Newsletter recaps

WWF -- The WWF is claiming a 4.2 buyrate for Survivor Series. That doesn't really sound exaggerated to Dave, but cable industry sources are disputing it, saying it sounds high. They didn't clear as many homes as they did for Summerslam. They are claiming they cleared 11 million homes, but it was more like 8-9 million. "Even if we figure 3.5 percent of nine million, that would be 315,000 homes at about $20 a pop. Of that $6.3 million gross, Titan's share would be around $3 million, which is certainly profitable, but would be far less then the estimated losses incurred on its boxing venture a few weeks earlier. The PPV industry is really flattening out. Even though the NWA…

OUTLOOK FOR 1989 -- "We're just a few weeks away from starting 1989 and what looks to be a new stage in the development of the pro wrestling business. It looks as though, at least for the next year, the business will become on the semi-major level, three promotions in the United States, all at very different levels. The king, of course, is Titan Sports, and barring something totally unforeseen, that isn't going to change in the next year, and if it ever changes in the next few years it will be the result of Titan's forays outside the wrestling business going sour unless the Turner organization has surprises that nobody can foresee. At the second level is Ted Turner's UWC…

WWF -- "They Live" opened to mixed reviews. Piper is also getting mixed reviews. Still, the movie is expected to make money, and the box office will determine Piper's future in Hollywood. The reason the NWA is promoting this movie is because the WWF turned down a promotional tie-in, so the movie producers went to the NWA and asked if they would be interested, and they were. "Buy and Cell", another Piper movie, was picked up by Trans World Entertainment and will go directly to VHS later this month. Dave saw "They Live" with a few friends and everyone enjoyed the movie. Dave says Piper isn't the best actor he's ever seen, but he was just fine in a leading role, and any sti…

WWF -- "They Live" with Piper was scheduled to open this coming weekend, but Universal Studios also planned on releasing Halloween IV the same weekend, and the left hand didn't talk to the right hand, so now "They Live" is postponed a week because they didn't want to release two scary movies at the same time. If it can do two decent weeks of business, it will show a profit, and if it does show a profit, Piper's five-movie deal with John Carpenter will remain intact, and if that happens, he won't wrestle again. Critics are not being allowed to screen the movie, which usually means they know critics will hate it, so they look to "steal" a few weeks at the box office before…

WWF -- Dave doesn't expect much business from the Survivor Series PPV, since they're repeating the same team format from the year before and also says it looks like 1989 will be oversaturation for PPV since the WWF is adding an event, Turner plans to do four shows, and the AWA/WCCW/CWA group plans to do a follow-up in February. -- "They Live" with Roddy Piper is about to open, and Dave says success here pretty much guarantees that Piper's wrestling career is over. To compare budgets, this has a $3 million, but "No Holds Barred" has a $19 million budget. -- 10/16 in Providence drew a disappointing 6,700 fans for the "Lord of the Rings" tournament. -- The Bulld…

WWF -- NBC will televise three prime time wrestling specials during the season instead of just one, as had been previously reported. NBC has also agreed to broadcast the Slammys in prime time. Forbes had a story on this over the past week which seemed to be a mix of fact and fiction (I'll say), as they also reported $80 million in ticket sales in the past 12 months when $40-$50 million is closer to reality. The WWF's cash flow is about $19 million, and the company would be worth about $100 million on the open market. Ad rates are about half of what a normal sitcom or game show with those ratings would sell for, which shows that advertisers just don't consider wrestling a…

DAVE DEFENDS HIMSELF -- Dave received a very impassioned letter from someone tired of him insulting Jim Wilson and Eddie Mansfield on the letters pages. The first chunk of the newsletter is devoted to answering the criticisms instead of reporting any news. The gist of the letter: * Your facts are wrong about their careers * You are wrong to write off their complaints because they never became stars * They deserve credit for coming clean about wrestling in a public forum and trying to start a union * Dave spends more time encouraging fans to contact TV stations than labor unions who could actually reform the business * "The routine reports on crowd size, monetary …

WWF -- For the week ending 8/28, WWF's syndicated network drew a 9.6 rating in 258 markets covering 97% of the country. -- Tully Blanchard and Arn Anderson debut at the next TV tapings as The Brainbusters and will be managed by Bobby Heenan. They will face the Rockers and British Bulldogs in their arena debuts toward the end of October. They are mostly working arenas where the NWA is strongest. They are expected to get a big push, only because the WWF wants Ric Flair, and burying them would make it harder to get Flair. -- One Man Gang is now known as "Akeem" and will be a white wrestler pretending to be black. Dave says this is not the first time this has been do…

WWF -- Long Island is dropping the MSG network, as they are starting their own sports channel and wanted to make MSG a premium station, while MSG was demanding to be on basic cable. They couldn't reach an agreement, so the MSG network is gone. Most think this will increase attendance, because there is no option for fans to stay home and watch shows on TV anymore. -- Syndication ratings on 8/14 indicated a 8.5 national rating, the lowest level Dave has seen, but jumped back up to a strong 11.0 the week of 8/21. -- Terry Taylor is now managed by Bobby Heenan with a nickname of "The Little Red Rooster". He will be doing comedy and filling Hercules' old spot as Heena…

WWF -- Most reports outside of wrestling are saying the WWF paid $8-$9 million for PPV rights to the Sugar Ray Leonard/Donnie Lalonde fight on 11/7, but some are saying they paid as much as $15 million. Wrestling sources tell Dave it was closer to $5 million. Even if the fight bombs, which is expected, this may be a wise investment on the WWF's part, because the WWF has no involvement in closed circuit promotion of the show, and it's much easier to profit from PPV than closed circuit because the local promoters take a bigger cut of closed circuit gates. -- Randy Savage's title defenses aren't drawing nearly as well as they were. The Andre matches are doing okay, but …

WWF -- TV Guide is reporting that Summerslam did one million buys! Electronic Media magazine has it at 900,000 buys. TV Guide says it was the most ordered event in the history of PPV. The WWF themselves is claiming 880,000 buys. However, judging from cable company reports, the buyrate was really low and disappointing, and Dave is predicting the real number is closer to a 4.0 to 4.5 buyrate, which is still profitable. Dave says usually, the reported WWF information that can't be independently verified is about double what it really was. -- "I've got another bombshell. If you thought the first item this week was a biggie, well Titan has struck again. They've raided ano…

WWF -- The main feuds in fall are going to be Rick Rude vs Jake Roberts and Randy Savage vs Andre the Giant, along with Hogan vs DiBiase. Rude is supposed to be getting his "sister" in his corner, as they really want to do a "girls" feud without involving Elizabeth, who they want to remain untouched. Brutus Beefcake vs Ron Bass is also expected to be a big feud, and Dave doesn't understand why Bass is getting such a big push when they have so many great workers under contract. -- Iron Sheik has been fired again for the same reasons as always. Dave says it's so sad to see what he has become, considering that he started in wrestling as a spartan athlete of sorts. -…

WWF -- At press time, Dave was still waiting on details of the card, but the WWF show on 7/31 at Milwaukee County Stadium drew the largest crowd for a pro wrestling show since Wrestlemania III with the same main event. The crowd was announced at 35,000, but Dave is being told somewhere between 27,000 and 30,000, with a gate between $350,000 and $400,000 for a 15-match card headlined by Hogan vs Andre. Dave makes the point that the lineup for the card would have worked better for Summerslam, which seems like a weak show. Hennig vs Taylor was supposedly the best match on the show. Hogan was down about 20 pounds from his wrestling weight, as he had just finished filming No …

BRUISER BRODY -- This is the issue right after Brody was stabbed to death. Everything mentioned here has been covered in detail elsewhere, and the Tributes bio includes more things about his career than the write-up here does. ADRIAN ADONIS -- "The latest details we've heard in the death of Adrian Adonis two weeks ago when the mini-van he and three other wrestlers were traveling in went into a small lake in Newfoundland are that Pat Kelly was driving the van and swerved off the road to avoid hitting a moose while driving into a glaring sunset and coming up upon a bridge, the car struck a rock and two of the wrestlers, Mike Kelly and Adonis were thrown from the car w…

I've been watching varous Jumbo AWA Title matches from All Japan Classics, and have really enjoyed what I've seen thus far. I'm curious if anyone knows what Dave's take on the decision to give Jumbo the title and any of his title defenses? Did Dave think Jumbo was lazy back in '84?

*Last issue Dave said that Michaels/Janetty beat Rose/Summers for AWA title. Turns out the AWA reversed the decision because Somers was pinned and was not the legal man. Somers had walked out on the promotion, but with the title going back to Somers/Rose, that must've blown over. Dave expects the Rockers to be tag champs by September anyway. *Roddy Piper continues to tell people he's retiring, but will be returning to WWF shortly. Dave speculates that he will return as a babyface. Combined w/ Pipers' return and a Hogan/Orndorff feud, Dave thinks business will pick back up for Titan. *Dave is getting sketchy reports on the Crockett American Bash shows. He does kn…

Cover *Fujinami w/ Hogan in a chin lock. Pulling No Punches *Mid-South debuted on WTBS on 3/10 during the 7:05 p.m. Eastern time slot on Sundays. It looks like Crockett will soon take over Ole’s early Saturday morning time slot. WWF has increased its Saturday 6:05 p.m. show from one hour to two hours. The WWF show now originates from the WTBS studio. Mid-South and Crockett covet that Saturday time slot, so McMahon probably agreed to tape his show from the WTBS studio to hold the spot. *The show will be taped at 10 a.m. on Saturdays, which will put even more stress on the WWF roster since they rarely run shows near Georgia on Friday nights. *Dave has rec…

Cover *Two Japanese wrestlers I don’t recognize. There’s also a box on the bottom right with a news flash about Eddie Graham’s suicide. Pulling No Punches *Dave says it’s about time he writes something nice about the WWF. He gives them credit for media manipulation. McMahon and Co. do a good job of convincing everyone the wrestling business is in great shape and the WWF sells out major arenas throughout the country. *Dave speculates that the WWF may eventually get a network time slot. He also says the increased media coverage will result in additional negative stories in newspapers and magazines, but he doesn’t think this will hurt business much. *Dave …

Cover *Steamboat press-slamming Flair with the headline “The End of an Era.” Pulling No Punches *Dave comments on the 20/20 piece involving Eddy Mansfield and Jim Wilson. Also, John Stossell getting slapped around by David Schults. *Mansfield demonstrated how wrestlers “fake it,” even blading himself. Dave doesn’t think it will negatively affect the business at all. Dave says Mansfield didn’t lose his job for going to the media, but because he often no-showed bookings. *Apparently, Wilson claims he was kicked out of wrestling for refusing to do homosexual favors for a promoter. Dave says he wasn’t kicked out for this, but because he’s a horrible worker …

Got this several months ago, and being inspired by Loss's WON posts, I figured that I'd go over some of the more interesting stuff. The "four years of stories" feature at the end of the annual is especially good stuff. Matwatch Man of the Year: Cactus Jack - In 1989, soon after Jim Ross became chairman of WCW's booking committee, he told Steve Beverly "We could take someone like Cactus Jack and build him into the kind of character that you don't have to put a belt on for him to be a star. He's made in the mold of (Bruiser) Brody." - Ole Anderson hated the big bump that Cactus took in his match with Mil Mascaras, sayng that Foley was "exposing the business." - Whe…

I didn't type each and every award winner or the entire top 50. Believe it or not, I actually do have a life. If you have specific questions, just ask and I'll go back and look. Enjoy! Editor’s Notes *Dave says he will be doing the publication for the forseeable future, or until all good circuits are gone. He says we’re down to about four or five. *Tuesday Night Titans switched to Fridays. He says as soon as wrestling reaches a saturation point, cutbacks will occur and the territories will get hit hardest since WWF can lose 70 percent of its cable time and still have plenty of programming. *Dave says the WWF plan is to make wrestling so ridiculous and biz…

Cover *Head shot of Riki Choshu. Pulling No Punches *Dave stresses that the promotions struggling to survive the McMahon invasion need to look in the mirror and blame themselves for a good portion of their problems. Dave says he’s as frustrated as anyone with the current state of wrestling and McMahon and that if it wasn’t for the Observer and his ability to get tapes from Japan, Mid-south and Memphis, he would’ve spent the winter watching the NBA instead. *He says if McMahon didn’t start the invasion, someone else would’ve. Satellite technology makes it impossible to continue the old way of home-town promotions. Originally, Dave thought this would be a good thi…

I’ll try and do these as often as I can. It’s a pain to type out, but hopefully it generates some good discussion. A couple of notes: 1. My knowledge of Japanese wrestling is limited. If you have questions or if something is confusing, just ask. I’m sure I could go back and figure it out. 2. I tried to avoid typing endless results. I’m not really into that unless it ties into a bigger picture. 3. My editorial comments are in parentheses (hopefully I don’t sound like too much of an idiot). Cover *Scary photo of Brody posing in Samurai gear w/ swords. Pulling no punches *Dave announces that he's accepting end of the year award ballots for various categor…

ADRIAN ADONIS BIO "Although Kelly, 40, had wrestled on several smaller promotions in the U.S., Adonis was the only one of the three wrestlers who had carved out a major name in the U.S. Originally from upstate New York, Adonis, whose real name was Keith Franke, started wrestling in 1974 in British Columbia as Keith Franks, and later, "Gorgeous" Keith Franks. He wrestled mainly in Canada and the Pacific Northwest with a few stops in California under that name, before becoming Adrian Adonis in West Texas in 1978. Renowned as a tough guy, Adonis used to take challenges from the fans while in Texas, offering $100 to anyone in the audience who could last 10 minutes in the rin…

WWF -- The WWF has a date in the Greensboro Coliseum on Sunday, August 7. The show will be headlined by Hogan vs Andre. Dave says this should sell out the Coliseum, something the NWA hasn't done since a Flair/Barry Windham match early in '87. The WWF also just ran a successful show in Richmond, VA, and will be able to promote in the new 20,000-seat Charlotte Coliseum. "And these are cities which over the long haul don't have the population base to support two promotions if they each run monthly cards. It is going to be an uphill battle for the NWA from this point on." -- Early reports are that Vince McMahon's own Road Warriors creations in the Powers of Pain have bee…