Loss

I watched part of RAW this week. Have they mentioned John Cena "retiring" Chris Jericho previously as part of the build to this match at all? Jericho's promo where he said Cena has never beaten him was really strange. It seems like such an obvious route to go, I don't understand why they're not mentioning it at all.

I'm ready for a book on the history of wrestling -- a collaborative project written by Black Bart, Hulk Hogan, and Kurt Angle.

I used to have a Wrestlemania board game that came with a VHS tape that had tons of clips from various shows. The VHS tape was somehow worked into the board game in a way I can't remember, but it was a pretty cool highlight reel.

Wow.

Ha! So glad to see this, I haven't seen this stuff in years. The whole thing was hilarious. This is an edited version of course. There was also an episode of Pro at one point where Charles and Lido actually hosted because the Freebirds were "on tour" ... I would also like to point out that the production values shown by WCW in these 8 minutes are surprisingly impeccable.

I always thought Edge and Chris Jericho had good chemistry, and had a couple of good matches in their brief 2002 and 2004 feuds. Weird that neither one is represented here.

Ditch, he's referring to a debate about Harley Race that took place at this board a while back, with the main complaint being that the piledriver is supposed to be a brutal finisher, and he used it as a mid-match transition.

When I check the accounts to be validated, I am continuously deleting spam accounts -- around 50 per day. I apologize if I accidentally delete a real account in the middle of it all. If you try to get registered, and I delete your account, please PM me at DVDVR and I'll know you're legit and will put you through.

Also, he's 27 years old. I'll remember that next time someone in WWE dusts off the line about how drug and alcohol abuse is a thing of the past and that the new generation of wrestlers don't have these problems. Sure, Kennedy has already destroyed that argument, but here's yet another example.

I kinda hate that winning and losing doesn't mean anything in wrestling. I don't care what the circumstances are, why would you give someone a pinfall victory over Shawn Michaels and have them play lackey for the World champion, only to release them without warning a few weeks later? Unless this is drug related, it doesn't make sense. Wasting a pinfall victory over a top star on someone you're not even sure yet if you're going to push that much is weird.

Weird timing.

WWF -- The Powers of Pain have jumped from the NWA to the WWF. They had been negotiating on and off for two months with the WWF, and they officially quit the NWA last Sunday, and debuted with the WWF the following Saturday. Dave is surprised, but they will be pushed as babyfaces in the WWF and are expected to be pushed hard and feuding with Demolition by the end of July. They will be expected to do their own interviews, as they will not have a manager. Both guys apparently wanted out before the scaffold matches were scheduled to take place with the Road Warriors, because of the fear of guys their size taking such a huge bump and causing major knee damage. The NWA did acknowledge their leaving, with Paul Jones and the Road Warriors burying them on TV. Dave thinks this helps the WWF, because they can probably do something with the two, considering that they're bizarre and powerful looking. Dave says they aren't particularly good in the ring. Barbarian has lots of great moves but can't put together a match, and Warlord has improved but is still pretty bad. Dave also doesn't think it will hurt the NWA much because they weren't major attractions, and their feud with the Road Warriors never really drew. Dave says the bigger story is that the jump has taken away any impact a future jump from the Road Warriors will have, because they will now be seen as the imitators, even though they're not. The POP left the NWA without truly giving notice. Warlord no-showed the 6/12 TV taping in Albany, GA. Barbarian was there and had words with Dusty and ended up quitting. Crockett failed to trademark the name, so the WWF can still use it. "That's kind of a surprise in this day and age, but then again, trademarking names is basically to protect the company in marketing ventures so an outside company doesn't market things of the sort and the two really had no value in the merchandising department." -- No Holds Barred just started filming in Atlanta and will be shot over the next two months. Shane Productions is doing the movie (it's their first full length feature film) and Joan Severence will be the female lead. Vince McMahon will receive an executive producer credit. Dave suspects it's more intended for a video market than a big screen market. NWA -- The hype is in overdrive for the Great American Bash pay-per-view on July 10 in Baltimore, which is pretty much guaranteed to be a financial success. They have done a great job, Dave says, of creating necessary interest in the main event, with most fans expecting a title change. There are 9.4 million homes cleared for pay-per-view, and this should be a multi-million dollar show. Dave points out that both Starrcade and the Bunkhouse Stampede drew between a 3.0 and 3.5 percent buyrate, and this show will actually run unopposed. Dave thinks it will easily get a 4.0 buyrate, which translates to about 376,000 buys at $16.00 a pop, or a $6 million gross. Dave says Crockett may only net around a quarter of that, but it will still pay a lot of bills. Early reports are that the Bash tour is also going to draw well, but Dave is worried that Crockett will interpret that as a sign they are moving in the right direction, when all it shows is that the Bash concept is over. "I am convinced that it's not too late for JCP if the company realizes certain changes that have to be made and certain promotional concepts that have to be changed. There are too many fans with divergent tastes for one company to fulfill them all, and if Titan is to increase its domination of the business in this country, it's simply because the opposition isn't considered viable by those with divergent tastes." -- There are still rumors that Ted turner has bought the AWA, but best as Dave can tell, it hasn't happened yet, and he doesn't anticipate it in the near future. The two sides are millions of dollars apart in the attempting buying and selling price, as Crockett wants an eight-figure deal to give up the company, and TBS doesn't want to pay anywhere near that high. Dave mentions there is a lot going on within the Turner organization, such as quiet negotiations with Capital Cities to purchase CNN, which make take place in the fall around the same time TNT is set to debut. The rumor is that the NWA purchase would be part of a long-term plan for TNT, and that Main Event would move over as soon as the network debuts, while World Championship Wrestling would move to TNT also, but not until the new network clears 30 million homes. Dave acknowledges all this but says talks are definitely not dead either. -- NFL star Brad Muster was given a Ric Flair t-shirt that said "Not just a man, an attitude" which Dave says was given to him by a friend -- not Dave -- but an equally demented friend. Muster plans to wear the shirt under his jersey for all of his games. AWA -- 6/12 in Las Vegas drew 750 fans and Dave is told this was an even worse card than the one he attended. Most of the advertised matches didn't take place. Ricky Morton has decided to go on vacation until they start with Crockett on 6/26, so he no-showed, but Robert Gibson is still making the dates with Greg Gagne taking his place. -- They want Jimmy Snuka to start on 7/16. MEMPHIS -- 6/13 in Memphis drew 4,500 fans and was headlined by Lawler vs Curt Hennig in a **** match. Much of it had to be edited because of bad lighting when aired on FNN, so it didn't come across nearly as well on TV as it did live. -- They're looking to a Jerry Lawler & Austin Idol vs Eddie Gilbert & Curt Hennig feud to spice things up over summer, and Dave thinks between them and Paul E. Dangerously, the interviews will be great, even if they're not the best matches of the summer. CONTINENTAL -- Steve Armstrong returned and is teaming with Tracy Smothers again, but the two are scheduled to leave for Japan in three weeks. -- Jack Curtis is out as General Manager and Ron West from USA wrestling is coming in to take over the position at the end of the month. -- The title tournament is scheduled for Birmingham in August. They are going to do a tie-in with a local hotel and are promoting cocktail parties with the wrestlers for fans in the first few rows. -- Shane Douglas left for a few weeks to finish some college commitments, but should be back soon. -- Brother Ernest Angel is in managing Sika & Kokina, but Kokina is scheduled for a Japanese tour, so Sika will work single. -- There is a big show on 7/2 in Dothan, AL, with Jerry Lawler defending the AWA title against Austin Idol. -- Houses are up for the Idol vs Gilbert feud, with cities that averaged $2,000 houses increasing to $7,000 houses, which Dave admits still isn't spectacular, but is a great improvement. -- They are continuing the Ken Wayne vs Danny Davis feud, with Danny Davis as the babyface. -- Dick Slater is going to come in for a few dates to team with Eddie Gilbert against Austin Idol & Mr. Olympia. Gilbert had a match against Olympia for $25,000, but Gilbert showed up on crutches and said he would have to postpone the match. When Olympia turned his back, Gilbert dropped the crutches and he and Dangerously beat up on Olympia and broke his arm, similar to the 1987 angle with Steve Williams and Dick Murdoch in the UWF. They have a mask vs the $25,000 match coming up with Olympia in an arm brace. -- Willie B. Hurt is feuding with D.I. Bob Carter and Detroit Demolition is feuding with Lord Humongous. -- Dave is told the TV that aired over the previous weekend had decent lighting, as it had been horrendous for weeks prior. Dave says they need a hot announcer because Charlie Platt has been doing the shows with Missy Hyatt and just isn't enthusiastic enough. STAMPEDE -- 6/10 in Calgary drew 550 fans. -- Les Thornton's opposition promotion began on 6/11 in Calgary before 200 fans. Promotion for the card was small and fans didn't know the faces from the heels. -- There was an out of the ring brawl between Brian Pillman and Brick Bronsky. "Apparently the real story behind the out of the ring brawl between Bronsky and Brian Pillman is difference than the recent letter in the Observer indicated. It wasn't that Pillman and Bruce Hart were ribbing Bronsky which led to the brawl, but instead several events which I'm not particularly clear about which saw the British Bulldogs apparently fire up Bronsky against Bruce Hart because Bronsky wasn't getting a big push (which he didn't deserve in the first place) and he punched Pillman in the mouth because he'd probably lose his job punching Bruce Hart. Anyway that led to the brawl, because Pillman came back and punched Bronsky several times." ALL JAPAN -- The Road Warriors dropped the International tag titles to Jumbo Tsuruta & Yoshiaki Yatsu on 6/10. They did a DQ job to do the title switch, which goes against typical Baba booking. They will return in September for a rematch. -- The Budokan Hall show drew 11,800 fans, a sellout, although in reality the building was about 80% filled, impressive with such a weak line-up. 6/9 in Kiryu drew a sellout 3,100 fans. -- The next tour will be from 7/2 to 7/31 and will feature Stan Hansen, Terry Gordy, Dick Beyer, Sheik Ali, Leo Burke, David Sammartino, and Mitch Snow. NEW JAPAN -- The IWGP tag titles changed hands on 6/10 in Hiroshima before 5,180 fans when Riki Choshu & Masa Saito beat Tatsumi Fujinami & Kengo Kimura. Also on the card was Owen vs Yamada in what Dave is told was an outstanding match. There was a lot of interest around that match because Yamada was challenging for the title in his home city. -- 6/9 in Kitakyushu drew 2,030 fans. -- Antonio Inoki is training in Los Angeles for an August comeback. Since he was out healing a broken foot anyway, he had surgery on his eye, elbow, and knee. Dave is told he is training very hard for his return, and takes it as a positive for his ego that crowds haven't been that impressive in his absence. Inoki wants his return match to be against Hulk Hogan or Bob Backlund. Dave is told Backlund isn't interested in either this offer or the UWF offer to face Maeda and doesn't want anything to do with pro wrestling. Dave says the chances of getting Hogan are as good as those of getting Backlund. UWF -- The second show drew 5,200 fans in Sapporo for a three-match crowd. The crowd was almost exclusively males of high school or college age. The opener was Tetsuo Nakano vs Shigeo Miyato in a 30 minute draw, followed by Kazuo Yamazaki vs Norman Smiley, and finally Akira Maeda vs Nobuhiko Takada. This was said to be better than the Yamazaki match, as Maeda was in better shape and didn't blow up, but the impact wasn't as strong as the first match. -- The next show is on 8/13 at the 11,000 capacity Ariake Coliseum. JOSHI -- The Jumping Bomb Angels lost the WWF tag team titles on 6/8 in Omiya to Leilani Kai & Judy Martin. There is confusion about the result, because typically American title matches are wrestled under American rules, which means a countout should not have caused a title change. -- Chigusa Nagayo is defending her title on 7/2 in Osaka. Her challenger will be either Yumiko Hotta, Nishiwaki, Lioness Asuka, or Bull Nakano. -- JWP is running a big card on 7/14 at Korauken Hall with Devil Masami vs Shinobu Kandori as the main event, with Kandori announcing that she is coming out of retirement for the match. OTHER -- Joe Pedicino and WATL-TV in Atlanta ran their annual Wrestlethon to raise money for bullet proof vests for Atlanta police officers over the weekend. They raised in excess of $6,000. There was a brief plug on Fox's "Late Show", with host Ross Schaffer, Pedicino, Boni Blackstone, Paul E. Dangerously, and Eddie Gilbert "... all trying to get over at the same time with not enough time to get over and you heard too many voices all trying to outshout each other." As part of the show, there was a live wrestling card from the TV studio, mainly with wrestlers from Jerry Blackwell's Southern Championship Wrestling. Dave has heard they may do specials like this in the future with live studio matches. Early in the show, Paul E. Dangerously came out and wanted to get Tommy Rich and Eddie Gilbert to team again, but Rich refused, which set up an impromptu main event for later in the show. They hyped the match huge throughout the show, and then with two minutes left, the match went in the ring as credits were rolling. This was intended to be a JCP spoof. Rick Stuart came running out during credits and ordered the show stay on the air until the end of the match, which was 13 1/2 minutes, and Dave is told was fantastic. The finish was a ref bump. Rich then threw Gilbert over the top, and Dangerously hit Rich with the telephone. A ref came in, and Dick Slater did a run-in, first going after Rich, but then attacking Gilbert. Manny Fernandez then did a run-in and they beat on Gilbert and did a double piledriver on him. The fans were convinced Gilbert had turned, and Paul E. was begging for someone to save him at ringside. But Rich refused to help him. Finally, all the babyfaces rush in to clear the ring. This is to set up a six-man tag on the next show with Gilbert, Rich & Bruiser Brody against Slater, Manny Fernandez, and a mystery partner. -- Madusa Miceli did a Playboy photo shoot, and they are wanting others in wrestling as well. -- Larry Finnegan, a former WWF jobber, is being charged with murder for stabbing and strangling a 20-year old woman after she bit him while they were having sex in his moving van. -- The promoter's meeting in Dallas was largely considered a waste of time. They agreed not to invade each other's turf and to try to work together, but didn't agree on anything concrete.

I wonder if it angers Jim Ross that Shawn Michaels has conversations about religion, because they have nothing to do with pro wrestling. I wonder if it angers Jim Ross when HHH has a conversation about heavy metal or bodybuilding. I wonder if he hates hearing about Chris Jericho's outside ventures. I wonder if it angers him when the Undertaker goes and gets a tattoo because he should be using that time to watch old NWA title matches. Does he get upset with himself even when he works on his restaurant, because it has nothing to do with wrestling? Having outside interests is a good thing, as those who don't end up like Chris Benoit and Eddy Guerrero. That said, I can understand and agree with the general sentiment about young wrestlers not taking control of their careers, but I don't understand how overhearing a conversation from two young wrestlers who dared to discuss something not related to wrestling caused him to draw the conclusion he did.

I enjoyed that time period also. "What's a Chicago Street Fight?"

WWF -- "A new heel manager is headed in called Brother Love or something like that, patterned after Brother Ernest Angel. I've got a feeling I know who this masked manager is but will wait until he actually arrives." (My note: Interesting. I suspect he thought it was Jim Cornette based on a note later in this issue.) Dave later in the issue says it's Bruce Prichard, and he doesn't think he'll be managing, but rather just doing an interview segment. -- Rick Martel is going to be taking time off to help his wife recover from surgery. -- Dave raved about the 5/27 Savage vs DiBiase match from MSG, saying DiBiase is singlehandedly trying to change the workrate in the WWF. He said the match only went 12 minutes, but was as hard and fast-paced as anything you'll see in the U.S. aside from maybe Midnight Express vs Fantastics. -- 6/6 at the Meadowlands drew 3,000 fans headlined by Andre & Rude vs Duggan & Roberts. -- Hulk Hogan's movie is being filmed in Atlanta. Vince is trying to get a non-WWF wrestler to do the job to Hogan in the movie. Last word is that Stan Hansen has agreed to do it. "You'd think with all the wrestlers Vince has in his stable he wouldn't need to get outside help for a wrestling or fight scene in a movie." -- The WWF is planning a big outdoor show in Milwaukee at County Stadium in late July. -- Jim Duggan has reinjured his hamstring. -- Jim Wilson, who exposed wrestling with Eddy Mansfield on 20/20, is going to be on the Morton Downey Jr. show. The show reached out to the WWF to have someone on to defend their side of the story, but they don't want to be involved since they don't have complete control. -- The 8/29 PPV has officially been named Summerslam and will be headlined by Hogan & Savage vs Andre & DiBiase with Jesse Ventura as the ref. -- Vince McMahon will be producing Bob Costas' new late night talk show, which is Vince's first non-wrestling production job. The WWF may get another prime time special from NBC if the writer's strike isn't settled soon. -- Bam Bam Bigelow's wife gave birth to a baby boy. -- 6/10 in Pittsburgh drew 4,734 headlined by Randy Savage vs Ted DiBiase. 6/12 in Springfield, MA drew 2,500 fans headlined by Andre & Rude vs Duggan & Roberts. 6/10 in Manchester, NH drew 1,100 fans headlined by Junkyard Dog vs Ron Bass. 6/18 in Philadelphia drew 4,188 fans and a $53,349 gate headlined by Andre vs Duggan. -- It is rumored that Gene Okerlund has been fired and will be replaced by Sean Mooney. NWA -- "As you can see by the advertisement at the right, the NWA really publicized the match-ups well." -- Dave on the Miami Mayhem Clash (Special request: If someone who has these could post a copy of it, that would be awesome, because it makes this quote a little funnier.) -- The only match announced nationally was Tully Blanchard and Arn Anderson defending the tag titles against Sting and Dusty Rhodes. "I realize that the NWA is trying to promote as if seeing the NWA live is the big thing, and the match-ups themselves are unimportant and interchangeable, but fans go to see match-ups, and this card drew just 2,400 fans in the 6,000 seat arena." Dave suspects the ratings will be disappointing and not touch those of the first Clash, the highest rated show on cable TV in the month of March. Later in the issue, Dave reports the show drew a 4.7 rating and 8.2 share, which translates into 2,128,000 homes, which is a good number. -- Dave says the show was nothing compared to the first Clash, but it wasn't intended to be either. Most of the complaints Dave has received have been about out-of-the-ring activities. Those who saw it live left upset about the long delays between matches, and the crowd was also not really into anything except the main event. Dave says it seemed normal on TV, but the fans weren't nearly as enthusiastic as they were for the first Clash. -- Dave also said the show didn't take advantage of the NWA's best resources. Jim Ross, the best announcer, was in the parking lot all evening. Steve Williams was doing color commentary in a white tuxedo, which didn't fit his image at all. Dave says for Doc to reach his potential, he has to be pushed as a Brody-like wildman. Jim Cornette, their best interview, wasn't even there in taped capacity, which started all these huge rumors about him jumping to the WWF. "It also seems like every time the NWA tries to do something to make them look major league, like the limos, the yacht, etc., they come off looking even more minor league than had they never even tried to look major league. Entrances of celebrities in limos is a good idea for an open, but not when you don't have any celebrities, and Gary Juster and Frances Crockett don't even qualify as celebrities to wrestling fans." -- The show started off with Jim Ross in the parking lot and a limo pulling up with Lyle Alzado there to plug his new TV show, Gary Juster, Elliot Murnick, Frances Crockett, "... and the vice president of a company which is part owner of the Chicago Black Hawks of the NHL and also owned a yacht which we'll get to later. Pretty tacky." -- Barry Windham vs Brad Armstrong saw Brad looking unhappy from the start at having to do a clean job on national TV. Lots of stalling early on, and Windham applied the figure four for three minutes. Dave says this was stupid, because all it does is devalue the hold if you can have it on someone that long without beating them. Brad stopped selling to make his comeback, and the last four minutes were good, but not spectacular. "The finish itself [Armstrong coming off the top for a flying bodypress and two count, trying again, and Windham blocking the second attempt with a clawhold into a pin] was pretty good, but very disappointing considering the talent involved. Windham appeared to be going through the motions here." Dave gave the match *3/4 -- Lyle Alzado then came out to plug Learning The Ropes. He said wrestlers were better athletes than football players. "The show starts in the fall and has already cleared two-thirds of the country so odds are you'll be able to see it. From the clips, I'm not sure you would want to, but I don't want to make a snap judgment about it." Dave talks about how Steve Williams is donning the mask, and they did a Flair match where Flair did his flip into the turnbuckle, and people don't like that because the sequence is choreographed, and it's not supposed to appear that way when Flair does it nightly. "Personally I could care less and don't think it's an issue." -- The Rock & Roll Express came out to announce that they're back. They got a lukewarm surprise, which Dave says should have popped the place huge. Robert Gibson nearly tripped walking out and Ricky Morton gave a horrible interview. "I don't dislike the guy as much as it seems most readers do, but a few more interviews like that and I'll jump right on the bandwagon. If they turn them heel this summer and feud them with the Fantastics then bringing them back is at least a minor benefit. If they are babyfaces, they are wasting their time, because the era of the Rock & Roll Express ended last summer, if not earlier. As one wrestling promoter from another organization told me, Ricky & Robert in the NWA those last six months were like a tooth that had gone bad. They weren't drawing anymore and their work had gone downhill as well and Morton's cockiness made them pretty unpopular as babyfaces go. Well, in January, the NWA removed the bad tooth. The only problem is, removing a bad tooth hurts a lot more for a short period of time then keeping the bad tooth does, although keeping it hurts less for a long period of time, if you get my drift. But after removing the bad tooth, do you want to ever, five months later, put it back in your mouth?" -- Next we saw the contract signing for what was called "The Match of The Century" between Ric Flair and Lex Luger in Baltimore on July 10. The signing was on a yacht in the Atlantic ocean. Dave was hoping they would throw Luger overboard on the yacht, because it would have been original and we wouldn't have to watch the next scene. -- Next, the Horsemen arrived fashionably late, even having missed Barry Windham's match. In the background, you can see Luger sitting and waiting to come on camera. They went to commercial to hype Fantastics vs Sheepherders next, but when they came back, they had a major news bulletin that Luger had arrived. "Aren't you glad you don't invite these guys to your parties? Well, forget what promises to be the best match on the card, we've got to hear those pearls of wisdom only Lex can give us." But before he could speak, the Horsemen ("including Barry who by this time had already had time for a shower it seemed") jumped Luger and basically mugged him. "The least they could have done was make it look realistic and steal his wallet instead of his shoes." They ripped up his white tuxedo. Dave says the execution by all involved was great, but it looked too staged and unbelievable because of the TV cameras. (My note: How times change ...) Dave says they could have at least had Luger get DDTd on the pavement by Arn Anderson, because the move is over enough that people might think he was going to the hospital. Dave says most people hated this, but it wasn't meant to be entertaining, but rather build heat for the Bash. Dave thinks it will be "marginal at best" in fulfilling that goal. At this point, we were one hour into the show and have had one disappointing match and a bunch of bad skits. "I decided to do something more pleasant, and fought rush hour traffic, which in truth was no more entertaining even if the DJ's made more sense than Dr. Death." -- "Jeff Steele once wrote in the Pro Wrestling Digest that the NWA was like the Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde of wrestling promotions and that was probably the best analogy of them I've ever read. He was writing about the Crockett Cup and saying that the first night was so bad, and sometimes the promotion is so bad that you wonder how they are still even in business. But then came the second night. And the promotion was so good that you wonder why they haven't wiped out all their competition. The next morning I decided to watch a tape of the last 90 minutes--and much to my surprise--the rest of the show was damn good." -- Fantastics vs Sheepherders was the best match on the show at ***3/4. -- The Garvins vs Mike Rotunda & Kevin Sullivan was next. Kevin Sullivan was in a cage at ringside and Precious was holding the key. Fans booed Ron Garvin during introductions. Most of the time was spent on Sullivan and Precious, with Sullivan having a piece of paper he said he would show Precious if she would let him out of the cage. The match was a backdrop for the angle. Precious finally gave in, but instead of letting her see the paper, Sullivan started choking her and Dr. Death ran from the announce booth to make the save. Precious started kicking Dr. Death and got mad at the Garvins and walked out alone. -- Nikita Koloff vs Al Perez was next. Dave says he is starting to change his opinion on Perez, as he was very good in this match, but he lacks color, and this feud is going nowhere. Dave has figured out a formula for having good matches with Nikita Koloff -- treat him like a jobber, and let him have four moves as comebacks, which Eddie Gilbert and Dick Murdoch have done in the past. The problem is that because they are always trying to sell his strength, they give him too much offense which makes for bad matches. **1/2 -- Arn Anderson & Tully Blanchard vs Sting & Dusty Rhodes was next. Dusty is over huge in Florida. "The announced him at 268 1/2 pounds. That last half-pound takes up an amazing circumference." Dave says this was good except for a spot where Dusty had to sell. Sting worked the entire way and Arn and Tully are a great team. Dusty did his routine and stayed out the rest of the time, and Dave admits Dusty deserves to be the star of the show in Florida because he's a legend there. Arn gave Sting a DDT on the floor and Sting made a comeback 30 seconds later. "Stupid. The WWF ran Ricky Steamboat and Jake Roberts for six months off that move and these guys treat it as a transition. They are going to need a shotgun to get over an angle if guys treat DDT's on concrete as a 30 second stunning move." Barry Windham ran in and put the claw on Dusty, while Tully, Arn and "this blond-haired guy who was never mentioned" beat upon Sting. ***1/4 -- 5/28 in Charleston, WV drew 2,500 fans headlined by Ric Flair vs Steve Williams. 6/2 in Bluefield, WV drew 1,500 fans headlined by Midnight Express vs Fantastics. 6/12 in Albany, GA was a triple TV taping. A really good 20 minute draw with Sting & Steve Williams against the Midnight Express was taped for Main Event. 6/11 in Baltimore drew 5,500 fans headlined by Luger & Dusty vs Flair & Windham. 6/10 in Houston drew 2,000 fans headlined by Luger, Nikita & Doc vs Flair, Arn & Windham and Tully Blanchard vs Dusty Rhodes in a barbed wire match. -- The Bash now has 9.4 million homes cleared. The word is that the wrestlers will get their money when the money comes in for the show. Dave thinks it will do well because there is no opposition and they're hyping Flair/Luger really well, and that if the show is successful, it will go a long way in fixing so many of the financial problems they're having. -- Don't expect a deal with Ted Turner until after this show at the earliest, because Turner wants to see how successful this show is before making any decisions. -- The Sheik will be teaming with Dusty Rhodes on 7/31 in Detroit for a Bash show against Kevin Sullivan and Dick Murdoch. Dave says this is ridiculous, as he hasn't drawn a house since the early 70s in Detroit. -- When Jim Ross started interrogating Precious about her strange behavior in the feud with Kevin Sullivan, she started choking him. -- 6/18 in Philadelphia drew 5,900 fans (compared to the WWF drawing 4,188 for a side-by-side comparison) headlined by Flair & Windham vs Luger & Dusty. -- Dusty Rhodes has filmed a Mello Yello commercial billed as the U.S. champion. MEMPHIS -- 6/6 in Memphis drew 3,500 fans. Scott Steiner won the Renegade Rampage. The main event was Lawler vs Hennig in a wild brawl all over the building. The Lawler/Hennig match will air on the 6/17 FNN show. Dave says the crowd was disappointing considering how much hype went into the Renegade Rampage, and also Hennig/Lawler having their rematch. -- Downtown Bruno is now being called Superstar Bruno to build to a feud with Bill Dundee. -- "I know this group is limited in its options right now, but building around this Stud Stable thing isn't going to work. They've only been in for two weeks and are already stale." WCCW -- Dave still doesn't know specifics, but World Class has lost TV in Houston, Miami, and Minneapolis in the past week. -- "Kevin Von Erich will be doing a publicity benefit wrestling match with Jessica McClure (the baby who was trapped and was the leading new story a few months back)" (My note: Kevin Von Erich is going to wrestle Baby Jessica? Does anyone have tapes?) -- Wild West is running shows again. Their first taping on 6/12 in Houston drew only 75 fans, and because of this, the bi-weekly shows in Houston have already been scrapped. -- On 6/18, Ken Mantell, Verne Gagne, Don Owen, Jerry Lawler and maybe other promoters will be meeting in Dallas to discuss working together for big shows in the future -- Chris Adams plans to run most of his shows in Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Arkansas instead of Texas. OREGON -- Johnny Ace and The Terminator, both younger brothers of Road Warrior Animal, are being pushed as a tag team called The Junior Road Warriors. -- Don Owen drew 450 to Hoaquim, WA on 6/6 with the best match being The Southern Rockers vs The Grappler & Al Madril in a ***1/2 match. -- "Buddy Rose looks even worse in person than on television, which is pretty bad." SOUTHERN PRO -- Brad and Bart Batten are in as heels. -- Houses have gone up since Buck Robley started booking. -- Rufus R. Jones is headed in. -- Robert Gibson is saying he and Morton are only working the Bashes, so he can still work here. STAMPEDE -- 6/3 in Calgary drew 500 fans. NEW JAPAN -- 6/3 in Kagoshima drew 2,370 headlined by Fujinami & Kimura retaining the tag titles against Fujiwara and Sakaguchi. 6/4 in Kushima drew 1,640. -- New Japan is going to start devaluing Yoshiaki Fujiwara, as he is expected to be going to the UWF as soon as his contract will allow him to jump. -- The ban on using Sumo Hall ends with a big card on 8/8. ALL JAPAN -- Jumbo & Yatsu won the PWF tag titles on 6/4 in Sapporo before 4,400 fans, beating Tenryu & Hara in 22:53. This sets up Jumbo & Yatsu vs the Road Warriors on 6/10 at Budokan Hall in Tokyo. Dave is told the match is a candidate for match of the year. On the same show, Masa Fuchi beat Rip Rogers (My note: Sounds fun ...) OTHER -- Dave saw Bodyslam, with Roddy Piper and Tama. "Overall the movie was awful. The wrestling scenes were bad. The plot was stupid. The acting wasn't much, but the best thing about the movie was Piper." -- The Destroyer's daughter placed fifth in the Miss New York pageant. -- There is this letter on the readers page pointing out many times Dave Meltzer has been wrong, and also saying that he thinks Observer readers tend to take Dave's opinions as their own, while also acknowledging that it's wrong to blame Dave for exposing the business because the wrestling promotions are doing a fine job on their own. Dave's response? "Some days I feel like I'm running for public office. Actually the quote a

Ooh, that sounds like it is yet to come. Sounds fun.

Oh, we already passed that. He agreed not to do it anymore.

WWF -- There was a 5/31 TV taping of Wrestling Challenge in Fresno, and there were some small concerns about the crowd size. The day of the event they only had 3,000 tickets sold, but on the day of the show, they sold 4,000 more tickets, which Dave calls a pretty incredible walk-up, and they ended up filling 7,000 seats of a 10,904 capacity arena. Superstars was taped on 6/1 in Oakland before 12,120 fans in a 15,891 seat building. The paid attendance was closer to 9,000 and the gate was $110,000. "This was my first chance to see a taping since they were in San Francisco last August and this show was a lot better than the SF show, which wasn't hard. Really, the atmosphere at the show was impressive, and they do a great job putting on a 'show' but I think it's a detriment to any fan attending to have any knowledge of pro wrestling because that would make the show harder to enjoy." There were 29 matches on the show, which Dave agrees is too many, but he also says you know what you're getting into when you go to a TV taping. Dave says they did a really good job getting the matches in and out without huge delays between matches. The entire show was over in four hours, an improvement from the 4 hours, 45 minutes taping the last time at the Cow Palace, a show which saw fans boo everyone -- heels and faces -- because they were sick of squash matches and wanted to see Hogan and go home. "Two other negatives before getting into the report are in the advertising of the show. On the TV hype, they continually pushed the Honkeytonk Man vs. Brutus Beefcake match as one with Jimmy Hart banned from the building, however they forgot the stipulation that night, Hart was at ringside and in fact caused the win by Honkeytonk through interference, and then they had the gall to announce the next main event in town would be Honkeytonk vs. Beefcake with Hart banned from the building." Also, they advertised free T-shirts to all fans attending, but that was forgotten also. "I thought the idea of 15,000 fans wearing Randy Savage T-shirts would have been the greatest propaganda effect in the world, and maybe they'll do it some day, but this wasn't the day." Dave says overall, the fans seemed to enjoy the show but were exhausted near the end of it. He says it was way more organized than the AWA "Night of the Potato" show in Las Vegas the month before. Dave gave the Brady Boone vs Steve Lombardi dark match ***1/4 and called it the best match of the night. -- All WWF broadcasting will now be done in their brand new studio in Connecticut with an NFL Today type set up. Jesse Ventura was not even at the taping. Vince McMahon was there, but was backstage running the show and never came out in front of the crowd. -- Some memorable lines from Dave's full review of the show, without going into reviews of 29 squash matches: "On a card which includes Andre the Giant, it's quite a statement to say this guy was by far the worst worker on the card. Actually he was so blown up he was arm weary, kind of like a wrestler in the third round or a boxer in late rounds, that he couldn't really even beat his chest. He was sucking air bad before the bell rang. He also got one of the three or four best reactions on the show for his musical intro, although until his press slam, the crowd was quiet for his 60 second squash." -- Dave on Ultimate Warrior "The Big Boss Man squashed a kid who looked to be no more than 17-years-old named Louie something or other." "There are an awful lot of fans who don't realize Bret Hart is a babyface." "This guy had more heat on him than anyone I've seen in recent memory. Fans really hate his guts because of the Jake angle ... I haven't seen a heel so universally hated in who knows how long. Even Roddy Piper always had a large throng of fans, but with the exception of a few women -- and I mean very few women, maybe a dozen -- everyone booed Rude. I am impressed." "Muraco gets the 'I'll kill you' look on his face and chases Hart to the back. Hart beat him by a good 40 feet in a 60 feet sprint. A guy behind me joked that Hart was the best athlete on the card." "Shawn Michaels & Marty Jannetty made their return to the WWF and already broke their previous record for longevity by making it to the second night (they debuted in Fresno) ... My own opinion is for several reasons, these two guys are exactly what Titan needed, because their weakest spot in the line-up was babyface tag teams (Bulldogs are stale, Bees are 70s style wrestlers, and both Strike Force and the Barbie Dolls are too pretty and booed by fans) and none are over. They've never done the Rock & Roll gimmick even though every other promotion has done it to death, and now past death. They got a good reaction considering a lot of fans didn't know who they were (a lot did, however). They are called 'The Rockers', becaues Verne trademarked the name Midnight Rockers." "Beefcake is over huge here because the poor folks in the Bay area actually take pride in his being billed from San Francisco. To me that's like taking pride in living in the AIDS capital of the world." (My note: Good Lord ...) "Bad News Brown gave Devon DeLeon with the enzuigiri. Do you realize how over Bad News holding that black glove in the air after the match would have been had he done it in 1969? You'd think Verne came up with that gimmick since nobody, and I mean nobody, understand the significance of it. The only problem is Verne just learned last year that baseball broke the color barrier so it'll be at least a decade before soemone tells him about John Carlos and Lee Evans in the 1968 Olympics." -- From Electronic Media magazine: "While sports prognostication is normally a risky business, the scenario of who becomes the World Wrestling Federation's champ is scripted out months in advance. It's based on the popularity of the wrestler, not his record, according to the results each performer inspires in WWF's multimillion dollar merchandising sales. Based on that criteria, insiders are laying odds that the next WWF champion will be 'Million Dollar Man' Ted DiBiase. But look for Hulk Hogan to reclaim the crown in a matter of months." Dave expands on this by saying Savage is drawing better as champion than anyone would have expected, and Hogan will draw against Andre and Boss Man in fall, with or without the belt. "Really, this summer reminds me of New Japan's 1983 summer. Everyone assumed the big boom for New Japan (when they sold out every night -- well actually 90% of shows from January through August sold out) was because of the big draw, Antonio Inoki and without Inoki, the business was sputter. Many assumed that this summer, without Hogan, WWF would sputter. New Japan didn't, and it touched off the biggest and most well-known 'scandal' of the decade. WWF won't have anything of the sort, but people are realizing the WWF will survive just fine without Hogan, which conceivably could hurt Hogan's 'pull' even though he is certainly still the main man. There isn't going to be a coup for the top spot because now more than ever, wrestlers are paranoid, and have a right to be, because nobody isn't expendable right now. If Hogan were to never return, sure, WWF would be hurt, but they would survive and still flourish even though they wouldn't reach the Hogan-level of interest for a while -- maybe a long while. And Titan really has no viable competition right now because the NWA is in financial turmoil. From a business standpoint, it looks logical to keep the title on Savage if he can continue to draw. However, the question is, does Hogan's ego need the belt and will he demand the belt upon his return? Will he have the same power to basically call all his shots as he had when he left and when many felt he was the entire promotion and the WWF would collapse while he was gone? If Savage's drawing power fails, then sure, give the thing to DiBiase for the interim and go to Hogan. But if not, you've got two attractions (Savage and Hogan) who can draw in the fall, and with Titan expanding its schedule, two good houses per night are better than one. In fact, Savage as champion may be even more valuable because Savage will wrestle 10 days on, three days off as everyone else does. Hogan will only work weekends and TV nights -- so mainly three nights most weeks." -- The WWF will be expanding its schedule starting on 7/7. Not only will they have a C team, but they will also have a D team, which will do more small towns and charity shows. They will generally run cities considered too small for them to bother with in the past. They see this as their chance to really make the big kill and finish the job against the remaining territories. On the charity shows, the WWF can offer a better deal than the territories can afford to offer. "In other words, say Ron Fuller is trying to get a charity show in some small Kentucky town. Titan can offer a better deal, and Fuller doesn't get the show, and that's one less night of work for Fuller's crew." It will also allow the WWF to seriously deplete the NWA roster if they decide to do so. -- The WWF has signed Terry Taylor, the Iron Sheik, and possibly Owen Hart. Iron Sheik has to go to rehab before reporting to work. -- The WWF drew its biggest crowd ever in Oregon on 5/30 (they couldn't even get over 5,000 in the past with Hogan in Portland), drawing 7,500 headlined by Brutus Beefcake vs Honky Tonk Man. -- Tama quit the WWF and Sivi Afi has replaced him in The Islanders. "In one fell swoop they go from one of the best teams in wrestling to one of the worst." Dave has heard two reasons for Tama quitting. One is that he was upset with his Wrestlemania check. The other was a family pride thing, as he was pressured by the rest of his family to walk out after Vince got rid of Sika. -- "You'll get a kick out of this one. At the tapings in Rochester, MN on 5/11, Vince gave the troops a speech about the evils of steroids, saying that our TV will make you larger than life and you don't need them. This came in the wake of an employee at some auditorium accidentally finding steroids and a needle left over from a WWF show and the employee freaked out because he was afraid he might have gotten AIDS or something from it." (My note: What's with Dave's AIDS hysteria this week?) -- 6/3 in Tacoma, WA drew 11,000 fans headlined by Savage vs DiBiase. 6/4 in Boston drew 8,000 fans headlined by Andre vs Duggan. 6/4 in Los Angeles drew 10,000 fans headlined by Savage vs DiBiase. 5/28 in Providence, RI, drew 5,400 fans headlined by Savage vs DiBiase. -- There is talk of a valet feud between Raven (My note: Who?? Dave says she's Rude's sister) and Cheryl Roberts, but Dave is told there will be no physical interaction if it happens. NWA -- The Clash line-up was changed with a Barry Windham vs Brad Armstrong opening match added, which Dave thinks can make the entire card if they're given time. The TBS press release about the Clash heavily features Dusty Rhodes, calling him "one of the two biggest stars in professional wrestling today, along with Ric Flair." The Windham bio was obviously old, as he was called "a frequent tag team partner of Lex Luger." -- The NWA has committed to additional Clash shows on 9/7 and 12/7. -- The Great American Bash has cleared 9 million homes, so it should be available in about the same number of homes as Wrestlemania IV. If they only do half as well, it will be huge for them and will take care of many of their financial problems. -- Because Rude and Roberts' feud is getting over big in the WWF, the NWA has put more heat on the Jimmy Garvin/Kevin Sullivan feud with Precious, with Jimmy Garvin doing a terrific interview on TBS admitting Precious is his wife. -- The TV taping on Memorial Day in Savannah, GA drew $40,000, one of the biggest ever in that city. 6/3 in Richmond drew 1,500 fans, one of the smallest crowds in years, headlined by Luger vs Windham. -- The Midnight Express and Jim Cornette attacked The Fantastics on TBS while Bobby Fulton was demonstrating how the straitjacket works. Dave says he knows people who weren't aware of the Mid South angle at all who still thought it was really predictable. -- Dave says they are doing a great job hyping Flair vs Luger as THE world title match of the year for the Bash. Dave says most people he talks to expect a title change. "Let's just say nothing is certain right now." -- Steve Williams and Nikita Koloff have formed a tag team. MEMPHIS -- To set up Hennig vs Lawler on 6/6, Hennig was in the studio making fun of the local Toyota dealer who sponsors the TV show. He attacked him before Eddie Marlin, Jerry Jarrett, and Randy Hales had to intervene. Later, Hennig came out and demanded Lawler come out. He destroyed the set, the table and the backdrop, but no Lawler. Finally, he grabbed Lance Russell by the neck and said he would count to ten and if Lawler didn't come out, he would beat up Russell. At seven, he came out, but was held back by Gary Young and Robert Fuller. Hennig spit on him, slapped him in the face, and kicked him low. The sponsor "guaranteed" Lawler's win by saying they would refund all ticket money to the fans if Lawler didn't beat him. -- Dutch Mantell seems to have already disappeared. WCCW -- The Memorial Day card in Ft. Worth drew 1,500 fans, which is their biggest crowd there in a long time. -- Jerry Lawler will not wrestle Kerry Von Erich in Dallas after all. -- Kamala starts up part-time in mid June. -- Angel of Death is leaving for Stampede and John Tatum & Jack Victory want to go to Stampede also. -- Gordy says he's his own man, not a face or heel. They are doing this to hold back the reuniting angle with Hayes. -- Steve Casey is getting a big push and feuding with Eric Embry. CONTINENTAL -- They ran a TV angle where Eddie Gilbert threw powder in Austin Idol's eyes. -- 6/1 in Meridian, MS before 600 fans saw The Nightmares face Tracy Smothers & Shane Douglas in a ***1/2 match, and Tom Prichard face Tony Anthony in a **** first blood match. STAMPEDE -- 5/27 in Calgary drew 500 fans. 6/4 in Edmonton was headlined by Benoit vs Smith in a **** match. -- Many feel Makhan Singh will be cheered feuding with Jerry Brown, although the intention is for it to be the other way around. -- There has been a ton of heat on the territory to completely eliminate blood. OREGON -- Johnny Ace, The Terminator, and Ricky Santana -- all of whom just quit the NWA -- appeared for Haynes' group on a 5/28 card in Oregon City. NEW JAPAN -- Originally, the main event on the 5/27 card in Sendai was going to be Fujinami vs Seiji Sakaguchi, but Riki Choshu did a lot of complaining about it and the match was changed. Choshu was bleeding and in his comeback, the ring broke as he was going for a lariat and when Fujinami moved out of the way, he sprained his ankle. Choshu started kicking the bad ankle and Fujinami took off his boot -- a la Randy Savage on Saturday Night's Main Event. Fujinami tried to fight with one leg but the match was stopped and ruled a no contest. The title is now held up since Fujinami couldn't continue. The title will be decided on 6/24 in Osaka. The match went 20 minutes, and Dave is told it was really good because they completely broke formula. The injury was a work. -- Adrian Adonis was cheered heavily upon his return to Japan, but fans were shocked by his change in physique. Dave says even though he's lost quite a bit of weight, he's still much bigger than he was in his glory days. -- Steve Williams isn't welcome back, because he cancelled appearances on several tours. ALL JAPAN -- 5/27 in Fukui drew a sellout 3,600 fans. -- Baba loved Dan Spivey on the last tour and it is expected he will become a regular in Japan, getting 12 weeks of work per year just like Terry Gordy. UWF -- They are negotiating a Bob Backlund match against Maeda for later this year, but it's dependent upon Backlund agreeing to do the job. JOSHI -- Chigusa Nagayo will be retiring from AJW over summer. They are planning a baseball stadium show to commemorate her retirement. Dave says it is a very safe statement to say that she is the most popular and highest paid female wrestler in the entire history of wrestling. From a business standpoint, it's coming on the heels of retirements of Dump Matsumoto, Yukari Omori and Devil Masami. This leaves only Lioness Asuka to carry the promotion, and her popularity is down from the peak years of 1984-1986 for the Crush Girls. What is surprising, Dave says, is that AJW wants her out as badly as she wants to get out, because she is really hard to deal with, and the Matsunagas do not feel they need her enough to give in to her demands. There is also extreme paranoia about continuing to build around a fading star because they've seen so many other wrestling companies die doing this. "The promotion believes, probably truthfully, that they would be unable to get any newcomers over to top-star level as long as Chigusa is around, because her popularity can't be surpassed and nobody is close to her ability so they can't easily remove her from the top spot. At the same time, she's been on top for five years and she's no longer a hot teen idol like she and Asuka were a few years back." -- AJW wants Yumiko Hotta and Mitsuko Nishiwaki to be their next hot babyface tag team, similarly to how the Crush Girls stepped up just as Nancy Kumi & Jackie Sato were beginning to fade. "While they will certainly have a miserable year after Chigusa leaves, if they are successful in getting these new girls over as big stars, they can start building up once again, whereas with Chigusa there is nowhere to go but down." Dave says Chigusa recognizes this as well, because she has turned into the elder statesmen of the promotion. She also has a clothing company which is doing well, and she can do the lucrative game show circuit, which Dump Matsumoto has done since her retirement, since Chigusa Nagayo is a celebrity in Japan. Dave says there is even speculation that she could start her own promotion if she can get together a few other wrestlers, but that they would need to realize that with the primary audience being teenage girls, they really want to see stars closer to their own age, both in the ring and on the concert stage. -- "I think I mentioned before that when I was in Japan in 1984, there were many famous teen idols (The Crush Girls were among them), teenage girl rock star/beauty queens, etc. and when I went back three years later, there was no sign of any of them, with the exception of Chigusa (and truthfully the only reason that was is we were in a wrestling environment). They were replaced by a whole new group of teenage girl rock stars. Apparently Japan is famous for this in their pop culture, and pro wrestling, both in Japan and in this country, is pop culture when it's handled correctly. Anyway, the original fans of Chigusa have grown up, at least the ones who followed her from the bottom up. Anyway, this business of pop idols and creating wrestling stars is fun to follow." -- Devil Masami has come out of retirement for the new JWP promotion, which was going to fold on 5/29. They will not be running a full schedule, just spot shows promoted by the local mob. OTHER -- The June issue of Washington Monthly has a story by Irv Muchnick on commission regulation in pro wrestling, which pokes fun at the way wrestling is regulated in the United States. The tentative plan for Muchnick's Von Erichs story is for it to air in Penthouse in September. -- Scott Hall is in Europe working for Otto Wanz. -- The AWA is running a Battle of the Belts card on Labor Day, and hopes to get wrestlers from Memphis, WCCW, and Oregon -- Dave on the letters page asking about the possibility of Ric Flair going to the WWF: "Being that I truly believe there is a greater chance of Flair going to Titan now than ever before (don't get that rumor mill going, it hasn't happened yet), it's an interesting question. I'm convinced that if Titan wanted to, it could make Flair into a tremendous drawing card, but the way this business is, I'm not sure this would happen. You have to realize that more than anyone else in this business, Flair represents, to the vast majority of fans, the NWA itself. If Flair jumps, unlike Ricky Steamboat or Greg Valentine or even Harley Race, in many fans' eyes he will still be an NWA wrestler, just fighting against WWF guys. Because of the ego involved, in order for the WWF to say, 'See, we were better all along', their office may come up with reasons (and valid ones, age, size, thrives on long matches) to convince themselves he won't get over, and of course that would turn out to be prophetic because they would push him in such a way where that would be the case. Remember, that if Flair were to go to Titan and gain his rightful position, which would be right at the top, in a sense it would be Titan admitting parity with the NWA which is something they've strived to disavow. I can recall when Vince McMahon was on a Larry King interview a while back and literally one caller after another brought up Flair's name while McMahon was going on how his group had all the top stars and has no competition in the business (which, while somewhat true today, wasn't at all true at the time) and King said, 'boy this kid Flair must be something.' McMahon basically complimented Flair as being a great athlete, but followed it up while fans talked of a match with Hogan as saying he didn't think if Flair came to the WWF his size would allow him to be any competition to Hogan. Of course, Flair is 38 now, and at this stage of his career, the lure of a big bucks run has to be more tempting than ever, because even though he is still one of the game's top performers, he is facing that inevitable battle of being an elder statesman in what is a young man's business."

WWF -- Electronic Media Magazine had an article about pro wrestling, and Randy Savage and Elizabeth were on the cover. Dave says it was a standard WWF press release with exaggerated numbers, and a few quotes mixed in from Jim Crockett. "The funniest part of the story was where it said that top wrestlers can earn $10 million a year. Not on this planet they can't. I would be surprised if any wrestler besides Hulk Hogan has ever earned anything approaching $1 million in any calendar year." The magazine also had an ad for Jim Crockett's Learning The Ropes sitcom, which Dave has heard is pretty bad. -- 5/27 in MSG before 16,000 was headlined by Savage vs Dibiase. 5/28 in Bloomington, MN drew 1,850 headlined by Andre vs Duggan. Dave says they won't return to the Twin Cities for a long time with those numbers. NWA -- There is nothing new regarding the possible acquisition of JCP by Turner, other than that the Charlotte Observer picked up on the story and even wrote a follow-up article the next day. According to the article, no completion of the sale is expected until 6/6. Dave's sources tell him it could be July. The newspaper said the amount would be $10 million, but Dave has been told that figure is way off, but he doesn't know if that was too high or too low. He says for a frame of reference, Crockett purchased the UWF for $4 million. Dave also corrects himself from last week and says that if the deal happens, Turner will purchase 100% of the Crockett family stock, including that of Jim Crockett. Frances Crockett denied to the Charlotte Observer that any negotiations were even taking place, but TBS officials confirmed there was something to the story, but declined to go into specifics. -- "Lots of unrest around here. As of the last word, none of the contract balloon payments, due on 5/1, have been paid and I'm told there are about 10 wrestlers due sizable amounts of money, at least 1 in the six-figures. Several guys are making noises about quitting if the money doesn't come in, but realistically, unless Titan will take them, and Titan isn't going to add too many guys this summer, than the only alternative is to go to a promotion in which they'll make a lot less money. This is the time Titan could brutally wound this group by stripping them of several key personnel. It is no secret Steve Williams wants out, since he seemingly made that clear in Houston on 5/13. In addition, Williams was pulled from the main event on the 6/8 'Miami Mayhem' TBS special and replaced by Dusty Rhodes, who teams with Sting against Tully Blanchard & Arn Anderson." -- The Sunday Main Event show had a good match with Mike Rotunda vs Ron Garvin. This week will be Arn & Tully against Ron Garvin & Mighty Wilbur. "That'll keep me glued to my TV set on a summer afternoon." -- They are going back to building up a TV show for a main event, and then running out of time two minutes in. Last weekend, they did it with Flair/Arn/Tully vs Dusty/Luger/Nikita, and t his week, they did it with Midnights vs Fantastics. "I wonder if they hired someone with the specific job of getting fans pissed off at them?" -- "And speaking of that, you aren't going to believe this, but of course you have to. 5/29 in Greensboro was the first card there since the Crockett Cup, and before that of course was Clash of the Champions. Remember the Midnight vs. Fantastics finish? Remember the Road Warriors vs. Powers of Pain finish at the Cup? Well,t hey ran the exact same finish again this month as well in a six-man title match with the Powers of Pain & Uncle Ivan apparently losing, but instead winning via DQ over the Roadies & Sting. Once again, I'm told a lot of the crowd fell for it, but they were down to 4,000 fans this month." -- 5/27 in St. Louis drew 3,100 fans headlined by Rhodes & Luger vs Windham & Blanchard. 5/24 in Hillsville, VA drew 3,500 fans headlined by Luger vs Blanchard. 5/20 in Norfolk drew 4,000 fans and had Crockett out with both Flair and Luger in interviews taped for TV, so Dave expects the Bash main event to be announced soon. -- In the 4/2 issue of New Musical Express, a British publication, Rick Rubin talks about producing songs for wrestlers and being a big fan of the NWA and the Four Horsemen. He joked about buying the NWA one day, but Dave doesn't think he was serious. MEMPHIS -- There will be unification matches taking place with Jerry Lawler vs Kerry Von Erich. -- Brickhouse Brown won the CWA title via forfeit on the 05/23 card in Memphis. Champion Max Pain was attack by Brown and the Cuban Choir Boys and suffered a leg injury and was unable to appear for his title defense later on the show. -- Robert Fuller is forming the Stud Stable in Memphis with Jimmy Golden, Gary Young, and valet Sylvia. At the same time, Tojo Yammamoto came in with a masked wrestler called Sin Sing. The Stable wanted Sing, but not Yammamoto, which prompted a babyface turn to set up a feud. Sylvia knocked off Tojo's hat. Later, Jeff Jarrett was challenging Robert Fuller when Sylvia came out and said Jarrett couldn't even beat her, much less Fuller. She then slapped him, then Jarrett held off Fuller before Golden attacked him also. Tojo came out with his kendo stick to make the save, and somehow, it got away from him and Sylvia started hitting him with the stick. Finally, Sin Sing made the save. -- Instead of doing the last MSC show on a Monday, as is customary, because of the Memorial Day holiday, it was moved to Sunday night. Lawler vs Dutch Mantell was on top. -- "I'm told Fuller & Golden don't look too good and people don't seem that excited of this turn in Memphis wrestling." -- Doug and Tommy Gilbert are gone. Mark Starr has returned to Florida. -- 5/21 in Nashville drew 1,200 fans headlined by Jerry Lawler vs Bill Dundee in a really good match with tons of heat. WCCW -- Eric Embry is the new booker with Skandor Akbar as his assistant. Michael Hayes is out, not because anyone has removed him from the role, but because of personal frustration that nothing they have tried in an attempt to turn business around seems to be working. -- Chris Adams is gone. He's running his own live card in June, which will include Bruiser Brody, Jeep Swenson, Brian Adias, Adrian Street, and Steve Cox. With Adams gone, Terry Taylor will be feuding with Kevin Von Erich. "Kevin is basically Taylor's Nikita Koloff in that we'll find out just how good Taylor is or isn't." -- They are running head-to-head with a Great American Bash show from Crockett on 7/4 in Dallas about a half a mile away. -- Kamala will be in on a regular basis by mid-June. CONTINENTAL -- Downtown Bruno is out and most expect him to show up in Memphis with Robert Fuller. -- There are negotiations to bring in Tommy Rich, Bob Orton, Dick Slater, and maybe Dennis Condrey. -- Sgt. Bob Carter is doing Sgt. Slaughter's heel gimmick. Dave says he is great at the gimmick, but nowhere nearly as good in the ring as Slaughter is as a heel. -- Lord Humongous is a full-fledged babyface teaming with Shane Douglas. -- "Just saw the last four weeks of television here. The TV is much-improved at least as far as entertainment from when Robert Fuller was booking and more interesting and more unpredictable to watch. The eventual Ken Wayne to heel and feud with Danny Davis angle is doing well. At the same time, the lighting on at least one of the shows and overall production was very bad and there isn't enough wrestling on the shows, virtually all angles and film clips. I assume that is to develop all the new characters and new angles and that when everything gets settled in a month or two the format will change once again." USA PRO -- Austin Idol appeared at the 5/15 TV taping in Knoxville, and Tommy Rich's name was mentioned as coming in to team with Johnny and Davey Rich against the Rock & Roll RPMs and Bill Dundee. -- Scott Armstrong came out on crutches (legit ankle injury) and slapped Nelson Royal in the face while Royal did an interview. It was the first interview I've ever seen Royal do where he didn't offer me a cup of coffee. Actually Nelson was trying to be Ric Flair as he started on a 'I'm the best thing going today' routine and they are billing him as the man who has held the World jr. heavyweight title longer than any man alive. I guess nobody told Nelson that Danny Hodge is still alive." -- Lots of former TBS jobbers are finding jobber work here. SOUTHERN CHAMPIONSHIP WRESTLING -- 5/29 TV taping at Miss Kitty's in Marietta drew 240 fans. Chris Adams made his debut and was over huge. In the first hour, Tommy Rich & Ted Oates went to a no contest against Joel Deaton & Jimmy Bryant when Dick Slater interfered and started beating up both the heels and babyfaces, including taking away Hoss Deaton's crutches. Buck Robley was very upset that he was also beating up the heels. Also on the show, Ranger Ross went over J.D. Wolfe, who is trying to be the next Randy Mulkey by taking crazy bumps. Mr. Wrestling II, Manny Fernandez, and Randy Rose & Doug Somers were also there. In the second hour, Steve Prichard beat Gerald Finley, and Joel Deaton & Dick Slater beat Ray Lloyd & Jim Boss. Tommy Rich & Ted Oates beat Joey Maggs & Doug Somers, Manny Fernandez beat Terry Adonis in what Dave called a great squash match, and Bruiser Brody went over Greg Brown. The Rock & Roll Express no-showed, along with Kamala and Abdullah the Butcher. They are building toward a Chris Adams vs Manny Fernandez feud, which Dave says will be great if they ever have a match. Adams made the save for Terry Adonis in their squash. Manny comes to the ring with Mexican food and after beating his opponent, stuffs a burrito down his throat. (My note: That's actually pretty kind ...) GLOBAL -- A TV taping on 5/28 in Pompano Beach saw Boris Malenko return to active wrestling. Dave is told he looked really good and got over doing 60s style wrestling. Boris is in his mid 50s, but has kept himself in top shape. WINDY CITY -- A 5/22 TV taping in Dixon, IL drew 250 fans headlined by Steve Regal vs Col. DeBeers. Paul E. Dangerously, who has a leg injury, and Eddie Gilbert no showed the card. They have an upcoming show in Rockford, IL, with Buddy Rose & Doug Somers vs Windy City Dream Team, Regal vs DeBeers, and the Terminators vs the Midnight Rockers. STAMPEDE -- On the 5/20 card, Makhan Singh joined Ed Whalen as a heel announcer. Stu Hart came out and said they were going to return "to family entertainment as it used to be", which means heavy blood and brawling in the crowds is going to be cut out. Stampede is blaming their low numbers recently on too much blood, NHL finals on TV, the weather, and Owen Hart and Jason being gone. -- Keith Hart will be replacing Bruce Hart as booker. -- Brian Pillman is with a torn tricep and won't be back for eight to twelve weeks, so the International tag titles are being vacated. -- They are doing an angle that Makhan Singh bought into Stampede Wrestling and is firing Ed Whalen and Jim Davies to become the announcer himself, but Whalen is still there every week. -- 5/28 in Edmonton drew 700 fans and was headlined by Benoit vs Johnny Smith in a ****1/4 match. -- Makhan Singh is considering going to Memphis. -- Mika Komatsu and Yumi Ogura are headed in. OTHER U.S. -- Roddy Piper's "Buy and Cell" received a horrible review in Variety magazine. Piper was never mentioned in the review. -- Vladimir Pietrov will be out of prison in seven more months and is hoping to get a job with JCP at that time. -- Darryl Sammartino, Bruno's son, placed eighth in the javelin in the NCAA Division III nationals representing Slippery Rock University. He was the highest placing Freshman at the event. -- Tiger Chung Lee has a bit part in "Red Heat" where he will be beaten up by Arnold Schwarzeneger. -- "A new women's group is working on getting started in Houston called Fabulous Ladies Appearing In Ring or FLAIR for short. Honest, I'm not making this up." -- Bobby Jaggers is doing English commentary for WWC. -- Dave expects fireworks in the AWA, as on a 6/28 independent card in Petersburg, VA which drew 150 fans, Wahoo, the promoter of the show, used several AWA guys without going through proper channels. NEW JAPAN -- Big Van Vader, Buzz Sawyer, Los Brazos and the Southern Boys will be part of the next New Japan tour. -- The current series began on 5/20 in front of a sellout 2,050 fans at Korauken Hall. The main event was Fujinami beating Hiroshi Hase in 6:02 with a sleeper. 5/21 in Chichibu drew another sellout 1,390 fans. -- Adrian Adonis has dropped 60 pounds and his gay act. ALL JAPAN -- 5/19 in Ueda drew 2,100 fans for a TV taping with Tenryu & Hara beating Wajima & Yatsu in 19:13. 5/20 in Iida drew 16,50 fans. 5/21 in Kasamatsu drew 2,300 fans. 5/22 in Osaka drew 2,100 fans. -- Due to the Rock & Roll Express's first tour, TV ratings have been in the 7's, which is very strong. OTHER JAPAN -- Futuhaguro, who Dave finally calls Koji Kitao, has chances of less than 50-50 of getting into wrestling, because he has other, better ways to make money. The magazines in Japan spent a lot of space on photos of him working out at Larry Sharpe's Monster Factory. -- The actual gate of the UWF show on 5/12 was $79,840 on 1,820 tickets at $40 each, and 440 standing room only tickets priced at $16. The 6/11 card in Sapporo is all seats for $28.00, so the advance is around $150,000. -- "I got to see the Akira Maeda vs. Kazuo Yamazaki match from the first show. The style wouldn't appeal to U.S. fans because it was a lot of mat wrok and at times there was no noise at all in the building however I'm certain the intensity (or quite heat -- which is not a contradiction in terms in fact it's what the old-timers strived for--a match so intense and realistic that the audience was so taken in by it that they didn't make noise) was there. Maeda looked really bad as it appeared Yamazaki was trying very hard not to win. Yamazaki did a good job of keeping it intense however Maeda was too heavy and his kicks were too slow and he was simply out of shape from his six month layoff from the ring. A few more performances like that and Maeda's status as the hottest wrestler in Japan will be threatened. The last seven or eight minutes saw Yamazaki have to do everything because Maeda was having trouble just keeping up a fighting stance."

Okay, I just need to highlight that and scratch my head a little. And yeah knowing nothing about Don Owen, I have to ask. Was Don Owen like the Ian Rotten of his day or something? I don't think it was so much against Owen. Wrestling tended to draw redneck drunks more than anything around this time, and fans were usually a little more hostile. WWF fans were more reserved and was usually an audience of mostly kids. I think he was just comparing it to the WWF audience versus the typical wrestling audience.

WWF -- The WWF is trying hard to make Randy Savage and Elizabeth their new media darlings with Hogan out and it just isn't working. They tried to get TV stations to do things with them and have been sending them out for interviews. In the first interview, Elizabeth was called an airhead. All other interviews were cancelled at that point. "From what I'm told by those who know her, even though Liz is absolutely nothing like she is portrayed and certainly she is no great actress, calling her an airhead is an unfair charge." (My note: This is one of my favorite stories so far ...) -- Big Bubba Rogers debuted as the Big Boss Man, with a crewcut and shaved moustache. He still has sunglasses and is being billed as a Georgia prison guard. He's been told to sell nothing until he gets to the big guys. Dave says it's obvious he's being set up for a feud with Hogan this fall. -- Managers aren't traveling now except on TV nights. Mr. Fuji and Bobby Heenan will make some of the shows where they're scheduled to wrestle, and Jimmy Hart will appear on shows where he's banned from the building (funny ...), but Slick and Humperdink will only make TV, and Humperdink's position is in jeopardy anyway with Bam Bam Bigelow being pushed down the card. Elizabeth is considered a hugely important part of Savage's act and will not be taken off the road. -- 5/21 at the Spectrum drew 8,028 and $101,852 headlined by Andre vs Duggan. They return on 6/18 going head to head with an NWA show in Philly. Andre and Duggan also drew a $100,000 gate in Portland, Maine. 5/20 in St. Louis drew 3,700 and a $40,000 gate headlined by Savage vs DiBiase. Several wrestlers had trouble there because of the altitude. 5/8 in Gander, New Foundland drew 2,200 fans and the equivalent of a $67,000 US gate. The Wrestling Challenge TV taping on 5/11 in Rochester, MN, drew 6,000 fans. The show was being filmed by Entertainment Tonight, as they are going to air a three-part pro wrestling special from 5/23-5/25. 5/14 in Hartford, CT drew 5,000 headlined by Demolition vs Strike Force. 5/13 in Omaha drew 7,280 fans headlined by Savage vs DiBiase. 5/12 in Winnipeg drew 4,000 fans headlined by Savage vs DiBiase. NWA -- "... There is a possibility that the NWA could be under new ownership. As has been widely rumored for weeks, a deal was proposed by the Crockett organization which would sell the majority of the company to Turner Entertainment. The deal is as of this writing before the Acquisitions Committee of the Turner company and the word on whether or not it is approved is expected within a week." Dave has been told that Turner would be buying the stock of David, Frances, and Jackie Crockett, but not Jim Crockett. Jim would remain as the general manager of the company and run day-to-day operations. Turner would handle the promotions and public relations and other business activities. Dave says if it doesn't go through, the NWA is going to face a major crossroads this summer. "Business-wise, things simply cannot continue to be run as they have been run for this group to stay solvent. That is no longer speculation. That is fact. Things must change. The other members of the Crockett family trying to sell their stock tells that story. There are wrestlers who are owed large sums of money. This promotion is really at the same crossroads in many cases as the old UWF was just a few months before it was sold to Crockett." -- 8.5 million homes have been cleared for the Great American Bash PPV on July 10, nicknamed "The Price For Freedom". Vince's attempt to keep a pay-per-view monopoly appear to be failing, as only Wrestlemania IV, at 10 million homes, had larger clearance. The WWF still has Summerslam on August 29 from Madison Square Garden (still not referred to by name), which means the cable companies are just ignoring Vince's 60 days before/21 days after ultimatum. Viewers Choice, which was a key service for Wrestlemania IV, will also be handling this pay-per-view. The show will cost $15.95 and the card is headlined by Ric Flair vs Lex Luger for the title. Other matches are Barry Windham vs Dusty Rhodes for the U.S. title, the Triple Doom of Terror will have the Road Warriors, Garvins & Steve Williams vs Kevin Sullivan, Al Perez, Mike Rotunda & Powers of Pain, Arn Anderson & Tully Blanchard vs Sting & Nikita Koloff, and the Midnight Express vs the Fantastics for the US tag titles with Jim Cornette in a straitjacket hung above the ring. "Once again, there is tremendous income potential for this show. A three percent buy rate, which they will certainly achieve since they did around 3.5 percent for the Bunkhouse Stampede and 3.3 percent for Starrcade (with head-to-head competition both times, this show may be unopposed although we'll have to wait to see McMahon's counter move and you know there will be one), would mean 255,000 homes at $16 a pop or nearly $4.1 million (which would be cut in several different directions, but the NWA will still take in more than $1 million). And that is a conservative estimate. If for some reason this thing pops big, although I don't see any indication that will happen, that figure could be as high as $6.5 million based on a five percent buy rate." -- The FCC ruled in favor of Syndicated Exclusivity the previous Thursday in a very hotly debated topic, which means any program carried in your local market cannot be duplicated by an out of the market station that is brought in on cable. "For WTBS, this ruling could be a disaster since so much of its programming is these types of old network reruns which are duplicated by local stations in most markets. With so much having to be blacked out, either WTBS would have to run all different programming, or be blacked out so much that most cable systems would probably drop them. This ruling is scheduled to go into effective in one year, although it is presumed that there will be several court appeals which will hold it up from taking place probably for a few years. This is the main reason Ted Turner is starting his TNT network, and why inevitably, the NWA wrestling will get on this new station which will mainly carry sports and movies and won't carry reruns of the old network sitcoms. WTBS itself may turn back into simply a top-flight UHF station for the Atlanta market." -- The NWA hyped the 5/22 Omni show really hard on television, which was strange, because there was nothing special about the card. But the press boxes, which are usually empty on wrestling nights, were filled this time. Speculation was that VIPs were there trying to look at what exactly it is they are purchasing. The hard sell worked, as 7,300 fans turned out at the Omni, which tripled the attendance of last month's show with a run of the mill lineup. "Somebody was certainly trying to impress somebody." -- "Like I alluded to earlier, there is lots of unrest around here. The wrestlers were due the balloon payments on their contracts on 5/1 and have yet to receive them and there are a lot of disgruntled guys around. Also, the payments for the Sunday Main Event show (remember the main eventers were to split $7,500, middle match $2,500, etc.) haven't come in and the guys made their standard TV money for the show (something like $100)." -- Lots of rumors about lots of guys jumping to the WWF. Dave has only heard of one NWA wrestler the WWF is interested in having come in. -- The Great American Bash is going to be heavily promoted. It starts 6/26 in Orlando and ends 8/7 in Kansas City with a major show almost every single night in between. There are 15 War Games matches, 19 scaffold matches, and the Triple Doom of Terror will probably only be used once. The only outdoor shows are 7/2 in Charlotte and 7/6 in Tampa. They will be in Dallas on 7/4 running head-to-head with World Class, who plans to run a big show that night. -- In a recent Arn Anderson vs Steve Williams match taped for Houston, Doc looked into the camera and said, "How did you like that, Vince" ... -- Kevin Sullivan has been coming out to watch Ron Simmons matches, but Dave has heard nothing about Simmons joining the Varsity Club. -- "While I'm on my list of complaints, they have yet to announce one match for the 6/8 Miami Mayhem Clash card and we're now just 2 1/2 weeks away. Not that the show is anything to brag about, but wrestling in a new time slot needs to have something that gives the fans a reason to remember it." -- 5/21 in Richmond, VA drew 7,000 fans in a hailstorm headlined by Dusty/Luger/Nikita vs Arn/Tully/Barry. 5/22 at the Omni drew 7,300 fans headlined by the same match. MEMPHIS -- 5/16 headlined by Lawler vs Dundee drew 2,200 fans. Lawler used a chain to get the pin. "After seeing the TV the week before the title change card, I'm amazed they didn't sell the place out. They did such a good job of hyping the thing, but Memphis is obviously on a major future downturn." -- Missy Hyatt is gone and there is behind the scenes heat between Memphis and Continental over it, but Dave doesn't know the reasons. Part of it may be that Fuller has twice used angles in Memphis that Gilbert has crafted in Continental just days later, and also there is almost always bad blood between old and new bookers. Lawler was supposed to defend against Gilbert on 05/29 in Birmingham, but that match is off. WCCW -- Booking is now being handled by a committee of Bill Irwin, Eric Embry, Skandor Akbar, Michael Hayes, and Ken Mantell. Dave says committees never work because too many people have too many ideas going in too many directions. -- There are huge problems here, as they have been drawing crowds of 400. -- Terry Taylor is set to feud with Kevin Von Erich. -- Chris Adams is planning on running opposition shows in Dallas, which isn't earning him any friends. Bruiser Brody is going to work the shows. -- Jerry Lawler wants to do title vs title matches against Kerry Von Erich in Dallas, Memphis, and Kansas City. -- Dave says WCCW is learning from the WWF, as they were saying on TV there were 20,000 people at Texas Stadium. -- Michael Hayes is doing the best interviews in wrestling right now, and that includes Jim Cornette. CONTINENTAL -- Missy Hyatt is in as a TV heel commentator. -- They are setting up a feud between Eddie Gilbert and Austin Idol. -- Mr. Olympia and Pez Whatley, as Willie B. Hurt, are in. -- Dutch Mantel is definitely gone. OREGON -- Dave corrects himself from last week. Haynes' group is called the Oregon Wrestling Federation. Owen's group has been taking shots at Haynes' group on TV, calling the Portland Sports Arena "the house of action" and that their show is the one where you see today's matches today, as they air matches from 8:00 later that evening at 11:30. Haynes' group is emphasizing size, talking about how big the wrestlers are. The battle is shaping up to be one of action versus size. On 5/7, they went head-to-head for the first time. "There were more bumps and moves in the first five minutes of the opening tag match with Art Barr & Billy Two Eagles against Moondog Moretti & Steve Austin than on Haynes' entire one hour TV show." (My note: Curious who this Steve Austin is ...) STAMPEDE -- 5/13 in Calgary drew 1,000 fans -- Dave says Chris Benoit has been the best worker in the promotion with Owen Hart gone, and that his matches have been "dynamite" lately. OTHER U.S. -- Scott McGhee's health is improving and he will be wrestling soon for Gordon Solie in Florida. -- Former pro wrestler and long-time referee Fred Atkins passed away on 05/13 at the age of 77. Atkins was from New Zealand and was best known as the referee for Frank Tunney in Toronto. He was also Giant Baba's manager when Baba was a heel in the U.S. in the early 60s. He reffed the Terry Funk vs Harley Race title change in early 1977 at Mapleleaf Gardens. -- FNN announced that in addition to debuting Continental on 05/29, they will be broadcasting the annual WWC big show from Puerto Rico. The show drew 42,000 from three locations the previous year. Gordon Solie will be brought in as a special announcer. The Rock & Roll Express, Road Warriors, Bruiser Brody, Iron Sheik, Abdullah the Butcher, Jimmy Valiant and others will be working the show. -- Regarding Roddy Piper in Hollywood, "Buy and Cell" is said to be pretty horrible, but "They Live" is actually getting pretty good reviews. If "They Live" is successful, Piper will keep his three movie deal with John Carpenter. If it fails, Piper will probably end up back in wrestling. -- Shawn Michaels and Marty Jannetty are working independent shows and being billed as the AWA World Tag Team Champions, and the AWA is furious. "In fact, there is so much heat between the AWA and Rockers that Verne, who owns the trademark to the name of the Midnight Rockers (which is why they were the Midnight Rock & Rollers when wrestling in Continental) wants to create a new Midnight Rocker tag team with two new wrestlers. Hope he doesn't go through with it." -- "Award for the lowest class act of the month goes to the Deep South promotion. One of the segments they have on the show is a viewer mailbag, and we've assumed lots of the letters were somewhat fictitious. Anyway, one of our readers from the Atlanta area sent in a letter, actually highly critical of the Deep South group, especially the continued cheap shots they take at Joe Pedicino on TV. They read the letter on the air, but it wasn't the letter the guy wrote. Everything was changed to make it a complimentary letter to Deep South." -- "Carrie Leigh, the model who later lived with Hugh Hefner in the Playboy mansion and has made news of late by suing Hefner, in her earlier life was one of Buddy Rose's 'Playgirls' when Rose was in the WWF around 1983." ALL JAPAN -- Abdullah the Butcher had gall bladder surgery and also had surgery to treat an ulcer and was released from the hospital on 5/19. He won't be back in the ring until late July. His illness hurt the new tour, because he and Tiger Jeet Singh were going to be the top heel team. -- Instead of Jumbo vs Tenryu headlining on 6/10 in Budokan Hall, they will instead unify the tag titles, with Tenryu & Hara vs the Road Warriors on top. Most expect a title change on 6/6 when Tenryu & Hara face Jumbo & Yatsu, and that the match will end up being Jumbo & Yatsu vs Road Warriors. -- The new series opened on 5/14 in Tsuchiuri before 2,250 fans. 5/15 was a night show which drew 2,300 fans to Korauken Hall. -- The Rock & Roll Express are said to be "so so" in their Japanese debut. Baba is really high on Dan Spivey, but he's not being pushed on this tour. -- It is expected if Futuhaguro does wrestle, it will be for Baba. Inoki doesn't sign sumo wrestlers because TV-Asahi has a cozy relationship with sumo and doesn't want expelled sumo wrestlers given a spot on their television station. NEW JAPAN -- "The feud with Riki Choshu and the Japanese press has greatly heated up. Just before Choshu's tour of the United States, his company, Riki Productions, banned Weekly Fight and Weekly Pro Wrestling from interviews and posed photos with Choshu and all the wrestlers under the Choshu banner (Strong Machine, Hase, Kobayashi, etc.). Tokyo Sports can still interview and shoot photos of Choshu and apparently Gong Magazine wasn't excluded as well. Weekly Pro h as gotten very heavily behind the UWF and has gotten anti-New Japan saying things like New Japan doesn't have any top heavyweights and there have been lots of knocks directed at Choshu with many blaming him for the hard times the business is going through because the public didn't like the way he jumped back and forth from New to All Japan back to New Japan. Choshu was really upset, and he's hard to deal with generally anyway from most accounts, by the inference that he hurt the business in Japan or that he's past his prime in the ring, even though in truth both points have validity." OTHER JAPAN -- The UWF ran its first show on 05/12 and fans flooded in. Billed "Starting Over", it set an all-time wrestling record by selling out Korauken Hall just 15 minutes after tickets went on sell. Fans were in line the night before the show waiting for tickets and there were more than 400 fans in line the next morning. Dave is told the heat for the main event of Akira Maeda vs Kazuo Yamazaki was incredible. The show drew 2,300 fans and a $92,000 gate. The second card is scheduled for 06/11 in Sapporo in a 7,000 seat gym. Tickets went on sale 05/13 and 5,000 tickets were sold in the first weekend. "While everyone is enthusiastic about the success this group is enjoying, the real test is if they can sustain interest with only three major stars and no major foreign talent." The Sapporo card is set to have three foreigners. They have one show booked every month through the end of the year, and will be producing videotapes of the shows. The biggest show is in August at the 10,300-seat Ariake Coliseum in Tokyo, and will celebrate Akira Maeda's 10th year as a pro wrestler. -- JWP will close its doors after the 5/29 show at Korauken Hall. The women haven't been getting paid lately since the business isn't drawing. Dave says they never had the TV they needed to survive. WWWA is doing so-so, as ratings have been cut in half since Dump Matsumoto and Yukari Omori retired. There are rumors Chigusa Nagayo may be next to retire, as her pride was hurt that business fell off so much when Dump retired, and her presence didn't maintain business. Some of the owners are trying to sell their stock as well since the Jumping Bomb Angels returning as WWF tag champs hasn't really amounted to anything. Dave says if Chigusa leaves, business will collapse. There was a new series started on 5/12 in Kubunji. 5/14 in Tokorozawa drew 1,640 fans, 5/15 at Korauken drew a sellout 2,100 fans. Madusa is headed in, which Dave says could be really good for her, because she has the charisma to be a star, and if she can learn to wrestle, she could be special. EUROPE -- ITV announced that it would be dropping pro wrestling by the end of the year. The wrestling audience had fallen from 7 million viewers weekly to 2.5 million. The show was costing the network $1.9 million annually in production costs, so they decided it was too expensive. Lots of the blame for the ratings drop has been blamed on the death of Mal Kirk from a heart attack, and the public reveal that Big Daddy was really the promoter's brother. Daddy was the wrestler who splashed on Kirk when he died of the heart attack. "Then it was revealed just how little the wrestlers earned in England, how old and out of shape several of them were, and lots of public bitter after taste resulted in loss of popularity."

I want to get done with 1988 by the end of the year so I can start with 1989 in January, so better get crackin'! WWF -- The WWF took out a full page ad in Electronic Media magazine, the trade publication for the TV industry, with the ad entitled "What A.C. Neilsen isn't tell you." The idea is that they're trying to stop some of the damage caused by Neilsen closing their loophole that skewed in wrestling's favor. The WWF has already sold most of its ads for the whole year, and they're really worried about what's going to happen now. The ad also said they were in the top five eery week since the syndication ratings debuted two weeks prior, which only Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune could claim. Dave says that's only a slight lie, because there was one week where they were #6. -- "Hulk Hogan's wife Linda gave birth to a 10 pound, one ounce baby girl named Brooke on 5/5. It was the couple's first child." -- Ricky Steamboat has retired, but Dave doubts it's permanent. He wants to spend more time with his son and look after his gym in Charlotte. "Just to let you know the type of people the Steamboats are, guess what I got in the mail last week. That's right, a couple of Steamboat gym T-shirts." (My note: THAT makes this whole WON recapping thing worth it.) -- 5/8 in Binghamton, NY drew 3,500 fans headlined by Brutus Beefcake vs Honky Tonk Man. 5/12 in Erie, PA drew 1,000 fans headlined by Demolition vs Strike Force. 5/15 in Chicago drew 8,500 fans headlined by Randy Savage vs Ted DiBiase. -- It's pretty much a lock that Owen Hart is coming in in July and will be called The Cheetah Kid, although the name could change. At this point, Hart will only reconsider if Inoki makes him a huge offer to work New Japan full time, and that's not happening realistically. -- Wrestlers are now working 10 days on, 3 days off. -- Four of the top 10 sports videos are Wrestlemanias. -- There was a front page sports story in a St. Louis newspaper about Randy Savage's minor league baseball career. Fred Blassie is also doing local radio work in St. Louis to hype upcoming WWF shows. NWA -- Barry Windham captured the U.S. title on 5/13 in Houston in a tournament before 4,800 fans, which drew a $54,000 gate. Larry Zbyszko was dropped from the tournament because the line-up was made before the Windham turn, and they had to avoid having a heel versus heel match in the tournament. The show was headlined by Flair vs Sting in a cage match which Dave says was subpar. -- Paul Boesch's "Houston Wrestling" show will be restarting in June. It will include footage from NWA syndicated shows, local interviews for just Houston conducted by Boesch, and tapes of house show matches from Houston in the same format of the old UWF Houston show. Because of this, the NWA plans to start running Houston regularly. World Class actually has plans of running shows in Houston also. -- "I'd almost be remiss in not commenting on the rumors swirling through the wrestling world that Ted Turner is going to buy the NWA. All I know is no deal has been completed but the rumors are flying everywhere about what may or may not happen. If such a deal is completed, Jim Crockett will still run the wrestling operation however the rest of the family wouldn't be as involved as it would be their stock that Turner would buy out. There's been a ton of speculation, particularly about Dusty Rhodes, should this happen, but it's all premature." -- 5/11 in Miami drew 2,943 fans headlined by Ric Flair vs Steve Williams. 5/12 in Tallahassee drew 5,500 fans for a TBS taping which include Kevin Sullivan kidnapping Precious. 5/14 in Chicago drew 2,800 fans headlined by Flair vs Sting with three judges at ringside, which Dave thinks they botched so bad at the Clash that it probably hurt the gate. -- The Rock & Roll Express want to return. There's a decent shot it will happen, but Dave thinks if they do come in, they should turn heel and feud with The Fantastics. MEMPHIS -- Jerry Lawler is the new AWA champ. Dave says the word he got from those who attended the show was that it was one of the best overall live shows of the year, that it couldn't compete with the workrate of the Clash but was a better overall show. Crowd was estimated at between 9,000 and 10,000, but the $45,500 announced gate indicates less people than that. The title win was a major news item in Memphis. It was carried on the front page of the sports section the following day, and it was a lead news item on every single local news program in the market. The mayor of Memphis was at the event, and there was tons of local coverage. Word Dave gets is that the match itself was good, but not great, and that the best match on the show was Paul Diamond and Pat Tanaka over Billy Travis and Tom Brandi. -- Jerry Lawler vs Bill Dundee headlines the 5/16 show as a babyface match. "They should call Dundee the human ping-pong ball as many times as he's bounced over the fence between heel and babyface here." -- Phil Hickerson is expected to return to wrestling over summer and team with Don Bass. -- Gary Young is asking girls to send in photos so he can pick a valet. To explain Missy Hyatt no longer being in his corner, he just said they had differences of opinion. Missy is not set for any future dates. -- Brother Ernest Angel has been running into outside the ring problems and is no longer around. Brickhouse Brown is now the lead heel manager. -- On TV, they announced the only way Hennig would get a rematch with Lawler is if he wins the CWA title. Hennig will be doing shows here managed by Brickhouse Brown. -- The NWA has made a play for Nashville, and have a 6/23 show headlined by Barry Windham vs Lex Luger. They also took one of his key TV spots in Nashville. -- Lawler got the title because Jarrett Promotions agreed to pay Curt Hennig's weekly guarantee of $1,500 as long as Lawler was champion. Verne Gagne is not responsible for Hennig's guarantee right now, and Hennig will be working more Memphis dates. AWA -- "I survived an AWA ESPN taping. Just barely. There is no question in my mind that the AWA is the worst promotion of any significant proportion after viewing 'The Night of Wrestling Hell', the 5/14 taping at the Showboat Training Center before 750 fans. A whole group of us decided to go at the last minute, I guess mainly to see Riki Choshu's first U.S. wrestling appearance in nearly six years. Actually Choshu's appearance was just an excuse to write off his honeymoon in Las Vegas, and he wrestled with about as much effort as you'd expect of someone on his honeymoon. And he was still better than just about everyone on the card." Dave goes on to say four of the five advertised matches didn't take place, and there were six no-shows. The absence of Michaels and Jannetty was key, because they're the only draws the AWA currently has in Las Vegas, but they quit once again unhappy about a contract offer made to them by Verne Gagne. -- The Nasty Boys have been fired. -- Dave complains about the AWA billing Choshu as "Shoshi", and calling Curt Hennig (Curt Henig). They also misspelled Marty Jannetty and Madusa Miceli. Dave expected Verne would misspell Choshu, but thought he was spell it as "Cho Shoe" ... -- "The AWA jobber corps is pitiful for the most part, but it's always been that way, but now the winner corps is as bad as the jobber corps. Well, at least we got to see first-hand why the AWA is truly the major league of professional wrestling and why ESPN is the total sports network. This wasn't the worst card I've ever seen (though certainly the worst card I've ever travelled to see, but I was expecting that), but it was the worst collection of wrestlers I've ever seen gathered in one place (with notable exceptions like Curt Hennig, Bad Company, the Japanese, Jerry Lawler, the Guerreros, and Dennis Stamp)." -- "I will say one thing positive about Miceli, she has a lot of charisma and gets a lot of reaction from almost everything she does, even though most of the time she doesn't have a clue as to what she is doing. At least she's got potential to be a great valet, but keep her out of the ring unless absolutely necessary." (My note: Interesting, since Madusa eventually earned sort of a rep. I'm interested in reading about her AJW tours.) --"Andre and the Anabolic Warrior are like Flair and Owen Hart compared to -- Handsome Harry, a transient from Los Angeles and Iron Man Miller, a 280-pound musclehead (Mark Miller is his real name, he started out with Sting and Dingo a few years back and has progressed to the point he's almost as far behind Dingo as Dingo is behind Sting)." WCCW -- Reports on the 5/8 show at Texas Stadium weren't good. What was supposed to be the biggest show of the year drew a subpar gate, at $53,500 and 6,000 paid. They were hoping to build some momentum with a big crowd to see Terry Gordy turn babyface, and also put on a hot show that would sell well marketed as a VHS tape, but the show didn't achieve its goals. "If anything, it shows that World Class is in even more dire straits than previously indicated. In my mind, even more telling, is that the most recent Saturday Night's Main Event, which drew one of its lowest numbers of the season (but still a great rating for the time slot) actually beat out the World Class show head-to-head in the Dallas market gathering a 6.3 to World Class' 3.6 on 4/30. This marks the first time than (sic) an SNME has ever outrated the World Class show on Saturday Night (where World Class in its peak was drawing a 12 rating weekly), and it was more because of the fall of interest in World Class than due to any increase in interest in Titan's product." -- Central States is expected to merge with World Class, but the official word is that it's just temporary. However, WCCW is supposed to be doing TV tapings out of Kansas City. Masa Chono turned babyface on their 5/5 card. -- Masa Chono and the Samoan Swat Team are headed in soon. OREGON -- Billy Jack Haynes' outlaw promotion (Washington Wrestling Federation!) ran its debut card on 5/7 in front of 2,000 fans, a surprisingly high number, especially with no local TV to promote. Dave has heard the show was awful. The facility was very nice, and Dave is told it attracted a higher class audience than you usually get at a Don Owen show, similar to a WWF show. There were problems with long delays between matches -- only 44 minutes of wrestling in a three-hour show. There were no music entrances, which really bummed out the crowd. At one point, someone came into the ring to apologize that things weren't going smoothly and requested that fans be patient and give them time to improve. Chavo Guerrero was said to be the only first-rate wrestler on the show, and he was stuck doing a job for J.T. Southern, including one spot where he pretty much superplexed himself. CONTINENTAL -- Robert Fuller no-showed his loser leaves town series against Dutch Mantell, so he's out for now. Dutch is leaving for Puerto Rico soon, and Dave isn't sure if he'll be back. -- Steve Armstrong is out recording an album. (???) In the meantime, Tracy Smothers is teaming with Shane Douglas. -- Austin Idol is coming in as a babyface. Randy Rose and Dennis Condrey are also expected in. -- Paul E. Dangerously is doing an angle offering $10,000 to anyone who can beat Eddie Gilbert. STAMPEDE -- 5/6 in Calgary drew 650 fans. 5/14 in Edmonton drew 800 fans. -- They are setting up a Chris Benoit/Johnny Smith feud over the Commonwealth title. -- The WWF is headed to Calgary on 7/1 with DiBiase vs Savage, Demolition vs Bulldogs, and Bret Hart vs Bad News Brown. Dave expects it will draw big. -- Biff Wellington is out with an elbow injury. -- People are really worried about the future of Stampede if Owen leaves, but Dave says they always do fine when he does New Japan tours. Dave says he was not an exceptoinal draw even though he was over huge with the live crowd, which Dave attributes to them taking him for granted. NEW JAPAN -- New Japan held their first card at the Ariake Coliseum, an outdoor tennis stadium, on 5/7. The main event was changed twice. It was originally Vader vs Inoki, but Inoki broke his foot and they changed to Vader vs Choshu. Fujinami made some demands, so the main event was changed to Fujinami vs Vader. More confusion was caused when a rainstorm hit Tokyo on 5/7 and the card was canceled and rescheduled for the following day, but they still drew a sellout 10,250 and Fujinami captured the title with a DQ win in 16:02. Other key matches were Hiroshi Hase beating Shiro Koshinaka to keep the IWGP junior title in 18:10, and Don Nakaya Neilsen scoring a KO win over Keichi Yamada in a mixed match, the first time a wrestler has lost one of these since Shinma started the gimmick 15 years prior. Dave has heard the mixed match was outstanding, and that Neilsen deserves tons of credit, because he had probably the best mixed match of all time against Akira Maeda in 1986. The rumor is that Neilsen will eventually become a pro wrestler, he has a great aptitude for wrestling. Dave thinks this is to build to another mixed match in August where he will do a job to someone like Inoki, Fujinami, Choshu or Kengo Kimura. The gate was $400,000, which put it second only to Wrestlemania IV for a live gate this year. The show wasn't taped for television. -- A recent Tokyo newspaper showed Antonio Inoki as the 9th highest paid athlete in Japan. -- Futuhaguro, the sumo wrestler, was recently spotted at Larry Sharpe's Monster Factory. He is leaning toward getting into wrestling, which people in Japan think would be the biggest thing since Rikidozan. The problem is that he has a big head and is a lazy trainer, which means his transition may not be smooth. Also, he wants huge money to start, more than Jumbo, Tenryu, or Choshu make, and the top stars have already said they would quit if he made more than them, and that's his asking price. Dave suggests bringing him in for 10 weeks a year and paying him $10,000 a week. He'd still get his asking price and the top stars in either company wouldn't feel insulted. -- 5/3 in Tsuruga drew 2,020 fans. 5/5 in Ogaki drew 3,710 fans, a sellout. 5/6 in Hamakita drew 1,560 fans. MEXICO -- "I got a tape of some of the best matches from Mexico City over the past six months and try as I do, I just can't get into the wrestling there. Some of the guys are really talented fliers, particularly Atlantis who does things Owen Hart couldn't even dream of doing, but they work so different from U.S. and Japanese style that it makes almost off (sic) of them appear to be bad workers. Still, I saw a 6-man from mid-March with Pirata Morgan & El Verdugo & Hombre Bala (The Buccaneers) against Atlantis & La Azteca & Ringo Mendoza which was four stars plus in anyone's book. I'm told the best workers are Morgan and Negro Casas (who I still haven't seen). La Fiera, who I thought was fantastic when he wrestled in Japan in 1984, seems pretty crippled up. These guys take enormous physical risks in their flying style, but the crowds seem like thousands of cardboard cut-outs of fans because unless guys do move so out of this world they are suicidal, the crowd doesn't react to anything. You really can't tell faces from heels by the crowd, although you can by watching the way it's done. The youngest Guerrero brother, Eddie, is pretty impressive. He does the best arm drags I've ever seen and a great dropkick off the top rope. I guess the best way to describe the wrestling and the wrestlers is either it's really good, or it's awful with little in between." OTHER -- Interesting letter from Bruce Mitchell talking about the role of smart fans. -- Dave is selling Missy Hyatt swimsuit posters for some reason.

If you consider a draw someone whose absence adversely affects the bottom line, the Undertaker is not a draw. If you consider a draw someone who headlined shows during a boom that had nothing to do with him, Undertaker is a draw, but so are lots of other guys. If you consider a draw someone who posts bigger numbers than their peers when put in the main event spot on the show, Undertaker is not a draw. If you use the first and third points as criteria for being a draw (which I do), John Cena and Rey Misterio (and to a lesser degree, HHH and Batista) are the only people who have drawn since the heyday of Steve Austin and The Rock. If you want to make a pro-Undertaker argument, the argument is that he's a very popular main eventer among wrestling fans, and he has managed to stay a top guy for nearly 20 years in a time period that has seen many changes. Even then, there are counter-arguments about how much he's protected and how he has so many long stretches of being inactive. I'm not an Undertaker hater by any means, and I think he's been better the last few years than he maybe has ever been, but he's not an all-time great. None of this changes the fact that Scott Keith is dumb.

Wishful thinking?