– In the top story, the WWF held a press conference, which got more attention in Mexico, to announce that Royal Rumble 97 would be held in the Alamo Dome in San. The main event. 05. – Anyway, moving on…. This should be good. 05. Dave, however, cites the court case of Boy v. 96. Dodge Iowa. A wrestling fan creating original content for YouTube based on my love for pro-wrestling. 18. 4. Steve Jennum was put into the finals as a last-minute. To the news!This is up for them, and Dave notes what a great night for wrestling that Thanksgiving really is, because even Central States almost drew money! Later, he corrects a previous title change, noting that Art Crews actually won the TV title from Gary Royal on 11/27 in Ft. By Scott Keith on 1st June 2019. He’ll return for real on 11/20, but will be false advertised as appearing in tag team matches on the road against the Enforcers and subbed out when the show starts. Identifier-ark. – The top story is the apparent end of Pacific Northwest Wrestling, as the TV show was abruptly cancelled by the TV station after 38 years on the air. 15. 14. – The Sheik did an extremely rare job, submitting to Onita’s boston crab in just 3:18 at the latest FMW show. Wrestling Observer Flashback–04. The TNT show is dropping rapidly, which shows that the new audience of freakshow fans is far less than the loyal wrestling fans who choose not to watch that one. Wrestling Observer Flashback – 12. 5-11-1987. Rants. Wrestling Observer Flashback – 02. 19. 06. – Paul Heyman was indefinitely suspended on 10/7 for reasons that are still unknown at press time (still unknown to this day, in fact!) and this is gonna mess up their plans big because the (don’t call it a ) booking committee wanted to switch him back from announcer to manager if they could strike a deal with Rick Rude. Main event is. C. DUD – Ric Flair still hasn’t officially signed with the WWF, but it’s a formality at this point. But I think it’s a pretty famous case of hotline sleaze related to Blackwell’s death. 1985. By Scott Keith on 29th August 2016. 96. 95. Mid Atlantic Gateway and Wrestling Observer historical files. Warrior pinned Haku with the shoulderblock and splash in 4:48. Dave is flabbergasted by how bad a show it was, wondering if this was a dream or a nightmare that he hasn’t woken up from. WWE News. 88. I think once I wrap up 88 I’ll continue into 1989, and then when we reach the end of THAT year, we’ll go back to 1985 again. 96 You know, for someone so washed up and done as a top guy, Ric Flair sure keeps winning World titles, doesn’t he? – Let us take you back to 1989, as Ric Flair came off a big year with memorable matches against Rick Steamboat and Terry Funk, but the year was a failure for Turner. Pillman was playing subtle heel to start and got less subtle as the match went on. Wrestling Observer / Figure Four. Wrestling Observer Flashback – 04. -Pro Wrestling 1983-1987. 3-21-1988. By Scott Keith on 14th March 2019. Owen Hart was the second-best star of the show after Flair. 94. – In the top story, the Justice Department dropped one of the charges against Titan Sports. This group will likely merge in and out with SWS and make appearances on their shows, and will have the pro wrestling ga-ga that Fujiwara wanted to work into the UWF promotion originally. They even flew in Steve DiSalvo as part of the ring crew to. I’m still not 100% clear on how we got from “Jim Crockett attempts to run Florida into the ground” to “Jim Crockett buys Florida and uses it as a feeder system for his own promotion”, but I’m sure we’ll get there. Everything is confusing and it’s all centering on the AWA. Manuel Cruz (Jose Gonzalez) b Beauregarde;. Earthquake John Tenta was scheduled to work a tour for EMLL in Mexico, but left after one show, claiming he was stiffed on his payoff. Wrestlemania III was the best wrestling. 95. The first wrestling move of the match came at 10:00, which was Hogan no-selling the powerbomb and making his comeback. – So, Dave says goodbye and announces that this is the final issue of the Observer. 14. After Stan Lane lost to the Patriot on the Global show, Cornette launched into a tirade about how it was a conspiracy against Stan, just like the cops conspired against his good friend. com~!Wrestling Observer Rewind • Dec. Wrestling Observer Flashback – 07. By Dave Meltzer Nov 21, 2023. Wrestling Observer Flashback – 01. Until then, there’s the Clash! – Dave was in Japan for DreamSlam (very short version: It was an amazing show) and missed the Clash of Champions from Jacksonville, but to say it wasn’t well received would be an. – The top story of the week, and for a long time in general, was Ron Garvin winning the NWA World title from Ric Flair on 9/25 in their debut in Joe Louis Arena. It's great historical reading of the rise and fall of wrestling's biggest boom period. 6. The taped episode of RAW wasn’t particularly different than any other one they’ve. The government side says it’s for “tactical reasons”, while the WWF. And NOW the main event! Hog Wild 96 and the introduction of the Observer Hall of Fame awaits! This one took me a little bit longer to write than last night’s quickie, obviously. – On the bright side, Warrior v. Pillman was a little rusty but still got an excellent match out of Wright. Get all the news from F4WOnline. Wrestling Observer Flashback–12. I was actually going to redo the Halloween Havoc 90 rant based on the full PPV version that I’ve never seen…but the Network only has the Turner Home Video version. Day off from work today, so I’ve got some time to craft another Flashback! Your Spotify soundtrack for this one is Queensryche’s “Operation Mindcrime”, an album that it took me many years to get into, which is weird because I was a big fan of “Empire”. 8 this week. Crockett! Dusty v. 94. By Scott Keith on 4th June 2016. Big stuff in the news this week, and the start of the biggest shift in coverage in the history of the Observer. Wrestling Observer Flashback – 04. 89. Badd quit WCW on 3/11 after a discussion with Eric Bischoff in the airport, and will be signing with the WWF for three years. So I guess it’s a Wrestling Observer Flashback Flashback. Wrestling Observer Flashback–02. Continue reading. ABBYY FineReader 11. 16. 11. Warlord won a battle royale by tossing out Ricky Steamboat. Topics. FLASH REPORT FROM THE TOKYO DOME SHOW ON 1/4! 1. At 4:00, Warrior splashed Demolition Axe. 03. Hogan! Starrcade ‘87 v. 26. 29. ). Nasties sold well at least. 94. 13. 95. In fact, Dave thinks that people’s hatred of the dancing gimmick is overshadowing how much he’s improved as a worker. And now, Dave would like to talk about PPV. 96. Wrestling Observer Flashback – 06. Ric Flair pinned Butch Reed in 14:13 to earn a tag title shot at Starrcade. And here we had gone for almost two months without a death. 27. Raw drew its best 18-49 number since the start of football season. 5 to a 2. 0 (Extended OCR) Ppi. 96. Continue reading Rants. -The Mondo 19 most intriguing personalities of ‘86-30 key pro wrestling personalities of ‘86 with quick bios-Observer Awards, leading news stories of. 5. Production quality was high, the wrestling quality not so much. GROUP #2: Nobuhiko Takada is forming the UWFi (Union of Pro Wrestling Force International) and they’ll also be running Korakuen Hall, in May, and. Dave has no idea how successful it’ll be. So don’t be disappointed at the lack of a review here. Guess it’s time for another one of these. 94. There’s a big main event at the Tokyo Dome! And it sure didn’t go down how anyone expected. Current talk is a rematch with Shawn Michaels at Summerslam in a ladder. Understated Wrestling Observer Debuts! So new to the Memphis area is a prelim guy named Scotty the Body, who is getting booked like a total nothing and apparently his. 95. 94. Wrestling Observer Flashback–10. Back in the saddle with these again. – The biggest question coming out of Wrestlemania XII is the future of Bret Hart, as he’s expected to finish the tour of Germany and then go on a hiatus until the end of the summer. I guess I’ll just be typing one-handed. We’re almost there! One week left! – It’s almost time for the new fall season of wrestling, and it’s a big one. – And now, a turning point for the Observer, although we didn’t know it at the time, as Dave announces that he’s taken a job with the National, writing a wrestling column for the paper. Wrestling Observer Flashback –04. 30. This got the most heat of the night from all the sumo fans, because they’re not hardcore wrestling fans and just knew Kitao as the “bad boy”, and thus booed the shit out of him and cheered everything Earthquake did. D if wrestling was fake and got slapped around pretty good as a result. I like how even the editors of the Observer site are scoring off Dave with the headline on this one. 92 By Scott Keith on 20th March 2017 Hey, it’s another month with missing issues, as Dave has this one and the August 10 one on the site, and then it skips to September. Ah, wrestling, where one guy can beat up another guy for real and flush his head. – Dave feels that the team of Sting & Rick Steiner are improving so rapidly that they’ll be one of the best in the world by the summer. 19. It's a recap of the old issues of Dave Meltzer's Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Pillman tried a crucifix and Wright reversed it for the pin. Tenta was pretty over during his one appearance, so EMLL is trying to get him back. – Also on the show, Scott Norton & Tony Halme won the IWGP tag titles from the Steiner Brothers in kind of a stinker. By Scott Keith on 27th October 2016. – Dave sums up the last PPV of 1996 as “solid but. Anyway, back to 1985 again… – The big news is that the war in St. 20. The 1997 Observer Rewind shall resume this on Aug. Which is still 10 pages long. 90 / 07. Basically Vince sent his PR people to the magazine to produce what Phil Mushnick of the New York Post (no relation to Sam or Irv, Dave notes, although we’ll get to know Phil very well in later years) called a “six page. But first! An update on the Shawn Michaels incident in Syracuse. On with the week that was and one of the most famous stories in wrestling history!– Oh, also, the weekend shows set new lows for cable wrestling ratings, and that includes the WWF shows. 01. The match died once Flair went out. OK, let’s try this one more time. 95. When it comes to catching and wrestling a giant. 01. Chelsea Anne Cardona (née: Green; born April 4, 1991) is a Canadian professional wrestler, stuntwoman, and model. 25. Guys, it sounds like the Diamond Studd will soon be appearing in WCW again! We’ll see how that goes for them. – Also, NBC is really sniffing around wrestling now like a dog in heat and they seem to desperately want to be in business with the WWF. Wrestling Observer Flashback – 04. 3-28-1988. Just like in the old days, it’s a NEWSFLASH to start the issue! Well, a results flash, actually, as the Tokyo Dome show came in too late for a proper review. 20. *3/4. 20 to an average of 2. 87. By Scott Keith on 22nd September 2023 Wrestling Observer Flashback – 12. Addeddate. By Scott Keith on 24th February 2019. 23, because for every viewer gained on Nitro, there was a viewer lost on Saturdays and it kind of averaged out. Wrestling Observer Flashback – 05. Bruiser Brody (“Nobody gives an aura of violent realism. 93. 22. 08. Dave notes we. – Art Barr’s petition for a wrestling license was denied by the commission once again. Wrestling Observer Flashback–01. 96. Wrestling Observer Flashback – 07. 95 Guys, I don’t think this UFC thing is gonna be around much longer if lawmakers have their way! – The debate over whether UFC and the other events like it should be banned has been raging in the press and the city of Denver has become a hotspot for the controversy. 94 (Part 2) – In the only non-tournament match on the show, Cactus Jack & Mikey Whipwreck won the tag titles from the Public Enemy after Terry Funk missed his flight and couldn’t make the show. 87. as they did a matinee taping of the new Sunday edition of World Championship Wrestling in Atlanta, then did a show in Columbus GA, then finally. Wrestling Observer Flashback – 08. The Road Warriors beat the Midnight Express in a scaffold match in 3:00, which kind of ruins their videotape business, Dave thinks. – Fall Brawl was great undercard wrestling, bad main event, and booking filled with more holes than Swiss Cheese. I’ve noticed a sudden uptick in 1985-related questions on the Wrestling Observer radio show lately. 22. By Scott Keith on 10th July 2016. For It’s Time. 96. Public Enemy went to a double DQ with the Nasty Boys in 4:02. 22. I believe that’s known as the Kerry Von Erich Special in wrestling. 94. THE WAR IS ON. 09. – So things are getting mighty crowded on TBS, in what would turn out to be a giant turning point for the wrestling industry. He was the person credited with popularizing the superplex, although he didn’t invent it. – Dave calls it a very good show overall, and somehow by adding up all the people in Greensboro (16K give or take) plus all the closed circuit locations, comes up with a figure of 42,000 and thus declares it the #2 crowd in North American wrestling history. 27. Wrestling Observer Flashback – 11. – It’s sounding like Scott Steiner will work Halloween Havoc, but won’t be doing much. Wrestling Observer Flashback – 05. Wrestling Observer Flashback – 01. 06. 86. – Antonio Inoki is trying to get into the boxer v. 28. Obviously, doctors gave him some mumbo-jumbo diagnosis about “severe spinal disc and sciatic nerve damage”, and. *. Well, amazingly he no-showed and they had to quickly contact another local promoter for some jobbers (there were only four name guys even booked for the. We’ve gotta skip all of November due to more gaps, but at least I can now promise that everything from now on is 100% complete! And we didn’t miss Starrcade. The Twin Towers beat the Rockers at 8:02 when Akeem splashed and pinned Michaels. 07. There are moments when you can pinpoint exactly when a major promotion started to go completely off the rails. Wrestling Observer Flashback–05. 2022-03-05 07:34:36. The PPV showdown of 1987 is upon us! It’s Vince v. A January 1966 issue of Vue magazine featuring Bill Hook and his octopus-wrestling adventures in Victoria, B. 95 (Part 1) So after Dave takes a week off, it’s a DOUBLE ISSUE featuring Wrestlemania XI, the show that drew so much money that Dave needed a second issue to contain it all!Wrestling Observer Flashback – 11. Wrestling Observer Flashback – 11. Jack Petrik would have to wage war against the WWF and spent lots of money to win, and it. 06. 16. Wrestling Observer Flashback–09. . Papa Shango ran in for the DQ, and Ultimate Warrior made the save, complete with entrance music. He literally stole Verne’s TV slot out from under him (the AWA wasn’t even told by the station until the day the show was supposed to air!) and Verne’s big show at the Cow Palace in March as a complete debacle due to scheduling. It’s the year end awards issue! Lots to argue about here, I’m sure. Publication date. 29. 02. Perfect. Wrestling Observer Flashback – 08. By Scott Keith on 23rd November 2017. 28. 23. 77, or about the same as Starrcade. 14. And since “long term thinking” these days is “three. Rants. Wrestling Observer Flashback – 06. Wrestling Observer Flashback–03. 03. 96. 94. Wrestling Observer Flashback – 03. George Scott has been fired as booker and replaced by the duo of Gary Hart and David Manning, so things are at least booked better now. 7. 96 (Part Two) BUT WAIT THERE’S MORE! – ECW also held their biggest show ever, the 1996 November to Remember, which was an immediate sellout of 1500 people at the ECW Arena, and Dave even attended the show! – Steve Richards pinned David Morton Tyler Jericho in 9:25, as Stevie had his. I know this year has been a slog, but we’re getting closer to September, when the magic happens! But first, WWF returns to your house! Whether you wanted them there or not. Collection. 13. 95. Flair’s contract was scheduled to be terminated as of 08/01, and Flair was scheduled to drop the WCW World title to Barry Windham on 7/1 in Macon, GA. Was shit real before? Well, it’s about to become real. 26. By Scott Keith on 1st October 2017. tesseract 5. Back to the trenches after taking Friday off! And the big story this week is an abject lesson in John Lennon’s famous saying, “Life is what happens to you when you’re busy making other plans”. Dave runs down the TV shows over the past month and it’s all classic stuff, like the Magnum TA-Mr. 11. These words open the issue this week, because Wrestlemania IV is in the books and, well, it was not pretty. 88. 95. Gene Anderson, founding member of the Minnesota Wrecking Crew tag team died. It’s time for the CLASH OF CHAMPIONS, a flying elbow to the wrestling business that should have revived it! But first, a pretty major death to kick off the issue. Wrestling Observer Flashback – 02. Ken Wayne found the body after. Wrestling Observer Flashback – 08. A total brawl with great heat, although the DQ was called for no apparent reason. – And now, let’s talk about pay-per-view. 18. Indie wrestler Rockin' Rebel got a tryout at the tapings, and apparently upset Razor Ramon backstage because he was using some of Razor's mannerisms in the ring. Here’s a shocking story to start this week’s issue: Dave is a really big fan of New Japan Pro Wrestling. 90. The theory at the beginning was that the “universe” would increase exponentially as more homes got PPV, but now it’s apparent that there’s a set number of wrestling fans out there who will buy these things and adding more homes doesn’t mean automatically adding the same percentage of buys. It's great historical reading of the rise and fall of wrestling's biggest boom period. 90. Wrestling Observer Flashback–06. 96 (Part Two) – In the top story, “Sycle” Sid won the WWF title in the main event of the Survivor Series. 04. 96. By Scott Keith on 7th March 2017. While it seemingly wasn’t a major milestone in his life at that. – The WWF announced that the Wrestling Classic did about 60,000 buys on PPV, which was 200,000 less than their announced projections. This hold up comes on the heels of two other major stories: Hennig is supposed to be heading to WWF, meanwhile. 30th August 2017 by Scott Keith. com archives, and any other sources I’ve checked, so we’re skipping ahead a week. 2. 96 Stop me if you’ve heard this one before… – After 15 years of being the world’s biggest babyface, Hulk Hogan turned heel in the main event of WCW’s Bash at the Beach PPV in an angle that Dave thinks will be “remembered for years”. WWE Raw draws strong ratings despite historic NFL competition. Internet Archive HTML5 Uploader 1. The biggest story of the week is actually buried way down. – Brad Armstrong will be coming back again, this time as the Candy Man, who throws candy to the kids as his gimmick. By on 9th March 2017. Wrestling Observer Flashback – 10. 2. Wrestling Observer Flashback – Bret v. 96. 25. Sorry. – Dave brings up the example of New Japan’s light heavyweight division taking off and Stampede Wrestling’s mid-heavyweight division, although of course Stampede tended to produce talent that left for greener pastures instead of. Eaton did a scary kneedrop from the top rope to the ramp outside the ring for the highlight of the match. – While the World title may not change hands, the US title certainly will, since post-Clash TV direction has Steamboat winning the title and suffering a shoulder injury in the process. So after Masa Chono won the NWA title tournament, Thesz did a press conference for UWFI where he agreed to award his old NWA World title belt to the winner of the UWFI World title match between Takada and Gary. Sid actually drew pretty big on the East coast, doing 11,000 at the Nassau Coliseum and 8000 in Philly. history-of-wcw. 15th September 2023 by Scott Keith Rants Wrestling Observer Flashback – 12. Owen won with a Rocket Launcher on Tanaka. Survivor Series!World Wrestling Federation presented a live pay-per-view event special live from Hartford, Conn. It’s just getting to be too much work to do the bookkeeping and maintenance for 800 people instead of 200, especially when he’s already got a full-time job now as editor for a soccer magazine. Jim Herd has already killed the wrestling business, and now he’s working on killing the magic business. The idea is to combine a bunch of small promotions into the Global Wrestling Federation, with offices in five different regions, including Jarrett now officially going back into Dallas to run the USWA there again. Despite the strained relationship, Florida still bills itself as NWA wrestling. Topics. Observer Flashbacks; Wrestling Observer Flashback–04. *. The suit alleges unfair competition, trademark. Well, that probably won’t happen again for a while. 86. 0 (Extended OCR) Ppi. Kayfabe Commentaries Releases Newest Installment of Their “Supercard” Series. 22. Wrestling Observer Flashback – 12. 21. – Next up, Dave offers a preview of the next WCW PPV, Uncensored, which he sums up thusly: “On paper it looks like a weak show as none of the matches look to be sure bets to be good. Did you think that Best of ECW Volumes 1 and 2 was as EXTREME as the blog was getting this week? Then prepare yourself, because it’s time for WCW UNCENSORED!– The weirdest story of the week comes from Japan (shocking, I know) where Lou Thesz is making waves in the business again. So let’s take a look at what’s going on in the international scene!6. – In a story that seems small but kind of ended up heralding the end of an era in wrestling, the way. – Over to Japan, where Nobuhiko Takada had announced plans to retire, at which point UWFI whiplashed and put out their own press release, noting that what Takada had MEANT TO SAY was that he was THINKING of retiring at age 35, which was two years away. 04. 96. – The WWF is on hiatus for a bit after WM, so Dave apologizes in advance for the light news week. By Scott Keith on 18th April 2022. – The show drew 7000 with 4700 paid and a $94,000 house. 23. ABBYY FineReader 11. Wrestling Observer Flashback–12. It’s a patented Slow News Week as we head into Summerslam, but the issue is still 10 pages. 23. 92. – Kevin Sullivan is a road agent now and appears done with wrestling. Dave thinks that the WWF is turning into more of a circus of litigation than a wrestling company. The one in 1995, although you might also assume I was talking about the NXT one recently because that one wasn’t great either. Wrestling Observer Flashback – 01. By Scott Keith on 22nd August 2022. Shinjiro Otani retained the UWA junior heavyweight title pinning El Samurai. But don’t be fooled by the Slow News, as two major promotions actually reach their finales this week, although we didn’t realize it at the time. Oh, Dave.