February 26, 1996
- Professional boxer Tommy Morrison tested positive for HIV and it is likely to have significant repercussions within the world of professional wrestling. It's unlikely Morrison contracted the virus from boxing but regardless, athletic commissions throughout the country are now tripping over themselves to require HIV testing for boxers and possibly for wrestlers also. It's also likely that this will lead to calls for state commissions to ban blading, which had seemingly been making a comeback in WCW recently. ECW was the first to respond, with Paul Heyman saying that his company will no longer allow blading. Not so much because of health concerns but mostly due to concerns that if the Philadelphia and New York athletic commissions were to shut ECW down in those states, it would kill the company (obviously that didn't last). WWF has hinted that they may begin voluntarily testing for HIV.
- Dave's thoughts on blading are this: on the surface, it seems barbaric. But if you step back and look at it logically, there are way more dangerous things in wrestling. Steroid abuse is linked to the deaths of many wrestlers. The odds of landing wrong doing some flippy shit off the top rope and getting paralyzed are much higher than a serious blading injury. And as far as contracting HIV, wrestlers share steroid needles and have unprotected sex with groupies. To date, there hasn't been a single instance in any sport of someone contracting HIV from contact with blood during an event. So in the grand scheme of things, blading isn't really that dangerous compared to everything else that happens in wrestling. That being said, Dave still doesn't like it and wishes the practice would go away for good.
- The latest In Your House PPV took place this week and Dave was unimpressed. Bret retained the title in a cage match against Diesel but yet again came out of the match looking weak heading into Wrestlemania. Jake Roberts worked a pre-show match and is horribly out of shape. Vader did an angle with Yokozuna but is still recovering from shoulder surgery and actually aggravated the injury by simply doing the angle. He's nowhere near recovered and may not be ready by Wrestlemania as planned. Shawn Michaels vs. Owen Hart stole the show with a great match. Overall, the show was just a glorified Raw to build towards Wrestlemania.
- The on-again-off-again relationship with Ultimate Warrior and WWF appears to be back on. The two sides were negotiating in December for Warrior to return at the Rumble but it fell through over money and because Warrior wanted to be able to wear a testosterone patch which, while technically legal, would still spit in the face of WWF's policy (especially with Vince throwing all this shade at WCW over steroids lately). No word on what has changed, but on the latest Raw, they aired a promo for Warrior's return. Given his track record, Dave thinks bringing back Warrior is another sign of desperation on Vince's part.
- Brian Pillman showed up in ECW this week "in his quest to convince people he's completely lost his mind." Pillman was in character the whole time, wearing a La Parka mask backstage to hide his identity and pretending to only speak Japanese. Pillman cut a promo that turned the whole crowd against him and then did a worked attack on a "fan" and was hauled out by security. Pillman stayed in character the rest of the night back at the hotel, swearing at fans who approached him. Pillman was very publicly fired by WCW last week, although there are rumors that he's still on the payroll and that this whole thing is a work. Some are saying that WCW is going to great, almost ridiculous lengths to convince everyone that this is a shoot. Dave isn't really sure how this whole thing translates into making money for WCW if it's a work. All pre-taped matches with Pillman have been pulled from syndication and replaced with new matches to fill the airtime.
- The latest USWA TV show heavily featured WWF stars, in order to promote the upcoming show featuring several WWF wrestlers as well as WWF running a show in Memphis. Sunny, The Bodydonnas, Tatanka, and Ahmed Johnson all made appearances, plus Bret Hart did a taped interview. The Wednesday night show in Memphis later in the week drew 8,000 paid and set an all-time gate record for Memphis, doing $90,000 which was desperately needed after months of declining business.
- ECW held an "internet convention" show last week (that would be CyberSlam 96) that featured an incredible match between Sabu and Too Cold Scorpio. The Bruise Brothers debuted (replacing the Gangstas and Dave notes New Jack is currently in jail in Georgia for some reason but he doesn't know why). During the match, Ron Harris got into a fight with some fans. It's the same show Pillman debuted at.
- WCW ran a handful of house shows over the last week and did great business and it looks like WCW will be getting back into running regular house shows. They did a show in Baltimore headlined by Flair vs. Savage that drew 11,000 fans and a $102,000 gate. It's the first legit $100,000 gate WCW has ever drawn for a non-PPV show in company history. The other two shows over the weekend did similar numbers. It's double impressive because Hulk Hogan didn't work the shows. Furthermore, the Baltimore show outdrew WWF's recent show in the same arena.
- On the latest Nitro, Ed Leslie debuted his latest gimmick, using the name The Booty Man and ran in to save Hogan from a beatdown. The announcers never acknowledged that he was Zodiac just last week and acted as if he was a total newcomer.
- WCW's gag-order on mentioning WWF got bigger this week, as now all the people on the WCW Hotline have been told not to talk about WWF. The order comes from the Turner lawyers, who don't want any more WWF/WCW drama until after the Time Warner merger goes through.
- It's expected Steve McMichael will be making his wrestling debut in May, likely with former coach Mike Ditka in his corner, which should get WCW plenty of mainstream publicity.
- There's talk of doing a Razor Ramon vs. Goldust loser leaves town match at Wrestlemania if Razor decides to go to WCW when his contract is up, which is a definite possibility right now.
- Ringmaster (Steve Austin) is now wrestling with a shaved head ("and shaved of his charisma as well," Dave adds).
- The latest Billionaire Ted skit saw Ted interviewed by a fake Larry King, making fun of Hogan and Savage, and the fake Larry grilling Ted about withholding millions in losses from stockholders and Hogan's salary being kept off WCW's books, among several other things. Ted then pretended to have laryngitis and couldn't talk, which was a spoof on the gag order that's preventing WCW from talking about WWF right now.
- Vader has signed a 2-year contract with WWF. The deal allows him to still work in Japan and indies, however, WWF must approve any U.S. indie dates.
- WCW hyped up the upcoming Baywatch episode featuring several WCW wrestlers. Vader was also in that episode before he left and Eric Bischoff on TV said Vader ran away with his tail between his legs after Paul Orndorff got through with him. Guess the gag order doesn't apply to calling out specific wrestlers.