Loss

The Flair/Race match is definitely out there. It aired on World Pro Wrestling in Japan. I don't recall seeing any of the other stuff, but it may be out there somewhere.

Strange that it's been 10 years now since the Fingerpoke of Doom.

Jerry McDevitt stepping in to tell Stephanie not to use names when discussing drug testing was kind of funny. Stephanie was so long-winded in her answers that you almost get the feeling that she resents that she doesn't get to do more media.

Blame me. I typed this up in a hurry and just jumped to the last match recapped.

He didn't really do them. He just said a couple of sentences about them.

ADRIAN ADONIS BIO "Although Kelly, 40, had wrestled on several smaller promotions in the U.S., Adonis was the only one of the three wrestlers who had carved out a major name in the U.S. Originally from upstate New York, Adonis, whose real name was Keith Franke, started wrestling in 1974 in British Columbia as Keith Franks, and later, "Gorgeous" Keith Franks. He wrestled mainly in Canada and the Pacific Northwest with a few stops in California under that name, before becoming Adrian Adonis in West Texas in 1978. Renowned as a tough guy, Adonis used to take challenges from the fans while in Texas, offering $100 to anyone in the audience who could last 10 minutes in the ring with him. I heard Adonis used to wrestle against several fans per night in real situations, and none lasted more than around two minutes as Adonis had a good amateur background in wrestling. He made his first national name in the early 1980s in the AWA holding the tag team title with Jesse Ventura. Adonis was always plagued by weight fluctuation throughout his career, even in the early days. The weight problems took him out of main events by 1985, although he reclaimed some of his lost main event status by the middle of 1986 taking the gay act as 'Adorable' Adrian Adonis, the role he was best known for. He feuded with Roddy Piper in late 1986 through Wrestlemania III at the Pontiac Silverdome, in which he lost his hair. He was fired shortly after that match, reportedly for dress code violations. The previous fall Adonis was fired a first time, but rehired about seven weeks later. He came back to wrestling with the AWA later in 1987 doing the gay act, but that association was severed when Adonis broke his ankle in January of 1988 in Minot, ND. The injury kept Adonis out of action until late May, when he began a five-week Japan tour. Adonis slimmed down to around 300-325 (he probably was perilously close to 400 pounds at his heaviest in the AWA) and went back to his black leather jacket gimmick in Japan, and reformed his tag team combination with Dick Murdoch. He wasn't the old Adonis, who was one of the best workers in the business, but even at 325 he took amazing bumps and put on a solid show, even if several publications noted his stamina problems. He had just returned a week earlier from the Japan tour and went to work with McKigney for some independent spots. Adonis was born September 15, 1953, was married with two daughters and lived in Bakersfield, California." WWF -- Owen Hart debuted wearing a mask as The Blue Angel. Dave is told Owen's matches are mostly stalling with none of the spectacular moves he is known for, which is what people expected. -- 7/8 in Redding, CA drew a sellout 2,500 fans headlined by One Man Gang vs. Koko B. Ware. 7/9 in Chico, CA drew a sellout 1,200 fans for the same lineup. 7/7 in Toledo drew 3,500 fans headliend by Savage vs DiBiase. 7/3 in Warwick, RI drew 620 fans headlined by Powers of Pain (which everyone thought was the Road Warriors) vs The Bolsheviks. 6/26 in Toronto drew 10,000 headlined by Savage vs. DiBiase. 7/1 in Niagara Falls drew a near sellout 5,500 fans headlined by Rick Rude vs Jake Roberts. -- "I finally got to see Brother Love after all the commotion. This is probably the most talked about gimmick of the past few months with most people hating everything about it and a few thinking Bruce Prichard does a good job but still hating the idea. I've only seen one, with Rick Rude. Prichard is real good, but it reminded me of a bad Saturday Night Live sketch. They've got one good idea and created a sketch from it, but don't have enough materialt o keep the sketch from getting boring after their one good idea is shown. I could see this getting very tiresome in the long run. The one with Rude was good by WWF standards, which means bad but simplistic enough to get the gimmicks over to fast-food mentality fans --- in other words it seemed effective. As for those who take offense to it because of the way it parodies religion, just remember that entertainment is a parody of life and the WWF is a parody of entertainment. Besides, that's exactly the reaction they want you to have." -- Savage is booked to headline against Andre the Giant in August. NWA -- Dave thought the Great American Bash was a good show, but not a great show. Of the six big shows presented by Crockett of late, Dave would rank this third, behind Clash I and the second night of the Crockett Cup, but ahead of Clash II, Starrcade, and the Bunkhouse Stampede. "It's too early to tell how much they may have helped or hurt their cause with the show. I've heard no complaints about anybody's work rate, and if I had, those complaints wouldn't be valid. Even forgetting the fact these guys had worked Chicago the night before, Pittsburgh the night before that, Tampa, Miami, etc., from the top to the bottom, everyone worked well above their normal level. The heat from the live crowd, which was a legit sellout of 14,000 fans (sold out several days early) and $208,000 gate, was exceptional. The card did peak too soon. It seemed the most heat was in the first match, due mainly to Sting. Anyone watching the show with even casual attentiveness could see that Sting is the hottest act in the promotion, but for some reason he's not getting pushed as the 'hottest act'. I won't complain about his positioning on this card, because since they had never done Flair vs. Luger, it meant a lot more than Flair vs. Sting would have in the same spot, and Rhodes vs. Windham is a natural match-up because of their long-time association. And Sting would have been buried in that triple cage monstrosity, but still, the heat never hit the level later in the card that it had in the opening tag match." -- Dave doesn't really know what to make of the Flair/Luger finish. He has been told the live crowd hated it, to a point where it went far beyond any screwjob the NWA has done in the past. The ending was a Roy Shires booking trademark and when this finish was used in the old days, fans would get mad at the athletic commission, not the promotion, "... but I don't think fans differentiate between the two, and at a show like this where fans travel from around the country, a very high percentage knows it is the promotion that is responsible for all outcomes. They accomplished what they set out to do, keep Flair as champion and make it like Luger should have won, theoretically building up rematches for the fall with the idea that 'in your hometown the commission doesn't stop matches for blood and if the match was held in any other city than Luger would be champion today.' Dave says what made it so strange was that Luger wasn't really bleeding much when they stopped the match, and that there is more blood in the Memphis studio every week. -- The card: Tully Blanchard & Arn Anderson vs Sting & Nikita Koloff: "You know what would be a tremendous finish, is if, just once, they would work a match exactly like this and call 10 seconds left, etc., and have the guy actually submit with one or two seconds left. Whoops, sorry for that hallucination, I forgot completely that wrestlers don't submit nowadays. I was having flashbacks to my childhood." Dave says overall, the match told a story better than any match on the card. ***1/4 Midnight Express vs Fantastics: Dave says Cornette deserves an Emmy for his performance getting put into the cage. (My note: I love him upping the amount of his bribe offer when the referees won't accept it.) Dave adds that as great as Paul E. Dangerously is, he's not anywhere in Cornette's league as an overall performer, and says not even Jimmy Hart in Memphis was as good as Cornette is now. They worked all new spots for the most part, which mostly looked good, but a few looked like they could have used another run through. Unlike Flair, Dave says, the Midnights and Fantastics worked hard to do a completely different type of match than they had been doing around the horn, a lot of which was Japanese and Mexican style. There was less heat than for the opener, probably because the highspots were so unfamiliar according to Dave. Best match on the card at ****. (My note: Anyone who wants to watch this should not watch the commercial version. It's edited down and doesn't do the match justice.) Triple Tower of Doom: Dave is told this is better than the World Class match, and the wrestlers deserve credit because they were all working hard to get the gimmick over. Fans at ringside couldn't see most of the match. The cameramen were having tons of problems because it was so hard to cover. Nobody was clear on the rules, and the match went too long. Dave loved the finish, but thinks Jimmy Garvin should have made his own save instead of Hawk doing it. **3/4 Barry Windham vs Dusty Rhodes: The crowd was less into this match than any match on the show according to Dave. Too much stalling and no heat, and Ron Garvin's heel turn got cheered. Dave credits Windham for taking some incredible bumps. Dave is told Al Perez, Ron Garvin, and Larry Zbyszko are going to become a three-man team managed by Gary Hart. *1/4 (My note: I think Dave is underselling this match, as it's one of my favorite Dusty matches and a really good Windham performance.) Ric Flair vs Lex Luger: "I think the best way to put this match is that if anyone but Flair had done this match, I'd say it was a very good match. However, it was the same collection of predictable spots and Flair's offense is predictable and so are his bumps. Luger, on the other hand, had his offense limited to just a few moves (hip toss, bearhug, press-slam and clothesline) and he screwed up some of the spots. To his credit, Luger went 23 minutes of decent-to-good pacing and never blew up so he's gotten in a lot better shape. He showed some leaping ability once or twice that we'd never seen from him before. But he is still a long way from being even an average quality wrestler and his timing and moves in several spots were that of a green wrestler. At one point, at the 19 minute mark, Flair went on the top rope for his predictable bump, but Luger didn't get up, and Flair had to stand there and look like an idiot for 30 seconds waiting for Luger to toss him. The whole thing looked sad. In other spots it looked like two independent guys who were trying to imitate a Flair match but just not getting the moves down right. Still, there was good heat, good pacing although not great. Individually, Flair was his usual great self that we all take for granted (but don't you wish he'd do a different match every once in a while?). The finish saw J.J. post Luger, who bled. A few moments later Luger had Flair up in the human torture rack when the commission stopped the match, even though Luger was actually bleeding very little. The crowd did think the title changed hands and several of the face wrestlers (Sting, Nikita, Williams) ran to the ring for the celebration before the official announcement was made." **1/2 Overall thoughts: "Good points of the show were the workrate of the wrestlers, as stated before. The camera work was better than in previous big shows, although in the Triple Tower match the camera work was distracting, although one person who understands TV a lot better than I do said that would have been virtually impossible to do justice to no matter what. With the exception of the first match, they didn't use their pat predictable endings and the fans had to be surprised at each finish, so the booking was well thought out at least in theory. I'm still wondering if the finish to the last match wasn't a negative in the eyes of the general fan. As I write this, the reaction to the show was generally positive although nobody was raving about it being the best card of the year or anything of the type. I hope they nuke that triple tower, and ironically they are bringing it back on 7/30 at the Capital Centre for Road Warriors-Sting-Luger-Dusty vs. Horseman-Sullivan which is a horrible idea because you can't work a good match in that thing, and putting all the big names in it ruins the undercard and you've got your best heel workers and hottest faces in a match in which they can't do much anything in. From what I was told, in the Philadelphia area, they had a PPV malfunction so fans in that area didn't get to see the show. I think they should have used Bob Caudle for backstage interviews between matches, particularly while they were building up and taking down the tower. Actually the tower wasn't supposed to take that long to put up, but their was some malfunction with the door to the top cage. They also should have had a film clip building up the 'history' of the Flair-Luger thing and interviewed both while they were lacing up their boots in the dressing room to build up the heat for the main event. The tag title change called for a Cornette post-match interview and they should have done a lot better job with Ronnie Garvin in the heel dressing room and that should have had an interview as well. I really think it would be nice if the guys had a day or two off before a big show like this to freshen up, although nobody was complaining about anyone's workrate. Since I haven't researched any PPV figures yet, I do think they did a good job on TV these past few weeks of building up the show. The Sunday bit on TBS acting like it was a telethon and showing all those members of cable companies nationwide was such an ingenious idea that it couldn't have come from the Crocketts. Unfortunately for the Crocketts, the Braves baseball game went 13 innings and 45 minutes of their last minute hype was pre-empted. The time limit announcements were a negative (several have already called on this one, it's not something I came up with to nit-pick). All the matches had adequate time, none were rushed and the show was certainly long enough to where nobody felt ripped off (the five matches had almost exactly the same amount of total wrestling time as the 12 matches combined at Wrestlemania III for example). However they could have announced 45 minute time limits for the early matches because 20 minutes seemed too short (of course that would have necessitated coming up with a new finish for the opener). In the Flair-Luger match they should have announced a 60 minute time limit since the time limit was a moot point in reality since they weren't going broadway with it. Saying TV time limit made this sound like a TV taping rather than the biggest show of the year. If they felt they couldn't do that because everyone knew the second showing was beginning at 9:30, they could have just announced that if the match goes past 9:30 that they'd have to delay the second showing a few minutes. Since they weren't going to do it anyway, they had no problems with satellite time, etc. For those watching who were wondering, yes, Tommy Young was scared to death on top of that third cage. I liked the analysis provided by the announcers booth both in the last-minute hype and also on the card, although it seemed to me that at times Jim Ross was trying too hard to sell every match as a legendary classic (particularly the triple tower match). And finally, they have got to make a change in World champion. Ric Flair is the greatest of our time (although right now I'd rank him No. 3 in the world behind Owen Hart and Ted DiBiase) and nobody will deny he's been a tremendous champion for most of the past seven years. He is still the best worker in the NWA, however unless he makes a major change (babyface turn) he is so stale in his current role against the same contenders working the same match and always getting beat but keeping the title on screw-jobs that the title simply doesn't mean what it could. I had thoughts that Luger wouldn't have been a bad replacement short-term, but he's not ready. He's improved to where he's passable and apparently his stamina is no longer a problem, but even against the best wrestler in the world, in a single, he's not capable of producing the great match needed from a World champion. I'm not sure Sting is the great worker that a lot of fans think he is (still needs to add moves to his repertoire, but he does great work when he's in with good people), but he is a lot better than Luger and he should be the guy thrust into the championship spotlight unless a Flair turn is made which at least would enable Flair to have fresh matches with Windham, Tully, Arn and Ron Garvin. So the overall verdict is it was a good show on TV and an excellent show live. At the same time, I don't see any 'coattail' effect from the show (any positive momentum other than help in alleviating their cash flow problems) and I do think that for a big PPV show, fans deserve a real ending to the main event." -- 7/5 in Miami drew 4,800 for a Bash show headlined by the Road Warriors vs Ivan Koloff & Russian Assassin in a scaffold match. 7/6 for the Tampa Bash drew a disappointing 5,500 fans. 7/8 in Pittsburgh drew an $80,000 gate -- Correction: Charlotte crowd was 12,300, which is a good crowd, but still down from years before. -- Early reports based on Southern numbers only indicate a five percent buyrate for the Bash. -- Paul Ellering is training for a triathlon in September. WCCW -- Former Dallas Cowboys star Harvey Martin is doing color commentary with Marc Lowrance. -- Buddy Roberts is claiming on TV he owns the name Freebird and wrote "Badstreet USA" and that Hayes owes him money, and that if he or Gordy try to call themselves Freebirds he will sue. Dave loves it! STAMPEDE -- 7/8 in Westlock, Alberta drew 300 fans and a $2,000 gate headlined by Chris Benoit vs Johnny Smith in a ****1/2 match. "By the way, this is the most underrated feud in North America as everyone talks about Savage vs. DiBiase and Midnights vs. Fantastics but these guys are in the same league. The bout went 25 minutes and would have been a five-star match except the first four minutes were pretty slow." -- 7/10 in Edmonton drew 350 fans and a $3,000 gate. -- Brian Pillman re-injured his tricep within his first few days back and is now limited in what he can do. -- "After watching the latest tape from here I've got to make one comment about the announcing and producing by Ed Whalen. Now you've got to understand the background and there is a letter in the letters page which touches on this subject as well. Whalen, as a legitimate broadcast figure in the market, in some ways has a problem with doing wrestling for the obvious reasons as how can anyone have 'credibility' doing editorials or whatever when they are shilling selling wrestling tickets. So Whalen doesn't heavily hype, in fact he doesn't hype at all to protect his credibility in the legit media. He doesn't build heat or really get into the matches, although at rare times, such as during Owen Hart's matches, he would occasionally make perceptive comments when comparing Hart with old-timers like Earl McCready and Edouardo Carpentier. However, this promotion is in a position where it has to build up its characters, build heat into its matches, etc. The WWF show in Calgary last week had tons more heat than a normal Stampede card, even though a Stampede card features much better matches. The reason is the WWF's characters are over and by and large have more defined personalities and give better interviews even though as a rule the workers here are better. But part of the problem with the heat is Whalen, who won't 'sell' any gimmicks or angles because it would hurt his personal credibility. It's a position I can sympathize with, but it is hurting the promotion. Several times Whalen's interviews with the heels come off as bad because he'll pull the mic from them in the middle of their spiel when he doesn't like what they are saying or if they get carried away. He's kind of a censor to keep things from getting ridiculous, but it's that ridiculousness that often gets characters noticed. Anyway, why I'm bringing this up is Owen Hart's last match in Calgary a couple of months back, after the bout I believe Makhan Singh and Gary Allbright held Owen (Allbright came in wearing a Jason outfit but Owen unmasked him) and Gama (wearing a hockey mask) showed up and was about to throw fire in Owen's eyes, but instead of showing us the angle, the cameras cut away to Ed at ringside and we later saw interviews with Bruce Hart & Pillman yelling about throwing fire and all that but the viewing audience never saw it. Several times I've seen angles simply not aired on television, so how can you get the promotion fired up when you aren't showing your angles on TV? With Owen Hart gone, this group needed something to heat it up, and I'm not saying it was a great angle or it would have tripled attendance, but whomever the book is literally has his hands tied when an angle that leads to future main events doesn't air on the TV show." NEW JAPAN -- 7/15 began a new series at Korauken Hall. -- Hiroshi Hase injured his right leg while training to return, so he'll be out a little while longer. -- The latest on Inoki's 8/8 return is a tag match teaming with Backlund against Choshu and Fujinami. "I'm often critical of Inoki and let's face it, he's like too many who won't step down when it would be better for the promotion to build up younger talent, however he does deserve credit for at least keeping himself in condition." Dave goes on to say Inoki has a blood disease which makes his stamina awful, but he keeps himself looking good. -- Lots of heat on Tatsumi Fujinami. He keeps getting put over because he keeps threatening to leave. He hasn't renewed his contract with New Japan and is a free agent. Baba and Inoki have a deal not to raid each other, so Fujinami couldn't go to Japan even if he wanted to, and while the initial Maeda match would draw a huge gate in the UWF, his prospects would be limited after that. There are thoughts that Vader was beaten too soon since they want him to be the next Hansen or Brody, and also that Choshu needs a big win and Fujinami keeps winning instead. ALL JAPAN -- 7/2 began a new series at Korauken Hall -- Dave is told Kenta Kobashi is All Japan's best candidate for Rookie of the Year UWF -- Meltzer is told Akira Maeda is hotter in Japan right now than Hulk Hogan could ever dream of being. Tickets went on sale for the 8/13 show in Tokyo priced at $80.00, $56.00, $40.00, and $24.00, and all advanced tickets sold out in less than six hours. The gate is somewhere in the $500,000 range, putting it in the top seven live gates in the history of pro wrestling. Even Hogan vs. Andre at the Silverdome didn't do $500,000 that quickly. "The most amazing part of this is the UWF is a group with no television, no showmanship involved in its matches, a two-man front office and only six full-time wrestlers. They have violated every given rule for promoting wrestling, and yet have succeeded beyond what anyone thought was possible for them. I saw the second UWF card from Sapporo on tape, and I guarantee that the vast majority of readers would be bored to death by it. The kicks aren't nearly as vicious as the 84-85 UWF, there was no playing to the crowd, the crowd behaved more like it was watching a tennis match than pro wrestling and in a sense it was almost like watching amateur wrestling but with submission holds. My first reaction watching the Maeda vs. Takada main event was that there was no heat at all for the match. The only sounds in the entire building were the heavy breathing of the two competitors except for an occasional 'ooh' and 'ah'. My first reaction was that there was no heat, but it was actually that silent intense heat which is so rarely ever achieved. Ironically, the reason for their success is this is the only promotion in the world in which the general public, and I mean close to 100% of the public, believes it is totally legitimate, and because of that, Maeda comes off as the 'best' legitimate wrestler around. Ironically, that image is as much a manipulative work as anything else in the business. But even with this amazing success, it's hard to see how they can sustain interest without television to build up their wrestlers to where the general public would know them by sight and with their inability to make new match-ups because of only having a few opponents for Maeda. But until the time comes when their match-ups get stale and when they no longer are the hottest ticket in Tokyo, they will be making a ton of money. What may keep them alive for a long time is their concept of just running one big show per month rather than lots of spot shows. From what I'm told, they wouldn't be able to draw as well in the smaller towns as All Japan and New Japan because the magazines and newspapers which cover wrestling heavily don't filter down to the smaller towns in Japan that well." JOSHI -- Dave calls a recent Crush Girls vs Jumping Bomb Angels match ***3/4, and still a disappointment, as the JBAs still haven't recovered from their WWF stint and are carrying too much weight. -- Talk of Chigusa Nagayo retiring seems to be fading away. Dave says she's still the best worker they have. Lioness Asuka has lost some popularity, but is still the second best female wrestler in the world. Bull Nakano is a strong third and number four is a distance fourth, whoever that would be. MEXICO -- Dave says Ken Timbs is the lead heel in Mexico right now, doing a USA bit with the flag and the fans hate it.

WWF -- The 7/31 show at the 55,000-seat Milwaukee County Stadium will be headlined by Hogan vs Andre in a cage. Dave thinks they're doing this match as a dry run for a possible house show series in the fall, which if it happens, will probably be the biggest money house show program they've done since Hogan/Orndorff. -- Owen Hart is starting with the WWF. He will be under a mask as a C Team performer. He will probably debut on 7/13 in Lacrosse, WI, at the same taping as Terry Taylor. Dave also suspects Hogan will appear at either that taping or 7/14 in Cedar Rapids, IA. Regarding Owen's WWF run, Dave says the following: "There are a couple of ways at looking at this. First, it is simply impossible for Hart to have the calibre of matches with Titan that he did on his most recent Japan tour against the likes of Koshinaka, Hase and Yamada. The opponents aren't good enough, and he wouldn't be allowed to do the moves. Still, if marketed correctly, and Titan generally does a good job in this regard (and certainly a better job than any other promotion), a flying wrestler with the right gimmick, the right kind of push, and the right opponent can be a major thing for Titan. They don't have anyone like him. Jimmy Snuka was only 5-10 and was one of the three or four hottest babyfaces of the last decade in the Northeast simply for one move. Satoru Sayama, who weighed 60 pounds less than Hart, was one of the two or three biggest names in this entire business in the early part of the decade. At the same time, Sayama never would have been as big a star as he was if he didn't have the Dynamite Kid, Bret Hart, Black Tiger, Kobayashi and others of nearly the same size and of good calibre to feud with. Still, with all the big guys in Titan, Hart is a comparative midget (though in talent, the midgets are the big guys in most cases) and if the size difference is accentuated by putting him in with the wrong foe and having him sell size and fake strength moves, it will be very easy for Titan fans to simply see him as 'too small'." -- All of the WWF's pay-per-view records were shattered by the Mike Tyson vs Michael Spinks boxing match drawing a 15 percent national PPV buy rate. It grossed $30 million in the PPV market. Dave says it will never happen, but Hogan vs Tyson on pay-per-view would draw more than Mike Tyson against any boxer, simply because there is little mystery to Tyson matches until a new contender is groomed. While Hogan is seen as a fake, his size might make people think he has a chance. -- No Holds Barred finishes taping on 7/30, so 7/31 will be Hogan's first match back. Dave doesn't see anyone in a hurry to put the belt back on him, and there is no reason to if he can draw without it, at least until Wrestlemania. -- "The Ted DiBiase vs. Randy Savage cage match from the last MSG show was the best match at MSG in years -- the last ****1/2 bout at the Garden I can recall was the Sgt. Slaughter vs. Iron Sheik boot camp match in the summer of 1984. This match wasn't quite up to that level, but was the best WWF match I've seen at least since the Savage vs. Steamboat match at the Silverdome. I'm not a big fan of WWF cage matches and they spent too much time trying to escape (and four times with Savage about to get out, Virgil punched him back in), however you can't deny that both guys went all out for 12 minutes climbing up and down, taking bumps and working at a pace about 10 times normal for WWF main eventers. You know, some of the matches these two have had of late have been so good that people are talking like the WWF is going to get back to traditional wrestling, whatever that may be since the style of wrestling in the 70s was difference in each circuit and they go nationwide. But people fail to watch the prelim matches on these MSG cards, which are awful from top-to-bottom, or forget that Titan's top matches besides Savage vs. DiBiase are Andre vs. Duggan and Honkeytonk vs. Beefcake, two of the poorest match-ups for wrestling and action of this decade." -- Except for the cage match with Andre, Hogan's next series of matches will be with mid-level heels like Haku and Bad News Brown. His big feud in fall will probably be with Big Boss Man. Dave thought Boss Man was doing well until he saw a horrible match he had with Scott Casey. -- 6/24 in Providence drew 3,000 headlined by Roberts/Duggan vs Rude/Andre. 6/25 in Baltimore drew 7,000 for Savage vs DiBiase on top. 6/19 in Elizabeth, NJ drew 1,157 and a $12,600 gate headlined by Honkeytonk Man vs. Brutus Beefcake. 7/1 in Calgary drew 12,500 and $160,000 Canadian headlined by Savage vs DiBiase in a *** match. -- USA is planning a three-hour special on 07/18. -- WWF has booked a second date in Greensboro on 10/28. They debut at the Greensboro Coliseum on 8/7 with Andre vs. Hogan on top. -- The latest in the neverending Vince/Bruno Sammartino feud is that announcers have been instructed going forward to always call Superstar Billy Graham "The Living Legend". NWA -- The Great American Bash is on 07/10 and would have occurred by the time WON readers received this issue. Dave anticipates it being the biggest money non-WWF show in history and probably fourth of all time when it comes to dollars grossed for the show. "While the NWA has done a very good job of hyping this show, they've still got a long ways to go before they are polished at putting together a megashow. First off, this Price For Freedom tag is goofy, although that's such a minor point it probably wasn't worth bringing up. The fact they've never really announced the 10 participants in the triple tower and really have never simply gone over the card from top-to-bottom isn't a minor point. My own feeling is that even though I expect this to be a good show, and Clash of the Champions I proved that five matches are enough for a hot show provided they are hot matches, my own feeling is that fans do often look to quantity and want to see a 'complete' card for these specials and I think an eight match show with three hours to get it in would satisfy people that they are seeing 'all the stars' and since the NWA needs more time per match than a WWF show would because of the difference in product, I'd hate to see a repeat of Starrcade where it was evident that they were rushing the Flair match because they were coming against the clock." -- Dave also points out that in the local cable guides, there is almost always a full page ads with photos and a full card rundown before a WWF PPV. For the Bash, he had to "scour" the guide to find a small ad on Page 30. All it said was "Each year, the National Wrestling Alliance streaks across the country holding grudge matches, settling old rivalries and initiating new ones. This year, you're invited to watch as the Bash presents for the first time ever the triple-cage 'Tower of Doom' matching Ric Flair and Lex Luger." On page 164, there was another paragraph that said this: "Gill Cable presents The Great American Bash from Baltimore on Sunday July 10 at 4:00 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. See Ric Flair, Lex Luger, The Midnight Rider, Tully Blanchard, 'Gorgeous' Jimmy Garvin and Precious, The Midnight Express, and other top stars from the NWA." Dave's response? "Jeez, we've known the line-up for months, and the NWA pretty well had planned a Flair vs. Luger main event for the Bash PPV dating back to January so couldn't we have some sort of hype for the match itself, something like the Old Master vs. Young Lion confrontation pitting the greatest wrestler of all-time against the man many expect to take his place (so much for truth in advertising, but let's face it, if Andre vs. Hogan can be the match of the century, Luger can be billed as a future wrestling great). Instead we get no mention of the title, and in fact, in one ad we get the two main matches confused and for those who don't know better, they actually won't be seeing what is advertised. The second ad lists seven names, one of whom (Midnight Rider) has long since rode into the sunset and the other names mean nothing except in the context of a great match situation. Seeing Tully Blanchard or Midnight Express or Garvin & Precious or even Ric Flair is not going to make anyone think twice about shelling out money. You've got to have specific matches. Besides, if you are just listing names, to the general public, while most NWA wrestlers are not particularly well-known (and in fact, aside from Hogan, no wrestlers have what I'd call cross-over popularity to the non-fan audience), Crockett's best-known guys are Flair and the Road Warriors, who weren't mentioned in either ad, and in fact, it's never been made all that clear except for those who listen attentively to the NWA interviews that the Warriors are even on this card." -- There was speculation that since the Tyson PPV only went 91 seconds and cost $15.00 that people might not be willing to turn around and spend additional money on the NWA show. Dave calls whatever damage might happen "extremely minimal". -- The Bash series is drawing well so far, as expected, but no $250,000 gates like in years past. The tour opened 6/26 in Orlando drawing 6,000 fans and an $87,000 gate, a record in Orlando. 6/27 in Greenville, SC drew 4,700 fans -- just shy of capacity. 6/28 in Columbia, SC, drew a turnaway house, 7/1 in Norfolk drew a $100,000 gate, 7/2 at the Charlotte baseball stadium drew 10,000 fans and a $98,000 gate, way down from previous Bash shows in Charlotte which have done over 20,000. 7/3 in Amarillo drew a near sellout of more than 6,000 fans. Baltimore is expected to do a live gate of $180,000. -- "A lot has changed in the past week regarding the possible sale of the NWA to the Turner broadcasting empire. I really don't want to get into details because I'm not totally clear of all of them, other than the JCP stockholders (basically the Crockett family) are not united in wanting to sell the company right now. I'm not certain of who stands where other than Jim Crockett is behind the sale and David isn't, and Ole Anderson is trying to become a key player in this deal as well and is trying to sway the wrestlers into breaking away and either forming a new company (which could conceivably be headed by David Crockett provided Jim Crockett makes a deal with Turner) or actually manuevering a deal with Turner himself, which if Anderson could provide the wrestlers, in theory, then Turner wouldn't have to pay however many millions to the Crocketts to actually buy a company. Of course none of this takes into account that any new company would have to start from scratch when it comes to putting together a national syndication network so it could promote, and this network would have to be started at a time when TV programmers are no longer hot on wrestling not to mention all the disadvantages when it comes to booking the major arenas and building up an audience during these times when the wrestling economy is far from its healthiest point. It is expected that several more major breakthroughs will be taking place before this month is out in what inevitably will wind up being the most important news story in pro wrestling this year." -- PPV clearances for the Bash is 10 million homes, roughly the same as Wrestlemania IV. Dave anticipates the Bash getting about half the number of PPV buys as WM IV. -- There is unhappiness among the crew since word was given that payoffs for the Baltimore Bash won't be given until October 1. -- George Michael Sports Machine is doing a lengthy piece on Ric Flair. -- The Road Warriors in Weekly Pro Wrestling magazine in Japan: "That's right. We're going to work for the WWF. But we can't say when for sure. New York wants the Road Warriors really bad. It's not that we don't like their style. We don't give a damn about what they do in the ring or how they promote the card. The bottom line is what they can offer. Sure we can't come back to Japan, we won't go to the WWF. Nobody can tell us what to do. Nobody and we can nobody can boss us around. Right now, we are under contract with the NWA. This is the official commitment and we are not about to break it. Then again, anything is a gamble to a certain degree. You have to leave all your options open." (My note: This is really bizarre ...) The interview was done before the Powers of Pain jumped. -- 7/4 in Dallas at Reunion Arena drew 5,000 fans headlined by Ric Flair & Barry Windham vs Lex Luger & Dusty Rhodes. WCCW drew 3,000 at the Sportatorium on the same night at $5.00 per ticket. 7/1 in Norfolk, VA drew 9,000 fans headlined by Luger/Sting/Road Warriors vs Flair/Windham/Arn/JJ in a cage match described as excellent. -- Crockett had been plugging for weeks that tickets for the Seattle Bash show on 8/3 would go on sale on 7/5. Tons of fans showed up to buy tickets and there were none available. In fact, the date had not even been approved by the commission and no wrestlers had applied for licenses. WCCW -- 7/1 at the Sportatorium drew 1,100 fans headlined by Kevin & Kerry Von Erich vs Terry Taylor & Iceman Parsons. -- The Von Erich story is definitely set for the October issue of Penthouse. The Dallas Times Herald had a preview the previous Wednesday. -- Since WCCW started appearing in Kansas City, crowds have improved to between 350 and 500 per show. -- "Seems the thought that Ken Mantell wasn't going to run the promotion to preserve the Von Erich legacy has gone out the window. Kevin holds the Texas title, Kerry the World title, Kevin & Kerry hold the tag titles, and Kevin, Kerry & Hayes hold the six-man belts." MEMPHIS -- The CWA title changed hands on 6/27 in Memphis when Max Pain beat Brickhouse Brown in a cage match. Pain lost the title on 7/3 to Phil Hickerson. Scott Steiner & Billy Travis regained the Southern tag titles on 6/27 from Don Bass & Gary Young, also in a cage match. -- 6/27, with the two title changes and Lawler vs Kerry Von Erich on top, drew 4,000 fans. The Lawler/Kerry match went 10 minutes before Robert Fuller & Jimmy Golden interfered and attacked Lawler. Kerry helped fight them off, but then said he didn't come all the way from Texas to end the match like that, so they re-started the match and it went 12 more minutes, and finally ended with a double countout finish. The match aired on FNN, was said to be really good, and both juiced. Antonio Inoki was in the crowd watching the match. -- "Jeff Jarrett is over a tremendous amount now as a face, which is an unbelievable difference from his pre-broken arm days when lots of fans were booing him. The thing they did the week before on TV with his father was a really good and very effective skit." -- 7/3 drew an impressive 5,000 fans mainly to see Jimmy Valiant return. "Valiant has always been a big drawing card in Memphis on a short-term basis and will be around for about a month I'm told, but I guess this means he's finally through with Crockett, which has seemed inevitable for a long time. Actually the only reason Valiant stuck around for as long as he did was because he was under contract and was waiting for the balloon payment on his contract and I guess he got tired of waiting." OREGON -- Billy Jack Haynes' group appears to be on its last legs. Many shows have been canceled and several wrestlers have left. They held a card on 6/24 in Gresham, OR, that drew 60 fans. Coco Samoa is a referee. WINDY CITY -- Windy City has announced a card for 7/9 in Rockford with a tag team battle royal and Steve Regal vs Eddie Gilbert. -- They have signed an exclusive deal with the Ampitheatre and will be running shows there every six weeks. Paul E. Dangerously, who is doing booking, will manage Condrey, Rose, Gilbert and Col. DeBeers. CONTINENTAL -- Lawler vs. Idol on 7/2 in Dothan, AL, drew a $10,000 gate and "... had a very unique twist. Before the match started (and I understand this match was taped for television), Paul E. Dangerously showed up with an 'injunction' which stated that he could be at ringside for this match because of supposed terms in his previous contract with Austin Idol that if Idol ever got a World title match than Dangerously would be his manager. However Dangerously basically was working on behalf of Lawler in this match, although Lawler was acting like he didn't want him around either. The finish saw Idol catch Lawler in the figure four leglock when Dangerously pulled the referee out of the ring and Ko'd him with his phone. Eddie Gilbert then interfered and threw fire in Idol's face although the fire actually missed. Earlier in the show, Lawler had a non-title match against Ken Wayne and Gilbert tried to throw fire at Lawler once again, however Lawler ducked and the fire went into the eyes of referee John Keaton." STAMPEDE -- 6/24 in Calgary drew just 350 fans, which is the lowest crowd for a double TV taping in a really long time. This was the last Calgary card until 7/22, so they had to get more matches in so they could air TV. They also filmed a supplementary card on 6/22 in Red Deer, put together at the last minute. -- Jason The Terrible is coming back to feud with Steve DiSalvo. -- Brian Pillman is announced for the 7/9 card in Edmonton, which is good for Stampede because they had lost Owen Hart and Jason The Terrible. Pillman was sidelined with a tricep injury. -- The group is touring British Columbia and drawing decent. -- Mika Komatsu and Yumi Ogura are in for three weeks, but won't be seen on television because they are in during the time TV isn't being taped. -- Kerry Brown has been turned face because of the lack of babyfaces, and is being geared to feud with Makhan Singh. -- Steve Blackman was awarded the TV title in a tournament to crown a first champion that took place on 6/17 and 6/24. NEW JAPAN -- Tokyo Sports reported a rumor that Antonio Inoki will be selling New Japan to Ted Turner to be part of an international NWA. "I certainly don't think there is anything to this story, but the funny thing is, it would make sense for someone to own a promotion in Japan and the U.S. because he could arrange injuries and tours for stale talent back and forth and fans wouldn't have a chance to see the departed wrestlers on another promotions' TV. Actually, there are numerous advantages to this, but it won't happen." -- "I guess Inoki's trying to start rumors of his own. There is still talk of Inoki vs. Hulk Hogan on 8/8 in Yokohama but again I think they are just stirring up ink, since it is virtually impossible that this match will take place." -- Tatsumi Fujinami is receiving a big push. He pinned Riki Choshu on 6/24 in Osaka to regain the held up IWGP title and handed Big Van Vader his first pinfall loss on 6/26 in Nagoya. -- Shiro Koshinaka captured the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title on 6/24 in Osaka, pinning Owen Hart. Owen is scheduled to come back in October, but that probably won't happen since he's with the WWF now. -- The highest crowd of the last series was 10,760 paid in Nagoya for Vader vs Fujinami on 06/26. -- 6/22 in Omiya drew 2,110 fans. 6/19 TV taping at Korauken Hall drew 2,250 fans. 6/24 in Osaka drew 6,088. 6/23 in Yokohama drew 3,940. -- Riki Choshu vs Yoshiaki Fujiwara at the last TV taping was a match Dave called "interesting". Choshu got the clean win, which wasn't surprising since Fujiwara is UWF bound when his contract expires. But the crowd was solidly behind Fujiwara and reacted huge to the submission holds, to a point where it made it obvious this was the match that sold out Korauken Hall. "Choshu was forced to wrestle and he's actually very good with the matwork when he's forced to actually do the stuff. While some would find the matwork boring, since it was moving matwork and the two are both solid and quick with their trading moves and sold for each other realistically, I thought it was a good match. However, when Choshu gained the pinfall with the lariat, the place went totally silent because the fans who were there 'believed' that Choshu couldn't legitimately beat Fujiwara and thus the pinfall was for the political reasons we spoke of earlier and the good match became a sham in their eyes." -- "Adrian Adonis weighs more than Vader, which tells you how his diet is going, however he sold all the size and power moves and took excellent bumps, especially when you consider he looked to be in the 325 pound range. Vader has improved a lot and is probably a better all-around worker than Big Bubba Rogers at this point although he still has to be carried." -- Hiroshi Hase should be back in by the end of the month. He suffered broken ribs in a match with Keichi Yamada in early June. -- Bob Backlund was interviewed in a Japanese magazine and left his options open for returning to wrestling. He said he won't go to the NWA because he can't make the same level of money as the top guys. New Japan and the UWF both really want him to come in. ALL JAPAN -- All the magazines in Japan have been articles and photos on Mitsuharu Misawa out of the mask. His identity has become public knowledge because of his recent wedding. -- Shinichi Nakano, Shunji Takano, Tiger Mask, Akira Taue, and Isao Takagi have formed their own group in All Japan to feud with Tenryu's Revolution group. JOSHI -- 6/26 at Korauken Hall saw Bull Nakano earn a shot at Chigusa Nagayo's World title before a sellout 1,800 fans. -- JWP is building up a match on 7/14 between Devil Masami and Shinobu Kandori. Masami has gained 40 pounds since she retired, "... and has the biggest thighs on any wrestler, male or female, that I think I've ever seen including Doug Furnas." -- Yumiko Hotta and Mitsuko Nishiwaki are being groomed to be the next big tag team for AJW, and have been nicknamed The Fire Jets. OTHER -- Scott Hall is wrestling in Austria. LAST MINUTE NEWS FLASH -- "Just as we were going to press we received the tragic news about the death of pro wrestlers Adrian Adonis, David McKigney and Pat Kelly in what was described as a gruesome van wreck in New Foundland on the night of 7/4. According to Canadian wire service reports, the three wrestlers along with Mike Kelly, another wrestler, were traveling in a mini-van en route to a match in Lewisporte, New Foundland (an island on Canada's Eastern coast) when the van crashed and went into a brook. Pat Kelly, whose real name was Victor Arko and McKigney, best known as The Bearman or Canadian Wildman, were pronounced dead at the scene while Adonis died hours later in a hospital in Gander, NF, about 60 miles from the scene of the accident. Mike Kelly, real name William Arko, was at last report listed in serious but stable condition in the Gander hospital. Adonis, 34, was one of the most talented wrestlers in the world in the early part of the decade and had been a tag team champion in the AWA (with Jesse Ventura) and WWF (with Dick Murdoch) and had just started back this past month in Japan where he had been a major star before his recent WWF stint. McKigney, who was the main character in the recently-published book 'Drawing Heat' by Jim Freedman, was a long-time promoter and wrestler mainly in the northern reaches of Ontario, Canada. He was known in the 60s as The Bearman because he trained several wrestling bears. The book 'Drawing Heat' brought out that McKigney had lived a tragic life, with the most publicized part of his life occurring many years back when one of the bears he trained escaped and killed his wife and ripped him up pretty good as well. We will have a lot more details on this next week as they become available."

I like the book so far, quite a bit in fact, but as you get into his time on top, while he makes good points about a number of things, he also comes across far more delusional. I'm curious if most great wrestlers are as narrow-minded about there only being one style that is any good as Bret is.

I agree with OJ on this one. Since even the holiday shopping season was down for retail, it would make sense that wrestling would be hit even harder. WWE may finally dry up the well internationally as well, since this is a global crisis. I think they've diversified enough that they'll ride it out and be okay, so I don't think it's going to make a huge effect on their bottom line. But I do think attendance and PPV buys will continue to go down. This would be the perfect time for WWE to put their entire video library on an iTunes-like database where people can buy individual matches for $1.99 or whatever.

I'm pretty bored with all the "Will he or won't he?" talk with Christian and WWE. Just show up on TV or don't, but enough with the speculation.

Ric Flair will have a match somewhere.

I finally picked this up also and I am about halfway through. Great, great wrestling book so far, I'll have more to say when I finish. This is the type of book -- talking about match layouts in detail and how they were put together, all encounters, every big match on a pay-per-view, every road story he could think of, etc. -- Ric Flair should have written, instead of the generalizations and vague recaps that came together as To Be The Man. Factoring out the wrestling stories, this book is worth reading just for showing how completely dysfunctional (huge understatement, that word) the Hart family is.

Correct.

WWF -- The WWF has a date in the Greensboro Coliseum on Sunday, August 7. The show will be headlined by Hogan vs Andre. Dave says this should sell out the Coliseum, something the NWA hasn't done since a Flair/Barry Windham match early in '87. The WWF also just ran a successful show in Richmond, VA, and will be able to promote in the new 20,000-seat Charlotte Coliseum. "And these are cities which over the long haul don't have the population base to support two promotions if they each run monthly cards. It is going to be an uphill battle for the NWA from this point on." -- Early reports are that Vince McMahon's own Road Warriors creations in the Powers of Pain have been a success. There may end up being more to this, as Crockett claims to own the team name, and Paul Jones was still using the term on TBS after they jumped. They've been putting Tito Santana with them at ringside as a cue to fans that it's okay to cheer them, but only in arenas and not on TV. Dave says what's scary is that so many fans believe they are the real Road Warriors and that is part of why they are being cheered so much, which he calls a reaction nobody anticipated. -- At the last TV taping, Haku was repackaged as "King Haku", so the Islanders tag team is done. Dave is told it's not getting over live at all, and wthe whole coronation and gimmick doesn't sound good on paper either. -- Stan Hansen and Jeep Swenson are in Atlanta filming Hulk Hogan's movie and Dave wonders if fans take those jobs that they'll do on the big screen seriously. The WWF has rented the 8,000 seat Alexander Coliseum where Georgia Tech plays for an eight hour film date on 7/16 to tape all the wrestling scenes for the whole movie. Dave suspects that Hansen and Swenson are hoping that if they do a good job on screen that it will result in a job with Titan. "You know, with Hansen, Hogan might have his best 'match' of the year, especially since they can edit it in so many different ways before we'll ever see the finished product." -- There may be a Ken Patera/Iron Sheik feud to tie into the summer Olympics since both have been in the Olympics in the past. -- 6/24 in MSG drew 18,300 for the Savage/DiBiase cage match, which Dave says everyone is raving about. 6/23 in Utica, NY, drew 3,453 fans headlined by Bulldogs vs Islanders. 6/20 in Syracuse, NY drew 3,000 fans headlined by Rude vs Roberts. 6/24 in Richmond, VA drew 7,000 fans headlined by Savage vs DiBiase. 6/26 in Pontiac, MI drew less than 2,000 in the Silverdome. They have been running shows there that have been drawing embarrassing numbers (under 2,000) so they are moving to The Palace starting on 8/15. Hogan and Savage will both be on that show, because the WWF is trying really hard to get fan interest back up in Detroit. NWA -- Dave starts off the issue by saying the biggest news of the past week is that the much-discussed sale of the NWA to Turner has become a distinct possibility. However, despite rumors otherwise, nothing has been finalized. A legitimate offer was made by Turner to Crockett within the week. The deal was not approved, but has been reached in principle and both sides are down to discussing small points, like when payments would be made. The Crockett side is hopeful to have the deal done by the end of July. Dave is being told it's an eight-figure deal. -- "So what does this mean? First off, I don't count on the deal as being reality until it happens. From my perspective, this is the first time I've actually been more than 50 percent sure that a deal would be made, even with the rumors and negotiations that have been going around for two months. The reports I've got indicate that meetings between the two sides will be continuing this week, and that Ted Turner has been personally involved in these meetings." There was a hang-up with David and Frances Crockett, both of whom were having reservations about actually making the sale, but that has been smoothed over and the whole Crockett family is now on board. -- "The big question, of course, is what changes will be made within the business structure and what changes, if any, will be made to the product, if a new company should take over? Nobody really knows the answers to these questions right now." Dave says there are a lot of people within wrestling who believe the NWA is done and can't be revitalized at this point, but Dave disagrees strongly with that. "As long as a wrestling company has sizable national television exposure (which the NWA has in TBS and a syndicated network which blankets 90 percent of the country), marketable stars (which the NWA has at least a base of, although they desperately need reshuffling some of the faces at the top), access to pay-per-view (which is the sport's future and with the Turner tie-in, the NWA would certainly have that), solid booking, a professional looking television product (both of which need improvement right now, but such improvements wouldn't be that difficult) and present wrestling in a way that appeals to a large enough market, then that company is potentially very profitable. One of the big problems right now is the concepts to promoting wrestling profitably have changed enormously. Due to the realities of pay-per-view, the realities of viewers having far more product on free television, and realities of an audience which more than ever, goes for the purpose of being entertained rather than actually believing they are watching something 'legitimate', plus the realities of having a competition promotion (WWF), promoting in the manner that was successful in the 1970s won't work anymore. The only proven method of success is McMahon's method, which doesn't mean it's the only method, only the only proven method. In truth, they may have to experiment with several different concepts before they find a winning hand. And if you look at McMahon's product today as compared with two or three years ago, you will see that he's had to do the same thing. Probably the biggest problem that hampered Crockett is their inability to make changes when something wasn't working. Anyway, if such a sale does take place, I expect a rough early time because of uncertainty, but it could be the best thing possible for the industry in the long run." -- The Great American Bash is next weekend, and should easily be the biggest non-WWF wrestling card in history. Dave credits the NWA for doing a great job with the buildup and that they really have fans convinced this is the end for Ric Flair, which Dave says is exactly how this should be promoted. Baltimore is going to make big money, but the rest of the Bash tour is still a question mark. -- Dusty Rhodes has moved to Dallas and now works out of the office there instead of in Charlotte. -- "The NWA has yet to get its act together. For the 7/7 Bash in Raleigh, on the Worldwide show Tony Schiavone is plugging one line-up while on the NWA Pro show, Jim Ross is plugging a completely different line-up. This has happened now two weeks in a row so fans aren't sure if they are getting a War Games or an eight man cage match as the main event.. The only match both cards agree on is Doc vs. Rotunda, which isn't exactly a major ticket seller." -- 6/20 in Montgomery, AL, drew 1,315 fans and a $15,000 gate headlined by Lex Luger vs Barry Windham. 6/17 in Charleston, WV drew 1,000 fans headlined by Road Warriors vs Rick Steiner & Mike Rotunda. 6/16 in Harrisonburg, VA drew 1,300 fans headlined by Road Warriors vs Rick Steiner & Mike Rotunda. -- Dave was impressed with Russian Assassin from TV physically, especially considering he has a knee problem. His work is fine, but his mask hurts. Dave goes on to say wrestlers with masks now are seen as lacking charisma. -- "I think I've figured out the finish to the triple cage match from Kevin Sullivan's interview, but I'm not telling. Watch the interview back on tape and listen for a few key phrases and it should become obvious, unless they shoot a big angle beforehand." -- Scott Putski will be working the Texas Bash shows. "His biggest problem is he was trained by Ivan and wrestles like Ivan, who in 18 years on the circuit only learned one move -- a side headlock." WCCW -- Business has picked up with Eric Embry and Skandor Akbar booking, but we'll see if it's long-term or just a short-term boost. They are doing a very risky promoting tactic next week, running four shows in the Metroplex in eight days to counter Crockett's Bash show on July 4. They aren't really plugging any of the lineups that much, thinking they will confuse fans. Terry Taylor is expected to drop the title on the 7/4 show to Chris Adams since he's scheduled to start with the WWF on July 7. They are only charging $5.00 for tickets, $0.50 for all concessions, souvenirs are marked down, and they're doing a two-hour autograph session with all the wrestlers prior to the show starting. Dave says this is an effective strategy to combat Crockett, but he thinks they would be better off just letting Crockett run the show because they are in danger of burning out the territory by having too many shows in the same city. -- 6/17 at the Sportatorium drew 2,000 fans. 6/19 afternoon in Mesquite drew a $12,000 house. They debuted in Oklahoma City on 6/18 drawing an $8,500 gate, and they plan on running more shows in the old UWF territory. 6/19 evening in San Antonio drew 3,000 fans. 6/24 in Dallas drew 1,000. -- There are tentative plans to work with other promotions based on the meeting just held with some of the other promoters. MEMPHIS -- Jeff Jarrett is returning. They did an angle with Jarrett coming out with a broken arm to do an interview. The Stud Stable came out to bully him. Jerry Jarrett said he normally stays out of Jeff's business, but will interject this time since he can't defend himself. The Stable jumped Jerry, and Jeff had to save using his cast. Jerry then did an interview about how he knew Robert Fuller's father well and that for Robert to turn out the way he has, he must have been a bastard child and Jerry said he wondered who the milkman was. They brawled again and Fuller gave Jarrett a piledriver. -- Pat Rose & Bob Holly are teaming. "I don't want to sound too overenthusiastic about Rose & Holly, but they are a solid team for this area. Rose is a good worker and has been around for a while. Holly is still green in a lot of ways, but takes a good bump and they work hard in every match I've seen of them and can carry bad wrestlers to decent matches because of their work habits." CONTINENTAL -- Jerry Lawler will be coming in as AWA champ to face Eddie Gilbert. Curt Hennig is coming in as well. "One has to give Lawler a lot of credit because he's in a sense, upped the so-called prestige of the AWA title by defending it in several different circuits against a wider variety of wrestlers than any of the other champions. In his interviews, he's even brought out that fact that even though Randy Savage and Ric Flair are called World champions (and he uses their name), that he's the only real World champion." -- Dave says recent TV was the first Dave has seen that looks like they're turning things around. In fact, 6/19 in Montgomery drew more fans than Crockett did in the same town the same night, and they had all the NWA stars there. They've actually gotten Willie B. Hurt and Lord Humongous over as babyfaces to a point where they get huge reactions when they come out. -- "By the way, for those of you who haven't seen this Humongous, he's VERY green, but is around 6-foot-8 and has one of those Hercules Hernandez bodies. I expect he'll be with Titan someday, but hopefully not for two years until he learns something (but he is better than the Anabolic Warrior already)." -- "Ken Wayne is now an associate of The Dangerous Alliance. They were scheduled to have a TV match with Eddie Gilbert against Danny Davis and as Davis came to the ring, a 'lady in a dress' was in the aisle with a popcorn box covering 'her' face and as Davis walked by before the match started, she dropped her popcorn, Davis bent over to help her pick it up and she KO'd Davis with an object and along with Gilbert and Dangerously they beat up on Davis for a while. Of course the 'girl' was Ken Wayne in drag. Where do they come up with these ideas? The scary thing is, I think I know. Anyway, Gilbert claims he's won the match via forfeit but all of a sudden out comes Mr. Olympia, with his arm in a cast courtesy of their match at the Montgomery tapings, to take up the challenge. They have a 16 minute brawl all over the place, said to be a great match ending with a DQ on Gilbert when Dangerously runs in and they double on Olympia and go to 're-break' the arm until Austin Idol comes out with a broom handle to make the save." SOUTHERN -- The Battens, Bob Holly, Shawn Baxter, and Pat Rose are all in Memphis now because Umanosuke Ueda's Pensacola-based World Organization Wrestling has closed. The Battens are better than most of the regulars. -- On a recent TV episode, Paul E. Dangerously (who had about 15 interviews on the tape Dave got) and Missy Hyatt tied up Rhubarb Jones and taped his mouth shut, and Dave says he welcomed them gagging him, since he's pretty bad. -- "... Tommy Rich is an embarrassment. He's bad nostalgia and even though he's only 32, he physically looks 10 years older and is out of character as a babyface. I realize that Southern really doesn't have a lot and doesn't really have the ability to get a new younger babyface over who lives locally and can be the top guy, so I don't question them pushing Rich because of the lack of alternatives. But it's bad news. It's like promoting the 1988 Fabian tour or something. I don't want to go on about this, but he's really out of shape (which looks worse in today's muscled-up needle environment) and his interviews are babbling incoherence. Slater also wrestles nothing like the Dick Slater many of you will remember, although he does look exactly the same." -- As part of their recent telethon, they showed a 2 1/2 hour history of Atlanta wrestling that was hosted by Joe Pedicino that Dave says is fantastic, and that he'd like to see the wrestling companies do more of that sort of thing. USA PRO -- 6/24 in Knoxville drew 2,000 fans with a 20-minute Buddy Landell/Wendell Cooley match being the best match on the show. -- Hector Guerrero and Ricky Morton are feuding after Guerrero threw hot sauce in Ricky Morton's face. OREGON -- To clarify something previously reported, when Billy Jack Haynes bled on a recent show, it was hardaway. "I don't want to accuse the commission of playing favorites here since the commission had banned blade cuts. I'm still wondering how all these guys that work for both promotions here and the entire WWF crew passed a drug test." STAMPEDE -- Chris Benoit regained the Commonwealth Mid-Heavyweight Title on 6/17 in Calgary by beating Johnny Smith. "It was a very strange finish because, at least according to two reports, it wasn't 'supposed' to end this way. This requires lots of explanation because for those who don't regularly watch this group's TV, they've generally got two refs, Jurgen Hermann, who plays more of an incompetent ref rather than a true heel ref, and a Hart brother, usually Wayne Hart, but lately Dean Hart since Wayne's had some problems with his leg, who isn't so much a babyface ref as a competent ref. Apparently Hermann was supposed to ref and for reasons I'm not completely familiar with which have absolutely nothing to do with wrestling or the wrestling business, he wasn't there that night and Dean Hart had to ref. The finish saw a foreign object thrown in (I believe by manager Abdul Wizal, but not sure on that either) and Benoit got it and used it, and the ref was 'supposed' to find out and reverse the decision but none of this took place." They are having a rematch on 6/24 in Calgary. AJPW -- The next series opens on 7/2 at Korauken Hall with Jumbo Tsuruta & Yoshiaki Yatsu vs Terry Gordy & Leo Burke. -- "I got to see the TV shows from the last series. Even though Rip Rogers did nothing but jobs, he definitely got over very well with the crowd for his showmanship. He did the gay act, which I don't think has ever been done in Japan to begin with, but added some unique twists like hiding a mirror in his trunks and always wanting to comb his hair. His work in the ring was good as well." -- Dave says the Rock & Roll Express had a TV match against Foot Loose that was probably **1/2, and that the Tenryu/Hara vs Tsuruta/Yatsu match on 6/4 was good, but nothing close to MOTY level. He called the 6/10 Tokyo match with Tsuruta/Yatsu vs Road Warriors ***1/4 and said Hawk impressed him because he slipped off the top rope and fans started laughing, so Hawk immediately just started pounding on Yatsu outside until the crowd was fearing them again. "I've seen other wrestlers when they miss a move that bad in Japan almost get mentally psyched out the rest of the match and not recover from it." NJPW -- Business is still weak as the current series is drawing to a close. -- Antonio Inoki will have a comeback match on 8/8. He still wants Hogan or Backlund to be his opponent. Dave says Hogan is impossible, and Backlund wants nothing to do with pro wrestling right now. Dave thinks his opponent will be whoever the IWGP champ is -- Choshu or Fujinami. The show will be in Yokohama instead of at the Sumo Hall. The Sumo Association was so mad that it leaked out that they were allowing wrestling there again that they cancelled the show. New Japan stands to lose several hundred thousand dollars in the gate because Yokohama doesn't have the same capacity. -- Shinya Hashimoto (currently in Stampede), Keiji Muto (currently in Puerto Rico), and Masa Chono (currently in Nova Scotia) are all scheduled to return in fall as a three-man team to feud with everyone. Hashimoto stayed with Inoki in Los Angeles the previous week. -- 6/17 in Gosen drew 1,670 fans. Dave is told Owen Hart vs Kuniaki Kobayashi was the best match ont he show. 6/16 in Nagaoka drew 2,240. TV-Asahi drew a 6.1 rating on 6/11 for the tag title change, the same that Baba drew on Nippon TV. Dave calls Vader vs Fujinami that aired on 5/27 **** and says it was even better than their Osaka match on 4/27. "Even though Vader has improved quite a bit since coming to Japan, Fujinami literally worked a miracle in this match and they worked about as perfect a match as they could have." Dave says everything shown in that hour (Owen vs Koshinaka, Choshu vs Fujinami) was really strong. UWF -- A card has been announced for 8/13 at Ariake Coliseum in Tokyo. The main event will have Akira Maeda against a yet-to-be-announced karate champion. Also, Nobuhiko Takada will wrestle Kazuo Yamazaki, and the winner will face Maeda on 9/24 in Fukuoka. -- Steve Williams sent a letter to Gong Magazine in the 6/30 issue to challenge Maeda. Dave says he is still with New Japan, so the chances of a match are "microscopic at best" ... It said: "Dear all my Japanese fans: I am looking forward to go to Japan again. However, I have a very important thing to do right now and that is to prove myself against the best World champion nowadays -- Ric Flair. I think he is good enough to spend my time on. Also, I promise to all of you that I'll go to Japan as soon as possible. I want to wrestle Choshu, Fujinami and Inoki again. However, I heard that Maeda left New Japan. I wonder why he never came after me like he did to Choshu. I think it's because he's a smart man. I enjoy teasing him in the ring all the time. Please tell Maeda about it. I am ready anytime, and I think most smart fans know that I am tougher. But let me show all of the people." Dave says the same types of fans who are UWF's base also know about Doc's reputation and that a match between them would be a tremendous draw, but it's not going to happen. OTHER U.S. -- Jim Wilson, David Schultz, Lou Albano, Thunderbolt Patterson, Larry Sharpe, and Ted Arcidi were on the Morton Downey Jr. show. Dave is told it was one of Downey's better shows, "... which is like saying a match was one of Junkfood Dog's best of the year -- it doesn't get that good." Thunderbolt and Wilson were negative toward wrestling before being ganged up on 30 seconds in and torn apart so badly that anyone would be sympathetic. At one point, Shultz threw a cup of water in Wilson's face.+ -- On an independent show on 6/16 in Louisville, Dave is told that even with Lawler, Hennig, Wahoo, Pat Tanaka, Ricky Morton, and Curt Hennig on the show, the standout was The Cheetah Kid (Ted Petty). "Cactus Jack, who others have called the best independent no-name worker in the country, was also said to be pretty good."

That's probably true to a certain extent, although he couldn't win the mayorship when he tried.

In Bryan's defense, I think what he is saying is that he hopes WWE doesn't interpret the ratings as fans being actively turned away by good wrestling. But Bryan is weird and almost always reads too much into everything, so who knows. He actually thought originally that WWE released him for being the weak link in a tag with Jericho against HHH and Michaels if I recall. That said, I think Dave and Bryan pay far more attention and do far more analysis of the ratings than WWE does, and I don't see them freaking out over a 0.17 drop. ETA: By "him", I meant Lance Cade.

With 2009 about to start, 20 years ago will be 1989. Which would you prefer -- that I just continue the timeline I'm on now and start with the next WON, or start with the first WON of 1989 after the new year and just keep filling in the blanks of '88 as I get a chance?

I haven't followed wrestling closely enough in '08 to say for sure, but when I have watched, Chris Jericho has been really good. That said, if he's the best in the world, the bar has lowered. That's not meant as an insult to Jericho, as he was always very good, but never quite in that upper echelon. But these days, he seems to be better than everyone in WWE, at least from what I have watched.

In 2009, I'd like to see WWE move away from on-demand programming in the form of 24/7 and get a regular, full-time cable channel. I think in the long run, getting away from USA would be good for WWE, because the focus could shift away from USA-forced hotshotting of trying to get high TV ratings and they could again focus on house shows and pay-per-view build, and the big matches would seem more special because there wouldn't be so much constant top star interaction. This probably won't happen in '09, but I'd take it happening in '10 or '11 just the same. WWE embracing the new HGH testing would be nice too. My fandom is at an all-time low, as I still haven't really been able to wash away the stench of the Benoit stuff, and I'm not sure what WWE can really do to rectify that.

Rick Rude threw some woman (can't remember who) into a cage in ECW in 1997 and she juiced, but I don't remember it ever happening in WWE.

I remember being shocked at all the stuff Sherri would do when working with Savage at ringside, mainly that the babyfaces would beat her up and she would take pretty wild bumps, even by 2008 standards. I know Jerry Lawler had punched Angel in the face, and Miss Linda had been attacked before, but that was my first time to see anything like that.

Boondocks makes a great post. Terri Runnels juicing like that obviously crosses far too many lines of good taste, but sometimes, the presentation of women in angles is every bit as much of a problem (or more of one at times even) than violence against them.

I don't know if the Hogan/Genius match is any good, but it's a personal favorite of mine for many reasons. The main reason is Genius's "ohmigawd" Valley girl-esque selling of the Hulk up and the horrible backrake-based offense.

Joey Styles punched out JBL? That's amazing.

I tend to think these two things go hand in hand. Yes, WCW ended up losing TV because of the decision of a TV executive, but that's like blaming the bullet instead of the person who pulled the trigger. Would that decision have been made if WCW was still doing a $55 million annual profit and still drawing really high ratings at the end? I just can't see them pulling the plug if WCW had still been successful. And WCW was no longer successful for many reasons, some of which had to do with them putting out pretty crappy TV and some of which had nothing to do with that. But I've always thought just shortening it to Jamie Kellner really oversimplifies what happened. WCW did lose money pre-Bischoff, but the "creative bookkeeping" mentioned earlier in this thread, had it happened before it did, would have resulted in WCW turning a profit every year they were in existence until 1999. The NWO was obviously a huge part of the success, but I tend to think Nitro was a bigger part of the success. To me, the boom started when Nitro started. Even prior to the NWO, there were upswings in both companies. WWF house show business when they switched from Diesel to Bret on top was really strong, they had their first Madison Square Garden sellout in years, and the Flair/Savage feud, while not as successful as the NWO, did get the ball rolling. When WCW started airing television on Monday nights, the total wrestling audience immediately expanded, to a point where when RAW ran unopposed a week after Wrestlemania XII, they drew a 4.7 rating. This is pre-NWO with just Shawn Michaels on top against Diesel. The main event of that show, in fact, was Michaels against announcer Jerry Lawler. First, they would kill for that number now, and second, it just shows how much having two competing shows in the same time slot on different channels added to the total wrestling audience, because RAW wasn't drawing ratings anywhere near that prior to Nitro starting. WCW had positioned themselves in a way prior to the NWO where they were able to get the maximum benefit out of the angle. Their production values had surpassed those of the WWF by the end of 1995, they had the better roster, they had the better television show and there were sparks of good booking, they were willing to spend money to sign away stars. Not everything they tried worked in '95, for example, but '95-'96 angles like putting the belt on Flair a 12th time over Sting and Luger, doing a PPV built around interpromotional matches with New Japan, experimenting with the idea of Hulk Hogan on the dark side, signing Luger away, etc. were tactics of a company willing to take risks, which wasn't happening at all in the WWF at that point. I say this not to take anything away from the NWO, but that angle would not have worked nearly as well in a different climate, i.e. without Nitro. Imagine trying to get the NWO over with just WCW Saturday Night and syndication from Disney tapings. It just wouldn't have happened. 1986 Jim Crockett booking with 1996 level exposure would have been impossible for the WWF to counter. I think back to that time period and consider how well they did as a national promotion with concept shows like the Great American Bash in stadiums, and how if they had lobbied for and received two hours of live, primetime TV every Monday night to compete with Prime Time Wrestling and were doing marquee matches on top, the war would have been much more competitive. This eventually rounds back around to Bob Morris's original point about television. WCW had many clueless people, but they were a company run by people who definitely knew television inside and out, which I think is what turned them around. Counterprogramming minute-by-minute, starting three minutes early, always running over to bump the overall rating. WCW couldn't compete with the WWF as an arena company or PPV company, but when they re-defined what it meant to be #1 (ratings), they had so many resources at their disposal that it played perfectly to their strengths. The NWO was the great angle they needed to really shove them over the top, but I still think they would have been neck and neck without it because Nitro was so well-conceived.