January 31, 1994
- After a 3 year run, Dusty Rhodes is no longer booker of WCW. Rhodes officially resigned this week, though he had apparently been overruled so often lately that he was basically powerless anyway. The company plans to go back to a booking committee composed of Bill Shaw, Eric Bischoff, Mike Graham, Greg Gagne, Col. Rob Parker, and Ric Flair. Dave notes that WCW has repeatedly tried to use booking committees in the past and it's always turned into a convoluted mess. Ultimately, he thinks WCW will choose a new single booker. Dusty Rhodes remains part of WCW, in the position of Senior Consultant, "whatever that is supposed to mean" but will soon be back on camera in a talent role. Most likely as an announcer or manager, though Dave doesn't rule out a limited wrestling return.
- Royal Rumble 94 is in the books and Dave says the vehemence from phone calls and letters to the Observer is like nothing in recent memory. Between the "tie" ending of the Rumble match and the clusterfuck of the Undertaker/Yokozuna casket match, most people REALLY hated it. Like, violently hated it. Many fans thought that the whole "Undertaker dying, levitating in mid air, then going to heaven and vowing to resurrect some day" thing is going to kill the business, but Dave disagrees. If the industry can survive WCW's exploding boat angle from last year, it can survive this he says. Dave was more upset about the way they milked the 900 number to try and get fans to find out the injury status of Bret Hart or how they used it the next night to get fans to call in and "vote" on how they should handle the tie in the Rumble match, despite the booking decisions of that angle already being made. It's one thing to have fans call a 900 number to get an exclusive interview or something, but to withhold information vital to a storyline and make fans pay to get that info is sleazy. "How long will it be before a show goes off the air with a match in progress and you have to call the 900 line to hear the finish?" Dave wonders. Dave is just completely disgusted with the phone line scams in both companies.
- Despite all the money and TV time devoted to making Lex Luger the new Hulk Hogan, it's simply not working. Bret Hart is obviously the better wrestler and far more popular and any confrontation between the two of them simply exposes how much Luger isn't as good or as popular. Dave suspects the main event of Wrestlemania will end up being Luger/Yokozuna and that's simply not the main event people want to see (oh, how familiar this sounds). Dave thinks that regardless, it will end with Bret Hart regaining the title at some point later in the year but WWF surely didn't plan for Luger to be an interim champion just for the belt to end up back on Bret again. But the failure of Lex Luger as a draw is going to leave them no choice.
- As for the PPV itself, here's some notes from the show: Tatanka doesn't have the red streak in his hair anymore because apparently the dye job was causing rapid hair loss. The Owen/Bret split was very well done, but during the backstage promo afterwards, Owen botched his line when he called Bret selfish (Dave thinks he called him "shellfish"). Funny enough, Dave doesn't even acknowledge the famous "That's why I kicked your leg out of your leg" botch during the same promo. But he does think Owen will need a good manager to get over as a heel against anyone other than Bret. He reviews the Undertaker/Yokozuna mess and gives it 1 star. In the Rumble match, Diesel got a big pop for dumping out Backlund and Dave expects a Diesel face turn after Wrestlemania. 1-2-3 Kid missed the Rumble due to the injury suffered last week. Shawn Michaels carried the latter half of the Rumble, with Dave saying "if any promotion in the world had five wrestlers with this guy's talent, they'd never have a bad show."
- Ted Dibiase debuted as a new color commentator at the Rumble, but didn't seem to be familiar with the storylines at all. But he has great presence and voice for the role.
- Last week's Monday Night Raw drew a 3.6 rating, making it the highest rated show of the week of any kind on cable television. It's the first time in many years a pro wrestling show has managed that.
- Arn Anderson filed a civil suit against Sid Vicious in North Carolina this week, asking for "in excess of $10,000" for assault and battery due to the stabbing incident a few months back. (State law prevents the public from learning the exact number, and only says "in excess of" 10K so it could be way more than that). Dave hasn't gotten a copy of the complaint yet but should have it by next week and will hopefully have more details and have Anderson's version of the events.
- Speaking of, Sid Vicious was interviewed and spoke about the incident for the first time. He says the fight started at the bar and they were arguing and says Anderson threw a beer at him and threatened to "cut his guts out with a beer bottle." (Dave notes that this differs greatly from what many other witnesses have said). After he went back to his room, Sid admits that he broke the leg off of a chair and went to Anderson's door and they screamed at each other through the door. Sid admits to being drunk at the time. He said he realized how stupid this was and says he dropped the chair leg and was walking back to his room when Anderson opened the door and attacked him with scissors and began stabbing him. He says he remembers getting the scissors away from Arn but doesn't really remember anything after that and doesn't remember stabbing him. He says Arn is lying about Sid hitting him with the chair leg and says he's not sorry for what happened because he was only defending himself. Sid also dismissed the "roid rage" claims, saying anyone who says that doesn't understand anything about steroids. Dave finds this ironic because the "roid rage" claim was largely what the other WCW wrestlers chalked it up as and lord knows most of them have plenty of experience with steroids.
- AAA cancelled their planned show for New York next month because the company didn't want to take the financial risk. It seems they looked at the lay of the land and realized that they probably weren't going to have nearly the same kind of success in New York as they've had in California, so they decided not to risk it after all.
- The wrestlers union in Mexico has broken up. The union was comprised of EMLL and UWA wrestlers (AAA has their own union). However, EMLL wrestlers broke away and started their own union this week. There were complaints that injured wrestlers hadn't been compensated by the union properly and also complaints over the $300-per-show union fees.
- EMLL's second most popular babyface Corazon de Leon (better known as Chris Jericho) abruptly quit the promotion this week, telling people he was headed to the U.S. to work for Smoky Mountain Wrestling. He is expected to come in with Lance Storm as his tag team partner and reform their Sudden Impact tag team.
- Koji Kitao held the first show for his new promotion and is bringing in stars from Tenryu's WAR promotion. Rumor has it WAR will be sending Haku and Earthquake John Tenta to be Kitao's next victims as they build toward a Kitao vs. Tenryu dream match. Haku has a rep as a legit bad ass so that should do good business. And Kitao vs. John Tenta will be interesting due to the incident between them a few years ago where they got into a legit fight during a match in SWS (don't think this ever happened).
- WWF is expected to announce a tour of Japan for May. There might be an issue with Yokozuna appearing though. The term "Yokozuna" is a sacred name in sumo wrestling and only 60 men in history have ever been allowed to use it. So it's possible that there will be some issues with WWF bringing their version of Yokozuna in to work in Japan using that name.
- Pancrase in Japan held a show that was headlined by Minoru Suzuki making Ken Shamrock submit, which calls into question the legitimacy of this "shoot" promotion since most believe that in a real fight, none of the Japanese guys would stand a chance against Shamrock. (I believe this actually was legit).
- The pre-trial hearing for Jerry Lawler's rape case was delayed due to an ice storm and pushed back to mid February. At the hearing, Lawler's attorney is expected to petition to drop the case, claiming outrageous conduct by the prosecutor.
- The British tabloid News of the World had a major story about retired wrestler Dynamite Kid and the story painted a nasty picture of Kid's former partner Davey Boy Smith. Kid apparently feels Smith deserted him and the team by going back to the WWF when they were working for All Japan. Soon after, WWF got their Sky TV deal and Smith became a national hero while Kid was forgotten. He also blames Smith for losing his front teeth, claiming Smith ducked out of a fight and left him alone to get beat up (Dave says Kid actually lost his teeth from a famous sucker punch by Jacques Rougeau in a locker room fight and Smith had nothing to do with it). Dynamite Kid now lives destitute in England and admits blowing all his money on drugs, booze and women. He claims he drank himself silly in WWF and used cocaine, Valium, speed, and steroids just to survive the pace and keep his physique. He claims the IRS was after him at one point, so he turned all his financial assets over to his wife so the IRS couldn't get it, but then his wife left him, took the children and left him broke and alone.
- Curt Hennig, Sting and Jim Neidhart were all in Orlando this week, filming episodes of Thunder In Paradise with Hulk Hogan. TV Guide mentioned the show, saying that it won't be good, but it has a winning formula: Baywatch with a boat.
- There's a new game show airing in Baltimore called Bingo Break that is being hosted by former WWF announcer Sean Mooney and Gorilla Monsoon (using his real name, Bob Marella). It's already being described as one of the worst television shows in history, Dave says. It's a 13-week trial run in Baltimore and if it's successful, Fox will pick it up to air nationally (I can't find any video of this, sadly).
- (May 2019 Update: I FOUND VIDEO OF IT! I saw this and had a vague recollection of writing about this in one of the old Rewinds. Searched it and found this one. So if you have stumbled across this post after May 2019, you're one of the few who will probably ever see this. And here's the best part: Bobby Heenan makes an appearance also!)
- Los Angeles Weekly did a cover story on Lucha Libre and Dave says the reporter did a hell of a lot more research than 99% of the reporters who do wrestling stories and it showed. Most Lucha aficionados loved the story. The reporter even traveled to Mexico City to attend a show, visited the National Museum of Lucha Libre, and more. There were a couple of mistakes, but overall, it was one of the most well-written pieces on wrestling that Dave has seen in mainstream reporting.
- Variety magazine is reporting that a second Ultimate Fighting Championship PPV will take place in March and will be built around karate champion Minoki Ichihara "representing his country's honor" against Royce Gracie (spoiler: that doesn't go well for him). Ken Shamrock is being brought back as well. Apparently the first show must have done well on PPV for them to have a second one so soon.
- Cactus Jack appeared on the Wrestling Insiders radio show over the weekend and was asked about winning the Observer's Bruiser Brody award for best brawler for the 3rd year in a row. Jack said he didn't deserve it this year and that Vader should have won.
- Apparently, the reason they did the Undertaker angle at Royal Rumble is because he asked for time off back in November because he and his wife just had a baby and wants to spend some time at home with him. So expect Taker to be off the road for a few months for that.
- Ludvig Borga suffered an ankle injury, possibly a broken ankle, and will be out for at least a few weeks (he actually never came back to WWF and only wrestled maybe 5 more matches elsewhere after this before retiring).
- 1-2-3 Kid is expected to be out about 6 weeks after suffering a knee injury at the house show version of the Royal Rumble last week. Sparky Plugg's debut was moved up and he has been replacing Kid at house shows.
- More on the World Martial Arts Federation. Apparently, WWF is 50% owners of the group, with something called Summit Media Group owning the other 50%. The concept is to create a kickboxing version of the WWF. They're filming 26 episodes (once again, this ended up becoming WMAC Masters but WWF bailed out soon after this and wasn't involved in the final product).
- An indie promoter writes in a letter to talk about how he had booked Shane Douglas to main event his show. He sent Douglas a plane ticket and some up-front money. A week prior to the show, Douglas called to say he had separated his shoulder and would need surgery. The promoter understood. Shit happens. But then, while waiting for Douglas to return the money and plane ticket, the promoter finds out from one of the newsletters that Douglas worked a match against Terry Funk in ECW a few days later. When he called Douglas to ask about it, Douglas denied it and said the report was wrong and he actually hadn't wrestled at the show, he had only done some announcing. But then he started getting more reports that, yes indeed, Shane had worked a 45-minute draw against Terry Funk when he was supposedly too injured to work the other show he'd already been booked on. So needless to say, this guy is pissed and writes in to warn other indie promoters against booking Shane Douglas.
- Some guy writes in to bitch about various things and about all the wrestling promotions that suck. One line that tickles my fancy is that he says, "Monday Night Raw was Vince McMahon's best creation since Hulk Hogan, and he blew it in less than six months." Ah, smarks. Never change.
- The final letter is just too good to pass up. I'll just copy and paste the letter and Dave's smart ass response:
- I was watching an old film on American Movie Classics starring a young Fred MacMurray. He sure looks a lot like Vince McMahon. Same hair style. Even the same clothes. Check it out. What was the story on Rob Bartlett on Monday Night Raw? What happened? Why hasn't Paul E. Dangerously ever worked in the WWF? What's the background of Johnny Polo? He showed some wrestling ability against Marty Janetty. Any chance of Sherri returning to the WWF now that they have a womens champ?
- R.J. Dari
- Parts unknown
- And now, Dave's response: