Hey Scott. Really enjoy pretty much everything you post. Anywho, I've been watching some old WWF Prime Time Wrestling episodes specifically from January 1990. They advertised that "Widow Maker" aka Barry Windham I believe was supposed to be in the Royal Rumble match. How come he never entered it? Also, why did they drop the "Canadian" name from Earthquake's persona? One last question, how did the WWF and the cable companies resolve their issue back then because they spent 1/4th of each episode whining to the viewers to call their Congressmen and demand WWF PPV's? Thanks Scott and keep up the great work!
1. Windham left the promotion pretty quickly after some sort of falling out, and went back to WCW early in 1990.
2. As I understand it, the dropped the Canadian portion because they didn't want him getting babyface reactions in Canada.
3. Don't remember that whole deal. I don't recall any specific issues with WWF getting dropped from PPV, but then we didn't have PPV in Canada at all until years after that anyway.
Also the fact that 'Earthquake' is a much better name than 'the Canadian Earthquake'... which seemed silly especially for a country that isn't exactly notorious for such event's.
ReplyDeleteYeah maybe if he was from LA it might have made sense
ReplyDeleteRegarding #3 --
ReplyDeleteIn 1988/1989, Vince started making noise about feeling the PPV companies that broadcast the WWF PPVs (Request and Viewer's Choice at the time) shouldn't be getting such a large cut of the PPV revenues for each show. Shortly after the Survivor Series 1989 PPV, he tried to play hardball by threatening to have WrestleMania VI pulled from both networks if they didn't comply with his wishes but they played hardball back -- and dropped the upcoming Royal Rumble from their lineup.
That of course would cost them a few million dollars, so they started pleading with fans to 'write in and demand the Royal Rumble on your cable systems!" The hard sell/schill was most notable during the No Holds Barred PPV, with the commentators and Gene making constant pleas and comments regarding the situation during the broadcast -- reminders of which can be heard in the Coliseum Video version of the Hogan/Beefcake vs Savage/Zeus match from that even.
At any rate, the WWF caved and dropped the whole thing and Vince being Vince of course, had his announcers go on TV and say things like "your voice has been heard!", so I suppose it was a 'win' for him nowhere but in his own mind at least.
In the territory days, maybe he would have had different names depending where he worked.
ReplyDelete"I can feel a light sprinkle in the arena tonight that shows no signs of letting up till June, it must be... yes, here comes The Pacific Northwest Perpetual Drizzle!"
Well, they got it right when Tenta went to WCW and they called him Avalanche.
ReplyDeleteThreadjack: regarding all the discussion about where TNA is heading with Aries/Hardy, FWIW, Aries and Storm teamed up at a house show against Hardy/Storm.
ReplyDeleteStorm's an amazing talent if he's working both sides of that tag.
ReplyDeleteJoseph Park is suing for gimmick infringement. #kayfab
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of being advertised and not participating in an event, that brings me to "Survivor Series 1989". Check this out:
ReplyDelete"The Widowmaker" (Windham) was supposed to be part of the King's Court team along with Randy Savage, Dino Bravo, & Greg Valentine, but he was replaced with Earthquake. Him leaving all of a sudden is probably what happened, but Earthquake wasn't named as the replacement till the opening of the show.
Akeem (aka One Man Gang) was to be part of the Enforcers team with Big Boss Man, Bad News Brown, & Rick Martel, however, he was replaced by the Honky Tonk Man, and no explanation was ever given I don't think.
I think Bad News Brown actually replaced him -- you can tell Earthquake and Bad News Brown were added at the last second because they had Vince re-dub the Survivor Series intro and they didn't do the best job.
ReplyDeleteYeah, my mistake, Bad News Brown did replace Akeem. I still have the PPV version of this show and Vince's intro wasn't redubbed.
ReplyDeleteOh yeah, so he announces Akeem on the PPV version?
ReplyDeleteI guess Vince didn't want to redo the whole thing to make it sound consistent for the home video, it always catches me off guard when the dubs come in because even the pacing is different lol. They use the redubs for the WWE DVD as well.
I thought Barry left the WWF so quickly in part because his dad and brother were arrested for counterfeiting or ran afoul of some sort of legal issue.
ReplyDeleteHe doesn't announce Akeem on the PPV version, however, when he announces that team, it doesn't sound like a redub.
ReplyDeleteInteresting. Well perhaps it is just less apparent due to the audio quality, it is pretty noticeable on the commercial releases of the show as you can hear. Seems more likely than him not just using the initial audio. Or perhaps they used the wrong take of him doing it when they mastered the CHV.
ReplyDeleteI love reading about all these substitutions over the years, it must have been a lot harder to keep these cards intact when PPVs were so far apart.
ReplyDeleteA few less talked about ones that I can remember:
- Marty Jannetty was scheduled to be in the 1992 Royal Rumble and was planned for a program with Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania, but ended up dropping out of the Rumble due to the Barber Shop angle. However a few days after the Rumble he was arrested for resisting arrest with force (plus possession of cocaine and drug paraphernalia).
- Andre was supposed to be apart of the 1991 Royal Rumble, which was even announced on TV, but ended up having surgery and was pulled from the show. That was one of the few times a wrestling promotion actually announced that sort of thing *before* you bought the show.
- Roseanne was mentioned as being part of WrestleMania VII at one point, although I'm not sure in what capacity (someone on 411 suggested that they were going to do a riff on her National Anthem performance, but I find it hard to believe given the theme of the event).
- Another one I've heard but never seen in print is supposedly the original first victim for the Undertaker's WrestleMania streak was supposed to be Tugboat.
Interesting indeed.
ReplyDeleteI remember all of this too.
ReplyDeleteKind of wierd that Tugboat was left completely off the Mania card that year. Duggan was too but he made an appearance on commentary. They pushed him pretty hard in 1990 as Hogan's buddy, and those were the days where they found something for everyone to do at PPV
ReplyDeleteYeah I remember Taker sort of being in a program with Tugboat, (god knows why) and being suprised that he was facing Snuka.
ReplyDeleteI think Andre had the surgery later though because he was walking at WM VII then they did the angle
I'M NOT A SHARK...I"M A MAN!!!
ReplyDeleteOh yeah, you may be right. Perhaps he was just pulled due to the injury he had in general, which I recall that he got in Japan.
ReplyDeleteNever heard that about Tugboat. Maybe he'd get less crap for being the Shockmaster had he also been the first streak victim. Probably not. I find that kind of hilarious, at any rate, becuase I can just hear Undertaker saying "toot toot" in a promo.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I assume they left Tugboat off in the end because his heel turn came shortly after WrestleMania -- even still though, that would have made him the perfect designated victim for Undtertaker as a babyface.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of Tugboat, he got pulled from the job as Hulk Hogan's cornerman (replaced with the Bossman) at Summer Slam 1990 in a reason that has never been disclosed, necessitating the angle they shot where he injured him. I've heard it speculated that it was a 'disciplinary measure' and 'because he was getting a big head' as the potential reasons. He did still continue to work house shows though.
Still, that was a *huge* angle for him and a big one for Summer Slam too -- kind of makes you wonder what he did that was bad enough to get him yanked from the show.
That also led to one of the weirdest segments on Superstars of Wrestling to air, where Tugboat won a match against a jobber shortly after Summer Slam and Hogan (who was not on the show otherwise) randomly came down to the ring, raised Tugboat's hand, and stood around for a few seconds before they went to commercial break. When they came back from the break, it was never mentioned or followed up on the rest of the show -- I'm guessing it was just Hogan reaffirming his "endorsement" of Tugboat or something?
Was Mania from Skydome the first time he went by just "Earthquake?" I think I read somewhere that was the first time they dropped Canadian so he wouldn't get cheered.
ReplyDeleteFor PPV Changes, here's one: 1995 Royal Rumble with Jim Neidhart. He ws in all of the preview participant lists, then all of the sudden he was gone. Does anybody know what happened there? He was a big part of the Hart fued angle, then he was just dropped and wasn't seen again until Who in mid-1996.
Another one is the 1991 Survivor Series,injuries and departures tons and tons of substitutes on that one. Von Erich/Duggan/Santana/Slaughter vs. Mustafa/Hercules/Berzerker/Skinner was originally supposed to have Steamboat, Big Bully Busick and Jim Neidhart
Tugboat was actually squashed by Undertaker at "March to WrestleMania VII" (remember those?) so maybe he was off the card to sell the beating.
ReplyDeleteRe: Neidhart in 1995 -- good question. The only news on it I could find was that he was 'let go by the WWF' and another source that said he "left the WWF".
ReplyDeleteThat would be classic haha.
ReplyDeleteI'll have to see if the match was ever mentioned in an old WWF magazine or something, it seems like the most likely source as those were printed pretty far in advance of the mail out date.
Oh that's right! Perhaps because of the impeding heel turn, they switched it around and just had him do the job there. Or maybe Superfly just seemed like a more legendary guy to squash.
ReplyDeleteEither way, I would have loved to see Tugboat take the Tombstone.
Neidhart in the 1990's is wierd. He was in and out of the WWF quite a few times. The Who stuff only lasted a couple months, supposively that was for failing a drug test. Which is wierd because he wasn't with the company at all in 1995 and half of 1996, so I'm not sure when he would have failed. He came back in June of 1997 and took off briefly right before SummerSlam. Remember he said he would shave his goatee if any of the Harts lost their SummerSlam matches? Well that never happened, supposively he wasn't under contract and had indy dates he contractually needed to fill in Sep-Oct. He came back right before the screwjob and then left with the Survivor Series exodus.
ReplyDeleteI've also heard that he was let go right after the last Hart Foundation match at WrestleMania VII, but I never understood this. As far as I can recall, he was placed on commentary almost immediately after. I'm pretty sure he did a few house shows too until he returned to full-time competition in the fall. Does anybody know why he wasn't wrestling in 1991? Just seems like a really wierd choice for commentary, that would be like if WWE just out of the blue put Jey Uso on commentary today.
He might actually be the only guy who comes close to rivaling Marty Jannetty with the revolving door policy.
No clue what you're talking about,
ReplyDeleteYeah, it looks like Neidhart continued wrestling through 1991, so that is really odd.
ReplyDeleteDid they always have a three man team on Challenge (Gorilla/Neidhart/Heenan) or did Neidhart/Heenan work as a team alone for some episodes? If Gorilla was having health issues at the time, perhaps he was just filling in for him when needed? I don't really remember Gorilla being gone much in that period though.
Or how about he stayed on the apron for most of his SS90 match, then got in and was eliminated very quickly?
ReplyDeleteOne of the Apter mags had a photo of him being tombstoned, IIRC
ReplyDeleteBoth him and Owen Hart had brief cups of coffee in WCW around that time as well.
ReplyDeleteIn Bret's book he said Neidhart had blown off some house shows around Christmas time and was fired because of it. Supposedly it was him and Owen scheduled to win the tag team titles.
ReplyDeleteIt's been a while since I read it, but in Bret's book he talks about Anvil's various hiring/firings. Wasn't there a Survivor Series where Bret and Anvil were on separate teams, but they eventually stayed together? ...He had a lawsuit against an airline in the early 90's and had been borrowing money from Vince to fund it. He eventually won and received a settlement but I guess he didn't pay Vince back and was fired for it. I think that was when he was teaming with Owen.
ReplyDeleteI vaguely remember this, I'm pretty sure they were in the tag tournament that 123 Kid and Bob Holly eventually won.
ReplyDeleteI recall that Neidhart was being sued BY the airline, and that's why Vince wanted him kept around- if he was stuck paying Jim's legal bills, he'd still be on the payroll so he could at least be getting something out of it.
ReplyDeleteyeah he didn't even attempt it in their TV match, too bad
ReplyDeleteYeah I remember that- it's an odd match, as Taker never tries his Tombstone, and doesn't get to use his size since Tugboat is bigger. It seems like an awful program to put their new Monster Heel up against a larger face.
ReplyDeleteNot sure when it happened, but in WWF Magazine in the summer of 1991 (leading to the aborted UT/Warrior feud), they definitely discussed how Undertaker easily disposed of Tugboat. I remember being shocked about it since it never happened on Superstars.
ReplyDelete"Canadian Earthquake" was a pretty silly name, that would be like calling somebody the "Nevada Rainforest".
ReplyDeleteAlthough just plain 'ol "Earthquake" is a very badass name.
I also recall Neidhart being announced as participating in the 1991 Survivor Series, but they did an injury angle with Ric Flair and The Nasty Boys I believe, and he was replaced (and I think it was Sgt. Slaughter that took his spot). Next thing we know, he's part of "The New Foundation" with Owen Hart at the 1992 Royal Rumble, and that team didn't last long.
ReplyDeleteThe Survivor Series you're referring to has to be the 1989 edition. Bret was on Jim Duggan's team and Neidhart was on Warrior's team.
ReplyDeleteAll the youtube matches of Taker/Tugboat I've seen has ended with Taker doing a very cool top rope elbow drop.
ReplyDeleteJust an FYI it was the Beverly Brothers not the Nasty Boys. After Flair beat Anvil with the figure four, Anvil was being helped to the back and the Beverly Brothers beat the hell out of him. This pulling Anvil from the Survivor Series.
ReplyDeleteYou're so right, it was the Beverly Brothers. Not sure why I was thinking of the Nasties, lol.
ReplyDeleteAmazing to think how that WM8 card could have turned out:
ReplyDeleteHogan v Flair
Savage v Roberts
Taker v Warrior
Michaels v Jannetty
LOD v Natural Disasters
Bret v Piper
All would have been big matches, only one happened :(
Yeah in one I've seen (I didn't know there were others- I assumed he couldn't hit the Tombstone on a 400-pounder- it seems way too dangerous to try) he does a mini-ropewalk before landing it.
ReplyDeleteYou guys already talked about all the points here in great detail but this was fun to read as this was right up my alley when I started watching wrestling and certainly remember all these various substitutions and changes. Threads like this are why I really love this blog.
ReplyDeleteNot sure if this has been asked before but why did Akeem not compete in the Survivor Series 1989 on the Enforcers Team?
ReplyDelete