November 01, 1993
- Halloween Havoc is in the books and Dave opens this issue with a question: how you can put together the best PPV of the year, with one of the best matches of the year, and still have it only be a marginal thumbs up? Answer: have Dusty Rhodes book the finishes. Almost every match was good, with the Cactus/Vader main event being one of the best matches this year, but nearly every match ended with a screwjob finish.
- Dave has a long piece here on the dangers of wrestling this hardcore style that guys like Cactus Jack and Sabu do, or the high-flying style that so many luchadors do, asking at what point do the risks of serious injury outweigh the reward? He points to All Japan Women, noting that they all wrestle a high-risk style and nearly every wrestler in the company is working with varying degrees of serious injuries. Or for example, "When a wrestler stands there and lets another man swing a chair as hard as he can to his head without putting up his hands to block or cushion the blow, is it guts, or is it insanity?" he asks. He says it's scary to think of the condition guys like Sabu and Cactus Jack or Rey Misterio or Psicosis will be in when they reach their 30s, let alone when they reach their 50s or 60s. Dynamite Kid was regarded as the best in the business 10 years ago but now he's 34 and virtually crippled because of the style he worked. Overall, Dave is concerned for the future of the business, with so many guys trying to top what they saw someone else do, and literally risking their lives for it.
- Update on the fallout from the Randy Savage comments about Hulk Hogan last week: it was definitely not an angle. Hogan was asked to appear on the show beforehand (via phone), though he was never told Savage would be there or what the subject matter would be. It appears there was a plan for Jim Ross and Savage to ambush Hogan with all these accusations publicly. Hogan suspected something was up and turned down the invite. Hogan is now apparently taking the "ignore it and it'll go away" approach on this story. Dave says ignoring the steroid criticisms is what got Hogan in so much hot water to begin with but acknowledges that getting into a public pissing contest with Savage won't do him any favors either. Dave says the idea for the plan, or at least approval of it, had to come from Vince McMahon and now many think the relationship between Hogan and the WWF may be strained beyond repair and Dave really doesn't know why they chose to go at Hogan like this.
- As for Dave's thoughts on it, he feels it's a little hypocritical of Savage to criticize Hogan for steroid use, since evidence during the Dr. Zahorian trial showed that Savage got roughly the same amount delivered to him as Hogan did. And while Savage has publicly said he "experimented" with steroids when they were legal, that's more than a little dishonest and makes it sound like he only dabbled in it a couple of times, when in reality, he was juiced nonstop for much of the 80s. As for the comments about Hogan's role in his divorce from Elizabeth, Dave says he doesn't know their personal life and it's not his place to pass judgement on either side.
- Mexican wrestling legend El Espectro passed away this week at 70. He is the uncle of AAA founder Antonio Pena.
- Canadian Vampire Casanova (Vampiro) is telling people that he plans to retire at the end of the year or at least cut his schedule back to 2 shows per week, because he wants to focus on a band he started. Vampire is the highest paid wrestler in Mexico and probably the 3rd highest paid wrestler in the world right now, behind Vader and Sting.
- In All Japan, Mitsuharu Misawa broke his breastbone in a match against Stan Hansen.
- Jumbo Tsurta made his return to All Japan after missing the last year being hospitalized from complications due to Hepatitis C. He only worked 3 minutes in a comedy tag match and only did punches and kicks and is said to have looked horrible and nowhere near ready to be back in the ring (he took another 5 or so months off after this before returning to a part-time schedule for the rest of his career).
- The Memphis newspaper did a story on Jerry Lawler, noting that the Saturday morning wrestling show is still the highest rated wrestling show in the country, drawing a 14 rating (although only in that one market). Lawler is also quoted in the story saying that he plans to wrestle for at least another 5 years (or, yanno, another 25) and that he won't work Thursdays for WWF in the summer because he plays softball that day and he won't work Sundays in the winter, because he plays touch football those days.
- The New York Daily News and the Miami Herald both ran stories about University of Miami defensive tackle Dwayne Johnson, and mentioned he was the son of pro-wrestler Rocky Johnson and the grandson of Chief Peter Miavia. And then, in possibly my favorite understatement I've ever read in one of these Observer issues, Dave says that "Johnson, who is 6'5, 275lbs will likely someday end up in pro wrestling."
- AAA rookie Juventud Guerrera won the lightheavyweight title from Rey Misterio Jr. last week. Guerrera has gotten lots of praise from veterans because he works like someone with years of experience, even though he's only been wrestling a few months.
- Konnan has finally gotten the "retirement" situation in Mexico cleared up so the commission is allowing him to wrestle again. He's expected to start working an angle with Jake Roberts soon.
- Undertaker will be replacing Tatanka at Survivor Series, after Tatanka was "injured" by Ludvig Borga. Speaking of Ludvig Borga, on TV they continue to say he's undefeated even though he's getting pinned clean at every house show.
- Sabu had another tryout in WWF this week against Owen Hart and the match was much better than his previous tryout. WWF offered him a job, but Sabu turned it down because it would mean giving up his FMW job in Japan. Sabu wants to stay loyal to Atsushi Onita for giving him his first real break in his career.
- For the upcoming Survivor Series match of the Hart Family vs. Jerry Lawler and his Knights, one of the Knights will be current USWA wrestler Doomsday (real name Glen Jacobs). Jacobs was also given a tryout at the latest WWF tapings, no word on how it went. Dave calls Glen Jacobs a "Sid Vicious-clone."
- WCW wrestlers all left for a big tour of Europe this week, so don't expect anything major to happen while they're gone, Dave says. Mmmmhmm. Nothing major with any WCW wrestlers is going to happen this week in Europe, I'm sure of it!
- Reminder, I'm not doing weekends on these anymore. So we'll pick back up on Monday, where absolutely nothing of importance happens in Europe, nope, nothing at all, nada.