October 04, 1993
- Sorry about no post yesterday, was super busy. Honestly, when I start doing 1994, I might start skipping weekends anyway. I'm not in front of a computer as much on those days and plus, it gives me more time to keep writing these up and stay ahead. We'll see.
- Razor Ramon became the new Intercontinental Champion, winning the title that was vacated by Shawn Michaels quitting last week. Rumors have been swirling around why Shawn left and Dave has heard different stories but he doesn't want to report them since he hasn't been able to confirm anything yet. On TV, it was said Jack Tunney suspended Shawn and stripped him of the title for "failure to complete his contractual obligations."
- As for the Steiners, WWF has denied that either of them were suspended, so Dave still doesn't know why they've been removed from upcoming shows. WWF is apparently under the impression that, whatever the issue is, it will be worked out soon because the Steiners are back on the schedule for shows in mid-November. But until then, they're still out and Dave doesn't know why (spoiler: because WWF are liars).
- New Japan likely broke the all-time record for biggest week of house shows (dollar-wise) this week, somewhere in the $4 million dollar range which is the biggest week ever for non-televised house shows. At the shows, Great Muta lost the IWGP title to Shinya Hashimoto and an angle was done to apparently set up a Hulk Hogan vs. Antonio Inoki match. After a tag match between Hogan/Muta vs. The Hell Raisers, Hogan refused to shake Muta's hand and then shoved Inoki, who was sitting at ringside. When Inoki jumped in the ring, Hogan bailed out. There was also an effort to make Black Tiger (Eddie Guerrero) into a top star, where he won several big matches to set himself up for an IWGP Junior Heavyweight title shot. Dave credits NJPW's success this year to the NJPW/WAR interpromotional angle as well as the fact that NJPW has begun to create an atmosphere where anyone can lose at any time, which has led to lots of surprise upsets. There are no Roman Reigns unbeatable Supermen here (except maybe the Hell Raisers). Top stars are routinely losing clean. Here's the Hogan match but the angle at the end with Inoki isn't included and I can't find it anywhere.
- Two promotions are on the verge of biting the dust this week. NOW (Network of Wrestling) in Japan announced they would be closing up shop next month. With 18 promotions currently running in Japan, it was inevitable that some of them would start dropping. And the other promotion is Sandy Barr's Championship Wrestling USA in Portland (the promotion that rose from the ashes of Don Owen's Portland Wrestling). Barr had his promoter's license suspended awhile back and the commission just denied his application to get it reinstated. Barr has appealed, but without that license, he can't legally run shows.
- UWFI's upcoming U.S. PPV just took a hard hit. WCW won't allow them to air Vader's match because they have exclusive rights to promote Vader in the U.S. Given that no one in America has ever heard of UWFI and they just lost the right to advertise and show the only person Americans might know, the PPV is going to obviously bomb.
- Another PPV involving a few pro wrestlers (but definitely not a pro-wrestling event) will take place in November. The show is being called "The Ultimate Fighting Championship." The concept is to take a pro boxer, pro wrestler, sumo wrestler, judo fighter, karate fighter, etc. and put them into a one-night shoot-fighting tournament. The two pro wrestling names Dave has heard of being involved are Ken Shamrock and Gerard Gordeau, who have both wrestled in Japan. The matches will be five 5-minute rounds fought in a circular pit with no ropes. Matches can be stopped by knockout, submission, throwing in the towel, unbreakable chokehold, or doctor stoppage. The only illegal moves are those affecting the eyes or groin. I dunno, you guys, I just don't see this UFC thing lasting.
- After the success of the AAA shows in Los Angeles, there are already negotiations to bring EMLL shows to L.A. as well.
- Dave has been told that Barry Windham will be appearing for All Japan next month. But considering Barry just had knee surgery and coming back that soon seems unlikely, he's pretty sure his source probably meant Kendall Windham (indeed, it was).
- In USWA, Randy Savage is expected to show up for the next big Memphis show. Jerry Lawler cut a promo inviting Vince McMahon to come with him and hinting that he would have a fireball waiting for him.
- GWF, which was paying Channel 11 in Dallas $5,000 a week to air their show, just got dropped by the channel. The station refused to comment on why they dropped GWF, only saying that ratings weren't a factor (which they usually aren't in the case of paid programming). Apparently GWF is so bad, they literally can't pay anyone to show it.
- Expect to see a lot of Hulk Hogan on TV this week, as he's making the rounds to promote Mr. Nanny. He will appear on Jay Leno, Conan O'Brien, and the Regis & Kathy Lee shows.
- The WWN promotion (that Jim Crockett and Paul Heyman are working with) is also affiliated with ECW. Word is the reason Eddie Gilbert quit his position in ECW is because he disagreed with Tod Gordon choosing to work with Jim Crockett (Gilbert and Crockett apparently have heat) and this has apparently led to issues between Gilbert and Paul Heyman as well. But overall, the Gilbert/ECW split is mostly amicable, even though he doesn't like that Tod Gordon is choosing to work with Crockett.
- Ultimate Warrior's people are fishing around for some indie dates, but almost no one is willing to even consider his asking price.
- Dave sends well-wishes to long-time announcing legend Lance Russell, who is recuperating from an illness. And as I write this, Lance is still alive and kicking today, 90 years young.
- ESPN2 is doing a four-hour sports collectibles show featuring Sean Mooney as one of the hosts. In the press kit about Mooney, it lists his resume as a baseball announcer but doesn't mention his years as a WWF host at all, which shows how ESPN (or maybe Mooney himself) feels about being in any way associated with wrestling (I don't think newer, modern day fans will ever remember the stigma of being a wrestling fan in the pre-Attitude Era. It was the most uncool thing ever and it was always a huge event if you even saw "wrestling" mentioned anywhere in the normal media. It was a dirty word to the mainstream. "Don't you know it's fake!" and all that was so much worse back then than it is now.)
- At an indie show in Florida, Vampire Warrior (better known as Gangrel) got into an altercation with the promoter Tyree Pride. Pride and Vampire wrestled each other in the main event and at some point in the match, both stopped selling and started throwing shoot punches. Pride walked out of the ring and ended the show early. After the match in the locker room, they got into another fight and Pride came to the locker room with a screwdriver. The police were called and both men were detained but no charges were pressed.
- More news on that Ed Wood movie that George Steele filmed some scenes for. It's a big time Hollywood movie, produced by Tim Burton and starring Johnny Depp, Bill Murray and others.
- AAA star Mocho Cota jumped ship to EMLL this week, just days before a heavily promoted hair vs. hair match against Latin Lover. Word is Cota was unhappy when he found out Latin Lover was earning twice as much per match as he was. When he asked AAA for a raise, he was turned down. Cota then negotiated a secret deal with EMLL where he planned to no-show the big match and show up in EMLL the next day. AAA found out about it early though and Cota was fired 10 days before the match, which at least gave them enough time to hastily promote a new main event for the show.
- Lex Luger is back on the road after being out a few weeks with a back injury but he's working easy and not doing any big bumps or lifting anyone. Just punches and kicks. So, yanno, a Luger match.
- Jimmy Snuka returned to WWF on Raw last week, to a decent reaction. He's 50 years old now and nowhere near as good as he used to be. Also, is a murderer, Dave didn't add, but should have.
- Also on Raw, Vince McMahon repeatedly called IRS "Mr. Rotunda" (his real last name) before finally getting it right and calling him "Mr. Shyster."
- Jeff Jarrett is reportedly heading to WWF soon.
- Bret Hart was asked to take 3 months off after Survivor Series, so expect a big angle at the PPV to explain his absence. (Not sure if that's a typo or not. Did they ask Bret to take time off? That sounds weird and unlikely. Or did he ask for time off? Either way, I checked and Bret didn't end up taking any time off so moot point I guess.)
- Several years ago, WWF PPVs used to do about the same PPV buyrates as big boxing PPVs did, and WCW wasn't far behind them. Well the latest big boxing PPV did 1.1 million buys. Summerslam did 260,000 buys. WCW's last PPV Fall Brawl only did around 95,000 buys. That tells you just how far the wrestling business has fallen.
- The main event for WCW Starrcade is expected to be Vader vs. Sid Vicious, with Vicious turning face soon and winning the belt. (well, that WAS the plan, but that's gonna get changed for reasons that will become clear pretty soon...)
- WCW lost it's television deal in Memphis. I don't remember this. I was a hardcore wrestling fan at this point and watched both promotions religiously. I feel like I'd remember if one of them had disappeared off TV.
- "Brian Pillman should be back before you read this," Dave says. (For those of you reading this in 2016, I have some bad news...)
- Dave ends this by saying "Rhetorical question of the week" and then doesn't actually ask a question. Just bitches about WCW. Let's just read it: "Rhetorical question of the week. Everyone in the office at WCW constantly complains that the guys today can't work, partially because the new guys are largely green and partially because the guys who can work do a different style because times have changed which doesn't make it wrong because it isn't what was done in the ring during the 70s, just an updated version. However, when they get guys who can work, they bury them, and instead push ahead of them muscleheads or relatives who can't work."
- In the readers section, we see that Gabe Sapolsky is putting out a monthly newsletter called ECW Action Wire. That wasn't just the usual fan thing, he was actually hired by ECW to do that. It was his first job in ECW. He was later hired full time and was hugely instrumental in helping to run ECW behind the scenes before eventually moving on to other things (being the founder or co-founder of Ring of Honor, Dragon Gate and EVOLVE, etc.) after ECW folded. But this was his start in the business: writing the ECW newsletter in 1993.
- Some people have been critical of the Observer newsletter, saying that it exposes the business and stuff like that. In the letters section, Konnan writes in and defends it, saying Dave Meltzer is a dedicated, objective journalist and he thinks the newsletter benefits the business and the wrestlers. He also says he has been in Vince McMahon's office and has seen a copy of the Observer on Vince's desk. He does, however, defend himself against something Dave said about one of his matches. Apparently in a previous issue, Dave said a recent Konnan vs. Cien Caras match was one of the worst matches of the year. Konnan points out that Cien is 45 years old and limited in the ring. He also says that there was so much heat in the crowd, with the 50,000 fans in the building that there was no need to deliver a high flying match. "If you can get the same reaction doing a clothesline, why do a somersault over the top rope?" He says he works safe because he doesn't want to end up like Dynamite Kid.