House Show/TV tapings random happenings

[Chili]

51 minutes ago, Loki said:

Sorry to drag us back a few pages, but I'm still befuddled by the idea of Don Muraco wrestling for WWF in 1990, when he was released in 1988 and according to Wiki never wrestled for them again.  Who, why, how... and why?

Think I can field this one. I believe that for some reason a NZ promoter called Steve Rickard had something to do with it and Muraco just doing a favour, he was probably still on some good terms to a degree maybe. 

Saw Ortons name there and there was whispers of him coming back to WWF in 1989 and apparently no showed the Jan 90 MSG vs Bret which Raid probably covered I think. 

Edited March 31, 2022 by Chili

[air_raid]

Here’s your breakdown of October 1990.

Ultimate Warrior & LOD vs Demolition as a trio kicks off the month on top however 5th in St Louis we have no Ax so - what a substitution - it’s Smash, Crush and Randy Savage! Giving Macho King the Survivor Series off looks stranger still reading that. Miami on the 11th it’s Mr Perfect (doing double duty) as the sub. Hmm. Warrior misses some shows due to his then-wife being ill so there they put a cage on LOD vs Demolition. At the Philadelphia Spectrum and a couple of loaded shows (both midcard belts contested) at Maple Leaf Gardens and the Montreal Forum it’s an elimination match. On 26th there’s a big switch and it’s Warrior vs Randy Savage for the belt at the Meadowlands, then on to Auburn Hills, Chicago, Greensboro and dark at Indianapolis and Fort Wayne TVs, all are Savage by count out except at Fort Wayne it’s the odd 90 second pinfall squash for Warrior that made it to the 2nd Battle of the Superstars tape.

HERE COMES THE HULKSTER! 13th at the Cow Palace it’s Hogan & Tugboat vs Earthquake & Bravo, 14th in Portland 21st in Denver and 27th in Houston one on one with Quake.

For most of the month Texas Tornado vs Mr Perfect for the Intercontinental title supports Warrior but they are top of the bill 19th at MSG along with the tag belts and Dusty Rhodes vs Ted DiBiase. 22nd in Ottawa Warrior has a night off so it’s Tornado v Perfect, the tag title match and LOD vs Ax and Smash, 26th while Warrior is at the Meadowlands Von Erich and Hennig co-headline with the Harts plus Dusty vs DiBiase in Albany. They also get late month main events in Oklahoma City and Lansing MI - Kerry actually wins that one by pin for a change. Usually his rare wins or draws and usual defeat are all by count-out.

Your B show 1st in Emmitsburg MD is fairly loaded - Big Boss Man vs Earthquake goes on last, The Harts vs Rhythm & Blues for the belts, Hacksaw vs Rick Rude and Jake Roberts vs Akeem in the Harlem Street Fight advertised for the long departed Bad News Brown. 6th at Boston Garden and in Springfield they pivot to Earthquake vs Tugboat and Ted DiBiase vs Dusty Rhodes as the Harts support. Jake disappears selling “blindness” thanks to The Model and Arrogance, and Boss Man works only a couple of scheduled matches with Rick Rude before Ravishing quits. By mid month we’ve settled into Dusty vs Dibiase and Quake vs Tugboat on one loop and Harts defending plus Boss Man vs Barbarian on another. Bret and Jim are still getting DQs over Rhythm & Blues but this month there are plenty of pinfalls too - usually when Honky accidentally hits Hammer with a guitar. 11th in Phoenix there’s a brief reprise of Hacksaw vs Earthquake and Tugboat vs Bravo. 26th in Dayton they put a cage on Earthquake and Tugger and their support changes to LOD vs Demolition. That’s the end of the “B” strength cards, I’d say.

As for C… A few towns start the month with Rhodes vs DiBiase on top with Tugboat vs Dino Bravo the closest to support. 8th in Valparaiso IN it’s actually the rare Boss Man vs Rude listed as the main event but given the report also mentions Jim Duggan vs Bad News Brown with no results I think it’s what was on the program rather than what happened. At least they got The Rockers vs Power & Glory - definitely happened as Shawn makes TVs next day. There’s a couple of shows later with only Dusty vs DiBiase or Boss Man vs Barbar without anything you’d call a strong semi main. Wheeling on 22nd it’s Boss Man vs Haku and Hacksaw vs Barbarian with a bonus of Rockers vs Herc & Jerk. 27th in Oklahoma City it’s actually Jim Duggan vs Sgt Slaughter, not the last time that will happen. Finally 31st in Portland ME - so often the weakest town of the month - it’s LOD vs Demolition, Hacksaw vs The Model  and one of the towns where Bobby Heenan replaces Rude in there with Boss Man. I’m sure the people were still entertained.

So for feuds… what else do we have? Hogans barely around despite a misconception that him vs Earthquake used to be a license to print money, Randy doesn’t work anyone outside his handful of Warrior dates, Rick Martel is around for all of two matches so with Rude gone and Jake “blind” it’s a bit bare bones.

Rockers vs Power & Glory starts properly at last. Early and late month as a full tag at least, usually Rockers by DQ when Herc brings the chain in. In between as Shawn eases his way back Marty works more singles with either Roma or Herc but actually gets to win some of them with Michaels negating the interference.

Hacksaw barely works early October and then apart from occasional substitute duty with Earthquake he has about one match each with Akeem (who’s finished up thereafter), Barbar, Sgt Laughter and on 31st The Model who he’ll work in early November. Otherwise he’s with RKOs late uncle a hell of a lot. Sarge Laughter continues his dominance over Nikolai Volkoff, The Bushwhackers are still trading wins with The Orient Express.

Tito Santana doesn’t have a regular opponent. He’s sometimes with Zhukov, Barbar or Bravo, often he’s beating JTTS and at least once he loses to Martel. Because that’s what he does. Dino is similarly all over the place, starting the month with “the big Tugster (dude)” but when ‘Boat sails off with Earthquake he’s working Superfly more often than not or that odd one with Tito. Snuka also works Warlord a lot, still. Koko is usually with Genius, Ron Garvins last full month in is usually him beating Iron Mike Sharpe. Shane Douglas is still beating Brooklyn Brawler.

6th in both Springfield and Boston and then for the rest of the month…. Here’s our sweet Davey Boy Smith back to conquer the world one powerslam at a time, starting with Haku. Including at MSG, from Mega Matches.

If Paul Diamond was let go last month as reported, he’s already back, working other JTTS and beating them, losing to Dustin, getting in there at least once with Bulldog. Reasonably good month for Jumpin Jim Brunzell, beating Barry O and Sharpe, trading wins with Genius, dropping a couple to Barbar.

There’s your usual mixing it up, Koko or Garvin with Warload, Garvin with Boris, Superfly with Haku or Genius. Lanny drops the odd loss to Dustin too.

15th is a bit snakebit. In Hershey - one of the ones Warrior misses - you might feel Demolition v LOD in a cage, Tornado vs Perfect and Tito vs The Model is OK on top but to get there? Akio Sato misses it too so your first four matches are Boris Zhukov vs Jose Riviera, Jim Brunzell vs Iron Mike Sharpe, Koko B Ware vs Conquistador #1 (yes, Riviera again) and Luke vs Tanaka in singles. Meanwhile in Rapid City Dusty misses it so when Hacksaw substitutes, Million Dollar Man refuses to wrestle and sends Virgil in instead. To be fair it works for the storyline they’re starting with the bodyguard but it does leave the most star power matches on the card as Earthquake vs Tugboat and Bravo vs Superfly.

An amazing bit of booking in Greensboro. While DiBiase has been beating Dusty every night either by DQ or by pin with Virgil’s help, in this NWA stronghold (which draws poorly and they won’t revisit for 7 years) Dusty gets the pin when the interference backfires and the ensuing argument afterwards ends up with Virgil choking Ted unconscious with his ring towel!!

9th TVs in Springfield IL, Koko works a tryout with one Scotty The Body who’ll eventually be in as Johnny Polo years later. Also on a personal note Battle Kat vs Paul Diamond stood out for a dark match. As smooth as Boone and Diamond both could be, if that was competitive I bet it was really good. This is the night they tape the DiBiase vs Dustin 10 minute challenge for Superstars.

Finally… those TVs I mentioned are pretty eventful. Indianapolis is where they record Survivor Series Showdown including Jannetty vs The Model, which you saw (with different commentary) if you had the Greatest Hits tape. As for Fort Wayne, if “Fort Wayne in October 1990” made your Spidey Senses tingle, it’s probably because this is where they taped the Harts v Rockers phantom title switch which never aired and was overruled. What’s often overlooked in this story is that after the taping NBC moved the WWFs slot from a Saturday Nights Main Event to The Main Event (IV) on the Friday instead - but this also meant their 90 minute program was reduced to 60 minutes. This is another motivation they had to not air the Rockers win because as well as the match going wrong, it went long. Still, the viewers did get Ultimate Warrior vs Ted DiBiase with the attack from Macho King afterwards which ALSO got onto Greatest Hits. Let’s be fair, for a 60 minute Coliseum tape, it was fucking loaded.

If you want to watch Harts vs Rockers in its entirety - and SOME parts of the match are actually very fucking good indeed - it’s embedded in this page -

https://prowrestlingstories.com/pro-wrestling-stories/the-rockers

Finally, just to add some extra colour to Rude's departure, he'll go on to testify in the steroid trial that during his Warrior run in 90, he was off roids as he didn't want to impede his fertility (he and his wife were trying for a kid) and Vince encouraged him to "Get back on the juice." Lovely.

Edited January 11 by air_raid

[AshC]

So we all love Royal Rumble 92, right? 

Well, what a day it was when I discovered this fundraiser show from the night prior...

With several of the same combinations that would feature on the Rumble undercard!

In front of 3,000 people in a high school gym in Connecticut!

Wow.

WWF @ Shelton High School 01/18/92 (Handheld Fan Cam) - YouTube

Edited April 9, 2022 by AshC

[air_raid]

They used to do loads of those. They did 4 in 1988 which was great if you went to said school and fancied seeing Rockers vs Conquistadors.

[AshC]

7 minutes ago, air_raid said:

They used to do loads of those. They did 4 in 1988 which was great if you went to said school and fancied seeing Rockers vs Conquistadors.

Good for learning your Spanish numbers too, that one.

[air_raid]

November 1990 - WHATS IN THE EGG??

Our frequent main event is Ultimate Warrior vs Randy Savage for the WWF title. The finish is usually Macho King by count-out but in Madison WI, Green Bay and Miami it’s Warrior by pin, in Youngstown, Pittsburgh and Detroit it’s Warrior by count-out. 9400 at the Philadelphia Spectrum is encouraging but it would be nice to Jim crack a 10,000 gate. In fairness it’s not all Warriors fault ; the Observer yearbook would report that live event business tanked all over North America, with the traditional summer lull not rebounding in fall. Varying reasons offered - the economy, rosters getting stale, increased TV presence over exposing the talent- that one definitely not just a 1990 problem. There’s a one-off reprise of Warrior & LOD vs Demolition 10th in Richmond with Warrior pulling double duty and wrestling Savage atop a completely different roster the same day in Vegas, but according to thehistoryofwwe they have a second night in Richmond on 11th which gets Warrior vs Macho King.

Hulk Hogan is still part timing it with Earthquake. It’s Hulk by pin in St Louis, Earthquake by count-out dark at Rochester TVs, in Chicago (11,000), Landover, a healthy 15,700 at MSG and in Toronto and Dallas. Chicago reports a Hogan stretcher job and it wouldn’t surprise me if that happened elsewhere for rematch hype. There’s a few “Tugboat saves from a Quake & Dino Bravo post bell assault” afters too. Dark at Syracuse TVs and 30th in Portland it’s Hogan & Tugboat v Quake and Bravo.

Texas Tornado VS Mr Perfect is still the Intercontinental feud, of course, with KVE defending all month even though they record him dropping it back to Perfect right before Survivor Series. They headline a few too including three shows in two days 3rd/4th in California, then a loaded show right before Survivors, 21st in Utica, also featuring Earthquake vs Tugboat, Legion of Doom vs Demolition and a battle royal won by Rowdy Roddy Piper - the Harts, Boss Man, the Rockers and Dusty vs DiBiase all supporting Warrior in Providence. Otherwise they support Warrior a lot. This month Tornado is actually winning nearly all of them, mostly by pin, often with the “one shoulder up from a back suplex” finish, some of them actually refereed by Piper.

All month on and off several B shows are main evented by Earthquake vs Tugboat. Early month the support is usually Dusty Rhodes vs Million Dollar Man. 9th at the Nassau Coliseum there is a show closing battle royal to their card, won by the returning Roddy Piper. They do the same 11th at Boston Garden but there Quake wins the battle royal. Finally 17th there’s an Illinois double shot in Peoria and Champaign with the Harts defending and Jake Roberts vs The Model, marginal difference being the former has Hawk vs Crush and the latter LOD vs Demolition - looking at the rest of the loop I believe this will be Ax and Crush.

1st there a couple of shows finishing loops from October. Hart Foundation vs Rhythm & Blues with Dusty v Teddy in Corpus Christi, LOD v Demolition (Ax/Smash) with Duggan v Martel and Boss Man v Barbar in Worcester.

About one week into November they’ve jettisoned 3 shows a night in the week, running fewer shows with better cards to lower costs and aim for better attendance. 

So what else is going on?

The Hart Foundation spend the whole month to Survivor Series beating Rhythm & Blues, then afterwards aside from a couple of defences against Demolition, Brets working several towns with The Barbarian including at MSG which got onto a couple of tapes. The oft-postponed singles push for Hitman is coming ; Anvil has those nights off.

Big Boss Man works many of those matches with The Brain that Jack Tunney ordered when he “suspended” Rude, but often Bobby is feigning injury on crutches and it’s Barbar instead. At Maple Leaf Gardens Jack Tunney rules Bobby will have to wrestle Boss Man on Boxing Day as his interference proves there’s nothing wrong with him. 5th in Madison Boss Man pins Haku who needs to do double duty so he’s rewarded with a rare pin over Bulldog. 23rd on a loaded Chicago show it’s actually a handicap match with Boss Man beating Brain and Mr Perfect - here Hennigs doing double, going to a double DQ with KVE on last.

Jake the Snake vs The Model finally starts on 17th after Jakes been off selling “blindness” courtesy of Arrogance and Martels done a short run with Hacksaw. After Martel, Duggan does a brief run with Dino Bravo until Survivors then jumps straight into a run with Sgt Slaughter who mercifully is finished with Nikolai Volkoff.

Demolitions story takes the turn that leads to the beginning of the end. Aside from the odd singles or six man, their November to Survivor Series is losing to Legion of Doom. The myth is that as soon as Crush showed up it was always Smash & Crush in the ring, but there were plenty of Ax & Smash matches in September and October, and for virtually all of November it was Ax & Crush. 18th/19th TVs it’s Smash & Crush with Mr Fuji back and new shit music, including the LOD match from SuperTape 3. At Utica as above all three are in the battle royal and at the PPV once Warrior pins Ax, he’s done. After Survivors, Smash & Crush work LOD in South Bend and Green Bay, The Rockers at the Capital Center, the Bushwhackers at Maple Leaf Gardens, and the Harts month end in Dallas and Miami. If I told you they only won one of those matches, you’ll have to guess which.

As well as mopping up with Demolition, the Roadies start working their handicap matches with the Orients (Tanaka/Kato edition) and Fuji. The Rockers carry on with their non-finishes with Power & Glory up to Survivors then afterwards trade wins with them apart from Landover where they’re with Demolition. The Bushwhackers do the last jobs for the original Orient Express before Sato steps back into an office role then after the PPV they do jobs for both Demolition and Herc & Roma.

British Bulldog is mostly beating Haku (almost) every night until the PPV aside from a one off with Boris Zhukov, and after the PPV he has a couple of wins over Buddy Rose including at MSG. Zhukov is also the regular jobber for Tito Santana, Warlord is still with Superfly. Our buddy Shane Douglas (ha ha ha!) is with Zhukov early month but steps up after the PPV, losing on the road to Haku, Bravo and Barbar, but winning when it counts - he pins Haku at MSG taped for Prime Time. Bravo is all over the place, filling in against Tugboat on nights that Earthquake has the Hulkster, doing a run with Duggan but also finding time to work Douglas or Koko.

Departures - Ron Garvin works a handful of openers beating Mike Sharpe (the cleanest wrestler of all time) or the ilk then finishes up, and several reports make it explicit Bob Bradley is working the Battle Kat gimmick so here’s where they let Brady Boone go. Real shame that, he was excellent.

3rd in Augusta is a storyline to itself. It’s said that this is the only show where The Rockers actually defend the tag belts (by DQ over Power & Glory) but I’ve never verified this, short of what it says on historyofwwe (which reports the Harts as champions in Austin TX on the same night) and articles written 20 or more years later. It’s also at odds with the practice at the time where wrestlers still defend titles on the road until the switch airs on TV, which is even adhered to this very month by Kerry and Perfect. Also right in the middle of the Dusty run of defeats to DiBiase, in Augusta it’s Dusty & Dustin vs Teddy & Virgil with the would-be “Natural” pinning the bodyguard after a bulldog to the delight of the Southern rasslin fans in attendance. Of course, they go on last.

Those battle royal shows I mentioned earlier are weird cards. Quake v Tugboat is on as usual but Nassau is missing DiBiase vs Dusty and is really weak - Hacksaw vs Boris Zhukov, Tito vs Bravo and Animal vs Ax - strangely Hawk and Crush are both in the battle royal as well. Boston Garden does get Ted vs Dusty but another mishmash undercard - Bret vs Honky but Hammer wrestled Duggan, and Hawk vs Crush. And yes, Animal, Ax and the Anvil are all in the battle royal. For the super interested, the Utica battle royal has Ax, Smash AND Crush, the penultimate appearance of Ax for the company.

TVs throw up a couple more interesting happenings, not including stuff taped for Coliseum. 19th in Rochester they tape Tornado losing the gold back to Perfect although it won’t air until mid December. 20th in Syracuse is the match talked about at the start of the thread (@Chili) where Roddy Piper is asked to put Perfect over by Vince to “prove to the boys that Piper’s business” and Rod goes all the way, losing to the PerfectPlex then shaking Hennigs hand. These tapings also feature Kato as a member of the Orient Express. And on both shows, who’s this coming out with Brother Love? It’s “Kane The Undertaker”!

Edited April 18, 2022 by air_raid

[JNLister]

Pinch of salt because it's a wrestler, but when I interviewed Michaels he thought they didn't defend the titles:

 

Quote

 

I remember Marty and I were at his house in Orlando and it all happened at the same
time: we were [both] told in the same phone call that the match wasn't going to air and
that it wasn't going to be redone and we weren't going to win the titles. That all
happened in the same conversation. Obviously Marty and I were disappointed. I'm
sure we got off the phone and cursed something and talked about what a ripoff it was,
and things that wrestlers do when things don't go their way. But I can't recall spending
a whole lot of time dwelling on it from that point because I guess you always think
about the fact that as quickly as [things] change against you, they can change for you,
so I honestly can't say that it was something that we harboured for too awful long,
other than the understandable thinking that it sort of sucked.

This was at a time when you didn't carry the belts at house shows until the title
switch aired on TV, so presumably you never defended the titles?

I think back then we were doing a number of TV [tapings] and that match was on the
last day of TV, so we would have had a number of days off before starting back up on
a live event tour. To the best of my recollection the call came on our days off. It was
seamless from the company standpoint: the match never aired, therefore it never
happened, and we didn't make any live events or anything like that with the titles. I
don't think there was any sort of backtracking from a company standpoint that they
had to do.

 

 

[air_raid]

@JNLister

Quote

I think back then we were doing a number of TV [tapings] and that match was on the
last day of TV, so we would have had a number of days off before starting back up on
a live event tour. To the best of my recollection the call came on our days off. 

Shawn's recollection is wrong. The Rockers worked Amarillo on 31st October, Corpus Christi on 1st and Chattanooga on 2nd before the mythical Augusta date, there was no day off. But I believe him that they didnt carry the belts to any live events.

[JNLister]

To be fair, I had just said

 

Quote

 

Before I let you walk away

I have one last demand

Tell me a lie

 

 

[wandshogun09]

Was this the period when Demolition started wearing those shite masks as well? Completely killed them off between that and dropping one of the best wrestling entrance songs ever from their act. Take away the paint and the music and it’s just Bill and Barry. And at this point Brian as well.

You probably covered it in one of your posts Raid but I remember seeing an interview with Bill Eadie where he said he had a really severe reaction to shellfish in 90 which is what led to Crush coming in originally. Think he said there was talk of moving him into a backstage role but he was gone by the end of the year. Clearly gave zero fucks by Survivor Series. Hair’s as dry as a bone! 

[SpykeDudlei1]

8 hours ago, air_raid said:

18th/19th TVs it’s Smash & Crush with Mr Fuji back and new shit music,

I’m open to and welcome being proven wrong on this but has any wrestler/team ever gone from one of the most iconic, recognisable, kick-ass theme tunes ever to a rotting, fly-covered steaming pile of horse crap in one move like they did with the Demos? 

[SpykeDudlei1]

5 hours ago, wandshogun09 said:

Was this the period when Demolition started wearing those shite masks as well? Completely killed them off between that and dropping one of the best wrestling entrance songs ever from their act.

👏🏻 As I was saying above hadn’t read @wandshogun09post when I made my comment.

And you mean the Demolition gimp masks? Had to be a Vince idea.

[wandshogun09]

Yeah this boring, generic shite just wasn’t cutting it at all.

What was the deal there? Did Vince just not care about Demolition anymore now he had LOD or what? I know they’d gone back heel so maybe they wanted to take that ‘cool’ factor away so they wouldn’t get babyface reactions. But Jesus Christ. Just stripped away everything good about the gimmick. No wonder Ax chucked his hair gel in the bin. Why bother? 

[air_raid]

I believe the short-lived masks were trying to extend the switching gimmick and extend the idea you couldn’t tell them apart. Which was cobblers when you go back and see refs pretending to not know Ax from Smash before the masks. Psychologically it probably has something to do with the personnel change too, they probably thought people would be less likely to think “that’s not the REAL Demolition” of Ax/Crush or Smash/Crush if all three combinations just looked like two blokes in masks.

The musics a much easier deal to explain. They were heels and the company wanted to remove an element that was part of why people loved them so much. Giving them Fuji back as well just so nobody had any doubt they were supposed to boo the guys in the black masks with the dull music.

[air_raid]

December 1990 and it’s Hulk Hogan bringing presents, not Santa! It’s Hogan vs Earthquake with Hogan by pin in several towns, dark at Tampa TVs (11,500), and in front of 9000 at the Montreal Forum, and more of Earthquake by count out in Vancouver (10,000 gate, woof!), at Boston Garden and the Palace. It’s Hogan & Tugboat vs Earthquake & Dino Bravo in Denver, on Boxing Day at Maple Leaf Gardens and on 28th at MSG - 13,700.

Ultimate Warrior vs Macho King for the WWF title is the other lead, still, and a 9000 gate at LA Sports Arena on the 1st sees Savage win by count-out.  That’s as good as it gets for Randy this month however, everywhere else he’s either getting pinned or talking a walk off count out to avoid further punishment! 8000 at Nassau Coliseum and 6000 at the Philadelphia Spectrum were probably disappointed but month end over 10,500 at the Rosemont Horizon for a packed card with all three titles contested plus Duggan vs Slaughter. Still - Warrior on top drawing 10,000 for a non televised event!

There are very few shows without Jim or Terry. 3rd at the National Orange Show in San Bernardino a 5 match card is topped by Jake the Snake vs The Model and Dusty Rhodes doing one of many jobs this month, to the Million Dollar Man - he’s leaving to take the head booker job at WCW so will look at the lights all December. London, Ontario on 13th also has Roberts/Martel, Rhodes/DiBiase but also Earthquake vs Tugboat and on last, Hart Foundation vs Power & Glory from the Greatest Champions tape. 16th at the Meadowlands is an odd place to have no Hogan or Warrior but they do get the Boss Man, LOD, Jake vs Martel and Dusty doing one of those jobs for Sgt Slaughter. The real story is an 8 man that goes on last which I’ll go into below. Same night Earthquake’s with Tugboat supporting Warrior in Ottawa so the Harts main event New Haven.

So…. who’s feuding with who?
Texas Tornado is still defending against or chasing Mr Perfect for in the Intercontinental title and the finish, depending on where they are and if the switch has aired in that market yet, varies between Perfect by count-out, Tornado by pin or Tornado by DQ. Roddy Piper guest referees several of them which crosses over with a few shots HE has at Perfect this month, including at MSG, winning them by count-out. Kerry meanwhile has a few matches with his next feud, Ted DiBiase, curtailed by Teddy having knee surgery. They make lemonade out of the lemon 28th at MSG with a nice bit of storyline - Kerry pins Virgil then the bodyguard shakes Tornado’s hand afterwards which can’t have gone down well with his boss. The other side of that is Ted starts the month pinning Dusty ever night but when he hits the bench we have the very weird sight of Virgil pinning Dust in 2 minutes or less. In fairness to the burial of Dusty, that happens in Montreal too when Ted is fit and wrestling Von Erich. In the story he “washes his hands” of Rhodes, he’s only good enough to wrestle the hired help. Dusty also loses on the road to Slaughter more than once. Although Slaughter is usually wrestling (and beating) Hacksaw Duggan. Big Boss Man is crushing Bobby Heenan ever night. Jake Roberts vs The Model is in full swing. Tugboat is usually paired with Dino Bravo. Davey Boy starts the month with Haku then moves into Warlord which is sometimes a match, sometimes arm wrestling. Superfly is the other babyface in the scenario, losing to Warlord but getting wins from Haku. Barbarian is usually pinning Dustin Rhodes. Shane Douglas and Saba Simba are both about with various JTTS.

Tag teams are mishmashed again. The Harts kick off the month with Power & Glory winning some by pin, some by DQ and some by Dusty finish reverse decision. The Rockers do a few jobs for Demolition but when Crush gets a knock Shawn and Marty take turns beating Smash in singles. By month end Herc and Roma are back with the Rockers but losing to them this time round, while Bret and Anvil are defending against Smash and Crush, sometimes winning, sometimes losing by count-out. LOD exclusively work the Orients/Fuji handicap, aside from the Meadowlands and the Japan trip the Bushwhackers aren’t booked at all.

Notable exceptions, of course. When Hogan has a night off and Tugster works Earthquake, Bravo works Shane Douglas or Superfly. Dustin gets an occasional education from Martel or Valentine. Sometimes Boss Man wrestles Barbar instead of the Brain. Buddy Rose does an occasional job for Davey, Snuka or Shane. Boxing Day in Providence Dusty does a job for The Model.

A Hogan card on 29th in Richfield is plagued by transport problems so the midcard is shuffled. As well as an impromptu battle royal won by Tugboat, the opponents for the absent Jake, Shane Douglas and LOD, assemble a tag of The Model & Haku vs Orient Express. Haku and Martel play face and win when Fuji salt backfires. There’s another fun substitution same night in Milwaukee - Anvil doesn’t make it so Demolition fail to wrest the tag belts from Hitman and partner for the night Bulldog after he’s already beaten Warload earlier.

6th and 7th there’s a WWF presence on two SWS shows in Kansai. DiBiase & Valentine win a tag match first night and lose singles tournament semifinals on night 2 to Mania VII randoms Tenryu and Kitao, and also The Bushwhackers and the Rougeau Brothers lose to native teams on night 1 and wrestle each other night 2. This is the Rougeaus first matches for the WWF since Raymond went part-retired the previous November (other than the Rumble) and Jacques last WWF matches before becoming The Mountie! Oh, and they take Brooklyn Brawler to make up the numbers. Why not.

Departure - it’s the end of the road for the greatest Intercontinental Champion of all time, the Honky Tonk Man. 16th at the Meadowlands, Rhythm & Blues wrestle (apparently) their first match since Survivor Series, teaming with Power & Glory to lose to the Harts & the Bushwhackers. Reportedly Honky walks out on Boxing Day. The ill-fated face turn for Valentine starts 28th at MSG when Jimmy Hart bonks him with his own guitar causing him to lose to Saba Simba and they fall out. Later the Mouth says that Honky is challenging the Hammer to a match next month but Greg is yet to accept. Just like WWF Magazine advertising Honky for the Rumble, this won’t happen, and planned hostilities will be transferred to Bravo including the MSG match. Honky Gone, Man.

He’s not on the road yet but 11th/12th at the Florida TVs The Undertaker tapes a bunch of squashes and in West Palm they tape him against Tugboat from SuperTape 4 - he’ll be on the road with “the big Tugster, dude” in the New Year. Spoiler. Also taping their first squashes there : The Nasty Boys.

Tornado vs Virgil ;

 

 

Edited March 18 by air_raid
remove dead video