Wrestling Observer Flashback–11.04.91

Previously on the Flashback… http://blogofdoom.com/index.php/2017/01/18/wrestling-observer-flashback-10-28-91/

Second try at this Apparently I was REALLY tired last night due to generally being old as fuck and I actually fell asleep two paragraphs into writing it, which produced some very interesting material if nothing else. So I scrapped it and did the Havoc repost this morning before work instead.

On a related note, I don’t really know who Gronk is aside from “he’s a player of the footballs” but his Monster Energy drink is AMAZING. Perhaps he should specialize in that field instead.

– Before Dave gets to the Halloween Havoc recap, the WWF snuck in the first Hogan v. Flair match at a TV taping in Dayton on 10/22. The dark main event was supposed to be Flair v. Piper, but Hogan & Flair were talking about their upcoming series during the show and decided they wanted to go out there and give it a go before debuting the match in Oakland. It was basically a nothing match with a burned out crowd, just so they could get a feel for working together.

– The first REAL match of course took place 10/25 in Oakland, which drew almost 15,000 people to the building, the most in several years. It wasn’t a classic, but it was the best thing on the show by far and everyone was happy with it. Although Hogan was the clear favorite, Flair had about 30% support according to Dave’s estimates. They did the match that we all know these days, with Flair seemingly knocking out Hogan with a foreign object to win the title at 11:35, only to have Dave Hebner run out and reverse the decision. Fans in the building completely bought the fake title change, however. Dave gave the match ***1/2.

– They then did the same match two more nights in a row, with both matches being a shade below the first one, thanks to Hogan no-selling more of Flair’s stuff. They were mostly in the **1/2 range from Dave’s minions.

– Injuries are changing around the Clash 17 card quite drastically. The angle where Barry Windham had his hand broken at Havoc was due to him legit breaking his wrist doing a bulldog in a squash match on 10/22, and he’s expected to be out six months to a year. (Thankfully it was on the shorter end of that.) Ron Simmons was also injured and will miss the Clash, but gutted it out in the main event and earned mad respect from everyone in the locker room for doing it without a cast or pills. Originally Simmons & Windham were going to be pushed as the top babyface tag team, but then it was changed to Windham & Dustin Rhodes, and now that’s out the window as well. The Enforcers will wrestle SOMEONE at the show, that much we know.

– Sid had surgery to repair a torn tendon on 10/24, and he’s out until March. The injury won’t be acknowledged on TV until 11/9, so that gives them permission to false advertise him until then…right? Well, they’re doing it anyway. So for the moment, they’re doing a deal where “Mr. Madness” takes his place, since Savage isn’t technically reinstated yet.

– RUMOR KILLER: Sid was NOT scheduled to win the WWF title at the Tuesday In Texas show, as his been reported elsewhere. In fact, he was only booked for a dark match against Jake Roberts, with Hogan v. Undertaker always being the planned main event. (Was that really a thing that people believed would happen?)

– In a weird one, Mike Tyson was injured recently and there was talk of moving his upcoming fight with Evander Holyfield to 01/20, which would necessitate moving the Royal Rumble to a new date. The WWF was generously offering to do so for the reasonable fee of $500,000 from the PPV distributors, but in fact the fight is such a shit-show that it’s doubtful that it will ever happen, so the Rumble is safe for now. (Yeah, Tyson was about to have much bigger issues than boxing matches to deal with.)

– Time for Havoc fallout! Paul E. of course returned as manager of Rick Rude and Madusa on that show, and it was pretty touch-and-go in the hours leading up to the show whether it would even happen. In fact, Jim Crockett originally offered Jim Cornette the spot as lead heel manager, but he turned it down.

– On the bright side, at least the “steering committee” weren’t stubborn about the suspension and were able to admit that they were wrong for the good of the company. Jim Herd wasn’t thrilled with the idea, but went along with it. Paul then scheduled a press conference where he threatened legal action if he wasn’t given a hearing by the end of the PPV, which was 100% a work by that point.

– Back to the WWF for a minute, as the WWF gave their side of the Ricky Steamboat firing. Basically they had set up an angle where Steamboat would blow fire at Ted Dibiase and burn up his money, setting up matches between them through December. Steamboat then asked for his release two weeks before the angle was to be shot, claiming that he wanted to get away from wrestling and spend time at home and at his gym. (HOO BOY even the nice guys can be big fat liars in our so called sport!) He agreed to do whatever jobs they wanted at the arenas, but the WWF guys were pissed because they spent six months building up this character and now they could actually use it to draw some money and he was abandoning them in their hour of need. (OK then.)

– More paragraphs on steroids and George Zahorian, TL;DR.

– Billy Graham finally started his lawsuit proceedings against Zahorian and the WWF and seven other drug companies, although there’s still no word on what exactly he’s suing for.

– So finally 1000 words into my recap, it’s time for Halloween Havoc 91! Unfortunately it went against the seventh game of the World Series on TV, plus the biggest football game of the year, so the buyrate was pretty much a writeoff. WCW officials said they would have been happy with a 1.0% result. (It did a 0.8%) Dave notes that as a PPV event, it was “something less than super.”

1. In the Chamber of Horrors, Sting & El Gigante & Rick Steiner & Scott Steiner defeated Cactus Jack & Abdullah & Big Van Vader & Diamond Studd in 12:36. Vader subbed for Windham, and Jack subbed for Oz. Match came off good live, but on TV it was a nightmare. The electric chair stipulation had nothing to do with the advertised stipulations, which granted were so convoluted that the writers of Lost would look at them and say that maybe someone should clarify things a bit better. Fun fact: The Night Stalker played one of the ghouls at ringside. Abdullah was supposed to do the stretcher job to sell getting electrocuted, but instead he no-sold it and beat up the ghouls instead. We should be sorry that One Man Gang because getting amnesia and returning as Reverend Billy Bright would have been better than what we got. –** (Vindication! Clearly you saps who enjoy this abomination have the wrong opinion.)

2. PN News & Big Josh beat the Creatures (Joey Maggs & Johnny Rich) in 5:13. At least they weren’t hunchbacks. Match was OK. *1/4

3. Bobby Eaton pinned Terrence Taylor in 15:41 with the Alabama Jam. Eaton did a scary kneedrop from the top rope to the ramp outside the ring for the highlight of the match. Last few minutes were great. ***1/2

4. Johnny B. Badd pinned Jimmy Garvin in 8:25. They put a lot of work into the match and it showed. Hayes had to appear here with an arm in a sling to get him out of the Van Hammer match because he would have been cheered there, but they wanted the Freebirds as babyfaces here. Badd was much improved here and got the win with the KO punch. **3/4

5. Steve Austin drew with Dustin Rhodes in 15:00. Austin has the potential to be the next Ric Flair, and Dustin isn’t far behind him. (Well…one of them would certainly fulfil his potential, at least.) ***1/4

6. Bill Kazmaier beat Oz in 3:58 with the torture rack. It could have been MUCH worse, but they didn’t have enough time to put together the worst match in the history of WCW, so that’s good. -1/2*

7. Van Hammer pinned Doug Somers with a slingshot suplex in 1:12. In Dave’s continuing efforts to be positive, he notes that Hammer only missed three of the five moves he tried. -*

8. Brian PIllman pinned Richard Morton to win the WCW lightheavyweight title in 12:44 with a flying bodypress. Huge disappointment, and Pillman was still injured. *

9. The WCW Halloween Phantom (Rick Rude) pinned Tom Zenk with a neckbreaker in 1:26. Match was fine, but booking Luger v. Zenk at house shows for the next two weeks is completely nonsensical when Zenk got destroyed like this. *

10. The Enforcers beat the Patriots in 9:51 when Arn pinned “The Chipster” with a spinebuster. Everyone tried, but Todd is incapable of being in the right place at the right time. (Well except for when he lucked into his job, AM I RIGHT?) *1/4

11. Lex Luger retained the World title over Ron Simmons in three falls after a piledriver. Ron won the first one with a spinebuster, then Luger won the second by DQ, and finally Lex got the clean pinfall after Ron posted himself. Dave is shocked because Dusty Rhodes managed to book an entire PPV with no screwjobs! Technically nothing special, but very good because of the storyline. ***1/2

Dave goes thumbs down, but acknowledges that he’s in the minority. It was, at least, better than the Bash. Dangerously, Rude and Madusa together are a tremendous heel presence. (Just wait, Dave!) However, Luger’s main event showing made it obvious that he’s no Hogan or Flair.

– Dave also attended a WWF house show in Sacramento, which was so bad that he gave the intermission **1/2.

– To Global, where Max Andrews was supposed to be having Slick acting as his ringside representative with the heels, but it turned out that Slick wasn’t actually FIRED by the WWF as such and is just not being used at the moment, so he can’t be on TV.

– Kevin Von Erich made his triumphant return to promoting, doing a show with himself as defending World Class champion in Lewisville, TX, and he drew 50 fans. (More importantly, how did he get the World Class title back? Jerry Lawler was the last champion!)

– Ted Dibase’s post-Survivor Series program will now be with El Matador instead of Ricky Steamboat.

– Konnan will have a tryout with his “robot suit” at the next taping.

– In WCW, Bobby Eaton will be turning heel and might not be the only one doing so.

– Thankfully Dave corrects himself from last week, where he stated that DC Comics owns Spider-Man, when in fact he meant Marvel.

– Because WCW: When Van Hammer does the “clap stomp clap” routine to get the fans worked up in his squash matches, crowds have taken to chanting “We Want Flair” in time with it.

– And finally, Dave was disappointed at the lack of inside jokes and wackiness on the tombstones at Halloween Havoc, especially compared to the ones that the Weiders put on the their last event with the names of all the WBF bodybuilders on them. (WCW isn’t exactly known for their subtlety or wit anyway.)