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Post by Deleted on Apr 1, 2021 3:46:39 GMT -5
Dec 26, 89
"It appears this next decade will bring about changes in the same direction as this past decade. Fewer regional offices. Wrestling on this continent will be dominated by a few, at least one and no more than three, promotions. It's hard to believe a company would be able to compete with Titan Sports in this country for the economic top spot. But ten years is a long time and even the most ardent Titan supports will readily concede that Ted Turner is in the wrestling business for the long haul"
"Right now I see no conceivable way that the NWA would be able to consistently turn a profit on house shows in the foreseeable future, particularly with their current salary structure. But the potential PPV income, particularly down the road, may make the latter fact insignificant anyway. Even Titan is finding it harder and harder to draw at the houses and it wouldn't surprise me that in a year or two the house show business would become hard for even them to turn a profit on, but PPV, barring any serious problems is going to be a goldmine for Titan for at least a few more years"
"Between Bashes, Clashes, Wrestle Wars, Wrestlemanias, Summer Slams, Starrcades and Survivors, we'll have had ten PPV events, a half-dozen NBC specials and five TBS Clash specials in 1989."
"Prediction for 1990 is more of the same. That's 20 television spectaculars with the "super matches," which almost by necessity, will make house shows seem less and less important."
"Starrcade, traditionally the NWA's biggest spectacular of the year, dating back to 1983, was composed this year of an "Iron Man" and "Iron Team" tournament. The tournaments each had four participants or teams, that would have round-robin matches against one another (which creates unique face vs. face and heel vs. heel matches). The victor would be determined by a point system, which was never released publicly until the day of the event"
"The New Japan system (five for a pin, four for a count out, three for a DQ win, two for a draw) was also considered but it was felt that it would be psychologically more impressive to fans to have winners with 40 points than winners with ten points"
"The live event drew about 6,000 fans to the Omni in Atlanta on Wednesday night (12/13). About 5,200 were paid for a gate of $70,000. No PPV figures are available at press time. Even with the excuse that a Wednesday night isn't the best night for wrestling, the live gate has to be a major disappointment. Regular shows at the Omni in recent months have drawn upwards of 10,000 fans."
"While I didn't expect a sellout because the tournament concept doesn’t allow for hyping specific grudge matches (which is what draws—impulse buys not logical buys) I still felt the idea of it being a heavily hyped PPV event and Starrcade to boot, would be good for at least 10,000 fans again."
"Also, because of the 7 p.m. starting time (Omni shows traditionally start at 8 p.m.), this was a late arriving crowd and when the card started there were barely 2,000 fans in the building. This caused the early matches to lack in heat and make the event look "cheap" on camera because of all the visible empty seats at ringside."
"It should be mentioned that in this match, along with in many other matches, they were "shaving" time. They made the 10 minute call at a legit 7:30, and they were calling four minutes to go and three minutes to go with 2:30 shaved off real time"
"Lex Luger pinned Sting in 11:31. They started with a hot high spot. The time shaving reached its most embarrassing here. At the two minute mark Terry Funk, doing color with Jim Ross, said that was the hottest first minute he'd ever seen. Just seconds later, ring announcer Gary Cappetta called five minutes. They made the ten minute call at 6:00...Because of the time shaving, this match again "went down to the final seconds" before the finish. In fact, since they had four minutes shaved off, they even went past the "worked" time limit to reach the finish"
"They called five at 2:45 this time"
"The crowd never even made a peep, let alone a pop on near falls on the Warriors which makes it very hard to get heat on them because people don't "buy" them selling. They didn't even pop for a near fall when Reed did the elbow drop off the rope onto Hawk and went for the cover"
"Again no peeps, let alone pops, when the Steiners put winning moves on the Warriors"
"Big surprise that the Warriors lost (which made it obvious they were going to win the tournament as they'd never have agreed to it if they weren't getting the payoff in return). While the double pin finish has been done too often on NWA big shows in 1989, the fact that the Warriors did a job made it less objectionable as if someone else was involved"
"The Samoans were subbing for the Skyscrapers who had been advertised for the past month even though Sid Vicious had been hospitalized with a punctured lung back on 11/18. The live crowd was given no explanation for the substitution (and they had several weeks on TV to announce the change and didn't, but that's all been said before). On PPV Jim Cornette said it was a last minute injury and wasn't sure of the severity and the Samoans got the nod to come in earlier in the day. Ross then followed by saying that Sid had a punctured lung from a match with the Steiners (which is actually the truth) and it was touch-and-go if he'd be released by his doctor to compete. Contradictory stories since the Steiner match was a month ago and Cornette said last minute and Cornette didn't know the injury but Ross did"
"Ric Flair went to a time limit draw with Lex Luger at 17:01. Unlike the previous matches in which they shaved time, in this one they gave them more time"
"Scott flipped Fatu over the top rope and ref Lee Scott (subbing for Tommy Young who is still out of action from that bump he took in the Tommy Rich vs. Mike Rotunda television match) had his back turned—but he wasn't supposed to. And they had also passed the "work" time limit but Scott still acted like he saw Scott (does this read confusing or what?) throw Fatu over and made the DQ call"
"They called five at 3:00 and ten at 7:00"
"Surprisingly, the live crowd cheered Muta slightly more than Luger. Surprising since Luger has gotten cheered more than a lot of the faces he's been in with, but when he's in with a heel (who should be a face himself, but that's another story) he didn't got the majority of cheers (although it was something like 55-45 percent pro-Muta)"
"Finish saw Muta blow the mist, in Luger's eyes for the DQ just "seconds" before the worked time limit was going to expire. The match was very good and very intense, but the finish defied all logic as Muta was creaming him almost the entire way, it was just before the time limit would be called for the draw, and he blows mist right in front of the ref for no reason for the DQ"
"I'd give the thing a thumbs up. Given the restraints of the tournament, the booking was excellent. The winners did jobs (such as they were) earlier in the show, which the tournament allowed for. They went down to the wire with three possible tournament winners in both divisions going into the final match"
"Sting's win in the singles tournament came as a complete surprise since they spent the last six weeks telling everyone that Luger was going to win and they teased the draw"
"Still, this was a show for the hardcore wrestling fan. I don't think a casual fan would get into seeing the same guys wrestle three times. The scoring system was great if you were really following the show closely but if you weren't following closely, or were and had no concept of simple mathmatics, the show went over your head"
"Really, aside from Flair, and to a lesser extent Luger, the guys don't have enough versatility to give you three different matches. I mean, how many clotheslines and powerslams do you need in one night?"
"Just before the finishes of every match they were exploding the dry ice backstage for the next entrance so the fans would all start looking backstage (like they were anticipating a run-in—fortunately there weren't any major run-ins on the show) just before the finish of most matches"
"They had a snafu at the end when before they went to Sting's post-match interview, the show just went off the air. Boom, the credits rolled and the show was history, with no sign-off"
"I certainly don't sense this show, good as it may have been, as any kind of a turning point for the NWA. The singles matches were exciting, but they also gave away the first Flair-Luger meeting which takes away from the house shows. The tag tournament didn't seem to have the interest overall except the curiosity for Steiners-Warriors and heat for Steiners-Samoans (only because it was a good match following a hot match)"
"The stress factor in being NWA booker is a killer. Take one look at Flair's face. It reminds me of Jimmy Carter when he was President. Between trying to keep the wrestlers happy when you are trying to get them to put people over and trying to keep management and second-guessers happy it is a no win situation"
"It's no secret that the powers in management want to replace Flair as World champion with Lex Luger and replace Flair as top babyface with Sting. They want to push young guys. While phasing out Flair may be putting it too strongly, phasing him down is certainly accurate"
"Starrcade is over. Flair is clearly the best wrestler in the NWA. Luger is good--very good, but not really close at all to Flair. Sting can do good high spots and has a lot of charisma, but is very limited in what he can do when he’s not being carried. He even gets lost in matches"
"Ric Flair is not a drawing card anymore. Maybe it's because of age. Maybe it's because he's been around too long on top. Maybe, and I'm kind of convinced of this one, it is simply because nobody at this point can be any kind of a drawing card with the NWA with all its flaws. However, Luger, for all his improvements and his physique, is also not a drawing card. Sting, for all his charisma, is not a drawing card. No matter which of these three men holds the title, none will draw big crowds consistently in 1990"
"As a fan from a personal standpoint, which has nothing to do with business, I came out of Starrcade "wanting" Flair to stay as champion because when Luger and Sting, the two big stars, were in there together, the match didn't get nearly the heat it should have, and it wasn't that great of a match"
"You almost feel sorry for Luger when and if the move is made. When Luger doesn't draw, and he won't, and it won’t be his fault, there will be second-guessers everywhere. The first time Luger headlines against anyone but Flair, and if the match is anything less than excellent, it will come again. Two years from now, it may get worse. Legends get better as time goes on and Flair's reign as champion will become legendary when it is over. All the greats in this business are a lot better in long-time fans' eyes and remembrances than they are when you see videotapes of them"
"Blanchard was fired by the WWF because he tried to recruit wrestlers to join the NWA. Failing a drug test was a convenient excuse. One wrestler doing the same stuff Blanchard was doing is headlining right now with the WWF, and probably a lot more than one. Blanchard wasn't signed by the NWA because those in the organization, when it came time to sign the contract felt it wasn't nearly as big a coup to get him as it was when the promises were made. Or maybe just because there was a public relations fear from the reasons Titan gave for firing him"
"The Flair-Muta Tokyo Dome match is somewhat in jeopardy because Muta doesn't want to do it after Starrcade because he felt that finishing with zero points and with the fans in Japan reading about Starrcade in the newspapers and magazines that he wouldn't be viewed as a legitimate contender for the title. Muta had a problem getting over in Japan because he was viewed as too much of a pretty boy and not tough even though he had awesome moves. Because he did so well in the U.S., he thought he could return without the "heat" but with Starrcade, he was afraid that they would view him as the same Keiji Muto who left as a guy with good moves who wasn't "tough" "
"For a long time everyone assumed that Gilbert's NWA contract wouldn't be renewed since he's been buried there ever since Ric Flair took over as booker, however the NWA didn't give Gilbert a 90-day termination notice this month which means in theory, his contract, by the wording, should be automatically renewed for another year"
"Bob Segar's people complained about the theme music for Woman so we won't be watching her strut to that song anymore"
"They were still airing Starrcade commercials on ESPN four days after the event took place during basketball games and also on TBS during the wrestling show on Saturday after the event"
"Woman and Nitron both tried to break the portrait over Norman's head and it didn't break so Kevin Sullivan had to get the job done and the red coloring on the painting ran all over Norman's head to make it look like blood (since no blood is allowed on TV they are being clever between red mist and running red paint to get a bloody-like appearance without violating the rules)"
"At the WCW tapings in Greensboro they held a match with Shane Douglas vs. Jim Cornette after the Dudes "trick" Cornette into signing a contract. The match winds up with the Midnights attacking Douglas for the DQ and leaving him laying. Douglas was booed during the match against Cornette even though Cornette did everything to turn the crowd including throwing powder. Anyway, Douglas went to Jim Herd and complained that he couldn't even beat a manager on TV and wanted to quit, Herd than told the booking committee that the Greensboro match will never air on television and that he wants another match between the two taped with Douglas beating Cornette. So the match was supposed to be taped but Cornette came out with his arm in a sling and had a note from his doctor saying he couldn't wrestle for another eight months and Douglas wrestled Stan Lane and it wound up with Cornette in the ring and getting pinned"
"Fans were pretty upset since Warriors vs. Skyscrapers was advertised as the main event. Skyscrapers weren't there and Warriors, while there, did one interview but never even did a squash match while Doom vs. Steiners also billed never took place because Steiners were no-shows for no apparent reason. Sting and Muta also didn’t appear"
"12/15 in St. Louis drew 1,300 and $14,000...They canceled the next date in St. Louis since they took out two quarter-page ads and headlined with Flair vs. Luger and didn't draw any fans"
"Jim Herd offered Sam Muchnick $5,000 to do a series of television interviews endorsing the NWA today but Muchnick turned it down because he wouldn't endorse the current product"
"Terry Funk will take over as Executive Producer of the syndicated TV shows starting in January"
"Japanese girl wrestlers Toshiyo Yamada & Minami Toyoda will come in to work a series against Bull Nakano & Kumiko Iwamoto in February. Even though these girls all work hard. Bull, the heel, is going to wind up being cheered by the NWA fans I'd bet unless they all just go to the concession stands and don't care about the match"
"Sheik gets paid his $2,000 or so per week for staying home as he signed a six-figure one-year contract with the NWA when George Scott was booking. It probably expires around February and it certainly won't be renewed"
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Post by Deleted on Apr 2, 2021 4:10:21 GMT -5
Jan 8, 90
It was announced that the top three matches for the 2/25 PPV card in Greensboro will be Flair defending the title against Sting, Steiners defending against the Andersons and Luger defending the U.S. title against Steve Williams. No idea what is going to happen in the main event since Jim Herd apparently still wants the belt to go to Luger. Flair and Sting did interviews promising to do their best and they’d be friends when it was all over."
"Rock & Roll Express debuted and got over bigger than anyone else on the card (keep in mind how big the initial pops were for Tommy Rich as well) and were working hard since they know it’s their last chance to make money in the wrestling business"
"Also debuting was Mean Mark Calaway (Master of Pain) who will probably become the newest member of the Skyscrapers as he was accompanied by Teddy Long and teaming with Danny Spivey."
"Sid Vicious’ lung collapsed two weeks back while training for his return and he won’t be back in action until April at the earliest and his contract expires shortly after that"
"They were going to bring in Pat Tanaka but the WWF got him first. My guess is that wasn’t a coincidence because nobody seems to believe the WWF would be interested in Tanaka except to make the NWA miserable"
"Gary Hart has been fired so the Muta & Dragon Master & Sawyer trio doesn’t have a manager"
"New Zealand Militia starting next week will be billed as "The Royal Family" and will come out to the music of "God Save the Queen" "
"Muta missed the Philly show waiting for his gear at the airport"
"Missy Hyatt wasn’t in Gainesville doing commentary and she’s not going to be on NWA Main Event after all. The official company line is that they are waiting for his speech teacher to give them the okay once she loses all trace of a Southern accent"
"Buzz Sawyer had a few teeth knocked out in a post match brawl in Gainesville, GA with Arn Anderson."
"Titan did try to keep Ricky Steamboat from using "The Dragon" in the NWA, but Steamboat himself trademarked the name first so he was allowed to."
"The Starrcade promos on 12/16 ran because they were doing a Starrcade rerun on PPV on 12/23 as an experiment to see how a Saturday afternoon PPV rerun would do. Of course, whatever the results of that experiment were meant nothing, because NOBODY, and I mean NOBODY (not even most people within the promotion and the wrestlers) even knew they were doing the rerun, nor was it ever plugged on any television show directly"
"Pro wrestlers Kendall Windham and his father Robert Windham (Blackjack Mulligan) were arrested on Dec. 26 on charges of trying to pass counterfeit $20 bills. The two were held on $25,000 bail, and Barry Windham posted the bail for both of them"
Jan 15, 90
"An update on the counterfeit case which has included the arrest of pro wrestlers Blackjack Mulligan (Bob Windham) and son Kendall Windham. After the arrest of the Windhams just before Christmas, the nine-member counterfeit ring started crumbling. The ring had been under investigation since April, when two of the men, one of whom has admitted this, are charged with having printed $1.2 million in fake 20's. The police made a $1 million buy of the fake money, and the man who brought the suitcase to the undercover officers was Mulligan"
"From the TV it appeared that they will be turning Sid Vicious babyface when he returns in April to feud with the new Skyscrapers. Teddy Long was running him down about being injured and the like. Many of the people at WCW think Vicious won't be back for long since people assume he's Titan-bound when his contract is up"
"The Arsenio Hall folks have been trying, with no success, to get NWA wrestlers on. First they went through TBS and had no luck. Since Hall is on the Fox Network and TBS is kind of a rival, that doesn't surprise me although common sense tells you to take whatever publicity is offered. Then the Arsenio Hall people tried to contact WCW directly and were flatly turned down in their request to book people like The Freebirds, Lex Luger, Flair and Missy Hyatt. Why were they turned down? The word they were given is because Hall had booked WWF wrestlers to appear on his show"
"Sting officially became the Fourth Horseman as of TBS tapings on 1/3, although my guess is that isn’t for long"
"NWA canceled Stubenville, OH and Rochester, NY on Sunday, and Monday because of weak advances."
"World Championship Wrestling did a 3.4 (Zenk & Pillman vs. Freebirds, Stan Lane vs. Shane Douglas and Sting vs. Dragon Master) which is the second highest in about 18 months"
Jan 22, 90
"TSN (which is Canada's version of ESPN) looked into getting the NWA but found the show too violent and too vicious. CRTC (Canadian Radio and Television Commission) has bylaws which prevent showing "gratuitous violence" and "sex-role stereotyping." TSN claimed both are found within the NWA product because of frequent usage of foreign objects and the character of Woman. Now, the question comes to my mind if that's the case, then what about the WWF, which TSN would kill to get? I guess scissors, snakes, Rick Rude's act, Sherri Martel, Elizabeth, loaded purses and the like are family entertainment but a loaded tennis racquet and the character of Woman constitutes sex and violence. Am I missing something here?"
"NWA announcer Joe Pedicino got engaged to Boni Blackstone, who does the Atlanta wrestling block and used to be on PWTW with Pedicino in syndication back in December"
"Japanese women won't be coming in. Idea nixed by the booking committee"
"1/12 in Cincinnati drew 4,500 with no local television"
"Center Stage tapings on 1/16 were canceled because of building renovation but nobody knew until they got there."
"1/6 in Charlottesville, VA drew 5,500....Flair was billed as appearing but it was known in advance he wouldn't because it was his daughter's 16th birthday, but he was advertised anyway and fans live weren't thrilled, although refunds were offered"
"Fans waiting for 1/16 Center Stage tapings that didn’t happen were given free tickets to both the next taping and also to the next Omni card"
"As for the mention of Kerry Von Erich during the Solie segment—there are those in the organization who want Kerry in and there was talk of him being brought in for the February dates in Texas but right now it seems to be a dead issue. The thought is that if Kerry still meant anything in Dallas, his retirement or win the title match would have drawn more than 200 fans"
"Rock & Roll aren’t going to cut it this time around. Zenk & Pillman fit the same niche and are younger, fresher looking and tons better in the ring to the fans"
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Post by DSR on Apr 2, 2021 11:51:58 GMT -5
Man, what a corny name! I don't see this guy lasting long in the business!
*off in the distance, the sound of fists being taped*
OH SHI-
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Post by Deleted on Apr 3, 2021 3:12:37 GMT -5
Feb 1, 90
"Originally, one of the feature matches at the Egg Dome was to be Ric Flair vs. Great Muta for the NWA title. Last week that match, which had been pushed in Japan for months, fell apart. Flair canceled the booking (which is not the first time Flair has canceled a Japanese tour at the last minute), with the given reason being that TBS was going to dock him one week's pay if he went to Japan for the show. Flair was to earn $15,000 for the Egg Dome match, but one week's pay for Flair is very close to that figure so as a business decision, he really wouldn't have come out much ahead by making the trip. In addition, the NWA is going to tape two or three sets of tapings during the five day period Flair would be gone, which would be the tapings one week before the PPV and Flair himself wanted to be there as booker to oversee and also to get everything necessary accomplished in getting over his match with Sting."
"Steve Williams will be the only NWA wrestler to appear on the card as Sakaguchi decided it would be no value in bringing Muta in against any opponent besides Flair or Sting and they couldn't get Sting for the card either"
"One person who is gone is Joe Pedicino, who quit on Thursday. Pedicino was asked to turn heel and be a character that would be a cross between a Joe Isuzu constant liar, a Geraldo Rivera sensationalist and a Brother Love. Since Pedicino has an ad agency in Atlanta, he felt that would destroy his outside wrestling accounts and credibility in the market. Actually, there were several other problems besides that and the NWA had pretty well agreed to not have Pedicino play the new role, but there was so much personal tension between Pedicino and several other decision-makers (in particular Jim Ross and other members of the booking committee) that he decided to leave anyway"
"In Japan it is being reported that Steve Williams won't be re-signing when his contract expires in March and he'll work full-time in Japan. He'll be the first foreigner to work both All Japan and New Japan at basically the same time. However that could change since the NWA has plans for a renewed push for him"
"1/22 in Raleigh drew 1,000 (all their shows in decent time periods were canceled about a month back and they only have a 1 a.m. show left and that was pre-empted every week that this card would have been promo'd)"
"Headed in are Dan Kroffat & Doug Furnas (in May, but any plans that far in advance have to be labeled as tenuous at best) as a heel tag team and Randy Culley (Moondog Rex) but probably as a jobber"
"In Greenville, Flair had another NWA title match on TV against Tom Zenk this time. It was a total face match until Flair reversed a reverse cradle and held onto the tights for the win"
"The Greensboro line-up is strong, at press time with Ric Flair vs. Sting for the NWA title, Lex Luger vs. Steve Williams for the U.S. title, Steiners vs. Ole & Arn Anderson for the NWA tag team title (there was a lot of talk that Tully Blanchard would take Ole’s place in this match and that Ric Flair wanted to debut Blanchard at this show but it appears management is still against Blanchard being hired), Road Warriors vs. Skyscrapers in a street fight, Tom Zenk & Brian Pillman vs. Freebirds (my own guess is that this will be a U.S. tag team title match), Midnight Express vs. Rock & Roll Express, Cactus Jack Manson vs. Norman and Buzz Sawyer & Great Muta vs. Dynamic Dudes."
"You have no idea how many times I get reports on NWA house shows where the person who calls says it was a so-so card saved by the main event."
"Last year there was a move to turn Muta face, but Hart got in the way (sensing without Muta he'd have no spot) and neither he nor Muta wanted to do it."
Feb 5, 90
"As for Williams, if you check the tour dates (2/21 to 3/6), you'll note they coincide with the 2/25 PPV from Greensboro. Now I do recall when Ric Flair and Hulk Hogan were big deals in Japan in the early part of the decade that they would on occasion either fly in or out for one match in the middle of a tour so maybe Williams will work the PPV but maybe he won't. Because of the ramifications of Williams' appearance on this tour (he's the first foreign wrestler who has been allowed to cross promotion lines) there is no way he's skipping the tour. This may be something to pay attention to in about three weeks"
"Manson's bumps were so far out of this world that one wonders how his career will ever last much longer before he's in traction for a lifetime. Well, at least nobody can accuse him of working to less than the best of his ability"
"The behind-the-scenes backbiting is so totally out of control here I almost don't even want to deal with it. None of it is anything that is going to help the company get on the right footing anyway"
Feb 12, 90
"While this has not been confirmed as of press time, I believe Tully Blanchard will be debuting for the NWA at the Clash of Champions (which is tomorrow night as this is being written) in Corpus Christi. If he's not there, then the chances of him returning to the NWA would be pretty slim. Blanchard has had several meetings with Jim Herd over the past week, although early meetings saw the two sides far apart on contract terms. Supposedly the NWA offered $156,000 per year (which is more than fair from these eyes) which would be slightly more than his WWF income (wrestlers at a similar level in Titan to Blanchard at the time Blanchard was there were earning $2,000 to $2,800 per week on an average week) as tag team champion."
"The NWA also set a record the night earlier, as its Power Hour show on 1/26, featuring a six-man tag team match with Ric Flair & Arn Anderson & Sting vs. Buzz Sawyer & Dragon Master & Great Muta drew a 3.1 rating."
"World Championship Wrestling the next afternoon drew a strong 3.6 rating and its 1.9 million homes was the second largest total audience for the weekly program in its history (show peaked with a replay of the six-man tag from the previous night which drew a 4.3 rating and an 8.2 share)."
"Ironically, at least for now, the record-breaking match in the history of "regularly scheduled wrestling programming on cable" was a Brookyn Brawler vs. Jose Luis Rivera match in which the rating hit a 4.7"
"Buddy Landel and Owen Hart have offers from both the NWA and WWF. Landel would probably be a jobber in the WWF while in the NWA he might get some wins but have to put the big stars over on TV is where I'd see him. We already know Hart's fate in the WWF, but there are few alternatives in this wrestling world as it now stands"
"WWF again booking as many dates as possible head-up with NWA. Head-to-head in Miami this week and they booked Charlotte on 2/25 head-to-head with the NWA's PPV in Greensboro"
"Here’s the latest on the Arsenio Hall thing. Three totally different and contradictory stories. Story #1--NWA version (After hearing story brought up from everyone after the Observer blurb and denying that they were ever contacted, they sent photos of certain wrestlers to Hall and haven't heard back); #2—Hall show (Don’t want NWA wrestlers, mad that the whole subject was brought up in the newsletter); #3—A Hall staffer confirmed by another party (wanted Flair on in April, got no cooperation from either WCW or TBS and it’s a dead issue)."
"As for the Flair/Japan thing, again both sides blaming the other for the deal falling apart but TBS was going to dock Flair one week’s pay if he went but they felt that was fair since he’d be gone for that week and was going to make at least that much working the Japan date"
"Ring announcer Tony Gillem was suspended for a few weeks over an incident where he made some announcements while the Samoans were doing a post-match brawl"
"Sid Vicious was re-signed for another year so that should quell any rumors of him going to the WWF at least until the summer of 1991"
"Doug Furnas and Mil Mascaras worked the taping on Wednesday at Center Stage. Furnas will be a babyface, not a heel, as Flair had a change of heart after seeing him work"
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Post by Deleted on Apr 4, 2021 4:05:49 GMT -5
Feb 19, 90
"At Tuesday night's Clash of the Champions from Corpus Christi, Tex., Sting suffered a serious knee injury that will keep him out of action for at least a few months...Sting charged the ring once, and was pulled down by a number of wrestlers plus security chief Doug Dillinger and Wahoo McDaniel. He broke away and started climbing the cage to get at Flair, but somehow when he was being pulled down the second time, they were pulling while his leg was in the cage and his knee was badly torn"
"The injury occurred less than three weeks before the NWA's PPV show on 2/25 in which Sting was in the main event challenging Ric Flair for the NWA title. Judging from the interviews that aired on television this weekend (Wrestling Rule No. 1: Babyface never guarantees a victory unless it is going to happen—a rule that will now be changed no doubt), Sting was going to have won the title from Flair on the show."
"The injury was diagnosed as a torn patella tendon in the knee. The patella is the tendon that holds the kneecap in place. Originally he was to undergo exploratory surgery on Friday to find out just how much damage was done, but the decision was later made that he would undergo a more major operation on Tuesday. Since the extent of the actual damage won't be known until they open up the knee, it's unknown just how long Sting will be out of action. Speculation is that he'll be out for two months provided the rest of the damage is minimal. But it could easily be as long as six months before Sting can return to the ring"
"The injury puts the NWA into a major panic with a PPV show coming and no main event. Plus, the inner turmoil within the company between the wrestlers, bookers and management has grown to the point where the management is basically pointing the finger at Flair for every problem (some of which he may even deserve the blame for) and they wanted the belt off him in the worst way"
"A meeting was scheduled for Monday morning to determine where the company was headed, since everything was being built around Sting as a babyface and with the triple-turn on Tuesday, the company's leading singles babyface at this writing is Norman the Lunatic."
"The PPV card has been changed to Flair vs. Lex Luger as the top match. Whether or not Luger will be officially turned will be determined at this week’s meeting. Even if he isn't officially turned, by what happened Tuesday, Luger will be the babyface for the match (and subsequent rematches because with Sting out of action, just about the only singles match they can book as a headline event right now is Flair vs. Luger). Another wrestling rule of thumb is when you have a major substitution, particularly on the big card, that you somehow find a way to put the babyface's hand up in the main event"
"Luger's match with Steve Williams was dumped, and it was just as well, since Williams' contract expired this weekend, and when he left Thursday for Japan, he let it be known that he wasn't coming back to the NWA"
"While no contract was signed by press time last week, at least according to the version I received, the sides had come to an agreement of $156,000 per year with Blanchard agreeing to work 176 dates. The contract was to be brought to Corpus Christi, he'd sign it before the show, and be involved in the angle later in the night. Apparently the contract brought to him was for $156,000 but for 300 dates, which is probably the same deal Arn Anderson is under. Blanchard balked, feeling he had agreed to work 176 dates and the NWA's side was that this deal was only on the table until 8 p.m. that night, when the show started and chances of a deal appear to be dead right now."
"The Great Muta quit after the Clash as well and missed the rest of the week, however the NWA wants him back and he's agreed to meet with them on Monday. If Muta returns, no doubt he will also be turned face and they'll be dangling the carrot of a Roos shoe deal for him should he agree to return. Several months back the NWA was talking about coming out with Muta comic books for kids when and if he was ever turned, so no doubt that will be discussed as well"
"Williams, had he stayed, was probably going to be turned as well after the PPV show."
"I think they were telling us that Nitron is gone in the commentary. Nobody is going to miss him"
"Ole explained that Flair brought Ole and Arn back to the NWA for the express purpose of getting rid of Sting. They would have done it except before they went after Sting, Sting surprised them and saved Ric Flair in a match with Terry Funk, so Flair owed him one. When Sting beat Flair at Starrcade, they were coming to get him but Flair called them off because he owed Sting one. Then Sting became a Horseman. But he committed one unforgivable sin which got him kicked out, he signed to wrestle Flair for the title"
"All was delivered great. Problem is, Sting saved Flair in July. Ole never showed up until October and Arn until after Thanksgiving. Arn claimed he called Flair to help him against J-Tex, now they are saying Flair called Arn to rid him of Sting, who was his tag partner at the time. Also, Sting became a Horseman at the exact same time he got the title shot, so kicking him out of the group for doing that made no sense for that reason, particularly with all the pre-match interviews by Flair and Arn Anderson saying it didn't matter who won because they were all together"
"Next came an interview with Terry Funk and Lex Luger. The less said about this fiasco, the better. This was the worst interview Luger has done since turning. He was out there forever and seemed to have nothing to say. He also talked about all the "allocades" he's received in his wrestling career. Don't let him go out there live without a rehearsal, or at least unless someone gives him an idea of what point he's supposed to make on his interview. Funk kept trying to wrap him up and it looked worse than amateurish. As for Funk, it’s bad enough when these wrestlers endlessly switch back from face-to-heel every few months, but when the announcer switches from face-to-heel on every interview, that’s a bit much"
"Mean Mark has been a pleasant surprise. He’s still awkward in some spots, but the potential is there to be a great working big man"
"Sawyer got cheered and the brief period Muta was in saw him get huge cheers. Nobody cheered Dragon Master, however"
"Pillman climbed the cage at one point and was smacked by Flair in the eye and he got juice the hardway (couldn't see it on TV) but he also was hospitalized and needed stitches after the card"
"There's a line between advertising and annoying and the endless plugs for the 900 number were truly annoying. I couldn’t get it out of my head the feeling that the average Joe watching the show would see this as a group totally desperate for any kind of money that they'd endlessly plug a 900 number and literally beg all night for you to call"
"The Horseman turn represented one more episode in the NWA’s biggest problem. Constant looking and booking a few weeks, or maybe a month or two ahead, but not enough long-range planning. I'm not against the idea of a Ric Flair turn, but before doing the turn, they needed to have developed at least two more top singles babyfaces. With everyone grouped together in these tag teams, it made the whole promotion dependent upon Sting"
"I don't blame them for not having a back-up plan because of Sting's injury. These things happen and it isn't anyone's fault. The timing was unfortunate for the NWA. It was especially unfortunate for Sting. But even if he had not been injured, the entire promotion was hanging, from the babyface side, on just one guy with the "turning" of the No. 1 and No. 3 face at the same time"
"If Lex Luger wins the title, or even if Flair retains the title on the 25th, the NWA only has one match capable of headlining for three months, or even six months, until Sting comes back. And while Flair and Luger can put on good matches nightly, they've already been going at it nightly since mid-December and all these turns have to be a turn-off to casual fans and a total confusion to sporadic fans"
"While I'm at it, somebody at the NWA should contact Buster Douglas to ref the 25th in the Road Warriors match (you don't want him getting in the way of a Flair match). It's not that it is a slap in the face to Titan, but it is a way to use things to publicize your own events just as Titan has done. Douglas probably wouldn't want any part of it, but if nobody tries, how does anyone really know"
"J.T. Southern isn't coming in after that angle on the Clash. It was just a one-time deal. Apparently Manson was supposed to get the advantage and be pounding on the guy when security pulled him off but the cameras cut away too fast. By the way, in 1988 we saw Manson take that same bump on a concrete floor in Memphis (and he juiced like crazy doing it) and I thought he was dead that time also"
"The Flair vs. Luger advertised main event didn't take place on 2/7 in Beaumont because they weren't sure how they wanted the feud to play"
"2/9 in San Antonio drew 2,000 and they weren't too happy considering five key no-shows (Sting injured. Flair had to rush home, Muta quit, Luger wasn't there because of transportation problems and Williams was in Japan)"
"2/11 in Knoxville....Flair beat Luger via DQ. Luger was 100 percent face and the place went wild for him, which will be the case from this point forward. I think his reaction will convince them to make him lead face until Sting comes back rather than try and push this as heel vs. heel (with Luger as the less-heelish thus getting cheered)"
"Turner basically has no involvement whatsoever in the promotion other than it is a company he owns that signs the checks. Jack Petrik is the ultimate man in charge. There have been suggestions at times of using Turner, or at least his name, in promotions (including a Ted Turner Cup where he'd present the winners with the trophy) but seems he wants no public involvement with them"
Feb 26, 90
"Sting has told other wrestlers that he expects to be back in the ring ahead of schedule, and even some talk of him returning on the July PPV card"
"The 2/7 World Championship Wrestling show was the first regular TBS wrestling show (non-Clash) to reach two million homes, drawing a 3.8 rating in 2.01 million homes. That record lasted just one day, as the NWA Main Event drew a 3.9 rating and was viewed in 2.08 million homes, which also broke the cable record set just a few weeks earlier by an edition of Prime Time Wrestling which hit 2.03 million homes."
"That the shows have rebounded so strongly since September is a real feather in the cap of the NWA. Because at the same time the NWA ratings of some shows have almost doubled, the WWF numbers during the same time period stayed at about the same level (Prime Time) or dropped considerably (All-American) to the point the NWA consistently is beating the WWF in cable ratings. This is something a few months back that one thought didn’t even have the potential of happening"
"While the NWA made a last-ditch effort to bring Muta back last week, Muta didn't even consider the offer. Those in the NWA are claiming that Muta was too greatly influenced by Gary Hart (who the NWA fired in late December). Hart had continually told Muta and others close to Muta that the American public would never cheer a Japanese babyface, so whenever the booking committee came up with ideas to turn Muta, they were nixed (and the ideas were there from day one, when he was initially cheered instead of booed from his early NWA appearances). After Starrcade, Muta's attitude grew worse, especially when Hart was let go."
"The truth of the matter on Muta is this. Even though he often had great matches and (particularly when his knees weren't bothering him) was often a spectacular worker, he was never particularly effective as a heel because people never really hated him. There were frequent times the fans were practically begging for a turn, but his own belief in those who had advised him that the American public wouldn't cheer a Japanese babyface, kept that from happening. Although he was buried at Starrcade (given the nature of the tournament, somebody had to be and burying any of the other three would have been a lot dumber), he still did very few jobs considering he was with the company nearly one year and was a featured performer much of that time"
"This past week, Danny Spivey went AWOL. He missed the television tapings Monday night in Rainesville, AL and Tuesday in Gainesville, GA without even calling the office to let anyone know ahead of time. He also missed his house show dates for the rest of the week. As of the weekend, Spivey hadn't returned and the decision on whether or not he'd be kept will have certainly been made before you read this. If Spivey doesn't appear on the PPV show, then you can assume he was fired for missing the tapings"
"The tentative replacement plan for the PPV, should Spivey not be there, would be for Mean Mark Callas to team with Nitron against the Road Warriors in the street fight. With Callas leaving for Japan after the PPV, at least for the month of March, there will be no Skyscrapers anyway. The NWA is advertising Road Warriors vs. Skyscrapers matches throughout the month of March, but those will be changed to Warriors vs. Doom must likely"
"Termination notices were given to several NWA wrestlers, including The Dynamic Dudes, Royal Family, Lord Littlebrook, all three Samoans, The Midnight Express and Jim Cornette, and probably one or two others. Now this doesn't mean all these names are being let go, although it appears some will be. In the basic NWA wrestlers contract, it states that all contracts automatically renew for the next year unless the company gives the wrestler 90 days advance warning that the contract isn't being renewed. In the case of the Dudes, Samoans, Midnight, Cornette and whomever else, the one-year contracts are due to expire on May 15th, or shortly thereafter, and this was notice saying they won't automatically be renewed at the same price"
"Since the Royal Family and Littlebrook aren't under contract, in their case, I'd see the notice as a legitimate termination notice"
"On Sunday they showed another ****+ match with Flair & Anderson beating Rock & Roll Express (and all four were wrestling like it was 1986 and they had heat like it was 1986 as well)"
"Eddie Gilbert's contract was renewed for another year at $104,000 and Norman signed a $104,000 one-year deal"
"Tully Blanchard now claiming that the NWA agreed to let him work 176 dates, but he didn't sign because the contract figure was cut to $104,000"
"NWA was also trying to sign up Buster Douglas as a special ref but you know how that goes"
"I knew back in November that Steve Williams was going to work the Tokyo Dome card on Feb. 10. So did the company. Yet Williams was booked on dates in Texas that same weekend. Was it deliberate? Maybe, but probably not. Probably an oversight. But it's another example of oversights that constantly happen and need correcting."
"One of the first things anyone entering Titan has done to them is ways to break their spirit. The spirit is what gives you that enthusiastic live show performance, and it's the same spirit that makes one rebellious, because that performance is important to the individual. When the performance isn't important, there is less complaining about what is asked to be done. When wrestlers care greatly, maybe even too much, as was the case with Paul E. Dangerously, every little aspect becomes important and it leads to a powder keg environment with wrestlers getting frustrated a lot more by the lack of push or by their roles. The truth is, for running a promotion with the least amount of headaches, the way McMahon does it works. But it also leads to generally unenthusiastic performances by the talent"
"Let's just say for example that the booker of the NWA was also its potentially biggest drawing card. It can be argued whether he is or isn't, but if he was, and he pushed himself, those underneath, who have egos (and if you don't have a big ego, you are in the wrong business), will still complain and point out the weaknesses. Then you have a management that joins in, and yet the guy is still being pushed as the top guy, while everyone tries to shoot him down. This is pretty similar to what has happened and has led to an ever-widening gap. But I've never seen a management constantly downgrade its coaching staff like this one, and I don't care who is at fault here, because as far as I can see, the fault is on both sides for not working out their differences"
"While the Flair turn was effective and seems to have upped the heat at the house shows considerably, the turn was done at a time when not enough faces were established as top guys. Then Sting got hurt, and another turn was needed, this time for Luger. However, the pressure was so strong that this PPV had to do a good buy rate so the committee did the ultimate hotshot, turning the Horseman before the PPV to build Flair vs. Sting. Then Sting is out and with nobody else ready, another turn is needed"
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Post by jason1980s on Apr 4, 2021 10:10:42 GMT -5
I feel like if Ted Turner had taken a bigger role in the company he may have stayed in business a bit longer.
Also, good for Sting for not wanting to job to Terry Funk. I know Terry is a great guy to fans, a great family man and dedicated to wrestling but he was never loyal to any one promoter and would bolt at a second's notice. Turns out, he didn't last very long with them in 1989 and Sting wound up being with them until the very end.
It also seems like a lot of guys would leave at a moments notice like Spivey, Williams, Muta just in the last few write ups. This would be pretty consistent with WCW at least until the guarantee contracts kept more guys around in the mid 90s. At least with WWF you had a pretty loyal crop of guys for the most part throughout the 80s and 90s and 2000s.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Apr 5, 2021 3:18:40 GMT -5
Mar 5, 90
"Ric Flair resigned Thursday as chairman of the NWA booking committee, ending a nearly seven month reign which saw a major upswing in television ratings, major inter-company divisiveness and apparent incredible stress on Flair himself. Flair's resignation came at a time when pressure on him from inside forces was growing. Despite an apparent upturn in the business, his direction was continually second-guessed. Some say he was made a scapegoat in a lot of circumstances. Others were more critical of how the pressure affected him"
"The current circumstances dictate Flair's position as either champion or top contender seems to be safe (barring something unforeseen) until at least the end of 1990. Simply put, the NWA's biggest money match is Ric Flair vs. Sting. That match can't take place until the October PPV at the earliest, and maybe even held off until Starrcade. In addition, the way the promotion looks right now, it'll be Flair vs. Lex Luger as the top match on the cards when the big singles matches take place on-and-off for another six months"
"On a scale of one-to-ten, I'd give the PPV a six. But it was only for the Ric Flair vs. Lex Luger and Rock & Roll Express vs. Midnight Express matches. The lack of depth in the NWA was obvious, as was the loss of so many top workers who you could count on in the big show (Steamboat, Funk, Muta) from last year when the PPV shows all seemed to top one another"
"The show drew a reported crowd of 9,894 and a gate of slightly more than $100,000 to the Greensboro Coliseum. My guess from looking at the crowd seemed to be about 9,000 in a building which normally holds close to 16,000, but with many seats blocked off for television equipment, would have sold out here at about 13,000. One could say that not selling out for a show pushed this hard isn't good, but anytime the NWA does a six-figure gate, it's good"
"Sawyer pinned Ace in surprisingly clean fashion. Ace was none to happy about this finish, which certainly puts his future in jeopardy"
"It was obvious all four wrestlers and Jim Cornette set out to steal the show here. Cornette was working much harder than usual, which is saying a lot. Eaton and Lane were taking great bumps. Perhaps this match was to prove some points, and they did a good job in that regard. First, almost everyone (including myself) thought it was a bad idea to bring back the Rock & Roll Express. They were over in a big way and have been having good matches every night. Second, with Eaton, Lane and Cornette's contract not being renewed, I think they wanted to outshine the performers who do have a contract. Rock & Roll, by the way, have yet to be offered a contract as well"
"Nitron was asked to team with Callas but the sides couldn't come to money terms and Enos was a last-minute sub"
"Danny Spivey was announced as being injured, and the NWA offices did hear from his doctor who said he's got a bad neck so it wasn't a lie. It's questionable if he'll be allowed back, since he never called to let anyone know all the dates he missed."
"Garvin was just awful. The NWA has just a few weeks to decide whether or not to allow his contract to extend for another year and if there was anything on the borderline, he did a great job in hurting his own case"
"How many different relations have they claimed for Ole and Arn over the years? I can recall nephew and uncle, cousins, brothers and maybe even a father-and-son billing for a time or two."
"Luger had probably 90 percent or more of the crowd support. For whatever reason, this time the turn worked even in the Carolinas. If you recall, back in 1985 when Flair did his big heel turn before Starrcade, the Carolina crowds stayed almost as much with him as they did with Dusty Rhodes which says something about either how popular Sting is or about Rhodes"
"The heat-was incredible. It was so good that at about 34 minutes, a fight broke out in the stands and nobody watched the fight or took their eyes off Luger and Flair. This is the first time I've ever seen a fight break out during a match where it took NONE of the attention away from the ring"
"Given the fact that the title wasn't going to change and that Flair wasn't about to pin Luger, the only options were a screw-job or a 60 minute draw. The 60-minute draw probably would have been a more classic match, but with Luger's repertoire as a face, it would be hard for Flair to go the 60 with him without spending the first 30 minutes building which is tough for today's fans. Also, the 60 minute match wouldn't have gotten the points across they wanted to—that Luger can beat Flair (to build up the house show rematches) and that the Horseman have added heat for going after a crippled wrestler (Sting)"
"Remember that in 1988, everyone, myself included, criticized the blood finish which was similar to this one of the Flair vs. Luger Baltimore match, but the finish set up the NWA's best house show run of that year with the two meeting in rematches around the country. Still, a screw-job is reminiscent of the Dusty days and the tactics which killed so many of the NWA's best cities"
"For reasons I can't even begin to figure out, Luger didn't want the title. Perhaps he knew that if he got it now, there is only one wrestler who he could wrestle and have it draw (Flair) and if he wrestled others and it didn't draw, he'd get the rep for being on top as champion and not being able to draw. The position he's in now is safer because Flair takes that heat and the NWA is still a long ways from being ready to consistently draw"
"Figuring Sting won't be back until mid-August at the earliest, you are talking this Flair vs. Luger program will have to stay strong for about 26 more weeks (which may be impossible, but it's not like there are many options these days). To give you an idea how long 26 weeks is, the legendary Flair vs. Steamboat program at PPV and house shows was 12 weeks from start-to-finish. While the Flair vs. Funk angle was shot in May, the actual house show program lasted 16 weeks and it had really lost most of its steam by the end. I don't know how they'll be able to keep things interesting for 26 weeks, which includes at least five major shows, without doing a switch"
"While a title can't change on every PPV, this makes four in a row without a title change"
"The 2/17 TBS show, which the consensus is was the best TBS show in years, drew a 4.0 rating and 7.8 share, which means it was viewed in 2.13 million homes, which set an all-time record for a regular weekly telecast, breaking the record set the previous Sunday on NWA Main Event. That record was short-lived, as the 2/18 show (Ric Flair & Arn Anderson vs. Ruck & Roll Express) shattered that record with a 4.4 rating and an 8.3 share in 2.34 million homes. The main events both days (Flair & Anderson vs. R&R on Sunday, Flair vs. Brian Pillman on Saturday) tied with a 2.47 million home viewership which is Clash-like numbers and 4.6 rating"
"At the Greensboro show, there was a sign that said "We've Herd Enough" in the front row (in fact, the heinous culprit of this act sat just a few seats down from me and I think his name is Uncle Ivan Hitchcock). Anyway, the sign was shown early in the show to a few of the wrestlers who noticed but tried not to (with one exception) and since it was in the front row, cameras caught the sign. Doug Dillinger came out (head of security) and was nice about asking Hitchcock not to display the sign anymore"
"The NWA's next big event will be on April 14th from Houston, Texas. It'll be a three-hour TBS special, most likely headlined by Flair vs. Luger. It's not being called a Clash, but it is a Clash, if you get the drift. The line-up hasn't been booked as of yet but most likely it'll be loaded (as loaded as things can be with the current status of walking wounded and talent which has left the promotion of late)"
"Buzz Sawyer broke his wrist doing the dive off the top rope on Johnny Ace during the PPV"
"Jim Herd and Jim Barnett apparently were talking with Verne Gagne about buying his TV time in the Twin Cities (which still does good ratings)"
"Connie Chung's NWA piece didn't air on Friday. It was pulled for a story on Donald and Ivana Trump"
"Expect as the year goes by this group to turn even more into a Southeastern regional promotion. The problem is that if the pay discrepancy between similar-level performers here and in the WWF gets wide, it'll become a situation where WWF can cherry-pick the most marketable talent which would make it difficult for NWA to maintain enough respect to draw profitable PPV numbers"
"Zenk & Pillman top candidates for Fourth Horseman spot. Flair wants Pillman"
"Jim Herd was hosting a press conference at CNN Center announcing the opening of the new multi-million dollar production center that the NWA will use to post-produce its television and give the shows the glitz and production values comparable to the WWF (which may mean nothing to you, but in theory should help the NWA to improve its syndication network which is a real big deal in most of the country). At the conference Herd said that he's trying to negotiate the rights to use names of famous movie characters that Ted Turner owns (Rhett Butler, etc.) and introduce them as wrestling characters. An example he gave was that if they could find a 6-foot-5, 275-pound man with one leg, they could bring him into wrestling as Long John Silver. In fact, the lead of the story asked if Rhett Butler could pin "Nature Boy" Ric Flair. Anyway, if this was just a stunt to get a few lines of publicity in the papers, fine. But I've got this got feeling that he's serious."
Mar 12, 90
"Arn Anderson - pinched nerve in his neck and possible herniated disc from the Wrestle War match with the Steiners. Said to be out of action for approximately another 11 weeks"
"Danny Spivey - Fired for missing dates and not phoning the company to let them know in advance of several TV tapings in which he was booked. He could be injured (neck injury), and for reasons having to do with a possible lawsuit, he's being checked by WCW officials. However, at this point it appears he won't be back with the company"
"Mean Mark Callas - off to Japan, will return in April"
"Michael Hayes - pulled off the booking sheets for the month of March and off television commentary. No official reason given although word has it that he will return. For now, The Freebird team that will feud with the Rock & Roll Express will be Jimmy Garvin & Steven Casey"
"The injury that would have been the most damaging is one that was rumored all week. However, as it turns out, there was nothing to the stories that Lex Luger will be out of action for an extended period. Luger did need six stitches to close a cut when Samu hit him with the U.S. title belt in a match in Altoona, PA on Wednesday. But he's fine and will be working against Ric Flair in the main events from now until the end of time"
"The Steiners program with Ole & Arn Anderson is most likely history since management wants Ole out of the picture anyway and it'll probably be accomplished before Arn is ready to return"
"Ole will stick around as a manager of a new tag team called The Wrecking Crew (Wayne Bloom & Mike Enos under hoods— The NWA made a deal with Verne Gagne about bringing the duo in on short notice but Gagne insisted the two wear hoods since I guess he's going to keep them as tag team champions and doesn't want his tag team champions doing jobs nightly for the NWA's tag team champions)"
"The one name that had been mentioned as coming in, Dutch Mantell, won't be coming in as he was basically double-crossed by the company. He was told he'd be brought in and given a starting date, gave notice to Jarrett who phased him down since he was leaving, then was told he had no starting date after all"
"In recent years, the way Jim Barnett has been looked at within the business has changed from being the genius who created a thriving territory in Australia in the late 60s to the person whose departure from the WWF is spoken of as the single best thing to happen to that company when it comes to front office morale"
"One of Flair's first attempted steps was to raid talent from the WWF. Part of this may have been because he felt the NWA had to do so to prove to the general public it wasn't the second-rate league (as it is generally perceived) and simply to make it look like raids can go in the other direction. Still, from the names he was talking with, it was obvious moreso the prime concern was simply improving the quality of the product. He was interested in Tully & Arn, Bret Hart, Ted DiBiase, Curt Hennig and their ilk, all of whom would have added another quality match each night to the show"
"While the WWF manages to keep all its talent when contract time runs out, the NWA has, in the past few months, lost Steamboat, Williams, Muta, Spivey, Gordy, and not signed Blanchard and Hart who were ready to make a deal. While in some cases, the wrestlers demands may have been out of line. But that many cases begins to paint a picture that the company isn't willing to make the commitment to the quality of its product"
"I'm also not trying to paint a picture of Flair as a booking genius. There was a lot of heat from the wrestlers in regards to Flair. Then again, there always is no matter who the booker is. There absolutely were organizational problems. At the same time, when management wants to change course on a regular basis, it's hard to not look disorganized. The back-stabbing within the company, coming right from the top, was enormous"
"According to those within the company, Herd approved of the plastic bag angle, then after TBS was flooded with negative phone calls about it, blamed the booking committee since it was their idea. Ironically, for all the criticism, the plastic bag angle was the key angle leading to the Halloween PPV show, which did a lot more business than the line-up indicated it should have. I'll be honest, I agreed with Jim Herd after the plastic bag thing followed by the Scott Steiner assault, but I sure hated all the finger-pointing and blaming that was going on at the time. From that point on, the place turned into a management vs. bookers vs. wrestlers three-sided feud"
"I really do believe Flair wanted both Paul E. Dangerously and Eddie Gilbert out. This led to the Missy Hyatt situation. Unfortunately, it's hard to separate personal feelings sometimes from judgement. As most of you know, Hyatt was added to the announcing team and was scheduled to start in early January. As it turned out, several members of the booking committee didn't even know about it until it was printed in the Observer which caused major furor. When the booking committee next met, Hyatt was voted down as an announcer, but as everyone knows, she was brought in anyway"
"Flair had no real power because everything had to go through so many channels. Cards that were booked were continually having to be changed and angles changed on a daily basis because of talent dropping like flies, both to legitimate injuries and just because they weren't re-signed or just walked out. So many proposed ideas were nixed or changed to where they didn't come out as planned"
"Another taping on 2/28 in Altoona, PA before 4,200 included an angle in a match between Pillman & Zenk vs. Midnight Express which saw Cornette hit Zenk with the tennis racquet and go after Pillman's throat with the racquet and "injuring" Pillman's throat and stealing the tag title belts. After the angle, the NWA decided not to push the injury aspect of the angle because there are too many injuries to even keep track of"
"Lex Luger beat Samu the Samoan and in this match Luger needed six stitches to close to wound when Samu hit him with the title belt (rumor mill was strong that this was a shoot, but it wasn't, just an accident)"
"Great Muta is starting to have second thoughts on his quitting, but there is no chance he'll be coming back soon. Muta already made a commitment to return to New Japan to Sakaguchi and doesn't want to burn that bridge since Sakaguchi has been like a family member to Muta. Sakaguchi wants to push Muta as the top guy in the group, which is a pressure situation Muta doesn't want because then you get blamed when the houses aren't good. The No. 2 spot is safer because there is no pressure on you to hold back but also no pressure on you to draw the house"
"I'd been hearing all week about Kevin Sullivan having done a classic interview on Saturday's TBS show. Then when the show aired, every other sentence was bleeped out"
"Don't know what the main event on the next Clash (well, not technically a Clash, but it is) April 14th in Houston will be but it won't be Flair vs, Luger, That'll be saved for the PPV. The title may change hands before the PPV and the PPV would be the rematch, however"
"Besides whatever personal heat was involved with Herd and Flair, the basic bottom line of their problems is simply the two had totally divergent viewpoints of what pro wrestling is. Flair is from the old school, wanting to give good matches with lots of drama and heat and violence. Herd wanted to take it in a different direction, but I'm not sure what direction since the NWA always seems like it's going ten different ways at once"
"Those who think the group was better off under Crockett, and maybe it was in some ways, are forgetting that it also was millions of dollars in debt under Crockett and needed the buy-out to survive or else the debt would have forced the company into bankruptcy. Crockett had no other choice and fans of the NWA had no other choice but to see the promotion die"
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Post by Deleted on Apr 6, 2021 1:49:55 GMT -5
Mar 19, 90
"This is far from definite, and more a preliminary idea than anything else, but talk of a Ric Flair vs. Lex Luger Hair vs. Hair match to headline the 5/19 PPV show from The D.C. Armory. That would probably do more business than a title match, but somebody losing their hair could hurt either character quite a bit"
"Abdullah the Butcher starts 3/12 as a babyface and tag team partner of Norman. Here is a group that wants Ole Anderson out of the ring because he's too old (not that I blame them), Terry Funk out of the ring, and uses Butcher, who is several years older than either of them and whose main act is the heavy blood act which the promotion has banned"
"It appears that controversial Jim Herd quote about Rhett Butler and Long John Silver was just something he said and not something to take seriously. Apparently nobody from TBS has even been asked about allowing the wrestling company to use the names of movie characters to be new wrestling characters and the subject hasn't even been brought up at booking committee meetings (such as they are, since right now it appears to just be Jim Barnett and Jim Herd running the show)"
"NWA is claiming to have gotten TV on WGN in Chicago starting 4/7 at 10 a.m. Central time, but WGN officials deny this is the case and claim that they aren't interested in any wrestling on their station"
"The 4/14 TBS "not-a-clash" appears now that it will be a three-hour tape of the 4/8 Omni card. NWA will run a show in Houston that night, but TBS doesn't want to spend the money to send a crew into Houston for a live shoot, and they are taking the economical way out and taping the Omni card on a Sunday for airing the next Saturday in a three-hour special on TBS"
"Ricky Steamboat has officially filed suit against the NWA for using his name in advertising for the Halloween Havoc videotape"
"NWA negotiating with Paul E. Dangerously to drop his suit against the company and to return him to a television role. This is far from a done deal, in fact, is in the most preliminary of states right now"
"The Flair vs. Luger matches appear now to be doing business coming off the PPV, which I suspected would happen. The finish was a good one given the situation the company was in at the time. My belief is that as long as the crowds remain strong, they should keep the belt on Flair, but when the crowds drop (and they can't be sustained no matter what for as long as the NWA needs to run Flair vs. Luger on top) then switch the belt (if a belt switching is in the cards)"
"There was talk of the NWA actually buying the AWA (primarily for its syndicated network and ESPN slot—but then again, would Turner allow his own product on ESPN?) but Verne Gagne insisted that if the deal was made, the AWA must be kept with its own identity as a separate promotion so that ended those discussions"
"Michael Hayes is out of action because he was suspended for 30 days without pay. Not sure of the violation, but am pretty sure of what it is. If confirmed, will have it here"
"In the NWA, wrestlers have their airplane tickets taken care of by the promotion along with rent-a-car expenses in the towns. The wrestlers have to pay for their road expenses such as meals and hotels. In the WWF, the promotion handles plane tickets from home throughout all the cities on the tour however the wrestler has to pay for his own ticket from the last night of the tour back home. The promotion doesn't pay any road expenses such as rent-a-cars, hotels, etc"
Mar 26, 90
"Tony Schiavone will be returning to the NWA as a producer and television announcer after Wrestlemania. Schiavone agreed to a deal with Jim Herd on Tuesday to return as producer of syndicated television (the position held by Terry Funk) and as host of World Wide Wrestling"
"Funk was put in charge of syndication just two months ago and before he's even had a chance to implement any changes, he's already ousted. That kind of musical chairs from the television side, both with the announcing crews and producers does explain why the NWA's syndicated product always seems to unstable and not going in any cohesive direction"
"The injury to Arn Anderson appears now to be worse than originally thought. Anderson, who suffered a herniated disc in the Feb. 25 match in Greensboro against the Steiners, was originally slated to return in two to three months. The latest word is that the injury hasn't been responding to treatment thus far and surgery is a probability. If his bad arm does respond and they can avoid surgery, it still may make it back in a few months. Most likely, as it seems right now, he'll have to go under the knife, which includes a spinal tap to find exactly where the nerve damage is. If that is the case, Anderson is expected to be out of action in the neighborhood of nine months to one year. In fact, there is some fear that he won't be able to return at all"
"Apparently the deal the NWA was negotiating with the AWA was that they would take over the AWA's syndication and promotion and in return, Greg Gagne would get to work in the office and be the promoter for the NWA in certain Midwest cities while Verne Gagne would be given a title as NWA commissioner. The deal fell apart because Verne also insisted that the AWA be kept as a separate entity and with its own world champion"
"The Pillman & Zenk angle, which given the injury and talent situation, should be the second hottest angle in the promotion besides Flair vs. Luger, was toned down. The reasons given were that they didn't want to acknowledge Pillman’s throat problems as a kid (which only would have gotten Pillman over stronger as a babyface which is what the company desperately needs) and didn't want heat put on injuring internal organs. The very next week they want to bring back Danny Spivey using a heart punch gimmick so that was contradictory"
"It appears right now that the NWA and The Midnight Express and Jim Cornette are going to part company after all when their contract expires in May. The two sides have hit an impasse in contract negotiations and there has been not so private talk in the NWA that the company doesn't want to lose Cornette, but that they aren't willing to keep the act together"
"Jim Herd is still somewhat against bringing Dangerously back because of his lawsuit against the NWA, which would be dropped if he's hired back"
"Michael Hayes' suspension was for falling the drug test according to Matwatch and other NWA sources. The company was testing for cocaine and marijuana, but traces of marijuana (which were found in many of the guys) were not cause for any reprimands. The company policy is that for a first offense you are suspended 30 days without pay, for a second offense, fired. Since the test was announced, it was a hard test to fail"
"The 4/14 show has been changed again. The current plan is to air a regular two hour edition of WCW on that day, and a third hour would be an hour taped from the Omni on 4/8 which will probably include the Flair vs. Luger main event from that card. Originally they were going to have a Scott Steiner vs. Ole Anderson I Quit match which would end Ole’s career on that show, but that may not take place anymore"
"Spivey was supposed to start back on 3/18 in Miami but no-showed the card so it’s anybody's guess again as to his future. Even is Spivey were to return, they weren't going to hook him up with Mean Mark Callas (who returns in a few weeks as well) as both were supposed to be groomed as singles title contenders for Lex Luger"
"NWA has 43 shows booked for May. So much for talk of cutting down on dates. You'd think someone would pick up on why so many people got hurt. Could it possibly be they are working too hard with too little rest?"
"NWA will open up negotiations with Scotty the Body, Kevin & Kerry Von Erich and Owen Hart in upcoming weeks. Heard they want Scotty as a face, which seems to be to be a mistake. I can understand, given the current situation, taking the chance on Kerry. It may not work out, but he is marketable if he shows up for his matches. I can see no reason whatsoever for considering Kevin. Actually Kerry would make a great Long John Silver and Kevin could play Amelia Earhart. Herd has already talked with Fritz Von Erich, but no deal has been made with Kevin & Kerry"
"Ric Flair was turned down when he tried to have his contract extended, I believe, for two more years"
"Steve Beverly of "Matwatch" starts Tuesday on the 900 number. It puts him in a real bad position in one situation. Even though everyone thinks it'll make him "favor" the NWA in the newsletter, I think a bigger problem is the opposite. Don't expect any difference in how he views NWA but any criticism of Titan will be taken by detractors as because he's affiliated with the NWA. Beverly has a 90 day deal to do the 900 number and at that point, they'll see how it turns out. I can imagine the heat among some people because of the decision to use him and actually acknowledge him on the TV shows over the weekend"
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Post by James Fabiano on Apr 6, 2021 17:27:50 GMT -5
Well that's that. We'll never have to worry about movie character gimmicks in WCW.
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Post by No One on Apr 6, 2021 21:38:30 GMT -5
Thanks for posting these and the others.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Apr 7, 2021 3:42:00 GMT -5
Apr 2, 90
"The problems that have been brewing in the NWA since last July came to a head Friday night in Chicago. Basically, Ric Flair was "scheduled" to lose the NWA title to Lex Luger that night, but it didn't happen."
"The original plan apparently was to change the title in St. Louis on Saturday night. If you watched the NWA Main Event on Sunday, you saw that the wrap-arounds with Jim Ross and Missy Hyatt were done live. The planning for having special studio time on a Sunday, which is very costly (as opposed to taping wrap-arounds on site during a regular TV taping as is both cheaper and customary) was scheduled so they could announce on Sunday about the title change the previous night. At some point during the middle of the week, the scenario was changed to having the title change on Friday night in Chicago"
"Either the St. Louis date was a swerve all along on everyone in the company (because the key company personnel were all scheduled originally for St. Louis) and then it was being changed so the actual title change itself would surprise everyone (a totally elaborate and truthfully, unnecessary and productivity wasting ruse) or, most likely, it was changed during mid-week because of the belief that too many people knew about the title change in St. Louis. The latter point is even more ridiculous"
"For a multi-million dollar company which reaches as many as seven million television viewers for some of its biggest matches to be worried because 25, or even perhaps 250 people around the country knew something is so ludicrous it doesn't even dignify comment. I know that within the wrestling world they like as few people to know, which is fine, but based on the number of wrestling fans there are nationwide, a few dozen, or even a few hundred wrestling fans is comparatively nobody"
"In 1978, every hardcore wrestling fan knew that Bob Backlund was going to beat Superstar Graham at Madison Square Garden for the title. While Backlund's loss to Iron Sheik shocked almost everyone, the subsequent Hogan title win over Sheik was known by every hardcore fan and probably a good percentage of even casual fans had the scheme figured out. Did Vince McMahon change his plans even though probably a few thousand fans knew? No"
"In 1988, when Hogan dropped the strap to Andre the Giant on the NBC-special, the result was reported before-hand in many newspapers and radio stations because advertising had already been sent out about Wrestlemania IV with Hogan's quest to regain the title. Randy Savage's title win was released in of all places, in the WWF's own magazine. Did they change the ending because the finish was exposed to several hundred thousand of their most loyal fans? No"
"Was there any question of Hogan beating Savage last year? In fact, the WWF itself was advertising last year's Wrestlemania as the explosion of the Megapowers for at least one week before Hogan and Savage even broke-up, and even though the way that angle was done was largely a secret, newspapers all over the country had reported before-hand that the NBC special would contain the Hogan-Savage break-up."
"Ironically, more people "knew" about several NWA title changes (Rhodes beating Flair in Greensboro in 1986, Flair losing and regaining it from Garvin in 1987 and Flair beating Steamboat in 1989) than about St. Louis"
"Last year, on more than one occasion, I had been told that Ric Flair's contract basically gave him the power to determine who he would lose the title to. The person who told me this said this clause would come back to haunt the guy (Jim Herd, I believe), who agreed to that clause in his contract. I don't know that this is true, but if it is, it's a major point in the story"
"Another word that has been bandied about over the weekend is simply that Flair's contract specified three days written notice in the case of any title change. The story going around, which again, may not be factual, is that this notice was never sent. If that's the case, and all these plans were made for the switch including all the money it cost the company to handle everything properly (studio time on Sunday, flying key personnel and a video crew to Chicago to tape the match, etc.) and everything wasn't either cleared ahead of time with Flair (if that's what the contract stipulated) or simply Flair wasn't informed in accordance with his contract, then the company itself made a major mistake"
"Anyway, on Friday, there was a heated discussion, with much profanity going back-and-forth between Herd and Flair. The problems between the two have been significant going back several months but in recent weeks it has been obvious they were coming to a head. This blow-up was going to happen most likely, whether a title change precipitated it on that night or not. It was still going to eventually happen. This wasn't as simple here as "We want you to lose" and "Absolutely, I won't do it.” Negotiations went on, and when it was all said and done, it was Herd, not Flair, who decided not to have the title change"
"Given the nature of everything that has gone wrong, naturally, the blame will still be placed on Flair, who, according to one neutral party, was no angel in this situation either"
"The NWA itself faced a similar situation last year with Sting. During the period when Ric Flair was out of action, a program was done between Terry Funk and Sting. The booking committee plan was for Funk to use his branding iron during a ref bump and get a tainted three count win. For the good of the company at the time, this was pretty necessary. Funk needed strong wins over strong opponents (which he never did get) so fans believed he had a chance to beat Flair for the title. Sting really wouldn't have been hurt, since it was a screw-job, and more likely than not, after the Flair vs. Funk program was over, Funk would have been asked to put Sting over cleanly to vindicate Sting and judging from Funk's NWA win-loss record during his comeback, one doubts he would have balked at doing so. But Sting said no, and even though a meeting was held and the company insisted that this type of behavior wouldn't have been tolerated, the remainder of the Sting vs. Funk matches ended with DQ losses for Funk. Sting never did have to do that job"
"As has been written here many times (and in the wrestlers eyes, this was a very significant point), the guy who was doing jobs during that same period, Ricky Steamboat (to Lex Luger), then wasn't re-signed. The message became clear to everyone that you have to take care of yourself because if you let them control you, they won't take care of you when the contract is up"
"The NWA added Steve Beverly, who does "Matwatch," to its 900 number line-up for Tuesdays. In this past Tuesday's report, Beverly mentioned the Flair-Luger match in St. Louis and also mentioned the live wrap-arounds on Sunday's TBS show. This caused more hysteria. While he never said the title was going to change or anything even close, because of the tense situation with everyone blaming everyone else, he's in the midst of the crossfire"
"Blackjack Mulligan and Kendall Windham update. Blackjack (Bobby Joe Windham) plead guilty to possession and trying to sell $1 million in counterfeit 20's. He won't be charged with any other crimes except those two in exchange for helping the secret service in solving the case. He'll be sentenced on May 15, with the maximum penalty being 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Whatever deal or plea Kendall will go with will take place later this week"
"A decision on the new announcing line-ups (yes, they'll be changed again) will take place in early April when Tony Schiavone comes on board"
"Buzz Sawyer is also history. Company thought he should be ready to return by now from his broken wrist but he hadn't returned"
"Also heading in is Joel Deaton and talk of Giant Haystacks from England (6-6, 500 pounds)"
"Sting is recovering so well from the knee surgery that there is some talk he'll be back in action by July. Probably August, however"
"Ole Anderson refused to do I Quit matches against Scott Steiner so he'll probably remain as strictly a manager"
"3/23 in Chicago drew 6,500 and $75,400...They had the camera crew there, plus Bill Apter and the NWA flew in several folks like Lance Russell, Chris Cruise and Dennis Brent (program editor) for the big thing that never happened. Between that, studio time on Sunday, no doubt changes having to be made in pre-taped television, this whole fiasco could cost a bunch of money"
"3/24 in St. Louis drew 4,500 and $53,000...George Napolitano flew in for this show, although the NWA folks had all flown home but there was a video crew for this card as well"
"A guy in a Robocop outfit will be working in some form or fashion on the 5/19 PPV show"
"The break-up of the Midnight Express was scheduled to start at the TV tapings either this week or shortly thereafter. The basic thing is that Bobby Eaton is supposed to wind up as a member of the Four Horseman (which only has one member, Ric Flair, right now and things aren't exactly the most stable there either), and Stan Lane will disappear from the scene after a babyface non-turn. Nobody knows about Cornette anymore. Company sources are talking like they don't think they can save him but still hoping for him to at least stay in a television commentary rule"
Apr 9, 90
"As for the NWA situation. When we left off last week, it appeared something in the neighborhood of chaos and anarchy were in control. Things seem to have settled down. Supposedly everything is calmer right now when it comes to Ric Flair, Jim Herd and the World title situation. I would be shocked if a situation like what took place last week occurs again."
"The 5/19 PPV show from the D.C. Armory is still in the discussion stages but it appears it will be something like this: The headliner of what looks to be another one-match selling card will be guess what? Three tries? If you didn't pick Ric Flair vs. Lex Luger in three tries you're in trouble. This time it'll be a cage match, there has been talk of Terry Funk as referee although I don't know if that is definite"
"There is the clause in Flair's contract that we mentioned last week so he was within his contractual rights to do what he did"
"While the NWA has not signed Jim Cornette and the Midnight Express as I'm writing this, it appears the trio will be staying after all. This is subject to day-to-day change so what appears too be the case as I'm writing this may not be the case when you are reading this. On Monday, the break-up of the trio was scheduled to begin, with Cornette to wind up as a television announcer, Bobby Eaton as a member of the Four Horseman and Stan Lane to be a babyface who would be phased out of the picture fairly quickly"
"The trio balked at the break-up of the act and even more so to the methods as to get to the final result. A bunch of guys named Jim (Ross, Cornette, Barnett) worked out what appeared to be an 11th hour settlement of the problem where Eaton and Lane would stay together as the Midnight Express, be leased temporarily to Woman and became two new Horsemen which basically would give the Horseman four instead of three and keep Eaton & Lane together as a tag team. Cornette would remain TV announcer and when Arn Anderson returned, some sort of double-cross would take place where Cornette would wind up back with them with a natural feud with the Horseman. Jim Herd nixed the idea, Cornette was furious, and by Tuesday and Wednesday, it appeared the trio was gone for good"
"A long discussion took place at the next booking meeting in which Herd spoke out against the Midnight Express while others, who shall remain nameless, said that it would be ridiculous for the company to lose such talented performers for basically no real reason, especially when nobody of anywhere close to the same talent exists on the outside to replace them and the company is already thin on top quality guys who can put guys over on every card and still remain relatively hot. The issue was put to a vote and it was decided at the meeting to keep the trio together and offer all three contracts after all"
"The 4/14 TBS special turned out to not be much. They taped two hours in Canton, OH on 3/27 with the highlights being Tommy Rich over Joel Deaton and Tom Zenk over Stan Lane via DQ with Cornette interfered plus they will tape a two of three fall match on 4/8 in Atlanta between Rock & Roll Express and Freebirds and announce Robocop on the special"
"Late word is that Arn Anderson's herniated disc has started responding to therapy and he won't need surgery after all. NWA hopeful he can make a non-wrestling appearance on the PPV and begin wrestling in three months"
"First off, and this is a real blessing to the wrestlers considering the injury situation, contracted wrestlers are paid in full if they are out of action during an injury. While some promoters, including Vince McMahon and Jim Crockett, have sent checks to wrestlers out of action due to an injury, never have these wrestlers received their given contracted amounts during those periods out of work due to a work related injury. For example, Sting is earning his full $5,000 to $6,000 weekly while he recovers from his knee surgery, same deal (less money but same principle) with Sid Vicious, Arn Anderson and everyone else. In the past, because wrestlers often either weren't paid while off or paid just enough to get by, they would rush back before their injuries had healed and wound up with a chronic condition that would plague not only the rest of their careers, but often the rest of their lives"
"Also, it was under Herd's orders that the wrestlers get paid their contracted amounts weekly, not the Crockett method of paying guys "on the house" and making up the difference in balloon payments that never materialized. This has allowed the NWA wrestlers to live like normal human beings, not have to worry that because of a run-in with management or because they were being punished that they would make only enough to get by, or even less than expenses and still face bills at home which they couldn't pay because they expected to make a lot more, or simply run into unforseen problems because of a bad run of houses. Some wrestlers are still going to have problems financially with balancing incoming and outgoing income, but this policy greatly helped to alleviate that problem"
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Post by James Fabiano on Apr 7, 2021 8:32:26 GMT -5
Thanks for posting these and the others. Yep. It's also interesting how Spivey seemed to be in line for what would be Callous' character (heart punch, challenges Luger) Haven't read the latest entries, but didn't they cut the MX/Pillman angle because they wanted to save the throat-crushing spot for a "real" main eventer? (which they of course never did) This is according to JC from his Midnight Express anniversary book, so take it FWIW. (EDIT: I Peeked at the latest. MX book doesn't mention Eaton alone being inquired about for the Horsemen. It was always both MX'ers would join the team, or so I thought) Steve Beverly, after his wrestling sheets career, would do more sheets...only for the game show industry.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 8, 2021 5:03:29 GMT -5
Apr 16, 90
"Before the whole fiasco in Chicago took place. Flair wanted a two-year extension on his contract and was turned down. In Chicago, the basic gist of the argument was that Flair would put Luger over, but in return he wanted a contract release which would give him the option of negotiating with the WWF—an option he doesn't have despite all the rumors he's going and that I'm sure he's talked with Titan of late. Herd turned it down and the title change didn't take place because it would have risked losing Flair, who is the only heel capable of drawing on top right now."
"Robocop debuts on TV this Saturday for the NWA. Originally he was going to be brought in as the bodyguard for Sting. I believe the term "bodyguard" won't be used because it'll rub off the wrong way on Sting (psychology is backwards, a face shouldn't have a bodyguard even if he's injured)."
"The May 5th card in St. Paul is a complete AWA show with one NWA match (Flair vs. Pillman for the title). The assumption from here is it's simply a one-shot deal to repay the favor Gagne gave the NWA for sending Enos & Bloom on such short notice in, and in return Gagne gets to use Flair on his live show."
"Terry Taylor is no longer with the WWF and was given a contract release even though he still has a valid contract. McMahon released him to work anywhere he wants except—you got it. So he'll have to work indies until late August at the earliest. NWA won’t discuss a contract with him until late August."
"The NWA came out with a new merchandise catalog with lots of stuff on all the pushed guys but nothing at all on Flair"
"I've heard talk that Flair vs. Luger on the PPV will be in a cage and talk that it won't be, but Terry Funk will be the referee either way"
"Luke McMasters (Giant Haystacks) came in from England and was going to work as "The Titan" as an inside joke starting this week, but something happened and he went home before even working one show and won't be back. The gimmick was Luger was going to go around everywhere and beat The Titan"
"4/8 at the Omni drew 8,000...Luger pinned Flair in 20 minutes of a non-title cage match with double juice after a powerslam ****+. On the TV two weeks before the show bout was advertised as title match, the last two weeks just called non-sanctioned with no reference to title"
"4/7 in Philadelphia drew $40,000 (TV spots the week before plugged Meadowlands with no mention of the date so crowd would have been higher without the screw-up)"
"Road Warriors were offered a 1991 contract (current deal expires in December) and were real upset at the money offered, but it was also just a first figure to start negotiations. Remember that the two have a $500,000 annual deal apiece and no way will that be renewed at that figure so they're bound to be upset in negotiations"
"Mark Callas is using the heart punch originally scheduled for Danny Spivey"
"Woman missed several shows this week. There's talk of her being phased out, but nothing definite"
Apr 23, 90
"There were more announcing musical chairs within the NWA itself. Both Terry Funk and Chris Cruise are gone stemming from separate but related incidents that took place on 4/9 in Mississippi. There was some uncertainty on both parts going in because it was well known that over the next week Tony Schiavone and the brass was going to decide new announcing line-ups for the different shows and nobody really knew who was going where, who was going to be kept and if anyone was going to be let go"
"As the story goes, early Monday afternoon Funk phoned one of the secretaries at the WCW office to find out who he was interviewing on Funk's Grill. The secretary told him that Funk's Grill wasn't scheduled to be on the show. Funk then flew home. Schiavone then told Cruise that he and Kevin Sullivan would do World Wide Wrestling, and because the two apparently have had problems personally, Cruise wouldn't do the show (Schiavone wound up filling in for him). Cruise was then fired by Jim Herd over the incident. The NWA did leave the door open and apparently tried to contact Funk and wanted him back, but it. appears Funk didn't want to come back. Cruise, on the other hand, apologized to Herd the next day but was told it was too late"
"At Chris Love's convention this past weekend in Greensboro. Tim Horner said that he was going to sue Vince McMahon in order to get out of his contract. McMahon won't book Horner but since he's under contract, he's threatened to sue Horner if he negotiates with the NWA"
"Barry Windham has agreed to start on 5/1 and will work the next PPV show. While this could all change, it appears Windham and Arn Anderson (scheduled to start back wrestling at the PPV show) will give the NWA Four Horsemen once again with Flair and Ole Anderson. Windham is also scheduled to tour Japan in May, and one never really knows what he's really doing. Everyone acknowledges Windham as potentially the best wrestler in the business, but I'm really surprised TBS took him back after the way he walked out last year after collecting $25,000 in bonus money for signing a one-year contract that he walked out on immediately"
"The PPV card has been changed around. Obviously Terry Funk will no longer referee the Flair vs. Luger title match, which will be in a cage. Zenk & Pillman vs. Samoans has been changed to Zenk & Pillman vs. Midnights for the U.S. tag belts. Samoans were taken off the card for no-showing the 4/9 TV taping. In addition, Zenk & Pillman both wanted to work a lot more with the Midnights since it's readily acknowledged by most NWA wrestlers that Bobby Eaton is the best worker in the circuit besides Flair and easiest to have a good match with besides Flair"
"Nothing new on Paul E. Dangerously but the bidding war for Mean Mark has ended and the guy who won the bidding war was Teddy Long. Nothing like an angle being followed through"
"Should point out that the company word on Funk's Grill not being part of the World Wide taping on 4/9 is that it was simply an oversight and that Jim Ross simply forgot to mark Funk's Grill on the TV sheets when transferring them from his rough drafts of the shows"
"Giant Haystacks, or The Titan, went home to England because his wife is in bad shape with cancer. It is expected that he'll return at some point, ironically he was going to be pushed like mad because the next Omni card was originally booked to have Luger vs. The Titan as the main event, so he'd be challenging for a title (U.S. or World) by May 20th"
"There is talk Sting will return in July"
"The contract offer that the Road Warriors found insulting for 1991 was $156,000 for 200 dates. Their current pact is for $500,000 for 250 dates. Scott Steiner was also offered a $156,000 deal and was holding out for more but I believe he signed this past week"
"Mean Mark certainly has a ton of potential but I can't see why if a guy that size has the kind of balance and agility to walk on the ropes and deliver a Randy Savage elbow better than Randy Savage that his winning hold should be a heart punch"
"Here's the problem with too much TV. Steiners vs. Doom is on the next PPV. We've seen that same match twice in the past two weeks on various TV's and next week we'll see Rick vs. Butch in a singles on TV. By the time the PPV rolls around the match will have been on TV so much (not to mention these guys just feuded for months that ended in February) that even though it no doubt will be a good match, it'll also be an old match"
"My own opinion is that Luger should be given the chance when the time is right (and it's getting to be that time right about now—it wasn't a few weeks ago). If he can draw as champion, I'd be in no hurry to get the belt back to Flair"
Apr 30, 90
"The latest in the revolving door soap opera is Shane Douglas. This occurred at the TV taping in Baton Rouge on 4/17. Douglas, who had just come back from a knee injury, was scheduled to do a heart punch job for Mean Mark. Douglas wanted the finish changed. Supposedly he was willing to put Mark over but not with the heart punch. When it wasn't changed, he quit and was fired and stormed out of the building. For all practical purposes, Douglas comes out looking bad in this situation. Since Mark is being groomed for World title shots, he has to beat underneath guys (which is what Douglas is) and use his hold since they are trying to get the hold over as an ultimate weapon. However, given the precedent set, I can understand Douglas trying to get the finish changed since so many guys have been"
"Jim Herd sent a memo down saying no more low blows, no more using the guard railing during a match and no cussing in the ring. These memos are sent down regularly and usually forgotten the next day"
"With Terry Funk gone, the 60 second commercial for the PPV had to be cut down to 40 seconds because the remainder talked about Funk as ref for the Flair vs. Luger match"
"Scott Steiner signed his deal but only after the booking committee actually voted to fire him if he didn't accept the $156,000 offer"
"Speculation right now is Road Warriors will leave when contract expires in December because the sides are so far apart on money. Good shot they'll wind up touring Japan regularly since it appears Titan would make them change their gimmick before taking them"
"The connection between the NWA and Orion Pictures for Robocop is that Turner Home Entertainment bought the video rights to Robocop II and THE gave the wrestling company the idea to use him. THE wanted him to physically toss around the heels that attacked Sting but the booking committee wasn't so keen on that"
"Ellering beat Long via DQ in a no DQ match (you figure that out) when Long used a foreign object in 2:59 DUD"
"Bam Bam Bigelow beat Luger via an over-the-top DQ in 12:02 *. Pretty bad because the finish Luger was DQ'd for (clotheslining Bigelow over the top) was used twice in front of the ref in the Road Warriors match"
"Diamond Dallas Page did a try-out with Tony Schiavone (which won't air) in Baton Rouge"
"Rick Steiner will replace Terry Funk on Family Feud. No comment necessary there except they obviously want to perpetuate the idea that wrestlers can't do anything in public and come off as intelligent"
"Current plan (and you know this can change) is for Sid Vicious to return on 7/1 and become the Fourth Horseman"
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Post by Deleted on Apr 9, 2021 3:37:10 GMT -5
May 7, 90
"The NWA ran its first New York City area show in nearly two years on Thursday night (4/26) at the Meadowlands Arena. The show, described by most as "good, but not great" drew about 9,500 paid and a $130,000 house. It's the NWA's largest live house since the Bash last July in Baltimore for the first Ric Flair vs. Terry Funk match"
"Mean Mark went to a 15 minute draw with Mike Rotunda. This result doesn't make much sense is Mark is being groomed at the No. 1 contender for the NWA title if/when Lex Luger or Sting wins it"
"Robert Gibson & Tom Zenk beat Freebirds when Gibson pinned Jimmy Garvin...Ricky Morton missed the show. He legitimately had his plane (from Nashville) grounded and had to take a later flight, through Atlanta, to get to New York. He arrived in New York in what appeared to be enough time to make the card which is why this match was held to next-to-last, however he got caught in traffic and didn't make it to the building in time for the show"
"The 5/19 NWA PPV show is going to be interesting. It's a show in which all the advertising is being built around two men, neither of whom will be wrestling on the card. On the surface, it almost seems as though the show was put together by a comedian. A hair vs. hair match between two managers who have almost no hair to begin with? And having 96 people around the ring to make sure nobody interferes in a cage match? I mean, what's the cage there for?"
"My own opinion of the NWA, and this goes for the WWF and every other organization, as a wrestling fan, is that I don't care if they bring in pigs and cows at ringside and change the name of the federation from the NWA to the New Zoo Revue as long as the quality of the wrestling is there. If it takes gimmicks to attract a wider audience and the product stays there, that's fine. But from a business standpoint, I'm hardly convinced that Peter Weller and Sting are the answers to selling this show to more fans"
"Even though the matches are of good quality, they aren't fresh and they haven't exactly gotten people rushing to the live shows for the same programs. But even if they were, all the push in advertising isn't on the wrestlers or the matches, but on an actor in a Tin Man costume who starred in a hit future sci-fi movie a few years back"
"On Thursday at the Meadowlands, Road Warrior Hawk was given a physical. As you already know, because of that, he wasn't allowed to wrestle because of his EKG report. Apparently the examining physician found that one of Hawk's heart valves was blocked and that his heartbeat was dangerously fast. The figure I was given, which may be exaggerated, was 180 beats per minute. That is scary stuff"
"Steiners beat Wrecking Crew in a bad match billed as a stretcher match for NWA Main Event when Bloom got carried out (did you notice on TBS when they did a single match with Scott against Bloom and they called Bloom "Minnesota Wrecking Crew #2 #1" now is that confusing or what?)"
"TBS tapings for 5/5-12-19 took place 4/24 at Center Stage in Atlanta. In a dark match, Buddy Lee Parker (Dwayne Bruce) beat Rick Ryder in a tremendous opener thanks to Parker. After that, the TV lights burned out and they sent Eddie Gilbert and Galaxian Danny Davis out there to stall until it was fixed. It took 40 minutes before they started the 5/5 show"
"The 5/19 show (said to be the worst Saturday TBS show of the year) has Cornette working with Gordon Solie "since Jim Ross is in DC for the PPV." Now answer me one question, why isn't Cornette in DC as well?"
"TV main event saw Johnny Ace & Tommy Rich & Eddie Gilbert beat Samu & Dutch Mantell & Lee Scott. Scott played weak link role and was pinned and the heels beat him up after the match. Originally Joel Deaton was to team with Samu & Dutch but Joel was asked to do the job and since he’s such a superstar he wouldn't do it"
"Luger guarantees at one point he'll win the title at the PPV and in another interview says if he doesn't win the title at the PPV he'll never ask for another title shot"
"The Horseman also introduced Sid Vicious as the fourth Horseman on the 5/12 show and said he'll neutralize Robocop on the PPV"
"NWA had to cancel three shows over the past week due to no ticket sales. 4/22 in Rockford, IL; 4/25 in Utica, NY and 4/27 in Harrisburg, PA. Rockford headliner was Warriors vs. Doom, Utica and Harrisburg were Luger vs. Mean Mark"
"4/29 in Greensboro saw one of the worst shows ever before 1,800 as Brad Anderson drew Manson (best move of the first four matches of the card was Cactus spitting in the air and catching it in his mouth) DUD, Pillman pinned Stallion -*, Norman & Abdullah beat Sullivan & Oliver Humperdink -*, Paul Ellering beat Teddy Long via count out -*, Rick Steiner & Warrior Animal beat Wrecking Crew *1/4 and Lex Luger beat Flair via DQ ***. It was announced that Scott Steiner was injured with an eye infection"
"4/22 in Cedar Rapids, IA drew 300 as Ace pinned Dru Tossell, Ellering beat Long via count out, Ace pinned Manson, Zenk pinned Lane (Cornette did a 15-minute stand-up routine to stall before the card started) and Warriors pinned Doom in a quickie"
"As it turns out, Windham never actually signed a contract with the WWF. He wrestled there but never signed and returned the piece of paper"
"In the case of Vicious, it would be hard for an injury to take away any of his wrestling ability, since he had almost none to begin with. In his case, if he can get his physique back, the injury will prove not to be damaging"
May 14, 90
"In the build-up for the Ric Flair vs. Lex Luger cage match on 5/19, for some reason they've been trying to re-portray Luger (who has been portrayed as the "favorite" to win the title whenever his "next chance" were to come because of the 2/25 finish) as the underdog. I'm not exactly sure the reason since they've spent all this time trying to portray Luger as having the title in his grasp except for constant outside interference and the cage is there to keep out outside interference"
"Apparently soon after the PPV show, the NWA is going to name a new booker. Not a head booker of a committee but a singular booker."
"With the wrestlers all knowing that a new booker is coming in, one would think that just about every wrestler in the promotion will be trying like crazy to have their best match possible on the PPV card figuring that whomever the new boss is is going to be analyzing the PPV show closely. That would make sense, wouldn't it? Please don't remind me that it was obvious Jim Cornette and the Midnight Express were doing just that on the last PPV and it seemed that nobody with decision-making power noticed since a dispute over breaking up the trio nearly led to them leaving the company. But all's well that ends well in that case"
"According to one source within the company, the job was offered to Jim Crockett, who turned it down. Bill Watts was flown in during the middle of this past week and had a meeting and/or meetings with Jim Herd. Apparently there were plenty of things that needed to be ironed out. Apparently Watts wanted more control over the company than the company wanted to give him and the sides didn't agree on a money figure. But Watts is apparently the front-runner for the position. Herd apparently flew to Texas later in the week to meet with Jerry Jarrett. No word on what came out of that meeting. Jerry Lawler's name has also been bandied about"
"What seemed like a major scare which would be the ultimate shot of bad luck turned out to be not so bad. Luger apparently got a staph infection in his knee. Some believe it was caught from Steiner, who was still working with a contagious eye infection. Luger is out of action at present which is why he'll be missing his house show matches with Flair this week. The word I've got is the PPV match isn't in any jeopardy, although he may not start back until just a few days before the PPV show"
"Right now the company is too big to be small and makes too many mistakes (without correcting them) nor has the staff to be big. The middle position is a losing position."
"The most talked about show over the weekend was the "Twin Wars '90" card in St. Paul in which NWA champ Ric Flair and AWA champ Larry Zbyszko appeared on the same card. Largely for the appearance of Flair, the AWA had its best gate in recent memory—a $22,000 house (2,000 paid although with freebies there were 4,400 in the building)"
"Next St. Paul show is 6/23 and it was announced in the building it would be a combined NWA and AWA show, but heard it probably won't be now"
"The NWA babyfaces (Rick & Scott Steiner, Road Warrior Animal, Sting and Lex Luger) appeared on Family Feud this week. I think they beat the GLOW girls four out of five shows"
"Road Warrior Hawk, it was confirmed, had a resting heartbeat of 180 beats per minute in the Meadowlands. Nobody really sure of his status but he hadn't returned as of the weekend but was scheduled back for the Nova Scotia tour"
"4/30 in Athens, GA drew 350 as Mike Rotunda pinned Gary Allbright, Samoans beat Lee Scott & Johnny Ace, Tom Zenk & Brian Pillman beat Midnight Express in 30 minutes (great match) and Pillman & Tommy Rich & Rick Steiner beat Samu & Wrecking Crew II. That was Wrecking Crew II's (Destruction Crew) final NWA appearance before it's back to AWA land"
"Joel Deaton is history stemming from his not doing a job at the last TV taping"
"Abdullah the Butcher quit since he starts in Japan next week. Abdullah had told the NWA all along that his Japan tour was in June. So they ran all this stuff and all this TV and did nothing with it"
"5/4 in Boston drew 1,500 at Brown College Gym...Luger, in particular had the hardest time as he didn’t get to the place until after 10 p.m. In fact, they had already announced to the crowd that Luger wasn't going to appear and that Flair would defend against Rick Steiner and Rick was in the ring when Luger finally made it to the building. They called for a second intermission to give Luger time to get dressed and did their 18 minute main event"
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Post by James Fabiano on Apr 9, 2021 19:51:08 GMT -5
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Post by Deleted on Apr 10, 2021 3:11:00 GMT -5
May 21, 90
"The new NWA booker is Ole Anderson. The decision was officially made last Tuesday and Anderson was introduced to the wrestlers as the man in charge at the television tapings on 5/14 in Indianapolis. Whatever new feuds and new ideas and new direction Anderson will take the company in should start to become evident at the PPV show on Saturday and on television starting the first weekend in June."
"The first major addition to the stable who started last night was Stan Hansen, who was given a huge push as a monster heel and seemingly is being groomed for matches against Sting and Lex Luger down the road. Hansen had been widely rumored to be WWF-bound after putting Hulk Hogan over at the Tokyo Dome last month"
"The announcement of Anderson came as a mild surprise since he wasn't prominently mentioned on an earlier list of candidates. Bill Watts was considered the front-runner for the position as late as the day before Anderson got the job. However, Watts insisted upon more power than the promotion was willing to give him. In particular, he wanted to not have to answer to Jim Herd and deal directly with Jack Petrik. It was a power the company wasn't willing to give to its booker. The two sides were also unable to come to a money agreement"
"There was a list made of prospective bookers to interview before Anderson was chosen. The list included the names speculated upon last week, including Greg Gagne, Dusty Rhodes, Jerry Jarrett and Lynn Denton. Herd did have a meeting with Jarrett last weekend. According to one source Jarrett turned down the position. A meeting was scheduled with Gagne during the middle of this past week, but it was canceled when the decision was made to go with Anderson. No meeting was ever held with Rhodes, whose return to action in the WWF after a foot injury was coincidental to the naming of Anderson as booker"
"Right now, the NWA is overexposed to NWA wrestling fans. There are six different television shows being produced each week. That number will increase in June with the different show being produced for WGN"
"Too many house shows. The idea behind this is since the wrestlers are paid on a weekly salary rather than paid a specific amount per show (main contract guys, the non-contract prelim guys usually earn a per show fee) that if the guy works three shows or seven shows in a week, the company only has to pay him the same. Therefore, it appears that running the extra shows is done with little additional talent cost"
"The general rule right now is the NWA can't draw on the road unless it's an "A" show headlined by the big guns, specifically Ric Flair and Lex Luger. And even with them, there is no guarantee the show will draw, just that without them the odds are great that it won’t"
"What the promotion is failing to do is get the fans excited about the event. The TV informs that a card is coming and lists matches (and the hardcore fans feel burned because often those matches don't transpire) but does nothing to convey the sense of excitement, importance and urgency to attending the event. Simply informing fans that there is an event will draw the hardcores but not casual fans. And there are even problems with the hardcore fans because in the markets they've hit consistently the NWA has a rep for not delivering what is has advertised"
"While the WWF wrestlers have as much pressure to maintain the look and travel just as hard, the pressure in the ring isn't there and it's in the ring where the majority of injuries take place"
"NWA officials have had their fingers crossed for the past week when it comes to the status of Lex Luger. Luger is out of action right now due to a staph infection in the leg. The current plan is that Luger will miss all his scheduled matches through Friday, but will return for his PPV main event match against Ric Flair on Saturday. Luger, who is still hospitalized at press time, is going to have his injury acknowledged at the card. In fact, there will be film shown of Luger leaving the hospital to make the PPV match. But even though everything is being planned for Luger to wrestle on Saturday and he will if at all possible, any kind of a reversal of his current recovery could threaten the match"
"Overall, the NWA has not been profitable during the 18 months since Turner Broadcasting purchased the company from the Crockett family. While reports and rumors have listed to losses to be as large as $1 million per month, other sources within the accounting department at World Championship Wrestling claim that figure is a huge exaggeration and pegged losses since the take-over as being less than $5 million. Whatever dollar figure would be quoted probably depends as much upon what income and expenses are being deducted and credited to the company in coming up with the total figure"
"The company has made money in certain aspects of its business. Both television bartering and television syndication revenue (from ad sales) have been profitable, as has the 900 number and the pay-per-view events. The large losses have been piled up with the extensive schedule of house shows, which haven't drawn anywhere near projections"
"Another less serious problem for the NWA right now is the name NWA itself. Apparently the name itself is owned by the NWA board, a group of promoters that were involved with the alliance when it was a worldwide organization of different localized wrestling promotions. I believe that with only the possible exception of Jim Crockett, nobody of the group which owns the rights to the name is even involved with the World Championship Wrestling promotion that is using the name. There has been speculation of a name change to avoid legal action, but the change in name has been slow in coming and reports were that before this week was out, several disenfranchised promoters from the old NWA would file legal action against WCW for using the NWA name"
"Late-breaking news. The Road Warriors will be coming in for Titan. I know you've read this since 1984 and it's never true (but you've never read it here) and the rumor has been around for six years. The way I've got the story is that the Warriors will be let out of their NWA contract "shortly" and will start here after that. While the duo won't earn anywhere close to its NWA salary of $2,000 per match working in the WWF, they were tired of everything in the NWA. Truthfully, the NWA was tired of them as well. As a threesome with Paul Ellering, the trio cost $5,100 every show and with the current NWA gates, that kind of a figure is ludicrous. The Warriors were offered a $156,000 deal for 1991 but they considered the offer to be an insult"
"In a last-ditch effort to try and get something that would mean something at the box office from the duo, Jim Herd and the NWA suggested the duo break up and feud with one another with the promise that when the angle ran its course the two would be put back together again. But the Roadies didn't want to do that idea, either, and there really was little left to do with them"
"The Warriors' NWA contract expires on December 9 and all along they were going to leave on that day, either to work independently and in Japan, or if they agreed to change their gimmick, to go to the WWF. Don't have a departure date from the NWA or arrival in the WWF, but it could be imminent. The PPV show on Saturday is scheduled to be Paul Ellering's last appearance and the Warriors themselves don't figure to last through the summer"
"Clash of Champions card for 6/13 in Charleston, SC, at the University of Citadel called "Coastal Crush" has The Steiners with Sting in their corner against George Washington & Thomas Jefferson with Sid Vicious in their corner— whoops, I mean Ric Flair & Barry Windham. Just that Flair looks so much like George Washington with that pony-tail. Got to drop that one"
"Expect Norman and Tom Zenk to be putting guys over with Anderson as booker"
"Didn't hear much about the Canadian tour other than the card at the Lord Beaverbrook Ice Arena was canceled because the ammonia they use to make the ice was leaking, and the other shows didn't draw well"
"NWA handled the Luger no-show as good as can be done in Detroit. There were posters outside the building informing fans Luger wasn't going to be there since he was in the hospital and that Rick Steiner would sub. They also made two announcements at the beginning of the show and offered refunds. There was little booing the announcement, either. Similar situation next night in Chicago"
"Last weekend had Main Event do an 0.9 (nobody even knew it was on, they actually did air the show when the baseball doubleheader ended)"
May 28, 90
"There are two ways of looking at the NWA's latest pay-per-view effort Saturday night from the Washington, D.C. Armory. Was it an entertaining wrestling show? From my standpoint, the answer was yes, it was. Did it deliver what was advertised? Absolutely not"
"While there were exceptions, most felt the matches themselves were good and the overall show was entertaining. Most also felt that certain aspects of the show, particularly whatever the Corporal Punishment turned into and most specifically the finish of the main event were a rip-off at a time that the NWA needs a rip-off the least. To a lesser extent, there were a lot of complaints about the actual haircutting in the hair vs. hair match"
"I haven't seen the tape of the show as of this writing so this will simply be a review of it as a live show. The card drew a legitimate sellout of 7,500 fans paying $98,000. The building wasn't much more than half-filled when the show started at 7 p.m. since the tickets listed an 8 p.m. start (I don't know how these mistakes seem to pop up so frequently with the NWA). By 8 p.m., the place was packed and fans were turned away"
"Without air conditioning, the place was very hot inside. Wrestling under the lights must have been brutal, particularly since most of the matches went nearly 20 minutes. While Jim Herd vowed after the show never to do another PPV event in a building without air conditioning, the NWA should have learned that lesson last year when they did the Clash from an even hotter Fort Bragg, N.C."
"There was a chant of "Piper, Piper" at Samoan Savage (when Savage was younger and a whole lot lighter back in 1984 he had a WWF feud with Roddy Piper which even sold out Madison Square Garden and drew sizable houses throughout the Northeast)"
"In a no-hair vs. no-hair match with not much of a haircut at the end, Paul Ellering pinned Theodore R. Long in 1:57. Thank God For Short Matches to be sure. It was terrible and only made me glad I haven't seen Sherri vs. Sapphire (or Sapphire vs. anyone for that matter) yet"
"J. Tapper, the official hairstylist for World Championship Wrestling took a few snippets from Long's head, smiled in his own merry way and pranced out of the ring. Teddy, who had very little hair to begin with, lost very little as well, J. spent all of two seconds on the haircut, easily the worst excuse for shaving a guy bald (as was advertised) that I've ever seen"
"Jim Cornette was placed in a cage at ringside specifically so they could have Robocop do his one trick after the match. Cornette was hilarious inside the cage"
"Robocop meant nothing to the show. In fact, they were giving out Robocop posters to everyone who came in the building and most people didn't even take them. With all those Robocop posters given out, I didn't even notice one, and I mean one, ever held up during the entire show"
"The only comment from the kids around me were, "Boy, Robocop is too small." For the few seconds the angle lasted, people were into it. Nobody booed. It didn't hurt the show one iota. I can't say it helped the show, but it became clear to me that the wrestling promotion itself had decided or realized that Robocop wasn't what they wanted to be selling so they made it as painless as possible. For those who purchased the show to see Robocop, and they were selling the idea he'd be at ringside during the main event, then limiting him to a 30 second cameo would have been a major disappointment"
"Before getting into the rest of the show, who showed up on stage but the world famous Junkfood Dog, weighing a slim, trim Buddy Rose-like 323 pounds. Jim Cornette came out and it was hard to hear live, but when Cornette asked Dog where he'd been and Dog gave an address and Cornette freaked that it was his mother's house it did get a big pop. People didn't boo JFD, although I noticed quite a few people shaking their heads. But even among the blacks, there was no major reaction and people seemed more stunned by seeing how big the guy had gotten than actually caring or not wanting to see him"
"If JYD could still draw money he would still be in the WWF. They obviously didn't dump him because of a poor workrate. And they didn't give up on him easily, they gave him one chance after another to turn things around for years before giving up on him. Then the NWA tried last year. Does anyone remember back that far?"
"I'm all for giving a guy another chance provided it appears he's come to grips that his back is against the wall and performs, like Ricky Morton has done this year. I wasn't thrilled about the Rock & Roll coming back, but after they were in for a few weeks, they pretty much shut up all of their critics."
"The Rock & Roll Express beat The Freebirds in a Corporal Punishment match in 18:59...A few things happened on the way to this match. First off, it was apparently "supposed" to last more than 25 minutes, which a Country Whipping match simply can't do (you can only avoid beating someone to death with belts for so long before they really are beaten to death). Then a certain individual who will go nameless but his namesake was a famous cowboy was told to buy whips for the match. Instead of buying leather belts, he went to a sex shop and bought a cat-o-nine tails. Well, you certainly can't whip someone with that for 20 minutes either, so they tied the whips to the ropes and used them two or three brief flurries during the match, and aside from those brief flurries it was just a regular match"
"It was obvious Luger was nowhere near 100 percent. In fact, I don't think he was near 50 percent. He had to wrestle because there was simply no alternative and the promotion had so much confidence in Flair that there was little doubt this would be a good match. And it was turning into a great match when they went to the finish. Flair bled a gusher and carried it all the way. Considering the pain Luger was obviously in and how limited he was, you have to give him credit for doing as well as he did. Luger was supposed to juice a gusher originally but because of the staph infection, it couldn't be that way. I'm sure the original plan was for them to go longer as well"
"The Giant was an awesome sight but he just didn't seem to understand what was going on. At one point Flair was walking right by him and he didn't do a thing and Flair somehow didn't notice him (which admittedly seems impossible). Because Flair walked around again and then saw him as he was "guarding" the aisle and Flair did his freaked out reaction and the whole bit"
"At almost every house show since the PPV, Flair was DQ'd against Luger because of outside interference. Just a few weeks before the PPV they aired on television for free a Flair vs. Luger match ending with the outside interference DQ to set up a cage match, which promised no outside interference. Now one can pretend not to think and think this was a good finish. And I realize that given the circumstances they couldn't have changed the title even if they had wanted to. But if I was Vince McMahon and I was booking the finish to hurt the NWA the most, I couldn't have done a better job"
"The NWA's way of saving face as a promotion for advertising a match that would prevent outside interference and then doing basically a slightly different twist on the exact same finish they basically promised not to do will be to suspend Ole and Woman, at least that's what I'm guessing since Ole is going to be a behind-the-scenes booker and those in charge have wanted to deep-six Woman because Missy Hyatt has a larger fan club in power this week as the token sex object"
"As it turns out, Luger simply wasn't in condition for a title change even if that was the original plan. (And it was the plan before Ole Anderson became booker, and only Ole and his friends know what would have happened had Luger been healthy because by the time Ole was announced as booker it was already well-known that Luger was going to work the PPV and have to lay off afterwards which makes no sense to give him the title when he can't work house shows for a while—maybe not even until Sting comes back)"
"While watching the show and with Windham being conspicuous by his absence, I had figured perhaps they'd have Windham hiding under the cage. While that also would have been a screw-job, at least it would have been a creative one (while that under the cage finish has been done before in Memphis and Texas, it has never been done with a national promotion). However, with the heat in the building, you really couldn't have done it that way, either. Windham could have easily passed out under the ring in that heat"
"And then there's The Giant. Not Andre, but El Gigante. A gamble, to be sure. Just from seeing the guy and my own reaction, it is a gamble worth taking. He may not make it. He may be a flop. He was lost, and by not knowing English very well will impede his learning how to work (while his trainers, Hiro Matsuda and Dave "Cuban Assassin" Cannell are fluent in Spanish, most of those who when he starts working will be in with him aren't which makes for communication problems—also with his size, even the simple task of calling a match could be difficult—you might need a megaphone just so he can hear)"
"The Connie Chung show piece on pro wrestling, mainly the NWA, aired 5/19 on CBS. While some in the NWA felt double-crossed because it is said that they were assured by the producers that the segment would deal with how they market their product and not real or fake, it was made abundantly clear by Connie Chung and in an interview with Jim Wilson that wrestling was choreographed and staged entertainment. As journalism, I'd have to say the piece was garbage simply because their entire premise was that Ted Turner had taken this struggling wrestling company and turned it into a TV ratings success that outdraws the Braves and Hawks and is now a financially successful multi-million dollar company"
"Before the Road Warriors agreed to go to the WWF, they made a proposal to Baba to work 16 weeks per year in Japan and asked for $20,000 per week each and Baba turned them down. New Japan could have gotten them for that money as well but New Japan didn't want them at that price, either"
"Kendall Windham and Blackjack Mulligan were sentenced on Tuesday on their counterfeiting conviction. Windham, 23, was sentenced to 27 months in prison followed by two years probation while his father, 48, was sentenced to two years in prison followed by two years probation. They apparently haven't started serving time yet since Windham was still wrestling for PWF has of last night"
"The Clash line-up for 6/13 in Charleston, SC has been completely revamped with the booking change. The new card hasn't been officially released (should be on Tuesday I'm told) but the tentative line-up looks something like this: Ric Flair vs. JFD for the NWA title, Luger (if he's able to return and he's off the booking sheets until 6/13) defending the U.S. title against Arn Anderson (who I'm told has looked excellent his first two nights back in the ring), Doom vs. Steiners for the NWA tag title, Midnight vs. Rock & Roll for the U.S. tag title, Doug Furnas vs. Barry Windham and Southern Boys vs. Samoan Swat Team"
"Starting in July, all the TV's will be taped on Monday and virtually only in Marietta and Gainesville, GA which saves travel expenses and makes it familiar for the production people. The group appears to be gravitating to a more regional old-style approach, which isn't the worst idea right now for them"
"Ole will still be in front of the camera as Horseman leader after all. Instead of suspending Ole & Woman for their part in the raising of the cage, they are simply suspending Woman (now history) for bringing a foreign object into the cage. I don't even want to ask what she was doing inside the cage in the first place, because if I spent anymore time thinking about things that don't make sense in the NWA I'd come to the conclusion that I didn't enjoy the show after all even though I did enjoy it while I was viewing it"
"Reports from the TV taping on 5/21 in Montgomery, AL which drew 1,100 were that it was the most organized TV taping in a while. It was similar to a Titan taping in that the matches went in and out in a hurry and they have an 18-match card and were done in just two hours and 40 minutes. JYD will be replacing Luger at all the house shows starting Thursday for matches against Flair. There's a lot more to say about this but we'll hold off for now. Barry Horowitz debuted as a jobber at the taping. Negotiations going on to bring in Kerry Von Erich who was tentatively to start at the taping but fell through"
"Ref Nick Patrick tore a patella tendon in his knee (same injury as Sting) taking an out of the ring bump in Chicago last weekend and is out indefinitely"
"There were problems with Teddy Long during the week because he didn't know until 5/14 that he was losing the match (since Ellering was leaving the promotion and Long was getting a push as a manager logic would say he had a better than even chance of gaining a screw-job win although with so many heels going over maybe not) but all was worked out"
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Post by Deleted on Apr 11, 2021 3:16:45 GMT -5
June 4, 90
"The good news is, with Ole Anderson as booker, the NWA TV shows are a lot more focused. The bad news is what they're focused on"
"It appears we are going back in time, about eight-to-ten years to be exact, with the return of all the "old favorites," with the emphasis on the word old and not on favorites. Looking at the whole thing collectively it isn't a good sign. However, looking at the job stability of a WCW booker, you almost have to pull out something major that will work as a stop gap method, because there is no time for slow building because nobody has kept the pencil long enough to be there to see any rewards of a slow building angle (and generally, those are the most effective kind). So Anderson is bringing back a lot of older names who in theory should have some recognition in hopes it'll bring back the fans who have quit going to wrestling"
"Orndorff was actually a replacement for Kerry Von Erich, who was supposed to start at the TV tapings last Monday and was penciled in for the match with Arn Anderson at the Clash on 6/13. But Von Erich no-showed Monday's taping (instead he worked a main event in Memphis against Jerry Lawler). By Wednesday, he was fired, before he had actually ever started, and Orndorff was brought in for the spot"
"Orndorff is 40, but I don't worry about chronological age. There are wrestlers who are 30 who are washed up and there are wrestlers who are 40 who are in their prime (some would say that the two best wrestlers are Ric Flair and Genichiro Tenryu and both have hit 40)"
"Hansen is 41, but doesn't have an old looking face so age isn’t a big issue. He's definitely not the worker he once was, but if he's good enough to stay over in Japan and hang with the quality of wrestlers he's been with, his ability isn't a question mark either"
"The one good thing about Hansen is that one thing I've thought was lacking on the PPV "Supercards" was the aura of a supercard. In other words, the PPV show wasn't really any different in line-up than the house show in any major market (except the quality of matches is generally a step above). With Hansen, and also Big Van Vader, the NWA has new attractions that will only appear (or at least primarily appear) on the PPV show which makes the PPV show appear something special because you are seeing more than just the same guys you see on television and at the arenas every week"
"Landel is only 28. From what I've seen of him in recent years, his work hasn't been at the level it was a few years back. But he's got a weird kind of heel charisma which would enable him to do jobs every night for every wrestler and still maintain his heat"
"**Mr. Wrestling II. Don't panic, folks. All he is in for is to be a special ref at the next card at the Omni. Nothing wrong with that. Now, if they were actually going to try and push the guy as a wrestler, that would be a different story. But he's just going to make one last appearance before retiring and moving to Hawaii."
"**Iron Sheik. Panic, folks. There is absolutely no logical reason on the face of this Earth to bring the guy back after he was such a miserable flop last year. Even if he's just a jobber it doesn't help because his job matches would be so awful. The guys he's supposed to be putting over won't be getting over against a guy who can no longer bump"
"I don't believe Orton has officially agreed to come in, but Anderson is said to want him. Orton worked a match Friday night in his hometown of St. Louis against Mantell. Orton is another guy who was one of the best workers in the business in the early 80s (boy, this is starting to read like a list of the best workers of the early 80s who have taken a plunge since then). He also worked last year for WCW (remember that memorable feud with Dick Murdoch? Now you remember, huh?) before being let go after he protested being asked to do a job for the Midnight Express in a television tag team match. Orton can't get over today. Remember last year?"
"If the idea of building a promotion around a black vs. white issue in 1990 wasn’t bad enough, look at the babyface they are building around. The Dog is the single worst wrestler getting a push in the business today, and even if Andre the Giant were still around, he’d push Andre up to second place. As one wrestler told me a few days back after seeing the Dog once again, The Dog is as much worse than Dusty Rhodes as Rhodes is worse than Owen Hart"
"Sometimes I don't like things that go on in the business. Sometimes I even get mad at the tactics some promotions use. But it is very rare that I watch something on wrestling that makes me ashamed to call myself a fan. While the angle with Rocky King was excellently done, and the mic work by Ric Flair and Ole Anderson in the angle (and Flair’s later interviews) were tremendous, trying to push this kind of angle today made me ashamed to be a fan."
"I want to point out that has nothing to do with Junkyard Dog, who I’d just rather not watch because he can’t work a lick. That has to do with the way the promotion is thinking in coming up with an angle like that. Black vs. white? in 1990? Maybe it'll even play on a regional basis, but I'd bet against that. But for a promotion that wants to be national to try (and not succeed) to draw fans and use angles from the late 60s? I’d be a fool to say race relations aren’t an issue in society today or that prejudice doesn't exist. But for a product to appeal to the masses, angles like this look low-class."
"JYD was a big star in New York, but he drew white faces to the arenas, not black faces (as if this matters). The WWF has never been able to draw blacks to the arenas in anywhere near the proportion that blacks watch WWF wrestling on television. The company has even done studies trying to figure out why this is (you know, looking for a demographic and sociological reason to explain that when every black character, whether positive or negative plays a demeaning stereotypical role somehow that group stays home from the arenas, it's not because of how the company itself portrays the group). In fact, JYD was even a headliner in a run with Terry Funk which was a strong No. 2 feud in 1985-86. I recall I used to regularly see them wrestle in Oakland and they nearly packed the Coliseum twice. Oakland itself is a largely black city, but the WWF crowds are largely from the suburbs. I remember at both shows I was surprised at the absence of black fans, but a lot more surprised because the ones there cheered for Funk, not Dog. Soon after, the Dog meant nothing to anyone, regardless of skin color. He was just another opening act in the circus"
"With all these new names coming in, all of whom either screwed themselves or the company or wouldn't do jobs last year, on their way back, how come Steamboat wasn't called? The reason is the lawsuit, but whose fault is the lawsuit? Who advertised the guy three months after he left the company? Instead the big surprise is Rocky King's main man, a case of reverse discrimination because of this theory that they need a black face even though last year the half-Japanese, half-American face drew anywhere from double to four times the gates the black face drew"
"It's funny, but I think about Steamboat once again. Steamboat had major contract problems yet he showed up for his PPV match. Dog had no contract problems, just didn't want to put Muta over, and he didn't."
"Road Warriors final night in was scheduled as the TV taping on 5/29 in Roanoke"
"The show that airs this Saturday is headlined by Road Warriors vs. Anderson & Windham. Ole & Sid Vicious interfere for the DQ with Sting & JFD & Orndorff making the save. Told the match was great and the heat was deafening for the face save"
"Ratings for last weekend saw 5/18 Power Hour do a 1.7, 5/19 World Championship Wrestling did a 1.9 (lowest in a long time although part of this can be attributed with the PPV starting right after the show) and NWA Main Event on 5/20 did a 2.9 (part of this is probably because fans were curious hoping to get first word of PPV results—remember the vast majority of cable homes still can't get PPV)"
"5/24 in Memphis drew 2,000 for a card in which neither member of the Flair vs. Luger main event showed up. Instead fans saw JFD pin Samoan Savage in a replacement match which went less than one minute. Flair missed a flight I believe"
"Appears there will be a renewed push for Tommy Rich, while Tom Zenk, Norman and Cactus Jack don't appear to be seeing a whole lot of a push. Actually Norman will be kept off TV for a while after his "injury" from the Horseman and will return with a new gimmick. Some talk he'll become Norman the Truckdriver with a road map"
"Windham was brought back because he is such a great talent and there are apparently certain clauses in his deal which give him a large lump sum if he should fulfill his contract and calls for payback of the $25,000 bonus from last year"
"As it turned out, I was mistaken in the yearbook in saying Steamboat and Herd were $10,000 apart on a yearly figure. The actual story is the two sides negotiated and Herd offered a "final" figure that was $10,000 lower than Steamboat had come down to. Steamboat told Herd he would think it over and get back to him a few days later. About three days later Steamboat agreed to Herd's figure and Herd said that figure was off the table and offered a new figure substantially less and at that point (which was mid-July), for all real purposes, there were no more negotiations between the two"
June 18, 90
"Junkfood Dog (whose nickname is derived not from his love of Junkfood but from his poor work rate because admittedly he is hardly the only pro wrestler who sometimes binges on candy bars)"
"Cactus Jack Manson finished up Sunday night in Sunrise, FL. Ole Anderson was going to job him out so he decided it would be best to quit"
"Jim Cornette and Paul E. Dangerously were removed from TV commentary, as was Teddy Long because Anderson felt that it hurts their heel image and gets them cheered. However, he's keeping The Freebirds on NWA Pro with Lance Russell"
"It appears both Brian Pillman and Tom Zenk are going to be phased down and out respectively"
"Just about everyone around is saying the JFD vs. Flair matches are the worst matches of Flair's career"
"Barry Windham no-showed the 6/8 and 6/9 shows but was back on 6/10"
"NWA has talked with Austin Idol but Idol doesn't want to commit to a full schedule"
"Iron Sheik starts back 6/19, mainly facing Pillman in dates in the South"
"Lots of problems stemming from a 6/6 show in Columbia, SC. First off, the card was booked for Flair vs. JFD on top originally, but the office found out JFD had an indie booking in his hometown of Wadesboro, NC so they let him out of it. They asked Luger (who started back on 6/1) to take his place, but Luger had already been given the night off and wanted to see his son's baseball game and refused to work the date. This created considerable heat with Luger being deemed not dedicated enough by some. Anyway, Flair wrestled Ricky Morton on top as it turns out."
"TV tapings on 6/11 in Ft. Pierce drew 2,500. JFD vs. Flair was scheduled on top but the match never took place which thrilled the fans to no end."
"Rock & Roll beat Midnight in a match billed on TV as a title match and never announced as non-title until after the match was over and Rock & Roll had won"
"JFD pinned Flair in eight minutes in one of the worst Flair matches possibly ever. Once again there was no mention of this being a non-title match until after the match was over and Dog had won."
"Eddie Gilbert and Missy Hyatt are officially in the process of getting divorced"
"Sting and Lex Luger were on CNN's Live with Sonya last week. Sonya seemed out to make them look bad. Sting didn't need help as he just comes across too abrasive in these situations. Luger came off well in that he came off as intelligent in his diction and attitude, but he didn't give good answers to questions since Sonya asked him about whether he allowed his wife and son to attend wrestling and Luger, of course, didn't want it public that he was married and kept skirting the issue and she came back to it. She also asked about steroids and Sting claimed he never used them where Luger tried to at least give an explanation but I'm not sure what he was trying to say as he got nowhere"
"When Lex Luger came to the NWA many years ago, he was awful. And he received one ton of criticism because he could only work 30 seconds before blowing up. While Luger is far from the best in the business today, he is still a much improved performer who can work 30 minutes, instead of 30 seconds, without blowing up. While a lot of people knock Luger's dedication to the profession, and there are many veterans who make less money who are a lot more dedicated, one has to respect that he has improved a tremendous amount and obviously changed the way he trained to make himself a better performer and tried to learn at least something"
June 25, 90 (Clash report is missing from scan)
"Lots of heat on Sid Vicious since he's been no-showing all his dates (not to work but to be in the corner in the main events since he's not cleared to work until 7/1) including some TV dates. At the TV dates he no-showed they don't even acknowledge him in the Horsemen interviews. Apparently Vicious is playing in a softball league back home in Arkansas and some heat since he's playing softball regularly and bench pressing more than 400 pounds but saying he can't wrestle (he's been out of action since November after a punctured lung) and also no-showing dates where he's in the corner. NWA won't fire him because those in power are enamored with him, but New Japan is very interested and the WWF is desperate right now for new heels and he fits the bill both in size and lack of ability"
"They haven't been pushing the July shows as a Bash tour on the TV. The Bash name should mean something since Dusty transformed July into the best house show month of the year for the NWA by calling the July shows "Bashes." "
"Huge backstage argument between Ole Anderson and the Steiners about the finish on the Clash. Seems Steiners were expecting to get the belts back. Apparently the original finish was for Scott to do more of a clean job than it turned out to be"
"Sting and Lex Luger had the Grand Opening of their Gold's Gym (which has actually been open for several months) in Atlanta and several of the face wrestlers appeared at the show"
"JFD & Luger beat Flair & Windham in 22 minutes when ref Mr. Wrestling II beat up Flair, which allowed Luger to pin Flair. So now Flair is putting over 62-year-old men"
"Harley Race only booked on the PPV show"
"As far as getting rid of the heel color commentators, actually Jim Cornette was asked by Ole which he would rather do, manage or announce and he chose managing. Dangerously wasn't asked because if he was, he'd have chose announcing since he came back primarily to be an announcer. Ole felt the heels were getting cheered too much which is why they were taken off. Freebirds were still on NWA Pro as of the last taping, however"
"Race was arrested last Sunday in a boat collision which sent four people to the hospital. Race on 6/9 was operating a 23-foot boat in Lake of the Ozarks when it struck another boat from behind according to the Missouri Water Patrol. Race, who was alone in his boat, was arrested for operating a boat while under the influence of alcohol, resisting arrest and careless operation of a boat. One passenger in the other boat suffered two broken legs, another a collapsed lung and two others were cut up pretty bad. Race wasn't injured, but his boat was totaled"
"Faces are now called "Dudes with Attitudes" which is a whole lot more modern that last week's "Super Heroes." "
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Apr 12, 2021 4:17:30 GMT -5
July 2, 90
"Ric Flair met with President George Bush this past Wednesday night at a fund-raiser for Sen. Jesse Helms in Charlotte. Apparently Flair was requested by the president to not only be in attendance and the dinner, but also to sit at the head table with all the local leading politicians. When Bush introduced Flair to the audience, North Carolina Governor Jim Martin held up four fingers and Flair got a pretty big pop"
"I don't know if it would be correct to categorize Bush as a wrestling fan, and I guess politically he'd rather not be categorized (for example, when I tried to get photos of Flair and Bush from the NWA office for my column in The National, the office said that while photos were taken, it's very difficult to get them released for newspapers), but when he lived in Texas, he on occasion attended Paul Boesch's matches at the Sam Houston Coliseum and Boesch once told me that he thought Flair was Bush's favorite wrestler"
"We are now facing the first stages of a problem that will only get worse as the next few years go on. The repercussions of the destruction of the smaller promotions. Okay, there are a few guys, like maybe Scotty the Body or Wayne Bloom that aren’t in one of the major offices and could come in as "new stars" that most of the fans will have never seen or heard of. But they are the exceptions"
"Jim Cornette had a heart attack scare this past week, but as it turned out, he simply had a Gastro-intestinal attack and was back in action by the end of the week. Cornette was hospitalized Monday night in Charlotte and in the intensive care cardiac unit that night. Doctors eventually diagnosed the cause of Cornette's internal problems as "Acute Pepsi Overdose." He had apparently consumed 62 ounces of the dreaded drink in the hours before his body revolted on him. Cornette is under doctors orders to avoid Pepsi and to drop some weight"
"Last Tuesday when I asked ten people, all of whom are either in the wrestling business or hardcore readers what promotion had the oldest wrestlers, seven of the ten responded, "The NWA." Indeed, the perception of late has been that NWA stands for Nostalgia Wrestling Association. But when I started thinking about that last week, I could only come up with two NWA performers that were past 40, Paul Orndorff and Ric Flair"
"The Clash replay on Wednesday night drew a 2.8 rating, which is the best rating of any Clash replay to date. Kind of ironic since the original airing was the second lowest ever. That's actually a fantastic rating for that late a slot (10:15 p.m. to 12:45 a.m.) even though it's prime time on the West Coast. Since the replay was never plugged, I don't know what to attribute the rating to but it's strange that with tons of plugs and live the show did a 4.1, and kept a secret and replayed a week later in a far worse time slot could still do a 2.8"
"Cactus Jack Manson was told by Ole Anderson that his bumps expose the business"
"Eddie Gilbert offered to quit the NWA earlier this week but the matter hasn't been resolved. The TBS doctor ruled that Gilbert is ready to wrestle and he's booked for this weekend. Gilbert claims he is nowhere near ready to wrestle. Gilbert reportedly told Jim Herd that he'd quit the company, so they didn't have to pay him because he's not ready to wrestle but doesn't want to take money for sitting home"
"The Pittsburgh Post-Gazzette had a story on 5/24 dealing with Shane Douglas' quitting the NWA and going to the WWF that was different from any newspaper story on pro wrestling that I've seen. Reporter Mark Madden revealed Douglas quit the NWA after refusing to lose a match to Mean Mark's heart punch and asking to have the finish changed. Douglas didn't directly admit that was the reason but called that version "fairly accurate." The story said Douglas was even willing to lose to the heart punch but balked at working a short one-sided squash loss. Jim Herd wouldn't comment about the reason Douglas left, but was quoted as saying: "Shane sure picked the wrong place to go if he wants to avoid losing" "
"Iron Sheik apparently won't be coming in to NWA after all. He was scheduled to work every night this past week with Pillman, however he never made it in and Dutch Mantell subbed. Apparently Sheik is history. The only reason he was being brought back in the first place was due to a front-office snafu with his contract (the contracts renew automatically and since he was gone, somehow they forgot to send him his 90 day notice to terminate last year's contract so it renewed for a second year, but I guess they reached an agreement to not bring him back after all)"
"On Main Event, Arn Anderson pinned Pillman in a **** TV title match reversing Pillman's finisher and holding the trunks, Pillman then did a job in a dark match to Mean Mark which was also a good match so you can see where he's headed"
"Horner was in as Star Blazer, and everyone in the place knew it was Horner and he didn't do much in the ring—seems headed for opening match status"
"This week's announcing line-ups were WCW (changed after almost every match, from Caudle/Solie to Ross to Lance/Birds to Ross/Schiavone to Ross/T-Bolt and finally to Caudle/Solie); Main Event (Caudle solo), World Wide (Schiavone & Dutch Mantell), NWA Pro (Lance & Birds). So as you can see, they have hardly done away with color commentators who are heels, just with Paul E., Teddy Long and Cornette"
"I haven't heard of any off-the-juice trend in the NWA, but it is true that a lot of the wrestlers have lost weight of late. But the ones I'm thinking of that have (Morton, Gibson, Rich) don't appear to be steroid users, or at least certainly not heavy users. They are guys who have dropped a lot of weight to improve their stamina and speed in the ring, ie, their work. They aren't the only ones, but are noticeable of late. Someone joked to me that in the NWA dressing room lately, it seems as if all the guys are bragging about how much weight they've lost while in the WWF dressing room the guys always brag about how much weight they've gained"
"The whole reason behind the JYD wins over Flair was simply to send fans at the house shows "home happy," something the NWA hasn't done on a consistent basis of late. There is also an old-time wrestling mentality that "if you beat a black, he'll never mean a thing again." Basic stereotype, same reason blacks mainly still play the outdated roles. That's two of the reasons for the Clash finish, which makes no sense in reality since JFD wasn't getting any more title matches (well, he was getting matches billed as title matches this past week but he simply won them by pinfall and they sent everyone home happy as if the title changed hands and simply announced after the fact it was a non-title match)"
July 9, 90
"For Flair to go to Titan, the NWA would have to release him from his contract. Obviously the NWA, and in particular Jim Herd, who along with Jack Petrik and perhaps Ole Anderson are the ones who are ultimately going to have to make this decision, aren't going to do this without some trepidation. In fact, more than any other reason, it was Herd's decision not to release Flair from his contract in late March which was why the NWA's planned title change to Lex Luger never took place"
"The loss of the Road Warriors has saved the company $25,000 per week. And the gates in cities this go around with the Warriors gone as compared with the previous month with the Warriors still around haven't been any smaller"
"I believe Flair's contract is for somewhere in the neighborhood of $550,000 per year, although several sources within the company insist the figure is in reality $730,000. That is an awful lot of money to be spending on a wrestler that the company, whether it be for the right or wrong reason, has downplayed to the point that he is no longer much of a drawing card"
"As a rule, the wrestlers in the WWF make more money than anywhere else. But that rule doesn't apply to every individual. By the Road Warriors own estimation, leaving the NWA at the time they did (rather than leaving after their lucrative contract expires in December) will be costing them $100,000 apiece this year, but heat with Jim Herd and the office was such and I guess they felt it was just time to break out of the stagnation that their careers were in before anymore damage was done"
"If the $730,000 figure is accurate, and even if it isn't and the $550,000 figure is closer to the mark, Flair himself would be taking a gamble in making the move. The gamble is financial every bit as much as putting his career in the hands of Vince McMahon, who has made some wrestlers into huge stars and has also completely broken some great performers. Just two years ago Owen Hart was talked of as being the successor to Flair as the best worker in the business. And Terry Taylor was on everyone's list as one of the ten best workers in the profession. Where are they now?"
"While Hulk Hogan certainly earns more than Flair, and Warrior might as well, the list of WWF wrestlers earning more than Flair over a one-year period ends right there"
"While Orndorff is said to have earned $20,000 per week during his record-breaking series with Hogan in 1986, that came at a time Hogan himself was hungry and was not only working a full schedule but even doing double-shots in order to make as much money as possible"
"Most of the heels who have worked with Hogan on his limited schedule in hot-drawing feuds have earned in the range of $8,000 to $13,000, depending upon how large the city and gate were that particular week. The pay-off for a Wrestlemania main event is quite a bit more than that. Realistically, if money was the only factor. Flair would be better off staying where he is"
"The Charlotte Observer ran a poll this past week asking North Carolinian's if they thought wrestling was real or not. A full one percent said they believed wrestling was real as compared with only 99 percent who thought it wasn't. However, 21 percent thought some aspects of wrestling were real while 72 percent thought no aspects of wrestling were real and seven percent didn't care or didn't think. A similar national poll was run several months back in USA Today in which 96 percent of those asked said they thought pro wrestling was fake. What that means to me is that if you run a business trying to draw the classic "wrestling mark" who believes everything, than you are limiting yourself very much in your potential audience"
"Some changes in the latest line-up for Saturday's PPV show. Fatu has been pulled from the show. Tommy Rich will now wrestle Harley Race while Mike Rotunda will face Iron Sheik (who is now listed as coming in although he has missed all his scheduled bookings thus far which is a good sign)"
"Lex Luger was fined $1,000 for showing up late to the Omni last time"
"Stan Hansen fractured the skull of jobber David Riordan at last week's TV taping"
"The White House wouldn't allow TBS to use any of the footage of George Bush introducing Flair at the Jesse Helms fund-raiser because it made it look like the president was endorsing Flair"
"Freebirds wrestled Midnight Express in Knoxville in a heel vs. heel match-up ending in a DDQ"
"Sting was scheduled to return 6/29 in Detroit and did appear at the show and all the shows he was scheduled to wrestle at but it was announced that the doctor wouldn't release him to wrestle and he interferes causing Flair to get pinned each night. Refunds aren’t offered but fans seem to have been happy since he was there and everyone knows the injury is legit. However, the poor houses over the weekend for Sting's advertised big comeback (which was pushed so poorly on a local basis that it boggles the mind) shows that Sting's return won't be popping any houses outside of Baltimore"
"They are now paying for blowing what should have been a good house show run by overexposing Sting to death while they should have kept him off television because his return means nothing because to the fans, he was never gone. TBS is going to push the guy as its biggest star and we'll just have to see how it goes"
"Terry Gordy & Steve Williams negotiated to come in as a tag team between Japan tours ala Stan Hansen, however their asking price of $1,000 apiece per match was considered too high. Definitely is for a house show, but perhaps for a PPV it could mean something although they'd have to do so many TV's to get over again (in the U.S. for all real purposes fans have "forgotten" Gordy and Williams' name means nothing) that I can see their point"
"It's virtually a certainty that Terry Taylor will start in September"
"Orndorff pinned Mean Mark in 13 seconds (Mark has a bad hip and really can't work)"
"New TV gimmick, which sounds interesting. Each week a wrestler will be like the Wrestler of the Week and have matches on TBS on Friday night, Saturday night and Sunday. The names of his three foes will be picked out of a hat so they may be jobbers but often will be "names." If the wrestler wins all three bouts, he gets "$15,000" but if he doesn’t win all three, the other three guys get "$5,000" apiece"
"Jim Ross & Bob Caudle now are doing WCW (Schiavone & Dutch Mantell on World Wide; Lance & Freebirds on NWA Pro; Missy & Ross still doing Main Event—Missy is still there although Ole wants her out but Herd thinks she means ratings points but she's on double secret probation)"
"Hansen apparently did a classic interview where he accidentally hit himself in the shin with his bell and swallowed his tobacco and was choking but still finished the interview and the interview will air since it's so unique"
"Flair and Sting were kept off all TV for 7/14 nor was any mention made of their match in the commentary since who really knows what will happen"
"They had an unbelievable newspaper ad in Toronto. Main event was listed as Rick Flair vs. Lex Lugar with Flair billed as U.S. champ, Sting in corner while Lugar billed as World champ with "Vicious Sid" in corner (neither Sting nor Sid were there), "Stiner Bros." vs. "Doonl" with manager Long while also advertised was Mean Mark "with manager Long" and Johnny Ace vs. Bam Bam Bigelow, neither of whom were there"
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Apr 13, 2021 3:47:21 GMT -5
July 16, 90
"As most of you already know, Sting captured the NWA world title at the Great American Bash PPV show on 7/7 in Baltimore from Ric Flair. This should fuel rumors once again of an impending Flair leaving for the WWF, particularity stemming from last week's Observer. But that isn't the case. Jim Herd refused to allow Flair out of his NWA contract, so whatever Flair may have wanted to do is a moot point."
"My own opinion of the show, from a live perspective since I haven't seen a tape of the PPV version, is that the show was a thumbs up even if the top matches were duds after the incredible Midnight Express vs. Southern Boys match. That was the best match I've seen (live or on tape) in the United States this year. Clean finishes in every match but one was a nice touch and the title change was handled nice"
"Having sung all the praises of this show it's time for a reality break. The card drew 8,900 paid in the Baltimore Arena and I'd estimate about 10,000 total in the building. While those are nice figures by current NWA standards and the $150,000 house was the NWA’s largest in nearly one year and the second largest gate in this country since Wrestlemania, the show didn't sell out. That is a really bad sign. I really expected Sting's return to pop some houses and even though the nightly business hasn't picked up noticeably, I thought since this show was too heavily hyped and the title change was practically guaranteed and you had the return of Sting and the national debut of El Gigante, I thought this was an easy sellout."
"Mike Rotunda pinned Iron Sheik in 6:51 with a backslide. Originally Rotunda was going to wrestle Harley Race and Sheik work with Tommy Rich but the pairings were switched because Rotunda didn't want to work with anyone who doesn't practice boating safety. Sheik looks like his water is about to break"
"There was interest in seeing Vader from the TV clips, and he got a babyface reaction coming down the aisle, especially when the fans saw the headgear blowing steam. Crowd was quiet once the match started because they couldn't figure out if Vader was a face or heel"
"Gigante got a big pop coming to the ring. There is no doubt that some day he is going to make this company a lot of money, but I have a feeling they could burn him out to soon if they don't quit pushing him so fast before he learns"
"Lex Luger kept the U.S. title pinning Mean Mark in 12:07...two women in the crowd stole the "crowd" live from this match. Fans were watching them and the reaction to some of the stuff in the match was nothing special."
"They made the 10 minute call at 5:58 so I knew we were in for a short one"
"After the match was over, they had a big fireworks display including a set built with Sting's face on it. The WWF set quite a standard with its title change at Wrestlemania and I'm not saying this topped it, but it was comparable. After the fireworks were done, Sting made a speech where he really put Flair over in a huge way, which actually got some boos because it was out of character. It came off as a good move to the Flair fans, and there are many (although Sting's support was probably as much or more than any Flair match I've seen in a long time)"
"As champion, Sting is in a pressure situation for many reasons. Unlike any of the title changes over the last nine years or so, this doesn't figure to be a short-term change. While there doesn't appear to be any plans right now, I wouldn't be surprised to see Flair win it back somewhere down the line, but if it were to happen, it would be more a short-term thing. There is a new king and Flair's reign as No. 1 man in the promotion is over."
"Realistically, titles mean very little nowadays as far as drawing. Ultimate Warrior is no more of a draw with the title than he was without it. Flair as challenger and Sting as champion is basically the same program"
"What is a bad sign is that Sting's return didn't pop the house show crowds for one month. My own belief is that Sting was overexposed on TV while he was injured, it was like this isn't really a comeback because he never left television and he'd been doing run-ins since May. When Flair had the worked "injury" last summer, he was kept off television and didn't do any run-ins until his comeback at the PPV and that show popped and crowds stayed high for about a month before falling back to normal-to-dismal"
"Why did Harley Race beat Tommy Rich? That's the question of this week"
"The big news from Memphis is that on the TV show on 7/7, Eddie Gilbert returned. Gilbert was released from his NWA contract by Jim Herd the previous Tuesday."
"The top WWF brass was talking until just a few days ago like the signing of Flair was a done deal. The Toronto Sun, which has the strong working relationship with Jack Tunney's office, even reported on Saturday that Flair would be losing the title and had already signed with the WWF and again on Monday that Flair had signed and would feud with DiBiase. Comments are now that if he doesn't come now, he might as well never come (never in wrestling terminology meaning two or three weeks)"
July 23, 90
"For the past several years, the WWF has been Hulk Hogan and the NWA has been Ric Flair. During those periods there have been others, like maybe Roddy Piper, Randy Savage, Road Warriors, etc. who were big draws, but the "franchise" of each promotion has been its champion"
"The WWF is still Hulk Hogan, even though the Anabolic Warrior is the champion. In fact, this summer has proven than Hogan is more valuable to the WWF now than he has ever been in the past. Two years ago, when Hogan took the summer off to film No Holds Barred and be with his wife when they were expecting their first child, the WWF didn't miss a beat with Randy Savage and Ted DiBiase on top. This summer, when beforehand it was presumed that Warrior would be a better drawing champion than Savage (since, among other things, he was more "over" going in and also he defeated Hogan), that hasn't been the case. However, the NWA is no longer Ric Flair. That day is over, at least for the time being and the foreseeable future. The promotion is being built around Sting"
"It clearly was time for Flair to lose, and the only faces that were legitimate alternatives to take it were Sting and Luger. It's hard right now to compare them against one another, but neither is really the right or wrong choice, because there is little difference overall between the two of them. Sting has more charisma. Work-wise Luger might be a bit better and he's a little better on interviews. Luger has more past history as being able to draw on occasions, something Sting never has proven to be yet"
"Eddie Gilbert starts wrestling tonight in Memphis in the main event teaming with Tony Anthony against Jerry Lawler & Bill Dundee. You don't know how much heat that has caused with the NWA since Gilbert had claimed his shoulder injury wouldn't allow him to wrestle and he managed to get out of his contract by being a good-guy about it and asking not to get paid while hurt, then shows up in Memphis"
"Titan sources are saying the door is closed to Ric Flair as they were really after him and he's not coming because he couldn't get out of his NWA contract"
"NWA claiming to have grossed $150,000 on the 900 number during the PPV show"
"Jim Herd doesn’t want a Sting vs. Flair rematch on PPV. That’s fine but who else can Sting work with? Windham, Sid and Arn won't draw and Sid would be killed if he loses and nobody would be happy with Sting vs. Sid in the ring, particularly without a finish. Hansen might be the best bet but one questions if he’s over enough to draw on PPV on top, and more importantly, would Hansen put Sting over. Vader literally can't put Sting over even if he wanted to as Japan won't allow its world champion to lose to an American world champ, particularly since Sting isn't all that highly regarded as anything but a gimmick in Japan"
"7/12 in Little Rock drew $19,000 with Rock & Roll beating Doom in a non-title match on top. The top rope broke in that match and Reed was nearly seriously injured"
"JFD and Luger had a skirmish up in Canada winding up with them having to pull JFD off of Luger and Luger's neck was all scratched up and his eye was red. Apparently Luger accidentally tripped JFD when JFD was supposed to be getting a hot tag and the crowd all laughed and so did Luger. The two had words and actually got into it"
"Philly and Pittsburgh in early August will have Rock & Roll vs. Doom and Lex vs. Sid as double headliner and both cities will die a royal death. NWA hasn't even been able to draw with "A" shows in those cities so why even try "B" shows? Just burning money in the furnace would be a simpler way to achieve the same final result"
"The reason they've been having trouble with Vader's gimmick is because the kind of gas they use for it in Japan isn't available in the U.S. and whatever they are using as a substitute in this country doesn't work to perfection"
July 30, 90
"In the United States, the title changes with long-time champions Ric Flair and Hulk Hogan dropping their respective straps to Sting and the Ultimate Warrior, some say spelled the end of the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s. But in the case of Warrior beating Hogan, hindsight has shown us that the significance of that occurrence isn't nearly as important as it seemed at the time. In the case of Sting as NWA champion, it is really too soon to tell if that will really mean anything in the whole grand scheme of things or not."
"As expected in this country, both major promotions are really running a big show to big show promotion, with the nightly house shows losing a lot of their specialness. The WWF, while by no means anywhere near the level of the NWA has far as house show gates, is still buried in its biggest slump since the promotion first went nationwide in 1984. The NWA has pretty much stayed at the same level, and not a good level to be at, for most of this year with occasional spurts here and there and an occasional decent gate out of the blue. Expect more and more PPV shows next year, from both groups, and at best, house shows will struggle to hold their own"
"The biggest problem facing the top American promotions is the staleness at the top. With the killing of the smaller offices, the needed stream of new talent to spice things up and keep the established names in fresh programs isn't there. It's been said before, but when the WWF realized this summer that the top of its shows weren't pulling the houses because the talent was stale, they went searching for new faces and the best they could come up with was Kerry Von Erich and Sgt. Slaughter, both of whom hit their wrestling and drawing prime six years ago."
"Quote of the week: "They say that flattery is the best form of imitation" — Michael Hayes on World Wide Wrestling this weekend. I realize that when one does dozens of interviews in a day that mistakes may be made, but this is television and that's what second takes are for. How does this ever make it to the airwaves?"
"Ric Flair was still out of action with the staph infection in his knee, but he had all the house shows and worked as a manager in the main event tag team matches of Sting & Lex Luger vs. Barry Windham & Harley Race. Word I've got is that Flair will be back in the ring before any of you are reading this. In fact, he was said to be moving at ringside like he didn't appear to be hurt at all"
"The 10/27 PPV show in Chicago has been widely reported to have Sting vs. Sid Vicious as the headline match, plus Doom vs. Arn Anderson & Barry Windham. A Lex Luger vs. Stan Hansen match has been said by some in the promotion and denied by others, and the other match that has been talked about is Ric Flair vs. Dustin Rhodes, but that doesn't seem feasible right now since Rhodes has just started working for the WWF"
"WWF doing localized and specialized interviews in the New York market since the NWA will be doing the same for the upcoming Meadowlands date"
"Apparently Vince McMahon and several of the Titan Brass were furious about NWA officials exposing the business in recent issues of newsletters, in particular a Jim Ross interview in the Pro Wrestling Torch and a Jim Herd interview in Matwatch. Like it really does damage to talk openly to a few hundred people who already have a good idea what's going on and that hurts the business, but to say wrestling is 100 percent fake in front of state legislatures and have it make the front page of major newspapers all over the country is okay. There is no such thing as exposing the business when 99 percent of the public believes it to not to real"
"Tim Horner got a court verdict against Vince McMahon for damages when McMahon wouldn't allow him to work in the NWA for the past several months after releasing him from his Titan contract"
"The TV is all focused and you only need to watch one show to see who is feuding with who and why, so that's a definite plus. Of course if you watch several shows you notice all the repeated material. The same matches that aired on syndication on Saturday then aired on Sunday, with new voiceovers by Jim Ross, on the cable shows"
"The reason Barry Horowitz is working jobs here is because after he recovered from his neck injury, Titan told him they had no place for him. Kind of a surprise since he was the best jobber they had"
"NWA tied an all-time low on 7/14 when World Championship Wrestling did a 1.3 rating, but you can't blame the promotion for that because the show aired two hours early and very few realized the change because the only way you would have known was to have watched the Power Hour the night before (which did a very low 1.4 rating, that can be attributed to the fact Power Hour has turned into almost a throw-away show in order to do all the tapings in one night)"
"Steiners beat Landel & Bobby Eaton (Stan Lane can't work Florida because of legal problems, which explains why he doesn't work Florida but sure doesn't explain why they advertise him to appear on every tour) ***3/4 (highlight, or lowlight was that a light fixture from the ceiling crashed into the ring and they had to sweep up the ring during the middle of the match because glass was everywhere. Cornette said that he's taking his team away because the Steiners were using explosives)"
"Latest on Owen Hart. Before Hart left for Germany he gave the promotion a September starting date. He's not due back from Germany until the end of August so it could be pushed back to early 1991 but nothing is certain right now"
"Reports every night are that Race continues to impress everyone with his work. When Jim Ross talked in the Torch about using veteran heels to groom a wrestler like Pillman, there would be nobody better than Race for that position. Admittedly, no matter how good he works, Race can't get over with today's crowd, but in an underneath capacity low on the card, getting over in a major way isn't as important as just providing decent early action"
"A source very familiar with the 900 number business said that the revenue listed for the NWA 900 line here last week is "totally impossible." The New Kids on the Block 900 line, which is considered the most successful in the industry, only will net $4.5 million this year"
"Solie is ridiculed because his announcing basically consists of repeating one worn out cliche with another, with just the names of the participants in the match or in the story changing. What to the uneducated or unfamiliar listener comes off as incisive commentary is instead just meaningless patter. But I'll agree that in his day, he was the best"
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Apr 14, 2021 4:21:26 GMT -5
Aug 6, 90
"The line-up for the 9/5 Clash of Champions NWA TBS special was finalized this past week, subject to change, of course. The two-hour special features a lot of new faces and many old popular and talented faces nowhere to be seen. The headline is Sting vs. The Black Scorpion for the NWA title. I don't even have clue one as to who Black Scorpion is...The Steiners vs. Maximum Overdrive (I believe this is Tim Hunt & Jeff Warner from Minneapolis. Warner was far and away the worst wrestler on the Portland circuit and the standard is a lot lower there and in the NWA, and he's the worker on the team)...The Master Blasters (a new tag team featuring a 6-7 bouncer that Jody Hamilton found in Atlanta making his pro debut and a partner of whom I'm unaware of) vs. Tim Horner & Brad Armstrong"
"Dustin Rhodes isn't coming in even though they aired an interview that was supposed to lead into it. Rhodes no-showed his start date since he went to work for Titan instead"
"Highlight, or lowlight, depending on whose point of view of the 7/23 taping in Gainesville, Ga before a sellout 1,500 saw The Pearl debut, a masked man doing all of Great Muta's moves. It was Ranger Ross with gloves, a gi and a hood trying to make the fans think Muta was back"
"Owen Hart won't be coming in September despite what everyone is saying. The NWA contacted Hart for the first time in several months this past week and Hart asked to postpone his start until December and there is some talk the NWA won't bring him in then"
"Terry Taylor starts 9/6 in Tulsa"
"Ole Anderson was more than a little bit upset at Jim Ross for doing that Pro Wrestling Torch interview"
"Notes from NWA taping on 7/30 in Gainesville: Lou Perez debuted and won once but lost a TV title match to Arn Anderson. Fantastics came in (Bobby & Jackie Fulton) and didn't get over well, in fact were booed loudly by their third appearance. The Pearl wasn't there so I guess that idea was already dropped"
"Supposedly, because of the Bash PPV, WCW made a profit for the month of July"
"Apparently Paul Ellering got paid the entire $130,000 in a contract buy-out by the NWA that he would have made had he stayed and worked through December when his and the Road Warriors contract expired"
Aug 13, 90
"In a story that has been repeated confirmed and denied for months now, it is official that the NWA will start on WGN in Chicago on 9/15 according to officials from the station. The station had been denying the story for months, every bit as vehemently as the NWA had been confirming the story."
"The NWA has also proposed to do two hours of customized tapes for the Dallas market to KTVT, however the station chose the WWF over the NWA, apparently the deal being sealed because the WWF was able to convince the station that their percentage off the Dallas house shows for WWF would be greater than that for NWA because they were going to run more regularly because of Kerry Von Erich"
"Several bits of competition for the 10/27 PPV show from Chicago. First off, the Holyfield vs. Douglas boxing title fight, scheduled for 9/21, was moved to 10/25 which puts it two days earlier on PPV. If that means anything, it would only be very marginal. In addition, the WWF re-arranged its house show bookings in order to book the Horizon in Rosemont on 10/27 so they'll be doing a live house show head-to-head with the PPV emanating from UIC Pavilion. This has been done before and the effect is usually quite small since both groups draw mainly a different audience. More a nuisance to the NWA than anything else, but re-arranging the schedule in order to provide that nuisance (which, in itself has to be a nuisance to the WWF) says something in itself"
"More and more talk that there will be no more guaranteed money contracts for wrestlers when the current pacts expire. In the case of Sting, Flair and Luger, that is a long ways down the road, but most of the rest of the crew have contracts that expire sometime next spring or summer. Because of the guaranteed money, many would rather work here than Titan because some guys with the right deal can actually make more money than in Titan. However, without guaranteed money contracts and being paid on the houses, that would no longer be the case so at that point all but a few wrestlers would probably want to make the switch if they are in it simply for money which would allow Titan to cherry-pick nearly anyone but Sting, Flair or Luger at some point next year"
"I expect early next year that some of the guys under contract will be phased down and out while greener and cheaper talent will be brought in for the same spots. In fact, one would make that assumption just looking at the 9/5 Clash line-up"
"The opener on the Clash has been changed to Nasty Boys vs. Jackie Fulton & Terry Taylor (who debuts that night) as Bobby Fulton will be in Japan at the time. Going to be hard for Taylor to look impressive with three guys who can’t work a lick"
"Larry Zbyszko scheduled for a meeting on 8/13 and if all goes well, may debut at the taping that night. There is talk of an AWA title defense on the 10/27 PPV show but everything in the talking stages right now"
"Rock & Roll beat Doom in one of those matches advertised as a title match, never announced as non-title and fans didn't realize titles didn’t change hands until the Battle Royal started and Doom came out with the belts "
"Gigante won Battle Royal DUD. Gigante threw out Lane & Eaton to win, and even with them in at the end, the finish was terrible. Apparently Gigante had not only never been in a Battle Royal before, never seen a Battle Royal before, but in the dressing room as they were going over everything with him, couldn't grasp the notion of what it was so they just tried to have him stay out of everyone's way till the finish and pray that with Eaton in at the end that he could save the day"
"In the Tim Horner case where we reported Horner got a judgment against Vince McMahon, that also isn't the case. McMahon simply gave up the legal fight to keep Horner from working in the NWA"
"NWA TV taping on 8/6 in Marietta drew 1,325 and $8,000 for weekend of 8/18. Ivan Koloff and Hector Guerrero debuted. Koloff looked ancient but Guerrero, trimmed down to what looked to be 190, did nice flying moves. My guess is both are going to be given TV wins for a few weeks before putting over a big star in a TV main event, so they aren't in for house shows"
"On WCW, Midnight vs. Zenk & Pillman for U.S. belts ended in no decision when Sid Vicious ran in and beat up all four wrestlers and Cornette in order to get him over as a monster. Eaton and Vicious threw chairs at each other in the aisle"
"Isn't it strange that during the entire "Pearl" match on WCW this weekend that neither Jim Ross or Bob Caudle made the obvious reference to Great Muta? They recall The Spoiler whenever Mean Mark walks the ropes even though Spoiler hasn't been around in years, yet Muta, who was a headliner just a few months back "doesn't exist" anymore. You won’t be seeing "Pearl" anymore as it was a fourth-rate imitation although he did do a nice moonsault"
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