May 30, 1994
- The counts against WWF as a company in the steroid trial have been dropped. It was ruled that, since Vince McMahon is 100% owner of Titan Sports, that he and the company are one and the same entity, so the duplicate charges were dismissed. It's not a big win for WWF. McMahon still faces a maximum of 11 years in prison and $1 million in fines. There are 3 remaining charges: conspiracy to defraud the FDA by attempting to traffic controlled drugs and two charges of possession with intent to distribute.
- The redacted paragraph on the memo from Linda McMahon to Pat Patterson that has been talked about was unsealed by the judge and released. Basically, the paragraph says that Linda McMahon learned that the government would be investigating Dr. Zahorian when someone from the Pennsylvania State Dept. leaked the info to a member of the law firm that represents WWF, who then passed the information on to Linda (who then passed it on to Patterson, who in turn told Dr. Zahorian).
- WCW's Slamboree is in the books and injuries marred some things. As expected, Rick Rude didn't work his match and is likely gone from WCW, and Dave is annoyed that they continued falsely advertising it up until show time, despite knowing a week in advance that Rude wouldn't work the show. Dave says there is some skepticism about Rude's injury because he just recently stated that he wouldn't put Flair, Hogan, or Vader over if he had to work with them. Rude was in Philadelphia for the show, planning to still make an appearance when he was being stripped of the belt. But prior to the show, Rude and Ric Flair got into a backstage argument and Rude then refused to go out to the ring during the PPV. Dave says these issues with Rude were going on before he was allegedly injured in Japan and it boggles his mind why WCW put the title back on him in the first place.
- Other notes from the show: Terry Funk was honored alongside the other retired legends and Dave says it's ridiculous that Funk was lumped in with those guys since, not only is he still actively wrestling, but he'll be a strong candidate for Wrestler of the Year at the end of 94. Being that the show took place in Philadelphia, it was a hardcore ECW crowd that showed up. There were tons of signs for Terry Funk, Sabu, and even Tod Gordon. There were negative signs about Hulk Hogan and WCW management that were confiscated and chants of "ECW!", "We Want Blood!", "Sabu!", and even "Sting must die!"
- As for the matches: Terry Funk got a huge reaction in his match with Tully Blanchard, but the match ended in a double-DQ because Tully refused to do the job in his return match. (Also, if you watch it on the Network, you can see ECW's famous Hat Guy in the front row and Funk climbs into the crowd with him). Barry Windham ended up working the show and looked to be about 70 pounds heavier than he was in his prime and "did nothing to hurt his reputation as being the biggest waste of unlimited potential in the industry." He also spent most of the match limping on his bad knee and looked terrible, especially considering he's 11 years younger than Flair, who spent the match working circles around him. And finally, Cactus Jack/Kevin Sullivan vs. Nasty Boys was another 4.5 star incredible brawl that Dave calls must-see and made even more amazing due to Jerry Sags coming into the show with a serious shoulder injury.
- Triplemania II-C, the last of the 3 shows, takes place this week and will be headlined by a Jake Roberts vs. Konnan hair-vs-hair match. Whomever loses is expected to get the biggest payoff anyone has ever gotten in wrestling to shave their head.
- SMW drew the 3rd largest gate in its history with the 3rd annual Volunteer Slam show, which featured the SMW debuts of Randy Savage and Jake Roberts. In a surprise, SMW wrestler Bruiser Bedlam defeated Randy Savage, and Dave credits Savage for doing the right thing by putting over the local guy, for the good of the promotion. Aside from this show, however, crowds have been down for SMW lately.
- Antonio Inoki and Atsushi Onita are negotiating to work matches against each other. Inoki wants to do a single match between them in September at the Tokyo Dome. Onita wants to do 2 matches, (so he can win one of them, Dave says).
- Brian Lee has dyed his hair darker and started growing a small beard to prepare for his evil-Undertaker role. Word is he will be managed by Ted Dibiase.
- Jake Roberts did a promo in SMW saying the he notices that everyone has been talking about how fat he's gotten. He said it's because he's eaten so many large meals after all his big wins.
- The next UFC 3 PPV is expected to take place in Tokyo in September. Dave says you can expect to see some of the Pancrase promotion's wrestlers on the show since they will probably be helping to promote it (it ended up not happening in Japan).
- Joey Styles and The Bruiser Brothers are no longer with ECW. The Bruise Brothers were fired because they were too out of control in a match and some audience members got hurt. Joey Styles reportedly quit due to wanting more money (obviously that didn't stick).
- Kevin Sullivan is now involved in the booking committee in WCW. Dave says Jimmy Hart may start being involved with it also when he comes in with Hogan. Hart is currently recording new entrance music for most of WCW's wrestlers.
- Hulk Hogan's first in-person appearance for WCW will be at the Clash of the Champions next month, in a non-wrestling role. After that, it's expected he and Flair may be involved in a tag match at the PPV in July. The plan as of now is for them to slow-burn the Hogan/Flair PPV match until Starrcade in December, which is tentatively set for Charlotte, NC. If that happens, expect Hogan to get booed out of the building (none of this happened).
- Speaking of Hogan, he appeared on the 700 Club last week, talking about being a born-again Christian and saying he had taken the wrong roads earlier in life and wanted to spread the message of God.
- Ric Flair taped a promo talking about a match with Curt Hennig at the Clash of the Champions in August. However, Hennig's WWF contract doesn't expire until the end of September so unless he can get released before then, that ain't happening. Hennig was backstage at Slamboree, but didn't appear on camera because it would have violated his WWF contract.
- The Los Angeles Times featured a story titled "Ted Turner Locks Horns with WWF" and it was filled with inaccuracies. The funniest note was Turner telling the reporter that WCW's wrestlers are "clean" as opposed to the WWF wrestlers and the steroid scandal. WWF responded with a statement saying, "We would love to match drug tests with that organization any time."
- Verne Gagne was reportedly treated like royalty by all the other old-timers at Slamboree, which Dave says shows the 2-faced nature of the business, since all those people have spent years shit-talking him. Apparently the only Gagne-hater that didn't bow down to him in person was Jesse Ventura.
- Earthquake has reportedly quit WWF and they really buried him on TV. Apparently, he was upset about having to do clean jobs to Yokozuna.
- Owen Hart's left knee is in really bad shape, but he's currently in the midst of a main event run with Bret hart, so he is working through it rather than taking time off. Diesel is also working through a knee injury.
- WWF is in a bidding war to get the PPV rights for the upcoming George Foreman/Michael Moorer boxing match since the company that usually carries the PPV shows has no interest in it.
- Sparky Plugg (Bob Holly) seems to be taking his gimmick seriously. He's been on the race track 4 times this year at the Mobile International Speedway when he's not wrestling, and has been black flagged (disqualified) all four times. The last time, he drove around the track after being black flagged and tried to climb the fence to attack the flag man (I think Holly writes about this in his book, if I recall. It's a really good book, I highly recommend it).
- In the letters section, Lou Thesz writes in to dispute some claims about matches he lost in his career. Apparently, he read in a book somewhere that Bruno Sammartino had once defeated him in a match. Thesz wants to clarify that he only ever wrestled Bruno once and that he won, not Bruno. Same with a few other matches that he lists. I dunno, Thesz is a legend and all, but this seems a little insecure for a 70+ year old man to feel the need to correct. But turns out he's not lying, behold the footage!