October 23, 1995
- Sorry it's late. Power outage.
- After only 3 weeks in charge of creative, Bill Watts is already gone from WWF after an argument with Vince McMahon over the future booking of the company. Vince had openly promised that he wouldn't overrule Watts' creative decisions but that apparently didn't last too long before Vince couldn't help himself. Word is Watts wanted to also make changes in the locker room similar to what he had done in WCW (fining guys for being late, no faces and heels hanging out in public, etc.) and Vince felt it was unnecessary. So for now, things will go back to how they were before Watts.
- Shawn Michaels was involved in a fight in Syracuse, NY and was beaten up and hospitalized. There are several versions of the story going around but what is consistent among all of the stories is that Michaels, Davey Boy Smith, and 1-2-3 Kid were drinking at a bar and as they were leaving, they got into an altercation with a group of 8 to 10 (depending on who you believe) military servicemen. One of them called Michaels a "fag" and threw a punch at Kid. At one point in the fight, Michaels had a car door slammed on his head and his face smashed into the bumper. Smith and Kid tried to intervene and were also getting beaten up when an off-duty cop showed up and drew his gun and everyone scattered. Smith worked the show that night but had cuts on his face and his eye was messed up. Kid wasn't injured and also worked the match. Shawn Michaels was hospitalized with both eyes swollen shut and the side of his face badly swollen and bruised and blood coming from his eye and ear. He needed 10 stitches above and below his eye and to sew his eyelid back on because it was nearly ripped off. He also may have suffered a ruptured eardrum. Fortunately, he didn't suffer a concussion or any broken bones in his face and was released from the hospital and flew home to San Antonio.
- WWF acknowledged the incident on TV and said a police investigation was going on, but police in Syracuse have said they aren't aware of it yet and that nothing had been reported. The incident could be problematic for WWF for a few reasons. For starters, Shawn and Davey Boy hanging out wasn't mentioned since they're supposed to be feuding on TV. And Smith still has a criminal case pending from a bar fight in Calgary. In WCW, Gene Okerlund teased on the 900 hotline that he had a scoop about a WWF star losing a fight to "a fan."
- It's actually the second incident involving Shawn Michaels recently. A week before this, Michaels was involved in an incident with the Blu Brothers in the locker room. Don Harris reportedly put a chair against the locker room door to keep anyone from coming in, while Ron Harris snatched Michaels by the throat and held him against the wall and threatened him. It was the brothers' last night in the company anyway, so they obviously won't be punished and apparently decided to put a scare into Shawn on their way out (this was kind of a famous story, with some reports saying Shawn was actually so scared he was crying. He wasn't exactly very well liked around this time).
- Undertaker will miss the PPV and be out for at least a month after suffering a broken orbital bone in his face when Mabel accidentally potatoed him in the face during a match. Undertaker didn't know how serious it was and worked a few more shows until the pain became unbearable. Word is he underwent surgery last week (this led to Undertaker wearing that cool ass creepy mask for a few months after).
- Latest news on the huge NJPW/UWFI show from last week. The total revenue, from tickets and merch, was more than $8 million. For comparison's sake, that's 4x more than the revenue Hogan/Andre at WM3 made. But Dave says you have to question the booking because they probably left millions of dollars on the table by completely destroying UWFI's credibility. To show how bad it is, a couple of nights later, UWFI held their own show and their top star Nobuhiko Takada was booed out of the building by the fans. Takada got on the mic and told the fans to shut up and began cursing at them and it turned into an ugly scene. Dave compares it to the NWA/UWF feud in 1987, where NWA completely buried Bill Watts' UWF promotion in order to prove that NWA was the dominant promotion all along. It's the same ego that kept WWF from really doing a Hogan/Flair feud in 1991, because they were never willing to present the former WCW star as being on the same level as Hogan (and same thing they'd do again in 2001 when WCW went bust). The success of the show has likely saved UWFI from financial ruin for the time being, but it has also completely destroyed the promotion's credibility in Japan.
- UFC is working on a PPV in February that will abandon the tournament format and instead just have 5 traditional fights with different guys. They want to bring in a big name pro-wrestler and the name that has been batted around is Scott Steiner. But Dave thinks it's a long shot to happen, since Steiner isn't hurting for money and probably won't want to risk injury which could cost he and his brother their $12,000-per-week deal in New Japan (can you imagine? Scott Steiner in UFC in 1996).
- It appears that the Hart family's plans to put together an old Stampede show to honor the 50th anniversary of Stu Hart's first match will actually happen and will feature both WWF and WCW stars. Bret and Owen Hart, Shawn Michaels, 1-2-3 Kid, Razor Ramon, and Davey Boy Smith are all scheduled to work the show, along with WCW stars Chris Benoit and Brian Pillman. The show will be called Showdown at the Corral and will take place in December.
- AAA promoter Anthony Pena had a meeting with Televisa this week and threatened to pull AAA from their channel if they didn't stop airing EMLL shows. It was a risky gamble because AAA desperately needs Televisa and they would have been in trouble if Televisa had called his bluff. But they didn't and instead, it worked. EMLL was pulled off of Televisa as of this week.
- Dave says that he thinks the best worker in the world today is Manami Toyota and says that even her off-nights are better than most people's great nights. He says that in a big match situation, guys like Shawn Michaels, Misterio Jr., Kobashi, etc. are better. But on a consistent night-by-night basis, Toyota delivers every time. He gives 5 stars to a Manami Toyota vs. Mima Shimoda match that went to a 30-minute draw.
- Jerry Jarrett wrote a letter in the Nashville newspaper defending the O.J. Simpson verdict, saying that he believes Simpson committed the murders but the prosecution bumbled the case, so the jury was right to acquit him.
- The Gangstas have been fired from ECW after the recent incident with New Jack and have reportedly tried to contact Jim Cornette about returning to SMW, but given the things they've said about him, that's unlikely.
- Taz did an interview talking about Lou Thesz being his childhood hero growing up and there's been talk of bringing Thesz in to be in Taz's corner at ECW shows. Dave can just imagine Thesz's reaction to what goes on at an ECW show. Speaking of Taz, his neck is still badly injured and he can't do suplexes (which is basically his entire move-set) so he's been using a chokehold as a finisher.
- Steve Austin cut another great promo in ECW this week, running down WCW and talking about how he was unceremoniously fired. The problem is, Austin has a 2nd meeting with WWF scheduled this week and is likely going to end up going there, so all this great work Austin is doing in ECW likely won't end up going anywhere in the long-term.
- Some are concerned about the future of ECW because reportedly many wrestlers have been trying to get work with WWF and WCW.
- Tony Halme (Ludvig Borga) is in a national Busch beer commercial, as a lumberjack.
- Chris Benoit is now being billed as "the Canadian Crippler" in WCW and they made reference to starting a cruiserweight division on Nitro. Dave is against the idea because it pigeonholes guys like Benoit and Guerrero as not being on par with the main eventers. With UFC now becoming popular and small guys routinely beating big guys, size isn't a credibility issue anymore and he doesn't think smaller guys should be put in their own, lower category.
- On TV right now, Sting and Ric Flair have been teaming up, with the plan being for Flair to eventually turn on Sting. Recently, Sting has said he doesn't want to do that angle anymore because he thinks it would make his character look stupid for falling for Flair's plan. Dave thinks the best idea would be for Sting to turn heel and Flair stay babyface, since he's already the most popular face they have. But Sting is iffy on turning heel and Flair is 100% against remaining face, so it will most likely go down as planned, with Flair turning on Sting at or shortly after Halloween Havoc.
- WCW's World War III PPV is advertised as a 3-ring, 60-man battle royal main event, which Dave seems to be dreading.
- The Halloween Havoc PPV is being papered like crazy, with free ringside tickets literally being given away at 7-11. Anyway, The Sheik is almost definitely going to accompany Sabu to the ring for his match.
- Hogan cut a promo on Nitro saying he's so powerful he makes other promoters cry when they realize he's bigger than their "whole stinkin' promotion" which is an obvious shot at WWF. "I never thought the guy could get more unbearable," Dave says.
- Jim Ross was doing an Okie gimmick on the latest Superstars taping (cowboy hat and all that) and seemed uncomfortable doing it (that would, of course, later turn into the gimmick he still basically has).
- King Kong Bundy will be appearing on an episode of Married With Children this week.
- WWF is basically dropping the women's division, but they are negotiating with All Japan Women to send Alundra Blayze there as WWF women's champion and have her defend the belt there in 1996 and will occasionally feature her vs. other Japanese women on PPV so it won't be going away completely.