November 08, 1993
- Sid Vicious and Arn Anderson got into a brawl at a hotel in England that ended with both men receiving numerous stab wounds. Dave has gotten several reports on what happened and all of them are nearly identical. Apparently, trouble started at the bar, when Sid started bragging about how he just held WCW up for a major contract raise (reportedly up to $600,000 per year) in order to agree to job to Sting at Halloween Havoc. Sid was ribbing Arn about it, because Arn just took a $100,000 per year pay cut (under Bill Watts). Sid then told Arn that he and "the other old man" (Flair) needed to retire so the company could start being successful, with him as the top star. Others have told Dave that Sid called Flair "repetitive" and "washed up" and Anderson defended Flair. Anderson told Sid he couldn't work and never drew money. They got in each other's faces and Arn told Sid to step outside and Sid backed down. At this point, WCW security head Doug Dillinger stepped between them and sent them back to their hotel rooms to cool off.
- Sid then returned to Anderson's room with a weapon of some kind (apparently a broken-off piece of wood from a chair or table) and began banging on the door. At this point, the stories Dave has heard start to get a little different depending on who you talk to. According to Anderson, he heard someone trying to kick his door down, so he opened the door and Sid hit him in the head with the piece of wood and knocked him loopy. According to Sid's version, he went to Arn's room to talk things out and Anderson got angry and chased him with scissors and Sid was defending himself.
- Anderson then claims Sid was on top of him and beating his face in, but Anderson managed to get loose and grabbed a pair of scissors (dull-tip, instead of the sharp tip) and stabbed Vicious in the stomach with them. Anderson jumped on him and Sid was stabbed at least 3 more times, mostly in the stomach although Dave has also heard hand and face. Sid then somehow got the scissors away from Arn and began stabbing him, over and over. Anderson recieved a total of 20 stab wounds, most in the shoulders and back and one that was barely below his eye, and another in the throat. Too Cold Scorpio heard the struggle and came running to separate them and he likely saved Anderson's life. Most of Arn's wounds were about a half inch deep, but the gash in his throat was 5 inches long. Sid claims to have blacked out and doesn't remember stabbing Arn. Ambulances arrived and found Sid in the lobby area and Anderson still in his hotel room, in bad shape.
- Both men were rushed to the hospital. Sid's eye was swollen up like a tennis bowl and had exploratory surgery done and was released from the hospital soon after. Anderson was released a bit later and is still weak after losing approximately a pint and a half of blood. Doctor's told Anderson that if he had lost much more blood, he might have died and if the scissors had been sharp pointed ones, he almost certainly would have died. And if the gash near his eye had been an inch in the other direction, he would have lost the eye. Both men filed police reports against each other but dropped them because it would have required them to both stay in the country for 90 days in order to see either one of them prosecuted. Vicious reportedly tried to call Anderson later in the week to apologize.
- The story received major mainstream coverage in England, but very little in the U.S. The only reference to it from WCW came on the hotline when Missy Hyatt mentioned it, blamed Sid, and said he was fired (though WCW has not officially fired him yet, that Dave knows of). WCW had production crews remove all pre-taped Vicious and Anderson footage from future TV, leading many to think both men are going to be fired. Promotion for Starrcade is now hyping Vader vs. Ric Flair (Sid was originally scheduled to win the title from Vader and later win Rick Rude's title to finally unify the belts but those plans have seemingly been changed).
- A lot of people within the business are calling this a possible case of roid rage, mixed with too much boozing. If so, Dave says WCW has to shoulder the blame because they've steadfastly ignored the steroid problem happening under their nose. Even if it's not steroids, Dave thinks WCW still carries some of the blame because they've had a double-standard in the company for years that has allowed Sid Vicious to get away with things no one else ever would have, simply because they believe he looks like a top star and didn't want to punish him. He's no-showed events constantly, held them up for money repeatedly, thrown fits, refused to do jobs, refused to take steroid tests, etc. and WCW has always bent over backwards to coddle him and let him always get his way and never punished him. Dave points out that Vince did much of the same stuff when Sid was in WWF. In the end, Dave says those who have let Sid Vicious have his way in WCW need to be fired too and even if "roid rage" had nothing to do with this, WCW simply can't justify having Sid as part of the company anymore. TL;DR - Dave really doesn't like Sid Vicious.
- Oro, the wrestler being groomed as the future top star of EMLL, died in the ring last week in a match in Mexico City. After taking a chop to the chest, Oro sold it by falling all the way back onto the back of his head and over (similar to the Kenta Kobashi back suplex bump a few weeks ago). When his opponent went to pick him up, he went limp in the ring. However, it is believed he died from a brain aneurysm and not from the bump or anything. Oro was similar to Rey Misterio Jr., known for his acrobatic, high-flying style.
- Saturday Night Live had an "unfunny" skit regarding the WWF and steroids last week. That's really all Dave says about it. I can't find it, but if someone wants to search harder than I did, it should be in the Oct. 30, 1993 episode.
- Terry Funk put together a huge charity show in Armarillo, TX this week and drew 5,500 people. All proceeds went to a cancer charity for a friend of Funk's who is battling liver cancer. Lots of the big stars who came out of that area (Terry and Dory Funk, Dick Murdoch, Ted Dibiase, etc.) returned to work the show, with Dory and Murdoch especially getting huge, heroes welcomes from their hometown crowd. Other wrestlers like Eddie Gilbert and the Heavenly Bodies worked the show and sold their asses off for the hometown heroes (something a lot of young wrestlers wouldn't want to do for a bunch of 50 year old men, Dave says) and he basically gives the show rave reviews and said overall, it was a feel-good show where everyone put their egos aside and worked to put on a great show for a great cause.
- It's time to open the voting for the year-end awards. Dave lists all the categories (the usual, wrestler of the year, best heel, worst on the mic, etc.) and opens up voting to the readers.
- Dave updates on Terry Gordy and says the reason he isn't working the All Japan show is that he's just not physically ready. For the first time, Dave learns that Gordy was in a coma after passing out in an airplane on the way to Japan a few months ago and it was more serious than he knew. Gordy is expected to try to come back in January for a week or so (nope).
- Dave says that Great Muta was in Hollywood this week to film a short mini-movie called Great Muta vs. SFX Monster. WTF? That can't be right...
- Still no solid numbers on the UWFI PPV other than Dave says it looks like they were lying (duh) about the incredible buyrate they claimed to have. Dave says regional estimates show it to be much lower than the 0.5 they're now claiming.
- Apparently Madusa is the subject of a photo spread in the most recent "Cherry" magazine. I think he might mean Cheri Magazine, in which case, umm, that was a porn magazine. Sooooo yeah. Wonder if he's mistaken or if that somehow flew under the internet's radar for the last 23 years. I know she posed nude for Playboy at one point but never signed the release so they were never published.
- Dick Murdoch pulled a rib on John Hawk (JBL) in GWF this week. He kept messing up spots on purpose. The finish was supposed to be Murdoch submitting to a figure four, but instead, Murdoch small packaged Hawk and wouldn't let him up, so the ref had no choice but to count the 3.
- AAA crowds have been dropping rapidly in recent weeks. AAA President Antonio Pena went to Televisa (the parent company of AAA) and got several of the front office people fired by threatening to quit unless they were gone, because he blames them for the decline in business. AAA crowds were down this week specifically because Michael Jackson did 8 straight nights of shows in Mexico City, and sold out the 120,000 seat Azteca Stadium every single night (Wikipedia actually says it was only 5 shows, and only 100,000 per show. But still.....holy shit).
- The Steiners returned to working house shows this week. Dave corrects a previous report, saying that it was apparently Rick who was suspended, not Scott. Speaking of, Jim Ross confirmed on his radio show that suspended wrestlers are pulled from house shows, but they can still work TV (although they aren't paid for working TV while suspended).
- Lex Luger/Ludvig Borga matches are turning out to be a major disappointment, drawing small crowds. With all the money and time they spent trying to make Lex Luger a huge star only 2 months ago, Dave is amazed that it has already turned into such a major flop. Meanwhile, the Bret Hart/Jerry Lawler feud is doing big business on house shows that they're headlining.
- Ring announcer Mike McGuirk and TV interviewer Boni Blackstone have both been released due to the company cutting costs.
- WCW's shows in England are said to be not good. They're drawing decent crowds, but nothing great and morale with all the wrestlers is way down since the Sid/Arn stabbing incident and it mostly seems like everyone just wants to get it over with and go home.
- Dallas Page is expected to return to WCW soon.
- Eric Bischoff sent AAA president Antonio Pena a 3-page fax, wanting to put together a deal which would get AAA a weekly cable TV show in the US in exchange for WCW using AAA wrestlers on their shows. Pena turned down the deal because he feels WCW is barely keeping their own product alive and he doesn't want AAA associated with them. Considering WCW screwed up their working agreement with New Japan to the point that it barely exists anymore, Dave doesn't blame Pena for turning it down.