December 20, 1993
- Reminder, tomorrow is the last post for 1993 and then I'm gonna take off a little longer than usual so I can continue to stay far enough ahead to keep these going. So after tomorrow, we'll pick back up again on the Monday after Thanksgiving.
- Dave apologizes at the beginning about this being a "below par" issue. He skipped last week and says a lot has happened in the last 2 weeks and he wanted to get this issue out ASAP. So there might not be as much detail in this one because he rushed it. Spoiler: this issue isn't really "below par" at all.
- The top story is the death of former Minneapolis star "Lethal" Larry Cameron, who died practically during a match. He felt something was wrong in the middle of the match, left the ring, and died of a heart attack backstage at a CWA show in Germany. Cameron worked throughout the midwest, dabbled in WCW for a minute, and is mostly known for his stint in Stampede Wrestling, where he was their top heel for awhile.
- All Japan Women's star Akiro Hokuto, arguably one of the five best wrestlers in the history of women's wrestling, retired last week. She is widely remembered for a 1987 incident where she took a tombstone from the 2nd rope and legitimately broke her neck....and still finished the match. Afterwards, she was out for nearly a year before returning to action. She often worked the next several years wrestling with serious injuries and built a reputation of being able to work through them. Even though it's been known for most of the year that she planned to retire at the end of 1993, the promotion continued to push her heavily and she's arguably the most popular female wrestler in the world right now and Dave predicts that she'll finish high in the Wrestler of the Year awards (her retirement didn't last long. She married a Mexican wrestler and moved to Mexico and worked there for a couple years, then hung out in WCW for a year or two, then back to Japan before retiring for good in 2002. She's married to Kansuke Sasaki and apparently, she's still a bit of a celebrity in Japan to this day).
- The US Supreme Court made a ruling last week that the government can't seize property used in drug dealings without the convicted party getting a hearing. This ruling could directly affect the Vince McMahon/Titan Sports indictment because the government has made no secret that they wish to seize WWF's $9.5 million dollar offices if they can convict McMahon. Seizing the headquarters would absolutely cripple the company and very likely put them out of business. The government would still likely try to seize it if they can, but Vince will have a chance to appeal that decision before it happens. Meanwhile, major stories are still being run in the media. Forbes Magazine, ESPN, Sports Illustrated, and more have all done stories about the indictments.
- Davey Boy Smith and Sid Vicious have both been fired by WCW, for unrelated reasons. For "legal reasons" (that Dave never clarifies), Sid wasn't technically fired for the stabbing incident, but was instead fired for what they termed "overall volatile behavior." Arn Anderson, who was suspended, will be re-instated at the end of the year.
- As for Davey Boy Smith, he was fired for no-showing too many house shows and to set an example to the rest of the roster that it won't be tolerated, even by the top stars. On TV, they completely buried Smith by having his music play for a match with Rick Rude but he never showed up and they played it off as if he was too chicken to face Rude. At this point, Big Boss Man (as "The Boss") showed up to fill the spot and faced Rude. Davey Boy has reportedly contacted the WWF about returning.
- Originally, Roddy Piper was scheduled to be Davey Boy's replacement, but negotiations fell through and they brought in Boss Man instead. Boss Man had worked house shows for WWF as recently as last week and was scheduled to return to WWF early in 1994, so his showing up in WCW was quite the surprise. WWF is under the impression that Boss Man is under contract to them, so this is likely going to get messy.
- Bobby Heenan has left WWF, as seen on the 12/6 episode of Raw. Heenan couldn't come to terms with Vince on a new contract and several sources are reporting that he will be starting with WCW next month. If so, that could possibly put an end to Jesse Ventura's time with the company. Ventura's contract is huge and it expires in a few weeks and it's unlikely WCW will continue paying him $500,000 per year when they can have Heenan (widely regarded as the best color commentator in the world right now) instead. Between Heenan and Okerlund both now in WCW, for the first time in years, there are major names who are jumping ship to WCW on their own terms. Jim Cornette filled in on Raw for Heenan last week and did a great job, but that likely won't be permanent since there's no way Cornette will move to Connecticut right now and he has too much other stuff on his plate with SMW to be a full-time commentator for WWF. Meanwhile, Dave says Vince seems preoccupied on TV ("for obvious reasons") and Dave thinks he really should take himself off television until all this legal mess is settled.
- Mr. Perfect has also left the WWF last week, though Dave thinks he'll be back in a few months (well, kinda). He doesn't say anything else about that in this issue.
- The 4th largest wrestling crowd of 1993 attended a UWFI show in Japan where Vader (wrestling as Super Vader) faced UWFI champion Nobuhiko Takada. It was an outdoor show (in December?!) and despite freezing conditions, the show drew 46,000+ fans. The estimated gate is likely in excess of $2.5 million which would have to be one of the largest gates in wrestling history. Vader lost the match by submission and there was a lot of concern in WCW about their champion doing a clean job to the champion of another promotion. But Vader's future with UWFI is in question right now. Eric Biscoff recently met with New Japan to try to re-start the working relationship between the two companies. NJPW was only interested in a few WCW stars, the main ones being Vader and Sting. So for the NJPW/WCW relationship to have any chance of happening, it pretty much depends on Vader being part of the deal. So there will likely be pressure from WCW on Vader to quit UWFI.
- Royal Rumble is coming up and it has been announced that the winner of the Rumble will face the champion at Wrestlemania. With Bret Hart in a tag title match and Undertaker in a singles match, that assumes neither of them will be in the Rumble. Which means the only other obvious winner is Lex Luger, which would set up a Luger/Yokozuna main event for Wrestlemania. It's surprising since it's been well acknowledged within the company that Luger has been a flop in his role as top babyface and Bret has reportedly been promised the title some time in 1994.
- The Steiners returned to New Japan last week for a show and are scheduled to work the Jan. 4th Tokyo Dome show as well. They're also scheduled for a couple of shows in February. NJPW is negotiating with WWF to get the Steiners for 12 weeks per year. Under the old way of thinking in WWF, this would have never happened, but obviously, times are a-changin'.
- There was a riot in Smoky Mountain Wrestling last week, as fans, security guards, and wrestlers all got into a big brawl at a show in Wise, VA. It's turned into a major story in the area because there's rumors the NAACP may get involved because some have labeled it a race riot. There were 2 connected incidents leading to it. During a match, Cornette was hiding behind the venue security guards, one of whom was black. The guards told them not to involve them in the show. One of the wrestlers got into the guard's face and slapped the guard's hand away when he pointed. So things were already heated. Moments later, one of the wrestlers was supposed to be whipped into the barricade, but the guy jumped it and seemingly intentionally ran into the security guard instead. After the match, Cornette went to the head of security and insisted the guard be thrown out, and he was. Later in the show, the guard came back with a bunch of friends. There was also apparently a group of fans in the crowd who were heckling some wrestlers and trying to start some stuff. All these tensions eventually boiled over and soon, all hell broke out and everyone was fighting. There have been reports that several wrestlers (including Jim Cornette) used racial slurs during the fight towards the black guys who were involved. Another fan, who witnessed it says the fight started when Cornette called the guard a racial slur. Police showed up and broke it all up. A fan was hurt in the brawl and there's concern about charges being filed and about the NAACP possibly getting involved. Sorry if this is confusing, Dave's explanation of this is all over the place. The end result is SMW will almost certainly not be doing anymore shows in Wise, VA. (I did some research and apparently in a shoot interview filmed at the 1994 SMW Fan Fest, Cornette admits to calling someone the N-word during the brawl. I can't find video of any of this though).
- There have been hearings in Oregon regarding the future of Sandy Barr's promotion. The commission wants to shut Barr down for numerous violations of commission laws. Barr has been running weekly shows without commission approval. He's been trying to get around it by running the shows for "free" but charging fans higher prices for parking. And instead of paying the wrestlers their normal $50 per night, he says he's only paying them expense money to get to the building which just so happens to be....$50 dollars. Sandy Barr is kind of a snake, if you can't tell.
- Sandy Barr also claimed that a wrestler was a "stooge" for the commission and he'd find out who it was. During one of the shows, Sandy Barr's son Art Barr (who is a huge star in Mexico, teaming with Eddie Guerrero) was working a match against a guy named John Rambo. During the match, Art started shooting on Rambo and punching him in the face legit. Then Sandy Barr came out, got on the mic, and said he found out Rambo was the stooge. Rambo denied it and then Sandy Barr said "I'm going to beat the shit out of you" and then tried to get in the ring himself to fight Rambo but was restrained. Later that night backstage, Rambo and Art Barr got into it again. Rambo suffered a broken nose and several broken bones in his face and the damage to his nose was so bad that he is having surgery this week. Art Barr, ladies and gentlemen: also a piece of shit.
- Dave gives an update on....himself. He was scheduled to go to Japan last week to attend several shows there. He'd been sick for 3 weeks beforehand and couldn't seem to shake the illness. Turns out his appendix had burst, unbeknownst to him. After continuing to get sicker and be in pain, he cancelled his flight to Japan and went to the doctor. The doctor ordered him to the emergency room immediately. Turns out he had peritonitis (a bad and often life-threatening infection) from the burst appendix. Dave ended up spending 14 days in the hospital and lost 15 pounds. He's home now (and still got this issue out to his readers!) but will still need surgery in a couple of months to remove the burst appendix. Dave thanks everyone for the messages he's received, and assures everyone that even though he's not fully recovered yet, the newsletter should remain on schedule. This is the journalist equivalent of getting injured and still finishing the match.
- A guy writes in who saw the recent Ultimate Fighting Championship PPV and he loved it. He thinks of this stuff aired on TV or PPV on a monthly basis, it would probably draw quite well. As if.
- Nothing new on the Jerry Lawler case. The charges are still pending, but most think they will be dismissed at the next hearing in January.
- As of last word, Madusa's name in WWF is going to be "Alundra Blaze" but Dave has been told that isn't definite yet and could change. Just add a Y.
- Jeff Jarrett, doing a Honky Tonk Man gimmick, hasn't been getting over at all at recent WWF house shows.