June 17, 1996
- Brian Pillman signed a 3-year contract with WWF this week. Pillman has spent the last 2 months getting stories out there that he was leaning towards WWF, in an effort to drive up WCW's offer because Bischoff reportedly really wanted to keep him in WCW. Pillman has spent the last year brilliantly positioning himself as the most talked-about performer in the business through a bunch of worked-shoot angles and a worked-firing from WCW. By this point, Pillman had a huge buzz and his contract was nearing expiring. So WCW found themselves in a position where they were the ones being worked and Pillman had them throwing money at him to re-sign, while WWF also began throwing out big offers to him.
- Pillman's initial plan had been to stick with WCW and as of a couple weeks ago, Pillman and Bischoff had even agreed to a 3-year deal that would pay him over a million dollars. But when Pillman got the contract, Bischoff had added some provisions that Pillman didn't agree to, including one that allowed WCW to reexamine his contract every 90 days and terminate the contract if they wanted. Dave says this makes sense from WCW's end because Pillman's injuries from his car wreck were severe and there's no telling if he'll ever be the same quality worker he was. If he couldn't perform at a high level, WCW didn't want to be stuck with a million dollar contract for a guy they might not want. But it was a deal-breaker for Pillman. But Bischoff didn't know this and so, on the 6/3 Nitro, WCW begin referencing Pillman again, with plans to bring him in to form a new version of the Four Horsemen (with Pillman and Benoit as the leaders) to feud with Flair's version. But Pillman returned to the negotiating table with Vince McMahon and agreed to sign with them instead. And here's the funny part: WCW had a right-of-first-refusal deal with Pillman, meaning that they should have had 90 days to match any offer that WWF has on the table. But as part of Pillman's worked-firing from WCW last year, in an effort to make the whole thing seem extra-legit, WCW's legal department sent Pillman legitimate termination papers, which nullifies the right-of-refusal deal. TL;DR - WCW worked themselves into a shoot, brother.
- Pillman tried to keep the WWF signing a secret, with the plan being that he would show up on WWF TV as a surprise, because WCW believed they still had a deal with him. But word leaked out quickly and Bischoff got wind of it before Pillman could show up on WWF TV. On Raw, they announced that Pillman had signed. His deal also allows him to continue to work ECW shows as well as keep his own 900 hotline and merchandising, which is unique in WWF contracts. Pillman isn't expected back in the ring until September at the earliest so he'll probably debut as a manager or announcer first.
- A dead wrestler from Buffalo, NY who was more famous for owning a restaurant ended up drawing the biggest paid house in the history of WCW last week. WCW held a tribute show for Ilio DiPaolo, a local wrestler and restaurant owner from Buffalo who was killed last year and was super famous in the Buffalo area for his Ilio DiPaolo's Italian Restaurant. The show was the last event ever at the Buffalo War Memorial Auditorium and drew over 14,000 paid, breaking the WCW record set back in 1989 by Flair vs. Terry Funk at Great American Bash. Several legends made appearances, including Bruno Sammartino. Even though it was a tribute show, politics still got in the way. Hulk Hogan was asked to appear at the show but refused because Sammartino was there and Hogan hates Sammartino (Dave doesn't clarify). Killer Kowalski also wanted to appear at the show because he was close to Ilio DiPaolo, but Kowalski has close ties to WWF and felt like he shouldn't appear at a WCW show, so he didn't show up.
- WWF also drew a record-setting crowd with a house show in Chicago. WWF's house show business is booming lately. Dave basically says there's 2 reasons. For one, Shawn Michaels as the champ is a solid draw. And secondly, WWF has always aimed their marketing at young children, but wrestling's fanbase has always been 18-34 year old males. And in recent months, WWF has been trying harder to cater to that demographic and it's paying off.
- A new TV channel is starting in Japan called Fighting TV and it will be 24 hours of wrestling and martial arts events. Most of the smaller promotions that don't already have TV deals are expected to be involved, which should give them more television exposure. Promotions like NJPW and AJPW already have TV deals elsewhere.
- Dave gives 5 stars to an AJPW match between Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama vs. Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue. Calls it flawless and that it's the best match he's seen in 1996 so far.
- Things aren't looking good for IWA in Japan. The recent shows have been drawing poorly and they've had to cancel a planned stadium show due to low ticket sales. They're trying to work out a deal with Paul Heyman to bring in ECW stars to help keep the ship afloat.
- In a 6-man match in USWA, Flex Kavana did a luchador-like ....dive out of the ring (happens at around the 4:50 mark).
- Paul Heyman has weighed in on last week's Brian Pillman/New Jack controversy, basically saying that mistakes were made all around. Pillman shouldn't have used the N-word, New Jack shouldn't have overreacted, and Heyman admits he shouldn't have let New Jack cut a response-promo at Pillman. New Jack's promo went on for over 12 minutes and had nothing to do with any storylines and ended up killing the crowd for the rest of the show.
- The ECW angle with prostitute Divine Brown got a 3-paragraph story in the New York Daily News.
- Kevin Nash debuted in WCW this week, as expected. Nothing really to note other than he still basically looked like Diesel and when challenging WCW's old "fossils", he made a crack about them being on kidney dialysis which was apparently an inside reference to guys like Hogan and Savage abusing steroids in the past. For what it's worth, this episode of Nitro drew a pretty weak rating, so Nash's debut didn't seem to really mean much for ratings.
- Word is WCW is planning to keep the 3rd member of the Hall & Nash team secret until the July 7th PPV show. Latest word is that it might not end up being Lex Luger after all, which Dave thinks is a mistake (little did he know).
- Jacques Rougeau and Pierre Oulette were supposed to start with WCW soon but now there's heat between Rougeau and WCW, mostly due to Rougeau. He has been trying to put together a stadium show in Montreal for years. He tried with WWF and when they shot down the idea, it led to major heat between Rougeau and WWF. So then he went to WCW with the idea and there have been talks, but WCW understandably doesn't want to risk running a show in a 60,000-seat arena in a city where they have no history or TV in. So Rougeau is pissed at WCW now. TL;DR - Rougeau wants to headline a stadium show in his hometown and he can't get either WWF or WCW to agree to do it and he's butthurt about it.
- WCW has expressed interest in bringing in Raven to team with Dallas Page. Last week, Page attended an ECW show and was there to try to talk Raven into coming to WCW.
- Dave takes a moment to sarcastically rip on WCW's lack of real steroid testing. In regards to Scott Steiner, Dave says "If you're wondering how he looks the way he does, it's because he has great genetics. Also, guys who haven't signed contracts (which the Steiners haven't) don't get tested." As for all the other contracted WCW wrestlers who are so big and muscular, "I guess WCW simply draws its wrestlers from a more gifted gene pool. And if you ask why when those same guys were in WWF they were smaller, I guess some guys in their late 30s and early 40s can actually make great improvements in their physique through cultivating their enormous genetic potential which they were unable to do in WWF because they weren't as happy." Tell us how you really feel, Dave.
- WWF has reportedly come to terms on a deal to sign Ron Simmons and he's expected to debut as a heel at the next tapings.
- Davey Boy Smith and Vince McMahon had a meeting this week, with Smith telling Vince he had gotten a big money offer from WCW but that he wanted to stay with WWF. Still no word on whether or not Smith will stay or not, but it's thought the chances are good that he will.
- Jim Neidhart is expected to return to WWF soon with a new gimmick (this one will be short-lived and dumb, but we'll get there...)
- Bret Hart isn't expected to return until well after Summerslam and possibly as late as Survivor Series.
- Yokozuna is being booked periodically for shows, but in between, they keep sending him back to the Duke weight loss clinic to try to get his weight problems under control.
- The Bodydonnas are supposed to be getting a new manager soon, now that Sunny has split from the team. All Dave has heard is that it's supposed to be a man dressed like a woman.
- The current plan for King of the Ring is for Steve Austin to beat Jake Roberts in the finals. Also on the show, they're advertising a special referee for the Shawn Michaels/Bulldog match. Dave predicts it will be Mr. Perfect (yup) or possibly Owen Hart.
- In a radio interview, Shawn Michaels was asked about Ric Flair and Hulk Hogan. Michaels replied that at one time, Ric Flair was his idol but said some people just don't know when it's time to quit. No word on what he said about Hogan.
- Jake Roberts has been doing an angle where he admits to past problems with cocaine and alcohol and talks about how they nearly killed him before he found Jesus and got saved.
- All the stories about Sunny being the most downloaded celebrity online is all hype. Dave got the list of the top 10 most downloaded celebs and Sunny wasn't even on the list. It was mostly people like Pamela Anderson and Jenny McCarthy. They also keep hyping Warrior's comic book as being the #1 best seller in the world and that's not even close to true. Most comic stores don't even carry it and it's not produced by a major publisher.
- Rad Radford (Louie Spiccoli) was given an unconditional release, which means he could sign with WCW immediately if he wanted. The fact that WWF did that means they either don't think WCW wants him or they don't care if they do. Meanwhile, he's expected to start with ECW soon.