Newsgroups: rec.sport.pro-wrestling From: hekunze@jeeves.uwaterloo.ca (Herb Kunze) Subject: Wrestling TidBits - 08/06 Message-ID: Sender: news@watdragon.uwaterloo.ca (USENET News System) Organization: University of Waterloo Date: Thu, 6 Aug 1992 16:03:31 GMT Lines: 112 - Today's Toronto Star reports: "Apparently Sting, who lost his WCW crown to Big Van Vader, is on his way to the WWF as soon as his contract is up. So are the Steiner Brothers (Rick and Scott), who recently lost their tag-team belts. The Steiners are considered the best tag team in the business. Bret Hart, Ted DiBiase and Flair could be headed the other way." This reporter rarely has his own ideas, so these rumours are probably in many pro-wrestling columns nationwide. Of course, there's nothing concrete about any of them. For the record, Sting signed a long-term contract that still runs for 2+ years. The Steiners' contracts run until the end of this year. Ric Flair's contract runs until September, 1993. I don't know about Hart and DiBiase. I think these rumours exist for "obvious" reasons. It's no secret Bill Watts is going to expect his wrestlers to take pay cuts when their contracts run out. Some, as I mentioned, will only be offered nightly payoffs. I guess people expect the "top stars" like Sting and the Steiners to get pissed off about this situation and jump to the WWF for a higher salary. Because of Bret Hart planning to jump to WCW earlier this year, it's assumed that he's disgruntled and would jump now even if it means a lower salary, I guess. It would seem possible that Bret Hart will lose the IC Title to crowd favourite Davey Boy Smith at SummerSlam, which gives yet more fuel for rumours. But Vince has already taped the beginnings of a Bret Hart vs. Papa Shango feud, so it would seem he plans on keeping Bret around for a while. On to Ted DiBiase. DiBiase does have a history of working with Watts, so that makes him an obvious target for rumours, plus Vince has never really used him well. Ric Flair and Watts were in contact when Watts picked up the NWA Title belt, and Flair is the kind of guy that would work well in Watts' regime, but Vince McMahon wouldn't be using Flair in any capacity, let alone in a major angle, if he had any intention of letting him out of his contract early. - The WWF has it's SummerSlam PPV scheduled for August 31st (to be taped at Wembley Stadium in London, England, on August 29th). The following line-up has been announced in North America: - Randy Savage vs. Ultimate Warrior for the WWF Title - Bret Hart vs. Davey Boy Smith for the IC Title - Undertaker vs. Kamala - Shawn Michaels vs. Rick Martel The following matches have been announced, I believe, on English television: - Money Inc. vs. Legion of Doom - Beverly Brothers vs. Natural Disasters - Tatanka vs. Berzerker - Crush vs. Repo-Man - Nailz vs. Virgil - Jim Duggan & The Sheepwhackers vs. The Mountie & The Nasty Boys - Papa Shango vs. name babyface Wembley Stadium is apparently almost sold out, with only seats on the upper level available. I don't know if it tells you anything, but the post-SummerSlam marriages will be: - Randy Savage vs. Razor Ramon - Ultimate Warrior vs. Kamala - Davey Boy Smith vs. Repo-Man - Bret Hart vs. Papa Shango - Ric Flair vs. Undertaker - Bossman vs. Nailz - Legion of Doom vs. Beverly Brothers - The NWA Singles Title tournament takes place in August in Japan. The tournament structure is as follows: Scott Norton --\ /-- Jim Neidhart |--\ /--| Bam Bam Bigelow --/ | | \-- Kensuke Sasaki |--\ /--| Tony Halme --\ | | | | /-- Terry Taylor |--/ | | \--| Masa Chono --/ | | \-- Hiro Hase |--- Finals ---| Barry Windham --\ | | | /-- Barbarian |--\ | | | /--| Keiji Muto --/ | | | | | \-- Shinya Hashimoto |--/ | \--| Steve Austin --\ | | | /-- Rick Rude |--/ NWA Singles \--| Arn Anderson --/ Title \-- Super Strong Machine The first round matches on the left take place on August 6th and the first round matches on the right take place on Ausgust 7th. The quarter-finals take place on August 10th, the semi-finals are on August 11th and the finals are on August 12th. I would guess that Muto will win the tourney. Matches or highlights from the tournament will air on WTBS in some form. - I received a nice batch of videos in the mail yesterday. The tapes included lots of Portland Pro-Wrestling, basically all shows from July, 1988, through to January, 1989, and then all of March, 1989. Plus there was some old Calgary Stampede Wrestling (episodes from 03/28/88, 04/02/88, 04/09/88, 04/16/88, 11/27/89, 12/04/89, 12/11/89, 12/18/89, 12/25/89). I had hoped for more (and earlier) Calgary, but instead got some Watt's UWF, WCCW, and All Japan Women (more Dump!) from November and December, 1986. There was some assorted old stuff from Memphis, too, including: - Jerry Lawler vs. Bill Dundee for the Southern Title (loser leaves town) - Jerry Lawler & Bill Dundee vs. Austin Idol & Tommy Rich (scaffold match) - Jerry Lawler vs. Kerry von Erich (title vs. title) The biggest unexpected surprise was about 4.5 hours of Mid-South Pro-Wrestling from 1984-1985. Highlight include: - Lots of Midnight Express with Jim Cornette - two Midnight Express vs. Fantastics matches - several tags and six-men with MEs opposing R'N'R Express - Lots of interviews with Jim Cornette - Interviews with Jim Duggan and Jim Cornette talking about their upcoming hair vs. hair match and an interview with Jim Cornette under a hood crying because he lost his hair I haven't had much time to watch anything yet. I've only watched one of the Calgary shows because I just had to watch a match with the one and only Steve DiSalvo in it. ;-) Herb...