Date: Mon, 26 May 1997 06:36:52 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <199705261036.GAA09995@freenet2.carleton.ca.carleton.ca> From: ag725@freenet.carleton.ca (Rick Scaia) To: nfd@aimnet.com Subject: The News From Dayton -- 05/26/97 Reply-To: ag725@freenet.carleton.ca Sender: owner-nfd@majordomo.aimnet.com Precedence: list THE NEWS FROM DAYTON For the week of May 19, 1997 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Flair's Still "The Man" / UFC's Future Looks Grim Read on for more on this week's Headline Stories! --------------------------------------------------------------------------- The News From Dayton is compiled weekly by: Rick Scaia (ag725@freenet.carleton.ca) --------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- The News -- For the Week of May 19, 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 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 * The top story of Alex's column this week is the boost that the return of "The Nature Boy" Ric Flair gave to WCW programming last weekend. Flair, who is 48 years old, returned after 6 months off inactivity caused by an injury to bolster WCW Nitro's ratings to their highest point in a month. Nitro, which had been hit with a 15% drop in ratings during its NBA Playoff induced move to an earlier hour, saw its ratings rebound to a 3.1 for the hour, with a 3.4 rating in the final 15 minutes (in which Flair's brief match with Syxx aired). The 3.4 in the last quarter hour is actually above Nitro's weekly average in its normal time slot. Flair was also the big winner at WCW's Slamboree PPV last Sunday. In a surprise booking move, Flair led his team (comprised of Roddy Piper and NFL'er Kevin Greene) to victory over the NWO trio of Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, and Syxx. Flair got the pinfall decision over Hall. The planned booking was for Piper to turn on Flair during the match (with Greene eventually being pinned), but Piper's poor execution of an angle several Monday nights back, along with too many fans knowing about the angle, made that plan too obvious. On a Flair-related note: the "Nature Boy" headlines a house show at Ohio University in Athens, OH, this coming Saturday. He will team with Jeff Jarrett to face Harlem Heat. For ticket info, you can call (614)593-1300. * Alex next recaps the WWF's recent move towards acknowledging wrestlers' real names and past identities. The trend, which has been used with some frequency by ECW in the past couple of years, has included mentioning Goldust's identity as Dustin Rhodes and Faarooq being known as Ron Simmons. The most recent character revelation is Mick "Mankind" Foley, who began a superb and entertaining shoot-style interview last week on RAW is WAR. The interview continues tonight (on a show which will also feature a tag team title match pitting Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels against Owen Hart and the British Bulldog), and will include discussion of Mankind's past as Cactus Jack. * The future of the Ultimate Fighting Championships is in serious doubt. They have a PPV event scheduled for this Friday night, but after this event, both TCI and Time Warner cable systems will no longer carry UFC (or similar style) events. This would be a huge blow to UFC availability for future shows. However, there may be no future shows, as financial and political entanglements have rendered the PPVs less attractive to viewers and more difficult to find venues for. Examples include the inability of UFC to provide sufficient pay-offs for its fighters. This week's PPV was originally scheduled to have a "superfight" between Don Frye and Dan Severn; now, the PPV's superfight will pit last UFC's tourney winner, Viktor Belfort, against Tank Abbott. At least part of the reason for using the lesser-known stars in the main event was the inability to get bigger names to agree to smaller pay-offs. Political pressures continue, as fewer states are permitting no-holds-barred events like these from taking place within their borders. It looked like this Friday's PPV in Georgia wasn't going to face such difficulties, but that has changed, as word filtered up to some Georgia bureaucrat that UFC had an event planned for the state; the state now wants UFC to apply for a boxing license. This is a process that takes 30 days, and it is unknown whether that timeframe will be waived for UFC or not. If not, UFC will not be able to promote this weekend's show in Georgia. All this is resulting in UFC shows being big time money losers; things such as limited cable availability and last-second venue changes come at a price. One option being pursued by UFC and its parent company, SEG, is offering to change its rules to make their competitions less violent. In my opinion, this would really hurt UFC's appeal with the fans who came to appreciate it for its hard-hitting style. * Some quick "Grappling Gems" from Alex -- WCW comes to Dayton's Hara Arena for a live Nitro telecast on June 2. Right now, there are a few tickets left... but they are expected to be sold out by the end of this week. For info, call (937)278-4776 ................ The first contest between Sting and Hulk Hogan since Sting's change of colors will take place on a June 20 house show in Los Angeles; Alex says this is probably just a warm-up match for the eventual first televised match between the two, expected to take place at WCW's Starrcade in December (Sting should take Hogan's title at that point) ................ Finally, Alex reports that there is talk that if WWF RAW is WAR does, in fact, move to a 9-11pm time slot on USA Network to accomodate "Walker, Texas Ranger," that a third hour of WCW Nitro might come into existance. * 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 via e-mail 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... * Maybe it's not news to you, but it was a cool time for me... proving that it's not what you know, but rather, it's who you started ripping off for news in 1995 and have since come to know pretty well, I was sitting front row center for the WWF's return to Dayton, OH, after a 4 year absence. Since this is the NFD Weekly that goes out to the big e-mail list of subscribers and to the newsgroups, I'll just give you the quick and dirty results here: o Leif Cassidy defeated Bob Holly via pinfall in the opener o The New Blackjacks defeated "The Most Exciting Tag Team in WWF History," Doug Furnas and Phillip LaFon, via pinfall o Crush defeated Flash Funk via pinfall o Rock-a-Billy defeated Jesse James via pinfall o Rocky Maivia defeated Savio Vega via pinfall o Hunter Hearst Helmsley needed some under-handed help from Chyna to get a pinfall win over Goldust. o During the post-match HHH/Goldust melee, I was pelted square in the chest by a totally full beer that was intended for Chyna. As I quipped at the time, "If that guy didn't want his beer, he could've just given it to me. I would've drank it." Would've saved me $3.50 and a trip to the concession stand. Man, I love sitting ringside! o Mankind forced Phineas Godwinn to submit to the Mandible Claw o Faarooq got some help from Savio Vega and steel chair en route to a pinfall win over Ahmed Johnson o In the main event, Steve Austin and the Undertaker got a DQ win over the British Bulldog and Owen Hart when Brian Pillman ran into the ring and attacked Of course, those 10 bullet points don't do justice to the evening... so if you want a more in-depth report on the events, or if you can't just get enough of my writing, you can check out my comprehensive and in-depth recap. * Sunny's absence from last week's WWF RAW was due to the tragic death of her 16-year-old niece in an auto accident, according to a report in the Wrestling Observer. Of course, condolences go out to all friends and family members.... * Georgie from the Wrestling Chatterbox says that Paul Bearer might be blond-haired and clean shaven for his appearance on tonight's RAW... that would be a general description of Bearer's past identity of Percy Pringle. Rumors of a Papa Shango appearance also continue to swirl. * Anyone doubting that the WWF is adding a Light Heavyweight Title soon should put those doubts to rest... Joe Marshall, of J-MAR Belts, recently stated on his web page that his current assignment from the WWF to replace all their current belts also includes designing a new light heavyweight belt. Marshall is responsible for creating practically all of the title belts in use by both the WWF and WCW. You can read more about his current WWF tasks over at www.beltster.com. * Jay Reddick has been responsible for forwarding a lot of useful information here to the NFD... so it is with a lot of gratitude that I try to repay the favor by forwarding all of you to an extremely cool article Jay wrote for the Greensboro News and Record regarding Kevin Greene and his venture into the squared circle. Once you've enjoyed the article, you can feel free to let Jay know how much you liked it via e-mail. For those of you not reading this on the NFD Web Site -- and dammit, why aren't you?!? -- the URL for the article is "http://www.greensboro.com/nronline/sports/panthers/greene24.htm" and Jay's e-mail address is "jreddick@nr.infi.net". * Credit goes to Run For Cover and Dave the Rave for this tidbit..... Bruce Hart's son will be making his pro wrestling debut this Friday night, May 30, at the Dallas Sportatorium. Bruce Hart was one of the Hart brothers who wrestled along with Bret and Owen back at the 1993 Survivor Series. His son will be wrestling for the Dallas-based "World Class: the Next Generation" promotion. A QUICK NOTE FROM RICK: not to cast doubt on RFC's info, but I feel compelled to qualify this piece of info with the fact that I've heard that Texas wrestling legend *Gary* Hart's son was scheduled to debut for the "Next Gen" promotion... Gary Hart is totally unrelated to any of the other Harts in the wrestling biz. There is at least an ouside shot that it is Gary Hart's son who is making his debut this Friday, and that there has been some confusion surrounding that fact. I'll try to find out for sure one way or the other this week. * Finally, I'd like to inform everyone that the NFD Calendar is now 100% up and running. It contains as accurate info as I could get my hands on for the months of June and July, along with a skeleton of other super-big dates (including all PPV dates and locations) for the rest of 1997. Check it out, and feel free to let me know if I've missed any major events of national importance for June or July, or items of interest to southwest Ohio for that same timeframe. This is only the NFD Weekly Edition. Check here every Monday for the in-depth looks at all the news, as well as for the exclusive Web Home of the Alex Marvez Column. At other times during the week, be sure to check out The NFD Updates for quick recaps of breaking 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 web 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 | 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