November 18, 1991
- (slow issue this week, not much in the way of memorable or important news. Sorry about that. It gets interesting again in the next issue.)
- This one starts with the usual long obituary, this time for Dick The Bruiser, who passed away after rupturing blood vessels in his esophagus while weightlifting and died of internal bleeding, which is possibly the manliest way to go out.
- Dave says the main event for the Tuesday In Texas PPV has been changed internally to Flair vs. Hogan, but that hasn't been announced yet (and was, of course, wrong).
- Dave runs down the categories for the year-end awards and opens up voting. So we'll find all the winners of that in early 92.
- In the wake of Magic Johnson's recent announcement that he has HIV, there's been a lot of talk about the dangers of blading in wrestling. Dave admits that he's not really an expert on the disease, but that if there is a possibility of the disease being spread in bloodbath matches, then the companies producing those matches should implement HIV testing or eliminate blading altogether.
- Bill Eadie is no longer handling booking for GWF, due to the financial cuts the company is making. Eddie Gilbert will probably start booking the promotion when he returns from Japan.
- In WCW, Marcus Bagwell got another tryout and got a good reception.
- There's also a rumor that Ricky Steamboat is being brought in at the next Clash of the Champions.
- Sources are saying Jerry Jarrett will be brought in to WCW as co-booker alongside Dusty Rhodes soon but that's not a done deal.
- In WWF news, a 7 foot tall guy named Cajun Giant got a tryout match and was terrible. I had to google this one. Turns out it was Kurrgan.
- Bobby Heenan is no longer going to be on the road due to neck problems. Mr. Perfect has been introduced as Ric Flair's new manager. Jim Cornette was offered the job but turned it down.
- Big Bully Busick has quit the company.
- Dave is irritated because the WWF keeps saying that Undertaker is "undefeated" even though he lost pretty much every single house show match he was in during the summer. Sure it didn't happen on TV, but thousands upon thousands of people attended the house shows and saw him lose and they're the same people who watch the TV shows, so who are they trying to fool? Same thing with Berserker, who is being called undefeated despite losing most of his house show matches.
- And finally, we close with Bill Watts, who recently did an interview with PWTorch and said some, um, colorful stuff about race relations in America, which actually kind of turned out to be a big story (it's even talked about in the Rise & Fall of WCW DVD and is pretty much the reason he was later fired by WCW but we'll get to that eventually). It's not printed in the newsletter, but I decided to go out and google it and, well, since this is a slow issue without much news, here's the full quote.
- "If you want a business and you put money in, why shouldn't you be able to discriminate? It's your business.
- If free enterprise is going to make or break it, you should be able to discriminate. It should be that, by God, if you're going to open your doors in America, you can discriminate. Why the fuck not?
- That's why I went into business, so that I could discriminate. I mean, really. I mean I want to be able to serve who I want to. It's my business. It's my investment ... I can't tell a fag to get the fuck out. I should have the right to not associate with a fag if I don't want to. I mean, why should I have to hire a fuckin' fag, if I don't like fags? Fags discriminate against us, don't they? Sure they do ... Do blacks discriminate against whites?
- Who's killed more blacks than anyone? The fuckin' blacks. But they want to blame that bullshit Roots that came on the air. That Roots was so bullshit. All you have to do if you want slaves is to hand beads to the chiefs and they gave you slaves. What is the best thing that has ever happened to the black race? That they were brought to this country. No matter how they got here. You know why? Because they intermarried and got educated. They're the ones running the black race.
- You go down to the black countries and they're all broke. Idi Amin killed more blacks than we ever killed. You see what I mean. That's how stupid we are. But we get all caught up in this bullshit rhetoric, And so, it's ridiculous what's happening to our country.
- Lester Maddox (former Georgia governor and defiant restaurant operator) was right. If I don't want to sell fried chicken to blacks I shouldn't have to. It's my restaurant. Hell, at least I respect him for his stand."
- - Bill Watts
- For those not aware. what he's referring to in the last paragraph is Lester Maddox, who owned a restaurant in Atlanta in the 60s. When the Civil Rights Act of 1964 passed, outlawing segregation, Maddox defied it and said he would rather close his restaurant down than serve black people (and he did).