Wrestling Observer Flashback–12.03.90

Previously in the Observer Flashback… http://blogofdoom.com/index.php/2016/11/14/wrestling-observer-flashback-11-26-90/

It’s time for a double shot of Dave reviews: Survivor Series 90 and Clash XIII!

Also, it’s time to say goodbye to another territory. This is a long one, might want to get some coffee first.

– Still no confirmation on the appointment of Dusty Rhodes as the new booker for WCW, but no one is denying it and everyone backstage is pretty much treating it as fact. Dusty is still working shows until the end of the year, mostly putting over Sgt. Slaughter on the way out. Dusty still had a contract, but Vince agreed to let him out without legal entanglement as long as he agreed to put everyone over on the way out and stay until the Rumble.

– People are mostly excited about the change in Turner-land, with the feeling being that the promotion has managed to hit rock bottom with Ole booking (Oh, they don’t even KNOW what rock bottom is yet!) although Dave thinks that’s giving Ole too much credit since he was so frequently overridden by Herd. The feeling is that Dusty can be a good booker as long as he’s not an active wrestler, but now he’s got his SON to push instead.

– Another person getting a lot of press within the WCW dressing room is Joe Pedicino, who has large mounds of cash from Nigeria and a TV taping on 12/28 in Dallas. The WCW crew is planning on using it as leverage for contract negotiations, but really Pedicino doesn’t have anything signed in the way of talent at the moment, outside of guys like Eddie Gilbert and Terry Funk. The first World champion is likely going to end up being Terry Funk, since he’s the biggest star. (What kind of a two-bit promotion would make Terry Funk their World champion at that age? They might as well run in a bingo hall, AM I RIGHT?)

– With Flair conspicuous by his absence at Starrcade due to “injury”, that makes him the leading candidate to be the Black Scorpion.

– And now it’s time to bid farewell to World Class Championship Wrestling, which was finally folded by Kevin Von Erich after two months of abject failure. The 11/23 show in Dallas was the final one (ever, as it turned out) With no TV, issues with Jerry Jarrett, AND a raise in rent at the Sportatorium, they were pretty much dead before they even started. The rent on the building was higher than the gate many weeks, and Kevin was behind in payment and finally called it quits. This basically leaves Jerry Jarrett and Don Owen as the only regional promoters left running in the US at this point.

– Part One: Survivor Series: The Review!

– Dave thought it was as a good show, but not great. The show did 13,000 paid and a 3.0% buyrate, so the show would have be considered a bit of a success. And on the bright side, they were trying to establish Ultimate Warrior as being on the same level as Hogan, at the very least. The other goals were to introduce the Undertaker (which was great) and introduce the Gobbledygooker (which was a disaster). Also, they wanted to protect everyone, which is why there were a shitload of cheap eliminations.

1. The Warriors defeated the Perfect Team. With Bill Eadie gone, there’s no point in doing the masked switch gimmick, so they dropped it. Ax didn’t even bother to slick back his hair and looked like he’d rather be anywhere else on his way out of the promotion in 3:13. Match was OK, not nearly what it had the potential to be, because no one looked “on” except for Mr. Perfect, who made the whole match. **1/4

2. The Million Dollar Team beat the Dream Team. Mark Calaway debuted as the Undertaker and “he sold nothing for nobody and pulverized everyone in sight.” It was great, in other words. Hart and Dibiase put on a clinic to end the match, as Dibiase won with a reversed bodypress. ***1/2

3. The Visionaries beat the Vipers. This was mostly the Rockers Show, as they even tried to get something out of the Warlord. All four heels survived, however. ***1/4 Very good match, lame finish with Martel fighting to the back but not actually getting counted out.

4. The Hulkamaniacs beat The Natural Disasters. Dave surmises that Tugboat wasn’t allowed into the match, because he’s THE WORST. (Um, I think a little wrestler named DINO BRAVO would have something to say about that!) **

5. The Alliance beat The Mercenaries. With Sato and Zhukov on the way out, they both jobbed in rapid succession. They’re desperately trying to push Slaughter to the top spot because the top three heels at Wrestlemania are going to be Undertaker, Slaughter and possibly Roddy Piper. Bad match. *

Then came the egg. They had built it up so big that it would have needed to be Sting or Ric Flair in order not to be a disappointment. What they got was a cheap costume, that looked like something out of a rejected Jim Herd pitch, that got booed out of the building. Even within the promotion they all admit that it was a flop. But Vince will likely keep shoving it down everyone’s throat until it gets over.

– And in the final match of survival, Hogan & Warrior & Santana beat the Visionaries & Dibiase. Match was anti-climactic and everyone was leaving during the match. *1/4

– Part Two: Clash of the Champions XIII: Thirteen is NOT a lucky number!

– “If at first you do something stupid that doesn’t work, then what do you do? Why, you do the exact same thing again.”

– To give you an idea of what we’re dealing with here, the Scorpion is supposed to be a mystery, but the closing credits of the show listed the magician and the people who delivered the leopard for the magic act.

– Overall, the show was awful, in just about every way. The show was supposed to pique interest in Starrcade, but in fact it did quite the opposite. In fact, Dave knows of people who had tickets to St. Louis who CANCELLED them after watching this show. Not only that, but their big ratings plan backfired completely, as the show did the second-lowest rating in the history of the show, and in fact lower than many of the regular weekly TV shows draw.

1. The Freebirds beat the Southern Boys in 4:50 when Hayes DDT’d Smothers after Richard Marley tripped him. The planned six-man with El Gigante fell through when Gigante missed his flight. Had Gigante been there, the babyfaces would have went over. **1/2

2. Brian Pillman pinned Buddy Landel with a flying bodypress in 5:52. Pillman was playing the part of the Juicer here due to his troubles. Landel’s best performance since he came back. ***1/2

3. Big Cat beat Brad Armstrong with the torture rack in 4:31. Cat has potential but is nowhere near ready. *

4. Tom Zenk pinned Brian Lee in 3:10. Decent paced but they had timing problems. Zenk missed a bodypress for the pin while Lee was off in Tallahassee or somewhere. *

5. Michael Wallstreet pinned Star Blazer in 4:15 with the Wall Street Crash. No heat for the new gimmick. Match was a disappointment. *

6. Sgt Kruger & Col DeKlerk won the African leg of the tournament, over Kahlua & Botswana Beast in 4:48. Dave wonders why they went through all the trouble of importing legit Russians and legit Japanese teams and then put these obvious Americans together as Africans. (Apparently Botswana Beast was former TV jobber Big Bill Tabb.) Ted Petty showed some decent moves but they didn’t work together at all. -*1/4

7. Lex Luger pinned Motor City Madman in 2:34. Mad Man took the bump from the clothesline well before it ever got there. Luger has enough charisma that the move wasn’t quite so atrocious. DUD

8. Nasty Boys beat the Youngbloods via DQ in 4:49 when the Steiners ran in. Nothing happened. 3/4*

9. Sid Vicious pinned the Night Stinker in 3:30. Worst match that Dave has seen in years, and in fact this was supposed to be Sid’s babyface turn but nothing was accomplished because it was so terrible. Big Cat came out for the third time on the show and screwed up yet again, while Sid grabbed the deadly ax and “waited for his rice to boil before using it”. Nightstalker is so bad that it’s beginning to give Dave some respect for Junkfood Dog. -****

10. Rick & Scott Steiner squashed Magnum Force (aka the Ring Lords) in 1:57 when Scott used the Frankensteiner on one of them. Nasty Boys ran in and ran out again after the match. *

Next up, we were promised Sting & Scorpion in a face-to-face, and what we got was a magician in a Scorpion costume doing carnival tricks and not even pretending to lip sync to Ole’s vocal track. Jim Herd has already killed the wrestling business, and now he’s working on killing the magic business.

11. Ric Flair pinned Butch Reed in 14:13 to earn a tag title shot at Starrcade. The premise was screwed up, and the show was screwed up. And this was a great match. Great heat! Actual intensity! Simmons clotheslined Flair and put Reed on top, but Arn hit Reed with a chair and put Flair on top for the pin. ***3/4

– Part Three: Saturday Night’s Main Event!

– Dave actually LOVED the Blow Away Diet skit, calling it one of the best they’ve done, and said it was one of the strongest shows in a long time.

1. Ultimate Warrior beat Ted Dibiase by DQ in 9:58. They should have hired Dibiase to be the magician because he magically carried Warrior to a good match. Dibiase plugged Warrior into the Hogan formula and they pulled it off. ***1/2

2. Mr. Perfect beat Big Bossman by countout in 8:13. Although Dave was doubting the hype of Perfect as the best wrestler in the business, he thinks that it’s not hype after watching this match. Heenan slapped Bossman, who chased the Brain back to the dressing room for the finish. Perfect took his usual great bumps and worked it into a great match here. ***3/4

3. Rick Martel beat Tito Santana with the Boston Crab in 6:49. Tito looked great, Martel looked fine. (But Dino Bravo was the WORST.) ***

– The final World Class show drew 225 on 11/23, with Kevin Von Erich winning the Texas title from Angel of Death in the finale. The whole show was played for comedy and no one took bumps, and they announced before the show that this was the end of the promotion.

– In Memphis, MC Jammer has been repackaged into Black Magic without the mask, although no one still has any idea who he is. (Dave is incorrect here, as Black Magic is actually Norman Smiley, whereas Jammer was taller and built more like a Ron Simmons. In fairness to Dave, he’d be getting this info second-hand anyway.)

– Chris Champion did an interview where he promised to take the New Kids under his wing. (Shouldn’t there be a restraining order preventing him from taking kids under any part of him?)

– The AWA is next on the dead pool, as their ESPN deal runs out in four weeks and they haven’t run a show since the final taping in August.

– The story on Bret’s deceased brother Dean is that he had longtime kidney issues and was told by doctors to have dialysis every day for four hours. Some days he’d “forget” to show up, some days he’d show up for an hour and then leave, and then finally he was found dead the day before Survivor Series in his home, by Smith Hart.

– Hey, WCW successfully gained admittance into the NWA and now has the legal right to use the name again. They’re still phasing it out at the end of the year, though.

– The Nasty Boys gave notice on the day of the Clash, so they were booked to run away from fights with the Steiners twice on the show, and they’ll end up in the WWF right away. Herd offered them guaranteed deals for $156K each and they turned them down. (And yet they desperately wanted to run the Midnight Express out of the promotion!) Dave thinks that Herd got snowed by the Steiner Brothers into thinking that the Nasties were great workers.

– The Juicer and JW Storm are both history.

– Michael Wallstreet, despite the repackage, will not have his contract renewed when it expires. If the new gimmick gets over, they might give him a new deal, but if it doesn’t they’ll “let him stay” on a nightly pay. (Or…and this is a crazy theory…he might go to the WWF with a similar gimmick and make more money than he ever did before in his life.)

– The Juicer has been working openers, and fans are starting to chant “Rapist” at him. (That’s how you know it’s time to part ways with someone.)

– For the 11/25 show in Greensboro, they only drew 700 people! To GREENSBORO! The night after Thanksgiving! That’s actually the smallest crowd ever at the Coliseum.

– With Warrior failing so badly in the WWF, Vince is making one last push to get him over as the top guy, reducing mentions of Hulk Hogan and making sure that Warrior won the match for his two teams at the Survivor Series. They’re just really desperate to get Warrior into the position of top draw and will do whatever it takes before they pull the plug.

– They shot an angle for TV where Honky & Valentine broke up, with Jimmy Hart siding with Honky, so Greg is apparently turning babyface. (And man what a barnburner that turned out to be.)

– Sato has been replaced by Paul Diamond, under a mask as Kato. Dave likes the move.

– Jack Tunney announced that from now on, Demolition will only be allowed two members, so that’s the exit of Bill Eadie for you.

– WWF is making offers to Ricky Steamboat to take Dusty’s place on the roster…but he won’t be allowed to be called Ricky Steamboat.

– With the title of Kerry Von Erich, he’ll be moved down the card dramatically. Still a pushed babyface, but not a top one like they planned him to be just two months ago.

– And finally, before the new WBF even launches it’s being said that Vince McMahon’s new endeavor is losing steam quickly. The debut issue of the bodybuilding magazine was a huge disappointment, and the dollar figures being offered for the WBF much, MUCH smaller than Vince was promising during the initial setup of the promotion. Plus you have to sign away all your marketing and merch to Vince, and any winnings from contests go towards your yearly guarantee, not on top of it. Plus Joe Weider is threatening that if anyone signs with Vince, there’s no going back. (Guys, I don’t think the WBF is going to be as huge of a success as we thought!)

NEWS FLASH: Scrawled in pen, Ole Anderson’s booking career comes to a sad and anti-climactic end. But we’ll get into that next time.