From: ag725@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Rick Scaia) Subject: [INFO] The News From Dayton -- 12/9/96 Date: 1996/12/09 Message-ID: <58i12s$6o4@freenet-news.carleton.ca> Organization: The National Capital FreeNet x-given-Sender: ag725@freenet2.carleton.ca (Rick Scaia) Reply-To: ag725@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Rick Scaia) Newsgroups: rec.sport.pro-wrestling The News From Dayton For the Week of December 9, 1996 Updated Throughout the Week, as Necessary _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ Sting "Knights" an Army? / New ECW Champ! Read on for more on this week's Headline Stories! _________________________________________________________________ The News From Dayton is compiled weekly by: Rick Scaia (ag725@freenet.carleton.ca) However, I do not work in a vacuum... by virtue of being MUCH more dedicated to to regular, insider updates on breaking news than I am, the following kind and generous online personalities and forums provide key corroboration and details on the stories I report here; without them, the NFD would be a much less informative document: The Wrestling Lariat WWF On-Line (on America On-Line) Alex Marvez (alex_marvez@coxohio.com) and his Weekly Dayton Daily News Wrestling Column The Newzfirst Folder (on America On-Line) and the new NewzFirst Web Page The Bagpipe Report and MiCasa's Daily News and of course... My Many Top Secret Sources Whose Names I Cannot Divulge _________________________________________________________________ The News -- December 9, 1996 The News From Dayton rolls boldly on with yet another exciting edition... And as is always the case, I encourage anyone reading this in a edited or text-only format to stop by the NFD Web Page at: http://www.ncf.carleton.ca/~ag725/HomePage.news.html In addition to the regular weekly "News," there are semi-regular updates on breaking stories and tons of unique features that I'm sure you'll enjoy. As always, the NFD starts with a recap of the weekly Alex Marvez pro wrestling column from the Dayton Daily News, and then moves on to other information: * Basically, this week's column is dedicated to recapping events from last Monday's Nitro broadcast from Dayton's Hara Arena. The top segment covers the Regal/Benoit match from last Monday, which home viewers were forced to watch from a distance. WCW went to a wide shot after they realized Regal was bleeding. Alex says that the wide shot made the match less enjoyable for the home viewers, and said it was much better in person. * Next, Alex discussed his take on the Sting situation. The promised match between Sting and Rick Steiner never materialized, but instead, another chapter in Sting's mysterious transformation into "The Crow," was written. Just as he did with Lex Luger, Sting tapped both of Steiner's shoulders with a baseball bat, and then shoved Stiner in the chest with the bat before handing the bat over. Alex suggests that this is Sting's way of "knighting" an elite corp of wrestlers to take on the NWO somewhere down the line. The thought had also occured to me, as when Sting did the bat thing to Luger, I joked to a friend that Sting was saying, "I dub thee a no-talent muscle-head." It'll be interesting to see if this is really the direction WCW is going. * Alex also runs down the "NWO Takeover" of the second hour, mentioning that the NWO members in attendence (not Hogan or Giant, notably) stormed the announce position. Marvez says that one of the most memorable comments was a knock on ECW, which as Alex says, shows "Some nerve from a promotion that has drawn much of its ideas and talent from ECW, which airs at 2a.m. Fridays on SportsChannel." * The live Nitro show at Hara Arena drew a crowd of just under 5400 red hot fans. Alex quotes WCW promoter Zane Bresloff as saying Dayton is one of WCW's top markets, and the group will return in the Spring. * The ratings for last Monday: in the head-to-head hour, Nitro scored a 2.8 to RAW's 2.3. I can't understand how the 12/2 RAW outscored the previous week, which included the return of Bret Hart... anyway, also on 12/2, Nitro's second hour banged a 3.9, meaning their two-hour average was about 3.3. * Alex can be contacted via e-mail at this *NEW* address: "alex_marvez@coxohio.com". Due to time and computer limitations, Alex is no longer part of the AOL Grandstand Wrestling Area. Now, onto some other interesting stories: * Big news out of ECW this weekend. At the ECW Arena, Raven regained the ECW World Title from the Sandman via pinfall. This comes on the heels of wild speculation that Raven was headed for WCW, and may work to put some of those rumors to rest. For details and other results from this show, I'd keep my eye on the brand-spanking new Wrestling Lariat Web Page, located at http://www.cybrsports.com/lariat/. * Other interesting news that ties in to ECW: it has come out that Chris Candido is still under contract to the World Wrestling Federation. His recent performances in ECW (and other indies) are all booked through the WWF offices. Contrary to popular belief, Candido did *not* give notice two months back when it was reported he was heading to ECW. He is still on good terms with Titan, and is, in fact, still an employee of theirs. Any speculation about exactly what this unprecedented working arrangement really means in the grand scheme of things would be just that -- SPECULATION. * And on top of this, it's has also come out that Paul E. Dangerously, Big Cheese at ECW, has assisted Vince McMahon and Bruce Pritchard in some of the preliminary work on "WWF Shotgun Saturday Night," a new (and suppossedly hardcore) program that is set to hit the airwaves with a live broadcast on Jan. 4, 1997. In fact, the Bagpipe Report, with information provided by Michael Tavares, reports that the 1/4/97 program will originate from The China Club in NYC. * The second "Ultimate Ultimate" UFC tournament took place on PPV this past weekend. As always, the actual fights were a lot of fun to watch, but the pacing of the show was pathetic, as they had to kill tons of time due to there being only 7 fights (each averaging 3 minutes) over the course of the 3 hour show. Also hurting the show were injuries to Ken Shamrock and Kimo, who both won first round matches, but had to pull out of the tourney and be replaced by much less capable alternates. Don Frye, winner of the UFC held this past spring, won the whole enchilada, earning a shot at reigning UFC "Superfight" champion Dan Severn on PPV in February. Frye was impressive in taking out Tank Abbott in the finals after sustaining a series of hard blows that left his face a bloody mess. * David Sammartino, son of legendary Bruno Sammartino, will once again be trying his hand at pro wrestling. David's biggest match to date was probably going to a draw with Brutus Beefcake at WM1. Now, he's getting a shot with WCW, and will likely be appearing on TV soon. Also on WCW TV soon, we will be seeing the newest member of the NWO: Scott Norton. * The new issue of the WWF Magazine speculates about Shawn Michaels and Steve Austin actually forming an alliance in '97, with Bret Hart as their traget. With Michaels' recent attitude adjustment, this doesn't seem so far-fetched, although it should be kept in mind that the WWF Magazine is wrong as often as they are right about these sorts of things... * Finally, while on the subject of Bret Hart.... if you didn't hear, he won the United Arab Emirates "King of the Ring" tournament during the recent overseas WWF Tour. * WWF pay-per-view dates for the foreseeable future: + In Your House --- W. Palm Beach, FL --- December 15, 1996 + Royal Rumble --- San Antonio, TX --- January 19, 1997 + In Your House --- Memphis, TN --- February 16, 1997 + WrestleMania 13 --- Chicago, IL --- March 23, 1997 + In Your House --- [Green Bay, WI?] --- April 20, 1997 + In Your House --- [Baltimore, MD?] --- May 11, 1997 + King of the Ring --- Providence, RI --- June 8, 1997 + In Your House --- [Calgary, Alb, Canada?] --- July 6, '97 + SummerSlam '97 --- E. Rutherford, NJ --- August 10, 1997 + In Your House --- [Louisville, KY?] --- September 7, 1997 ************ The News From Dayton This compilation is Copyright 1995, 1996 by Rick Scaia (ag725@freenet.carleton.ca) All rights, if any, reserved. Proper credit is given to sources of information whenever possible. Reproduction of this document, or the contents thereof, is permitted, and encouraged as long as: (1) in reproducing any part of this document, you give proper credit to both the original source of information as well as to "The News From Dayton," and (2) no profit is made from the reproduction or distribution of this information (this info is not meant to be disseminated via 1-900 lines!). ********************************************************************** -- 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!!! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------