March 15, 1993
- The NJPW/WCW show that took place back on Jan. 4th in Tokyo was scheduled to air in America as a WCW PPV this week. One of the matches that took place at the event was the Steiner Brothers vs. The Hell Raisers. A few days before the show was scheduled to air (and after all the editing and voice-over commentary had been completed), WWF sent WCW a letter threatening legal action if the match aired. The Steiners signed their WWF contract in mid-December, before the Tokyo show took place and therefore, they own exclusive rights to any booking, televising, merchandising, etc. of the Steiners. WCW feels they have a right to air the match because they have a deal with NJPW to air the show. WCW initially planned to ignore WWF's letter, but at the last minute, Turner's legal department got involved and the match was pulled. It's a tough blow for WCW because the match was the most heavily promoted in all of WCW's advertising.
- The PPV aired as normal, and to fill the hole left by the Steiners match, they added the Koki Kitahara & Masao Orihara & Nobukazu Hirai vs. El Samurai & Akira Nogami & Takayuki Iizuka match. All the other matches had commentary that had been taped weeks ago by Jim Ross and Tony Schiavone. With Ross now gone from WCW and Schiavone unavailable on short notice, Eric Bischoff did the announcing for this match solo and Dave says it's one of the most embarrassing moments in wrestling announcing history. He didn't know who any of the wrestlers were, called people by the wrong names, and mispronounced the ones he did get right. Dave kinda lays into Bischoff here, saying he should have enough professional pride in his work to have actually learned about the guys a little before calling the match and slams WCW for not making sure they could legally use the Steiners match before advertising it. Well we just gotta watch that, right?
- Big Van Vader signed an unprecedented 4-year contract with WCW this week, which should keep him there through March of 1997 and makes it the longest-term contract in WCW history. Word is that it's for 2.5 million over 4 years ($625,000 per year). Add this to the massive UWFI deal he signed a couple of weeks ago and it easily makes Vader the highest paid wrestler in the entire business, by far. Curt Hennig had been trying to convince Vader and Too Cold Scorpio both to come to WWF but it obviously didn't work.
- WWF and WCW are both pulling in some of their best TV ratings since early-1991, likely due to the returns of Hogan and Flair to each company respectively. But Dave says they need to take advantage of the new eyeballs and start building new stars now because, for instance, if Hogan sticks around for a few months and then leaves again, WWF will be worse off than they were before (and sure enough...).
- Konnan did a radio interview this weekend where he was completely open about several things. He expressed displeasure that Vince took his Max Moon gimmick and gave it to Paul Diamond. He also said that he thinks Scott Steiner is the most physically talented wrestler in the world except for Hiroshi Hase (eh, that might have been true before Scott had the bicep injury in 1991 but when he came back from that and was juiced to the gills on steroids, he was never really the same. But yeah, early career Scott Steiner was incredible).
- The reason for Jumbo Tsuruta's hospitalization is because he is suffering from Hepatitis B. He's going to be kept out of the ring through at least 1994 because it's very contagious and can be spread through spit or sweat, says Dave. Or, yanno, blood. Turns out Tsuruta indeed did have Hep-B and it doesn't just go away if you lay low for a year. That dude should have never stepped foot in a ring again, but he did.
- Hulk Hogan's match in May for NJPW may not be a tag match with Antonio Inoki anymore after all. Word is it may be changed to Hogan vs. Great Muta. Also, WWF asked Genichiro Tenryu to work Wrestlemania but he turned it down due to other commitments.
- FMW star Atsushi Onita is out of action due to "various internal infections." After a match back in December, Onita was cut up and bleeding all over from several open wounds. To celebrate winning the match, Onita led a bunch of fans outside the arena and then jumped off a bridge into a heavily polluted river. In the middle of winter. Needless to say, polluted water doesn't go well with open wounds and he's out for the next couple months.
- In SMW, Kevin Sullivan cut a promo on a beach, before getting enraged, pulling out a spike, and chasing seagulls with it (I desperately searched for video of this, to no avail).
- Tod Gordon has gotten a television deal for his ECW company. It will air locally on Sports Channel Philadelphia on Tuesday nights. The first 6 shows will be taped this week and will be booked by Eddie Gilbert.
- The Sheik's wife Joyce won $5,000 in the Michigan state lottery last week.
- Brian Pillman and Steve Austin debuted the Hollywood Blondes gimmick at TV tapings this week, with matching vests and trunks.
- Neither WCW or WWF acknowledged the death of Kerry Von Erich on any of their TV shows, which Dave seems a little disgusted by.
- Ted Dibiase suffered a herniated disc and the injury is reportedly serious. He will be kept out of action until Wrestlemania but given that he's in a match against Hogan, Dibiase pretty much has to work the match, injured or not. Owen Hart also blew out his knee again and will be out for a bit.
- Vince McMahon will be honored by the Michael Landon Foundation for his philanthropic contributions to charity. Meanwhile, the U.S. Justice Department continues their investigation. "Only in America," says Dave. He says the Justice Dept. investigation is something nobody seems to want to talk openly about but it's a black cloud that everyone knows is hovering overhead.
- On his radio show, Rush Limbaugh said he had been contacted about appearing at Wrestlemania and hadn't ruled it out yet. So far, somewhere between 6,000-9,000 tickets have been sold, with the show less than a month away. The venue only holds 15,000 so it should still sellout, but this is the slowest advance ticket sales ever for a Wrestlemania.