October 18, 1993
- After Dave has spent weeks predicting a disastrous buyrate, UWFI's shoot-fighting PPV "allegedly" did around 100,000 buys. I say "allegedly" because that number comes from the guy who promoted the PPV and you can never take the promoter's word for it (see how many times Vince has lied about attendance numbers and PPV buyrates, for example). If it really did 100,000 buys, it would have to be considered "a success of mind-boggling proportions" for a company no one has ever heard of in America, featuring wrestlers no one has ever heard of. 100,000 buys would be more than WCW's last PPV got. Dave has heard conflicting reports from more reliable sources, but still no concrete numbers he can confirm. Dave even admits he is stunned by what he's been hearing. For what it's worth, during the final week before the show, the promotion spent a ton of money advertising the PPV on real sports broadcasts (baseball and football) so they might have piqued the interest of the average, mainstream sports fan at the last minute. From here, Dave details the long history of how "shoot-fighting" came to be, from its early 80s roots in New Japan Pro Wrestling and how we ended up here in 1993, with UWFI promoting it on PPV in America. Interesting read, but it's 6 pages long so fuck that. Point being, UWFI's first U.S. PPV might not have been a huge flop after all.
- Hulk Hogan's movie Mr. Nanny finally opened nationwide this week. It didn't crack the top 10 (finishing in 12th place). Hogan apparently had an offer to appear in WCW to promote the movie before it opened, but decided against it because he didn't want to rub WWF the wrong way, since WWF had heavily promoted the movie and even featured a positive article in WWF magazine about Hogan and Jimmy Hart, even though they aren't with the company anymore. In interviews promoting the movie, Hogan gave the impression that he left WWF on good terms and is willing to show up and work occasional big events like Wrestlemania when he has time, but he won't work enough shows for them to build the company around him. He was also asked about steroids in nearly every interview and repeatedly told the same well-documented lies he's been telling for years when the subject is brought up.
- TV ratings for both All Japan and New Japan have been declining rapidly in recent weeks, to the point that there is legit concern. Even the Hogan/Muta vs. Hell Raisers "dream match" drew a smaller rating when it aired on TV than a normal show would do.
- Dave gives the full 5-stars (first one in awhile) to a Kenta Kobashi vs. Stan Hansen match in All Japan.
- But we're not done! He gives another 5-stars to Kenta Kobashi vs. Steve Williams, saying it was even better than the other match and says it's an all-time classic, the best match of Williams' career and says it's like a stiffer Flair/Steamboat. Dave makes it clear that this is probably his MOTY pick so far. The two back suplexes (first at 27:02, the second 27:42) are NASTY and Dave thinks it's a miracle Kobashi's neck wasn't broken and says he takes too many chances.
- In USWA, Randy Savage (with Vince McMahon as his manager) won the title from Jerry Lawler. The show only drew 850 fans, which is the 4th show in a row with disappointing crowds, despite major WWF babyfaces working as heels on the show. I can't find video of the match, but here's another excellent Vince McMahon heel promo hyping the match.
- Doink and Shawn Michaels are both expected to start with USWA next week. Dave doesn't bother to explain how or why Doink (who's allegedly suspended) or Shawn (who allegedly quit WWF) are going to be working the shows.
- The Steiners and Sensational Sherri both worked for SMW this week. Sherri got the biggest pop on all the shows when she punched Brian Lee. The Steiners had their pit bull Arnold, who chased Cornette and at one point, the dog legitimately bit both Tom Prichard and referee Mark Curtis.
- Tammy Sytch has a new segment on SMW TV called "Tammy's Tips" where she talks about perfume, makeup, soap, etc.
- ESPN2 debuted this week and is regularly airing GWF tapes from a year ago. ESPN is also looking at trying to get tapes from New Japan as well.
- Coming off the smallest attendance ever at the Omni and the lowest rated TV weekend in history of wrestling on TBS, WCW is now in desperation mode and throwing anything at the wall to get it to stick. About half the roster turned either heel or face this week. Sid Vicious, Brian Pillman and Maxx Payne all turned face. Erik Watts, Ron Simmons and Paul Roma are all turning heel.
- The Hollywood Blondes filmed an angle where Steve Austin turned on Pillman, putting an end to the tag team. They seem to be possibly building up to an angle where Sid Vicious and Brian Pillman form a tag team, which Dave says is hilarious for a lot of reasons, most notably the 1991 squeegee incident.
- Gene Okerlund debuted at the latest tapings and interviewed Sid Vicious, and immediately screwed up by calling him Sid Justice.
- One of the Survivor Series matches is scheduled to be the Hart family (Bret, Owen, Keith and Bruce) vs. Jerry Lawler and his Knights, which will apparently just be 3 masked wrestlers. The Hart/Lawler feud is expected to continue after Survivor Series (that whole thing is gonna get derailed pretty soon).
- Bret Hart appeared on Jim Ross' radio show this week and made the same type of comments about Ric Flair that he did last week. Hart and Ross then tried to repeatedly call the Jacksonville Coliseum (the arena WCW was at that night) to try to get Flair on the phone, knowing WCW would never let him take the call and appear on their show, and giving the impression that Flair was afraid to defend himself against Hart's comments, which is just sorta petty. Word is the entire WCW locker room was pretty upset about Hart's comments. They mostly laughed off the Flair stuff, but they were upset that Hart accused the entire company of being on steroids.
- The situation with Shawn Michaels has apparently been resolved (oh so that's why he'll be in USWA) and Dave says to expect Shawn to make a surprise return on TV shortly, " the same way Marty Janetty always does when he's let go and comes back."