May 29, 1995
- WWF had a "team meeting" at Titan Towers this week, which was basically a pep rally but also included news of a far more strict drug policy. The idea is to remove the barriers between "office" and "talent" and the wrestlers were shown a video of what different departments like marketing, TV production, etc. do on a daily basis. Vince also gave everyone an update on the company's financial situation, acknowledging that the company lost money last year, but that he believes business is at the beginning of an upswing. Vince also told people that the In Your House buyrate was a 1.0 but independent estimates show it around 0.83 which would make it possibly the lowest buyrate ever for WWF.
- During the meeting, J.J. Dillon was tasked with informing the wrestlers of a new drug policy that, if enforced, will be the strictest in any sport or entertainment company (guess Vince didn't want to be the one to deliver the news that would piss everyone off and passed it on to Dillon). One big change is that marijuana has been reclassified and is now treated the same as steroids or cocaine, meaning a positive test would result in the same 3-strike punishments as the others (6-week suspension, 6-week suspension + rehab, and finally termination). They've also made big changes to cracking down on prescription drugs. They have to show a valid prescription at the time of testing and give the company contact information to verify with the doctor. A violation for any drug without a prescription is a violation. Sharing prescriptions with someone else will result in both parties being punished. As you can imagine, many wrestlers are upset about this, feeling that the wrestling lifestyle basically requires drugs just to survive due to the pain from taking bumps, travelling worldwide, frequently changing time zones, road trips, injuries, etc. The complaint said the new policy will turn wrestlers into alcoholics because booze would now be the only way they could medicate themselves.
- WCW's Slamboree PPV took place and was an awful show, but there were some out-of-the-ring positives. The Hall of Fame inductions were handled in a very classy and respectful way. And Eric Bischoff was surprisingly good on commentary, filling in for Tony Schiovane who finally had long-needed neck surgery. And the surprise return of Road Warrior Hawk was cool, even though the match sucked. Of course, the main event ended with Flair eating another pin from Hogan. During Hogan and Savage's entrance, Paul Wight was shown briefly, to build up to the inevitable feud with Hogan and he came out again later during the match. It's thought Wight may be portrayed as Andre The Giant's son or nephew.
- Jimmy Hart found out that his 84-year-old mother died in a car accident literally just before the main event started. She was on her way to the show and was involved in a head-on collision. Jimmy Hart still came out to the ring and played his role in the show. Wow.
- Chicago-based promotion American Wrestling Federation debuted on TV with their "Warriors of Wrestling" show in several markets this week. The promotion seems to have a lot of money behind it and is spending it to buy television time slots nationally. The biggest stars involved appear to be Sgt. Slaughter and Tito Santana (who is also booker), among other WWF 80s stars.
- Vampiro announced in Mexico this week that he plans to try to go into boxing. This led to EMLL's booker publicly blasting Vampiro, who is one of EMLL's biggest draws, saying he'll never be a good boxer and he's not even a good wrestler, and it's a shame that he continues to spit in the face of the sport that made him famous. So yeah, the relationship there isn't great...
- Rob Van Dam recently turned down a major movie role in a movie called Superfights because filming would have conflicted with his current All Japan tour that he had already committed to (Apparently Van Dam was offered the starring role and couldn't do it, but he did end up having a minor role in the movie, at about the 57 minute mark).
- The North Korea shows that took place last month were basically state-sponsored events. Inoki made the deal with the North Korean government to hold the shows, but all ticket money from the crowd went to the government and New Japan paid the wrestlers.
- A newcomer named The Punisher debuted in SMW and attacked some of the babyfaces. He previously wrestled as Sunset Sam McGraw in North Georgia wrestling and was said to not be very good. (That would later become Bull Buchanan in WWF).
- Ricky Morton beat Al Snow in a scaffold match in SMW this week. After the match, Snow and Unabom hung Morton with a noose (I can't find any video of the match, but here's audio of Al Snow talking about it).
- There are rumors that ECW is planning to do a 1-hour iron man match between Eddie Guerrero and Dean Malenko at some point (I don't think that ever happened).
- There are a lot of rumors going around about the ownership of ECW. Tod Gordon hasn't attended any of the recent shows and it's believed Paul Heyman may be planning to buy out Gordon's majority percentage and take over the promotion himself.
- Hulk Hogan appeared at the NBA playoff game between the Orlando Magic and Chicago Bulls last week, due to being friends with Shaquille O'Neal. Announcer Doug Collins spoke about Hogan being there and made a bunch of negative remarks about the NBA turning into the WWF, until someone corrected him that Hogan was with WCW.
- The planned K-1/WCW PPV wants to have Craig Pittman face Dan Severn, but part of Severn's UFC contract is that he can't participate in shootfights for another promotion so that's unlikely to happen. Plus, he has everything to lose and nothing to gain by taking that fight.
- WCW will be airing the North Korea show as a PPV in America called "Klash in Korea" (later changed to Collision In Korea) in August.
- Gordon Solie was reportedly upset about some of the people being inducted into WCW's Hall of Fame and quit the promotion the week before Slamboree, but was talked into returning. Dave implies that Angelo Poffo is the source of the controversy and that a lot of people (not just Solie) felt Poffo wasn't deserving of being inducted into the Hall of Fame and was only brought in to participate in the Hogan/Savage/Flair angle at the end of the show.
- WWF is pushing the Bob Backlund for President angle hard, trying to get mainstream publicity from it and going so far as to try and legitimately get him on the ballot in New Hampshire.
- Erik Watts and Chad Fortune debuted on WWF TV as Tekno Team 2000 and dressed like they came out of the movie Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure. Chris Candido also debuted as Bodydonna Skip, without Sunny.
- Lawrence Taylor has split with his long-time agent, mainly over disagreements stemming from Wrestlemania. Taylor's agent was quoted in the news before Wrestlemania saying he didn't want Taylor to do it.
- Something I haven't really mentioned, but pretty much every letters section of these Observer issues for the last year or so has featured at least 1 or 2 people writing in to say how absolutely blown away they are by ECW and how it's the most unique, best wrestling show they've ever seen and yada yada. I know it's cliche now in 2017 to talk about how revolutionary and influential ECW was, but it's interesting to go back and read how people felt at the time. It's not the usual WWE revisionist history. ECW really was legitimately blowing people's minds back in 94-95.