July 17, 1995
- Kevin Sullivan officially replaced Ric Flair as head booker of WCW last week, stemming from issues between Flair and Eric Bischoff who had disagreements over the booking of Hulk Hogan's storylines. Bischoff also wanted Flair to move to Atlanta and work 40-hour weeks in the office and Flair wasn't willing to do that. He has a lot of outside business interests in Charlotte and is a major celebrity there and didn't want to relocate. Flair will still remain with the company and is under contract until 1997. As for Sullivan being the booker now, it's really irrelevant because Hogan and Jimmy Hart still hold all the power so Sullivan's job is mostly just to book the undercard and do whatever he can to keep Hogan happy.
- There's belief that Kevin Sullivan may try to raid ECW to shore up WCW's undercard. Sullivan's wife Nancy (Woman) works for ECW and Sullivan has worked there before and is familiar with their roster. The Head Hunters, Public Enemy, Eddie Guerrero, Chris Benoit, Al Snow, Woman, and Shane Douglas are all on WCW's radar, as well as Disco Inferno from USWA. Dave lists each of them and gives his thoughts on whether or not they'll end up going to WCW or not. He believes Guerrero, Benoit, and maybe Al Snow are good possibilities to jump. Head Hunters and Public Enemy would have to tone down the style that made them famous too much to get over in WCW. Shane Douglas is 99% heading to WWF so that won't happen, and Woman is almost a guarantee to jump ship because of Kevin Sullivan.
- SMW's Super Bowl of Wrestling show next month will be the biggest show in company history. NWA champion Dan Severn will defend his title, WWF IC champ Shawn Michaels will defend his, Undertaker will work the show against Unabom (technically the first Undertaker vs. Kane match), and the USWA world and tag titles will also be defended, along with all the usual SMW belts. The Steiner Brothers, Terry Gordy, Marty Jannetty (subbing for Chris Benoit who cancelled) and more will also work the show
- Speaking of the Steiners, they are expected to start with ECW soon and work there for a couple of months. Paul Heyman reportedly wants to focus on their own tag teams like Public Enemy and the Gangstas, so it's expected the Steiners will be booked as a 6-man team with Taz and likely feuding with Benoit/Malenko/Scorpio. Plus, the Steiners will almost certainly refuse to put any of the ECW teams over so Heyman's just bypassing that problem entirely by not using them as a regular tag team.
- Jack Tunney resigned from WWF this week according to TV storyline. In reality, he was a part of major budget cuts the company is doing, and several front office employees were let go. (Pretty sure there was more to the Tunney story but Dave never addresses it). With Tunney gone, WWF needs a new figurehead President on TV. There have been rumors of Shane Douglas debuting in that role, playing the part of a heel commissioner, which would eventually transition to him being a heel wrestler. Dave thinks Bob Backlund would actually be a better choice for the role.
- Word is King of the Ring is believed to have drawn the lowest buyrate in WWF history. There's no exact numbers yet but many are calling it a wake-up call for the company.
- Dave drops a 5 star rating for Aja Kong vs. Manami Toyota from All Japan Women. These 2 have had a ton of matches and it took me awhile to find the right one. Turns out they're all awesome.
- AAA is implementing a new rule that if wrestlers show up for work either drunk or stoned, they will have to lose their matches. That seems...unsafe.
- Jushin Liger was scheduled to return from his leg injury this month but still wasn't quite ready so that's been pushed back until August now.
- UWFI's Nobuhiko Takada is the latest wrestler to announce plans to run for Japan's House of Coincilors. If Takada wins, he'd almost certainly need to retire from wrestling and if that happens, UWFI will be on its deathbed. Dave thinks it's amazing how quickly fortunes can turn. 18 months ago, UWFI ran a show that sold out a 46,000 seat baseball stadium and now they're facing going out of business if Takada retires (as he's talked about doing anyway, even if he doesn't win). And even with Takada still wrestling, business has plummeted lately.
- In regard to the rumors of SMW bouncing checks that were made at ECW's Internet Fan Convention, Jim Cornette admits to Dave that they have bounced checks occasionally because they operate from week-to-week on a shoestring budget, but they always made good on them at the next show. He said the only person in wrestling that SMW owes any money to right now is Cactus Jack and that's only because every time they send Jack a check, he waits several weeks before trying to cash it and then the money isn't available. He said they tried to send another check to Jack at his home in Atlanta, not realizing Jack had moved back to New York. So then Cactus called up Jim Cornette "calling him dirty names like Herb Abrams" but that he later apologized when he found out the check had been sent to his old address. He said Cactus was supposed to send his new address to Cornette, but he still hasn't done it, so they still owe him money. Cornette is upset at how SMW is being portrayed when ECW still has thousands in outstanding debts.
- Cornette was also upset with the Gangstas for no-showing their last 2 weeks of SMW shows, saying he gave them their break in the business and made them main eventers. He's even the one who called up Paul Heyman and got them a job in ECW. Heyman and Cornette had arranged for the Gangstas to finish up with SMW and start with ECW at the beginning of July. But unbeknownst to him, New Jack had already been negotiating with Tod Gordon on his own to start in mid-June, so that's why they left early, when SMW was still expecting them to work the rest of the June shows.
- Technically, the largest paid crowd to witness wrestling in North America this year happened at Lollapalooza in Seattle, with 30,000 people witnessing a show billed as Incredibly Strange Wrestling, featuring hardcore wrestlers and indie guys with names like The Rapist, Cletus The Fetus, and The Abortionist (complete with a coat hanger as his gimmick). There was also a female valet who takes her panties off and rubs them in her guy's face to wake him after he's been knocked out. Dave says the show was so politically incorrect that it makes ECW look like Mr. Rogers. The shows have been added to the rest of the upcoming Lollapalooza tour dates.
- A show in London, England featuring Sabu ended with Sabu suffering 3 broken ribs. Also during the show, the crowd kept chanting "ECW!" which is crazy because ECW has no television or presence at all in England.
- WCW's Bash at the Beach PPV is expected to draw between 10,000 and 20,000 people, although WCW's promoter is quoted in a local paper saying they expect up to 50,000. The show is free and takes place outside on the beach and on a good day with good weather, there's usually about 40,000 people on the beach.
- Mike Tenay and Lee Marshall both got tryouts to be WCW announcers this week and both did well. It wouldn't be a surprise to see either or both get hired, possibly for the upcoming Monday night show (both got hired).
- Speaking of WCW's Monday night show, rumor is the first taping might take place from the Paramount Theater in Madison Square Garden, which is obviously WWF turf (still nope).
- WWF will begin taping 4 weeks of TV now for their syndicated shows (Superstars, WWF Challenge, etc.) as part of their cost cutting measures. Unlike WCW though, they will do the tapings immediately after PPVs so that they don't give away PPV results the way WCW does every time they have a taping.
- Despite rumors, King Kong Bundy is still with the WWF. He missed the last tapings due to pneumonia.
- Mabel is now being billed as King Mabel, with Mo being called Sir Mo. Expect Mabel to get a main event push and Sid will be phased out of the main event scene for now.
- WWF is starting its own newsletter, which will be put together by Vince Russo "who did a terrible newsletter of his own three years back which lasted all of a few issues." Dave says WWF could probably run a really profitable newsletter about the business if they did it correctly, but in order to do so, they'd have to be able to give up their usual bullshit and that's impossible for them (I don't think anything ever came of this. I guess it was kinda the Vic Venom section of WWF magazine in later years maybe?).
- WWF has a new blimp which cost $250,000 and will be sent to different cities ahead of time to promote shows.
- Vince McMahon ripped on pro wrestling this week on Raw, saying that WWF has a strict anti-violence standard, "unlike the undisciplined genre of pro wrestling." Dave says he doesn't have much choice because if something happens in wrestling, WWF is always the target that the public associates it with. This is a direct response to ECW. After the chants at the King of the Ring PPV, WWF is fully aware of ECW now and well aware that if the media picks up on the violence and adult content of ECW shows, the mainstream will tie it to WWF. That being said, WWF was built on all the stuff it now shies away from. People used to blade all the time in WWF. The company was built on steroids. Sherri Martel used to get beat up by men in the ring all the time and Sherri and Luna were ripping each others' clothes off on TV just a couple years ago. He understands that WWF has an image to protect so they don't lose sponsors and TV deals, but he also says they shouldn't lose sight of their history.
- There's talk of Dustin Rhodes coming in to WWF as a heel with some type of gunslinger gimmick (not exactly...).
- Waylon Mercy and the Roadie are both expected to get big pushes soon.