April 17, 1995
- The Wrestlemania buyrate has come in and has fallen well short of even the lowest expectations. Depending on which source you believe, the buyrate is somewhere around 1.3 to 1.5 which considering all the mainstream publicity going into it, means Wrestlemania was a complete flop. They had been publicly hoping for at least a 2.0 and didn't even come close. The TV ratings went up significantly in the wake of all the Lawrence Taylor publicity but those ratings didn't translate into buys. Some are blaming the publicity because much of it was negative from the sports media. Others are blaming the higher PPV price and others are saying it's a sign that they've flooded the market with too many PPVs.
- Shawn Michaels is doing an injury-angle after being attacked by his bodyguard Sycho Sid and will return as a babyface. The reason for the injury angle is because Shawn requested time off after Wrestlemania. As for the face turn, WWF is incredibly weak on the heel side right now, but they really had no choice because Michaels was getting cheered even more than Diesel at most shows recently. This leaves them completely dependent on Sid to be their new top heel and for obvious reasons, being dependent on Sid isn't really a great position for WWF to be in.
- UFC 5 took place this week and 2 pro wrestlers stole the show. NWA champion Dan Severn came out with the NWA title belt held high and obliterated everyone in his path to win the tournament. And in the main event, Ken Shamrock hung with Royce Gracie for 36 minutes before the fight was finally called a draw and did severe damage to the unbeatable Gracie myth, with many thinking that if the fight had gone just a few minutes longer, Shamrock would have won because Gracie was completely spent (if I'm not mistaken, this was Gracie's last UFC fight for the next 5 years). UFC 6 is expected to feature Dan Severn vs. Ken Shamrock, but that's still not confirmed.
- Sabu was fired from ECW this week after no-showing an event. It was well known within the industry that New Japan had booked Sabu for a show the same day as the ECW show. Sabu had agreed to work both shows, believing (falsely) that because of the time difference, he could hop a plane immediately after the Japan show and make it to the ECW event, which would have been impossible. When he found out he couldn't do that, he told NJPW that he had already agreed to work the ECW show. They told him to get out of that show because the NJPW show was planned to set him up for an IWGP Jr. Heavyweight title shot at next month's huge Fukuoka Dome show. Heyman refused to budge since he'd already promoted Sabu as working the main event of the heavily hyped Three Way Dance show (arguably the biggest show in ECW's history to date). Sabu was basically in a position where knew he screwed up by double-booking himself and was told by both sides that if he no-showed, he would be fired. According to Paul Heyman, Sabu had assured him that he was going to still find a way to make the ECW show, leading them to believe he was going to miss the NJPW show. It wasn't until 2 days before the ECW show when they tried to call Sabu and got an answering machine message saying he had left for Japan that they realized he was going to bail on them. "He gave me his word so I built the TV show around it (the three-way dance match)," said Heyman. "He left me with no other options regarding him and that's really a shame. But I have no choice. If I let this go, I have no control of my dressing room. I lose control of my dressing room and once that happens, the ballgame is over."
- At the ECW show, Paul Heyman opened by breaking kayfabe and giving a long speech, using several wrestlers' real names and talking about how hard they work for the fans. "Sabu gave us a commitment and then decided that because he was offered more money on a weekly basis, he will not give you what you paid to see, and decided not to give me the courtesy of a phone call when he swore to God on Sunday night that before we all went into production to give you that Tuesday night TV show that if you are going to fuck the audience because you are the star in this promotion, to let me know, and he said, 'I'll be there.' Then on Thursday he tells me and Taz and 911 and anyone who would call his answering machine that he is on his way to Japan. You people, the audience of ECW and all the stars within have been fucked and were deemed not important enough to see performed a match that you have been waiting since Christmas for. You voted with your dollars to see him and Sabu decided to go to Japan." At this point, the crowd began chanting "Fuck Sabu!" and Heyman responded, "You're right, fuck him." Then he told the fans to stick around through the first half of the show "on us" and at intermission, if you're upset about Sabu not appearing, you can still get a full refund. The crowd continued chanting "Fuck Sabu" throughout the show. (I can't find any of this online anywhere, wtf?)
- Sabu has said he felt that at this point in his career, he had to take the big money NJPW offer and said he's also been unhappy about the direction of ECW, mostly with all the other wrestlers doing a hardcore style, which he feels is his gimmick. He also claims there is prestige to wrestling in Japan and called ECW a "bullshit style of wrestling." He says everything in ECW is an angle and he likes competitive matches with clean finishes. Sabu admits he was wrong to double-book himself but he said the way Paul Heyman buried him at the show was even more wrong. Sabu has had meetings with Eric Bischoff and is in talks to work occasional shows for WCW while keeping his New Japan commitments. As for the Japan show, Sabu worked it and ended up breaking his ankle, but isn't expected to miss any bookings.
- The Undertaker helped SMW draw a sellout crowd of 2,000 last week for his match, teaming with Tracy Smothers against The Gangstas in a Salute The Flag match. Undertaker and Smothers won of course, and the Gangstas ended up having to salute the Confederate flag. (Can't find the match, but here's a Gangsta's promo in a cemetery leading up to it where they all act scared of Undertaker).
- Dave gives his quick review of Wrestlemania now that he's seen it. Shawn/Diesel was good. Lawrence Taylor was better than he had any right to be but still wasn't necessarily good, and Salt N' Peppa were "tremendous" doing their rap entrance for LT. Overall, the best he can say about the whole show is that it wasn't totally boring, but that's a low bar.
- The big 13-promotion Japan show that took place last week continues to be ignored by all the magazines and newspapers in Japan because it was put together by a different magazine that they all see as competition. Dave thinks it's ridiculous because this was literally one of the biggest wrestling events of all time and most of the media is pretending like it never happened because they don't want to acknowledge the success of a competing magazine. But everyone knows it happened and ignoring it just makes them all look petty.
- UWA in Mexico, which has been on its deathbed for months, struck a deal with TV company Imavision and with that extra money, they signed Mil Mascaras to a deal and are reportedly negotiating with several other top stars in Mexico. It appears to be a last ditch effort for survival and it reportedly has both AAA and EMLL worried that they may sign away some of their top stars (nah).
- FMW held a press conference to announce Atsushi Onita's retirement match next month will take place against Tarzan Goto, which was already expected (that ends up changing). Even before the full lineup of the show was announced, it had pretty much already sold out all 52,000 tickets which shows just what a huge draw Onita is (the retirement didn't last of course, but Onita leaving for a year is pretty much when the downfall of FMW began).
- Dave talks about an AAA match between Octagon, Santo & Rey Misterio Jr. vs. Fuerza Guerrera, Psicosis & Blue Panther and pretty much gives it 5 stars. He says Misterio has blown past Great Sasuke and is by far the most spectacular wrestler in the world.
- The Jerry Springer episode which was supposed to feature Jim Cornette and the Gangstas has been scrapped. No word why.
- At the ECW show that Sabu missed, they also furthered the angle with Raven and Tommy Dreamer when a girl in the crowd sprayed Dreamer in the face with hair spray. The story will be that this is a girl that both Raven and Dreamer knew when they were at summer camp as teens and Dreamer ignored her, so she hooked up with Raven instead (this would be the debut of Beulah McGillicutty. Still one of my all-time top teenage crushes).
- The latest talent cuts in WCW look to be The Butcher (Brutus Beefcake), Joey Maggs, and Steve Keirn. Butcher isn't exactly being fired because lord knows that would never fly on Hogan's watch. Word is he gave his notice and is leaving on his own. There are also rumors swirling that Steve Austin may be getting cut soon. He's been jobbed out to Sting and Jim Duggan recently and they currently have no plans for him. (This is interesting to me. Revisionist history has always said that Austin got injured and so Bischoff fired him and, of course, lived to regret it. But it's looking like Bischoff was trying to get rid of Austin months before he ever got hurt. Easily gotta be one of the worst decisions Uncle Eric ever made).
- The Road Warriors and the Steiners were both planned to debut at June's Great American Bash PPV, but that looks to be falling through. The Steiners may have backed out of the deal because of money issues and because WCW wanted them to put over the Nasty Boys in their first match back. As for the Road Warriors, they haven't wrestled as a team since leaving WWF because Animal has been injured and collecting on an insurance policy, but word is that's expiring soon and he's planning to return to the ring, but he may not be coming back that soon after all, so it's possible that neither team will debut at the Bash.
- The Star tabloid is reporting a story claiming that Pamela Anderson had a fling with Shawn Michaels during all the Wrestlemania hype and now her husband (rock star Tommy Lee) is upset at Michaels. Geraldo Rivera and the E! network gossip shows have also picked up on the story. "And people actually believe this?" Dave asks.
- Barry Abrams, a producer for ESPN, attended Wrestlemania and writes in about it. He's clearly a wrestling fan and knows his shit. He liked some of it, but overall thought it was a bad show. He also said he had a VIP from ESPN with him and that guy left before the show was over because he didn't enjoy it. (I contacted Barry Abrams on Twitter when I was writing this and asked who the "VIP from ESPN" was. Turns out it was Craig Kilborn.)