411’s Dark Side of the Ring Report: Cocaine and Cowboy Boots: The Abrams Story

-We are winding down Season 2 as I believe there are only two episodes left following this one. This one should be interesting as I don’t know much about the UWF or Abrams other than a few stories here and there. The previews have me prepared for lots of cocaine apparently. Let’s get to it!

-In 1990 The Universal Wrestling Federation appeared out of nowhere to make noise on the wrestling scene. They had a roster of legends and rising young stars and was the dream of Herb Abrams. Millions were squandered and many drugs were used as Abrams started at the top and went to the bottom.

-Show opening!

-As a reminder Chris Jericho is the narrator for this series.

-It’s the late 80s with Vince McMahon and his WWF dominating the wrestling scene. In 1990 an unknown wrestling fanatic came from out of nowhere to try to slay the WWF. That leads us to meeting Mick Foley and they include footage of him being tossed off the Hell in a Cell. Foley was working a weekend of champions show run by John Arezzi. We meet him next and he talks about meeting Abrams who he calls eccentric. He mentioned he had Bruno Sammartino and that meant legitimacy. John called Bruno and he verified that he would be working with Herb.

-The Wrestling Weekend had a fan convention and Herb used that to meet a lot of the wrestlers to see if they were interested. One of the ones he spoke to was Rick Allen, who was known as Sunny Beach. He tells us that Herb was looking to do big things.

-Next is Steve “The Wild Thing” Ray who says Abrams told him he would make him a big star. The talking heads are just pouring out for this one as B Brian Blair is next and he talks about working for Herb as a way to get back to what the WWE was, but without the pressure of working 67 straight days.

-Herb was nothing more than a super fan and he held a UWF Press Conference to introduce what he wanted to do. The press conference was a circus as Dan Spivey and Blair brawled. Herb said Blackjack Mulligan would be his booker, except he was in jail. He also promised to use Bruiser Bordy as a top star, but he had been murdered a year earlier. Oops! Foley admits it was over the top, but that’s what pro wrestling was all about.

-Blair mentions he only knew Herb was a business man of some kind. Mick has no clue what he did while others say he worked in the stock market. Lenny Duge, UWF General Manager and former NBC employee tells us that Herb owned a clothing story that made dresses for heavier set women (“I’m a Big Girl Now”). Len says he always wanted to be in the wrestling business and they were best friends.

-Oct 1, 1990: UWF Fury Hour debuts on TV. Mick says he believed in Herb’s vision even if he didn’t know where it would take him. He also thought the UWF had more star power than the WWE at that time: Mr Wonderful, Dr Death Steve Williams, Capt Lou, Bob Orton, and Dan Spivey were a few of the names. Umm, The WWF has Hogan, Warrior, Savage, and Rhodes just to name a few in 1990 so I will kind of questions Mick on that one. Herb was hands off and let things run looser than what you got in the WWF. Everyone was happy and things were great.

-Herb met with Vince McMahon and told him to promote the East Coast and Midwest and he would handle the West Coast. Vince obviously blew him off and now Herb wanted to crush the WWF. He decided to expand as a way to compete with Vince.

-Marty Yesberg was a manager knows as The Colonel in the UWF. As he was coming up he had heard about a mark out of California that was throwing around money with a company called the UWF. Marty went out for a meeting and was set up in a suite in Beverly Hills. Herb sends two hind end call girls (“we’re not talking South Carolina snaggle tooth call girls. We’re talking about Hollywood Honeys”) to meet at the suite. Marty says he was drooling over himself because he had never even seen women like that. Herb broke out some coke to complete the night. Marty wanted to get out of there as he was worried about a SWAT team breaking down his door, but didn’t know what to do as he was on the West Coast and the room was in his name. What was basically a porno broke out and Marty just sat away from it all as he calls it a long night.

-Commercials!

-Back with Lenny who shows off the UWF Television Title. Herb referred to the F as a Fuck You to Vince McMahon. His goal was to bury the WWF and Vince. His first attack was bringing in one of Vince’s prize attractions. Andre The Giant shows up as he had signed a long term contract with the UWF. Sure, he wasn’t in his prime, but this was still ANDRE THE GIANT! Andre made one appearance and Vince made a call and Andre was back in the WWF. Had to see that one coming.

-Herb had been embarrassed and decided to throw every gimmick match and character gimmick he could on the screen as his thought was that if it entertained him, it would entertain the world. He was burning through ideas, so he decided to make himself a large part of the show. Wow, seems he was a visionary as McMahons have been trotted out for 20 years now as a way to pop a rating when needed.

-Marty was open to anything as he just saw a way to get exposure. Herb saw it as a way to get himself on TV and have a feud with The Colonel. They show a bloodied Herb cutting a promo on The Colonel.

-The next step for the UWF was to put out tons of merchandise including UWF cookies. Including something called Herbie Cookies. He also wanted Ice Cream Bars, but could only get a cookie deal. Herb then went to PPV with Beach Brawl and we see a short ad for it (only $14.95). Hey, it worked for the WWF and WCW, so what could go wrong?

-Herb held the PPV in Palmetto, Florida which was an hour away from the closest major city. He picked a place that the WWF would use for TV Tapings. Herb promised there would be major news media there and that there would be millions of fans watching. People were skeptical they could sell out that big of a building including some inside the company.

-Commercials!

-The first PPV was just days away and Herb goes crazy in the Florida nightlife scene. Cocaine was the drug of choice as Herb had been partying all week. Lenny found him and told he needed to straighten out. He told Herb after the show was over he needed to get to rehab or he was done with him.

-This may come as a shock, but the show wasn’t even close to a sell out. They had to turn the lights down to hide the empty seats. Herb was crushed and you could see it on his face during the show. He also took multiple trips to the bathroom as apparently he was doing cocaine. Blair calls it the worst PPV in history and it had a .01 buyrate which equaled either a 100 or 1000 people. It was a tremendous money loser. Mick was an optimist as he thought the empty seats were a way for him to do cool stuff. God bless Mick!

-Blair went to see Herb about past due money and inside the room were 2 hookers and 2 piles of cocaine. Herb wrote a check for $2000 for each girl while laughing and had them leave so he could talk to Brian. He questioned how long the promotion could last with someone like that in charge. Not long I would guess!

-Many wrestlers who were being stiffed on their pay started to refuse to work. Herb only cared about keeping the party going no matter how much money he burned through. At a TV taping the TV crew wanted money to produce the show. Herb took them up to his office and the bank confirmed that Herb had millions. It seems Herb had 2 bank accounts and one had millions while the other had nothing. He would write checks for the empty account. That didn’t go over well and some wrestlers threatened to throw Herb off the roof of the building. Marty had people calling his phone threatening to kill him just because he was associated with the company.

-Commercials!

-Herb was now forced to promote shows in smaller towns, but that didn’t stop him from partying harder. He also started to become paranoid as he thought his hotel was bugged and people were watching him. Lenny told him it was the drugs talking, but apparently that was crazy talk. Herb would tear the stuffing out of couch cushions to search for wire taps. Some thought there was truth to the idea that people were watching him. Herb was 5 feet tall and would walk around naked in only his cowboy boots as that was the one thing he wouldn’t remove.

-Herb is with a hooker and he wants to pay with a check, but she wants cash. Some thugs show up, so Herb dives out a window and walks the city naked trying to figure out what to do.

-WrestleMania IX happens and Herb gets the idea to use Las Vegas as a way to showcase his product. Of all the Manias to get an idea from, he had to use that one. I mean the set-up looked sweet, but steal from something else. That leads to The Blackjack Brawl in the MGM Grand. They talk about how Herb would always try for the biggest show and he paid out tons for as many big names as he could get. Mick says he went to Herb’s suite and by the size of it he thinks they are on to something and he thinks there could be 17,000 fans at the show. Herb then shows off a pair of yellow Ostrich cowboy boots that he thought people would lost their minds over.

-The PPV happens and there are only a few hundred people there. Herb was a bundle of energy, and possibly was coked up for the entire show. At one point he screamed out to the crowd, “Let’s hear it for the Jews.” I can’t do justice to his craziness on commentary and on the mic that night and that’s just based off the few clips they’ve shown here.

-Mick wrestled his idol Jimmy Snuka that night and they brawled in through the 16,000 empty seats. The show was a failure and checks started bouncing. Herb thought it was a success because he had the MGM. Lenny told him it was a cluster that drew 200 people, but to Herb it was a success because he had the MGM.

-Commercials!

-Apparently drugs are bad as Herb seemingly aged 10 years in only 2 years. Herb seemed to get his act together and promised Lenny he was clean. He has a meeting with a friend in July 1996 that is video recorded and it is the last known recording of Abrams. He does seem much happier and everyone thought he turned a corner with his sobriety. Then Lenny got a call from Sunny Beach that Herb had passed away. They all cried as the news was passed around.

-July 23, 1996: Police respond to an unbelievable scene at Herb’s office. The details are sparse but cocaine and hookers were apparently involved. It seems he also destroyed his office with a ball bat. The escorts may have tried to rob him and he decided to chase them while naked with the bat. He had cocaine and baby oil all over his body. There were also rumors the police sodomized him with their night stick. He either had a heart attack or a seizure and they still don’t know the true story. Blair says he heard he had died in the back of the police car. He just knows that Herb left the world doing what he loved: cocaine and hookers. Well then!

-Commercials!

-The wild and conflicting stories made him an urban legend in wrestling circles. Everyone has a Herb Abrams story including some thinking he faked his death. Marty is one that believes he faked his death as he heard of a show called UWF running in South Carolina and the promoter swore that Herb showed up pissed off that they were using his promotion’s name. Mick thinks it’s impossible that Herb could keep quiet for 30 years and Lenny breaks down as he says he knows Herb would have visited him or sent him a message if he were still alive.

-We visit Herb’s grave with Rick Allen and he then tells us he inherited Herb’s dog. Apparently it was a snow white dog that he named Cokey. Wow! I think the man had a problem. Steve breaks down as he says Herb believed in him.

-The UWF quietly faded after Herb’s death. The talking heads talk about how Herb should be remembered. Lenny says of all the things you can say about Herb the worst thing he ever did to him was die. It has haunted him for 30 years and it has taken this long for him to even talk about the UWF. He was a die hard fan and that was his downfall. He would love the negative that is on the internet today and it’s because he was Herb Abrams. Mick thinks he may have gotten in death what he didn’t in life: he became a legend.

-Mick gets the last word as he is asked what Herb would be doing if he was alive today: Time! Mick says there is no way he would have paid taxes and he can’t see anyway he wouldn’t be in prison, but he would be visiting him and they would toast with milk and Herbie Cookies.

-This was great and yet I feel it was shortchanged. I want more as of all the stories this season this is the one I know the least about. This craziness wrapped up in this one is insane and again proves that cocaine is a heck of a drug apparently. In the middle of all the coke and hookers and crazy stories you can see there were quite a few people that cared for the man and have been affected by his death. That is both heartbreaking and lovely to see as when someone dies someone out there should care that a soul was lost no matter their faults. I enjoyed this one as I have with every episode in this series. The talks heads all were strong and for a bit I was worried it may be overloaded with too many, but it settled on a decent number. Abrams story is also a cautionary one for people looking to get into the pro-wrestling business and that’s why there were doubts when Khan hooked up with Cody for AEW. Fair or not, there have been more failure stories than successful ones. High recommendations for this one and I am going to look for more about the UWF and search for some videos on YouTube if any are available.