June 22, 1992
- Lex Luger was seriously injured in a motorcycle accident last week, just days before he was supposed to be a "guest poser" for the WBF championship PPV. Luger suffered numerous injuries on one side of his body, the most serious being a crushed elbow. No word how long he will be laid up, but he can't legally wrestle until March anyway. Whatever angle he was going to participate in at the WBF show was cancelled and instead they showed an interview with Luger from his hospital bed at the beginning of the show.
- WATCH: Luger talks about time in WBF and the motorcycle accident in shoot interview
- Dave wishes he could review the WBF PPV but he can't because his cable company cancelled the show's airing because almost no one ordered it. It's expected to be the lowest national PPV buyrate of all time and is a clear outright rejection of bodybuilding by wrestling fans. Dave's only heard sketchy reports, but apparently, Gary Strydom won again. Many wrestlers are said to be thrilled that the show failed because they hope Vince will give up on the bodybuilding endeavor and focus 100% on wrestling again. However, word is Vince is still moving forward with WBF.
- WATCH: 1992 WBF Championship PPV (full show)
- The NWA tag team tournament starts at this week's Clash of the Champions, but the whole idea to relaunch the NWA with wrestlers from all over the world coming in was Kip Frey's idea and with him gone, Bill Watts isn't a fan. But it was too late to cancel the tournament, so expect a WCW team (either the Steiners or Gordy/Williams) to win and then the whole thing to never be mentioned again.
- Speaking of, the first show of the new Watts-era finally aired on TV and Dave has mixed feelings. It was a decent show that definitely sets a new tone for the company, but it also felt a little too old school, making him worry if Watts is too stuck in the past for the wrestling world of the 1990s (spoiler: he was).
- With the real-life separation of Randy Savage and Elizabeth, her name hasn't been mentioned on TV since, leading Dave to believe she'll probably never be acknowledged again and they'll just move forward with Savage on TV without her. They're also teasing dissension between Ric Flair and Mr. Perfect, which will eventually lead to Perfect returning to the ring as a babyface.
- A photo of Hulk Hogan in a ballerina outfit on the set of his new movie Rough Stuff (later changed to Mr. Nanny) appeared in newspapers around the country this week. A photo of Japanese senator Antonio Inoki asleep in his chair at a Parliament meeting made the rounds in newspapers as well.
- PHOTO: Hulk Hogan, ballerina extraordinaire
- AAA ran a show in Los Angeles and drew 3,500 fans, which is impressive considering it's almost as big a crowd as WWF drew in the same city 2 days before. Two of AAA's biggest stars, Negro Casas and Cien Caras both no-showed due to visa issues crossing the border from Mexico. They have another show scheduled next month in the city that is expected to draw an even bigger crowd. Dave is a little critical of AAA's overdone gimmicks though. For example, they had 2 heels named Superbowl and Quarterback who came out in football uniforms with lucha masks that look like football helmets. There were also 2 characters who wrestle dressed as chickens which makes Dave think Terry Taylor got off easy with the Red Rooster gimmick.
- AAA is considering bringing in Terry Funk and pushing him as a top heel in the evil American foreigner role.
- SWS in Japan is officially no more. A press conference announced that the organization is splitting into 2 different groups, with Genichiro Tenryu's promotion being called Revolution while the other group will be called Palaestra.
- New Japan is still negotiating with Hulk Hogan. Killer Bee's wrestler and humbled ass-fucking recipient B. Brian Blair is acting as a middleman between the 2 sides. Hogan was asking for $150,000 per match which NJPW initially balked at but they're still talking. If it all works out, they hope to have Hogan debut at the 1/4 show at the Tokyo Dome.
- A major Japanese corporation is talking about funding and promoting a major wrestler/boxing match on PPV. The proposed idea would be Antonio Inoki & Leon Spinks vs. Hulk Hogan & George Foreman. For several reasons, Dave is pretty sure this will never happen (it didn't).
- It appears Jake Roberts isn't coming in to WCW anytime soon after all due to contract issues (I'll say). Roberts was offered a major guaranteed contract by Kip Frey, but now that Bill Watts is in charge, he's offering Jake a more "incentive-based" deal (we'll hear plenty about those Bill Watts "incentive" deals later in 1992).
- Sid Justice has been calling both WWF and WCW about returning when the summer is over, but word is both sides are saying they aren't interested in bringing him back. But there's no way he won't land somewhere if he wants to come back. Dave seems to predict him returning to WWF.
- Correction from last week: David Crockett is still working for WCW.
- The Hulk Hogan Vitamin Company declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy this week. Before all the steroid publicity broke, Hogan's vitamins were the 4th largest selling brand of children's vitamins.
- Scott Hall debuted on TV in a vignette under the name Razor Ramon, doing a fake Latino-character. Dave says that, since WCW has previously used 2 white wrestlers pretending to be black (PN News and Johnny B Badd), he supposes it's not that weird for Scott Hall to pretend to be Hispanic.
- There was a house show in San Diego, and while Dave didn't see it, he's heard from sources that a Bret Hart vs. Shawn Michaels match was fantastic, as in the five-star range.
- To the letters section, a quintessential stud muffin named Joel Gerner of 2245 E. 38th St., Brooklyn, NY 11234 writes in to say he is looking for a regular supplier of All-Japan Women or GLOW tapes. Because of course he is.
