The Classic Wrestling Thread

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Dr. Zoidberg
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Bandit
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Wow, they went 7 months where nobody drew. I didn't realize that.

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I didn't realize WWF went back to the Pontiac Silverdome later in 1987. It was hardly another Wrestlemania III attendance or card quality-wise
WWF @ Pontiac, MI - Silverdome - October 23, 1987 (6,625)

Lanny Poffo pinned Barry Horowitz
Koko B. Ware pinned Bob Orton Jr.
Butch Reed pinned Superstar Billy Graham
WWF IC Champion the Honkytonk Man pinned Brutus Beefcake
Davey Boy Smith & the Dynamite Kid defeated Demolition via disqualification when one of the Demos used Mr. Fuji's cane as a weapon
Don Muraco pinned Hercules
Ron Bass pinned Hillbilly Jim
WWF World Champion Hulk Hogan pinned Killer Khan
Besides Bulldogs and Demolition that card sounds awful. And it drew over 80,000 less. They must have had a deal with the stadium, because they're normally far more expensive to rent out than 6,625 tickets can cover.

Crockett had the superior show that night in Florida with a double main event of Ricky Morton vs Tully Blanchard in a Texas death match and Flair, Luger & Arn vs Dusty, Nikita & Kevin Sullivan.

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Big Boss Man
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That's an very low attendance for that time period. I assume it didn't get much local advertising or something, but you'd have thought Hogan's appearance alone would have drawn more than that at least. That date would've been a Friday but I doubt that would have made much difference in terms of turnout.

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It was probably a case of WWF and Crockett being in Michigan so often that year. You had 9 shows prior to this one in Detroit alone (7 WWF, 2 JCP) so the market was saturated. And the people had seen the biggest match WWF had with Andre and Hogan, so coming back to the Silverdome with Killer Khan was underwhelming. They also stayed out of Detroit for a year after that show, so they knew they ran too often there. They came back with a Savage vs Andre match at the Joe Louis Arena and sold it out.

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Thanks, yea that seems plausiable. I assume they were hoping for a bigger turn out though considering the size of the venue, or in this instance a stadium. But that card outside of Bulldogs/Demo isn't appealing. Couldn't they have papered it somewhat to got some more fans in and maybe they could have bought merch etc even if they got a free ticket. They could have put a better card together and put it out on Coliseum video or even PPV if they got thousands of fans in. That low attendance is kinda reminiscent of TNA running that show in the ballpark with only a hand of fans turning up.

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Plus Hogan's promos on Killer Khan were always kind of racist. He'd be seeming to blame him for the Vietnam War even though he was a Japanese wrestler the WWF billed from Mongolia (neither country was involved in the war.) So it wasn't even a good angle to sell tickets.

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Yea there's a lot of racist undertones on the down low or sometimes more blatant during that time period. The TNT show on one episode Hulk is real homophobic about Adrian Adonis so there's undercurrent of that too. They let that fly back in the day but would be called out on it now and rightly so.

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Back then the attitude was "We have black/Asian/gay wrestlers and they're okay with it." No, they had people without power who wanted to keep their jobs.

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It's the 1986 match. Magee did not work with Bret when he briefly came back in 1989. Cagematch shows he only worked with Jim Powers and Tim Horner May-July 1989. He only worked one date with a 9 in it and that was a 7/29/89 house show that was his last WWF match that Bret wasn't even on the card for.
WWF @ Greensboro, NC - Coliseum - July 29, 1989
Barry Horowitz pinned Ken Shamrock
Tim Horner pinned Tom Magee
The Red Rooster pinned the Brooklyn Brawler
WWF IC Champion Rick Rude defeated Jim Duggan via disqualification
Greg Valentine defeated Brutus Beefcake via forfeit; Beefcake had to fill in for WWF World Champion Hulk Hogan in Reno
Dusty Rhodes pinned Ted Dibiase
Demolition defeated the Powers of Pain

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Wrestlemania buyrates

1 (Hogan & Mr. T vs Piper & Orndorff, Richter vs Kai) : 398,000
2 (Hogan vs Bundy, Piper vs Mr. T): 250,000
3 (Hogan vs Andre, Savage vs Steamboat): 400,000
4 (World title tournament, Honky Tonk Man vs Beefcake): 485,000
5 (Hogan vs Savage, Warrior vs Rude): 767,000
6 (Hogan vs Warrior, DiBiase vs Roberts): 560,000
7 (Slaughter vs Hogan, Savage vs Warrior): 400,000
8 (Hogan vs Justice, Flair vs Savage): 390,000
9 (Bret vs Yokozuna, Hogan & Beefcake vs Money Inc.): 430,000
10 (Yokozuna vs Bret, Yokozuna vs Luger): 420,000
11 (LT vs Bigelow, Diesel vs Michaels): 340,000
12 (Bret vs Michaels, Undertaker vs Diesel): 290,000
13 (Sid vs Undertaker, Bret vs Austin): 235,000
14 (Michaels vs Austin, Undertaker vs Kane): 730,000
15 (Austin vs Rock, HHH vs Kane): 800,000
16 (HHH vs Big Show vs Rock vs Foley, Jericho vs Benoit vs Angle): 825,000
17 (Rock vs Austin, Vince vs Shane): 1,040,000
18 (Jericho vs HHH, Hogan vs Rock): 800,000
19 (Angle vs Lesnar, Vince vs Hogan): 560,000
20 (HHH vs Michaels vs Benoit, Rock & Foley vs Flair, Orton & Batista): 885,000
21 (HHH vs Batista, JBL vs Cena): 950,000
22 (Cena vs HHH, Angle vs Orton vs Mysterio): 930,000
23 (Cena vs Michaels, Umaga vs Lashley): 1,188,000
24 (Orton vs Cena vs HHH, Mayweather vs Big Show): 1,024,000
25 (Orton vs HHH, Undertaker vs Michaels): 960,000
26 (Undertaker vs Michaels, Cena vs Batista): 885,000
27 (Miz vs Cena, Snooki, Stratus & Morrison vs Ziggler & LayCool): 1,124,000
28 (Cena vs Rock, Punk vs Jericho): 1,253,000
29 (Rock vs Cena, HHH vs Lesnar): 1,048,000
30 (Orton vs Batista vs Bryan, Undertaker vs Lesnar): 690,000
31 (Lesnar vs Reigns, HHH vs Sting): 259,000

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I wish they wrestled more, they were perfect opponents.

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When the pro wrestling world last heard from Rob Van Dam, he was talking future appearances with Impact Wrestling.


Appearing on E&C's Pod of Awesomeness, with Edge and Christian, Van Dam joined the show to discuss last weekend's Impact Wrestling United We Stand iPPV event from New Jersey. During the interview, RVD also told an amazing story about the early years of his pro wrestling career and a locker room run-in with the late Chris Benoit.

It was the early 1990s and Van Dam was getting ready to leave WCW and return to the indies. On one of his last days with WCW, Van Dam had a confrontation with Benoit.

"I didn't really know this guy, and he goes up to me in the dressing room; I'm 22 years old, just turned 22 and he goes up to me and said, 'Hey, I heard you are leaving?" I said that I was, and he responded with; 'Are you f--king kidding me? You're quitting on your own? You're on f--king TV. Do you know how many boys would give up their left nut to be where you're at?'" Van Dam said. "He had me pinned up against the wall, and he was just like, 'I think you are f--king stupid. What are you going to do, the f--king indies? You're going to leave WCW and TV to go do the f--king indies? You're f--king stupid if you asked me.'

"I always remembered that and then when I left WWE in 2007 for the same reasons, just going with the flow and believing that it was time to go, in the dressing room Chris Benoit comes up to me saying, 'Hey Rob, I just want you to know a lot of us boys in the dressing rooms really respect you for leaving. He said that we respect you and that it is awesome.' I said to him that I never said that I wasn't going to be back, but he said, 'No, f--k that, that doesn't matter. You know when it is time to go, we don't.' Of course I reminded him about the story, but he just brushed it aside and said that he doesn't remember, but that is a true story."

Van Dam would also go on to explain what changed during his run in WCW and why it was the right decision for him to leave.

"I was in WCW from December of 1992 until May of 1993." Van Dam recalled. "They weren't paying me. I was young and green, I'm not saying that I should have made a fortune, but it was literally better for me to be on the indie shows because I could sell my own merchandise so they had me booked for about 4 days a week, I was getting $150 on the road, paying for the car and hotel, and riding with 3 or 4 guys, and then when you were doing TV on Center Stage, for some reason they docked you $50 so it was $100.

"So, I really wasn't enjoying it. I was making more money before I went there; Mike Graham was my agent, and he kept giving me a WCW contract but I kept telling him that I forgot to bring it and then eventually he brought me another one and then another one until I eventually told him. All they were doing in the end with Bill Watts, who hired me and was putting me over, but then he left and Ole Anderson took over, and once Ole was there I was either doing jobs on TV or giving tryouts on dark matches and so I was like, I'm not really enjoying this so I left. Against pro wrestler protocol as Chris Benoit let me know."

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