From: hekunze@watmsg.uwaterloo.ca (Herb Kunze)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.pro-wrestling
Subject: Wrestling TidBits   -   03/21
Message-ID: <1991Mar21.160415.10437@watmath.waterloo.edu>
Date: 21 Mar 91 16:04:15 GMT
Sender: daemon@watmath.waterloo.edu (0000-Admin(0000))
Organization: University of Waterloo
Lines: 106


 - WCW's and New Japan's joint card takes place today.  The line-up is:
     - Ric Flair vs. Tatsumi Fujinami for the WCW and IWGP titles
     - Sting vs. Keiji Muto (working as Great Muta)
     - Doom vs. Bam Bam Bigelow & Big Van Vader
     - Riki Choshu vs. Tiger Jeet Singh
     - Jushin Riger vs. Akira Nogami for the IWGP Jr. title
     - Steiner Brothers vs. Hiro Hase & Kensuke Sasaki for the IWGP tag titles
     - Masa Saito & Masa Chono vs. Arn Anderson & Barry Windham
     - Tom Zenk, Brian Pillman & Tim Horner vs. Shiro Koshinaka,
       Tatayuki Iizuka & Osamu Matsuda
     - Scott Norton vs. Equalizer
     - El Gigante vs. Curtis Hughes
     - a Japanese 8-man tag match
   The card will be aired as a US PPV on April 7th for $9.95.  The PPV
   will last about two hours.  About 90 minutes of the card will be
   aired on Japanese TV.  The main event Flair-Fujinami match is now
   a title vs. title match since Fujinami defeated Van Vader for the
   IWGP belt a short time ago.  New Japan has also repositioned the
   team of Hiro Hase & Benkei Sasaki by making them the IWGP tag champs.
   We can expect that the US PPV will include Flair-Fujinami plus all
   other matches involving WCW talent that come off okay (i.e. the
   WCW guys win, or look fantastic).  The remaining time in the PPV
   will be filled with Japanese vs. Japanese matches - hopefully,
   the Jushin Riger match will be included.

 - The re-match WCW PPV on May 19th will supposedly feature Ric Flair
   vs. Tatsumi Fujinami and Sid Vicious vs. El Gigante (!).

 - The Iron Sheik is back in the WWF for another stay, his fourth.  He'll
   join forces with General Adnon after Slaughter loses the WWF title on
   Sunday and Adnon and Slaughter part ways.

 - As several net-fans told me via e-mail, Butch Reed plans to join the
   rodeo.  If Butch does in fact leave WCW, we can expect Ron Simmons to
   begin feuding with One Man Gang, who debuted at a taping in early
   March.  They've canned an angle setting up a Simmons-OMG feud just
   in case.

 - WCW is going to build up Dustin Rhodes for a program with Stan
   Hansen in the summer.  They are also giving Brian Pillman a super-man
   push at the TV tapings.

 - In contrast to the WCW/New Japan show today in the Tokyo Dome, the
   WWF/SWS Tokyo Dome show on March 30th is not selling well.  With
   two matches announced - Hulk Hogan & Genichiro Tenryu vs. The Road
   Warriors, and Sgt. Slaughter vs. the Ultimate Warrior - they only
   managed to sell a couple thousand tickets.  There was some interest
   in seeing one of the Road Warriors do the job for the first time in
   Japan, which is the clear ending of the tag match.  But, after
   announcing that former UWF wrestler Masaharu Funaki would face
   former New Japan junior heavyweight star Naoki Sano on the card,
   ticket sales have reached 10000.  I really don't see why SWS is
   bothering to deal with the WWF, when it's the few good SWS matches
   that actually draw the crowd.

 - Owen Hart's debut matches with WCW will air in the next couple of
   weeks and are supposed to quite good.

 - In response to those asking what the "out-of-the-ring altercation"
   was that got Buddy Landell fired, it seems that he had a serious
   problem with one of WCW's road managers.  Of course, Buddy's
   disappearance means that Bobby Eaton's feud with Buddy will be
   shifted into a feud with Terrence Taylor.

 - There's talk of WCW joining forces with Joe Weider in the future to
   co-promote wrestling/bodybuilding PPVs in an attempt to steal some
   of Vince McMahon's fire.

 - I don't want to give away any endings at WrestleMania, but it looks
   like Sherri Martel will end up with Ted DiBiase after the event.
   As well, summer programs in the WWF include DiBiase-Piper (followed
   by DiBiase-Savage late in the summer with Savage back as a face),
   Road Warriors-Nasty Boys, Davey Boy Smith-Curt Hennig, and Ultimate
   Warrior-Undertaker.

 - Reports are that scalpers are having their way with WrestleMania VII
   tickets, getting $400+ for prime ringside tickets.  This will probably
   rise to $500+ by Sunday.  I'm going to see the event at a local sports
   bar that will have it on big-screen satellite PPV - it cost me $10 to
   get a ticket and I feel sad about that.

 - WrestleMania will also re-introduce the "Dragon," Ricky Steamboat with
   his new fire-breathing gimmick and maybe set up an angle.  We'll also
   apparently see the unmasking of the head-butting run-in ghost who's
   been giving Earthquake some problems on the WWF syndies.  I guess we
   can add Beefcake-Earthquake to the list of summer programs.

 - Biggest rumour of the week as far as impact goes is that Shawn Michaels
   of the Rockers is leaving the WWF.  No word on Marty Janetty's plans
   or Shawn's destination.

 - Finally, another reminder that you have until midnight on Saturday to
   e-mail me your predictions for the outcomes of the matches at WrestleMania.
   Please follow my previous instructions to make scoring as easy as
   possible.  I hope everyone has a good time watching the show on Sunday
   night.

                                                              Herb...
As always, comments, criticisms, and questions are encouraged and appreciated.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Herb Kunze                    :   "Whether you like it or you don't like it,

 Applied Math Department       :    learn to live with it, 'cause
 University of Waterloo        :    it's the best thing going today!
 hekunze@watmsg.waterloo.edu   :    Woooooooh!"
 hekunze@violet.waterloo.edu   :     - Ric 'Nature Boy' Flair