From: ag725@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Rick Scaia) Subject: [INFO] The News from Dayton, 12/31/95 Date: 1995/12/31 Message-ID: Sender: ag725@freenet3.carleton.ca (Rick Scaia) Organization: The National Capital FreeNet Reply-To: ag725@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Rick Scaia) Newsgroups: rec.sport.pro-wrestling Ahhh, the year of 1995 comes to an end... and regardless of what others might say, it was a pretty damn good year for wrestling. Between the WWF stepping it up (with 4 of their PPVs over the course of the year causing people to invoke the "Best PPV in a long time" honor... BTW, these people were not me; I only did that twice), WCW giving us a reason to lay off the fast-forward button on Nitro for a couple months (when they were having the weekly iterations of Eddy/Benoit/ Malenko/etc), and the emergence of Extreme Championship Wrestling (as a creative force that *Everyone* was paying attentnion to), I am willing to overlook the loss of Smokey Mountain Wrestling and give the year as a whole a "Thumbs Up." I enjoyed more wrestling, across federation lines, than in any year in recent memory; from the year kicking off with a great Bam Bam/Lawrence Taylor angle to having "The Man" be crowned the champ one more time at year's end (and all the great stuff in between), we should be happy to be rasslin' fans! First up, as always, the news from Alex Marvez's weekly column: * Lead item is in regards to Ric Flair's winning the WCW Title this past Wednesday. After about 2 paragraphs of summarizing Flair's efforts and how he won the belt (i.e. Horsemen interference), Marvez moves right along to discussing my worst fear when I first read of Flair's win. Flair wrestles Hogan on Nitro (1/1/96), and the thinking now is that Hogan's ego and political clout within WCW will spell the end of Flair's 12th World Title reign. Marvez says that although it would be infinitely wiser to give Flair back some credibility and build interest for the match by not doing a title switch till the February PPV (I forget which one that is...), the smart money is on Hogan snagging his 7th World Title tommorrow. * Interesting tidbit: a bizzarre phenomenon is really picking up speed all across the globe. Over 400,000 "Andre the Giant has a posse" stickers have been plastered all over the world by fans of the late Andre. There is a video availbe regarding this phenomenon, and Marvez lists the address and price for video availablity. [If you really want this info, e-mail me and I'll get it for you.] * Shawn Michaels has, in the past 2 weeks, been cleared medically. He should be at (or near) 100% in time for the Rumble, which is will not only participate in, but more than likely win (again, this is Marvez theorizing.... NOT cold, hard fact). Info from AOL (again, a plug for "Georgie's Chatterbox," the best damn folder on AOL, or anywhere else, goes here!): * Dan Severn is still negociating with the WWF to make a Royal Rumble appearance. This from his Prodigy chat of last week. * Sister Love may now be the "RAW lady." Georgie doesn't say specifically, but I think this might mean Themis Klarides, who once parded around with those RAW signs and is now Shawn Michaels' S.O. * When Public Enemy debuts in WCW, they may be known as the Extreme Team. More than likely, they'll retain their individual names. * Speaking of WCW... for the Vegas stint later in January, we now have these line-ups: 1/22 Nitro: Hogan vs. One Man Gang, Savage vs. Flair, and Sting&Luger vs. the Bluebloods 1/23 Clash: Hogan vs. Savage, Sting vs. Pillman, Luger vs. Eddy, Flair vs. the Giant, Extreme Team vs. Nasty Boys Later..... -- Rick Scaia | "Barkeep... All of a sudden, I'm relatively sane | Another whiskey!" ag725@freenet.carleton.ca | - The Notorious BlueKid ------------------------------------------------------------------------------