Date: Mon, 5 May 1997 04:01:00 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <199705050801.EAA12445@freenet2.carleton.ca> From: ag725@freenet.carleton.ca (Rick Scaia) To: nfd@aimnet.com Subject: The News From Dayton -- 05/05/97 Reply-To: ag725@freenet.carleton.ca Sender: owner-nfd@majordomo.aimnet.com Precedence: list THE NEWS FROM DAYTON For the week of May 5, 1997 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- WCW Stumbles / Goldust Coming Out? 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 May 5, 1997 The News From Dayton, as always, remains a combination of the weeklyDayton Daily News pro wrestling column, penned by Alex Marvez, and otherpieces of information I feel are unique and worth passing on to you, theHome Viewer. If you are reading the NFD on one of the RSPW newsgroups, oranywhere on the web other than the revamped News From Dayton Web Site, orif you are linking directly here without checking out the main NewsFrom 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 featuresto the NFD Web Site, along with updates on breaking news, so that youdon't have to wait a full week for the NFD's take on the latest rumors. THE ALEX MARVEZ COLUMN * Apologies are in order here at the top of the NFD Weekly... I'm really sorry for not being on the ball this past week in terms of keeping the web page updated. Even though I graduated a year ago, I have a large number of friends with whom I live with and hang out with who graduated this weekend (some are a year younger... but yeah, some were on the dreaded "five year plan"); in a lot of ways, this was an even busier week than my own graduation week was. You see, when it was me graduating, we had all our plans for parties done in advance. But when it's everybody else graduating, you're getting pulled in every direction simultaneously. Plus, this past week marked the last time my band played live and the momentus event of moving out of the house which we've been entrenched in for three years. Because of the moving, updates for early next week may be limited too (our new house doesn't have cable yet, so I don't know if I'll be seeing RAW and Nitro). I appreciate your patience (and the fact that only one of you sent me "Scaia, what the hell is going on?!?!" hate mail. Just as I experienced a major increase in readership when Bagpipe moved on to greener pastures, I expect a lot of you will take advantage of the NFD now that MiCasa is on a summer hiatus; I will endeavor to keep my effort high and live up to your expectations. * Alex's column this week has the headline "WCW Mixed Up," and recounts the confusion surrounding many of WCW's storylines after a snafu-laden Monday Nitro. With Roddy Piper expected to turn on Ric Flair to set up a post-Slamboree feud between the two legends, Piper was supposed to delay a few seconds before saving Flair from an NWO attack on Nitro. Instead, Piper stood motionless in the ring for a full 90 seconds before making his move. In Alex's opinion, this obviously exposed WCW's inteded future direction above and beyond the intended tease. Also on Nitro, Ric Flair laced into Syxx with some racy comments (about having held more titles than Syxx has had pieces of ass) that may result in Flair being temporarily suspended from doing live interviews on Nitro. Another major bungle occured when Steve McMichael appeared on Nitro with his trademark briefcase... AFTER and angle was set up where Reggie White had stolen the briefcase last week, and was suppossed to keep it until Slamboree. When McMichael accidently came to ringside on Nitro with the briefcase, announcers tried to cover the angle by saying that McMichael had gone out an gotten another briefcase. The dents on the briefcase, however, gave it away as being the original. A final mistake involved Meng, who was portrayed on Nitro as a total bad-ass in an effort to build interest for his "death match" against Chris Benoit on PPV. However, this promotional effort comes just after Meng has spent most of his WCW career as a tag team wrestler, and just two days after Meng was totally squashed by Lex Luger on an episode of WCW Saturday Night. * Next, Alex hits on the ratings for Monday night... despite being moved to an earlier timeslot, Nitro maintained a respectable audience, garnering a 2.7 rating (on par with recent WWF RAW ratings). However, it is the performance of RAW is WAR that is truly noteworthy; not only did the WWF show garner more viewers than WCW on a Monday night for the first time in over 9 months (albeit NOT head-to-head), but RAW also posted a higher rating than the direct competition on TNT, which happened to be an NBA play-off game. RAW received a 3.4 rating; the Knicks/Hornets game got a 3.2. The fact that wrestling would likely have gotten a better rating for TNT than the NBA playoffs in the 8pm timeslot will NOT be lost on Turner execs, in my opinion. * Coming off the excellent "Barely Legal" PPV, ECW has been in something of a TV slump. The first shows back from the PPV have included next to zero wrestling and have been sub-par. Alex theorizes that the poor TV shows might be due to the fact that ECW is feeling the effects of talent raiding by the WWF and WCW; Raven is confirmed as heading to WCW. However, many other ECW stars are being courted, and the upstart promotion may be shying away from focusing too much on certain stars until they commit to ECW in the long term. * Finally, Alex hits all the impending area shows coming within driving distance of Dayton. First mentioned is the May 24 WWF show at the Nutter Center; Alex also attaches a mild jeer to this mention, as the WWF continues to promote Bret Hart as participating in the main event six man tag match (Sid/Austin/Undertaker vs. Bret/Bulldog/Owen) despite the fact that Brian Pillman or Jim Neidhart will have to fill in due to Hart's injury. Ticket info for the WWF show can be obtained by calling (937)775-4789. WCW returns to southern Ohio for a show at Ohio University in Athens; Jeff Jarrett and Ric Flair taking on Harlem Heat headlines that seven match card. Ticket info for WCW in Athens is available by calling (614)593-1300. After the Athens show, WCW returns to Dayton on Monday Night, June 2, for a live Monday Nitro; call (937)278-4776 for ticket info. * Alex Marvez's column appears every Sunday in the Dayton DailyNews. In addition to sharing his wrestling thoughts there, Alex isalso 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) at7:20 a.m. talking about wrestling and other sports. IN OTHER NEWS... * With WCW Monday Nitro still relegated to a non-competitive timeslot, and with a PPV just six days away, it's expected that the WWF will provide yet another super edition of RAW is WAR. Many think that a big announcement from Goldust could headline the show... Dustin Rhodes may speak from his heart and explain his motivation for creating the Goldust facade, while acknowledging his true identity. Depending on how this is done, it could very well launch Dustin into a major title contending role for the WWF. Rumors have popped up on other pages that Dustin's dad, Dusty, might somehow be involved in the angle, but from what I can gather, there is little behind those rumors other than wishful thinking. [Or since we ARE talking about Dusty here, maybe that should be "not-so-wishful" thinking...] Also on RAW, look for Sable to become involved in a fresh angle; the WWF wants to use her somehow as Marc Mero recovers from injury, and we may see the first hints of that new direction tonight. And with the PPV just days away, I'm assuming it's safe to expect full doses of Steve Austin, the Undertaker, Ken Shamrock, Vader, and the Harts. * The WWF is stepping up its online presence... the debut of their new website is expected to come this month, and to generate interest among the online fans, it has been announced on the WWF's AOL site that immediatley following the live RAW is WAR, and again after the "Cold Day in Hell" PPV, any e-mail sent to "WWFMatRat@aol.com" with feedback about that night's event will be forwarded to the desk of Vince McMahon. While my all-encompassing cynicism tells me to question the legitimacy of the offer (I mean, I only get about 30 e-mails a day, and I'm almost too busy to deal with them... I'd wager McMahon is even busier, and that this offer will generate more along the lines of 3000 e-mails per day), it still might be interesting to see if sending in your thoughts on what was good and what was bad about upcoming WWF events has any effect. * ECW is still having troubles breaking into Ohio (due to the expense of filing the proper paperwork with the state), but there is week word circulating that they will, none-the-less, come to the metro-Cincinnati area later this summer. The event will take place right across the river in Kentucky (at Northern Kentucky University), and may be pencilled in for August 30. Given the troubles that Ian Rotten's IWA has had promoting wild, foreign-object-laden cards in Kentucky, I question if this will actually come to pass. Also, the Wrestling Lariat's Jess McGrath reports that if ECW does indeed come to Kentucky, we will not see New Jack of the Gangstas on the card, as he is the only wrestler in be barred from appearing on an event in the state of Kentucky. More on this if/when it develops. * Also speaking of summer bookings... things will DEFINITELY be heating up in the WWF, as Sunny vs. Sable vs. Marlena vs. Chyna Lingerie Matches have appeared on booking sheets for mid-late June house shows and beyond. I haven't the slightest clue what might be involved here, but as long as it actually includes Sunny, Sable, and Marlena in lingerie before Chyna arrives and destroys them, it sounds like a fine idea to me. Also booked for those shows starting in June is a wrestler refered to as "Papa." All signs point to this being the return of Papa Shango, though that's far from confirmed (and far from a good idea, given the recent return to "realism" the WWF has seen). * The date and venue for the 1997 Survivor Series has been confirmed. The PPV event will take place in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, at the Molson Centre, on November 9. Tickets go on sale at a Montreal house show being held on June 13. The post-Survivor Series RAW will be held in Ottawa, Ontaio; tickets for that event go on sale at a June house show at the Corel Centre. This is only the NFD Weekly Edition. Check hereevery Monday for the in-depth looks at all the news, as well as forthe exclusive Web Home of the Alex Marvez Column. At other timesduring the week, be sure to check out The NFDUpdates for quick recaps of breaking stories! --------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- The News From Dayton is Copyright 1995, 1997 by Rick Scaia. This document as well as all contents of the News From Dayton web site are the intellectual property of Rick Scaia. They may be distributed freely, as long as proper credit is given to the NFD, and as long as this material is not used to generate revenue or provided at an expense to the reader. -- Rick Scaia | VISIT ME ON THE WEB A Loathesome, Offensive Brute | http://www.ncf.carleton.ca/~ag725/ ag725@freenet.carleton.ca | http://homepages.udayton.edu/~scaiarij/ ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- - List: nfd - Majordomo v1.94.1 - Aimnet, Santa Clara, California, USA