March 27, 1995
- Big John Studd passed away this week after a 17-month battle with Hodgkins lymphoma. Studd discovered he had the disease after working an indie show and realizing he had no stamina in the ring. After the match, he felt a lump under his arm in the shower. When he went to the doctor and had tests done, they discovered a large tumor in his chest. Studd tried to keep the diagnosis secret and downplayed it to those who knew and in fact, for most people, the secret only came out last year during Vince McMahon's steroid trial, when Studd was called to testify but couldn't do so in person due to his illness and ended up testifying over the phone. He spent several months in the hospital last year fighting the disease and after chemo treatments, it went into remission. It later returned and Studd got a bone marrow transplant, which sent it into remission again. Six weeks ago, Studd suffered a collapsed lung and ran a 108 degree fever, which the doctor said was the highest he'd seen someone live through and not suffer brain damage from. Over the last month, Studd had strongly gotten into religion due to, well, obvious reasons. The cancer and chemo reportedly destroyed his liver and this time, the doctors told him he only had a week to live.
- Dave recaps Studd's entire career, from his early days training under Killer Kowalski before bouncing around the territories in the 70s and then on to AWA and eventually into the WWF where he feuded with all the usual suspects like Hogan and Backlund, and including a famous feud with Andre The Giant that culminated in the Bodyslam Challenge match between them at the first Wrestlemania. Studd was never a great worker and was one of the most well known users of Human Growth Hormone (HGH) because he wanted to be as big as Andre and it took a big toll on his body, especially his knees. Studd was told later that it's possible the use of HGH and steroids may have accelerated the onset of his cancer. John's final run was in 1989 when he returned as a babyface to feud with a heel Andre, but it was eventually cut short over both men's declining health.
- Dustin Rhodes, Blacktop Bully, and road agent Mike Graham were all fired by WCW because both Rhodes and Bully bladed during their match at the Uncensored PPV, which is strictly against company policy. Graham was fired because it was reportedly his idea and he even gave them the blades. Reportedly Dusty Rhodes may be heading out of the company too because he's so upset over their decision to fire his son. The match was taped prior to the PPV and went 20 minutes. WCW edited it down to 13 minutes and although blood was visible at times, all the bloodiest shots were edited out and the announcers never acknowledged the blood on commentary. It's become an extremely controversial decision because just a few weeks earlier, Hulk Hogan bladed in a house show match with Vader and because the Uncensored PPV was hyped as being more violent and adult-oriented. Many in WCW believe Rhodes, Bully, and Graham are being made scapegoats because WCW is under pressure to significantly cut their budget. It's expected that Rhodes will probably end up in WWF eventually but no negotiations have taken place yet.
- Gene Okerlund missed the PPV because he finally found a suitable kidney donor and had a kidney transplant a few days earlier. Word is he is recovering well and should be back soon.
- Bill Shaw has been replaced as the new head of TBS Sports by a guy named Harvey Schiller. His role is more of an overseer and he won't be very hands on when it comes to making decisions, so for now, the major decisions will still be made by Eric Bischoff (though Dave notes that the person really running WCW is Hogan).
- From a technical standpoint, the corporation of AAA has folded. But the promotion will continue. It's a long complicated story but basically, the parent company of AAA is Televisa and they have been hit hard by the Mexican economic crisis and there are massive layoffs taking place and they dropped AAA as a promotion but they still own the corpora....yanno, fuck it. It's just a big boring political mess. But long story short, AAA still exists as its own company now, no longer owned by Televisa. It's basically like if Turner dropped WCW and they had to survive on their own without Ted Turner propping them up. Dave says to expect budget cuts in AAA but at least AAA president Antonio Pena now has full control to make creative and business decisions, which he didn't have when they were under Televisa.
- Crush was fired by WWF this week after being arrested on drug and gun charges in Hawaii. Crush (real name Brian Adams) was arrested after an 8-day investigation that started when authorities intercepted a package meant for him that contained 500 units of anabolic steroids. Police searched Crush's home and found several unregistered handguns and other drugs, including marijuana and he was booked on 5 gun charges and 7 drug charges. Even though he hasn't been used in months and was basically being paid to sit at home, WWF fired him immediately.
- Dave notes that Rey Misterio Jr. continues to get better and better and says he's the best wrestler he has seen live on a regular basis since Ric Flair in 1989. He also says Misterio is a better complete performer than either Chris Benoit or Shawn Michaels (let's not go crazy now, Dave).
- Dave talks about an AAA wrestler named Scorpio Jr. who has a hereditary issue that makes him acne prone. Plus, he's super roided up, which makes it worse. Anyway, because of all this, his back is "zit city" and when he takes bumps, the zits pop and the blood streams down his back.
- Jushin Liger was expected to return at NJPW's big Fukuoka Dome show in May but there's been no talk of that yet and now he's unlikely to work that show, leading many to think his injury is worse than thought and his career may be over (he didn't come back until August and continues to wrestle to this day).
- Undertaker filmed a promo for the upcoming SMW show he's working and Dave says it was probably the longest promo of his career.
- There was an interesting incident at the latest ECW show. After a match, Sabu and manager Paul Heyman began challenging anyone to come out and face Sabu. Well the crowd started chanting for a large, 400-pound fan in the front row and it picked up enough steam that it almost looked like the fan was going to jump the rail. Sabu and, to a lesser degree, Heyman were egging the fan on but he was being held back by other wrestlers and Tod Gordon, who realized how bad of an idea that could be. After everyone went back to the dressing room, Tod Gordon brought the fan into the ring and put him over with the crowd and gave him some free merch and everything to diffuse the situation. Sabu was in the locker room and reportedly wanted to do a run-in on the fan, but was talked out of it.
- A couple of weeks ago, a Phoenix TV station did a story about Ultimate Warrior defaulting on his student loans, despite being quite rich. Warrior was interviewed by the news station this week and said he was tired of being harassed since the story aired and said he would repay the loans.
- Erik Watts debuted for WWF this week at a house show in Madison Square Garden, teaming with Chad Fortune. Thanks, J.R....
- 1-2-3 Kid suffered his second concussion in the span of 10 days at the Garden show, in a match with Hakushi. His concussion last week was also against Hakushi.
- Lawrence Taylor recently lost his job as a sports analyst on TNT and in an ESPN interview this week, he claims he was fired because he's working Wrestlemania and TNT is owned by Ted Turner.
- Latest rumor is Chris Candido & Tammy Sytch's new gimmick will be as heels doing a Tony Little & Susan Powter physical fitness guru gimmick where they yell at the audience for being fat and out of shape.