Newsgroups: rec.sport.pro-wrestling From: hekunze@jeeves.uwaterloo.ca (Herb Kunze) Subject: Wrestling TidBits - 10/06 Message-ID: Sender: news@watdragon.uwaterloo.ca (USENET News System) Nntp-Posting-Host: jeeves.uwaterloo.ca Organization: University of Waterloo Date: Thu, 6 Oct 1994 23:14:23 GMT Lines: 170 - This past Saturday WCW ran the Ric Flair interview where Flair announced that he would also put his career on the line at Halloween Havoc in his match against Hulk Hogan. The loser of the Havoc match, it is said, will retire from pro-wrestling in any promotion (not that that last clause can be enforced). There's a lot of confusion about the whole thing right from the local columnist to people I've talked with on the phone to Observer editor Dave Meltzer. Meltzer reports that Flair wasn't told of the plans to add the stipulation until the day after the scenario began on the live 09/25 Main Event broadcast. He painted a picture of Flair, who if all this surmising is true is the booker of the company in title only, being forced into the situation and going along with it in keeping with his reputation as a company man. The career vs. career stipulation certainly won't hurt buys; whether you like it or not, from a ratings standpoint this is the best thing going today. Nobody in his right mind expects Hogan to give up a pinfall to Flair; in a cage match, with very rare exception, there is always a winner, by pinfall in WCW. Still, one-time TV star, Mr. T, is slated to be the special referee and could be a wild card. To confuse fans who would obviously think that T would favour Hogan if anyone, this past week's Main Event aired camcorder footage of T and Flair walking together outside a club. The report from Meltzer that adding the career stipulation on Flair was a last second idea to generate what is hoped to be the highest buy rate in company history makes looking at known future plans or past plans a dubious exercise. Still, here's a summary of things that come to mind: - When the line-ups for the WCW PPVs through to Halloween Havoc were first known, there was talk of a retirement stipulation on Ric Flair if he lost the match. Print ads were supposedly released with this stipulation. Talk had those original plans scrapped because Hogan refused to job for Flair. - When the original plan of having a retirement stipulation on Flair were dropped in place of such a stipulation on Hogan, talk had Hogan dropping the belt to Flair at the Clash to set up an "all or nothing" re-match at Havoc. Of course, that didn't happen and once again it was reported that Hogan refused to job for Flair. - Meltzer now reports that adding the Flair stipulation was a last minute thing thrown at Flair, who went along with it. - The footage of Mr. T with Ric Flair has been shown on TV to cast doubt on the referee. - The print ads for Starrcade just came out and have a double main event of Hulk Hogan vs. Vader for the WCW Title and Ric Flair vs. Sting. There are three ways this cage match can end: Hogan loses (obviously with some sort of screw job by T, the masked man, Vader, or otherwise), Flair loses (most likely cleanly), nobody loses (obviously because of some sort of screwy ending). If Hogan loses, they can find a way to work around the stipulation, either masking him or having a petition of some sort because of the screwy ending. If Flair loses, I can't see the company having him return to the ring by Starrcade, so we have to accept that future plans were thrown out on impulse. He could still manage and do great interviews. He has said that when he retires, it will be a "real" retirement. If nobody loses, the company is taking a chance that they won't alienate people by ripping them off. In this case, they'll have to do something pretty creative and have it come off well on PPV. Of course, WCW has several major Hogan vs. Flair shows slated at special house shows after the PPV. Talk has Vader taking Flair's spot if Flair loses. To add to the confusion, it has been reported that Hogan signed some sort of additional deal with WCW that extends their alliance, but that the deal may not have a wrestling component. The local columnist reports that WCW and Hogan are having trouble reaching an agreement. - Jesse Ventura is officially history with WCW. - Timothy Well and Samu are apparently history with the WWF. The Headshrinkers tag team will now be Fatu & The Barbarian, killing what was once the best team in the promotion. No word on what's in store for Steven Dunn, the other half of what was once the team Well Dunn. Maybe they'll create a pro-golfer character (to go along with the baseball player and the racecar driver) and team him with Steven as the team Dunn Fore. King Kong Bundy returns on this weekend's syndies. - Terry Funk is history with WCW and will be returning to Japan. There is talk that WCW is considering bringing in the Warlord ("the biggest stiff since John Studd," writes Meltzer in the 07/07/86 edition of the Observer I just happened to be reading last night). No word on if he'd bring his magic wand or not. - I received some of e-mail telling me that the WWF syndies (Superstars, in particular) had disappeared from different readers' markets. In many cases, WCW World Wide replaced WWF Superstars. - The big story-line built into the WWF Superstars syndie has had Jerry Lawler do mean things to Doink's Dink. First he popped Dink's balloons with a pin and then he destroyed Dink's tricycle by smashing it against the ring post. Funny stuff. Now, to balance the scales, he's brought in Little Louie as his midget sidekick and called him "Queasy." Maybe that's just how viewers are supposed to feel. - WCW has Halloween Havoc on 10/23/94. Tentative line-up includes: - Hulk Hogan vs. Ric Flair for the Unified World Title in a cage with Mr. T as special referee and Hogan retiring if he loses - Paul Orndorff & Paul Roma vs. Marcus Bagwell & Patriot for the Tag Titles with Patriot's mask on the line - Jim Duggan vs. Steve Austin for the US Title - Johnny B. Badd vs. Honky Tonk Man for the TV Title - Vader vs. Guardian Angel in a strap match - Dustin Rhodes vs. Arn Anderson - Nasty Boys vs. Terry Funk & Bunkhouse Buck *- Dave Sullivan vs. Kevin Sullivan Muhammed Ali will present the WCW Title belt to the winner in the main event. In exchange, WCW will donate some of the proceeds to the Muhammed Ali Foundation. - AAA will broadcast a show on live PPV on 11/06/94. Matches are: - Konnan vs. Perro Aguayo, cage, 2-of-3 falls - El Hijo del Santo (& Octagon) vs. Eddy Guerrero (& Love Machine), mask vs. hair, 2-of-3 falls - Chris Benoit & 2 Cold Scorpio & Tito Santana vs. La Parka & Blue Panther & Jerry Estrada, 2-of-3 trios match - Heavy Metal & Rey Misterio Jr. & Latin Lover vs. Psicosis & Fuerza Guerrera & Madonna's Boyfriend, 2-of-3 falls trios match - Mascarita Sagrada & Octagoncito vs. Espectrito & Jerrito Estrada, 2-of-3 falls minis match The first AAA plug aired this weekend on WCW Main Event. They showed mostly boring clips and stressed that this was Mexican wrestling. It was sort of weird. The highlight was a clip of Psicosis doing a top rope senton to the ringside floor (think about that if you didn't see it). - UWFi has a PPV on 11/11/94. - WCW has Clash of Champions XXIX on 11/16/94. - WWF has Survivor Series on 11/23/94. The tentative line-up has: *- Bret Hart vs. Bob Backlund for the WWF Title *- Undertaker vs. Yokozuna in a casket match *- Shawn Michaels & Diesel vs. Fatu & Barbarian for the WWF Tag Titles *- Doink & Dink & Wink & Pink vs. Jerry Lawler & Queasy & Wheezy & The Little Prince - WCW has Starrcade '94 on 12/27/94. The tentative line-up has: - Hulk Hogan vs. Vader for the WCW Title *- Ric Flair vs. Sting Obviously, this line-up may well change depending on what happens at Halloween Havoc. - Awards: The second call for nominations was posted last week and a few additions trickled in. Nobody justified any of the "*"ed items, so I'll present them here to see if anybody can answer my questions: - Did Warlord wrestle in the past year? - Did Terry Funk & Kevin Sullivan team in the past year? - Did Dynamite Kansai & Cutie Suzuki team in the past year? - Did Hulk Hogan work as a heel in the past year? (honest answer has to be "no") - Did the following three matches take place between 11/09/93 and 11/08/94: - Bret Hart & Owen Hart vs. Steiners WrestleFest video - Jushin Liger & Tiger Mask & Octagon & El Hijo del Santo vs. Psicosis & Blue Panther & La Parka & ?? - Mascarita Sagrada vs. Espectrito - 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. Basically, all of the tapes in my video collection are available. My tape list is on the r.s.p-w ftp site (128.227.59.59) in the file herbtape.zip. I have made a total of five compilation tapes for the net: R.s.p-w 1, Japan 1981-1983, Japan 1984-1987, VideoMarinepiad I, and VideoMarinepiad II. If you are interested in details on any of these, just send some e-mail or browse the ftp site. Herb...