House Show/TV tapings random happenings

[Snitsky's back acne]

46 minutes ago, air_raid said:

WWF @ Carbondale, PA - High School - November 9, 1993 Wrestling Challenge taping:
 

I love 1993/1994 WWF TV taping venues. 

[air_raid]

On 1/26/2022 at 2:50 PM, Snitsky's back acne said:

I love 1993/1994 WWF TV taping venues. 

Darkness, low ceilings, Icopro.

Virgil vs Barry Horowitz on that one, not to go off topic. He goes back to the Million $ Dream too. In 1994 they still use Virg to lose to Jarrett, Diesel and Nikolai on TV. I bet he’d have been a lifer if he hadn’t got injured that summer.

Edited March 15 by air_raid
removed dead video

[air_raid]

8 hours ago, scratchdj said:

I remember in my big WWE hardback book it listed Virgil’s finishing hold as “his own modified version of the Million Dollar Dream” which bemused me somewhat. How was it different?

It wasn’t, was it? Those publications were always full of drivel. The 93 Sticker Album told me Shawns motto was “Shawn Michaels is in the building.” Wellll… as they said on Catchphrase, it’s good but it’s not the one.

If you really want to talk about Virgil, I’ll talk about Virgil. In context. A quick look through his early house shows post-turn brought to my attention an interesting occurrence.

Straight after the Rumble, DiBiase is finishing his run with Texas Tornado and Virgil is coming out in Von Erich’s corner for nearly every shot up until Mania. The finish to these is a Tornado schoolboy after Virgil interfered, and they taped one of them on TVs for the WrestleFest 91 tape. It made sense, they’d set it up with Virgil shaking Tornados hand after losing to him at MSG on 28th December. However there’s one show where DiBiase is with Duggan instead because Tornado is otherwise engaged, and this is where the story is.

Its 11th Feb 1991 and they’re in Dallas, and Kerry as the local hero is on last, with dad Fritz in his corner. They booked it originally to be Tornado up against Sgt Slaughter for the belt, and what drama that would have been for the Texan fans. Unfortunately… they had to get Slaughter to New Haven, CT instead to work Warrior and substitute for Macho King, who missed some dates with a broken wrist. So on his big night, Tornado got a big win in the main event over… Boris Zhukov.

What Could Have Been - The Kerry Von Erich story.

 

[The King of Old School]

Love reading these @air_raidkeep them coming.

Some fascinating stuff.

[AshC]

Imagine Borga had taken off huge and they did a massive show in Helsinki with him as the nation's hero. Get some of that sweet Finnish markka.

[air_raid]

5 hours ago, AshC said:

Imagine Borga had taken off huge and they did a massive show in Helsinki with him as the nation's hero. Get some of that sweet Finnish markka.

Potentially, although at the time they were still (French Canadians booked in Quebec aside) mostly of the mindset that the “bad guys” were still the bad guys wherever they were and good guys the same. Example - when they booked four nights in Japan with co-operation from All Japan in May 94, they booked “Japanese” hero Yokozuna to lose to Undertaker in singles and tag, go to a double count out with Tenryu and lose to Bret by DQ. OK, he was actually Samoan not Japanese and the natives will have known that, but he was still waving their flag and representing their culture and country as World Champion for nearly a year, but the WWF still booked him as the big bad. Fun note from that tour - the future Hakushi did matches with Tatanka, Taker, Kid (!) and, err, Doink.

But yeah, maybe Borga would have been booked positively as remote as Finland, but it wasn’t their style at the time. You can’t blame them after all those years of Duggan waving his bloody flag and chanting USA and getting cheered for it wherever he was.

[air_raid]

Here's todays slice of random. There are a few shows in September and early October 1993 that the Steiners (recently dethroned tag team champions) miss. I can't establish why, I thought they may have done some New Japan dates as the combination of pay and Japan is why their re-capturing the belts at Mania X was aborted and why they ended up leaving, but it doesn't look like that was the case. Anyway, they'd been booked with (get this for a Hasbro dream team) Adam Bomb & Bam Bam Bigelow, so instead, those lads wrestled the new champions, The Quebecers, in super rare heel vs heel matches, in Chicago, Philadelphia, at MSG, and several towns in a loop through Cali. In Chicago, Bomb & Bam Bam won by count-out when the Quebecers got fed up of being battered and walked off (as was their wont), the rest of the shows had the big guys on the verge of victory but then getting distracted by fighting between Luna and Johnny Polo, and getting themselves counted out. Then Bomb and Bigelow would fight after the match. It went nowhere, obviously. But I found it interesting!

 

[air_raid]

On 1/24/2022 at 1:58 PM, LaGoosh said:

Don't apologise, I'd happily read your write-ups like that of every year of WWE house shows. Good work.

I’m thinking of doing a stripped back version of these now but feedback ; what year do any of you think I should start? I think 1987 would be interesting since the year is bookended by Hogan v Andre as PPV focus but that didn’t happen on the road, and it will be interesting to cover Randy Savage as the draw with the Intercontinental title on the B towns and see if numbers drop when it ends up on Honky.

What do you guys think?

[boyfriend]

Loving these write ups, keep em coming

 

[Jazzy G]

Keep bringing the knowledge. This is a great thread. 

[air_raid]

Todays quick bite unfortunately is a “tell don’t show” but hopefully one match in particular surfaces one day.

There is a TV taping with Coliseum cameras present 14th December 1993 in Lowell. It’s one of three in a row, the day before in Poughkeepsie had Savage/Crush double DQ, Headshrinkers vs Men On A Mission, and one of a few shots that Razor had at Yokozuna for the WWF title. The night after in Augusta, Doink actually goes over Bam Bam Bigelow, there’s another of the never ending run of Luger v Borga matches, and two matches that end up on Coliseum tapes - Razor vs Crush and the Yoko/Bret cage match for the belt. In Lowell however, their bonus matches include Kid beating the Brooklyn Brawler, Savage/Crush double count out, Yoko vs Undertaker for the belt (shitty salt bucket DQ finish) and the Razor vs Borga match from the Inside The WWF tape which was rare enough to pique my interest in Ludvig for that previous post.

But also….. 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.

Since I’ve drifted into 1994… there are some fascinating Undertaker dark matches on the last three TVs before SummerSlam. One of them has a sub 2 minute squash of Bam Bam but the other two have him challenging Diesel for the Intercontinental title! These are DQ finishes when HBK interferes and receives the Tombstone as reward. If that pairing wasn’t rare enough, the FAKE Taker also wrestles on those shows, pinning Mabel once after (as usual) a missed splash, but twice going up against our favourite hero, Made In The USA, Lex Luger - DQ finishes when Bam Bam runs in with Underfaker actually in the Rebel Rack.

Speaking of SummerSlam, in the house shows prior, before Bulldog has come back, Brets tag matches with Owen and Anvil have him partnered with Razor, and immediately after SummerSlam they’re on a European tour (one of four that year) and on the German legs Bret tags with Macho Man in his last WWF matches.

Edited July 28, 2022 by air_raid

[air_raid]

On 2/1/2022 at 11:46 AM, air_raid said:

I think 1987 would be interesting since the year is bookended by Hogan v Andre as PPV focus but that didn’t happen on the road, and it will be interesting to cover Randy Savage as the draw with the Intercontinental title on the B towns and see if numbers drop when it ends up on Honky.

OK, here it is. No, I didn't write this in one go. Here's your first half of my dissection of 1987 on the road. I've almost entirely ignored TV dark matches unless they're worth mentioning (usually Hogan, because he's drawn the house), and included a couple of the closed circuit recordings. It's not extensive but it covers what the advertised main events are and a few other interesting occurrences. You may note that I refer to what the advertised main event for many shows was which contradicts what went on last ; that's because often the main event was in the middle of the card to allow Hogan or whoever to get on the road earlier, or in case of building curfew, so the audience still got the match they paid for.

So.... January, 1987.

It's sometimes difficult to distinguish the B and C cards but plenty of the C shows have "bunkhouse" battle royals on last, won by a variety of guys including Blackjack Mulligan, Sheik, Nikolai, Dick Slater and (hilariously) the Brain. Lots of B towns have Randy Savage mains for the Intercontinental title, interestingly in Long Beach on New Years Day he's got Jake in a cage match despite both still being heels. Most have him with Bruno, Ricky the Dragon or George Steele in non-finishes. Savage vs Steamboat draws 20,000 to the Montreal Forum on 9th and 14,000 to the Philadelphia Spectrum on 10th. Columbus on the 21st gets Savage & Honky Tonk Man (as if) vs Steamboat and the Animal which also has a DQ finish. They draw 10,000 for a first ever show in Huntsville, AL with Roddy Piper vs Adrian Adonis on top. There's all sorts of other main events, with Davey Boy and a variety of substitutes for injured Dynamite going on last with usually Bob Orton & Don Muraco or the Harts, Harley Race is on last on several shows with Tito or JYD and once each, randomly, with Koko and with Haku. Billy Jack Haynes goes on last on a couple with Hercules and Sheik (D shows??) and there are some tag mains with The Dream Team doing the honours for the Can-Ams or The Killer Bees - the latter is at a 10,000 gate at the Nassau where Andre is a guest ref for Piper/Adonis halfway through the show where he helps Adonis get the pin over the unpinnable Piper. The Bees also close Baltimore on 31st with Muraco & Orton but thats an A town with Hogan going on early. There's also a random Tito/Butch Reed cage match main in Lincoln, NE on 19th, a one-off Piper vs Jake on 31st at the Kiel in St Louis, and several shows with Jake vs the Animal in a cage for the main with a superb finish - Jake lets Damian out of the bag then escapes the cage because Steele becomes preoccupied playing with the snake. Lastly for B/C shows there are already some singles looks at Bret with him beating Koko in some towns and getting disqualified against him elsewhere.

A shows? It's Hogan with Kamala, with plenty of clean finishes and the occasional bullshit. They draw 20,500 to the Tacoma Dome on 2nd, 15,500 to Oakland on 3rd, and 17,500 sell out to Maple Leaf Gardens on 11th for a cage match (bullshit escape rules). They meet in Denver on 16th, Winston-Salem on 17th, Miami on the 18th, a sold out MSG in a no-DQ match on 18th, a 9000 gate at the Chicago Rosemont on 23rd, 16,000 sell out at the LA Sports Arena on 24th, and Baltimore on 31st, but the most interesting main event is 29th in Providence as Hogan's actually pinning Jake in a one off.

February was off with a bang as they drew a respectable 10,000 to the Maple Leaf Gardens for a tag of Steamboat & Steele going over Macho Man and Honky via Ricky pinning the Intercontinental champ (incumbent, not “greatest ever”) in the build for Mania. The Richfield Coliseum - home of 3 of the first 6 Survivor Series - has Hogan v Kamala on the same night. Hogan also wrestles Kamala in Québec City on the 2nd, in Los Angeles on the 7th, in Kansas City on the 12th (Savage vs Steamboat underneath), in Cincinnati in the 15th, in Winston-Salem on the 19th and Montréal on the 27th with some of them being under no disqualification rules plus a cage match on the 14th drawing 10,000 to Baltimore. On the 8th, St Paul has Hogan losing to Hercules by count-out to build a rematch for March 1st, and the support is huge with Savage vs Steamboat and Jake starting to get babyface bookings, against Kamala. 13,000 turn up for that one. There is another one off match with Jake on the 28th in Winnipeg which draws 13,000.

Macho Man is again asked to draw a crowd at the B shows wrestling Steamboat in Montréal on the 6th (no disqualification) against Bruno at the Boston Garden on the 7th in a lumberjack match, further matches against the Dragon on the 9th at the Meadowlands, (6000) on the 10th in Columbus (4500) in Pittsburgh on the 13th (11,500) the Philadelphia Spectrum on Valentines Day (19,416) and the Maple Leaf Gardens on the 15th (17,000), Miami on the 19th, Chicago on the 20th. On the 11th in Dayton its Steamboat & Billy Jack against Savage and Hercules, West Palm in Florida gets Steamboat and our own dear Davey Boy beating Randy and Honky, and MSG on 23rd plays host to a monster elimination match where Steamer, Roddy Piper and JYD go over Macho, Harley Race and Adrian Adonis with Piper the sole survivor after back to back pins on The King and the Intercontinental Champion. Fuck! Jake vs Bundy and Harts vs Killer Bees support, about the strongest show you can imagine without the Hulkster. Randy works George Steele 26th and 27th in Rochester and New Orleans, then the 28th St Louis receives a reprise of the eliminator from MSG. Running three shows a night sometimes stretches the roster thin and while there are lots of Piper v Adonis main events on C shows, there are also some questionable ones. Koko vs Bundy gets a fair few. Bret wins one of those Bunkhouse battle royals Feb 9th in San Diego, and while Piper v Adonis is the real main event in Oakland on 11th (6000), the Harts go on last dropping a non-title match to the Can-Ams. The next night in Tacoma, Piper vs Adonis precedes The Harts and Demolition losing to the Bees and the Can-Ams after some mask-switching bollocks, and the same on 14th in Calgary(!). Elsewhere and when we have more battle royals, The Rougeaus vs The Dream Team, Race against JYD, Billy Jack vs Herc, Jake or Tito against the Natural, a few six-man mains of JYD, Jake and Hacksaw against Harley, Bundy and The Brain, and in RVD's hometown of Battle Creek, MI on 22nd, the Harts lose another non-title match, against the Killer Bees.

March the month and the March to WrestleMania III, Hogan's dance card is all about Hercules. Sometimes he's accompanied by Billy Jack, often Herc has Andre with him as well as Bobby Heenan. Sometimes it's non-title, often it's a chain match, sometimes its a handicap match with the Weasel actually in the ring. 1st in St Paul as set up the month before, supported by Piper & JYD vs Adonis & Harley (fuck!), 2nd at the Nassau Coliseum, 6th in Birmingham, 20th in Omaha and a dark match 21st at the Vegas TVs all have Hulk and Herc. The 4th in Indiannapolis its a hadicap against the Brain and Bundy. On the 14th Philadelphia hosts a stop on the Roddy Piper retirement tour as Hogan & Piper go over Kamala and Paul Orndorff. 16th in Denver, its Hogan & The Crusher (really) against Kamala and Honky. Herc doesn't make it to the Rosemont on 19th so Hogan beats Mr Wonderful instead, and then Harley in a dark match on the Phoenix TVs on the 22nd in front of 11,000, and that takes us to Mania.

B and C shows again have a mixed bag. Randy is with the Animal for several shots, there's a few shows where its Steamboat and Steele against Savage and Honky including a decent 9000 sellout in Huntsville on 7th, we have Piper & Tito vs Adonis & Butch Reed on 4th in San Diego and 5th in Albuquerque(though the Harts and Rougeaus go on last), Savage and Honky against Steamboat and the Animal 6th in Providence (7000) and Piper/Jake (sub for JYD) vs Harley & Adonis in Tulsa on the same night, followed by the Harts vs Jake & Hacksaw Duggan(!), there's a repeat of last months eliminator (Piper pinning Savage to survive) 8th in South Bend, IN, and 12th in Syracuse has Ricky, Tito Santana and Billy Jack beating Savage, Bundy and Hercules with former Intercontinental champ Tito standing tall. Next night in Springfield Butch Reed is in for Bundy, the result is the same, then 14th in Baltimore its supposed to be JYD in for Tito but JYD misses it, he's replaced by Koko and HE pins Macho Man to be the sole survivor(!). 15th in Richfield its back to Piper, Steamboat and the Animal over Savage, Harley and Adonis, and fittingly at the early home of Survivor Series as I'm starting to see where they decided this could be a PPV concept. They get to 4 on 4 at the LA Sports Arena on 16th, Blackjack Mulligan subs for JYD and joins Piper, Steamboat and Tito to beat Savage, Race, the Natural and Adorable Adrian. 17th we have Piper/JYD & Jake beating Adonis, Harley & Honky in Waterloo, IA while Savage, Herc and Reed beat Steamboat, Tito and Billy Jack at the Cow Palace. Maybe its fairer to Piper to call some of these "B+" shows rather than C at this point. The next night Steamboats team get revenge in Vancouver, but Piper's got a knock so in Milwaukee so Adonis, Race and Honky lose to Jake, Crusher and Rick Martel, doing double duty after the Can-Ams beat the Dream Team earlier. 19th in Tacoma 6000 come for Steamboat, Tito and Blackjack (in for Piper) against Savage, Adonis and Reed, then the same match headlines Sacramento on 20th for a 11,111 sellout. 

Backtracking, 9th March in Lexington was Piper and Orndorff one on one, 12th in Glens Falls and 13th in Worcester is Piper vs Harley, There's a ton of nights where there are three shows on the same night with no Hulkster anywhere. Some of the "D" shows if we call them such have strong tag team main events, but we've also got a few with Tito vs Butch Reed. Harts vs Bulldogs is the main for several shows including a few through Ontario. There are a couple of big tag team cards which host a tag team tournament with the Harts defending against the winners. 5000 come to the Meadowlands on 8th to see the Can-Ams beat the Dream Team in the final then lose to the Harts with Danny Davis' help, and an 18,000 sell out at the Maple Leaf Gardens see the Killer Bees beat Demolition in that final then do an identical finish with the Harts. Final note on Davis, he can technically say he main evented Berwick High School (PA) on 14th with Koko, although Harts/Bulldogs earlier was the true draw, if you need to name the draw when the WWF runs a high school gym in 1987.

There are surprisingly few domestic house shows in April, no doubt because the office had a lot to do counting the pennies after Mania. Between 7th and 15th they run 7 towns in Quebec including Quebec City and Three Rivers, many of which have the Cam-Ams (Tom Zenk and local hero Rick Martel) beating Harley Race and Hercules on last. In a few of them there are show-closing battles royal, invariably won by Harley. Baltimore on 25th has Randy beating new Intercontinental champ Steamboat by count-out but he gets revenge the next night in Indianapolis beating Savage in a cage as well as 29th in Syracuse and 30th in Troy (NY). 26th at Maple Leaf Gardens and 27th at the Montreal Forum, Harts vs Bulldogs draws respectable numbers and back in the States they’re in a cage 29th in Dayton and 30th in Hershey.  

27th in Columbus, OH sees one return to the elimination format where three rivalries from Mania continue with Ricky, Jake and Billy Jack beating Savage, Honky and Herc. On the same night, while the Harts/Bulldogs crew are in Montreal, there’s a shot in London, Ontario where The Barber pins Adrian Adonis in Adrian’s last match in the WWF, before Brutus wins the show-closing battle royal. The battles royal are a theme of the C shows, won by a variety of guys including Beefcake, Haku and even Paul Roma. Highlights of the undercards are usually only as strong as Brutus vs Johnny Valiant, Moolah defending the womens title against Velvet McIntyre, and Demolition going over either the Young Stallions or the Islanders. The exception being the 28th, where so much of the A/B talent is at TVs that severely depleted cards see Peterborough, Ontario get a show closing battle royal win by Koko, and Rochester finish with Beefer beating former manager Johnny V in a cage, but they at least had Billy Jack v Harley Race and the Rougeaus v the New Dream Team underneath. If you wonder why Beefpiece is working a manager, it’s because they fired Adonis right as that feud was going on the road, for a variety of issues with his attitude outside the ring.

What did Hulk do in April, you may ask? 25th he’s back at with Kamala in Buffalo with a DQ finish when Kimchee interferes, unmasking as Honky Tonk Man to set THAT run up. With a really strong crew in Baltimore, the top storyline matches underneath are Beefcake vs Adonis and Danny Davis beating Tito by count-out. The next night with a Steamboat/Savage crew in Indianapolis and Harts/Bulldogs in Toronto, they present 5 matches at Phoenix Municipal Stadium as an add-on after the Firebirds game (baseball) including The Hulkster going over Bundy. Finally on the 28th - I find this incredible - near 10,000 at the South Bend TVs get Hogan and Ken Patera against Andre and Hercules as a dark main. I’d usually ignore dark matches from TVs in this kind of recap unless they were especially noteworthy, and this is ANDRE so it is.

May is a really straightforward month on non-TV days. When Hogans not about, A show is Savage/Steamboat sometimes in a cage, B show is Harts/Bulldogs often in a cage, C show is Haynes/Herc (often a chain match) with a few variations. On nights that Hogan wrestles, he inherits Savages undercard and Savage and Ricky get added to the Harts’ town to make B+ cards, I guess. Although before month end there are a few D shows too! Hogans back with Kamala in Pittsburgh (9500) on 1st then 2nd at Boston Garden nearly 12,000 see him pin Harley Race but then get beaten up and bloodied to set up a Texas Death Match for next month where Hulk says he’ll retire if he loses(!). May 8th in Richfield (8000) it’s more like an A+ as Hogan vs Race is supported by Harts/Bulldogs in cage. He’s with Race dark at the Anaheim TVs (7500) on 12th (count-out finish??), and in Sacramento on 15th, May 9th has the same setup as Boston go down in Philadelphia, and Hulk takes on Kamala after TV 13th in San Diego (7500) and in Fresno on 14th. 17th at Maple Leaf Gardens they repeat with setup from Boston, and 16,800 come to MSG on 18th for a serving of the same. Hulkster tags with Hacksaw to beat Sheik & Volkoff on 22nd in Providence, pins Macho Man (!) 23rd at the Hartford Civic Center, tags with Koko (subbing for Jake) to beat Kamala and Honky 29th in Pittsburgh before closing with Race on 30th in Baltimore and then Kamala 31st in Detroit - a DQ when Race interferes, Kamala getting a rematch next month.

Your Intercontinental title mains have Steamboat vs Savage in a cage 11 nights in a row on 1st-11th at Nassau (15,275 sellout),in Chicago, Detroit, Peoria, Fort Wayne, Lansing MI, Cincinnati, Springfield, St Louis, Kansas City and Oakland, and reprise the cage 26th in Lake Placid, NY, 29th in Winnipeg and 30th in St Paul. 15th in Houston they have a straight match with no cage and again 16th in Landover which Randy actually wins by count-out, 24th in Peterborough, Ontario, 25th in Verdun, Quebec (Savage by count-out) and 31st in California, PA (Dragon by DQ). 17th-22nd Steamboat isnt around so Randy wrestles Tito on B+ shows, alternating the last match spot with the Harts/Bulldogs cage match. The Harts/Bulldogs headlined shows are a straight matches 3rd in Clemson SC, 5th (Lumberjack) in Miami, and cage matches 6th in Tampa, 7th in West Palm Beach, 11th in Tucson, 16th in Calgary, 19th in Eugene OR, 20th in Portland, 21st in Spokane, 23rd in Salt Lake City, 24th in Columbus, 25th in Louisville, 26th in Flint MI, 27th in Lansing MI and 28th in RVD country (Battle Creek).

The first seven nights of May, your C shows have the Herc/Billy Jack chain matches on last with only Moolah/McIntyre title matches worth mentioning underneath, in small towns and venues like the Westchester Community College (X-Men??) in Valhalla, NY. 8th through 11th that crew are swapped out with Tito and Butch Reed on top, Hillbilly vs Sika and Stallions vs The Shadows are out and Killer Bees vs Muraco & Orton are in. 14th through 31st Hercules and Haynes are on headlining in plenty of towns like Duluth, MN, Bakersfield etc, often supported by the Glamour Girls defending the Womens tag titles (sometimes on last) and there are often D shows on the same days although reports are usually incomplete - Koko v Danny Davis, Hillbilly v Honky and battles royal are frequent features. On 24th the Tito/Reed card has a bonus main of Duggan & Ken Patera vs Sheik & Volkoff. Last shows of note for the month - while Detroit gets an A+ show with Hogan and the Harts on the same show, the C show actually happens at the Nassau Coliseum but there are interesting happenings - The Natural beats Tito in a rematch after a time limit draw on the show at the start of the month, Herc and Billy Jack have their regular match but on last there is an elimination match with Brutus and the Rougeaus going over the New Dream Team and Johnny V.

Boston Garden show here - Demolition v Islanders, Hogan vs Harley in the middle, Harts and Bulldogs on last.

 

 

June is a bit chaotic with comings and goings and Steamboat dropping the belt to Honky prompts a re-shuffle. There’s a few cards where Steamboat still comes out as Intercontinental Champion after losing it depending if the title change has aired in that area yet or not, and there’s a lot of changes to the touring crews as things go on. Hogan draws near 9000 to the Rosemont on 5th then 6th at the Boston Garden he starts working those Texas Death Match rematches with King Harley. 7th at the Maple Leaf (10,000), 13th in St Louis, 14th at MSG (14,246) all get this battle. 19th at the Atlanta Omni, Hulks back with Kamala. Next night at the Philadelphia Spectrum there’s a tag with Hogan and Ken Patera against Harley and Hercules, 23rd in Indianapolis 10,500 come to see the Race defence and the night after, the tag sells out the Louisville Gardens and Hulks back with Kamala 26th in Houston and 27th in Detroit to close his month. It’s crazy that six months into the year there are still cities seeing Hogan vs Kamala for the first time.

For identifiable B shows… of course, there’s a Harts/Bulldogs roster, 1st in Syracuse, then two weeks off, then cage matches 15th in Springfield, 16th in Nashville, 17th in Huntsville, 18th in Montgomery AL, then straight matches 19th in Peoria, 20th in Fort Wayne, a B+ in South Bend on 21st with Honky and Jake on last, and another cage match 22nd in Erie, PA. 25th the Harts beat the Can-Ams In Jackson Missouri, then on the 26th at the Pittsburgh Civic they’re back in the cage with the Bulldogs which draws the lowest attendance at the venue in nine years. The Harts wrestle the Killer Bees on the 29th at the Montréal Forum and again on the 30th in London, Ontario in a B+ show with Honky and Bruno on last, to finish their month.

Steamboats the draw with Kamala 1st in Glens Falls, JYD on last with Nikolai, replacing hometown hero Duggan, temporarily sacked for the legendary kayfabe-busting drugs bust, Savage and Koko underneath. There’s a few incomplete reports but Savage is on top 4th in Poughkeepsie, beating the Dragon on 5th in Richfield in a lumberjack match (3000 in a venue that held more than double) and losing to him 6th in a cage in Landover. Ricky’s still wearing the belt he’s already taped losing there, and next night in Sacramento and 8th in Fresno actually losing to Hercules by count-out, 9th and 10th at the Cow Palace and LA Sports he does the same finish with Mr Wonderful - on all four, Demolition and the Bees go on last. 10th in Fort Myers, FL, and 12th in West Palm, local hero Randy Savage main events with “fellow heel” Honky. 14th-18th there’s a loop through Tucson, Phoenix, Albuquerque, El Paso and Birmingham with the double punch of Steamboat v Savage grudge matches and Honky v Bruno for the belt. 19th in Winston-Salem, Jake’s back from injury and actually has Honky doing a clean job to him non-title (DDT) on top of Savage pinning Ricky. 21st in South Bend it’s Honky/Jake for the belt with a non finish, same night in Columbus and next night in Lexington I might be stretching “B show” with Steamboat v Kamala mains supported by Glamour Girls defending and Rougeaus v New Dream Team. 22nd in New Haven we have Savage vs Tito, 26th in Flint MI it’s Honky v Jake, 27th in Baltimore a real B+ show where Randy has to work Outback Jack and a strange heel vs heel outing for the Harts losing by count-out to Demolition but the main is a battle royal won by Bruno, while Honky v Jake closes Dayton the same night and RVD town on 28th. Finally on the 30th in Sacramento, Randy is strangely halfway up the card with fellow heel Butch Reed, while the main is Ken Patera & Billy Jack over Hercules and Killer Khan, setup by the DQ finish to Patera v Orndorff (who misses this show) earlier in the month.

Finally, your C shows, and I’m being a little harsh to some talents here. Billy Jack and Herc are still doing their chain match on 1st in Kitchener, Ontario. Omaha on 4th has Koko pinning Honky because Honky hasn’t won the belt in TV yet, it’s Tito and The Natural on 5th in Oklahoma City. 7th in Houston is geared to the locals with Tito, Sam Houston, a fresh Ted DiBiase vs One Man Gang underneath and JYD on last with Nikolai. Wichita Falls has the same on 17th, Odessa on 19th. 8th at the Meadowlands 4000 show up for a battle royal win by Koko and the closest to a main event underneath are Tito & Pedro vs The Islanders or the Can-Ams vs Orton & Muraco. Salisbury MD next night has the same Can-Ams tag, Koko and Reed, The Animal v Danny Davis on last. Cedar Rapids on 11th and Des Moines on 12th have Herc against Patera and Billy Jack respectively, supported by Demolition vs the Bees, 13th in Providence he’s with Patera again underneath the Can-Ams, the Beefcake/Rougeaus v Dream Team eliminator and JYD v Orndorff on last. Nassau Coliseum (3000) on 25th is uncharacteristically weak featuring the Bulldogs vs the Islanders, Patera vs Herc, JYD with Butch and perhaps wisely, on last is what I believe was the first match between the Glamour Girls and The Jumping Bomb Angels. First but definitely not the last. Finally 28th in Scranton (of Dunder Miflin fame) and 29th in Uniontown PA your strongest match is Bulldogs vs Demolition, the latter being what seems to be the first house show for a certain Dingo Warrior.

A last note or two of historic interest for June, those earlier Texas shows have generic Ted DiBiase being helped by Sam Houston against the heels. This is paid off on the June 26th Houston show (Hogan v Kamala headlining) when DiBiase turns heel on Sam while they’re wrestling Gang and Ron Bass. That trip to RVD town I mentioned on the 28th? By here Teddy is The Million Dollar Man complete with Virgil, and he’s picking a young man out of the crowd to kiss his feet for $100, which they filmed for a TV vignette. And that young man was RVD.

https://www.wwe.com/videos/rob-van-dam-earns-some-extra-money-wrestling-challenge-aug-8-1987

 

Edited March 15 by air_raid
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[air_raid]

Here’s a quick one as I haven’t finished the deep dive into the second half of 1987….

There’s a great look I could have at the matches Bret Hart had in singles in 1989 against heels on the road as they had their semi-regular look at how popular he was with a view to splitting the Foundation, and he worked long runs with Rick Martel, Mr Perfect and Dino Bravo. However I just stumbled upon something of real note ; 17-18th November in Hershey, at the Meadowlands and at the Philly Spectrum, Bret wrestles three babyface matches with Tito Santana which all go to double count-outs. I’d love to know what led to these bookings even though I suspect it was odd man out on the booking sheets, and I’d love to know what that match looked like at that point in Brets career with both as babyfaces.

[BomberPat]

25 minutes ago, air_raid said:

Bret wrestles three babyface matches with Tito Santana which all go to double count-outs. I’d love to know what led to these bookings

A few years later, when they were about to put the belt on Bret, Tito was apparently another option they were considering - it basically came down to Bret giving them leverage in the Canadian and European markets over hoping that Tito would help open up Mexico and South America. 1989 feels too early for that to be a significant part of the decision-making process, but I wonder if they were testing the waters around which of the two the audience would get behind even then.

[air_raid]

1 hour ago, BomberPat said:

A few years later, when they were about to put the belt on Bret, Tito was apparently another option they were considering - it basically came down to Bret giving them leverage in the Canadian and European markets over hoping that Tito would help open up Mexico and South America.

I’ve heard that, but I’ve never given it much credibility. I believe they considered the guy that Vince trusted to go on last in front of 80,000 fans. I find it hard to believe they considered the guy that was their first choice when Kerry Von Erich was arrested and they needed someone to do a clean job for Papa Shango.