November 06, 1995
- The In Your House buyrate estimates look to be in the 0.35 to 0.40 range which is BY FAR the lowest buyrate in WWF history and would be the first WWF PPV to do less than 100,000 buys. Given the cost of doing a PPV, it might have been the first WWF PPV to ever lose money. Dave says the number has to send chills down Vince's spine. With house shows no longer doing good business (WWF just cut the number they do in half and WCW barely does them at all), both WWF and WCW rely on PPVs as their main income. WCW can afford to lose money because they have the Turner corporate backing but if PPV is no longer profitable, WWF is in major trouble. Dave says it's time to reevaluate the low-priced monthly In Your House PPV format because it's obviously not working, as each buyrate has been lower than the one before it. Dave thinks the blame might rest on the Monday night wars, with both companies giving away main event quality matches and title changes on free TV every week, which doesn't give people the incentive to buy PPVs. But he doesn't see it changing because either of them giving up their Monday night show would be admitting defeat and neither promotion is going to do that.
- An ECW show ended in panic last week due to an angle going awry. Cactus Jack accidentally set Terry Funk on fire and the fire spread into the crowd, with a fan getting burned as well as the ring catching on fire. Then the lights went out (as part of a planned angle with Raven and Dreamer) so it was dark and there was fire and then someone started spraying fire extinguishers. Needless to say, the crowd panicked a bit and a lot of fans were choking and coughing from the fire extinguishers. Several people were banged up and one or two fans were reportedly hospitalized. One fan had burns on his hand and Terry Funk suffered 2nd degree burns on his arm and back. Many fans were furious, saying that turning the lights off while there was still fire burning everywhere put people in danger and a lot of people have been vowing to never attend another ECW show. Funk was furious and completely destroyed the dressing room after but later apologized and even asked to wrestle on the next show because he wants to help make sure ECW can get those fans back who vowed not to attend. Paul Heyman has been telling people after the show that ECW will no longer use fire as a prop (yeah right). Anyway, this ends up becoming a big story in the next few weeks, but here's Terry Funk and Steve Austin talking about it.
- Halloween Havoc is in the books and, whew boy... The show featured a man falling from a building to his apparent death and then showing up 15 minutes later, unharmed and ready to wrestle. Dave calls the show "the pro wrestling version of Plan 9 from Outer Space" (considered by many to be the worst movie ever made). Hogan and Giant had a monster truck sumo battle on the roof of the Cobo Arena (taped the night before) leading to Hogan shoving Giant off the roof, ostensibly committing murder. But then Giant came out for his match with Hogan later and was just fine, "proving to be immortal to falling off buildings but not to legdrops and poorly timed boots to the face." It was only Giant's second match ever (he worked an indie match a year ago) and he looked lost at times but overall, he did great considering. Anyway, after the match Ron Reis debuted as The Yeti. It was supposed to be El Gigante, but he was hospitalized earlier in the week and then went AWOL and stopped answering WCW's calls. Yeti came in and he and Giant did a double bear-hug on Hogan. "At least I hope that's what it was, because it looked more like a kinky sandwich," Dave says and then adds, "It started as a great angle but turned into something campy in the worst way when the guy wrapped up in toilet paper showed up and tried to have sex with Hogan."
- Other notes from the show: Chris Benoit, Dean Malenko, and Eddie Guerrero all worked pre-show matches. Randy Savage was supposed to face Kamala but Kamala quit the company because he didn't want to do the job, so Zodiac (Beefcake) had to fill in. Dave notes again that Savage is working with a detached tricep which, reminder, becomes notable news in a month or so. Jimmy Hart turned heel. Sheik accompanied Sabu to the ring and even threw a fireball at Jerry Lynn. Flair turned on Sting as expected (in hilarious fashion).
- This was expected to be Hogan's last WCW match until February or March. Hogan has apparently had negotiations with WWF recently but they weren't serious and haven't led anywhere. WCW is confident that he is staying. But with everyone turning heel, Hogan leaving for awhile, and Savage working with a serious injury, Sting is the only real babyface they can run with now.
- The latest on the AAA/Televisa deal is that they reportedly have a 5-year deal. EMLL has a contract with Televisa as well and while their show won't be taken off the air, they won't be taping any new episodes so the remainder of EMLL's TV time will be old matches and their TV show will be cut down to 1 hour. They're also losing their U.S. Galavision coverage entirely. Guys like El Hijo del Santo and Blue Panther, who jumped ship from AAA or left to start their own promotion, won't be allowed to air on Televisa. EMLL is trying to play it off as not a big deal, but the reality is AAA straight up kicked them in the nuts on this one.
- Perro Aguayo Jr. was injured in a match with Psicosis in AAA. Psicosis did a moonsault and landed squarely with all his weight on his knee right on Aguayo's face. He was stretchered out and taken to the hospital and was unconscious for 3 hours before waking up. He was released the next day with a broken nose and severe nasal passage damage and is expected to be out for about a month. His father, Perro Aguayo was backstage and raging at Psicosis and they nearly had a fight in the dressing room.
- Sabu may be brought to AAA soon as a top heel. He wants to be a top guy somewhere and it's clearly not going to happen in WCW or NJPW, as both promotions have seemingly decided he's only a midcard guy.
- Juventud Guerrera made a tough choice this week by returning to AAA. Guerrera's father Fuerza Guerrera and Blue Panther recently defected from AAA to start their own promotion and it was thought Juventud was going to go with them. Juventud was torn between working for his father's new promotion or staying with AAA and working with his best friends (Psicosis and Rey Misterio Jr.) and eventually decided to stay with his friends. As a result, Juventud's father has kicked him out of their house and Juventud is now living with Psicosis and Misterio.
- Antonio Pena is suing Box y Lucha Magazine because they published a letter allegedly from Pena's father, saying that Pena and AAA are ruining the wrestling business in Mexico. Turns out Pena's father never wrote that letter and the magazine fabricated it themselves, so he's suing.
- New Japan and UWFI are still holding a few smaller joint shows together, and UWFI guys have been winning some occasional matches, but the damage was pretty much done after the huge Tokyo Dome show last month where NJPW buried them.
- Tatsumi Fujinami's new promotion (which I guess Dave doesn't know the name of) held its first show and drew over 3,300 and was hugely successful. It seems to be affiliated with New Japan since they sent one of their wrestlers to work his show. Fujinami beat Tully Blanchard in the main event, which was surprisingly Blanchard's first time ever working in Japan.
- There is talk of bringing in Missy Hyatt to ECW to work mixed tag matches with Bill Alfonso against Tod Gordon and Beulah.
- Steve Austin will be sticking around ECW for a little while and won't be heading to WWF any time soon (he debuts in WWF 2 months after this so, yanno...)
- Sabu worked an NWA show the same night as a nearby ECW show, facing Devon Storm (later known in WCW as Crowbar) in a match that many people said was the best they'd ever seen live. Sabu and Paul Heyman had a long conversation the night before, with Heyman presumably trying to talk him out of working the show. Heyman has gone on record saying that if Sabu did the show, he would never be welcomed back to ECW, so that's where that stands.
- Whataburger, a Texas burger chain, is running a commercial filmed at the Dallas Sportatorium featuring several wrestlers, including new WWF star Ahmed Johnson (I can't find this, sadly).
- John Hawk (JBL) won the CWA Hannover tournament in Europe. Whatever that is.
- Chris Benoit and Brian Pillman are back on for the Stu Hart tribute Stampede show next month in Calgary. The tentative plan is for Benoit to face Dean Douglas, but that will likely change because of the obvious political problems (WCW vs. WWF wrestler).
- Chris Benoit is going to be the 4th member of the Four Horsemen, and it was pretty much a last minute decision due to injury situations (Alex Wright out injured and Randy Savage working with a bad arm injury). Speaking of Benoit, he and Eddie Guerrero are almost definitely staying with WCW after their original 90-day contracts expire soon.
- Brian Pillman had a DUI case in Cincinnati that was plea bargained down this week to reckless driving. Pillman paid a $25 fine and will have a year of probation and must go to a 3-day driving class.
- Starrcade is scheduled to be a WCW vs. NJPW show and will feature many NJPW wrestlers. In order to get them over, WCW has brought in Sonny Onno (who knows nothing about wrestling but they're using him because he happens to be Japanese and is one of Eric Bischoff's best friends) and they are doing an angle where Onno will "buy" a percentage of WCW and take over the Sunday Main Event TV show, fire Dusty Rhodes and Zbyszko and do commentary himself as an evil Japanese stereotype. Most of the matches will feature NJPW guys, in order to build heat and get them over to WCW fans before Starrcade.
- With El Gigante out of the picture, WCW is searching for a third "giant" for the 3-ring battle royal at the World War III PPV.
- A doctor in Georgia was indicted on 83 counts of prescription drug violations. Among those charges is that he supplied former WCW wrestler Van Hammer with various prescriptions on 59 different occasions.
- WWF and WCW are both interested in bringing in Public Enemy (both would eventually get them and not know how to use them, further showing Paul Heyman's genius at getting people over).
- Bill DeMott debuted a new gimmick at the WCW tapings using the name "Humorous."
- Dean Douglas was coughing up blood after his match with Razor Ramon and missed the next week of shows after Razor clotheslined him and damaged his larynx.
- WWF is planning to acknowledge other promotions like USWA, SMW, and WAR in Japan and bring in guys from those promotions to work the Royal Rumble. WWF is also concerned about WCW's World War III battle royal hurting the Rumble since the two shows are happening so close together (I mean, 2 months apart but whatever...).
- A lab in Switzerland made news this week when they announced they were developing the first drug test that can detect HGH. The story was picked up in major media outlets and it's thought that the test may be ready in time for the 1996 Olympics, although it probably won't be used yet because it's so new. Dave thinks it's a shame these scientists didn't talk to Vince McMahon first, since Vince repeatedly told people back in 1991 and 1992 that his doctors had already developed a foolproof drug test that also detected HGH and then complained when nobody believed them. The fact that the technology for that didn't exist back then didn't seem to matter.
- Cactus Jack, at 1448 4th St., West Babylon, NY 11704 is moving and has 50 videotapes and 100 mint condition Japanese magazines for sale.