Newsgroups: rec.sport.pro-wrestling From: hekunze@jeeves.uwaterloo.ca (Herb Kunze) Subject: Wrestling TidBits - 09/29 Message-ID: Sender: news@watdragon.uwaterloo.ca (USENET News System) Nntp-Posting-Host: jeeves.uwaterloo.ca Organization: University of Waterloo Date: Thu, 29 Sep 1994 23:22:18 GMT Lines: 126 - September 24, 1994, will be remembered by me as both a very good day and a terrible day. While it was my birthday, it was also the day that Jushin Liger badly broke his leg. In the year when the Jr. Heavyweight situation in New Japan was looking richer than it has in recent memory, arguably the star performer of the pack suffers an injury that will remove him from the promotion probably for a year. Sigh. It's already been reported here that Norio Honaga has won the IWGP Jr. title that Liger had to vacate. - There are reports that the WWF will release a book written by the Undertaker. It's entitled "Tombstoned". There is a lot of talk that the Undertaker will be given the WWF Title, with the primary guess being that it will take place on Monday Night Raw's Halloween edition. There is little doubt that current WWF champ Bret Hart will be moved into a feud with King Kong Bundy in November (they are already lined up to face each other in Europe anyhow), so perhaps Bundy will be put over big with a brief world title reign before dropping the title to Undertaker. Popular prediction has Yokozuna being the interim champ and losing to the Undertaker as a way of balancing the scales in that old feud. Just prior to Halloween, the house shows are still headlined by Hart vs. Jim Neidhart and Undertaker vs. Yokozuna in casket matches. - Marcus Bagwell & The Patriot won the WCW tag titles on the live Main Event broadcast on Sunday. This was handily foreshadowed when the WCW Saturday Night show referred to the duo as the tag champs. I hate those kind of careless mistakes. That live show also saw the break up of Dave Sullivan and Kevin Sullivan - can't wait for those matches. - There is increased talk that Cactus Jack will soon begin working as a regular for Smoky Mountain Wrestling. - The Observer reports that Thurman "Sparky" Plugg is now being referred to has Bob "Spark Plugg" Holly probably for legal reasons, but I can't imagine what those would be. - WCW scored a plum in the new television season. Toronto station CFTO and Ottawa station CJOH both picked up the World Wide syndie. The WWF is still aired in force in those markets, of course, but WCW had only been available to Canadian cable subscribers who paid extra to get WTBS and/or WSBK. The WWW syndie has a special "Canadian Control Centre" and the show runs several plugs for the all-new "WCW Canadian Hotline." While on this topic, the WWF syndies, since they were running in far more markets to begin with, took a big hit in this new TV season. - There is much talk that WCW will run a lightheavyweight tournament in the very near future and begin promoting two weight divisions again. In 1992, under Bill Watts, this idea led to one of the best PPV matches ever in North America when Brian Pillman faced Jushin Liger for the WCW Lightheavyweight Title. Now, under Eric Bischoff, they've developed a relationship of sorts with Mexican promotion AAA and have renegotiated a talent trade deal with New Japan (recently became the exclusive Japanese promotion that can use WCW talent). Between those two foreign groups, guys that work for WCW now (Pillman, Alex Wright, Brady Boone), and smaller North American guys, the possibilities for this tournament are fantastic. Of course, in the end something less than fantastic will be arranged, but it could still be a highlight of the year. - After working a couple of tours for New Japan, Steve Regal has decided that he'd rather ply his skills there for a bit and will be leaving WCW effectively pretty much immediately. It's unclear how long he'll be a regular foreigner with the group. - 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 with Mr. T as special referee and Hogan retiring if he loses - Paul Orndorff & Paul Roma vs. Marcus Bagwell & Patriot for the Tag Titles - Jim Duggan vs. Steve Austin for the US Title - Johnny B. Badd vs. Honky Tonk Man for the TV Title - Vader vs. Guardian Angel in a strap match - Dustin Rhodes vs. Arn Anderson - Nasty Boys vs. Terry Funk & Bunkhouse Buck The tag title match will have Stars & Stripes defending their newly won belts with the Patriot's mask on the line. Muhammed Ali will present the WCW Title belt to the winner in the main event. In exchange, WCW will donate some of the proceeds to the Muhammed Ali Foundation. - AAA will broadcast a show on live PPV on 11/06/94. Matches are: - Konnan vs. Perro Aguayo, cage, 2-of-3 falls - El Hijo del Santo (& Octagon) vs. Eddy Guerrero (& Love Machine), mask vs. hair, 2-of-3 falls - Chris Benoit & 2 Cold Scorpio & Tito Santana vs. La Parka & Blue Panther & Jerry Estrada, 2-of-3 trios match - Heavy Metal & Rey Misterio Jr. & Latin Lover vs. Psicosis & Fuerza Guerrera & Madonna's Boyfriend, 2-of-3 falls trios match - Mascarita Sagrada & Octagoncito vs. Espectrito & Jerrito Estrada, 2-of-3 falls minis match AAA plugs should begin this weekend on WCW Main Event TV. The second match above may be a singles or doubles match. - WCW has Clash of Champions XXIX on 11/16/94. - WWF has Survivor Series on 11/23/94. - WCW has Starrcade '94 on 12/27/94. The tentative line-up has: - Hulk Hogan vs. Vader for the WCW Title Vader has apparently agreed to put Hogan over and to work lighter than usual. - Mark Long has put together a World Wide Web server that has a lot of pro-wrestling related stuff on it, including this posting and some nice graphics. I've sent him a couple of pictures to include with the weekly TidBits post - a picture of me sitting in the courtyard of the Chateau Lake Louise in Lake Louise, Alberta, and a picture of Jushin Liger signed to me. The server is located at http://www.luc.edu/~mlong/wrestling.html. - Awards: The second call for nominations was posted today. - 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. My tape list is on the r.s.p-w ftp site (128.227.59.59) in the file herbtape.zip. I have made a total of five compilation tapes for the net: R.s.p-w 1, Japan 1981-1983, Japan 1984-1987, VideoMarinepiad I, and VideoMarinepiad II. If you are interested in details on any of these, just send some e-mail or browse the ftp site. Herb...