From: ag725@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Rick Scaia) Subject: [INFO] The News from Dayton -- 02/17/97 Date: 1997/02/17 Message-ID: <5eaila$6iv@freenet-news.carleton.ca> Organization: The National Capital FreeNet X-Given-Sender: ag725@freenet6.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 February 17, 1997 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Shawn Vacates / Bret's the Champ / More Live WCW 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 informative online personalities and forums provide key corroboration and details on the stories I report here; the NFD counts on them to make sure only the most reliable information is passed on to you, the eager fan: 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 February 17, 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 I feel are unique and worth passing on to 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: * As you might expect, Alex's lead story is recapping Shawn Michaels' shocking decision to vacate the WWF Title. As the story goes, Shawn's left knee is in really bad shape and requires reconstructive surgery, which may be a career-ending injury. While Alex does not decisively clear up the confusion surrounding this situation, he does say that fans shouldn't be too worried about Michaels future, as injuries of this nature are usually faked in the world of pro wrestling. [I'll talk more about Michaels below in the non-Marvez section...] * Michaels surrendering the title adds yet another subtext to the already interesting Final Four match tonight on PPV. The WWF Title will now go to the winner. Alex says that the best guesses right now have the Undertaker coming out of the PPV as the WWF champ, and he will go on to WrestleMania to defend against Bret Hart. Whatever happens, Alex expects Hart will be the champion after the WM PPV. [On a side note, my personal feelings are that either Sid or Bret will emerge as the champion after this weekend... my personal wish is the Steve Austin would get the strap. Either way, I agree that it seems a lock for Hart to be the champ after WM.] Alex's other "Final Four" prediction is that we'll see Furnas and LaFon win the WWF Tag Titles after the team of Bulldog and Owen Hart finally break up for good (Bulldog is scheduled for a big time babyface push in the upcoming weeks). * Alex next runs down last week's Nitro. And when I say "runs down," I mean he really ran it into the ground. First, Alex lambastes Kevin Sullivan for his rambling five minute interview; Sullivan was apparently trying to use "smart" terminology to convince the hardcores that he's really pissed at Woman and Benoit, but succeeded only in being very boring for the entire five minutes. Alex says that Sullivan wasn't the only one who had problems on the mic, as both the Outsiders and the McMichaels gave subpar interviews on a TV show that also lacked any impressive in-ring work. * Brian Pillman made an appearance on the USWA's live weekly Memphis wrestling show last Saturday morning. He crashed the show and did some heel commentary before departing. That show aired in synidcation around the country yesterday. Pillman also put in an appearance at the WWF's Friday night stop in Cincinnati, OH; he distracted Steve Austin from ringside, causing Austin to be eliminated from an impromptu Final Four match. * As part of the big weekend ECW has planned for their pay-per-view, there will be a Terry Funk tribute banquet held the night before the "Barely Legal" PPV. The PPV happens on April 13, at 9:00pm; while Alex had no other details, it appears the Funk tribute will take place on the 12th in Philly. * Alex Marvez's weekly Dayton Daily News Wrestling Column provides the timely and accurate information that generally makes up a portion of the NFD. Have you got a wrestling question you'd like answered as part of Alex's weekly column? If so, 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 I've put together for you: * As promised, a new WWF Champion was crowned in impressive fashion last night on the WWF Final Four PPV. On a card that might just as well have featured Renegade vs. Joe Gomez in a best of 11 falls match as the entire undercard (due to all of the hype and interest focussed on the main event match), Bret Hart won the climactic and chaotic Final Four match to emerge a four time WWF Champ. Minutes into the match, Vader suffered an ugly cut around his left eye which made the fact that this was his most impressive performance in years even more notable. Vader was easily the highlight of the match for me, as he -- for the first time since joining the WWF -- regained his 1993 form, even if for just one night. And all this while wearing a Crimson Mask from an absolutely nasty cut above his eye. Anyway, Bret last eliminated the Undertaker (as Steve Austin, the first man eliminated, caused trouble around ringside) to win the title. In other action, Marc Mero and Sable had a new look (Sable, of course, always looks good, though) insofar as they seem to be taking on a heelish edge; Sable was extremely "hands-on" in dealing with Leif Cassidy, and provided the opening for Mero to regain an advantage to score a win. IN six man action, the Nation of Domination used their numbers to create havoc and steal a win from the trio of Goldust, Flash Funk, and Bart Gunn (with Bart Gunn taking the dive). Surprisingly, Rocky Maivia retained the IC Title from Hunter Hearst Helmsley; HHH became distracted when Goldust appeared, and Rocky caught him with a nice German Suplex; while Goldust and Marlena continued to prowl around ringside, Marlena was attacked from behind by a "fan" who just happened to be female, good looking, and have enormous arms. [If you remember the LPWA, which was a women's wrestling group a few years back that actually held a PPV, then you'd remember this "fan" as Terri Powers, who was their champion.] And in the tag title match, Bulldog and Owen surprisingly retained their gold, but continued to tease a split, as Owen caused an unnecessary DQ for his team, making Davey Boy upset. For a more detailed account of the PPV, check out my comprehensive report of the show. * The NFD Weekly Edition (the big thing that I put out on Sundays or Mondays and which doesn't include the daily updates) is now available by E-MAIL! Yes, it is your dream come true. If you'd like to know how to sign up, just click here. Or if you're not on the NFD Web Page right now, go there (it's http://www.ncf.carleton.ca/~ag725/HomePage.news.html) and click where you're suppossed to. If you're too damned lazy to bother, then I will tell you that what you need to do is send e-mail to "majordomo@aimnet.com" with the exact words "subscribe nfd" in the BODY (not subject header) or your message. But I hope you read the full details before giving up and deciding to e-mail me personally... * Leading up to the Final Four PPV, there is some interesting news to report. First, the reason for the IC Title switch (Rocky Maivia beating HHH) is because the scheduled challenger for the IC Title, Ahmed Johnson, is once again out of action with an injury. Reports vary, but either Johnson's shoulder or arm suffered an injury that will keep him out of competitive action for a while. With that in mind, Titan had to scramble to remove Ahmed from the PPV; by having Rocky score the IC Title upset on Thursday RAW Thursday, they could book a rematch for the belt on the PPV. Expect Rocky's title reign to be shortlived. Ahmed will be healthy before WM, so I'd guess that his second IC Title run will be scheduled to begin there. And they've done a couple of "dry runs" of the Final Four match itself at two house shows since Shawn's announcement; to fill up shows that had previously included a WWF Title match, Titan ordered impromptu Final Four matches to take place. The rules are that there are no DQs, no count-outs, and all four men fight at the same time. You can be eliminated by being pinned, submitting, or getting thrown over the top rope. Sounds interesting... Anyway, both dry runs ended with Undertaker pinning Vader. In Cincinnati, the crowd was in awe as UT actually Tombstoned Vader to get the win! [Sidebar: in my opinion, if UT won the two dry-runs, it reduces his chances of getting the win on PPV tonight. I doubt Titan would want to run the finish for the PPV twice in front of live crowds... they've probably got something else in mind.] * And while we're on the subject of the big title match, I guess I ought to do another couple lines of talking about Shawn Michaels. I'm not going to ramble too long about it, nor am I going to answer all of your questions in one fell swoop. All I wanna say is that the way things looks, Shawn's dealing with something which is more than just a knee injury (though he may, in fact, have some surgery done on one of his two bad knees) but which should be something less than career ending. Whatever the situation, he'll be gone for a while; and when he comes back, it *will* be to the WWF, not to the WCW/NWO, regardless of any wild speculation you may read elsewhere. In the meantime, I know that I, for one, will miss knowing that the main event featuring Shawn Michaels will ALWAYS be the best match on the card, and will anxiously await his return. I'd like to think that I speak for wrestling fans everywehere when I hope for Shawn's return (both to health and to the ring) to be as speedy as possible. * WCW is getting another gift from Billionaire Ted's TV minions. Because of the success of Nitro on TNT (in fact, some have gone so far as to credit TNT's ascension to the position of #1 cable network to Nitro's huge ratings on Monday nights), Turner Broadcasting has decided to attempt to duplicate that success on TBS (the station that currently runs all other WCW programming). WCW will now have another live, 2 hour, prime time program on the air, with substantial financial assistance from Turner. Originally, I had thought this rumor merely meant that they were revamping WCW Saturday Night to be a live show, but further review indicates that TBS wants a prime time show during mid-week. The show may be paired with TBS's Wednesday Night NBA game to form a 4-5 hour sports block, or may anchor a Thursday night line-up for the network. However, my own speculation is that TBS might wind up having to relegate this new wrestling show to a "floating" slot; once the Braves return to action on TBS, it will be tought to lock in a wrestling show to one night and one time slot per week. Moving the show around to whatever Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday night slot is available might be an option. No matter what happens, I see this as a big league Catch-22 for WCW; Nitro is usually hot every week. But even their *other* 2 hour show (which claims to be the "mothership") is mind-numbingly dull. Can they program another exciting 2 hour show every week? If they put too much effort into making this TBS venture a big show, will that be counter-productive, as it would hurt the quality of the Nitro show (which is now up against 2 hours of RAW)? It's tought to imagine a scenario where a two hour show would come across as anything better than "overkill." The only way I see it working is if they make one of the two live 2-hour shows into an NWO broadcast, and limit the NWO's influence on the WCW show. But we all know what a bomb the NWO PPV was, so maybe that isn't a good idea... who knows? I'll try to have more on this as it develops. * The second weekend of April is looking to be a damned good weekend to be in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. As you know, ECW is hosting its first PPV event there that weekend. Included will be tons of extra little events above and beyond the PPV itself; the Terry Funk tribute mentioned above is part of it. The PPV is on 4/13, and there will also be some events taking place the day before. WCW brings "Monday Nitro" to town on 4/14 at the Corestates Spectrum, which should give the large assembled crew of hardcore mutant fans a chance to give the WCW guys a hard time. And it DEFINITELY bears mentioning that the Eddie Gilbert Tribute show will take place just over the river in Cherry Hill, NJ, on the evening of 4/12. Eddie meant a lot to wrestling, and especially to the early days of ECW. For more on Gilbert's contributions to the sport on the tribute show being held in April, just click here for a piece written by Bob Magee. * Ric Flair is targeting the beginning of May for his return to the ring. The Nature Boy recently appeared as a guest coach for the Wake Forest Demon Deacons in a game against Clemson; and he looked pretty good sparring with the mascots and also with Dick Vitale. Flair should be in ring shape soon enough, and already rumors are spreading that Flair will be headlining a summer PPV against Hulk Hogan. And let's face it, would Hogan really be that much tougher in a real fight than Dick Vitale? Didn't think so... * Things aren't looking good for the future of WWF Shotgun Saturday Night. This weekend's show was nothing but clips and highlights from past Shotguns and other big events from the last week. While there is still some hope that the WWF suits will see fit to make Shotgun an hour of new (albeit taped) matches, no decision has been made on what to do just yet. It's a shame, too, as I think Titan found a really cool venue to run the show semi-regularly last weekend when they eminated from Penn Station. Tell me that seeing UT tombstone HHH at the top of an escaltor wasn't cool... * WWF pay-per-view dates for the foreseeable future: 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 3, 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!!! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------