Wrestling Observer Flashback–04.22.91

Previously on the Flashback… http://blogofdoom.com/index.php/2016/12/10/wrestling-observer-flashback-04-15-91/

Well, I’m sure we’re all glad to hear that Sid Vicious came to his senses and agreed to stay with WCW after all.

Hold on, I’m getting an update…

= In the top story, WCW officials presented Sid with the new contract they had drawn up after emergency negotiations, at which point Sid promptly gave notice again, this time for good. From the sounds of it, Vince managed to promise him the main event of Wrestlemania VIII against Hulk Hogan in order to entice him to leave. WCW, on the other hand, pretty much promised him everything up to and including Flair-level money and the World title, and as Dave notes, “he turned it down for a chance to lose to Hulk Hogan.”

– Dave thinks that it’s a good pickup for the WWF, because Sid will do business against Hogan, even if he gets too popular as a heel and people start cheering him. Really, Dave notes, it’s silly for Vince to worry about how fans react to someone once they’ve paid for the tickets. As long as they buy the tickets, that’s the important thing. But will it hurt WCW? Eh, maybe, maybe not. It certainly doesn’t HELP them look like something other than the WWF’s feeder system, but on the other hand Sid wasn’t drawing money anyway and the company has zero direction right now. In fact, the Sid v. Gigante program that Dave has been INCESSANTLY pimping as a potential drawing card flopped when it debuted on WCW TV this past weekend.

– Really, the only place it’s going to hurt short-term is the merchandise sales, because Sid did well with it and again, this company is a rudderless ship at the moment. (To continue that analogy, it’s about to plow headfirst into an iceberg.) They need SOMEONE who can make people take notice, and Sid sure did that. Of course, it’s pretty shitty on his part to sign a contract that expires on 9/1 and then suddenly tell them that he’s done after the 5/19 PPV, but both sides are kind of at blame in the whole situation anyway.

– In a legal note, WCW has a trademark on “Sid Vicious” for wrestling purposes, so Sid will likely have to change his name in the WWF.

– To the WWF, where the Undertaker-Warrior program started with a respectable house of 5800 in Michigan. WWF officials had actually been worrying that the Undertaker wasn’t getting over in the way they wanted, and in fact he’s been cheered over the Warrior at the house shows. (I feel like the Undertaker character might end up doing OK.) In fact, Undertaker no-selling all of Warrior’s offense is so badass that he’s basically turning himself babyface as a result. (They would tweak this a little bit as they went along and start having him at least sell moves for a bit.) The Hogan-Slaughter tour is also doing pretty well, featuring Hogan winning with a fireball “out of nowhere, and then into nowhere because it doesn’t come anywhere close to Slaughter”.

– Dave finally got to see the WWF/SWS supershow, and he was pretty astounded by the arrogance of the WWF in using Mel Phillips as ring announcer when no one in the crowd was able to understand him.

– Speaking of arrogance, Dave was taken aback by Bret Hart calling himself “the best technical wrestler to ever set foot in Japan,” which he notes is like Animal Hamaguchi coming to the US and saying he has the best physique ever in the country. \

(Joke explanation time: This is Animal Hamaguchi…)

– Takada’s new UWFi, which was having trouble getting sponsors, actually sold out Korakuen Hall for the debut show, so it’s off to a good start at least.

– Fujiwara’s new UWF, meanwhile, wants to disassociate from that name and will be called PWF-G instead (Pro Wrestling Fujiwara Group).

– In the USWA, they actually did a couple of title switches to make sure that all the titleholders line up in both Dallas and Memphis.

– While Lawler actually did take four weeks off in Memphis to heal those injuries, he’s still wrestling in Dallas all the time.

– Indy wrestlers Jerry Lynn and Lightning Kid are doing stunt work for a movie called “The Bridge”.

– Although Herb Abrams is advertising a Bob Backlund v. Ivan Koloff main event for his supposed PPV on 6/9, someone actually called Backlund to enquire and it turns out that he wasn’t ever informed of this matchup, nor was he ever asked to wrestle for the promotion at any point.

– Buzz Sawyer agreed to work an indy date for Rob Russan in San Jose, and was supposed to provide the ring and some students from his wrestling school as underneath jobbers. Well, amazingly he no-showed and they had to quickly contact another local promoter for some jobbers (there were only four name guys even booked for the show) and borrow an old boxing ring that you couldn’t bump on. To no one’s surprise, the show was terrible.

– For those who think that zombies are a recent pop culture phenomenon, check this out: The AWA is actually running shows in May, headlined by the Destruction Crew v. Greg Gagne & Wahoo McDaniel. THE DEAD LIVE!

– Iceman Parsons started a wrestling school called The House of Pain and did a TV ad for it, but forgot one of the digits in the phone number and told people to call 333-944.

– The main event for the next Clash of Champions should be Ric Flair v. Bobby Eaton in a 2/3 falls match.

– Dusty has changed his mind about the outdoor Bash shows already and will not be doing them.

– Dave is not terribly thrilled to hear that they’re going all out with the Oz concept for Kevin Nash, as the plan is to have him be managed by the Wizard, with appearances from Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, the Cowardly Lion and the Munchkins. His picks to play the roles: Lanny Poffo as Dorothy, Kendall Windham as the Scarecrow (If he only had a brain…he wouldn’t have attempted to sell counterfeit money to an undercover cop), Warlord as the Tin Man, John Tatum as the Lion, and Chris Von Erich as the Munchkin. (Those jokes are about three months away from being a hell of a lot less funny. And then a couple of years away from being funny again.)

– WCW is already trying to hire Buddy Landel back again. Dave notes that if they give him ANY kind of an offer, he’ll gladly accept.

– The tentative lineup for the Great American Bash PPV is Flair v. Luger for the title and Sting/Gigante/Missy Hyatt v. Arn Anderson/Barry Windham/Paul E. Dangerously, although Dave reminds us that these things are subject to change.

– Sid Vicious, classy as ever, is just no-showing all his house show dates until the 5/19 PPV where he’ll put over Gigante and then leave.

– Moondog Rex is being repackaged into Deadeye Dick of the Desperados.

– Dave is now unsure about Angel of Death becoming the mysterious third Freebird, Fantasia, but he’s definitely coming in with some gimmick or other.

– Dave is really confused with what’s going on with Brian Pillman right now, as they’re pushing him on TV as the hot new babyface, but then jobbing him to Windham constantly, and squash jobs at that. Either they need to actually push him as a top guy, or stop wasting time and money pretending to push someone who is clearly a jobber right now.

– Wade Keller makes a guest appearance as a correspondent for the WWF house show in Minneapolis this week, getting the best line when he notes that Warlord pinned Tugboat after Tugboat got so bored watching his own match that he fell asleep and got pinned.

– And finally, the WCW Supershow did a 0.6 buyrate, even at $10, so Dave thinks this is the bottom level that a WCW PPV can possibly reach.