Date: Mon, 19 Jan 1998 18:57:44 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <199801192357.SAA15951@freenet2.carleton.ca.carleton.ca> From: ag725@freenet.carleton.ca (Rick Scaia) To: nfd Subject: The News From Dayton -- 01/19/98 Reply-To: ag725@freenet.carleton.ca Sender: owner-nfd Precedence: list Content-Type: text X-UIDL: d480cb315683f3d55749e645783ced8c THE NEWS FROM DAYTON For the week of January 19, 1998 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Red Hot Rumble / Huge Monday Night 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 January 19, 1998 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. THIS WEEK'S NEWS... * Last night's WWF Royal Rumble PPV was a combination of the expected and the unexpected. After years of serving up weird "swerve" endings to the epic Royal Rumble match, Titan surprised us all by doing the obvious: just having Steve Austin come in, whoop ass, and flat out win the thing. And as much as we all expected Kane to turn on his brother, the Undertaker, nobody could have foreseen the firey finish to the main event match. As seems to be the case every month, the show had highs and lows, and leaves you wondering if 12 PPVs a year is too many for any one company. But at least after seeing the Royal Rumble, you knew that you'd seen something pretty special, something that wouldn't get served up on a Monday night, and something that you might actually want to go back and watch years later. After a relatively slow first hour, the second two thirds of the show really took off, as the 60-plus-minute Rumble and 30 minute WWF Title match were both really exciting. Based on the power of those last two matches, it's safe to give the event a Thumbs Up, IMODO. Here's how the show went down: o Opening the show, we get a shot of Mike Tyson in a luxury box at the San Jose Arena. His image draws heavy boos from the assembled crowd. Throughout the show, we get shots of Tyson enjoying the action, and chatting with some combination of Vince and/or Shane McMahon. Iron Mike was really into the show. He appeared amazed during the mini trios match. He popped like a cork out of bottle of well-shaken champagne when Steve Austin hit the ring and won the Rumble. He even mocked Shawn Michaels with a series of crotch chops. During an interview with Michael Cole, Tyson was nearly incoherently happy, as he talked about how big a "Cone Stold" fan he was, and how he liked the Undertaker. You know what? After seeing Tyson enjoying himself last night, I think he might think wrestling is real. That is not a criticism. o Our first match pits the Artist Formerly Known as Goldust against Vader. Goldust doesn't have any wacky outfit this week (just striped trunks, a cod-piece, and blue hair... and who ever thought the day would come when an outfit like that would be normal?). Great heat on both men to start, but the crowd eventually dies down as Vader and 'Dust slow things down. This was a nothing-special match, but had a great finish: Vader's going up for the Vader Bomb, when Luna comes in and tries to choke him down from behind. With Luna piggy-backing him, Vader still ascends the ropes and delivers the Vader Bomb. In the process, Luna's weight is added to the move, and Luna herself is spiked face-first into the mat. Like I said: cool finish. Vader gets the academic three count. o Next up, we have Sunny guest-reffing a mini trios match. Max Mini led Nova and Mosaic to a win over El Torito, Battalion, and Tarantula. Typical arm-drag/head-scissors-takedown spot-fest here, with the crowd popping at first, then dying down as they got used to it. Max Mini getting pasted with stiff kicks kept getting a crowd response, though. Notable spot: they did the luchadore "car wreck" spot near the end of the match, with all six guys doing some form of a plancha/tope/moonsault to the outside of the ring. Max got the pin over one of the evil minis with a top rope 'rana, then all the good minis got to celebrate with Sunny. o The IC Title Match followed, with Rocky Maivia defending against Ken Shamrock. Maivia doesn't really have much in the way of interesting offense yet, but as a heel, he's really improved in selling his opponents moves. He's not a bump machine like Shawn Michaels, but he's solid. Add in the heel charisma, and you've got a much improved wrestler. This was a bit faster-paced than the opener, and the crowd pretty much stayed into it with alternating chants of "Rocky Sucks" or "Sham-rock." The end had Rocky using a pair of brass knucks behind the ref's back (and stuffing them in Shamrock's tights), but only getting a 2-count. Shamrock made the comeback, and landed a belly-to-belly suplex to get a three count on Maivia. The crowd thought we had a new IC Champ. However, Maivia claimed he'd been knocked cold by brass knucks... and sure enough, upon inspection, the ref found Shamrock was hiding a set of knucks. The ref reversed the decision, and made Maivia the winner by DQ. Decent match, and I liked the finish. o In the next contest, the Legion of Doom returned to active WWF duty for a tag team title shot at the New Age Outlaws. From the hype, an LOD title victory seemed obvious. Didn't turn out that way. After about 6-8 minutes of tepid action, the Road Warriors seemed ready to score a pinfall over Jesse Jammes (who was suddenly sporting the same hair-do he had three years ago as "The Roadie"... the magic of extensions!) when Billy Gunn simply waltzed in with a chair to cause the DQ. It was both the weakest match on the card, as well as the weakest finish. o With almost 2 hours still left in the show, it was time to go to the Royal Rumble match itself. With intervals of two minutes between new entries (actually, it seemed like it varied between 90 seconds and 2 minutes), the Rumble has been restored to its traditional epic hour-long status. For the most part, this year's didn't disappoint: + To start the match, Terry "Chainsaw Charlie" Funk and Cactus Jack drew #1 and #2. Despite being friends and tag partners, these two took it to the extreme against each other, politely offering equal time when it came to delivering wicked chairshots and using trash cans as foriegn objects. Together, Funk and Cactus eliminated #3, Tom Brandi, in less than 10 seconds. Once Rocky Maivia entered as #4, Funk and Cactus settled into alternately teaming up on other guys and beating the piss out of each other until Cactus was eliminated at about the 15 minute mark. Cool way to get the Rumble started, and already one of my favorite Rumble sequences of all time. + Even though Cactus was eliminated, we hadn't seen the last of Mick Foley. Internet speculation that Mankind and Dude Love might be entering the Rumble as well as Cactus Jack proved accurate, as Mankind entered at approximately the 30 minute mark, and immediately engaged Terry Funk. Funk was eventually eliminated with Mankind (and at almost 54 years old, gets my personal Gold Star for his 30 minute effort)... alas Mankind got dumped shortly thereafter, too. + Dude Love made his brief appearance at the very end of the Rumble, drawing #29, and lasting till the final four men were in the ring. + In the tradition of Andre the Giant and Yokozuna, Kurrgan the Interrogator was teamed up upon by about a dozen guys. + When the #23 spot was reached, nobody came out, and the announcers speculated that it was Steve Austin's spot, but that he had been attacked backstage and wouldn't be competing. Austin eventually came out in the #25 spot (which made him the 24th wrestler in). The #23 spot belonged to Skull, of the DOA, who was mistaken for Austin by the Boricuas in an earlier back-stage incident. Skull never entered, so only 29 men participated. + A mid-Rumble incident occurred between Owen Hart and Jeff Jarrett. When Owen was set to enter, Jarrett ran out along with Jim Cornette and a laid Owen out from behind. Owen was carried to the back for "medical attention," but had no problem running out and joining the Rumble when Jarrett made his entry to the match 15 minutes later. Owen, unfortunately, also drew out HHH. Helmsely -- who did not compete due to injury -- and Chyna were able to conspire to cause Owen's elimination, as they pounded him with a crutch. + The Nation of Domination had its problems. Rocky Maivia was the first member to enter, and as each additional member came in, each eventually came to blows with the Rock. The NOD, which on two separate occasions had four different members in the match simultaneously, never got on track, but still managed to place two members in the final four combatants. + The ending sequence of the Rumble had Faarooq, Rocky, Dude Love, and Steve Austin in the ring. They paired up in the obvious teams, Faarooq/Rocky and Dude/Austin, and battle briefly. However, once the Dude/Austin team had the NOD members temporarily down for the count, Austin turned on Dude. Dude was the next out, leaving Austin in the ring with two NOD members. Rocky took the opportunity to sit back and rest while Faarooq went on the attack. When Faarooq had Austin nearly over the top, Rocky ran over to lend his own bodyweight, but wound up tossing Faarooq over the top (accidentally?). Left in the ring with Rocky, Austin nearly scored an elimination with a clothesline, but Rocky snuck back in and caught a Stunner for his troubles. Austin easily hoisted Rocky out over the top rope to become the first man on the Road to WrestleMania, where he will now challenge for the WWF World Title. Like most Rumbles, this was one very enjoyable as a whole... however, it was unique in that a lot of the more interesting stuff happened early in the match, instead of later. Titan, IMODO, miscalculated by filling the ring up with so many obvious non-winners in the match's latter stages. Between Owen Hart's exit and Vader's entry to the Rumble, Steve Austin was the only plausible winner in the match, and it killed the heat a lot. Vader wasn't even in the ring very long at the end, once again leaving Austin as the obvious winner. I would have wanted to see Austin in the ring at the same time as Owen, Shamrock, Vader, and even Kane to make for a more dramatic match. Still, even the "front-loaded" Rumble still provided many memories. o The show's main event had Shawn Michaels and the Undertaker in a rematch of the epic Hell in the Cell match. In retrospect, there is no way in hell for these two to top that match (at least, not with out the cage gimmick), so some mild disappointment in the match is understandable. Even though it wa PPV being merely a roadbump on the road to 'Mania. * WCW Thunder continues to perform well in the ratings. Despite serious transmission problems, people stayed tuned to last Thursday's effort to find out what happened in the main event pitting Kevin Nash and Randy Savage and Lex Luger and Dallas Page. After a 3.3 in the first hour, Thunder's ratings increased to a 4.4 in the second for a composite 3.8 rating. While still below recent Monday Nitro performances, there will be no complaints from anyone if Thunder continues to draw this many viewers. * WCW is taking another step in Internet/Web wrestling coverage. The first ever World Wide Web Exclusive Pay-per-view Event will take place on January 31, as WCW will present a webcast of their Boston house show. The event, which is now dubbed "Beantown Brawl," will feature a live RealAudio telecast, and rapidly updated pictures from the show. The price tag will be $7.95, and the show will be headlined by Hulk Hogan facing Sting in a Cage Match. WCW is really pushing the envelope and being innovative in terms of using the 'net and WWW to promote its product. The things they are doing will shape how wrestling companies use the Web in the future. Given their resources, it's really quite sad that the WWF has yet to really get online with content that fans care about (except for "Byte This"). * ECW is also taking a huge step into cyber-promotion, as Bob Ryder's 1Wrestling.com will soon be providing all of ECW's back video catalog on a pay-per-view basis. To view each 2 or 3 hour tape will cost $3.99. ECW tapes through the end of 1996 will be the first available, with more recent tapes to follow. If you're looking for a good way to blow $4, I highly recommend checking out ECW's "Double Tables" event from February, 1995. * Two weeks ago, we brought you the details on RAW's pre-emption on February 16 (due to the Westminster Dog Show, the WWF will instead get a two hour slot on Saturday night, Feb. 21, at 8pm). Now, it appears that USA Network will again be pre-empting RAW/WarZone, this time on March 16. USA will instead be airing part two of "Moby Dick," an original picture starring Patrick "Captain Picard" Stewart as Ahab (those of you who saw the latest Star Trek movie will no doubt note the irony there...). There is no confirmation at this point as to when (or if) RAW/WarZone will air that week, though with WrestleMania only two weeks later, I'm sure USA will make good with a prime time slot for the WWF. * Fans of ScoopTHIS.Com will no doubt be interested in an exclusive NFD Interview with NoSoul, the creator and webmaster of STC. In it, we cover everyting from Al Isaacs to Chris Jericho to Princess Leia. And most imporantly of all, NoSoul lets us all in on a MAJOR change to STC that will greatly effect all of us who make it a weekly stop. To see the interview, either make a stop to the NFD Website (located at http://homepages.udayton.edu/~scaiarij/wrestling/nfd.htm) or keep your eyes open for a separate posting to RSPW with the Subject Header "[NFD] Interview with NoSoul". * Stevie Richards again addressed his online fans recently, and I'm sure we were all glad to read that his neck is healing very nicely (even better than expected). Best wishes to him as he continues his recovery (including getting that voice back!)... * Finally, to all of you who've been awaiting the switch-over to Online Onslaught... the NFD's only got about two weeks of life left! I've pencilled in February 1 for the debut of "Double O," and barring any major changes or complications, that's when things will start changing around here. I've got most of the graphics and HTML done, and will be spending the next two weeks mulling over the dozens of folks who have e-mailed offering to join the crew to help me provide comprehensive TV and regional wrestling coverage. There are still a few spots with no applicants, so if you're interested in becoming a "web personality," there's still time to find the "Now Hiring" page of the OO Preview, and let me know what you're willing to do! Those of you who have already sent in an e-mail, I'll be getting back to all of you this week. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- The News From Dayton is Copyright 1995, 1998 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