From: hekunze@watmsg.waterloo.edu (Herb Kunze)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.pro-wrestling
Subject: Wrestling TidBits   -   08/01
Message-ID: <1991Aug1.135600.8595@watmath.waterloo.edu>
Date: 1 Aug 91 13:56:00 GMT
Sender: news@watmath.waterloo.edu (News Owner)
Organization: University of Waterloo
Lines: 133


 - SummerSlam '91 takes place August 26th, with the following line-up:
     - Hulk Hogan & Ultimate Warrior vs. Sgt. Slaughter, General Adnon,
        and Colonel Mustafa with Sid Justice as referee
     - Curt Hennig vs. Bret Hart for the IC Title
     - LOD vs. Nasty Boys for the Tag Titles
     - Ted DiBiase vs. Virgil for the million dollar belt
     - Bushwhackers (with Andre as cornerman) vs. Earthquake & Typhoon
     - Big Boss Man vs. Da Mountie (loser spends a night in jail)
     - Kerry von Erich, Davey Boy Smith & Ricky Steamboat vs.
        Power & Glory & Warlord
     - Greg Valentine vs. IRS
   Of course, there will also be the wedding of Randy Savage & Elizabeth,
   who have been married since December, 1984, in real life.  With Hennig
   not at 100%, the only match that looked to have a high workrate
   potential will probably end up not being anything special.  This
   card will be card #5 in the Usenet Booking Prediction Tournament.
   I'll post a call for predictions later this week or early next week.

 - WCW will hold a US Title tournament the night before SummerScam in
   the Omni.  Participants are Nikita Koloff, Sting, Barry Windham,
   Yellow Dog, Bobby Eaton, Arn Anderson, Steve Austin, Dustin Rhodes,
   Tom Zenk, Johnny B. Badd, Diamond Studd.

 - It's still damage control time in the WWF.  Hulk Hogan was pulled
   from a few cards so he could attend the special Olympics and
   reinforce his nice-guy image.  After SummerScam, Hogan will take
   a little time off to film yet another movie while the WWF tries
   to further reduce the scrutiny that the George Zahorian trial
   has brought them.

 - Randy Savage worked in place of Hulk Hogan at a couple of house shows
   this month.  That makes him eligible for Jim's rankings, I guess.

 - There's talk of Kerry von Erich turning heel and bringing in his
   brother David to form a tag-team.

 - As mentioned by other posters, Curt Hennig's back is causing him enough
   grief that he is planning to take a few months off after SummerScam.
   This would seem to hint at the result of his match at the PPV.

 - Earthquake is apparently on his way out from the WWF.  He lost to
   Sid Justice at a recent taping and to Jim Neidhart at a house show,
   so he's certainly being booked as if he were going.
     Earthquake leaving fits in with the apparent dropping of the
   Andre & Jake Roberts vs. Natural Disasters feud.  I'd expect from
   the matches at SummerScam that Andre will get involved in the
   Natural Disasters' match.  Perhaps they'll contrive an injury to
   explain EQ leaving.  I expect that Andre will then feud with
   Typhoon.  Those should be ***** matches.  Andre now comes to
   ringside using two canes.

 - David Sammartino should be out for several months after being involved
   in a car accident.

 - Hawk is finally back from his herniated disc and the LOD are again
   working as a team.

 - The Brooklyn Brawler failed a drug test and has been suspended for
   6 weeks.

 - I had a chance to watch WCW's WrestleWar '90 this past weekend on
   tape.  There were some nice moments, but I was most amused to
   finally see the "I have HERD enough" sign at ringside.

 - It looks like some indy talent will be jumping from Herb Abrams'
   promotion to Joe Pedecino's promotion.  Most notable is Cactus
   Jack Manson.

 - Got a flyer from our cable supplier this week.  Turns out that
   beginning August 6th, my area will have access to WTBS on basic
   cable.  So the big question is, when does WCW wrestling take
   place on the channel?  Can somebody who knows please send me
   some e-mail telling me days, times, and shows?  Any other
   wrestling on this channel?

 - Bad News Brown is coming back to the WWF.  I mentioned this before
   I believe.  He is going to come in as a babyface and will be noticeably
   different thanks to his full head of hair.

 - Ric Flair is a free man today.  We'll see shortly what his plans
   are and the miriad of rumours will be laid to rest.  WCW has run
   into other troubles as they try to cut back on expenditures.  They
   have recently switched from offering salary contracts to new wrestlers
   to instead giving them a per match pay-off, like the WWF.  A lot of
   the new guys aren't happy with this, like Kevin Nash (OZ), and may
   leave the company.  The established guys are being asked to take
   pay-cuts in the order of 50%+.  Flair was offered this type of "deal"
   first and, of course, said "no."  He was fired.  Maybe he was just
   the example for the other guys.  Now they know that they'll get fired
   if they refuse the deals.  Then they have to bank on the overcrowded
   WWF offering them a contract, if they want to make in the same
   neighbourhood of money.  Sting was asked to take a salary cut from
   $640000 down to $241000 and has refused.  He hasn't been fired yet.
   The Steiners' contract is up in September, and a new contract will
   have to be negotiated with them.  It's expected that the best team
   in North America will not get a reasonable offer.  Hey, Mr. Herd
   and Mr. Runnels, is that a death knell I hear?

 - Vince McMahon has been talking with the drug-testing companies that
   test the NBA, NFL and Baseball.  It's funny that in his press
   release he would say that the WWF would institute the "most
   comprehensive drug testing policy in sports" and Hulk Hogan gets
   on Arsenio Hall and says that the WWF's drug-testing policy will
   be better than the NFL's, when, in reality, they haven't even
   come up with a program of any type.  It's the best, you see, but
   it doesn't even exist.  Gosh, I'm cynical.  Actually, Vince has
   to buy some time before instituting the program.  He's got to
   give all his roiders (read: pretty much all his wrestlers) time
   to get clean if he does, in fact, go to a third party for tests.
   In the mean-time, Vince preaches platitudes mixed with misleading
   statements, and uses re-direction to take the heat off his star
   wrestler, Hulk Hogan.  Vince says he once tried one dose of deca.
   Who really gives a shit if Vince has ever taken a steroid, or if
   he's lying about his own personal steroid history?  What I'm
   concerned with is his penchant to push pharmacological phantasms
   into the upper echelon of his promotions, without regards to
   their ability.  This effects the business.  This forces newcomers
   with or without talent to pump up and look like Sid Vicious or
   Lex Luger or the Ultimate Warrior.  That's what will get them
   pushed.  If you look like Bobby Eaton or Pat Tanaka, you'll
   never get that push, even if you are one of the better workers
   in the business.  Maybe Vince is taking his time establishing
   his stellar drug program so that his guys can get clean first.
   Maybe Vince is serious about cleaning up the problem in the
   business.  Maybe.  Or maybe Vince is taking his time so that his
   wrestlers can be educated on how to beat tests: scaling down
   dosages, using human growth hormone, or whatever.  We don't
   really know.  All we have is 7 or 8 years worth of Vince's
   WWF handiwork and the philosophy that that seems to project.
   I really hope Vince surprises me.

                                                             Herb...