On this day in wrestling history 11/26

[Guest Sassquatch]

Courtesy of Dave Meltzer:

 

ON THIS DAY IN WRESTLING HISTORY 11/26

 

1956 - After an absence of one year, pro wrestling returned to Madison Square Garden with a new promoter, Vince McMahon Sr. McMahon, who had been promoting in Washington, DC, got a Thursday night TV show and debuted midgets and outside the ring brawling to MSG. In the first main event, Argentina Rocca pinned Dick the Bruiser in 17:36. The show drew 10,400 fans paying $30,300. It wasn't until McMahon's second show, in February of 1957 that he was considered a success as the next year he started a streak of three straight packed house, headlined by Rocca. In 1955, MSG crowds ranged from 6,700 to 10,200 bottoming out for a Lou Thesz vs. Pat O'Connor scientific match for a group headed by Al Haft of Columbus, OH and Eddie Quinn of Montreal. The McMahon family has ruled pro wrestling promotion in MSG ever since this day.

 

1960 - The Fabulous Kangaroos, Al Costello & Roy Heffernan, captured the WWWF United States tag team titles for a third and final time at the TV tapings in Washington, DC beating Johnny Valentine & Chief Big Heart. Valentine & Buddy Rogers were the champs but Rogers quit the team

 

1971 - The famous Masked Assassins (Tom Renesto & Jody Hamilton) won the annual Thanksgiving night tag team tournament in Atlanta beating Bob Armstrong & Bill Dromo in the finals.

 

1976 - Jack Brisco defeated Bob Backlund at the Kiel Auditorium in St. Louis to win the Missouri State title

 

1987 - In one of the most important nights in pro wrestling history, WWF and NWA went head-to-head on PPV and this night basically killed Jim Crockett Promotions. What happened in the ring was secondary to the politics of the time. WWF, coming off Wrestlemania III, were the darlings of the PPV world. Crockett, the No. 2 promotion in the country, announced November 26, 1987 for his debut on PPV, Starrcade '87 on its traditional Thanksgiving night. Some months later, the WWF announced the debut of a Thanksgiving night tradition, the Survivor Series. The cable companies were ecstatic when word came that Crockett was willing to move his show to the afternoon to avoid a head-to-head, thinking they could clean up by having two lucrative shows, one after the other, and get wrestling fans in front of their sets all day. However, the WWF put a monkey wrench in the plans, stating that any cable company that airs Crockett's show, would not be able to air the WWF show. Since WWF at this point was a proven success and Crockett wasn't, all but five companies pulled away, mostly in Crockett's home territory where he was established and actually the company in San Jose also went with Crockett stating it had made the commitment to him and didn't want to be bullied by the WWF. Crockett had lost the war before he ever could fire a bullet, and because he banked so much of his company on huge success on PPV, he couldn't afford to pay the big contracts he had signed with his wrestlers and before the company went under, he sold the company one year later to a guy named Ted Turner, who wanted to maintain the strong TV ratings Crockett's Saturday and Sunday shows did on TBS. That's the real story of Turner owning WCW, and not the fantasy story that others in their own self-interest liked to claim as to why wrestling turned out like it did. The Survivor Series was a huge success, drawing a 7.0 buy rate and a sellout 21,300 fans to the Richfield, OH Coliseum for a main event of Andre the Giant & One Man Gang & King Kong Bundy & Butch Reed & Rick Rude over Hulk Hogan & Paul Orndorff & Don Muraco & Ken Patera & Bam Bam Bigelow in 22:00. Hogan was counted out late in the match, which came down to Bigelow vs. Andre, with Andre scoring a pin to win, in a bad match. There was a very good undercard match with Tito Santana & Rick Martel & Paul Roma & Jim Powers & Rougeaus & Brian Blair & Jim Brunzell & Dynamite Kid & Davey Boy Smith over Bret Hart & Jim Neidhart & Haku (Meng) & Tama (Tonga Kid) & Demolition (Bill Eadie & Barry Darsow) & Nikolai Volkoff & Boris Zhukov & Greg Valentine & Dino Bravo in 37:00 as the in-ring highlight of the show. Starrcade, which Crockett expected to draw millions, did do a 3.3 percent buy rate in its five markets (41,000 buys) and a sellout 9,000 fans paying $180,000 to the UIC Pavilion in Chicago headlined by Ric Flair pinning Ronnie Garvin in 17:25 in a cage match to win the NWA world heavyweight title for the sixth time. The show was generally considered a booking disaster, particularly since Chicago fans expected the Road Warriors to win the NWA tag titles from Tully Blanchard & Arn Anderson, but instead got a Dusty finish. Chicago, which Crockett had worked on a string of consecutive sellouts, was never able to draw well for NWA or later WCW for several years largely due to the reaction to this show. Did the company learn by not booking any more Dusty finishes?

 

1994 - During the bottoming out period for WWF business, Bret Hart went from the small (by the standards) scientific great worker to the monster giant as world champion. Bret Hart, who held the title until three days earlier (they used Bob Backlund as a transitional champion) was replaced as the kingpin of the WWF for a one year period by Kevin Nash, then wrestling as Diesel. Diesel won the title with a pin in just eight seconds, trying to create a new Bruno Sammartino or Hulk Hogan. The reign was a total failure, as Nash turned out to be the worst drawing champion in company history, with crowds averaging just 3,000 paid during his year on top, with business turning around immediately one year later when Hart was put back on top. The MSG show drew about 7,300 fans.

 

1995 - Jim Cornette folded Smoky Mountain Wrestling. WCW ran its first World War III three-ring Battle Royal, won by Randy Savage to capture the vacant WCW heavyweight title before a sellout of 12,000, of which 8,038 paid $113,000 to the Scope in Norfolk VA and doing a weak 0.43 buy rate

 

1998 - Hulk Hogan appears on the Tonight show and announced his retirement from pro wrestling to run for President of the United States to capitalize on the publicity Jesse Ventura got for shockingly winning the Governorship. Jay Leno carved Hogan up like a Thanksgiving turkey on the show joking that Hogan would probably be back wrestling in six weeks, which was almost exactly the time table for his return.

[Guest bob_barron]

I didn't see that up at Meltz's site- where'd you find it??

[Guest Sassquatch]

This is in Dave's archives from his site.

 

Look up the 2000 archives and see if they are still around.

 

Just for my wrestling notes only I saved each one of Dave's "day in history" updates just for reference material if I ever needed them.

 

If I get the feeling that people are interested in these (and don't want to have to search through Dave's endless archives links) then I will continue to post these "days in history" posts.

 

Just something special that I thought I would do for the site so the posters can read a little bit more about wrestling events.

[Guest dreamer420]

1987 - In one of the most important nights in pro wrestling history, WWF and NWA went head-to-head on PPV and this night basically killed Jim Crockett Promotions. What happened in the ring was secondary to the politics of the time. WWF, coming off Wrestlemania III, were the darlings of the PPV world. Crockett, the No. 2 promotion in the country, announced November 26, 1987 for his debut on PPV, Starrcade '87 on its traditional Thanksgiving night. Some months later, the WWF announced the debut of a Thanksgiving night tradition, the Survivor Series. The cable companies were ecstatic when word came that Crockett was willing to move his show to the afternoon to avoid a head-to-head, thinking they could clean up by having two lucrative shows, one after the other, and get wrestling fans in front of their sets all day. However, the WWF put a monkey wrench in the plans, stating that any cable company that airs Crockett's show, would not be able to air the WWF show. Since WWF at this point was a proven success and Crockett wasn't, all but five companies pulled away, mostly in Crockett's home territory where he was established and actually the company in San Jose also went with Crockett stating it had made the commitment to him and didn't want to be bullied by the WWF. Crockett had lost the war before he ever could fire a bullet, and because he banked so much of his company on huge success on PPV, he couldn't afford to pay the big contracts he had signed with his wrestlers and before the company went under, he sold the company one year later to a guy named Ted Turner, who wanted to maintain the strong TV ratings Crockett's Saturday and Sunday shows did on TBS. That's the real story of Turner owning WCW, and not the fantasy story that others in their own self-interest liked to claim as to why wrestling turned out like it did. The Survivor Series was a huge success, drawing a 7.0 buy rate and a sellout 21,300 fans to the Richfield, OH Coliseum for a main event of Andre the Giant & One Man Gang & King Kong Bundy & Butch Reed & Rick Rude over Hulk Hogan & Paul Orndorff & Don Muraco & Ken Patera & Bam Bam Bigelow in 22:00. Hogan was counted out late in the match, which came down to Bigelow vs. Andre, with Andre scoring a pin to win, in a bad match. There was a very good undercard match with Tito Santana & Rick Martel & Paul Roma & Jim Powers & Rougeaus & Brian Blair & Jim Brunzell & Dynamite Kid & Davey Boy Smith over Bret Hart & Jim Neidhart & Haku (Meng) & Tama (Tonga Kid) & Demolition (Bill Eadie & Barry Darsow) & Nikolai Volkoff & Boris Zhukov & Greg Valentine & Dino Bravo in 37:00 as the in-ring highlight of the show. Starrcade, which Crockett expected to draw millions, did do a 3.3 percent buy rate in its five markets (41,000 buys) and a sellout 9,000 fans paying $180,000 to the UIC Pavilion in Chicago headlined by Ric Flair pinning Ronnie Garvin in 17:25 in a cage match to win the NWA world heavyweight title for the sixth time. The show was generally considered a booking disaster, particularly since Chicago fans expected the Road Warriors to win the NWA tag titles from Tully Blanchard & Arn Anderson, but instead got a Dusty finish. Chicago, which Crockett had worked on a string of consecutive sellouts, was never able to draw well for NWA or later WCW for several years largely due to the reaction to this show. Did the company learn by not booking any more Dusty finishes?

I just watched that Survivor Series last night. Good shit.

[Guest DeputyHawk]

just rewatched the first survivor series again. damn, that's a good show. i'd actually put it up with canadian stampede, judgement day 2000, and wrestlemania 17 as one of the wwf's best ever ppv's. strong matches and storyline progression from top to bottom of the card. fantastic. what the hell happened to bam bam bigelow's push in 87-88, he was damn near as over as hogan in that main event? ah, i guess i answered my own question there. anyone have any more details on what derailed bam bam?

 

by the way, sass, keep on posting these articles, they are fantastic reference material. three cheers.