Date: Mon, 30 Jun 1997 00:34:56 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <199706300434.AAA02151@freenet2.carleton.ca.carleton.ca> From: ag725@freenet.carleton.ca (Rick Scaia) To: nfd@majordomo.aimnet.com Subject: The News From Dayton -- 06/30/97 Reply-To: ag725@freenet.carleton.ca Sender: owner-nfd@aimnet.com Precedence: list THE NEWS FROM DAYTON For the week of June 30, 1997 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tyson and Wrestling? / WWF, WCW, and ECW Saturday Night Events! 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 30, 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 Marvez's top story this week covers the possibility that Mike Tyson could become the latest mainstream sports celebrity to enter the realm of pro wrestling. Mike Tyson and his entourage were expected to be guests of WCW tomorrow night at their Las Vegas Nitro telecast. Tyson's presence was NOT scheduled to be an on-camera appearance. However, Alex goes on to say that it was entirely plausible that many within WCW would want to build to Tyson becoming a WCW performer. With their track record of signing any interest sports figure to become a wrestler (Reggie White, Kevin Greene, Dennis Rodman), it's likely that if Tyson had won his match last night against Holyfield, WCW would have lobbied hard to get Tyson into an on-screen role. It should be noted that Alex's wrestling column gets turned in on Friday, so he was, of course, not aware of Tyson's outlandish actions during last night's fight. If I may be so bold as to interject some other thoughts into the "Marvez" section of the NFD, I think it's safe to say that Mike Tyson has -- rightfully so -- become public relations poison, and won't be appearing on Nitro. There probably are people who will still pay to see him fight, but I doubt if the general public would be ready to accept Tyson in any role a mere two days after he bit a chunk out of Evander Holyfield's ear on pay-per-view TV. BTW, the one really good joke that could have been made out of this whole bizarre and ludicrous incident (think Mike Tyson and the new NWO "Bite Me" t-shirts...) was already done by Bob Ryder. Which leaves me to make lame parallels between Holyfield and Mick "Mankind" Foley, or jest that Don King's been in close contact with Vince McMahon and/or Paul Heymann -- and Holyfield's way more hardcore than anyone ever thought -- because this seemed more like a pro wrestling angle than a legitimate contest. * With the Tyson deal likely out the window, Alex said that WCW is also prepared to debut Curt Hennig tomorrow night in Vegas as their big surprise. It's also widely speculated that Hennig will also be Dallas Page's mystery partner at the next WCW PPV (facing Scott Hall and Randy Savage). Other surprises you might expect tomorrow on Nitro: Scott "Raven" Levy is said to be ready to go for WCW. And Jose Lothario will appear on the WCW telecast; Lothario was Shawn Michaels' manager for most of 1996 in the WWF, and it's thought that WCW wants to use Jose to spark rumors of Shawn jumping to WCW. * Ahmed Johnson suffered a knee injury during last Monday's WWF RAW is WAR telecast. He had surgery during the week, and is expected to miss four months before returning to the ring. Replacing Ahmed in his main event title match against the Undertaker at next Sunday's Canadian Stampede PPV will be Vader. As chronicled all last week in NFD Daily Updates, and as mentioned in passing by Alex in his column, this is yet another in a string of injuries plaguing the WWF and its star at inopportune times. * Finally, Alex notes that the WWF/ECW co-promotional effort hit a bit of a roadblock last Monday, as tensions flared backstage when Rob Van Dam found out he traveled all the way to the taping to lose a match to Jesse James via countout. Even if those troubles are not smoothed over, the WWF/ECW agreement will continue, with Taz expected to be the next ECW star to appear on RAW; Taz was backstage at the last RAW taping, but did not appear on camera. * 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... * The biggest "Other News" has got to be the three major house shows put on by each of the three biggest promotions in this country last night. WCW promoted the biggest and most heavily hyped of the three events, as they went so far as to refer to their return to Los Angeles as "Saturday Nitro." The WWF was competing for fans, as they put on a loaded house show just up the road a piece in Anaheim. And ECW returned once again to their home base, the ECW Arena, for a big show. I've gotten reports from NFD Readers who attended all three shows, and I'll run the results for you here. * Starting at the LA Forum, where WCW promoted "Saturday Nitro," here are results, courtesy of NFD Readers Marty Rogers and Bart Cooper: o In the opener, Juventud Guerrera, Damien, and Super Calo defeated Konnan, La Parka, and Villano IV. o Ultimo Dragon beat Psicosis. o Eddie Guerrero returned to action, as he beat Dean Malenko. Afterwards, Eddie did was termed a "so-so" heel interview. o Chris Jericho came out next, and challenged the winner of the upcoming Cruiserweight Title match to face him later on. o Syxx defeated Rey Misterio Jr. to retain the Cruiserweight Title. He accepted Jericho's challenge, and lost the impromptu match -- and his title -- in under 2 minutes. Jericho is your new Cruiserweight Champ. o The Steiners beat the team of Buff Bagwell and Masahiro Chono. o The entire NWO came to the ring, and Hulk Hogan issued a challenge to Sting to come down and face him later that night. o Roddy Piper defeated Ric Flair by submission (with the sleeper). o Diamond Dallas Page pinned Randy Savage following a Diamond Cutter. o Lex Luger and the Giant were DQ winners over the Outsiders when Hulk Hogan ran in to save Hall from Luger's Torture Rack. At this point, Sting came down from the rafters and brawled with Hogan for a few minutes, until Hogan decided to leave the ringside area. Sting, Luger, and the Giant proceeded to each destroy a member of the "Wolfpack," and left the ring victorious while Nash, Hall, and Syxx were left lying. * The WWF counted with a big show at the near-by Pond at Anaheim. Thanks to NFD Reader Rich "Ratboy" Humphreys, who forwarded notes and results: o Rock-a-Billy defeated Flash Funk. o Faarooq and Kama Mustafa beat the New Blackjacks. o Ken Shamrock defeated Jim Neidhart. Shamrock got great crowd response, and earned positive marks for both his ability to sell Neidharts limited offense, as well as for debuting a nice hurricarana. o The California Tan Contest was next, and was hosted by the Honkeytonk Man. Marlena, Sunny, and Sable all strutted their stuff in extraordinarily scanty outfits; Chyna came to the ring in her usual spandex attire, and was verbally accosted by Honkeytonk, who said she should be showing more skin, like the other three ladies. This earned Honkey a bodyslam from Chyna; and Honkey responded by disqualifying Chyna from the contest. Fans voted for the winner with the cheers; Marlena got loud cheers, Sunny got louder cheers, and Sable was named the winner by getting the loudest cheers. And "Ratboy" wisely got a lot of pictures. :) o In a Triple Threat Tag Team Match, Owen Hart and the British Bulldog emerged victorious over the Godwinns and Legion of Doom; Owen pinned Phineas Godwinn to get the win. o Vader defeated Goldust by pinfall. o Mankind beat Hunter Hearst Helmsley by DQ when Chyna interfered. o In the main event Triple Threat match for the WWF Title, Undertaker was the winner over Bret Hart and Steve Austin. This was described as an excellent match... UT scored the pinfall on Bret Hart using a chokeslam. This came while Steve Austin was being attacked by the Hart Foundation for putting a Stunner on Bret. After the match, Undertaker refused to follow Paul Bearer's orders, and in fact, slapped his former manager around a bit. Bearer responded by getting on the house mic and telling everybody that he was going to reveal UT's shocking secret on RAW tomorrow. o The new Hart Foundation t-shirt as well as the now-popular Mankind t-shirts sold out before the evening was over; the WWF was well-stocked when it came to "Austin 3:16" shirts, though. * And thanks to NFD Reader Kenny Paul for sending in a recap of Saturday night's "Orgy of Violence" event at the ECW Arena: o Lance Storm defeated Tracey Smothers o PG-13 beat the team of Mikey Whipwreck and Spike Dudley o Chris Candido beat his former "Bodydonna" partner, Tom Pritchard o Bam Bam Bigelow defeated Pitbull #2 o Taz retained the ECW TV Title by making John Kronus submit to the Tazmission o Balls Mahoney beat Louie Spicolli o The Dudley Boys retained their ECW Tag Team Titles by defeating the Gangstas; this bloody match ended when New Jack was pinned following a Bubba Cutter o The main event match of Sabu/Rob Van Dam vs. Tommy Dreamer/Sandman went to a no contest. About fifteen minutes into the match, the lights in the arena went dark (as they did three weeks ago). When they came back on, Jerry Lawler was in the ring to assist Sabu and Van Dam against Dreamer/Sandman (as he did three weeks ago). This was after Lawler sent a videotape to ECW (aired on this week's TV) promising that he WOULDN'T be at the event. When Tommy Dreamer made a comeback and started beating on Lawler, the crowd was jazzed. But then the lights went out again. When they came back on, Jim Cornette was in the middle of the ring, wielding his trademark tennis racket. Cornette threw some awesomely stiff racketshots before the hated foursome were eventually cleared out of the ring by Taz. o After Taz cleared the ring, he obtained a WWF RAW t-shirt from a ringside fan, and proceeded to set it on fire in the middle of the ring. That image will likely be a powerful one used to further the on-going WWF/ECW co-promotional effort. Unlike past uses of fire in the ECW Arena, this one was carefully tended to and never placed a single person (performer or fan) in any danger. * Not only did WWF programming over the weekend confirm that Vader would be replacing Ahmed Johnson in the Canadian Stampede PPV main event, but it also marked the first mention of the Great Sasuke and Michinoku Pro Wrestling on WWF TV. Instead of debuting tomorrow on RAW, as widely reported, the Sasuke/TAKA Michinoku match has been moved to the "Canadian Stampede" PPV. All I can say is I'm sure that match will be worth paying for. * Speaking of planned debuts on tomorrow's RAW, it should be noted that Jim Ross' rumored "Franchise Player" was nothing but an internet creation, according to Ross himself. I guess somebody with a perverse agenda got a real kick over seeing use wet ourselves with anticipation when that rumor got picked up, eh? But even though the "Franchise Player" rumor is now being played off as a hoax, some are saying that RAW will see the return of a former IC Champ. Names tossed around by the Real News Wrestling Sheet in regards to this rumor are Rick Rude and Ricky Steamboat. We'll see... * Finally, let me once again encourage all of you to take advantage of the NFD Readers' Forum. There's room for everybody to participate, and discussion areas even for those of you who love ECW, indie wrestling, or international promotions!! And don't forget the Weekly Poll, too... the results of the first weekly poll are now available! This is only the NFD Weekly Edition. Check here every Monday for in-depth coverage of 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 the contents of the web 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 | 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