Today In Wrestling History 8/7: Hulk Hogan - Andre The Giant Match Bombs At The Box Office, & More

* 27 years ago in 1988, the WWF ran a card at the Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, North Carolina for the first time.Greensboro had historically been Jim Crockett Promotions' best city, even more than Charlotte, as the biggest shows were there there, like the first two Starrcades, the mid-Atlantic half of the next two Starrcades, The Final Conflict (Ricky Steamboat and Jay Youngblood vs. Sgt. Slaughter and Don Kernodle, losers must split), and more. In 1988, it was down. Crockett ran the infamous "Dusty Finish" screwjob several times in Greensboro in 1987, and worse, they took away Starrcade, moving it to Chicago out of fear that for its PPV debut, "Who's ever heard of Greensboro?" would be concern for corporate partners. They had some good houses, but the city was no longer a reliable big draw.

So, theoretically, if the Greensboro fans wanted wrestling, but were just disillusioned with JCP, then maybe there was an opening for the WWF. They brought out the big guns for first show, headlining with Hulk Hogan vs. Andre the Giant, who were a week removed from their cage match atop the Milwaukee County Stadium show that drew. 25,000. In Greensboro, they drew 3,670, less than any JCP card drew to the building up to that point in 1988. Crockett may not have been setting the city on fire, but they didn't really want the WWF, either. Only the September JCP card (Ric Flair vs. Lex Luger rematch from the Great American Bash PPV, which drew well in most cities) drew less, attracting 2,500 fans. As for Hogan and Andre, they only had one more match together, on October 23rd at the Omni in Atlanta, Georgia (another key JCP city), which drew 5,200 fans.

Being that this was '80s WWF, there were two other cards that day. At Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto, Ontario, Canada for a show headlined by Randy Savage vs. Ted DiBiase in a steel cage match with The Honky Tonk Man vs. Brutus Beefcake in the semi-main event spot. They drew a solid but unspectacular crowd for the era/city of 8,500. The semi-main event featured the angle they did around the horn where Jimmy Hart was banned from ringside, but Peggy Sue (Sherri Martel) was not, so Hart dressed up as her and interfered with his megaphone to help Honky Tonk Man get the win.

In the opener, The Iron Sheik defeated Joe Milano with the Camel Clutch in what looks to have been Sheik's last match of his 1988 return. He and Jim Duggan had been fired after a drug possession arrest in May 1987, and it got a ton of headlines nationally because they were two feuding wrestlers were riding together. Duggan was back a few months later, while Sheik came back in February. He was fired in March, brought back in July, returned to TV at the mid-July tapings, and got fired again right as his initial TV matches finished airing. He had come back noticeably heavier and less mobile than before.

The lowest profile show of the day was at JFK Coliseum in Manchester, New Hampshire. It was headlined by The Big Bossman vs. Tito Santana with little consequence underneath, even for a late '80s WWF C-show. The only other star vs. star match didn't quite happen, as Dino Bravo attacked Ken Patera during their arm wrestling match. When it came time for their wrestling match, Patera was too injured to compete and lost via forfeit. Every other match on the show had a TV job guy or glorified job guy on at least one side of the bout.

There were a couple interesting results, though: The Conquistadors defeated The Rockers, which is strange since The Rockers had been beating them around the horn since arriving a couple months earlier. It was not uncommon for Vince McMahon to "test" newcomers by asking them to put over a job guy on a house show (Rick Rude lost to Jerry Allen under those circumstances a year earlier), so it's possible this happened here. It also makes sense with The Rockers, specifically, because they had been fired for disciplinary issues after just a couple days when they were initially hired in 1987.

In the opener, Owen Hart defeated Barry Horowitz. Hart had started on the road a week earlier and this looks to be his last match as himself in his initial WWF run before moving on to his planned masked high flying superhero character. After a few matches as the Blue Angel in his regular gear and what looks like a borrowed mask (Steve DiSalvo and Mach Hayato wore very similar masks when they worked in the Hart Family's Stampede Wrestling), he got new gear and started as the Blue Blazer. According to Bret Hart's book, he got his odd-looking outfit from a costume maker friend of his wife out of loyalty, but Bret had urged him to spend more money on something from an experienced wrestling gear maker.

* 15 years ago in 2000, WCW had a live Monday Nitro from the Pepsi Center in Denver Colorado. That's the arena best known to wrestling fans as the one that cancelled a live Raw because they gave WWE a date during the NBA playoffs, thinking the Denver Nuggets wouldn't make the NBA playoffs.

Most of this era of WCW runs together, but this show features a match that managed not to for fans who were watching at the time. Lance Storm had just debuted and got a huge push from the start, quickly winning the United States, Cruiserweight, and Hardcore Championships. On this night, he got a chance at winning his fourth simultaneous title; Booker T's WCW World Heavyweight Championship .On one hand, the match wasn't especially long, and it featured "Fat Chick Thriller" Mike Awesome doing guest color commentary. On the other hand, the work was considerably better than anything that had been on TV in months and the crowd reacted to it in kind, so WCW loyalists were pushing it as a match of the year candidate. It wasn't, but it was really good, Storm gained momentum even in defeat, and overall, it was a breath of fresh air in the mess that was 2000 WCW.