Wrestling Observer Flashback–01.21.91

Previously in the Observer… http://blogofdoom.com/index.php/2016/11/23/wrestling-observer-flashback-01-14-91/

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Ric Flair is declared by WCW’s head office to be over the hill, and ready to be phased down and replaced. They decide to go with a younger champion and de-emphasize Ric, but the new guy doesn’t draw. So once again, when Flair has been seemingly humiliated and moved out of the main event for the last time…

– In the top story, Ric Flair is once again the World heavyweight champion, beating Sting at the Meadowlands show on 1/11 to win his seventh official title (although more in reality). Of course, back in June, Sting was made the champion because it was a new era and Flair was the problem all along, and once we got Flair out of there the gates would turn around and business would pick up and everything would be great. Dave jokes that the second-hardest thing in wrestling is being the greatest wrestler in the world, but the hardest is having to follow him. Sting was screwed from the start, and he quickly learned that there’s a big difference between getting a big pop and drawing money. There’s also a big difference between being a draw as a challenger and living under the gun as champion.

– Unfortunately, Sting had many, many other things against him as champion. House show business was a disaster because syndication was dying and house shows weren’t hyped very hard. PPV took over the business and house shows became secondary, but the WWF destroyed them on PPV and the house shows didn’t draw. The fans who did show up were clearly hardcore fans, who cheered the heels and flipped the script on them, making it hard for a babyface like Sting to get over. Despite all the marketing and masks they sold, there just weren’t many “Little Stingers” at the shows.

– Really, Dave notes, Sting never had a chance, and once he failed to sell out Baltimore for his title win, there was no coming back from that. Yes, Sting had to win the title there to pay off the storyline, and he deserved a chance as champion. But for WCW to extrapolate from “take a chance on Sting” to “STING IS THE FUTURE OF THE COMPANY HAHA FUCK YOU RIC FLAIR” was foolhardy and doomed to end badly from the start. So around November, with houses at all-time lows and Flair “buried like yesterday’s garbage”, they suddenly realized that it was time to go back to the Nature Boy again. However, this time the plan was to transition it to Scott Steiner, who quickly made it clear that he didn’t want the title and didn’t want to break up the team. (Telephone game alert: This is likely where the idea that Steiner was promised the title at that Clash show on 1/30 came from. That was the original idea back in November, but wasn’t in the cards by the time the match came about.) But regardless, Flair was the best choice at that moment, so it was decided that Flair would win the title from Sting at Starrcade and they’d figure it out later. But then Sting refused to do the job there because he wanted to get the blowoff win to end the storyline. So they moved Windham into the Scorpion spot, which triggered the entire tag title wackiness that was covered in the Starrcade issue. So they moved the Flair title win to the Meadowlands, and Sting was fine with that, so Flair agreed to put him over as the Scorpion.

– Regardless of everything else, WCW still has to face facts that Flair isn’t the long term solution and someone else is gonna have to be groomed. They thought Sting was that guy, but you never know who is gonna be a star. Dave offers the examples of Vince McMahon thinking that Butch Reed with blond hair would get over as the biggest heel since Gorgeous George and Honky Tonk Man would be the biggest babyface since Hulk Hogan because oldies stations were popular. (True story! Also, Vince’s track record with a certain Samoan falls into this category.) You always need a backup plan, and they were all-in with Sting without a plan B. (Again, also applicable today. Although also applicable to WCW about six months from this point.)

– Finally to the review of the show:

1. Tom Zenk pinned the Black Angel (Jose Luis Rivera) in 5:02 with a missile dropkick. Zenk was still “TV champion” here, despite losing it a week earlier at the TV tapings.

2. Brad Armstrong pinned Cuban Assassin in 5:45 with the leg sweep. Nothing special. 1/2*

3. Michael Wallstreet pinned Terry Taylor with a rollup and a handful of tights and the ropes at 8:48. Same old Rotunda in the ring, but “Inside Edition” was there filming it. **1/4

4. Sid pinned Brian Pillman with the powerbomb in 4:29. Sid was a giant babyface here of course. Could have been worse. *1/4

5. Ricky Morton & Tommy Rich & El Gigante beat The Freebirds & Bobby Eaton in 12:00 when Gigante pinned Garvin with a big boot. Crowd cheered wildly for Eaton and chanted “We Want Stan”. Gigante is dying on the vine as a star. Mostly comedy stuff. **

6. Lex Luger beat Big Cat in 2:06 in a football match. LT and Paul E were “coaches” and the object was to clothesline the other guy over the top. Paul got himself over as a heel instantly, but Taylor was forbidden from touching anyone because the Giants had a playoff game two days later. Dave saw a football match in Mid South that was excellent. This wasn’t Mid-South. -**

7. The Steiners beat the Master Blasters to keep the US tag titles in 6:28 when Scott pinned Blade. Dave still thinks that the Blasters have potential, but need way more seasoning, so this sucked. *1/2

8. Flair pinned Sting to regain the WCW title in 20:38. Sting wasn’t really into the match, so it wasn’t great, but still the best thing on the show. Flair shoulderblocked Sting and Sting put his foot on the ropes, but Flair swiped it off and got the pin. Kind of a weak finish but fans were so into Flair that it worked. ***1/2

9. Windham & Anderson beat Doom in a non-title cage match in 3:54. They actually did the deal AGAIN where they hyped it as a title match on TV, made no mention of it in the building, and then only announced after the challengers won that in fact it was a non-title match all along. Crowd felt ripped off by the bait-and-switch and short match. *1/2

Overall, Dave’s seen worse, but this wasn’t a show to win new fans or make them stars in the New York market. They only drew 5000 people, although horrendous weather can be blamed. Even so, they were only on pace for 6500 tickets before the storms started, so that’s not really a valid excuse. And in fact, the WWF had an advance of 9000 for their competing house show at the Nassau Coliseum, and they allowed about 3000 people who couldn’t make it to use those tickets on the next Nassau show as a goodwill gesture.

– Off to Memphis, where they’re going for the nuclear option as the Fabulous Ones & Jim Cornette turned on Jerry Lawler to set up their one last swing for the fences. Dave isn’t sure that it’ll draw, but if this doesn’t, nothing will. (Hey, heel Vince did pretty good a couple of years later!) Originally the payoff was going to be Eddie Gilbert turning babyface and teaming with Lawler as the payoff for the secret bounty storyline (with champion Terry Funk the one who actually put the bounty on Lawler instead of top suspect Gilbert) but he quit the promotion in the middle of a show last week and he’s gone. So now it’s Jeff Jarrett getting the spot.

– In Texas, they drew 300 people for the big return of Eric Embry. Highlight of the show was valet Tessa challenging Jeannie Clark and her “bleached blond” men, which Dave notes is a strong statement for someone with two inches of black roots in her hair.

– Once again, it’s time for the most awesome feature in Observer Flashback history:

– Our favorite whipping boy promotion, the UWF, debuted in New York with a TV taping, and surprisingly both Honky Tonk Man and Rick Rude showed up but didn’t work. So now, it’s LEGAL TROUBLES, because Vince still considers the contracts on Honky and Rude to be valid (which they were), so he’s got the lawyers on speed dial. However, the followup TV taping on 1/10 was cancelled because the owners of the building forgot to turn up the heat and build the concession stands.

– For his part, Honky thinks that he has every right to use his gimmick outside of the WWF because he was Honky Tonk Wayne everywhere else, plus if you could trademark an Elvis impersonator gimmick then every Elvis impersonator in the world would be sued by the Presley estate. (And of course, he’s still using his gimmick to this day.)

– Speaking of promotions that are already dying, fans in Japan are quickly turning on SWS and their business practices, and it’s becoming a major problem. They do the big entrances and frou-frou well, but the wrestling is TERRIBLE because they just don’t have the talent base to compete with the quality of stuff that fans are used to. Fans are openly laughing at supposed top star Koji Kitao when he’s in the ring, and the WWF co-shows are bombing.

– Speaking of bombing, Joe Pedicino is still trying to get Jarrett’s syndication deal, so now he’s negotiating with Max Andrews instead, trying to find a “back door” into making the deal.

– For those following the thrilling saga to its conclusion, Fred May’s CNWA in Calgary finally folded once and for all on 12/28, about a year to the day that Stampede folded.

– OK, speaking of sagas, we begin a big one with Dave. At this point, war in Iraq is about to erupt, literally hours after Dave is doing the issue, which leads to a discussion of the upcoming Hogan v. Slaughter main event at Wrestlemania, which has now come to light as the plan. Hogan was supposed to visit the troops in Saudi Arabia to do the big patriotic push, but the USO denied Vince’s request to make it happen. Also, the Iraqi Embassy is upset with the company for their portrayal of Slaughter thus far, and they’re worried about legit fan violence against Iraqi people in the country given the way that the storyline is playing out. Plus they think it’s a really bad idea for Slaughter to be using Saddam Hussein’s name as though he was endorsed by him for real. All of which Dave agrees with. (You can feel this simmering with him and it’ll get hotter as we go along.)

– Ricky Steamboat indeed signed a two year contract with the WWF and he’ll be starting soon.

– Tenryu is currently scheduled to do a singles match at Wrestlemania.

– They did TV tapings for after the Rumble, but everything was done very low-key because they want to see how the US invasion of Iraq plays out first before they start doing heavy angles for Wrestlemania. These shows also marked the return of Brutus Beefcake as a masked guy who ran in to attack Earthquake, Martel and Demolition. The attacks were so pathetic that they likely won’t ever air. (Sadly, they did, triggering years of people asking who he was on RSPW.) Beefcake is trying for a comeback, but the gimmick will be that he’s forced to wear a rubberized mask to protect opponents from the lethal steel plate in his face. (What’s the word I’m looking for here…?)

– Sadly, Dave doesn’t have the same faith in the genius of Vince McMahon that I do.

– Brother Love is doing a new gimmick where he’s healing people in wheelchairs. (Clearly this went nowhere.)

– This kid Chris Chavis got a tryout on the tapings, wrestling as War Eagle once and under a mask as Lord Humongous the second time. He was said to be green, but with potential. He might come in with an Indian gimmick.

– Wrestlemania tickets, although the advance is huge, are not moving nearly fast enough and only 30,000 seats out of the 100,000 needed are gone at this point. It’s still a $2 million gate, but PANIC TIME is nearly upon us. Hence the signing of Konnan, so they can build a Latino star in time for the show and presumably sell those other 70,000 tickets. (But…but…what about Gobbledygooker?)

– Dave’s new name for Fred Ottman: Tugbloat. Hee.

– Latest update on Charles Austin: He won’t be walking for at least a year after breaking his back in the Rockers squash win.

– Jake Roberts wants to turn heel after the Martel feud is over because he’s smart enough to see where the opportunities lie.

– Tom Zenk apparently won the TV title on 1/7 in Perry, GA, from Arn Anderson. (That has to be incorrect, as Arn didn’t lose until May.) The show was a TV taping that drew 5400 people, which is “phenomenal for a city that no one ever heard of until this week.” (OH DAMN, PERRY GEORGIA, YOU JUST GOT SERVED!)

– Dusty Rhodes has announced his retirement and they’re making a big deal about it, so Dave is pretty sure that it’s already setting up him coming out of retirement again.

– Sid will be starting a new gimmick where all his TV victims end up going out on a stretcher and then taking an ambulance to the hospital. This is supposed to make him a heel but will end up turning him into the biggest babyface in the company.

– Flair’s first set of title defenses will be (and we might want to be sitting down first) against El Gigante.

– And finally, in the most historic moment to date in these things and quite possibly the highlight of my career writing recaps of them thus far, Dave finally reveals the real name of “the 6-8 guy” in the Master Blasters. Turns out that it’s Ke…

– Oh, well, never mind then. I’m sure he’s no one we’ve heard of.