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Post by Deleted on Feb 26, 2021 5:25:04 GMT -5
Why was Jimmy Valiant banned from TV? I am friend with Jimmy and would really like to know? Did he do something or was his character just getting stale/taken off TV and Meltzer made up a lie or someone told him one which he reported? I think he just meant he was being phased out
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Post by Deleted on Feb 26, 2021 5:29:08 GMT -5
May 16, 88
"The Midlife Rider has ridden off for the final time, after just a two week stay in the NWA, thus ending one of the quickest about-face angles in pro wrestling history. Four or five weeks of television, a baseball bat angle and the punching of Magnum T.A. were all flushed down the commode last weekend when the decision was made to pull the plug on the gimmick because it wasn't working. The official announcement on WTBS this past weekend was that Paul Boesch went to the NWA board and somehow convinced them to reinstate Dusty."
"With all the panic decision making going on in the NWA, with angles changing so fast one TV show contradicts the next, things must be worse off than they appeared to be a few weeks ago. Of course, it is May, and the key contracts are due their balloon payment and let's just say I expect more of the same over the next few weeks"
"Naturally at the TV taping on 5/5 in Raleigh, which will probably air the weekend of the 21st, they set up the defrocked Rider, Dusty Rhodes, for a feud with Barry Windham, when one would think the natural feud being built up on television should be Windham vs. Lex Luger"
"The fact that the angle wasn't working was a mild surprise to me when I was in Greensboro for the Crockett Cup, but the real surprise is that by giving up an angle in just two weeks, an angle that was supposed to last four months and no doubt have numerous twists still left to take place, had to be horrible on Rhodes' ego"
"Crockett's second Clash of the Champions, billed as Miami Mayhem, was officially announced this past weekend on WTBS as going to take place 6/8 from the Knight Center in Miami, starting at 8:05 p.m. Eastern time. While nobody has told me this, from the mood of certain people and the current situation of the promotion, my guess is this won't be nearly as hot a show as Clash of the Champions 1"
"The Flair-Sting rematches everywhere at least needed no time limit and no DQ stips to be meaningful, as just seeing another match between the two of them meant nothing when you've already seen everything they can do with each other for 45 minutes—now the only lure is a definitive finish of the feud, but the inability to mix in new talent at the top makes them avoid blow-offs."
"The NWA wrestlers will appear at a county fair in Medford, OR on 5/19 through 5/21 and appearing will be Midnight Express, Fantastics, Ron Garvin, Lightning Express, Ivan Koloff, Larry Zbyszko, Tiger Conway and Misty Blue. For whatever reason, this is not considered opposition for Owen and in fact the Crockett announcers even gave Don Owen a plug for his 5/7 card on that afternoon's TBS show and talked about Owen as a long-time NWA promoter in Oregon, I guess to verbally support him in his battle with Billy Jack Haynes"
"Whatever I said about Clash II goes triple about them being afraid to put on a hot show. Check out this line-up: Barry Windham vs. Ricky Santana, Nikita Koloff vs. Al Perez, Dusty Rhodes vs. Larry Zbyszko, Garvins vs. Rick Steiner & Mike Rotunda, Fantastics vs. Sheepherders for the U.S. tag title and the main event has Tully Blanchard & Arn Anderson defending the NWA tag belts against Sting & Steve Williams. That's right—no Flair, no Luger and no Road Warriors."
"The gate for the second night of the Crockett Cup in Greensboro was just $115,000—or about 6,200 paid. The combined gate for both nights of the Cup was just about the same as the souvenir sales gross at the Trump Plaza live event for Wrestlemania"
"Nikita vs. Perez feud is dying a brutal death every night"
"5/5 in Johnstown, PA drew 680 fans as Road Warriors beat Powers of Pain and Sting beat Larry Zbyszko in a double main event"
"The crowd went nuts for everyone on the show except Perez & Hart—dead silence"
"Williams beat Flair via DQ in 15:00 when Doc had Flair stampeded and J.J. did the run-in at the count of two for the DQ. Match wasn't good, slow-paced and disappointing for Flair and aside from Williams doing a five-rep set of military presses with Flair, he showed little as well. Flair was cheered and Williams booed, and the fans thus hated the finish"
"Ted Turner received a lot of heat from the consortium of cable operators who own a large percentage of WTBS for doing Clash. The heat came up when the Wrestlemania revenues came in—they claimed Turner's free show cost the cable companies millions in PPV revenue from Wrestlemania. It's impossible to really know if it took millions from Wrestlemania, but there are a finite number of wrestling fans, and seven million of them did watch Flair vs. Sting, which is triple the normal NWA audience"
May 23, 88
"Barry Windham captured the U.S. title tournament to the surprise of almost nobody in the 5/13 tournament in Houston before 4,800 fans ($54,000). For reasons never made clear, Larry Zbyszko was dropped from the tournament (but he did win a squash match from Rudy Gonzales in 3:29) in reality because the line-up was made before the Windham turn, but with the turn they then had five heels and three faces, and keeping Zbyszko in would have made necessary an unpardonable sin of having a heel vs. heel match-up in the tournament."
"The main event on the card saw Ric Flair pin Sting in 15:00 of a cage match which was subpar for the two since Sting didn't sell a thing. The finish with Flair gaining the pin using the ropes was the identical finish the previous two Flair-Sting matches in Houston had"
"In other big news involving Houston, the Paul Boesch "Houston Wrestling" television show will return to TV in June. I'm not sure of the time slot, but I believe it will be on Ch. 26 in Houston and the show will include footage from the regular NWA syndicated shows, interviews conducted in Houston by Boesch and tapes of house show matches from Houston in the same format the old UWF Houston wrestling show had on Ch. 39 which at one point was an institution in the city."
"NWA got one of Jarrett's key TV slots in Nashville and return on 6/23 headlined by Barry Windham vs. Lex Luger"
"I'd almost be remiss in not commenting on the rumors swirling through the wrestling world that Ted Turner is going to buy the NWA. All I know is no deal has been completed but the rumors are flying everywhere about what may or may not happen. If such a deal is completed, Jim Crockett will still run the wrestling operation however the rest of the family wouldn't be as involved as it would be their stock that Turner would buy out. There's been a ton of speculation, particularly about Dusty Rhodes, should this happen, but it's all premature"
"Rock & Roll Express want to return here. There's a decent shot that will happen, but if that's the case, they really should be heels and feud with The Fantastics"
"5/14 in Chicago drew 2,800...Sting beat Flair via DQ in 26:17 for an over-the-top-rope toss in a match with three judges. I told everyone the three judges angle would keep fans home. Match was typical Flair vs. Sting, good but predictable"
May 30, 88
"In what could be the biggest story of the year, there is a possibility that the NWA could be under new ownership. As has been widely rumored for weeks, a deal was proposed by the Crockett organization which would sell the majority of the company to Turner Entertainment. The deal is as of this writing before the Acquisitions Committee of the Turner company and the word on whether or not it is approved is expected within a week. The report I've got on the deal is that Turner would be buying out the stock of David, Frances and Jackie Crockett, but not the stock of Jim Crockett. Jim Crockett would remain as the general manager of the company and run day-to-day business operations. A lot of the promotions and p.r. and other business activities would be run by the Turner group, which should result in a more professional and business-like approach."
"Business-wise, things simply cannot continue to be run as they have been run for this group to stay solvent. That is no longer speculation. That is fact. Things must change. The other members of the Crockett family trying to sell their stock tells that story. There are wrestlers who are owed large sums of money. The promotion is really at the same crossroads in many cases as the old UWF was just a few months before it was sold to Crockett"
"A report in the latest issue of Broadcasting Magazine noted that Turner and Crockett have already cleared 8.5 million homes for their 7/10 Pay Per View show from the Baltimore Arena billed as the Great American Bash: The Price for Freedom. The untold portion of the story is that McMahon's attempts to retain a monopoly on the wrestling on PPV have at least temporarily failed, since only this most recent Wrestlemania, which had a clearance of around 10 million homes (or potential homes I should say) had a wider potential universe. Since Titan has a PPV show on 8/29 from Madison Square Garden, this shows that the vast majority of the cable industry has decided to ignore McMahon's 60 day before/21 day after ultimatum which virtually destroyed Crockett's Starcade of PPV last Thanksgiving"
"As many of you saw, the TBS show this past Saturday spent an awful lot of time plugging the Omni show on 5/22, which was strange since usually they don't do such a hard-sell for what on the surface appeared to be just another Omni card. For whatever reason, the press boxes, usually empty on wrestling nights, were filled this time. The speculation was that several VIP's were there trying to get a look at what it exactly is that they may be purchasing. The hard sell worked, since 7,300 fans turned out at the Omni, more than triple the crowd from last month's card and with a line-up that on paper wasn't any more attractive. The fans were rabid and the work rate was well above average. Somebody was certainly trying to impress somebody."
"Like I alluded to earlier, there is lots of unrest around here. The wrestlers were due the balloon payments on their contracts on 5/1 and have yet to receive them and there are a lot of disgruntled guys around. Also, the payments for the Sunday Main Event show (remember the main eventers were to split $7,500, middle match $2,500, etc.) haven't come in and the guys made their standard TV money for the show (something like $100)"
"Rumors are flying everywhere about different wrestlers heading to Titan, but those same rumors are always flying around. I do know a few wrestlers have been interested but thus far the only names I've even heard from the Titan side are three wrestlers to come in this summer, one of whom is Owen Hart and the other two are maybes and not definites, one of whom works here"
"They are going to start to heavily promote the Bash series which begins 6/26 in Orlando and ends 8/7 in Kansas City with major cards just about every night. I haven't seen the entire schedule, but it's basically the same angles all the way through that they are currently running and lots of gimmick matches. There are something like 15 War Games and 19 Scaffold Matches during the tour. I believe the Triple Doom of Terror will be used either once or twice, and that the only NWA title match will be Flair vs. Luger on 7/10 and the rest of the way Flair and Luger will be in tag matches"
"While I'm on my list of complaints, they have yet to announce one match for the 6/8 Miami Mayhem Clash card and we're now just 2½ weeks away. Not that the show is anything to brag about, but wrestling in a new time slot needs to have something that gives the fans a reason to remember it. They are doing tons of commercials showing Palm Trees, but none where they mention the card"
"Ric Flair vs. Sting with three judges was the main event but thank god they didn't have any judges after all (unfortunately, the promos on TV said there would be) but they went 25:00 before Windham lariated Sting and Flair pinned him in a pretty good match"
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Post by Deleted on Feb 27, 2021 4:40:35 GMT -5
June 6, 88
"Of course the major topic of conversation concerns the possible acquisition of Jim Crockett Promotions by the Turner Entertainment Corporation. There is nothing major new that we didn't touch on last week, other than this story was on the front page of the Charlotte Observer this past Wednesday and had a follow-up story the next day. At this writing, the sale isn't completed and the Charlotte newspaper indicated that no completion of the sale is expected until 6/6 at the earliest. My sources indicate that it could be July before the deal is either completed or dropped. The Charlotte paper listed a $10 million price for the acquisition, although I've been told that figure is "way off." I'm not sure if that means too high or too low, however for frame of reference, the UWF purchase was reported as being for $4 million by Crockett last year"
"Another correction from our report last week is that the proposed deal would have Turner buying 100 percent of Crockett Promotions, including Jim Crockett's shares. Last week I had reported that Jim Crockett would retain his shares in the company and that the proposed deal would have Ted Turner buying out the remainder of the Crockett family. Once again, rumors are flying like crazy as to what will happen should this deal take place but I don't know anything concrete although Jim Crockett would still be in charge of the wrestling operation in either a President or General Manager of the company capacity"
"Lots of unrest around here. As of the last word, none of the contract balloon payments, due on 5/1, have been paid and I'm told there are about 10 wrestlers due sizable amounts of money, at least 1 in the six-figures. Several guys are making noises about quitting if the money doesn't come in, but realistically, unless Titan will take them, and Titan isn't going to add too many guys this summer, than the only alternative is to go to a promotion in which they'll make a lot less money. This is the time Titan could brutally wound this group by stripping them of several key personnel"
"Williams was pulled from the main event on the 6/8 "Miami Mayhem" TBS special and replaced by Dusty Rhodes, who teams with Sting against Tully Blanchard & Arn Anderson"
"The Sunday Main Event show had a good match with Mike Rotunda vs. Ron Garvin for the TV title ending when the rest of the Varsity Club interfered for the DQ. This week's main is Tully & Arn defending against Ron Garvin & Mighty Wilbur. That'll keep me glued to my TV set on a summer afternoon"
"They are going back to the deal where they build up a TV show for a main event, then start the main event with just two minutes to go in the show. Last weekend they did it with a six-man tag (Flair-Tully-Arn vs. Dusty-Luger-Nikita) and this week they did it with Midnight vs. Fantastics. I wonder if they hired someone with the specific job of getting fans pissed off at them?"
"You aren't going to believe this, but of course you have to. 5/29 in Greensboro was the first card there since the Crockett Cup, and before that of course was Clash of the Champions. Remember the Midnight vs. Fantastics finish? Remember the Road Warriors vs. Powers of Pain finish at the Cup? Well, they ran the exact same finish again this month as well in a six-man title match with the Powers of Pain & Uncle Ivan apparently losing, but instead winning via DQ over the Roadies & Sting. Once again, I'm told a lot of the crowd fell for it, but they were down to 4,000 fans this month"
June 13, 88
"As you all already know, the Clash of Champions line-up was changed with Barry Windham wrestling Brad Armstrong in a prelim which in my book could make the entire card if they give them time and let them go. TBS sent out a press release to TV stations about the card and the biggest bio was about Dusty ("one of the two biggest stars in professional wrestling today, along with Ric Flair"). The Windham bio called him "frequent tag team partner of Lex Luger," so you know how far back the bio was written"
"Debuting in Portland were three wrestlers who just quit the NWA—Johnny Ace, The Terminator and Ricky Santana"
"TBS has already committed to Clash of Champions cards on 9/7 and 12/7"
"Jim Garvin did a fantastic interview on the 6/4 TBS show admitting Precious was his wife and he really put a lot of heat on this Kevin Sullivan feud, and there was a lot of heat needed to be added. If this seems coincidental to the thing with Rick Rude and Jake Roberts getting over so big, well, I don't think it's any coincidence"
"6/3 in Richmond drew 1,500 (smallest crowd in years)"
"They are doing a good job hyping Flair vs. Luger as THE title match of the year for 7/10 in Baltimore. They are doing it so effectively that most people I talk with (fans that is) believe it'll be a title change. Let's just say nothing is certain right now"
"The Baltimore PPV has already cleared nine million homes, so it is expected it will clear a PPV universe the same size as that of Wrestlemania IV. If they do only half as well, it will be an amazing accomplishment for them and it'll alleviate a lot of the current financial woes"
"They are starting to push Williams & Nikita as a team. On TBS it was kind of bad because in the ring Williams was fired up and doing lots of moves, thus completely overshadowed Nikita both in skill and he's also twice his size. On interviews they are double trouble"
"Being that I truly believe there is a greater chance of Flair going to Titan now than ever before (don't get that rumor mill going, it hasn't happened yet), it's an interesting question. I'm convinced that if Titan wanted to, it could make Flair into a tremendous drawing card, but the way this business is, I'm not sure this would happen. You have to realize that more than anyone else in this business, Flair represents, to the vast majority of fans, the NWA itself. If Flair jumps, unlike Ricky Steamboat or Greg Valentine or even Harley Race, in many fans' eyes he will still be an NWA wrestler, just fighting against WWF guys. Because of the ego involved, in order for the WWF to say, "See, we were better all along," their office may come up with reasons (and valid ones, age, size, thrives on long matches) to convince themselves he won’t get over, and of course that would turn out to be prophetic because they would push him in such a way where that would be the case"
"I can recall when Vince McMahon was on a Larry King interview a while back and literally one caller after another brought up Flair's name while McMahon was going on how his group had all the top stars and had no competition in the business (which, while somewhat true today, wasn't at all true at the time) and King said, "boy this kid Flair must be something." McMahon basically complimented Flair as being a great athlete, but followed it up while fans talked of a match with Hogan as saying he didn't think if Flair came to the WWF his size would allow him to be any competition to Hogan"
June 20, 88
"Topping the news off this week was Jim Crockett Promotions' "Miami Mayhem," card at the Knight Center on 6/8 which was the second of four Clash of the Champions TBS specials scheduled for this year....In fact, to the best of my knowledge, the only match announced nationally for the special was the main event of Tully Blanchard & Arn Anderson defending the tag team titles against Dusty Rhodes & Sting. I realize that the NWA is trying to promote as if seeing the NWA live is the big thing, and the match-ups themselves are unimportant and interchangeable, but fans go to see match-ups, and this card drew just 2,400 fans in the 6,000 seat arena."
"Overall I see the card as neither great or a failure, just a prime-time special, which hopefully at least delivered a decent rating. It was nothing compared to the first Clash, but it wasn't supposed to be, either. The matches, at least in my mind, were better in reality than they looked on paper, at least aside from the opener."
"It also seems like every time the NWA tries to do something to make them look major league, like the limos, the yacht, etc., they come off looking even more minor league than had they never even tried to look major league. Entrances of celebrities in limos is a good idea for an open, but not when you don't have any celebrities, and Gary Juster and Frances Crockett don't even qualify as celebrities to wrestling fans"
"Jim Cornette, on the other hand, the best interview the promotion has, wasn't even there on tape (you don't know how many rumors of Cornette going to Titan started simply because of this oversight)"
"Barry Windham pinned Brad Armstrong in 13:55 to retain the U.S. title. Brad looked unhappy from the start at having to do a clean job on national TV"
"One thing several people brought up is that on the show, they show the masked wrestler (supposed to be Alzado, although in reality Steve Williams is the stand-in for Alzado in the wrestling scenes although most viewers won't know that and will believe Alzado was able to pick up all these wrestling moves in no time flat) tossing Ric Flair and Flair does his flip into the turnbuckle. A lot of people don't like that because the sequence is choreographed and the flip isn't supposed to be a choreographed move when Flair does it nightly. Personally I could care less and don't think it's an issue"
"Then came the Rock & Roll Express for an interview announcing they were back. They got pretty much a lukewarm response considering s this big surprise should have theoretically popped the place. Robert Gibson nearly tripped walking to the interview area. Ricky Morton gave a terribly obnoxious interview. I don't dislike the guy as much as it seems most readers do, but a few more interviews like that and I'll jump right on the bandwagon"
"Ricky & Robert in the NWA those last six months were like a tooth that had gone bad. They weren't drawing anymore and their work had gone downhill as well and Morton's cockiness made them pretty unpopular as babyfaces go. Well, in January, the NWA removed the bad tooth. The only problem is, removing a bad tooth hurts a lot more for a short period of time then keeping the bad tooth does, although keeping it hurts less for a long period of time, if you get my drift. But after removing the bad tooth, do you want to ever, five months later, put it back in your mouth?"
"Then we saw the contract signing for the Ric Flair vs. Lex Luger "Match of the Century" in Baltimore on 7/10. The signing was on a yacht in the Atlantic Ocean. Seemed like a waste while it was going on, but it was done to set up the angle which followed next. Actually I was hoping the angle would be on the yacht and they'd throw Luger overboard. At least it would have been original and we wouldn't have to watch that parking lot scene"
"The moment Lex came out of the limo, all four Horseman (including Barry who by this time had already had time for a shower it seemed) jumped Luger and basically mugged him. The least they could have done was make it look realistic and steal his wallet instead of his shoes. They ripped up his white tuxedo. The actual execution of this was great by all parties involved, however it looked too staged and too unbelievable (even criminal drug-running gangs out here don't do their muggings in front of TV cameras). Also, it's not like we've never seen this angle before. In fact, we were so lucky we got to see it two more times before the show ended. The least they could have done was let Arn Anderson DDT Lex on the pavement, since the DDT is so over that maybe people would believe he was really going to the hospital (at this point we needed to actually see the ambulance and paramedics instead of all this talk of what a horrible travesty we just saw)."
"As a viewer, I should mention that at this point I'm fed up with the special. We're nearly one hour in and we've had one disappointing match and a bunch of boring and unimaginative skits. I decided to do something more pleasant, and fought rush hour traffic, which in truth was no more entertaining even if the DJ's made more sense than Dr. Death."
"Jeff Steele once wrote in Pro Wrestling Digest that the NWA was like the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde of wrestling promotions and that was probably the best analogy of them I've ever read. He was writing about the Crockett Cup and saying that the first night was so bad, and sometimes the promotion is so bad that you wonder how they are still even in business. But then came the second night. And the promotion was so good that you wonder why they haven't wiped out all their competition. The next morning I decided to watch a tape of the last 90 minutes—and much to my surprise—the rest of the show as damn good"
"I've learned there is a secret in having a good match with Nikita. That is, treat him like a jobber and keep pounding on him most of the way and let him get his four moves in as comebacks. I've seen Eddie Gilbert and Dick Murdoch have great matches with him like that. The problem with the Horseman vs. Nikita is they are always trying to sell his strength and playing sell-ball, which with a guy who knows only four moves makes bad matches"
"Dusty is really over big in Florida, moreso than anyone else on the show. They announced him at 268½ pounds. That last half-pound takes up an amazing circumference."
"Arn gave Sting a DDT on the arena floor and Sting made a comeback 30 seconds later. Stupid. The WWF ran Ricky Steamboat and Jake Roberts for six months off that move and these guys treat it as a transition. They are going to need a shotgun to get over an angle if guys treat DDT's on concrete as a 30 second stunning move"
"Finish saw Windham run in and put the claw on Dusty while Tully, Arn and this blond-haired guy who was never mentioned beat up on Sting. Dusty juiced pretty good and Barry had the claw on him in the aisle when they cut to the commercial. Since this was the third "angle" of the show, and all three were carbon-copies, I wasn't as impressed with the finish as maybe I would be at another time. Still, it was good."
"Unfortunately, when they came back from the commercial, there was no word on how Dusty got loose, if Dusty was okay, if Nikita was okay, or even how Luger was doing although we were promised a report on Lex on Saturday. These angles mean nothing if two minutes later they are so unimportant the commentators don't even bring them up"
"I was told the deal between the Rock & Roll and Crockett was made late Tuesday, or just before the Miami TV show and they were basically flown down for the interview at the last minute"
"The Miami Mayhem card drew a 4.7 rating and an 8.2 share, which translates into 2,128,000 homes. I'm impressed, because it's a very good rating and the show wasn't nearly as heavily hyped as the first Clash. The first Clash drew a 5.8 rating (although the rating reached a 7 during the Flair vs. Sting match). TBS normally does around a 3 rating with a movie during its Wednesday 8-10 p.m. slot, so the Clash has proven to be a success for the station"
"Powers of Pain (in their street clothes and with no make-up—apparently some misplaced baggage somewhere) & Uncle Ivan kept the 6-man title beating Ron Garvin & Wilbur & Kendall Windham when Ivan pinned Kendall with an elbow drop— Ivan worked all but one minute because the other guys didn't have their gear *3/4"
"The 7/10 PPV show now has 9.4 million homes cleared. Word has it that the guys will get the money due them after the money comes in for this show, and it really will be a substantial amount because they've got no opposition on this night and are hyping the card well. If this show is successful it could go along way toward taking care of some of the economic problems here. The next step is to move Starcade to the Saturday of Thanksgiving week and run it on PPV so it doesn't go head-to-head with McMahon's Survivors Series II."
"Don't expect any deal with Ted Turner until after this PPV at the earliest, although discussions are still open, but word I get is they won't be getting serious again until after they see how the show does"
"The Crockett's 900 phone number will be broadcasting a radio play-by-play every Sunday night during the Bash tour live so they will be doing cards on 6/26 from Orlando, FL; 7/3 from Amarillo, TX; 7/10 from Baltimore; 7/17 from Charleston, WV; 7/24 from Johnson City, TN; 7/31 from Detroit and 8/7 from Kansas City"
"Dusty Rhodes & Lex Luger went to a double count out against Ric Flair & Barry Windham in 15:00 of a match with nothing but, stalling and restholds *. For those of you interested in meaningless trivia, this ties the lowest rated match we’ve ever gotten a report on Flair being involved in—the only other one star match we ever got a report on Flair being in was in Memphis in 1986 before 800 fans in the 70,000 seat Liberty Bowl against Nikita Koloff"
"If there is one match I don't want to see this summer, it's a scaffold match between the Road Warriors vs. Ivan Koloff & The Russian Angel. Angel is already hampered badly by his bad knee, and the idea of falling off the scaffold on that leg is something I'd rather not think about because it certainly sounds suicidal. How they expect to get him through a dozen scaffold matches is something I can't figure, unless they just have him climb down the scaffold and have Ivan take the fall"
"Powers of Pain vs. Demolition 7/23 at the Spectrum in Philly!!!"
June 27, 88
"Judging from this week's phone calls, the top story of the week, and there is a lot more talk about it than I would have expected, is of course that the Powers of Pain (Warlord & Barbarian) jumped from the NWA to the WWF. Negotiations between Warlord & Barbarian with Titan had been going on for nearly two months on-and-off and the two officially quit the NWA last Sunday, and debuted with Titan this past Saturday. The surprising thing is their role with Titan will be as babyfaces, and they will be pushed hard and be getting title shots with Demolition before the end of July"
"From all accounts, the main reason the timing of this jump was so sudden was because both guys wanted out before the scaffold matches, since they would be required to take the bump off the top, and at nearly 300 pounds for Barbarian and probably 325 pounds for Warlord, if not more, the possibility of serious knee damage or a possible broken leg is tremendous, especially since they were scheduled for more than a dozen scaffold matches with the Road Warriors"
"The NWA acknowledged the pair's leaving, basically giving the "heat got too hot" explanation with both Paul Jones and the Road Warriors "burying" them. Taking the place of the two in the scaffold matches against the Road Warriors will be Jones' new tag team of Ivan Koloff & The Russian Assassin (Angel of Death Dave Sheldon), as Angel debuted on TBS this past Saturday"
"It shouldn't hurt the NWA much because even though they were pushed as major attractions against the Warriors, the feud never drew and they weren't major attractions. Although in the fans' eyes, there is no doubt they'll see this new Russian team as a letdown in the scaffold matches."
"Ironically, the acquisition of Warlord & Barbarian, put in the babyface role that the Warriors would have filled had they ever made the jump to Titan, puts a damper on any hopes fans might have of the Warriors going to Titan and assuming their current roles. You can never say "never" in wrestling, but the Warriors value as big potential future stars for Titan has been greatly taken away, because even if they do come in, they will now be the imitators and you can see countless cases of how well imitation gimmicks do in wrestling. Besides, Titan has never run, nor does it seem in their policy to ever run wrestlers with duplicate gimmicks to ones they already have"
"By the way, the Powers of Pain did leave without giving notice, as Warlord failed to show up for the TV taping on 6/12 in Albany, GA; while Barbarian was there and had words with Dusty and wound up quitting. I've been told the name "Powers of Pain" will be used by Titan, which means that Crockett failed to trademark it. That's kind of a surprise in this day and age, but then again, trademarking names is basically to protect the company in marketing ventures so an outside company doesn't market things of the sort and the two really had no value in the merchandising department"
"The hype is being turned on full-throttle for Crockett's 7/10 pay-per-view show in Baltimore, which is virtually guaranteed to be a financial success. They have created the necessary interest already in the Ric Flair vs. Lex Luger NWA title match, complete with convincing most fans it'll be a title change. With 9.4 million homes cleared for pay-per-view, this is a multi-million dollar extravaganza."
"Since rumors are persisting that Ted Turner has bought the NWA, as best I can tell, no such transaction has taken place, nor do I expect such a deal to be made in the near future. The two sides are literally millions of dollars apart in the attempted buying and hoped-for-selling price, with the Crockett's wanting an eight-figure deal to give up the company and TBS apparently not interested in paying that kind of money for the company."
"Road Warriors dropped their International tag team titles in the unification match on 6/10 in Tokyo against Jumbo Tsuruta & Yoshiaki Yatsu. Just to show how well the Warriors "play the game," check out this scenario for the title switch. First off, on 6/9 in Kiryu, the scheduled card was switched to a main event of Warriors vs. Tsuruta & Yatsu, the same match as the big Budokan Hall show the next night, which is extremely rare in Japan to run a big card main event in a small city. The Warriors won that match via pinfall over the group's World tag team champions. Then at Budokan Hall, they used the NWA finish, which pretty much goes against the traditional promotion methods of Giant Baba. Ref Joe Higuchi was knocked outside the ring by Hawk. Then a second ref came in and they double-teamed and pinned Tsuruta and the ref counted three, however Higuchi got up and reversed the decision and instead DQ'd the Warriors, and in Japan, the titles can change hands via the DQ route"
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 28, 2021 6:03:32 GMT -5
July 4, 88
"The biggest news of this past week is that the much-discussed sale of the National Wrestling Alliance to the Turner Broadcasting System has become a distinct possibility. Despite lots of rumors within the industry to the contrary, as of the end of this week, no deal between the two has been finalized. However, the Turner side came back early this past week with a legitimate offer to the Crockett family to buy the company. While the deal was not approved, a deal in principle has been reached and the two sides are down to negotiating smaller points such as the time table of when payments would be made. Those within the Crockett organization seem to feel the deal should be finalized by the end of July"
"From my perspective, this is the first time I've actually been more than 50 percent sure that a deal would be made, even with the rumors and negotiations that have been going on for around two months. The reports I've got indicate that meetings between the two sides will be continuing this week, and that Ted Turner has been personally involved in these meetings"
"During this past week there was a hang-up involving David and Frances Crockett, who were having reservations about a sale when it became apparent that Turner's company was interested in a serious offer, but that has been smoothed over and Jim Crockett has received approval from the rest of his family to negotiate the terms of the sale"
"As long as a wrestling company has sizable national television exposure (which the NWA has in TBS and a syndicated network which blankets 90 percent of the country), marketable stars (which the NWA has at least a base of, although they desperately need reshuffling some faces and changing around some of the faces at the top), access to pay-per-view (which is the sport's future and with the Turner tie-in, the NWA would certainly have that), solid booking, a professional looking television product (both of which need improvement right now, but such improvements wouldn't be that difficult) and present wrestling in a way that appeals to a large enough market, then that company is potentially very profitable"
"One of the big problems right now is the concepts to promoting wrestling profitably have changed enormously. Due to the realities of pay-per-view, the realities of viewers having far more product on free television, and realities of an audience which more than ever, goes for the purpose of being entertained rather then actually believing they are watching something "legitimate,” plus the realities of having a competition promotion (WWF), promoting in the manner that was successful in the 1970s won't work anymore. The only proven method of success if McMahon's method, which doesn't mean it's the only method, only the only proven method"
"How is this for a bombshell? The WWF finally got a date in the Greensboro Coliseum on August 7th—a Sunday night. The main event will be Hulk Hogan vs. Andre the Giant. The announcement of this was made on television this past weekend. This should sell out the Coliseum, something the NWA hasn't done since a Ric Flair vs. Barry Windham match just a few weeks after the Ole Anderson babyface turn well over one year ago"
"The strange thing about this, and I'm not sure what this says for wrestling fans, or just WWF fans, is that in every arena I've gotten a report on, it seems that a great many fans believe the Powers of Pain actually are the Road Warriors, which in part is why they are so wildly cheered. That’s a reaction nobody anticipated"
"Next weekend is the Baltimore Bash, easily the biggest-money non-WWF wrestling card in history. The NWA is doing a great job with the build-up and I can't forsee it being anything but a major success (of course I was saying that about Wrestlemania IV until a week before the card as well). The NWA truly seems to have fans convinced that this is the end for Ric Flair, which is exactly the way it should be promoted"
"The TV ads aren't making mention of the participants in the Triple Tower match, which kind of devalues the Road Warriors participation in it"
"Italian Stallion pinned Ron Simmons (you read the result correctly, Simmons was trying to play a total Ernie Ladd heel as well which was another surprise) DUD"
"6/20 in Montgomery, AL drew 1,315 ($15,000)....Brad Armstrong (subbing for Nikita) & Sting & Steve Williams beat Ric Flair & Arn Anderson & Tully Blanchard in 19:20—get this, when Brad pinned Flair clean in the middle with a small package in an excellent match with all six looking good ****"
"By the way. Dusty is missing several Bashes. Dusty has moved to Dallas along with Jim Crockett and now works out of the office there rather than the Charlotte office"
"The NWA has to get its act together. For the 7/7 Bash in Raleigh, on the Worldwide show Tony Schiavone is plugging one line-up while on the NWA Pro show, Jim Ross plugs a completely different line-up. This has happened now two weeks in a row so fans aren't sure if they are getting a War Games or an eight man cage match as the main event. The only match both cards agree on is Doc vs. Rotunda, which isn't exactly a major ticket seller"
"Scott Putski (real name Scott Bednarski, son of Ivan Putski), a fullback with Texas Christian University made his debut on TBS and will work the Bashes in Texas. Seems like a good athlete but obviously green in the ring. His biggest problem is he was trained by Ivan and wrestles like Ivan, who in 18 years on the circuit only learned one move—a side headlock"
July 11, 88
"When Titan has a PPV spectacular, they generally have a full page ad listing all of the matches, with photos of Hogan or whomever, usually in the first few pages of the issue. Since the Cable Guide is direct access to your potential viewers, it should be a prime advertising vehicle....I had to literally scour the guide, to find on page 30, this one paragraph: "The Great American Bash ($15) Each year, the National Wrestling Alliance streaks across the country holding grudge matches, settling old rivalries and initiating new ones. This year, you're invited to watch as the Bash presents for the first time ever the triple-cage "Tower of Doom matching Flair and Lex Luger." "
"On page 164, we get another paragraph: "Gill Cable presents The Great American Bash from Baltimore on Sunday July 10 at 4:00 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. See Ric Flair, Lex Luger, The Midnight Rider, Tully Blanchard, "Gorgeous" Jimmy Garvin and Precious, The Midnight Express and other top stars from the NWA." Jeez, we've known the line-up for months, and the NWA pretty well had planned a Flair vs. Luger main event for the Bash PPV dating back to January so couldn't we have some sort of hype for the match itself, something like the Old Master vs. Young Lion confrontation pitting the greatest wrestler of all-time against the man many expect to take his place (so much for truth in advertising, but let's face it, if Andre vs. Hogan can be the match of the century, Luger can be billed as a future wrestling great). Instead we get no mention of the title, and in fact, in one ad we get the two main matches confused and for those who don't know better, they actually won't be seeing what is advertised"
"The second ad lists seven names, one of whom (Midnight Rider) has long since rode into the sunset and the other names mean nothing except in the context of a great match situation. Seeing Tully Blanchard or Midnight Express or Garvin & Precious or even Ric Flair is not going to make anyone think twice about shelling out money. You've got to have specific matches"
"Crockett's best known guys are Flair and the Road Warriors, who weren't mentioned in either ad, and in fact, it's never been made all that clear except for those who listen attentively to NWA interviews that the Warriors are even on this card"
"The tour opened 6/26 in Orlando, FL drawing 6,000 fans and $87,000 (which is a record gate for that city), then on 6/27 in Greenville, SC drew 4,700 fans (just a few hundred shy of capacity), 6/28 in Columbia, SC drew a turnaway house, 7/1 in Norfolk drew just over $100,000, 7/2 in Charlotte at the baseball stadium drew $98,000 and around 10,000 fans (much lower than they had done in previous years for Bash shows which in the past have drawn more than 20,000) and 7/3 in Amarillo drew a near sellout as well of more than 6,000."
"This week's main shows include Miami, Chicago, Pittsburgh and of course the big one in Baltimore which is virtually assured of being a sellout which would be a gate in the $180,000 range live"
"A lot has changed in the past week regarding the possible sale of the NWA to the Turner Broadcasting empire. I really don't want to get into details because I'm not totally clear of all of them, other than the JCP stockholders (basically the Crockett family) are not united in wanting to sell the company right now. I'm not certain of who stands where other than Jim Crockett is behind the sale and David isn't"
"Ole Anderson is trying to become a key player in this deal as well and is trying to sway the wrestlers into breaking away and either forming a new company (which could conceivably be headed by David Crockett provided Jim Crockett makes a deal with Turner) or actually maneuvering a deal with Turner himself, which, if Anderson could provide the wrestlers, in theory, then Turner wouldn't have to pay however many millions to the Crocketts to actually buy a company."
"None of this takes into account that any new company would have to start from scratch when it comes to putting together a national syndication network so it could promote, and this network would have to be started at a time when TV programmers are no longer hot on wrestling not to mention all the disadvantages when it comes to booking the major arenas and building up an audience during these times when the wrestling economy is far from its healthiest point. It is expected that several more major breakthroughs will be taking place before this month is out in what inevitably will wind up being the most important news story in pro wrestling this year"
"There was some unhappiness among the crew since the word was given out that the payoffs for the Baltimore Bash won't be arriving for several months (Oct. 1 was the date given)"
"Jimmy Valiant has always been a big drawing card in Memphis on a short-term basis and will be around for about a month I'm told, but I guess this means he's finally through with Crockett, which has seemed inevitable for a long time. Actually the only reason Valiant stuck around for as long as he did was because he was under contract and was waiting for the balloon payment on his contract and I guess he got tired of waiting"
"Crockett Promotions has a show booked at the new Charlotte Coliseum on 8/27 and won't be back in Charlotte until that time"
"WWF has booked a second date in Greensboro on 10/28. They'll debut at the Greensboro Coliseum on 8/7 with Andre vs. Hogan on top"
"7/4 at Reunion Arena in Dallas drew 5,000 as Dusty Rhodes & Lex Luger beat Flair & Windham in the main event when Dusty pinned Windham plus Road Warriors beat Ivan & Russian Assassin in a scaffold match. David Manning was the special referee for the Dusty Rhodes tag match"
"Crockett had been plugging for weeks that tickets would go on sale 7/5 for the Seattle Bash on 8/3. Tons of fans showed up the first day for tickets but they weren't available. Not only that, Crockett hadn't even got his date approved by the commission nor had any wrestlers even applied for licenses and gone through any of the red tape"
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Post by Deleted on Mar 1, 2021 4:24:54 GMT -5
July 18, 88"The Baltimore Bash was a good show in my book, but not a great show. Of the six "big" shows Crockett has presented of late (Starrcade, Clash I, Clash II, Bunkhouse and Crockett Cup along with this one), I’d rate this third behind the first Clash and the Crockett Cup second night as an overall card. It's too early to tell how much they may have helped or hurt their cause with the show" "I've heard no complaints about anybody's work rate, and if I had, those complaints wouldn't be valid. Even forgetting the fact these guys had worked Chicago the night before, Pittsburgh the night before that, Tampa, Miami, etc., from the top to the bottom, everyone worked well above their normal level." "The heat from the live crowd, which was a legit sellout of 14,000 fans (sold out several days early) and $208,000 gate, was exceptional. The card did peak too soon. It seemed the most heat was in the first match, due mainly to Sting." "Anyone watching the show with even casual attentiveness could see that Sting is the hottest act in the promotion, but for some reason he's not getting pushed as the "hottest act." I won't complain about his positioning on this card, because since they had never done Flair vs. Luger, it meant a lot more than Flair vs. Sting would have in the same spot, and Rhodes vs. Windham is a natural match-up because of their long-time association. And Sting would have been buried in that triple cage monstrosity, but still, the heat never hit the level later in the card that it had in the opening tag match." "The question I can't answer is, from a business standpoint, was the ending they did with Ric Flair and Lex Luger, a wise one. From what I was told, the live crowd left so pissed off about the ending, that you couldn't compare it with any of the screwjob ending of the shows of the past. One person remarked it was the hottest a crowd had left a show he'd seen in 15 years." "Dusty's idea with the ending (which is an old Roy Shires ending that we used to see out here two or three times a year but I haven't seen used by anyone in nearly a decade) was that the fans would be mad at the athletic commission, and not the promotion, but I don't think fans differentiate between the two, and at a show like this where fans travel from around the country, a very high percentage knows it is the promotion that is responsible for all outcomes." "They accomplished what they set out to do, keep Flair as champion and make it like Luger should have won, theoretically building up rematches for the fall with the idea that “in your hometown the commission doesn't stop matches for blood and if the match was held in any other city than Luger would be champion today." " "Sting did a Tiger Mask-like dive over the top rope onto the floor on Arn Anderson during the open (and like Starrcade, the camera blew the move, which was once again the highlight of the card). After Sting did that move the crowd went crazy and Sting had them for the rest of the show." "Sting had the scorpion on Tully for the last 20 seconds before the bell rang to end the match. You know what would be a tremendous finish, is if, just once, they would work a match exactly like this and call 10 seconds left, etc. and have the guy actually submit with one or two seconds left. Whoops, sorry for that hallucination, I forgot completely that wrestlers don't submit nowadays. I was having flashbacks to my childhood." "As good as Dangerously is, and he's great, he is not even in the league with Cornette as an overall performer. Not even Jimmy Hart in Memphis was this good" "The Triple Tower of Doom lasted 19:55 with the babyfaces winning. From what I was told from someone who saw both, this came off better than the one World Class did. Truthfully, the wrestlers deserve credit because all seemed to be working hard trying to make the gimmick work. The fans at ringside couldn't see most of the match. The fans at home were beset with problems because the camera work was distracting and it was a hard event to cover. Nobody was clear what the rules were" "Sullivan got a rope and started choking precious while Jimmy and Hawk jumped down from one cage to another. Hawk gave Sullivan a flying clothesline and basically beat him to death while Jimmy whisked Precious out of the cage. I'm still trying to figure out what logic it was in having Hawk make the save and beat up Sullivan. I suppose it's been so long since anyone has seen the Warriors beat someone up that they figured this was the time, but let's face it, this was Jimmy's save to make, not Hawk's" "Finally at the nine minute mark they went into a five minute spot which consisted of a four minute claw hold, a 10 second break of the claw, and then another 55 seconds of the claw" "Ron Garvin came in and hit Dusty with the hands of stone punch and at least on TV it seemed like everyone cheered" "On TV they showed a dressing room bit where J.J. and Gary Hart gave Garvin what appeared to be a suitcase full of money. The story I've heard is that Al Perez, Ron Garvin and Larry Zbyszko are going to become a three-man team managed by Hart" "Ric Flair retained the NWA title in 23:13 when the Maryland State Athletic Commission stopped the match due to Lex Luger's bleeding. I think the best way to put this match is that if anyone but Flair had done this match, I'd say it was a very good match. However, it was the same collection of predictable spots and Flair's offense is predictable and so are his bumps" "At one point, at the 19 minute mark, Flair went on the top rope for his predictable bump, but Luger didn't get up, and Flair had to stand there and look like an idiot for 30 seconds waiting for Luger to toss him. The whole thing looked sad. In other spots it looked like two independent guys who were trying to imitate a Flair match but just not getting the moves down right." "Flair was his usual great self that we all take for granted (but don't you wish he'd do a different match every once in a while?)" "I hope they nuke that triple tower, and ironically they are bringing it back on 7/30 at the Capital Centre for Road Warriors-Sting-Luger-Dusty vs. Horseman-Sullivan which is a horrible idea because you can't work a good match in that thing, and putting all the big names in it ruins the undercard and you've got your best heel workers and hottest faces in a match in which they can't do much of anything in." "The Sunday bit on TBS acting like it was a telethon and showing all those numbers of cable companies nationwide was such an ingenious idea that it couldn't have come from the Crocketts. Unfortunately for the Crocketts, the Braves baseball game went 13 innings and 45 minutes of their last minute hype was pre-empted." "For those watching who were wondering, yes, Tommy Young was scared to death on top of that third cage" "They have got to make a change in World champion. Ric Flair is the greatest wrestler of our time (although right now I'd rate him No. 3 in the world behind Owen Hart and Ted DiBiase) and nobody will deny he's been a tremendous champion for most of the past seven years. He is still the best worker in the NWA, however unless he makes a major change (babyface turn) he is so stale in his current role against the same contenders working the same match and always getting beat but keeping the title on screw-jobs that the title simply doesn't mean what it could" "I had thoughts that Luger wouldn't have been a bad replacement short-term, but he's not ready. He's improved to where he's passable and apparently his stamina is no longer a problem, but even against the best wrestler in the world, in a single, he's not capable of producing the great match needed from a World champion. I'm not sure Sting is the great worker that a lot of fans think he is (still needs to add moves to his repertoire, but he does great work when he's in with good people), but he is a lot better than Luger and he should be the guy thrust into the championship spotlight unless a Flair turn is made which at least would enable Flair to have fresh matches with Windham, Tully, Arn and Ron Garvin" "Russian Assassin takes the scaffold bumps on his back (climbs down a bit and free-falls) which is a pretty impressive bump. Doesn't jump down like everyone else because of his bad knee"
July 25, 88 "As of press time, I still don't have complete figures regarding the NWA's pay-per-view card in Baltimore on 7/10. The two figures I've heard are a 1.9 percent buy rate, which is terrible and a four percent buy rate, which is pretty much what was expected. The four percent came in a roundabout way from a TBS source, although officially I haven't been able to contact anyone at TBS this past week that had the figures. The 1.9 percent came from what I'd consider a very accurate source, which supposedly is a combination of lots of 4's and 5's in the markets that Crockett is strongest in, but less than one percent buy rates throughout the West Coast." "A 1.9 percent buy rate would mean about a $3 million total gate, which would not be profitable while a four percent buy rate would indicate a $6 million gross which would be very profitable" "As far as a possible NWA sale to TBS, there really isn't anything new on that subject other than whatever business disagreements existed between the Crockett family have apparently been smoothed over and that David and Frances Crockett have once again allowed Jim the power to negotiate a deal. No deal has been reached as of yet, however" "7/12 in Huntsville, AL drew 3,000 (they only have TBS to promote the shows)" "The 7/9 Bash in Chicago drew around 6,500 and $100,000 as Road Warriors & Dusty Rhodes beat Ric Flair & Arn Anderson & Tully Blanchard in a match for the held up six man belts inside a cage and nobody juiced" "Have you ever wondered how come in 19 War Games matches this year and three or so last year, that in each and every match, the heels win the coinflip to gain the man-advantage situation? If you did, you are incapable of being a first-rate wrestling fan. But they ought to investigate that coin" "Advance sales for the 8/1 card in Milwaukee, headlined by the War Games, have been pretty good so the card will go on as scheduled. That's the day after the WWF is running its Andre-Hogan cage match at the Milwaukee County Stadium. WWF officials are predicting a gate in excess of $500,000 for that show" "7/15 in Richmond drew a $109,000 gate which is one of the highest I've ever heard of in that city (although an almost full house at $15 and $25 seems to add up to more than that)" "Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Mike Renfro has a horse named Dr. Death, named after pro wrestler Steve Williams, who is Renfro's favorite wrestler. The horse is winning more often than Doc is of late" "7/14 in Chattanooga drew 7,300 and $83,000 (both of which are records in the city)" "Ron Garvin KO'd Stallion in 90 seconds DUD (fans couldn't understand why Garvin was with Gary Hart)" "Officially, the Bash in P'burgh on 7/8 drew 5,039 fans and $79,392, The Bash in Orlando drew 8,000; Miami drew 4,500 and the Tampa Stadium actually drew 4,400 (they were expecting 15,000)" "Apparently those in power in the NWA recognized how hot Sting was at the Baltimore Bash and so after the Bash he'll be pushed in a feud against Windham which will be the co-feature to all the Flair vs. Luger rematches" "As far as the ability to carry a bum, and the ability to work hard night after night and stay injury free, Flair is No. 1. DiBiase is more versatile than Flair, however I've seen seven or eight matches of DiBiase vs. Savage, a few of which were great, a few good and one or two that was just okay, but they were all basically the same spots in the same order, just as Flair often gets criticized for, the only difference is Flair’s been doing the same routine for years, DiBiase and Savage just for the past few months and that Flair’s pat match has aired on television so many times that any fan who watches closely has it down pat."
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Post by Deleted on Mar 2, 2021 2:56:22 GMT -5
Aug 1, 88"Neither the NWA nor the WWF acknowledged Brody. It wasn't surprising, since the WWF never even acknowledged the passing of Adrian Adonis either, who was a major star for them, while Brody had never even worked for the group in the "new era." Both the major groups have a policy of being oblivious to anything that happens outside of their promotion. In the case of the NWA, they should have broken that rule since the TBS Saturday show is the most up-to-date national show on television" "The Baltimore Bash drew somewhere between 350,000 and 400,000 homes on pay-per-view nationwide (3½ to 4 percent buy rate) which makes the gross somewhere between $5.5 and $6 million, which is roughly what was expected. All three companies which carried the show, within 48 hours, all agreed to carry Crockett's next PPV show, scheduled for December, which again means they'll have at least 10 million addressable homes cleared, and pretty much insures some success." "Jack Petrick of TBS was quoted in a Tokyo newspaper called "Yoshitake" as saying that he will have jurisdiction over the new NWA after the buy-out. He said TBS would set policy, he would enforce it, and the wrestling end of the business would be left in control of Jim Crockett and Dusty Rhodes. Petrick said the sale would be finalized within 60 days. This is the first published report from the TBS side confirming the long-standing rumor and news reports that have been printed that the NWA is in the process of selling the promotion to TBS" "The NWA drew a $167,800 gate on 7/23 in Philadelphia going head-to-head with the WWF (which had Savage vs. DiBiase on top). The NWA headlined with a War Games. I've heard conflicting reports on how the WWF did, one source saying 6,100 fans and $77,000 and another saying 9,115 fans and $116,035 although several in attendance swear to me there weren't anywhere near 9,000 fans there, although my most reliable source swears there was" "Consensus on the NWA Bashes is that virtually every city, if the War Games is on, it's about the best live match you'll ever see, and the Midnight-Fantastics never disappoint, but everything else is snooze city"
Aug 8, 88 "It appears that things in the National Wrestling Alliance are at their shakiest point ever. The promotion hit a cash-flow problem and was forced to take out one, or two, depending upon who you believe, large loans to the tune of a reported $300,000+ in order to catch up on some bills, mainly to television stations and to meet payroll obligations. This money isn't being used to pay the balloon payments on the contracts which were due in May, but have yet to be paid" "Several reliable reports indicate the money was borrowed from TBS, and was done so mainly to attempt to save the television network, which was about to fall apart due to late bills, and without television, the promotion would fall apart and advertising income would be out the window as well. The money paid will be considered a down payment if/when the actual agreement to sell the company to TBS goes down. Supposedly another large loan was taken from a Charlotte bank for a similar amount of money, with a full month's worth of TV advertising revenue going directly to the bank in order to repay the loan." "Unless this promotion suddenly hits a home run in the bottom of the ninth, they are history unless a sale is made. And realistically, they aren't going to get up to bat, because there is no evidence any kind of a turnaround is upcoming. If a sale doesn't come through, the TBS loan would be re-paid, when the PPV money comes through, by TBS getting the money back from JCP's share of the profits." "From all reports I've gathered, it also appears that the 3½ to 4 percent buy rate, reported by TBS and listed here last week, for the Baltimore Bash, is an example of McMath, so to speak. It appears, from the PPV companies which handled the show, that the actual buy rate was closer to 2 percent. From the reports I've received, while that isn't a money loser, whatever profits are garnered aren't nearly what the company was counting on to save its skin." "The reason the buy rate was 2 percent, instead of the 4 percent than most of us assumed it would be, is no doubt a combination of several factors. The obvious factor is the talent is stale and the matches didn't capture the fancy of the public to nearly the degree expected. There are people who have told me that they've cried wolf one too many times with these bogus finishes at the house shows and have turned off so many fans that interest in the NWA is waning" "The TBS Saturday show, for years one of the top three shows on all of cable television, dropped to No. 11 this quarter, and for the first time ever, trailed both of Titan's wrestling shows on the USA network. The TV viewership dropped 23 percent over the past three months alone, from a 3.5 national rating to a 2.7. More important is this 2.7 rating is a combination of three months worth of ratings that are steadily declining. In June, the month they were trying to sell the PPV show, the TBS rating probably wasn't much above two percent, and if that's the case, it would be impossible to get a buy rate of more than two percent." "The most important, and most reliable barometer showing how much interest there is in a promotion, or in pro wrestling in general, are TV ratings. Shows at the houses may not draw for any one of a number of reasons, from bad line-ups, to competing events, to a bad local economy or to fans being burned out on live events for whatever reason. But when the fans stop watching the TV, you can't get them back to the arenas even if you run hot angles and put on kick-ass live shows." "Certainly the Bash is doing good, as expected it would, but if TV ratings haven't increased this month, and I've got no evidence they have, these houses are a false-high caused by hot-shotting—in other words, short-term solutions for long-term problems" "While one could argue that the TV rating decline can be attributed to the good weather in the spring in most of the country and people aren't home on Saturday afternoon, how come there was virtually no effect of this on All-American wrestling, which airs on Sundays at noon?" "All the wrestlers are free agents now, so they can jump to anyone without sitting out, since their contracts were violated by the balloon payments not being met." "My impression is that Titan is going to wait for the wrestlers to come to them, since several of them may be forced economically to make the jump, which gives Titan, and not the wrestlers, the advantage in the negotiations. Other wrestlers are talking about working Japan on a regular basis, but it's a real tricky game getting over big enough in Japan to where you can live on that and nothing else." "The television shows have to be completely reformatted. This business of 90 second squashes and trying to get every key guy to do one interview per show has been a failure. The idea of trying to sell a package deal to fans at live shows of "see the NWA" rather than pushing hard a few certain stars has not worked either. You need two or three guys who are pushed heads and shoulders above the rest, not 15 main eventers all of whom get the same general push." "One more thing. Paul Orndorff is still alive. No matter how many denials get printed in the wrestling magazines and bulletins, I still average at least a half-dozen letters weekly telling me that Orndorff died from any one of a half dozen different causes ranging from getting hit with a bowling ball to AIDS" "Robert Gibson quit this past week after getting paid $1,100 for a weeks worth of Bashes. From what I'd heard, Gibson never really wanted to come back in the first place, it was more Ricky Morton's idea. Morton is still in the NWA at this writing, but if he wants to keep the team together, he may not be long for the NWA" "7/18 in Columbus, GA drew 4,200 (largest crowd in three years) for a 5½ hour card which included a TV taping and a David Allan Coe concert. TV bouts were all squashes, with the highlight being the confrontation (which aired on TBS this past weekend) with Midnight Express vs. Arn Anderson & Tully Blanchard. It appears the Midnights are going to be babyfaces in this one, and in fact, in several cities, they are already hearing cheers. That puts Jim Cornette is a tough spot because babyface managers wear out their welcome awfully fast in this business." "It took something like a half hour to put up the scaffold, which went on last, for a match which went less than eight minutes" "McGraw pinned Rip Morgan (who skipped a Japan tour for all this glory)" "7/31 in Detroit drew 7,000 fans to Cobo Arena to see The Sheik....in the big one you've all been waiting for—Dusty & The Sheik vs. Dick Murdoch & Sullivan. This gorefest in the cage went 3:55 with all four juicing at the bell. Dusty pinned Sullivan in what was described as a total DUD match. As soon as it was over, Sheik pulled out an object and went after Dusty with nothing done to set it up during the match, and instantaneously Murdoch turned on Sullivan and saved Dusty. The execution of this wasn't good because it all happened too fast, so we've got the return of the Texas Outlaws in Dusty's never ending search of a gimmick that will get him over as the top babyface in somebody's eyes other than his own" "This Detroit card was one of those with the $50 ringside enabling you to "meet the wrestlers." Be forewarned, those of you in cities this week (tho I guess it's too late since the Bashes will be history by the time most of you read this) that the only wrestlers who even showed up for this thing were Armstrong and Jim Garvin which left 150 very angry fans" "Cable ratings for the second quarter (April, May, June) show Prime Time Wrestling as the No. 4 rated show on cable television with a 3.0 rating in 1,328,000 homes. All American Wrestling is No. 9 with a 2.8 rating in 1,253,000 homes while Crockett's Saturday TBS is No. 11 with a 2.7 rating and the Sunday arena show gets a 2.4 and is in 18th place. Crockett's Miami Mayhem was the fourth highest rated single show during the quarter on cable, trailing only three NBA playoff games on TBS"
Aug 15, 88 "I've gotten official real figures on the NWA PPV event on 7/10 in Baltimore. Officially the thing did a 2.2 percent buy rate and was ordered in 190,000 homes according to TBS sources—which means it was available in around 8.7 million homes (it was cleared in 10 million but in several markets there were problems in the transmission which knocked out areas). The PPV gross was probably in the $3 million range and the take on the show was estimated at between $300,000 and $500,000 for the NWA, which is a disappointment." "We caught up with the NWA's Great American Bash tour twice this past week, attending two very different shows in Las Vegas on 8/4 and in Oakland on 8/6. Both shows were good, although the Las Vegas show was considerably the better of the two. Ironically, the difference in the two shows was more than crowd than the workrate of the wrestlers themselves. Las Vegas only drew around 3,200 fans ($48,000) in the 18,000 seat Thomas & Mack Center, but they were hardcore enthusiastic fans who reacted to everything and the heat was solid in every match and very good in some. Oakland drew just a few seats shy of a complete sellout, nearly 6,000 fans and $98,000 in a building (Kaiser Convention Center) that people don't want to go to" "It was the typical Bay Area crowd, 95 percent male (and I'm not exaggerating on the figure, we counted about 1 in 20 women in the place) and very rowdy for certain wrestlers (Sting and Road Warriors) but not so much into the matches themselves. There were good matches that had little heat. Even at spots in the War Games there was no noise, although the big spots themselves in that match got huge pops. In that way the reactions were similar to a Vince crowd, except the cross-section was completely different as there were almost no kids at all (no surprise since the TV is on locally at midnight to 1 a.m. on Saturday) and it was a mainly rowdy 18-to-35 crowd with very little else around" "I want to make a point somebody mentioned to me last week about Kendall Windham. We all joke about how skinny he is, but in real life, he's the only normal guy in the whole bunch. His legs are huge for a normal person and his upper body is actually normal, but next to all the needle freaks in wrestling he comes off as Twiggy's little brother" "Ron Garvin went to a 15:00 draw with Dick Murdoch. Both men were booed at the beginning since fans didn't know of Murdoch's turn in Detroit" "They even tried to suffocate Tommy Rogers when Bobby Eaton pulled a paper bag out of his cowboy boot and put it over Rogers' head" "Mike Rotunda was scheduled to defend the TV title against Steve Williams, but it was announced Williams wasn't there and out came Kendall Windham to sub. A giant groan fell over the crowd and no heat here for 6:06 until Sullivan spiked Kendall in the groin and out runs Steve Williams in his street clothes and he runs out Rotunda and Sullivan. The official word is the airline lost Williams' wrestling gear" "Arn spent a lot of time making remarks at a girl in the front row which had the heels in stitches for the first few minutes. In fact, Tommy Young was laughing so hard he couldn't referee and had to get out of the ring. J.J. couldn't pretend to manage either" "Sting improves almost every time you see him live and he's certainly the guy the NWA should build the promotion around, because in two years he'll probably be as good a worker as some folks think he already is (some of you will understand what I mean here)" "The best move of the match was Flair's typical flip into the turnbuckle, land on his feet and ran to the other corner. Only we had a scaffold on the apron and as Flair ran to the corner, he went headfirst into the scaffold." "Zbyszko gets good heat for a prelim guy (but lousy heat in a main event situation because later in the card fans demand action while in prelims they just need to get worked up)" "Mike Rotunda kept the TV title going to a double count out with Steve Williams in 16:00. Both guys worked hard and this was a good match in some ways, but the heat wasn't there. What happened was there were several fights in the stands during this match and the wrestlers, no matter how much they brawled, couldn't draw the attention and when the fights ended, the fans weren't into the match. You want to know whether fans truly believe wrestling is real or not—if there is a fight in the stands and the wrestlers pick up chairs (as Rotunda & Williams did here) and go at it, why do the fans all run towards the stands and pay no attention to them swinging chairs at each other in the ring—because if it was real, fighting with chairs is a lot more violent than fighting in the stands. It's because people would rather see real fights than fake fights, and even if they suspend disbelief during the matches, as many do, when confronted with reality, natural instinct takes over and they go with reality" "Don't you hate it when they have a guy like Steiner on the card and all he does is manage?" "At the beginning they were mixed, but the harder the Midnight tried to get booed and the harder The Fantastics worked to get sympathy and cheers, the more the Midnight got cheered and chants of “Fantastics suck" were heard. The high spots were still incredible, but fans weren't reacting to them. This was still a great match, but everyone involved seemed at a loss for what to do because every trick to get the crowd into the match didn't work. But they did pop big when Cornette potatoed Fulton with the tennis racquet or when Eaton used some of his hot moves to decapitate one of the Fantastics" "We tried to make bets on who would win the coin toss, but even laying 100-to-1 odds to the densest looking mark, everyone laughed. They all know. They also knew the finish, where Luger put Dillon in the torture rack." "Most of the cards will have Ric Flair vs. Lex Luger, Barry Windham vs. Sting, Ron Garvin vs. Dusty Rhodes, Midnight Express vs. Tully Blanchard & Arn Anderson as the main things on the agenda and Road Warriors vs. Varsity Club" "From all I've heard, the Midnights vs. Tully & Arn thing seems the hottest of all of them even though you would think Flair vs. Luger should be with all the hype they've aimed at it. It seems most fans realize that if Luger is ever going to win the title, it isn't going to be until a major show and it won't happen in these upcoming matches." "The Fantastics were going to be turned heel but that idea was dropped, since they were going to feud with the Rock & Roll Express (in truth, that would give the NWA a pretty hot and deep line-up for its shows) who are either half-gone (Robert Gibson, who is definitely history) or all the way gone (if you believe Ricky Morton is staying which nobody is really sure about)" "The Sheik will return for one more date on 9/4 in Detroit teaming with Kevin Sullivan against Rhodes & Murdoch. From all accounts, Sheik was an embarrassment at the last show, but they'll use him again since the curiosity factor drew them some money at the last show" "The 7/30 Capital Centre card drew a $157,000 gate so the crowd was probably just over 10,000. My reports indicate it was a very good card and the Triple Tower match (Rhodes-Luger-Sting-Road Warriors vs. Horseman-Sullivan) was a four star match and tons better than the Triple Tower match in Baltimore" "8/3 in Seattle drew a sellout in a 7,500 seat building (sold out days in advance). Ironically, they had wanted to book another building which seats close to 16,000 but got mixed up since one is called the Seattle Center Arena and the other called the Seattle Center Coliseum. Anyway, they turned away 2,500 and the gate was around $110,000" "8/28 in Greensboro has Flair & Ron Garvin vs. Rhodes & Lex Luger on top" "The reason the TBS show this past weekend had such a skeleton crew is so many of the guys missed the show, so they actually put Mike Jackson & Curtis Thompson over in a tag match and let Chris Champion win as well." "One bit of irony from the Vegas show. I was originally going to attend the meet the wrestlers deal, but was hungry and went out with some friends for dinner instead. Anyway, from what I was told, at the very moment the faces walked in the meeting room, they were airing the "Entertainment Tonight" piece on Adrian Adonis in which I was featured which freaked out a few of the faces. If I had shown up, someone else would probably be reporting on a reporter getting decapitated from a dozen stiff clotheslines in a dressing room" "Crockett used some Don Owen guys in Seattle to show they weren't "competing" by running the show in "their" territory but working "with" them" "Titan did stiff in Greensboro for their debut on 8/7 which is a surprise to a lot of people. They had run a show in nearly Winston-Salem just before Wrestlemania and drew a sellout, and this was their Greensboro Coliseum debut and they had Andre vs. Hogan on top but managed just 3,670 fans for basically a pretty bad card" "Morale of the wrestlers is apparently way up from the last time we wrote since Crockett is starting to pay back some of the money he owes the guys in small increments added to the weekly checks"
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Post by Deleted on Mar 2, 2021 23:29:50 GMT -5
Aug 22, 88 "From all reports, the prospective sale of the NWA to Turner Entertainment is closer than ever. The hold-up right now appears to be that Turner's group wants the NWA to clear its outstanding debts before an actual sale takes place. As we've been saying for a while, something major in the organizational structure of the NWA will be changing, because it simply has to change, but what those changes will be is something we can only speculate" "Nobody has officially jumped from the NWA despite the rumors that every single wrestler from Ric Flair to the Italian Stallion is going to and that Vince McMahon and Pat Patterson's phone lines were buzzing all week (just remember an inquiring phone call and a change in jobs are two very different things)" "There was a lot of worrying during the week about the status of Flair, Blanchard and Anderson since all indicated they were history unless a specific change was made, and Crockett basically called their bluff and as you saw on WTBS this weekend, Flair, Anderson and Blanchard aren't history" "What was billed as a Texas Death match between Steve Williams and Arn Anderson ended with Williams the winner in one fall when Anderson was counted out of the ring" "I haven't been contemptuous of Titan's success since the spring of 1985 and the first Wrestlemania. I have often been contemptuous of their wrestling product, which is a very different thing. I was never in Jim Crockett's corner, although I generally enjoy his wrestling product a lot more than Titan's, but again those are two very different things. And I don't think I've ever seriously thought since the summer of 1985 that the national audience would choose Crockett's product over McMahon’s for mass appeal, although I felt at the time Crockett could have been very profitable with a different audience than McMahon's and I fervently believe he would have been to this day if the company would have listened when all the warning signs were given in early 1987, after Crockett himself perceived he was on top of the world after a successful 1986." "I've always stated that it was the media manipulation (which led to the people manipulation and if you look at Titan's success, the media proclaimed a wrestling resurgence several months before there actually was any evidence of one) by Titan which is the prime reason for their success, and Crockett has never even come close to breaking the ice in that very key department, which is why he was destined to be No. 2 all along. However, he could have been an enormously profitable No. 2, which he wasn't." "I don't doubt my criticisms of the NWA have demoralized some of the workers at times, but would anyone have been better served had this newsletter given everyone false optimism and ignored problems that were so evident that every serious wrestling bulletin went over them in detail? I think every reader knows that I personally would like to see the NWA do well, and in fact, I'd like to see every promotion do well, but that isn't the case and ignoring the problems or not printing them won't make the problems non-existent"
Aug 29, 88 "We're coming down to the wire in the prospective sale of the NWA to Turner Entertainment. As of this writing, the deal has not been completed, even though Ted Turner had made Friday some sort of an unofficial deadline for getting these negotiations finished. TBS sources indicated that papers could be signed as early as Monday, but there are still minor hold-ups in the negotiations" "Several of the wrestlers have had meetings scheduled with Jack Petrick of TBS who if/when the sale goes through, will oversee the wrestling operations. Both Ric Flair and Dusty Rhodes had personal meetings with Ted Turner" "If and when TBS takes over, you can expect major changes in the company over a period of 90 to 120 days, particularly in the television product. I'm sure that the first step will be to improve the television ratings and visibility on a national level of both the wrestlers and the product itself" "As the recent PPV card from Baltimore showed, the NWA has a strong following in the Southeastern section of the country and a decent following in the Midwest. It has poor visibility in the Northeast and the West Coast, and in particular, needs a major long-term goal to get the product over in the two major media markets, New York and Los Angeles, before it can be considered truly a company with national appeal by the media" "Steve Williams was arraigned this past Tuesday in federal court in Detroit on charges of attempting to transport three grams of cocaine, 23 grams of marijuana and a smaller quantity of mushrooms across the border to Japan (stemming from an arrest in January). This item did make local press coverage in at least one Detroit newspaper, but I haven't seen any evidence of the story popping up anywhere else. If Williams had been working for Titan, ironically enough, this would have been more heavily covered and McMahon would have probably unloaded him as a p.r. as well as disciplinary move (and brought him back later as with Iron Sheik and Jim Duggan whose arrests made much publicity, whereas arrests of other Titan wrestlers on drug charges which didn’t get press coverage resulted in nobody losing their jobs or getting disciplined)" "The Ric Flair-Lex Luger rematches are over in a big way. The cards in Norfolk, Richmond and Philadelphia over the past week were all just about sold out. I think the gimmick that the match in your city is the "only rematch" between the two is part of the reason this is going over so well. I should also point out something about their ending in Baltimore. Whether I liked the ending or thought the execution of it was good (and there should have been more blood, nobody is denying that point), if the rematches draw, and these rematches are drawing, then it was a successful ending. Case closed on that one. Any thoughts that they pissed off fans with that ending should be forgotten given the gates of the rematches" "Ron Garvin and Tim Horner are no longer here. Garvin quit/was fired over a misunderstanding before the Norfolk card and is rumored to be AWA- bound, especially since the AWA is planning on running lots of shows in the Carolinas using Wahoo McDaniel, Manny Fernandez, Garvin and Robert Gibson as main attractions, all of whom headlined here in recent years. Horner was supposed to do a job for The Masked Maniac (Italian Stallion) in Norfolk as part of an angle plus for footage for the "Learning the Ropes" series (The Masked Maniac is Lyle Alzado's wrestling name and they were to be shooting the match for wrestling footage to put in the TV series). There is talk of him going to Continental although nothing definite on that" "Trent Knight subbed for Horner in the "Learning the Ropes" match against the Masked Maniac, who was a heel since he was managed by Jim Cornette. After the match Tully Blanchard did a run-in and destroyed The Maniac using the slingshot suplex which brought cheers from the crowd." "8/12 in Norfolk drew 9,500 fans and $98,900" "Tully & Arn went to a double DQ against the Midnight Express in a four-star match (fans were about 55-45 pro-Horseman in this match)" "8/19 in Richmond drew 10,500" "8/20 in Philadelphia drew 11,000....Luger beat Flair via DQ when Flair threw Luger over the top rope after a ref bump but the first ref saw it, then a second ref came in and counted as Luger pinned Flair ***" "Simmons got his job back on the spot that opened up when Horner left" "The line-up for the 9/7 Clash of Champions has been changed with Brad Armstrong replacing Horner in the TV title match against Rotunda, and Kevin Sullivan replacing Garvin as Perez' partner against Rhodes & Murdoch" "David Sheldon is learning Russian in order to be more believable in his gimmick. Jack Victory appears to be the favorite for the Russian Assassin #2 spot as Sheldon's tag partner after they make the Ivan Koloff turn" "The AWA pay-per-view show has been moved from early November back to 12/26, which ironically is the date TBS has scheduled to do an NWA PPV show but I'm sure the AWA didn't know about it when they rescheduled their date, so maybe Verne will have to find another excuse to postpone his big announcement another week" "Line of the week, maybe even the month, from Paul E. Dangerously after Ron West threatened to suspend he and Eddie Gilbert for their naughty behavior. "You can suspend us, but we'll just do what everybody else does, we'll come back as the Midnight Rider." Joe Pedicino then retorted that, "It wouldn't surprise me to see Eddie Gilbert do something as low class as come back as the Midnight Rider." "
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Post by Deleted on Mar 4, 2021 3:12:28 GMT -5
Sept 5, 88 "There’s no new news on the negotiations between Turner Entertainment and Jim Crockett Promotions on the NWA sale. The reports I've received indicate the sale was actually closer to fruition one week ago than it is today. There's a lot happening behind-the-scenes in this deal, specifically with several people all vying for eventual power to run the business once a sale is completed. It is pretty well assumed that Dusty Rhodes will remain as booker, should a sale go through, in the early stages of the new company but that Rhodes' effectiveness as booker will be statistically monitored (through gate receipts and TV ratings) and the expectation is that if he doesn't produce, he won't last, which is unlike his current situation in which he's in whether he produces or not" "A few notes on the arraignment of Steve Williams which occurred early last week in Detroit. Williams was arraigned in U.S. District Court in Detroit on a charge of attempting to export cocaine. He had been detained by U.S. customs agents on Jan. 4 when they discovered various drugs in his clothing and luggage as he attempted to board a flight to Tokyo. What was found were three grams of cocaine, 22 grams of marijuana and two grams of Tsilocybin mushrooms as we reported last week. Additionally, agents found assorted barbiturates in a black purse and when they checked his luggage, they found additional barbiturates and marijuana along with 241 steroid tablets and 28 milliliters of injectable steroids" "The NWA gate in Philadelphia last week was $128,000 for Flair vs. Luger, or more than double what Savage vs. DiBiase drew" "Before getting into the news I've got a major complaint and this is the way they handled the Ron Garvin quitting. On TBS this weekend they said Dusty beat him up, and alluded to it being in a street fight and not in the ring and that Garvin had broken ribs and would be out four to six months. That's fine and good if Garvin was going to Puerto Rico or Japan or retiring, but he's going to the AWA and no doubt will be on ESPN within the month. So what good was the lie? They could have ignored his existence like Titan, or even said Dusty beat him and ran him out like they did the Powers of Pain (which at least isn't proveably false), but the Dream had to be a hero for a week and injure the guy so bad he's gone, and look like a fool the next week when he's as good as new working spot shows for the AWA in the Carolinas" "Rumors are flying about the NWA nowadays like you wouldn't believe. There's probably no truth to 90 percent of them and some truth to the other 10 percent, which range from the AWA going to take over the Carolinas, to every major star jumping to Titan, to everyone quitting, etc. These rumors will continue until a sale to Turner is either completed or completely falls apart and there is some stability with the group" "8/26 at the Omni drew 13,700 and more than $100,000 (upper deck tickets were $5)....Luger beat Flair via DQ in 26:30 of their standard match which got over great because lots of first-time fans were in attendance so Flair's predictable spots weren't predictable. After a ref bump, J.J. ran in and Teddy Long ran in but before that Flair threw Lex over the top. Teddy Long counted as Luger pinned Flair however Tommy Young (original ref) ruled a DQ had occurred previously. The first announcement made was that Luger had won the title which popped big-time, and no second announcement of an overruling was actually made to the crowd, which is ridiculous, although Flair did leave with the belt." "8/27 in Charlotte at the new Coliseum drew 16,000" "Midnight Express DDQ Tully & Arn in a fantastic 20 minute match which was the best match in Greensboro all year, five stars (if you think back to the first Clash you'll realize what saying the best match of the year in Greensboro really means)" "They did an angle where Tully & Arn beat up Bobby Eaton in the dressing room while Stan Lane had a match and Cornette was at ringside to firmly try and make the Midnights the babyfaces in the feud. Reaction was still mixed in Greensboro, however"
Sept 12, 88 "It's time for our weekly update on the National Wrestling Alliance and its proposed sale to Turner Entertainment. The rumor mill was truly out of control this week to the point of being ridiculous with the constant stories of half the NWA joining the WWF (the WWF wouldn't even want to add so many new wrestlers at one time, they still haven't even started pushing guys they added in July) and the silliest being that the NWA had folded (a quick phone call to Dallas or Charlotte should have ended that rumor before it got started, but it persisted and spread all week long) with the talent going every which way but loose" "A lot of options have been discussed pending the possibility that no deal is reached. The bottom line of that is Turner's side wants to run a wrestling company and if they start their own company and Crockett Promotions remains in existence, Crockett Promotions will almost certainly be without its most valuable promotional asset, the TBS time slots. In addition, one would think the first talent TBS would approach would be Crockett's major stars, if it gets this far." "The TBS people have been contacted by others floating around the periphery of the business (Global Wrestling, Ole Anderson and probably others I don't know about) to simply start up a new promotion with the idea that all the talent can be had anyway and they don't have to pay the Crockett family millions. Of course, that also means starting a syndication network from scratch and it also means having to build up an audience from scratch, and even though many fans have given up on the NWA (as TV ratings clearly show), they still have a large and loyal audience of core fans. In addition, dropping the Crockett program for a now show, unless they have at least half of the "name" Crockett stars, would result in a public outcry by the wrestling fans, just as the Turner people had to deal with in 1984 when Vince McMahon took over TBS in what appeared to the wrestling fans as a sudden abrupt change (tho it had actually been brewing for several months)" "Although these plans certainly are not definite (and in fact, no NWA "plans” can be considered definite if a sale is completed), the current plan is for Starcade not to be a single event on closed-circuit and pay-per-view as in the past, but instead the NWA is planning a"Starcade week" which would be from the Wednesday night of Thanksgiving weekend through the Sunday night, with cards in five key cities. There will be no closed-circuit or PPV of these shows. I'm not sure of the five cities, but expect Baltimore, Charlotte and Greensboro to be three of them and the Thanksgiving night show is most likely going to emanate from the new Charlotte Coliseum. There may be a videotape released of the "Starcade week" series. The reason for no PPV is because with a PPV event set on 12/26, it seems the NWA doesn't want to push another single event too hard just a month earlier." "9/4 in Detroit drew 7,500....There were several no-shows on the Detroit card, such as Nikita, Morton, Perez besides Horner and Garvin who have left plus The Sheik was a no-show although there were signs in the lobby saying The Sheik wasn't going to appear. Sheik is claiming that he was promised $10,000 for the last shot and wasn't paid at all, although that claim sounds pretty suspicious, at least the promise of 10 grand for one shot. From what I was told, nobody cared about Sheik in the first place" "Ric Flair will be working his first out-date in a long, long time on 9/20 in Portland when he defends the NWA title on a Don Owen card" "Dustin Runnels, the 18-year-old son of Dusty Rhodes, makes his pro wrestling debut this Tuesday for Mike Graham and Gordon Solie's Florida Championship Wrestling promotion under the ring name of Dustin Rhodes. Runnels, 6-foot-4 and 245 pounds, was trained by Scandor Akbar and Akbar is really high on his potential. You have to give Dusty credit for not bringing his son into the big-time right away, before he's ready and making a big deal out of him ala other sons of bookers and promoters who were pushed as main eventers from the start" "Late status of the NWA sale which is right back to square one. TBS has made a deal that Jim Crockett wants to accept, however neither David nor Frances Crockett will accept the deal (because both will be out of the wrestling business should the deal will reached while Jim will be involved with the TBS group)" "NWA drew a near sellout again in Columbus, GA this past week"
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Post by Deleted on Mar 5, 2021 5:07:37 GMT -5
Sept 19, 88
"The biggest item comes just as we are going to press, so complete details aren't available. Last night in Philadelphia (9/10), Tully Blanchard & Arn Anderson officially quit the NWA, as they'd been threatening for most of the past five or six weeks. On their last night, they did drop the NWA tag team titles to the Midnight Express in what apparently was an unplanned title switch as there were no TV cameras present, nor any Apter-mag photographers. While I haven’t been able to officially confirm this, I was given what I'd consider to be reliable info that Blanchard & Anderson will debut for Titan on 10/4 in Fort Wayne, IN which will be a TV taping. Blanchard & Anderson followed up Philadelphia by missing the TV taping in Fayetteville the next afternoon and missing a night-shot in Greensboro"
"The rumors of Blanchard & Anderson leaving had been going hot-and-heavy for quite a while. During the early part of this year, Anderson was making a public appearance for the NWA at a TV syndication convention (I believe it was the NATPE convention although I'm not certain) and Vince McMahon was at the same convention and the two disappeared together over lunch for several hours. From all reports the two had a very amicable meeting and Titan had been interested in Anderson since that point. Blanchard had also wanted to head to Titan, but there was some question all along if Titan would be interested in him since it would appear he doesn't fit their style"
"Blanchard & Anderson had threatened to quit the NWA several times of late—at one point they and another wrestler (My Note: Not sure why Dave doesn't just say Flair's name here since he already said it was him in the Aug 22 issue) gave word they were through unless Dusty Rhodes was replaced, however Jim Crockett failed to replace Rhodes as booker but the wrestlers didn't follow through with their threat to leave—until now"
"Unlike other recent losses such as the Powers of Pain, this loss definitely is a major one for the NWA. Not only because Blanchard & Anderson had been headliners as tag team champions for most of the past year, but also because it destroys the “Four Horseman" gimmick without getting any mileage out of their future break-up feud. The eventual possible/probable Ric Flair to babyface turn would undoubtedly have been done with Blanchard & Anderson having a key role, which is the most important angle the NWA could potentially do to pop business. Now that angle is down the drain, and whatever angle they come up with for a Flair turn (presuming that turn is upcoming, and I believe they would have done it before next spring no matter who owned the company, but now, with a heel shortage, they may be unable to do it) would be weakened"
"Ironically, this jump comes at the same time as the news that the sale of the NWA to Turner Entertainment is just a few steps from completion (I know, you've heard that before, but this time...) Jim Crockett has already agreed to a deal, however his co-stockholders in Crockett promotions, brother David and sister Frances have not yet agreed to terms. The Turner side also wants the Crocketts to clear their several million dollars worth of outstanding debts before the sale is completed. Turner Entertainment will be purchasing the assets of the company, in particular, the contracts of the wrestlers (which may not be valid since Crockett reneged on the balloon payments) and the TV syndication package along with whatever tangible assets like wrestling rings, production equipment and arena contracts. TBS sources indicate the sale is expected to be finalized within two weeks"
"Next week I'm going to break my vow of silence on the subject of "How to save the NWA." "
"The NWA's Fall Brawl did a 5.4 rating and an 8.9 share nationally, which translates into 2,548,000 homes on an average during the two-and-a-half hour special. The show's lead-in, Sanford and Son, did a two rating. The opening match. Brad Armstrong vs. Mike Rotunda, opened with a 3.5 rating and the audience steadily increased throughout the broadcast, culminating in a 6.5 rating for Barry Windham vs. Sting—which translates into 3,068,000 homes or more than 6½ million viewers. This would make it the second highest rated NWA show in history, trailing only the Greensboro Clash of the Champions in March, and not trailing it by much, which is impressive since this card wasn't promoted nearly as strongly as Greensboro, nor was the line-up anywhere near as attractive as Greensboro"
"After the Windham vs. Sting match, the TBS ratings for the first quarter of the Braves vs. Giants game which followed, fell to a 1.5—so around 4½ million viewers turned off their TV or switched stations when the wrestling ended"
"The NWA had better announcing, although you could have turned the sound off and had better announcing than Gino and the Superstar's work at Summer Slam."
"There was much more heat from the crowd in the opener at Fall Brawl than in even the main event at Summer slam. I know several of you won't believe that, but if you watch, it's actually not even close. Actually, the last three minutes of Armstrong vs. Rotunda had twice the heat of anything on either card. Overall, the 3,700 fans in Albany, GA were far more enthusiastic than the 20,000 at Madison Square Garden."
"Some more quick figures before getting into the negatives of the show. The show drew a 12 rating in prime time against network programming in Atlanta. Except for the networks, this was surely the most-watched TV event on Wednesday night and with the possible exception of NFL games on ESPN, will be the highest rated event of any kind on cable this quarter"
"As Ivan Koloff was being destroyed with a chain by Paul Jones & The Russian Assassins, they went to a commercial break. That was bad, but it's been done before. What was inexcusable is them coming back from the break, not letting you know how Ivan did or even acknowledging a predicament just happened let along explaining to the audience how Ivan got out of his rough jam. Even worse, for the remainder of the show, the incident was never acknowledged again"
"The finish of Dusty's match. How can you explain, even in something as ridiculous as pro wrestling, the idea of three men using a chain to pulverize one man in front of the referee without a DQ being called. And then the ref counts as the one man pins a man who wasn't even a participant in the match"
"They never, to my knowledge, mentioned where the show was coming from. If they were that embarrassed of being live from Albany, GA, they should have taped it from some other city."
"Nikita was announced at 137 kilos (which is 301 pounds), which makes him 20 pounds heavier than Doc, who looks to be at least 40 pounds heavier than Nikita. Can't wait for Dusty's "weigh-in." "
"Before this match started we had John Ayres' first interview. He made Steve Williams look like Roddy Piper"
"They doubled on Ivan with a chain and Ivan juiced while the fans chanted "Nikita, Nikita" and we went to the commercial with Ivan in trouble. During the commercial break, who came out but, you got it, Nikita, Nikita, which was one of the biggest pops of the night, and never acknowledged later in the show."
"Windham looked great in carrying Sting, who works hard and has more charisma than anyone in pro wrestling. Sting still has to expand his offensive repertoire for these long matches as he seems not to know enough moves to go long distances without being carried"
"9/10 in Portland had Top Gun vs. Grappler with the winner to get a shot at Ric Flair on 9/20. This is Flair's first "out date" in a long time, and I guess Owen got Flair in on a Tuesday night for "help" since his opposition was scheduled to start on 10/1"
"Crockett lost his TV in San Jose (which serves the entire San Francisco/Oakland market) and Pittsburgh after this past weekend. Other syndication deals are in danger of being lost as well because Crockett is trying to settle his debts by paying 40 cents on the dollar, which doesn't bode well with many of his creditors"
"Midnight vs. Tully & Arn was supposed to be two of three falls but was changed to one fall for no apparent reason, ending when Bobby legdropped Arn off the top ropes at the same time Tully gave Stan the slingshot suplex but ref Tommy Young counted as Bobby made the pin— Bobby & Blanchard were the legal guys, but the title change will hold up because Tully 8. Arn were making their farewell to the NWA "
"9/9 in Houston drew 3,000 which is poor considering it was a loaded line-up"
"9/11 in Greensboro drew 2,500 which is a major disappointment since it was the first Flair-Luger match....Luger beat Flair via DQ in a **1/2 match. Ayres no-showed as ref so they did the famed Greensboro finish where Tommy Young takes a bump, Flair tosses Luger over the top, then Teddy Long comes in and counts as Luger pins Flair and the crowd pops but Tommy overrules it. You’d think the fans would know that finish in their sleep as many times as it’s been done in Greensboro this year"
Sept 26, 88
"While the papers still haven't been signed for the sale of the National Wrestling Alliance to the Turner Broadcasting Company, from all accounts, this is virtually a done deal. The only hold-up from what I'm told is that Jim Crockett has to reach a compromise agreement with Bill Watts for the money still owed in the UWF sale of last April (reportedly in the $3 million range). Reportedly Crockett is trying to settle his debts as between 40¢ and 60¢ on the dollar, so he'll be attempting to make a settlement in the $1.5 million range. Jack Petrick of TBS, who will run the new company, and Crockett, met both Tuesday and Wednesday of this past week to reach their agreement, which will be signed as soon as the lawyers translate their agreements into a contract and Crockett settles the Watts debt, which is expected to be right around the end of the month."
"Crockett has also had some serious talks with Fritz Von Erich, the nature of which have been undisclosed, which has had the rumor mill going out of control. Whatever they will agree to obviously can't be implemented until the new regime takes control of the NWA, but plenty of nervousness abounds."
"While the July Bashes and the first Flair-Luger matches popped good houses in many cities, the TV ratings during the corresponding period didn't pop along with it, so the house show gains were a short-term false high"
"I know that a lot of readers, and I include myself in this category, enjoy the NWA, at least on its good days. But I've enjoyed a lot of things that were not financially viable, and no longer exist, so those of you who disagree that changes should be made aren't looking at the big picture here. If the company isn't financially viable, it will cease to exist, and if it wasn't for Turner seeing financial advantages as far as TV ad revenue and PPV potential, the promotion would probably cease to exist by the end of this year"
"We had babyfaces that the fans didn't like; heels that the fans cheered; declining TV ratings with no change in format; and constant screw job endings which led to declining house show gates, yet to this day, these same endings persist on virtually every major house show. We had all champions being heels, yet never winning any matches. We had babyfaces who never lost, but they never really won, either. We had the same old tired cast constantly rehashed"
"The UWF sale could, and should, have created the most profitable year in JCP's history and made the fall of 1987 the quarter in which JCP "took off." Instead, virtually all the company's problems can be traced to that quarter. The key advice for the new company is to admit that mistakes were made, and not to repeat them"
"Most of the people who head wrestling companies, at least until the McMahon regime, were people who worked in the business. They did things the way they were taught, not because they were the best ways, but because that's how it was done. Let's say a wrestler becomes a booker or promoter, when he was a worker, he was screwed around, stiffed on payoffs, lied to, had the carrot dangled in front on him, etc. So when he becomes the booker or promoter, this is the business that was taught to him, and he becomes the one doing the dangling, lying, etc. because that's how the business operates."
"Titan aims its wrestling at children, and merchandises for children. It's harder to merchandise for adults, and the NWA's prime audience is the male 18-30 demographic group. How about a Lex Luger and Sting home workout video? A video tracing Ric Flair's career over the past 10 years? A two-hour video of legendary NWA matches? Posters, T-shirts and photos should be more readily available to those who don't attend house shows, and the wrestlers should virtually always be wearing or carrying their gimmick merchandise when they do an interview to get the gimmick over."
"Don't fight the fans. If the fans like someone, even though you encourage the fans not to, than take advantage of the charisma of the wrestler. If a wrestler is getting over without a push (case in point, Sting), don't hold them back simply because another guy who isn't getting over as well was in your original plans. Recognize when an act is stale and do something about it. Everyone knows the Road Warriors are stale and it isn't entirely Rhodes' fault, but it is his fault to allow them to get as stale as they have gotten."
"The loss of Blanchard & Anderson should be used to your advantage. After the shows already booked through the early part of October are done, put Midnight Express vs. Flair & Windham and have them vow to eliminate the entire horseman clan"
"Have the Warriors attack Sting, who is the only wrestler popular enough to make a Road Warrior turn effective, and a Warriors vs. Sting & Luger feud for the short term should cause a spark."
"Sometime soon, change the NWA champion, and my suggestion is to give it to Sting and let him run with it and find a killer heel (Vader? Bigelow? Hansen?) for a short run while at the same time grooming Flair/Windham for subsequent bouts."
"Do you realize for all real purposes, Flair will have been champion for seven years by the time you read this? Yes, he is the greatest of this era, and maybe any era, but that is too long. Give Sting the opportunity to see just how far he can go with the right push. And don't forget, Flair has always been tremendous in the role of the totally obsessed challenger. The only reason it didn't draw last year is because they made a horrendous pick as champion."
"Don't repeat finishes in the same arena. If I had my way, there wouldn't be a referee bump for another six months. It's been done so often it's become a cliche. And don't think all those screw job endings in the Carolinas haven't had an effect on the gate. They won't affect the cities you run less frequently because the endings aren't repeated enough for fans to get wise and turned off by them, but I look at those ref bump/false finish endings at just about every Greensboro card and see how drastically the gates have declined and can't help but feel there is a correlation"
"Sting is being announced as making his Japan debut from 10/15 through 10/28 although there is considerable question as to whether that will happen. Sting is one of the few foreign wrestlers who has received good press before his debut from all three weeklies (who often bad-mouth wrestlers the other magazine praises) and Baba is looking at making him a Hansen-calibre superstar but no doubt he's under considerable pressure from the Crocketts not to leave at such a critical point, yet if he doesn't leave, Baba may consider him to be like Steve Williams, who Inoki wanted to push to the top but canceled so many tours due to U.S. pressure that it was felt he wasn't reliable enough to be pushed all the way to the top and he lost his spot to Big Van Vader"
"Not much major news other than the departure of Ricky Morton, which is as expected since he was headed to Japan anyway, which ends the "Rock & Russian Express" tag team with Ivan"
"The reason the Saturday p.m. TBS show didn't air this past week is simply because the Braves had a make-up game and baseball is a higher priority item in their schedule than pro wrestling, even though wrestling still delivers higher ratings"
"I should mention that the Anderson & Blanchard title loss to Midnights in Philadelphia, for the record, the legal men in the ring were Blanchard and Eaton and the pin was counted on Anderson as Eaton pinned him. The ref was counting with both hands and counted to three, apparently counting both teams as pinned, but somehow awarded belts to the Midnights. No TV cameras present for this. I've also been told it was a miracle that the match was four-stars, and it was switched from 2-of-3 to one fall because one of the participants was in simply no condition to be wrestling"
"Karl Kunnert plead guilty of bilking the U.S. Marine Corps at Camp Lejeune, NC out of $3,500 in promising a wrestling card with Ric Flair, Lex Luger, Nikita Koloff and Jimmy Valiant, but never actually contacting Crockett Promotions. Kunnert plead guilty to misdemeanor theft and will be sentenced in federal court later this year"
"Hulk Hogan vs. Andre will be the main event when Titan returns to the Omni in Atlanta on 10/23"
"NWA shows are what they invented the speed-search button for. Actually the shows are better as radio (just listening to the commentary) than actually paying attention to the predictable squashes and half the interviews are good"
"The NWA Saturday TBS show isn't the worst, because it is a professional show with good announcing and some great interviews, but more creativity is needed. It should be "the" wrestling show to watch in the U.S. and the most talked about show, and it isn't close"
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Post by DSR on Mar 5, 2021 14:23:28 GMT -5
The more things change...
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Mar 6, 2021 4:51:59 GMT -5
Oct 3, 88
"All negotiations between Jim Crockett and Fritz Von Erich broke off this past week. Crockett was apparently looking for a deal in which he would take over the World Class TV network and basically take over the promotion and keep the Von Erichs and maybe one or two others, while Fritz was looking for a simple talent exchange (likely so he could promote Ric Flair vs. Kerry matches which drew some huge crowds several years back)"
"Crockett is also attempting to settle his outstanding debts before the official sale of the NWA to Turner Entertainment takes place. He's trying to settle at 40¢ on the dollar according to two different creditors. His largest creditor is Bill Watts, from the purchase of the old Universal Wrestling Federation last spring. Apparently Crockett's offer to settle the outstanding debt (rumored to be in the $3 million range) for less than $1 million didn't go over so well with Watts, who is not only trying to up the price, but also drop the "no-compete" clause in his sale contract"
"Sting won't be appearing for the upcoming series as he's backed off due to pressure from the NWA which can't afford to lose him in late October. Supposedly he'll now make his Japan debut in January"
"The biggest news is that Bam Bam Bigelow will debut on the 9/27 TV tapings in Columbus, GA as a babyface managed by Sir Oliver Humperdink. Although this act didn't work with Titan and seems a natural heel act and this area needs new top of the line heels it is being done because. I still can't figure out why they are bringing in Bigelow this week, since he leaves for Japan a week later and will be gone a month, but I guess Humperdink will be around while Bigelow is in Japan to help keep his momentum going"
"From the Road Warriors interview which aired on TV this past weekend, the Warriors' heel turn seems imminent. Details of how this will be done may not have been finalized although attacking their 6-man partner. Dusty Rhodes and leading to a Rhodes tag team with Bigelow against them seems a distinct possibility."
"9/18 in Roanoke drew 3,200....Lex Luger beat Ric Flair via DQ with the two-referee finish with Tommy Young and Teddy Long that they've been having everywhere (supposedly an awful lot of fans didn't pop for the ending this time as they've seen or heard about it too often)"
"9/3 in Baltimore drew 11,000 fans and $125,000....Luger beat Flair via DQ with the same finish you've been reading about"
"Brad Armstrong has missed several shows, although I've heard no "official" word he's CWF-bound"
"9/25 at the Omni drew 6,700....Midnights beat Fantastics when Lane pinned Rogers including a 2:30 spurt of choreography that was beyond belief. The ring was littered with eggs thrown by fans which held up the start of the match for several minutes"
Oct 12, 88
"RUMOR: Lex Luger has left the NWA and is headed to the WWF/Japan....FACT: Luger was still in the NWA as recently as this past Sunday night (they had Monday off and were to resume with television tapings tonight) and although he is making noises about wanting some sort of a show of good faith from the new organization and threats I'm sure have been made, he's still in the NWA"
"RUMOR: Ric Flair is leaving the NWA and is already listed on the WWF booking sheets....FACT: Ric Flair is not listed on any WWF booking sheets. Rumors of Flair leaving will persist until when/if he ever decides to join Titan, although with the NWA in financial disarray and with Tully Blanchard & Arn Anderson starting up this week, the rumors have been stronger than ever."
"As I've written before on this subject, nobody (with the exception of David Crockett) going from the NWA to the WWF would be a surprise, but at the same time, until someone has actually made the move, you have to go on the assumption that they are where they are today"
"I do know that the NWA wasn't sold to TBS this past Friday, which everyone said was the signing date. I then heard the deal was inked on Monday but that TBS would be purchasing only 65 percent of the company with an option to purchase the remaining 35 percent, although I've been unable to get any confirmation of this story. I do know that on the previous Wednesday or Thursday (when the weekend TBS show was taped), that the wrestlers all received documents to sign that would transfer their contract responsibility from the Crocketts to TBS. Supposedly, no contracts will be renegotiated by TBS until May 1, and if the deal is completed, there will be a short period, probably until the end of the year, in which only a few minor changes will be noticeable (probably only on the Saturday TBS show) but come the first four months of 1989, that changes will be very noticeable"
"TBS also was talking about getting four key wrestlers from the WWF before the end of the year, although two of the four talked about actually had already left Titan (Bam Bam Bigelow and Ricky Steamboat) and the other two (One Man Gang and Greg Valentine) would have been of very little value....Gang is now out, since he's going to get a push in a money role with Titan as "Akeem" (I've yet to see the skits but the majority of those I speak with indicate this isn't going to make it) while Valentine will be offered a key spot, which I believe would be a major mistake."
"There have also been negotiations to bring Eddie Gilbert back in, although with all the managers the NWA now has, I'm not as certain they'd want Paul E. Dangerously (if that's the case, that would also be a mistake)"
"I was in Chicago on 10/2, partially to see the Bears game but also for the NWA show that night which turned out to be a lot better than the line-up would indicate, at least as far as working goes. The crowd was between 5,000 and 5,500 with a $65,000 gate"
"Midnight Express kept the NWA tag team titles going to a 30 minute draw against Dick Murdoch & Dusty Rhodes. This was the best match on the card although I still can't figure out how they pulled it off. The fans cheered Midnight completely when they came out, but switched when they saw Dusty as the opponents (well, most switched although Midnight still had a solid core of fans)"
"Ric Flair and Lex Luger went 21:00 to their typical match....This was a very good match, but totally predictable with the same ref bump, false pin, announcement of a new champion and Tommy Young reversal finish that everyone has seen too many times. I will say this much. The crowd popped like crazy for the finish. After the bout was over, a reader came up to me and said how this was the finish that "killed the town" (referring to Starcade in the Road Warriors vs. Tully & Arn match and that Chicago, which had been drawing huge houses monthly in '87 and had struggled most of the year since then) and now that they finally are getting some momentum back, they go right back and make the same mistake"
"I don't have this info confirmed yet, but was told that the five shows over Thanksgiving week will now be called "Battlestar week" instead of Starcade week, and that Starcade will be the PPV show (instead of the Bunkhouse Stampede which had been scheduled for the PPV) on 12/26 from Norfolk"
"Late word just as I'm typing this up, the NWA sale has not been finalized nor inked as of Wednesday afternoon according to TBS but it's very close. I think the clearing the debts remains a major hold-up plus there are a few lawsuits out against the Crocketts and the NWA that the TBS folks I'm sure want cleared up before taking over the company"
"A few years back. Savage would wrestle like Ric Flair one night and JYD the next. He was talented, but inconsistent whereas Flair, at least through the middle of '87, wrestled a match of the year five of seven nights each week"
Oct 24, 88
"Just to clear up on the latest on the Turner acquisition of the NWA, we've heard two stories. One story is the deal was made about two weeks back and the Turner folks will take over control of the new company on Nov. 1, and the other story, and the one I tend to believe is the deal was expected to be officially signed this week (haven't we heard that one before?) but the take-over would be on the 1st of the month. Sources who should know have told me flat out that no official signatures on any contracts have been signed although everyone is’ consistent with the story that the deal has been agreed to and terms have been agreed to. Apparently the hold-up, if there is a legitimate hold-up, has to do with Crockett clearing his outstanding debts and I do know that he's trying to clear his debts on a 40C to the dollar owed basis and that a great many of his creditors are not satisfied with that"
"It does appear that 1989 will be the year that the wrestling business kills the golden goose of PPV through oversaturation, since Titan is planning four PPV events next year, as is Turner, and the AWA/World Class/CWA group is talking of definitely running a follow-up PPV event in February"
"Chaos reigns in the NWA right now. The biggest story is the Road Warriors' heel turn on 10/7 in Richmond. They are trying to tease this event for two reasons: 1) It is their belief that by teasing the event before it is actually aired that it will build up the impact of the event when it airs and also increase TV ratings--which desperately need an increase; and 2) The Road Warriors have matches as babyfaces scheduled through the end of the month so, like Titan would do, they don't want to air the turn until the matches with them as faces have been completed"
"The turn was alluded to on the TBS a.m. show with the promise it would be explained on the p.m. show with a film clip. Then on the p.m. show they teased it for two straight hours saying they were "trying" to talk with the Warriors and Dusty (I'm not sure what his involvement in this angle is supposed to be other than the current "plan" is for the Roadies to wrestle Dusty & Bigelow at Starrcade) but never did and the only thing they did was continually hint that something happened between the Warriors and Sting, and at the end of the show they did air a clip of Sting going out on the stretcher and promised to air the full clip next week. I'm not certain if the entire clip will air on this coming weekends show or if they'll tease it for another week and air it on 10/29"
"If the Warriors vs. Luger & Sting doesn't draw, the official end of the Warriors era may be just, around the corner because there isn't much left that can be done with them"
"What could have been a major public relations coup for the NWA is that in the syndicated TV ratings for 9/11, for the first time since these ratings have been around, the NWA network actually beat out the WWF network, with the NWA drawing a 7.8 rating on 150 stations and the WWF, on 249 stations, drew just a 7.5 rating (each rating point equals approximately 890,000 homes). But that week came and went and things were back to normal the next week. The reason the NWA's numbers were so high is that was the week of the Clash of the Champions special from Albany, GA—which accounted for 2.7 national ratings points making a rather poor 5.1 national rating Look like a very impressive 7.8."
"I'm told the Flair-Top Gun match on 9/20 also went 30 minutes with them doing the false pin ref bump over the top DQ finish. They had real problems because the commission wanted Flair to take a physical before letting him wrestle. Flair brought in a physicians report however it didn't have results of a drug test (the commission in Oregon requires a drug test) and they actually had to take Flair to a local hospital and gave him a drug test, which he passed, before they would let him wrestle his main event match and they had to stall the card quite a while for Flair to return"
"First off, the returning superstar they alluded to on TV a few weeks ago was supposed to be Ricky Steamboat, but they've dropped even hinting at it of late. The last word I have is that they want Flair vs. Steamboat to headline Starcade (12/26 in Norfolk) and Steamboat has been given an incredible deal (or offered, there is a big difference) but thus far hasn't accepted. The negotiations were for one show only and then they would talk later about doing a few shows in 1989 in rematches"
"My expectation is the company will run as is after the take-over with only some minor decision making changes (such as the Turner group suggesting and moving Starcade to 12/26 instead of the Bunkhouse Stampede which was Dusty's idea) until the new year. At that point I expect everything to change in a major way"
"Greg Valentine's name is constantly mentioned as a new Horseman but my guess is he's using it simply as a negotiating tool for Titan. Even if he did agree to come, my belief is it would be a major mistake to put him in a money position"
"Eddie Gilbert is in as a prelim babyface and will be teaming with Jimmy Garvin when he returns in a few weeks"
"Paul E. Dangerously and Dennis Condrey & Randy Rose are about 80 percent certain to be starting up in two or three weeks which would make Jim Cornette and his team into full-fledged babyfaces and they would do a Midnight Express vs. Midnight Express feud. This should work because of the managers. Even though Condrey isn't the type who gets over today, my belief is fans remember him and his stuff vs. Eaton will get over. Rose, on the other hand, is out of his league with a national promotion but I guess can be hidden with Dangerously & Condrey"
"John Studd, Tommy Rich and Bob Orton have all either been called or have opened negotiations about coming in once Turner takes over"
"I'm all for changing the TV shows from self-contained episodes to a soap opera type format but this bit where on the a.m. show they promised showing the tape of the Warrior angle, then hinting through two hours on the p.m. show about it and then said they won't be showing it until next week is not a positive step. That only serves to turn off the audience, just as leaving the matches in progress at the end of the show does"
"10/15 in Philadelphia drew 4,418 ($61,087) which isn't that bad since neither Flair nor Luger were on the card (Luger got the night off while Flair was attending his 20th year high school reunion in Minnesota)"
"Steiner beat Flair via DQ in a great match with tremendous heat. It was scheduled as Luger vs Flair, and Luger has not jumped but he is legitimately suffering from conjunctivitis, a very contagious eye intention. He could have actually wrestled but they didn’t want to risk the disease, which is clearing up, spreading to referee Tommy Young or to Flair, so he'll be sitting it out a few more days"
"If I haven't mentioned it, or if you've been on another planet the last three weeks, Steiner is the only hot thing in the NWA right now because everyone else is either stale or in a state of role confusion. The turn should take place imminently but for some reason the guy is really over and it reminds me of Jim Duggan just after he turned in Mid South. I hope they don't bury him with middle-of-the-card feuds (which right now it looks like is what will happen) because he'll wind up meaning as much as everyone on the middle of the cards"
"10/7 Richmond TV tapings where the Warriors made the turn drew a paltry $14,000 house (smallest in a LONG time) with the six-man with the turn, plus Zbyszko beat Stallion (horrible), Russian Assassins beat Koloffs via DQ (decent), and with Sting injured as he was supposed to be in the main event, Flair & Windham beat Luger & Simmons using the figure four"
"10/6 in Raleigh drew 700"
"The TBS taping that aired this weekend was from Fayetteville on 10/11 and only drew 300 fans with Road Warriors vs. Midnight on top. The night before in Greenville drew just a $6,300 gate however Charlotte on 10/9 drew in the $60,000 range"
"The Thanksgiving week cards will mainly be headlined by Flair vs. Bigelow (which isn't over because Bigelow isn't a babyface), Windham vs. Dusty and Road Warriors vs. Sting & Luger (which is the match which has to draw the house"
"I suppose the Rider vs. Tully was the worst feud because so much emphasis was put on it, it was aborted so quickly, and they used Magnum T.A. to get the angle over which should have made it work. Then again, this was the year we had Dusty Rhodes vs. Larry Zbyszko with the mysterious pictures from Baby Doll or Kevin Sullivan vs. Jimmy Garvin with the mysterious letter and hypnosis and an angle which nobody could begin to understand."
Oct 31, 88
"The soap-opera like story of the negotiations between Turner Entertainment and Jim Crockett Promotions was just about finalized Friday afternoon as the contracts between the two for the sale of the NWA were signed. Officially, the money will change hands for the purchase on 11/1 and Turner will take over the control of the NWA the next day"
"In theory, there should be a short-term improvement for two reasons. The first is, the worries about getting paid that the wrestlers have had should be alleviated because one would think TBS didn't buy a wrestling company with the idea of letting it fall apart without a major effort at salvaging it, so therefore they should be pretty intent at holding onto the key talent they can build around, specifically Ric Flair, Sting, Lex Luger, Barry Windham, etc. The second reason why their should be short-term improvement is the company has to peak its angles for the 12/26 PPV show from Norfolk, plus, one would think, Dusty Rhodes is somewhat on the hot seat as a booker to produce and whether his booking will be the best thing long run or not, you have to expect some major league hot-shotting over the next two months"
"I've had the chance this past week to see two episodes of "Learning the Ropes, the syndicated TV show that Jim Crockett is involved with and that several of the NWA wrestlers have roles in....already the show has featured guys like Ricky Morton and Tully Blanchard who are working for other organizations. In a bizarre coincidence, this week's show featured Jimmy Garvin getting "injured" by the Masked Maniac (the masked wrestler, Italian Stallion does the stunts played by Lyle Alzado who has the lead role in the show as a school teacher who moonlights as a wrestler). The show aired at the same time Garvin is legitimately out of action with an injury"
"I got to see the Road Warrior turn angle from the syndicated show over the weekend and personally thought it was tremendous. I'm not sure what could have been done to improve it, as the match told the story it was supposed to and the execution was solid from four of the six guys (Sting was never in the ring and Sullivan isn't the calibre of worker as the rest of the guys). They did a great job of "destroying" Sting at the end, especially the way Sting sold that clothesline off the top rope as he flipped all the way over and landed on his knees"
"Considering the timing, it probably would have been better to allow Sting to go to Japan and have him make a "surprise" return at the beginning of the month in the grudge matches and do the scenario of him being "in the hospital" each week and showing slight improvements, but then again, that would get him over even more and from the interviews it's obvious Sting is being portrayed as the messenger boy and the "real" angle is with Dusty Rhodes"
"You have to figure right about now that Dusty is going to position himself stronger than ever before, because his "job" for what's good for Dusty is to position himself so strong that he convinces the TBS brass that he's indispensable if the time comes to make a change. Road Warriors vs. Rhodes & Bam Bam Bigelow will be the main event for Starcade which leaves Ric Flair most likely against Lex Luger and Barry Windham against Sting as the co-features as I'm told negotiations with Ricky Steamboat are dead"
"Paul E. Dangerously and his Midnight Express of Dennis Condrey & Randy Rose officially signed up here and will debut on 11/1 and make their first TBS appearance the following Saturday. The team will feud with Jim Cornette's Midnight Express but the first meeting between the two teams won't be until the PPV show with Cornette's team as the babyfaces"
"Steve Williams will be announced this weekend as the new member of the Varsity Club while the Rick Steiner turn still appears to be two weeks away. The latter one is getting over like crazy, but that and the Road Warrior angle appear to be about the only things that are"
"They had better give Sting a title soon because he's about to lose some steam because he won't be coming out looking strong in the Warriors vs. Sting & Luger feud which I assume won't have finishes anywhere"
"All the wrestlers, with the exception of Ric Flair, have been told to move to Atlanta as of the 1st of the month although I don’t expect a mass migration that quickly"
"10/21 drew just 1,300 to Cobo Arena in Detroit"
"Morale on the road hasn't improved with the bad houses but perhaps the sale will see a change for the better"
"The official word Monday morning from both TBS and the Crockett organization is that the sale has not been completed as of yet. I don't know if that means the "official" sale doesn't take place until the money changes hands on the 1st or if the contracts weren't actually signed on Friday. Stay tuned next week for another episode of "One Life to Live." "
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Post by Deleted on Mar 7, 2021 6:16:11 GMT -5
Nov 7, 88 "The deal is done. The ink has dried. The biggest soap opera of the year story in wrestling is over. And now the real soap opera story has just begun. The National Wrestling Alliance is now owned by Ted Turner, effective on the Tuesday before you read this. And we are starting a new era in the story of professional wrestling, post-1984" "TBS purchased the NWA in spite of all the outstanding debts. The largest creditor, Bill Watts, from the UWF purchase last April, has not agreed to a settlement, and there are several other large creditors and at least two lawsuits that have been filed of late regarding those debts" "Titan on 10/28 in Greensboro drew 2,000" "Chaos reigns here as everyone is uncertain of their status come take-over time. Jim Crockett will be in charge this coming month and attempt to run as cost-efficient a month as possible in an attempt to save his job. Crockett will have a job with the new group, but all indications are it will be one with limited, if any, power. Dusty Rhodes' future is solid through the end of the year, but before they dump him, they better have a replacement picked out" "Nothing official has been set for Starrcade on 12/26 in Norfolk, VA, but it looks to be something like this: Flair vs. Luger for the title, Rhodes & Bigelow vs. Road Warriors for the NWA tag titles, Windham vs. Sting for U.S. title, Midnight vs. Original Midnight, Russian Assassins vs. Koloffs, Fantastics vs. Sheepherders and some kind of a mix regarding faces Eddie Gilbert, Ron Simmons, Rick Steiner and/or Jimmy Garvin (if he's ready to go by then) against Mike Rotunda, Kevin Sullivan and new heel Steve Williams" "The big story revolves around Ric Flair. There were major problems early in the week between Flair, Dusty Rhodes and Jim Crockett which caused Flair to no-show in one or two cities (this past Monday for sure, and maybe Tuesday, I'm not clear about that) but I'm told they've been resolved, or at least the tensions have cooled off. Flair came as close to quitting as he ever had and basically decided he was tired of the way he was being used as World champion and wanted real finishes and real opponents. When Flair came back, his scheduled singles main events against Lex Luger in Little Rock, Jackson, MS and Baton Rouge were changed to tag matches (Flair & Al Perez vs. Luger & Nikita Koloff with Perez doing the job) because Flair refused to do the same finish he's been doing with Luger in all the arenas of late" "Flair also refused to work this month against Bam Bam Bigelow in title matches, so all those bouts scheduled have been changed to tag team matches with Flair & Windham vs. Dusty & Bigelow, which doubly makes Dusty mad because now Dusty doesn't get his singles match against Windham, either. From all accounts, Flair didn't want to "put over" Bigelow because he didn't think it would be good for himself, the NWA title or the NWA itself for him to put over a guy who worked the middle of the cards and didn't get over in the WWF, plus Bigelow hadn't "earned" the shot and there was fear Bigelow might leave in the middle of the program after making Flair look bad because of the way the finish would certainly be, nor was Bigelow the slightest bit over to NWA fans" "So now the Battlestar week cards (Thanksgiving weekend) will have the World champion in tag matches every night, except 11/23 in Baltimore where Flair wrestles Rick Steiner" "Dusty Rhodes (who had Steiner in his corner despite the fact Steiner hadn't turned yet, although it did help get Dusty over since Steiner is the hottest wrestler in the NWA right now) beat Kevin Sullivan when Steiner interfered" "10/29 in New Orleans drew $37,000 headlined by Luger beating Flair via DQ. The Road Warriors finally won the NWA tag titles beating Midnight Express (this will air on Saturday on TBS). By the way, the Warriors were booed by nearly 100 percent of the crowd which surprised everyone, because even the most optimistic in JCP felt Warriors would be cheered by nearly half the crowd no matter who they were against, particularly with Midnight who nobody knows if they are heels or faces" "I thought Sting & Luger did a bad job of getting over the Warrior feud on TBS this weekend. They spent too much time talking about the Warriors turning on the fans and didn't get enough intensity over nor were convincing that they were the one team who could beat the Warriors, which is what they needed to do" "Even though Steiner is the hottest guy in the NWA today, what happens when he turns (which has to be in the next week or two)?" "When the incident with Steve Williams went public, Crockett either fired Williams, or was just about to and reconsidered. This is a touchy subject but you have to look at wrestlers as human beings, not just as some role model to uphold for children, because frankly, there are few people in this world who can be made role models and have that status hold up to legitimate scrutiny, because people are imperfect. I was against Titan firing Duggan and Sheik, because they did it simply for p.r. reasons and others who had done a whole lot worse were never reprimanded similarly because their incidents never made the national wires (some even went reported locally but those individuals kept their jobs, including several bigger names than Duggan and Sheik)"
Nov 14, 88 "TBS held a press conference mid-week to officially announce its purchase of Jim Crockett Promotions with no info revealed that hasn't already been printed here. Jack Petrik was announced as the President of the new Universal Wrestling Corporation (UWC) with Jim Crockett as the Vice President" "The Sunday Main Event show picked out two matches which had no business airing at the time. The first had an old Sting vs. Mike Rotunda match ending with Rick Steiner doing a very heelish run-in which shouldn't be aired since Steiner has already turned in some cities and is about to turn on a national basis in two weeks or so. The second was a Midnight Express vs. Warrior Animal & Paul Ellering match with the Warrior team as the faces, which has no business airing when they are trying to get both teams over in their new roles" "Another gaffe was when Mike Rotunda killed Rick Steiner's pet fly Spike on the morning show, but Spike was alive doing stupid animal tricks on the afternoon show (in reality, the afternoon show is taped before the morning show but they air in a different order)" "By the way, I am amazed just how effectively the Warriors are doing the heel bit. I'm sure in some cities they'll still be cheered by a sizable percentage, but they are doing a great job as heels thus far. I also thought Dusty Rhodes did one of his best interviews around, although that line about not having a steroid in my body must have caused a lot of in-house heat" "Rick Steiner won't turn next weekend either, but he's booked against Sullivan's crew all Thanksgiving weekend so it has to come soon" "Flair is wielding an awful lot of behind-the-scenes power and most feel if another confrontation takes place or power struggle with Flair and Rhodes that TBS will back Flair, unlike Jim Crockett, who always backed Rhodes, which is a key reason why Anderson, Blanchard and others are no longer with the company" "Steiner and Sullivan are doing an Abbott & Costello act that is the highlight of most TV shows"
Nov 21, 88 "All Japan is trying to bring in Ric Flair and Barry Windham early next year" "Jack Petrik of TBS met with Baba last month and they talked about bringing Tenryu into the U.S. for major cards, although Tenryu wouldn't get over to U.S. fans. Of the All Japan guys, the best chance for someone to get over is Tiger Mask, but only if lots of tapes of his flying stuff airs because the fans won't react to anyone "cold" anymore" "Rick Steiner turned at the TV taping in Greenwood, SC on 11/9 although I don't know the details other than I believe he was attacked by Steve Williams, Kevin Sullivan and Mike Rotunda" "I believe Jim Crockett and Bill Watts did reach a settlement on the money owed but that isn't confirmed" "Morale here is horrible since there seems to be no direction the angles are headed. For example, Cornette's Midnight Express are hot babyfaces on television, but they are still working as heels in the arenas until the last week of the month" "Managers won't be traveling to towns as much. Actually some managers will travel all the time, and some part of the time. The good ones will be part of the time and the bad ones look like all of the time, which if it sounds like backwards logic, it is more like a positioning game before the axe falls" "I can’t reveal much right now about some of the new things that will happen, but on the surface it appears things are going to get worse before they get better. The new regime will start in January and the present plan is to have Dusty Rhodes as a key part of it, although in theory his power will be reduced come the new year but he'll still be a powerful force and Ric Flair's title reign is in some jeopardy at Starcade" "Steve Williams did one of the most incredible interviews (as in not one sentence made any sense) from Japan which aired on NWA Pro last week. Actually it was quite entertaining" "The Syndicated TV has been taped through the end of the month and the only match officially announced for Starcade is the Midnight vs. Midnight match. I assume Flair vs. Luger will be on top but nothing is decided for certain as of the last word I’ve heard" "What draws crowds are good heels, good faces and good promotion. Hogan drew great crowds with subpar heels when the promotion was hot, although he is the exception to the general rule. Good heels with faces nobody cares about won't draw, nor will good heels and good faces with bad promotion" "The prime reason the public sees the NWA as second fiddle is because its TV production looks so poor in comparison, and secondly. Titan has so many more big-names on its roster. The NWA doesn't have the income base to support a roster of 80 or so wrestlers, nor to spend $250,000 on television every three weeks. So it is a catch-22 situation" "Getting into a bidding war unless you are going after the few folks with Titan who can 1) either help you because they can fit in with your product, and these people are not worth to the company spending outrageous money for because there is no PR nor significant box office value to them; or 2) Are top stars with Titan, such as Hogan, Warrior, and Savage and nobody else, who would be worth the money (except Warrior would probably never fit in) would be foolish spending. And the odds the NWA can get Hogan or Savage are so minute and would result in lawsuits back and forth, which is, of course, the same pattern every "smaller league" had to go through to gain national attention." "I still think the NWA deserves blame for not acknowledging Brody's death on TBS, even though he didn't work for them and hadn't worked for the Crocketts in five years, they are still the "wrestling" show and Brody was one of the leading wrestlers in the country"
Nov 28, 88 "The 12/7 Clash of Champions from Chattanooga has to have one match changed as they were going to put the U.S. tag team title finals between The Fantastics and Sheepherders on that card, however the Sheeps have departed for Titan (where they will work as the new babyface team called the Bushwhackers and feud with the Bolsheviks in the spot left vacant by the Bulldogs heading back home) so there is no word yet on what they will do about the finals of a tournament they've had on TV when one of the finalists have disappeared— and just after they spent all that energy creating that neat visual aid" "With five weeks to go, Starrcade had a week of disarray and changes having to do with the top of the card. First off, starting at the bottom, the only matches that will be announced as of this weekend are The Fantastics vs. Sheepherders with the flag vs. flag stipulations but with the Sheeps history, so is the match and it has already been announced on TV this weekend and will be announced once again next weekend. Also announced is Midnight Express vs. Original Midnight Express which won't be changed if it can be helped" "The top of the card which Dusty Rhodes came up with had Ric Flair vs. Rick Steiner for the NWA title on top. Road Warriors vs. Sting & Lex Luger and Barry Windham vs. Dusty for the U.S. title as the feature matches. I have to carefully tread on this story, but this past Monday afternoon, Ric Flair had a meeting at TBS and was informed of his match and of the finish. Flair stormed out of the meeting, missed the TBS TV tapings that night, and for a 24-hour period it was touch-and-go whether he'd finally go to Titan since he's been talking of late about the matches he could have with Randy Savage (although he doesn't realize what he'd have to give up to have them, basically his wrestling dignity, and those matches would never live up to expectations because they wouldn't be given the time). Well, Jack Petrik of TBS has learned more about the wrestling business over the past seven days then most learn in a year and by Tuesday talked Flair into staying" "At that point the main event was Flair vs. Luger with the two matches underneath uncertain, but that was the deal made between Petrik and Flair, with Rhodes not involved in the decision-making. Rhodes was furious, as you can imagine and he and Jim Crockett tried to explain to Petrik various reasons why the scenario he had wouldn't work (I can't go into details because it would give away a possible finish) and tried to talk Petrik back into seeing things their way, and then failing, tried to talk him into switching the main event to Flair vs. "that Jap" (Genichiro Tenryu, who Flair himself wanted to wrestle despite the fact it would have no box office impact because he wanted a great, stiff, realistic match). Later Crockett dispatched Jim Barnett to convince Flair to see things Dusty's way on Thursday, but the last word I have is that it will be Flair vs. Luger on top" "The story doesn't end here, because this weekend has been full of turmoil and disaster for the NWA. There have been several no-shows each night, finishing off with a near-record 12 no-shows tonight in Chicago (if you include managers). Most importantly, Dusty Rhodes missed all three major cards this weekend and it isn't clear to anyone as to why, whether the pressure of being accountable and not having 100 percent carte blanche when it comes to booking is taking its toll or whether its a protest for being overruled or whether it is something else" "Friday night at the DC Armory in Washington, Rhodes was scheduled to wrestle Flair for the title on top and no-showed without leaving any word. They waited until 8 p.m., the show's starting time, for his arrival and since he gives finishes, had nothing worked out for the card. When he didn't arrive, Kevin Sullivan and Gary Juster had to frantically put together a replacement card and work out match finishes and actually completed the show with very few mishaps" "Then came Sunday night in Chicago and check out the list of no-shows: Stan Lane & Bobby Eaton and manager Jim Cornette (Cornette was advertised but wasn't scheduled to go there because of the decision not to send the managers on the road in many situations to save travel costs); Dusty himself; Bam Bam Bigelow (who got fed up with the way the organization was being run the previous night in Philadelphia but is still with the group and only missed the show); Fantastics and Sheepherders (since Sheeps quit and Fantastics had nobody to work with), Paul E. Dangerously (although his team was there, same story about managers), Paul Jones (ditto) and J.J. Dillon and Oliver Humperdink" "Even at this Wednesday's kick-off to Battlestar Week in Baltimore, the promotion's hottest city, they don't have Cornette and Dangerously on the show. The story I got is that when TBS heard all this about managers advertised in promos not showing up they were "very upset" because they want to run a first-class operation and just for practical business reasons, no-shows hurt the town's future gates worse than almost anything you can think of" "Another major problem on the scene is that since the wrestlers were ordered to move to Atlanta by 11/1, all air reservations were bought from the Atlanta airport. This meant those who hadn't relocated to Atlanta, like those who stayed in Charlotte (many of them did) would have to drive to Atlanta to catch their plane to wherever (something like a six hour drive) and drive home from Atlanta. Some did the drive and others paid out-of-pocket to purchase their own plane tickets out of Charlotte. Apparently Steve Williams has a similar problem living in Shreveport and his deal when he joined the NWA was they would fly his leg from Shreveport to Dallas and then Dallas to wherever" "At press time the Dusty Rhodes situation remains up in the air although my own speculation is that he's already cooked his goose by his actions of the past week and also that he knows it already. There still has been no explanation for his missing the entire weekend. The real story behind this in my mind is that there has been a major power play going on behind-the-scenes (actually there have been dozens of power plays most likely) between Rhodes and Ric Flair. One day Flair woke up and realized how much he had allowed both himself and the title to be abused and also realized just how little the title meant to the casual fans because of the cheap way the champion had been portrayed, particularly over the past year with all the ref bump DQ finishes. Flair refused to do those finishes, particularly with Lex Luger, and Rhodes and Crockett tried to paint Flair as a prima donna and not a team player to Petrik" "There was also a clause in the deal that gave Flair unprecedented power for a World champion and Rhodes and Crockett were upset Flair was given that type of power and Rhodes felt Flair went "behind his back" in negotiating the contract and getting that certain power. In response, Rhodes only booked Flair for five shows the entire month of December and attempted to get the title from him at Starrcade, but it appears the entire situation backfired on him" "Rhodes also had planned to bring his son Dustin (18-years-old) in along with Kendall Windham as the Texas Broncos tag team and give them a decent babyface push, and his timing in doing so couldn't have been worse" "Besides the Sheepherders, also quitting this past week was Jim Garvin who worked this past Wednesday night for Nelson Royal's new Carolina independent which will employ some of the former front office workers Crockett employed out of the Charlotte Office which will be closed. Garvin is expected to wind up working for Jarrett in Texas as a tag team partner of Michael Hayes" "11/20 in Chicago drew a $52,000 house (4,500)....Sting & Luger double count out Road Warriors in a match with little selling but great crowd response. Sting & Luger got a 50-50 reaction at the opening but were booed during the match while Roadies were 70-30 positive and the Warriors worked the match like they were the faces as well" "I forgot to mention a tag team debuted on the a.m. TBS show this past weekend called The Commandos (Ray Candy & Grizzly Boone) but I expect we won't be seeing them for long" "The NWA wrestlers all received their balloon payment checks from Crockett this week, but only received 40¢ for each dollar owed. Best estimate is that one major NWA star will wind up out around $120,000"
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Post by Deleted on Mar 8, 2021 4:26:54 GMT -5
Dec 5, 88 "The daily soap opera, "The Young and the Wrestless," continued this week involving the National Wrestling Alliance. After missing the entire weekend with what is now known in wrestling terminology as the "Dusty flu,” we got the word that the Dream was in hot water. In fact, Jim Crockett was ordered to replace Dusty Rhodes as NWA booker. Since Crockett knows that with the exception of Rhodes himself, there is only one person in this entire universe capable of booking the NWA, he was in a panic when he made the call to Colorado, but Crockett's panic was relieved a bit when the party on the other end of the phone said he'd drop all plans and arrive in Sumter, SC to take over the booking chores the very next day. You could imagine the shock among the wrestlers Tuesday night when the new booker walked in. Yes, it was the Midnight Rider, in public if you will" "Unfortunately, the Dusty flu is a contagious disease and spread all around the NWA this past week and Battlestar Week was marred by several no-shows once again, including wrestlers in key matches most every night" "Starrcade '88, "True Gritt (sic)," has been finalized for 12/26 in Norfolk and cleared for nearly 10 million pay-per-view homes featuring Ric Flair vs. Lex Luger with the title able to change hands via a disqualification as the main event, plus Road Warriors vs. Dusty Rhodes & Sting in what I believe is a non-title match, Barry Windham vs. Bam Bam Bigelow for the United States title, Mike Rotunda vs. Rick Steiner for the TV title with Kevin Sullivan hung in a cage above the ring, Midnight Express vs. Original Midnight Express, Ivan & Nikita Koloff vs. Russian Assassins with the stipulations that if the Assassins lose, then Paul Jones has to retire from wrestling and the Assassins must unmask and the opener will be a U.S. tag team title match with The Fantastics vs. Ron Simmons & Eddie Gilbert (we'll assume something is going to happen on 12/7 in Chattanooga to make it neccessary to bring this thing back to decide the issue)." "Starcade will also have the first Bunkhouse Stampede (leading up to a Bunkhouse Stampede tour throughout Christmas week and January), although I'm not certain whether or not the PPV will cover the Stampede, but listed as in the thing are Dick Murdoch, Steve Williams, Abdullah the Butcher, both Midnight Express teams (you're asking the same question I am, why are they in it when they've got a supposed big match on the card), Dustin Rhodes, Kendall Windham, The Fantastics, Simmons, Gilbert, Ray Candy, Grizzly Boone, Larry Zbyszko, Al Perez, Rip Morgan and Italian Stallion." "By the way, it'll be just seven weeks later, Sunday, 2/19/89, when the NWA comes back with another PPV show from Chicago ("Chi-Town Heat II: Freddy's Final Revenge"). The talk I've got is they are trying once again to put together a Ric Flair vs. Ricky Steamboat match on top of the card, but if they are going to do that, Chicago isn't the city to hold it in. While the Flair-Steamboat feud is legendary in wrestling circles, no fans outside of the Carolinas and Toronto even know it ever existed so unless they devote some serious thought to a unique way of getting it over, it could be disappointing financially, even though in the ring it should be excellent." "They did the True Grit angle with Dusty on Thanksgiving afternoon and it aired on TBS Saturday. It was pretty transparent in that they've never formatted two interviews in a row without either a match separating them or a commercial. The Road Warriors did an interview, then Dusty immediately came out for an interview and got in the ring to challenge the Warriors (which got very little reaction from the studio crowd) and Animal pulled the spike out of his spiked shoulder pads and stuck it in Dusty's forehead and then in Dusty's eye. The announcers called the eye (since that was the angle) the first time. It was hardcore with heavy juice and the Warriors, well at least Hawk, did a tremendous job on two interviews attempting to be heels. In the Southern cities they are complete heels but in the Northern cities the reaction is mixed in some places and in others they are still babyfaces" "This angle was originally planned for the 12/7 card but it was moved up because Dusty has to get himself tied into a major thing as fast as possible for job security reasons. Dusty will work with a patch over his eye, basically playing the role John Wayne did as Rooster Cogburn in the movie True Grit" "Battlestar week, while not a financial flop, didn't do anywhere near the business they were hoping for or expecting or close to what Thanksgiving week shows have drawn here in recent years" "11/27 in Richmond drew 3,500....One of the reasons the Richmond crowd was so small was a screw-up either at the NWA or at the local TV, when the last weekend before the show they instead ran promos for the 12/11 card (Dusty-Sting-Luger vs. Warriors-Ellering which I guess will headline a lot of cities next month) instead of this one" "No-shows in Baltimore besides the managers and Sheepherders were Williams, Simmons, Gilbert, Perez and Abdullah the Butcher (announced on TV but he's in Japan)" "No-shows in Richmond besides the managers like Dangerously, Cornette and Jones were Nikita, Rotunda, Sullivan, Rhodes and Windham of those that "should" have been there not to mention Sheepherders." "The actual formula is that managers whose guys appear in the top two matches get to travel to the cities, which basically guarantees Dillon (since Flair is always on top), Ellering (Road Warriors) and Humperdink (since Bigelow is being put in a headliner role) but keeps Cornette, Dangerously and Jones out since both Midnight teams have been opening up cards of late" "TBS has talked with Gordon Solie about returning and doing the Sunday show. The current plan is to use Solie with J.J. Dillon as co-host. Why Dillon? The current plan is also to drop several managers early next year and they are trying to make sure Dillon stays. That seems like part of the reason they are holding Dangerously and Cornette from going to the arenas, in order to make it seem like Dillon is the No. 1 manager and assure his spot. It may work, and it may backfire completely" "Windham defended the U.S. title against Dusty and Bigelow was in Dusty's corner to offset the interference of Dillon. The finish saw Dusty put Barry in the sleeper, J.J. threw in a foreign object to Barry who KO'd the ref with it. Bigelow sprinted to the dressing room and brought back Tommy Young who came in and saw Windham asleep and awarded the match and title to Dusty. I'll bet you know what happened next. Actually, they had an intermission. When they got back from intermission they announced the first ref was revived and the last thing he recalled is that Windham slugged him which is an automatic DQ so Windham keeps the title. The Dusty finish strikes again. We'll call this new finish the delayed-Dusty finish" "Junkfood Dog was in Atlanta on Thanksgiving applying for a job as a wrestler" "Best line of the year in a wrestling mag was by Eddie Ellner when talking about Dustin Rhodes "If he's half the man his father is, he still needs to lose weight." "
Dec 12, 88 "On Wednesday morning. Dusty Rhodes officially resigned as booker of the NWA. From all accounts, this was a forced resignation ordered by the TBS hierarchy based on several episodes over the past few weeks." "On Thursday, Jim Crockett was officially informed that he would no longer be running the day-to-day operations of the company Starting January 1st" "Officially, the Universal Wrestling Corporation will be handled day-to-day by James Herd, currently an executive with Pizza Hut. Herd's official title will be Executive Vice President of the company, with Jack Petrik acting as President and overseer of the operations. Herd has some wrestling background in that he was the Director for Vince McMahon Sr.'s television tapings out of Washington, D.C. in the mid-1960s, then was the Director for Sam Muchnick's television show in St. Louis from 1969 through the early 70s" "As of press time, the new booker in the NWA is Jim Crockett. This is expected to change in January. Nothing is for certain, but it appears that the booking will be done by committee, which had been speculated elsewhere" "Ironically, when TBS took over the company, Rhodes was in a stronger position to retain his job then most casual observers would believe. Much of Petrik's knowledge and understanding of the wrestling company was coming directly from Crockett, who of course, was very high on Dusty as booker (don't ask me why, that is still one of life's great mysteries). However, there were outside forces pushing for Rhodes' ouster, but up until just a few weeks ago, Rhodes was apparently going to retain his position in the early days with the new regime" "The problems in a behind-the-scene power-play involving Flair, which actually had been going on since late October, came to a head. Flair was able to make a deal with TBS which increased his personal power to determine his own finishes and angles, and Rhodes was incensed because he felt Flair went behind his back to Petrik to get the power, and more, it decreased Rhodes' power and control over the promotion's World championship." "Then, just a few weeks back, Rhodes tried his own manipulations to weaken Flair's position and booked him for only five dates in December. An ensuing blow-up occurred over Flair's role in Starcade, which resulted in the Starcade main event being changed from Flair vs. Rick Steiner to Flair vs. Lex Luger, a decision made by Petrik over Dusty's head" "Rhodes then missed a weekend's worth of major shows, claiming the flu, which is where his position weakened. The word actually was out at this point that Rhodes was as good as gone as booker, however that word was premature. What appears to have been the straw that broke the camel's back was the angle that aired on 11/26 with the Road Warriors putting a spike into Dusty's eye on TBS with heavy blood and close-ups. The angle was originally slated for the Clash of the Champions show from Chattanooga on 12/7, but Rhodes obviously knew his position was weakening and hurried to get it on the air to get the major sympathy back with him and get himself with the promotion's hottest babyface (Sting) against the hottest heels (Road Warriors) for Starcade" "Apparently TBS had sent a directive to the NWA because of the blood during the Midnight Express vs. Midnight Express angle a few weeks earlier when Jim Cornette bled heavily after being hit with a telephone regarding blood on TBS and Rhodes blatantly defied the memo and ran his angle anyway" "Rhodes will be given the opportunity to remain with the company as a wrestler, although it's debatable whether that will last for any length of time. If Rhodes didn't appear on the Chattanooga show (and I'd bet money he will appear), than you can say that he's history. Another question has to do with Rhodes' contract, which was so lucrative that it was out of the realm of economic feasibility (with the exception of Hulk Hogan, I don't believe that any wrestler was legitimately earning more money than Dusty, although Randy Savage and Ric Flair were probably around the same ballpark)" "Another personnel move which some of you are already aware of, and most of you will pretty much be aware of before reading this involves Nikita Koloff. Koloff quit the promotion on Sunday, mainly due to problems regarding the traveling that we had detailed a few weeks back about having to drive from his home (I believe he lived in Charlotte, but am not certain) to Atlanta to catch flights to the road shows. Nikita, who for a long time may have been the single most over-promoted wrestler on the circuit save Dusty himself, had fallen into the doghouse with Rhodes and Jim Crockett in recent months and felt he was about to get buried. And he was probably correct" "The loss of Nikita created a vacancy that Dusty filled by hiring Junkfood Dog, who will probably have debuted on TV before you read this and be announced as Ivan Koloff's tag team partner at Starcade. When I first heard about JYD coming in, I thought of it as just another bad decision coming from the top and laughed it off. But after thinking about it, it's a lot more than that. The NWA desperately needs to create new stars in 1989 and rebuild the company. They have an excellent core to build around, but if they just revolve around the core, things will remain stale. This was the perfect opportunity to bring in a new face at Starcade, and instead they brought in probably one of the two or three worst performers in the world today" "The angle where Dusty got spiked by the Warriors was followed by approximately 350 mainly very negative phone calls from TBS viewers. It was the largest outpouring of negative comments regarding wrestling at the station since Black Saturday in 1984 when Vince McMahon took over official control of Georgia Championship Wrestling, Inc. and with it, got the TBS time slot. More importantly, the show drew a 2.5 rating, much lower than the week before, and the rating fell throughout the show, instead of built up as is normally the case of the TBS wrestling shows. The commotion was such that even Ted Turner himself requested a copy of the tape. That's why reruns of the angle have been with blurred pictures of the actual incident and of the blood on Dusty" "I wound up in Las Vegas on Tuesday night for the NWA card at the Showboat and then ventured to San Francisco the following night for a show at the Civic Auditorium....Vegas drew 2,500 fans and $27,400 at the Showboat which was set up for 2,900 (normal capacity is 2,700 but they added extra seats because it was expected a sellout was a formality, but it turns out it wasn't)" "We got the first ever Original Midnight Express vs. Midnight Express match, which went to a 20 minute draw. What they were doing going on second is beyond anyone's comprehension. This had the most heat on the card. When Paul Dangerously came out, the building was literally shaking like an Earthquake and this is no exaggeration, but about four seats down from me the noise vibrations themselves actually knocked over a drink which spilled on the floor" "Before the match started with Simmons taking on Mike Rotunda for the TV title (Simmons subbed for Nikita Koloff), they announced that Dusty wouldn't appear because of what the Road Warriors did to him on Saturday. Everyone cheered when they announced Dusty had to be hospitalized. I mean everyone. When they announced Dusty wouldn't appear for his match tonight, there was no reaction at all" "Steiner isn't the most improved wrestler of the year, but he does have the most improved act of the year" "Road Warriors beat Sting & Lex Luger via DQ in 11:50. Tremendous heat here. Warriors didn't get nearly the reaction I expected, particularly since everyone cheered their injuring of Dusty. The crowd was almost totally behind Sting & Luger, who got easily twice the reaction that the Warriors got. It was the best I've ever seen Luger work live" "Things were different in SF, even though the line-up was the same and the basic matches were similar. Crowd was 2,800 in a 7,000 seat building, paying $32,000" "This is a total Road Warrior crowd here. When they announced Dusty was injured by the Warriors, the place went crazy. However, unlike Vegas, when they said Dusty wouldn't appear, the fans were mad and even madder when it was announced Gilbert would sub. They booed Gilbert heavily on the intros and booed Bigelow as well. Windham got a mixed bag and Flair got a huge reaction, mainly cheers" "The fans were a lot more upset here about Nikita not being around and they announced his wife had suddenly taken ill and nobody bought the story. Nobody cared in Vegas, but then again, they're more used to the AWA" "Road Warriors went to a double count out with Sting & Luger. Basically a good match, lasting 12:41, but not on the level of the previous night. Luger wasn't as sharp and timing missed just a tad. Crowd was 75 percent pro-Warriors and they booed Sting like crazy when he made the hot tag. Sting even flipped off the fans as he was doing his hot moves on the Warriors and the fans gave him even more heat. Sting had the most heel heat save Dangerously" "Wrestlers will get weekly paychecks based on their contract. For example, a wrestler with a $100,000 contract will be $2,000 per week, rather than get paid by the gate and have so-called balloon payments (that don't materialize) at the end of the contract year" "TBS, not J.J. Dillon, will handle travel arrangements and wrestlers will fly from their home town, not all from Atlanta" "TBS package will have Jim Ross & Tony Schiavone doing the p.m. show without David Crockett, however Crockett will do a solo act on the a.m. show without Ross & Schiavone. Early speculation is this is either giving Crockett a bone, since the Crocketts are still in a position of some power in the company, or perhaps they want to do away with the a.m. show and putting David on solo is setting up a ratings drop so it can be canceled and David can be done away with on television" "Cornette, Eaton & Lane were fired after Albuquerque but things were all worked out later in the week" "The idea of having the managers work the Bunkhouse Stampedes is so stupid I can't believe they are doing it. First, it only makes the match look bad since the managers can't work. Second, it takes away the danger angle because how dangerous could it be if Humperdink, Cornette and Dangerously are involved. Match turns into comedy"
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Post by Deleted on Mar 9, 2021 5:36:20 GMT -5
Dec 19, 88"It was feared by many that Bam Bam Bigelow was history with the NWA and that Eddie Gilbert would take his spot against Barry Windham at Starrcade, but lo and behold, Bigelow returned and wrestled Sunday night in Richmond after missing shows from Tuesday through Saturday" "Clash of the Champions IV: Seasons' Beatings, took place live from Chattanooga as a two-and-a-half hour TBS special on 12/7. The card drew a 4.5 national rating in its average quarter-hour which means about 1.99 million homes. The opener (Fantastics vs. Ron Simmons & Eddie Gilbert) drew a 3.7, and the rating continued to grow, but grew at a less rapid pace than at the previous Clashes, peaking at a 5.2 (2.3 million homes) for the main event (Ric Flair & Barry Windham vs. Jim Cornette's Midnight Express)" "I should point out this was the first time a TBS crew covered the show, rather than a crew hired by Jim Crockett Promotions. There was a lot of finger-pointing after the show, because the production itself was subpar, particularly at director Tommy Edwards, although some claim Edwards was made a scapegoat for problems due to lack of preparation" "There were many technical glitches (occasionally directions coming from the headsets were nearly audible on the air; too many crowd shots during the matches; use of an overhead camera from the ceiling which simply doesn't work in covering pro wrestling—I've seen it used before at the first Starcade and also once or twice on big shows in Tokyo and it never works)" "Although this was actually pre-planned, it made the show look totally disorganized and disjointed when they would have the ring introductions for the matches, than do an interview, then go to a commercial while the wrestlers had to Stand around in the ring picking their noses for 10 minutes before the endless commercials were over and they got lock-up. I think Road Warrior Animal was in the ring 11 minutes before Dusty Rhodes ever even came to ringside for their match, which was over in a blink of an eye" "Although both teams were supposed to be faces, the crowd wound up booing Fantastics....The Fantastics were booed when they won, and no belts were presented as apparently somebody forget to bring them" "Steve Williams pinned Italian Stallion in 15:17 with the Oklahoma Stampede. Unless this match was designed to "kill" Williams, it failed. Because of the time, Williams was unable to be as aggressive as he needs to be to get over. There was no heat and this one put me to sleep. I don’t want to start picking on the new booker this quickly, but I can't figure out the rationale behind this. -*" "The Russian Assassins jumped Ivan (Why were the Russians dressed up? To do a run-in?, They can't exactly go to Burger King dressed like that) and beat on him until Junkfood Dog made the save. It would have been slightly more effective to have made JFD's entrance a surprise, which was ruined by him doing an interview right before the match started and giving away the fact he's teaming with Ivan at Starrcade. By the way, JFD's interview set the Civil Rights movement back about 30 years" "As for Jim Crockett's performance in his first big show as booker, we did get four pinfalls in five matches—a plus from Dusty's open-ended finishes" "Dusty Rhodes will surely stay through Starcade, but nobody expects him to stay for the long haul. The current booking power is Crockett, Kevin Sullivan, Barry Windham and J.J. Dillon but those names, or at least some of them, will likely change during the New Year" "12/6 in Columbus, GA drew 2,300 for a syndicated taping. No-shows included Sting, Bam Bam Bigelow, Ron Simmons, Eddie Gilbert and Steve Williams. Ric Flair wasn't advertised as appearing, but he did and beat Masked Maniac in a match for Learning the Ropes" "Fantastics were talked about as U.S. tag champs on TV tapings Monday and Tuesday, tho the title match wasn't until Wednesday" "Jobber Big Bear Collie on TBS this past Saturday (the big guy who worked against Eddie Gilbert & Ron Simmons) was involved in an incredible TV screw-up, the likes of which makes Vince McMahon erase tapes and do things over. Collie not only screwed up the finish badly (part of which wasn't his fault), was blown up and messed up the finish, then was given a suplex by Gilbert on the floor, but forgot to go up, and landed on his face before being pinned, and busted his face up. Then he was fired" "12/10 in Philadelphia drew 1,626 and $22,812 (not the lowest gate NWA has done, but their lowest paid crowd and lowest paid crowd for wrestling in Philadelphia for any major group in decades)" "Sting & Luger beat Road Warriors in an elimination tag. First fall saw Sting and Hawk both counted out, then Luger had Animal in the torture rack when Ellering ran in for the DQ **3/4 (but how can you book an elimination tag match when nobody will do a job?)" "Supposedly, Herd is going to insist on wrestlers doing jobs and more pinfall finishes, add post-production to the TV show and expect a crew of new faces. Some expect they'll lose a few key guys over the issue of having to do jobs, but if that's the case, it would be ridiculous" "12/11 in Richmond, VA drew 425 (lowest in recorded history)" "Flair will defend against Steiner in the Bunkhouse cards in January, at least that has already been announced in some cities but that all depends on Starcade's finish" "Larry Zbyszko is out of action until 12/25 due to an auto accident but the injuries aren't too serious. Al Perez has disappeared and everyone assumes he's gone but nobody seems to know for sure. They were booked this weekend against Cornette's team and all four no-showed every city. Zbyszko cuz the injury, Perez because he's apparently history and Cornette's team because they figured that if there were no foes, there was no reason to send them to the cities, so instead of two minor no-shows, now you've got five, three of whom are significant which does wonders in cities that didn't draw in the first place because of all the no-shows last time in" "Dusty Rhodes no-showed TV on 12/8, claiming a broken toe, and missed his TV tag match with Sting that was advertised this week, but made all the house dates" "12/3 in Houston drew 1,200 ($14,000)"
Dec 26, 88 "Don Owen will be running a combined card with the NWA on 1/12 at the Portland Sports Arena headlined by Ric Flair vs. Sting, Ivan Koloff & Junkfood Dog vs. Russian Assassins, Road Warriors vs. Dusty Rhodes & Lex Luger and Barry Windham vs. Bam Bam Bigelow (who won't be there as he's in Japan on that date)" "Nikita Koloff is working for Johnny Hunter independents in the Carolinas along with Jimmy Valiant. Sure makes the Crocketts look stupid in their own old home territory when they went on Clash of Champions with Magnum saying how Paul Jones' team had injured Nikita and run him out of wrestling. They'll never learn, will they?" "Titan runs its first card at the new Charlotte Coliseum on 1/8 with Hulk Hogan vs. Big Bossman, Andre the Giant vs. Jake Roberts, Jim Duggan vs. Dino Bravo and Rockers vs. Tully Blanchard & Arn Anderson" "Negotiations with Genichiro Tenryu have fallen through" "The syndicated TV shows for New Years Eve were taped 12/15 in Raleigh before 450 fans and the Worldwide show features a Fantastics vs. Dennis Condrey & Randy Rose 2 of 3 fall match which ends up with The Fantastics winning when Dangerously hits Fulton with the phone and Condrey has him pinned, but out of nowhere, Jim Cornette shows up and hits Condrey with the tennis racquet and they reverse things. The match takes up the entire show and goes somewhere between 42 and 52 minutes" "Ric Flair was billed to appear on the card in Raleigh, but this is the NWA." "Dark matches in Raleigh saw Steiner pin Williams with a belly-to- belly suplex (two stars--I believe this was Doc's first clean job in U.S. rings in more than two years) and Road Warriors & Barry Windham beat Sting & Luger & Rhodes when Ellering hit Sting with a chair and Animal pinned him. As you can see, the NWA is going toward longer television matches and more pinfalls on arena shows, particularly I'm told, more pinfall victories by the heels" "Magnum T.A.’s “Straight Talk” and Jim Cornette’s “Louisville Slugger” segments have been dropped on the syndicated shows per directions from Jim Crockett" "Misty Blue's girls will appear in the managers Bunkhouse matches along with all the managers" "There has been lots of speculation and talk about different names headed in during the new year, and supposedly additions will be made, but the only name I know of for sure is Stephen Casey, the prelim guy from World Class" "The future of the booking position is up in the air. Apparently Crockett is in the doghouse with some at TBS because his proposed Clash of the Champions line-up for 2/15 (Road Warriors & Tenryu vs. Ron Simmons & JFD & Stephen Casey on top; Lane & Eaton vs. Perez & Zbyszko, Gilbert vs. Stallion, Texas Broncos vs. Russian Assassins and one more match) was ruled totally unacceptable by TBS" "Tommy Edwards has been replaced as director of the shows after the problems at Clash of the Champions"
"The future of Dusty Rhodes, the wrestler, is uncertain. The word is that Rhodes will work through Starrcade, but nothing is certain after that. Nobody in the NWA seems to think Rhodes is around for a long haul. Rhodes has negotiated with Vince McMahon but no deal has been reached and some in Titan swear no deal will be reached. Other stories going around include Rhodes and Bill Watts opening up their own promotion or Rhodes going to Florida with some of the NWA guys and opening up their own group, but it’s all in the talking stages"
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Post by Deleted on Mar 10, 2021 5:04:29 GMT -5
Jan 2, 89
"Starcade was the kind of a show that in my mind, typifies what a great wrestling card should be from the wrestling product and announcing standpoint. As an overall production, it was not the best PPV event of the year (although it was a close second to Titan's Survivors Series, which gets the nod as the best event mainly because it had superior overall production, while the production of Starcade was actually quite poor). But the wrestling itself was of the most consistent high quality of any major PPV event, and for that matter, any card I've seen either live or on tape dating back to New Japan's Summer Night Fever cards in August of 1987"
"The first Clash had two exceptional matches and another very good match, but the other matches were just so-so. This card had six good matches out of seven, and the other match really wasn't that bad, either"
"For those who missed the show, there were some very glaring production weaknesses. First off, at the beginning of the show, every time they switched camera shots, you heard a noise, which became annoying very quickly. Luckily that problem was solved just as the first match got under way. At several times during the show, the sound was screwed up. The sound went out in the middle of Magnum T.A.'s backstage interview with Rick Steiner, it went out for a three minute period during Steiner's match with Mike Rotunda, once or twice Bob Caudle had a dead mic while he was doing analysis and occasionally the mics screeched, and I assume it was the ring mic"
"I do think that for the first time in a long time that Flair himself was used and portrayed in the light he should have been used and portrayed in for the last several years he's been the heel World champion. He came off as a heel, and even though he went out on his back as usual, finally came off to a casual fan as being a worthy champion."
"It was also proven that a babyface can do a job for a heel and get stronger in the process, because Luger did the job (and really, he should have done a clean job even though Flair putting his feet on the ropes wasn't acknowledged by the announcers and had no bearing on the fans' reaction and kind of half-spoiled an excellent finishing sequence) and has undoubtedly helped his stock both as a wrestler and a babyface because he put on the best performance of his career"
"The show itself drew approximately 10,000 fans and slightly more than $160,000 in a 13,000 capacity building, the Scope in Norfolk. While the gate itself is the largest live gate for an NWA show since July, it shows just how much damage the NWA has done to itself over these past few months when Starcade couldn't sell out in a city that they have sold out in many times over the years for "regular" cards"
"Steiner hit the belly-to-belly on Rotunda, Williams then hit the ring bell, making the referee "think" the time limit had expired and there was a big commotion because it appeared one of those screw-job endings the NWA is infamous for (and I'm told will no longer be used since Dusty is gone as booker) was on its way. They lowered the cage that Kevin Sullivan was in and Sullivan got out. Amidst all the confusion, Rotunda tried to set Steiner up to collide with Sullivan but Steiner reversed it, Rotunda and Sullivan collided and Steiner got the pin. The place popped like crazy for the finish, which was unique and went off better than expected, in fact the pop lasted for a few minutes and "made" Steiner before our eyes into a stronger babyface"
"Windham is the heir apparent to Ric Flair's long-time role as the best all-around wrestler in the business. Not only does Windham have the work itself down pat, but he's developed into an excellent smug heel over the past few months and has improved his work to where he can carry a good wrestler to an excellent match and most anyone else to a good match. Well, he'll get to prove his mettle in January since he's booked with JFD in main events throughout the Atlantic Coast"
"Did you notice that Dusty didn't wear the eye patch into the ring? It was quite obvious, even though it was Dusty's angle and Dusty should have been the focal point of the match, that the crowd popped whenever Sting was in and deadened (I won't say died, because there was still heat) when Dusty was involved, even when the Warriors went back after the eye."
"The move of the night was when Animal was sent outside the ring and Sting went off the top rope with a cross bodyblock outside the ring and the camera was actually in position to do the move justice, Sting does one of those flying moves made for guys who weigh 50 pounds less than he does on every PPV show, and like clockwork, up until this time, the camera always seems to miss the move"
"The finish saw Luger have Flair up in the torture rack, but Flair flipped out of it and fell on Luger for the three count. Flair got his feet on the ropes, which wasn't necessary (originally this was to happen without Flair getting his foot on the ropes however a few not so well meaning wrestling "geniuses" told Luger that if he did a job for Flair clean that his career would be over and Luger got cold feat about doing a clean job)."
"The last time the NWA put on a megashow like this one was March 27th, and they managed to ride on that momentum for nearly 10 days before going into their normal pattern of self-destruction"
"When you look at the bookings for January and the organization (nobody seems to even have a clue as to what is on top for a Clash of Champions on 2/15 from Cleveland or a PPV on 2/20 from Chicago) of future events, the conclusion once again is like with the first Clash, the second night of the Crockett Cup and this show, that the workers here for the most part are so good then when matched-up right and motivated, they can put on incredible house shows"
"We entered 1988 with the original "big five" groups of 1987 (down from more than a dozen profitable promotions in 1985) already down to two. The WWF more than held its own, and remains the only promotion on these shores with little danger of collapse in the foreseeable future. The NWA was saved from bankruptcy by TBS after a year of horrible mismanagement, and is still in the ball game."
"After the PPV show ended, they did a Bunkhouse Stampede which was won by the Junkfood Dog"
"Headed in to the NWA in upcoming weeks are Steven Casey (1/16 arrival), Michael Hayes (1/23 arrival), Butch Reed (2/1 starts full-time but will probably make some TV before that) and there is a good chance that Jimmy Garvin will return before too long and that Brian Pillman will be headed in as well"
"The wrestlers who are under contract have started getting bi-weekly checks based on their contract, so if a wrestler has a $100,000 per year deal they are getting bi-weekly $4,000 checks rather than getting paid by the house show grosses, which has improved the attitude of some of the major names, although there are a lot of wrestlers here not under contract and others (like Sting) who have contracts of far less value than they are worth"
"In typical NWA fashion, check out this schedule the day before their biggest show of the year. The guys worked twice on Sunday, an afternoon shot in Greenville, SC ($18,500) and a Christmas night shot in Charlotte ($44,000 and 5,000 fans--very poor considering Christmas night is traditionally the second best night of the year for drawing fans), then their flights from Charlotte on Monday morning were directed to Washington, D.C. rather than Norfolk (the reason is that since they were to work 12/27 in DC, the promotion decided to save themselves a flight). Of course, that meant, the day of the biggest show of the year, after the guys had worked twice the day before, they all had to drive 200 miles from D.C. to Norfolk and were supposed to arrive by 4 p.m. in Norfolk because they wanted to go over the show early"
"Nobody knows what the future holds for Dusty Rhodes but nobody expects him around long-term either. Rhodes has put his house for sale in Texas and rumor has it he's planning on relocating in Florida, which confirms something most are suspecting, that he'll either try to start a regional group in Florida, or work with Mike Graham and company in revitalizing that nearly dead FCW group. TBS is going to re-negotiate Rhodes' contract since he’s no longer booker and I suppose his future depends upon how much they cut from his $585,000 annual contract because even if they cut it 20 percent, that's tons more money than he (or almost anyone else) will ever make in this business"
"They are running split shows once again with most of the crew working around the country and mainly Windham vs. Junkfood, Midnight vs. Midnight and Fantastics vs. Perez & Zbyszko working Carolina markets which I guess is designed as competing with Nelson Royal's outfit"
"Flair has most of his bouts in January against Sting or Steiner, but also has several bookings with both Perez (you figure it out) and JFD (yes, he's going to get the big push and you have to figure that's why Butch Reed is headed in. Let's copy another of McMahon's ideas that didn't work)"
"Ric Flair wrestled Eddie Gilbert for the first time ever in singles on Christmas night in Charlotte when Sting missed a plane connection"
"NWA Main Event had a Warriors vs. Luger & Sting match from Thanksgiving weekend in Charlotte which had never aired previously. Basically the same match, move-for-move as in every city. Good even with the canned studio commentary"
"During Flair's interview at Starcade, in the background you could hear ring announcer Gary Michael Cappetta (trivia note, he was also the ring announcer for the AWA's Superclash III card) announcing the Bunkhouse Stampede--another technical glitch. There is no logical explanation as to why they had a Bunkhouse Stampede in Norfolk since most of the crowd left either before or as the match was going on--how can you follow Flair vs. Luger with a Stampede involving guys like The Commandos, Butcher, and the like. There was no blood at all, and if that's a new policy, where does that leave Butcher?"
Jan 16, 89
"The biggest news is that the NWA has gotten Ricky Steamboat to agree to terms and he will be coming in to headline the 2/20 pay-per-view event from the UIC Pavilion in Chicago against Ric Flair. Steamboat officially agreed to the match on Wednesday and has already cut some promotional plugs for the event. It will be pretty evident after watching the TBS show this upcoming weekend as to the nature of Steamboat's television debut. I don’t know what type of wrestling schedule Steamboat agreed to, other than Steamboat is definitely in for more than one big match and will work at least semi-regularly and perhaps regularly after the PPV event"
"Expected in before the PPV event are Bob Orton, Butch Reed, Brian Pillman, Jimmy Garvin and Genichiro Tenryu (who will be picked as the Road Warriors partner for the six-man tag team title and their first title defense will headline the 2/15 Clash of the Champions card from Cleveland)"
"All told, by late February it appears that there will be somewhere in the neighborhood of 42 or 43 "name" wrestlers who will be working either full-time or part-time (in between Japan tours for a few of them) for the NWA, which is going to create even heavier payroll demands than at present. But you've got to figure there will be tons of new angles and new scenarios in order to get the new talent into the flow of things and develop new issues"
"The announced line-up for the 2/20 Chicago card, a three hour show starting at 7 p.m. Eastern time, will be Flair vs. Steamboat for the NWA title on top, Road Warriors vs. Steve Williams & Kevin Sullivan for the NWA tag team title, Rick Steiner vs. Mike Rotunda for the NWA TV title, Barry Windham vs. Dusty Rhodes for the U.S. title, Midnight Express & Jim Cornette vs. Original Midnight Express & Paul E. Dangerously in a match where the man who loses the fall must leave the NWA, Sting vs. Butch Reed and the finals of the Bunkhouse Stampede (no names have been announced officially but expect between six and 10 wrestlers in there including Larry Zbyszko, Lex Luger, Abdullah the Butcher and Junkfood Dog). I should mention the most important stipulation of all— Card subject to change"
"A few notes on the PPV show. The show did its best, as expected, in the Southeast and Mid Atlantic states and also did good business in Baltimore-Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Chicago (all as expected) and in a surprise, also did business in New York and San Francisco Bay Area. The reason for it doing well in the bigger markets is because in those markets the cable operators took orders until the start of the event, while in smaller cities many of the impulse last-minute buys couldn't be done. Apparently TBS had taken care of the top 10 to 20 markets and gotten those companies to stay open for orders over Christmas weekend"
"A correction from the issue a few weeks back. Tommy Edwards wasn't fired as director of the wrestling shows on TBS, and in fact has been elevated to production manager and will also produce the syndicated shows as well as the TBS and special shows. There were problems at the Clash and Edwards was in hot water, but Edwards was able to prove the problems weren't his fault"
"The TV shows will contain more "competitive" matches from this point on. The TBS show that airs 1/14 has a Windham vs. Gilbert and Rotunda vs. Steiner double feature and 1/21 has Flair & Windham vs. Gilbert & mystery partner"
"Rotunda-Steiner ends with a DQ on Rotunda and the heels try to kidnap Steiner's nameless Dog (real name Spike, by the way—isn't this terrible, now I'm revealing the real names of Dogs—by the way, Frankie the Bird's real name is Frankie and he was Koko's pet bird way before Vince came up with the gimmick)"
"Bob Orton will work TV's according to the tentative schedule at the end of the month, but won't be in for house shows until late March because of tours of Japan, New Zealand, Malaysia and Australia"
"Michael Hayes and Steven Casey have already debuted"
"Tenryu & Road Warriors will defend the six-man title on the headline event of Clash V from Cleveland but foes haven't been announced. Best bets are either Junkfood-Hayes-Steiner (who were being pushed as contenders at TV tapes) or another team I'm not aware of which hasn't been pushed on TV yet"
"Latest on Dusty is same as before. His contract expires at the end of the month and it just depends on a lot of things. All sorts of rumors, the main one that he'll head back to Florida and work with Mike Graham, but don't believe anything yet"
"Reports on most of the Bunkhouses are bad. Can hardly wait until they get here this weekend"
"12/28 in Chicago drew 2,987 and $31,200...Road Warriors & Windham lost to Dusty & Sting & Luger when Luger pinned Ellering (who wasn't even in the match) in a bout where the heels were heavily cheered and Dusty heavily booed while Luger & Sting mixed reactions. Lots of heavy chants of "Dusty Sux” and "Lex Sux." "
"The Bunkhouses are sponsored by Schlitz Malt Liquor, but they should be sponsored by the movie The Poseidon Adventure since everybody jumps overboard at once"
"1/6 in Philadelphia drew 3,628 paid and $52,468 (actually only about 1,000 fans in the building because of a five-inch snowstorm which kept fans home and some of the wrestlers from appearing"
"Should point out fans in Philly were real mad because of not only the transportation no shows (Midnight, Cornette & Dillon but also Abdullah and Bigelow no-showed as Abby was in Puerto Rico and Bigelow in Japan)"
"Please tell me why they are putting so much heat on a Flair-Luger rematch (By Flair saying he'll never wrestle Luger again, not only does it make him a paper champion, which at the present time is the worst thing possible for a title which already has no drawing power, but also it makes Luger the opponent. I realize they can't talk about Steamboat yet, but Flair's foes this month are Sting, JFD, Perez and Steiner and Flair hasn't talked about any of them. I call that the wisest use of television time). There's nothing wrong with pushing a Luger vs. Flair match, but only if you're going to actually book the thing"
"Flair vs. JFD drew 2,500 in Greensboro on 1/8 with Flair winning in 25:00 with feet on ropes (if Flair carried the guy to even a semi-horrible match for that long he is better than his rep)"
"Somebody PLEASE TELL LEX LUGER THERE IS NO SUCH WORD IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE AS ALLOCADES. THE WORD IS ACCOLADES"
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Post by Deleted on Mar 10, 2021 9:56:13 GMT -5
I'd heard of the junk food dog nickname, but good grief it's so juvenile, especially in how frequent its use is.
Outside of that, I've always wondered why Bigelow's first WWF run didnt run longer. Really seems pitched from these that he just didnt get over enough. Was that a case and his run there a bit of a flop?
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Post by BlackoutCreature on Mar 10, 2021 10:22:09 GMT -5
Outside of that, I've always wondered why Bigelow's first WWF run didnt run longer. Really seems pitched from these that he just didnt get over enough. Was that a case and his run there a bit of a flop? He kinda got as over as he could get at the time, especially after Survivor Series 87. But since they weren't going to give him a title or put him over Andre, they just didn't know what to do with him after that point. Then they gave Savage a big main event push and Bigelow just got overshadowed by him and forgotten about. I mean, I guess if he had stuck around a little longer they could have turned him heel and had him do a house show run against Hogan or Savage, but they already had The Big Boss Man doing that.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 11, 2021 5:09:24 GMT -5
Jan 23, 89
"The expected split-up between Dusty Rhodes and the National Wrestling Alliance officially took place on Tuesday when Rhodes resigned and walked out on his remaining bookings. To the surprise of almost nobody, Rhodes resurfaced in Florida and reportedly has bought 60 percent of the nearly-dormant Florida Championship Wrestling promotion. Rhodes will attempt to bring several of the NWA wrestlers down to Florida with him, but it's doubtful if he'll be able to lure more than one or two wrestlers of even the mildest significance. Rhodes' return to Florida was hardly a surprise as wrestlers in Florida had been buzzing about it for weeks and the FCW television show had been building up Rhodes' return since the beginning of the year."
"Ironically, from all accounts, the folks at TBS are disappointed at losing Rhodes, and some fans will view it as another key departure, but in the long run, it was both an inevitable departure and a neccessary departure as it is extremely rare when a wrestler is replaced as booker that he sticks around for any length of time under the new regime"
"Mike Golden pinned C.W. Bergstrom with a small package after a poorly-timed foot to the face. Bergstrom is really green. These are both Don Owen wrestlers who came in to fill in the weekend NWA shows. Timing was bad throughout DUD"
"Russian Assassins beat Junkfood Dog & Ivan Koloff. The lines were huge at the concession stand during this match. JFD outweighs Russian #1 (Dave Sheldon) by at least 35 to 40 pounds. In comparison with the Starcade match, this made Starcade look like a Flair vs. Windham match -*"
"Dick Murdoch pinned Ray Candy in 5:05. Candy wore face paint. Candy stalled for 4:50, then missed a tackle into the corner and fell down and Murdoch pinned him after an elbow drop. At least I can't complain about them missing moves or having poor execution. -*"
"The intermission that followed was far more action-packed than the first three matches"
"Lex Luger & Michael Hayes (subbing for Dusty Rhodes, nobody noticed nor complained) & Rick Steiner downed The Road Warriors & Paul Ellering in 12:33. Surprise. The fans booed the Warriors almost totally. They didn't care much for Hayes, but reacted decent to him, but were behind Luger a surprising amount (more than anyone else on the show, for that matter). I don't know what Luger does, but he has the smallest waist of any human being so large that I've ever seen"
"They did a ref bump which allowed Sting to have Flair pinned several times with no count. Then Sting pinned Flair and the ref counted the fall, but Flair had his foot on the ropes and it had to be restarted. Finally Flair pinned Sting with his foot on the ropes. What an original routine. I'm not complaining, tho"
"Finally we had the 7:30 version of the Poseidon Adventure Bunkhouse Stampede. They all die at once. Lex Luger won throwing out both Russian Assassins. It's nice when they bill it as a match where you can bring weapons, but nobody does. By and large, these matches stink and this was no different"
"I hope somebody re-evaluates the NWA's "Suicide Tour '89" very soon. Since last year and this year have proven Stampedes don't draw, and they stink to boot, given points a and b, and point c being that points a and b were proven last year, why, point d, were points a, b and c ignored and we have to put up with matches like this in 1989?"
"The USA network will be running a three-hour WWF special card on 2/20. What a coincidence. This obviously has nothing to do with the fact the NWA is running a PPV card the same night, since the NWA is no competition to the WWF. I thought those petty attempts to sabotage PPV events of opposition ended when Titan didn't attempt a USA network special on either 12/13 or 12/26"
"Finale was scheduled as Michael Hayes & Jim Garvin vs. Samoan Swat Team. Before the match, Kerry grabbed the house mic and said that Hayes & Garvin had left to wrestle in the NWA so they wouldn't be here tonight. Good Lord. He told the absolute truth. Shock of the year for 1989 has been won for sure"
"The TBS folks promise the technical quality of the next show will be much improved over Starcade because the "A" production team, rather than the "C" team will be putting together that end of the show"
"With Dusty Rhodes gone, it is expected that Windham's opponent on the PPV show will be Eddie Gilbert"
"Bam Bam Bigelow is history. There are no plans for him to return after his current tour of Japan"
"The bunkhouse bout was terrible, with the highlight being after the match when a fan threw beer all over Hawk and Hawk jumped into the crowd, grabbed a beer from another fan and poured it all over the fan who poured it on him to begin with"
"Very interesting to see NWA guys put over the locals in Portland and Seattle. Actually it was the "right" thing in Portland since those guys have to draw on their own weekly, but "wrong" in Seattle since Owen doesn’t have TV and NWA does, Owen has no plans of running Seattle and NWA does, so for best interest of future cards, the NWA guys should win mixed matches since the Seattle crowd didn't react to the Owen wrestlers except for Rose"
"Roddy Piper was at the Portland card and shook hands with both Flair and Sting prior to their title match"
"Expect some major news from here next week since the rumor mill will go crazy trying to speculate who Dusty will bring down to Florida from here. The wrestlers in Florida are claiming it'll be Dustin, The Commandos, Murdoch and Humperdink. I'd say the latter is almost certain with Bigelow out of the picture and you'd figure Dustin is for certain as well. The real question would be the status of Barry Windham and Kevin Sullivan, since Windham is being groomed for a World championship within the next few years and Sullivan is so intertwined in all the Varsity Club stuff"
Jan 30, 89
"The new NWA booker is George Scott. Whether that is good news or bad news, we'll have to wait and see, and it depends upon your point of view. I've talked with a lot of folks this week about what their feelings on this are, and you get a mixed bag of responses"
"George Scott was the booker for JCP, when it was strictly a Mid Atlantic promotion, in the mid 70s and gained a strong reputation as a booker during this tenure where he developed many future superstars in this business, particularly Ric Flair and Ricky Steamboat. They had about a three year period of doing super business with Flair and Steamboat on top and went from being just another small regional office to one of the two or three strongest offices in the country during Scott's reign"
"Some claim that it wasn't so much Scott's great ideas that did this, but the fact they had good talent and that Flair and Blackjack Mulligan came up with lots of great ideas which Scott implemented during that period. Still, the George Scott/JCP relationship ended on very bitter terms, which I'm not particularly clear about other than George and Sandy didn't even speak for years and George Scott and Jim Crockett were at bitter odds with one another, basically to this day"
"I believe Scott had a run booking in Georgia for a while, until going to the WWF during 1984-85, the early period of the wrestling boom. While some fondly look back at the first year or two of Titan's national expansion, once again the parting of the ways between McMahon and Scott wasn't totally amicable. Those at Titan to this day don't have a lot good to say about Scott, basically dismissing him with lines like, "he wasn't what his reputation cracked him up to be." "
"Ironically, about two weeks back, when the actual decision was made, it appeared Scott was out of the running. Scott was brought in and hired, but when Jim Crockett got wind of it, he supposedly had gotten Scott fired that very same day. There were others interviewed for the job. I know Eddie Gilbert was interviewed and that Bill Watts wasn't, but I would expect one or two others were spoken with as well. I also know that Jim Herd desperately wanted to avoid another Dusty Rhodes situation and had already made up his mind not to use an active wrestler in the booking role"
"The decision to hire Scott also shows that Jim Crockett's actual power in the company has been virtually negated since he was greatly against the appointment of Scott because of whatever bad blood there had been from the 70s and the early stages of the Titan wrestling war of '84. Ironically, with the exception of Jack Petrik and Jim Herd, both newcomers to the wrestling business, it appears the most powerful decision makers on the NWA side are Scott and the guy who it appears was the catalyst in him getting the job, Jim Barnett, both of whom worked for Titan in the early stages of the wrestling war and both of whom left Titan's employment on less than completely cordial terms"
"This has not been announced yet officially, but we have learned that the NWA has planned its next PPV event after the 2/20 show to be held on 4/2 from the Omni in Atlanta, head-to-head on a Sunday afternoon with Wrestlemania V from Trump Plaza. On the surface, this sounds suicidal, which was my initial reaction and the initial reaction of the few who heard about it, being that Hulk Hogan vs. Randy Savage at Wrestlemania is going to be the biggest match of the year"
"The story I get is that this will be the NWA's flexing its own muscle, in particular, the power of Turner Home Entertainment, which is the most powerful force in cable television. Many of the key cable operators are members of the Turner board, and with McMahon's free show on 2/20 hurting not only Turner's company, but the cable owners themselves because it would have cut down on the buy rate of the show, the cable owners will side with the NWA on this. Supposedly the NWA already has cleared seven to eight million homes for 4/2 of a potential cable universe of about 11 million homes. There is talk of insisting on exclusivity for the day, in the same way McMahon did on Thanksgiving of 1987, and therefore, McMahon's Wrestlemania will be available in very few homes on PPV, thus insuring it being nowhere near the success it should be."
"If McMahon's Wrestlemania gets sabotaged, we could be in for an even nastier war. Certainly, if a great deal of PPV is blocked, McMahon will go heavily into closed-circuit, however the income potential from closed-circuit is nowhere near the potential from PPV. For example, the first Wrestlemania, which did boffo closed- circuit and live business, with almost nothing on PPV (which was barely around), grossed about $4 million. Wrestlemania IV, which did barely half that on closed-circuit, still managed to gross somewhere between $17 and $20 million because of PPV"
"Dusty Rhodes, whose NWA contract expires on 1/24 (he walked out a few weeks back, but can't actually work for someone else until the contract expires), has a TV taping set for 1/25 to unveil his new promotion. There are plenty of rumors concerning who he will take from the NWA. Al Perez and Dick Murdoch have officially quit the NWA and will work Florida. Everyone assumes Dustin Rhodes will, although he is still making all his NWA dates and hasn't quit yet. Larry Zbyszko also quit this past Wednesday, but he's headed to the AWA as he was promised a big guarantee and the AWA title (Larry is Verne Gagne's son-in-law and with a grandchild due, Verne wants Kathy back in town) and the NWA wasn't willing to match the offer"
"Dusty has told several people that Barry Windham would be working for the promotion in Florida, however Windham is a key figure in the NWA's future plans, and either has, or will be offered a major league deal to stay put"
"Officially, the NWA's 2/20 PPV event from Chicago has two changes to report. With Rhodes gone, Barry Windham's foe in the U.S. title match will be Lex Luger. Also, the Bunkhouse Stampede finals have simply been eliminated, since the whole Bunkhouse thing was a concept of Rhodes and Jim Crockett's, which nobody else in the organization believed in, and I think the whole Bunkhouse concept is a thing of the past"
"I had anticipated that it would be Eddie Gilbert filling the Dusty slot, but supposedly there was a key advertising deadline which occurred at roughly the same day that Rhodes quit, and the NWA didn't realize that Gilbert would get "over" so much from the TBS angles of the past few weeks, and since Luger is actually as "over" as any NWA babyface, he seemed the most logical choice for the match even though Gilbert is the one involved in Windham's current angles"
"The original plan was for Steamboat to actually show up under a mask, pin Flair, and remove the hood, but George Scott changed the original plan"
"While I do think this should do great on PPV in the Carolinas, the entire Flair-Steamboat mystique from their great battles of years ago is totally unknown in the rest of the country. They never feuded in Atlanta, worked once in New York, nobody in California knows they ever had a past history, nor anywhere else for that matter"
"While Steamboat was a key name with Titan, and almost everyone remembers his match with Randy Savage at Wrestlemania III, he was a star in the WWF, but he was not a big drawing card in the WWF. He wasn't Hulk Hogan or Roddy Piper, or Randy Savage or Andre, even though he was the next rung underneath. WWF fans, and WWF shows, draw specifically based on the power of the match on top, and Steamboat in the big cities was generally second from the top, in a spot to have a good match, but not draw the house"
"Tom Prichard has also been mentioned by the NWA as coming in during March, which is a career break that is long overdue"
"On 1/8 in Charlotte, Titan drew 13,500 at the new Coliseum for Hulk Hogan vs. Big Bossman on top. They also got an incredible deal on the rent. The NWA drew about 5,000 on Christmas in the same building"
"Ivan's name hasn't been mentioned of late so he's either being phased down to the point he's off television, or all the way out"
"Trivia note for you lovers of wrestling animal trivia. The first dog Steiner used was his real dog, named "Spike," who is a baby pit bull. The dog he used with the angle where Kevin Sullivan tried to steal him (how many of you were surprised that was happening) was actually Teddy Long's dog (he's the TBS studio referee). The dog did a better acting job being scared of Sullivan than David Crockett does, and think of all the experience David has interviewing heels"
"Kendall Windham turned heel on Monday night in a match that will air on the syndicated package this coming weekend. Kendall & Eddie Gilbert were wrestling Barry Windham & J.J. Dillon and Kendall turned on Eddie. Originally there were plans of making Kendall Windham and Butch Reed into the third and fourth Horseman, but it appears that George Scott wants to not emphasize the Horseman idea although Flair & Windham will be Horseman and Kendall & Reed aren't, but are managed by Dillon"
"Steve Williams & Mike Rotunda downed Rick Steiner & Dick Murdoch (in this match Doc bled the hardway although I'm not sure how it happened but he was major league upset and he's not exactly the guy you want upset)"
"Latest on 4/2; part of the reason the cable companies were going to side with Turner and keep Titan off PPV was because they felt the deal Titan was asking for to carry WM5 was unreasonable and it was actually several leading cable companies that requested this head-to-head to shake up McMahon. McMahon has lowered his demands, so it is back up-in-the-air whether or not Titan will be able to clear all the PPV universe homes on 4/2 and what the equation will be"
"WWF has a major show planned 2/18 in Chicago with Hogan vs Bossman and Savage vs. Brown and a loaded undercard, two days before NWA PPV from Chicago"
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Post by Deleted on Mar 12, 2021 4:43:05 GMT -5
Feb 6, 89
"The Vince McMahon vs. Ted Turner clash, which was certainly inevitable, but few figured it would get this hot so quickly, started heating up this past week. The grudge will be teased on 2/20, but the first full-blown confrontation will take place on 4/2. It's the real life Million Dollar Man against the real life Big Bossman"
"The status of the fight right now is that on 2/20, the NWA will present its pay-per-view event from Chicago with Ric Flair vs. Ricky Steamboat in the main event. To counter, on a free USA network special, the WWF will present a three-hour program, which may or may not be a live feed of the Madison Square Garden show (it also could be highlights of main event matches from around the circuit) that takes place that evening. The shows will go head-to-head in the Eastern and Central time zones, but won't be competing in the Pacific time zone because USA runs on a three-hour delay out West while the NWA PPV event will air live"
"Titan also is loading up a Chicago card two days before the NWA's event in an attempt to hurt the NWA's house (which from early sales, the WWF's efforts will probably succeed)"
"The big battle is 4/2. The WWF will present Wrestlemania V from Trump Plaza in Atlantic City featuring the most-awaited match-up in more than a year. Hulk Hogan vs. Randy Savage, supported by the Anabolic Warrior vs. Rick Rude, Andre the Giant vs. Big John Studd and Demolition vs. Powers of Pain & Mr. Fuji in a 2-on-3 match. The NWA will counter, head-to-head, with "Wrestle War '89: The Ultimate Gamble," (and yes, that name is no coincidence) from the Omni in Atlanta. In a "fair" fight, there is nothing the NWA can do to compete with Hogan vs. Savage. But, this won't be a "fair" fight, and truthfully, McMahon has nobody to blame but himself for what at this stage of the game appears to be a loss of several million dollars of potential revenue, since Titan is the one that has attempted to sabotage three NWA PPV events and one AWA event"
"Here are the PPV stats for 4/2. There are roughly 11 million homes in this country with PPV potential. Of those, TBS claims that the majority will carry Wrestle War '89 and not carry Wrestlemania. Approximately two million of those homes have the capabilities to carry both programs, although many of those homes are serviced by companies in which the heads of the companies also serve on Turner's Board, thus it is expected they will also boycott Wrestlemania. The two largest PPV clearing companies, Request and Viewers Choice, are locked in the Turner camp for this show. Right now it appears that McMahon won't be locked out of PPV completely, but will have to battle to clear between two and three million of those homes"
"There are two factors which led to what happened. The first, of course, is that McMahon scheduled the USA network special against the PPV event and loaded up the Chicago card two days earlier. Actually, the loading up of the Chicago card had virtually no impact on its own. But the USA network special turned a great percentage of the cable industry into McMahon adversaries on 4/2 because he showed he wasn't interested in the good of PPV (which is looking for as many live sporting events with national impact as possible right now) but only looking at monopolizing the industry"
"Titan Sports attempted to change its deal with Viacom cable, and the other major companies, as far as the split of revenues for Wrestlemania. Titan even tried to get Viacom to agree to guarantee a seven percent buy rate, which isn't totally out of the realm of possibility for Hogan vs. Savage, but showed incredible chutzpah given the Royal Rumble did between a 1.4 and 1.9 buy rate, or less than the NWA's Starcade show three weeks earlier which did a 2.1"
"It was actually Viacom cable which approached TBS about doing the 4/2 show, and Turner himself decided this was the time to make the big move, even if, from a purely economic standpoint of his own business, it is too much PPV in too short of a time period and they are several months premature in going head-to-head when the stakes are so high"
"There is a lot of gloating going on right now not only within the NWA and TBS, but within the wrestling industry as a whole. Publicly, Titan is trying to present the picture as being totally unconcerned, but privately, the company and McMahon have to be fuming. Nevertheless, the day for gloating is April 3rd, not anytime in January"
"Almost immediately upon the word leaking out saw McMahon's first step in retaliation, signing J.J. Dillon away from the NWA. While on the surface, as far as talent goes, it was no loss at all (if you think it was, play back the ring introduction on TBS 1/14 for the Windham vs. Gilbert match and check the crowd reaction for Dillon), however Dillon was handling a significant work load in the office. Dillon won't be a manager with Titan, but instead will work as an assistant booker for a salary that has been bandied about as being $185,000 (keep in mind you should never believe figures like this, even if they could be true)"
"As a key member of the NWA front office and booking committee, Dillon not only knows how to get in touch with every NWA wrestler, but probably also knows significant details about their NWA contract, both in terms of money guaranteed and expiration date, and luring now talent away will no doubt be a key part of his new job"
"There is some bitterness over Dillon's departure as he left on Monday with only a telegram in his wake and gave no notice. The TBS show that aired Saturday was taped before the departure, but the Sunday show, with Paul E. Dangerously replacing Dillon as co-host, was taped afterwards. A few subtle jibes were placed, building up the story line which will be something to the effect of Flair and Windham firing J.J. because Eddie Gilbert fooled him both on the Steamboat thing, and also because he signed a contract for Barry to have to wrestle his brother"
"The contracts signed by the WWF wrestlers are for a two-year period, with the contract automatically renewing until terminated in writing by either side, but for a wrestler to break his contract after his two years, he must give 13 weeks notice in writing (which gives Titan three months to bury a guy on television if it wishes to do so to destroy the wrestlers' market value if he wishes to jump to the NWA)"
"The NWA contracts differ in that they guarantee money, and with the TBS folks heading the organization, the wrestlers actually get their money every two weeks based on their contract, and not on the house shows. However, there are plenty of NWA wrestlers not under contract, and some who are, could probably legally get out of them claiming the contracts had been violated when the balloon payments weren't met and only 40¢ on the dollar was paid"
"Most of the Titan wrestlers (with exceptions, and you all know who they are) would become ineffective almost immediately upon joining the NWA because they'd look out-of-place in the style unless they gave up, or tempered their gimmick, and most can't survive without their gimmick because of lack of substance to back it up"
"The wrestler Titan wants seemingly the most in the NWA stable is Sting, and his contract expires sometime around the early part of May. Expect tons of jump rumors on him, until he makes a firm commitment one way or the other, even if the rumors aren't founded"
"From the TBS side, for many reasons, the wrestler they have to look at going all out to attempt to get would be Hulk Hogan. No other WWF wrestler has the market value that could change the balance of power in the slightest. Obviously we are talking about an offer that would be well into the millions of dollars if that is serious, but if Turner could pull off the coup, that would be of far more value than his coup on 4/2"
"There are many reasons why it would be exceedingly difficult to get Hogan. First, he's got the movie this year. Second, he is going to be the hardest of all except for those who are blindly loyal to McMahon to the end, because he's so well paid and has already the easiest schedule of any of McMahon's wrestlers. Third, McMahon is not going to let him go easily, because even though there is a huge gap between the promotions right now, one acquisition would close that gap tremendously and a correctly promoted Hogan vs. Flair PPV match-up has incredible financial potential, moreso than any match McMahon could come up with without Hogan"
"The leading name in all the jump rumors of the past few weeks has been Barry Windham, although the jump isn't to the WWF that has been speculated, but to Dusty Rhodes' FCW promotion. The AWA even mentioned on TV this week that Windham would be coming to the AWA (Rhodes had told them Windham would appear in the 2/7 Battle Royal for the AWA title). Windham is still with the NWA and I'd say it's exceedingly unlikely he'll be on that AWA show"
"Titan is now claiming the reason they are running the 2/20 special on USA is simply because they are looking for a hot show to help USA during the sweeps"
"I'm told by someone very familiar with PPV clearances (unaffiliated with either NWA or WWF) that if Turner has locked up Viewers Choice, Request and Viacom (which he has) that McMahon's potential clearances would "have to be less than two million." "
"I believe we've seen the last of David Crockett as an announcer and that Jim Ross will handle all the TBS shows and Tony Schiavone will be strictly on syndication"
"When they announced the main event for next month's Richmond card and emphasized Steamboat & Gilbert vs. Flair & Windham, the reaction was only decent the first time and nothing the second time"
Feb 13, 89"Well, Super Sunday II has an entirely new twist since our last issue. What earlier appeared to be a coup by Turner Home Entertainment against Titan Sports turned out instead to be a victory for neither side, but instead a victory for the cable industry, which used Turner and the NWA as pawns in order to drive down Vince McMahon's original deal to carry Wrestlemania on pay-per-view" "Officially, the proposed NWA PPV event on 4/2 is off, and it is expected that Titan will clear around 9.4 million PPV homes for Wrestlemania V, which my guess is will be the largest grossing pro wrestling event ever. As of Friday, the NWA was in the planning stages of running a three-hour live show, tentatively from the Superdome in New Orleans, free on TBS which would start 30 minutes prior to Wrestlemania, which is somewhat similar to the situation last year on pro wrestling's first Super Sunday clash." "Several reasons have been bandied about as to why the pendulum shifted from what appeared to be a lock-out of Titan's Wrestlemania, but it appears the NWA was "used" and now comes off with egg on its face, after making statements in respected trade journals like Variety on how they were able to outmaneuver Titan on 4/2" "The impetus in the decision was Viacom, Request TV and Viewers Choice and other cable biggies who wanted to knock Titan Sports off its pedestal when Titan changed its deal and the revenue split for the Wrestlemania show, and also wanted to cut out the middlemen (Request and Viewers Choice) and sell its show directly to the cable companies themselves" "The cable companies then went to Titan's competitor, the NWA, and asked them to run a show head-to-head which would have knocked Titan out of most of the PPV markets and cost Wrestlemania V eight figures of potential income. It was expected that Titan would change its deal in order to save its PPV, however at least one major company was saying things like, they could offer us 90 percent of the Wrestlemania revenue (a 90/10 split in favor of the companies) and they still weren't going to run it" "McMahon changed his deal, and while I'm not sure of the exact percentages, it is the same deal that McMahon and the cable companies had for previous PPV events, and the companies then went to Turner and asked him to cancel his event, which is somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 percent to the cable company, 40 percent to Titan and 20 percent to the middle man" "The free competition show was not yet officially cleared by TBS, although it appears such a show will be taking place, as of press time. While the NWA is talking about doing a "loaded" show, the truth is, unlike last year, this show will do virtually no damage whatsoever to Wrestlemania V" "Going head-to-head helps the NWA's ratings because the wrestling "awareness" and publicity will be higher on that day than any other day this year (with the exception of this past Friday). I believe part of the reason the NWA drew its best rating ever last year, going head-to-head, was due not only to the fact it was a great line-up for a TV special, but also because the date was so etched in every wrestling fans' mind that casual fans simply didn't "forget" to watch the show, which happens a lot more than you would think" "Saturday night we wound up in the Philadelphia Civic Center for "NWA Suicide Tour ’89." This card was badder then bad. I’ve seen bad WWF cards that weren't even this bad. The crowd was roughly 2,200 paying $30,000, which is the lowest NWA gate in Philadelphia in a few years." "Junkfood Dog & Michael Hayes downed Dennis Condrey & Randy Rose in 12:43 when Hayes pinned Rose after across bodyblock. JFD, who is beginning to look like Abdullah the Dog, was in most of the way and it was real bad" "Lex Luger pinned Commando Ray Candy with a sunset flip in 14:06. They never even locked up until the six minute mark. The first six minutes were also the best part of the match. -**" "Originally, Abdullah was to team with the Roadies, but it was announced they had a "break-up in the dressing room." From what I'm told, the actual plan was for them to do these matches for a month, then have Abby turn on the Roadies and do a feud, but the Roadies didn't like the idea. While Roadies vs. Butcher may sound good on paper, the problem is, the Roadies' gimmick would be hurt working with Butcher because Butcher won't sell their stuff and if they don’t sell his Butcher's gimmick is ruined as well" "For the NWA/WWF confrontation in Chicago, at the end of last week, the WWF had around 6,500 tickets sold and the NWA had roughly 950" "Dick Murdoch signed a $100,000 per-year deal, which was a lot better offer than most would have expected and will be allowed to fulfill his New Japan commitments as well, so he was out of Dusty Rhodes' FCW group after just one TV taping (in which he was pinned by Dick Slater)" "The Samoan Swat Team is very close to coming in. There is talk of them coming in as Paul E. Dangerously’s new tag team somewhere down the road" "Bob Orton canceled his TV debut this past week because it was fruitless to introduce him, then have him leave until late March, so he'll start up in late March instead" "Jimmy Garvin has also postponed his debut for a few months, Precious, at least as of now, isn't planning on returning to the wrestling wars" "Hiro Matsuda is the new manager of Ric Flair and Barry Windham, and maybe of Butch Reed and Kendall Windham. He replaces J.J. Dillon, who is now booking for the WWF. It was explained on TV that this Yamazaki company from Tokyo purchased the Horseman and now owns their contracts. This whole thing is so terribly bad that I can't figure out why somebody in the chain of command didn't wise up to it before they went with it" "The booking team is composed of General Patton (George C. Scott), Blackjack Mulligan, Gene Anderson and Paul Jones. So Jones will no longer be managing. Basically Jones, Anderson and Mulligan are going to be road agents ala Blackjack Lanza, Grizzly Smith, Tony Garea, etc. for WWF" "Road Warriors are hearing all cheers at virtually every arena, but I’m told after the PPV they'll be going around against JFD & Uncle Ivan" "Also on 2/3, Vince McMahon called up Ted Turner and wanted to make a peace pact about the wrestling war. He wanted both sides to agree to stop raiding talent and to stop trying to sabotage each others PPV events. Here is the way I see it. McMahon knows he's so far ahead right now that if peace is called, he'll never be challenged. He's got more talent and more power to control the talent he has. From what I'm told. Titan isn't the least bit worried about anything from the wrestling end of the NWA right now because they are doing so much better at the house shows and as far as overall popularity. But Vince doesn't want a raiding war to boost the salary scale as has happened in real sports, because Turner does have more money and as his experience with baseball and basketball will show, he's not afraid to spend it" "4/2 show will be from Superdome. Why do they want a building filled with empty seats for a TV special? ?"
Feb 20, 89
"The NWA having a big show on Wednesday (TBS Clash of Champions special) although they decided to keep the line-up a secret from the public, and if I was promoting that line-up, I would as well"
"The most talked about in-wrestling news of the week is that longtime NWA voice Tony Schiavone jumped to Titan this past Monday. Schiavone gave notice on Monday to the NWA that he was accepting a Titan offer (reportedly for $138,000 per year) but was willing to work out his two weeks notice, but the NWA released Schiavone from any further duty at the time. While one can't discount the size of the Titan offer as the main lure for Schiavone's switch, he was unhappy with the decision by NWA management that would take him off all TBS shows and relegate him to being the lead announcer on the syndicated package"
"Schiavone has been the key voice on NWA broadcasts for four years, which is longer than most fans watching wrestling have been steady viewers so he is somewhat of an NWA institution as in broadcasting time, four years is an eternity. More importantly, it took the NWA's attention away from several very important matters pertaining to digging itself out of its 500,000 problems and trying to run a TBS special and a PPV over the next week, and now has to search for a new lead announcer on its syndicated package at the same time"
"It is expected that Bob Caudle and Jim Ross will fill the slack at the numerous TV tapings this week but they are desperately in search of at least one, and maybe even two or three new announcers. The leading candidate right now appears to be Lee Marshall (AWA), although Jack Reynolds (ex-WWF) has had his name mentioned more times than I care to admit although he's now a longshot, while Charlie Platt (Continental) is being considered but it seems there is little interest in either Lance Russell or Gordon Solie"
"Brian Pillman, who was officially turned down by NWA booker George Scott after Jim Crockett had scheduled for him to come in, will be back here before you read this as a babyface"
"Giant Baba had a one-hour meeting on 2/3 in Atlanta with Jim Barnett and Jack Petrik but Baba said they didn't talk any business"
"Both the NWA and AWA have canceled all future cards at the Showboat in Las Vegas. The NWA canceled because they want to wait for future West Coast tours until they improve their TV situation in the other West Coast cities, while AWA wants to save expenses by running tapings closer to home so they don't have to fly wrestlers to Vegas from Minneapolis"
"Roddy Piper's lawsuit stemming from his electrocution two years ago was just settled and Piper had claimed that it was the broken wrist suffered in the electrocution which wouldn't enable him to wrestle, which is one of the main reasons he never returned. With the suit settled, it is a virtual cinch he'll be back in the ring and several Titan sources are saying they have a lock on him, although I do know that his agent approached the NWA and said Piper would sign a one-year deal for a guaranteed $500,000. Piper may return at Wrestlemania V"
"Speaking of 2/20, Vince is actually throwing a double-barreled competition against the NWA PPV and even competing with himself. Besides doing the USA network special, which I'm told will be mainly tapes from the Binghamton taping this week, although I've got a feeling they'll air stuff from Milwaukee as well (since they taped every match except the Rockers vs. Tully & Arn) they are also going to run the MSG card live on the MSG cable network. All three shows (USA, MSG and NWA's PPV from Chicago) will be going on simultaneously"
"Barry Windham hasn't signed a new contract although he was offered a pretty sizeable new contract to stay. Things are very tense here right now between players and management because management wants everyone signed up as soon as possible and are afraid to start new angles and pushes with anyone not under contract due to the "war-like" situation, and none of the wrestlers want to sign since they figure a bidding war is going to start in April and who wants to have just signed a one-year deal just a few weeks before some big money could be available"
"Blackjack Mulligan already quit as assistant booker on 2/3 so he set a new record"
"2/12 at the Omni in Atlanta drew 2,300 (with a $5 G.A. ticket)"
"Some new rules which make for automatic fines: 1) No brawling outside the ring before intermission; 2) No nut shots (actually, this is a good rule because all the low blows on Dusty's cards got old real fast); 3) No pulling trunks all the way down as in the specialty of Dick Murdoch's foes (seeing Murdoch's bare ass isn't my idea of high-class entertainment); 4) No giving the finger. Other no-nos, although I'm not sure these are finable offenses, is no grabbing the house mic during matches (Paul E., Cornette and Ray Candy's specialty) and you aren't to do "too many" high spots early in the card and prelim matches are to just work holds with limited punches and kicks and few, if any spots"
"Expect Terry Gordy to return during the summer and there is a decent shot that the British Bulldogs will come in, especially since it appears they aren’t the saviors of Western Canada that they thought they would be"
"If you noticed, Lex Luger wasn't booked on the house shows this week. I was told he only had six bookings in February, which makes great sense economically since he's earning $7,000 per week and with the possible exception of Sting is the most popular face on the circuit"
"Have you ever seen anything so mishandled as the promotion for this PPV? The odds were against the Flair-Steamboat thing because of timing (they only had four weeks to build it up), but I still think it would have been salvageable with four weeks of hot TBS and syndicated shows. Instead, the TVs have been boring (even though visually the shows have improved, the content has gotten worse when it needed to get better) and the entire promotion of Steamboat, which needed to be 100 percent on the money, has been fumbled almost completely over the past two weeks"
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Mozenrath
FANatic
Foppery and Whim
Speedy Speed Boy
Posts: 121,038
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Post by Mozenrath on Mar 12, 2021 6:53:28 GMT -5
Meltzer's insulting nicknames just make me think of those days of Youtube when people would post WWE content with "Cheese Souffle" and other codenames to try to escape detection from WWE's lawyers.
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