Wrestling Observer Flashback–08.03.86

This issue only has the first 4 pages, so it’ll be a truncated recap, but all the good stuff is in those pages anyway. Sadly, the rest of August is gone, though, so it’s off to September after this.

Previously… http://blogofdoom.com/index.php/2016/06/03/wrestling-observer-flashback-07-28-86/

– The big news of this lifetime, or really any other, is that DUSTY RHODES is once again the NWA World champion, and I’m sure Hulk Hogan was shaking in his boots knowing that his time as the top draw in wrestling was about to come to a crashing end. Dave is of course not surprised at all, and felt like Flair has been champion for so ridiculously long now (last winning it in 1984, so over two years as champion) that he was due to drop it for short stint anyway. Meanwhile, I should point out that Hulk Hogan was 2.5 years into his first reign with no end in sight. The show in Greensboro was a huge success, selling out to the tune of 15,000 people, and the other surprise on the night was Jimmy Valiant losing his hair match to Paul Jones and becoming the thing he hates the most, a bald-headed geek.

– Inoki is running an outdoor show at the Tokyo baseball stadium sometime in October, and it’ll be a joint show with the IBF. Yes, the International BOXING Federation, which can only mean one thing: They need to find a big name boxer to take a dive for Inoki. Michael Spinks has already declined, and Larry Holmes is the backup plan. It ended up being Michael’s brother Leon instead, by the way. Dave’s theory is that they’ll try to get Joe Frazier, which would be a huge mistake because his brain is basically mush at that point and the WWF couldn’t even trust him to remember a cue to trip someone at Wrestlemania. Also, Inoki is talking with Cyndi Lauper’s manager David Wolfe, trying to get a concert for the show. This whole thing sounds like a glorious trainwreck waiting to happen.

– Dave apologizes for all the grammatical problems with the last couple of issues, but he’s been really busy with the book (which didn’t happen but he still promises it’ll be done within the week) and things are hectic. So how does that explain the other 30 years of grammatical problems?

– For those wondering, Dave did finally get the real name of King Tonga straightened out, and it’s “Uwi Uwi Fufita”. Well, no, but close enough. Actually Uli Uli, but Dave didn’t have Wikipedia back then. He does clarify that Haku was absolutely not Lenny Hurst, but he WAS sumo wrestler in the late 70s named Fukunoshima. I think it would have been awesome if Vince had brought him in as “Fuku”.

– Some stuff is missing and we jump to Crockett, as Bobby Jaggers and Dutch Mantell will in fact be used as a tag team called the Kansas Jayhawks. Dave had figured that their quota of “guys in cowboy hats” was already full, what with Dusty Rhodes, Sam Houston, Dick Murdoch (not to mention the Windhams coming soon) but apparently not.

– The push to Starrcade is already going to start, even though it’s still months away. Well good for them.

– Apparently there’s going to be some sort of super-show called “A Hot August Night” on August 30, which would be my 12th birthday. Sadly, I was not in Greensboro at the time to attend. Here’s what it ended up being:

JCP @ Greensboro, NC – Coliseum – August 30, 1986
Nelson Royal defeated Sam Houston
Bill Dundee defeated Mark Fleming
Don Kernodle defeated NWA Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Champion Black Bart
Buddy Landell defeated Hector Guerrero
Big Bubba defeated the Warlord via count-out in a streetfight
NWA National Heavyweight Champion Wahoo McDaniel & Dick Murdoch defeated Bobby Eaton & Dennis Condrey via disqualification
Dusty Rhodes, Magnum TA, NWA Tag Team Champions Ricky Morton & Robert Gibson defeated NWA World Champion Ric Flair, Tully Blanchard, NWA TV Champion Arn Anderson, & Ole Anderson

I feel like I can’t live the rest of life knowing I missed Big Bubba Rogers v. THE WARLORD in a street fight. This was, by the way, the THIRD show of the day for Crockett’s crew, as they did a matinee taping of the new Sunday edition of World Championship Wrestling in Atlanta, then did a show in Columbus GA, then finally this one. No wonder Flair and the Horsemen had to do all that blow to keep going.

– To the WWF, where things should pick up shortly once Hogan v. Orndorff starts in Mid-August.

– Dave is dubious on the future prospects of “The Rebel” Dick Slater surviving as a character in most of the country.

– Jimmy Hart has been calling Spivey & Rotundo “the Boredom Express” on TV, and Dave feels like he’s owed royalties or something. Hey, I’m still waiting on a cheque for Five Moves of Doom. C’mon, Koskey, I know you’re probably still reading these!

– In an odd trend, they’ve been running heel-heel tag team matches (like Sheik & Volkoff v. The Funks) trying to find #1 contenders to the Bulldogs. It’s pretty much just killing the crowds, though.

– Philly was a mildly disappointing 9000 people, even with Hulk on the show. It just goes to show that if they bring him back too much, houses start to drop.

– To Japania, where Keiji Mutoh is actually turning into “an excellent little wrestler”. Good to know.

– Dave thinks that Steve Williams might be able to get over in Japan, but he needs to learn more suplexes and show off his strength more.

– The deal for Inoki v. Joe Frazier is apparently close to done, which has Dave wretching. He actually thinks they should have built to Inoki v. Maeda for the baseball stadium main event since that’s what everyone in the country is dying to see, but then I guess Inoki couldn’t guarantee himself a win.

– For those keeping track, Sting won his first major title, as he and Eddie Gilbert won the UWF tag titles from the Fantastics.

– To the AWA, where Col DeBeers went on TV and demanded that Scott Hall take a urine test for steroids before they could wrestle. Not the first or last time someone would ask Hall to take a piss test.

– In World Class, Fritz was unhappy about Bill Watts running in opposition to him in Dallas and actually delivered a court summons for contract tampering with the Freebirds. Children, children, children.

– Chris Adams, the new World champion of two cities, is already doing jobs, as he dropped a pin to Rick Rude in a rematch. Well, his life would get worse shortly.

– Nick Kiniski is coming to the WWF, and Dave isn’t sure what role he’ll be in. I can tell ya that it wasn’t a big role, because I saw him in a very low position on that Vancouver house show I attended, and that’s his hometown. I don’t think he ever made TV. Just for fun, let’s check out the show I got to sit through that night after we drove an hour into Vancouver from Maple Ridge:

WWF @ Vancouver, British Columbia – November 9, 1986
Nick Kiniski defeated Les Thornton
WWF Women’s Champion the Fabulous Moolah defeated Velvet McIntyre
Bret Hart & Jim Neidhart defeated Sivi Afi (sub. for Jacques Rougeau) & Raymond Rougeau
Kamala defeated Tito Santana via count-out
The Junkyard Dog defeated Paul Orndorff via disqualification
WWF Tag Team Champions Davey Boy Smith & the Dynamite Kid defeated the Iron Sheik & Nikolai Volkoff

And even after THAT I was still a budding wrestling fan. I do remember being pretty shocked at how quickly the main event was over and how easily the Bulldogs just beat them.

– Apparently Vince is pretty serious about turning St. Louis around, because the 8/29 show will be a Sam Muchnick tournament, plus Hogan v. Orndorff on top. Similar to King of the Ring, but with better names. Dave thinks that the Crockett/Geigel/Fritz crews are probably losing their minds seeing Muchnick come out and endorse Vince McMahon. Yeah, that kind of thing happened a lot at this point, with members of the old guard basically giving up and surrendering to the inevitable.

– And finally (because the last page is missing anyway), the WWF is preparing to debut Lisa Sliwa (an experienced martial artist and founding member of the Guardian Angels) as heir apparent to Fabulous Moolah. In fact, there was talk at the time that Lisa was actually playing the mysterious Spider Lady in preparation for an onscreen role. As it turned out, she never debuted and the world would have to wait another year for a new female star.