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Titans of Wrestling #56: Roddy Piper Tribute Part 2


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Let's analyse this briefly:

 

New Japan tour

 

Boston Feb 11th - Iron Sheik

 

Philly Feb 18th - Masked Superstar

 

MSG Feb 20th - Paul Orndorff

 

Pittsburgh Feb 24th - Iron Sheik

 

LA Feb 25th - Masked Superstar

 

St. Louis March 2nd - Big John Studd

 

Baltimore March 3rd - Paul Orndorff

 

Landover March 4th - Iron Sheik

 

Salisbury March 5th - David Schultz

 

Altoon March 8th - David Schultz

 

Sacramento March 9th - Big John Studd

 

LA March 10th - Iron Sheik

 

East Rutherford March 11th - David Schultz

 

Boston March 17th - David Schultz

 

St. Louis March 23rd - Big John Studd

 

LA March 24th - David Schultz

 

MSG March 25th - no match

 

Philly March 31st - no match

 

Utica April 1st - Afa

 

Buffalo April 2nd - Sika

 

St. Louis April 6th - Big John Studd

 

Altoon April 7th - Paul Orndorff

 

Johnstown April 8th - David Scultz

 

Detroit April 13th - David Scultz

 

Boston April 14th - no match

 

Dayton April 15th - Paul Orndorff

 

Cincinnati April 16th - Greg Valentine

 

MSG April 23rd - no match

 

Pittsburgh April 27th - no match

 

Baltimore April 28th - Greg Valentine

 

Oakland April 30th - Tiger Chung Lee

 

Shots with no dates: Binghamton (Afa), Iron Sheik (Erie), Niagra Falls (Paul Orndorff), Troy (David Schultz).

 

Westchester County May 2nd - David Schultz

 

Utica May 3rd - David Schultz

 

Philly May 5th - Iron Sheik

 

Hazleton May 6th - Paul Orndorff

 

Then it's a New Japan tour.

 

So in this period of three months or so:

 

Iron Shiek - 6 matches. But notably, these are all big venues: Boston Gardens, Spectrum, LA, Cap Centre and a monster gate in Pittsburgh. Basically a return bout for the title in all the major markets. In March he transitions to Slaughter feud.

 

Masked Superstar - 2 matches. My impression is that these bouts were a hold over and Hogan was simply plugging in for Backlund.

 

Paul Orndorff - 6 matches. He has Hogan's only MSG match in this period, debuted the month before. Worked the previous month in Baltimore vs. Backlund. He's basically a midcard heel at this time, being managed by Piper and tagging with him or else having IC shots vs. Tito. He's a placeholder opponent on smaller shows.

 

Big John Studd - 4 matches. For whatever reason Studd worked all three Kiel shows in St. Louis. Your old-fashioned three-match program in a big venue. The other date is a completely random incursion into Sacramento, for a small show, the first time WWF ever ran there.

 

David Schultz - 10 matches. Clearly Hogan's "go to" opponent in this period and the most major program aside from Iron Shiek. Seems like Orndorff might have got injured and Schultz subbed which might have inflated the number a bit.

 

Greg Valentine, Afa - 2 matches. Placeholder opponents. Along the lines of Bobby Duncum vs. Backlund.

 

Sika, Tiger Chung Lee - 1 match. Ditto.

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Nice analysis Parv. It's a very wide variety of programs by WWF standards and none of them were referred to at all on WWF TV except local promos. They weren't feuds at all they were just random matches. Even the Piper thing is so brief as a feud, ditto Bundy. I would argue that Hogan's first real true, month plus long, went in all the major markets and was nearly exclusive was Orndorff and that's nearly 2.5 years into the run! Gotta assume a lot of this was spread the Hogan money around to various opponents because once he comes back in 88 he works with far far far less people per month.

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I typed up the raw data for the rest of the big arena matches from 84. Must dash. Analysis later.

 

May

 

MSG - Schultz

Kiel - Orndorff

 

June

 

Philly - Iron Sheik

Kiel - Orndorff

MSG / Boston / Pittsburgh - no match (carried by Slaughter vs. sheik)

Quebec - Goulet

LA - Orndorff

 

July

 

Philly - Orndorff

Chicago - Studd

Boston - Orndorff

Meadowlands - Andre tag vs. Studd, Adonis, Murdoch

Kiel - no match

Pittsburgh - Orndorff

MSG - Valentine

Cap Centre - Orndorff

 

August

 

Philly - Valentine

Boston - no match

Toronto - Valentine

Kiel - Steele

LA - no match

Chicago - Studd

Pittsburgh - Orndorff

Omni - Schultz

MSG - no match

 

September

 

Kiel - Steele

Philly - no match

Boston - no match

Detroit - Ventura

Toronto - no match

Pittsburgh - no match

MSG - Studd (sub for Ventura)

Kiel - Mr. Fuji

Cap Centre - Orndorff

Chicago - Steele

 

October

 

Omni - Studd

Boston - Piper (first ever match)

Toronto - no match

Pittsburgh - Studd (sub for Ventura)

Philly - Studd (sub for Ventura)

Meadowlands - no match

LA - Studd

Cap Centre - no match

Chicago - Studd

Toronto - no match

MSG - Studd

St. Louis - Kamala (Andre subbed for Hogan)

Omni - no match

 

November

 

Boston - Piper

Pittsburgh - Studd

Philly - no match

Chicago - tag with Mad Dog Vachon vs. Fuji / Steele

Cap Centre - no match

Omni - no match

MSG - no match

LA - no match

 

December

 

Philly - no match

Detroit - no match

Cap Centre - no match

Boston - no match

Toronto - Volkoff (Hogan subbed for Slaughter)

Meadowlands - Studd

Chicago - no match

Omni - Orndorff

Kiel - Beefcake

MSG - Iron Sheik

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