February 1, 1988

Wrestling Observer Newsletter
February 1, 1988

The Battle of January 24th has come and gone and for the most part from a television standpoint it was a stalemate. I wouldn't categorize either Jim Crockett's Bunkhouse Stampede finals from the Nassau Coliseum or Vince McMahon's Royal Rumble from the Copps Coliseum in Hamilton, Ont. as two of the best cards I've ever seen. From the viewpoint of a TV viewer as opposed to one who attended the live show, both cards were about what could be expected. Neither had a strong overall line-up, and neither delivered,a super show. Titan's show had some of the glitz of its usual productions, but not in as great a quantity, perhaps because without post-production, they can't dub in crowd noise and reactions and the like. The three-hour show had too many replays and looked like it may have dragged in spots if you were there live. Now as I write this, I haven't talked to anyone who was in Hamilton. I've talked to at least a dozen folks from Nassau and as a live show, it got terrible marks from everyone. But as a pay-per-view production, it was better than Starcade although the opener was inexcusable and they also owed the audience an explanation as to why the Rock & Roll Express and Steve Williams weren't there nor Mike Rotunda and Sting (Sting actually did work in a match which started before the PPV segment went on the air, but the fans paying for the show on PPV weren't aware of it and a Rotunda-Sting match was pushed on WTBS just a half hour earlier).

There are a lot of things about the NWA that I'm getting tired of writing about and I'm sure you are getting tired of reading. To their credit, they are somewhat responsive to the fans, in fact moreso than a lot of promotions and I expect the TV programs to improve during this month (particularly with sweeps--which determine ad rates--taken in February, all wrestling TV shows should be hot in February). I'm told they will be shoaling the endings of matches which go off the air on the following week's show in the future which eliminates a major complaint about their TV. The announcing changes that have been made have been for the better. In fact, Jim Ross did an excellent job on the PPV broadcast, without saying that every match was an all-time classic as he did at Starcade to the point where it was overkill. So some of the minor problems have been addressed. However, the NWA had eight no-shows and put on what everyone I talked with called a very bad card in Los Angeles on Thursday night, most of the no-shows were guys pulled from the card for financial reasons (costs of flights from Honolulu-to-Los Angeles-and thpn-to-Charlotte as opposed to Hawaii-to-Charlotte then at Nassau, the card was advertised with a 7 p.m. start, however a good percentage of tickets listed an 8 p.m. start, and the show itself started at 6:35 p.m. (when few were even there) and ended before 9 p.m., so those arriving at 8 missed most of the show. Now all the no-shows at Nassau can't be blamed on the promotion, because wrestlers get hurt (Mighty Wilbur) or may quit at the last minute when the TV ads can't be changed (as the Rock & Roll Express apparently did) but the fans deserve some announcement to be made. Last Sunday an NWA show in St. Louis started more than one hour late because the crew was late coming from its afternoon stop in Charleston, West Virginia. And everyone in the NWA already knows the crowd reaction after the Nassau show (lots of chants of "refund, refund") and the PPV audience heard that when Dusty Rhodes won the Bunkhouse Stampede (surprise, surprise) that the crowd booed. Even I was shocked. This past week, the NWA badly hurt its position in Los Angeles and New York, the two leading markets in the country, for all the reasons that they've known about for months. I know that some changes are coming, maybe too slowly, but they are coming. TV ratings are up and the shows have gotten better. But there are some changes that literally have to be made or the progressive changes won't have any positive effect. Unlike WWF fans who come to basically "see the stars," the NWA fans generally come to see action. The NWA has some of the greatest wrestlers around, but nobody can perform at any-where near peak efficiency with the kind of schedule they are on. In the long-run, cross-country double-shots on weekends are killing all the weekend cards and causing numerous complaints. New talent is needed, now more than ever. The "turn" that they needed the worst, that of Ric Flair to babyface (it is totally ludicrous at this point to have your lead heel as someone who is more popular than almost everyone else in the promotion despite the fact he actually plays heel superbly) can't even be done right now because of the Luger turn and the fact they don't have another heel who can carry the load on that side. At this point they should have Dusty Rhodes turn heel and feud with the Road Warriors, but of course that will never happen. In recent weeks the promotion has lost Terry Taylor (for no apparent reason other than the fact that apparently several folks held a vendetta against him for leaving the promotion in 1985 and decided to punish him for it two years later), Big Bubba Rogers (who they had turned into a great gimmick and had become a good worker as well); apparently the Rock & Roll Express quit this afternoon from all the reports out of New York, as they were unhappy about their push (in truth, as much as I respect their workrate and am a fan of theirs, they had been living on borrowed time for the last nine months) and the odds of Steve Williams returning are less than 50/50 for reasons that everyone who has followed the plight of the UWF can understand. Sean Royal quit as well and names like Chris Champion, Brad Armstrong and Eddie Gilbert might as well have disappeared, all of whom could be used in fresh angles. There are others looking to get out as well. I hate wasting the front page on things I've basically been writing every week for four months. I actually hate writing them because I am a longtime fan of the NWA. While I can't categorize myself as a WWF fan, I watch their TV show and totally respect what they've done in improving many aspects of this business. They are going to blow this business wide-open once again over the next two months and have to be congratulated for it. However, the NWA's problems do not stem from the WWF's successes in most cases. Yes, the WWF cost them millions on Thanksgiving in outmaneuvering them for the PPV market. They didn't help them any tonight (as I write this) in running opposition to their PPV show. They don't help in blocking the NWA out from several of the major arenas in this country. And probably as important as anything, they don't help in putting the paranoia in the NWA, especially since the Bubba departure, of "who will be next" which in some ways may be partially responsible of why Dusty gives himself such a big push. He knows that Vince McMahon won't steal Dusty Rhodes. And I recognize it's not easy to step down from the limelight gracefully. Willie Mays couldn't do it. Nor could Hank Aaron, Mickey Mantle, Muhammad Ali, Johnny Unitas or Antonio Inoki, not that Dusty belongs in that company but you know what I"m saying. What happened to Larry Holmes on Friday night is a vivid example of something that every athlete and pop culture figure has to face one day in their life. Because wrestling is a work, in some ways father time isn't as brutal on them, but at the same time, in some ways it is even more cruel. Wrestling fans "turnover" at a more rapid rate than most legitimate sports' do, so yesterday's legend, especially a regional one--well, I'm going to stop here because I'm writing once again what I didn't want to get into this week.

According to an article in this morning's newspapers, Wrestlemania IV, which takes place on 3/27, will eminate from Atlantic City New Jersey in the 16,000 seat Convention Center. The news was a minor surprise since we'd heard rumblings this week that McMahon was close to closing up a deal in Las Vegas for either the UNLV Gym or a Caesar's Palace extravaganza. The rumblings I've heard is that WM4 won't be pushed as heavily as a closed-circuit event and more as a PPV event. Truth is, however, with the vast majority of the country not equipped for PPV, to service most of their audience, they will still closed-circuit the thing in most major cities.

JCP's counter (that's not really the correct word), the third annual Crockett Cup, will take place two weeks later. The site will be announced officially in just a few weeks. I realize I'm going to sound like a complete mark by suggesting this, but the time is ripe for JCP to re-establish some sort of a working relationship with at least one or two other offices in North America. To make the Cup "the event" it has the potential to be, outside talent will be needed more this year than ever before. They just don't have the talent roster they had at this time last year.

Before getting into other news, I want to mention that ''The Gilberts''I had mentioned that were headed into Memphis were actually going to be the tag team of Doug & Tommy Gilbert (who won't be headed there after all) so Eddie Gilbert is still with JCP.

Another correction in regards to PPV which was my own mathmatical mistake. I had reported Starcade had done a 6.6-percent buy-rate on PPV (Survivors did just over seven percent), but in reality it did only a 3.3 percent buy-rate (20,000 of 600,000 potential homes). I had heard the 20,000 figure but assumed it was of the 300,000 cable homes cleared, not taking into account another 300,000 satellite homes which also could have picked it up. It was reported to me that JCP had cleared a potential 6 million homes for the Bunkhouse finals, but that sounds awfully high to me. Most people I talked with had no way of getting the thing. If it was 6 million, and they did a 3 percent buy rate at $15 a shot, we are talking about $3 million in gross revenue. I don't think they did anything close to that, although the last minute hype was pretty good. I truly believe it would have worked with the right undercard, and it may still have worked with the lacklustre undercard. The only complaints with the show were the camera work. They showed far too many crowd shots (they've had the same problem on all their syndicated shows, to the point where they are missing winning moves and pinfalls and instead showing the crowd) and the shots of the Bunkhouse match were distracting because it left one with the feeling they were missing too much action with the tight shots.

I don't have the exact Nassau crowd although I'll have a good indication in next week's issue, but the estimates I've gotten indicate around 7,000 fans, maybe a little less even. The only match that didn't air saw Sting & Jimmy Garvin down The Sheepherders via DQ in a decent opener. 2. Nikita Koloff went to a 20:00 draw with Bobby Eaton to retain the NWA TV title. Four things happened in this match. At 7:30 they did a high spot. At 10:00 Bobby was posted twice and took a hiptoss on the arena floor. At 13:00 Bobby did a dropkick off the top rope. To say Nikita did nothing would be giving him more of a compliment than he deserves. Bobby held the hammerlock on until the last 35 seconds when they slugged it out. After the bout Stan Lane showed up and they doubled on Nikita for a few seconds. This is a candidate for worst match of the year. (negative two) 3. Larry Zbyszko pinned Barry Windham in 19:16 to win the Western States title. The first 7:00 were slow paced with no sustained action. Then Zbyszko started working on Windham's ''injured knee'' from the Tully Blanchard match in Richmond that aired the day before on WTBS. The last 10 minutes were very good with solid sounding punches and excellent selling by Windham. The guy does the best .glassy-eyed. routine in the business. After a referee bump, Windham pinned Zbyszko and Baby Doll counted to three. Windham .thought it was the referee. and got up like he'd won it, then saw the ref and turned his back to Zbyszko. At that point Baby Doll handed Zbyszko her high heel, Larry Z punched Windham and got the pin. ..*1/4 4. Road Warrior Hawk beat Ric Flair via DQ in 21:39 so Flair retains the NWA title. Hawk sold nothing for the first 7:30 and was unaggressive to boot (he had to do little in the early going since this was undoubtedly the longest singles match of his entire career and you could see the effects of it in the late going although this match was better than you would think it would be). Flair groined him at that point and started pounding on him. The heat really picked up with Flair on the attack. Hawk .injured his knee. and sold it very well. Flair worked on the leg and in fact worked on both legs. Flair used the figure four, then had it reversed. Although there was some predictability in Flair's routine, in many ways it was a different routine than normal in his matches against muscle guys. Actually, except for the finish, I'd call it an excellent match. At 18:50 we had the obligatory referee bump. Flair then was posted and juiced, and Hawk even gave him a superplex. The ref stayed knocked out for nearly three minutes. As Hawk had Flair pinned, J.J. Dillon hit Hawk with a chair, which Hawk didn't sell. Then Flair hit Hawk with a chair and Hawk kicked out just before the count of two (he should have at least waited until 2 3/4 to gettthe right 2.
dramatic effect). Anyway, Flair suplexed Hawk who didn't 1=e again
DQ finish. ...3/4 (would have been four stars and maybe four-plus except the the fin2shing second although the finishing sequence itself was very good until the weak climax). 5. Dusty Rhodes won the Bunkhouse Stampede finals in 26:21. There was lots of blood. For what it was, it was about as good as it could be. You had several guys not exactly noted for stamina all going the distance so you can excuse some guys resting in spots. Overall it was brutal and bloody and basically gave what it promiSed. Ivan Koloff, who was excellent, was the first guy out in 16:42 when Road Warrior Animal threw him over the cage. Animal and Warlord went out together in 18:00. Then Arn, Tully and Luger went out as a trio in 22:36 leaving Dusty with The Barbarian. Finally Konga sat on the top of the cage and Dusty gave him a few elbows and he took the big leap to the floor. I am not a fan of Luger's, but he should have won the thing. There were few cheers and lots of boos (although those there live told me they didn't think the fans were booing that Dusty won, since everyone already .knew it. once Luger went out, but booing because they didn't like the show overall). It's hard to rate but I thought all involved worked as hard as they could and did a good job.

At about the same time, Titan was running its three-hour USA network special live from Hamilton, Ont, before what appeared to be a sellout crowd of nearly 18,000. 1. Ricky Steamboat downed Rick Rude via DQ in 17:00. If this was a match to set up a feud than it should have been a lot better. Steamboat was fine but Rude showed very little. There was a surprising lack of heat for the first 15:00 considering both are main eventers. The match had long periods of restholds and stalling, although the spots they did were all well executed. The last two minutes consisted of one near-fall after another which got good heat. Actually they saved what had been a bad match. Finish saw Rude put the ref in front of him as Steamboat came off with a Mascaras-style flying body press off the top ropes. Rude put Steamboat up in the backbreaker and the ref called for the bell and Rude acted like he won, but the ref called for the DQ on him instead. 2. The Jumping Bomb Angels caputed the WWF women's tag team title from the Glamour Ghouls winning two of three falls. First fall saw Judy Martin pin Itzuki Yamazaki in 7:00 with the Devil Masami suplex (can't describe it, but it's a hot move). Second fall saw Yamazaki pin Martin with a sunset flip in 3:00. Finish saw Noriyo Tateno pin Martin after both girls hit her simultaneously with dropkicks off the top ropes in 5:00. This match was good, but not great at all. Tateno doesn't even look like the same girl who came to the U.S. about 10 weeks ago. Actually both the Japanese girls were missing moves and appeared physically to look out of shape. All the Japanese girls (well, except for Dump Matsumoto of course) are noted for their incredible fitness level, but Tateno looks like she's been training with Buddy Rose as of late. 3. The "Royal Rumble'' Battle Royal lasted 33:00 before Jim Duggan ducked a One Man Gang charge and Gang flew over the top ropes leaving Hacksaw as the winner. This was a lot better than I'd anticipated and was at least as good as the Dusty spectacular that was taking place at about the same time. At least the camera work was tons better. This was a fun match to watch and it seemed everyone that can wrestle (about 40 percent of the 20 entrants) was putting out good. Actually I loved watching the guys run down to the ring. You can always tell who does real training (as opposed to strictly weightlifting and needlepoint) by how they run. The funny thing is you can tell by the order of how the guys entered almost how the promotion feels about their work rate. There are exceptions of course, but the best guys in there (Bret Hart and Tito Santana) opened and the good workers like Jake Roberts, Harley Race and Sam Houston were all in early while the stiffs like Anabolic Warrior, Junkfood Dog, Ron Bass and Hillbilly Jim arrived late. Gang, who most respect as a good worker for a slob, was in next to last (Junkfood was last, and got thrown out in 90 seconds) but since he was going tkdistance and at 450 pounds, can't go all-out for a long period of time, that was a neccessity. Guys were supposed to enter every two minutes, although in reality those ''two minute'' periods started at two minutes for the real workers (Bret and Tito) and were roughly 70 seconds most of the way although at the end they were down to 45 seconds. The order of elimination was: 1. Santana; 2. Bore-us Zhukov; 3. Race; 4. Jim Brunzell; 5. Jim Neidhart; 6. Houston (who took the best bump of all the eliminations); 7. Hart; 8. (whoops, Reed was the first guy out early so move everyone back one); 9. Brian Blair; 10. Jake Roberts; 11. Nikolai Volkoff; 12. Hillbilly Jim; 13. Danny Davis; 14. Anabolic Warrior; 15. Junkfood; 16. Ron Bass; 17. Don Muraco; 18. Dino Bravo and 19. Gang. One thing I didn't like about this match, and moreso about Dusty's, is that the faces and heels never fought amongst themselves. Here it was basically faces vs. heels all the way, but since it's WWF, that can be excused. Dusty's thing was supposed to be $500,000 winner-take-all and Dusty and Animal on interviews talked about .no friends. and the like yet they were constantly helping each other out. I know, who cares. 4. The Islanders downed the Barbie Dolls in two straight falls. Both falls went around 7:00. In the first fall they pulled the top rope down so Paul Roma went over, "injured his knee. and was counted out of the ring. Second fall saw them bound on Jimmy Powers for a while, then finally Roma tagged in, they doubled on his knee for a while, and surprise, surprise, I actually saw a submission hold that worked on "pushed" guys in the U.S. when Haku made Roma submit to a half boston crab. I got so confused I went out for Oriental food afterwards. The Islanders sure are a good team because they carried this match from start-to-finish and it was basically good action. **1/2

Titan had a few other things on its three-hour presentation. They had the Hulk Hogan-Andre the Giant ''contract signing'' for the 2/5 NBC special. Andre rammed Hulk's head into the table and pushed the table over onto him. This is all fun. Every time I watch Hogan I marvel at the fact people really eat him up. There's something so naturally dislikeable about people that .wired cocky.. Actually I think Vince McMahon could get Lee Harvey Oswald over as a babyface, although he couldn't get Mr. T or Honkeytonk Man over in that role. I love that Honkeytonk/Peggy Sue duo, by the way. Also they had Dino Bravo attempt to set a world bench press record. Now those weights were only slightly more legitimate than the half million dollar prize in Dusty's Stampede. However, I'm told on good authority that Bravo is actually the strongest bench presser in Titan and can do a legit 600 pounds (you never know what to believe) which is more than either Road Warrior can do. Anyway, the opening 405, from the way he handled it, appeared to be around 225. The guy did something like five reps with 550 (har, har--Doug Furnas is a World powerlifting champion and he can only do 545 twice) and did something like 675. He went for 715 or so, but Jesse Ventura had to help him do it although Jesse claimed he didn't help him a bit. It was actually quite funny knowing the way spotters tell lifters they .did it all themself. while they are actually tugging like crazy when a guy overloads. The whole idea is that Bravo's bogus 715 is tons more than Crockett's monsters will be doing on the 30th if they were to use legit weights (which was the original plan, although for their own credibility as strong men, if they don't shoot the angle before they get to 500, they are going to have to use bogus weights and get to 700 themselves, which of course makes it ludicrous in the eyes of anyone familiar with powerlifting). I'm told that Crockett's quartet all do in excess of 500 but Warlord is the only one who has a shot at doing 600 legit. Back to Bravo, they'll now bill him as the "unofficial world bench press world record holder" which should get him some heat because everyone saw that he really didn't do it. You could also tell the weights were nowhere near what they were billed at because with weights that heavy, you always use two spotters and also, Ventura was straining very little in lifting the bar off.

So next on the big event agenda is the NBC special on 2/5. I'm told not to worry about Hogan and Andre's match as Andre's back is in a lot better shape than it was in last year, and they somehow survived that. He and Hogan are practicing daily I'm told and have a good match worked out (now let's not get carried away). There is a ton of speculation that Andre will win or the title will be held up. As mentioned before, Hogan can't win because it will kill WM4. If they are going for a cage match, then you know the finish involves outside interference of Ted DiBiase (actually you can be sure DiBiase will get involved in the finish on 2/5). This is the first issue of the current four issue set.

For those of you reading the Observer for the first time, the number in parenthesis indicates the number of ''sets'' (a set consists of four issues) you have left on your current subscription. If you have a (1) on the label, your subscription will expire in three more issues. If you have a (3) or greater on the label, it means you will be automatically receiving the ''Best of the Wrestling Observer Volume I: 1983-87'' book when it gets mailed out within the next week unless you have specifically requested not to receive it. For those in the United States or Canada, the Observer prices are $5 per set of four issues, $10 for eight issues, $20 for 16, $30 for 24, $40 for 32 and $50 for 40 issues. The .Best of. book costs $10 for subscribers and $12.50 for non-subscribers. As subscribers, you can order as many copies as you want for friends for the $10 price. For those of you interested in this book, I suggest you order early because every Observer book of this kind sells out in rapid order. The .Best of. book is 100 pages with stories on what has happened to the business in the last five years, features on the 15 most intriguing wrestling acts of the past five years, Mr. Mike's cartoon review of 1987 (please remember that Mr. Mike's cartoons are done for comedy and take them as such, these aren't meant to seriously offend anyone so I'm apologizing in advance if they do, but they are funny), reprints of several articles in back issues of the Observer, the 1987 Wrestling Observer Awards, the 10 biggest news stories of last year and a directory of more than 400 active wrestlers including height, weight, real names and ages. All letters to the editor, match reports, correspondence, book orders and subscription renewals can be sent to Dave Meltzer, P.O. Box 1228, Campbell, CA 95009-1228. For those of you overseas, the Observer goes for $9 per set with air-mail delivery and the book goes for $14.

Stampede: Things continue near sellout pace for most of the big shows here. . . 1/9 in Edmonton drew 1,200 (building holds 1,300) as Goldie Rogers drew Biff Wellington over 15:00 1/2.; Kerry Brown pinned Brick Bronsky in 13:00 in a hortible match however Bronsky broke his ankle landing wrong when Brown threw him over the top ropes so that accounted for it DUD; Rip Rogers made Mr. Hito submit to the boston crab -* (that's negative one star, Rogers' queer act has been done too many times in this territory to make it and his work is below par)--I'm told the first three matches might as well been a WWF card; Badnews Allen & Jerry Morrow beat Steve DiSalvo & Hashif Khan, Garfield Portz (Scott McGhee) downed Brian Pillman in 17:00 of a blood-bath in an outstanding match ***3/4; Great Gama kept the Commonwealth title losing via DO to Chris Benoit in 16:00 in the best match on the card as Benoit was wrestling like Owen Hart with lots of great flying maneuvers ****; and main event saw Jason the Terrible beat Makhan Singh via count out in a match where Jason bled so badly you could see it through both masks. Actually I'm told this was a great brawl 00*. . . 1/15 in Calgary drew 1,500 as Khan pinned Jonathan Holliday who was carried out on a stretcher; Johnny Smith & Wellington downed Kerry Brown & Goldie Rogers in 17:05 in a good match; Rip Rogers made Hito submit in a fair match; Steve DiSalvo had a handicap match against Morrow & Badnews scheduled, however Allen showed up in street clothes and said Morrow could beat DiSalvo on his own. Allen then left and Morrow wrestled DiSalvo and after 5:00 Badnews did a run-in for the DO and they doubled on him until Wellington and Benoit made the save. Good action; Pillman beat Portz via DQ in 14:00 when Pillman used a few piledrivers, then Gama interfered (identical finish to previous match almost) until Bruce Hart (who had been out of action with a legit broken shoulder) returned to make the save; Gama kept the Commonwealth title pinning Benoit in 18:00 of a very good match ending in a double pin however the ref claimed Gama got his shoulder up in time; Finale saw Jason beat Makhan Singh in a chain match at 18:00. Both juiced and it was a great match with tons of heat. After Jason won, Rip Rogers did a run-in and tied Jason's legs to the corner post and they doubled on Jason until Smith and Benoit made the save. . . 1/22 in Calgary had Jason & Benoit vs. Rip Rogers & Makhan Singh, Smith & Wellington vs. Portz & Gama. . . Badnews Allen was out of action this week because he was on tour with Antonio Inoki in Italy for some cards run by Dominic DeNucci. He'll also be at Titan's TV tapings this week but is scheduled to be back (he is Badnews Brown with Titan) on 1/29 and 1/30 for matches against DiSalvo. . . 1/23 in Edmonton before 1,250 saw Goldie Rogers (real name Dave Sherwia) beat Hito 1/2*, Wellington beat Khan (Shinya Hashimoto) in 13:00 3/4*, Rip Rogers beat Smith with boston crab in 15:00 **, DiSalvo made Morrow submit to the bearhug *1/2, Benoit pinned Kerry Brown **1/2, and Gama & Singh & Portz beat Pillman & Bruce Hart & Jason via DQ in 12:00 when the top rope broke. After the match the faces tied up Makhan with the broken rope and wouldn't let him loose until Gama signed for a 6-man rematch on 1/30. Jason is now an honorary member of ''Bad Company'' (which is what Bruce Hart & Pillman call their tag team) and it's hilarious as you've got this guy wearing the two masks, the hockey goaltender mask and the white outpatient uniform and he's now added sunglasses-over the hockey mask, a bandana around his head and a black leather jacket. ***1/4. . . Badnews and Jason were both fined a legit $400 for an out of the ring brawl which ended up involving fans. . . Leo Burke will be in during early February while Owen Hart returns in the middle of the month. . . Allen is supposed to remain here and just work weekends until he goes full-time with Titan. . . A correction, Bruce Hart's injury was actually a shoulder dislocation, not a broken shoulder. . . Keiichi Yamada should be back in March or April which would give this circuit the three best top rope fliers in North America in Yamada, Owen and Pillman. . . Ratings of the Edmonton matches by Trent Walters.

Central States: Mike George won the WWA World title tournament on 1/23 in Kansas City before a disappointing crowd df 800 fans. First round of the tournament opened with George beating Kareem Muhammad but after the bout Kareem kept beating on George until Dave Peterson (formerly D.J. Peterson) did a run-in and Kareem beat and bloodied on Peterson. Peterson then got bandaged up for his match with Bulldog Bob Brown, which was next. Brown won the match when the referee stopped it on blood when Peterson's cut re-opened, but during the match something happened where Brown injured his back and he couldn't continue in the tournament. Then Dick Slater pinned Grizzly Boone, Tommy Rich beat Masa Chono (Masahiro Chono) via DQ, Steve Ray went to a double count out with David Shults and Sgt. Slaughter went to a double count out against the Cuban Assassin, so all four were eliminated. The second round saw George get a bye because of Brown's injury, Slater pinned Rich although Tommy had his foot on the ropes, and that was it because of the two count out finishes in the first round. It came down to George vs. Slater with George pinning Slater with a backslide. . . George had earlier lost his Central States TV title to Chono on 1/1 in Des Moines. . . Peterson remains Central States champion, however the tag team titles are held up. The last champions were rookies Ric Patterson & Mike stone, called the Montana Cowboys. Well, Stone never returned after going home for Christmas, so a tournament to determine new champs will take place 2/26 in St. Joseph. . . 1/15 in St. Joseph drew 608 as Curtis Hughes & Vinnie Valentino beat Steve Sybert & The Invader, Patterson beat Jay Strongbow Jr. (Mark Scarpa), Peterson beat Chief Tapu, Chono beat George to keep the TV title when Russell Sapp distracted the ref and Chono used the old salt-in-the-eyes trick, The Power Twins (two 300 pounders trained by David Shults) debuted and beat Strongbow Jr. & Valentino via DQ when Patterson interfered and they doubled on Patterson until he juiced very badly, was coughing badly and having a hard time catching his breath which means Patterson is now a babyface, Sapp beat T.C. Carter, Ray beat Brown via DQ and Peterson beat Cuban via DQ to keep the Central States title. . . . There have been lots of problems with Brown and fans and near riots of late. Puerto Rico: Just have a clipping of the 1/6card at the Roberto Clemente Coliseum in San Juan. The line-up saw Carlos Colon title against the Iron Sheik defend the at this show or on TV leading up to this show they shot an angle where Sheik .buried colon under the Iranian flag.); Kendo Nagasaki & Mr. Pogo defend the WWC World tag belts against Invaders #1 & #2, Hercules Ayala defended the Carribean title against Chris Adams, a hair vs. mask match sent TV announcer Hugo Savinovich against masked manager El Profe (The Prophet), Bruiser Brody vs. Grizzly Boone (they must think Brody is a miracle worker), Mark & Chris Youngblood defending the Carribean tag team titles against Dan Kroffat (Phil I.aFleur for stampede Wrestling as of late) . Bobby Daggers, Kareem Muhammad defending the Puerto Rican title against Miguel Perez Jr., Hurricane Castillo Jr. defending the WWC World jr. title against Eric Embry and Victor Jovica vs. El Gran Mendoza with tickets $15, $10 and $9 with $3 for kids. Where was TNT? Japanese star Keiji Muto is headed here.

New Japan: The next series which starts in late February will include Konga the Barbarian (so keep that in mind if/when they shoot a big angle in Greensboro that Konga will be leaving three weeks later), Kareem Muhammad, Jerry Gray, Biro Matsuda and one of the samurai Warriors. . Tatsumi Fujinami & Kengo Kimura won the IWGP World tag team titles from Yoshiaki Fujiwara & Kazuo Yamazaki on 1/18 in Tokuyama. Originally Fujiwara & Yamazaki were to defend against Riki Choshu & Super Strong Machine, however Choshu injured his knee during the week and had to miss the match. I believe that Choshu & Machine will challenge Fujinami & Kimura for the belts on 2/7 in Sapporo. Choshu has really had bad luck, because he probably was supposed to win the tournament except the Maeda thing came up, and he definitely was supposed to win the tag title as Tokuyama is his home town (there is a section of Tokuyama called .Choshu.) but he was hurt and his rivals stepped in. Also on the live TV show, Steve Williams pinned Machine and Antonio Inoki & Nobuhiko Takada downed Big Van Vader (Leon White) & Masa Saito via DQ. . . Inoki wrestled in Rome on 1/23 and Milan, Italy on 1/24 against Badnews Allen, but he returns a few days later and they are building up his rematch with Vader on the 2/7 show which also includes the finals of the junior heavyweight tournament. In prelim matches that night, Owen Hart pinned Shiro Koshinaka, Kuniaki Kobayashi beat Hiro Saito and Hiroshi Hase beat Johnny K-9. . . The 1/11 television show was headlined by Inoki & Takada against Williams & Hart which turned into an excellent match. Takada was in 908 of the time for his side and worked great against both of his foes. Hart showed all of his great moves at the end. The bout went off the air just as it was peaking, so I'm not sure of the finish but probably Inoki pinned Hart. Also on TV Choshu pinned Buzz Sawyer with the lariat. The bout was good because of Sawyer, although Choshu acted like he would have rather been anywhere else in the world except in the ring with Sawyer. Also Fujinami & Kimura lost to Saito & Vader when Vader powerslammed Kimura, while in jr. tourney matches Keiichi Yamada beat Masaharu Funaki (what they aired looked excellent) and Koshinaka beat Yamazaki. . . Even though the wrestling has been tremendous, crowds have been as low as I've ever heard from this group. After the opening sellout at Korauken Hall on 1/4, they drew 2,100 on 1/5, 1,620 on 1/6; 1,430 on 1/7; 1,760 on 1/9; 1,430 on 1/10 which basically points out just how bad the repercussions of the 12/27 show have been. . . The first week (12/27), Big Van Vader beat Inoki. He was wearing long tights and appeared with a Road Warrior Hawk hairdo and didn't get over in the least, even though he shocked everyone by pinning Inoki. Their rematch on 1/4 had no heat at all. This time Vader came in with a total bodysuit ala Bam Bam Bigelow's Titan outfit and wearing a mask, which served to camaflouge his size. By 1/11 the bodysuit was off but the mask remains. Even weirder is that on 1/4, Vader was beating on Inoki after the match and it was Choshu who made the save for Inoki. Yet Vader teams with Saito, who is Choshu's best friend and was best man at Choshu's wedding which all the fans know. If this was the U.S. judging from all the TV Choshu-Saito arguments you would think a break-up would occur on 2/3 in Tokyo when they team up against Inoki & Fujinami, but I don't think that will be the case. . . The 12/27 show drew solid TV numbers for the two-hour special (11.0) for Inoki vs. Choshu but the following week they were in the 8's again. Ironically, Choshu's match on 1/4 where he & non-title match didn't even air. With all the work it took to get him on TV, it's amazing they've phased him down so much. He really lost steam from the Maeda incident and the whole 12/27 fiasco, which hurt the promotion in general. Vader has been given the biggest TV push of any foreigner in recent memory including Brody and Hansen when they worked here (because neither of them pinned Inoki) yet gets no heat at all because the fans can see he's not a Stan Hansen-type so he's been a major flop. Hase looked tremendous in winning the jr. title from Kobayashi in a four-star match on 12/27, but his match on 1/4 with Hart, while 31/2 stars, was disappointing. Apparently several of Hose's amateur wrestling friends were there (Hase placed fifth in the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles and is something of a national hero) and since Hart also has a great amateur background, they wrestled on the mat freestyle for about six or seven Minutes. Even though it turned into a good match, and Hose's winning ''Northern Lights suplex'' (same move as Chavo Guerrero's bearhug suplex) is the best actual wrestling move in the biz, Hart didn't seem comfortable in the ring and at times showed his lack of experience in not recovering from a missed move. . . Williams was scheduled to leave on 1/20 so he could work the Bunkhouse Stampede in Nassau, however he sent word that he wasn't coming back and apparently is going to work exclusively in Japan. Word I got is he was unhappy about certain stipulations in his JCP contract and at the same time has .gone Japan-crazy. because he can make a good income just working 16 weeks a year here. Still, since he's friends with Jim Duggan and Ted DiBiase, nobody would be surprised if he wound up with Titan. . . 1/5 in Tokyo saw Inoki & Koshinaka beat Choshu & Hase via DQ in the main event where Hase did an incredible juice job and the bout was apparently fantastic with tons of heat for Hase vs. Koshinaka and Base vs. Inoki for the first time. My prediction is that once everyone gets to see Hasa in Japan, that he'll win best technical wrestler next year. 1/6 saw Choshu & Machine & Hase go to a double count out against Takada & Fujiwara & Osamu Kido in which Hase juiced again and it was Hose's first time in against Takada. Some jr. tourney results include Yamada pinning Yamazaki on 1/5, Tony St. Clair over Tatsutoshi Goto on 1/6, Hart beat Hiro Saito on 1/7, Yamada beat St. Clair on 1/7, Hart beat Gogo on 1/9, Koshinaka beat Funaki on 1/7 (Funaki, who turns 19 in March, is now training along with Yamada in the martial art called Koppogyakumawashigcri or .Koppo. for short, a form of karate which will wind up being his .gimmick.), Yamazaki beat Goto on 1/10, Saito beat Funaki on 1/9 and Koshinaka beat St. Clair on 1/10. . . Inoki got some good news as well. Apparently Inoki began negotiations with the Fuji TV network to move his show there in April when TV Asahi was scheduled to move them to midnight on Monday (or almost certain eventual death) and the pressure caused TV Asahi to instead move them to 5 p.m. Saturday afternoon, which is still a major demotion in time slot and in TV money from their current Monday night prime time slot, but still better that midnight and at least gives them a shot at survival.. . . Akira Maeda turned down New Japan's plan for him to tour the United States. Right now there is a contract dispute with Maeda and New Japan. New Japan offered Maeda a contract for 1988 for 15 percent less than he earned in 1987 and he turned it down and that's where it stands as of the last report. . . It has been rumored that Inoki will face the former sumo wrestler Futahaguro (real name Koji Kitao) at the Tokyo Dome (a 60,000 seat indoor baseball stadium) in a mixed match in April. Futahaguro, 24, a 6-foot-5 1/2 inch, 345-pounder was the sumo wrestler who was kicked out of the sport after lost his temper and began kicking one of his sponsors (who was 92-years-old) and then knocked his stable masters' wife through a sliding door. From what I'm told by Japanese friends, if this was to take place, it would draw a huge crowd in Japan. Futuhaguro, who has a very bad reputation in Japan, has denied that he is going into pro wrestling. I'm told this match would easily draw a legitimate $1 million gate if it takes place. Futahaguro was promoted to Sumo Grand Champion in 1986, just before his 23rd birthday because the sumo hierarchy (sumo is somewhat of a work too, although not to the extent pro wrestling is) felt they needed a new young star to create interest among the younger fans, who were turning away from sumo. However Futahaguro turned into a disappointment with his wild lifestyle of a Shinjinrui (a term for a affluent younger Japanese who is disdainful of Japanese traditions and instead is into U.S. pop culture) which violates traditional sumo principles plus his performance in the ring wasn't up to Grand Champion calibre. Since they don't demote people in sumo, he had turned into a controversial figure.

All Japan: The next series will be 2/20 to 3/11 with Stan Hansen, Terry Gordy, Joel Deaton, Joe & Dean Malenko and Rocky Iaukea Jr. (Abbuda Dein in Oregon, orincally Iaukea was trained by Inoki in Japan in 1984). . . There will be a big "Martial Arts Olympic. show on 4/2 at Tokyo's Sumo Hall as a memorial service to Ikki Kajiwara, the creator of the Tiger Mask comic strip and TV cartoon. There will be more different fighting forms on display that night than probably on any other single show in history. Giant Baba & Tiger Mask will work a tag team match against two foreigners, while also on stage will be a PWF jr. title match with Masa Fuchi vs. Yoshinori Ogawa (which in reality is just an opening match on a typical Baba show), two matches from the Japan Women's Pro Wrestling Promotion (JWP--the newer and less popular group) with Miss A vs. Harley Saito and Rumi Kazama (a former women's martial arts star who is the most popular girl in the promotion) against Sochi Hamada (daughter of former World lightheavyweight wrestling champ El Gran Hamada, who is a promoter for JWP). In addition there will be IBF boxing matches, Kick Boxing (using kicking and boxing combined), "Shoot boxing. (a sport which combines both boxing and wrestling wearing gloves) and Satoru Sayama's newly created sport he calls "Shooting" (a combination of ''shoot'' wrestling moves and karate kicks, very similar to the old UWF style which incorporates karate and sambo wrestling--or submission hold wrestling). Interesting that Sayama, the original Tiger Mask, will appear on the same stage as the pro wrestling world he "exposed" a few years back. . . The biggest news here also isn't in the ring, but from TV. Nippon TV made the surprise announcement that when baseball season starts, they will move the TV show to 10:30-11:30 p.m. on Sunday's. Baba always loses his Saturday night prime-time slot when baseball begins every April, but generally gets moves to Saturday afternoon. The late Sunday slot will cost Baba lots of money both in less viewers but also money due to less exposure. So Baba, who had been probably watching Inoki's troubles with glee over the past few months after recovering from the Choshu loss, now is back facing his own problems. . . Baba left this current series for a U.S. tour and had a meeting with several independent promoters on 1/24 in Las Vegas, while these promoters' rivals (McMahon and Crockett) were running their big shows. Baba's plan is not to promote on his own in the United States, but instead to send his own wrestlers, Bruiser Brody, Abdullah the Butcher, Stan Hansen, Terry Gordy and Jimmy Snuka to the smaller U.S. promotions to help them fight McMahon and Crockett. . . Baba, who turned 50 this past weekend, also said that he had no plans to retire. . . . 1/9 in Matsuyama before 2,850 saw Genichiro Tenryu & Ashura Hara retain their PWF World tag belts beating Abdullah the Butcher & TNT, while on 1/13, Tsuruta kept the International title going to a double count out against Abdullah. . Buddy Landel is looking good here, but not getting any kind of a push. He even went to a draw with rookie Akira Taut (too soon to toil what type of future he has although Baba is high on him). John Tenta is really showing good improvement. Buzz Saywer, who is touring for Inoki, gained lots of weight during his layoff although he's still literally one of the most amazing workers in the business, but probably goes 260-270 which is quite a bit on a 5-9 frame. I saw the Curt Hennig-Tiger Mask match which got the bad reviews. It wasn't terrible, but there was no heat. Hennig didn't miss any moves, but didn't impress the fans although his bumps were very good. Just little action, however the AWA title lost lots of credibility on this tour.

Japanese women: Yukari Omori's retirement ceremony will take place on 2/15. Omori had announced if she didn't beat Chigusa Nagayo on 1/15 and win the World title she was hanging it up and the bout went 31:52 before both collapsed and failed to get up by the 10 count. Also on the card Lioness Asuka beat Dump Matsumoto via DQ . . . With all the retirements they are going to start pushing a new masked heel tag team of Pairatu Kuma (Kumiko Iwamoto) & Drill Driver (Doril Nakamae) to be the top heel team while Bull Nakano will replace Dump as the top singles heel. On the babyface side they will push Yumiko Hotta & Mitsuko Nishiwaki as a new tag team. On 1/5 in Tokyo during a tag title match with Nakano & Condor Saito defending against Hotta & Nishiwaki, the new masked heels showed up in the 25th minute which wound up with the belts being held up so I assume they'll be holding another tag team tournament shortly.

Southern Championship Wrestling: The latest TV taping at Miss Kitty's in Marietta drew 630 fans (place holds maybe 800 but they were packed in) for the Bruiser Brody show. First hour saw Brody squash Jim Bryant, Luna (Angelle Vachon) beat Joyce Grable, rookie Ray Lloyd (very green, a protege of Jerry Oates) & Jerry Oates beat Joel Deaton & Blue Demon (Randy Barber) when Deaton walked out on his partner, Mr. Wrestling II beat a Terminator (Greg Brown), Grizzly Boone beat Dino Minelli in a dreadful match and Tommy & Johnny Rich beat bodybuilder Mark Zimmerman & Randy Rose, managed by Paul E. Dangerously. ZimmerMan was a sub for Austin Idol who no-showed his second taping in a row. They are announcing on TV that Bill promo (billed as SCW president who plugs in insurance agent business on the air) has suspended Idol but actually Idol tried to hold them up for more money. The second hour saw Dick Slater beat Bucky Siegler, Chic Donovan & Mighty Igor beat Blue Demon & Comrade Busich when Busich walked out on Demon (second time in a row that happened), Tommy & Johnny Rich beat The Nightmare & Steve Lawler via DQ (if you remember, the two of them split up at the last taping with Nightmare going babyface, however the third member of .Bad Company,. John Michaels wasn't there and was never mentioned so apparently he's gone, so Nightmare had to be turned back and they had to forget about the split-up to have a ''Bad Company'' tag team) -- anyway, Slater did a run-in for the DQ and attacked Tommy Rich and Bruiser  Brody made the save. Then Mr.Atlanta beats Bill Mulkey, Brody destroyed Zimmerman in 30 seconds and then refused to leave the ring until Slater came out (Slater never came out, but they pacified Brody by signing him to wrestle Slater on the 2/7 card), Boone won a handicap match and the finale saw Joel & David Deaton beat Ray Lloyd & Sandy Beech. . . . The lighting at the first taping was pretty bad, and the sound at the second taping wasn't up to par, but I'm told that from a fan standpoint each card shows noticable improvements in both lighting and sound and the fans are really enjoying the shows. . . Actually this happened a month ago but I forgot to mention it, Rose & Dennis Condrey were scheduled for a show for this group while they were AWA tag champs but Condrey didn't come and Busich subbed. When Dangerously grabbed the mic, he said, .Ladies and Gentleman, Ravishing Randy and Comrade Busich, the sub-stitute Original Midnight Express.. By the way, the tapings were on 1/24.

CWA: The 1/18 Curt Hennig vs. Jerry Lawler AWA titlematch saw Larry Hennig come down with Curt. Before the match, Curt said that if he beat Lawler (the bout had Lawler's $10,000 diamond ring against the AWA title) he would give his dad the ring as a present. The finish saw Larry give Lawler the axe to Curt pinned him, however when Larry was given the ring, Lawler stole it back from him. Also on the card the Midnight Rockers kept the AWA tag belts beating Scott Hall & Ken Wayne, Jeff. Jarrett & Manny Fernandez beat Tijo Khan & Jimmy Jack Funk via DQ, Bill Dundee pinned Terry Taylor, Billy Travis & Rick Nelson beat the Rock & Roll RPMs in a loser leaves town match, Candi Divine beat Bambi, Gary Young beat Ron Bruise and Max Payne (former NCAA All-American 340-pound Darryl Peterson, trained by Inoki in Japan) debuted beating Don Bruise. . . . As mentioned, Tommy & Doug Gilbert were to come in as a father-and-son team but one side backed out, although I'm not sure which side it was. . . This week's card will be on a Wednesday 1/27, with the Rockers defending the tag title against Lawler & Dundee (who they called "The Over-the-Hill Gang.), Jarrett & Fernandez vs. Khan & Funk in a no DQ match, Olympia Hartower (the former GLOW wrestler who had a brief run with Moolah in the WWF) against Candi Divine, plus a series of matches in the Renegade Rampage tournament (Renegade chewing tobacco is the new sponsor of this promotion and gave them some heavy bread to keep them afloat) having Dr. Rock #2 (Mike Davis) vs. Rick Nelson Dr. Rock #1 (Tommy Lane) vs. Ron braise, Gan, Young vs. Don Bruise, Billy Travis vs. Payne (who is claiming to be from the Monster Factory in New Jersey, and in fact there is some sort of a connection between Payne and Larry Sharpe), Khan vs. Wayne, Dundee vs. Shawn Michaels, Hall vs. Funk. . . 1/23 in Jonesboro, AK before 550 fans and $2,500 saw Dr. Rock #1 beat Don Bruise Young drew Nelson *.1/2, Wayne beat Payne via DQ in a one-sided bout since Payne is two feet taller and 150 pounds heavier but Wayne took good bumps **1/2, Doctors of Rock (RPMs, who lost the loser leave match, under the hood), beat Bruise Brothers and main event saw Lawler pin Taylor in a great match with lots of near falls ***1/2. . . 1/24 in Jackson, TN before 650 saw Young draw with Nelson, Payne beat Travis, Hall & Wayne beat Michaels & Young (Marty Janetty was a no-show), Jarrett & Fernandez beat Khan & Funk and Dundee pinned Taylor. . Jerry ...Ian, who was a local prelim guy who had some major heart problems last year, then made a comeback, was diagnosed this past week as having Lou Gehrig disease, with is an always-fatal attack on your muscular structure. I believe Bryant is 37. A local prep football coach (in my area, not this area) whose brother played Duke on Hawaii 5-0, has this disease and although he can no longer talk and is confined to a wheelchair, he has lived with it for nearly six years. . 1/10 in Jackson drew 700 as Lawler pinned Hector Guerrero to keep the CWA title.

Global Wrestling: This Florida-based outfit deserves high marks for putting on a terrible live show on 1/22 in Davie, FL and somehow getting a good TV product. We were amazed because they taped the show on a Friday night, and the folks in post-production created a miracle and it aired just two days later as a polished and flashy TV show. The crowd at the taping was 550, more than half of which were kids (who got in free) so the gate was maybe $2,000. It started 30 minutes late, there were long delays between matches, and ring mic didn't work so fans didn't know who the wrestlers were. Matches that took place saw Johnny Evans ( would-be King Parsons) win a squash, Black Magic pinned The Thing (the guy who worked World Class last year--not to be confused with the Real Thing who is there now) in 15 seconds, midgets, Cousin Junior beat Ox Baker via .C2 in a bout told was worse than Baba vs. Raja Lion since Ox can't walk he is truly pathetic to watch but it ended with Rusty Brooks & Jumbo Barretta doing a run-in and Ox heart-punching Junior, ''The Soul Patrol'' of Alex G & T.J. Jackson beat Matt Otto & Tom .The Punisher. Nash (Nash looks like Owen Hart and tries to wrestle like Hart, although he was the best of the four here), then a match with two rookies which I'm told had no business even being in a ring yet, Dr. Red Roberts (Mike Brannon, who doubles as the head of this promotion) won a squash, Dr. Red has some funny lines on the commentary, particularly when talking about Colonel Kirchner and raises good heat, GWA jr. heavyweight champ Steve ''Party Animal'' Collins beat Riki Fronton in a decent match, Kirchner beat Iron Sheik via DO in the best match on the card (**1/2) when Dr. Red Roberts hit Kitchner with a chair, Adrian Street won a squash and the finale saw Brooks & Barretta (real name Julio Barretta) win the Global tag belts from Joe & Dean Malenko, who are the best wrestlers in the group. By the time this match took place, there were maybe 150 fans left. Barretta shows nothing, while Brooks, while a fat slob, works the crowd good. . . This group doesn't have much talent, but they've got their act together in putting together a TV show. Production-wise, this show is equivalent to World Class and superior to Crockett or the AWA. . . By the way, Baker interfered in the tag title match causing the title change. Continental: In a surprise, Ranger Ross (who was champion with Deep South before quitting--does Deep South have any wrestlers left except Snake Brown, Botswana Beast and Jody Hamilton?) showed up on 1/11 billed as the Alabama champion. He beat Moondog Spot (Larry Latham) in a fictitious match, and then in his first title defense he took on won the title in Birmingham by using a foreign object  . . . Ross already be gone. . . Also on TV, they had a bench press contest between Lord Humongous and Doug Furnas. They used the McMahon weights, since Humongous did 645 pounds, then Furnas (whose best competition bench press is 600) went and did 645 twice and Humongous then pushed the bar down on Furnas' chest and "injured his ribs. so Doug wrestles with taped up ribs. Their matches are completely pathetic, although that isn't entirely Furnas' fault because Humongous is one of the worst. . . 1/18 in Birmingham drew 500 as Danny Davig drew Boyd in a decent opener, Tom Prichard beat Moondog Spot in 9:00 of a good match, Greg Cooley (Wendell's legit brother) pinned Carl Styles (watchable), Robert Fuller & Jimmy Golden & Dutch Mantell beat Walter Sullivan (a 300+ pounder) & Randy Hogan (a smaller Hulk Hogan lookalike) & Lyle Waggoner (right out of high school), then Davis beat ''Cowboy'' Rick Patterson (a real big guy, perhaps the guy working Central States), Furnas beat The Greek Assassin  (terrible), Furnas double count out Humongous and the main event was a Street Fight as The Bullet (Bob Armstrong) & The Southern Boys (Steve Armstrong & Tracy Smothers) & Wendell Cooley beat Fuller & Golden & Mantell & Tony Anthony when Pops A. pinned Anthony in 7:00 of an action-packed brawl which went all over the building. . . They are bringing in a wrestling bear for the 1/25 card, which shows how desperate they've become. . . Charlie Platt, who announced for this group a few years back, is no co-announcer with Gordon Solie and I'm told the addition is for the better. . . By the way, I'm back in the market looking for someone to trade tapes of Continental (and of the new Knoxville show when it debuts in mid-February) with.

Other notes: Thanks to Justice B. Hill of the Detroit News for the nice things he wrote about the Observer in the 1/17 issue. . . Also, my last radio appearence with Ted Robinson on KCBS Sportsbeat will be on 2/9 at 8:05 p.m. which is 740 AM and can be picked up throughout most of California and with luck in Oregon and Washington. Those out of the area can call in at 415-465-7069. . . If you would like to get a free copy of the newsletter Mat Rap Monthly, write to Charles Jay Enterprises, Box 871, Hallandale, FL 33009. You can't beat the price. . . It appears Paul E. Dangerously will be returhing to the AWA although it's not confirmed as I write this, possibly as manager of Curt Hennig. . . The Hood in World Class is Jeff Gaylord. . . Speaking of World Class, the bouts I've seen with Jack Victory & John Tatum vs. The Fantastics have been pretty good, certainly the best thing on the circuit. Overall, the TV of late has been some of the best stuff around although still not as much fun as WWF or Stampede. I mean, is there anything so absurd as this Get Well Matilda stuff? It's actually a way to build up Titan's mailing list for its new line of souvenirs. . . The Sheik (Ed Farhat) will face Bruiser Brody on a few shows in Michigan over the next few weeks. . . . Kimala is working a few shows in Little Rock, AK for Buck Robley. Story I get is Kimala is doing it as a favor to Robley. He saved the money he made while wrestling and has no intention of getting back into the business full-time. . . Killer Khalifa (The Libyan) placed second in the superheavyweight division in the Louisiana State powerlifting championships on 1/16 in Alexandria. He did a 501 pound squat, a 374 pound bench press and deadlifted 600 pounds.

NWA: Since I started this issue, I've been literally flooded with calls from fans who attended the Nassau show or those who watched on PPV. Now I enjoyed the show at home although I didn't go in with high hopes either, however the reaction was exceedingly negative, particularly from the live crowd. I can't express just how negative the live crowd reaction really was. The next time JCP does a PPV (if there is a next time, since people had been calling this Nassau show Crockett's Last Stand) they should reserve three hours on the satellite. This business of running short shows pisses fans off, even though all the matches had adequate time. PPV fans expected the entire card, and the fans live expected a show to last past 9 p.m. The ticket starting time snafu made things even worse. In addition, on Titan's big network extravaganzas and PPV extravaganzas, they get their hottest characters, Savage, Honkeytonk, Hogan, DiBiase, Andre, whomever out there on interviews, in fact Andre and Hogan and Hogan and DiBiase were all out twice. At Starcade, neither Cornette, Dusty nor Flair, their top talkers, talked. Instead they had Jim Garvin give the worst interview of his career with Michael Hayes silent for the first time in his life, and the other interviews were Steve Williams and Nikita Koloff, and I'm still trying to figure out what they said. This time, there were no interviews. A talk with Flair or Hawk while they were setting up the cage or with Luger or Dusty before the Stampede would have helped. The treatment of Flair is such an old subject but everyone that calls brings it up and I can't understand when these guys will wake up and realize their World title can't draw $10 at the gate anymore and the reason is because they've destroyed the credibility of the champion. Lots of those who attended live hated the stampede final (I was actually pleasantly surprised) because they had too much blood and most of the guys were standing around and there wasn't much real action. I forgave it because the guys had an insane week, plus they were all going 20 minutes plus and for Dusty, Animal, Warlord and Lex, that is impossible going all out. But the fans live expected that for half a million dollars, guys just don't stand around and faces and heels should fight amongst themselves. . . . 1/17 in St. Louis drew 5,900 ($50,000) for a show which started one hour late as Nikita drew Blanchard in the opener, Mike Rotunda pinned Kendall Windham, Sting beat Larry Zbyszko, Rock & Roll Express beat Gary Royal & Max McGyver (sub for the Midnight Express who were double-bookdd that night), Rhodes beat Dick Murdoch via DQ, Luger pinned Anderson and Flair pinned Hayes after crotching him on the top ropes in 14:00 of a cage match. . . By the way, Eaton missed several dates the week before last (including the TV taping, which is why Lane teamed with Murdoch on TBS) because his wife gave birth which makes Bill Dundee a grandfather once again. . . 1/14 in Norfolk drew 4,000 for an hour of TBS matches (aired 1/24) plus Barry Windham pinned Zbyszko (good), Road Warriors double DQ with Warlord & Barbarian (brawled all over the place, surprisingly good), Nikita beat Rotunda via DO (mostly rest holds), Luger pinned Anderson (good) and Flair beat Rhodes in a cage match which was fairly bad. . . 1/20 in Honolulu for their debut drew a near sellout 7,200 as Flair pinned Nikita, Rhodes pinned Blanchard, Luger pinned Anderson, Road Warriors beat Warlord & Barbarian, Hayes pinned Kevin Sullivan, Windham & Rock & Roll beat Midnight & Zbyszko and Farmer Boy Ipo beat Kinipopo 51 while Superfly Tui pinned Mighty Milo. . . 1/21 in Los Angeles drew 3,000 for a card with eight no-shows as Sullivan pinned Hurricane Kid in 90 seconds of a tremendous squash (Sullivan just killed the poor guy), Windham pinned Samoan Tau in 2:30 (fans were already mad since Windham vs. Sullivan was scheduled and both were there, but instead worked squashes), Tully drew Nikita (awful 1/2*), Roadies double count out Warlord & Barbarian *** (good brawl all over the place which popped the crowd), Luger pinned Anderson in 13:00 ***, Rhodes beat Zbyszko via DQ (terrible match but good post-match brawl with Sullivan and Windham so one star total, no heat at all for Dusty), and Flair pinned Hayes in 18:00 of what was called Flair's worst match ever in this (or most other) state **. Besides the switch and other no-shows, an entire 6-man (Rock & Roll & Williams vs. Bubba & Midnight) was scrapped with no explanation to the fans. They come back on 2/17 and I hate to say this, but they really should cancel because the fans who attended were really mad about this show. . . . 1/23 in Cincinnati drew 3,000 as Jimmy Valiant pinned Jim Lancaster, Blanchard beat Jim Garvin via count out, Ivan Koloff & Warlord beat Rock & Roll in 15 seconds when warlord pinned Ricky (the departure of R&R stems from this match, not sure what was supposed to happen but the end result was R&R flew with the guys to New York that night, and flew home before the show started with one side saying they were fired and them telling fans in the hotel that they quit), Nikita drew Zbyszko over 20:00 (horrible), Luger pinned Anderson (good) and Sting beat Flair via DQ in 22:00 when Tully, Arn & Lex all came in. An okay match but not up to Flair's usual standard. No-shows here were Sheepherders, Rotunda and Hayes. . . Hayes has apparently quit as well and everyone expects to see him back with World Class. . . There are personal reasons why Nikita's matches have been so bad of late as his head isn't into them. He may be taking a sabbatical shortly. Please don't jump to the conclusion this is drug related, in fact it's nothing he has any control over. . If Williams doesn't return, the UWF title will be forgotten and the unification match will never take place.

WWF: Tickets for WM4 will go on sale on 1/30. The best 2,000 seats in the Convention Center will be freebies given to Casino high rollers. No doubt Vince got a great fee from the Atlantic City folks because his holding the festivities there will increase casino business and hotel business which is why he was playing them off against Las Vegas. . . One more NWA note, I really enjoyed the Windham vs. Blanchard match on TV and the way it all came down, but judging from the lack of crowd reaction I'm even beginning to wonder about the validity of booking 30 minute matches which "tell a story" to today's fans. I'll get into this one next week if I've got the space. . . Titan will be holding a Mad Dog Vachon tribute card on 2/27 in Denver. Vachon will manage Hulk Hogan & Ban: Barn Bigelow as they face Ted DiBiase & Andre the Giant in the main event. . . By the way, this is how you turn a negative into a positive. Apparently the Survivors Series had no chance of selling out in Cleveland, but Vince wanted the PPV audience to see a full house. So he gave thousands of tickets to Kiwanis Clubs and Lions Clubs to give to kids, got lots of goodwill in the town for the gesture, and got his full house to boot. . Coliseum video is coming out with a Best of George Steele tape and also WWF's Most Embarrassing moments. Are you sure that isn't the same tape? . . . Since I truly don't know what is going to happen with Andre/Hogan/DiBiase and everyone is asking about predictions, here goes: DiBiase will interfere and Andre will pin Hogan on 2/5, however Jack Tunney will prove he can't be bought and hold the title up so Ted doesn't get the title, and order a rematch in a cage at WM4 so Ted can't interfere (and also so Andre can lose without doing a job). Hulk will win on a fluke, and they'll run Hulk vs. Andre over the summer in your local cities after Hulk gets back from playing Hulk Hogan in the movies. . . They are back to trying to run a full schedule of "C" team shows. . . 1/17 at the Meadowlands drew 7,500 as Lanny Poffo pinned Jose Estrada 3/4*, Anabolic Warrior pinned Harley Race *1/2 only for Race, Jim Duggan double count out Hercules Hernandez (dud), Don Muraco pinned Butch Reed (dud), Glamour Ghouls beat JB Angels **1/2, Killer Zzzs beat Bolsheviks *, Ted DiBiase double disqualification with Bam Bam Bigelow in 3:00 *1/2 and Hart Foundation & Honkeytonk Man beat Randy Savage & Strike Force **--ratings by Gary Fishman. . . 1/13 in New Castle, PA saw Johnny V (who is now working as a "C" team wrestler after being bounced as a manager) beat David Sammartino, Dan Spivey pinned Scott Casey, Junkfood Dog pinned Hercules, Outhouse Jack beat Barry Horowitz, Anabolic Warrior pinned Steve Lombardi and Killer Zzzzs beat Bolsheviks. . 1/13 in Rockford, IL before 3,000 saw Sika beat Poffo, Smash Demolition (Barry Darsow) pinned Ken Patera when Fuji tripped him, Muraco pinned Reed, Duggan pinned Race, Glamour Ghouls beat JB Angels, and Bigelow pinned One Man Gang. Fans were upset here because they advertised nine matches, only delivered six, were done by 9:20 p.m. and that included a 15 minute intermission. . . . 1/16 in Peoria saw Ghouls beat Angels, Sam Houston beat Danny Davis (best match), Bigelow beat Gang via count out in 23 seconds (that include the 10 count outside the ring), Demolition beat Patera & Billy Haynes (putrid), Duggan pinned Race (the 2x4 worked harder then these guys) and Muraco pinned Reed. I was told this was worse that a Bruiser show. . . 1/18 in Hartford drew 7,500 as Poffo beat Estrada *1/2, Muraco pinned Reed **, Anabolic pinned Race **, Martel & Santana beat Hart & Neidhart when Martel pinned Neidhart ***, Honkey vs Savage in a cage was great because they added the distractions (their previous cage matches had been bad). Match wasn't good, but with Strike Force and Hart Foundation in the corners, it saved it and Honkey climbed over the top to win and the post-match brawl is what made it ***1/2, Barbie Dolls beat Bolsheviks **, Hernandez double count out Duggan *1/2, Ghouls beat Angels *1/2 and Bigelow beat DiBiase via DQ in 3:00 **. . . There was a clip in Detroit about Hogan, saying that "he's nice than Kirk Gibson, but not by much." Gibson has the rep in Detroit of being a total a--hole dealing with fans, particularly kids. . . . Haynes has missed lots of bookings due to health problems. He's got a heartbeat irregularity which is under control when he takes his medication but he hasn't been consistent with his medication so he's been having problems and missing dates. Other notes: They are billing the 2/6 Charlotte bout where Flair & Anderson take on Luger & Windham as the first time Flair will oppose Lex anywhere. Now it's no surprise they've forgotten Lex's Florida days, but just four days earlier, on 2/2 in Miami, they've got Flair & Blanchard vs. Dusty & Lex in the main event. . . Rick Steiner should be back shortly as a member of Kevin Sullivan's Varsity Club with Mike Rotunda. In fact, I was told Steiner has already started back. . . NWA returns to Houston in March. . . Don't get offended by Roadie Hawk's neo-nazi line. Hes just repeating a line from the movie "Breakfast Club." Hawk's interviews have been killers of late. "The difference between me and, you, Ric Flair, is that if we had a bet for $1,000 and I lost, I wouldn't pay it." . . . Those of you with satellite could you let me know what shows are available and at what time as I'd like to list a satellite wrestling guide in an upcoming issue. . . 2/14 at the Omni in Atlanta has Luger & Ole Anderson vs. Blanchard & Anderson in a cage match plus Flair vs. Sting, Michael Hayes & Jimmy Garvin & Steve Williams vs. Midnight Exprego & Dick Murdoch (that's confusing, if Doc is around, isn't he a heel? Didn't he attack Kendall Windham on TV and start a feud with Barry?) and Rhodes vs. Zbyszko. I believe that's the only upcoming date Ole Anderson is booked for ... 1/23 at the Capital Center in Landover, MD before 8,000 saw Bravo pin Poffo, Gang pin Muraco, Davey Boy Smith beat Islander Haku, Valentine pinned Beefcake, Jake Roberts pinned Race, Anabolic Warrior went to a draw with Hercules and Don Muraco won the Bunkhouse Battle Royal ... With sweeps coming up, should be lots of stuff happening at the Titan TV tapings this week.

THE READERS' PAGES Frank shanley of P.O. Box 40616, Upper Hutt, New Zealand is interested in purchasing PAL format tapes of Japanese wrestling and is also interested in purchasing any goods relating to Japanese wrestling. . . Austin Mustafa of 67 Childs Road, Chipping Norton, New South Wales 2170, AUSTRALIA is interested in purchasing a VHS copy of Starrcade '87 and of the Survivors Series. . . James Tolin of 10208 114th Place NE, Kirkland, WA 98033 is interesting in trading or buying copies of tapes of my appearences on KBCS .Sportsbeat.. . . . Steve Friedlander of 1150 Pelham Parkway South, Bronx, NY 10461 has hundreds of hours of wrestling tapes for sale or trade from the U.S. and Japan. You can send $2 for a 100 page list. . . Chris Siggia of 1638 West 32nd St., Erie, PA 16508 is looking for someone who can send him both the syndicated World Class show and the Fort Worth shows every two weeks. He can trade tapes of almost anything else in return. . . I am looking for an original or first generation copy of the "Fire and Ice. video on Ric Flair done around 1982. . . Koichi Yoshizawa of 1-8-20 Owa Suwa Shi, Nagano-Ken 392 Japan is looking to hear from fans interested in martial arts (karate, kick boxing, etc.) in the United States.

ON BAD TASTE
Just a few comments on the tasteless jokes and references we hear too much on Dusty Rhodes' TV shows. I'm a 15-year-old fan and my mom often walks by the TV when I'm watching and says wrestling has no class. I argue the point that wrestlers are for the most part trying to make an honest living, so I can accept when World Class runs angles like the recent one with Fritz because it was interesting and it livened things up. My mom walked by the TV the other day when Jim Corvette was explaining how he knew the color of Mrs. Runnels bedroom and again when Dusty said, Oh, and by the way, tell your mama I got something for her if you know what I mean.. What did she say? Wrestling has no class. The thing is, this time I agreed with her.
Greg Roman
Ventnor, New Jersey

LIKES JAPAN COVERAGE
What is keeping the AWA alive? I know it has to be either Verne Gagne's ego or the ESPN contract. I suspect it's the latter. Guys are coming and going for as short as one taping before they are history. Are the AWA and Pro Wrestling this Week still in a syndication package together? I enjoy the Danger Zones and will miss them if they don't pop up on the AWA shows. At least PWTW is now showing the new Georgia group. They aired the Tommy Rich-Austin Idol phone bloodbath this week. What exactly is the relationship between Michael Hayes and John Tatum? Tatum uses all of Hayes' mannerisms. Kerry Von Erich was quoted in an Apter mag as saying that three starting running backs in the NFL have had ankle fusion. Do you have any ideas on this, and if it's true, who are they? Has our favorite son of the South, Terry Gordy, had his knee operation. If not, why not? Why do some guys, like Ted DiBiase, blow out their knee, have the surgery, and are back within weeks? Is there a difference in knee operations? Is there any chance that Dusty will team Chris Champion up with Sting? I think they have the potential to be a great tag team. I'm glad to see Scott McGhee back in the business. I hope his battered body holds up and his Garfield Portz persona is a big success. I wish to disagree with Ernie Santilli in the 1/11 Observer where he said he wanted less coverage on Japan claiming readers have little, if any, access to Japanese action. In truth, the only easily accessable promotions for most readers would be the WWF, JCP and the lost children of ESPN, the AWA. I believe that anyone who wants to see any of the other promotions has to take initiative. Tape traders abound. If you want to trade or buy, all promotions are easily accessable. I really enjoyed the Observer with the 10 pages of Japanese coverage. In fad', I hope that your next book is not a re-hash of the Who's Who book but instead I'd like to see a special book with nothing but Japanese wrestling. It should have histories of the promotions, histories of the championships, profiles on the stars both past and present and you can even do a list of pretend Oriental wrestlers who made a name in the United States. I recall after the last Who's Who, several thanked you for the Japanese history lessons regarding Giant Baba and Rikidozan.
Klon Brody
Melbourne, Florida

DM: I don't believe Michael Hayes and John Tatum are related although Tatum has Wrestled in the past as Johnny Hayes and Franklin Hayes, claiming to be Hayes' brother or cousin. Hayes and Tatum grew up together in Pensacola and have been friends for years, and since Tatum broke in shortly after Hayes had become a major star, it would natural for him to emulate his friend. There are NFL running backs who have had ankle surgery, but none have had the ankle fusion that Kerry had. It would be impossible to play in the NFL on an ankle like Kerry's, As for Gordy, he needs major knee surgery which would require anywhere from six months to one year on the sideline. The reason he hadn't had it is because in wrestling, you don't get paid when you don't play and he can't afford to take a year off from work. Arthroscopic knee surgery, which is common nowadays among athletes, generally allows someone to be back within two or three weeks, however Gordy's problems wouldn't be corrected with arthroscopic surgery.

I hope you aren't considering cutting back on your coverage of Japanese wrestling. There's no reason for it. The wrestling is far and away the best in the world and American promoters could learn a lot from emulating the Japanese. I guess the reverse may be true in some ways, but not in as many ways. But the Japanese matches are more exciting and the promotions are in most cases more fun to follow than those in the U.S. I enjoy the emphasis on wrestling instead of steroids, gimmickry and fake strength and find it refreshing to watch. Without the Observer I'd never have been turned on to it and wouldn't really be able to follow it. The same goes for Memphis, Stampede and all the other promotions. Just like Japan, a lot of the names aren't familiar, but once you see the tapes, they become as familiar as Hulk Hogan and the WWF crew. But if you are a wrestling publication, you can't ignore the best wrestling that goes on. In fact, I'd like to see expanded coverage.
Bill Rinsom
Pocatello, Idaho

TERM OFFENSIVE  I wonder if you realize how incredibly offensive it is to refer to a wrestling match as a ''total abortion'' Speaking from personal experience, an abortion bears absolutely no resemblance to a wrestling match, no matter how bad the match may have been. Since, by most estimates, 25 percent of all pregnancies end in abortion, you have probably offended more than one female reader.
Name withheld by request

DM: I apologize for that one and will quit using the term. Actually the term abortion for a bad match is a business term just like jobber, mark, babyface and the rest. But there are a few business terms (mainly for ethnic wrestlers and ethnic fans) which are in bad taste that I don't use, so I'll add that one to the list.

STAMPEDE-MANIA
I was extremely surprised at the turning of Jason the Terrible as I felt his character was such that it could only be done in a heel role. But the Harts really pulled off a great switch that revitalized the area. Owen Hart is a great wrestler but he should lose the North American title before his trips to Japan. There are many wrestlers with Stampede who are finally getting the recognition they deserve because of TSN like Badnews Allen, Makhan Singh, Owen, Jason and Brian Pillman really deserve to be in the spotlight. In summing up, I feel that Stampdd has the best executed wrestling matches in North America. What they are lacking is a good heel tag team. I'd like to see Ron Starr & Leo Burke team up with a Dirty White Boys type gimmick and challenge Bad Company.

Tom Young
Gander,Newfoundland

I think Stampede wrestling is the best promotion in North America with lots of great action and hard-working wrestling. Owen Hart is the best wrestler anywhere, Garfield Portz is a good heel, Bruce Hart s Brian Pillman get my vote for tag team of the year and Makhan Singh is the best guy on interviews. Jason the Terrible does more crazy moves of any big wrestler since the heyday of Don Leo Jonathan.
Terry Dart
London, Ontario

THE NWA VIRGIL COPY?
Have you seen the NWA jobber Terry Hayes? He has more than a coincidental striking facial resemblance to Hulk Hogan. They even have him wear yellow trunks, boots, kneebads and the same mustache as Mr. Bolles. It is Dusty's way of reacting to the WWF Virgil character? How do syndication deals work? The reason I ask is that after reading in the Observer that World Class had been sold, two weeks later the local CBS affiliate that had carried the show for three years dropped it in favor of the WWF Wrestling Challenge. That gives me three WWF TV shows at the same time. Do syndication deals run by calendar year or in 13-week blocks? I enjoyed the issue with all the attention on Japanese wrestling. We get zero in that regard here. Our lone source are the Dusty Woods videotapes. Thanks for the closer look. I don't know how closely you follow amateur wrestling, but one of my responsibilities as a sports-writer is covering amateur wrestling, including the Adirondack Freestyle Wrestling Association. That's the group that produced Jeff Blatnick and two other 1984 Olympic Greco-Roman Olympians, Frank Famiano and Chris Catatto. The reason I mention this is in November they held the Greco-Roman world Cup here and the Soviet 286-pounder was the prototypical .Russian Nightmare. that Crockett and McMahon could only dream of. The kid's name is Alexasandr Kardan, 21-years-old, 6-foot-4, 273 pounds and the local team doctor tole me he had .as little percentage of body fat on him as I've ever seen on a human being.. He was very impressive. He threw Blatnick twice, including an awesome five-pointer. Very scary.
Bill Palmer
Schenectady, New York

FAN OF DUSTY RHODES
I hope that those who viewed the Slammy's realize that is was pure entertainment and had nothing to do with wrestling. Yes, some of it was tasteless and the fight between Harley Race and Jim Duggan was too contrived, but that's entertainment. In spite of its flaws, it was fun to see athletes doing things out of their usual line of work. At least nobody tried to do stand-up comedy. In the same vein, I feel compelled to comment on Dusty Rhodes vs. Virgil Runnels. Despite his terrible ego, I have to admire Virgil Runnels for creating the Dusty Rhodes phenomenon. Any performer lasting that long in any business at the level he's maintained is noteworthy. I wonder how many of the current crop of wrestlers will be packing them in during the year 2000? I hope when he hangs it up his exit will be more graceful than the disappearing acts of Lou Albano and Fred Blassie, courtesy of Vince McMahon. Being the boss, Dusty has a chance of going out the way he wants to although I hope it's not as a title holder. I know it's easy to say  because I've never worked for him, but I've gotten my money's worth for 15 years. Maybe the only way to retire or semi-retire gracefully in wrestling is to be the boss. I have no admiration for Virgil the egomaniac, but Dusty the clown-athlete is going to be a tough act to replace. . Name withheld by request

NEW NWA TV FORMAT?
I've been interested by the new NWA TV format. My one complaint is that they use too many camera cuts during a single match. When one shot doesn't last five seconds and all of a sudden they cut to another camera angle of the shot, then do it again, again and then again it becomes hard to watch. That only works for the shower scene of Al Hitchcock's Psycho. The turn of Lex Luger was good the first week, although it was rushed, but now it's been pushed too hard. How many run-ins can you watch in one weekend. I laugh when I think about ''The Bull of the Woods'' C team. He has more young talent wasting away on his C team than Titan has on its entire roster. And every week on TV we get the same stale talent, same stale interviews (except for Jim Cornette) week-after-week. We've all read and seen how many ex-amateur wrestlers and football players became pro wrestlers. Have any ex-hockey players taken up pro wrestling and made a name in it? I've always considered hockey the toughest of all pro sports. The travel and length of the season seems to be the closest of equaling that of pro wrestling. Sean Hendrick
Rochester, New York

DM: I can't come up with any ex-NHL players who went into pro wrestling. The only name that rings a bell is Jim Troy, who I believe has some NHL experience and now works in Titan's front office. Can anyone help on that? I'm sure several of the Quebec natives like Rick Martel and Alexis Smirnoff had some amateur hockey background.

STAMPEDE PROMOTION PATHETIC
Crockett's commercials for the Bunkhouse Stampede finals have been pathetic. The clips of the Stampedes look every bit as boring as a WWF stampede. I can't believe this is what he's using to headline his big shot at PPV. Ric Flair vs. Hawk has fan interest but Barry Windham vs. Larry Zbyszko has none. I also don't think a cage match should follow up a card which also had a cage match in in the main event. This is only Crockett's second New York show, and he's already killed the cage gimmick.
Mike Desharnais
Baldwin, New York