit Douglas with a chair after a ref bump, and Terry won by pinfall with the Figure Four. He held the leglock until Sting and Chris Adams ran in, so it looks like they’re setting up Sting/Adams/Douglas vs. Taylor/Gilbert/Rick Steiner as a six-man feud. The same tv taping had Steve Williams beat Black Bart to retain the UWF Title, only for Scandor Ackbar’s guys to steal the belt until Ron Simmons made the save, so maybe Williams/Simmons vs. Bart/Bubba matches are coming. The show did a really poor $7000 gate.

--Speaking of the Freebirds, Terry Gordy won’t be around UWF much the rest of the year because he’s got a couple consecutive tours in Japan with All Japan. He’s also still suffering the lingering effects of pneumonia, and his bad knee. Additionally, Buddy Roberts has gone AWOL from UWF so no idea what his status is. That leaves Michael Hayes as the only remaining Freebird in UWF. Gordy won’t be at Starrcade due to his Japan commitments, which includes Baba’s tag team tournament running the same time as Starrcade. That timing means that the Road Warriors won’t be in the tournament since they’ll be at Starrcade.

--Shawn Michaels and Marty Janetty are in Alabama now as the Midnight Rock’n’Rollers. Verne Gagne threatened to sue if they kept using the Midnight Rockers name, as he apparently has that trademarked.

--[JCP/NWA] Looks like they’re building to Ric Flair vs. Ron Garvin for Starrcade, with Garvin’s career at stake against Flair’s NWA World Title. That was what they looked to be building to last year, but the Magnum T.A. accident and Nikita Koloff turn led to it being scrapped.

--The Sheepherders debuted in UWF on September 9, with Johnny Ace as their flag waver. Looks like the whole face turn they were working on for him in Florida has just been abandoned. He’ll probably wind up a face down the line, but it’s not likely to be any time soon now that he’s in a new area.

--[NJPW] Keiichi Yamada (he’s still a few years from being Liger yet) beat Mark Rocco of England with the “shooting star” move. It’s one of the wildest finishers Dave’s ever seen Yamada comes off the ropes looking like he’s going to land on his back on his opponent, but does a complete flip and lands in a forward splash. Yamada’s been teaming with Keiji Mutoh, who does a different kind of flip splash (that’s a moonsault, Dave), and they finish by each hitting their opponents with their finishers and it looks really cool.

--[AJW] The Jumping Bomb Angels are looking even more impressive here after coming back from working their WWF tour. It seems they got a big confidence boost from the time in the States. Before the tour, they were always looked at as beneath Chigusa Nagayo or the other popular wrestlers, so even though they were well-liked, they were not breaking through in any way. Now that they’ve done a tour with WWF, they seem to be thinking they’re hot stuff and it’s translating well. They work the crowd better now, and they control the flow of their matches better now too rather than let their opponents set the pace.

--Someone writes in with a lot of info about the pilot episode Roddy Piper shot earlier this year. The pilot is for a show called “The Highwayman.” From what the writer understands, Piper is playing a cop going undercover as a trucker (Piper actually turns out only to be a guest star in this episode and plays a preacher). There was a rumor a while back that Brandon Tartikoff wanted to give Piper a prime-time series. No way to know if this is it, but it could be. We also get some early info about the plot of Buy and Cell. David Carradine’s character is a stock broker who gets framed for a crime and thrown in jail, then teaches the inmates how to make big money buying and selling stocks. Piper’s got a pretty big role in it.

--The scoop on Survivor Series at present is that Hogan and Andre will each captain a team. They’ll probably have matches from the teams then. Dave isn’t sure of how it will work yet, but he’s imagining a format like what New Japan does with two teams of five guys: “let’s say Hogan picks Savage, Orndorff, Patera and Billy Jack and Andre picks Bundy, Rude, Race and Hercules. Each guy puts down a line-up card and let’s say it opens with Race vs. Billy Jack and Race wins, then he faces the second guy on Hogan’s team, let’s say Savage, and if Savage wins, he faces the second guy on Andre’s team, etc. until all members of one team lose.” Dave thinks it will depend on the lineup, but this is something that has been very successful in Japan and it’s very exciting, but he thinks there’s a chance that it’s too abstract to pop a big buy rate for WWF. Dave’s not sure that’s how it’ll work, or if they’ll do a normal card and just have the team concept spread throughout the matches as feeding the Hogan/Andre feud. And the answer will turn out to be neither.

--You won’t see Kamala, Jake Roberts, or Corporal Kirchner around WWF in the foreseeable future, though. Kirchner was fired again and Roberts is suspended for 12 weeks. Kamala’s been pulled from all scheduled bookings for unknown reasons. He was supposed to main event the Saturday Night’s Main Event to be taped September 23, against Hulk Hogan. But now that’s been changed and Sika will be taking his spot in the match. Honkeytonk Man vs. Savage for the Intercontinental Title is also scheduled for that show, and Dave expects something big with that.

--WWF has also announced the main event for Survivor Series and we finally have clarity on what that match type will entail. It’ll be a ten-man elimination tag match with teams currently consisting of Hogan/Ken Patera/Billy Graham/Bam Bam Bigelow/Paul Orndorff and Andre/Rick rude/One Man Gang/Bundy/Butch Reed. The show has also now been announced as an evening show, which means it will be going head to head with Starrcade. Survivor Series will be available for up to five million homes (a three percent buyrate would put them in 150,000 buys for a $2+ million gross). No idea yet how Starrcade will fare, as availability is still a question there and Vince has the jump on Crockett here.

--WWF’s latest round of tv tapings (September 15-16) has a few things developing. Honkeytonk Man did an interview with Craig DeGeorge listing ten reasons he’s the greatest Intercontinental Champion of all time, only to be interrupted by Savage. They had a good match later that night that’s probably set to air after the Savage face turn. They also taped a debate between Jimmy Hart and Elizabeth where she got off a number of zingers. Rick Rude stole the spotlight from Orndorff’s squash match by posing. Bob Orton and Don Muraco somehow screwed up the finish to their match and had to go out and do it again. The next night, Ted DiBiase offered $300 to a kid if he could do 30 pushups, then Duggan came out and took DiBiase’s money and gave it to the kid, which should make for a promising feud.