Wrestling Observer Flashback–12.09.91

Previously on the Flashback… http://blogofdoom.com/index.php/2017/01/28/wrestling-observer-flashback-12-02-91/

And we’re back to Flashing Back after a few days of big shows here in 2017.  But more importantly, there was a big show back in 1991 that needs reviewing, with one of the most shocking title changes ever!

– In the top story of the week, WCW is adding more PPV to the schedule in 1992, with 8 of them (counting a taped Japan Supershow) plus four Clashes.  It’s expected the WWF will follow suit, and with the Olympics coming to PPV, that will expand the universe to 22 million homes from the current 16 million.  If WCW can maintain their current 1% average, that’s a big jump in revenue.  (This was the same theory that both companies used in the early days of PPV, when the feeling was “Holy shit, if Wrestlemania III got 10% of the available homes now, we’ll make hundreds of millions when there’s 10 million homes with PPV!”  This of course proved to be a major fallacy and in fact it was just the same 100,000 – 500,000 people buying the shows no matter how big the “PPV Universe” was, and WCW ended up discovering the same thing here yet again.) 

– Speaking of PPV, the WWF put on the Survivor Series on 11/27, easily the worst one ever.  The advantage these shows usually have is that 8 guys can tag in and out and disguise weakness, but there’s a serious talent depth issue, and most of the talent was in the first match.  Also, the booking was AWFUL, as they tried so desperately to “protect” their midcard stars that it ended up destroying the show with terrible finishes.  If not for the Bash, this would be the worst show of 1991 by far. 

– The show did worse than 1990, somewhere around the low 2’s, due to market oversaturation and the economy generally being in the toilet.  (Oh, it’ll get worse.  And the show ended up with a 2.2 buyrate, which is pretty shitty.) 

0.  Chris Chavis beat Kato in 7:44 in the dark match.  1/2* 

1.  Ric Flair & Ted Dibiase & Mountie & Warlord beat Bret Hart & Roddy Piper & British Bulldog & Virgil in 22:48.  Flair’s belt is now digitized in order to make the fans think the WCW version is a copy or something.  Dave’s not really sure what the endgame is.  Hart and Dibiase were really good early, as was Flair, but the ridiculous finish (everyone in the ring gets DQ’d for brawling and Flair wins because he’s on the floor) is one of the worst in history.  **1/2 

2. Jim Duggan & Sgt. Slaughter & El Matador & Kerry Von Erich beat Col. Mustafa & Berzerker & Hercules & Skinner in four straight falls in 14:18.  All action, but sluggish.  3/4* 

3. Undertaker pinned Hulk Hogan in 12:43 to win the WWF World title.  Very slow-paced.  They did very little and what they did wasn’t good.  Ric Flair of course interfered and allowed Undertaker to tombstone Hulk on a chair for the pin.  Dave was very impressed with Hogan’s selling of the move afterwards, and then it turned out that Taker really did stiff him on the move and Hogan’s neck was hurt.  1/2*  There was legit fear he’d have to miss the Tuesday in Texas show, in fact.  (As if that show wasn’t a big enough disaster!) 

4. The Beverly Brothers & The Nasty Boys beat the Bushwhackers & The Rockers in 23:04.  Wackers went out early, which is fine with Dave.  With the Rockers left to do all the work, it suddenly got really good.  Jannetty accidentally hit Shawn with Saggs’ feet while trying a slam, at which point Gorilla invented his own angle for the match and started talking about how Shawn walked out on Marty.  Jannetty fought off three heels for a bit and got pinned to end it.  ***1/2  for the last few minutes.

5. The Legion of Doom & Big Bossman beat IRS & The Natural Disasters in 15:21.  Jake Roberts was pulled from the show by Jack Tunney to even up the sides after the Sid injury, and Dave notes that it’s a double whammy on Jake.  It pisses off fans because he was advertised up until the day of the show and then pulled at the last minute for no reason, and it also makes Jake look like a geek because no one really cared about his absence and he’s bombing as a house show main eventer anyway.  (Ouch!  No wonder his power play on Vince was such a spectacular failure.)  The Disasters walked out early, and IRS got squashed by the LOD to win it.  **

– Dave was disappointed that the Gobbledygooker didn’t make a return appearance as promised last year.

– Although Undertaker got a pretty big babyface pop for winning the title, it pretty much killed the crowd for the rest of the night. 

– TBS is showing an unaired Jushin Liger v. Chris Benoit match on World Championship Wrestling this weekend, so that should be pretty good.

– Meanwhile, the Hogan v. Flair program continues to get cooler and cooler, with a Philly show drawing only 10,000 for an afternoon show in a 20,000 seat arena.  The MSG match drew 15,000, again a slight disappointment. 

– FMW’s freakshow feud with Leon Spinks and Atsushi Onita is drawing ungodly huge ratings on Japanese TV, with Onita doing the job after getting repeatedly punched in the eye, and of course crying about it afterwards. 

– WING is in fact splitting up, with the pro wrestling side still going by WING, but the other side being called World Martial Arts Assocation, doing a similar style to FMW.  (Never heard of them before.) 

– Dave notes that the Hogan-Tenryu match at the Tokyo Dome will make for an interesting booking decision, since Tenryu needs to win because he’s the guy working night after night in Japan and making the money for them, plus it sets up a rematch once Hogan regains the WWF title down the road.  So clearly Hogan will win by pinfall.  (Oh, Dave, so cynical.  Uh, wait, that’s actually what happened, never mind.) 

– In your Memphis ripoff of the week, Jimmy Dijewski from Philly is working as The Warrior, pretending to be you-know-who.

– The Moondogs (Spike and Spot) came in and won the tag titles in their first match.  (And then stuck around in various combinations for the next bazillion years)

– Eddie Gilbert started as booker of Global and he’s so meticulous about what he wants to see that he handed out SCRIPTS to people backstage.  (Geez, that’ll be the day when wrestlers have to read scripts!  Can you imagine?) 

– Max Andrews was turned babyface again already and the whole Cartel angle was dropped completely, as he was just undercover the whole time and Cactus Jack has “fled for another promotion” anyway. 

– Whatever the issues were with the Patriot gimmick, they’ve been settled. 

– Eddie Gilbert wants to create a new heel to feud with the Patriot, and also wants to revive the First Family.  Dave figures Doug Gilbert will get a job out of this.  (Dark Patriot!  They were actually a few years ahead of their time, predating Norman Osborn as the Iron Patriot by a couple of decades.) 

– Chris Champion & Pat Tanaka did not in fact debut as Badd Company as advertised.

– The Tommy Young lawsuit is getting all kinds of play in the mainstream media, because they saw the word “script” and were all over it like sharks going after blood in the water.

– Big John Studd is suing the producers of Harley Davidson & The Marlboro Man, claiming he was injured while riding a motorcycle for the movie due to inadequate training. (I’ve heard stories that he later blamed his life-ending tumors on this injury in some manner, as well.  Can’t remember off-hand what the connection was supposed to be.) 

– Terry Funk will be starring in a new show for CBS called “Tequila and Boner” in January.  (It was actually “Tequila and Bonetti”, about a cop who gets exiled from New York to California and teamed up with a dog, unfortunately missing the “cop and dog partner” craze of 1989 by two years, and lasted only 11 episodes before being cancelled, according to IMDB.) 

– More ridiculous alternative facts and fake news from Dave, as he alleges that Gordon Scozzari’s AWF TV taping has been moved again, this time to Lowell, Mass. 

– All the managers in WCW (aside from Paul E. and Madusa) were fired this past week, including Harley Race, so no one knows what his future with the company is.  Lex Luger’s quitting over that lasted all of an hour.  (Race outlasted Luger in the promotion by quite a few years, as it turned out!) 

– Despite the many, MANY rumors about Jim Crockett taking over from Jim Herd, Herd is still the guy in charge.  For now.

– It’s a lock that 2/29 on PPV will be Luger v. Sting for the title.  (I’d make my usual “Smooth Jimmy” meme, but Dave was absolutely right.) 

– Del Wilkes will probably end up in the WWF when they find a gimmick for him.  (Seriously, they could find a gimmick for a damn WRESTLING GARBAGE MAN and couldn’t even come up with something for the Patriot to do?) 

– Ultimate Warrior’s 90 day suspension is technically done now, so he could come back.  But he won’t.  Jim Ross has been dropping his name on the WCW 900 line all over the place, but he’s not going there to work weekends for $1 million a year.  (Not until 1998.) 

– Sid Justice is being phased down when he returns, or so it seems.

– As noted, Flair v. Hogan drew 15,000 to MSG on 11/30, and they return with that match again on 12/29. 

– There was some sort of incident between Flair & Brian Knobs at the China Club after the MSG show, but Dave is pretty sure it wasn’t a fight. 

– And finally, they did TV tapings on 12/2 and Undertaker was working without the belt, but Dave thinks that means nothing anyway.  Also, Kevin Von Erich got a tryout and Ric Flair had his singles match with Shawn Michaels, although no word on how good it was.  (Pretty damn good.)