cm funk

That was awesome. Random question: I was listening to an old WOL from 2003 and Dave had a trivia question that nobody got right, which was who were the two gold medal winners who have wrestled in the WWF. Angle is the obvious one, but nobody could get the second, and Dave never gave the answer. Also reminded me of another WOL trivia question which never got answered, this one was from Alvarez, which is who are the wrestlers in the first clip of the WWE open?

No, I'm pretty excited too. He may not be able to do much in the ring anymore but he's still a great character, and whoever eliminates him from the Rumble gets a nice rub. Hopefully he sticks around for a little bit and puts a couple young guys over, but I figure there's better odds of that happening with Booker. I also wonder if this means he's going into the Hall of Fame. Would make sense with HBK going in and Nash being associated with WCW as well.

Serves TNA right for running this angle without the principals under contract. The funniest part to me is they doubly screwed themselves by having Scott Steiner return ahead of everyone else. I doubt they bothered to come up with a backup plan in case Booker and Nash fell through either.

Husky is 23 and has only been wrestling for a couple years. I believe he trained with Harley Race and then went straight to FCW. He couldn't have wrestled on more than a handful of shows before developmental. He was in FCW for a year before doing NXT, and he's only been on the road for a couple of months now. How great can he realistically be expected to be with so little experience?

I'm a fan of the Usos and think they have tons of potential. I thought that their gimmick had legs and the potential to be way more relevant and realistic than the typical gimmick. This wasn't Samoan Gangster Party or PHATU. For a lot of young people hip hop is a mindset, a way of life, and you can be educated and well dressed and still be hip hop. You can be black, white, asian, samoan, european or whatever and be hip hop. It's a shame that after that initial promo they've completely ignored development of the character.

lately he's stopped playing to the crowd and gone monotone on the catchphrase too

I really expected Superstars to finish higher in show of the year. Ultimate Fighter finishing 2nd is ridiculous when it isn't actually a weekly show. It runs for what, 24 weeks out of the year? I did find it funny that WWE is undervoted in a lot of the categories, but in most underrated they dominate with 8/10 and most of the runner ups.

I wouldn't go that far, but I did roll my eyes when I saw that he won best promo The awards as a whole just speak to the sad state of pro-wrestling around the world, and it's been that way for a while. I really wish Dave would separate the MMA awards and pro-wrestling awards completely, because a lot of this just looks ridiculous

PWTorch was offering $5 off a monthly web subscription or $8 off a monthly web+print sub. I've never subscribed to the Torch before and was going to give it a shot despite being underwhelmed by the audio quality on their shows, but it appears the offer has expired already. Poor customer service to not give an expiration on it, and to leave the ad for it up after it's expired, and they just lost one potential subscriber.

thanks rovert!

fuck, I bookmarked the blog and intended to read his other posts, I can't believe it was pulled down so fast did anybody here archive it?

25 I never really got all the hand wringing about that. It was a one liner, not like the whole promo was built around the idea of vince being attacked by terrorists. Stupid thing to say maybe, but it didn't bother me, just seemed like everybody wanted to nitpick it for no good reason.

Last I heard about Cyrus was he left TNA because he got an office job in Canada that paid better. That had to have been 2004-2005ish? I vaguely remember hearing him on either The Law or F4D since then

"specializes in conspiracies" = crazy guy from Bryan's Jiu-Jitsu class

As a fan of C2CAM and of Bryan I like these shows, and I hope he's able to find an audience for them apart from F4W However, he has to find a way to book legitimate guests. He has Steve Sims on talking about a book he read about Transhumanism, which is fine, I like Steve Sims, but he could probably get the author of the book if he tried. Hobby radio shows on blogtalk consistently get legitimate guests. If this is just Bryan and people he knows talking about stuff it's not going to work over the long haul

I read the entry about the TLC show. It was an interesting read, but there's a little too much, "I had this great idea to push so and so, and they didn't want to do it, then they changed their minds and did it and it totally worked" kind of comments, to the point where it sort of strains his credibility. Like he's trying a little too hard to put himself over. Honestly, I was a little skeptical because nothing he wrote couldn't have been written by a knowledgeable fan, and there's been a number of these kind of hoaxes on the internet. Stuff like every writer submitting a script for PPV shows, writers being given worker specific promo tasks, Kevin Dunn having heavy influence....all stuff we already know. He says he's going to do audio shows with F4W and the Torch soon, so those should be interesting if they do happen.

I've been noticing this a lot lately too On the sunday night show they were talking about how poorly the Rumble was built up last year, and how the same thing was happening this year because Del Rio was the only one cutting promos about it Then on the RAW recap show they pretty much ignored that Cena & Sheamus cut promos about wanting to win the Rumble, that they teased a Cena & Orton conflict if they both win, that they set up Morrison and Bryan as guys who are a threat via the Sheamus promo, and that they put over Mark Henry as a guy with an advantage in the match. Most of the show was about getting the match and guys who will feature in it over. They seem really fixated on tumbler balls for some reason

Brooke Hogan is 22 going on 23 now, yup The next newsletter talks about the Curt-Bock broadway which aired NYE '86. It was taped in Las Vegas but he doesn't give a date.

The WWF turning Eddie's death into storyline fodder. I was really turned off by that at the time, it was done so tastelessly.

- Lead story is Jim Duggan asking for, and recieving, a release from his UWF contract. Dave says he's wanted to go to Titan for at least 3 months, and had asked for his release and been refused in September of 86. At that time Titan backed off, which Dave says proves well written contracts can prevent Titan talent raids. Dave thinks in addition to Jim wanting to leave, other factors such as Duggan being the UWF's highest paid wrestler, having a number of demands, and the belief by some that Steve Williams is ready to handle the top babyface spot led to Watts agreeing to this. While it's a blow to the UWF, he thinks after 5 years it was probably time for a change for both Duggan and the promotion and that under normal circumstances Duggan would have been replaced in the top spot already. He also notes that Williams has a 12 week a year commitment in Japan, and ostensible #2 babyface Ted DiBiase also has heavy Japanese commitments, which makes things harder on Watts. Dave wonders how Duggan's in-ring style will translate to the WWF since since he can't be such an out of control brawler and very few opponents will "take full-force chairshots to the head". He also wonders if sticking him with a gimmick will work against him since he's been seen in most markets on UWF tv as a "meat and potatoes" no gimmick guy and gotten over that way. Dave notes that the last newcomer to really get over in the WWF was Jake Roberts back in the Spring of '86. - The Fantastics were also released from their UWF contracts, and Dave thinks they are in a tough spot as far as finding a place they can go to and draw money. They don't fit the Titan formula, Crockett has the Rock N' Roll Express, and the AWA has The Midnight Rockers. He thinks Tommy Rogers will go back to Florida, and Bobby Fulton will go to Ohio and try to set up an independent promotion. - Dynamite Kid is out of the hospital and will remain in traction for about 5 weeks. Doctors have advised him to retire, but he's still expected back in mid February. The WWF is still advertising ("and pushing hard") British Bulldog title defenses on all upcoming house shows. He takes Vince to task for outright lying to fans. "Anyway, as the folks in Titan joke, the fans will be getting 2/3rds of the British Bulldogs this month (Davey Boy Smith & Mathilda). What is scary is that someone mentioned if they use Junkyard Dog as a replacement that Mathilda might be able to do the second best high spots on the team as well". He's heard speculation they might bring Johnny Smith in for the shows Dynamite misses. - Dave says the 1/3 SNME "left me cold" but he admits the presentation is fantastic. Says Savage did an incredible job carrying George Steele. Piper looked rusty. Adonis can still do impressive things at his weight but has no endurance. "Words can't describe how ridiculous Harley Race has become and how bad his match with Junkyard Dog was." He feels bad watching Paul Orndorff because he can see what obvious pain he is in with the shoulder. Says the "tie" in the Hogan-Orndorff cage match was done with trick editing, and to set up a possible rematch at WMIII if Andre can't go, but "it's 97% certain going to be Hogan and Andre" - Crockett shows in CA. 12/29 at the Forum drew 7,000 ($75,000) which he considers a success with their TV situation in the city. San Fran (which Dave attended) drew a sellout of 8,500 ($93,000ish) and had to turn away several thousand fans. Says the shows weren't particularly good because everybody was tired after an insane Christmas schedule which saw them literally travel all over the country with a number of double shots. "If that wasn't enough to kill them, after the Albequerque show, several of the big shots decided to spend the night in Las Vegas, which means they didn't sleep much" - "Warlord is so stiff it hurts to watch" - Rock N' Roll Express was booed loudly against Arn & Ole. Says it was probably 50/50 or even 60/40 in favor of the RnR's, but the pro-Horsemen fans were much louder and Arn in particular was super over. - Road Warriors and Midnight Express had a totally predictable match where Dave could call every spot before it happened, but it was still good enough to get ***1/4. Says Animal has a hairline fracture in his elbow and was limited to 90 seconds of power spots. Hawk carried the match but is working on a bad leg which has caused his lower body to shrink in ridiculous proportions to his upper body "but he deserves lots of credit for guts". Tremendous heat, almost a riot when the MX started beating on them with the tennis racket, fights almost breaking out in the crowd, and "a few too many fans tried to attack Jim Cornette" - Flair beat Dusty via a Dusty Finish (before the phrase was offically coined). Says Dusty was pitiful on every show after the 27th and did no bumping or selling here, but Flair was great enough to carry him to a decent match and the crowd heat was nuclear. Match was mostly just clowning, Flair bumping, and sleeper and figure 4 reversals. **1/2 - Bunkhouse Stampede main event was terrible. Came down to MX and Road Warriors, Road Warriors tossed the MX, then flipped a coin to determine the winner. Crowd hated the finish. Says Crockett doesn't understand that San Fran is a battle royale city that has been conditioned for 20 years that it's really every man for himself and won't accept a non-finish like that. - Thinks the crowd wasn't disapointed because it was at least as good as a Titan show, and they might be able to do another sellout in a month or two, but then weak TV and not building to the next show will catch up to them - Crockett - - The new giant Russian dude, Vladimir Pietrov, is not John Nord as previously reported. Nord was supposed to come in but at the last minute decided he didn't want to leave his family in Minnesota. Pietrov is a guy named Al Blake, also from the twin cities, who has a reputation for being the "baddest bouncer" in the area. He was trained by the Road Warriors and is being put in a "golden position" as the big bad Russian to teach defector Nikita Koloff a lesson. Dave says Nord is bad, but it still would have worked. Blake might be so green that even a sure thing angle could flop. - several matches from the Los Angeles card were taped by Nippon television to be aired in Japan. Baba & Wajima wrestled on the card against The Mod Squad - continued hints on TV that Ole is going to turn face, but Dave hopes they change their minds - "Does anyone know the whereabouts of Dutch Mantell or Bobby Jaggers? They seem to have disappeared" - Rufus Jones was supposed to make the west coast swing, but they decided not to take him (my note: ) - They sold out in Amarillo (in excess of $50,000) but Dave doesn't give a date or venue for the show - 1/1 at the Omni drew between 2,000 and 4,000 (coming off 16,000 on Christmas day). Big Bubba won the Stampede. Tim Horner b. Bill Dundee "who must get more heat than any other opening match loser in the world" - 1/4 in Cincinatti drew 7,000. Pietrov won his debut match in seconds and wasn't put in the Stampede (won by Dusty) - 1/10 in Philly at the Civic Center has a strong advance of 6,100 ($117,500) as of 1/3. WWF has a show the same day at the Spectrum which has a 7,000 advance ($75,000). Crockett show has higher ticket prices due to Flair on the card and a RW/MX scaffold match, while WWF is a b show headlined by Savage and Steamboat. Dave thinks the Crockett show could sell out. - TITAN - - TV tapings on 1/5 at the Meadowlands have been as heavily promoted in the area as any show since Wrestlemania after the last show there headlined by Hogan and Savage only drew 8,000. TV tapings in Hershey the next night are expected to sellout with Hogan v. Hercules as well as Savage v. Steamboat advertised. - Ken Patera is expected to start in March and Dave hears he's in great shape - WWF has started on FOX affiliates. In Los Angeles they went from a strong station to an even stronger one. In Dallas they're on a station that used to show Crockett, AWA and UWF and now only carries WWF. Crockett currently has no local TV in Dallas. - Jack Kruger (Sheik Abdullah in Central States) is getting full time jobber work, as are Scott McGhee and Stoney Burke - 12/29 at the Nassau Colliseum drew 7,000 with BlackJack Mulligan winning a Bunkhouse Stampede. Dave says he's out of shape, he wins every single one of them, and they are awful. (my note: I didn't even know WWF did Bunkhouse Stampede matches around the horn). 12/28 in Miami with a Stampede drew 1,500. 1/1 in Long Beach, CA drew 2,500 headlined by Savage over Roberts in a cage. 1/2 in Santa Barbara drew 1,500 with Santana beating Harley Race. - Brad Rheingans is in, pretty much just to destroy Verne's training school - Bruno Sammartino worked 12/30 in Baltimore against Randy Savage, drawing 8,000 fans ($93,000). He heard there was a Sammartino v. Savage match scheduled for 1/3 in Boston, isn't sure if it actually happened, but suspects it did. - UWF - - Duggan is expected to work the TV tapings on 1/24-25 and Dave forsees problems because Watts likes to have guys job on the way out - Running first shows in Denver in February and Albequerque around the same time - Chris Adams should be in in the next month and he's supposedly in the best shape of his life - Rick Steiner and Bill Irwin will tour New Japan this year. Dave thinks Rick could be a huge star over there and there is talk of him and Williams working as a tag team. - New Year's Eve show in OKC drew over 8,000, while 1/1 TV taping in Tulsa drew a sellout 9,000, both headlined by I Quit battle royales and Williams v. Gordy. 12/26 in Houston had a $45,000 gate, 12/29 in Little Rock drew 5,000, and 1/3 in Pensacola had a $26,000 gate which Dave says is impressive for an absolutely dead town. With the Fullers pulling out UWF will look to become the home promotion here "for whatever that is worth" - Bigelow coming in is 50/50. They want him to sign a contract before pushing him on TV, and he wants more money. He's scheduled to do a 10 day tour for New Japan late Jan-early Feb. - Dave expects Eli The Eliminator to get a big push, and for Missy Hyatte to be phased out - Alabama - - The territory is doing well in Knoxville, drawing an average of 4,000 - Larry Hamilton is coming in to feud with Tom Prichard over the US Junior title - "How's this for something new," during a Fullers v. Headhunters cage match one of the Headhunters hid under the ring with Kevin Sullivan wrestling in his place. "During the bout, the Headhunter who had hid under the ring, broke through the bottom of the ring, through the boards and the mat cover itself and interfered helping the heels win." - Florida - - Luger is on his way out, and they showed his pinfall loss to Bad News on TV, as well as him bleeding in a 6 man tag. Dave expects Luger to lose the Southern title to Bad News, with Brody returning as a face to work Allen, which he says will be good matches. Luger's also scheduled for some matches with Kevin Sullivan, who is returning as the booker. Says it will be interesting to see how Luger progresses when he isn't top dog in a promotion. - Boris Zhukov is coming in - Memphis - - 12/28 at the Mid South Colliseum drew 5,000 for Lawler-Rich with a shot at Bockwinkel's AWA title on the line. Lawler won due to a blood stoppage, and Dave expects the match with Bock took place on the 1/4 show. - Says new manager Downtown Bruno is real good on interviews and maybe the skinniest guy you'll ever in wrestling. He's doing a gimmick where a "girl from the crowd" beats him up - Austin Idol beat Big Bubba by DQ in a loser has to wear panties match - AWA - - Curt Hennig is in Japan - Dave gives them credit for airing a 60 minute Hennig-Bockwinkel match on TV, but says New Year's Eve was the wrong night to do it because everybody has a short attention span. Says opinion on it was divided with some loving it and some finding it boring. He hasn't seen it yet but heard the last 10 minutes were "extremely good". - Jerry Blackwell is out with kidney problems and Dave hears he's probably done for good - World Class - - "Want to know just how bad things are?" They ran a show in Fort Worth where kids get in free and get free coke and pop corn all night. Doesn't have numbers yet but the previous week they didn't even run a show, and the week before that drew 150. - Appears the finalists for the booking job are George Scott and Bruiser Brody. Titan is running a show in Waco this week which is a conflict of interest for Scott as he owns a large percentage of the Toronto office - At least two other groups are making inquiries about running Reunion Arena - Closing Notes - - Jesse Ventura is filming a second movie with Arnold Schwarzanegger called "Running Man". "Predator" will be out later this year - Sammartino did wrestle 1/3 in Boston, losing to Savage via CO - Titan canceled 12/29 in KC (Savage v. Steamboat) due to a poor advance - Reader Pages - - A reader asks if he's lost respect for the wrestlers in WWF as athletes because the matches have little working or bumping and often no finishes. Wonders if Dave is surprised at the lack of defections from WWF to Crockett or UWF. Dave says no, but he's lost respect for some of them as top workers. Says the schedule is tough but too many guys don't try unless there is a tv camera and too many heels will spend a whole match stalling. Dave isn't really surprised that nobody defects because Titan pays the best, but a little surprised that egos haven't caused a few defections. - A reader from New Mexico writes in about the recent NWA card and the state of wrestling in the state. Says AWA didn't do great last time they ran but better than they are doing in other places. WWF did good at first but has since been downhill. Crockett has drawn well twice but has nothing scheduled for 1987 yet, and UWF is coming in soon. Concludes that the area is wide open for any promotion to capitalize on. Dave redacts the name because "he has to deal with wrestlers and promoters on a regular basis"

I'm curious what the 10 matches he gave ****+ to were. I'm guessing a good number of them involved Cena or Undertaker.

Loss covered a lot of 86 and 88 so I thought I'd try and fill in the gap with 1987. It'll be mostly focused on the North American stuff. If there's an item that anybody wants more detail on I'd be glad to try and accommodate. I'll try to do one a week, time permitting. This one took a little longer than I expected. - Scott Hall had left the AWA, but "was tired of waiting around for Titan to call" and is back for what Dave thinks will be a short run - Dynamite Kid is being advertised on January shows despite being in traction after disc surgery. "Being the crazy and dangerously determined individual he is," he's expected back by early-mid February. Because he's coming back so soon the WWF has scrapped plans of a tag team title tournament and will leave the straps on the Bulldogs, "unless the doctors chain him to the bed through March" - Dave expects Hogan v. Andre to main-event Wrestlemania III, but that Andre's back is in such bad shape that the match might not happen. Andre canceled his return match in Japan after a 4 month hiatus filming Princess Bride, and needs a back brace just to get around. If he can't return by mid-February to shoot the heel turn angle the match will be off, and Dave thinks that would put the entire show in jeopardy. - Mike Bellew, 27, the editor of the newstand magazine Wrestling Eye, died in a car accident in New York City - "Bigelow" missed the last UWF tapings. Dave doesn't know why but thinks it's because Bigelow doesn't want to sign a long term contract with the promotion - TITAN - - In what Dave calls a "major coup" WWF will start airing on FOX affiliates in New York and Los Angeles. He thinks this is big because it means competing promotions won't get on other local FOX affiliates (my note: FOX started broadcasting in late 1986 with affiliates in NY, LA, Chicago, Washington, Houston and Dallas), but he also thinks the WWF product is overexposed at this point. - First run of Savage-Steamboat matches are drawing well, but not exceptional. 8,500 12/25 in Detroit, 4,000 ($37,000) in St. Louis on 12/27. Dave thinks the first matches will do well everywhere (chaotic brawls meant to build to a return match), but questions whether they can keep drawing for 3 matches in the major cities and still have enough heat for the blowoff at Wrestlemania. - Hogan and Kimala drew a $249,000 (2000 shy of a sellout) gate 12/26 at MSG. A wild but short brawl that ended with interference from Curtis Iaukea, and "everyone including Vince McMahon" involved in breaking it up. 1/19 at MSG will have a no DQ rematch, setting up a cage match in February - 12/28 in Toronto sold out with 18,000 fans for a Hogan-Kimala no DQ match. Match ended when Hogan threw powder at Kimala, then jumped out of the ring and attacked Iaukea and Steve Lombardi, getting counted out in the process. Curtis "sliced and diced" his forehead. Hogan-Kimala also drew 15,000 in Chicago on 12/27, which is slightly more than Crockett did for a Bunkhouse Stampede two weeks prior - Ricky Steamboat filmed an episode of the TV show "Sidekicks" while out selling his voice box injury. He appears as pro wrestler Rick Steamboat, and has dialogue - "There actually is going to be a little Hulkster running around as Hogan's wife Linda Bollea is expecting" (my note: little did he know it would be a little Linda!) - Jose Luis Rivera is working as "The Red Demon" - Titan canceled a Christmas week show in St. Paul because Hogan-Kimala flopped at the box office the last time through and the AWA and Crockett both had strong shows - Paul Orndorff's shoulder problems are worse than initially reported. The nerve endings in the shoulder are dead and doctors are telling him to retire from wrestling. He isn't listening, but will miss some bookings. - The night after Dynamite Kid's back went out he was replaced in a tag match in Milwaukee by THE CRUSHER! (my note: I would love to see the Davey & Crusher tag team). Dave notes that Crusher's son is actually the AWA promoter in Milwaukee. - Crockett - - Dave will have full coverage of the 12/29 LA and 12/30 SF shows in the next issue. Expects both to do well and the LA gate to be in the $100,000 range which is phenomenal because aside from WTBS on cable they only have a 1am TV spot on a weak channel (Dave mentions earlier that with WWF going to the FOX station, Crockett should make a play for their old spot on channel 9 in LA) - Ole Anderson appears to be on his way out of the Four Horsemen as he's being snubbed in the interviews. JJ Dillon and Tully have promised a surprise, which Dave thinks could/should be Lex Luger. Hopes they don't turn Ole face. They seem to be starting a feud between Tully and Barry Windham. - Bob Armstrong will probably be coming in, February at the earliest - The Christmas day afternoon show in Charlotte drew a sellout 10,200, with all tickets $4, headlined by Road Warriors/Nikita/Dusty v. Horsemen. That night in Atlanta they drew 15,000, with all tickets $5, and the same main event. 12/26 in Richmond drew 8,000 headlined by Dusty winning a Bunkhouse Stampede. Dave notes that Dick Murdoch (draw with Tully) is not drawing heat as a face, and Rick Rood (DQ Ricky Morton) looked very good and kept up with Morton. - Arn Anderson has been cutting great promos lately - They're starting to hype the tag team tournament on 4/11 and 4/12 in Baltimore, billed as having 25 teams. Dave doesn't know how they can pull that off when they aren't cooperating with other promotions - Randy Mulkey did a 270 degree flip off a Krusher Khruschev backdrop that was just about the damnedest thing Dave has ever seen. "Mulkey would win hands down if we had a category for guys with absolutely no regard for the laws of gravity or personal safety. Dynamite Kid would come close as well" - Working relationship with Florida is over as Crockett is now starting to run his own shows in the territory, 1/16 in Hollywood (Flair v. Dusty) and 1/21 in Jacksonville. Dave is told that Crockett will draw really well in Florida, and he notes that Dusty is a huge draw there and that Crockett will soon have Lex Luger also. People in CWF like Hiro Matsuda are furious as they had a gentleman's agreement with Dusty that he would never work against them. Flair will no longer be working for CWF either, and on TV Gordon Solie buried him saying he refused to defend the title and Lex Luger or Bad News Allen could beat him at will on any given night. Florida is going to be forced to pull out of the NWA as a result of all this and he expects all the magazines to unfairly make them look bad out of the deal like they did to Fritz Von Erich. - "The NWA has died. Speaking of death, The Central States territory, known as the purgatory of pro-wrestling, is still burning." They drew 300 in Kansas City with all local talent. A card with Crockett talent drew 1,240 in Des Moines. Central States Champion Sam Houston went to a 30:00 draw with Arn Anderson in a boring match, because Arn was more interested in talking to girls at ringside than wrestling. A Christmas day card with all local talent drew "a shocking" 3,040. - Florida - - 12/25 in Tampa drew 2000. Main Event was Bad News Allen pinning Southern Heavyweight Champion Lex Luger in a non-title match, a result Dave is surprised by. Show featured a tourny for the Florida Tag Team Titles won by Chris Champion & Sean Royal over Kendall Windham & Vic Steamboat. Mike Graham teamed with Stan Lane after Steve Keirn quit the promotion. The story was Bob Roop fired Lane & Keirn because they were missing dates, Mike Graham overruled him and ended up firing Roop instead. Keirn was pissed off about the situation and eventually just quit. Dave is told Keirn can make more money in real estate than wrestling, but he wouldn't be surprised to see him end up in Memphis because Jarrett was hot after him and Lane. Lane is still in the promotion for now doing singles matches. - Brody worked 3 shows but was only an average draw because he hasn't been on TV - The Sheepherders are leaving for Alabama. Scott Hall is coming in in February after he does his short AWA run which is the proof Dave needs that his deal with Titan has fallen apart. Kevin Sullivan returns on 1/13. - Ron Simmons is feuding with Kareem Muhammad over the Florida Heavyweight Championship - Jarrett - - All reports are that the Lawler-Tommy Rich feud is going really well. "Sometimes (actually often) I knock Lawler because he doesn't do any moves but he deserves credit for being one of the best workers around and a master at making his opponent, no matter how pitiful, look good." On 12/21 in Memphis they drew 6,500 fans. The match was a 24 minute draw, followed by 24 minutes of brawling all over the colliseum. Dave was told it was the best Memphis match of 1986, which is saying a lot because Lawler/Dundee and Landell/Mantell had "awesome" tag matches. - There's been a lot of animosity between Titan and this group recently, specifically between Lawler and Harley Race. Race has been calling Lawler "queen" on promos that air in this area. Lawler was making fun of Tommy Rich for holding the NWA title for 5 days because he beat "a 60 yr old grey haired drunken bum who couldn't even wrestle!" - World Class - - 12/25 at the Reunion Arena drew 5,800 for a $70,000 gate. Huge walkup and almost double what they'd expected to draw. Main event was Abdullah the Butcher beating Bruiser Brody in a loser leaves town cage match. Dave doesn't know how this happened, but Tony Atlas was sitting at ringside next to Gary Hart and got legit knocked out when the cage door swung open. Match didn't have much heat, and only match on the card that really did was Kevin & Mike Von Erich against Al Madril & Brian Adias. - Scott Casey beat Black Bart in a loser rides a mule match. "It was in the middle of the card and the mule relieved himself at ringside and the place stunk almost as much as the card did." - 12/12 at the Sportatorium drew 250. 12/15 in Fort Worth drew 150. "Things are bad." - Crusher Yircov (my note: Bam Bam Bigelow), who had been making $300 a week, walked out of the 12/12 show when booker George Scott tried to force him to sign a contract. - AWA - - 12/25 show drew 3,500 and Dave is told it was their best show in a while and much better than the Crockett show in the area. Main Event was Curt Hennig DQ'd against Nick Bockwinkel by special ref Billy Robinson in a match the crowd was buying as a title change. Dave says the Midnight Rockers and Doug Somers-Buddy Rose cage match was a definite ****, and everyone but Rose bled. Mr. Saito returned and looked awesome. Col. DeBeers and Jimmy Snuka had "a very bad" 5 minute match. - UWF - - 12/27 in Fort Worth drew 1,900, their biggest crowd yet for a TV taping. Steve Williams and Terry Gordy had a bloody brawl which Dave hears was taped and was very good. Williams bled so much he missed the show in Waco the next day. Duggan & Terry Taylor won the tag team titles, and Duggan also won a First Blood/I Quit battle royale in which about a dozen guys bled, and if you fought outside the ring for 10 seconds it was considered a submission. The same night in Jackson, MS drew 2,800 headlined by Ted DiBiase winning a bunkhouse brawl battle royale by bloodying One Man Gang, who had beaten him in a UWF title match earlier in the show. Dave says Eddie Gilbert did a gimmick where he wore a gas mask so he couldn't be cut, and eventually a babyface gets it off him and makes him bleed. - They've started doing a copy of Savage-Elizabeth with Michael Hayes and Sunshine, which Dave says won't work because Liz is "demure and cute, and Sunshine is neither." - Says Duggan is getting "the big shove" right now, and for this group to do well on the road they have to get guys like Duggan over, and he thinks they need live interviews with announcers to do it, rather than studio interviews which only Michael Hayes excels at - Alabama - - In the process of moving operations from Pensacola, FL to Birmingham, and he's heard they're going to focus on northern Alabama and southern Tennessee and pull out of Florida completely as business there is dead. Also talk that some guys may stay in Pensacola and try to run their own small group in the dead towns. 12/25 in Birmingham drew 4,500. Kevin Sullivan beat Steve Armstrong in the main event after a ref bump and "jabbing a pencil into his groin" - Buddy Landel is coming in full time mid-January - New Japan - - Appears to be no chance of Brody returning here as Seji Sakaguchi doesn't want him - May be facing a crisis as TV Asahi has been pre-empting their shows and may get rid of them all-together when their contract expires in mid-April. New Japan gets $1 million annually for rights fees, and losing that plus the exposure would be "a crippling blow" - Tag tournament drew good houses, all over 10,000 - Maeda has toned down what he calls shooting. He says his concept is to make wrestling look legitimate and eliminate phony moves, not to have a pure shoot match or "a kill struggle". Says whatever problems Maeda and Inoki had have been ironed out. - All Japan - - Says Wajima is super over, and at a sold out 12/12 Budokan show several thousand fans actually left after his match, then a few thousand more left after the Choshu-Yatsu v. Funks match....leaving less than 10,000 for DiBiase-Hansen and Tsuruta-Tenryu - Reader Pages - - Somebody asks Dave what Verne would do if the AWA folded. Dave thinks he could end with UWF, Crockett or Titan, but isn't sure how much help he'd actually provide. "Hopefully nobody will ask him to help with booking" - Somebody suggests WWF should phase Hogan out because he's rarely on TV and never has any big feuds. Thinks they should bring in a new heel or put the title on Randy Savage and "interest would heighten 100 percent". Says recent success of Crockett proves fans want real wrestling and not "fantasy world larger than life heroes" (my note: LMAO). Dave says Hogan is the franchise and all the marketing is built around the image of him as champion. Says Hogan chasing the title could do big business, but Hogan also has an ego and is in a position to veto a title change, and Vince can't afford to offend him. - Steve Prazak asks about Titan trying to run Atlanta again, noting they only drew 1000 for their last card there. Dave doesn't see it happening any time soon as they are having a hard enough time keeping hot cities hot if Hogan isn't on the card

See, I disagree completely on The Dudleys, Taz and RVD because this show was being broadcast to a whole lot of new fans who'd maybe only heard about ECW, not the people who'd been watching during ECW's prime. Dudleys might have run their course, Taz might have been better before the FTW stuff, but to new fans they were the coolest part of the company, who had the aura of being stars. TNN was the first time some of my friends who only watched WWF got to see ECW, and those guys along with Sabu were the ones they popped the biggest for...and then when The Dudleys and Taz left for WWF, Sabu was gone and RVD was hurt they pretty much stopped caring about the company aside from Awesome, Tanaka, Tajiri, Crazy and the T&A. Agreed that Awesome leaving was a huge loss that they never recovered from. Disagree on Storm because I thought the Impact Players were a really strong act who carried the tag division after the Dudleys left. Credible was much better as a tag team wrestler than a single.

I hated Cyrus and The Network because it felt so derivative of what WWE and WCW had done with Vince McMahon, Eric Bischoff and "The Powers That Be". ECW at it's best was a cutting edge trendsetter, that angle was a pale imitation. My suspicion is by this point Heyman wasn't as hands on with the booking because he was so busy with all the business dealings that had come about....PPV, TV, shows in new markets, the CD, the video game, the magazine. When wrestling got hot in 98/99 he pretty much threw everything at trying to expand ECW's business. I'm thinking Tommy Dreamer was doing a lot of the booking at this time? The biggest problem with the show besides not having a real genius spark to it was the roster was just getting decimated at that point. The Dudleys left within weeks of the show's debut, Taz who has pushed as the top star was gone after like 3 months, WCW took Lance Storm and Mike Awesome in mid-2000, Rob Van Dam was injured for much of the show's run....there just wasn't much must see talent in the company.

It is kind of interesting that while Hogan was test running a harder edge to his character in WCW, over in the WWF Vince was experimenting with a similar idea with Diesel and the whole, "I'll still slap your hand if you're wearing a black glove" deal. Both companies were giving the anti-hero thing a whirl long before they actually went full on with it.