June 08, 1992
- Portland Wrestling promoter Don Owen finally threw in the towel this week. At 80-years old, Owen has been involved in pro wrestling for 68 years, longer than anyone in the history of the business, starting out working for his father as a teenager back in 1925. Owen announced his retirement at a show in front of a crowd of about 80 fans. This doesn't completely spell the end of local wrestling in the area, however. Referee Sandy Barr will be taking over the reigns of the business from Don Owen and renaming it Championship Wrestling USA. Barr is negotiating with Ch. 32 in Portland for a local TV deal for the company. Owen's speech was very emotional and he explained that he just couldn't compete with the big boys anymore (WWF, in particular, was partly responsible for Portland Wrestling losing their local television deal that they'd had for over 40 years, which is what finally broke the company).
- WWF has already started hyping SummerSlam on it's TV shows in Europe, despite not officially announcing the venue change in the US yet. They also announced several matches for the show (Savage/Flair for WWF title, Bret/Shawn for IC title, LOD/Beverly Brothers, and Undertaker/Berzerker....none of which ended up happening).
- WCW wrestlers all received a letter this week listing new rules under Bill Watts' reign. The wrestlers have dubbed them the 10 Commandments and they are as follows:
- Using ring barricades and the ring post is forbidden and will cause a DQ
- Wrestling outside the ring is discouraged
- Absolutely no low-blows. First offense is $1000 fine, second is $2500 fine and third time is $5000 and will be considered a breach of contract. If a wrestler is hit low, he is to make every effort not to sell the move as a low blow (lol)
- All wrestlers are due in the building 1 hour before start time of the show with the same fines as above for multiple offenses.
- Missing an event except in the case of the most severe injuries is considered a breach of contract. Only excusable exception is an act of god.
- Wrestlers who are injured and can't perform are still expected to make the show and appear before the crowd. The only exception is a crippling injury that doesn't allow for traveling.
- Talking on the mic during the show is discouraged. Lewd hand gestures and cursing that the audience may hear is prohibited.
- Fraternization between heels and babyfaces in public is not acceptable. This includes traveling together, public appearances, restaurants, and even the gym.
- No guests allowed in the dressing room, including family members.
- Each wrestler is allowed only 2 complimentary tickets to each show for friends or family. Any tickets beyond that must be purchased at full value.
- Watts also held a meeting last week to say they will be cutting back on long TV tapings because crowds burn out and it looks bad on TV (which is a problem they have with NXT now sometimes. Even Full Sail starts to sit on their hands and get tired after 3+ hours of tapings and it shows sometimes). Watts has also banned blading. And finally, in what is sure to be controversial (and boy was it ever), Watts has banned all moves from the top rope.
- Dave gives his opinion on most of these rules: the ringpost/barricade rule, eh no biggie. The outside the ring wrestling, he doesn't like to see it overdone but doesn't want to see it discouraged entirely. He agrees with getting rid of low blows. As for getting to work on time, that's normal in all professions, but given the travel, it might not always be possible. As for traveling to shows injured or working hurt, Dave says that the health of the wrestlers needs to be put above all else and while it'd be nice for hurt workers to show up when they can, traveling can hinder healing. Riding in a car for 8 hours with a bad back just to show up and wave to the crowd seems counterproductive. Lewd gestures and cursing, Dave agrees with. Heels and faces hanging out, eh. Maybe in the building itself or at special appearances, sure but otherwise, it's a silly rule. No guests in the locker room seems reasonable. 2 comped tickets per wrestler seems excessively strict since WCW isn't exactly wrestling in front of sold out crowds these days so it's not like friends and family are stealing seats from paying customers. And finally, Dave does everything short of calling the top rope rule completely stupid and outdated.
- Watts also appeared on WCW Saturday Night to announce the new era of WCW and called WWF a macabre cartoon and made references to angles like Ultimate Warrior vomiting. He also said they're getting rid of the padding around the ring because "real wrestlers don't need a bunch of mattresses to fall on."
- As you can imagine, all of this has made Watts suuuuuper popular in the locker room. /s
- The news still isn't good for GWF. The latest TV taping drew only 175 fans. And the ESPN rating has dropped almost 70% from what they were averaging when they first started and it's also well below the ratings USWA was drawing before GWF replaced them on the network.
- Without boring you with all the numbers that Dave just bored me with, TL;DR - television ratings for both WWF and WCW hit all-time lows in the last couple of weeks.
- Marty Jannetty has been sentenced for the cocaine and resisting arrest charges from a few months back: 6 months house arrest, 30 months probation, weekly drug testing for 3 months, bi-weekly drug testing for 3 months after that, and then random testing for the following 2 years. And finally, 250 hours of community service.
- World Reports magazine, Muscle Mag International, GQ Magazine, Iron Man magazine, US News magazine, Muscle Media magazine, and most surprisingly, Pro Wrestling Illustrated (because of their cozy relationship with WWF) all had stories about steroid use in the wrestling and bodybuilding industries this week and all of them mentioned WWF or WBF directly.
- The real life marriage of Randy Savage and Elizabeth has hit the rocks. The 2 recently separated after 7 years of marriage. No word on how this will affect any current storylines or the on-screen marriage of the couple. Most reports are that Elizabeth is done with wrestling so they'll probably just stop acknowledging her on TV altogether.
- Negro Casas, arguably the best worker in Mexico and current UWA middleweight champion, is rumored to be jumping to either EMLL or AAA soon. Both sides are making a big play to try and get him.
- Dave gives a rare 5-star rating to the recent Jushin Liger vs. El Samurai match from the finals of New Japan's Top of the Super Junior tournament.
- Dave then raves about an All Japan Women's match between Manami Toyota vs. Kyoko Inoue which he rated *****+++ and says it had the same impact on him as the first time he saw Dynamite Kid vs. Tiger Mask in 1982. Two five-star matches in one issue!
- There was a falls count anywhere match in Michigan this week in some unnamed indie company. The highlight of the match was the guys brawling in a hockey arena and one of the wrestlers trying to run over his opponent with a Zamboni, but stopped when the referee threatened to disqualify him. Because he'll commit murder, but not if it will cost him the match.
- Latest word on Vader is that his knee injury isn't that bad and he'll be fine.
- Vince McMahon has been running ads talking about how the WBF sets the standard for drug-free sports competition, which is, obviously, laughable. Dave says the whole thing is a con to hype up their new line of food supplements called ICOPRO which the bodybuilders will endorse and claim is the secret to their huge physiques.
- They are doing a spot during the Warrior/Shango matches at house shows where Shango does some voodoo dance and Warrior sells without even being touched, which people are booing out of the building.
- Warlord and Col. Mustafa are both gone from the company, no reason given.