Today In Wrestling History 7/23: Huge Rating For WWF's First MTV Special, Best PPV In WCW History
* 31 years ago in 1984, the WWF ran the monthly house show at Madison Square Garden in New York, New York. This time, there was a twist: In addition to the regional cable broadcast on the MSG Network, the advertised main event of The Fabulous Moolah defending the WWF Women's Championship against Wendi Richter would also air as a live special on MTV titled "The Brawl to End it All."
The buildup to this was came off the success of Cyndi Lauper's song "Girls Just Want to Have Fun," and the famous video with Captain Lou Albano playing her father. Albano was claiming to be responsible for Lauper's career on WWF television.
This eventually led to her actually showing up to confront him on Piper's Pit, where she told him off after trying to be nice. he then went on a misogynistic rant, and somehow it led to each offering to manage a female wrestler against the other. Albano picked Moolah, the champion (the WWF had bought her title, which she controlled for decades). Lauper picked Wendi Richter, who was just a few weeks removed from a run as a heel in Mid-South Wrestling.
On the surface, it was a success: After a confusing double pin finish, the crowd popped huge when Richter was announced as new champion, ending the "decades long" reigns of Moolah (she quietly traded the title a few times over the years). The MTV special did a 9.0 rating, which seems mind boggling today, though you have to remember cable ratings are calculated as a percentage of homes with access to the stations, not all homes with cable or all homes with TVs. The mainstream media wrote about how wrestling was suddenly hot and was "starting to sell out Madison Square Garden."
It reality, it wasn't necessarily a huge success. They drew 15,000 fans at MSG, but they were a month removed from the Boot Camp Match blowoff to Sgt. Slaughter vs. The Iron Sheik, which did a near double sellout. That means that not only was MSG sold out with close to 21,000 fans, but the overflow crowd in the Felt Forum (now The Theater at MSG) was a few thousand strong and in the range of a sellout, as well. Moolah-Richter couldn't come close. Even the late additions of Hulk Hogan vs. Greg Valentine and a battle royal (when battle royals sold tickets) didn't help much. While the storyline got them a lot of publicity and eyeballs, it was not a box office success, and the women became a big name midcard support act.
* 26 years ago in 1989, WCW held the second annual (though the first under TBS ownership) Great American Bash pay-per-view live from the Baltimore Arena in Baltimore, Maryland. While the live event was a huge success, a sellout of 12,500 fans paying $188,000, it was an anomaly that showed how much hotter WCW was in Baltimore than it was anywhere else. Not only did this card set the WCW gate record, but that record stood until 1996. That said, WCW put out an incredible product with amazing shows in 1989, and this was not just the best of that lot, but arguably the greatest PPV of all time.
The main event to Ric Flair defeating Terry Funk (with Gary Hart as his surprise new manager) in a wild brawl that was more reminiscent of a Jerry Lawler main event in Memphis than a Ric Flair world title match. An even wilder brawl broke out after the match, as Sting (helping Flair), and The Great Muta (helping Funk) ran in and they all brawled over the arena. The show closed with one of Flair's most memorable promos, screaming about uniting with Sting and getting at Gary Hart's crew while covered in both his own blood and Muta's green mist.
Wargames was the co-main event, with the team of The Road Warriors, The Midnight Express, and Steve "Dr. Death" Williams (with Paul Ellering) defeating The Fabulous Freebirds and the Samoan Swat Team. While a rare non-main event Wargames, it's still an excellent match with a unique cast of characters, some clever spots, a great finish (Animal gets a submission with a Neck Hang/Hangman's Noose), and a strong post-match angle.
Third from the top was Lex Luger vs. Ricky Steamboat for Luger's United States Title. Luger's at the peak of his powers as a heel and a performer, and does an amazing job throwing a fit before the match, refusing to defend the title unless the match's no disqualification stipulation is removed. Promoter Gary Juster did just that, and the result was possibly the greatest match of Luger's career. Steamboat ends up getting himself DQed for using a chair, but it's satisfying, as he gets revenge on Luger by beating him with the chair all the way back to the locker room.
The last match in the top half of the card saw the TV Title held up after a double pin in Sting vs. The Great Muta. If you've never seen their feud before, it's the type of thing that would get over huge in WWE today, as it's like two superheroes flying around. They had fantastic chemistry, matched up well look-wise, and overall were just the perfect opponents for each other at that point.
The undercard is full of fun matches, including The Steiner Brothers' first PPV match, Jim Cornette vs. Paul Heyman in the best "manager match" ever, and more. If you've been looking for a WCW PPV to start with on WWE Network, this is the one.