Wrestling Observer Flashback–01.15.88

Not sure what’s up with Dave’s dating on this one.

– Leading off this week is the news that The Main Event on February 5 has officially been announced for NBC, main evented by Hulk Hogan v. Andre the Giant. Dave thinks the rumor mill will be working overtime here, and it’s going to be some scary high ratings. It’ll clearly be the highest rated match in wrestling history, and kudos to them for going live with Andre the Giant.

– Given that the match is there to set up Wrestlemania, Dave thinks they better have a hell of a finish ready because otherwise it’ll kill interest in the bigger show. A title change isn’t out of the question, which would lead to Hogan v. Dibiase, most likely. Even more likely is the title getting held up somehow.

– Even though, Dave notes, Vince says that Crockett isn’t competition, it sure is a staggering coincidence that Royal Rumble is happening at the same time as the Bunkhouse Stampede. Not to mention that Dino Bravo will be attempting to bench press “700 pounds” a week before the Road Warriors do a bench press challenge against the Powers of Pain. And Dave just supposes that January 24 was an amazingly good night for a TV show, too.

– Meanwhile, the lineup for Bunkhouse Stampede is one the best kept secrets in wrestling right now. For those wondering, it’s the Stampede finals, plus Flair v. Hawk, Windham v. Zbyszko, Rock N Roll v. Sheepherders, Jimmy Garvin v. Stan Lane, Nikita Koloff v. Bobby Eaton, and Sting v. Mike Rotunda. On second thought, Dave, notes, he doesn’t blame them for trying to keep it a secret.

– Now to the actual big news: Titan has stolen Big Bubba Rogers away from Crockett! (In retrospect, boy did the NWA drop the ball on THAT one.) This one actually sets a big legal precedent, as Crockett accidentally structured Bubba’s contract differently than everyone else’s and Vince’s legal eagles found a loophole that allowed them to sign him away while technically under contract. Basically, Vince’s argument was that Bubba wasn’t guaranteed money like everyone else, so it wasn’t technically a valid contract and thus FUCK YOU JIM CROCKETT. Really, Dave notes, blame Crockett and Dusty 100% for dropping the ball on this one. (Hey, I just said that!) Rumor is that Vince is going to attempt to really twist the knife by debuting him as Big Bubba Rogers to test the trademark claim as well, but Dave thinks ultimately they’ll just repackage him because then they can own the name. Dusty went on a tirade thinly veiled against the WWF on TV this past week, and this was the reason why.

– There was actually a very hush-hush lawsuit settled this week, stemming from the Savage-Steamboat match with the ringbell. Apparently a woman named Patricia Thurston, who was one of the “paramedics” (a real paramedic playing a paramedic on TV, ya know?) launched a $1.15 million lawsuit against Titan after she was “violently struck” by the convulsing Steamboat. Seems that they were on hand in case of serious injury, so Vince kayfabed them and said that Steamboat was injured after the angle. Furthermore, Bruno called the paramedics “incompetent” on commentary, so she sued for that, too. Apparently this was all worth more than a million dollars to them, although the actual terms of the settlement were sealed so we’ll never know how much was actually paid.

– Speaking of potential lawsuits, Dave got to read the issue of Penthouse with the Von Erich story in it, and he’s pretty sure Fritz is gonna sue.

– CONTROVERSY, as Dave thinks the new typeface in two columns is just too damn small to read properly, even though no one’s actually complained about it and in fact people seem to love it. So he might switch back. (Man, how did people cope with reading books and newsletters in the days before tablets were invented? Goddamn Flintstones shit right there.)

– To Memphis, where everyone in the Lawler v. Dundee feud stubbornly refuses to turn heel. They’ve been doing babyface v. babyface matches in this battle for the newly unified title (not to be confused with the Unified Title from the next year) and teasing a bunch of turns, but no triggers have yet been pulled.

– Dave keeps mentioning these rookie Bruise Brothers and how they’re tall muscle-bound guys, so he must see something in them.

– Terry Taylor showed up in Memphis as the newest member of the heel roster, which was news to Jim Crockett because Taylor was being put over on TBS a few days prior.

– Apparently Shawn Michaels is the best heel in the territory. Unfortunately, it’s not part of the act.

– Scott Hall is apparently getting better in the ring and getting over as a babyface.

– To the NWA, where they’re dropping hints about Barry Windham becoming the fourth Horseman. This wouldn’t make sense to Dave.

– Jim Cornette got the line of the year so far on David Crockett when he told him that he was the reason that nepotism should be a capital offense. Dave has now reversed his stance on David Crockett, feeling that they should keep him around just so Cornette can score off him.

– Apparently Joel Deaton (aka Thunderfoot #1) was fired on Christmas, and on the way home he hit another car and killed the other driver. He was arrested for manslaughter, passing bad checks AND possession of drugs! He could be in prison for five years over this. (His Wikipedia page, which reads like it was written by Deaton himself, brushes it off as “He was sidelined by a car accident and left JCP for the last time.”)

– Speaking of legal troubles, Rocky Johnson had actually been indicted for rape, but the girl in question changed his story so many times that the grand jury decided not to move forward.

– Killer Khan might be coming into the NWA…maybe?

– Small victories for Crockett, as they stole the Knight Center in Miami from Titan due to lagging business on the WWF side. However, they’re building a nicer arena in the city and WWF will probably just run that one instead and be like “That was our plan all along.”

– Mark Starr might be coming in to team with real life brother Chris Champion as the new New Breed.

– For those wondering why the undercard of the Bunkhouse Stampede is so horrendous, they’re actually running another show the same night. (Of course they are.)

– FRITZ VON ERICH UPDATE: Still not a heart attack, but things aren’t going well for him and he may have to be readmitted to the hospital. But, and they can’t emphasize this enough, he’s not going to die. (Jesus, spoiler alert, World Class!)

– Dave still doesn’t know who the hell owns what, with the latest word being Mantell has 50% and the Von Erichs have 25% each, but Fritz clearly is still calling the shots.

– A 50 cent beer night actually sold out the Sportatorium on 1/2, with another 1000 people turned away. Fear not, however, as the next night in Fort Worth was back down to 350 people.

– A new show called Global Wrestling Alliance, who actually sold shares in the company as their big gimmick, finally debuted on TV in syndication using footage literally taped six months ago. The two top “stars”, Cyclone Negro and Bugsy McGraw, are already gone from the company.

– Jason the Terrible has been drawing shockingly good crowds in the main event against Makhan Singh for Stampede. (Hopefully he doesn’t suffer a crippling injury in a car accident in the midst of this huge babyface push.)

– Bad News Allen is actually headed to the WWF and in fact already debuted at the latest TV tapings as “Bad News Brown”, so they’re kind of screwed on the heel side now.

– All the talk of indies working together for the Central States “World title” tournament ended up being just talk, and in fact it’ll likely just be local guy Mike George winning the first “WWA World title”.

– Curt Hennig did his first tour of All Japan as AWA World champion, and bombed hard. Apparently the press HATED his match with Tiger Mask and buried him afterwards. Hennig ended up losing to Mask by countout and then doing a lame double countout with John Tenta on the tour. Dave is confused by this for many reasons, not the least of which is that it’s not like Hogan or Flair is going to come over and work with Baba anytime soon, so why treat the one legit World champion you can book in this manner?

– Hiro Hase made history for New Japan, becoming the first wrestler to ever win a World title in his Japanese debut by beating Kobayashi for the Junior heavyweight belt on the 12/27 riot show. He won the match with a move that Dave has trouble explaining, but we now know as the Northern Lights Suplex.

– Hey, let’s talk about the riot again. Seems that the rioting continued for nearly an hour after the show ended before police could get people under control, with damage not only done by various smashing and grabbing, but also nearly burning the Sumo Hall down. There were actually three different riots throughout the show, with the crowd getting reignited on multiple occasions before the main event finally set them off for good. So as noted, New Japan is banned for life from Sumo Hall, although that one ended up lasting about as long as all other wrestling retirements do.

– So with all these problems, Inoki is organizing some kind of “Best of the Juniors” tournament to smooth things over.

– Rip Oliver is going back to the WWF after all, but it’s been delayed for another month so he’ll stick around Portland for the time being.

– Tom Zenk has reluctantly signed with the AWA, because he wants to work for Baba, but Baba won’t book him unless he’s a bigger star in the US first and suggested the AWA as a starting point. (This is why you don’t listen to Giant Baba’s advice on US wrestling.) Due to Zenk quitting the WWF like such a dickhead, he’ll have to kick a percentage of his earnings back to Titan for most of 1988. Basically Vince didn’t need the money, but had to make an example out of Tom.

– Dave investigated the Terry Taylor jump to Memphis, and apparently Crockett let him walk so he wouldn’t have to pay him the promised “balloon payment” in May, and there wasn’t many tears shed for his departure. So everyone ended up happier.

– The ICW group in the Northeast is STILL building up a Sheik v. Backlund match, despite the fact that Backlund only made on TV appearance months ago and has made no promises about actually wrestling.

– So as noted, Bad News Brown debuted on the most recent WWF TV tapings, coming out of the crowd as a crazed fan to beat up Sam Houston.

– Ted Dibiase has “bought” the contract of Andre the Giant and is now managing him. Speaking of Dibiase, Virgil has been teaming with him at house shows, and there was hope that watching Dibiase work every night would allow Virgil to get better as a wrestler. No such luck.

– Paul Orndorff and King Kong Bundy both quit the company, leaving a string of no-shows in their wake.

– Iron Sheik is telling people he’s returning to the WWF, although he says a lot of stuff.

– At a house show in London, ON, Bret Hart did a job to Paul Roma that got booed out of the building, then challenged Jim Powers and jobbed to him as well. (And then he thought to himself…)

– And finally, Dave steals a nickname from Norm Dooley during a house show report that would get beaten into the ground for more than two years in these Observers, officially renaming Ultimate Warrior into Anabolic Warrior. For reference sake, I left off in December of 89 and Dave was STILL using that one every week.