Loss

It's possible that he's better than he's ever been right now. His comeback started off really shaky, but the heel turn has been great for him. They should let him run with the belt for a while. Since they seem to be screwing up and doing Cena/Batista now instead of at Wrestlemania, maybe Jericho/Cena should be the main event of WM.

I think there's a lot of fun spots you can do in a blindfold match to make it worth watching, but the problem is they're all comedy spots, and Jericho/Michaels has turned into a blood feud. Not really a suitable payoff.

The Freebirds didn't make it into the 90s, but I don't think it was because of changes in the business. They just had other stuff going on, or in Hayes' case, got really old really young. In 1992, when he was in the Jimmy Valiant role in WCW, he was only 33, as crazy as it sounds.

I don't know, Sting/Luger vs Ivan/Murdoch looks pretty good on paper. I could see LOD and POP having a surprisingly good match too.

Note: There is a transcript of the Bruno radio interview mentioned a few weeks back in this issue, along with Dave's thoughts on it, which is a fun read and covers a variety of topics, but there's no way I'm going through all of that. I have my limits. WWF -- The WWF ran its last SNME of the season on 4/30, which was taped 4/22 in Springfield, MA. Savage is very much the star of the WWF right now, and Dave observed that the name Hulk Hogan was never even mentioned during the show. Dave also thinks it's amazing the difference in match quality on top between Hogan and Savage. Dave also noted that Duggan was really trying against Hercules, as was Hercules, but Duggan has fallen hard. Savage vs Gang was an okay match, but Savage was moving great and doing some awesome stuff in the ring. DiBiase sold big for all of Muraco's offense, but Muraco didn't do much. Bulldogs vs Demolition was terrible as they seemed to be on different pages. Rude vs Ware was the only match where both guys are about equally talented and it was pretty good, with neither guy really carrying the other. -- The WWF is cost cutting by no longer having managers travel to house shows, only TV tapings. They may make an exception for Liz since she's such a key part of Savage's act. They have also cut back greatly on dates. A year ago, they were running 20-25 shows per week, now they are doing 10-12 shows per week. This is probably good in the short term, because Dave keeps hearing that the live shows are much better lately, although Dave credits the Savage/DiBiase feud and Bret/Bad News for most of that. -- 4/24 at the Capital Centre drew 4,500 fans headlined by Savage vs DiBiase. 4/25 in MSG drew 17,000 headlined by Savage vs DiBiase. -- Harley Race will be out of action for several months. He had 18 inches of his intestine removed after a ruptured intestine and at one point was on the critical list. -- Bubba Rogers will debut with a prison guard gimmick and feud with Hulk Hogan this coming fall. -- Owen Hart is still undecided about coming in. -- Ricky Steamboat has quit, but Dave doesn't know more than that yet. NWA -- JCP has pretty much given up any claim to the New York market, as Nassau Coliseum officials have given in to the WWF's ultimatum. Crockett ran four shows there. The first show in late November was a major success, but that was expected. The second card was the Bunkhouse Stampede, which was a disaster, although the gate was still more than Titan was averaging, so they were okay. However, the ill will from the lack of organization behind the show resulted in a poor gate for the third show, which drew $48,000, about what the WWF would average on non-Hogan shows. The 6/24 date has been lost, and they have also lost their time slot on WPIX in New York, so they are now without local television in New York and Los Angeles, which they sorely need. Dave thinks the loss of television may have actually been a deliberate decision by Crockett, because they were paying upwards of $6,000 per week for their time, but that it's really going to hurt ad revenue and potential exposure. -- The Fantastics captured the US tag team titles from the Midnight Express on 4/26 in Chattanooga in a match that went more than 40 minutes. (My note: It's one of the best matches of the year. Find it.) Jim Cornette was on TV saying he was planning a party because he expected his close personal friend Jim Crockett to return the belts to him. Dave expects Cornette to not get the belts back, and get a face full of cake. -- Ric Flair missed several dates over the last weekend, and there are several stories floating around. In one, he had a severe fever, and the other, he had a staph infection. Refunds were offered in the cities he missed. -- 4/29 in Miami drew 4,000 headlined by Ric Flair vs Sting. 4/30 in Detroit drew 4,000 headlined by Ric Flair vs Sting in a ***1/2 match where they totally broke formula and did all highspots. -- The next Clash is expected to be on 6/15 from the Knight Center in Miami. The Great American Bash PPV is on 7/10 in Baltimore. -- Dave says the NWA should be happy that WCCW is doing the Triple Tower of Doom first, so they can see any bugs in the gimmick. It was the idea of Kevin Sullivan, not Dusty Rhodes. -- "I finally saw the Barry Windham turn and it was tremendous. Every, and in every, I mean 100% of the phone calls I received this week on the turn, agreed that it was a great turn. Some didn't like Dusty getting involved since it really was a Windham vs. Luger issue, but I didn't mind as much because Rhodes has been a significant part of Windham's career almost from its onset back around 1979 in Florida, so it made sense for him to get involved when Windham turned. I can see the point of those who thought he was stealing the spotlight once again." -- The 1988 Bash tour will be from 6/26 to 8/7, and will include 40 or 41 shows all over the country. Many shows will have War Games. Only two of the shows will be outdoors -- one at Tampa Stadium, and the other will be at Charlotte baseball stadium on 7/2. They also have a show booked at Reunion Arena in Dallas on 7/3. The wrestlers will be working six weeks without a day off, so they'll be given a one week vacation after the tour. They have to do TV on those days as well, and there will be plenty of double shots due to TBS tapings. After that, the plan is to rotate all wrestlers on a three weeks on, one week off schedule. -- The NWA took WCCW's TV in Jackson, MS "... and celebrated by sending a tape that aired this past weekend totally void of any commentary." -- They are plugging the US title tournament in Houston on 5/13 pretty hard. Barry Windham or Lex Luger is considered the favorite. They are also saying the Midnight Rider will wrestle, and be accompanied to the ring by Dusty Rhodes. Dave suspects they'll put Adrian Adonis or Joe Pedicino in the outfit, or maybe stuff both members of the Rock & Roll Express in the outfit, since they want back in so badly. -- "That NWA Main Event show (which is back on Sundays on WTBS) sure isn't turning out as many of us had hoped. This past Sunday's show still had poor lighting, and truthfully, lackluster matches. Originally the main event was announced as Barry Windham & Luger against Flair & Arn Anderson, but with the Windham turn, it was changed to Luger & Sting as announced on TV. With Flair being ill, it became Arn vs. Luger in a single, which was okay because of Arn, but Luger's weaknesses were all too evident once again." Dave says he ran to the ring and was breathing heavy five minutes in, but it got better at the end when Windham ran in for the DQ, but wasn't much better than most of the SNME matches which aired the night before. "This is what they wanted to be their showcase show, with showcase production and showcase matches and they are falling way short in both categories." -- They are cutting back to one show per night, which means several wrestlers are likely to be cut. WCCW -- WCCW has finally announced a lineup for the Texas Stadium show on 5/8. Michael Hayes and Ken Mantell are really trying to downplay the fact that it's called the David and Mike Von Erich Memorial Parade of Champions. They kept the name to appease Fritz, but realize it's in bad taste. The main event will be a pair of matches inside the Triple Tower of Doom. There will be three rings, built one on top fo the other, with a fireman's pole going through the center of the rings allowing wrestlers to climb up or down. Wrestlers can also switch levels by climbing up the cage itself. They will also hold an 18-man Texas Roundup (the WWF has now trademarked the term "Royal Rumble", so they can't use it) inside the three rings. The idea is that the winner is the first wrestler who gets to the top of the third ring, then from there climbs up the cage to the top and grabs the envelope which contains money and five prizes to fans whose names the wrestler will pick out, including a brand new motorcycle and a trip to Las Vegas. Also on the show is Michael Hayes vs Terry Gordy in a Badstreet match, Iceman Parsons vs Kerry Von Erich, Kevin Von Erich & Bruiser Brody vs Buddy Roberts and a partner, Chris Adams vs Terry Taylor in a No DQ match, the Simpsons against Tatum and Victory to unify the Wild West and Texas tag team titles, Bill Irwin vs Black Bart, Eric Embry vs Steve Casey, Mike George vs Jeff Raitz and Missing Link & Jason Sterling vs Angel of Death & Vince Apollo. -- 4/24 in Fort Worth drew 500 fans. -- Skandor Akbar made an offer to Terry Taylor to manage him. -- Fans are heavily cheering Terry Gordy in interviews, even though they do boo him when he's against Hayes. -- WCCW is negotiation to have its syndication package be part of the All Star Wrestling TV network ad package. MEMPHIS -- Curt Hennig vs Jerry Lawler will be the most talked about show of 5/7, with Lawler announcing that if he doesn't win the title, he will retire from wrestling. Eddie Gilbert, Bill Dundee, Pat Tanaka, and Paul Diamond will be brought in for the undercard. The match itself will not air on the FNN show, but will instead be released quickly as a videotape by Independent Media Marketing based in New Jersey. -- They are announcing that Larry Hennig is ahead of Jackie Fargo in referee voting on the 900 line in an attempt to drive up calls. -- Robert Fuller recently lost a match to Jerry Lawler where the stipulation was that Missy Hyatt would have to be Lawler's maid for a day if Fuller lost. They aired the segment on TV this weekend, which Dave says was better than the UWF version with Dark Journey, but nowhere near Jimmy Garvin and Sunshine as David Von Erich's valet for a day in WCCW in '83. -- They are now calling Gary Young an adopted member of the Gilbert family. Tommy Gilbert called him his new adopted son, and in Young's first interview, he said, "I'll be watching Missy's behind all the time ... um, I mean her back." This reminds Dave of a joke on Blackwell's Southern Championship Wrestling. Paul E. Dangerously co-hosts the show with Rhubarb Jones. They have this ongoing joke where Paul E. always messes up his name and Rhubarb corrects him. Finally, Paul E. says, "How come whenever I call you Rubhard, you say it's Rhubarb, but when Missy Hyatt calls you Rhubarb, you tell her it's Rub Hard?" -- Curt Hennig did a promo where he said he's the only world champion because Ric Flair and Randy Savage only wrestle in one promotion and he goes everywhere. CONTINENTAL -- FNN is negotiating with Continental and Dave thinks there's a strong possibility they'll be on FNN eventually. -- "Speaking of Continental, the angle with Tom Prichard and Dirty White Boy Tony Anthony was one of the best I've seen ina long time. Part of the reason is that Gordon Solie gave his best performance in several years." OREGON -- On 5/7, Don Owen and Billy Jack Haynes will be running competing shows. Haynes' roster includes himself, Ray Candy, Big Bubba/Fred Ottman from Memphis, Rip Oliver, Mike Miller, Tom Magee, Tiger Chung Lee, Brian Adams, Cpl. Kirchner, Cocoa Samoa, Steven Gator Wolf, Joey Jackson, Kevin Kelly, JT Southern, Chavo Guerrero, and Dewey Forte. Haynes is planning on paying decent guarantees at $600-$800 a week, but his crew is unimpressive. Dave thinks it will be a bitter battle just because Oregon and Washington just don't have enough fans to support two local promotions running full time, much less occasional big shows from the WWF and the NWA, which has a stop in Seattle during the Great American Bash tour. STAMPEDE -- Crowds are falling, due to a combination of standard summer fall-off, and many local fans feel the shows are less family friendly because of all the blood. -- Jonathan Holiday is now a heel referee. -- Les Thornton is planning on running opposition in Alberta in May. AJPW -- The most recent series ended on 4/22 in Kanagawa before 3,100 fans at the Kawasaki City Gym, in which Genichiro Tenryu & Ashura Hara retained the PWF tag titles by beating Bruiser Brody and Tommy Rich. Rich subbed for Jimmy Snuka who suffered three legit broken ribs the night before when John Tenta accidentally crushed him. -- 4/21 in Tokyo drew 1,850. -- The Road Warriors will appear on 6/9 and 6/10. The 6/10 show is in Budokan Hall. NJPW -- Antonio Inoki is out of action with a broken foot, which will hurt them at the box office, since they've already lost Nobuhiko Takada and Kazuo Yamazaki to the UWF, and houses are down in general anyway. The 5/7 show will now be headlined by Choshu vs Vader, and Dave says it will be interested to see what type of drawing power Choshu has left. OTHER -- Joe Pedicino and WATL-TV in Atlanta are putting together a wrestling marathon for 6/17 and 6/18, which will be about 30 consecutive hours of wrestling, 6 1/2 of which will be live, in studio. It will start at 9PM on 6/17 and go non-stop until 3AM on 6/19. They will also show Henry Winkler's "The One and Only", in which Winkler plays a wrestler, a movie Dave calls his favorite wrestling movie. In addition, they'll play the movie "Mad Bull", and do a History of Pro Wrestling In Atlanta segment. It's being used to raise money for the Atlanta police force to purchase bullet proof vests, and wrestlers from several promotions are scheduled to appear. Dave has even been told two WWF wrestlers will be there. -- Big John Studd has sent a country music demo to several record companies. "He's trying to b.s. about his fame as a pro wrestler which would sell all these records. One person in the industry told me he wrestles better than he sings. I'm not sure he realized what he was saying (actually, I'm sure he did). At any rate, don't buy it if there are any cats living near your neighborhood if it is ever released." -- The Sheik is putting together a TV show which is on satellite for some called Big Time Wrestling, a combination of clips from Pro Wrestling This Week and old Sheik footage from the 70s. -- In the letters page, a reader felt Dave wasn't being a good journalist because he mixed his fact and opinion together too much, and he needed to keep them separate. He also accused him of being biased against the WWF and toward the NWA, and said he thinks he sometimes pretends to have opinions that he can't possibly believe. Dave's response? Since you asked ... "You are right about one thing. I was insulted by this letter. I wasn't insulted because you didn't agree with my opinions regarding the 3/27 shows, because anyone who agrees with all of my opinions is obviously letting me do their thinking for them. No two people are fans of this business for the exact same reasons and there has never been a major wrestling show that everyone disliked or everyone liked. Ironically, in the five-year history of this publication, Clash of the Champions came closest to being universally enjoyed. When I said Crockett kicked McMahon's ass I made it quite clear that it was in terms of presenting the better show and not making the most money. Every newsletter I've seen, more than 90 percent of the readers who responded to the poll, almost everyone that called in on the three phone-in talk shows I did the week after the show, and of more than 100 letters I had responding to my comments in the 4/4 issue, only 11 disagreed with that assessment. But even if the percentages were on the other side, this newsletter's popularity is in part because the readers know that whatever opinion I give is my honest opinion on a subject. Read back to the issue after Thanksgiving and you'll see how afraid I am to criticize the Crockett promotion, whether it be wrestlers, the booker, the front office organization or the announcers. Read my comments on Survivor Series. Where is the anti-McMahon bias you are talking about? Re-read the issue after Wrestlemania III--I said it was the greatest wrestling production of all-time. I was basically complimentary of the NBC special, which I received tons of flack over, which is fine. There is not one promoter in this business, not Fritz Von Erich, Ken Mantell, Jim Crockett, Dusty Rhodes, Vince McMahon, Pat Patterson, Verne Gagne, or even Baba and Inoki that doesn't believe I'm biased against their promotion in comparison to the others. There are mistakes, probably in each and every issue. I don't feel good about that, but the nature of this business makes that impossible to avoid. My opinions are often wrong, but they're often right. But I've never, not once given a less than honest opinion of anything in this business to protect anyone. Only once have I withheld a portion of a news story that I felt was major enough to report (I reported the actual story, but left out names of wrestlers I have no connection with -- because the climate at that time would have necessitated being fired because the media at large certainly would have picked up on one of those stars being suspended for cocaine abuse that shortly after the Duggan-Sheik incident -- most readers know the wrestler I'm referring to, and the incident). Because they are in charge of the most visible promotions, Vince McMahon, Jim Crockett, and Dusty Rhodes become open to the most criticism, and I would bet of the three, I've been the most critical of Rhodes, not McMahon. Also, the majority of readers live in either the New York City area, or either the San Francisco or Chicago areas. I could be wrong, but I believe the majority to be WWF fans, but even if that's not the case, on both Thanksgiving and Jan. 24, while I didn't take a poll, the majority of readers felt the WWF show was better on those days. That wasn't the case on March 27th. I admit to being biased toward the Crockett style of working matches compared to the WWF style, although neither is my favorite nor is either of them my least favorite. I'm also biased in favor of the way Titan handles its publicity, its organization, the way it rotates its talent and the overall professional looking atmosphere of its TV product in comparison to Crockett."

When speaking about wrestlers in the U.S., I say these things looking at 1994-1995, because the first part of the decade was really just 80s holdover otherwise. MANAGERS Paul Heyman adapted very well, obviously. Jim Cornette and Bobby Heenan struggled to stay relevant as wrestling started to change. ANNOUNCERS Bob Caudle fell by the wayside, while Tony Schiavone became even more prominent. Jesse Ventura probably would have been even better in the 90s than he was in the 80s once the changes of the mid-90s started happening. I guess Jim Ross is a good answer here, because he did adapt to what the WWF wanted, but in the process lost a lot. WRESTLERS Yoshiaki Yatsu was left behind, but it's hard to say how much of that was injuries, and I don't think it was the style changes that shut him out as much as it was a fall from grace he was having anyway. Ric Flair remained relevant through the 90s, but I feel like Hulk Hogan did a much better job of adapting to a changing wrestling environment when he had no choice but to turn heel. I guess more of a change had to happen for him than for Flair in order to stay important. Bob Backlund is a weird case, but even though he was old, I think he could have been hugely effective as a foil to Austin, playing the role of the corporate champ in '98. Jerry Lawler did a great job of morphing into more of a cartoon character to ensure that he still had a job when the territory system started to fall apart. Stan Hansen adapted brilliantly to the youth movement going on around him at the time. Steve Williams did too, but I don't know if that was him hitting his peak or just making changes. The changes in wrestling really left Bret and Owen in the dust, albeit at later parts of the decade, and for reasons having nothing to do with Montreal or Owen's harness. The Undertaker took what was a very silly gimmick and has kept it going through lots of changes in the wrestlers around him. Sting's reinvention was long overdue, but I think if the topic was 90s to 00s, he'd be the worst, because the Crow thing is pretty outdated.

WWF -- The WWF returned to sellout crowds: 4/21 in New Haven drew 12,000 and 4/22 in Springfield, MA drew 9,000. -- Brutus Beefcake vs Honky Tonk Man was advertised for SNME, and the program listed it, but Honky Tonk Man didn't wrestle the match. He did appear on three weeks' worth of TV tapings with the belt, so he won't be losing it anytime soon. -- Everyone expected to be cut is still around. -- Hulk Hogan is still not booked on any shows through the end of May. -- Harley Race was hospitalized and had a foot of his intestine removed. -- There was recently a Savage/Andre dark match where every time Savage was in peril, the fans chanted "We Want Hogan" immediately. -- Bubba Rogers debuts at the next TV taping. Dave has no idea what they're going to do with him, only that Jimmy Hart said that he's looking for a bounty hunter to get rid of Brutus Beefcake, so maybe that will be his role. -- The Rougeaus are turning heel soon. -- Advance ticket sales for shows headlined by Savage vs DiBiase have been surprisingly good, but Andre vs Duggan is struggling to draw. -- The plan is for Owen Hart to come in July and model him after Tiger Mask, where he's a masked high flyer marketed toward kids. Dave thinks that will go over great, except that there's so much they won't let Owen do in the ring that he's capable of, and there's no one he can work with. -- The WWF wants to do a TV special of a Randy Savage and Elizabeth wedding. Dave says it wouldn't shock him to see it go head to head with the Great American Bash pay-per-view. NWA -- The biggest story of the week is Barry Windham turning on Lex Luger and joining the Four Horsemen. The turn took place in Jacksonville, FL, at a TBS taping on 04/20. Windham and Luger were defending the tag titles against Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard when they posted Luger and he juiced, which Dave notes is the first time Luger has juiced in seven months. When Windham tried to make the tag to Luger, he wasn't there on two occasions, and JJ Dillon egged Windham on and finally lariated Luger and Arn pinned Luger to win back the tag titles. "Oh my God, Luger and Brody and did jobs during the same week -- next thing you know the Road Warriors will lose clean." Windham then left for the heel dressing room and the Midnight Rider went into the dressing room after him. He was jumped by "72 heels", who unmasked him before a few of the babyfaces did a save before we could see the Rider's face. The show went off the air with Windham in the limo holding the Rider's mask. "I haven't seen this myself, but from every account, the thing was tremendous, especially when one considers that it obviously was a spur of the moment decision since they had cards set up around the country with Barry & Lex vs. Flair & Arn Anderson or Flair & Tully Blanchard on top throughout the month of May." The turn was done because houses have been disappointing lately. -- Regarding Crockett Cup, Dave says there are a lot of negative things he should say. The event was very disorganized, especially the first thing. But the wrestling was first rate. The second night in Greensboro was an excellent show by any standards, except those of Jim Crockett, as they only drew 8,500 fans in a 16,000 seat building. "The upper deck was almost as vacant as a Verne Gagne brain wave." -- "The Greenville Memorial Auditorium is not exactly the sort of building one would expect to house one of your showcase cards of the year. It's not exactly Trump Plaza, actually it's made out of red bricks and looks so old that if the Three Little Pigs built a house made out of them, the Wolf would have easily blown it down. The place has character, though. It's the kind of building and the kind of fans that were the backbone of wrestling before it became 'respectable' and sterile. We had nearly four hours of rabid fans, disorganized action, and not one chant of boring -- almost a complete 180 degree difference from McMahon's glitzy action-lacking tournament of a few weeks back." -- Dave says the fans had no idea what was going on. Tony Schiavone announced that Barry Windham had pulled out of the tournament and that Lex Luger would still be in and pick a partner. Everyone figured it would be the Midnight Rider and they would go all the way. No explanation was given of what happened in Jacksonville two nights earlier. Everyone also realized early the brackets would be meaningless. -- The tickets said the show started at 8PM, but all local publicity said 7PM. -- Ratings for first round matches as follows: Kendall Windham & Italian Stallion beat The Terminator & Bugsy McGraw by forfeit when Bugsy no-showed Ivan Koloff & Mighty Wilbur DUD The Jive Tones vs Rocky King & Nelson Royal * "At this point, all the way from Mexico were to come the famed Twin Devils, presumably of Los Angeles wrestling fame. Instead we had Curtis Thompson & Gene Ligon in red outfits, identical to the Cruel Connection's outfits (except those were green) that we were to see later in the show. The program said their foes would be the New New Breed, however the theme song for the Lightning Express started playing. Almost the whole song played, with no sign of Brad & Tim. We waited patiently for several minutes until "Fight For Your Right To Party" by the Beastie Boys started playing and the crowd popped pretty big for Chris Champion and disinterested brother Mark Starr." Chris Champion & Mark Starr vs Twin Devils *1/2 "It was time for the Japanese team to arrive, and looking very Japanese on this night was Johnny Ace, who as far as everyone in the crowd knew was still the Sheepherders' flag boy, and John Savage." Lightning Express vs Johnny Ace & John Savage *3/4 The Sheepherders vs Cruel Connection 1/4* Larry Zbyszko & Al Perez vs Ricky Santana & Joe Cruz DUD "According to our program, the first round was now history and it was time for the Prince of Darkness Death match, or intermission, both of which contained approximately the same level of activity. But wait, out trots Steve Williams & Ron Simmons to take on Rick 'The Dog-Faced Gremlin' Steiner and Mike 'Preppie Murderer' Rotunda. This was supposed to be the last match of the second round since each of these teams received byes (but wait, since Doc & Simmons weren't seeded so why do they have a bye?)" Dave calls the match the first good one of the show. Rick Steiner & Mike Rotunda vs Steve Williams & Ron Simmons **3/4 Kevin Sullivan vs Jimmy Garvin Prince of Darkness Blindfold match DUD "Those of you who enjoy Kamala vs George Steele would love this one. Both guys did a good job within the framework of this match, but this tops my most hated gimmick match list." After the match, Sullivan took of the hood and he and Steiner attacked Garvin and Precious took a spill. Ron Garvin comes out for the save, but is followed by Rotunda. Sullivan is using the spike when "the intimidating threesome of Kendall Windham, Ricky Santana and Johnny Ace (out of the babyface dressing room -- wasn't he just a heel in match #4?)" made the save. "It was time for round two, and this is where it gets confusing. But before round two starts, Tony has another announcement to make, the one we all knew was coming, poor Ronnie was taken to the hospital and now Sting has nobody to team with. The place cheered like mad when they announced Ronnie was injured, which was the first surprising reaction of the weekend. Well, the quick-thinking Jim Crockett Jr. ruled that since Garvin was in the hospital, Sting could continue if he'd pick a partner. And geez, Lex Luger is looking for a partner and put one-and-one together and you got an announcement that made me put my hands over my ears the shrieks were so deafening." Tully Blanchard & Arn Anderson vs Kendall Windham & Italian Stallion *** "Out come Kendall 'Gumby' Windham & Italian Stallion, amidst virtually all boos. Their foes, the NWA's leading babyface tag team, Tully Blanchard & Arn Anderson, come out to chants of 'Four Horsemen, Four Horsemen." Good match with tons of heat. Sting & Lex Luger vs Dick Murdoch & Ivan Koloff ***1/4 "Major heat throughout. Sting and Luger are so over it isn't funny. Lex was so elated out of his mind he threw a dropkick on Ivan (not a good one, but at least he tried)." Road Warriors vs Jive Tones ** "According to the program, it was time for the Midnight Express to face the New New Breed, but for some unexplained reason the New Breed wound up facing the Powers of Pain in the longest 8:04 of the tournament." Chris Champion & Mark Starr vs Powers of Pain DUD "According to the program, it was time for Lightning Express against Powers of Pain, but since we just saw the Powers, maybe it would be the Midnight Express, which on paper is a hot match. But instead, the Sheepherders show up. This wasn't as good as some of their matches were in their invisible feud of about two months back, but still a good well-paced 9:32 with Lightning doing lots of hot moves." Sheepherders vs Lightning Express *** "The program now said it was time for The Fantastics to face Perez & Zbyszko, and by sheer coincidence, that's who came out." Fantastics vs Al Perez & Larry Zbyszko **3/4 "The Fantastics aren't over nearly as well as I expected because too many little girls see them as Rock & Roll Express replacements and I fear that while they are popular and they may be the best tag team in wrestling right now, they may never break the imitation stigma completely." "Finally it was time for the final match of the evening and out comes Jim Cornette and the Midnight Express, presumably to wrestle Kevin Sullivan's Varsity Club since these were the only two teams still alive that hadn't had second round matches. But wait, here comes Rip Morgan and the Sheepherders, who already won their second round match. There is no explaining this." Midnight Express vs Sheepherders ** "To cap off the evening, Tony Schiavone announces that the eight remaining teams will wrestle the final three rounds tomorrow night in Greensboro, procedes to announce them and the teams still alive (there are seven of them), and then after the announcement mentions about the 'final eight teams' in Greensboro. I should mention that midway through the card Ric Flair came out to do an interview with Schiavone telling us how great Jim Crockett, the NWA and the tournament were and the winner of Pro Wrestling Illustrated's Most Hated Wrestler Award got a standing ovation and more cheers than anyone on the card save for Sting & Luger. I think I was the only one sitting (gagging myself with my finger when Ric got to the part about how great Nikita was -- at least now we know why his nose is so big) by the time this menacing heel was through." -- "Before getting to Greensboro, we make a quick detour to Ricky Steamboat's Gym in Charlotte. Taking my secret disguise as a wrestling mark, myself and three other out-of-towners were there to purchase T-shirts and the like for various friends whose ideas of a neato gift are T-shirts of either WWF wrestlers or out-of-town gyms and I figured this way I could kill two birds with one stone. However, the microcephalic guy at the desk refuses to sell me or any of my friends any merchandise. At first I thought he was kidding, but he explained he already had logged everything and besides, look at the clock, it's 5:01 PM, and the gym is closed. Hey I don't work out on vacation anyway, I just want a bunch of T-shirts so some of my friends can improve their summer wardrobe. But no, even after telling him I came all the way from California simply to buy T-shirts he wouldn't budge. Now I may be sarcastic, but I love the Crockett Cup. I get to meet fans from all over the country and see great matches and hang out with friends all at the same weekend. But those Crockett Cup T-shirts are hideous, folks. After looking at the souvenir stand in Greensboro, I realized we should have DDT'd that guy working the desk at Steamboat's on a nautilus machine or something." By the beginning of night two, most of the audience knew Barry had turned heel through word of mouth and they were buzzing about it, but it didn't air on TBS until everyone had left their home for the Coliseum. Again, everyone cheered when it was announced Ron Garvin was injured. "Then the announcement about Barry Windham withdrawing from the tournament and that the newest member of the Four Horsemen is Barry Windham. People are jumping up and down and hugging each other. This is sick. Fans are chanting for the Horsemen. Don't they boo heels anywhere anymore? Then comes the part about Lex & Sting as a team and it's those eardrum shattering shrieks again of all the women who packed the place. I sure don't miss WWF cards back home." "The Fantastics are opening with The Varsity Club, which ironically makes sense in the original bracketing." The Fantastics vs Varsity Club **** Dave says the heat was through the roof for this one, and Bobby Fulton wants to get over in the worst way, and you can't help but admire him for it. Match went 27:20 and Dave called it the best opening match he had seen in years. Sting & Lex Luger vs Midnight Express ***3/4 "Having the dubious distinction of following this exceptional action were the Midnight Express and Jim Cornette against the handicap tag team named Sting (with Lex Luger sweating profusely in the corner yelling 'come on Stinger'). Sting isn't one of the elite workers in the world yet (Dave emphasizes yet) but when he's in with a veteran, he can light up a crowd as well as anyone. He does lots of good spots based around his exceptional leaping ability." Cornette took a bump of Magnum TA, who got an incredible reaction, and Dave says Cornette was incredible here. Luger was in 20 seconds in the first round and 31 seconds this time. Road Warriors vs Powers of Pain *** They did the Dusty Finish here again, which Dave can't believe. "In fairness to Dusty, I'd bet 70% of the fans fell for it, but you know this has to piss fans off to no end -- witness the empty upper deck. They just did the finish last month in the Fantastics-Midnight match in this same half-empty building." Midnight Rider vs JJ Dillon Dave says considering every wrestler has to sell this angle, it should have more heat than anything on the show, but there was just no heat at all. Dusty got a nice reaction, but less than Sting, Luger, the Road Warriors, or the Fantastics. 1/2* Sting & Lex Luger vs Powers of Pain 1/4* Lex was in for a full minute this time. Tully Blanchard & Arn Anderson vs The Fantastics ***1/2 Ric Flair vs Nikita Koloff **3/4 "What can you say about Nikita Koloff that hasn't been said? He can't wrestle. He's not over very big. NOBODY cared about this match. He's not a drawing card. There's a joke among certain wrestlers of certain federations (none of whom work here) that whenever J.J. goes to kiss Dusty's ass late in the afternoon for the fourth or fifth time that day, he can't do it. Nikita's feet are in the way. Ric Flair carried this bum for 30:08 and the fans were into it even though it was a collection of all the same predictable spots." Tully Blanchard & Arn Anderson vs Sting & Lex Luger ***1/2 "Now sit down. Luger did a great dropkick on Anderson to open the match. Even the fans cheering the Horsemen had to clap for that one. It was past 11 PM and these fans had basically seen one great match after another yet the heat was the hottest for this match." "So why the half house for the finale? Flair's match meant nothing. This $1 million b.s. isn't believed by anyone but the densest marks and unless you have a strong tournament and the fans know who is in it, tournaments aren't a big draw. This whole Midlife Rider bit has been a flop. They spent too much valuable TV time getting a guy who should be a legend already over and not pushing the guys who theoretically need time to get over. After three years, without one sellout to their credit, Crockett has to re-evaluate this tournament." Dave suggests limiting to 16 teams in the future, and doing 8 matches the first night, with accurate brackets announced in advance. -- 4/16 in Chicago drew 3,500 fans and a $42,000 house headlined by Ric Flair vs Sting. 4/17 in Charlotte drew a really small turnout. 4/24 at the Omni only drew 1,400 fans. 4/9 in Baltimore drew 9,000 headlined by Flair vs Sting. 4/18 in West Palm Beach drew 2,000 headlined by Flair/Sting/Midnight Rider vs Flair/Arn/Tully. 4/19 in Miami drew 4,000 headlined by Flair vs Sting. -- Luger got chopped really hard by Flair on the Omni show on 4/24 to a point where he started bleeding, and got very angry, and tagged out immediately. -- The Great American Bash PPV is scheduled for July 10 and will be headlined by Ric Flair vs Lex Luger. AWA -- Adrian Adonis has either filed suit or threatened to file suit over breaking his ankle due to the hole in the ring, which ended up costing him a tour of Japan. WCCW -- WCCW is trying to get the Rock & Roll Express and some Mexican wrestlers to come in for the Texas Stadium show on 5/8. MEMPHIS -- CWA is doing a talent trade with World Class. Terry Taylor, Chris Adams, Iceman Parsons, the Von Erichs, and the Freebirds are expected in shortly. The new taping schedule in WCCW frees up their talent to work Monday nights at Mid South Coliseum, and all the WCCW guys desperately need more dates, because WCCW is running less shows because they're not drawing. When the names were announced on TV, there was no real reaction. -- Downtown Bruno came out on TV dressed liked Ric Flair and called out Jerry Lawler. Robert Fuller jumped Lawler from behind and dragged him around the studio while putting a noose on him. CONTINENTAL -- Eddie Gilbert's first angle in Continental was pretty hot. It started with the Dirty White Girl coming out with a black eye and begging and pleading Tom Prichard to come out. Through two matches, she begged him to come out and he refused. She was begging Prichard to help her when Anthony came from behind with handcuffs and a noose and dragged Prichard 60 feet to the ring and hung him with blood coming out of Prichard's mouth. During the brawl, they destroyed the Continental set. They are renaming this the CWF and building a new set. -- Paul E. Dangerously starts on 5/7, which means Downtown Bruno's days here are numbered. -- Missy Hyatt will be getting a new talk show segment. -- Jimmy Golden walked out on the promotion mid-match and is now working for USA Pro for Ron Fuller. -- Curt Hennig and Jerry Lawler will be doing dates here soon. -- Dave expects Shane Douglas to come in. -- Austin Idol is wanting to work full-time in Continental. -- Strongman Bill Kazamier is also wanting to come in, but is currently injured. OREGON -- Roddy Piper will make a guest appearance for Don Owen on 04/30. He has turned down offers from both the WWF and the NWA in the past year where he would have been paid very well. Dave notes that even when Piper was a WWF headliner, he refused to work the Oregon and Washington shows until the end, when he'd work Seattle and Tacoma, and only after Owen had completely pulled out of those cities. -- Jesse Barr returned on 4/9. -- Skip Luther, a blond muscular guy working a fake Lex Luger gimmick, no-showed his debut here, and is expected to be going to the AWA. STAMPEDE -- 4/15 in Calgary drew 1,100 fans. 4/16 in Edmonton drew 950 and $8,800 headlined by another 8-man tag given ****1/2. -- The long matches wrestled at such a frenetic pace on top are wearing down the main eventers, to a point where most of them are starting to drop weight. Pillman has been doing Snuka splashes off the top of the cage at some of the shows. -- The Edmonton commission has told everyone there will be no spitting, swearing, or brawling allowed on their shows. -- Owen Hart is having second thoughts about going to Japan. He is leaning toward doing three Japanese tours per year and wrestling at home the rest of the time. AJPW -- Bruiser Brody dropped the International title to Jumbo Tsuruta on 04/19, doing his first clean job in Japan since 1980. -- The Road Warriors are coming in early June. -- 4/12 in Kitakyushu drew 2,100 fans. -- Because the show has been moved from prime time to Saturday nights, the ratings have dropped into the sevens. NJPW -- Adrian Adonis has lost approximately 80 pounds in preparation for a big comeback and the upcoming New Japan tour. -- Crowds for the series which started on 4/11 have been horrible. -- 4/15 in Kamata drew 1,300. 4/12 in Suwa drew 1,540. 4/19 in Gamagori drew 1,470. -- Antonio Inoki was recently doing a lecture at a school and was asked if he could beat Baba. Inoki responded that if they met and he didn't beat Baba, he would commit suicide. UWF -- The debut show sold out in 15 minutes. The night before, thousands of fans lined up and slept in front of the box office at Korauken Hall to get the 2,000 tickets priced at $40. More than 6,000 fans were turned away that were standing in line when the ticket office opened. This is believed to be the fastest sellout in wrestling history. Dave says Akira Maeda is the hottest wrestler in Japan due to his shoot kick on Choshu in November. "It was a selfish act and a cheap shot, and one which ironically ended Choshu's long reign as the hottest wrestler in Japan." Dave thinks while this will have a cult following, that the general public won't get into it because there are no high spots or showmanship. However, a Japanese reporter told Dave that won't matter if Maeda is seen as cool. Dave says if the UWF gets over big, it will hurt Baba and Inoki because they will look fake by comparison, and also will kill any chances of the WWF ever becoming competitive in Japan. JOSHI -- Kazue Nagahori and Condor Saito both wrestled their retirement matches on 4/2 in Yokohama. OTHER -- Former long-time Atlanta promoter Paul Jones, who promoted in the days of Ed "Strangler" Lewis passed away on 4/17 at the age of 86. When it was announced at Jerry Blackwell's TV taping in Marietta, fans cheered, because they thought it was the Paul Jones manager from the NWA. -- Bull Nakano has camera time, but no lines in a new movie called "Tokyo Pop". -- Umanosuke Ueda is planning on running an independent group in Japan this summer, only running towns that are too small for Baba and Inoki, and only using wrestlers with no work right now, like Ryuma Go, Nuboyashi Sugawara, Masahiko Takasugi.

WWF -- The WWF will be returning from the Wrestlemania break, doing several TV tapings just prior to the weekend. -- Major housecleaning is expected in May and June. Hillbilly Jim was expected to be among them, but likely won't be, since he's working some openers against Jim Neidhart. -- Expect Brutus Beefcake to be IC champ soon. The WWF has already sent out publicity with Honky as a challenger. Dave says it could be a misprint, but he doubts it. Dave suspects a title change on the 4/30 SNME. -- "The WWF magazine is scheduling a piece where they reveal Earl Hebner as Dave's twin brother which is a surprise because it seemed like they had pretended the angle never took place. Next month's issue is also scheduled to give the results of the August pay-per-view. Just kidding there." -- There is talk of another huge outdoor show in Toronto over summer. Last time they promoted there, they drew 69,300 fans for Hogan vs Orndorff. Dave thinks they could pop another big house for Hogan vs Andre, because Ontario is pretty much the only place where Wrestlemania drew big crowds everywhere for closed circuit. -- Bam Bam Bigelow should be back for the TV tapings. -- The WWF has sent letters of warning to everyone that incidents like the David Sammartino one won't be tolerated and will result in immediate dismissal. David Sammartino was set to face the Iron Sheik in several independent shows in New York, but the commission suspended him. Linda McMahon even wrote him a very nasty personal letter. "It's an admirable policy not to tolerate wrestler attacking fans, but where were they all these years when similar incidents went on? Randy Savage went into the stands in Fresno and according to newspaper reports, the guy he tried to hit ducked and he KO'd a 14-year old girl, and there is talk of a suit being filed here in San Francisco when a Titan wrestler knocked down a security guard (the Savage incident was several years ago I don't mean to give you the idea it was something recent, although the incident in SF was in February) so even though they are giving the impression of cracking down, this policy smells of every bit as much a double-standard as Titan's drug policy (which the wrestlers joke, you get a suspension if they find any cocaine in your system, and you get a suspension if they don't find any steroids in your system) which seems more of a public relations move than a move based on addressing any real problems." NWA -- The Crockett Cup is set for Friday, 4/22, at the 5,000 seat Greenville Memorial Auditorium, and for Saturday, 4/23, at the 15,600-seat Greensboro Coliseum. Dave says this is the least hyped and least talked about tournament they've done so far. The first two rounds will take place in Greenville (about 14 matches). There will also be a Jimmy Garvin vs Kevin Sullivan Blindfold match. The second night will have the quarterfinals, semifinals, and finals, along with a "Midlife Rider" vs JJ Dillon Bullrope match and Ric Flair vs Nikita "The Incredible Shrinking Man" Koloff for the NWA title. Dave still doesn't know every team in the tournament. Dave says Luger and Windham and the Road Warriors are probably the co-favorites, with the Fantastics as longshots, and everyone else with zero chance. -- The NWA is in danger of losing the Nassau Coliseum. Nassau wants to go back to the WWF, which pulled out when they started booking Crockett shows. The proposed 6/24 show is in jeopardy. If they are kicked out, they plan on running the Westchester County Center. It will be more accessible to New York fans than Nassau Coliseum, but won't draw well because it is considered a minor league arena. -- The annual Boston Gardens show on 4/15 drew just 5,000 fans and a $62,000 gate, headlined by an 8-man cage match of Lex Luger, Sting, Barry Windham & Dusty Rhodes vs Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, Tully Blanchard & Ivan Koloff in what John McAdam called a *** match. The Midnight Express went to a 30-minute draw on the undercard in a **** match as well. When the card ended, the scoreboard said, "We hope you enjoyed tonight's WWF event!" -- The top match on NWA Main Event was Arn Anderson & Tully Blanchard vs Barry Windham & Steve Williams in what was called a *** match. Barry carried things for his side, as Doc just isn't impressing right now. -- Early favorites to win the vacated US title on 5/13 in Houston are Al Perez or Tully Blanchard. Dave says they seem to be ready to push Perez, but that Tully always ends up with a belt. -- "In case any of you missed any of the Crockett shows this past weekend, you missed absolutely nothing. The TV is back to its Fall '87 depths with nothing but commentary and interviews talking about nothing but the Midlife Rider and his alter ego, Dusty Rhodes. Considering it is a week before one of the promotions biggest events of the year (Crockett Cup), you would think that would be the priority, but it was barely acknowledged, with no first round pairings (of course, I'm sure if they listed the first round it would scare people away from Greenville), no listing of teams, basically a throwaway announcement of the Flair vs Nikita NWA title match (which is a throwaway event since nobody in the world believes Nikita has a chance) and one of the most pathetic looking skits I've ever seen involving JJ and Jim Crockett. I'll give JJ credit for saving it about as good as possible but a tree shows more personality than Jim Crockett." -- Dave says considering they're putting all of their effort solely behind the Midnight Rider, they better hope Dusty can draw with it, but that four months of it seems really trying. "It appears whatever momentum may have been gained from 3/27 is just about completely down the tubes. I truly believe part of the success of the show was due to Dusty playing a minor role in comparison with the younger babyfaces (Sting, Windham, Luger, and the Fantastics). I'm not trying to say Dusty should retire like a lot of people have been saying, but he shouldn't be the top star. His role should be similar to the way they used Jimmy Valiant for so many years. Valiant had a following and probably sold tickets, and he was used low or middle of cards in short, bloody matches against guys managed by Paul Jones but never was put in with the top calibre heels (well, he had a short feud with Tully but that was probably punishment for Tully not having mentioned Dusty's name enough on interviews). -- Last week's show in Philadelphia drew 6,512 paid and $96,412. Considering Baltimore did more than $100,000 the same night, it's pretty impressive. WCCW -- The David and Mike Von Erich Memorial Parade of Champions takes place on 5/8 at Texas Stadium. There's a Texas Roundup match (a different name for the Royal Rumble), Kerry Von Erich vs Iceman Parsons for the title, Bill Irwin vs Angel of Death, and "a gimmick match which has never been held before which I'm not exactly clear on". -- The gimmick match will be billed as something like a "Triple Tower of Doom", which will be three rings, put on top of one another with a cage around the top two rings, and a fireman's pole which allows wrestlers to slide down into the other rings if they want to. Dusty Rhodes is furious, because he wanted to use this same idea for the Bash, but Michael Hayes beat him to the punch. AWA -- 4/16 TV taping in Las Vegas drew 2,000 fans, and they did nothing to capitalize on the hot Midnight Rockers vs Bad Company feud. Diamond Dallas Page (still called "Dallas Diamond Page") debuted on the TV taping managing Diamond and Tanaka, and did all right, but he's 6'4" and thus towers over nearly everyone in the promotion, but especially Tanaka, who he manages. Page is the first ever manager to have a valet at ringside with him. The Rock & Roll Express debuted on the taping and got a tremendous reaction, facing the Nasty Boys in a surprisingly good match where Jerry Sags accidentally hit his nose and mouth on a chair and bled pretty badly, causing him to miss his other scheduled matches at that taping. -- The Rock & Roll Express did interviews talking about facing Japanese tag teams, and Riki Choshu and Masa Saito are scheduled to appear on the 5/14 taping, but Dave doesn't think they'll have a match. Dave later says for sure it won't happen because of the conflicting All Japan series at that time, which the Rock & Rolls will be part of. -- Rod Trongard actually said on TV the previous weekend that Wahoo McDaniel could run the 100 in less than ten seconds. "Rod is absolutely the worst announcer in the business, including Marc Lowrance." -- Magnificent Mimi has been introduced as a new rival for Madusa Miceli. Dave is told Mimi is "of GLOW calibre, but then again, Madusa isn't all that much better." -- Jerry Lawler is scheduled to come in and face Hennig at the 5/14 taping. -- Mando Guerrero had three squashes on the taping, where it appears he may be pushed hard, and his new lucha offense was said to have gotten over strong. "By the way, I'm told Chavo Guerrero is teaming with his younger brother Eddy Guerrero (who is said to be really hot) in Mexico right now." -- Rocky Mountain Thunder was pushed pretty hard again. He nearly killed a jobber at the last taping. He was trained by Toru Tanaka in Los Angeles. Greg Boyd was supposed to get the gimmick, but didn't show up, and the graphics had already been printed up, so they decided to let this guy use the gimmick at the last taping. He also wrestled as The Armored Saint for California independents. -- Robert Gibson is said to have gained a lot of weight since leaving the NWA. -- The AWA is using the Rock & Rolls to run shows in the Carolinas, where they will wrestle Diamond and Tanaka. MEMPHIS -- The CWA is gearing toward the big show on 5/9 at the Mid South Coliseum, headlined by Jerry Lawler challenging Curt Hennig for the AWA World title. "It's pretty rare for Memphis to start pushing a card several weeks in advance, especially since they are continuing to run live shows each Monday." A few stipulations have been added to build up the title match. If Lawler doesn't win the title, he's going to retire from wrestling. They also have a 900 number where fans can vote for the referee between Jackie Fargo and Larry Hennig. It's also Jerry Lawler Night at the Coliseum, and prices have been raised to $25.00 for ringside tickets. Ringside ticket holders get to attend a post-match party for Jerry Lawler. They are trying to top the current record for a Mid South Coliseum gate (Flair vs Lawler holds it, doing a $80,000 house in 1985). -- 4/11 in Memphis drew 3,500 fans headlined by Jerry Lawler vs Dory Funk Jr in what was called a pretty good match. 4/16 in Jonesboro, AR drew 350 fans headlined by Jeff Jarrett & Billy Travis vs Max Pain & Gary Young in a **** Texas Death match. -- Ron Fuller and Gordon Solie were backstage at TV tapings on 04/18. Solie has been flown in weekly to do voiceovers of Memphis matches for the new TV show that will have matches from promoters Mike Graham, Steve Keirn, and Jerry Jarrett. -- The Jerry Lawler Show will either be syndicated nationally or picked up by a cable station, but they are working on getting exposure for the show. -- Robert Fuller is headed in for at least one show in the upcoming weeks. -- Jeff Jarrett is now the Arkansas state champion (My note: The what?), having won a tournament final on 03/19 in Jonesboro, AR after defeating Gary Young -- On the 4/16 TV show, Ken Wayne and Jeff Jarrett were talking about their junior title match on Monday. Both are babyfaces. They argued a little bit and Wayne gave Jarrett a glass of water and made a sarcastic comment about him not being able to talk and Jarrett threw the water in his face and slapped him. Later in the show, they were teaming in a six-man with Billy Travis and they won the match, but had words after Jarrett "accidentally" dropkicked Wayne during the match. "Jarrett has a real problem here in his role as the hearthrob babyface for the little girls. He's got lots of heat with fans and it really isn't his fault, it's just that he's less than 200 pounds, it's well known his father and grandfather run the promotion, and the marketing of the Jarrett poster made the guy fans hate him similar to Crockett's attempt at marketing Ricky Morton as a rock star led to the guy fans booing Morton almost universally and ruined the Rock & Roll Express' drawing power in the long run (although inevitably the results would have been the same anyway). Most of the wrestling fans are male, and even though they are easily manipulated, male fans, especially in their early 20s and teenagers, which make up the bulk of the wrestling audience nowadays, don't want to cheer for a 'skinny' guy, especially a 'skinny' guy marketed as a sex symbol to girls." WCCW -- Correction: Chris Adams didn't get a broken cheekbone. He returned to wrestling a few days after his injury and is wrestling wearing a baseball catcher's mask. He was injured when Mike George caught him with a dropkick in the face that broke his nose on 4/7 in Kansas City. They are saying Terry Taylor paid "another wrestler in another territory" to injure Adams. -- On 4/8 in Dallas, Angel of Death & Iceman King Parsons tried to cut Michael Hayes' hair. Then on 4/10 in Fort Worth, they tried to use the famous Freebird hair removal cream on Hayes. "Hayes was furious because as the story goes, only three people, Hayes, Roberts, and Gordy, are supposed to know the secret formula of the Freebird cream and Hayes is made they gave the formula to an outsider to use on him." -- Terry Taylor missed some shows because he had his bad knee scoped. -- 4/15 in Dallas drew 700 fans for Kevin & Kerry Von Erich vs Terry Gordy & Buddy Roberts. 4/10 in Fort Worth drew about 550 fans. -- Fabulous Lance is being billed everywhere, but has yet to arrive. It is believed he is still in South Africa, wrestling using the name Lance Von Erich. -- Correction: It was Black Bart and Buddy Roberts putting flashlights in fans' eyes during the blackout in the Kerry/Iceman title change. "I'm sorry, but even though it was a creative ending, the idea of Iceman as a world champion is stupid. A title means something only if the fans believe it has value, which is why most titles in wrestling today are worthless. A world title only means something if a World class wrestler has it, and this title has already meant nothing for most of its existence, but for a title to be won in that manner and held by a prelim wrestler, even though it may put heat on certain things because fans are pissed about the change, simply doesn't help sell tickets. In a group like this, selling tickets and building up the calibre of wrestling should be the goal, not a bunch of hot-shotting creative gimmicks to take the place of mediocre wrestling. It just isn't working." USA PRO -- Ron Fuller is running the promotion. The top star is Buddy Landell, who Dave calls one of the best heels in the entire business. "Landel's talents are no secret but I'm still amazed at just how good a worker and how well he displays arrogance on interviews. He makes Doug Furnas look so good that I can see why people think Furnas has potential, although the more I see of Furnas, the less I'm impressed. He's a great athlete, but just doesn't seem to have the workings or interviews down at all. Landell is using a loaded forearm brace as his finishing move. He gets a lot of cheers, even though he's a heel." -- Cousin Junior is a babyface who wants to dance with kids at ringside. On the TV show, no kids wanted to dance with him, and he struggled to even get fans to shake his hand. "Pretty embarrassing." -- "Jobber Ron Sexton is a real talent and he even made a match with Junior look decent." -- Ron Wright is managing the Mongolian Stomper and Moondog Spot. "He's an old wrestler who has a unique gimmick of claiming he's got a heart problem like Fred Sanford and complains when people boo him that he may only have a few days left and when he's accused of interfering brings up his bad heart as a excuse all the time. Aside from the gimmick, he's weak on interviews, but seems to get great heat." (My note: PLEASE, someone, rip off this gimmick.) -- Terry Gordy is in and doesn't seem to know if he's a face or heel, but since heel Hector Guerrero is challenging him, he's likely a babyface. STAMPEDE -- Crowds continue to be at near capacity, although Dave suspects they will lose interest when Owen Hart tours Japan in mid-May, after which he'll go to the WWF in June. The speculation is that he'll team with Bret and they'll be the WWF's hottest babyface tag team. -- 4/8 in Calgary drew a near sellout 1,600. 4/2 in Edmonton drew 1,100 and a $9,800 house. -- TSN is now running shows only three weeks behind. When they first started, they were 11 weeks behind, but they have slowly caught up. -- Steve DiSalvo will be returning from South Africa on the 4/15 show and will resume his feud with Jason The Terrible, who is leaving for Japan in May. Great Gama has also left for South Africa. -- Stampede is headlining with 8 and 10-man elimination style cage matches pretty much everywhere and the matches are typically going close to an hour. AJPW -- "Yoshiaki Yatsu, broken leg and all, wrestled Bruiser Brody in the main event on 4/4 in Nagoya in the match to determine who goes into the unification match with Genichiro Tenryu on 4/15 in Osaka." Yatsu took a heavy injection of painkillers which were supposed to last an hour at 7:30 that night. However, the undercard ended up going longer than expected, and the match didn't start until 8:54, when the painkillers were wearing off. Still, he went 15:04 against Brody before losing via countout, before 7,200 fans. Yatsu is now sidelined again. -- 4/5 in Ihara drew 1,900 fans. -- In May, All Japan will unify the PWF World tag team titles, the International tag team title, and the Asian tag team title in a tournament. In for the tournament will be the Rock & Roll Express, Jumbo & Yatsu, and Abdullah the Butcher & Tiger Jeet Singh. NJPW -- There was a special Fan Appreciation card on 4/10 in Osaka before 2,452 fans with a bunch of gimmick matches. -- The new series started on 4/11 in Tokyo before 1,950 fans at Korauken Hall. It was also the first TV taping for the new non-prime time television show which now airs on Saturday afternoons. UWF -- The formation of the UWF was announced at a press conference on 4/8 in Tokyo. The president of the promotion is Shiji Jin. Maeda said they have learned from past mistakes and claims that they will only be able to hold one show per month because of the physical style. The first card will be 5/12 at Korauken Hall, with all tickets for $40.00, probably headlined by Akira Maeda vs Nobuhiko Takada. There will be no foreign wrestlers on the first show, but there will be on the second show on 6/11 in Sapporo, booked by Karl Gotch and Masami Soronaka from Florida. JOSHI -- The Jumping Bomb Angels are scheduled to return to the WWF in May. Until then, they'll feud with the Glamour Girls in AJW. OTHER -- Dave says FNN received many letters asking them to air New Japan, and hope to begin negotiations with New Japan shortly. Dave says a lot of specifics have to be worked out, such as commentary and cost, but there's a decent chance of it happening. -- Recent WON reader polls showed the following: readers were against the state athletic commission being involved in pro wrestling 55% to 45%. The overwhelming majority felt blood should be used on occasion at 67%. A smaller portion, 20%, felt blood should be used very frequently, even several times per show. The New Japan style was voted the readers favorite style, getting 53% of the vote. The only other style to get more than 15% was Mid South style, which got 16%. Current NWA, CWA, and Stampede all received 7 to 10%. Many people who said New Japan said it was specifically because of their junior heavyweights.

That's kinda how I see David Crockett.

There are definitely lots of differences between the juniors divisions, or the NWO vs DA, but stripping it down to nothing but a strong heel faction led by a company outsider with a juniors division featuring international talent on the undercard, there is that similarity. It was more to point out that Frey getting full backing from Turner and more time to see things through might have resulted in him being successful in the same way Bischoff was. But yes, the DA was more of a workhorse group that created tons of good matches on free TV, while the NWO were more gaga. And yes, there was no lucha influence on Frey's juniors division, and far less talent was used in that spot.

The similarities to what was being done later is that he was the first one to try a Japanese-influenced light heavyweight division in the U.S. in a major promotion. There were always junior titles, but Kip's light heavyweight division had Liger and wasn't wrestled in the same style as the heavyweight matches. There were some problems in how they presented it at times, but Bischoff ended up going further with the idea years later. The other similarities are between the Dangerous Alliance and the NWO. Both were strong renegade heel factions created with the idea of "taking over" WCW. Again, Bischoff took the idea further. I'm not implying Bischoff directly aped anything from him, but there were sparks of ideas that showed up that were a huge part of Bischoff's WCW a few years later, and were key ingredients in WCW being successful. Frey couldn't execute them quite as well, but his head was in the right place. His six months was so much better than the six months they gave Bill Watts. I wish they would have stuck with him longer. The DA wasn't drawing, but might have eventually had they not blown it off in six months. Watts obviously hated Heyman enough to kill the group, and I don't think anyone in the group was pushed as hard or had as much impact (maybe Rude, but even then, he wasn't the centerpiece anymore) under Watts.

Yeah, he said they would have every year of their existence until 1999.

Have you read the WON recaps I've posted? The idea of Dave as someone unwilling to treat the WWF fairly in the 80s is not really ... fair. He also never really said anything horrible about Gorilla during that time. He did say he was the worst announcer around that time period, but if you look at who was announcing in WCW at the same point in time, aside from probably David Crockett (who wasn't calling matches anymore by the time Gorilla started doing all the PPVs), he was. The other announcers in that time period were Jim Ross, Tony Schiavone, and Bob Caudle. He was definitely better than everyone else in the WWF at the time, like Sean Mooney, Craig DeGeorge, and Lord Alfred Hays, and in hindsight, one of the three of them should have been called the worst announcer, not Gorilla. But that doesn't mean Gorilla was all that good. Regarding those boring matches, the point is that a good announcer would be focusing on the match, no matter how boring it is. And yes, you can blame him for not doing so. Also, the criticism didn't apply solely to Monsoon. Jesse Ventura would also get criticism from the newsletter crowd around that time (not solely Dave) for spending too much time talking about himself when calling a match. The Jim Ross/Michael Hayes pairing on UWF TV in '86 was considered the gold standard at the time, depending on how people viewed Gordon Solie.

There's apparently a story in the latest issue of Powerslam magazine about the WCW headliners during the peak seeing Mr. Belding from Saved By The Bell on a plane and freaking out and getting excited. I find that hilarious.

Could one compare the type of heat he got during the Invasion to the type of heat Vickie Guerrero gets now?

I think he was at one time an awesome wrestler, and he peaked young and fizzled out fast. I don't think he was ever as horrible as he was made out to be, but he did lose a few steps at times when his personal life seemed to be overtaking him. Still, even as late as 2005, when he is trying, he can be really good.

I remember my response being that what Undertaker did to Hogan actually looked like a lot of fun.

There was also an angle where Bret was supposed to be chased out of the arena by Goldberg. He got in his car to speed off, and the parking lot was icy, and he lost control and nearly slid into a wall or something.

It's weird to be nostalgic about 2004, but Trish Stratus's little heel run was so awesome (the Vince skit where she had the broken nose, showing up at Lita's wedding in lingerie, getting a feud with Lita over enough to headline an episode of RAW) that it seemed like something worth talking about.

He wasn't really pushed all that hard right out of the gate. He was in a weird feud with Steve McMichael over a Superbowl ring, and ended up getting really over to a point where they had to respond by pushing him. But there was a brief, two-month period when he first came in where they didn't really know what to do with him.

Not to mention that Tony was probably a better announcer than Gorilla, until his rapid decline from '98 on. Gorilla was the voice of a company that happened to be successful (and Vince announced just as much or more than he did, honestly), but it wasn't a company that owed any of its success to his role, really.

Speaking of Vince, how does everyone feel about Dave's argument that while Vince is definitely far from perfect, he's done more to clean up wrestling than anyone else ever has?

I know different people are arguing with different things, but I totally disagree with any notion that there's any self-censoring that is going on by Dave in his opinions. His track record of presenting his honest views is good enough that there's no reason to question that. I can see the arguments for agreeing or disagreeing, but I don't think the idea that deep down, he knows better, but he's pretending not to in order to pacify his sources, has any substance. He's sometimes wrong, and far more frequently right, but I think any WON reader knows how he is when he has his mind made up about something being a certain way. It's nearly impossible to convince him otherwise.

What exactly did he do behind the scenes?