Wrestling Observer Flashback-10.12.88

The dates get a bit weird here because Dave was publishing on a weird schedule for October due to travelling for wrestling shows.

Also, to answer a couple of questions I’ve had e-mailed lately (along with all the “The Flashback column is the best thing on the blog!” praise, which I greatly appreciate!), January 1988 is as far back as my personal collection of Observers goes. So unfortunately as much as I’d love to go back to, say, the first Wrestlemania in 1985, I just don’t have access to those issues and the back issues are pretty pricey on eBay. That being said, I have everything from 88-91 and then all the ones from 91-onwards are archived on the Observer site, so we’ve got stuff to cover for a LONG time to come.

It’s time to play Rumor and Fact to start out!

RUMOR: Lex Luger has left the NWA and is going to the WWF.

FACT: He’s still on all the booking sheets and isn’t going anywhere. He HAS been making noise about wanting a better contract from whatever the new promotion ends up being, but as of this moment is still locked up.

RUMOR: Ric Flair has left the NWA and is going to the WWF.

FACT: Although it wouldn’t be a surprise given Tully’s departure, Flair is not on the WWF booking sheets and is still under contract as of this writing.

RUMOR: Jerry Jarrett has purchased 30% of World Class.

FACT: Maybe. Ken Mantell owns 30% of World Class and he wants out of the wrestling business, and Jarrett definitely wants a piece of World Class, so this might have happened. Dave adds that Jarrett is smart enough to wait until he can get 51%, however. Turned out that there was definitely fire to go along with that smoke.

• Real news time, as the WWF will get three more prime time specials on NBC. This supposedly includes the Slammy Awards, which in fact did not occur. Dave also makes the first mention I can remember of how TV ad rates for wrestling are half that of the worst sitcoms, which is why TV networks don’t tend to air wrestling. This of course is still a major problem to this day.
• The TBS purchase of Crockett still isn’t actually done yet, but it’s darn close. Originally the new ownership was talking about wanting to get Bam Bam Bigelow, Ricky Steamboat, Greg Valentine and One Man Gang away from the WWF. Of course, by the time it happened Bigelow left anyway and jumped on his own, and Steamboat “retired”. Dave thinks that OMG and Hammer would be pretty pointless additions anyway. Jack Petrick REALLY wants the main event of Starrcade to be Flair vs. Steamboat, but Steamboat doesn’t appear to be interested in coming back to wrestling full-time.
• They ARE trying to get Eddie Gilbert and Paul E. Dangerously now that they’re free from Continental. And in fact they would!
• Speaking of Bigelow, he’s already being viewed as a major disappointment and probably won’t be long for the promotion.
• Dave was actually at a CWF show in Birmingham, and he notes that Sid Eudy is impressively huge in person, as is Kokina the Samoan, who is by far the biggest Samoan that Dave has ever seen, a real monster. Also, Bob Armstrong has taken over booking from Gilbert and FNN has agreed to continue carrying the show for the moment.
• Dave also went to an NWA show in Chicago with Flair-Luger on top, where they did a Dusty Finish AGAIN. They really killed Chicago off but good.
• The Bulldogs and Rougeaus got into a big backstage fight over an incident where Jacques shaved the head of a friend of the Bulldogs, which Dave finds ironic since the Bulldogs did that kind of shit all the time (most notably to Joey Marella and Outback Jack). However, their friend was a ring attendant with Down’s Syndrome, so that’s pretty uncool of the Rougeaus. This led to Dynamite Kid cleaning Raymond’s clock, and of course things would escalate between them VERY quickly.
• WWF will be killing the C and D tours because they’re not drawing and they don’t have anyone past Hogan and Savage to put on top anyway.
• The AWA PPV will feature Wendi Richter & a babyface team vs. Madusa & Badd Company. This was originally set to be the Top Guns, but they have left the AWA over something that went down. Now, I think that what happened is that John Paul was actually the one who left, and then they this was the point where they replaced him with future boxing-diver Derrick Dukes.
• Down in Dallas, the Sportatorium problems “went away” by World Class agreeing not to prepare food on the premises anymore due to fire hazard worries that would have cost $40,000 to fix. So instead they had to agree to only serve pre-packaged food.
• The Central States promotion only drew 200 people for a show in Kansas City, and in fact the show was such a disaster that Bob Geigel has closed the doors temporarily. I think that ended up being permanent, in fact.
• In a shocker to no one, Dennis Condrey lasted one whole week with Pacific Northwest before vanishing after seeing his first paycheck.
• Dave discusses some more year end awards nominees, and when talking about the Rookie of the Year, he notes that there’s this kid he hasn’t actually seen yet named Kenta Kobashi who’s supposed to be the best according to his friends.

And that’s all for this week!