This week, we look back at the 1986 issue of Inside Wrestling that went to press on April 30 and sold for $1.75 in the U.S and $2.25 in Canada. And there’s a lot to cover here in the wake of Wrestlemania 2, The Jim Crockett Sr. Memorial Cup Tag Team Tournament, and WrestleRock 86. So let’s make like Buck Zumhofe and… ah… let’s just jump in.
We begin with The Mailbag, where Mike Facciani writes in to say he was impressed with Hulk Hogan’s victory over King Kong Bundy at Wrestlemania 2. “Hogan took everything Bundy could dish out and hammered right back at him. Even the big splash didn’t faze the Hulkster. His spectacular victory was his greatest match since winning the title. It’s just more proof Hogan can’t be stopped by anybody, and the WWF belt is around his waist for good!”
Meanwhile, Michael from Memphis takes offense that a previous letter writer called Jerry Lawler a two-faced piece of garbage. He says Lawler could easily defeat any of the world champions, but the champions are afraid to defend against him. Someday, Michael says, one of them will have to face Lawler and Lawler will win. (Well, he’s not wrong.) Karen from Hickory, North Carolina says she hopes Ric Flair gets dethroned because he’s more concerned with money, women, and cars than properly representing the NWA. She says wrestling is about more than the personal rewards, and it’s time to have a champion who respects the sport like Magnum T.A., Dusty Rhodes, or Ronnie Garvin. And finally, Lisa of Independence, Iowa says she thinks Dusty was fully within his rights to break Ole Anderson’s leg because Flair and the Andersons broke Dusty’s. She concludes her letter saying, “I hope Dusty breaks Flair’s leg.”
Next, Editor’s Notebook with Peter King:
We move on to Behind the Dressing Room Door with Stu Saks, with Stu asking, “If Ricky Schroeder were not at Wrestlemania 2, would you still attend?” He says of course you would because you’re a wrestling fan. “Take away the excesses, and Wrestlemania 2 was a fine wrestling event. The majority of the matches were good, and some were excellent. (Let’s not talk about the Roddy Piper/Mr. T boxing travesty. Just tell yourself it was a figment of your imagination.) But by adding names like Tommy Lasorda, Ray Charles, Ozzy Osbourne, Cab Calloway, Darryl Dawkins, and Clare Peller, the WWF is in effect saying that a card featuring Hulk Hogan vs. King Kong Bundy, The British Bulldogs vs. Greg Valentine & Brutus Beefcake etc. is not entertaining enough to draw a large crowd.” [There was also Joan Rivers, of course, who was often hosting The Tonight Show back at this time before having a falling out with Johnny Carson later in the year. The WWF desperately wanted Rivers to say her signature line, “Can we talk?” and Linda McMahon actually went down to ringside and began yelling “Can we talk, can we talk?” to remind a flustered Rivers to say the line.] “I spoke out against adding celebrities for the first Wrestlemania, and I’ll admit now that from a business standpoint I was wrong. Whereas Inside Wrestling reached the hardcore wrestling fan, Time, Newsweek, and Sports Illustrated reached people that knew little, if anything about wrestling. And some of those people became wrestling fans. But that was 1985. This is 1986. Wrestling is no longer the darling of the media. No matter how much money Vince McMahon were to spend on celebrities (money that is ultimately paid by fans), he would never get the kind of coverage he did for Wrestlemania 1. And while the Nassau Coliseum was sold out, the Los Angeles Arena and the Rosemont Horizon weren’t, with the Rosemont about 6,000 short. If Wrestlemania 2 didn’t do as well as McMahon had planned, he has only himself to blame. In 1985, everything he touched turned to gold. He’s a genius, but sometimes he’s a mad genius. This year, with the Wrestlemania concept instilled in the heads of the public he could have streamlined the event so that he could still offer a “Super Bowl” type package without the wasteful frills. Perhaps the third time, around he will learn.” (So you want minimal celebrity involvement, one venue, and the focus on the wrestling? Hopefully Wrestlemania III will check these boxes.)
On the Road with Craig Peters: Who is the most underrated wrestler in 1986? Maybe Rick Morton. Or Ted DiBiase. Also, there’s Bill Dundee, Buddy Landell, Buzz Sawyer, Jesse Barr, and Arn Anderson. But what about Hector Guerrero? Craig recently attended a show in Philadelphia, and he liked what he saw out of the guy, despite fans chanting “boring” during his matches. Hector himself says the fans don’t understand the complicated science of wrestling. “The junior heavyweights are traditionally more scientifically-oriented than the heavyweights. And the complicated body mechanics of some of the scientific moves that, for example, I like to use… well the fans just don’t understand what’s going on in the ring. It’s unbelievably complicated and difficult from a strategic and physical point of view. But since it’s not a body flying 10 feet through the air or a pint of blood spurting out of someone’s head, a lot of fans get bored and start screaming.” Craig says that if fans pay closer attention to his matches, they might stop chanting “boring” and might start chanting “Hector!” (Or, he could jump out of a giant egg and end up with WrestleCrap naming an award after his character.)
And now, strap yourself in. It’s time for Names Makin’ News with Bill Apter. Three big shows took place since last issue. Wrestlemania 2, The Crockett Cup, and WrestleRock.
We begin with Wrestlemania 2, the WWF event which took place April 2, 1986 in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles.
This year’s Wrestlemania was like a Crackerjack box. If you looked inside hard enough, there was a prize. Actually, two prizes: The British Bulldogs winning the tag titles and Hulk Hogan successfully defending his title. The latter deserves more scrutiny because Hogan wasn’t just defending his title, he was putting his own physical health on the line, having been seriously injured in February. (Wait, are you saying the Bulldogs weren’t putting their health on the line?) Yet Hogan dispatched Bundy in all of 10 minutes and 12 seconds and the title defense might go down as his greatest ever. (On another note, Hogan has outlived all his Wrestlemania opponents from Wrestlemania 1 to Wrestlemania VI.) On the other hand, the boxing match between Roddy Piper and Mr. T. was an embarrassment. (Fun fact: when the WWF began advertising this New York bout as a boxing match, it automatically fell into the purview of the New York Athletic Commission, which meant the contestants had to be officially weighed in and pass a physical, something the WWF didn’t know until the last minute.) Meanwhile, Magnificent Muraco and Paul Orndorff fought to a double countout, Randy Savage pinned George Steele to retain the Intercontinental Championship, Jake Roberts defeated Bret Hart’s old tag team partner, George Wells, The Fabulous Moolah successfully defended the women’s title against Velvet McIntyre, Corporal Kirchner beat Nikolai Volkoff, Ricky Steamboat pinned Hercules Hernandez, Adrian Adonis had no trouble with Uncle Elmer, and the Funks, in an upset, defeated The Junk Yard Dog and Tito Santana, who had both previously won at Wrestlemania 1. (Tito, in fact, was the first guy to hold the “longest Wrestlemania winning streak” after defeating Buddy Rose in the first match at Wrestlemania. He then, as Michael Fitzgerald mentioned earlier this week, went on to lose at Wrestlemanias 2, III, IV, V, VI, VII, and VIII, setting the largest Wrestlemania losing streak before finally winning again at Wrestlemania IX in a dark match. If that happened today, of course, the announcers would be all over it, making a storyline out of Tito wanting to win again at Wrestlemania and having a “Wrestlemania moment.” JYD, it should be noted, had his own post-Wrestlemania 1 problems, losing at Wrestlemanias 2, III, and IV before leaving the company. Terry Funk, meanwhile, would return to the Wrestlemania stage twelve years later to win the WWF tag team championship with Mick Foley and keep his Wrestlemania winning streak intact, now sitting only 19 wins short of The Undertaker’s famous streak.) And lastly, Andre the Giant won a 20 man battle royal featuring both wrestlers and football players, after eliminating The Hart Foundation. (According to Jim Neidhart, Andre didn’t want anything to do with Russ Francis because Russ didn’t know how to work. Neidhart added, “Russ insisted he be thrown over a certain way. We tried to tell him the way he wanted to go out was the most dangerous, but he wouldn’t let up.” Francis himself later recalled his elimination in an interview. “As I was going over, I decided to grab the top rope, but my head got caught and my neck snapped back. I thought for a split second I might have fractured my neck because my body went numb. I was fine but it was a scary moment.” Many years later, Russ Francis was part of the group that bid for WrestleMania 31 to be held at Levi’s Stadium in 2015.)
Onto The Jim Crockett Sr. Memorial Cup, a JCP event which took place Saturday, April 19, 1986 in New Orleans and consisted of two shows, one in the afternoon and one in the evening, drawing 3,500 and 13,000 respectively.
In the early portion, unseeded teams, along with the 9 and 10 seeds, battled to see who would advance to the second round. (Of note, a 23-year-old Brother Love, Bruce Prichard, announced the teams while Earl Hebner, looking like he was 12, refereed some of the matches. Meanwhile, Bill Apter himself was at ringside with his trusty camera.) Wahoo McDaniel & Mark Youngblood defeated Bobby Jaggers & Mean Mike Miller, Sam Houston & Nelson Royal defeated The Batten Twins, Jimmy Valiant & Manny Fernandez defeated Baron Von Raschke & The Barbarian, Dr. Death Steve Williams & Terry Taylor (seeded 10) defeated Bill Dundee & Buddy Landel, The Sheepherders (seeded 9) defeated Chavo & Hector Guerrero, Buzz Sawyer & Rob Rechsteiner defeated Koko Ware & The Italian Stallion, Black Bart & Jimmy Garvin defeated Brett Sawyer & David Peterson, and The Fantastics (Bobby Fulton & Tommy Rogers) defeated The Fabs (Stan Lane & Steve Keirn) in a 14 minute classic.
I’m still not sure how Steve Keirn went from heart-throb to Skinner.
Then, the top 8 seeded teams, which had first round byes, tried to turn away the Cinderella wannabes, with #1. Road Warriors defeating McDaniel/Youngblood, #2. Magnum T.A. & Ronnie Garvin defeating Buzz Sawyer & Rob Rechsteiner (Hopefully young Rob finds a better tag team partner), #3. The Midnight Express (Eaton/Condrey, the NWA tag champions) defeating Houston/Royal, #7. Baba & Tiger Mask (Mitsuharu Misawa) defeating Bart/Jimmy Garvin, and #8. Ivan & Nikita Koloff defeating Valiant/Fernandez. Meanwhile, #4. Tully & Arn lost in a shocking upset to The Fantastics (in another classic match that ran 11 minutes and cemented The Fantastics as the crowd pleaser of the night), #5. Dino Bravo & Rick Martel had to forfeit to #10. Williams/Taylor when Dino Bravo was unable to wrestle due to a 105 degree fever and appendicitis. (Some readers on this blog have called it Bravo’s finest match. Then there’s Cheech, who commented, “Even Dino Bravo’s appendix thinks he’s just the worst.”) Also, #9. The Sheepherders pulled off an upset when #6. The Rock ‘n’ Roll Express were disqualified for striking the Sheepherder’s manager, Jack Victory. (Talk about getting screwed!)
In the third round, #1. The Road Warriors defeated #3. The Midnight Express, and the only unseeded team to get this far, The Fantastics, wrestled to a draw with #9. The Sheepherders when both teams were disqualified (though not before The Fantastics stole the show). Meanwhile, #2. Magnum T.A. & Ronnie Garvin defeated Baba/Tiger Mask, and #8. The Koloffs wrestled to a time limit draw with #10. Williams/Taylor. (This was poor booking. The Russians should have gone all the way to the finals.) That all meant #1. The Road Warriors would be wrestling #2. Magnum/Garvin in the finals for the cup and a million dollar purse.
The interesting thing here is that Garvin was actually a replacement. #2. was supposed to be Magnum & Dusty Rhodes, but big Dust pulled out to wrestle Ric Flair for the title. (Rock Star Gary speculates that it went down this way: “So you’ve got Dusty, the big Texan, and a Bill Watts, the big Okie, in the same room booking the show. Watts: ‘Dusty, I’m not going to sit back and watch you advance to the final.’ Dusty: ‘Ok, Bill, I’ll put Ronnie Garvin in with Magnum and put myself in the World title match instead.'”) And indeed, after Hacksaw Jim Duggan successfully defended his North American title against Dick Slater, Flair successfully defended the NWA world title against Dusty, with Flair winning by DQ.
After that, The Road Warriors, to no one’s surprise, defeated Magnum/Garvin by pinfall to win the first Crockett Cup and eternal glory, with Big Jim’s widow, presenting them with the Cup and the check.
Bill, it should be noted, was especially impressed that only one of the 24 teams that were advertised failed to wrestle. (And since the only guy who didn’t show up was Dino Bravo, that was probably addition by subtraction.)
Onto the AWA’s WrestleRock 86, which took place the very next day at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in Minneapolis, Minnesota on Sunday, April 20, 1986 and drew 22,000 fans.
This event actually featured several of the wrestlers from The Crockett Cup, as well as a U.S. Express reunion, with Barry Windham and Mike Rotundo teaming up once again (and being acknowledged on air as former WWF tag team champions). Waylon Jennings performed a short pre-match concert before Ron Trongard took the microphone and called a lot of the event himself with no color commentator as the camera showed off the sparsely populated stadium. (World Class’s Bill Mercer was very good at calling events by himself. Ron Trongard was not.) Meanwhile, Gary Michael Cappetta, who had just finished working for the WWF, served as ring announcer for Wrestlerock just after AWA mainstay Lee Marshall served as a ring announcer in Los Angeles for Wrestlemania 2.
As for the matches themselves, Brad Rheingans defeated Boris Zukhov, Little Mr. T (Haiti Kid) & Cowboy Lang defeated Lord Littlebrook & Little Tokyo in a midget match (before three of the four little guys would go on to wrestle in the more famous midget match at Wrestlemania III), and The Road Warriors defeated Michael Hayes and Jimmy Garvin in a steel cage. (This was an interesting bit of timing, because Garvin had previously been teaming with “Mr. Electricity” Steve Regal, with the two of them defeating The Road Warriors for the tag team championship in 1985. But with Steve Regal gone, Garvin wrestled in The Crockett Cup and at WrestleRock with two different partners, including Michael Hayes here, whom he would later regularly team with as The Freebirds.) Also, Colonel DeBeers defeated Wahoo McDaniel, Buddy Rose & Doug Somers defeated The Midnight Rockers, Tiger Mask (Misawa) defeated Rock ‘n’ Roll Buck Zumhofe, and Barry Windham & Mike Rotundo defeated The Fabulous Ones. (And here’s another interesting bit of timing. Windham had left the WWF in late 85 for Florida, leaving Rotundo to look for a new partner. Rotundo teamed up with a few other guys before leaving the WWF himself. Then WrestleRock happened, and suddenly Windham and Rotundo were back together before Rotundo returned to the WWF to team up with Dan Spivey.) In addition, Giant Baba defeated Bulldog Bob Brown, Harley Race and Rick Martel wrestled to a draw (with Harley joining the WWF just weeks after), Sherri Martel won a 10-woman battle royal and took home a $50,000 check (which probably bounced), Sgt. Slaughter successfully defended America’s Championship against Kamala, Scott Hall and Curt Hennig successfully defended their AWA tag titles against Scott and Bill Irwin (just before Scott was diagnosed with a brain tumor), Scott LeDoux defeated Larry Zbyszko in a boxing/wrestling hybrid match, Nick Bockwinkel defeated AWA champ Stan Hansen by DQ, Greg Gagne & Jimmy Snuka defeated Bruiser Brody & The Barbarian in a steel cage match, and Verne Gagne defeated Sheik Adnan El Kassey in a steel cage match.
Bill is impressed that The Road Warriors were able to win four matches in two days.
Moving on, one half of The Rock ‘n’ Roll Express, Rick Morton, was the victim of an attack by NWA Champion Ric Flair. After Morton pinned Flair in a six-man elimination match, Flair attacked Morton in the dressing room and grinded his face on the concrete floor. (Yeah, Flair likes to do that.)
Meanwhile, in the WWF, a man has appeared wearing a Lone Ranger-style mask and claiming to be a long-lost relative of Terry and Dory Funk named Jimmy Jack. Ringside observers say he looks a lot like Jesse Barr. In other news, Ron Bass is headed to Florida. Rip Rogers is headed to the Mid-Southern area. The Fabulous Ones are blaming their loss in The Crockett Cup on former manager Oliver Humperdink, with Humperdink’s men, Kendo Nagasaki and The Ninja attacking The Fabs before the match. Lance Von Erich defeated Buddy Roberts for the TV title. Michael Hayes claims the Freebirds have signed the most lucrative contract a team has ever signed and will be wrestling exclusively for the UWF where they are targeting UWF tag team champions The Fantastics. Baby Doll is considering challenging Jim Cornette to a series of matches. Billy Jack Haynes defeated Bobby Jaggers for the Pacific Northwest title. Wendell Cooley won Exotic Adrian Street’s valet Miss Linda in a match where Street placed her up against Cooley’s Southeast championship belt. During Cooley and Linda’s first day together, Cooley made her ride a horse. (Um… didn’t we just see all this with Dusty Rhodes and Baby Doll?) Anyway, while doing so, Linda broke her ankle.
Next, The Insider with Eddie Ellner, where Eddie is fed up with Gorilla Baboon.
Hey, check out the old school Milwaukee Brewers hat! They sadly ditched the glove logo in 1994, replacing it with something lame before finally bringing it back in 2020. For those that don’t know, the “glove” is actually an “m” and a “b” together. On Wisconsin!
“Ladies, take note. He’s there at the announcer’s table, next to the geek in the flaming pink schmata. Oooh, gals! Willya lookit him! That sexy crop of black hair. The svelte muscular figure oozing our of his Armani silk. Oogle away. Listen to that sensual croon. Gorilla Monsoon is the thinking woman’s sex symbol. Wait, what? What do you mean he doesn’t look like that? He told us he did. Lies, lies, lies, yeah-ah. ‘I believe in the truth though I lie a lot.’ A simple sentence that captures the essence of a man who, as a wrestler, alternately lists his hometown as Manchuria, Parts Unknown, and Cherry Hill, New Jersey. We all know condominiums in Parts Unknown, like the truth, are out of Gorilla Monsoon’s price range. I’m tired of hearing Gorilla Baboon talk. I’m sick of the shameless hyperbole, weary of deceptive jukes he puts on the public. Reporting from Wrestlemania’s Chicago site, Baboon reported ‘pandemonium has broken loose’ no fewer than a dozen times. You’d think a professional announcer of Baboon’s experience would avoid the hackneyed cliché and find a more interesting way of describing mat action. I was shocked Baboon didn’t once refer to the capacity crowd that was straining the rafters, since by Baboon standards it was sold out. The Rosemont Horizon, where the event took place, seats nearly 19,000. Wrestlemania 2 drew 11,744. However, Baboon’s schnozz must have grown three inches after his play-by-play of the April 21 Madison Square Garden card. This time Baboon portrayed the Garden as being ‘sold out to capacity.’ All the noise must have short-circuited Baboon’s eyesight. Over 9,000 of the Garden’s 22,000 seats remained unoccupied this night. Lies, Lies, Lies, yeah-ah, they’re gonna get you…”
Next, News From The Wrestling Capitals, with event reports sent in by fans:
This month in Matt Brock’s Plain Speaking, Matt reports from New York, where he was up in the cheap seats for Wrestlemania 2, except the seats weren’t cheap at all. They cost a whole $25, and two thirds of the show was on a screen. He says he liked seeing the Bulldogs win the tag titles, but the rest of the matches were a bunch of turkeys. That’s a .083 batting average, and he also noticed a lot of empty seats and wonders if scalpers anticipated more interest in Wrestlemania than there actually was and bought up a large amount of tickets only to find no buyers and have to eat the cost. “And that tells you more about the public interest in WWF wrestling than Lord Al Hays or Gene Okerlund will ever let on to.” Matt also made it down to New Orleans for the Crockett Cup. “I wouldn’t have believed it, but I suppose with all the tag teams just about anything could happen, and it damn near did with The Road Warriors facing Magnum T.A. and Ronnie Garvin in the final round of the tournament. Hawk and Animal emerged victorious after a stunning match, and now The Road Warriors are aiming for the NWA World belts held by the Midnight Express. You tell me who has the psychological advantage? My money’s on Hawk and Animal to capture the belts by summer.” Matt then moves on to tell us that in Dallas, Missy Hyatt and Sunshine are expected to do a mud wrestling match. He says, “What next, The Von Erichs vs. The Chicago Knockers?” He says he objects to the match on a professional level and believes it will cause the sport to lose some of the respect its been building up. On a personal level, however, he’s looking forward to it. Onto Minnesota, where Matt was visiting with Nick Bockwinkel when he learned that Warren Bockwinkel, father of Nick and one of the greatest wrestlers of the 1930s and 1940s, passed away. Warren is also notable for breaking Lou Thesz into the business.
Warren Bockwinkel (May 21, 1911 – March 25, 1986)
This month’s Capsule Profile looks at Hacksaw Jim Duggan, who currently holds the North American title. Hacksaw says 1986 will be his best year yet. Here you go, ladies.
Next, an article about the Garvin brothers (who aren’t actually brothers). Jimmy’s a rulebreaker. Ronnie walks the straight and narrow. Now they’re both wrestling for World Championship Wrestling. For Ronnie, it’s tough. He wants to support his brother, but Jimmy is regularly fighting Ronnie’s friends. Ronnie says, “There are certain things I care about. I do care about my brother, but I also care about wrestling. There’s a right way to wrestle and a wrong way to wrestle. The fans know what’s right and wrong. Some things just have to change.” Jimmy, for his part, says “I’ve got Precious. He’s got an overweight Indian. Who’s better off?” The article closes by saying that blood is thicker than water, but Jimmy and Precious are thicker than both. (So, for those that don’t know, Ronnie is more or less Jimmy’s stepfather, having married Jimmy’s mother. But even that’s misleading because Jimmy is only seven years younger than Ronnie, and Ronnie never raised him. As Jimmy said in an interview, “My dad died when I was 12, and my Mom ended up marrying Ronnie about two or three years after. He was only 22 years old or something, you know? And I left home when I was 16, so I never really thought of him as a stepfather. In fact, we have nothing in common. When we happen to see each other, we do talk, but it’s very brief.)
Cher blossomed without Sonny. Simon hit his stride without Garfunkel. Even Ed McMahon developed a career away from Johnny Carson. Now it’s your turn, Dr. Death Steve Williams. Inside Wrestling says Dr. Death’s tag team work is tremendous. He did fabulous things with Ted DiBiase and Terry Taylor. But now it’s time to move on and go it alone. Even Hacksaw Jim Duggan thinks so. “The guy is obviously an astounding wrestler, but he’s wasting his time wrestling in tag teams. Maybe it’s his football experience and he’s used to playing on teams. I don’t know. But if that’s so, he’s in the wrong sport.” Terry Taylor, part of the Doc & Cock Connection, also thinks Williams should start thinking about a solo career. “I think we should stop wrestling as a team for a while and wrestle on our own. But for some reason, whenever he breaks away from one partner, he gets another.” Eventually, every wrestler must test whether or not he can make it on his own or forever question if he could have. There is no better time for Steve Williams to meet the challenge than right now.
Rick Martel, fresh off competing at WrestleRock, chats with Inside Wrestling about wrestling and life. He says his health is back to about 95%, and he’s continuing to prepare for a possible rematch with AWA champ Stan Hansen, who took his title. “He’s like a tornado, but I’m regrouping and I’m developing a new attitude.” Martel, however, is uncertain what the future holds and wants to be ready to wrestle a wide variety of opponents.
Next, an article about Oliver Humperdink bursting into a courtroom in an attempt to sue The Fabulous Ones. The judge, in the middle of another trial, was surprised by the interruption, but let Humperdink proceed with his impromptu case. Humperdink proceeded to claim that he was responsible for The Fabulous Ones’ success. “The Fab Ones a year ago couldn’t win if their opponents didn’t show up. Their wages were at a minimum. They were hapless. Today’s editions are winners. They earn upward of six figures a year. And I’m responsible!” The judge, however, was an old friend of Matt Brock’s and called the old reporter into the courtroom to testify. “Humperdink is full of crap,” Matt said, “He had nothing to do with their rise to fame, and I saw it all. Get this guy out of your courtroom, Arnie, and let’s go out for a drink.” The case was dismissed.
This month in The Wrestler and Pro Wrestling Illustrated…
And in this issue’s One on One phone conversation, Paul Ellering and Jim Cornette argue about who’s better. Jim is sure to mention that he manages the tag team champions and he’s 1985’s Manager of the Year. Paul says his men don’t need a title to tell them they’re the best and warns Jim to steer clear.
And now, time for Post-Wrestlemania 2 ratings and The Roll Call of Champions! Here, by the way, are the ages of the Top 15:
- Ric Flair: 37
- Hulk Hogan: 32
- Stan Hansen: 36
- Magnum T.A: 26
- Randy Savage: 33
- Dusty Rhodes: 40
- Rick Rude: 27
- Tully Blanchard: 32
- Hacksaw Duggan: 32
- Kerry Von Erich: 26
- Ronnie Garvin: 41
- Kevin Von Erich: 28
- Nikita Koloff: 27
- Lex Lugar: 27
- Bruiser Brody: 39
That’s it for this week. Join me next week when we look at Pro Wrestling Illustrated’s October, 1986 issue where we get coverage of the tournament that crowned the first UWF heavyweight champion, a fan writes in to Eddie Ellner to tell him that Rick Morton once smiled at her, and PWI gives us more scouting reports, analyzing wrestlers’ strengths and weaknesses, this time covering Corporal Kirchner, Terry Gordy, and Dino Bravo! And if you’re a Star Trek fan, be sure to check out my book, The Trekker’s Guide to the Sisko Years, which covers every episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.