From: hekunze@barrow.uwaterloo.ca (Herb Kunze) Subject: Wrestling TidBits - 06/13 Date: 1996/06/14 Message-ID: X-Deja-AN: 160130519 sender: news@undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca (news spool owner) organization: University of Waterloo newsgroups: rec.sport.pro-wrestling Wrestling TidBits --------------------------------------------------------------------------- [ - ] My Japanese friend, Masaki, reports that All Japan and Frontier Martial-arts Wrestling now have their own official web pages. Check out the links. [ - ] A Toronto Star columnist joined the ranks of US Senators by writing that the UFC "is the most despicable so-called sport, where anthing goes between two male opponents except murder," obviously having done zero research into the topic. The point of the column was that Rogers Cable & Viewers Choice Canada were trying hard to get the UFC PPVs, which typically get a higher buy rate in Canada than in the US, back on their schedule. Departing CRTC head, Keith Spicer, has done much to combat violence on television during his tenure, including pushing for the Canadian-developed V-Chip to apparently replaces quality parenting, and the article hinted that the cable industry may be a little nervous about the heat that the UFCs are receiving on that front. At least Spicer had some priorities, also working hard to label, but not eliminate, shows with sexual content, so much so that Playboy has listed him as a "supporter of sex." In any case, it is a little weird to see such vitriolic language about the UFC just a week after the CBC's lengthy and somewhat balanced (when Hana Gartner wasn't speaking) piece on the topic. [ - ] WCW's 06/07/96 Buffalo show, the last event in the Auditorium, got some air time on the Buffalo stations we pick up in Southern Ontario. Both stations I flipped to for the evening news had footage of the event, from the Nasty Boys vs. Public Enemy brawl and some "legends" matches with the old-timers. The ABC affiliate interviewed Bruno Sammartino. There wer no flubs: both stations correctly identified the promotion as WCW. Often, in this neck of the woods, all wrestling is called WWF. [ - ] There is talk now that The British Bulldog, Davey Boy Smith, handed in his notice to the WWF to help manoeuvre himself into a better contract with the promotion. It has been widely reported that Smith feels that his current position as top heel warrants an increased pay-off that he hasn't been seeing. The WWF will run with Smith vs. Shawn Michaels headlining the King of the Ring PPV on 06/23 to set up a tag team feud for subsequent PPVs, rumoured to be leading to a Survivor Series match involving groups of four that will be built over the interim PPVs. With that much focus being planned for Smith and the ongoing Monday night war with WCW, Smith seems to have played his cards right. There is talk that a deal has been reached between the two parties; if not, Smith is committed to work through the end of August. [ - ] The Observer writes about the Shawn Michaels vs. Davey Boy Smith match from In Your House, "The finish that aired, the double pin finish, was the planned finish for the PPV match. However, neither Michaels nor Smith supposedly knew that their match in Florence was airing on the PPV and thought they were simply doing a house show match and would be doing a different finished than planned. The real match would take place two days later as part of the make-good show. At one point during the match, the signal got to referee Earl Hebner, who informed both wrestlers that the match was airing, that there would be no rematch on Tuesday and that they were to change the match, shorten the match to it into the PPV window and go back to the double pin finish. by this time, they had already done a number of restholds building to a longer match. Because of the power outage, the crowd live wasn't as responsive as expected and Michaels by this point already knew the match was below par and apparently felt it was beyond redemption. In addition, some of his concentration on the match was taken away by a heckling fan at ringside, and his swearing at the fan calling her a fat cow while being held in a headlock by Smith wound up turing other fans in her ringside section on him. This only frustrated him more, with him eventually exploding at the guy who cued the music in a post-match outburst that was aired originally but was edited out of the replay. It was a two-way street, as Smith was also apparently frustrated by everything that was going on. Both Michaels and Smith were said to have been upset with the quality of the match and the decision not to have a rematch on Tuesday." [ - ] The Observer reports that the third ex-WWF wrestler invading WCW cannot be Jeff Jarrett or Bam Bam Bigelow, since both are contractually bond to the WWF until later this year. [ - ] Chris Jericho (previously one half of the Thrill Seekers in SMW, Lion Heart and Corazon de Leon in Japan and Mexico) has been talked to about coming in to WCW. [ - ] There is talk that all the Samoans and Bob Holly are leaving the WWF. As mentioned above, Davey Boy Smith is still a bit of a question mark. Supposedly, Owen Hart and 1-2-3 Kid are also interested in leaving. From this past week's Monday Night RAW, it would appear that Yokozuna, at least, plans to return to the WWF later; presumably, he's just going to try to lose a little more weight. All is not lost, however, since the WWF seems to have signed Brian Pillman. [ - ] WCW has Great American Bash on 06/16/96. Line-up has: * Giant vs. Lex Luger for the WCW Title * Konnan vs. El Gato for the US Title * Ric Flair & Arn Anderson with Bobby Heenan vs. Steve McMichael & Kevin Greene with Randy Savage * Dean Malenko vs. Rey Misterio Jr. for the Cruiserweight Title * Steve Regal vs. Sting * Diamond Dallas Page vs. Marcus Alexander Bagwell * Booty Man vs. Hugh Morrus * Kevin Sullivan vs. Chris Benoit in a falls count anywhere match * Steiners vs. Scott Norton & Ice Train (there must be a winner) * John Tenta vs. Big Bubba Now that they've added Tenta vs. Bubba, this is a must-buy PPV! What's the point? El Gato will be Pat Tanaka under a hood. Tanaka may surprise us, but they've done a terribly unbelievable job of hyping the character. [ - ] The WWF has King of The Ring on 06/23/96. Line-up includes: * Shawn Michaels vs. Davey Boy Smith for the WWF Title * Smoking Gunns vs. Godwinns for the WWF Tag Titles * Goldust vs. Ahmed Johnson for the IC Title * Ultimate Warrior vs. Jerry Lawler * Undertaker vs. Mankind * The semifinals and finals of the King of the Ring tournament The KotR tournament brackets look like this: Ultimate Warrior --\ |-- None --\ Goldust --/ \ |-- Vader --\ Ahmed Johnson --\ / \ |-- Vader --/ \ Vader --/ \ |-- --\ H.O.G. --\ / \ |-- Hawk --\ / \ Justin Bradshaw --/ \ / \ |-- Jake --/ | Jake Roberts --\ / | |-- Jake --/ | Hunter Helmsley --/ | |-- KotR Bob Holly --\ | |-- Steve --\ | Steve Austin --/ \ | |-- Steve --\ | Savio Vega --\ / \ / |-- Savio --/ \ / Marty Jannetty --/ \ / |-- --/ Yokozuna --\ / |-- Owen --\ / Owen Hart --/ \ / |-- Mero --/ Skip --\ / |-- Mero --/ Marc Mero --/ House shows following the King of the Ring are headlined by Shawn Michaels vs. Vader and British Bulldog vs. Ultimate Warrior. There is talk that the July In Your House will feature a tag match involving Michaels & partner vs. Smith & partner. Draw what conclusions or predictions you will out of these items. The print ad for the KotR features only the Ultimate Warrior. Jim Neidhart debuts the night after the PPV at the live Monday Night RAW, apparently with a new gimmick. I can barely contain myself. [ - ] [RAW] beat [Nitro] on 06/03 with a 3.0 rating (5.0 share) against a 2.3 rating (3.6 share). Nitro's two hour broadcast rating is averaged. The Monday ratings show a pretty even battle to date. [ - ] The PPV buy rates of the past six months (year or so) show that the WWF has an average buy rate of 0.80 (0.75) and average gross of $2.09-million ($1.72-million), while WCW has an average buy rate of 0.55 (0.56) and average gross of $1.58-million ($1.62-million). The details are an interesting read. [ - ] The WWF has [In Your House] on 07/21/96. [ - ] WCW has Quake At The Lake on 07/07/96. Rumoured line-up has: * Scott Hall & Kevin Nash & Lex Luger vs. Sting & Randy Savage & Ric Flair [ - ] WCW has a PPV on 08/11/96. Rumoured line-up has: * Hulk Hogan vs. Giant or Hulk Hogan vs. Kevin Nash [ - ] WCW has Clash of Champions XXXIII on 08/14/96. [ - ] The WWF has SummerSlam on 08/18/96. [ - ] WCW has Fall Brawl 09/15/96. [ - ] The WWF has [In Your House] on 09/22/96. [ - ] WCW has Halloween Havoc 10/27/96 from Caeser's Palace. It will be an outdoor show. [ - ] The WWF has [In Your House] on 10/20/96. [ - ] The WWF has Survivor Series on 11/17/96. [ - ] WCW has World War III 11/24/96. [ - ] The WWF has [In Your House] on 12/15/96. [ - ] WCW has Starrcade on 12/29/96. [ - ] WWW: My home page is at http://barrow.uwaterloo.ca/~hekunze. The wrestling portion includes this post, tape lists, awards history, Japanese wrestling stuff, 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. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Click here to return. E-mail: hekunze@jeeves.uwaterloo.ca