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| Jim Herd showed up for the first time at the TBS taping on 12/8 (for 12/17 air date). No real news stemming from it. Herd officially takes over the company on 1/3/89. Most I’ve talked with feel that it will be Jim Crockett, and not Flair, who will be the power behind the booking decisions come the new year but nobody really knows for sure … Dusty Rhodes will surely stay through Starrcade but nobody expects him to stay for the long haul … The current booking power is Crockett, Kevin Sullivan, Barry Windham, and JJ Dillon but those names, or at least some of them, will likely change during the New Year The next PPV (after Starrcade) will be 2/19 in Chicago, and will be promoted with a 2/15 Clash of the Champions special. Neither card has been booked yet officially, although there is talk of both Ricky Steamboat and Genichiro Tenryu appearing on these shows. NWA officials believe they can get Steamboat to wrestle since Dusty is no longer booker and plans and angles have been discussed, although Steamboat hasn’t agreed to return as far as I know. |
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| Thanksgiving is known for big wrestling spectaculars, and the biggest is Starcade (sorry, I try and spell correctly) show promoted by Jim Crockett. While it's hardly rare in this day of overhype to hear a show billed as "The Super Bowl of Wrestling", it is rare to see one of these super-hyped shows more than live up to its ballyhoo. Starcade may not have been the greatest card I've ever seen, but without question it was in the top four or five, and along with the Crockett Cup tag team tournament, has to rate as the most impressive show of the year... The show didn't end until 12:30 a.m. yet NOBODY went home early ... Greensboro drew a sell out 16,000 plus 3,000 more at a closed-circuit showing at a hall adjacent to the Coliseum. Atlanta drew 13,000, which is a few thousand shy of a sell out. Other crowd figures included 9,000 in Charlotte, 2,000 in Cincinnati and a sell out 2,700 in Kansas City. I should have acurate figures next week, but the crowd was probably in the 60,000 total range with a gate right around $900,000 which would put this show in third or fourth place on the all-time list. The odd number matches were from Greensboro while the even number bouts were from Atlanta and there were no sattelite snafus... Funniest line: Early in the show, Dundee did Dusty Rhodes' shuffle and hand twirling bit in a slugfest with Sam Houston. Dusty was real late getting to the ring (he was just trying to be fashionable and build heat for his entrance) so one fan remarked "He's on the phone to Atlanta cussing out Dundee for stealing his only move" ... Virtually everyone seemed to go home happy although fans in Greensboro were upset that Flair was in Atlanta for the second year in a row ... Some fans who attended this show and also the UWF convention show in Houston thought the UWF show was actually better |
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| Lots of news from the television front. The two-hour TBS show which aired on 8/26 was one of the best in a long time, featuring the change of Robin Green into the new Robin Green. The TV skit with Jim Ross and Rick Steiner where the change was made was one of the best TV wrestling skits I've ever seen. Both Steiner and Ross were incredible playing their roles, and the interview later in the show where the new Robin Green was out with the Steiners and Missy Hyatt was another classic due to the antics of Rick. By the way, one reader wrote in asking if the name Robin Green is a spoof on Mike Tyson's problems (Robin Givens and Mitch Green) and I'm almost certain that is where the name came from. At least I'm certain that Robin Green's similarity to Robin Givens is not a coincidence - I mean the name similarity... The announcing with Jim Cornette and Jim Ross on that show was tremendous as well... Last week I mentioned that they had lost the Sting vs. Dick Slater match and post-match angle, and lo and behold, it showed up on television. While this hasn't been confirmed for me yet, what I believe to be the case is that they lost the actual footage that was taped, but did have the actual film from different cameras and they re-edited the original footage back piece-by-piece and put on the original soundtrack (if you notice, the sound was about a half-second off the match the whole way but you had to listen close to notice any problems) and the match and angle aired. The commentary kept me interested the whole way and it was decent for television but Slater didn't look like anything special... Tommy Edwards, the long-time director of the TBS wrestling shows, was the guy who was blamed for the snafu on the TBS Saturday show on 8/19 which was a replay of the 7/28 show. Edwards was suspended without pay and will no longer work in wrestling, but may be re-assigned elsewhere in the TBS empire... They are already plugging the 9/12 Clash of the Champions hard. Ironically, the show will go head-to-head in most of the country with a two-hour syndicated debut of the Roller Games special which is going to get a lot of mainstream media hype as it approaches and one would think there would be a lot of crossover interest between the Roller Games debut and a major TV pro wrestling special... I'm told TBS got hundreds of phone calls about the tape mishap last week. TBS did realize almost immediately that the wrong tape was airing and they scrambled everywhere to find the right tape and eventually did find the right tape, but not until about 45 minutes after the show was over... Ironically, the TV ratings for the Saturday show which was the rerun was a 2.0, which is better than some of the first-run shows did and the audience actually grew until the end. The Power Hour on 8/18 drew a 1.6 (Braves game that prededed it did a 1.4) while the 8/20 Main Event show (Freebirds vs. Midnight for the titles) drew a 2.5... The 10/28 PPV card from Philadelphia will be bucking at least two nationally televised college football games head-to-head... This isn't a joke. One Friday I got a phone call from "The Star" (one of the newstand tabloids like the Enquirer) wondering if I could corroberate a story they had about Jane Fonda dating a pro wrestler, so you tabloid fans will probably see something like that around. I didn't answer the call, by the way... How is this for organization? The NWA will be getting a decent time slot on WPIX in New York starting on Sept. 30. According to the NWA, the show will air at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday (in which case the last half hour will be head-to-head with the first half-hour of Titan's show on Fox), according to WPIX the show will air at 11 a.m... Eddie Gilbert will be on the road part-time as a wrestler and in the office as a bookign assistant most of the time since Ric Flair has to be on the road nightly... As far as newcomers go, I haven't heard a peep about Benjamin Franlkin Peacock (Botswana Beast as a face) so don't expect he's in the cards. Kevin Kelly is said to be up in the air. Nord the Barbarian is said to be coming in a month or two and Tom Zenk will start on the Clash of Champions. The last word I've heard is Zenk will be called "The Z Man" but won't be wearing a mask, although I get conflicting stories on whether he'll be masked or not each day... Chris Cruise (Brian Doble), who has prior experience with CNN and also with a military news service got a try-out as an announcer at the 8/14 taping in Charleston, WV and is said to have a good chance of getting the slot. He's got a good voice and he may be on the air by October once they train him the way they want him to announce... TV taping on 8/22 in Greenville, SC drew a near sell out 5,000 fans... They've already had three Steiners vs. Freebirds matches on television the past three weeks and have another scheduled for the Clash, and are also running the match at most of the house shows... The Power Hour from Cleveland was a weak show since the audience looked comatose during the three matches that aired and were loudly chanting boring during the Tommy Rich vs. Cuban Assassin match. I felt sorry for Sierra because he was trying everything to get people interested and they just weren't buying anything. Those matches were taped very late on a marathon TV card... |
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| Mean Mark gave his notice at the TV tapings 8/27 in Gainesville, GA. It's been rumored that Mark was WWF bound and there have been talks, but New Japan has been talking with him as well... Sid Vicious' status is up in the air right now. Vicious got over huge in New York on Friday night, then missed the rest of the weekend claiming a bad back from a bad bump on Friday. The only thing is, he didn't take any bumps on Friday. As of Tuesday, the office was considering it a hold-out. Vicious has been given the super push on TV and it's well-known they were hoping for him to headline on the PPV 10/27 from Chicago and they have to be upset because one of the shows he missed was Sunday night in Chicago. Pretty much everyone wants Vicious from New Japan to the Los Angeles UWF (which three promotions using those initials it's going to be rough) and he's tailor-made for the WWF which pretty much has run out of opponents for Hulk Hogan after the Earthquake feud runs its course. However, I know that he's under contract to the NWA until at least next summer and may have gotten an extension for another year since the last time I've heard. In the case of Mark, he was never given a contract and that may have been a major problem since hw as the only main eventer not under contract so he was earning less than all the other top guys and even a lot of the prelim guys like Tom Zenk who has been in openers but still earns $3,000 per week... Nothing has been settled in Zenk's problems over the $2,500 fine he was lived in May... Tommy Rich hurt his neck legit from some rough matches with Stan Hansen which is why Terry Taylor was brought in during the week... The TV tapings on Monday night in Gainesville drew about 450 fans which is far and away the smallest crowd for tapings in a long time. Masa Saito was at the show trying to negotiate New Japan business with Ole Anderson... Thunderbolt Patterson will only be managing the Steiners at house shows in Georgia and I'm told he won't be put on national television tapings and only do interviews for the Georgia towns. I'm told T-Bolt doesn't mean anything even in Atlanta anymore as they've already exhausted his nostalgia impact by using him so many times. My guess is that as long as they use T-Bolt, he won't campaign against the promotion claiming racism (which is promotion is sensitive about in Atlanta) nor will he campaign for the new wrestling commission which he and Jim Wilson have been pushing for years. T-Bolt stops working for that whenever he's employed but whenever he's unemployed, he goes back to talking about a commission... Terry Taylor debuted at the taping and was given three wins. Another debut was a guy named Alan Iron Eagle. I've got no idea who he is, other than he was very green and kind of puffy looking and Pat Rose had to lead him through the squash win. He was said to be from Tampa. The Master Blasters, who haven't worked yet, have been doing interviews. The second guy is said to be medium size and also has never had a match yet while the big guy is the guy they found as a bouncer in an Atlanta strip club. The guy who did the interviews that aired over the weekend as Black Scorpion was Ole Anderson, as only about a million people told me at the convention. From what I've been told, that doesn't mean it will be Anderson on the Clash as the Scorpion and it doesn't mean it won't be either. Only competitive matches at the taping (which airs the weekend after the Clash) saw Steiners beat Samoans (who were furious about having to do a job on TV) and Luger beating Windham via count-out... Windham replacing Vicious at all the house shows until Vicious comes back... Hector Guerrero not at the taping and word I've got is he probably won't be back as he's only going to be used on the Texas dates in September and that's all folks... Art Barr will be coming in under the ring name "The Juicer" but with the same gimmick as in Oregon. The reason is to avoid problems with the people who did the movie Beetlejuice. Love thta name Juicer, because it has a double meaning in wrestling... |
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| Also on Thanksgiving, the WWF and AWA went head-to-head in St. Paul. The WWF came in fully-loaded with Piper vs. Orndorff (some sort of DQ when Orton interfered so Paul won), Uncle Elmer got a DQ on Jesse Ventura and in the biggie, Hogan pinned Randy Savage. The big news here is that to counteract the appearance of Savage's manager Bobby Heenan at ringside (if you are even wondering for a second what Heenan was doing managing Savage, you are incapable of being a true-blue WWF fan, a true WWF fan is incapable of either thought or wondering), Mr. T himself, the TV star, was there. The appearance of the slimebag drew a crowd of nearly 15,000 - or very close to a complete sellout to the Met Center, the biggest crowd WWF has ever gotten in those parts. Denver drew 10,000 for Hogan vs. Funk and Houston drew 7,000 for the same match. AWA drew 7,500 opposite it while Mid South drew 3,500 opposite it. King Kong Bundy has pulled out of his Japan commitments despite having a personal deal with Inoki, which is no surprise. Apparently all the WWF guys aren't allowed to work Japan if under contract, since Vince will go there himself in the spring it looks like. Kid & Smith went but that's because they haven't signed a contract with the WWF. I'd be surprised if they don't sign, and get the tag belts in exchange. I can't imagine George Scott allowing them to win the tag belts (which looks to be in the cards) if they don't sign, which means this current Japan tour may be their last. That's too bad, since they are two completely different people in Japan. Masked Superstar won't be coming here. Scott tried to make him cancel the current New Japan tour and Superstar refused, thus was either fired or quit, depending on whose side of the story you believe. Superstar wants to work Mid South in 1986. |
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| This group is also experiencing some surprisingly low crowds in the wake of the Don Muraco vs. Jimmy Snuka feud. The most recent Philadelphia, Boston and Pittsburgh shows all drew in the 7,000 range - roughly half of their average. The Thanksgiving Spectrum show even had Pat Patterson vs. Ivan Koloff and Snuka & Buddy Rogers scheduled vs. Muraco & Lou Albano to go with Bob Backlund vs. Iron Sheik and didn't do well. Rogers is apparently now out of the picure having missed several matches and Arnold Skaaland, who I'm told looks ridiculous in tights these days, took his place on the winning team. Patterson beats Koloff via blood or count-out in all the cities, which is the best action this group provides. Backlund vs. the Superstar also hasn't done that well at the gate in Pittsburgh and Boston ... Tony Atlas & Rocky Johnson took the tag belts on 11/15 in Allentown from the Samoans when Albano tried to hit Atlas with a chair, but instead hit Sika. The Samoans nonetheless defended the belts until 12/9 when the title bout was televised... Paul Orndorff, without a manager as of yet, has arrived and looks pretty good, though not as good as he looked in Georgia. I think Paul was much better as a heel in Mid South a few years back, but then again, he was working against Dibiase and Olympia, not Putski and Strongbow and Backlund ... Adrian Adonis still hasn't made a TV taping. Brian Blair apparently won't be coming in. He was signed by McMahon Sr. but apparently Jr. didn't want much to do with him seeing as how Blair lost to Black Gordman and Goliath 11/5 Los Angeles and 11/6 San Diego... Lord Al Hayes is scheduled to be the next manager if his knee surgery is successful. If not, Hayes may be in a wheelchair... The most unique thing about this group right now is they have several good heels (Orndorff, Koloff, Slaughter, Superstar, Sharpe, Iron Sheik), several awful babyfaces (Backlund, Snuka lately, Putski, Strongbow, Garea, Atlas, Johnson, Bellomo) but of course the heels almost never win. About the only talent on the babyface side this entire circuit is Patterson and Tito Santana. |
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| Sgt. Slaughter will be coming in as a heel in the fall ... Fred Blassie was due to be out of the hospital today (7/9). There was no permanent damage except for a muscle tear from the heart attack and he should be returning to work in a few weeks. Regis Philbin on his talk show talked a lot about Blassie after the heart attack ... Just a hunch, but they may use Kerry Von Erich to replace Beefcake at Summer Slam ... Hulk Hogan video piece was excellent ... Spectrum advance for Summer Slam is 9,400 tickets and $220,000 as of 7/7. The announcement of Hogan-Earthquake will be this weekend ... The top WWF brass was talking until just a few days ago like the signing of Flair was a done deal. The Toronto Sun, which has the strong working relationship with Jack Tunney's office, even reported on Saturday that Flair would be losing the title and had already signed with the WWF and again on Monday that Flair had signed and would feud with Ted Dibiase. Comments are now that if he doesn't come now, he might as well never come (never in wrestling terminology meaning two or three weeks) ... Al Perez quit, working Dallas indies. |
| QUOTE (eStragand @ Mar 7 2006, 06:42 PM) |
| Rats...can't seem to find it, either. So, uh...WHERE on that history could we find the Observer stuff? The site's horribly structured, laid out poorly and features way too many ads for my tastes. I really hope he's enjoying that 30 bucks a month in click-though money he's getting....cuz' it's completely screwing over the content. |