JHawk
To answer two questions I’ve gotten most of the week:
Number 1. Yes, I’m still alive. Haven’t had a lot of free time to work on this lately.
Number 2. Yes, I know my Twitter was hacked. That should be fixed.
Now to address a question I got less often but is probably more important. Some of you noticed that I mentioned some news items about other companies. Please notice that those items are relevant to people on my active roster. Most of those notes will be that way. Certainly I won’t report on everything, but certain news items I find interesting will be included.
Now onto this week. In week 3, we had the first MSG show of the new year and crowned “Magnificent” Don Muraco as the new Intercontinental Champion. Now there are two major shows in February, and that’s a lot of build up and not a lot of time to do it. Let’s begin.
January 1983, Monday, Week 4
Ratings for syndicated programming held steady this week, which is still trying the patience of a number of stations. The shows have been really good for the most part the last three weeks, so as long as stations remain patient they should see an increase sooner rather than later.
Andre the Giant will be working one show for All-Star Wrestling in Vancouver. Despite Andre being in the WWF, he also works for New Japan, and New Japan is still a member of the NWA. The NWA helped broker the deal.
The WWF will be doing two big shows in February on consecutive nights. Shows will be Friday, Week 3 at MSG and then the next day at the Spectrum in Philadelphia. The only announced match for either show is Bob Backlund defending the WWF World Title against Big John Studd in Philadelphia.
January 1983, Tuesday, Week 4
Curt Hennig has told booker Jared Hawkins that he will be working for other companies for both the MSG and Spectrum shows next month. Hawkins was hoping to use him on each of those shows. At least Hennig told them this month instead of just showing up in Denver with no warning.
Partly to cut costs and partly to hype it as a big deal, both shows will be airing the MSG Intercontinental Title change in its entirety. It will be shown on the TV shows just prior to the Buddy Rogers’ Corner, which will feature Don Muraco on Championship Wrestling and Pedro Morales on All-Star Wrestling.
Championship Wrestling taping (January 1983, Tuesday, Week 4)
I just got back from another taping for Championship Wrestling in Allentown, which will air in syndication this weekend.
Ivan Koloff defeated Barry Hart in 3:10 by pinfall with a Russian Sickle.
Ray Stevens defeated S.D. Jones in 3:55 by pinfall with a Bombs Away.
Magnificent Muraco was interviewed in Buddy Rogers’ Corner, and he bragged about his victory of the Intercontinental Title “that we just saw”.
Vince McMahon and Pat Patterson announced that Buddy Rose will take on Pedro Morales at Madison Square Garden next month. This brought out Buddy Rose, who cut a quick promo on Morales.
Pat Patterson came to ringside to interview Rocky Johnson, which led to Patterson announcing Johnson vs. Superstar Billy Graham for MSG and Johnson cutting a promo on Graham.
In a match that had some good action and average heat, Buddy Rose defeated Rocky Johnson in 7:51 by pinfall with a Las Vegas Jackpot.
In a bout that had solid in-ring action but non-existent crowd heat, Tony Garea & Eddie Gilbert defeated Charlie Fulton and Mac Rivera in 7:12 when Gilbert pinned Fulton by pinfall with a Hotshot. Great work by Garea in particular here.
Big John Studd came out for his match, but first he announced that the bodyslam challenge had been increased to $7,000. Baron Mikel Scicluna tried but failed to slam Studd. Then Studd pulled off what I would call an upset, defeating Mil Mascaras by submission with a reverse backbreaker in 1:31.
A surprising announcement was then made, as Vince McMahon announced that Bob Backlund would defend the WWF Title at the Garden against Muraco. Muraco bragged about regaining the Intercontinental Title, then accused Backlund of facing Studd because he’s afraid of Muraco.
In a match that had some good action and average heat, WWF Tag Team Champions The Strongbows defeated The Wild Samoans in 6:56 when Sika was disqualified while fighting Chief Jay Strongbow. Best match of the night, and I think it could have been a Match of the Year candidate if anybody on either team would sell something.
Another pretty solid show.
January 1983, Wednesday, Week 4
Last night’s Championship Wrestling saw another sellout at the Allentown Agricultural Hall of 1,300. Rumor has it the building may be reconfigured to try to get more people in the building for wrestling.
New Japan has loaned Andre the Giant out to Central States Wrestling for an appearance, making twice this week that the NWA has made a deal for Andre’s service. Vince McMahon claims he has first right of refusal on Andre’s dates and might be considering filing a lawsuit, but since Andre does have a deal with New Japan and the NWA has the right to loan out talent to their member promotions, that’s a likely stalemate that could take years to resolve.
Masked Superstar is said to be irritated that he has been left off the last few shows. Jared Hawkins has assured Superstar that there are big plans for him in the next few months, but I’m not sure how patient Superstar is going to be waiting for that push.
All-Star Wrestling taping (January 1983, Wednesday, Week 4)
I just got back from the taping at the Fieldhouse in Hamburg, PA for this weekend’s WWF All-Star Wrestling broadcast. The building looked to be more than half full.
Ivan Koloff defeated S.D. Jones in 1:48 by pinfall with a Russian Sickle. Koloff is being managed by Freddie Blassie this time around instead of Lou Albano as has been the norm in the past.
In a bout that had solid in-ring action but not much in the way of heat, Tony Garea & Eddie Gilbert defeated Baron Mikel Scicluna and Bob Bradley in 6:07 when Gilbert pinned Bradley with a running kneelift. Scicluna looked sluggish and should probably transition into a backstage role at this point.
Curt Hennig defeated Iron Mike Sharpe (w/Lou Albano) in 1:34 by pinfall with a Hennig Plex. It seemed strange to see Sharpe losing in his first match in the WWF.
Pat Patterson interviewed the Strongbows, saying that before the show the Samoans had challenged them to a two out of three falls match at the Spectrum next month. The Strongbows accepted but stated that due to the disqualification on Championship Wrestling this weekend, the match would be non-title so the Samoans can prove they deserve the shot.
Pedro Morales was the guest on Buddy Rogers’ Corner. Morales praised Muraco on winning the Intercontinental Title at MSG but said he would like a shot at winning it back.
Rocky Johnson defeated Charlie Fulton in 3:54 by pinfall with a Johnson Shuffle.
The Strongbows defeated Swede Hanson and Frankie Williams to retain the Tag Team Titles in 1:58 when Chief Jay Strongbow pinned Williams with a Tomahawk Chop.
Curt Hennig came out to accept Big John Studd’s bodyslam challenge, now up to $8,000. He failed and quickly left the ring before he could get attacked by Studd. This led to Studd’s match with Mac Rivera, which Studd won by submission with the reverse bearhug in 2:59. Aside from last week’s match with Backlund, this was the best Studd has looked all year so far.
Vince McMahon announced Curt Hennig vs. Ray Stevens for next week. That should be a fun one.
Vince McMahon interviewed Bob Backlund at ringside. Backlund briefly mentioned his match with Studd last week before focusing on Muraco.
Backlund enters the ring as Buddy Rose comes to ringside. Rose goes up to McMahon and grabs the mic, yelling at Backlund that instead of focusing on Studd or Muraco, he should focus on Rose because Rose is getting his chance at the gold right now.
In a bout that featured great action and average heat, Bob Backlund retained the WWF World Title, defeating Buddy Rose in 12:48 by submission with a Cross Face Chicken Wing. I have no clue why the crowd wasn’t more into this one because the match was great.
Seriously, this might have been the best show the WWF has done in months.
January 1983, Thursday, Week 4
Last night’s attendance in Hamburg for All-Star Wrestling was 1,848, so close to 80% full. Nearly everybody inside the company as well as fans attending the show thought the show was awesome, with Bob Backlund vs. Buddy Rose especially drawing a lot of praise.
Andre the Giant missed the show last night to work the All-Star Wrestling show in Vancouver last night, but didn’t wrestle. Instead, he was involved in an angle with Moose Morowski and Dave McKigney. Considering it was his only guaranteed appearance for the company, you’d think he’d wrestle, but this is Al Tomko running the company so nothing surprises me. Andre still got the best reaction of anybody on the show.
January 1983, Friday, Week 4
The Polish Prince’s tryout did not go well and he will not be offered a new deal. I don’t know if he will appear at TV next week or not, but next week’s tapings will be the last commitments he has for the company.
Andre the Giant made his scheduled appearance for Central States Wrestling last night, teaming with Super Destroyer 1 and losing to Bulldog Bob Brown and Roger Kirby. Destroyer took the fall to protect Andre, but given that Andre is usually the one guy who can beat a local talent without killing the town, the result is surprising to me. Andre once again was the star of the show.
January 1983, Saturday, Week 4
Today is a slow news day so there isn’t a lot to report, but I wanted to address a question that was asked earlier in the week. Why haven’t The Fabulous Moolah and Liz Chase been used, especially Chase since her deal is short term anyway? The world I’ve been given is that the new women’s title belt isn’t finished yet, and they want to wait until the belt is done to put her back on TV.
January 1983, Sunday, Week 4
Tito Santana has been working in Georgia Championship Wrestling on nights when the WWF isn’t using him, and he has formed one half of possibly the oddest tag team in wrestling. He will be teaming with Buzz Sawyer under the team name of Bad Habit. Word is that Santana is paired with Sawyer to try to keep Sawyer’s bad habits in check, and many think Sawyer might have a drug problem. GCW to my knowledge doesn’t drug test, so that is unconfirmed but certainly makes sense given Sawyer’s erratic behavior.
Next week is the WWF’s “signing week”. Apparently the first week of every month is where head booker Jared Hawkins looks at the roster to evaluate his needs and make attempts to sign new talent. Vince McMahon has sat in on meetings with him most of the weekend, with input from George Scott and Gorilla Monsoon. Some feel Scott might intentionally give him bad advice because he wants the head booking job, but Monsoon has an ownership stake so there’s no way he’s going to intentionally hurt the company.
Next week, the WWF looks to sign new talent to continue to bolster the roster, plus Curt Hennig looks to make a name for himself against Ray Stevens.
