Date: Tue, 2 Dec 1997 01:20:09 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <199712020620.BAA12446@freenet3.carleton.ca.carleton.ca> From: ag725@freenet.carleton.ca (Rick Scaia) To: nfd Subject: The News From Dayton -- 12/01/97 Reply-To: ag725@freenet.carleton.ca Sender: owner-nfd Precedence: list Content-Type: text X-UIDL: 526440463f1a7c1ac81f44aacff455de Status: O X-Status: THE NEWS FROM DAYTON For the week of December 1, 1997 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- ECW's November to Remember!!! / More on Hart 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 December 1, 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... * If you're not interested in ECW, this may not be the NFD Weekly Edition for you... your best bet may be to come back tomorrow when RAW and Nitro will undoubtably be the news of the day. * ECW held its annual November to Remember card last night... and for the first time in five tries, it was broadcast nationally on PPV. Also for the first time in five tries, I was there live to watch the show. I'll never downplay the cool atmosphere of a live ECW event. Obviously, a lot has changed since the first few times I saw ECW live (some two and a half years ago). The promotion doesn't send its wrestlers out into the crowd as impetuously as they did in the past. And the fans have certainly changed to include a lower percentage of really cool, smart fans who think they're onto something that might some day be big. I guess part of the reason why is that to get big, ECW's had to count on a wider audience (including some undesirable elements), and also tone down the wanton violence and fan interaction. But's it's still very cool to witness one of these events in person. However, even live and in person, it was easy to get the vibe that last night's November to Remember was a mixed bag. I'm sure that feeling will be reinforced once I've got time to watch my tape of the show. There were some cool surprises, and some great make-even-the-most-cynical-fan-cringe action, too. But there were also a number of missed spots, as well as an "over-booked" feel to the event that were pointed out while I was chatting with the wrestling illuminati after the show. The big day started with lines of communication getting crossed, which meant doing nothing more exciting during the early evening than sitting in the Golden Dome parking lot tossing back a few brews. It's a good thing we were there on the spot, too... if we'd shown up later, we would not have gotten in line near enough to the front to have a seat once inside the building. I thought the line was long when we got in it... it proceeded to quadruple in size. Damn. General Admission sucks for those who arrived late. The venue looked great, and was packed to standing room only... in fact, during the show the "standing" part came into play, as "Sit the fuck down" chants were more common than chants regarding the match actually going on. Fans in the bleachers apparently wanted to watch the show sitting down; fans at ringside apparently believed they could somehow see more of the action by standing up. Also, there were some fans who were upset at having to stand for the show; all I can say is that when you buy a ticket that says "general admission," you must know what you're in for. That probably sounds callous since we actually got there early enough to get great seats in the fourth or fifth row of one of the bleachers, but hey... [Actually, I really do feel bad that some people who spent the extra $10 on "TV General Admission" -- the side of bleachers opposite the cameras -- didn't get seats. I have a feeling, though, that the problem lies with jack-ass fans who bought the $15 tickets sneaking into the designated TV Gen. Adm. area, not with the promotion over-selling that set of bleachers.] Anyway, the end result of all this was that ECW had 3500 or more folks packed in, all of them anxious to see one hell of a show. At about 20 till 9:00pm, the big show kicked off: o Spike Dudley and Chris Chetti faced Aaron O'Grady and Paul Diamond (with Lady Chastity) in a special dark match to warm us up. Spike was the only guy who got a genuine response out of the crowd here, though thanks to Chastity (who briefly appeared with Raven last spring), there were some chants against the heels. Some decent action, but no crowd interest for most of the way... the highlight of the match is an awesome double springboard moonsault by Chetti, which leads to the win for the good guys. o With only a few more minutes to go before the PPV, Joey Styles hit the ring to warm up the crowd. Noticing a "Joey Styles is my dad" sign in the crowd, Joey responded "I don't know if I'm you're dad or not, but if you bring me a picture of your mom, I'll let you know." Sometimes the old ones are the best ones.... o We then went live with the show you got to see on PPV... I don't think we ever got on TV (though I think our "Dayton Love ECW" signs were visible during the wide shot they used to open the show). If you saw a "Scoops Fears the NFD" sign at ringside, I'm gonna assume that was fellow U.D. Grad Alex, who also sent along WWF results from Cleveland (those are below), and let me know he was gonna try to have an NFD sign at ringside... o The opening bout is scheduled to be Chris Candido vs. Tommy Rogers, with Candido doing his new "I'm the show stopper" bit, which I took as meaning he'd work his ass off to make every match he's in awesome. He didn't do so here (making me think a great way for Candido to get huge heel heat from the ECW crowd would be to promise to be the showstopper, but then go out and wrestle totally old school with no high spots at all). Candido and Rogers just didn't gel really well together, and any time they lapsed into a rest hold, it generated an instant "Boring" chant from the crowd. Candido and Rogers did about 10 minutes before Lance Storm (out to continue to prove himself as a worthy member of the Triple Threat) interfered on Candido's behalf; Jerry Lynn (who most of the crowd didn't recognize) came out on Rogers' behalf. The ref turned this into an impromptu tag match. With Lynn and Storm (both of whom are super workers) in the ring, things picked up a lot, but it seemed to be too little, too late (why not shift this to a tag match earlier?)... despite a few instances of missed communication (probably to keep us guessing if Storm gets accepted in the Triple Threat), Candido and Storm emerged victorious. o Next up, they did the other match that was basically a prelim match with no storyline, as Justin Credible took on Mikey Whipwreck. I believe they've tried to play up the fact that Mikey's got a past against Jason (Justin's manager), so maybe there is some context for this match. Anyway, Mikey is ECW's perennial underdog, and he was going up against the undefeated Credible last night. Maybe it seems obvious in retrospect, but seeing it live, Mikey's win with a springboard hurricarana was a big shock. This was a decent match with a nice surprising finish... the crowd responded to the surprise, though not as positively as I think they would have in the past (Mikey's old school ECW... he's really earned the respect of fans who have been watching the promotion for more than a year or two). o Pitbull #2 came out with his entourage, which included Pit #1, mouthpiece Lance Wright, and a visitor from the WWF: Brakus. It seems that Titan was stumped for what to do with a guy who's got a million dollar look, and a nickel's worth of skills... Brakus became barely passable during his stint with USWA, so I guess Vince decided to see what Paul E. and the "extreme" style can do for the German bodybuilder. Pit #2's opponent, ECW TV Champ Taz, made his entrance soon there-after, and did not waste any time. I belive it may have been less than a 2 minute match... ending with Taz choking out the Pitbull. Pit #1 tried to run in afterwards, and got suplexed on his head. Taz got on the mic, and said he noticed that Wright had his new "boyfriend" with him (speaking about Brakus), and also said that it was obvious that Lance had been given a present by Vince (also speaking about Brakus). Security intervened -- which included an amusing bit where Taz choked out a security guard for not letting Brakus in the ring -- and preventing the staredown between the two men from becoming a brawl. o The Four Way Dance of Death for the ECW Tag Titles was prefaced by the always hilarious entrance of the FBI and one of Joel Gertner's best rambles in a long time... but a sneak attack by Axl Rotten and Balls Mahoney signaled the start of the match. However, the two heel teams were able to dominate Axl and Balls, and eventually stood in the center of the ring congratulating themselves. Until the Gangstanators hit the scene, that is... with music blaring, New Jack and Kronus entered and took over the match. They destroyed Big Dick Dudley and Tommy Rich, but couldn't score an elimination against any COMPETING member of an opposing team. Shockingly, the Gangstanator heat sequence came to a rushing halt when they were the first team eliminated. That really took the steam out of the match, and out of the crowd. In a well-done segment, the Dudleys were eliminated when Buh Buh Ray was blinded by an errant toss of powder by Joel Gertner, and accidently 3D'ed his own partner. It came down to Axl and Balls vs. the defending champs, the FBI. Heel ref Jeff Jones came to the rescue of the FBI, and assisted them in retaining their belts. If the elimination of the Gangstanators brought the crowd down a notch, this finish brought them the rest of the way down... I'm all for the FBI retaining, but I'm not a big fan of the heel ref gimmick (especially when the heel ref gimmick to end all heel ref gimmicks was done two years ago by ECW with Bill Alfonso). But if you've gotta do it, the heel ref should be a heel because he's counting the three count, NOT because he's actively participating in the match. But what do I know? o Next up, Rob Van Dam battled Tommy Dreamer in a match where the winner would wave his promotion's flag high... this was a good match, with a lot of cool brawling. Things began to heat up when Beulah and Bill Alfonso began to get involved... [Well, things began to heat up when Beulah walked into the building in that dress (DAMN!), but that's neither here nor there.] Eventually, we wound up with three referees -- including Jeff Jones -- in the ring, and Beulah delivering crotch shots on Jones and Alfonso. Finally, it looked like order was restored when Jones was out of the picture and Alfonso was rendered harmless. Enter Stevie Richards. Richards, who departed WCW less than a month ago, returned to ECW by helping Van Dam against Dreamer. Refs were taken down by the heel crew, and eventually more visitors from the WWF showed up, as Phil LaFon and Doug Furnas joined "Team WWF." Sabu also came out to join the fray. Sabu actually clothelined Beulah from the top rope at one point. Even though there was no finish to the match, the WWF banner of Van Dam and Alfonso was flown. o With Sabu in the ring, they immediately segued into the tables and ladders match against Sandman. While Sandman did his grand entrance, Alfonso and refs set up tables and varying sizes of ladders around the ring. I won't even try to run down all the spots (and that's all this match was: a collection of awesome spots). Suffice to say that when they hit, it was incredible... but they also missed a few along the way (which the asshole crowd immediately felt it necessary to point out). In that way, it was a microcosm of the whole show: a mixed bag, with the hits mostly out-numbering the misses. These guys were doing all kinds of crazy stuff, and to be honest, even cynical ol' me was convinced that the Sandman must have killed himself two or three times during this match. They must have gone about 20 minutes, using all three sizes of ladder and probably half a dozen tables... the end came when Sabu hit a modified Arabian Face Buster (from the top rope instead of a standing position, and using a ladder instead of a chair) and got the three count. Sandman sold it like he was positively dead for a while (I still don't really think he had to act much), and eventually the crowd caught on and gave Sandman a polite standing ovation for his fighting spirit (even if it was in defeat). o That left us with the main event... ECW Champ Bam Bam Bigelow was the heel here, as hometown boy Shane Douglas was his challenger. Douglas, who is usually at his best as a heel, showed his versatility here by working a pure babyface match (it was pointed out to me after the show that it was almost like watching the Hogan vs. Andre match from '87, with Douglas in the Hogan role). Bigelow dominated the offense, and Shane sold almost 90% of the match. Douglas even did a little sympathy blade job, which goes to show how important this match was to him (since I can't recall him bleeding in recent memory). Despite overcoming interference from Francine (who worked herself into the match despite a bad hip) and the Triple Threat, Bigelow was finally beaten by one huge move by the "Franchise" himself: Douglas reversed Bigelow, and belly-to-belly suplexed him through a table fragment that Bigelow himself had set up. Douglas was crowned the new (and three time) ECW World Champion before an appreciative crowd. The live crowd stuck around for a bit to give Douglas a standing ovation, even after the cameras had been turned off. Like I said above, the show seemed a mixed bag, but with good outweighing bad. On top of that, the live ECW experience is always cool, so the trip was definitely worth it, despite the slight let-down. I mentioned above that the word "overbooked" was used in regards to the show, and I have to say that I basically agree... it's almost as if Paul E. isn't confident enough that the good shows that the Philly crowd sees at the Arena aren't good enough for PPV. So he tries really hard to come up with surprises and different booking than we expect. The first ECW PPV was super because I think they were just trying to "expose the world" to ECW. The last two have been mixed because with the world now exposed, Paul E. was trying too hard to blow them away, instead of just relaxing and doing the things that made ECW so popularly and critically acclaimed over the past 3 years. Specifically, the non-finish to Dreamer/Van Dam was a disappointment. Clearly, that was offset by the surprising return of Stevie Richards, but still, for a promotion that has prided itself on paying off on big matches, the overbooked finish (with just about everybody but me running in to interfere) just didn't fit. Also, I'm not sure if there's an overriding plan for Jeff Jones, but I'd suggest that right now, it's not working; sometimes doing the obvious thing is the right thing to do, and giving the titles back to the Gangstanators really would have been ideal, if you ask me. Some interesting observations: you wanna know how many guys there were on the PPV last night portrayed as having some ties to the WWF? The number is 10. TEN! Lance Wright, the Pitbulls, Brakus, Bill Alfonso, Rob Van Dam, Furnas/LaFon, Sabu, and Stevie Richards (if for no other reason than because he was associated with Alfonso's crew). Damn... this better go somewhere, otherwise all the posturing is going to get old and pointless pretty fast. Anyway, to sum up, the whole experience is a definite Thumbs Up, but I'll hold off on rating just the show until I'm sure a Thumbs in the Middle holds up after watching how the event played in televised form. * Regarding Stevie Richards: as is now obvious, the whole bit about him leaving the country to tour Europe was a total work from day one. As soon as Richards was free and clear of WCW, he planted the idea that he'd be overseas to help mask speculation that he'd return to ECW for a shot at the PPV. Rumors about Richards wanting to get out of the business were also part of the work. It's unclear just how well-planned Richards' departure from WCW and return to ECW were, but it seems to me that this didn't just happen overnight two or three weeks ago... The fact of Richards' return to ECW got out to a small circle of insiders about a week ago, but thankfully, none spread the word, so that to the vast majority of fans, his appearance on the show truly was a surprise. Even though Richards came out to help the pro-WWF camp of Bill Alfonso, it sounds like the basic plan for Stevie is to have him be an unaffiliated heel, who'll get heat because he bolted ECW earlier in the year. Stevie had nearly risen to main event status with ECW before his departure, and there's every reason to suspect he'll rapidly regain that status now that he's back. Richards as a top heel, affiliated with Alfonso' group or not, seems to be a likely scenario. * Before the show, I was told that March 1 had been pegged as the date for the next ECW pay-per-view, and that Paul had been scrambling all afternoon to finalize a title for the show. I now hear that they've chosen "Living Dangerously" as the title for the event. Despite a promise to hold an ECW PPV in Queens, NY, ECW is strongly considering holding "Living Dangerously" in Tampa, FL. I'm sure we'll hear plenty more about this in the near future. * It's December, which means Bret Hart is, according to all reputable reports, legally free and clear of the WWF. It means that he'll be able to talk publically about what happened on his way out of the WWF, including a promise to chat with Bob Ryder of 1Wrestling.com and Prodigy. [Keep your eyes and ears open for news of that chat.] It also means that Hart can no appear on WCW television at his leisure. Possibly as soon as tonight's edition of Nitro. However, the new thinking is that WCW will hold off on Hart and play up an "is he NWO or isn't he?" angle. The big pay-off would then come early in the New Year, with Hart either appearing on the debut episode of WCW's planned Thursday Night Thunder (1/8/98) or the Georgia Dome Nitro (1/5/98). Hart's been the talk of the wrestling world for a month now... but the time for talking about him is past, and the reality of how WCW is going to promote him is upon us. We'll probably find out the answer to "when" soon enough, but the answer to "what" Bret Hart will be doing is still unclear. If you're interested, you can voice an opinion on what WCW should do with Hart over in the NFD Weekly Poll. * Last week, I reported on a nearly out-of-control situation at a Richmond, VA, WWF house show, as Shawn Michaels and DX took over the show after HHH lost a main event casket match to the Undertaker. Their taunting of the crowd led to tons of garbage being thrown into the crowd, and shoving matches between DX and ringside fans. One elderly man was struck with an object, and had to taken to the hospital for stitches. Well, DX are at it again, as they closed out a house show in Cleveland in similar style. While things didn't get out of hand quite like they did the previous week (no crowd members were injured), there were still a couple of ejections after DX took the mic and Michaels let loose on the crowd. So much garbage was thrown into the ring that the ring crew actually had to squegee the canvas before taking down the ring, according to a report from NFD Reader, Ron Gardner. BTW, the results from the show, which was attended by approximately 13,000 people went something like this (thanks to NFD Reader Alex for the report): o Los Boricuas d. DOA o Ken Shamrock d. D-Lo Brown o Marvelous Marc Mero d. Flash Funk o Kane d. Vader o LOD/Steve Austin d. Faarooq/Kama/Rocky o Billy Gunn/Jesse James d. Headbangers o Undertaker d. HHH -- Casket Match * Reports of the Butterbean vs. Marc Mero match being off were premature. NFD Reader Don Becker relays to me that Butterbean was on NYC TV Sunday, and promoted the impending match. The appearance was on WNYW's Sports Extra show, and included footage of Butterbean's RAW appearances. The Bean didn't break kayfabe at all, calling Mero an obnoxious jerk, and stating this their match at the WF... there's a push to get Severn on board in time to build to a big Severn vs. Shamrock match at this year's WrestleMania. The two have a history together in UFC, where I believe they split their two matches. It'll be interesting to see how Titan would book a "shoot fight," between the duo. * Finally for this week, I want to relay a couple cool places on the web you should check out... some you may know about, others you may not: o ScoopTHIS! -- The original wrestling parody site has been recently updated, including a LEGIT interview with internet wrestling guru Bob Ryder, including the controversial sex toy question (side note: I met Bob in Pittsburgh, and he didn't strike me at all as a pervert... but maybe you need to read the interview for yourself to draw your own conclusions). o Detroit News Coverage of World War 3 -- Sorry I didn't include this link sooner... Darrin Hill of the Detroit News did up a great article of the WCW WW3 PPV from Auburn Hills; you ought to check it out. o Dallas Observer Von Erich Feature and/or Kevin Von Erich's Website -- Anyone interested in the Von Erich's legacy in wrestling should check these out; the latter is the official Von Erich Website. o RobVanDam.com -- Do I really need to tell you what a website with the domain "robvandam.com" is all about? I didn't think so... But for what it's worth, RVD's official site is very well done and professional looking. o The JOB Squad -- You can visit the slightly less-professionally done web home of some of RVD's extreme colleagues here. Al Snow has headed up a group of admitted jobbers who go by the motto "1-2-3... 4 Life." Also included are the FBI, Axl/Balls, Jerry Lynn, referee Jeff Jones, and the lovely Francine (including a comprehensive photo gallery). --------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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