October 30, 1995
- We open with more details from last week's power play by AAA on Televisa and the promotional war with EMLL. AAA was formed in 1992 and was backed by TV network Televisa, but with the economic crisis, Televisa cut ties with AAA early this year. The show still aired on Televisa, but they were no longer funding the company. Since then, AAA has been floundering, losing money and stars because Antonio Pena is unable to sustain the organization by himself. But this week, AAA signed a new deal with Televisa after Pena threatened to pull his show from their network. If the power play had backfired, it would have been devastating for the company, but Televisa caved to Pena instead of calling his bluff. Part of the agreement is that Televisa agrees to fire a reporter at a newspaper they own because the reporter is apparently on EMLL's payroll and had been trashing AAA. Televisa is also banning several wrestlers who jumped ship from AAA to EMLL from appearing on their network and is cutting most of their ties with EMLL, which will now be losing much of its TV time in Mexico and isn't going to have any TV in America. So not only is this a huge win for AAA, it's a crushing blow to EMLL.
- Not all good news in AAA though, as the Mexican IRS is auditing 15 of AAA's top stars and charging some of them with tax evasion. Konnan in particular is being targeted and they're also investigating multiple instances of him fighting with fans and threatening to have him deported (he's Cuban). In one of the instances, the media is saying Konnan will be charged with attempted murder because of an incident a year ago where a fan hit him and Konnan hit him back...with a chair. It was so brutal that the fan was actually in a coma, but he has since recovered and they say Konnan used excessive force in defending himself. Konnan is also being sued by another wrestler after Konnan publicly called him a prostitute, which allegedly caused him to lose bookings and hurt his reputation. Dave says this has to be the first time a wrestler has sued another wrestler for calling him names.
- Shawn Michaels' neurosurgeon advised Michaels against even making the trip to the In Your House PPV and definitely told him not to wrestle because he reportedly is suffering post-concussion issues from the assault in Syracuse. WWF knew that both Shawn and Undertaker wouldn't work the show but were dishonest in making that known beforehand and led people to believe Shawn would still be wrestling so it wouldn't hurt last minute PPV buys. Shawn still showed up on the PPV and vacated the IC title to Dean Douglas, who immediately lost it to Razor Ramon. Shawn isn't expected to miss that much time so it's unknown why they felt the need to get the belt off of him when he should be back in action in a couple of weeks.
- As for the incident itself, Dave got the official police report with some new details. Michaels was reportedly passed out in the front seat of a car and was actually asleep when he was dragged out of the car and mercilessly beaten. 1-2-3 Kid and Davey Boy Smith were in the backseat but it was a 2-door car and they weren't able to get out of the backseat quickly enough to help him because the other guys were also reaching into the car to attack them. The police report says it was ten guys and that they ran off after a bouncer at the bar came out to stop it. The men escaped in two Ford Broncos and one of the Broncos turned around and attempted to run over the bouncer on the way out. Shawn suffered a laceration of the right eyelid and right cheek, two black eyes, swelling, and blood coming from his eye and both ears. There was no word in the police report about the men being Marines, but it's believed they were.
- The In Your House PPV ended with Vince McMahon throwing his glasses down at the commentary table in disgust and saying, "Horrible," immediately after the show went off the air. The show ended with a pull-apart brawl between Diesel and Bret Hart, with Diesel--the guy Vince is trying to build the company around--getting absolutely booed out of the building. Between injuries to Shawn and Undertaker, Watts quitting last week, his top babyface champion getting unanimously booed, poor house show attendance, and one of the worst PPVs in company history, Vince would probably love to take back the last 2 weeks. As for the show itself, Dave says Fatu did a good job of carrying Hunter Hearst Helmsley in their match and they're obviously protecting Helmsley to build him for the future. The babyface tag champions Smoking Gunns were also heavily booed. Goldust "looked like a banana with black ears." Mabel vs. Yokozuna is a strong candidate for worst match of the year and Yoko is pushing a legit 700 pounds. Razor made it obvious that he wasn't even trying to have a good match with Douglas. The hottest match on the show was a dark match after it went off the air between Bret Hart and Jerry Lawler.
- WCW's World War III PPV is planned to be a three-ring battle royal, with a "giant" in each ring. Obviously, The Giant will be in one of the rings. The other 2 giants are expected to be the returning El Gigante doing a gimmick called The Yeti and Ron Reis doing a gimmick called T-Rex. Dave says The Giant is going to have to put lifts in his boots because he's only 6'10 legit and both El Gigante and Ron Reis are significantly taller than him. (it didn't quite end up happening this way. Reis later became the Yeti and El Gigante never returned and they didn't do the "giant in each ring" gimmick at all).
- WCW finally fired Vader this week. The official reason was that they were cancelling his contract due to a shoulder injury preventing him from wrestling. Obviously, the real reason is due to the backstage fight with Paul Orndorff but legally, WCW didn't want to say that because Orndorff reportedly egged Vader on rather than trying to quell the situation. Every promotion in the world is going to have interest in hiring him, but word is he plans to take a few months off and get his shoulder fixed first before returning to the ring in early 1996. Best bet will be that he ends up in New Japan or WWF. The shoulder got injured at Bash at the Beach in the cage match with Hogan, when Vader went for a sloppy senton off the top rope, which was originally planned to be Vader debuting a shooting star press before Vader thought better of it because of where Hogan was laying. (Holy shit, could you imagine Vader doing a shooting star press?!)
- AAA held a show in Chicago and drew 3,500 people and made about $80,000 at the gate, but due to the high costs of bringing in the wrestlers and advertising, the show was still a money-loser. Several ECW wrestlers worked the show as well and there's some sort of deal in place for ECW to be able to show footage of this event on their TV show. But the ECW guys didn't get over very well because it was a mostly Hispanic audience and American style wrestling just never seems to click with Lucha audiences.
- The most recent USWA show in Memphis only drew 425 fans, which is by far the smallest crowd they've drawn in Memphis in years. USWA and SMW are currently doing a cross-promotional angle which did big business early in the year before they shelved it for some reason. They recently revived it but it apparently isn't doing good business anymore.
- SMW is drawing small crowds lately also. The promotion has about 500 or so hardcore regular fans who attend every show in the major cities (Knoxville and Johnson City) and otherwise, the shows don't draw more than that unless there's a big WWF wrestler working the show. (The clock is ticking on SMW...)
- Dave finally saw the recent Rey Mistero Jr. vs. Psicosis match in ECW and gives it 4.75 stars and basically says it's one of the best matches in ECW history, up there alongside the Malenko/Guerrero classic. He also praises Joey Styles, saying he's able to get wrestlers with a different style over in one match, "something WCW can't do with wrestlers every bit as good if they put them on television every week for a year."
- Incredibly Strange Wrestling is now running their own shows in San Francisco and, once again, I think it's better to just copy and paste Dave's recap verbatim: "Incredibly Strange Wrestling did a few, well, different things on 10/21 in San Francisco. During the J.R. Benson vs. Rapist loser must retire main event, Rapists' manager spit blood from Benson's arm into the crowd. There was a four-way knockout with the two valets involved. Benson revived his valet, Jenny X, by going down on her. Hey, I couldn't make this stuff up even if I wanted to. They ended up going outside the building fighting on the street taking brawls by the bus stop and on the sidewalk. They ended up on the corner on Folsom and 11th Street in San Francisco on a Saturday night when Rapist's valet Stacey KO'd Benson with a chair, and Jenny X revived him by peeing on him in the middle of a busy street crosswalk while the light was green."
- Dave mentions in this week's Nitro recap that Randy Savage is working with a bad elbow. That becomes important in about a month. Just a heads up.
- Other Nitro notes: Hulk Hogan cut a promo, teasing a heel turn and talking about challenging guys like Sting, Savage, and Luger. Hogan was wearing black and showed his black gloves and said, "everyone knows what you can do with black gloves" in an apparent reference to the O.J. Simpson case. The Giant is showing great charisma. They showed a quick glimpse of The Yeti, who will apparently be a guy in a mummy costume and Dave says it's cheesier than most Saturday morning cartoons. He hasn't seen the worst of it yet...
- WCW is now apparently refusing to let Chris Benoit and Brian Pillman work the Stu Hart Stampede show in December because of the WWF wrestlers working the show (they'd eventually change their minds on that a little bit).
- Dave Finlay from Europe is possibly the next indie star heading to WCW.
- Al Snow debuted on Raw as a character named Avatar, looking like a total Hayabusa rip-off. Snow debuted against a jobber named Brian Walsh and Dave says he's never seen Snow blow so many spots and it was horrible. Also, Ahmed Johnson bodyslammed Yokozuna and, at his current weight of around 700 pounds, Dave thinks Yoko might be the heaviest wrestler to ever go up for a bodyslam. There's only ever been 3 wrestlers heavier than him and they were never slammed.
- Undertaker had surgery to repair his broken orbital bone. During the surgery, his eyeball had to be moved 1/4 inch over so when he breathed, air was coming out of his eye socket. GNARLY!