Through the Booking Glass: UWF June 1987 Week 1

June 1987, Monday, Week 1

Buddy Roberts was involved in another backstage altercation, this time yelling at Gary Young to the point that Young had to be restrained to avoid hitting him. Owner Jared Hawkins warned Roberts that this type of behavior wouldn’t be tolerated and Roberts assured him it wouldn’t happen again.

Buzz Sawyer was also reprimanded last night, as he got into a verbal altercation with a fan. Apparently the fan outside the arena spat at Sawyer, who tried to climb a barrier to get at the fan. Sawyer was supposedly agitated at being warned since he didn’t actually hit the fan.

The show in Tulsa last night drew a crowd of 3,439.

Art Crews, Mike Jackson, Sam Houston and Baby Doll are history, which is why all three lost in fairly short order last night.

Big Bubba Rogers suffered a broken jaw last night, apparently from a jawbreaker during his match with Jimmy Garvin. Rogers is not expected to take any time off but I wouldn’t be surprised to find out he only does an angle in order to save him for Untouchable the following weekend.

CBS announced the cancellation of Hulk Hogan’s Rock ‘n’ Wrestling. The problem is a cartoon about wrestlers aired against wrestling in just about every market ever.

Despite the economy still being poor throughout the Mid-South, the UWF turned a profit for the third straight month and has almost tripled its available finances in that time period.

The UWF made an attempt to bring Hector Guerrero in to team with Chavo but Hector turned it down. Hector said that outside from his obligations for Jim Crockett he has no interest in working outside Mexico. Speaking of Guerreros, are we ever getting that Gary Young-Chavo Guerrero blow off?

I haven’t heard any of the other names but I’m told there will be a lot of new talent coming in provided the pending contracts are signed.

June 1987, Tuesday, Week 1

Stu Hart has officially retired. Stampede Wrestling will continue with Ross Hart as the owner and Bruce Hart as the main booker. I expect to announce the closing of Stampede after two weeks of Bruce’s booking.

June 1987, Wednesday, Week 1

Chris Champion, Todd Champion and Kendall Windham have agreed to come in on per diem deals. The signing of Chris Champion leads me to believe Sean Royal will probably be coming in as well but no official announcement has been made.

June 1987, Thursday, Week 1

Sean Royal will be coming in as expected to team with Chris Champion as the New Breed. Their time traveler gimmick is…interesting.

Also coming in is Doug Gilbert, the brother of Eddie Gilbert. Rumor is they will be putting Doug under a mask as he is a rookie and hasn’t actually had a professional match yet.

June 1987, Friday, Week 1

Robert Gibson, currently the NWA Florida Heavyweight Champion as well as one half of the NWA World Tag Team Champions with Ricky Morton, will be coming in and has given Jim Crockett Promotions his notice. Morton is expected to be coming in but is not willing to burn his bridge with Crockett. Between Ric Flair leaving for the WWF and now at least one half of the tag champions leaving within a one week period, Crockett is scrambling. The worst part from Crockett’s standpoint is that the UWF is not signing anybody to exclusive deals, so it’s been entirely up to the individual to leave Crockett.

June 1987, Saturday, Week 1

Ric Flair has officially been stripped of the NWA World Heavyweight Title as his deal with the WWF begins today.

Skandor Akbar has been released from Don Owens’ Pacific Northwest Wrestling and will be spending more time in the UWF as a result.

Ivan Koloff and Jimmy Valiant are both officially on their way in. Koloff will likely team with Vladimir Petrov and has given Jim Crockett his notice. Valiant will split his time between Crockett and the UWF.

June 1987, Sunday, Week 1

The rating for the replay of Power Pro Wrestling on KWTV apparently dropped again but the official number was not reported.

Baron Von Raschke, Ricky Morton, and NWA World Television Champion Tully Blanchard are all coming in, with Blanchard being the latest to give their notice to Jim Crockett. I have heard rumors that Crockett is making a play to get the UWF kicked out of the NWA claiming they are intentionally stealing their talent. UWF owner Jared Hawkins has told multiple sources within Jim Crockett Promotions that he doesn’t want any hostility, his contracts are non-exclusive, and Crockett is welcome to make his own deals to get any of those wrestlers back.

UWF Power Pro Wrestling live coverage (June 1987, Sunday, Week 1)

Back at the Tulsa Convention Center which is where we’ll be taping from for the foreseeable future.

Angel of Death and Vladimir Petrov are backstage being interviewed by Boyd Pierce. They issue a challenge to the Rock ‘n’ Roll Express for New Orleans on Saturday. That is going to be one horrific clash of styles if signed.

Barry Windham defeated The Enforcer in 2:48 by pinfall with a Flying Lariat.

Jimmy Valiant defeated Terry Taylor in 5:12 by disqualification. The match was fine considering Jimmy Valiant was in it but the crowd hates DQ finishes in this town. Taylor continued to attack Valiant after the match while Eddie Gilbert looked on from ringside. Jim Ross then interviewed Taylor at ringside, who said he was tired of carrying Chris Adams around the country and if he chose to give Adams another match he would permanently end his career.

Barry Windham defeated Sid Steele in 3:57 by pinfall with a Flying Lariat. Ross explained this as Windham wanting one last test against someone close to Big Bubba Rogers’ size before Saturday in New Orleans. No, I don’t know what that has to do with wrestling The Enforcer 12 minutes before this. After the match, Rogers ran into the ring and took Windham out with the Bubba Slam.

The Lightning Express defeated Sting & Rick Steiner in 1:56 to win the UWF Tag Team Title when Tim Horner pinned Steiner with a Rolling Cradle following Sting’s clothesline, intended for Brad Armstrong, missing and hitting Steiner instead. The now former champions began arguing after the loss.

In a match that had an average crowd reaction and some decent in-ring action, Chris Adams defeated Eli the Eliminator in 7:23 by disqualification when Black Bart ran in and attacked Adams. Two DQs on one show? Yikes!

Bill Watts came out after the commercial break and said Black Bart would face Chris Adams on Saturday. So that’s two matches official at least.

Jim Ross conducted separate interviews with Bart and Adams regarding their upcoming match in New Orleans.

Tommy Rogers defeated Fury in 1:37 by pinfall with a Missile Dropkick. These two have no chemistry and the match was horrible.

Shane Douglas and Kendall Windham defeated New Breed in 6:57 when Douglas defeated Chris Champion by pinfall with a Belly to Belly Suplex. Not much better than the previous match.

And that was the main event. Seriously?

Good for the title change and Barry Windham and not much else.

 

 

Written by JHawk

Jared Hawkins is an indy wrestling referee and a former recapper of WWE Raw and SmackDown for the now-defunct www.thesmartmarks.com and co-hosts Pro Wrestling Weekend, available through smartmarkradio.com every Sunday at 6pm Eastern. When not doing something wrestling-related, he is generally getting higher doses of his anxiety medication due to the aggravation of his Cleveland sports teams.

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