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1PO Box 1228, Campbell, CA 95009-1228 ISSN1083-9593 January 11, 1999
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3With the recent popularity boom of pro wrestling, there have been many attempts at writing histories. In most of them, in listing the most important people who have shaped this industry, there has been a notable omission.
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5The honest wrestling promoter. The one respected so much by the local press that he was an institution in the community and that while they may have questioned the credibility of the shows he produced, nobody ever questioned his credibility . The one respected so much by the wrestlers that not only was anything bad almost never written about him, very little bad was even said about him. The one where the man he battled with the most, at the end said, "All you have to do is tell the truth and he's going to look good." A promoter where there were no stories about reporting fake lower numbers on the house, cheating wrestlers on pay, not paying bills on time or even promises broken.
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7Of course, in a business as cutthroat as pro wrestling, if such a man were to exist, and there have been some that have tried, once they got to the big scale, they'd be eaten up and chewed out of the business as quick as the thieves could go through their bankroll, as has happened on numerous occasions.
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9And then there was Sam Muchnick.
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11Muchnick was the most powerful man in the pro wrestling industry for a longer period of time than any single individual that ever lived. He never held a world championship, although he was the man responsible for creating almost every world champion for a quarter-century. He never had a national television outlet. He never even really ran a wrestling territory. But he was the main force behind the creation of the National Wrestling Alliance, the largest cartel of wrestling promoters that ever existed with members not only throughout most of the United States but in numerous foreign countries as well, and the dominant organization in the industry from 1949 until 1983, and held it together during its glory years. He made St. Louis into the wrestling capital of the world and the most consistent money-making city in the country for nearly a 40-year period. He did that by very simple concepts. He presented pro wrestling as if it were sport. He had a background as a sportswriter, and was friends with many of the leading sports figures of the time. If they could lose games clean, there was no reason wrestlers couldn't. You win some. You lose some. Anything that threatened his product's credibility, threatened his credibility, and because he moved with the high rollers, politicians, social elite and mobsters of the town, he wasn't going to allow anything that would threaten his standing or by having people around town saying that they went to his show and got screwed or laughing about something silly he was presenting. Because of that, St. Louis pro wrestling had its own brand of absolute logical and weird version of almost total credibility in a very uncredible business. When a wrestler made it to the top in St. Louis, they weren't just a star in one city, they became a star everywhere they went. And stars weren't a flavor of the month. Wrestling had its history and legacy in the town. If you were once a star, you would always be treated as a star. Every time you returned, you were still a star. While today's fans often forget matches a day or two after they take place, those fans remembered matches, sometimes for decades. Some older fans still talk about the Bruiser vs. Von Erich death match, and that was in 1964, or the Thesz vs. O'Connor classic, back in 1965, or when Dory Funk Jr. had his first 60:00 draw with Jack Brisco, on New Years Day of 1971. If a star lost to a newcomer, well, that just meant in one fell swoop, the fans knew they were seeing the birth of a new star that they were going to see on top for the next decade or two. It wasn't a fluke, to be forgotten two weeks later. It was a form of pro wrestling completely different than is found today, although the promotional concepts are in some ways similar to today's All Japan Pro Wrestling.
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13As the years went by and he was replaced as President, that spelled the beginning of the slow crumbling of the most powerful organization of promoters in the history of this business, although it still existed on a big-time name basis through the early 90s, and exists in name only as a consortium of small independent promoters today. But even though Muchnick is probably one of the ten most influential figures in the history of this industry, most histories of wrestling ignore Muchnick's contributions and instead focus on the more flamboyant men who have shaped the sport, from Frank Gotch to The Gold Dust Trio to Jim Londos to Gorgeous George and Lou Thesz, right past the 60s and 70s as if they never took place to Vince McMahon and Hulk Hogan of today. Focusing on Muchnick ruins a lot of charming history pieces. Because the key is that fans weren't going as fun and games, and fans flocked to his shows to see something that was neither a silly spectacle nor a Cowboys and Indians melodrama. They were going to see real athletes compete in something very physical, that looked to be, but in the end definitely was not, real sport. Today in wrestling, the only known Muchnick to wrestling fans is Phil Mushnick.
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15Muchnick passed away at the age of 93 in the early morning of 12/30 from internal bleeding at St John's Mercy Medical Center in St. Louis after being in bad health most of the past year. To the wrestlers that worked for him, he, along with the late Paul Boesch, and perhaps Don Owen, were generally considered the most respected promoters, known for being fair on their payoffs and not making promises that they couldn't, or knew they wouldn't keep.
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17Witness this story. In the late 50s, Muchnick had a show booked and the local electricians went out on strike the day of the card. He had to cancel the show. Since virtually all the wrestlers had come in from other territories for the booking and were expecting a good payday, Muchnick paid them their trans and what would have been considered a fair payoff in cash for that market since he recognized it wasn't their fault the show didn't take place. That in and of itself would have been a unique story. A little while later, after a closed-door meeting, Hans Schmidt, one of the headliners at the time, came back with all the money in hand. He told Muchnick that none of the wrestlers would accept any money, not even the trans. He told Muchnick they recognized the show being canceled was out of his control, and that in the past he had always been fair to them, and they had full confidence in the future he would always be fair to them.
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19How strong was the loyalty of the top wrestlers to him? Think about this. Muchnick started promoting in St. Louis in 1942, and ran his final show 40 years later. In between, he probably ran about 700 major house shows in St. Louis, at either the Arena (often called the Checkerdome), or mainly at the company's home base, Kiel Auditorium. In that entire period, only two main events were ever changed from what was originally advertised on television (with the exception of a few matches where, to protect the business' credibility, he'd advertise the world champion at the time on television, and if the title was going to change hands in the interim, it was actually the new champion that would take over the date so the fans would still get the title match as advertised). Once, in 1962, Buddy Rogers was scheduled to defend the world title against Cowboy Bob Ellis, but about a week before the show, Rogers was injured in the famous dressing room incident in Columbus, OH with Karl Gotch and Bill Miller. Muchnick couldn't produce the title match, but spent the final week before the show getting the word out to all local media that Rogers wouldn't be there, and there wouldn't be a world title match, but that he was bringing back Lou Thesz, the city's all-time wrestling legend, in as a replacement. The other, on March 16, 1973, was a show headlined by Terry Funk vs. Johnny Valentine for the Missouri State title, which had its own story. A day or two before the show, Valentine went down with a heart attack. Muchnick spent the next day alerting everyone in the media that Valentine wouldn't be there, although to protect Valentine in the city, he hedged and just said it was a heart blockage (and it was extremely rare for Muchnick to not tell the truth to the media which is why his credibility was never questioned on issues like this; a few years earlier Muchnick had problems because when Greg Valentine came in early in his career, Johnny insisted he be billed as his younger brother instead of his son because he didn't want fans to see him as old, and Muchnick, reluctantly, told the lie in that case and felt bad in doing so, as once Johnny retired, he always then billed Greg as his son). He got Gene Kiniski, a former world champion and top draw in the market for a decade, in from Canada as the replacement. Today in WWF and WCW, it is rare for a show to take place as advertised and without at least a few main eventers missing for various reasons. And Muchnick never ran his own territory, so his main eventers were stars being brought in from other parts of the country, and it isn't as if wrestlers didn't get hurt in those days (although the injury rate was lower) and all forms of travel were a lot harder in his early years of promoting, and even if his later years, it isn't as if airports didn't get closed during bad winter snowstorms. Muchnick drew such huge crowds in inclement weather that it was once joked after he drew a big house on November 22, 1963, the night John F. Kennedy was shot, that if there was a nuclear bomb threat in town, he'd still draw 8,000 fans.
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21The wrestlers of that era knew they had to make it. If a flight was canceled, you took a different flight to another city like Memphis or Kansas City, you rented a car and drove four to six hours, or more, in. If you couldn't make it until 10 or 11 p.m., the show would run long. There were instances of main event wrestlers arriving in the building at 10 p.m. or later and rushing into the ring with no preparation, but no stories of main eventers not making the show due to travel or weather foul-ups. Dory Funk Jr. remembered a that early in his career, he was supposed to be in St. Louis but the weather was miserable and there was a possibility the St. Louis Airport would be shut the next day. His father impressed upon him that you don't miss St. Louis, and if there was a chance of bad weather the next day, he was told to get on a train the day before from Amarillo to St. Louis.
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23Why did this happen? Partially, of course, was the money. Muchnick paid 32% of the after-tax gross to talent. There were hotter cities at various times, but consistently with the exception of 1955-58 when there was no local television, with the exception of Madison Square Garden, which ran less often and paid 16% to 18% to the wrestlers but generally had much bigger grosses, St. Louis was the best drawing market in the country as from World War II on. With one exception, they never had what could be called down periods in a business legendary for its big ups and big downs. Over a nearly 40 year period, Muchnick averaged about 8,000 paid attendance per show, generally running at Kiel Auditorium, which had a capacity of 10,700. He ran, like clockwork, just about every other Friday night, generally with the champion defending on alternate shows, and then took the summer off, because when he started baseball was such a big deal in the city and later just because that's how he did things, at which time the local TV station would air tapes of TV shows from Florida, Georgia and other NWA offices, to give exposure to new wrestlers that would be brought in during the fall season. The main event, which was usually a singles match, got 16%, which in the cases of most world title matches or singles main events meant 8% to both champion and challenger, which in those days were generally $3,000 payoffs, huge money by the standards of the time. In the case of a tag team match, or a double main event, the participants usually would get 4% each (unless the world champ was on the card who would always get 8%). Undercard money was better than wrestlers would get in most places, although not unusually high because Muchnick built shows around his main event and believed it was the main event match that is what determined whether he was going to draw a good house or not. At the end of the night, wrestlers would get all the financial breakdowns of the show on a piece of paper, and their percentage, in cash as late as the late 70s, before they left the building. Nobody ever questioned its accuracy, nor should they have. Larry Matysik, the television announcer in the 70s and early 80s who was Muchnick's right-hand man in the office, was there for the money settlements and noted, "I was there. Sam was always perfect on the money. In the office, if a bill came by mail at 10 a.m., he had the check written and it back in the mail by noon." Partially, for main eventers, they knew being a headliner in St. Louis generally meant you'd be a headliner any territory you went to. And there was no way to be world champion unless you could draw as a headliner in St. Louis.
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25Muchnick was born in the Ukraine on August 22, 1905 and his family moved to St. Louis when he was six. He was working as a postal clerk when a job opened up with the St. Louis Times as a sportswriter, which paid less money. An avid sports fan, he took the job, and quickly gained a reputation not so much for being a great writer, but for an ability to dig out good stories because of his many sources, and quickly became a well-known figure throughout the sports community. He covered the baseball Cardinals, the team which later became legendary in that sport as the World Series winning "Gashouse Gang," and became friends with many of the players. One of his best friends at the time was one of baseball's all-time greatest hitters, Rogers Hornsby, and in St. Louis, wrestling always mixed in better with the regular sports scene. He became friendly with the likes of Babe Ruth, Frankie Frisch, Mae West and Al Capone. He was a good handball player and hung out at Harry Cook's Gym, where the local wrestlers trained. He became good friends with legendary wrestler Ray Steele, and, largely through osmosis, started learning the wrestling business.
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27"He and Ray Steele were close," noted Lou Thesz. "But Ray was a prankster. One time they drove together to Houston. Ray had rented the car and then stopped at the hotel to get some sleep and told Sam to drive around town. Ray called up the police and reported the rental car as stolen. The police picked up Sam, and put him in jail." In 1932, the Times merged with the St. Louis Star, and Muchnick was out of a job. A third paper offered him a job, while at the same time Tom Packs, the local wrestling promoter and at the time one of the "Big Six," a collection of wrestling promoters who basically controlled the entire country, offered him a job to be his publicist and right-hand man in the operation. He chose wrestling.
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29With Packs as one of the country's biggest promoters and Muchnick quickly learning the ropes, he almost immediately became one of the leading movers and shakers in the industry. By the late 30s, wrestling around the country had hit the skids. Packs was doing better than most and was looking to create a new home town hero, the son of a Hungarian immigrant named Lajos Tiza, who became wrestling's biggest icon as Lou Thesz, a 20-year-old local stud wrestler thought to have enormous potential who Muchnick had on occasion played handball with. A story was created that in a private workout, Thesz actually pinned Strangler Lewis in 20 seconds. The real story was there was a workout, and actually Thesz was crushed so badly he nearly quit wrestling altogether, and Lewis had to talk him into coming back. Nevertheless, the seeds were put in motion, and on December 29, 1937, 21-year-old Thesz became the youngest widely-recognized world champion in the history of the industry beating Everett Marshall in St. Louis for the title of the old MWA (and later that era's version of the American Wrestling Association, which ran out of New England and Quebec). Thesz actually was originally not supposed to win, but because the advance was so strong and everyone was looking for a new sensation to save the business, Packs was able to maneuver the title to his man. The reign was short-lived, as Thesz refused to sign a one-sided contract and they quickly took the belt off him, but during that period, Muchnick and Thesz would travel to various cities by train, with Muchnick going to all the local media in these days before television existed, hyping his man and building up the local title match. He did that in Thesz' second title reign as well.
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31It isn't exactly clear what happened between Muchnick and Packs, only that Muchnick was promised something that wasn't delivered, and decided to run opposition. He contacted Sam Lefton, the President of Lefton Steel and Construction about backing an opposition wrestling promotion, and opened up with a show on March 27, 1942. It was not an immediate hit, and after running three more shows, he was called into the service for World War II. He re-opened shortly after the War ended, on December 5, 1945, building around old-time St. Louis favorites long past their prime like Strangler Lewis, Steele, and even Jim Londos. He was able to sustain operations even though the matches he was promoting were slower-paced, drawing fans to see the stars they grew up with since Packs pretty well had him squeezed out of getting any current name talent. While his wrestling operation did well, Packs had outside business interests that went sour causing him to need cash. He sold his wrestling operation to a consortium consisting of Thesz as the majority owner, with smaller shares going to Eddie Quinn of Montreal, Frank Tunney of Toronto, area wrestler Bobby Managoff and another wrestler who was a huge draw in the market, "Wild" Bill Longson. Longson, the inventor of the piledriver, and Thesz feuded over the National Wrestling Association world title in the ring, playing to huge business in 1947.
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33With Thesz running one side and Muchnick the other, the former friends (who after both were out of the business maintained their friendship to Sam's death) turned into bitter rivals. The newspapers locally reported it as Martin Thesz, Lou's father, buying the company since Lou was the top babyface headliner. Almost immediately, Muchnick, always the politician, went to Thesz to settle the differences and try to work together, but Thesz was doing huge business with "Wild" Bill Longson, feuding over the National Wrestling Association world heavyweight title, and Muchnick was struggling, so he figured he'd wait things out figuring Muchnick was on the ropes.
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35The origins of the National Wrestling Alliance were rather modest, and its original intentions were never close to what it wound up being. Muchnick got together on July 14, 1948 with five other promoters, Al Haft out of Columbus, OH, who was the key since he controlled Buddy Rogers, Pinky George out of Iowa, Tony Stecher out of Minneapolis, Max Clayton of Omaha and Orville Brown out of Kansas City, at the President Hotel in Waterloo, IA. Muchnick was just looking at making allies to supply him with talent, and in turn, all promoters would work together to trade off talent and help each other to protect each others' interests, sending top talent to oppose anyone infringing on their territorial borders, to respect others' territories, and in the event any wrestler would do something detrimental to wrestling, whatever that was to mean, as it could mean a wrestler got out of line, was becoming an embarrassment to the business, or it could just mean they stood up for themselves on money or business issues, they'd all agree not to book that wrestler, or a nice way of saying they would blacklist them. Of course, that was highly illegal and led to another important chapter in wrestling's history and where Muchnick truly consolidated power. The group named Brown, who was the champion already recognized both by Haft and in Brown's own Kansas City office, in October of 1948 as the first ever National Wrestling Alliance world heavyweight champion, a title that was soon to have a lot of meaning. Over the next decade it would be defended in nearly every corner of the world where pro wrestling was presented.
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37More important at the beginning than Brown or whoever held Muchnick's cartel's championship, was Rogers. Haft sent him to St. Louis in November 1948, and he almost immediately turned the tide in his operation. On February 4, 1949, Rogers vs. Don Eagle headlined Muchnick's first turnaway crowd ever at Kiel Auditorium. Nobody ever questioned which of the two drew the house. With Rogers on top, Muchnick started winning the war, and was able to pay back Lefton and gain financial ownership of the office. Other promoters, seeing how successful the new NWA was, looking for help in protection from outsiders and in controlling rebel wrestlers, began joining up. Thesz was on the wrong end of an organization gaining in power. It was only a few months later when Thesz went to Muchnick, offering to become partners. Thesz was worn out by the travel and defending his version of the title which was losing in exposure, and running a business in a war at the same time. Muchnick was worried that if he lost Rogers, who was always tough to do business with, he'd be back in trouble and felt business would be more profitable for everyone in a one promotion market and with Thesz in the ring on his side as a steady draw. The sides agreed to merge promotions 50/50, with Muchnick running the business end. From a public standpoint, it was still presented to fans as separate companies so it would appear to be competition and neither side would lose face, one owned by Muchnick, the other by Martin Thesz. But they ran the same building, used most of the same talent, and promoted each others' shows. Besides, with Thesz holding the title of the old NWA, and Brown of the new NWA, Muchnick was able to have a match that was to be scheduled for November 25, 1949, the elusive world title unification match.
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39Most likely Brown would have gone over, given the politics of who settled and where the power at the time lied. But the match never took place, as three weeks earlier, Brown suffered a serious automobile accident, which at the time was thought to have ended his career. By default, Thesz was named champion. The rest of the alliance went along with it, being Thesz by this time already had a reputation as being one of the biggest stars in the game and had made a name as champion all over North America. And wrestling was getting on network television as many as four nights a week in prime time. Thesz wasn't the best known wrestling star of that era. That was Gorgeous George. But he became the credible real wrestler, genuinely respected by many, maybe even most, for being a legitimate great wrestler and top athlete, even if some questioned the validity of his sport. In news clips, he was portrayed as the straight outsider in a less than straight business, almost the same way Muchnick was portrayed by his friends in the media. Thesz would be shown in news reports training on the beach or wrestling in the gym while the rest of the crew dressed up in funny costumes. He remained champion, with the exception of taking a vacation period in 1956, for the next eight years. By this point Muchnick became the most powerful business force in the NWA, since Thesz was his man. The NWA was never at any point the cohesive force it looked to be from the outside. The members never trusted each other, and all had entirely different ideas of what wrestling was. They were almost all out for the quick buck, which meant no different then from what it means today. Whatever worked, or for that matter didn't work but someone came up with anyway, in the short run, was tried. While Muchnick would have liked for wrestling around the country to be what it wasn't, he never meddled in others' business unless it involved booking of the champion. And he kept wrestling in St. Louis as sports-like as was possible, and tried, also, to maintain that with the NWA champion. He felt it was important to have a great athlete as champion, to be able to put on a credible and entertaining match, to guard against the double-cross from a promoter or wrestler trying to steal the title, as happened many times in the 20s and 30s, and to present a real athlete to the media when the champion came to town as the showpiece of the Alliance. Lewis, who was well-known and well-liked by the older sportswriters from being the biggest wrestling star of the 20s, was sent on the road as Thesz' manager and really his advance publicity man. Even though Lewis' matches weren't real either, by this time so much time had past and nostalgia made people believe Lewis was world champion in the days wrestling was real, and he had credibility, and when he endorsed Thesz as the real deal, it meant something. The champion had to put up a $25,000 bond, huge money in those days, basically to make sure he'd do the job when the time came. Every year the NWA would have a convention and decide whether or not to renew Thesz as champion. Thesz would often be worried going into the meetings because he was often at odds with some promoters over the direction they were taking the business, but Lewis always calm him by saying that as long as he was drawing money, they'd never vote him out. Muchnick, the ultimate politician, kept them in line, and as NWA President, booked the dates for the champion, which generally meant the biggest houses for the promoters, so everyone needed to stay on Muchnick's good side to get the best weekend dates. Even though many didn't like the added expense (Lewis was guaranteed 3% of the gate in all title matches, plus Muchnick got a 3% booking fee and Thesz got 8%), Thesz was never voted out. He had gained so much prestige that more and more promoters wanted to join the Alliance both for their own protection against outside forces, and to get what would be considered dates on the legitimate world title. At its peak, 38 different major regional offices covering most of the United States, Canada, Mexico, Japan, Australia and New Zealand and many smaller countries as well, were part of the NWA. In doing so, they had to relinquish their claims to the world title, which meant more unification matches (the first $100,000 gate in history for the 1952 Thesz vs. Baron Leone match in Southern California was unifying Leone's local world title with Thesz more widely recognized version). After the networks canceled wrestling in 1955, Muchnick got a brief run on the NBC affiliate in St. Louis for a locally produced show from the St. Louis House, but it was canceled after one season and he had no television to create stars or promote the local matches.
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41Muchnick's down period started at this point. Several things happened at about the same time. His relations with Thesz, which were always bitter since he was the intermediary between Thesz and the rest of the promoters, all of whom had different ideas than Thesz about what wrestling was, got worse. Thesz was constantly warring over the style of wrestling some of the smaller promotions used, usage of women wrestlers (the NWA at the time had a rule regarding title credibility that no women wrestling matches, regarded at the time as something of a freak attraction to titillate men, could be held on a card with the champion but promoters from time to time ignored that doctrine which Thesz was adamant about), and working too many small towns dates. Muchnick was trying to keep the promoters in North America happy, and thus not sending Thesz on world tours which in the long run were more lucrative for Thesz and potentially the NWA itself, which largely led to the split. Muchnick's own business was inconsistent, largely down because he had no television, drawing between 2,000 and 7,000 to his house shows. He survived mainly on his relations with the local media, and Thesz' reputation with the local wrestling fans. To augment his struggling wrestling operation, he began promoting outside events such as pro boxing and the Harlem Globetrotters, the latter of which remained a huge arena draw for him well into the 70s. Finally, Thesz saw how much money was in Japan to work with and put Rikidozan over and he felt Muchnick didn't see the big picture. Thesz basically quit the NWA, booked himself into Japan, sold his shares of St. Louis to Tunney and Quinn, gave the title to Dick Hutton instead of to Rogers, who Thesz at the time hated and refused to put over, and who the NWA wanted as champ. Hutton, who was a great amateur wrestler but didn't have a lot of charisma as a pro, didn't draw with the title. Thesz was gone from the NWA for the most part.
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43Thesz made his big money in Japan and then heading to Europe. Most important of all, when the NWA blacklisted wrestler Sonny Myers, he got a lawyer and sued the NWA successfully. The Justice Department became interested and the NWA, which meant virtually every major promoter in the business, was in a fight for its life, because all member promoters faced the potential of prosecution, heavy fines and even jail terms for conspiracy in areas such as restraint of trade, attempted monopolization practices, etc.
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45Ironically, this was where Muchnick solidified his power in wrestling. He had long been friends with an influential congressman and long-time wrestling fan, Mel Price, who would sit at the matches with him and go out to dinner with him after the shows. Price negotiated a consent decree, which all the promoters were forced to sign, which basically made them promise not to do anything illegal (which after awhile, they started back doing again, very similar to the business' reaction to its own downfall in the early 90s) but the group could continue as a group of independent promoters doing business. Nobody would dare cross Muchnick at this point because of the consent decree hanging on their head. While the NWA Presidency bounced around before this time, although Muchnick generally was in control, with elections at the Alliance meetings, Muchnick's re-elections became a formality and he was in charge of the Alliance and of the biggest title in the game.
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47The down period ended in 1958 when Muchnick negotiated a deal with KPLR-TV in St. Louis for a new concept in wrestling on TV, "Wrestling at the Chase." Matches were held in a hotel ballroom dinner theater. Originally it was held in the Corasan Room, a banquet room populated by an upscale audience where wrestling fans wore suits and ties, women wore evening gowns and sat at tables. Muchnick took the title from Hutton and gave it to New Zealander Pat O'Connor, who later became his booker, winning it January 9, 1959 in St. Louis. Wrestling was rebounding in some parts of the country through local television, Chicago in particular was on fire with Rogers. Rogers vs. O'Connor became not only the biggest match in wrestling, but turned into the hottest drawing program up to that point in time in history. The two set what was then the all-time record crowd and gate drawing 38,622 fans at Comiskey Park in Chicago on June 30, 1961, the night Rogers captured the title. This led to another of Muchnick and the Alliance's biggest fights.
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49While Thesz was as close to an undisputed and universally recognized champion as pro wrestling would ever have, probably since the early 30s, there were always other titles running around. In 1960, Verne Gagne got television in Minneapolis and control of the promotion and created the modern version of the AWA, built around himself as perennial champion, building a storyline of a title history off a screw-job finish in a famous June 14, 1957 Chicago match where Thesz lost to Edouard Carpentier.
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51Rogers, when he won the title, wasn't booked by Muchnick, and instead was being booked largely by Toots Mondt, which probably more than anything shows just how strong a drawing card Rogers truly was. Mondt, whose power in wrestling dated back to the 20s as a top shooter and one of the original Gold Dust Trio with Lewis and Billy Sandow, at this point ran the Northeast along with his business partner, Vince McMahon Sr. They made it very difficult for the rest of the promoters to get dates, and almost impossible to get weekend dates on Rogers. The NWA members were panicking. Muchnick also caught wind of rumors that Mondt and McMahon were going to quit the NWA, take Rogers with them, thus destroy the foundation of the Alliance since the title was its cornerstone and without it chaos would reign. Even if they could get it together and create a new champion as would be done today in the same situation, if Rogers was gone and still had their belt, as Ric Flair ironically did about three decades later, the NWA members feared their champion wouldn't be taken as a legitimate champion by the fans. Muchnick called up Thesz, who by this time was 46 years old and living in semi-retirement in Arizona. Rogers, in a fashion reminiscent of a modern day Shawn Michaels, wound up with a broken hand trying to walk out on a dressing room confrontation (the aforementioned Gotch/Miller incident where as he was leaving, they slammed the door, breaking his hand), thus missing their first scheduled match. A second match was arranged, but just before that took place, Rogers suffered a broken ankle two minutes into a match in Montreal against Killer Kowalski. Kowalski actually toured, billed as a "world title claimant," while Rogers was out, with the NWA not recognizing Kowalski because they hadn't approved of the title change ahead of time, and since Rogers never came out for the second fall of the best of three fall Montreal match, that was the excuse given publicly. Two months later, they were booked again in Toronto, and many of the major promoters, including McMahon and Mondt, were there for the promotional showdown that would climax in the ring with Thesz and Rogers. Muchnick had decreed if Rogers didn't get in the ring and do the job, his $25,000 bond would be forfeited to charity. And with Thesz there, unless he never got in the ring, he was going to be doing the job one way or another. And since it was known that McMahon was grooming Bruno Sammartino to be his champion, he made sure, for title credibility, that Thesz beat Sammartino in their now famous Toronto match a few months later.
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53McMahon and Mondt publicly claimed that since the Thesz-Rogers match was one fall, and because Thesz was semi-retired and not the legitimate top contender, that they weren't recognizing him as champion. Rogers appeared with a new belt, called the World Wide Wrestling Federation title, a few weeks later, having won the first of those legendary Rio de Janiero fictitious tournaments, and almost immediately dropped the belt to Sammartino in 47 seconds in Madison Square Garden shortly after whatever exactly happened or didn't happen to Rogers' heart which wound up taking Rogers out of pro wrestling for years.
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55Nevertheless, as always the politician and businessman, Muchnick, McMahon and Mondt had several meetings in 1965 about unifying the title, creating a Thesz vs. Sammartino match on closed-circuit, that had never been done before, and would be the biggest match in history. It never took place for a number of reasons. The agreement made by Muchnick, McMahon and Mondt would be for Sammartino to win the first match, and keep the title for one year, and Thesz would get it back. They'd end up unifying the belts. Muchnick would get both a $50,000 payoff from McMahon and Mondt for buying the title belt for one year, and Muchnick would also bring the powerful Northeast territory back in the NWA. Thesz didn't trust they'd ever give it back and was reluctant to do the job, and asked for a $100,000 guarantee for doing the job, an exorbitant price in those days, which McMahon balked at. Sammartino, when seeing the schedule he was going to be under as unified WWWF and NWA world champion, being on the road 28 days per month, also balked. The match never took place, but for his part in not going along with Muchnick's plan, Thesz' days as NWA champion were about to end for good. On January 7, 1966 in St. Louis, Gene Kiniski captured the title, a decision somewhat controversial among some NWA members since Kiniski had just come off working WWWF and putting over Sammartino, which in those days, as silly as this sounds today, made a lot of people then consider Sammartino as the real champion. It wasn't until 1972 when the WWWF finally rejoined the NWA, although with their own title, re-named WWWF heavyweight champion as opposed to world heavyweight champion (and in WWF arena programs during the 70s, the NWA champion was always billed as the world heavyweight champion), with the exception of a unification angle involving Harley Race and Bob Backlund, the NWA champ didn't appear in WWWF cities.
56
57Kiniski held the title for three years, before having a showdown with the promoters at an alliance meeting, and it was his time to go. Dory Funk Jr., only 27, the son of the wily promoter of the Amarillo territory was the controversial choice at first due to his lack of national experience and the feeling he was manipulated into the position by Dory Sr. But his critics fell by the wayside rather quickly as he proved to be not only a great worker in the ring, but a tremendous draw as champion, and held the title for more than four years from February 11, 1969 through May 24, 1973 and is generally remembered as the prototype of the NWA champion of that era. Funk's reign was highlighted by his now legendary series of 60:00 (and even a few 90:00) title matches against Jack Brisco. Brisco, who was a huge star in Florida already and had wrestled for the title a few times as a regional hero, became a national superstar when he and Dory went to the first of their many 60:00 draws and first of their many sellouts for Muchnick on January 1, 1971, putting perhaps the hottest feud of that decade on the international stage since everything in St. Louis became big news in Japan due to the magazine coverage. While this was going on, Japan was in turmoil as the two biggest stars, Shohei Baba and Antonio Inoki both quit the NWA-recognized JWA promotion, with each forming new companies, the beginnings of both All Japan and New Japan. Baba came to St. Louis for several days of meetings with Muchnick, and with the help of Dory Sr., got NWA recognition which meant access to the top NWA talent in what ended up being one of the most lengthy and bitter promotional wars in history. Getting the title from Funk Jr. proved to be another headache for Muchnick, as there was a Rogers-like incident of him suffering a shoulder injury just days before he was scheduled to lose to Brisco in Houston on March 2, 1973. Brisco and Terry Funk were sent on the road to fulfill the champions' dates for the next nine weeks, putting over local favorites in every territory to make them stronger when Brisco returned to the markets with the belt.
58
59As it turned out, Funk Jr., shortly after returning from the injury, dropped the title to Race in Kansas City, to set up the new era with Brisco getting the title in Houston on July 20, 1973. Brisco turned out to be Muchnick's last hand-picked NWA champion, but not his last hand-picked champion. In 1975, at the age of 70, Muchnick officially resigned as President of the NWA and at the alliance meetings, Jack Adkisson (Fritz Von Erich) took over. The actual story was not quite as nice. Muchnick's primary job as NWA President, besides to settle territorial disputes, was to book the champion, and he received his 3% commission of the after-tax gross on all NWA title match shows, which in those days had grown to approximately $100,000 per year. Several of the Alliance members wanted to get the power from Muchnick, and the Justice Department Consent decree by this time was ancient history. While Adkisson took over as President, Jim Barnett was given the job of booking the dates of the champion, by agreeing to do the same job for free. While historically, this was the period where the champion started doing far more screw-job finishes as nobody oversaw how the champion was being treated or cared about credibility any longer. The Alliance members, as usual, saw getting a freer hand in title matches in their territory, since Muchnick would always pressure that the champion needed to win his programs at the end and not do finishes that were too silly, even if they could do draws and DQ's to keep a program going, plus the ability to keep more of the gate for themselves when booking the champion. And the Southern power base of the NWA, the likes of Eddie Graham and Barnett, and the Welch clan, had formed their own clique and was looking at taking control of the organization with Adkisson as the compromise choice as President before it went to Graham.
60
61"I can remember, Harley Race and I were talking before he had a meeting with Sam begging him not to resign," said Matysik. "He said how Sam was old and behind the times, but he said if Sam gave this up, this whole (NWA) business is going to collapse. Fritz and Graham were great disappointments to Sam. He thought they would run it based on what was good for the NWA, but they only cared about what was good for Texas and Florida."
62
63In 1970, Gust Karras, who ran Kansas City. had bought out Quinn and Managoff. A few years later, O'Connor, Bob Geigel and Race bought out Karras. Eventually Verne Gagne bought half of Longson's 15%, which Geigel and O'Connor didn't like because they felt it meant Sam would use more AWA talent instead of Kansas City talent underneath. When Longson died, Geigel, Race and Gagne bought the other half.
64
65After resigning as President, the NWA changed. But St. Louis Wrestling didn't. "It was the last city where wrestling didn't prostitute itself," said Ric Flair. The ring was a large, very hard ring, that may have originally been a boxing ring. Unless you knew how to take bumps like Race or Flair, it could be a painful experience, unless you knew how to wrestle. The crowd was by far the most educated and appreciative in the country toward wrestling itself. It was sold to them as a sport, where the winning and losing in every match moved you that much further up or down the pecking order. It was a constant story of young star of the future, or older veteran, coming to town, getting some wins, and challenging for the title. There was blood maybe a half dozen times every decade, usually reserved for the climactic Texas death matches, and in those matches, one guy won and the other guy was dead on his back. No foreign objects whatsoever. No low blows. And wrestlers, whether they be heels or faces, won clean, almost always with their signature winning hold. Finishes were not a negotiable item. One time in the early 70s, Lars Anderson came to town and balked about doing a job for Bobo Brazil, because Brazil was old and really couldn't wrestle and this was a wrestling town. But Brazil was an established star and Muchnick protected stars, and was brought in for a reason. Anderson was told to leave and never worked in the city again.
66
67"The fans there were more appreciative of hard work," noted Dory Funk. "They were like the Japanese fans of today. If it wasn't hard work, they wouldn't accept it. It was the best NWA city. Sam catered to what his fans wanted."
68
69Prelim wrestlers couldn't use main event finishers (unless they had already established it as their winning move). You couldn't choke, or come off the top rope, or drop a knee to the throat, or rake the eyes. Only one man was allowed outside the ring at any time, even in the main event, unless it was specifically booked as a rare double count out finish. All those moves kids growing up in other parts of the country were told proved wrestling was fake were for the most part eliminated by Sam, because he didn't want his social circle saying things to him like, "you know if you really jumped off the top rope with a knee to a guy's throat, he'd be dead." Run-ins almost never existed. Well, there was one in 1961 when Rogers wouldn't break the figure four on Bill Dromo, billed as a young protege of Valentine, and Valentine ran in and cleaned house to build to a big title gate. There was another in 1980 when Harley Race replaced an injured guy in a tag match and was pinned by Ted DiBiase, instantly making DiBiase into a credible world title contender, and there's more to that story as well. On the surface, to a fan today, it sounds like the matches must have been boring and had no heat. Fans from other cities may have viewed the television show, with just straight wrestling, straight announcing and for the most part, with few exceptions like Dick the Bruiser, straight sports-like interviews, and maybe two angles a year, usually to build a main event when Muchnick booked a show at the larger Checkerdome, as boring. But it drew tremendous ratings and with the exception of the news, was the top rated locally produced program in the market doing 8.0 to 12.0 ratings.
70
71It was like All Japan at its peak when it went to the all-clean finish format. It was never like All Japan where every finish was clean, but most were. "Every blow off was a pin," remembered Matysik, who had a hand in the booking. "At the end of a program, somebody is going to win and somebody is going to lose. We sold it on television as you had to win to get the big match."
72
73With all those rules, St. Louis still had the reputation, from all accounts deserved, as having the best wrestling matches in the country. Some would argue that from top-to-bottom, because there were no angles or issues built into the prelim matches, which often featured Kansas City workers, other than a guy was going to win and you'd see how high on the card he'd climb, that a lot of territories had better undercards, but it was pretty well agreed no city could match St. Louis consistently for the main events because it was top talent vs. top talent in long two out of three fall matches. Usually. The city's most popular wrestler was Bruiser, who could do little by the 70s and nothing by the 80s, but for whatever reason, because he was different from the rest, he was over and drew as well as anyone, particularly since he never got the big title. His main events weren't classics, although people like Flair, Dick Murdoch and Funk were said to have carried him to some surprisingly good matches. One time Jack Brisco had a 60:00 draw with Brazil, or Dory Jr. had to go 60:00 with Rufus Jones, and those were not exactly stuff legends were made of. But most of the time, the main events, in that era had names like Dory Funk Jr., Brisco, Race, Valentine, Kiniski, Murdoch--the biggest names and the best workers of the era. By the late 70s, the aforementioned names with the exception of Valentine (whose career was ended in a 1975 plane crash) were still around, and people like Flair, Bruiser Brody, David Von Erich, DiBiase and Ken Patera were added to the headline mix.
74
75"It was like nothing I'd ever seen before," said Flair, who debuted in the market in 1978 after only having worked regularly in the AWA and the Carolinas. "The Carolinas were a virgin territory as well, but they'd seen a lot more blood. The fans there treated it like it was a sport. If a guy just pulled hair, the fans would go crazy. I loved wrestling there. The media really looked at Sam as being a legitimate sports figure and the wrestlers had great notoriety in that town. He was like the David Stern of St. Louis."
76
77It wasn't until 1969 that Muchnick even let a manager into the city, Bobby Heenan, and that was largely because Blackjack Lanza had turned into a major draw in Chicago and other Midwestern cities with a legendary feud with Bruiser, and Heenan was his heat. Even when Lanza was pushed to the top, and was responsible for turning Bruiser babyface in St. Louis as well, and Dick became the most popular wrestler in town, and later Lanza drew a sellout at the Checkerdome challenging Dory for the world title, everyone knew Heenan was far more responsible than Lanza for it getting over. Muchnick paid Heenan opening match money, figuring that the man in the ring deserves the big payoff. Once on TV when they were building Lanza, Heenan did a spot where he tripped the opponent, and the refs, taught to treat it as a shoot, immediately DQ'd Lanza. It was a very rabid crowd, and they hated when the heel would win clean in the main event, and often were close to rioting in that situation, but Muchnick felt when a heel had to win because he was being built up for something big, or he'd have the champ play subtle heel because the crowd always wanted to see the elusive history-making title change that they only saw once every few years, and had to maintain credibility of the title, so the win had to be clean. And most of all, because of his background with sports people and around sports, the biggest difference of all from a wrestler standpoint, is that the referees had to be protected.
78
79The referees got their orders from Sam himself, whereas the wrestlers got their direct orders from O'Connor, although for the most part he was carrying Sam's messages. They knew the finishes, but the rest of their job was to referee it as if it was a shoot. Some basic things were to be allowed, the heel hair pulling or trunk pulling early to get easy heat. But the ref wasn't allowed to be made a fool of. If a wrestler was outside the ring, the referee was to start counting. The wrestler had to get in the ring to stop the count or he'd be counted out, whether that was the planned finish or not. Among his referees were Babe Martin, a former St. Louis Browns baseball player, Joe Schoenberger, the head of all youth baseball in the area and a well-known area Golden Gloves boxing champ, and Charles Venator, the No. 2 man in the St. Louis post office. It was considered a prestige position to referee a world title match at the Kiel. The ref had to get on his stomach to make the counts on near falls because that's truly the only way to see if the shoulders are up. Refs who due to ring injuries, like Sonny Myers or Terry Garvin, couldn't get down past one knee, weren't allowed to ref matches with near falls. If the ref told a wrestler to break, they broke. A wrestler couldn't grab the ropes or put their feet on the ropes for cheap heat, because the ref would have to immediately break it or be taken for a fool. There was no touching a ref. Refs did get bumped maybe two or three times a decade for controversy in world title match finishes to build a return, but there would be no controversy of that sort in the eventual blow-off. Refs were instructed that, even in a world title match, if the wrestler doesn't get the shoulder up, you count three. It's the wrestlers' job to make it look real and not the ref's job to protect the wrestlers when they don't do their job. Even Dick the Bruiser or Bruiser Brody, when they were yelled at by the ref, knew they had to take a step backwards and sell to get over that the ref was in control of the match.
80
81On February 10, 1973, Terry Funk was brought in for a TV taping to win the Missouri State title, which automatically set someone up for a world title match, being that Dory was supposed to lose to Brisco, it would eventually put two Funk brothers in the title chase. Muchnick wasn't at the tapings until late due to a social engagement. Booker O'Connor accepted a finish since it was going to be billed as a no DQ match, where Funk was to hit Valentine in the knee with a chair. Chairs had never been used in St. Louis previously. After that, Funk would gain the submission with the spinning toe hold. Muchnick actually arrived at the taping just before the finish and freaked out seeing it, actually as a shoot, overruling the decision on the spot and holding up the title. He came into the dressing room and screamed at O'Connor, and immediately changed his booking plans. He also ordered the belt given back to Valentine at the next house show (which was the show right after Valentine's heart attack, so Kiniski wound beating Funk and getting the belt).
82
83When The Sheik, who was the top drawing heel in the country at the time and owned the then-hot Detroit territory, came in to wrestle O'Connor, he was DQ'd in like 24 seconds for brawling outside the ring, a St. Louis no-no. It nearly caused a riot because they didn't do 24 second matches. Muchnick was embarrassed, and since he agreed to book him for two dates, kept his word and gave him a prelim match against a wrestler nobody has ever heard of on his second show, and never used him again. When George Steele came in, Muchnick never allowed him to do any of his gimmick because that wasn't the style of wrestling he was promoting and he was mad Steele used those kind of tactics since at the time Steele was a powerhouse could actually wrestle a little, but even so, he never got over. Muchnick could also carry a grudge. In 1974, he brought in Wahoo McDaniel and Billy Robinson from the AWA. Robinson was a St. Louis style wrestler, and quickly made a rep doing a 45:00 draw with Race in a Missouri title match. However, Muchnick felt they were trying to swerve him on a trans bill, and even though that was a regular part of the business elsewhere, it wasn't his business and they, from another business, didn't understand. He never booked McDaniel again, and didn't book Robinson again for three years and when he did, never gave him any kind of a meaningful push. When Dusty Rhodes was the hottest draw in the NWA, Muchnick did use him fairly strong, but never gave him the push others did, feeling that Rhodes lack of conditioning made the business look bad, even when it was clear few had the ability to draw a crowd like him.
84
85A few years later, Muchnick made a deal with Haskell Cohen to do a nationally syndicated wrestling show via satellite. The idea was for it to be an NWA All-Star show, where the various promoters would send their top stars to get national recognition, and would allow the biggest names to be seen in every NWA market so promoters would have the top guys from other territories already over to their audience so they would mean something when brought in for major shows. Clearly he saw the future of the business and this was it. Still, most of the promoters, younger than him, didn't see the future and didn't see where they would get any immediate gain from letting fans in their territory see wrestlers on television that they didn't control. Muchnick got Verne Gagne, Race, Bob Geigel, Gust Karras and Bruiser together for a taping in Kansas City. Just before the show, the satellite crashed and before it could be put together, the deal fell apart. It may have been a few years ahead of its time.
86
87Muchnick's final world title creation came in 1977. Bob Backlund, a former NCAA Division II champion college wrestler with a good physique that had gotten a minor push in Florida and a bigger push in Georgia, was brought in to be Sam's next version of Brisco. In order, he beat Race via DQ, lost to Kiniski, beat Race for the Missouri title, got a few wins underneath to keep the title, lost by DQ to Race before beating him again, and then went 60:00 with then-champion Terry Funk, losing one fall. No doubt those opponents made him appear to be a far better worker than he really was. McMahon Sr. called him up, saying with Sammartino going to lose the title and he was going with Billy Graham as a transition champion, he was looking for someone to make the next big thing. After Sammartino and Morales had been ethnic heroes (although Sammartino's popularity transcended his ethnicity), and with Graham's role, he was looking for the opposite of Graham, a humble All-American boy, and Muchnick recommended Backlund, who had a six-year run on top of the WWWF until the Hogan era.
88
89Although he was no longer the major power broker in wrestling, Muchnick's business was on fire in the late 70s, largely built around the rise of new top stars Flair, DiBiase, Brody, Patera, Backlund and David Von Erich trading wins on the trail of champion Race, along with his established former champions like Brisco and Dory. Flair, who had already helped turned the Carolinas, had never headlined in another territory yet and was being thought of as the hottest young talent in the country when he was brought into St. Louis by Muchnick. That was a fight as well, as O'Connor felt Flair was too small to make it in St. Louis (other top stars elsewhere from the same era that were brought in, Buzz Sawyer and Roddy Piper of note, and even Ray Stevens a few years earlier, were never pushed for that reason, very similar if time was transfixed and they went to today's All Japan, and thus were never considered for the NWA title). If Muchnick hadn't have overruled him in insisting Flair be brought in, and Flair wouldn't have gotten over in St. Louis, he never would have been in line for the title that he made his career and legend with. But he got over instantaneously in his first match in early 1978 against Omar Atlas. He became a top national star when on his second match in the city, he pinned Dory to set him up with a series of title matches at then-champion Race. The matches drew packed houses and he was made. His win over Dory also set him up on a Japan tour right after, as on his first night in, he was allowed to pin Giant Baba in a tag match at a time when such a thing just didn't happen. Although Muchnick by this point was no longer the star-maker, this success put Flair in line, and on September 17, 1981 in Kansas City, he pinned Rhodes to win the first of what would be something like 15 world title victories. In a rare angle, Von Erich bloodied up and pinned Race in a non-title match on TV using the claw, a match which aired in various markets around the country and made him more than just a Texas star. Von Erich's charisma, as the son of one of the city's biggest icons chasing what his father never won, became an incredible hit and, like would happen a few years later in Texas, the traditional fans were joined by a huge throng of kids and teenagers, creating a rock concert like atmosphere at the wrestling matches. And then, when it was never bigger, it ended.
90
91On January 31, 1981, his wife of nearly 40 years, Helen, passed away. He had fought one war after another trying to keep the promoters in line, and keep the credibility into a business that had none and was getting worse all around him. He had set up the company, which he owned the controlling interest in, in a way to where if he were to die, all her interests would be protected. But she was gone and he was 75 years old, financially set for life, in a young mans business that was changing in ways he didn't like. The next champion was going to be Rhodes. He had no reason to continue. On February 6, 1981, Race defended the title against DiBiase. Sam wasn't at the matches, as he was still grieving over his wife's death. They decided to do something different. It had been done before in other territories. DiBiase went for a tackle. Race moved. He hit ref Venator, who took a bump out of the ring. Race attacked DiBiase. A second ref, Lee Warren, ran down to the ring. You've seen it a million times now. But this was five years before it became trademarked as the Carolinas-killing Dusty finish. Race was already doing this regularly around the country. DiBiase pinned Race, Warren counted three. Venator saw a DQ before the pin. The fans thought they'd seen the elusive title change and the start of the career of a new legend. When they found out differently, there was nearly a riot. The fans had never seen a screw-job finish like this one. And they didn't like it. A chair whizzed by Matysik's head as he got in the ring to tell fans the title didn't change hands. Those fans didn't go to wrestling to get screwed. They were never taught what the feeling was like. But they were about to learn--fast. At that point, Muchnick decided to retire at the end of the year. On January 1, 1982, Muchnick presented his final show at the St. Louis Arena, drawing a sellout 19,819 fans to see Flair beat Rhodes in the main event. A Who's Who of St. Louis sports celebrities were at the show, as were many wrestlers, some long since retired, and others whose careers he made, including Joe Garagiola, a former Cardinals baseball player who gained his early announcing experience doing "Wrestling at the Chase," and letter became a national baseball broadcaster and co-host of the "Today" show.
92
93The modern promoters, Gagne, Geigel, Race and O'Connor, got St. Louis for themselves, and ran it into the ground in two years with all the modern ideas, along with the no-shows and screw-job finishes the fans weren't used to. This created so much goodwill locally that crowds dwindled and they lost their local TV. Vince McMahon Jr. took over "Wrestling at the Chase" in late 1983, quickly moved it from the Chase, and later from St. Louis, changing its name to WWF Superstars of Wrestling. On McMahon's first episode of Wrestling at the Chase on December 27, 1983, Hulk Hogan, Gene Okerlund, David Shults and Roddy Piper all made their initial appearances of that WWF run, the former three walking out on Gagne just as he was ready to do a lucrative winter run. The war was on. St. Louis was the first battle zone. McMahon ran his first show in St. Louis a few weeks later and drew a turnaway crowd to Kiel. After a lengthy battle in which the WWF generally outdrew the NWA in the NWA's flagship city, in the short-run, both sides lost, as after a year or so of both sides doing good business with Hogan and Flair respectively, representing a style of wrestling the fans hadn't grown up with, each side was suddenly struggling to draw 3,500 fans per show. Eventually the NWA succumbed to its inability to organize, not just in St. Louis, but in every market, and with McMahon destroying them from the outside, and Jim Crockett destroying what was left of them from the inside a few years later by taking the champion and top draw, Flair, as his own full-time regular instead of circuit-traveling to what was left of the Alliance companies, the Alliance fell victim to modern realities and the inherent insatiable greed of those with the power. Crockett bought out Sam's partners, who had been beaten down by McMahon, and he continued a losing fight for this legendary wrestling city that nobody could make any money running. And with it, basically Sam's place in the selective amnesia version of the history of wrestling.
94
95"If Sam had been younger and healthier, the results may have been different," Matysik noted. "He had the connections with NBC. He'd have learned about pay-per-view as quick as anyone." It wasn't until recent years with wrestling's latest boom that the new fans base has made St. Louis no different from any other city.
96
97With business struggling for everyone, WWF did a Muchnick night in St. Louis, and actually sold it out based on honoring him, one of the only, if not the only promoter in history fans ever sold out a house twice to honor. In the summer of 1986, they held a tournament for the Sam Muchnick Cup. Muchnick agreed to do it with only one stipulation, the final had to be a "St. Louis" wrestling match, and coming down to Race beating Ricky Steamboat clean for the Cup, that's exactly what it was. Muchnick was friends with Jim Herd, and actually gave Herd advice at times when he ran WCW, but Herd didn't understand much of it, and his reign was a total failure. Perhaps Sam's concepts were outdated by then, but people were saying that about them for 25 years.
98
99"How could they say he was behind the times?" Matysik questioned. "Isn't the ultimate job to put asses in the seats and get people to watch on television?"
100
101It didn't matter. Herd's concepts never had a time or place. Muchnick came to a few WCW shows during its early history, most notably as a guest to see the Flair vs. Steamboat classic from New Orleans on April 2, 1989, and his final public appearance at a pro wrestling event was for the WWF's October 6, 1996 Badd Blood PPV at the new Kiel Center with Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels in the Hell in a Cell match, where of all things, the WWF honored many of the former NWA champions with glowing on-air testimonials written by Jim Cornette, although McMahon, doing the announcing, couldn't bring himself to refer to them as anything more than local St. Louis legends.
102
103Muchnick's death was front page news in St. Louis. An article was written a few days later in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch sports section, listing the "Sweet 16"--the most famous matches and rivalries he promoted from the late 50s on, about as far back as anyone's memory would go--Thesz vs. Whipper Watson, Thesz vs. Kowalski, Rogers vs. Valentine, Kiniski vs. Ellis, Thesz vs. O'Connor, Bruiser vs. Von Erich, Thesz vs. Kiniski, Bruiser vs. Lanza, Race vs. Valentine, Terry Funk vs. Kiniski, Dory vs. Brisco, Race vs. Dory, Race vs. David Von Erich, Bruiser vs. Flair, Andre vs. Brody and Flair vs. Brody.
104
105Neither WWF nor WCW acknowledged his death on any of their programming this past week. Perhaps in its own way, the lack of acknowledgement that this business has a successful past may predicate similar stories 30 or 40 years from now when the time comes to acknowledge today's innovators. In this industry, the day the company dies, all its history and accomplishments die with it. Those who are in power for that moment re-write history and who the historical figures were to fit their own egos and needs.
106
107But in nearly five decades being a prime move and shaker in the business, Muchnick never created any innovative angles or thought up new promotional concepts or storylines. But nobody was ever responsible for creating more wrestling legends. Or had more to do with shaping the business for three decades around the world. But in the future, others will do all that. But when it's over, will they be able to survive in this business for that length of time, and still come out of it as honest men? And when the final chapter is written on any of their lives, will the people that knew them best, as legendary sportswriter Bob Broeg wrote this past week, say about them, that they were the head of a den of thieves, and they brought honor to the den?
108
1091998 WRESTLING OBSERVER AWARDS
110
111 
112
113The following are the results of the 19th annual Wrestling Observer Newsletter readership awards along with a listing of the previous winners in the various categories. Readers are encouraged to send in their comments on the results
114
115 
116
117CATEGORY A AWARDS - WINNERS DETERMINED BY POINTS VOTED ON A 5-3-2 BASIS. FIRST PLACE VOTES IN PARENTHESIS.
118
119 
120
121WRESTLER OF THE YEAR
122
123 
124
1251. STEVE AUSTIN (471) 2,746
126
1272. Mitsuharu Misawa (67) 1,606
128
1293. Kenta Kobashi (73) 1,193
130
1314. Mick Foley (62) 838
132
1335. Rocky Maivia (11) 214
134
1356. Bill Goldberg (1) 196
136
1377. Shinjiro Otani (27) 189
138
1398. Toshiaki Kawada (9) 176
140
1419. Shinya Hashimoto (3) 148
142
14310. Jushin Liger (1) 143
144
145 
146
147Honorable Mention: Tsuyoshi Kohsaka 143, Kiyoshi Tamura 125, Koji Kanemoto 108
148
149 
150
151PREVIOUS WINNERS
152
1531980 - Harley Race
154
1551981 - Ric Flair
156
1571982 - Ric Flair
158
1591983 - Ric Flair
160
1611984 - Ric Flair
162
1631985 - Ric Flair
164
1651986 - Ric Flair
166
1671987 - Riki Choshu
168
1691988 - Akira Maeda
170
1711989 - Ric Flair
172
1731990 - Ric Flair
174
1751991 - Jumbo Tsuruta
176
1771992 - Ric Flair
178
1791993 - Vader
180
1811994 - Toshiaki Kawada
182
1831995 - Mitsuharu Misawa
184
1851996 - Kenta Kobashi
186
1871997 - Mitsuharu Misawa
188
189 
190
191MOST OUTSTANDING WRESTLER
192
193 
194
1951. KOJI KANEMOTO (149) 1,184
196
1972. Shinjiro Otani (121) 1,175
198
1993. Mitsuharu Misawa (126) 1,109
200
2014. Kenta Kobashi (94) 801
202
2035. Juventud Guerrera (82) 754
204
2056. Kiyoshi Tamura (35) 622
206
2077. Mick Foley (55) 559
208
2098. Jushin Liger (26) 412
210
2119. Jun Akiyama (5) 335
212
21310. Steve Austin (43) 307
214
215 
216
217Honorable Mention: Chris Jericho 258, Chris Benoit 184, Billy Kidman 168, Toshiaki Kawada 162, X-Pac 149, Rob Van Dam 104, Ultimo Dragon 82, Rocky Maivia 75
218
219 
220
221PREVIOUS WINNERS
222
2231986 - Ric Flair
224
2251987 - Ric Flair
226
2271988 - Tatsumi Fujinami
228
2291989 - Ric Flair
230
2311990 - Jushin Liger
232
2331991 - Jushin Liger
234
2351992 - Jushin Liger
236
2371993 - Kenta Kobashi
238
2391994 - Kenta Kobashi
240
2411995 - Manami Toyota
242
2431996 - Rey Misterio Jr.
244
2451997 - Mitsuharu Misawa
246
247 
248
249BEST BOX OFFICE DRAW
250
251 
252
2531. STEVE AUSTIN (666) 3,367
254
2552. Bill Goldberg (7) 934
256
2573. Hulk Hogan (1) 915
258
2594. Mitsuharu Misawa (12) 522
260
2615. Antonio Inoki 275
262
2636. Shinya Hashimoto 243
264
2657. Undertaker (4) 170
266
2678. Masahiro Chono 149
268
2699. Mike Tyson (11) 118
270
27110. Ric Flair 114
272
273 
274
275Honorable Mention: Rocky Maivia 88, Perro Aguayo 73
276
277 
278
279PREVIOUS WINNERS
280
2811987 - Hulk Hogan
282
283 
284
285BEST BABYFACE PREVIOUS WINNERS
286
2871980 - Dusty Rhodes
288
2891981 - Tommy Rich
290
2911982 - Hulk Hogan
292
2931983 - Hulk Hogan
294
2951984 - Hulk Hogan
296
2971985 - Hulk Hogan
298
2991986 - Hulk Hogan
300
3011987 - Hulk Hogan
302
3031988 - Hulk Hogan
304
3051989 - Hulk Hogan
306
3071990 - Hulk Hogan
308
3091991 - Hulk Hogan
310
3111992 - Sting
312
3131993 - Atsushi Onita
314
3151994 - Atsushi Onita
316
3171995 - Perro Aguayo
318
3191996 - Shawn Michaels
320
321 
322
323BEST HEEL PREVIOUS WINNERS
324
3251980 - Larry Zbyszko
326
3271981 - Don Muraco
328
3291982 - Buzz Sawyer
330
3311983 - Michael Hayes
332
3331984 - Roddy Piper
334
3351985 - Roddy Piper
336
3371986 - Michael Hayes
338
3391987 - Ted DiBiase
340
3411988 - Ted DiBiase
342
3431989 - Terry Funk
344
3451990 - Ric Flair
346
3471991 - The Undertaker
348
3491992 - Rick Rude
350
3511993 - Vader
352
3531994 - Love Machine
354
3551995 - Masahiro Chono
356
3571996 - Steve Austin
358
359 
360
361FEUD OF THE YEAR
362
363 
364
3651. STEVE AUSTIN VS. VINCE MCMAHON (564) 2,992
366
3672. Liger's Juniors vs. Otani's Juniors (47) 968
368
3693. Black & White vs. Wolfpac (6) 316
370
3714. Juventud Guerrera vs. Billy Kidman (11) 235
372
3735. Undertaker vs. Kane (3) 224
374
3756. New Japan vs. NWO (13) 203
376
3777. Ric Flair vs. Eric Bischoff (7) 198
378
3798. Steve Austin vs. Mick Foley (11) 178
380
3819. DX vs. The Nation (2) 160
382
38310. Steve Austin vs. Undertaker (4) 158
384
385 
386
387Honorable Mention: Chris Benoit vs. Booker T 124, Chris Jericho vs. Dean Malenko 117, Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Toshiaki Kawada 108, Lioness Asuka vs. Kyoko Inoue 107, Taz vs. Shane Douglas 82
388
389 
390
391PREVIOUS WINNERS
392
3931980 - Bruno Sammartino vs. Larry Zbyszko
394
3951981 - Andre the Giant vs. Killer Khan
396
3971982 - Ted DiBiase vs. Junkyard Dog
398
3991983 - Freebirds vs. Von Erichs
400
4011984 - Freebirds vs. Von Erichs
402
4031985 - Ted DiBiase vs. Jim Duggan
404
4051986 - Hulk Hogan vs. Paul Orndorff
406
4071987 - Jerry Lawler vs. Austin Idol & Tommy Rich
408
4091988 - Midnight Express vs. Fantastics
410
4111989 - Ric Flair vs. Terry Funk
412
4131990 - Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Mitsuharu Misawa
414
4151991 - Tsuruta & company vs. Misawa & company
416
4171992 - Moondogs vs. Jerry Lawler & Jeff Jarrett
418
4191993 - Bret Hart vs. Jerry Lawler
420
4211994 - Gringos Locos vs. Mexican AAA
422
4231995 - Dean Malenko vs. Eddie Guerrero
424
4251996 - WCW vs. NWO
426
4271997 - Steve Austin vs. Hart Foundation
428
429 
430
431TAG TEAM OF THE YEAR
432
433 
434
4351. SHINJIRO OTANI & TATSUHITO TAKAIWA (245) 1,597
436
4372. Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue (162) 1,359
438
4393. Billy Gunn & Jesse Jammes (139) 989
440
4414. Sabu & Rob Van Dam (71) 651
442
4435. Genichiro Tenryu & Shiro Koshinaka (54) 581
444
4456. Stan Hansen & Vader (41) 441
446
4477. Jushin Liger & El Samurai (17) 414
448
4498. Kenta Kobashi & Johnny Ace (40) 349
450
4519. Kenta Kobashi & Jun Akiyama (25) 269
452
45310. Masahiro Chono & Hiroyoshi Tenzan (3) 214
454
455 
456
457Honorable Mention: Masahiro Chono & Keiji Muto 198, Buh Buh Ray & D-Von Dudley 148, Lance Storm & Chris Candido 133, Jushin Liger & Kendo Ka Shin 108, Brian Christopher & Scott Taylor 97, Koji Kanemoto & Kendo Ka Shin 81
458
459 
460
461PREVIOUS WINNERS
462
4631980 - Terry Gordy & Buddy Roberts
464
4651981 - Terry Gordy & Jimmy Snuka
466
4671982 - Stan Hansen & Ole Anderson
468
4691983 - Ricky Steamboat & Jay Youngblood
470
4711984 - Road Warriors
472
4731985 - Dynamite Kid & Davey Boy Smith
474
4751986 - Bobby Eaton & Dennis Condrey
476
4771987 - Bobby Eaton & Stan Lane
478
4791988 - Bobby Eaton & Stan Lane
480
4811989 - Shawn Michaels & Marty Jannetty
482
4831990 - Rick & Scott Steiner
484
4851991 - Mitsuharu Misawa & Toshiaki Kawada
486
4871992 - Terry Gordy & Steve Williams
488
4891993 - Brian Pillman & Steve Austin
490
4911994 - Love Machine & Eddie Guerrero
492
4931995 - Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi
494
4951996 - Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama
496
4971997 - Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama
498
499 
500
501MOST IMPROVED
502
503 
504
5051. ROCKY MAIVIA (191) 1,322
506
5072. Billy Kidman (147) 1,140
508
5093. D-Lo Brown (88) 722
510
5114. Ken Shamrock (16) 311
512
5135. Satoshi Kojima (28) 283
514
5156. Chris Jericho (16) 262
516
5177. Justin Credible (26) 225
518
5198. Kendo Ka Shin (25) 216
520
5219. Booker T (20) 196
522
52310. Michiko Omukai (23) 176
524
525 
526
527Honorable Mention: Yuji Nagata 169, Jun Akiyama 162, Yumi Fukawa 149, Juventud Guerrera 106, Chris Kanyon 104, Balls Mahoney 88, Chavo Guerrero Jr. 88, X-Pac 86, Lenny Lane 70
528
529 
530
531PREVIOUS WINNERS
532
5331980 - Larry Zbyszko
534
5351981 - Adrian Adonis
536
5371982 - Jim Duggan
538
5391983 - Curt Hennig
540
5411984 - The Cobra (George Takano)
542
5431985 - Steve Williams
544
5451986 - Rick Steiner
546
5471987 - Big Bubba Rogers (Bossman)
548
5491988 - Sting
550
5511989 - Lex Luger
552
5531990 - Kenta Kobashi
554
5551991 - Dustin Rhodes
556
5571992 - El Samurai
558
5591993 - Tracy Smothers
560
5611994 - Diesel (Kevin Nash)
562
5631995 - Johnny B. Badd (Marc Mero)
564
5651996 - Diamond Dallas Page
566
5671997 - Tatsuhito Takaiwa
568
569 
570
571BEST ON INTERVIEWS
572
573 
574
5751. STEVE AUSTIN (265) 1,739
576
5772. Mick Foley (247) 1,516
578
5793. Chris Jericho (55) 1,018
580
5814. Ric Flair (56) 737
582
5835. Rocky Maivia (14) 514
584
5856. Arn Anderson (47) 468
586
5877. Vince McMahon (38) 375
588
5898. Shane Douglas (16) 214
590
5919. Masahiro Chono (2) 106
592
59310. Rob Van Dam 68
594
595 
596
597PREVIOUS WINNERS
598
5991981 - Lou Albano and Roddy Piper (tied)
600
6011982 - Roddy Piper
602
6031983 - Roddy Piper
604
6051984 - Jimmy Hart
606
6071985 - Jim Cornette
608
6091986 - Jim Cornette
610
6111987 - Jim Cornette
612
6131988 - Jim Cornette
614
6151989 - Terry Funk
616
6171990 - Arn Anderson
618
6191991 - Ric Flair
620
6211992 - Ric Flair
622
6231993 - Jim Cornette
624
6251994 - Ric Flair
626
6271995 - Cactus Jack
628
6291996 - Steve Austin
630
6311997 - Steve Austin
632
633 
634
635MOST CHARISMATIC
636
637 
638
6391. STEVE AUSTIN (504) 2,889
640
6412. Rocky Maivia (31) 1,012
642
6433. Bill Goldberg (13) 903
644
6454. Ric Flair (56) 683
646
6475. Chris Jericho (22) 257
648
6496. Kevin Nash (6) 92
650
6517. Mick Foley (10) 85
652
6538. Masahiro Chono 83
654
6559. La Parka 74
656
65710. Antonio Inoki (4) 73
658
659 
660
661PREVIOUS WINNERS
662
6631980 - Ric Flair
664
6651981 - Michael Hayes
666
6671982 - Dusty Rhodes and Ric Flair (tied)
668
6691983 - Ric Flair
670
6711984 - Ric Flair
672
6731985 - Hulk Hogan
674
6751986 - Hulk Hogan
676
6771987 - Hulk Hogan
678
6791988 - Sting
680
6811989 - Hulk Hogan
682
6831990 - Hulk Hogan
684
6851991 - Hulk Hogan
686
6871992 - Sting
688
6891993 - Ric Flair
690
6911994 - Atsushi Onita
692
6931995 - Shawn Michaels
694
6951996 - Shawn Michaels
696
6971997 - Steve Austin
698
699 
700
701BEST TECHNICAL WRESTLER
702
703 
704
7051. KIYOSHI TAMURA (210) 1,294
706
7072. Shinjiro Otani (176) 1,283
708
7093. Dean Malenko (124) 1,130
710
7114. Chris Benoit (88) 900
712
7135. Koji Kanemoto (53) 635
714
7156. Jushin Liger (51) 432
716
7177. Mitsuharu Misawa (79) 338
718
7198. Tsuyoshi Kohsaka (17) 333
720
7219. Jun Akiyama (14) 306
722
72310. Ultimo Dragon (19) 281
724
725 
726
727Honorable Mention: Volk Han 268, Kendo Ka Shin 198, Bret Hart 169, Juventud Guerrera 128, Chris Jericho 104, Ken Shamrock 100, Owen Hart 87, Dr. Wagner Jr. 86, Billy Kidman 72
728
729 
730
731PREVIOUS WINNERS
732
7331980 - Bob Backlund
734
7351981 - Ted DiBiase
736
7371982 - Tiger Mask (Satoru Sayama)
738
7391983 - Tiger Mask (Satoru Sayama)
740
7411984 - Dynamite Kid and Masa Saito (tied)
742
7431985 - Tatsumi Fujinami
744
7451986 - Tatsumi Fujinami
746
7471987 - Nobuhiko Takada
748
7491988 - Tatsumi Fujinami
750
7511989 - Jushin Liger
752
7531990 - Jushin Liger
754
7551991 - Jushin Liger
756
7571992 - Jushin Liger
758
7591993 - Hiroshi Hase
760
7611994 - Chris Benoit
762
7631995 - Chris Benoit
764
7651996 - Dean Malenko
766
7671997 - Dean Malenko
768
769 
770
771BRUISER BRODY MEMORIAL AWARD
772
773(BEST BRAWLER)
774
775 
776
7771. MICK FOLEY (587) 3,061
778
7792. Chris Benoit (16) 686
780
7813. Steve Austin (19) 645
782
7834. Masato Tanaka (1) 338
784
7855. Mayumi Ozaki (34) 268
786
787Tommy Dreamer (8) 268
788
7897. Terry Funk 172
790
7918. Raven (4) 148
792
7939. Sabu (2) 119
794
79510. Sandman (17) 104
796
797 
798
799Honorable Mention: Stan Hansen 99, New Jack 95, Ian Rotten 89
800
801 
802
803PREVIOUS WINNERS
804
8051980 - Bruiser Brody
806
8071981 - Bruiser Brody
808
8091982 - Bruiser Brody
810
8111983 - Bruiser Brody
812
8131984 - Bruiser Brody
814
8151985 - Stan Hansen
816
8171986 - Terry Gordy
818
8191987 - Bruiser Brody
820
8211988 - Bruiser Brody
822
8231989 - Terry Funk
824
8251990 - Stan Hansen
826
8271991 - Cactus Jack
828
8291992 - Cactus Jack
830
8311993 - Cactus Jack
832
8331994 - Cactus Jack
834
8351995 - Cactus Jack
836
8371996 - Mankind
838
8391997 - Mankind
840
841 
842
843BEST FLYING WRESTLER
844
845 
846
8471. JUVENTUD GUERRERA (406) 2,475
848
8492. Rey Misterio Jr. (83) 750
850
8513. Hayabusa (30) 603
852
8534. Billy Kidman (13) 571
854
8555. Shinjiro Otani (27) 405
856
8576. Great Sasuke (26) 378
858
8597. Rob Van Dam (34) 319
860
8618. Taka Michinoku (8) 265
862
8639. Hikari Fukuoka (21) 209
864
86510. Psicosis (8) 169
866
867 
868
869Honorable Mention: Dragon Kid 143, Koji Kanemoto 95, Kaz Hayashi 72
870
871 
872
873PREVIOUS WINNERS
874
8751981 - Jimmy Snuka
876
8771982 - Tiger Mask (Satoru Sayama)
878
8791983 - Tiger Mask (Satoru Sayama)
880
8811984 - Dynamite Kid
882
8831985 - Tiger Mask (Mitsuharu Misawa)
884
8851986 - Tiger Mask (Mitsuharu Misawa)
886
8871987 - Owen Hart
888
8891988 - Owen Hart
890
8911989 - Jushin Liger
892
8931990 - Jushin Liger
894
8951991 - Jushin Liger
896
8971992 - Jushin Liger
898
8991993 - Jushin Liger
900
9011994 - Great Sasuke
902
9031995 - Rey Misterio Jr.
904
9051996 - Rey Misterio Jr.
906
9071997 - Rey Misterio Jr.
908
909 
910
911MOST OVERRATED
912
913 
914
9151. HULK HOGAN (231) 1,570
916
9172. Warrior (103) 755
918
9193. Kevin Nash (47) 607
920
9214. Bill Goldberg (61) 582
922
9235. Lex Luger (13) 515
924
9256. Diamond Dallas Page (56) 424
926
9277. Kane (20) 302
928
9298. Undertaker (10) 222
930
9319. Sting (23) 194
932
93310. Billy Gunn (19) 190
934
935 
936
937Honorable Mention: Rob Van Dam 162, Scott Norton 142, Scott Steiner 128, Jeff Jarrett 117, Atsushi Onita 108, Jesse Jammes 107, Bret Hart 84, Taz 75
938
939 
940
941PREVIOUS WINNERS
942
9431980 - Mr. Wrestling II
944
9451981 - Pedro Morales
946
9471982 - Pedro Morales
948
9491983 - Bob Backlund
950
9511984 - John Studd
952
9531985 - Hulk Hogan
954
9551986 - Hulk Hogan
956
9571987 - Dusty Rhodes
958
9591988 - Dusty Rhodes
960
9611989 - Ultimate Warrior
962
9631990 - Ultimate Warrior
964
9651991 - Ultimate Warrior
966
9671992 - Erik Watts
968
9691993 - Sid Vicious
970
9711994 - Hulk Hogan
972
9731995 - Hulk Hogan
974
9751996 - Hulk Hogan
976
9771997 - Hulk Hogan
978
979 
980
981MOST UNDERRATED
982
983 
984
9851. CHRIS BENOIT (215) 1,352
986
9872. Taka Michinoku (70) 685
988
9893. Psicosis (97) 643
990
9914. Brian Christopher (68) 621
992
9935. Chris Jericho (25) 242
994
9956. Dick Togo (37) 227
996
9977. Kaz Hayashi (29) 179
998
9998. La Parka (1) 149
1000
10019. Billy Kidman (26) 146
1002
100310. Scorpio (5) 124
1004
1005 
1006
1007Honorable Mention: Chavo Guerrero Jr. 118, Dean Malenko 112, Jerry Lynn 104, Silver King 100, Juventud Guerrera 95, D-Lo Brown 90, Ultimo Dragon 89, Kentaro Shiga 83, Jun Akiyama 82, Eddie Guerrero 79
1008
1009 
1010
1011PREVIOUS WINNERS
1012
10131980 - Iron Sheik
1014
10151981 - Buzz Sawyer
1016
10171982 - Adrian Adonis
1018
10191983 - Dynamite Kid
1020
10211984 - Brian Blair
1022
10231985 - Bobby Eaton
1024
10251986 - Bobby Eaton
1026
10271987 - Brad Armstrong
1028
10291988 - Tiger Mask (Mitsuharu Misawa)
1030
10311989 - Dan Kroffat
1032
10331990 - Bobby Eaton
1034
10351991 - Terry Taylor
1036
10371992 - Terry Taylor
1038
10391993 - Bobby Eaton
1040
10411994 - Brian Pillman
1042
10431995 - Skip (Chris Candido)
1044
10451996 - Leif Cassidy (Al Snow)
1046
10471997 - Flash Funk (Scorpio)
1048
1049 
1050
1051BEST PROMOTION
1052
1053 
1054
10551. NEW JAPAN PRO WRESTLING (297) 2,801
1056
10572. World Wrestling Federation (403) 2,463
1058
10593. All Japan Pro Wrestling (41) 1,120
1060
10614. Extreme Championship Wrestling (22) 572
1062
10635. World Championship Wrestling (12) 428
1064
10656. RINGS (35) 305
1066
10677. EMLL 107
1068
10698. GAEA (2) 88
1070
10719. Arsion (1) 69
1072
107310. Ultimate Fighting Championships 62
1074
1075 
1076
1077PREVIOUS WINNERS
1078
10791983 - Jim Crockett Promotions
1080
10811984 - New Japan Pro Wrestling
1082
10831985 - All Japan Pro Wrestling
1084
10851986 - Mid South Sports
1086
10871987 - New Japan Pro Wrestling
1088
10891988 - New Japan Pro Wrestling
1090
10911989 - Universal Wrestling Federation Japan
1092
10931990 - All Japan Pro Wrestling
1094
10951991 - All Japan Pro Wrestling
1096
10971992 - New Japan Pro Wrestling
1098
10991993 - All Japan Pro Wrestling
1100
11011994 - AAA
1102
11031995 - New Japan Pro Wrestling
1104
11051996 - New Japan Pro Wrestling
1106
11071997 - New Japan Pro Wrestling
1108
1109 
1110
1111BEST WEEKLY TELEVISION SHOW
1112
1113 
1114
11151. WWF RAW IS WAR (412) 2,554
1116
11172. New Japan World Pro Wrestling (221) 2,140
1118
11193. All Japan Pro Wrestling 30 (56) 1,121
1120
11214. Extreme Championship Wrestling (52) 684
1122
11235. WCW Nitro (11) 622
1124
11256. WWF Sunday Night Heat 228
1126
11277. EMLL 82
1128
11298. WCW Saturday Night 69
1130
11319. Memphis Power Pro 49
1132
113310. WWF Shotgun Saturday Night 25
1134
1135 
1136
1137PREVIOUS WINNERS
1138
11391983 - New Japan World Pro Wrestling
1140
11411984 - New Japan World Pro Wrestling
1142
11431985 - Mid South Wrestling
1144
11451986 - Universal Wrestling Federation (Mid South)
1146
11471987 - CWA 90 Minute Memphis Wrestling
1148
11491988 - New Japan World Pro Wrestling
1150
11511989 - All Japan Pro Wrestling
1152
11531990 - All Japan Pro Wrestling
1154
11551991 - All Japan Pro Wrestling
1156
11571992 - All Japan Pro Wrestling
1158
11591993 - All Japan Pro Wrestling
1160
11611994 - Extreme Championship Wrestling
1162
11631995 - Extreme Championship Wrestling
1164
11651996 - Extreme Championship Wrestling
1166
11671997 - New Japan World Pro Wrestling
1168
1169 
1170
1171 
1172
1173 
1174
1175MATCH OF THE YEAR
1176
1177 
1178
11791. MITSUHARU MISAWA VS. KENTA KOBASHI
1180
118110/31 TOKYO (288) 1,937
1182
11832. Undertaker vs. Mankind
1184
11856/28 Pittsburgh (190) 1,292
1186
11873. Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Tsuyoshi Kohsaka
1188
11896/27 Yokohama (141) 1,088
1190
11914. Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Toshiaki Kawada
1192
11935/1 Tokyo Dome (26) 482
1194
11955. Steve Austin vs. Dude Love
1196
11975/31 Milwaukee (43) 417
1198
11996. Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama vs. Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue
1200
120112/5/97 Tokyo (14) 406
1202
12037. Juventud Guerrera vs. Billy Kidman
1204
120511/16 Wichita (19) 329
1206
12078. Rocky Maivia vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsley
1208
12098/30 New York (9) 306
1210
12119. Kenta Kobashi vs. Toshiaki Kawada
1212
12136/12 Tokyo (21) 218
1214
121510. Kenta Kobashi vs. Jun Akiyama
1216
12177/25 Tokyo (22) 202
1218
1219 
1220
1221Honorable Mention: Koji Kanemoto vs. Dr. Wagner Jr. 6/3 Osaka 176, Ric Flair vs. Bret Hart 1/25 Dayton 155, Steve Austin vs. Shawn Michaels 3/29 Boston 136, Shinjiro Otani & Tatsuhito Takaiwa vs. Koji Kanemoto & Dr. Wagner Jr. 8/8 Osaka 135, Shinjiro Otani & Tatsuhito Takaiwa vs. Jushin Liger & El Samurai 8/2 Tokyo 110, Genichiro Tenryu vs. Shinya Hashimoto 8/1 Tokyo 95
1222
1223 
1224
1225PREVIOUS WINNERS
1226
12271980 - Bob Backlund vs. Ken Patera New York
1228
12291981 - Pat Patterson vs. Sgt. Slaughter 4/21 New York
1230
12311982 - Tiger Mask (Satoru Sayama) vs. Dynamite Kid 8/5 Tokyo
1232
12331983 - Ric Flair vs. Harley Race 11/24 Greensboro
1234
12351984 - Freebirds vs. Von Erichs 7/4 Fort Worth
1236
12371985 - Tiger Mask (Mitsuharu Misawa) vs. Kuniaki Kobayashi 6/12 Tokyo
1238
12391986 - Ric Flair vs. Barry Windham 2/14 Orlando
1240
12411987 - Ricky Steamboat vs. Randy Savage 3/29 Pontiac
1242
12431988 - Ric Flair vs. Sting 3/27 Greensboro
1244
12451989 - Ric Flair vs. Ricky Steamboat 4/2 New Orleans
1246
12471990 - Jushin Liger vs. Naoki Sano 1/31 Osaka
1248
12491991 - Rick & Scott Steiner vs. Hiroshi Hase & Kensuke Sasaki 3/21 Tokyo
1250
12511992 - Dan Kroffat & Doug Furnas vs. Kenta Kobashi & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi 5/25 Miyagi
1252
12531993 - Manami Toyota & Toshiyo Yamada vs. Dynamite Kansai & Mayumi Ozaki 4/11 Osaka
1254
12551994 - Razor Ramon vs. Shawn Michaels 3/20 New York
1256
12571995 - Manami Toyota vs. Kyoko Inoue 5/7 Tokyo
1258
12591996 - Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama vs. Steve Williams & Johnny Ace 6/7 Tokyo
1260
12611997 - Bret Hart vs. Steve Austin 3/23 Chicago
1262
1263 
1264
1265ROOKIE OF THE YEAR
1266
1267 
1268
12691. BILL GOLDBERG (363) 2,041
1270
12712. Dragon Kid (108) 1,017
1272
12733. Magnum Tokyo (52) 1,014
1274
12754. Shima Nobunaga (23) 374
1276
12775. Sable (5) 342
1278
12796. Ayako Hamada (15) 271
1280
12817. Evan Tanner (15) 239
1282
12838. Erika Watanabe (10) 176
1284
12859. Brian Johnston (1) 140
1286
128710. Minoru Fujita (26) 138
1288
1289 
1290
1291Honorable Mention: Masamichi Marufuji 109, Mika Akino 108, Makoto Hashi 83
1292
1293 
1294
1295PREVIOUS WINNERS
1296
12971980 - Barry Windham
1298
12991981 - Brad Armstrong and Brad Rheingans (tied)
1300
13011982 - Steve Williams
1302
13031983 - Road Warriors
1304
13051984 - Tom Zenk and Keiichi Yamada (Jushin Liger) (tied)
1306
13071985 - Jack Victory
1308
13091986 - Bam Bam Bigelow
1310
13111987 - Brian Pillman
1312
13131988 - Gary Albright
1314
13151989 - Dustin Rhodes
1316
13171990 - Steve Austin
1318
13191991 - Johnny B. Badd (Marc Mero)
1320
13211992 - Rey Misterio Jr.
1322
13231993 - Jun Akiyama
1324
13251994 - Mikey Whipwreck
1326
13271995 - Perro Aguayo Jr.
1328
13291996 - The Giant
1330
13311997 - Mr. Aguila (Papi Chulo)
1332
1333 
1334
1335MANAGER OF THE YEAR PREVIOUS WINNERS
1336
13371983 - Jimmy Hart
1338
13391984 - Jimmy Hart
1340
13411985 - Jim Cornette
1342
13431986 - Jim Cornette
1344
13451987 - Jim Cornette
1346
13471988 - Jim Cornette
1348
13491989 - Jim Cornette
1350
13511990 - Jim Cornette
1352
13531991 - Sensational Sherri
1354
13551992 - Jim Cornette
1356
13571993 - Jim Cornette
1358
13591994 - Jim Cornette
1360
13611995 - Jim Cornette
1362
13631996 - Jim Cornette
1364
1365 
1366
1367BEST TELEVISION ANNOUNCER
1368
1369 
1370
13711. JIM ROSS (535) 2,933
1372
13732. Mike Tenay (55) 1,402
1374
13753. Joey Styles (21) 734
1376
13774. Jerry Lawler (12) 464
1378
13795. Yoshinori Tsuji (29) 312
1380
13816. Scott Hudson (9) 208
1382
13837. Tony Schiavone (11) 160
1384
13858. Jeff Blatnick (2) 149
1386
13879. Jim Cornette 130
1388
138910. Mike Goldberg 71
1390
1391 
1392
1393PREVIOUS WINNERS
1394
13951981 - Gordon Solie
1396
13971982 - Gordon Solie
1398
13991983 - Gordon Solie
1400
14011984 - Lance Russell
1402
14031985 - Lance Russell
1404
14051986 - Lance Russell
1406
14071987 - Lance Russell
1408
14091988 - Jim Ross
1410
14111989 - Jim Ross
1412
14131990 - Jim Ross
1414
14151991 - Jim Ross
1416
14171992 - Jim Ross
1418
14191993 - Jim Ross
1420
14211994 - Joey Styles
1422
14231995 - Joey Styles
1424
14251996 - Joey Styles
1426
14271997 - Mike Tenay
1428
1429 
1430
1431WORST TELEVISION ANNOUNCER
1432
1433 
1434
14351. LEE MARSHALL (210) 1,792
1436
14372. Tony Schiavone (154) 1,142
1438
14393. Shane McMahon (118) 1,076
1440
14414. Larry Zbyszko (66) 960
1442
14435. Bobby Heenan (8) 335
1444
14456. Michael Cole (21) 284
1446
14477. Joey Styles (17) 214
1448
14498. Vince Russo (33) 179
1450
14519. Michael St. John (16) 162
1452
145310. Jerry Lawler (19) 96
1454
1455 
1456
1457PREVIOUS WINNERS
1458
14591984 - Angelo Mosca
1460
14611985 - Gorilla Monsoon
1462
14631986 - David Crockett
1464
14651987 - David Crockett
1466
14671988 - David Crockett
1468
14691989 - Ed Whalen
1470
14711990 - Herb Abrams
1472
14731991 - Gorilla Monsoon
1474
14751992 - Gorilla Monsoon
1476
14771993 - Gorilla Monsoon
1478
14791994 - Gorilla Monsoon
1480
14811995 - Gorilla Monsoon
1482
14831996 - Steve McMichael
1484
14851997 - Dusty Rhodes
1486
1487 
1488
1489BEST MAJOR WRESTLING CARD
1490
1491 
1492
14931. ECW HEAT WAVE 8/2 DAYTON (174) 1,188
1494
14952. WWF Wrestlemania 3/29 Boston (105) 1,069
1496
14973. New Japan G-1 Quarters 8/1 Tokyo (122) 770
1498
14994. All Japan Tokyo Dome 5/1 (29) 747
1500
15015. WWF SummerSlam 8/30 New York (52) 723
1502
15036. WWF King of the Ring 6/28 Pittsburgh (85) 721
1504
15057. New Japan Tokyo Dome 1/4 (52) 351
1506
15078. UFC Redemption 5/15 Mobile (37) 223
1508
15099. UFC Battle in the Bayou 3/13 New Orleans (2) 215
1510
151110. WCW Souled Out 1/24 Dayton (1) 102
1512
1513 
1514
1515Honorable Mention: WWF Survivor Series 11/15 St. Louis 79
1516
1517 
1518
1519PREVIOUS WINNERS
1520
15211989 - WCW Baltimore Great American Bash 7/23
1522
15231990 - WWF/New Japan/All Japan U.S. and Japan Wrestling Summit 4/13 Tokyo
1524
15251991 - WCW Wrestle War 2/24 Phoenix
1526
15271992 - All Japan Women Wrestlemarinpiad 4/25 Yokohama
1528
15291993 - All Japan Women Dream Slam I 4/2 Yokohama
1530
15311994 - New Japan Super J Cup 4/16 Tokyo
1532
15331995 - Weekly Pro Wrestling Multi-promotion show 4/2 Tokyo
1534
15351996 - WAR Super J Cup Second Stage 12/13/95 Tokyo
1536
15371997 - WWF Calgary Stampede 7/16 Calgary
1538
1539 
1540
1541CATEGORY B AWARDS - WINNER DETERMINED BY FIRST PLACE VOTES
1542
1543 
1544
1545WORST MAJOR WRESTLING CARD
1546
1547 
1548
15491. WCW FALL BRAWL 9/13 WINSTON-SALEM 215
1550
15512. WCW Road Wild 8/8 Sturgis 108
1552
15533. WCW Halloween Havoc 10/24 Las Vegas 97
1554
15554. ECW November to Remember 11/1 New Orleans 53
1556
15575. ECW Wrestlepalooza 5/3 Marietta 47
1558
15596. WCW World War III 11/22 Auburn Hills 44
1560
15617. WCW Bash at the Beach 7/12 San Diego 34
1562
15638. WWF Judgment Day 10/18 Chicago 20
1564
15659. WWF D-Generation X 12/7/97 Springfield 14
1566
156710. WCW Starrcade '97 12/28/97 Washington 13
1568
1569 
1570
1571Honorable Mention: WWF No Way Out 2/15 Houston 10
1572
1573 
1574
1575PREVIOUS WINNERS
1576
15771989 - WWF Wrestlemania 4/2 Atlantic City
1578
15791990 - WCW Clash XIII 11/20 Jacksonville
1580
15811991 - WCW Great American Bash 7/4 Baltimore
1582
15831992 - WCW Halloween Havoc 10/25 Philadelphia
1584
15851993 - WCW Fall Brawl 9/19 Houston
1586
15871994 - UWF Blackjack Brawl 9/25 Las Vegas
1588
15891995 - WCW Uncensored 3/29 Tupelo
1590
15911996 - WCW Uncensored 3/24 Tupelo
1592
15931997 - WCW/NWO Souled Out 1/25 Cedar Rapids
1594
1595 
1596
1597BEST WRESTLING MANEUVER
1598
1599 
1600
16011. KENTA KOBASHI RACK INTO DEATH VALLEY BOMB 149
1602
16032. Rocky Maivia Corporate Elbow 140
1604
16053. Hayabusa Phoenix Splash 71
1606
16074. Tatsuhito Takaiwa triple bomb into DVD 55
1608
16095. Billy Kidman shooting star press 52
1610
16116. Bill Goldberg spear & jackhammer 40
1612
16137. Dragon Kid 450 into huracanrana 36
1614
16158. Shinjiro Otani spinning power bomb 34
1616
16179. Hikari Fukuoka moonsault foot stomp 33
1618
161910. Steve Austin stone cold stunner 25
1620
1621 
1622
1623Honorable Mention: Juventud Guerrera 450 splash 18, D-Lo Brown sky high power bomb 17, Manami Toyota Japanese Ocean Cyclone suplex 16, Chaparita Asari sky twister 13, Juventud Guerrera Air Juvi 13, Sabu & Rob Van Dam Rolling Thunder 12, Chris Benoit rolling german suplex 9
1624
1625 
1626
1627PREVIOUS WINNERS
1628
16291981 - Jimmy Snuka Superfly splash
1630
16311982 - Super Destroyer (Scott Irwin) superplex
1632
16331983 - Jimmy Snuka Superfly splash
1634
16351984 - Davey Boy Smith power clean in combination with Dynamite Kid dropkick off the top rope
1636
16371985 - Tiger Mask (Mitsuharu Misawa) tope with mid-air flip
1638
16391986 - Chavo Guerrero moonsault bodyblock
1640
16411987 - Keiichi Yamada (Jushin Liger) shooting star press
1642
16431988 - Keiichi Yamada (Jushin Liger) shooting star press
1644
16451989 - Scott Steiner Frankensteiner
1646
16471990 - Scott Steiner Frankensteiner
1648
16491991 - Masao Orihara moonsault off top rope to floor
1650
16511992 - Too Cold Scorpio Scorpio splash
1652
16531993 - Vader moonsault
1654
16551994 - Great Sasuke Sasuke special
1656
16571995 - Rey Misterio Jr. flip dive into Frankensteiner on floor
1658
16591996 - Ultimo Dragon running Liger bomb
1660
16611997 - Diamond Dallas Page diamond cutter
1662
1663 
1664
1665MOST DISGUSTING PROMOTIONAL TACTIC
1666
1667 
1668
16691. WCW EXPLOITING SCOTT HALL'S PROBLEMS 190
1670
16712. WWF Austin/McMahon hostage angle 52
1672
16733. WCW suing Ric Flair 50
1674
16754. WWF exposing Jacqueline's boobs 39
1676
16775. WCW's handling of Louie Spicolli's death 30
1678
16796. WWF & WCW treatment of foreign stars 28
1680
16817. Raw content knowing 35% of audience is kids 27
1682
16838. WWF Terri Runnels pregnancy angle 26
1684
16859. Hulk Hogan running for President 25
1686
168710. ECW exploiting Dreamer's grandfather's death 23
1688
1689 
1690
1691Honorable Mention: Big Japan alligator match 20, WWF embalming angle 19, Jay Leno wrestling 18, Hawk drug addiction angle 16
1692
1693 
1694
1695PREVIOUS WINNERS
1696
16971981 - LeBelle Promotions usage of The Monster saying he was built in a laboratory
1698
16991982 - Bob Backlund as WWF champion
1700
17011983 - WWF pretending Eddie Gilbert had re-broken his neck after original neck injury in car accident
1702
17031984 - Blackjack Mulligan faking heart attack by Championship Wrestling from Florida
1704
17051985 - Usage of Mike Von Erich's near fatal illness to sell Cotton Bowl tickets
1706
17071986 - Equating an angle of Chris Adams' blindness with the death of Gino Hernandez by World Class
1708
17091987 - World Class' handling of Mike Von Erich's death
1710
17111988 - Fritz Von Erich's fake brush with death by World Class
1712
17131989 - Jose Gonzalez babyface push by WWC
1714
17151990 - Atsushi Onita stabbing angle with Jose Gonzalez
1716
17171991 - WWF exploiting Persian Gulf War for Wrestlemania angle
1718
17191992 - Erik Watts push
1720
17211993 - Cactus Jack amnesia angle
1722
17231994 - WCW retiring Ric Flair
1724
17251995 - WCW Gene Okerlund 900 line come-ons and lies
1726
17271996 - WWF tease and usage of new Razor Ramon and Diesel
1728
17291997 - WWF Melanie Pillman interview on Raw day after Brian's death
1730
1731 
1732
1733BEST COLOR COMMENTATOR PREVIOUS WINNERS
1734
17351986 - Michael Hayes
1736
17371987 - Jesse Ventura
1738
17391988 - Jesse Ventura
1740
17411989 - Jesse Ventura
1742
17431990 - Jesse Ventura
1744
17451991 - Paul E. Dangerously
1746
17471992 - Bobby Heenan
1748
17491993 - Bobby Heenan
1750
17511994 - Bobby Heenan
1752
17531995 - Jerry Lawler
1754
17551996 - Jerry Lawler
1756
1757 
1758
1759READERS PERSONAL FAVORITE WRESTLER
1760
1761 
1762
17631. MICK FOLEY 133
1764
17652. Chris Jericho 119
1766
17673. Shinjiro Otani 89
1768
17694. Steve Austin 60
1770
17715. Ric Flair 58
1772
17736. Chris Benoit 36
1774
17757. Jushin Liger 31
1776
17778. Rocky Maivia 21
1778
17799. Rob Van Dam 18
1780
178110. Kenta Kobashi 16
1782
1783 
1784
1785Honorable Mention: Kiyoshi Tamura 15, Rey Misterio Jr. 12, Juventud Guerrera 10, Bret Hart 9
1786
1787 
1788
1789PREVIOUS WINNERS
1790
17911984 - Ric Flair
1792
17931985 - Ric Flair
1794
17951986 - Ric Flair
1796
17971987 - Ric Flair
1798
17991988 - Ric Flair
1800
18011989 - Ric Flair
1802
18031990 - Ric Flair
1804
18051991 - Ric Flair
1806
18071992 - Ric Flair
1808
18091993 - Ric Flair
1810
18111994 - Sabu
1812
18131995 - Manami Toyota
1814
18151996 - Ric Flair
1816
18171997 - Chris Benoit
1818
1819 
1820
1821READERS LEAST FAVORITE WRESTLER
1822
1823 
1824
18251. HULK HOGAN 162
1826
18272. Warrior 157
1828
18293. Diamond Dallas Page 46
1830
18314. Bill Goldberg 34
1832
18335. Kevin Nash 28
1834
18356. Lex Luger 25
1836
18377. Ernest Miller 21
1838
18398. Scott Steiner 20
1840
18419. Jeff Jarrett 18
1842
184310. Steve McMichael 12
1844
1845Konnan 12
1846
1847 
1848
1849Honorable Mention: Kane 10
1850
1851 
1852
1853PREVIOUS WINNERS
1854
18551984 - Ivan Putski
1856
18571985 - Hulk Hogan
1858
18591986 - Hulk Hogan
1860
18611987 - Dusty Rhodes
1862
18631988 - Dusty Rhodes
1864
18651989 - Ultimate Warrior
1866
18671990 - Ultimate Warrior
1868
18691991 - Hulk Hogan
1870
18711992 - Erik Watts
1872
18731993 - Sid Vicious
1874
18751994 - Hulk Hogan
1876
18771995 - Hulk Hogan
1878
18791996 - Hulk Hogan
1880
18811997 - Hulk Hogan
1882
1883 
1884
1885WORST WRESTLER
1886
1887 
1888
18891. WARRIOR 229
1890
18912. Hulk Hogan 141
1892
18933. Steve McMichael 115
1894
18954. Kurrgan 40
1896
18975. Mark Henry 26
1898
18996. Van Hammer 13
1900
1901Shinya Kojika 13
1902
19038. Atsushi Onita 12
1904
19059. Stevie Ray 11
1906
190710. Disciple 10
1908
1909 
1910
1911PREVIOUS WINNERS
1912
19131984 - Ivan Putski
1914
19151985 - Uncle Elmer (Stan Frazier)
1916
19171986 - Mike Von Erich
1918
19191987 - Junkyard Dog
1920
19211988 - Ultimate Warrior
1922
19231989 - Andre the Giant
1924
19251990 - Junkyard Dog
1926
19271991 - Andre the Giant
1928
19291992 - Andre the Giant
1930
19311993 - The Equalizer (Dave Sullivan)
1932
19331994 - Dave Sullivan
1934
19351995 - Renegade
1936
19371996 - Loch Ness
1938
19391997 - Hulk Hogan
1940
1941 
1942
1943WORST TAG TEAM
1944
1945 
1946
19471. KURRGAN & GOLGA 259
1948
19492. LOD 2000 94
1950
19513. DOA 57
1952
19534. New Age Outlaws 56
1954
19555. Public Enemy 47
1956
19576. Buh Buh Ray & D-Von Dudley 31
1958
19597. British Bulldog & Jim Neidhart 22
1960
19618. Southern Justice 10
1962
19639. High Voltage 9
1964
196510. Giant & Scott Hall 8
1966
1967 
1968
1969PREVIOUS WINNERS
1970
19711984 - The Crusher & Baron Von Raschke
1972
19731985 - Uncle Elmer (Stan Frazier) & Cousin Junior (Lanny Kean)
1974
19751986 - Junkyard Dog & George Steele
1976
19771987 - Jimmy Valiant & Bugsy McGraw
1978
19791988 - Nikolai Volkoff & Boris Zhukov
1980
19811989 - Warlord & Barbarian
1982
19831990 - Giant Baba & Andre the Giant
1984
19851991 - Giant Baba & Andre the Giant
1986
19871992 - Bushwhackers
1988
19891993 - Colossal Kongs
1990
19911994 - Bushwhackers
1992
19931995 - Dick Slater & Bunkhouse Buck
1994
19951996 - Godwinns
1996
19971997 - Godwinns
1998
1999 
2000
2001WORST TELEVISION SHOW
2002
2003 
2004
20051. WCW NITRO 135
2006
20072. WCW Saturday Night 133
2008
20093. Music City Wrestling 116
2010
20114. WCW Thunder 115
2012
20135. WCW World Wide 78
2014
20156. AAA 54
2016
20177. WWF Live Wire 34
2018
20198. Memphis Power Pro 17
2020
20219. WWF Sunday Night Heat 12
2022
202310. WWF Shotgun 10
2024
2025 
2026
2027PREVIOUS WINNERS
2028
20291984 - WWF All-Star Wrestling
2030
20311985 - Championship Wrestling from Florida
2032
20331986 - California Championship Wrestling
2034
20351987 - World Class Championship Wrestling
2036
20371988 - AWA on ESPN
2038
20391989 - ICW Wrestling
2040
20411990 - AWA on ESPN
2042
20431991 - Herb Abrams UWF
2044
20451992 - GWF on ESPN
2046
20471993 - GWF on ESPN
2048
20491994 - WCW Saturday Night
2050
20511995 - WCW Saturday Night
2052
20531996 - AWF Warriors of Wrestling
2054
20551997 - USWA
2056
2057 
2058
2059WORST MANAGER
2060
2061 
2062
20631. SONNY ONOO 419
2064
20652. Lance Wright 62
2066
20673. Yamaguchi-san 56
2068
20694. Luna 20
2070
20715. Jackyl 18
2072
20736. Babu 17
2074
20757. Paul Bearer 16
2076
20778. Tennessee Lee 13
2078
20799. Paul Ellering 12
2080
208110. Jacqueline 10
2082
2083 
2084
2085Honorable Mention: Joel Gertner 9
2086
2087 
2088
2089PREVIOUS WINNERS
2090
20911984 - Mr. Fuji
2092
20931985 - Mr. Fuji
2094
20951986 - Paul Jones
2096
20971987 - Mr. Fuji
2098
20991988 - Mr. Fuji
2100
21011989 - Mr. Fuji
2102
21031990 - Mr. Fuji
2104
21051991 - Mr. Fuji
2106
21071992 - Mr. Fuji
2108
21091993 - Mr. Fuji
2110
21111994 - Mr. Fuji
2112
21131995 - Mr. Fuji
2114
21151996 - Sonny Onoo
2116
21171997 - Sonny Onoo
2118
2119 
2120
2121WORST MATCH OF THE YEAR
2122
2123 
2124
21251. HULK HOGAN VS. WARRIOR 10/24 LAS VEGAS 322
2126
21272. War Games 9/13 Winston-Salem 93
2128
21293. Hogan & Bischoff vs. Page & Leno 8/8 Sturgis 64
2130
21314. Oddities vs. Kaientai 8/30 New York 38
2132
21335. Undertaker vs. Kane 10/18 Chicago 20
2134
21356. Hogan & Rodman vs. Page & Malone 7/12 San Diego 19
2136
21377. Steve McMichael vs. Stevie Ray 6/22 Jacksonville 18
2138
21398. Bam Bam Bigelow vs. New Jack 5/3 Marietta 16
2140
21419. Steve McMichael vs. Brian Adams 8/8 Sturgis 15
2142
214310. Hulk Hogan vs. Randy Savage 3/15 Mobile 13
2144
2145 
2146
2147PREVIOUS WINNERS
2148
21491984 - Fabulous Moolah vs. Wendi Richter 7/23 New York
2150
21511985 - Fred Blassie vs. Lou Albano New York
2152
21531986 - Roddy Piper vs. Mr. T 4/2 New York
2154
21551987 - Hulk Hogan vs. Andre the Giant 3/29 Pontiac
2156
21571988 - Hiroshi Wajima vs. Tom Magee 4/21 Kawasaki
2158
21591989 - Andre the Giant vs. Ultimate Warrior 10/31 Topeka
2160
21611990 - Sid Vicious vs. Night Stalker 11/20 Jacksonville
2162
21631991 - P.N. News & Bobby Eaton vs. Terry Taylor & Steve Austin 7/14 Baltimore
2164
21651992 - Rick Rude vs. Masahiro Chono 10/25 Philadelphia
2166
21671993 - Four Doinks (Bushwhackers & Men on a Mission) vs. Bam Bam Bigelow & Head Shrinkers & Bastion Booger 11/24 Boston
2168
21691994 - Jerry Lawler & Queasy & Cheesy & Sleazy vs. Doink the Clown & Dink & Wink & Pink 11/23 San Antonio
2170
21711995 - Sting vs. Tony Palmore 1/4 Tokyo
2172
21731996 - Hulk Hogan & Randy Savage vs. Ric Flair & Arn Anderson & Meng & Barbarian & Kevin Sullivan & Ze Gangsta & Ultimate Solution & Lex Luger 3/24 Tupelo
2174
21751997 - Hulk Hogan vs. Roddy Piper 10/26 Las Vegas
2176
2177 
2178
2179WORST FEUD OF THE YEAR
2180
2181 
2182
21831. HULK HOGAN VS. WARRIOR 323
2184
21852. LOD 200 vs. DOA 80
2186
21873. Rick Steiner vs. Scott Steiner 52
2188
21894. Val Venis vs. Kaientai 18
2190
21915. Oddities vs. Head Bangers 17
2192
21936. Val Venis vs. Goldust 15
2194
21957. Wolfpac vs. Black & White 14
2196
21978. Hulk Hogan vs. Diamond Dallas Page 11
2198
2199Tommy Dreamer vs. Justin Credible 11
2200
220110. Jack Victory vs. New Jack 10
2202
2203 
2204
2205PREVIOUS WINNERS
2206
22071984 - Andre the Giant vs. John Studd
2208
22091985 - Sgt. Slaughter vs. Boris Zhukov
2210
22111986 - Machines (Andre the Giant & Bill Eadie) vs. John Studd & King Kong Bundy
2212
22131987 - George Steele vs. Danny Davis
2214
22151988 - Midnight Rider (Dusty Rhodes) vs. Tully Blanchard
2216
22171989 - Andre the Giant vs. Ultimate Warrior
2218
22191990 - Ric Flair vs. Junkyard Dog
2220
22211991 - Hulk Hogan vs. Sgt. Slaughter
2222
22231992 - Ultimate Warrior vs. Papa Shango
2224
22251993 - Undertaker vs. Giant Gonzalez
2226
22271994 - Jerry Lawler vs. Doink the Clown
2228
22291995 - Hulk Hogan vs. Dungeon of Doom
2230
22311996 - Big Bubba vs. John Tenta
2232
22331997 - DOA vs. Los Boricuas vs. NOD
2234
2235 
2236
2237WORST ON INTERVIEWS
2238
2239 
2240
22411. WARRIOR 269
2242
22432. Scott Steiner 146
2244
22453. Diamond Dallas Page 36
2246
22474. Ernest Miller 25
2248
22495. Val Venis 20
2250
22516. Steve McMichael 19
2252
22537. Eric Bischoff 15
2254
22558. Jacqueline 13
2256
22579. Colorado Kid 12
2258
225910. Hulk Hogan 10
2260
2261Vince McMahon 10
2262
2263 
2264
2265PREVIOUS WINNERS
2266
22671984 - Jimmy Snuka
2268
22691985 - Thunderbolt Patterson
2270
22711986 - Mike Von Erich
2272
22731987 - Bugsy McGraw
2274
22751988 - Steve Williams
2276
22771989 - Ultimate Warrior
2278
22791990 - Ultimate Warrior
2280
22811991 - Ultimate Warrior
2282
22831992 - Ultimate Warrior
2284
22851993 - Mr. Fuji
2286
22871994 - Dave Sullivan
2288
22891995 - Hulk Hogan
2290
22911996 - Ahmed Johnson
2292
22931997 - Ahmed Johnson
2294
2295 
2296
2297 
2298
2299WORST PROMOTION
2300
2301 
2302
23031. WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP WRESTLING 215
2304
23052. Music City Wrestling 171
2306
23073. AAA 134
2308
23094. Big Japan Pro Wrestling 111
2310
23115. Extreme Championship Wrestling 98
2312
23136. Memphis Power Pro 70
2314
23157. NWA 31
2316
23178. UFO 29
2318
23199. World Wrestling Federation 22
2320
232110. IWA Japan 10
2322
2323 
2324
2325PREVIOUS WINNERS
2326
23271986 - AWA
2328
23291987 - World Class
2330
23311988 - AWA
2332
23331989 - AWA
2334
23351990 - AWA
2336
23371991 - Herb Abrams UWF
2338
23391992 - GWF
2340
23411993 - WCW
2342
23431994 - WCW
2344
23451995 - WCW
2346
23471996 - AWF
2348
23491997 - USWA
2350
2351 
2352
2353BEST BOOKER
2354
2355 
2356
23571. VINCE MCMAHON 328
2358
23592. Paul Heyman 149
2360
23613. Riki Choshu 126
2362
23634. Mitsuharu Misawa 74
2364
23655. Keiichi Yamada 72
2366
23676. John Perretti 20
2368
23697. Antonio Pena 17
2370
23718. Vince Russo 12
2372
23739. Kevin Sullivan 7
2374
237510. Terry Taylor 6
2376
2377 
2378
2379PREVIOUS WINNERS
2380
23811986 - Dusty Rhodes
2382
23831987 - Vince McMahon
2384
23851988 - Eddie Gilbert
2386
23871989 - Shohei Baba
2388
23891990 - Shohei Baba
2390
23911991 - Shohei Baba
2392
23931992 - Riki Choshu
2394
23951993 - Jim Cornette
2396
23971994 - Paul Heyman
2398
23991995 - Paul Heyman
2400
24011996 - Paul Heyman
2402
24031997 - Paul Heyman
2404
2405 
2406
2407PROMOTER OF THE YEAR
2408
2409 
2410
24111. VINCE MCMAHON 489
2412
24132. Riki Choshu 172
2414
24153. Shohei Baba 43
2416
24174. Paul Heyman 24
2418
24195. Eric Bischoff 22
2420
24216. Cesar Johnson 19
2422
2423 
2424
2425PREVIOUS WINNERS
2426
24271988 - Vince McMahon
2428
24291989 - Akira Maeda
2430
24311990 - Shohei Baba
2432
24331991 - Shohei Baba
2434
24351992 - Shohei Baba
2436
24371993 - Shohei Baba
2438
24391994 - Shohei Baba
2440
24411995 - Riki Choshu
2442
24431996 - Riki Choshu
2444
24451997 - Riki Choshu
2446
2447 
2448
2449SHOOTER OF THE YEAR
2450
2451 
2452
24531. FRANK SHAMROCK 495
2454
24552. Tsuyoshi Kohsaka 37
2456
24573. Alexander Otsuka 36
2458
24594. Rickson Gracie 33
2460
24615. Mark Kerr 28
2462
24636. Evan Tanner 17
2464
24657. Maurice Smith 15
2466
2467Tank Abbott 15
2468
24699. Masakatsu Funaki 14
2470
247110. Bas Rutten 12
2472
2473 
2474
2475Honorable Mention: Bart Gunn 10
2476
2477 
2478
2479PREVIOUS WINNERS
2480
24811997 - Maurice Smith
2482
2483 
2484
2485SHOOT MATCH OF THE YEAR
2486
2487 
2488
24891. JERRY BOHLANDER VS. KEVIN JACKSON
2490
24913/13 NEW ORLEANS 119
2492
24932. Pete Williams vs. Mark Coleman
2494
24955/15 Mobile 115
2496
24973. Kimo vs. Tsuyoshi Kohsaka
2498
24993/13 New Orleans 98
2500
25014. Alexander Otsuka vs. Marco Ruas
2502
250310/11 Tokyo 75
2504
25055. Bart Gunn vs.Steve Williams 47
2506
2507Frank Shamrock vs. Jeremy Horn
2508
25095/15 Mobile 47
2510
25117. Frank Shamrock vs. John Lober
2512
251310/16 Rio de Janiero 42
2514
25158. Rickson Gracie vs. Nobuhiko Takada
2516
251710/11 Tokyo 34
2518
25199. Enson Inoue vs. Randy Couture
2520
252110/24 Tokyo 21
2522
252310. Mikey Burnett vs. Eugenio Tadeu
2524
25253/13 New Orleans 20
2526
2527 
2528
2529Honorable Mention: Tank Abbott vs. Pedro Rizzo 10/16 Rio de Janiero 19, Maurice Smith vs. Randy Couture 12/17/97 Yokohama 12
2530
2531 
2532
2533PREVIOUS WINNERS
2534
25351997 - Maurice Smith vs. Mark Coleman 7/27 Birmingham
2536
2537 
2538
2539BEST GIMMICK
2540
2541 
2542
25431. STONE COLD STEVE AUSTIN 131
2544
25452. Vince McMahon 77
2546
25473. Bill Goldberg 63
2548
25494. Chris Jericho 40
2550
25515. Rock 36
2552
25536. DX 35
2554
25557. Three faces of Foley 34
2556
25578. Gangrel 32
2558
25599. Kane 28
2560
256110. Al Snow & Head 25
2562
2563 
2564
2565Honorable Mention: Val Venis 22, Four Horsemen 16, Stephen Regal 13
2566
2567 
2568
2569PREVIOUS WINNERS
2570
25711986 - Adrian Street
2572
25731987 - Ted DiBiase Million Dollar Man
2574
25751988 - Rick Steiner Varsity Club
2576
25771989 - Jushin Liger
2578
25791990 - Undertaker
2580
25811991 - Undertaker
2582
25831992 - Undertaker
2584
25851993 - Undertaker
2586
25871994 - Undertaker
2588
25891995 - Disco Inferno
2590
25911996 - NWO
2592
25931997 - Stone Cold Steve Austin
2594
2595 
2596
2597WORST GIMMICK
2598
2599 
2600
26011. ODDITIES 116
2602
26032. Warrior 74
2604
26053. Scott Hall 44
2606
26074. LWO 43
2608
26095. Val Venis 37
2610
26116. Stephen Regal 30
2612
26137. Al Snow & Head 32
2614
26158. Goldust 27
2616
26179. Tiger Ali Singh 22
2618
261910. Dustin Runnels 18
2620
2621 
2622
2623Honorable Mention: OWN 15, Barry Darsow 14, Judy Bagwell 14, Pepe 12, Hawk 11, Too Much 10, Midnight Express 10, Disciple 10
2624
2625 
2626
2627PREVIOUS WINNERS
2628
26291986 - Adorable Adrian Adonis
2630
26311987 - Adorable Adrian Adonis
2632
26331988 - Midnight Rider (Dusty Rhodes)
2634
26351989 - Ding Dongs
2636
26371990 - Gobbledy Gooker
2638
26391991 - Oz
2640
26411992 - Papa Shango
2642
26431993 - Shock Master
2644
26451994 - Dave Sullivan
2646
26471995 - Goldust
2648
26491996 - New Razor, Diesel and Double J
2650
26511997 - New Goldust
2652
2653 
2654
2655MOST EMBARRASSING WRESTLER
2656
2657 
2658
26591. WARRIOR 165
2660
26612. Oddities 112
2662
26633. Hulk Hogan 58
2664
26654. Val Venis 47
2666
26675. Scott Hall 44
2668
26696. Godfather 42
2670
26717. Goldust 33
2672
26738. Scott Steiner 25
2674
26759. Dennis Rodman 17
2676
267710. Sable 16
2678
2679 
2680
2681Honorable Mention: Jay Leno 13
2682
2683 
2684
2685PREVIOUS WINNER
2686
26871986 - Adrian Adonis
2688
26891987 - George Steele
2690
26911988 - George Steele
2692
26931989 - Andre the Giant
2694
26951990 - Dusty Rhodes
2696
26971991 - Van Hammer
2698
26991992 - Papa Shango
2700
27011993 - Bastion Booger
2702
27031994 - Doink the Clown
2704
27051995 - Hulk Hogan
2706
27071996 - Hulk Hogan
2708
27091997 - New Goldust
2710
2711With the Muchnick death and year-end awards this week, the regular news coverage this week has to be kept brief. Results and Japanese rundowns will be held for next week. Because of having to cover two PPV shows next week, some year-end features we do annually, will have to be moved back a few weeks.
2712
2713The three largest companies in the world all changed their world titles to open the year. WWF aired the Mick Foley title win over Rock, taped 12/29 in Worcester, MA, on 1/4. WWF itself on its online site heavily publicized the fact the title change was taped and would air, so they felt (I'd bet correctly so), that fans being told in advance a title change was taped and going to appear would boost their ratings on a very competitive night (Nitro was pushing Goldberg vs. Nash from Georgia Dome plus the national College Football championship game was going head-to-head). Foley won the title in 8:47 after Austin did a run-in clocking Rock with a chair. That wasn't the planned finish, since Austin originally wasn't going to be at TV, but when he flew in for the Super Bowl commercial taping, they asked him to be involved in the title match finish. Aside from a spot where Rock used the Rock Bottom through the English announcers table, the match was nothing special, but the post-match celebration was tremendous. WCW put the title back on Hulk Hogan at the Georgia Dome, when Bill Goldberg was being held hostage at the police station and couldn't get across the street for 30 minutes. Nash simply laid down for Hogan at 1:38 when Hogan tapped him with his finger and they all got up laughing. Hogan, Nash, Luger, Hall, Scott Steiner and Bagwell will form the new Wolfpac (since they didn't want to drop the moniker because Wolfpac is the hottest selling merchandise) and the idea is to recreate 1996-97 because that's when the company caught fire. Hope they remember another key of that period was they were presenting incredible matches on television and signed nearly every great young wrestler in the world and were blowing their opposition away in the ring, something that is far from the case today. Goldberg did a run-in after and destroyed a few guys until Hall zapped Goldberg a few times with a taser, he was handcuffed to the ropes and spray pained red NWO on his back and they spray painted his head, which he didn't seem thrilled about. The Georgia Dome drew 34,788 paid and 38,809 total in a building set up for 46,000. The paid was slightly below the company record of 35,514 set for the Nitro in the same building on 7/6. The gate was $930,735, breaking the record set on 12/21 in St. Louis but Bischoff was mad that none of the three Dome events drew $1 million. The fans live were furious since they'd been promised a Goldberg vs. Nash main event which never took place, and instead got a main event where the two guys didn't touch. Overall the Georgia Dome was an absolute disaster of a show and it would probably take 18 pages to list all the reasons why. During the show on two occasions, the chimpanzees running WCW told Schiavone to say that Raw was taped and that Foley would be winning the title on the opposition show so don't switch channels. Nitro was beyond awful, and he was telling people there's a world title change going to happen on the other channel? Who runs this circus? He also knocked Foley, laughing about a company that would make him champ, which isn't going to help Schiavone's rep with wrestling fans since Foley is so universally respected. WWF shot back when they heard what was being said, since even though the show is taped, the commentary is done live, and said they weren't going to present a main event that starts two minutes before the show goes off the air and consists of nothing but walking and talking.
2714
2715The other switch was Keiji Muto capturing the IWGP title from Scott Norton in the main event of the 1/4 Tokyo Dome, which drew 62,500 fans and an estimated $5.3 million, as they had a monstrous walk-up. It was a really strange show. Based on what I've been told, it's probably better to watch a tape of the Shinya Hashimoto vs. Naoya Ogawa match than discuss it at length but that stole the show, and by no means because it was anywhere close to the best match. Quickly results were: 1. Manabu Nakanishi beat Kazuyuki Fujita with a torture rack in 11:10; 2. Tadao Yasuda & Osamu Kido & Tatsumi Fujinami beat Michiyoshi Ohara & Tatsutoshi Goto & Kengo Kimura when Yasuda pinned Goto with a Liger bomb in 9:17; 3. Kendo Ka Shin & Dr. Wagner Jr. won the IWGP jr. tag title from Tatsuhito Takaiwa & Shinjiro Otani in 16:53 when Ka Shin did a flying armbar on Otani for the submission. Said to be real good; 4. Jushin Liger retained the IWGP jr. title pinning Koji Kanemoto in 23:11 after a brainbuster off the top rope. Said to be as good as you'd expect from these two; 5. Kensuke Sasaki beat Atsushi Onita via DQ in 5:55 when Onita threw fire in Sasaki's face. It was a bad match, but there will be more to write about this from a political standpoint. Onita got a reasonable reaction but was said to have been embarrassingly bad. There is a good chance they'll do an explosive barbed wire match between the two on 4/10 at the Dome; 6. In the first of the three bout New Japan vs. UFO feud, Yuji Nagata beat Dave Beneteau in 5:30 with a triangle choke. Nagata looked good but fans weren't really into this; 7. Don Frye, representing UFO, evened it up beating Brian Johnston in 7:55 with a lot of UFO interference. Said to be a lot better than you'd think; 8. In the deciding match, Hashimoto went to a no contest with Ogawa in 6:58. This is the match I need to see a tape of. It was described to me as being a completely different Ogawa from ever before and it appeared to be a shoot from the opening bell. Ogawa beat the hell out of Hashimoto and looked great in a Vale Tudo way in doing so, although Hashimoto was given credit for taking the punishment and getting a broken nose and not quitting. Hashimoto tried to kick ref Masao Hattori to get a DQ to stop it since it wasn't the finish, and who knows what was, he didn't. The match ended for no reason as the bell just rang and things were out of control. A lot of the post-match was edited off TV. Booker Riki Choshu got in the ring, acting as the guy running the company. Fans reacted with a huge pop as if he was going to be part of an angle. He told Ogawa to get out of the ring, which he did, but he came back and Choshu ended up punching Ogawa in the face which may be an angle for 4/10. Antonio Inoki was nowhere to be seen (actually he was in the first base dugout wearing a rubber Halloween mask watching although that at this point hasn't been acknowledged.) Remember Inoki is the master of shoot angles. There was a huge brawl at the end at Kazunari Murakami, one of Ogawa's seconds, wound up taken out on a stretcher after being punched in the nose by Ohara and was said to have suffered a broken nose; 9. Satoshi Kojima & Hiroyoshi Tenzan beat Genichiro Tenryu & Shiro Koshinaka to win the IWGP tag titles when Kojima hit Koshinaka with a lariat and Tenzan pinned him after a head-butt off the top in 16:35. First half saw Kojima & Tenzan argue, but as the match progressed, they started working together and doing double-team moves. After the previous match, the fans were having a hard time getting back into good pro wrestling "as usual." When the match ended, Kojima & Tenzan, who were warming up and didn't see what happened before, when the press came, were a lot more interested in asking about exactly what happened then talking about their world tag team title win; 10. Muto beat Norton in 19:01 with the figure four. Muto had his working shoes and moved better and with less pain than he has in months, but after everything that had happened on the show, going so long with Norton doing an American style working the knee match didn't get over.
2716
2717This was a week of tragic news. Dan Curtis, 37, an independent promoter out of Royal Oak, MI who also worked as a manager called The Gypsy and was co-promoter for indie promotions such as Motor City Wrestling and Northern States Wrestling, and most recently Hellfire Wrestling which ran its first show with Insane Clown Posse headlining on 12/27 in Detroit before a sellout 1,000, died of a massive heart attack apparently on 12/29. He was found dead in his apartment on 1/1 when phone calls for several days hadn't been returned and he failed to appear at several New Years functions. He had been very ill last year with complications from diabetes
2718
2719Frank Valois, 77, who wrestled from 1940 to 1978 and was best known as the business manager for Andre the Giant during his early years barnstorming in North America, passed away on 12/31 at his home in Sainte Adele, Quebec, about an hour North of Montreal. Valois, a Canadian amateur champion in the late 30s, was better known in wrestling as Andre the Giant's business manager when he first broke out as the biggest draw in the business. Valois, who grew up in Montreal, became a huge star in France in the early 1950s first as a wrestler, and later as an actor where he did more than 20 movies. He met Andre while wrestling in France in 1967. He brought him, at the time he was wrestling in Montreal under the name Jean Ferre, to Vince McMahon Sr. in 1973 who booked him around the world as the biggest attraction and up to that point in time, highest paid wrestler, of all-time. Valois toured for several years with Andre, and worked as a frequent opponent before leaving the road and starting up the International Wrestling promotion with Dino Bravo and Gino Brito in Montreal which lasted from 1979-87, which peaked in the mid-80s with the second generation Rougeau Brothers vs. Ron & Jimmy Garvin feud before it was crushed under the weight of the WWF onslaught
2720
2721Eddie Guerrero, 31, suffered a major auto accident in the middle of the night on New Years Eve, suffering a lacerated liver, a fractured pelvis and a large portion of his calf was ripped off. After going to sleep, in the middle of the night he wound up driving his Trans Am and crashed, and was ejected through the top of the car. The car was destroyed. Had he been wearing his seat belt, he'd have surely been killed. He was thrown from the car and landed in sand face-first. When the police came, seeing the condition of the car and the scene of the accident, they were stunned he was still alive. The injuries are said not to be career threatening and he'll be hospitalized until the end of the week. Preliminary indications are that he'll out of action three to four months. None of this was acknowledged on TV as they taped those LWO vignettes in El Paso a few weeks back that they will be running on TV the next few weeks
2722
2723Lou Thesz also suffered a major car accident on 1/2, totalling his car about 100 miles from St. Louis, driving in from Virginia in the blizzard to attend the Muchnick funeral and he never made it. He's fine
2724
2725Eric Dalhberg, a long-time Observer subscriber and correspondent for matches in Minnesota and Wisconsin, out of Oakdale, MN, died in an auto accident on 12/26
2726
2727Sports Illustrated is working on a story on Bill Goldberg
2728
2729Because of New Years, ratings for this past weekend are unavailable. For 12/28, Raw did a 4.87 rating and 7.60 share to Nitro's 4.59 rating and 7.16 share so the Flair-Bischoff stuff kept it close. We don't have total viewer numbers available but I'd bet it was real close. Flair vs. Bischoff did a 6.15 rating which was the highest rated segment of either show. The Michaels-McMahon final confrontation did a 5.55, although it had two minutes going unopposed after Nitro went off the air so the two numbers really can't be compared. In head-to-head, Raw won six of eight quarters, although Nitro actually won the first head-to-head hour outright by 4.37 to 4.33, largely on the strength of the Misterio Jr. & Kidman vs. Guerrero & Guerrera match which did a 4.8 and beat Raw's Jarrett & Hart vs. Goldust & Blackman at 4.3. Raw won handily in hour two 5.36 to 4.56, with the biggest gap being a 5.36 to 4.09 when Shamrock vs. HHH opposed a Nash interview and Bigelow vs. Disco. Raw's high point was a 5.54 for the Mankind vs. Road Dogg Hardcore title match, beating Nitro's Hall vs. Adams snoozefest at 4.41. For the weekend of 12/26-27, Live Wire did a 1.6, Superstars a 1.4 (both below average and Heat did a 3.83 while WCW Saturday Night did a 2.8. WCW's 12/30 prime time three hour special on TNT called "Best of Nitro," was changed from having the best matches in Nitro's history to instead being a Best of Hogan did a very strong 3.50 considering there was very little hype for the show and it wasn't in a slot wrestling fans are used to
2730
2731Malenko's crutches on Nitro were legit as he suffered a severely sprained ankle at the 1/3 house show in Columbus, OH
2732
2733At this point in regard to the WCW/Telemundo deal, they have agreed to a one hour prime time special which will air in late February, which will be taped on 1/27 in Waco, TX, as a show pilot. Konnan will be putting the show together, using both WCW Mexican talent and a few non-Mexican talent that can work doing Lucha style trios matches, along with bringing in some wrestlers from Mexico
2734
2735If anyone has a tape of the 12/30 "Hard Copy" feature on wrestling, please contact me
2736
2737A&E ran its Jesse Ventura edition of "Biography" on 12/30. Ventura came off real good, as did his entire family. They didn't do a lot on his wrestling career, as the only people who even talked about it besides himself were myself, Bob Geigel and Gene Okerlund. They probably gave him more credit than he deserved as far as being a top drawing wrestler (he was a top of the card wrestler and strong interview, but never a huge draw), but they shortchanged him for his role as a television announcer. Show itself was very positive in its coverage of him, and overall was good, but not great. Ventura was all over the news this week since his inauguration as Governor was 1/4
2738
2739Due to the horrible weather, WWF was forced to cancel all three of its house shows this past weekend, set for 1/2 in Detroit and 1/3 double-shot in Grand Rapids and at Notre Dame University in South Bend, IN. South Bend was rescheduled for 3/6 as an afternoon double-shot before Chicago. Detroit and Grand Rapids tickets will be honored on 4/12 and 4/13 respectively, both of which will be Raw tapings, and since the shows were almost sold out in advance, there are very few tickets remaining
2740
2741WCW this past week drew on 12/29 at Nassau Coliseum drew 12,323 paying $398,990, 12/30 in Philadelphia at the Spectrum drew 17,196 paying $286,838 (about 800 shy of capacity), 1/2 in Macon, GA had 6,056 paying $129,530, 1/3 in Columbus, GA drew 4,072 paying $83,560. We don't have merchandise for the week available at press time. In Philadelphia, Bam Bam Bigelow missed the show as his wife went into labor. The scheduled three-way with Bigelow, Nash and Goldberg for the title was changed with Giant beating Page on the undercard and going into the title match, where Goldberg speared him but Nash jumped on top first for the pin. Macon & Columbus was headlined by Goldberg beating Giant. Sting returned for the latter two shows, beating Wrath. Both Sting and Hart (still bothered by a nagging groin injury) were at Nitro on 1/4 but neither were used. With Guerrero injured, Juventud Guerrera was called in as a sub and he and Jericho lost to Benoit & Malenko
2742
2743WWF's only show of the past week was the TV taping
2744
274512/29 in Worcester, MA which drew a sellout 10,668 paying $257,093 and $74,251 in merchandise or $6.96 per
2746
2747Fans live didn't see this, but on television they added into the show the angle where Michaels was "injured" to explain his leaving due to the back surgery. Michaels was back with DX, but they sort of double-crossed him and left him to the wolves and the Corporate Team destroyed him outside the building. They actually didn't do a beating, just went to a commercial and when they came back, Michaels was laying face down on a broken windshield, covered with blood and carted away
2748
2749Victor Quinones and Savio Vega are running WWF shows on 1/5 and 1/6 in Caguas and Ponce, PR with Undertaker vs. Kane, Outlaws vs. Perez & Jesus Castillo as the headliners
2750
2751The real name of Brady Boone was Dean Peters. According to police reports, his death came while returning from the TV taping in Palmetto, FL on 12/22, he was driving on an elevated stretch of I-275 in St. Petersburg when his Dodge Van went off the road and fell to Fifth Avenue underneath and flipped over. The crash is being investigated by the highway patrol
2752
2753All Japan shot an angle with Vader and Kobashi on its first show of the year on 1/2. They were in the year-opening Battle Royal (eventually won by Giant Kimala II which shows what that's worth), and Vader head-butted Kobashi above the eye and Kobashi was cut open. This was a planned spot without the blade and was dangerous as hell but you know how great lengths people will go nowadays to get their angles over. Vader continued to attack him. Kobashi was taken to the dressing room. Vader tried to get in the dressing room to continue to attack him but the door was locked, so Vader punched through the glass window of the door, and opened it from the inside. They took Kobashi to the hospital where he took a legit 11 stitches on the outside and three stitches on the inside. Kobashi worked the 1/3 show, although not against Vader, but Vader came out before Kobashi's match started and they had a pull-apart. Their singles match will be 1/15. On 1/3, Misawa & Hiroshi Hase beat Vader & Maunukea Mossman when Hase pinned Mossman, and after the match Hase challenged Kawada to a singles match on the 5/2 Tokyo Dome show. Yoshinobu Kanemaru on that card won the annual junior heavyweights Battle Royal. Kobashi talked about Rock or Austin as potential opponents for the Dome. At this point negotiations haven't even been opened for this to happen
2754
2755New Japan will not only run the Dome in April, but again in October
2756
2757WWF is planning a big angle for Undertaker's Raw return on 1/11 in Houston
2758
2759The working idea for Randy Savage's new valet's name is Gorgeous George. Savage's ring music for the past 13 years was the same music that George used
2760
2761ECW over the weekend drew 1,000 for a show in Northeast Philadelphia on 1/2 and 500 in Lebanon, PA on 1/3. Nothing of any major significance, although they tested out Yoshihiro Tajiri vs. Super Crazy for two matches, with Tajiri winning the first night and Crazy the second
2762
2763It's been reported on MMA web sites that Frank Shamrock hasn't signed nor does it appear he's going to face Kiyoshi Tamura on the 1/23 Budokan Hall show, which leaves RINGS with nothing at all booking such a large building
2764
2765Ric & David Flair vs. Windham & Hennig announced for 1/17 Souled Out. Main event looks to be Goldberg vs. Hall with a taser on a pole.
2766
2767This is the final issue of the four-issue set, so if you've got a (1) on your address label, your subscription expires with this issue.
2768
2769In the U.S., Canada and Mexico the rates are $11 for four issues, $20 for eight, $28 for 12, $36 for 16, $54 for 24, $72 for 32 up through $90 for 40 issues. For the rest of the world it is $14 for four, $26 for eight, $37 for 12, $48 for 16, $60 for 20, $84 for 28 up through $120 for 40. Renewals should be sent to Wrestling Observer Newsletter, P.O. Box 1228, Campbell, CA 95009-1228. Fax number is 408-244-3402. Phone message line is 408-244-2455. News hotline updated daily is 900-903-9030..