November 21, 1994
- Dave opens the issue by declaring that the current era of professional wrestling is dying. It was born in 1985, when Vince McMahon gobbled up the territories and took the business national through cable TV. But now, in 1994, ratings are stagnating everywhere. WWF survives basically on name value alone at this point. WCW survives because Ted Turner allowed it. Both companies are losing their core audiences and PPV buyrates are down. The new era is just beginning, with young athletic stars (like Shawn Michaels or Rey Misterio Jr. or Sabu) and more realistic characters and stories (like ECW) as opposed to the cartoonish gimmicks that WWF and WCW are currently failing with. The business in America is run by people who are experts on knowing what worked in the past and are seemingly clueless about what works now and have no interest in learning. Dave notes that WWF arrogantly dismissed Japanese wrestling and tried to run shows featuring their dated, old product in Japan earlier this year and completely flopped. WWF found success in the 80s because they were ahead of the pack but now they've been surpassed by Japan and Mexican wrestling and indies like ECW are learning from those promotions and growing, while Vince doesn't and is falling. He compares Vince today to Bill Watts in WCW in 1992. The day you think you have nothing else to learn from others is the day the business starts passing you by.
- Dave says AAA's Antonio Pena is the new innovator in the business. In the last year alone, he's been to NJPW's Tokyo Dome show, WWF's Wrestlemania, WCW's Bash at the Beach, AJW's big show, and others. And he's watched carefully and brought back things that he's learned and applied them to AAA and it shows in the product. Dave says if they continue to do English PPVs in America, he wouldn't be surprised to see the company surpass WCW in buyrates (they're already doing better than WCW in American house show business). He notes that the upcoming UFC 4 PPV has enough hype around it that it might even surpass WWF buyrates, despite not having the same multiple weekly TV show exposure that WWF has. Because they're presenting a fresh, unique product. From here, Dave talks about ECW, which produces the most innovative TV show every week and is on the verge of becoming a major cult force in the business.
- AAA's PPV When Worlds Collide looks to have done around a 0.3 buyrate which has to be considered a huge and miraculous success given the total lack of promotion. Dave says it seems like AAA is pretty much bulletproof, considering WCW seemed to be actively shooting at them rather than promoting them leading into the show. The young, new hotshot WCW executive Eric Bischoff, who should have been at the show and likely would have learned a lot about where the business should be heading in the future, wasn't at the show and didn't even watch it.
- Back to Dave ranting about the changing business. He says the traditional babyface/heel era is on it's way out. There will always be good and bad guys but the real success is in the shades of gray in between. Fans don't go for the clean cut good guy anymore. They want cool. ECW is cool. Hulk Hogan gets booed by half the arena in every city he goes. WWF fans love "heels" like Shawn Michaels and Diesel. They completely rejected all-American Lex Luger.
- Dave notes that there's one wrestler in particular that has the potential to be America's next huge star, in the same way Tiger Mask in Japan become a cultural phenomenon. He's 19 years old so he isn't even close to his prime yet. He steals the show every night, he does amazing moves that this country hasn't ever seen before, and because of his ethnicity, he can cross over to Mexican audiences even though he's actually from America. He has the look and style to be an underdog kid's hero and can sell tons of merchandise due to his masked gimmick. His name is Rey Misterio Jr. And the way things are right now, WWF and WCW wouldn't even consider giving him a glance because he's "too small." He says if marketed correctly, Misterio could end up being a bigger star in America than Shawn Michaels is. And Dave says Shawn Michaels will likely go down as possibly the greatest worker of all-time, but Americans have seen guys like Shawn before. America has never seen someone the likes of Misterio. He's new. And that's what the industry needs to move forward (of course, Bischoff ended up being the one to finally realize this sort of stuff and spent 2 years kicking Vince's ass with it before Vince came around).
- Japan's UWFI held another American PPV and it was a great show, though much like the first, it probably went mostly unseen since they had almost no U.S. promotion and no one that Americans recognize on the show. Dave still doesn't think the company can succeed in America, but the show was so good that he's not entirely sure about that anymore.
- UWA's top star Canek is staying with the promotion, at least for now. However, in a big surprise, their #2 star, Dos Caras has jumped ship to EMLL, which is yet another huge blow for UWA.
- BVD, the American underwear company, signed a $1 million dollar sponsorship deal with All Japan Women and BVD logos will now be displayed on the AJW ring (I think Dave ends up correcting this in a later issue and it ended up being NJPW, not AJW).
- The planned Antonio Inoki vs. Hulk Hogan match at the Jan. 4, 1995 Tokyo Dome show is apparently out the window. Hogan's WCW contract pays him anywhere from $300,000 to $1 million per match (depending on buyrates and such) so NJPW's offer of $100-125,000 suddenly isn't enough money for him to want to do it. Given that the Tokyo Dome show is expected to sell out (or at least come close) with or without Hogan, they don't feel it's worth it to pay him more since they don't really need him. Furthermore, apparently one of Hogan's terms is that Brutus Beefcake have a match on the card as well (and for him to win), and NJPW has zero interest in doing that. With the Inoki vs. George Foreman fight not happening, Inoki is looking at getting either Hogan or Ric Flair to face him at the huge 100,000+ seat North Korea show in April.
- Gong Magazine published more nude photos of AJW wrestler Takako Inoue and are reportedly publishing a book full of modeling and nude photos of her later this month.
- Latest on Sabu is that he still doesn't have feeling in his right arm and hand due to the nerve damage from the neck injury he sustained against Chris Benoit last week. However, he's still planning to come back and work his scheduled ECW dates this week and then travel to Japan to work FMW shows next week. The absolute madman.
- ECW aired a commercial for their own When Worlds Collide video (the basis of their legal issues with WCW over the AAA PPV of the same name) and at the end of the commercial, they gave the phone number to order it in Spanish, as a subtle reference to the AAA PPV.
- Sid Vicious pulled out of an indie show booking next week because he told the promoters he wanted to go deer hunting instead.
- Big John Studd, who is fighting cancer, underwent a bone marrow transplant about a week ago.
- AAA is reportedly planning to run another PPV, produced by WCW, in April (never happened).
- Randy Savage was at WCW's offices last week, negotiating his new deal. Nothing is signed yet but it's expected to be soon.
- In the Bad Timing Department, Randy Savage is on the cover of this month's WWF magazine. And to make it even worse, there's a story in the magazine that talks about wrestlers jumping ship from WWF to other, unnamed promotions and Savage is quoted in the article calling the other groups minor league promotions and saying that even if another group offered him $40 million, he would never leave WWF. Well then.
- On MTV's Beavis & Butt-head show, they recently had a bit where Hogan's music played and they made fun of him using steroids.
- WCW is reportedly interested in stealing Yokozuna away from WWF. Dave says it's because Hogan wants to get his win back after jobbing to Yoko in his last WWF PPV match.
- Portuguese Man of War debuted at the latest TV tapings, wearing a Power Rangers type of outfit. He may also end up using the name Aldo Montoya.
- There's been talk of Hercules coming back to WWF as a Cuban gang member from Razor Ramon's past, in order to feud with him.
- Undertaker and IRS will apparently be having a feud that is based on the idea that even after you die, you can't escape paying taxes.
- Diesel and Shawn Michaels have been shaking hands and high-fiving fans at house shows, acting like babyfaces. They've been working mostly tag matches, with Shawn spending the entire match on the apron because his hand is still broken.
- Bret Hart filmed an appearance on an episode of the TV series Lonesome Dove that will air in March. He's scheduled to film another one next month.
- Every single letter in the letters section this week is people writing in to rave about how the AAA When Worlds Collide PPV was one of the best PPVs they've ever seen.