Going through old issues of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter and posting highlights in my own words, continuing in the footsteps of daprice82. For anyone interested, I highly recommend signing up for the actual site at f4wonline and checking out the full archives.
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1987
FUTURE YEARS ARCHIVE:
The Complete Observer Rewind Archive by daprice82

1-4-1988	1-11-1988	1-18-1988	1-25-1988
2-1-1988	•	•	•

• The wrestling war is, for all intents and purposes, over. The war between the territories, the ongoing collapse of the territory system, and Vince McMahon’s rise is certainly the biggest story in decades, and at this point the war is over and Vince McMahon has won. Sure, the fighting is still ongoing, but even if JCP can recover from their troubles, the gap between them and WWF is there and it’s just going to keep widening.
  
• The biggest story of the week is that WWF has announced its ppv schedule for the next year. March 27 (Wrestlemania IV), August 29, November 24 (Survivor Series), and January 15 (Royal Rumble). Four ppvs doesn’t look like a big deal, just capitalization on the market trend. But it’s going to have a major effect on Crockett. Crockett had been planning ppv shows in early April (Crockett Cup), July (Great American Bash), and November 24 (Starrcade). With WWF’s new calendar and the exclusivity clause in their ppv deals requiring no competing wrestling ppv events 60 days before and 21 days after their shows and the success of Survivor Series and Wrestlemania IV (presumed for that one - Dave expects Wrestlemania IV to be the biggest grossing ppv ever to this point), WWF is putting the squeeze to Crockett. And in doing so, they’re killing any chance Crockett can compete and break into the ppv market. Long-term, ppv is going to mean live gates will be completely insignificant (like it already is in boxing - and hey, in 2020 we have seen the prophecy fulfilled). Because of ppv, Dave expects Wrestlemania IV to gross as much as every other American promotion will gross for the entirety of 1988, combined. Hence why the gap is wide and will only get wider, and JCP will never catch up. JCP’s going to try to counter, and the apparent move will be to shift those events to prime-time WTBS live (or very recently filmed, like a Saturday Night’s Main Event) specials all built as major cards. Starrcade probably will not be among those, Dave figures this will help.
  
• WWF’s Royal Rumble came out the clear winner against the Bunkhouse Stampede Finals. The Rumble drew an 8.2 rating and was seen in 3.2 million homes, which is twice as many people as when Georgia Championship Wrestling’s show on WTBS was big several years ago when this wrestling war was getting started. It’s the highest rated show in the history of the USA network, and the encore broadcast on Monday drew a 4.8 rating (a regular episode of Prime Time Wrestling in that time slot usually draws a 2.9). All this means that the repeat showing of the Rumble was probably the second highest rated show on cable during the last week.
  
• PPV numbers take longer to get, but it’s possible to make some sense of preliminary reports for the Bunkhouse Finals. The show was likely profitable, purely in terms of money, but the reaction was strongly negative. Early reports estimate the buyrate at 4%, which tells us that if given a fair shot at ppv, Crocket could be profitable with a ppv line up. That’s also encouraging for Crockett, since the card wasn’t strong and the show didn’t have the best heat, but those things may be moot now that WWF has a full year’s schedule set up. Big props to the JCP broadcast team for how well they sold the ppv in advance, because ppv and closed-circuit purchases are majority (90%) last minute, as opposed to house show tickets which are typically bought well in advance.
  
• Wrestlemania IV is expected to sell out by the time this issue hits you. Yeah, Dave. By 32 years now. Anyway, about 14,000 seats went on sale to the general public on Saturday and all but a few thousand were sold by the end of the day. The highest price was $150. It’s funny to Dave that despite the crowd discrepancy, WWF may make as much off 14,000 tickets for Mania IV as they did selling 90,000 for Mania III (The April 3, 2000 issue is the earliest I can find for when Dave revised his view of the numbers for Wrestlemania 3). Anyway, the Convention Center is home to Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino, and Donald Trump is using Wrestlemania as the centerpiece of a weekend-long event designed to attract vacation families to his casinos, including a Gloria Estefan and Miami Sound Machine concert in the adjacent Convention Center ballroom. So I guess we can put Donald Trump down as the innovator of Wrestlemania weekend. WWF claims Wrestlemania will be available in up to 9 million homes on ppv, and if the show gets a similar buyrate to last year’s then we’re talking around $15 million on ppv, $1 million live, and probably $4-5 million at closed-circuit.
  

Watch: Dave Meltzer talks about Bresloff telling him 78,000

• The employment status of the Rock & Roll Express, Michael Hayes, and Steve Williams with JCP has significantly cleared up. The Rock & Roll Express were fired at the Bunkhouse Finals. On January 23, they were asked to do a clean job to Warlord and Ivan Koloff in 12 minutes. Koloff’s been a low card guy recently, and they have been main guys for years, so instead they did the job in 12 seconds (Ricky Morton laid down and let Warlord pin him). Then they flew to New York for the finals, and Dusty learned what happened (he was not at the show on the 23rd) and fired them on the spot. They could be heading anywhere, though WWF is doubtful due to their size. Michael Hayes was fired last week following an incident. He was teaming with Jimmy Garvin and feuding with Ric Flair on the most recent tour; those spots have been taken by Ron Garvin and Sting, the latter of whom is having an accelerated push as a result. Hayes is expected back at World Class, though he did send a resume to WWF. As for Steve Williams, he stayed an extra week in Japan and missed the Stampede. He’s in a contract dispute with Crockett over whether the money he makes in Japan counts against his guaranteed minimum pay from Crockett (Crockett says yes, Williams says no, you’re not paying it so it doesn’t count toward the minimum you are paying him - corporations are not your friends). Williams has disconnected his phone and is out of communication.
  
• Cable ratings for wrestling in the fourth quarter of 1987 dropped from the the third quarter. The World Championship Wrestling show dropped from second to eighth overall, and WWF’s All-American Wrestling surpassed it at seventh. Prime Time Wrestling, formerly ranked third, fell to tenth, while the Sunday WTBS show dropped from tenth to twentieth. AWA on ESPN dropped out of the top 20 (it was number 19 in the third quarter). Some of the drop probably comes from the change in how ratings are gathered (enter the Nielsen box, or “people-meter” as it’s known at this point). There’s controversy about this whole way of gathering ratings, as detractors believe that the boxes ensure shows that appeal to women will receive higher ratings than they would get otherwise. Regardless, wrestling shows across the board dropped about 10% in the ratings in the fourth quarter.
  
• New Japan’s “Martial Arts Olympic” event in the Tokyo Dome has some hoping it will surpass Wrestlemania 3 for biggest live gate ever. They’ve sold tickets at as much as $220 for ringside and sold out those events, so there’s a chance they could if they price right and sell out. Dave’s been told that Inoki vs. Koji Kitao has the potential to double the gate of Inoki’s matches with Leon Spinks and Masa Saito (each over $700,000). If they can get Taue, that’s probably the best opponent they can get for Inoki to ensure a big draw. I think last week he may have written All Japan, but he's very clear this is an Inoki idea this week.
  
• Speaking of Inoki, New Japan recently did a tour in Italy. The big show was January 24 in Rome and drew 8,000 fans. New Japan actually airs on tv in Italy, and Inoki was the big draw, and he pinned Badnews Allen in the main event. Shane Douglas won a battle royal on the show too. These are the first “western-style” pro wrestling matches in Italy since WWF did a show in Milan back in October.
  
• Jake Roberts was on Ellery Queen mystery magazine’s cover this month, and Muscular Development did a cover story on Jesse Ventura. The Ventura article is excellent, but mostly about his life and training regimen, and not to do with wrestling.
  

Jake Roberts on the cover of Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine

• Genichiro Tenryu won all the major awards in Japan. Tokyo Sports named in MVP of wrestling, and Gong Magazine and Weekly Pro Wrestling gave him the equivalent. He beat Riki Choshu in Gong’s annual popularity poll as the most popular Japanese wrestler (Maeda came in second, so pressure there for New Japan to bring him back). Chigusa Nagayo placed 9th, the first time a woman has cracked the top ten of Gong’s poll.
  
• Dave went to the WWF show at the Cow Palace on January 30. It’s his first live show since Japan, and the show drew pretty well, but not as well as you’d expect from a show with a battle royal in the area. The big news of the show were four no-shows: the British Bulldogs (Dave’s heard one of them collapsed at the airport and the other went to the hospital with him), Billy Jack Haynes (his health’s really bad and he’s missed a lot of bookings lately and folks are speculating his career is done), and Bam Bam Bigelow (scheduled to face Ted DiBiase, but he had knee surgery so no clue when he’ll be back). Due to the no-shows, the athletic commission ordered WWF to offer refunds to anyone who wanted them before the end of the second match. He runs down the card: Ron Bass pinned JYD, Ultimate Warrior pinned Harley Race. Warrior’s over big, but still sucks. Ted DiBiase beat George Steele by DQ and Dave alludes to last week’s decision to no longer call matches “abortions” and says “The only word to describe this match is one that has been banned from my vocabulary.” Don Muraco pinned Butch Reed in an okay match. The Jumping Bomb Angels beat the Glamour Girls to retain their tag titles in the only good match on the card (Dave gives it three stars). Noriyo Tateno pinned one of the Girls, Dave doesn’t identify her, saying “you know how it is with those people, they all look alike to me,” which is a pretty solid skewering of people who say that about the Angels and other Asian wrestlers, imo. Ted DiBiase won the bunkhouse battle royal to moderate heat. Hercules pinned Hillbilly Jim. Jim Duggan and Ken Patera beat Demolition and Mr. Fuji by pinning Fuji. Jake Roberts and One Man Gang went to a double countout.
  
• By the way, the California state assembly voted 60-7 to reclassify pro wrestling as entertainment and not a sport. So that means once the bill passes the state senate, athletic commissions will have no power over pro wrestling in California, and wrestlers will not need wrestling licenses to work in the state (which was already a joke of a requirement - Dave got a print-out once of all 60 wrestlers licensed in California and major guys like Hogan and Steamboat weren’t on the list).
  
• The lineup for AWA’s February 4 show, the last at the Minneapolis Auditorium before it’s demolished, has been announced. Curt Hennig defends the AWA Title against Greg Gagne in a cage match. The Midnight Rockers defend the tag titles against a mystery team (the latest announcement was Nick Kiniski and Kevin Kelly, but Kiniski was let go this week and they’re building to a face turn for Kelly). The rest of the card has Dick the Bruiser vs. Adnan al-Kaissey, Billy Robinson vs. Tom Zenk (particularly interesting since Robinson is in for a one-off but has a reputation as a shooter, as well as competing against Verne as a promoter sometimes, so there’s a chance he may go into business for himself), Wahoo McDaniel and Baron Von Raschke vs. The Nasty Boys, and Billy Jack Strong vs. Soldat Ustinov.
  
• Adrian Adonis broke his ankle at the AWA tv tapings in Minot, North Dakota.He was getting whipped into the turnbuckle and stepped into a hole in the ring. He won’t be back for at least two months. Adonis has about 4 months left before he dies.
  
• AWA released a song called “Superstars of the AWA.” Jerry Lawler and Jeff Jarrett were in it due to the increased swapping of talent between Memphis and AWA. I could not find the song.
  
• Something Dave forgot to mention about the WWF battle royal in San Francisco. Technically there were 19 guys, but only 18 actually worked the match. George Steele came out about a minute late, walked around the ring for a few minutes without getting inside, and then just walked to the back with JYD when JYD was eliminated (JYD was the second out of the match). Dave guesses at George’s age he didn’t want to take the bump or something. Dave recalls a story he heard about an unnamed WWF “neanderthal character” who stalled outside the ring for a complete match, and when one fan yelled to “Get in the ring, you lazy bum” he retorted (despite his character not being able to speak English): “What do you think this is, the NWA?”
  
• WWF Superstars tapings were held on January 26 in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Barry Horowitz and Steve Lombardi beat Lanny Poffo and Scott Casey, which set up the main event for the second hour of the taping where the Killer Bees beat Horowitz and Lombardi. Rick Rude and Ricky Steamboat had a match that ended in a big brawl that got Hercules, Harley Race, Jim Duggan, and Ultimate Warrior involved. The main event of the live show was not taped for tv, but had Hogan and Bigelow going over Andre and DiBiase (Hogan pinned DiBiase). Andre’s contribution to the match was one minute (of nine total for the match) in the ring, and a body slam to Hogan before almost collapsing. Commentary for this taping was not done live, but rather will be done in post-production due to the fact that they’re waiting for The Main Event first, since these will all air after that sets up the angles.
  
• Dave hears that the decision on what to do with Hogan/Andre at The Main Event will be decided this week once his filming schedule is determined. If he’s available for weekends, he’ll stay champion through the summer. If not, then a title change will happen and DiBiase is the likely beneficiary.
  
• [Stampede] Badnews Allen and Jason the Terrible were fined $200 and $300, respectively, by Calgary City Hall. This is in relation to their brawl in the audience on December 18 that led to a woman in the audience suffering a concussion.
  
• Oregon will be holding a special show on February 16 as a Frank Bonema Memorial show. Bonema was the tv announcer from Portland who passed away in 1982 or 1983. They haven’t announced any matches yet, but Curt Hennig is supposed to defend the AWA Title against their Northwest Title holder at the time, and there are plans for a tag title match, a strap match, and a cage match.
  
• The February 12 card will be the last card by Continental in Knoxville before Ron Fuller’s new promotion takes over the area from them. The situation with Alabama’s territory continues to confuse me.
  
• Nobuhiko Takada beat Owen Hart on January 13 in one of the highlights of New Japan’s jr. heavyweight tournament. As of January 26, here’s the status of the tournament: Koshinaka leads with 34 points (7-1 record), Takada has 31 points (6-1-1 record), Hart at 29 points (6-2 record), Hase also has 29 points. Yamazaki has 24 points (5-2 record), and Yamada is 4-2-1 with 21 points. Kobayashi has 24 (5-1), Saito at 19 (4-4), and everyone else is negligible at the moment. The finals will be on February 7.
  
• All Japan is pushing a big show for March 9 featuring Hansen vs. Tenryu. That will be a double title match, as Tenryu puts up the United National Title against Hansen’s PWF Title (Dave expects a double countout. Other matches will include Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Tiger Mask II, Baba and Wajima vs. Kimura and Tsurumi, and others.
  
• Giant Baba’s been negotiating with the Funks and David Manning about getting All Japan on tv in the U.S. All part of his angling to help the promotions outside the NWA and WWF against the juggernauts.
  
• AJW is building a big match for February 25, Dump Matsumoto’s retirement show. Dump and Yukari Omori (also retiring that night) will face the Crush Gals in a tag match. Also on the card will be a battle royal and Yumiko Hotta/Mitsuko Nishiwaki vs. Bull Nakano/Condor Saito for the vacant tag team titles.
  
• AJW’s annual rookie auditions took place on January 17 in Tokyo. 1500 girls showed up, and seven were picked based on their performance in various athletic and endurance drills. Dave says this is one of the main reasons it’s ridiculous to attempt to compare joshi wrestling to any American promotion. Only the top half a percent in terms of athletic ability are chosen for training in the first place, and then “they train them like spartans from the age of 15-17 and by the time they are around 22, if they’ve even survived, they are better workers than virtually all the men.” And with the retirement age of 26, nobody stays on so long they feel stale. Then again, that level of training sounds kind of easy to become mega abusive from a 2020 standpoint.
  
• Lots of rumor that NWA’s recent firings aren’t due to discipline issues but due to the company having financial issues. That’s the story those being fired have given. Michael Hayes in particular claims that he and Crockett agreed to a two year deal for $150k per year, but Crockett never signed it and when he pressured Crockett to sign (he wasn’t making money with the contract unsigned), and so he got fired for missing the January 23 show in Cincinnati. Even as Crockett’s financial issues become more and more apparent, they do seem to be recovering at the gate a little.
  
• Unlike WWF, NWA’s weightlifting competition used legit weights. All four guys did 460 pound bench presses easy, then Paul Ellering called to move the bar to 600. Animal failed first, and they threw chalk in his eyes and he bled and was “taken to the hospital” and the whole thing came across well.
  
• The road to Barry Windham joining the Horsemen (not that Dave suspects anything yet) continues as he and Luger are being pushed as a tag team. Meanwhile, Flair and Sting are set to feud.
  
• Dave once again clarifies about Hawk’s line (because apparently he’s still saying it). It’s Neo Maxi Zoom Dweebies, not Neo Nazi Zoom Dweebies.
  
• Crockett referee Jeff Goldberg writes in to correct the record on something. In the January 18 issue, a reader wrote in about the December 26 show in Philadelphia and said it looked like the referee screwed up the finish. Goldberg says he acted as instructed, and Flair would not have congratulated him later on if he had screwed up. He also says readers often blame referees for screwing up finishes, but that’s usually the wrestlers who screw up (or the finish is in fact supposed to look screwed up). Referees can be green just like wrestlers, but he’s proud not to be one of them.
  
• Another reader tells us that his cable company had Bunkhouse Stampede, but Crockett did a LOLNWA. Crockett announced that Sammons cable would have the show on January 23 (day before the ppv). Except they didn’t air the announcement until 2 pm that day, had given no announcement ahead of that time, and Sammons closed their company office for the weekend at noon on the 23rd.
  
• The longest letter this week is all about how Bret Hart deserves a bigger push. Brief version: Vince is making a big mistake by not pushing Bret as a singles star. Even the casual fans buy into him. He’s got promo ability, the ability to make a bad wrestler look good (very important in WWF), and he’d make a great opponent for Randy Savage after an Intercontinental Title change. Give it a few years, Jeff. You’ll get your wish and then some.
  
• Crockett’s apparently going to keep two offices open. The Dallas office will be for tv production, and the Charlotte office will remain as the base for talent.
  
• Mike Rotunda won the NWA TV Title from Nikita Koloff on January 26, then gave the Florida Title to Rick Steiner. Interestingly, Dusty did a promo referencing the Hogan/Andre/DiBiase title situation and said that in the NWA you can’t buy a title. Well, Dave points out, DiBiase offered $1 million to Hogan for the title, so that seems to be the going rate for the WWF championship for a year. Meanwhile, Rick Steiner got the Florida Title for free, which pretty accurately reflects the worth of that title.
  
• World Class drew a crowd of 80 in Houston on January 26. No, you didn’t read that number wrong.
  

THURSDAY: Hogan drops the WWF Title (really the only big story next week)

Going through old issues of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter and posting highlights in my own words. For anyone interested, I highly recommend signing up for the actual site at f4wonline and checking out the full archives.
PREVIOUSLY:

• Observer Rewind - 1987 by SaintRidley
  
• The Complete Wrestling Observer Rewind 1991-2001
  

1-7-2002	1-14-2002	1-21-2002	1-28-2002
2-4-2002	2-11-2002	2-18-2002	2-25-2002

NOTE: I mentioned it in the first post of 2002 but a lot of y'all are aware that a few months ago, SaintRidley picked up the Observer Rewind reins after I stopped and started doing his own recaps from the 1980s. Well, he's been doing great work with it and he just finished posting the year of 1987. I went ahead and added it the Previously" section up there. ↑↑↑ Just wanted to make sure to bring it to everyone's attention.

• It's been awhile since we've had major PPVs going head-to-head with each other, but it happened this week when WWA aired it's 2nd ever PPV live from Las Vegas, going head-to-head with PRIDE. Dave recaps the history of head-to-head PPV battles, specifically the WWF vs. Crockett war in the late-80s. How Vince McMahon created Survivor Series specifically to run it in direct competition with Crockett's first ever PPV, Starrcade 87. The resulting loss of needed revenue was a huge reason why Crockett eventually had to sell the company to Ted Turner and, in retrospect, set into motion everything that led to WCW's eventual death last year. He goes on to recap how Royal Rumble was created and aired on free TV to go head-to-head with Crockett's next PPV attempt, Bunkhouse Stampede. Then Crockett responded by creating the first Clash of the Champions and airing it against Wrestlemania IV. Not sure PRIDE vs. WWA is up there in the same league as that PPV battle. Which, to be fair, Dave admits it's not the same thing.
  
• Anyway, the PRIDE show was among the greatest events of all time, one of the very few times in the history of the Observer that a show got a unanimous 100% thumbs up vote on the reader poll. It aired in Japan live and in the U.S. on a bit of a delay, with the matches edited in a different order. In Japan, the card was headlined by Vanderlei Silva vs. former UWFI wrestler Kiyoshi Tamura, which was an excellent fight that Silva won. In the U.S., the show was built around Ken Shamrock vs. Don Frye in the main event (in Japan, it aired 3rd from last) and the 2 men had an absolute war that should shut up critics who say both are too old. Shamrock lost a split-decision in a fight that Dave thinks should have legitimately been a draw. (This fight is considered to this day one of the all-time wars in MMA history. An utter slobberknocker. Neither fighter was the same again afterward and Frye has said that the damage Shamrock did to his legs in this fight led to him later getting addicted to painkillers). After the fight, Shamrock went over to ringside and hugged his girlfriend Alicia Webb, who you may remember as Ryan Shamrock. The girl that played his sister in WWF.
  

WATCH: Don Frye vs. Ken Shamrock - PRIDE 19: Bad Blood (2002)

• And then there was WWA. A low-budget, amateur-ish event, marred by bad production and no-shows. Not that the crowd would even know, because most of the lineup was never even announced ahead of time anyway. The scheduled main event of Jeff Jarrett vs. Randy Savage didn't happen because Savage held promoter Andrew McManus up for more money at the last minute. Savage originally had agreed to work the show in exchange for a 30% ownership stake in the company, which was agreed upon. But three days before the show, Savage upped the ante, saying he wanted the 30%, plus an extra $50,000 in cash. At that point, they started haggling back and forth to try to strike some kind of deal. Ownership got pulled off the table and then Savage asked for a flat $250,000 fee to work the show. WWA turned that down and came back with a flat $150,000 offer instead. Savage turned that down and at that point, everything broke down. For what it's worth, a lot of the lower card wrestlers on the show worked for $300. Last second attempts to bring in Sting to save the show didn't work either. Road Dogg was also supposed to appear on the show but couldn't because of legal issues. Word is he got arrested 2 days before the show in Florida on a probation violation. As a result, the PPV was headlined by Jeff Jarrett defending the WWA championship against Brian Christopher.
  
• The whole show was simply an embarrassment. The production was completely minor league and the crowd was totally dead for all these long matches with guys nobody cares about. The in-ring work was fine, but the booking often made no sense, with overbooked three-ways and 6-way undercard matches that ended up being more clusterfuck than match. It was also one of those Russo-type things where the commentary team made endless inside-references that only the hardcore internet fans would get. But then again, this show only drew hardcore internet fans anyway, so why not? They also constantly made reference to WWF, which came across as desperate and sad. In particular, Larry Zbyszko was given the chance to cut a meandering promo, challenging Vince McMahon to a fight over some unspecified grievance from 20 years ago and criticized them for having Chris Jericho as their world champion. Dave thinks Zbyszko was actually angling for a job from WWF by trying to start his own angle and says this promo was basically his job application. And he thinks it was pretty pathetic. Backstage, the disorganization was apparent and most even within the company saw what a mess it was and have already given up on the promotion as a lost cause. Dave said this PPV made it clear that nobody will be challenging WWF anytime soon.
  
• Other notes from the WWA Revolution PPV: yes, in case you're wondering, that Japanese man sitting behind the commentary table all night who very briefly (literally blink and miss it) got involved in the Scott SteineDisco Inferno tussle was indeed NJPW star Hiroyoshi Tenzan and yes, they flew him all the way from Japan (and had him bring his ring gear just in case), only to have him do almost nothing and never be acknowledged on camera. Eric Bischoff was backstage, as a guest of Ernest Miller. Bischoff laughed off any questions about going to WWF but said the ol' "never say never" shtick. The crowd was about 2,800, most of them freebies and they were desperately giving away tickets in the casino before the show. During the first match, the building looked practically empty so they quietly began moving everyone closer to ringside to pack the area around the ring to make it look presentable for TV. Opening 6-way match featuring all the hottest indie stars was a sloppy mess, with too people flying everywhere trying to get their shit in and the cameras missing most of it. Bret Hart came out and cut a long, rambling promo before announcing Brian Christopher was replacing Randy Savage in the main event, to zero crowd response. By the 5th match, people in the crowd could be seen leaving, never to return. Jerry Lynn showed up, interrupting an Eddie Guerrero interview, at which point Dave mentions, oh yeah by the way, the WWF released Jerry Lynn 2 days before the PPV. Considering WWF has been talking about reviving the cruiserweight division after Wrestlemania, Dave doesn't know why they'd get rid of a guy who could be one of the best in the division. Anyway, yeah, this show sucked. Here ya go, enjoy.
  

WATCH: WWA: The Revolution PPV - 2002

• WWF's latest investor conference call took place and wasn't particularly newsworthy, but there's some stuff to note. The new agreement with DirecTV is until August of 2003 and is under the exact same terms they were operating under last year, which means WWF gained nothing while losing an estimated $4.4 million in revenue over the last few PPVs. Following the brand split, WWF plans to run 16 PPVs per year, and increasing the price by an extra $5. Linda McMahon said Wrestlemania 18 has sold 58,000 tickets as of the time of the call, for a record gate of $3.96 million, breaking the record set by last year's WM. Dave goes through all the numbers and for the most part, in comparison to previous quarters, almost everything is down. Which is no surprise to anyone who has been paying attention because WWF is clearly on the downswing. Linda also said they're currently interviewing new writers and are hoping to double their writing staff, which Dave thinks is a terrible idea (and time has damn sure proven him correct). Finally, Linda was also asked how the purchase of the WCW library has benefited the company, which Dave thinks is an interesting question since revenues have declined since then and the Invasion angle flopped so hard that it killed any brand value the name "WCW" may have had. Linda talked about the value of the tape library but Dave points out that it's been a year and WWF has done practically nothing with that library (of course, in the end, they found ways to monetize that WCW library and it more than paid for itself).
  
• In his first match as an official member of the AJPW roster, Keiji Muto lost the Triple Crown championship to Toshiaki Kawada in a match nearly a year in the making, before a sold out crowd at Budokan Hall. He hasn't seen it yet, but the match was reported to Dave as a near-classic (he ends up giving it 4.5 stars). The other 2 NJPW stars who jumped ship, Kendo Kashin and Satoshi Kojima, also worked their first official AJPW matches. Kaz Hayashi, formerly a member of Jung Dragons in WCW and who worked in WWF's developmental until asking for his release a few weeks ago, also debuted on the show and will be part of Muto's faction.
  

WATCH: Keiji Muto vs. Toshiaki Kawada - AJPW 2-24-2002

• Obituary time for Swede Hanson, who worked primarily in the Carolinas and had a brief run in the WWF as a cult favorite babyface in the early 80s. Sadly, he passed away in a mental hospital because he had advanced Alzheimer's disease which made it impossible for his family to handle him and they had him put away. Jeez, that's rough. He also had a litany of other health problems. Dave gives an in-depth history of his career in the 60s and 70s as a heel in the Carolinas before talking about the WWF run. Vince Sr. brought him in as a monster heel to challenge Bob Backlund, and Dave thinks someone else must have backed out at the last moment or something. By this time (in 1979), Hanson was well past his prime and hadn't been a major star anywhere in years but he was a big dude and so they brought him in to face Backlund and they actually sold out Madison Square Garden with Backlund vs. Hanson in the main event (though Dave says Bruno Sammartino working the undercard sure didn't hurt). The match sucked and almost immediately after, he became a jobber in the WWF, but Vince Jr, on commentary, just loved to call him "Rawboned Swede Hanson" and the "Rawboned" nickname caught on. Vince said it with such gusto that Hanson briefly became a cult favorite jobber from it and the crowd turned him babyface at damn near 50 years old. It led to a brief career resurgence and him having a small role in the Backlund/Billy Graham feud for the title before he finally faded into oblivion.
  
• Mark Henry won the "world's strongest man" competition at the Arnold Classic bodybuilding and fitness event. Henry has been out of WWF for the past 2 months training for this competition and the training paid off, with Henry capturing first place and making a legitimate viable claim to his "strongest man in the world" moniker. During the event, Henry became the first man in 50 years to cleanly press the 366 pound Apollon wheel weight above his head. In another event, he carried an 800 pound block of bolted together railroad ties up a 40-foot ramp faster than the other competitors. For his victory, Henry won a $75,000 Humvee and some other cash prizes. Over the same weekend, he also won another $1,000 in a contest where he was able to lift an inch dumbbell (which weighs 172 pounds) to his shoulder with one arm. There's a bunch of other weightlifting stuff here, but you might be surprised to find out....I dunno shit about any of this. I got winded lifting pizza to my mouth earlier. Mark Henry strong.
  

WATCH: Mark Henry at the Arnold Classic 2002

• Another obit for former wrestler, promoter, and father of 80s valet Baby Doll, Nick Roberts who died of pancreatic cancer. Once again, a bunch of details and stories about someone I've never heard of in wrestling history that Dave somehow knows everything about. I know I've said it before, but these obituary pieces are some of the greatest reasons for subscribing to the Observer.
  
• Masahiro Chono says he wants to take NJPW in a more serious, realistic direction. No sports entertainment gaga nonsense, they want it to be like a real sports product. So much so that, in his own match with Manabu Nakanishi at the last big NJPW show, Chono wouldn't even bounce off the ropes, saying that it's not credible and no one would do that in a real fight. Ah yes, Inoki's gonna love this.
  
• FMW wrestler Kodo Fuyuki has said he plans to try to keep the promotion running after it was announced it was folding last week. FMW still has 8 shows scheduled for this month and Fuyuki said he plans to try to run them himself and keep the company going (no such luck buddy).
  
• Japan Today, an American newspaper that covers Japanese news daily, had a story on Antonio Inoki battling diabetes. It says he was first diagnosed in 1982, which Dave says is right around the time Inoki's in-ring work dropped off considerably when he lost his stamina. The story said for the last 20 years, Inoki has eaten a ridiculously healthy diet and is in better health now at 59 than he was then at 39.
  
• Dave said he got tons of positive feedback on the debut of RF Video's Ring of Honor promotion in Philadelphia. The show was sold out in advance, was well organized, and had several really good matches. They limited a lot of the mistakes that most indie companies fall victim to, such as too many matches, too many run-ins, too much mic work, too many guys trying to do too much stuff, etc. Steve Corino and CZW announcer Eric Gargiulo did commentary. Eddie Guerrero faced Super Crazy in an excellent match and the main event was a three-way featuring Low-Ki, Christopher Daniels, and American Dragon that Dave has heard rave reviews for. And thus, ROH was born.
  

WATCH: Highlights from ROH's debut show in 2002

• Vic Grimes took the most insane bump of all time at an XPW event before 1,500 fans in Los Angeles. Grimes was facing New Jack in a scaffold match said to be at least twice as high up as the fall Mick Foley took off the Hell in a Cell. The ring below had tables stacked 4-high to break his fall, but Grimes ended up missing most of the tables when New Jack overshot him. Perhaps on purpose. Grimes missed all but the corner tables at the edge of the ring before coming down on the corner turnbuckles. After the bump, they tried to rush fans out of the arena since it was almost 1am and gave many the impression Grimes life was in danger. But he was surprisingly okay and was walking around backstage after, although he was definitely banged up. Grimes was really nervous about the bump earlier in the day, as you might expect and Dave says he's pretty damn lucky he didn't miss the ring because he almost certainly would have died if he took that bump straight to the floor. Elsewhere on the show, there was a match where porn star Lizzy Borden (wife of XPW promoter Rob Black) faced another porn star, Veronica Caine, in a match that was supposed to end only when someone was stripped totally naked. But right before it happened, the lights went out and the women were rushed out of the ring and when fans realized they'd been ripped off, they were so pissed the arena feared a riot. (Anyway, here's the bump and yeah....Grimes very easily could have died from this. No mention from Dave on the fact that New Jack also tazed him before this)

WATCH: Air Grimes goes long

• Shane Douglas is expected to take over as XPW booker when his WCW contract with Time Warner expires next month.
  
• Former WCW journeyman wrestler Chip Minton's primary career was bobsledding. He only wrestled in WCW occasionally while doing that, primarily as a jobber on the C-shows. Minton was part of the US bobsledding team in both the 1994 and 1998 Winter Olympics and was planning to compete this year, but failed to make the team. Soon after that, he failed a steroid test and has been suspended from the sport for 2 years.
  
• Remember a couple weeks ago, it was mentioned that Roddy Piper was in a car accident but he was playing down how serious it was? Turns out....very serious. Piper suffered 4 broken ribs, one of which punctured his liver and nearly killed him. He also suffered severe back injuries and shattered his ankle. Piper was taken to the hospital and was near death but obviously, he managed to pull through and has still been making all his appearances for XWF in recent days. (Yeah I think in Piper's autobiography, he dedicates the book to the guy who saved his life by rushing him to the hospital and even says he was clinically dead for a few moments. Then again, Piper was like a lot of those old time guys and was prone to exaggeration, so who knows).
  
• Eric Bischoff is teaming up with Mark Burnett, the producer of the hit show Survivor, to produce a MMA reality show called Skien. From Dave's understanding, it will basically be a reality show with K-1 kickboxers leading up to a PPV event. (Here's an article about it from Variety at the time, but this ends up going nowhere).
  

WATCH: Variety article on Eric Bischoff's new reality show

• Notes from Raw: only one thing really notable, they filmed a segment at referee Tim White's bar The Friendly Tap. The bar really is owned by White and WWF pretty much always films angles there when they're in town (Providence, RI). This time, the skit featured the APA going into the bar to drink and the bar was filled by a bunch of gay men and drag queens (played by a bunch of wrestlers from indie promotion Chaotic Wrestling) while the APA guys acted all grossed out by it all. Then Billy and Chuck attacked them. Dave thinks this played on all the typical homophobic stereotypes and he seems pretty irritated by it. Anyway, among the wrestlers from Chaotic were Todd Sinclair (better known now as ROH's senior official), Rich Palladino (ring announcer for Beyond now) and John Walters (indie wrestler and former ROH Pure champion).
  
• Next week's Smackdown hasn't aired yet but it was taped and Dave has details. Notably, this is the episode where Austin chases down the NWO and tries to shoot them with a net gun. Dave says this was a mess, with the gun going off but no net being fired from it and they'll have to fix the whole thing in post-production. It went horribly when they filmed it and it aired for the live crowd and it killed the crowd and basically forced them to improvise on the spot (on one of the Something To Wrestle podcasts, Bruce Prichard tells this story and how frustrated they were with this net gun being a piece of shit). This episode also featured Stephanie yelling at Chris Jericho for getting her the wrong hand lotion and Booker T and Edge feuding over a Japanese shampoo commercial. (Rock/Hogan was great, but man, the build for everything else at Wrestlemania 18 suuuuuucked.)
  
• Prototype won the OVW title from Leviathan at the latest OVW tapings. After the match, they did an angle to set up David Flair as the #1 contender for the title. Prototype's only singles loss in OVW came last week, when Flair beat him, so there ya go (this video covers ALL of that. The FlaiCena match, the Leviathan match, the post-match angle, etc).
  

WATCH: Prototype vs. Leviathan for OVW title - 2002

• Wall Street Journal did an article talking about the decline in Smackdown's ratings, saying they were down 28% from last year and down 42% from the year before that. The article blamed it on Smackdown changing networks. Here's the thing though....it hasn't. Raw changed networks in 2000. Smackdown has been on UPN since its debut. Also, UPN has grown overall in ratings while Smackdown has declined. So....no. It's just because the show sucks now.
  
• Charlie Haas, fresh off returning to the ring and winning the HWA title after the death of his brother, tore his ACL this week. He just had surgery and will be out 4-6 months. Rough few months for that dude.
  
• A Washington newspaper did a story on James Dudley, who you may know as....WWF Hall of Famer James Dudley and little else. On-screen, he's never really done much. But Dave says Dudley started working for Vince Sr. back in the 1940s, when Sr. was a boxing promoter, and was essentially his Vince Sr.'s driver and assistant. Dudley did a lot of odd jobs for the company during those early years, working ticket booths and stuff like that, but to most people, he was just kinda known as Vince Sr.'s limo driver. So when he was indicted into the WWF Hall of Fame a few years ago, it was a pretty controversial decision among a lot of people, given that someone like Bruno Sammartino isn't in, by the company's limo driver is. Anyway, before his death, Vince Sr. made Vince Jr. promise to take care of Dudley and keep him on the payroll. So for the last 18 years or so, even though he doesn't work for the company, Vince McMahon has continued to pay him a salary. He also bought him a new car as a gift some years back.
  
• Billy and Chuck's recent tag team title win makes Billy Gunn the most decorated tag team wrestler in WWF history, as he's now held the tag titles 9 times (3 as part of the Smoking Gunns, 5 as part of New Age Outlaws, and now once with he and Chuck). The previous record was Mick Foley, with 8. (to the best of my research, if we're only talking WWF/WWE tag title reigns, that record is now held by Edge).
  
• USA Network CEO Barry Diller took part in a lecture at Syracuse University and talked about losing the WWF to TNN. When asked why it happened, he responded, "Because I'm a dope." He said he didn't fight hard enough to keep the WWF and admitted the loss hurt, but also said it may have been the best thing for them in the long-run because pro wrestling doesn't really fit the direction they're planning to take the network. He said wrestling fans came for wrestling and left immediately after it was over and there was never any cross-over fans who stuck around to watch the next show or anything like that. He said they could never figure out what to connect wrestling to within the rest of their properties.
  
• WWF held a try out camp in Cincinnati and reportedly, nobody was particularly impressive, including AJ Styles. The knock on Styles was that he's average looking and too small. Wrestler Sonny Siaki was said to be the most impressive, but he also rubbed people the wrong way with his attitude so probably not gonna make the cut this time. Matt Morgan, who was on the Tough Enough casting special last season got a tryout and since he has no formal training, he was pretty awful but he's big so Dave seems to think he'll get a chance anyway. The other one they were impressed by was a woman named Erin Bray, who was one of the final 25 picked for the original Tough Enough. But then some other contestants spotted her out on a date with one of the show's judges and they threw a fit, which resulted in Bray not making the final 13. Another wrestler, Travis Tomko, is a guy who has worked some indies and is a former bodyguard for Limp Bizkit ("Tomko, gimme a beat." "No.")
  
• Rock was a presenter at the NAACP Awards and Dave thinks he looked pretty great for a guy who was almost murdered in an ambulance by the NWO a few days earlier. Cheeky Dave is just the best.
  
• Speaking of, Dave throws in a random paragraph to backhandedly shit on Kevin Nash. For years, people in the business joked that Lex Luger made the most money with the least ability or drawing power of anyone ever in wrestling. Dave says it's gotta be Nash. For example, Nash is not wrestling and is only going to be in Hall's corner for the match at Wrestlemania (his knees really are giving him problems), but he has been promised that he's going to get the same type of payoff as if he was the guy in the match working with Austin in the semi-main event. Not to mention all the huge contracts he signed in WCW, or how he got a huge-by-WWF-standards deal here, plus got Vince to cave to almost all his other demands regarding schedule and bringing back Scott Hall, among other things. (I mean, while Dave is being kind of a dick here, I don't think he's really wrong either. When it comes to top draws in the history of the business, Nash isn't anywhere near even the top 10 or 20. And he's never exactly been a great wrestler. But since the 90s, Nash always managed to make sure he gets PAID like he's in that upper echelon. Nash is one of those very few wrestlers who isn't entranced by the fame or the fake accolades. He treats wrestling for what it is: a business. It's the way they pay their mortgages and buy groceries, just like you and me at our jobs. I love it. I laugh my ass off every time I hear "Brock Lesnar signed a huge new contract to only work 6 matches a year." Good for him. I hope he gets even more money for less dates next year. You should always know your worth and never let your employer take you for anything less. Nash has always been one of the guys to do that and he's probably going to die comfortably in a nice house while these other guys from his era are still clinging to fame at 60 years old doing $300 indie shows on crippled knees. Anyway, that's my soapbox). Dave seems to feel the same way and admits, love him or hate him, you gotta give Nash credit for being one of the smartest guys in the biz.
  
• Fear Factor featuring the Hardyz, Lita, Test, Molly Holly, and Jacquelyn aired this week. First they had to climb up a rope ladder hanging from a helicopter over the river and they all made it up except Jeff Hardy who slipped near the top and fell (knowing Jeff, he probably purposely let go so he could take the big fall for fun). Lita also got eliminated for being the slowest one up the ladder. Next they had to chug a gross drink that included bile, rooster testicals, spleen, and some animal brains all blended together. Molly Holly almost vomited after one sip and was out. Jackie and Matt succeeded. Test refused to even try. So then it came down to Matt vs. Jackie and they had to walk across the tops of high poles and move flags around. Matt Hardy ended up winning the whole thing and won $50,000 for charity.
  

WATCH: WWF stars on Fear Factor, Pt. 1
WATCH: WWF stars on Fear Factor, Pt. 2
WATCH: WWF stars on Fear Factor, Pt. 3

• Sunday Night Heat is being converted into one of the B-shows like Metal and Jakked. Awhile back, they started airing Heat from the WWF New York restaurant but the production costs of that were high. So in a cost-cutting move, they're just gonna tape dark matches and throw them on Heat the same way they do those other shows, featuring all the nobodies that can't ever get TV time on the main shows.
  
• As mentioned last week, Scott Hall has been taking a drug called Antabuse, which makes him violently sick when he drinks or even smells alcohol. It caused him to get sick after Raw last week when Austin poured beer all over him in a bit after the cameras were off. Hall has said he is clean and has been clean for awhile, except for the incident a couple weeks ago where he fell off the wagon. Others are skeptical and question if Hall only takes his medication on TV days and needless to say, there's some doubt here.
  
• Everywhere he goes, Brian Christopher has been telling people he's coming back to WWF after Wrestlemania, but contrary to what he's saying, Dave says there are zero plans for that (indeed, it does not happen).
  

FRIDAY: More on WWA's PPV disaster, the landscape for any new promotion attempting to start up, WWF huge show in Japan, WWF loses appeal over "WWF" initials, Bret Hart given offer for Wrestlemania 18, and tons more...

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Expect lots of temperature checks and one-way routes. ‘As we experienced in China, this will be a journey.’
Wearable social-distancing buzzers. Masked blackjack dealers. Drive-thru electronics purchases. From cubicles to factory floors, cafes to clothing boutiques, businesses around the world are dreaming up creative ways to reopen, attempting to start revenue flowing again while minimizing the risk to customers and employees.
The global economy is riding on their ability to pull off that delicate balance. A new flareup of Covid-19 cases could shutter offices, stores, restaurants and manufacturing plants once again, further choking off the flow of goods and services and threatening more jobs. Some governments, such as China, are providing rigorous oversight of the process. Others, including President Donald Trump’s administration, have offered looser guidance and are entrusting businesses to monitor their facilities. Scientists are still studying how the virus is spread, and whether keeping people six feet apart is enough, adding to the risks.
The companies’ plans rely on a steady supply of masks, gloves, thermometers and tests that is likely to strain budgets and manufacturers’ ability to keep up. Social distancing will be built in, with people divided by barriers and kept apart from colleagues and customers, a U-turn after years of movement toward open floor plans. Some companies will monitor employees more closely than ever before, while others will let workers choose how much protection they need. The way we work, shop, travel and eat in 2020 – and probably beyond – is being plotted out in boardrooms around the world.
Here are the changes companies are contemplating for their workplaces in the coming weeks.

The Office

Seats on the shuttle bus to Unilever’s Shanghai offices can be reserved using a chat group. Employees must be masked to board, and they sit on alternating sides, one person to each four-seat row. Upon arrival, each worker scans a QR code and fills out a health status report to get a daily pass to enter. Then comes the temperature check and the hand sanitizer.
Inside the office, movement is tightly regulated. Employees keep their masks on and are encouraged to use the stairs instead of the elevator, with spritzes of hand sanitizer before and after touching the regularly disinfected handrail. In the canteen, a single person is allowed at each four-seat table.
Such measures might seem predictable in a centrally controlled society like China, but some version of them is starting to appear in the West. At Britain’s former state phone monopoly, BT Group Plc, call center workers sit two meters apart, and walkways are designated as one-way to keep people from brushing past each other. Temperature checks are becoming routine at Sistema, the Russian conglomerate, which also says it’s developed its own two-hour test for Covid-19. Employees who come to the office have been tested in the past couple of weeks, though as many as half of the call center workers at MTS, the mobile network controlled by Sistema, are operating out of their homes.

More Room

Flexible space operator Knotel, which runs offices for corporations including Uber and Netflix, says workplace design has to change. Offices will likely be less densely populated, and altered to make them “antiviral,” according to Amol Sarva, Knotel’s chief executive officer.
“Things like ventilation, UV light, density screening, video monitoring, and temperature monitoring, cleaning protocols — those are all going to have to change,” he said. “Certainly there’ll be more space.”
In China, Cushman & Wakefield has helped move nearly a million workers back into 800 million square feet (74 million square meters) of office space. The company is creating a Recovery Readiness manual for landlords and tenants, based in part on its experience in China, that includes colored carpets to create visual boundaries around desks, plexiglass shields between desks that face each other and signs that direct walking traffic in a single direction.

Fewer Meetings

Even when people do come back to the office, meetings will be limited, and large gatherings are out of the question. This week, Facebook Inc. CEO Mark Zuckerberg canceled all physical events of 50 or more people through June 2021. The vast majority of employees are required to work from home through May, and those who need to carry on doing so will be able to work at home through the summer.
The road to normalcy may be much longer than that. At Abcam Plc, a British protein research company, 40 out of 300 China-based employees started returning to work in Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou and Hong Kong on Feb. 14. Two months later, the company is running split shifts to maintain distancing for the roughly 50% of employees based in manufacturing, logistics and essential lab work.

The Factory

On Feb. 10, Winly Automotive (Wuhan) Ltd. was assigned a checklist from the government. To reopen, the company would be required to have a one-month stash of masks and sanitizer, take a photo of the supplies, and send it to officials before submitting to a detailed inspection. “The policy has been constantly changing,” said Wang Xuepan, one of the plant’s managers. “It’s very difficult for us to handle.”
In the Seattle area, Boeing Co. has worked with the Washington state labor department on a plan to reopen its factories. It will be doling out cloth masks to most workers, saving the gold-standard N95 masks for a select few in more hazardous conditions.
Unlike office drones, factory workers have to show up in person to get the job done. Figuring out what basic protections they’ll need is part of the challenge. At Boeing, industrial engineers are analyzing the sequence of work on its assembly lines to find ways to spread apart workers.

Taking the Temperature

Airbus SE has divided employees at its plants into red and blue teams, who don’t see each other because they use different routes to enter and exit buildings. Volkswagen AG is allotting more time between shifts and reducing expectations for production because it takes longer for people to move around each other at a safe distance. Ford Motor Co. is experimenting with wearable devices that would buzz workers if they get too close together.
While the virus can be transmitted by people with no symptoms, many manufacturers are doing temperature checks, whether with thermometers, thermal imaging cameras or — in the case of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV in the U.S. — reusable forehead strips.
Fiat Chrysler, whose CEO Mike Manley is one of the executives talking with Trump about reopening the economy, is requiring workers to fill out a health questionnaire two hours before reporting to work each day. They must bring either a hard copy, or scan a QR code with their phone, to prove they aren’t displaying signs of illness or exposure to the virus, according to documents obtained by Bloomberg. Workers can’t enter the plant without it.
Some companies are closing cafeterias in favor of vending machines. Dongfeng PSA in Wuhan is handing out prepared lunchboxes to employees, who must eat at least 1.5 meters apart with their backs to each other.
Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co. said Chairman Li Shufu wrote a song to keep workers motivated through such dreariness. “A world full of expectations/Turned to dust of yesterday,” the lyrics go. “Their sorrow flowing into the sea/But the flower of love is quietly blooming.”

The Airplane

When air travel resumes in earnest, it’s likely that hand sanitizers, face masks and thermometers will become standard at most major airports, said David Powell, medical adviser for the International Air Transport Association, a trade group. All three have shortcomings, but can also reassure passengers, he said.
The International Civil Aviation Organization, which sets global flying standards, wants to establish a “public health corridor concept.” Under such a plan, major airlines, airports, public authorities and other parties would adopt common protocols for screening, boarding, in-flight procedures, arrivals, customs and baggage.
“We cannot all just stop flying,” Ansa Jordaan, the group’s chief of aviation medicine, said during an April 15 webcast.
Emirates Airline said this week it was the first to conduct rapid Covid-19 blood tests, with results available in 10 minutes for passengers flying Wednesday from Dubai to Tunisia. It plans to extend the procedure to other flights, according to Chief Operating Officer Adel Al Redha.
Other carriers are attempting less invasive measures. Etihad Airways, another major airline in the United Arab Emirates, plans to deploy touchless self-service devices at its hub airport in Abu Dhabi to identify travelers with medical conditions, including the early stages of coronavirus.
In the U.S., American Airlines Group Inc. plans to continue spacing customers apart during boarding and flights, conducting extensive cleanings of aircraft and reducing food and beverage service to limit contact, CEO Doug Parker said in an April 15 video message.
“When you do fly, aircraft cleanliness and social distancing matter greatly,” he said.

The Store

In China, it’s become standard to have your temperature taken any time you want to go shopping. Visitors to the Wuhan International Plaza luxury mall are checked for a fever at the door, before they queue up to be served one at a time at Louis Vuitton.
Levi Strauss & Co. disinfects its Chinese stores three times a day and requires temperature checks for customers, who are expected to wear masks before entering the store. Fitting rooms and products that have been tried on are disinfected each time they’re used.
It’s unclear whether practices implemented in China will make their way to other parts of the world, though several companies said they’ll learn from their experience in Asia.

Drive-Thru Shopping

Another technique is to keep shoppers out of the store altogether. Dixons Carphone Plc, the electronics retailer, is considering plans for contact-free “drive-thru” style stores to limit the risk of coronavirus for staff and customers. Shoppers would park outside, call the store to select items to buy, use a contactless system to pay and then open their trunks so staff could deliver the products.
Salespeople at luxury retailers in China were already using social media to engage with customers before the outbreak, but they’ve stepped up the effort since, adding clients on WeChat and sending them information about the latest trends. Louis Vuitton tried showcasing its summer product line in a livestream show on March 26 featuring a social-media star, but was ridiculed for the quality of the video. Sometimes there’s no substitute for personal contact.

The Restaurant

Buffets and salad bars will be re-thought, and self-serve drink stations may be “a thing of the past,” said Taco John’s CEO Jim Creel, who added that other changes are afoot at the 387-store chain. Taco John’s popular salsa bar — around for the past 15 years — may be removed.
“We hope we don’t have to take them out — that we’ll be able to figure out a way to make them still work — but I’m afraid the fear factor our there will force us to go to a pre-packaged option.”
A test of self-ordering kiosks may also get pulled back. “It was a good idea three months ago, but not so good today,” Creel said.

Phone Pay

In China, restaurants and even bars have opened back up in Shanghai, with varying limits on seating arrangements – some allow six to a table, others only one. In Beijing, restaurants are doing temperature checks. In Wuhan, most places are still delivery-only.
“In the short run, as dining rooms open back up again, you’ll probably see many restaurants space their tables a little bit further apart,” said Jack Li, CEO of menu researcher Datassential. “You’ll see more restaurants try to adopt phone pay. So not having to hand your money or card to anyone. You’re certainly going to see more places continue to do things like contactless delivery.”
Starbucks Corp. is taking a store-by-store approach to resuming business activities in the U.S., with services limited to drive-thru, delivery and takeout via mobile orders and contactless pickup.
“As we experienced in China, this will be a journey,” CEO Kevin Johnson wrote in a memo to staff on Thursday.

The Menu

Chains are cutting back menus, focusing on products that sell best and are easy to make. Romano’s Macaroni Grill has pared down its menu to 70% of what it used to be, saying goodbye to pizzas and calzones recently. McDonald’s all-day breakfast menu is gone.
Fazoli’s Italian restaurant chain is trying to secure Purell sanitizing stations – four for each store — along with “millions” of alcohol-based wipes for re-opening the dining rooms of its 216 locations. The company is also re-thinking bathrooms and looking into touch-less soap dispensers. It’s an investment, but a worthwhile one, says CEO Carl Howard.
“I want to let the consumer know I’m doing everything I can to keep them as safe as possible,” Howard said in an interview.

The Arena

Large public gatherings aren’t top of mind yet in China, but Trump and the people who run the U.S.’s biggest sports leagues appear aligned in their thinking that live games, at least in some form, are a critical part of helping the country recover.
“The progression needs to be open outdoor sports first, golf, tennis, swimming so that we can start to test the waters — that I’m fine with,” said billionaire Mark Cuban, who owns the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks.
One obstacle may be local politicians. When UFC floated plans to host an event this weekend on tribal land in California without spectators, it was pressure from politicians, including Governor Gavin Newsom, that led to its cancellation. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti has reportedly discussed the possibility of prohibiting large gatherings like concerts and sporting events in the city for another year.

The Movies

That said, there’s billions on the line for sports leagues, sponsors and media networks if the games don’t resume soon. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious-disease expert, has said that that the only way to do that this summer is to close venues to fans and keep all the players, coaches and referees isolated from society.
Cinema owners are also waiting to see when health officials give them clearance to open up. Cinemark Holdings Inc., the third-largest U.S. movie chain, has been in discussions with major film studios about when to release blockbusters again. The chain’s management thinks they could begin bringing back staff starting in late June, then build up a marketing campaign for a broader re-opening on July 1.
The experience won’t be like it was before coronavirus hit. The chain will either have to limit the available tickets for each showing, leaving about half its seats open. Or it may eliminate reserved seating, so customers can voluntarily spread themselves out when they arrive. Cleaning will have to be ramped up, and opening hours may be limited to accommodate the changes.
“How long that will take? We’re not completely certain,” said Mark Zoradi, Cinemark’s CEO, on a call with analysts and investors on Wednesday. “But we’re planning on anywhere from one to three months to light up that engine again and then to begin with higher profile, new product.”

The Casino

Las Vegas casino executives have discussed opening with as little as one-third of their rooms available, with limited entrances where guests’ temperatures could be checked. Casino employees would wear masks and gloves, and gamblers would sit at least a chair apart at blackjack tables.
The moves are similar to what is already occurring in Macau, the world’s largest gambling market, where casinos closed for 15 days in February and reopened under tight restrictions.
The companies are also discussing enhanced cleaning techniques, something unions have requested.

Fun Parks

The $19.3 billion U.S. theme park industry is also making plans, though no one knows when gates will reopen.
When they do, employees may be wearing masks and temperatures may be checked not only at the entrances but inside as well, said Dennis Speigel, a theme park consultant in Cincinnati. Operators may also institute virtual queues, where guests snag a place in line through an app and come to ride when it’s their turn.
“The theme park of the future is going to have to take a much different turn, from distancing to wanding to cleaning,” Speigel said. “I’ve never heard the fear in the voices that I’ve heard. Nobody knows what they’re going to be doing.”
Bloomberg News - With assistance from Thomas Buckley, Thomas Seal, Dana Hull, Natalie Wong, Julie Johnsson, Charlotte Ryan, Christoph Rauwald, Kyunghee Park, Gabrielle Coppola, Shiho Takezawa, Tian Ying, Chunying Zhang, Keith Naughton, Mary Schlangenstein, Justin Bachman, Layan Odeh, Jordyn Holman, Deirdre Hipwell, Robert Williams, Kim Bhasin, Jinshan Hong, Claire Che, Leslie Patton, Kelly Gilblom and Christopher Palmeri.

This Weekend

Thursday, September 19th
Sewing and Quilt Expo | Sharonville Convention Center | 10am- 6pm | $8
Freedom 55: Jerry Mitchell | Freedom Center | 6pm | FREE
Wedding Show | Newport Aquarium | 6:30pm- 9:30pm | $11
Mid Autumn Festival | Cincinnati Art Museum | 7pm | $15
Indigo Girls | Taft Theatre | 8pm | $35- $75
Dweezil Zappa | The Ludlow Garage | 8:30pm | $30- $90
Comedy in the Courtyard | The Righteous Room | 8:30pm- 9:30pm | FREE
​
Friday, September 20th
Oktoberfest Zinzinnati | Downtown | 11am- 11pm | FREE
Cincinnati Comic Expo | Duke Energy Convention Center | 3pm- 8pm | $5- $105
Cincinnati Reds vs. New York Mets | Great American Ballpark | 7:10pm | $12+
Sewing and Quilt Expo | Sharonville Convention Center | 10am- 6pm | $8
At the Summit: Strauss & Dessner | Music Hall | 11am | $14- $130
Drink in the Vue | Devou Park | 6pm- 9pm | $40
ComedySportz Cincinnati | Memorial Hall | 8pm | $12
Kataklysm | Riverfront Live | 7pm | $20
The Mavericks | Taft Theatre | 8pm | $48- $58
Steel Pulse | The Ludlow Garage | 8:30pm | $25- $30
​
Saturday, September 21st
Oktoberfest Zinzinnati | Downtown | 11am- 11pm | FREE
Cincinnati Comic Expo | Duke Energy Convention Center | 10am- 7pm | $5- $105
FC Cincinnati vs. Chicago Fire | Nippert Stadium | 7:30pm | $15+
Cincinnati Reds vs. New York Mets | Great American Ballpark | 4:10pm | $12+
Sewing and Quilt Expo | Sharonville Convention Center | 10am- 5pm | $8
At the Summit: Strauss & Dessner | Music Hall | 8pm | $14- $130
Miranda Lambert | BB&T Arena | 7pm | $58- $98
Monarch Festival | Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden | 10am- 2pm | FREE w/ admission?
Fall Fest Craft and Vendor Show | Northgate Mall | 10am- 7pm | FREE
Fire Up the Night | Coney Island | 4pm- 11pm | $25/ vehicle
Clint Black | JACK Casino | 8pm | SOLD OUT
Crash Test Dummies | Memorial Hall | 8pm | $32- $48
Frank Gambale | The Ludlow Garage | 8:30pm | $15- $30
Unknown Hinson | The Southgate House Revival | 9pm | $15 | Ages 18+
​
Sunday, September 22nd
Oktoberfest Zinzinnati | Downtown | 11am- 9pm | FREE
Cincinnati Comic Expo | Duke Energy Convention Center | 10am- 5pm | $5- $105
Cincinnati Reds vs. New York Mets | Great American Ballpark | 1:10pm | $12+
Outlaw Music Festival | Riverbend Music Center | 3:45pm | SOLD OUT
Ish: Cincinnati Jewish & Israeli Arts & Cultural Festival | Washington Park | 10:30am- 4pm | FREE
Ault in Bloom | Ault Park | 1pm- 4pm | FREE
Ashley Hall | Memorial Hall | 3pm | $25- $30
Jimmy Herring and The 5 of 7 | The Ludlow Garage | 8:30pm | $25- $50
​

Ongoing Events

Arts & Performing Arts
Saya Woolfalk: A Cabinet of Anticipation | Contemporary Arts Center | Everyday, through Oct. 27th
Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum: All My Seven Faces | Contemporary Arts Center | Everyday, through Oct. 27th
Elevate - Cincinnati | 21c Museum Hotel | Everyday, through Nov. 1st
Until We Meet Again: Cincinnati Portraits from World War I | Union Terminal |Everyday, through Sept. 29th
In the Audubon Tradition | Union Terminal | Everyday, through Jan. 4th
Once on This Island | Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park | Weekends, through Oct. 6th
August: Osage County | Cincinnati Shakespeare Company |Weekends, through Sept. 22nd
Kaplan New Works Series | Aronoff Center | Weekends, through Sept. 22nd
Men of Change: Power. Triumph. Truth. | Freedom Center | Everyday, through Dec. 1st
Emanate | Weston Art Gallery | Everyday, through Nov. 17th
FotoFocus | The Carnegie | Everyday, through Nov. 16th
Alias Grace | Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park | Everyday, through Oct. 27th
Come From Away | Aronoff Center | Everyday, through Sept. 29th
Jens Schwarz: Displaced | Contemporary Arts Center | Everyday, through Oct. 27th
Robert Colescott | Contemporary Arts Center | Everyday, through Jan. 12th
The Rocky Horror Picture Show | Esquire Theatre | Saturdays, through Dec. 28th
​
Food
Fountain Square Eats | Fountain Square | Thursdays, through Oct. 10th
Garten Grill Out | Findlay Market | Thursdays, through Oct. 24th
​
Music
Blue Ash Summer Concert Series | Summit Park | Thursdays, through Sept. 26th
Salsa on the Square | Fountain Square | Thursdays, through Sept. 26th
Fall Concert Series | Fountain Square | Fridays, through Sept. 28th
SwinGallery: Vintage Swing Dancing | Liberty Exhibition Hall | Thursdays, through Dec. 22nd
Music at the Market | Findlay Market | Fridays and Sundays, through Oct. 20th
​
Nature
Nature After Hours | Cincinnati Nature Center | Thursdays, through Oct. 24th
​
Night Life
House Party | Taft Museum of Art | Wednesdays/ Thursdays, through Dec. 12th
​
Shopping
The City Flea at Washington Park | Washington Park | Saturdays, through Dec. 14th
Fall for Fashion | Cincinnati Premium Outlets | Everyday, through Sept. 19th
Burlington Antique Show | Boone County Fairgrounds | Sundays, through Oct. 20th
Riverfront Market | Smale Riverfront Park | Wednesdays and Sundays, through Oct. 27th
​
Seasonal & Holiday
Ohio Renaissance Festival | Ohio Renaissance Park | Saturdays and Sundays, through Oct. 27th
Terror Town | Terror Town | Weekends, through Nov. 3rd
The Dent Schoolhouse | The Dent Schoolhouse | Weekends, through Nov. 2nd
Haunted Nights | Land of Illusion Adventure Park | Fridays and Saturdays, through Nov. 3rd
Halloween Haunt | King's Island | Weekends, through Oct. 27th
USS Nightmare | Riverboat Row | Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, through Nov. 3rd
​
Everyone have a safe and enjoyable Oktoberfest weekend! Please comment and add to the list anything I may have missed!

This Weekend

Thursday, October 10th
BLINK | Downtown, OTR, and Covington | 7pm | FREE
OCEAN Conference | Crossroads Oakley | 8am- 5pm | $50- $200
Adidas Tent Sale | Turfway Park | 10am- 7pm | FREE
The Highway Finds Tour | Bogart's | 7pm | $18
Arielle | Ludlow Garage | 8:30pm | $15- $30
CinCityCon | Sharonville Convention Center | Noon- Midnight | $30- $55
​
Friday, October 11th
BLINK | Downtown, OTR, and Covington | 7pm | FREE
OCEAN Conference | Crossroads Oakley | 8am- 4pm | $50- $200
CinCityCon | Sharonville Convention Center | Noon- Midnight | $30- $55
Cincinnati Coffee Festival | Duke Energy Convention Center | 1pm- 6pm | $15- $40
Wellness Your Way Festival | Duke Energy Convention Center | 1pm- 10pm | $10- $35
Horror Film Fest | Cincinnati Art Museum | 5pm | FREE
Who's Bad | Bogart's | 9pm | $12
Michael Martin Murphey | Ludlow Garage | 8:30pm | $20- $50
Anders Osborne | Riverfront Live | 9pm | $20
​
Saturday, October 12th
BLINK | Downtown, OTR, and Covington | 7pm | FREE
Adidas Tent Sale | Turfway Park | 10am- 7pm | FREE
CinCityCon | Sharonville Convention Center | Noon- Midnight | $30- $55
Cincinnati Coffee Festival | Duke Energy Convention Center | 10am- 5pm | $15- $40
Wellness Your Way Festival | Duke Energy Convention Center | 9am- 10pm | $10- $35
George Thorogood | JACK Casino | 8pm | $30
Jinjer | Riverfront Live | 7pm | $15- $125
Hinder | Rising Star Casino | 8pm | FREE
Queen Bee Half Marathon | JACK Casino | 7:30am | $45- $90
Doors Open Cincy | OTR | 10am- 4pm | FREE
Intergalactic Bead and Jewelry Show | Sharonville Convention Center | 10am- 5pm | $5
Lebanon Oktoberfest | Historic Downtown Lebanon | FREE
Cincinnati Cyclones vs. Wheeling Nailers | U.S. Bank Arena | 7:30pm | $18- $30
John Pizzarelli Trio | Ludlow Garage | 8:30pm | $35- $60
​
Sunday, October 13th
BLINK | Downtown, OTR, and Covington | 7pm | FREE
Adidas Tent Sale | Turfway Park | 10am- 7pm | FREE
CinCityCon | Sharonville Convention Center | Noon- Midnight | $30- $55
Cincinnati Coffee Festival | Duke Energy Convention Center | 11am- 4pm | $15- $40
Eye on the Ohio | Queen City Riverboats | 10am- 6pm | $20
Wellness Your Way Festival | Duke Energy Convention Center | 10am- 1pm | $10- $35
Ballyhoo! | Riverfront Live | 8pm | $17
Intergalactic Bead and Jewelry Show | Sharonville Convention Center | 10am- 5pm | $5
Devil's Staircase Pro Hillclimb | Devil's Staircase | 1pm | $20
Cincinnati Toy and Collectible Show | Sharonville Convention Center | 9am- 3pm | $7- $10
Pat Travers Band | Ludlow Garage | 8:30pm | $20- $45

Ongoing Events

Arts & Performing Arts
Saya Woolfalk: A Cabinet of Anticipation | Contemporary Arts Center | Everyday, through Oct. 27th
Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum: All My Seven Faces | Contemporary Arts Center | Everyday, through Oct. 27th
Elevate - Cincinnati | 21c Museum Hotel | Everyday, through Nov. 1st
In the Audubon Tradition | Union Terminal | Everyday, through Jan. 4th
Destination Moon: The Apollo 11 Mission | Union Terminal | Everyday, through Feb. 7th
Men of Change: Power. Triumph. Truth. | Freedom Center | Everyday, through Dec. 1st
Emanate | Weston Art Gallery | Everyday, through Nov. 17th
FotoFocus | The Carnegie | Everyday, through Nov. 16th
Alias Grace | Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park | Everyday, through Oct. 27th
Jens Schwarz: Displaced | Contemporary Arts Center | Everyday, through Oct. 27th
Robert Colescott | Contemporary Arts Center | Everyday, through Jan. 12th
The Rocky Horror Picture Show | Esquire Theatre | Saturdays, through Dec. 28th
The Levee: A Photographer in the American South | Cincinnati Art Museum | Everyday, through Feb. 2nd
Women Breaking Boundaries | Cincinnati Art Museum | Everyday, through Apr. 12th
The Poetry of Nature | Taft Museum of Art | Everyday, through Jan. 12th
​
Food
Fountain Square Eats | Fountain Square | Thursdays, through Oct. 10th
Garten Grill Out | Findlay Market | Thursdays, through Oct. 24th
​
Music
SwinGallery: Vintage Swing Dancing | Liberty Exhibition Hall | Thursdays, through Dec. 22nd
Music at the Market | Findlay Market | Fridays and Sundays, through Oct. 20th
​
Nature
Nature After Hours | Cincinnati Nature Center | Thursdays, through Oct. 24th
Mermaids and Pirates | Newport Aquarium | Everyday, through Oct. 14th
​
Night Life
House Party | Taft Museum of Art | Wednesdays/ Thursdays, through Dec. 12th
​
Shopping
The City Flea at Washington Park | Washington Park | Saturdays, through Dec. 14th
Burlington Antique Show | Boone County Fairgrounds | Sundays, through Oct. 20th
Riverfront Market | Smale Riverfront Park | Wednesdays and Sundays, through Oct. 27th
Ruffles and Rust Expo | Butler County Fairgrounds | Saturdays and Sundays, through Nov. 10th
​
Seasonal & Holiday
Ohio Renaissance Festival | Ohio Renaissance Park | Saturdays and Sundays, through Oct. 27th
Terror Town | Terror Town | Weekends, through Nov. 3rd
The Dent Schoolhouse | The Dent Schoolhouse | Weekends, through Nov. 2nd
Haunted Nights | Land of Illusion Adventure Park | Fridays and Saturdays, through Nov. 3rd
Halloween Haunt | King's Island | Weekends, through Oct. 27th
USS Nightmare | Riverboat Row | Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, through Nov. 3rd
Country Pumpkin Fall Festival | Country Pumpkins | Everyday, through Oct. 31st
Kinman Farms Fall Fest | Kinman Farms | Weekends, through Oct. 27th
Burger Farm Fall Pumpkin Festival | Burger Farm | Saturdays and Sundays, through Oct. 27th
Scarecrow Row | Otto Armleder Memorial Park | Everyday, through Oct. 26th
HallZOOween | Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden | Everyday, through Oct. 27th
​
I would strongly encourage anyone who hadn't already planned on it to go check out BLINK. It was amazing last time and I'm only hearing great things about this year! Again, next week I may not have time to put this together, so just wanted to give everyone a heads up.

Previous Thread
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Thursday, April 11th
​
Guster | Madison Theater | 8pm | $30- $35
Chris Cubas | Go Bananas | 8pm | $8
Less Than Jake | Top Cats | 7pm | SOLD OUT
SOJA | Bogart's | 7pm | $25
Darris Sneed | 20th Century Theatre | 8:20pm | $13
​
Friday, April 12th
​
This Time Tomorrow: Performing Arts Festival | Contemporary Arts Center | 11am- 2am | $65
Craig Robinson | Liberty Funny Bone | 7:30pm and 10pm | $35 | Ages 21+
Wings vs. Cyclones (Playoff Round 1 Game 1) | U.S. Bank Arena | 7:30pm | $18- $30
Brit Floyd | Taft Theatre | 8pm | $38- $57
Queen City NCRS Corvette Judging Meet | Sharonville Convention Center | 9am- 5pm | $10
Chris Cubas | Go Bananas | 7:30pm and 10pm | $14
The Association | Ludlow Garage | 8:30pm | $50
Night at the Races | JACK Casino | 7pm- 10pm | SOLD OUT | Ages 21+
​
Saturday, April 13th
​
This Time Tomorrow: Performing Arts Festival | Contemporary Arts Center | 11am- 2am | $65
ArtsWave Days: Soul of the Arts | Multiple Venues | 4pm- 7:30pm | FREE
Hatebreed | Bogart's | 6:30pm | $25
Wings vs. Cyclones (Playoff Round 1 Game 2) | U.S. Bank Arena | 7:30pm | $18- $30
Branford Marsalis | Taft Theatre | 7:30pm | $30- $50
Chris Cubas | Go Bananas | 7:30pm and 10pm | $14
Craig Robinson | Liberty Funny Bone | 7pm and 10pm | $35 | Ages 21+
Jah9 | Ludlow Garage | 8:30pm | $15- $25
​
Sunday, April 14th
​
This Time Tomorrow: Performing Arts Festival | Contemporary Arts Center | 11am- 2am | $65
Cin City Reptile Show | Sharonville Convention Center | 10am- 4pm | $7
Chris Cubas | Go Bananas | 8pm | $8
Craig Robinson | Liberty Funny Bone | 7pm | $35 | Ages 21+
The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus | Riverfront Live | 8:30pm | $20- $25 | Ages 16+
​
Please feel free to comment and add to the list!

Previous Thread
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Thursday, April 18th
​
Celtic Woman | Taft Theatre | 7pm | $43- $154
Twilight Tour | Spring Grove Cemetery | 6pm- 8pm | FREE
​
Friday, April 19th
​
Real Salt Lake vs. FC Cincinnati | Nippert Stadium | 7:30pm | $ Varied (ticket website still a mess and this game link gives 404)
Trippin' Billies (Dave Matthews Band Tribute) | Bogart's | 9pm | $12
Nick Offerman | Taft Theatre | 8pm | $40- $60
Freedom 55: Marquise Knox and Ben Levin | Freedom Center | 7pm | $15
Albert Cummings | The Ludlow Garage | 8pm | $15- $35
Cedric the Entertainer | Funny Bone Liberty | 7:30pm and 10pm | SOLD OUT | Ages 21+
​
Saturday, April 20th (4/20)
​
King's Island Opening Day | King's Island | 10am- 10pm | $15- $70
Earth Day OTR | Washington Park | Noon- 5pm | FREE
Pinkalicious, The Musical | Memorial Hall | Noon and 2pm | $14
Pink Droyd | Bogart's | 9pm | $12
Gerald Albright | The Ludlow Garage | 8:30pm | $40- $45
Easter Celebration | Cincinnati Zoo | Noon- 5pm | FREE w/ Zoo Admission
Cedric the Entertainer | Funny Bone Liberty | 7pm and 9:45pm | SOLD OUT | Ages 21+
Marshall Tucker Band | Rising Star Casino | 8pm | $20
Upscale Spring Affair | JACK Casino | 8pm- 2am | $10- $15
​
Sunday, April 21st (Easter Sunday)
​
There's a lot of places hosting egg hunts and/or Easter brunch specials, but too many to list. A quick google search should do the trick. Otherwise, it doesn't look like a lot's going on Sunday because of Easter I presume.
​
As usual please comment and add to the list anything I may have missed!

Friday, August 23rd
​
2019 CAC Gala: Opening Minds | Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center | 6pm- 11pm | $75
Everyday Freedom Hero Awards | Freedom Center | 5:30pm | $50
Whispering Beard Folk Festival | Smale Park | 1pm- Midnight | $25- $225+
Cincy Brew Ha-Ha | Sawyer Point | 5pm- Midnight | FREE
Big Freedia | Bogart's | 9pm | $20
Ted Nugent | Riverfront Live | 8pm | $35
Taylor Tomlinson | Liberty Funny Bone | 7:30pm and 10pm | $10- $40 | Ages 21+
​
Saturday, August 24th
​
The Color Run | Cincinnati Riverfront | 9am | $20- $45
Kool & the Gang | JACK Casino | 8pm | SOLD OUT
Peace Slam 2019 | Southgate House Revival | 8pm | $12- $15
Whispering Beard Folk Festival | Smale Park | Noon- Midnight | $25- $225+
Cincy Brew Ha-Ha | Sawyer Point | 4pm- Midnight | FREE
Sayler Park Oktoberfest | Sayler Park | 2pm- Midnight | FREE
End of Summer Back to School STEM Festival | Washington Park | 9am- 2pm | SOLD OUT
Hot Diggity Dogs | Newport on the Levee | Noon- 4pm | FREE
Little Miami Food Truck Rally | Little Miami High School | 4pm- 9pm | FREE
Taylor Tomlinson | Liberty Funny Bone | 7pm and 10pm | $10- $40 | Ages 21+
​
Sunday, August 25th
​
FC Cincinnati vs. Columbus Crew | Nippert Stadium | 6pm | $15+
Taylor Tomlinson | Liberty Funny Bone | 7pm | $10- $40 | Ages 21+
Rides on Monmouth: Newport Downtown Car Show | Monmouth Street | Noon- 5pm | FREE
Why Don't We | PNC Pavilion | 7pm | $40- $60
Movement by Michelob Ultra | Great American Ballpark | 8:30am- 3pm | $20
​
Please comment and add to the list!

Previous Thread
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Thursday, June 27th
​
Elementz Artist Showcase | Elementz | 6pm- 8pm | FREE
Art on the Boulevard: The Belle Epoque Poster | Taft Museum of Art | 6:30pm | FREE
Dale Jones | Liberty Funny Bone | 7:30pm | $12- $42 | Ages 21+
Jimmie Vaughan | Memorial Hall | 8pm | $30- $45
Mykal Rose, Sly & Robbie | Riverfront Live | 9pm | $25- $30 | Ages 16+
​
Friday, June 28th
​
Dale Jones | Liberty Funny Bone | 7:30pm and 10pm | $12- $42 | Ages 21+
Cincinnati Reds vs. Chicago Cubs | Great American Ballpark | 7pm | $15+
Trace Adkins | JACK Casino | 8pm | SOLD OUT
Friday Night 3-Way | Clifton Performance Theatre | 8pm | $10
Guided by Voices | The Woodward Theater | 8pm | SOLD OUT
Prasco Charity Championship | TPC River's Bend | 7:30am | FREE
Fifth & Vine Live | Fountain Square | 7pm- 11pm | FREE
Firecracker Festival | Symmes Township Park | 3pm- 10pm | FREE
Madeira Criterium & Run | Downtown Madeira | 4pm- 10pm | FREE
Art After Dark: Kimono My House | Cincinnati Art Museum | 5pm- 10pm | FREE
August Burns Red | Bogart's | 7pm | $25
​
Saturday, June 29th
​
Dale Jones | Liberty Funny Bone | 7pm and 10pm | $12- $42 | Ages 21+
Cincinnati Reds vs. Chicago Cubs | Great American Ballpark | 4pm | $15+
Hyde Park Blast | Hyde Park Square | 7:30am- Noon | $20- $40
Pride Night Celebration | Cincinnati Music Hall | 6:30pm | $30
Dark Star Orchestra | Riverfront Live | 5:30pm | $25- $30
Prasco Charity Championship | TPC River's Bend | 7:30am | FREE
Firecracker Festival | Symmes Township Park | 3pm- 10pm | FREE
Car Seat Headrest | Bogart's | 8pm | $22
​
Sunday, June 30th
​
Dale Jones | Liberty Funny Bone | 7pm | $12- $42 | Ages 21+
Bela Fleck and The Flecktones | Taft Theatre | 8pm | $32- $55
Cincinnati Reds vs. Chicago Cubs | Great American Ballpark | 1pm | $15+
Prasco Charity Championship | TPC River's Bend | 7:30am | FREE
KIDZ BOP World Tour 2019 | PNC Pavilion | 5pm | $20- $130+
​
Lots of FREE stuff going on this weekend! Please comment and add to the list if I missed something!

Since the weekly happenings threads completely suck now, I'm going to begin to compile my own list every week. I will try to get these out Thursday in the future.
Previous Threads
​
Friday Jan. 18th:
​
IceFest 2019 | Downtown Hamilton
Fiddler on the Roof | Aronoff Center
Saved by the 90's | Bogart's
Lando's 51st Birthday Party | JACK Casino
Art Show - Drop Off | Northgate Mall
Holiday Junction | Cincinnati Museum Center
Mark Chesnutt | Ludlow Garage | 8:30PM
Greater Cincinnati Remodeling Expo | Sharonville Convention Center
Cincy Boat & Travel Show | Duke Energy Convention Center
Resonator and the Bees Trees | Stanley's Pub | 10PM | $5
​
Saturday Jan. 19th:
​
Greater Cincinnati Remodeling Expo | Sharonville Convention Center
Fiddler on the Roof | Aronoff Center
Umphrey's McGee |Taft Theatre
Give Back Skate Benefiting Adore-a-Bull | Fountain Square
Good Times Good People Feat. DJ Ghost | Revel Urban Winery
Pops in Space | Music Hall
Cincy Paddlers Swap Meet | Hamilton Co. Fairgrounds
Cincy Boat & Travel Show | Duke Energy Convention Center
My Nose Turns Red | Evandale Cultural Arts Center
Saving Escape | Bogart's | 6PM
​
Sunday Jan. 20th:
​
Cincinnati Golf Show | Duke Energy Convention Center
Fiddler on the Roof | Aronoff Center
Cincinnati Cyclones v. Fuel | U.S. Bank Arena
Winter Wonderland Run | Fernbank Park
TCT: Rosa Parks | The Children's Theatre of Cincinnati
Art on Vine | Rhinegeist Brewery
Greater Cincinnati Remodeling Expo | Sharonville Convention Center
Cincy Boat & Travel Show | Duke Energy Convention Center
​
Feel free to add to that list or give me some suggestions on how to make it better. Was thinking ticket prices and times (when applicable), but wanted to get it out there first.
​

Previous Thread
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Thursday, May 2nd
​
New Kids on the Block: The Mixtape Tour | U.S. Bank Arena | $15+
Welshly Arms | Bogart's | 8pm | $15
BoomBox | 20th Century Theater | 8pm | $22- $25
Twisted at Taft Gala | Taft Museum of Art | $125+
​
Friday, May 3rd
​
Reds vs. Giants | Great American Ball Park | 7:10pm | $12+
Cove Food Park Grand Opening | Cove Food Park (4601 Kellogg Ave.) | 11am | FREE
Mike Epps: Funny as Ish Comedy Tour | U.S. Bank Arena | $56+
Kentucky Cocktail Party | Carnegie Hall at Newport | 7pm- 9pm | $30
Honne | Bogart's | 8pm | $?
150: Block Party | Art Academy of Cincinnati | 6pm- 11pm | FREE
Justin Moore | BB&T Arena | 7pm | $27- $56
Susan Werner | The Ludlow Garage | 8:30pm | $20- $40
Bobby Lee | Liberty Funny Bone | 7:30pm and 10pm | $22- $52 | Ages 21+
​
Saturday, May 4th (2019 Kentucky Derby | 6:50pm)
​
Cincinnati Flying Pig Marathon | Paul Brown Stadium | 8am (other start times vary) | $125, FREE for spectators
Reds vs. Giants | Great American Ball Park | 7:10pm | $12+
Cincy-Cinco | Fountain Square | Noon- 11pm | FREE
Cyclones vs. Walleye: Playoff Round 2 Game 2 | U.S. Bank Arena | 7:30pm | $18- $30
The Queen City Derby Party | JACK Casino | 4pm- 10pm | $10- $160
Film School, Mint Field | Woodward Theater | 9pm | $10- $12 | Ages 18+
Buck's Badass Bash | Bakersfield OTR | Noon- 11pm | FREE
Bobby Lee | Liberty Funny Bone | 7pm and 10pm | $22- $52 | Ages 21+
​
Sunday, May 5th (Cinco de Mayo)
​
Cincinnati Flying Pig Marathon | Paul Brown Stadium | 6:30am (other start times vary) | $125, FREE for spectators
Reds vs. Giants | Great American Ball Park | 4:10pm | $12+
Cincy-Cinco | Fountain Square | Noon- 6pm | FREE
Granger Smith ft. Earl Dibbles Jr. | Bogart's | 7pm | $25
​
Feel free to comment and add to the list! Between the Flying Pig, the Reds in town, Cinco de Mayo, and the Derby, it looks like a fun weekend in store!

Previous Thread
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Thursday, May 9th
​
Led Zeppelin 2 | Bogart's | 8pm | $15
California Guitar Trio | Ludlow Garage | 8:30pm | $25- $50
​
Friday, May 10th
​
Damien Escobar | Bogart's | 7pm | $46- $49
Appalachian Festival | Coney Island | 9am- 9pm | $10
Tauk with Goose | Madison Theatre | 8:30pm | $15 | Ages 18+
Adam Ray | Liberty Funny Bone | 7:30pm and 10pm | $15- $45 | Ages 21+
Creatures: When Species Meet (Opening) | Contemporary Arts Center | 6pm- 11pm | FREE
Candice Guardino's Italian Bred | Ludlow Garage | 7pm | $25- $35
​
Saturday, May 11th
​
Appalachian Festival | Coney Island | 10am- 9pm | $10
FC Cincinnati vs. Montreal Impact | Nippert Stadium | 1pm | $ Varies
Asian Food Fest | The Banks | Noon- 10pm | FREE
Cin City Burlesque | Bogart's | 7:30pm | $15 | Ages 18+
Adam Ray | Liberty Funny Bone | 7pm and 10pm | $15- $45 | Ages 21+
Oakley Fancy Flea | Madtree Brewing | 10am | FREE
Cincinnati Town Hall with Elizabeth Warren | Bogart's | 11am | FREE
Instrument Petting Zoo | Washington Park | Noon- 3pm | FREE
Five Little Monkeys | Memorial Hall | 2pm | SOLD OUT
Phil Vassar | JACK Casino | 8pm | $30
Late Night, Date Night | Cincinnati Observatory | 10:30pm- Midnight | $25
​
Sunday, May 12th (Mother's Day)
​
Appalachian Festival | Coney Island | 10am- 6pm | $10
Asian Food Fest | The Banks | Noon- 8pm | FREE
The 1975 | PNC Pavilion | 7pm | $36- $56
Adam Ray | Liberty Funny Bone | 7pm | $15- $45 | Ages 21+
​
There are a lot of restaurants doing Mother's Day specials, but again, too many to list.
As usual please feel free to add to the list, and don't forgot to call your Mom!

https://www.citybeat.com/arts-culture/culture/blog/21102647/merry-christmas-ya-filthy-animals-cincinnati-santacon-is-expanding-into-northside-and-covington

Ho, ho ho. The annual hibernal holiday pub crawl (or horror show, depending on whether or not you appreciate 10,000 drunk Santas on the streets) known as Cincinnati SantaCon is back Dec. 14 — and it's bigger than ever.
Last year, those dressed like Santa and other Christmasy characters met at the "North Pole" and embarked on a costumed group pub crawl around downtown Cincinnati and Over-the-Rhine. This year, drinking destinations in Northside, Covington and Mount Adams have joined in the fray. (Note: Other years have also included stops in Mount Adams, just not last year.) More than 50 venues across the area are participating. Venue updates will be posted at facebook.com/CincinnatiSantacon.
Registration for the event is $15 and gets you a SantaCon wristband, an official itinerary with official bar stops, access to food and drink deals and entry into a raffle. It also includes a donation to benefit The Cure Starts Now.
If you feel like you're ready to don a red suit and imbibe a night’s worth of milk and cookies (aka alcohol) surrounded by up to 10,000 Santas, check out a tip sheet online for how to be your best Santa with a lyric sheet of songs the group will be singing.
Remember, this is about the holiday spirit, so don’t drink and drive and don’t be a dick and mess with cops, kids, security or other Santas.
Noon-midnight Saturday, Dec. 14. $15. Pick up your wristband at JACK Casino, 1000 Broadway St., Pendleton; other neighborhood pick-up destinations TBD. cincinnatisantacon.com.

Previous Thread
​
Thursday, February 21st
​
Chippendales | Bogart's | 8pm | $25- $100
Ingri Fiksdal: "STATE" | Contemporary Arts Center | 8pm | $10- $25
Freedom 55: Remembering Emmett Till | Freedom Center | 6pm | SOLD OUT
The Big Fake Wedding | The Transept | 7pm- 9pm | $25
St. Paul and the Broken Bones | Taft Theatre | 8pm | $27- $37
Cyclones vs. Nailers ($1 Beer Night) | U.S. Bank Arena | 7:30pm | $17- $27
UC Bearcats vs. UCF Nights (Men's Basketball) | Fifth Third Arena | 7pm | $20+
​
Friday, February 22nd
​
Eric Church | U.S. Bank Arena | 8pm | $39- $149
The Kooks | Bogart's | 7pm | $28
Final Friday | Pendleton Art Center | 6p- 10pm | FREE
Art of Food: Lucky 13 | The Carnegie Theatre | 6pm | $35- $100
150: AAC Future Tense Present | Art Academy of Cincinnati Pearlman Gallery | 5pm- 8pm | FREE
Ingri Fiksdal: "STATE" | Contemporary Arts Center | 8pm | $10- $25
Art After Dark: We Built This City | Cincinnati Art Museum | 5pm- 9pm | FREE
Dean Z in Concert | School for Creative and Performing Arts | 5:30pm- 10:30pm | $125
Cold Nights & Warm Spirits | Ault Park | 6:30pm- 10pm | $30- $40
Margaret Cho | Liberty Funny Bone | 7:30pm and 10pm | $25- $55
Still I Rise: An Art Exhibition Honoring African American Women | Fathom House Art | 7pm | FREE
Tropico Disco | Rhinegeist Brewery | 9pm- 2am | FREE
Botany & Brews | Krohn Conservatory | 6pm- 8pm | $12- $15
​
Saturday, February 23rd
​
Coheed and Cambria | Bogart's | 7pm | SOLD OUT
Eric Church | U.S. Bank Arena | 8pm | $39- $149
20th Century Cincinnati | Sharonville Convention Center | 11am- 5pm | $8
Beethoven's Eroica | Music Hall | 8pm |$14- $115
The Dudley Taft Band, Johnny Fink & The Intrusion | 20th Century Theatre | 7pm | $12- $15
The Price is Right | JACK Casino | 8pm- 9:30pm | SOLD OUT
Margaret Cho | Liberty Funny Bone | 7:00pm and 10pm | $25- $55
Cincinnati Home and Garden Show | Duke Energy Convention Center | 10am- 9pm | $12- $14
Chili Cook Off | Yeatman Lodge | 11am- 2pm | $5
Jungle Jim's Whiskey Night | The Oscar Event Center | 7pm- 10pm | $60- $200
Justin Willman: Magic in Real Life | Music Hall | 7:30pm | $25- $50
Bob James Trio | The Ludlow Garage | 8:30pm | SOLD OUT?
​
Sunday, February 24th
​
20th Century Cincinnati | Sharonville Convention Center | 11am- 5pm | $8
Beethoven's Eroica | Music Hall | 2pm |$14- $115
The Price is Right | JACK Casino | 8pm- 9:30pm | SOLD OUT
Cincinnati Home and Garden Show | Duke Energy Convention Center | 10am- 6pm | $12- $14
Villanova Wildcats vs. Xavier Musketeers (Men's Basketball) | Cintas Center | 1:30pm | $30+
​
Seems to be quite a bit going on this weekend - Have fun everyone! As usual feel free to comment and add to the list!