August 29, 1994
- WWF's Summerslam PPV takes place this week and it's not looking promising. Last year's Summerslam did a buyrate of 1.3 which was considered very disappointing at the time. This year, the company would be thrilled if they could do 1.3 but no one thinks that's even a remote possibility. The headline angle of Undertaker vs. Undertaker has gotten such a cold response that word is the angle will be killed off for good after the Summerslam match and that Brian Lee will be repackaged and given a new gimmick. The other big feud, Owen Hart vs. Bret Hart, started off strong earlier in the year, but in the last few months house show business with them on top has reached the lowest levels in company history and their matches have been disappointments (which Dave isn't surprised by, saying Bret is pretty well known for phoning in half-ass performances at house shows but then delivering show-stealers on PPV). Also, expect Tatanka to turn heel at the PPV.
- WWF experimented with a 30-minute live call-in show on the USA Network last Sunday night and it was a disaster. For starters, there were technical issues and pretty much every fan that called in only confirmed every negative stereotype people have about wrestling fans (aka: dumb, backwoods rednecks). Dave doesn't know if they screened the calls to make sure no smark fans would call in or if it was bad luck, or if the WWF fanbase is just that dopey. (can't find video sadly)
- WCW's Clash of the Champions takes place this week also and it should end up being the highest rated TV broadcast for WCW in years, due to Hulk Hogan defending his title against Ric Flair. Logic would dictate that Flair should win, in order to set up the final rubber match at Halloween Havoc, but Hogan does not want to do the job to Flair. The show will also feature the return of Dusty Rhodes to the ring, Antonio Inoki vs. Steve Regal, and Dave expects Austin vs. Steamboat to steal the show.
- WWF announced Survivor Series will be held at the 8,000 seat Freeman Coliseum in San Antonio, and Dave says it's a sign of the times that they would move one of their major PPVs to a secondary, mid-sized arena.
- Vader (known as Super Vader in Japan) won the UWFI title last week. This means Vader has held 5 different versions of a world title in his relatively short career (WCW title, IWGP in Japan, UWA in Mexico, and CWA in Europe being the other 4). For whatever it's worth, this also brings Vader's total world title reigns up to 11, whcih puts him only 1 behind Ric Flair on the all-time list. After the match, Vader challenged Antonio Inoki and there are rumors that Vader may be headed back to New Japan after his contract with UWFI ends.
- The NWA has agreed to sanction the ECW tournament to crown a new NWA champion after a week of haggling back and forth over the details. In reality, Tod Gordon had made it clear that he was planning to run a tournament using the NWA name either way and the NWA wasn't in a financial position to go to court and stop him, so they decided to just get on board. There have been disagreements over who the new champion should be. One of the board members, Dennis Coraluzzo is pushing for Chris Benoit to win it, but Tod Gordon and Jim Crockett have someone else in mind and for now, the 2 sides seem to be at an impasse about who it should be. Jim Crockett reportedly said that he had never even heard of Chris Benoit and how could they make him the champion without knowing if he has the work ethic to be champion? Dave is incredulous at this and says that while Benoit isn't a star in the U.S. and he doesn't have a lot of charisma or promo skills, his work ethic is beyond question. Crockett claiming to have never heard of Chris Benoit is either a lie or shows just how vastly out of touch he is, which is scary for a guy who is currently trying to start a new promotion. Anyway, as of now, the participants in the tournament are Shane Douglas, Tazmaniac, Dean Malenko, Osamu Nishimura, Chris Benoit, Too Cold Scorpio, 911, and one other as-yet-unnamed participant.
- Hulk Hogan was interviewed by a Florida newspaper and for the first time, he responded publicly to comments Randy Savage and Bret Hart have made about him. There's some pretty choice quotes in here so I'll just copy and paste all of it:
- About Savage, Hogan had this to say: "I feel there's two kinds of people in this world, winners and losers. Whatever his personal problems were with his wife, that's his problem. He shouldn't drag other people into it. If he screwed up and can't keep his marriage together, he shouldn't blame other people for it. He should be able to handle his own problems. . . I considered him a friend, yes, but he was just using me. . . Hulk Hogan made him seven figures. If it wasn't for Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage would have never gotten to the level he did or made the money he did. Without Hulk Hogan, that doesn't happen. I thought we were friends, but it turns out he was just using me."
- As for Bret Hart, Hogan claimed he wasn't aware of anything Hart had said about him, so when the reporter told him that Bret had basically called him an old washed up dinosaur that had to go down to a 2nd rate company, Hogan's response was: "This dinosaur doubled his ratings on pay-per-view. He also made him seven figures. I guess it's better to be a dinosaur than a sore loser."
- When asked if he thought he would ever end up working for WCW, Hogan responded: "No way, man. If you had said this was going to happen ten years ago or even a year ago, I would have said you were out of your mind. But then in filming "Thunder in Paradise," I met Sting and saw what a great guy he is and we got to be friends. I also met Eric Bischoff during filming and I got to see what a young, driven guy he was, and I saw how things worked there. Things weren't dragged through the mud like I was used to. The timing was perfect. Hulk Hogan is bigger than the sport and WCW was looking to move into the direction of being No. 1. It was perfect timing after a couple of years off, and besides, that would help answer two of the great mysteries of wrestling. No. 1, it was said Hulk Hogan would never do it, but what would happen if Hulk Hogan went to WCW, would it change the balance of power in wrestling, and No. 2, what would happen if Hulk Hogan wrestled Ric Flair? That's a meeting of wrestling's two biggest stars."
- When asked about his relationship with Vince McMahon: "I haven't talked to him in about a year. I just saw him when I went up to testify in his steroid trial, but we didn't talk to each other. Vince is a good guy and a lot of things that are not true were said about him. A lot of untrue stuff came out. I'm happy for him the truth came out. I thought Vince and I would always remain in close contact, even if the business relationship ever deteriorated. We were very close friends and whenever the scheduled would allow it, we used to hang out together away from wrestling. I considered him one of my closest friends. But, it got to the point where I was having to call him all of the time and he just wasn't calling me. When that continued happening, I decided to go on to other things. I just figured he was moving in a different direction with younger guys and I wasn't part of the plans."
- The media in Mexico is still talking a lot about the attendance crisis there. Just a few years ago (before wrestling was on TV in the country), there would be 18 different arenas running regular shows every Wednesday night throughout the country, usually with packed crowds. Now, there's only one arena show every Wednesday in Mexico. There were those who warned all along that airing the shows on TV would kill live attendance (the same way they believe it did in America in the 80s) and sure enough, that seems to be exactly what happened. No one goes to the shows anymore when they can just stay home and watch it for free on TV.
- Brian Christopher tore his ACL in (you guessed it) a softball game last week and will be out of action for several weeks.
- More controversy over The Gangstas in SMW. It gets a little complicated, but basically, it goes like this: WWF had made deals with both USWA and SMW that they would be included under the WWF umbrella of syndicated shows. This way, they could get a more money from advertisers (and USWA and SMW would get a cut of the money of course). Aaaaaanyway....WWF has decided to pull out of that deal with SMW because they're worried about the controversy over The Gangstas. It's not a huge deal for SMW, they're only losing a few hundred dollars a week, but it's not good either. Also, the Knoxville chapter of the NAACP has complained and threatened to picket SMW shows in the area, which Cornette is actually thrilled about because he thinks the publicity will help attendance and Cornette says rappers say worse stuff all the time so what's the big deal? On a personal level, Dave says he lives in an ethnically diverse area in California and sees how racism divides people and he's not thrilled about any angle that plays on racism. On the other hand, this is just the latest extreme of something that has been happening in pro wrestling for decades.
- Speaking of SMW and the backlash from fans about not sticking to the hair-vs-hair stipulation a few weeks back and the crowd turning on it, Cornette has admitted it was a mistake and if he had it to do over, he'd do it differently. "It was one of the shittier moments in our history but we'll get over it," Cornette said.
- Shane Douglas cut a promo in ECW regarding the upcoming NWA tournament, making some bitter remarks about Ric Flair and challenging him to a shoot fight. Dave understands that Douglas is just using these promos to get heat but the problem is, it gets fans hopeful for a match that will never happen (Douglas vs. Flair) and could backfire.
- Harry Smith, the young son of Davey Boy Smith, wrestled in Calgary at a show put together by Stu Hart at a local rodeo. 9-year-old Harry wrestled his cousin Matthew Hart in the match.
- AAA held a show last week that got dangerous, with Konnan, Love Machine, and Eddie Guerrero attacking some babyfaces. Apparently the crowd heat bordered on scary, to the point that even AAA president Antonio Pena was worried they may have gone too far, since fans were angrily throwing everything they could at the ring.
- A stable in AAA called Los Payasos consists of 3 wrestlers dressed as clowns. However, the commissioner in a certain area of Mexico City is an old-school wrestler and he believes having wrestlers dressed as clowns is disrespectful to the business, so he won't license the wrestlers to work in that specific town.
- Johnny B. Badd blew out his ankle this week in England while participating in an American Gladiators-type TV show that is popular over there. No word on how long he'll be out, but he's booked to win the TV title from Steven Regal at the PPV in 3 weeks so WCW is hoping he'll be ready.
- WCW has booked a house show match of Hulk Hogan vs. Ric Flair match in November....at Madison Square Garden. It will be the first time a non-McMahon has run a wrestling show at the Garden in decades.
- The status of Hulk Hogan's show Thunder In Paradise is up in the air. It hasn't been cancelled, but it hasn't been renewed yet either. If the show does go under, Hogan is already talking about starting up a new show, starring himself, Sting, and Mr. T.
- WCW has changed their drug policy and marijuana will no longer be enforced or punished.
- Eric Watts was expected to be released when his contract expired, but some sort of bureaucratic snafu extended his deal another 3 months. But WCW is pretty much done with him after that.
- Jesse Ventura has been the center of some controversy in Brooklyn Park, MN where he is still the mayor. Ventura isn't running for re-election, but another candidate who is running has blasted Ventura and noted that he's missed 40% of city meetings last year and that Ventura doesn't even live in Brooklyn Park anymore and shouldn't even be allowed to complete his current term. Ventura did recently buy a house just outside of the city, but he still owns his old house there. The other candidate provided evidence that the house is vacant and that Ventura has been having his mail forwarded to his new house. Yay politics.
- At the latest WWF tapings, Brian Armstrong debuted but didn't get over at all. Maxx Payne was there as well (but not on TV) and there's been talk of putting them together as a rock band gimmick, since both have musical talent.
- There's been rumors of Rick Rude returning to WWF, to be managed by Tammy Sytch, but everyone Dave has spoken with doesn't know anything about it. (Can you imagine Tammy spending time with Rude? Oh man, poor Candido wouldn't have stood a chance.)
- WWF aired a really nice tribute piece about Joey Marella on TV this week.
- Shawn Michaels got into an altercation with a fan at the Portland TV tapings and had to be held back by Diesel.