WWF Observer notes

[World's Worst Man 0]

WM III is pretty much the epitome of a one match show. Steamboat vs. Savage was excellent (albeit, one of the most overrated matches of all time, and not even close to being the MOTY for 1987), and none of the rest was any good. It wasn't a bad show, because a few things on the undercard were at least average-decent. The show basically just met my minimum expecations for a big wrestling show, from a match quality standpoint. That doesn't make it a good show in my book.

[Frankie Williams 0]

I knew he died but I didn't know he was decapitated. Wow...

 

Shit. I was just thinking the same exact thing.

[Hasbeen1 0]

It happens. Sad but a fact. What I feel bad about too is that most that remember Adonis, if at all, just remember his gay act/feud with Piper, then a terrible run in the AWA. He had really strong tag teams with Dick Murdoch in the WWF, just a couple of years before "coming out of the closet", and before that had what I thought was an even better team with Ventura. I was watching an old SNME the other night and Adonis was against Piper, Ventura was announcing and said something to the effect of you can't judge a book by its cover with Adonis, and you can tell by the tone of his voice it wasn't just the usual pulling for the heels. I bet Ventura was very bothered by the waste of a good wrestler.

[Dobbs 3K 0]

Adonis and Ventura were tag team partners in AWA. That's probably why he was pulling for him.

[Guest wildpegasus]

Adonis and Ventura were tag team partners in AWA. That's probably why he was pulling for him.

 

Plus Jesse was pretty good at recognizing talent and putting them over. And Adonis definitely had talent.

[Betty Houle 0]

How long did Adonis hang around after WM III? My WWF TV viewing from the era is limited, so WM III has always been the latest I ever saw him in the WWF.

 

And I'm assuming when Meltz is calling JYD the second worst wrestler in the business, he means Hulk's the worst? If that's the case, it's incredibly biased of him, since there were far worse wrestlers on this show than Hogan.

 

Adonis did not hang around long but he was there long enough to work with Beefcake a few times.

 

I believe Meltzer was referring to Andre as the worst.

[snuffbox 0]

George Steele must have been third worst.

[Guest Sykotic2002]

Could you possible post news from the other territories from around the same time period?

[Guest Sykotic2002]

Could you possible post news from the other territories from around the same time period?

[Hasbeen1 0]

How long did Adonis hang around after WM III? My WWF TV viewing from the era is limited, so WM III has always been the latest I ever saw him in the WWF.

 

And I'm assuming when Meltz is calling JYD the second worst wrestler in the business, he means Hulk's the worst? If that's the case, it's incredibly biased of him, since there were far worse wrestlers on this show than Hogan.

 

Adonis did not hang around long but he was there long enough to work with Beefcake a few times.

 

I believe Meltzer was referring to Andre as the worst.

 

 

JYD was not bad before all the weight gain. He was huge in the south, not easy for a black wrestler even into the 1980s. He knew how to entertain but his skills went south quick and his ring personality wasn't enough to carry him.

[Guest Arnold_OldSchool]

I dunno i was 5 in 1987 and LOVED JYD since he showed up in late 84 (yes 2 year old Wrasslin fan, Mommy confirmed

[Vanhalen 0]

ukff sucks, dont put those notes on there

 

Why are you looking on there then?

 

a very good question i dunno but it still sucks lol especially their admin, i much prefer ours

[The Tino Standard 0]

Putting the Andre match on maybe in the 10th slot, and saving Piper and Savage for the final two positions would have sent the fans home on a happy note.

 

I normally really like Meltzer's stuff, but that might be one of the dumbest statements I've ever read.

[SteakGrowsOnUecker 0]

Yeah really. That pop for Hogan slamming and pinning Andre was just the shits. Totally forgettable.

[Hawk 34 0]

Putting the Andre match on maybe in the 10th slot, and saving Piper and Savage for the final two positions would have sent the fans home on a happy note.

 

I normally really like Meltzer's stuff, but that might be one of the dumbest statements I've ever read.

 

Meltzer, rarely puts his blatant bias aside and this is no exception. Even in those days, he would verbally blow Flair by any means. Even when Flair had nothing to do with the subject at hand.

[Hektik 0]

You have to remember that it was a different time then. Many main events at that time were shown in the middle of the card.

[landy1987 0]

This is possibly the last set of notes for a while as I'm going on holiday on Thursday for a week but I'll more than likely continue this when I get back. I'll go back to earlier issues from Feb-March 1987 then as well.

 

5/11/87:

 

Titan held its SNME taping on 4/28 in South Bend, IN before a sell out 9,345 fans ($101,136). One interesting thing about this is that advance sales for this card were dangerously low (I heard less than 2,000 just a few days before the card) and to save the show, they added a tag match (which wasn't aired on television) with Hulk Hogan and a mystery partner, who turned out to be Ken Patera, going against Andre the Giant & Bobby Heenan (who wound up not wrestling due t his "neck injury" and was replaced by Hercules Hernandez). Titan announced the match on its local TV show the Saturday before the match, and also took out half-page ads in the local newspaper every day the last week of the card, but give them credit, they got a tremendous walk-up and sold the place out. That tag match ended with Hogan pinning Hernandez. In the matches which did air on NBC on 5/2:

1. Kamala pinned Jake Roberts in 5:00 when Kim Chee hit Jake from behind with the stick, then Kamala got the pin using the splash. After the bout Kim Chee unmasked as Honkytonk Man and he continued to beat up on Jake using the reverse neckbreaker and Jake was helped from the ring. *1/4

2. Randy Savage pinned George Steele in a lumberjack match which lasted 6:00. The best thing about this was they kept insisting that this was George's last match with Savage so I enjoyed the bout. Actually, they did a great job of distracting the attention away from the match using the lumberjacks which made it far better than a typical Savage-Steele match. Duggan did a run-in with his 2X4 before they chased him out. As usual, Steele is just horrible and Savage does about as good a job of attempting to work with him as is humanly possible. Finish saw all kinds of mayhem with the lumberjacks and Danny Davis ran in with the ring bell and hit Steele, and Savage pinned him after the elbow drop off the top ropes. Hold on to your hat--this sets up a Davis vs. Steele feud. After the match they had a battle royal with everyone brawling away until Jake Roberts comes back with the snake (and his ribs bandaged up) to chase everyone away. He then put the snake on Kim Chee (who was Steve Lombardi once again--he came to ringside for the bout with Honkytonk so fans could see Honkytonk was an "imposter" Kim Chee during the previous match. **3/4

3. Dynamite Kid & Davey Boy Smith won two straight falls from Bret Hart & Jim Neidhart in a tag title match, but didn't get the belts because the first fall was via DQ. Dynamite looks like he weighs only about 160 now. It's really sad watching him perform now, but the guy does have guts. He even did a snap suplex on Bret. First fall was 5:00 with Dynamite only in the final 30 seconds getting double-teamed for the DQ. Second fall saw lots of diversions for 3:00 as Dynamite got pounded (to keep the audiences attention away from the fact Dynamite is still maybe 20 to 25 per cent effective). Finish saw Smith press Kid over his head and toss him onto Neidhart for the pin. Since Smith worked most of the way, it was fairly a good match. **3/4

4. Ricky Steamboat downed Hercules Hernandez via DQ in 6:00 to keep the IC title. The "story" to this match was Savage was watching a monitor from the dressing room, rooting for Steamboat to keep the title so he could win it from Steamboat. At 3:00, Hercules had the full nelson on and when it looked like Steamboat was through, Savage sprints to ringside and interferes to break the things up. As they got rid of Savage and took a commercial time-out, they restarted the thing and after Herc gave Steamboat the reverse atomic drop, Heenan gave Herc the chain and he beat on Ricky with it for the DQ. Savage then came out after the match and elbow dropped Steamboat from off the top ropes. They sure weren't making Steamboat look good here, as to the fans, he basically lost three times. Given the constraints (having to fit the match into a pre-scripted story and having only six minutes) I thought they did a pretty good job. **1/2

5. Rick Martel & Tom Zenk downed Iron Sheik & Nikolai Volkoff n 4:00. Basically the wrestlers were just but players here to get Jim Duggan over. I don't even want to comment on what the impression its gives fans when Duggan, who supposedly bought a ticket, could run into the ring with a 2X4 twice in the same match. Martel pinned Sheik after Duggan's second run-in. *1/2… They also started building up the Andre-Hogan rematches by interviewing both men and showing clips of the near fall in the first minute of their WrestleMania match when Hogan collapsed trying the slam and they are having the heels get on the case of ref Joey Marella (who as most of you know, is the son of Gorilla Monsoon). Besides the Hogan-Andre tag match which I'm told was okay except when Andre was in (almost never), the other matches on the card saw Jerry Allen pined Lombardi and Ron Bass pin Lanny Poffo. No word on when the next SNME will air. It'll be quite interesting to see if they can maintain those huge ratings they've been getting of late without a Hogan match.

 

A couple of personnel changes here in that Adrian Adonis and Blackjack Mulligan have departed. Adonis was fired this past Monday in London, Ontario, and from the way it was explained to me, it isn't likely he'll be asked back. I was told Titan has instituted a new dress code for their wrestlers (no, they don't have to wear dresses) in that they should arrive at the arenas in nice clothes and Adonis was flagrantly violating it. Other sources claimed he was fired for gross misbehavior (I won't argue with the first half of that) or just plain unreliability. Mulligan quit and walked out, leaving Ron Bass with nobody to wrestle. At least Brutus Beefcake has a ready-made feud set up with Johnny V--who will replace Adonis on all upcoming dates… Scott Casey is coming in next month. It would be a good idea for them to team Casey with newcomer Sam Houston as a cowboy tag team because I don't think they would try and push either of the two as individuals… I was half-right last week when I said the new prelim tag team called the Shadows was the Moondogs under masks. Actually Randy Culley, or Moondog Rex, is one of the Shadows, but the other is Jose Luis Rivera… Fans are cheering Demolition in their matches with the Islanders so there's talk that the Islanders are going to become full-fledged heels… The SNME without a Hulk Hogan match drew a 9.5 rating and 26 share on the overnights, which is down from the past three, however considering there wasn't a Hogan match, the fact the rating was still very strong has to be a good sign for Titan.. Biggest crowd of the past week was 5/1 in Nassau Coliseum where the Ricky Steamboat-Randy Savage cage mach drew a $159,207 gate and a sell out 15,275 fans. Steamboat wins these cage bouts when the door somehow opens and Savage accidentally whips Steamboat out the door… 5/2 in Boston drew 11,834 ($148,776) headlined by Hulk Hogan pinning Harley Race in 8:00 (both bled but not a good match as neither sold for the other well)… 4/25 in Buffalo drew 9,651 ($98,000) headline by Hogan beating Kamala via DQ when Kim Chee interfered and it turned out the be Honkytonk and the double-teamed Hogan. The next Buffalo show is the TV taping with Hogan & Jake vs. Kamala & Honkytonk on top… 4/30 is Oshawa, ONT drew 2,361 ($28,332 Canadian) headlined by Roma winning a Battle Royal… 4/27 in London, ONT drew 1,561 ($18,372 Canadian) as Powers-Roma beat Shadows, Demolition beat Islanders, Beefcake pinned Adonis (in his last match) and Beefcake won the Battle Royal…4/28 in Peterborough, ONT drew 2,422 (#24,064 Canadian) as Powers-Roma beat Shows, Reed beat Ware and Koko won the Battle Royal… Bulldogs vs. Harts, Rougeaus vs. Dream Team, Santana vs. Reed and Steele vs. Kamala drew 4,931 in Montreal on 4/27.

[Guest jm29195]

Dynamite looks like he weighs only about 160 now. It's really sad watching him perform now, but the guy does have guts. He even did a snap suplex on Bret.

 

 

Poor Dynamite- he's a legend, and you can see parallels with him and Angle regarding the weight loss....

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

I chuckled at the part where it says they instituted a dress code policy.

[Jericholic82 0]

I knew he died but I didn't know he was decapitated. Wow...

oh yea forgot about that. The weird thing is this lady who was my ex-neighbor (from about 6 years back) was infact the niece of Adrian (I think he was married to her aunt). And she remembered the funeral and how Piper apprantly did a eulogy and was very upset.

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

The part about the dress code is indeed amusing.

[Precious Roy 0]

Can someone brief me on what happened to Tom Zenk?

 

http://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/Arena/9893/zshoot1.htm

 

That's Zenk's side of the story. Long story short, he was making a lot less money than Martel and Martel had been lying to him about it. He found out, demanded equal pay from McMahon (thinking he had leverage because the team was over and was being groomed for the titles), and quit when he didn't get it.

 

 

Man, you can tell from reading this that Meltzer just HATES the WWF. So much so that he quite frankly comes off like a total dick, what with his "RestholdMania" comments and all. WM III is only one of the best PPVs ever.

 

I hate his tone also but you have to remember that the 80s WWF product was so different than the wrestling Dave grew up on. He couldn't adjust. The business was changing and becoming less and less about in ring work (well at least in the WWF). If you watch wrestling for in ring work than 80s WWF was probably a nightmare for you. But as several mentioned above the atmosphere, the booking, and the charisma of the workers drew in an enormous new fansbase. I still believe that Dave takes some cheap shots but he did report the hard numbers. It had to be killing him that Hogan was drawing all this money, especially with people like Kamala. He just hated where the business was going where talent wasn't really necessary to be successful.

 

What's ironic about this is that Meltzer credits Superstar Billy Graham for making him a wrestling fan. Hogan, while different in many ways, was cut from the same mold, and was arguably a better worker. Meltzer always says Graham is underrated because even though he wasn't a good catch-as-catch-can wrestler he was very good at selling. You can say the same exact thing about Hogan.

 

This is great stuff Landy, thanks for posting!

[ryankeast 0]

Just gotta add my two cents as well - Thank yos so much for this mate - a real interesting read.

 

An Observer database would kick all kinds of ass.

[Guest Stuttsy]

This thread is amazing. I definitely hope it doesn't die off, there is a ton of awesome stuff contained within.

[cabbageboy 0]

Here's where I think Zenk is kidding himself. Rick Martel was coming off being the AWA world champion when he signed with the WWF in about 1986. I don't really recall Zenk having those kind of credentials, so to me it would seem like Martel would be making more money.

 

I wonder what Meltzer thinks of the WWF's efforts circa 1988-92? That was a time period where there was a better workrate compared to the 1985-87 period.

[Precious Roy 0]

Here's where I think Zenk is kidding himself. Rick Martel was coming off being the AWA world champion when he signed with the WWF in about 1986. I don't really recall Zenk having those kind of credentials, so to me it would seem like Martel would be making more money.

 

Zenk also thinks that Can-Am was "the best team ever" and that "Strike Force never got over"

[Rob Anybody 0]

These notes are great. Thanks.

[Hawk 34 0]

Zenk always relied on someone to get over (Martel, Pillman) and when he was on his own, it proved how bland and uninteresting he was.

[SteakGrowsOnUecker 0]

I'm pretty sure the point Zenk was making is that Strike Force never got as over as the Can-Am Connection was in early 1987. I don't think he meant they weren't over period, but they never were main eventing like Zenk and Martel were for a short period of time.

[cabbageboy 0]

The Can Ams though are just a blip on the radar of WWF history though. Honestly I have seen just the WM 3 match with them and a few vignettes on old Prime Time episodes. Hell, Strike Force at least gave the world the following:

 

--A cool match where they won the tag titles from the Hart Foundation.

--The WM 4 title change with Demolition.

--A couple of solid Survivor Series outings, though I think they were eliminated in 1987 and 88.

--The prototype for many a tag partner heel turn at WM 5.