August 16, 1993
- New Japan completed its most ambitious undertaking ever this week, running 7 major shows on 7 straight nights in the same arena (this was the 3rd annual G1 Climax tournament). The shows were held at the 11,500 seat Sumo Hall. Four of them were sellouts and they made an estimated $3 to $4 million in ticket sales. They plan to repeat the 7-day tactic again next year. Notes from the 7 days: Tatsumi Fujinami won the G1 tournament and Road Warrior Hawk did his first clean job in 9 years of wrestling in Japan when the Hell Raisers lost to The Jurassic Powers.
- Former AWA president Verne Gagne delcared bankruptcy last week, which made mainstream media news nationwide. Gagne has a $2 million dollar real estate debt from a building he co-owned in St. Louis Park, MN and fell 8 months behind on rent and was sued by the other owner and the bank that wasn't getting their mortgage payments. The 2 lawsuits add up to over $2 million and Verne filed bankruptcy as protection against that debt. In the filing, Gagne listed his $300,000 home as his only significant asset and that he doesn't have much money beyond that. Dave briefly recaps the history of the AWA here, which folded in 1990.
- Carlos Colon defeated Terry Funk in what was billed as Colon's final match last week, retiring as Universal Champion (hey!). A tournament was held during the following days to determine a new champion, which was won by Greg Valentine (Colon would, of course, come out of retirement soon after and win the title back 11 more times).
- WCW has suffered the first casualty of taping shows months in advance. Road Warrior Hawk was scheduled to work the upcoming Clash of Champions as Dustin Rhodes' mystery partner and then be in the War Games match at Wrestle War. On TV, WCW had been teasing that Hawk would be Dustin's partner and the angle has been a focal point of the build up to the Clash. But Hawk has now pulled out of the shows, meaning significant edits will have to be made to the shows that were already taped. They're still negotiating and it's possible Hawk may still appear at the Clash (he did) but he's definitely out of the War Games match. Dustin's father Dusty Rhodes coming out of retirement to be his son's partner makes the most sense, and Dusty has made no secret about wanting to get back in the ring, but WCW management has shot the idea down every time and seemingly has no interest in putting Dusty back in the ring. Dave then reveals that the mystery man for the War Games match will be Fred Ottman, better known as Typhoon in WWF. He will be coming in under a new name (yes, we're almost there....)
- AAA sponsored a heels vs. faces benefit baseball game in Mexico. The photos were really strange with all the guys wearing masks with baseball caps on their masks. The faces won (I sadly can't find any pics of this).
- AAA star Corazon de Leon (Chris Jericho) is leaving the promotion for a couple of months to go do a tour in Austria, where he will reunite with former tag team partner Lance Storm, who he used to work with in Canada under the team name Sudden Impact.
- Antonio Inoki has announced he is pulling out of all his upcoming New Japan dates due to a leg injury he claims he suffered while training for his comeback, but most think the truth is that New Japan doesn't want anything to do with him until all of his political scandals die down.
- UWFI is still planning to air a PPV in America in October, and the show is expected to feature Big Van Vader, who is wrestling for them now in Japan. However, WCW believes they have an exclusive right on Vader's services in the U.S. and since WCW has a buddy-buddy relationship with New Japan, it's likely that they will try to prevent UWFI from airing any Vader matches on PPV in America.
- Tod Gordon and ECW have applied for membership in the NWA, which could turn into a big political fight, Dave says. Speaking of the NWA title, WCW had to get permission from the NWA to allow Windham to lose the belt to Flair. But anyway, in a perfect world, this could lead to Ric Flair defending the NWA title in ECW, but that's pretty obviously never going to happen, Dave says.
- Mike Tenay's radio show was dropped last week by the national network that carried it but after a bunch of phone calls from wrestling fans, they're talking to Tenay about bringing his show back. Meanwhile, Jim Ross is looking at doing a weekly 2-hour WWF-syndicated radio show that will likely go head-to-head against Tenay's show.
- Hulk Hogan's movie Mr. Nanny, which has been delayed twice, is now scheduled for release in September. Meanwhile, Thunder In Paradise is scheduled to start airing in March of 94.
- WCW Saturday Night tapings took place again at Disney and those in charge put a bunch of attractive females and execs in suits in the front rows because "apparently those in charge don't like the idea of the show airing with so many black children's faces on camera." Yikes.
- Brian Pillman was injured at the tapings and tore ligaments in his ankle. He was told to stay out of action for a few weeks but since the Hollywood Blonds match at the Clash is so important, Pillman is expected to try and work it anyway (he actually didn't. Regal filled in while Pillman was outside the ring on crutches).
- Pro Wrestling Torch writer Mark Madden contacted WCW about accepting Ole Anderson's $10,000 offer for any dirtsheet writer to step in the ring with him. Ole went back on the hotline and said Madden was fatter than Haystacks Calhoun but never agreed to Madden's accepting of the challenge. So then Madden faxed WCW a letter asking for his check. That led to Ole Anderson to go back on the hotline again and basically say he meant it all in fun and dropped it. Bluff called. Score one for Madden.
- The production value on the WCW Saturday Night shows that were taped at Disney is leaps and bounds better than what WCW fans are used to and even looked superior to some of WWF's programming, and way superior to the low budget feel of the Monday Night Raw shows. However, the trained crowd reactions were downright embarrassing and Dave feels like that will hurt the show more in the long run, increased production values be damned.
- Hulk Hogan worked his final WWF date last week on the European tour. Despite pulling out of Summerslam and not being mentioned on TV, Hogan stuck around to work all the house shows he was already advertised for, and has been going over Yokozuna by DQ at every show. But now Hogan is gone for real this time (and wouldn't return for nearly 10 years. I can't find video of the actual last match but here's one of the matches from that European tour. It's not Hogan's last WWF match, but it's one of the last few. It also appears to have been filmed with one of those 1970s ViewMaster toys).
- WATCH: Hulk Hogan vs. Yokozuna - 1993 European tour
- Lex Luger's bus tour has him making public appearances and doing media interviews, trying to build him as a mainstream star. In a recent interview, he was asked about steroids and claimed the wrestlers are tested every 10 days and that you can't cheat the test. He admitted to using them in the past but claims he doesn't use them now. He also says he was never a heavy user and didn't abuse them and if he could turn back time, he never would have. Dave doubts that, saying the only reason Lex was ever pushed as such a huge star everywhere he went was because of his incredible physique. He says steroids enabled Luger to get a job making $300,000 to $500,000 per year at something he's never actually been any good at (wrestling) and given how much money he's made as a wrestler, Dave scoffs at the idea that Luger wouldn't do it again in a heartbeat. I, in 2016, scoff at the idea that this guy claims he wasn't on steroids in 1993.
- WWF started a 900 hotline in the UK being hosted by Jim Ross and they have been heavily plugging it during the European TV shows.
- Referee Joey Marella may eventually be brought back after being released a couple weeks ago (Dave hasn't acknowledged this yet and no idea if he ever does, but Marella was actually released at the time because he had a drug problem).
- WWF is wanting all of their wrestlers to move to the northeast in order to cut down on transportation costs since so many of their shows are in that area, as well as all the Titan headquarters being based in Stamford. Randy Savage reportedly made the decision to move to Connecticut in order to "set an example" for the rest of the locker room. Dave also corrects himself from a previous issue and says that Savage is not officially booking for the company after all, though he may be involved in some of the decisions. Steve Keirn also claims he was offered a position as a booking assistant but turned it down because he wants to still wrestle.
- Dave spoke with Billy Graham regarding the article about him in WWF magazine. Graham credits Dave with doing a good job breaking down WWF's various comments and saying why they were wrong. Graham was most upset by WWF saying that he never held a real job in his life, saying it speaks volumes about how WWF feels about their wrestlers. "They don't consider being a wrestler a legitimate job."