Date: Sun, 23 Nov 1997 16:58:39 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <199711232158.QAA20145@freenet2.carleton.ca.carleton.ca> From: ag725@freenet.carleton.ca (Rick Scaia) To: nfd Subject: The News From Dayton -- 11/23/97 Reply-To: ag725@freenet.carleton.ca Sender: owner-nfd Precedence: list Content-Type: text X-UIDL: 8ba7bd7905ed7827be85286f1690fe49 Status: O X-Status: THE NEWS FROM DAYTON For the week of November 23, 1997 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- (Near) Riot in Richmond / WW3 Preview 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 November 23, 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... * In just a few hours, WCW will unleash the third World War 3 PPV in the past three years. Once again, a 3-ring, 60-man battle royal will provide the main event. As with most "battle royal" or "royal rumble" based events, the ultimate weakness of the show is that despite the inclusion of 20, or 30, or even 60 men, the number of guys with an actual chance to win is always more along the lines of 3 or 4. Still, the spectacle of seeing 60 wrestlers competing simultaneously in 3 rings is something to behold, and should once again provide us with a unique wrestling experience. The winner of the battle royal will receive a title shot at the next WCW PPV where there isn't a title match signed (in this case, that's February '98 at SuperBrawl, since December's Starrcade is headlined by Hogan vs. Sting, and January's PPV is going to be promoted as an "NWO" event). Most observers have the Giant pegged as the odds-on winner at this point, though Kevin Nash is also high on many lists. Some are speculating that Ric Flair has an outside shot at having one last run at the title in him, and might come out the winner tonight. One guy who WON'T be in the battle royal is Bret Hart. Despite non-stop rumors to the contrary, Hart won't start with WCW until after December 1, and might even be held back longer than that (possibly having his wrestling debut come at the planned GeorgiaDome Nitro after the New Year). With most of WCW's headliners unwilling to work twice in a night, the WW3 undercard is somewhat lacking, with only a Curt Hennig vs. Ric Flair No DQ match for the US Title standing out. Hennig and Flair had a solid brawl on the last WCW PPV show, but had it end weakly with a DQ finish. That shouldn't be repeated here tonight. The rest of the undercard looks like this: o Perry Saturn vs. Disco Inferno -- TV Title Match o Eddie Guerrero vs. Rey Misterio Jr. -- Cruiserweight Title Match (this one should kick ass) o Bill Goldberg vs. Mongo McMichael (this one should bite ass) o Steiners vs. Steve Regal/Dave Taylor -- Tag Team Title Match o Ultimo Dragon vs. Yuji Nagata -- if Dragon wins, he gets to beat up Sonny Onoo o Raven vs. Scotty Riggs Complete World War 3 results will be posted in an NFD Update tomorrow afternoon. * A WWF house show Friday night in Richmond, VA, ended with an ugly near-riot. Several NFD Readers sent along reports, all of which agreed on the key points.... The main event match was a casket match between the Undertaker and Hunter Hearst Helmsley. Shawn Michaels and Chyna eventually were both at ringside. Even during the match, there were a number of incidents of DX getting into verbal sparring with ringside fans. There was some spitting, and a couple of crowd members were ejected early. The match was said to be quite good, and ended with HHH being tossed into the casket. Attempted interference from the other DX members resulted in both of them being chokeslammed and stuffed into the casket as well. Undertaker was named the winner. UT left the scene, leaving DX to slowly emerge from the casket and recover their senses. Shawn Michaels led the way back into the ring, where he got a microphone and did a super heel heat sequence, making fun of the fans and the city of Richmond. Fans -- a large percentage of whom were said to be inebriated -- started throwing a bunch of stuff toward the ring. An old man seated on the floor was hit by a beer can, and had to be assisted to a nearby hospital to be stitched up because he was bleeding so badly. The insanity continued, as fans incited a couple of shoving matches with DX as the latter trio were attempted to leave ringside. Security had to be called in to remove certain fans and allow DX to escape the scene. The reports I got were that security did a very good job of keeping things from being any worse. What happened was certainly an ugly finish to the show, but it was kept from becoming an all-out riot because of security knowing when to get serious about things. Still, you've got to question the intelligence of fans who are anxious to get into shoving matches with the wrestlers... having fun and getting riled up in a verbal confrontation is one thing. This newfound propensity for physical altercations among wrestling fans is, however, unacceptable. * By the way, the Richmond house show was the second in a successful run through the south. Thursday night, the WWF returned to Greensboro, NC, for the first time in 7 years, and drew an estimated 13,000 fans for a show headlined by Shawn Michaels vs. the Undertaker. Thanks to NFD Southern States Correspondent Jay Reddick for these results: o TAKA Michinoku d. Brian Christopher o DOA d. Los Boricuas o Ahmed Johnson d. Sultan o Marc Mero d. Flash Funk o Kane d. Vader o LOD d. Billy Gunn/Jesse James o Mark Henry d. D-Lo Brown o Ken Shamrock d. HHH o Dude Love d. Rocky Maivia o Undertaker d. Shawn Michaels -- DQ [as the fans were filing out, Michaels was still "recovering" from a post-match beating UT administered to all three members of DX... he got on the house mic and said, "I know you weren't expecting a speech tonight, but I just want to tell you that all 3 of us are OK. Since I knew you were concerned." Which, you have to admit, is pretty damned funny.] The next night in Richmond, the results were: o Marc Mero d. D-Lo Brown (subbing for Flash Funk) o DOA d. Los Boricaus o Brian Christopher d. TAKA Michinoku o Goldust did an interview that got massive heel heat o LOD d. Billy Gunn/Jesse James o Mark Henry d. Sultan o Ken Shamrock d. Kama (subbing for Jim Neidhart) o Dude Love d. Rocky Maivia o Undertaker d. HHH [with ensuing post-match chaos as reported above] For both shows, the Dude Love vs. Rocky Maivia falls-count-anywhere matches got huge praise as being fantastic ****+ affairs. At both shows, tons of foriegn objects were introduced, and Dude Love would appear driving an equiptment cart full of more plunder in the middle of the match. Both matches ended with Steve Austin running in, delivering a stunner on Maivia, and Dude scoring the pinfall. Also on both shows, the match involving Mark Henry was said to be god-awful, with Henry unable to sell the other guys moves at all, and lacking much in the way of offense himself. * Bob Ryder, of 1Wrestling.com is reporting that Ric Flair has agreed to a deal that will keep him in WCW for the next three years (which will likely be the end of Ric's career as an active wrestler). A signed letter of intent reached Eric Bischoff late last week, and the signing of the actual contract is -- I guess -- pretty much just a formality now. With Flair agreeing to stay on board, I think we can expect to see his stock once again rise in WCW, possibly including a run as US Champ, or headlining a PPV or two down the line against Hulk Hogan (or whoever the WCW Champ is). * Bret Hart's expected start date with WCW is still December 1, and it appears as though he will be lying low until that date. "Legal reasons" are the justification given for Hart skipping two scheduled chances to address the public. Hart was first scheduled to be on TSN's "Off the Record" last Wednesday; then he was supposed to be the guest of Bob Ryder for a Prodigy chat session. Many are figuring that Hart is just trying to avoid any situation that might anger Vince McMahon enough to have assault charges brought against Bret Hart for what happened after Survivor Series. For what it's worth, a new "theory" is gaining momentum among certain wrestling observers. I believe it was Mark Madden who first suggested it, but now Joey Styles has gone on record as saying the whole "screwjob" finish at Survivor Series was actually a work. It gives Bret Hart an "out" that lets him leave without losing clean to Shawn Michaels and give the WWF heat and the interest of the "smart" fans. If so, it's certainly worked, as Bret Hart has the babyface "respect" back that he lost when he turned heel, and the WWF has seen ratings for RAW bumped up big time by the incident. * The WWF will actually continue to play off Bret Hart's departure tomorrow on RAW, as it's been announced that Shawn Michaels will have some sort of challenge to toss Hart's way. The WWF will play it up as though Hart might actually respond because he's still got time left on his WWF contract, even though most expect Hart will lie low and make his next Monday night appearance on Nitro sometime in the near future. Also tomorrow on RAW, Michaels will wrestle a match against Vader, Jeff Jarrett will re-debut in the ring, and the final first round match of the LHW Tourny will take place. * There are some rumblings surroudning the Pitbulls status with ECW. As you should know, the Pitbulls have become part of the "WWF vs. ECW" angle that is being played out in ECW. Pitbull #2, Anthony Durante, is scheduled to face Taz in a TV Title match on ECW's November to Remember PPV next Sunday. However, the Pitbulls have been rumored to be headed to WCW for the past week or so. Some pages are even reporting that it's a done deal. For certain, what we know right now is that the Pitbulls are unhappy with their pay in ECW, and have been bragging about heading to Atlanta. Wrestlers and management have been equally unhappy about the Pitbulls performance and attitude, and are of the general mindset that Turner won't touch the Pitbulls until after their trial on drug trafficking charges. Either way, it's thought the Pitbulls wouldn't be much of a loss. There are even rumors that Paul Heymann is possibly positioned to replace Pit #2 on the PPV with 2 Cold Scorpio (a/k/a "Flash Funk"), if necessary. * The WWF is going to be doing their best to make the most of the "hell in the cell" concept and cage. It's generally believed that a Shawn Michaels vs. Undertaker cell rematch should be headlining a PPV in early '98 (possibly the Royal Rumble), which should generate huge interest considering that their previous encounter has practically locked up "Match of the Year" honors. On a side note, I've been told that Al Isaacs of Scoops is also reporting that a Hell in the Cell match at WrestleMania between the 'Taker and Kane is in the works. Works for me.... * Several other areas of the NFD Web Site have been recently updated: o NFD Calendar -- updated with dates of all WWF/WCW PPVs for 1998... including a "back-to-back" weekend of events late in the year, when Titan will promote a Saturady night event, and WCW a Sunday night show. o NFD Readers' Forum -- updated with all new contributions to the discussion areas, and also a brand new poll question. Last week's poll results, in which NFD Readers voted to build a promotion around Shawn Michaels rather than Bret Hart, are also available. o NFD Fantasy Booking -- this actually isn't updated with a new entry just yet, but it should be very soon. If you haven't done so, check out Fantasy Survivor Series for the time being... --------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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/ ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- - List: nfd - Majordomo v1.94.4 - Aimnet, Santa Clara, California, USA