From: ag725@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Rick Scaia) Subject: [INFO] The News From Dayton -- 10/14/96 Date: 1996/10/15 Message-ID: <53ukms$3el@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 If I'm doing my math right, we're coming up real close to the 50th edition of The News From Dayton... I know you don't care, but this is the sort of thing that makes me feel good about myself, as one of the InterNet's most renowned cheap rip-off artists. :) I started posting a summary of the Sunday Dayton Daily News Alex Marvez wrestling column back in August of 1995. It was around November, 1995, that I actually came up with the terribly witty "News From Dayton" monicker. I can't believe in the 50 weeks since then that I haven't been able, with my vast stores of creativity and marketing knowledge, to come up with a name more fitting or snappy. I was considering using the name "Figure Four," but quickly discovered that not only was it the name of a band fronted by Tobin Sprout in the early 80's (and this would have been a twisted form of tribute to them!) but it was also the name of a newsletter put out by the esteemed Bryan Alvarez. About the only thing that has changed in the past year is that there is now a pretty cool NFD web page that is updated by Yours Truly as frequently as humanly possible. The URL (for those of you who still haven't made a stop) is http://www.ncf.carleton.ca/~ag725/HomePage.news.html So that brings us to where we are today; this thing is still called "The News From Dayton," and we always kick things off with the man who started it all, Alex Marvez, and his weekly Dayton Daily News column: * The Four Horsemen are about to make a change that will render their group's name rather inaccurate. They will be adding Jeff Jarrett to the group as the Fifth Horseman. Jarrett's WCW debut was unique in that, unlike other recent WWF departees, he is joining WCW proper, and not the NWO. The move was necessitated in part by an injury sustained by Ric Flair. Current thinking is that Flair will have surgery on a torn rotator cuff, and will be out of action until at least January. After returning, Flair may be more of a special attraction wrestler (with a schedule comparable to Hogan's) who will be moved into a role as the Horsemen's manager as time moves on. While keeping Flair on in a managerial-type capacity will probably be enough to keep the Horsemen afloat, the current four active Horsemen are far from top notch material. Benoit is probably my favorite wrestler in the world, but he still can't interview, and is not a leader- of-the-Horsemen type guy. Arn Anderson has always been an effective Horsemen, but that's always partly due to his close association with Flair. Steve McMichael is a no-talent hack, and his wife is a better interview than he is. And now adding Jeff Jarrett does not really help the group out much. In the words of "The Real Double J" Jesse James Armstrong on an AOL chat, Jarrett is still the "same, dull Jeff Jarrett as always." WCW would be well-advised to think about dropping McMichael from its roster, and working an angle to bring Sting into the Four Horsemen as their flagship competitor. * Marvez next covers the Sandman's winning the ECW World Title. ECW had been planning on Raven being present to drop the strap to Sandman, according to Alex, but a change was necessitated when Scott "Raven" Levy took a personal leave of absence on very short notice. In accordance with standing ECW policy, Raven's belt was allowed to be defended by Stevie Richards, who lost the fall to Sandman. * The impressive tag team duo of Doug Furnas and Dan Kroffat, along with Terry Gordy and announcer Lance Wright will all be completing whatever ECW commitments they have, and debuting with the WWF soon. * There are renewed rumors regarding Bret Hart actually jumping ship to WCW. Alex says that the rumors are floating around WCW's front office, but the Vince McMahon will try to keep the jump from occurring by offering Hart another run as WWF champ. Other sources are reporting that Hart has been offered a comically lucrative WCW contract, which in addition to a $4 million annual salary would also include a deal to work TV and motion pictures. This would make Hart just about the highest paid man in the sport, quite possibly THE highest (details of Hulk Hogan's WCW contract are not known). I question how WCW could justify making such a huge offer to Hart, unless it was there lone true desire to "steal" the WWF's last unsigned big name. Whatever WCW is actually on the table, MiCasa is reporting that Hart and Vince have continued to speak, and that currently, Hart has asked for an interview on the live Oct. 21 RAW to address his fans, but is not making any commitments beyond that to Titan. * For interested southwest Ohio fans: keep an eye open, as tickets for the Dec. 2 WCW Nitro taping at Dayton's Hara Arena are expected to go on sale sometime in the next three weeks. Remember that according to last week's Marvez interview, WCW is working on remedying their TV taping problems (where fans are ALWAYS going away unhappy, since match quality is uniformily poor, and most major angles do not happen in the arena proper) by adding a large video screen to keep fans apprised of events taking place backstage or elsewhere. * Alex remains accessible to the fans, both via e-mail (at Alex1Marv@aol.com) and in his "Bodyslams" folder located in the AOL Grandstand Wrestling Area. Some other assorted information from other people and places: * An ECW show Saturday night in Burlington, MA, degenerated into an upsetting (and frightening) scene. One report said trouble actually began during the final match when a fan decided to strike Tommy Dreamer with a chair as he brawled through the crowd. Whatever sparked the trouble, it reportedly escalated to a dangerous situation in which upwards of 100 chairs were being hurled into the ring, causing many audience members to scatter. The trouble-makers in the crowd also scattered, but it took a unified show of force by most of the guys in ECW coming out of the locker room to chase them out of the building. ECW is understandably upset following this incident. * The Bagpipe Report had some quotes from a recent appearance by Randy Savage on Newsportalk, a cable sports interview show. In a nutshell, the most shocking comments from Randy Savage were in regards to his opinions about Vince McMahon and the WWF. He was complimentary towards both, saying that despite the "Nacho Man" skits, he was in no way hostile towards his former employer. In addition, he said he recently ran into McMahon at an airport, and the two men chatted amicably for several minutes. While this is apt to feul rumors of Savage leaving WCW for the WWF, there is a chance this was nothing more than Savage's way of "leaving the door open" for a return should his current status in WCW not improve. Also likely is that these things were said only to improve Savage's negociating position with WCW, by planting the concern that he would be completely willing to return to Titan. * Ratings for last weekend had RAW slipping back after making a modest gain the week before. RAW scored a 2.1 rating (3.0 share) against a 3.5 (5.4 share) for WCW Nitro. WCW Saturday Night did a 2.5 (didn't get the share info, though it's likely in the mid 3's), while WWF Superstars continues strong, nailing down a 5.3 share of the audience with a 1.7 rating. * I was again managed to catch "AWF Warriors of Wrestling" this past weekend in its late night time slot. An entertaining comment by one of their announcers cut through my bourbon-induced haze; the guy said that the AWF has seen "overwhelming positive response on the internet," specifically as it regards the AWF's "round" system. I don't claim to monitor the internet for AWF info, but I can't recall a single *mildly* positive comment anywhere regarding the promotion. I personally have found that the AWF to be a terribly frustrating promotion to watch, solely because with them on TV, it's *very* hard to make a case for how unentertaining WCW is. When a weak crutch-shot and a couple of stomps by Bob Orton on Tito Santana is passing for "hot" world title feud, there are problems. Also, when Lord Alfred Hayes gets to say anything more than "Promotional Consideration Paid For By the Following" there is a problem, but that's another issue. Also, the round system, while unique, has yet to play a major role in any of the AWF action I've seen. I think I've seen two matches go into the second round. That's about it; the effects on the psychology and pacing of longer, more important matches remains unproven at best to me. This is not to say that the AWF is not worth your consideration as a fan... clearly what they are today is NOT a decent indication of what might be to come. One only has to remember back to the early days of ECW, when (ironically enough) Tito Santana was their champion, and Sal Bellomo (former WWF mid-carder and spaghetti eating champion) was another headliner. Granted even then they still had guys like Eddie Gilbert and Terry Funk (whereas the AWF has Nailz and Hercules), but ECW would not have grown into the entertaining promotion it is today without starting somewhere. The AWF has a great advantage in terms of their television marketing, and will certainly have a chance to grow into something better than it is today. Here's hoping it does. * In a very surprising move, Sabu has signed to work with Giant Baba's All Japan Pro Wrestling. Sabu's style has dictated he work with other, smaller groups in Japan for the most part, and I, for one, did not see Sabu's move to the more "realistic," mat-wrestling based All Japan coming at all. Already, there is speculation that Sabu will be used as a tag team partner for another dual ECW/AJ talent, Rob Van Dam. This comes on the heels of Sabu leaving Big Japan after a brief tenure there. Sabu's contract with All Japan is short-term, and his work there is not expected to interfere in his continuing to work for ECW. * NewzFirst is saying that he expects to see Gene Okerlund back in the WWF soon. This goes contrary to comments made by McMahon made 2 weeks ago, and also to current conventional wisdom that Okerlund will surface with the NWO before too long. FWIW, I will believe it when I see it. Also FWIW, the Bagpipe Report has said that there is no truth to any rumor that places Gene back with Titan. A final FWIW: although I will believe it if I see it, I will not like it. * For those of you who care (and those of you who run newsletters or "dirt sheets" and make money off 'em), the fictional alter-ego of WWF Magazine editor Vince Russo, Vic Venom, shits on you in his new RAW Magazine column. He sort of rips on all smart fans, but saves his best lines for those who publish the dirt sheets. It's kind of funny, all things considered. A little bonus for those of you who thought RAW Magazine was just a really good excuse for pictures of a scantily-clad Sunny. Or those of me who find it a fantastic excuse for pictures of a scantily-clad Marlena. -- Rick Scaia | I'm on the Web now! RSPW Posse Minister of OFFENSE | http://www.ncf.carleton.ca/~ag725/ ag725@freenet.carleton.ca | Prepare to be Disappointed!!! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------