The Wrestling Observer Yearbook '97: The Last Time WWF Was Number Two

by Dave Meltzer

  And while everyone will put their different spin on what happened, and like with Hogan, and Bruno, and nearly every other superstar of the WWF beforehand, Bret Hart failed one of the things he wanted most out of his career, and that was to walk away from the company without the bitterness and with mainly good memories. Both Bret Hart and Vince McMahon wanted their legacies to be tied together and represent all that can be good about pro wrestling. But the fact it is, no matter how great the match with Smith at Wembley Stadium or at the In Your House in Hershey were, or the WrestleMania match and SummerSlam matches with Owen were, or the SummerSlam match with Hennig, or the Survivor Series match with Michaels, or any of the rest, his legacy, and Vince McMahon’s legacy will forever be tied together in wrestling history.

  The defining moment of both a Hall of Fame wrestler and the man who for a decade was the dominant promoter in the industry will be the moment that the world realized, right in front of their eyes, with no apologies, and with no turning back to re-write history, just how truly deceitful, to the core this business can be, and just how much 14 years of being one of the great performers in the history of the industry truly meant on the inside to the company that benefited from it.

  Only the future can determine whether this was a defining moment in the balance of business when it comes to pro wrestling. Did McMahon really hand over the keys to Canada to WCW? Will fans really hate McMahon four weeks later when Michaels headlines a PPV show with a four star match? Will Hart be a huge success keeping WCW at its current level, or even taking them to an even higher level by having main events on PPV shows that can live up to the quality of the preliminary matches? Or are his best years really behind him and McMahon will have the last laugh at how much Bischoff paid for him? How long will Hart remain a cult hero to the wrestlers for doing what none of them had the guts to do and all at one time want to do? Will McMahon file criminal charges for assault? And will, someday, and stranger things have happened although in this case it would be hard today to believe it as possible, will the two get back together in a few years for a final triumphant run?

  One of the first major moves when Vince McMahon Jr. took over the World Wrestling Federation from his father was on December 26, 1983, when the Iron Sheik captured the WWF title from Bob Backlund. The title switch was basically a prelude for Hulk Hogan winning the title a few weeks later. The finish of the match saw Sheik have Backlund in a camel clutch, and Arnold Skaaland, a former part-owner of the company who worked as Backlund’s manager, threw in the towel signifying submission. Backlund remained with the company for the next eight months, largely buried in the middle of the card despite being the face of the company for six years. After all the big gates he’d headlined, just a few months later, in August, McMahon, who was starting on the road to changing the entire face of wrestling and Backlund represented the old, asked him to die his hair and turn heel. He refused and was fired. Backlund spent the next several years claiming that he didn’t know the finish of the match and was double-crossed on it when Skaaland threw in the towel. Everyone in wrestling heard the story but really very few took it seriously, figuring Backlund was just clinging onto a worked story to protect his image claiming he never really submitted and was robbed of the title.

  On November 25, 1985, before a match in Madison Square Garden, Victoria “Wendi” Richter, literally minutes before going into the ring for a match with Spider Lady in Madison Square Garden, was given a contract by McMahon and asked to sign off on all her merchandising rights. She actually didn’t refuse to sign the contract, but said she wanted to read it before signing it because she was literally on her way to the ring. McMahon told her, actually she has claimed, demanded to her, to sign the deal. She told him to wait until after the match so she could read the contract and then maybe sign it.

  As it turns out, Spider Lady wasn’t the wrestler who had been Spider Lady in the past, but was instead Lillian Ellison, better known as Fabulous Moolah. Although Lillian was probably closing in on 60 by that point, she maneuvered Richter into a position, and the unsuspecting Richter was held in position and had her shoulders counted out for the pin, and never worked in the WWF again. After the match and to this day, Moolah had always maintained to Richter, like Michaels to Hart, that she wasn’t aware of the set-up either and the three count came as just as big a surprise to her.

  It brings to mind a few old sayings. History repeats itself. Leopards don’t change their spots. Perhaps as much as we would all like to believe otherwise, deep down to its core, the wrestling industry really doesn’t change either.

  Famous Pro Wrestling World Title Double Crosses

  1911 - Frank Gotch vs. George Hackenschmidt

  One of history’s most famous pro wrestling matches ever. Gotch, who became recognized almost universally as world champion with a win over Hackenschmidt three years earlier, was defending his title in the first ever rematch of the century. Before the match ever took place, Ad Santel, a noted “hooker” (an old term for submission expert or bonebreaker), a sparring partner of Hackenschmidt who as it later came out, was paid $5,000 by Gotch’s people to do so, tore out Hackenschmidt’s knee. Because a record breaking gate was expected and achieved ($87,000 in those days would probably be like $8 million today), the show had to go on and the promoters kept the injury a secret from the public. Gotch, knowing about the injury, reached an agreement with Hackenschmidt, who wanted to pull out of the match due to his injury, to give him one fall in the best-of-three and carry him to a match where he looked credible. But once the match started, Gotch double-crossed him, winning easily and quickly in two straight falls.

  1920 - Earl Caddock vs. Joe Malciewicz

  Caddock, the champion, had already agreed to drop the title to Joe Stecher just a few weeks later in New York, but in this match Malciewicz shot on him and hammered him the entire match and was given the decision. The press, largely controlled in those days by the wrestling promoters, hushed up the match and the title change was never recognized.

  1925 - Wayne Munn vs. Stanislaus Zbyszko

  Munn was a 6’8” giant, especially for his time, and a college football hero, but he actually couldn’t wrestle but he could draw football fans, so I guess that made him decades ahead of his time. Seeing box office, Strangler Lewis, who controlled the world title with promoter Billy Sandow as the Hulk Hogan and Vince McMahon of their eras, dropped the title to Munn to build up a successful run leading to it being returned in due time. Rival promoter Tony Stecher, whose brother Joe was a legendary wrestler and rival of Lewis at the time for who really was the best wrestler around, put Zbyszko up to stealing the title. Two months earlier, to prove his loyalty to Sandow, Zbyszko put Munn over cleanly and professionally so they had no fear in giving him a title match. Once this match started, Zbyszko, one of the great true wrestlers of his era, although nearing 60 by this point, shot and beat him so badly the referee, one of Sandow’s most loyal employees, had no choice but to stop the match and award the title to him to save Munn from more of a beating and prevent the Philadelphia fans from rioting from the farce of any other decision. Sandow got the commissions in Michigan and Illinois to erase this match and still bill Munn as champion, and as quickly as they could arranged for him to drop it to Lewis, creating two champions, while Zbyszko, on the same night as Lewis beat Munn, put over Joe Stecher as planned.

  1926 - Joe Stecher vs. John Pesek

  This match was at the Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles. The two worked the first two falls of a title match with Stecher defending. In the third fall, Pesek, another wrestler who most experts of the time would rank as among the greatest wrestlers ever, double-crossed Stecher and beat the hell out of him, putting him in a double wristlock. But this was all for naught because the referee at that moment ruined the double-cross by disqualifying Pesek for no apparent reason. There was a major investigation by the athletic commission, but as was likely during that time period, the promotion probably bought off the commission and Stecher retained the title.
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br />   1931 - Ed Don George vs. Strangler Lewis

  At this point, Lewis and Sandow had been in business with Northeast promoter Paul Bowser and all were making big money with Gus Sonnenberg, another football hero who couldn’t wrestle, as champion. After Sonnenberg was beaten up on the street by a middleweight wrestler in a situation set up by their rival promoters, Bowser, without consulting Sandow and Lewis, had Sonnenberg drop the title to George, who had just come out of the Olympics and was another great wrestler. Lewis was waiting for his revenge, but did jobs for Bowser’s wrestlers to show his loyalty, and a title match was set up for Los Angeles. As they got into the ring for a match George was supposed to win, Lewis came out and casually said that he was going to take the title and they could do it the hard way or the easy way. Since George knew he couldn’t beat Lewis, he chose the easy way.

  1931 - Strangler Lewis vs. Henri DeGlane

  It took only three weeks before Bowser signed Lewis to defend the title in Montreal against Henri DeGlane, the 1924 Olympic gold medalist who had become a big draw. This was the famous battle of the bite we wrote about after the Tyson-Holyfield fiasco. Lewis went into the ring knowing he was going to win in three falls. After the second fall (in those days wrestlers returned to the dressing room between falls so they could have intermissions and sell concessions), DeGlane bit himself in the arm near the armpit until he drew blood. He kept the arm covered, went out for the fall, immediately started screaming like Holyfield did, Lewis backed off having no idea what was happening. The ref saw the blood and teeth marks and disqualified Lewis awarding the title to DeGlane. Lewis was so furious about the double-cross that he went backstage to do to Bowser what Hart did to McMahon, however Bowser was a little more ready, having six bodyguards all armed with baseball bats covering him, and Lewis, trying to play it cool, said he was quitting anyway and left for Europe.

  1933 - Jim Londos vs. Joe Savoldi

  In the history of American wrestling, Londos ranks with Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant as the biggest drawing card ever. However, he had made enemies at this time with the promoters in New York, who had their own world champion in Jim Browning. The New York promoters set up the double-cross in Chicago by buying off both Savoldi and referee Bob Managoff (whose son was a champion wrestler of the next generation). Savoldi put on a submission and as planned, Londos made the ropes, but Savoldi then put real pressure on, the ref pretended he didn’t see Londos touch the ropes, called for the submission and awarded Savoldi the title. Savoldi then brought the title to New York and lost a unification match to Browning, giving the New York promoters a champion with even more credibility. The irony of all this is that over the next year, the crowds in New York started falling and they begged Londos to come back, and gave him the world title from Browning to get him back to save their business. The moral of this story is obvious.

  1936 - Danno O’Mahoney vs. Dick Shikat

  O’Mahoney, an Irish star who wasn’t much of a wrestler, had turned into a monster draw in Boston for Paul Bowser, drawing several stadium crowds of around 30,000, and also drew well in New York for Jack Curley, and throughout the Northeast. In a match in Madison Square Garden, Shikat, considered one of the legitimately toughest men in the business at the time, was put up by rival promoters Jack Pfeffer and Al Haft, who were at war with Curley, to shoot on O’Mahoney and he destroyed him. The ref had no idea what to do about it. Shikat won the title, but then his promoters had him drop it just a few weeks later. Bowser in Boston continued to bill O’Mahoney as champion until he lost it a year later in Montreal to Yvon Robert. Many point to this match as the match, because it was a shoot, that exposed wrestling and killed the business in New York that it wasn’t until the advent of Argentina Rocca some 15 years later that wrestling became lucrative at the Garden.

  1950 - Don Eagle vs. Gorgeous George

  Eagle was recognized primarily in Boston as world champion, and was defending his version of the title outside the territory in Chicago. This was in many ways the most similar to Hart-Michaels as ref Earl Mollohan double-crossed Eagle and counted him down when Eagle kicked out, then bailed out of the ring as quickly as he could with an enraged Eagle chasing him down the aisle. We’ve also heard disputes on this one saying that was actually planned as a controversial finish but the general feeling from those viewing the tape is that it was remarkably similar to Hart-Michaels.

  1979 - Antonio Inoki vs. Bob Backlund

  The previous week in Japan, Backlund dropped the WWF title to Inoki with the agreement that he’d win it back in their rematch and return to the U.S., with no title change ever being acknowledged in the U.S. The match is completely worked, and as planned, in the finish Tiger Jeet Singh interferes causing Inoki to lose the title back. Inoki gives the title back to Backlund. However, in the double-cross, after the match WWF President Hisashi Shinma ruled the match a no contest and said that Inoki was still the champion. This was a set-up by Inoki and Shinma, primarily because New Japan was scheduled to do a television taping about seven weeks later in Madison Square Garden on a WWF show and they wanted for their own TV purposes and ratings, for Inoki to main event the Garden, where he’d drop the title to Backlund. Vince McMahon Sr. was already building up Bobby Duncum as the big man of the month to work with Backlund. McMahon basically ignored everything, and as a face saving gesture, brought in Inoki to wrestle Iron Sheik and billed his match as for the WWF World Martial Arts championship, a title Inoki would continue to use for many years in the future both in Japan and the U.S. For Japanese television, neither Backlund nor Duncum entered the ring for the belt, nor was Backlund introduced as champion, and he was then given the belt after beating Duncum. However, all the pre-match hype in the U.S. for the match had Backlund defending against Duncum.

  1983 - Bob Backlund vs. Iron Sheik

  (See above)

  1985 - Wendi Richter vs. Spider Lady

  (See above)

  1991 - Nobuhiko Takada vs. Trevor Berbick

  While technically not a world title match, this was one of two mixed matches on a UWFI show in Sumo Hall. This match, featuring a former boxing heavyweight champion, and another featuring James Warring, at the time recognized by the IBF as the world cruiserweight champion, against pro wrestler Billy Scott were expected by the Americans to be worked. However, once the bell sounded, Takada shot on Berbick, laying in a few hard leg kicks. Berbick freaked out, left the ring at 2:52 of the first round, and refused to come back out. Scott and Warring had worked out a match, and Scott was working with Warring early. When it came time for Warring to make his comeback and win, Scott shot on him, took him down and controlled him on the ground for the rest of the fight, which turned into a shoot, and Scott won the match via decision.

  1994 - NWA Title Tournament

  While also not at the time a major league world title, the NWA name was being resurrected by a number of small promoters, who had Tod Gordon’s Eastern Championship Wrestling, ostensibly and really controlled by booker Paul Heyman, host a tournament to crown a champion. There was no double-cross in the ring, as it was agreed ahead of time, although reluctantly by some, for ECW’s champion, Shane Douglas to win the tournament. It was after the match that Heyman, Gordon and Douglas double-crossed the rest of the NWA, throwing down the title belt and grabbing his own title while a shocked NWA President Dennis Coraluzzo was in the ring watching. Coraluzzo was tricked after the speech into doing a promo for ECW television stripping Douglas of the title, allowing Gordon to announce they were splitting from the NWA and forming a new company, Extreme Championship Wrestling, and recognizing Douglas as their first champion. Coraluzzo and ECW had been territorial enemies in the past, had mended fences for this show, and have remained enemies ever since with the exception of a peace truce between the two sides in 1997 that lasted for about 15 seconds before both sides claimed the other had double-crossed them again.

  NOVEMBER 24

  After a week of both private and public comments in the aftermath of the double-cross finish in
the Shawn Michaels vs. Bret Hart match at Survivor Series and Hart’s subsequent leaving the WWF about one month earlier than originally planned, the basic gist of the story was covered here last week.

  But any more discussion of the decision making processes involved by Hart and McMahon as it related to the double-cross finish, there are a number of points both relating to this story and how it was presented in last week’s issue, and to the historical nature of last week’s piece that need to be clarified and discussed:

  Bret Hart’s heel turn in March was Vince McMahon’s idea, that McMahon sold Hart on as mentioned in the story. It was Hart’s idea to remain a babyface in Canada and internationally while being an Anti-American heel in the United States. However, it was Hart’s idea all along to do a heel turn. In the original plan formulated by McMahon and Hart in July 1996, when McMahon flew to Calgary to woo Hart, who was sitting out and attempting to break into acting, was for Hart to beat Michaels in a babyface match and win the title at the 1997 WrestleMania, and then make a slow heel turn. As that was going on, they’d avoid a third match for a long time until the heel turn was complete making Michaels that much stronger of a babyface. At that point the agreement was that Hart would put Michaels over in the third meeting. That scenario changed when McMahon decided to take the title from Michaels to Sid, make Sid vs. Undertaker for the title the WrestleMania main event, and then make Hart vs. Michaels as the semifinal. Seeing that he would have to do two major jobs in a row, Michaels showed up the night he was supposed to drop the title to Sid, claimed he had a career ending knee injury, and later that night on television handed the belt back.