February 8, 1988

WRESTLING OBSERVER NEWSLETTER
February 8, 1988
The biggest news story in this business in probably the last few decades is the pro wrestling war and Vince McMahon's rise to prominence.

The wrestling war, which began in November of 1983 when Titan Sports signed Hulk Hogan and Gene Okerlund away from the AWA, is for all real purposes, over. No, the business competition is still there between Titan and the other promotions, particularly JCP. And the two groups will continue to attempt to play little mind games with each other. But whether or not JCP can make a small recovery, or even a full recovery from its recent troubles, and even pop big houses again, the gap between Titan and Crockett is only going to expand.

There's a lot going on this week, but as far as I'm concerned, the biggest story of the week has gotten very little attention. Titan announced its plans for pay-per-view events on March 27 (Wrestlemania IV), August 29, November 24 (Survivors Series II) and January 15, 1989 (Royal Rumble II). On the surfacd it sounds harmless enough, but its effect on JCP is enormous. As already mentioned here before, Crockett had planned originally to do pay-per-view shows in early Apri1 (Crockett Cup III), July (a key American Bash) and November 24 (Starcade '88). With Titan's 60 days before and 21 days after clause in its PPV contracts, added to the fact that Survivors Series was a big success and that Wrestlemania IV is going to break last year's record for the biggest grossing event in the PPV industries history, the PPV monopoly they will gain by adding these shows will eliminate any chance JCP has of breaking into the market. The long-term impact of PPV is such that eventually, like boxing, it will turn the live gate into an insignificant part of the overall business. It is not an unreasonable prediction to say that because of PPV, that Wrestlemania IV will gross more dollars than every other promotion in the United States will gross, combined, in the entire year of 1988. Now JCP isn't going to whither away and die because of this, but it will render any JCP competition to Titan as totally insignificant. The apparent counter is that JCP is going to move several of its big shows (not including Starcade I'd guess) to WTBS for prime-time specials. From what I understand, and I'm not sure all negotiations are completed on this, but that JCP will schedule four prime-time specials on WTBS this year. Unlike last year's ''Superbouts on the Superstation'' fiasco, these will be major cards shown either live, or at least in the same form a few days delayed like Titan does with its Saturday Night Main Event's.

A few notes on last weekend's battle. Once again, Titan came out with another winner. The Royal Rumble drew an 8.2 rating as a 12 share, airing in 3.2 million homes. That means about twice as many people watched the show as would watch WTBS when the GCW show was hot several years back. The Rumble was the highest rated show in the history of the USA network (which was generally expected before-hand), and the repeat showing of the Rumble on Monday night drew a healthy 4.8 rating (a normal episode of Prime Time Wrestling on Monday's draws a 2.9 rating), so the repeat showing was most likely the No. 2 rated show on cable television (of everything, not just wrestling or sports) during last week.

It takes a few weeks generally to get all the pay-per-view figures in, so figuring out how JCP's Bunkhouse Stampede show did can't be done as of yet. The preliminary reports I've got indicate the show may have been profitable at least in dollars and cents, although as reported, the vast majority of the reaction I received on the same was strongly negative. Preliminary figures indicate a buy-rate of four percent, which if that's the case, clearly shows that if given a fair shot, JCP could and would be profitable in the PPV arena. That has to be encouraging because the line-up wasn't strong and it wasn't a hot show (although it should have been), although with Titan's latest announcement, whether the show did great or terrible may be a moot point. Lots of credit has to be given to the JCP broadcast team for the sell job they did the final two days, because unlike house show tickets, PPV and closed-circuit traditionally consists of 90% last minute spur of the moment sales.

By the time you read this, Wrestlemania IV will have already sold out the live site (Trump Plaza in Atlantic City). About 14,000 seats went on sale to the general public on Saturday at $150, $100, $50 and $25 and all but a few thousand were gone by the end of the day.The funny thing is, Titan may actually make as much money on this show live as it did last year when 90,000 paid to see the Silverdome show. Last year's show grossed $1.6 million, but ticket prices were a lot lower (lowest ticket was $9). If you figure 14,000 tickets at an average of $70, you are still talking about nearly $1 million. Add to that the site fee the casinos no doubt paid McMahon to run the show there. Wrestlemania will be the main course of a weekend that Trump Plaza is promoting to attempt to lure a vacation family audience to its casinos. In addition, a concert by Gloria Estefan and Miami Sound Machine will take place in the adjacent Convention Center ballroom. Titan is claiming that WM4 will also be available in nine million potential PPV homes. If it gets over as good as last year's, and there is no reason to believe it won't do as good or better, then you are talking about $15 million plus on PPV alone, not to mention $1 million live and probably $4-5 million on closed-circuit locations.

Another much-discussed story over the past week concerns the status of the Rock & Roll Express, Michael Hayes and Steve Williams with JCP. There are three different stories here, all of which were breaking at the last minute so we really didn't get complete details in last week's issue.

In the case of the Rock & Rollers, the story is that last Saturday night, the 23rd, in Cincinnati, they were asked to do a clean job for Warlord & Ivan Koloff in 12 minutes. I guess they were pissed off about it, since they had been big deals with the promotion for years, and Ivan has been a prelim guy of late. So instead, they did the job in closer to 12 seconds when Ricky Morton basically just layed down for Warlord. Dusty Rhodes wasn't at the show that night, so they flew with the crew to New York for the Nassau card, and before the show, Dusty got the word and fired the Rock & Roll Express. There is lots of talk about where they will wind up, and I do know they had communication with Titan over the past week, but most speculation is that McMahon won't want them because of his small-guy phobia.

Hayes was also fired due to an incident during the middle of last week. His spot as Jimmy Garvin's tag team partner will be taken by Ron Garvin, and his booked matches against Ric Flair around the horn will be taken by Sting, who is getting his push accelerated because of Hayes' departure. It is generally expected that Hayes will wind up back with his fellow Freebirds with World Class, although he also has sent in a resume to Titan.

The Williams story pretty much remains the same as we reported last week. Williams spent an extra week in Japan, which caused him to miss the Bunkhouse Stampede. He basically has a contract dispute with JCP over whether his Japanese income is considered part of his guaranteed yearly income from JCP or not, and probably there are other items of dispute as well. Williams has been back from Japan for a week as I write this, but disconnected his phone and as best I can find out, there has been no communication between him and the JCP office although they are hoping he'll return. From the TV shows this past weekend, with no hint of his name at all, you can see it's not something they are counting.

The fourth quarter cable TV ratings came out (covering October, November and December of 1987) and wrestling didn't fare as well as it did during the third quarter. JCP's Saturday World Championship Wrestling show fell from the second highest rated program on cable television to the No. 8 slot with a 2.9 rating. The WWF's All-American Wrestling nudged it out for the first time as the highest rated wrestling show on cable with a 3.1, good for seventh place, while Prime Time Wrestling fell from No. 3 to No. 10 with a 2.9 rating. The WTBS Sunday show fell all the way from No. 10 to No. 20 with a 2.4 rating, while the AWA show on ESPN fell out of the top 20 completely (it was No. 19 during the third quarter). Some of this decline can be attributed to the switching to ''people-meters,'' the controversial new way ratings are being gathered. It is assumed that shows which appeal more to women do better with the People-Meters, and wrestling doesn't fall into that category and it is assumed that the switch by itself was going to result is a small decline in wrestling's ratings. The basic gist is that most of the wrestling shows dropped 10 percent in the fourth quarter, but that could be as much due to changing in the system as anything else. The TBS Saturday numbers actually picked up toward the end of the quarter and are showing slight improvements over the past month with more arena tapings.

Another major event which some are hoping will wind up threatening the Silverdome's live gate record will take place at the end of July. Antonio Inoki's New Japan promotion has announced a late July show called ''Martial Arts Olympic" at the Tokyo Dome (55,000 seats). I'm not sure what the ticket price structure will be for the card, but they have charged as much as $220 U.S. ringside for big shows over the last two years and sold out those shows in major indoor arenas. Inoki's match with Leon Spinks and Masa Saito both drew in excess of $700,000 gates and I'm told an Inoki vs. Futuhaguro (the sumo wrestler who was recently expelled) has a shot of doubling that. Actually the report in the 1/29 Tokyo Sports listed Leon Spinks, Michael Spinks, Larry Holmes, Andre the Giant, Hulk Hogan, Chris Dolman (a sambo wrestling world champion) and Don Nakaya Neilsen (A World Karate Association champion who already has done a job for pro wrestler Akira Maeda back in 1986) as possible foes for Inoki in the big match. If they can get Futuhaguro, he's probably the best possible opponent because in reality they've got no chance of getting Michael Spinks or Holmes, and Inoki has already beaten Andre, Hogan and Leon Spinks (not to mention it would be a virtual impossibility to get Hogan to do a job for him at this point).

Speaking of Inoki, he recently toured Italy on a series of shows promoted by Dominic DeNucci. The big one was 1/24 at the Palasport in Rome, which drew 8,000 fans in a 15,000 seat basketball arena paying $16 and $30. Inoki, whose television show airs in Italy, was the big draw and got a huge reaction as he pinned Badnews Allen in the main event. Also on the card saw Troy Martin (Shane Douglas) win a 6 man Battle Royal, Martin also beat Mike Kaluha, Antonio DeNucci (Dom DeNucci) beat Mike Flanagan, Ms. Olympia & Tiger Jackson beat Heidi Lee Morgan & Farmer Pete in a mixed women's and midget match and the opener saw Tom Brandi beat Kaluha. The story I received is that Inoki received a $10,000 guarantee for working two dates in Italy. These were the first "Western-style'' pro wrestling matches in Italy since the WWF ran a show in Milan which drew about 9,000 fans back in October.

Jake Roberts is on the cover of this month's Ellery Queen mystery magazine, while this month's Muscular Development magazine has a cover story on Jesse Ventura. Saw the story on Ventura and it's excellent, although it deals more with Ventura's life and his training philosophies which make interesting reading and very little with pro wrestling.

Most of you should have already received the yearbook by the time you get this. For those who haven't noticed, and it wouldn't be a Wrestling Observer yearbook without some minor problems, page 16 should actually be where page 20 is, but aside from that (and three misspelled names on the back cover) I was very happy how it all turned out and hope you all enjoy the book. Remember that the cartoons are meant strictly for humor. For those of you who have yet to order the yearbook, the price is $10 and there are plenty of copies remaining right now, although there probably won't be copies remaining for very long. If you want to order extras, the price is also $10. The price for non-subscribers is $12.50. The 100-page yearbook contains: A story on how the wrestling world has evolved since 1983; Jeff Bowdren's listing of the 10 best matches of the past five years; a listing of the 15 most influential wrestlers of the past five years along with profile stories on all of them; Several cartoons by Mr. Mike; reprints of some articles that appeared in the Observer between 1983 and 1985; Details on the 10 biggest news stories of the past year as voted by our editorial board; A listing of all title-holders during 1987; the 1987 Wrestling Observer top 75 ratings; The 1987 Observer annual awards poll results; and a directory of around 400 wrestlers listing age, height, weight, real names, etc. The actual title of the book is "The Best of the Wrestling Observer, 1983-1987.

All of you who received a yearbook will have the appropriate deduction already made on your mailing label, so the number on the label right now indicates how many months you have remaining on your current subscription. If you've got a (1) on the label, you've got two issues remaining after this one before it's time to renew. Rates remain the same, $5 for four issues, $10 for eight, etc. through $50 for 40 issues. Overseas subscriptions are available for $9 per four issue set sent air-mail. All yearbook and subscription orders along with match reports, letters and everything else can to sent to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, P.O. Box 1228, Campbell, CA 95009-1228.

Genichiro Tenryu took a clean sweep of the major awards in Japan. As already reported, he was named MVP of Japanese wrestling by Tokyo Sports, and has since been accorded similar honors by both Gong Magazine and Weekly Pro Wrestling magazine. Gong also came out with the results of its annual popularity poll survey of the fans and Tenryu nudged out Riki Choshu for the top slot in popularity among the native wrestlers. Choshu had been on top for several years. The remainder of the top ten consisted of Akira Maeda (which once again puts the pressure on New Japan to bring him back, especially since Choshu's fall from No. 1 can in part be traced by the Maeda incident and the 12/27 fiasco); Inoki, the "Japanese Dream,'' is in fourth place despite being pushed 20 times harder than those above him, and the rest of the toppers are Jumbo Tsuruta, Tatsumi Fujinami, Yoshiaki Yatsu, Giant Baba, Chigusa Nagayo (the first time a girl cracked the top 10) and Tiger Mask. On the foreign side, Bruiser Brody's return to Japan was obviously a success as he was a landslide pick as the most popular foreign wrestler, knocking last year's winners, the Road Warriors, down to second place. The remainder of the top 10 were Abdullah the Butcher, Stan Hansen, Dick Murdoch, Hulk Hogan, Terry Funk, Owen Hart, Dynamite Kid and Terry Gordy. The foreign popularity poll indicates New Japan's problems, as the only New Japan wrestlers to crack the top 30 were Mufdoch, Owen Hart, Buzz Sawyer (No. 14), and Kerry Von' Erich (No. 18) although on the Japanese list, 17 of the 30 were from New Japan with one (Maeda) unaffiliated, two from each of the women's promotions and eight from All Japan.

I attended the WWF show at the Cow Palace on 1/30 which is actually the first live card I've been to since Japan. The crowd was 7,600 paying $93,000 which sounds good, but for a Battle Royal in this area, is nothing to brag about: 1. Ron Bass pinned Junkfood Dog in a match I was told was worthless; 2. Ultimate Warrior pinned Harley Race by reversing a leap off the top ropes into a cradle. Ultimate was over big (as he is everywhere) but his work is still terrible. Race took a few good bumps but it was still a bad match; 3. Ted DiBiasc beat George Steele via DQ in a match which had to be the worst one of DiBiase's career (not that it was his fault). The only word to describe this match is one that has been banned from my vocabulary. Steele wouldn't enter the ring for about 10 minutes, then when he finally got in, Ted put an object in Steele's trunks, told the ref, and the ref DQ'd Steele. Georgie has to be the worst active worker because even Ox Baker gets into the ring, even if he can't walk once he's inside. For all his push, DiBiase doesn't get much heat, at least here; 4. Don Muraco pinned Butch Reed in a so-so match. Both guys are pretty much immobile but they did both work at doing a match and the crowd pretty well dug it. Billy Graham got great heat at ringside and the obligatory post-match brawl where Graham punched Reed and Slick got a nice pop. They got accomplished what they intended to get accomplished is the best way to put it. Muraco is an absolutely freaky physical specimen; 5. The Jumping Bomb Angels kept their women's tag title beating the Glamour Ghouls in 15:00 in the only real attempt at a wrestling match on the card. Noriyo Tateno pinned one of the Ghouls (you know how it is with those people, they all look alike to me) with a great finisher. The crowd popped big for the Angels when they came to the ring although the heat during the match was slightly disappointing. The match was good and about what I would have expected given the Angels having learned WWF style and this being a non-TV card. Nowhere near as good as their title change match but still three stars. Tateno had her knee heavily braced; 6. DiBiase won a 22 man Bunkhouse Battle Royal (which only had 19 participants although they actually announced 22). The match was pretty uneventful with no actual bumps over the top. Actually DiBiase was the only guy in it to even do a thing. Finish came down to DiBiase, Reed and Duggan and as Reed and Duggan were brawling near the ropes, DiBiase shoved them both over. One thing about the WWF which is nice is they don't announce ridiculous prize amounts for their Battle Royals (being that nobody believes those figures in the first place and they don't sell tickets). The heat when Ted won was moderate at best; 7. Hercules Hernandez pinned Hillbilly Jim with a cradle from behind as Jim argued with the ref. A definite dud; 8. Jim Duggan & Ken Patera won a handicap match beating Mr. Fuji & Demolition when Duggan pinned Fuji after a clothesline. I guess it was adequate;  9. count out with One Man Gang in 5:30. An uneventful match but decent action, maybe 1/4 to 1/2 stars being nice. . . The big news actually was we had four key no-shows. Both the British Bulldogs weren't there (Dynamite hasn't worked in a while, missing dates everywhere over the past week). The story I got was that .one of them. collapsed at the airport and the other went to the hospital with him but no word on if it's anything major or not. Billy Haynes, who has also missed virtually all his recent bookings, missed match .8 which was billed as a 6-man tag. Haynes' health is really bad, to the point where many are speculating his wrestling days may be over. The other MIA was Bam Bam Bigelow, whose scheduled bout with DiBiase was billed as the main event (instead we get George Steele, hardly an adequate sub). Bigelow underwent arthroscopic knee surgery (I'm told his one knee was in really bad shape) and no word on how soon he'll be back. I can recall about 18 months ago, when Bigelow has just broken in to Memphis, I was watching tapes of him with a wrestler who told me that at his weight doing the things he did that he was going to have knee problems in a hurry. Lots of times people don't take into account the punishment these guys take, especially the guys who come off the top rope a lot. Because there were so many no-shows, the commission ordered Titan to offer refunds to anyone who wished them before the end of the second match. This came just days after the California state assembly voted 60-7 to reclassify pro wrestling as entertainment and not sport, therefore eliminating athletic commission jurisdiction. The bill still has to pass the state senate before it becomes law. This also eliminates wrestlers having to get licenses to work in California (that one is a joke, one year I got the computer print out of all 60 or so licensed pro wrestlers and guys like Hulk Hogan and Ricky Steamboat, etc. weren't even on the list).

AWA: The complete line-up for the 2/4 show at the Minneapolis Auditorium which is Verne's final show before the building gets torn down as Curt Hennig vs. Greg Gagne for the AWA title in a cage match, Midnight Rockers vs. a mystery team for the tag team title (Midnight Express is already history, and the current announcement is they'll wrestle Nick Kiniski & Kevin Kelly, however Kiniski was let go this past week and they are building up to turn Kelly--which would be ludicrous because aside from Hennig and Soldat Ustinov, they have no heels left), Dick the Bruiser vs. Sheik Adnan El-Kaissey (when they announced they were bringing in all the old-timers, I had a feeling they were going to try and actually put some of them in the ring), Billy Robinson vs. Tom Zenk (I'm really surprised they made this match because obviously Zenk is their most marketable babyface and Robinson is only in for one shot, thus will be asked to do the job, but all the independents are leery of using Robinson because of his shooter rep and since he's not one of Verne's boys (and in fact runs some independent shows of his own in Minnesota) the odds of him trying to show Zenk up make this match a gamble), Wahoo McDaniel & Baron Von Raschke vs. The Nasty Boys and Billy Jack Strong (Steve DiSalvo) vs. Ustinov. . . Von Raschke and the Nasty Boys are in full-time while DiSalvo is splitting time between here and Calgary. . . Adrian Adonis broke his ankle legit during the TV tapings in Minot, North Dakota. Apparently there was a hole in the ring and Adonis was getting whipped into the buckles and stepped into the hole and that was the end of his ankle. This also caused Adonis to miss his Japanese tour which was to begin last week. . Bob Orton is in Japan. ... I'm told Adonis won't be back for at least two months. . . Kevin Kelly and Sheik Kaissey got into it during interviews (this turned into a legit fight, not something taped for television) and Kaissey was beaten to a pulp. . . The AWA has recorded a song that will be released soon called ''Superstars of the AWA'' with Greg Gagne, Von Raschke, Wahoo, Jerry Blackwell, Tommy Rich, Dick Slater, Jerry Lawler, Jeff Jarrett, Midnight Rockers and Zenk going to Atlanta for the recording. Blackwell, Rich and Slater were there because the Gagnes helped them get an insurance break for their new promotion. Lawler and Jarrett were there because there is scheduled to be an increase in talent swapping between the two promotions this year and Hennig is scheduled to work several dates per month for the CWA because the AWA isn't running a full schedule. The Rockers, as AWA tag champs, are also supposed to work as heels in the CWA from time to time after they leave the area full-time in a few weeks.

WWF: One note I forgot about the San Francisco show was that actually the Battle Royal had 18 guys. The 19th was George Steele. He came out about a minute late, walked around ringside for a few minutes, then when Junkfood Dog got tossed over (about the second guy out), Georgie just walked to the dressing room with him. I guess at George's age, he didn't want to take the bump. Reminds me of a story I heard about a certain WWF neanderthal character who was stalling outside the ring for a complete match and one of the fans yelled, ''Get in the ring you lazy bum''. The wrestler (who is supposed to be unable to speak English) retorted, "What do you think this is, the NWA?''. . . . The Royal Rumble card in Hamilton actually drew 16,200 in the 18,000 seat building although something like 10,000 of the tickets were tie-ins giving you a free ticket to a hockey game as well. The reports I got from fans who were there live indicated it wasn't a good show because of all the delays and stalling and the Dino Bravo bench press thing was boring to watch live. . . 1/25 at Madison Square Garden drew a sellout of 19,750 and $236,000 as Scott Casey pinned Jose Estrada, Sam Houston pinned Danny Davis, Butch Reed pinned Junkfood Dog, Omar Atlas pinned Dusty Wolfe, One Man Gang pinned Don Muraco when Butch Reed interfered, Hulk Hogan Bam Bam Bigelow downed Ted DiBiase & Virgil when Bigelow splashed Virgil (told this was a good match even though Bigelow's knee was really hurting him--in fact it was the only good match on the card), The Barbie Dolls (Jimmy Powers & Paul Roma) downed Steve LoMbardi I Barry Horowitz, Jim Duggan pinned Harley Race, Ron Bass pinned Hillbilly Jim and the Islanders downed the British Bulldogs via DQ. The 2/22 card has Sika vs. George Steele, Hercules Hernandez & Race vs. The Rougeaus, Smash Demolition vs. Billy Haynes (which from what I've been told probably won't be taking place), Axe Demolition vs. Ken Patera, Jake Roberts vs. Dino Bravo, Reed & Gang vs. Muraco & Ahabolic Warrior (let's come up with a good nickname for the Muraco-Dingo team) and the main event announced was DiBiase vs. Bigelow. . . 1/30 in Baltimore before 5,500 saw Ricky Steamboat go to a double disqualification with Rick Rude, Strike Force beat Hart Foundation and Honkeytonk Man & Greg Valentine over Randy Savage & Brutus Beefcake in the feature matches. The 2/26 show has Valentine vs. Beefcake, Muraco vs. Hernandez, Gang vs. Bigelow, Davis vs. Houston and Patera vs. Iron Sheik. . . 1/15 in Los Angeles drew more than 10,000 as Bravo pinned Jerry Allen **, Koko Ware pinned Mike Sharpe *, Jake Roberts beat Rick Rude via count out **, British Bulldogs beat Conqustadores (Jose Luis Rivera & Jose Estrada) ***, Valentine pinned Beefcake **4, Sherri Martel pinned Velvet McIntyre ***, Bass pinned Brady Boone 1/4*, Strike Force beat Hart Foundation *** and Honkeytonk Man beat Savage in a cage match *** (report by Steve Yohe). . . 1/21 in Winnipeg before 2,500 saw Houston pin Bill White, Bass over Boone, Sherri Martel beat Velvet McIntyre(best match on the card), Valentine pinned Beefcake (you can see them setting up a hair vs. hair match and a Greg haircut for WM4), Davey Boy Smith pinned Islander Haku, Tom Magee (the former World champion powerlifter) returned and pinned Mike Sharpe, Roberts beat Rude via count out in a good match, and Savage beat Honkeytonk via count out in a poor match. . . Besides in Denver as we mentioned last time, they also have Mad-Dog Vachon tributes scheduled for Montreal, Omaha, Minneapolis, Winnipeg and several other cities where the Vachon name was over big. ... 1/22 in Rochester drew 3,5.00 as Bravo pinned Lanny Poffo, Houston pinned Davis, Anabolic Warrior went to a 20:00 draw with Hernandez (horrible match but Warrior is over big), Muraco went to a double DO with Reed, Roberts pinned Race (it appears Harley is being phased out for an eventual front office job with Titan ala Nick Bockwinkel), Valentine pinned Beefcake, Bulldogs beat Islanders when Davey Boy Smith pinned Baku in the best match on the caed and Muraco won the Bunkhouse Battle Royal when Jake Roberts pulled out the Snake and scared Hercules and Butch Reed into getting eliminated. . . The 1/26 Hershey, PA ''Superstars'' tapings drew a sellout 9,000. In a non-televised opener, Strike Force beat Hart Foundation. In the first hour, they had a match between Rude and Steamboat (since these shows air during the February sweeps, they all will have main event matches). It ended in a double DQ and a wild brawl involving Duggan & Warrior along with Race & Hernandez. An interesting match also saw Horowitz & Lombardi win over Poffo & Casey which I believe is the first television win for either man. This was actually done to set up the second hour's ''main event'' (I'm sure they'll put an arena tape in here from NBC as well) where Bees beat Lombardi & Horowitz. One Man Gang beat Don Muraco via DQ in a dark match when Billy Graham hit Gang with his cane. Another taped match, probably for the second hour had Race & Hernandez against the Bulldogs. Bulldogs were counted out of the ring chasing Bobby Heenan. Third hour saw Bigelow pin Sika (and he was limping badly here and also Ultimate Warrior over Race by DQ when Hernandez runs in with his chain but eventually Ultimate makes his own comeback and runs both guys out. The main event (not taped) has Hogan fir Bigelow over DiBiase & Andre in 9:00 when Hogan pinned DiBiase with the legdrop. Andre was in for one minute, did a bodyslam on Hogan, and nearly collapsed. . . The commentary on the show wasn't done live as it usually is for the syndicated package because of the NBC special where all the angles are getting shot so instead Vince, Jesse and Bruno will be going into the studio later this week and do voice-overs. . . Story I get is that the ultimate plan of Hogan and the title will be decided this week when the shooting scheduled of Hogan's movie comes out. If Hogan will be available for weekend work, then he'll be champion over the summer. If he won't be available at all for several months, then a title change will take place with Ted DiBiase the most likely beneficiary. . . 1/19 in Calgary drew a sellout 8,500 as Magee beat Sharpe in 4:00 (Magee's wrestling isn't any better than before), Bravo pinned Allen, Smith pinned Islander Haku (place went crazy when Smith was announced) in a good match, Sherri Martel pinned Velvet McIntyre (average), Beefcake pinned Valentine (fair), Houston pinned Gilles des Fosse (a Stampede jobber), Roberts beat Rude via count out (okay), Bass pinned Boone and Honkeytonk beat Savage via DQ.

Stampede: The 1/22 show in Calgary drew 1,300 which is below what they've been averaging but not bad considering Titan was in with a sellout three days earlier. Results saw Mr. Hilo pin Jonathan Holiday (fair), Goldie Rogers went to a double count out with Hashif Khan in a battle of heels although Khan turned into the crowd favorite, Great Gama & Garfield Portz downed Johnny Smith & Biff Wellington in 14:45 in a very good match when Gama pinned Wellington; Steve DiSalvo made Jerry Morrow submit to the backbreaker over the shoulder in 6:15; Brian Pillman pinned Kerry Brown and the main event saw Makhan Singh & Rip Rogers over Jason the Moffat & Chris Benoit in 20:00 of a good match when Rogers put the Boston crab on Benoit and heel ref signalled for the bell just as the hold was applied because Benoit was .in a no escape position.. The double main event on 1/29 sent Bruce Hart & Pillman defending the International tag belts against Portz & Gana (which could be a title change) and Badnews Allen vs. Steve DiSalvo plus a return tag match with Singh & Rogers vs. Jason & Benoit. Leo Burke is scheduled to return on that card. . . Badnews Allen and Jason were fined $200 and $300 respectively by Calgary City Hall for their brawl in the stands on 12/18 which resulted in a female fan suffering a concussion.

Oregon: They will be holding a special show on 2/16 at the Portland Sports Arena billing it as the Frank Bonema Memorial card (Bonema was the Portland TV announcer who passed away about five or six years ago). No matches have been announced although Curt Hennig will defend the AWA title against whomever holds the Northwest title (since Hennig is a babyface here, probably The Grappler who is the current champ), plus they will have a tag team title match, a strap match and a cage match. . . 1/16 in Portland saw Grappler go to a no decision with The Assassin in a taped fist match, Brian Adams beat Abbuda Dein via DQ, Cocoa Samoa beat Moondog Moretti, Scott Peterson & Steve Doll kept the tag belts beating Rip Oliver & Joey Jackson and Mike Miller beat The Avalanche. . . 1/23 in Portland saw Assassin beat Avalanche in a Coal Miners Glove match, Doll & Peterson beat C.W. Bergstrom & Jackson, Doll drew Art Barr, Miller beat Grappler via DQ and Adams beat Oliver via DQ and Samoan pinned Dein. . . The 1/30 show had Miller. & Assassin vs. Grappler & Avalanche, Adams vs. Oliver and a TV title match with Dein defending against Samoa (probable title change since Dein is headed to Japan a few weeks later).

Continental: The tournament for the mink coat drew 8,000 fans to Knoxville on 1/23. First round saw Tony Anthony get a bye when Wendell Cooley was a no-show (told he was injured two days earlier), Tom Prichard pinned Moondog Spot, Greg Cooley drew with Carl Styles so both men were eliminated from the tournament, The Bullet pinned Jonathan Boyd, Tracy Smothers pinned Robert Fuller in 19 seconds, Dutch Mantell pinned Danny Davis using the ropes, and Jimmy Golden pinned Steve Armstrong due to interference from Robert Fuller. The second round saw Anthony pin Prichard in an excellent match which I was told was by far the best match on the card, Bullet pinned Mantell and Golden and smothers went to a double DQ when both Fuller & Armstrong interfered and they brawled all over the building. The tournament final saw Bullet pin Anthony to win the coat. What was amazing about the size of the crowd was not only is this probably the largest crowd that any promotion other than the NWA or WWF has drawn in maybe eight months in North America, but that it happened in Knoxville on a card without Doug Furnas, who I'd assumed was the reason that Knoxville had turned into the goldmine that has kept this promotion afloat while the Alabama towns were drawing so poorly. . . Birmingham averages around 350 per week while Montgomery is averaging around 150. . . Announced as headed to the area are Hector Guerrero, the Rock & Roll RPMs, Mongolian Stomper and manager Ron Wright and Buddy Landel will return from Japan. . . The 2/12 card will be Continental's final card in Knoxville before the new promotion run by Ron Fuller takes over. They will tape their first television show on 2/14 and it will be called USA Championship Wrestling. They announced that Terry Gordy would be on the card and I'm told at least at the beginning and the Continental guys will still work in Knoxville. . . By the way, I need tapes from both this new promotion and also Continental so if anyone has them to trade, please let me know.

New Japan: Results from 1/27 which drew 3,570 saw Antonio Inoki & Kongo Kimura & Shiro Koshinaka over Buzz Sawyer & Bob Orton & Tony St. Clair when Inoki pinned Sawyer, Riki Choshu pinned Johnny K-9 in 2:32, Masa Saito & Big Van Vader won a handicap match over Tatsotoshi Goto & George Takano & Tatsumi Fujinami in 43 seconds when Goto when powerslammed by Vader (Fujinami & Takano never even got in the ring), Yoshiaki Fujiwara pinned Owen Hart, Hiroshi Hase pinned Hiro Saito, Nobuhiko Takada beat Masaharu Funaki in 21:00, Kuniaki Kobayashi pinned Keiichi Yamada, Super Strong Machine & Kensukc Sasaki beat Osamu Kido & Yoji Anjo and Steve Blackman pinned Don Arakawa ... with Inoki in Italy, the 1/25 Television show was headlined by the first time ever teaming of three Olympic Japan wrestlers for New Japan, Choshu, Masa Saito and Hase as they defeated Steve Williams & Sawyer & Hart in the main event when Choshu lariated Hart. The show drew a 7.2 rating. The 1/11 TV show headlined by Inoki & Takada vs. Williams & Hart drew a 7.1 rating while the 1/18 show with Inoki & Takada vs. Saito & Vader and main event with Fujinami & Kimura winning the tag belts from Fujiwara & Yamazaki drew an 8.2 rating. . . Takada pinned Hart on 1/13 in Takamatsu in what was one of the highlight matches of the jr. tournament. As you can tell by the results, Hart is doing lots of jobs which is ironic since it's coming at the same time as his surprisingly good showing in the popularity poll. . . Here's the status of the junior heavyweight tournament as of 1/26: Koshinaka is in first place with 34 points with seven wins and one loss, the loss to Hart but he still has matches left against Takada, Kobayashi and Hase. Takada is in second with 31 points with his only loss to Yamazaki with six wins, and a draw against Yamada with upcoming bouts left with Koshinaka, Funaki (which actually took place on 1/27 and he won so he is now in first place with 36 points as of 1/28)and Hase. Hart has 29 points with losses to Hase and Takada and six wins, and matches remaining with Yamada, Yamazaki, Kobayashi- Hase has 29 points with one loss to Yamazaki, plus upcoming bouts with Koshinaka, Yamada, Takada, and Kobayashi. Yamazaki has 24 points with a 5-2 record, losses to Koshinaka and Yamada but key wins over Takada and Hase with Kobayashi, Hart, Saito and Tony St. Clair left. Yamada is 4-2-1 with 21 points (losses to Koshinaka and Hiro Saito and the last one to Kobayashi), Kobayashi has 24 with a 5-1 record (only loss to Takada), Hiro Saito has 19(4-4 record), St. Clair has 14 while Funaki, Goto, and Norio Honaga have 0 points. . . . Finals are 2/7 in Sapporo. . . 1/22 drew 2,160 as Yamazaki pinned Hase with a german suplex in 11:26 which is the first job Hase has done in Japan (this was a big surprise since I assumed it would be years before we ever saw Hase do a job but obviously they are trying to turn the jr. division into one where anyone can lose on any given night which keeps one guy from becoming too strong which isn't good, but makes every match exciting because you never know the finish for sure), Kimura & Fujiwara & Sakaguchi beat Steve Blackman & Steve Williams & Sawyer, Hart pinned St. Clair and Saito & Vader beat Fujinami & Koshinaka. . . Choshu vs Orton 2/1 TV.

All Japan: The 1/27 show drew 3,100 as Genichiro Tenryu & Ashura Hara & Samson Fuyuki won the main event downing Jumbo Tsuruta & Kabuki & Masa Fuchi in 26:15 when Tenryu pinned Fuchi. Also Hiroshi Wajima & Yoshiaki Yatsu downed Abdullah the Butcher & TNT when Yatsu pinned TNT, Tiger Mask & John Yenta beat Rusher Kimura & Goro Tsurumi, Shinichi Nakano pinned Black Assassin (Bill Tabby, Takashi Ishikawa & Akio Sato beat Paul Harris & Pete Roberts, Yoshiaki Kawada went to a double count out with Mighty Inoue, Akira Taue & Isao Takagi drew with Motoshi Okuma & Haruka Eigen and Isamu Teranishi pinned Mitsuo Momota. . . Buddy Landel was a notable absentee on the show although I'm not sure the reason. . . They are pushing a big show 3/9 in Yokohama (8,000 seat building) with Tenryu vs. Stan Hansen in a double title match with Tenryu putting up the United National against Hansen's PWF belt (no doubt ending in a double count out) plus Tsuruta vs. Tiger Mask, Terry Gordy vs. Yatsu, Baba & Wajima vs. Kimura & Tsurumi, Tenter vs. Joel Deaton, Hara vs. Rocky Iaukea Jr., Kabuki vs. Jerry Oates and Taue & Takagi vs. Dean & Joel Malenko. . Baba is in the United States negotiating with The Funks and David Manning about getting his TV show on the air in the United States. As mentioned before, Baba has a plan to send Gordy, Hansen, Bruiser Brody, Abdullah and Jimmy Snuka plus some of his top stars to help some of the weaker U.S. outfits combat Crockett and McMahon. . Kawada & Fuyuki are billed as .The Foot Loose. as a hot prelim tag team. They lost on 1/29 in Tokyo when challenging Ishikawa & Inoue for the Asaian tag straps. . . 1/23 on TV live in Matsumoto saw Wajima & Tsuruta beat Abdullah & Landel when Wajima pinned Landel, Tiger & Yatsu beat Tenryu & Kawada via DQ, Yenta beat Harris, Baba & Takagi beat Tsurumi & Kimura. . . A newcomer from the U.S. named Joe Purute showed up on the 1/13 show and lost to Akio Sato and was so bad he never worked again. That show was headlined by by Tsuruta double count out with Abdullah before 3,100. TV ratings: 1/16 9.9, 1/23 10.4.

Japanese women: They are building up a big card on 2/25 in Kawasaki with the final match of Dump Matsumoto that night. Dump & Yukari Omori (who also retiree that night) will face the Crush Girls in the main event, plus there will be a girls Battle Royal and the tag team title, which is vacant, will be decided as Yumiko Hotta & Mitsuko Nishiwaki, who will become the hot new babyface tag team, face off with Bull Nakano s Condor Saito. . . TV numbers leveled off to a 6.2 on 1/10 and a 9.2 on 1/24. . . All Japan held their annual rookie auditions on 1/17 in Tokyo. Approximately 1,500 girls showed up and seven were picked, judged on how well they performed in weightlifting drills, dexterity drills, speed and calistenics. I think this is one of two reasons it's ridiculous to even compare the Japanese women with any U.S. promotion. First off, only the top ), of a percent in terms of athletic ability even get chosen to be trained in the first place, and then they train them like Spartans from the age of 15-17 and by the time they are around 22, if they've even survived, they are better workers than virtually all the men. Then they are done away with at the age of 26, so nobody stars on past their time.

NWA: Lots of stuff to talk about here. . . First off, there is an awful lot of talk that the recent firings have been because of the company's monetary problems, not due to discipline problems, at least that's what those fired are saying. Actually the story I got in the case of Hayes is that he and Crockett had agreed to terms of the contract a long time ago (a two year deal for $150,000 per year) but that Crockett had never actually signed it. Hayes put the pressure on for the contract to be signed, because he wasn't making any money with JCP without the contract, and he wound up fired for missing Cincinnati on 1/23. Morton & Gibson apparently were asked to do an angle where the Sheepherders shave Ricky's head bald but refused to go along with it which may have led to their ouster as well. Hayes also had his record album covered in the contract in that Crockett was to promote the album on TV in exchange for a cut of the sales. A Charlotte newspaper reported that Morton & Gibson had severed ties with the NWA during mid-week and the Charlotte offices recieved lots of calls about it. . . . It appears for now that Morton & Gibson will be working against the NWA for Jerry Blackwell's group in Georgia, at least part-time until they land with a major group, which may not be that easy. I suppose Vince could always bring in Ricky to do lead vocals on Wrestling Album III for his classic "Boogie Woogie Dance Hall''.. . . . At the same time, while all the financial problems seem apparent, they are showing life at the gate. . . The bench press contest on 1/30 in Greensboro drew more than 10,000. Unlike Titan, they used legit weights, with all four doing 460 pounds with no problem. Then Paul Ellering grabbed the house mic and said let's cut out the garbage and move the bar to 600. Animal went down first, they threw the chalk in his eyes and basically did the expected angle hardcore. Animal was carried out on a stretcher with juice (tho net much) and taken to the hospital. by paramedics. The show was taped for television and was hot overall. Dusty Rhodes pinned Bobby Eaton in the first hour, and in the second hour Dusty & Nikita won a double bullrope match from the Midnight Express. . . Windham & Luger are being pushed as a tag team while Flair is set to feud with Sting. They did an interview with Crockett where he announced the Flair-Sting match .next week. (which I assume means it will air the weekend of 2/13). . . 2/21 in Nassau Coliseum has Flair & Blanchard vs. Rhodes & Luger, Zbyszko vs. Windham and Road Warriors vs. Warlord & Barbarian and all predictions are it won't draw. I was told the actual gate for the 1/24 show in Nassau was $60,000 which means the paid attendance was in the 5,000 range which is pretty poor for the second show in the market, especially since the first show did in excess of $150,000. . . The line Road Warrior Hawk has been spouting off isn't Neo Nazi Zoom Dweebies but ''Neo Maxi Zoom Dweebies'' . . . . Mighty Wilbur will be back in March. . . Chris Champion is gone as I'm sure everyone has already figured out. . . Eddie Gilbert is still working here although it appears they are trying to keep that a secret. . . JCP has gone back to localized interviews building up the live shows which is a step in the right direction. . . All of the Dallas-based wrestlers have been asked by the company to move to Charlotte, however I'm still hearing that Dusty Rhodes, J.J. Dillon and Jim Crockett will be moving to Dallas during the summer. The story I get is they will keep two offices open, one in Charlotte where talent is based, the other in Dallas where the TV production will be based out of. . . Tiger Conway & Shaska Whatley are getting some TV time to build them up for the Crockett Cup (April 9th and 10th). . Mike Rotunda won the TV title from Nikita Koloff on 1/26 in Raleigh when Kevin Sullivan interfered and hit Nikita in the throat with a foreign object. Rotunda then "gave" Rick Steiner the Florida title. The Varsity Club bit has been pretty funny but I don't see anyone caring about Rotunda as a title-holder. Interesting that last week Dusty did an interview screaming about how this is the NWA and you don't buy a belt in the NWA (in reference to Titan's skit with DiBiase). Actually it was interesting. DiBiase offered Hogan $1 million, which I guess is the going rate for WWF champion for one year. And Steiner got the Florida belt for free, which is about what the Florida champion is worth these days. . 1/29 in Pittsburgh drew 6,500 as Stan Lane pinned Ricky Santana, Warlord pinned Jimmy Jackson, Tully Blanchard pinned Jimmy Garvin, Nikita Koloff beat Mike Rotunda via the over-the-top rope DQ in a TV title rematch, Road Warrior Hawk & Paul Ellering beat Ivan Koloff & Barbarian when Hawk pinned Koloff, Lex Luger pinned Arn Anderson, Dusty Rhodes pinned Bobby Eaton and Sting beat Ric Flair via DQ in a good match. Told it was the only good match on the card. Hayes was scheduled to oppose Flair in the main event while Roadie Animal also no-showed. . . The Worldwide show which aired this weekend in Westpoint, MS had both the Worldwide and Jack Gregory commentary on at the same time, so the entire show sounded like total jibberish. . . They ran three angles on TV this weekend. In one, they are setting up Rhodes vs. Zbyszko U.S. title matches since Baby Doll is "blackmailing" Dusty with secret photos of him to get a title match on her terms. Also they set up Misty Blue for an eight person tag match on 2/12 in Baltimore with Dusty & Nikita & Windham against Midnight Express & Murdoch & Jim Cornette in a cage. Murdoch will be leaving once again for Japan after that weekend and he was almost the only entertaining personality left with the group that wasn't stale. The third was to set up the Flair vs. Sting TV match when Sting beat up J.J. after the Horseman celebration on Flair winning wrestler of the year (voted by the fans--come on guys, at least if you are working an angle like that, don't do it on one-day notice, at least pretend to ask for votes from the fans so they can at least pretend it's not a work). . . The show in Philadelphia last weekend drew 7,214 paid and $103,416. Also on 1/26 in Raleigh besides the new angles and the Rotunda title switch, they had Luger & Ricky Santana beat Blanchard & Anderson and Ric Flair pin Barry Windham, who • subbed for Michael Hayes. . . The Terminator is still around on the "C" team. . . 1/14 in Fisherville, VA drew 1,200 and $10,000 as Chris Champion pinned Rocky King, Steiner pinned Italian Stallion, Santana pinned John Savage, Gilbert pinned Ron Simmons, Brad Armstrong & Tim Horner beat Jive Tones (best match on the card), Jimmy Valiant lost to Ivan Koloff, and Ron & Jimmy Garvin beat Stan Lane & Gilbert. . . . 1/28 in Harrisonburg, VA drew a sellout of more than 1,000 with another thousand turned away and a $10,000 gate as Steiner pinned Savage, Kendall Windham pinned Whatley, Black Bart pinned Stallion, Gilbert pinned Mark Fleming, Armstrong & Horner beat Midnight Express in the best match on the card and Barry Windham & Ron Garvin beat Sheepherders. No-shows were Rock & Roll (they had signs on the door saying they weren't going to be there and made an announcement in the ring when the card started saying that as well, and when the announcement was made, everyone cheered).

CWA: Terry Taylor is already gone, and is scheduled to start for World Class next month. They are holding a tournament for the Southern tag belts on 2/1 with the winners to get a shot at the Midnight Rockers' AWA belts later that night. The Rockers had to vacate the Southern tag belts upon winning the AWA straps. The first round pairings in the tournament had the Memphis Vice (Jerry Bryant & Lou Winston--Bryant is still wrestling even though he has Lou Gehrig disease) vs. Max Payne (Darryl Peterson) & Gary Young, Ken Wayne & Scott Hall vs. The Bruise Brothers, Tijo Khan & Jimmy Jack Funk vs. Jeff Jarrett & Manny Fernandez, Ricky Nelson & Sweet Brown Sugar (Skip Young) vs. The Doctors of Rock (The RPMs) and Jerry Lawler & Bill Dundee vs. the return of Carl Fergie & Don Bass managed by Boss Winter and if the heels lose, which they probably will, then Winter gets his head shaved. As someone told me, it's gone from bad to worse. . . Billy Travis is out of action from some busted ribs when Peterson landed on him wrong. . . They are billing Peterson as a Larry Sharpe protege that has come to get Lawler for how Lawler made Bam Bam Bigelow turn on Sharpe. They did a skit where Peterson tossed Lawler over the table which looked so bad that the studio audience actually booed it.

Other notes: Invaders beat Mr. Pogo & Kendo Nagasaki (who are managed by Keiji Muto--isn't that a trip, Muto is probably the best worker in Puerto Rico full-time) to win the WWC tag belts on 1/6 at Roberto Clemente Stadium in San Juan. I'm not sure about this, but I believe Bobby Jaggers & Dan Crawford (Phil LaFleur from Calgary) beat the Youngbloods for the Carribean tag belts and Miguel Perez Jr. beat Kareem Muhammad for the Puerto Rican title on the same show. . . World Class drew 80 to Houston on 1/26 (you read that figure correct) as Kevin & Kerry & Fantastics & Chris Adams beat Buddy Roberts & Angel of Death & Real Thing & John Tatum & Jack Victory in the Thunderdome match where they handcuffed both of Buddy's hands to the cage and pulled his trunks off and Buddy stood there helpless and naked for nearly five minutes. I've never heard of this happening in a match before, but nobody was there to see it. Also Al Perez double DQ with Terry Gordy in a title match, Kevin & Kerry kept the tag titles beating Roberts & Angel in 30 seconds via count out, Tatum & Victory beat Fantastics to keep the Texas tag titles, Missing Link beat Vince Apollo, Eric Embry beat Schuan Simpson to keep the lightheavy belt and Adams beat Real Thing via DQ. All bouts were horrible duds or negative stars except Perez-Gordy since crowd was so small. Crowds in Dallas have picked up to 2,500 for the Thunderdome but Fort Worth at 300. Gordy getting his knee scoped this week. TILL NEXT TIME.

THE READERS' PAGES
For those of you interested in Japanese wrestling merchandise, I've finally got a connection for you. Write to ''Maniax,'' 2-19-8 Nishimagome, Ota-Ku Tokyo 143, JAPAN. It's a wrestling store in Tokyo. What I do know is you can get four issues of Weekly Gong magazine for $20 or four issues of Weekly Pro Wrestling for the same price. I'm not sure of other prices, but they have things like Riki Choshu T-shirts, lots of special Japanese magazines, posters, etc. Keep in mind prices will be high both because of high mailing costs along with the current exchange rates, however we've gotten more than 100 letters asking about Japanese merchandise in the last month or so. They can also get the girls stuff as well. In addition, Gong Magazine just released its 1988 ''Super Catalogue,'' which is a Who's Who book that I helped put together with photos and bins of probably 500 or more past and present wrestlers, of course, it is in Japanese. . . Steve Burton of 3752 Kistner St., Cincinnati, OH 45204 is looking to buy VHS tapes from most areas, but especially Japan and Memphis. . . All Australian readers who wish to join a collective to reduce the cost of converting NTSC videotapes to PAL, please contact Kirk Beattie at P.O. Box 3035, Parramatta, New South Wales 2150 AUSTRALIA. Anyone wishing to exchange, sell or buy PAL VHS tapes of wrestling is also invited to contact Kirk. . . Robert Shepherd of 129 Highfields Road, Abington, MA 02351 would like to trade his VHS copy of the WWF Royal Rumble for a VHS tape from Japan. He is most interested in 1982 matches between Terry Funk and Stan Hansen along with the 12/6/87 12 girl tag match and Dump Matsumoto vs. Yukari Omori match from Tokyo and the 12/4 tag match with Inoki & Murdoch vs. Fujiwara & Saito. . . John Pantozzi of 1036 Second St., Brooklyn, NY 11230 is looking for a copy of the book "The Fall Guys,. (jeez, it was published in 1937), the first two issues of Wrestling Revue magazine, Jimmy Snuka and British Bulldogs LJN dolls, Boris Zhukov dolls and an AWA Video wrestling game by Remco. . . Peter Leong of 19 Wayne Place, San Francisco, CA 94133 is interested in buying both men and women videotapes of Japanese wrestling and tapes from Memphis. . . Joe Pomer of 911 West 5th, Liberal, KS 67901 is looking to trade or buy videotapes of Starcades from 1983, 1984, 1985 and 1987. . . Fred Hornby of 82 Highland Avenue, Port Washington, NY 11050 is looking to buy or trade for a copy of the program printed for Starcade '87. . . Gary Graham of 217 East Main St., South Zanesville, OH 43701 would like to trade his copy of Crockett's .Danger Zone. tape for a copy of the Barry Windham vs. Dory Funk Match from Florida from November. . . Jim Eccles of 310 Stanley Ave., Cardiff, NJ 08232 has some beta tapes from Japan-and Houston that he would like to trade. . . Walt Marshall of 562 Wilk Drive, Morrisville, PA 19067 would like to buy or trade for VHS tapes of Roddy Piper on MTV on 12/29/87, The Survivors Series or Starcade '87.

REFEREE STRIKES BACK
In response to Mike Lanzalotti's letter on the 12/26 Philadelphia card, he was correct that it was a great show both to watch and it was also a great show to officiate. But next time, check how an official works correctly. I did not screw up the finish. I acted according to instructions and if I did screw up the finish, Ric Flair would not have congratulated me later on. Many times your readers blame an official for screwing up a finish, but usually it is the wrestler who screws up or the finish is supposed to be screwed up. Of course, there are a lot of green officials out there, just like there are green wrestlers. But I'm proud to say I'm not one of them.
Jeff Goldberg
Hatboro, Pennsylvania

ON NASSAU SHOW
I have just witnessed the most disgraceful NWA wrestling card I have ever had the misfortune to see in any part of the country. Besides the card being bad, Crockett created ill will by not honoring any press credentials except for George Napolitano and Bill Apter. Frank Amato was denied access to the ring area and left before the card even began. I don't think Crockett needs to be on his bad side. Doesn't he realize that the wrestling magazines arc on his side and want to help him against McMahon? Alienating magazines isn't going to help a dying business in the long run. The card started at 6:30 p.m., thus fooling lots of people. I missed the first match as did almost all the fans since the TV commercials all said the card started at 7 p.m. I didn't even learn they had a first match until I got home. I was already pissed at Crockett and this got me angrier. Anyway, you saw the card and you probably heard the fans yelling .refund. when they realized the show was over at 8:54 p.m. Most fans remained in their seats until they saw all the TV announcers run, protected very well by security, from the ring area and the lights came up. At that point Crockett lost most of the New York audience, probably forever. As you know, almost nobody saw the first match. The Stampede final was too phony to be true. Dick Kroll took bumps in two consecutive matches. Flair's match ended with a stupid DQ. Nikita and Bobby stunk the joint out. There were only about 6,000 fans in the arena, although it's more than what McMahon usually draws. But the 2/21 card will most likely be a disaster. I'm sure the Royal Rumble blew the show away and another nail will be driven in their coffin on Friday. Despite McMahon's angles and the ability of his wrestlers, the incompetence of Crockett Promotions is just too easy to overcome. Not only has he alienated the Southwest by killing the UWF and alienated fans in Florida, now he has alienated fans in the most important city in the country. I don't blame Dusty Rhodes for this, only Jim Crockett. I guess with Crockett going down fast, the only hope real fans have is World Class, with a talent roster that is improving every day. If the AWA markets their two top products, the Midnight Rockers and Paul Dangerously, they could make a comeback, but they seem stuck on Greg Gagne
Chris Ranucci
Brooklyn, New York

ON PAY PER VIEW
Crockett announced on 1/23 that my cable company, Sammons, would be covering the Bunkhouse Stampede. Well, it so happens that the company's offices closed for the weekend at noon that day and the TV show didn't air until 2 p.m. and no announcement had been made about this ahead of time. Their stupidity reaches a newer low every week.
Greg Roman
Ventnor, New Jersey

INOKI JUST LIKE RHODES
It's difficult for me to understand sometimes why everyone gets down on Dusty Rhodes for pushing himself and revolving lots of angles around himself, yet when Antonio Inoki does the same thing, nobody says a word about it. Over the last year, he offered to fight both Choshu and Vader at the 12/27 card, his feud with Masa Saito with the jungle match and the death match, having that handicap match against both Choshu & Fujinami in October, and promoting matches with Muhammad Ali and Leon Spinks. While I'm not a Rhodes fan by any means, I think some views may be clouded by the superiority of Japanese wrestling itself. I noticed Vince managed to .cheat. more than a few times during the Royal Rumble. Most of the time the wrestlers were coming in at around 75 seconds, rather than two minutes as billed. On one or two occasions, they came in at around one minute. While I'm sorry to hear that Dump has to retire from the All Japan Women's promotion, I can only hope she appears here in the United States with a promotion that will properly use her and let her do her thing. Women's wrestling in the U.S. would skyrocket. That much is for sure.

Bob Saydlowski Jr.
Pittsfield, Massachusetts

COMMENTS ON LETTERS
A couple of letters in your 1/15 issue pertained directly to the JCP card on 1/16. Regarding the ''boosting the take'' letter, the same thing happened to an extent here as extensive advertising pushed a $3 balcony seat. About 30 minutes before the card started, the $3 seats were sold out. Many people either left, or bought $8 or $9 tickets. The attendance was only 5,900 in an 18,000 seat arena so the $3 seats were very limited. Many fans showed up and left with only enough money for $3 tickets. Regarding the ''on blading'' letter, not only did Dusty Rhodes blade heavily but Dick Murdoch was biting the cut. This resulted in Murdoch's mouth and face being covered with Rhodes' blood. Also, Lex Luger worked a fast-paced intense match with Arn Anderson and didn't blow up. Some good news and bad news on the St. Louis sports scene. The bad news is Jack Clark leaves, the football team leaves and the indoor soccer team is in dire financial straits. The good news, we've only got one WWF card scheduled in the next five months.
Harry White
St Louis, Missouri

BRET HART DESERVES BIGGER PUSH
I'd like to write about one of the most put-upon wrestlers in the business, Bret Hart. I write this column after reading that Bret had to do a job for both Paul .1 wrestle like I'm in a Coma. Roma and Jim .Wipe that smile off my face if you don't like it. Powers, collectively known as the Young Stallions. If these two guys are the stallions of this business, heaven help the mares. I realize that the guys who wrestle for Vince are paid good money and nobody has any right to complain about having to do a job. But, if Vince is determined to push these overblown Rick Martel look-alikes (but certainly not wrestle-alikes), he could just as easily had someone like Jim Neidhart, Nikolai Volkoff or Dino Bravo or someone else do them the favor. Hart is good enough to where even the marks can see that he has a lot of ability. Basically I think McMahon is making a mistake in not pushing him as a single. Judging by interviews I've seen Hart do in Calgary, I think he's capable of carrying the ball as a single (though I wonder if that's as important as it's made out to be. Look at Andre the Giant, Bubba Rogers and the Jumping Bomb Angels). He certainly has the ability to make a bad opponent look good, which is an ability held dearly by Titan, which still has more bums per capita than any other promotion. But instead Titan is giving a singles push to a way-past-stale Greg Valentine, whose ability has begun to slip noticably. Don't get me wrong, Valentine has been great in the past and I realize having to wrestle Brutus Beefcake every night can't help, but he's had his day in the sun as a single, and if he's to be pushed today, it should be as part of a tag team. I think at his age, plus the fact the years with Titan have slowed him down, a tag spot is where Valentine belongs. On the other hand, Hart would make a great challenger for Randy Savage after they do the Intercontinental title change. After the change, Hart would be a fresh and interesting opponent for Savage. I think both men could bring out the best in each other and they could push Bret using that .excellence of execution. line that Monsoon keeps rattling. This feud would also work because Hart is one of those guys who can maintain his heat even though he's done more than his fair share of jobs. Vince could play up Hart's role in the angle where Elizabeth got pushed as a way of setting up the feud. I happen to think that McMahon is one heck of a booker and a marketing genius. But I think he's missed the boat in not pushing Hart as a single. I understand that some people who are great workers but aren't that charismatic, like Bobby Eaton or Rick Martel, are better off in a tag team. But with Hart, McMahon has a guy in his prime who could be pushed hard. Don't blow this one, take this talent and give him the singles push he so richly deserves.
Jeff Bowdren
Plantation, Florida

DREAM CARD
Just for fun, here's my choice for a 10-match ''dream card''1. Negro Casas vs. El Hijo Del Santo; 2. Chigusa Nagayo & Lioness Asuka & Jumping Bomb Angels vs. Dump Matsumoto & Condor Saito & Drill Nakamae & Sherri Martel; 3. Owen Hart vs. Kuniaki Koloyashi; 4. Brad Armstrong & Tim Horner vs. Pat Tanaka & Paul Diamond; 5. Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Riki Choshu; 6. Rock & Roll Express vs. Midnight Express; 7. Bruiser Brody vs. Terry Gordy; 8. Akira Maeda & Nobuhiko Takada vs. Kazuo Yamazaki & Yoshiaki Fujiwara; 9. Steve Williams vs. Dick Murdoch (but only in Japan); 10. Ric Flair vs. Ted DiBiase.
Pat Crocker Edward Air Force Base California

LIKES U.S. WRESTLING BEST
I got a couple of tapes from Japan to see what all the fuss was about. The Japanese are, as you note ad infinitum, vastly superior technically to most of their U.S. counterparts. It is great to see guys like Ted DiBiase and Owen Hart in tremendous bouts, but I still prefer the U.S. brand of wrestling for the stuff that goes on outside the ring and because aside from Dump Matsumoto, the villains are more interesting. Still, the tapes are great, with many very good to excellent matches. Sorry I didn't send in a ballot, but if I could have, I'd have certainly found a spot on it for Vince McMahon's performance on the Slammies. This was really one of the most amazing things I've ever seen and I'm surprised more readers haven't commented on it.
Steve Hesske
Bowling Green, Ohio

THE REAL STORY
Obviously Matilda's disappearence is simply a cover-up for her tour of Japan.
Carl France
Englewood, Colorado

AGREES WITH COMMENTS ON FLAIR
I have to agree with Steve Gentry's letter on Ric Flair's antics. I've always had high respect for Flair as a class wrestler, but his interviews of late have upset me. They have become offensive. Who cares about bedroom matches. Sometimes I have youngsters watching TV with me and Flair's comments are .R. rated. He is a real talent inside the ring and that's what fans are interested in. Hulk Hogan's image comes across as clean living.
Diane Devine
Springfield, Missouri

CWA FAN
I don't think the CWA gets the credit it deserves. Wrestler for wrestler and stunt for stunt, it is the most entertaining promotion in the world. They have the great Jerry Lawler and get more out of their wrestlers than any other group and they have the finest announcer on television. It's just too bad they didn't get national coverage instead of the AWA or No Class because they could have become a force or at the very least, an enjoyable alternative. By the way, Lawler is one of the few legends really worth watching.
R.E. Valuck
Binghampton, New York