Wrestling Observer Rewinder

September 05, 1994

The Clash of the Champions took place this week and set a bunch of records: it was the highest rated TV special on TBS this year. It was the 2nd most watched wrestling show ever on TBS (behind the 1990 Clash featuring Sting and Black Scorpion). It was the highest rated pro wrestling show on cable since that same 1990 Clash. The Hogan vs. Flair main event was the most viewed wrestling match ever on cable television, and several other similar ratings records. Overall, despite a negative response from fans, the show was a ratings home run for WCW. Dave thinks the finish of the main event nearly ruined the whole show (Hogan avoiding doing the job and kept the title with a screwy count-out finish, made even more screwy by Michael Buffer announcing that the title had changed hands because nobody clued him in that count outs don't mean title changes in wrestling. Then he was corrected and announced it again as a DQ which was also wrong. Basically it all fell apart at the end).
A lot of fans are critical of WCW for bringing in Hogan and building the whole company around him and sacrificing the future of the company for him. Dave argues that there was no future for WCW and it was necessary because WCW was on life-support. The only reason they hadn't already folded was 100% because Ted Turner chose to let it live. But WCW had been losing money for years and the Hogan gamble was necessary if they ever want to be profitable or successful. It might not work in the long-term, but it's a chance they have to take. Dave also notes that Hogan is currently negotiating a new deal with WCW for when his current 6-month contract expires. He's reportedly trying to get a 4-year guaranteed contract. Thunder In Paradise was also renewed this week, which means even if he signs a new contract, he won't be around full-time. Dave says WCW is pretty much entirely dependent on having Hulk Hogan right now so he expects them to bend over and let Hogan have whatever he wants and that they will continue to build the promotion around him for the next several years.
Other notes of interest from the Clash: the masked man who attacked Hogan earlier in the show was actually Arn Anderson, but when it gets revealed on TV, they will say it was Curt Hennig, who is expected to sign with WCW when his WWF contract expires in a couple of months. Austin/Steamboat stole the show with a great match. And Dusty Rhodes returned to the ring. Dave has this to say about Dusty: "He can't move, can't work, can't sell, isn't allowed to bleed and blows up jogging his memory." Sick burn, Meltz. Also, Steve Regal vs. Antonio Inoki was awful.
Dave mentions that being a wrestling announcer is apparently pretty hazardous. Gorilla Monsoon has had tons of recent medical problems due to diabetes, Vince McMahon had that recent neck surgery, Gene Okerlund has severe kidney problems, Tony Schiovane has neck and back problems, Jim Ross is still suffering Bells Palsy effects, and Bobby Heenan was in a neck brace at the Clash for legit reasons and will likely need the same neck surgery Vince had.
Summerslam is in the books and had a classic match followed by the worst main event in the history of PPV. Tatanka turned heel, as expected while babyface Luger was booed out of the building. Dave gives the Bret Hart vs. Owen Hart cage match the full 5 stars and says it was even better than their Wrestlemania match and that it will be years before we see a cage match that good again. And finally, in the main event, the Real Undertaker beat the Fake Undertaker in an awful match.
In what will go down as one of the biggest double-crosses in wrestling history, ECW held an NWA title tournament and then proceeded to trash the belt and the organization and announced ECW was quitting the NWA. The plan was apparently in place for weeks and had a dual purpose. The first was to give the winner, Shane Douglas, credibility as more than just a local indie champion. And it was also the promotion's way of re-branding themselves from Eastern Championship Wrestling into their new name: Extreme Championship Wrestling. Douglas won the tournament and then cut a promo afterward, proclaiming the NWA dead and said he'd never want a belt Ric Flair held. He said the only championship that meant anything to him was the ECW belt.
NWA board member Dennis Coraluzzo was in attendance and watched in stunned silence. Coraluzzo had been the man who made the decision to allow ECW to hold an NWA title tournament, with the plan being that Shane Douglas would later drop the belt to Chris Benoit, which obviously won't happen now. In fact, ECW specifically arranged the tournament to have Benoit lose to Too Cold Scorpio in the first round. Word is Paul Heyman, rather than Tod Gordon, was the mastermind behind the whole plan.
On the same show, Terry Funk and Cactus Jack were scheduled to win the ECW tag titles, but Funk missed his flight and wasn't there, so they ended up sticking ECW's lovable loser Mikey Whipwreck with Jack and the pair won the tag titles (there were rumors later on that Heyman or Tod Gordon gave Funk a heads up earlier and told him that the NWA thing would happen and that he shouldn't be there, because Funk had a close relationship with the NWA members).
Chavo Guerrero Jr. (he's going under the name Salvador Guerrero III but I'll just stick with the name we all know) will be making his Mexico debut this week after debuting at the AAA show in Los Angeles a couple months back.
Antonio Inoki finally met with George Foreman last week while he was in America for Clash of the Champions. The two agreed to open negotiations for a match that would take place next April or May in North Korea, at a 100,000 seat soccer stadium. Inoki claims he has already gotten Muhammad Ali to agree to appear as a guest and feels that, plus a match with Foreman would be able to sell out the stadium (this, of course, would be the WCW/NJPW joint show Collision In Korea that to this day still holds the all-time attendance record for pro wrestling. Although living in a country where the ruler can say "Go to this show or I'll fucking kill all of you" has a way of creating record-setting crowds. Anyway, the Foreman match didn't happen and Ali didn't go either but we'll get there).
In a "double hell" match in FMW, Atsushi Onita allegedly ended up receiving 111 stitches after the match to close various cuts. It was announced that this brings Onita up to a total of 1,032 stitches in his pro wrestling career. Onita has been trying to get into the Guiness Book of World Records as the person who has had the most stitches in his life so this should put him over the magic number he needs to get the record, so....there's that, I guess. Everybody has to have goals, I suppose.
After FMW held an event in Russia that flopped a few weeks ago, the RINGS promotion in Japan held a show there and packed the house with 7,000 people. Word is FMW's show had no Russian wrestlers so it flopped, while RINGS loaded their show up with Russian athletes and presented it as more of a sport than FMW's blood & guts promotion and obviously it worked.
A wrestler named Boo Bradley debuted in SMW this week. He was brought to the ring by Tammy Sytch on a leash like an animal and was said to be Chris Candido's wild, crazy childhood friend and now his new tag team partner. That guy would later be known as Balls Mahoney.
Dean Malenko's father, Boris Malenko is in bad shape from leukemia. Latest report is that he is in a coma in intensive care at the moment. He was one of the top heels in the business in the 60s and 70s.
WCW and AAA held meetings with Univision and others to discuss the promotional plans for the upcoming AAA PPV that WCW is producing. WCW will promote the event on their shows and use Mike Tenay for English commentary.
Love Machine (Art Barr) and Eddie Guerrero both signed new contracts with AAA. No word on Eddie's deal, but Barr's deal is a 5-year contract for $3,500+ per week. Spoiler: he won't collect much of that money.
Jim Ross has once again been released by WWF as of this past weekend. Ross was temporarily brought back (after being canned earlier in the year after his Bells Palsy attack) to fill in for Vince McMahon on commentary during the steroid trial. That temporary contract expired and although they were negotiating and had agreed on salary, they couldn't agree on dates so it fell through. However, Dave has heard word that Ross was pretty much pushed out because certain people were upset with comments he made in a recent PWTorch interview (Dave doesn't clarify). Anyway, Ross is expected to jump to SMW and start announcing for them.
Various wrestler updates: Adam Bomb will undergo shoulder surgery soon. Crush is reportedly gone from the company. Virgil is injured. And Brian Lee is expected to get a new biker gimmick now that the fake Undertaker gimmick has been killed off.