May 27, 1996
- I won't go into all of it because I'm trying not to cover the MMA stuff much, but the issue opens with the aftermath of UFC 9, which was hampered by last-minute court orders and legal challenges to prevent it from happening, no-punching rules, and Dan Severn & Ken Shamrock having arguably the worst fight in UFC history. If you're an MMA fan, it's pretty much must-read stuff.
- Diesel and Razor Ramon made their last WWF appearances at a show at Madison Square Garden this week, ending in a strange curtain call with the other members of the Kliq in the ring. Both men were greeted with chants of "You sold out!" and "Please don't go!" After Razor Ramon's match (with Helmsley), he grabbed the microphone and started to say, "Say goodbye to the Bad Guy" but since WWF officials didn't know what he might say, they cut the power to the mic before he could say much else. Shawn Michaels beat Diesel in a cage match and afterwards, Ramon and Helmsley came back out and the 4 men embraced in the ring and celebrated together. The crowd went insane, with many saying it was one of the best moments of wrestling at MSG in years. Supposedly, this wasn't approved by the office, but Dave says it got over so well with the crowd that probably nothing will result from it (ha!). However, many backstage were upset about the blatant kayfabe violation. The other Kliq member, 1-2-3 Kid, wasn't there and his future with WWF is in question after he showed up to an event recently "in no condition to perform." He's not expected back until next month (rehab).
- What was supposed to be the big news coming out of the MSG show was the Godwinns winning the tag titles from the Bodydonnas, but needless to say, the curtain call overshadowed that. The plan is for Owen Hart and Davey Boy Smith to eventually win the belts from the Godwinns, so this was a way to get the titles on a babyface team.
- FMW is doing an angle where they're teasing that Hayabusa may jump ship to NJPW because he's upset with Onita. The magazines showed pictures this week of Hayabusa hanging out with Jushin Liger and other NJPW wrestlers. But Dave says they may work themselves into a shoot because NJPW really does have interest in bringing Hayabusa in (didn't happen. And in fact, Hayabusa and Liger were real life good friends but when Hayabusa turned down an offer to go to NJPW, it destroyed their friendship and they didn't reconcile until 10 years later).
- Big Japan Pro Wrestling is bringing in a wrestling bear named Terrible Ted to work a 3-week tour in July. Wrestling bears (often named Terrible Ted, after the original from the 1950s) were a big attraction in the 1960s but mostly faded off in the 70s.
- On USWA TV, Jerry Lawler is still a babyface (while being a heel in WWF) but he's finally starting to change his character and act more like the heelish WWF-version. He's still technically a babyface in USWA but that seems to be subtly changing, after a good 3 years of trying to play 2 entirely different characters on different shows, which just exposes the business.
- ECW drew 1,200 to a show in Allentown, PA, which is the largest crowd they've ever drawn outside of Philly or NYC. There were issues with the building demanding no chairshots, no brawling outside of the ring, etc. So naturally, someone used a chair in the 3rd match and they almost shut the show down.
- They're doing an angle with Raven where he keeps telling Stevie Richard to find him "slutty whores" and then every time Richards brings him one, Raven turns her down because she's not slutty enough. The idea is apparently for Raven to keep rejecting the whores until Richards brings him the right one, which will probably be Sandman's real-life wife Peaches, to start a feud with him.
- Occasional ECW wrestler Big Titan worked the recent ECW show as a character named Slice & Dice Ramirez, which was a total riff on the Razor Ramon character. He had the same gear, the toothpick, slicked back hair, etc. (and if you're curious, Big Titan later went to WWF a few months later as....fake Razor Ramon. But turns out he did the gimmick in ECW first).
- Tommy Dreamer and Brian Lee worked another crazy match that ended up going outside the building and so far from the arena that they actually ended up wrestling in someone's front yard with fans following them and standing in the street chanting "ECW! ECW!" (Can you imagine? It's like 10:30 at night and you're sitting on the couch watching TV and you hear a ruckus outside. So you peek out the window and there's a wrestling match going on in your front yard with a bunch of fans standing around watching it?)
- Bryan Clark (Adam Bomb) denies that he's going to WCW as part of the Blood Runs Cold vignettes that is planned to be a 3-man ninja group. Dave says there's been rumors that Hakushi would be part of the group as well but he doesn't believe that's true since Hakushi is still technically under contract with WWF until November, even though he has pretty much been released to work anywhere else. So far, the only name Dave knows for sure is part of the group is Chris Champion, who wrestled for WCW a few years ago as Yoshi Kwan (again, none of this ended up being true but I wonder if Dave was just totally wrong or if plans changed.)
- Steve McMichael and Kevin Greene have been training at the WCW Power Plant for their upcoming debuts. Word is McMichael is doing great as a personality, but Greene is better in-ring.
- Chavo Guerrero Jr. (nephew of Eddie) got a tryout at the Nitro tapings. No word on how he did.
- The Road Warriors did a radio interview in Chicago and said Ultimate Warrior looks like a midget now. They also said they used to do steroids but they don't anymore (riiiiight) and said WCW's drug testing policy is foolproof. They also said they don't think it's fair that Bill Clinton isn't drug tested, but they have to be.
- WCW is reportedly considering bringing in Chris Jericho later this year.
- Latest word in WWF is that Ultimate Warrior has been easier to get along with so far during this current run than he was in years past (give that another month or so...).
- Yokozuna returned to WWF this week having lost 33 pounds. At his size, Dave says it's not even noticeable. After he works the upcoming PPV, he's expected to return to the Duke weight loss clinic for another 4 weeks.
- The controversial angle between Goldust and Undertaker from earlier this month on Raw was edited when it aired on TV and wasn't nearly as graphic as those who saw it live say it was.
- Shawn Michaels will pose for the October issue of Playgirl magazine.
- I should mention that for the last few months, lots of the letters about ECW have involved people complaining about how awful the Dudley gimmick is and how it's gotta go. For all the revisionist history about how big a deal the Dudleys were, it seems like early Dudleys in 1995/96 ECW weren't popular at all and fans were sick of it. Bubba especially seems to catch a lot of hate for it, with people just despising the gimmick.