From: ag725@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Rick Scaia) Subject: [INFO] The News From Dayton -- 10/28/96 Date: 1996/10/29 Message-ID: <553u81$cfa@alpha.sky.net> followup-to: rec.sport.pro-wrestling Organization: The National Capital FreeNet Newsgroups: rec.sport.pro-wrestling.info,rec.sport.pro-wrestling Hey, hey... call it hunch, call it whatever, but I held off on posting the new NFD because I thought I should wait till after I watched Halloween Havoc (yes, I actually watched it; it's part of my new agenda to actually be considered a fair and reputable source of information rather than being considered as WWF Fan #1) in case something big happenned. Well, maybe it took till 2 hours and 50 minutes in, but my waiting turns out to be justified. But I'll get to that later on in the NFD. For now, you get the usual disclaimer that if you like the r.s.p-w version of the NFD, you should visit the NFD web site, which has many other features beyond this information, and is also updated a couple times a week with breaking news. The URL for the NFD on the WWW is: http://www.ncf.carleton.ca/~ag725/HomePage.news.html And now, you also get the recaps version of the weekly Dayton Daily News pro wrestling column by Alex Marvez: * Alex kicks off with a quick synopsis of what can be expected at Havoc. He hedges on the main event match, settling for telling us that if Savage wins, he's probably staying with WCW, but if he jobs to Hogan, he's probably gone. Savage had not decided one way or another as recently as Saturday night, according to another source. Alex correctly predicted new tag team champs in Hall and Nash. He also predicted a cruiserweight title change and that Jeff Jarrett would become a full-fledged member of the Horsemen after getting a DQ win over the Giant. * Speaking of undecided "free agents," it turns out that Bret Hart did not know exactly what he was going to do last Monday until about one hour before the live RAW broadcast. That is when his lawyer finally gave him the OK on the deal offered by Titan. Alex is of the school of thought that this is a shorter-term deal, worth upwards of $4 million a year. Other folks are saying that Bret has signed a 20 year deal that could be worth a total of about $14 million, with the first three years being for working in the ring, and the latter 17 being for a front office job; it has also been said that Bret may have been willing to take less money if other stipulations of his were met (such as how his family members would be treated by Titan and another WWF Title reign for himself). I don't know if we can count on any more concrete numbers coming out, but right now, I find the $4 million per year rumor to be bordering on ridiculous. FWIW, Alex does note that whatever Titan had to pay Bret, it might turn out to be worth it; during the quarter hour segment that featured Hart, RAW nailed a 3.0 rating compared to Nitro's 2.4. More on ratings below. * Terry Funk will be returning to Philadelphia's ECW Arena for at least one more wrestling appearance. At ECW's November to Remember, Funk is currently slotted to team with his one-time hardcore protege, Tommy Dreamer, in a main event tag match to be announced. * Alex Marvez, despite a time consuming job as the Dayton Daily News' main football writer/analyst, stays in contact with wrestling fans as much as humanly possible. You can interact with him in his "Bodyslams" folder on the America Online Grandstand Wrestling Area, or e-mail him at "Alex1Marv@aol.com". Now for other news: * I guess that the biggest "other news" of the week has to be last night's Halloween Havoc PPV. Although I have to say that until the last 10 minutes, WCW was setting up to have delivered just about the most mind-numbingly dull "major" PPV in a long time. Events worth mentioning from the undercard include: Dean Malenko beat Rey Misterio Jr. in a disappoingintly sloppy match to win the Cruiserweight Title. Dallas Page beat Eddie Guerrero in a fair match to re-assert his claim to "Lord of the Ring." Ric Flair seconded Jeff Jarrett, and crotched the Giant outside the ring to set up a moral victory for WCW. "Six" Waltman was able to beat Chris Jerico. Arn Anderson was defeated by Lex Luger in poor match which stuck out in my mind for two reasons: Luger's AWFUL hair day, and the total absense of any Horsemen backing up Arn when Jarrett (who isn't even a Horseman) had Flair's back-up earlier-one. Arn would be stretchered out in an over-done angle, with Dusty suggesting that he should get "an MRI done on his back." I'm not entirely sure you get an MRI done on the back, Dust; but I'm 100% positive you don't know for sure either. Chris Benoit and Mongo McMichael beat Meng and Barbarian in yet another snoozer; the catch here is that after Mongo used the briefcase to set up the pinfall by Benoit, the rest of the Dungeon (Sullivan, Konnan, and Bubba, anyway) came out to attack the 2 Horsemen. Wow, what an enthralling heel vs. heel angle; it has never stopped being exciting the entire 10 months they've been running it. [Yes, that is sarcasm.] After that Hall and Nash took the tag titles from Harlem Heat in match that was yet another showcase of just how bad the NWO guys are once they are actually forced to step into the ring and work; some people might disagree with me, but I thought both had moments of above-average ring performance during their tenures in the WWF. It seems like that kind of effort is the farthest thing from their minds now. Hogan re-iterated that concept by being part of an absolutely lack-luster main event match with Randy Savage. Savage did an ignominious pinfall job to Hogan; it looked like he was suppossed to do a stretcher job, but then he just kind of stumbled back to the locker room never to be mentioned again. At this point, Hogan grabbed the house mic and started taunting everybody with how he's the king of Hollywood and whatnot; I was thinking, "Cue Sting to make his full-fledged face turn." And then bagpipe music kicks in. And who should appear but Roddy Piper... Hogan shows fear at Piper's appearance (or more accurately, a mildly amusing charicature of fear), and backs off everything he's said, instead revising his comments of the past 3 months to include Piper as a fellow architect in the building of pro wrestling and a fellow major Hollywood star. Piper is not buying it, and the words seem to be getting just a little bit more intense when all of a sudden.... the show goes off the air! How exciting! What great planning by WCW! Yes, this is more sarcasm! Schiavone, who was on play-by- play, sounded like a deer caught in the headlights as he realized what was going on; he just said, "We've gotta go!" Not even a "We're so sorry fans..." or a "We'll be sure to show you what you're missing tommorrow on Nitro." Seeing Piper was a shock, and the exchange with Hogan was certainly amusing, but they were obviously building to some sort of a pay-off, probably a one-on- one match between Piper and Hogan, but never got around to it. That's nearly inexcusable. Especially considering how weak the rest of the show was, they should have gone to any extreme to make sure that they delivered on the one sure-fire segment of the PPV. And they didn't. * Alright, this leads me to Rant #1 (of a two-part series this week). It contains no news content, and will consist entirely of me taking advantage of this "info-only" document to voice an opinion that is entirely mine. The subject is Roddy Piper in WCW. The opinion is that this is really disappointing news to me. I'm not disappointed in a guy like Piper for taking what is (a) probably a great big-money deal and (b) is probably a deal that will facilitate his continuing work as an actor. I'm disappointed that it comes to this, though... Piper was one of those unique stars who it seemed had done everything important in his career in the WWF. That's where his history was, and if he'd played his cards right, he could have continued to be a special attraction there for some time to come. Because at all points in his career, he remained very good at what he was doing. Unlike Hogan, who never really put any effort into a wrestling match after about 1990 and who actually began to fail to maintain his mega-babyface image at around the same time, Piper always at least tried to keep his work interesting, and always got the crowd response he was expected to. His move to WCW is about as disappointing as when Savage jumped in 1994. But not as much so as it would have been if Bret Hart had jumped last week. But it still sticks in my craw. And if you're sitting back saying, "Well, what did I expect out of Scaia, that obnoxious WWF-biased ass, if not bitching about how Ted Turner buys off the WWF's history and passes it off as his own," well then let me move on to my biggest complaint about this whole situation. Because this doesn't have nearly as much to do with that as it does with what this move means for WCW. I have no doubt this move was precipitated by Hulk Hogan's continuing desire to relive his glory days, and seeded into the mind of Eric Bischoff who undoubtably went to great efforts to make it happen. Or maybe the motivation was simply "Well, we didn't get Bret Hart, and it looks like we're gonna lose Randy Savage, so who else can we go steal." I don't know. But whatever led to Roddy Piper being brought in to have a marquee feud with Hulk Hogan, the biggest loser of all in the ordeal is Sting. With Savage possibly on his way out, and Flair down with an injury, WCW needed somebody to finally help them gain a modicum of dignity in this increasingly overblown NWO angle. Every single bit of logic would point to this being Sting's perfect opportunity to make a full-fledged return to babyface status and a chance to finally take the reigns of a major organization as their top star. This would have been the perfect chance to catipult Sting into the position, but instead, the twisted braintrust feel it's wiser to go out and make some sort of big deal with Roddy Piper for him to come in and be yet another part-timer collecting a fat paycheck. Seeing Piper verbally lace into Hogan sure was fun, but listening to them talk about their history with each other just drove home the fact that everything interesting those two did was nearly 10 years ago. This could have been a chance to make history for Sting; instead, WCW is intent on reliving history with Piper. * I found it to be quite interesting that the only prop tombstone to appear on the Halloween Havoc PPV broadcast that had a "real" person's name on it read "Rick." If that is my punishment for years of mocking Bischoff and challenging his kung-fu fighting ass to a street brawl, so be it. But I'm sure it's all just a big coincidence. ;) [I'll believe the feds care this much about fans who dislike them when I see Mark Bureau's face on the next WWF Buried Alive tombstone! ;)] * ECW had a rather news-worthy weekend... Friday night in Jim Thorpe, they had yet another near fan riot. I've got no details on the matter, but I guess the end result had New Jack of the Gangstas going after a fan. Unlike a lot of idiots who place blame on the promotion for "catering to that element," I think we have to instead grow up and realize that what ECW presents in the ring has nothing to do with fans acting like dumb-asses. Now, that said, the way ECW polices the fans *must* change. They have been too lax in allowing stuff being thrown into the ring in the past, and have in general given fans free reign to behave however they want. This has led to fans thinking they are *part* of the show, instead of spectators of the show. I have no problem with ECW presenting its product in the same way in the future, but they will have to actively pursue new means of policing the fans. Moving on, it is how ECW presented its product Saturday night at the ECW Arena that has got some fans upset. On a show that included the ECW debut of Chris "Skip" Candido (he beat a Dudley), the Eliminators beat Steve "Dr. Death" Williams and Terry Gordy, and Sabu and Rob Van Dam beat the team of Dan Kroffat and Doug Furnas (with Sabu and Van Dam finally shaking hands at the end), it is an incident between the Raven and the Sandman that has got most people talking. Raven used Sandman's son, Tyler, to distract Sandman and set up a sneak attack. The attack eventually escalated to the Sandman being "crucified" (yes, on an actual cross) complete with a crown of barbed wire. As you might expect, this has polarized the public, with one faction taking great offense at this use of a Christ figure, and another faction thinking this is the best example of what is good and right with the "extreme" style. Personally, I don't think utilizing a Christ figure is anything that shocking or offensive; when you've got that sort of symbology running wild in everything from movies to music videos, it's hard to justify why ECW should be singled out as being run by minions of Satan with no sense of good taste. And, of course, the opinion of a great majority of ECW fans who will chant "boring" during a 2 Cold Scorpio/Chris Jerico match should be discounted; they are obviously not mentally stable. I think the proper response lies somewhere in the middle. Tearing down ECW for trying to do something compelling is childish, IMODO, but praising them for no better reason than because they did something nobody else had considered doing before is downright retarded. If it helps to paint a clearer picture, I think we can count on the fact that a very small percentage of fans at the arena actually cheered this act by Raven; they are your sickos and retards. Another small portion were offended and left; these are your overly sensitve, easily-offended folks. But I'm sure the majority of the crowd just watched, some in stunned silence, some with rapt attention, because this is just pro wrestling, and telling a story is part of what they do. * WWF Monday Night RAW is reportedly moving to a 7:57p.m. start time beginning November 4 (that's a week from today). If this is a permanent (or semi-permanent) change, it will at least alleviate the pressures of having to compete both with WCW Nitro *and* Monday Night Football. Also, if Nitro decides to try to counter this move by making their first hour their "hot" hour, they'll be shooting themselves in the foot, as they can't expect people to tune in to see the Outsiders take over in hour one, only to be relegated to watching Jim Powers take on Jimmy Graffiti in a battle of the titans in hour two. However, MiCasa is suggested that this is only a one-shot deal to "test the waters" of a time slot change. We shall see. * The ratings for last week saw a huge rebound for RAW, as they gained nearly a full ratings point over the previous week's performance. RAW netted a 2.6 to Nitro's 3.2. However, the quarter hour ratings tell a very interesting story (at least, they do for Titan). Nitro started out hot with a 3.3, and maintained that for they first half-hour before jumping to a 3.5 for the second half-hour. Then, as RAW came on the air with a 2.6 rating, Nitro dipped to a 2.9. The next quarter hour saw both shows dip a tenth of a ratings point. But at 9:30, roughly when Bret Hart made his appearance, RAW surged to a 3.0, while Nitro dove to a 2.4. The final quarter hour (RAW had the "Perfect hoax" angle, Nitro had the Sting appearance and Savage interview), saw Nitro then surge back to a 3.5 to close the show while RAW dipped to a 2.3. That might indicate a disinterest in the IC Title angle, and should have shown WCW that Sting is one of their bankable stars (and maybe he should have been given the post-match "run-in" on Hogan at the PPV). Either way, the return of Bret Hart seemed to have its desire effect. * Rocky Maivia, real name Duane Johnson (son of former WWF Tag Team Champion Rocky Johnson and grandson of former WWF star Peter Maivia), the the "mystery man" mentioned in Monday Night RAW tapings results as being part of a Survivor Series tag team with partners Merc Mero, Mark Henry, and Barry Windham. They will face a team of Goldust, Hunter Hearst Helmsley, Crush, and Jerry Lawler. The first vignette on Maivia aired on Superstars on Sunday 10/27, and was quite interesting. In addition to being the first ever third generation WWF superstar, Maivia was willing to take credit for Charlie Ward's decision to play pro basketball instead of pro football; as Duane Johnson, #94 on the Miami Hurricanes, he apparntly leveled Ward, a QB for Florida St., with a wicked sack. * Cheif Jay Strongbow, a WWF road agent, suffered a heart attack at the Monday Night RAW tapings last week, but is recovering well, and is now at home. * Here's something I'm surprised nobody else has picked up on (then again, it took me this long to pick up on it so maybe it's not so surprising)... the rock band Weezer recently debuted a new video on MTV called "El Scorcho." I've found a lot of Weezer's recent material to be a bit annoying (especially the "Buddy Holly" video), but this was a cool video visually, and the song was pretty catchy. So whenver it came on, I'd watch/listen, usually with only half my attention or so (since that's usually the best way to watch MTV). After about 5 or 6 times, it got to the point where some of the lyrics were sticking in my head... and right around the fifth or sixth time, I swore I started noticing that the words "Grunge," "New Jack," and "leg drop" were all part of the song. So I told myself to listen more closely next time... well, it took a couple of next time's before I remembered to listen closely, but this past week, I clearly made out the line (towards the end of the second verse): "Watching Grunge legdrop New Jack through a press table." In the first verse, they also use the term "Public Enemy," but it seems out of context to be referring to the ECW/WCW tag team of the same name. But it's pretty clear that the line from the second verse reveals one or more members of Weezer to be at least vaguely familiar with ECW. I thought that was pretty neat. * Alright, I've held off till the end, but it's now time for Rant #2. This time, the rant has been inspired by a number of folks on the 'net bitching about the decision to move the IC Title belt from Marc Mero to Hunter Hearst Helmsley. And I hope to be more concise in my opinion this time. Because the way I feel is simple: the wrestling business is a work, people. Those belts to not indicate, in any real or significant way, that the person holding one is actually the "best" at what he does. Title belts in wrestling are not actually meant to crown a superior talent, but are rather tools for telling stories and creating marketable personas. I know in a "perfect world" as invisioned by someone like Herb Kunze, the "best" wrestlers (by some widely accepted critical standard) would be the ones in best position to be made marketable and have stories told about them, and thus would be given the title belts, but this is not a perfect world. Marc Mero has amazed us (well, at least he's amazed me) by debuted the MeroSault and the Shooting Star Press in the last three months. These are things that HHH can't do, admittedly. But the story crafted to put the belt on HHH was quite compelling and fun, and makes the decision wholly understandable and acceptable. It's just funny to see "smart" fans arguing as if title belts actually signify that a certain wrestler is the best in a sport that is entirely worked. I'm cutting this rant short, and I guarantee that I won't rant at all next week. Thanks for your indulgence this week. -- 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!!! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------