Wrestling Observer Flashback – January 1984
By Scott Keith on 30 November 2024
Wrestling Observer Flashback – January 1984
So as you probably saw, I got copies of the 1984 and 1989 Observer books, which compile all the newsletters from those years in a MUCH easier to read format than what I currently have access to. In fact the 84 one has issues that I had not previously covered in the Flashbacks, so let’s do a retro-retro look all the way back to just before the dawn of Hulkamania!
Of note, at that point these were organized a little bit more like an actual “newsletter” and not like what it became after 1991, with hundreds of thousands of words of Dave rambling about MMA or TV ratings.
– First up, Dave talks about the historic Starrcade 83 show, which he thinks will change wrestling for a lot of reasons. Most notably, through the use of this new “closed circuit” technology which gave them a virtual crowd that was twice as big as the largest crowd ever to see a wrestling show in history. Granted, there was closed circuit shows before, mostly in New York and Minnesota, but that was confined to the city they were held in and not across FOUR WHOLE STATES like this one. (I’d like to imagine anti-Crockett trolls on Twitter in 1984 being like “If it was so successful then how come it wasn’t in five states LOL?”).
– Dave wonders if other promoters might try this closed circuit approach to showing their wares, and in fact he even heard that there might be a Starrcade 84!
– Oh, but let’s not get too excited about this whole “supercard” concept yet. Dave points out that promoting one big show as a must-see will inevitably make all the house shows seem meaningless by comparison. They’ll have to spend all their time using those shows just to build up that one big closed circuit show! (Can you even imagine?) Also Dave notes that no other promotion in the country has a roster deep enough and filled with enough stars to pull off the show that Starrcade was. (I mean, unless those other guys raid every piece of star talent from the territories one by one until they’re all dead, but HOW LIKELY IS THAT?).
– Dave thinks the WWF might try the same idea, but their business is built on running the same big matches night after night at the arenas with fans blissfully ignorant that they’re happening all around the country, so that would shatter the illusion forever. So it’s probably not happening.
– Really the problem for anyone like the AWA or Mid-South or World Class is that running a national closed circuit event is going to step on the toes of the other promoters, and no one is willing to disrupt that system. (Yup. No one at all.)
– Starrcade 83 drew 15,447 people to the Greensboro Coliseum on Thanksgiving night, although it seems like there were actually 18,000 in the building. Dave didn’t see the show but relies on others who attended closed circuit showings for results.
- The Assassins defeated Rufus R. Jones & Bugsy McGraw in 14 minutes. Jody Hamilton got the backslide on McGraw for the pin here.
- Kevin Sullivan & Mark Lewin defeated Scott McGhee & Johnny Weaver in a bloody brawl at 10 minutes. Lewin leaped off the top ropes to pin Weaver, and then afterwards butchered young Scotty with a “golden spike” and drenched him in blood as a result.
- Abdullah the Butcher pinned Carlos Colon in 6 minutes. Abby used a foreign object with help from manager Hugo Savinovich and pinned Carlos after a ref bump.
- Dick Slater & Bob Orton beat Mark Youngblood & Wahoo McDaniel in 14 minutes. Dave notes that Orton & Slater looked “sensational” in the win, which is not something you often associate with either guy. Orton pinned Youngblood with a superplex, said to be the “best wrestler on the entire card” that evening.
- Charlie Brown From Way Outta Town pinned the Great Kabuki in 16 minutes. This was the only bad match of the night, as Dave shatters kayfabe here by revealing that it was actually Jimmy Valiant under the mask. Kabuki misses a thrust kick and Valiant pinned him with the elbow drop to win the TV title.
- Roddy Piper pinned Greg Valentine in a dog collar chain match in 17 minutes. Said to be the best match of the show. Dave notes that Piper’s “bad ear” is just a work, but they beat each other mercilessly with the chain and both bled buckets.
- Ricky Steamboat & Jay Youngblood won the NWA tag team titles from the Brisco Brothers in 12 minutes. Said to be the fastest paced match of the night with the smoothest technical wrestling. (Hot take there.) Angelo Mosca was the special referee, and after the loss the Briscos attacked him and reinjured his arm (after Lewin went after it earlier in the night) and then tried to break Youngblood’s leg as well.
- Ric Flair pinned Harley Race in 26 minutes to regain the NWA World title in a cage match. Flair of course had a huge entrance with lights and music and the whole deal. Gene Kiniski was the special ref, replacing Pat O’Connor, who was revealed to be in business with Harley Race in St. Louis and thus biased. Flair won with a bodypress and the place went crazy for him.
Off to All Japan next! Dave starts each section with a roll call of champions, so let’s do that.
International Heavyweight champion: Jumbo Tsuruta
Pacific Federation Heavyweight champion: Stan Hansen
United National Heavyweight champion: Ted Dibiase
International Junior Heavyweight champion: Chavo Guerrero
International Tag Team champions: Giant Baba & Jumbo Tsuruta
– The annual tag team tournament saw Bruiser Brody and Stan Hansen beating the team of Barry Windham & Ron Fuller to open it in 9:22, when Hansen pinned Fuller with the lariat. The tournament started on 11/25 and wraps up on 12/12. The championship final will likely be Hansen & Brody v. Tsuruta & Tenryu.
– Terry Funk, having retired in 1982, has grown out his hair and now it’s pretty long. He grew it out for the movie “Rhinestones”, which he made with Sylvester Stallone, and Dave describes it as “The latest flop for Stallone between Rocky movies”. (OUCH. Pretty spicy there, Dave. Also before the next Rocky movie came out, Stallone released Rambo, which made $300 million worldwide, SO THERE.).
– Not much exciting there so let’s move to the New Japan Wrestling Association.
IWGP champion: Hulk Hogan
International champion: Tatsumi Fujinami
NWA World Junior champion: The Cobra
World Light Heavyweight champion: Perro Aguayo
World Middleweight champion: Gran Hamada
– The biggest news is that on 11/11, Antonio Inoki got voted back into power by shareholders, after teaming with Shinma to capture the 50% needed. Sakaguchi will be booking again as a result.
– Dave notes that in a major shock, a rival TV network has begun broadcasting tapes of the WWF in Japan, which he calls “the next best thing to a sleeping pill” for Japanese audiences.
– Tiger Mask, who is actually named Satoru Sayama according to Dave, is making waves about coming out of retirement already, as he’s training in Florida with Karl Gotch. Mostly because the Cobra, who is supposed to be replacing him as the top junior star in New Japan, has been a big disappointment in the role thus far.
– In an effort to create a new star for the division, they’re going to be hosting a WWF World Junior heavyweight title tournament, featuring stars like Cobra, Black Tiger, Dynamite Kid, Davey Boy Smith, Bret Hart, Baby Face and Kuniaki Kobayashi. (Who the hell is “Baby Face”?)
– Dave notes that Inoki has been looking good as of late in his main event matches, certainly better than the so-called main eventers of the OTHER CIRCUITS such as JYD, Backlund, Dusty Rhodes and Giant Baba. But his team with Hulk Hogan hasn’t been particularly great, even though you’d think they’d work well together. Dave notes that the best team right now is Andre the Giant and Swede Hansen, because Swede never gets in the ring.
– Dave also thinks that young Akira Maeda is improving rapidly, as he’s finally learning to put some moves together in the ring.
Off to the Southwest!
Southwest Champion: Scott Casey
USA Junior champion: Relampago Leon
Southwest tag champions: Eric Embry & Ken Timbs
– Bruiser Brody is coming into the area to help prop up crowds, after leaving World Class via an injury angle against Kamala, and sold out the Austin show to the tune of 3500 for a match against Abdullah, which was 4 times what they had been drawing in that city. Dave dismissively notes that one of the featured acts is the new “Rock and Roll Express”, comprised of Ricky “Rock” Morton and Robert “Roll” Gibson. He does concede that although they look like “clowns”, they’re a pretty good team and will probably be tag team champions soon. (Well that’s nice of him.).
– Dave notes that the big turnaround of the area is that Tully Blanchard, who had been booking the area into the ground, was either fired or retired depending on who you believe. Most people hated him backstage. So now that he’s gone, guys like Brody are willing to come back. (Well the point would soon be academic anyway because the WWF is about to destroy them for good.)
Next up, World Class!
American champion: Chris Adams
Texas champion: David Von Erich
Six Man champions: David & Kerry & Kevin Von Erich
American tag champions: The Super Destroyers
– The big show of the year was the Thanksgiving spectacular, which drew (no joke) 19,000 to Reunion Arena in Dallas and probably could have done 30,000 in a stadium. (Can you imagine these days if WWE was doing a PPV show and someone else managed to draw 19,000 to their own supercard somewhere else at the same time?) Main event saw “teen heartthrob” Kerry Von Erich beating Michael Hayes in a loser leaves town cage match, which is why Hayes is currently in Japan and teaming with Terry Gordy. Fritz slammed the door on Terry Gordy’s head after the win, as the final blowoff to the feud that started the year before at the Christmas show where Gordy and Hayes screwed Kerry out of the World title against Flair.
– Jimmy Garvin’s current valet has changed her name from “Moonbeam” to “Precious”, and the angle with Chris Adams and Sunshine has been excellent thus far.
– David Von Erich is now vowing to retire if he can’t beat Flair on Christmas night in Reunion Arena.
– New brother Mike Von Erich debuted at age 19 on Thanksgiving, but the problem with him is that he has the body of a swimmer and not a bodybuilder, and thus looks ridiculous next to his gigantic brothers. He probably should have waited a few more years before debuting, hopefully when he was less terrible.
Next up, Mid-South!
North American champion: Junkyard Dog
Mid-South tag team champions: Butch Reed & Jim Neidhart
– Not a great time for the promotion, as the Superdome show only drew 8000. In addition, the alliance between Houston and Mid-South is falling apart because Houston fans are rejecting Junkyard Dog as a main eventer, particularly since JYD let himself go to the point where he’s even worse than Dusty Rhodes in the ring. (Perish the thought!). Fans are actually organizing boycotts of the shows now until Paul Boesch lays off the Mid-South talent on every show.
– Even Bill Watts is getting frustrated by Dog getting so fat lately, but Dave notes that he dug his own grave by enabling JYD this whole time.
– Dave notes that Watts recently pulled “an Ole Anderson” with a North American title change, as Butch Reed lost the North American title to Magnum TA on TV in a shock upset, and then a few nights later in New Orleans, Nikolai Volkoff beat TA to win the title. But then the original TA win was overturned on a technicality, so it was returned to Reed, who then dropped the title for real to JYD at the Superdome. But this sets up Volkoff as the new challenger for the belt later on.
– Lanny Poffo is new to the area, with a finishing move kind of like a Superfly splash, but instead he starts with his back to the opponent and backflips from the top rope onto them. (Sounds impressive. Hopefully someone comes up with a catchy name for it).
– Also new to the area are the tag team of Bobby Eaton & Dennis Condrey, managed by young Jimmy Cornette. Dave isn’t sure how Cornette’s act will translate out of the Memphis bubble, though.
To the AWA!
AWA World champion: Nick Bockwinkel
AWA World tag team champions: Ken Patera & Jerry Blackwell
AWA Light Heavyweight champion: Buck Zumhofe
– Crowds are way down recently with Hulk Hogan off in Japan, dropping from 12000 or so down to 3500 in most cases. (Man I’ve got some REALLY bad news for them…)
– Superstar Billy Graham is in the area and somehow is in even worse shape than when he left the WWF.
– Rick Martel will be leaving the area to get married and moving back to Quebec, thus making a lot of people very happy. (OUCH).
– Bobby Heenan is “winning” the light heavyweight title from Buck Zumhofe around the horn, but never gets the belt because he’s revealed to be one pound over the weight limit after the fact.
Well not much going on there. Let’s check on Central States.
Central States champion: Buzz Tyler
Central States tag champions: Buzz Tyler & Bulldog Bob Brown
TV champion: Roger Kirby
Missouri champion: David Von Erich
– Ric Flair came in and defended the title one day after winning it, beating David Von Erich in a 2/3 falls match at the Kiel before only 5000 fans. This indicates that fans aren’t happy with how Geigel is currently running the promotion. (Well I’ve got good news and bad news for the fans, then…)
– And indeed, Dave has reports that Vince McMahon has bought out “The Chrome-Dome Connection” in St. Louis and will begin showing WWF matches on the St. Louis TV show in the new year.
– Dave notes that young Buddy Landell looks remarkably like a young Ric Flair, but is far worse in the ring than he could have imagined.
Well aside from a business-changing deal, not much going on there. Over to Memphis!
International champion: Austin Idol
Southern champion: Jerry Lawler
Mid American champion: Buddy Landell
US Junior champion: Bill Dundee
CWA tag team champions: Stan Lane & Steve Keirn
Southern tag team champions: Porkchop Cash & Dream Machine Troy Graham
– Jesse Ventura left the promotion without giving notice, so Jerry Lawler “regained” the Southern title in Chicago. They’re supposedly bringing in a host of AWA wrestlers to work with Lawler in the coming weeks and hopefully draw some crowds.
– Dave heaps praise on the work of Bill Dundee as only he can, noting that he’s a great heel and is strong on interviews, but is “absolutely zilch” in the ring.
– The Assassins lost the tag team titles to the Fabs and got unmasked as the team of Don Bass & Roger Smith, which Dave notes was reported by him last month. (Good for you, Dave). They’re now calling themselves the A Team and wearing camouflage.
– Although Buddy is listed as Mid-American champion currently, it’s probably Terry Taylor by this point because Buddy is in Central States. (This is the kind of hard-hitting journalism you were paying for in 1983, lads.).
– Skipping over a few because he doesn’t really have much to say about Florida, Stampede, Southeast and a bunch of others and let’s move onto World Championship Wrestling instead because we’re at 2500 words already for this sumbitch.
National Champion: Ted Dibiase
TV champion: Jake Roberts
Junior champion: Les Thornton
National tag team champions: The Road Warriors
– Every month Dave thinks that Ole Anderson has hit rock bottom, and every month he’s proven wrong! (Oh no, Dave, we’re about 4 months away from rock bottom for poor Ole, don’t worry.).
– First up, they booked a show in Columbus OH with an advertised main event of a battle royal, and the match just never happened! The show just ended and no one said anything.
– Next, they advertised Harley Race for the Omni on 11/06 and then forgot to actually book his appearance, so he didn’t show up. (That was actually a fairly famous story at the time, too. Wish Dave would have gone into more detail).
– Dave also criticizes the booking of a women’s match with Debbie Combs v. Donna Day on the Thanksgiving show, with Gordon Solie completely mixing up the names while calling the match, thus sinking to the level of the worst announcer in the country, David McLane out of Indiana. (Understated Observer Debut for the future GLOW host?)
– The 10/23 Omni show was apparently supposed to be the “final ever match” between Tommy Rich and Buzz Sawyer, but they kept working together all the way into November, IF YOU CAN BELIEVE IT. (Love the complete undersell of the Last Battle of Atlanta here from Dave.)
– Ric Flair went on TV after regaining the title and Gordon Solie spent the whole show calling him, CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS, a “three time World champion”, when everyone knows he was only a two time champion. (Dave sure hopes that whoever made that blunder gets fired!)
– Les Thorton apparently won a tournament in Manilla to claim the World Junior champion, although Dave is skeptical that this tournament actually occurred.
– Dave claims that Tommy Rogers is actually a second brother of Buzz Sawyer. (That is completely untrue, by the way. No idea where he got that from).
– Dave notes that Bill Watts was probably unhappy about seeing his tag team champions beating the hell out of each other on Georgia TV this past month.
– Brett & Buzz Sawyer beat the Road Warriors on 11/27 for the tag team titles, but the title change was ignored and Dave isn’t sure what’s going on. (Basically what was going on was Buzz going rogue and booking his own title change night after night on the circuit to fuck with Ole Anderson. This is another case where I really wish it was modern Dave because he would have done a 4 page story about the entire thing, I’d bet).
– Speaking of the Road Warriors, Dave reveals that they aren’t actually as big as they appear on TV. Also they’re very sloppy brawlers and have no talent in general. They look good on TV but THAT’S IT. (This has been Dave Sets The Record Straight for this week.).
– Not much going in Mid-Atlantic in the wake of Starrcade so we jump to the WWF so I can wrap this up.
WWF champion: Bob Backlund
Intercontinental champion: Don Muraco
Tag team champions: Rocky Johnson & Tony Atlas
– With the Muraco v. Snuka feud now having run its course, crowds are down sharply and even bringing back Buddy Rogers hasn’t helped. (Sounds like they need someone new on top. Wonder if anyone’s available?)
– Sgt. Slaughter might be turning babyface soon.
– Backlund defends the title against Iron Sheik on the 12/26 MSG show, which Dave doesn’t even offer a comment about so obviously he didn’t see that one coming either.
– Atlas & Johnson won the tag belts at the TV taping on 11/15, but the Samoans continued defending them until 12/9 when it aired.
– Paul Orndorff looks pretty good, but needs to go heel and get a manager.
– Brian Blair was signed by Vince Sr weeks ago, but Junior doesn’t want anything to do with him and has been using him to do jobs to the likes of Giant Gordman.
– Apparently Hulk Hogan is supposed to working as a babyface for the promotion in late January in California, according to advertisements there. (Dave just left that one hanging over the plate considering when this was written.).
– Jimmy Snuka is supposedly on his way out, but Dave isn’t so sure, since he keeps making dates for the WWF and all. Apparently he was suspended in St. Louis for doing the Superfly splash during the match, because jumping off the top rope is a real no-no. (You know what’s a REALLY big no-no in Missouri or anywhere else? Murdering your girlfriend.).
– And finally, Dave wraps up the WWF coverage by noting that although they have a strong lineup of heels, they’re really lacking a top babyface right now to face them. (IF ONLY THEY COULD FIND SOMEONE! LIKE WITHIN THE NEXT MONTH OR SO!)
So there you go! Everything happening in the wrestling world at the conclusion of 1983! I guess we’ll keep going with this era again, as long as you go buy the book in exchange:
It’s only $10 on Kindle, too!