May 11, 1992
- Sid Justice has been suspended from WWF for "unprofessional conduct," however there are also rumors that Sid has actually quit the company. In the meantime, Papa Shango has been put into a feud with Warrior (who Sid was working house shows with). Last week, Dave reported that a top star had been caught trying to cheat a drug test prior to Wrestlemania and this week, he confirms that it was indeed Sid who had been caught. But since he was in the main event of Wrestlemania and had been advertised for the European tour afterwards, he was never suspended until now.
- It's expected that Sid will return at some point (yeah, in a few more years) but it's questionable whether it's even worth it to the company, given Sid's penchant for quitting, getting injured, or otherwise somehow finding a way to get out of work during softball season (which he has now done 3 years straight. If you're not aware, Sid is known for apparently loving to play softball and would always try to get summers off the road so he could play). Also, he's reportedly a big morale problem in the locker room and given WWF's ongoing steroid scandals, it might not make much business sense to have a huge monster like him as a top star on TV.
- WWF cancelled 4 more shows over the past weekend, most due to slow ticket sales, but the Long Beach show was cancelled (along with all other events) due to the 2nd day of rioting taking place in the city following the Rodney King verdict.
- Huge story in Mexico this week involving the apparent promotional split in EMLL, the company which dates back to the beginnings of Lucha Libre in 1934 and is the largest and most successful wrestling organization in Mexico. EMLL Vice President and the man responsible for much of EMLL's creative success in recent years, Antonio Pena, resigned this week amidst rumors that he wishes to start his own promotion to compete with EMLL. When he found out, EMLL president Paco Alonso contacted his top stars and told them if they didn't sign long-term contracts with the company immediately, they would be fired. As of press time, many of EMLL's top stars are rumored to be refusing and will be joining Antonio Pena's new company. Word is Pena has the best connections with Televisa, which broadcasts the EMLL TV show and he should be able to get their time slot. However, EMLL will likely retain control of the Arena Mexico in Mexico City, which holds 17,500 and is the biggest live market int he country. Expect more on this story in the coming weeks (and so begins AAA and holy shit does it get nasty).
- The world governing body of amateur wrestling has ruled that pro wrestlers will now be eligible for the Olympic games, starting with the upcoming 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. This probably won't be important anytime in the near future, but could be a big deal down the road in years to come (pretty sure no one has ever pulled a reverse-Kurt Angle yet with any success).
- A Current Affair aired their story on the WWF sex and drug scandal and it pretty much covered all the same stuff that has already been covered elsewhere. The behind the scenes story is even more interesting though, when a guy who claimed to be a former wrestler came forward saying that the accusers were lying and that Vince McMahon is an honest and good person. Upon further investigation by the A Current Affair people, it turned out the guy gave a fake name and disconnected his phone when they tried to follow up with him. Vince McMahon's lawyer Jerry McDevitt has denied that McMahon had anything to do with it but, yanno...
- WCW brought in a doctor to give a mandatory seminar on steroids to the locker room prior to this past week's TV tapings. The doctor went through a slideshow about the negative side effects of steroids that some wrestlers described as "boring" and others "very informative." Several wrestlers, Rick Rude in particular, were said to be argumentative and straight up, ahem, rude to the doctor and said that they all know the risks and that it's their professional choice and not anyone's business what they put in their body. As we all know, this philosophy worked out great for Rick Rude in the end.
- Smoky Mountain Wrestling has a show next week and one of the workers being advertised is Bob Holly, however Dave says that Holly has since quit wrestling.
- At the latest TV tapings, lots of new angles took place. Kamala debuted. Papa Shango set a jobber's boots on fire and also cursed Ultimate Warrior's wristband, which led to Warrior selling a wrist injury. And finally, Kevin Wacholz debuted as Nailz (Dave still calls him The Convict) and did a very brutal beatdown on Big Boss Man that got a lot of heat.
- Animal from Legion of Doom is being sued regarding a 1989 bar fight after a man claims he was brutally beaten up by the wrestler. He's suing Animal for 400K and the bar for 250K.
- Turns out the WBF Body Stars show is paid programming, which means it's not really a show that USA wanted on the air, it's just something that Vince McMahon is paying for (basically like all the other infomercials you see on TV in the middle of the night). So even if the ratings are horrible (and they are, Dave says), it doesn't matter and will stay on the air as long as Vince wants to keep paying for it.
- The Great American Bash PPV for July is scheduled to take place in Philadelphia, but there's a major labor dispute going on the city which could lead to labor workers going on strike. If the dispute isn't cleared up within a week, WCW plans to move the location of the PPV to Georgia.
- Todd Champion, PN News, Tommy Rich and El Gigante are all gone from WCW, no reason given. I assume the cuts that were mentioned last week.
- Lightning Kid (Sean Waltman) will be getting a tryout with WCW at next week's tapings.
- Finally, in the letters section, Nasty Ronnie from the IWF (International Wrestling Federation) writes in to bitch out Dave for not covering IWF news and basically is all "We run 10-15 shows a month and get no respect, you don't talk about us, Apter doesn't mention us, WWF and WCW are afraid of us, blah blah blah." They, of course, didn't last. But fun fact: IWF was founded by Killer Kowalski and a young wrestler named Terra Ryzing had his very first matches for that company.