House Show/TV tapings random happenings

[air_raid]

32 minutes ago, westlondonmist said:

May be a silly question but how did they spread these over tours? Would Warrior vs Bravo for IC headline a B show or be behind Hogan on an a show? Surely a shows must have had crap on it too as you can't overfill a card right? What main evented a c show? Tag team titles or Duggen waving an American flag or Rockers vs Orient express? 

Not to just re-post my January or February 1990 posts but…. At the point Warrior is defending against Bravo, he’s definitely the B show main event. There are A shows with Hogan, B shows with Warrior, and when required C shows will be main evented by another of the hot feuds like Randy Savage vs Hacksaw Duggan for the crown or Dusty vs Boss Man in a cage or Piper vs Rude.

Examples -

20th January at the Omni, Hogan defends the belt against Mr Perfect, with Piper vs Rude, Brutus vs The Model, The Rockers vs Powers of Pain, Superfly vs Honky Tonk Man, Anvil vs Genius and Tugboat vs Brooklyn Brawler.

The B show is at the Spectrum. Warrior vs Bravo is for the Intercontinental title. With Demolition vs Andre & Haku, Macho King vs Hacksaw for the crown, Ron Garvin vs Greg Valentine, Bret Hart vs Bad News Brown, Red Rooster vs a Conquistador and Earthquake squashing Mark Young.

The C show is at Baton Rouge. Jake the Snake vs Ted DiBiase is on last, Dusty vs Boss Man in a ball and chain match, Tito Santana vs Akeem, Bushwhackers vs Bolsheviks, Koko B Ware vs Barry Horowitz and Hercules vs Al Perez.

Yes, the used some enhancement guys to fill out the undercards.

42 minutes ago, westlondonmist said:

I'm going to search for a Piper vs Rude cage match, that sounds top notch. 

 

I’m guessing you’re too young to have bought Silver Vision tapes, the MSG one was on three of them.

 

[westlondonmist]

15 minutes ago, air_raid said:

Not to just re-post my January or February 1990 posts but…. At the point Warrior is defending against Bravo, he’s definitely the B show main event. There are A shows with Hogan, B shows with Warrior, and when required C shows will be main evented by another of the hot feuds like Randy Savage vs Hacksaw Duggan for the crown or Dusty vs Boss Man in a cage or Piper vs Rude.

Examples -

20th January at the Omni, Hogan defends the belt against Mr Perfect, with Piper vs Rude, Brutus vs The Model, The Rockers vs Powers of Pain, Superfly vs Honky Tonk Man, Anvil vs Genius and Tugboat vs Brooklyn Brawler.

The B show is at the Spectrum. Warrior vs Bravo is for the Intercontinental title. With Demolition vs Andre & Haku, Macho King vs Hacksaw for the crown, Ron Garvin vs Greg Valentine, Bret Hart vs Bad News Brown, Red Rooster vs a Conquistador and Earthquake squashing Mark Young.

The C show is at Baton Rouge. Jake the Snake vs Ted DiBiase is on last, Dusty vs Boss Man in a ball and chain match, Tito Santana vs Akeem, Bushwhackers vs Bolsheviks, Koko B Ware vs Barry Horowitz and Hercules vs Al Perez.

Yes, the used some enhancement guys to fill out the undercards.

 

I’m guessing you’re too young to have bought Silver Vision tapes, the MSG one was on three of them.

 

I rented the silver vision tapes but my memory of them is hazy. 

I think a young me would have loved any of those 3 cards even the C show and would have gone home happy. As a kid I loved Jake, Koko and The Bushwhackers, I also hated Dibiase. 

[air_raid]

13 minutes ago, westlondonmist said:

I think a young me would have loved any of those 3 cards even the C show and would have gone home happy. As a kid I loved Jake, Koko and The Bushwhackers, I also hated Dibiase. 

Yeah. It’s easy with 21st Century thinking to say “Imagine paying for the WWF and not getting Hogan or Warrior” like how these days you buy on on sale for “the brand,” the announced roster usually changes several times over etc. In 1990 syndication and local news always told the natives what they were coming for, plus advance sales weren’t such a big deal compared to walk-ups. You knew what the card was then you either went or you didn’t.

[CavemanLynn]

One thing that amazes me about these posts is the number of shows they're running and the attendances. It looks like tens of thousands multiple nights a week, whereas these it feels like that would need weeks of marketing a build to draw. I know f-all about the current house show circuit, but when an attendance of 6,500 anywhere can be considered a bad number, I'd love to see how that compares to today, not just the raw figures but the profitability too. I cant imagine the WWF shipping a full arena rig to all three shows a night. Today's shows probably have lower attendance but higher running costs offset by higher ticket prices and merch sales. No wonder live shows feel like an afterthought.

[westlondonmist]

11 minutes ago, CavemanLynn said:

One thing that amazes me about these posts is the number of shows they're running and the attendances. It looks like tens of thousands multiple nights a week, whereas these it feels like that would need weeks of marketing a build to draw. I know f-all about the current house show circuit, but when an attendance of 6,500 anywhere can be considered a bad number, I'd love to see how that compares to today, not just the raw figures but the profitability too. I cant imagine the WWF shipping a full arena rig to all three shows a night. Today's shows probably have lower attendance but higher running costs offset by higher ticket prices and merch sales. No wonder live shows feel like an afterthought.

I suppose it was the need to go to these. You were seeing what in your mind was a blow off to a big feud, and likely not been on the tele or had been once or twice. House shows now mean bugger all and any match you see has likely been on the TV a dozen times. 

[JNLister]

6 hours ago, air_raid said:

 

Bizarrely there’s a 3 date swing in New Zealand after the post Mania TVs in conjunction with a native fed. Local heroes The Bushwhackers naturally headline with the Bolsheviks and for reasons I cannot fathom the company dusts off Don Muraco for three wins over Haku, and his old mate Bob Orton Jr who wrestles a certain Norman Smiley. The other WWF guys sent to butt heads with Kiwis? Jim Powers and Tom Magee. Jesus.
 

They did a tour in 1986 and it was very much not the cream of the crop:

 

WWF @ Sydney, Australia - Entertainment Centre - July 4, 1986
Jose Luis Rivera defeated Jim Young
Tony Atlas defeated Terry Gibbs
SD Jones & Paul Roma defeated Jimmy Jack & Dory Funk Jr. via disqualification
WWF Women's Champion Velvet McIntyre defeated the Fabulous Moolah via disqualification
Cpl. Kirchner defeated Nikolai Volkoff
Bob Orton Jr. defeated George Steele via disqualification

[air_raid]

38 minutes ago, CavemanLynn said:

One thing that amazes me about these posts is the number of shows they're running and the attendances. It looks like tens of thousands multiple nights a week, whereas these it feels like that would need weeks of marketing a build to draw.

I tend to only mention the notably good or notably bad ones to be honest. In terms of marketing it’s easy to forget that these days everyone watches the same Raw, whereas at the time the weekly TV had area specific “event centre” or later “Live Event news” so every month the lads would tape area specific promos to tell the Pink Shellsuit Men exactly why they need to head down to the Gund Arena this month. Running the same cities every month helped too, you could sell them next months main event while they’re still sat in their seat this month. Two lots of free marketing right there. The live shows were also massive because other than the mail order catalogue in WWF Magazine, it was the best place to sell merchandise in the years before ShopZone. You might take your kid to a Warrior show but if his favourites were Hogan and Jake you were coming home with a Hulkster “Wrestling Buddy” and an inflatable Damian.

If you’re an attendance nerd, here’s a better look at April 1990 that I just posted, from what’s available -

10th - Blaisdell Arena, Honolulu 8000 SELL OUT
21st - Joe Louis Arena Detroit 3700
Providence Civic Center 4700
23rd - Austin TVs 8500
24th - San Antonio TVs 10,700 SELL OUT 
25th - Grand Rapids 1600
26th - Peoria 1800
27th - St Louis 3000
28th - Philadelphia Spectrum 6459
Boston Garden 7100
29th - Denver 3300
London Gardens 4500
30th - MSG 9500

So, it wasn’t great for Warrior apart from in a virgin market with Hogans help. London Gardens only held 5000 so 4500 was OK but MSG was less than half full, the Spectrum is dismal considering they’ll put 19,000 in it for SummerSlam, and they’ll do 17,500 in Detroit for Survivors 1991 and 15,500 in Boston for Survivors 1993. Apples and oranges, maybe, but still.

 

Edited March 21, 2022 by air_raid

[DavidB6937]

8 hours ago, air_raid said:

Demolition are back in the saddle as champions, increasingly heelish, and doing non-finishes with the Hart Foundation every night. Usually they are co-main with Macho King vs Rowdy Roddy Piper (sub for Dusty Rhodes who spends a week on crutches) apart from 26th in Toledo (Jim Duggan vs Earthquake) and 30th in Phoenix where the Dream is back. Savage vs Rhodes or Piper also main events a few by themselves and the only exception is 25th in Lake Charles where it’s Duggan vs Earthquake without Hogan, Warrior, Savage or Demolition.
 

Firstly - appreciate all your efforts on here and really enjoy reading them, so thank you!

Secondly, and this is going to be an incredibly vague question that probably doesn't have an answer - these recaps are reminding me of just how much I loved tag wrestling when I first got into WWF. And it always felt prominent and important and just as valid as singles.

At what point did it start becoming less significant? I can't exactly pinpoint it in my head but I wondered if there was any general consensus of a drop off in WWF and Vince losing interest etc.

[air_raid]

14 minutes ago, DavidB6937 said:

Firstly - appreciate all your efforts on here and really enjoy reading them, so thank you!

Secondly, and this is going to be an incredibly vague question that probably doesn't have an answer - these recaps are reminding me of just how much I loved tag wrestling when I first got into WWF. And it always felt prominent and important and just as valid as singles.

At what point did it start becoming less significant? I can't exactly pinpoint it in my head but I wondered if there was any general consensus of a drop off in WWF and Vince losing interest etc.

Vince always hated tag team wrestling because of the economics of paying four guys for an attraction rather than two. Despite enjoying the matches.

In terms of the fade in interest, I wrote this not long ago ;

 

[wandshogun09]

8 hours ago, air_raid said:

Here’s an interesting one-off : January 1993 in Fresno at TVs two days after the Rumble, Money Inc drop a non title match to Bret and Owen - the first notable use of the two brothers as a tag team. Bret was WWF Champion at the time, surprised this didn’t make Coliseum although non-title rarely did.

I’d like to see that. Well, just more Bret and Owen as a team in general really. I love that the match with the Steiners happened and was recorded and shown but it’s a shame we never got more of them teaming before they started the split properly. It’s criminal we never got at least one Bret & Owen vs 123 Kid & Marty Jannetty match somewhere between Survivor Series 93 and Royal Rumble 94. They could’ve had some belters with the Headshrinkers and the Heavenly Bodies around that time as well. 

[air_raid]

13 hours ago, wandshogun09 said:

It’s criminal we never got at least one Bret & Owen vs 123 Kid & Marty Jannetty match somewhere between Survivor Series 93 and Royal Rumble 94. They could’ve had some belters with the Headshrinkers and the Heavenly Bodies around that time as well. 

That one happened, and was filmed, still sat there waiting to see the light of day.

On 2/3/2022 at 7:18 AM, air_raid said:

There is a TV taping with Coliseum cameras present 14th December 1993 in Lowell.

Bret and Owen work a tag with the Headshrinkers. I can’t understate how much I wish this match had made a tape or been used on an Unreleased DVD since. Samu and Fatu were consistently excellent against opponents with technique or speed and… come on, it’s Bret and Owen. DQ finish aside, if they had the time, I imagine this must have been a great match and it’s a shame we can’t see it (yet). This is only about three weeks before the Headshrinkers had their Dusty finish tag title match with Kid and Marty Jannetty, and the Harts had their legendary match with the Steiners, both of which made WrestleFest 94, on the very same night in front of a very lucky crowd in Florence, South Carolina.

 

[air_raid]

May 1990

2nd in Hull, Quebec, Ultimate Warrior has to lower himself to working Québécois Dino Bravo again, then it’s Mr Perfect for most of the month (more disappointing gates) until he starts with Rick Rude in Oklahoma and a paltry 5000 at Maple Leaf Gardens on 27th, before Rude misses Hershey on 31st and Bravo substitutes. To be fair only 2800 were subjected to that. If you know why May 10th in Green Bay alone, after Warriors defence all the guys came back for a battle royal - won by Brutus Beefcake - you know something I don’t.

Demolition vs The Harts is of course still going and will be until SummerSlam. When they’re not on Macho’s undercard they’re supported by Duggan vs Earthquake, Boss Man vs Ted DiBiase, or both. Randy Savage vs Dusty Rhodes starts and finishes the month as a main event but mid month Dusty clearly isn’t 100% so it’s back to Savage vs Roddy Piper in Miami, Orlando and Tampa. Chicago on the 12th it’s Dusty & Sapphire vs Randy & Queen Sherri with Elizabeth and Brother Love in the corners. More - MUCH more - of that in June.

Boss Man vs Million Dollar Man is your main in Portland (ME), Sioux City and Baltimore, while month end Scranton, Emmitsburg MD and Asbury Park have Duggan vs Earthquake as top match supported by Rockers vs Orients. Finally the debut at Corpus Christi on 31st has the first Mr Perfect vs Brutus Beefcake title match, while Macho King inexplicably has the first of a couple of matches on the loop with Superfly.

You’ve probably spotted no Hulk Hogan towns? He works Earthquake dark at TVs on 14th/15th but otherwise he’s off. Quake spends his month doing the Hacksaw Jim Duggan feud they set up at Mania VI.

Very little has changed from Aprils feuds. There’s a few one offs - 4th in Pittsburgh they’re missing Garvin and Bravo so The Model switches to Hercules, that displaces Haku to Red Rooster. Meanwhile in Montreal local grudge Garvin vs Bravo goes broadway. On two nights where Warrior is with Rude, Mr Perfect defends against Herc. Herc also does double duty on Cincinnati with Haku then with Bad News when Jake misses it. Finally Ax starts showing health concerns so a few shows have Smash vs Bret one on one. OK, if you absolutely MUST know who The Genius starts jobbing for on 31st when Brutus moves onto Perfect - it’s Koko. Otherwise, Martel vs Garvin, Bravo vs Rooster, Herc vs Haku, Rockers vs Orients, Bushwhackers vs Honky & Hammer, Jake vs Bad News, Superfly vs Barbar, Warload vs Tito and your main events as above.

[wandshogun09]

1 hour ago, air_raid said:

That one happened, and was filmed, still sat there waiting to see the light of day.

 

No way. Hopefully it ends up on the Network at some point. 

[air_raid]

Where are we for June 1990?

Ultimate Warrior is defending the WWF title all over against Ravishing Rick Rude except Dino Bravo occasionally substitutes. Warrior/Rude only draws 6000 to Boston Garden on 2nd which is worrying but 13,400 at the Meadowlands (with Intercontinental support) is more encouraging on 8th. 14th/15th Jim beats Haku & The Brain in handicap matches as it’s reported Rude has a tricep tear but he’s back 16th in Richfield. By 21st it’s proved to be too soon as it’s back to handicap matches including St Louis and Chicago. 25th dark at the Superstars taping it’s a DQ win over Earthquake then next night at Challenge Rude’s back and sees out the rest of the month - the 4500 that bother at the Palace on 30th get their money’s worth, Rude apparently drags Warrior to a near 30 minute match.

The Intercontinental title is restored to the main event in its own right with Mr Perfect vs Brutus Beefcake on top on an early month Florida loop although often they’re supporting Warrior. For much of the month they’re sharing the spotlight with the tag belts, month end through Kansas with Earthquake vs Jim Duggan, and Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Miami and Pensacola, with both. The finish is always Barber by count-out or DQ, sadly the run will come to a screaming halt as June becomes July.

Dusty Rhodes vs Randy Savage is still running on top too, although it’s only a few towns - Spokane, a couple in Ontario - that run the singles match. Dusty wins most except 3rd in West Palm Brother Love interferes, passing the dreaded purse to Randy enabling him to win. Sapphire gets a win back from Sherri underneath. Most of the rest of the month it’s the mixed tag with Brucey and Miss Elizabeth in the respective corners, including at the Omni, Cow Palace, LA Sports, Maple Leaf Gardens, Freedom Hall (Louisville) and the Nassau Coliseum. 26th TVs in Huntington is where they tape the version you saw if you bought Hottest Matches from Silver Vision.

Demolition vs The Harts is still the tag title program but 1st in Birmingham it’s all change. It’s first show which reports Smash & BA - soon to be renamed Crush - as defending the gold. As we edge towards the Harts revenge at SummerSlam the finish has changed from non finishes to Demolition winning when Ax interferes. This is the sole card where the tag belts look like the main event, supported by Jake the Snake vs Bad News Brown and Earthquake vs Jim Duggan - which is your top match in White Plains, Poughkeepsie, Reno, Vegas, Tucson and San Bernardino. Their support is usually Jake vs Bad News and Rockers vs Orients. Shawn & Marty also work Smash & Crush dark at both the early month TVs with the same finish from their SNME match later in the year.

Who’s your other feuds? 

After months of jobbers Tugboat is finally given a real feud and is beating Dino Bravo every night.  The Nikolai Volkoff face turn airs so suddenly towns are subjected to singles matches between him and Boris Zhukov. The Bushwhackers are still trading wins with Rhythm & Blues. The Rockers vs Orient Express run carries on, the Rockers dominating, occasionally winning clean, sometimes by DQ, but usually by count-out such as at Maple Leaf Gardens as seen on Hottest Matches. 15th at the Providence Civic Center there are rare singles outings - Marty lets the side down and loses to Sato but then Shawn beats Tanaka. Of course.

There’s a hell of a lot of “as you were” underneath too - Hercules and Akeem, Superfly and Barbarian, Tito and Warlord, Ron Garvin and The Model, Koko and Genius. There’s the usual occasional variance - Snuka does a couple with Akeem, Herc does a couple with Barbar, Tito occasionally finds himself with Barbar or Bravo. Month end Martel either (depending who you ask) gets hurt or takes time off burned out so Rugged Ronnie actually picks up a few wins from Iron Mike Sharpe or a Conquistador.

Departure - time’s up for the Red Rooster, Taylor does a couple more jobs for Warload and Akeem then quits, knowing the gimmick will haunt him forever. The odd man out on the cards tends to be Haku and usually ends up with a Paul Roma, Brady Boone or Jim Brunzell.

New faces! Starting 7th, Shane Douglas is on the road beating the likes of Paul Diamond and the Brooklyn Brawler and by month end doing jobs for Haku. Speaking of Diamond and Brawler they’re among the guys getting rare wins that include Roma, Boone, Jim Powers, Black Bart, Al Perez, Brunzell and - still getting the call - Hillbilly Jim. If you want to know who any of those boys beat, it’s likely someone else from the same group depending on who was in the building. Diamond also starts wearing the Kato mask this month, winning some and losing some with others at the foot of the card. Buddy Rose is on the road too doing jobs for faces - including Hillbilly. I bet those was pure “entertainment.”

Randomly, as per May 31st In Corpus Christi, June 1st Savage starts his month with a win over Superfly in Fort Myers. Same night and 2nd in Daytona Bravo misses a couple of shots so Tugboat actually wrestles one offs with Jerry Sags and Brian Knobbs - I had no idea they’d done anything for Vince before their brief run in WCW. Speaking of tag teams, 25th in Dayton they tape the Superstars where Power & Glory effectively form and 25th/26th TVs are the first squashes recorded by the Legion of Doom.

[air_raid]

July 1990, really gearing up for SummerSlam… how did we do?

WWF Champ Ultimate Warrior is of course still working Ravishing Rick Rude. Repeating myself but gates are disappointing. Omaha TVs are a healthy sell out for SNME recording, the return to Honolulu does a sell out because it’s a new territory, but otherwise it’s really proving the impossible task to follow Hogan.

Tragically Mr Perfects first match of the month with Brutus Beefcake on 1st in San Jose (double main with the tag titles) is their last - on July 4th Brutus suffers the accident that will change his life forever, curtail his wrestling career and very nearly kill him. Barber was already off 2nd in Amarillo so there Perfect wrestles Bret Hart because why wouldn’t he? Rest of the month it’s usually Tito Santana. Gates are rubbish at Maple Leaf, Copps Coliseum and Boston Gardens, walk ups were a big deal back then and I’m guessing it was tough to leave the house for Tito challenging after he’d been booked like a loser for two years. 7500 in Pittsburgh was better but they had help from the Dusty/Savage tag and 8000 at the Meadowlands was an improvement supported by the tag belts and Duggan/Tugboat v Earthquake/Bravo.

Dusty & Sapphire (with Elizabeth who’s still on the road) vs Macho King & Queen Sherri with Brother Love is still main eventing everywhere although 27th at Copps Coliseum there’s something a little different - Sherri pins Sapphire early then later Dusty pins Savage in a Texas Bullrope Match via loaded purse.

Demolition (by now nearly always Smash & Crush) vs the Harts is still the feud for the tag belts though it has support from Earthquake vs Hacksaw in Kingston Ontario - that bearded battle is the main in several towns, always the same as Tugboat vs Bravo and occasionally supported by Big Boss Man vs Ted DiBiase or Jake Roberts vs Bad News Brown and for a longer run Rockers vs Orients. By 23rd in Scranton they decide a tag would be less brutal and switch to Dug & Tug (DugBoat?) v Quake & Dino as above. That’s supported by the tag belts at the Capital Center and in Chicago, but by month end they’re running that tag AND both titles on any show that doesn’t have Warrior/Rude or Dusty/Savage. A final note on Demolition, 28th in Detroit it’s actually the least common pairing - Ax & Crush - who wrestle the match, and Meadowlands on 30th it’s Ax & Smash. Boss Man vs DiBiase is the top match 2nd in Manchester NH, Rockers vs Orients support.

Not much else has changed from June, in fact many programs have been the same since Mania.

The Rockers vs Orients still happens every night except 22nd/23rd Sato misses a couple so Mr Fuji is in the ring again. I bet the fuck he gets pinned too. We’ve still got Bushwhackers vs Hammer & Honky, Herc vs Akeem, Barbar vs Superfly, Warlord is with various JTTS as Tito has been moved to Perfect, Nikolai vs Boris and Koko vs Genius. Ron Garvin and Haku are usually working losers but occasionally each other. Shane Douglas is getting a regular win, usually over Brooklyn Brawler. Same occasional variance - Herc sometimes beats Genius or Haku, Tito has one over Akeem.

2nd in Hershey the Tugster does double duty, answering an open challenge from Bad News and squashing him in a minute when Jake no shows, mere moments after his regular win over Bravo. By a bizarre turn 7th in Calgary it’s Dino that does the double when Bad News no shows, beating Tugger with help from Jimmy Hart but then falling to the Snake.

Dusty is a busy man on 18th. In Decatur IL (Dr Yankems hometown) he has his regular tag match second to main but (I’m guessing) before that he’s opening Colorado Springs subbing for Hillbilly Jim against Akeem - and losing!?! I can’t wrap my head around that, surely any loser could have filled in, especially jobbing. If you’ve got Dusty Rhodes, why does he have to lose to Akeem?? 14th at Boston Gardens Hillbilly is replaced by Pete Doherty and he actually pins Haku, and 27th at LA Sports Shane Douglas drops a match to one of his regular jobbers, Black Bart. Same day at the Capital Center Warlord is pinning Sam Houston - still getting the odd call.

Dustin Rhodes starts regularly showing up, getting a few wins over Bob Bradley types. Buddy Rose also starts beating a few opening match faces including Dustin. 23rd in West Palm Dustins actually in there with Haku.

16th/17th TVs we have both the first squashes for Power & Glory including Slick and the PowerPlex (😙)and Kerry Von Erich as he’s rushed to the attention of the masses for 5/8 and 12/8 Challenge, 11/8 Superstars and 6/8 Prime Time against Rose (as featured in WWF Magazine). 16th in Omaha they also tape Tugboats injury to write him out of SummerSlam but it won’t air til 18th August.

Edited April 17, 2022 by air_raid