From: hekunze@jeeves.uwaterloo.ca (Herb Kunze) Subject: Wrestling TidBits - 11/09 Date: 1995/11/10 Message-ID: X-Deja-AN: 119047283 sender: news@watdragon.uwaterloo.ca (USENET News System) organization: University of Waterloo newsgroups: rec.sport.pro-wrestling - As has been reported on the net already, WCW has taped segments with Chris Benoit as the fourth Horseman, making the team consist of Benoit, Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, and Brian Pillman. There is talk that Pillman will be teamed with Benoit and that they will be quickly pushed to a feud with Harlem Heat. - The positioning of Benoit as a Horseman should make the news that he plans to stay with WCW after his current three-month deal expires unsurprising. The Observer reports that Eddy Guerrero will also likely stay on. - Bruce Hart would like to put together a tribute show for his father, Stu, and has been looking to get various old Stampede stars along with some current stars from the "big two" to work the show. Although I'm sure political problems will cause some trouble, the Calgary press is reporting an advertised line-up for the 12/15/95 show which includes: - Bret Hart vs. Shawn Michaels - Owen Hart vs. 1-2-3 Kid - Chris Benoit vs. Douglas The show will also feature former Stampede stars Brian Pillman and Phil Lafleur (Phil Lafond, better known as Dan Kroffat in All Japan), and the Observer reports they are working on getting Abdullah The Butcher, Honky Tonk Man Wayne Ferris, and Gary Albright. - There's lots of speculation on the net about the direction that the company is going with Lex Luger. I'm not Nitro tape delay in Canada, so I haven't the seen the angle where he runs in and whispers to Sting, but I've got a suggestion anyhow. Since the World War III battle royal has been turned into a match to determine the new WCW World champion and since the recent PPV leaves the promotion with only Sting as a top-level babyface, I'll make the bold prediction that the battle royal obviously comes down to the Giant in ring #1, the Yeti in ring #2, and Lex Luger in ring #3. They are ordered to go into one ring and work a small battle royal to determine the overall winner. Kevin Sullivan orders the Yeti and Luger to leave the ring. Yeti complies immediately, and as Luger follows him, he suddenly knocks the Giant out instead. Lex becomes world champion and explains that some illogical scenario wherein this was all the "plan." This way, the promotion desperately tries to turn Luger into a face the fans will support, the promotion has a face champion to feud with all the heels (DoD, Horsemen), and Sting is still free to work his program with Kensuke Sasaki. We'll see. - The Observer reports that the buy rate for the WWF's In Your House PPV was an abysmal 0.35 to 0.52, leaning towards believing the lower estimate. That leaves the show as being barely profitable. - WCW's Halloween Havoc drew an estimated 0.8 buy rate. - The Observer also had a column on the 10/28 fire in the ECW Arena. Some clips: - "Irate fans left phone messages ere and to many other places vowing never to return because of the belief the promotion was responsible for putting people's lives in danger to get an angle over and had pushed the envelope too far, but most believe the nature of the ECW is such that the next show will sellout anyway." - The promotion used kerosene for the fire gimmick. - "There was a panic in the crowd, however most reports were that the fans left the building without much pushing and shoving and people weren't trampled on in an escapeto get out although there was a lot of chair throwing. Numerous fans were coughing badly outside the building from the fire extinguisher and fire fumes and a few had minor cuts and bruises because of being hit with chairs. There were fans hit by chairs who were bleeding but none were injured seriously. At most only one or two were hospitalized." - While on the subject of ECW, the Observer reports that both WCW and the WWF are about to make a play for Public Enemy. - The RAW vs. Nitro ratings war thus far looks like this (draw your own conclusions): WCW Nitro WWF RAW Rating Share Live Rating Share Live 09/04/95 2.9 ? Y - - - 09/11/95 2.5 3.8 Y 2.2 3.2 N 09/18/95 2.4 3.4 Y 2.5 3.4 N 09/25/95 1.9 2.8 Y 2.7 3.8 Y 10/02/95 2.5 3.7 Y 2.5 3.5 N 10/09/95 2.6 3.8 Y 2.6 3.8 N 10/16/95 2.2 3.2 Y 2.5 3.6 N? 10/23/95 2.2 3.2 Y 2.6 3.8 Y? 10/30/95 2.5 3.6 Y 2.2 3.1 N - PC owners, if you happen to stroll through a computer store and see the game "Body Slam Wrestling" on the cheap CD rack, don't bother. It really sucks. - The WWF has Survivor Series on 11/19/95. Tentative line-up includes: - Bret Hart vs. Diesel for the WWF Title in a no time limit, no DQ match - Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Goldust - Bertha Faye & Aja Kong & Lioness Asuka & Tomoko Watanabe vs. Alundra Blayze & Kyoko Inoue & Sakie Hasegawa & Chapparita Asari - Shawn Michaels & Ahmed Johnson & Davey Boy Smith & Sid vs. Dean Douglas & Yokozuna & Owen Hart & Razor Ramon - Undertaker & Fatu & Henry O. Godwinn & Savio Vega vs. Jerry Lawler & Isaac Yankem & King Mabel & Hunter Hearst Helsmley - Hakushi & Avatar & Marty Jannetty & Barry Horowitz vs. Skip & Rad Radford & Jean Pierre Lafitte & Tom Pritchard There is a chance that Dean Douglas won't be able to work this show after having surgery performed on his throat thanks to an injury from a Razor Ramon clothesline. I've heard a few murmurs that the winner of the WWF Title match will face the Undertaker on the same night. Don't ask me. A lot of people think that Vince is going to shift the belt off of Diesel at this show. - WCW has "World War III" on 11/26/95. Tentative line-up has: - a 60-man three ring battle royal (involving WCW wrestlers and wrestlers from New Japan) with the winner getting the WCW Title - Bull Nakano & Akira Hokuto vs. Cutie Suzuki & Mayumi Ozaki - The WWF has a PPV on 12/17/95. Tentative line-up has: - Davey Boy Smith vs. winner of Diesel vs. Bret Hart at Survivor Series - WCW has Starrcade on PPV on 12/27/95. Tentative line-up has: - Sting vs. Kensuke Sasaki for the US Title - Koji Kanemoto vs. Alex Wright for the IWGP Jr. Title - Randy Savage vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan - Lex Luger vs. Masa Chono - Johnny B. Badd vs. Hiro Saito - Eddy Guerrero vs. Shinjiro Otani - Chris Benoit vs. Jushin Liger This card will likely see some shuffling because of injuries to some of the guys involved. - Awards: I will be posting the ballot for the 1995 r.s.p-w Year-End Achievement Awards shortly after this post. Everything posted will also be quickly dumped onto my web page, so you can pop over there to grab a save of the ballot with your web browser. - WWW: My home page is at http://barrow.uwaterloo.ca/~hekunze. The wrestling portion includes this post, tape lists, awards history, and other things. Today I added a section on Japanese Women's Wrestling. Websurfers, let me know what you think. - 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...