Cross Face Chicken Wing

So do the subjects they cover

I'm a journalist, and I'd smack Stossell around given the chance. At the end of a good newscast, we always say "Well, we fooled em today." I've always thought that a good reporter can make it sound like they know what they're talking about on any given subject, so yeah, Dave's right here. The exception to this are beat writers. Usually, if you get a reporter that's covered one specific beat for a long period of time, whether it's sports, politics, local courts, etc., he/she is very knowledgeable. They're able to narrow their focus to one subject and group of people and eventually know what they're talking about. Back when I used to report for a small daily, I'd cover a little league baseball game in the afternoon, write a feature about a local business after that, then cover the city council meeting at night. I was very knowledgeable about little league baseball. The other stuff was more of an adventure.

I don't get how Brody wasn't used right in this guy's mind. He was pushed as THE monster heel in the area, never got pinned in his feud that they pushed with Blackwell, was programmed to beat up two major babyfaces in handicap matches...All I can think is that he expected Brody to take a loss somewhere along the way and we know in hindsight that Brody refused to do any jobs, even for Blackwell who he liked. Tough for Verne to get Blackwell over as the top face if he isn't allowed to score a pinfall win in his face-turn feud. 11,000 was a pretty good number but probably at the lower end of the fall/winter season. Through the spring and summer the only other time they would approach this number was at Star Cage in April, which drew between 11-13,000. By the time the summer came attendance was down more than half. This is one of the reasons that Martel held the title for pretty much another full year. Challengers that were more than one and done in that time frame included Jimmy Garvin, Michael Hayes, Nick Bockwinkel, and then Stan Hansen. Single title shots (major market or tv shots) went to wrestlers like Backlund, Saito, Gordy, Buddy Roberts, and Jumbo Tsuruta. Part of the problem was that the Garvin matches, which drew pretty well, were followed by Bockwinkel bouts (second time around with far less impact) and then Hayes, who didn't draw at all in St. Paul or Chicago. Programming Hayes and Garvin so close together killed hayes' impact as a challenger. Contrast that with martel in Winnipeg, where he went from Garvin to Bockwinkel, followed by one-offs with Saito and Zbyszko, and into a program with Boris Zurkov. Zurkov was pushed as a monster heel and his three-bout series with Martel drew very well. St. Paul and Chicago could have benefited from a monster being pushed after Garvin instead of Hayes. At the end of the day, Martel losing the title by, say, March 1985, might have been the wise thing to do. Good point about not having the right challenger to take it, though, although a segue from say Zurkov to Slaughter would probably have worked very nicely in hindsight. Further to my point above, giving Slaughter the belt would have given the fans a new reason to be excited about the Sarge, if he was in fact getting "worn-out" in the fans eyes. part of that would also have been him coming off a year-long wave that started in the WWF....you have to trend down somewhat eventually. Rocks. Excellent. **insert Mr. Burns clacking fingers here** I'd have left too if I was supposed to get the titles but the current champs vetoed my win inside the ring (as told by IIRC Ellering in his shoot interview. Might have beenon the LOD set as well, can't remember). Thanks for the updates, good stuff here as usual. Expanding a bit on Mike's (I still don't know exactly who "Mike" is or why he gets his own column) point regarding misuse of talent. He says that Brody's appearances were "sporadic and based out of necessity." He did few interviews after Sept. 30 and the Blackwell fued was biazaare with inconclusive endings. He concludes by saying "Brody was fine, considering the restraints, but largely wasted to my demanding tastes." I agree that giving Slaughter a title run would've been a good idea. It would've given them a champion with recognition in the Northeast and someone who came across as a tough guy that couldn't be beat.

Cover *Steamboat press-slamming Flair with the headline “The End of an Era.” Pulling No Punches *Dave comments on the 20/20 piece involving Eddy Mansfield and Jim Wilson. Also, John Stossell getting slapped around by David Schults. *Mansfield demonstrated how wrestlers “fake it,” even blading himself. Dave doesn’t think it will negatively affect the business at all. Dave says Mansfield didn’t lose his job for going to the media, but because he often no-showed bookings. *Apparently, Wilson claims he was kicked out of wrestling for refusing to do homosexual favors for a promoter. Dave says he wasn’t kicked out for this, but because he’s a horrible worker who refused to do jobs. *Dave was contacted by Stossell a few days before the piece ran. He wasn’t impressed by Stossell because he only knew what Wilson, Mansfield and Hulk Hogan had told him. He didn’t do any other research. *Dave thinks that if someone went up to 50 journalists and told each of them repeatedly that their profession was phony, one of the journalists would eventually smack you around like Schults did with Stossell. *Dave says in many ways journalism is more fake than wrestling because reporters have to report on things they know nothing about (as a journalist myself, Dave has a good point here). *Dave says the only part of the 20/20 piece that was sloppy instead of shallow was when McMahon was not challenged when he said he has never done anything to keep other promotions out of buildings. Overall, Dave was entertained by the report but not really informed. Mr. Mike’s Mondo Wrestling *Mike is upset that the AWA doesn’t know how to use its talent pool. Brody is also gone and Mike didn’t think he was ever really used right. *Slaughter’s reception at the 1/13 St. Paul show was so-so. The show drew a disappointing 11,000. *John Nord debuted and Mike sees big things for him if he’s able to talk. *Mike commends the marketing skills of McMahon for the Hogan-Piper MTV match. He says wrestling is close to being a genuine fad and it will be cool to like. *Mike says Vince struggles to convince people in local markets that his product is good. However, he convinces the “important people,” the TV and advertising execs, that his product is good because it’s popular in New York. *The 2/1 Pro Wrestling USA tapings were held in St. Paul. Mike said they were ok with the highlight being a Terry Funk appearance. *Mike thought the 20/20 piece was good fun and will help the wrestling business grow as a fad. *Mike is disturbed by the fan reaction to Garvin’s valet, Precious. People have taken it beyond fun and it’s now a little disturbing (Precious got attacked by a fan and needed 18 stitches a few weeks back). Newspaper Reprints *There’s a story and obit piece about Eddie Graham’s suicide. *There’s a puff-piece about McMahon from some trade magazine. *There’s a piece from the Tulsa World about Mid-South and its use of wrestlers in country music videos. Inside Japan Wrestling *Business is way up for All Japan, way down for New Japan. New Japan sold out wherever it went in ’83 and ’84 but can’t draw 3,000 per night in ’85. *Several All Japan wresters have started wrestling a faster pace to keep up w/ Choshu’s style. *Tsuruta and Choshu met several times in tag matches, but they didn’t go over real well. Tsuruta is feuding w/ Yatsu instead. *All Japan TV show will move to prime time once baseball season ends. This will severely damage Inoki, but Inoki still holds a prime time slot on Friday night. *Road Warriors and Ellering will be in from 3/8-3/14 and will get $10,000 apiece. *Rumors that the AWA offered to send talent to New Japan for $120,000 per year. The company is paying WWF $500,000 in ’85 for talent. *Rumors that Inoki is planning a bout between himself and Larry Holmes in either Tokyo or Los Angeles. *Super Tiger now appearing w/out a mask in UWF. *UWF’s president is out of jail on bail, but the company’s future still looks bleak. Letters from Readers *One letter saying that Florida wrestling isn’t so bad. The usual WWF bashing. One anonymous writer talking about how WWF is finally getting things right and are selling out arenas throughout the country. WWF *Dave says the WWF is riding the crest of a wave that is the biggest in wrestling in more than a decade. Crowds are way up, except in areas like Dallas or St. Paul *The wave will lead to a closed-circuit MSG card headlined by Hogan-T/Piper-Orndorff. *Dave praised the MTV special leading up to the Hogan/Piper MSG bout. He said it went off w/out a hitch and the celebrity tie-ins made it feel that you’re with the “in” crowd by watching wrestling. *He says Piper proved that he is the most valuable commodity in wrestling right now and summarized the Hogan/Piper match and ensuing angle w/ Mr. T. *Dave says Hogan has become an awful wrestler. He used to be just OK, now he’s terrible. He says Hogan comes across well to first-time viewers, but he’s not sure how many first-timers are watching WWF compared to actual wrestling fans. *Dave says McMahon needs to capitalize on the Mr. T angle and try to turn all the non-wrestling fans that will be interested in the angle into wrestling fans. Dave doesn’t think Mr. T being involved in wrestling will negatively impact the business long term. *Jimmy Hart and Jim Neidhart due in 2/12. King Kong Bundy coming in March. Rumors that Steamboat is also coming in March. Gone are Schults, Mulligan, Briscos, Adonis and Murdoch. Schults was fired for trying to jump Mr. T. He was fined $3,000 for beating up Stossell. *Bret Hart, who Dave says was once good, is being wasted in the WWF. *Highlights how the WWF is going into the home video business. Also highlights other WWF merchandise coming out, including Hulk Hogan dolls. Dave wonders if the dolls will have spots to insert needles. *Latest WWF TV ratings are up slightly. Northeast Opposition *2/5 Philly show by Crocketts drew 3,770. Fan reports say it was good, but TV stations reported it the lowest attended card in a long time. Flair/Slaughter will headline 2/28. *Crockett should be taking over most northern cities run by Ole soon. Northwest *Billy Haynes returned 2/2. Southwest *Buck Robley is now booking and Eric Embry has apparently bought the ownership of the company from Joe Blanchard. World Class *Von Erichs were on Los Angeles TV to announce they would run live shows there in the future. *Dave thinks Chris Adams is the best heel in the country right now. Mid-South *Best matches on this circuit involve Dibiase/Duggan. *Speculating that Kimala may be turned face. *2/15 in Houston drew 5,600. Watts ran Houston again six days later, one day before the WWF came in for a show. *Mid-South’s TV show won its time slot in 15 of 23 slots around the circuit, including up against college football in some cases. *Duggan has done some recent music videos with country singers. Dave says Mid-South is going all out w/ the videos, which he doesn’t mind if it doesn’t get in the way of wrestling. He thinks it eventually will, however. AWA *Rumors that the AWA may soon give up on Martel as a champ that can draw. Dave isn’t sure who else to give the title to, however. Slaughter doesn’t need a belt, Bockwinkle is still good but fans perceive him as too old and Masked Superstar doesn’t really fit. *Fans are getting worn out on Slaughter because he’s being pushed as the second coming. *Drew 5,300 on 1/30 in San Fran, about triple what they had been drawing. Baron/Hennigs def. Roadies/Ellering when Baron pinned Ellering. Fans cheered the Roadies until they started to run away from the Baron’s claw. Fans started throwing plastic cups at the Roadies, which they caught, stuck down the crotch of their trunks, and threw back at the fans. They did the same thing in Puerto Rico, only w/ rocks. *Main reason the Fabs left was because they were sick of the Roadies no-selling. *Chicago and Salt Lake each drew 9,000. Memphis *A snowstorm forced some shows to recently be cancelled. *Rumors that Lawler will soon win NWA title from Flair. Florida *Word is that the territory will be reorganized w/ Mike Graham giving control to Dusty. *Percy Pringle in the area as a manager. *Dave says the Freebirds are the only good thing going in this territory. Georgia *Several new workers in from Abdulla the Butcher’s training school. *T-Bolt Patterson’s suit against the NWA was recently settled out of court. T-Bolt got $50,000 from Barnett and Crockett will pay him $2,000 per week to wrestle. T-Bolt signed to no longer stand w/ Mansfield and Wilson in their lawsuits. Mid-Atlantic *Magnum TA getting a big push. *Speculation that Steamboat left because Dusty wanted to turn him heel. Update *AWA on 2/20 in San Fran was awful and drew 1,981. *NWA on 2/20 in Pittsburgh drew 750 and was also terrible. *WWF sold out Indianapolis, but only drew about 800 in Oklahoma. *Rumors that two groups may start running Calgary, one led by Cuban Assasin and one as a Stampede revival. Bad News Allan and Bruce Hart are battling over who will book the Stampede group. Brett, Davey Boy and Dynamite won’t work unless Bruce books. *Lawler making arrangements to bring in Dynamite and Davey Boy. *Steamboat definitely scheduled for 3/5 WWF taping in Poughkeepsie. *Orndorff has dropped weight for his series w/ Hogan. They want to have Hogan do several power moves so it helps if Orndorff is lighter. *Dave thinks it would be “interesting” if Piper and T “go against the grain” at Wrestlemania. *Expect to see a falling out between Inoki/McMahon soon.

1. Whoops! Yes, Precious needed 18 stitches for her cut. It wasn't 18 inches. 2. I just finished listening to a Watts shoot interview and he didn't have anything good to say about the sheets. He said sometimes promotions would do what the sheets wanted and the sheet writers would still complain. He said they had to complain and hate everything or they'd put themselves out of business. However, Watts seemed like a reasonable enough guy who was willing to discuss things with those who he felt were on his level, so maybe he felt the WON was worthy of his time back in '85. 3. I re-read the Mansfield/Wilson thing real quick and I should probably clarify. It sounds like Dave is saying Mansfield was a decent worker, but had troubles showing up on time, sometimes didn't show at all, and had "self-created" problems. Wilson was the one labeled a bad worker. 4. Yes, the negative take on Rhodes' interview skills came from a reader, not from Meltzer.

Cover *Two Japanese wrestlers I don’t recognize. There’s also a box on the bottom right with a news flash about Eddie Graham’s suicide. Pulling No Punches *Dave says it’s about time he writes something nice about the WWF. He gives them credit for media manipulation. McMahon and Co. do a good job of convincing everyone the wrestling business is in great shape and the WWF sells out major arenas throughout the country. *Dave speculates that the WWF may eventually get a network time slot. He also says the increased media coverage will result in additional negative stories in newspapers and magazines, but he doesn’t think this will hurt business much. *Dave goes over Schults slapping around John Stossel. *McMahon and Co. “stole the show” at a recent TV convention with their presentation about wrestling. No other promoters attended. Dave says the WWF manipulates the people that really count and it might lead to domination of the business one day. Newspaper Reprints *Reprinted are two parts of an eight-part series about pro wrestling from the Philadelphia Daily News. It was actually really good and highlighted life on the road for a wrestler, injuries, blackballing and the wrestling war. *The story also discussed Jim Wilson and Eddy Mansfield’s efforts to “clean up” professional wrestling. One option is a union, the other state wrestling commissions. *Dave sees their point, but also thinks they were “blacklisted,” along w/ Thunderbolt Patterson, because they’re bad workers and sometimes no-showed events. *There’s another reprint about a group that wants to start an amateur wrestling circuit modeled after pro wrestling. Letters *There’s a letter from Watts thanking McMahon for waking everyone up about stagnation in wrestling. He also said he likes to read remarks from “real wrestling aficionados.” *More anti-WWF takes, a nomination for Rhodes for worst interview, and general complaining about the state of wrestling. WWF *Tonga Kid is out. *Crowds have been good. Drew 15,000 in Toronto, the best WWF has done there since taking over. Ventura replacing Mosca Sr. as Canadian TV announcer. Also sold out Cobo Hall in Detroit. *Dave says Brutus Beefcake and the other WWF muscle head types are looking pale and worn out. He thinks Hulkamania protein powder must be running out. *Adonis negotiating w/ Inoki for a contract that could pay him $150,000 for 3 ½ months work. Meltzer thinks if Adonis goes, Murdoch will too. *Bruno scheduled to come back on 2/16 in Philly, teaming w/ his son against Orndorff/Heenan. *Pittsburgh drew a disappointing 5,500. Metlzer says the show drew a lot of “new fans,” which drives away the old fans. Dallas drew 1,700 and 1,500 in Houston. Drew 8,000 in Phoenix, which Meltzer figures is equal to the combined figure drawn by every other promotion that has come through the state in the past 10 years. *WWF lost its TV station in Ohio, but has already picked up a new, better outlet in the area. Northeast Opposition *WWF will have some competition in the NE, but it’s unknown how organized it will be. *Crockett gained control of McMahon’s Philly timeslot and the first Philly show is scheduled for 2/5, headlined by Bass-Bart/Rhodes-Garvin. Dave thinks the card looks horrible. *No cooperation between Verne and Crockett. *AWA is doing the Pro Wrestling USA tapings and they look good. World Class is now also airing on the MSG Network, a long-time WWF stronghold. *Bob Backlund wants to try and get a TV slot for his promotion, which will mainly feature Backlund style matches and few interviews. *Opposition show ran on 1/17 in Pittsburgh and drew 1,600. Meltzer said it wasn’t very good. Flair/Rich headline in a 45-minute match. It was mostly rest holds at first, causing the fans to chant for Hogan. Dave said the match did a poor job of building Flair and left the audience thinking he was inferior to Hogan as a champion. All Japan *Not much besides results. UWF *Because of the intense style this promotion wrestles, matches are no longer held nightly. The wrestlers are given a day or two off between matches. New Japan *King Kong Bundy debuted on ¼. The Japanese were surprised at how bad of a worker he was. Geigel told Bundy to cancel this tour. When Bundy refused, his future St. Louis bookings were canceled. *Hogan and Inoki were supposed to wrestle 2/7 in a new arena. However, the arena owners decided not to book wrestling because the last Hogan/Inoki match ended in a riot. Hawaii *2/13 will be headlined by Flair/Kerry. Meltzer says it’s a strange show because Inoki will be appearing, who is affiliated w/ the WWF. Northwest *Matt Bourne no longer in the company. He’s working for a construction company. *Piper was supposed to come through for a tour, but WWF nixed it. World Class *Finished the year strong with a crowd of 6,000 on New Years Eve. *1/10 San Antonio saw Flair/Kerry go to a 60-minute draw. The bout was actually 52 minutes, which was picked up on by a local newspaper. *Meltzer says Mike Von Erich is ruining many of the heels. The heels’ credibility is damaged when 160-pound Mike puts them away w/ an iron claw. Mid-South *1/17 in Houston drew 7,000. Meltzer wonders where else you could see three main event caliber matches all ending w/ pins by the heels. WWF held a show the next night and was outdrawn 4:1. *Reed is painting his face for his matches w/ Kimala. Meltzer says they’re doing a good job of once again getting Kimala over as a savage (yeah, because he’s the coolest slob worker ever!) *Mid-South is the only region where wrestlers pass out from choking. Dave thinks it’s at least realistic. *Rumors that Watts wanted Sgt. Slaughter to come in, but Sarge was lukewarm because Duggan already does the super patriot thing. *Meltzer takes back praise for Akbar from his last issue. He’s already sick of him. *He also thinks the reason McMahon isn’t using JYD against Mid-South in Houston is because JYD is suspended in Texas. Not sure why, however. AWA *Brody is gone after a blow-up w/ Verne on 1/13 in St. Paul. Meltzer thinks it stemmed from a Brody no-show on 12/27 in Winnipeg. Brody’s departure led to a rash of no-shows, but at least the AWA offered refunds in a few cases. *Meltzer isn’t sure on the status of the Fabs. He knows they wanted out because they were sick of getting booed every night against the Road Warriors and were scared of physical harm. *Shows in Chicago and St. Paul on 1/13 each drew between 10-11,000. Slaughter debuted in St. Paul. St. Louis *Talks to have Gagne and Co. buy Harley Race’s shares have died. Jim Crockett might be interested, however. Memphis *Meltzer no longer groups this promotion with Atlanta because the talent trading agreement appears to already be over. *Solie is off TV and Dave, like he does every issue, spends some time highlighting how bad Solie is. Florida *Things picking up because of Michael Hayes. Georgia *Ole and T-Bolt Patterson are a shoo-in for worst tag team of the year. *1/1 at the Omni drew 5,000, but kids were let in free. Mid Atlantic *Road Warriors appeared on recent TV tapes. Same w/ Terry Funk. Funk is J.J. Dillon’s bounty hunter and is drawing a lot of heat. Magnum T.A. getting a build up. *Crowds are picking up a bit. Weekend Update *Jimmy Garvin’s valet Precious suffered an 18-inch cut under her left eye when she was attacked by a knife-wielding fan on 1/18 in Denver. *Brody left AWA because Verne wanted him to get pinned in his match 1/13 against Blackwell due to Slaughter interference. Brody would also have his leg under the ropes. Brody wasn’t told of the finish until minutes before the match after agreeing to a non-pin finish earlier. There ended up being a non-pin finish and Brody left the area. AWA has been putting down Brody on TV, saying Slaughter scared him away. *According to a story in the Kansas City Times, Geigel accepted an offer from McMahon to buy the K.C. promotion, but when it came time to pay, McMahon didn’t have the cash. *Tentative air date for 20/20 special on wrestling is 2/21 and many feel it could be nasty. ABC keeps stumbling onto new information. *Southwest Championship wrestling could soon be done. *Bob Backlund taped the first TV show for his promotion in Lawrence, Mass. *NWA and WWF went head to head on 12/29 in Miami. NWA show on the beach drew a sellout 5,000. WWF drew over 3,000 according to local newspaper, but a few of Dave’s correspondents said it was around 800. *AWA has finally upgraded its TV show. Its showing the same program it shows out east w/ Pro Wrestling USA, but with localized interviews. Crockett’s show also has been upgraded. Meltzer says Mid-South is still the best show. *Pedro Morales on way to WWF. Terry Funk may make some AWA dates. *New Japan wants to elevate Bundy to Hogan/Andre status, but is worried because he can’t work fast enough. *The new Tiger Mask’s stock has dropped recently. *AWA on 1/23 in Queens, NY drew 2,000. Crockett and Gagne had another falling out. AWA may be making a move into Los Angeles. *WWF drew a surprising 2,500 in Louisville, KY. *Hogan/Piper for 2/18 at Madison Square Garden. Dave says if WWF is smart, they’ll put the belt on Piper, have Lauper and Albano in Hogan’s corner and put it on MTV. He says Piper is the most valuable commodity to reach the MTV audience. *AWA running a show on 2/24 in Meadowlands, but Meltzer says only one feud has been built up so it’ll be a disaster. *Southwest may promote in Dallas after getting a TV slot there.

I tend to like announcers that are more laid back and not always screaming, but Solie never did it for me. To me, he sounded bored and almost spoke of wrestling like he was above it.

I said as a whole, not individually, I'd never fault him for crapping on a Moondog match, unless it was from Memphis, then it MAY have potential of being okay. Read some issues/files and you will see what I mean. It's not something you can deny, and I'm not crapping on Meltzer, I enjoy reading the old stuff in particular, just sometimes when it gets to the WWF section from 87 & earlier it's hard to read because I am no longer getting news and notes, I'm getting someone crapping on almost everything whether it's good or not. I see your point, but I still feel Meltzer did a good job reporting on the WWF despite the editorializing. I've read the old issues from '83 to about midway through '85 and I haven't felt like Meltzer intentionally misrepresents the facts about the WWF or makes stuff up to try and bury them. Perhaps he'll shit on an angle or match that others thought was good, but things like that are subjective. I would consider Meltzer a new age journalist before the term was even invented. His analysis, insight and reporting about wrestling would hold up against almost almost any reporter on the sports, government or current events beat at a real newspaper. However, his editorializing would never fly. With the explosion of blogging and news analysis in the last 5-10 years, mixing opinion with reporting has become more acceptable as long as you make it clear that you're offering both.

Meltzer pretty much buried the company as a whole through at least 1987...By some time in 1988 Meltzer became less biased in some way...on paper anyway. His hatred for the WWF from his 1984 through 1987 Observers almost makes reading portions of the older newsletters unbearable. He tried his best to rip on everything that was going on in the WWF. Like I said though, somewhere in 1988 his writing's became more "fair" towards the company as a whole, but he still had his favorites to pick on in weekly columns (Andre, JYD, Warrior, etc...). Periodically, he'll offer a disclaimer and flatly state that he hates the WWF and some of his reporting about the company may be a little biased. However, I don't get the sense that he's intentionally printing wrong or misleading information on the WWF just because he doesn't like the promotion. It's mainly him reporting on certain happenings in the WWF -- whether positive or negative -- and then offering up sarcastic editorial comments.

He gives the WWF credit every now and then, but usually in a backhanded way. The way Meltzer portrays it, the WWF has always done great in the northeast. When they started going national during the Hogan boom, it struggled to crack certain markets, yet McMahon always bragged about how the WWF sells out huge arenas throughout the U.S. and are the No. 1 wrestling promotion in the world. In other words, it didn't sound like the WWF was doing iffy business, per se, but wasn't the well-oiled machine it portrayed itself as.

I'm fascinated by the business side of wrestling almost as much as the product itself. Wrestling's appeal for me is the combination of organizational development, marketing, public relations, management, personalities, athleticism, peroformance, and creativity all wrapped up into one. If I get sick of watching matches, I'll read some old wrestling observers and analyze past business decisions. When that makes me feel too dorky, I'll go back to watching matches. To me, wrestling is a fascinating business that combines many aspects of the legit sports, music and film industry. Wrestling's place when compared to the aforementioned industries changes often, but it will likely always have a place.

I think he was lumped into the washed up group because he was one of many workers on the WWF roster that had a lot of talent but either wasn't allowed or got too lazy to actually use it. That explanation doesn't really make sense, as he was allowed to use his talent, as he was given the IC belt in 1984, worked with many of the top heels from a working standpoint (Muraco, Valentine, Orndorff, Orton, etc.) and his matches were given time to breathe. He also wasn't too lazy to use it, as his work from that time period held up well in the DVDVR 80s set. He was still a very solid, reliable performer. Sounds like an early Observer myth. I'll have to go back and check, but I don't think Meltzer or the other commentators included Tito in their washed up lists. He came in third on reader ballots. Meltzer describes Tito's matches as hit or miss. He seems to like most of his matches with Valentine.

I think he was lumped into the washed up group because he was one of many workers on the WWF roster that had a lot of talent but either wasn't allowed or got too lazy to actually use it.

Martel-Robinson was actually a decent match given that nobody thought Robinson had a snowball's chance to take the title. Still a good competitive bout. The real seller of tickets on this card was the Roadies match, although there was also a Greg Gagne revenge match against Sheik Kaissie in a cage that would have brought some fans in, too. This was just after the Lights out match between Brody and Blackwell and it would have been Greg's first wrestling return to the ring for revenge. IIRC Masked Superstar ends up coming into the cage to save Sheik and beat on Gagne, and Jerry Blackwell comes in for the save. Blackwell was ridiculously hot as the top face about that time. The Turkey Battleroyal the WWF did was indeed mocked by the media in all of their sports reports (Twin Cities TV used to show highlights of all the wrestling cards up through at least the end of 1985, and plenty of years before that). um, what? Anyone have additional insight into who they were and why they would do something like that? That would have been a fun little sparring session. This makes little sense as the High Flyers tagged in a "reunion" match on 1/13/85 in St. Paul against Kaissie and Masked Superstar. They had not wrestled together since April of 1984 when Brody took them both out. The Flyers splitting was never teased in the Minnesota markets as far as I can remember...the opposite was the selling point. Must've ben a local Salt Lake angle of some sort or Dave misread what he thought he was seeing (or his correspondent did). After this would have been written, the Flyers teamed several times in Winnipeg (and probably many other cities) before Brunzell left for the WWF. One notable match was the Freebirds (Hayes and Roberts) getting the win in Winnipeg over Gagne and Brunzell at the stat of the Freebirds "push" (such as it was). Good stuff again, thanks. You're right about Gagne's return boosting attendence. The Mondo Mike guy mentions that. I had to re-type some of this recap because of computer issues, so I went through the Mondo Mat report on the AWA a little hastily. Dave also mentioned he thought the High Flyers split was a longshot, but some people were hinting at it. The Southwest cheek bladers were Embry, Greer, Starr and Sweetan.

Either the date is a typo or they lost the date because 2/30 doesn't exist. Whoops. Make that 12/30!

I didn't type each and every award winner or the entire top 50. Believe it or not, I actually do have a life. If you have specific questions, just ask and I'll go back and look. Enjoy! Editor’s Notes *Dave says he will be doing the publication for the forseeable future, or until all good circuits are gone. He says we’re down to about four or five. *Tuesday Night Titans switched to Fridays. He says as soon as wrestling reaches a saturation point, cutbacks will occur and the territories will get hit hardest since WWF can lose 70 percent of its cable time and still have plenty of programming. *Dave says the WWF plan is to make wrestling so ridiculous and bizarre that it attracts a cult audience who enjoys it because of its poor taste, making work rate and performance unimportant. *Dave thins ’85 will be a successful year for WWF because it has its audience. He’s not sure how long the audience will stick around, however. *Dave says the media will pick up on the “wrestling resurgence” even though there is no resurgence. The big year for wrestling was ‘83. *Many in the business are talking about McMahon going under and that WWF lost between $5-7 million in 1984. Dave thinks that’s high, but says payoffs are lower. He also speculates the rumors could be WWF created in order to justify lower payoffs. *Dave says WWF holds back its genuine wrestling talent because it doesn’t want to expose its main eventers. If the new breed of fan saw quality wrestling, they’d demand more of it. The main eventers in the WWF can’t deliver this so they would be exposed. *Dave says a lot of readers think other promoters are blameless in the wrestling war. There are a lot of Crockett apologists. Dave says other promoters are to blame for being stupid, and that if McMahon didn’t try a takeover someone else would’ve. He also says Crockett’s strategy of waiting for Vince to go bankrupt is short-sighted. *Dave introduces his new star rating system. 1984 Highlights *Hulkamania. Hogan has gained popularity with WWF’s new audience, young and easily manipulated rock ‘n roll fans. Hogan’s run has been a disappointment. He drew well at first in the northeast, but not very well in other areas. His matches are bad and predictable, and his ego has grown along with his popularity. Dave also says that Hogan remains arguably the most popular wrestler in the world. *The David Von Erich death is summarized. *Vince’s takeover of Georgia is summarized. *Tsuruta’s run as the first long-term Japanese champ is summarized. Dave says fans didn’t really appreciate Tsuruta and he never really was put in a strong program. *The return of Tiger Mask and the controversy surrounding the UWF was summarized. *Wrestlers who jumped to WWF were noted. These included Hogan, Piper, Mulligan, Whindham, Rotundo, Kimala, Freebirds, JYD, Vachon, Vetura, Schults, Billy Jack, Okerlund, Valentine, Orton and many others. Many didn’t last long and a few jumped from WWF to other promotions. The Choshu led group that left New Japan for All Japan was also highlighted. *The Rock ‘n Wrestling connection was highlighted. Dave says that in one year we’ve gone from two hours of weekly wrestling available in most areas to 23 hours. AWA News (I think from Mr. Mike) *WWF Turkey Tournament in St. Paul bombed, drawing 3,000. Local Twin Cities media even mocked it. AWA’s Thanksgiving show drew 17,000 headlined by Martell/Robinson and Roadies/Blackwell-Bundy. Masked Superstar debuted. Mike says the AWA is still alive and closed year w/ momentum. *Mike called into a local radio show to ask Greg Gagne if the AWA will bring in the Dynamite Kid. Gagne said he hasn’t seen much of Kid, but thinks he might be too small to compete against some of the larger AWA wrestlers (Gagne saying someone is too small!). *Brody will have to be in the ring w/ Greg Gagne for some upcoming tag matches. This pisses Mike off to no end. *Christmas was a sellout at the St. Paul Civic Center, drawing about 13,000. The Civic Center usually holds 19,000, but about 6,000 seats were off limits because Prince’s stage was set up in one section of the arena for a performance later in the week. *WWF Christmas show drew 13,000, surpassing Mike’s expectations, headlined by Hogan/Sheik. Mike thinks the good turnout was due to the WWF’s superior TV show. He also says ’85 is looking good for the WWF, even better if they can find a challenger for Hogan. Next WWF date is 1/29 w/out Hogan. 1984 Wrestling Ratings *Dave got in 98 ballots for the top 50. I’ll list the top 10. 1. Flair 2. Dynamite 3. Brody 4. Super Tiger 5. Davey Boy 6. Choshu 7. Butch Reed 8. Fujinami 9. Stan Hansen 10 Steamboat *Dave then lists all the champions of 1984 by promotion. *Largest crowds is next. The largest was 45,000 in Islamabad, Pakistan headlined by Inoki/Coage. Next was 42,000 for Starrcade ’84, which included closed-circuit locations. More From Mr. Mike *Mike sums up the wrestling war. He says the WWF initially hit hard, but some circuits, like the AWA, appear to by rallying. Mid-Atlantic got raided hard but is coming off a highly attended Starrcade and is holding its own. *He wonders if WWF is hurting for money. They’re brining in lower level talent than when they initially began their expansion. Mike thinks a good foe for Hogan would be Butch Reed, but that the WWF hasn’t approached him yet. He says Savage turned them down. *Mike thinks the AWA will hang in as long as Brody sticks around. They also need to get a new champion besides Martell. Also thinks NWA should keep going because of Flair, but even he can’t wheather temporary title changes and other bad decisions. Starrcade ’84 Recap *Dave says the card wasn’t nearly as good as ’83, but he still thought it was a good show. All wrestlers performed to potential, but some had limited potential to begin with. *Says Blanchard/Steamboat was one of the best matches he’s seen all year and it might’ve saved the card. *Says Rhodes lost to Flair when the match was called for blood, but Rhodes usually bleeds worse when he shaves. Letters *A variety of letters this time, ranging from disappointment in Starrcade to WWF bashing. *Dave reprints an ad for Raleigh Satellites where you can get two free tix to Monday night wrestling with a satellite purchase. Inside Japanese Wrestling *Dave vacationed in Japan and attended several cards. He says he knows people are tired of him saying it, but the three Japanese promotions are the best in the world. *He explains how Japanese wrestling is treated as legit sport and is covered like baseball or football is covered here in the U.S. There are also stores entirely dedicated to selling wrestling items and there are over 30 LPs on the market related to wrestling – this includes an album from Terry Funk. *Describes UWF wrestling as culture shock, it’s the hardest he’s seen. The only way someone goes down is when they’re forced down by the impact of a kick or move. It’s more like a combination of amateur wrestling and kick karate. He says UWF wrestling would go over 99 percent of the American fan’s heads. *Dave runs downs the cards he attended, giving results and thoughts on each match. Highlight was Super Tiger knocking out Yoshiaki Fujiwara with a kick to the head that Dave called the most severe blow he’s ever seen in wrestling. Fujiwara tried to continue and got kicked in the face by Tiger at least 50 times. Dave says the bout was fantastic in a way, but the viciousness turned him off. He enjoys wrestling for the visual violence w/out dealing with the consequences like brain damage and permanent injuries. “That isn’t wrestling” was the sentiment of most fans. *He says the building was jam packed and if it were in the U.S., there would’ve been 30 riots. *Dave said the reaction he heard for Choshu at the All Japan show was more than he’s heard for Hogan or Kerry. He says the only reaction to top it was Rhodes in Florida in ’74. 1984 Wrestling Observer Awards *Wrestler of the Year: 1) Flair; 2) Dynamite; 3) Brody. Dave says if WWF lost Hogan, they could replace him. If NWA lost Flair, they’d be done. *Best Face: 1) Hogan; 2) Kerry; 3) Slaughter. The commentators swallow hard and give Hulk some love for his appeal and impact. *Best Heel: 1) Piper; 2) Sheik; 3) Brody/Hayes (tie). Consensus was Piper deserved to be No. 1 w/out question. *Tag Team of the Year: 1) Warriors; 2) Dynamite/Davey Boy; 3) Brody/Hansen. Commentators say there are some strong teams and all do not list Warriors first because of their low work rate and short matches. *Most Impressive: 1) Dynamite; 2) Flair; 3) Davey Boy. Mondo Mike picked Adrian Adonis third. He was the only one to disagree w/ top 3. *Most Washed Up: 1) Jimmy Snuka; 2) Jay Strongbow; 3) Tito Santana. Consensus on Snuka, but also some mentions of Gino Hernandez and Jake Roberts. *Best on Interviews: 1) Jimmy Hart; 2) Piper; 3) Flair. Dave thinks Flair is getting a bit burned out and his interviews are falling off a bit. *Most Charismatic: 1) Flair; 2) Hayes; 3) Hogan. Dave says charisma to him is someone that can do absolutely nothing and get the crowd to react. He says the Road Warriors get his nod because they’re portrayed as heels but get more cheers than the faces. *Best Technical Wrestler: 1) Dynamite/Saito (tie); 3) Fujinami. *Most Overrated: 1) Studd; 2) Hogan; 3) JYD. Mondo Mike thinks it’s funny how promoters get fans to buy bad workers. He says your push in the WWF is determined by how well you do with your entrance music. Dave can’t pick Hogan first. He says Hogan’s bad but not pathetic. *Most Underrated: 1) Brian Blair; 2) Takada; 3) Starr. This was a tough one because it was hard to determine how to define underrated. By who: the fans? Promotions? Other wrestlers? Technically, all Japanese wrestlers could win this one. *Best Circuit: 1) New Japan; 2) All Japan; 3) Mid South. Dave picked all three Japan promotion despite liking what he saw in Mid-South. *Match of they Year: 1) Freebirds/Von Erichs 7/4; 2) Slaughter/Sheik (6/16); 3) Flair/Kerry 5/6. *Hardest Worker: 1) Flair; 2) Dynamite; 3) Brody. Dave could only recall one bad Flair match he saw in ’84. *Best Announcer: 1) Russell; 2) Watts; 3) Solie. Surprisingly, Dave didn’t mock and ridicule Solie here like he does at least once per issue. Best Manager: 1) Jimmy Hart; 2) Albano; 3) Cornette. Dave thinks Hart makes the Memphis TV show. Worst Wrestler: 1) Putski; 2) Kimala; 3) Crusher. (Quit picking on Kimala) Worst Announcer: 1) Mosca; 2) Monsoon; 3) Reynolds. Dave gets his Solie bashing in here, but says he couldn’t pick him first because Mosca is way worse. Worst Match: 1) Moolah/Richter; 2) Andre/Studd; 3) Martel/Tsuruta title change. WWF *Cyndi Lauper is working w/ Albano and Piper. *Sgt. Slaughter wanted to renegotiate his deal w/ WWF and Vince let him go. Sarge couldn’t agree to terms w/ Crockett and might show up in the AWA soon. Or he might just come back to WWF. *WWF drew 2,800 in Houston compared to 10,000 drawn by Mid-South for a free show the same night. Same situation in Oklahoma saw WWF outdrawn 10,000 to 1,500. Watts had to turn several fans away and they ended up going to the WWF show instead. *WWF drew well in Los Angeles, Oakland, Boston and Toronto. Philly drew 13,500 and Dave says Philly fans pelt the ring with more garbage than any other fans. *Dave goes through a bunch of WWF results and throws in some sarcastic comments. Example: “You can burn more calories sipping a cup of coffee than David Schults burns during a match.” *Rocky Johnson left. Jesse Ventura is back. Dave says Kimala left because of the travel schedule. *11/23 in Hartford was supposed to be a cage battle royal, but the athletic commission wouldn’t allow it. Instead they had 23 very short cage matches. *Two most recent shows in Columbus, OH drew 3,500 and 3,000. Ole’s first show there in several months drew 2,500 headlined by Flair/Rich. *Hogan took time off instead of touring Japan to rest a knee injury. Adonis/Murdoch should be tag champs soon. *First WWF Calgary tour drew under expectations for half of the cities and right at expectations in the other half. *WWF’s first show in Dallas drew 2,500 compared to 4,000 for World Class on the same night. Crowd at WWF show was mostly people that do not attend World Class shows and was rowdier. WWF returns on 1/17 w/ Hogan/Sheik. *Bob Backlund’s new Northeast promotion is drawing less than 500 per show. Pro Wrestling USA *Newest TV taping location is Las Vegas, but all of the talent is AWA besides Kimala. They actually ran an angle as well. *First, and Dave thinks last, Meadowlands show is 2/24. He’s not sure if Vern and Crockett can work together and actually pull the show off. *The NWA and Ole had a show booked for 2/30 in Pittsburgh but the building was suddenly pulled from them. All Japan *Baba and McMahon met regarding the jump of Davey Boy/Dynamite to All Japan. The meeting was arranged by a New Japan booker with the hopes of arranging an out of court settlement with Kid/Smith since they are under contract w/ New Japan until 1986. Kid and Smith were displeased w/ their pay in NJ, which was $1,500-$2,000 weekly. They should make $2,500-$3,500 weekly in All Japan. Dave notes the Warriors will be coming over soon at $10,000 per week for each of them. *Onita, who retired in ’83, returned but didn’t look too good because of his knee. He retired again shortly after. *Kid/Smith will be starting up a promotion in Western Canada in late Feb. UWF *Some main event matches will soon be held w/out ropes. Dave says this style doesn’t need ropes anyway. *The latest series took place thanks to a sponsor of New Japan putting up $160,000. A joint UWF/NJ show was also discussed. A subsequent meeting between NJ and UWF was cancelled after the UWF wrestlers stormed out because reporters arrived at the meeting. The sponsor was mad and demanded the $160,000 back. UWF gave back $48,000, or what was left after paying off all debts. *This group should last through the summer with a new sponsorship and then fold. The wrestlers insist they’ll all retire instead of going back to wrestling a traditional style. New Japan *Hogan’s reputation took a hit when he left his tour after one match. He bladed himself badly and the fans were told he went home to recuperate. Actually, he went home to rehab his knee, but the fans thought he left to tour WWF areas. *A TV show that broadcasts matches from Mexico and Japan is creating some problems by how Masa Saito is portrayed. Saito, shown wrestling in Winnipeg, is portrayed as a “dirty jap” wrestler. Southwest *This territory continues to get more gruesome. During a promo, four wrestlers proudly displayed their scarred forheads and later bladed themselves on the cheek. World Class *X-Mas show at Reunion Arena drew 17,000 headlined by Flair/Kerry. Match was good but the DQ ending was horrible. Otherwise show as terrible. *Says ’85 might be a rough year for this promotion. There are no babyfaces that can put on good matches besides Kerry and Gordy. Aside from Chris Adams, heel situation is also bleak. *Dave said Gordy/Kimala headlined a show opposite the WWF was really good, proving Kimala has been in at least one good match during his career. *Dave says the fact that WWF didn’t bomb during its debut here as he predicted shows that McMahon is catering to an entirely different audience. Dave doesn’t necessarily buy that, but gives McMahon credit for drawing a crowd. *Another factor dragging this promotion down is the refusal to make Mike Von Erich lose or look bad. Mid-South *11/22 Superdome drew only 7,500, the lowest crowd in recent memory. Last year’s Thanksgiving show also drew poorly, so it could just be a bad time of year, but Dave thinks it was the poor card. However, the same lineup used in the Superdome drew 12,000 three days later in Houston. *Mid-South traded Jim Cornette to World Class for Skandor Akbar. Dave says Mid-South might actually use Akbar right so it might not be a bad trade after all. *Butch Reed is now a face, but isn’t going over very well. Dave can’t figure out why. AWA *More of the same stuff…..not much for new happenings that wasn't covered above. *Salt Lake crowds are down. WWF drew 11,000 on 12/29 in St. Paul. Hints of Gagne/Brunzell splitting. Central States *Show was run on Thanksgiving afternoon, which Dave compares to running a show at the same time of the Super Bowl in the same town as one of the Super Bowl teams. Jarrett Promotions *Behind the scenes maneuvering by Lawler and Jarrett has lowered the rent at Mid-South Coliseum from 12 percent of the gate to 10 percent. Crowds have been way down and the promotion feels it was because an entertainment tax being levied, which forced tickets to rise $1 per seat (damn liberals even try to ruin wrestling!). Dave explains how the tax on wrestling somehow went from four to 11.75 percent. It was all kind of confusing. He went back to it later in the report, which confused me even more (good thing Meltzer reports on wrestling and not Capitol Hill). *The first crowd on 12/10 with the lower ticket price was 9,000, the largest in a long time. Crowd dropped a bit next show. Dave says all politics and taxes aside, the TV show is still good but live cards are bad. There’s no incentive to attend a live show. *Fans seem to hate Solie and chant for him to go back to Georgia. They event started a petition to get him off the show. Dave doesn’t think he’s all that bad, comparatively speaking. *12/2 Omni show only drew 1,000. Florida *Michael Hayes is booking the area. Billy Jack only returned for one week. Backlund for only two weeks. Mid-Atlantic *Crowds have been horrible since Starrcade. Dave expects a few key personnel to depart the territory shortly. Other Notes *Kerry didn’t get the part in the new Rocky movie. Nikita Koloff was also a finalist. *20/20 will be doing a special on wrestling soon. Eddy Mansfield will be featured. *Billy Jack now wrestling under his real name, Billy Haynes, in Dallas. One Man Gang in Dallas. *Jim Niedhart rumored to be WWF-bound. Dave gives a rundown of the entire Hart family and their involvement in wrestling. *There’s a piece on Jesse Ventura in the latest WWF magazine. Jesse is on blood thinners to keep him from clotting. If he bleeds during a match he could bleed to death. *Warriors broke Ken Lucas’ nose in the dressing room at a recent Pro Wrestling USA taping. Lucas didn’t appreciate the Warriors not selling his moves so he didn’t sell theirs. *Dave says most recent TV taping in Vegas was actually good. *All Japan has so much talent its booking 40 wrestlers per show. *Sheepherders back in Southwest. Southwest event outdrew World Class one night in Texas. *Ric Rude and Missing Link headed to Florida. *It’s official: Slaughter to debut w/ AWA on 1/13. Dave hopes for a Slaughter/Brody series. *AWA deal to buy St. Louis territory on hold for now. *AWA higher ups unhappy w/ Road Warriors because of a no-show in Green Bay. Some would like to get rid of them, but can’t figure out how to do so w/out losing money. Talk of putting them in the ring w/ Backlund/Rheingans to “teach them a lesson.” *Percy Pringle is a new heel manager in Florida managing the PYTs and the Missing Link. He’s doing a Jim Cornette rich-mama act.

Jumping ahead a bit, a few issues after this one Dave reprinted a classified ad from the St. Louis Dispatch that advertised wrestling openings. Dave thought the St. Louis promotion posted the ad to get American recruits and prove to immigration officials that no American wrestlers were more qualified than Kid/Smith to fill any open slot. Dave said the Tokoyo Kid got deported a few years back because immigration officials thought he was taking a spot that could be filled by an American.

Dave is starting to get more sarcastic and cynical in his writings on the American territories. At times he sounds like a snob, but for the most part, his smart-ass comments make for good reading.

According to Cawthon's site, it was advertised as Kamala vs. Andre. Big John Studd subbed. The way Meltzer wrote it, Hogan wasn't on that card. I think they were running Hogan/Kimala sporadically, but not this night. The WWF seemed to often advertise wrestlers that no-showed and RARELY gave the option for a refund. I was very surprised that they offered one for Kimala of all workers.

Cover *Head shot of Riki Choshu. Pulling No Punches *Dave stresses that the promotions struggling to survive the McMahon invasion need to look in the mirror and blame themselves for a good portion of their problems. Dave says he’s as frustrated as anyone with the current state of wrestling and McMahon and that if it wasn’t for the Observer and his ability to get tapes from Japan, Mid-south and Memphis, he would’ve spent the winter watching the NBA instead. *He says if McMahon didn’t start the invasion, someone else would’ve. Satellite technology makes it impossible to continue the old way of home-town promotions. Originally, Dave thought this would be a good thing, but he says he’s wrong now. *Dave thought having most of the talent in one promotion would result in tremendous cards, good match-ups, and quality entertainment. He says that has been anything but the case w/ WWF so far. He also blames other promotions for building up untalented new workers over established veterans with more talent and experience. He concedes talent has never been the most important thing in wrestling, but it used to at least mean something. *He also says the WWF’s primary lure for wrestlers is money and that other promotions are going to have to dig deeper to pay their stars more to prevent further defections. The only other alternative is finding better workers, booking better TV shows, and coming up with better angles. He’s not seeing that happening so far. *Dave has completely given up on watching the WWF unless he’s eating dinner in front of the TV. Editor’s Notes *Dave says he’s burned out on pro wrestling. Because he’s committed to printing one more issue and a massive yearbook, he will do that. After that, he’ll keep doing the Observer, but only report on regions he’s interested in. He’ll also stay on top of defections and attendance figures in war torn areas. (Dave talked about quitting a couple of issues ago as well.) *Another call for awards ballots. Behind the Scenes in Japanese Wrestling *UWF President Nobuo Urata was arrested, along w/ gangster Hiroshi Takizawa, for threatening Tiger Mask’s former manager Shoji Sogawa. The threat on Sogawa’s life was made in August before Mask signed with the UWF. UWF wanted complete control over Mask’s affairs. Mask had been running Tiger’s Gym w/ Sogawa’s financial backing. Earlier, Mask insisted him and Sogawa parted as friends at a press conference announcing his signing w/ UWF. *The arrest was made during the middle of a UWF series. The wrestlers tried to remain calm and Yoshiaki Fujiwara was named acting president. Reportedly, the UWF had a TV contract lined up, but this scandal will probably kill that. The UWF may be in jeopardy because arenas won’t want to book an organization tied with organized crime and TV won’t touch it. *Mask sued Sogawa, claiming he took too large a cut from some UWF shows. Many doubt Mask will win his suit. Mask claims he wanted to quit his gym gig and join UWF but said Sogawa threatened to kill him if he did. Sogawa himself was once a member of the same group of gangsters he’s fighting with now, causing trouble for Inoki and New Japan when Mask was there. *UWF will likely have to ask New Japan or All Japan for help. New Japan is the leading candidate, but several UWF workers are scared to work for Inoki again. *New Japan is hanging on despite several defections. Inoki had many of his wrestlers stay on Saipan Island after a series to prevent them from being lured away to Baba or someone else. *Dynamite Kid and Davey Boy Smith back in Japan w/ Baba. They were unhappy in the WWF and Baba promised to also get them booked on the NWA circuit. They said New Japan didn’t have any opponents for them so they went w/ Baba. *On 10/22, Baba had a show scheduled in Nagasaki. When they got into town, they discovered no tix were sold and the local promotion group had disappeared. They put on the show anyway with last minute tix going for $6-$12. 200 attended. Letters *More WWF bashing and some bashing of World Class. One letter writer thinks Dave is too hard on Crockett. Another writer has no problems with racial slurs in wrestling because, well, it’s wrestling. *There was a newspaper story reprinted that highlights Buddy Rose’s arrest for failing to pay taxes. He failed to report gross incomes of $28,591, $36,113, and $47,187 from 1978-80. (Whoops. Rose would’ve qualified to serve in President Obama’s cabinet). WWF *Gone are Brian Blair, Dynamite Kid, Davey Boy, and Kimala. They all left and weren’t fired. Tony Atlas is back. He left all pissed off a few months ago for the AWA. The AWA failed to come through on several promises so Atlas made up with McMahon. *Dave said he’s heard the 11/10 Spectrum card was actually good so he might break his own rules about watching WWF and check it out. *McMahon debuts on 11/29 in Oklahoma City w/ JYD/Orndorff. Watts is running a free show that same night featuring Kerry Von Erich. McMahon may invade New Orleans by late December. *The Crocketts booked three shows in gyms in the Bronx, Queens and Long Island for NWA shows. A mysterious party claiming he was working for David Crockett called each venue, cancelled the dates, and arranged new ones. All the new dates coincided w/ WWF shows and Crockett wasn’t able to get the original dates back. *Snuka is back. Buddy Rose and Billy Jack are in. Bret Hart and Bad News Allan will appear too. Pro Wrestling USA *Dave says this venture is getting worse. He says that as bad of moves that Vince makes, you can always count on his competitors to make even worse moves. The TV show continues to get worse with no build-ups, no angles, and endless Dusty Rhodes promos. *Butch Reed won’t do any more tapings because Watts wants nothing to do with this disaster. First live show might be in four months in the Meadowlands. All Japan *This was mostly results. All the news was in the Japan update. Dave does say the new version of Tiger Mask is amazing. UWF *See above. New Japan *Rumors that Inoki will once again lose control of this group by early ’85. If Fujinami leaves, expect New Japan to close its doors. *Bob Orton was recently in, but looked terrible. Brian Blair looked great and Brett Hart looked good. Mexico *Dave says there is a lot more talent sharing going on between Savadore Lutteroth and Francisco Flores. *Dave says he’s not a big fan of Mexican wrestling, but says they have tremendous wrestlers who do some of the most dangerous and impressive moves in the world. *Kimala was in and it turns out he speaks perfect Spanish (this I would LOVE to see. Don’t ask me why, but I’ve always loved Kamala. I can’t look away). Southwest *Eric Embry and Dan Greer won the tag belts in a pole match from Brett Sawyer and Chicky Starr. Whoever set up the pole did not do a good job because Starr climbed the pole at the beginning of the match and the pole broke in half, sending Starr crashing to the floor on his back. Dave called it the worst bump he’s ever seen. Starr tried to wrestle the rest of the match but was useless (If Starr got seriously hurt, I wonder if he would’ve had any success suing the promotion for damages? Doubtful.). *Sawyer has left the area after buying 49 percent of a promotion in the Dakotas. *A recent show drew 76 people (ouch). World Class *10/27 at the Cotton Bowl drew 12,000. The Cotton Bowl holds 70,000, but this was still a turn away crowd because of a mix up with the ticketing company. The good crowd surprised Dave given the recent downturn in the region. *On the show, Chris Adams beat up Kevin Von Erich with a chair and they really played up the injury by calling for an ambulance and delaying the show 40 minutes. Dave didn’t know what to think of this angle, however it was done so well that several people in the audience were crying. *Weekly crowds are still low. No word if Hayes will follow Gordy back to World Class. Dave says Hayes may have to sit home for a while because he’s burned a lot of bridges. Gordy isn’t viewed as negatively as Hayes. People think Gordy was just following whatever his friend Hayes asked him to do. Mid-South *Butch Reed turning baby face. *Dave talks about an upcoming scaffold match with the Midnight and R&R Express. He says these types of matches are too dangerous to be any good. *Crowds are down in Oklahoma City and McMahon will be debuting soon. Watts is running a free show to counter McMahon’s efforts and is running a show in the same arena a week later. Dave thinks this will be three red ink shows in a row for Watts and his pockets aren’t deep enough to fight McMahon this way. He also cites how Watts has been ripping the WWF more and more on TV and thinks Watts may be “obsessive” with McMahon. AWA *Dave says Verne “McGagne” is now his No. 1 person to blast this month, taking over from McMahon. Apparently, Gagne billed a tag team battle royal in Salt Lake and the three top guys no-showed – Brody and the Road Warriors. Verne pulled them weeks before to help on a show in St. Louis and never bothered to tell the fans. Not sure what happened with Brody. Show drew 9,203. *Dave says there’s nothing worse than promoting main eventers when you know they won’t attend. He says Vince may have started the trend, but anyone who follows is just as guilty. He has yet to hear of a card where McMahon had his three top-billed stars no show. *11/11 San Fran drew 6,800 for a tag team battle royal. The last San Fran show drew 600. Dave says nobody knows how to put together a battle royal like Roy Shires did. *Says Jim Garvin is one of the most overrated wrestlers in the business. *11/3 in Chicago drew a sellout 18,301. The Fabs and Roadies are working together, but neither team wants to sell for the other. Champ Rick Martell is finally involved in a conflict. He’ll feud w/ Jim Garvin. Central States *To fight the WWF invasion, the promotion on TV is saying they would rather have Ron Garvin than Andre the Giant because Garvin has pinned Andre. *This group is very thin and people keep leaving. St. Louis *11/16 drew a disappointing 5,400 for Flair/Brody. The problem may be that the AWA show, which is shown in St. Louis, has Brody as a heel and St. Louis portrays him as a face. Jarrett Promotions *Atlanta and Memphis promotions will be covered together because Jarrett appears to be running both. Dave is afraid Ole may contaminate the Memphis product. *Solie has joined Russell on broadcasts. Of course Dave hates that, but he says Jimmy Hart is so good he cancels out Solie. Dave thinks the Memphis show will become the local show in all of the cities in the old Atlanta circuit. *The Atlanta show will be special to WTBS and Dave thinks the station should give it a good time slot. McMahon is drawing a 4.3 rating on Saturday and 4.5 on Sunday. This compares with 4.6 and 3.3 pre-McMahon when Ole “did nothing” with his time slot. *At its peak, the show drew close to a 7 every week. Currently, McMahon has four of the top 10 cable shows in the country. Masterpiece Theater is No. 1, drawing a 5.2. NBA basketball games typically get below a 1.5. *Flair/Garvin set to headline 12/4 in Baltimore. Dave hates Garvin and thinks WWF will blow them out of the water with its stable of charismatic stars while Ole trots out Ron Garvin. Florida *Dave saw some recent Florida tapes and actually liked it. He couldn’t believe it. Says a Flair/Youngblood bout was good thanks mainly to Flair. Mid-Atlantic *Dave wants someone who tapes Starrcade ’84 to contact him about a trade. He says he’s a “glutton” for punishment. He says local advertising has been hot and nobody notices how bad the card is. Between the actual arena and closed-circuit sites, it may actually approach last year’s crowd. Closed circuit tix are $20 a pop. *Dave warns that crowds will be way down after Starrcade. Weekend Update *Mid-South crowds are down despite the return of R&R Express. R&R’s hearing a lot of boos. Dave also thinks an upcoming Superdome show will not draw that well because there’s been too much televised blood recently. *11/1 AWA show had five no-shows. *Kerry Von Erich had a final screen test for his possible role as Stallone’s Russian opponent in Rocky IV. If Kerry gets the part he will have to 1) cut his hair; 2) learn to box; 3) learn Russian. Dave says he can handle 1 and 2, but might struggle w/ 3 because Kerry took 24 years to learn the English language. *Patera/Saito pleaded innocent to inciting a police brawl several months ago. AWA has given up Indianapolis TV slot and WWF has moved in. *According to a source, World Class has no plans to promote in the Twin Cities or Chicago. Dave thinks the AWA has no plans to promote in Texas either and that both sides are bluffing. *Billy Jack already gone from WWF. Dave hopes the NWA didn’t promise him too much because “there’s already one Rick Martel.” Apparently, Jack left because the WWF didn’t come through on a promised Canadian announcing gig for his friend Stan Stasiak. *Dave heard that Starrcade was a disappointment in every way besides financially. Said Flair wrestled heel against Rhodes but got cheered anyway. *Kimala didn’t show at the most recent WWF Spectrum show and refunds were offered. (Refunds for Kimala?! I thought I was the only one who enjoyed Kimala. Seriously, can you imagine anyone saying, “Gee, I see Kimala is wrestling in town next week. Let’s buy tix and go!”) *Wrestlers Eddie Mansfield and Jim Wilson have testified before the Georgia State Legislature to try and get the state to enact a wrestling commission. The wrestlers compared life on the wresting circuit to the life of plantation workers. They claimed wrestling is a “totally controlled monopoly.” Mansfield said he was paid $40 for his last match in ’83 and had to cover all expenses. *Dave doubts whether it could be legally proven that wrestling is a monopoly, but says the wrestlers all raise very valid points. Thunderbolt Patterson has been involved in these issues as well. Dave also says he has little doubt that blackballing in wrestling exists, but some wrestlers get blackballed for the right reasons such as no showing, causing problems and being bad workers. *Rose and Borne were asked to leave by Owens in Portland. Owens got wind of the pair’s plan to build themselves up and then jump to the WWF. *Muraco back in WWF. *Dave thinks WWF may have won last head-to-head battle w/ NWA in Miami. NWA now running monthly in Miami. They used to be weekly. *New book out about Lawler in Memphis. *Rumors that Race approached Verne about having Verne buy out Race-O’Connor-Geigel in St. Louis. Verne-Bockwinkle-Lanza are thinking about it. *WWF drew 3,000 in Twin Cities on 11/25 w/ a Turkey Battle Royal. Dave says w/out Hogan the WWF can’t draw in the Twin Cities. *AWA drew 16,000 at their most recent Twin Cities show as LOD beat Blackwell-Bundy.

Wow. That's all I can say about this. Makes you wonder if people actually thought this was good, quality entertainment back in the day. Also makes you wonder what we consider enteratining these bands -- whether it's bands, movies, books or wrestling angles -- will one day be put on a compilation Blu-Ray for comic relief.

I should have the next issue up shortly. I'm a machine right now! Reading them isn't a problem (they're very addicting and it passes the time on the bus or working out). Finding some time to type up the summaries is difficult. I'm between bosses right now at work, so I'm working regular hours for the most part. Once the new boss arrives, I'm sure my free time will diminish. I love discussing the news in each issue so I hope I can keep posting these regularly and generate some discussion.