From: ag725@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Rick Scaia) Subject: [INFO] The News From Dayton -- 01/27/97 Date: 1997/01/26 Message-ID: <5cglmt$s76@freenet-news.carleton.ca> Organization: The National Capital FreeNet x-given-Sender: ag725@freenet3.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 January 27, 1997 Updated Throughout the Week! --------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- ECW PPV Confirmed! / WCW/NWO PPV Results 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: Alex Marvez and his Weekly Dayton Daily News Wrestling Column The Wrestling Lariat The Newzfirst Folder (on America On-Line) and the new NewzFirst Web Page The Bagpipe Report and MiCasa's Daily News WWF On-Line (on America On-Line) and of course... My Many Top Secret Sources Whose Names I Cannot Divulge --------------------------------------------------------------------------- The News -- For the Week of January 27, 1997 The News From Dayton, as always, remains a combination of the weekly Dayton Daily News pro wrestling column, penned by Alex Marvez, and other pieces of information culled from various other sources for you, the Home Viewer. If you are reading the NFD on one of the RSPW newsgroups, or anywhere on the web other than the revamped News From Dayton Web Site, I strongly encourage you to make the jump to the NFD on the web at http://www.ncf.carleton.ca/~ag725/HomePage.news.html I think you'll find the trip worthwhile, as there are many exclusive features to the NFD Web Site, along with updates on breaking news, so that you don't have to wait a full week for the NFD's take on the latest rumors. Normally, we'd kick things off with Alex's column... however, this week, Alex is in New Orleans covering the Super Bowl for the Dayton Daily News, and didn't contribute a wrestling column for this Sunday's paper. That leaves me to scrounge for good info... and luckily for both of us, it was a pretty decent news week. So let's go: * Big news this week is the confirmation of Extreme Championship Wrestling's first pay-per-view event. The event, titled "ECW: Barely Legal," will be live from the ECW Arena on Sunday, April 13, 1997. Event time is 9 p.m., and event cost will be $19.95. It'll be a three hour show. Request TV will be the PPV distributor here in the U.S.; Viewer's Choice, the other major US PPV outlet (and #1 outlet in Canada) will not be picking up the show. Man am I glad that Dayton's TCI Cable switched from VC to Request a couple weeks ago! The main event will be Sabu taking on TAZ in a match that has been slowly built to over an almost 2 year long span. Also on the card, there will be a Three Way Dance between the Sandman, Terry Funk, and Stevie Richards to determine an opponent for ECW Champion Raven later on in the evening. Shane Douglas will defend the ECW TV Title, likely against Pitbull #2. And some stars from Japan's Michinoku Pro Wrestling will take part in a six man tag match: Great Sasuke, Gran Naniwa, and Gran Hamada vs. TAKA Michinoku, Dick Togo, and Terry Boy. Except for Sabu/Taz, I'd say these matches probably are subject to change, as ECW's known for wildly and quickly adaptive booking; also, I'd expect another 3 or so matches added to the card. Prodigy Wrestling's Bob Ryder obtained the following official press release: REQUEST TO CARRY PAY-PER-VIEW DEBUT OF EXTREME CHAMPIONSHIP WRESTLING DENVER, January 23, 1997 -- Request Television, Inc. announced today that it will exclusively distribute the first Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) event to air on pay-per-view. "ECW BARELY LEGAL" will be aired live from 9pm-12am (ET) on Sunday, April 13, 1997. An immediate replay will follow at 12am (ET) and an encore showing is scheduled for Tuesday, April 15 at 9pm. The suggested retail price of the event, which will take place at the ECW Arena in Philadelphia, PA is $19.95. ECW pushes professional wrestling to its outer limits. It's high-impact, fast-paced action and progressive story lines have cultivated a loyal following of fans around the nation. The ECW shows are more geared for adult wrestling audiences. Therefore, the ECW event start time will be 9pm (ET), compared to other monthly wrestling events that Request carries, which are shown at 7pm (ET). "The ECW is theatrically more extreme and more aggressive than other wrestling events we carry, and we have taken several precautions to ensure that the event is geared to an adult audience by including parental warnings similar to how we would treat an R-rated movie and by giving it a later time slot," said Request's Debbie Barackman, Vice-President of Programming. ECW has syndicated television carriage, including through several regional sports networks, and also has its own website. During negotiations with Request, hundreds of ECW fans sent e-mails to Request to voice their support for a pay-per-view event. "The opportunity for our growing fan base around the country to see ECW on pay-per-view will be a great boost for us and take ECW to another plateau," said ECW owner and executive producer Paul Heyman, aka Paul E. Dangerously. "We feel strongly that we have an extremely popular and entertaining product, and look forward to showcasing our incredibly talented athletes to a national audience." * Last night was a big wrestling night, with a live WCW PPV and a live WWF Shotgun... this capped off a huge week for wrestling fans, which saw things start off with a solid WWF Royal Rumble PPV (including the crowning of a new WWF Champ in Shawn Michaels), and continue through a memorable RAW and dramatic editions of WCW Nitro and Clash of the Champions. Once again, due to the WWF stars massing for an afternoon house show in NYC (btw, whatever you've heard, Furnas/LaFon did *not* win the WWF Tag Titles at MSG yesterday! British Bulldog was not even at the show, and no title match took place, according the the Wrestling Lariat's Jess McGrath), Titan could utilize their full roster for Shotgun. In the opening match, Bret Hart defeated Mankind by DQ when Owen Hart (who was doing commentary) ran in. In the next match, Savio Vega completed a heel turn, as he joined the NOD during his match against Rocky Maivia. Jake Roberts squashed Sal Sincere, and then HHH came out and delivered a Pedigree on Sincere for good measure. In the main event, Crush beat Sid by DQ after Sid grabbed a chair to combat the NOD. All in all, an eventful night. * The same cannot, in all honesty, be said about the WCW's pay-per-view last night. Promoted as an NWO event called "Souled Out," the show has been the most soundly thrashed event, critically speaking, since the first WCW Uncensored. I wound up choosing not to see the show, due to juggling other commitments Saturday night; as I was practicing with my band while the show was going on, I joked that I would have to turn in my stripes as a wrestling fan for not making the minimal effort to see "Souled Out." After seeing the uniformally scathing reviews of the show, I do not feel so bad. Based on the way people are reacting, they expected a good show, and got garbage instead; unless this is part of a very subtle, very crafty angle to explain the demise of the NWO and the resurgence of WCW (is the average fan saavy enough to pick up on an angle like that without Dusty Rhodes driving it into the ground? "I gots a real bad feeling in my belly-welly watching that Souled Out show. Those NWO guys don't care about the fans like we do here on the Mothership. So all you fans, don't watch the NWO, and stay with us here at WCW, if you weeeeel..."), then we'll simply have to chalk this show up as a loss. I did not see the show for myself, as I've said above, but these are the neat and tidy results. I think you'll be able to draw your own conclusions fairly easily: Eric Bischoff and Ted DiBiase were on commentary all night, and were very bad, I understand. Masa Chono beat Chris Jericho. Big Bubba beat Hugh Morris (subbing for Konnan) in a Mexican Death match, using a motorcycle as a foriegn object. Jeff Jarrett got help from Mongo McMichael and his briefcase in defeating M. Wallstreet. Marcus Bagwell beat Scotty Riggs. Scott Norton beat Diamond Dallas Page by count-out; then, in the only angle of the night that got any positive feedback in reviews I've read, DDP tricked the NWO into thinking he'd join them, then delivered a Diamond Cutter on Norton before escaping through the crowd. The Steiners beat the Outsiders when WCW ref Randy Anderson came out of the crowd to count three following Nick Patrick taking a ref bump; don't expect the title switch to count. Eddie Guerrero defeated Syxx in a Ladder Match for the US Title; this was the only wrestling match that was reviewed in an even mildly positive light in recaps I've seen. And in a frustrating and disappointing finish for any fan who sat through 40 minutes of a crappy Robin Hood TV show to see a pointless DQ, the Giant and Hulk Hogan (this time without Robin Hood, but asking for $30 of your money) went to another pointless NWO run-in ending. The show ended with the Giant left lying by Hogan and the NWO; this came after the Giant was dominating Hogan for the actual duration of the match. * Ratings for Monday Night saw the tepid edition of Nitro once again trounce an eventful Monday Night RAW, 3.0 to 2.2 in the head to head hour. RAW's ratings built over the hour to a 2.5 in the final quarter hour (Austin vs. Undertaker); Nitro's first hour fluctuated randomly between a 2.9 and 3.3. Nitro's second hour built to a 4.6 for the final two quarter hours, and a second hour average of 4.4. For the two hour show, Nitro banged a strong 3.6, and the replay did a record 1.9. In an interesting (and edifying) side bar: Robin Hood, after scoring a 4.3 in its debut week (and with help from the smarmy Hogan/Giant ploy), dropped to a 2.2 this week (without any extra help from WCW; this meant Robin Hood retained LESS THAN HALF of Nitro's final quarter hour audience; that can't be good). * If you didn't hear already, the main event for the WWF's huge two hour live special on Thursday, Feb. 13, will be Shawn Michaels defending his WWF Title against Psycho Sid. This special show replaces RAW that week, as the Westminster Dog Show airs on USA Network Monday, Feb. 10. * Alex Marvez's weekly Dayton Daily News Wrestling Column provides the timely and accurate information that generally makes up a portion of the NFD. 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. * WWF pay-per-view dates for the foreseeable future: o In Your House --- Chattanooga, TN --- February 16, 1997 o WrestleMania 13 --- Chicago, IL --- March 23, 1997 o In Your House --- Rochester, NY --- April 20, 1997 o In Your House --- Baltimore, MD --- May 11, 1997 o King of the Ring --- Providence, RI --- June 8, 1997 o In Your House --- Calgary, Alberta, Canada --- July 6, 1997 o SummerSlam '97 --- E. Rutherford, NJ --- August 10, 1997 o In Your House --- Louisville, KY --- September 7, 1997 ************ The News From Dayton This compilation is Copyright 1995, 1997 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 or other media which cause the reader to incur a cost or which generate any kind of revenue for the information provider!). ************************************************************************** -- 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!!! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------