January 10, 1994
- The buyrate is in and Starrcade did about double the buys that Battle Bowl did, making it likely the best selling WCW PPV of 1993. While it sounds good on paper, that's still well below WWF's lowest PPV of 93, Survivor Series. And it's worth noting that WCW put everything they had into promoting this PPV, teasing it as Ric Flair retiring if he lost and getting celebrities like Charles Barkley to promote it. Realistically, they can't make every single PPV feel as big as this one, so this big buyrate isn't necessarily a sign that things are improving. The next PPV is SuperBrawl and will feature Vader vs. Flair in a Thundercage match.
- Jesse Ventura signed a new 1-year contract extension with WCW so he'll be sticking around through March of 1995. Ventura has been dressing in a suit and tie lately on TV and on the WCW 900 hotline, he said it's because he's planning on running for U.S. Senate.
- New Japan's Jan. 4th Tokyo Dome show took place last week and Dave seems underwhelmed. For the first time since they started doing the annual event in 1989, the show failed to sell out. Genichiro Tenryu defeated Antonio Inoki in the main event, which was a big question mark going in because neither man is known for their willingness to do jobs. Tenryu needed to win for the good of the promotion, since he's still a full-time active wrestler but Inoki is, well, Inoki, so it was never a guarantee. In the end, Tenryu won but not before a spot where Inoki clearly could have won but didn't and he also kicked out right at the 3-count so as to make it look like Tenryu barely got him. So in the end, Tenryu won but Inoki did everything in his power to come out of it looking stronger.
- Terry Gordy is scheduled to return to the ring in All Japan this week. He's missed about 6 months of action due to an overdose on a plane last year that led to him being in a coma for awhile (ended up not happening because Gordy was still nowhere near ready. Really never should have returned to the ring).
- Dave notes that while FMW doesn't have the best wrestling, their home video releases are the best in the world from any promotion. Nobody does a better job of producing amazing spectacles on video than they do, even if the shows still come off as sick insanity ("Hey, it's still in a lot better taste than that Howard Stern PPV, not to mention far more entertaining," Dave adds. I guess there was a Howard Stern PPV).
- Jerry Lawler made some comments in Memphis newspapers this week saying that he expects all charges against him to be dropped at the next hearing and that he'll be back in WWF in February.
- On the SMW show that aired this weekend, in the credits at the end of the show, it listed "Physician in attendance at ringside at SMW matches" as Dr. Kevorkian, and listed the "Person in charge of the SMW Day Care Center" as Michael Jackson.
- Even though Gene Okerlund keeps mentioning Hulk Hogan on WCW broadcasts, it's just a gimmick to get people to call his 900 hotline and there's nothing to it. Dave says that if Hogan was going to return to wrestling at all, it will be on his own, with his own promotion, and not by joining WCW. Spoiler: Dave will eat the hell out of those words in a few months.
- Mike Awesome debuted at the ECW Holiday Hell show last month.
- Dave got his hands on some tapes of recent WWC shows from Puerto Rico and gives his thoughts. Most notably, there's a guy there named Sargento Rios who Dave says is so bad that he makes Van Hammer look like Bret Hart. Since this is such a slow issue, here's a video of Sargento wrestling Doomsday (Kane) in 1994 in WWC, just for shits and giggles.
- AAA is making their Chicago and New York debuts next month. The NY show will be on a Monday afternoon. It's President's Day, so at least school will be out, but Dave still has strong negative vibes about this show. Selling out huge shows in L.A. is one thing, but they're rolling the dice big by trying to branch out into these other cities, far from their home base, on a weekday no less.
- Ric Flair and Vader both were banged up after the Starrcade match. Vader had his eye totally swollen shut and suffered a toe injury during the match as well. Flair was banged up and didn't work house shows the next week.
- Arn Anderson returned to the ring for WCW on 12/28. Dave says there are no noticeable stab wounds, but Anderson appeared to be out of shape after missing the last 2 months.
- The 12/25 edition of WCW Saturday Night (before Starrcade) drew the lowest rating in the history of the show. On one hand, it's Christmas and there were NFL games but that has happened in the past and it still never resulted in a rating this low. Dave says it's a shame too because Ric Flair did one of the greatest promos of his career and almost nobody saw it.
- Sting was on MTV on 12/30 as a judge for a lip-syncing contest.
- Ric Flair was on the University of Florida sidelines at the Sugar Bowl and got a huge reaction from the crowd and lots of players wanted to take pictures with him.
- Sporting News magazine had a feature on Ted Turner and talked about all his various sports franchises he owns and specifically made fun of him for being involved in wrestling, mentioning how Turner is a guy who regularly speaks with world leaders and then turns around and has to have conversations with guys like Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat and Awesome Kong. "I can see the point with Awesome Kong," Dave says.
- There seems to be a major feud going on between Jim Ross and WCW announcers Jesse Ventura and Gene Okerlund. Okerlund made some sarcastic comments about Ross on the 900 hotline and on TV, Ventura made mention of "the fat Oakie" and said that nowadays, he's broadcasting shows that have midgets dressed up as clowns. "Like Ventura has never broadcasted on a show that had a midget dressed up like a shark trying to blow up a boat," Dave quips. On his radio show, Jim Ross responded by calling Ventura overrated and made comments about Dusty Rhodes being fat, which Dave thinks is ironic.
- Speaking of midgets dressed as clowns, Cactus Jack and his wife had their second child a few weeks ago, a baby girl named Noelle.
- WCW is planning to make a major play to bring in Curt Hennig now that the budget has been freed up some by Davey Boy Smith leaving. Speaking of Smith, Dave says WCW's version of the story of his departure from the company is very different from the one reported here a few weeks ago but officially, nobody is allowed to comment on it. Technically, Smith was never fired, they claim he simply stopped showing up.
- There are actually still plenty of Royal Rumble tickets available, despite WWF announcing that it was sold out. Announcing a sellout is just a way to hype the show. WWF has done this numerous times lately, announcing shows as sold out, when in reality, they weren't even close.
- In November, WWF sent out a casting call for both men and women in Hollywood for martial arts performers, saying they are planning to produce a live show. Dave has no idea if they're trying to find new wrestlers or if they're planning to start a ninja show or what.
- In the letters section, Jim Cornette writes in about the Flair/Vader match at Starrcade. He loved the match itself, but criticizes Ventura and Schiovane's announcing and says he longed for Jim Ross to call that match. He also said the camera work was awful and he longs for the WWF production team to have handled it. He hated Michael Buffer's ring introduction and says he longed for Lance Russell to have done it. He longed for a bunch of little things but says Flair gave the performance of a lifetime and showed why he's drawn more money combined than all the young wrestlers today, with all their flippy shit. In short, Cornette raves about Flair and shits all over WCW for the rest of the letter.