Wrestling Observer Rewinder

January 30, 1995

Royal Rumble is in the books. Dave loved it but he thinks someone should clue the celebrities in on the storylines because Pamela Anderson looked lost and he also criticizes Lawrence Taylor laughing during his angle with Bigelow. But he says the angle was well done and it has people talking. Dave thinks Bob Holly and 1-2-3 Kid winning the tag titles shows just how bad the talent depth problem is. He thinks Diesel/Bret was an excellent match and even though Bret was clearly more popular, at least they didn't boo Diesel. As for Shawn Michaels, he calls him the best all-around performer in the country by a huge margin and the ending of the Rumble match was executed perfectly even though the match itself was pretty bad. Cutting the time down to 1 minute between wrestlers helped because otherwise, it would have been an unbearable drag considering most of the other 29 guys in the match.
The angle to bring back Ric Flair will apparently take place at Clash of the Champions. Dave doesn't know the details, but Gene Okerlund and Bobby Heenan had to go to Atlanta to re-record voice-overs hyping Flair being at ringside during the show. It's believed that it will eventually turn into a Hogan/Savage vs. Flair/Vader feud, but that's not set in stone. Everyone figured Flair would come back at some point this year, but no one expected it to be quite so soon. Dave thinks this is the sort of thing that leaves WCW open to a consumer fraud lawsuit considering how much money they made on the "retirement" show while they were already openly discussing how to bring Flair back after he lost.
Former pro wrestler Woody Strode passed away at age 80 from lung cancer and his story was covered in Sports Illustrated, but wasn't acknowledged anywhere else in the wrestling media. Strode was far more famous as a movie star, but he worked as a pro wrestler in the 1940s through 60s. Even more importantly, Strode was basically the Jackie Robinson of football, being one of the 3 first black football players in the NFL in 1946. Even after he made it big as an actor, he never forgot his wrestling roots and regularly kept in contact with many in the wrestling industry until his death.
Legendary 60s star Ray Stevens suffered a stroke over the weekend and was hospitalized. Stevens is considered the Ric Flair of his era and is known for his famous tag team with Pat Patterson called the Blond Bombers. That upside down flip over the corner turnbuckles that Ric Flair uses was innovated by Stevens, among other things.
SMW wrestler New Jack was arrested after a show in Morristown, TN after punching a 14-year-old fan in the crowd that was heckling him. When 2 police officers came to intervene, he shoved the cops. He was arrested on 2 counts of assaulting an officer, 1 count of assault on a minor, and 1 count of disorderly conduct and was released on bond.
Eddie Gilbert has apparently left SMW without any notice. He had filmed 4 weeks of TV and set up an angle with Ricky Morton but now Gilbert isn't expected to make any further dates. No word on why he left (those SMW tapings ended up being his last matches ever. Here's his final promo ever, before what ended up being his last match).
Last week, Dave looked at the last 3 years of business trends for WWF and WCW. This week, it's Japan's turn. AJPW had a small decline but is still the most stable promotion in the world year in and year out. As for NJPW, their business has gradually increased. And there are at least a dozen other active promotions doing constant good business in Japan, mostly in and around Tokyo, and routinely selling out arenas and sometimes stadiums. For comparison's sake, in 1994, Japan had approx. 1,170 shows and drew a total of over 3 million fans. Meanwhile, the U.S. (which has double the population of Japan) AND Canada held a combined 1,750 shows in 1994 (almost 600 more than Japan) and only drew around 1.7 million fans. TL;DR - the wrestling business is booming in Japan.
Vince McMahon was interviewed in an AP story this week and had several choice quotes.
On Hogan going to WCW: "I don't care how skinny he became or how much hair he lost, he always had that one good match left… He could be 20 steps behind as long as he still maintained that persona, as long as he was in good stead with everyone. He should have left a legacy here that was built, that could have lasted… He used to say, 'Hulkamania will live forever.' Well, it could have. But that wasn't what he wanted. He wanted to be in the spotlight. Ego, I believe, got the best of him, and he wanted to be in the spotlight more than ever."
On Hogan at the steroid trial: "He walked into the courtroom and for some reason looked over at me. If looks could kill, I wouldn't be around. It was as if that it was my fault, for some reason, that he had to sneak into the courtroom and sneak out of the courtroom, trying to avoid the media." (Dave disputes this, saying he was there, only a few feet away from Vince, and he says Hogan actually avoided eye contact with Vince the entire time he was in the room and that it was McMahon who was glaring at Hogan.)
On Ted Turner: "Ted Turner is throwing away stockholders' money at this because this is the only business enterprise in which Ted Turner's butt is kicked every single day. He can go buy whatever he wants, the Goodwill Games and whatever to assuage his own personal ego, but the amount of money that he and his stockholders are losing over this wrestling enterprise, WCW, is astronomical. He just has this personal thing, vendetta, call it what you will, that he wants to drive us out of business and it's just not going to happen."
Diesel was interviewed on a talk show recently and talked about using steroids during the 80s up through his time in WCW and said that everyone in WCW used them and if you didn't, you had no chance of moving up through the ranks. He said WWF's testing is legit and no one is on steroids there.
Dave reviews some of the matches from NJPW's Jan. 4th show that he finally saw tapes of. He says the Sting vs. Tony Palmora match in the tournament is one of the worst matches ever in Japan and gives it negative-4 stars.
Business in UWA in Mexico is so bad that word is some of the lower card match guys are only getting $3 payoffs.
Things aren't looking good for Jim Crockett's new NWA promotion in Dallas. He's been unable to get a TV deal in the city and crowds are falling because of it. When he came in, he also promised clean finishes and no more of the ex-GWF wrestlers because he wanted to give the new promotion a totally separate feel from GWF. But at the latest show, much of the talent was ex-GWF cast-offs and 4 of the 5 matches had screwjob endings. He's not making enough money off the gate to keep running shows at the Sportatorium for much longer at this rate.
Dave just saw a Rey Misterio Jr. vs. Juventud Guerrera match from back in November and says it's one of the best Lucha matches he's ever seen (crazy considering both were only 19 at the time) and gives it the full 5 stars.
Mark Madden got into some more trouble on the WCW 900 hotline this week. Madden made mention of the possibility of Vader shooting on Hogan during their match, which upset Bischoff. He also talked about Lex Luger leaving WWF to come to WCW (as if!). A few days later, Okerlund also teased Luger coming in. Dave says there doesn't appear to be any truth at all to the Luger story, and is likely just Madden's way of trying to stir up rumors for the hotlines. He was later reprimanded by Bischoff.
Useless trivia: even though Ric Flair is usually acknowledged as an 11-time world champion, the real number is more like 14 or 15. Dave lists the occasions were Flair has won and lost the world championship that were never acknowledged by WCW.
Bobby Eaton may be replacing Jean Paul Levesque as Steve Regal's tag team partner in WCW.
Bam Bam Bigelow and Diesel are both doing new Slim Jim commercials.
The Smoking Gunns won the tag titles from 1-2-3 Kid & Bob Holly on Raw. Dave is impressed with the Gunns' athleticism but says they should stop throwing punches because they look awful, especially Bart's. (Funny, considering everyone he'd KTFO a few years later). Anyway, at a taping for the next week, they had a rematch and 1-2-3 Kid did a move off the top rope and landed on his neck and began quivering in the ring. The match was immediately stopped and several wrestlers and agents came in the ring to check on him. Dave assumes it was a work but he doesn't know for sure (it was).
William Shatner apparently rubbed people the wrong way backstage at Raw last week, with many of the wrestlers saying he was acting stuck up.
Dave talks about the new Snickers commercial, with a fireman eating a Snickers bar. He says the fireman was one of his best friends in high school. Hard hitting journalism!