May 01, 1995
- We open with a list of all the wrestlers who have "retired" only to come back later. Terry Funk, Randy Savage, Verne Gagne, Fritz Von Erich, Konnan, and several more, most recently, Ric Flair. Which leads Dave to the upcoming retirement of Atsushi Onita in Japan, one of the top drawing stars of all-time. The show has already pretty much sold out and 50,000+ people are expected. However, just days before the match, Onita's opponent Tarzan Goto has quit the promotion. Two other wrestlers have also quit and word is several others are planning to quit after they get their payoff for the big show. There was consideration of cancelling the show, but with so many tickets already sold, that's not happening. There has also been talk of Onita not retiring because many think FMW can't survive without him, especially now, but after spending a year hyping this retirement match, backing out of it isn't an option either. So for now, no one really knows what they're going to do.
- WCW's Craig Pittman became the first wrestler from one of the major American promotions to take part in a shootfighting tournament, participating in a show in Japan and losing in the semi-finals in a controversial decision. The rules were slightly different than UFC and it took place in a wrestling ring, but otherwise, same stuff. The idea was for Pittman to have a strong showing in hopes that it would impress UFC enough to invite him to participate in the next UFC show (didn't work).
- AAA had to cancel a planned show in San Jose this week at the last minute due to their own disorganization. The arena was booked, but AAA is seemingly in chaos and had no lineup announced, no transportation planned, etc. and the show just fell apart. AAA and EMLL are both trying to expand into the United States but it just doesn't seem to be working.
- Vader lost the UWFI title to Nobuhiko Takada in a match in Japan this week. The last time those 2 faced each other in 1993, they drew a sellout of 46,000 people to a stadium. This time, they only drew 6,000 paid to a 12,000 seat arena. Not looking good in UWFI. Vader's loss is good news for WCW though because now that he's no longer UWFI champion, there's no reason Vader can't put over Hogan.
- Sports Illustrated is doing a piece on wrestling deaths that will air as part of ABC's Wide World of Sports this week. SI has interviewed Ultimate Warrior, Missy Hyatt, and even Dave himself in the last week about the deaths of Eddie Gilbert, Art Barr, and Big John Studd (can't find any video of this one).
- WCW announced that Great Muta will defend the IWGP title against Paul Orndorff at Slamboree next month. Only one problem: Muta isn't the IWGP champion yet. He's scheduled to face Shinya Hashimoto for the title at NJPW's Fukuoka Dome show this week, and WCW has seemingly given away the result that Muta will be winning the title (yup).
- Both WWF and WCW undercard wrestlers are working together on USWA shows and so far, it's going okay. WWF sent Erik Watts and Chad Fortune down to USWA, while WCW has sent 2 rookies named Kenny Kendall and The Gambler.
- Brian Christopher is reportedly heading to the WWF soon but no word on what the plans are for him yet (not for another 2 years yet, Brian).
- Jake Roberts was interviewed by a newspaper and talked about how he's battled drug and alcohol addiction for his entire career and talked about how it's ridiculous that pro wrestlers don't have health insurance and things like that. He also said his heart hasn't been in wrestling for the last 2 years and that's why he's currently retired.
- Gene Okerlund's health has apparently improved, as he returned to work this week. He recently had a kidney transplant and there were concerns that his body was rejecting the organ.
- Sabu and WCW have not yet reached a deal. Eric Bischoff offered Sabu a spot as the top heel in the cruiserweight division (which is apparently back on after being forgotten about) and would feud with Brian Pillman, but Sabu turned it down because he doesn't want to be typecast as a cruiserweight wrestler. Sabu reportedly wants to feud for the U.S. title since that's the title his uncle The Sheik is famous for holding (Sheik held the "Detroit version" of the title. Back in the NWA days, even though there was only 1 NWA champion, several different territories had their own versions of the U.S. title. Sheik held the Detroit territory's U.S. title 12 times, more than anyone else).
- Turner executives are pretty hands-off with WCW and have given Eric Bischoff full control of every aspect of the company. Bischoff has basically been given a year to get the finances in order and turn the ship around, so any and all budget cuts and firings are 100% Bischoff's decision.
- Dory Funk Jr. has backed out of wrestling at WCW's Slamboree in a planned legends match. With Great Muta defending the IWGP belt at the show and several other NJPW wrestlers expected to be in attendance, Funk didn't want to work the show because he's loyal to Giant Baba and AJPW.
- Latest word is that Chris Candido & Tammy Sytch will be using the names Skip & Sunny and will be doing a heel exercise guru gimmick.
- At the latest WWF tapings, Paul Levesque debuted in a dark match (because he's still not allowed to appear on TV due to his WCW contract) using the name Hunter Hearst Helmsley and got no reaction.
- In the letters, a former AWA employee named Dale Gagner writes in to talk about how much worse the drug problem is in wrestling than most people realize. Between painkillers, alcohol, cocaine, and steroids, Gagner says that almost everyone in the business is on something and the drug problem is much bigger than people on the outside realize.