May 15, 1995
- TV ratings for shows like WCW Main Event and WCW Saturday Night have been declining in the last year or so because WCW stopped making eventful things happen on the tapings, because they're worried about giving away angles and title changes months in advance or about spoiling PPV results before they happen. So WCW has begun limiting the good, exciting stuff that happens at these tapings. So now, all the good stuff happens on the occasional live Saturday night shows, Clash of the Champions shows, or on PPV, and the shows that are taped at Disney are just filler and are no longer important to see.
- The new Renegade character in WCW is at the center of some controversy. Immediately after his debut at the PPV, WWF sent WCW a cease & desist order, claiming the Renegade is trademark infringement on the Ultimate Warrior character they own. Dave says that's a pretty obvious open and shut case. But what about WWF's newest signee Hunter Hearst Helmsley? That character is a blatant carbon copy of Steve Regal's current WCW character. Dave's take: "Can you imagine if this actually went to court? Titan's attorneys would argue that they developed the intellectual character of a no-talent steroid freak who can't work a lick, paints his face, blows up in 30 seconds, runs around like he's spastic, shakes the ropes and does unintelligible interviews and by gosh, judge, they're copying our ideas and we want damages. The judge would probably rule in favor of Titan and say the damages are worth 50 cents. Next thing you know Vader and Bam Bam Bigelow will go to court against each other claiming they're stealing each others' fat man moves and gimmick." Anyway, Renegade has been told to no longer shake the ropes like Warrior and they made a few minor clothing changes (no more arm tassels). He's apparently really bad, having to be coached through heavily choreographed 30-second squash matches against jobbers, and it took two dozen takes for him to get his lines right in a backstage promo, to the point where they reduced the promo from 3 sentences down to "I want the belt" and some assorted grunts.
- Speaking of Renegade, Steve Austin refused to do a job for him this week and it stirred up some trouble. Obviously, management was upset but Austin became a locker room hero for those who are tired of no-talent newcomers (aka Hogan's friends) showing up and the old WCW vets being asked to put them over. Guys like Austin, Pillman, Johnny B. Badd and Regal have been around for years and are seen as the unappreciated workhorses of the company. Booker Ric Flair and Arn Anderson attempted to convince Austin to do the job, but he kept refusing and eventually walked out. Tex Slazenger ended up filling in and doing the match and it was said to be so bad that they called it un-airable and many called it the worst match in WCW history. Most of the wrestlers backstage were said to be on the floor laughing at how bad it was. As of now, Austin has not quit or been fired, and with a lot of people backstage supporting him, it's believed he probably won't be fired for it.
- Ken Shamrock will face Royce Gracie (EDIT: Ken Shamrock) (EDIT 2: GODDAMMIT DAN SEVERN FUCK!!) in the UFC 6 main event, and Dave says it's the first time in maybe 100 years that two recognized world champions in pro wrestling have faced each other in a legit shoot. Dave talks up the rest of the card and talks about minor rule changes and notes that a company called Semaphore Entertainment Group now owns 100% of UFC after buying out the other 50% owners.
- Atsushi Onita's retirement match drew over 50,000 fans. His opponent, Hayabusa is now expected to be the new top star to carry the promotion. In a press conference after, Onita stated that he'll never wrestle again and he also squashed rumors that he planned to go into politics like Antonio Inoki. Dave says the real story is that Onita tried but none of the major political parties will back him. While Onita is just as big a sports celebrity in Japan as Inoki, the fact is Inoki has a classier reputation. He wrestles honorable matches and appears dignified. Onita always appears in shredded clothes, covered in blood and barbed wire in every magazine. Anyway, Dave says FMW is an incredible success story, but the retirement of Onita is likely the end of that story (pretty much true. Even though Onita didn't stay retired, the company peaked with this show and it was all downhill from there).
- We look back at the last 6 week period, which featured 14 major events throughout the world (Wrestlemania, the North Korea shows, Fukuoka Dome show, WCW Uncensored, etc.) and he gives final stats and analysis on each show and whether it was a success or not. It's long and interesting but nothing newsworthy.
- Dave notes that a large portion of the crowd at the North Korea shows were attended by poor Koreans "who were practically ordered to attend." He also notes that even though it was the largest crowd any of them had ever performed in front of, most of the wrestlers couldn't wait to get out of the country. They all believed their phones were being bugged (almost certainly true) and they all had to have a government escort with them everywhere they went, even backstage while they worked out their matches and overall, it was just an unpleasant experience for all.
- And now it's rant time, as Dave goes in on UFC critics like John McCain and argues that boxing is more dangerous than UFC is and points out that McCain used to be a boxer and still loves it, but is trying to ban UFC. He argues that most critics of UFC have no knowledge of the technical martial arts aspects.
- In SMW, they did an angle where there was a cage match and Glenn Jacobs (Unabom) hid under the ring all day and then tore a hole in the bottom of the ring and came up through it. So that's where Kane stole that from! If I was this Glenn Jacobs guy, I'd be pissed...
- Expect major changes in ECW in the next few weeks, with rumors that there have been offers for people to buy into the company. Paul Heyman is anxious to expand the company nationally and is getting impatient with being a regional promotion (this never really amounted to anything from any outside buyers but I think it's the beginning of Heyman fully taking over the company from Tod Gordon).
- ECW's recent shows in Florida were troublesome. One was nearly cancelled over fear of violence when security confiscated several boxes of frying pans and cookie trays fans had brought. That show featured Raven and Tommy Dreamer battling all over the building which led to the show almost being shut down because of it. And another show featured the fans imitating the famous chair-throwing incident and Pit Bull Spike ended up getting a gash in the back of his head from a thrown chair.
- Jim Crockett's NWA promotion at the Dallas Sportatorium cancelled it's upcoming shows and things don't look good, with the most recent crowd being down to 100 people (yeah that was pretty much the end of that and also the end of Jim Crockett's time in professional wrestling. He retired from the business and reportedly became a realtor or something).
- Vader appeared on the show "Boy Meets World" this week. Dave describes the episode, but I won't spoil it here. He does, however, note that the star of the show is "younger brother of Fred 'Wonder Years' Savage." (Vader ended up appearing in 2 episodes of the show. This is the first one, during season 2. He made another appearance later in season 4).
- Brad Armstrong is gone from WCW. It was partly a cost-cutting measure but there's also rumors that he failed a drug test, which made it an easy decision to get rid of him.
- Eric Bischoff was in Japan for NJPW's Fukuoka Dome show and stuck around after to attend a K-1 kickboxing show. After the show, Bischoff reportedly closed a deal to air a K-1 PPV in September, produced by WCW.
- Arn Anderson may be turning babyface soon and feuding with Ric Flair.
- Bobby Heenan made a major push to have WCW induct him into their Hall of Fame at Slamboree. No word if he'll be inducted (nope).
- Paul Wight will possibly be making his WCW debut at the upcoming Slamboree PPV. He's being groomed as a new Andre The Giant-type character to feud with Hogan.
- Hulk Hogan has an album coming out soon. Expect it to get a heavy marketing push. (Hulk Hogan & The Wrestling Boot Band. Album was called Hulk Rules. Here, try to enjoy):
- Bam Bam Bigelow has a role in the movie Major Payne that is currently in theaters. Here's a clip in (EDIT: a language that I thought was Spanish but turns out it's Portuguese) because that's all I can find.
- WWF began airing vignettes for Chris Candido and Tammy Sytch, as a duo called Skip & Sunny, named the Bodydonnas. The gimmick is they insult the audience and call them fat.
- Day Spivey has dyed his hair jet black and will be coming in as a character named Waylon Mercy.
- Jim Ross has been pushing for WWF to bring in both Johnny Ace and Steve Williams from All Japan. No word on it happening yet (no time soon for Williams, never for Johnny Ace as a wrestler).
- WWF tried to get real British royalty, Duchess Ferguson, to present the crown at King of the Ring, but she turned it down. They also tried to get Kato Kaelin (of O.J. trial fame) to participate in a skit at In Your House but he wasn't interested.
- Someone writes in and talks about a recent run-in with Terry Gordy, who is now making minimum wage working odd-jobs at a Goodwill warehouse in Chattanooga. He was told doctors had begged him not to wrestle anymore because of his health and the person who writes the letter spoke to him and said he just sorta mumbled and seemed out of it and that it was sad because Gordy has seemingly suffered permanent brain damage from his drug overdose awhile back. And against doctor's orders, he still wrestles.