Lawler, Foley, Hennig draw crowd of 42, Putting butts in the seats Options

[Hasbeen1]

I came across this result a couple of nights ago, from the AWA. I would guess Foley was just a one-night pickup since they were running in CT.

6/24/88 New Haven, CT
AWA Tag Team Champions Badd Company Pat Tanaka & Paul Diamond dcor Ricky Morton & Robert Gibson
AWA Champion Jerry Lawler beat Curt Hennig
Wahoo McDaniel dcor Manny Fernandez
Madusa Macelli beat Heidi Lee Morgan
Cheetah Kid beat Cactus Jack
Damien Kane beat Ray Oddyssey
att: 42

That amazes me, you could get 42 from my neighborhood to come out right now and watch the guys still wrestling or even still alive, right now. I don't know if this was a high school show, some sort of thing at a mall or business center parking lot.

I still don't have much sympathy for Gagne. Even that line-up above should have done better numbers. Over a four year or five year period they had Hogan, Ventura, the Road Warriors, the Freebirds, Bruiser Brody, Stan Hansen, Shawn Michaels, Scott Hall, Leon White (eventually Vader), Sgt Slaughter, Hennig and many more. They also worked with Memphis, if they could have kept it up Lawler, Sid Vicious, a young Jarrett, Scott Steiner, and the "Master of Pain" (future Undertaker) could have been on ESPN. No league with that channel to showcase their wrestlers should have folded. You can say the WWF and NWA took their talent, well if they'd been making money they could have kept the talent or at least of a lot of it. It got to the point even wrestlers like Baron Von Rasche and Boris Zukhov were signed away, just to completely bury it. They had the Road Warriors, instead of putting them in there with young teams or over wrestlers like Hall and Hennig, the Rockers, they were challenged by Baron Von Rasche, Jerry Blackwell, etc before going to TBS.

Here are wrestlers who were still available in their last two years of existence, not even counting the likes of the Rockers, the Nasty Boys, Curt Hennig and Scott Hall who left. I'm also not counting ones from Memphis like Lawler, Steiner and Vicious or from World Class, with the Von Erichs mainly, they booked a few shows together. The wrestlers aren't listed necessarily how they were booked at the time but how I'd have been booking them. Some of them were just for a few shows so to be fair, there's a lot more talent here than they had at any one time. The point is if they'd have used it properly more of the talent would have stayed because they could have been getting paid. Instead you had Tully Blanchard against some retired NFL player wearing a football helmet, I still never heard of the player before he "wrestled". This is after Tully got clean, by the way.

Main Event Level Heels: Larry Zbyszko, Colonel DeBeers (should have dropped the apartheid and teamed him with Slaughter as heel military men), Ken Patera (should have dyed the hair blonde again, cut it short and regrown the beard, the fans just didn't recognize him as a contender, was crazy over before), Kokina Maximus (Yokazuna), Sergeant Slaughter (not as a traitor, just as a demented drill sergeant as he was in the early 80s), John Nord (he was booked as a face lumberjack instead of the Berserker type), Tully Blanchard, Larry Cameron (could have been a Bad News Allan type), Michael Hayes, Terry Funk (had a great run with Flair not long after this).

Midcard Heels: Texas Hangman I and II, Scott Norton (he was booked as a no personality muscleman face), Mike Enos, Wayne Bloom (later became the Beverly Brothers), Nikolai Volkoff, Russian Brute, Soldat Ustinov, Wahoo McDaniel (could have used a grumpy old man, no respect for rookies to put somebody over), Mr Saito (one of the last world champs, just quickened the end), Kevin Kelly (Nailz), Nick Kiniski, Bob Orton Jr, Teijo Khan, Iron Sheik, Jimmy Jack Funk (Jesse Barr).

Jobber Heels: The Executioner, Akio Sato, Terminator Wolf, Terminator Riggs, Jonny Stewart, Frankie DeFalco, Dennis Stamp (from Beyond the Mat).

Main Event Level Faces: Derrick Dukes, Nikita Koloff, Tom Zenk, Manny Fernandez, Jerry Lynn, Paul Diamond, Del Wilkes (Patriot, was booked as a face "Trooper" who gave traffic tickets to wrestlers he beat, that would have been a better heel gimmick), Pat Tanaka, Don Muraco.

Midcard Faces; Chavo Guerrero, Hector Guerrero, Mando Guerrero, Tommy Jammer, DJ Peterson, Brad Rheingans, David Sammartino, Ricky Rice, Bobby Fulton, Tommy Rogers, Junkyard Dog, Ricky Morton, Robert Gibson, Rocky Mountain Thunder (typical giant wrestler), Jay Strongbow Jr

Jobber Faces: Rockin Randy, TC Carter, Steve O, Alan West, Buck Zumhofe, Jake Milliman, John Paul, Jim Evans, Pete Sanchez

There were a ton more jobbers, heel and face, some even I don't remember.

Released/put backstage or sticking to managing or announcing: Baron Von Rasche, Sheik Adnan Al Kaissie, Johnny Valiant, Mike George, Greg Gagne, Ray Stevens, Nick Bockwinkel, Bruiser, Billy Robinson. All of those guys and others were competing, some regularly.

The main event faces could use some bigger names, but I think more of the midcarders would have gotten over fighting the likes of Blanchard, Slaughter, Funk and Kokina. I liked Manny Fernandez as a face, before he turned against Jimmy Valiant in the NWA a long, long time ago. The tag team scene would have been lots of fun. All of this is just speculation but just think how giving the title to Hogan in 1983 would have changed things, followed by having the Road Warriors and the ESPN contract.

[Scroby]

I don't get what your point is. Are you trying to point out that, that show only drew 42 people or are you trying to point something else out?

[mysterious_w]

Foley wasn't known in anywhere but Memphis back in 88.

[Hasbeen1]

I don't get what your point is. Are you trying to point out that, that show only drew 42 people or are you trying to point something else out?

Both, the last is if not for horrible decisions the AWA might be the only major wrestling company today. The first was that it was a huge surprise the show just drew that, even if Foley was basically an unknown at the time and it was in the Northeast. I'm wondering if it was outdoor show and weather kept most away, something like that.

[EVIL~! alkeiper]

My first suspicion is usually to check and see if WWE ran a competing show. From Cawthon.

WWF @ Providence, RI - Civic Center - June 24, 1988 (3,000)
The Big Bossman pinned Scott Casey
Jacques & Raymond Rougeau defeated the Conquistadors
The One Man Gang pinned Pete Doherty (sub. for Bam Bam Bigelow)
George Steele defeated Greg Valentine via count-out
The Ultimate Warrior defeated Bobby Heenan in a weasel suit match
Don Muraco pinned Danny Davis
Bad News Brown pinned Jim Neidhart by grabbing the tights for leverage
Jim Duggan & Jake Roberts defeated Andre the Giant & Rick Rude when Rude was pinned after Duggan hit him with his 2x4

89 miles away, so it doesn't explain much. Bottom line is that the AWA was a semi-dead promotion by 1988. Jerry Lawler was not a national draw, nor were any of the other wrestlers tremendous draws. It's easy to list guys they had or came through, but many of them were either green or past their primes. They never had a strong hold in the northeast either, so they were trying to draw away from their core fanbase.

[Scroby]

Ok now my question is this..was it suppose to be a big show that was super promoted that was done in a big arena or was it suppose to be a small show.

Overall, shows draw that bad all the time...espically if they're dying.

[Enigma]

Using Foley and Hennig in the headline is very deceiving. They were nowhere near even being recognizable yet, especially Foley.

[TheFranchise]

Yeah, you could use Warrior and Andre.

[Cheech Tremendou...]

Using Foley and Hennig in the headline is very deceiving. They were nowhere near even being recognizable yet, especially Foley.

Former world champion Curt Hennig wasn't recognizable yet? I know he went on to bigger and better things but he was harldly a nobody at the time of this show.

[Perfxion]

Um, the two biggest draws on that show for CT were the Rock and Roll express, and they were NEVER a draw in the Northeast. Jerry was a draw for the AWA and Memphis, but they aren't in the AWA land. Also, AWA last drawing acts left in 1987 when the Rockers went to Stamford. BTW, CT doesn't like many wrestling companies not named the WWF. In 1999, ECW did a wrestling show in Stamford, yet didn't get 400 people.



This is sad for a wrestling show, but doesn't really say much.

[Dobbs 3K]

Sounds like maybe it was an idiotic attempt by the AWA to try and hurt WWF in their own backyard, or something.

[Hasbeen1]

Putting Foley in the headline was a silly reference to the Schiavone comment on Nitro. Regardless of where they were 42 is still amazing to me, when any independent show will get that with wrestlers nobody ever heard of. They were on national cable TV every afternoon and Morton and Gibson were one of the most well known tag teams in the country, just a year or two before that I'd say Morton was one of the top 10 most popular wrestlers in the country.

[Dobbs 3K]

I vaguely remember Ray Odyssey. Wasn't he in Global for a little bit?

[Jericholic82]

I vaguely remember Ray Odyssey. Wasn't he in Global for a little bit?

yep, I think so