Instability was also hitting Jack Adkisson hard in Dallas. His son Kerry Von Erich was still recovering from his horrific ankle injury, and an optimistic newspaper report in August 1986 suggested he’d be back training inside three months.326 World Class needed him as soon as possible as weekly house shows were drawing meager crowds, sometimes less than 200 people. In looking for help, Adkisson landed George Scott, recently displaced from his job in the WWF, to book his promotion.327 Rumor had it that it was some type of working relationship with Vince McMahon, but other than WWF regular Ricky Steamboat appearing on the October 12 Cotton Bowl bill, there was nothing to the speculation.
Adkisson picked up Bam Bam Bigelow, who went by Crusher Yurkov, George Wells (Master Gee), Tony Atlas, and Scott Casey. Bruiser Brody was a reliable face on World Class shows in 1986, and he engaged in a heavy feud with Gary Hart’s charge, Abdullah the Butcher. On October 12 at the Cotton Bowl, Brody beat Abdullah in a cage bout, although he lost a loser-leaves-Texas rematch on Christmas night in Dallas. The Von Erichs were always in the thick of things, with Kevin going over Black Bart for the local world title at the Cotton Bowl in October, and Kevin and Mike feuding with Brian Adias and Al Madril. Adkisson returned to the ring himself as his alter-ego Fritz Von Erich to topple Abdullah the Butcher in a special claw-hold-versus-sleeper contest on November 27. Kerry was visible on TV too, and at one point, he was double-teamed by Adias and Madril and, according to the storyline, suffered a setback in his recovery because of the beating he took.
The truth was Kerry was in no condition to wrestle anytime in late 1986 and early 1987. Plans for expansion outside of Texas were a pipe dream for World Class without Kerry and at least a few other recognizable stars. Behind the curtain, the promotion was in perpetual chaos, and George Scott was constantly butting heads with Gary Hart and David Manning, two of Adkisson’s loyal assistants. Adkisson then invested an unknown amount of money to acquire the television contracts for San Antonio–based USA All-Star Wrestling, the last line to Joe Blanchard’s old territory. USA was shutting down for good, and part of Adkisson’s arrangement included future TV tapings at Gilley’s Club in Pasadena, Texas, near Houston.
Montreal was the textbook image of a territory in turbulence. Following the deal made between Vince McMahon and International Wrestling, Dino Bravo, co-owner of the IW group, had certain expectations. He anticipated an upper-card berth on WWF programs north of the border, and he was sometimes given his proper due. But other times he was tossed into the middle of a card, and essentially dismissed. Bravo thought he was getting the respect he deserved when he was booked to wrestle Hulk Hogan at the Forum on January 13, 1986. For fans in Montreal, it was a dream match, but shortly before the card, WWF officials rebooked the show, pitting Hogan with Bob Orton and Bravo against Big John Studd. The deceptive marketing ploy was an immense disappointment to the 20,000 spectators in attendance, and to Bravo himself. It’s believed the change was because of Bravo’s popularity in Montreal, whereas Hogan was the WWF’s customary hero. And they didn’t want him shown up. Bravo quit the promotion and restarted International Wrestling in Montreal without the rights to the Forum, since the WWF had an exclusive contract. From Vince McMahon’s point of view, Bravo’s move was inconsequential. His promotion was drawing astronomical crowds in Montreal without his participation, notably a house of 23,000 on August 18. The WWF also brought aboard the Rougeau Brothers, Jacques and Raymond, two well-known Montreal grapplers. In October 1986, IW stars Bravo, Rick Martel, and Tom Zenk jumped to the WWF for full-time gigs, with Bravo as a heel managed by Johnny V and Martel and Zenk as a popular tag team known as the Can-Am Connection. The local Montreal office continued, but it was no longer the center of any kind of territory. It too had become a bona fide indie.
Looking at the Honolulu-based promotion of Lia Maivia, it was obvious she was trying to do a number of big things in 1986. Enhanced by a weekend timeslot on SCORE (Financial News Network), Polynesian Pro Wrestling was seen across the United States, and Maivia was exceedingly determined to pursue expansion. She invested tremendous sums of money rounding up stateside talent and venues in California, and then flew in her core wrestlers for shows in Los Angeles, San Luis Obispo, and San Jose. With booker Lars Anderson, Maivia crafted an ambitious plan to promote further in Calgary, Juneau, Seattle, and the Midwest in March and April 1986. The challenges for a stateside operation to expand in such a fashion were hard enough without first having to fly more than 2,500 miles to reach the U.S. coast. But Maivia charged ahead, and her California shows drew in the low hundreds with wrestlers such as Jerry Lawler, Kevin Sullivan, Tatsumi Fujinami, and Jimmy Snuka.
The financial losses were adding up, and an April program in San Jose only drew 25 paid spectators.328 Her home crowds were not much better, and the office hoped to make up serious ground with its second annual Hot Summer Night at Aloha Stadium on August 9, 1986. With 20 matches, the event was an astonishing production, pulling together international wrestlers for yet another massive undertaking. Antonio Inoki, Bruiser Brody, the original Sheik, and phenomenon Keiji Mutoh were on the bill, but lack of interest and bad weather prevented the show from being a success. Only 1,900 people ventured to the stadium, more than 10,000 less than in 1985, and PPW was facing a real crisis. The $28,000 gate might have just covered rent on the venue, but very little else, and Maivia was left to pay the remainder of expenses out of pocket. On the heels of this, the Honolulu office closed Polynesian Pro Wrestling and incorporated World Pacific Wrestling, a new entity with new ideas. Maivia and her partners, Lars Anderson (Larry Heiniemi) and Ati So’o, moved their regular shows from the Blaisdell Arena to the Ilikai Hotel and put less emphasis on expansion. Two years later, Maivia and her cohorts were accused of extorting money and threatening harm on a rival promoter and endured a lengthy court process to clear their names.329 In November 1989, they were acquitted of all charges.330
Like in Montreal, all traces of Hawaii as a wrestling territory vanished, but between small independents and the WWF, pro wrestling lived on. In fact, when the WWF debuted in Honolulu on July 10, 1986, an enthusiastic crowd of 5,000 turned out. As the Honolulu Star-Bulletin noted, the WWF were the “folks” who brought “entertainment wrestling,” and a new era in Hawaiian grappling dawned.331
Chapter Seventeen
Manifest Destiny
The myriad effects of wrestling’s cable television success and national expansion altered the industry forever, and Vincent K. McMahon was the general in charge of the revolution. His bold maneuvering in the face of adversity was impressive, and McMahon’s ambition had forced professional wrestling to evolve at light speed, in tune with technological advances and cultural shifts. Ultimately, every promoter was going to have to compromise to some extent when it came to cable TV and territorial boundaries. That is, if the old cooperatives were to remain in place. But McMahon cared little about the timeless cooperatives, and displayed the imagination and gall needed to turn the entire wrestling world upside down.
“When Vince took over from his father, he saw the Manifest Destiny which the WWF is approaching today,” explained Basil DeVito, the vice-president of marketing of Titan Sports, to a reporter for the Globe and Mail in 1986. “It was in Vince’s mind. It has been said that our best research is lodged firmly in Vince McMahon’s gut.”332 Relying heavily on instincts, McMahon was delivering his vision to the masses, and he was arguably the hardest-working man in the industry. He wasn’t afraid to take chances, nor was he fearful of spending money if the potential payoff made sense, whether it was in the short term or over the long haul. In most cases, exposure was his main concern, as was selling the World Wrestling Federation as a vehicle for family entertainment. The WWF wasn’t about knock-down, drag-out professional wrestling anymore, and his dad’s business philosophies were obsolete — well, most of them.
“There was too much emphasis on the sports element and not enough on entertainment in the old days,” McMahon said to Sports Il
lustrated in 1991. “Now we call it sports entertainment. We don’t want to de-emphasize the athleticism of wrestling; these are great athletes with great charisma. But in the WWF, entertainment is the key.”333 With the imagery of bigger-than-life characters and fantastical performances, the WWF was in a world all its own. The high-gloss television productions, well-crafted matches and interviews, and upscale live shows, each were the standard for professionalism, and elevated McMahon’s promotion far above the competition. And by devising a range of popular characters, the WWF was geared particularly toward young people. That marketing strategy went hand in hand with the sales of merchandise, and a cartoon series on Saturday mornings. Altogether, the WWF appeared to be a wholesome environment perfect for people of all ages.
By changing the demographics, McMahon saw increased advertising opportunities and another huge revenue stream. For 30-second commercials during WWF programs in 1985, companies were doling out a whopping $30,000, and there was still room to grow.334 The exciting, yet sanitized, product appealed to national advertisers like Dr. Pepper, Mars, Bic, and Gillette, and again, the old stereotypes about wrestling were no longer relevant. “Three years ago, there was a reluctance,” explained John Howard, sales manager for Titan Sports in 1987. “Many advertisers found wrestling objectionable, even though they hadn’t watched it in a long time. About two years ago, things started going our way. There’s been an improvement of the product and the image of the WWF.”335
The outside-the-ring troubles of Jimmy Snuka and the arrests of several of his stars for raucous behavior or driving-related offenses were the kind of negative publicity McMahon wanted to avoid. On top of that, wrestling in general was dealing with a sizable drug problem. Many well-known stars were hooked on cocaine. Steroids were also highly prevalent, but the media rarely touched on that subject. The WWF avoided it as well. But on the whole, McMahon ran a tight ship and controlled the comings and goings with precision. Of course, he surrounded himself with trusted allies who helped on the road. Blackjack Lanza, Chief Jay Strongbow, Gorilla Monsoon, and Pat Patterson were among McMahon’s agents, the men responsible for corralling the talent, setting up match finishes, and collecting box-office percentages. Patterson was one of his go-to idea men, and Monsoon became a primary TV commentator. At the very top of Titan Sports, Vince had only one equal, and that was his wife, Linda.
When it came to business, McMahon could play hardball with the best, and he asserted control over his performers with stunning intensity. In 1985, he compelled 99 percent of his roster to sign two-year contracts.336 In addition, he began trademarking his grapplers’ names to ensure that characters developed on WWF telecasts were the property of his company. With venues, McMahon was more than happy to sign exclusive deals, which would keep his adversaries from utilizing the same buildings. But when that was not possible, he added stipulations to his arena contracts, blocking a rival group from using the venue 10 days prior and 10 days following a WWF show.
McMahon’s strong-mindedness was an asset from the point of view of Titan Sports, but from an outside perspective, he was difficult to deal with at times. Two of his earliest agreements, made at the beginning of his national expansion, ended badly and resulted in lawsuits. The first was his arrangement with Mike LeBell of Los Angeles, established in October 1982, which gave way to the WWF’s debut in southern California. It was an important step in the organization’s growth, and LeBell was believed to have been well compensated. But somewhere along the line, there was a falling-out, and LeBell sued Titan for money he claimed he was owed.337 Part of LeBell’s problem was he had nothing in writing, only an oral agreement, and his legal action was dismissed.338 George Cannon, McMahon’s business partner in Detroit from 1983 to 1986, actually brought suit against Titan Sports over the Superstars of Wrestling trademark.339 A court later determined that neither party owned the trademark and restored full rights to promoter Albert Patterson of Milwaukee.
As previously mentioned, George Scott had been bumped out of his position as booker a few months after WrestleMania II, and McMahon himself took on the role. Changes to personnel were abundant and, over the course of 1986, the WWF acquired Dory Funk Jr., Jesse Barr (Jimmy Jack Funk), Billy Jack Haynes, Dick Slater, Butch Reed, and Harley Race. The addition of two former NWA champions, Funk and Race, deepened the credibility of the promotion’s roster by a wide margin. But McMahon liked to put his own spin on things, and gave both grapplers otherwise forgettable gimmicks. Dory was referred to as “Hoss,” a play on his Texas heritage, and Race was known as the “King” after winning a July tournament in Foxboro. Race wore a crown and cape, and became just another performer on the wild and wooly WWF circuit. Tough guy Butch Reed dyed his hair blond and took Slick, a fellow Kansas City alumnus, as his manager.
The organization’s eccentricity factor skyrocketed with the arrival of two unorthodox characters, Koko B. Ware and the Honky Tonk Man. Ware was a talented mid-card grappler from the UWF, known as the Birdman, and he went to the ring carrying his trusty bird, Frankie. As for Honky Tonk Man, he was pro wrestling’s number-one Elvis impersonator, complete with the signature jumpsuits, the mutton chops, and a flashy guitar. For old-school fans who took wrestling very seriously, the influx of animals and goofy gimmicks solidified the WWF’s full transition into a three-ring circus. But instead of clowns, McMahon had the Machines, a masked group of monstrous heroes consisting of Super, Giant, and Big Machine. Under the hoods, they were the Masked Superstar, Andre the Giant, and Blackjack Mulligan, respectively.
Roddy Piper took time off from his active schedule after WrestleMania and filmed the comedy Body Slam, a wrestling-themed movie also featuring the Tonga Kid, Captain Lou Albano, and cameos by Bruno Sammartino and Ric Flair. A few months later, Piper reemerged as a fan favorite at odds with flamboyant Adrian Adonis, and crowds were clearly in his corner. Paul Orndorff went in the other direction. Mr. Wonderful had been a babyface since 1985 and battled Piper and Bob Orton Jr. umpteen times. During a Poughkeepsie TV taping on June 24, 1986, Orndorff attacked his tag partner, Hulk Hogan, after winning a match against Big John Studd and King Kong Bundy by DQ. He subsequently took Bobby Heenan as his manager and entered a lengthy feud with Hogan, challenging for the WWF championship. There was immense interest in that feud, and houses popped across the country.
In Landover, Maryland, Hogan and Orndoff drew 20,000, another 18,000 in Chicago, and more than 11,000 in Minneapolis. The combination of that main event and a special Sam Muchnick tournament even sold out the Kiel Auditorium in St. Louis. Appropriately, Harley Race topped Ricky Steamboat in the tourney final for honors. But none of these crowds came close to the success of Hogan versus Orndorff in Toronto on August 28, 1986, at CNE Stadium. The Big Event, as it was called, was the culmination of an incredible promotional campaign, and the program was hyped on TV, radio, and in newspapers. Early reports predicted attendance around 40,000, which if realized, would be simply astonishing. The WWF managed to surpass that number with relative ease, and ended up with nearly 65,000 screaming patrons, a complete sellout of the venue, and an unbelievable C$1.1 million gate.340
On November 24, the WWF drew its second sellout in eight months at Madison Square Garden behind the strength of the Hogan-Orndorff feud, pitting them on opposite sides of a tag match. The unlikely combination of Hogan and Piper teamed to beat Orndorff and Race. For a time in 1986, McMahon ran a strong “A” lineup at the Garden and other major cities without Hogan, and gave the Hulkster time off to rest. And when the lucrative Orndorff feud was ready to set the business ablaze, he was in prime condition. Good thing, too, because McMahon booked the “Ugandan Giant” Kamala for Hogan next, and they did great business around the horn as well with big sellers in Chicago, Richfield, Toronto, and Oakland.
In one of the hottest angles of 1986, Intercontinental champion Randy Savage used a timekeeper’s bell to “injure” the throat of Ricky Steamboat, putting him out of action. Interviews with Ricky’s concerned wife, Bon
nie, and doctors proclaiming him unfit to compete built the drama steadily until Steamboat made his return in January 1987. With two of the organization’s top grapplers matching up, fans were promised a throwback-type wrestling match, an occurrence that definitely stood out on WWF cards. In December 1986, the Dynamite Kid, rated among the top five best pound-for-pound wrestlers in the world, suffered a devastating back injury during a bout in Hamilton, Ontario. One-half of the WWF tag champions at the time, Dynamite would be in no condition to wrestle anytime soon, but he showed amazing grit by presence alone on January 26, 1987, when partner Davey Boy Smith went through the motions in a title loss to the Hart Foundation.
To meet the demands of business and to stay ahead of his competition, Vince McMahon was constantly modifying and updating aspects of his empire. The offices of Titan Sports, with more than 70 full-time employees, relocated from Greenwich to Stamford, Connecticut, in September 1986.341 That same month, their entire TV setup was revamped, with a new and improved Superstars of Wrestling syndicated show making its debut on September 6 and the inaugural Wrestling Challenge program starting the next day. As a result of these changes, Championship Wrestling and All Star Wrestling, both long-running telecasts, were no more.342 The previous incarnation of Superstars of Wrestling was repackaged for affiliates and renamed WWF Wrestling Spotlight. McMahon halted the routine TV tapings in Poughkeepsie and Brantford and instead recorded three weeks of programs from various arenas around the country, naturally, every three weeks.343 Wrestling TNT was also put to pasture by the USA Network.
The WWF wanted to end deals with stations in which they paid for their TV time. For example, since 1983, McMahon had been paying KHJ in Los Angeles for its Saturday morning timeslot. The fee was $2,500 a week when the deal originated, and undoubtedly went up each year. The advent of the FOX Network in October 1986 provided a new opportunity, and McMahon offered the standard barter deal, the “5/7 split,” for placement on LA’s KTTV-11. FOX agreed and added Superstars of Wrestling to its lineup on Saturday mornings at 10:00. For a couple of months at the end of 1986, McMahon had his shows running on both stations, but KHJ canceled the WWF program, and Wrestling Challenge became the WWF’s primary telecast on KTTV. The market was covered by Superstars of Wrestling as well, at 11:00 a.m. on Saturdays from a station in San Diego (XETV-6).
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