April 12, 1993
- Wrestlemania 9 is in the books. Dave was not a fan. The crowd was apathetic, similar to the same casino crowd that saw WM4 and 5 at Trump Plaza a few years ago. However, despite fan reaction being negative, Dave actually defends the decision for Hogan to win the title from a business standpoint. Building the future around Bret Hart simply hasn't drawn and while building around Hogan again might not be a long-term solution, he's a proven draw and they need to turn business around immediately. There's no room to think long-term when things are so bad in the short-term. Dave basically thinks that if Hogan can get business back up, they can run with him on top for awhile and actually give themselves some breathing room to plan for the future after he leaves again.
- On the negative side, the matches were almost all bad, many of the finishes were awful, and there were timing problems with matches running long, which led to later matches being cut short and the advertised Bigelow/Kamala match being axed altogether. On the plus side, Jim Ross debuted and did an excellent job on commentary and Shawn Michaels stole the show (get used to it Dave) with pretty much the only good in-ring work of the day.
- Hogan had a black eye going into the event. The official story is that Hogan was in a boating accident, although everyone who saw him said it looked like he'd been punched. No one knows if it really was a boating accident or something else. To this day, I think Hogan's story is boating accident, but there's been rumors that Randy Savage punched him over an argument about Elizabeth, (which, given what Savage ends up saying about Hogan later in the year, would make sense). But to this day, I don't think anyone ever confirmed the real story.
- All Japan Women had their 25th anniversary show and as expected, it shattered almost all of the attendance and live gate records for women's wrestling and many are saying it was one of the most spectacular wrestling events ever in Japan. One of the matches, Double Inoue vs. Suzuki & Ozaki, featured a particular spot that got over big with the live crowd:
- [WATCH: Double Inoue vs. Suzuki & Ozaki spot (skip to 5:09 if it doesn't automatically)] (https://youtu.be/kPkmV0RnnBY?t=5m9s)
- The Kerry Von Erich memorial show also took place and drew over 1,500 people paid and raised approximately $15,000 for Kerry's 2 daughters. They promoted Ultimate Warrior as working the show, but no one ever actually asked him about it, and so he didn't show up, though apparently much of the crowd came specifically to see him. Jake Roberts wasn't there either, and Dave doesn't know why. Sid Vicious worked his first match in almost a year, in a tag team match against Ebony Experience (Booker T and Stevie Ray).
- Despite his knee injury, Great Muta is still planning to work next month's show against Hulk Hogan anyway.
- There's a new tag team in USWA called the Harlem Knights. One of the guys in the tag team looks to be about 6'8 and 500 pounds and Dave says he's one of the largest human beings he's ever seen. The Harlem Knights would end up being Men on a Mission and the big guy was, of course, Mable/Viscera.
- Over in ECW, Eddie Gilbert (who is also booking the company) formed a group called Hot Stuff International featuring himself, Don Muraco and Jimmy Snuka. He also brought in Paul E. Dangerously to be their manager. I'm sure nothing noteworthy is going to come out of Paul E.'s debut in ECW...
- Road Warrior Animal is reportedly filming a small part in a Jean Claud Van Damme movie (I can't find anything on this).
- Mike Shaw debuted at last week's Raw taping, doing a "Mad Monk" gimmick (that would be Friar Ferguson). Meanwhile, The Smoking Gunns, Ron & Don Harris, Lightning Kid, and Mr. Hughes all worked dark matches.
- Johnny B. Badd finally reached an agreement with WCW this weekend on a new deal. WWF was making a strong play for him, but in the end, he chose to stay with WCW.
- There are negotiations going on which, if finalized, would involve WCW doing the bulk of their TV tapings at Universal Studios in Orlando (yeah that turned out to be a pretty huge deal).