From: hekunze@violet.waterloo.edu (Herb Kunze) Newsgroups: rec.sport.pro-wrestling Subject: Wrestling TidBits - 05/23 Message-ID: <3105@ria.ccs.uwo.ca> Date: 23 May 91 14:28:08 GMT Sender: news@ria.ccs.uwo.ca Lines: 106 - Herb Abram's UWF PPV is scheduled to take place on June 9th. - WCW has a Clash of Champions scheduled for June 12th from Knoxville, Tennessee. The proposed line-up is: - Ric Flair vs. Bobby Eaton for the WCW Title - Lex Luger vs. Great Muta - Arn Anderson & Barry Windham vs. El Gigante & Brian Pillman - Sting vs. Nikita Koloff - Steiners vs. Hiro Hase & Benkei Sasaki for a Tag Title - Young Pistols & Tom Zenk vs. Three Freebirds - Dustin Rhodes vs. Terrence Taylor - Big Josh vs. Dan Spivey - Tommy Rich vs. Oz - A while back, when the departure of Sid Vicious from WCW seemed imminent, I mused that this may be a good thing for WCW, giving them the opportunity to turn to a more wrestling oriented style. Perhaps they'd push wrestlers with high work rates and great ability, and try to get the public to dismiss the "bigger is better" notion. Then, when Owen Hart began in the group, I mused that they had the perfect opportunity to start a light- or mid- heavyweight division within WCW. After all, they had Owen, Brian Pillman, and could negotiate to get Jushin Riger and other New Japan small stars. It seemed like a great idea as far as the fans were concerned. Well, it looks like WCW actually had that plan all along. The push that Brian Pillman has received works into the plan, you see. Brian has been pushed as a super-talented wrestler with lots of heart, who really only loses because he's attacked by much larger men, like Sid Vicious and Barry Windham. This is meant to work Pillman in as one of the key players in a lighter weight division. At the June 12th CoC, WCW will announce the creation of a Junior Heavyweight division. The choice of name for the division is important because of two reasons. First, it is the same name that New Japan uses for it's smaller weight division. Second, they've avoided the negative impact of the light- or mid- heavyweight label. This division will present all kinds of opportunities. There is a large number of wrestlers in the independents who are small, but otherwise exceptional workers. These are guys that Vince would never touch unless they lived in a pharmacy for a year first; this is an untapped talent pool. Pillman is the obvious choice to lead the league for the most part. It's expected that Jushin Riger will be brought in when they have the tournament to crown the first WCW Junior Heavyweight champion. - As I mentioned a couple of week's back, Paul "Avalanche" Neu debuted at a WCW taping. He is playing the character of T.N. News, a rapper. Also new in WCW is Scott Hall, working as a heel. Angel of Death, Dave Sheldon, is finally in, as is Billy Jack Haynes as Black Blood. Steve Austin has arrived, too. Mr. Hughes has "debuted" as a wrestler. - Sid Vicious should debut in the WWF very soon. He's signed a two-year contract with the group. - Ricky Morton turned heel at a recent taping that should air this weekend. He left Dustin Rhodes to fend for himself in tag match. Later, Morton will be offerred a contract by Alexandra York. - Hiro Hase & Benkei Sasaki will work in WCW for one year, mostly to offer the Steiners some competition. - The Steiners have signed for a re-match with Hiro Hase & Benkei Sasaki on May 31st in Japan, at a card that celebrates Tatsumi Fujinami's 20th year in the business. The IWGP belts will be on the line. - Purely by coincidence the WWF will have a show in the Busch Stadium in St. Louis on July 14th (an outdoor show), the same day that WCW has their Bash PPV from the Baltimore Arena. The WWF card will feature Hulk Hogan vs. Sgt Slaughter with Randy Savage as special referee - you read that right - and the Ultimate Warrior vs. the Undertaker, with the loser to be carted out in a coffin, doing the stretcher match one better. - Rumoured to be coming in to the WWF is The Trooper, formerly of AWA fame. - Jason Hervey, who stars in ABC's "The Wonder Years" and whose engagement to Missy Hyatt seems to be legitimate, will be doing some interview work with WCW. - With Konnan ready to debut in the WWF as an unmasked, high-flying Latin star, Tito Santana is up for a gimmick change, or I guess he gets his first real gimmick. This somehow explains his recent series of high-profile losses (most noticeably to the Mountie), since there's no reason to put over someone who's about to be recycled. - Finally, it may take a few days before the results of Card #2 in the Usenet Booking Prediction Tournament are posted. I should be receiving several accounts of the PPV, which I was unable to see, and will then be confident enough to score the entries. I would appreciate some feed-back on whether I should run a card prediction for the CoC. Herb... P.S. I will be attending a conference in Ottawa next week and probably won't get around to posting a note. Talk to you in two weeks. It may not be until then that I post the results from the Booking Prediction for Superbrawl. Apologies in advance. 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