From: hekunze@jeeves.uwaterloo.ca (Herb Kunze) Subject: Wrestling TidBits - 08/31 Date: 1995/09/01 Message-ID: X-Deja-AN: 109297356 sender: news@watdragon.uwaterloo.ca (USENET News System) organization: University of Waterloo newsgroups: rec.sport.pro-wrestling { I'm involved in a wedding this weekend and haven't been able to put much effort into this week's TidBits. Apologies in advance. } - The WWF held SummerSlam this past Sunday. I though it was a good show, but I wouldn't heap the same amount of praise on it as some. The Ramon vs. Michaels match and the 1-2-3 Kid vs. Hakushi match alone essentially guaranteed this show a positive review from me, unless an absolute atrocity occurred in the remainder of the show. Those two matches were really good and I can't say enough about how great Michaels was; even with the holiday earlier in the year, he's easily established himself as a strong "Wrestler of The Year" contender. The PPV also featured reasonably solid efforts in Skip vs. Barry Horowitz and Helmsley vs. Holly. In my opinion, though, and this is where I separate from much of the praise I've read, the remainder of the show was pretty lacklustre. Each of Gunns vs. Blus, Undertaker vs. Kama, Hart vs. Yankem, Blayze vs. Faye, and Diesel vs. Mabel had maybe one entertaining spot in them, but the matches themselves were throwaways, IMO. Don't get me wrong: there were no negative star matches here, just a lot of dry action. Individually, - Gunns vs. Blus: an absolute nothing match. - Undertaker vs. Kama: the best Undertaker match I've ever seen and I'd peg it at around one *. From a story line stand point, Ted DiBiase apparently retained the chain that Kama had made from UT's urn, so I guess somebody else working for Ted (who's left?) will pick up the slack in this feud... - Hart vs. Yankem: Hart was wasted in this match. Although it's pointed out that Yankem isn't as bad as Sid, he's still pretty lousy. But for the blown leg-drop spot, there was nothing memorable during the match. The post-match angle left things flat, too, IMO. The story line of Lawler going to his dentist for wrestling help is weak for me: The gimmicky name "I. Yankem" and eveything else is just too contrived, Yankem isn't going to get over because of his wrestling ability - not even working against a top face like Hart - and Vince knew this (saving Yankem's debut for the PPV), and in the end Hart didn't want to put him over in any way (he acted dead for a minute or two but then swatted off the officials who were trying to help him and acted perfectly okay; this story line really needed him to get rolled out on a stretcher, IMO). - Blayze vs. Faye: blech, worst match of the night. The future of the women's strap is bleak. - Diesel vs. Mabel: quite bad, even if Diesel was trying. Having Luger & Mo get involved was a good attempt to mask that these guys can't work well, but it really only muddied the match for me. I suppose it was the best thing they could do and helped further the story line (Bulldog's turn), but the match quality was quite poor. Where does this PPV leave us? There are a lot of likely positives - Ramon vs. Douglas, Michaels vs. Goldust, Skip vs. Hakushi -, some likely middling efforts - Diesel vs. Davey Boy Smith -, and some likely poor matches - Blayze vs. Faye, Yankem/Lawler vs. Hart, Undertaker vs. $1-million dollar guys. Same old same old. - There's talk that Missy Hyatt will start up with the WWF as Shawn Michaels' manager/valet. - Lex Luger apparently will stay on with the WWF. It was rumoured that Sting was making a strong pitch to get Lex into WCW, but the company wouldn't offer Lex any more than the routine contract. - Talk is that both Ron Simmons & Butch Reed will return to WCW. Randy Savage also got his brother, Lanny Poffo, a job with the company as a Gorgeous George type. There's also talk that 2 Cold Scorpio is definitely coming in to WCW again as well. The Observer mentioned that ECW wanted to keep him and that he expected to get at least the same money from WCW that he used to get (extremely unlikely), so it seemed like this wasn't going to work out. We'll have to wait and see. - The Observer reports that the lawsuit against the WWF by former jobber Chuck Austin was quietly settled out of court. Austin suffered a broken after attempting to take the incorrect bump during Marty Jannetty's Rocker Dropper (leg drop face crusher combo) a few years back. Austin won a $26.7-million verdict. I'd heard recently that the WWF was quite nervous because the insurance company was only going to foot $20-million of that decision. The Tampa Tribune reports that the settlement was in the $10-million range, almost completely footed by the insurance company. - On 09/04, WCW will apparently air another All Nighter. - UFC VII takes place on 09/08/95. - WCW has Fall Brawl on 09/17/95. The tentative line-up has: - Hulk Hogan & Randy Savage & Sting & Vader vs. Shark & Zodiac & Kevin Sullivan & Meng in a Wargames match - Ric Flair vs. Arn Anderson - Bunkhouse Buck & Dick Slater vs. Harlem Heat for the WCW Tag Titles - Diamond Dallas Page vs. Renegade - Johnny B. Badd vs. Brian Pillman - Craig Pittman vs. Cobra (formerly Thunder of Thunder & Lightning) Renegade is reportedly being sent to training school after this show. Badd & Pillman are reportedly set to put on a Jr. Heavyweight style match on this show, as that becomes a regular element of major WCW shows. - The WWF has In Your House III on 09/24/95. That's my birthday, so I will probably be looking for somebody who can supply me with a tape of the show. The tentative line-up has: - Yokozuna & Owen Hart vs. Diesel & Shawn Michaels in a match where the winner of the fall wins the appropriate title - Razor Ramon vs. Dean Douglas - There will be a "UFC-style" PPV on 10/07/95. - Booking Prediction Tourney: I'm involved in a wedding this weekend so things have been a little hectic for me; I'll try to get the results for SummerSlam out by the end of the weekend. Apologies. - WWW: My home page is at http://barrow.uwaterloo.ca/~hekunze. The wrestling portion includes this post, tape lists, and other stuff, including a reworked version of my SMW Fanweek review from last year. - 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.