Newsgroups: rec.sport.pro-wrestling From: hekunze@jeeves.uwaterloo.ca (Herb Kunze) Subject: Wrestling TidBits - 08/04 Message-ID: Sender: news@watdragon.uwaterloo.ca (USENET News System) Organization: University of Waterloo Date: Thu, 4 Aug 1994 13:05:18 GMT Lines: 234 { First off, apologies for not posting anything last week. As part of my PhD program, I have to write a PhD proposal and defend it in a comprehensive oral examination. That was scheduled for last Friday morning. Somehow time got the better of me and I never found the time to put together a post during the week. The exam lasted 2.5 hours, a half-hour talk by me about my work and 2 hours of questions from my committee. It went very well, with the chair of the session calling it "very close to ideal." Now I just have to do the work. ;-) As a bonus for a job well done, I get to teach 1A Calculus to 100 new Science students starting in September. I mention this because I'm sure to bitch about it on the net. Herb... } - Vince McMahon escaped his conspiracy (to distribute anabolic steroids) trial unscathed. After dismissing duplicate charges against Titan Sports and Vince McMahon, there were three charges left against Vince. The two charges related to distributing steroids to Hulk Hogan were tossed out because the government failed to show any evidence that this action occurred in the trial district. The final conspiracy charge went to a jury, with a "Not Guilty" verdict being returned after 16 hours of deliberation. Vince is talking about suing the government for harassment. The government can still try to get Vince on the distribution charges in another district court, but has to hurry before the statute of limitations runs out. All in all, an event that had the power to change the face of wrestling today fizzled and did absolutely nothing. Well, it did leave us with perhaps the quote of the week (I say perhaps, because another fantastic quote is in this post) from Vince: "I'm elated - just like in wrestling, in the end the good guys always win." - This should probably come later, but I think it's so funny that I wanted to put it near the top of the post. I've been reading over old Observers (from 1984) and came across a great picture that gives me my quote (sort of) of the week. It's a picture of Dory Funk Jr. and Terry Funk on an All Japan tour, wearing T-shirts that plug "Weekly Pro-Wrestling," a wrestling magazine. The T-shirt has "Weekly Pro-Wrestling" written on it, some Kanji characters that look suspiciously like the characters you see when All Japan or New Japan TV shows identify themselves, and a graphic of one masked wrestler with another in a headlock. Underneath all that is the following text, in English (exactly as it appears on the shirt): Everybody is equal under God when they are born. However, only by reading Weekly Pro-Wrestling one can become a supreme existance of the whole universe. I laughed myself into tears when I read that and then realized that I wanted one of the shirts! Also, in the 12/03/84 issue Meltzer's editorial is about the decline in wrestling quality in North America. The title is "Who is the villain here?" While he dumps most of the blame on Vince McMahon, he also acknowledges that other promoters are to blame as well. Had other guys not pushed Hulk Hogan, Andre, Kamala, etc., beforehand they wouldn't be "stars" for Hogan to push. Every little promotion at the time had great workers at the bottom (Chavo Guerrero or Scott McGhee) and lousy workers on top. There were some interesting opinions that have relevance today. Here we go: "In order to avoid continuing defections [to the WWF], other promoters are going to have to either: 1. Escalate their own pay scale so their most important stars won't find it attractive to jump; 2. Treat their talent like wrestling stars and not give build-ups to "bums off the street" while those striving in prelims are ignored. The only other alternative to stay in business is to create the type of product which, because of the way wrestlers are matched-up, ingenuitive angles, comedy or whatever, can survive raids. Promotions equipped for this are those which have the ability to develop their own talent. [Sounds like SMW, ECW and USWA to me. HK] The most distasteful thing to me, and those which if they continue will easily kill my interest in wrestling are not those McMahon does (I've already given up on his product, won't buy a ticket to see his cards live and won't watch them on TV unless I'm eating dinner in front of the television). Recently I've had the privilege of watching two blond fellows named Tim Ashley and Steve Constance on both Atlanta and Florida TV. They are called "The Warriors" in Florida and the "Louisville Sluggers" in Atlanta. It's unfair to say they are bad. They just began wrestling on October 20. The point here: Two guys, within two weeks of their debut are being put over and they can't do anything. The Carolinas have two big fellows out of a gym called "The American Starship" who are being given an even bigger build-up. At least if I pay to see an NBA game, I'm seeing people who have practiced their craft for three or four years in high school, several years of college and another half dozen years on the playground. I have no intention of watching pro-wrestling when I see guys who they are trying to tell me are worth paying to see, when I can just take a few steroids and learn a few moves from friends and be every bit as good. At least in Roller Derby you have to know how to skate. Talent probably has never been the most important thing in wrestling. But in the past at least being talented had some value. Watching the trend of promoting non-talents is all the more depressing because in a few years [remember, this is 1984. A few years is *now*. HK] it will no longer matter. Except for the real die-hards, the long-time fans will continue to vanish. The new fans, and there will be every bit as many of them because wrestling has a natural attraction, won't be able to recognize ability, having never seen it. Dianabol will replace (if it hasn't already) drop toe holds in a wrestler's vocabulary." - WCW's Bash at the Beach PPV drew in the neighbourhood of a 1.0 buy rate. One of the Toronto papers actually called this the best PPV of the year. The results have already been bashed to death on the net. Ric Flair lost the Unified World Title to Hulk Hogan. Meltzer rated that match ***1/4 and said that Ricky Steamboat was the best performer on the show (in his match vs. Steve Austin; apologies to those of you who think that three armdrags in 20 minutes is too much). In somewhat of a surpirse, Sting, who had been pulled from his match with Steve Regal and replaced by Johnny B. Badd due to an "eye injury" suffered at the hands of Sherri Martel, did not appear in Badd's corner as had been advertised. Because they planned to set up Antonio Inoki vs. Steve Regal, they had to put Regal over somehow. Having Regal cheat to win in front of one of the company's top babyfaces wouldn't do, so they pulled Sting from the story, saying that doctors had prevented Sting from appearing. Where do things go from here? Of course, Flair vs. Hogan will be featured on the Clash of Champions in three weeks. Airing this match for free makes everybody think something major will happen...like Flair regaining the title. The scheduled main event for the September PPV (besides the Wargames match) is Flair vs. Sting vs. Vader in a triangular match. If Flair has the belt at that time, we could think of this as him taking on the two neglected contenders simultaneously to regain some credibility after all of his heel tactics. If he doesn't have the belt at that time, they could hype it as a match to decide the number one contender to Hogan. Either way, that triangular match has a lot of promise on paper. - I will be attending Smoky Mountain Wrestling's Fanweek from tomorrow (08/05) until 08/13. As a result, there will obviously be no post next week. I suppose it's natural to expect a report on the event at some point after I get back. 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 Jim Cornette is expecting the 08/05 show to be SMW's biggest house show ever. I will be ringside at all of the above-listed events. I'm sure to have a great time and I hope I'll have some great stories to tell when I return. - Speaking of SMW, there's talk that Cactus Jack will go there after leaving WCW in early September. Originally, there was talk that he was going to go to ECW. - The Bob Backlund heel turn aired on WWF Superstars this past weekend. The match (Bob vs. Bret Hart) was watchable and was even made sort of interesting by Jim Ross' excellent commentary. Backlund will have to do a lot to gain any credibility as a top-tier star in the WWF. - Hacksaw Jim Duggan worked a Centre Stage taping for WCW. There are mixed messages about whether he'll actually become part of the North American WCW product. Jimmy Hart is also trying to bring in Honky Tonk Man Wayne Farris. - WCW has a Clash of the Champions on 08/24/94. I have previously always listed this show as being on 08/25; that's even what my newly-arrived cable guide says, but WCW is advertising it for 08/24 after making the last minute location change (from St. Paul to Cedar Rapids). The line-up looks like this: - Ric Flair vs. Hulk Hogan for the Unified World Title - Paul Roma & Paul Orndorff vs. The Nasty Boys for the Tag Titles - Steve Austin vs. Rick Steamboat for the US Title - Dusty Rhodes & Dustin Rhodes vs. Bunkhouse Buck & Terry Funk - Steve Regal vs. Antonio Inoki Five matches on a two-hour special should fit nicely. Hopefully they'll only give Inoki 5 minutes to beat Regal with the Octopus. They aired a clip of Dusty Rhodes entering the ring to beat up Buck and Colonel Parker before everybody stormed the ring. Afterwards, Dusty did a pretty good emotional interview asking to be Dustin's partner at the Clash. Maybe he'll stand on the apron except for short bursts. We can hope. - WCW had a tag match on Saturday Night this weekend with Ric Flair & Steve Austin vs. Rick Steamboat & Sting. The match was **** and was given a fair bit of broadcast time (a half-hour or so). It ended with Steamboat dropping a lame pin to Steve Austin amidst much confusion and some controversy. Afterwards, Steamer did an interview about Austin. This coming week's Saturday Night show will be "live and interactive" again and my bet is that they will try to steer the voting to a Steamboat vs. Austin match. That match could help set up the Clash match between the two. They began plugging the voting this past weekend already, so maybe they'll make $10K off the deal. - The WWF has SummerSlam on 08/29/94. The line-up includes: - Bret Hart vs. Owen Hart for the WWF Title in a cage match - Diesel vs. Razor Ramon for the IC Title - Undertaker (Mark Callaway) vs. Undertaker (Brian Lee) - Tatanka vs. Lex Luger The WWF is promoting the UT vs. UT match very strangely, IMO. Hiring Leslie Neilson to do skits trying to solve the confusion of having two Undertakers reduces a supernatural story line to a comedy story line. One is no worse than the other, I guess. It seems a safe bet that they'll add an Alundra Blayze vs. Bull Nakano match. And how about a Mabel & Typhoon vs. Yokozuna & Crush re-match? - WCW will embark on a European tour from 09/01/94 to 09/14/94, hitting cities in Germany and England. This makes me think that Hogan will keep the title at the Clash. All of the WCW stars you'd expect will be part of this tour and Jim Duggan is also advertised as appearing, hence the confusion about Duggan returning to the North American mix. - WCW has Fall Brawl in 09/18/94. Tentative line-up includes: - Terry Funk & Bunkhouse Buck & Arn Anderson & Ming vs. Dusty Rhodes & Dustin Rhodes & Nasty Boys in a War Games match - Sting vs. Ric Flair vs. Vader in a triangular match - WCW has Halloween Havoc on 10/23/94. Tentative line-up includes: - Hulk Hogan vs. Ric Flair for the Unified World Title in a cage Meltzer reports that there has been some publicity released saying that Flair will retire if he doesn't regain the title in this match, which leads to a little confusion in figuring out the story line that Flair will choose to follow. - 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 or VideoMarinepiad II, drop me some e-mail. Since I'll be away for ten days, I won't be around to respond to e-mail or snail mail requests for tapes. Herb...