Newsgroups: rec.sport.pro-wrestling bnr.co.uk]bnrgate]nott]torn]watserv2.uwaterloo.ca]watdragon.uwaterloo.ca]hekun ze From: hekunze@jeeves.uwaterloo.ca (Herb Kunze) Subject: Wrestling TidBits - 05/27 Message-ID: Sender: news@watdragon.uwaterloo.ca (USENET News System) Organization: University of Waterloo Date: Thu, 27 May 1993 15:33:56 GMT Lines: 157 - WCW's Slamboree PPV took place this past Sunday, with a few things of note taking place. First, reports here are that Van Vader suffered a cracked rib in his match with Davey Boy Smith. He will be out of action for a couple of weeks. Second, due to his injuries from a recent stiff angle in SMW, Bob Armstrong was unable to work in a legends match at the PPV. He was replaced by Brad Armstrong. Third, as predicted, Shane Douglas was unable to work the PPV and the Dos Hombres storyline was used to mask it. On TV, the Hombres had been portrayed by Rick Steamboat & Brad Armstrong in the ring. With Brad having to substitute for his ailing father earlier in the PPV, Tom Zenk stepped in and worked as El Segundo Hombre. Finally, Paul Roma did debut as the fourth Horseman in an interview segment. Everybody on the net seems down on this choice, but Roma can work and has been out of the spotlight long enough for casual fans to not remember his WWF days too clearly. I'm kind of glad that they chose a younger wrestler as the fourth Horseman. - The other big surprise at Slamboree was the appearance of Nailz, er..., The Prisoner. My jaw dropped when Gordon Solie and Tony Schiavone announced that Nailz would be Sting's opponent at the PPV on WCW Saturday Night. I wondered if WCW offices would get a fax from Vince about this one prior to the PPV. Sure enough, no more references to Nailz. Anyhow, word here is that this is *not* just a one-shot deal (argh]), but that WCW is also going to bring in the Big Boss Man to resume his old feud with Nailz, with the guys using different ring names. - Talk has WCW going to a major US Title controversy storyline following the double-pin finish in the title match between Rick Rude and Dustin Rhodes. We should expect a match or series of matches between the two to determine who is the rightful US champ. - Hot off his pin of Razor Ramon on Monday Night RAW, there's talk here that the Lightning Kid also scored an "upset" win over Doink. BTW, is there any reason why they showed footage of Kid's losses to Doink and Mr. Hughes on the syndies, but only showed still shots of both his victory and the Shwan Michaels vs. Marty Janetty title match? I can understand using stills when you're hyping a video of a PPV, but in this case, it made little sense. - The WWF has the "King of the Ring" PPV on June 13th. The card will feature an 8-man tournament to determine who the King of the Ring in the WWF is (no idea if there's a prize other than the label or if the label will stick around and maybe be defended). The entrants in the tourney were decided through several elimination bouts on the WWF syndies. The bracketing method and the brackets themselves have changed over the weeks, but, now that the tourney spots are all filled, I guess they'll stay with the most recently announced bracketing: Bret Hart --\ !--\ Razor Ramon --/ \ !---\ Mr. Hughes --\ / \ !--/ \ Curt Hennig --/ \ !--- King of The Ring Jim Duggan --\ / !--\ / Bam Bam Bigelow --/ \ / !---/ Lex Luger --\ / !--/ Tatanka --/ Also on the card: - Hulk Hogan vs. Yokozuna for the WWF Title (rumoured that Mr. Fuji will not be present at ringside, but that Jimmy Hart and Brutus Beefcake will be; Beefcake will trim Yokozuna's hair after he loses the match; New Japan referee Tiger Hattori will be special referee) - Ted DiBiase & I.R.S. & Headshrinkers vs. Steiners & Nasty Boys - WWF house show marriages after the King of the Ring PPV will include Hulk Hogan vs. Yokozuna and Money, Inc., vs. Steiners. I guess that the tag matches will let them practice a bit before the rumoured title change at SummerSlam. The Hogan vs. Yokozuna marriage would have to be casual at best, since talk has Hogan filming another B-movie this summer, adding more fuel to speculation that he'll drop the title at SummerSlam. - As mentioned in another post, WCW and New Japan signed a deal which extends their talent exchange for another year. Unfortuntely for WCW, Van Vader's deal with UWFi in Japan could jeopardize the whole thing if New Japan looks at that as a breach of contract. This has caused everybody to speculate that Van Vader will drop the WCW Title very soon. Meanwhile, the deal between New Japan and Hulk Hogan has grown too (I refuse to call this a deal between New Japan and the WWF, since that ain't what it is). New Japan referee Tiger Hattori will ref the Hogan vs. Yokozuna match at the King of the Ring as a special favour to Hogan. Do these special favours never stop? And are they worth it? - WCW has a Clash of Champions scheduled for 06/17/93 at 8:05pm EST from the Norfolk Scope, in Norfolk, VA. Notice that the date has changed, with the show airing on Thursday, because the Mets vs. Braves game will be on TBS on Tuesday. I believe that the show will be live - ie. not taped on the originally announced date of 06/15/93. The show will be rebroadcasted on 06/25/93 at 10:35pm EST. The tentative Clash line-up is: *- Vinnie Vegas vs. Jim Neidhart *- Marcus Bagwell vs. Lord Regal *- Paul Orndorff vs. Ron Simmons for the WCW TV Title in a 20-minute time limit match *- Barry Windham vs. 2 Cold Scorpio for the NWA Title *- Brian Pillman & Steve Austin vs. Ric Flair & Arn Anderson in a non-title tag match *- Sting & Davey Boy Smith vs. Van Vader & Sid Vicious They've already stated on our Canadian version of WCW Power Hour (with the awesome commentating duo of Larry Zbyszko & Tony Gilliam) that Steve Regal has apparently been dubbed Lord Regal in a ceremony by Lady Diana. They said he will be managed by Sir William, who will be Bill Dundee. I guess they never learn and still debut new gimmicks on live TV even after such disasters as Oz. That's not to say that this gimmick will or won't work eventually, but why take the risk of running with it the first time at a live broadcast. Hopefully, they'll add a match with Paul Roma to the card and work on getting him over quickly, which shouldn't be a hard task (although we are talking about WCW). This will signal Ric Flair's return to the ring and he'll get his first title shot at Van Vader in Charlotte, NC, two days after this show. - The participants for New Japan's Top of the Super Junior tourney have changed a little. The tourney will take place on the tour from 05/25 to 06/15. Participants look to be Chris Benoit, El Samurai, David Finlay, Lightning Kid, Dean Malenko, Jushin Riger, Masao Orihara, 2 Cold Scorpio, Eddie Guerrero, Norio Honaga, Tiger Mask and Shinjiro Otani. This would make it a 12 man tourney. Orihara replaces Ultimo Dragon, and Honaga and Otani appear to be new additions. Meltzer reports some partial match line-ups for various dates with 11 of these guys listed (Tiger Mask unlisted). Shinjiro Otani is a rookie who will just get some exposure here while jobbing for the stars. - A little piece of good news in the Observer: Sabu got a try-out with WCW. Hopefully, he'll get signed, since it's hard to imagine him being unimpressive for the try-out. - WCW has this year's Beach Blast PPV on 07/11/93 from Gulfport, MS. - The WWF has SummerSlam in 08/30/93 with a tentative main event of Hulk Hogan vs. Bret Hart for the WWF Title. - E-mail TidBits: If your site has a slow feed or you don't read news frequently enough and you want to get this posting as e-mail every week, send me e-mail saying so. - Video: Match lists are temporarily on hold. The final final vote for matches will conclude this Monday, so I should post some details by next week. 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