[molson]

WCCW: KING OF TEXAS WRESTLING
Saturday, Week 4, April 1983
Dallas, TX: 6,041

-First bad news of the night is that BOTH of my potential surprise partners for Fritz - The Spoiler and Jake Roberts, were booked elsewhere tonight. I realized this was possible, but didn't want to move the event date. We'll keep the cage match short, throw Adams into the surprise slot, and hope the crowd doesn't totally crap on it. The emphasis will be on the tournament.

-Pre-Show Dark Match
The Great Kabuki & Magic Dragon defeat Mike Von Erich & Brian Adias in 9:38 when Kabuki pinned Adias. (D+) Before the match, Kabuki performs some type of bizarre salt ritual (C). Also before the match, Mike and Adias gave an interview. They discuss how they lost to Kabuki & Dragon earlier in the month, but now, Mike is a tag team champion (with Kevin), and he has something to prove tonight - being the only Von Erich left out of the tournament. (D-)

-A Video plays hyping the tournament and it's competitors. (C+)

-King of Texas Wrestling, 1st Round Match
Terry Gordy defeats Kevin Von Erich in 9:54 cleanly by pinfall to advance. (B-). After the match, Buddy Roberts come out, and he and Gordy proclaim that the Freebird rout is on, and that Gordy will be on hand for the next match to make sure Roberts advances as well (C+)

-King of Wrestling, 1st round match
Iceman Parsons defeated Buddy Roberts (for the 1st time in 5 tries) in 7:08 by DQ after Gordy was caught cheating on Parsons' behalf. (B-) After the match, Gordy and Roberts argue in the ring, before Roberts storms out. (C).

-Fritz Von Erich comes out an announces that in the upcoming Garvin/David 1st round match, both Precious and Sunshine will be banned from ringside, since they had interfered in both of the previous matches between the two. (B-) Before Fritz leaves the ring, an angry Gary Hart storms in, demanding to know what Fritz has done, and demanding that their cage match be canceled. It isn't clear, but something clearly hasn't gone as planned for Hart (B+)

-King of Wrestling, 1st round match
David Von Erich defeats Jimmy Garvin in 9:45 by submission. (C+)

-King of Wrestling, 1st-Round Match.
Kerry Von Erich defeats Michael Hayes in 7:04 by pinfall in a wild, overbooked brawl that featured both Gordy and Roberts interfering on behalf of Hayes, and David interfering on behalf of Kerry. (C+) Kerry advances to take on his brother Kerry in the semi-finals. After David leaves the ring, Kerry grabs a mic and tells the crowd he wishes David luck, but that he's wanted to prove himself against him for a long time. (B) (My road agent says Kerry's character could use some freshing up).

-King of Wresting, Semi-Final Match
Terry Gordy defeats Iceman Parsons decisively in 6:33 by pinfall to advance to the finals. (C+)

-King of Wrestling, Semi-Final Match
David Von Erich defeats Kerry Von Erich in 12:59 by pinfall. Terry Gordy interfered with both wrestlers during the match (trying to "soften" them up for the final), and David finally pinned Kerry after Terry struck Kerry with a chair (it isn't clear if David noticed the chairshot). David and Kerry worked awkwardly together (C).

-Steel Cage Match
Fritz Von Erich and his mystery partner, Chris Adams, defeat SKandor Akbar & Gary Hart in 5:36 when Fritiz made Hart submit with the Iron Claw (D+). After the match, Hart and Akbar, who have been pissed all night, argue and shove each other. Akbar is heard yelling, "This isn't what was supposed to happen - where is he!" (B).

-A video hypes the tournament up to now and hypes the final match (B)

-King of Texas, Finals
David Von Erich defeats Terry Gordy in 17:44 by submission to win the 1983 WCCW King of Texas Wrestling Trophy. (C+). After the match, a number of wrestlers come down to the ring to celebrate with David: Mike, Kevin, Adias, Parsons, Adams, Fritz, Sweet Sugar Brown. Notably absent is Kerry (B).

Overall Show Rating: C+
(Fans thought Adias and Fritz were used too much).

Thoughts;

-We seemed to be headed for our first B- or higher show, but instead we get our 4th C+ in 9 total shows. Our Texas popularity decreases from 73.2% to 72.6%.

-What kept us from a B- was largely the crappy Chris Adams surprise, and 3 largely disappointing matches from David (C+, C, and C+). After Gordy/Kevin and even Iceman/Roberts reached B- level, to see David not reach it once against 3 quality opponents is a bit of a mystery. (especially since he's wrestled 2 B matches with Garvin before)

-The theme of the show was dissension - Roberts pissed at Gordy for costing him the match, Akbar pissed at Hart for screwing up "something" (apparently they were expecting someone other than Chris Adams as the mystery partner), and Kerry apparently pissed at David for pinning him after a Gordy chairshot. Unfortunately, Kerry and David have bad chemistry, so even if I turned one of them and ran an angle behind it, the matches probably wouldn't be too great. On the other hand, my road agent did say that Kerry was getting stale in his current gimmick.

NEWS

-In tragic news, Jimmy Snuka has died at the age of 39, sometime the night after his final match, teaming with Sgt. Slaughter to defeat Tito Santana & Ivan Putski in the WWF.

-Our latest TV show got a .61 rating. That's a decrease of .05 from last week, but right around our average. The TV networks have announced that they're accepting requests for negotiations for shows in the summer season. I'm not totally sure how this dynamic works, but I'm pretty happy with our network, since it broadcasts to our two key areas - midwest and Texas. The next step up would be a national syndication deal, which I'm sure we can't get yet. Since I only have one "season" left on my current deal, and without TV, we're pretty much dead, I go ahead and request negotiations for a renewal. But I'll throw some negotiation requests out there with other networks just to get a feel for that aspect of the game.

-Right after the show, Buddy Roberts tells me that he has signed a PPA deal with AWA. Again, I'll have to review all of my conflicts and see where we stand, but it might be tough to find any nights that all 3 Freebirds are available, with Hayes being used pretty regularly by the WWF

-Not surprisingly, David and Terry come to me after the show and tell me they need a bit of a break after their exhausting 3-match night.

-Jake Roberts & The Spoiler are both irritated that I haven't assigned them a role on the roster yet, or told them what their gimmick or face/heel alignment will be. I'll do that before they debut on our next show or two.

-I make two new signings as April comes to a close. At the request of Evil Afro, Barry-O is in at the bargain price of $125 per show. More importantly, I reach an agreement with the "Raging Bull" Manny Fernandez, at a pricey $1,800/show (surpassing The Spoiler as our highest paid guy). I also had to contractually guarantee him a midcard title reign while he's around (either the American Heavyweight or TV Title - shouldn't be a problem). Manny is a huge pickup - he's well known in both the Texas area and the midwest, and he brings B+ ratings in Brawling, Hardcore, Toughness, Stamina, Selling, and Intensity. At this point, I have to consider breaking Terry Gordy off from the Freebirds and starting a Manny/Gordy program. The best part of the signing is that even though Manny works for both Central States & Southwest Championship wrestling, we'll be his priority company, he'll have no conflicts. That equals a HUGE push.

-So with the Spoiler and Manny onboard, my worker costs are going to go up. I'll review the roster at the end of the month and perhaps make a cut or two. We also might have a slight glut in the main event/upper midcarder scene - everybody may not be happy with how things shake out.

-We're rejected by Kamala and Chavo Guerrero. The Wild Samoans are interested in talking, but they want Spoiler/Manny Fernandez money, and I feel like I need to get through another month before we load up the payroll too much more.

-Next up will be the end-of-month recap. Early indications are that we had a great month financially.