khawk20

Also a note, not sure who would be aware of this but Patera's title win over Kevin Von Erich exists on 8mm film. I have it, converted to vhs. As I remember, Patera actually wins the title with his Swinging Full Nelson...puts Kevin out and the ref awards the title to Patera. Being on film, I don't know how that would hold up for review purposes, but historically it would be a very important inclusion.

These are my listings of these two from my Blackwell comp: 2) Ken Patera & Jerry Blackwell (AWA World Tag Champs) vs. The Rock ‘n’ Roll Express (Memphis, December 1983, clips). Includes promos for the match by both the Sheiks and Morton & Gibson. (total time of clips + promos: 6:02, VG-/VG) 3) Ken Patera & Jerry Blackwell (AWA World Tag Champs) vs. Jerry Lawler & Austin Idol (Memphis, January 1984, clips). Includes promos for the match by both Lawler and The Sheiks. (total time of clips + promos: 5:09, VG-/VG) The interviews probably count for at least 90 seconds each out of that, so match time, clipped, would be 3-4 minutes each. *** FYI to jdw: I would also include the title win over the Flyers definitely for historical importance, but I will need to watch it again to see where it stands in terms of Ken's work. The other ones jumped out quickly in that regard, although none were a "slam dunk". If/when I make a Patera in the AWA comp, a review of all of these will clarify my muddy memories of the times that I have watched these bouts.

The title win is there: 6/26/83 St. Paul, MN @ Civic Center Ken Patera & Jerry Blackwell beat Greg Gagne & Jim Brunzell to win AWA Tag Title The title loss is not. All that has appeared is the end-of-match celebration in the dressing room with Baron and Crusher. There was a camera there to film the celebration, but since the match has never appeared it either was not filmed for whatever reason or the ending was perhaps botched and it wasn't shown for that reason. The AWA had plenty of chances to include it in their Best of the 80's videos and other specials, but did not..if it exists. Everything in bold on my main lsit is available on video. The bouts listed that are not bolded are not available as far as I know. If a good set of 1982-83 ever shows up, there will probably be more. The Duncum/Patera match vs. The High Flyers from Minneapolis that is bolded just showed up about 6 months ago on a highlight tape of early 1983 stuff.

Here's a timeline and brief overview of Patera's AWA work. I felt explaining what was going on around some of these bouts was important to put the feuds and matchups in proper context. Ken Patera in the AWA: timeline and Significant matchups/feuds/angles Note—bouts/angles on film have been bolded. I may have missed some of them. 1st listed match 10/17/81 Rockford, IL @ Boylan High School Ken Patera drew Tito Santana 10/22/81 Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada @ Arena Andre the Giant won a 16-man Battle royal by eliminating Ken Patera 1st regular TV appearance 11/1/81 Minneapolis TV Ken Patera beat Ken Fontaine 1st teaming with Duncum (Black & Blue Express) 10/25/81 St. Paul, MN @ Civic Center Ken Patera & Bobby Duncum beat Billy Robinson & Rene Goulet 11/5/81 Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada @ Arena Ken Patera beat Tito Santana Most notable early angle was his interfering in a Jesse Ventura-Hulk Hogan arm wrestling bout and “injuring” the Hulkster: 11/26/81 St. Paul, MN Arm Wrestling Hulk Hogan beat Jesse Ventura 12/6/81 Minneapolis TV Tito Santana & Buck Zumhofe no contest Ken Patera & Bobby Duncum **Notable for Hogan run-in to save faces after Zumhofe gets attacked with his own boom box. This lead to Patera/Duncum beating Hogan/Tito around the horn. After that, Patera beat Hogan by DQ mostly around the horn. Next were 6-man tags. These were still bouts playing off the original tv angle noted above (in addition, Heenan-Zumhofe weasel suit matches also playing off that angle were going around the circuit at this time). 2/28/82 Minneapolis, MN @ Auditorium Ken Patera & Bobby Duncum & Bobby Heenan beat Buck Zumhofe & Hulk Hogan & Baron Von Raschke **Notable for Hogan going nuts and beating Heenan half to death and getting temporarily suspended for it. Random singles bout: 3/4/82 Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada @ Arena Ken Patera beat Baron Von Raschke For some reason, they killed the Hogan-Patera dynamic in Winnipeg and a few other places with a handicap match. Possibly to make Hulk look stronger for his first bouts vs. Bockwinkel?: 4/15/82 Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada @ Arena Handicap Match Hulk Hogan beat Ken Patera & Bobby Heenan 6/20/82 St. Paul, MN @ Civic Center Tito Santana & Rick Martel beat Ken Patera & Bobby Duncum dq This bout was a precursor to Tito/Rick challenging Gagne/Brunzell in their two excellent tag bouts in July and August in St. Paul. It was a surprise result in that Patera/Duncum would have been expected to get the #1 contender nod at this point, and already had wins over Hulk and Tito in tag bouts. Not on video, unfortunately, but other bouts from this card were filmed so it might come out someday… Ken got a title shot at Otto Wanz but mostly was working with Duncum in various tags and 6-mans through here: 9/12/82 Green Bay, WI @ Brown County Veteran’s Memorial Arena Ken Patera beat AWA Champion Otto Wanz dq Patera and Duncum wrestled a heel vs. heel bout to a N/C vs. Blackwell and Adnan in September 1982 in Winnipeg. Notable because they got a title shot in November even with the N/C result. Only a one-and-out in Winnipeg for The Flyers vs. the B and B Express. Somewhat surprising: 11/10/82 Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada @ Arena AWA Tag Team Champions Greg Gagne & Jim Brunzell beat Ken Patera & Bobby Duncum Patera/Duncum started getting title shots in St. Paul in September 1982. There was only one encounter that has made it out on film (noted later). 10/17/82 St Paul, MN @ Civic Center Hulk Hogan won a battle royal Andre the Giant & Buck Zumhofe beat Ken Patera & Bobby Heenan This is notable because the battleroyal set up the 4-on-2 bout for the next month after Hogan won and Andre came to his rescue. The Andre match exists, and just a guess but I would bet that Andre was announced as a “mystery partner” for Buck’s final revenge on Patera and Heenan from the tv incident many months prior. The 4-on-2 bout: 11/7/82 St. Paul, MN @ Civic Center Handicap match Andre The Giant & Hulk Hogan beat Bobby Heenan & Ken Patera & Bobby Duncum & Nick Bockwinkel Here the High Flyers end the feud in Minneapolis/St. Paul. IIRC They actually forced Duncum to submit in this one to a figure-four: 2/13/83 St. Paul, MN @ Civic Center AWA Tag Team Champions Greg Gagne & Jim Brunzell beat Ken Patera & Bobby Duncum Patera started teaming with Jesse Ventura after this as Duncum was out with that leg injury. They had some title shots and a bunch of six-man tags like below: 3/13/83 St. Paul, MN @ Civic Center Hulk Hogan & Greg Gagne & Jim Brunzell beat Bobby Heenan & Ken Patera & Jesse Ventura From the Super Sunday card. Lanza was brought back as Heenan’s special surprise for this one to get revenge on the Flyers injuring Duncum: 4/24/83 St. Paul, MN @ Civic Center Super Sunday Ken Patera & Jesse Ventura & Blackjack Lanza beat Greg Gagne & Jim Brunzell & Rick Martel It was just after this card (It would have hit TV in early May IIRC) that Heenan sold Patera’s contract to Kaissie and the Patera/Blackwell team was born. They won the titles relatively quickly: 6/26/83 St. Paul, MN @ Civic Center Ken Patera & Jerry Blackwell beat Greg Gagne & Jim Brunzell to win AWA Tag Title First Twin Cities Challengers: 7/24/83 St. Paul, MN @ Civic Center AWA Tag Team Champions Ken Patera & Jerry Blackwell beat Mad Dog Vachon & Dick The Bruiser COR (this should read a no contest) Other Twin Cities title bouts: 8/28/83 St Paul, MN @ Civic Center AWA Tag Team Champions Ken Patera & Jerry Blackwell beat Dino Bravo & Steve O Gagne/Brunzell needed to win to get a title rematch: 9/25/83 St. Paul, MN @ Civic Center Greg Gagne & Jim Brunzell & Rick Martel beat Ken Patera & Jerry Blackwell & Sheik Adnan 10/23/83 St Paul, MN @ Civic Center Non Title Mad Dog Vachon & Rick Martel beat AWA Tag Team Champions Ken Patera & Jerry Blackwell ..and finally, the Flyers get a Twin Cities rematch: 11/24/83 St Paul, MN @ Civic Center Special Referee: Ray Stevens Greg Gagne & Jim Brunzell beat AWA Tag Team Champions Ken Patera & Jerry Blackwell dq Patera and Blackwell did a bit in Memphis. They cut promos in the regular AWA interview setting that were sent down for these: 1/16/84 Memphis, TN @ Mid South Coliseum AWA Tag Team Champions Ken Patera & Crusher Blackwell w Rock and Roll Express 1/24/84 Memphis, TN @ Mid South Coliseum Jerry Lawler & Austin Idol beat AWA Tag Team Champions Jerry Blackwell & Ken Patera dq (some clips MIGHT Be available, I can’t remember.) Random singles bout as Blackwell was in a bout/feud with Crusher: 2/2/84 Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada @ Arena Ken Patera drew Brad Rheingans These next three bouts were filmed for Japanese TV which was following Jumbo’s AWA title defense tour: 3/4/84 Rosemont, IL @ Rosemont Horizon AWA Tag Team Champions Ken Patera & Jerry Blackwell beat Blackjack Mulligan & Jerry Lawler Lanza got a title shot at Tsuruta on this card, hence the weird Lawler/Mulligan pairing. 3/11/84 Green Bay, WI @ Brown County Veteran’s Memorial Arena Greg Gagne & Jim Brunzell beat AWA Tag Team Champions Ken Patera & Jerry Blackwell dq 3/15/84 Salt Lake City, UT @ Salt Palace AWA Tag Team Champions Ken Patera & Jerry Blackwell beat Greg Gagne & The Crusher Patera was heavily involved at the end of this, but not in the cage bout itself. It ended with Verne and others running in to save the Flyers: 3/25/84 St. Paul, MN @ Civic Center Cage Match Greg Gagne & The Crusher beat Sheik Adnan & Jerry Blackwell Before this next bout, the Blackjacks came in and challenged Patera/Blackwell to a title match. Patera and Blackwell ended up going crazy on the faces in the tag bout and Wally Karbo was going to suspend them for life and strip them of the tag titles. 4/15/84 Minneapolis TV Buck Zumhofe & Steve Olsonoski beat Ken Patera & Jerry Blackwell dq One thing I don’t remember is if the McDonalds incident with Patera and Saito was before or after this. Before = a possibly quick setup for a title loss in the wake of the legal issues, and After = fortuitous that they did this sort of thing given the legal issues that came up. Stranger still, you would think that this was an ideal setup for the Blackjacks to get the titles, not Crusher and Raschke. The Blackjacks were not around much after this and never got the titles. Not sure what happened but I suspect Raschke/Crusher were not the original choices to get the tag titles (Hence there being no film of the match, only the post-match celebration). The title change: 5/6/84 Green Bay, WI @ Brown County Veteran’s Memorial Arena The Crusher & Baron von Raschke beat Ken Patera & Jerry Blackwell to win AWA tag title when Crusher pinned Patera in 14:08 ..and with that, Patera was basically gone. So, as you can see, although Patera was in the AWA for almost two solid years, there isn’t a ton available of his work on video outside of the tag title bouts. There are also several TV squashes available. In terms of recommendations out of this, from my memory, honestly there isn’t much that really “stands out” in terms of highlighting Patera’s work. I would, off the top of my head, go with the Tito bout, with Blackwell vs. The Flyers in the St. Paul rematch with Stevens as the referee, the TV angle with the Blackjacks from 4/15, the TV angle from 12/6/81, and the 6-man from 2/28/82, the tag match with Blackwell vs. Bravo and Steve O, and the 6-man tag from Super Sunday. Sheiks vs. Lawler/Mulligan is also interesting. I didn’t like the Rheingans draw or the Raschke bout, or the Gagne/Crusher vs. Sheiks matchups. My recommendations might change at some point when I get a chance to review some of these bouts (probably while making a Patera comp), and if that happens I will post it here.

I think it was mostly about having original programming for their channels as specialized sports channels were a pretty new thing. Hell, TSN in Canada didn't start until 1984 and it was in serious question whether or not it would last, too.

NESN and Prism didn't air those shows live, though, right? I always assumed they were tape delayed. I used to get the NESN ones on the dish and I never got an "it was live" feel while watching them, like I did for the MSG shows.

Yeah, and totally wrong from a "need a quarter final bracket part but I forgot to draw it" standpooint.

That's the spirit of message boards in general, in a nutshell...make the largest impact you can with your words so that the most people are affected by them. It turns into a game of one-upmanship, intentionally or not. It's especially bad when the event in question is a death or retirement. to a degree I understand it. People come off a lot less stupid when they have time to compose their words and hit a send button, as opposed to talking face-to-face with another person. Message boards are places where you can get your point across even if you are a mushmouth. The people to worry about are the ones that come off as retarded on the internet. large group, I know...but think about it, they actually have time to sit and compose their thoughts, review their writing, and then send it out to the masses. Imagine what comes out of their mouths in everyday conversation without all those filters in place? Scary. I don't know if it's better or worse on wrestling boards than other genres of, well, anything, but it certainly isn't exclusive to pro wres fan boards.

I didn't quite get that either. Thirded. Bix wants to sleep with Vince is how it reads....Keep reaching for that rainbow!

Given how wrestlers are very bad at remembering their own careers (it is a job), Flair would probably agree with Shawn's remembrance as if it was 100% accurate.

Also if someone with the appropriate power could edit the title to reflect that this is from 1987, not 1988? I'm a dumbass. Thanks

Wrestling Observer Recap: March 23rd, 1987 TOP STORY: Tag team tournaments are front and center in this issue. -The WWF ran the “First Annual Frank Tunney Memorial Tag Team Tournament on 3/15 in Toronto. Dave comments that Titan’s re-writing of the wrestling history books continued with the WWF claiming that Tunney brought over tag team wrestling to North America from Australia. -The Toronto card drew a sellout of 18,000. Results: Killer Bees beat Kamala and Sika in a comedy bout (Kamala pretending he didn’t understand tag wrestling), Martel/Zenk over Spivey/Jerry Allen, Bundy and Orndorff over Muraco/Orton (crowd cheered neither team), Demolition over British Bulldogs via DQ (Dynamite looked really bad according to Dave), Demolition over Martel and Zenk by Countout, Killer Bees over Bunday and Orndorff after a mask confusion switch allowed Orndorff to get cradled, and then Bees winning the tourney over Demolition for a same-night title shot against the Hart Foundation. Bees were ordered to remove their masks but pulled new masks out a few minutes in and Bret ended up cradled for the pin. Danny Davis reversed the cradle and Bret ended up getting the pin for the win. Other bouts saw Hillbilly Jim pin Dino Bravo and Sivi Afi pin the Red Demon (Jose Luis Rivera). -Titan ran a tourney in the same style the week previous on 3/8 at the Meadowlands but only drew 5,000. Some different teams in like the Rougeaus and Spivey/Morales. Finals saw Martel/Zenk win the tourney over Valentine/Beefcake. Martel/Zenk vs. Hart Foundation was the same finish as the Toronto card. Apparently the matches were all bad except the title match. Dave: “The report on the card I got was that selling tapes of it to dentists would cut out the need for novacane.” -Crockett Cup lineup was announced and Dave suggests that unless they planned to work with other promotions, they should cut next year’s field down to 12 or 16 teams. Too many jobber teams made the lineup seem very watered down. “Notables” not in the top 10 seeds included Steve Keirn and Stan Lane (Keirn out of retirement to reform the team one more time), Thunderfoot I and II (Gene Ligon and Joel deaton), and Italian Stallion and Ricky Lee Jones. The list of non-rated teams seems to prove Dave’s point here. Flair vs. Windham will headline the 4/11 show and Ole-Big Bubba will headline the 4/10 show. -no issue next week, but a double issue with Crockett Cup and Wrestlemania III results and coverage after that. WWF -Wrestlemania had sold 78,500 at this point which was 9,500 short of a sellout. Sellout was “a certainty” which would make it the largest indoor crowd in North American history.(my note--when did the final "real" number of 78,000 ever come to light?) -Dave: “Do you realize that those midgets will look like small specs of dust from most of the seats there?” -live gate in Pontiac would be over 2 million—higher than all three gates at Wrestlemania II combined -no word on PPV or closed circuit expectations but Dave expected big walk-up business in the last two weeks. Ontario which is “inexplicably bananas for this stuff” sold out all of it’s closed circuit locations already including 12,000 seats at Maple Leaf gardens which sold out in two days -Dave estimated the whole package would bring in 17-20 million dollars when all was said and done -SNME on 3/14 amazed from a technical perspective. The matches were not good or bad -Savage vs. Steele was watchable, “which is a big compliment considering George Steele was involved.” Hart Foundation vs. Spivey/Santana was good when Spivey was not in the ring. “Even though Ray Charles could see the finish coming, it was still a lot of fun.” -Andre looked bad but not terrible, all things considered. He is wearing the “Machines” tights to hide his back brace, which he apparently needs at all times now -Andre-Hogan would surely be a bad match but as long as it was not embarrassing like Mr. T vs. Piper was last year, no harm would be done -Also: Jim Neidhart’s trial for allegedly striking a stewardess was to begin on 3/16. “US Marshals were standing next to the Dressing Room for the card on 3/15 in Toronto, and handcuffed him after the show to bring him back across the border. Neidhart was facing 20 years in jail if convicted Crockett -Ivan Koloff/Dick Murdoch won the US tag titles from Barry Windham and Ron Garvin at the TBS tapings on 3/14 -only eventful things from the TV shows were Ole and Arn Anderson’s interviews and Jim Cornette’s interviews with the Dog Biscuits. “Hilarious stuff”. -Rotondo and Morton’s interviews made snide remarks about Titan -Manny Fernandez talked faster than Roddy Piper and made no sense at all. His interviews had Dave rolling on the floor, he was laughing so hard. -3/8 “B” show in Beckley, WV drew a sellout of 5,000 for Brad Armstrong/Rick Morton winning non-title over Rude/Fernandez and Wahoo beating Arn -3/12 in Raleigh saw Garvins beat Midnights by DQ and Wahoo/Raschke lose to Koloff/Murdoch -3/12 in Sunrise drew $60,000 (4700, just under a sellout) for the largest gate in South Florida in years. Results saw Tully beat Dusty by DQ (Dillon throws object to Tully, Rhodes intercepts, KOs Tully, ref goes down Dusty’s trunks and finds object, DQs Dusty. This finish was going around the horn), Nikita over Arn, Rude/Fernandez over Morton/Gibson (really good), Windham drew Luger, and Valiant over Konga the Barbarian plus prelims 3/13 in Washington drew 3200 for Rude/Fernandez over Morton/Gibson in a cage (everyone going through the motions for a bad match. Fernandez apparently worked hard and carried everyone) 3/15 at the Met Center in Bloomington, MN drew 2500 for Flair over Windham in 26:00 (really good), Road Warriors returning from Japan to beat Rude/Fernandez by DQ, Luger over Raschke (one long bearhug), Dusty over Big Bubba in a 4:00 minute cage match “bad enough to piss off the fans”, and more 3/5 in Memphis drew 2500 (had to be disappointing due to all the popular wrestlers brought in for the show including Valiant, Mantel, and Morton/Gibson). Main event was Rhodes vs. Bill Dundee -upcoming 4/4 Boston card looked like it would out-draw the WWF Florida -Mike Rotonda won Florida title from Ed Gantner on 3/15 (“least telegraphed title change in at least the last day or two”). MOD Squad beat southern Boys for the tag title on the same card. Sullivan also beat Bad News Allen in a Thunderdome cage match -this was the last show for most of the wrestlers that had been working the area. Only 4 would be kept on (Kevin Sullivan, Scott Hall, Gantner, and Ron Simmons). - Kendall Windham would be kept to feud with Gantner when he recovered from a broken leg in a few weeks -Florida title lineage from the last few weeks: Bad News Allen lost the Florida title to Sir Oliver Humperdink after ref bumps and interference. Hump gave the title to Gantner, who then lost it to Rotonda -A feud between Ric Flair and Rotonda was going to be pushed -Adrian Street would be back for one show but would not stay since Crockett and Continental were not on working terms -The New Breed would be going to Charlotte but the rest of the Florida crew not mentioned previously was to be cut loose -Tombstone (Mark Dumer), one of the Florida wrestlers who was feuding with Scott Hall at the time, placed tenth in the 1984 World Powerlifting Championships. His lifts included a 604 lb bench press, 780 lb deadlift and an 880 lb squat -one stipulation with the Crockett takeover: All wrestlers they employed had to give up their independent bookings outside of the area. This affected Scott Hall and Kevin Sullivan directly Puerto Rico -Lineup for the 2/28 Antonino Rocca $25,000 Gillette Cup included Bruiser Brody, Invader I, Mighty Igor, Tony Atlas, Abdullah the Butcher, Jason the Terrible, TNT, and Dory Funk Jr. Also Colon vs. Hansen for the Universal title and more. Stampede -Viet Cong Express (Hiro Hase) and Gama Singh had a weird chain match on 2/21 in Calgary. Hase spent the whole bout using clean wrestling holds including a tremendous series of bridging suplexes to dominate. Both wrestlers are heels that were feuding to boot… -Brian Pillman is refereeing until his shoulder heals up. He is feuding with the heel ref of the area (Dave does not name him) -Kerry Brown and Duke Myers returned as a tag team called Porky’s I and Porky’s II -Ron Starr returned as a Heel to team with Mukhan Singh -Rookie Biff Wellington is looking to be a top candidate for 1987 Rookie of the Year Central States -Geigel’s first show in Kansas City on 3/6 drew 500 with Ken Timbs/Porkchop Cash going to a double DQ with faces Bart Batten and Rick McCord (the tag champs), Stony Burke beat CS Champ Bob Brown in a non-title match, Rufus Jones beat the Warlord (“the only Crockett Wrestler that Crockett wouldn’t recall”)(my note—I assume Crockett pulled out of some sort of agreement with Geigel which is why it is noted as a “Geigel card”. I found that strange since Geigel promoted KC forever…) -tournament for the TV title was upcoming (they claimed Tully Blanchard was stripped of the title) Memphis 3/9 drew 8,000. Results: Brickhouse Brown beat Johnathan Boyd, Mark Starr over Boy Tony via DQ, Alan West double countout vs. The Hunter (dale Veasey), Akio Sato/Tarzan Goto lost to JT Southern and Paul Diamond. Loser of the fall ahd to leave town, and Goto was the loser so he was gone, Soul Train Jones beat Lord Humongous in 17 seconds to retain the International Title (Dave notes that this version of Humongous is not Jeff Van Camp or Mike Stark, but apparently some 6-foot-8 rookie that is exceedingly bad) (my note—must be Sid), Jeff Jarrett over Pat Tanaka by DQ (“Great match”), The Midnight Rockers retained the AWA tag titles over Bib Bubba and Mighty Goliath and the main event was Jerry Lawler/Bam Bam Bigelow over Austin Idol/Tommy Rich when Lawler pinned Idol. (Dave: “I’m told it was an easy 4-star match.” ) -Dave states that from what he has seen and heard, Tommy Rich is doing a great job as a heel there but his interviews still don’t make any sense -Jerry Jarrett taking over the booking from Lawler on 4/1 - The promotion’s crowds are even more impressive in light of Crockett and UWF coming in recently (both drew about 2500). Memphis is drawing 7500 or better every week -Jerry Bryant was told by doctors to completely give up wrestling. The wording given Dave was that they told him there was no way he could continue wrestling and expect to live very long (my note—details, anyone?) UWF -Expect changes here since Eddie Gilbert was now booking and Jim Ross was running day-to-day operations. Watts had stepped aside. New faces were expected… -3/8 Tulsa TV tapings had Adams and Taylor going to a draw vs. Sam Houston/Ted Dibiase in a babyface battle -UWF back on TV in Philadelphia after a ton of phone calls to the local tv station (one day saw 250 calls come in!) -Mike Boyette missed some dates after suffering a concussion on the 3/8 TV taping in Tulsa vs. Gary Young (my note—I remember seeing this. I though Boyette might have been killed and I think it was just him landing wrong on an armdrag. He was out cold—yes, they aired that bout and the injury) -Watt’s son Erik was to start in the fall at the University of Louisville as a quarterback prospect More WWF News -Neidhart’s trial postponed until 4/8 -Samantha Fox cancelled her Wrestlemania III appearance. She was supposed to present the crown to the Harley Race-Junkfood Dog winner -Titan’s biggest enemy lately: GLOW! GLOW’s TV show cut the ratings in Los Angeles in half from 6 to 3, and were debuting in New York head-to-head with Titan’s TV on Saturdays -SNME rating was a 10.9 and a 30 share -3/10 TV in Dayton was a sellout. Not much done besides push Duggan to the moon. All action of his surrounded Iron Sheik and Volkoff -Blackjack Mulligan and Dan Spivey teamed at this TV taping and looked terrible. Dynamite Kid was in a 6-man with Davey and Tito but did not tag in once -fans were unhappy because they were told there would be 18 main events and all the squash matches led to constant boring chants. Creative editing would fix that, of course -Columbus taping on 3/11 also drew a sellout. One notable was the Hart Foundation and Roma/Powers totally botching their finish in their match, so they came back out and redid the entire match a bit later with the properly executed finish. Match was pretty much exactly the same both times. -A recent CNN broadcast said that the plan was for Andre be pinned by Heenan at Wrestlemania, and then turn on Heenan after announcing his retirement. Dave says that a source close to him said that if Andre’s back holds up, and it was expected that it would, he would come back later that year for some rematches with Hogan around the circuit. That made sense to Dave considering how the Silverdome show was selling -Tom Magee made an appearance at Dayton TV (Dave: “Magee is said to have a better body than Lex Luger, but I assume that depends on which part of the cycle each is on when you see them”) -3/14 in Philadelphia drew 16, 943 ($201k+) for Hogan/Piper over Kamala/Orndorff -Ken Patera is waiting for a starting date -3/6 in Providence had Savage/Honky Tonk Man over Steele/Steamboat by DQ AWA -4/9 Minneapolis show would be an all tag-team affair with the main event being Bockwinkel/Stevens vs. Super Ninja/Mr. Saito. Also a cage match featuring Col. DeBeers and a partner vs. Jimmy Snuka and a partner. The stipulation would be DeBeers would be allowed to pick both his own AND Snuka’s partner (my note—don’t think this one ever happened) -Stevens and Bockwinkel being billed as “Greatest tag team of all time”. Dave says it is a debatable point but in the end has nothing to do with how they are today Alabama -Buddy Landell over Ron Fuller for the Continental title on 2/28 in Chatanooga Montreal -Abdullah the Butcher is the new International Champion after beating Hercules Ayala -Sweet Daddy Siki has returned as a heel -the New Guinea Headhunters were coming in from Alabama after they finished up a loser-leave-town stint around that circuit (my note—I think International shut down not too long after this report was filed. Abdullah was the last champion and they did his title win around the circuit in every city they wrestled in on their way to closing up shop) World Class -Steve Casey had to have ankle surgery after landing wrong on a backdrop -Scott Casey (no relation) brought in to continue Steve’s feud with Black Bart -3/13 in Dallas had a double main event of Fantastics vs. RPMS and David Manning/Red River Jack with Brody in their corner vs. Gary Hart/Nord the Barbarian with Jeep Swenson in their corner (late note said the show only drew 1,100) -Swenson is about as thickly muscled as anyone you would ever see, and was actually OK in the ring considering he was the lead-footed power lifter type -WCCW should have a weight lifting contest between Dingo Warrior, Jeep, Ted Arcidi and Nord since none of them can wrestle worth a lick (although Dingo was noticeably improving) Other Late Notes -Piper’s retirement appearances on the West Coast did not draw well -Jackson, TN drew 3700 for Lawler-Idol in the main event -“Moscamania” is on the shelf as Angelo closed up shop. No NWA dates were scheduled through Ontario in the near future and the NWA had lost all of it’s Canadian television. Mosca sent a memo to those stations letting them know he was not involved anymore -TSN in Canada looked like it would pick up Stampede wrestling and would drop the AWA. They had been using old AWA on ESPN tapes for their wrestling TV recently (my note—I don’t remember the ESPN matches on TSN at all) -Rip Rogers was coming to Central States -In a major surprise Lex Luger was made the fourth horseman. Dave liked how the whole thing was done -several in Florida were impressed with how much better Luger had gotten in the last while. This is credited to tutelage from Tully Blanchard while teaming with him to wrestle against Barry Windham every night -3/16 in Memphis would have Bigelow vs. Rich and Lawler vs. Idol in simultaneous singles matches with it being legal for each partner to come to the other ring and double-team for up to a minute at a time. Rich had a Japan tour with Baba scheduled so Dave expected him to get injured in this match -Vivian Vachon returned to the ring in Japan after a ten-year layoff. She didn’t look good but that was to be expected. She mostly battled training fanatics -Deep South Economics lesson: The circuit was drawing 200-300 a night, for gates around $1300 to $2000. Mr. Wrestling II was wrestling with a guarantee of $200 a night and Tommy Rich for a $250 guarantee per night. How were they paying the rest of the crew? ...with great difficulty..not much left to go around at all. -Fantastics, Brody and Nord all going to the next NWF tapings. Scott Casey to Montreal… -Bill Watts did an interview on a St. Louis feed of a UWF show. He caused a ton of fireworks within city government when he accused the city government of restraint of trade and being in Titan’s hip pockets because he could not get a UWF show booked at the Kiel Auditorium. Dave paints this as having created a huge controversy but everything Watts said was basically true. He also said Watts did a great job portraying himself in a sympathetic light. -Kerry Von Erich was only expected to ever return for once-a-year special occasion type of angles. **I bolded the few Manny tidbits for Rob. Also, if someone can tell me how to make quotation marks appear instead of that greek gibberish that does appear in it's place (also for apostrophes), please let me know for next time.

I wrote up the 3/23/87 Observer which I will post shortly. A few Manny tidbits in there.

I can do one from 1987 if it's cool with Loss.

Was Ladd-Valentine included in the first airing of the Ladd HOF (This is the second go-around for his HOF show)?

Think the WWF would consider Paul Boesch? Unless, of course, he is in already. I lose track of who has been inducted previously rather easily.

Observer March 1984 Recap (Conclusion) MARITIME PROVINCES -promoter Al Zink’s International Wrestling promotion is returning in May after a 6 month absence with five confirmed shows a week and one “spot” show. There will be 10-14 wrestlers employed on a regular basis and Zinck expects to pay some of them 1200-2800 dollars per week to work there. -wrestlers appearing during the season will include Andre the Giant, Cyclone Negro, JJ Dillon, Dory Funk, Blackjack Mulligan, Ric Flair, Harley Race, Dusty Rhodes, Kevin Sullivan, Barry Windham and Jake Roberts. Zinck will be affiliated with the NWA and plans to negotiate a world title match for the area. -TV is being negotiated with the local ATV and a station out of Bangor, Maine -Emil Dupre’s Atlantic promotion will also run cards for the summer. The Cormiers (Leo Burke, Rudy Kay and Tery Kay) will appear for Dupre. -Zinck is working closely with Florida for his venture and will try to bringin wrestlers from Puerto Rico, Georgia and the Carolinas in an effort to invade McMahon-land. There is at least one card planned for Maine already. FLORIDA -Dusty Rhodes announced he would retire unless Kevin Sullivan’s suspension from Florida is lifted. -Sullivan has brought in Kharma (Gene Lewis from Dallas where he played The Mongol). He is billed as having been so deranged that he was given a lobotomy but Sullivan got ahold of him and rebuilt his thought process. “Don’t you love it?” opines Dave -Kendo Nagasaki won the state title over Mike Rotondo on 1/22 in Orlando. Rotondo and Mike Davis won the tag belts on 1/11 when Yellow Dog stole Ron Bass’s saddle and Bass and One Man Gang chased him to get it back. They were counted out and the titles changed. -2/8 in Miami had Bass vs. Yellow Dog with the saddle suspended above the ring -Flair was in for three dates. He went 60:00 with Rotondo on 1/15 in Orlando, was DQed against Dusty on 1/21 in St. Augustine and was DQed against Dusty again on 1/21 in Sarasota. -New in the area was Billy Jack as a face and getting well-received with a good push, and Jim Duggan as a villain. -Kharma dressed as The Midnight rider on 1/14 and caused Dusty to lose the first Dusty-Sullivan match. Then on 1/24 in Tampa Rhodes wrestled Kharma and if he won he would get Sullivan in the ring for 5 minutes, but SUlivan interfered and Rhodes lost again. -On the local TV show there was a story about Hogan winning the WWF title. Dave found this strange as almost every promotion was trying to ignore the win and not give Hogan any positive publicity. -Barry Windham is being noted as doing well in the “All-Asian Tournament”. Meanwhile Yellow Dog is beating Bass in bunkhouse and dog collar matches and slamming One Man Gang, all the while being it is being speculated by the announcers that Dog is Robert Fuller. -Black Bart not getting much of a build. Hector Guerrero working prelims but he is a hard worker and is wrestling very good -The son of Tony Charles, Anthony Charles, is almost a twin of Scott Armstrong. WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP WRESTLING -Ups and downs at the gate for this promotion. They drew 14,000 in Cleveland for a tag team tournament (Briscos beat Pez Whatley and Dusty Rhodes in the finals, with the Briscos wrestling in their Mid-Atlantic “Scientific Heels” role). The Briscos then appeared on TV the next morning as straight-up good guys. -tag title confusion: The Sawyers beat the Road Warriors for the title on 1/27 in Cleveland. Sawyers missed TV the next day and the Warriors were announced as being champs again. Later in the show the Warriors were interviewed and said they were looking for the Sawyers to try and regain the belts. On 2/4 TV the Warriors appeared with the belts and it was announced that Buzz Sawyer was injured. Bret Sawyer and Tommy Rogers both appeared on TV and vowed revenge for their brother, which was strange because the TV had not acknowledged that Buzz and Bret were brothers yet. -Buzz may have disappeared to join the WWF (likely according to Dave), in which case Ole announcing him as injured was “incredibly stupid”. -Ole was almost out of money and it was reported that Jim Barnett, a McMahon ally, would be moving in. -Despite all the WCW blunders, the WWF having local TV and Ole having to rely on cable for his TV, WCW still outdraws the WWF in most Ohio and West Virginia cities. (my note—why does this WCW recap ring so close to the blundering of WCW near the end of their run?) -12/25 in Atlanta (DiBiase vs. Rich, Rich retiring if he lost, Ellering vs.Sawyer Hair vs. hair) only drew 2500 to the Omni. Dave thinks that it drew so poorly because people are wise to Ole’s promotional tactics in retirement bouts or that people just didn’t care if Rich was gone or not. He expected this card to draw 10,000 given the rich tradition of Omni Christmas cards doing well at the gate. -1/15 Omni drew 4500 which is better than anything since Thanksgiving. Dave says that it being the first card in Atlanta in forever without Tommy Rich probably brought the fans out. (my note-Tommy Rich = Bob Backlund in Dave’s mind?) Results were Tommy Rogers winning the Jr title from Les Thornton but Thornton got the title back next day because his foot was on the ropes. Live crowd thought it was a title change. Ron Garvin drew Pez Whatley (now not turning heel), Jake Roberts retained TV belt going to a double Countout with Jerry Lawler, Jerry Brisco/Bugsy McGraw/Brett Sawyer beat The Road Warriors/Killer Karl Krupp when Krupp was pinned. After the bout, The Road Warriors cleared the ring until Stan Hansen, not booked on the card, came in and clobbered the LOD with a 2 x 4. Johnny Rich pinned Ted Dibiase when Mr. R interfered and in the finale Buzz Sawyer and Jos Leduc went to a bloody double DQ in a four minute match. -Dave is betting that the 2/5 Omni card drew less than 2000. Results were Garvin beating Bundy by forfeit (Garvin gets TV title match on 2/11 as a result), Mr. R beat the Spoiler, Roberts over Jerry Brisco to retain TV belt, Pez Whatley/Sweet Brown Sugar beat Road Warriors by DQ, and Dibiase retained Georgia title by beating Jack Brisco. -wrestlers on TV but not at the Omni in the last month included Hansen, Jay Youngblood (looking really fatigued), Wahoo McDaniel, Jimmy Valiant, Ric Flair and Brad Armstrong. Dave is impressed with how much Brad has improved. -Bob Armstrong was set to appear with Brad but is in the hospital. The promotion claimed Dibiase injured Bob but Dave believes the injuries were legit (given his speculation in the Southeast section combined with no buildup or angle around the injury happening). Bob received several broken bones in his face which also makes Dave believe he came out on the wrong side of a real fight. -The Spoiler looks slow, which is understandable according to Dave because he has been wrestling “since before I was alive and has to be in his mid/late 40’s”. He was involved in a bad skit on 2/4 where he put the Claw on Greg Kosloff, billed as a protégé of Ole’s. -Bundy turned good guy on that 2/4 show when Paul Ellering was making fat guy jokes about Bundy and Ellering did not realize that the comments were going out on air as he said them. Bundy jumped Ellering and The Road Warriors jumped on Bundy. Bundy looked very bad in the brawl. It is expected Bundy would replace Buzz against the LOD for the departing Buzz. -others shown on tape on their TV include Dick Slater, Greg Gagne (apparently because of Ole’s supposed alliance with Verne), and Magnum TA (“which shows Ole doesn’t know something very important”)(--my note—anyone know what Dave is implying here?) -Dave thinks the Briscos looked good in their appearances and Sweet Brown Sugar looks out of shape since being out with an eye injury. -Ole using an “interesting’ promotional tactic for Baltimore on 2/16. It’s billed as “Fan Appreciation night” and fans are encouraged to bring their cameras. This is a shot at the WWF as they had banned cameras at their shows for several months already. The lineup which Dave thinks won’t draw includes DiBiase vs. Mr. R, Road Warriors/Ellering vs. Hansen/Bundy/Brett Sawyer, and Bruno Jr. vs. Zbyszko before both leave for the Midwest. MID ATLANTIC -Dick Slater beat Greg Valentine for the US title on 12/22. End saw Orton interfere, Valentine go after him and get back suplexed for the pin. It was a 30 minute match and Dave said the action was really good. Valentine is still wrestling as a good guy. -Slater pinned Ric Flair at TV on 1/20 when Orton held Flairs legs. Slater was given the belt even though it was announced as a non-title match before the bout began. The belt ended up getting taken away due to Orton’s interference. Slater is claming he is the uncrowned champ and to give credence to this he is beating Flair cleanly in several non-title matches around the area including 2/5 in Greenville with a Russian Leg Sweep in a pretty clean match. -Slater gave the Mid Atlantic title to Ivan Koloff who was then upended by Angelo Mosca Jr on 1/26. Mosca Jr. has improved “but is still very bad”. -TV title is still held up after Charlie Brown disappeared and Jimmy Valiant came back. -TV title tourney started with Mark Youngblood beating Barry Orton (both are pretty good according to Dave). Michael Samuel Houston (Jake’s brother) is also in town. -Bob Orton Jr. and Don Kernodle, who Dave thinks are the second best team in the US, are set to battle the Youngbloods after beating Valentine and Dory Funk and Angelo Mosca Sr and Wahoo McDaniel. -Jay Youngblood legit sprained his ankle which would keep him on crutches for two weeks minimum -Rick Steamboat wrestled several farewell matches, beating Ivan Koloff around the horn. The last one that Dave knew of was 1/22 in Roanoke. His Greensboro farewell, which most of his fans assumed was his real last bout, drew 6800. -Ernie Ladd is winning most of the bouts in his feud with Angelo Mosca Sr. Dave has heard the bouts are pretty bad -another feud is Jimmy Valiant/Dusty Rhodes/Dory Funk/Baron Von Raschke vs. The Assassins/Paul Jones with Raschke getting a pretty good response. -Brody and Hansen were in Greensboro on 2/5 for a rare US appearance and apparently faced Dory Funk and Terry Gibbs -Tully Blanchard in and winning a few prelims -Kabuki is back -shocker to Dave is the Grapplers (Len Denton and Tony Anthony) are appearing here without their maska and losing to the likes of Johnny Weaver and Vinnie Valentino -Big news is this promotion teaming with Puerto Rico and Atlanta to run TV in New York on Spanish channel 41 and they are announcing that they are on their way to the Big Apple. Dave thinks the TV is weak because the interviews are given in English and then translated to Spanish which loses a lot of steam. Still, Dave thinks that they could not make a dent in the market yet still draw decently enough to make it a worthwhile venture. OTHER LATE NOTES (I may have done some of these already) -Killer Khan beat Stomper for NA title in Calgary on 1/30 -John Quinn and Ron Starr now working for Stampede as well -12/26 MSG will be re-broadcast on USA Network in March -Bruiser’s Indianapolis group drew two sellouts (3100) for Bruiser and Brody vs. tag champs Jerry Valiant and Abdullah the Great. Brody no-showed both dates although Dave was told he was really expected to be there. Bruiser teamed with Jeff Van Kamp instead to win the tag titles -Mid South Correction: the three Oklahoma City cards featuring Garvin, Adams and their valets drew in the 8-10,000 range and the12,000 at the 1/29 show was the largest crowd ever to see wrestling in the state of Oklahoma. -Reed and Neidhart’s split after they lost the Mid South tag titles on 12/25 occurred in the dressing room and the two were facing each other in football helmet matches now -Kerry in at the last Mid South TV tapes. Terry Taylor getting big reception there for his bouts -Hogan billed in Vegas on Jan 4 against Billy Robinson. Show drew 6,000. Hogan was replaced by Jesse Ventura -1/24 in Vegas drew 8900 even without Hogan billed at all for Bockwinkel over Rheingans, Lanza over Heenan in a Bunkhouse match -1/14 in Boston drew 14,800 (just under a sellout) for a Battleroyal won by Slaughter and Backlund over Iron Shiek by DQ -2/18 in Philly not a cage bout between Hogan and Superstar. Also Snuka/Andre vs. Muraco/Slaughter -JYD set to feud with Darsow in Mid South. Darsow to Siberia if he loses -Sheepherders, Bobby Jaggers and Manny Fernandez all arrested on 2/1 during a match on the East Coast due to the match getting so out of hand that chairs. Tables and garbage cans were thrown into the crowd. All pleaded innocent to the charges -Bass and Bart won US tag titles from Davis and Rotondo on 2/6 in West Palm Beach -Geigel had a show set for Kemper Arena in KC featuring Road Warriors, Kamala, Brody, McDaniel, Flair, JYD, and more -Matt Borne returned to the Northwest joining Oliver’s Clan to replace departing Dynamite Kid -Borne then turned good by helping the good guys (Curt Hennig and Pat McGee) retain their tag titles over Oliver and The Assassin in a rematch. Heels then beat up Borne with a cowbell to set up Oliver vs. Borne on 1/28. Borne beat Oliver with a chair for the win in only a few minutes. Brett Sawyer returning in March and Piper set to return in May -Curt Hennig won annual Salem battleroyal and one-night tournament -Kid either returning to Portland or going to Calgary after Japan trip -Ed Wiskoski bought a ranch and is semi-retired. Dave hears he is gaining weight and moving slower -coming in for WCCW were Lars Anderson, Kelly Kiniski, JYD and Jim Neidhart -Parsons over SD I for Texas TV title on 2/6 in Fort Worth -Mid South newcomers due to Dundee’s booking include Rock and Roll Express, Masao Ito, and Buddy Landell -Volkoff headed to Atlanta -DiBiase vs. Mr. R in mask vs. National title on 2/18 in what will certainly end up being a title change (my note—is this the Mr. R angle where he was actually Brad Armstrong and Rich appeared at ringside near the end of the bout?) FINAL PAGE There is a picture of Carlos Colon escaping a cage against NWA World Champion Ric Flair on 12/18 in San Juan in a bout to determine the Undisputed World Title. Colon won but the NWA did not recognize the change because they don’t allow “first out of the cage” as an option for a win in NWA title matches contested in a cage. That’s all for the March 1984 Observer.

Cool. Also there's note about Piper ready to come in to the PNW at the end of this last update (posting next). Think Dave forgot that Piper was working for Vince at that point?

March 1984 Observer recap, continued ST. LOUIS WRESTLING CLUB -22-man battleroyal on 2/3 at Kiel was won by Barry Windham. He “won” $35,000 and a title shot against Ric Flair on 2/17 in a bout that would no doubt be excellent. -“The Chrome Dome Connection” was bringing in talent from several areas for the 2/17 card. Bouts included Race defending the Missouri title against Wahoo McDaniel, Dusty Rhodes vs. Luke Graham (“honestly folks, if you’re in a promotional war, why put a match like this on?”), Patera and Blackwell vs. Ritchie and Robley, Dick Slater vs. King Cobra, Mulligan vs. Bob Brown and the Grapplers vs. Mark and Jay Youngblood. -drew 9,372 for the 2/3 card, with three hours of TV helping that out -The 1/11 card was accurately reported previously as being a sellout (11,000+). Main event for that card was Flair-Brody. -On the AWA show that is broadcast into that market, Nick Bockwinkel has been interviewed and is asking for a title vs. title match against Flair later that year. (my note—I have some of these shows and it’s pretty cool to see). -Dave lists reasons why it would be better for Flair to win a title vs. title match against Bockwinkel: The bouts would be better as Nick had gotten boring, and there were AWA cities (St. Paul, Chicago) that drew more than 10,000 which would benefit from seeing Flair regularly. Dave says the AWA has no real contenders but Flair vs. Brunzell or Gagne would at least be different. Dave also expects any title vs. title match would need to have a conclusive finish as the St. Louis crowd was not used to double countouts. - Dave also figured that this would be where the WWF would possibly slip up in the St. Louis market: lack of conclusive finishes in main events. -ultimately Dave does not think this will happen because Gagne would have to admit his title was second best to the NWA title, at least to himself. CWA/JARRETT PROMOTIONS -crowds were up since the low of 2500 on 12/19 (Lawler/Idol W DQ Savage/Leduc) -12/26 show (Lawler pinned Idol with Jimmy Hart’s help to earn a shot at Bockwinkel, Kiern W loser leaves town for a year match with Dundee) drew 6,450 -Jimmy Hart’s family had a major housecleaning happen with The A Team, Moondogs, Dennis Condrey, The grapplers and more all gone. New in were the Zambuie Express and King Konga. They were under the charge of JJ Dillon. -Hart kept begging Lawler to help him run JJ Dillon and his family out of the area. Lawler kept refusing. Later Sabu (A Hart wrestler) was beating Lawler badly until Hart tripped Sabu and allowed Lawler to get the pin. Hart then claimed that Lawler owed him one. -Dave expected King Konga to win the Southern title before that issue reached it’s subscribers -Zambuies won the tag title by forefeit over the Fabulous Ones. The Fabs did not show up apparently because of the weather being treacherous. Dave heard that this was probably a legit excuse and the Zambuies would not hold the belt for long because they were booked for Japan soon -Bockwinkel in for matches vs. Lawler. 1/1 saw Lawler win by DQ, and 1/9 is the $500 per-punch match with two refs (Paul Morton and Austin Idol). Stanley Blackburn in attendance so Lawler winning the title and having the decision reversed was not a surprise. -Bock-Lawler drew 7800 in Memphis on 1/1, 5600 on 1/9 in Memphis, 4900 on 1/10 in Louisville and 4000 on 1/23 in Louisville (The Louisville bouts had similar endings to the two Memphis bouts. -Rick Rood in doing a Jimmy Garvin impression complete with valet -1/3 Louisville drew it’s largest gate in history (and about 6,000 fans) to see the Fabs vs. the debuting Road Warriors. Bout was a double DQ. LOD won on 1/4 in Evansville by Dq and had a double DQ against Lawler and Idol on 1/5 in Lexington. Lawler taking a beating in the LOD matches for most of those bouts -1/7 Louisville saw Roadies back for a Lumberjack match with the Fabs (LOD counted out) before 4200. LOD was scheduled to be Memphis regulars after their Georgia commitments were done -Idol defending his title against Leduc, Sabu, and Savage -Mantel feuding with Savage as well -Patera and Blackwell in on 1/16 and beat Morton and Gibson in an AWA tag title match -Fabs won Loser Leaves Town bouts over Moondogs throughout the circuit -1/23 in Louisville saw the Fabulous Ones beat the Rock and Roll Express in a scientific match. Fabs were cheered heavily but R and R’s were not booed, just cheered less. SOUTHEAST -Flair pinned bob Armstrong on Jan 2 in Birmingham. Armstrong left for Georgia after that and was seriously injured in either a car accident or a bar brawl. -Charlie Cook beat Jerry Stubbs for the State title on 1/9 -Leduc lost a Loser Leaves Town match to Robert Fuller so he went back to Memphis -1/23 saw Jacques Rougeau beat Super O in a hair vs. mask match. O turned out to be Arn Anderson/Marty Lunde. -also David Morgan (“Is he the very good English wrestler?”) beat Franklin Hayes (“billed as Michaels brother and really may be as he was so bad in Memphis that he was let go after one week”) -tag belts haven’t been mentioned since Ron Starr, who holds the titles with Wayne Farris, disappeared from the circuit a few months ago CALGARY -“If anyone lives up to his nickname it’s Bad News Allen Coage.” Dave then lists some of his exploits: * punching a fan while brawling with Davey Boy Smith outside the ring, knocking over a pregnant woman who had to be taken to the hospital, and failing to report for his pre-match physical. All this happened on the same night in Edmonton and Coage is suspended from wrestling there as a result. *Breaking the collarbone of Jeff Gouldie (Archi’s son) apparently legitimately “Because it was brutal enough to where the Calgary Boxing and Wrestling Commission banned wrestling from TV and long-time announcer Ed Whalen quit over the brutality.” *The following weekat a suburban Calgary show, Coage caused a riot with 4,000 fans that caused the show to have to be ended early *Coage had been suspended several months earlier. He was gone from the area after losing the NA title on 12/23 to The Stomper. *Coage’s actions also caused the Commission to have Stu Hart post a $10,000 bond insuring no more fighting outside of the ring *Coage bloodied up Inoki on a 12/19 card in Vancouver where Inoki was fighting Kerry Brown. Brown was DQ’ed for this. The bout was shown in Japan. Several Japanese wrestlers appeared on that card including Nobuhiko Takada going to a draw with Hiroyuki Saito, Two Rivers (actually Japanese matman Junji Hirata, and Dave has no idea how they sold him as a native) pinning Cuban Assassin, and The Cobra and Tatsumi Fujinami going to a double countout with Davey Boy Smith and Bret Hart. TORONTO -Area is getting reputation for being heavy on the “no-shows” lately. Recent example was the 1/8 Piper-Buzz Sawyer Dog collar match turned into Piper vs. Kurt Von Hess Dog Collar match when Buzz didn’t show up. Piper beat Hess easily and without drama -on 1/8 Slaughter lost to Mosca Sr by countout in a Canadian title match (Slaughter is Champion). Mistake on TV on 1/7 as the 1/22 promos were shown and the cage match on that card between Mosca and Slaughter was advertised “so Sgt. Can’t run”. This of course was the day before the 1/8 countout between the two… -Piper set to wrestle Don Kernodle which could be interesting for a variety of reasons, if it comes off (my note—Not sure what the deal is with this item. Anyone?) MONTREAL 12/12 in Montreal saw Brito/Parisi win the tag titles from Lefebvre and Pat Patterson 12/26 in Montreal saw Bravo pin Bockwinkel (non title), Andre beat Mulligan, Leo Burke kept his NA title with a DQ win over Abdullah the Butcher, and Parisi/Brito beat Lefebvre/Frenchy Martin 12/28 in Quebec City saw Bravo win a battleroyal for another crack at Bockwinkel and Andre beat Mulligan -There might be problems between promoter Frank Valois and the Mcmahons due to Bockwinkel being in with the AWA title. -January cards were featuring Bravo vs. Martel in scientific matches with Bravo winning more to come….

This I found weird: Memphis experts, do you recall any similarities between Rood in that time frame and Garvin's persona? I'm curious if he actually did lift some mannerisms and stuff from Garvin while in Memphis.