From: hekunze@barrow.uwaterloo.ca (Herb Kunze) Subject: Wrestling TidBits - 12/04 Date: 1996/12/06 Message-ID: X-Deja-AN: 202603722 sender: news@undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca (news spool owner) organization: University of Waterloo newsgroups: rec.sport.pro-wrestling [Wrestling TidBits] --------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you aren't reading this on my web page, click here to make the leap. There are other items to browse. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Picture of The Week This week's pictures feature the final images for a while of Sunny, again not just once, but twice. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- [ Rob van Dam vs. Jun Akiyama ] [ - ] The WWF has [In Your House ] on 12/15/96. Line up for this show has: * Bret Hart vs. Sid for the WWF Title * Owen Hart & Davey Boy Smith vs. Razor Ramon & Diesel for the WWF Tag Titles * Marc Mero vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsley for the IC Title * Shawn Michaels vs. Mankind * Steve Austin vs. Goldust * Flash Funk vs. Leif Cassidy Shawn Michaels will be the guest commentator during the WWF Title match. Gee, I wonder what could happen? [ Ric Flair vs. Randy Savage ] [ - ] WCW has Starrcade on 12/29/96. Tentative line-up features: * Hollywood Hulk Hogan vs. Roddy Piper * Scott Hall & Kevin Nash vs. Barbarian & Meng for the Tag Titles * El Ultimo Dragon vs. Dean Malenko for the J Crown * Eddie Guerrero vs. Diamond Dallas Page for the US Title * Madusa vs. Akira Hokuto for the Women's Title * Lex Luger vs. Giant * Rey Misterio Jr. vs. Jushin Liger * Chris Benoit vs. Big Bubba [ - RAW ] this week continued to be nothing special. The show was really flat, IMO. They need to be careful not to overpush Rocky Maivia. The plan is to use the old storyline of having all of the managers in the WWF pursue him. Next week's show features Mankind vs. Undertaker in what was reported to the Observer as an excellent match. [ - ] The Observer called the El Ultimo Dragon vs. Rey Misterio Jr. match from WCW World War III one of the best matches of the year in the United States. [ Ric Flair vs. Randy Savage ] [ - ] Apparently, "[Curt] Hennig was contemplating a huge lump sum settlement from Lloyd's of London, which was either $150000 (according to the WWF) or $300000 (according to others). To get the settlement he'd have to basically sign a deal that he was permanently disabled and could never wrestle again. Apparently, as they were doing the angle for the match with Hunter Hearst Helmsley, while what they did was a back-up plan, apparently the WWF was under the impression there was at least a solid chance that Hennig was going to come back and wrestler as a face, although Hennig apparently never gave them a yes or a no until just a few days before the Raw match. Since WWF figured he might wrestle and since he was under a disability deal with Lloyd's, the WWF's legal department sent a memo to Lloyd's to try to reach a settlement regarding the deal. At that point Lloyd's nixed the idea of paying Hennig the lump sum for permanent disability because they believed he was thinking about returning to the ring, so therefore he wasn't permanently disabled. Hennig was furious thinking the WWF had double-crossed him which led to him contacting WCW and going there as revenge. After no-showing the weekend of 11/9, he and McMahon talked things out and McMahon offered him a five-year wrestling contract with a $300000 per year downside guarantee, which Hennig verbally agreed to, and McMahon felt everything was cool since Hennig was guaranteed far more money in his contract than whatever he was going to make in the Lloyd's settlement. Hennig had during the week told others in the WWF that he was coming back as a wrestler and had been training with Brad Rheingans. While we don't the WCW figures, apparently Bischoff's offer for a three-year deal was higher so Hennig went with WCW, without telling McMahon, and no-showed an autgraph session, the Hall of Fame dinner, Survivor Series and the Superstars voice-overs. The WWF is claiming Hennig has breached his contract, which expires in May, by no-showing the past three weeks. The threat is there for this to wind up in court because the belief is that WCW will debut Hennig well before May." [ - ] [Nitro ] beat [RAW ] on 11/25 with a 3.1 rating (4.6 share) against a 2.1 rating (3.1 share). Nitro's two hour broadcast rating is averaged. The detailed ratings are a click away. [ Akira Hoktuo vs. Madusa ] [ - ] The PPV buy rates of the past six month (year or so) show that the WWF has an average buy rate of 0.53 (0.65) and average gross of $1.39-million ($1.69-million), while WCW has an average buy rate of 0.60 (0.57) and average gross of $1.82-million ($1.69-million). The details are an interesting read. [ - ] The WWF has the Royal Rumble on 01/18/97. Tentative line-up has: * Royal Rumble, which will include some AAA wrestlers * Shawn Michaels vs. WWF Champion for the WWF Title This show takes place at the Alamo Dome in San Antonio. The WWF is going to use the full seating arrangement for the arena, attempting to pack 72000 fans into the place. The original plan was to have Vader beat Michaels for the Title last month and then lose it back to Shawn here, and it now seems that that is the way the promotion is going, with Sid in Vader's spot. Shawn, doing guest commentary at the In Your House in ten days, will likely get involved in that match and Sid will keep the title to lose it here. That leaves Shawn vs. Bret for WrestleMania with both an old and new issue to resolve. The Observer calls the booking a "Rocky story, complete with Jose Lothario playing Mickey as the trainer with a story line serious heart condition." [ - ] NWO has a PPV on 01/25/97. [ Rob van Dam vs. Jun Akiyama ] [ - ] WCW has SuperBrawl on 02/23/97. Tentative line-up has: * Hollywood Hulk Hogan vs. Roddy Piper for the WCW Title [ - ] WCW has Uncensored on 03/16/97. [ - ] The WWF has WrestleMania on 04/20/97. [ - ] The WWF has In Your House on 05/11/97. [ - ] The WWF has King of The Ring on 06/08/97. [ - ] The WWF has In Your House on 07/06/97. [ - ] The WWF has SummerSlam on 08/03/97. [ - ] The WWF has In Your House on 09/07/97. [ - ] The WWF has In Your House on 10/05/97. [ - ] The WWF has Survivor Series on 11/09/97. [ - ] The WWF has In Your House on 12/07/97. [ Sting & Scott Hall ] [ - ] 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. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thanks to: Masaki Aso. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Click here to return. E-mail: hekunze@jeeves.uwaterloo.ca