Wrestling Observer Flashback–June 1984 Part 1

Previously on the Flash…back:  http://blogofdoom.com/index.php/2016/04/26/wrestling-observer-flashback-may-1984-part-2/

Sorry for those of you waiting anxiously for Black Saturday, but the available collection skips to September from here, so we unfortunately miss the worst day of Ole Anderson’s life and I presume Dave’s as well.

As a note, I think I’m going to only post one part per day because this two-a-day thing is just killing me.

– Hold on, perhaps I spoke too soon, because Dave leads off with an epic tantrum about monopolistic practices due to the WWF buying GCW from the Briscos!  Hot damn!  In response to the McMahon/Barnett monster getting over 50% of Georgia Championship Wrestling, Ole Anderson has taken out a restraining order, hoping to prevent the march of progress.  Really, he only had himself to blame in a lot of ways. 

– Dave confesses that he has no knowledge of anti-trust laws and how they might apply to wrestling (Spoiler:  The NWA blatantly violated them for DECADES before anyone noticed, so I think Vince will be safe from the courts here) but he warns us that if someday soon we turn on TBS and see Vince McMahon and Mean Gene instead of Gordon Solie, we’ll know why.

– Speaking of lawsuits, the AWA is attempting to file suit against the WWF for “restraint of trade” due to stealing their TV time in San Francisco.  Even Dave laughs this nonsense off and points out the incredible hypocrisy of Verne Gagne crying foul after he stole the territory from Roy Shires and stole the TV show from ICW in the first place. 

Just for fun, here’s Dave’s Summer 1984 Rankings.  He does 100 but we’ll just do the top 10 because otherwise I’d have to break this up into 5 parts instead of 2.

1. Ric Flair (“He’s slowed down a bit”)

2.  Davey Boy Smith (“Athletically the best in the business.”)

3.  Bruiser Brody (“Nobody gives an aura of violent realism more.”)

4.  Bob Orton (“Often must be held back for fear of overshadowing his opponents”)

5.  Dynamite Kid (“Lost some stamina with added muscle”)

6.  Terry Gordy (“Great ability and workrate, but known to sluff off on occasion.”)

7.  Butch Reed (“Now that he’s gotten to where he controls heat well, there’s no stopping him”)

8.  Chavo Guerrero (“Almost everything he does is flawless.”)

9.  Paul Orndorff (“Doesn’t often get to show his best due to weak opposition in the WWF.”)

10.  Adrian Adonis (“Would be #1 if he was in any kind of condition to wrestle in singles.”)

– Hopefully Verne wasn’t feeling too comfortable in Minneapolis, because Vince has now started his TV show there as well.  

– So in the WWF this month, the big news is that Adrian Adonis & Dick Murdoch won the tag titles from Atlas & Johnson in a quickie match at the Allentown TV tapings.  Dave thinks this makes little sense because they’re going to be in Japan for a month.

– After being fired by Ole last month, Buzz Sawyer showed up for a Philly show and pinned Tonga Kid.  This was totally unexpected, and in fact I don’t even remember Sawyer even being in the WWF so this can’t have lasted long.

– The expansion plan continues with a Minneapolis show coming up on 6/17, headlined by Hogan v. Dr. D in a giant “fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck you!” to Verne Gagne if there ever was one.  Vince is also gonna give it a go in Memphis and Louisville by July.

– The WWF swung through California for a three-show tour and Dave actually has nice things to say about it!  The Slaughter-Sheik brawls are pretty great, even though they’re short. Dave notes that the tour even “brought old Roy Shires out of the closet” for a series of interviews on the local TV station. 

– Dave goes right back to trashing them when talking about the MSG card (the one with the JJ Dillon v. Tito Santana match discussed yesterday) noting that matches like Greg Valentine v. Bob Backlund “recalls the typical MSG garbage.”  Duly noted. 

– Hogan missed a few shows due to shooting a TV pilot, and Dave is already speculating that Hulk will become a big TV star and they’ll have to go back to Backlund.  I think we can safely say that Hogan was never in danger of becoming a huge star outside of wrestling.

– Dave has now turned the corner on the Snuka-Piper angle, noting that Snuka-Piper matches are selling out all over the place. 

– Dave recounts a couple of incidents where Paul Orndorff has been in fights with fans lately, and he wonders why everyone wants to pick on poor Mr. Wonderful lately? 

– In Japan, Giant Baba missed his first match in 25 years due to a neck injury of some sort that was likely an angle.  Stan Hansen and Bruiser Brody won the PWF tag title tournament over Baba & Dory Funk in a tournament final, and Baba took a stuff piledriver from the gaijin to set up the finish. 

– The UWF managed to launch without incident (or TV), and in fact Baba and Inoki both ended up sending guys to help.  Aw, that’s sweet. However, there is weirdness from the Japanese fanbase about the WWF International title held by Akira Maeda as the top belt in the promotion, because Tatsumi Fujinami was the previous champion and was stripped by UWF owner Hisashi Shinma so that Maeda could win it.  Dave thinks everyone is being stupid because Maeda won it in a fake tournament, and so did Fujinami! 

– Shinma is advertising the UWF shows as the “hardest wrestling in the world”, but then signed Bob Backlund and Dusty Rhodes for his next tour, which Dave thinks is a contradiction.

– Over in New Japan, the word has leaked that the reasoning behind the WWF-NJPW exclusivity all of a sudden is because they actually have an exclusive contract for New Japan to provide talent to the WWF and vice-versa.

We’ll cut it short here and continue on with Parade of Champions thoughts and the other territories tomorrow.