Hey Scott,
I have a couple of questions for you and they both kinda/sorta involve Christmas shows:
1) I remember hearing a while ago about how Dusty wanted to put the NWA Title on Rick Steiner at Starrcade '88. I didn't think anything of it and thought it was a joke. So last night I was watching one of the August 1988 episodes of World Championship Wrestling via Classics on Demand and saw Rick in a few segments. One thing led to another and I found a few other places online that noted Dusty did in fact want to put the title on Rick. Now I have to ask, what was the thought process behind this? Did Dusty really think that would be a good idea? Also, with Flair/Luger as the main event and definitely a big time match, how could Steiner have even won the belt? Would they have called an audible and not gone through with Flair/Luger?
2) I'm listening to Stone Cold Steve Austin's podcast with Jim Cornette and Cornette was talking about how Christmas used to be a huge time period for wrestling in the territory days. Now it seems like it's a wrestling dead period as WWE is just killing time until the Royal Rumble/WrestleMania season. And to me, WWE's approach makes sense since general television viewership declines after Thanksgiving which is why most TV shows try to wrap up their seasons by the first week of December. I also remember hearing an interview with Eric Bischoff where when he first took over WCW, he placed the emphasis on SuperBrawl, not Starrcade, because he thought December pay-per-views were a hard draw. Why was this different in the territory days? Even though the territories didn't make the money off TV that WWE does now or even WCW did in the 90's, TV was the main catalyst for the territorial live events which were their main source of revenue.
Cheers,
Pete
1) It wasn't so much Dusty thinking it was a good idea as much as it was him throwing a giant hissy fit at Ric Flair and trying to destroy him. I think they were gonna do some kind of injury angle to hotshot Steiner in there, but either way it was just a ridiculous power play by Dusty to try and show Flair who was boss.
2) It used to be different BECAUSE Christmas was such a dead time. There was no competition and people were hanging around the house and looking for stuff to do. No idea why they can't capitalize on that these days, actually.
Keep in mind that in the territory days, there weren't 800 TV channels, so you couldn't watch USA's Star Wars Martahon or two crappy college football teams play each other in the Swifter Wetjet Bowl. No nationally televised NBA games. Work was slow, school was out. So you'd go out - and one option was to the local wrestling show.
ReplyDelete"No idea why they can't capitalize on that these days, actually."
ReplyDeleteI guess people would rather watch 24 hours of a Christmas story than Raw? I mean, it's sort of like a self-fulfilling prophecy, they think Christmas is a dead time so they run canned shows where nothing newsworthy happens, so it's a dead time.
Plus Christmas was a big deal when the house show attendance drove the business. They're running a big show in MSG this weekend, so they are trying to take advantage of that idea, that parents and kids with nothing to do can catch a house show in the WWE's biggest market.
Good point, there's far too much TV competition.
ReplyDeleteFritz Von Erich on why he ran huge shows on Christmas night:
ReplyDelete"Once you open the presents, what else is there to do all day?"
The funny thing is, with the way that the RR is situated at the end of January, you'd think that they would do a nice long build to help sell the PPV. But no, they do random crap until about 3 weeks before hand and then they sell the show. Then again, with the way creative is today and how they only care about TV, I can understand why they wouldn't want to follow a crazy idea like a long strong build.
ReplyDeleteBingo. There's a lot more options to do nowadays.
ReplyDeleteEveryone I know goes to the movies on Thanksgiving and Christmas. There is only so much spending time with family a person can do. With that said, the 4th of July is probably the biggest holiday for that kind of stuff. Run an outdoor show with promises of a spectacular fireworks display at the end and people will show up.
ReplyDeleteC'mon, the WWE IS capitalizing on Christmas! Aren't you excited for Good Santa Henry vs. Bad Santa Sandow? For God's sake, CHRISTMAS MIGHT BE CANCELLED!
ReplyDeleteSeems like sound logic to me.
ReplyDeleteI thought this was facetious at first until I read the spoilers. The worst thing ever was the kayfabe Del Rio running over Santa. I had it on with some people over and was really embarrassed to be watching it
ReplyDeleteWasn't the worst part of that the fact that Del Rio had just turned FACE!?!? I wasn't watching at this time last year, but I remember reading the recaps on the blog.
ReplyDeleteBlocked this outta my memory but thought he turned face afterwards but could be wrong.
ReplyDeleteA winner is you.
ReplyDeleteI miss Survivor Series on Thanksgiving or at least right around it. Nothing like sitting around the TV with the family and watching sweaty half-naked men wrestle while Grandma is in the kitchen carving the turkey.
ReplyDeleteUpvoted for "Swifter Wet jet Bowl".
ReplyDeleteIt was the week after he turned face.
ReplyDeleteSo it was the opposite of Miz's last heel turn?
ReplyDeleteIt's another of Stern's marketing genius moves that he basically stole Christmas for the NBA. It's not really Christmas anymore unless the Knicks are getting blown out while opening presents and the Lakers are getting blown out while carving up the ham.
ReplyDeleteJust like the NFL has Thanksgiving, MMA has NYE (at least in Japan) and MLB has the 4th of July I've always found it to be one of Vince's missteps that he hasn't associated an event with a holiday like other sports he supposedly has tried to emulate. It's one of the most successful low effort marketing ploys and it's like he's running away from it and not towards it.
I'll bet a special Christmas PPV shown at movie houses would do well.
ReplyDeleteSo what happens if Ted Turner and the suits don't back Ric Flair in late '88 and Big Dust's power is consolidated? I say the Rick Steiner idea was always just an empty threat and Lex Luger goes over as new champ.
ReplyDeleteBut that leaves Slick Ric clearly the odd man out, so how does he fair in '89 WWF? Macho Man still turns heel and drops the strap to Hulk Hogan at Mania V and Zeus still comes in as the top heel in the summer. Where does Ric fit in at the top of the card?
Or does he just say fuck it, convince Ricky Steamboat to return to the WWF and they tear it up on the undercard before moving on to facing the Big 3 (Hogan,Savage,Warrior) later?
Rick was never world champ material. He was in the right spot. Scott absolutely eclipsed though and should of been world champ in 1991-1992 but its was allmdown hill after the tricep tear. I wonder t how they would of gotten it to Vader though and him and Bill Watts hated each other. So who knows how it would of played out.
ReplyDeleteScott was nowhere remotely close to ready for a World title, or probably any singles title, in 1991. Awful mic skills and absolutely no clue how to put together a compelling singles match. That Flair match at the Clash was one of Flair's worst title defenses against a supposedly good opponent that you'll ever see in his '83-'91 days.
ReplyDeleteInteresting your bring that up as I've never seen match get more all-over-the-place ratings. I think I've seen it get a rating from one star to four.
ReplyDeleteIn this scenario, Flair either debuts over some low-carder at WM5 and then is built up through the summer, going over numerous midcard to upper-midcard guys. Flair could've been the one to feud with Piper post-Summerslam 89 instead of Rude, for instance, or Flair rekindles his feud with Dusty Rhodes while in the WWF. With the Brainbusters also on the roster, the Heenan Family essentially becomes an uber-Four Horsemen.....Flair, Arn, Tully, Rude, Hennig, Haku and Andre. (Holy crap, is that an incredible stable!)
ReplyDeleteOne option could've been to turn Andre earlier, and having his 'last run' be opposing his monster Heenan Family rather than just his quickie face turn at WM6. Flair is one of the few guys who could've gotten good matches out of Andre at this point, and wow, Flair/Andre is a dream match even at that deteriorated state of Andre's career.
Who knows if Arn/Tully stay in the WWF at this point, maybe Tully doesn't fail his drug test in this reality or maybe Arn prefers to stay in Titanland with his good buddy Ric. In any case, the uber-Heenan Family could've been built to such heights that Wrestlemania 6 could've easily been Hogan/Flair and Warrior/Perfect (IC belt vs. perfect record) instead of what we got. With Hogan taking time off post-WM6, however, I'd suspect Hogan/Warrior is still the best bet, and this really leaves Warrior in great position...instead of having nobody to defend against, he can spent 1990 defending against Flair, a still-unbeaten Perfect in this scenario, a quickie feud with Rude that isn't a PPV main event, etc. Then you have Flair taking the title at the Royal Rumble and defending against Hogan at WM7, giving us that dream match once and for all. (So essentially Flair takes Slaughter's spot. If Vince still wants to run the Iraq angle, just put Sarge on the undercard against Duggan or someone.)