July 13, 1992
- WCW booked 2 title changes at a house show this week in Atlanta. The reason is because the show took place at the Omni Arena and WCW is attempting to push the Omni as the new MSG of wrestling and to attempt to make house shows feel unpredictable and meaningful again. It's part of Watts' plan to make house shows the main focus of the business rather than PPV. While this might have been the way the industry was in the past, Dave says you have to look toward the future, and PPV is the clear way of the future for the wrestling industry (yet another example of Bill Watts being stuck in the past during this period). Dave then breaks down the financials of house shows vs. PPV revenue to explain why this is a horrible idea.
- Bob Backlund made his WWF return this week. Dave details Backlund's history, from reigning as champion for 5 years to being fired when he refused to turn heel. Word is he looks great and wrestles as well as ever, but crowds seemingly had no idea who he is. Dave isn't sure if Backlund is back because he's getting older and wants one last run, or if Vince purposely brought him back as a PR move, due to Backlund's real-life squeaky clean image and drug-free lifestyle.
- AAA ran a show in Los Angeles this week, with a sold out crowd of 6,5000 and a live gate of $115,000 which would make it the largest gate ever for an indie show in the U.S., making more than any WWF show in the area since Wrestlemania 7 and any WCW show there since 1990. Dave thinks if AAA can run monthly shows here and promote them well, they're sitting on a goldmine in this market. Anyway, Dave was at the show and was blown away and says it was better than pretty much all the WWF and WCW shows he's seen in the last few years and the crowd was rabid.
- New Japan is doing a 16 man NWA title tournament soon, featuring several of WCW's stars (Barry Windham, Ron Simmons, Rick Rude, Arn Anderson, Steve Austin, etc.) and several of their own (Masa Chono, Keiji Muto, Kensuke Sasaki, etc.). However, neither WCW champ Sting or IWGP champ Riki Choshu are involved, leading many in Japan to grumble about how it's not a real world championship tournament.
- Longtime Memphis wrestler Stan Frazier passed away from kidney failure last week. Dave doesn't elaborate beyond that, which is weird because I think Frazier was better known to most wrestling fans as Uncle Elmer from WWF in the 80s. He even had a match at WrestleMania 2.
- Dave says he got an early copy of Lou Thesz's autobiography "Hooker: A Dangerous Man's Adventures in the Crazy World of Pro Wrestling" and says that it's the wrestling book to end all wrestling books. No word on the release date yet, but Dave says whenever it comes out, it's a must-read. No working the reader, no kayfabe, just all open honesty (as far as I can tell, I think this book didn't actually get published until 1997. But it's available now if anyone wants to check it out):
- Remember last month when Dave broke down the business financials from now compared to the same period in 1991? He does it again, and I guess this is going to be a new monthly feature. TL;DR - same as before. June 1992 is way worse than June 1991 for WWF and WCW. Meanwhile, Japan is basically the same or slightly better.
- Dave reveals the reader results for the Question of the Week from 2 weeks ago about who should be the face of WCW and Barry Windham was the winner. In order, the results were Barry Windham, Brian Pillman, Sting, Dustin Rhodes, Steve Austin, Ric Flair, Curt Hennig, Steve Williams, Bret Hart, Scott Steiner, and Jerry Lawler.
- Two of the best workers in Mexico, Eddie Guerrero and Yoshihiro Asai (Ultimo Dragon) both turned down offers from AAA this week and chose to stay with EMLL. Eddie chose to stay so he could be with his "brother" Chavo, who is a regular in EMLL and Asai turned it down because EMLL has a working relationship with his family's ties to the EMLL promotion, despite the fact that AAA was offering to double Asai's (already huge) salary.
- Haku recently started working in Mexico and is reportedly so stiff and no-sells so much that no one wants to work with him.
- GWF head Max Andrews finally got around to threatening legal action against USWA for the GWF-invasion angle, so that's done now. Dave says it was one of the most creative and well-done angles of the year and it's a shame it's over now.
- Bill Watts has now banned babyfaces and heels from travelling in the same airplanes, which has made the travel schedule tougher than ever. Apparently, the given reason isn't so much about protecting kayfabe, but more of an irrational fear that if all the WCW wrestlers were on a plane and it crashed, they would lose all their wrestlers. Wow...
- Van Hammer hasn't been around lately, but Dave doesn't know if he's gone from the company or not.
- Larry Zbysko is phasing out of full-time time wrestling and will concentrate on doing commentary.
- El Gigante has reportedly reached a deal with WWF to start with them soon.