From: hekunze@watmsg.waterloo.edu (Herb Kunze) Newsgroups: rec.sport.pro-wrestling Subject: Wrestling TidBits - 02/08 Keywords: NWA,WWF,AWA,Wrestling Message-ID: <34075@watmath.waterloo.edu> Date: 8 Feb 90 16:34:25 GMT Sender: daemon@watmath.waterloo.edu Distribution: rec Lines: 199 Posted: Thu Feb 8 17:34:25 1990 - A while back someone was inquiring about former wrestling great, Whipper Billy Watson. I mentioned that I believed he had passed away. In fact, I was quite mistaken. Whipper Billy did pass away this past Sunday in Florida, after having been felled by a heart attack. He was 74. Watson was a Toronto native who spent more than 40 years of his life doing volunteer work which raised millions of dollars for various charitable organizations, almost all involving children. He was forced to retire from the ring in 1971 because of an automobile accident - while out of his car helping another motorist, another car skidded out of control and pinned Watson against one of the stopped vehicles, shattering his left knee and nearly severing his leg. He still milked his wrestling reputation to continue his charity work after the accident. He is survived by his wife Eileen and three children - John, Phil, and Georgina - and will no doubt be sorely missed. - Toronto Mat Report. I couldn't be bothered to go to the matinee show in Toronto on Sunday, but I do have the results at hand. Be forewarned that reading this summary may spoil endings for your next local card - in particular, Toronto and New York's MSG seem to shadow each other. I should mention that the ring bell was rung ten times in memory of Whipper Billy Watson prior to the card. The main event featured Hulk Hogan defending the WWF title in a handicap match against both Curt Hennig and Lanny Poffo. After kicking out of a perfect-plex, Hogan hulked up, disposed of Lanny, leg-dropped Hennig and got a pinfall victory on Mr. Formerly-Perfect. The Rockers and Jim Duggan faced The Powers of Pain and Mr. Fuji in a six-man tag match which saw Duggan nail fuji with his two-by-four while Fuji was preparing to salt Marty Jannetty. Jannetty then pinned Fuji for the win. Ted DiBiase won by countout over Jake Roberts, who DDTed Virgil after the match and managed to hold on to Ted's $1000000 belt. In other mat action, Jim Neidhart pinned Honky Tonk Man, Hercules pinned Conquistador I, Jim Powers pinned Frenchy Martin {I didn't realize that these two were still with the WWF}, and Richard Charland pinned Jose Luis Rivera {who had a busy afternoon...under various guises}. A match between Jimmy Snuka and Akeem in Toronto was scrapped because both these guys are apparently injured. They should be ready for the mat by WrestleMania VI. - Speaking of WM VI, the press conference to announce the main event was held on Monday in Toronto's SkyDome. Sure enough, it's the Ultimate Warrior taking on Hulk Hogan. They did a 'test of strength' hand-shake with both men squeezing the other's hand. The heel role was unclear. In private interviews after the conference, the local sportscaster made a point of asking Mean Gene Okerlund what belt was on the line. Gene said that has not as yet been decided. Hmmm. Hogan ranted about his Hulkamaniacs being forceful enough to perhaps damage the SkyDome structure during his interview. And the Warrior said that Hogan will drop the title to him because he will not be able to handle the ultimate challenge. The dome will seat 66000 for wrestling and after 1 hour of ticket sales 10000 were already sold. As of 4:00pm yesterday, ~24000 tickest were gone. - Feb 23rd Main Event: Rumours are real strong that this Main Event will see the vilifying of the Ultimate Warrior. Word has him joining forces with Randy Savage, interfering in the match on Randy's behalf and helping Savage defeat Hogan. Perhaps Mean Gene's comment from the press conference hints at this potential title change prior to WrestleMania. The question is: What face contender would Savage face in a WM VI title defense? The scary answer: Savage is now feuding with Dusty Rhodes. God, I hope these rumours are far removed from reality. - Along with the Warrior/Hogan main event at WM VI, the following matches were officially announced at the press conference on Monday: Roddy Piper vs. Bad News Brown, Randy Savage & Sherri Martel vs. Dusty Rhodes & Sapphire in a mixed tag team match {No, this is not a joke - then again it probably will be...At least this seems to confirm that Savage will not win the title from Hogan on Feb 23rd}, and Andre & Haku vs. Demolition {Hmmm..the SheepWhackers rumour seems to have been unfounded.} - Still on the WWF, Mike Tyson's manager Don King has said that the world heavyweight boxing champion's fee for refereeing on the Feb 23rd card is close to $1 million! In an interview with the New York Daily News, King discussed the possibility of Tyson stepping into s wrestling ring to fight against Hogan: "It would be the matchup of the superheroes. If Vince can come up with the money - and I'm talking between $100 and $200 million - I might be able to convince Mike to do it." But King does say that there is a strong chance that he and Vince (who met in Tokyo) will form a business psrtnership. They would join forces to set up a syndicated boxing TV network; they would produce and market future Mike Tyson PPV fights, as well as wrestling extravaganzas, and they would create an entertainment division specializing in cartoons and feature-length films featuring Tyson. Sounds like hot air to me - I hope. - Independent News: An organization called Pro America Wrestling in Pennsylvania has a card scheduled for February 24th that features some pretty good brand name talent. Abdullah the Butcher meets Bam Bam Bigelow. And Paul Orndorff faces Nikita Koloff. I don't suppose there's anyone down there planning on attending the card? And willing to report on it? I'm rather curious to hear how Paul is performing. I've read that his match with Kerry Von Erich was not too bad. - The real Four Horsemen are back!. I managed to catch Clash of Champions X at the local sports bar up here. As usual, a very well put together show {with the exception of the Kevin Sullivan/Norman washroom finish - OK, I did laugh a bit :-}. This sort of free shows make me wonder why I watch the WWF. Originally, I had a summary of the card in this note, but after reading two reports already, I'll delete the text. Or seeing as Nick Simicich's article stopped short of the end of the card, I'll just continue where he left off: {I'll leave my summary of the Horsemen split, as somebody posted asking for full details...} Interview Segment - Terry Funk interviews the Four Horsemen. Terry gave the Horsemen a very complimentary introduction, calling them the four best single/tag wrestlers in the world. Flair as always was dressed with ultimate style (A side note: Yeah, Flair is looking a little old during some shoots these days, but the man has been around for 18+ years and been *the* man for the past 9 years. I still think he's "the best thing going today.") Briefly here's what happened: Flair tells Funk that, as usual, when the Horsemen give an interview it's because there's news to be told. This night, Ole has been chosen as Horsemen spokesman and so Ric passes him the microphone. Ole's opening speech goes something like: "The Horsemen are here right now for a particular reason and that reason is you, Sting. As of this moment, you are no longer a member of the Horsemen..." Sting tried to interrupt Ole several times, but Ole just pointed out that there were three of them an only one Sting. The bottom line was Sting was given a choice, either retire voluntarily or have the Horsemen retire him. They want Sting to drop his title match at WrestleWar with Ric, who 'bought him the time' to make a choice and perhaps live. Of course Sting ended up pouncing on Ole, but ended up getting slapped around by Flair, who was in perfect heel form. The Horsemen left Sting laying in the ring and we went to a commercial. The impression was given that Ric Flair was restraining Arn and Ole from attacking Sting, or that Arn and Ole were calling the shots here. Flair made a somewhat reluctant heel turn, but solidified his badness be the end of the evening. Match - The Steiners vs. Doom As Nick reported, the Steiners won when Rick Steiner, having unmasked Butch Reed, rolled him up for a pin. By the rules of the match, Doom 2 was told to unmask or both he and Butch Reed would be suspended. For a moment, Domm 2's hesitation seemed to hint at a possible turn. I thought this was wuite probable, since Ron Simmons does not like being a heel. In any case, after some frustrated rope-kicking and such, Ron Simmons removed his masked and Jim Ross showed a suitable amount of surprise (or lack thereof) at his identity. We went to a commercial before Doom even left the ring. It seemed that Scott Steiner took a severe bump in this match, as the entire right side of his face seemed to be bruised purple. {Throughout all the matches, we were told that Sting was destroying his locker room in a total rage, then that he was on the phone with a relative, etc...anything to explain the lack of an interview.} Match - The Horsemen vs. J-Tex Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, and Ole Anderson (subbing for Sting) faced Muta, Dragonmaster, and Buzz Sawyer. It was odd hearing J-Tex getting cheers. It seemed that Muta was particularly cheered. Highlights of this match included Buzz Sawyer attempting to fly from the top of the cage onto double-A, Buzz Sawyer hitting the cage every which way you can think of, and Muta attempting to put his bizarre submission hold on Ole, I think. It was worth the wait just to see the Ric Flair of old back in action. Partway into the match (it wasn't much of a match), Sting ran out of the locker room area, followed by several other wrestlers, presumably trying to stop him. Sting seemed to be trying to climb over the cage wall into the ring, but made little progress with Flair stepping on his hands from within the cage and wrestlers pulling him down from the outside. In the ring, double-A nailed the Dragonmaster with a DDT and got the pin. When the door of the cage opened, Flair charged out and dove through the pack of wrestlers already forcing Sting back to the locker room. The show closed as this melee unfolded. My comments: I'm quite glad to have Ric Flair the heel back. The open questions are: Who will the fourth horseman be? Why was Woman not involved in the horsemen breakdown? Did the NWA purposely lead the cheering for Muta, Dragonmaster, and Sawyer - it's hard to believe the fans would respond to things so quickly? Who was that lady that raced out of the women's washroom and what was she doing in the locker room area anyways;-? And how the heck did Cactus Jack get up after clearly smacking his head on the concrete? - Caught the AWA ESPN show this week. The show was devoted to the Team Challenge Series (tm). The first of three matches saw Baron Von Raschke and Wayne Bloom face off in a Greco Roman rules match, with Mike Enos interfering to save his partner from an embarrassing loss. The second match saw The Trooper meet Mike Enos in a football rules match. Essentially, they stuck two hockey nets in the ring, subdivided the ring and made the wrestlers try to score with a football. It was like an episode of the Twilight Zone. Anyhow, Trooper won when special referee, same football personality, clotheslined Enos allowing Trooper to be the first to score five goals. The final match saw six men compete in a battle royale. This match was won by one of the Texas Hangmen. After the match, Paul Diamond and Johnny Stewart went at it a bit. Herb... *********************************************************************** * Herb Kunze * "Whether you like it or not, * * Applied Math Department * learn to live with it, 'cause * * University of Waterloo * I'm the best thing going today!" * * hekunze@watmsg.waterloo.edu * - Ric 'Nature Boy' Flair * ***********************************************************************