Newsgroups: rec.sport.pro-wrestling From: hekunze@jeeves.uwaterloo.ca (Herb Kunze) Subject: Wrestling TidBits - 06/23 Message-ID: Sender: news@watdragon.uwaterloo.ca (USENET News System) Organization: University of Waterloo Date: Thu, 23 Jun 1994 15:54:18 GMT Lines: 133 - Nothing unexpected occurred at the WWF's King of The Ring on Sunday. No titles changed hands, Owen Hart won the "King" tourney, and Jim Neidhart returned to the WWF eventually aligning himself with Owen. - WCW has a Clash of Champions on WTBS tonight. Once again, it starts at 8:05pm EST and runs for 2 hours. The line-up is: - Ric Flair vs. Sting to unify the WCW & WCW International World Titles - Nasty Boys vs. Kevin Sullivan & Cactus Jack for the WCW Tag Titles - Steve Austin vs. Johnny B. Badd for the US Title - Larry Zbyszko vs. Steve Regal for the TV Title - Terry Funk & Bunkhouse Buck vs. Dustin Rhodes & Arn Anderson - Guardian Angel vs. Tex Slazenger Hulk Hogan is expected to make his first WCW in-arena appearance for this show, no doubt as an angle that's part of the main event. Sherri Martel will also appear and announce who she is managing, with talk being that it will be Flair. WCW ran ads for their next PPV which talked about Ric Flair defending against Hulk Hogan being a possibility. In another promo, Gene Okerlund talked about the Clash "this past Thursday" before mentioning the PPV matches. Argh. Flair unified the belts and Hogan was somehow involved. Sullivan & Jack retained their titles and so did Zbyszko. Gene said that Dustin announced his partner to face Funk & Buck would be Arn Anderson, which leads one to believe that that match doesn't take place tonight, but an angle announcing it will. This could cause confusion because Flair will obviously have to turn heel to work with Hogan, so Arn should follow suit instead of teaming with Dustin. Can we hope for an Arn Anderson turn on Dustin in short order? - King Kong Bundy says he's returning to the WWF. "New Generation?" - The arrival of Hulk Hogan into WCW has generated much mainstream publicity and has had some interesting side-effects. First off, many reporters that had always praised Hogan during his WWF tenure now criticize his wrestling skills and point out that he's not a good wrestler. While the criticism is valid, it's selective mention is curious. Hogan has guested on several different TV shows to talk about his relationship with WCW. While the interviews have all been throwaways, this does reflect that Hogan is still a star as far as the media is concerned and that WCW know has the advantage (for the first time) when it comes to garnering media attention. In response to this, the WWF has a launched a massive Hogan blast ad campaign, labelling the Hulkster as part of an old generation of wrestlers while calling the current crop "The New Generation." Whatever they might say, this shows that the WWF at least feels that Hogan going to WCW warrants some attention. WCW owner Ted Turner will actually be part of the wrestling angle that leads to the contract signing between Hogan and Ric Flair. Turner has done a couple of magazine photos with Ric Flair and did appear in the WCW Saturday Night audience a short while ago, but this would be a new level of involvement. Everybody is saying that this was a bad business move for WCW. Getting a .87 buy rate (practically double what they usually get) on PPVs while Hogan is around just to maintain the old minor profit level for those events seems demanding. But there's a part of me that thinks that Hogan vs. Flair will appeal to a lot of fans, even though the wrestling will be non-exciting. It's too early to judge, in my mind. - SMW Fan Week takes place from 08/05/94 to 08/09/94, with lots of events planned over those days. The schedule looks like this: - 08/05 Night of Legends, Knoxville, a Slamboree type card. - 08/06 Fire on the Mountain, Johnson City, annual major show, & luncheon with the babyfaces. - 08/07 Battle of Beckley, Beckley, small house show. - 08/08 TV taping. - 08/09 Barbecue with the heels. - 08/10 Q&A with Jim Cornette, Bodies, Chris Candido & Tammy Fytch; Tape parties and discussion groups with "newsletter editors." - 08/11 Small wrestling show at county fair. - 08/12 Knox County Knockout, Barbourville, another house show; Daytime tape parties & discussions. - 08/13 King of the Mountain, Morristown, annual tourney house show, & Wrestling training class with Tim Horner They are offering two packages, one that runs from 08/05 to 08/09 and the other for all of the days. They've arranged a deal with the same hotel that the wrestlers stay at for single and double rooms, as follows: - 08/05-08/09 - $425 single or $325 per person, double occupancy. - 08/05-08/12 - $595 single or $450 per person, double occupancy. Wrestlers who will appear at the events include Terry Funk, Dory Funk Jr., Jake Roberts, Heavenly Bodies, R'n'R Express, Thrillseekers, Brian Lee, Tracy Smothers, Dirty White Boy, Bob Armstrong, Chris Candido, Tammy Fytch, Bruiser Bedlam, Jim Cornette, and more. (Tim Horner has left the company, but will apparently still do the training class). The fee includes hotel accomodations, bus transportation to and from all events, lunch on 08/06, cookout on 08/09, admission to the fair on 08/11, the Q&A session, and the wrestling training class. You must arrange your own transportation to Knoxville. From reading the mail-out on this, there is no way of arranging your own accomodation. (With them driving you everywhere, this makes some sense). If any regular netters read this and are interested in going, let me know. It may affect my decision. Right now, Curtis & I are both leaning towards going. It would be an added bonus if I was going to meet some of the personalities in the newsgroup, as well. - Two Guerrero brothers will be brought in to feud with Terry Funk & Bunkhouse Buck. - WCW Saturday Night on 07/09/94 will be broadcast live. - WCW has The Great American Bash on 07/17/94 from Orlando. Tentative line-up has: - Ric Flair vs. Hulk Hogan for the Unified World Title - Cactus Jack & Kevin Sullivan vs. Paul Orndorff & Paul Roma for the WCW Tag Titles - Steve Austin vs. Rick Steamboat for the US Title - Vader vs. Guardian Angel - Terry Funk & Bunkhouse Buck vs. Dustin Rhodes & Arn Anderson The print ad for this show (which had to be submitted two months ago) gives no details on the show. After getting screwed when problems changed previous line-ups, WCW may have learned to put out generic ads that far in advance. - WCW has a Clash of the Champions on 08/26/94. There was talk that Curt Hennig would debut at this show, but that might not be legally possible. Besides, the Hogan story line change will have a ripple effect on other plans. - The WWF has SummerSlam on 08/29/94. The line-up includes: - Undertaker (Mark Callaway) vs. Undertaker (Brian Lee) - 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. If you are interested in getting a copy of VideoMarinepiad I, drop me some e-mail. VideoMarinepiad II will be available hopefully within one week. Herb...