From: hekunze@watmsg.waterloo.edu (Herb Kunze) Newsgroups: rec.sport.pro-wrestling Subject: Wrestling TidBits - 09/05 Message-ID: <1991Sep5.143132.21295@watmath.waterloo.edu> Date: 5 Sep 91 14:31:32 GMT Sender: news@watmath.waterloo.edu (News Owner) Organization: University of Waterloo Lines: 163 - WCW's Clash of Champions XVI: Fall Brawl takes place tonight on WTBS. The card has changed a little since my call for predictions for the bookings. Originally, I had listed: 1. Ron Simmons vs. Diamond Studd with the winner getting a title shot at Halloween Havoc 2. Rick Steiner & Bill Kazmeier vs. Arn Anderson & Larry Zbyszko the vacant WCW World Tag Titles (tournament final) 3. Terrence Taylor vs. Van Hammer (a newcomer. You tell me) 4. Brian Pillman vs. Bad Street (Jr. Heavyweight tournament semi-final, final to take place at Halloween Havoc) 5. Tom Zenk vs. Steve Austin for the TV Title 6. A Battle Royal with all the guys that can't work a match like Oz, P.N. News, El Gigante, Johnny B. Badd, etc., but also including Cactus Jack Manson, Young Pistols, Bobby Eaton, Barry Windham and Big Josh. Now it seems that match #1 will not be for a title shot - it will just be a normal match. Ron Simmons will sign is contract with Lex Luger on the show. Van Hammer, although signed by WCW already, will probably not make it to the card, so we can only guess on the substitution that will take place. All other matches will take place as advertised. Virgil added Sting vs. Johnny B. Badd for the US Title. The Freebirds will take on the Patriots. Richard Morton will face Mike Graham in the second semi-final for the Light Heavyweight title. The battle royal should have 15 men in it. - The Ultimate Warrior has been suspended by Vince McMahon for 90 days for unprofessional conduct. The rumours are already flying that he was suspended for steroid usage, which could be the beginning of the end of the UW with the WWF. Sid Justice will jump in and begin working against the Undertaker, with their first meeting taking place in Hamilton, Ontario, this Sunday. The match is a coffin match, where the loser will be carted away in a coffin. Interestingly enough, at the WWF's WrestleFest show they ran what appeared to be the final match in the UW vs. Undertaker feud, with UW locking Undertaker in the coffin and a bunch of wrestlers carrying the coffin to the back room. I guess this will never make a Coliseum home video. With UW gone, Jake Roberts is left without a foe, so Vince concocted the reception skit. It looks like Randy Savage will be feuding with Jake Roberts. But, Randy is not particularly keen on even returning to the ring according to some rumours and vetoed an earlier suggestion that he return and feud with Ted DiBiase some more. I doubt that Randy will look at a feud with Jake in any better light than a feud with Ted. There may be a bit of a power play over Vince's rushed actions post-Summerslam. - Also in Hamilton this Sunday, Bret Hart makes his first IC title defense. He faces the Warlord. Now that should be a ***** match. - WCW's Halloween Havoc takes place on October 27th. The headline match will be Lex Luger defending the WCW title against Ron Simmons. There is talk that Scott Steiner will at least make an appearance at the card, if not wrestle. - Vince McMahon has selected Comprehensive Drug Testing, Inc. to help develop and administer the steroid testing program for the WWF and the WBF. CDT also handles the tests for baseball, and the NBA. An independent laboratory will be picked by CDT to do the testing. No word on the time-frame involved to get things up and running, or whether the results of the tests would be available to the general public or the press. The more I read about Vince pursuing steroid testing, the more skeptical I become. He's not changing who he's pushing in the ring is he? Then the same pressures to take steroids exist for the wrestlers. But he is letting an external organization run things! Vince must have a tap to Human Growth Hormone. - Roddy Piper was all set to be officially retired. He didn't want to wrestle in the WWF anymore and was quite content to be a commentator. Then Ric Flair showed up. Piper will be coming out of his shorter- than-Ricky-Steamboat retirement to work with Ric Flair in the fall to get him ready for his series with Hulk Hogan. The talk is that Ric Flair will work against Hogan for the first time at Survivor Series on November 27th. The postulated teams for the headline match at Survivor Series are Hulk Hogan, Sid Justice, UW (doubtful), and Randy Savage vs. Undertaker, Jake Roberts, Warlord, and Ric Flair. Hulk Hogan has already taped interviews accepting challenges from Ric Flair any time at any place. - It looks like John Tolos was canned as the WWF's Coach because he was really bad, and that Lanny Poffo was hired for the job because Vince is trying to sweet talk Randy Savage into working against Jake Roberts. - Vince was apparently planning to go with Ted DiBiase vs. Randy Savage (to which Randy was saying "no," and Vince was trying to convince him) Virgil vs. IRS, Jake Roberts vs. UW as some of the October marriages. With UW gone, he's shifted to Jake Roberts vs. Randy Savage (if Randy agrees), Ted DiBiase vs. Virgil, IRS vs. Big Boss Man. Of course we'll also have Roddy Piper vs. Ric Flair and Legion of Doom vs. Earthquake & Typhoon. - Superstar Billy Graham has filed suit against Vince McMahon, George Zahorian, and certain steroid manufacturers. He has apparently agreed to settle out of court with Vince, if Vince hands over some $1-$1.5 million. Graham is threatening to tell all about the WWF (remember, he was back under Vince Jr. a couple of times, so can make damaging comments about some pretty recent goings-on). - A couple of weeks ago, the WWF's second arcade game "WrestleFest" debuted in the arcade close to the University. It features many of the top names in the WWF, including Hulk Hogan, Curt Hennig, Ted DiBiase, Ultimate Warrior, LOD, Demolition, BBM, Earthquake, Sgt. Slaughter, etc. The graphics on this game are far superior to the original "WWF Superstars" arcade game. The player can either participate in a Royal Rumble, or take part in a Saturday Night's Main Event Tag Match. I gave both options a whirl. The Royal Rumble starts off with your selected wrestler (Curt Hennig, in my case) and about five other wrestlers in the ring. By manipulating the joystick and pressing button A and/or button B you get your wrestler to do various things. I meandered right over to Hulk Hogan and gave him several standing dropkicks. I followed this up with a snap mare and a knee drop. Meanwhile, Jake Roberts was selected as the next Rumble participant and a little graphics window popped up with Jake mumbling and then a a shot of the aisle as Jake strolled to the ring. By now I was getting pummelled by the Ultimate Warrior, who used more moves on me in a minute than he ever has in his WWF career. My "strength" bar (a coloured strip on the top of the screen) was getting smaller and smaller and I was moving a lot slower. Somehow, though, I got the upperhand on Hulk Hogan again, while trying to avoid everybody in the ring a la Rick Martel at this year's Rumble, and by madly wiggling the joystick and pressing buttons, put the PerfectPlex on him, getting the three count. Unfortunately, Hawk stormed the ring next and zeroed in on me, giving me some standing dropkicks, a flying shoulder tackle, and putting me in a bear hug before getting the pinfall on me. This was kind of neat, although very hard to follow as the ring gets fuller. Of course, the new participants are far more refreshed than your computerized wrestler, so it's much harder to stay in control later on. I went on to the Tag Team challenge. I picked the formidable team of Curt Hennig and Ted DiBiase. The first challenge was Hulk Hogan & Ultimate Warrior. I wondered who was the booker and how I had gotten drawn for this match-up - it didn't matter 'cause I was gonna make it a shoot. I pummelled the stuffing out of the UW and somehow managed to slap the Million Dollar Dream on him, before Hogan had even entered the ring. I got the submission. The kids watching me were pretty awestruck by how quickly I did this and I really had no idea what I had done. The next challenge was Demolition Smash & Crush. This was interesting. Again I don't know what I did, but somehow I managed to set up all kinds of double teams when I tagged in and out. So I tagged a lot. Curt put the figure four leg-lock on one of the Demos and got the submission. By now I was pleased, since I was winning by submission. I was determined not to pin anybody. Match three was a big blue cage match against Earthquake & the Big Boss Man. uh-oh. But wait, no problem. I slammed these guys silly and kept whipping them into the cage. They didn't know what hit them. Except for a short burst of offence by the BBM, I dominated. Then Earthquake caught me by surprise with a powerslam and went to the top rope for a splash! I moved and PerfectPlexed him to a pinfall. I made it through a fourth match and got to the title match, which had me as the challenger to the Legion of Doom. Hawk & Animal beat the living daylights out of me. It was over before it began. All in all, not a bad little arcade game. Four players can play at once in either game mode. I just liked the experience of beating Hogan. I just hope Ric Flair stays around the WWF long enough and gets a big enough push to warrant him being included in a future WWF arcade game. Nothing would be more worth a quarter than being the Nature Boy and pummelling Hulk Hogan. Herb...