Ep. 388: NWA's Halloween Havoc 1989 (Part 1)

It's the Lapsed Fan Wrestling podcast with Jack and carn s e O and JP
Sorrow who's a lapsed fan in all my years and wrist plan you never seen
anything. And it's the laps fan man, not the one in the ring
to get about Osado. He the real king of swing with the bell goes
egg and the kick like me. It's in the corner with its rash like
stick. Even Jerry King can take off the crowd nodded in his head like
his tee Low Brown would just getting low down, got even high up,
flipp you on your head. But you know coul tribal spiting mow and dragon
spits fire. If you more shot than when age tree tire dropping more truth
than the con of sniper. Bless you with a coconut, Roddy Piper checking
JP he a jat D drop the cupcakes and golden the brain. Bob means
the best podcast first start to close, flop you all befits a classic and
polls. I don't know, Boss, we're not close enough to Halloween to
be doing this. Well, where's six months out and there's no better way
to There's no better holiday to get ready for early than Halloween, and there's
no better way to do it, I agree, than to take in the
very first in WA slash WCW Halloween Havoc nineteen eighty nine, selected completely at
random at the conclusion of last week's show, and Unforgiven nineteen ninety nine.
Yes, indeed, and boss, this is where the spookiness begins. Yes,
I imagine that's that's true in many ways. How far back to your
Halloween havoc memories? Even? Go? Oh god? Uh ninety four?
Yeah right, that's that's what I was thinking. Maybe maybe ninety three.
I mean, I know that the only one that I ever got on pay
per view was ninety four, but maybe they go back as far as ninety
three. I don't. I don't know. It's funny because I have this
like vague memory of no, I'm sorry ninety two. Of course, how
can I forget ninety two? Yes, I knew all about it ninety two
because I was so excited for sting Jake Roberts. Yes, having come over
after the Savage hangle. Yes, no, the Undertaker angle. But yes,
but there was a play. If you the listen, those who fucking
know those those decade of destruction TLF Solar System members know that when we did
Halloween Havoc nineteen ninety two, it was after I believe we did Tuesday in
Texas, and there was a funny thing there that I have always remembered is
in the PWI ninety two issue, of the year end issue of PWI,
they did there was a thing where they talked about sting Jake getting bitten by
his own snake. And in the PWY year end issue there was a comment
that said, you know, somewhere Randy Savage was laughing hysterically wow. As
a connection to the year before with with Tuesday and Texas and the on the
snake bite angle. That was the the privilege that PWI enjoyed is it could
do cross promotional fantasy storylines yep, exactly, and it could just kind of
recall, you know, it could it could recall things about other promotions,
you know, in relation to events happening in another promotion. It didn't have
to pretend that Jake Roberts would have forgotten everything that happened to him in WIPH
and he went to Pristy, Right. But yeah, my Halloween Havoc memories
go back probably to around this time period. I can't place the year,
probably ninety or ninety one, because I have these these vague recollections, as
I've talked about over ten years on TLF of watching WCW sparingly, I was
definitely a WWF kid, but you know, catching glimpses of a Saturday night
here or there, and I remember I remember, feel like, wow,
this is like they're leaning into darkness over on this show. Yes, yes,
because of course every show looked dark, you know, using center stage
is the taping venue. They had that deep blue navy canvas back then.
Yeah, yeah, and it was like, wow, this is like it
almost felt more adult, like the spookiness wasn't childish. Yep. Somehow for
me, I can understand that. I can feel that it was more like
the way a legitimately scary movie would have been translated into an eight bit Nintendo
game. Yes, how those graphics would have looked. And this is Turner
Home Entertainment, which of course took over the pay per view distribution business for
Jim Crockett Promotions went to Turner and Company purchased Jim Crockett Promotions in November of
nineteen eighty eight, kind of deciding, you know how can we really put
some Hollywood panash on how we market these pay per views? Yes? What
about Sharon Sidello over the years was pretty much the person within WCW that was
responsible for spending the budget to do like mini movies and things like that.
Right, and this was a huge in the White Castle of Fear. Right.
So they decide on these themes, these halloween shows, these holiday shows,
and and then they decide on like the the look and feel of them,
and you know, putting Alvira in the video package before they had any
idea who's actually going to wrestle, coming up with a thunderdome cage before they
really even knew who it was appropriate to plug in. It was almost like
what wrestlers took part in the theme was less important than the theme to the
new Turner Home Entertainment people that suddenly had tons of sway through Jim, It's
like Helena Cell It's like elimination chamber. You know what's going to happen,
you don't. It doesn't matter who's going to be there, absolutely who's going
to be in it? And look warmth okay, warmth very simple. Yeah,
it's a concept that puts me where I need to be, you know,
associating a wrestling pay per view with a holiday that I associate with being
free as a kid. Yes, and being catered to by the larger culture.
Yes, yes, And it was just so cool because WWF did nothing
around Halloween. Nothing. No, it's kind of funny. You know.
The the closest they ever did with Halloween was actually Survivor Series. And and
you know, I remember ninety two Survivor Series. I I recall like it
actually had a very Halloween feel to it. You know, there was the
casket match. A lot of the graphics had were dark with like dark purple
and trees with no leaves, wow, and stuff like that. There was
a lot of that. But that's the Survivor serves by the way, that
ends with fucking Santa Claus coming out right exactly of course, Yes, well
a bunch did that back then. No better way to bridge Halloween than have
a Halloween show end with Christmas. It was a Thanksgiving show for real,
but there was Yeah, yeah, you're right, and you know they by
tucking it into NXT, right, NXT has as today, so bums me
out, like, give it to the fucking main main roster. Yeah,
it will be about Pauloveck's vision. See how far it goes, like because
you know, you don't need you don't need Helen to cell. Like great
if you you can symbolize Helen a cell, but but have it be Halloween
Havoc Alan Havioc should have a Helen a cell match. It's fine, yeah,
exactly. You don't need to know, you don't even need to announce
that every year it's going to have a hell, you know, hell and
a cell. It just it just happens. And I mean that was you
know, Vince was so dismissive of anything from war Games, anything Dusty came
up with that anyone else came up with, really, particularly Dusty, that
it was almost like a bad word. You know, Triple H had to
sort of what's the word incubate these Dusty concepts within the confines of NXT and
and you know he could even do a War Games on main roster until Vince
was out of power for the first time if you remember that was that fall
when they first did it in Boston. I don't remember when I was out
of power. Well, I didn't mean you. I was talking to JP
on that one. Well, I'm still not out of power. Well,
I'm glad to hear it because I heard the Hurricane came through last week.
So now we you know what. He's not on contract anymore. The Hurricane
Elms Lenny Helms Lee. Yes, I think that was that was gonna be
Hurricane's name when he teamed with Jimmy Wang Yang. I believe. So they
had, you know, they had this aversion to talking about a concept like
Halloween Havoc for forever, and so it had to be a bad idea,
right, it just had to be right within the brain trust, and it
wasn't. It was fucking tremendous, is what it was. A great idea.
I loved. I love the cheesy graphics. I love everything about it.
There's not a bad thing about Halloween Havock. And i'd imagine this is
the first time you've seen the very first one. Yes, what did you
think? Just overall in terms of of course, there's the Thunderdome, cage
match, flair and stags fucking mudah, you know there was I'll tell you
what it was. It was kind of a plotting show for me at times.
But you know what, I thought'd be fascinating and probably one of the
most exciting things. The crowd. The crowd was just off the fucking chain
there in Philadelphia. Yeah, yep, you know, I know, Philly
is one of those crowds. It's like a New York crowd, and they're
gonna kind of not necessarily go with with the booking decisions in terms of who
they choose. But like I was, I was stunned at some of them.
You know, It's just I was amazed at just kind of the reactions
that some of them, some of the guys got. It was wild.
Philly was always the fact that they fucking I guess here's the thing, the
fact that they fucking cheered Microtunda. Uh you know, I'm listening. I'm
know Tom Zenk fan. Yeah all right, but I'll tell you what I
think. If I had to choose, if I had a gun to my
head and had to choose one or the other, I think I'm gonna choose
Tom Zank over micro Unda. Only uh, only Philly could scream Syracuse sucks
at Mike Rotunda for twenty percent of the match but still end up somehow cheering
for him more than right, Tom, And they fucking like pop for they
pop for every fucking move that he did. Yet at the same time,
you know, right, they stand cheer chanted Syracuse sucks, and then booed
the shit out of fucking Tom's sink. They you know, Philadelphia has no
tolerance for cookie cutter baby faces or people they perceive to be, you know,
just like over the top, friendly, smiley babyfaces. They want to
see Sting murdered. They're fine with Sting. Well, yeah, that's true.
They're fine with Sting. But he's an ass kicker. He's not a
gladder, that's true. He's intense. He's not smiley with dropkicks. I'm
like the Dynamic dudes, for instance, you had a fucking chance in front
of this crowd, not at all, and I've given them. There are
two people that I can't fucking stand. To begin with it with a wonderful
sight as much as as much as as much as I hate the fucking this
this incarnation of the Free Birds, and Michael Hayes and Jimmy Garvin in general,
I'll tell you what I think I might hate. Shane Douglas and Johnny
Ace Moore. Oh, you would have had a lot of company in Philly
on this night in nineteen eighty nine. I can tell you that the Freebird's
one of the most over acts on the whole show. Sure, totally,
as they're out there peacocking in the face of you know, the just the
overall childish presentation. I mean, Philly was a crowd that said, all
right, at WA, I want guys who are going to fuck up the
heels. Yes, and unless the Babyfaces are people who are fucking people up,
I don't give a shit about them, yep. And that's why I'd
come to an NWA show versus a WWF show. You It's not like when
wwfkme to Philly, they bowed the fuck out of the baby Faces, but
I felt like the wrestling fans who would attend and support, and they were
in the thousands. This is pretty much a packed house in the civic center.
A WCWS show in this era, a Crockett promotion show, for instance,
when they would go to Pennsylvania. We're doing it with a to make
a statement that we're going to support the acts that WWF won't go with because
they're a little too dangerous. Yes, road warrior style, a little too
sharp edged even sid I mean, Jesus, do we need to keep going
on about how Sid comes off in this era. Sid in the late eighties
early nineties, w is a fucking monster. Everyone wants him. Everyone wants
Sid. Sid wants nothing to do with anybody else, But everybody wants Sid.
Why do they want said? What do you mean when you say that?
Because because he's he's an animal, he's a beast, he's a fucking
he's he's an uncollared bulldog. Everybody wants Sid. Everyone wants Sid. We
talked about it when we did our war games and therefore Great American Bashed nineteen
eighty nine, where he teams with Dan Spivey of course in the Skyscraper's tag
team at the time. And people are just on a different, a different
octave. Yes, when it comes to reacting to Sid versus just about anybody
else in the card back then. I mean, you knew you had to
go with that hand at some point, and it's it's it's a stack roster.
You talk about Flair, Oh for sure, Sting Luger, Oh good?
Sid? Is there muta udha Steiners? Yes? And do the Steiners
launch fuckers on their heads on the stage? They do, Yes, they
do. I'm glad that they can fucking launch because they certainly can't speak this
fucking show. Yeah them and stings promo too. It's like, oh boy,
oh god, there were some boxes that are the top faces were not
checking at the time, and Scotts like, at least at least Rick had
an excuse because he was supposed to play someone who may have some uh uh
Eugene you know, yeah, right, basically he was Eugene in it,
but Scott no, no excuse, man, But he sounded much more Eugene
than absolutely. It's it's so it's such a sign of the times kind of
show. It says so much about where w CW found themselves under Turner Broadcasting
at the time. And it's on that line between do we call it n
W A or WCW anyway, Yes, right right, certainly see the WCW
logo we'd come to know represented in several graphs for the show, including on
the pumpkinhead that they show in the home Havic logo. At the same time,
though they're referring countlessly to NWA on the broadcast. Well, he's still
the NBA champion, right, He's not even the WCW champions, the NWA
champion. Still, that's absolutely correct, Flare, but I mean they're not
to the point they would were in eighty eight where it literally says or even
earlier in eighty nine where it literally says NWA in the ring apron right ring
apron is blank. So we have yet to make that switch to the blue
with the black WCW letters, which I think super Bowl nineteen ninety I know
it drives me to not to any time we do a WW show from this
ere, I go back and I tell myself what we're already decided, which
show would there? You always forget it. There was no super Bowl nineteen
ninety, so you're wrong about that. February and eighteen ninety, I think
is in the time period that would be that would be Russell War. I
don't think that's correct. Actually, now Russell War is the first one with
WW on the apron. I'm gonna cause I'm I know Star KD eighty nine
didn't, but just I don't think I feel like I could be wrong,
but I feel like star K ninety doesn't have it either. Fascinating, but
I do feel like The Great American batt where Sting takes the belt off Flair
for the first time, does have it. Well, that would be ninety
right. Well, I'm gonna come to I'm going to investigate. I'm gonna
investigate this shit. So they're feeling their way around about what the branding is
going to be. Jim Hurds been in control for you know what eight months
now, and Sarah Dipity up the ass by the way, what yeah,
I know Philly. Okay, how much time have we been thinking about time
in Philly? How much more fucking Philly can we get? Right? Acquainting
ourselves with the wrestling culture there here is a real exhibit, a kind of
show for what it means to be a Philly wrestling fan, particularly during the
WWFWCW War And what about Funk? We did the entire lapsed Funk and when
it came to this electrified cage match, we kind of skipped over it.
It didn't really fit, you know, we made reference to it, but
it wasn't like a singular Terry Funk performance, and it certainly didn't fit into
what you know, chiefly characterized his nineteen eighty nine and really this entire w
CW run for him, which of course is the Flair series. So you
had him against Flair at the Wrestle War Anger. Are you ready for this?
I think so. The first, the first at least pay per view
that has that beautiful, beautiful black and yellow logo with the blue background is
Capital Combat nineteen ninety. There it is not Russell War. What month was
Capital Combat? May March March of nineteen ninety Okay, I remember it is
sort of first quarter, yeah, but not Russell War, which came out,
which was in December of February, and that was sting in Luga,
right, No, Singing Lugur Was Russell Ward were one? I believe?
Yeah? H No, No, Wrestward onetyon one was War Games, yes,
but where Sid drops Pilman on his head. Super Brawl too was Stinging
Luger super brawl too? Okay, Just amazing that that we're not there yet
and we we don't know quite what to call it. We've got still the
crosscurrent on the announced team. You've got Jim Ross, but you've got you
know, the JCP legacy in something Jim Jim, Jim Jim. I'll tell
you, Jim Jim Jim Jim. Well you know, Jim, I just
sat here and a little poop came out and Nights and I said, Okay,
huh, Jim, how far you can go in the wrestling business just
being a nice guy? And is so he he is, he is on
this show. He really brings the habit. And then we've got Gordon.
He definitely brings the havoc to the announced booth, no question. Gordon backstage
trying to make like proclamations and trying to troll the wrestlers. Essentially, well,
yeah, if you've been a two time Jammi, and that means you've
lost it twice back to you. Jim rocked up, no question about it.
So ordinary. He's got like, you know, he's got about four
cigarettes going at the same time, like he's got off you know, right
off there's like an ash tray with four cigarettes going at any given time,
and he is just he's he's just kind of mowing them each down. And
one little bit of the thing. I mean, Jesus, look into the
eyes of Chris Cruise. Could I not? Could I? Like never?
Like, like what is with this fucking clown? Like he he comes and
goes in the WCW landscape like nothing, like you know, you go,
you go so much time without him and then all of a sudden he fucking
pops up at World War three and is one of the six commentators on that
ship. And then you know it's like you go again and a couple of
years and all of a sudden, it's like, oh, here he is
at fucking Halloween havoc. Yeah, this is his first show six years prior.
It was his first shows, first pay per view. They brought him
in and he would do worldwide with Terry Funk. Remember when we did the
Lapsed Funk, we talked about how Funk felt sort of pushed into retirement.
That they would signal things in their magazine and on their television shows that he
was pretty much transitioning out. He had agreed to television announcing, but to
hear the funk Er tell it years later, he didn't quite agree to pair
that with a strict retirement from the ring. But that's how Jim heard and
the rest of the company decided to see it, and that kind of pissed
Funk off. But for that short period of time where Funk was really transitioning
into an announcing life, it was him and Chris Cruise. Tony Shavanni,
of course, has gone to WWF because when herd came in in consolidated power.
He told Jim Ross that he would be the voice of TBS Wrestling,
which Shavanni had been for what three years prior to the takeover, and that
Schevanni would be the voice of ww syndicated programming, which Shavanni saw as a
demotion and probably should have sure, as Jim Ross was very slick and very
politically astute in aligning himself with Jim Hurd in such a way that he had
power as a producer voice in the booking committee in addition to being the lead
voice of World Championship Wrestling, and does a fine job I think on this
broadcast. Sure, yeah, you know, I mean there are there's an
a single collegiate football credit that is left unreferenced on this nun none, let's
unreferenced. And also he has got an incredible and absolutely unreal amount of run
on sentences in the show. Something tells me we'll be hearing some of those
in this episode of the Last Fans. Yes, yeah, you know that
might come up. That might come up. So it's it's really a treat.
Pardon it's a trick as well. Yep, brother to dig into this
one. What do you mean what I mean to alarm? But I will
say that during a fire on the top of the cage, you've never seen
this before, having no, no, no, no, I hadn't seen
this before. I didn't know there was a fire on top of the fucking
cage. So they're trying to sort of dress up the pay per view with
all these things that have nothing to do with booking pro wrestling, nothing to
do with pro wrestlers, but have to do with just you know, color
schemes and yeah, you know decor. I mean, I'll also say too,
By the way, I also had a very unique version of this show
because I didn't watch the network version. I have one that was given to
us that was the complete unabridged show, which is vital because so many entrances
are just rendered lifeless. On the peacock, I sat there just blown away
by the music. Oh that was chosen effects. I mean, real music
makes great wrestling. Custom music almost always makes inferior wrestling. Period. Well,
I'll tell you what. I'll disagree with you on that because I do
think that a wrestler having their own specific theme song. Granted, I don't
like the dubs that the WWE does. I wish they would just suck it
up and pay the fucking royalty fees of a song. They don't have enough
guaranteed money to do that. But at the same time, uh, you
know, I can't appreciate certain wrestlers with certain songs, no question, but
this was downright distracting that they're using score score they really they really don't even
try to approximate the songs nine times out of ten, they fucking they just
had this Halloween themed score going on pretty much. And you know what,
they actually used that the Halloween theme for all for fucking sake, they actually
used John Carpenter's theme for Halloween with the fucking headshrinkers did. Yes, they
did. What the fuck? It's amazing, what the fuck so good?
I mean, you got to try to find this version. Shout outs to
the homie Matt from making it happen. On my end, I was able
to see much of the same. One edit that blew my mind is not
so much sound, but in the credit role that they used to do with
the end of pay per views who they for some reason on Peacock edited out
the names of people from Turner Home Entertainment that contributed to producing this media.
Damn right, they skip that in the credit role. Don't listen know on
from Turner Entertainment is gonna fucking make out of my goddamn show. I mean,
that's the only conclusion I could reach is that that was the call.
That's so funny talk about lapsed funk. You know, here he is.
And as sort of abortive as the concept was that the steel cage, this
thunderdome cage, is electrified and that somehow if the wrestlers climb to a certain
peak on the cage, they will literally be shocked and zapped with electricity kind
of fell by the wayside as as aforementioned, there was a legitimate fire that
broke out on one of the props at the top of the cage where they
were supposed to be electrified. This and that the funker he's in there,
being Terry Funk in a steel cage, yes, of course. I mean
what do we see from the funker here? I mean we see just a
guy who's completely out of his mind. Yes, he he, He climbs
the cage, he falls from the cage, He fucking dances around, He
straddles the cage, straddles the cage. He's just like, you know,
it's like it's like he climbed. He climbs the cage and then kind of
yells in a way that makes you think, like, what while I'm on
the cage, where I get on my goddamn cage? There are moments he's
got one foot on a rope, vic, how do I get up here?
He's calling for VIC? I mean because it's sort of like hell in
the cell and that there's like, you know, some space between the cage
and the ring apron. Yeah, right, it's it's definitely, it's kind
of funny. I in many ways I found this to be more like Helen
his cell than the Last Battle of Atlanta, Last Battle of Atlanta. Sure,
and this is also like sort of kennel Kennel from Hell in some ways.
Yes, yes it is, Yes it is, and he uh,
you know there there's more than one moment in the match where he's got one
foot on the rope of the ring and another foot on a bar of the
cage, which is like, what the hell's going on here? I don't
even know what what dance I'm at? How did you end up? How
did you end up in this position of course, there's just this general absurdity
of like, yeah, that only the top of the cage is electrified,
why would anybody climb up there? Who's climbing the fucking cage and can't wait
to dig into the thunderdome. It's very it's very thematic with the Kennel from
Hell last week in terms of cage matches gone wrong. Yes, the match
is very exciting to watch, but you can tell that whatever they had in
mind in terms of delivering on the step of this cage just technologically fell apart
and they just did a match. It's just there are so many stupid things
that about this about the match that really it's like, there's some great action
in there, but there's also some real issues that are a detriment to the
whole fucking thing. Sounds like WCW in nineteen eighty nine. To me,
I'll say, yeah, a year that's, of course is celebrated in terms
of ww's matches. It's one of the best in terms of a match for
match output from the company. Ric Flair of course, kind of has the
book. It's it's kind of a ceremonial title and that he you know,
can exert as much or as little authority as he wants with the booking committee
concept of you're Kevin Sullivan's, Jim Cornett's to some degree, Edi Gilbert,
though he exits in eighty nine. Jim Ross also with some input deciding you
know the direction. Really it's Jim Hurd though, you know, making the
decisions in sort of a top down way. M h. Ellie Henderson of
course comes in as well. He's the terminator for the Rick Flair sting team.
This is the terminology they use, the terminator. I just there's no
okay, you've already you've already created an overbooked match in the idea that you've
got a cage, a giant cage, a bigger than normal cage, a
tag team, and it's electrified at a certain point. And I get it
to do this, to have this kind of of a stipulation, you're having
it so that nobody actually has to do a job. Now, I when
you were a kid, even when you were when you were a teenager,
and even during like the attitude era, and even during the eras where you
knew it was fake, did a loss mean that much to you? I
don't know. I tend a loss to forget who lost, you know,
like the person who lost it is like I forgot about him. To me,
I'm always like the person who lost one night can easily win the next
night. Yeah, I was always under that impression. Just because somebody now
granted building somebody up to be a main event person, that's different. But
just because they lost one match doesn't If they keep losing, then yes,
then that's a whole different thing, right, But I don't know why there
needed to be a stipulation where nobody had to do the job. To me,
this just sounds like ego, especially when they can just put the heat
on them. I mean, I just I hate it. To me,
this whole thing was like, so wait, we're relying on so why are
we even fighting? You know, It's like, at what point because the
match relies completely on two individuals who have nothing to do with the in ring
action, so and and both of them said they're not going to throw in
the towel, So what's the point just to name the other person in a
way they can't get away? You know, it's even harder. It doesn't,
It just does not. It does not work with me, and I
sit there. I hate I hate those kinds of throwing the towel matches.
I think they're so fucking stupid. Yeah, because the fact that it relies
on somebody else, that the match is going to keep going on and on
and on, that the inringaction is so inconsequential that I just I don't like
it. And I don't know why a towel holder, right, it doesn't
make it insconsequentially. I mean, you have to torture the guy to the
point that the guy's corner feels compelled to throw in the towel. I don't
fucking give a ship, but it is. It becomes about Gary Hart and
only Anderson's moral compass. Right, It's like I just sit there and not
throw it in. I don't know, and they didn't even do a legit,
and I know this lark or Gary Hart just like lets the towel loose
when only Inderson. I mean it says the the that finishes as bad to
me as as as Kevin Nash not doing a power bomb on Sid in that
power bomb match and then saying, look I power that power bomb. Then
that's what all he does. Look through the towel and it's on you brought
up. Yes, yes, By the way, we've got to mention Bruno
sim Martino special for the Thunderdome because he's such a traditionalist. You know,
Thunderdome is you know, this is a big thing. Never seen any kind
of match like that, Yeah, you certainly haven't. The thing I hate
about what a McMahon has done to the business is that he is he's taken
it in such a cartoonish direction. You know, when I was a headliner,
we would never have these over the top concepts, these wild old cage
matches. And meanwhile he's turning into a French Canadian. It's like, as
I do this, it kind of sounds like and honestly, what he speaks
like, he doesn't. You know, I wouldn't. I wouldn't actually guess
that he's Italian just by his his weird accent. It's interesting, but you
know, but what means more to Bruno than preserving his beloved traditions about wrestling,
is is doing something to fuck with Vince McMahon, right, and so
helping to draw you know, the fans that had a connection to him and
Phil Alpha from the seventies and in the late sixties to non ww of pay
per view in that city put me in a cage. Don't give a fuck
not to say he was thrilled when he found out exactly what his assignment would
be. And I feel like, in apologies for not running this down,
I just couldn't bring myself to care. But I feel like Chris Cruz has
some sort of allegiance with Bruno and they kind of came as a package deal.
I'm pretty sure Chris Cruise is from there. And Gary Juster too,
who was the big you know, live events made and especially he called him
his hero. Yeah in his in his pre match interview. Yeah, yeah,
they're definitely They're definitely close. I just don't know if I can say
definitively they came as a package deal here. It seems pretty clear they did.
And that Gary Juster, who was you know, the guy that worked
in live event promotions for Jim Crockett and you know, got them into Baltimore.
He was like a key liaison for them in the East Coast cities outside
of traditional mid Atlantic strength areas, was also someone that Jim Cornett said in
his podcast Bruno was brought in as a favorite of Gary Juster and Jim Cornette
was part of the creative brain trust such as it was it n WAWCW at
the time, So take that for what it's worth. But we'll get to
all that. The mosaic that is Halloween Havoc nineteen eighty nine as a tradition
worth preserving is created on that fucking cast. But before we dive into all
of the particular's boss, we are obliged to remind folks of a couple of
things. Yes. First of all, as the weather starts to turn and
we finally start to feel like it's spring instead of some headfake winter, at
least in this part of the country, it might be time to start thinking
about how you will present to the public when you can get out there showing
a little bit more skin. You know, we're not experts in this realm,
but we do know where to point to you if you're looking for a
referral. We're the general practitioner, you know. Yes, indeed, if
you need a specialist in terms of getting your shit into shape and your ass
into gear, we're going to send you to the TLF approved nutrition specialists over
it tighten nutrition, and could it make any more sense than they be called
literally tighten nutrition. We want to remind you hit that again. For anyone
wanting to optimize leene muscle and recover from a workout should be using a protein
supplement. The problem is many of these powdered protein dreams taste like chalk,
and they don't mix easily on the go. We found a solution. Wait
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go. But we found a solution tight Nutrition's namesake. You know what I
think? I think. I think the people of the United States of America
have an opportunity to mix politics in this in this uh, this upcoming election.
Yeah, that's the problem. We don't mix politics into enough of American
life these days. I would agree with that, Jess, because we're talking
about third party. Yes, is Bobby Kennedy calling you back anymore? I
believe that that that that Robert Kennedy and I would make the uh the utmost
of an opportunity in the White House, up most of an opportunity. Any
other smithing for us, Jess, any other clear and president indications that you're
the man for the Oval office? Can I tell you this is this is
I tell you that this is random fucking thing. So I was on Thursday.
I had to I was in New York and as I'm driving home,
I just started speaking like Jesse Ventura having reading fucking uh you know highway signs,
hey age of thirty two the Guardia International Airport. Look at that.
I mean it's the LFX, right. I mean, we've created a legion
across not only in the United States, but across the world of people.
I mean they're they're small in number, but they are mighty, and they
are walking through grocery stores mumbling to themselves in the accents of various wrestlers.
We've got different different exits for all the you know this, uh, the
the the the, the Grand Central Parkway Airport. We have cars, locomotives.
I always thought it would make sense to sell custom voices for GPS devices
based on God. I would love it. I would love that. Just
Ventura tell me where to go. I personally would pick Kevin Nash, which
I know is surprise from me, but for that purpose, absolutely take a
fucking left. Ship would be the mark and go to the tolls. Don't
pay, Don't be a fucking mark and pay the tolls, get off here,
drive around and get back fucking on pay tolls. What's next? You're
gonna pay your dues to give me a break? Man, duese, Hey,
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where there's a full suite of TLF swag designs that you can rock throughout wrestling
shows across the country this year. Please please do all right, fucking take
them all the fucking way. We have a number of new h of new
different attire that that you can you can sport. We have the the TLFX
Come for the Wrestling, Stay for the Reality shirt on there Daddy O Leo
Lipton, the iced Tea King, so stupid, beyond stupid. We have
the the well you you lost the crowd on that Bulldog, didn't you?
I forgot I called for that one. So fun. You know, just
virgin Mania laps in order. You know, they're just all They're all there,
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you can always find it out anyway, but it's good. It's a doozy.
It's a doozy of a tail, and it's a doozy of a wrestler,
hands down, it's been wonderful getting to know Sikata. Yes, odd
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What you know about I know? What do you know about Uri Brienko?
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from what you like? Some what is it? What does Uncle Frank say?
Some shrimp shrimp ah, the shrimp call Frank, Frank, Frank.
Those are for later, Frank Frank Frank. Absolutely. So we watch modern
w WB so you don't have to plug in a live call. Of course,
they're going back to Saudi soon. It's going to be it's going to
be interesting because the Code era unfolds for better or worse, and everybody gets
injured and has to relinquish their titles and everyone from Dominic to Rhea that we
cared about disappears for months, Roman Rock you know how that goes? Oh?
Yes? And then people who joined us in Philly for our live show
now how lapsed? Vince laid it down. He said, you know,
talk about pro wrestlings back. Really, why we do thirty five minute talking
segments where top guys standing around and make veiled references to each other and abuse
the privilege and then go back to the locker room. Why because we have
camera tricks where we follow the wrestlers all the way around the fucking building like
they're like there's a drone attached to their asser. What because? Right?
Because anyone you start to care about, cares something and disappears, what do
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cap and our baseball caps in many ways, is Major League Baseball get to
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And we do want to remind you that our good friends Gabe and Blake
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It's called The Whole Ball Game. We've talked about it before. We've
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things used to be for all the same reasons major League Baseball. We know
everything in this life, wrestling included, used to be better, and we
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love with baseball as a kid, you know, and it used to be
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did he say? Boss? It's the what the whole ballgames fucking go?
So typically cap to our friends over there, Glad to throw some love their
way, especially after a wonderful time huddling with them in Philly form Mania and
oh yeah, fuck yeah, this is the first. It's coming. It's
coming. It's Halloween Havoc. It's coming, sunny, unspeakable horror. It's
coming terrifying destruction. It's a how in good time with a monsters of professional
wrestling. It's coming. October twenty eighth, Halloween Haven't eighty Nights Settling the
score a pay per view of it portering on the edge of insanity. Call
your cable operator for availability. If you say, how does that make you
feel? I mean, I'm ready please? That fucking that kind of thing
I I loved, I always loved kind of goofy sounding, you know,
distorted voices about Halloween shit. Oh my god, wasn't that such a Yes,
it was such a wonderful category where every like, you know, every
like local affiliate and a local market would have like a Halloween movie night and
they try to produce like their own interstitials and stuff. Of course, it's
so true. Everyone was inspired by Alvira. You know, so easy,
Yes, yes, it's so easy to be so good, you know,
like that's there's a there's a there's a podcast called the Purple Stuff podcast that
you know, we don't have any We don't have any allegiance with them,
although he does. He is clearly a wrestling fan and he's got great stuff.
He's all the Halloween thing. It's like, guys, that was That's
the kind of thing we're talking about. We're like marketing Coalesced would like,
there's still a belief that advertising could like reach you without trying to be sparmy
and not trying to be ironic and not trying to be self referential. Every
other commercial wasn't about making a fucking commercial, and you're just like in Halloween
was the perfect chance to get cheesy that way, Yes, to to lean
into a bad smoke machine on a clothes set in a small market and just
have someone try to scare you into watching the eight o'clock feature. Yeah,
I mean that. Ye, that is just like, yeah, it speaks
to a cultural innocence that was that was so so necessary and so and so
foreign to us now and the way Halloween used to be talked about on cable
in the eighties and the nineties. Just I need more of it, not
less. I need more of that cheesiness. I need more of like slimer
flavored everything at the store. Yes, I need more breakfast cereals inspire ghouls
and goblins and ghostbusters, and it's just not there anymore. I don't see
it. I don't see the attempts. It's just because I mean, you
know, I'll tell I'll tell you what. There there was such a there
was also such a unique thing in regards to merchandising if you remember, if
you remember this was years ago now, when we did G I. Joe
the movie Under the Cinemat, Under the Cinemat, we did talk about that
time. We actually grew up in a very very very unique time in terms
of marketing to kids because the toy stores, okay, the toy companies rather
like has Bro, Mattel, whatever, they were hiring you know, like
cartoon they were hiring animators to make cartoons based to sell the toys, like
literally to sell the toys. Yeah, that was the end game. Like
that was the endgame, was to literally sell the toys. And it was
like, you know, I never even realized. I always heard people say
that when I was a kid. Oh yeah, they're just these cartoons are
just married to sell the toys, and it's like, no, actually that's
true. They actually literally were created to sell the toys, right, and
that was not a problem. Good thing. It was a great it was
a great thing. It was necessary, highly necessary. I mean, it's
something that that really will never we'll never see again, most likely at least
not in our lifetime. No, what are you going to do? Like
a stranger things? Inspired to read it like, I know, I mean,
I'd appreciate that, but it had to be the opposite. They had
to have some kind of stranger things, you know, toy that stranger things.
Again. That that's what kind of made the magic of it is that
you're you're creating the item and using the cartoon on the show to sell it.
So it's like you code with anything. And the way when we stopped
advertising which toys are going to be in McDonald's happiness, Yes, agreed,
when that stopped being taken seriously enough that it could conceive a be a draw
to get customers in the door. And so you would put it on television
and you would show the buckets for the Happy Meals with the post face on
it and the pumpkin face on it. And then I know they brought those
back a couple of years ago, and my god, did people rejoice.
I don't know if they're coming back again, but folks, I mean this
is an era where that's one thing Jim heard brought to WCW. He leaned
into that merchandising that w w F had so figured out and dialed in.
He was like, that was almost this chief priority was getting fucking WCW stars
on seven to eleven cups again m hm, Collector's cups. We'll talk a
little later about a shoe deal he cut with a company called ruse Ros for
WCW inspired sneakers, which are just amazing to think about at the time.
All kinds of shit like that, and you know, for better or worse,
Halloween havoc Is is part of that effort to you know, create sort
of like brand, first look, first theme for programming that for sure somewhere
in the Turner brain trust and matched what Vince was doing so successfully in terms
of reaching kids with super bright, over the top colors and characters and presentations.
But again, that's necessarily going to create friction against WCW, whose whole
reason to exist was to not be that as Vince lean more in that direction.
So that's why w CW and Jim Hurd was always so awkward because you
had a guy that thought he had the raw material on his roster to do
what Vince was doing and open up the advertising and merchandising and licensing revenue streams
that Vince had mastered from a pro wrestling perspective, but at the same time
a customer base that just wanted WCW to exist, to be the antiwwet in
so many important ways, and so it just creates these very awkward things where
there's no kids in the crowd to cheer for Big Josh, but yet here
he is. There's no real kids in the crowd to cheer for the dynamic
dudes, but here they are. But it's not a build them and they
will come proposition. Yeah, Like when you have the kids in the audience,
that's when you sell them this cheesy stuff. When you've got nothing but
fucking maniac, bloodthirsty Philadelphia adult wrestling fans in the audience, you might not
want to try. Oh some of these things, agreed, But yeah,
that's just a flavor of how they went to market, so to speak.
This is again the Turner Home Entertainment division coming up with these these promo packages
and the things they would sell send rather to the cable companies to advertise the
pay per view, and I mentioned Alvira. Did you know have we talked
about this before that they actually got Alvira to do Halloween havoc ads. I
did not know that. Oh yeah, very for a couple of years.
She not only did the first the first one, but for nineteen ninety she
did a series with Sid, who of course wrestled Sting for the title on
that show and pretty much his biggest WW match. And that was that was
cool because they had Alvira go up to like a casket that you know,
sparks flew and it opened up and Sid walked out and yep, cut them
a niacle veiny promo. Here here she is. Of course, Alvira couldn't
be more Golden age of cable Halloween. I mean, well, we'll talk
about her here in a second, but this is what it sounded like when
Elvira met World Championship Wrestling in nineteen eighty nine. You want big matters,
well Elvira Donald and soon that's Halloween navigating n ck CKDs being like s Lucre
and the Steiner's precious Paulillery Wrestling's most wicked Warriors. In a paper view of
Stressful warder Talloween haabgating nine is you're frightened by doors, better bring a moment
because they're selling the school. What did you What did you think of Alvira
back in the day. Uh, she had big tents. Yeah, that's
it. I didn't really watch too much about it, too much of her.
I knew she had a movie. I remember seeing her her movie on
VHS cassettes, you know, and I go in the and I knew she
was you know, I knew she was like a a horror thing. But
I never really I wasn't really too you know, I didn't really oh boy,
oh watch her, you know too much, and I just knew again
she had the tits. She did she had very conspicuous cleavage, yes,
and everything that she did. And she was a you know, a television
presenter of the movie of the week kind of thing. Yeah, I mean,
and she's uh, she's we kind of we kind of talked a little
bit about her. Edwood under the Cinemat, because that's what it was.
Vampira came up under the cinemat. Yeah, Vampira in that movie is kind
of based maybe either had Wood or planned nine. I don't remember. Elvira
was inspired by Vampira on to confused Vampiro right, because Sandra is her real
name, right, and she's a redhead too, which is wild yeah wild?
It stress of the Dark and I guess it started on a KHJ TV
in Los Angeles, yes, where she first portrayed Alvira, hosting Elvira's movie
Macob, which was a weekly presentation of b movies. And yes, she
then became you know, yes, movie Corner of the Cob exactly right.
So to get more acquainted with the the marketing initiatives and the way w CW
was thinking about presenting, well, the way Turner Broadcasting was thinking about presenting
w CW wrestling, we turned now to this article which sheds a lot of
light. This is in ad Age, a part of me ad Week,
which is one of the publications in the advertising industry. It was published October
thirtieth, nineteen eighty nine, right after Halloween havoc, and it puts us
right where we need to be, boss. Take it away. In a
display outside the office of Turner Broadcasting System is a larger than life photo of
well muscled of a well muscled athlete whose exploits have thrilled millions. But he
is not one of the Atlanta Braves or the Atlanta Hawks, both part of
the Turner Empire, nor is he one of the gold medal hopefuls in the
next Goodwill Games. He is a National Wrestling Alliance World He is National Wrestling
Alliance World Heavyweight Champion Nature Boy Rick Flair. One year after Ted Turner added
quote wrestling promoter to his resume, no one's willing to crown him as TV
Wrestling's new heavyweight champ not yet. Officials with the World Championship Wrestling, subsidiary
of the Turner Broadcasting System concede the operation has not been as profitable as hoped.
At the same time, they are grappling with how to tracked a more
upscale audience to what has always been a blue collar favorite. Here it comes.
Uh, you know, I'd I'd be less than honest if I said
this first year was as profitable as we would have liked, said w c
W E VP Jim Hurt. It has taken some time to straighten out some
merchandising and marketing contracts, and you know, we're not where we need to
be, But you know, We're we're getting there. Poor Fred, it's
his turn. Just what from New York? You know, what are you
talking about? Now? You know you're talking about a niche market that you
know then then you're talking you're talking about a niche market then has its audience
that is crazy about it, said TBS analyst Fred Moran of morn and Associates.
It's a it's an asset to TBS because it's another thing that helps them
make life hard for the networks. The networks have to put things on that
are going to have mass appeal, but Turner doesn't have to do that.
And I don't have to do this either. I hope you got that quote.
Slowing the financial progress of the venture, WCW's Herd said, where the
upfront costs when WCW bought out Charlotte North, North Carolina based Jim Crockett Promotions,
and the money spent on quote upgrading the product following the acquisition and the
way that the wrestling business is going, you know, one needs the deep
pockets of a Turner to be competitive, and we were faced with doing some
rebuilding from the previous administration. The previous administration such a fucking just the kind
of way of talking pro wrestling was missing, I know, right. Herd
would not detail what quote reb building had to be done, but he asserts
the deal was a good one for Turner because the company now owns what has
been one of its most popular programs since the time the Superstation was a fledgling
UHF station seen only around Atlanta. The acquisition was straight out of the Ted
Turner philosophy. In the future, we're all going to need to produce our
own programming. If you take a program from another source and it becomes successful,
the cost factors on buying it are going to out going to out distance
those of doing it on your own. You know, he's a good strategy.
You know that. That's the way, said Moran. That's the way
to go, as long as you don't lose the creativity, which is part
of the old organization. I don't think that is the case here. You're
almost always going to be better off on in the assets rather than paying out
forever. I gotta go again, why'd you call back? I love that
quote. I love how wordy they can get around the basic proposition. I
know, I know, we want to own something instead of rent it,
right, right, Yeah, and you know, well, that's all I
have to say. It doesn't have to be four paragraphs long. Now we
don't have to pay continuously. We own it now and one one flat sum
and now we don't have to pay for it monthly anymore or whatever. Since
the formation of w CW, wrestling on TBS has expanded. Instead of a
single program as in the Crocket era, the programming now includes the NWA Power
Hour, NWA Main Event, and World Championship Wrestling on a weekly basis.
How many shows there were on TBS on any given week, Yeah, three,
three regular weekly shows and then fucking clashes quarterly, not even and maybe
nine. Forget it, it wasn't even quarterly. They had them like every
they had like sixty year back then. Yeah, they were pushing after the
first moment such a success at eighty eight, you know, like it was
it was, yeah, whatever, we call that like every other month basically.
Because this is all leading to what we did cover on the Lapsed Funk,
which is the Rick Flair Terry Funk Clash, the New York Workout show
in the I Quick Match, and that was, you know, part of
the biggest ratings they'd ever seen, and we talked about how Funk can hang
as cowboy hat on these numbers from eighty nine, because totally it really was,
and Halloween Havoc fits in as well as we'll get to some of the
metrics. Really healthy business being done for a company that was perceived, as
this article frames, it is really struggling to stand, you know, on
its own against WCW WWF. I guess I don't know. There were some
expectations that after Turner bought it out after so many months, that it would
be more vibrant than it is. It's kind of weird to lead. The
first thing you hear from Jim Hurdan this whole article about their marketing push is
like, we're not profitable. Fuck yeah, you know, well, you
know what we're just we're not profitable. We're not a good institution. Is
that we're not good television? So chock full was the schedule that do you
know that the night of Halloween Havoc, which is a Saturday in nineteen eighty
nine, they competed against their own Saturday Night. Yesh, God, what
is wrong with them? The second hour of w CW Saturday Night was on
at the same time as the first hour of the Halloween Havoc pay per view.
I you know, that's just things that happened. You know that that
was not uh, it's just things that happened. And more and more lessons
from the c Suite by Jim Heard. It wasn't you know, it wasn't
something we did intentionally. But at the same time, you know, this
is uh, this is America. And sometimes you go into business with yourself
and you compete against yourself, and and uh, you got to think about
it like this sometimes, you know, think about it like this. Sometimes,
you know, you get your order. Listen. Sometimes you order a
pizza that has half and half, right right, You get a little you
know, you get one side that's just plain cheese, maybe extra cheese if
you're into that. Other sides get peppers, onions and whatever. Now,
depending on the way you cut it. Sometimes and you know, some of
the other side may leak over to the you know, maybe the peppers and
the what not. They're leaking over on the cheese side, and your maybe
a little more cheese on the other one. You can't help it. That's
America right there. So I don't know what you want. I don't know
a better explanation for why I'm not have it's on at the same time as
w STEW Saturday. And if you can't, if you can't figure it out
from what I just told you, then maybe you're in the wrong job or
World Championship Wrestling, as the show was called back then, not the promotion,
though it was also called that. How about we figure out what the
fuck to call it first? How about that? Well, I'd say,
mind your own fucking business, go eat shit, continue, please fucking die,
motherfuckers. I tried. That's what you can't forget about Jim Hurd's pizza
analogies. They may sound, you know, buffoonish and looney, but they
really are just like the prelude to him threatening you. You know, when
you hear the pizza analogy, you know to shut the fuck up because the
next one is, oh, how about I put this glock in your face?
Have you ever had a gun in your mouth? Exactly? You want
pizza in your mouth or a fucking nine millimeter? Do you ever have a
gun in your mouth? It isn't your home. Huh uh oh, are
you gonna, oh shit, you're gonna eh see, I'm very comfortable here
at once and so I've got eyes all over this building, and I've got
I've got juice all the way up to Ted. I got eyes all over
the fucking building. I got I got my hands in many different pies.
I can say that again. And I'm not going anywhere, all right,
I'm gonna tell you right now, I'm not going down without a fight.
Why all right, I'm I'm I might as well just shoot anyone who comes
in my fucking office right now. I've done it before, I'll do it
again. Who do you Who do you think is going to be next to
the door. Let's play a little game, shally, you know what I
mean? Who do you think? Let me tell you this, How about
this? Think about this. Whoever walks on that door next right now,
I'm gonna shoot their fucking head off. I'm gonna shoot their fucking head.
I don't give a ship if it's Rick Flair. I don't give a ship
if it's my wife, Ted Turner. I hope it's Ted fucking Turner coming
in in right now. I'll shoot him, shoot him. I want to
shoot his fuck Jim hurt. He's having a good week, all right.
Just got off the phone with ad Week fucking ad week comes in here,
all right. They think that they can call me up and talk about my
fucking business. I'm ready. I'm fucking locked and loaded right now. I
wanna put some fresh sauce in the pie. I'm ready. I'm locked and
loaded right now, and I'm gonna put some fresh sauce on the pie.
I mean, just just figure out an exit strategy. That would be my
sincere advice to you. At this juncture. Nobody's going nowhere. Nobody's going
nowhere as long as Daddy's got his gun in his hand. All right,
Daddy's going to eat some shit tonight, and then I'm gonna go and get
fucked hard. Enjoy Halloween, habit, Happy Halloween. Your Motherfuck what I
wouldn't give what I wouldn't give. Maybe I'll be outside your window Halloween night.
Mm hmm. Maybe I'll be out there. I'll be trick or treating
and I'll say trick or treating. You'll say what, and I'll say trick
or treat and then I'll shoot you in the face. I'll say trick or
treat and you'll say what, And I'll say, he's so sick because you
see, you know, you're asking, you know, you're wondering what what
is a middle aged heard man walking around trick or treating for? And I'll
say, I'll be trick or treating for you because you're next on my list
and I'm completing my list tonight. I'm gonna own you because I want to
kill you. Come jim fucking heard, and I will be heard. Oh
shit, oh shit. I think that's another shirt, honestly, and you
know how to spell herd with a pumpkin on it. That's that's our Halloween
line. I will be heard. I will be heard with a I mean
what I wouldn't give to know just to see someone truck or treated his house
in nineteen eighty Who answers the door? What's the candy? Is he home?
What are you doing? I don't know. We just we think it's
a really part of St. Louis and ah trick or treat? What do
you want? What do you do? You? He doesn't know what it
is. Do you think there's a chance that Vince has ever handed out Halloween
candy at the house in Stanford? I don't know, but I imagine there
there have been times where he's been crazy enough to do it. Yeah.
I feel like Vince sick Man be the kind of the kind of person who
would you know, you'd have kids trick or treating in the neighborhood and he'd
be hiding in a bush in front of his house. God and like with
some kind of like vampire teeth. See, I think he would just bought
a table of candy down in front of the gates and the gated h I
would say he probably does that most of the time, but I think there
have been a couple of times where he's he's wanted to fuck with the neighbors
right when shade and stuff are really little. Yeah, yeah, but no,
Jim Hurd and Halloween a dangerous scary combination. You like candy, kid?
Is that way you like doing that? You like candy? M You
know what I like? I like eating children. You read a child?
I got five of them cooking right now. You want me the sixth freaking
takes a gun and points the right at the kids face? How about that?
Do you want to be six the sixth kid in my stew? Huh,
I'm a hungry motherfucker. Not on Halloween. Ocus pocus, bitch,
ocus pocus, hocus pocus. How about I magically shoot you and put you
in my popted maybe you get the fuck out of here, just the guy
we need running WCW. The article continues yes quarterly Clash of the Champion specials,
three syndicated weekly programs through Turner Program Services, and five pay per view
events annually from Turner Home Entertainment. Declining to give specifics, Hertz said that
advertising on the wrestling program accounts for one third of the revenues generated by the
w CW subsidiary. The other two thirds are split equally between proceeds from ticket
sales the live matches and merchandising T shirts, videos, and other products.
Though WCW has been able to double its take at the gate, it is
likely that the areas of advertising and merchandising have more potential. But to attract
more of advertisers, ww's product is going to have is going to have to
prove that it can attract a more upscale and money to audience. The trick,
Herd said, is fine tuning the programming so the present audience is not
turned off while a new one is being tapped. Thus, fans of WCW
can expect to see more wrestlers coom superheroes like Sting, a bleach blonde muscleman
with a makeup job, the likes of which hasn't been seen since the rock
group Kiss first became popular except in the w WE win the Ultimate Warrior,
right, except pro wrestling for twenty years. Sting looks more like a wrestler
under the Titan Sports World Wrestling Entertainment AGENTES, a company which has found success
with wrestling that Herd said is more quote showmanship than athleticism. Now we have
to we need to develop a high energy type of individual that appeals to the
younger demographic, make it a little more of a fairytail presentation, while at
the same time keeping some of the wrestlers that our president audience likes. And
we have to walk a fine line between the two, so fine, in
fact, that you probably should just stay on one side of it ninety eight
percent of the time. Right, mainstream acceptance of wrestlers as commercial properties is
plausible, okay. Ww landed its first outside marketing deal earlier this month with
Russ USA Incorporated, the maker of athletic shoes. The deal makes the Saint
Louis based Athletic Shoe manufacturers product the official shoe of the National Wrestling Alliance,
and wrestlers under the ww AGIS will endorse their own line of Ruse in television
advertising handled by the shoe companies agency Catch Them Advertising. Los Angeles standby Californian
Cool Mule, Dude Stigma steam like were on his white feet? Dude,
Ruse shoes your feet, buckets for your stuff. It's powered pistin muscle monster
total package, lets loger. What's on your two feet O Ruse shoot buckets
stuff? Oh god, it's the mute cycle, Savage, no mercy,
demolition for lead to a doom? What you rolle Wris were on the roads
and destruction Ruise, Ruise shoes for your feet, buckets for your stuff.
Wha dog dog doesn't know hot dog strewing the dogs? Dumb time. So
what do ride wear on his dogs? Ruse shoes your feet, Ruise,
I can't shoes for your feet. They had little supper pockets you could put
like a I don't know, a cocaine in or something too. I guess
as well. It's sure for kangaroos if you if you're wondering, Jesus and
they had a deal, and of course it's a Saint Louis company. So
this is like a back end weird like you know Jim Hurd, So yes,
it's uh, it's definitely worth noting that, you know, mister Saint
Louis Jim Hurd, who as we know, started managing UH. I think
it's kpl R. Is that the station that used to air wrestling at the
Chase. He was the director there and knew Sam mutch Nick and that was
kind of you know, the extent of his wrestling involvement, no small resume
point, but certainly doesn't make him a wrestling operations guy. Just makes him
up, you know, the manager of a TV station that happened to broadcast
wrestling. I know, but I know what I know television and and I
know wrestling. I know what sells both. Apparently uh IS is putting some
calls into Saint Louis based Rooss Shoes Company, UH for a little bit of
that UH crossover love Now the deal that those who were a series of television
commercials and spots that Ruce put together, it was it seemed mostly focused honestly
on the on Rick Steiner. That's to be the real UH. Like on
their website, for instance, they talk about signing a licensing deal with Rick
Steiner in particular, and he's the one who actually wears the shoes and the
ads the other one, the ones that you heard there with Sting and Lex
Lugur and the Road Warriors, they're clearly, you know, on a commercial
shoot. But you see a foot drop down with the shoe on and it's
not their feet necessarily. Uh. And it's just so like it's so on
the note, it's so uh bass, it's so derivative. Like just listen
to the way they have Sting talk because he just tells like an ad agency
that's told what's the Sting guy? He's a surfer. Listen to the way
they talk about Sting or the the verbiage they use muscle dudemn like Sting like
were on his life. Dude, what the fuck is that he doesn't act
like that muscle man, muscle man stingpoint what muscleman Sting? Mom? Do
you know that the Ruse deal was in play at the same time the Glub
deal was And then if you take a look and really they ture I just
sent to you this is from the great ww Worldwide magazine website. Oh my
god, they were going to release Steiner Brothers with ruse sneakers on says our
os right on them. Can you imagine that's unbelievable. It's like it's like
the Big Josh figure. You know. It's like a totally different dimension to
the Galube line than you ever thought possible. I don't think anybody has these
figures, but pictures exist of the mock ups, and they would have like
full print ads, and they printed a bunch of posters of ww wrestlers with
russ so that you could put on your wall. It was an attempt.
It was an attempt. And the sneakers actually, when you look at them
now, they actually look like things people would wear today, and they're obsession
with nineties fashion. Is there like those high top l a night almost looking
sneakers? Yeah, right right. I could definitely see them making a comeback.
I could definitely see like some wrestling hipster brand people, you know,
coming up with a line of sneakers that you know as like the sting scorpion
on it and on the sole on the bottom of the shoe. It's got
like the sting scorpions stenciled into the rubber soul. They actually look pretty contemporary.
It's it's it's kind of fascinating, but uh yeah, please do continue
with this this this article. Oh get rid of the picture um right here
at Ketchum Los Angeles ketch him being the I know, I got that advertising
agency that presumably made the TV ads we just heard. You know where the
fuck is? When are you giving the picture? It shifted it you're Jimmy
affect me. I'll pick it up. Among those signing on for the effort
are NWA Champion Flair, who will endorse Street Classics, Lex Luger Sports nineties
Sting Court Slammers. I suppose these are different models of shoes and the road
warriors out there. Included in the agreement or public service announcements wrestling related collaterals
whatever that means, wrestling related collaterals and ruse banners and ring posts that the
matches. Yes, there were WCW shows that had r os written on the
the pads that covered the ring posts. Additionally, the wrestlers who wear roots
in the rings specifically designed for their particular line of work. And there is
a story on the the aforementioned ww site worldwide site that has great scans of
magazines and different sort of WCW marketing ephemera of over the years that Brick Flair
was once asked to wrestle a match in his ruse sneakers. I mean,
stop, consider think except the visual of that Rick Flair wrestling in basketball sneakers.
That is his Jim Hurd. What's throwing on? That sounds great.
Look, you're gonna be apprude about it. You're gonna keep doing things the
same way you've done them for twenty years and expect this company to reach new
heights. Rick, think about it like this. It's like telling it's like
serving people the same the same pizza every fucking day. Right, all right,
you're gonna keep serving them cheese. Eventually they're gonna get bored, they're
gonna walk away. You're gonna keep telling me. All you're gonna do is
the same shit over and over again. I'm telling you you got to get
your ass more hip. And look, I understand, those buttes are cut,
those boots are custom made, they're they're patting leathers, shiny, and
they're in They're gorgeous. But they don't have a pocket for your stuff.
So put them on, Rick. Put on the shoes. Rick, you
need a pocket for your stuff. I know you do you? I know
Hulk Cogan has one. Cogan's got many pockets for all of his stuff around
his waist, usually around Brutus's waist. Actually, the ruse thing came out
of a situation where a viable product in a rebuilding stage came to us at
a time when we were rebuilding to set herd that sounds like and it was
described this way and the observer at the time a shoe brand that had nothing
left, had no had no market traction, and I decided to endorse a
bunch of wrestlers in one last ditch attempt in the bottom of the ninth sort
of to gain relevancy by attaching themselves to something a lot of people watched,
even if it wasn't it was hardly their first choice for celebrity endorsements. But
yeah, definitely a fascinating footnote in ww history and the Jim Hurd Adventures,
and very coincident with the time period of Hollowy Habit for its most recent major
event. The article concludes, WCW hired Alvira, the Can't Be Mistress of
the dar, frequently seen hosting syndicated horror movies to stump for the October twenty
eighth pay per view event Halloween have Ac eighty nine. Settling the score using
Elvira represents a departure from the norm, which would be using only wrestlers to
hype the event, also a departure from the norm. Bastion Booger formerly known
as Norman the Lunatic Wrestling is an exciting vehicle set heard, I think we're
going to show some people some creative and entertaining programming and boy end quote.
Now, while we talked about Jr. Making allegiance with Jim Hurd during this
to this point in time, when talking about it these days, he doesn't
shy away from, you know, kind of taking umbrage with some of the
people that the Turner regime brought into the sauce at World Championship Wrestling, and
here on the podcast he does with Conrad, he recently talked about this event
and talked about how it actually looks on the wrestling side when the kinds of
people that Jim Hurd is in concert with and describing working with in an article
like that start to try to put their impromat or on the wrestling product itself.
I think that you give a lot of people when you started, when
you have a brand new concept, you give a lot of people the opportunity
to get involved in areas of expertise that they are not expert in. If
that makes any sense, it gets it got like Turner Home Entertainment. They
had a lot of fanboys in that Turner Home Entertainment at that time, and
they they were they had a new toy. They owned the team, so
they thought they could call all the plays, and they could, but we're
gonna lose our ass. We're going to lose the games. And uh and
we weren't near. We were under so unachieving in that era with the talent
that we had, it was it was terrible. If we had just been
able to book the talents, in other words, put all the players in
an offense that we could score with, this thing would have been a whole
lot different story as history had been told over the years. But that did
not happen. And so you've got to go through all that stuff with the
ounderlying input and color schemes, the theme, the music, the promos,
producing promos. I mean, when we were there, there was a lady
there named Sharon Sadello that spent massive moneies on promos. I mean I heard
a number one time. I thought some about all your bullshit me, we
can't be that stupid. Well, we're making movies now. Hell, we
ain't making movies or doing pro wrestling. Let's go, Jim, don't bullshit
yourself. Can we not just be comfortable that we're in a goddamn pro wrestling
business and we're not making movies? Horse shit making movies, my fat Oklahoma
dimpled ass are doing pro wrestling episodic reality based television, and uh that that's
where we should have been, and we got taken out of that area era.
But you get all that stuf goes into play, Like I said,
the promos, the color schemes, whole nine yards. Uh. And then
of course the key element for me, I think most fans will agree is
a card. It doesn't matter all the sizzle if the steak ain't worth the
shit. I don't care about eating the green beans. I just don't eat
this t bone right now. I'll just have my couscous Can you imagine j
R? Eating couscous? No? What the hell? What are we thinking
here? So anyway, Uh, that's kind of I look at it Conrad,
we had a lot of cooks in the kitchen, We had a booking
committee. They had a lot of different opinions. But the guys in the
cooking and the booking committee actually knew the business. They actually knew had product
knowledge. And when he started something brand new like that, sometimes you get
into a situation where guys that don't have problem acknowledge are are challenged. I'd
love to know who he's talking about, just like the they're definitely people he's
got in his mind. But the new thing he's talking about is Halloween Havoc.
You launch a new concept, a new show, a new theme,
a new this, a new that, and all the people that want to
have their have their vision realized, or people who weren't wrestling people, but
like you said, can call the plays because they're Turner Home entertainment folks.
So that's that's one thing. Like we can't think of Halloween Havoc as having
its genesis in the mind of wrestling people. It really didn't. It had
its genesis in the mind of the real bosses at the time, Turner people
who you know, probably just saw it as a canvas to paint on.
One of ten they painted on that month, you know, but there was
someone who had an affinity for wrestling within the organization that was allowed to go
over there and play around. So not the most inspiring environment, boss,
I mean duh. And on working with Alvira j R. Said pretty much
what you said. Elvira is a hell nice lady and man. She had
she was very uh Uh, she had her I'm trying to think how I
say this not being a total turd and a sect great cleavage. She had
big cans, Jim. She had big cans, biggs, big old goodnes.
There's only two kinds of cans, big old goodness and good old biggins.
Uh. I know that. I think there was a thing back in
the day take old bitties. Yeah, yeah, she was. She was
very nice to work with. I was around when she did some promos.
You know, she was very nice to work with. She was very appreciative
of the work. Uh and nice lady. So and quite frankly, she
was her her involved in Halloween Havoc was real timely casting. That's what she
was known for Halloween and you know, scary movies and things of that nature.
So uh, I I enjoyed being around her. In that regard,
but obviously wasn't around her as much as I would have liked to have been.
But thank god there was no blue choo. Then Oh my gosh,
jails brother, Uh, I mean please, I see no problem. I
think everything he's saying is absolutely accurate, and I think it's totally normal for
for a guy to be talking about eating blue chee when it comes to Elvira
and her and her kickty can Cam what what do you call them? I
don't know what the language they were speaking there for a second, but tit
bitty is whatever? The pickle, yeah, yeah, get your do we
favorite JR? Put your pickley wiggily back in. It's fucking I believe.
Yeah. So uh so that's that's Jay Hars's reflections on Ovira immediately went where
your mind went, immediately to cleavage to tits. That's what I remember.
I remember her having that those you know, those open that open black dress
and you know balloons just popping out. Its Halloween havoc. To me,
that says Halloween more than anything. How about what j goes off we're making
movies. What was that when JR Just went off that clip on making Oh
my god, Oh fuck yeah, Jesus Christ, like he's because it was
an overdrive here at this point in time. Oh, he's that's the thing.
We think it's just a Vince mcmahondlusion that we're making movies. But like,
no, they were. They were telling themselves the same thing at Turner,
right, of course, because that's what they wanted to be. They
wanted to be that. They really thought that they could bring their expertise right,
they could that all this fucking you know, backwoods wrestling shit needs.
It's a little Hollywood panache, little production value, a little bit of a
because we know how to make real TV. And everyone's like looking past all
of that investments and asking themselves, what's the card again to jrs. No,
you don't, No, you fucking don't know how to make fucking TV.
Must be so disorienting for these veterans that know how to draw money in
wrestling, that work for that company at the time, and all of a
sudden there's all this like accoutremah, you know, there's all this like people
that want to address the set insteady you know what I mean. I wonder
to Bischoff thrive in that environment. Just TV people who are obsessed with like
TV production and using TV industry lingo. That's what Turner always wanted to superimpose
on WCW, and by Turner around on riched himself necessarily, but the suits
he surrounded himself with, you know, people who you know produce television across
the entire suite of Turner broadcasting assets, not just WSW. Show that it
touches off some memories in the solar system. This from the great tom Ets
Nasio dear co chairman Havoc eighty nine always held a special place for me,
as it was right in the middle of my friends and ies. Sure lived
returned to wrestling fandom things in great part to No Holds Barred. Oh wow,
we sure that in common. There we go. I've mentioned it before,
but after No Holds Barred, we threw ourselves back into the product,
getting every WCW and WWA pay per view beginning with The Lord American Bash eighty
nine through Star K eighty nine. My friends got royalmal ninety but my dad
had received a Fulbright scholarship and we moved abroad for the first half of nineteen
ninety. Wow, and retrospect was pretty great. That whole summer was just
going to movies, playing video games, watching wrestling camp here, a beach
trip there. Now, that was a privileged summer. When the school year
started, things got busy again, but we still made a point to watch
the pay per views as group. Now it's for hat itself. I really
don't remember much about watching it live. At the time. I thought it
was a decent show, but it also might have just been the fun of
hanging out with buddies and ordering dominoes. Fucking hell, that's huge. That's
huge, it's coming. That's part of the whole thing, right there is
where you were at. Yes, you know, absolutely, And it wasn't
just because we happened to be children of the time and had that freedom.
It's in large part because of that, but it's also because the time and
place where we were children where that counted as something to get excited about,
where we weren't so drawn into our phones that we actually could look forward to
something like that and not just consider it another occasion to get together in a
group and look at our phones and refer to our phones and show our phones
to each other and text people who weren't there anywhere. But here wasn't a
problem back then. No, during the matches, my friend Kevin's dad,
who was watching with us, quipped, Sydney Laupers really let herself go,
sir Oliver humper didn't come out is not wrong, which I only remember because
it got a big laugh from Kevin's mom. He also told us, see,
kids, this is what we mean by stranger danger. During the Freebirds
promo, any issues with Michael Haysesenjimmy Garvin on this show? Oh all the
issues? Oh, come on this this this isn't bad. It's awful.
Why the two of them are such fucking moron? Like is their chest hair
with sweaty? So? Yeah? When when when the when the sweat beads
off the fucking individual chest hairs? There is a problem there, Jimmy,
Jimmy Strawberry, jam Garvin and his and his fucking you know, his head
is a problem. It's head, his head, his hair, all that
ship is a problem. His stupid face. I mean, he thinks he's
so over, you know what I mean, he thinks like he's just as
over as Michael. He's such a fucking hanger on her. What a bitch?
When the dynamic is no better? I mean, listen, they're they're
they're definitely the lesser of two evils, because because at least, like you
know, I'm I'm able to to feign some kind of memory of them being
well, not not not garving, but at least Michael Hayes being somewhat of
a of an interesting individual in w CCW. But idiot fucking Johnny As and
idiot fucking Shane Douglas and their stupid faces and their blonde hairs and their moronic
existences. It blows my mind watching this back and being like, that's the
guy in the Janelle Grand lawsuit. This guy, this this species that is
John Laurie and idis at the time, John Oh yeah, oh yeah,
this Google bad trying to do dropkicks. I'll tell you I love getting head
ends up in this situation. My mom always said, you know, Johnny,
that's your problem. You love getting your dick sucked all the time.
He said, yeah, nothing wrong with that. It's good old amer can
fund. His mom once said, Johnny, you know your problem is and
then said the rest of what you said, good old American fun. Locked
away in a hotel like and you know, ah, what a creep It
is wild that it's this guy in fucking Neon Orange. When the Dynamic dude,
I didn't do it, though he made me. I didn't want to
get my dick sucked. He made me. Course, me just as much
a victim as anybody else. Check I was victimized. I didn't want to
ejaculate, but I had to. Felt good, though, Are they gonna
get me on that? Oh? Fuck mom Kathy. When the Dynamic Dudes
hit the ring a few minutes later, Tom writes he had enough and left
to get us ice cream, but he was back in time for Flare staying
funk Mudha. He was a flapsed fan from the late seventies early eighties,
and I remember him being invested in the summer of funk wrestling. The night
we had ice cream Sundays and played an Altered Beast and Tommy the sort of
baseball on the Genesis, which had just come out in the States a couple
of months earlier. Kevin was a bit spoiled, which was great for us.
It really was a fun night. In retrospect, I think that's why
I'm hesitant to watch it again. I don't want to ruin my memories.
A really treasure that wrestling run in nineteen eighty nine. When I got back
to the States in the summer of nineteen ninety my uncle sent me tapes of
the first season of Simpsons, and my friends gave me tapes of the Final
four in WrestleMania six. It was pretty great. I called Kevin to ask
if anyone was getting SummerSlam ninety and he told me, nah, since Warrior
one, it's been lame. Yep. I didn't watch another wrestling pay per
view until WrestleMania ten. Wow. Dalton Wright Steers Coach Chairs was listening.
Ton Forgiven ninety nine was pretty excited. Dear Halloween Havoc nineteen eighty nine was
chosen to be the next victim of the lapsed Treatment. I haven't watched the
full show, but always enjoyed the thunder Doome cage match between Flairsting wors Funk
and Muda. It's very fitting this episode was chosen. It's my final stop
for the season with Monster Jam in Philadelphia at the Link and this show took
place at the now defunct Philadelphia Convention Center. Yes, I said Civic Center
earlier. It was indeed the Convention Center no longer there. Whatever. An
episode from nineteen eighty nine NDBAWCW gets the LAPS treatment. He says, it
always makes me happy knowing one of the most underrated years in WCW gets talked
about underrated. Well, I don't know. I think it's very very highly
rated. I would say I think it's one of the most most very well
respected years of WCW. Everyone always talking about eighty nine being the best year
in ring you know, absolutely. Now I'm thinking, is this did we
just finished nineteen eighty nine WSW by doing this show? Oh shit? In
terms of paper, no, I think there's wrestle war. No, we
did wrestle war, wrestle wards. I don't think Russell Wars started until nineteen
ninety. Am I wrong? No, eighty nine because eighty nine was it's
Flare Steamboat. Oh they did call that, Well that was Music City Showdown,
wrestle war. Yeah, that's right, wrestle war, Music City Showdown,
right, And we did we have we we didn't do the Shytown Rumble.
Okay, well there's still one left. Yeah, we haven't done the
first Flare Steamboat where Steamboat wins the championship for the first time. But man,
that's that's very close. That's tantalizingly close. Yep, Jesus Christ.
We even did the the Clash of the Champions with Steamboat and Flare two or
three falls. Yes, yeah, we did. I mean, I guess
technically we still have a couple of clashes. I think pretty wat pretty wild
that this was the show you drew out of a hat. Yeah, when
you think about the Yeah, totally totally drawn with the hat. Nineteen eighty
nine Dalton Rights was a year that the company should have taken off to new
heights with the Flare, Steamboat rivalry, Terry Funk coming in, Stings a
bigger rise to start him from eighty eight, and many different things the company
did before the end of the year. But as everybody knows, by the
beginning of nineteen ninety it all went to shit. I always wonder what the
company would have been like had they kept the momentum after the Bash going in
a starcade, had they not done that tournament setting, Plus had Sting won
the World Heavyweight title at Wrestle War instead of at the Bash, had he
not gotten hurt? Yes, I know very much. So can't wait to
hear this. One guy's going to make my trip to Philadelphia even better.
All very good. We're glad to be of service Dalton for sure. And
that's exactly correct. I mean, what happens here, you see it when
Lex lugu wrestles Brian Pillman. They clearly are trying to get you to think
of Lex Luger as the guy you want to see be the standard bearer for
WCW in the nineties. They talk breathlessly about how he's going to be the
wrestler of the nineties. They literally pump Luger into the PA system to make
it sound that people are chanting for him before his music hits, and they
just they gush over the guy, even though he's a heel against Flying Brian
here. It's kind of a you know, it's kind of it is kind
of weird, like you know, they are doing that. It is.
It was definitely a point of contention between Brick Flair and Jim Heard and brick
Flair always talked about how after the eighty eight clash match with Sting that he
promised that when he dropped the strap it would be to him and that his
circumstances played out. Jim Hurd got behind Lex Luger and others got behind Lex
Luger getting the championship, especially when, as Dalton mentioned, Sting injured his
knee and it was sort of an unclear timetable in terms of when they perfectuate
the title change. Like I said, you know when we did when we
did Shine Town, I'm not China. We did Capital Capital Combat the Woman.
Yeah. I even said, you know, what's the Why couldn't they
put the belt on Luger for like six weeks? Flair didn't want to do
it six weeks and then Flair could get it back and it wouldn't have made
it. It would have made a difference. I would before that. Yeah,
I don't think that would hurt Luger too much. I mean, because
Luger was I mean, listen, the thing is, well, there's no
doubt that you know, I get I guess Flair. I get that Flair
wanted Sting, but Lucer was also very over. Yeah, you know,
it wasn't like the crowds weren't going nuts for Luger. I could understand Flair
being being a little apprehensive if they're saying, hey, you know, we
want to put everyone wants Bobby Eaton to be world champion, right, I
get it. But Dusty was gonna put Rick Steiner over him, right,
you know, but fucking Luger was. He was getting very very hot reactions.
I mean, think about the very first show under Turner broadcasting star K
eighty eight. People are ragged for Lex to dethrone Flair, rabbed for it.
It's just it's so weird. I don't know. I mean, I
get it, you saw money and Sting, and I'm not denying Matt,
but you've also had the belt. I mean, at this point, Flair's
had the belt since he'd be garving for it, right, yes, at
least, you know, not including any other fucking foreign title switches that nobody
fucking true about. But still, you know, in terms of American viewership,
he's had the belt since eighty seven. A quick, a quick,
little you know detour a Luger for a while, you know, could have
could have been fine, and nobody would have thought twice about it. Yeah,
I would agree. I mean, it's clear they were ready to do
it in February for Sting, and then when he got hurt, that's when
her pressed the issue. You know, Flair probably was reading some of the
tea leaves and how they were framing Luger up for the nineties. Whatever the
case, Jim Hurd definitely had on his fucking to do list crown a new
champion that we can market as the WCW wrestler of the nineties. That was
sort of like that. He was obsessed with that, And what that means
is that Ric Flair necessarily gets crowded out that a scenario you was going to
do that, but I guess there it is like, you know, if
you're gonna, if you're gonna, you know, you want to keep the
belt on as long as possible. It's so funny wrestling because, like,
you know, all Jim Hart had to do was fucking It's funny how you
have to you're so obsessed with with the pissing contest of getting your way and
also like getting the belt off somebody. It's like, yes, you know,
you could go on TV and just say hey, you know, uh
you know, because especially because in a storyline you could say like, uh,
I don't know, Rick Flair raped a dog and we decided that he
can't sue you because you say, well, we're talking about the character of
Rick Flair, We're not talking about Yep. That would close a lawsuit.
For sure, he raped the dog, and so we have to strip him
of the world title. The thing is like, And it became clear when
they had the dispute over the you know, the actual physical ownership of the
title belt in ninety one and all that that happened when he went to vince
that Flair pretty much had creative control. I mean, Flair had a contractual
ability to decide when he would lose the belt into who. And that's that's
something that a Jim Heard who sees himself as a take charge guy they can
get his hands on the reins can't countenance. And so I think they were
destined to collide on the basis that Jim Jim Herd could not force for Flair
to do anything. And I think that that bared itself out as they brought
the dispute to its logical you know, extreme. But yeah, I agree.
I think a little more flexibility from Flair could have gone a long way
and making nineteen ninety not feel like such a drop off that Felton talked about.
You know, if he had made a made like a thing and said,
hey, you know, let me let me uh you know, if
I if I give you Luger for a while, you know, I want
the belt back to give this thing. I wonder if that would have if
that were given a little bit of, you know, something for them.
Yeah, I think somehow, I think, you know, while people were
you know, pegging Sting to be the man since that aforementioned, you know,
May eighty eight, I think it was May right, clash of the
champions in Greensboro when they first fought. Luger also had just as many inspiring
near wins against Ric Flair. No, it would have been March a d
because it would have been wrestling. Yea four, thank you, sir.
That's right, March. What I say, May March. And you know,
but Luger had just as many moments you could point to to say people
were just as rabid for him to have the belt as they were that night
in Greensboro for Sting. M h. And Yeah, it would have been
I think prudent for Flair to have a little more flexibility there. But you
know, he said he gave Sting his word and he was going to lose
the belt the Sting and that's the way it was going to be. So
it played out the way it did. But I think I think WCW really
could have used a different code of paint coming into nineteen ninety for sure.
Oh absolutely, not to say that if Flair wasn't the premier guy in the
business and most of the ways that matter, because he was, but he
still could have been, you know, and JR has talked about this too.
I think JR. Was kind of picking up some of the energy from
Jim Hurd and trying to channel it too, and even has talked about how
he was made persona non grata backstage in the creative circles because a remark he
had made once about how Ric Flair doesn't need the actual belt to be Rick
Flair and to be just as additive. And I love that. I love
that valuable to Yeah, that became you know, JR. Doesn't think Flair
should be champion, or you know, JR thinks we're not booking the title
right or whatever it was. He he talks about it in his first book
of how that was twisted around on him. That's the game Flair played,
That's the game Flair always played to stay on top in ws W. There
really was no other choice otherwise, we know what Jim Hurd would have done
to him if given his absolute druthers right, let alone what Hogan would have
done, because don't forget, Flair was Booker when Hogan came into ninety four
as well. Yeah, business with him, but still, you know,
at to advocate like, no, I'm gonna win this one, thank you
very much. You're gonna keep beating me like a like a like a bit
over and over again. So it's it's a really tough situation. We've talked
about it over and over again because it's just such a defining, animating force
of understanding WCW in this point in time. But they're at Halloween Havoc.
You can see the pieces of where they could have gone had they chose to
so Brutus Andmartinos here. And of course that's, you know, an attempt
to get people who remember him in the Philly market to buy tickets to the
show and to generate some publicity for Halloween Havoc in Philly. And it works.
And as far as the Pittsburgh Post Gazette is concerned, because there's always
Mark Madden that's warming to pick up the phone and fill the Pittsburgh Post Gazette
sports pages with pro wrestling coverage. Of course, Mark Madden would go on
to become a WCW Monday Nitro color commentator and they're a nine hundred offline guy
and shit like that. But this is where it started for him, was
putting articles in the Post Gazette like this. Bruno says, wrestling move a
one night stand. Mossify boy, share this with the people. I'd be
grateful for that. Yes. Indeed. October nineteenth, nineteen eighty nine.
Here Bruno says Wrestling Move a one night stand by Mark at Madden, Post
Casette sports writer. In the nineteen eighty five movie Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome,
Tina Turner saying we don't need another hero. But as the Ted Turner own
National Wrestling Alliance readied its version of Thundernome for the Halloween Havoc pay per view
TV card at Philadelphia October twenty eighth, it apparently decided it needed one more
hero. Wrestling legend Bruno Sammartino, the Ross Township Resident, will referee the
main event, a Thunderdome cage match featuring pitting a NWA World Champion of Nature
Boy Rick Flair and Sting versus Terry Funk and the Great Muta Sammartino fifty four,
will make his first appears in a wrestling ring since his final match in
nineteen eighty seven. The NWA's version of thunder Dome will feature the participants locked
inside a sixteen foot high electrified steel cage, with a loser determined by submission
only. But perhaps the most shocking thing about this match is sam Martino's decision
to align himself with the NWA. Sammartino was world champion for the rival World
Wrestling Entertainment from nineteen sixty three to nineteen seventy one and again from nineteen seventy
five to nineteen seventy eight. He worked as a WWETV commentator before leaving the
group in nineteen eighty seven after a dispute with head hauncho Vince McMahon junior.
Quote, people are making too big a deal out of this. For gosh
sakes, It's only one guest referee job. People ask me if I'm going
to the NWA as booker or even if I'm going to wrestle again. This
is just one refereeing job, That's it. NWA president Sealmy Harder Bruno on
WCW. Sure, yeah, exactly. The president Jim Hurd, however,
said he planned to discuss further projects with Sammartino, adding that a position as
TV commentator has been offered but turned downright Bruno didn't want to travel as much
as being a TV commentator would require. But we will talk about a few
further projects involving him, maybe TV specials. He's a legend in the game,
and then he puts credibility in what we do. You know, We're
happy he wants to be associated with us. Both Sammartino and her Is denied
that Bruno's appearance was contingent on the hiring of son David Sammartino, currently working
in the Georgia based Southern Championship Wrestling circuit. There is Wrestling Observer newsletter editor
Dave Meltzer says Samartino's appearance will have a little effect on the cards gate or
on the pay per view, but he thinks Sammartino's move to the NWA is
significant. This is the first time in a long time, the first time
a longtime w champ has worked a major NWA show in any capacity, Meltzer
said, But while it's significant, it's not surprising. It's no secret that
Berno hates the WWE, and for the last few years he's been very outspoken.
Meltzer did express surprise that Sammartino would participate in a Thunderdome match. However,
Brun, I've been trying to build his reputation as an old style classic
wrestler. You know, then he agrees to ref the wackiest match ever televised
on a national basis. That surprises me, said Sammartino. All I knew
I what I agreed to do. It is that it was a cage match.
I didn't know about the electric cage. I never believed much in gimmickry
like that. I still don't. Okay, then don't do the show.
Brno gotta get a paycheck. Sam Maartino, who currently operates It Say It,
Say It All Loud on a Virtue and Ethics, who currently operates a
nine hundred number and gab line and does commercials for an autoparts chain, has
been vocally anti McMahon since his ww departure. While admitting and there are some
things I don't like about the NWA, he sees it as the better of
the two groups. I'm impressed by the talent and the NWA. The NWA
is some guys who try to do things the same way I did, and
I like that they concentrate on wrestling instead of gimmickry. Okay, gimmickree?
Do they though? I mean, you know what sting if not a gimmick?
Well? Yeah, I mean okay, what are the dynamic dudes if
not gimmick greed? Yes. While the NWA may top the WWE aesthetically,
the WWE figures to gross one hundred and twenty million dollars to the NWA's twenty
million this year. Sam Martino thinks the NWA could be more successful if it
would consolidate its direction. Dusty Rose was in charge of the NWA for a
long time, and he heard it. He heard it very badly. He
heard Rick Flair their biggest drawing card and took away a great deal of his
credibility. Really, he killed the nw A. It was a long time
ago. It takes a long time to undo damage like that, and it
takes hard work, patience and money. But instead of investing that, the
NWA tries to cater to kid's interest with gimmicks like the ding Dongs and Norman
the Lunatic they should concentrate on wrestling all the times. Love reading this.
The fuck is he talking about? I work for his father's fuzzy can't kimm
a green man? I like Norman a lunatic. I like Norman I llumit.
I like the fucking ding Dongs. What the fuck is wrong with this
ding dog? I don't know, but the cream looks rotten. Berno said
also said the NWA needs to develop new stars, a singling out Scott Steiner
and said vicious. They need to take promising young kids like that and put
them in the main event matches all the time. They say you can't make
a star in six months, but we used to do it all the time.
He is too sure by saying this is my new Superhill opponent. Yeah
right, cycle in and out. As noted, Meltzer thinks Sammartino's appearance will
have little influence on the profitability of Halloween havocs Sammartino. Ecker echoed Meltzer's opinion.
If they expect Bruno sa Martino to draw crowds as a referee, they're
kidding themselves. Imagine put that in the paper. Maybe they'll get some sentimental
people who'll bring their kids and say I used to watch this guy. But
that's about it. Fucking I don't draw, right, It's not my fault
if they think I draw. Bruno, do you think do you think maybe
you won't draw this pay per view? Yeah? Sure? In the Thunderdome,
Yeah sure, with the ah with the MSG light blue referee shirt,
with the black bow tie. Could you wear what you wore to your daughter's
wedding? Please? Right? Where's the leisure suit? All right? Right?
God? Bruno sammartin fucking what a fucking bonehead. And that is in
a lot of ways kind of a there's hints that Olie's coming in and taking
power. He's already working for the company. Clearly, at first I think
he was brought in. We'll get to it. It's kind of like a
road agent as opposed to someone who booked the whole company, and slowly but
surely as the whole uh you know, booking committee thing fell apart, heard
turned to Oli and gave him the whole book, and then you know,
we get Black Scorpion and all that stuff. But uh, when he was
booking Georgia CHAMPIONSIP Wrestling, as we talked about in our Black Saturday series.
Olie did bring in Bruno and David Sanmartino in their early eighties and brought in
Larry'sibisco as well, and tried to uh only recreate the Bruno Larry feud that
drew so well in the Northeast, but pushed into the Northeast a bit with
Georgia by way of Altoona, Pennsylvania. Altuna was the first to Pennsylvania town
that that Oi had to push Georgia into on the back of Sanmartino's name value.
He'd also start bringing in some of the old cronies like Stan Hansen,
who he pushed very hard in Georgia when he had the book there, and
Buzz Sawyer, who would come in to make up for I believe his moodhest
departure in the j Tex Corporation. So you can slowly start to see only
you know, I'm just observing. And then he talked ship behind it runs
back, and of course people eventually fall in their face. And that's what
I told you, he's an idiot. I mean put me in charge.
I mean I'm not I'm not saying I'm going a real great job for you,
but Jesus, I'll do better than this shit. It's kind of funny
to see to see only be the corner man for both Flair and sting Right
right when he would be kind of like the rascal that would cause the horsemen
to turn on Sting Right and really well, and also just his attitude towards
them both, oh well, like and shoot interviews and stuff. Yeah,
yeah, he fucking hates everybody. Everyone's an idiot him besides Stan Hansen and
fucking Ricky Morton and one or two other guys he ran into. But yeah,
he was against the Steiners getting pushed the way they were. He was,
He was hilarious and he would he would, but had with Jim hurt
too. But that's all. That's all still too unfold before our eyes as
WW feels its way around in the dark for a direction that sticks. But
it's Thunderdome. That's the drawing card, at least in their minds for Halloween
Havoc nineteen eighty nine, and it's presented much of the way the Wargames cage
was. Remember when we did our war games, we talked about how all
of a sudden, these mysterious ads with star erring on the World championsipressing TVs
show of welders and sparks putting together in this constrocity, and they kind of
go back to the well on that. Now Dusty's at WWF. So no
one's ever said, as far as I know, that Dusty Rhodes had anything
to do with conceptualizing Halloween Havoc. It has some of the trappings of his
idea generation, but sure, totally. I think the name probably just came
out of the Turner Marketing brain trust and Sharon Sandello and stuff. I'm not
sure I've heard anybody take credit for creating the name Halloween Havoc. I don't
think I've ever seen it. People have said it probably was a lot of
Kevin Sullivan's ideation, like the thunder dump cage and all this and kind of
like the spooky stuff, but I've never heard Kevin Sullivan say he came up
with the name Halloween Havoc either, And interesting, it's not necessarily someone who
would shy away from taking credit for something like that, so I feel like
we would have heard it if he's willing to claim it. But that's one
thing I try to run down for this episode that I could not find.
You know, wargames has as we talked about those sort of a competing authors.
Everyone says it's Dusty's creation, but there were articles at the time that
with Jim Crockett saying he actually started, he actually created it more in concert
with Dusty. But I haven't seen anybody say I created Halloween Havock. It's
like, hmm, you know, we still don't know who created the name
WrestleMania, but at least we have six people claiming it. Yeah, right
out of that, then it's gonna have to sit there. But when it
came to promoting the Thunderdome and trying to, you know, get the idea
of the danger of the match over regardless of what wrestlers would be inside of
it, Here's how they presented it. Yes, a small subcluded blacksmith shop
hidden deep in the mountains. Three strange men working around the clock to complete
the biggest challenge of their careers on the thunder Dome. Wrestling's Thomas Lustino Cage's
home. But there's never one like a Thunderdogs. There's no way in and
no way out. It's how we have. It'sposed to pride. They found
six tons of steel and electrified the only way to win this the terminator outside
for funk and mudus, sting and flair. These blacksmiths have made sure they'll
stay right there. It's thirty feet high, it's thirty feet wide. There's
no place to run, no place to hide, there's no way to win,
only to love. And how you'll do that depends on the terminator.
You if you want to take part, pick well it rhymes, I'll give
them that. Yeah, it does is. Yeah, you can't take that
away from him, I suppose. And this ad shows welders banging away on
hot steel, and among the welders that they cast for this, the shoot
big Bully Busic, Oh my god, Nick Musick as well, I think
it's this is his real name, and a couple of other indie workers that
they brought in to play the welders. But again, an ad that's completely
you know, untethered from who the actual wrestlers are going to be in the
fucking match doesn't matter very mention. And that's does matter, Yes, that's
exactly. That's top making a big deal out of it. I probably should
by now, honestly, because it continues. You went through Bishoff and everything,
it's like there's this the pay per view promotions department just simply has to
get stuff out before they have any idea who's going to wrestle on the show.
And so all these WCW, like thematic pay per view videos are all
predicated on the idea that like, they have no fucking idea who's going to
face off? Why you get such a big problem, I don't know.
I don't have a problem. I think it's great stuff. I don't know.
I think you do. Just calm down, everything's fine, It's going
to be fine. Well, I think we can turn to the funker.
That's one thing we learned about nineteen eighty. Yes we can, that's for
sure. When it comes time to glue the gaps and make stuff sing in
a way that actually sells tickets to wrestling fans, Terry Funk can be that
guy. And here he breaks down the menacing nature of the Thunderdome on WCW
television underd yes, I don't know. We have that avok no conspresus cages
arounding a ring that is elect profile. Some people say it's a colossal vulgarity.
What are the rules to a Thunderdome? No rules are no rules.
That's why Fun, moota, Flare, and Stain are all locked within this
monstrous cage, and there cannot be a winner. There can only be a
loser. And how is a loser determined is determined by two designated terminators on
the outside of that cage. And when they have decided that Funk and Muda
have taken enough punishment, they can designate an ending to the match by throwing
in a tower. And our designator is Gary are Gary said gisty the individual
now who is going to be here designator Rick Clair you and say you better
get thumb cute for as mean individual that hates your guts because heart will never
throw in that town. Oh yes, hall Areween. Havoc is going to
be the end to you, Claire, and the end to stay also underdog
spooky if nothing else, No, it's fine, totally. Did he change
the terminator to what was it? The declarer? What did he say the
the determinator determinator? Idiot? I mean, am I only one the one
I heard there's terminators in this I thought it was like they had Arnold first
before they had Rubber right exactly determinate, that is to say, the guy
who can terminate the match by throwing the towel in the thunderdome cage. Well,
I want I hadn't decided that. I thought the terminator should determine instead
of terminate. They determined they determinate instead of terminate. H Nothing wrong with
that, certainly not. Thank god the father's in there. No one.
I hadn't decided, you know better better, better better to do it than
not do it. So clearly, clearly that's what you decided. So the
story is that there are three people in a in a hut in a mountain
somewhere that made this cage or is that why? Why does it have to
be? Why I have to be is making it a metal? We need
the metal from the mountains, right, a different kind of metal, a
metal that decides good versus evil. Yes, they make no reference to the
strange tribe of people when they actually unveil the cage on the show. That's
like disconnected, right, because that's what they do. They they well,
you know, we should have all these visuals of of some you know,
ancient race that doesn't exist anymore. That's building, building the thing. But
we don't need to do anything about it. When the time comes, if
anybody knows this. I don't really I don't. I don't really know to
look it up. I don't really care to look it up, but I
have I know, I've done it in the past and come up kind of
short. Where's Sharon Sadella? Mm? Where is the person who was deputized
to create these kinds of pmos and and and finance them? Where is she
at? Why have we never heard from her on the the sting Sid Vader
Bulldog mini movie with the exploding boat and the dwarf? Come on, well,
I mean, what's it gonna take? Where are you Sharon when you're
ready to talk? I know about that? About? Where is her podcast?
Dating and Living with Ole Anderson? Oh? You know what to call?
Did she? Did she comment on She's never commented. I've never seen
her qute it anywhere? Well, she didn't comment on on on Olie's death.
No, not in a way that I saw. For someone who's mentioned
all the time on Bishoff's pod, on Jr's pod, on Tony's pod,
on anyone who reflects on WCW's pod or book or anything. She certainly never
has been someone that's thrust herself in the public eye much. It's like,
I have no idea where she is, what she does, if she's even
alive, frankly, but wow, it's it's kind of a crying shame if
no one ever gets her on the record about WCW, because she clearly was
very influential and what we what we think of is quintessential WCW. As for
the Funker, reflecting on kind of the the botch nature of this thunderdome cage
that he's so menacingly described there, we take it to his book again,
which we haven't cracked open since the lapsed Funk, so get ready. Yes,
after we did a round of singles matches, we did a tag match
at nineteen eighty nine Halloween have a pay per view Me and Muda versus Sting
and Flare in a steel cage match with an electrified roof. Well it was
supposed to be an electrified roof, but it kind of went south on us.
Our first problem was that there were these crape paper Halloween decorations in the
cage. That's some of the dumbest shit I've ever fucking seen in my word,
Well, why why do you like him? Just like, I mean,
you know that the things on the things get you know, actually electrified,
which in and of itself is stupid, Like it's not real wrestling,
guys, Why does it need to be really actrified. I don't know what
they did. I think they I think they rigged it. This is a
great mystery for me because I as much research as I did, I couldn't
pin this down in my mind that they clearly were having these like ball shaped
things that were up there that were electrified where if you touch them. I
think the idea was it was supposed to create a spark. Well, what
about when when Mooty touches the making, he's just are you sure? Because
it looks really real. The way he reacts does not look like it's something.
I mean, look, he's great and all, but if he if
he's faking Matt, that's a really good performance. Okay, fair because he
doesn't because he does it for a long time. It's not like he does
it and like ah and then kind of moves on. He like he stumbles
a bit and it's into it. It's definitely a longer reaction than just like
I'm faking. Unless again, unless he's like, well this is what you
get to do. They turned the electricity off after that fire, so there
wouldn't have been something a shock. But maybe maybe they got one end.
We'll get to all how it all plays out, but as the observer says,
there were gimmicks set up to where if you touched certain parts of the
cage, it would make your hair stand up on end, I guess that's
the visual they were looking for static electricity. I just can't see how they
thought this would come off good. You know. Oh well, but the
electricity, Meltzer wrote, and those special effects were turned off when the fire
marshal ordered the plug pulled on the cage after the pre match fire. Yeah,
well, you see the fun we we we lit up something from party
city up there. What are you doing now? We want to electrify the
entire structure. We're not. We're not doing that. You got to turn
that thing off right there. And if you've got a problem, take it
up at the county. You take it out of the county, Take it
up in the county. You read the sign, Tintler County County exactly.
Oh man, I've I've worked on my Philly accent for days and I already
lost it. I can't even, of course, get it back. Well,
it was supposed to be an electrified roof, but it kind of went
south on us. Our first problem. Okay, these they put crepe paper
decorations on this thing. I mean, it's so stupid. I mean,
some people love this. I mean, I just think it's a great idea.
I think it creates a whole, you know, a different atmosphere.
You know, let's see what's see what you know? I like the idea
of the Halloween decorations. You know, these are all these are all things
that but I think are worth it. Clearly. They have gargoyles on the
corners of the cage's boss on the corner of the Yeah, of course you
do. You know, you get it. It's Halloween. After Let's have
some fun with that, have some fun with it. It's gonna fend off
spirits or just gonna fold off consumers, fend off fans. Yeah, before
I eat the kids, what you know, with the kids a pizza party
afterwards. Okay, I'm not going to consume individuals. I don't know why
you'd think that and say that, Jim so once I said, was what
what I do? Quite like somebody who is like so sociopathic that they think
they can get away with never revealing that they eat children. But then,
like all of a sudden, he slips, I was any kind of short
circuits. I've never eaten a child. I don't want to imply that.
I don't think you should imply that. I don't think you should mention that
to me. I don't think you should ever say, Jim, stop eating
children. Oh oh shit, you came with it on that one, and
Funk says all right. And the electric fence caught the crape paper on fire,
so they shut off the electricity. It was the damnedest pile of crap
anybody ever saw in their lives. Nothing worked. The finish was supposed to
be that someone would touch a ball attached to the fence roof and shocks would
fire out and shock the hell out of him. But it didn't work.
Actually, I'm kind of glad it didn't work, because I think it was
supposed to be me. Oh God, that's Terry Funk saying that the finish
was supposed to be someone touching a ball attached to the room god, and
that they would have shocks presumably like you know, exploding pyro or something come
out and shocked the hell out of them, which is I don't know how
that was supposed to be the finish, considering there was the towel thing.
But I guess the towel would I guess someone being shocked by this ball would
cause Gary Hart to throw the towel in. Yeah, they told me before
the match that it would really shock me, but not too bad. So
that's to your point, boss, that it looked like some legitimacy there.
See. Yeah, well how bad is too bad? Fortunately I never found
out. I mean, when I die, is that too bad? I
thought it was too bad past area. Yes, that's true, A good
point. Well, how bad is too bad? Fortunately I never found out.
We ended up doing another finish where Oly Anderson in Flair's corner decked Gary
harton ours, forcing Gary to throw in the towel for us. It ended
up being one of the most ridiculous damn things I ever participated in, and
that covers a lot of ground. I said, what the fuck is this
going on here? This piece of shit? Fortunately I don't understand. Sometimes
fans accept things better than you think they will. Cactus and I found out
the same thing a few years later, wrestling in an explosives match. In
Japan and the damned explosives wouldn't go off. The fans knew it wasn't our
fault and accepted it. Maybe the Havoc deal would have worked better if we
just touched the damn electric ball earlier in the match, shown that it didn't
work in just gone on. There's an idea. There's an idea, Terry.
Hmmm. And for all that, you know, all the logistical and
technological problems of the match, you know, they certainly went in there and
kicked as much ass as they could. These four. Yes, it really
felt like a fight. Yes, they went to fucking town on each other,
no question. It's absolutely action packed. Here's how Jim Cornett remembers that
he was, of course, part of the booking committee. This is from
his podcast. When that was pitched, I thought it was gonna be great
because what we were taught, and so did Rick and Kevin Sullivan. What
we were told was not what we got. I don't know who had the
original idea. It may have been a Kevin Sullivan thing. But for Halloween
Havoc, the Halloween themed pay per view, they wanted a thunderedome cage match
where the cage would be electrified, and it was who was It was Flair
and Flare and Sting with Olie Anderson as the designated whatever it was against Funk
and Mudo with Gary Hart right well, and only and Gary Hart were in
the corners. Because the only way the match could be over with is if
one of the corner men gave up. You couldn't win the match. It
didn't matter how bad a guy in the match got fucked up. The cornerman
had to be the one to quit for his team. And the way that
it had been pitched to us from TBS and Herd and everybody else, Oh,
it wasn't going to be like an electric fence. They were going to
have apparatus around the top of the cage where if you went up to like
the top three feet and tried to climb out of it, sparks would come,
a shock would come, or I suppose it shock or whatever. It
would light up or zap or whatever, and that would prevent anybody from climbing
out of the cage. But it was a regular cage down at the bottom,
and they were going to have a regular match ending with the corner man,
Gary Hart in this case. Blah blah, blah, the heels were
gonna lose. Well when we got there. It's the same thing that TBS
kept doing time and time again that has not been lost on the modern day
WWE. They over gimmick everything. They set the cage up and tricked it
out with a bunch of Halloween themed things. There was a bail of hay
and pumpkins and skeletons and spooky shit. Well, the dumb fucks didn't realize
and go back and watch because it's on the tape. I assumed that they
didn't edit it out of the network. The very first time Right had started
the match, I don't think it even started yet. When they fired off
the zaps and the things from the upper part of the cage, the pyro
making it look like it was electrified and lightning and zapping caught the goddamn burlap
sacks and Halloween decorations on fire at the top of the cage. And you
see it because not only did fucking Tommy Young climb up the buckles and try
to fucking reach up and pat the fucking fire out, but Muda went up
and blew the mist on the fire to put the fire out, which got
a major pop. That was one of the best ad libs ever. Yeah.
Yeah, And of course then he's a heel. So now the heels
are really over and I'm back there. I'm on the fucking not the gorilla
position, because that was not WWF at the time. We just called it
goddamn the monitor and I'm watching a monitor. I'm going off. Fuck.
So then they called from the truck and say, we got to turn the
pyro the special effects off of the top of the cage because now the fire
marshal's hot and he's going to stop the show unless we turn the fucking gimmicks
off. So that's why the cage didn't work, because they turned it off
and they were up there trying to act like they were getting shocked when there
wasn't even any special effects. It was fucking rotten. These things always turn
out and rotten. It's so it's so w CW. I know, it
really is. It's like it's not gonna work, guys, like, do
you really think it's gonna come off? Well, it's not gonna work.
Like simpler, simple, be simple, be simple, Right, that's what's
better. I mean, I don't know, do you think if you were
a kid watching Wrestling at eighty nine religiously that the marketing we've heard around Thunderdome
would would draw you in. I mean, was this kind of like,
even though the execution was over the top, what was the idea of advertising
an electrified cage? Stupid from the jump or can you see why they would
do it? No? I would, I'd buy it, you know,
I'd be totally I'd be all for it. But you know they're they're fucking
idiots, so it doesn't matter, you know. I mean, in a
way, it's very much like Kell Kennel from Hell and Matt. The idea
is very tantalizing. But you know the problem is with an electrified fence,
if you're actually going to electrified and showed that it is electrified, then like
you're fucked. Yeah, there's no just fuck. People want to see someone
give it by a dog, right. People want to see someone mauled by
a fucking dog. People want to see someone get electrocuted for real, And
they don't want to see what really happens when you touch electrified metal. That's
boring. They want to see, you know, sparks going. They want
to see fucking you know what they see in the movies and like lightning basically
shiver up and down the person. But when you can't deliver that, then
you failed. And you can't deliver it right because someone would die, right,
and even if you did kill someone that, you still wouldn't get that
much visual wouldn't because because people getting electrocuted is not as interesting as they do
in the movies. And they stuck with it so long that they ended up
doing the Chamber of Horrors match in nineteen eighty one with Abdullah being thrown into
the chair remember that. Yep, what a home and they blew it up
because because he's like you know, when when you matches that provide possibility of
death in the ears of the fans or the eyes of the fans, it's
not good. No, you can't go there. You cannot go there.
Same thing with fucking you know, the fucking the scaffold matches, Yes,
right, I want to see someone fly off the fucker. That's why what
Ni Foley did at Helen his sale was so remarkable, right, because it
actually delivered on what your wildest dreams would be when you observe the structure,
right, remarkable. So it's uh, I mean, I'm obsessed with who
the flyer Marshal was, what his name was. Oh, I know,
I need, I need, I need to know exactly what happened with him.
I want to know exactly how freaked out, how pissed off he was,
as much of a public safety emergency as this appeared to be, or
how people at the time seem to reflect on it. Nothing in the papers
about it or anything like that. No one cares, so I guess someone
was just on site per protocol. Pennsylvania has had, as we've talked about
for years here on the show, and a torriously active Athletic Commission where there
were a ton of rules that were on the books and could be enforced if
they wanted to fuck with you, but you also were kind of within your
rights to expect would never be enforced and therefore not take proper precautions to comply.
But they could really turn the screws if they wanted to on your shit,
and they had been defanged a bit, as we talked about in all
the George and the Horrian stuff, when the WWF went to the state legislature
and spent a ton of lobbying money to get pro wrestling out from under the
auspices of Athletic Commission regulation, which remember that caused them to now be on
the hook for assigning George the horianto shows themselves instead of just being able to
punt and say, the commission put him there and whatever he does is on
them and not us. And once that state of play changed in nineteen eighty
nine at a show in Pennsylvania, Satura's main event. In fact, as
we talked about back in the Trial of his Life, they that's when the
famous Linda memo came out that we shouldn't be dealing with him, and and
Scales starts putting in the no, it was an what was her name?
Oh my god? Uh, what was the secretary's name that had to do
phone calls with George and Orion telling him not to go to the fucking thing,
not to Oh, oh, I can't think of her name. And
it's no, this is gonna be bad. There was Sharky, Margaret sharky,
but she wasn't the she wasn't the main one. Oh my god.
And is it ann h I need I need a Scales not and Scales Aneda,
Scales right, yes, give it to me. Fucking yeah. Some
of the best testimony of the trial. So yes, that's the state of
play as it regards Pennsylvania regulatory oversight of the pro wrestling business in nineteen eighty
nine. But yeah, this fire marshal, like, what that's on fire?
What the fuck do you mean it's on fire? Yep, And reference
was made there from from Cornett to Great Muda springing into action. You watch
the show and it does look like they're struggling to put the fire out until
Great Muda literally decides to use his mist to put it out, I know,
which is just an amen and turn the babyface in the meantime. Yeahcause
it's so fucking awesome. There must have been a spot during the match that
called for him to put it out. Maybe. I don't think that's ever
been clarified. I think Muda was asked about it once and you know,
through translation give a very standard answer in an r video shoot that doesn't really
tell you anything. But we can turn to Gary Hart, who, of
course cut a shepherded Muda into n WA and attached himself at the hip of
the whole j Dex Corporation stable and everything. He writes in his book Terry
Funk and I were trying to come up with a big idea for his return
from the hospital when we came up with the now famous bag angle. So
I forget this is also coming off of as we're about to talk about Terry
Funk putting the plastic bag on Wick Flair's head on the Clash of the Champions
and suffocating him, really pissing off the Turner higher ups that thought that was
a little too crude for their television programming, and as Jim Hurd would tell
it, led to come to Jesus meeting in the personal office of Ted Turner
with him and Turner about on what did I tell you remember Dusty went kicking
and screaming by blading on TBS when they were told strictly no blood. It's
kind of like a tantrum he had on the way out. And here the
bag angle had put a lot more scrutiny on the kind of things that a
WCW was doing, So he was involved in that, and as we talked
about back in the Lapsed Funk, Gary Hart kind of took credit for really
suggesting the bag thing. That angle is way over the top for TBS and
their phone lines let up after the fallout. Jim Hurd wanted to know exactly
whose idea it was. I ended up taking the heat for it. Okay,
the Great mood and Terry Funk I came up with the j TECH since
I was managing The Great Mooda and Terry Funky Rights, I came up with
the j TEX Corporation by combining Japan and Texas. The NWA had a slew
of managers at the time, so by calling myself the executive director of j
TEX, I felt it presented me in a different light, much like when
I came up with H and H Limited. J TEX was an organization within
an organization in a way to separate us from the other talent. Because I
always felt that the little things were just as important as the big things.
People picked up on it right away and really liked it. Jim Ross really
helped as well, because he painted the picture that it was a big corporation
of Japanese and Texans and we were making an invasion. He was very helpful
with that angle. I haven't put Terry Funk in the Great Mooda together as
a tag match as a tag team rather, which apparently was something of a
big deal given Terry's allegiance to All Japan and the Great moodas ties to New
Japan, and how they teamed up for the Hollyween Havock pay per view where
they wrestled the team of Rick Flaaren Sting in an electrified steel cage match.
This was based out of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, so Brunus and Bertino was brought
in to be the guest referee. That Bruno was very friendly and cordial to
me and wasn't as cold as he had been in the past. Gary always
keeping score of course. Oh absolutely, come on. I mean, you're
not gonna catch him fucking by surprise, even if forty years ago you gave
him the side eye. He's ready, yes, Oh come on. Right
before the match started, someone turned on the electricity, he says. As
I had mentioned, the cage was electrified and it had all the Halloween decorations
on it. Right before the match started, someone turned on the electricity and
way up on top of the cage, one of the decorations caught on fire.
The Great Muda saw that. The Great Muda saw that. It immediately
scampered up the top rope and blew it out with his Green mist I was
so proud of him, so proud of the great Muda Boss. That's what
we all want to be proud of Muda. What I can't figure out Meltzer
talked about it like the gargoyles or the dragons, the sculptures that are on
the corners of the cages were supposed to be fire breathing, and it was
the fire any special effect that caught the paper on fire, not the activation
of electricity to the cage. I mean, it didn't look like the fucking
stuff that was I maybe, but it didn't look like that the gargoyles were
anywhere near that stuff. The stuff that caught fire, Yeah, it's up
toward the corner. I mean, but the stuff that cut fire was more
on one side versus really on the corner. Yeah, I mean, I
don't know. You know, they just cut to it very quickly, and
you're kind of looking up at a live fire and you can see referee Tommy
Young is mentioned frantically trying to put it out. Fortunately for us. The
folks that in Your Head Wrestling, who have interviewed a lot of wrestling luminaries
over the years, did an interview with Tommy Young and one of the fans
called in and asked him about this night. There we go, and it's
this close to a definitive history of dealing with the infamous Halloween havock nineteen eighty
nine fire as I think you'll hear you know that was Monny as hell.
I'm glad you asked me that. I appreciate that. That particular night,
we were supposed to have an electrified page and we had burlap facts up at
the top of it for effect. Now that show I was not doing that
match. We had a special referee, the legendary Bruno Samartbo, and I
thought, oh, right on, I get to get out of here and
beat the crowd, because I can never do that. I was always doing
the main event. Tonny, we would you mind sticking around just in case
we might need you? And I thought, well, hell, I don't
mind being Bruno's deputy. That's cool by me. So anyway, I thought,
y'all stick around. I have my stripes on and everything, at least
I think I had to me I had them on. Well, anyway,
they were, as I recall, it was staying and oh geez, come
on, Tonny. It was Mudha and Funky against flare and sting, that's
right, and Burnou was the referee, and they were lowering the cage to
get to get ready for it, and then they electrified it. Trouble was,
when they did that, the burlap sacks caught fire, and I'm looking
at it and I'm thinking, this is great, man, we've even got
I thought it was part of the show. Well, anyway, I'm up
on the stage and next thing I know, here goes one of the TBS
guys charging down to the ring with a fire extinguisher and I thought, whoop,
something made good here. Trouble was, when he got there, there
was nothing in the fire extinguisher. It didn't work. So I came down
to the ring by then and I climbed up the cage at the burlap sack,
which was on fire, and I'm thinking, oh, what the hell
are you doing? What are you going to do now? And and and
you know, so I thought, well I'll start. I started beating on
the sack with my hand, trying to put the fire out, and the
sack is breaking apart, and sparks are going into the audience and one burns
this girl's dress. The audience is loving it. They're putting me over.
He Tommy right on and then I almost looked like a complete idiot. They
had it on tape and I'm banging the fire away with my hand and burning
my hand. Somebody else tried to help me too. But you know who
saved the day was Muda. Muda got that that uh I think it was
food coloring that he would spit. He blew a bunch of the food coloring
on the burl ass back and that that helped put the fire out. I
got it out a little bit, but Muda completely got it out. It
was the funniest thing you ever seen. I thought, you know, the
audience is, they're putting me over. But I thought, you must look
really stupid. I mean, you're up here, and what are you gonna
do? I mean, it's I thought, what do I do now?
So I'm banging on this. We got away with it, and because of
what happened, the fire Marshal says, look, no no electricity or no
match. So the audience understood. The audience understood that we could not have
the cage electrified because of the danger of the fire. So they went ahead
and had the match. Everything was okay, but this was the funniest thing
you ever seen that the fight. It was like poor Owen Hart, bless
his heart when he fell out of the out of the out of the harness
and of the ring when he died. A lot of people thought that was
part of the show. And I thought that the burl ass backs were supposed
to catch fire. I didn't know if the hell was going on and the
things are burning. There were several of them, and I burned my hand
a little bit. I was lucky I didn't get any fire in my face
because it was bouncing off my clothes. But it didn't burn me. It
just But I do remember one girl her dress got burned, but she was
laughing like el She thought it was great too. So it was just one
of those things that happened that I really wasn't involved in, but I wound
up getting involved in. Crazy Huh, Tommy Young crazy Huh. He's got
it all, dude, Okay, it's cross shucks. He found himself in
this position. You know, well, what do you know? You know?
I mean, I'm just sitting there and thinking what's happening? Existly,
I didn't know something where are we going? Something got burned? Apparently you're
going to court, you know. I mean, I I just thought,
you know what I saw? I saw it. I saw owen Hart and
die. I thought it was just part of the show. What the fuck
was that? Oh my god, he's not what uh? Because we know
one time, you know, one time I was on I was on the
highway. I saw a major action happened, a car blow up and people
died. And I said, I didn't know we were we were making a
movie. Just lit large now the movie were making. I don't even know
I was in a movie. Where's the contract? How much am I getting
paid? Well? Go see Jim, he's got what he's panicking now.
As we know, if you burn a fan in the front row in Philadelphia
at a wrestling show, they will sue your ass. Just ask the fun
and I'm gonna look down. I see I got a penis, And I'm
wondering your mind a porn? Am I in a porn? Hello? Well?
I mean when you scream it into someone's front window at two thirty in
the morning, of course they're not gonna come to the door. Hello born
me. I wonder if he's trying to put out the fire with his bare
fucking hands. How money. Is it that the TBS guy's fire extinguisher didn't
work? I mean, that's that's WCW in a nutshell right now. Oh
totally, these panicky TBS interlopers, right all they do is bring everything to
Halloween havoc that makes it go down in history as a complete fucking cluster fuck.
That's oh god, all they did, It's all they contributed. So
all they added. I just love that panic. Oh my god, what
a moment. Oh absolutely, they cut to that fire and you're like,
whoa, this is serious shit, Like yeah, I mean why would you
cut to the fire? I know well that they're there to cover the action.
Awesome. I'm sure the cameraman and the directors and Craig Leathers and uh
Keith Mitchell had no clue if it was a part of the evening's entertainment or
not. To Tommy Young's point, but what a fucking panic man. So
he says, yeah that you know, Muda's contribution was a real one,
that that was something that actually made a difference, that he went up there
and spit on it. And it does seem that way. I mean you
look at it on television, but it does raise the question like, why
would why would Muda's interest be in putting out the fire? I know,
I know, you'd think you'd want it and burn flair, bring someone's face
to a burn flair, right, But what a disaster that could have been.
You imagine, like if it's spread like fucking hell. That's one thing
I've never heard of is a wrestling of burning while fans were inside. Thank
god. But you would think with the level of some of the shows that
have been done over the years, thank god, the fire Marshal was there.
And part of the reason that it was so you know, sensitive and
delicate of a matter to be doing things that were kind of, you know,
hyper violent, but sort of you know, like the catering to the
lowest common denominator of human morbid curiosity, was the fact that, as referenced
a couple of times already, blood was very much a no go in WCW.
At this point, it's very clear from the TBS higher ups there was
not to be blood in WCW, which of course was in the Crockett days,
a company that almost differentiated itself entirely on the likelihood that there would be
bloodshed compared to WWF, and it was a very sensitive matter. You couldn't
fight into the crowd that came with big um ramifications from the head office.
And thankfully Jim Cornett was on the booking committee back then, and he's one
of the great record keepers that's ever been in the business, and he kept
a lot of stuff from this time period where he was this before he completely
developed an aversion to Jim Hurd and got fired basically, and Jim Heard just
said the MiNet Express isn't worth shit, and you don't say that to Jim
Cornett, And to this day he still skewers the guy. But he kept
a memo, did Jim Cornette, And he published it in the MIDnet Express
scrap Book, which is a book he came out with with all the notes
and gates of and pretty much every show he managed, the Midnights on which
is a great historical resource. We turned to it a lot during the Art
of War Games journey, for instance, And my god, if he doesn't
print a complete memo from October sixth, nineteen eighty nine, oh my goodness,
that really puts us where we need to be in terms of the corporate
mindset that was prevailing at World Championship Wrestling at the time. It's a memo
addressed to Jack Petrick and Jim Hurd. Of course, Jack Petrick was the
person that brought Jim Herd into TBS from Saint Louis to manage WCW and was
sort of like the the go between between Ted Turner and Jim Hurd. Copied
on the note are Bob Levi and Jeff Carr, who were involved in Turner
broadcasting as well. Subject line Wrestling guidelines on Superstation TBS letterhead, TBS continues
to maintain an all family programming strategy. Great opening line. Yes, this
philosophy extends through all day parts and categories day parts, one word day parts.
Of course, the TBS wrestling programs and promos must be consistent with our
on inner standards. Programs slash promos which do not adhere to these standards must
be edited or removed from the schedule. It is our intent to encourage exciting
and provocative wrestling shows which will garner high ratings. I see no problem.
It is in this spirit that we have designed the attached policy. If you
have any questions, please do not hesitate to call TBS rustling guidelines all caps
underlined number Ay. No blood is to be allowed. Any accidental bleeding that
occurs in a live performance will be covered by wide shots. Any subsequent replays
in future telecasts must be edited or removed from the program. B Gratuitously violent
and sadistic acts to people indoor animals are to be excluded from TBS broadcasts.
Examples include use of a plastic bag to smother a person. Wonder where they
got ome, my God, just in case you were wondering what we meant
by that. Like anything, rules are always written in response to one thing
that happened. Ah. Examples include Yes, lighting someone on fire is another
one, which almost fucking happened to poor Tommy Young. Yep. A blunt
instrument being used repeatedly with the intent of breaking an arm, leg, etc.
And that's a dusty angle put his arm in the car door, incessant,
incessant rather kicking and beating of an individual, and they write Scott Steiner
mugging. Do you know what that's a reference to? No, it was
the first time we saw doom, though we didn't quite see them. A
woman who had been the wrestling super fan Robin Green, who befriended the very
simpletons Rick Steiner on w Stiby television and then developed a relationship with him and
then took him for his money. Ends up breaking off from Rick and riding
around in a limousine with a new tag team that she's bringing to dominate World
Championship Wrestling. It's a mystery team. And there was a vignette that aired
on w stubby television in the week's head of Halloween Havoc nineteen eighty nine where
Scott Steiner is standing in a gravel parking lot in some remote location and a
limo pulls up and there's women in the window and she's saying, you know,
provocative things to Scott Steiner, and then I think Scott tries to get
in the limo and then he gets like tossed out at a limo and beat
half to death and stomped by court. Now we don't see Doom's heads.
They keep the camera shot below their chins as they put the boots to Scott
and leave him for dead on the gravel. So that apparently did not please
the corner office. They call it out specifically right here. See violent and
sadistic verbal threats are unacceptable. Can you imagine you try to book a pro
wrestling promotion and someone tells you violent threats are unacceptable. I just want to
say, we've been moving taught, We've been kind of go over some of
the stuff. We've seen some of your TV shows lately, and you know,
we're just we're just wondering how we can meet be kind of torned down
a little bit to really cater to the family friendly audience, if you know
what I'm saying, right, and we want to drop a document that gives
us full grounds to discipline you if anybody ever calls about we don't want to
listen, we don't want to hear. We don't want to be here censoring
you. All right. Look, that's we believe in freedom of speech,
but we also believe in, you know, the freedom to dictate terms right,
and we believe in provocative broadcasting as well, you know, And I
think our legacy demonstrates that we take risks. I believe, I believe that
we can do a little, we can have the best of both worlds.
I believe that with the proper you know, the cooperation between the different departments
of Turner Broadcasting, that we can have our cake and eat it too.
All right. So here's the thing, though, I understand that that that
that you know, it's a common thing to have wrestlers kind of go back
and forth with their their conversations, and so do they really have to threaten
each other? Do they really have to go there and say, hey,
you know what, I'm going to beat you for your championship? Camp?
They say, hey, you know what, I think that you and I
should just have a one on one sit down and discuss terms as to who
we'll walk away with the championship. It's becoming a much different conversation. Cornett
has a great fighting and actually as a as a you know, to kind
of go add on that do we really need the fighting at all? Right
now? We're talking with this camp has just be a conversation between two friends,
two colleagues saying, Hey, you know what cooler I think that you
know, you know, you're you've been championing for a long time, but
I think I should be championing. And the other guy says, all right,
well, here you go, you can take my belt. I know
about you, but I can't wait to see where that goes. I just
think that's gonna be more appealing to a broader audience, and this gratuitous violence
we've got. You know, I don't think violence settles anything. Certain doesn't
settle myself, certainly doesn't. Cornet's a footnote is perfect. TBS decrees that
a television show about gratuitous violence cannot include gratuitous violence, and that's exactly correct.
The memo, of course, concludes, we do not allow use of
profanity or religious slurs. References made to drug and alcohol use are not allowed.
I just don't think we should have religion in the business. I don't
think we should have, and it's sort of a substance in the business.
I believe that we have an opportunity to provide shelter for those who feel shelter.
Yes, wow, Wow, that's a high calling it is is their
sustainability report or is this an internal memo? I think one, and I
think they're both one on the same fast me. I don't see why they
can't be Wow monkey see monkey do. References made to drug and alcohol use
are not allowed unless it is designed to educate and inform viewers in a positive
manner. That's right. ND wrestling costumes must be consistent with our family viewing
standards. Attire may be provocative and entertaining. Attire may be entertaining, they
write, but may not be either lude or abusive in design. Very clear
guidelines. Definitely not the kind of guidelines you write just so you can fuck
with someone if you want to. No, No, not at all.
I mean I know exactly what to avoid after reading those bulleted points. I
mean, you know, look, they're trying to protect the brand here,
guys, as we're trying to create something fresh and and also at the same
time, you know, keep it all the same and and you know,
these are things that desire. We're trying to take risks by taking no risks,
right, We're trying to take risk, but not but plant it safe
the whole time. And that's as risky as you can get. We're trying
to live dangerously. Understand that's understand why you don't see that, huh,
I see it? See it? Well. At least this memo promoted healthy
internal corporate dialogue, Cornett continues. The first week of September came and Flare
made good on his offer to bring Cornette on board and booking committee. I
don't know if it was overheard's objections, Cornette explains, but he sure didn't
seem happy to see me. Then again, the old prick never seemed happy
to see anybody. That's right. For the princely sum of three hundred dollars
per week on top of his wrestling contract, Cornett got to travel to either
Atlanta or a major market airport once a week in between house shows and meet
with the booking Committee and Herd. Of course, brother nothing really ever got
done at these meetings except arguing and infighting, mostly due to Herd, but
heard also insisted on having the meeting, so apparently he liked it that way.
It was my first booking job. I loved working with Flair and Kevin
Sullivan, and I learned a lot from them, Cornett said. But suffice
it to say that the stress related stomach problems I have off and on to
this day erupted from trying to coexist with Herd. The Booking Committee is a
book in itself, but JC gives a brief rundown to the players in the
lay of the Land as of his starting date, the book writes, which
I can't recommend highly enough. It's a hard find, but it's a tremendous
document. Flair A. Cornett says was the head booker, which was supposed
to mean he had control over the wrestling product, but heard never came through
with that promise. In total, some things were easier for Rick to get
past him than others, but it was usually a struggle. Rick decided the
direction, who would work with who, the major angles, the TV mean
events, the big picture. Then he would hand it off to Kevin Sullivan
and I to sketch out. Kevin and I would get together at the house
shows, in the car or on the phone and polish the details. Kevin
had been a main event player for almost twenty years, booked various places,
especially Florida, learned from Eddie Graham himself and had great insight. He taught
me a lot then, basically because I was an habitual note taker and loved
actually sketching out the TV formats, I would get everything together right out the
formats and fax them to the office to be typed up and copied. Same
process with the house show cards. I got input with them, and it
was easy to suggest ideas to Rick or Kevin because they would either like them
or tell me what was wrong with them without making me feel like a goof.
That was Herd's job, but it ever bothered me too much because they
actually knew what they were talking about, and he didn't. The rest of
the committee at the time. Jody Hamilton, who was a wrestling legend as
the Assassin, worked in the office daily and handled the booking of the TV
job guys, made sure the rings got to the towns, and was supposed
to be the meetings to provide his experience in the discussions, but this didn't
work too well. Jody's style was not to be loud or confrontational, so
he didn't haggle. Hurt a lot when he went off on his tie raids,
and because of that, oh my, it hurts Tyrade, and because
of that, I think thought he was on their side quote unquote. Thus
Jody was kind of caught in the middle and had nobody listening. Jim Ross,
who remains a good friend of mine to this day and who I have
the utmost respersable professional respect for, was in an almost unwinnable position as well.
He served several times as head of the committee before and after this point
and had a lot of ideas, but they weren't on the same page as
Rick's. Very often, I think Rick discounted a lot of what JR.
Had done because business had been bad during that point, and Rick was yet
to realize business was going to be bad no matter who was in charge of
booking, as long as Herd and TBS were in control of everything. Jerr
was the lead announcer, worked in the office full time and tried as a
professional to have a cordial relationship with Herd. This made him suspect to the
boys who were on the road all the time and only in the office once
a week. Heard pitted JR against Flair and vice versa. With tactics like
this that drove Rick crazy. Once the TV formats were faxed in to be
typed and copied, Herd would instruct JR. To change all the live interviews
to thirty second pre tapes. Rick would sit down at the TV production meetings
to see the formats weren't what he wrote. Of course JR was there,
but Heard wasn't and it became JR. Changed. Then Rick would get hot,
have me get my originals out and change it back and saysant. Little
tactics of Herds like this prevented Rick and j R. From fully working together.
A very harmonious working environment here boss perpetual. Oh absolutely, I see
no problem Jim Barnett. Cornett writes, was listed as a consultant. I
don't know. No, Oh are we booking in here? I got I'm
sorry. It's so preppy in here. I can't believe I walked in here.
Oh my god, I thought I heard. I thought I was consulted.
No one's saying I'm not. No, I'm not gonna sit down,
No one, I'm not. I'm not sitting down. I'm look, I'm
not hired to book. I was here to consult. And if you can't
let me do that, so ship. But I'm gonna go. Let's go,
Jim, Let's go Jimsy. The t l f X Halloween Havoc eighty
nine. Bitch Barnett loses it. Barnett loses it. Oh shit. It
would take a phone book to recountless successes, innovations, and accomplishments of Barnett
as one of the two or three most powerful and successful per wrestling promoters in
the last fifty years. Because of his contacts, as eye for talent,
the promotions he had run all over the world, he was a legend.
He was the reason wrestling was on tds. To begin with, he wasn't
a booker. He always employed a good one or a bad one for a
short period of time before firing him, but he was considered a wise old
wizard. The downside was at this point he was in his sixties and seemed
to know seemed to me to be at that cranky point in his life.
He called it boss where he didn't like much of anything. In addition,
he knew or thought he knew that this was his last paying job in the
sport, and seemed more to saying things that made HRT happy to keep the
check coming. As well, he always had a pension for drama and gossip
and didn't seem too upset when the other guys were all at each other's throats
during the time I spent. I didn't do it. Oh well, I
heard he had some choice things to say about you. I'll say one thing
about Rick Flair. He always says wonderful things about everyone else. But did
you just drop an ice cube in his drink? There? He said some
nasty things about your wife, but you didn't hear that from me. And
look, I've always said this business is like a bunch of women in a
hair salon getting their permanence treated under the Dome. Always said, I've always
said that you all are a bunch of bit Yes, all right, you
can't control it and you can't help it. Fucking come eaters, that's what
you are. Oh shit, that's good. During the time I spent on
the committee, a few others were added, both shortly before I quit.
One was Olie Anderson, who was, whether you elect him or not,
always entertaining. I questioned a lot that OI did, especially in the summer
nineteen ninety when he was a booker after Rick would quit. But the great
thing about Olie was it was never dull when he was around. Once again,
he didn't get a lot through when Rick had the seat, but his
confrontations with Herd were priceless. After he retired from the ring. After his
run with Flair, Terry Funk was brought on as an all time great in
the ring of booker, promoter, promo genius in one of my childhood idols.
You would have thought Terry would make a big contribution, but once again,
he didn't want to be in constant confrontations with people. If he had
agreed with Herd rickwood Scoff if he agreed with Rick herdwood Scoff if he came
up with its own ideas. The rest of us didn't know whether to agree
or not because it might get on the wrong side of somebody else. And
I think Terry just sat back and shook his head a lot. After a
while. Then there was heard, at the risk of throwing off the chronological
order of the book, the stories about Herd can be told in random order
because they never made sense anyway. To illustrate his booking genius, one can
recount his ideas for a wrestler's gimmick. He actually a lot a live TBS
special order the debut of his Great Kids tag team. To get the younger
viewers away from WWF the ding Dongs, he took two local job guys and
put them in full body suits and masks with little bells sewn all over them.
They came to the ring accompanied by circus like music with bells ringing were
announced from Belleville, Illinois, and when one would get in trouble view,
it would bring a big ship's bell on the ring post to rally the fans.
The fans rallied all right, booing and laughing. The horseshit out of
the arenas. Every time they took a bump, their little bells would fly
all over the ring. One that thankfully never made it to the front of
the fans of his unbeatable tag team, the Hunchbacks. I sat and watched
this metal midget with a gleam in his eye actually pitched this lunacy to the
committee. The team would be unbeatable because his hutchbacks you couldn't but pin both
of their shoulders at the same time. Oly let him spill this verbal of
fuvia for about ten minutes and then said, Okay, now, when the
bell rings, I'll slap a submission hold on one. They'll give up and
be beaten in five seconds. Well that doesn't I just don't think that'll work.
Only I'm telling you it's not gonna work. On I'm telling you only
a piece of ship. Commu oh ship, come here, he says,
came here. That changes the whole tone. Get your ass over here,
shake, come here, all right? Commit? Anybody else wanted to step
out of line? Who now, who thinks that they fucking can get beaten
by submission? Huh huh huh fucking Now we're gonna have a committee meeting or
what Olie's like convulsing on the ground? Do I need to be the committee?
Wow? Wow, it's the Jim Herd committee, and this meeting is
called to order talk about gaveling in huh heard? Cornett writes, one spearheaded
an idea to get the rights to classic movie characters from the Turner Movie Library
for the wrestling Company. If I could find a two hundred and seventy pounds
sixty five wrestled with one leg, I'd have long John silver. Herd's eye
for talent was impeccable. He would throw huge money at the wrong guy with
unerring accuracy. He and I once had an argument over the various merits of
Sid Vicious or Arn Anderson. He loved to Sid, at least until Sid
screwed them over, held them up for money, and then bailed to go
to WWF. He said, why would I want to feature Arn Anderson over
Sid Vicious? I replied, Sid will draw you a million dollars in one
night, and then the fans will never want to see it again. Arn
will draw you steady money for five years. I'll never get tired of him.
He would make up reasons to yell at you. At one point,
Kendall Wyndham was working for Limbs for us when he got in legal trouble in
Florida and one wasn't able to leave the state. I got the call,
I got the talent list and substitute another baby face that wasn't booked the next
meeting. I heard yelled I'm sick of all these car changes, then pointed
his finger at me and said, and I'm looking right at you when I
say that. I got hot and yelled back, this guy's in a fucking
jail. What did you want me to do? Bake him a cake with
a file in it. I used to daydream in the car during our last
year with the company that I would give my notice by kicking in Herd's office
door and firing five shots from a blank gun at him, until Bobby Enen
said. When Bobby Eaton said, one day, Corny, you better not
as many guys as he's pissed off and screwed over. He's probably got a
real one in his desk drawer. So it was into this pleasant working environment
I ventured to fulfill my lifelong dream of being a booker. Getting back to
our chronology at my first meeting. We began to talk about ideas for The
Minute Express's heel turn. But two things became quickly apparent. One, Herd
thought that all I was going to do was come up with ideas for myself
and the Midnights, even as I sat in front of him with a notepad
with ideas for everybody on the roster. And two, in his own words,
I don't want the min Out Express working with the top teams. M
Seeing that's where we were, I came up with an idea for the Minute
Express to do a soap opera angle with then turn on the Dynamic Dudes.
So that's exactly the angle that we see on the show. So he's saying
here was supposed to result in the Midnight's turning on the Dudes Shane Douglas and
Johnny Ay Today's ww Tallon executive John Lauren Knights heard went for this because he
disliked the Dudes almost as much as the Midnights and didn't care what we did
together because it got both teams out of his way. That's so weird,
because I thought he he authored the Dynamic Dudes in some ways. I mean
Jr's we'll talk about later in the Deep Dive portion kind of takes credit for
pairing Ace and Douglas. And then the day the name kind of came after
they debuted at the Nashville show the pay per view with Flatter Steamboat is the
Dynamic Duo or something like the New New Generation or something like that, and
JayR was saying he was researching what was hot with kids at the time and
they were into skateboards. So, oh Jesus Christ. So the TV tabing
in Greenwood on September tenth, eleventh eighty nine, we started a deal Cornett
writes where the dudes asked me to be their advisor, beginning an angle where
there would be jealousy on the Midnight Express's part, as Stan and As hated
each other over an incident with a woman years before. Then the clash September
twelfth in Columbia, Flair assigned me to do color teaming with Jim Ross.
I had done color quite a bit on the TBS weekend shows and syndication as
well, but never a big event like a clash. It was the beginning
of my favorite announcing position, teaming with the best in the business. JR.
Et Cetera, et cetera. Okay, and that's the end of a
wonderful little chunk of recollection from Corner. Oh my god, that's what it
was like. That's what it was like, as long as it sounds easy
and normal and constructive, right right. And here you have Olie Anderson wagon
his finger. He thinks everyone's an idiot too. The year nineteen ninety was
a time, and I still believe there might be a chance to make it
and wrest make it wrestling again. I made an attempt to turn it back
into wrestling. Guy, I remembered it, but I was dealing with kids
who didn't have any idea what that meant. How are you going to feature
wrestling when nobody knows how to wrestle? For that matter, they didn't could
earn anything about wrestling. They thought it was unnecessary. How can I feature
wrestling performances when nobody knew how to wrestle? Yeah, oh, you never
think anyone knows how to wrestle. That's the whole point. But you know,
also, it's it's fucking fake. There's that point too. You don't
need to be real wrestling here. Lex Luger, one of the star performers
for ww didn't know what the word wrestle meant. Asked Bob rup about Luger.
Bob is the person who broke the gutlass wonder in. Jim Hurd didn't
know any of about wrestling either, and it make matters wheth heard was listening
to Luger. Herd was listening to everybody except the people who had actual knowledge
of wrestling game from years of experience. Michael Hayes and Jimmy Garvin were there.
I chewed them out several times because they made mistakes and had lousy matches.
Every dinner found myself telling them, you guys no better than that.
They were trying to adopt a style. First of all, they didn't know
how to work. But I'll give them credit because they made a reasonable attempt
to do something. Bill Watts made money with Hayes and Garvin, but he
didn't make money in their ability as workers. Watts made money in his ability
to book them in such a way that they had what they did looked good.
He programmed them with people who could make them look good. Of course,
good bookers always did it that way, but Hayes and Garvind never learned
to do it by themselves. They had a lot of common with the road
Warriors. The road Warriors never learned much about working, but they were very
good in the position you put them in, and they made money in that
position. If you let them veer from that position by more than half a
degree, you could forget any idea of things work in the way they were
planned. Mike and Jones' problems began when they got the idea in their head
that they really knew what they were doing, another thing that always happens to
Ally's talent start thinking might know what they're doing right. Of course, management
was such that they believe the road Warriors knew what they were doing because the
road Warriors were the stars. The truth is, we worked hard and made
them the stars, but then they began to believe they were really were the
stars, ah without giving any thought to the work that went into making them
the stars. Salaries were another sore subject with me. When TBS took over,
the salaries began to climb out of sight. I was all for paying
the talent more than one hundred grand a year, because I was of the
opinion that they should be able to make a decent living. The top talent
working for me in to Atlanta. People like Stanians and Wrestling Number two and
Tommy Rich his favorite earned about a hundred thousand a year, not bad for
a little southern backwoods territory were the longest trip was one hundred and eighty miles.
That was back in the seventies. Now we're in the nineties, so
we definitely need to pay them one hundred grand. On the other hand,
TBS should have required some conditions in return. We should have tied their salaries,
so the performance of the TV, in other words, the ratings,
as well as the house show attendants' numbers. I told Jim Hurd, if
the houses are in the tank and nobody's buying tickets, then you need to
cut back. I always operated under the belief that Ted Turner had to make
money before the talent could make money. The guys should make good money,
but they should be paid a salary and proportion to what they were drawing,
even though we were giving away but I thought were just absurd sums of money.
I tried to keep expenses down, but I still went overboard. In
my own company, I never would have set things up the way they did
the TBS. For instance, I hired Leon White who wrestled with Van Vader.
He worked for six hundred to night. That was it. Six hundred.
He wrestled about eighteen times a year, make it twenty a year.
A few years later they're paying him two point two five million a year.
That's quite a stretch. And then he goes on unless Johnny b bad salary
people some money, Jesus Christ. Anything more than that was okay Luger.
Okay Luger came to me, fucking bitch told me that he wanted to be
the champion. I balked at the idea. Hell no. Luger got so
mad that he threw his keys at the wall in my office and the keys
stuck on the wall. Flair had the belt at the time. I didn't
even like Flair having it, but we didn't have anybody else who I felt
was talented enough to take it. Flair was the best choice at that time.
I would go to the ring as a second for Flair, so I
had to watch him wrestle Lex Luger. I hated it. I'd stop them
after the match and say, God, the matches between you two are terrible,
and the people are going ape shit. This sucks. The crow shouldn't
be cheering like that. They would both laugh. Right, exactly, that's
a good one. Fuck, that's a good one. I'll give me credit.
That is a good one. They would both laugh. Flair was making
seven hundred and fifty thousand or more. Luca must be making five hundred thousand.
They're paying me two hundred, two hundred and fifty thousand. That was
fine with me. I was happy with that. But paying those two more
than a million dollars between them, I thought that was absurd. Worse than
that they were dumb enough to think they were going to continue making that amount
of money forever, and worse than that the amount of money wasn't even enough.
They still complained and insisted that they should be paid more. After all,
they both insisted that they were the stars. He's so fucking busy,
Oh my god, so fuck I love it. Only is someone that would
be happy to be paid less as long as everyone else around him makes less.
Yep, he doesn't see someone making more than him and ask for more.
He would. He'd be fine making five dollars a month if everyone else
is making four dollars a month. Exactly, that's what he wants to see.
He wants to see other people cut down the size, right, and
he's glad to He's glad to means if that means he gets to watch these
people get I think part of it, though, part of it is this,
though part of it is the fact is that he he wants to start
off that way. He doesn't want to ask somebody to get more. He
wants to be paid more from the get go. He doesn't want to get
a raise. He just wants to be paid more from the beginning. Don't
fucking you know, don't don't uh you know, don't pay me five hundred
dollars a week and then seven, six hundred dollars a week and then me
have to ask for seven. I want to get paid five and I want
them to get paid four right from the beginning. Wow, go fuck yourself.
Yeah, he's got some. I mean, he's not wrong about how
absurd some of the salary structures were at WW at the time. But it's
also ridiculous to think that they would even bother working there if the salaries weren't
so right, uh lush, flush with cash. I mean, that's what
it took to get people to work for a company that was flailing. Around
in the dark for direction and an identity and profit. Just great stuff,
tremendous. Everyone only only goes right in that Hall of Fame with like a
Bob Holly. Oh yes, sEH aggravated hates every big star he ever got
close enough to smell, you know, he gets he gets close enough to
people to observe the downside, you know, and he hangs onto that and
clutches onto that and does never let it go. I know how to fuck
people to red exactly. I don't like me what. I just want to
get my fucking shit done, and I wanted to do my own shit.
I'll be able understaining that my shit is better than your shit right from the
beginning. They don't need to see my ship, you know, the miss
bail to trust the fact that I know the myches been then your shit.
And I'm just gonna sit there and I want to fuck everyone in the ass
by you only you're war You're rolling forty five thousand dollars again back in the
Sauces Flair and Stings Cornerman Halloween Havoc eighty nine, but not quite yet on
the booking committee. And I wonder why after reading that passage, from his
wonderful book. So only now. Among the many propaganda arms that Jim Hurd
had his disposal was not just articles like we've read, but also WCW's own
in house publication, which had yet to be named WW Magazine and was in
fact called Wrestling Wrap Up, the official publication of the National Wrestling Alliance or
whatever it was called. And here are some samplings from some clippings that talk
about Halloween Havoc nineteen eighty nine, and more importantly than that, give us
a sense of what Jim Herd wishes to emphasize about WCW heading into and out
of Halloween Havoc nineteen eighty nine. Boss, This is just a little snippet
from one of the magazines describing just how how brilliant their television equipment is.
When you tune into ANWA Clash the Champions or pay per view live telecast,
everything looks great. You probably don't realize how many people and how much preparation
went on behind the scenes getting things ready for airtime. That's the way it's
supposed to be, but it just doesn't happen by magic. It takes almost
two hundred technicians, engineers, equipment, operators, audio and video directors,
and assistants to put on these huge vents. These people usually drive into town
thirty six hours before airtime because of the hours it takes to erect the lights,
set up the chairs and ring, and when necessary, the cage,
scaffold, etc. Lay the cables, literally miles of them, set up
the transmitting dish, align it with the satellite, check transmission feed, set
up and test the cameras, and meet with the various crews. Just like
a Space Shuttle mission, there are backup systems for everything. When you're transmitting
live on the satellite, no equipment failure is tolerable while millions of people are
watching. Keith Mitchell, a veteran of a of a veteran TV producer and
directed with many years of experience and pro wrestling, is responsible for what the
final picture looks and sounds like. At the recent Halloween HAVOC eighty nine pay
per view event and from Philadelphia, our photographers roam the Civic Center six hours
before airtime to capture the people getting everything set up and ready. No expense
is spared when Turner Broadcasting is involved. The very best equipment and engineers are
at the disposal of WCW to bring you the highest quality pictures in the sound
just as it happens live. The following photos might help you with our fans
appreciate how much effort the NWA puts into making our events the best entertainment value
for your family. When you watch dar K nine Future Shock on December thirteenth,
you'll know that there were about one hundred people at the Omni the night
before, all night setting up cables, chairs, lights, et cetera while
you were sleeping. The following day will be spending testing all systems so that
there will be no surprises. I mean, tell them what sounds perfectly.
You know, this is what you want to me. This is makes me
want to watch rest you read want to read in a wrestling magazine, right,
yeah, and I want to And now I'm like, oh, I
gotta watch wrestling now, and I'll sort to watch the matches. From the
desk of Jim heard this one coming off what was admittedly one of the great
wrestling pay per views of all time, the nineteen eighty nine Great American Bash.
But this is how it was framed from sort of like a business lens
and sort of like a Jim heard Lens. Yes, Baltimore Bash Glory Days
a major success. Wrestling fans in Baltimore couldn't have been happier when their hometown
was chosen as the site for this year's big pay per view Great American Bash.
They responded with great enthusiasm, and the building was packed with fourteen thousand
plus screaming fans. A potential ten million viewers had the capability to too.
It did via cable and millions on pay per view. Potential potential billions did
not watch at home on pay per view television. Millions did not watch this
show. Hey, you know you never know, you mean, just I
think about it, and as one bike was one party, all right,
and I imagine a party has at least ten people for every bodye we calculate
there are forty people watching the screens exactly. Imagine you know, you think
about it. You got you got a husband and a wife and three kids,
all of them have friends and family over We're talking forty people at least
per household per bye, right, So how many eyeballs have actually viewed what
we're producing? I'm here to do it. Audit. Jim from the the
C Suite they're asking that we report back to them on sort of like the
makeup of the WCW audience and what we can discern about who's watching the product.
I see that here you've got to print out of one of your recent
to pay per view telecasts, the Great American Bash. And I noticed that
while it looks like, based on the universe of homes that had access to
the show, and based on the buyer rate, that probably, you know,
somewhere between one hundred and twenty thousand and maybe one hundred and fifty thousand
households bought the event and watched it. I see also, you guys are
claiming that that that twenty two million people saw the event. And so,
as I think you can understand, I'm having a little difficulty reconciling those numbers.
What do you guys calculate for every buy? How many eyeballs watch for
each buy? I mean, what are you guys using as a it's a
you know, a run rate. Why don't we use this right here in
my hand? I mean, when you in your face, so how many
buy? How many people do you think watch per bye? With this right
next to your creamium, what do you think how many people. Do you
think watch Perbye two eighty seven? Sir, sounds a little low to me.
What do you think you want to try again? I'll give you one
more chance, and then I don't want to shoot your fucking five hundred people,
sir, that's right, purbe So if we have a million buys,
how many people want? Five hundred million? Yeah, that's right, five
hundred people ordering my pizza? How do you like them? Fucking Pepperoni's?
You piece of shit? Have you ever wondered what it felt like to have
a bullet go through your body? No, sir, why don't you start
imagining it right now? And while you're doing on that, why don't you
get the fuck out of here? Okay, sir, I'm going out up
your little shut the fuck up. I'm not done. You're write up your
little report and tell them that we had five hundred million people watching the damn
trip and coming up at the end of that hour, it's Halloween. Have
it. I'm sure you're ready for one. I hope you're ready for a
little fright, because I want to tell you something that's going to scare the
shoot out of a lot of people. That we're gonna have seven hundred and
fifty million people watching now that we have it. That's not that's not a
prediction. That is a fact. It's gonna happen. And if it doesn't
happen, well, your family is not going to have a daddy anymore.
Now, why don't you order me some fuck good lunch? Yeahs creepy.
I actually sat here feeling chills in my spine that you were going to play
the gunshot noise. It's as close as I have ever felt, God bless
it in my life to feeling like I actually had a gun in my head.
The critics said that the fans were treated to possibly the best produced,
most exciting wrestling event ever televised This is Wwtone magazine, and the final fifteen
minutes of the show was the absolute wildest in wrestling history. All the critics
agreed that this was the nwwa's best effort to date and then it can only
get better from here. Turner Broadcasting supplied the very latest, state of the
art equipment for the event and it was truly outstanding. Gordon solely asked some
key questions in his pre match interviews. The camera work was excellent. Jim
Ross and Bob Coddle were in tip top form and the ring entrances were spectacular.
Then there was the wrestling. Yeah what about that, Jim? Yeah
right awesome. There was so much excitement in three hours there in a moment
wasted. Most of the fans never even left their seats. Jim Hurd,
executive vice president of World Championship Wrestling, Incorporated, told us quote, we
are very proud of the fans who turned out to support the nWay in Baltimore,
as well as our viewers at home. We are obligated to put on
the best show, and according to the many letters and calls coming into our
office, I think we did it. Our wrestlers were pumped for the toughest
matches in their careers, with some of the biggest money prizes and titles on
the line. It was our duty to broadcast this card properly because the action
was going to take place. Whether we got our cameras set up or not,
that's just interesting concept. We thank everybody who attended or watched. We
we're going to have the I guarantee we're going to have the best television broadcasts,
whether or not we have cameras or television signals or nothing. It's hell
of a guarantee. We thank everybody who attended or watched it at home and
look forward to bringing more quality wrestling action to you every week, as well
as our special classes and pay per views. So quite quite a time to
be a WCW fan, I'll say, And considering the main event and the
nature of it and who participates, we're going to bring it home from the
pages a WSW magazine. Yes, go home propaganda for what would be Flair
Funk one last time on pay per view in the cage. Oh boy,
oh boy, here we go again. Uh fucking there we go. Uh
okay and okay am. The war between Flair and Funk is far from over.
Even though Rick Flair pantarry Funk front in front of the entire world in
Baltimore on July twenty third to retain the world Champion title. It's definitely written
by someone who knows champion title. It is far from finished with this maniac
from the Double Cross Ranch in Canyon, Texas. Rick Flair did achieve his
goals for the UH for the Parlot's cut off here eh. He successfully defended
the World's title against the man who had temporarily retired from his chosen profession almost
permanently. He kept the title and he punished Terry Funk. He piled drove
Funk repeatedly until Funk crawled away trying to find a way out of the ring.
He blooded the man who ruined his uh a moment of victory in NASHVILLEA
and showed the world who the real world champion is. He beat Terry Funk
using Terry Funk's rules. This doesn't mean that Flair was not diminished in the
press. He was busted wide open with Funk's branding iron early in the match
while Gary Hart distracted the referee. He was piled driven once and Flair and
Funk landed on his back on the back of his neck, which caused the
champ to scream in pain. The champ has returned in top form using Funk's
own tactics and weapons. Flaire split Funk's head wide open with his own branding
iron. After brawling in the audience and finally getting back into the rain,
they grabbed at each other and Flair pounded on Funk until he was reeling and
bleeding profusely. The final moments of the match reverted back to wrestling and was
a study in classic defensive and offensive wrestling. Flair leaped at Funk with a
flying knee to the corner. As Funk moved, Flair fell to the mat,
holding his knee in pain. Funk grabbed the leg and attempted to put
his patented spinning tool hold on the champ, which would have been the end.
Flair reversed it, attempting to apply his own patent figure four. Funk
then reversed this into an inside cradle, rolling Flair into a small package.
As Tommy Young started the count, verse it again with a reverse cradle and
pinned Funk for the one, two, three and the victory. Tommy Young
raised the world Champion's hand and it was official. Rick Flair had pinned Terry
Funk, retaining the world title. Gary Hart jumped into the ring and Flair
sent him flying with a fist to the face. Funk surprised everyone by having
Gary Hard at ringside in the first place. His involvement was trivial until he
slipped the branding iron to Funk. Was this his only purpose? As it
turned out no. As soon as Heart went flying, the Great Muta stormed
the ring in Blue Green mist right into Flaire's face, who fortunately shut his
eyes in time and avoided getting blinded except for a few stinging minutes. Muta
and Funk double teamed Flair, who was trying to clear his vision. Muda
smashed him in the head with his own belt, reopening the wound from earlier
in the match. Then Muta held Flair while Terry Funk grabbed the steel chair
and tried to pile drive Rick Flair on the chair, which probably would have
ended the champs career for good. A civilian security officer jumped into the ring
attempting to stop this madness, but got beaten down for his efforts by Muta
and then was not cold by Funk. It was completely out of control.
Sting then hit the ring like a flash, with fists flying in all directions.
Sting helped Flair to his feet, and the pair drove Muda and Funk
from the ring like a pair of furies. Flair shook Sting's hand and the
thousands of fans and attendants went wild. It was still not over. Muta
threw a chair at Flair, who started and it started all over again.
Flair flew from the ring in a rage and started brawling with Funk and Muta
sting jumped down and it became a four way brawl down the ramp and into
the audience. It continued up the ramp and finally appeared to be finished.
Jim Ross and Bob Coddle prepared to close the show, when all of a
sudden, the four came crashing into the interview area, slamming chairs over each
other's heads in a fresh irruption of violence. Flair pounded Funk and Muta with
the branding iron and they continued fighting into the corner of the building with chairs
flying. The four refuse to stop. The pair finally chased Funk and Muta
away for good, it seemed, so Jim and Bob tried to close the
show again. Flair came over with staying, looked at him and said,
Pow, I haven't said thank you in ten years. Thank you, terrifun.
We just started Pow. We just got warmed up uster two and a
half months. I'm just plugging a good sweat. So wherever it has been
pal it'll be again soon. I'm happening to dog you until I wear your
texasasoy. This match was NonStop vicious savagery literally all over the building, even
spilling right into the broadcast area. This was pure revenge that both wrestlers requiring
numerous stitches of the head. There is no question that Rick Flair wants more
of Terry Funk. How does Gary Hart fit into all this? Well,
Hart is now managing Funk. This is a much more dangerous situation because of
the threat of the Great Muta is always there. Funk and Muda do not
belong in Professional Wrestling magazine. They are both incapable of following any rules and
finds me nothing about that memo. Man, that's right, Ric Flair has
prevailed this time. What a team Flair and Sting were. This is the
best partner Rick Flair has ever had. We hope they can put Muda in
Funk in their place in the Thunderdome. Unspeakable Horror hits coming. Terrifying destructions,
a howl in good time with the monsters of professional wrestling. It's coming.
October twenty eighth, Halloween Havoc eighty nines, Handling the Score a pay
per view of Ed Portering on the Edge of Insanity. Call your cable operator
for a feel of If you think