Newsgroups: rec.sport.pro-wrestling From: hekunze@jeeves.uwaterloo.ca (Herb Kunze) Subject: Wrestling TidBits - 04/28 Message-ID: Sender: news@watdragon.uwaterloo.ca (USENET News System) Organization: University of Waterloo Date: Fri, 29 Apr 1994 01:14:51 GMT Lines: 187 - The plot thickens as far as Vince McMahon's trial is concerned. First off, it's been moved back to a start date of 07/05; it had been scheduled to begin this coming Monday. Originally, there were two charges each against Vince and against Titan (as detailed a couple of weeks ago). There were mixed reports that the charge of distribution of steroids against Titan was dropped; some reports only said that the penalty no longer included confiscation of Titan Towers. Now, two additional charges against Vince McMahon have been added: another related to the distribution of steroids and one for falsifying an HIV test for Hulk Hogan. In fact, tonight's "Current Affair" ran a story on the HIV test that really didn't reveal too much. They showed the document that charges Vince with getting Howard Finkel to take an HIV test for Hogan in 02/90. The test had been demanded by a state licencing commission. Hulk Hogan's lawyer's responded that if there was a faked test, Hogan didn't know about it. Titan's lawyer and Finkel's lawyer refused comment. But, lo and behold, there was David Shults again, talking about some old charges against Hogan and saying that there would be no need to fake a test unless there was something to hide. Shults said that he became afraid when he saw how frequently needles were shared in the gym and locker room and that he actually went to an athletic commission and asked them to start testing regularly for steroids. They also had Vince McMahon's ex-chauffeur (another old player in this game) on camera to point the finger at Emily Feinberg, the only new name to surface here. Feinberg was a Playboy playmate in 1988 before being hired as a personal assistant to Vince McMahon. According to the ex-chauffeur, she was in charge of arranging the blood tests. When confronted outside of her house, she also offered no comment. The show wasn't very kind to Hulk Hogan because of the obvious implications of Hogan not wanting to be tested for the HIV virus and also because of the rehashing of the steroid issue. They mentioned that Hogan had publicly addmitted using steroids three times in his life but that David Shults said he had injected Hogan with steroids many times. They ended by saying that Vince's trial in July would hopefully bring the truth to light. They said that Vince faces 8 years in jail. It's somehow curious that July will mark Hogan's chance to come clean in the courtroom as well as his return to the ring with WCW, in a rumoured Hogan vs. Ric Flair PPV main event. - Too Cold Scorpio is history with WCW, although the company wants to find a way to bring him back. Rumours are flying that Scorpio is out because of some drug-related offence. This is strange because WCW would usually just suspend the wrestler if drugs were the reason. Fortunately for him, Scorpio is one of few North American wrestlers (Chris Benoit & Owen Hart also come to mind immediately) who can work numerous styles well, so he should have no trouble finding work elsewhere if he has to. - Brian Pillman & Steve Austin both signed two year contracts with WCW. - Jacques Rougeau has given notice to the WWF. When he first returned to the WWF with Pierre, working as the Quebecers, Jacques gave some interviews in Canadian newspapers saying that he only intended to still work for a relatively short period of time before retiring. It looks like that's the case. The WWF has been forewarned of this situation and has been building up a Quebecers vs. Headshrinkers match for Monday Night Raw, which will lead to the title change. The Headshrinkers have already appeared with the tag titles. They have also been teasing a heel turn for either one or both Steiner brothers, with talk being that the team will turn to take over the Quebecers' spot. - Diesel's IC Title win airs this weekend on WWF Superstars. Diesel will be getting a *huge* push, all the way to PPV main event status. - Curt Hennig is apparently sidelined with a foot injury. There are some rumours swirling around this because Vince McMahon said that Hennig was suspended indefinitely on an episode of Monday Night Raw. This combines with Hennig missing his shot in Memphis, with Meltzer's creative wording ("[Curt] said he had a toe injury") being repeated in different reports. Hennig being out, however temporarily, and Shawn Michaels taking a break, and Diesel getting pushed hurt the headline matches a bit. To his credit, Curt did have surgery on his foot and won't be able to return until the end of May, so perhaps all is well. - Dave Meltzer raved a bit about Spring Stampede in this past week's Observer. "...the workrate and match quality from top-to-bottom ranked with the best PPV shows of all-time with not one match below average." He gave the street fight tag match ****1/2 and called it "one of the wildest, sickest, most brutal matches you'll ever see" and "one of the most brutal matches of all-time." He gave the bunkhouse match **** and called it "an excellent bloodbath." He gave Vader vs. Boss ***1/2 and talked about how brutal it was. Finally, he gave Flair vs. Steamboat ****1/4 and called it "a classic" but also talked about how hard it was for these guys to live up to the 1989 "standard" they'd set. He did say the ending left one feeling flat, but then said "the idea of a double pin finish, with the challenger in command and executing the hold, to lead to a rematch is a good finish provided the issue is eventually resolved." The TV rematch was taped, leading to Flair returning to a face position and the return of Barry Windham. - A quick correction: The Missy Hyatt story talked about last week aired on "A Current Affair" and not "Inside Edition." Interestingly enough, one of the local papers talked about the story being on IE too. Did he get that from me or was he just careless too? - Smoky Mountain Wrestling's second Fan Week takes place from 08/05/94 to 08/13/94. It should include all the things that last year's did: several house shows, including a major show, meeting the wrestlers and Jim Cornette, etc. A few weeks back on IRC, I mentioned the idea of a bunch of r.s.p-w'ers getting together to share this experience and many seemed to think it was a great idea. I've been invited to a wedding on 08/07/94, so I'm not so sure any more about my going (although I'm still leaning towards it), but I'm curious what the feelings on this are. - WCW has Slamboree II on 05/22/94. Tentative line-up includes: - Rick Rude vs. Vader - Nasty Boys vs. The Sullivans for the Tag Titles - Tully Blanchard vs. Terry Funk - Steve Austin vs. Johnny B. Badd for the US Title - Steve Regal vs. Larry Zbyszko for the TV Title - Dustin Rhodes vs. Bunkhouse Buck in a Texas bullrope match Ric Flair will defend his WCW Title. The top three matches above have been announced on WCW TV. At Spring Stampede, one of the dark matches had the Sullivans face Pat Tanaka & Haito (Paul Diamond). The Equalizer injured his knee in this match and will not be able to work this PPV. Talk has Cactus Jack taking his place. Legends slated as appearing include Verne Gagne, Dusty Rhodes, Killer Kowalski, The Assassin, Ray Stevens, Red Bastien, Larry Hennig, Ole Anderson, Blackjack Mulligan, Tommy Young, Lou Thesz. - It must be somebody's idea of a joke! Yesterday's mail to me included a donation envelope from the WWF. Okay, so it's the World Wildlife Fund. YKYBWTMW when you get a Wildlife Fund donation letter in the mail and your girlfriend cracks a wrestling joke. ;-) - On last week's Wrestling Challenge, they ended with a Heavenly Bodies tag match. I mentioned this because Challenge apparently doesn't air in that many markets (as evidenced by the total lack of angles on that show) and because this was the worst occurrence of the weekend. The commentators are Ted DiBiase & Stan Lane. So, you'd figure that Stan would know a fair bit about Jim Cornette & Tom Prichard & Jimmy Del Ray. Stan, instead, pretended like he had no relationship with any of these guys. DiBiase made comments about Cornette taking mediocre wrestlers and turning them into pretty good teams. Stan acted outraged at Cornette's antics at ringside. It was like watching the "Twilight Zone." Starting this week, Stan is called the WWF the "double-u double-u eff" instead of the "double double-u eff", which sounded really strange because of what we're used to. I've accepted recent offers to get SMW house shows with the Bodies always in great matches; for some reason, I've turned down their WWF house show appearances. Sigh. There's just something wrong with watching them job for the Bushwhackers in a <= * match. - The WWF has the King of the Ring PPV on 06/19/94 from Baltimore. This will be headlined by Bret Hart vs. Diesel for the WWF Title. - WCW has a Clash of Champions on WTBS in 06/94. - WCW has The Great American Bash on 07/17/94 from Miami, FL. - Videos: I have posted something about the availability of videos. If you missed it, I'll send it to you in e-mail upon request. Basically, all of the tapes in my video collection are available. I've uploaded an updated version of my detailed tape list to the ftp site. I've managed to enter some details for all of my weekly TV tapes, so there's a total of very close to 500 tapes listed. If you are interested in getting a copy of VideoMarinepiad I, drop me some e-mail. I believe that I am up-to-date with all e-mail, so if you are awaiting a response for e-mail not sent in the last couple of days, chances are it disappeared amidst the double vision hysteria. In response to e-mail questions, yes, VideoMarinepiad will most likely become a regular event. The plans are in the works for VM II in June. All promotions will be considered for participation in VM II and hopefully we'll showcase a diverse selection of matches so that fans of any one promotion won't feel insulted. Stay tuned. Lots of great things have arrived or are on their way to me, so I anticipate having a lot of fun with VM II. I've finally caught up on all of the SMW TV shows I have at home. That still leaves the two most recent months to watch, but the tapes go straight to my mom and I watch them second ;-). With that done and the data recorded in my tape lists, I've had a chance to go back to the old Memphis tapes that have been gathering dust for a year or two now. I've watched the stuff from late 1985 and have a handful of tapes to get through, ending in 1987, with a few gaps along the way. This is the closest I've been to being "caught up" in a long time. I'm sure that will change quickly. ;-) In the meantime, Bill Dundee & Buddy Landel sure bust me up. "Ain't that right, Budro?" Herb...