Date: Tue, 9 Dec 1997 21:46:29 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <199712100246.VAA24032@freenet2.carleton.ca.carleton.ca> From: ag725@freenet.carleton.ca (Rick Scaia) To: nfd Subject: The News From Dayton -- 12/08/97 Reply-To: ag725@freenet.carleton.ca Sender: owner-nfd Precedence: list Content-Type: text X-UIDL: 4105e12d0c443bb4c0efbf3b582992fa Status: U THE NEWS FROM DAYTON For the week of December 8, 1997 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Owen Returns / New ECW Champs 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 8, 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... * Last night's WWF Degeneration X pay-per-view has supplied the week's biggest story. And it's not even the result of one of the matches... it was the surprising return of Owen Hart to active WWF duty that turned the most heads. Much like recent WCW and WWF PPV events, this show reeked of mediocrity that has become the standard with these events coming right on the heels of the last, and with no real "specialness" to them anymore. On WCW's shows, you can count on a super cruiserweight match somewhere on the show to spice things up (well, you usually can... WW3 was an exception). On the WWF's shows, you can count on the "Main Eventer" Shawn Michaels to deliver, and you can sit there anxiously awaiting if Vince McMahon's latest brainstorm will be brilliant or boorish. And this month, for as much bad-mouthing has been done about the guy for his treatment of Bret Hart, I have to applaud the return of Owen Hart into an instantly exciting feud (not only because the Hart family storyline is compelling because of its basis in reality, but because the matches themselves will be super) with Shawn Michaels. Anyway, the show as a whole went a little something like this: o In the opener, TAKA Michinoku topped Brian Christopher in a really good match. Like many, I feared that the styles would clash to the point that the match would suffer. Instead, things worked out pretty nicely. Obviously, TAKA could have better, smoother matches with somebody more suited to his style, and Christopher could have better "southern style" matches with somebody who had more of a pure babyface look and psychology. But somehow it all worked out. TAKA did his usual array of spectacular moves, and Christopher worked the crowd and held up his end of the match sufficiently. Also, they style tended more towards flying moves used as high spots with stiff wrestling in between (rather than highly choreographed flying as the emphasis). In fact, things were stiff enough that Christopher wound up bleeding badly from the mouth early in the match. After Christopher missed a "Tennesse Jam" top rope leg drop, TAKA hit the Michinoku Driver for the pin. He was awarded the WWF Light Heavyweight Title in front of a contingent of Japanese photographers. o In an unscheduled (as far as I knew) match, members of Los Boricuas (Jesus, Jose, and Miguel) defeated members of Disciples of Apocolypse (Chainz, Skull, and 8-Ball). The little angle they did was clever enough: Miguel faked an injury, which led to Savio Vega distracting the ref while trying to take Miguel's place. Miguel then got up, reversed a DOA pin attempt, and got the win for his team. Still, this was just flat-out boring and unecessary. Give me another light-heavy match if this is the best we can do! [Or a point-less Flash Funk match, or SOMETHING with a little spark to it...] o The "Toughman Style" match between Marc Mero and Eric "Butterbean" Esch ended predictably enough with a DQ. Wearing huge-ass boxing gloves, the two plodded through 3 2-minute rounds throwing just enough punches to keep the crowd from revolting. [To their credit, the punches didn't look pulled... although with the gloves they had on, the fight really amounted to little more than a pillow fight.] Mero also peppered in enough cheating to re-inforce the fact that we shouldn't like him anymore. Hell, the longer we go without seeing him have a quality match with a few MeroSaults and Shooting Star Presses, I *will* start to hate him. Finally, after being knocked down the second time, Mero responded with a low blow, and followed it up by breaking a stool over Butterbean's wide back. Mero and Sable beat a hasty retreat, and Butterbean lumbered after them, leading me to fear that this angle isn't over. [Hint to Vince: there's a reason why I buy most wrestling PPVs, but not many boxing ones... namely, most boxing matches are boring. And Butterbean is NOT exactly the most talented practicioner of the Sweet Science, if you catch my drift.] o At this point, Goldust entered the arena to a slightly wierded-up version of his entrance music. He was led by Luna Vachon, whose outfit -- I am ashamed to admit -- actually made me do a triple take. Goldust, using a strange selection of voices, recited portions of Dr. Suess' "Green Eggs and Ham." To call this bizarre is an understatement. I understand what they're trying to do with Goldust -- namely make him seem whacko again now that we're now longer impressed by a guy who's confused about merely his sexuality -- but I don't know if it's gonna work. Then again, that's basically the stance I took when Goldust debuted as a mildly androgenous film-o-phile, and they managed to turn him into a heat machine.... o In a surprising turn of events, Bad Ass Billy Gunn and the Road Dog Jesse James stole a DQ win over the Legion of Doom thanks to outside interference from Henry Godwinn. After a forgettable 10 minute match, ol' Hank ran in with a slop bucket, and used it as a foriegn object behind the ref's back. By the time the ref turned around the LOD was using it as a foriegn object in front of his back. Thus, Gunn and James walked out with a victory over the LOD. o I don't know how the hell it happened, but Sgt. Slaughter actually won me over last night. I never really liked the guy at all, and saw no real reason for the "Boot Camp Match" against HHH to take place. In the end, Slaughter impressed me a bit by going out there and taking some wicked bumps en route to a humiliating loss to HHH. He showed me more than I've seen out of other over-the-hillers like Hogan and Piper, that's for sure. By the way, THIS IS IN NO WAY AN ENCOURAGEMENT TO LET SLAUGHTER WRESTLE EVER AGAIN. It worked as a one-shot... let's not give me any reason to tear the guy a new asshole. Anyway, the Boot Camp stip was basically that the match was no-DQ and no-count-out. So there were some foriegn objects used and some pretty decent brawling. It eventually took a crotch shot from Chyna and a Pedigree onto a steel chair to take the Sarge down for the three-count. I'm not really saying it was good, but it was definitely better than I thought it would be, and got the storyline over pretty effectively. o I was hoping that once Jeff Jarrett got back in a WWF ring, he'd somehow be able to rekindle the magic of the one brief stretch of time when I actually gave a damn about his matches. If last night's any indication, I've got nothing but more bad-mouthing of Jarrett to look forward to. The potential is there to do something interesting with the "#1 Free Agent" angle, but I'll tell you what: that Inca Warrior ring gear and boring-ass New Age jazz crap JJ's got for entrance music have both got to go. Let Jarrett's interviews do the talking; don't mess with the basic look of a guy who does -- for whatever reason -- have a successful track record. That said, Jarrett actually got a win last night over the Undertaker. After a brief match, Kane made an entrance (and got more of a pop than either Jarrett or UT, for that matter), and decided to chokeslam JJ after Jarrett encouraged him to go after the 'Taker. The result was an immediate DQ and a win for Jarrett. Kane and UT also stared down briefly before Kane left the area. o The Rocky Maivia vs. Steve Austin IC Title match was an absolute riot. I mean that in a good way. Rocky's just about the most hatable heel in the business today (a "Rocky Sucks" chant begins before the guy's even 10 feet down the entrance aisle) and Austin is just about the most popular star of all time (multiple "Austin" and "3:16" chants pervaded this whole match). Austin drove his pick-up truck to ringside, and it was used as a prop, as D-Lo Brown went through the windshield and was Stunned on the roof. Kama and Faarooq were also knocked out during a ringside mele. That left Austin and Rocky to have a nice 10 minute match, which ended with Austin accidentally Stunning the ref, then purposely stunning Rocky while an auxiliary ref came in to count the three. Not necessarily a ***** match, but definitely a ***** spectacle. o In the main event, Shawn Michaels needed help from DX to escape with his WWF Title. Ken Shamrock appeared headed to victory after cinching in an anklelock submission, but HHH and Chyna quickly interfered to ensure Michaels left with the title despite a loss. After it was announced that Michaels retained the title, he and DX mugged for the crowd a bit, until Owen Hart, making a surprise return to the WWF, ran out of the crowd and attacked Michaels. He put Michaels through a table, and laced into him with some pretty stiff shots (only furthering the "reality" of the Michaels/WWF vs. Harts feud). When Owen finally left (again out through the crowd), Michaels was bleeding from the nose. This was a solid match, not necessarily up to the spectacular standards of Shawn Michaels, but a worthy main event. The damage done by using a cheap cop-out DQ ending (which is the first time a WWF PPV main event has ended like this is quite some time... possibly going back to the double pin finish of the May 1996 IYH event) was more than compesated for by bringing Owen Hart back into the fold. By the time you mix it all together, everything pretty much washes out even... as is becoming all too common, we'll chalk up WWF Degeneration X as a Thumbs in the Middle. * Davis Sheremata, of the Alberta Report, has recently interviewed Bret Hart (on 12/5, actually). One of the revelations reportedly made to Sheremata is the fact that Bret stated that both Davey Boy Smith and Jim Neidhart apparently had whatever contractual ties they had to the WWF broken, and both intended to join Bret in WCW. I thank NFD Reader Michael Jenkinson for the heads-up on this potentially breaking story, and will try to keep everyone on what's really going down. * Part of what's "really going down" would have to include Bret Hart's marathon Prodigy chat held last night after the DX PPV. In the chat, Bret bad-mouthed the WWF for "forcing" Owen to take part in an angle that would only further the promotion's effort to run down and make money off of Bret Hart. He also stated that he was unsure of Bulldog or Neidhart's future plans. In response to conjecture from some observers -- chiefly Joey Styles -- that the "ambush" ending may have been a work by Vince and Bret, Hart swore on his childrens' heads that he had no advance knowledge of what happened in Montreal. While that's enough for me to back off pushing Styles' theory, I have to wonder if the cynics out there wouldn't point out that Earl Hebner similarly swore on his childrens' heads that he wouldn't screw Bret Hart. Hart also stated that the chat would be the last time he publicly addressed the situation regarding his departure from the WWF, and that he was going to "bury the hatchet" so to speak and get on with his life. The entire chat session is available exclusively at Bob Ryder's 1Wrestling.com. * Other big news broke over the weekend, as SEG (the parent company of the Ultimate Fighting Championships) announced on Friday that Ken Shamrock would be making a special appearance on their upcoming "Ultimate Japan" PPV on December 21. In exchange for loaning out Shamrock, the WWF is receiving some sort of financial compensation. Titan hopes that the appearance by Shamrock will re-establish in everyone's minds that Shamrock is a legit fighter, not just a "WWF Superstar." Shamrock will face Nobohiku Takada in a Super Fight on the show. The match is being billed as a co-main event with a Maurice Smith vs. Randy Couture contest. Also on the card will be a middleweight title match between Frank Shamrock (Ken's brother) and Kevin Jackson, a match featuring Vitor Belfort, and a heavyweight tournament headed up by Tank Abbot. It seems to be UFC's biggest show in a while. To their credit, UFC is promoting Shamrock as a WWF wrestler on loan, though they do have a soundbite of Shamrock guaranteeing that his match against Takada will be "100% shoot" (a jab at the predetermined nature of pro wrestling). Shamrock should be disappearing from WWF programming for about 2 weeks while he enters intensive training for the match. It's widely expected that he should beat Takada, which is obviously something Titan very much wants to see happen. Even more important, Titan wants Shamrock to emerge from the shootfight relatively uninjured. * ECW had a big weekend coming off of the 1997 November to Remember. Most of the intrigue surrounded the ECW Tag Team Titles. Friday night in Waltham, MA, the FBI were scheduled to defend their titles against the Gangstanators. However, the Dudleys attacked before the bell, and left New Jack and Kronus laying. Enter Stevie Richards. Ostensibly operating "on orders of Vince McMahon," Richards brought Doug Furnas and Phil LaFon to the ring to challenge for the titles. Furnas and LaFon proceeded to win the match and the titles. The next night in Philadelphia, PA, at the ECW Arena, Furnas and LaFon defended those titles in a Three Way Dance against the duo of Axl Rotten and Balls Mahoney and the team of Chris Candido and Lance Storm. In the end, the representatives of the Triple Threat emerged victorious. Technically speaking, Storm hasn't "officially" joined the TT, but this title win should cement his position. Currently, all three TT members hold gold, as Shane Douglas is the current ECW World Champ. * Chris Jericho has entered the cyber-realm. His new official website is up at ChrisJericho.com. On a related note, Jericho has agreed to be interviewed by the wrestling parody sensation, ScoopTHIS!. Wanna make "Lion Heart" squirm with some off-the-wall questions? You can send suggestions to webmaster@scoopthis.com. * In closing, here are some other interesting places you need to visit in your web travels: o Detroit News' Coverage of WW3 PPV -- I included this link last week, but was later informed by Darrin Hill that a re-written version was posted and has a different URL. We're 2 weeks past WW3, but this is still an interesting read! o www.nWWWo.com -- That's right, those rat bastards in the nWWWo have their very own domain now. They are single-handedly trying to make it cool to wear black and white again, and want to make sure you remain entertained in the process! o Wrestlers in Movies -- The Turner-based "Rough Cut" website took a look at wrestlers in major movies recently. You might be interested to read about some of the more obscure efforts by wrestling personalities on the silver screen. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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