October 21, 1991
- The issue starts with a looooong (page and a half) quote from Eddie Gilbert, regarding Paul E. Dangerously's suspension from WCW. It's super convoluted but TL;DR: WCW is planning a taping for next month in Memphis. Somehow, Eddie Gilbert found out (he claims from someone else, not Dangerously) and called Jerry Lawler and asked if he was involved. Turns out, Jerry Jarrett and Jerry Lawler (USWA owners) have indeed been secretly negotiating with WCW to work a cross-promotional angle with them and do a Lawler/Luger match. Eddie Gilbert wasn't supposed to know, so Lawler and Jarrett contacted WCW and told them word had leaked out and claimed Paul E. Dangerously had told Gilbert about it and therefore, Lawler was pulling out of the deal. I think. I've read this shit three times and can't make full sense of it.
- Eddie Gilbert specifically calls out Jim Herd and especially Jim Ross, who he pretty much calls a snake and says they made Paul E. the fall guy for something he didn't do. He also goes on to say that WCW as a whole is disorganized and poorly managed and that you'd never see this sort of shit happen in WWF. In short, Gilbert pretty much runs down everyone involved except for Dangerously, and torches his bridge with WCW (and temporarily USWA) as a result.
- WCW's version of the story is that Dangerously was suspended "for philosophical differences pending a review." Dangerously's lawyer responded with a thinly-veiled threat to sue WCW for illegal suspension and damage to his professional reputation. Jerry Jarrett responded saying that Gilbert's story is inaccurate and otherwise, he has no comment. Lawler gave an interview to PWTorch about it and contradicted himself several times and was clearly not being entirely truthful.
- The storyline that Dangerously allegedly ruined was basically this: first, WCW has already filed a claim to get the NWA title back. Flair is willing to sell it back to them for $50,200. Then, assuming they had the belt back by then, at the Memphis tapings in November, WCW would hold a tournament to crown the new NWA champion, which Lawler would win. That would then lead to NWA champ Lawler vs. WCW champ Luger, champion-vs-champion match to take place early next year and hopefully steal some of the Flair vs. Hogan thunder from WWF. Dave thinks that Lawler didn't want to do the job (because obviously, WCW would want Luger to win) and so they told WCW that word had leaked out and blamed Paul E., whom WCW promptly suspended for the remainder of his contract (which ends in April of 92). Dave goes on to give his personal opinions on the matter but this is already long enough as it is, so TL;DR - WCW is stupid.
- Hulk Hogan is back in the media making stupid comments again, challenging any other sports organization to compare their drug test policies to WWF. Considering that steroids are far more prevalent in wrestling than any other sport and that, to date, the company has not yet tested a single person for steroids ever, that's kind of a dumb thing to say. Meanwhile, media outlets are still writing and producing big stories on the steroid problem in wrestling, and Hogan is setting himself up to be a scapegoat by saying dumb things like that.
- Suburban Commando box office results are disappointing. It opened at #7 and finished the weekend with $3.9 million which is less than No Holds Barred did on its first weekend. It needs to hit around $15 million to break even and it won't even come close. Hogan has made no secret about his plans to wind down his wrestling career and ease into movies, but with his first 2 starring roles being huge flops, he might have to reconsider his plans.
- Scott Steiner is expected to work the Chamber of Horrors match at Halloween Havoc but won't do much. Meanwhile, WCW is continuing to falsely-advertise him for house show matches, despite knowing full-well he won't be there.
- Sid Justice is also injured, bicep tendon issue. No word on how long he'll be out. WWF has been pushing Savage to go back on the road full time but he doesn't want to and has dabbled with leaving the company a few times lately. If Sid ends up needing surgery, that will put Savage in an incredible bargaining position because they already desperately need him on the road and will need him even more if Sid is out for a long time.
- Speaking of Sid Justice, there was an incident at a bar in Atlanta last week. Sid was at a bar where a bunch of WCW wrestlers were hanging out. Apparently Justice was bragging about how great working for WWF was and how messed up WCW was. Sid got into a verbal altercation with WCW wrestlers Mike Graham and Brian Pillman, leading to Pillman challenging Sid to a fight. Sid backed down, pointing out his bicep injury, and left the bar. Then Sid came back waving a squeegee (!?!?!) like a weapon and challenged Pillman or Graham to fight him. Graham took the squeegee from Sid and people held Pillman back until Sid left the bar again. The WCW locker room has been treating Pillman and Graham like heroes because of this (this is kind of a famous story).
- Starrcade 91 will apparently be subtitled Battle Brawl (not quite) and will involve wrestlers picking names at random and doing a 10 match tag team competition and ending with a battle royal of the winners. Trying to sell their biggest PPV of the year with no way of telling fans what any of the matches will be in advance seems suicidal to Dave.
- Long obituary for a territories wrestler named Lance Idol who passed away. Never heard of him but Dave seemed to know a lot about him. I can't even find a Wikipedia page for him.
- An unknown wrestler at an indie show in Wichita billed himself as Dr. Fetus, The Abortionist.
- An indie group called American Championship Wrestling drew 600 to a show in Winston-Salem, which is noteworthy because WCW was in the city the next night and didn't draw that much.
- Sting signed a 3-year contract with WCW that reportedly gives him $500K the first year, $600K the second year and $700K the third year.
- WCW had their last show in St. Louis for the foreseeable future. A few months back, there was a big story about WCW trying to book the arena in St. Louis and WWF blocking it. Well WCW succeeded and got the arena and WWF pulled out of the city. But WCW failed to draw, so the arena is going back to their exclusive agreement with WWF.
- No one in the WCW locker room seems to like Van Hammer, and there seems to be jealousy over the push he's getting. One of the wrestlers put Vaseline on his guitar so when he swung it around, he couldn't grip it and it ended up hitting him in the eye, giving him a black eye.
- Assuming WCW can get Rick Rude signed within the next 2 weeks, then he'll probably be the Halloween Phantom that wrestles Tom Zenk at Halloween Havoc.
- There's rumors of Owen Hart coming in to WWF and reforming the Hart Foundation with Jim Neidhart. Dave notes that Owen is a better wrestler than Bret. Yup.
- The Rockers are still planning on leaving WWF, but as of now, they're still booked through December.
- WCW tried to get a restraining order against Flair calling himself a "world champion" on any shows or TV tapings because they argued that he isn't recognized as a world champion by any sanctioning body. The judge threw the case out immediately and pretty much laughed them out of court.