Take a look at what was inside the Wrestler February 1991 magazine! Includes the master plan to get the NWA World Championship off of Sting at Halloween Havoc!
YOUR LETTERS
Donna from Norfolk isn’t very happy with the WWF making the war into an angle. We have troops in Saudi Arabia, which is a big deal. The WWF should not be making a joke out of families being worried about their loved ones. John from Kentucky thinks that Mr. Perfect should consider replacing Bobby Heenan with his father Larry Hennig as his manager. Nadine from Georgia believes there is a conspiracy against Lex Luger preventing him from winning the NWA World Championship. She thinks that Luger should battle Sting to see who really should be champion. George from New Jersey is shocked about all the recent violence in Memphis wondering why so many people need to use weapons and not use their ability.
Darryle from Delaware thinks that Buddy Rose is a joke for saying he weighs 217 pounds when he really weighs 375 pounds. Larry from New York is annoyed with all the makeshift tag teams recently forming a team in the WWF. He suggests that Bossman team with Bushwhackers to be known as Law & Odor. Perhaps make Rick Rude and Bad New Brown a team known as Sex and Violence. The best one, may be a team consisting of Buddy Rose and Koko B. Ware known as Ham & Eggs. Jane from Maine is really disappointed with the USWA not running shows in Texas anymore and becoming the same old Memphis wrestling company. She’s also upset about various people leaving the company such as Chris Adams, Steve Austin and Billy Travis.
WHAT’S HAPPENING: written by: Bill Apter
At Halloween Havoc, Lex Luger’s 17-month reign as NWA United States Champion came to an end thanks to Stan Hansen. Luger takes full responsibility for losing the match. Luger is confident that he’ll get the belt back. Hansen, meanwhile, says he collects titles for fun and looks forward to beating up the pretty boy again. Over in the WWF, the Rockers won the WWF Tag Team Championships from the Hart Foundation on October 30th. There is no mention of the ring breaking, which eventually made the match outcome void.
Eddie Gilbert won the Southern Championship from Jeff Jarrett in Memphis after throwing fire into Jarrett’s chest. Gilbert believes he will win the USWA Heavyweight Championship from Jerry Lawler when they meet. Preston Steele defeated Cactus Jack to win the IWA US Championship in a tournament final. El Gigante is teaming with Ricky Morton to get the Freebirds out of the NWA. A tag team known as the Blazers are the most popular act in the Georgia All-Star area.
NO HOLDS BARRED: written by: Dave Rosenbaum
The main focus of the article this month is the Last Battle Of Atlanta between Tommy Rich and Buzz Sawyer. The feeling has been that Tommy Rich was never the same after his feud with Sawyer and prevented him from reaching the top of the ladder in his career. Ric Flair provides a comment saying that Rich couldn’t handle the feud with Sawyer and thus wouldn’t handle a long title reign. Rich doesn’t think that feud damaged his career, but notes he should have been fighting for the championship while feuding with Sawyer. Dave notes that at least Rich had his moment even if it was very early into his career.
Dusty Rhodes competing in the WWF is mentioned as well. Dave doesn’t know why Dusty is feuding with Ted DiBiase instead of chasing after for one more title reign, though he doesn’t know if Dusty would be able to defeat Ultimate Warrior or Kerry Von Erich. Plus, he doesn’t think that Dustin Rhodes should be getting involved and instead should patient for his career.
BLINDSIDED: written by: Bob Smith
Bob takes a look at two young wrestlers and their stories in the business that saw neither man give up on their dream and have accomplished some good things on the territory level. Sheik Fabiano has developed into a semi-main event wrestler of the CWF and USWA after a rough start to his career. Tommy Jammer has become a top contender for the AWA Heavyweight Championship held by Larry Zbyszko. Jammer notes that you just can’t give up on wrestling or in your life, either.
THUMBS UP, THUMBS DOWN
Thumbs Up:
Dustin Rhodes: Dustin is fighting by his fathers side in a feud against Ted DiBiase and Virgil. He is fighting out of love for his father, and that’s the best reason to fight.
Jerry Lawler: King has become a champion to be proud of again in the USWA after overcoming an injury and beating Austin Idol in a tournament final.
Davey Boy Smith: Smith has returned to full-time competition in the US and has dominated all competition he has faced. He’s ready to obtain some gold, too.
Lex Luger: Luger could have fought NWA World Champion Sting, but instead decided to fight Sid Vicious leading into Halloween Havoc. It shows great growth for Luger for not going after the gold and ruining a friendship.
Thumbs Down:
Eric Embry: Fans don’t know if they should cheer or boo the man who saved Texas wrestling from Gen. Skandor Akbar. Embry is now on the same side as Akbar and has been successful, but consider the price of success.
Ken Patera: Patera has reappeared in the UWF in California and turned bad as soon as he could, apparently. PWI suggests that fans standup and boo this man.
Michael Hayes: Hayes has been someone attached to evil for his entire life and Allen Iron Eagle is just his latest victim. Hayes feeds off of other peoples misfortune.
Stan Hansen: Many believe that Hansen has forgotten the goal in wrestling is to win championships and not put people in the hospital. The way he beat Lex Luger for the US Championship is not something to be proud of.
CORRESPONDENTS REPORTS
Milwaukee, WI: Ultimate Warrior recently teamed with the Legion of Doom to take on Demolition in a six man tag team match. Warrior won the match for his team managing to pin Smash.
Reseda, CA: Paul Orndorff and Bob Orton battled it out in the UWF where they displayed some brutal blows throughout. It led to a count out victory for Orndorff, but they brawled after the match, too.
Charlottesville, VA: Doom was scheduled to defend the NWA Tag Team Championships against Ric Flair and Arn Anderson. However, Butch Reed didn’t show up and was replaced by Sting, who isn’t a fan of Simmons, either. They put their differences aside and Sting pinned Flair with a backslide to win the match.
Louisville, KY: Eddie Gilbert got a cheap advantage over USWA Heavyweight Champion Jerry Lawler when he managed to get Dirty White Boy to be the referee for their match. White Boy favored Gilbert, but Gilbert ended up hitting White Boy on accident and Lawler took advantage to soon get the pin over Gilbert moments later.
YOU ASKED US
Tom Zenk was asked if he would team with Rick Martel should Martel ever join the NWA. Zenk quickly shoots that down saying that Martel is bad news now in the WWF and that he never really trusted Martel when they teamed in 1987. He’d challenge Martel to a match but not team with him. Dave Rosenbaum is asked why Honky Tonk Man isn’t getting a centerfold spot like the Ultimate Warrior recently did. Rosenbaum agrees that Honky deserves it and thinks he’ll get it if enough people ask for it to happen.
Ric Flair is asked if he would challenge a Four Horsemen member if they were to win the NWA World Championship. Flair insists that would never happen because the Horsemen is a family and they are happy for each other. Sure, he’d be jealous, but he’d be happy for his men. Their goal is for everyone to have gold, not each others. AWA Lightweight Champion Buck Zumhofe is asked whether he is more focused on defending the title or getting revenge on Jonnie Stewart attacked him on television. Buck says he is lucky to take care of two things at once! He wants Stewart out of his life forever.
INTRODUCING: JW STORM: written by: Andy Rodriguez
JW Storm recently competed on the WCW Halloween Havoc pay per view where he was pinned by Brad Armstrong. Storm was favored to the win the match and the lost helped him realize that he won’t get a free ride in the company. He also promised that he’d never lose like that again. Storm has a great athletic background. Storm was a highly successful boxer having gone 49-0 in an amateur career. He is quite confident that he will dominate the NWA.
Q&A: NORMAN
Norman is almost 100% following the attack by the Four Horsemen that injured his ribs. He’s also recovering mentally due to his father recently passing away. His father was his idol. He felt great about being able to beat Kevin Sullivan and show that he isn’t as dumb as people may think he is. Norman doesn’t see why he has to leave behind everything he liked as a child just because he has gotten older. He’ll likely always act like a child. He likes his team with the Juicer because they both really like kids and they feel like they are representing kids of America. He’s really enjoying his new TV show Norman’s Corner because it makes him feel young. Norman tries to be a role model for the kids because he knows they look up to him.
Norman proceeds to watch some cartoons during the interview, too. Norman goes to the ring with the main focus being to win matches and not ruin the lives of others like the Four Horsemen tend to do. Norman is going to be out for revenge on the Horsemen and hopes that he can find some other wrestlers to get them out of the NWA once and for all. The topic of his name being Norman the Lunatic is brought up. Norman doesn’t believe he was crazy but rather just misguided by Teddy Long. Norman thinks he’ll make better decisions on who he can trust in the future, which probably wouldn’t very many people. Norman thinks Sting is one of the good guys in the NWA and hopes he can be in the title picture at some point. Until then, Norman is going to compete fairly. against anyone put in his way.
X-RAY: RICK MARTEL
Capt. Lou Albano: Capt. wants to know what has happened to Rick Martel since the days he was the AWA Heavyweight Champion. Now, Martel is a mockery of himself.
Killer Kowalski: Meanwhile, Killer thinks that Martel is acting the way he should be as he was missing the killer instinct mindset. He thought it was brilliant that Martel sprayed Jake Roberts in the eyes with cologne.
Prof. Toru Tanaka: Toru is still bitter about Rick Martel winning the AWA World Championship from a legend in Japan. The match took place in a US ring with an American official. The victory was store-bought in his eyes.
Larry Hennig: Larry thinks that Martel could possibly beat the Ultimate Warrior with his new mean streak that is pretty vile.
Lou Thesz: Martel spraying cologne into people’s eyes is not the same guy he knew back in the AWA. Back in the AWA, Martel had a classic match with then NWA World Champion Ric Flair. This new Martel is not the man he once knew.
Jack Brisco: Jack thinks that Martel is an embarrassment to Martel and to the sport of professional wrestling because he doesn’t care how he wins he just wants to be victorious.
MUTA VS. STEAMBOAT IN JAPAN: EAST MEETS WEST – NORTH OF THE RING!: written by: Kostya Kennedy
There was a lot of anticipation for the match between Ricky Steamboat and The Great Muta. A teacher from Florida, who is in Japan to teach English, cancelled his evening class to see the match. Muta blocked a top rope cross body attempt by using his green mist, but Muta insists it was just a camera flash that everyone saw. He’d never taint his great victory. Dating back to his feud with Don Muraco in 1985, Steamboat may have developed a fear of powder/salt or any substance getting thrown into his face. Inoki was proud of Great Muta and Muta did it for himself and Inoki.
DOES JIMMY HART OWN A PIECE OF HULK HOGAN?: written by: Dave Rosenbaum
The WWF and Hulk Hogan usually want fans to forget about a wrestlers past if it isn’t in the WWF and that’s the case now. Jimmy Hart use to manage Hulk Hogan! While in Memphis, Hart had mentioned a lifetime contract with Hogan. Which, would mean that Hart is owed a percentage of Hogan’s earnings. Hart is likely the reason for Hogan developing the leg drop finisher. Jimmy didn’t have many challengers going after Hogan’s WWF World Championship while Bobby Heenan was constantly trying to end Hogan’s reign. The past will likely never get brought up and Hogan will not bring it up.
THE INCREDIBLE HALLOWEEN HAVOC HOAX!
The Horsemen met in Atlanta to think of a plan, which Sid was hesitant about at first. Barry Windham was deemed the only man to be able to pull it off, but got offended when told he needed to add some muscle to appear more like Sting. They got someone to take a picture of Sting’s face paint before the match began and one of Flair’s girlfriends agreed to apply the makeup. Windham called Sting’s tailor and they bribed him to tell them what Sting would be wearing for the event.
The plan was that Sid would go backstage and Sting would follow. Sting would get tied up by the Horsemen and Barry Windham would run back with Sid allowing Sid to eventually win the match and title. People had seen Windham go into the tailor store and a package supplying makeup for Sting was seen, too. The package was delivered to the NWA offices for Flair. Nick Patrick eventually saw Sting running down the entrance way and saw Windham dressed as Sting ordering the match to continue. Sid Vicious should be outraged with his teammates because it’s entirely possible he could be the NWA World Champion on his own.
ENFORCE THE 30-DAY RULE! STRIP THE ULTIMATE WARRIOR OF THE WWF TITLE!
The Ultimate Warrior hasn’t defended the WWF World Championship since September. The editors demand that Warrior follow the thirty day rule for defending the title. Warrior has instead been able to hide in six man tag matches against Demolition, which have seen Warrior team with the Legion of Doom and the match has gone all over the country. They note that they had did the same thing for when Hogan was champion, but Warrior is making Hogan look like an active champion by comparison. Perhaps Warrior is bored and feels that he has done all that he can in the company. They also blame WWF President Jack Tunney for being a weak man with power and this is a prime example. Warrior should be stripped of the WWF World Championship.
JIM CORNETTE: “I’LL BREAK UP THE MIDNIGHT EXPRESS IF THEY CAN’T BEAT THE STEINERS!: written by: John Milner
Cornette is fed up with Stan Lane and Bobby Eaton being unable to beat the Steiner Brothers. As a result, Cornette has threatened to disband the team. However, Lane and Eaton have noticed that they can’t do anything right for their manager. Paul E. Dangerously shared his opinion saying it was likely an empty threat by Cornette just to stir his team up. The Midnight Express have gone through changes before when Dennis Condrey was replaced by Stan Lane. Bobby Eaton says that if Cornette fires one of them then he fires both of them since he thinks of Lane as a partner for life. The next step for the team is up to Jim Cornette.
That wraps up this edition of Inside The Magazine. What are your thoughts on the magazine and/or what was going in wrestling at the time?
Thanks for reading.