Wrestling Observer Flashback–06.01.87

Can those crazy kids in Japan just work out a deal for custody of Riki Choshu once and for all?  Let’s find out.

– Dave’s lead story is that Choshu has been making the news a lot for a guy who hasn’t actually wrestled since February.  Inoki had been advertising him for the IWGP tournament, but then discovered after the fact that you can’t just advertise someone who is already signed to a contract with both a rival promoter and a rival network at the same time. Baba was originally asking for a $715,000 settlement to make things right, and in exchange Fujinami would work All Japan until the money was paid off.  Well, then TV-Asahi (who are allied with Inoki) aired Choshu’s wedding in prime time and destroyed Baba’s show on the other station, doubling his ratings, and suddenly Baba didn’t want to cooperate any longer.  Poor Riki must feel like the child of divorcing parents at this point.

– The tournament itself has become a complete disaster, with Scott Hall taking Choshu’s place for one thing, and a rash of injuries decimating the field.  Plus Muto is out filming a movie.  And then the whole Choshu situation got out of hand when Inoki had Choshu sitting at ringside (because he can’t appear in the ring) and interfering in Fujinami’s matches from that position.  And then the second night with that setup, he just said “fuck it” and ran into the ring for a beatdown on Fujinami, which had Baba FURIOUS because Inoki & Sakaguchi promised that this is the exactly the sort of thing that would not happen with the contract situation still undecided.  And now the next move appears to be Choshu facing Inoki in a gigantic grudge match main event that Baba will literally have to go to the courts to stop from happening. So now it’s WAR.

– Well maybe not THAT much of a war.

– Roddy Piper is back in the news already, doing color commentary for the Don Owen promotion and possibly buying into it.  Dave’s take: He doesn’t understand what possible motivation Piper would have, but whatever, it’s wrestling.

– There’s some group called the GWA that actually did an IPO before they even taped a show, and ended up opening at 10 cents a share before going as high as 30 cents.  Just a bunch of scrubs and castoffs for talent, with a bunch of advertised guys no-showing.  (Yech, what kind of a wrestling promoter would be stupid enough to go public?) 

– Dave is still making excuses for his shitty typewriter, and his new one was delayed by the holiday.  He sympathizes with how ugly the broken “O” key makes the newsletter look.  Maybe he should just use zero instead?

– Apparently Sgt. Slaughter is going to be a spokesman for guncare products, so at least he’s keeping busy.

– Jerry Lawler is suing Titan Sports for stealing his “King” gimmick.  (This one actually got pretty nasty, which is why it surprised so many people when Lawler showed up there in 93.) 

– More corrections from the Fritz Von Erich syndication soap opera:  The $200,000 was payment for the previous year’s tapes, and it turns out that Fritz gets to keep a copy of all his old tapes as well.

– Ted Turner apparently took a bath on the Goodwill Games, and may have had to sell 33% of the TBS station to outside owners, who want to change it back into a local Atlanta UHF station again. However, they’d also want to start a new Superstation and put wrestling on there, so this likely won’t affect Crockett.

– I should note that Dave’s typewriter issue gives us an unfortunate choice of words when he’s trying to talk about how Debbie Combs beat Fabulous Moolah by count out.  See, because the O’s disappear…

– Outback Jack, not exactly popular in the locker room, was the victim of a rib where everyone waited until he was sleeping and then shaved off his hair and eyebrows. 

– Classic Dave vagueness:  A couple of key wrestlers for the opposition are negotiating and at least one of them is headed in.  More details next week!  I bet I know who he’s talking about, here, actually.

– In the UWF, the Lightning Express won the tag titles from Sting & Steiner, and pretty much ended up holding them until the end of the promotion. I think the Sheepherders got them at the very end, though.

– Sadly, Dingo Warrior turned down the WWF’s offer of doing C-shows and learning to work, so he’ll be coming back to World Class.  Lucky them.

– The new version of the Kevin Von Erich coverup is that Brian Adias hit him with a mysterious new punch that he learned in “The Orient”, and which apparently causes the exact same symptoms as a drug overdose.  Dave thinks it should be called “The Phantom Punch”, in honor of Ali v. Liston. 

– World Class did a show in Shrieveport, headlined by Kevin v. Nord the Barbarian.  Both guys no-showed (injured and fired respectively) so the new main event was Tony Atlas v. Black Bart instead.  50 people showed up.

– The saddest thing Dave has heard is that they’ve cancelled this year’s Star Wars show at Reunion Arena because the rent is…something I can’t quite make it out.

– Thanks, dank meme!  I can’t believe this is the first time I’ve had the chance to use that one.

– Dusty is going full steam ahead with his plan to be Flair’s challenger again, apparently, booking a match against Tully for the TV title with a $100,000 purse, which Dave assumes is so Dusty can be TV champion and get title shots at Flair.  Also, Luger should be winning the US title from Nikita any day now.  Well, he was half right.

– Rick Rude has been missing shows with no explanation so “something might be up”.  No shit, Dave, you teased it earlier in the issue!

– Dark Journey tried to get a job with the WWF, but they wanted her to wrestle, so she’s going to be Tully’s valet instead.

– And finally, Big Bubba from Memphis is headed into the AWA as a heel.  Even though Big Bubba Rogers jacked his gimmick and he was the original Big Bubba, Dave thinks this Ottman guy should change his name.  How about “Shockmaster?”

Off to bed.  Hopefully Dave gets his damn typewriter next time.