July 15, 1991
- Fallout from WCW's firing of Ric Flair has been huge. The story got picked up in national newspapers around the country and almost all of the coverage has been sympathetic to Flair, with some media outlets in Charlotte even calling for a WCW boycott. From here, Dave recounts the long story of how we got to this point, starting with the contract negotiations last year. WCW has been cutting costs due to huge losses and Flair had the largest contract in the company, so naturally, it's not surprising that they wanted to make cuts there. On the other hand, in the last year, WCW has offered Sid Vicious more money than that to stay, and they offered Randy Savage more than that to jump ship from WWF. Both men turned the deals down.
- Another issue was WCW's booking of Flair. He was clearly being de-emphasized within the company, as they have made no secret about slowly phasing him out and pushing newer, younger stars like Sting and Lex Luger. In fact, Flair hasn't even really had much in the way of storylines for quite awhile now, despite being world champion. The small programs he has had (Tatsumi Fujinami, El Gigante) weren't really the primary focus of the show or heavily promoted.
- Another interesting note is that the NWA announced that they are still recognizing Ric Flair as the world champion, even if WCW doesn't. It doesn't mean much in the big picture, but Flair can still legally work shows claiming himself to be the NWA champion. The lineages of WCW and NWA championships start getting murky and confusing here. But the big takeaway from this is that Ric Flair could, in theory, go to WWF as the NWA world champion and a champion vs. champion match with Hulk Hogan at Wrestlemania would be a huge draw. But Dave doubts Vince will even consider it because doing so would mean acknowledging another wrestling organization, which is something Vince just won't do.
- WCW has lost several big names over the past few years (Steamboat, Road Warriors, Sid Vicious, Terry Funk, etc.) but this one seems to have struck a nerve. Loud chants of "We Want Flair!" have been hijacking all WCW live events since the news broke.
- The recent issue of Sports Illustrated has NFL star Lyle Alzado on the cover, chronicling his story as he is dying due to years of steroid abuse. This couldn't come at a worse time for WWF, as this has renewed interest in steroids in the news in the wake of the Zahorian trial.
- The media coverage has been devastating towards WWF, with huge outlets like the New York Times writing damning exposés on professional wrestling. Superstar Billy Graham is expected to file a lawsuit against WWF for health issues stemming from steroid use that he claims was practically a requirement for the job. In most cases, WWF would want to settle the case out of court to avoid the publicity of a trial, but if they pay off Graham, it opens the floodgates for any ex-wrestler looking for a payoff to sue them for the same thing. But it may still be a better option than going to court.
- Hulk Hogan is appearing on the Arsenio Hall Show soon and, due to pressure from media and sponsors, it's expected Hogan will make a confession and apology on the show (HA! Oh, if only...). Hogan has also been pulled from all public appearances in relation to promoting his movie Suburban Commando.
- There's concern that athletic commissions in many cities may now start requiring testing for pro wrestling. If that happens, WWF doesn't have any good options. They fight the testing, which doesn't look good if they are pretending to have nothing to hide. Or they could avoid doing shows in states where testing is required, which would also look bad and cost them money. Chances are they will initiate their own steroid testing protocol as a PR move to hopefully assuage the athletic commissions.
- GWF debuted on ESPN this week and the production value was said to be much improved over the previous USWA shows on the network.
- In Japan, Jushin Liger defeated Pegasus Kid in a mask vs. mask match. Pegasus Kid was unmasked to be revealed as Chris Benoit. Liger then put over Benoit as his toughest opponent. Benoit responded by killing Liger and leaving a Bible next to his corpse.
- New Japan is trying to work out a deal that would see Great Muta win the WCW championship at Starrcade and then have his first defense at the Jan. 4th show in Japan. Spoiler: nope.