From: hekunze@jeeves.uwaterloo.ca (Herb Kunze) Subject: Wrestling TidBits - 07/13 Date: 1995/07/13 Message-ID: X-Deja-AN: 106147536 sender: news@watdragon.uwaterloo.ca (USENET News System) organization: University of Waterloo newsgroups: rec.sport.pro-wrestling - Everybody is talking about the WWF returning to the old "bigger is better" formula that carried them through the heyday of Hulkamania in the 1980s. Mabel, arguably the worst wrestler in the King of the Ring tournament, was crowned King and gets a push, Sid continues to headline against Diesel, and Shawn Michaels is relegated to an Intercontinental Title match at the next PPV. Still, this will probably only be temporary, as everybody is saying that the ever-changeable plan of the WWF is to have Michaels challenge for (and win) the WWF Title by the end of the summer. In the mean time, Canadian fans are lucky enough to be spared the wrestling skills of King Mabel at house shows -- Mabel apparently cannot enter Canada due to a previous conviction. - How's this for an interesting idea? This past weekend, Sully's Gym in Toronto (home of Ron Hutchison & Sweet Daddy Siki's wrestling school) held a small wrestling show which included a couple of hours of Japanese video watching. - WWF figurehead President Jack Tunney has retired. No word on what, if anything, this means for the future of the WWF in Toronto, where Tunney was the local promoter. Could the WWF stranglehold on the city loosen up? Would it matter? Although the WWF TV shows hinted that potential replacements might come from the current talent roster (eg. Ted DiBiase), rumour has it that Bill Watts might come in for the role. - WCW should go topsy-turvy once again, now that Ric Flair's booking role as been eliminated. Originally, Hulk Hogan was in control of his own scenarios and Flair was handling everything else with a committee. Now, Kevin Sullivan is head of the committee. The top program has taken shape as the Master (Curtis Iaukea) has placed the Taskmaster (Kevin Sullivan) in charge of the Dungeon of Doom: Kamala, the Shark (John Tenta in a really stupid role, billed as being from "Tsunami"), Big Van Vader, and eventually the Giant (Paul Wight, the big man that has appeared on WCW shows several times). Doesn't that sound great? - Speaking of Vader, WCW started calling him Big Van Vader once again and he even had the head gear with him in an interview. Vader has re-established his connection with New Japan, the company which has rights to the name and gimmick. - UFC takes place tomorrow night. - WCW has Bash at the Beach PPV on Sunday. This is the show that will take place on a beach with free admission. Line-up includes: - Hulk Hogan vs. Vader for the WCW Title in a cage match - Ric Flair vs. Randy Savage - Nasty Boys vs. Blue Bloods vs. Harlem Heat in a triangular tag match for the WCW Tag Titles - Sting vs. Meng for the US Title - Paul Orndorff vs. Renegade for the TV Title - Diamond Dallas Page vs. Dave Sullivan - Jim Duggan vs. Kamala The DDP attack on Dave Sullivan was just terrible, with bad kung fu movie style sound effects added in. - The WWF has the second "In Your House" PPV on 07/23/95. Tentative line-up has: *- Diesel vs. Sid for the WWF Title in a lumberjack match *- Owen Hart & Yokozuna vs. Davey Boy Smith & Lex Luger for the Tag Titles *- Jeff Jarrett vs. Shawn Michaels for the IC Title *- Roadie vs. 1-2-3 Kid *- Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Henry O. Godwinn *- Bret Hart vs. Jean Pierre Lafitte - WCW will air a taped PPV on 08/04/95 featuring matches from the New Japan trip to Korea. The show will be cheaply priced at $12.95. Tentative line-up: - Antonio Inoki vs. Ric Flair - Rick & Scott Steiner vs. Hiro Hase & Kensuke Sasaki - Hawk vs. Tadao Yasuda - Bull Nakano vs. Akira Hokuto - Scott Norton & Masa Chono vs. Akira Nogami & Takayuki Iizuka - Wild Pegasus vs. Too Cold Scorpio - Black Cat vs. El Samurai - Hiro Saito vs. Yuji Nagata - WCW has a Clash of The Champions on WTBS on 08/06/95. Tentative line-up has: - Vader vs. Arn Anderson & Ric Flair - Harlem Heat vs. Blue Bloods for the WCW Tag Titles - Diamond Dallas Page vs. Johnny B. Badd - Sting & Hawk vs. Meng & Manabu Nakanishi *- Renegade vs. Paul Orndorff for the TV Title - The WWF has SummerSlam on 08/27/95. - WCW will air a "UFC-style" PPV on 09/01/95. - WCW has Fall Brawl on 09/17/95, without Hulk Hogan. - Interview: This is the fourth part of an interview with 2 Cold Scorpio from the defunct Wrestling Flyer. Clark: How would you describe your experiences working with Jushin Liger, The Lightning Kid, and Chris Benoit? Scorpio: I think that's been my biggest experience, working with Chris Benoit and Jushin "Thunder" Liger because they were some of the top guys and when I first went to Japan Benoit was one of the guys that really helped me out and taught me the shoot style wrestling. That got me really used to that style of wrestling over in Japan. So Chris is really one of my big helps. Jushin "Thunder" Liger has a lot of moves and I really liked working with him because I was just impressed with somebody else that can do all the stuff that I can do. Then the people even put me right up there in the top category with him, even considering me as one of the great wrestlers with Muta and Chris Benoit. I mean the people who haven't really been around the world and haven't really seen a lot of wrestling really don't know. But I really appreciate those guys a whole lot. Lightning Kid, he was young and the first time I saw him was last year in the junior tournament. I talked to him and we had a real good time and I enjoyed working with him. I thought that his style needed a little bit more work on it but I thought overall if he kept doing that style and the more that he kept working the better he would get. I mean the more he works with Liger, Chris Benoit, me, Dave Finlay, or any other guys like Eddie Guerrero in the junior tournament that it would really improve his style. But then again, he was in the same situation where I was where you might have had only one or two guys who worked over in Japan or Mexico who knew that style of wrestling that he was doing up there. When somebody else doesn't really know that style of wrestling it's really hard for somebody to keep up with you. Clark: Out of all the guys you have worked matches with in WCW, who were you most comfortable with and most enjoyed working with? Scorpio: I really liked working with Chris Benoit when he was down there. That was my favorite because we know how to work together and we could really do a Japanese style match that he could understand. Also I liked working with Steve Austin, he was a real good worker. I didn't like working so much with Flyin Brian. I wasn't too crazy about his style. He was always considered one of the great high-flyers but I just never really respected him I guess because he really didn't respect me. I guess it was one of those things, a conflict with another high-flyer coming in. You know how that is. Clark: What do you mean when you say that he didn't respect you? Scorpio: I didn't think he respected me when I first came in. He hardly did talk to me the first couple months when I got there. He wouldn't even talk to me. He was the only guy that they saw could come off the ropes or do any high-flying maneuvers and his maneuvers at that time were good, but some of the maneuvers he does is just like everyday high spots in Japan and Mexico, which was good here because the people here haven't seen that style. It just took us a while before we really got warmed up to each other and starting kind of talking, although we were both faces at the time. I liked working with Orndorff and Roma. I enjoyed working with the Barbarian when he was in. With a lot of big guys it's a different style of wrestling where I had a lot of different chances to do different maneuvers. When you're working with the Barbarian, that's a whole totally different style. A lot of people say, "God, what is he going to do now?" So you've kind of got them on the edge of their seats kind of wondering what you're going to do. So there was quite a bit of guys in there that I really enjoyed working with. And Sasaki, I liked working with the Japanese guy when he came only for the simple fact that I trained in the dojo with him and he was one of my teachers as well. Clark: Were there certain guys in WCW that you would work a stiffer style with? Scorpio: There were a few guys where I would tighten up. Dallas Page was one. He had a rough style of wrestling which I love so I would always tighten up and bring it a little bit harder to him because I always felt that he could handle it. Any of the bigger guys that I fought I would always bring it to them a little bit harder because I just said, "Hey, take it or leave it. You're three hundred and some odd pounds, so I don't want to hear anything." Clark: Speaking of working that tighter and stiffer style, what kind of an experience was it wrestling Vader? Scorpio: I worked a couple times with Vader and that was an experience in itself, but it was fun and stuff. Vader's the type of guy that will knock your block off but when it's time for you to deliver something, he's right there to take everything that you can dish out. Then again, like I said, he got me into it and got in a fight with one of my kids and stuff. Like when we got in the ring and he told me, "You know we're going to have to fight one of these days. This is the way I feed my family, it ain't nothing against you, but this is what I do for a living. And when I get in the ring I'm going to have to kick your butt." I just told him, "If you think you're going to kick my butt in the ring, you've got another thing coming. I guess we're really going to be kicking each others butt " Clark: Is there anybody that you worked with at WCW who wasn't into working that more agressive style and liked the laid-back style more? Scorpio: A lot of the older guys like Paul Orndorff worked more of that older style, more of a grab-a-hold type style. I loved working with Barry Windham. I pretty much worked my style but he's one of them old great wrestlers who's done a lot of the different styles of wrestling. He does basically an American style wrestling, grab-a-hold and brawl. So that was a little bit different working with him but I think most of all I really enjoyed working with him because that was a learning experience in itself. Clark: Would you say there was maybe different levels of motivation in yourself when you were working with different guys in the company? Scorpio: Yeah, there would be. I mean when I work with more of a top guy, then I would be more willing to work with them than with a guy that I never worked with. I felt that I could just pretty much go out and just dominate and do what I wanted to do to him because I was just so used to the style that I was coming from. Still with me trying to switch to the American style and still doing Mexican and Japanese at the same time. I had to convert all that into the American stvle. Clark: What style are you most fond of or most enjoy working? Scorpio: Actually I kind of like mixing it up now. I kind of got used to it. I really like the Japan style wrestling more because of everything else in it and the people just seem to understand it a lot more. I also love the Mexican style type wrestling because it is the high spots and the flips and the different aerial type tactics that I can do. And you'd be amazed with some of the fat little chubby Mexicans guys that can get out there and do that. Just to see somebody do that just kind of amazes me and I'm just glad that I can kind of keep up with them. Clark: Was the tag team situation with Marcus Bagwell something you thought could have gone further or were you more interested in working as a single? Scorpio: In that situation I could have went either way. I felt I could have pursued a lot more and a lot faster as a singles because I wouldn't have to do anything, meaning I wouldn't have to worry about a tag team partner or nothing like that. I would just have to learn to work by myself, which is a lot more easier. But then again, at the same time, I thought that the tag team was headed in the right direction and we were moving up. I thought me and Marcus had great potential of holding the belts and keeping them for a while. If they wanted to take the time to do what they had to do with us I think we would have been on the right track. And if I had a chance to go back and do it over I wouldn't mind hooking up with Marcus and do it again because the people were behind us. That was the main thing. People liked us and people were behind us. It took them a while to get used to Marcus and me being a tag team but when they finally got used to it, for some reason we just clicked. I mean, the pretty boy and the high-flyer, and then we kind of took to each other too. We weren't really spending a whole lot of time as far as on the road but when it came down to the gym and when it came down to talking and when it came down to us getting in the ring, we just seemed to happen to know what each other was going to do. And that's a real tag team partner. So if I had to come back and do a tag team again, if it couldn't be Chris Benoit, then I guess it would have to be Marcus Bagwell. Clark How did you feel about coming into WCW and replacing Robby Walker while they... Scorpio: Actually I kind of felt bad for him because I didn't realize that when I came in that they had kicked him to the curb just like that and had finished him off in the next TV. They took the guy out and then right away I was Ron Simmons' partner. The thing is, as I was looking at it also, I knew I was a better wrestler and I can say that it looked like a better team. But I didn't think that was right with the way that they did him. I thought there was a lot better ways they could have did that. I also felt that maybe it could have started a little heat down there, and then again with my style of wrestling, it kind of had a lot of guys puzzled on what was going on and what's going to happen now. Clark: Was it ever an issue for you portraying or not portraying a stereotypical black with the Too Cold Scorpio character? Scorpio: No, because actually, usually when I'm in there with the Too Cold gimmick I've always been Too Cold and I've always danced. Outside the ring that's me too. I love to dance, I love to have a good time, and I love to laugh. When it comes down to kicking butt, you just kick butt. I think that's kind of just stuck with me. So as far as having any kind of pressures, no, it was nothing like that. Clark: Why do you think there are a lack of black wrestlers in talent positions in the wrestling business? Scorpio: Because there's a lot of guys that are still in the office that's kind of stuck in the old school who really deep down inside are prejudice who believe in that this is the only sport that white men still take over. Realistically, if you really look at it, how come this is the only sport that black persons don't take over? Then again, that just comes from who's in the driver's seat and the way the thing has been driven. And it's been like that for a long period of time. But I think also it's time for them to let go of that and just kind of let things be. If they think that somebody has that natural talent to be a champion or whatever, they should do it and not hold them back for other reasons, because he is black or whatever. Clark: Do you feel in any way that was ever the case in your situation? Scorpio: I think lately it was something like that. I think it could have been more of that. See, I don't know if it was because I was black or because they didn't want to do it or I don't know if it was because they didn't think that Marcus was championship material, but I just didn't think that I was being treated fairly sometimes when it came down to that. There was a lot of times that a few other guys had chances to get the belts and I should have been in there. Clark: Considering the lack of black wrestlers in the business, do you in a sense feel lucky to have been able to make it where you have? Scorpio: Yeah, I have. But then again, I never had a doubt in my mind that I wouldn't. I've always thought that I would make it. And I'd rather be in the WCW because that's where I've always wanted to be. But then again, I'm also a businessman and you've got to go where the business is, and if it's up there in the WWF or Germany or Japan, then that's where I would go. And as long as I could still make the people go ooh and aah, then I know I'm doing my job right. - Booking Prediction Tourney: The ballot for Bash at the Beach was posted a couple of days ago. - WWW: My home page is at http://barrow.uwaterloo.ca/~hekunze. You can access the wrestling portion directly in ~hekunze/wrestle/wrestle.html. Weekly TidBits will be included on the page, along with some other stuff, and my entire tape list. All tape details are available on the page (Yikes!). - 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. The VideoMarinepiad III home video is now available. Herb...