From: hekunze@jeeves.uwaterloo.ca (Herb Kunze) Subject: Wrestling TidBits - 11/16 Date: 1995/11/17 Message-ID: X-Deja-AN: 119619038 sender: news@watdragon.uwaterloo.ca (USENET News System) organization: University of Waterloo newsgroups: rec.sport.pro-wrestling - 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's a lot of talk that Bret Hart will win the title in the main event. The Observer reports that the WWF locker room talk has it pegged as a done deal. I've heard one reports that there will be an additional match involving the 1-2-3 Kid and others that aren't on the line-up yet; a dark match? - The first WCW Pro-Wrestling show with New Japan wrestlers aired this past weekend and left me completely disgusted. Eric Bischoff's buddy, Sonny Ono, is playing a Japanese representative of New Japan Pro-Wrestling who has bought half of the WCW Pro broadcast time to showcase the wrestlers from New Japan. He and Chris Cruise do the commentary; it's abysmal since Ono knows zero ("Ono knows O") about pro-wrestling. His commentary consists of xenophobic crap like "Now we'll see superior Japanese athlete; resistance is futile!" Maybe the show was extra flat because the three wrestlers to get air time were Masa Saito, Kensuke Sasaki, and Masa Chono, with unimpressive squash matches. When Jushin Liger and Shinjiro Otani are in the ring, it will be interesting to see them try to convince us they are heels. The story line will apparently have WCW lawyers determine that Bobby Heenan had no right to sell the TV time, at which point Ono will become the heel managers of the angry New Japan wrestlers. On of the good things, although it likely won't bring about any change or education, is that the Japanese guys will win all of their matches by submission. - WCW has "World War III" on 11/26/95. Tentative line-up has: - a 60-man three ring battle royal (involving WCW wrestlers, including Hulk Hogan, and wrestlers from New Japan) with the winner getting the WCW Title - Bull Nakano & Akira Hokuto vs. Cutie Suzuki & Mayumi Ozaki - Ric Flair vs. Sting - Lex Luger vs. Randy Savage - Big Bubba Rogers vs. Jim Duggan in a taped fist match Most people are picking one of the Giant, Hulk Hogan, Sting, or Lex Luger to win the title. As a way of pointing out that lots of former WWF wrestlers want to be "where the big boys play," WCW will be luring former WWF stars Rick Martel, Tito Santana, Sgt. Slaughter, and Iron Sheik out for the battle royal. - Waylon Mercy quit the WWF. The Barbarian & The Warlord (Powers of Pain, previously) are in WCW under hoods as the Masked Super Assassins. - 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 11/06/95 2.3 3.2 Y 2.1 3.0 N - The Observer had a blurb about the WWF meeting with ECW's Public Enemy on 11/02 to talk about PE coming in. Meltzer writes, "While no deal is confirmed right now, it is generally believed both sides were happy with the meeting and it's more likely a question of when rather than if. The meeting was setup through Paul Heyman as WWF told Heyman they don't want to hurt his group or go behind his back. Most likely how it'll turn out is that Titan won't bring Public Enemy in until Heyman can finish them off in his storyline, which looks to be late January. Again most likely the two will continue to use the names Rocco Rock & Johnny Grunge and do a similar character, but not use the name Public Enemey. The fact that both WWF and WCW were so hot to pick these guys up shows what a master manipulator Heyman really is, since he's the only one in wrestling of late who has really been able to create several new characters successfully. He's so good that even people who run wrestling companies haven't figured out that the guys he's gotten over are done more by him than through the guys actually being good workers and through things that wouldn't even be allowed within their groups. Rocco Rock is a decent worker with the willingness to do crazy stunts to get over that the WWF and WCW would never let anyone do on their shows. Johnny Grunge got over on having lengthy interviews and blading. They've had great brawls by doing things like blading and breaking tables which isn't allowed in WWF or WCW. That and the interviews and skits are how they got over. No doubt if they come in and dance, the people will dance with them in WWF but that simply makes them The Bushwhackers or P.N.News. There's nothing wrong with that. If all sides can make money, that's what having a job and running a business are all about. But there are people who are fooled into believing these guys are better workers than teams like the Heavenly Bodies or Smoking Gunns. That's to Heyman's credit. He also got a lot of people to believe Sabu was the best worker in the business last year, who probably now realize how far from the mark that really was." - 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. - The WWF has the Royal Rumble PPV on 01/21/96. - Awards: The first week of voting is over. We'll run the voting period for a couple more weeks. The votes are pouring in. I will re-post the ballot, nominations, and descriptions following this post and I will get around to adding those things to my web page as well. - WWW: My home page is at http://barrow.uwaterloo.ca/~hekunze. The wrestling portion includes this post, tape lists, awards history, and other things. - 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...