Wrestling Observer Flashback–09.03.90

Man, we’re just moving through this year like crazy, aren’t we?

Thanks to Mr. Tito for the shoutout last night, always appreciated.

If I might quote Vince McMahon: It’s SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSUMMER time, time for SUMMERSLAM!

– Thus far the poll on Summerslam is a pretty small sample size, 68 thumbs up, 26 thumbs down, 9 in the middle. And Dave just jumps right to the review without any further preamble. He must be in a rush.

1. Power & Glory beat the Rockers in 6:01 with the PowerPlex. Since Shawn was still injured with the bad knee, they did an angle where Hercules attacked him before the bell to explain the knee and Marty worked the whole match. He did a great job for what they had to work with, and Dave gets the impression that Shawn is gonna be out for a while. ***

2. Texas Tornado won the IC title from Mr. Perfect in 5:14. Pretty bad match, nothing to it. *

3. Sherri Sapphire by forfeit, which made the match tons better because we didn’t have to watch Sapphire wrestle.

4. The Warlord beat Tito Santana with a powerslam in 5:28. Tito worked hard, but Warlord is useless and this was worthless. DUD

5. The Hart Foundation won the tag titles from Demolition in a 2/3 falls match. The Harts “have new gay-looking outfits that look to be designed by Michael Jackson.” Ouch. Best match of the show for the storyline and awesome ringwork of Bret Hart. Legion of Doom distracted Demolition and Bret rolled up Crush for the titles. ***1/2

6. Jake Roberts beat Bad News Brown by DQ in 4:43. Brown did a pair of legdrops during the match, which is a major no-no. Brown used the chair for the DQ, and sadly the 200 pounds of sewer rats never came into play. –* (Bad News left the promotion immediately after this show and never returned.)

6a. Brother Love interviewed Sgt. Slaughter, and Dave calls it reminiscent of the classic Morton Downey Jr. segment at WM5 in that it was a drag and terrible. Slaughter got no heat and the segment was a bomb. (Not as big of a bomb as the one that threatened the lives of everyone at the LA Coliseum, though! Thank god they made the tough decision to change arenas.)

7. Jim Duggan & Nikolai Volkoff beat the Orient Express in 3:05. -* Duggan and Volkoff might be the worst team in the business.

8. Randy Savage pinned Dusty Rhodes in 2:15. Dave notes that the King gimmick appears to be getting phased out. The “match” was mostly Dibiase cutting a promo and showing off his new acquisition, Sapphire. Dave thinks that the angle would have been more effective if she had actually turned on him in a match. -*

9. Hulk Hogan beat Earthquake by countout in 13:09. Hogan deliberately slimmed down to 270 to look small next to Earthquake. The match was booked and worked smart, but not good. Hogan hit the legdrop, but Hart came in to interfere and they brawled outside before Hogan beat the count. Quake took some sick chairshots from Bossman after the match, cutting up his back pretty bad. **1/4 Hogan did an interview afterwards that pretty much guarantees he’s winning the belt back from Warrior at WM7.

10. Ultimate Warrior beat Rick Rude in a cage match to retain the WWF title in 10:01. Warrior changed his look again, as the company is now tinkering with him on a weekly basis to try to get him over however they can. (Gee, wonder who that sounds like?) **1/2

– Prelim numbers for the show make it sound very successful, around a 3.9% buyrate. If that number holds up, that would make it virtually identical to Wrestlemania’s numbers, and thus a giant hit. The live gate itself was over $300,000, biggest in the US for the year.

– Dave notes that Piper is unsure of his role on commentary, as he’s entertaining but adds absolutely no insight.

– Overall, Dave gives the show a slight thumbs down because the wrestling sucked and there was too much talking. Also, for those wondering what the purpose of the pre-show matches is, Vince doesn’t like the look of people filing into the building and milling around, so he makes sure to have 1 or 2 matches before the PPV starts to make sure everyone is seated and paying attention for the TV cameras.

– To the NWA, where they returned to the Meadowlands and even gave the fans a title change, with the Steiner Brothers winning the US tag titles from the Midnight Express clean when Rick pinned Eaton after a lariat in 14:21. Dave calls it close to a **** match, but the first part of the match was dull. ***1/2 overall. Match wasn’t being taped for TV so Dave’s not sure if it’ll make it onto TV.

– They announced a return date of 1/11/91. (That actually ended up being a VERY historic show, which we’ll get to in a few weeks.)

– Herb Abrams held his press conference for the new UWF, and Dan Spivey indeed did show up to do an angle with Brian Blair while Abrams did a third-rate Mean Gene impression. Herb is claiming that Blackjack Mulligan will be the booker (you know, once he’s out of jail) and that he’s got Williams & Gordy signed to three year contracts and that Mike Rotunda and Sid will be coming in shortly. Although Dave would love more competition in wrestling, he’s kind of skeptical about this one. (Oh, he’d get more skeptical) Abrams is making all kinds of claims about touring and doing PPV, but Dave thinks that it’s only going to burn Sports Channel America on wrestling in general and the next time some money mark comes to them with a show idea, they’ll just tell them to get lost.

– Mean Mark gave his notice and will be headed to the WWF, although New Japan is also trying to get him. (Man, his career just DIED after that. He got BURIED after he jumped!) Mean Mark never actually signed a contract and so was one of the lowest paid main eventers, which also meant he could jump to the WWF any time he wanted. (The mind boggles. They just let him leave!)

– Despite being under contract to the NWA for another year, Sid Vicious suddenly developed a crippling back injury from standing on the apron in six-man tags and he won’t be miraculously healed until he gets more money. It’s no secret that Vince is desperately trying to throw money at him, along with every other promotion in the world.

– Add Tommy Rich to the list of casualties of the Stan Hansen push.

– Allen Iron Eagle debuted at the latest TV tapings, and Dave has no idea who he is but he’s so green that Pat Rose had to walk him through the squash win. (That’s JOE FUCKING GOMEZ you’re disrespecting, Dave! )

– The Master Blasters, who are comprised of “the medium sized guy who’s never had a match before, and the bouncer they found in an Atlanta strip club” are doing interviews at the tapings, but haven’t wrestled yet.

– About one million people told Dave at a recent convention that Ole Anderson is doing the Black Scorpion voice. Doesn’t mean he’ll be playing the character, but doesn’t mean he won’t, either.

– To avoid problems with the Beetlejuice copyright, Art Barr will be coming into WCW as “The Juicer”. (Shouldn’t that be Sid?)

– Hey, let’s check in with the insanity going on in Memphis, specifically with the Snowman, as the story tops itself each and every week. So at last count, Snowman was USWA champion, but got “injured” in the gym and no-showed a bunch of shows, then disappeared. He finally checked in with the promotion and agreed to return the title, and that’s where we pick up the story this week. So the promotion announces a match between Snowman and Brickhouse Brown for the title, and if Snowman doesn’t show up to defend it, then they strip him of the belt and put it up in a tournament. This particular match was based on Snowman going on radio shows and accusing Jerry Jarrett of racism (I know, racism in Tennessee? What are the odds?) because Jerry Lawler’s matches always got promoted above his, even though he’s the champion. Dave points out that this is actually reverse racism, because Snowman is fucking awful and they’re only pushing him to refute racism charges. Anyway, they made the match with Brown because then both guys are black and you can’t accuse anyone of anything racial, and sure enough Snowman no-shows that one too. They declare the title vacant, and Snowman’s lawyer sends a legit letter to Eddie Marlin accusing the promotion of racism and discrimination, and that he is still missing payments for previous appearances. Dave isn’t sure what the game being played is exactly, since you can’t really leverage a fake title in a fake sport and force someone to make you a main eventer, but that’s exactly what he’s trying. (Also, the story gets CRAZIER. Stay tuned.)

– The Ole v. Herd feud continues unabated, as Herd ordered Paul E. Dangerously back to the commentary booth this weekend, which is a pretty explicit “fuck you” to Ole Anderson’s wishes. But with Mean Mark leaving, he needs to do SOMETHING.

– There’s a lot of interest in the identity of the mysterious Black Scorpion, but not a lot in the Clash itself. But if it does a good number, Ole’s cheap talent initiative will continue.

– Tony Atlas update: He’ll be “something like a Zulu Warrior” when he debuts.

– Davey Boy is definitely on the way in now.

– And finally, your rocket surgeon of the week is Jim Duggan, who injured himself when he tossed the 2×4 in the air and misjudged the return velocity, resulting in a board right between the eyes, splitting his head open in the process. Now that takes some talent.

Nothing really meme-worthy this week, but another interesting week of news!