Wrestling Observer Flashback–06.26.89

Monday is upon us again! Back to 1989.

– So we’re at the end of the line for No Holds Barred’s theatrical run already, and although it did better than most predicted, the final verdict appears to be that Vince had to make so many ludicrous concessions just to get it released that it’s a big money loser for him. Doubtless he’ll try again, though.

– Clash VII was this past week, and it was the lowest rated ever to that point. Reaction was mixed, with some enjoying it and lots HATING it. Of course, the fact that it featured one of the most embarrassing segments in wrestling history probably took opinions further into the negative. Sadly I’m missing a page here so I miss the presumably epic takedown of the Ding-Dongs as it skips to page 3, with Dave raving about the Steamboat-Funk match and Luger turn. Luger was truly great there, turning on a shocked Steamboat with an arrogant smirk while “cheering” for him. And Dave, like myself, gave the awesome Steamboat v. Funk main event ****1/4.

– The show was severely hurt by the lack of air conditioning in the burning hot Fort Bragg arena, which had the crowd thinning out like crazy by the end of the show. Also, the show was hurt by being held on a military base, as the promotion had to make all kinds of concessions to the base in terms of hyping up the army and talking about how great it is to be a soldier until it got to the point of overkill. Dave also reveals why we constantly see Pillman videos where he’s flying a helicopter but never see him wrestle: See, they only had the budget to teach him how to fly, but couldn’t afford to teach him how to land, so he’s been flying over Atlanta for weeks now trying to figure it out.

– Dave doesn’t think that Bash 89 is going to do business because they only have 23 days to hype it up, and they haven’t really done a great job in making people think that Funk is a true threat. No way, bro, 1989 Scott was fearing for Flair’s life at that point. Also, they had a fantastic sit-down interview with Flair on this show, but it came right after the clownshow with Norman the Lunatic and the Ding Dongs, which lessened the impact somewhat.

– Sadly, Mandy Simpson (Koloff) died of Hodgkin’s Disease at age 26, ending that story in the saddest way. Also, Jerry Blackwell suffered a massive staph infection in his leg and might need to have it amputated.

– Tokyo Sports is reporting that Inoki has now decided to run for office, but he’s currently denying it.

– World Class is getting close to being thrown off Channel 11 in Dallas, their primary TV outlet, due to Embry and Pringle constantly using bad language on TV. Also, they’re going to start roping off a whole section of the Sportatorium to cut off the heel fans who are constantly booing Embry and ruining all his hard work of making himself out to be the hero of the promotion.

– Florida update: Things have flip-flopped again, as now the promotion is back from the dead and taped three weeks of TV due to money arriving from somewhere. So no one’s really sure who’s financing the group and who’s in charge. Sounds totally not sketchy!

– Dave finally had a chance to see Hashimikov winning the IWGP title from Vader, and he completely buries the match and notes how green the Russian looked, giving it 1/2*.

– On the other end of the spectrum, Tenryu won the Triple Crown from Jumbo Tsuruta in a match that Dave calls the same caliber of Flair-Steamboat and gives “*****+”, imploring everyone who trades tapes to get their hands on it. I was going to post a Youtube link but couldn’t find that particular match.

– The AWA is still advertising Tom Zenk and Badd Company for upcoming shows, even though they quit weeks ago, and Brad Rheingans, who is currently in Japan and won’t be back in time for the show.

– Tommy Rich is supposed to be coming into the NWA, but he was told outright that he was too fat and needed to get into acceptable condition first. Is there really that much upside to Rich that you’d make that kind of deal with him?

– Here’s a wacky tangent: Sting did a squash with a jobber named The Bounty Hunter who had a good build and looked promising, and lots of people asked Dave what his deal was. So Dave investigated and discovered it was a young guy named Al Greene, who will likely be sticking around as a job guy under his own name. Why is this interesting? Because Greene was in fact repackaged a bit later as a tag team wrestler, along with a partner who was equally inexperienced but turned out to be the one who had the potential in the business while Greene disappeared. The team was The Master Blasters and Greene’s partner was a young former bouncer named Kevin Nash.

– The Simmons/Reed team of The Ebony Experience was supposed to debut at the Clash, but Simmons seemingly quit the promotion and didn’t show up. And then, later in the week, things got smoothed over and they were teaming up again at a house show.

– And finally, the legend of Sid Vicious began on the weekly TV, as he powerbombed some poor goof over the top rope and dropped him kidney-first onto the concrete. You can’t stop him, you can only hope to contain him.