March 13, 1995
- WWF held a press conference announcing Lawrence Taylor would be participating at Wrestlemania 11 and it was a major publicity home run. Media outlets all over the world covered the story and Dave says it's the most publicity a mainstream athlete has gotten for wrestling since Muhammad Ali faced Antonio Inoki in 1976. However, it's not so great for Lawrence Taylor, who has been absolutely crucified by the sports media for taking part, with basically every media outlet talking about how "fake" and "scripted" pro wrestling is and saying it's beneath a future football Hall of Famer to go be a wrestler. This actually isn't Taylor's first foray into wrestling: he worked an angle for WCW in 1991, but of course, WWF isn't acknowledging that and the media seems unaware of it. (Can't find any video of the press conference but here's a picture from it).
- Despite all the media saying Taylor is making $500,000 for working the show, a few sources tell Dave the real number is in the $100K-to-$150K range but no one knows for sure because there's apparently a non-disclosure clause in the deal and Taylor isn't talking. Some in the media have claimed Taylor is doing it because he has financial problems, which he's denied (I think it came out later that indeed he did). WWF also managed to get several other NFL football players to agree to do the show and be in Taylor's corner for the match (including future Four Horseman Steve "Mongo" McMichael).
- The same day as Wrestlemania, Japan will be holding a huge show at the Tokyo Dome, featuring wrestlers from 13 different promotions. They won't be working together. Each match will be from a different promotion and they will all be putting their best foot forward, hoping to present a match that will show why their promotion is the best. Dave breaks down all the known matches that will take place. (This ends up being a huge deal.)
- WWF has taken WCW's bait and decided to also add 4 new PPVs to their schedule this year, bringing their schedule up to 9 PPVs for the year, equal with WCW. The additional WWF PPVs will actually be cheaper than usual, only $14.95 which comes as a major surprise since higher prices haven't kept people from buying PPVs in the past. So offering the new events at a cheaper price probably leaves money on the table and makes it seem like these events aren't as important (this was the beginning of the In Your House PPVs).
- More on Eric Bischoff meeting with K-1 in Japan. He attended a K-1 show and discussed promoting a June PPV which would be like UFC, but have a few more rules thrown in and would feature K-1 fighters and presumably some WCW stars as well.
- In SMW, they're doing an angle with The Gangstas & D-Lo Brown, who will face Tracy Smothers, Bob Armstrong, and a mystery partner in a Salute The Flag match, where the losers have to salute the other team's flag. The Gangstas have been parading around with a black Malcolm X flag which they drape over their opponents after beating them. Team Smothers has a rebel flag, because of course. The mystery partner was announced as The Undertaker, on loan from WWF.
- Tully Blanchard faced Shane Douglas at an ECW show this week and didn't want to do the job to Douglas and instead wanted to do a DQ finish. But Paul Heyman is trying to build the company around real finishes (pinfall or submission) and wouldn't go for it. Blanchard finally agreed to be pinned but wasn't happy about it and this might be his last appearance for ECW.
- The return of Terry Funk to ECW and the angle with he and Sandman aired on TV this week and Dave says it's one of the best angles in ECW history (it's on the WWE Network if you're curious: the Feb. 28, 1995 episode of Hardcore TV).
- Tod Gordon sent a letter to rival promoter Dennis Coraluzzo threatening a lawsuit, claiming Coraluzzo has been trying to sabotage ECW by contacting venues that they have booked and trying to steal the dates from them or getting the venues to cancel by claiming ECW shows are too wild for the building owners to risk holding.
- Herb Abrams' UWF has a TV deal with ESPN2 and the show will start airing next week. It will be 5 nights per week, airing at...wait for it...3am.
- There's been a lot of talk of reforming the Four Horsemen in WCW lately. Ric Flair and Arn Anderson would definitely be in it, with Steve Austin likely being the 3rd member. As for the 4th member, names being tossed around are Vader, Dustin Rhodes, or possibly Tully Blanchard.
- WWF had made a deal with Rick Martel to work as the top babyface in the Montreal market but the deal fell through. Montreal is currently WWF's hottest market and the plan was for Martel to work matches at every taping as a babyface and those matches would only air on TV shows in Montreal and eventually lead to big angles every time WWF comes through town. But Martel backed out for reasons unknown, even though Dave says WWF was "practically begging" him to do it.
- Jesse Ventura has filed a new lawsuit against WWF, asking for $254,000 in interest on top of his original awarded payment from last year (which WWF is still currently appealing and hasn't yet paid).
- Both Shane Douglas and Michael Hayes received tryouts to co-host Raw, but Douglas reportedly doesn't want to do it, so Hayes is the likely front-runner.
- Davey Boy Smith has been sued for $1.3 million over a fight in a Calgary bar back in 1993. The victim claims Smith attacked him after he unknowingly danced with Smith's wife. The victim suffered permanent brain damage in the attack after hitting his head on the floor and was hospitalized for over a month and still has significant loss of motor skills and speech. The criminal trial for the case is expected to go to court in June (this eventually becomes a pretty big deal).
- The WCW hotline claimed Lex Luger gave his notice to WWF, but Dave says there's no truth to it (well, not yet...).