Wrestling Observer Flashback–June 1984 Part 2

Previously on 24:  http://blogofdoom.com/index.php/2016/04/27/wrestling-observer-flashback-june-1984-part-1/

For those looking for some extracurricular research to go with these early 80s flashbacks, I recently got the Gary Hart autobiography (someone sent me a copy and said “I’m pretty sure you’ll like it” and he was RIGHT!) and I’ve been working through it on lunch breaks at work.  Gary was someone who knew his place in the hierarchy and travelled around  enough to get a cool perspective on the territory system of the 50s – 80s.  Just a very interesting, conversationally written piece thus far and it made me sad that must of us only ever knew him on the tail end of his career as a manager and booker. 

OK, so we left off with Japan news last time, so let’s pick things up around page 14…

– Dave comes up with “Austro-Asia” as a heading to cover the Harley Race-Ric Flair tour of New Zealand and Singapore in March, and of course this was very newsworthy for SECRET TITLE CHANGES.  So ya see, promoter Steve Rickard, for reasons unknown, decided to book two NWA World title changes without actually getting approval to do so.  Harley Race beat Ric Flair to win his 8th and final championship in New Zealand, defended it against Flair for most of the tour, and then dropped it back to Flair in Singapore to end the tour.  Well this was all well and good, but wrestling magazines found out about it and started publishing stories and photos, and the NWA had to go into coverup mode.  In fact, even today I’m not sure that those title switches are counted as part of the “real” count of Flair’s title reigns because the NWA did such a bang-up job of denial that they ever happened. 

– Uh oh, another Vince invasion incoming, as he’s running Pacific Northwest areas like Seattle and taking over Don Owens’ TV time there.  Apparently PNW is going to try to run in Vancouver in their own effort to expand, but as awesome as that would have been, it never happened.  At least not while I was living there at the time.

– Dynamite Kid is just all over Stampede, as the future British Bulldogs won the tag team titles, adding another title to DK’s North American and Mid-Heavyweight titles. 

– Stu Hart, meanwhile, is getting in on the expansion action, raiding talent from Al Tomko (namely the Cuban Assassin) and making an effort to hit Tomko’s home areas in the Lower Mainland of BC like Cloverdale.  I don’t really remember seeing Stampede tour Vancouver at the time, but I wasn’t a big fan until 1986, of course, and by then Stu had long since sold to Vince McMahon and was pretty much confined to Calgary again.  Man, had I been able to see the WWF, Pacific Northwest, Stampede and Tomko’s shit promotion all in the same general area, I would have been in wrestling nerd heaven.  My dad probably would have gone insane driving me around, though.

– Dave’s take on the Southwest promotion this month:  “Bruiser Brody, Jos LeDuc, Steve Keirn, Stan Lane and the Mummy have been headlining recent show, but crowds really haven’t picked up the way they should.”  Really?  The MUMMY didn’t pick up crowds?  I’m shocked. 

– Dave clarifies right away that the Mummy is English wrestler Mal Kirk and he’s basically worse than Kamala. 

– Dave describes a variation of the first blood match used by the Sheepherders, called the New Zealand Death match, where the only way to win is to get a handkerchief and actually soak it in your opponent’s blood.  And then they wondered why they got kicked off TV.

– To World Class!  Of course, the big news was Kerry Von Erich winning the World title from Flair at the Parade of Champions in a pretty so-so match, which was deliberately cut short in order to film the dressing room celebration that lasted longer than the match.  Kerry also managed to win the six-man titles in the same night, as Mike & Kevin & Fritz beat the Freebirds and Fritz gave up his share to Kerry.  The show drew 32130, at the time the third biggest attendance in North American history. 

– Kerry will probably have the title for longer than a week, because with the WWF takeover of Georgia the NWA can’t afford to piss off Fritz anymore than they already have, but everyone expects that Flair will have it back by the Meadowlands show on 5/29. 

– Apparently Kerry defended the title the next night against Terry Gordy, a match that Dave called one of the five best he’s ever seen live.  Wonder if that ever made it to TV? 

– Finally for World Class, Dave talks about the weird crowd dynamics with all the heel-heel matches that Fritz likes to run, and how crowds will cheer for the Freebirds as a unit when they oppose Devastation Inc, but boo Hayes as a single against Kamala. 

– Over in Mid-South, the Midnight Express v. Stagger Lee & Bill Watts matches have drawn MASSIVE crowds, ending with Jim Cornette getting stripped down to a diaper after the Express loses.  Dave’s take on Stagger Lee:  “To say that I have no respect for the Junkyard Dog’s workrate or wrestling skill would be giving him too much credit.”  Strong words there, Dave.  And Dog would only get WORSE!

– Here’s a match stip that hasn’t been seen since:  The Russian Roulette Coal Miner’s Glove match.  Two poles have boxes on them, one with a loaded glove and the other with nothing. 

– To the AWA, where Dave disgustedly details how the Crusher and Baron Von Raschke have won the tag team titles so that Ken Patera can go tour Japan.  Also, Rick Martel should have won the AWA title from Tsuruta on 5/13. 

– Bruiser Brody was supposed to be coming in as a heel, but he’s already missed the first two TV tapings that Verne booked him for.  Well, I guess he just wants Verne to REALLY want it.

– Ken Patera and Mr. Saito had their arraignment on assault charges, but will still be allowed to leave the country and do the upcoming Japan tour.  The testimony from the cops was pretty damning stuff, as one officer had his leg in a cast and the other had 12 stitches in her head from when Saito slammed her head into a wall.  There is a feeling that this isn’t going to end well for them.

– Dave thinks that making Martel the champion is a mistake and he’s pretty sure that Bockwinkel is going to end up with the belt again by the end of the year. 

– Verne is bringing the Road Warriors in to shore up the troops and fight off Vince’s invasion. 

– With the departure of Buck Zumhofe for World Class, the light heavyweight title has basically been abandoned.

– Debuting in Central States is Ted Oates’ cousin Marty Oates, who is wrestling under the name of Marty Jeanetti.  I think that one might need a spelling correction.  Marty is teaming with Tommy Rogers as The Uptown Boys, a knockoff the Fabulous Ones, and it’s not very effective thus far.  Perhaps if Jeanetti changed partners?

– Flair did a job to Wahoo on a Central States show, and Dave thinks it’s a sign that he’ll get his fourth World title soon from Kerry.  In fact, at the rate he’s going Flair might even have a DOZEN World titles when all is said and done! 

– In St. Louis, Chris Adams beat Jimmy Garvin in a match where Sunshine got 5:00 in the ring with Precious if he won.  So he did, and then they announced that, sorry, Sunshine wasn’t actually there that night.  And then a riot broke out.  Apparently the fans tore out the power lines for the microphones and police bullhorns had to be used to make announcements thereafter. 

– In Memphis, Jimmy Hart is scheduled to work a loser-leaves-town match with a referee, setting up the possibility, however incredibly unlikely it might seem, that he’s going to the WWF.  I can’t even dignify that thought with a joke about it.

– Interestingly, now that Randy Savage has come into Memphis, the floodgates are open and all the old ICW talent is coming in to fill the ranks. 

– For the Toronto section, Dave is basically like “The card isn’t worthy of mention”.  OK then.

– In Florida, Dusty pinned Flair only to have the decision reversed immediately afterwards, and Dave is like “How many times have they done that terrible finish already?”  Remember, this is only 1984, and we’re ALREADY seeing people burned out on the Dusty Finish!

– Dave details the changes that might happen on TBS when the WWF takes over, but notes that USA isn’t going to be happy if Vince just sends in a tape of All American Wrestling, and Turner won’t be happy if Vince sends in a tape of the St. Louis tapings, so now Vince is probably going to have schedule a THIRD series of tapings to produce content for his new show. 

– The Meadowlands main event is finally set, with Flair v. Steamboat as the choice.  They could have gone with Rhodes, Race or Steamboat and decided to go with the potential for the best match.  The NWA is also ignoring the Kerry title change, announcing Flair as champion on all the TV leading up to the Meadowlands show, which Dave notes is a pretty dangerous game.  What if Vince gets a tape of the Texas Stadium show and puts it on the air?

– Vince Sr. was recently elected into the MSG Hall of Fame, and was scheduled to appear in Japan, but his health is failing rapidly and he didn’t go overseas.

– It now looks like Kerry is going to drop the title to Flair on the Japan tour from 5/22 to 5/25.

– Apparently Lou Albano is doing cameos in Cyndi Lauper’s music videos lately. Man, that’s a super-minor note that ended up having giant ramifications for the sport that no one saw coming!

– LATE FLASH:  Martel did indeed win the AWA title from Jumbo on 5/13.

– LATE NEWSBITE:  Dave adds an addendum to the St. Louis riot story, noting that after the ring had been torn down by the fans, Adams used a bullhorn to accuse Jimmy Garvin of kidnapping Sunshine in order to cover for her absence.  Well, give him credit for trying. 

– And finally, Dave finishes with a photo of Wilt Chamberlain and Andre the Giant to show that Andre is clearly 6’11” while standing next to the legit 7 foot tall Wilt.  Also, in between them is “legendary bodybuilder” Arnold Schwarzenegger.  Teminator was out by then, wasn’t it?  And who’s to say that Wilt wasn’t just working his own height?

Next up, we jump to September because that’s all I have available, sorry.