Flashback Friday: PWI April 1989

This week, we look back at an issue of PWI that went to press December 16, 1988 and sold for $2.25 in the U.S, $2.95 in Canada, and £1.50 in the U.K. In this issue, we learn that a major wrestling promotion has been sold and look at the possible fallout. Also, who’s this youngster with the WWWF’s top managers in 1981?

We begin with Between Falls, the mailbag section, where Everlina from Portsmouth, Virginia thanks PWI for putting Lex Luger on the cover because he’s got Ric Flair’s number and will soon be NWA champion. Bob from Lansing, Michigan, however, disagrees and says Flair is the master of technical wrestling and Luger is just the latest in the long line of musclebound bozos clogging up the wrestling scene. (Get used to that.) Meanwhile, Reverend John F. Backe from New York praises the WWF for its charitable work. He’s a chaplain for a hospice-type program for people who don’t have long to live, and he says the WWF always cooperates with them and sends pictures, magazines, and other items to patients there while other organizations often don’t even return phone calls.

Curtis from Fairfield, CA, on the other hand, says he thinks the WWF and NWA just care about money, and says that if they cared about the fans, they would have sent representatives to SuperClash III. Then there’s Sam from my hometown of Kenosha, Wisconsin who astutely observes that Andre the Giant is no longer in his prime. (We notice the little things here in southeastern Wisconsin.) “When is the last time you saw Andre run?” (Sam is apparently unaware that Andre went for a 5K run every morning.) John Brown from New York also writes in to share his opinion of Andre, saying the Giant should dump Heenan as his manager and join Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, and Hercules as the fourth Megapower. And finally, Mary from Chicago says her heart sang with joy when she read that Doctor Tom Prichard won the CWF championship. “Tom was my favorite wrestler when I attended Continental cards in Alabama. Unfortunately, I had to move away because of my job. But nobody deserves to be champion more than this good-looking youngster. Congratulations, Tom!”

Next, we go Ringside with Bill Apter. Jerry Lawler won the World Class heavyweight title at SuperClash III in Chicago in a match reminiscent of Ric Flair vs. Lex Luger at the Great American Bash. In both cases, the loser appeared to have the bout won when the match was stopped due to blood. Apter does concede, however, that Von Erich was bleeding more substantially at SuperClash than Luger at the Bash. (Ya think?!) In other news, Bam Bam Bigelow has left the NWA for a five-week tour of Japan, and NWA newcomer Eddie Gilbert has picked up his bookings. In fact, Gilbert teamed up with Ron Simmons at the December 7th Clash of the Champions event to wrestle the Fantastics for the vacant U.S. Tag Team championship (vacated by the Midnight Express after they won the world tag team championship). The Fantastics won after isolating Gilbert in the ring for nearly 10 minutes.

In injury news, the mysterious Blue Blazer suffered a groin injury against Greg Valentine in the Survivor Series and will need surgery. Meanwhile, Western States champion Larry Zbyszko missed two weeks after suffering minor injuries in a car accident. In some good news, Rick Martel, who was knocked out of action at the hands of Demolition, has been cleared to return and should be back in action soon. Word is, however, that Strike Force will not reunite.

In other news, Ron Garvin is sure getting around! He began wrestling for the WWF in dark matches even before he appeared at SuperClash III to battle Greg Gagne for the AWA TV title, and on November 24th he won a tournament for the vacant WWC Universal championship. Bill speculates that the WWF is letting him tie up loose ends because they see him as an asset and want to keep him happy as he transitions into the World Wrestling Federation. Meanwhile, Sid Vicious won the CWA title from Brian Lee on December 10th in Memphis. And now, you’re up to date!

Next, In Focus with Craig Peters, where Craig wonders about stuff. Why does Starrcade: True Gritt have two r’s in Starrcade and two t’s in Gritt? With the Ultimate Warrior holding the Intercontinental title, is the number one contender the Penultimate Warrior? If J.J. Dillon was one of the Four Horsemen as he claimed, does that mean there were five Four Horsemen? Can someone ask Iceman Parsons exactly what a raggedy rooty-poot is? How can the All American Ron Simmons wrestle with Eddie Gilbert as his tag team partner? An open mind is one thing, but Gilbert’s past speaks for itself. And why is the NWA’s Western States title always defended on the East Coast?

We move on to No Holds Barred where David Rosenbaum writes about the British Bulldogs. They’ve left the WWF to return to Stampede, where they recently won the International tag team belts, which Dave says is like an Olympic marathon runner winning a 5K fun run. “No offense to the Stampede area, which presents some of the finest wrestling in North America, but returning to their roots at this stage of their careers seems to be a backward move.” Dave points out that at the 1988 Survivor Series, the Bulldogs outlasted the Hart Foundation, the Rougeau Brothers, the Rockers, and the Brain Busters before Dynamite Kid was pinned by Smash after 36 minutes. “That hardly seems like a team that’s on its way down. Yet they say they want new challenges, a new area, new opponents, new rings, new arenas, new fans.” Dave’s not sure about this decision, but he wishes them well. (Sidenote: I used to be a long distance runner in school, and we weren’t allowed to compete in races outside of school even though the town I grew up in had a 5K fun run each year. Because the race took place on the city streets, however, they couldn’t stop us from running unregistered because we could claim we were just out doing our usual Sunday morning jog and that it was unrelated to the race going on.)

He then talks about Don Muraco winning the Stampede North American title from Makhan Singh in Medicine Hat, Alberta. In this case, Dave’s happy, pointing out that Singh was suspended for a good part of his seven months as champion. “That’s one way to hold onto the belt,” he notes. This is Muraco’s first title since February 11, 1984 when he lost the Intercontinental title to Tito Santana, and Dave says it’s good to see Muraco on top again.

Next, Matt Brock looks at Ronnie Garvin. He says 24 years ago, he first saw this tough-looking youngster trying to make his way in Montreal. It all paid off in 1987 when Garvin won the NWA title. Then he went wayward. After the win, he didn’t defend the title for six weeks until he lost it to Flair at Starrcade ’87. Then Garvin began to sulk before leaving the NWA for the AWA. Now he’s left the AWA for the WWF where he’ll just be another guy. “The WWF makes hard working men lazy and lazy men lazier. Welcome to the club, Ronnie.”

Next, it’s Eddie Ellner with Off the Top Rope. Eddie notes that Dustin Rhodes and Kendall Windham have formed a tag team called the Texas Broncos. He says the amazing thing here is that even he could probably beat either guy in a fight, and thus he doesn’t like their chances.

Onto Eddie’s mailbag: Chan from Los Angeles asks Eddie if Sting, upon winning the NWA championship, will break Bruno Sammartino’s eight-year longevity record. Eddie says the more pertinent question (besides what’s the guy’s real name) is how long before Sting is consumed by his supposed “limitless potential,” noting that just such already appears to be happening to Lex Luger, who has failed to win the NWA title too. Next, Mike from Anderson, South Carolina notes that Patera keeps making the same mistake. The former Olympian telegraphs a blind charge, which opponents deftly avoid, before he crashes into something and gets pinned. Mike asks Eddie if it’s time for Patera to hang up his boots. Eddie says Patera has always been a bad man, though he was once a successful one by plying his trade in a sport that allows bad men to win championships. But now, after spending time in a Wisconsin prison, Patera is trying to be a fan favorite and it’s not working. (Fortunately, Dominik, after his incarceration, did not repeat this mistake.) “He is an evil, malignant sore on society and needs to find deserving targets or return to the Big House.” And finally, Gavin from Toledo who asks Eddie how Ronnie Garvin, Tully Blanchard, and Arn Anderson will do in the WWF. Eddie says they all sold out and will be content to collect their paychecks while wrestling in whatever backwater town Vince McMahon sends them to. “Not that I blame them. We’re dealing with a business where each match could be a wrestler’s last. With no pension plan to protect them and no medical benefits to safeguard them, they should grab the golden eggs wherever they’re offered.”

Next, it’s time for Ratings…

Next, we learn about the managers who made Paul E.so dangerous. Yes, that’s a young Dangerously pictured above, back when he weighed just a few pounds less and had just a little more hair. “Dangerously,” we find out is just a stage name. “Once simply known as Paul Heyman, a wrestling fan from Westchester County, Dangerously got to know his mentors after becoming a photographer and worming his way into the rulebreakers’ dressing room.” The magazine says Heyman would bring a notebook and study his heroes, Fred Blassie, the Grand Wizard, and Lou Albano, hoping to someday become a successful manager like them. Albano, speaking for the trio, says, “It looks like we taught him well. Maybe too well.”

Next, a Press Conference with the new North American champion, Don Muraco. He says he’s happy to be out of the WWF because Savage, Hogan, DiBiase, and Andre were clogging up the main event scene, and he was tired of wrestling Greg Valentine all the time. He goes on to say there are cliques in the WWF that tend to take care of themselves, and if you’re not part of them, you can be left running in place. That’s why the Bulldogs, the Junk Yard Dog, the Killer Bees, and Ken Patera recently left too. He closes the interview saying, “This North American title is priceless, and so is The Rock.” (You might want to copyright that nickname, Don.)

Next, there are rumors that Randy Savage will wrestle Hulk Hogan on March 19 at WrestleMania V. (Those rumors would turn out to be false. They would wrestle on April 2.) To get to the bottom of this story, PWI has talked to various anonymous sources inside the WWF. One says Hogan wants to wrestle Savage for the title, but he doesn’t want to challenge Savage outright. He wants Savage to offer him a title shot. Another says Hogan is content to be an ex-champ and let Savage run with the title. PWI says regardless of any of this, the WWF hierarchy must realize Savage vs. Hogan would be a huge payday and will do anything to make it happen. Former WWF champion Buddy Rogers agrees: “At this point, Hogan-Savage would be bigger than Andre-Hogan,” he says. “Even I would pay to see it.” Reportedly, however, the WWF is trying to find a way to keep the match off free TV in spite of Savage floating the idea of wrestling Hulk Hogan on Saturday Night’s Main Event on February 4. (That show, of course, would end up being moved to Friday.) One thing’s for sure: the Megapowers’ honeymoon is over, and someday, somehow, the two will have to confront each other.

Next, an article about how smart the Powers of Pain are. They had a problem: they were going nowhere as fan favorites. But if they simply turned into rulebreakers, they’d get no title shots against Demolition. So what did they do? They used Mr. Fuji to turn themselves bad and get the fans to cheer for Demolition at the same time. The magazine says it was a masterful plan… in theory. “It appears some of the fans needed some time to straighten out their moral judgment,” says WWF expert Thomas Pilliard. (This is the magazine acknowledging that fans in the arena at Survivor Series were confused by the doubleturn and actually cheered the Powers of Pain and Mr. Fuji when they beat Demolition and the Conquistadors to win.) To complete their turn, they knew they had to convince the fans that Mr. Fuji hadn’t turned fan favorite, and they sent him out a couple days later at Madison Square Garden to cut a nasty promo against Paul Roma. At that point, the fans sorted everything out, and the turn to evil was complete. “They played the fans for fools, and the fans fell for it.”

Next, Media Review! Vince McMahon and Jesse Ventura continue to host Saturday Night’s Main Event, but the magazine says it’s not a good pairing. Ventura seems forced and McMahon is too gung-ho. In contrast, Ventura and Gorilla Monsoon are great hosting the pay-per-views, such as Survivor Series, because they don’t try to be the event, they enhance it. In the NWA, Jim Ross and Bob Caudle hosted the December edition of Clash of the Champions and were, perhaps, trying too hard. For example, the two reminded us about Steve Williams’ football background at least ten times during his match, and Jim Ross kept reminding us over and over that we were watching the Clash of the Champions “right here on the SuperStation!” In the AWA, the magazine says Lee Marshall and Ray Stevens were fabulous handling SuperClash III with an understated, educated style that others could learn from.

On the other hand, the WWF remains the tops in terms of production, with the best camera work and best lighting, editing, and graphics. Alas, the NWA isn’t as good, and it showed at the Clash of the Champions. “What was the use of that overhead blimp shot?” the magazine asks. “It’s useful in football or basketball but absolutely useless in wrestling.” (For the record, I kind of liked it. Jim Cornette, however, agreed with the magazine in his watchalong for this event.) “Also, the cut to the crowd shots was highly annoying.” (I miss those too, though today the crowd is no longer reacting organically like they used to as they are too busy hamming it up.) The magazine also says the lighting was off and interviews with C level celebrities such as Jason Hervey came off as superfluous. As for the AWA, SuperClash III wasn’t slick, not even bothering with an intro or an outro, but it was effective. Unfortunately, there was poor lighting, and the hard camera was set up wrong at the beginning, though this was later corrected.

Next, the big news!

Ted Turner has brought the NWA! (This, of course is not quite correct. He bought JCP/WCW, which was a part of the NWA. Interestingly, the magazine used to properly delineate WCW and the NWA until 1988, when, at the fans’ request, they decided to combine them, saying, “It has become clear to us that the fans are right. WCW and the NWA are now one and the same.” Little did they know this decision would come back and haunt them some years later! But for now, when you hear “NWA” just be aware, the magazine is actually referring to WCW, the most visible part of the NWA on North American television.)

So Ted Turner, the Chairman of Turner Broadcasting System Inc., has finally bought the NWA after months of tedious negotiations with Jim Crockett Promotions, and while the shows seem to be going on as normal, expect some changes in the future. (And boy howdy would that be right.) Turner has appointed Jack Petrik as president of the operation, and Jack, who has limited experience with regard to wrestling, has hired Jim Herd, a former wrestling producer, to handle day to day operations. The magazine notes that while changes will inevitably happen, Jim Crockett Jr. will stay on in an advisory role to ensure a smooth transition. (Bwahahahaha.) The magazine speculates that Turner won’t be content to be number 2, and no doubt the sale as caught the attention of WWF owner Vince McMahon. “Ted is enthusiastic,” says Petrik. “He wants to succeed. He’s used to being first.” In addition, insiders say there is still bad blood between Turner and McMahon following the WWF’s short stretch on TBS in 1984 before the WWF’s time was bought out by Crockett. “They did not part on good terms,” says an anonymous source. With all this in mind, the magazine speculates that there may very well be a war between Turner and McMahon in the future. (But what are the chances of that?)

Next, From the Desk of Stu Saks, where Stu asks, “What would you do if you were in charge of the NWA? Would you promote different arenas? Would you change the format of the television show?” (Geez, just imagine if some fanboy suddenly became the owner of a wrestling company and ran it as a hobby instead of a business.) Stu says he’s asking this because the NWA has new ownership, and Stu thinks it’s important for fans to have a voice. So he’s asking people to write in to PWI with suggestions so he can pass them along to Jack Petrik, the NWA’s new showrunner. (My letter: “You guys should have Flair cut his hair and do movie tie-in characters like Oz. Also, have you considered a tag team named the Ding Dongs?”)

Next, an article about Wendi Richter, who defeated Madusa Micheli to capture the AWA Women’s championship. Back in April of 1986, PWI put Richter on the cover and asked, “Is Wendi more popular than Hulk Hogan?” The cover became a joke when Richter lost the WWF title before the magazine even hit newsstands. Now, however, Richter is back on top. This time, the magazine promises to praise her without getting too caught up in the hoopla. And Richter is fine with that. “I’m taking this championship one day at a time,” she says.

Next, we have Arena Reports…

Breaking news! Kerry Von Erich says the AWA officials were biased at SuperClash III. Terry Taylor has dumped Bobby Heenan as his manager. CWA champ Sid Vicious says he wants a title match against Flair, Lawler, or Savage. He’ll even wrestle all three at once. (Unless there’s a softball tournament.) The Junk Yard Dog says he left the WWF because the federation was ignoring him despite his popularity, and he’s now chasing Ric Flair for the NWA title. Carlos Colon is concerned that Ronnie Garvin, now with the WWF, won’t return to Puerto Rico to defend the WWC Universal title, but Garvin says he’ll fulfill his WWC obligations. (Garvin, in fact, dropped the WWC title back to Colon before this issue his newsstands.) In Botswana, Africa, flesh-eating, drum-beating natives are upset that their hometown hero, the Botswana Beast (Ben Peacock), has not yet gotten a title match against AWA champion Jerry Lawler. (Don’t worry, Peacock will become so successful, he’ll eventually have a streaming service named after him.) in Tokyo, New Japan officials are hoping to work out a deal with the Soviet government for a Japan vs. the Soviet Union wrestling card. And you’re up to date again!

And finally, here’s a poll to gauge PWI fan interest in Japan and Japanese wrestling…

That’s all for this week! If you’re new here, be sure to leave a comment and check out the archive. Also, check out my website to see what books I’ve written!