From: ag725@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Rick Scaia) Subject: [INFO] The News From Dayton -- 09/15/97 Date: 1997/09/20 Message-ID: <5vvmhd$ego$3@alpha.sky.net> X-Original-Date: 18 Sep 1997 18:33:57 GMT Followup-To: rec.sport.pro-wrestling Organization: The National Capital FreeNet Newsgroups: rec.sport.pro-wrestling.info,rec.sport.pro-wrestling THE NEWS FROM DAYTON For the week of September 14, 1997 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- What Really Happened in Amarillo / Fall Brawl 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 September 14, 1997 The News From Dayton remains a combination of the MOST RELIABLE wrestling news as reported elsewhere in the wrestling underground and the most interesting morsels of exclusive and unique news that I can dig up. The goal is the both inform and entertain you, the Home Viewer, without cluttering up your brain with total lies and fabrications that are common on other web pages. By the way, if you are reading the NFD on one of the RSPW newsgroups, or anywhere on the web other than the Official News From Dayton Web Site, or if you are linking directly here without checking out the main NFD 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 * Unfortunately for those of us in Dayton, Alex Marvez has moved on to bigger and better things. Instead of covering the Bengals and pro wrestling for the Dayton Daily News, he'll be moving to Denver to cover the Broncos for the Rocky Mountain News starting this season. We are all indebted to Alex for the reliable inside wrestling news he passed along to readers, both via the NFD and by his weekly wrestling column in the Dayton Daily News. Alex hopes to continue a weekly column in Denver, and also hopes that it will be available on the internet. I'll no longer be able to include information from Alex here in the NFD, but if/when his column is available elsewhere on the 'net, I'll be sure to include a hyperlink to it here. IN OTHER NEWS... * Over the weekend, there was a lot of confusion over just what happened at the Funk Tribute card in Amarillo, TX, last week. I, unfortunately, may have contributed to that confusion. Let me try to rectify the situation here by offering the accurate results of the evening. The Fifty Years of Funk main event, which pit "Extreme Legend" Terry Funk against reigning WWF Champ Bret Hart, actually ended with a small-package sort of deal (which was Hart's reversal to either a back suplex or to a spinning toe hold attempt by Funk), in which both guys wound up having their shoulders down. However, Hart got his up on the count of two, and Funk wound up taking the pinfall loss. Hart, who is a friend of the Funk family, started the match with a show of respect to Terry, but still promised to deliver a "Canadian Ass Whipping." The crowd of about 3500 was strongly behind Funk, however. The support didn't help, though, as Funk's last match in his hometown will now go down in history as a loss to Bret Hart. Other matches on the card: o Terry's brother, Dory Jr. was more successful, as he defeated ECW stand-out Rob Van Dam with the spinning toe hold o Sabu was given a DQ win over Mankind when Mankind put the ref in the Mandible Claw o ECW Champ Shane Douglas defeated Tommy Dreamer o ECW TV Champ Taz made Chris Candido tap out o Balls Mahoney pinned Buh Buh Ray Dudley, getting an assist from the Sandman o The Youngbloods beat the Bushwhackers o WING Kanemura defeated Road Kill I can't apologize enough for first making the erroneous report, and then being unable to correct it for a full two days. Thanks to NFD Reader "NDogAHS" for passing along an ACCURATE and TIMELY report, which I unfortunately was unable to put to use until today. As always, I appreciate contributions like this from readers, and am just sorry that I couldn't do it proper justice in this case. * Other than setting the record straight on Funk/Hart, today's biggest news is obviously the looming WCW Fall Brawl PPV. The "War Games" match concept is one of WCW's longest-standing traditions, though that didn't stop new "interim chairman" Roddy Piper from altering the long-standing War Games match for tonight's show. Instead of having Ric Flair team with Lex Luger, Dallas Page, and the Giant to face a a loaded NWO team, Flair will now be joined by his Four Horseman mates in facing a diluted NWO squad while Luger, DDP, and the Giant are shunted off to the undercard. The double cage match main event will pit Flair, Curt Hennig, Chris Benoit, and Steve McMichael against Kevin Nash, Syxx, Konnan, and Buff Bagwell. Given that the NWO team is going into the match with only one true main event wrestler on their team (Nash) and three mid-card (or lower) performers, a Four Horseman victory seems imminent. However, there is much speculation that Curt Hennig will turn on the Horsemen tonight. This would obviously set up a Horseman defeat, and perhaps allow for the much-rumored debut of Dean Malenko as a Horseman. Meanwhile, the undercard now features Lex Luger and DDP teaming up to face Scott Hall and Randy Savage; this interesting contest was set up by a slowly building angle over the past month that teased a break-up of the Luger/DDP duo. After those two big matches, the card thins out a bit, and includes a lot of mid-card talent and under-developed feuds. The Giant will tangle with the NWO's Scott Norton; the Giant has been inexplicably invisible in recent weeks. Dean Malenko and Jeff Jarrett will continue their feud, as they fight to see who the Number One Contender for the US Title (held by Mongo McMichael) is. Two title matches on the PPV will have Alex Wright defending his TV Title (against Ultimo Dragon) and Eddie Guerrero challenging for Chris Jericho's Cruiserweight title. Two tag team matches round out the card: Mortis and Wrath take on the Faces of Fear, and the Steiners will face Harlem Heat. In terms of big name appeal, the only real big match on this card is the Luger/DDP vs. Hall/Savage tag match; the "War Games" gimmick, however, should make up for the less-than-marquee-level talent in the main event. In many ways, this PPV seems to be more of a place-holding event that'll be used to set up what promises to be a huge Halloween Havoc card. Already, Hogan vs. Piper and Giant vs. Nash are reported to be two matches set for the October PPV event; both those matches are bigger than anything set for tonight's show. * After tonight's PPV, the focus of wrestling fans will shift to the usual head-to-head battle for Monday night ratings... but because of the WWF's new policy of taping every other week's RAW is WAR, we can already sneak a peak at what to expect tomorrow from Titan. If you're not interested in having the results of the show "spoiled" for you by reading here, skip down to the next bullet. The most notable results from the taping were: o The Patriot got a win over Owen Hart when Steve Austin interfered. Austin continues to dog Owen, and the entire collection of WWF officials and personalities for that matter. After having put the Stone Cold Stunner on Jim Ross and Sgt. Slaughter in recent appearances, Austin ups the ante again, as he put "the King" Jerry Lawler in the hold during a segment taped for tomorrow night. There is a TON of speculation that Austin's rampage will reach its climax on September 22nd's RAW is War (at Madison Square Garden), with Austin putting the Stunner on Vince McMahon. o The InterContinental Title tournament continued, as two matches were taped last Tuesday. Ken Shamrock advanced with a clean win over Faarooq; he'll face the winner of the Ahmed Johnson vs. Rocky Maivia match that will be held on 9/22. And Brian Pillman advanced with a DQ win over Dude Love; Pillman was awarded the match when Dustin Rhodes (in street clothes) ran in to interfere in the match. Pillman must now face Owen Hart in the second round. o Both the minis and some new luchadores were in action; the WWF seems to have secured a lot of Mexican talent, and is ready to feature it. Also, TAKA Michinoku wrestled in a Light Heavyweight match. With WCW coming off a PPV, Nitro is sure to have a lot of unexpected twists to counter the week-old RAW. As usual, nothing is announced for the show, so expect a lot of surprises and on-the-fly stuff coming off the PPV. * On a related Monday night note: a lot of people are saying that it's "confirmed" that RAW on Sept. 22 will get extra time on the USA Network. It is NOT confirmed according to USA Network programming grids, however. Plus, keep in mind that if you're talking about the WWF putting on a three hour RAW, that would take them all the way up to midnight eastern time. I'm not entirely sure that there are any marginal returns on getting extra time after 11:00pm... and I wouldn't expect that USA is rushing to pre-empt or move around "Walker, Texas Ranger" just yet. Also, for those of you who set your VCRs to tape RAW, pay attention, because starting sometime in the next several weeks, RAW will be losing its 8:57 start time, and will instead just be starting at the top of the hour like a normal show. * Georgiann Makropolous, reporting for Bob Ryder's 1Wrestling.com, says that felony charges against Steven Regal stemming from his behavior on an international flight last month (he was reportedly piss drunk... har har) have been dropped. If he had been convicted, he likely would not have been allowed to continue to work in the United States. Though that shouldn't be a problem now, it's not entirely known if WCW is interested in keeping Regal on their active roster. Even though Regal hadn't been involved in any really important programs for the past few months, he has been one of WCW's most consistant performers going back several years. He'd be missed if he doesn't come back to WCW. * ECW officially addressed the Tod Gordon situation on television this week. If this is an angle (as many suspect), then it certainly hasn't started off with a bang. Instead of verbally running Gordon down for his reported betrayal of the company, Paul Heyman made a rather subdued announcement that Tod Gordon was leaving the company to spend more time with his family. Heyman went on to wish Gordon the best of luck, and said that he'd do his best -- along with the rest of the ECW crew -- to live up to dreams and goals set by Gordon during his tenure with ECW. NFD Readers voiced their opinions on this topic in last week's NFD Weekly Poll. In a very close call, 36% of readers said they thought the whole thing was an angle, while 32% said they thought Gordon's actions were a betrayal of trust, and the other 32% thought the whole incident was "just business." You can get detailed results, and voice your opinion on this week's all new weekly poll question over in the NFD Readers' Forum. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- The News From Dayton is Copyright 1995, 1997 by Rick Scaia. -- Rick Scaia | VISIT ME ON THE WEB A True Yankee Bastard | http://www.ncf.carleton.ca/~ag725/ ag725@freenet.carleton.ca | http://homepages.udayton.edu/~scaiarij/ -----------------------------------------------------------------------------