Falls Count Anywhere

06-04-08

Remember the days when I talked about wrestlers that were still active? Those were good days.

Supercards 1987: The Last Great Year
With 1986 being possibly the peak (1985 was close) it’s pretty easy to see 1987 was the year of the great slide. The territories were all dying, some slower than others, but they were.

The WWF and Jim Crockett Promotions were pretty much running World Championship Wrestling as the NWA and the AWA were the three big players and the AWA was in really bad shape, though the NWA was having an up-and-down year though they had some big hits. The crux of the early Supercards was bringing in folks from all over the territories to make the shows seem more important. Now you could see almost all the big talent on Saturday and Sunday afternoons on TBS and USA.

Let’s start with the saddest set of stories: Mid-South and the Superdome shows. They ran three in 1987 and none drew more than 5000. The problem was they’d gone national and were showing on TV stations around the country (including Channel 20 here in the Bay Area). They were also bleeding money and would sell out to Jim Crockett before too long.

They had the Freebirds, but they weren’t drawing. They brought in Dusty Rhodes for the last Superdome show they did, which explains why it drew 5k instead of around 300 like the others in 1987 had. They built around Steve Williams and he wasn’t nearly the draw that Ted DiBiase, Hacksaw Duggan or The Junkyard Dog had been. Sadly, they’d all gone to the WWF and were in the middle of being pushed heavily. The shows were also only decent, though they were bloodier than almost anything else. The UWF did no other Supercards.

The last big show for Florida was in 1987. I’ve never read about the history of the Florida territory, but I believe that they either folded or were bought by Jim Crockett in 1987. The last Supercard they had was the Eddie Graham Memorial. He was the promoter and had killed himself so they did a Supercard that wasn’t at all bad considering the state of Florida wrestling. They had the Road Warriors vs. Manny Fernandez and Rick Rude, Dusty Rhodes vs. Ric Flair and even a weird match where Sweet Stan Lane teamed with Steve Keirn to take on The MOD Squad. That’s weird because Lane was already a member of the Midnight Express with Crockett. The main event was OK, and you can actually find the Rude and Fernandez vs. Road Warriors match on YouTube:

The AWA was in trouble, but they put on an interesting PPV on May 2nd at the Cow Palace in San Francisco. Sadly, it only drew about 3000 people. The show had some pretty good matches and some great history. The Nick Bockwinkel vs. Curt Hennig match where Curt became a heel and the champion was easily the best. They had Larry Zybysko interfere and that led to the new champion.

One match that I liked was The Midnight Rockers & Ray Stevens beat Buddy Wolfe, Doug Sommers, & Kevin Kelly, largely because it was the last time that Stevens wrestled in the Cow Palace, the arena where he drew so many fans over his career. There was also a good Sherri Martel vs. Medusa Micelli match. The main event featured Jimmy Snuka and 49er legend Russ Francis. I thought it was a good show, but the AWA was pretty much doomed, though going with Hennig was a good thing.

Speaking of dying territories, let’s talk about World Class. They were still going, still trying and trying to squeak out a life in the world that had changed so greatly. They weren’t drawing and I believe they drew less than 5k people to the February Star Wars card in Fort Worth. That’s a terrible number considering that Kerry Von Erich was the headliner and they had the legitimately hot feud between The Fantastics and The Rock ‘n Roll RPMs on the undercard. It was obvious that this was a significant disappointment because they didn’t do another Star Wars until Labor Day when they drew 6,000 with Al Perez beating Kevin Von Erich in the main event. They also had The Simpson Brothers winning the World Class tag titles from Eric Embry and Frankie Lancaster. Those guys could have been much bigger.

The Thanksgiving show was awful with them bringing back Kerry too soon after an injury and the rest of the show being a serious bomb save for a decent Al Perez vs. Kevin Von Erich Texas Death Match. I always liked that match.

The final Star Wars card ever was held on Christmas, 1987. It was a classically bad show that only drew about 2,500 people. The matches were awful, and I remember thinking that at the time of the show. Al Perez beat Kerry Von Erich in the Main Event in a cage match and after that they did the Fritz Von Erich heart attack angle that was so famously sleaze.

There was a Cotton Bowl Show that only drew 3,700 that I remember hearing about and thinking would be awesome. They did a Dusty Rhodes finish where they had Kevin Von Erich win the title and then it was returned to Al Perez after due to interference. Bruiser Brody won a Battle Royal on the show, too.

While World Class would do one more Cotton Bowl show and one more Parade of Champions, they would never be the home of legendary Supercards.

The Starrcade for 1987 was one that a lot of folks point to as a major turning point, and not for the better. It was set-up for Chicago, the first time that at least part of a Starrcade was not held in Charlotte. The show featured the Road Warriors, probably the biggest draw for Chicago, in a match against Tully Blanchard and Arn Anderson for the Tag Titles. The fools, FOOLS, had it end in a DQ finish, which actually killed Chicago as a market for a good long time. There was the Flair vs. Garvin match where Flair won the title back from Ronnie Garvin. The match was good, but Garvin had no aura and was a weak champion. Still, the show is notable for being the one that really introduced Sting to the world as he did a tope out of the ring nearly onto a cameraman in the opener! That was the first time folks really started to talk about him.

And of course, 1987 was the year of WrestleMania III. That was the iconic Supercard for the 1980s. While there were shows that were bigger since, none have the cultural resonance of WMIII. The Hogan-Andre main event has gained the patina of having been a legendary battle and there are more legends surrounding it than any other match I can think of in the last three decades. Well, maybe the Akira Maeda shoot on Riki Hoshu (I’ll write more about that later), but you get the idea. The Ricky Steamboat vs. Randy Savage match is right up there on the list of the greatest matches the WWF ever promoted. It’s an awesome match and I highly recommend seeing it if you haven’t.

It drew huge, not the 90k+ they’ve claimed, but 78,000 or more. The show did a big number for closed-circuit locations and it was a lot of fun to watch it with a big crowd. Many of the matches are forgettable, but there was Billy Jack Haynes throwing up on Hercules Hernandez’s back to remember. It’s one of those shows that was far better than the sum of it’s parts.

1988 was a very different year, and in a few weeks, I’ll start from there again. Next week, I’m going to look at a couple of people who often get over-looked for having made the modern wrestling world and maybe a look at where the Hogans stand now that TMZ is on their back..for good reason!

Chris Garcia