20 Years Ago - WON 05/23/88

[Loss]

I want to get done with 1988 by the end of the year so I can start with 1989 in January, so better get crackin'!

 

WWF

-- The WWF took out a full page ad in Electronic Media magazine, the trade publication for the TV industry, with the ad entitled "What A.C. Neilsen isn't tell you." The idea is that they're trying to stop some of the damage caused by Neilsen closing their loophole that skewed in wrestling's favor. The WWF has already sold most of its ads for the whole year, and they're really worried about what's going to happen now. The ad also said they were in the top five eery week since the syndication ratings debuted two weeks prior, which only Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune could claim. Dave says that's only a slight lie, because there was one week where they were #6.

 

-- "Hulk Hogan's wife Linda gave birth to a 10 pound, one ounce baby girl named Brooke on 5/5. It was the couple's first child."

 

-- Ricky Steamboat has retired, but Dave doubts it's permanent. He wants to spend more time with his son and look after his gym in Charlotte. "Just to let you know the type of people the Steamboats are, guess what I got in the mail last week. That's right, a couple of Steamboat gym T-shirts." (My note: THAT makes this whole WON recapping thing worth it.)

 

-- 5/8 in Binghamton, NY drew 3,500 fans headlined by Brutus Beefcake vs Honky Tonk Man. 5/12 in Erie, PA drew 1,000 fans headlined by Demolition vs Strike Force. 5/15 in Chicago drew 8,500 fans headlined by Randy Savage vs Ted DiBiase.

 

-- It's pretty much a lock that Owen Hart is coming in in July and will be called The Cheetah Kid, although the name could change. At this point, Hart will only reconsider if Inoki makes him a huge offer to work New Japan full time, and that's not happening realistically.

 

-- Wrestlers are now working 10 days on, 3 days off.

 

-- Four of the top 10 sports videos are Wrestlemanias.

 

-- There was a front page sports story in a St. Louis newspaper about Randy Savage's minor league baseball career. Fred Blassie is also doing local radio work in St. Louis to hype upcoming WWF shows.

 

NWA

-- Barry Windham captured the U.S. title on 5/13 in Houston in a tournament before 4,800 fans, which drew a $54,000 gate. Larry Zbyszko was dropped from the tournament because the line-up was made before the Windham turn, and they had to avoid having a heel versus heel match in the tournament. The show was headlined by Flair vs Sting in a cage match which Dave says was subpar.

 

-- Paul Boesch's "Houston Wrestling" show will be restarting in June. It will include footage from NWA syndicated shows, local interviews for just Houston conducted by Boesch, and tapes of house show matches from Houston in the same format of the old UWF Houston show. Because of this, the NWA plans to start running Houston regularly. World Class actually has plans of running shows in Houston also.

 

-- "I'd almost be remiss in not commenting on the rumors swirling through the wrestling world that Ted Turner is going to buy the NWA. All I know is no deal has been completed but the rumors are flying everywhere about what may or may not happen. If such a deal is completed, Jim Crockett will still run the wrestling operation however the rest of the family wouldn't be as involved as it would be their stock that Turner would buy out. There's been a ton of speculation, particularly about Dusty Rhodes, should this happen, but it's all premature."

 

-- 5/11 in Miami drew 2,943 fans headlined by Ric Flair vs Steve Williams. 5/12 in Tallahassee drew 5,500 fans for a TBS taping which include Kevin Sullivan kidnapping Precious. 5/14 in Chicago drew 2,800 fans headlined by Flair vs Sting with three judges at ringside, which Dave thinks they botched so bad at the Clash that it probably hurt the gate.

 

-- The Rock & Roll Express want to return. There's a decent shot it will happen, but Dave thinks if they do come in, they should turn heel and feud with The Fantastics.

 

MEMPHIS

-- Jerry Lawler is the new AWA champ. Dave says the word he got from those who attended the show was that it was one of the best overall live shows of the year, that it couldn't compete with the workrate of the Clash but was a better overall show. Crowd was estimated at between 9,000 and 10,000, but the $45,500 announced gate indicates less people than that. The title win was a major news item in Memphis. It was carried on the front page of the sports section the following day, and it was a lead news item on every single local news program in the market. The mayor of Memphis was at the event, and there was tons of local coverage. Word Dave gets is that the match itself was good, but not great, and that the best match on the show was Paul Diamond and Pat Tanaka over Billy Travis and Tom Brandi.

 

-- Jerry Lawler vs Bill Dundee headlines the 5/16 show as a babyface match. "They should call Dundee the human ping-pong ball as many times as he's bounced over the fence between heel and babyface here."

 

-- Phil Hickerson is expected to return to wrestling over summer and team with Don Bass.

 

-- Gary Young is asking girls to send in photos so he can pick a valet. To explain Missy Hyatt no longer being in his corner, he just said they had differences of opinion. Missy is not set for any future dates.

 

-- Brother Ernest Angel has been running into outside the ring problems and is no longer around. Brickhouse Brown is now the lead heel manager.

 

-- On TV, they announced the only way Hennig would get a rematch with Lawler is if he wins the CWA title. Hennig will be doing shows here managed by Brickhouse Brown.

 

-- The NWA has made a play for Nashville, and have a 6/23 show headlined by Barry Windham vs Lex Luger. They also took one of his key TV spots in Nashville.

 

-- Lawler got the title because Jarrett Promotions agreed to pay Curt Hennig's weekly guarantee of $1,500 as long as Lawler was champion. Verne Gagne is not responsible for Hennig's guarantee right now, and Hennig will be working more Memphis dates.

 

AWA

-- "I survived an AWA ESPN taping. Just barely. There is no question in my mind that the AWA is the worst promotion of any significant proportion after viewing 'The Night of Wrestling Hell', the 5/14 taping at the Showboat Training Center before 750 fans. A whole group of us decided to go at the last minute, I guess mainly to see Riki Choshu's first U.S. wrestling appearance in nearly six years. Actually Choshu's appearance was just an excuse to write off his honeymoon in Las Vegas, and he wrestled with about as much effort as you'd expect of someone on his honeymoon. And he was still better than just about everyone on the card." Dave goes on to say four of the five advertised matches didn't take place, and there were six no-shows. The absence of Michaels and Jannetty was key, because they're the only draws the AWA currently has in Las Vegas, but they quit once again unhappy about a contract offer made to them by Verne Gagne.

 

-- The Nasty Boys have been fired.

 

-- Dave complains about the AWA billing Choshu as "Shoshi", and calling Curt Hennig (Curt Henig). They also misspelled Marty Jannetty and Madusa Miceli. Dave expected Verne would misspell Choshu, but thought he was spell it as "Cho Shoe" ...

 

-- "The AWA jobber corps is pitiful for the most part, but it's always been that way, but now the winner corps is as bad as the jobber corps. Well, at least we got to see first-hand why the AWA is truly the major league of professional wrestling and why ESPN is the total sports network. This wasn't the worst card I've ever seen (though certainly the worst card I've ever travelled to see, but I was expecting that), but it was the worst collection of wrestlers I've ever seen gathered in one place (with notable exceptions like Curt Hennig, Bad Company, the Japanese, Jerry Lawler, the Guerreros, and Dennis Stamp)."

 

-- "I will say one thing positive about Miceli, she has a lot of charisma and gets a lot of reaction from almost everything she does, even though most of the time she doesn't have a clue as to what she is doing. At least she's got potential to be a great valet, but keep her out of the ring unless absolutely necessary." (My note: Interesting, since Madusa eventually earned sort of a rep. I'm interested in reading about her AJW tours.)

 

--"Andre and the Anabolic Warrior are like Flair and Owen Hart compared to -- Handsome Harry, a transient from Los Angeles and Iron Man Miller, a 280-pound musclehead (Mark Miller is his real name, he started out with Sting and Dingo a few years back and has progressed to the point he's almost as far behind Dingo as Dingo is behind Sting)."

 

WCCW

-- Reports on the 5/8 show at Texas Stadium weren't good. What was supposed to be the biggest show of the year drew a subpar gate, at $53,500 and 6,000 paid. They were hoping to build some momentum with a big crowd to see Terry Gordy turn babyface, and also put on a hot show that would sell well marketed as a VHS tape, but the show didn't achieve its goals. "If anything, it shows that World Class is in even more dire straits than previously indicated. In my mind, even more telling, is that the most recent Saturday Night's Main Event, which drew one of its lowest numbers of the season (but still a great rating for the time slot) actually beat out the World Class show head-to-head in the Dallas market gathering a 6.3 to World Class' 3.6 on 4/30. This marks the first time than (sic) an SNME has ever outrated the World Class show on Saturday Night (where World Class in its peak was drawing a 12 rating weekly), and it was more because of the fall of interest in World Class than due to any increase in interest in Titan's product."

 

-- Central States is expected to merge with World Class, but the official word is that it's just temporary. However, WCCW is supposed to be doing TV tapings out of Kansas City. Masa Chono turned babyface on their 5/5 card.

 

-- Masa Chono and the Samoan Swat Team are headed in soon.

 

OREGON

-- Billy Jack Haynes' outlaw promotion (Washington Wrestling Federation!) ran its debut card on 5/7 in front of 2,000 fans, a surprisingly high number, especially with no local TV to promote. Dave has heard the show was awful. The facility was very nice, and Dave is told it attracted a higher class audience than you usually get at a Don Owen show, similar to a WWF show. There were problems with long delays between matches -- only 44 minutes of wrestling in a three-hour show. There were no music entrances, which really bummed out the crowd. At one point, someone came into the ring to apologize that things weren't going smoothly and requested that fans be patient and give them time to improve. Chavo Guerrero was said to be the only first-rate wrestler on the show, and he was stuck doing a job for J.T. Southern, including one spot where he pretty much superplexed himself.

 

CONTINENTAL

-- Robert Fuller no-showed his loser leaves town series against Dutch Mantell, so he's out for now. Dutch is leaving for Puerto Rico soon, and Dave isn't sure if he'll be back.

 

-- Steve Armstrong is out recording an album. (???) In the meantime, Tracy Smothers is teaming with Shane Douglas.

 

-- Austin Idol is coming in as a babyface. Randy Rose and Dennis Condrey are also expected in.

 

-- Paul E. Dangerously is doing an angle offering $10,000 to anyone who can beat Eddie Gilbert.

 

STAMPEDE

-- 5/6 in Calgary drew 650 fans. 5/14 in Edmonton drew 800 fans.

 

-- They are setting up a Chris Benoit/Johnny Smith feud over the Commonwealth title.

 

-- The WWF is headed to Calgary on 7/1 with DiBiase vs Savage, Demolition vs Bulldogs, and Bret Hart vs Bad News Brown. Dave expects it will draw big.

 

-- Biff Wellington is out with an elbow injury.

 

-- People are really worried about the future of Stampede if Owen leaves, but Dave says they always do fine when he does New Japan tours. Dave says he was not an exceptoinal draw even though he was over huge with the live crowd, which Dave attributes to them taking him for granted.

 

NEW JAPAN

-- New Japan held their first card at the Ariake Coliseum, an outdoor tennis stadium, on 5/7. The main event was changed twice. It was originally Vader vs Inoki, but Inoki broke his foot and they changed to Vader vs Choshu. Fujinami made some demands, so the main event was changed to Fujinami vs Vader. More confusion was caused when a rainstorm hit Tokyo on 5/7 and the card was canceled and rescheduled for the following day, but they still drew a sellout 10,250 and Fujinami captured the title with a DQ win in 16:02. Other key matches were Hiroshi Hase beating Shiro Koshinaka to keep the IWGP junior title in 18:10, and Don Nakaya Neilsen scoring a KO win over Keichi Yamada in a mixed match, the first time a wrestler has lost one of these since Shinma started the gimmick 15 years prior. Dave has heard the mixed match was outstanding, and that Neilsen deserves tons of credit, because he had probably the best mixed match of all time against Akira Maeda in 1986. The rumor is that Neilsen will eventually become a pro wrestler, he has a great aptitude for wrestling. Dave thinks this is to build to another mixed match in August where he will do a job to someone like Inoki, Fujinami, Choshu or Kengo Kimura. The gate was $400,000, which put it second only to Wrestlemania IV for a live gate this year. The show wasn't taped for television.

 

-- A recent Tokyo newspaper showed Antonio Inoki as the 9th highest paid athlete in Japan.

 

-- Futuhaguro, the sumo wrestler, was recently spotted at Larry Sharpe's Monster Factory. He is leaning toward getting into wrestling, which people in Japan think would be the biggest thing since Rikidozan. The problem is that he has a big head and is a lazy trainer, which means his transition may not be smooth. Also, he wants huge money to start, more than Jumbo, Tenryu, or Choshu make, and the top stars have already said they would quit if he made more than them, and that's his asking price. Dave suggests bringing him in for 10 weeks a year and paying him $10,000 a week. He'd still get his asking price and the top stars in either company wouldn't feel insulted.

 

-- 5/3 in Tsuruga drew 2,020 fans. 5/5 in Ogaki drew 3,710 fans, a sellout. 5/6 in Hamakita drew 1,560 fans.

 

MEXICO

-- "I got a tape of some of the best matches from Mexico City over the past six months and try as I do, I just can't get into the wrestling there. Some of the guys are really talented fliers, particularly Atlantis who does things Owen Hart couldn't even dream of doing, but they work so different from U.S. and Japanese style that it makes almost off (sic) of them appear to be bad workers. Still, I saw a 6-man from mid-March with Pirata Morgan & El Verdugo & Hombre Bala (The Buccaneers) against Atlantis & La Azteca & Ringo Mendoza which was four stars plus in anyone's book. I'm told the best workers are Morgan and Negro Casas (who I still haven't seen). La Fiera, who I thought was fantastic when he wrestled in Japan in 1984, seems pretty crippled up. These guys take enormous physical risks in their flying style, but the crowds seem like thousands of cardboard cut-outs of fans because unless guys do move so out of this world they are suicidal, the crowd doesn't react to anything. You really can't tell faces from heels by the crowd, although you can by watching the way it's done. The youngest Guerrero brother, Eddie, is pretty impressive. He does the best arm drags I've ever seen and a great dropkick off the top rope. I guess the best way to describe the wrestling and the wrestlers is either it's really good, or it's awful with little in between."

 

OTHER

-- Interesting letter from Bruce Mitchell talking about the role of smart fans.

 

-- Dave is selling Missy Hyatt swimsuit posters for some reason.

[Bix]

FYI, Futahaguro = Koji Kitao.

[Boondocks Kernoodle]

Kitao doesn't get nearly enough recognition as a famous wrestling crazy.

[Jingus]

-- "Hulk Hogan's wife Linda gave birth to a 10 pound, one ounce baby girl named Brooke on 5/5. It was the couple's first child."

Good to know that she stayed proportionate over the years. That girl is huge.

[Death From Above]

-- Billy Jack Haynes' outlaw promotion (Washington Wrestling Federation!) ran its debut card on 5/7 in front of 2,000 fans, a surprisingly high number, especially with no local TV to promote. Dave has heard the show was awful. The facility was very nice, and Dave is told it attracted a higher class audience than you usually get at a Don Owen show, similar to a WWF show.

Okay, I just need to highlight that and scratch my head a little. And yeah knowing nothing about Don Owen, I have to ask. Was Don Owen like the Ian Rotten of his day or something?

[ohtani's jacket]

I wonder if Dave still has that 1988 lucha tape.

[Loss]

-- Billy Jack Haynes' outlaw promotion (Washington Wrestling Federation!) ran its debut card on 5/7 in front of 2,000 fans, a surprisingly high number, especially with no local TV to promote. Dave has heard the show was awful. The facility was very nice, and Dave is told it attracted a higher class audience than you usually get at a Don Owen show, similar to a WWF show.

Okay, I just need to highlight that and scratch my head a little. And yeah knowing nothing about Don Owen, I have to ask. Was Don Owen like the Ian Rotten of his day or something?

 

I don't think it was so much against Owen. Wrestling tended to draw redneck drunks more than anything around this time, and fans were usually a little more hostile. WWF fans were more reserved and was usually an audience of mostly kids. I think he was just comparing it to the WWF audience versus the typical wrestling audience.

[MikeCampbell]

That reminds me of Cornette talking about when Mid South would run in Tulsa. When they were at a big arena like the convention center, it was a very high class type of crowd. But then running the fairgrounds was a total 180.