October 17, 1994
- It's a slow week so Dave doesn't even really open with any news. Instead he decides to start the issue by taking a major look at all the other big promotions in the world to see where they stand here in 1994. Sorry in advance, this really is the least amount of actual news I've ever seen in one of these.
- All Japan Pro Wrestling: the most traditional promotion in the world, all clean pins and simple booking. Dave can't remember the last time they had a DQ or count out finish and says they've only had one gimmick match in the 23 years of the promotion. Their TV slot got cut down to 30 minutes earlier this year but business wasn't too badly hurt by it because TV isn't as important in Japan as magazine and newspaper coverage. The overall business is down slightly from last year, but they still routinely sell out every single show in Tokyo. Kenta Kobashi and Toshiaki Kowada are arguably the top 2 wrestlers in the world and they have genuine legends like Stan Hansen, Giant Baba and Dory Funk. AJPW doesn't really go through ups and downs. It's more of a permanent, never changing institution. Other promotions may out-market them or have bigger highs, but AJPW is always steadily trudging along without ever really facing any challenges.
- New Japan Pro Wrestling: The #1 promotion in Japan and arguably the world (WWF can ake a case because they have wider exposure throughout the world, but from a money/sellout standpoint, NJPW is the clear #1). That being said, workrate in NJPW is weaker than ever but they still have greats like Jushin Liger and Wild Pegasus (Chris Benoit) leading the juniors division. Dave strongly expects New Japan to eventually branch out and start running PPVs in America, possibly starting with the Jan. 4th show which is expected to be headlined by Hogan vs. Inoki (still waiting).
- All Japan Women: Next month, this promotion will hold the biggest women's wrestling show in history at the Tokyo Dome. It's expected to set records, but that being said, this promotion has already peaked and Dave says it's on the downturn. It was a cultural phenomenon in Japan during the 80s but not so much anymore, though it's still popular. With many of their top stars getting older, nursing injuries and on the verge of retirement, the glory days of AJW are quickly diminishing.
- UWFI/Pancrase/R*INGS, etc: these are the "shoot-style" promotions, that are often a mix of worked and shoot matches. They're all doing decent business, but UWFI has tried and failed to succeed in the U.S. (with UFC seemingly having that market cornered) and there's rumors that Vader may be leaving the promotion soon, which would badly hurt UWFI. Pancrase shows potential and seems to be gaining popularity, while R*INGS is yesterday's news and is just trying to survive.
- FMW: the crazy, exploding ring barbed wire lunatic promotion. The main draw is Atsushi Onita, who has vowed to retire next year. Doing so would be disaster for FMW. But not sticking to his word would also be a disaster, because Japanese fans take retirement promises seriously, so who knows. With the success of FMW (packing stadiums to see these matches), several U.S. promotions have toyed with the idea of doing similar type matches, but it's thought that the PPV distributors in America would throw a fit and it could never air on TV.
- EMLL: the oldest promotion in the world is struggling but still doing decent business. As many predicted several years ago, televised wrestling in Mexico has done substantial damage to arena business. But most people predict EMLL will be around forever. They've rebounded a bit from the struggles they had a couple years ago when AAA first began raiding them.
- AAA: currently the top Mexican promotion, they've been trying to break into the U.S. in recent months, with successful shows in California and their first ever PPV event scheduled next month and it's vitally important. If successful, it would establish AAA as the clear #3 promotion in America. If it fails, it could be financially devastating to the company and crush any hope of breaking into the U.S. market. AAA has plateaued a bit since their initial success and much like Crockett in the 80s, they have ran so many hot angles so fast that they've started to burn out a little. There doesn't seem to be much long-term booking, just hot angle after hot angle with little worry of where to go next.
- Real news time! UWFI had previously announced that they were bringing in a new wrestler and when it was announced, they expected their upcoming show to sell out in one day. Well, turns out it was supposed to be Royce Gracie, who they had scheduled to face UWFI's top star Nobuhiko Takada. But at the last minute, Gracie apparently pulled out. At the show, they announced to fans that Gracie vs. Takada was going to take place in a cage match, but then they did a big angle saying Gracie had chickened out and that it proves UWFI is superior to UFC.
- All Japan Women's upcoming Tokyo Dome show will feature the return of Lioness Asuka, who retired 5 years ago. If you were curious, this is where NXT Asuka took her name from, as tribute to her.
- USWA has a show this week which will be headlined by Sid Vicious vs. The Undertaker. Because Brian Christopher is working Japan and Jerry Lawler is needed for a WWF taping, USWA would have been without their 2 top drawing stars. So WWF was kind enough to lend them Undertaker and Paul Bearer for the show so they can draw a decent crowd.
- ECW's expected television debut on the Sunshine Network in Florida has been delayed over concerns from the Sandman cigarette-in-eye angle. But they have apparently cleared up the problems and the show should air next week.
- Both Charles Wright (Papa Shango) and Brutus Beefcake got married last week in Las Vegas. "No, not to each other," Dave clarifies. Imagine the babies!
- Bruno Sammartino was invited to the White House and will be honored by President Clinton at an event next month.
- John Tenta is confirmed to be headed to WCW, coming in as the first of an expected long line of monster heels for Hogan to vanquish. He won't be using the name Earthquake. He's expected to debut at Halloween Havoc in an angle after the cage match.
- Dave says a lot of people aren't expecting Ricky Steamboat to return due to the severity of his back injury. A lot of people were right.
- Rick Rude has filed a $630,000 lawsuit against WCW stemming from his departure from the company and his injury. Rude is currently collecting on a Lloyd's of London insurance policy so he won't be heading back to WWF any time soon.
- It looks like TBS is planning to green-light 4 made-for-TV Thunder In Paradise movies which will air after the four Clash of the Champions events in 1995.
- Bobby Heenan recently had neck surgery and will be missing a few events. He might be back in time to call Halloween Havoc but no one is for sure yet.
- WCW is trying to get Hogan to agree to work the upcoming house show at the Omni in Atlanta, because a lot of the TBS executives are planning to be there and are bringing their families. The Omni is basically WCW's Madison Square Garden.
- Gene Okerlund and Mark Madden have gotten into a feud on the WCW hotline. Okerlund is in charge of the hotline and attempted to get Madden thrown off due to comments Madden made about him, but Madden is close friends with Eric Bischoff so he's still on there. Madden had made comments about Okerlund teasing fans with big news on the hotline and then not delivering and accused Okerlund of having Alzheimer's. Madden was asked to lay off Okerlund but apparently the memo didn't go both ways because Okerlund then went on the hotline and blasted Madden.
- Vince McMahon was interviewed on a local Chicago sports show last week and came off very bitter against Hulk Hogan. McMahon said Hogan had promised he would never work against him and couldn't understand why his friend would go compete against him in a "minor league promotion." Vince explained the Hogan/WWF split and claimed he had begun phasing Hogan out because of his age but that he wanted Hogan to be his Babe Ruth type character and he would bring him back every now and then for big events. But Hogan wanted to keep doing things the way they always had, with Vince bringing in monster heels for him to beat. Vince claimed WCW wasn't competition but called them a "minor annoyance." Vince also talked about the steroid trial, saying that the government had no right to put him on trial like they did and said they ruined a lot of things for WWF because nobody wants to do business with a company that is surrounded in controversy.
- Randy Savage recently appeared on the Ricki Lake show (can't find video).
- Luna Vachon and David Heath (Vampire Warrior/Gangrel) will be getting married on Halloween.
- The letters is mostly just people bitching about WCW forcing Ric Flair to retire. But one guy writes in and trashes ECW fans, saying they are more interested in seeing someone get injured than in seeing a good match. "I believe they'd encourage 911 to choke slam a five-year-old," the person writes. Dave responds by saying, "Based on what I've seen, I think ECW fans probably enjoy seeing good wrestling matches more than fans of any other U.S. promotion, but you're right that they would encourage 911 to choke slam a five-year-old."