From: ag725@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Rick Scaia) Subject: [INFO] The News From Dayton -- 02/03/97 Date: 1997/02/04 Message-ID: <5d6atg$nm@alpha.sky.net> followup-to: rec.sport.pro-wrestling Organization: The National Capital FreeNet Newsgroups: rec.sport.pro-wrestling.info,rec.sport.pro-wrestling The News From Dayton For the week of February 3, 1997 Updated Throughout the Week! --------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- ECW-WWF Together? Again? / ECW News! 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 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- * Beginning very soon, the NFD will be available via e-mail. The esteemed Chris Zimmerman is providing vital assistance, and we hope to have the mailing list up and running soon. Within the next week, details on how to sign up will be available right here! --------------------------------------------------------------------------- The News -- For the Week of February 3, 1997 [I'm sorry for the delay in getting the NFD out this week... you'll just have to trust me that it was a hectic weekend, and this is the first real chance I've had to do anything online since last Thursday afternoon. I'll try to not make delays into a habit!] 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. But for now, let's kick things off with Alex Marvez's column: * Alex leads off with the story that I broke right here on the NFD Web Site last Tuesday afternoon: the WWF's Monday Night RAW is taking the next step in heating up the Monday Night Wars. After about 8 months of limited competition, RAW returns to a full-on head-to-head contest against WCW's Monday Nitro. Beginning tonight, both shows will now start just before the 8 o'clock hour (eastern time) and run for a full two hours. [Note: USA Network is as responsible for this move as Titan is... while RAW has been at least competitive -- i.e. within a half ratings point or so of Nitro in the head-to-head hour -- USA's programming against the second half of Nitro has been absolutely mauled. In an attempt to keep TNT's ratings edge as minimal as possible, it seems USA was willing to give Titan a second hour on Monday Night. Part of the trade off for getting a second live hour every week appears to be that LiveWire, previously live with viewers interaction, will now be a canned show, featuring the mindlessly boring recaps of other programs that WWF Challenge and BlastOff already provide.] Tonight's RAW will be huge, as it will include footage from both the Royal Rumble (which had a live crowd of over 60,000, including about 49,000 paid) and the Jan. 31 Toronto SkyDome event (which had a live crowd expected to come close to the 30,000 mark). Nitro will counter by including the return of Roddy Piper to WCW; they'll start building to Piper's title match against Hogan (which happens Feb. 23 on PPV). [ BTW, for full results on the SkyDome event, just click here to read a report filed by NFD reader Sean Boulton.] * Next, Alex discusses the resurgence of wrestling on TV and why this programming move is a good one. For one thing, Nitro's second hour (unoppossed by wrestling till now) regularly doubled the ratings of TNT's NBA telecasts. Even during the head-to-head hour, both RAW and Nitro would draw higher ratings than TBS's NBA games. These ratings observations, along with TNT's decision to use Nitro's popularity to launch the "Robin Hood" series and USA's decision to bolster their prime-time line-up with a second hour of RAW, just go to show that pro wrestling is once again a popular diversion. * The other big TV news of late is the confirmation of ECW's PPV event on April 13. Alex runs down that story, including stating that -- and I quote -- "There may soon be some cross-promotion with the WWF in hopes of boosting the show's buyrate." Just when I thought that rumor was about to die, Alex breathes new life into it... * Finally, the next UFC takes place this Friday. Originally scheduled to be headlined by a Don Frye vs. Dan Severn main event, the show will now feature Severn taking on Mark Coleman in a superfight. Don Frye broke his hand winning the Ultimate Ultimate in November, and is still not ready to return. This UFC will also feature the first ever heavyweight and light-heavyweight divisions, allowing for better match-ups based on size. * 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. Here are some other newsbites: * With their first ever pay-per-view looming, ECW had a banner weekend, in my estimation. First, this week's TV show was superb; taped at Scranton, PA's Catholic Youth Convocation Center (or something like that... I'm trying to remember what "CYC" stands for, as the WWF used to run B-shows there regularly), the show had a huge crowd that was really into things. Included on the TV show were a great segment with Shane Douglas ripping into the "Masked Man," an absolutely incredible Terry Funk interview that leaves me hoping like hell that the man gets his one last World Title shot at the upcoming PPV, an intense hair vs. belt match between Raven and Sandman (Raven won due to accidental (?) Big Stevie Cool interference), and Pitbull #2 and Brian Lee going to a no-decision after the Triple Threat interfered, leading to yet another appearance by the Mysterious Masked Man. This time, the Masked Man delivered a Rude Awakening to Mike Awesome (Francine's personal bodyguard for the night) and then taunted Douglas by swiveling his hips. At this point, the show ended with Douglas 100% positive that the Masked Man was Rick Rude. * ECW also ran a big show at the ECW Arena on Saturday Night. The show kicked off with all the company's heels up on the stage, and all the babyfaces inside the ring. At this point, Paul E. Dangerously came out and did a long speech recapping the history of ECW, and how great it was to be given a chance to realize his vision of what a wrestling company should be. And he announced he'd get to see that vision on nation-wide cable on April 13, as he made it official to the assembled ECW faithful at the Arena that an ECW PPV would air live from the Arena on that date. Other interesting highlights of the show: "Dr. Death" Steve Williams beat Axl Rotten, and then did an interview where he said that what he really wanted was the ECW Title. So Raven came out and started brawling, which led to Commissioner Tod Gordon announcing this was a title match. Raven eventually got a tainted win over Williams after Big Stevie Cool hit "Dr. Death" with three Steviekicks. In another incredible tag team match, the Eliminators beat Sabu and Rob Van Dam; afterwards, Taz ran in and choked out Van Dam while the Elims held Sabu down. In the main event, Tommy Dreamer and the PitBulls beat the Triple Threat when Pit #2 powerbombed Pit #1 onto Shane Douglas, who was laid out on a table. * This *is* Dayton, but I feel compelled to pass along the info for my brothers and sisters just to the south that Cincinnati will now be getting WWF Shotgun Saturday Night on WSTR-64 every Saturday night (Sunday morning) at 1 a.m. This past Saturday's show was highlighted by a heavy emphasis on Mankind and Vader. In the opener, Vader faced Ahmed Johnson, while Mankind was *great* on commentary; Ahmed eventually got a DQ win after Mankind decided to interfere on behalf of his stablemate. In the next match, Mankind got help from Vader, and managed to defeat the British Bulldog. Also on the show, Savio Vega, getting good heel heat as the newest NOD member, defeated Jesse James. And the final match of the night was the Godwinns facing the Headbangers; this went to a no-decision, as both teams ended the show brawling throughout the club. * The WWF will once again be presenting the "Slammy" Awards in a televised event. Last year's edition, the first Slammy's show since 1988 and the first ever to not be a total farce, was an enjoyable program which not only did a reasonable job of honoring the superstars, but which also got a TV Guide "Thumbs Up" for honoring achievements without being overblown or taking itself too seriously. Hopefully this year's Slammy's will continue that tradition. The USA Network will again televise the event this year. The 1997 Slammy's will take place in Chicago, and will air on cable at 11 p.m. on Friday, March 21. This will be a two hour broadcast. * The recent set of "They're Coming" ads in WWF publications has gotten a lot of people talking. And in my opinion, they've gotten a lot of people jumping to wrong conclusions. Many are guessing that these ads are the set up for an ECW Invasion of some kind. I guess anything *can* happen in the WWF, but indications for the past several months have been that the WWF and ECW won't be working together; well, at least, those were indications will Alex Marvez's above prognostications. Anyway, the comic-book-like rendering of the wrestlers in the ads makes me think this is less an outside "invasion" that will be a major part of the WWF's future booking strategy and more a minor new product line offering from the WWF merchandising department. Like a new comic book or something. Either way, the WWF is promising that the WWF Magazine released on February 11 will have some/all of the answers. * Recent rumblings on the grapevine have got the Smoking Gunns on their way out of the WWF. That'd be a shame, as Titan would have been wise to build to a reunion of the tag team after the recent injury angle. But rumored on his way into the WWF: NBA Rebounding Master Dennis Rodman. There's no confirmation on this at all, and I would have to question the current thinking that Rodman will be making his appearances leading up to WrestleMania; unless he's planning on not having his NBA suspension lifted, I would have to think that Rodman's focus should be on the Chicago Bulls from now till June. * We've got five matches lined up for WCW's Superbrawl PPV: for the WCW Title, Roddy Piper challenges Hulk Hogan... for the WCW Tag Titles, the Outsiders defend against Lex Luger and the Giant... for the right to be a Horseman, Jeff Jarrett faces Mongo McMichael... with Woman handcuffed to Miss Texas outside the ring, Chris Benoit takes on Kevin Sullivan... and Syxx challenges Dean Malenko for the WCW Cruiserweight belt. * Speaking of WCW, they moved their planned Nitro event in Philadelphia to April 14 (originally, Nitro in Philly was suppossed to happen in March). This is the day after ECW's pay-per-view. If the ECW PPV goes off big, I wouldn't be surprised to see a crowd more into ECW than into the NWO at this particular Nitro... * Alright... if you've made it this far, you've gotta be one of my more loyal readers. Let me preface this with two disclaimers. First, this next bullet applies only to those who live in or near Dayton. Second, I feel like a jackass for putting this on my *wrestling* page. That said, I have to explain that the reason for my tardiness in updating this page is that I've been pre-occupied with my band. Usually, we practice about twice a week for a brief period just to keep our heads together; getting ready for a show, we desperately wanted to be really tight, and also wanted to debut three new songs. So with that in mind, we really took a lot of time the past three days getting ready. Why? Because we just found out about a show we're scheduled to play this Thursday (the 6th); it's a "Battle of the Bands" type deal. Because the guy who books the venue is an asshole, we were put at the disadvantage of having only 6 days notice. I will not go into details, but this short notice -- along with other factors -- is as close as I've ever come to experiencing a real life "screw job." It is only because of those mitigating circumstances that I mention that my band is playing this Thursday, Feb. 6, at the U. of Dayton Pub. For details on the band and this gig, click here; and again, I apologize for the blatant and inappropriate plug. But if even one person reads this and decides to come out, that's one more vote we could really use! * 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!!! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------