20 years Ago: Wrestling Observer

I found this guy on another thread that is going through old WO from 20 years ago. I thought that I would post them here and it might make for some good discussion and bring back memories. Future dates are coming up.

JAN 4th, 1988

WWF

Spoiler:

NWA

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AWA

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WCCW

Spoiler:

MEMPHIS

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OREGON

Spoiler:

CONTINENTAL

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STAMPEDE

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NEW JAPAN

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ALL JAPAN

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OTHER

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Jan 11th, 1988

WWF
-- SNME aired 1/2 on NBC and was taped 12/7 in Landover, MD. Dave felt Vince and Jesse did a much better job this time around than they did last time by ridiculously overacting. They've started putting Hogan's matches toward the end to build ratings for the whole show, where the previous mindset was that they put him early to ensure everyone would see him before going to sleep. Says the best match on the card was Strike Force vs The Bolsheviks, which was **1/2 and isn't saying much, and all the other matches were horrible, although the Andre run-in was really well done. Says he is starting to warm up to Andre as a heel, but it's going to end when he realizes he has to see him in a match.

-- Jumping Bomb Angels vs Glamour Girls can be added to the lineup for the Royal Rumble on USA.

-- Titan has began running Bunkhouse Stampedes on house shows

-- 12/26 in Chicago drew 12,000 and a $143,000 gate headlined by Hulk Hogan vs One Man Gang with Nick Bockwinkel as referee; 12/28 in Pittsburgh drew 5,000 headlined by Randy Savage vs Honky Tonk Man; 12/30 in Providence drew 2,500 headlined by Rick Rude vs Paul Orndorff in a cage match; 12/26 in New Haven, CT drew 6,000 fans headlined by Rick Rude vs Randy Savage in a 20-minute draw; 12/27 at the Capital Centre drew 13,000 for Hogan & Bigelow vs Andre & Bundy; 12/29 in Hershey, PA drew 6,500 headlined by Savage vs Honky Tonk Man

-- 12/26 at MSG sold out headlined by Savage vs Honky Tonk Man

-- Meltzer says Steamboat is working in slow motion on house shows and tries so hard to be graceful that he looks more like Nuryev than a wrestler

-- John Studd is scheduled to return at the Huntsville, AL TV tapings

-- King Kong Bundy is leaving on sabattical while Orndorff has given notice. Orndorff plans to open a chain on bowling allies in the South. Ironically, his right arm is so weak that he can't even lift a bowling ball.

-- Hogan will be gone from Wrestlemania IV until sometime in June to film his movie. "Since he's blading regularly, I guess he wants his forehead to look good for the part," joked Meltzer. Dave says that's not nearly as significant as you'd think since they'll be taking several weeks in April off after Wrestlemania anyway

-- The NBC special on 2/5 is a definite

-- Hogan's wife Linda is expecting their first child in April

-- Wrestlers are now being fined if they whip their opponents into the guard rail (throat drops and running heads into it is fine, but no whips), and fines are also being issued for violating the dress code and missing shows

-- Doug Somers is coming in as a jobber in March

NWA
-- Meltzer says they really need to heat up Bunkhouse Stampede within the next two weeks, and also make it more apparent to viewers that the show is available on PPV. Meltzer also can't believe they have yet to announce a complete card.

-- Meltzer does commend them for moving a lot of the TBS television into the arenas, and feels it has made for better production values and made the shows feel more lively. He strongly criticizes them for starting matches without showing the finishes on television, stating he doesn't think they understand how much that angers fans and how minor league it seems. He said he personally doesn't mind if you get a good 8-10 minutes of action before the show goes off the air, but most fans really hate it.

-- The Lex Luger babyface turn is getting over really well on house shows, drawing big in Atlanta and Greensboro. He worries that Luger has already become "one of the guys", doing saves for guys like Ron Garvin and getting saved back, and that if they keep doing that, he'll turn into a new Nikita Koloff, in that he'll be hugely over for a very short period of time and then no one will care. "Whoever has been working with him the past year certainly has earned their teaching credential."

-- In general, Dave is hearing lots of complaints about live shows. He says they need to find and push some new faces at the top of the cards in a major way. He says they need one or two guys to stand out of the pack. JCP, however, prides themselves on not putting all their eggs in one basket, and criticizes the WWF internally all the time for overly relying on Hogan. However, Meltzer feels that while the Horsemen were over great as a unit, he feels like over time, instead of the group rising to Flair's level, he sunk to theirs, and just became another face in the pack.

-- The return of Ole Anderson to the Omni on 1/1 drew 12,700 fans. The whole card was taped, and Meltzer expects it to air on TBS. Results: Sting, Jimmy Garvin & Ricky Santana beat Terry Taylor, Mike Rotunda & Kevin Sullivan in 10:14; Ron Garvin pinned Eddie Gilbert in 12:14; Sheepherders beat Robert Gibson & Ricky Santana in 10:15 (Gibson looked really bad, having just returned from injury, and botched a dropkick bad and the fans turned on him); Barry Windham drew Larry Zbyszko in 20:00; Road Warrior Animal beat Warlord in 8:00 by DQ when Barbarian interfered, but Sting made the save (match was scheduled to be a tag match, but Hawk no-showed; Animal tripped during his entrance for the third time in the past month); Luger & Ole beat Arn & Tully in 19:00; Flair pinned Hayes in 15:46 (Flair was cheered as much as Hayes and neither guy got booed); Dusty won a Bunkhouse Stampede.

-- They screwed up announcing Dusty won the 1/1 Bunkhouse by announcing it on their 12/31 TV

-- The Road Warriors vs Powers of Pain bench press contest is set for 1/30 in Greensboro

-- 12/28 in St. Louis drew 4,000 and $40,000 headlined by Flair vs Sting and a Bunkhouse Stampede won by Steve Williams. Meltzer said Dick Murdoch did the best squash match and interview he had seen in ages on that show, and said "Working for your family is like working for an unemployment agency" to David Crockett, which Dave thought was a great line. He also said even Luger did a great interview.

-- Says he's getting lots of complaints about the cameramen doing too many shots of women in the audience. "Showing the girls is okay but after 40 or 50 shots, and in the middle of high spots during the match, it serves no purpose. It's one thing if it's the valets, but not the girls in the audience."

-- Rick Steiner suffered a major bicep tear when he was horsing around in the locker room with Steve Williams and Road Warrior Hawk

-- Ricky Morton is still out with his knee injury, and also has a broken nose

-- The New Breed is supposed to be heel now and feud with Brad Armstrong and Tim Horner. At least that was the plan until Sean Royal never came back from Christmas vacation.

-- Thunderfoot #1 (Joel Deaton) got notice that he was being let go after Denny Brown never came back after Christmas also

-- 12/30 in Chicago drew 3,500 headlined by Flair vs Sting; 1/2 in Greensboro drew 12,457 headlined by Ric Flair vs Michael Hayes; 1/3 in Baltimore drew 7,000 and a $72,000 gate headlined by Flair vs Hayes and Luger vs Arn Anderson

-- Kevin Sullivan's stable will include Rick Steiner, Mike Rotunda and possibly Steve Williams, and be called The Varsity Club

-- Al Blake (Vladimir Pietrov) was sentenced to six years in prison on cocaine trafficking conviction. He will be eligible for parole in 2 years, although at that time, he will not be able to leave Minnesota so he could only wrestle for the AWA or Larry Sharkey's Pro Wrestling America

-- Rumors that Paul Boesch would be coming out of retirement to promote Houston shows for the NWA are incorrect.

-- Japanese newspapers were reporting Killer Khan had signed with the NWA but Meltzer knew nothing about it

-- Jobber Chance McQuaid blew out his knee in his match with Mike Rotunda that aired the previous Sunday

WCCW
-- "I know you've been waiting all week for the good news. Fritz is alive. Yes, folks, it was touch-and-go for 48 hours, but the head of pro wrestling's immoral majority survived a heart attack, stroke, emphyzema and whatever other maladies sick minds could come up with," said Dave Meltzer. It was announced on the weekend Ft. Worth TV that Fritz didn't suffer a heart attack as was originally feared, although there was "partial paralysis". One of the local TV stations covered the angle as news. The phrase heart attack was never actually used by Marc Lowrance. Lowrance went on the air with two interruptions of the previously taped show, and stated that Fritz was in critical condition and they were worried he wouldn't make it through the night. "It's a pretty hardcore angle to be sure, but one made a lot worse since they were playing off the sympathy from the deaths of David and Mike, although no lack of taste or decency from this promotion will ever surprise me." Kerry was doing interviews claiming that Gordy tried to kill his father while Lowrance was saying that it appeared Fritz would not live out Christmas. They're doing lots of Freebirds (Gordy/Roberts/Parsons)/Von Erichs brawls on house shows, and one thing the angle has done is get Gordy over as a heel who gets booed. Meltzer says this is an accomplishment because Gordy was always cheered more than booed when working Texas shows for the UWF.

-- Everyone in wrestling is saying Ken Mantell is in charge of World Class. Dave has heard he owns a controlling interest, but two of his sources insist he only owns 30% and that the Von Erichs still control majority interest. Meltzer said regardless, Fritz is definitely not out of the business, and will not allow the angle to be his last appearance. He is expected to make a comeback at some point in '88, but probably not as a wrestler. "In the theory of promoting wrestling, running such a hardcore angle on someone makes them the lead babyface, so why would Ken Mantell, now in charge and attempting to turn the fortunes of the office around, make his lead babyface a 58-year old man?" Meltzer thinks that they should phase Kevin down, if not completely out, and that Kerry is marketable, but it's hard to bank the future of the territory on someone working on one leg.

-- The show on Christmas at Reunion went past 1AM. After the angle, Kevin, Kerry and Fritz went to Baylor Hospital, did a worked press conference and then went back to Dallas to wrestle Al Perez, a match which he lost because his head wasn't into it according tot he storyline. The original plan was for Chris Adams to replace Kerry, but that was changed at the last minute. It's not known if that was a Fritz or Mantell decision.

-- Dave feels aside from the big angle, Mantell has done a great job as booker since taking over and things have been much better.

-- John Tatum and Jack Victory won the Texas tag titles on 12/28 in Fort Worth. Tony Atlas and Skip Young were the champions, but Atlas had already left the territory. In the match, Young wrestled both heels for a while before Solomon Grundy came into help, but they wound up losing anyway.

-- 12/28 show drew at least 1,000 with new ticket prices

-- Eric Embry has bleached his hair blonde

-- Shaun Simpson and Marc Lowrance made a car commercial. Lowrance does fall-by-fall as Simpson wrestles against "price reductions". They do the invisible man gimmick in the commercial, with Simpson taking bumps and finally getting pinned by lower prices

-- Al Perez defends the World Class title (which Meltzer calls the Worth-lass title) on 1/8 in Dallas against Terry Gordy. Perez is being portrayed as the babyface.

-- Wild West is history. The last three weeks of TV have been repeats and they have no arenas booked going forward.

-- Kerry's ankle is giving him tons of trouble. Meltzer says he was walking really well before he went back to working a full schedule.

-- John Tatum is ripping off Michael Hayes mannerisms in his interviews

-- Eric Embry and Shaun Simpson had a scaffold match on 12/27 in Belton. Simpson was so scared he couldn't even stand up. Embry carried the whole match and took the bump.

MEMPHIS
-- After all the speculation, no one turned heel on 12/28. Lawler won the tournament and the show drew 5,200 fans. Lawler beat Scott Hall via DQ. Hall used a piledriver not knowing it was illegal in Memphis and they had to explain it on television. Bill Dundee beat Jeff Jarrett by countout when Hector Guerrero held Jarrett's leg from under the ring and wouldn't let him back in, but Dundee didn't see or know this was happening. Finally, Lawler and Dundee had a match, which Lawler won by pinning Dundee after a double TKO.

-- Renegade Tobacco Company is now sponsoring the promotion. They have banners on the ring and are mentioned frequently on the show, and a Renegade Tobacco Company tournament will conclude in June. Supposedly, the tournament will award $250,000 to the winner, so people like Jimmy Valiant and Koko Ware will be returning. Valiant's contract with Crockett had just expired, and Meltzer says it makes sense for him to return to Memphis since he was a big draw at one time there. Ware he said makes no sense, although he did do a clean job to Greg Valentine on television. Still, Meltzer can't see the WWF dumping Ware with the Piledriver album out.

-- 1/4 in Memphis has Lawler vs Dundee with Lawler putting up the diamond ring and Dundee putting up $5,000. You would think Dundee would be turning in the match, but probably not since it's too expected. Michaels and Jannetty will also return to defend the Southern tag titles against Scott Hall and Ken Wayne, and Jeff Jarrett will face Hector Guerrero in a lumberjack match

-- Bobby Jaggers left Memphis after dropping Loser Leaves Town matches to Hall and Billy Joe Travis

-- Manny Fernandez may have his push lessened after getting in scuffles with fans on two occasions

-- Meltzer said the TV interviews with Lawler, Dundee, Jarrett and Hall were really good, but the size difference between Hall and the others looked ridiculou

STAMPEDE
-- Things are hot here. 12/18 in Calgary drew 1,600 fans. Matches were Hashif Khan (Shinya Hashimoto) vs Jonathan Holiday; Brick Bronsky vs Goldie Rogers; Great Gama & Garfield Portz vs Mr. Hito & Beef Wellington; Rhonda Singh vs Delta Dawn; Bruce Hart & Brian Pillman vs Jerry Morrow & Kerry Brown; Steve DiSalvo vs Phil LaFleur; Owen Hart & Jason the Terrible vs Bad News Allen & Makhan Singh. In the main event, Jason did a dive into the crowd and knocked several fans out of their chairs, with one having to be taken to the hospital via ambulance. Allen elbowed a pregnant woman while brawling in the crowd as well.

-- 12/19 in Edmonton drew 1,200 headlined by Allen & Singh vs Owen & Jason

-- Johnny Smith is gone

-- Suni War Cloud and Rip Rogers are headed in

HAWAII
-- Mrs. Maivia ran a card on 12/16 in Honolulu headlined by Chris Adams vs Buddy Roberts that drew 400. Kevin Von Erich and Jimmy Snuka both no-showed, but Rocky Johnson did appear.

OREGON
-- Len Denton is impressing and the crowds are good.

-- There is a new commission trying to run wrestling using boxing guidelines. They want to replace the wrestling referees with boxing referees, want everyone at ringside licensed, four ropes instead of three, no more blading, and testing for marijuana and cocaine. One wrestler already tested positive for marijuana. Don Owen is furious, mainly because they won't be so strict on the WWF. The commission sent out a letter saying all cuts will be inspected and if they're a result of blading, the wrestler will be suspended

-- Rip Oliver is leaving, scheduled to start back with the WWF on 1/4. Oliver was let go after Thanksgiving, but now they have an open spot for him. Oliver headlined the 12/25 show, which was a sellout of 700 and a $4,000 house, which is double the normal attendance

-- 12/26 in Portland drew a sellout with hundreds turned away; 12/28 in Hoquiam, WA drew 400 fans

CENTRAL STATES
-- 12/25 in St. Joseph drew 520 fans, headlined by Dave Peterson vs Bulldog Bob Brown. Abdullah the Butcher no-showed, and his announced replacement Jerry Blackwell also no-showed. Mike Stone, one half of the tag champs, wasn't there due to bad weather, and Colt Steele also wasn't there.

CONTINENTAL
-- The mink coat tournament drew 1,800 fans to Birmingham on 12/28, which is about quadruple what they've been averaging. Still, only half of the advertised matches actually took place.

-- The Memphis Big Bubba never showed up here. Scott Armstrong has left the area and Larry Hamilton has not returned since breaking his ankle in a car accident

-- 12/25 in Knoxville drew a near sellout

NJPW
-- Inoki did a clean pinfall job for a newcomer named "Big Ben Bader" (my note: ha!) on 12/27 at the Tokyo Dome in 2:49. New Japan felt they needed Inoki feuding with a big American start to get TV ratings up. Also, this was going to be famous comedian Takeshi Kitano's first appearance and they wanted to put some heat on him in his quest to finish Inoki off. So, the mindset was that Inoki doing a job would get Kitano over and create a new Hansen/Brody level gaijin. It was the first job Inoki had done in more than two years, and before that, over 10 years.) The card was supposed to be Inoki vs Riki Choshu in the main event, which is what drew the crowd and the high ratings. There was also a tag match advertised as "Big Ben Bader" (my note: ha again!) and Masa Saito against Tatsumi Fujinami and Kengo Kimura. Before the tag was about to start, Kitano's friends grabbed the mic and challenged Inoki to a match. The fans could see where this was going and hated it, and started throwing eggs, programs, orange juice containers and beer cans at the ring. Then, Choshu came out and Saito tried to stop Choshu from starting his match with Inoki. Inoki grabbed the mic and said he would wrestle both Choshu and Bader. Fujinami and Kimura then came out for their tag match and Saito came out. Choshu didn't want to come out, but finally did. Fans were screaming "Stop! Stop this match!" when Choshu started to wrestle Kengo Kimura. He won clean with the lariat, but the fans hated it so much it didn't have a chance. Finally, Inoki/Choshu happened but only went 6:06, although it was a hot match where Choshu bled after hitting the ringpost, and Inoki kept punching his head before applying the octopus, which caused Hiroshi Hase to run in and save Choshu and give Inoki the win by DQ. The fans started rioting again and caused so much damage in the hall that a few days later, the Tokyo Sumo Association banned pro wrestling from the Sumo Hall. Baba had already been banned from the building because he signed sumo wrestlers Hiroshi Wajima and John Tenta. Inoki is now without a building in Tokyo except for Korauken Hall, which only seats 2,000. Meltzer said this is devastating for them, because they sold out all but one time in 1987.

-- Kitano was like the Johnny Carson of Japan. Something happened at some point in one of the scandal mags and Kitano and his buddies beat up the reporter, so he was suspended from television

-- The news got worse for them a few days later when TV-Asahi moved them from prime time on Monday nights to Mondays at midnight. Not only will that cut down their audience, but in Japan, the networks pay the promotions money to be able to broadcast their shows. Because they're in a weaker time slot, TV-Asahi will be paying New Japan much less money. This should be effective in April.

-- Inoki didn't offer 1988 contracts to Akira Maeda, Kazuo Yamazaki or Osamu Kido, and they have all been cut loose. Dave says Maeda was hugely popular, but really screwed himself by shootkicking Choshu. Yamazaki holds one half of the tag titles (with Fujiwara), and Kido is a veteran without a lot of charisma.

-- Meltzer says Inoki faces crises like these annually and always comes back, but this time, it may be the real thing, because he is banking everything on Inoki vs Takeshi Kitano while phasing down Choshu. Choshu was being hurt because Inoki was the moral victor in their match, and also because he would never get the chance to do a revenge match with Maeda.

-- Adrian Adonis and Bob Orton will return as a tag team from 1/25 to 2/5

-- Seji Sakaguchi really wants Sting and Bubba Rogers to come in for shows, moreso than Arn, Tully, Dusty or even Flair

-- Owen Hart will feud with Hiroshi Hase over the junior heavyweight title

AJPW
-- Curt Hennig had bad matches and didn't get over on the recent tour, which really surprised him. Hennig will only be staying a week or two before returning to the AWA.

OTHER
-- Timothy Flowers is putting together a few independent cards in Northwest Washington featuring Buddy Rose and Col. DeBeers

-- The bill to abolish the Pennsylvania State Athletic Commission has been put on hold for six months, but with JJ Bins out of office, it appears wrestling promotions can begin using the blade again

-- Global Wrestling out of Florida is scheduled to start tapings in Miami next weekend

-- Jerry Blackwell's Southern Championship Wrestling is scheduled to tape on 1/13 at Miss Kitty's in Marietta. The second taping will be on 1/24 and will feature the Von Erichs and Terry Funk

-- Savoldi's ICW has announced they are bringing in Blackjack Mulligan, Bruiser Brody, Rocky Johnson, SD Jones, Tiger Chung Lee, the Iron Sheik, Tony Atlas, the Moondogs, Bob Backlund and Adrian Street. They held a card on 12/29 at Miami Marine Stadium with $25 tickets, and featuring a live concert from Bill Haley & The Comets (of "Rock Around The Clock" fame)

Jan 18th, 1988 MY BIRTHDAY

WWF
-- It's official. The WWF's first primetime special will be on 2/5/1988 from 8pm to 9pm and Dave is told it will be shot live, from the Market Square Arena in Indianapolis. Top matches announced are Hulk Hogan vs Andre the Giant, Honky Tonk Man vs Randy Savage, and Hart Foundation vs Strike Force. Dave says it's almost scary what the TV ratings will be, as they've got a main event that will do more to interest the general public than any other potential main event. Dave says without a doubt, this will be the most watched wrestling show in the history of the United States, and he gives the WWF tons of credit for doing a live show with a weak Andre in the ring. Since the show will only be one hour, at this point, those three matches are the only ones schedule to air. The plan is to set up the big angles for Wrestlemania, which means Hogan probably won't pin Andre. But Dave says the challenge is still to do a good and memorable finish, but that also the ending has to be a major fluke, as Hogan matches usually have less interest the second time around. Meltzer says Hogan vs Ted DiBiase at WM is certainly a possibility, but he thinks holding up the title is a stronger possibility, because they have to end the show with Hogan posing, and Hogan can't pose if he loses the belt. Meltzer also says Andre beating Hogan won't mean much, and that regardless of the finish, Andre will look strong, Hogan will find Andre's weakness, and then they'll go right to the finish. This will be the first time Andre has been in the ring since Wrestlemania III for longer than 70 seconds.

-- Additional matches announced for the Royal Rumble special on USA are Ricky Steamboat vs Rick Rude, Don Muraco vs Butch Reed and Dino Bravo attempting to bench press 700 pounds ("and I'm next in line for pope," Meltzer jokes.) Meltzer doesn't understand why the WWF is even doing this show, considering that they go out of their way to always say they aren't in competition with any other wrestling promotions, and says the date being the same as their PPV and the bench press attempt from Bravo right before the bench press challenge with the Road Warriors in the NWA isn't just coincidence, and Animal and Hawk can't bench anywhere near 700 lbs. There's also Titan running Bunkhouse Stampedes.

-- The WWF has signed Big Bubba Rogers, feeling that Hogan needs fresh challengers. The rumor is that Bubba will not be able to take the name and gimmick with him, but he doesn't believe the NWA ever trademarked it. He is scheduled to start on 1/26 in Hershey, PA, but for legal reasons, it may be pushed back.

-- The lawsuit regarding Ricky Steamboat "attacking" a fan during the throat injury angle with Randy Savage has been settled. In legal papers, Patricia Thurston of the Broome Volunteer Emergency Squad stated that she was seriously hurt when Steamboat "violently struck" her. The squad was standing by on authorization from the WWF and was only to be called if someone was seriously hurt. Apparently, David Furgoli, an employee of the WWF, informed the squad that Steamboat was "seriously injured" after they shot the angle and the incident happened when they went to help Steamboat. The lawsuit stated that Steamboat struck her so hard that she had injuries to her chest, ribs, sternum and back. The WWF was also sued because Bruno Sammartino said "Incompetency on the part of those paramedics, there, don't you agree," on commentary during the angle. The squad's position was that the wrestling world was broadcasting to their audience that they were unfit to do their jobs. They also claimed that the WWF violated New York state Civil Rights Law by televising Thurston. They demanded $400,000 in damages, plus $750,000 more in punitive damages. The claim was settled out of court, and neither side will reveal the amount of the settlement. Dave says when he looked back at the tape, he didn't see anything, and was told it was actually Jesse Ventura who made the comment about the paramedics, not Bruno.

-- Tom Zenk's legal problems with the WWF were also settled out of court, as the WWF sued Zenk for $70,000 for breach of contract. He'll have to give Titan a percentage of his earnings in 1988, but it will be a much smaller percentage than the WWF originally wanted. The whole deal was that the WWF wanted to make an example out of him.

-- The 1/5 TV tapings in Huntsville, AL, drew 8,500 fans, a near sellout. Angles of note were The Islanders and Bobby Heenan coming out with a leash with no dog attached, petting an invisible dog, and Ted DiBiase buying the contract of Andre the Giant from Bobby Heenan.

-- Hogan and Savage apparently work far better together than Hogan and Piper did, because Savage and Elizabeth have no problems whatsoever staying in the background and letting Hogan take center stage. Hogan and Piper had a tougher time working together because both wanted to be center of attention.

-- Paul Orndorff left and had lots of no-shows, leaving Rick Rude to carry the Ultimate Warrior on a few dozen house shows.

-- King Kong Bundy is gone. He's doing PR work for Head Start Computers, and they want him full time for personal appearances.

-- The Iron Sheik is apparently telling everyone he's returning to the WWF when he's not.

-- 1/9 in Philly drew 10,083 and a $127,620 gate headlined by Savage vs Honky Tonk Man, 12/27 in Toronto drew 17,500 headlined by Hogan & Bigelow vs Bundy & DiBiase; 1/3 in Springfield, MA drew 1,900 headlined by DiBiase vs Bigelow; 12/28 in Richfield, OH drew 8,000 headlined by Hogan & Bigelow vs Andre & Bundy, 12/29 in Hamilton, Ontario drew 18,000 headlined by Hogan vs Butch Reed, 12/27 in London, Ontario drew 5,000 headlined by Duggan vs Harley Race.

NWA
-- "The line-up for Crockett's Nassau Coliseum card which will be broadcast nationally on pay-per-view head-to-head is one of wrestling's best-kept secrets of the year." In addition to the Bunkhouse final and Flair vs Hawk, they have Windham vs Zbyszko, Rock & Roll Express vs Sheepherders, Jimmy Garvin vs Stan Lane, Nikita Koloff vs Bobby Eaton and Sting vs Mike Rotunda. "Maybe that's why they're trying to keep it a secret," Dave says. "Seriously, putting a half-ass undercard together for the first PPV attempt makes no sense." Meltzer suspects they will have trouble even selling tickets to the live show, and there's still no word on how many potential homes they've cleared. He's heard 6 million, but just based on phone calls from readers, he doesn't think it's anywhere nearly as widely available as Survivor Series was. They've also only reserved 1 hour, 50 minutes of time for the show, and Dave says it's silly that Titan has the better line-up on paper for their card, and it's also free.

-- Dave can't believe Crockett and Dusty let Bubba Rogers get away. Bubba was under contract to JCP, but his contract was different in that it didn't guarantee a set salary, and the WWF wasn't afraid to go after him anyway because they would have no problems nullifying it if there was a legal battle. It was apparently just an oversight. Dave says if Bubba's contract would have been just like everyone else's and he was still able to leave, it would have set off a multitude of problems.

-- Dusty did a promo on the Saturday TBS show with Bill Apter where he went crazy and started making vague bashes toward the WWF for stealing Bubba and copying the Bunkhouse Stampede. He was said to be very upset.

-- They did an angle on TV hinting at Barry Windham being the fourth Horseman. Dave has no idea how that will turn out, although since a Windham vs Steve Williams feud is being teased, and Williams is rumored to be turning heel and joining the Varsity Club, it wouldn't make sense to turn them both.

-- Jim Cornette is managing Dick Murdoch. Dave says Murdoch has been great on interviews and squashes. Cornette had an early candidate for line of the year when he told David Crockett he was the reason nepotism should be a capital offense. Dave has decided David Crockett should always be on TBS, because he is the source of so many laughs. He said to just keep him far away from play-by-play, which would cease to be funny in a hurry.

-- More to the story about Joel Deaton. After he was given his notice by Crockett on 12/25 in Greenville, while driving home to Charlotte, he ran a red light and hit a card broadside, and the 23-year old woman who was driving the car died. He was arrested on 1/3 and charged with vehicular manslaughter, two counts of passing bad checks and possession of drug paraphenalia. He faces a maximum of five years in prison and a $5,000 fine.

-- Killer Khan is working the NWA card on 1/20 in Honolulu, but Dave is unsure if it's a one-time thing or if he has signed long term. The only hint on TV of someone new coming in has been Eddie Gilbert saying he has a big surprise, which Dave thinks will end up just being Missy Hyatt being his valet again.

-- The NWA has a 2/2 show in Miami at the Knight Center, which is the nicest arena in the city. The WWF had an exclusive on the building for years. They're running a full show, which Dave thinks will do really well. The WWF lost their exclusive because they weren't drawing well there anymore. Another newer and larger arena will be opening in Miami soon.

-- They are holding a full card on 1/24 in Orlando, which is why so many wrestlers won't be at the PPV

-- There are rumors that Mark Starr will be coming in to team with Chris Champion. The two are brothers. Champion still has a job, but is being kept off the cards until they figure out what to do with him since Sean Royal is gone. The New Breed gimmick is history. The plan was originally for them to turn heel and feud with Brad Armstrong and Tim Horner.

-- 12/29 in Albuquerque drew 3,984 headlined by Dusty Rhodes vs Dick Murdoch and a Bunkhouse Stampede won by Lex Luger; 12/27 in Norfolk was headlined by Flair vs Hayes. Correction to previous gate report, as the 12/26 show in Philly actually had a $93,064 house instead of a $75,000 one.

-- Sting and Barry Windham are starting to be pushed as a tag team.

WCCW
-- There is an article about the Von Erichs that will be in an upcoming Penthouse Magazine that Dave thinks will send shockwaves through the wrestling community, and he suspects Fritz will sue, although he doesn't think Fritz has any credibility.

-- Marc Lowrance on TV: "Things aren't going well with Fritz and he may have to be readmitted to the hospital. He's not out of the woods yet." Dave says the unwritten moral code in wrestling is that you can't maim, but not kill, and they are trying to move to the right side of the line by telling fans Fritz isn't going to die, while also continually worsening his condition.

-- Now Dave is hearing Ken Mantell owns 50% of the company, Kevin owns 25% and Kerry owns 25%. Fritz still has a lot of power also.

-- The 1/2 show at the Sportatorium, with all seats $5.00 and beer just 50 cents not only sold out at 4,000, but turned another 1,000 away, which shocked everyone. But on 1/4 in Fort Worth, they were back down to 350 fans. 1/8 in Dallas was supposed to be headlined by Terry Gordy vs Al Perez, but had to be cancelled due to bad weather.

MEMPHIS
-- For the second week in a row, nobody turned heel in the Lawler/Dundee feud, although Dave thinks Dundee will turn soon. The story will go that regarding their match on 1/4, where Lawler put his ring up against Dundee's $5,000, Lawler would lose and then Dundee would put a stop payment on the check. They would then be rematched again, this time with Dundee putting up the money in cash, and Lawler again putting up the ring. The matches have been total brawls, but neither has turned officially and on TV interviews, both are subtle heels but are both cheered, although Lawler gets cheered more. The 1/4 show drew 3,500 fans.

-- The biggest surprise as of late is the announcement on TV of Terry Taylor returning as a heel and feuding with Billy Joe Travis. Meltzer says that was a surprise to him, and would also be to Crockett if it's true, since they just put him over on TV the previous Sunday. Dave says they could do great things with a heel Taylor if it is true. Taylor/Travis is a first-round match in the $250,000, 6-month tournament. Meltzer updated this later in the issue, stating it won't be challenged by Crockett, since it was pretty well-understood Taylor didn't fit into their plans, and "let's just say they probably weren't all that heartbroken he quit before the contract came due". Taylor was also introduced on Memphis TV as the UWF TV Champion.

-- Manny Fernandez turned babyface on the 1/9 TV. He did a huge patriotic interview about serving in Vietnam, despite that he would have still been in high school at the time the war ended.

-- Shawn Michaels is apparently an awesome heel, but the problem is that it is not an act.

-- Several of Dundee's trainees have debuted on TV, the best of which has been Todd Morton, who is even smaller than Dundee and resembles Ricky Morton. Dave says they will be billed as cousins, and they might even be cousins.

-- Scott Hall is getting over well. His wrestling has improved, but he's still not really where he should be. The problem is that he's too big to work this territory.

STAMPEDE
-- They still drew 1,400 on the 1/1 show, even with Owen Hart, Bruce Hart and Brian Pillman all missing the show.

-- Bad News Allen is leaving for the WWF, and will work as Bad News Brown.

-- Bruce Hart is out of action with a legit broken shoulder, Pillman is on holiday vacation and Owen is in Japan until the second week of February. Instead of doing the typical injury angle with Owen, they are just announcing his tour of Japan and playing it up as a big deal. When Pillman & Bruce Hart return, they will feud with Great Gama & Garfield Portz.

-- The WWF returns to Calgary on 1/19 in what should be a great card, headlined by British Bulldogs vs Islanders.

-- Kerry Brown no-showed the 1/1 card and is probably done.

-- Johnny Smith returned to England for Christmas, but should be back soon.

-- 12/26 in Edmonton drew 1,150, 1/2 in Edmonton drew 1,225 in a building that holds 1,300 completely packed

CENTRAL STATES
-- First round pairings for the WWA World title tournament have been announced. The tournament will be on 1/23 in Kansas City. First round is Mike George vs Sweet Daddy Siki, Tommy Rich vs Masa Chono, Bob Brown vs Dave Peterson, Jerry Blackwell vs Dick Slater, Steve Ray vs David Schultz and Sgt Slaughter vs Cuban Assassin. Talk of all the independents working together for just this tournament ended up being just talk. The entire tournament is mostly made up of local guys, when the original plan was to bring in guys from Europe, Oregon and Continental for the show.

-- Crockett cancelled the January show scheduled in Kansas City

GLOBAL
-- The Global Wrestling Alliance, a group that sold over-the-counter stock, had syndication start over the weekend. The show that aired was taped in Hollywood, FL, more than six months ago. Cyclone Negro, billed as their world champion, is no longer with them, nor is Bugsy McGraw. The best guys on the taping were said to be Joe & Dean Malenko, and Raul Mata. Dave says Mata was a big deal in California about 15 years prior. Dave is told production values are better than any independent in the country, and basically on par with WCCW, but the match quality is pretty bad. Bob Roop is the booker and Dr. Red Roberts is the general manager of the group. The two do Siskel & Ebert-style debates, with Roop acting as the babyface, discussing the storylines on each show. Roop is now over 300 lbs and doesn't wrestle anymore. They have a show scheduled on 1/22 just outside of Ft. Lauderdale with Iron Sheik vs Colonel Kirchner, Ox Baker vs Cousin Junior, Joe & Dean Malenko vs Rusty Brooks & Jumbo Barretta, and Ivan Putski and Adrian Street are scheduled to appear. Soulman Alex G, Bobby Wales & Black Magic are also getting pushes.

CONTINENTAL
-- The 1/4 Birmingham card drew 750, headlined by Dutch Mantell vs Wendell Cooley, in a match where if Cooley lost, he would have to leave town, and if Mantell lost, Cooley would get his contract back. The storyline was that from a previous match, Mantell won Cooley's contract and all of his wrestling money went to Dutch, so he had no money for Christmas. They did an angle where they showed his daughters on TV with no presents to open, sitting beside an empty Christmas tree.

OREGON
-- 12/26 Portland show drew a sellout, in excess of 3,000

-- The Moondogs will be in on 1/16

AWA
-- Tom Zenk agreed to start working for the AWA. Zenk signed on the advice of Giant Baba, who wants to push him, but feels he has to make a name for himself in the US first.

AJPW
-- Terry Gordy, Stan Hansen and the Malenkos will headline the next tour in February.

-- More talk of Hennig as a disappointment in All Japan. Weekly Pro Wrestling wrote that Hennig's match on 1/2 against Tiger Mask on opening night of the tour was the worst AWA title match ever in Japan. The next night, Hennig had to settle for a double countout with John Tenta, a mid-level guy, and on 1/4, he pinned Toshiaki Kawada. In his debut as champion, Hennig lost to Tiger Mask via countout. Dave is confused by all of this, and doesn't understand why Hennig wasn't pushed since he's the only "world champion" touring Japan at this point. Flair won't be returning because Crockett wants to work with New Japan, and even then, Flair probably won't be wrestling in Japan anymore. Hogan hasn't been to Japan since early '85, and Steve Williams' UWF title isn't recognized when he tours. Dave says he can't comment on the Hennig/TM match because he hasn't seen it, but those comments are pretty strong and will make it hard for Hennig to get over as a star in Japan now.

NJPW
-- More on the riot: It took an hour for police to stop it, and not only did the tear the building up, but almost sat it on fire. Dave says there was a similar riot when Hogan and Inoki had a fluke ending back in '84 at the old Sumo Hall, and also on March 26, 1987, at Castle Hall in Osaka, when Inoki vs Saito ended with a fluke.

-- NJ has set up a "Best of 1988 Junior Heavyweight Tournament". It's round-robin, and the lineup is great with Norio Honaga, Keichi Yamada, Masakatsu Funaki, Tony St. Clair, Nobuhiko Takada, Shiro Koshinaka, Kuniaki Kobayashi, Kazuo Yamazaki, Hiroshi Hase, Hiro Saito and Owen Hart.

-- Steve Williams was planned to arrive on 1/9 and leave on 1/20 so he would be back in the US in time for the Bunkhouse Stampede.

JOSHI
-- AJW is now the most popular wrestling group in Japan, as the last two shows received 11.3 ratings on Saturday afternoons. All Japan's ratings are usually around the same level on Saturday nights in primetime, but in the afternoons, it's usually only between 6 and 7. New Japan's ratings have been around 8.0 or so. The feeling is that the most recent show probably did even better since it was Devil Masami's retirement show.

OTHER
-- The grand jury in Tennessee found there wasn't enough evidence for an indictment in the rape accusations against Rocky Johnson. The girl who charged Johnson changed her story multiple times, and the grand jury felt it didn't hold up and cleared him on Monday.

-- Correction to previous story: the new head of the Pennsylvania Athletic Commission is Frances Walker, a former deputy of JJ Bins, not James Walker.

-- There was a backstage fight on 12/29 in Miami at an independent show, between Blackjack Mulligan and Bob Roop. Mulligan is said to have beaten up Roop so badly that he needed medical help. There were problems dating back to when Roop booked Florida.

Jan 25th, 1988

WWF
-- Opening line in this WON read "February 5, 1988 -- Is it the end of the beginning or is it the beginning of the end? This prime time network stuff is tricky business." Dave said that the suggestion that the show will not be a success is ridiculous. Dave said Titan's syndicated package is in overdrive, and we can expect to see Hogan and Andre all over the talk show circuit over the next few weeks. Dave says Hogan/Andre may end up as the most watched wrestling match in the history of not just the US, but also the world when it's all said and done, and will crack the top 25 in the overall weekly ratings, and maybe even the top 15. But where it's tricky is that if it's a success, it will be done again, and that this likely will not be the last prime time special. The advantage is also that wrestling is cheap programming for the networks. "If it can deliver competitive numbers in prime time for this 'pilot,' which I'm certain it can do, what will come next? A weekly prime time television spot on the network? Don't scoff." Dave says think of how unlikely it was just four years ago at this point that wrestling would ever be on network television at all. Dave said every big thing the WWF has done in the previous year -- TV ratings for Saturday Night's Main Event, Wrestlemania III, Survivor Series, the Slammys -- has been a tremendous success from a business standpoint, and that a track record like that does appeal to networks, and not just NBC. Dave says the chance of a competitor like Crockett getting a similar shot is unlikely, but he suspects if the WWF continues to grow that someone will initiate some talks. "But Crockett's group, at least in its present form, can't get on the air. I don't believe the two sides could ever agree on the format of the show, Crockett ultimately wouldn't agree to give up enough creative control to make it work, and lastly, no network would ever put on a show when the showcased star would be you-know-who. Not on a network, folks." Dave says he could see in fall of 1989, a desperate network offering a weekly prime time series to the WWF. Dave doesn't think the WWF can put on interesting enough shows on a weekly basis and keep strong numbers for the long haul, and questions if Vince will be smart enough to NOT pursue a weekly series if he gets the opportunity. Meltzer says they benefit from only airing once every two months on NBC, and if problems surfaced in terms of falling ratings, wrestling would be dropped pretty quickly. Dave does admit, however, that within just one season, there is potential to make so much money "that would make today's standards look infantile." But he also wonders if Vince could pass that up, or if he even should pass that up. "Why worry about the future anyway, wrestling could collapse with a huge scandal on a moments notice (highly unlikely, but possible at any time)? Just some questions to ponder when you watch the show on 2/5.

-- The pressure is on Hogan and Andre. They can't have a good match because of Andre's condition, so they need a good finish. Dave again states Hogan can't win cleanly because it would kill Wrestlemania, and it would take at least another year to build someone up as strong as they've built up Andre. Andre going into WM as champion has been talked about, but concern is there about it hurting Hogan, since the public is fickle, and why take the belt off Hogan at all if the public is into it?

-- The Iron Sheik is returning after all.

-- It's unknown where Wrestlemania will be, but definitely not at the Superdome, as the arena is already booked for 03/27, as is the Silverdome. Dave is told they will be in a 20,000-seat arena, although the people who know won't tell him where it's going to be.

-- Joel Watts quit his job working in TV production for the WWF (My note: WHAT?) and is looking to get out of wrestling

-- There is a Saturday Night's Main Event scheduled for early March

-- 1/16 in Chicago drew 10,700 headlined by Hogan vs DiBiase; 1/14 in Waterloo, IA drew 2,500 and a $27,000 house headlined by One Man Gang vs Bigelow; 1/16 in Sacramento drew 10,000 headlined by Savage vs Honky Tonk Man; 1/9 in Boston drew 13,903 headlined by Hart Foundation vs Strike Force

-- Circulation of WWF Magazine has increased from 135,000 to 213,000 in the past year

-- Hercules and the Ultimate Warrior ("Anabolic Warrior") are scheduled to feud. "The could have fun with stipulations here," Dave added.

NWA
-- Dave pretty simply says that the Bunkhouse Stampede PPV is going to fail. He says doing a strong pay-per-view should have been their first priority, but the hype and the card itself are pretty subpar. Dave says they had to show they could be successful, because it's inevitable that the cable companies will compare them to the WWF. Dave says this failure will make it harder for him to get the Crockett Cup on PPV in April, especially if Vince puts the pressure on and is coming off of a strong Wrestlemania IV. He says the low number of clearances they've made is more of a statement about the marketplace than it is Crockett. "Nobody seems to care about the Stampede, and the hottest match in the promotion right now would be Ric Flair vs. Lex Luger, and that's what you go with on your big PPV show, whatever is the hottest at the time. I know they want to save Flair vs. Luger for later, but the long-run potential of PPV is more than important enough to sacrifice a little in short-run house income."

-- Dave is surprised Dick Murdoch is now the highlight of the promotion. Not only did he have a great match with Nikita Koloff (not good or decent, but great), but is doing hilarious interviews. Dave jokes that someone told Murdoch before the match that he was actually wrestling in Tokyo and that Inoki shaved his head, so Murdoch did his usual New Japan carry job and it looked great. Dave says he doesn't expect their barbed wire match on 2/6 in Charlotte to be that good.

-- Dusty, JJ Dillon and Crockett are all moving to Dallas, and their wives are houseshopping.

-- 1/15 in Richmond drew 6,500 for a TV taping to air on 1/23. Dave was told a really disappointing Windham vs Tully Blanchard maatch was taped, and that fans lost their interest, because it was slow paced and too long at 27 minutes, and Barry spent the whole match selling a leg injury. For the finish, Tommy counted 1-2 and then stopped, before looking at the replay and calling for the match to be restarted. Flair and Arn did a run-in and Luger made the save. They attack Luger 3-on-1 and try to get Windham to help them, and fans are jumping into the ring and trying to attack the Horsemen, but are being dragged out. Luger and Windham shook hands at the end, so Dave says this should end talk of Windham as a Horseman. Dave thinks they are going to use this angle to kill time to figure out who the fourth Horseman should be because they have no candidates. Meltzer thinks it should be Steve Williams, but he's being downplayed, and his next choice would be Ron Garvin.

-- Flair and Dusty were in Chicago on 1/12 for the Bulls/Celtics game. Both did halftime interviews on TBS talking about how much they hated each other, but were sitting next to each other in the stands with Jim Crockett. Dave says he admires their efforts to try to get their stars over, but Tuesday night basketball isn't Letterman or the Grammys. He said, still, it was a move in the right direction, but next time, don't sit next to each other.

-- 1/16 in Philadelphia drew 7,500. It was a bad show, and Dave thinks all the wrestlers are starting to look run down all the time because of the hard travel schedule.

-- Starting this coming weekend, the TBS Saturday morning show is supposed to start airing arena main events

-- 1/1 in Columbus, OH drew 2,300

-- Mike Rotunda is now wearing a singlet that says Syracuse on it and playing a geeky and preppy jock, which Dave thinks has been entertaining

-- Nassau had 7,000 tickets to the Bunkhouse Stampede sold 10 days before the show - not a sellout, but respectable

AWA
-- The Midnight Rockers are now the tag champions. The storyline, which they were forced to do after the fact, was that the 12/27 match against Dennis Condrey and Randy Rose ended with a double pin, but when Stanley Blackburn reviewed the tape, he overruled the referee and made the Rockers the champions. The actual story is that the Original Midnight Express have quit the AWA. Announcer Larry Nelson said on TV, "We have heard a rumor they got hurt." Rose wasn't making any money and wanted a guarantee to make it worth his time to commute from Georgia. Condrey had a guarantee, but it was cut by Verne Gagne, so Condrey quit on the spot. There was talk of them coming back and jobbing the belts in the ring, but Verne simply decided he wanted nothing to do with them anymore. Dave says he has heard varying stories on Paul E. Dangerously -- both that he's still with them and that he's not with them -- but that Paul E. was not at the last TV taping. The Rockers are still wrestling instead of Memphis and not in the AWA, but everyone expects that to change soon.

-- Tom Zenk is in and will probably get a good push, but Dave worries that Verne will bank on him too much. Zenk coming in is why Verne has been hesitant to really push Nord the Barbarian all that hard, although he's probably the most over wrestler in the Twin Cities at this point, aside from Hogan. They are afraid to push him too much because they don't think he will stick around.

WCCW
-- The Freebirds (Gordy, Roberts & Parsons) won the 6-man titles from Kevin Von Erich, Steve Simpson and Chris Adams on 1/4 in Fort Worth. Prior to the match, the Birds attacked Kevin his dressing room, so Matt Borne subbed. Kevin did interfered, which caused a DQ, and in WCCW, a title can change hands on a DQ.

-- "It was funny on TV during the match where Kevin & Adams & Simpson won the titles on 12/25 when Mark Lowrance said how this match was the final of a tournament that had been taking place all over the country for the past several months. Now I realize that deceit is oftentimes so ingrained into the fabric of wrestling promotions, and certainly moreso this one than most others, but will somebody explain to me what purpose it serves to lie when even the stupidest fans know you are lying? I mean, everyone knew that Simpson had been out of action for months with surgery to repair the torn retina in his eye. It had been mentioned regularly on TV, so how could he have been competing in a tournament? Moreso, Roberts & Iceman were working for Wild West these past months while Gordy had first been in the NWA, then Japan, and none of the three had worked in the same promotion for five months or so and none had been in World Class until the Mantell takeover."

-- They are now plugging Mantell's wrestling school as the World Class Academy of Wrestling. It was formerly called the UWF Training Center. Right now, they are pushing Jason Sterling as a recent grad although he has been wrestling for about a year.

-- Dave thinks Eric Embry does one of the best piledrivers in wrestling

-- They are phasing out Steve & Shaun Simpson in favor of The Fantastics

-- Angel of Death is around on interviews, but not wrestling, still recovering from a knee injury

-- Dave says while most of what Ken Mantell is doing is a repeat of 1983-1984 WCCW or 1986-1987 UWF, he did come up with a new good gimmick called Thunderdome, which will happen on 1/22 in Dallas. It's a 10-man tornado match with Kevin Von Erich, Kerry Von Erich, The Fantastics & Chris Adams vs The Freebirds, John Tatum & Jack Victory. There are five handcuffs in each corner. The match is in a cage and is under elimination rules. When a man gets pinned, he gets handcuffed to the ring ropes. When all members of one team are beaten and handcuffed, the other team gets the key to the cuffs and can remove the cuffs on all the members of its team that lost falls earlier. Then the ref leaves the ring and the winners have five minutes with the losers. Dave says it's a great idea that he thinks will draw a sellout.

-- Fritz update: he's taken a turn for the better and will start doing interviews on TV over the next week

-- Ownership percentages! (My note: Come ON, Dave, stop reporting on this) Mantell owns 30% of the company, but the company has restructured. In the new contract, he is the Managing General Partner which means he calls all the shots. "All I know is Fritz has called at least one shot," Meltzer adds.

-- Steve Corey helped WCCW revive spot show business for WCCW. The national touring idea, which Dave says was ridiculous, has been scrapped, but Corey wants to do a show in combination with a Martina Navratilova vs Chris Evert-Lloyd tennis exhibition. "Can you think of a dumber idea than trying to combine a women's tennis exhibition with pro wrestling matches on a single promotion?" The tennis players balked at the idea, and the show, scheduled for 1/9 at the Superdome, was cancelled.

MEMPHIS
-- Another week and STILL no heel turn by Lawler or Dundee (My note: This is starting to become a running gag.) Their 1/1 match, which drew less than 3,000, ended with a ref bump. Dundee had Lawler pinned after the ref bump for several seconds when a debuting Terry Taylor did a run-in and gave Dundee a DDT. He also started beating up Lawler. When the ref recovered, neither guy could answer the bell so the match was a no contest.

-- Gary Young and Rick Nelson are new in the area. Nelson was one of Crockett's TV jobbers until the past week. "The Gilberts" are also being announced as coming in, but Dave doesn't know if that's Doug and Tommy, Doug and Eddie, or Eddie and Tommy, but should know soon. He says it may also be Eddie and Missy Hyatt.

-- Dave says Memphis has a ton of talent right now, but the chemistry isn't there

-- Hector Guerrero has left

-- The Nasty Boys are still working spot shows, but not major cards, and are rumored to be AWA-bound

-- Taylor is doing a great job as a heel, which doesn't surprise Dave at all

-- "Tijo Khan now has a green tongue like George Steele. Fortunately he doesn't wrestle like Steele."

-- Mark Guleen, manager of Shawn Michaels and Marty Jannetty, has already been let go, because he was pretty bad. The only manager in the territory is Nate The Rat, who is all comedy and manages jobbers.

-- They announced the Rockers as AWA tag champs on TV, so apparently the Southern tag titles will be put up in a tournament shortly

-- Rumors are that Lawler is going to win the AWA title from Curt Hennig and drop it back at the AWA TV taping in Vegas in February. Later in the issue, Dave updated this, stating that it just isn't going to happen.

STAMPEDE
-- The 1/8 card in Calgary drew 1,300, another good crowd for this group

-- Because the Olympics are coming to Calgary in February, Stampede will move from the 2000-seat Pavillion. They will run shows on 2/12, 2/19 and 2/26 in a 1000-seat building

-- Phil LaFleur has left the territory, with the storyline reason being that Garfield Portz injured him with a piledriver on the arena floor

CONTINENTAL
-- Moondog Spot returned and won the Alabama title from Tom Pritchard on 1/3 in Montgomery, AL. This was a surprise because the Moondogs were set to start in Oregon this week.

OREGON
-- The 1/17 show in Renton, WA drew 500

AJPW
-- Fabulous Lance no-showed the recent tour.

NJPW
-- The UWF itself folded and will be closing its office. In December of '85 and '86, Akira Maeda, Nobuhiko Takada, Kazuo Yamazaki, Yoshiaki Fujiwara and Osamu Kido negotiated as a group and had their own business office. With Maeda out, they were just absorbed into New Japan. Yamazaki will end up being kept after all, and Maeda may return as well, although Dave has heard varying stories there. The UWF guys are no longer allowed to wrestle a different style or sell their own merchandise at the matches.

-- Dave can't believe Takada is going to do a job for LEON WHITE (My note: HA!)

-- Dave says it's pretty unsatisfactory for Inoki and Tatsumi Fujinami to feud but never meet in a singles match, but reunite without the feud ever getting resolved. He says whatever success NJPW has is not because of its booking, but in spite of it.

JOSHI
-- AJW is about to face some major challenges, as both Dump Matsumoto and Yukari Omori are set to retire in spring. The rule of thumb is that the Japanese girls have to retire when they reach 26, and Omori just passed the limit. Dump is 27, but had the rule waived because she was such a strong draw and no one was there to take her place as the top heel. They have been working on phasing her out in favor of Bull Nakano and Condor Saito and will phase her out completely within the next two months. Dump wants to continue wrestling and tour North America. Dave says that used correctly, Dump would not only make women's wrestling in the US, but also be one of the five most over personalities in the country, especially if she was let loose and given a huge push. Because of her gimmick, Dave actually thinks her chances of getting over strong in the US are even stronger than they were in Japan, and that among Americans in Japan, Dump seems to be the star that resonates the most. "Literally, she would have the impact of a Road Warrior, or at least a female version." Dave says with the Jumping Bomb Angels being so successful in the WWF, that could open up a spot for her, but it would phase out all the American women except Leilani Kai, because the Japanese women are so much better in the ring. Dave points out that of the 8 top draws in AJW, five (Devil Masami, Omori, Dump and the Jumping Bomb Angels) are no longer working there, and that Chigusa Nagayo can't carry the box office alone, no matter how over she is. Dave says the pressure on Chigusa, Bull Nakano and Lioness Asuka is really strong, and they know they need to create new main eventers. On the 1/15 card in Tokyo, Chigusa defended the WWWA title against Omori. The match went 31 minutes to a double countout, and Omori announced after the match that she would be retiring. Dump's retirement announcement has not been made, but will be in a few weeks.

PUERTO RICO
-- WWC now has television airing in New York on Ch. 41 out of Paterson, NJ. TNT was the standout star of the show, getting a huge pop and looking great in the ring. Dave says he understands why everyone raves about him, but he's still not totally convinced he's great, although he admits he's the best native wrestler in the territory. They also showed a clip of a Samoan Swat Team vs Invaders match, with Samu looking awesome, which shouldn't surprise anyone

RATINGS COMPARISONS
-- Some good news is that the NWA's TV ratings slide seems to be over and they are rebounding. For the week of 12/20, The Wrestling Network was in the top 15 of syndicated programming with a 5.6 national rating. The rating peaked at 7.9 only five months prior, but dropped to the low 4's in the build to Starrcade. The All-Star Wrestling Network (AWA, Pro Wrestling This Week, CWA and POWW), has 119 stations compared to The Wrestling Network's 184 stations, but has a 6.3 national rating, which put them at number 12 on the list. Dave says the fact that the ASW network has more viewers with so many fewer stations points out that improvements need to be made to Crockett's syndication, although they appear to be moving in the right direction. The WWF was number 4 on the same list with a 9.9 rating on 222 stations.

HOUSEKEEPING
-- Dave will be on KCBS radio (740 AM) with Ted Robinson on "Sportsbeat" on Tuesday, February 9. The WON Yearbook is also completed. "Its actual title is 'The Best of the Wrestling Observer, Volume I: 1983-1987', which is kind of a misnomer since the 'best of' pages really only contain material from 1983-85, although there is a long feature on the wrestling scene year-by-year throughout the past five years." (My note: I had no idea this existed.)

OTHER
-- Jerry Blackwell's Southern Championship Wrestling TV taping on 1/13 drew 400 in Marietta. Dick Slater said on an interview that when he was through in the territory, he would be more hated than Bill Watts. Brody accidentally called heel Grizzly Boone Grizzly Smith in a promo as well. Bill Dromo, the figurehead president, suspended Austin Idol, who actually no-showed, for his attack on Tommy Rich at the previous taping. Bill Mulkey worked the card and got squashed by Nick Busick. Randy Mulkey wasn't there, but the Mulkeys are expected to work full-time here once they're up and running. Randy "Don't Call Me Pee Wee" Anderson is also working here. Dave is told the production values increased greatly since the first taping, and that clips aired on Pro Wrestling This Week. In the Idol/Rich angle, Rich cut an artery in his head and bled all over the ring, to a point where they could barely air it. There is talk of Stan Hansen and Jerry Lawler coming in soon. The next taping is 1/24. They'll have TV in Knoxville, Chattanooga, Tallahassee, Greensboro and parts of Georgia.

-- Global now has Gordon Solie doing the TV and is billing itself as Florida's only wrestling promotion. The Malenkos are the best workers, and Solie talks about them as heels and discusses how much fans are booing them, but they're actually getting major cheers and are the most popular stars in the territory. Adrian Street and Cousin Junior are coming in.

Feb 1st, 1988

WWF
-- The Royal Rumble: Dave says it wasn't really better or worse than the Bunkhouse Stampede. Dave says the production values for the show were a step down from normal simply because they couldn't post-produce and add in crowd noise and reactions. He says there were too many replays on the show and it looked like it may have dragged a lot for anyone who attended live, although he admits he has yet to speak to anyone who was there live for the Hamilton show. The show happened before a sellout crowd of 18,000.

Ricky Steamboat downed Rick Rude via DQ in 17:00: Dave feels this should have been better if the plan was to set up a feud. Rude showed very little. Lack of heat for the first 15:00, considering both guys are headliners. Lots of resting and stalling, although the nearfalls toward the end got good heat. Rude pulled the ref in front of him when Steamboat tried to do the flying bodypress. Rude then put Steamboat in the backbreaker and the ref called for the bell. Rude thought he won, but had been DQ'd. **

The Jumping Bomb Angels captured the WWF women's tag team title from the Glamour Girls winning two of three falls: Judy Martin pinned Itsuki Yamazaki at the first fall in 7:00 with the Devil Masami suplex. Second fall saw Yamazaki pin Martin with a sunset flip in 3:00. Finish saw Noriyo Tateno pin Martin after both girls hit her simultaneously with dropkicks off the top ropes in 5:00. Good match, but not great at all. "Tateno doesn't even look like the same girl who came to the U.S. about 10 weeks ago. Actually both the Japanese girls were missing moves and appeared physically to look out of shape. All the Japanese girls (well, except for Dump Matsumoto of course) are noted for their incredible fitness level, but Tateno looks like she's been training with Buddy Rose as of late." ***

The Royal Rumble lasted 33:00 before Jim Duggan ducked a One Man Gang charge and Gang flew over the top leaving Hacksaw as the winner: Much better than anticipated and at least as good as the Bunkhouse Stampede. The camera work was great, and it was fun to watch. Dave says he loves watching guys run to the ring, because you can see who does real training, as opposed to weightlighting and needlepoint, by seeing how they run. He also felt you could tell by the order of entry how the promotion feels about the workrate of everyone involved. Bret Hart and Tito Santana were the best and opened the match, and Jake Roberts, Harley Race and Sam Houston were also in early, with "Anabolic Warrior", "Junkfood Dog", Ron Bass and Hillbilly Jim coming in late. "Gang, who most respect as a good worker for a slob, was in next to last." Junkfood was last, and got thrown out in 90 seconds. Dave wishes the faces and heels would have fought among themselves, but that can be excused for the WWF. "Dusty's thing was supposed to be $500,000 winner-take-all and Dusty and Animal on interviews talked about 'no friends' and the like yet they were constantly helping each other out. I know, who cares." ***1/2

The Islanders downed "the Barbie Dolls" in two straight falls: Both falls went around 7:00. "I actually saw a submission hold that worked on 'pushed' guys in the U.S. when Haku made Roma submit to a half Boston crab. I got so confused I went out for Oriental food afterwards. The Islanders are a good team because they carried this match from start-to-finish and it was basically good action." **1/2

The show also had the Hogan/Andre contract signing, which was well done, and Andre's back is said to be feeling better these days. "Every time I watch Hogan I marvel at the fact that people really eat him up." Dave thinks Vince could get Lee Harvey Oswald over as a babyface, although he couldn't do it for Mr. T or the Honky Tonk Man. He loves the Honky Tonk Man and Peggy Sue. Dino Bravo also attempted to set a world bench press record. The whole idea was that Bravo's bogus 715 pounds is tons more than Crockett's monsters will be doing on 01/30 if they plan on using legit weights, which was the plan at one time. Now, they almost have to gimmick it, because Warlord is the only guy who might have a shot at doing 600 lbs legit.

-- According to the newspapers, Wrestlemania IV will be in Atlantic City, NJ, from the 16,000-seat Convention Center. Dave says he was surprised by this because he had heard that Vince was close to finishing a deal for Mania in Las Vegas for either the UNLV gym or Caesar's Palace. The plan is for the show to not be pushed all the heavily as a closed-circuit event, and more as a PPV event, but because so many people still aren't able to get PPV, he thinks the closed-circuit turnout will still be strong. Tickets will go on sale on 01/30. The best 2,000 seats will be freebies given to casino high-rollers.

-- The Get Well Matilda write-in is the WWF's way of building up a mailing list for its merchandise catalog

-- Dave gives Vince HUGE credit for this: Survivor Series had no chance of selling out, but Vince wanted the PPV audience to see a full house. So he gave thousands of tickets to Kiwanis clubs and Lions clubs to give to kids, and got lots of goodwill in the town fo rthe gesture.

-- "Coliseum Video is coming out with a Best of George Steel tape and also WWF's Most Embarrassing Moments. Are you sure that isn't the same tape?"

-- Dave says everyone is asking him to predict the finish of Hogan/Andre so here's his guess, because he doesn't know the finish: "DiBiase will interfere and Andre will pin Hogan on 2/5; however, Jack Tunney will prove he can't be bought and hold the title up so Ted doesn't get the title, and order a rematch in a cage at WM4 so Ted can't interfere (and also so Andre can lose without doing a job). Hulk will win on a fluke, and they'll run Hulk vs Andre over the summer in your local cities after the Hulk gets back from playing Hulk Hogan in the movies."

-- They are back to trying to run a schedule of C team shows

-- 1/17 at the Meadowlands drew 7,500 headlined by Randy Savage vs Honky Tonk Man; 1/18 in Hartford drew 7,500 headlined by Randy Savage vs Honky Tonk Man in a cage; 1/23 at the Capital Centre drew 8,000 headlined by a Bunkhouse Stampede won by Don Muraco

-- There was this quote about Hogan in Detroit News: "He's nicer than Kirk Gibson, but not by much." Gibson has the rep of being a total asshole dealing with fans, especially kids.

-- Billy Jack Haynes has missed several matches due to health problems. He has an irregular heartbeat which is under control with medication, but he hasn't been consistently taking his medication.

-- Dave expects a big week of TV with sweeps coming up

Feb 8th, 1988

WWF/NWA WAR
-- "The biggest news story in this business in probably the last few decades is the pro wrestling war and Vince McMahon's rise to prominence. The wrestling war, which began in November 1983 when Titan Sports signed Hulk Hogan and Gene Okerlund away from the AWA, is for all real purposes, over. No, the business competition is still there between Titan and the other promotions, particularly JCP. And the two groups will continue to attempt to play little mind games with each other. But whether or not JCP can make a small recovery, or even a full recovery from its recent troubles, and even pop big houses again, the gap between Titan and Crockett is only going to expand."

-- Dave says it's a busy news week, but he feels the biggest news story of the week hasn't gotten much attention. The WWF announced plans for several pay-per-views: Wrestlemania IV on March 27, an unnamed PPV on August 29, "Survivor Series II" on November 24 and "Royal Rumble II" on January 15, 1989. "On the surface it sounds harmless enough, but its effect on JCP is enormous." Crockett planned originally to do the Crockett Cup on PPV in early April, one of the Great American Bash shows in July, and was going to have Starrcade on November 24. But the WWF has a 60 days before and 21 days after clause in their PPV contracts. Survivor Series was a big success and Wrestlemania IV is expected to break Wrestlemania III's record and be the biggest grossing event in the history of PPV, and the WWF's monopoly prevents Crockett from effectively breaking into the market.

-- "The long-term impact of PPV is such that eventually, like boxing, it will turn the live gate into an insignificant part of the overall business." (My note: Wow! He called that one.) He says it's not an unreasonable prediction to say that Wrestlemania IV will be a bigger money than any other promotion will likely make in the entire 1988 calendar year. He doesn't expect the NWA to die as a result, but says the competition aspect means nothing now.

-- Crockett plans on countering this by moving several of its big shows to prime time specials on TBS, and has plans of having four prime-time specials this year. And unlike the previous year's Superbouts on the Superstation, which was a huge flop, these will be major cards either shown live or only slightly delayed.



WWF


-- The Royal Rumble drew an 8.2 rating and a 12 share, airing in 3.2 million homes. About twice as many people watched the show as would watch TBS when Georgia Championship Wrestling was hot a few years prior. The Rumble was the highest-rated show in the history of the USA Network, and the repeat drew a strong 4.8 rating in the Prime Time Wrestling spot on Monday nights when they normally average a 2.9 in that time slot. The repeat showing was probably the #2-rated show on cable television during last week.

-- Wrestlemania IV has already sold out Trump Plaza in Atlantic City. 14,000 seats went on sale at prices of $150, $100, $50 and $25 and all but a few thousand were gone by the end of the first day. Because of the ticket prices, this show may actually pull a higher gate than Wrestlemania III at the Pontiac Silverdome, which had a $1.6 million gate with lower ticket prices. When you add in the fees Vince is likely charging the casino to do the show, it could exceed $1 million easily. Trump Plaza is promoting it hard and using it as a way to bring families into casinos. (My note: Ha!) A concert from Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine will be taking place adjacent to the convention center ballroom, and the WWF estimate is that the show will be available in 9 million homes. "If it gets over as good as last year's, and there is no reason to believe it won't do as good or better, then you are talking about $15 million plus on PPV alone, not to mention $1 million live and probably $4-5 million on closed-circuit locations."

-- The Saturday World Championship Wrestling ratings were way down in the fourth quarter of 1987. It had been the second highest rated program on cable TV and fell to No. 8 with an average 2.9 rating. WWF All American Wrestling was actually doing better ratings at this point, averaging a 3.1 and coming in at 7th place. Prime Time Wrestling fell from No. 3 to No. 10 with a 2.9 average, and the Sunday show on TBS fell from No. 10 to No. 20 with a 2.4 rating. The AWA show on ESPN has fallen completely out of the top 20. Some of the decline is attributed to "people-meters", which is a new method of measuring ratings. Shows that appeal to women tend to do better than normal, so it was expected the switch would cause a delcline. Most wrestling shows dropped 10% in the fourth quarter, but it may not mean anything significant. The Saturday TBS show started picking up toward the end of the year, and they're continuing in that direction lately by doing more arena tapings.

-- Jake Roberts is on the cover of this month's Ellery Queen mystery magazine, and Muscular Development magazine has a story on Jesse Ventura, which Dave says is excellent but is more about his life and training philosophies.

-- The British Bulldogs had no-showed a few times. Dynamite Kid has been missing several dates over the past week. "One of them" collapsed at the airport and the other went to the hospital with him, but no word on if it's anything major or not.

-- Billy Jack Haynes, who has missed pretty much all of his bookings lately, is in bad health, to a point where most think his wrestling career is about to end.

-- Bam Bam Bigelow has undergone arthroscopic knee surgery and there is no word on when he'll be back. Dave says wrestlers have been telling him for a long time that Bigelow working like he does at his size was eventually going to catch up to him.

-- There were so many no-shows on a recent Cow Palace show, which drew 8,000 and a $93,000 gate, that the athletic commission ordered the WWF to offer refunds to anyone who wanted them by the end of the second match. This was just a few days after the California state assembly voted 60-7 to reclassify pro wrestling as entertainment instead of sport, but the bill had not yet passed the state Senate. Wrestlers will no longer need a license to work in California, which was a joke anyway, as Dave got a listing of everyone not long ago who was licensed in California, and Hulk Hogan and Ricky Steamboat were nowhere to be found.

-- Something happened recently at a house show where a wrestler (Dave didn't say who) who wasn't supposed to be able to speak English was stalling outside the ring for most of a match. A fan shouted, "Get in the ring you lazy bum" and the wrestler responded, "What do you think this is, the NWA?"

-- The Royal Rumble show in Hamilton actually drew 16,200 fans, but around 10,000 of the tickets were tie-ins giving a free ticket to a hockey game. Live reports haven't been good regarding the show.

-- 01/25 at MSG drew a 19,750 sellout and a $236,000 house headlined by Hulk Hogan & Bam Bam Bigelow vs Ted DiBiase & Virgil. The 02/22 card is expected to be headlined by DiBiase vs Bigelow. 01/30 in Baltimore drew 5,500 headlined by Honky Tonk Man & Greg Valentine vs Randy Savage & Brutus Beefcake. 01/15 in Los Angeles drew 10,000+ headlined by Randy Savage vs Honky Tonk Man in a cage match. 01/21 in Winnipeg drew 2,500 headlined by Randy Savage vs Honky Tonk Man. 01/22 in Rochester, NY, drew 3,500 headlined by a Bunkhouse Battle Royal won by Don Muraco. 01/19 in Calgary drew a sellout 8,500 headlined by Randy Savage vs Honky Tonk Man.

-- The 01/26 Hershey, PA TV taping drew a sellout 9,000. Standout matches were a really good Rude/Steamboat match taped for Superstars, and the main event, which was Hogan & Bigelow vs DiBiase & Andre. Because this will air after the NBC special, the commentary was not done live for this taping, and will instead be done in studio later in the week.

-- The WWF will decide on exactly which finish they're going with in Hogan/Andre as soon as they know the shooting schedule of No Holds Barred. If he's available on weekends, he will be champion over summer. If he won't be available at all for several months, expect DiBiase to get the title.

Feb 15th, 1988

WWF
-- Dave just raves and raves about the finish to the Hogan/Andre match on NBC, saying that he hopes whoever came up with that finish got a nice bonus in their paycheck. He's so impressed because he says it's like they thought of everything -- they found a way to get the belt off of Hogan to do a job, Andre wasn't hurt, Wrestlemania was set up, and the nature of the angle was so shocking that it didn't set off a fan riot, which was at one point a concern about taking the belt off of Hogan.

-- In the Bay area, radio stations were reporting the title change up to a week before it even happened. The San Jose Mercury ran a story about it the day before. This was out because the WWF had already sent advertising agencies information on Wrestlemania IV, with the slogan "Hogan tries to regain his title." Dave is shocked, but no one in the WWF was even concerned about it, because all the publicity in giving away the finish, and people anticipating a title change, only helped the ratings and buzz for the show. He says that's a clear difference between the WWF and NWA, as Dusty would have gone crazy about a finish leaking like that.

-- Trivia: Jerry Monti, the most famous jobber in the San Francisco territory, made the opening credits as the victim of the Honky Tonk Man's Shake Rattle & Roll neckbreaker.

-- Dave says production wise, the show wasn't as good as most WWF shows just because they were doing it live. Randy Savage's pre-match interview was a mess, because the mic wasn't on, and HTM's music was being played too loud.

-- The show started with Randy Savage vs Honky Tonk Man, and Dave says HTM and Peggy Sue (Sherri Martel) deserve credit for always putting on such a huge show in the pre-match, but that HTM turns it off when the bell rings. He says Savage carried him and it was bad, but watchable. He says Savage was limited by the framework of the match because there were several spots where he had to be laid out selling for long periods of time so HTM could attempt to serenade Elizabeth. The cameras missed a key interference spot from Jimmy Hart. The finish was Savage running HTM's shoulder into the ringpost before winning by countout. Post-match, Savage was hit with the megaphone. Honky was about to hit Savage with the guitar and Liz jumped in the way to save the day. He was about to hit her, but Savage saved the day and the post-match saw him open the ropes for Liz and carry her on his shoulder. Dave says ** for the whole thing. He thinks it was only a *1/4 match, but the post-match boosted it.

-- Regarding Hogan/Andre, Dave says Andre looks to have lost a lot of weight since Thanksgiving. He also says he's a great heel with great facial expressions, but has no business wrestling in his current physical condition. He took no bumps, because he would have had to get up again. Hogan did the Ric Flair bump of getting slammed off the top turnbuckle, which shocked Dave, because it's a pretty big bump anyway, but especially for Hogan. At one point, Andre tried to kick Hogan, but his other foot couldn't support him, and he fell. All he could really do from there was choke. Dave says he was admittedly surprised at the crowd doing more mugging than watching the match also. Hogan did his comeback and the legdrop, but Virgil distracted the ref, so there was no count. Andre then got up and did a botched suplex, the ref counted to three even with Hogan kicking out, and at 9:05, Andre was the new champion. Andre was just about to give "The World Tag Team Championship" (he screwed up the name of the belt twice) to DiBiase, but then referee Dave Hebner shows up. Dave had just left the NWA a few days earlier. Vince and Jesse were stunned and wondering how there could be two Dave Hebners, and the crowd was completely shocked. The heel Dave Hebner then beat up the real Dave Hebner and threw him out of the ring. He then turned around and realized Hogan was waiting for him, and Hogan picked up up and threw him outside the ring. DiBiase and Virgil were supposed to catch him, but Hogan was wrapped up in the moment and threw the heel Dave Hebner (Earl) too far, way past DiBiase and Virgil. Hogan did a post-match interview saying that DiBiase paid someone to have plastic surgery to look exactly like Dave Hebner to steal the title.

-- The show drew a 16.1 rating and a 26 share, which makes it the most widely watched wrestling match in the history of the United States. Dave says he'll go into more details about the rating next week, but it was an improvement over the bomb "Rags To Riches" that is normally in that time slot. The network was hopeful for top 5 or top 10 for the week, but no such luck. "They aren't going to get a weekly series although I'm sure they'll get another prime time special. I expected much better numbers as well, but I guess there aren't as many potential wrestling fans in the U.S. as I thought there were."

-- The syndicated TV aired the next day, and they covered for the taping difference by saying WWF President Jack Tunney had forbidden any discussion from the announcers of what happened the night before, which Dave thought was clever. Jesse Ventura would try to talk about it and they would bleep out everything he said. Jesse then did a spoof on the Dan Rather CBS walkout, started yelling about censorship, and left.

-- Dave can't believe how well everything worked, and now thinks calling Wrestlemania IV a $25 million show may be conservative.

-- The next day, the WWF ran two house shows -- one in Boston and one in Philadelphia.

-- The rumor is that it will be announced in syndication that the title is being held up. Dave goes crazy with speculation about possible scenarios that is too confusing to type.

-- Dynamite Kid collapsed in the San Francisco airport last Saturday. At least one radio station reported that he had a heart attack, which is what Dave was told initially as well. In reality, it was a stress-related seizure. He was hospitalized, but as of press time had already returned to the ring.

-- Bam Bam Bigelow had also already returned to the ring.

-- Trivia: About 14 months prior in Denver, rookie Owen James teamed with SD Jones, but lost to the Hart Foundation. "Owen James is of course Owen Hart, who wrestled against his brother that night. Even then he outshined everyone with Titan, which is probably why he hasn't been back."

-- Says the 01/25 MSG main event of Hogan & Bigelow vs DiBiase & Virgil was very good, and that DiBiase is the perfect opponent for Hogan in terms of working, and knows how to get the most out of him. Dave would give it ***1/4.

-- Dave was wrong about WM IV tickets in Atlantic City. As of 2/8, there were only 5,000 tickets sold and about 4,000 remaining. They are giving away 8,800 tickets, not 2,000, and the place will seat 17,800 when full. Dave expects a sellout within a week.

-- The WWF is now claiming that Wrestlemania III grossed $20.4 million, not $17.1 million as Dave had written in the yearbook. Dave thinks this year, worst case, they'd gross $23.5 million, but most likely $25 million.

-- 2/6 in Boston drew 15,534 sellout and $190,000 headlined by Hogan & Bigelow vs Andre & DiBiase. 2/6 in Philadelphia drew 13,112 and $163,608 headlined by Hogan & Bigelow vs Andre & DiBiase.

Feb 22nd, 1988

WWF
-- "As most of you already know, the biggest story of the week concerns the WWF holding a tournament for the vacated WWF title as the headline attraction at Wrestlemania IV on 3/27 eminating (sic) from Atlantic City. The announcement was made on the syndicated package over this past weekend, and from what I'm told, the entire card will be released publicly by next week. Besides the 14-man tournament, the early scuttlebutt I hear is that there will be four other matches. One will be a Bunkhouse Battle Royal, which will allow another two dozen or so wrestlers to share in the big payday, while I expect two tag team matches (British Bulldogs vs. Islanders and Strike Force vs. Demolition) and an Intercontinental title defense by Honkeytonk Man (with Brutus Beefcake seeming to be the leading contender--they'll need to shoot an angle this week to get that one 'over'.)"

-- The first round has been announced as Roberts vs Rude, Muraco vs Bravo, Steamboat vs Valentine, Reed vs Savage, Bigelow vs Gang and DiBiase vs Duggan, with Hogan vs Andre getting an automatic bye to the second round. "The brackets pretty well should tell the obvious story. There are only two possible winners, Hulk Hogan or Ted DiBiase. The bottom line is that down the road, Hulk Hogan is going to be champion once again." Dave says if Hogan's upcoming movie filming, which begins in April, won't allow him time to wrestle over summer, or if he wants to take off since his first child is due in April, then it makes no sense if he's not going to be around to defend the belt. Also, if Hogan isn't going to win the tournament, the winner has to be a heel so that person can drop the belt back to Hogan. Dave says it's obvious based on bracketing that DiBiase will make it to the finals, either to lose to Hogan or beat Muraco. Dave then goes into really, really detailed predictions on the show. The most interesting prediction is that he thinks Savage and Steamboat will be rematched and go to a draw to create a bye for DiBiase into the finals.

-- The NBC special earned a 15.1 rating and a 25 share, and was the 31st highest rated show of the week, which is an average number, but is probably a disappointment to both the WWF and NBC, because they thought it would crack the top 10. It did still win its time slot and the rating was better than the 11.6 average they have been getting from Rags To Riches.

-- Dick Ebersol was quoted in the LA Times and USA Today, saying that they weren't interested in doing weekly shows because it would hurt live gates. The truth is, however, that they won't get the chance to turn down a slot, because the feeling now is that the WWF couldn't post competitive numbers in prime time. Dave says he was surprised at the rating. He was interested in it because it would show how "over" (My note: Why does he always put "over" in quotes?) wrestling is to the general public. He says this proved that the match with the most hype and mainstream appeal can only get mediocre mainstream attention. It also showed that wrestling fans are extremely loyal and will watch no matter how inconvenient. This match on SNME Dave thinks would have gotten a 12 rating, so they picked up very few extra viewers. Dave says the WWF can still make money off of their core audience, but it does put the value of Hulk Hogan in perspective. "To a cult audience, which numbers in the millions, he is over bigger than any wrestling star has ever been in the country. But he is not a 'mainstream' star capable of making it in prime time on the networks on anything more than a one or two shot a year basis. He's not nearly as over as Antonio Inoki was in his heyday, let alone a Larry Holmes (whose title defenses always cracked the top 10 against bums like Tex Cobb when put on free TV). "Time Magazine isn't going to be banging on Titan's door this month proclaiming another wrestling resurgence. The networks aren't going to stumble onto Jim Crockett's group because nobody is looking at wrestling as a hot item, both of which could have happened had the show cracked the top five." Dave also says that even though Vince McMahon is the most successful money-making wrestling promoter in history, there isn't as much mainstream interest as there was in New Japan's 1982-1985 heyday. (My note: We get it already.) "And Hogan's TV ratings power, while again more than any wrestler of the modern era, probably isn't as strong as Chigusa Nagayo's right now. One may view the comparisons with Japan as ridiculous because of the differences in culture, but the truth is, if anything, the U.S. is the country more TV oriented. My main point out of all this is a conversation I had with a Titan employee a few months back when we got to the subject of the style of wrestling (fast food vs. hardcore) and if it was the style of wrestling which made Titan No. 1, if it was the fact it was the best run promotion that made it No. 1, or if it was the fact that they spent the most money that made them No. 1. The conclusion we came to is that it was something we couldn't answer. No promotion offering traditional wrestling has ever had the front office professionals in the hundreds behind the company, a $250,000 budget for TV taping to make them look so major league in comparison with opposition, etc. Unless opposition was equal to Titan in every way except that they had a different wrestling product (more action-oriented) and Titan was still No. 1, then we'd really know the answer."

-- The WWF is running a TV taping in Winston-Salem, NC on 3/9, which Dave thinks is peculiar since it's about 20 miles outside of Greensboro. "As you can see, Titan smells blood and is going right for the jugular."

-- The next SNME is scheduled for 3/12, and will be taped on 3/7 from Nashville.

-- "Probably the most bizarre story revolves around last Friday's NBC special. Apparently an Intercontinental title change was in the script and the match was supposed to be shorter as well, however Honkeytonk Man vetoed the script and there was lots of backstage commotion about it, but the bottom line was, he held out and refused to do the job and he's still champion today. If you wonder why they just didn't have Randy beat him anyway which is something that gets threatened from time-to-time especially in the old days of wrestling, is simply because Honkey must have realized that there was no chance whatsoever McMahon would take any chances on a bad situation occurring on live television and the last thing he ever wants is real violence. That probably explains why Honkeytonk Man, as IC champ, isn't in the tournament."

-- Billy Jack Haynes asked Vince McMahon for help to start a new promotion in Oregon and run opposition to Don Owen, but Vince turned him down. The public story is that Haynes quit because of health reasons, but it appears the real story is that he wanted a bigger push and thought Brady Boone should also get a bigger push.

-- Jesse Ventura will be doing heel commentary for some New York Yankees games for local pay-TV consumption.

-- Bam Bam Bigelow didn't have arthroscopic surgery. He's postponing until after Wrestlemania, when the WWF will take a one-month break. Speaking of Bigelow, a drug possession charge in Freehold, NJ, was dismissed when the evidence was ruled inadmissible because it was illegally obtained. The officers found a small bag of marijuana under the seat of his car and he was charged with a misdemeanor, but it was ruled the officers did not have probable cause to conduct the search. Bigelow waved to the officer, and the overzealous officer responded by pulling him over for no reason. Even though a misdemeanor, if convicted, this would have been bad for him, because he is on three years probation from a 1986 conviction after pleading guilty to threatening to kill a prostitute. Had he been convicted, he would have served a five-year prison sentence.

-- 02/04 in Muskegon, WI, drew 2,500 headlined by Islanders vs British Bulldogs. 02/07 in Toronto in front of a "small crowd" was headlined by Ricky Steamboat, Hacksaw Duggan & Randy Savage vs Hart Foundation & Honky Tonk Man. 02/08 in Los Angeles drew 3,000 headlined by Ted DiBiase vs Bam Bam Bigelow in a match reported as **** by reader Pat Hoed. 02/13 in Bloomington, MN, drew 7,000 headlined by Hogan & Bigelow vs DiBiase & Andre with Mad Dog Vachon in the babyface corner. 02/14 at the Silverdome drew 12,000 headlined by Hogan & Bigelow vs DiBiase & Andre.

-- Someone in the WWF told Dave the JYD/Reed match taped for Wrestling Challenge was a worst match of the year candidate.

-- Gene Okerlund's son Todd is on the U.S. Ice Hockey Team in the Olympics.

-- Ted DiBiase interview printed in the Chicago Sun Times on 1/15: "Because I am so versatile, the UWF used me as a utility man. I didn't get the push I deserved or the respect I deserved. I had to show a big Oklahoma football player like Steve Williams the ropes as his tag team partner, show him how to work in the ring and how to do an interview, and then the UWF tried to promote Williams over me." He also said Giant Baba's handshake is better than a signed contract from any other promoter in the wrestling business. He also said, "After the NWA bought out the UWF, I didn't want to work for Jim Crockett. He has his favorites and they get paid well and they get taken care of. But if you're not in the clique, you starve." He was very complimentary of Vince McMahon, saying "he has taken wrestling out of the closet and put it right into the entertainment mainstream."

-- On the live satellite feed of the Royal Rumble, you could hear Vince McMahon yelling "Stop looking like a fucking stone and show some interest in the matches" at Howard Finkel. Vince also didn't know the names of the Jumping Bomb Angels. He asked for someone to tell him the names, and then said, "Wow, I butchered the shit out of those names."

March 7th, 1988

WWF
-- Wrestlemania will actually be longer than 2 1/2 hours, as was originally reported. The WWF reserved four hours of satellite time in two blocks, which means WM IV is budgeted for between 3 1/2 hours and 3 hours, 45 minutes. Dave says with around 17 matches, they'll have a little extra time to work with, and they can also show more clips, have an intermission to plug merchandise and have rest time in between matches for guys who have to work multiple times.

-- Hulk Hogan will be gone after Wrestlemania to film his movie, so he isn't being talked about as someone who will win the tournament. The talk was DiBiase for weeks, but it's known, and Dave agrees, that he can't draw as champion. Dave says it may not matter, because the WWF usually can't draw after Wrestlemania anyway. WM4 may also be profitable enough that they can lose money all summer and still come out ahead. "It's kind of a shame, but there is no question that DiBiase's gimmick is over, but his wrestling ability isn't over. The casual fan doesn't see DiBiase as a great wrestler, in fact, they don't even see him as a good wrestler. While one could make the case that his vulnerability would make him a draw as champion (fans will show up thinking that Savage, Bigelow, Steamboat, etc. can win the title because Ted is beatable) the bottom line is that the belt has no drawing power. While the WWF belt is the 'most over' title in wrestling, people have seen so many champions and so many championship matches that seeing a title change, even a WWF title change, will do very little to up the gate. DiBiase didn't draw in his one week dry run as champion in California (traditionally Titan's hottest corner of the U.S. aside from the Northeast), and his main event last Monday at the Garden with Bam Bam Bigelow drew the smallest MSG crowd in years. Still, nobody but Hogan himself is going to sellout buildings this summer."

-- Dave says because of this, Randy Savage's name is now being mentioned, meaning Savage would have to knock DiBiase off in the semifinals and meet a heel like Andre, Rude or Bravo in the finals. Dave predicts Bravo will go out of the tournament in the first round, and Andre making it to the finals would have to work three times, so that's not happening. So he predicts Savage vs Rude in the finals, with Savage going over. Dave says if they can figure out a way to get Andre into a match where he can do a job for Savage, they'll have succeeded in getting over another babyface at the Hogan level, which would make a lot of sense, but Savage couldn't hold the belt for long because Hogan has to be champ when he comes back, since he'll be promoting a movie.

-- Dave says the latest WWF magazine is showing different brackets than are being shown on television, and from the looks of the bracketing in the magazine, it's possible Savage vs DiBiase will be the final match in the tournament, which means DiBiase would have to face the winner of Hogan/Andre in the semifinals. He predicts Hogan beating Andre, leading to a half dozen guys attacking Hogan, causing a forfeit and allowing DiBiase to win and advance to the finals against Savage.

-- The WWF has had a lot of ads in trade magazines recently, because they're dropping Video One as their TV production company and will be doing production in-house. It's expected the change will take place shortly after Wrestlemania when they take a small break from live cards. Ads were there for a TV play-by-play guy, an interview guy, and a senior producer, so Dave expects personality changes on TV in the near future.

-- 2/22 at MSG was a horrible show and drew less than 10,000, the smallest in five years. The show was headlined by Ted DiBiase vs Bam Bam Bigelow. Dave gave the match **1/2 and said it was the only decent match on the show. Dave thinks DiBiase is the best in the country on his good nights, but he can't touch Ric Flair as a night after night guy. 2/27 in Denver drew a sellout 8,500 headlined by Hogan & Bigelow vs Andre & DiBiase. 2/21 in Providence, RI, drew 3,100 headlined by Brutus Beefcake vs Greg Valentine.

-- The Wichita Eagle Beacon had an article on Harley Race's son Justin on 2/11. He is ranked #2 in Kansas in high school wrestling. Harley Race was quoted in the interview and said his ring career is just about over.

-- Earl Hebner was very lucky in the bump he took on NBC when Hogan threw him over the top rope. He did need four stitches to close a wound on his face, but didn't suffer a concussion or major injuries.

-- It was Bad News's insistence on changing his name, not the WWF's. He was afraid they would trademark his name, and he'd be screwed if he ever left.

March 14th, 1988

-- Dave says Hogan, Savage and DiBiase are the only possible winners of the tournament at this point, and that while most people think Savage or DiBiase, he doesn't think you can rule Hogan out, although he has a lesser chance than the other two.

-- Dave says because the bracketing has changed, something has gone "afoul" in their original plans, and he isn't sure what.

-- Gladys Knight and the Pips will perform "America the Beautiful" at the beginning of the show.

-- Bruno Sammartino has left the WWF. He received an offer for a company involved in promotion of a national 900 number wrestling hotline which paid more than his job as color commentator. He had been unhappy with the current state of wrestling and didn't like the direction it was going. There were also problems because the WWF never pushed David Sammartino. Dave says the truth is that when Bruno retired in 1981, he had no intentions of ever coming back, but came back to help David's career. Since the comeback drew some big crowds, pressure was put on him to do more and more appearances. He also filled in for Duggan, Jake Roberts, and Ken Patera when they were suspended or injured. He reinjured his back but still made every show through August. He decided at that point he was done even though the WWF still wanted him to wrestle in the Northeast to try to boost house show attendance. Bruno and Vince's problems started because Bruno felt credibility in wrestling was very important, and he didn't like Vince's promotional tactics. Bruno also often refers to his track record of drawing consistent sellouts in arenas where Vince now draws 3,000 to 5,000. "The funny thing is wrestling probably would be better off if McMahon at least tried not to insult credibility at all costs, but that's a subject we beat to death in 1985."

-- 3/5 at the Cow Palace drew 8,500 headlined by Hogan & Duggan vs DiBiase & Virgil, a show Dave attended live. 3/5 in Irvine, CA, drew 500 fans headlined by DiBiase vs Duggan. They had just run LA the day before, which is why the crowd was so small. 3/5 in Boston drew 11,000 headlined by Randy Savage & Strike Force vs the Honky Tonk Man & Hart Foundation. 2/26 in Hollywood, FL, drew 10,000 headlined by Ted DiBiase vs Randy Savage. 2/8 in Clinton, NY drew 450 fans headlined by Killer Bees vs Bolsheviks. "This isn't even a C Team!" an outraged Meltzer said. 2/29 in Utica, NY drew 3,228 headlined by Duggan vs One Man Gang where both no-showed, and instead the main event was the Junkyard Dog & George Steele vs The Bolsheviks. 3/6 in Los Angeles drew 4,000 fans, the lowest drawing Hogan crowd ever in LA. He teamed with Duggan against Virgil and DiBiase.

-- The Iron Sheik is already fired, which may be a record.

-- Adrian Adonis is trying to get back in.

-- NBC has agreed to do five SNMEs in 1988, and one prime time special in the 1988-89 TV season.

March 21st, 1988

WWF
-- Dave starts by making his predictions for Wrestlemania IV, first giving the disclaimer that he doesn't know any of the results, and if he did, he wouldn't make any predictions. Hogan, Savage, and DiBiase are the only ones Dave gives any chance of winning, and no one else in the tournament is strong enough to carry the title, "or have problems from their past that Titan is afraid of coming out should they be placed in the public spotlight." Dave is able to make some eliminations based on the fact that they have already done their first post-WM TV taping, and Andre the Giant, Hacksaw Duggan, Butch Reed, Don Muraco, and Bam Bam Bigelow were all there, with none of them wearing the belt. Jake Roberts, Greg Valentine, One Man Gang, and Dino Bravo can be ruled out because they aren't really pushed that hard and he suspects they won't make it past the first round. Rude and Steamboat are guys who he sees having more than one match, but obviously not winning. The brackets were changed to ensure Savage in the finals recently. Also, the latest issue of WWF Magazine, weeks before the show mind you, has a photo of Elizabeth, accompanied by the caption: "Elizabeth, manager of the World Wrestling Federation Champion Randy 'Macho Man' Savage." Dave wonders if this is a red herring, a misprint, bad proofreading, or a clue. Dave also got a letter from a reader who insists at the previous Wednesday's TV taping that he looked through the curtain and saw Savage doing a promo while carrying the belt. "So much for the honor of kay-fabing the public. His final prediction is Savage, because he says if he's wrong, so are a lot of other people.

-- Regarding HTM/Beefcake, Dave guarantees this match won't win any MOTY honors. "Honkeytonk has bizarre talents, but none of them have anything to do with wrestling (that sometimes forgotten art form of putting together exciting pro style matches)." Dave says Beefcake has no talent he has ever been able to find, and he's been watching him for years. Dave thinks he's a teacher's pet, but also says that the Barber gimmick is one that has gotten him more over than anyone would have expected. Dave says the main clue of a title change is that the scheduled Honky Tonk Man Coliseum Video release has been replaced with a Beefcake video, and that it's well known that HTM is in the doghouse for refusing to job at the NBC taping on 2/5. Dave predicts HTM "will no longer be the worst Intercontinental champion of all time. Then again, I remember Pedro Morales ..."

-- Regarding the Islanders & Bobby Heenan vs Koko B Ware & the Bulldogs, Dave says it's amazing that Dynamite Kid made the comeback he did when his career was ruled over a year earlier. He says the WWF acknowledging it would have resulted in the Bulldogs being over as a team again, but that the WWF didn't seem to want them to get over again, but rather want to get Matilda over, which they have. The drawing point of this match is Matilda's return, and a likely spot where Bobby Heenan gets chased around the ring. Dave predicts the Bulldogs will win in the end.

-- Regarding Demolition vs Strike Force, Dave thinks it will be a "semi-fun" match. Dave mentions Strike Force being booed recently at the Cow Palace. "Is the matinee idol look out? Is ugly in? Is being a good tag team out? Is wrestling skill out? Demolition isn't a great team. I don't even think they are all that good of a team, but they are certainly not a bad team. Dave's prediction is that "Every time the tag team title has been on the line at WM, it has changed hands. This will make it a hat trick."

-- Regarding "Anabolic Warrior" vs Hercules, Dave says it's the stuff nightmares are made of. "Is this what pro wrestling will be like in the 1990s?" Dave says Hercules has had two good matches in two straight Wrestlemanias, which puts him in company of only Ricky Steamboat, who has two top-notch WM performances coming into this year. Dave says "If Harley Race, one of the greatest performers this business has ever seen, is unable to carry this amazingly popular blend of chemicals, face paint, and a lifetime of praying to the God Arnold in Gold's Gyms across the country, past the one star level, then Hercules will have to put on the match of his life to make this one good." Dave's final prediction? "Neither man will live to see 50." (OUCH! He was half right, I guess.)

-- Regarding the battle royal, Dave ponders if Bret Hart can single-handedly make a bad concept work. Dave thinks anyone can win, but will likely be a babyface. "George Steele won't get in the ring. Paul Roma and Jim Powers will smile a lot. Junkfood Dog won't do anything. If Sam Houston doesn't win, he'll take the best bump going out. Harley Race's bump will be the second best."

-- Hulk Hogan is scheduled to take time off following Wrestlemania to do a movie and spend time with his wife, as they are expecting their first child.

-- WM IV sold out over the past week. Dave says one could make the point that last year's show sold more than 90,000 tickets and sold out roughly as far as in advance of this show in which the paid attendance will probably be around 13,500 fans. However, Michigan was blacked out of both cable and PPV for WM III, so either you went to the show live or you had to drive all the way to Toledo, OH, to watch it. This year, they have 8 closed circuits in NYC alone, 8 more in New Jersey, another closed circuit at the Spectrum in Philadelphia, and PPV everywhere. Tickets were also much more expensive this time. For WM 3, the average paid ticket price was $16.50. The top price was $100, but the place was flooded with $9 seats. This year, the best tickets go for $150 and there are 55 rows priced at $100. They're still expected to do a $1 million gate.

-- The big post-WM feud will be Duggan vs Andre. The angle was shot on 3/9 in Winston-Salem, NC before a sellout of 9,000 fans. During an interview, Duggan tries to interrupt Andre and DiBiase. Andre beats up Duggan, headbutts him off the stage, and Duggan has to be held back from charging. The next week, Andre has a match with Brian Costello, and Duggan runs in. Andre gets the advantage and starts choking Duggan, who bleeds heavily from the mouth, but he gets the 2 x 4 and knocks Andre out with it. They bring out a stretcher to carry Andre away, and he revives, goes berzerk, and chases Pat Patterson all the way to the dressing room.

-- The biggest surprise at the TV taping was the appearance of Owen Hart. He appeared using his real name as a jobber. Later in the taping, he wrestled Hercules and got some offense, which the crowd loved, but submitted in the end. Dave doesn't understand the rationale behind bringing Owen Hart in only to do jobs.

-- Vince was embarrassed by the Hogan/Andre NBC rating, as he had claimed publicly beforehand that it would be the highest rated prime time television show not only of the week, but of the entire television season.

-- Bruno Sammartino has quit to work for Lou Albano's new 900-line. Bruno hated the modern version of the WWF, claiming wrestling should treat its fans as intelligent people and try to maintain credibility, and he was also bitter about David never being given a push. When he left, Linda McMahon called him and told him he was not allowed to use his name in any outside business ventures, because the WWF had trademarked the name, which Bruno didn't exactly react to all that well. (My note: I never realized Bruno was a gimmick name.) On 3/9, David was wrestling in Watertown, NY. He allegedly went after a fan who was heckling him and threw him out of his chair. The WWF then fired David. Later in the issue, Dave says all charges have been dropped.

-- In Nashville, before the 3/12 SNME, they did a ticket giveaway to ensure a full house where anyone who could name two WWF wrestlers who receive two free tickets. Reader Jeff Bowdren gave the Savage/DiBiase match ****1/2 and called it the best match of the year so far.

-- 3/6 in San Diego drew 3,500 headlined by Duggan vs DiBiase. 3/12 in Philly drew 10,731 headlined by Hogan vs DiBiase in a "terrible lumberjack match".

-- Mark Young, son of Chief Jay Strongbow, appeared at the last TV taping.

-- The WWF plans on raiding the NWA's roster in May because they're mad about them running the Clash.

March 28th, 1988

Early on, Dave starts with the cryptic: "Is no news good news? Not for those of us writing the news it isn't. Actually, there are negotiations going on to what could be the biggest story of the year, but since as best as I can tell, nothing has come from those talks yet. Anyway, there will be no shortage of news come next week, that much is for sure."

Dave also asks that everyone send him a postcard or short letter which shows each reader preferred between the Clash and WM IV, and what the best match was on either show.

RATINGS FROM EVERYWHERE
-- In weekly syndication ratings ending 2/21, the WWF package ranked 6th place with a 9.9 rating in 245 markets. Jim Crockett's Wrestling Network fell to 8th place with a 7.9 rating in 177 markets. GLOW, POWW, AWA, and Pro Wrestling This Week are all under the All Star Wrestling Network banner now, meaning they should crack the top 15 soon. The WWF's syndicated advertising was almost all renewed at prices ranging between $30,000 and $35,000 for a 30-second slot. Crockett is hoping to make $10 million off of advertisements this year. No ratings are available for the 3/12 SNME yet. Dave says it will be interesting when they come in, because they will show how the general public reacted to the Hogan/Andre prime time special. Later in the issue, Dave reports they drew a 10 rating and a 30 share, which is good, but down from the last few specials.

WWF
-- Dave says it appears interest in Wrestlemania IV is way down from previous years. Dave says it's a drop from the first year, when all the major newspapers and magazines were reporting on Wrestlemania. The second one, which wasn't a huge success, still got a lot of publicity because of the press. Dave says there wasn't the same amount of national press for Wrestlemania III, but there was an overwhelming amount of local publicity in Michigan and Ontario. Dave says before the first Wrestlemania, he couldn't take a bus or go out somewhere without someone talking about it. (My note: Seriously?) Dave thinks the show will be a success, but where he was previously calling it a $25 million show, he thinks now it's more likely to be maybe a $19 million show. Dave says interest is always down going into summer, but he really thinks this is going to be a very lifeless summer for the WWF.

-- "You want to know one of the most significant differences between the NWA and the WWF? Remember last week I reported about the angle with Andre the Giant and Jim Duggan from Winston-Salem where Andre choked Duggan who started bleeding heavily from the mouth (scheduled to air on 4/2). What apparently happened is Andre accidentally hit Duggan in the lip and the lip cut on a tooth and lots of blood resulted from it. There was lots of talk that they will actually re-shoot the angle this weekend, because McMahon didn't want that much blood on television. In the NWA, had a similar accident occurred, they would be doing cartwheels (well, that's an exaggeration but they would think it added to the angle and certainly wouldn't dream of re-shooting it). I'm not sure what decision was reached about re-shooting however but we should know next week." Later in the issue, Dave says it wasn't re-shot after all.

-- The Killer Bees have been asked to turn heel. There was an angle at the 3/12 Philadelphia card where the Bees were lumberjacks, although some swear it wasn't the real Bees, and they attacked Hulk Hogan during his match with Ted DiBiase. Hogan beat them up.

-- 3/10 in Colorado Springs, CO drew 2,000 headlined by Demolition vs Rougeaus. 3/12 at the Capital Centre drew 8,500 headlined by Hulk Hogan vs Virgil. 3/15 in Lubbock drew 800 headlined by Duggan winning a Bunkhouse battle royal. 3/13 in Hamilton, Ontario drew 15,000 headlined by Hogan & Bigelow vs DiBiase & Virgil. 3/13 in Albuquerque, NM, drew 2,151 headlined by Duggan winning a Bunkhouse battle royal. 3/18 in Houston drew 7,500 headlined by Hogan & Duggan vs DiBiase & Andre. 3/6 in Hartford, CT drew 3,900 headlined by Rick Rude winning a Royal Rumble.

-- Dave on the Royal Rumble: "This concept isn't drawing on the road shows. It only worked as a one-time gimmick."

-- Demolition has been doing pinfall jobs almost everywhere on house shows, which Dave thinks guarantees a tag title change at Wrestlemania, since the WWF booking philosophy has always been to beat the future champions every night until they win the title.

-- Dan Spivey has left and will be starting in Puerto Rico shortly.

-- "Expect a Bravo vs. Patera feud over weightlifting which is something I know you are all holding your breath in anticipation of."

-- "DING DING DING. Don't read anymore on this page if you want to be surprised at Wrestlemania." He then talks about DiBiase working two matches at the post-WM TV taping without the belt, while Savage didn't appear at all on either taping, which makes Savage winning a lock. The Savage/Liz WWF magazine thing mentioned last week was picked up by the Associated Press. Dave has been told the magazine cover was printed by mistake and Titan is furious about the results being public knowledge. Also, on the same TV taping, Beefcake was there without a belt, HTM was there with his belt, and Jimmy Hart had a bonnet to hide his hair, which means Jimmy Hart is losing his hair, but HTM is not losing his title. Both TV tapings drew $85,000 houses, which Dave says are incredible gates for cities of those sizes (Cape Girardeau, MO, and Springfield, IL)

-- Andre will be managed by Bobby Heenan again after Wrestlemania.

-- They are trying to push DiBiase as a more serious wrestler, and less as Andre's manager and a guy who buys all of his victories, as they think the reason he isn't drawing is because of how they are portraying him.

-- "Jos LeDuc is headed in managed by Frenchy Martin. He'll go nowhere. How can he get over without juice?"

-- Post WM feuds will be Junkyard Dog vs Ron Bass, Ken Patera vs Dino Bravo, and Rick Rude vs Jake Roberts.

-- "The Rude-Roberts thing is kind of cute. Rude's gimmick will be before every match he kisses a woman in the audience (a plant of course). Well on a TV show, he'll kiss Jake's wife (isn't it funny, for years promotions tried like crazy to cover up that any wrestlers were married because they were afraid they'd lose women groupies over it) which sets up the feud."

-- The WWF will do a four-day tour of Italy during the post-WM break.

-- Several closed-circuit sites for Wrestlemania have been cancelled due to poor advances. Dave says the thing he's heard when he's asked people what the show is missing this year is that no one likes the tournament idea.

-- Bruno Sammartino apparently did a very candid interview about the WWF on the radio recently, and Dave is requesting to hear it if anyone has it.

April 4th, 1988

TALK ABOUT THE TWO BIG SHOWS ON 3/27
-- "'This is horrible, Gorilla.' It sure was. I saw it and I still don't believe it. Was it a dream? Was it a nightmare? All I know is in every sense of the word, it was a bomb." -- Dave on Wrestlemania IV

-- Dave doesn't understand why the show was such a failure, as Wrestlemania III was probably the greatest overall wrestling production of all time. He says from a wrestling point of view, it couldn't compare to Starrcade '85 or Starrcade '86, but it was still an entertaining show, despite a terrible main event. He says the main event still did its job of satisfying fans who paid to see a slam and a pin and got both. "At this time last year Vince McMahon was the omnipotent king of the business. He's still the king, but Sunday he proved he was no longer omnipotent."

-- Dave says after bushwhacking Jim Crockett on Thanksgiving and putting on a better show to boot, then running a free show that was better than Crockett's PPV on January 24, the idea going into 3/27 was that Crockett was suicidal trying to compete with Wrestlemania, as it's the one show where the wrestlers usually go all out, it's a multi-million dollar production, and the hype contained two NBC network specials. The thought was that even if the Clash was a better wrestling show, the WWF would still "win" because of the superior production, glitz, celebrities, and atmosphere.

-- "Jim Crockett kicked Vince McMahon's ass Sunday afternoon, and on the single least likely day of the year for that to happen." Dave doesn't have anything yet in terms of economic figures, and some will simply argue that because WM was a bigger money show, that's the bottom line. But Dave says if that's your logic, Crockett made more money off the Bunkhouse Stampede than Vince did the Royal Rumble, and we all saw what happened there.

-- "I can't believe anyone who watched both shows, and fewer did than I had imagined, could do anything but laugh at the comparison." Preliminary figures state WM was down about 40 to 45 percent in terms of interest from WM III. The PPV buyrate appears to be around six percent, about half of what the WWF had predicted, and well below the 10.3 buyrate of the previous year. WM IV, however, still grossed $10.8 million, but they probably will only bank $3.5 million at most. Preliminary reports indicate a closed circuit audience of around 175,000 (compared to 375,000 last year) which accounts for an estimated $2.3 million more. The live gate was around $1 million, and Donald Trump did pay the WWF to run the show at Trump Plaza what's said to be a nice chunk of change, but the amount is being kept secret. The overall estimate, including Canadian markets, is that the show grossed just under $14 million, but because of PPV splits, the net will probably be around $6.5 million total. Just two weeks before, the WWF predicted an $18 million take. Dave says it's impossible to speculate how much of it had to do with overall interest in the show being down, and how much of it had to do with people deciding to watch the NWA's free show instead. Dave admits that Crockett hurt Wrestlemania far more than anyone anticipated, even more than McMahon hurt Crockett in January, although admittedly not as much as McMahon hurt Crockett at Starrcade.

-- Dave reiterates that the shows were like night and day. He says TBS deserves credit for the nice opening, and feels the show was a ***1/2 production overall. He says there were a few flaws with the Clash, namely that there were too many commercials early on, and that for the first 90 minutes of the show, only 30 minutes were in the ring, but that was to make up for them going 45 minutes with Flair/Sting without commercial breaks, which Dave says was a move he appreciated in hindsight. Dave says the announcing was great, superlative even, during the main event. All the matches were good except the barbed wire match, the crowds was hot, and two of the matches were excellent. Dave is convinced they should no longer allow Steve Williams to talk in public. He suggests giving him a manager and turning him into a monster. Dave likes Nikita Koloff's new look and says he did a good interview. The skit with Jim Cornette and Eddie Haskell was "priceless", which surprised Dave, because those celebrity spots are usually awful. Meltzer pointed out how silly the Bob Eucker/Gene Okerlund spots looked in comparison. "But the real story was the flow of the show and the production and getting the angles in tune with the audience, all of which were very weak on their two previous specials and made McMahon look major league." Dave says the thing at the end with the judges was horrible, and that you could call the draw with Flair and Sting from a mile away, but that no one was complaining when it was over.

-- "Wrestlemania on the other hand made Starrcade '87 look like Starrcade '85. Really, that's too nice. I don't want to fault individuals, but the general appraisal was that everyone on the JCP side gave not only a little extra, but a lot extra, while the Titan side figured that since it was Wrestlemania, everything would fit neatly into place since Vince is a genius and everyone else can coast along."

-- Dave says the announcing for WM IV wasn't bad, but it was the weakest of their PPV efforts thus far. "Particularly Jesse Ventura didn't seem prepared as he had no good lines and just coasted through. Gorilla Monsoon was so monotone and predictable that you could have replayed any Wrestling Challenge show's commentary on this and it would have sounded the same." Bob Eucker, who did a good job at WM III, didn't do so well this time. Dave's biggest problems with the show were as follows:

-- "Hulk Hogan -- The guy is so 'over' that he overshadows the entire promotion. The lack of success of this show was at least in part because Hogan wasn't the featured attraction, but was made 'one of the boys'. One cable TV operator I spoke with today termed the lack of success on PPV due to 'that idiot McMahon devaluing his only attraction.'" Dave says maybe it's time they tried Randy Savage night and putting Savage over, but instead they put Hogan and Elizabeth over, just as they've done on the NBC specials. "It's like Randy can't even order a taxi cab unless Liz tells Hulk to flag down the cab."

-- The location. Dave admits hindsight is 20/20 here, as no one would have dreamed that a Wrestlemania crowd would be dead for 3 1/2 hours. "The Trump Plaza should have been called the Trump Mauseleum. It wasn't a wrestling crowd and they reacted to almost nothing, which made those matches where the guys were really putting out still come off as flat and tedious. Vince made a major tactical error taking wrestling away from the wrestling fans with high prices. Sure, he got a huge live gate, but he could have gotten a good live gate anywhere and could have priced it so wrestling fans, and not Casino Hi-Rollers who thought they were watching burlesque, filled the stands. McMahon deserves credit for trying to make wrestling an upper-class entertainment, but on this night the Hi-Rollers ruined his show."

-- Steroids. "I joke about steroids all the time. I give guys funny nicknames and I suppose I'm the most hated person in the world among heavy steroid users in the wrestling business. However, I'm not trying to be funny here. It was totally embarrassing watching guys really try to work hard, which they aren't used to, and have every match but a few totally die within two minutes because one, and often both guys, couldn't keep up a decent pace for a five minute match. I don't even want to talk about health risks here, because nobody listens. I don't even want to blame the guys here, because the reality of what the promoter is trying to sell forces 82 percent of the Titan workers to become human guinea pigs. However, the tournament was embarrassing. I was embarrassed as someone who appreciates the talents and sacrifices wrestlers make to see this stuff. It wasn't ha-ha, let's watch Lex blow up like lots of fans do, this was a sad situation. Shoot, Luger kept up a pace in his match that put most of Titan's guys to shame."

-- The tournament idea. It was a flop and the key issue to the show not selling. There was no specific issue. "Like we've said, no belt in wrestling means much of anything anymore. It's the personalities themselves that are the drawing card nowadays. Wrestlemania proves that point. Nobody cared about the tournament matches unless they involved Hogan, or to a lesser degree Savage and DiBiase. The rest were like a waste of time."

-- Too many people knew the outcome. On ABC news the morning after the show, it said, "Randy Savage was the winner at Wrestlemania, but of course everyone knew it since the WWF magazine had printed the result three weeks ago. The WWF claims the magazine report was simply a typographical error." Dave says he was at the beach Saturday, and he talked to a few fans who aren't newsletter readers at all, but simply casual fans who he doesn't even "talk smart" to ("I don't insult their intelligence either"), and they all knew Savage was winning. "It was pathetic. I'm sorry to go on a tirade at this point, but I'm sick to death of narrow-minded folks blaming me because their promotions aren't interesting enough to draw fans at live gates. If everyone who read this newsletter quit watching matches tomorrow, pro wrestling interest would drop 0.002 percent. In reality, the fans who read newsletters support this business probably in 20 or 30 times greater the proportion than the so-called 'marks' and if this business was to die (which it won't, and I'm not predicting anything of the sort), they'd be the last ones killed off. Again, I'm sorry for the tirade but it's been building up lately. However, for Titan to give away the endings for two major shows in a row, and basically turn the business into a joke, and then not change the ending can't be beneficial in the long run."

-- Dave doesn't have a rating yet for the Clash, but if it did a 5.0, it reached two million homes. Wrestlemania reached 540,000 homes and got 195,000 more viewers through closed circuit and PPV in the US last year. This year, it only ran in 95 closed circuit sites in the US and 39 of them were less than 2,000-seat capacity buildings.

WRESTLEMANIA IV
-- 20-Man Battle Royal. Says it started out hot, but the crowd only reacted to a few introductions. After 40 seconds, with a crowd in silence, it went into slow motion and became a dud. 1/2*, only for the angle with Bret Hart turning at the end, but the match was a DUD.

-- Ted DiBiase vs Hacksaw Duggan. Says it was slow paced. DiBiase did some good work to make it watchable, but that was about it. "Shockingly little heat for all of this", considering Andre was at ringside and played a part in the finish. *1/4

-- Don Muraco vs Dino Bravo. Muraco was drenched in sweat 2:30 into the match. Soon, but guys were puffing hard. 1/2*

-- Ricky Steamboat vs Greg Valentine. Started off good, but Valentine blew up four minutes in. Both guys worked hard, but Valentine's timing was off. "Steamboat brought his son Ricky Jr. to the ring before the match. I thought it was a tremendous sight with all the pressures and commotion around that Steamboat was oblivious to everything but his son. I guess they didn't want a babyface match later, but Steamboat deserves a lot better than this." **1/4

-- Randy Savage vs Butch Reed. Crowd popped for the finish but was dead throughout. Super-slow, with Reed in control most of the way. *

-- One Man Gang vs Bam Bam Bigelow. Give Bigelow credit for wrestling on such a bad knee. Still, it destroyed his agility, which is his gimmick. "In reality, this was a negative 1 1/2 star match, but I'll give it a dud considering Bigelow's condition."

-- Rick Rude vs Jake Roberts. "Rude's tights with lips on the back were an eye-catcher. Awful." Lots of rest holds, and very similar to the Nikita Koloff/Bobby Eaton match at the Bunkhouse Stampede, but maybe worse, because Eaton did a few great moves in that one. Crowd chanted boring. Dave calls it a worst match of the year candidate. -**

-- Hercules vs Ultimate Warrior. Warrior ran to the ring and blew up before the match started. The pre-match staredown got zero reaction. No reaction to the full nelson as a finishing move for Hercules. Dave says this was actually worse than Rude/Roberts, but he'll rank it higher because at least it was quick. -* 1/2

-- Andre the Giant vs Hulk Hogan. The only match on the show that seemed to have genuine interest. "After the match Hulk chased DiBiase, who threw Virgil to him (apparently a future babyface turn by Virgil -- Will we find out his father is a plumber?)". Match was terrible, but watchable. Posing wasn't watchable, but it's what the fans came to see. They didn't announce Hogan being eliminated from the tournament until after the posing. *1/4 for the match, but DUD if the posing is included. (My note: Weird ...)

-- Ted DiBiase vs Don Muraco. No heat because the crowd was drained after Hogan, but they worked hard and it was a decent, all action match. *1/2

-- Randy Savage vs Greg Valentine. Good match, with good pacing and action. **1/4

-- Brutus Beefcake vs Honky Tonk Man. Dave was most surprised by the lack of heat here, because both guys are usually very over, but the crowd was dead during Honky's pre-match routine. Dave says Peggy Sue made more noise at ringside than the other 18,165 folks watching. Dave says Beefcake looks amazingly like Davey Boy Smith with his new haircut. "You can tell the two apart by watching them wrestle of course." DUD

-- Islanders & Bobby Heenan vs Koko Ware & British Bulldogs. Started off decent, but got boring fast. *1/4

-- Randy Savage vs One Man Gang. Watchable, but terrible finish. 1/2*

-- Demolition vs Strike Force. Good match, but of those in the crowd who responded, they all cheered the heels. Dave says this would have been a strong match had the crowd gotten more into it. **1/2

-- Randy Savage vs Ted DiBiase. They tried, but the crowd was more focused on the dressing room and the possibility of Hogan coming back out. Not as good as the super SNME match a few weeks prior. Randy told Liz to get Hogan and the crowd again turned away from the match. The post-match was all focused on Hogan and Liz. **1/4

April 25th, 1988

WWF
-- The WWF will be returning from the Wrestlemania break, doing several TV tapings just prior to the weekend.

-- Major housecleaning is expected in May and June. Hillbilly Jim was expected to be among them, but likely won't be, since he's working some openers against Jim Neidhart.

-- Expect Brutus Beefcake to be IC champ soon. The WWF has already sent out publicity with Honky as a challenger. Dave says it could be a misprint, but he doubts it. Dave suspects a title change on the 4/30 SNME.

-- "The WWF magazine is scheduling a piece where they reveal Earl Hebner as Dave's twin brother which is a surprise because it seemed like they had pretended the angle never took place. Next month's issue is also scheduled to give the results of the August pay-per-view. Just kidding there."

-- There is talk of another huge outdoor show in Toronto over summer. Last time they promoted there, they drew 69,300 fans for Hogan vs Orndorff. Dave thinks they could pop another big house for Hogan vs Andre, because Ontario is pretty much the only place where Wrestlemania drew big crowds everywhere for closed circuit.

-- Bam Bam Bigelow should be back for the TV tapings.

-- The WWF has sent letters of warning to everyone that incidents like the David Sammartino one won't be tolerated and will result in immediate dismissal. David Sammartino was set to face the Iron Sheik in several independent shows in New York, but the commission suspended him. Linda McMahon even wrote him a very nasty personal letter. "It's an admirable policy not to tolerate wrestler attacking fans, but where were they all these years when similar incidents went on? Randy Savage went into the stands in Fresno and according to newspaper reports, the guy he tried to hit ducked and he KO'd a 14-year old girl, and there is talk of a suit being filed here in San Francisco when a Titan wrestler knocked down a security guard (the Savage incident was several years ago I don't mean to give you the idea it was something recent, although the incident in SF was in February) so even though they are giving the impression of cracking down, this policy smells of every bit as much a double-standard as Titan's drug policy (which the wrestlers joke, you get a suspension if they find any cocaine in your system, and you get a suspension if they don't find any steroids in your system) which seems more of a public relations move than a move based on addressing any real problems."

April 2nd, 1988

WWF
-- The WWF returned to sellout crowds: 4/21 in New Haven drew 12,000 and 4/22 in Springfield, MA drew 9,000.

-- Brutus Beefcake vs Honky Tonk Man was advertised for SNME, and the program listed it, but Honky Tonk Man didn't wrestle the match. He did appear on three weeks' worth of TV tapings with the belt, so he won't be losing it anytime soon.

-- Everyone expected to be cut is still around.

-- Hulk Hogan is still not booked on any shows through the end of May.

-- Harley Race was hospitalized and had a foot of his intestine removed.

-- There was recently a Savage/Andre dark match where every time Savage was in peril, the fans chanted "We Want Hogan" immediately.

-- Bubba Rogers debuts at the next TV taping. Dave has no idea what they're going to do with him, only that Jimmy Hart said that he's looking for a bounty hunter to get rid of Brutus Beefcake, so maybe that will be his role.

-- The Rougeaus are turning heel soon.

-- Advance ticket sales for shows headlined by Savage vs DiBiase have been surprisingly good, but Andre vs Duggan is struggling to draw.

-- The plan is for Owen Hart to come in July and model him after Tiger Mask, where he's a masked high flyer marketed toward kids. Dave thinks that will go over great, except that there's so much they won't let Owen do in the ring that he's capable of, and there's no one he can work with.

-- The WWF wants to do a TV special of a Randy Savage and Elizabeth wedding. Dave says it wouldn't shock him to see it go head to head with the Great American Bash pay-per-view.