May 04, 1992
- The lineup for the NWA tag title tournament has been finalized and the first round matches will take place at Clash of the Champions. Dave gives his predictions and then breaks down all the non-WCW workers that will be competing in the tournament. In particular, he notes that Chris Benoit is probably one of the top 10 workers in the world today (and this is back in 1992!) and says he grew up idolizing Dynamite Kid and is every bit as good as Kid was in his prime and notes that WCW is looking at signing Benoit, pending his performance at this show. So expect Benoit to be at his very best. Dean Malenko is also participating and Dave says he's a pretty good worker as well. Finally, Hiroshi Hase is arguably the best all-around wrestler in the world today and will be competing also.
- One of the most famous ring announcers in history, Jimmy Lennon passed away this week at 79. Dave does a brief obituary for him, detailing his history as a wrestling & boxing ring announcer in the 50s, 60s, and 70s.
- WWF had their first post-WM house shows in the US this weekend and they were disappointing. Flair vs. Savage matches aren't drawing and neither are the Ultimate Warrior vs. Sid Justice matches, which surprises Dave since he figured Warrior coming back would juice business a little bit. Two of the shows had such low advance ticket sales that they were cancelled. The lack of Hogan on these shows also has to be hurting.
- In Japan, the Great Kabuki showed up to an FMW show for a meeting with Onita and Goto, which started rumors of Kabuki possibly joining FMW. But in reality, Kabuki was negotiating a deal between SWS and FMW that might lead to Onita working with SWS in exchange for SWS's investor being able to invest some money in FMW and get a piece of the company. It's all very confusing.
- WCW has filed a lawsuit against Lex Luger for violating his contract release agreement, believing that Luger repeatedly appearing on WWF's TV shows "supposedly" to promote WBF goes beyond what was allowed in the non-compete agreement. Luger is technically signed to a WBF contract right now, but is very obviously appearing on WWF TV and cutting heel promos like a wrestler. Under the terms of his contract, Luger's not allowed to sign with them as a wrestler until March of 93.
- WWF lost a lawsuit with the New Jersey Athletic Board regarding back taxes this week, stemming from Summerslam 89 and Wrestlemanias 4 and 5. WWF now owes the state several hundred thousand in unpaid taxes from running those shows there. Dave expects WWF will appeal the decision.
- Vince McMahon and Pat Patterson were expected to give depositions in the Murray Hodgson sexual harassment case this week but managed to delay it while their lawyers pick through Hodgson's statements in his deposition. In the end, this is all just posturing, with both sides trying to bluff each other for leverage and Dave is certain this will get settled out of court before it ever reaches a trial.
- Andre The Giant has been added to the All Japan tour that begins this month. This would end up being Andre's final hurrah. He worked about 30 matches for All Japan throughout the rest of 1992 and then died in January 93. All of them were 6-man matches where he mostly stood in the corner the entire time. By this point, he was so broken down and in pain that it was a miracle he could even make it to the ring and he literally couldn't be in the ring without having to hold on to the ropes for balance.
- Hulk Hogan is scheduled to meet with Masa Saito in Japan next week to discuss a possible deal to work with New Japan. Politically, it could get messy since WWF and SWS have a working agreement and Hogan working for SWS's competition could get messy. However, the Japanese claim Hogan has led them to believe that he's going to agree to the deal. Surely, Hogan would never deceive anyone, right?
- Things are still looking rough in GWF as the latest show drew less than 400 fans. They still have to film 14 episodes of TV in May to fulfill their ESPN requirements, and doing so with less talent than ever and dwindling crowds is going to be tough.
- Portland Wrestling is still drawing around 100 or so people and are still negotiating with local channels about a TV deal but at this point, they're all but dead.
- Former WWF referee John Bonello was sentenced to 18 months in prison, 360 hours of community service and three years probation after being convicted of hiring an undercover police officer who was posing as a hitman (not Bret Hart) to kill his wife. The judge went easy on Bonnello since the couple has since reconciled (what!?) and the entire family on the wife's side sympathized with him (WHAT!?!?).
- Dave saw some indie tapes and was really impressed by a tag team from Winnipeg (you idiot!) called Sudden Impact. They wrestle under the names Lance Storm and Chris Jericho and Dave thinks they could be the next Rockers if they ever get hired by a major company.
- As a follow up to last week's mention of a "Michael Foley" wedding, Dave congratulates "Mick & Collette" on their marriage over the weekend. I'm beginning to suspect collusion here.....
- Tod Gordon's Eastern Championship Wrestling held a show and the main event to determine the first ECW champion was won by Jimmy Snuka. Huh. So there's some trivia for you, if you're ever wondering who the first ECW champion was.
- Paul E. Dangerously and Rick Rude each signed new 2-year contracts with WCW. Jake Roberts is almost certainly coming in as soon as his WWF contract release allows. And finally, expect WCW to be cutting lots of talent in the next few weeks, though likely not any big names.
- Bill Fralic of the Atlanta Falcons has been talking about maybe quitting football to go do pro wrestling, but Dave can't see him giving up his $800,000 per year NFL contract to go wrestle (Fralic also competed in the 20-man WWF/NFL battle royal at Wrestlemania 2).
- Madusa and Paul E. Dangerously got into a legit argument backstage about something but it was broken up by Terry Taylor.
- Three different credible sources have confirmed to Dave that a major WWF star was caught trying to falsify his steroid test by using clean urine in a Visine bottle the week before Wrestlemania. The wrestler was caught and, according to the company's rules, that would mean an immediate 6-week suspension. However, this person is a major star and had a prominent spot on the Wrestlemania show, so of course, he wasn't suspended. He also worked the post-WM European tour with no signs of suspension. So as of now, no one knows what is going to happen with that and Dave isn't naming names (yet). Meanwhile, Dave says it's not a coincidence that WWF TV shows are showing more and more clips of WWF stars doing charity work with children.
- Expect Mr. Perfect back in the ring around October, where he'll inevitably feud with Ric Flair.
- The tentative plan for Wrestlemania 9 is for it to take place in the 27,000 seat arena at the University of South Florida campus in Tampa but that could easily change.
- Kerry Von Erich's stay at the Betty Ford Clinic reportedly did him a world of good. People who know him say he seems like a changed man.