Date: Sun, 20 Apr 1997 16:04:36 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <199704202004.QAA05697@freenet5.carleton.ca> From: ag725@freenet.carleton.ca (Rick Scaia) To: nfd@aimnet.com Subject: The News From Dayton -- 04/21/97 Reply-To: ag725@freenet.carleton.ca Sender: owner-nfd@majordomo.aimnet.com Precedence: list THE NEWS FROM DAYTON For the week of April 21, 1997 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hart and Austin In Our House! / Syxx in Main Event? Read on for more on today's Headline Stories! --------------------------------------------------------------------------- The News From Dayton is compiled weekly by: Rick Scaia (ag725@freenet.carleton.ca) --------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- The News -- For the Week of April 21, 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, or if you are linking directly here without checking out the main News From Dayton Headlines Page, I strongly encourage you to make the jump to the NFD on the web at http://homepages.udayton.edu/~scaiarij/wrestling/nfd.htm 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. THE ALEX MARVEZ COLUMN * After an incredible match at WrestleMania, Bret Hart and Steve Austin are being thrust back into a major PPV match far ahead of schedule, according to Alex. When Psycho Sid missed a Monday Night RAW taping several weeks back, ostensibly due to a bad back (an injury which many people are suggesting conveniently flared up because of the number of jobs Sid had been asked to do in coming weeks), top WWF officials remembered Sid's shaky track record, and decided to pull him from his scheduled PPV encounter with Bret Hart tonight. In Sid's place is "Stone Cold" who is quite possibly the WWF's hottest commodity right now. The WWF had wanted to save this rematch until later in the summer, but their hand was forced by the Sid situation. If all is well with Sid, he might still appear on the PPV in some capacity to set up an angle for the future. * One man who is expected to miss the PPV is Vader. Last weekend while in Kuwait, Vader roughed up a Kuwaiti morning TV show host and tossed around some furniture in the studio after being asked if wrestling was fake. In the wake of that event, Vader has, according to many published reports, been detained in Kuwait until he can stand trial for assault charges. While the TV show incident DID happen (i.e. this is not a "work" in the sense they are making it up), a lot of people are suggesting that the WWF is manipulating the incident to seem like a lot bigger deal than it really is in hopes of Vader coming off as a major league bad-ass. Some are even saying that the TV incident was planned and OK'ed, and that all stories of the host pressing charges and forcing Vader to stay in Kuwait are fabricated. I don't know exactly how the fabrication goes, but I do have a feeling that the WWF is going out of the way to capitalize on an unique situation, and is making a promotional mountain of a molehill. Footage of the incident should appear either tonight on PPV or tomorrow on RAW. * Alex reports that Reggie White is making $500,000 to oppose Steve McMichael on WCW's Slamboree PPV next month. White is said to be taking the match seriously, and is in training at the power plant to make sure he looks reasonably good at the PPV. * Konnan has missed some WCW bookings in the last few days because he is defending himself in Mexican courts against AAA promoter Antonio Pena. Pena claims that several of the Mexican wrestlers appearing with Konnan in WCW are still contractually bound to AAA, not to Konnan or Konnan's Pro Azteca promotion. If Pena wins the lawsuit, a number of wrestlers such as Juventud Guerrera and La Parka would have to honor their AAA contracts, and could pop up in the WWF (which is affiliated with AAA). * Alex next runs down the latest in the "Backstage WCW" saga... this week, the real-life tension is between the "Clique" portion of the NWO and the veteran duo of Ric Flair and Roddy Piper. Piper and Flair apparently have reservations about Syxx being a main event caliber wrestler, and asked to meet to discuss those concerns. At a meeting with Eric Bischoff and Kevin Nash (representing Syxx's side of things), Flair and Piper said Syxx was not a big enough star to be in such an important match. Nash countered by saying that Syxx was more talented than either Flair or Piper, and reportedly also made fun of the veteran pair's ages. Because of the bad blood coming out of the meeting, Flair and Piper did an interview on Nitro last week that was focussed more on running down Nash than on hyping the Slamboree PPV main event match. * Alex has the following brief "Grappling Gems" for us: Hulk Hogan dropped a rare pinfall decision to Jacques Rougeau last week, in Rougeau's home provice of Quebec, Canada.......... ECW's PPV last Sunday was positively mentioned, as Alex calls it "better than anything presented this year by either the WWF or WCW"; I just happen to agree.......... Unified Championship Wrestling, which is a new Dayton-based indie promotion, has just started a free wrestling hotline; the number is (937)640-1921 (only long-distance charges apply). * Alex Marvez's column appears every Sunday in the Dayton Daily News. In addition to sharing his wrestling thoughts there, Alex is also once again lurking about the America OnLine Grandstand Wrestling Area, and can be e-mailed with questions at "alex_marvez@coxohio.com". Also, Alex can also be heard on Mondays and Fridays on WING-FM (102.9) at 7:20 a.m. talking about wrestling and other sports. IN OTHER NEWS... * A ton of interesting news from the WWF this week... in the last few months, they've been more willing than ever to work with other promotions. Competing with the deep pockets of Ted Turner has meant trying to find alternate ways to deepen their roster, and co-promotion appears to be the chosen solution. AAA stars from Mexico have appeared semi-regularly; ECW talent highlighted two memorable Monday Night RAWs (and the door reportedly remains open for it to happen again); there are tight behind-the-scenes ties between the WWF and the Memphis-based USWA; and a big WWF house show in Tennessee included a ton of performers from the former Smokey Mountain Wrestling promotion. And now, it looks like the WWF wants to expand it co-promotional efforts to Japan. In the past week, an agreement has apparently been reached with Frontier Martial Arts Wrestling (FMW). Atsushi Onita has reportedly held a press conference in Japan to announce that his group would be working with the WWF. FMW is a hardcore wrestling promotion from Japan that has been home to Terry Funk and Cactus Jack, among others. They've been known for some really psycho gimmick matches in the past, and if the WWF chooses to bring that flavor to the US, it'd be a DEFINITE change of pace. And on top of that, Jim Ross and Bruce Pritchard invited the Michinoku Pro wrestlers who appeared on ECW's Barely Legal PPV to a meeting at Titan Towers on Monday. I doubt anything was agreed upon, but after the amazing performance those guys put on at Barely Legal, I'd love to see them with a better forum for their talents in the US. It should be interesting to see how these two promotions interact with the WWF in the coming months... the WWF has also made a number of in-roads in terms of signing a number of talented performers from All Japan Pro Wrestling, including Furnas/LaFon, as well as the s soon-to-appear Del Wilkes. It's a strategy I can't disagree with.... By the way, if you have any desire to brush up on exactly what other treasures Japanese pro wrestling (or "puroresu") may provide in the future, there is no better resource than Hisaharu Tanabe's Puroresu Dojo. * For everybody who loves wrestling and loves "The Simpsons" (like me), you want to make sure you get TWO VCRs ready tonight... while the WWF is running the "Revenge of the 'Taker" PPV (with two potentially super matches in Undertaker/Mankind and Bret/Austin), the Fox Network will be running the long-awaited episode of the Simpsons which includes a guest appearance by Bret Hart. I look forward to both. * Scott Hall looks to be ready to return to WCW... he should appear for the first time in a month at tomorrow's Monday Nitro. This gives WCW four full weeks to promote Hall's spot in the Slamboree main event, which should be sufficient. * In the wake of ECW's Barely Legal, Rob Van Dam and Sabu are apparently being positioned to get a major league push with their new manager Bill Alfonso. The trio (well, actually duo, since Sabu doesn't speak) did a great interview on ECW's TV show this week, indicating that the issue with Taz is far from over. Notably absent from post-PPV TV was Raven, who some are suspecting will be making a jump to WCW shortly. Also, don't be too surprised if Sandman starts dropping a few singles matches soon; it doesn't mean he's being "punished" for incidents with Shane Douglas or Stevie Richards. Sandman is likely going to be packaged in a tag team with Balls Mahoney (the two have had some wicked brawls in the past month or so) for a brief run, and might put over some singles performers before this happens. Finally, Big Dick Dudley has returned to ECW, but not to feud with the "evil" Dudleys, D-Von and Buh Buh Ray, as expected; with Buh Buh suffering a broken ankle at the PPV, Big Dick has actually teamed with D-Von on shows since the event. * A last second offer of free ringside seats from an associate of mine actually got me to attend my first WCW live event in over five years on Friday evening (April 18). I hadn't been planning to attend (and was actually far less interested in the card after several line-up changes), but who am I to turn down free ringside seats? And the show was really weak. Nothing was bad, mind you, but you could just tell that nothing important was going to happen. It made for boring action. But I still had a hell of a time. Why? Because Dayton wrestling fans are among the most hilariously back-water fans in the world. Or so I'd imagine. It was a trip to observe the way the totally packed house of just over 6000 fans reacted to everything. It was also hilarious to watch three or four drunken asses in our section do their best to goad Harlem Heat into fighting them; the way the Heat played it off was fantastic, and it got them big league heel heat with the rest of the crowd. Here are the results from the show: o La Parka defeated Cyclope in the opener. These guys blew a number of spots, and pretty much looked horrible. o Psicosis beat Juventud Guerrera. This was a lot better... plus, Psicosis did a great job of getting heel heat here, considering these were fans who were (I am NOT making this up) dumb enough to be chanting "USA USA USA" and "Boring" at many points during the first three matches (which were more action-packed than later matches and which did not include a single American wrestler). I don't remember the finish, but Psicosis won. o Rey Misterio Jr. beat Super Calo in the best match of the evening. Rey was actually pretty over with the fans. He also hit the spot of the night: after knocking Calo to the floor, he was going to do a running move over the top rope, but was stopped by ref Nick Patrick (who has apparently been reinstated, as he worked several matches without incident)... so Rey retreated, and then when Patrick turned to count Calo out, Rey got a running start and used Patrick as a springboard to deliver an over-the-top-rope cross body. He later won with the springboard hurricanrana. o Jeff Jarrett put his feet on the ropes for leverage to get a pinfall over Chris Jericho in a pretty boring match. o After intermission, Kevin Nash and Dallas Page wrestled. While not exactly a masterpiece, the crowd was still super-hot for this one. There was about 8 minutes of wrestling after an opening "psych out" sequence which lasted a long time. Finally, Randy Savage came down from the back, and while Nash distracted the ref, Savage hit DDP in the ribs with a crutch. Nash then got the pinfall. After the match, DDP went into a rage and cleaned house, leaving Nash lying. o In the main event, Lex Luger and the Giant won a triangle match over Harlem Heat (who were masterful in working the crowd) and the Public Enemy (who wound up doing most of the masterful work in the ring). No tables got broken, and this was pretty much just an angle match where no body wanted to oppose the Giant. After about 20 minutes, chaos broke loose, and Lex Luger racked Rocco Rock while the other four men brawled outside the ring. This sent the crowd home happy, at least. I found the six-match card pretty bland, but it was a good time considering it was free. WCW returns to Hara Arena on June 2 for a live Monday Nitro. * Speaking of WCW being in town... to promote the event, Friday's Dayton Daily News included an interview Alex Marvez did with Dallas Page. It's nothing earth-shattering, but it's a nice recap of what Page has overcome to become a huge superstar. You can check it out over on the NFD Archives Page, or just click here. BE SURE TO CHECK OUT THE NFD ON THE WEB FOR DAILY UPDATES ON BREAKING NEWS STORIES! --------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- The News From Dayton is Copyright 1995, 1997 by Rick Scaia. This document, as well as all other contents of the pages in the NFD hierarchy, are the intellectual property of Rick Scaia. Please refer to the "Thanks and Acknowledgements" page for full copyright information. In short: You are not to reproduce the content or style of these pages for financial gain. -- 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!!! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- - List: nfd - Majordomo v1.94.1 - Aimnet, Santa Clara, California, USA