WWF on Z Channel (7.15.88) review 

 

July 15, 1988 

 

We’re in LA, California at the LA Memorial Sports Arena. A host of LA sports teams have played here over the years. The Lakers called it home in the 1960s. The Kings played here, briefly. The LA Clippers were in residence at time of this show. It was demolished to make room for LAFC’s ground in 2016.  

 

Why am I doing this show? I felt there were enormous gaps in my WWF viewing for 1988 and while I can justify that, as it wasn’t a great year for them, the rise of the Warrior and the arrival of the Rockers changed the dynamics on these shows. I could do with being there for at least some of it. Hosts here are Gorilla Monsoon, Sean Mooney and Billy Graham.  

 

Big Boss Man vs. Scott Casey 

When Vince found out the NWA had this big old 6’6” former prison guard working for them, and he could actually take bumps, he came a calling. Ray Traylor made his first TV appearance a few months before this. He’s still very green but capable considering his age (25, if you can believe that) and his lack of experience (this is year 3 of his career). By the end of the year he’d be regularly working Hulk Hogan.  

 

McMahon has gimmicked Boss Man out of the wazoo with the prison guard gimmick. Gorilla implies that Slick has done time. That’s profiling, sir. Casey is fun here. Doing Steamboat-esque skinning of the cat. Ray just clubbers him. He’s slotted into New York Style. His selling is still overblown and fun to watch though, he’s just not taking bumps. Casey runs into, and fails to jump for, the Boss Man Slam. A squash.  

 

Rockers vs. Los Conquistadores 

Uno and Dos, aka Los Conquistadores, are Jose Luis Rivera, long time WWF jobber and Jose Estrada (Senior, that is). You may know his son Jose Estrada Jr, who was part of Los Boriquas.  

The Rockers came in last year but got fired after a week or something. They were effectively ‘sent down’ back to the AWA and returned in May 1988. The ladies like them. There is a notably higher pitch to their pops than usual.  

A pair of pescados get the crowd going. Weird how that’s probably the first dive I’ve seen on a WWF show but nowadays is a ‘house show dive’ with minimal risk. Jesse Ventura turns up to join commentary! We have a four-man booth! Ventura and Graham shoot the shit about clangin’ and bangin’.  

 

I’ve not talked about this before, but Ventura effectively changed wrestling commentary by being a heel on commentary. Unlike the many copies that followed in years to come, he kept consistency and continuity. He championed Savage for years before his babyface title run and happily acknowledged his success. Rather than flipping over to hating him because he was a face now.  

 

The ref has trouble with Los Conquistadores, because he can’t tell them apart. So, they pull out the Masked Confusion switches while the Rockers can’t get a tag. Jannetty gets a hot tag and Shawn magically recovers after a ten minute beatdown to help out on the pin. This was a whole lot of nothing, aside from the little flurries of Rockers’ offence. **½ 

 

Jim Duggan vs. Andre the Giant 

Having barely wrestled for two years, Andre ended up on a full-time schedule in 1988. Why? Was he short of money? He would continue with this schedule until early 1990, although at least in years to come he’d be hidden away in a tag team. Andre is almost completely immobile. He struggles to hit a chop without holding the ropes. A good gauge of whether a wrestler sucked, back in the day, was the bearhug. If a guy employed a bearhug, especially for a long time, they sucked. Andre puts on a bearhug for AGES here.  

 

Andre falls over, intentionally, but in stages. It’s sad. Duggan is supposed to get ‘caught’ on the follow up but Andre doesn’t move and it’s embarrassing. Duggan runs into a big boot, which Andre needs both ropes to support himself on now, and that’s the finish. Andre using the ropes, because he’s a heel. Andre in 1988 is not a fun time. This was 13 minutes long too. No need for it.  

 

Video Control takes us to Sean Mooney on interviews. Jake Roberts cuts one of his softly spoken interviews. He has a grudge match with Rick Rude later, based on Rude going after Jake’s wife Cheryl. The couple divorced in the late 90s but recently (March 2023) had got back together. They had four kids. I do love a happy ending. They probably wouldn’t have gotten divorced if it wasn’t for Jake’s “demons”. The various drug and alcohol addictions Jake suffered with in the 80s and 90s.  

 

Loser Wears a Weasel Suit 

Bobby Heenan vs. Ultimate Warrior 

Warrior has certainly got over with the marks thanks to his energy levels. He couldn’t work worth a damn though, which is why he’s in with Bobby Heenan. They’ve literally dragged Heenan in there to teach Warrior how to work.  

Heenan is smart enough to know how to slow it all down, showing Warrior he can have a match with minimal contact. It’s all about getting Warrior’s timing right and ensuring he hits the right beats. Heenan runs to start with, then works a ‘hidden foreign object’ gimmick. This allows them to show Warrior as human, who can do a little selling, when the odds are turned on him.  

 

Heenan does an incredible job of keeping it basic, not exposing Warrior and letting him build slowly. They only do 7 minutes, but Warrior looks competent throughout. Warrior wins with a sleeper and puts Bob in the weasel suit. The whole thing is ridiculous but it’s all about how you sell it and this was a Heenan masterclass.  

“He took a bump” laughs Monsoon as Heenan starts chasing his tail.  

 

Bad News Brown vs. Jim Neidhart 

Brown gets the microphone to lay the bad mouth on Bret, but he’s working Hart’s tag partner instead. Couldn’t they have got a tag partner for Brown? Which would give you a clear and obvious finish of Bad News walking out, or double crossing his tag partner so the Harts can win? Anvil is working defacto babyface here, although the Harts, as a team, haven’t officially turned face yet. Brown is a crazy character study because he was born to be in the Attitude Era. I’ve heard people compare him to Steve Austin and that makes a lot of sense. He’s himself. He’s not a heel or a face, and he’s been pigeonholed as a heel because he’s not a face.  

 

The ‘badass’ heel wasn’t a thing before Brown. At least not to this degree. Almost every single heel was a sneaky cheat. Brown never really clicked with me because his bumping and selling was so unconventional. If he had more snap on his bumps and a better arsenal of offensive moves, he could have gone far. He beats Anvil here by allowing Jim to beat the count out and then blindsiding him with the Ghettoblaster. A pretty clean win for a heel, which just reinforces the belief that he wasn’t a conventional heel. 

 

Rick Rude vs. Jake Roberts 

Rude is busy talking shit when Jake attacks him from behind, clearly hot about Rude going after his wife. I always loved Rude’s bumping. He made for a great heel because he could talk shit and then take the beating. Sadly, these two don’t have much in the way of chemistry. There’s a hot start and then they hit rest holds. Which is not what the crowd wants. There are so many chinlocks.  

 

My only entertainment is listening to Graham, who feels the urge to call Jake “The Snake Man”. Comms do an amazing job of trying to make sense of this chinlock, disguised as a match. “There’s a hush over the crowd” is a polite way of saying the crowd is bored. Considering Jake is out for revenge and it’s a “grudge match”, they barely give a shit. Neither the wrestlers nor the crowd.  

 

They even have a shitty finish with them brawling outside and Rude beats the count. Jake loses, after all that nonsense. Rude has a better match with Damien than he did with Jake. Crapola. Dullsville, USA. 

 

Monsoon, in his post-match interview, calls it “one of the greatest matches I’ve ever seen”. You fucking liar. How dare you? Why would you insult the viewers intelligence like that?  

 

The 411: 

Two awful matches on this show. Andre-Duggan was to be expected but the Roberts-Rude snoozefest main event was unforgivable. The Rockers tag was fun and easily MOTN at **½. Considering they drew 15,000 people to this show, it’s pretty shocking that’s the show they gave them. This is the problem with wrestling booms. You can get away with shit like this and the crowd are more forgiving. In slumps, you need to bust your ass to get the crowd to the next show and the next one. WWF was smoking hot going into 1988, so they could pull this shit in every town. In all honesty, 1988 is a shitshow for me. It was the first time Vince McMahon took his foot off the accelerator and it’s painful to watch.