Wrestling Observer Flashback–06.03.91

Previously on the Flashback… http://blogofdoom.com/index.php/2016/12/16/wrestling-observer-flashback-05-27-91/

It’s the perfect lead-in to Roadblock: End of the Line! A trip back to 25 years ago with nothing much going on!

– Dave talks about finishes in the top story of the week, because people have been talking about them recently. They’re not supposed to be done to “punish” people or to keep them happy, and yet that’s what constantly happens. Specifically, there have many complaints about the bad finishes at Superbrawl, mostly the Flair-Fujinami one.

– History lesson! The WWF was built on Bruno or Hogan facing a series of big heels, with the heel winning the first couple of matches by DQ or countout, and then the babyface coming back to win decisively in the blowoff the next month. Except for Pedro Morales, who always won because they were worried about a riot if the heel got his hand raised in any manner. Roy Shire’s method was similar, but the big blowoff generally ended with some amount of controversy, so that the loser could go on TV the next week and claim that he was robbed, thus retaining credibility for his next program. St. Louis was pretty much all clean finishes, all the time. Eddie Graham in Florida did ref bumps and interference all the time. Basically, wherever you lived, that was the style you knew because fans in the 70s didn’t have access to other wrestling territories and thus didn’t know any better.

– Today, finishes in the WWF are largely unimportant, since the product is aimed at children with simplistic characters with simple motivations, for the purpose of sending people home with a happy ending. The finishes aren’t germane to the discussion because the TV show is the end goal, so no one pays attention anyway. Pat Patterson likes to do trick finishes in the prelims since they don’t mean anything and don’t build to anything anyway. All Japan of course only does clean finishes in every match, which is actually not based on any longtime tradition and was just a thing that Baba decided to do a couple of years ago as a reaction to the UWF kicking their ass. Mexico is about the babyface losing clean and thus “losing face”, which builds to them putting up mask or hair in the rematch to regain their standing.

– Overall, there’s many ways to successfully book and draw money, and many of them are valid. And WCW does none of them.

– So yeah, wrestling quality aside, Superbrawl had SIX run-ins and three ref bumps, and it’s a problem. Dave thinks that once fans become conditioned to look to the back during the climax of the match because they’re waiting for the run-in, then it’s time to stop doing them. (Boy, the 90s must have been miserable for him.) If the main guys can’t do jobs on top, then all you’re gonna get is a bunch of inconclusive finishes between guys with no drawing power. If you have everyone doing clean finishes, then no one loses their heat because everyone jobs equally and it’s not a big deal. And then if you do the occasional screwjob on top, it’s a shocking occurrence and builds heat for a rematch.

– As for Superbrawl, although it was a good show by and large, business continues to go into the toilet. Since WCW is a TV product and ratings have never been lower, you’d think they would do something to change it, but instead they do the same shit they’ve been doing that led them to the problems in the first place. (BELEE DAT.) Dave says it’s time to just pick a direction, accept that you’re in a rebuilding phase for a couple of years, and wait for fans to accept it as well. (Boy, did they sure not take THAT advice.) If you want to be the WWF, be the WWF! But then don’t do blood at the house shows. If you want to be serious Japan wrestling, be serious wrestling! But no matter what direction they choose, they have to realize that trying to be a hodge-podge of copied, half-baked ideas and directions isn’t getting them anywhere. (Hey, at least Bill Watts had vision, you have to give him that.)

– Minor note: There was lots of mistimed stuff like the Danger Zone segment because regular director Craig Leathers was busy with his wife giving birth, so the TV director stood in for him and it turns out directing a PPV is more complex.

– Another minor note: The mysterious Freebird Fantasia is now Badstreet.

– On the bright side, Dave is really excited about the next Clash, which should be one of the strongest in recently memory with Flair v. Eaton on top and Steiners v. Hase & Chono underneath. (Yeah, I’m gonna redo that one on Tuesday.)

– So Herb Abrams is having some serious issues getting distribution for his PPV, surprise surprise. Most cable companies aren’t carrying it, as the feeling from the industry is that there’s already too many PPVs and this would just be piling on. (Meanwhile we’re getting our THIRD show in 30 days later tonight.)

– Hey, an actual big story, as Bruce Pritchard was canned by the WWF in the coda to his destruction at the hands of the Ultimate Warrior. (So I guess it really WAS meant to be a burial.) Basically the new head of production, John Fillipelli, didn’t get along with him and wanted to replace him on the production side with his own assistants. Once the Brother Love character ended, the writing was on the wall. (If only Warrior was still around to do the same thing to Kevin Dunn.) Dave thinks it’s ironic that Pritchard gave up the managerial gig with Undertaker so quickly, because it’s pretty much the prime position for a manager now that Undertaker is a huge star. Not surprisingly, word is already going around WCW that Dusty is going to bring him in as a color commentator or manager.

– The bodybuilding war heats up, as the Weiders did a show where a competitor posed in a set themed like a graveyard. The “tombstones” that were part of the set dressing were all adorned with the names of the 13 people who left for Vince’s WBF, and the bodybuilders smashed them with sledgehammers after the routine was complete. (+10 for making the point, minus several million for subtlety.)

– A big upset in All Japan, as Misawa & Kawada beat Williams & Gordy in the main event of the Sapporo show, after Misawa powerbombed Gordy on the floor to leave Doc by himself for most of the match. This is something of a receipt for Misawa, as Gordy did the same thing to him a few months back and cost him the tag titles.

– Rick Rude is debuting for Baba in July, but Dave thinks he’ll have to radically reinvent himself to get over there.

– Amazingly, the State Patrol are working prelims and actually getting over. Not like main eventers or anything, but they’re giving out tickets to people at ringside and Japanese fans are digging it as the comedy it’s intended as.

– To New Japan, where the giant reaction for Norio Honaga, the prelim guy who upset Jushin Liger, only lasted for the one show and now he’s just back to being a guy again. (And he lost that belt back pretty damn quick.)

– After Tony Halme got over so big for New Japan and they booked everything around him for months, he’s leaving to do a movie in Germany and now they’re screwed after wasting a bunch of top stars on putting him over. So needless to say, there’s major heat on him. Scott Norton will be taking his spot in the Vader program instead.

– All the major groups are already courting Takada because everyone figures he’ll fail and they want to get him locked up once his UWFi inevitably folds. (Kind of hilarious that both NJ and AJ were caught so completely off-guard by the ORIGINAL UWF destroying them out of nowhere, and then none of them learned a lesson from it!)

– Talk is that Choshu wants to find one more huge American monster to push ala Norton and Halme, because he’ll look impressive and working the Japan guys will improve him even if he sucks. (This feels like a setup for an understated Observer debut, but the guys mentioned are amateur wrestling champ Frank Anderson from Sweden and someone named Vern Henderson from Florida, and neither guy ever amounted to anything that I’m aware of. Sorry.)

– SWS has started going more WWF-style booking in their main event, as a tag match with Randy Savage & Haku v. Tenryu & George Takano got wacky with Haku breaking a beer bottle over Tenryu’s head to allow Savage to pin him. Haku then continued attacking Tenryu until Savage saved him, so Haku turned on Savage with a chairshot. Yoshiaki Yatsu then appeared to make the save, but then turned on Tenryu in the kind of angle that doesn’t happen much in Japan, setting up Tenryu & Savage v. Haku & Yatsu as the next big program. (We’re, what, three months after Savage’s “retirement” now?)

– Great Kabuki is still getting squashed in prelims as punishment, by the way. (And you thought HHH got buried for the Curtain Call!)

– The group wants to create new titles with WWF branding on them: The WWF International heavyweight title, the WWF World Junior heavyweight title, and the WWF International tag team titles. Vince has already approved this idea. (Didn’t happen.)

– You can’t say that FMW doesn’t know how to troll its audience: Tarzan Goto faces Invader #4 in a hair v. mask match coming up this week, and Invader is expected to lose and unmask. When he does, the crowd will see that he’s actually Maelo Huertas, who is the younger brother of Jose Gonzales. Also, Mr. Pogo wore an Invader #1 t-shirt to the ring for a show a few months back, and “nearly got lynched” on the way to the ring. (I guess people in Japan really liked that Bruiser Brody fellow.)

– Dave has been impressed by Ken Wayne Shamrock on these PWF shows. Apparently he won some tough-man contests back in the US. (Perhaps he has a future in martial arts?)

– To the USWA, where “loser leaves town” is rapidly losing all meaning. First up, Eric Embry faced Bill Dundee in a loser-leaves-town match, where Embry won by pinning Dundee after a foreign object was used, but the referee was dazed and awarded the match to Dundee instead. So Eddie Marlin reviewed the footage and declared the match a no-contest, with a rematch the next week. So this time Embry wins again, with Miss Texas hitting Dundee with the Texas flag for the pin, but this time Dundee goes on TV with JC Ice (who is now a babyface as Jamie Dundee again) and explains that the name on the contract was “William Dundee”, and since Jamie’s legal name is William Jamie Dundee, HE’S the one who will leave for 30 days. Of course, Dave points out, that’s not actually his real name, but it’s wrestling, what are you gonna do? In a similar vein, Downtown Bruno lost a loser-leaves-town match to Miss Texas, but he’s still around because he’s doing boxing matches instead of wrestling matches now and thus is technically abiding by the terms of the contract.

– Tex Sallinger from Florida is in to shore up the talent, but he’s ridiculously green. (That would be Dennis Knight, aka PIG, aka Mideon.)

– Dino Bravo went to Puerto Rico after quitting the WWF. (God, first Brody gets murdered there, and you think “Man, it couldn’t possibly get worse…”)

– USWA has five weeks left on ESPN before the network has to make a decision on renewal or termination. Don’t put any money on Jarrett in this one.

– Dennis Corraluzzo promoted a show where indy promoters continue to get a good name, as he booked a masked super-gay tag team called “The Ring Masters” to be beaten in a handicap match by Al Hammer as a direct shot at Joel Goodhart. Joel runs a wrestling school called “Ring Masters” and he’s currently on bad terms with Corraluzzo, so this was the response from Dennis. Stay classy, wrestling.

– In the WWF, Bloom & Enos will be debuting soon as The Bomber Brothers, doing an updated Valiant Brothers act, and managed by John Tolos. (No, no, and no.)

– Sid will be meeting on 5/30 to figure out his new name and direction and all that.

– The WWF is negotiating to bring Saturday Night’s Main Event to HBO next year, or failing that, FOX. FOX wasn’t terribly impressed when they pulled out earlier in the year, but now they’re so weak on Saturday nights that WWF actually has leverage on them.

– The Warrior homosexual story (Sample headline: “Warrior an Ultimate Gay Boy!”) is all over tabloids in Europe, but US papers won’t touch it so it’ll likely just fade away.

– Tito Santana is being repackaged into The Matador.

– WCW’s ratings continue to find a new level below rock bottom, which is getting pretty scary.

– Paul E. Dangerously continues to score amazing heel heat by using his same lines on Missy Hyatt, like “She was late for the show because some guy in the parking lot had $20.”

– Tom Zenk re-signed for another $156,000 for one year.

– Apparently Dusty never approved Flair holding the tights for the finish of the Fujinami match, which is why it was never mentioned on commentary or shown on replay.

– The Desperados start on TV as comedy jobbers soon, with the idea being that they’ll be WCW’s answer to the Bushwackers.

– Steve Austin is going to be programmed with Bobby Eaton right away. Dave thinks that Austin has some potential, and working with Eaton might help him get there.

– Dave has now started repeating the “Mark Mero knocked out Razor Ruddock when they were amateurs” story here as fact.

– Dick Murdoch & Dick Slater will in fact be coming in as a full-time tag team, but not with masks. They’ll be known as the Hardline Collection Agency, doing a gimmick of debt collectors on behalf of the York Foundation. (Kind of a cool idea, actually.)

– In the “Bullets dodged” department, Ric Flair has started bringing up Dustin Rhodes in commentary because they’re being programmed together in September. (Good GOD if you think Roman Reigns has backlash against him I can only imagine how that would have destroyed Dustin’s career before it even really started.)

– And finally, Dave thinks that guys like Austin and Mero should really work the indies for another year before coming to WCW, but with the death of the territories that’s just kind of the new reality of wrestling and we’ll have to get used to guys debuting on the big stage with minimal seasoning.

– And on that positive note, see you tomorrow morning for ROADBLOCK: END OF THE LINE!