Date: Mon, 26 Jan 1998 15:22:46 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <199801262022.PAA05789@freenet2.carleton.ca.carleton.ca> From: ag725@freenet.carleton.ca (Rick Scaia) To: nfd Subject: The News From Dayton -- 01/26/98 Reply-To: ag725@freenet.carleton.ca Sender: owner-nfd Precedence: list Content-Type: text X-UIDL: 8121f8b98b293044f540710ff08e8ea6 THE NEWS FROM DAYTON For the week of January 26, 1998 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Souled Out in Dayton! / Tyson v. Austin? 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 26, 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... * A year has passed since WCW/NWO Souled Out 1997, and with that year, the memory of what was widely regarded as perhaps the worst major PPV event in wrestling history has dimmed. Last night at Dayton's Hara Arena, WCW went a long way to totally wiping out that memory, as they presented what turned out to be a very strong Souled Out sequel for fans around the globe. With highly anticipated matches pitting Ric Flair against Bret Hart and Kevin Nash vs. the Giant bolstering the top of the card, WCW also presented three opening matches that were all extremely entertaining. In fact, the strength of the opening hour is what set the tone for the rest of the show. Souled Out, as a whole, seemed the exact opposite of most recent WWF PPVs: a very strong opening few matches helped out settle in and enjoy what would otherwise be very mediocre top of the card matches. On Titan cards, especially the recent Royal Rumble, you get one or two super matches on top that are necessary to wipe out the memory of the very mediocre (at best) prelim matches. BTW, it's worth noting that despite my status as Dayton, Ohio's Number One Wrestling Fan, I watched this show on TV like most of you. Even though the show took place 15 minutes from my house, a number of factors conspired to make my attendence at the live event impossible. Chief among those factors: (a) I'm not the kind of guy who stands in line for tickets the morning the go on sale (if other people want to do so, and the result is that tickets sell out in a couple of hours, fine... I'll just watch on TV; they obviously want to go to the show more than me); and (b) the University of Dayton Flyers battle Atlantic 10 foes -- and 18th ranked -- Xavier earlier in the day (being a part of the kick-ass crowd of 13,521 at the UD Arena was a great way to watch the Flyers dismantle the Muskies... and it would have made watching Souled Out with 5000 other fans a bit anti-climactic, I fear). But in the interim between post-game afternoon celebration and the evening's more inebrious partying, soaking in Souled Out on the TV was a decent way to waste 3 hours of time. The show shaped up like this: o In the opener, 8 luchadores got things off to a wicked pace. Chavo Guerrero, Juventud Guerrera, Lizmark Jr., and Super Calo faced off against La Parka, Psicosis, El Dandy, and Silver King in what turned out to be a very good match. The end came after the traditional car wreck spot, with 6 guys taking each other out on the outside of the ring, while Chavo managed to pin Psicosis back in the ring with a spinning DDT. La Parka came in after the match with a chair and cleared the ring, taking out not only his opponents, but also his teammates, which got him a number of cheers from the crowd. o Next up, Chris Benoit took on Raven in what also turned out to be a very good match. I'm finally starting to watch matches like this in WCW without always wishing it was ECW, so the match would just kick ass. As it was, Raven and Benoit did a couple of nice chair spots, and a lot of other hard hitting moves before Raven eventually submitted to the crossface. When the Flock attacked after the match, Dean Malenko made the save for Benoit. o A third solid match followed, as Rey Misterio Jr. defended his Cruiserweight Title against Chris Jericho. Several nice spots, and good psychology built this up to the closing spot, which was easily the coolest reversal into a Boston Crab that I've ever seen: Jericho reversed a top rope 'rana attempt, and landed in perfect position to cinch in the crab. Afterwards, Jericho again "snapped" and further destroyed Rey's knee. Jericho actually seems pretty over as a heel right now, but I don't see the point of using him as a Cruiserweight, when he's obvisouly so much bigger than most of the other cruisers. o At this point, things slowed down a bit, as Roddy Piper "hosted" an over-long segment that explained the future of the WCW Title. Piper ordered that the title shot Scott Hall earned by winning World War 3 was to be put on hold, so that Sting and Hulk Hogan could battle until there was a decisive winner and a new champ at SuperBrawl. Hall left the ring, upset at the whole thing, leaving Hogan to cower in fear alone from Piper and Sting. o Rick Martel's sudden push to the top of WCW finally took a wrong turn, as he was dropped by Booker T in a TV Title match. Despite heelish antics by Martel at various points in the match, he settled down and shook Booker T's hand after it was all over. This match was mostly old school, with too many arm bars and rest holds for my taste... but by this point, we were into the show, so it didn't matter as much. o Scott Hall (accompanied by Louie Spicolli) hit the ring next to take on Larry Zybszko (who was seconded by Dusty Rhodes). This was more of the old school, and combined with the previous match, resulted in more abdominal stretches in 20 minutes than I've seen in the last year. This was kept shorter, however, as Zybszko eventually suckered Hall into getting choked out. Spicolli came in to cause the DQ, but also brought Dusty in. The crowd went wild as Louie was sent flying by a series of bionic elbows. But when Dusty wound up the ol' elbow and aimed it at Hall, he accidently (hah!) hit Zybszko. Dusty disrobed to reveal an NWO t-shirt, and then joined Hall and Louie in beating on Larry. Pretty surprising, yes, but ultimately, a meaningless heel turn. The utter meaningless of it was only driven home as Tony Schiavone sputtered on commentary for the next hour about how heart-broken he was; each time he tried to convey that Dusty turning was the biggest thing since Hogan turned, it only served to remind everyone listening that this really WASN'T a big deal at all. This was my only real complaint of the evening, and it really isn't a big one.... o Next up, the Steiners and Ray Traylor teamed up to take on the NWO B-Team (Konnan, Buff Bagwell, and Scott Norton). The story here is that Scott Steiner has been hogging ring time in recent matches, so Traylor and Rick Steiner avoided tagging him in during this match. Finally, Traylor really had no choice but to tag Scott, so Scotty came in and cleaned house and got the pin very quickly. Afterwards, Scott and Bagwell have another "mutual respect" posedown that serves to piss of Rick, Ray, and Ted DiBiase. This was a nothing match, but it keeps the Steiner storyline moving forward..... o Giant vs. Nash. Up till the end, this was a mostly clean match, with both guys trying pretty hard to put on a good show. Nash brought back the old tope dive he used to do as Diesel, and Giant had a few nice power displays. All said, though, not as tight as I had hoped. In the end, Hogan and Bischoff conspired to distract the ref long enough for the Giant to get a face full of "scalding hot coffee." This gave Nash the opportunity to perform the rudest powerbomb I have ever seen, as he wound up dropping the Giant almost straight on his head. Nash got the pinfall. I honestly feared the worst for the Giant, and when the WCW trainer hit the ring, I thought maybe, just maybe, it was cuz the Giant really hurt himself bad in the fall. And then I saw that the trainer was just going forward with an obviously pre-planned bit to have the Giant sell the hot-coffee-to-the-eyes like he was blind, and was giving no attention to the Giant's neck. So I felt like a sucker. Still, a wicked bump by the Giant. o For no reason that I could discern, Ric Flair and Bret Hart came out in the semi-main event. I can think of no good reason not to have put these two on last.... as good as the build-up was, I think we all probably had elevated expectations of the match itself. As it turned out, the match was good, but unspectacular. Flair just can't turn to knob up past 6 or 7 any more, and Hart's not the flashiest guy in the world. When Hart got Flair to submit to a Sharpshooter at the 17 minute mark, I was just starting to get into the match, and expected it to last much longer. Instead, we got the anticlimactic finish. Still a solid effort, and there is probably room for a rematch, if it is deemed appropriate by the powers that be. o That left Lex Luger vs. Randy Savage as the main event. This should have been under both Giant/Nash and Flair/Hart, but wound up topping the show. This went less than 10 minutes before Luger got Savage in the rack, which drew out the NWO, and resulted in chaos for a few minutes. Sting came in to save Luger, and the two celebrated Luger's win as the show came to an end. Altogether, an easy Thumbs Up that was set up by the three opening matches setting such an upbeat mood. * Ratings for the latest edition of WCW Thunder saw the show pull a 3.3 in hour one and a 3.9 in hour two, for a composite rating of 3.6. * After spending much of the last week just assuming that reports of Mike Tyson taking on Steve Austin at WrestleMania should be taken at face value, some folks are actually questioning whether that'll actually happen. First, early last week, promotional artwork for WM14 was released to cable companies, and featured Mike Tyson prominently, but had Shawn Michaels and Steve Austin in lesser-but-equal spots (indicating to some that Austin/Michaels for the WWF Title is still a scheduled match). Now it is expected that Michaels will interject himself into the Tyson situation, possibly as early as tomorrow's RAW (it would have to be something other than a segment taped last Tuesday, however, as Michaels did not address Tyson in his brief appearances on the TitanTron at the tapings). Michaels was, you recall, the first to "call out" Tyson on the live RAW previous to the Royal Rumble. Since many have speculated that Tyson's stint with the WWF is part of an effort to rehabilitate his public image, it wouldn't really be wise for Tyson to be involved against Austin (who is the most popular man in the sport right now). Tyson would be booed. Involving Michaels would give Tyson the opportunity to be a fan favorite to some. For what it's worth, the WWF doesn't seem to mind people having the idea in their head that Tyson will compete at 'Mania. Austin himself will do an in-ring monologue regarding Tyson on RAW tomorrow, and Don King will speak in a pre-recorded piece. And if you ask me, Titan is smart enough to know not to build up these expectations unless they can follow through... * Also on the Monday night shows tomorrow: Owen Hart will be given a chance to win the WWF Euro Title from "Triple H" on RAW, and Nitro moves to three hours per week. The three hours of Nitro is a move being made by WCW and TNT to put a halt to recent ratings success by the WWF. Coming off the PPV, expect the three hours to be eventful this week... but many have concerns about WCW's ability to put on 5 interesting hours of live prime time programming per week. * From the sounds of things, scratch the Legion of Doom from the "No Way Out" PPV main event I had reported about 3 weeks ago... instead, look for Terry Funk and Cactus Jack to team with Owen Hart and Steve Austin against the foursome of Shawn Michaels, HHH, Billy Gunn, and Jesse James. Also on the NWO PPV: Kane vs. Vader.... TAKA Michinoku vs. Pantera..... and Nation of Domination vs. Ahmed/Shamrock/DOA. Expect a couple more matches to be added, as well. * Finally, apologies to web site visitors for not updating anything besides the news areas of the NFD. With all efforts focused on getting Online Onslaught ready to go, there just hasn't been time to take care of the Readers' Forum and other areas. Expect all those areas to be updated regularly once that change over to "OO" is made! --------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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