Wrestling Observer Flashback–11.11.91

Previously on the Flashback… http://blogofdoom.com/index.php/2017/01/20/wrestling-observer-flashback-11-04-91/

Well, 24 hours in, no one has taken a shot at Trump yet.  I guess he can call that a win.

To the past!

– The top story this week is the death of Gene Anderson from a massive heart attack on 10/31, at either age 52 or 58 depending on the source.  (I feel like Wikipedia would have been massively helpful back in those days).  Gene was the frequent partner and “brother” of either Lars or Ole Anderson in the Carolinas during the heyday of Crockett’s promotion, and they were NWA World tag team champions several times.  Gene originally retired in the early 80s after a stroke and he had been working backstage with WCW, running TV tapings.  His son Brad Anderson worked as TV jobber Zan Panzer.  Gene had been taking a course as sheriff’s deputy in North Carolina, and excused himself to the bathroom during a training exercise and never returned. 

– Halloween Havoc, which received so-so feedback and went against the seventh game of the World Series, did the lowest buyrate in the history of either major promotion, with a 0.7, or about 100,000 buys.  (For point of reference, this was considered a catastrophic disaster and likely contributed to people like Jim Herd losing their jobs.  Today, TNA does 5000 buys at most and their all-time record was 40,000 or so.  WWE used to average 100-200K for B Shows in the PG era, but now the post-Network era has cannibalized the industry so much that a normal show does 20,000 buys, if that.)  Furthermore, the cable industry was pissed off at WCW for the content of the show, specifically the excessive amount of blood and ridiculous Chamber of Horrors match, which made no sense and couldn’t be properly advertised as a result.

– Business continues to be good for Hogan v. Flair, but not record-breaking.  Smaller markets are drawing their biggest houses in history for the match, but business is still cold for the major markets.  Also, Bobby Heenan has been taken off the road due to his ongoing neck problems and replaced by Jimmy Hart, although that’s not a permanent move.  The spot is definitely going to someone else soon, though.

– The GWF is having financial problems already, with cutbacks to the wrestlers being the main fallout.  Essentially favored treatment will be given to wrestlers either living in Dallas or willing to drive there for the shows, rather than flying guys in.  In fact, four of the guys are under contract (Scotty the Body, Lightning Kid, Chris Walker and The Patriot) and Pedicino is essentially tearing up the contracts and redoing them.  (Vince would definitely approve of that business plan).  Joe is still claiming that they’re doing a PPV in March, though.  Basically Joe got seed money from a pair of investors, rumored to be around $500,000, and that money is gone.  Handsome Stranger has already quit the promotion and is getting a tryout with WCW, and Chris Walker is trying out with the WWF. (Clearly we know which one of those tryouts was more successful)

– Pedicino is claiming that the group is renewed on ESPN through 1992, although soon Max Andrews will be taking over financing of the promotion and presumably making money from ad revenue.  Dave notes that there’s not many ways to sugar-coat this as good news.

– More lengthy pieces on regulation in Florida and California, none of which amounted to anything.  Again, TL;DR.

– The strike in Mexico drags on, with the Mexican equivalent of the FCC ruling that Televisa could resume filming at Arena Mexico, after a week of filming at a disco instead.  And of course the union complained about THAT, claiming that the disco didn’t have proper paperwork to shoot wrestling matches.  So they’ve been airing old matches from earlier in the year to fill TV time while the whole thing is sorted.

– The Ultimate Dragon is delayed from debuting in Mexico by visa problems.  (Hopefully he didn’t trip on the entrance way at the airport.) 

– To Japan, where UWFI is making mainstream news with a freakshow match between Takada and boxer Trevor Berbick.  The storyline of the match is that all the American TV networks are bidding for the rights to the match (which isn’t true, of course), and Japanese fans are totally buying into it and losing their shit over it.  They even did a press conference in New York to announce the fight and undercard.  Berbick is actually the last boxer to face Muhammad Ali, in the fight that ended Ali’s career.  He later won some version of the World heavyweight boxing title and lost it to Mike Tyson, so he’s quite the footnote in boxing history. 

– While he awaits his Mexican debut, Yoshihiro Asai (The Ultimate Dragon) will be working full-time with SWS, which has Japanese fans annoyed because he’s a highly regarded wrestler and SWS is not so much highly regarded.

– Quick trivia note that I didn’t know:  Dave mentions that Dos Caras is the brother of Mil Mascaras, which would make Alberto Del Rio the nephew of Mil Mascaras.  Have they ever mentioned that in his WWE career?  Because that seems exactly like the kind of thing that JBL would be dying to work into every match.

– In something that sounds like the best thing ever, Atsushi Onita has become a TV star on a Nippon network comedy show, doing a segment where he reads letters from the lovelorn, and does pro wrestling promos in response where he gets worked up and cries about how people should try having HIS problems. 

– In Portland, the main event loser-leaves-town/I Quit match between Crush and Billy Jack Haynes ended without anyone quitting or leaving town, as everyone in the promotion ran in for a no-contest to get out of both stips.  (We’re not far from the end, for those keeping track)

– Art Barr’s petition for a wrestling license was denied by the commission once again.

– Jim Cornette Update:  He turned down the WCW managing job because he’s opening up a new promotion with Sandy Scott and Tim Horner called “Smokey Mountain Wrestling”, starting on 10/30 in Greenville.  Bob Armstrong will be involved as a commissioner. (Yay! The pieces are starting to fall into place!) 

– On the flipside of the indy scene, Herb Abrams is threatening to sue the Observer and anyone else who has ever printed anything about him.  He even called the Pittsbugh Gazette demanding to have Mark Madden fired for a story that he wrote about Bruno Sammartino, even though the article was printed in the Torch.  Herb is out of TV tapes and is showing matches from unaired Howard Brody tapings from a year ago to fill time on his Sports Channel timeslot until he can find money for another TV taping.  (Amazingly, this trainwreck promotion would continue for another few years.) 

– Vince is pressing forward with the WBF, and will debuting two new shows about the bodybuilding life:  “Body Works” and “Body Stars”.  (What’s the definition of insanity again…?) 

– El Matador will be replacing the Dragon at Survivor Series, although the logical replacement of Randy Savage for the injured Sid will NOT be happening, for whatever reason.

– The WWF continues to snipe at Ricky Steamboat after the fact, claiming to Dave that the $52,000 annual income reported was in fact too low.  (Geez, I should hope so.) 

– People are reporting that Randy Savage is rapidly losing weight since his “retirement”, down to a legit weight of around 185 pounds now and wrestling with a shirt on.  The reasons for the weight loss should of course be obvious. 

– As a part of the Survivor Series buildup, they’re pushing Undertaker hard as “undefeated”, which is of course ridiculously insulting to anyone who went to a house show where he lost to the Warrior for the past three months.  Dave theorizes that when Warrior was erased, the WWF went back and retroactively erased those losses, too.  (Yeah, it was so egregious that even PWI Weekly was scoring off the WWF over that one.)

– More sad news to report, as former British Bulldog mascot Winston also died of a heart attack this week. 

– There’s some significant interest from England in hosting one of the big WWF PPV shows in 1992, but between the time difference and costs for shooting overseas, it’s unlikely to happen. In fact, they had so many issues with Toronto’s Wrestlemania that they swore never to do a PPV in a foreign country ever again when it was over.  Although, Dave notes, 18 months is equal to “forever” using wrestling math.

– Flair v. Hogan at MSG only drew 8500, which is a major disappointment.  There’s talk of eliminating the MSG Network broadcasts to increase attendance again, because that’s a pretty alarming number. 

– The Legal Battle for the Big Gold Belt has been settled out of court, and Flair has ceased wearing it to shows as of this weekend.  Flair will be getting his $50,000 from the NWA, but Dave expects a new twist next week.

– To WCW, where Scott Steiner is back on the road, and Barry Windham and Ron Simmons are missing their dates but still being advertised anyway. 

– Rick Rude worked the TV tapings carrying some kind of championship belt, so presume he wins the US title at the Clash.

– PN News beat a jobber named “Mean Mark Canterbury”, which Dave interprets as a shot at the Undertaker.  (Of course, it was his real name) 

– The Young Pistols won the US tag titles from Patriots at the tapings as well.

– Diamond Dallas Page debuted as a wrestler, working in a team with Diamond Studd, and was said to be shockingly good for someone with his age and experience level.  But then compared to Oz and Van Hammer, that’s not saying all that much.

– The GWF’s Handsome Stranger, wrestling under his real name of “Mark Bagwell”, did a job for Mike Graham in his tryout match, and WCW was apparently disappointed with his performance.

– Tom Zenk is probably getting buried in case his steroid charges end up going the wrong way for the company.

– Still no word on who’s teaming with Dustin Rhodes against the Enforcers at the Clash.  (I’m assuming whoever it is will, at the very least, be just a man.) 

– And finally, Jushin Liger is headed in for some matches with Brian Pillman.  (Hope they’re good!)