July 26, 1993
- The booking situations in both WWF and WCW may be changing soon. WCW interviewed Terry Funk last week about possibly becoming the company's new booker and they're interested in Jerry Jarrett for the position as well. On the WWF side, Randy Savage is moving from Florida to Connecticut to work full-time at WWF headquarters and word is he may become the head booker for the company.
- AAA held a big show this week in front of a sellout crowd of 20,000.....and every single match ended in DQ. Which Dave says is probably not the wisest booking decision ever made. Also, the company has been drawing a lot of heel fans who always cheer the heels and boo the babyfaces, which has some in the company concerned. But they continue to sell out shows, so Dave says that maybe heel crowds aren't as big a problem as they think they are.
- In All Japan, Ray Traylor is using the ring name Big Bubba Rogers, but he still dresses in the Big Boss Man outfit and still has the nightstick.
- Despite a major 7.7 earthquake and tsunami that killed over 200 people just a few days before, New Japan still managed to sell out back-to-back shows. Antonio Inoki showed up at the end of one of the shows and got a mixed reaction from the crowd and from people within the company, many of whom wish Inoki would stay away until his political scandal clears up so he doesn't tarnish NJPW's reputation.
- W*ING is reportedly in some financial trouble and is looking to try and co-promote some shows with FMW in order to spark interest. Meanwhile, FMW has entered a working agreement with Great Sasuke's Michinoku Pro promotion.
- A new promotion called Pancrase Hybrid Wrestling in Japan starts next week. The company has wrestling rules--no closed fist punches to the head, grabbing the ropes breaks holds, etc.--but everything else is a shoot and the winners are not predetermined. The top star being promoted is a guy named Wayne Shamrock (aka Ken Shamrock). The beginnings of MMA...
- A wrestler named Glenn Gilbertti debuted in USWA under the name Disco Inferno and claimed to be the Intergender Wrestling champion. Inferno talked about being friends with Andy Kaufman (who did the Intergender champion gimmick first) and said Kaufman passed the belt on to him. He then accused Lawler of murdering Kaufman and then challenged Ms. Texas to a match.
- Tammy Sytch had never performed before so when she started in SMW, her mic work and delivery wasn't that great. However, she's shown improvement week-by-week and Dave says she's started demonstrating real star potential in a very short time, in particular praising her "poolside press conference." And I mean, we gotta watch that, right? (This seems like such a low-budget 80s porn shoot. Also, is it just me, or does the "smug heel woman being inspired by Hillary Clinton" seem like an awesome gimmick to bring back nowadays?)
- GWF gave away over 100,000 free tickets all over Dallas this week. It resulted in approx. 3000 fans showing up to the Sportatorium, which is one of the biggest crowds they've drawn in a long time, although of course, it didn't make them a dime. Also, a new announcer named Ted Dawson debuted, who didn't even know the wrestlers names, storylines, angles or anything. "I guess he'll get the call from WCW next week," Dave quips.
- Deaths this week: Phil Zacko, who was part-owner of Capital Sports (the predecessor of modern day WWF) died at age 87. Former NWA/WCW promotor Ron Ames passed away from AIDS. Ames is most well known from a 1989 interview segment where he portrayed "Rick Flare" and Terry Funk made fun of him.
- Oregon promoter Sandy Barr is flirting with disaster. After bouncing several checks, his Oregon promoters' license was suspended. To get around not being able to hold paid shows, he's started holding free shows (which is legal without a license), however he's charging $7 for parking in order to still make money. The state commission is likely going to have something to say about that.
- Eddie Gilbert is now 49% owner of ECW after a deal was finalized with majority owner Tod Gordon this week. The company is also planning to bring in Koko B. Ware, Tito Santana, Big Boss Man, and Sensational Sherri for TV tapings next month and are bringing in Abdullah The Butcher, Stan Hansen, Shane Douglas, and possibly Terry Funk for an event in September dubbed Ultraclash 93. They will also be bringing in some W*ING stars from Japan.
- A porn magazine called High Society will be running a 6-page full color photo spread (whooohoo, this should be good!) of the recent Funk/Onita deathmatch in Japan (oh.)
- Apparently the WCW/Disney tapings were a huge success and both sides were thrilled and word is they have signed a long-term deal to continue filming shows at the location. Even most of the wrestlers enjoyed it, since they got to bring their families down and spend a week at Disney World while the shows were taped. They brought in a new crowd every hour, so the crowds were never burned out and always hot, even though they weren't wrestling fans and had to be told who to cheer and boo.
- Shane Douglas did several interviews for wrestling newsletters recently, making very bitter comments towards WCW and towards Dusty Rhodes and Ole Anderson specifically and the business as a whole, saying "Wrestling is the biggest bunch of misfits, the biggest bunch of thieves, the biggest bunch of two-faced, backstabbing people you'll ever meet." He also criticized the company for continuing to push Ric Flair and Arn Anderson. He also claims to have never used steroids, but Dave points out that Douglas went from "looking like Ricky Morton to looking like Lex Luger in a short period of time" and basically calls bullshit on that claim.
- The 7/19 episode of Monday Night Raw featured perhaps the best WWF television match in history between Shawn Michaels and Marty Jannetty, which Dave gives ****3/4 stars.
- WWF's legal department picked on some strange targets this week. They sent a threatening legal letter to a 16-year-old kid who runs fan clubs for Shawn Michaels and Mr. Perfect, demanding he turn over any money he has received from it to them. Wade Keller was also sent a threatening letter because a few months ago, in his Pro Wrestling Torch newsletter, Keller joked about how you could get a free WWF t-shirt if you showed up wearing a WCW shirt, because WWF had been giving free shirts to people who did so the competition's merch wouldn't appear on camera. Dave seems baffled at how you even react to that one.
- Giant Gonzales is expected to leave the company after his match at Summerslam (I believe he worked one more match, a battle royal on Raw but yeah, he was gone after that).
- Sensational Sherri was released this week. With Luna Vachon injured (broken wrist), they simply didn't really have anything for Sherri. Referee Joey Marella is also gone from the company. Meanwhile, Bob Backlund has been doing clean jobs to Bastion Booger at house shows recently, so Dave is pretty sure he's probably gonna be gone soon too (or, yanno, WWF champion within a year).
- The letters section is full of people proclaiming that WCW is on its deathbed and likely won't survive the rest of the year because of how awful and mismanaged it is. And another guy writes in to say Vince McMahon has ruined professional wrestling and history will prove him right in the long run.