April 18, 1994
- The Justice Dept. has dropped one of their charges against WWF, though they haven't reported which of the two were dropped. However, it was reported that this charge being dropped means that the government is no longer going to attempt to seize company assets, which means WWF's $9 million Titan Towers office complex in Stamford is safe, which was the biggest worry for the company. The other 2 charges against McMahon individually still stand. WWF's lawyers are painting this as a big victory, saying it proves that the government doesn't have a strong case. If the government had been able to seize the office building, it would have been a devastating and possibly crippling blow to the future of the company, so this at least insures that WWF should be able to survive, even if they are found guilty on the remaining charges. Those 3 other charges (1 against WWF, 2 against McMahon) are scheduled to go to trial on May 2nd.
- A Japanese newspaper has reported that Tonya Harding has reached a deal with All Japan Women to appear at their November Tokyo Dome show. Dave is skeptical that a deal has been made, although he has heard that negotiations are actually serious for the first time. The paper reported that Harding will be making $2 million for one match, which Dave is flat out not buying. If true, it would be the single largest payoff in the history of wrestling by a huge amount (Hogan reportedly got somewhere around $1 million for his WM5 match against Randy Savage, which is the largest single match payoff Dave knows of). AJW reportedly offered her $380,000 to work 50 dates throughout 1995, and that sounds more realistic. Regardless of whether a deal has been made or not, it's actually in the hands of the Portland courts because the terms of her plea bargain means she would have to get permission to travel to Japan.
- Hogan and WCW are rumored to finally be finalizing a deal this week. WCW has already pretty much started making Hogan the centerpiece of the company, so if he doesn't sign a deal, they will have major egg on their faces. It's been strongly hinted that Hogan may appear at this weekend's Spring Stampede PPV. WCW VP Eric Bischoff and Ric Flair have been meeting with Hogan to negotiate the deal. However, the terms of Hogan's release from WWF dictate that after Hogan comes to terms on a deal to wrestle anywhere else, WWF has 21 days to match the offer if they so choose. If they match the offer, Hogan can't legally sign with WCW. So word is WCW is essentially making such a ridiculous, over-the-top offer for Hogan (with PPV and merchandise percentage points) that there's no way WWF will try to match it. As for Hogan's claim that he was considering an offer from HBO to start a new promotion with them, HBO officials have been denying it all week and said they wouldn't even considering running a wrestling promotion and dismissed Hogan's claims. If Hogan returns to wrestling this year, it's almost certainly going to be with WCW.
- New Japan announced the lineup for their Fukuoka Dome show next month. Antonio Inoki vs. Great Muta, Hell Raisers vs. Steiners, Sting vs. Rick Rude, Jushin Liger vs. The Original Tiger Mask, and more. Spoiler alert: this won't end well for Rick Rude.
- Several AAA wrestlers worked a UWA show last week and regardless of who was heel or babyface, the crowd was solidly behind the UWA guys, and treated it like a promotion vs. promotion angle. So now there are plans to turn it into that, with UWA guys expected to start showing up at AAA shows in street clothes and disrupt things and issue challenges, which will eventually lead to a title vs. title match between AAA's Konnan and UWA's Canek.
- A couple of other names have jumped ship from UWA to EMLL in recent weeks and the EMLL wrestlers are upset that the company keeps signing people. There are over 200 wrestlers under contract and most of them are paid per-show. But there aren't enough shows for everyone to have regular work. Before wrestling was on TV a few years ago, EMLL used to sometimes run more than a dozen house shows per night all throughout Mexico City. But now, they're down to only running 15-20 shows per week.
- Jumbo Tsuruta returned to the ring, wrestling a midcard comedy match as expected after being hospitalized last year from Hepatitis C complications. Tsuruta isn't expected to ever return full time and will only be used periodically as a special attraction in comedy matches as long as he can still wrestle.
- Road Warrior Hawk was charged with misdemeanor assault in Minneapolis after allegedly striking a 19-year-old man during an argument outside a movie theater. It was also said that Hawk called the victim a racial slur (the guy is black). Police reportedly had several witnesses and my favorite part is the witnesses described what Hawk was wearing to the police: "a large white man wearing a long black trench coat, a bandanna on his head and snake skin boots."
- FMW has an exploding barbed wire match coming up with Atsushi Onita vs. Genichiro Tenryu and Onita has said that if loses to Tenryu, he will retire (this one ends up having pretty big long-term implications that don't become apparent for another year or so).
- Mr. Perfect broke his toe this week in a non-wrestling accident and will be out for a few weeks.
- In SMW, Tammy Sytch did a promo this week complaining about Ricky Morton kissing her and saying she might get cooties or AIDS from it and says she may sue for sexual harassment.
- Sid Vicious was scheduled to work his first match since the Arn Anderson stabbing incident at an indie show in MD last week. He was supposed to main event against Jerry Lawler, but both of them ended up not showing. Lawler canceled a few days earlier due to prior commitments. As for Sid, it was announced that he missed the show due to legal problems but word is he wanted a first class plane ticket and demanded $500 more than what he had previously agreed to in order to work the show. The promoter told him to go get fucked instead, so Brutus Beefcake vs. Kamala ended up headlining the show.
- Monday Night Raw last week did their most impressive rating ever, drawing a 3.3 rating while going head to head against the NCAA Finals, which ended up being the 2nd most-watched college basketball game in history.
- Dave got his hands on a format sheet for Wrestlemania 10 that tells how long each match and segment was supposed to be and uses it to figure out what went long, what went short, etc. This includes entrances and post-match celebrations, not just the match. Anyway, this is mostly notable because in recent years, Bob Holly and Rick Martel have both come out and claimed that the 10-man match they were involved in got bumped off of the show because the Shawn/Razor ladder match went 10 minutes longer than scheduled. Bob Holly in particular has made no secret about how pissed he was about it and I think has even said he believes they did it intentionally. Well according to the sheet Dave has, Shawn/Razor only went 17 seconds longer than it was supposed to so they were pretty much right on target for what they were booked. And in fact, several other matches went a few minutes short and only a few of them went more than a minute or two longer than planned. Even if the 10-man match had happened, it was only scheduled to go for 6 minutes and after entrances, it would have been more like 4. Dave seems kinda befuddled about why it got bumped. Also, the skit that Jennie Garth refused to do was apparently going to be a bit with her and Rhonda Shear fawning all over Shawn Michaels.
- The statuses of both Brian Pillman and Steve Austin in WCW are considered murky. Pillman's contract expired weeks ago but he's still working without a contract. WCW is reportedly offering him a serious pay cut and Pillman ain't biting. As for Austin, similar situation. His contract expires in a couple of weeks and WCW has reportedly offering him a new deal with a substantial pay cut. Considering both Austin and Pillman are coming off a year where they were the best tag team in the world and are two top level performers who are still young, Dave thinks this is pretty much as stupid as you and I do 22 years later. He understands needing to cut costs and pay cuts might be reasonable in some cases, but they're backing up a Brinks truck to Hogan's house and spent tons of money on new TV sets and are paying announcers like Heenan, Okerlund, and Ventura huge sums of money. Dave thinks WCW will try hard to keep Austin but thinks Pillman is likely leaving.
- Sting is rumored to be close to signing a deal to star in a remake of the movie Hercules.
- Cactus Jack is expected to go ahead and get the reconstructive surgery on his ear after the Spring Stampede PPV, so he should be out of action for a few months after (nope).
- Ricky Steamboat said in a radio interview this week that his 7 year old son has already started amateur wrestling (that would of course be Richie Steamboat, who was signed to NXT a few years ago but had to retire due to a back injury. Kind of a shame, I feel like he probably would have ended up being pretty damn great).
- Sorry, nothing much in the way of pics or videos this time and several of the last few have been kinda slow. Next week should pick things up though!