March 29, 1993
- Vader regained the WCW world title on the final day of WCW's UK Tour in Dublin, six days after losing it to Sting in London. Looks like they booked the two title changes because they wanted to do something big for the UK shows, but reset to the status quo before returning to America.
- Hulk Hogan was on the cover of this week's Gong Magazine in Japan and the story pretty much confirmed Hogan will be working the 5/3 NJPW Fukuoka Dome show, likely against Great Muta or teaming with Inoki.
- The Cauliflower Alley Club held its annual banquet this week, honoring past wrestlers. Verne Gagne was the most notable name honored. Wendi Richter was scheduled to be honored as well, but canceled and didn't show up. Sensational Sherri and Terry Funk were in attendance and were pretty much the only notable American names there to see the event.
- WWF has beaten WCW to the punch with the idea to create a Hall of Fame. WCW planned to announce an official Hall of Fame at the upcoming Slamboree PPV and induct several wrestlers. However, on the 3/22 episode of Monday Night Raw, WWF announced its new Hall of Fame and named Andre The Giant as the first inductee. Dave says the next inductee will likely be Buddy Rogers (yup, he was among the handful that were inducted the next year).
- Former EMLL booker Juan Herrera is talking about forming a new promotion in Mexico, which would be the 4th major promotion (EMLL, AAA, and UWA being the other 3. I have no idea if this ever came to fruition or not, my Google-fu is failing me).
- Jake Roberts is expected to be flying down to Mexico this week to start an angle and debut in AAA soon.
- Big Boss Man is rumored to have signed with All Japan and will be starting there soon. He had been negotiating with both AJPW and NJPW before signing. When he comes in, he won't be using the Boss Man gimmick and will be going back to his former ring name of Big Bubba Rogers.
- Keiji Muto (Great Muta) blew out his knee in a match this week, which couldn't have come at a worse time since he's expected to face Hulk Hogan in about a month.
- Michinoku Pro Wrestling, run by Great Sasuke and his family, held their first show this week in Japan and garnered a lot of national media publicity.
- Update on the injury to Debbie Malenko: she suffered a broken fibia, dislocated ankle, and had ligament and cartilage tears also. She underwent a 6 hour surgery and there's talk that the injury could be a career-ender. But those Dave has talked to said they expect her back in about 6 months. Alas, it was indeed a career-ender.
- Eddie Gilbert cut a promo in USWA recently, complaining about how he's been in the business for 15 years and he shouldn't be an opening match wrestler (in reference to his spot on the cards lately). Given that Lawler's son (Brian Christopher) and Jerry Jarret's son (Jeff) are both constantly pushed as top stars and main-eventers, many people feel like Gilbert's promo was actually a real shoot. Gilbert then no-showed the next event, so Dave is leaning towards shoot.
- The Kerry Von Erich memorial show being put together by GWF will feature the Feebirds, Jake Roberts, Ultimate Warrior, Sid Vicious and more. Warrior vs. Sid is being talked about as the main event. Kerry had no life insurance to provide for his daughters and was deeply in debt with virtually no assets at the time of his death and word is that his children are essentially destitute. Dave can't fathom how Kerry wouldn't have life insurance for his children's benefit and wonders where Fritz Von Erich was during all of this, given that he's a millionaire. He calls the whole thing irresponsible, but he praises Warrior, Sid and Jake Roberts, saying that all 3 of those guys could demand top dollar to work indie shows and it's noble that they're all working the show for free. (we'll see about that...)
- ECW was supposed to tape TV shows this week on 2 different days, but the second show had to be cancelled due to a snow storm in Philadelphia. Eddie Gilbert booked the shows and Terry Funk did commentary for the first day of tapings.
- Quote from Dave: "Vince McMahon did another 12-minute tribute to himself on Monday Night Raw with footage from the Michael Landon Foundation awards. There are no limits, are there?"
- Turns out Rick Martel and Paul Bearer were in attendance at Dino Bravo's funeral, contrary to previous reports. The newspapers reported that no one connected with the Catroni Family, which is the Montreal mob family that Bravo was linked to, attended the funeral, which gives further credence to the theory that he was killed by them.
- Lightning Kid (Sean Waltman) will be getting a tryout at the WWF TV tapings after Wrestlemania.
- Hulk Hogan worked his first house show since returning to WWF, doing a tag team match with Brutus Beefcake against Money Inc. as a dry-run for their upcoming Wrestlemania match. Reports are Bret Hart got a bigger reaction from the crowd than anyone on the card, Hogan included.
- Night Stalker (Bryan Clark) is rumored to be getting a vampire gimmick when he starts with the company (nope).
- Dave says Ric Flair has already gotten boring in WCW after only 3 weeks because they don't seem to have a plan or idea of what to do with him.
- Eric Bischoff is telling people he will be removing himself from TV completely to focus on his production duties, which leaves Tony Schiavone as the only play-by-play announcer in the company.
- Jesse Ventura is currently filming a movie with Sylvester Stallone (that would be Demolition Man).
- A wrestling convention was held in Philadelphia late in January and among those in attendance was Kerry Von Erich. An employee of the hotel where the wrestlers stayed writes in to the letters section this week to tell of his interactions with Kerry. He says Kerry was polite at first (when he was sober) but then at one point after going to his room, he called down and asked for baking soda, which the employee suspects was for cocaine. Kerry then called back 30 minutes later for a 6-pack of Coors Light. He says when Kerry came out a few hours later, he was visibly drugged out. Kerry then tried to hit on the employees girlfriend at the hotel bar. Kerry then started working the employee, trying to convince him that he could be wrestling's next big star. Kerry also told him that he had signed deals with ABC Sports, ESPN, was filming a movie, and was currently the world champion. The employee is, of course, a smark who subscribes to the Observer, so he knew none of this was true. Kerry then tried to get the cook in the hotel restaurant to give him a free steak, promising him front row seats to any wrestling show he wanted. Then he pulled out a Polaroid of a girl with a beer bottle in her pussy and started showing it to everyone. He then claimed he made 1.3 million for working Wrestlemania and other bullshit stories about his famous match with Jerry Lawler. Then a flight attendant showed up at the bar and he made a beeline to her, telling her how big a star he was until she got annoyed and left. He then asked the hotel employee to take him to another bar. The employee declined, saying "As much of a mark as I am, he was just too scary to be with." Then he hung out at the bar staring in the mirror and writing on a napkin for 30 minutes before asking them to call him a cab. He says Kerry's constant self-delusions and blatant lying were a cry for help and said he's never met someone so screwed up in his life. Three weeks later, he was dead. He says it's a shame because deep down, Kerry seemed like he could have been a likable guy if not for the drugs.