From: hekunze@jeeves.uwaterloo.ca (Herb Kunze) Subject: Wrestling TidBits - 09/14 Date: 1995/09/14 Message-ID: X-Deja-AN: 110115910 sender: news@watdragon.uwaterloo.ca (USENET News System) organization: University of Waterloo newsgroups: rec.sport.pro-wrestling - WCW has Fall Brawl on Sunday. The tentative line-up has: - Hulk Hogan & Randy Savage & Sting & Vader vs. Shark & Zodiac & Kamala & Meng in a Wargames match (If Hogan's team wins, Hogan gets five minutes alone with Sullivan) - Ric Flair vs. Arn Anderson - Bunkhouse Buck & Dick Slater vs. Harlem Heat for the WCW Tag Titles - Diamond Dallas Page vs. Renegade for the TV title - Johnny B. Badd vs. Brian Pillman (winner gets a US Title shot) - Craig Pittman vs. Cobra (formerly Thunder of Thunder & Lightning) It is likely that Vader won't be in the main event and possible that he will be replaced by Lex Luger. - The WWF comes to Toronto's Maple Leaf Gardens this Sunday. The line-up has: - Diesel vs. Waylon Mercy for the WWF Title - Sid vs. Shawn Michaels for the IC Title - Yokozuna & Owen Hart vs. Smoking Gunns for the Tag Titles - Undertaker vs. Kama - 1-2-3 Kid vs. Dean Douglas - Fatu vs. Jean Pierre Lafitte - Aldo Montoya vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsley - Barry Horowitz vs. Skip Well, does this card look dreadful enough? The guy who's most worth seeing wrestles one of the guys I'd least care to see. And that main event promises to be dreadful. This is the last WWF card in Toronto for this year! Amazing, since we used to support bi-weekly independent shows headlined by Angelo Mosca that sold 12000 seats. The WWF has the hype machine at full force, with Sid coming to Toronto early to be part of a press conference and the promotion holding a hype session for the media the day before the show. The WWF has been trying to run regular house shows, but they just aren't being well supported by fans and they've even cancelled shows here and there. - I'll see if I've got this straight. On the second WCW Monday Nitro episode this past (again, TNT is only available by satellite dish in this neck of the woods), Eric Bischoff did several things that pissed off some people in r.s.p-w: - he mentioned the results of the taped matches that would air on the WWF Monday Night RAW show that airs at the same time, - he called the WWF "bush league," - he criticized Shawn Michaels' superkick, and - he reminded people that WWF champ Diesel had only ever achieved mid-card status in WCW. Okay, I admit it: I don't get it. Why the excitement? There's nothing particularly new in any of the above and it really will have little effect on fans, won't it? Did people that chose to watch Monday Night RAW even hear any of the above? Will it sway any fans from one product to the other? I dunno. People here praised this kind of stuff when any of the minor North American promotions did it; why is this any different? - The 9/25 Nitro show will feature a Dean Malenko vs. Eddy Guerrero match live and a re-match between the two will also air on the 10/7 Saturday Night show. - It's been mentioned in the newsgroup a few times now, but the future of Big Van Vader with WCW is in question after he and Paul Orndorff got into a brawl. Despite Vader apologizing for the incident and Orndorff not standing in the way of Vader returning, Eric Bischoff is in a tough position when it comes to dealing the now indefinitely suspended Vader. To maintain an authoritative control over the locker room, Vader has to be treated sternly for getting into it with a member of the booking committee. At the same time, while he's sidelined he draws his enormous salary. If he's fired, the salary issue is dealt with, but Vader would likely head to the competition. The only good situation for WCW is the worst for Vader: bring him back and job him out until he quits, a situation which could allow WCW to hold Vader to his contract and block him working for WCW. - Apparently, Lex Luger was working for the WWF without a contract before jumping to WCW for a more lucrative and promising offer. Even though he was going to figure into the headline WWF feud, the jump to WCW for a rarely-offered guaranteed contract was a deal that couldn't be passed up because the schedule is a lot lighter. There is talk now that Luger will eventually be worked into the spot of being the fourth Horseman opposite Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, and Brian Pillman. - Dean Douglas debuted this past weekend on WWF Superstars, working against the 1-2-3 Kid in a lacklustre match. I found this a pretty disappointing debut and am close to dropping my wait-and-see attitude on Douglas' in-ring work in the WWF to replace it with a thumbs down. On another note, Dustin Runnels' Goldust character doesn't waste ring time primping and getting a simple gimmick over; they will let him work and try to make the gimmick more complex. - 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 - Bret Hart vs. Jean Pierre Lafitte - Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Davey Smith - Sid vs. Henry O. Godwinn - Savio Vega vs. Waylon Mercy While I enjoy Shawn Michaels, the main event match up can only be strong if he and Owen get to do a lot. The best match on the line-up would seem to be the Hart match, since Lafitte is likely to work hard. - There will be a "UFC-style" PPV on 10/07/95. - WCW has Halloween Havoc on 10/29/95. The tentative line-up has: - Hulk Hogan vs. The Giant - Brian Pillman & Arn Anderson vs. Ric Flair & Sting - Vader vs. Meng in a strap match - Randy Savage vs. Kamala - Diamond Dallas Page vs. Johnny B. Badd - Hawk vs. Kurasawa Chris Benoit, Eddy Guerrero, and Dean Malenko will also likely be added to this show. - WCW has a PPV on 11/26/95. This show will apparently feature the return of Doom, Ron Simmons & Butch Reed, who were a much heralded team with the company a few years back. - Booking Prediction Tourney: The ballot for Fall Brawl was posted a couple of days ago and submissions are already pouring in. - WWW: My home page is at http://barrow.uwaterloo.ca/~hekunze. The wrestling portion includes this post, tape lists, awards history, and other things. Yesterday, I added an access counter to the main wrestling page. The counter was at six at 2:00pm yesterday after my playing around with it. I just checked it before posting this article and it's at 138 already. Yikes! - Awards: I posted a call for nominations and will find the time to compile submissions on the weekend some time (I hope!) and post the list next week. We've still got lots of time before we start the voting period (late October). - 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.