Wrestling Observer Flashback–12.11.89

Apologies to those waiting for a Survivor Series review, but my 1989 collection is missing the 12/4 issue, so we have to skip ahead a week.

– The top story in the US this week is the official end of the Continental Wrestling Federation, which won’t be the last closure this month. Basically the death knell was the split between owners David Woods and Ron Fuller, which resulted in Woods cutting off all money to the promotion to prevent any more losses. Although Robert Fuller has talked about restarting in January, all the top stars have already booked jobs elsewhere (including Cactus Jack getting a tryout with the NWA) and it’s basically just talk.

– Final polling on Survivor Series was decidedly negative, with most people feeling that nothing happened of note for a $20 PPV and there wasn’t any good action in the ring to make up for it.

– Buyrate estimates for the show are coming in around 3.3%, or about 350,000 buys. That was a pretty accurate guess, as it turned out.

– The reason behind Sid’s no-shows was of course that he suffered a punctured lung at the hands of Scott Steiner, and in fact collapsed in the airport on 11/18 while travelling between shows. Hopefully people at least recognized him. It’s expected that the Samoans will take the Skyscrapers’ place at Starrcade, and Dave hopes that they’ll at least advertise that ahead of time.

– Initial reports on the Royal Rumble card are coming in, and Dave thinks it already sounds awful. The major angle for Wrestlemania is expected to be started at the Rumble itself, at least. Zeus is not even talked about for the show, which indicates to Dave that he’s being phased out after the No Holds Barred PPV thing.

– The SNME featuring Hogan v. Genius (which sadly is also reviewed in 12/4 issue that I’m missing) scored a rating WAY down from the season average. What a shock.

– People in the NWA are pretty mad about a story in the New York Times that breaks kayfabe, but more importantly gets tons of details about the sport wrong, like using a blade to cut open the opponent rather than yourself, and talking about how blood is banned from the entire promotion and not just TV. Dave notes that it was a really poorly written and researched article.

– Inoki’s new wacky conquest: Promoting in China. I thought only Nixon could go to China?

– Over in All Japan, Baba gave the Nasty Boys a tryout and liked what he saw. There’s a sentence I never thought I’d type.

– Inoki’s comeback has been sidelined by the guy who tried to assassinate him, but don’t worry, he’ll be back for the New Year’s Eve show in Moscow.

– New Japan is trying to buy an AWA World title reign for one of their guys so they can change the title on their big Tokyo Dome show in February. Candidates include Masa Chono or Shinya Hashimoto, but in fact it ended up being Masa Saito in a slightly off-the-wall choice.

– More shame in Japan as Koji Kitao worked an AWA TV taping under a mask in advance of his big Tokyo Dome debut in February, and it got leaked to Japanese papers, with much unhappiness resulting because he was supposed to be the great white hope for the promotion and here he was working as a job guy for Verne Gagne.

– In Texas, for those keeping track, Kevin Von Erich lasted two weeks in the territory before no-showing the tag team tournament.

– Punisher is already gone, moving back to Memphis as Master of Pain again.

– Because I know everyone is missing it, it’s time for THIS WEEK IN KERRY VON ERICH STUPIDITY: In explaining Kevin’s no-show, Kerry offers the following explanation: “The USWA accidentally booked Kevin in two places at once last night, and because he was booked for the Houston show first, he had to go there. When a Von Erich signs a contract to be somewhere, he’s there.”

– The Toni Adams spanking angle actually got them thrown off a couple of syndicated stations, but they came back after a couple of weeks off. I wonder if that had anything to do with Embry suddenly stepping down as booker?

– Tommy Gilbert has been repackaged from Freddy into Black Jack. Another winning gimmick.

– BREAKING NEWS: After a two month trial, Lia Maivia and her crew of thugs were acquitted of all charges stemming from the accused extortion of a rival promoter. The jury bought her story that the $5000, which the FBI taped her demanding from the guy mind you, was merely a “booking fee” and not money to prevent his legs from being broken. The moral: Snitches get stitches, and don’t fuck with the Maivias in Hawaii.

– The rats are deserting the ship in Stampede, with top babyface DJ Peterson quitting over money, and Tom Nash of the Blackhearts as well. There’s very few people left in the promotion, and I think next week is the final curtain.

– Jerry Blackwell’s house burned down, the latest in a series of bad breaks for him, so a bunch of guys who had left his promotion for a rival company came back and worked for free on a tribute show to get him some money. Well that’s nice.

– Dave lists the scores in the Team Challenge Series thus far, and then immediately mocks it by noting that by some miracle of math, everyone has a winning record. Of course, the “records” were about as real as Goldberg’s streak numbers at the end.

– Tully Blanchard is going to be working in Puerto Rico while the heat with the NWA dies down. He’ll be waiting a while, then.

– ESPN has dropped the AWA for all of December, which Dave thinks might be a bad sign in their relationship.

– Buddy Roberts is running indy shows in the Chicago area, looking for a TV deal, and is said to have produced the worst TV tapes that anyone has ever seen. Granted, Herb Abrams is still a few years away at this point.

– Ric Flair brought out his big surprise for the J-Tex Corporation at the Center Stage tapings this week, which of course was Ole & Arn Anderson, although Dave doesn’t think the Three Horsemen v. Muta/Buzz Sawyer/Dragon Master is going to do business. And he was right.

– Cactus Jack did a tryout match as a job guy for the Steiners, and turned on his partner afterwards.

– Ric Flair is still technically head of the booking committee, but has been stripped of his “The Booker” title, which was step one in getting rid of him and replacing him with Ole.

– Although houses are way down, TV ratings are way up, although they couldn’t really translate that into business anywhere else.

– There’s talk of replacing Sid Vicious with Nitron in the Skyscrapers. What a team THAT would have been.

– And finally, the WWF tried a double shot in Fresno and Oakland on the same day, but arrogantly scheduled the shows two hours or so apart when it’s a 3.5 hour drive on a really good day. So the Oakland show had no wrestlers there when it started, and they did a local geek opener, then Andre v. Warrior (who both flew in) for THIRTY MINUTES in a reported candidate for worst match in recorded history, then a 45 minute intermission and Bobby Heenan interview segment to stall for time while everyone arrived, followed by a battle royale with more geeks before finally admitting defeat and just cancelling the show and giving refunds to everyone. Oh my god, I HAVE to look this disaster up. The actual card is decidedly more average then Dave’s description, but still, not something I’d want to pay to see:

WWF @ Oakland, CA – Coliseum – November 26, 1989 (6,000)
Earthquake, Brutus Beefcake, and Demolition were no-shows due to being in a car accident; most of the talent had not arrived when the show started, due to driving from Fresno and dealing with holiday traffic; included a 45-minute intermission and a Bobby Heenan interview segment designed to kill time
Sam Houston defeated the Conquistador
Koko B. Ware defeated Barry Horowitz
Mr. Perfect defeated Jimmy Snuka
WWF IC Champion the Ultimate Warrior defeated Andre the Giant via reverse decision
Mr. Perfect won a battle royal
Also included Rick Martel and the Genius