Tri-State Wrestling Alliance Autumn Armageddon II 09/21/91

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Original Sports Bar
Attendance 1,524

Previously In TWA…

The last pro-shot show released by TWA.

Joel Goodhart drew 1,524 fans and $27,900 (box office figure which doesn’t include tickets returned, actual figure will be a bit lower), which is one of the largest U.S. independent live gates of the past few years for his bloodfest show on 9/21 at Pennsylvania Hall. This card drew approximately triple what the last World Championship Wrestling show did in the same complex just a few weeks ago.

Joel announces he’s been elected onto the board of directors of the Variety Club so the local fans will be heard forever. Crowd responds by chanting “We Want Flair!” because Joel had in fact announced Flair would be appearing before he’d confirmed it (presumably because Herb had also done the same) so he deserves the chants. Despite his earlier claim, Joel doesn’t appear to hear them.

No, Flair would not appear for TWA. Or for Herb.

Last Blood Battle Royal

Mr. Sandman vs. Rockin’ Rebel vs. Sabu vs. Glen Osbourne vs. Tony Stetson vs. Jimmy Jannetty vs. Crybaby Waldo vs. Mr. Anthony vs. Michael Bruno vs. Johnny O vs. Ernesto Benefica vs. Ghetto Blaster vs. Rick Perez

This is the match Cactus Jack talked about in his first book when he’d been advised Joel was going to listen to feedback and reduce the excess on the shows. The cameras haven’t been white balanced so the blood is only visible on the ringside cameras. Wonderful.

Rebel and Sandman batter one another using a table as Sabu gets a few rope-assisted flips that would become his trademark. Cameras miss most of them. Doing an over-the-top battle royal is easy for fans to get into as they can see when people are eliminated easily enough but with everyone brawling everywhere it’s easy to get lost as well as desensitised and it’s the first bloody match.

Kevin Sullivan comes out because he wants a good spot to watch wrestling die in real time. Waldo gets busted open and the crowd are unhappy. Sabu seems intent on taking as many bumps as possible to get people to notice him in this sea of nothing. Fans notice that Rebel is bleeding and yell at the ref to notice “so he can go back to Allentown.” If nothing else, the Philly crowd are bringing the fun.

The match comes down to Sandman vs. some guy with Sandman bleeding but Peaches helps block the wound before spraying Tony Stetson with ketchup for the ref to declare the match over at 13:10.

Finish was all kind of messed up in terms of timing but it annoyed the Philly fans so I’ll allow it. Everything else was as terrible in execution as it was in idea.

TWA Heavyweight Title Match
JT Smith (c) vs. DC Drake (w/ Don E Allen, Johnny Hot Body, Larry Winters and Woman)

Smith is the champ having won it from Drake at Spring Spectacular II. I wonder why Joel didn’t have the money to tape that show while a guy with four managers makes his way to the ring. JT is already receiving a fair amount of boos after being cheered relentlessly when he was a contender because it’s Philly.

Drake dominates to start while Body attacks behind the ref’s back but then Drake blatantly choke JT in front of the ref and brawls on the outside anyway. Some fan calls Drake a “fat pig” and “a non-Christian bastard” but apart from that it’s mostly positive heat towards him which kills the entire story of the match. Drake lands a piledriver for two as the crowd continue to cheer. JT lands a sweet Fallaway Slam Pin combo to finally get some love before messing up a belly-to-belly to lose the fans. However a completely nuts missed top rope splash to the outside gets the mutants positively complaining. Back inside, Winters swings his crutch and accidentally hits Drake for JT to retain at 12:48.

Interesting to see how these overbooked many-manager matches would be worked and improved in ECW but this was all about DC and his goons so JT looked like a lucky bum.

Tony says he’s been in this business for six years and deserves better than being stuck in a “half arsed battle royal” and lose via cheating so he calls out Sandman. Sandman declines without a contract and hams it up in the entrance way until Joel threatens to fire him if he doesn’t make it to the ring in ten seconds.

Mr. Sandman vs. Tony Stetson

Sandman runs to the ring and then immediately exits, asking for a time-out. Ha! Loud ringside fans ask for Tony to throw Sandman into their guard-rails so he does. “Thanks Tony!” they yell. Tony suplexes another table onto Sandman while he gets to practice the staggered selling he’d perfect in ECW. Sandman retaliates with his own table to Tony’s ankle as the match slows down. Sandman’s Irish Whip gets reversed and he takes a backdrop, which we knew would happen as the mic picked up his spot call due to the quietness of the crowd. Tony’s follow-ups can be heard as the crowd is boring of this because it’s gone on way longer than it needed. Tony maybe lands a sit-out piledriver a la Tarzan Goto or maybe he messes up a normal piledriver before finishing with a top rope leg drop at 7:04.

Hammy fun that overstayed it’s welcome. Sandman is amusing as a whiny villain though.

TWA Tag Team Title Match
DC Drake & Johnny Hot Body (c) vs. The Blackhearts (Blackheart Apocalypse & Blackheart Destruction)

It’s the first (and last) appearance of the TWA Tag Titles. Johnny Hot Body & Larry Winters defeated Jimmy Jannetty & Rockin’ Rebel at Spring Spectacular II to become the first champs. Winters is crutch-ridden so Drake is replacing him tonight. You’d think they’d schedule this a bit later seeing as we just saw these guys out here but what do I know. Fans can be heard talking about seeing the Blackhearts in Herb’s UWF so at least somebody was watching Fury Hour. Crowd welcome Blackhearts to TWA by chanting “Luna’s going bald.”

Tons of stalling here until Blackhearts drag their opponents into the ring to land their nifty double swinging clothesline. Apocalypse flies off the top rope to the outside as these two have been touring AJPW and are ready to go nuts. Crowd can’t decide who to cheer so they decide to call everyone homosexuals instead. The Blackhearts get thrown into guard-rails but their opponents don’t know how to handle Actual Wrestling Moves so Destruction locks in an Abominable Stretch before taking a sucker punch.

They switch behind the refs back (both men are wearing identical black masks) and Apocalypse lands a DDT to a lovely pop. Their Masked Confusion stuff only works when the ref is paying attention though, so they continue to land moves instead. Double Russian Leg Sweep impresses the crowd so their opponents locals drag them outside to slam them on concrete. Winters uses his crutch on everybody that comes near him as this is a complete mess with everyone on different pages. The Blackhearts are trying to wrestle and do distraction spots but the champs only know how to throw chair shots. Apocalypse gets clotheslined over the guard-rail and onto a fan. Luna is doing her best to get involved in any way but isn’t having much luck. Apocalypse nearly KOs Body with a swinging leg kick so the champs land a Spike Piledriver to set up…Winters turning on Drake by smashing his crutch over him so he rolls into a pin from the just-piledriven Apocalypse to give us new champs at 16:03.

Oh and then Drake’s lads all turn on him to cost themselves their own tag titles because this wasn’t a messy enough Spaghetti Bolognese of a match as it was. It’s as if Joel said “yes” to everyone’s suggestions regardless of if it made sense or not.

So after a few mid-carders run out to get beat down by Drake’s exes…who should save him but JT Smith! Drake reluctantly accepts his hand-shake and the crowd are at least interested in that even if took the the length of one of the Police Academy films to get there. Match was a cumbersome shambles but the crowd have already forgotten it happened.

Owen Hart vs. Takayuki Iizuka

Owen is fresh from UWA in Mexico and before that he’d finished his last tour of NJPW. Iizuka was in the middle of a German tour for CWA so we’ve got a nice Brief Encounter style meeting here.

Crowd are politely into both men which is nice as you’d think there’d be some negative reaction to filthy non-brawlers. Iizuka tries a wristlock but Owen escapes with a delicious headscissors that impresses the mutants. Owen rolls out of some pin attempts and a backslide but comes out on top to deliver a Northern Lights AND THEN HOLDS ON to a test of strength. God that was smooth. Iizuka gets out of the test of strength to deliver a flying spinning armbar as the crowd is so bewildered they shut up and watch. Sadly this means you can hear mutants yelling stuff like “you can be blindfolded with dental floss” because it’s 1990 and Philly.

Owen hand-cuffs Iizuka so he can drag him into a Samoan Drop which sadly is overshadowed by the massively hanging middle rope which is generating “FIX THAT ROPE” chants. And seconds later Iizuka is sent into it and it snaps, thankfully not flying off and cutting anybody in half like that dude from Die Hard With a Vengeance.

Owen wastes no time busting out more headscissors to distract and to send Iizuka outside to recoup while no attempt is made to fix the rope. Iizuka applies a Camel Clutch and yells but no-one gives him any heat so Owen powers out with ease to fall backwards with him on his shoulders. Owen gets cheeky and tries an Abominable Stretch into a pin which is Shiro’s move! Yeah more on that later. Owen comes back with a Dragon Screw Leg Sweep to pop the crowd who are ignoring the rope being roughly applied in the corner as Iizuka comes back with hard slaps. The mutants are impressed. “Come on Ultraman! Break his Canadian neck!”

Owen gets a pop for turning a chinlock into a stunner which you’d never see nowadays. Iizuka cuts Owen’s comeback off with more chops and sticks Owen in a Sharpshooter just to be ironic. Owen shrugs it off because he doesn’t respect Choshu and gutwrenches Iizuka. “Your brother makes more money than you do!” yells some cheese-eating cunt. Owen locks in an INDIAN DEATHLOCK but the crowd are too busy ironically cheering the rope being re-applied. Iizuka celebrates this achievement by making Owen take the Bret Bump into the corner and HARD. Rope doesn’t fall off so it passed the test. Iizuka is sent running the ropes into an overhead Belly To Belly to really pop the crowd. Iizuka tries to come back with a Sambo Suplex but Owen lands a Crucifix to again impress the crowd. They can’t believe these moves aren’t ending the match. Owen tries a superplex but Iizuka turns into HBK against Bulldog and crossbodies for two. Northern Lights can’t put this away either and the crowd are so amazed they can’t even racism. Owen tries a splash off the top but meets knees. Owen dropkicks him off the top to the outside to follow with a crossbody and I don’t know what this crowd did to deserve a match this good but whatever it was, it wasn’t recorded on camera. Owen finally ends this grand display with a German Suplex pin at 21:40.

What a wonderful match here, so great that the cynical Philly Phreaks respond to it with a standing ovation for both men as this was like dying of thirst in the Sahara Desert and stumbling across a vat of Captain Morgan. Even with a rope break and a dodgy crowd this was worth seeking out.

Iizuka would wrestle in the USA only once more, the infamous slaughter at the hands of The Steiners at War Games 1992 so it’s little wonder he never returned.

Osamu Matsuda, who wrestles as El Samurai in Mexico and Takayuki Iizuka will be appearing on Joel Goodhart’s September show in Philadelphia. Goodhart did strike a deal with New Japan through booker Tokyo Joe (Joe Daigo) in which New Japan will be sending a few guys to four of Goodhart’s shows in 1992. New Japan wants to get the younger guys exposure of working overseas and the magazine and newspaper publicity that goes with it. It means a lot in Japan for a Japanese wrestler to work in the U.S. and that’s why the deal was made. New Japan would rather work with WCW but WCW wasn’t as flexible to work with. However, New Japan’s primarily relationship in the U.S. is definitely with WCW. I don’t know about the claims that the big names like Keiji Muto or Jushin Liger will work for Goodhart, however.

Dammit, we came so close to Liger and Muto getting bounced cheques.

Terry Funk vs. Kevin Sullivan w/ Angel

This is only their third match against one another which is crazy to think about. Funk immediately goes after Taskmaster to start the match with yet another ringside brawl. The always-animated Terry gets bonked into a table before they both head into the crowd for some punching and invisibility. Funk gets choked with wrist tape before getting mule kicked in the balls. Terry comes back with a low blow of his own before using his magnificent punches to start yet another ringside brawl. Funk lands a piledriver on the concrete before applying a Spinning Toe Hold on Big Kev. Angel interferes so Funk applies it on her and then sticks Kev with a spiky thing I can’t see very well. And just as the crowd is starting to get into it, the ref DQs both of them at 11:02.

I love Funk but this was crap so I’m blaming Kevin. Funk had been wrestling the Can-Am Express for AJPW before this so he probably treated this as a day off and it showed.

Post-match Don E Allen gets attacked for wandering out for no reason as a fan yells “Yeah take that you preliminary bum!”

Loser Gets Their Hair Shaved
Cactus Jack & Luna Vachon vs. Eddie Gilbert & Madusa Miceli

Jack vs. Gilbert has been the hottest thing in the company and the main reason to search for these shows decades later but this is their last encounter together. Gilbert tells Jack that he broke his heart wanting to impress WCW so how about when he goes there he pass along a message to Jim Herd from him: “Kiss my ass!”

Crowd chants “We Want Jack” as the women go at it with Madusa working Luna’s arm as they don’t care about Jack leaving. That’d be more ECW’s gimmick. Madusa takes a breather to play with the inside of Eddie’s mouth to annoy the fans. Sadly they carry on in the ring and the crowd are being polite at the state of their grappling but they all want Jack. This goes on for ages as the crowd are now making trade agreements for Jack to come in and do something. Madusa and Luna brawl on the outside as I worry that Jack won’t actually tag in. Some more being-generous-by-the-standards-of-1991 acceptable women’s wrestling drags on as the fans are getting pissed. Luna misses a top rope splash so Madusa lands a Powerbomb to finally get the crowd into it. Cactus trips Madusa as she runs the ropes, causing Eddie to drag Cactus over the guardrail into HOORAY ANOTHER CROWD BRAWL WE CAN BARELY SEE. Crowd are happy with it and then Luna wins with a German Suplex that no-one notices at 12:22.

Luna gets a bit of her shaved before her lads The Blackhearts save her in a blatant bait and switch (and not TWA’s first). Eddie tries to take them on with Cactus making the save for him which is very nice all things considered. Eddie one-ups him by thanking Cactus for giving him the hardest matches of his career. Cactus replies it’s Eddie’s fault for bringing it out of him so Eddie’s to blame for him signing with WCW so he doesn’t have to wrestle like that anymore. Oh Foley, if you only knew.

And that was indeed Cactus’ last match with TWA which is probably why he took it easy for maybe the last time in his life. Which is completely understandable but for selfish reasons you can skip this match. No-one got shaved.

Barbed Wire Steel Cage Match
Abdullah The Butcher vs. The Sheik (w/ Sabu)

The cage is impressively high but you can barely make out the barbed wire apparently wrapped around it. Why would you wrap a cage in barbed wire? Neither of these dinosaurs are going to climb it and the wire is placed so high that only Yao Ming could be thrown into it.

Sheik attacks the ref before Abdullah makes it into the cage which is decent strategy. Both of them predictably go stab for stab in slo-mo because what the fuck else are they going to do? Sabu throws a metal bin into the cage so Sheik bonks Abby with it a million times. Sheik is bleeding from something (you didn’t need me to type that) before Sheik pushes Abby through the door (?) to end the main event at 5:17 to really piss off the crowd. A fan yells “Twenty five minutes for that???” I mean, what were these smarks expecting? I bet these fans thought Mike Tyson was going to KO Jacob Paul too.

Sabu & Sullivan have to brawl on the outside to satisfy the crowd with Funk also making an appearance with his boot. This of course turns into SURPRISE SURPRISE another crowd brawl with Abbie punching a cameraman in the process. This gets the crowd chanting for Abbie so he batters more staff before heading through the fire exit to end the show.

Mitsuharu Misawa, Richard Slinger and Masa Fuchi of All Japan were at the card scouting for new foreign talent.

What? That can’t be right can it?

To the 1991 mailbag! It is not all positive.

In Philadelphia, the TWA on Saturday night put on a good, but extremely long show. The Owen Hart vs. Takayuki Iizuka match was excellent, but the fans were chanting “USA, USA” and “Boring” during the matwork segments. It took almost 45 minutes to set up the barbed wire cage for The Sheik vs. Abdullah the Butcher, and they only wrestled four minutes before brawling outside the ring. Only Joel Goodhart can have a cage match with most of the match fought in the stands. His promotion is quickly becoming the WWC of the United States, delivering a lot of blood but not a whole lot of action. But he is doing the same thing the NWA did when they first came to Philadelphia. The NWA bloodfest cards did increase attendance until the Athletic Commission put a stop to them.

Name withheld by request

I went to Joel Goodhart’s promotion for the last time on 9/21. Each match with the local wrestlers took about 15 minutes of non-wrestling to try and set up the feud and about 20 minutes after the match to set up the next show. Add a couple of needless intermissions and you’ve got a four-to-five hour waste of time. Owen Hart is still fantastic. Luna Vachon worked harder than anyone on the card. About 25 minutes into the construction of the steel cage, Joel announced to the paying customers that an independent promotion can’t afford to have a pre-constructed cage. “If you don’t like it, you can stuff it,” he said. I’m not sure what that means, but I’m not the only person who will never pay for one of his boring shows again. Joel will soon wind up like most wrestling promoters. Broke.

Dave Katz
Mt. Holly, New Jersey

In the past year-and-a-half I’ve been to 20 Tri State wrestling cards which have featured more than 75 different wrestlers, from those with international reputations to those in their first match. The cards have been at the Philadelphia Civic Center, at prominent sports bars and at high schools. Readers of the Observer know about the supercards, especially the matches with Eddie Gilbert and Cactus Jack. While the other cards aren’t as well known to Observer readers, I’m of the opinion that they have been good to excellent. I literally walked around the corner to a local high school to see Abdullah the Butcher, Bam Bam Bigelow, Gilbert and Buddy Landel wrestle. But that wasn’t the only good wrestling. Tri State has a core of about 15 regulars who provide very good and sometimes excellent matches. They don’t receive the same attention in the newsletters as the more widely-known wrestlers. I’ve seen very good matches from Tony Stetson, Johnny Hot Body, D.C. Drake, Larry Winters, J.T. Smith and Mr. Sandman. In fact, their matches have been some of the best on the cards. I’d gladly buy a front row ticket to see any cards that consists exclusively of matches with the Tri-State regulars. They provide everything from arm drags to moonsaults to bodyslams on tables. Tri-State style is generally very physical and fast-paced.

Douglas Stalker
Newark, Delaware

I attended the Autumn Armageddon II card and must say it was the most enjoyable night I’ve spent at wrestling in a long time. The show was a hardcore’s dream. It’s really nice to see a promoter in this country that cares about fans over 12 years old with IQs over 80. I have read letters from people ripping Joel Goodhart, but I say to judge him on the bottom line. I enjoy his cards and he doesn’t treat his fans like they are idiots. He sees a segment of the wrestling market whose needs aren’t being met and he’s satisfying them.

Dave Scherer

Marmora, New Jersey

I’ve never felt so strange after a wrestling card as after Joel Goodhart’s 9/21 show. First, the positives. Owen Hart vs. Takayuki Iizuka was a 4 1/2 star match and the best match I’ve seen live all year. The heat, work and reaction of the crowd after the match were all incredible. It was also the only match on the card where you could actually see the wrestling. There were other good things about the card but this carried it.

Where can I start with the negatives? The Battle Royal was useless, as guys were juicing from ordinary moves. Aside from J.T. Smith, who has a lot of potential, all Goodhart’s guys seemed to learn how to do on this card was blade. The workrate in Tony Stetson vs. Mr. Sandman was pathetic. As for the Black Hearts and Luna, I just wish I could have seen their match as they spent it all out of the ring. About the only time Terry Funk was in the ring was when he put the spinning toe hold on Fallen Angel. Instead of a wild mixed tag team match with Eddie Gilbert & Madusa vs. Cactus Jack & Luna, we received a good women’s singles match with Madusa vs. Luna. Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Doug Gilbert never took place.

Fans had to wait 45 minutes for a negative star cage match between Abdullah the Butcher and The Sheik. This was unbearable to the point of being near torture. Goodhart claimed during the wait that if this was WCW or the WWF, the cage would come down from the ceiling. That’s right, WWF or WCW would display respect for the fans and employ a professional crew to set up the cage. Goodhart really put his foot in his mouth on this night because he continually trashed Jim Herd, Vince McMahon, WCW and the WWF but his promotion proved to be sixth rate. I’ve never felt this way after attending any WCW show and I don’t think I’ll be going back to Philadelphia for any of Goodhart’s events.

Ian Goodwin
Brooklyn, New York

After a 14-hour drive, I got to see one of Joel Goodhart’s cards and wasn’t disappointed. The card featured a little bit of everything. It had the bloody brawling with Terry Funk, Abdullah the Butcher, The Sheik and Kevin Sullivan but it also had an excellent technical wrestling match with Owen Hart’s win over Takayuki Iizuka. I enjoyed every minute of the show and was really impressed with Goodhart’s wrestlers. The Black Hearts vs. D.C. Drake & Johnny Hot Body was one of the best matches on the card. One thing is for sure. The card blew away anything WCW has done in the past two years.

Jeff Neal
Somerset, Kentucky

I talked briefly with Joel Goodhart, who asked me how I liked the 9/21 show. I told him I liked what I could see of it. Joel seems sincerely to be responsive to fans complaints and suggestions, unlike Herb Abrams.

Eddie Goldman
New York, New York

Man, Goodhart was a mouthy prick for a guy who reneged on stipulations and bookings as often as he did.

Overall: Fuck me, that was TWA. Occasional brilliance usually involving Cactus Jack and Terry Funk, followed by more brawling to last you a year.

Their last show was December 7th, headlined by Paul Orndorff beating Buddy Landel via DQ.

There’d be a show announced for January 25th 1992 but well…

Joel Goodhart, the controversial Philadelphia wrestling promoter whose Tri-State Wrestling Association had gained a cult following, announced Saturday on his radio show that because he’s out of money, he’s done in the wrestling business. Besides the TWA, which promoted quarterly bloodbaths in Philadelphia’s Pennsylvania Hall that were probably the most talked about and well attended independent shows in the country (with two shows drawing better than $30,000 houses) along with independents in the Delaware Valley area that weren’t nearly as well attended, that also means the end of Goodhart’s radio show on WIP in Philadelphia, his Squared Circle Fan Club which had luncheons with many of the top-name wrestlers, and his RingMasters Wrestling School in Philadelphia. Goodhart had talked of late of expanding his TWA, with his first television tapings being scheduled for later this month and not too long ago he was talking about promoting 125 shows in 1992, including five shows per month in the state of Florida.

Goodhart’s bankruptcy announcement came just one week before a scheduled big show in Philadelphia, which insiders had known was falling apart. In recent weeks, Goodhart’s deal with Joe Daigo, which had him get one New Japan match on each of his big shows, fell apart because Daigo was tired of Goodhart not returning his calls. In addition, the Buddy Rogers vs. Buddy Landel match had fallen apart even before Goodhart’s announcement. Rogers had decided to pull out of the show because Goodhart never returned phone calls and was going to make the announcement publicly over the weekend. The other headline match, Dan Kroffat & Doug Furnas vs. Steve Williams & Terry Gordy was also exceedingly doubtful because, you got it, none of the four had any phone calls returned.

Goodhart’s shows were the favorite of some hardcores with FMW-like bloodbaths up-and-down the show and brawling all over the building, the most memorable probably being the series of matches between Eddie Gilbert and Cactus Jack in 1991. The Gilbert-Jack series finished third in the Wrestling Observer Feud of the Year balloting (see page two), a somewhat incredible accomplishment for a group without television. However, unlike Memphis, which occasionally promoted matches of that type, and FMW in Japan, which does on a nightly basis but limits the craziness to the main event or the top two matches on the show as to not burn the audience out early, Goodhart would have matches like that from the bottom to the top of major shows that generally exceeded three hours in duration. The common complaint was that he burned the audience out with the blood and brawling in the stands and by the time the main event came on, the audience had nothing left and the main eventers had nothing left to show the crowd that they hadn’t seen. While those shows made some feel they were the best shows in North America, others felt they couldn’t sustain themselves working in that matter over the long run with the overuse of blood and would eventually spell the group’s demise. While this probably had little to do with the success or failure of the promotion, Goodhart’s bombastic radio (and in-person) personality also rubbed a lot of people the wrong way.

In truth, Goodhart’s fatal mistake was simply he put together an operation that needed consistent money to sustain itself and wasn’t able to generate that kind of money. Even on his biggest houses, there is question whether or not the shows were even profitable since he paid so many big guarantees to load up the shows and had large expenses for flying so many wrestlers in. The independent promoters who have been able to survive these times, where it’s difficult to draw to the live shows because of so much free television wrestling and WWF (and to a lesser extent WCW), with the notoriety of having “all” the big names, making everything else seem bush league in comparison, generally have brought in one, or maybe two matches with recognizable “name” talent to draw some fans and filled out the shows with local wrestlers who work cheap and have no transportation expenses associated with them. In that way, the top match, or top two matches, will hopefully bring some fans in, while expenses are kept down. In flying in an entire crew and paying big money for several matches deep on the show, you are still only going to draw basically the same crowd that is willing to attend “non-major league” wrestling, but your expenses have gone through the roof. There were many who questioned all along whether or not there were enough hardcore blood’n’guts freaks to support a promotion with that philosophy over the long haul because a promotion like that turns off a great percentage of potential fans. But to his defense, a group that a casual fan sees as bush league needs to find a niche, rather than just deliver straight live wrestling which in and of itself is going through tough economic times because of so much free on television. I don’t believe Goodhart’s demise would be fair to blame on the failure of that style of wrestling (although that style by its very excesses is going to only have a limited audience), as much as an inability for non-WWF wrestling in this country to draw big enough money live to support flying in star-studded line-ups.

In addition to his expenses of running live shows, Goodhart also had to pay for his weekly slot on WIP radio ($800 per week). Just a few weeks back, the show didn’t air with rumors going around that he was running low on money, although Goodhart was back on a week later and claimed the show was off because he had the flu.

Goodhart has left behind a lot of customers who had already purchased 1992 season tickets for his quarterly big shows and there was reportedly a sizeable advance for this coming weekend’s shows. Since Goodhart himself handled the tickets, and hasn’t returned any calls and rumor has it he’ll be disconnecting his phone early this week, there is no word on what a procedure would be for refunds, or if he declares bankruptcy, whether you’ll be even able to get refunds.

And then as everyone knows:

Todd Gordon, who worked as a financial partner with Joel Goodhart is going to start up a group called Eastern Championship Wrestling and use a lot of Goodhart’s local wrestlers like J.T. Smith, D.C. Drake, Larry Winters, etc.

Well after seeing how gullible and easy-to-con Philly fans were, how could you not?

Oh also:

Rob Feinstein of (redacted) is selling a tape of Joel Goodhart’s Autumn Armageddon show for $20 with Terry Funk vs. Kevin Sullivan, The Sheik vs. Abdullah the Butcher in a cage, Cactus Jack & Luna Vachon vs. Eddie Gilbert & Madusa Miceli and Owen Hart vs. Takayuki Iizuka.

What an influence Joel was on that hot Jewish paedophile demographic you hear people talking about.

Anyway here’s some more angry letters regarding Goodhart to close us out:

This letter is for information purposes for your readers. The Pennsylvania State Athletic Commission has seized TWA promoter Joel Goodhart’s promoters bond, which is required to be a promoter in Pennsylvania. The amount of the bond is $10,000. This bond money will be used to reimburse people who purchased tickets to TWA shows which never came off and also to season ticket holders to recapture the unused portion of their tickets. I don’t know how many of your readers purchased these tickets but hopefully this will help the ones that did get their money back. I hope other newsletter editors reprint this information for their readers.

I’ll inform you when this goes into effect because ticket money will be returned on a first-come, first-served basis and the total amount that will be returned will be $10,000. As most people are aware, Goodhart and myself along with Larry Sharpe were rival promoters and I had no liking for him whatsoever and I’m sure the feelings were mutual. This letter isn’t meant in that vain, but it was a shame that up until the night before he went on the air to announce to folding that he was collecting ticket money, tape money, fan club membership money and wrestling school tuition. I have to believe some of this money was collected with full knowledge the shows weren’t going to take place, the school was closing and the fan club was being abolished. I feel an obligation as a wrestling promoter in this area to try and help those fans that feel that they were ripped off. I hope this letter will help get rid of the bad taste in the mouths that they may have with wrestling promoters right now. I’ll personally feel better if some people get their ticket money back and at least don’t feel the wrestling business ripped them off. The one good thing Joel Goodhart tried to do was stir up interest in independent wrestling in this area and hard work was put in both on his side and on my side. I just hope wrestling fans don’t get turned off by what happened and I hope this will restore some faith in the wrestling business. Unfortunately, many people who don’t read newsletters won’t know of this ticket reimbursement. This is a major positive point in favor of state athletic commission regulation of the pro wrestling business.

Dennis Coralluzzo
Promoter, Excalibur Promotions

To change the subject to Joel Goodhart, while your assessment about Goodhart bringing in many name stars on his cards being the reason for his financial downfall is correct, the TWA was headed for failure no matter who Goodhart booked. On his last radio show, Goodhart wanted to know why he couldn’t draw more fans when he had a listenership weekly of 25,000 but in the same breath he said, “People said our wrestling was too violent, but I didn’t give a damn. Wrestling is a violent sport.” His contention that his wrestling cards are what pro wrestling used to be like is just plain false. While one match every now and then may have been like what Goodhart promotes, old-time wrestling was never a continual orgy of blood. Any attempts to tell him this was must with cries of “jerk” and “idiot” and even kids who called up his show to tell him this were constantly put down and told to grow up. Goodhart had a loyal group of hardcores that enjoyed his bloody horror shows but that was it. What usually happened was what took place at his “Pine Hill Punishment” card. Families poured out of the building vowing to never see live wrestling again. I understand from one of the teachers at the high school that the school board will now never allow another wrestling card at the school. Unfortunately, all the wrestling promoters get painted with the same brush after a bad experience like this. My wife wouldn’t attend Joel’s shows. I would never allow my daughter to attend his shows. As a wrestling fan, I didn’t appreciate paying for a ticket to a wrestling show that consisted primarily of chair shots and juice in the crowd. Joel didn’t promote wrestling for the fans. He promoted for himself. If they didn’t like what he promoted, he said the heck with them. Unfortunately for Joel, a lot of fans said the heck with him. Hopefully the damage done by Joel can be repaired and we’ll still be able to see those nights out at the local high school to see wrestling matches and our kids can get autographs and meet with the wrestlers that wrestle because they love the business and not because it’s just a way to make a buck.

Paul Verlander
Gloucester, New Jersey

On Saturday 1/18, Joel Goodhart ceased all of his ties to the wrestling business. Being from the Philadelphia area, I know the disappointment this has left to the hardcore wrestling fans of the area. I think nobody can duplicate Goodhart’s contributions to the sport of pro wrestling in this area with his radio show, luncheons, trips to major events, fan clubs and the best cards for real fans.

Bill Garrett
Abington, Pennsylvania

In response to your article on Joel Goodhart, I’m responding with my own letter. I was one of the season ticket holders left empty handed when he went out of business. I found out from a friend who called me up that he closed up shop with no notice and no warning. I had tried to contact him several times and left several messages during the early part of January when I hadn’t received my tickets to the 1/25 show and he never even had the courtesy to respond to my messages. The way he dealt with his customers was a disgrace. He owes all his former customers an accounting of where the money went and an apology.

Since Goodhart didn’t have the decency to contact his customers and handled the whole matter in an unethical manner, I’ve failed complaints with the Better Business Bureau in Philadelphia and the Consumer Division of the Attorney General’s Office in Philadelphia. I have also provided the U.S. Post Office in Philadelphia with information to see if it would be appropriate for them to launch an investigation relating to mail fraud since a product was sold through the mail and not delivered. I urge all others who have been gypped by him to do likewise by getting the number by calling Philadelphia information.

I might be out $140 and maybe the complaints I’ve filed won’t accomplish much other than to make me feel better, but if they force Goodhart to step forward and be honest with his former customers and the wrestling public, I’ll be satisfied.

I applaud Goodhart’s efforts in bringing top-name wrestling stars and great wrestling action to the Northeast as well as giving fans what they want to see. However, I can’t condone his lack of honesty and the sneaky and underhanded way he dealt with his customers.

Deborah McWilliams
Jersey City, New Jersey

GOODHART REFUNDS

This is a follow-up letter to the recent one about refunds for TWA tickets. I’ve listed some instructions below which may be helpful. Anyone who had purchased tickets directly from TicketMaster or TicketMaster tickets from Joel Goodhart may return them for a refund by going to the Philadelphia Civic Center box office or to their place of purchase. These tickets must have the code “adult” on top of them. If not, they must be returned for a refund to the Pennsylvania State Athletic Commission. Those tickets should have a “K-Prom” on top of them.

When mailing your tickets to the commission, please photo-copy them for your records in case they are lost. For people who have only canceled checks and no tickets, there is a possibility you may not get a refund. But the Athletic Commission told me if they’re sent in with a letter there is an outside chance of a refund. Remember to photo-copy all correspondence for your own records. All refunds will be on a first come, first served basis. The commission can’t reimburse you for tapes or fan club money so don’t waste your time on that. All requests can be sent to the Pennsylvania State Athletic Commission, Room 611 A, Tranportation Building, Harrisburg, PA 17120.

If any additional questions from anyone should arise, feel free to contact me at (redacted)

I made one mistake in my last letter I want to correct. The commission didn’t seize Joel’s bond but seized a letter of credit for $10,000 through his bank. He was under the old system where a bond or a letter of credit was needed to be licensed. Now a bond is required. They no longer will take a letter of credit.

Dennis Coraluzzo
Woodbury, New Jersey

The Observer fans still voted for Goodhart #3 Promoter Of The Year (behind McMahon and Baba but above Onita and Inoki).

Next week: Well that was a sad death, let’s witness another one as we return to WAR 1997.

i’ve been maffew