My World with Jeff Jarrett - Daddy Buys Dallas [Show Notes] (Patreon)

With the bulk of 1988 stuff: I had a lot of it already tucked away and sorted in notes from a previous project, so since I knew Jeff wanted the refresher—even if all of it wouldn’t be used on the show—I just dumped a lot of it in here. I’m happy to cut it down further since I’m sure not all of it is needed, but I figured it was better to have the full context of how everything came together in here since the pre-November 1988/pre-Jerry Jarrett in Dallas stuff added very little additional work.

More broadly, with how much there is and how dense it is, I tried not to overdo results, angle descriptions, etc., limiting it mainly to shows that drew particularly well or particularly badly, things that were out of sync for fans who got both Memphis and Dallas TV, and stuff that had a significant impact, whether on the houses or relationships with TV stations. (And with the out of sync storylines, I had to leave out the bulk of the ones related to title changes, or else this would have been a LOT longer.) And as I believe we’ve all discussed, I cut most of the stuff specific to Global and Superclash III because those are better saved for their own episodes. There’s probably enough to do something down the road that’s more “Jeff in Dallas,” to boot, that focuses much more on his work than “Daddy Buys Dallas” ever could.

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January 1988 (D Magazine February 1988)

Excerpt from Skip Hollandsworth’s The Fall of the House of Von Erich: On Thanksgiving night I went to Reunion Arena to watch the “triumphant return of Kerry.” Of the some 2,000 who had also come, I saw more adults than I had expected, people from the working class whose faces seemed to know all about struggle. They, too, needed someone big and strong to believe in. Into the ring came one set of wrestlers after another, their styled belligerence not so much beautiful to these fans as it was something far more intriguing — primitive and alive.

Backstage, Fritz was leaning against a wall. He looked tired, his arms held loosely down at his sides, his hair growing transparent at the back of his head, his eyes glazed with stoic chagrin. Doris was nearby, sitting properly in a chair. Down the hall was Kerry, stretching. Because of the injury, he didn’t seem to have the mobility to make those famous soaring dropkicks, and he had lost some of his speed, but he had spent much of his 16-month convalescence in the weight room. Amazingly, there were even more muscles packed into his bulky frame. The last time I had seen him, he was sitting happily in a chair at his pretty Victorian house, while his two little girls climbed all over him and pulled at his ears. Now, wearing an Elvis-style sequined white robe with “Kerry” on the back, the star wrestler had a look on his face that I could only describe as murderous. “I am ready,” he said.

Fritz came up and motioned to me. “I have something to tell you,” he said, then stopped.

I waited. In the distance the crowd roared, then stopped, then roared again.

“I’ve decided to retire and get out,” he said. His voice was so low it sounded as if it needed oiling.

He said, “Kevin and Kerry will still keep wrestling. But someone else is going to take over. I’m just tired. I’ve got to get out of the business.”

Then, Kevin came up and said, “Dad, we’re on.” And the two of them headed through the doors toward the ring.

Fritz was selling out his financial interest in the company that promoted his and his son’s careers, He had decided to make only rare public appearances. There had been reports that poor ticket sales for matches over the last couple of years had financially hurt Fritz; he had spent a lot of money trying to uphold the family image. Ken Mantell, his old business partner who had once left him in an angry split, was returning to run the wrestling promotion. “Fritz is an old warrior,” Doris said. “He’d like to build the business back up himself and make his sons the most famous wrestlers in the country. But you can’t have lost as much as he has without it doing something to you. He talks about never giving up, but you know, he’s worked for so long. I think he’s ready to sit out on the porch and watch the sun set.”

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It’s never been entirely clear how or even if Ken Mantell bought into the company or what. There’s been a suggestion that Alec Simpson/Sammy Cohen, the father of Steve and Shaun Simpson, put up the money, but nothing close to concrete.

Jerry Jarrett seemingly flirted with expansion in early 1988, as he helped out the new Florida promotion a bit with talent and footage, and he’s listed as an officer of the company in public records filed on March 25. (A misspelled “Jerry Jerritt” joins Steve Keirn, Mike Graham, and Gordon Solie.) Jerry Grey and Bob Cook come up to Memphis from Florida in the first week of April to work TV and the Mid-South Coliseum. Meanwhile, Dallas, though having received some new energy from the returns of Mantell, the Fabulous Freebirds, and producer/syndicator Continental Productions (a division of Pat Robertson’s CBN), was not doing well.

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Week of 1/11/1988 (Observer 1/18)

This week's word from another inside source is that Mantell owns 50% of the company and that Kevin and Kerry own 25% each, which I guess is a compromise to the two sides I've been hearing as to who controls what. Obviously Fritz has a lot of power since they are building the promotion around him.

The 1/2 show at the Sportatorium, a first-ever Saturday night card with all seats $5 and beer just 50c not only sold out (nearly 4,000) but turned away another 1,000. Nobody could believe it. However, on 1/4 in Fort Worth they were back down to 350 fans.

Week of 1/18/1988 (Observer 1/25)

This week's ownership story is that Mantell actually owns 30 percent of the company, but that the company has restructured and in the company contract, Mantell is the Managing General Partner which means he calls all the shots. All I know is Fritz has called at least one shot.

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From John Dananay’s World Class Memories website:

As mentioned above, professional wrestling promoters were forced in the late eighties to put their talent under contract to avoid talent raids by their competitors. And, also as mentioned, World Class was no longer in a position to make long-term offers to its talent. By 1988, WCCW television was merely a shell of its former self, and the office knew something had to be done to breathe some much needed life into its lackluster television programming, and its by now sparsely attended house shows. A somewhat temporary solution seemed to present itself when the promotion established an “open door” policy which would allow wrestlers not otherwise associated with World Class to wrestle under the promotion’s banner as often as they chose. Wrestlers such as then-WWA Champion Mike George, Robert Gibson, Ron Starr, Kendall Windham, Pat Tanaka and Austin Idol came to wrestle for World Class at different times during this period, and were formally introduced by then-WCCW matchmaker Frank Dusek on television. The “open door” policy would help the World Class promotion utilize those veterans not under contract to the WWF or the NWA to help keep television programming fresh and, more importantly, bolster attendance at live events without being obligated to hold onto them via a contract.

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Week of 2/8/1988 (Observer 2/15)

Pat Tanaka, Ron Starr and Mr. Ito (Umanosuke Ueda) of WOW appeared on the 1/15 World Class card in Dallas which was a taping which is why you saw them even though they aren't working the territory. Tanaka & Starr beat Steve Casey & Jason Sterling in a pretty good match. Ito also was put over in a prelim. They apparently worked some sort of a deal with Ken Mantell to get them on the tube and put over I suppose for credibility if it ever appears on ESPN. Tanaka looked really good. Ito is actually the money behind the WOW promotion.

In response to a reader letter: Mantell is in control of World Class although from the reports I have, Kevin & Kerry each own approximately one-third of the company while Mantell owns approximately 30 percent. From an office source, Southwest Sports, the parent company of World Class, was dissolved and a new corporation was formed with Mantell buying into the new company and apparently given the power to run the company, although with Kevin & Kerry owning the majority of the stock, Fritz does have influence should he choose to exercise it. The change of company came at the same time as the return of the production to Continental. Apparently the Bum Bright/Lee Martin crew, after the first few flops in the ''Von Erich over America tour,'' realized what was happening and pulled out. Mantell has done a good job of reviving a dead promotion, but there are still a lot of major problems facing him and those who think he has a chance of being the No. 2 promotion in the country, even with JCP's problems, are being very premature. Just take this into consideration--Crockett does more business on a BAD Saturday night than Mantell's company does in a week.

Week of 2/15/1988 (Observer 2/22)

The Financial News Network announced on Tuesday that they will begin airing CWA Wrestling weekly starting the first week of April. I was told the time slot, but I forgot to write it down but it's probably Saturday night's at 9 p.m.

The 2/12 card in Dallas drew 3,800 (if you bought one ticket you got the second ticket for 1 cent, same deal with all concessions).

Michael Hayes is back as a babyface to nobody's surprise. They are building up a Michael Hayes concert on 3/5 at the Sportatorium which no doubt will lead to a big angle. Don't think Terry Gordy is going to attack Hayes, because he'll be in Japan at the time, but no doubt somebody will. Michael Hayes is pretty much the assistant booker to Ken Mantell although at times Bill Irwin and/or Embry are acting as bookers as well. Basically this area has too many wrestlers (too many bookers as well, but that's a different story) for its gates to support so some housecleaning is in order.

Week of 3/28/1988 (Observer 4/4)

In last week's issue I noted a major story and I'll never do that again without giving more details (see, I expected the thing to break at the last minute but it didn't). The story is that Crockett has been in heavy negotiations over the past 10 days with Ken Mantell of World Class, I've heard several reports, some conflicting about it. I know Crockett was going in with the idea of taking over World Class (not buying it but a take-over similar to Florida and Central States) which would give him the valuable Ch. 11 time slot on Saturday nights in Dallas which is the highest rated pro wrestling show in any of the top 20 markets in the United States. To complete the deal would require approval of Fritz Von Erich who still controls majority interest in the World Class promotion, so if the deal were completed, Kevin & Kerry would be guaranteed a job and a push with the NWA, although since Kevin & Kerry don't want to travel, the deal would be that they would only work shows in the area, a few TV tapings and maybe St. Louis where both they and their father were good draws in the past. The bottom line here is that even though Michael Hayes and Ken Mantell are probably doing the most creative and best job of booking right now of anyone in the business, their business just isn't turning around and perhaps the economic factor, which is out of their hands, may not allow the thing to turn around. I don't expect a deal to be made now, not at least until May so Mantell and Hayes give themselves a chance to see if they can get the area going and promote a lucrative Texas Stadium show on their own.

The 3/25 Dallas card drew 1,700 as Parsons beat Kerry to win the World title.

Fort Worth cards were canceled on both 3/28 and 4/3 and they return on 4/10. The new policy will be to run Fort Worth every three or four weeks instead of weekly as its been done for decades.

They are cutting production costs by having most of the material on the local show also airing on the World Class syndicated show.

World Class ran three shows last week in Mississippi with the biggest gate of the three being $783 which shows you just how bad business is even with the creative booking.

Week of 4/4/1988 (Observer 4/11)

There are obviously problems around here financially as they've cut way back on television tapings. They've cut back to running Fort Worth every third week, doing nearly four hours worth of television on those cards which still leaves them one week for showing almost nothing but re-run material. The regular World Class show is also taping every third week which means lots of shows feature lots of old tape. Fort Worth had been running weekly since World War II.

Central States is now working with World Class as far as importing some name talent for its "big" shows (since the World Class guys aren't getting enough work in Texas anyway) but the first example turned into disaster.

Week of 4/25/1988 (Observer 5/2)

The CWA talent trade with World Class, a deal put together by Jerry Jarrett who has taken over as booker from Jerry Lawler, was formally announced on television on 4/23 with them announcing that Terry Taylor, Chris Adams, Iceman King Parsons (billed as "a World heavyweight champion" and the "first black World champion ever"), Kevin & Kerry Von Erich and Terry Gordy, Michael Hayes and Buddy Roberts would be in shortly. Since World Class has moved Fort Worth shows to bi-weekly Sunday's, it leaves Monday's open to come here on occasion and the World Class guys all need more dates because the territory and the number of employees have too few dates and too many wrestlers, thus the guys are working two to four times per week and not making any money. Several of them will work the 5/2 card in Memphis. There was no reaction from the TV fans to the announcement of any of the names, however.

Week of 5/2/1988 (Observer 5/9)

Ken Mantell sent a letter to every promotion except the NWA and WWF offering to work with them, to do tie-in promotions and to provide talent for their cards. Since World Class isn't running a full schedule, Mantell is looking for ways to rent his guys out to other promotions, but unfortunately they've only got one or two names that would mean anything in other promotions on a fly-in basis. Now if Gordy, Hayes, Taylor and maybe Adams (but not Iceman, whose title reign was a bad decision) got involved with a local hero, they might be good for something but just bringing Taylor vs. Adams to Florida or AWA isn't a wise business move because I can't see it having any helpful effect except perhaps providing a decent match. Talent sharing can only help these other groups if the talent can shoot an angle on TV and work a series of shows, rather than just fly in for one date, unless it's something like Hayes in Atlanta or Gordy maybe on an independent card against a guy like Brody or Abdullah the Butcher. CWA: The 5/2 card in Memphis drew a $15,000 gate which is probably more than double what they did the week before. I'm told there was very little reaction to the World Class guys.

The CWA is trying to put together a pretty hot show for 5/2 with three World Class matches on the card. I've heard that the World Class guys are in for this show only, and also heard that they'll be in again after this show, so we'll have to wait and see. It probably depends on if anyone cares about them this week. Ironically, even though Lawler is wrestling Eddie Gilbert with Missy Hyatt's hair at stake if Lawler wins (it's a safe bet Lawler isn't going to win in that case), they are billing Iceman King Parsons vs. Kerry Von Erich for the World Class title as the main event. I don't see the logic in bringing in another World champion when you are spending so much time hyping Hennig and the AWA title. The remainder of the card has Chris Adams vs. Terry Taylor, Jeff Jarrett vs. Robert Fuller, Michael Hayes vs. Buddy Roberts, Max Pain vs. Billy Travis for the CWA title, Tommy & Doug Gilbert & Gary Young vs. Mark Starr & Scott Steiner & Tom Brandi and the Bruise Brothers defending the Southern tag belts against the Cuban Choir Boys--formerly the Cuban Assassins (and ironically, both actually Samoan) who are now managed by Brother Ernest Angel.

The World Class syndication package is negotiating to become a part of the All-Star Wrestling television network ad package.

Week of 5/16/1988 (Observer 5/23)

Jerry Lawler is working on a deal for title vs. title matches against Kerry Von Erich in Dallas, Memphis and Kansas City.

Week of 5/30/1988 (Observer 6/6)

There will be a few "unification World title" matches taking place next month between the AWA and World Class with Jerry Lawler vs. Kerry Von Erich. I was originally told that these matches would take place in Dallas, Kansas City and Memphis. I do know that Lawler and Kerry will wrestle title vs. title at the Sportatorium in Dallas on 6/17 and in Kansas City on 6/23 but I don't have a date for a Memphis match.

Eric Embry has taken over as booker with Scandor Akbar as his assistant booker so Michael Hayes is out, apparently as much because of personal frustration as anyone actually removing him.

Week of 6/6/1988 (Observer 6/13)

Jerry Lawler will not wrestle Kerry Von Erich here after all. Lawler will wrestle Terry Taylor on 6/17 in Dallas and 6/18 in Oklahoma City, while on 6/19 he's got a doubleheader against Parsons in both San Antonio and Mesquite.

Week of 6/13/1988 (Observer 6/20)

I'm not sure the background of this but something must be going awry in syndication since they have lost TV outlets in Houston, Miami and Minneapolis in the last week alone.

Week of 6/20/1988 (Observer 6/27)

The meeting in the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport this past Thursday turned out to accomplish virtually nothing. Those at the meeting were Ken Mantell (World Class), Barry Owen (Northwest), Eddie Gilbert and David Woods (Continental), Jerry Lawler and Jerry Jarrett (CWA) and Mike Shields (representing Verne Gagne). All they agreed to do was not invade each other's territory and try and work together although nothing concrete as far as working together has been even discussed. It was generally considered a waste of time.

Week of 6/27/1988 (Observer 7/4)

Tentative plans are for co-ventures with other promotions starting in August stemming from the meeting in Dallas last week.

Week of 8/8/1988 (Observer 8/15)

Another major item is that Ken Mantell, who had been running World Class Wrestling, has walked out and the company is now being run by Kevin Von Erich with his mother, Doris Adkisson, being a fixture now in the office. I don't need to tell anyone what happened the last time Kevin was in charge. I've heard no explanation was to what led up to this, since Mantell had a sizable amount of money invested in the company and business had been slowly improving since he took during the winter. The only story revolves around problems with the Von Erichs. Supposedly it was part of Mantell's deal that he can't compete as Wild West Wrestling, so him walking out and starting up his own group in competition seems to be out of the question as well. Some also feel that Mantell may return although it has actually been two weeks since the blow-up.

Week of 8/15/1988 (Observer 8/22)

Fritz Von Erich has been back in the office of late and the company is turning into a family-run operation once again.

Week of 8/29/1988 (Matwatch 8/29)

World Class has an advance sale of 12 tickets for a Hammond, IN card in early September.

Week of 9/5/88 (Matwatch 9/5 & Observer 9/12)

- From Steve Beverly in Matwatch: In recent days, the Turner organization has had conversations with the Global and World Class companies as possible alternatives to the current SuperStation weekend wrestling hours. On the surface, this looks like trading Coke for Yoo-Hoo. And if you look at either of those promotions on their surface value today, that’s true. But what we’re dealing with here is more than just groups battling to knock Jim Crockett off the block; it’s a battle for a key factor in any promotion’s success: Television time, and, in this instance, time on the most-watched local television station in America.

World Class, the AWA, and Memphis will run a joint show in the Omni on October 30th. World Class has already begun promoting it on its show and on the recent Pro Wrestling This Week shows from Dallas. A Lawler-Kerry title match headlines the card.

- From Dave Meltzer in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Even though Kevin Von Erich is officially the president of the World Class promotion, Frank Dusek and Scandor Akbar are basically running things. Ken Mantell appears to have disappeared off the face of the Earth.

Week of 9/19/1988 (Matwatch 9/19 & Observer 9/26)

- From Dave Meltzer in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter: The "other guys" are getting together to run their own pay-per-view show on December 13 from the UIC Pavilion in Chicago. The official announcement of the card should take place either this weekend, or next weekend on the AWA's Saturday night ESPN show. The card will be billed as SuperClash II (ironically, I attended a card billed as SuperClash II a few years back in San Francisco) and will include wrestlers from the AWA, CWA, World Class, Southern and David McLane's POWW. I should have a complete line-up by next.week but the main event will be Jerry Lawler vs. Kerry Von Erich for the 1428th time in a unification match. Verne Gagne will be the head promoter for this show.

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Insert comments about saving detailed Superclash III discussion for a future dedicated episode here.

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- From Steve Beverly in Matwatch: On Monday, September 12, while the TBS team is flying to Dallas with hopes of closing the Crockett sale, Matwatch is told by 3 sources that a deal is being struck between Crockett and Fritz Von Erich. The details are sketchy, but insiders suggest the likely scenario would parallel Crockett’s Florida deal of early 1987. In this case: 1. No money would be exchanged between JCP and World Class; 2. Crockett would assume the TV network, particularly the prized Saturday night KTVT slot; 3. The Von Erichs and probably the Samoan Swat Team would be major World Class names retained by the NWA; 4. JCP would promote shows in Texas in which the Von Erichs would get a percentage of the gates. At press time, this still had no final confirmation. Meanwhile, a TBS source told Matwatch that things look “real good” for a sale by September 30th.

Crockett getting the World Class TV could break up the All-Pro Wrestling Network, hurting Memphis, FLAIR, the AWA, and Pro Wrestling This Week, as World Class’s 100-plus station lineup brings in most of their ad sales. However, Matwatch was told that the syndication rights are held by an entity other than the Von Erichs and could stand in the way of Crockett inheriting the new stations, anyway.

On Friday the 16th, one source told Matwatch the deal was “95% certain of happening,” and that Crockett may supply wrestlers for the Cotton Bowl show on October 15th. Hours later, he was told that the Turner buyout of Crockett was a “done deal,”

Week of 9/26/1988 (Observer 10/3)

All negotiations between Jim Crockett and Fritz Von Erich broke off this past week. Crockett was apparently looking for a deal in which he would take over the World Class TV network and basically take over the promotion and keep the Von Erichs and maybe one or two others, while Fritz was looking for a simple talent exchange (likely so he could promote Ric Flair vs. Kerry matches which drew some huge crowds several years back).

Kerry Von Erich is now officially in charge of the company although the real office work is handled by Frank Dusek and Scandor Akbar with Percy Pringle doing publicity.

Week of 10/3/1988 (Observer 10/12)

There's a lot of news on the horizon but since I've been on the road most of the week, it's hard to separate the rumors from the reality.

RUMOR: Jerry Jarrett has bought 30 percent of World Class wrestling.

FACT: Jarrett has been in-and-out of Dallas of late and has been negotiating. Ken Mantell does own 30 percent and I'm certain, since he's no longer involved with the World Class business, that he'd be willing to sell his shares. I don't know whether this deal has been made or not. My assumption is that Jarrett would be smart enough not to buy into this group unless he controlled 51 percent, thus had the decision-making power. Most feel he's negotiating to buy 51 percent of the company right now.

World Class has gotten out of its building problems with the city over the Sportatorium. The city will overlook the problems with the building as far as it being a fire hazard as long as World Class agrees not to prepare any food on the premises (they have to sell pre-packaged food). The city had given World Class until the end of the month to spend $40,000 on building improvements or they would condemn the world-famous Sportatorium.

Week of 10/17/1988 (Matwatch 10/17 & Observer 10/24)

- From Steve Beverly in Matwatch: Jerry Jarrett has assumed titular control of World Class with his buyout of Ken Mantell’s shares. But some insiders say Jarrett is being pumped for his investment and is vulnerable to a future power play. I hope the Memphis promoter is too shrewd for that. Ken Mantell has reportedly regained use of the Wild West moniker as part of his sellout and is said to be plotting a restart in both Texas and California.

- From Dave Meltzer in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter: The other major acquisition story [this week, besides Turner Broadcasting’s impending purchase of Jim Crockett Promotions] involves Jerry Jarrett and World Class Wrestling. Once again we've got two stories. From the World Class side, and once again I believe this to be the likely story, is that Jarrett has purchased a minority percentage (in the 30 percent range) of the company but is in charge of the company and Eric Embry will be running the office for Jarrett. This is similar to the deal Ken Mantell had and some are speculating it's the same basic premise and it will wind up with the same result, that eventually the Von Erichs, since they own the majority interest, would be back in power. Anyway, the other version of the story is that Jarrett was hired by the Von Erichs to run the company, but for several reasons, this story doesn't seem likely. Those who scoff at this story say Jarrett doesn't want people to know he's got the kind of money available that it would take to purchase 30 percent of the World Class office because he often poor-mouths to the CWA boys about how bad business is and the like. In reality, one would think that with Jarrett in charge, if Jarrett puts his full interest in World Class, that he could turn the company around since his track record as a booker has been generally on the positive side.

Week of 10/24/1988 (Matwatch 10/24 & Observer 10/31):

- From Dave Meltzer in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Jerry Jarrett did not show for two scheduled meetings last week to finalize his purchase of Ken Mantell’s shares of World Class. Speculation is Jarrett is leery of jumping into a situation without majority control. A key insider tells us Fritz Von Erich has washed his hands of the group.

- From Dave Meltzer in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Jarrett was supposed to sign the contract this past Tuesday to buy 30 percent of World Class but didn't show up and I don't know what, if anything, happened over the rest of the week.

Week of 10/31/1988 (Observer 11/7)

A similar story to the TBS/Crockett deal of much smaller proportions was taking place this past week in Dallas, where negotiations between Jerry Jarrett and the Von Erichs over the control of the World Class office were taking place. A deal was struck that would give Jarrett the majority interest in the company and keep Kevin and Kerry as minority stockholders. Apparently the company was deep in debt and the agreement would have required all three parties to put up operating capital to keep the business afloat, which was also agreed on. The stumbling block in the negotiations, which appeared to be just a formality late in the week, was the Von Erichs late attempt to change certain aspects of the deal, most specifically wanting a clause that would revert the controlling interest in the company back to them after a specified period of time (I have no idea how long that period of time is). Jarrett balked on that clause, because it would basically create another Ken Mantell situation where Jarrett would run the company temporarily, and theoretically build it back up, or hopefully anyway, and then if everyone went right, after an unspecified time, the Von Erichs would once again take over a healthy company. The truth is the odds at this point would have been against Jarrett even turning it around, although he does have extensive experience in running a profitable territory. Anyway, the difference wasn't resolved as of the last word I've received, and the word I received is that if the deal wasn't signed by this past Friday, that negotiations would be dropped. Without the deal, World Class would be on shakier grounds than ever. At the same time, World Class' key TV time slot in its home Dallas market, the two-hour Saturday night block on Ch. 11, which is still one of the highest rated wrestling shows in any major market, is in jeopardy because of overdue bills. Ch. 11 has already opened negotiations with the. NWA and a switch would take place in the near future. That switch would most likely be the final nail in World Class' coffin.

Week of 11/7/1988 (Observer 11/14)

When we last left the story of Jerry Jarrett attempting to buy World Class wrestling from the Von Erichs, the deal appeared to be in grave danger of falling through. A deal had been agreed upon on 10/27, but at the last minute, the Von Erichs threw in a stipulation that after a specified amount of time, they wanted to regain the majority interest in the company, which Jarrett refused and told them that if the deal wasn't completed by the next morning, that it was never to be brought up again. Well, Kerry called Jarrett the next morning and agreed to Jarrett's terms, and Jarrett now owns 60 percent interest in World Class Wrestling while Kevin and Kerry each control 20 percent. All three were to put up money to help clear up the sizable debts the company had, mainly to the Sportatorium, the TV syndicators and to KTVT (Ch. 11 in Dallas/Fort Worth which carries the two-hour Saturday night wrestling block). From all accounts, Jarrett has managed to save the key Ch. 11 time slot (which is one of, if not the highest rated wrestling show on a local basis in any of the top 10 markets), which the NWA was close to acquiring. By most accounts, the deal was a necessity to keep the World Class promotion in business as the creditors were calling in the chips, so to speak, and it would have been touch-and-go for the company to last long enough to participate in the 12/13 pay-per-view show from Chicago. Just to show that Jarrett got the deal on virtually all his own terms (a direct contrast from Ken Mantell who literally gave up everything to get his 30 percent minority piece of World Class last year), there is a clause in the contract which states that the Von Erichs can be fired as wrestlers (although they would still retain their points in the company) by the booker for missing dates or if their performance is subpar. Previous bookers had been powerless to deal with the Von Erichs. Now, I don't believe for a second that Jarrett bought World Class to dump Kerry, who is the most marketable wrestler in either of his two wrestling companies. One of Jarrett's first moves is to change the way the television shows will be handled. Over the recent history of World Class, the two-hour KTVT show was taped the previous Monday in Fort Worth, although of late, with Fort Worth no longer running weekly, they have had all-highlight shows on occasion and even tapings of the Friday night cards in Dallas shown eight days later. The World Class syndicated show was generally taped bi-weekly, with two shows taped, at the Friday night cards at the Dallas Sportatorium with an alternate Friday card not taped. The crowds in Fort Worth had gotten embarrassingly low (as small as 150 at times) which provided no heat nor atmosphere for television, and eventually caused the promotion to run Fort Worth as little as once every three weeks. About five or six weeks back the promotion got a sponsor and announced weekly cards were back in Fort Worth and I was told they planned to give away thousands of tickets per week since the sponsor would Lake care of expenses and they just wanted fans in their to create heat and atmosphere. But somehow that fell through in record time. The current plan is that starting this coming weekend, the Ch. 11 show will be taped from 10 a.m. on Saturday mornings for airing that Saturday night. Admission will be free and the taping will be done from the Sportatorium. They will continue to run Friday night shows, with admission charged, at the Sportatorium. This is a real dangerous catch-22 proposition. Obviously the Saturday cards are going to be like regular TV tapings hyping only the Friday matches. To do it any other way would destroy paid attendance for the Friday night cards. However a two-hour format of nothing but squashes would have a negative effect on the TV ratings and frankly, after the novelty wore off, it would be difficult to get fans to show up, even for free, on Saturday mornings for a television taping on a weekly basis.

Ironically, it appears Jarrett is going to run a promotion vs. promotion feud as his main attraction in both of his major markets (Dallas and Memphis), with the roles reversed, of course. Someone compared this to the old days of the Roller Derby, when the Bay Bombers (based in the San Francisco Bay Area), Pioneers (based in Chicago) and Chiefs (based in New York would alternate between babyfaces and heels depending upon which market they were playing in. Of course the Derby did go out of business in two years from when they started that format (not to say that was the reason they did, just that the format obviously didn't hold up in the long run). The first Ch. 11 show with Jarrett in charge saw nearly half the show devoted to footage from Memphis, where the World Class wrestlers were the heels in the matches and Mark Lowrance in commentary tried to get everyone in Tennessee, from Lance Russell ("biased Tennessee commentary") to Eddie Marlin to all the Memphis babyfaces over to the Dallas market as heels.

Week of 11/14/1988 (Observer 11/21)

The World Class office at the Sportatorium has been closed and all business dealings will be taken care of out of Jerry Jarrett's office in Hendersonville, TN. I believe Eric Embry will remain World Class booker but will work from his home. Closing the office is a cost-cutter, although aside from rent, electricity and the phone bill (which is said to be rather large) and maybe a secretary, it doesn't seem like that major of an expense. World Class started its new format this weekend with a Friday night show at the Sportatorium, which drew about 1,200 fans, followed by a free TV taping the next morning at the Sportatorium, which drew a packed house of 3,500 or so. The Sportatorium taping aired later that night, and included several clips of recent Monday night action from Memphis including Robert Fuller & Jimmy Golden's CWA tag team title win over Cactus Jack Foley & Gary Young, which shows how the talent will be used back-and-forth as they are starting to expose many of the CWA guys. Frank Dusek did the TV announcing and I don't know if it was a one-shot deal or if Mark Lowrance will only handle the syndicated show (Lowrance was there on Friday night for the World Class syndicated tapings). For the local tapings on Saturday a.m., the pay scale is $15 for the jobbers who lose, no pay for the guys who go over (with the theory that winning on TV increases your drawing power on the road) and the wrestlers on the circuit will work on a $30 nightly guarantee for the bottom guys which again shows they are operating to make a profit as a business, but World Class will get a similar rep as Memphis for payoffs.

11/11 in Dallas drew 1,200 for what was billed as a Texas vs. Tennesee shootout, however both Jerry Lawler and Jimmy Valiant no-showed in order for them to do an angle to turn Jarrett babyface in World Class. It wound up with Jarrett & Eddie Marlin teaming with the Samoan Swat Team against Kerry & Embry & Dusek & Steve Cox. Jarrett and Samoans kept getting in each others' way as the story goes and accidentally hitting one another. Finally Jarrett decked one of the Samoans and the thing got out of hand. Dusek KO'd Marlin with a chair leaving Jarrett alone with the Samoans and Kevin Von Erich ran in and saved Jarrett and somehow Jarrett later saved Kevin in the brawl and it wound up with The Von Erichs, Embry, Dusek and Cox in the ring with Jarrett and they all shook hands since Marlin had to be carried out and the faces ran the Samoans out.

Week of 11/21/1988 (Matwatch 11/21 & Observer 11/28)

- Matwatch: [Jerry Jarrett’s] early policy that you have to work to be paid is a good one. The first full week after Jarrett took over, Kevin Von Erich didn’t draw a paycheck. I’m told that on the Nov. 11 Dallas card, he must have gotten the message: Insiders say Kevin worked harder than he had the last two years. Funny, how the pocketbook has a way of making people perform in mysterious ways.

- Observer: Since the Ch. 11 TV show in Dallas has been devoting nearly 45 minutes to getting over the Memphis guys, it seems probable that the two will eventually exist as one group, or as two groups using the same core of main eventers back-and-forth.

We reported incorrectly last week that the Dallas office had closed, but only Eric Embry and Bronko Lubich are working in the office and most of the major decisions are coming from Tennessee.

Eric Embry pulled a Robert Fuller and ran the whole show around himself. Scandor Akbar now has a $50,000 bounty on Embry. During an interview, Iceman King Parsons and Botswana Beast beat up Embry who juiced and was stretchered out and it was announced to the crowd he was taken to the hospital. Later in the show Embry came back and attacked Iceman and Beast and they said that he refused to get in the ambulance to take him to the hospital and stayed in the building for revenge.

Week of 11/28/1988 (Observer 12/5)

The World Class Thanksgiving show on 11/25 in Dallas drew an $11,200 gate which is the largest actual Sportatorium gate in a while and everyone was pleased. The main event saw Kerry Von Erich pin Jerry Lawler clean in the middle in a cage match (which makes Lawler the favorite in their 12/13 match since this match aired on television the next night). Lawler used the chain for comedy purposes and Kerry got the chain away and used it on Lawler to set up the win. I was told the match was okay. The Kevin Von Erich vs. Super Black Ninja cage match was canceled as Kevin no-showed.

Kevin & Kerry are both in Japan as of this writing. It's questionable how much longer Kevin can continue wrestling as he had a CAT scan which revealed extensive scar tissue in the brain as a result of so many concussions (basically the boxer punch-drunk syndrome). I believe one doctor even recommended brain surgery although he isn't going to have it, but he's extremely susceptible to concussions which makes wrestling extremely hazardous. I just hope he behaves himself in Japan when he's in with Hashimoto.

Week of 12/5/1988 (Observer 12/12)

The World Class TV shows of late have been nothing but Eric Embry and Jarrett. Every week Embry gets jumped by Akbar's guys, juiced up a storm, is sent to the hospital, but lo and behold, does a run-in because he's too tough to go to the hospital, then does another interview. Also, all the other faces, even Hayes, spend their interview time talking about nothing but Embry and Jarrett.

When I was in Las Vegas, the only topic of conversation was what happened with Kerry at the previous AWA show [with his amputation being exposed]. I really don't know many details on the subject other than there were at least four wrestlers at World Class who knew Kerry's had his foot amputated so it wasn't as big a secret as I'd thought, though it shocked the hell out of most in wrestling, including Jerry Jarrett.

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Since Superclash III will be its own show, we’ll skip the drama with the WWF reporting the amputation to the commission in Illinois for now.

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Week of 12/26/1988 (Matwatch 12/26, Torch 12/29, & Observer 1/2)

- Observer: On the [12/19 Memphis Mid-South Coliseum] card, Dutch Mantell pinned Jerry Lawler in a non-title match using a chain. On television this week they said it was the first time Lawler has lost a match via pinfall since he won the title from Curt Hennig in May, which was stupid to say since not only is it not true, but just a few weeks back on the World Class show that airs in Memphis they showed a match where Kerry Von Erich pinned Lawler in a non-title match and on the local television show had acknowledged when Kerry beat Lawler in Dallas in early November to regain the World Class title.

The Ch. 11 two-hour show which is taped on Saturday mornings at the Sportatorium is going to be put into syndication under the name U.S. Championship Wrestling although the two-hour version will he edited down to a one hour show. The show will mainly replace Wild West Wrestling in the markets that Ken Mantell's very old Wild West tapings are still repeated. World Class is also making a push to get back on ESPN.

It's amazing to watch the Ch. 11 show as they have Frank Dusek and Chris Adams on both asking fans to call them up so they can promote spot shows in "your" town and Dusek and Adams are working for different promotions. I guess there is some connection between Adams' spot shows and World Class since he uses some World Class guys and uses his World Class interview time to plug his shows.

- Matwatch: Adams has worked a deal with Jerry Jarrett to promote his own shows in the Dallas area. For some odd reason, Adams has even been plugging requests to be “your local promoter” on the KTVT World Class show. Can’t believe that arrangement will last.

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Since neither explained it particularly well: Frank Dusek was the one promoting the spot towns for the office, while Adams was running spot towns on his own while using World Class talent, so they were effectively competing with each other for fundraiser events and the like.

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- Observer: The 12/25 Christmas show in Dallas which—drew a near sellout of 3,000 fans and $14,800 as Jimmy Jack Funk pinned Cowboy Tony after hitting him with the cowbell, Chris Adams & Steve Cox beat Gary Young & Ron Ellis (subbing for Cactus Jack), Kevin Von Erich pinned Super Black Ninja, Samoan Swat Team kept the World Class tag belts beating Michael Hayes & Kerry Von Erich when Hayes did a clean job (this was Hayes' final match in Dallas and he's finishing up by working spot shows the rest of this week before starting up 1/23 for the NWA), Iceman King Parsons beat Brickhouse Brown in a lumberjack strap match (the lumberjacks brawled amongst themselves, particularly Steve Cox and Gary Young who are reviving their feud based on when Young stole Cox's rookie of the year trophy last year in the UWF) and Cox won a cage pole Battle Royal, which replaced the scheduled Hayes vs, Buddy Roberts pole match main event which didn't take place.

Starting this week, World Class is scheduled to return to ESPN and will alternate in the afternoon time slot with the AWA.

- Torch: CWA is off FNN/Score indefinitely as they rearrange their schedule.

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Meaning Jarrett’s only national exposure is through Dallas in syndication and on ESPN with the Memphis tapes no longer airing nationally on FNN/Score, which had strong cable coverage by 1988-1989 standards.

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Week of 1/9/1989 (Matwatch 1/9, Torch 1/12, & Observer 1/16)

- Torch: Kevin has stopped wrestling with no formal announcement. I guess they’ll just let him fade away.

- Observer: Lots of talent problems with the departure of Michael Hayes and the abrupt quitting of the promotion by Steve Cox.

World Class is picking up its syndication.

Week of 1/30/1989 (Observer 2/6)

Tony Falk is now working in the [Dallas] front office.

Week of 2/6/1989 (Matwatch 2/6, Torch 2/9, & Observer 2/13)

They say that Dallas is dead, but on 1/27 more than 8,000 fans paid to see wrestling. The WWF had a show at the Convention Center drawing 4,800 ($58,000) while World Class ran a cut-price show ($5, $3, and $1 tickets) drawing a sellout 3,300 and $10,000 gate to the Sportatorium.

The Dallas Times-Herald ran a page two story this past Thursday regarding Kerry's foot and the incident in Las Vegas with quotes from myself and Mike Tenay although nobody is telling me what I said. Some in the promotion want Kerry to simply acknowledge everything this coming weekend on TV, but nobody expects that will happen.

Week of 2/13/1989 (Observer 2/20)

Kerry was asked this past Tuesday to acknowledge the Dallas Times-Herald article about his foot by the promotion but he absolutely refused. Speaking of the article, whatever I said was obviously misinterpreted by the reporter because it came out as: "Dave Meltzer, who chronicled the bout in Wrestling Observer (bout they are referring to was the match in Vegas where Kerry lost his boot and he had no foot against DeBeers with quotes on what happened by ringsider Mike Tenay) says the Von Erichs assure him Kerry hasn't lost his foot and have promised to send a photo proving it."

Week of 3/20/1989 (Matwatch 3/20 Torch 3/23, & Observer 3/27)

Kerry Von Erich & Jeff Jarrett captured the World Class World tag belts (as opposed to simply the World Class tag belts) from Robert Fuller & Jimmy Golden on 3/12 in Fort Worth in Golden's final night working for Jarrett promotions. Originally it was supposed to be Kevin & Kerry winning the tag titles but Kevin no-showed and there was a lot of heat about Kevin's continual no-showing and there was actually talk of no longer booking him. While Jarrett did put a clause in when he took control of the company late last year that Kevin or Kerry could be fired if they no-showed, while still maintaining their piece of the company (Kevin & Kerry each own 20 percent of the World Class office), it's hard for me to believe they'll actually getting rid of him, although no doubt they aren't going to put him in important positions on cards a lot. The card drew a gate in the $12,000 to $15,000 range, which was a success for the first show at Will Rogers Coliseum since Labor Day.

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From the actual contract Jarrett had with Kevin and Kerry: “Any failure by Kerry to make a scheduled event in which he has been booked will constitute a breach of this Agreement by Kerry unless Kerry is confirmed sick or injured to the satisfaction of the corporation's general manager.”

Jerry Jarrett was the general manager stipulated by the agreement.

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Week of 3/27/1989 (Matwatch 3/27 & Observer 4/3)

- Observer: Kevin Von Erich is gone for now. I don't believe he was officially fired, but I'm told he won't be booked for any cards at anytime in the future. The promotion got fed up with Kevin when he no-showed the 3/12 "Star Wars" card in Fort Worth when he was supposed to win the tag team title with Kerry. Kerry was nearly fired this weekend as well. On Saturday morning, they tape TV at the Sportatorium from 10 a.m. to noon and Kerry was supposed to wrestle the Botswana Beast. Wrestlers are supposed to arrive at 9 a.m. Kerry didn't arrive until 11:45, at which time Chris Adams was already in the ring against the Beast and they just had Kerry run out in street clothes to show he was there and he claimed Iceman King Parsons flattened his tires as the excuse for the TV audience. They threatened Kerry that he'd be gone alongside Kevin if he pulled another stunt like that.

- Matwatch: The apparent dismissal [of Kevin] stems from Von Erich’s failure to make several recent shows for which he was booked. One source told us “Jerry simply had enough and he had warned Kevin several times.” The firing comes on the heels of Von Erich’s recent personal troubles in which he lost a luxury home to creditors. One source told us a reconciliation could occur but would have to be initiated by Von Erich. Reliable sources tell us Kerry Von Erich nearly fell prey to the same fate as his brother.

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Public records from Tarrant County, Texas show Kevin and his wife defaulting on their $176,000 mortgage from October 23, 1984 not long before this, with the foreclosure notice having been filed on February 7, 1989.

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Week of 4/3/1989 (Observer 4/10)

The hierarchy here is trying to do something about the fact that at the TV tapings, more and more fans are cheering the heels and loudly doing negative chants as the faces, and Eric Embry in particular.

Week of 4/17/1989 (Matwatch 4/17, Torch 4/20, & Observer 4/24)

Lots of fans in th[e CWA] area now realize Lawler is still defending the title in Dallas that he lost in Memphis since the World Class show airs in Memphis. It's bad enough Lawler is a heel in one place and a face in the other when the different TV runs in the same city, but even worse when it is the same promotion doing this mess. Anyway, from what I'm told, in Memphis, they have completely destroyed all credibility of the title.

They are now saying that Lawler's World title is recognized by the United States Wrestling Alliance.

Week of 4/24/1989 (Matwatch 4/24 & Observer 5/1)

- Matwatch: [Jerry] Jarrett has spent so much time in Dallas attempting to salvage what’s remaining of World Class (which, because of its TV network, is more lucrative), his personal attention has been away from the CWA. To a degree, Observers say it is one reason for the recent departure of Randy Hales, who two sources told us had become Jarrett’s alleged scapegoat for the Memphis problems.

- Observer: Here's how they got out of this week's loser leaves town match. The main event on the 4/21 card at the Dallas Sportatorium, which drew 1,800 fans, was the loser leaves match with Eric Embry against Scandor Akbar. They brought in the cage from Memphis which surrounds the ringside area, and not just the ring, which allows for wrestlers to hide under the ring and well. Anyway, Frank Dusek was the ref and Percy Pringle had the key. Cactus Jack Manson and Gary Young (under a mask, now wrestling under the name Super Zodiac) were hiding under the ring since about 5 p.m. and after Embry had pounded Akbar silly for five minutes, they showed up, complete with a baseball bat and destroyed both Embry and Dusck. The faces couldn't climb the cage to make the save until finally Chris Adams showed up with a bolt cutter. Embry bled not only from the head, but also bit the rubber to bleed from the mouth and was throwing up all over the ring. They announced he was hospitalized and all that.

At the TV tapings the next morning, things got even more interesting. They announced Embry had been hospitalized all night and things were "touch-and-go" and that all the faces spent the night at the hospital. Dusek then came out and suspended Akbar for life for the incident, but then, Elliot Mayes, billed as the head of the Board of Directors of the U.S.W.A. (this is the figurehead alliance that CWA and World Class are a part of) which in recent weeks they've been talking about as the governing body which has authority over World Class came out. Mayes in reality is Bob Von Gzurczity (I know I spelled that name wrong but he's the director of the World Class TV show) and he called Dusek to an emergency board meeting in the middle of the taping.

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That’s Bob “Video Bob” Von Gyurcsy, pronounced “Von Gurcy.”

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- Continuing the Observer item: Mayes then announced later in the show that a decision had been made to fire Dusek as matchmaker for World Class because he reinstated and booked Embry after Embry had lost a loser leaves town match without authorization from the USWA. The firing was effective at a certain time, which was just a few minutes before Dusek suspended Akbar, so therefore Dusek had been fired before he suspended Akbar, so Akbar wasn't suspended.

From what I'm told, the local show on 4/22 with the story line about Dusek and the Akbar suspension was one of the best local TV shows in a long time.

Week of 5/1/1989 (Matwatch 5/1, Torch 5/4, & Observer 5/8)

- Matwatch: Jerry Jarrett is said to have done such a phenomenal job of cleaning up the financial mess in World Class, the promotion is actually paying its bills on time and has turned a profit in recent weeks. The payoffs for wrestlers are quite low but Jarrett has accomplished much of the cost-cutting by slashing the Sportatorium staff and only opening the ticket office on the day of the card.

- Observer: I got to see the TV show from last weekend and it was definitely entertaining, reaching new levels of unintentional comedy and grossness. [...] The Embry-Akbar actual match was awful of course, but the post-match got a lot of heat with the baseball bat. Embry was spitting up blood and vomiting chunks of food. They absolutely shouldn't have shown it as it was really sick watching Embry throw up all over the place. Definitely a new low here.

Week of 5/15/1989 (Matwatch 5/15)

Jerry Jarrett [was] reportedly pleased with [the] $13,000 house at the Sportatorium for the May 5 Renegades Rampage with Mil Mascaras on the card.

Week of 5/22/1989 (Matwatch 5/22 & Observer 5/29)

- Excerpt from a letter from Jim Burgett of Milan, Tennessee in The Readers’ Pages in the Observer: Since everyone is hollering about the CWA dying, I thought I'd tell you why it isn't going to happen. First, Lance Russell leaving hasn't made much difference because the crowds at the arenas are about the same. The TV show will probably be close to the same ratings and may surprise people after the May books. The crowds have been low the past two years with Lance. In this region, there is just too much TV wrestling. The TV studio matches are still booked two months in advance. The ratings remain high and a 30 second ad on the show costs $550, the highest it ever has and they still have a waiting list for sponsorship. It's also the highest rate for any local show, including the news. Jarrett had the $2 parking fee eliminated at the Coliseum and the usual Mid South Coliseum fee of 10 percent of gate or $2,000 for rent was brought down to eight percent of the gate, period. Because wrestling used to bring in 55 percent of the Coliseum's income each year, and still brings in 30 to 35 percent, the Coliseum doesn't want to lose the business because they have nothing else to bring in, especially on Monday nights. Jarrett, like Nick Gulas before him, doesn't depend on Memphis alone for income. Jackson has had some good houses with Kerry Von Erich and some spot shows have brought in bucks. It may not sound like much, but over a 30-day month, the income adds up when you have a pay structure for the wrestlers like Jarrett has. Jarrett will slowly but surely build Dallas into a profit making company. His first two years of promoting here (1977-78), even with good crowds in Memphis, kept him on the edge of bankruptcy before he turned the operation around, so don't give up on Dallas or Memphis wrestling as long as Jarrett is in charge. He's an excellent businessman and will do what it takes to insure success.

Week of 5/29/1989 (Observer 6/5)

Kevin Von Erich is trying to return. Apparently he's been calling Jarrett trying to get back, but Jarrett hasn't agreed to bring him back for fear that Kevin would simply no-show too many towns he's booked in or show up not in working condition and figured it was easier this way. However, it looks as though he's easing up on this viewpoint since Eric Embry on an interview Saturday asked for Kevin to come back.

Week of 6/5/1989 (Matwatch 6/5 & Observer 6/12)

- Matwatch: Eric Embry and World Class have been holding out on paying Pro Wrestling Digest’s Dennis Brent $544 for the WCCW arena programs because Eric is not happy about 1. Some of the things written about him in the newsletters and 2. Some of his treatment in PWD and the programs.

- Observer: The 5/29 card in Memphis drew an $11,000 house once again for Jerry Lawler & Austin Idol teaming up in the main event against P.Y. Chu Hi & Master of Pain. The match ended when Lawler rammed Tojo Yamamoto's groin into the ringpost and it was announced on television that Tojo was injured so badly he had to retire from wrestling. Of course this again is going to look stupid because on World Class TV, they've been talking about Tojo Yamamoto as the President of the USWA (which supposedly is the governing body of the organization which recognizes Lawler's version of the World title) and he'll be showing up just fine on World Class TV next week.

Week of 6/12/1989 (Observer 6/19)

Well, the world is safe for democracy once again. The main event on the 6/9 card in Dallas, which drew a "sparse" crowd saw Eric Embry take on the legendary Tojo Yamamoto. Yamamoto is billed as the leading stockholder in World Class wrestling and was portrayed as being loyal to Scandor Akbar and the heels so they had a match in which if Eric lost, now take a guess--you got it, he had to leave town. If Yamamoto lost, then he would have to forfeit his majority stockholdership in World Class to Embry. Embry won the match so on television I guess he's the head of the World Class promotion.

Kevin Von Erich returns on Friday. This past week when Kerry was getting triple-teamed by Harris, Iceman King Parsons and Brickhouse Brown, Kevin did a save. Kerry explained that Kevin had been gone all these months because he was touring the World as a special goodwill ambassador for World Class wrestling but he's now back to stay.

Week of 6/19/1989 (Observer 6/26)

Ch. 11, which runs this group on Saturday nights and is their prime TV outlet in the Dallas area, gave the promotion an ultimatum to clean up the show or they were going to pull the plug. KTVT is tired of all the references by Embry and Pringle who keep telling this person or that person to "kiss my ass" on TV and one time Pringle led the Sportatorium in a chant of "kiss my ass" when they were trying to build up heat for Embry's attempt to get Tojo out of the power.

With Embry "Chairman of the Board" of World Class wrestling because of his win over Tojo on 6/9, he fined Akbar, Iceman and Brickhouse Brown all $10,000 apiece for their attack on Kerry Von Erich on 6/10, then announced that the 6/23 card at the Sportatorium would have tickets lowered to all seats $4, and finally wound up turning over his power to Max Andrews, who in reality is in charge of World Class television syndication [but] has been portrayed of late as the only babyface member of the World Class board.

Apparently there is talk of trying to rope off Section D, which is where the fans that boo Embry gather, because that section is getting several of the faces so mad with their taunts that the faces lose it during their live interviews.

Week of 6/26/1989 (Observer 7/3)

There are a ton of rumors flying around concerning the future of Jarrett Promotions, both in regards to the Dallas and the Tennessee offices. [...] The only thing pretty well confirmed is that the Dallas group will shortly be changing its name from World Class Championship Wrestling to the United States Wrestling Association (USWA) and there is talk that when the name change takes place that the Tennessee-based CWA will become a part of the USWA as well. They have already been calling the World title that Jerry Lawler holds as the USWA title in both circuits. When this group changes its name to USWA, it will begin trying to syndicate three shows: USWA World Wide Wrestling; USWA Wrestling Challenge and The Best of USWA Wrestling which you must admit are imaginative names for wrestling programs. Action Media Group will handle the syndication which is an interesting twist since Action Media Group also sells the national ads for the NWA's syndicated package and the NWA isn't too happy over this.

6/23 in Dallas drew a sellout crowd of 3,000 fans at $4 per ticket as Jimmy Jack Funk beat Buster Fowler, Chris Adams beat Cactus Jack Manson, Al Perez beat Gary Young via DQ, Eric Embry went to a double DQ against P.Y. Chu Hi (Phil Hickerson managed by Tojo Yamamoto), Robert Fuller & Brian Lee won the World Class tag team titles beating Mil Mascaras & Jeff Jarrett, Kevin & Kerry Von Erich & Schaun Simpson beat The Blackbirds (Iceman King Parsons & Brickhouse Brown) & Harold Harris in a penalty box match and a wrestling bear beat Scandor Akbar and after the match Gary Young did a run-in and the bear chased Young around as well. The 6/16 show did an $18,000 gate which is the largest gate in the Sportatorium in several months.

Week of 7/3/1989 (Observer 7/10)

The big story in this week's full-of-holes soap opera is the bidding war for the controlling interest in World Class wrestling. If you remember, three weeks back, Eric Embry beat Tojo Yamamoto for Yamamoto's "controlling interest" in World Class. Embry then played president for two weeks, allowing himself to take credit for an all seats $4 night on 6/23, then turned control over to Max Andrews, who in reality is the head of syndication. Going off on a quick tangent, Andrews will still handle syndication for this group and Action Media Group will simply handle the ad sales, as they do with the NWA syndicated package. Anyway, somehow they've forgotten all this and now they are saying that Andrews and Akbar are in a bidding war for the World Class stock and that Akbar has outbid Andrews but Andrews is trying to get the USWA to help him out to outbid Akbar to get the controlling interest and whoever outbids whoever will be announced this Saturday. I believe this is being done to explain why World Class will cease to exist and be replaced by the USWA, as USWA will buy controlling interest and hence they'll do the name change.

The TV taping this Saturday is going to be quite interesting, because things like freedom of speech and freedom of expression seem to be something that wrestling promoters can't deal with. There has been an ongoing battle, and this when it is all told, is going to sound like a wrestling angle, but it isn't, with Eric Embry against a small but vocal group of heel fans that sit in Section D at the Sportatorium each week. One would think this group would be thankful they have such loyal fans, but of course that isn't the case when they have the audacity to boo the booker. Of course, the more times Embry tried to taunt and shut up the group over the weeks, the larger and more vocal they became. Finally two weeks back, they roped off Section D and only let the wrestlers' wives and girlfriends and families sit in the section. So the "heel fans" were scattered, and somehow wound up right in front of the interview area. When Embry came out for his interview, he saw the fans right in front of him, grumbled a few words, dropped the mic and walked off and wouldn't do an interview on the TV show. This past Saturday at the taping, before it was time for Embry's interview, they kicked out two fans for no reason except they were cheering Scandor Akbar earlier in the show. When Embry did his interview, there were chants of "boring, boring" and Embry stopped again and asked whoever thought it was boring to raise their hand. Two guys did and the rest backed down. Embry then asked the rest of the crowd if they should kick them out and when the fans cheered, they proceded to kick those fans out. Well, it turns out that the ACLU was contacted about this and is chomping at the bit to get involved in such an easy case since cheering Scandor Akbar isn't exactly sufficient reason to kick a fan out of the building.

Week of 7/10/1989 (Matwatch 7/10, Torch 7/13, & Observer 7/17)

- Matwatch: Matwatch has learned thirteen U.S. television stations are being surveyed for a possible replacement to the veteran Memphis CWA wrestling show in August. The management of originating station WMC in Memphis could not be reached for comment. But Matwatch has spoken to three program managers who say CWA official Randy West has told them the promotion will close in early August “if business doesn’t improve.” Stations are being offered Wild West Wrestling. […] CWA officials have denied the closing publicly, but a number of Memphis stars, including Phil Hickerson, the returning Bill Dundee, Dutch Mantell, and the Master of Pain are now either working [in] or being hyped for the Dallas promotion.

- Observer: They had said they were going to announce this week the results of the bidding war for the World Class stock between Max Andrews and the USWA and Akbar but they said the bidding is still going on. The explanation for all this is that in the contract of the match in which Embry wrestled Tojo that the winner would get the rights to buy the stock at fair market value (the hype simply said beforehand that the winner would get the stock and in fact on the TV plot Embry acted as president of the company for one week and turned over control to Andrews before they came up with this new stipulation) and Yamamoto has raised fair market value. It'll most likely wind up coming down to another match again, anyway.

Chris Adams completely lost control at the Saturday taping when one fan started yelling "boring" during his interview. Adams on TV threatened to beat up the fan and stormed off.

Week of 7/17/1989 (Matwatch 7/17 & Observer 7/24)

Here's the latest on the changing of this group from World Class to USWA. It was announced on TV this week that the bidding war between the USWA and Scandor Akbar for the World Class promotion "had gotten out of hand" and so guess how they are going to settle it? How did you figure that out? There is going to be a match. Now they have already turned World Class into the heel promotion by saying that Akbar and Tojo Yamamoto represent World Class and that Eric Embry and Frank Dusek and Max Andrews (the syndicator, who they are portraying as the babyface member of the World Class board) represent USWA. Both groups this past week had their stockholders nominate a champion (now, isn't Lawler already the USWA World Champion and thus, shouldn't he be the rep, but that makes sense doesn't it, and making sense makes no sense here). World Class picked P.Y. Chu Hi and USWA picked, surprise, surprise, Eric Embry. Now here's the catch. On the 7/7 card in Dallas, Embry was "injured" and had "major knee surgery" and is supposed to be out of action for six weeks (however, he was already doing run-ins and interviews all over all the shows this weekend) and Akbar has gotten this deal where the Embry vs. Chu Hi match for the control of the company must take place within 21 days so you know what's coming up next.

7/14 at the Dallas Sportatorium drew 900 fans as Kerry Von Erich beat Bam Bam Bigelow via count out to earn a shot at Lawler in a match where Mr. T (the one and only) was at ringside and yelled at Kerry to jump into the ring and beat the count so he got the win. Mr. T got virtually no reaction from the Dallas fans, surprisingly enough. Kerry did a funny television interview where he said that he and Mr. T stand for the same things, kids, Jesus Christ and wholesome living. Actually, they do stand for the same things. Mr. T did a funny interview as well, the highlight was when Mark Lowrance asked him to comment on Gary Young and Devastation, Inc. and T said he'd rather not make comment on that subject (like he had any idea what Lowrance was talking about).

Embry had a few fans kicked out of the building on Saturday at the tapings before doing his interview once again, while Adams lost control at the fans during his interview for the second week in a row.

Week of 7/24/1989 (Torch 7/27 & Observer 7/31)

- Torch: Chris Von Erich is slated to begin wrestling this summer.

Kevin Von Erich is no-showing for [World Class] already.

- Observer: Jeff Jarrett is supposed to work some dates [for the PWF/FCW promotion in Florida] in August and they are working with Jarrett to bring in some World Class wrestlers.

Week of 7/31/1989 (Observer 8/7)

This is the last week for th[e “World Class”] name, because as of Friday night, the promotion will no doubt be changed to USWA after the Eric Embry vs. P.Y. Chu Hi (Phil Hickerson) match at the Dallas Sportatorium for control and for the name of the company.

The 7/28 card in Dallas drew a near sellout of 2,500 for the Jerry Lawler vs. Mil Mascaras match for the USWA title which ended with Mascaras pinning Lawler, but after the three count, Akbar put Lawler's foot on the ropes. Lawler kept arguing that his foot was on the ropes but Mascaras had his hand raised and left with the title belt although there was no actual announcement of a winner or a loser. On television the next day, no reference was ever made to the match and Lawler was still referred to as champion.

All the jobbers who worked the NWA show in Fort Worth on 7/16 haven't been allowed to work on the television tapings here again with the exception of Frogman LeBlanc, who was the best jobber they had and was the most popular with the boys since he was willing to do anything they wanted.

They did a television angle where Chu Hi jumped Mark Lowrance after Lowrance and Tojo were arguing. Chu Hi put Lowrance in a chokehold but Lowrance didn't sell the move one iota and of course Eric Embry made the save. The angle would have been good except Lowrance ruined all credibility by not acting the slightest bit concerned when a guy twice his weight was attacking him.

A fan gave Chris Adams a 2x4 with a nail and a knife and Chris brought it out during his interview. I don't know about doing an interview wielding a knife as a weapon.

Week of 8/7/1989 (Matwatch 8/7 & Observer 8/14)

- Observer: The Dallas Sportatorium sold out to the tune of 3,000 plus for the match which ended the World Class era. Eric Embry beat P.Y. Chu Hi (Phil Hickerson) in the cage and by the terms of the match, the promotion is now called USWA and Embry tore down all the World Class banners all over the Sportatorium. Also, in another cage match, Chris Adams beat Gary Young via DQ when Cactus Jack Manson and Scandor Akbar interfered, Manson & Sheik Braddock won the World Class tag titles(which are now the USWA tag titles I suppose) from Matt Borne & Jeff Jarrett, Percy Pringle pinned Tojo Yamamoto and Jimmy Jack Funk beat Mr. Texas in a mask vs. mask match and Mr. Texas was unmasked to reveal TV jobber Buster Fowler.

- Matwatch: Look for the full World Class conversion to USWA by the end of the month for September start in syndie markets.

Week of 8/14/1989 (Observer 8/21)

There are no visible signs of any changes with the name change. In fact, the syndicated TV show is still being called World Class, although that will change.

8/11 at the Dallas Sportatorium drew 2,000 as Steve & Schaun Simpson beat The Masked Medics (two local jobbers), Billy Travis pinned Frogman LeBlanc, Kerry Von Erich & Jimmy Jack Funk went to a 15 minute draw with Taras Bulba (Juan Reynoso) & Al Perez, Eric Embry & Chris Adams went to a double count out with Gary Young & P.Y. Chu Hi (Phil Hickerson) and Matt Borne & Jeff Jarrett regained the tag team titles (I guess now the USWA belts) beating Sheik Scott Braddock & Cactus Jack Manson, who had won them the previous week. The main event was a Thunderdome cage match as heels Chu Hi & Braddock & Bulba & Young & Perez & Manson beat faces Travis & Adams & Jarrett & Borne & Funk & Embry and after the match was over and all the faces were handcuffed to the cage (this is the cage match where the object is to handcuff your opponents to the cage and when one team is completely cuffed, the other team can release all its members from the cuffs and beat up the helpless foes. Anyway, with all the faces cuffed, Tojo Yamamoto passed a kendo stick through the cage and Chu Hi used it to bloody up Embry.

Week of 8/21/1989 (Observer 8/28)

[The newest announcer this week] was Toni Adams, the wife of Chris, and it only took one week before they shot the angle where Akbar and his crew started beating up on Toni and Chris of course went crazy.

Week of 8/28/1989 (Observer 9/4)

This promotion is turning into gimmick city right about now trying to revive crowds that are suddenly floundering once again. They had a big run prior to and immediately after the name change since fans had been led to believe that with the "new promotion" that things would be changing and there was considerable disappointment with the crowd when after a week of "new management" (which was really the same old management but fans were led to believe things would change) that everything was the same and the crowds the past two weeks in Dallas have dropped drastically.

8/25 at the Dallas Sportatorium drew 450. [.n the upset of the year, Tarras Bulba pinned Kerry Von Erich clean in the middle of the ring using the iron claw of all things which has to be the ultimate humiliation for Kerry, Embry pinned Cactus Jack Manson in a loser leaves town match in 12 seconds (Embry's two main event matches the past two Friday shows have lasted a total of 21 seconds--I guess we should nickname Eric the Texas Ultimate Warrior) and the finale was a Thunderdome cage match which wound up being four faces against five heels and the faces (Borne & Embry & Travis & Funk) prevailed over the heels (Braddock & Bulba & Perez & Young & Chu Hi). Originally in the line-up, Travis wasn't supposed to be in this match and the face team was to include Adams and Kerry, however Adams was "injured" in his match which never got started and Kerry just didn't appear after losing earlier in the card.

Ironically, with no television, Killer Tim Brooks' promotion at the Longhorn Bar in Dallas on 8/22 drew 750 fans for a group which includes former World Class wrestlers Brian Adias, John Tatum, Scott Casey and Johnny Mantell.

Week of 9/4/1989 (Matwatch 9/4 & Observer 9/11)

- Matwatch: Three weeks ago, the USWA angle where Chris Adams’ wife Toni’s blouse was ripped was widely shown on KTVT in Dallas but heavily edited and digitized for syndication.

- Observer: The Toni Adams angle was a lot worse on videotape when you see it then it would seem if you just read about it here. It had the exact opposite effect of what an angle should have. An angle should try and get you to buy tickets for the upcoming shows. Instead, watching this angle, my gut reaction was to turn off the wrestling show because it was in such bad taste. Must have been a similar reaction to everyone since the crowds had been more than 2,000 per week and since the angle they haven't topped 500.

They came up with another ingenious gimmick this past weekend. On the Friday night card at the Sportatorium in the Jerry Lawler vs. Eric Embry main event, after Lawler repeatedly knocked down ref Tony Falk, Embry caught Lawler in the abdominal stretch and Lawler was screaming "I give, I give" when Falk got up, signalled for the bell and ruled Embry the winner via DO and they announced in the building that Embry was the new "World" champion and had the celebration and everything. As they've done so many times, when television came on Saturday night, it was announced once again that Lawler was still the champion. Seems that in the switchover from World Class to USWA when they were writing the rules, one of the secretaries accidentally failed to transcribe the title can change hands via a DQ rule so therefore it wasn't in the books. That oversight has "now been corrected" but of course it means that Lawler is still the champ.

Week of 10/2/1989 (Observer 10/9)

Lots of speculation this group will lose its stranglehold as the main promotion in Dallas. Killer Tim Brooks' promotion, which runs on Tuesday nights at the Longhorn Bar in Dallas (three blocks from the Sportatorium) on Tuesday nights was up to around 550 fans this past week. Those working for Brooks include John Tatum, Scott Casey, Botswana Beast, Skip Young (Sweet Brown Sugar), Johnny Mantell and Brooks (who has lost nearly 60 pounds from when he last worked for World Class. Brooks' promotion starts on television in Dallas on 10/14 with a weekly Saturday night show on Ch. 39 (for years the flagship station of World Class) at midnight.

Week of 10/9/1989 (Observer 10/16)

Frank Dusek is out. I don't have the details on what happened but he was fired by Jerry Jarrett and no acknowledgement has been made about him on television.

The 10/6 card at the Dallas Sportatorium drew another small crowd, estimated at 250. [The top matches saw] Sheik Scott Braddock & Ron Starr beat Jeff Jarrett & Matt Borne in a loser of the fall leaves town match when Borne was pinned, which was a big surprise, Chris Adams pinned P.Y. Chu Hi (Phil Hickerson) when Tojo Yamamoto gave Chu Hi salt, but Adams kicked it in his face and got the pin but after the match The Punisher threw Toni Adams into the penalty box cage (which was there for Tojo's interference) and Tojo, Chu Hi and Punisher all beat up on Chris Adams until Kerry Von Erich made the save, and the main event saw Kerry & Adams beat Punisher & Taras Bulba.

Week of 10/16/1989 (Matwatch 10/16, Torch 10/19, & Observer 10/23)

- Torch: Frank Dusek was fired by Jerry Jarrett, so he will no longer be co-hosting with Marc Lowrance.

- Observer: The big news is that Killer Tim Brooks' first TV taping on 10/10 at the Longhorn Bar in Dallas drew nearly 900 fans, which is about triple what the recent Friday night Sportatorium shows have been drawing. It's hard to figure out what is drawing the crowds since the group's television didn't even start until Saturday night, and with the exception of John Tatum, it isn't like they've got any talent that could go anywhere right now. Brooks' group had a problem at its first taping, however, in that about 40 percent of the crowd left before the taping was over because the show lasted so long and it was on a Tuesday night.

Frogman LeBlanc was buried on TV at the 10/14 tapings as they made a big deal how he was afraid to wrestle Punisher, although in reality LeBlanc had been fired for working a Brooks show earlier in the week.

- Matwatch: Jerry Jarrett is replacing the CWA show in Chattanooga with USWA and reportedly, Jerry Lawler is miffed about it. So are the area’s traditional Memphis fans.

Week of 10/30/1989 (Matwatch 10/30 & Observer 11/6)

- Matwatch: Jerry Jarrett is apparently pulling the traditional CWA wrestling series from the Nashville television market. Sources tell Matwatch Jarrett has dropped the CWA show in favor of his USWA program from Dallas. This marks the second traditional CWA market in as many weeks to lose the Memphis series. Insiders close to the Jarrett group deny the moves are a prelude to the shutting down of CWA, something rumored during the year.

- Observer: 10/27 they let kids in free to combat the low crowds and brought Kevin Von Erich back for one shot and the result was the biggest crowd apparently in recent months although no word on how much was paid. Kevin & Kerry headlined against Bulba & Punisher plus Embry vs. Travis and a blindfolded Battle Royal.

Week of 11/6/1989 (Matwatch 11/6 & Observer 11/13)

- Observer: Terrence Garvin (Beauty) is now doing color commentary on television with Mark Lowrance but apparently some legit heat because the two won't work together. Lowrance tries not to acknowledge anything Garvin does.

This won't be the Eric Embry show any longer as he's no longer the booker, with booking now being done by a committee of Jerry Jarrett, Bill Dundee and Gary Young. Word I got was that Embry voluntarily removed himself from the booking spot because he had run out of ideas.

- Matwatch, seconding Dave’s reporting: Eric Embry is out as USWA booker and I’m told it was a mutual decision between him and Jerry Jarrett. The creative chores are now being taken over by the trio of Jarrett, Skandor Akbar, and Gary Young. Wonder how long Eric will hang around now.

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And yet

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Week of 11/13/1989 (Observer 11/20)

Lots of new things going on with Bill Dundee as booker.

Kevin Von Erich returned as well and appears to be motivated for the first time in years. Von Erich looked really good in a television match (when was the last time he looked good in a match?), wasn't dazed or lost and spoke clearly in an interview. Kevin said that people always ask where he is, since he never wrestles anymore. Usually whenever Kevin drifts back for a week or two before no-showing begins and he drifts away just as quickly, when he returns they always say on TV that Kevin has been fighting for Christianity in foreign countries when in fact, he's usually home asleep. Kevin admitted on this interview that he's been doing nothing for all this time and said that he hasn't been motivated for years, ever since he found out one day in Texas Stadium that Kerry was the more popular and he'd always be the star. Kevin then said he's motivated and would face anyone, even Kerry or Eric Embry, to gain titles or whatever.

The 11/10 card at the Sportatorium drew 300 fans as Jerry Lawler beat Kerry Von Erich in the main event. The only other result is that Billy Travis beat Eric Embry via DQ when Chris Adams interfered and attacked Travis. Embry then broke a guitar over Travis' head and tried to shove it up his rear end. At the TV tapings the next day, all the heels attacked Adams and held him down while Travis spanked Chris. Lots of furor locally over the incident last week where Toni Adams was spanked and had her dress pulled up and she wasn't wearing underwear. Not sure if the furor was because of what she wasn't wearing or just because of the angle, but as the 11/10 attendance shows, it didn't sell any tickets.

Week of 11/27/1989 (Observer 12/4)

The annual Thanksgiving spectacular drew a disappointing crowd of 600 to the Dallas Sportatorium. [In the key matches], Jeff Jarrett beat P.Y. Chu Hi (Phil Hickerson) in a barbed wire match and got to lash him 10 times with a leather belt as a result of winning, Gary Young went to a double count out with Dustin Rhodes and the main event saw Billy Travis beat Chris Adams via DQ. Eric Embry was the ref and they teased a turn but didn't actually do it.

Kerry Von Erich was on a Dallas radio station two weeks back [and] said Frank Dusek was gone because he “got beat up in the locker room and just went away.”

USWA lost its television slot on Ch. 21 for its syndicated show, apparently in part because of complaints about the Toni Adams angles. They still have the key local two-hour show on Ch. 11, which is one of the higher rated wrestling shows in the country on a local basis. Killer Tim Brooks' promotion lost its TV on Ch. 39 apparently because production costs were higher than expected. Brooks drew 700 fans on 11/21.

Week of 12/4/1989 (Observer 12/11)

Ch. 21 has put the syndicated TV show back on the air after taking it off for a few weeks, at least in part due to the Toni Adams incident.

The USWA tag team title tournament was on 12/1 in Dallas before 500 fans (with kids prices lowered to $2) and ended up with Robert Fuller & Brian Lee (The Tennessee Stud Stable) beating Jeff Jarrett & Matt Borne in the finals. The tournament opened with Billy Joe Travis & Gary Young beating Chris Adams & Eric Embry when Adams was holding Travis, Embry came off for a clothesline, Travis ducked and Embry clotheslined Adams and Travis pinned him. They are doing this break-up of Embry and Adams slowly. I'm told Embry is still the most "over" face in the territory, but I expect he's the one turning heel since Adams has so many marketing ideas (wrestling school, calendars, promoting "sold" shows with his wife, etc.) which seems to require him to be a face. Then Fuller & Lee beat Kerry Von Erich & Bill Dundee when Kevin no-showed (didn't take long, did it?) and Sylvia hit Dundee with the kendo stick to set up the Studs win.

Quote of the week by Kerry: "The USWA accidentally booked Kevin in two places last night. Since the Houston date was signed first Kevin had to go to that one. Because if a Von Erich signs a contract to be somewhere, he's there." Color commentator Terrence Garvin continually tried to get Kerry to say that he and Kevin aren't getting along. When Eric Embry pulled down his strap ala Jerry Lawler, Garvin had his best line since starting with the color: "I don't know why he does that. It makes him look pregnant." They are doing an angle where Garvin (who does a hardcore gay act and does the commentary at ringside wearing a dress) "has a crush" on Jeff Jarrett.

Week of 12/11/1989 (Observer 12/18)

For the smaller groups, the prognosis for 1990, is more of the same. Which in reality means less of the same. The decline of regional wrestling promotions has steadily occurred since 1983, and right now, two or three groups appear to be on life support systems and the final plug may be pulled before the weather warms up. [..] USWA will survive simply because the costs of operation are low and they make money through television syndication and advertising. Whether the CWA, which in many markets Jarrett is pulling in favor of the USWA, survives is more questionable.

Even with kids free on 12/8, the Sportatorium crowd was dismal„ just a few hundred.

Chris Adams and Eric Embry finally had their split-up on 12/8 in Dallas. The main event was Adams & Embry & Bill Dundee against Gary Young & Billy Joe Travis & Scandor Akbar. Adams kept getting worked over for nearly 15 minutes and continually tossed over the top rope behind the refs back. Whenever he would get tossed over, Embry would throw him back in the ring. Finally Toni Adams at ringside told Eric to stop and throw in the towel but instead Embry shoved down Toni Adams. Chris Adams then jumped Embry and they went at it. The fans at the Sportatorium, at least the vast majority, cheered Embry even though they were supposed to be cheering Adams. On television the next night, both guys acted like faces when they did their interviews for the Embry vs. Adams main event on 12/15. Adams said he had to win the match to defend his wife's honor while Embry said he had to win the match to defend the honor of his "family" (the Dallas fans).

An independent show on 12/1 at the Sam Houston Coliseum included [...] Kevin Von Erich [on] the same night as the USWA tag team tournament in Dallas where he no-showed.

Week of 12/18/1989 (Matwatch 12/18 & Observer 12/25)

- Observer: Another promotion in some jeopardy is CWA. Jerry Jarrett continues to mainly be concerned about the USWA (which isn't drawing, but Jarrett can make money off selling ads because of its 100+ station syndication line-up). The gate this past Monday in Memphis of $3,000 was one of the lowest ever. The CWA show this week contained a lot of USWA clips and the Memphis card this week with Jerry Lawler vs. Dustin Rhodes on top is practically designed not to draw any fans. When Jarrett met with David Woods about acquiring rights to the dozen or so TV markets Woods' now-defunct Continental Wrestling Federation had, Jarrett told Woods that he was going to operate everything out of Dallas and would run a big loop with shows in Tennessee and Alabama with a Dallas-based crew. That doesn't bode well for the CWA. I've been concerned about the CWA ever since Jeff Jarrett went full-time to Dallas because it's obvious when Jeff quit working CWA shows where his father's priorities were.

- Matwatch: : The CWA show at Mid-South Coliseum Dec. 11 did $3,500 worth of business for Lawler vs. Ricky Morton, believed to be the lowest in Memphis history. Jarrett has already openly stated he's ready to shut the city down but Lawler is trying vainly to hold it together. I can't help but believe the end is near.

- Observer: The 12/15 card at the Dallas Sportatorium drew just 130 paid as Jerry Lawler beat Kerry Von Erich in a USWA title vs. Texas title match so Lawler now is also the Texas champion, which makes lots of sense that a World champ would also hold the Texas title. [...] Chris Adams went to a double DQ with Eric Embry as they brawled all over the building in the co-feature. While the promotion sort of tried to get Adams over as the face, the fans cheered for Embry in this match and Embry and Adams both tried to get fans support with Embry succeeding. On television in Dallas the next day, not only was Embry not even on television, but his name wasn't even mentioned. Supposedly he'll be gone at least until the New Year. The other major match saw Robert Fuller & Brian Lee keep the USWA tag belts going to a no decision with Matt Borne & Jeff Jarrett when P.Y. Chu Hi ran in and hit Borne with a chair and the ref ruled that since Fuller & Lee didn't ask for the help that the faces wouldn't win via DQ which in USWA would have also meant a title change.

Killer Brooks' independent shockingly sold out the Longhorn Bar (1,600) on 12/12 and he's moving his shows to the larger Bronco Bowl in Dallas. Some feel this is a mistake because the bar atmosphere is part of the reason this group is drawing a steady crowd without television.

Week of 12/25/1989 (Matwatch 12/25 & Torch 12/28)

- Matwatch: Matwatch has learned through anonymous sources that the Championship Wrestling Association will end its weekly appearances at the Mid-South Coliseum in January. Speculated for months, the decision reportedly had been aade by CWA owner Jerry Jarrett before the Dec. 11 show drew only $3,500, a record low for Memphis. Jarrett will fold Memphis, Nashville, Louisville and major CWA towns into monthly tours for his USWA Dallas-based promotion. Still unclear is the future of the CWA TV show on WMC-tV in Memphis and eight syndicated markets. One source has told Matwatch Jarrett's WMC contract calls for a show to be specifically produced for the NBC affiliate, whether a USWA show would be accepted by WMC is uncertain. But key insiders have told personnel of at least two CWA TV outlets tie syndicated show will be gone by January.

- Torch report from “Captain” Lenny Dauber: [On 12/15 at the Sportatorium], it was 25 degrees outside — 2 degrees with windchill factored in — and since no one could turn on the Sportatorium heater, it was the same inside. You could literally see the breath of the wrestlers in the ring.

Week of 1/1/1990 (Observer 1/8)

Although the handwriting has been on the wall for a long-time, the official end of an era in regards to Memphis wrestling will be taking place this month. On television this past Saturday at the beginning of the Memphis show, Eddie Marlin announced that the CWA and USWA have merged into one promotion. No details were gone into, but by the end of this month, the weekly Monday night cards in Memphis, which have been a tradition since the beginning of time, will be no more. I don't have the complete story about the fate of the live Memphis television show on WMC-TV. Jerry Jarrett has been wanting to put a show taped in Dallas in the slot, but Jarrett's contract with WMC specifies that the show has to be specific for the market and taped in the studio. As of the November books, the WMC show was still doing a 10 rating and a 31 share, which means it is probably still the highest rated wrestling show in a specific market in the United States. However, that audience has been cut more than in half from its peak of getting a 23 rating and 70 shares back in 1984-85. It is expected that what will wind up happening is the one promotion, called USWA, will be based out of Dallas and will do a monthly swing through the old CWA markets. This may be for the best for those Tennessee cities anyway, because in this day and age, running weekly shows isn't feasible. At the same time, this will also remove the local touch from those shows, which has to be the only thing the CWA still had. With them coming in monthly, they become in these cities a touring out of town promotion just like the NWA and WWF, except without any name talent. Ironically, at least in Memphis, they drew decent crowds both on 12/30 and again three nights later, but realistically, this was a change that had to be made. There is a lot of uncertainty on the Dallas side of things as well because everyone is concerned about who will be getting pushed because when you combine the two groups, even though neither group is talent-laden, there are guys who are now being pushed who inevitably are going to be phased down. Eric Embry, who the Dallas promotion has been built around for most of this past year, won't be back according to the latest word here. Embry quit the promotion and his last night was the 12/15 show in Dallas.

Apparently ESPN, which had been telling people it wasn't going to air any wrestling once its baseball commitments start up in April, did an about-face and renewed the AWA's contract for another six months. While ESPN wasn't happy with the AWA, or wrestling in general for that matter, apparently the network felt that Jerry Jarrett wasn't dealing in good faith with them and the AWA is eventually going to get the afternoon slot and the USWA tapes will be off in the near future.

It appears that within a week or two the entire Dallas situation is going to be an explosion. They were scheduled to do a TV taping on 12/30 at the Sportatorium and wrestlers and fans were there and the announcers were there but no cameras and no taping. They are scheduled to run 1/5 in Dallas with Lawler defending the Texas title (not the USWA title) against Kerry and if Kerry doesn't win the title, he's retiring from wrestling. They did an interview with Kevin & Kerry that was really strange (not that they all aren't, but this was stranger than normal). Kerry said that if he didn't win that it would finally be the end of the Von Erichs as he's retiring and Kevin said that it wouldn't because whether Kerry wins or not, he's not retiring.

All the Dallas-based wrestlers are confused about what changes will happen. Adams and the Von Erichs don't want to go on the road and tour for no money (which is what Jarrett wants his wrestlers to do) so it's questionable how long they'll stay. Adams is also mainly a spot show promoter and he won't be able to do that with the guys constantly out of the area and touring and there is talk that there could be as many as four promotions fighting over Dallas by the end of the month. USWA wasn't drawing anyway with the Von Erichs, Embry and Adams, but they had been pushed as the top guys all along and suddenly Embry is gone, Adams may be, and the Von Erichs are questionable at best over the long haul.

Week of 1/8/1990 (Matwatch 1/8, Torch 1/11, & Observer 1/15)

- Observer: We've got more details on the merger of the Championship Wrestling Association and United States Wrestling Association. With both groups having been owned by Jerry Jarrett, it seemed inevitable it would turn into one office. Unlike what we reported last week, it appears the USWA will split time between Texas and Tennesee each week. The group will run live shows weekly on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday in Memphis, Louisville and Evansville respectively, then head to Texas for the rest of the week, running weekly house shows on Friday in Dallas and doing a television taping on Saturday morning in Dallas. Jarrett originally wanted to have all the television based out of Dallas, but contracts with WMC-TV in Memphis and long-term advertising commitments made them agree to continue the live Saturday morning show from Memphis until the end of 1990. The WMC show will continue to be edited down to one hour and will air in six other markets, mainly near Memphis. The Dallas show will take the place of the Memphis show in several markets in Tennesee and Kentucky. Jarrett feels it can divide time between the two regions economically each week because Southwest Airlines flies from Dallas-to-Memphis for $38 one way. The touring roster will consist of Dirty White Boy, Chris Champion, Soul Taker, Dutch Mantell, Gary Young, Dustin Rhodes, Billy Joe Travis, Bill Dundee, Jeff Jarrett, Matt Borne, P.Y. Chu Hi (Phil Hickerson), Robert Fuller and Brian Lee. In addition, Kevin & Kerry Von Erich, Chris Adams and Jerry Lawler will work part-time for the group since none of the four want to do the daily schedule.

- Matwatch: USWA is offering stations USWA Live!, a live pickup of the Sportatorium Saturday morning matches. The 52-week deal begins in April for Saturdays at 10 a.m. (EST). Stations would still have an option of a taped edition.

- Observer: If the [USWA Live!] idea pans out, that would almost certainly spell the end of the Memphis show unless the group simply couldn't get WMC to agree to the switch. At that point, the WMC show would wind up being mainly a throwaway as all the big stars will be doing TV taping out of Dallas. As it stands right now, that is pretty much what is going to happen anyway since the key syndicated taping on Saturday will be the Dallas one. If the idea goes and the show gets picked up in enough markets, the group is at least talking about running a PPV event on June 4 with Lawler vs. Kerry on top.

- Matwatch: The latest is that the WMC-TV contract will force Jerry Jarrett to maintain a local show in Memphis but it will only be on in 7 Tennessee-area markets. CWA will be downgraded, according to Andrews Syndication, to a "Class D" program, strictly with minor-league stars training for a berth in USWA. Viewers of last week's CWA show were told

by host Michael St. John that the promotion had "merged" with USWA. Conflicting stories are originating: one, which we reported[, is] that Memphis-Nashville-Louisville will run once a month, but another, which surfaced last week, is that Memphis will continue to run weekly with the lesser talent and perhaps one or two USWA-level matches.

- Observer: Max Andrews of the USWA is claiming that they (Jarrett promotions) will be getting the dozen or so TV slots that Continental had [when they folded].

Kerry Von Erich regained the Texas title from Jerry Lawler on 1/5 in Dallas in the match where if Von Erich lost, he said he would retire from wrestling. Even with the retirement stipulation, the crowd was the same 250 that they've been getting each week.

- Torch: There is talk of starting up Kerry Von Erich vs. Kevin Von Erich matches to heat up the area.

Week of 1/15/1990 (Broadcasting 1/15 & Observer 1/22)

- Observer: If the June PPV ever comes off, and it would be a surprise if it did, it will be a combination wrestling and tractor pull PPV.

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Why, you ask?

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- Excerpts from Syndication's ‘Crash’ of 1990 in Broadcasting, which covered Max Andrews’ company syndicating WRF Express a new roller derby-style series: [Andrews Entertainment’s Patrick] Schaefer is targeting the show towards the younger generation, he said, and expects to attract a lot of the audience interested in professional wrestling. Two skating teams, the California Bombers and the Miami Renegades, already exist, and four more are being put together now. Three shows, including the pilot, are already in the can. According to Max Andrews, president, Andrews Entertainment, Express has so far been cleared in 15 markets, including Dallas and Atlanta. Andrews’ product includes Tuff Trax, the monster truck racing and tractor pull program, and “we are looking for a sub distributor to take over from [recently bankrupted Tuff Trax syndicator] Qintex,” Andrews said. Andrews also produces events for the United States Wrestling Association and will be showing at NATPE USWA Live, a one-hour, live weekly wrestling program to air Saturday at 11 a.m. ET. This program, to be offered on a barter basis, is also slated for an April 1990 debut.

Week of 1/22/1990 (Matwatch 1/22)

USWA and NWA Worldwide have been hardest hit by the new syndex rules forcing cable programming black outs [of programming on out of market superstations that an in-market station has the rights to]. In many areas, cable operators have avoided the problem of blackouts by dropping some superstations altogether. KTVT/Dallas, which airs USWA Saturday nights, has been dropped in 350,000 homes, 45% of its total viewing. WPIX/New York, which still has 1.1 million subscribers, has lost 300,000 homes since Jan. 1, thanks to syndex.

Week of 1/29/1990 (Observer 2/5)

USWA didn't run a regular card in Memphis last Monday, but ran matches on 1/20 and 1/21 at the Mid-South Coliseum in conjunction with a Monster Truck pull (Jerry Jarrett is getting more and more involved with the Monster Trucks).

1/26 in Dallas drew 128 paid [as] Jarrett & Kerry Von Erich beat Lawler & Travis [in the main event].

Steve Williams returned from Tennessee for a tag match at the 1/27 [Saturday morning] tapings in Dallas with Chris Adams. Adams was plugging his new wrestling school in New Orleans and talked of Williams as his star pupil and how it only took him five months of training to get into wrestling. Williams then demanded that Adams call him "Steve Austin" (the name he was going by in Tennessee) and kept challenging him to a match but Adams told him that he didn't know what he was doing and he didn't want to wrestle him. Williams, now Austin then kept saying that Adams was nothing and he could beat him and Adams walked off, then he started calling him a coward so Adams came back in and Austin jumped him and pounded on him for a few minutes until Adams made a comeback and put him in a judo armbar submission and tied him up and started screaming at him that he was making a big mistake. Finally Austin agreed he was making a mistake and Adams let him go, hitting him with an object.

Killer Brooks moved his Tuesday night independent shows from the Longhorn Bar to the Circle Bowl and the crowds have dipped to around USWA-level. Longhorn Bar is running its own promotion but with no-names and they aren't drawing either.

Week of 2/5/1990 (Observer 2/12)

Hollywood John Tatum returned on the 2/3 TV taping in Dallas with eight girls at ringside with him. Tatum is working for both USWA and also for Killer Tim Brooks' independent which is running every Monday in Fort Worth and Tuesday in Dallas.

Week of 2/19/1990 (Observer 2/26)

After missing a bunch of shows once again, Kevin Von Erich returned on Saturday and claimed he'd been on a world tour.

Week of 2/26/1990 (Observer 3/5)

In Dallas, they are now charging for the Saturday morning TV tapings. The decision was made this week because the Friday night paid crowd was only 175, but for the free television taping on Saturday morning at the Sportatorium there were nearly 2,500 people packing the place. They are going to charge $2 for adults and $1 for kids for the Saturday morning shows.

Borne, who is a face, did a TV interview and a bunch of girls were heckling him during his interview. He came out (probably on purpose) for his interview with a cup of coffee and as he was leaving, dumped the coffee on the girls. I think charges were going to be pressed by the girls.

Week of 3/5/1990 (Observer 3/12)

The 3/2 Dallas card saw attendance shoot up to more than 700 as Lawler pinned Valiant, Kerry Von Erich beat Soul Taker, Garvin & Travis double count out with Jarrett & Borne, Mantell pinned Chris Youngblood, Southern Rockers beat Fuller & Lee (who are still teaming together in Texas), Matt Borne beat Sheik Scott Braddock and Jeff Gaylord pinned Jimmy Jack Funk when Scandor Akbar interfered. Funk subbed for no-show Kevin Von Erich.

Week of 3/12/1990 (Observer 3/19)

The new policy of charging for the Saturday morning tapings has held the crowds down. They had been packing about 2,500 fans in every Saturday morning for the free tapings, but now charge $2 for adults and $1 for kids. On 3/3, the first week that went into effect, they still had more than 1,500 in the building, but this past Saturday the crowd was less than 500.

John Tatum, in an interview, said that he was the one who brought Missy Hyatt and Baby Doll into wrestling and brought out Tessa as his new valet. While it's true about Missy Hyatt, I don't know what the connection with Baby Doll is. Anyway, this new valet was wearing a tight, short skirt and when she bent down in front of the camera, it was the biggest pop on the card. The station had to digitize the picture.

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Timestamped YouTube clip of the Tessa thing, notable for Marc Lowrance’s reaction: https://youtu.be/ahJVV9BI8pA?t=4305

Week of 3/19/1990 (Matwatch 3/19 & Observer 3/26)

- Matwatch: Plans to deliver USWA matches live on Saturday mornings are either being postponed or scuttled. Matwatch has learned not enough clearances for a live broadcast, which was scheduled to begin April 7, have been landed to make the project financially

profitable. Plans were to offer the Saturday morning Sportatorium matches live on a national basis.

- Observer: 3/16 in Dallas drew double the normal crowd to see the return of Eric Embry. Embry turned out to be on the losing side of a six-man tag teaming with Chris Adams & Matt Borne to lose to Steve Austin & Sheik Braddock & Jeff Gaylord when Scandor Akbar used a foreign object on Adams and Austin pinned him. The main event was scheduled to be Lawler vs. Jarrett for the title, but it never took place. Before the match started, Gaylord attacked Jarrett and gave him a piledriver on the floor and Lawler was declared the winner by forfeit and didn’t even wrestle on the card.

- Matwatch: It appears everybody wants to be a wrestling promoter in Dallas. I've been told as many as nine groups, counting USWA, are trying to book shows in the Metro-plex, with Gary Hart planning shows in April, Johnny Valentine organising another group in a co-venture, and Ivan Putski promoting yet another.

Week of 3/26/1990 (Matwatch 3/26)

November ratings for the Memphis show on WMC were up from the 11 rating/32 share in July. The 90-minute airing posted a 14/45 (95,000 homes). The February results should be available any day now.

Week of 4/16/1990 (Observer 4/23)

The TV tapings, which were drawing about 2,000 weekly when tickets were free, were down to 200 fans (tickets $2 adults and $1 kids) on 4/14 (been between 200 and 300 fans lately). The only angle was during a Tatum vs. Dundee match. Dundee kissed Tatum's valet Tessa several times which got Tatum upset. The show went to a commercial break with Tatum about to slug Tessa because he said she was liking Dundee's kisses.

Week of 4/23/1990 (Observer 4/30)

One of the stranger angles of the year took place on Saturday. Steve Austin came out and said he's found himself a valet who he said was the sexiest woman in the world and he brought out "Jeannie." During Austin's squash match, Chris Adams came out and he and Jeannie started yelling at each other until finally Jeannie slapped Adams who stormed off. Then Adams had an interview and went on a long tangent and begged John Brazile (a front office guy) for a match with Austin on Friday night but Brazile said that Eric Embry was signed to wrestle Austin. During the interview Chris said he was mad at Austin because Jeannie was his first wife (which, by the way, is a shoot). I think Jeannie was also married once to Billy Jack Haynes. Anyway, you can smell the feud already between Toni Adams and Jeannie coming, can't you? But Eric Embry came out and Adams begged him for the match with Austin and Embry told John Brazile the only way he would accept is if Brazile gave him a title shot at Lawler. Ronnie Gossett then came out and said there was no way he'd let Lawler wrestle Embry and told a few fat jokes about Embry (He's not Flamboyant Eric Embry, he's flabby Eric Embry). Terrence Garvin wound up out there as well and in the heat of the argument Embry told Garvin he could beat him with one hand tied behind his back and Garvin seized on the statement and Embry had to accept since he's already said it.

Before I go on I should mention that the hot Dallas action and angles of this past weekend were apparently booked by Jeff Jarrett.

Week of 4/30/1990 (Observer 5/7)

Long-time announcer Mark Lowrance quit the promotion effective this coming Friday night. No word on who his replacement will be. Lowrance had worked for the Dallas-based promotion for ten years but had some problems with recent angles.

Week of 5/7/1990 (Observer 5/14)

Marc Lowrance had his final TV broadcast on Saturday and they brought out John Brazile and Ed Watt of the office along with Kerry and Jarrett to honor him. Watt called Lowrance the "finest announcer in the business today." That ranks right up there, doesn't it? [...] Percy Pringle is the best bet to get Lowrance's announcing job.

Chris Von Erich came out to do color commentary for a Borne squash and the two ended up arguing until Chris brought up how Borne had lost to Lawler in 30 seconds and Borne slapped Chris and ran his head into the side of the mat. Kerry had to carry Chris to the back. Later in the show as Terrence Garvin had a squash match, Kerry came out and beat up both Garvin and the jobber and challenged Borne for 5/10. It was announced that since Kerry had beaten Lawler and had a shot at the title on 5/10, for him to wrestle Borne would mean he would have to give up his title shot and he agreed to do so.

Another angle saw John Tatum in a squash, Bill Dundee came out with handcuffs and handcuffed Tatum to the ropes. Tatum in an interview earlier told Dundee that he would never get a title rematch. With Tatum handcuffed, Dundee kissed Tessa (Tatum's valet) but Tatum still refused to give him a title shot. After he kissed Tessa a second time, Tatum agreed to give Dundee the title shot. A funny thing after, Dundee simply left but Tatum was still handcuffed in the ring. Dundee had to come back out and throw Tatum the key, but Tatum then dropped the key and had to get the key from a security guard to unlock himself.

Week of 5/14/1990 (Observer 5/21)

5/11 in Dallas drew 550 with ticket prices increased which is a strong showing compared with recent times with lower prices and less fans. The main draw was a match between Kerry Von Erich and Matt Borne. Officially Von Erich is Texas champ although Borne has the belt which Kerry gave him a new weeks back in order to save their friendship.

Eric Embry is gone again. He had a hard time fitting in as one of the boys after being a boss for so long.

With Marc Lowrance gone, the new announcing team is Craig Johnson, who was said to be a cross between Hugo Savinovich and Vince McMahon, whatever that means, who has done some local college basketball in the past and Percy Pringle doing color. Pringle is still a face but a turn might be in the works.

There is talk of making the Saturday morning tapings free once again. The crowds had dropped from 2,000 or more for the free tapings down to 150 to 250 of late with the $2 charge. Part of the reason may he that there is a homeless shelter just a few blocks from the Sportatorium and the people there, who can't afford anything, were using the tapings as free entertainment which is why the crowds were so good for Saturday morning shows.

Week of 5/21/1990 (Observer 5/28)

Negotiations going on to bring in Kerry Von Erich who was tentatively to start at the [5/21 WCW TV] taping but fell through.

Percy Pringle may be turning heel since he and Kerry Von Erich had an argument on TV. But Pringle didn't completely side with Matt Borne (who Kerry is feuding with).

Jeanie (Chris Adams' ex-wife) was on again saying she's going to write a book about Chris. She claimed she'd tell what Chris had to do in Los Angeles to survive when he first came to this country and about what happened in Portland. She said that she would cause Divorce No. 2 for Adams. In an interview later in the show Adams said that he could pull stuff out of the closet on Jeanie as well.

These angles with the women both have long-term storylines and are real soap operas.

Week of 5/28/1990 (Observer 6/4)

[Paul] Orndorff was actually a replacement for. Kerry Von Erich, who was supposed to start at the [WCW] TV tapings last Monday and was penciled in for the match with Arn Anderson at the Clash on 6/13. But Von Erich no-showed Monday's taping (instead he worked a main event in Memphis against Jerry Lawler). By Wednesday, he was fired, before he had actually ever started, and Orndorff was brought in for the spot.

Killer Brooks' outfit starts on TV directly after USWA on KTVT.

Week of 6/18/1990 (Torch 6/21)

Just before going to press, one source close to the USWA told Torch Weekly that July 1 the Sportatorium may be shut down. The city has condemned the Sportatorium ruling the foundation the bleachers are on is unsafe. The arena, and that term is used loosely, will be bolted shut by the City of Dallas. USWA owner Jerry Jarrett would then close the Texas half of the USWA and simply send Dallas' KTVT a tape from Memphis each week if another location could not be found.

Week of 6/25/1990 (Observer 7/2)

[On the version of USWA Championship Wrestling that airs in Louisville, Nashville, and Evansville, t]hey showed a television clip which they said just happened moments ago in Dallas of Jeff Jarrett being attacked by Scandor Akbar's men, however two of the men were Gaylord & Braddock who were already seen in the studio that morning, so when they came back they changed their story and said the attack happened "last night" in Dallas.

Week of 7/2/1990 (Matwatch 7/2 & Observer 7/9)

- Observer: It now appears that Kerry Von Erich will be leaving for the WWF. Von Erich is scheduled to start with Titan at the 7/17 TV taping. Von Erich will start full-time at the house shows on 8/7, mainly against Barbarian or Haku.

- Matwatch: Titan expects both John Nord and Kerry Von Erich to be at their next tapings. Nord probably will but lots of doubt is hanging over Kerry. The key reason Kerry may not be there is reports are Jerry Jarrett has offered him a chance to book his own USWA/Dallas angles to keep him on board and most people expect him to go for it.

- Observer: 6/29 in Dallas drew just 213 paid as [...] Dundee beat Tatum via DQ with a unique finish, Dundee "injured" Tatum's leg so badly that Tessa made Dundee show mercy on Tatum (Tessa should be back with Tatum by the end of this week) and they went to carry Tatum out on a stretcher and Tatum got up and suddenly attacked Dundee with the stretcher; the Chris Adams vs. Steve Austin match ended with no decision when Jeannie and Toni both interfered. Jeannie handcuffed Chris to the ropes and she and Austin beat up on Toni while Chris had to watch.

Lots of shoot comments in the Jeannie and Toni interviews with the classic babyface Toni saying, "The only word I can think of for you starts with mother but it has a word I can't say at the end of it."

They are saying Jeff Jarrett is out of action with an eye infection from when [Chico] Torres threw hot sauce in his eye but in reality he and his father were on vacation in Canada.

Week of 7/9/1990 (Matwatch 7/9, Torch 7/12, & Observer 7/16)

- Matwatch: Action Media Group is a name which may not mean much to you. But AMG sells the national ads for the NWA syndie package as The Wrestling Network. It also

sells spots for several Andrews Entertainment shows, including USWA, as TWN-Plus. NWA officials are reportedly thinking of pushing AMG to get out of the Plus deal, which could be an economic jolt to Jerry Jarrett's package.

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This is what the ad that Action Media Group placed in the issue of Broadcasting centered on the January 1990 NATPE syndication convention, which includes the USWA, TWN, and TWN Plus.

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- Torch: The latest on Kerry Von Erich is that he will not be going to the World Wrestling Federation. Whether the WWF knows it or not yet is unknown. Kerry is scheduled for a July 16 start at the Omaha, NE tapings. Last week he was wrestling in Hawaii. This week he is still wrestling for the USWA, as recent as July 11 according to the USWA office. USWA’s John Brazil told Torch Weekly that Kerry had decided not to leave Texas.

- Observer: The 7/4 card in Dallas drew 500 as Skip Young pinned The Dog of War (Buster Fowler), Kevin Von Erich beat Gary Young via DQ when Sweet Daddy Falcone interfered, The "final showdown" between Kerry Von Erich and Matt Borne never took place since Borne has already left the territory and has been working for George Scott in the Carolinas. So instead they ran an angle where Kerry got into an argument with Percy Pringle and put the claw on him until Falcone attacked Kerry and Jeff Jarrett made the save. Also in a mixed tag team match, Chris Adams & Toni Adams went to a double count out with Steve Austin & Jeannie when Chris and Austin were both counted out of the ring. After the match Austin gave Chris a piledriver on the floor and Austin tied Toni up in the ropes. Jeannie started slapping around Toni while Chris tried to get into the ring to save his wife and he got another piledriver. At this point Toni got out of the ropes and made her comeback on Jeannie, knocking her out of the ring. Austin climbed to the top rope and leaped off but Toni covered Chris to protect him and took the brunt of the splash and Toni had to be carried out on a stretcher. Jeannie knocked over the stretcher on the way to the dressing room. This sounds like a pretty hot angle and I'm told it came off as good as it sounds. John Tatum regained the Southwestern title (formerly the Southern title) from Bill Dundee after hitting him with a foreign object after a ref bump. After the match Tatum was begging Tessa to come back with him but she refused, and he gave her a superkick and she was also carried out on a stretcher. To me, doing it a second time in the same night really dilutes that first angle. Overkill to say the least. Also Jarrett & Billy Travis beat Falcone & Chico Torres.

At the TV tapings on 7/7, Travis and Jarrett were doing an interview when Iceman King Parsons ran out. A bunch of guys came out to pull Iceman away and they made the point that Iceman doesn't even work in the USWA (where have I heard that line before?). The idea was to re-create the angle they did with Lawler and Snowman in Memphis but in this case it came off too staged and looked like a wrestling angle. Parsons claimed that the USWA wouldn't book him and they'll let a guy like Jarrett be a main eventer. Later Jarrett & Travis had a squash match and Iceman came running down and the police handcuffed him and dragged him out of the building and the announcers acted like he was under arrest since he didn't work for the promotion. Lots of profanity used by Iceman when they were carrying him out, some of which made television. Travis earned the class act of the week award by saying, on camera, to Jarrett, "Hey man, don't worry about that [n-word]."

Another angle saw a muscular guy[—Rod Price—]who works on the independent shows in the area as The California Kid (but to act here like he was simply a fan) get into a heckling match with Kerry. He challenged Kerry to a fight and Kerry said not until you get a few years experience and when Kerry turned his back, the "fan" gave him a clothesline. This got no heat from the crowd, however.

Week of 7/16/1990 (Matwatch 7/16)

Kerry Von Erich's WWF start was skedded for Monday night. He told Titan he'd definitely be there & told Jerry Jarrett he was definitely staying. If he goes, he will get a big push in light of the [Brutus] Beefcake vacancy [from his parasailing accident].

Week of 7/23/1990 (Torch 7/26 & Observer 7/30)

- Observer: Kerry Von Erich's debut with the WWF on Monday night in Omaha was the most talked about thing of the week. Kerry arrived, and will appear both on Superstars of Wrestling and Saturday Night's Main Event this coming weekend. WWF even got Kerry interviews on in all the cities where Kerry was to replace Brutus Beefcake in tag team matches, which includes a few Texas cities. Reports I got were that Titan has its fingers crossed that Kerry will stay for the long haul, but was somewhat disappointed in him as a worker. Still, because the company desperately needs a new face superstar and the guy is marketable, expect a super push between now and the next PPV show.

The 7/20 card at the Dallas Sportatorium drew 1,100 to see Kerry Von Erich's final appearance with the promotion. Kerry did show up and beat Rod Price via DQ when Scandor Akbar interfered. And just to make his final night memorable, after the match was over, Kerry grabbed the house mic and said that this was his final night with the promotion and that he has joined the WWF. He then said how he'll be teaming up everywhere with the Ultimate Warrior against Rick Rude & Curt Hennig including 8/3 at Reunion Arena in Dallas. That must have thrilled Jerry Jarrett to no end since Titan has Reunion, which is three-quarters of a mile from the Sportatorium, booked on a Friday night head-to-head with this group.

On TV 7/21, Kerry's name wasn't mentioned.

Jeannie came out and said she had photos of Chris in compromising positions "taken recently" and gave them to Pringle and told Percy to give them to Toni and vowed that when Toni sees them, she'll divorce Chris for sure. What a feud, huh?

In a big shock, on television this past week in Dallas, they acknowledged Snowman as USWA champion which is the first time a title change in Memphis has been recognized in Dallas.

- Torch: Dundee is booking with the help of the Jarretts.

Week of 7/30/1990 (Observer 8/6)

The big wife vs. ex-wife skit came to a head at television. Jeannie came out with an envelope which she claimed were all recent photos and asked Toni to come out claiming they were divorce material. Toni came out and they showed photos of Jeannie and Chris together, Chris with another woman, Chris in a softcore porn shot and a nude photo of Chris (with tape covering the crotch). Toni attacked her and Pringle held Toni and Jeannie started slapping her and showing her the photos. Chris Adams ran out and he and Austin got into it and before long Chris Von Erich came out and jumped on Pringle and everyone was there before long until Jarrett cleaned house with a chair. Later in the show, Chris and Toni were out and Toni started yelling at Chris saying she knew those were recent photos because Chris was wearing a World Gym sweatshirt she had just recently bought him. John Brazell of the office said they shouldn't air the problems on TV and Toni told Chris he had a lot of explaining to do. The entire Adams/Jeannie/Austin television skit took something like 20 minutes.

Week of 8/6/1990 (Matwatch 8/6 & Observer 8/13)

- Observer: Jarrett's card at the Dallas Sportatorium drew its largest crowd of the year, approximately 1,750. While the WWF drew more fans at Reunion Arena, which is less than a mile down the road from the Sportatorium, estimated at 3,000 to see Kerry Von Erich's first house show match with Titan, the WWF lost money on the promotion because rent alone at Reunion Arena is $30,000. However, a much bigger story took place over the same weekend when KTVT, Ch. 11 in Dallas, which had carried the USWA television show in a two-hour block from 10 p.m. to midnight since the beginning of time, announced it was dropping the program effective next month. They would replace it with Superstars of Wrestling from the WWF from 11 p.m. to midnight while they would add non-wrestling programming during the first hour. As recently as 18 months ago, the KTVT show in Dallas was the highest rated wrestling show in any of the top ten major markets. USWA losing the slot was not a hasty decision as both the WWF and NWA were working on getting the slot for some time now, but the straw that broke the camel's back for the USWA were the continuing amounts of complaints from viewers about USWA program content over the past two months. The main complaints regarded the repeated women beating angles involving Toni Adams and Tessa and usage of profanity and racial slurs on the broadcast. Ironically, the day after the show was canceled, the station set a record for complaints because of another angle involving Toni Adams and Jeannie in which Toni ripped Jeannie's blouse off and she ran around in a half-bra.

They did another 20 minute plus angle involving Jeannie and Toni on television. Austin and Jeannie came out with a photo album with a series of photos they claimed were taken this past Thursday. The photos showed Chris Adams leaving the house, entering a restaurant, sitting next to a girl who got closer and closer as each photo was taken, kissing and then leaving the restaurant arm-in-arm. Austin noted that in every photo, you could see that Adams didn't have his wedding ring on. Toni came down to look at the photos and started crying and demanded for Chris to come down. Chris claimed it was all a set-up and said he got a call from his agent to have dinner with someone but Toni didn't believe it and slapped Chris and claimed he was lying and walked off.

- Matwatch: Veteran TV wrestling personality Joe Pedicino has returned from a weekend trip to Dallas, where sources indicate he could be involved in negotiations involving a future venture in wrestling. However, when reached by telephone Saturday night at his Dallas hotel, Pedicino said there is no truth to talk he is attempting to buy the United States Wrestling Association from Jerry Jarrett. "We are not interested in the Sportatorium and I can tell you we are not trying to buy the promotion," said Pedicino. "But we are involved in some talks we cannot discuss at this time." Several wrestlers had contacted MATWATCH with reports Pedicino would be taking over the promotion. Pedicino acted as co-host on the tJSWA syndicated and KTVT shows with Craig Johnson. The syndicated shows will air the weekends of Aug. 18 and 25.

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This is what will become the Global Wrestling Federation, blah blah that’ll be its own show, etc etc.

Week of 8/13/1990 (Matwatch 8/13, Torch 8/16, & Observer 8/20)

- Torch: The [KTVT] show was cancelled partly due to continued warnings to [Jerry] Jarrett that viewers were complaining about the female abuse common to the show this year, including John Tatum kicking Tessa in the head. […] One source told Torch Weekly that some employees at KTVT said Jarrett was extremely difficult to deal and reason with. Another reason for the change from USWA to WWF is that ratings have fallen dramatically since its peak in the early eighties. The show used to be one of the top five shows in the Dallas market, and it has not been in the top ten for over two years. Commercial spots on the program were going for as little as $50 for thirty seconds. […] USWA is seeking a one hour slot for a local show on two other Dallas stations, including channel 27, to make up for their “loss.”

- Observer: The impending loss of KTVT (Ch. 11) is a major one for the company. Not only did the station provide two hours in prime time on Saturday night (a traditional time slot since the beginning of time) for the promotion to sell both its Dallas shows and also publicize spot shows (since KTVT is on cable throughout Texas and Oklahoma), but it was a large chunk of its television advertising revenue base. The Texas side could be hurt greatly, since it leaves them with only a few (someone told me three) weak slots throughout the state of Texas as the KTVT had been the key to everything. USWA is negotiating to get Ch. 39 in Dallas (which used to syndicate World Class Wrestling until dropping the show about a year back) to pick up the lost time slot.

The Adams-Austin-Jeannie stuff was toned down this week for obvious reasons. Actually an interview was taped where a baby was wearing a Chris Adams T-shirt and Austin threatened to slap the baby but this never aired on television for obvious reasons.

John Tatum was taken to prison last week for probation violation. Tatum, under terms of his probation for a manslaughter charge in an auto accident several years ago, was prohibited from using drugs and when he was caught, it was a violation and he faces two to five years in prison. Other departures from the area include Tessa, who is quitting the wrestling business to go back to college and study nursing.

- Torch: The large crowd [on 8/3, opposite Kerry Von Erich’s Metroplex WWF debut] was a false high because fans who attended the USWA card, including a security guard, thought Kerry was teaming with Ultimate Warrior there. Since two weeks earlier Kerry stated over the house mic in his final USWA appearance that he was going to be teaming with Ultimate Warrior in two weeks, but did not say where. So the increase over over 1,000 fans was mainly because they thought Kerry and Warrior were going to be there. In the meantime, promoters and wrestlers from the USWA and Texas independents continue to speculate which match accounted for the big crowd. Epilogue: The next week, 8/10, the Sportatorium was back to a crowd of 500.

Many wrestlers were angry this week when paychecks came. Houses were up in Memphis and Dallas, yet there was little to no increase in pay.

- Matwatch: Titan folks were quite disappointed Kerry Von Erich didn't lift them to a big house at Reunion Arena on Aug. 3 but Kerry wasn't exactly packing them in the Sportatorium, so few of us are surprised.

Week of 8/20/1990 (Matwatch 8/20, Torch 8/23, & Observer 8/27)

- Matwatch: Jerry Jarrett is making noises of expanding USWA into Florida, where he lives most of the year. He reportedly could easily get into seven television markets in the Sunshine State.

- Observer: The Toni-Jeannie stuff is why the crowds have been up for the third straight week and it's the most creative stuff on the U.S. scene. Chris is doing a great job as an actor as the guy whose marriage is breaking up because of a Dangerous Liaisons type heel woman and both women are surprisingly good until the actual physical contact, which is awful of course. Austin is doing a good job when you consider how little experience he has, but he is working with his trainer so that does make it easier, but he's got potential to be a star in the not too distant future if he continues to improve at this rate. But the promotion is on borrowed time because the loss of the TV outlet will make it next to impossible to promote spot shows outside of a 40-mile radius of Dallas because the other show is on a weak station. In fact, some have figured the Dallas crowds themselves will be cut at least in half when the Ch. 11 show is dropped.

- Torch: Channel 39 cameras taped programs last weekend rather than the usual channel 11 crew. As of press time, there was no official word that 39 has picked up the USWA, which has its last week on channel 11 next weekend, although 39 is the most likely candidate to pick up the show.

Week of 8/27/1990 (Matwatch 8/27, Torch 8/30, & Observer 9/3)

- Torch: More of the same at the Sportatorium Friday, August 24, but it was in front of the largest crowd in a long time. The Sportatorium, which holds 3,500-4,200 fas, was about half full. Normally, it draws around 500-700 fans. The main event saw Chris Adams pin Steve Austin in a match billed as “scientific.” […] Whenever one of the women interfered, they were sent into a small “penalty box” cage. […] The other big match saw Jeff Jarrett and Jerry Lawler beat Gary Young and John Tatum.

Semi-main-eventers are getting paid about $100, less than what the lowest paid referee got over five years ago when World Class was a hot territory.

- Matwatch: Joe Pedicino's new USWA hotline drew 456 calls Thursday, one day before it was scheduled to launch. The hotline was inadvertently advertised on ESPN's USWA Legends series Thursday, but programming didn't start until Friday.

- Observer: Percy Pringle dressed in drag and attacked Toni Adams on television.

Week of 9/3/1990 (Texas Roundup #3, Matwatch 9/3, Torch 9/6, & Observer 9/10)

- Observer: A legal battle for power in Dallas is taking place as on Friday night, an injunction was posted on the wall of the dressing room at the Sportatorium which nearly closed the building down without a card. A lawsuit is being filed for control of the company with Kevin and Kerry Von Erich going to battle in court against Jerry Jarrett and Max Andrews. The Von Erichs, who own 40 percent of the Dallas office, got an injunction which for now ties Jarrett's hands in running the company as Jarrett is prohibited from writing any checks, using any funds from the company account, selling anything with the Von Erich name or even using their wrestling ring. The Von Erichs claim Jarrett misappropriated company funds. Apparently the Von Erichs haven't gotten any money from what they claim should have been company profits (while the promotion may not show a profit on paper from house shows as Jarrett himself only runs the Friday night and Saturday morning shows in Dallas and until recently, the Friday houses have been small and Saturday's virtually non-existent since they draw just a few hundred at $2 per head--road shows are run by Chris Adams mainly and there aren't that many of them), however it is alleged that Jarrett and Andrews have made a lot of money from television syndication of the USWA programs. The preliminary hearing on this custody battle for the promotion takes place on 9/13. It was interesting because both Kevin Von Erich and Jerry Jarrett were at the Sportatorium on Friday and wrestlers were going back-and-forth telling each that they were on their side in the fight since the wrestlers have no idea who will win out. It is said that Jarrett was laughing the entire thing off, while Kevin believes that Jarrett won't even bother to fight them in court and will go with his tail between his Legs back to Tennessee and the Von Erichs will have their promotion back. While there is no basis for confirmation of this, there is a lot of talk that Fritz Von Erich may get back in. At least the wrestlers' gossip is that Fritz will be back around and save the Ch. 11 time slot (which disappears in a few weeks) which would save the promotion and that Gary Hart would be booker once again.

- Torch: Seven lawyers representing the Von Erichs were at the Sportatorium before Jerry Jarrett arrived, as were Kevin Von Erich and Chris Adams. Fritz Von Erich was not present, but it is speculated that he is involved. Early in the evening, Kevin walked around the locker room area with Gary Hart, introducing him as “the new booker.” Bill Dundee was the only person present from “Jarrett’s side” that witnessed this. Jerry Jarrett officially is the booker of USWA Dallas with Jeff Jarrett and Bill Dundee as assistants. [...] A source close to Jerry Jarrett, however, said Jarrett is not worried and did not expect any changes, other than possibly the departure of Chris Adams and Kevin Von Erich. The major question would be who gets control of the syndication network, currently the main source for the USWA’s income. But believe it or not, money is probably not the actual reason the court injunction has occurred. One source close to the situation speculated that with Kevin Von Erich’s younger brother, erry, winning the WWF I-C Title on national TV had to make Kevin jealous. So, Kevin decided the Von Erichs should be on top in Texas like years ago.

- Matwatch: The dispute between [Kevin] Von Erich and [Jerry] Jarrett has apparently simmered since Kevin's brother Kerry left the USWA for the World Wrestling Federation last month. Kevin attempted a power play to become USWA Dallas booker in mid-August and was turned down by Jarrett. Both Kevin and Kerry retained minority shares of USWA when their father Jack (Fritz Von Erich) Adkisson sold majority interest to Jarrett in 1988. But sources close to USWA told Matwatch Jarrett claims Kerry signed an agreement to forfeit his shares of the promotion if he ever left for full-time employment with another wrestling group, a contention Kevin Von Erich is disputing. [...] Jarrett's and Von Erich's attorneys were expected to meet through the weekend to attempt to reach a settlement.

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From the contract, which was filed by the Von Erichs’ lawyer as an exhibit to their complaint on 8/30:

“Kevin. Kerry, and Jarrett agree to devote full time to the corporation and in operations. It is understood that Kerry realises and recognises that Kerry is a key person to the corporation as a wrestler. Kerry agrees to enter into a contract to wrestle for the corporation at least. but not limited to, an average of four (4) tiles each week during a calendar year for a fee of $300.00 per match unless otherwise agreed for special or large shows. Kerry further agrees not to wrestle for a company or entity competing with the corporation while he is a shareholder in

the corporation.”

---

- Texas Roundup, a newsletter published anonymously by area wrestler Larry Dwyer: The highlight of the evening was not in the ring tonight, but the dressing room. Posted about every 10 feet around the locker room was a five page injunction notice filed by Kevin and Kerry Adkisson (Von Erich) vs. Jerry Jarrett and Max Andrews (TV producer and syndicator). It basically stated that the Von Erichs had not been receiving their percentage of the group's profits for quite awhile (Kevin and Kerry own 20% each, Jarrett 50%, and referee Bronko Lubich the remaining 10%).There were lawyers and plainclothes detectives everywhere. Some were stationed at the front door counting customers, while others were keeping tabs on the souvenir booth and concession stands. Originally the show tonight wasn't even going to go on, but both parties came to a verbal agreement until the court date 9/12/90.

---

A particularly telling excerpt from the Von Erichs’ complaint: “In breach of his fiduciary and confidential duties to THE VON ERICHS, and in a bizarre display of pettiness, jealous, and egomania, JARRETT, in conspiracy and collusion with ANDREWS, began methodically excluding THE VON ERICHS from wrestling appearances, began failing to book performances for them, and instead began promoting his own son, Jeff Jarrett, as a purported wrestling ‘superstar’! Not content with ignoring his contractual obligations, breaching his fiduciary duties, and violating the trust placed in him by THE VON ERICHS, it is clear that JARRETT intended to destroy their ability to earn an income and to attempt to wrongfully appropriate for himself and his son the respect and fame of THE VON ERICHS. Although JARRETT has not succeeded in this goal, his actions have seriously hurt and damaged THE VON ERICHS, which has necessitated the filing of this lawsuit.”

---

- Matwatch: Jim Herd told us this week [that] WCW is no longer interested in Jerry Jarrett's syndie network, particularly with Jarrett's recent loss of KTVT in Dallas and a key station in Tampa. However, trusted sources have told Matwatch Jarrett has closed a deal with ESPN to produce a first-run show for the cable sports network on Mondays and retain three Legends shows a week.

Week of 9/10/1990 (Torch 9/13 & Observer 9/17)

- Torch: Jerry Jarrett signed a deal with “The Total Sports Network” ESPN to produce first-run programming on Monday nights beginning in October, replacing the AWA. The new programs, scheduled to be taped in Dallas, TX, will air in addition to three “Legends of Wrestling” shows per week which are simply old World Class programs.

- Observer: Jarrett was paying jobbers $25 apiece to work television on Saturday mornings and so few showed up this past week that in a two-hour show, three of the five had to work twice. The "stars" work for free, which isn't so pleasant since USWA maybe runs only two shows in a particular week and Sportatorium payoffs are $65 to $100 even when the houses are up. That's why, of the guys living in the area, nobody will shed a tear if Kevin Von Erich does win the fight. But the betting line is Jarrett will retain control because he's been in a lot of territorial fights and always won. Kevin has never been in one.

Week of 9/17/1990 (Matwatch 9/17, Torch 9/20, & Observer 9/24)

- Observer: When faced with a fourth down with little time remaining, USWA president Jerry Jarrett chose to punt. Jarrett cleaned out his office Wednesday at the Dallas Sportatorium, the day before the court hearing to determine the validity of Kevin Von Erich's claim that Jarrett had misappropriated funds. By not showing up for the hearing, Jarrett forfeited control of the Dallas branch of the USWA to Von Erich, who was a minority owner. But few people think that this is the end of the story, even though Von Erich has been telling people he won the ultimate battle in what turned out to be a very short war for control. Most wrestlers in Dallas believe that Jarrett is simply sitting out a few weeks, waiting for Von Erich to crumble the promotion, as it crumbled when he was in control a few years back which caused Von Erich to originally go to Jarrett to bail them out (the company was going to fold because it was so deep in debt in late 1988 when the Von Erichs cut a deal with Jarrett to save the promotion, however in doing so, the Von Erichs were forced to give 60 percent of the company stock to Jarrett, thus controlling interest). Then Jarrett can return to Texas and run the promotion once again, this time without Kevin and Kerry Von Erich as his business partners.

There is some question as to what Kevin really won. Since both Jarrett and Max Andrews (whose company syndicates the USWA Challenge show, and most assume that it is the television syndication which was the only profitable aspect of the company) were named as defendants in the complaint, Jarrett and Andrews are apparently still together. In other words, Jarrett will maintain control of the 100-plus station syndicated network, which at least for now, will apparently start airing matches taped from Tennessee. It's questionable whether Jarrett would be able to get away with running the WMC studio show in syndication, since the setting looks weak as compared to other shows in syndication (TV station managers don't look at wrestling content or how good the angles are, but they will notice TV matches taped in a small studio as opposed to a sparkling arena--not that the Sportatorium sparkles but it doesn't look bad on TV). However the plum station in the syndicated network was definitely KTVT in Dallas, which replaced Jarrett with the WWF over this past weekend. Losing KTVT was thought by many in Texas as the near demise of the promotion to begin with. Kevin did win the right to promote wrestling every Friday at the Sportatorium, but he has no television as of yet to use to promote these shows. After losing KTVT, there was still a time slot on Ch. 27 (a weak indie), but Jarrett apparently has maintained control because they aired several week old USWA Sportatorium tapings on Saturday but didn't have any commercials plugging Kevin's upcoming show.

- Torch: Jarrett, who owns the rights to all Sportatorium tapes previous to Thursday’s hearing, will fill in the syndication gap with unaired matches taped for Saturday’s Channel 11 shows. Also, no matter what Kevin Von Erich’s status is with his new promotion, Jarrett plans to air a special three to four week series covering the USWA World Title Tournament to take place at the Mid-South Coliseum on October 8. That gives Jarrett syndication for six to eight weeks without relying on Dallas as a source. By that time, the situation with World Class will have worked itself out and the future plans for TV will be made accordingly.

- Matwatch: Von Erich, who was denied in an attempt to take over booking of the Dallas,  USWA group four weeks ago, charged Jarrett was only brought in as a chief operating officer and was never meant to gain 60 percent stock control. Jarrett produced a 12-page

contract for Von Erich's lawyers which his attorneys contend adequately support his position of majority control.

---

From the contract, which was actually filed by Kevin’s lawyers as an exhibit to his and Kerry’s initial complaint on 8/30:

“Kevin. Kerry. and Jarrett agree to form a corporation under the laws of Texas. The authorised common stock will be 50.000 shares, par value $1.00 per share. The Articles of Incorporation will contain a preemption provision and a prohibition against cumulative voting for directors. The corporation will issue stock tron ties to tile as determined by the parties so that Jarrett will own sixty percent (60%) of the issued and outstanding stock. Kevin will own twenty percent (20%) ot the issued and outstanding stock, and Kerry will own twenty percent (20%) of the

issued and outstanding stock of the corporation. A shareholders' agreement restricting stock disposition and transfer will be prepared and signed containing the basis for the disposition of issued stock by sale or upon the death of a shareholder. Kevin. Kerry. and Jarrett will be the initial directors. The number of directors shall be three (3).”

In addition, though not reported at the time, Jarrett and Max Andrews filed an answer and counterclaim on September 20. There, besides Kerry’s jump to the WWF, other breaches cited were Kevin working for Rob Russen’s IWA and “the repeated failure of Plaintiffs, and especially Kevin Von Erich, to show up at scheduled appearances as required by the agreement.”

---

- Matwatch continued: The question a number of observers have been asking is: if Jarrett's position was sound, why did he cede the group to Von Erich? Several key reasons are evident:

* Control of the Syndication Network: Without the massive 105-station television network (which just lost outlets in Baltimore and Tampa but added one in Boston) handled by syndicator Andrews Entertainment, the best Von Erich and apparent partner Gary Hart can hope to put together (likely with the old World Class name) is a Texas roster of stations. Jarrett, for an interim period, is expected to either tape the USWA show in Memphis or show a number of recent Mid-South Coliseum matches for his "A" Challenge show. Plus, AWA officials acknowledged last week a Matwatch report of three weeks ago that they are losing their weekly Monday slot on ESPN to Jarrett, who also retains his three-day-a-week 4 p.m. (EDT) Legends slot.

* Availability of Wrestlers: Insiders MATWATCH has spoken with believe few existing USWA wrestlers will go over to the Von Erich/Hart camp and lead announcer Craig Johnson is firmly committed to Jarrett. One source very close to the group told MATWATCH: "Any who do go to work for Kevin will probably come running back in a month."

* USWA Tournament: As far as TV coverage, Jarrett appears to be well in the driver's seat as, during his hiatus from Dallas, he will probably run key matches from the USWA Heavyweight

Championship tournament on his syndicated shows, which could include some major names.

But all of these factors aside, there remains another more underlying key: Jarrett's shrewdness as a businessman. "A lot of people are asking why Jarrett just let Kevin have it when he probably could have won the thing in court," a key insider told us. "The fact is: even

a short court fight would have been expensive. But here's the real key: Until now, Jarrett

only owned 60 percent of USWA. But if Kevin goes in there and without strong TV, bombs out in a month or two, Jarrett will be primed to go right back into the Sportatorium. And this time, he'll go in as 100 percent owner. Plus, he has the syndication and ESPN all locked up, so he'd be hard put to lose." Jerry Jarrett promotions are always lean operations. Most of his wrestlers do not make big bucks except when outside talent is brought in for special shows, such as the upcoming tournament. He does not spend big money on travel costs (virtually all of the Memphis-area shows are within driving distance each night) and with the exception of the Mid-South Coliseum, with which he has a special deal for his weekly Monday bookings, he does not have expensive rent for big arenas. A source in a position to know recently told me Jarrett's books look as good as you could imagine for an operation his size and he continues to turn a profit in what is the leanest of times for independent groups. Most insiders are predicting Jarrett will win whatever fight there is here because of his savvy in business. Regardless, the consensus is his giving Dallas back to Kevin Von Erich may, in time, reap one of his biggest victories ever.

- Observer: Kevin has renamed the promotion World Class Championship Wrestling, and his first card, this past Friday, which was promoted off the final airing of USWA on Ch. 11 before Titan got the slot, drew 375 fans, which is well below what the group had been averaging of late, even with a Toni vs. Jeannie no DO match on the card. Kevin hired a camera crew to film the card and it was the same crew that had worked the Sportatorium previously, but they were using different equipment. Apparently Kevin is going to try and shop the tape around town and come up with his own new TV outlet. In addition, Kevin fired announcer Craig Johnson and had three new announcers doing the show with Bill Mercer overseeing. Kevin apparently wants to bring back Mercer and Mark Lowrance to do the announcing if he is to have his way. Wrestlers who worked the card were saying it was the most disorganized show anyone can remember. While there were midweek rumors that Grizzly Smith would come in as booker, which followed what everyone thought with Gary Hart as booker, it appeared that Kevin was running the whole shebang by himself. As in the “glory days” of the promotion, the card itself started 25 minutes late and there were 20 to 25 minute breaks between each and every match. Almost nobody was left in the building when the final match on the card took place. While World Class got away with long breaks between matches back in the early 80s, few believe fans will put up with that today. And with no television, at least temporarily, it's going to be next to impossible to draw new fans. The only advertising outlet right now is the WCWA hotline at the Sportatorium, and they still hadn't changed the tape (which gave the line-up for this past Friday) as of Monday afternoon.

Kevin Von Erich's first show on 9/14 at the Dallas Sportatorium drew 375 fans. [...] The only no-shows were Jeff Jarrett, Bill Dundee and Kimala. They also didn't sell any Jarrett, Dundee or Lawler gimmicks which is how most of the fans realized things had changed. Kevin got publicity for the show in the Dallas newspaper when he visited some local gangs and tried to talk them out of being gangs and said all the revenue from the show would go to the gangs to fund activities to keep them straight. Somehow I find that hard to believe since this new company doesn't appear to have any source of new capital and this was its first incoming revenue and things will only get tougher promoting without television. Before the card they taped a segment outside for the TV where a limo came in and fans were told to gather around the limo because one of the biggest stars in the country was inside and was making a surprise return. When it turned out to be Kevin, about 60 of the 80 people just groaned and walked away.

I was surprised that [Billy] Travis stayed since Jarrett pretty much was of the impression that many of the guys would pull out and wait for him to return, but nobody pulled out except Dundee & Jeff Jarrett, who really work full-time in Memphis anyway.

In another story related to Jarrett, there has been talk that Jarrett's up-to-date tapes will also air on ESPN on Monday's in place of the AWA, starting late this year. ESPN denies this, saying the AWA is under contract until the end of the year and nobody else is under consideration after that point. The story, which has been talked about freely within the business, is that Jarrett is going to get his tape on strictly for barter, rather than have a payment of a few thousand dollars a taping from ESPN as the AWA deal was structured. Many said that it was simply the ESPN money that was keeping the AWA afloat, so if this story is correct and AWA doesn't have that source of revenue, one wonders its immediate future.

- Torch: The ESPN deal consists of a barter deal where USWA gets some commercial spots to sell but is not compensated with cash for their shows. […] The ESPN show will be different from the syndicated version in content. ESPN does not allow any 900 [number] ads, including wrestling ones, so USWA will not be able to plug theirs on ESPN.

Week of 9/24/1990 (Matwatch 9/24, Torch 9/27, & Observer 10/1)

- Matwatch: Veteran wrestler Eddie Gilbert is expected to be named booker for the USWA Memphis promotion, perhaps as early as this week. No official word was available at deadline. Cilbert has been booking most of the key angles in the promotion since arriving here in early summer. He has been sought by at least one other promotional group and has also been debating an offer to become a TV producer for the World Wrestling Federation. Memphis kingpin Jerry Lawler has expressed a desire to work fewer arena dales and the shift to Gilbert is part of the consideration.

- Observer: The USWA announced its tournament for its title on 10/8 in Memphis. The 16-man tournament still has a few spots to be filled with negotiations still going on, but 14 that were announced on television this past weekend were Austin Idol, Terry Funk, Steve Keirn, Ivan Koloff, Dick Slater, Mean Mark, Eddie Gilbert, Jerry Lawler, Gary Young, John Tatum, Jeff Jarrett, Dirty White Boy Tony Anthony, Brickhouse Brown and Jimmy Valiant. Names I've heard as possibilities for the remaining two spots include Abdul Hassan (George Weingeroff playing an Arabian Sheik), Paul Orndorff, Mike Graham or Dick Murdoch.

Interesting to note both Gary Young and John Tatum's name on the USWA tournament show in Memphis which shows Jarrett doesn't appear to be holding a grudge against those who work for Kevin. As it turned out, most of the Dallas based talent went to work for Kevin, although until a television deal is struck it's going to be an uphill battle.

Kevin Von Erich's first week without any television promotion saw the crowd 9/21 drop to 246.

- Torch: Marc Lowrance has returned to wrestling. He is attempting to use his influence as a preacher to get Texas wrestling back on channel 11 in Dallas.

There was word that Von Erich’s lawyers were trying to claim the syndicated network of just over 100 stations.

Week of 10/1/1990 (Matwatch 10/1, Torch 10/4, & Observer 10/8)

- Torch: The USWA’s new syndicated season has begun with a new look. Craig Johnson introduced the show from inside a studio instead of the Sportatorium, and did wrap-arounds for segments from the Sportatorium, WMC-TV, and the Mid-South Coliseum. In a few weeks, the syndicated shows will begin to show the title tournament.

Lowrance continues to use his religious affiliation to influence the religious channel 11 management. WCCW met with channel 11 last week with no word yet on any possible return.

- Matwatch: Kevin Von Erich's World Class revival is said to be only tenuously continuing. He's been able to gain no TV in the Dallas area and crowds are waning.

- Observer: [World Class] isn't apparently very near to a TV deal. This should have been a taping week and Bill Mercer and Mark Lowrance were supposed to return as announcers. However, there were no cameras there, nor was Mercer, although Lowrance did return and worked as the ring announcer. [...] Those in Memphis are saying they expect Jarrett to make a play to return to Texas within a few more weeks.

Week of 10/8/1990 (Matwatch 10/8, Torch 10/11, & Observer 10/15)

- Observer: USWA tournament results from 10/8 in Memphis. [...] Final was Lawler vs. Idol. Idol said since Lawler was injured he'd give him a rest period, and when Lawler went to shake his hands, Idol kicked him in the stomach and turned heel on him. Finish was a ref bump, then Funk & Gilbert came out and went to give Lawler a double clothesline but Lawler ducked, Idol got hit with the double clothesline and pinned. The three destroyed Lawler after the match, and when Jeff Jarrett came in and tripled on him and "injured his leg." Post-match stuff lasted something like 10 minutes and the card itself didn't end until 12:15 a.m. I believe the show will be played out over six weeks of syndicated television and also be the first six weeks for ESPN when Jarrett gets the time slot. Gate for the show was $24,600, which Is the largest gate in Memphis as far as I can recall since the Lawler-Curt Hennig AWA title match back in 1988.

Most are figuring that Jarrett will be back running shows in Dallas by November.

Later, in Dave’s late notes: Jarrett expects to be running shows in Dallas again by early November.

- Torch: Word is in two weeks Jarrett may make a move to re-enter the Texas market.

There may have been a falling out between Chris Adams and Kevin Von Erich which will lead to Adams leaving WCCW and head[ing] for a WCW job or independents.

- Matwatch: A leading attorney for wrestler Kevin Von Erich has resigned from Von Erich's case in the continuing effort over control of the Dallas territory and Sportatorium. Simultaneously, a Matwatch Texas correspondent reports Chris Adams, who bolted Jerry Jarrett's USWA, to book Von Erich's revived World Class, has also left Von Erich. Von Erich, who has experienced declining crowds and money woes, was accused of not providing his attorney with complete information in the legal battle with Jarrett. Adams, who reportedly encouraged Von Erich to make the break from Jarrett, resigned as booker in a dispute over

booking fees for WCCW. Adams reportedly told Von Erich he can make more money booking his own cards without having to be under the World Class umbrella. Dallas insiders expect Jarrett's USWA to be offered a chance to return to the Sportatorium, boosted by local TV syndication, in a matter of weeks.

---

Von Erich’s lawyer, eventual GWF promoter Grey Pierson, officially withdrew as counsel in a letter filed with the Dallas County Clerk on October 8 with no reason given.

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Jeff and Jerry Jarrett apparently are headed to the SWS show [on October 18] in Japan, apparently as part of a talent exchange for the future.

Week of 10/15/1990 (Torch 10/18 & Observer 10/22)

- Observer: The [tournament] card officially drew about 3,000 fans and $24,600 with Jerry Lawler beating Austin Idol in the finals to become USWA champ once again. Lawler won because, among other reasons, they wouldn't have to pay transportation expenses every time they wanted a title match which would be necessary if they gave it to an "outsider." Eddie Gilbert, who is booker, no doubt didn't want it because it would add heat to him as booker if he made himself champion. From all reports, the matches themselves as a rule were good, as of the 20 matches, only three or so were bad matches. The main complaint was the length of the show, which didn't end until 12:22 a.m. Tuesday after starting at 7:05. After about 10 p.m. the crowd was pretty burned out and the heat was less than it would be normally for bouts of that quality.

Just about the only problem regarding finishes during the tournament came from Jeff Gaylord who was unhappy about being told to put Dick Slater over clean.

The World Class card on 10/12 at the Dallas Sportatorium drew 190. [...] Chris Adams & Steve Dane & Toni Adams beat Steve Austin & California Stud (Rod Price) & Jeannie Clark [in the main event] which finally ends the feud when Dane pinned Stud while the main event saw Kevin Von Erich beat John Tatum. It was the last show for Chris & Toni Adams and also for Jeannie, although Austin is staying with the group. This was one of the smallest Sportatorium crowds in history.

- Torch, opening the World Class news section: A promotion that needs to keep the lights off in the arena until match-time to save on electricity is probably not going to be around for the long haul.

Week of 10/22/1990 (Texas Roundup #6 & Observer 10/29)

- Observer: SWS results: 10/18 in Yokohama saw [...] Genichiro Tenryu & Kabuki beat Jeff Jarrett & Bob Orton when Tenryu pinned Jarrett (solid work) [and on 10/19,] Jarrett beat Sano (good match, reason for this result is they are trying to push Jarrett and mainly because Sano wants to work in USWA and feud with Jarrett and "train him" in Japanese style work so Jarrett can become a top of the line Japanese style wrestler).

- Texas Roundup Re: the 10/26 WCCW show: John Brazzell (office manager) told me they can no longer afford to print the date, seat, and section on the tickets! Each ticket had that information handwritten!

Week of 10/29/1990 (Observer 11/5)

Saw the SWS television special which aired last Sunday night in Japan. From the standpoint of special effects on a wrestling show and production values, it was the best wrestling television show I've ever seen. Puts the WWF to shame, which means from that standpoint in comparison made All and New Japan seem minor league. Actually the matches they aired on television weren't bad. They aired eight matches in two hours, three of which (Takano brothers vs. Genichiro Tenryu & Kabuki, Jeff Jarrett vs. Naoki Sano and Tenryu vs. George Takano) were better than 31/2 stars. Jarrett-Sano only showed [the] last four minutes but they were incredible.

Week of 11/5/1990 (Texas Roundup #7, Torch 11/8, & Observer 11/12)

- Observer: Tessa Rae is back, as a face valet for Bill Dundee, so nursing school must not have lasted long.

The World Class show on 11/2 in Dallas drew 140 fans. [...]Things continue to get drearier by the week but still no word on Jarrett returning although the "talk" has been sometime in the middle of this month.

- Texas Roundup Re: the 11/9 WCCW show: Story of the week happened Tuesday as a court order shut down the Sportatorium for failure to come up with the rent. Throughout the course of the day, a judge friend of Fritz’s somehow got word of what happened and he paid the bill for Kevin. This keeps the doors open for another month, hopefully!

Steve Cox and Rod Price no-showed tonight. Price had worked twice a few weeks ago and was promised double pay, which he never received. Steve Simpson was promised full pay for last week’s run in and only received half. Needless to say, nobody is too happy. At best, I can tell Kevin has been paying everyone $75.00 across the board, at least the ones who will say.

- Excerpt from Wade Keller’s Torch Talk interview with Chris Adams:

Keller: Do you think the Von Erichs feel you owe them?

Adams: I think they feel everybody does.

Keller: What do you think of Kevin Von Erich’s recent attempts at promoting?

Adams: I think it’s pathetic. I think that he should be more open-minded to business, more trusting, and realize his position and situation in the business world and work from there. Instead of thinking that the Von Erichs rule the world, really.

Week of 11/12/1990 (Texas Roundup #8, Matwatch 11/12, & Observer 11/19)

- Observer: This week's [World Class] program printed a letter (no doubt worked) from a fan writing about how bad the USWA is and how glad they were that World Class is running the Sportatorium. Sounds like gearing up for a war.

Jerry Jarrett remains the only promotion in town besides WWF and WCW that has local television but still no definite word on when they are returning.

- Texas Roundup Re: the 11/16 WCCW card: Indifference was the only sentiment displayed by anybody in the dressing room. Nobody expects Kevin to pay the rent by the first, so next week could very probably be the last show here for a while. Nobody has anywhere to go and the amount of work here in the Metroplex is scarce. Funny thing, with no TV and hardly any audience, nobody will do a clean job for anyone! Why do you think there’s nobody in the building?

- Matwatch: Jarrett may be backing away from the Sportatorium. We’re told it would cost him $60,000-$80,000 to return to Dallas and the Sportatorium owner is reportedly running scared of a lawsuit if he turns away Kevin Von Erich, If Jarrett does return to Dallas, he’ll likely go to the Bronco Bowl, a place we’re told seats more than the Sportatorium. But don’t be surprised to see Jarrett open a different territory.

Jerry Jarrett will tape his syndicated TV through the end of the year Saturday night in Nashville and Sunday night in Louisville.

We unfairly gave a BOO AWARD to Channel 30 in Memphis, the indie which aired a rerun of an old USWA show last week as the third week of the USWA tourney was to begin. It seems WMC-TV has exclusive rights to Mid-South Coliseum matches and after two weeks of the tourney appeared on Ch. 30, WMC invoked the blackout. WMC was also unhappy about Dave Brown appearing on a competitor for two weeks.

Week of 11/19/1990 (Observer 11/26)

- No new major angles at the tapings on 11/17 in Louisville and 11/18 in Nashville. They taped a lot of good matches along with squashes for the ESPN slots and USWA syndication including a Lawler vs. Eddie Gilbert barbed wire match and an Eddie Gilbert vs. Jeff Jarrett Texas death match with Sam Lowe managing Gilbert and Jim Cornette managing Jarrett. Cornette got a verbal release from Jim Herd the day before the taping so he's free to work anywhere he wants except a provision has been made that he can't work for Titan until May 15th.

Jerry Jarrett won't be coming back [to Dallas] until the 12/28 television taping but will regularly run at the Bronco Bowl in 1991.

Week of 11/26/1990 (Texas Roundup #8 & Observer 12/3)

- Observer: The biggest news story of the week is the folding of the World Class Wrestling office in Dallas. With no television and little financial backing, this seemed to be inevitable from the start. The 11/23 show in Dallas was the end of the era of weekly Friday night matches at the Dallas Sportatorium and the end to yet another regional office, leaving really only three regularly running regional offices (Don Owen in Oregon, Chris Love in Kansas and Jerry Jarrett in Tennessee) in the United States. According to a front page story in Saturday's Dallas Times-Herald, the promotion, run by Kevin Von Erich, didn't make it with these causes blamed: 1) No television; 2) Problems from an out-of-state promoter (Jerry Jarrett) who the story said was being sued by Kevin and Kerry; 3) A rent raise at the Sportatorium.

---

From that 12/2 Dallas-Times Herald story:

“Beneath a wooden ceiling crisscrossed with electrical wires, the large form of Kevin Von Erich fills an office chair. Sitting cross-legged, the professional wrestler muses: ‘It's hard to know what to do. I don't have a lawyer or anybody else to counsel me. My dad is gone so I gotta do the only thing I know to do, and that's tell the truth.’”

[…]

[On the lawsuit:] “‘First, my brother David gets kicked in the stomach and dies, and then Mike and then Kerry's terrible accident and now this,’ says Kevin. ‘It really galls me that people can get away with this trickery and deception.’”

[Jerry Jarrett’s response]: “When we came out here, the Von Erichs were $150,000 in debt and losing money every night. We paid off their debts and when things got profitable, they wanted me to take 30 percent [instead of 60 percent. I just wouldn’t do it.”

[…]

“On Nov. 23, Kevin ended the Von Erichs’ 36-year stint at the Sportatorium, where wrestling matches have been held for 47 years. After winning his last match, he grabs the microphone. Von Erich softly reports that it's his last match at the Sportatorium. He starts out slowly, a little nervous. ‘I can't really go into it all,’ he tells the tearful fans. ‘I gave it a good fight, I gave it all I had.’ As he speaks the familiar lines, his voice builds strength and he hits his stride, recapturing the Von Erich persona, a cocky good guy primed for the fight. The crowd is cheering now., ‘The Von Erichs are down, but the Von Erichs are not out,’ Kevin bellows, now louder than ever. ‘We'll be back. Just stick with us and see.’”

---

- Observer, continued: Building rent for years had been $1 per ticket, but in recent weeks, because the live attendance had dwindled down to around 200 each week, rent was changed to a flat $2,000 per show. This rent was more than the entire gate some weeks, and there had apparently been a problem some weeks back with late rent and with rent coming due again, Von Erich couldn't continue. There was a lot of sadness when the announcement was made Friday night that this would be the final show, as the majority of the 270 fans (225 paid) in attendance were regulars since virtually no newcomers had been coming since the group has no television. This leaves Gary Hart's TWF, which runs weekly Saturday night cards in Dallas and guys like Tim Brooks and Chris Adams, who promote area spot shows, as the only active promoters in the area although there is talk that Jerry Jarrett will return and promote weekly (and he has television in the market) early next year.

- Texas Roundup Re: the final WCCW card: If anyone doubted this move was final, one would just have to watch Gilbert Mascorro removing the plaque that was put on the seat his deceased wife, Eloise, had occupied for more than 27 years. Anyone who knew Eloise can sympathize with the true emotion of that moment; she was a true fan and a great lady.

Week of 12/10/1990 (Matwatch 12/10 & Observer 12/17)

- Observer: There has been no local publicity whatsoever for [what’s being billed as] the first [Global] taping in Dallas. The local USWA show didn't mention it this week, and those who have called the Bronco Bowl asking about it have been told that there is no show and that there are no plans for any wrestling in the building. Most of the Dallas crew that worked for Kevin Von Erich have been contacted to appear but they know nothing other than there is supposed to be a show.

- Matwatch: Premiere Global taping Dec. 28 may go to the Sportatorium after all. It appears the Bronco Bowl in Dallas has a layout which may create production problems.

Week of 12/17/1990 (Observer 12/24)

The USWA television taping that was originally planned for the Bronco Bowl in Dallas has been moved to the Sportatorium on 12/28. This taping will be called USWA but the 1/22 taping in Louisville will be billed as the first taping of the Global Wrestling Federation. Jerry Jarrett will promote wrestling after that weekend with house shows every Friday night at the Sportatorium using mainly the guys who live in Dallas once again and tape television every Saturday morning for a proposed syndicated network only in the state of Texas. All tickets for the 12/28 show are $5, with the line-up being Terry Funk vs. Jerry Lawler for the USWA title, Doug Gilbert & Tony Anthony vs. Terry Gordy & Steve Williams for the USWA tag team title, Eddie Gilbert vs. Jeff Jarrett for the Southern title plus One Man Gang, Cactus Jack, Scotty the Body, Nick Busick, Akira Nogami, Steve Lawler, Chris Walker, Hillbilly Festus, Scandor Akbar, Steve Austin and Billy Travis. Scott Hall is also being talked with and Wayne Bloom and Mike Enos are scheduled to work Louisville as are Jim Cornette and Stan Lane. Anyway, this should be a very interesting taping.

Week of 12/31/1990 (Torch 1/3)

The first tapings for the Global TV network on Friday, December 28 at the Dallas Sportatorium ended up being basically USWA tapings. […] 1,400 paying fans showed up to watch the return of wrestling to the Sportatorium, which is well above what World Class was drawing. […] The next morning, they had to cancel the scheduled ESPN tapings at the Sportatorium as an estimated crowd of under 100 showed up. Bad weather and lack of advertisement added to the poor turnout. Tickets were only $2, and that was to keep the homeless from making the Sportatorium their home, which used to happen at the Sportatorium when they let fans in free for Saturday TV. No word on what will be done for ESPN now.

Week of 1/7/1991 (Matwatch 1/7, Torch 1/10 & Observer 1/14)

- Observer: Kevin Von Erich's non-existent World Class Championship Wrestling has been sold to Mario Savoldi's barely existent International Championship Wrestling. The two groups have merged forming a new group called International World Class Championship Wrestling and they are apparently sending letters to all the TV stations, including ESPN, saying that unless they drop the Jarrett syndicated shows and pick up their syndicated shows, they'll become partie in the lawsuit against Jarrett. Supposedly Kerry Von Erich will be part of this promotion although I have no word at all that he's given notice to the WWF. Their first TV taping is set for 2/1 at Disney World in Orlando.

- Matwatch: ICW financier Howard Rapp promises new ICW programs will begin Jan. 19 and don’t be surprised if Kevin Von Erich is on those shows, since he and Kerry are reportedly casting what financial lots they have with Rapp and Mario Savoldi.

- Torch: Reports say Jerry Jarrett says the [Global] deal has been broken off completely because his party was tired of waiting for money and the deal to be closed. Another reason for the delay is that the owner of the Florida-based ICW promotion, Mario Savoldi, and his financial backer, Howard Rapp, have joined the Von Erichs in renewing the lawsuit against Jerry Jarrett. [...] Savoldi is reportedly telling wrestlers the February IWCCW taping is for ESPN. [Joe] Pedicino added the Von Erich-Savoldi party has “absolutely no claim” to the syndication network, although the last thing he wants to do is buy a syndicated package which may be in litigation.

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The Von Erichs never filed anything new in the lawsuit after an October 22, 1990 request for an extension of time.

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- Observer: Eric Embry returned 1/4 in Dallas. I believe he lost the book in Puerto Rico, or at least that was the word, but maybe he's just here on a short vacation. Embry came out for an interview at the beginning of the card and said that he was stuck in Dallas because of airport trouble on the way to Puerto Rico, where he had been working, and he just wanted to say "Hi" to the fans. New TV announcer Michael St. John then asked Embry to stay and do color for the opener. After the opener, Scandor Akbar came to ringside and Embry attacked him and it went in the ring and Gary Young jumped Embry who bladed and you know the story. Later in the card as Gary Young was wrestling Steven Dane, Embry ran out of the dressing room with a bandage over his head and attacked Young. On TV, St. John blamed the crowd of 225 to bad weather, but I'm told the weather wasn't that bad and the crowd can be blamed more for having a poor line-up.

Jarrett cancelled the Saturday morning tapings again since there had been no advertising. On TV this week they announced tapings would start every Saturday morning on 1/19 and that all tickets would be free.

Week of 1/14/1991 (Matwatch 1/14 & Observer 1/21)

- Matwatch: Most [stations carrying USWA shows] are ignoring the threat [from Savoldi and Rapp]. Personally, I don’t believe the IWCCW tapes will ever be sent to USWA stations because it would cost about $7,000 strictly for the dubs and mailing and those tapes would likely never be returned.

- Observer: The USWA Dallas branch has no official booker, although Dundee is doing most of the booking. Embry is interested in becoming booker, but no decision has been made on it.

Week of 2/4/1991 (Matwatch 2/4 & Observer 2/11)

- Matwatch: Michael St. John will host ESPN’s new [USWA Supercard] first-run series until syndication announcer Craig Johnson is free from Home Team Sports and George Washington University basketball commitments. The USWA show premiered Monday (4-5 p.m. EST) and supplants a series of AWA reruns. The USWA Legends series continues Tuesdays through Thursdays. The series will be taped in Dallas and consist of matches not previously shown in syndication.

- Observer: Whatever negotiations that were going on between Max Andrews and Joe Pedicino have fallen through so it looks like Jarrett will keep the syndicated network which is how it has really seemed since the sale negotiations fell through early in the year.

Week of 2/11/1991 (Observer 2/18)

The big news is that they are going to attempt to turn the entire USWA into one circuit with all the angles running in both territories. Jerry Jarrett leased a bus and what they are going to do is on Thursday night (which is generally an off night) start the bus in Nashville with the guys who live there, drive to Memphis and pick up the guys who live there, and drive to Dallas for the Friday night card. Immediately after the Friday night card the bus will drive all night long back to Memphis (500 miles) so the guys can work Saturday morning TV in Memphis and after TV, it goes back to Nashville for the Saturday night card. This will be the case every weekend from this point forward. Steve Austin, Jeannie Clark, Steve Dane and Embry are the only Dallas wrestlers who appear to be remaining with the company. The ones who aren't going to work the entire circuit, thus are done, got some incredibly small payoffs for their last week of work including one wrestler who worked three shots for $50 total.

Week of 2/18/1991 (Matwatch 2/18)

That USWA bus […] was apparently leased from Waylon Jennings. It comes equipped with microwave, VCR, and shower facilities.

Week of 2/25/1991 (Matwatch 2/25, Torch 2/28 & Observer 3/4)

- Observer: 3/1 is the first head-to-head night with the USWA at the Sportatorium going against Gary Hart's TWF at the Metroplex Arena. USWA announced that all kids accompanied by a parent would be let in free, since it's a TV taping and they need a crowd. To counter the TWF announced that all mothers will be let in free accompanied by a child. As of Monday, TWF had yet to announce a line-up but was saying that One Man Gang and Al Perez would be in.

- Matwatch: Saturday morning had to confuse Memphis viewers again. At 9 a.m. on WMTU, the Dallas show featured Embry as a face arguing with Prichard. At 11:30 on WMC, he and Prichard were big heel buddies with no explanations.