From: ag725@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Rick Scaia) Subject: [INFO] News From Dayton - 06/23/96 Date: 1996/06/24 Message-ID: <4qlca9$v2@freenet-news.carleton.ca> Sender: ag725@freenet5.carleton.ca (Rick Scaia) Organization: The National Capital FreeNet Reply-To: ag725@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Rick Scaia) Newsgroups: rec.sport.pro-wrestling Back to the usual format... at least for a while. We'll start with the Dayton Daily News version of Alex Marvez's "hot news": * Lead item is that it is expected that the Mr. Perfect "guest ref" angle will upstage the KotR World Title main event. It's said that bias on the part of Hennig will lead to an incredibly hard fought win for Michaels, after which Owen Hart will interfere to set up a Michaels/Ahmed vs. Bulldog/Owen main event for IYH. Also, for KotR, Steve Austin had become the likely favorite to win the tourney, while there was a chance that Brian Pillman would make an annoucning appearance. [In retrospect, the general gist of all this is right, even if Titan did a tighter job of executing it all in the end product; the Hennig angled was actually *underplayed* with Owen interference eventually setting up a *6-man* tag maing event for IYH, with Warrior and Vader being added to the sides. Owen also did a great job in the announce position vacated by Lawler, rather than using Pillman, who instead made a brief interview appearance.] * Next item is a run down of the Court Room battle being waged under Texas Death Match rules between Titansports and WCW. On Friday, Titan filed a federal lawsuit in Connecticut, seeking an injunction on WCW using Scott "Razor Ramon" Hall and KEvin "Diesel" Nash as part of a "WWF Invaders" angle. The hearing regarding temporary restraining order will be held on Monday (today) in New Haven, CT. WWF attorneys have made reference to regulations that involve infringement of copyright and trademark priveleges as well as regarding actions that present the likelihood of creating confusion in regards to affiliation or sponsorship. It has been reported that Eric Bishoff already has his first class ticket to New Haven secured (as Marvez quipped on-line, "I wonder if Eric will wear a neck brace?), but that McMahon will not be present as he will be overseeing preparations for the Monday Night RAW tapings in Green Bay, WI. [Some speculation on this topic by yours truly: I honestly see this as something of a "nusiance suit" by Titan... while I was the first to bitch about how "unfair" it was of WCW to present Hall and Nash as they did/do, I am not sure if they have done anything actually illegal. This move by Titan could serve merely to cause WCW to backpeddle momentarily and change up their PPV for July; this could be disastrous for them, as outside of the "invaders" in the main event, it is an incredibly weak card from a selling standpoint. If Titan really has a shot at scoring a courtroom victory, it will come from the *second* complain area, regarding confusion of affiliation or sponsorship. I am no lawyer, but my classroom experience in teh field suggests that this is a more wide open area of litigation, where the "reasonable man" prinicple must be applied, rather than holding tight to any cut-and-dry rules. It is in this area that Titan, depending on the temperment of the judge, could score a minor victory.] * This Monday Night's wars will likely include Ron Simmons making his WWF debut, while Nitro will be headlined by a triangle match pitting the Harlem Heat vs. Steiners vs. Sting/Lex. * In addition to Alex Marvez's Dayton Daily News column (appearing every Sunday, and summarized here in violation of many copyright laws), Alex is moving into several other forums. He has begun a folder in the Grandstand Sports area of America Online ("Hot News with Alex Marvez"), and is available by e-mail at "Alex1Marv@aol.com". Alex has also just started an info line, 1-900-285-3940, $0.95 per minute, must be 18 to call -- this is not a plug, merely info for your perusal; I, for one, chose not to patronize 900-numbers as a matter of principle, but do not discourage you from testing their worth for yourself. Finally, Alex will be starting his own WWW site soon; details will follow. In addition to Alex's column, other online sources (mostly AOL) have provided me with the following info, which I now share with you: * For the 6/10 Monday night wars (Kevin Nash debuts), RAW won the night, but most shockingly, also won the final quarter hour; it seemed more fans cared about seeing the finish of Bulldog/Undertaker than did about Nash's debut. Odd. * For 6/17, Nitro scored the big win, as they built to a very stron second hour rating, while RAW struggled out of the gate, with a 1.9 (OUCH!) rating for the first quarter hour. Interest in Nitro stayed fairly steady from 8:30 till 9:45, then dipped slightly in the final quarter hour, while RAW gained a full ratings point from the first 15 minutes by the end of the show. By 10pm, the combined rating of both shows indicated that about 4 million people were tuned to wrestling. Not too shabby. * Despite rumors, Raven is not *actively* seeking to join WCW. Scott Levy is interesting in bringing the Raven character to its logical close (who knows how long that could take?), and is independently wealthy thanks to his family in Florida (so maybe the Johnny Polo gimmick was something of a shoot?). However, Dallas Page is a good friend of Levy's, and may be working to convince both Levy and WCW that Scott should become a "big boy" once again. * WCW has taped Saturday Night up until the next PPV. "Highlights" of the tapings include Rey Misterio working a couple matches, the WCW Trio of Sting/Luger/Savage working a couple matches to prepare for BatB (always against WCW heels), and -- well, that's it. No more worth mentioning. Seems like a holding pattern till the next PPV; are the Braves playing a lot of Saturday Night games or something? * WCW desperately wants the "third WWF invader" to be someone super-special. The current management thinking is that anyone less than Bret Hart would be a let-down, but no deal is even close. An angle turning a current WCW'er (but former WWF'er) or Mabel seem more likely at this time. * Road Warriors not likely WWF-bound. Yet. Paul Heymann was interested in using them for ECW Hardcore Heaven (yesterday), but Hawk and Animal are vacationing. Still, look for the Roadies to surface in ECW eventually. [On one hand, I honestly did *NOT* want McMahon wasting money on these two; but on the other, I'd rather not have the super ECW tag scene ruined either. But at least Paul E. can use these two to sell PPVs, if that deal is ever cemented.] * ECW is probably gonna do a Cincinnati show by September. There is talk of making it one of those weekend long "mini-tours" including stops in Indy and (wooo-hoooo) Dayton. * Sources are saying that Rad Radford, Bob Holly, and Hakushi are essentially through with the WWF, contractually speaking. It's a shame in the case of the latter; truly, Hakushi was a totally mis-used talent. * The "AWF" will be starting on CBS on 9/21. I think this is a Sgt. Slaughter/Tito Santana run group. It's just a shame that crap like this is what is being pushed into a network spot. Then again, much like the AWA/FOX mess, this could all be a big hoax, too. * Hogan returns from vacation to find a much more watchable WCW in late July. His plans to ruin the advances made in recent weeks include an instant World Title feud with the Giant. * Here is the full line-up of WWF PPV dates and sites for the rest of 1996: - In Your House Vancouver, BC July 21, 1996 - Summerslam Cleveland, OH August 18, 1996 - In Your House Philadelphia, PA September 22, 1996 - In Your House Indianapolis, IN October 20, 1996 - Survivor Series MSG, New York City November 17, 1996 - In Your House Lakeland, FL December 15, 1996 Later..... -- Rick Scaia | I'm on the Web now! Important to the Important People | http://www.ncf.carleton.ca/~ag725/ ag725@freenet.carleton.ca | Prepare to be Disappointed!!! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------