Between the Sheets #59 (August 31-September 6, 1988) (Featuring Jordan Breen)

[KrisZ]

 

Kris & David are joined by Jordan Breen (Sherdog) to discuss the week that was August 31-September 6, 1988. We discuss the potential sale of the NWA and why Dusty Rhodes was such a douchebag on TV at the time, we also talk about Antonio Inoki being a total opportunist, Maritimes Memories from Jordan, Memphis vs. Continental on FNN, World Class management issues, and the impending birth of Akeem the African Dream. Part of the show didn’t record and it’s talked about during the show but other than that this is a really great show!!!

 

0:00:00 Jim Crockett Promotions
1:31:05 Japan: AJPW & NJPW
2:03:20 The Amazon Game & in-house notes
2:52:35 Other North America: Canada, EMLL, UWA, & WWC
3:11:17 USA East: CWA, CWF, & SCW
3:48:27 USA West: WCCW & AWA
4:07:37 WWF

 

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[KrisZ]

And now for the notes for the missing part of the show

 

The Oregon state athletic commission had a meeting on 9/1. Don Owen had petitioned the state to do away with its ruling that there had to be metal barriers separating crowd from the ring area and mats on the floor to protect the wrestlers taking bumps out of the ring. Owen claimed he couldn't afford to haul the mats and the barriers because they don't fit in his ring truck and would have to get a second truck and second drive. Sierra was there without his mask and said that the mats weren't safe and he has often twisted his ankle in them. After all that, the commission ruled that Owen would have to comply with the new regulations within two months. One of the commission members then questioned Sierra about a forehead wound, which looked fresh. Sierra said the wound was from two years ago. The commission re-affirmed its policy against blood, either from the blood or "hardway" style. They said any match with blood would be stopped immediately and the person would be suspended for 30 days. Owen and Sierra both publicly said they were all for that ruling, which sounds funny since Owen's territory has a history of bloodbaths and is the only territory when faced with an anti-blading commission to actually have its wrestlers do blood the hardway.

Don Owen will be having some new competition in this area after all. Mel Saracema purchased the assets of the recently-folded Oregon Wrestling Federation from Billy Jack Haynes and will start up a new group called the Pacific Coast Wrestling Association which has set 10/1 as an opening target date with Joey Jackson, Tiger Chung Lee, Coco Samoa, Mike Miller, Moondog Moretti, Rip Oliver, Ole Olson and Tim Flowers rumored as being the talent. I don't see any way that an area of this size can support two full-time promotions, particularly with the WWF coming in and running monthly cards in Portland and Seattle plus running spot shows in the smaller towns. I think Owen himself would be doing well to survive Titan's small town excursions around the territory.

The Beach Boys (Buddy Rose & Avalanche) captured the Northwest tag team titles from the Southern Rockers (Steve Doll & Scott Peterson) on 9/3 in Portland when Avalanche came off the top rope to pin Peterson.

A surprise newcomer to the area is Dennis Condrey, who debuted on 9/3 beating Art Barr and is working here full-time as a heel. In Wrestling Forum, Greg Anderson mentioned that Condrey had a great line about why he’s going to be a singles wrestler when doing guest commentary on the opener. Paraphrased: “When I lose a tag match, my partner might be the reason, but when I lose a singles match there’s only one person to blame: The referee.”

Newcomer The Top Gun is David Sierra, who was formerly The Masked Assassin who lost a loser leaves town match to Buddy Rose. The angle here is really funny, in fact I should mention that Buddy Rose as one of the Beach Boys is one of the most inspired gimmicks of '88 and should play on a major circuit. Rose & Avalanche as Beach Boys enter the ring to Beach Boys music and carry big Beach balls to the ring.

9/3 in Portland also saw Grappler beat Mike Golden in a death match,Two Eagles beat Madril via DO, Top Gun beat DeBeers via DQ and Condrey pinned Barr.

POTPOURRI

From Wrestling Forum: “Dusty Rhodes’ son is beginning his professional wrestling career down in Florida for Mike Graham’s promotion. He’ll be using the name Dustin Rhodes and I believe he will be billed as Dusty’s son. He was trained by Skandor Akbar (which is a surprise because we had always been led to believe that Dusty and Skandor were mortal enemies in real life) and Akbar has nothing but good things to say about Dustin. Okay.”

It was revealed in Wrestling Forum Lou Thesz has opened a wrestling school in Virginia where he’ll be training wrestler in freestyle and Greco Roman wrestling. The idea is that he’ll start a shoot-style promotion in the U.S., but even if that doesn’t catch on, he thinks he can get his trainees work in Japan

Former Los Angeles wrestling promoter Mike LeBelle pleaded guilty to possessing 61 U.S. Spring access codes which he gave others so they could make charge calls without paying. LeBelle was arrested as part of an investigation into a nationwide ring suspected of marketing unauthorized codes which U.S. Spring claims cost them nearly $3 million.

This past week on the Global Wrestling TV show they claimed that Reverend Johnson bought the TV show and it's now called the BWA (Black Wrestling Alliance) and only blacks are wrestling on the TV show. That is a real strange angle. . .

Pro Wrestling This Week is scheduled to go back to its one-hour format on 10/1. Host Joe Pedicino is hopeful that the switch back to one hour will allow PWTW to get back on in the major markets once again.

Congrats to Joe Pedicino, whose wrestling block in Atlanta moved from Ch. 36 to Ch. 69 over Labor Day weekend, and has come out looking good as he's finished fourth in the time slot (behind only network programming and beating out TBS) each week, and leads all independents throughout the seven hour block. . . He's aired some tapes of FLAIR, the women's group out of Houston, which I'm told are pretty poor. The crowds are non-existent as when they do hot spots, they do cutaways to either World Class or AWA crowd shots.

Carolina Championship Wrestling drew 2,180 fans and $12,500 on 9/2 in Roanoke Rapids, NC which was an SRO crowd mainly because of Robert Gibson. Top bouts saw Jimmy Valiant pin Buddy Landel and Robert Gibson & Lazertron (Hector Guerrero) over The Mod Squad.

9/3 in Medina, OH drew 500 fans for Great Lakes Wrestling which brought in Jerry Lawler who pinned Wahoo McDaniel in the main event of a match where Lawler was a total heel. Other matches involving name talent saw Kevin Von Erich & Michael Hayes beat The Spoiler (Don Jardine--who was famous as The Spoiler in the 70s) & Adrian Street, Kimala pinned Jimmy Valiant and Madusa Maceli went to a double DQ against Flabulous Moolah in, and this shocked probably each and every fan in attendance, a brawl all over the building and the best match on the card. Apparently the two never worked out a match beforehand, which normally is a disaster, especially considering Moolah's age and Maceli's ability, but it worked out fine. Great Lakes wants to start up a full-time circuit using local wrestlers plus occasional AWA and World Class folks and guys like Bobo Brazil, Bulldog Brower, Johnny Powers and the Mighty Igor who live in the area.

Jerry Grey is running a group called Southern Wrestling Federation in Florida drawing between 200 and 500 fans working three to four shows weekly. Hiro Matsuda, Dory Funk and Wendi Richter have worked shows for him as have Bill Mulkey, Bob Cook and Tommy Wright.

Former WWF wrestler Butch Reed has been competing on the rodeo circuit as a bulldogger since his wrestling departure after Wrestlemania IV.

Jesse Ventura is currently in Toronto filming a movie called "Thunderguard," directed by David Mitchell. There aren't any well-known actors in the flick and Ventura has the leading role.

The 9/2 issue of USA Today in Jeannie Williams' gossip column reported that the New York Daily News is seriously considering running a weekly pro wrestling column. I believe the decision will be made within a week or so. Vince McMahon isn't going to like this column from what I understand.

Leroy Rochester, who used the ring name "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown," passed away this past Tuesday (9/6) in a hospital in Savannah, GA at the age of 38. Brown had been hospitalized since suffering a stroke on 8/27 and had been in bad shape ever since. Brown also used the ring name Elijah Akeem, as one-half of the Zambuie Express tag team with Kareem Muhammad (Ray Candy). At 6-foot-5 and weighing between 300 and 350 pounds, Brown's size catapulted him to main event status almost from the start of his career in 1975. He got his ring name from a popular song by Jim Croce, as Bad Bad Leroy Brown from the South Side of Chicago, and as a trivia note, was the first wrestler in the modern era of pro wrestling to use entrance music (the song of the same name), which was popularized several years later by The Freebirds and nowadays is used by just about every key figure in the business. Another wrestler, Sylvester Ritter, who his ring name from the same song, as Leroy was not only badder than King Kong, but meaner that the Junkyard Dog. Brown hit most of the major promotions in the U.S. during his career, save the WWF and the AWA (which pretty well has a policy of rarely pushing blacks) and due to his size, generally received a decent push. He pretty much faded from the scene by 1985, but was brought back by Bill Watts in late 1986 and along with Bill Irwin held the UWF tag team titles. After being fired early in 1987, his name popped up sparingly, generally on small independent shows in the Georgia area.

[soup23]

Impressive run going 59 shows without having a portion being cut

[KrisZ]

Yeah it was a freak accident...

[PeteF3]

I can confirm that my father suspected the POP might be the Road Warriors, though he wasn't 100% for sure and decided they weren't after seeing them 3 or 4 times. We didn't know they worked Crockett, much less their facepaint status or lack thereof there.

 

It also wasn't until he took the paint off and changed his look that we identified the Barbarian as probably being a South Pacific islander.

[TravJ1979]

So for the unenlightened, can we get a timeline of the events that led Bix to not be a Punk supporter anymore? Also, an explanation of "...and Colt Cabana" in regards to carrying the pale ...

Sometimes this show is too inside.

[bucky]

If you hadn't lost that one portion, this probably would have exceeded five hours. Still might have been the longest episode yet. Love it. The Iron Man of podcasts.

[GSR]

So for the unenlightened, can we get a timeline of the events that led Bix to not be a Punk supporter anymore? Also, an explanation of "...and Colt Cabana" in regards to carrying the pale ...

Sometimes this show is too inside.

 

I agree with this. There are times when Kris or Bix will say something, the other will start laughing and I'm wanting you to explain but nothing. It happened again on this episode.

[The Russian Daydream]

Indeed, this happens from time-to-time. I was left racking my brain through most of my drive to work today trying to think which Jewish wrestler, who toured Japan in the 80s it was who Bix thought most likely to have been more adept than Dr Death at smuggling contraband substances.

 

There needs to be a glossary of references that those of us not 'in the know' can refer to!

[KrisZ]

Some stuff we can't say because we don't want to get sued.......

 

The deal with Punk & Cabana involves the lawsuit Punk has against WWE and what happened with Cabana's involvement recently

[goc]

Indeed, this happens from time-to-time. I was left racking my brain through most of my drive to work today trying to think which Jewish wrestler, who toured Japan in the 80s it was who Bix thought most likely to have been more adept than Dr Death at smuggling contraband substances.

 

There needs to be a glossary of references that those of us not 'in the know' can refer to!

I figured that was Joe Malenko especially with the comment about "he sure was in demand" later.

[KrisZ]

 

Indeed, this happens from time-to-time. I was left racking my brain through most of my drive to work today trying to think which Jewish wrestler, who toured Japan in the 80s it was who Bix thought most likely to have been more adept than Dr Death at smuggling contraband substances.

 

There needs to be a glossary of references that those of us not 'in the know' can refer to!

I figured that was Joe Malenko especially with the comment about "he sure was in demand" later.

 

 

Maybe..................................................................................................................................................

[TravJ1979]

Some stuff we can't say because we don't want to get sued.......

 

The deal with Punk & Cabana involves the lawsuit Punk has against WWE and what happened with Cabana's involvement recently

What was Cabana's recent involvement and what does all this have to do with Bix changing allegiances away from Punk? The only thing I can think of is he declined an interview or something.

[goc]

9/3 in Medina, OH drew 500 fans for Great Lakes Wrestling which brought in Jerry Lawler who pinned Wahoo McDaniel in the main event of a match where Lawler was a total heel.

I imagine a significant portion of the audio that was lost was you guys talking about how awesome it would be to have footage of Lawler vs. Wahoo.

[KrisZ]

Cabana was backstage at a show recently and Punk flipped on him calling him a traitor and regarding Bix he can tell that one if he wants......

[KrisZ]

 

9/3 in Medina, OH drew 500 fans for Great Lakes Wrestling which brought in Jerry Lawler who pinned Wahoo McDaniel in the main event of a match where Lawler was a total heel.

I imagine a significant portion of the audio that was lost was you guys talking about how awesome it would be to have footage of Lawler vs. Wahoo.

 

 

It was brought up yes

[The Russian Daydream]

 

 

 

 

Indeed, this happens from time-to-time. I was left racking my brain through most of my drive to work today trying to think which Jewish wrestler, who toured Japan in the 80s it was who Bix thought most likely to have been more adept than Dr Death at smuggling contraband substances.

 

There needs to be a glossary of references that those of us not 'in the know' can refer to!

I figured that was Joe Malenko especially with the comment about "he sure was in demand" later.

Maybe..................................................................................................................................................

Ah, I hadn't gotten to the Joe Malenko bit until my home-bound commute!

[BrianB]

It's always fun having Jordan on these shows. Great as always so far.

 

The underrated part, besides no internet, for why we get all these weird rumors either about PoP and the Road Warriors or Texas Tornado and the Ultimate Warrior, I think also goes some to how bad of quality most TV broadcasts and TVs that people watched these shows on were. Also, did PoP ever travel with the Road Warriors? I also thought Kerry and Hellwig sometimes traveling together somehow may have played into that rumor, whether it's just people being bad with faces or some guy spotting one at the gas station, telling his pals and maybe they show up and see the other one, and not everybody is going to have a camera with them to pose and document everything.

 

Cabana was backstage at a show recently and Punk flipped on him calling him a traitor and regarding Bix he can tell that one if he wants......

 

I hope that will be broached next show! Most likely after Brooks has just been TKO'd or choked out the night before.

[Bix]

 

 

 

 

 

Indeed, this happens from time-to-time. I was left racking my brain through most of my drive to work today trying to think which Jewish wrestler, who toured Japan in the 80s it was who Bix thought most likely to have been more adept than Dr Death at smuggling contraband substances.

 

There needs to be a glossary of references that those of us not 'in the know' can refer to!

I figured that was Joe Malenko especially with the comment about "he sure was in demand" later.

Maybe..................................................................................................................................................

Ah, I hadn't gotten to the Joe Malenko bit until my home-bound commute!

Hypothetically, if it were, there's a reason we drag the obscure jokes out sometimes.

 

Allegedly.

[Jesse Ewiak]

Yeah, I can totally see some person with less than great eyesight mistaking the Road Warriors and the POP for each other, on a 16 inch shitty Zenith.

[Beast]

Jordan overthinking the Akeem gimmick is the first time he's misstepped on these shows.

 

I don't care if it's a knock on Dusty or vaguely racist. It's an awesome gimmick and much more entertaining than One Man Gang. Plus, who cares what George Gray's face looked like when Vince explained the gimmick? It's obvious that he took to it immediately and had a ton of fun with it. A pimp managing a white African Dream and a southern prison guard is enthralling in its randomness.

 

Akeem is the best.

[blueminister]

Jordan overthinking the Akeem gimmick is the first time he's misstepped on these shows.

 

I don't care if it's a knock on Dusty or vaguely racist. It's an awesome gimmick and much more entertaining than One Man Gang. Plus, who cares what George Gray's face looked like when Vince explained the gimmick? It's obvious that he took to it immediately and had a ton of fun with it. A pimp managing a white African Dream and a southern prison guard is enthralling in its randomness.

 

Akeem is the best.

Even by super-liberal standards (Jordan's a Canadian Jew so shot in the dark here lol) one would think making fun of clumsy cultural appropriators... would not be an issue.