Date: Sun, 21 Sep 1997 19:04:06 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <199709212304.TAA28954@freenet3.carleton.ca.carleton.ca> From: ag725@freenet.carleton.ca (Rick Scaia) To: nfd@majordomo.aimnet.com Subject: The News From Dayton -- 09/21/97 Reply-To: ag725@freenet.carleton.ca Sender: owner-nfd@majordomo.aimnet.com Precedence: list THE NEWS FROM DAYTON For the week of September 21, 1997 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Major Event Results: WWF, ECW, WCW!!! 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 21, 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 has moved 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... * It's been one of those rare weekend... all of the three major US promotions offered up events that could be fairly termed "major" (albeit in varying degrees). The WWF held their first-ever international PPV event, while ECW had a big show at their home base in Philadelphia, PA, and WCW made their contribution with "The Battle in Seattle," a house show that was simulcast over the World Wide Web. * The WWF's "One Night Only" pay-per-view was unavailable here in the United States. And judging from the reviews, we may have missed out on the best all-around PPV show of the year. Some solid wrestling matches were accompanied by genuinely surprising booking and a hot crowd to create that special atmosphere that is usually limited to domestic PPV shows. Before I go any further, let me thank all of you who took the time to heed my request for results: Steven Percival, Tommy Hull, "Army of One," Rush Walters and Igor Horniatko. Also, because he took the time to send in a comprehensive review, special thanks to "akeller@cal.cybersurf.net". o "One Night Only" opened with a Hunter Hearst Helmsley vs. Dude Love match that got things off to a great start. Dude appeared to have things well in hand when Chyna created a distraction and allowed HHH to get a Pedigree and a pinfall win. o Tiger Ali Singh defeated Leif Cassidy (it's unknown if this means Cassidy is back with the WWF, or if he'll continue to work in ECW as Al Snow). o The Headbangers successfully defended their WWF Tag Team Titles against Savio Vega and Miguel "the Wookiie" Perez. o The Patriot was getting ENORMOUS heel response from the British crowd, but still disposed of Flash Funk fairly rapidly. o The Legion of Doom got a pinfall win over the Godwinns. o Ken Shamrock did an interview (he was set to face Owen Hart, but is injured). When Rock-a-Billy came out to taunt Shamrock, he got put into an ankle-lock till he said uncle. o Vader (subbing for Shamrock) defeated Owen Hart when he reversed a top rope move by Owen into a power slam. o Bret Hart won a disqualification decision over the Undertaker. UT acted the heel role here, and disobeyed the ref to get DQ'ed. o In the main event, Shawn Michaels won the WWF European Title from the British Bulldog with help from Rick Rude, HHH, and Chyna. Diana Smith tried to interfere on her husband's behalf, but was kept at bay by Chyna. Michaels won by putting Bulldog's injured knee in a Figure Four leglock until the ref called for the bell. In doing so, Michaels becomes the first man ever to win all four WWF titles. The ending generated enormous heel heat, as the crowd reacted much like WCW crowds did to the NWO back when the NWO was peaking during the summer of '96. Various reports indicate that Michaels, HHH, Chyna, and Rude refered to themsevles as the "Triple Threat." Make of that what you will. * ECW held a big show at their home base in Philadelphia, PA, that same night. The show was set to be headlined by the first ever Sandman vs. Sabu singles contest, but tons of other events overshadowed that match. Many spectators have called the show the best Arena show in a while, as the surprises didn't revolve around hot shot appearances by WWF personalities. NFD Reader Kenny Paul was kind enough to send along results. The highlights of the show appeared to be: o In a rematch from the Hardcore Heaven PPV, Bam Bam Bigelow totally destroyed Spike Dudley. This time, when he threw Spike out into the crowd, the crowd played along by body surfing Spike all around the building. This should play great on TV. o While Rick Rude was exerting his influence over in the UK, he was also part of an ECW angle that had him sending a special mystery opponent for Shane Douglas to the Arena. This is part of an on-going angle that has Douglas asking Rude to help "keep him sharp" by supplying and training the best talent possible to face him. [Many are speculating that the angle won't be over till Shawn Michaels or some other MAJOR WWF performer is brought in to face Douglas. That'd be neat, but if you're holding your breath waiting, you're probably not wise.] Last night, Rude sent Phil LaFon to take on the "Franchise." And as you might expect, Douglas was successful in holding onto his title. o The Pitbulls returned in a heel capacity to run down ECW... eventually, Taz came down and cleaned house. An impromptu match had Taz beating Pitbull #2. o The Rob Van Dam/Bill Alfonso vs. Tommy Dreamer/Beulah mixed tag match eventually degenerated to Fonzie and Beulah battling in the ring. Fonzie wore an incredible crimson mask after taking a foriegn object shot from Beulah, but continued the match. Beulah eventually pinned Fonzie after she hit a top rope hurricarana!! This I've got to see... first she debuted a moonsault a while back, and now a top rope FrankenBeulah! [Well, actually, if we're listing her amazing feats, first, she looks like a million damn dollars, second the moonsault, and then third the 'rana. If she keeps wrestling, she ought to adopt the Stone Cold Stunner/Diamond Cutter as her finisher, and start calling it the McGuillicutter.] o In the final match of the night, the unlikely tag team of John Kronus and New Jack successfully wrestled the ECW Tag Team Titles away from the Dudley Boys. Kronus hit the 450 splash on Buh Buh for the win, though New Jack provided the highlight of the match when he jumped off the entrance balcony onto a Dudley. * Not to be left out, WCW promoted their house show in Seattle as a semi-major event, calling it the "Battle in Seattle," and providing a web simulcast of the event. Thanks to BlueHayz for providing full details and a report from Seattle. The quick and dirty results are: o Eddie Guerrero pinned Dean Malenko o Ultimo Dragon beat Alex Wright -- but it was a non-title match, so Wright remains TV Champ o Rey Misterio Jr. beat Konnan after Konnan failed in an attempt to unmask Rey o Scott Hall and Kevin Nash went to a no decision draw against Lex Luger and the Giant when ref Nick Patrick could no longer maintain control o Curt Hennig beat Jeff Jarrett with the Hennig-plex o The Steiners beat Harlem Heat via pinfall... during this match, the ring actually broke (the ropes started sagging) o In the main event, Dallas Page beat Randy Savage in under five minutes in a "Death Match" when Savage could not answer a 10 count after receiving a Diamond Cutter * The WWF's top stars were over in the UK for the PPV, but here in the states, the "B" team was prepping for the big MSG RAW tommorrow night. Marc Mero returned to action sporting a new look: completely bald. And Brakus returned to WWF rings, once again facing his mentor Tom Pritchard (wrestling as Dr. X). Both are likely to appear on RAW tommorrow (along with an also-returning Ahmed Johnson). By the way, officially announced matches for RAW include the Brian Pillman vs. Owen Hart IC Tourney semi-final, a falls-count-anywhere match between HHH and Dude Love, and Ahmed Johnson vs. Rocky Maivia (IC tourney first round match). The main event for those at MSG tommorrow is scheduled to be a Triple Threat Match for the WWF Title, with Bret Hart vs. Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels. If that happens, it'll be the first time since WM12 that Hart and Michaels are competing in the same ring. * A lot is being made of what appears to be a major effort by WCW to sign a bunch more talent before their new live prime time show debuts in January. John Nord (who as the Berzerker was one of my favorite wrestling gimmicks of all time) and Chris Adams are among those said to be signed or damn close to it. Buddy Landell and Barry Darsow are also under close consideration. [BTW, other pages indicated that in addition to Darsow, WCW was looking at bringing back the Black Top Bully. In reality, Darsow *is* the Black Top Bully. He was also Smash of Demolition and Repo Man in the WWF.] In a semi-related story, Japanese sources are reporting that Eric Bischoff made a generous offer to TAKA Michinoku if he'd join WCW. TAKA still has not accepted a contract with the WWF, so I'd imagine he's at least considering the WCW offer (especially because it would probably allow him more leeway in terms of competing internationally for other promotions). * With TAKA Michinoku contemplating offers from the Big Two, the Great Sasuke apparently got lost in the shuffle. His return to the North American continent will be with ECW, as it was announced over the weekend that Sasuke had agreed to a three show tour with ECW in October. The mini-tour includes a TV taping in Queens, NY, on 10/16 and an ECW Arena show on 10/18. * The WWF might be bringing in Matt Ghaffari in the near future. Ghaffari was a medal-winning Olympic wrestler last year in Atlanta. You may recall that right around the time the WWF was parading Olympian Mark Henry around, WCW was countering by parading around Ghaffari as their token Olympian. If true, this means the WWF might now have two worthless token Olympians on their roster.... * Hey, do you want a good laugh? If so, you should check out www.UltimateWarrior.com. I have to admit, as devoid of talent as the Warrior was, he usually managed to keep things interesting as a wrestler (be it charisma or whatever). But as a self-appointed high priest of whatever quasi-religious philosophy he's expounding on, the Warrior just plain sucks. Reading the page as it stands now, it sounds like he's sitting around with a dream to build the "Church of Latter Day Warriors" and a thesaurus, and has a lot of time to kill. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- The News From Dayton is Copyright 1995, 1997 by Rick Scaia. Reproduction of this document is discouraged, unless proper credit and a hyperlink are given to The News From Dayton. -- 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/ ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- - List: nfd - Majordomo v1.94.3 - Aimnet, Santa Clara, California, USA