From: hekunze@watmsg.waterloo.edu (Herb Kunze) Newsgroups: rec.sport.pro-wrestling Subject: Wrestling TidBits - 06/06 Message-ID: <1991Jun6.234752.7940@watmath.waterloo.edu> Date: 6 Jun 91 23:47:52 GMT Sender: news@watmath.waterloo.edu (News Owner) Organization: University of Waterloo Lines: 183 - I believe I mentioned that the WWF will be doing it's first outdoor show in quite a while on July 14th at Busch Stadium in St. Louis. Vince is trying to make this an extravagant event and it will be released as a Coliseum Video down the road. Could Vince just want to have a big show, please fans and perhaps make some money in the process? Nope. Vince wants to make a point. The St. Louis Arena recently gave WCW some wrestling dates, even though the WWF has clauses that essentially lock out their competition from the same building. Vince pulled the WWF shows from the Arena. Now Vince wants the Arena (and other arenas being asked for dates by WCW) to witness his product drawing a crowd in the 20000 range, while WCW draws it's standard few thousand at the Arena. It should be enough to get WCW out of the St. Louis once their dates run out and get other arenas to be hesitant to give WCW dates. Vince has been trying to get some golden oldies to appear or even work at the Busch Stadium card, just to show his love for the history of the sport. Lou Thesz, Harley Race and Jack Brisco have all declined. - As reported by others, Rick Rude has surfaced with WCW. He'll be brought in as a face, which makes sense, considering that WCW has several strong heel personas that can't really be turned, and no fresh faces for them to feud with. Rude will officially be in WCW after he works Herb Abrams' UWF PPV on June 9th. Thinking about Rick Rude and Sid Vicious one can draw some parallels. Both were top heels in their organizations. Rude ditched the WWF because of a dispute with Vince, and Vicious ditched WCW because of contractual problems. The difference is clear, though. Rude was not let out of his contract and was losked out of working for any wrestling promotion for quite a long while because Vince knew that Rude has been to Atlanta to discuss his future with WCW. Vicious, on the other hand, was let out of his contract early despite the fact that WCW knew he was WWF bound. Sure, Vicious had to suffer some humiliation before leaving, but that was pretty minor. - The line-up for the UWF PPV on June 9th is (probably still tentatively, what with Abrams' reputation): - Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Steve Williams for the UWF title - Rockin' Robin vs. Candi Divine for the UWF title - Bob Backlund vs. Ivan Koloff - Don Muraco vs. Terry Gordy in a street fight - Paul Orndorff vs. Col. DeBeers - Brian Blair & Jim Brunzell vs. Power Twins - Steve Ray & Sonny Beach vs. Cactus Jack & Bob Orton - Tony Atlas & Larry Cameron vs. Black Hearts Lou Albano and Bruno Sammartino will both be working as special referees. Rick Rude will be on hand, as will someone named Darth Van Vader (cute, huh?), and presumably they'll meet. This card has very low distribution in the US, and in Canada you can forget about it. I would greatly appreciate anybody who will be getting the show and is willing to send me a copy for trade dropping me a note. - Saturday Night's Main Event on NBC is no more. Brandon Tartikoff has left NBC and Dick Ebersol has lost some stature, so the two main backers of the show are gone. This means that, at least for the moment, WCW is at a promotional advantage since the SNMEs were the one of the main tools for getting new angles over with casual WWF fans. The ratings for the SNMEs were usually twice or more times the ratings for the WWF syndies, which really don't get the casual fans watching regularly. - Steve Keirn is coming in to the WWF as The Gator Man. Maybe Vince will team him with Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat and call them the Reptiles or the Amphibians or something. ;-) - Sid Vicious is indeed coming into the WWF as a babyface under the name Sid Justice. The current predictions have Sid winning the WWF title from Hulk Hogan in a surprise match early in the new year and Hulk Hogan rallying at WrestleMania to capture the WWF title for a fourth time before announcing his retirement from the ring. Vicious, err..., Viscous (I really like this mistyped name. Too bad it was just an error and not meant. Looking up "viscous" in the dictionary I find the meaning "not fluid. sticky", describing Sid's style perfectly), err..., Justice has signed a two year deal with the WWF and has been guaranteed $600000 per year by Vince. That gives you an idea how high-profile Sid will be. He's going to have to be headlining large houses to get that kind of salary. - Also, as reported already, the Desperados will be Dutch Mantell, Moondog Rex, and Black Bart. I think their main purpose will be to put some comedy into the WCW rings. - Also, Dick Murdoch and Dick Slater are in WCW in a couple of weeks as the Hardline Collection Agency. - Tom Zenk has signed for another year with WCW for the standard $3000 a week salary. - Larry Zbyszko missed SuperBrawl because of a legit knee injury. It's been scoped and he should be back by the end of the month. - Again, as reported already, Tugboat has capsized and resurfaced as Typhoon. This tub of lard will team with Earthquake under the name The Natural Disasters. They are set to feud with Andre The Giant and Jake Roberts. - Bobby Heenan will be leaving the management world in the WWF and will become a full-time colour commentator. - The WWF is trying to sign Steve Williams and Kevin von Erich. - Dino Bravo is back in again with the WWF and lined up to be carried by, err..., I mean feud with, Bret Hart. - Bruce Pritchard, whom we know and *love* as the red-faced Brother Love, has been canned from his office job with the WWF. Apparently he had some disagreements with John Fillipelli (who produced NBC Sports World) and got fired. Fillipelli has taken over Pritchard's job as the head of WWF production. The rumour mill is swirling that Pritchard will be called on by his good buddy Dusty Rhodes to work in WCW, as either an announcer or a manager. - There's talk of a tournament in Japan that will use wrestlers from several groups. It's a long way off, but the discussions are being held to get All Japan, WWF, USWA and WCW stars working against each other in a tournament as well as battling for several titles in inter-federational matches. Of course, before anything of this nature materializes, either the WWF or WCW will pull out of the show. - While catching up with my missed week's worth of news, I notice somebody mentioned the SPY magazine article on "Pumping Iron." This is in the (current) June issue. The writer discusses some of the hypocrisy in both the Vince McMahon and Joe Weider camps. He painted a somewhat nicer picture of Weider than he did of McMahon. There were lots of overblown figures when discussing McMahon's wealth and the income of the WWF. There was some pretty good text. For example, when discussing the announcement of the WBF by Tom Platz (with McMahon nearby), we get: " Platz promised that the WBF would be less stiff than other bodybuilding tournaments and would pioneer the use of theatrical values - implying that the other shows were too naturalistic and understated. ''We're going to take the charateristics inherent in these guys and blow them up,'' he said. When asked if WBF contests would contain any elements of WWF-style pro-wrestling, Platz, his voice firm, said, ''No. The best bodies will still win. Our bodybuilders will not become professional wrestlers.'' At that point McMahon glared at Platz, rendering the Golden Eagle a 97-pound weakling. Platz blanched and said, ''Uh, what I mean is, uu, there won't be any body slams on the stage.''" There is some pretty biting stuff on McMahon, like: " Even more than he relies on the allure of quasi celebrity and moke violence, McMahon relies on endocrinology. The WWF encourages young, money-hungry dumbbells in its employ to do anything they please to their bodies. [Stuff about Spuerstar Billy Graham and Bruno Sammartino lashing out against 'roids]. Wrestler Jim Hellwig - a former chiropractor and onetime Venice Beach habitue who calls himself the Ultimate Warrior - is perhaps the ultimate example of the WWF's bigger-is-better ethic. Even though he can barely pose and mug without getting winded, Hellwig was last year given the lead in the WWF troupe when Hogan was temporarily detained by his Hollywood commitments. ''I eat the chemical toxins that other men fear,'' the Warrior huffed and puffed in one interview." Further: " But foremost aomng Ben Weider's criticisms of McMahon is that everything he touches turns to kitsch. ''The opinion of most people is that wrestling as organized by the [WWF] has been turned into a circus,'' Weider writes in his memos [to warn his bodybuilders what they'd be joining.]" And the final statement: "''I'm doing this for the athletes,'' McMahon has declared. ''I just want to see them get a fair shake.''" - Finally, for next week's CoC, the Steiners opponents seem to change randomly between Hiro Hase & Kensuke Sasaki and Hiro Hase & Masa Chono depending on who you believe. I've changed my original call to votes. removing Sasaki and replacing him with Chono, but I won't be too surprised if Sasaki works the show. Apologies for the confusion and for the potential scrubbing of this match, since I fear no matter which way I go, I'll be wrong. 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