House Show/TV tapings random happenings

[air_raid]

6 minutes ago, Loki said:

That Hogan-Flair match looks like a fantastic event - the crowd were loving it, both of them seem to have their working boots on.  It still beggars belief that they never went with this feud on PPV.  To have the two arguably biggest wrestlers ever at the same time, both in their prime more or less, and NOT put that on tv or PPV...

I predict their house show numbers over your next few posts will be massive.

That they aren’t, is said to be the reason plans were scrapped for it to be the title match at Mania VIII. But that’s bollocks, and the real catalyst was Hogan taking time off. Can’t have Flair lose to a guy that’s disappearing, equally don’t want to beat Hogan if you’re planning for him to come back later in the year.

[air_raid]

November  1991

It’s Hulk Hogan vs Ric Flair in Pittsburgh (10,000+), Milwaukee, Springfield TVs, a near sell out at San Diego Sports Arena, a poor 5000 at the Cow Palace, although they do draw 10,000 to Richfield which has been a tough market for a while. There’s a papered 9000 at the Rosemont right before Survivor Series, then over 10,000 at the Spectrum and over 15,000 at MSG for a double on 30th. Hell, green shoots of recovery right there. @LokiFlair vs Roddy Piper is the main in Youngstown OH, at Boston Garden (only to 7000), dark at Utica TVs, Indianapolis, Winnipeg and Lexington. At New Havens TVs Hulkster works a DQ dark match with Undertaker.

Randy Savage vs Jake Roberts rolls on in Vegas, Vancouver, Louisville, Springfield TVs, the Capital Center and Hershey. By Ottawa on 28th and a London/Hamilton double on 30th, Randys ditched “Mr Madness” and they’re supported by the defences of the NEW WWF Champion The Undertaker, against Davey Boy Smith. 23rd in Tampa and 24th in West Palm, Savage can’t make it so they have a shuffle and do Hacksaw Duggan & Sgt Slaughter vs Jake & The Undertaker with LOD vs Natural Disasters supporting. The undercard is a bit weak so they pad it by splitting Rockers vs Beverlys into Shawn beating Blake and Marty losing to Beau in singles. Murfreesboro TN on 9th and Syracuse/Albany double on 17th it’s actually the rare treat of Piper vs Jake!

Another mixed up month for Hitman. He does a week or so with Berzerker, back to Warlord, then a few with Barbarian (who he’s supposed to defend against at Tuesday In Texas) and finishes the month with The Mountie! including at MSG where it’s the rare sight of the middle rope elbow getting the pin.

Legion of Doom are still with Natural Disasters with some clean wins, some non finishes and some draws. There’s also a run of Duggan/LOD vs Mountie/Disasters with a 2x4 finish.

Davey Boy spends half the month doing broadways or screwy losses to Mountie then most of the second doing jobs to the urn-wielding Undertaker although he does work a couple with Barbar, subbing for Bully Busick who’s quit at Utica TVs. Texas Tornado has limited appearances this month due to - let’s be blunt - his demons. When he’s there, he’s beating Hercules or beating/non finishing with Berzerker. Big Boss Man is with IRS all month, some of those losses turn into wins this time but there’s also some losses with Virgil to Irwin and Ted DiBiase. At MSG Mountie runs distraction for Boss Man to lose to IRS, even though he’s working Bret. Some feuds never die, I guess. Virgil vs DiBiase runs most of the month with lots of fuck finishes but Virgil does get the pin in Anaheim, San Francisco and San Diego. After Survivor Series he starts beating Skinner. Hacksaw is losing to Taker before he starts teaming with LOD and after the PPV it’s Barbarian. El Matador beats Hercules every night for a while then Col Mustafa before Survivor Series and Kato after it.

The Rockers spend most of their month losing to the Nasty Boys. The finish at MSG (accidentally reversing the small package to put the opponent back on top) is typical of the feud. Most of their Florida run with the Beverlys is split into the two singles but they do lose to them in Orlando. Writings on the wall. Bushwhackers lose all month to Beau and Blake spare the occasional DQ win and quelle surprise - when the Bevs work Shawn & Marty, they’re jobbing to the Nasties.

Hammers still getting work, swapping wins (really) with Mustafa, jobbing to Berzerker for a few nights then going back to Warload. Superfly still gets the call ; he gets a series of wins over Mustafa and Bully. When Herc is left short an opponent due to KVEs absence, here comes Jim Brunzell to do a/the job.

Around TVs, Chris Chavis (who becomes Tatanka) starts beating Skinner on the road then switches to Kato, but after Survivor Series he loses several matches to Ted DiBiase. Chris Walker, long term JTTS, gets to beat Kato for a few shows, the loses a few to Berzerker, then after the PPV picks up a handful of wins from Hercules.

At Providence, Bulldog works a broadway with Irwin and Boss Man loses to Taker plus it’s another night the Rockers lose to the brothers Beverly leaving Luke and Butch with Knobbs and Sags. Hacksaw works a one off with Mountie! in Portland OR. Hammer does a job for Skinner in Denver and to Herc in San Fran. There’s a couple of early month matches left over from the previous loop - Superfly vs Snuka, Valentine vs Busick, Anvil jobbing to Mustafa (shambles).

In Orlando Tornados missing so a certain Jimmy Richland makes the trip to lose to Skinner - he’ll later be everyone’s favourite Heavenly Body, Jimmy Del Ray.

Jimmy Hart subs for Bobby Heenan in Flairs corner in Pittsburgh, Moline and Champaign IL - the road with Flair already has the Brain running scared.

Tryouts at TVs - Utica they have a look at The Cajun Giant (who becomes Kurrgan) and in Springfield Del Wilkes pins Brooklyn Brawler - Del of course was The Patriot.

In Utica they tape Survivor Series Showdown where Virgil loses the Million $ Belt back to Teddy with help from Repo Man but he carries on defending on the road until it airs. Utica/Springfield TVs also have unaired “open challenge” segments where The Mountie! is sent running by everyone’s favourite babyface, Sgt Slaughter. They repeat it in New Haven with IRS. At these TVs we also have Mr Perfect starting to manage Flair and tags taped for The New Foundation and Slaughter & Hacksaw. There’s also three more looks at Chris Chavis ; he starts on the road straight after.

Edited March 19 by air_raid
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[air_raid]

December 1991

Hulk Hogan vs Ric Flair is on a few towns including dark at Austin TVs, St Louis, a great 18,000 gate In Honolulu, the Capital Center and a barely acceptable 11,000 for a rematch at MSG. The bloom is somewhat off the rose already. Of course after the controversy of Tuesday In Texas, none of these are for the title, which is not fair to Flair.

Ric Flair vs Roddy Piper is still a main event in many towns like Houston as is Jake Roberts vs Macho Man at LA Sports and the Rosemont but there is also a mid month run of Savage & Hacksaw Duggan vs Jake & Undertaker, including Boston Garden, Nassau, Pittsburgh and Maple Leaf Gardens. Nothing draws particularly well.

Half the month Legion of Doom vs Natural Disasters happens (apart from a few shows with Hawk vs Typhoon) but half way through the month Hawk gets hurt so for a few shows it’s Animal vs one or the other then Earthquake gets hurt too so it’s exclusively Animal v Typhoon for the rest of the month.

Bret mostly wrestles The Mountie! all month in decent length matches with Sharpshooter finishes or seconds-long schoolboy pins. In Hartford it’s actually battle royal winner El Matador for Bret (Mountie stuck with Virgil). At Maple Leaf Jacques wrestles under his own name again, at Nassau Coliseum and Niagara Falls it’s Bret and Big Boss Man losing to Mountie and IRS, then last three nights of the year Brets with Ted DiBiase leaving Mountie with Texas Tornado.

Sgt Slaughter spends a couple of weeks beating Ted DiBiase by DQ then switches to winning handicap flag matches with Col Mustafa and Gen Adnan. Bit of a mixed month for Ted, he does some draws and DQ loses with Tito, works Roddy Piper in Honolulu and has a couple of bookings with Texas Tornado. Von Erich is in and out but he does pick up wins with Berzerker and then with Skinner before rather less success with Teddy and Mountie. Hacksaw vs Undertaker and Boss Man with IRS (wins, draws and losses) are going on all month. Davey Boy finishes his run with Barbarian then spends the rest of month with Berzerker even LOSING to him at Maple Leaf Gardens. Virgil finishes beating Skinner then moves on to beating Repo Man, some clean, mostly DQ. El Matador works a lot of Kato and also Skinner, Hercules and Warlord and usually wins. Hammer works with Warload and Herc too but usually loses. “The Lumbee Indian” Chris Chavis picks up wins early month from Herc and later from Kato.

The Rockers are losing to the Nasty Boys and Beverly Brothers all over with various miscommunication finishes and occasionally Shawn walking off and leaving Marty to the wolves. If losing a bunch of matches to either heel team isn’t bad enough for the Bushwhackers there’s also a series with Anvil where they lose to Beau, Blake and Genius. No idea why Owen Hart isn’t on the road yet.

Some fun oddities this month.

Superfly vs The Model is a unique treat for Honolulu as is Roddy Piper vs Ted DiBiase. Nassau is wacky as always - Hammer gets a rare win over Kato, Herc beats Barbar, Virgil beats Warload by DQ and Jim Powers turns up to do a job for Mustafa. The Hartford Bret vs Tito show is also muddled with Boss Man vs Herc, Anvil vs Blake Beverly and Bushwhackers vs Skinner & Kato. Finally in Minneapolis Piper finds himself booked on Hulksters undercard and takes the Anvil spot tagging with Luke & Butch to face Genius and the Beverlys except in this version, the good guys win. Of course.

2nd-4th are three massive TV tapings. Loads of tryouts in Corpus Christi including the Harris twins and future DOA partner Brian Lee doing a job for KVE, and Charles “Papa Shango / Godfather” Wright as Sir Charles ( @BomberPat @JNLister) as well as a ton of Coliseum stuff including the Flair vs Shawn match with storyline finish and Shawn and Marty fighting afterwards. 3rd in San Antonio the Rockers do a dark match with LOD, presumably with a finish to give the fans knowledge of their issues, then they tape the Barber Shop episode, on top of the Tuesday In Texas PPV. In Austin they tape the Rockers/LOD match for Superstars, The Model is back on board to tape TV squashes and a Coliseum match with Tornado, Bret works a match with Mountie where for some reason Hacksaw/Slaughter, LOD and the Nasty Boys and Natural Disasters in the corners and Hogan vs Flair in a dark main. Savage wrestles Barbar for Prime Time and has Liz in his corner but she doesn’t go back on the road as was expected/advertised.

3rd in San Antonio is also where Bret says Vince explained he’ll lose the belt to Mountie then win it back from Piper at Mania to make him an even bigger star, before putting Shawn over at SummerSlam. Not only have they filmed the Rockers split but without even seeing Shawn work heel, McMahon knows he’ll be Intercontinental champ within a year. What could possibly go wrong?

Here's the Bret vs Teddy match. There's a chunk missing but don't worry, "part 2" as uploaded on the account duplicates part of Part 3 so I missed it on purpose. Not that Bret fans need telling but he was far more than five moves of doom, check out the gutwrench suplex in this super smooth match ;

 

 

 

Edited March 19 by air_raid
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[AshC]

My uncle, who isn't a wrestling fan, went to Toronto for Christmas '91 and ended up going to the Boxing Day house show at Maple Leaf Gardens. One of the final ever Rockers matches, against the Beverly Brothers and, as mentioned, Mountie under his real name against Bret. Got brought back a programme and young AshC made a literal schoolboy error, cutting out a bunch of the photos to use on a get-well card. Think I might still have the actual paper match card though.

[AshC]

Re. Owen Hart, he worked Eli Collins's big show around then I think, not long before Royal Rumble '92, so am thinking possibly seeing out European dates before coming in full-time.

[air_raid]

17 hours ago, AshC said:

My uncle, who isn't a wrestling fan, went to Toronto for Christmas '91 and ended up going to the Boxing Day house show at Maple Leaf Gardens. One of the final ever Rockers matches, against the Beverly Brothers and, as mentioned, Mountie under his real name against Bret. Got brought back a programme and young AshC made a literal schoolboy error, cutting out a bunch of the photos to use on a get-well card. Think I might still have the actual paper match card though.

Thats tragic. I mutilated loads of my magazines cutting round photos out of them because I thought I was soon getting one of those machines with which you can make your own Pogs. I never did.

[rollthedice]

59 minutes ago, air_raid said:

Thats tragic. I mutilated loads of my magazines cutting round photos out of them because I thought I was soon getting one of those machines with which you can make your own Pogs. I never did.

I did the same but I got the Pog maker. Used to sell the Pogs around school. 

[HarmonicGenerator]

When will Pogs come back into fashion. Great times.

[air_raid]

January 1992, the best month in wrestling history, and disagreement would not be fair.

Hulk Hogan vs Ric Flair is a main event and doesn’t draw what they would want in Atlanta (4500) or Miami but there’s a good 12,000 for Daytona TVs - you could say it’s TVs so it doesn’t count, but that’s not fair. Near 13,000 at the Spectrum is good business by this point. @LokiThe infamous 17th show in Springfield, Macho Man is absent so Hogan actually does a substitute and it’s the incredibly rare Hulk Hogan vs Jake Roberts. 18th at Boston Garden Hogan vs Flair is a 15,000 sell out ; you might argue that Roddy Piper being there too probably helped, but that would not be fair. Post Rumble, the Hulkster starts chasing the new WWF Champion with another 10,000+ at the Montreal Forum on 20th, and Hogans last non televised contribution is dark at Amarillo TVs when the Mega Powers go over Jake and Berzerker - advertised as Undertaker but they’ve just turned him, and he gets involved in the finish preventing Jake from taking a walk, and he ends up pinned by Hogan.

Randy Savage vs Jake Roberts supported by Hacksaw Duggan vs The Undertaker or both feuds in one tag main event a loop through California, Illinois, two cities and elsewhere, by two hops in Alaska Sid Justice is back and with Taker. 17th at Nassau Coliseum they put a casket on it and main event with Jake vs Hogan happening in Springfield. Post-Rumble Savage/Jake and Sid/Taker double main Nashville (with added Piper/Mountie, fuck!) then it’s Savage vs Roberts (Bret/Mountie support) in Houston and Poughkeepsie, Sid vs Taker in Lowell, then a double main at the Providence Civic Center on 30th (Bret/Mountie again) and finally a swap on 31st at MSG with Sid squashing Mountie and Undertaker vs Hitman underneath Macho Man (with Liz) vs the Snake. Otherwise Sid and Taker support the other main this month….

In Des Moines, Youngstown OH, New Haven, Oshawa and Saginaw it’s Ric Flair vs Rowdy Roddy Piper, with Bret Hart vs The Mountie! plus Legion of Doom vs Natural Disasters or a six-man to support. 9th in Sarasota, Mountie slums it with the Hammer because Hitman is bumped up to the main with Flair! Flair vs Piper with both as champions continues through Milwaukee, Chicago (Taker actually interferes in that one), Winnipeg and Calgary as well as dark in Amarillo, plus the night before in Lubbock on top of all the fun of the penultimate Saturday Nights Main Event, it’s Ric Flair vs Randy Savage. Wrestling Hogan in a tag match and defending the World title against Macho Man on the same night doesn’t strike me as particularly fair.

18th, an afternoon fundraiser at Shelton High School (CT) has Roddy Piper vs The Mountie! - new Intercontinental champion - as top match on the penultimate day of his reign and the first day of Brets week off.

Bret Hart vs The Mountie! with and then without the Intercontinental title goes on all month with predictable results other than 17th in Springfield MA where Bret “with the flu” drops the title to him. The plan was always for Mountie to transition the belt to Piper, if this was punishment for negotiations with WCW as some fools believe, I think it would have been more severe than a week off selling the flu even if the Rumble would have been a nice cheque. He definitely wouldn’t have gone on to pin Piper clean at Mania either.

Legion of Doom vs Natural Disasters continues for the tag straps. Big Boss Man vs IRS, Davey Boy Smith vs Berzerker, Virgil vs Repo Man and El Matador vs Million Dollar Man all rumble on. Sgt Slaughter finishes his crap with Col Mustafa and once Hacksaw Duggan moves on from Undertaker, the pair start a run with the Nasty Boys who up until then had been working The Bushwhackers. The New Foundation are finally on the road seeking revenge on the Beverly Brothers. Chris Chavis (not yet Tatanka) is pinning Kato every night. Texas Tornado is only working about half the shows, beating Hercules before the Rumble and Skinner after it. Skinner also does a run with Piper on nights that Flair is with the Hulk, otherwise he’s been with Chris Walker. Hammer gets his last real run, an early month string of wins from Herc. Jim Brunzell still answers the phone, doing the honours for Berzerker in Winnipeg.

Fun variations and one offs ;
Marty Jannetty works Brooklyn Brawler 6th in Miami which is his last show before the Barber Shop airs. The newly christened Tatanka beats Skinner at the very wonky Springfield show and in Winnipeg, as well as the Brawler in Toledo and Warlord In Nashville. Bulldog beats Kato in Springfield but misses a few scheduled towns so Owen Hart does double duty those nights and beats Berzerker. Shawn Michaels is rocking his new gear as a singles heel and post Rumble he beats Jim Powers in Poughkeepsie then a series of wins over Superfly including at MSG. The Model is back, he goes over Snuka in Poughkeepsie, Virgil in Providence then Tornado at MSG. Kerry also works Warlord and even does a job to Repo Man in Providence. For reasons I don’t know, Nikolai Volkoff is back on the road, losing to Herc in Lowell. Herc does a heel vs heel job for Warload at MSG, not quite as notorious as his appearance next month.

Departures - this is the last we’ll see of Valentine as a regular. He does jobs for Mountie and Warlord but pins Skinner at the Rosemont to go out on a high before leaving for WCW. Random - Knobbs misses a few so Sags works either Duggan or Slaughter one on one, in Toledo the finish is backfiring interference from Skinner, totally inexplicable, to Duggans benefit. At Boston Garden it’s a one off reunion for Warlord & Barbarian, losing to the New Foundation. He hasn’t been around THAT much but one day removed from the Rumble, Dino Bravo wrestled what’s meant to be his retirement match, going over Barbar in Montreal, and that’s basically it for Barbar in this run too. There’s likely not much steam left in Warlord either given they have Berzerker now, and given who’s on the way in.

Marty tapes matches at early month TVs, not all of them air, which is really next months story. Papa Shango also starts taping squashes there, and Bret films some matches without the Intercontinental belt to air post-Rumble. There’s also tryouts for Konnan as The Latin Fury. Month end TVs they give the Harris twins another try out, and the first tapings take place of Shawn with Sherri (but still with Rhapsody In Blue, not Sexy Boy) and Sid with Harvey Whippleman. There’s also a dark squash of Barry Horowitz by Ian’s favourite - Crush. I’d say that’s the best thing happening this month but that would not be fair. To Flair.

 

Here's Savage vs Snake from MSG ;

 

 

Edited March 19 by air_raid
dead video

[air_raid]

On 3/20/2022 at 3:57 PM, air_raid said:

What if there was a PPV every month?

Here's the Mania-sized show they'd run for each month of the second half of 1991. If you think the star power has taken a hit here compared to previous, you’ll cry when you see the equivalent posts for 1993.

July

WWF TITLE Hulk Hogan VS Sgt Slaughter (Desert Storm match)
Ultimate Warrior VS The Undertaker (Casket match)
Roddy Piper VS Ted DiBiase
Big Boss Man VS The Mountie
Jake Roberts VS Earthquake
TAG TITLE Nasty Boys VS Legion of Doom
Bret Hart VS IRS
British Bulldog VS Typhoon 
Hacksaw Duggan VS Col Mustafa
Texas Tornado VS Warlord
The Rockers VS Orient Express
The Bushwhackers VS Beverly Brothers
Superfly VS Berzerker
Anvil VS Hercules
Ricky Steamboat VS Brooklyn Brawler
Shane Douglas VS Barbarian
Jim Powers VS Smash

August

WWF TITLE Hulk Hogan VS Sgt Slaughter (Randy Savage as guest ref)
Ultimate Warrior VS The Undertaker (Bodybag match)
Big Boss Man VS The Mountie
TAG TITLE Nasty Boys VS Legion of Doom
Virgil VS Ted DiBiase
Bret Hart VS IRS
Hacksaw Duggan VS Col Mustafa
Texas Tornado VS Warlord
The Rockers VS Orient Express
The Bushwhackers VS Beverly Brothers
Superfly VS Berzerker
Anvil VS Earthquake
British Bulldog VS Smash
Greg Valentine VS Typhoon
Ricky Steamboat VS Barbarian
Koko B Ware VS Hercules

September

Sid Justice VS The Undertaker (Casket match)
Big Boss Man VS The Mountie (cage match)
TAG TITLE Legion of Doom VS Nasty Boys
IC TITLE Bret Hart VS Warlord
Virgil VS Ted DiBiase (Million $ Belt)
Hacksaw Duggan VS IRS
Texas Tornado VS Berzerker
Superfly VS Barbarian
Greg Valentine VS Typhoon
Ricky Steamboat VS Skinner
Bushwhackers VS Beverly Brothers
Marty Jannetty & Jim Powers VS Pat Tanaka & Col Mustafa
Anvil VS Hercules
Koko B Ware VS Big Bully Busick

October

Rowdy Roddy Piper VS Ric Flair
Sid Justice VS Jake Roberts
Hacksaw Duggan VS The Undertaker
Big Boss Man VS IRS
TAG TITLE Legion of Doom VS Natural Disasters
IC TITLE Bret Hart VS The Mountie
Virgil VS Ted DiBiase (Million $ Belt)
The Rockers VS The Nasty Boys
British Bulldog VS Col Mustafa
Anvil VS Hercules
Texas Tornado VS Big Bully Busick
Ricky Steamboat VS Skinner
Bushwhackers VS Beverly Brothers
Greg Valentine VS Berzerker

November 

WWF TITLE Hulk Hogan VS Ric Flair
Macho Man VS Jake Roberts
Hacksaw Duggan VS The Undertaker
British Bulldog VS The Mountie
Big Boss Man VS IRS
TAG TITLE Legion of Doom VS Natural Disasters
IC TITLE Bret Hart VS Warlord
Virgil VS Ted DiBiase (Million $ Belt)
The Rockers VS The Nasty Boys
Texas Tornado VS Berzerker 
Bushwhackers VS Beverly Brothers
El Matador VS Kato
Greg Valentine VS Col Mustafa
Superfly VS Big Bully Busick
Jim Brunzell VS Hercules

December 

Hulk Hogan VS Ric Flair
Macho Man VS Jake Roberts
Hacksaw Duggan VS The Undertaker
Big Boss Man VS IRS
TAG TITLE Legion of Doom VS Natural Disasters
IC TITLE Bret Hart VS The Mountie
El Matador VS Ted DiBiase
British Bulldog VS Berzerker 
Texas Tornado VS Skinner
Sgt Slaughter VS Col Mustafa & Gen Adnan (handicap flag match)
The Rockers VS The Nasty Boys
Virgil VS Repo Man
Anvil & The Bushwhackers VS Beverly Brothers & The Genius 
Greg Valentine VS Warlord
Chris Chavis VS Hercules

 

Edited May 12, 2022 by air_raid

[air_raid]

February 1992

The Hulkster is back after missing a lot of January - crazy to think we’re approaching the end of his run proper. 10th in Richfield it’s a wonderful one off - the Mega Powers reunited as Hogan & Randy Savage beat Undertaker & Jake the Snake after a miscue and Taker abandoning his partner/new enemy. There’s more tag team fun with Hogan & Roddy Piper vs Ric Flair & Taker in Orlando and at the Palace, with more of Taker walking off, which really isn’t fair to Flair. At West Palm TVs Sid Justice subs in for Undertaker in the dark main, and that’s the match they continue with through a Syracuse/Rochester double, Minneapolis, Hartford, an encouraging 12,500 in Pittsburgh and 10,000 at the Boston Garden on leap day. Many of these involve Hulkster pinning the WWF Champion. A 10,000 gate at Tampa TVs gets Hogan vs Flair as a dark match. Business may be down but Hogan still takes you to the bank. 14,000 grace MSG on 23rd and a battle royal sees Sid stand tall over Hogan, Flair, Piper and the rest after pulling a Steve Austin 97 behind the refs back. This is the show where Justice powerbombs Hercules out of the WWF and while Hogan and Flair don’t wrestle on the undercard, Piper defends the Intercontinental belt against Repo Man.

The Undertaker vs Sid Justice and Macho Man vs Jake Roberts is a superb double main event hitting many towns and at Maple Leaf Gardens on 9th they put a cage on Savage and the Snake. They split off after that and Macho Man and Jake continue on top in St Louis, at the Spectrum, Capital Center and elsewhere, although Taker supports with British Bulldog when he isn’t tied up with what he’s up to with the other big guns.

Ric Flair vs Rowdy Roddy Piper is a huge main event all over including LA, Vegas and Sacramento, usually supported by LOD. 5000 at Nassau Coliseum is disappointing for a draw in New York like Piper. In Utica, Providence, Worcester and Springfield MA they throw a cage on it so Piper can get some proper wins. To be fair the regular matches were non title so there was no excuse for screwy finishes. The report from Sacramento only claims it was title for title but I have my doubts. Many Piper/Flair cities as well as MSG also have Taker/Smithers in support which is a babyface match considering SNME aired on 8th.

What a month we have for Legion of Doom. They’re still defending against the Natural Disasters but Hawks still got issues and after failing a drug test, the belts have to come off them. 7th in Denver, not the Disasters but in a last minute change, Ted DiBiase and IRS defeat them after distraction from Sherri (guessing the Shawn union hasn’t made air in Colorado yet) and interference from the chair-wielding Typhoon. On the night the Disasters lose the belt to Teddy and Irwins regular opponents, Big Boss Man and El Matador. In a clutch, rather than switch the belts to the Disasters and have a lopsided heel heavy division, they’re going with soon-to-be “Money Inc” and turning the Disasters. LOD will make scheduled “defences” still against Typhoon & Earthquake at LA Sports, in Reno and Vegas, in Sacramento on 10th Boss Man substitutes for Hawk, then the suspension kicks in, timed to end before their return at WrestleMania VIII. And what a return that will be…! The Disasters spend the bulk (hehe) of the rest of the month with their already scheduled new feud, Hacksaw Duggan & Sgt Slaughter - the title change won’t be announced until month end as TV matches are still in the can with Jimmy Hart managing the Disasters.

Ted & Irwins month is split between their regular tag and DiBiase/Tito and IRS/Boss Man singles, which near month end feature the new twist of the Mouth and some backfiring megaphone fun. Irwin does move on to Virgil after Boss Man starts working Repo Man - Virg and Repo wrapping up a run with each other mid month. Bret Hart works The Mountie! all month save a few with Berzerker then month end it moves to Hitman & The Bushwhackers vs Mountie & The Nasty Boys - the Nasties having finished with Sarge & Hacksaw, the Bushwhackers subbing for LOD, the teams having a couple of straight tags before the intro of Hart and Mountie. Davey Boy misses a chunk of the month doing the SWS shows and works Undertaker upon his return.

Shawn Michaels manages to get his scheduled wins over Jimmy Snuka for the first 8 days of the month, then it’s usually on Jim Powers to sub. Texas Tornado manages to do a couple of jobs done for The Model before he (ahem) disappears, leaving Martel with JTTS or tryouts for JW Storm. Kerry missing a short run with Mountie leaves Jacques with Jim Brunzell usually. The New Foundation work the Beverly Brothers until TVs and thereafter it’s usually Owen & Koko. Chris Walker does a lot of jobs for Warlord or Skinner, Skinner also works a fair few with Tatanka, but the closest the Native American has to a regular opponent is Kato.

Random- in Worcester during the Piper/Flair cage match, The Model tries to help Flair. Which leads to exactly nothing.

One offs and subs - Tatanka works The Model on 14th, Warlord on 15th and Berzerker on 29th. Martel also works Boss Man at MSG and Springfield MA, with Hacksaw and Jim Powers in Canada and with Bulldog the last couple of days of February. Before he heads to Japan Bulldog has one match in Salt Lake City on 1st with his would be Mania opponent, Berzerker.

Good month for Kato, not only has he still got work but he’ll win matches on the road against Powers, Brooklyn Brawler and Jim Brunzell. He does have to put over Chris Walker dark at Florida TVs, as does his now former tag team partner, Pat Tanaka. Brunzell also punches his card with IRS, Warlord, Mountie and Berzerker at MSG. Superfly jobs for Warlord early month before moving to Shawn.

Barbarian answers the phone when they need a sub to do jobs for Tito when DiBiase is injured. Since he’s in the area for MSG, Hercules does jobs for Berzerker at the Providence Civic Center and in Worcester. Berzerker gets pinned by Crush - finally back on the road - 28th and 29th. The aforementioned JW Storm gets a one off with Taker in St Louis replacing the suspended Von Erich. 9th in Vegas they need a job for HBK so in comes Arizona-based masked man Silver Shadow about whom I know nothing else.

Usual spate of tag changes. Animal vs Earthquake one on one in Salt Lake City, Typhoon vs Luke or both Bushwhackers in a handicap, he also does a one off with Hacksaw in Long Island. A real shuffle in St Louis has Knobbs & Kato losing to the Bushwhackers. New Foundation vs Beverlys is occasionally split into two singles - or just one if only Owen shows up.

Here’s a really fun one - last couple of days of the month (and indeed into March) Sags misses a few so the team facing the Bushwhackers and Bret Hart are Knobbs, Mountie… and Shawn Michaels. It was only a matter of time before the Hitman and Heartbreak Kid bumped into each other.

Departures - despite being “indefinitely suspended” in January after his arrests, Marty Jannetty works his last matches of this run on the (still happening) SWS shows, in singles and tagging with Bulldog. This is is the first of three years in a row where Marty gets his papers January/February and misses a Mania cheque. Also Anvil refuses to take a piss test on TVs and is promptly let go, so Owen has to tag with Koko or Jim Brunzell on the road thereafter. Superfly stops getting booked midway through his run with Shawn. Kerry Von Erich manages to get arrested while suspended, gives police false details and lands in really hot water. He’s off to rehab. Technically he’ll be back, but this is the beginning of the end. Hercules does a complete no sell after losing to Sid in seconds at the Garden, and that’s essentially the end of him.

Interesting happenings on TVs - Jake is absent from both so Randy Savage wrestles dark matches with The Mountie! in Tampa and Berzerker in West Palm. After the match in Tampa, Mountie does the “open challenge” schtick and to underline that he’s a goodie now, Undertaker chases him away after no-selling the shock stick. I wonder if Jakes already on the out by here? He’s making towns but there’s a feeling of planning for life without him. In West Palm Crush works a dark match with The Model and despite being still heels on the road and on TV that’s aired, the Natural Disasters tape a six man with Hitman to beat Mountie and the Nasty Boys. Bet that confused a few Floridians. In Tampa they do the angle where Sid “breaks Virgil’s nose” ramming him into an exposed buckle after Virg tries to save jobber Dale Wolfe from a post match beating. In West Palm, Col Mustafa does a job for Taker airing on Prime Time - Sheiky Baby still getting the call. The TVs taped here also includes the first vignettes for Nailz. The most important thing to happen on these shows - the debut of “Sexy Boy.”

Edited March 19 by air_raid
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[air_raid]

March 1992

Very much the same as it was - Ric Flair vs Hulk Hogan, Hogan by count-out, in Bangor and Nashville (4000) but for most of the month it’s Hogan & Roddy Piper vs Flair & Sid Justice  goes on including 7500 at the Rosemont (ouch), dark at TVs including one for Coliseum, in Memphis, a stunning 13,000 gate in Oakland and decent 11,500 at the Spectrum, in Richfield, a poor 6500 at Maple Leaf Gardens, devastating 9000 at MSG, 7000 at LA Sports, 8600 in Sacramento and 6000 at the Palace. And that’s it for Hogan for a year.

Piper vs Flair in a cage, non title, is going on still too. Flair wins one at London Gardens when Shawn Michaels interferes. It kind of makes sense given he’s challenged the winner of Piper/Bret at Mania.

Randy Savage vs Jake the Snake in a cage is the other regular main in Miami (4000), Houston, Seattle (7000), it’s a lumberjack match in Honolulu. Seattle on 25th is the last for Jake. 26th in Winnipeg it’s Randy Savage vs Sid in the cage but it’s a cage match that weakly ends by DQ when Sid uses a chair. 27th in Montreal Sid just beats him. 28th there’s a part report from the Capital Center which has Macho Man winning a battle royal then that night it’s the first main event for Shawn Michaels as he loses to Savage in the cage. 27th in Albuquerque Piper is missing so The Undertaker beats Flair in the cage despite interference from a random Ted DiBiase. Flair misses Hammond IN on 6th so Roddy wrestled the Mountie! then they stick on a bonus battle royal win by Tatanka, and also split a Bret Hart & Bushwhackers vs The Mountie! & Nasty Boys into a singles and a tag.

What are the feuds?

Sid must be limited contracted dates because usually if Hogans off, so is he. After the early month TVs Big Boss Man must have a knock because he misses all shows up to Mania. Bret/Bushwhackers work Mountie/Nasties every night except being split at aforementioned Hammond, 14th in Anaheim and 28th at Boston Garden. It’s permanently Hacksaw & Sgt Slaughter vs Natural Disasters.

Crush usually wrestles Berzerker but when Nord is in Japan for the SWS gig there’s a couple with Warload and a couple with Skinner. Undertaker is on that tour too and very early month and late month he works a handful with Berzerker too. British Bulldog works with The Model half the month and half with Ted DiBiase ; El Matador spends his early month with the Million Dollar Man then moves seamlessly on to IRS. Irwin spends early month with Virgil, who then swaps him for losing to Shawn Michaels. Second half of the month The Model is with JW Storm more often than not. Tatanka works half a month with Skinner and half with Col Mustafa. It’s usually Owen & Koko vs The Beverly Brothers or two singles.

Exceptions?

8th in Nashville Roddy Piper works one Hogan/Flair show, going on last with The Model. With Boss Man out, Virgil does a couple more losses to Repo Man as him and Irwin trade JTTS duty. Tito gets a sub Shawn when DiBiase has flu, so they can dry run their Mania match. Shawn main eventing Boston Garden leaves Virgil short an opponent so it’s a rare call for Pat Tanaka. Other exceptions apart from various JTTS JW Storm or Chris Walker stuff include Tatanka vs Warlord or Kato, Matador vs Warlord and The Genius (yes) vs Jim Powers in Miami. Lanny always gets a gig in Florida.

Jim Brunzell has a hell of a month. As well as losing to IRS, Warload, Repo Man and anyone who needs it, 1st in Moline he teams with Owen to beat the Beverlys, 6th in Oshkosh WI he achieves the same tagging with Crush, 20th in Philadelphia, 21st in Richfield and 22nd in Toronto he upsets Skinner, later on 22nd he pins Brooklyn Brawler in London (Ontario) and 26th in Winnipeg does the same to Mustafa! Jumping was in fine form, why wasn’t he on Mania VIII???

Try outs?  They have a look again at Del Wilkes in losses to Repo, Martel etc although he beats Kato in Nashville. Doug Somers does a job to Koko in Memphis, in Houston the Samoan Swat Team (Fatu/Tama version) actually go over the Beverly Brothers!!

9th/10th TVs Papa Shango is taping squashes although he’s not on the road yet. Most importantly it’s the debut of the better entrance theme of The Mountie!

 

Edited March 19 by air_raid
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[Chris B]

Genuine question @air_raid(and apologies if it's been asked in here before) but have you thought of collecting these into a book? 

[air_raid]

2 minutes ago, Chris B said:

Genuine question @air_raid(and apologies if it's been asked in here before) but have you thought of collecting these into a book? 

I'd be tempted but not sure it would be worth it since its a bit of a niche interest within a niche interest and I imagine it costs a bit to get a book published. And I haven't really got the time to do it properly - I scribble these down in bits and pieces on iphone Notes whenever I have two minutes free at a time.

[Chris B]

38 minutes ago, air_raid said:

I'd be tempted but not sure it would be worth it since its a bit of a niche interest within a niche interest and I imagine it costs a bit to get a book published. And I haven't really got the time to do it properly - I scribble these down in bits and pieces on iphone Notes whenever I have two minutes free at a time.

If you were to digitally publish, or do it on-demand, I don't think it would be *that* complicated - if you have a few full years of reviews, that sounds like a niche of a niche, sure, but there have been annual reviews of Raw from the 90s that have done fairly well, and things like that..