Date: Tue, 17 Jun 1997 18:56:12 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <199706172256.SAA29404@freenet5.carleton.ca.carleton.ca> From: ag725@freenet.carleton.ca (Rick Scaia) To: nfd@aimnet.com Subject: The News From Dayton -- 06/16/97 Reply-To: ag725@freenet.carleton.ca Sender: owner-nfd@majordomo.aimnet.com Precedence: list THE NEWS FROM DAYTON For the week of June 16, 1997 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Real Life Brawls / Real Life Accident / Real Cheap Win for Savage 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 June 16, 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 * Alex leads off his column with recaps of the two "real life" brawls that occured last Monday night at the respective venues of WWF RAW and WCW Nitro. The bigger of the two incidents was the fistfight between Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart before RAW. Their real life hatred (or in Alex's own words, the two "legitimately despise each other") resulted in words escalating into a brief fight. Both left the building after the incident, forcing the WWF to make last second changes to the RAW is WAR telecast. Michaels was expected to fill in for the injured Steve Austin (who aggrevated a knee injury at the KotR PPV) in a match against Brian Pillman. Instead, a lackluster Mankind vs. Pillman match was offered up as the RAW main event. And Bret Hart was scheduled to do an in-ring interview to set-up next month's "Canadian Stampede" PPV main event (which is a 10 man tag match); with Hart gone, the WWF had to plug in a Rock-a-Billy vs. Bart Gunn match. Like the rest of us, Alex is uncertain where all this leaves Shawn Michaels and the WWF. He left merely reporting that while Michaels would like to leave for WCW to join his Clique friends, there are still four years left on his WWF contract. Truly, this is a "time will tell" situation. * Meanwhile, Kevin Nash was furious with Roddy Piper after the two had fought in the main event of last week's WCW Nitro. Nash was upset that Piper was doing such a poor job of selling for him in recent months. When confronted with this accusation, Piper didn't back down; this lead to heated words and a bit of a shoving match. Alex speculated that this real life tension might be enough to bring about a mild shoot in the Bash PPV main event (nothing of the sort appeared to occur), but says the PPV should be the last time the two ever have to be on opposite sides of the ring, as Piper and Flair would soon be feuding against each other. * Kevin Greene has been a hold-out from Carolina Panthers mini-camp, which allowed him the opportunity to tape an attack on Steve McMichael at a WCW TV taping last Wednesday. Greene is reportedly planning to play only one more year of football before wrestling full-time for WCW. On a side-not, Alex says that representatives of FOX football announcer Howie Long have contacted WCW expressing interest in booking a match. * More tidbits regarding the June 2 Nitro that was held right here in Dayton, OH... the Ric Flair vs. Scott Hall main event was scheduled to last 10 minutes longer than it actually did. Flair called for an early finish because he was too winded. The 48-year-old wrestler is still getting back into ring shape after a 7-month hiatus due to a shoulder injury. * Finally, despite the fact that Eric Bischoff himself stated that WCW still did not have a deal finalized with Scott "Raven" Levy as of last Thursday night, Marvez reports that a three-year deal worth $775,000 was inked last week. Levy should be debuting on an upcoming Nitro, sayeth Alex. * 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... * Last night, WCW held their annual Great American Bash PPV... I was lucky enough to have a tape of the event waiting for me, after I spent the weekend in Chicago, and then spent all of Sunday evening at my parents' home celebrating Fathers' Day. And even though I had to watch the show by myself (which is never as much fun as watching a show with a room full of rabid fans), I still thought that on the whole, WCW did a good job of delivering an entertaining show out of what looked like a pretty lame line-up. No single match really stood out as spectacularly well-worked, nor were there any major booking surprises. On top of that, I'm generally not all that interested in WCW characters/performers. But the show also had all the crap relegated into one stretch, so you could zone it out and concentrate on the good stuff. Plus, instead of the usual really poor main event, this show built to a Randy Savage vs. Dallas Page match that was actually worthy of being the climax to a three-hour long event. The overall even feel of the show made for an entertaining experience... here's how it all went down: o Two quick observations: first, the crowd seemed really dead to me. For the first 6 matches of the card, I don't think they were even awake. They didn't respond to cool moves, nor did they seem to respond to much of the typical heel/babyface schtick. And second, the announcing was pretty poor, I thought; Dusty Rhodes once again showed why I get nervous twitches whenever I hear the WWF mention him in a favorable manner. o Ultimo Dragon beat Psicosis with the "Dragon Sleeper" submission. This was a match that was good, but not nearly what I would have liked to see out of these two. o Harlem Heat beat the Steiners by DQ when the NWO's Vincent interfered. On TV, they played this off as the NWO trying to pick and choose who they face. In reality, this was a really poor match between one team that I really used to enjoy but have come to expect the worst of (the Steiners) and one team that I used to dislike but have come to enjoy (Heat). The Steiners lived down to recent expectations, while the Heat didn't really do much to try to liven things up. o Konan defeated Hugh Morrus. This was another poor match, especially considering that these two could have a decent contest if they really wanted to. Instead, they sleepwalked through it, even blowing the final spot pretty badly. Morrus was supposed to go up for the moonsault and get caught by Konan. But Konan stayed on the ground for several seconds, then acted like he was getting up, and then laid back down. The whole while, Morrus was standing on the top rope doing nothing. Finally, Konan did get up and grab Morrus to drop him face first on the turnbuckle. After cinching in a submission hold, Konan was declared the winner. o Glacier got a win over Wrath in another pretty sub-par match. Wrath actually did have a really cool move, as he did a sommersault senton from the apron to the floor; while it looked impressive, it got no crowd reaction. After this match went way longer than it should have, the storyline finally kicked in, as Glacier intercepted a chain tossed in by Mortis (who was handcuffed at ringside to prevent interference), and used it against Wrath while James Vandenburg was distracting the ref and trying to get his hands on the keys to the cuffs. The cameraman actually missed the finish of the match, as they were too busy showing the ref get the key stolen to show us Glacier hit his superkick and get the three count. After the match, Mortis was released, and he and Wrath did a two-on-one attack against Glacier. Yippee. o Things got back on track nicely, as Akira Hokuto and Madusa stepped things up and had a pretty good match. Not a lot in terms of highspots, but there was a nice build-up to the finish and good drama. Sonny Onoo ruined Madusa's attempt at her German Suplex finisher, which opened the door for Hokuto to come back and score a somewhat surprising victory. As per the matches stipulations, Madusa now can't wrestle in WCW anymore. There were hints on commentary that Madusa was actually seriously persuing a boxing career, so this might be how WCW is "writing her out" for a while; or maybe we'll just see a new large-breasted masked female wrestling sensation called the Yellow Dog debut on Nitro in coming weeks. I don't know. I don't think I care, either. o Meng and Chris Benoit next reprised their "death match" from the last PPV. While this was still far from a convincing "death match," this was still a MAJOR step up in match quality from last time. Benoit was really clicking, as he started with an awesome flurry and looked great any time he was on offense. Meng is not quite as talented, but all his offense at least hits hard enough to be convincing. This time, Meng returns the favor to Benoit by submitting to some sort of a crossface; this is still far too tepid an ending to something that is billed as a "death match." Both men left the ring on stretchers, which despite this being a pretty long and entertaining match, seemed to be a bit of overkill to get the non-existant "death match" stipulation over. o In the suprise of the night, Kevin Greene and Mongo McMichael had a very watchable match. Instead of last month's McMichael/Reggie White match, which was very obviously two football players play-pretending to be pro wrestlers, this contest came off very well -- it actually looked like two pro wrestlers going about their usual business. Greene is really good, considering this is just his third time wrestling; and with an opponent not as clueless as White, Mongo could do a better job of making sure he didn't look like a clueless oaf. This match seemed to go pretty long (like 15-plus minutes), which was also surprising. Despite the pleasantly surprising action during the match, the finish was the same-old disappointing screwjob crap we've come to get used to with the never-ending Mongo/Jeff Jarrett angle. Jarrett came down and accidently hit Mongo with the Haliburton, which gave Greene the easy three count. This actually marked our entrance into the screwjob zone... o Last Monday's Nitro main event was reprised next, as Scott Hall and Kevin Nash got a win over the duo of Ric Flair and Roddy Piper. This was just about what you'd expect out of this foursome, which is competent though unspectacular ring work. Even though I was entertained by the antics during this match, I'm hardpressed to come up with even one vivid memory of it other than Flair leaving the apron to brawl back to the dressing room with Syxx. This left Piper all alone to fight the Outsiders, and of course, he lost after this arrangment continued long enough. Obviously, this is the set-up for the Piper/Flair split, though it offered no real clues as to who would be the heel and who would be the face. o Randy Savage and Dallas Page closed out the PPV in a "Lights Out" match that was also remarkable for the fact that both Liz and Kimerly looked great in their roles as window dressing. The "Lights Out" gimmick meant that basically anything goes and falls count anywhere... and while there was some into-the-crowd brawling and action in other parts of the building, I can't really say that the "realistic violence" aspect of the match ever really took off; ECW and the WWF still have it all over WCW in terms of crazy brawling that looks like it really hurts. Instead, the Lights Out gimmick made for some really interesting drama and booking. Savage and Page kept the action moving nicely, as they transitioned between wrestling in the ring to brawling outside to doing mini-angles within the match. Several such angles involed three different referees having to be used, as Savage would assault refs at random. Finally Nick Patrick came out, and I think he was the final referee of record. The end came with all three refs out; Scott Hall ran in to deliver a Razor's Edge, which opened the door for Savage to do the top rope elbow drop. A ref recovered enough to count three, as Savage stole the win. I think I'd call this the best match of the night, as it had main event drama, some good action and booking, and actually had some heat from the crowd. Not a bad show at all... like most PPVs these days, it also gets the added disclaimer that it was "OK, but nothing special." And that disclaimer usually gets translated as "If this is what they served up every Monday night, I'd be happy." I think that label fits pretty well in the case of the GAB. * The WWF -- which has taken several very serious blows as a result of untimely injuries to top stars dating back to last summer, when IC Champ Ahmed Johnson was sidelined with a lacerated kidney -- may have taken another such blow over the weekend. En route to an event in Ottawa, WWF stars Psycho Sid, Flash Funk, Phil LaFon, and Doug Furnas were involved in a serious car accident. The accident caused a 30 minute delay at the Corel Centre show, as WWF officials tried to restructure the show to take place without the four men. Sid was driving the rented car, which is said to have flipped over and landed in a ditch. While what caused the accident is unknown, Prodigy's Bob Ryder reports that the vehicle was travelling at a high rate of speed at the time of the one-car crash. All four were taken to the hospital, where they stayed overnight. However, they suffered varying degrees of injury, according to a reporting in an Ottawa newspaper. Most reports have LaFon as the worst injured of the foursome, as he broke a shoulderblade and took a blow to the head. On the flip side, Funk was said to be merely "shaken up." The actual extent of the injuries and what it means for the four wrestlers is not known for certain at this time. It would seem likely that Furnas and LaFon will be forced out of the loop for some time, as LaFon's injury heels; but how long Funk and Sid will be out for is unknown. * The long-awaited WWF/ECW/USWA interpromotional feud appears to have kicked into high gear. ECW was a major presence on WWF RAW last week, as Tommy Dreamer jumped the railing to attack Jerry Lawler and Rob Van Dam on the live telecast. On ECW television this past weekend, the whole extended incident where Jerry Lawler, Van Dam, and Sabu wreaked havoc was broadcast. And Saturday in Memphis, the USWA was the battleground for the next chapter in the war. Saturday morning, during the live USWA broadcast in Memphis (shown in syndication in many markets a week later), Tommy Dreamer showed up and crashed the program. He assaulted a number of USWA officials and did damage to the USWA set while verbally lacing into USWA and Jerry Lawler. This was done to hype the match later that evening between Dreamer and Lawler at the Big One Expo Center; about 400 showed up to witness the event. Dreamer and Lawler went to a no-decision, as the duo brawled wildly for awhile before Dreamer again got too extreme for Memphis and started attacking USWA officials. It's expected that Dreamer and Lawler will duel again at the July ECW Arena show. In the meantime, the WWF portion of the angle will pick up, as Sabu will be introduced on RAW either tonight or next week as Van Dam's partner. Shortly thereafter, the Sandman will be introduced on RAW as an associate of Tommy Dreamer's; this will set up a Van Dam/Sabu vs. Dreamer/Sandman tag match at SummerSlam. Jerry Lawler is expected to repay the favor by appearing on ECW's PPV later in August. * By the way, this past weekend's ECW television program was probably the single best hour of free wrestling so far this year. The show was packed, as it included a quick tease of the Eliminators unfortunate situation (due to Saturn's legit knee injury) to start things off. And then it was to the ring for the "Final Battle" between Tommy Dreamer and Raven; this was a super brawl that included both men bleeding, a lot of drama (which was hard, since everybody knew that Raven had to lose), and tons of action. Dreamer won after about his fifth DDT on Raven. After that match, the lights went out, and Rob Van Dam, Sabu, and Jerry Lawler each appeared in the ring. Together, the trio laid out just about all the top ECW stars, including the Sandman and the Gangstas. Finally, the three left once Taz hit the ring. Taz in the ring provided the perfect segue into the next match, which was a rematch with Sabu. To be honest, I thought this match was even better than their Barely Legal match, as Sabu did a lot more high-flying. The end came when Taz locked on the Tazmission... but Sabu was able to angle backward to pin Taz's shoulders to the mat. Despite being in the chokehold, Sabu became the first man to defeat Taz in almost two years. After a verbal confrontation with Shane Douglas, Taz promised to leave ECW for 45 days if he could not choke out Douglas and take his ECW TV title in under 3 minutes. So sure enough, two and a half minutes into an impromptu match, Taz was able to choke out Douglas to become the new ECW TV Champion. Doing a quick mental search, I am unable to come up with a single more exciting, action-packed hour of wrestling on free/cable TV all year... * Fall-out from the Great American Bash: first off, Scoops is reporting that DDP was injured in the main event, and had to be taken to the hospital after the match. And secondly, if you're keeping track of PredCon (my PPV predicting grudge match against Sean Shannon), then I must humbly report that I got my lunch handed to me, as I guess only 4 of 9 matches correctly on the GAB PPV; Sean picked 7. Be sure to check out PredCon and the rest of Sean's page. * The Wrestling Lariat is reporting that it's a done deal that WWF RAW will be moving to a 9-11 pm (eastern) timeslot, while retaining the live, two-hour format. The first day of the new timeslot will be August 4, when the Lariat reports that RAW will be live from Atlantic City, NJ. 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. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- 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