A Disappointed/ing Crowd:   The Flair-Luger rematch series made its way to Houston in early September 1988.  Just six days removed from their Baltimore rematch, Flair vs. Luger headlined the September 9, 1988 card at the Coliseum.  However, Flair vs. Luger was just one match of a card which by all rights, should have drawn a huge crowd.  Check out this line up:

            -Brad Armstrong vs. Rick Steiner

            -The Fantastics vs. The Sheepherders

            -Nikita Koloff vs. Russian Assassin

            -Barry Windham vs. Sting 

            -Ricky Morton vs. Mike Rotunda

            -Steve Williams and Dusty Rhodes vs. Ron Garvin and Kevin Sullivan 

            -The Midnight Express vs. Tully Blanchard and Arn Anderson

            -Ric Flair vs. Lex Luger 

With a line up like this, which featured all the hot feuds (MX v Tully/Arn, Rhodes v Garvin, Windham v Sting, Flair v Luger, plus an old favorite with the Fantastics v Sheeps, which was a good draw for the UWF two years previous,), the Houston crowd should have been loud and full.  Unfortunately, they were neither. 

The crowd was disappointing, clocking in at less than 4,000 fans for the show.  They were also disappointed, as some of the matches didn’t come across as advertised.  For one, the Fantastics faced the duo of Tug Taylor and Rip Morgan, not the Sheepherders.  The Sheepherders were nowhere to be found.  Furthermore, Mike Rotunda wasn’t there for some reason, so Rip Morgan did double duty and wrestled Ricky Morton as well.  Finally, although their issue should have been hot coming off of the turn at the Great American Bash, Ron Garvin was a no show, as by this time he had left the NWA for an AWA stopover before heading to the WWF in late 1988.  Garvin was replaced by Al Perez.  The Houston crowd, which had been used to wrestlers appearing as delivered, was not happy one bit with the situation.   

A Devastating Result:  While the problems JCP were facing are and have been well documented in other forums, these problems were largely hidden from “mark” fans for a long time.  We didn’t know that Crockett was trying to sell the company before he would go bankrupt.  We didn’t know about the turmoil regarding certain wrestlers over certain wrestlers/bookers.  But even as a fifteen year old sophomore in High School, I began to see some problems for JCP in the fall of 1988.  People not appearing as they should.  Wrestlers leaving the company seemingly over night.  Dwindling crowds….especially in Houston.  In fact, the crowd was so bad for the December 10, 1988 card at the Coliseum that JCP..err….TBS would not return to Houston for over two years.  

Fast Forward: 

For two wrestlers, their lives would change very shortly after this September night at the Coliseum.  Tully Blanchard and Arn Anderson would travel to Philadelphia, Pa., where on the very next day after the Houston card, September 10, 1988, they would lose the NWA World Tag Team Titles to the Midnight Express.  Blanchard and Anderson would never wrestle as a team for the NWA again, as they immediately left for the WWF, where as the Brainbusters, they would end Demolition’s year and four month title reign as WWF tag champs.   

Apparently, due to conflicts with booker Dusty Rhodes, and with payoffs from Jim Crockett, Blanchard and Anderson, who had been two of the original Four Horsemen with Flair and Ole Anderson, decided to pursue their fortunes elsewhere.  September 9, 1988 in Houston would go down as the last time they would ever successfully defend their tag team titles.  So, Houston goes down in the history books once again!!!  Although Anderson would later return to the NWA/WCW and capture numerous tag titles, his reign with Blanchard in the NWA had come to an end. 

NEXT MONTH:  

A hot September night…exactly five years previous to the date of this month’s article….and we will see how some things changed, and some things stayed the same!!