Newsgroups: rec.sport.pro-wrestling From: hekunze@jeeves.waterloo.edu (Herb Kunze) Subject: Wrestling TidBits - 02/20 Message-ID: <1992Feb20.204446.8821@watdragon.waterloo.edu> Sender: news@watdragon.waterloo.edu (USENET News System) Organization: University of Waterloo Date: Thu, 20 Feb 1992 20:44:46 GMT Lines: 100 - ABC's "20/20" will be airing a piece on anabolic steroids on March 13th. The media pressure over this issue, which is expected to peak prior to WrestleMania is being credited for some of Vince's booking strategy. Let's think about what's happened in the past while in the WWF. The IC Title was switched from Bret Hart to Roddy Piper. The World Title was switched to Flair, and the Flair-Hogan match at WM was changed to Flair-Savage. The tag team titles were switched from the Legion of Doom to Ted DiBiase & IRS, whose rumoured title defense at WrestleMania will be against Sgt. Slaughter & Jim Duggan. In every case, Vince is switching from steroid freaks (yeah, I know, the LOD gained those bodies after years in the gym, just like Kerry von Erich) to people with non-freakish physiques (not to say that they haven't or don't use steroids). Clearly, in the WWF one doesn't have to have the steroided look to get a push from Vince, right? Vince has even turned Sid Justice heel, since Sid's value to the company will plummet if the steroid press gets hotter. - No word on the LOD's future plans. It was reported here that the title change will air on TV in the next couple of weeks. At the moment, the LOD is still wearing the titles at the house shows, so the WWF is doing the "it doesn't happen until it airs on TV" thing, unlike the Bret Hart title change. - WCW will announce a steroid policy in the near future. - Rumours have Nikita Koloff returning to WCW. - As reported on the net already, Buzz Sawyer (real name Bruce Woyan) died on February 7th. Differing reports have him being found dead in Sacramento on his lawn and in a restroom of a Sacramento restaurant. Sawyer was 32 years old. It's being hinted that the cause of death was a drug overdose, as Sacramento County deputy coroner Ed Smith reported that there was drug paraphernalia found at the scene. - The line-up for WCW's SuperBrawl II PPV on February 29th has - Sting winning the World Title from Lex Luger - Ricky Steamboat vs. Rick Rude for the US Title with Paul E. Dangersouly barred from ringside - Arn Anderson & Bobby Eaton vs. Steiner Brothers for the Tag Titles - Larry Zbyszko & Steve Austin vs. Dustin Rhodes & Barry Windham - Jushin Riger vs. Brian Pillman for the Lightheavyweight Title - Cactus Jack vs. Ron Simmons - Marcus Alexander Bagwell vs. Terry Taylor - El Gigante & Johnny B. Badd & Big Josh & Mike Graham vs. Young Pistols & Diamond Dallas Page & Vinnie Vegas - P.N.News vs. Mr. Hughes - Van Hammer vs. Diamond Studd - Tom Zenk vs. Richard Morton Yup, Van Hammer's back. He'll be working the PPVs and CoCs while he learns to work. - The current Lex Luger talk has him taking time off for the rest of this year to run his gym. The usual rumours of Lex joining the WBF are fading a little, saying that he may join the WBF somewhere near the time that he could wrestle in North America again. - The WCW & New Japan Supershow II PPV will air in March. On Viewers' Choice Canada, it will air at 10:30am on March 7th and March 21st and at 4:30pm on March 14th. The running time for the show is approximately 1 hour and 50 minutes. Canadian cost is $12.95. The matches for this show took place on January 4th and will most likely suffer some editing for the taped PPV. Matches that involved WCW stars were: - Dusty & Dustin Rhodes vs. Masa Saito & Kim Duk - Arn Anderson & Larry Zbyszko vs. Michiyoshi Ohara & Shiro Koshinaka - Bill Kazmaier vs. Shinya Hashimoto - Big Van Vader vs. El Gigante - Sting & Great Muta vs. Steiners - Lex Luger vs. Masa Chono for the WCW Title We've already seen a clip of the ending of the Vader-Gigante "match". Masa Saito should be well known to everybody. Shiro Koshinaka is a very good Jr. Heavyweight wrestler. I have seen him in many great matches with Jushin Riger, Pegasus Kid, Hiro Hase, and the like. Shinya Hashimoto is a big guy who seems to rely on martial arts. I saw his match against Riki Choshu for the IWGP Title from 11/24/90 New Japan TV and he was pretty over - but with Kaz in the ring with him, it has to be terrible. Sting & Muta vs. Steiners went 11 minutes but was supposed to be great. I wonder if they'll show Luger-Chono? Masa Chono should be known to everybody for shattering Rick Steiner's head gear at a CoC last year. There was also a Jr. Heavyweight 6-man match on the card, which we could see air since it involved Riger. The card also had Inoki-Hase and Choshu-Fujinami. - I saw a pretty gross angle on video the other day. The angle took place Puerto Rico a couple of years back and involved Chicky Starr and the Invader #3. Starr has a "Barber Shop" like segment called "Chicky Starr's Sports Shop." The guest for this segment was to be The Medic (not the WCW jobber), but as we would discover, Invader #3 impersonated the Medic by wearing his mask. As Chicky was asking a question, the fake Medic whirled around and whacked Starr over the head with a 2x4. The fake Medic then pulled out his Invader #3 mask and the commentator went crazy to sell the angle, as the invader #3 left the scene. Meanwhile, the doctor and a few wrestlers (Dan Kroffat, Bobby Jaggers, and somebody else) came out to check on Chicky, who was bleeding profusely from the top of his head. The doctor clipped a bunch of hair off Chicky's head while the cameraman stood over him giving us a perfect shot of Chicky's skull. We then got to watch the doctor inject Chicky's skull with local anaesthetic and sew the gash shut. I'd like to see Vince try that one. Herb...