Wrestling Observer Flashback–05.18.91

Previously on the Flashback… http://blogofdoom.com/index.php/2016/12/13/wrestling-observer-flashback-05-06-91/

As STAR-RATE-GATE tears the blog apart on the Superbrawl ‘91 rant, I guess Dave takes a week off or something.  Unless the date is wrong and it’s actually May 13 like would make sense. 

– Good news for the WWF this week at least, as the WWF Rampage tour of Europe was wildly successful, with reports from the countries there saying that WWF is more popular overseas than they are in America. 

– The WWF has decided to pull out of St. Louis after all, because WCW is running a show there on June 14 and that’s just not gonna happen on Vince’s watch.  More cities might follow as Vince throws a massive tantrum and pulls out of other buildings over their exclusivity deal. Dave points out that lots of other real sports do the same thing, keeping minor leagues out of the major arenas.  He also thinks that WCW is picking the complete wrong time to be throwing down over this issue, especially when their house shows are so pathetic and the building are inevitably going to side with the big bad WWF.  Despite what the WWF says publicly, though, their goal is to hold a monopoly on the area, not protect their brand or whatever nonsense they come up with for the press. 

– Hey, remember last week when we were talking about New Japan doing wacky upsets to shake things up?  Well, longtime prelim guy Norio Honaga won the IWGP Junior title in a two night tournament at Sumo Hall.  It was supposed to be Jushin Liger defending against the winner of the tournament, but instead he vacated the title and the winner got the belt.  And in fact, with Liger in the tournament and into the finals, Honaga scored the massive upset with a german suplex to win the belt.  The goal is to educate fans into thinking that any wrestler can win on any given night.  Also, Honaga gets the big win, and the biggest pop of his career, and that makes booker Riki Choshu look like a saint in the eyes of the locker room.  Plus Honaga in theory will be loyal to Choshu forever now.  (That tournament, by the way, was the Top of the Super Juniors, which would only increase in prestige as the years went on.) 

– The latest SNME did a 7.7 rating on NBC, which is better than it had been doing, but nothing to write home about.  In fact, both of the SNMEs that aired in the SNL timeslot scored ratings worse than the regular show.  This is not good news for the relationship with NBC.

– Shinya Hashimoto was in Minnesota, apparently to give a note from Antonio Inoki to Jesse Ventura in order to open up political relations between them.  Dave is like “Whatever.” 

– All three of the UWF offshoots in Japan are running cards in the next two weeks, and all of them are selling like nuts. 

– The latest SWS scandal centers on them allegedly paying off fans to cheer and chant at the Korakuen Hall show, to give the illusion of a heated crowd.  (Why didn’t WCW ever try that?) 

– A fan was killed at the latest FMW show and details are sketchy, but it’s apparently unrelated to the exploding land mine death match that was occurring on the show.  I mean, DUH, right?

– Jeff Jarrett was nearly killed in a car accident this week, as a guy on the other side of the freeway had a brake failure and slammed headfirst into Jeff’s car.  Both cars folded up like accordions and burst into flames, but Jarrett escaped relatively unscathed and was taken to the hospital for treatment. 

– And now, for the first time in TEN MONTHS, an AWA section!  They actually held a card in Minnesota, before 450 fans on 5/2, with a main event of Wahoo & Baron over the Destruction Crew.  The next night they ran a high school gym and drew 650 people, with Groovy Greg and Wahoo v. Destruction Crew on top. 

– Paul Jones has retired.  Again.

– Titan Towers launched on Monday, complete with a Gold’s Gym and health food restaurant. 

– Dynamite Kid worked the UK tour as a second for the British Bulldog on most nights.  (Those must have been some fun conversations backstage.) 

– Rick Martel has quit, although he’ll be back at some point. 

– A WWF house show in LA with Warrior v. Undertaker on top drew a crazy, off-the-charts sellout of 15,000 people, which is insane for a laundry list of reasons.  With no Hogan on the show, plus the first show since Wrestlemania, during the dead season for the company, this should have been the usual 5000 that the Warrior program has been doing.  Dave thinks that the REAL money will be Hogan v. Undertaker. 

–  Kevin Kelly (the future Nailz) and Del Wilkes had tryouts at the latest Superstars tapings. 

– Andre has been working these shows as a manager type deal, and looks AWFUL, sadly.

– To WCW, where they’re just completely ignoring Sid Vicious in the buildup to the Gigante match and focusing on getting people to care about One Man Gang instead, insomuch as anyone could ever care about One Man Gang.  Dave thinks it’s about a 25% chance that Sid does show up and they just ignore the stretcher angle at the PPV. 

– Ricky Morton started a heel turn at the latest TV tapings, while Brian Pillman attacked Barry Windham while wearing a chicken suit.  (Maybe it was The Miz?) 

– Given that the Steiners have cleaned out the tag team division and everyone else has left the company, they’re teaming up Angel of Death and Dan Spivey in an effort to find challengers for them.  (That would soon become a moot point due to Scott’s injury, anyway.) 

– Dave in fact has learned that the third Freebird will just be Brad Armstrong.

– WCW is now keeping the Bash tour dates in strict secrecy, for fear that WWF is going to run opposition shows once they announce their dates. 

– And finally to end this very quiet week, Steve Austin’s valet Veronica has started doing promos in advance of Steve Austin’s debut, so he’ll be in soon.  (That valet didn’t last very long before Jeannie took over.) 

Nothin even meme-worthy this time!  Oh well, can’t all be winners.