In the Wednesday or Friday edition of Ken Hoffman’s Houston Post column, he broke the news that Dick Slater would in all likelihood retain his North American title at the Friday night show because Jake Roberts had signed a deal with the World Wrestling Federation.  Back 16 years ago, news like this would certainly hurt gates if it spread out in such a forum as Hoffman’s column.  Apparently, news got back to Bill Watts, and needless to say, Watts was furious. 

Many of the readers here at Kayfabe Memories have heard numerous stories of Watts, and the length he would go to protect the inner workings of the business.  When 20/20 published the infamous “wrestling is fake” show with Eddy Mansfield and Jim Wilson, Watts’ son Joel actually produced a video showing how hard people in Mid-South wrestling actually hit.  Watts was ruthless, to the point that he would fire wrestlers if they lost a legit streetfight to a fan.  Armed with the knowledge that Jake’s employment would be changing, Watts decided to pull a coup of his own. 

In reality, what Ken Hoffman reported was true, as Jake had given his notice to go to the WWF.  He would show up in early March, and wrestle former Mid-South competitor George “Master G” Wells at WrestleMania 2.  But since Jake still had some time left in the Mid-South area, Watts would make his time very interesting. 

The match itself wasn’t a *****star classic, but it was a good bloody (both men bled heavily) brawl, with more than one false finish.  Finally, Jake hooked Slater and gave him the DDT, and the referee counted to three.  Jake was awarded the North American title, and left the ring to a deafening roar.  The newsletters, or the sheets, were seemingly outsmarted….at least for the time being. 

Bill Watts had deliberately changed the ending to a match to out-smart the smarts.  In the modern era (1997-present), trying to swerve the smarts is nearly impossible, plus confusing to storylines, as evidenced by Vince Russo’s reign as head writer of WCW.  Back in 1986 however, trying to swerve the smart fan was not as big of deal.  But when a smart fan leaks information that can be read by thousands of ticket buying “mark” fans, your business has a huge potential to be damaged.   Bill Watts did what he could, and what he thought he had to do to protect his business, and it happened right here in Houston. 

Jake Roberts would lose the title back to Slater, and drop a hard fought television match to Terry Taylor before leaving Mid-South for the WWF.  Slater meanwhile, would not lose the North American title by pin.  One of his “friends,” Buzz Sawyer would lose it for him, in a match against lead babyface Jim Duggan.   

Epilogue:

Ken Hoffman would continue to write about pro wrestling, and would continue to provide information that normal, “mark” fans would not have access to.  He reported that Ric Flair would turn face in 1989 when the original plan was to have him feud with Barry Windham.  One other notable event that Ken Hoffman wrote about was the reappearance of Sid in the WWF in early 1995.  Hoffman scored it right; even knowing that Sid would be the bodyguard of Shawn Michaels.  Now, as before, Hoffman will occasionally write about pro wrestling, as he did prolifically during the build-up to WrestleMania X-Seven.  Also, Hoffman has appeared for several local independent promotions in the greater Houston area as either a guest manager, timekeeper or referee.  Hoffman has actually stepped into the ring one time as a wrestler, and that was in Humble, Texas for Texas All-Star Wrestling.  Now that some writers/bookers cater to swerving the internet or “smart” fans, I guess that in his own small way, Ken Hoffman can take some credit for changing wrestling. 

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