June 26, 1995
- WCW's Great American Bash took place and it was the best PPV they've had in nearly a year, which still isn't saying much. Marcus Bagwell missed the show due to his calf-implant injury. Road Warrior Hawk was scheduled to work a squash match and shoot an angle, but he no-showed, leading many to believe he was done with the company but they've since worked things out. On an interesting note, in Dayton, OH (where the show took place), a local newspaper predicted the finishes of all the matches before the show and according to backstage sources, got them 100% correct. WCW panicked, thinking someone had leaked the finishes and so they changed a few of them, including the main event, which Savage was originally scheduled to win. All because they were worried a local paper had scooped them.
- WCW did their sleaziest promo tactic yet, by having Vader and Hogan get into a huge brawl during the TV pre-show just before the PPV started. It led to Vader repeatedly saying that he wanted a match with Hogan "tonight!" Fans at home saw that Vader was already in his ring gear and that Hogan was in the arena, so the idea was to sell last minute PPV buys to people who thought a Hogan vs. Vader match was going to be added. But of course, neither man was booked for the show and the match never happened and Dave is disgusted that WCW would imply that it was going to in order to boost buys. It's not technically false advertising, but it was the closest thing to it. Hogan couldn't appear on the actual PPV because then they would have had to pay him his significant cut of the revenue so that's why they only had him appear during the pre-show.
- WCW's new Monday night show is expected to debut in August and the name Head-to-Head is still being tossed around as a possible title. The first show is expected to take place in Sarasota, FL. It's expected that it will be done the same way as Raw, with 1 week being live, the next 2 weeks being taped, repeat. But this is all subject to change. Within the TV industry, the general consensus is that this move is almost suicidal considering Raw is the highest rated wrestling show in the country. (Literally every word of this paragraph ended up being wrong).
- UWFI's top star Nobuhiko Takada announced he plans to retire soon but didn't give a date. UWFI's and Takada's popularity have dwindled in the last year due to the popularity of Pancrase, which is a more believable style. UFWI wrestler Dan Severn winning the UFC tournament and then never returning to UWFI also hurt the promotion. UWFI's other top star is Vader and his future with the company is up in the air also since his contract is up soon, which leaves the promotion in a tough spot. Takada retiring would be devastating to UWFI.
- The 2nd show of AAA's Triplemania III took place and did well, though the attendance was hampered by thunderstorms that probably kept the usual large amount of last minute walk-up ticket sales from selling as much as they usually do. The show saw the in-ring debut of 16-year-old Perro Aguayo Jr., who stole the show in an "Olympic rules" match with Juventud Guerrera. It wasn't the best match on the card, but given how low expectations were, it was a shocker. Dave says that other than Owen Hart and Jun Akiyama, he's never seen someone so polished this early in their career. He never blew up or looked green.
- Vince McMahon was interviewed on a sports radio show, mainly to plug WWF's charity work and the King of the Ring PPV. Vince repeated his old line of how they aren't professional wrestling, they're "sports entertainment." He also said that WCW was making a big mistake with its new Monday night show going up against Raw. He also said Ted Turner knows how to package wrestling but not how to do it creatively and has no idea how to correctly sell Hulk Hogan. He criticized Hogan for lying about steroids until he had to tell the truth under oath (Dave scoffs at Vince's "chutzpah" on that one) and said Savage jumping to WCW was career suicide. But he did say he felt like he and Savage were still friends, even though estranged, and credited Savage for being more honest than Hogan.
- Mexican wrestler Super Astro suffered a gruesome injury when he overshot a move out of the ring and hit a chair, opening up a huge gash that some said was the bloodiest thing they'd ever seen. Astro was rushed to the hospital and suffered so much blood loss so quickly that he went into shock. He's expected to be okay but it will be a couple of months before he can wrestle again.
- With all the talk about shootfighting these days, Dave decides to take a look at the amateur wrestling backgrounds of today's pro wrestling stars and says it will surprise most readers to know how many big stars today have a legit amateur background. He starts with talking about the amateur backgrounds of guys like Verne Gagne and Dan Hodge before mentioning guys like Ric Flair, Ricky Steamboat, Bob Backlund, etc. He also goes into a lot of history on guys like Hodge and Jack Brisco and it's all interesting, but not newsworthy.
- Dave gives 5+ stars to a Akira Taue & Toshiaki Kawada vs. Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi match, and says it's even better than the match they had in January, which he also gave 5 stars. I guess 5+ stars is Dave's way of giving it 6 stars (as if Dave would ever give a match 6 stars).
- The Gangstas no-showed their final scheduled dates with SMW and jumped to ECW earlier than planned. The Headbangers filled in for them on SMW dates. The Gangstas showed up at the ECW show and brawled with Public Enemy and were then "arrested" since they aren't supposed to be ECW wrestlers.
- The latest ECW show featured an angle where Beulah was supposed to face Luna Vachon, but Stevie Richards hit Luna with a chair and then when Tommy Dreamer ran in, Raven attacked him and broke his fingers. They then handcuffed Luna to the ropes and were going to hit her with a chair, but Dreamer dove in front of her and took the hit and was stretchered out.
- At the same show, Tod Gordon announced Benoit wouldn't be there because of airline problems (which Dave says wasn't true and said he missed for personal reasons but doesn't elaborate). Gordon also announced that Benoit had turned down WWF's offer and was staying with ECW. Dave says this also isn't true and Benoit hasn't made a decision yet. And in fact, WWF's offer has improved because they have told Benoit he can still work his NJPW dates, as long as New Japan gives them 3 months notice.
- Matt Osborne (the original Doink) was arrested and charged with assault and harassment in a domestic abuse case.
- The story on Marcus Bagwell's leg infection is this: he had calf implants put in last month (Dave can understand why a bodybuilder might but seems baffled why a wrestler who wears long tights would even bother) and immediately began having pain and circulatory issues due to an infection. He had to get them removed, otherwise the infection may have ended his career or worse.