Newsletter recaps

WRESTLING OBSERVER NEWSLETTER APRIL 15, 1985 Cover: Bruiser Brody invades New Japan and confronts Inoki Editors notes: "Yes folks, the Wrestling Observer will be no more after this issue." Before explaining why he's calling it quits, Dave thanks everyone who has helped him make the Observer the best wrestling publication in the world. Over the last year the number of subscribers jumped from 200 to 800, and things like bookkeeping and preparing mailings lists have become a second full time job. The actual writing of the Observer has been nothing but fun for Dave, but the negatives like bookkeeping and Dave's general lack of enthusiasm for the product have turn…

Hi does anyone have the Dave Meltzer quote from 2009 claiming that Bryan Danielson vs Naruki Doi from DGUSA was better than Shawn Michaels vs Undertaker at wrestlemania 25?

MATWATCH July 4, 1988 Steve hopes that he’ll have the new Matwatch logo by next week but wants to start off by previewing the upcoming “Great American Bash” PPV. This is Crockett’s first chance to put on a first class PPV show, and he can’t afford to blow it. Crockett has everything going for him right now: Ted Turner has cleared more then ten million households for access to the PPV, the price tag is much lower than the WWF’s, there’s no competition from the WWF, the Flair/Luger main event has been built up on TV like no other main event, since Flair defending against 14 various opponents during the 1986 Great American Bash tour and Baltimore is the NWA’…

MATWATCH June 27, 1988 “This is the premiere, the debut, put-up-or-shut-up time.” Steve Beverly gives a brief introduction to himself. He works in academic communications at Auburn University, where he’s concluding a year-long work in tracing the history of pro wrestling on television, and Steve confesses to being a fan of wrestling for the last twenty-three years. He’s gone from being simply a fan, or a “mark,” to being a ring announcer and television commentator, to being an academic reviewer. Like many fans, he’s seen things over the last five years that he never thought he’d see in wrestling, and while he’s happy that it’s become so mainstream, he still conside…

I think Bix mentioned this on "6:05 Podcast" but didn't know if he found the same honey-hole that I did. But anyway if you are obsessed with the insider newsletter community of fans from as early as the sixties than I have a treat for you! Personally I am interested in 1980 - 1994 but when you look at the time and effort fans would go through to create these letters, it is amazing. I usually just randomly scroll through one and start reading.The bottom of this sample was pretty cool to read! About Bret's debut!

Random stuff from various newsletters that catches my eye, non Observer or Torch stuff is all up to download at http://www.prowrestlinghistory.com/downloads.html "Verne is trying to get his wrestlers to sign a contract. In the letter with the contract, Verne has told the wrestlers not to show the contract to a lawyer." - Mat Results Vol 03 No 12 "Although Morton-Gibson are great babyfaces and the Andersons are great heels, I don't like the chemistry of matching them up. For one, bouts are guaranteed to be bad because of style conflicts (actually anyone vs Andersons is bound to be bad). Midnight Express, the best tag team in the world, continues to be…

March 1984 Observer Recap -On the Cover (yes, there was a cover): An “In Memoriam” picture of David Von Erich. TOP STORY: David’s death recap. This was reported straight up as acute enteritis. The shock of this in both Japan and Texas was reflected on, with Dave noting it was not known how this would affect business in WCCW in the immediate future. Dave also mentions that David was the strongest contender to win the World heavyweight title at that time. There is also a rundown of David’s career highlights and his pro debut is noted as being June 28th, 1977, going to a draw with John Studd. Notable quote: “He (David) had a flu-type condition for six weeks, but …

*Biggest news is the death of Gino Hernandez. Gino was 29 and is the ninth active wrestler to die in the last two years, an astonishing number given there are only about 300 active wrestlers in the business. *Dave corrects himself from last issue where he claimed that the AWA tag titles changed hands in a non-match that was said on TV as taking place in Albuquerque. The match actually did take place and Hall/Henning beat Garvin/Regal in a good 58 minute match. The change took place because Regal decided to walk out. Rumors also flying that Garvin is leaving for Crockett to give Baby Doll another valet to feud with. *Wrestlemania II will take place 4/7 instead of 3…

WWF -- Wrestlemania will actually be longer than 2 1/2 hours, as was originally reported. The WWF reserved four hours of satellite time in two blocks, which means WM IV is budgeted for between 3 1/2 hours and 3 hours, 45 minutes. Dave says with around 17 matches, they'll have a little extra time to work with, and they can also show more clips, have an intermission to plug merchandise and have rest time in between matches for guys who have to work multiple times. -- Hulk Hogan will be gone after Wrestlemania to film his movie, so he isn't being talked about as someone who will win the tournament. The talk was DiBiase for weeks, but it's known, and Dave agrees, that he…

WWF -- The Royal Rumble: Dave says it wasn't really better or worse than the Bunkhouse Stampede. Dave says the production values for the show were a step down from normal simply because they couldn't post-produce and add in crowd noise and reactions. He says there were too many replays on the show and it looked like it may have dragged a lot for anyone who attended live, although he admits he has yet to speak to anyone who was there live for the Hamilton show. The show happened before a sellout crowd of 18,000. Ricky Steamboat downed Rick Rude via DQ in 17:00: Dave feels this should have been better if the plan was to set up a feud. Rude showed very little. Lack of h…

Early on, Dave starts with the cryptic: "Is no news good news? Not for those of us writing the news it isn't. Actually, there are negotiations going on to what could be the biggest story of the year, but since as best as I can tell, nothing has come from those talks yet. Anyway, there will be no shortage of news come next week, that much is for sure." Dave also asks that everyone send him a postcard or short letter which shows each reader preferred between the Clash and WM IV, and what the best match was on either show. RATINGS FROM EVERYWHERE -- In weekly syndication ratings ending 2/21, the WWF package ranked 6th place with a 9.9 rating in 245 markets. Jim Cro…

WWF -- "As most of you already know, the biggest story of the week concerns the WWF holding a tournament for the vacated WWF title as the headline attraction at Wrestlemania IV on 3/27 eminating (sic) from Atlantic City. The announcement was made on the syndicated package over this past weekend, and from what I'm told, the entire card will be released publicly by next week. Besides the 14-man tournament, the early scuttlebutt I hear is that there will be four other matches. One will be a Bunkhouse Battle Royal, which will allow another two dozen or so wrestlers to share in the big payday, while I expect two tag team matches (British Bulldogs vs. Islanders and Strike Forc…

WWF -- "JUST WHEN YOU THOUGHT IT WAS SAFE TO WATCH WRESTLING ON PAY-PER-VIEW ... MORE BRUTAL THAN THE BUNKHOUSE ... I'm not sure what can be said about Summer Slam '88 other than it was everything the lineup promised it would be, and less." Dave called this the most forgettable PPV so far. The biggest complaint Dave has heard is that they spent way too much time, as in about 30 minutes of air time, hyping the Sugar Ray Leonard fight. "You can't mix wrestling announcers with boxers, it comes off like a clown show -- at least WWF wrestling announcers. You can't put boxing interviews on a wrestling show -- wrestlers are professional interviewers (at least they are supposed …

I know that we don't usually do these for ones on the Observer site itself, but there's so much stuff in the lead story here, and stuff I've never even heard of before, that I want to rewrite some of it out. My tenses are going to be all over the place and I apologize for that. The story is that Vince is coming out "Guns blazing" against the Turner Empire. In the past 7 days he: -Filed a complaint with the FTC claiming that TBS has been enacting a "systematic plan to destroy the WWF so it can achieve a monopoly." He did this on 2/8/1996, attacking the Time-Warner merger, it seems, since that was a hot topic with a lot of eyes on it. Dave didn't have the exact det…

WRESTLING OBSERVER NEWSLETTER June 2, 1990 Dave says that there’s good news and bad news. With Ole Anderson back as the booker, the NWA’s TV shows are a lot more focused. The bad news is what they’re focused on. Before elaborating, Dave reminds everyone that there won’t be an issue next week, because he’ll be on vacation, but that the week after that will be a double sized issue, it should be out on time, but, with twice as much work to do, it may be a few days late. Ole’s regime as booker started with the weekends TV shows, and they were lively and focused, which isn’t a surprise with the first shows of a new booker, and, a booker can’t be judged based off one …

"'Card subject to change.' That seems to be the key phrase when we're talking about pro wrestling this week." WWF -- "Former wrestler Ted Arcidi was on Morton Downey's show this past week on steroids. Ted claimed he had only used steroids once, they didn't work and he was naturally trained. He also said Vince tests guys for steroids and you'd be kicked out of the WWF if you used them. Then his nose grew so long you couldn't see the rest of his face." -- Survivor Series was the least profitable PPV since the Wrestling Classic. The WWF is claiming a 4.2 buyrate publicly, but every other source has given Dave a number between one and three percent. Dave blames t…

WWF -- It's official. The WWF's first primetime special will be on 2/5/1988 from 8pm to 9pm and Dave is told it will be shot live, from the Market Square Arena in Indianapolis. Top matches announced are Hulk Hogan vs Andre the Giant, Honky Tonk Man vs Randy Savage, and Hart Foundation vs Strike Force. Dave says it's almost scary what the TV ratings will be, as they've got a main event that will do more to interest the general public than any other potential main event. Dave says without a doubt, this will be the most watched wrestling show in the history of the United States, and he gives the WWF tons of credit for doing a live show with a weak Andre in the ring. Since t…

WWF -- The WWF runs its first show at Charlotte Coliseum on 1/8 headlined by Hogan vs Boss Man. -- 12/4 in Hamilton, Ontario drew 11,000 headlined by Hogan vs Boss Man. 12/10 in Kansas City drew 7,000 for their first show in nearly a year, headlined by Hogan vs Boss Man. 12/16 in Denver drew 4,500 headlined by Hogan vs Boss Man. 12/17 in Philadelphia drew 5,723 headlined by Savage vs Haku. -- Owen is returning on 12/26, but will not be close to 100 percent. -- "Warrior and Jimmy Hart had a harrowing experience on 12/5, as they were on their way from a South Florida show up to Daytona Beach. Hart stopped at a convenience store and an escaped convict pulled a g…

Someone just posted a ton of old Observer scans and I decided to make a thread for cool things found, instead of doing full write-ups on each issue. I haven't looked at much yet, but it's scans of some of 84 and what looks like all of 85-91. One of the interesting things I've read so far: - "The new bookers I'm told will be Vince himself, and even worse, Hulk Hogan and Tito Santana." July, 7th 1986. I'm not sure what was going on here, but I don't think Tito ever booked, and doubt Hogan booked a lot outside of maybe his own stuff.

Most of this issue is an in-depth Bruiser Brody bio. This may be the first of its kind (I haven't looked yet to see if he did something this in depth on other deaths earlier in the decade). WWF -- The WWF is negotiating to sign DJ Peterson and Curt Hennig. Curt Hennig is at a disadvantage and is already in the doghouse, for having twice agreed to terms and then backing out. -- Hercules and Ultimate Warrior got in trouble for their brawling as part of an angle at a recent TV taping, because they ended up damaging a lot of TV monitors, and Hercules needed 76 stitches on his right arm for hitting a table. -- 7/23 in Nashville drew a sellout 10,000 crowd headline…

WWF -- The main event of Wrestlemania V will be Hogan vs Savage. It will be the biggest money match of the year, and has potential to be the biggest money match of all time. No confirmation of this, but there are rumors they'll be back in Trump Plaza. The main event will be set up on the NBC prime time special on 2/3. -- SNME aired on 1/7 and had another small chapter in the expected Savage turn. The rundown: * Beefcake vs Bass, Hair vs Hair: Bass lost. *1/2 * Hogan vs Akeem: Hogan won by DQ. Liz went to get Savage for help and Savage said Hogan was fine. As soon as Akeem and Boss Man went after Liz, he ran out to help. Dave liked the angle, but says the match w…

Anyone know what Observer first mentions the character of Outback Jack coming to the WWF, and which Observer is the last mention of Outback Jack, like Outback Jack has left the WWF. I wonder if he wrestled any dark matches at TV tapings prior to his 2/7/87 Superstars TV debut.

WWF -- The WWF will be returning from the Wrestlemania break, doing several TV tapings just prior to the weekend. -- Major housecleaning is expected in May and June. Hillbilly Jim was expected to be among them, but likely won't be, since he's working some openers against Jim Neidhart. -- Expect Brutus Beefcake to be IC champ soon. The WWF has already sent out publicity with Honky as a challenger. Dave says it could be a misprint, but he doubts it. Dave suspects a title change on the 4/30 SNME. -- "The WWF magazine is scheduling a piece where they reveal Earl Hebner as Dave's twin brother which is a surprise because it seemed like they had pretended the angle …

WWF -- The WWF is facing a lot of push back from other boxing promoters over the Sugar Ray Leonard fight. They are trying to price the show at $29.95, which is predicted would be a less than 2 percent buyrate, which would mean they would lose about $6.5 million on the show. Dave thinks a lot of it is other boxing promoters trying to undercut Vince, as they don't want him on their turf. Still, Dave thinks in the end, this will be a money loser. -- The WWF is insisting the cable companies keep the buyrates for the boxing PPV and Survivor Series confidential. They like to exaggerate their numbers, which is the reason they are doing this. This has nothing to do with wres…