April 05, 1993
- Despite not yet getting his release from WCW, Jim Ross went on his Atlanta radio show this weekend (the show is sponsored by WCW) and had Vince McMahon, Bobby Heenan, and Shawn Michaels on as guests to promote Wrestlemania. Vince also announced on the show that Ross was joining the WWF. It's believed that Ross is going to claim WCW removed him from the payroll as a legal loophole of getting out of his WCW deal and will likely start with WWF on Sunday at Wrestlemania. Dave says Vince must feel pretty confident that he won't catch a contract tampering charge, since he's the one who made the announcement that Ross was now with WWF. The future of Ross's radio show in Atlanta was the big hold-up in his release. Ross wants to continue doing the show (with WWF sponsoring it) while WCW wants Ross to leave the show and put Tony Schiavone in as host and won't give Ross his contract release unless he signs an agreement saying he won't host another wrestling radio show for 5 years. Dave has been told to expect major blowback from this whole situation (I really wish I could find audio of these old radio shows online somewhere but no dice).
- One of the founding fathers of the National Wrestling Alliance and co-founder of AWA (with Verne Gagne) Wally Karbo passed away this week from a heart attack at age 77.
- Wrestlemania has sold about 13,000 tickets, with almost no freebies, and should be an easy sellout by show-time. Razor Ramon's knee injury has gotten worse, as he now has a staph infection, but he's still expected to work his WM match against Bob Backlund. Insert your own Z-Pak joke here.
- Giant Gonzales and Harvey Wippleman were on Regis & Kathy Lee to promote the Wrestlemania. (I had a link here to the segment, but it was to a weird Russian site because it was the only place I could find the video. Maybe that's why the last post got removed? Anyway, sorry, no video here this time. Nothing special anyway).
- The upcoming 25th anniversary show for All Japan Women's Wrestling will take place this week. It's already sold out the 17,000 seat arena and will end up being the largest gate in history for women's wrestling. The all-time attendance record of around 19,000 took place in the 1950s for a show headlined by Mildred Burke, so that record is safe, but it's still expected to be the biggest money making show ever for women's wrestling.
- Ultimate Warrior is apparently telling people that he won't be working the Kerry Von Erich memorial show, saying that he would have but no one from GWF has ever actually contacted him about it. Meanwhile, GWF continues to advertise him. Word is Jake Roberts has pulled out as well. The show will be taped and any video release benefits will also be going to Kerry's daughters.
- The hot topic of conversation in locker rooms throughout the industry these days is about the U.S. Justice Dept. investigation of WWF. Naturally, the government is being tight-lipped about it, so there's very little solid info to go on. They have subpoenaed and interviewed dozens of wrestlers and the most Dave feels confident in saying is that much of the investigation focuses on drugs, mostly steroids, but not limited to just that. Dave says it's obvious that steroid use continued unabated in WWF long after they were made illegal and only just recently has the company actually gotten serious about cracking down on them (due to the investigation). Dave also notes that Vince probably hasn't done himself any favors by making so many dishonest statements to the media over the last couple years about the issue.
- It was announced that Great Muta will be out for 3 months after suffering a knee injury last week, which obviously means the planned Hogan vs. Muta match for next month is out of the question (or is it....?)
- Because of state budget deficits, the Oregon Wrestling Commission might be going away soon. This commission is the most well known in America because of the way they strictly enforce their rules (it's why Art Barr could never get reinstated there and, more importantly, why WWF didn't run shows there for years).
- Eddie Gilbert's promo in USWA last week was apparently a legit shoot and he has quit the promotion.
- SMW has applied for membership within the National Wrestling Alliance, "for whatever that's worth these days," Dave says. In theory, it gives them the possibility of the NWA champion (currently Barry Windham) coming to wrestle in SMW, but that's unlikely to actually ever happen.
- Eric Embry attempted a comeback match in Texas after suffering a severe leg injury in a car accident a few months ago. The match was a 6-man tag and Embry didn't do much and was limping badly. It was sad to watch him try to work and appeared his in-ring future is questionable (indeed, it was Embry's final match ever).
- A few weeks ago, Dave reported that Wrestling Main Event magazine had overtaken Pro Wrestling Illustrated in sales and gave a bunch of numbers supporting that. In a correction this week, Dave admits he got worked. The real numbers are totally different and PWI is still far and away the best selling "Apter-mag" out there.
- Former Portland promoter Don Owen sold the Portland Sports Arena (home to Portland Wrestling for decades) to a church group. The church bought the arena sight-unseen and when they went to the building for the first time, several wrestlers hanging out there chased them away because wrestling shows were still being run there (by Sandy Barr's new promotion). The church demanded the wrestlers and people still running shows be evicted immediately.
- Bruce Hart is trying to revive local wrestling in Calgary and has reportedly talked with several ex-WWF stars like Hawk, Berzerker, Repo Man, and Nailz among others.
- Someone planted a bomb in Australia and when he was arrested, he claimed he was the famous wrestler Killer Kowalski, and the Australian news agencies reported it as if it was the real Kowalski who had planted the bomb. Oooookay then.
- Mike Shaw and The Harris Twins have been offered contracts by WWF. Meanwhile, Repo Man (Barry Darsow) has finished up with the company this week and is reportedly getting out of the business and into selling car alarms, which is kind of funny given the character he plays.
- Chris Benoit was booked for WCW house shows this month, despite the company not yet signing him to a contract, but he didn't show up and word is he's probably done with WCW.
- Dutch Mantell likely won't be getting the commentary job he was trying to get because WCW officials feel he's "too country."
- Johnny B. Badd has still not re-signed with WCW. His contract expires at the end of the month and he's talking to both WWF and WCW.
- Bill Watts' final severance check from WCW is supposed to come this week, at which time, expect him to do an interview/tirade/rant about everything somewhere, Dave says.
- There have been talks about doing a reunion of the original Horsemen (Flair, Arn, Ole, Tully) at Slamboree. Tully Blanchard has been working as a preacher since retiring from wrestling 3 years ago and it's way premature to say if he'll actually be coming back.
- The set for Ric Flair's "Flair for the Gold" interview segments apparently cost WCW $35,000.