From: hekunze@watmsg.waterloo.edu (Herb Kunze)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.pro-wrestling
Subject: Wrestling TidBits   -   07/11
Message-ID: <1991Jul12.025816.13844@watmath.waterloo.edu>
Date: 12 Jul 91 02:58:16 GMT
Sender: news@watmath.waterloo.edu (News Owner)
Organization: University of Waterloo
Lines: 113

{ Well this was one hell of a week for me.  I went to my permanent home
  in Toronto for the weekend and when I came back to Waterloo on Sunday
  I discovered that the storm on Saturday had caused the dryer and the
  toilet in the basement of my townhouse to wage an impromptu duel to
  see which could spout more contaminated water into the basement.
  Unfortunately, I live in the basement of the townhouse and wasn't
  too pleased to return to the results of this appliance rebellion.
  I keep thinking that Ric Flair getting fired is what turned the
  world upside down.                                                   }

 - Those of you musing about the possibility that Ric Flair may be the
   special referee for SummerSlam fail to realize that he is under contract
   to WCW until August 1.  He's being paid his salary but isn't being
   booked.  The scenario described in other postings seem to be what
   has happened.  Barry Windham was going to win the World Title and
   then defend it against Luger at the Bash.  There were some advertising
   problems with this, since the promos for the show had already been
   released.   Flair was going to be phased down after the title change,
   basically just putting over the younger wrestlers.  Of course, WCW
   doesn't want to pay somebody in that role the top salary in the
   company, regardless of the fact that he may be the best wrestler
   in the game in North America.  It would seem that the push for a
   youthful image for WCW and the way that Dusty wanted to follow up
   with his booking combined to push Flair out.  By the way, Flair
   owns the current WCW World Championship Title belt and with circumstances
   as they are, may just walk out the door with the belt and defend
   it on the indy circuit.  How are the mark magazines going to
   explain this?

 - As already posted, the SummerSlam line-up will have:
      - Hulk Hogan & Ultimate Warrior vs. Sgt. Slaughter, Adnon, Mustafa
        (it's expected Sid Justice will referee - they've filmed bits to
         this end already)
      - Curt Hennig vs. Bret Hart for the IC Title
      - Nasty Boys vs. LOD for the Tag Titles (no DQ)
      - Ted DiBiase vs. Virgil
      - Earthquake & Typhoon vs. Sheepwhackers with Andre as cornerman
      - Big Boss Man vs. Mountie with the lose spending a night in the
        local jail.

 - The Steve Keirn vignette aired this past weekend.  So I was a little off
   on the name.  He's known as Skinner Hawk.  The gimmick is still the
   same: he's a tough dude that wrestles alligators.  Looks like he'll
   be feuding with Ricky Steambost and Jake Roberts down the line.

 - Eddie Gilbert quit the USWA and is trying to join WCW again.  Should
   be interesting if he gets in, what with Jason Hervey and Missy Hyatt
   working angles with Paul E. Dangerously these days.

 - Lyle Alzado was on Arsenio Hall last night, discussing his illness
   and steroids.  Lyle believes that his years of steroid abuse led to
   his brain cancer.  His reasoning was that he had done only healthy
   things outside of using the juice, so there was only one bad habit
   to blame.  The problem is that there are a lot of healthy people
   getting cancer because of the environment we live in.  Anyhow,
   whether or not we can blame steroids for his illness is irrelevant.
   What's relevant is that he is trying to preach against their use.
   Lyle was very careful not to point the finger at anybody that
   uses steroids.  He claimed that 75% of pro footballers use the
   stuff.  He said that he used them from the late 60s on in large
   doses, and never really cycled the stuff.  After a while he became
   "immmune" to what he was using and switched to other steroids or
   combined several (up to 3 or 5) different steroids to get an effect.
   Pro wrestling was not mentioned.  George Zahorian was not mentioned.
   Lyle wants his message to go out to the young guys who just take
   the stuff so they'll look good on the beach.  Arsenio didn't ask
   any useful questions (what a surprise!), save one:  What do you
   tell the kid out there who's clean and keeps getting beaten by
   guys that aren't?  Lyle had no real answer.  He thinks that the
   athletes make the choice to take steroids.  This is a pretty
   narrow-minded opinion, I think.  In pro wrestling, certainly, you
   cannot work in the big time unless you are on the juice.  There
   is no choice because of the way that promoters have developed the
   business.

 - Hulk Hogan is being lined up for a program with the Undertaker at
   the house shows, followed by a program with the Warlord.

 - No sooner had WCW announced their next PPV for September 5th in
   Cleveland, than - you guessed it - the WWF added an arena show to
   their schedule on September 5th in Cleveland.

 - Dusty Rhodes will have a bit part as a cowboy in a Hollywood flick
   being filmed now.

 - Lotsa talk about Hercules failing a drug test with the WWF.  He's
   been suspended for 6 weeks and will be replaced by Dino Bravo at the
   house shows.  With this happening so close to the steroid trial of
   George Zahorian, some are assuming that Herc got caught using the
   juice.  This is pretty funny, since the WWF actually encourages that
   they use steroids.  Hercules was suspended for using cocaine.  Vince
   doesn't care what you use as long as it doesn't make him lose money,
   and if it happens to make him gain money, he'll encourage it.

 - Some fallout from the George Zahorian trial:
     Rick Martel has been sent out for the next SWS tour by Vince.  You've
   got to avoid the issue by sending you're known steroid abusers out
   of the country, dontcha know.  After the Zahorian trial heat cools
   down, we'll see Rick again.  At the Zahorian trial, it was mentioned
   that Rick has suffered liver damage from taking so many steroids.
     In WCW, they just take their known steroid abuser, Dan Spivey, and
   book him into an impossible situation by asking him to job for newcomers
   until he refuses too vehemently and gets fired.

 - Pat Tanaka is missing lots of dates because of knee surgery and his
   father dying.  Kerry von Erich is missing dates too.

 - The best news of the week and the only redeeming sign in the North
   American promotions is that not only will Hiroshi Hase & Masa Chono
   (okay, maybe Kensuke Sasaki) be coming in to WCW in September, but
   Keiji Kuto will be doing a tour, and Jushin Riger will coming in for
   a tour too!
                                                          Herb...