June 24, 1996
- The issue opens with a long, great-as-always obituary for Dick Murdoch, who died unexpectedly of a massive heart attack at age 49. He had been in poor health for the last couple of months with sky-high blood pressure and weight gain and also was a notorious drinker (Dave calls him "America's #1 consumer of Coors Light"). He was also one of the best wrestlers of his era, despite not looking the part. Recaps his life story, from his early career as a star in AJPW, how he jumped ship to NJPW during the original IWGP title tournament, and became one of the most well-known foreign stars of all-time in Japan during the 80s. His years in WWF, his most successful run as a babyface for Bill Watts in the 70s as Mid South's top star, AWA, Crockett, WCW, etc. (apparently Murdoch's history of being a KKK member wasn't known by Dave at the time).
- WCW's Great American Bash is in the books and as far as ring-work goes, it was very good. And as far as angles go, Dave says it was the single best PPV show ever. Seemingly everything went right. The biggest angle of course was Kevin Nash and Scott Hall powerbombing Eric Bischoff off the stage. There was also Steve McMichael turning on Kevin Greene to join the Horsemen, and Arn Anderson attacking Kevin Sullivan which got a huge response. Even Dusty Rhodes, who didn't even show up until a few minutes before they went on air, delivered his best performance ever as a commentator.
- Other notes from the show: Sting cut a backstage promo early in the show and lost his train of thought midway through. DDP's finisher seems to be getting over. Rey Mysterio Jr. (spelled with a Y now) debuted and stole the show with Dean Malenko but Dave thinks it was a mistake to debut a potential star like Mysterio and have him lose twice (here and Nitro the next night) right out of the gate. The Benoit/Sullivan falls count anywhere match was stiff as hell and great (yeah that match is a classic) and they legitimately ended up in the bathroom which wasn't planned so the people in the bathroom were really fans in there doing what people in the bathroom do. Dave says this match finally managed to make Benoit a star. Football players Steve McMichael and Kevin Greene were way better than they had any right to be in their very first matches (better than Lawrence Taylor at Wrestlemania and better than guys like Hogan, Duggan, or Booty Man are even now, he says) and the McMichael heel turn was very well done.
- Finally, during the Hall/Nash interview segment, there was a bit where Bischoff specifically asked if they worked for the WWF and both men said no. This was WCW's attempt to avoid a lawsuit because the obvious implication of the storyline has been that Hall and Nash are challenging WCW on behalf of WWF and Vince McMahon has made no secret about his intentions to sue if it didn't stop. Meanwhile, Scott Hall's attorney is claiming that most of the mannerisms Hall used as Razor Ramon were originally used during his first WCW run as Diamond Studd. Hall is also threatening legal action to get the money that WWF is withholding from him.
- Black Tiger (Eddie Guerrero) won this year's NJPW Best of the Super Juniors tournament, beating Jushin Liger in the finals. Dave says it's the biggest win of Guerrero's career in Japan and probably anywhere else in the world for that matter, and sets Guerrero up as a big star in Japan.
- After 25 years of running weekly shows at the Mid South Coliseum in Memphis, USWA is officially moving to the smaller Expo Building at the Memphis Flea Market. Last week's show was billed as The Last Blast at the Coliseum. In a local newspaper interview, Lawler claimed the decision was made due to crowds dropping because of the Colisem's increased security measures, such as frisking people, metal detectors, and leaving all the building lights on during the show, which Lawler says killed the atmosphere. The Coliseum manager claims the measures were necessary because families were coming to the shows and complaining that they didn't feel safe. USWA has threatened to leave in the past over other issues such as raising the rent or charging fans to park, but it finally reached a breaking point this time. Crowds had bottomed out, sometimes drawing as low as 250 fans to the arena that has a capacity for over 10,000. The shows were always traditionally held on Monday nights and Dave mostly blames the WCW/WWF war for people staying home on Mondays.
- Lucha Libre legend Wolf Rubinsky suffered a heart attack last week and was in serious condition in the hospital for a few days after. Rubinsky was the first Luchador wrestler to become a movie star (even before El Santo became a huge megastar) and is a legendary figure in Mexico.
- AAA wrestler Heavy Metal has been suspended for 1 year by the Baja California commission for failing a drug test. He tested positive for cocaine, marijuana, amphetamines and methamphetamines. That guy knows how to party.
- AAA president Antonio Pena is upset with Antonio Inoki following the Peace Festival show a couple of weeks back. Inoki apparently flew to Mexico and met with EMLL president Paco Alonso to thank him for allowing EMLL stars to work the show. But Alonso didn't even attend the show. Meanwhile, Antonio Pena was at the show, but Inoki reportedly never thanked him for his involvement, so Pena's pissed and offended. Inoki and EMLL also discussed doing a show in Mexico City next year and Pena wasn't consulted about that, and they're supposed to be the ones who have a working relationship with NJPW.
- WCW is seriously considering doing the Starrcade PPV live from Tokyo in December. (Unless Tokyo magically moved to Nashville and I missed the memo, that doesn't happen).
- Big Japan Pro Wrestling is still planning to bring in Terrible Ted the Wrestling Bear on the next tour but several animal rights groups in Japan are heavily protesting against it.
- ECW wrestler Perry Saturn filmed an appearance in a House of Pain music video earlier this week (he's the bartender and he's even wearing the EC F'N W shirt).
- Some people in Minnesota are running a couple of shows under the AWA banner and listing Verne Gagne as the president of the promotion. Word is Gagne isn't really involved and the people running it are simply giving Gagne a cut of the profits in exchange for being able to use his name and the AWA name to sell the shows (this ended up being a big thing that lasted for years and, in 2007, WWE sued them because they were still using the AWA name that WWE now owns.)
- Bruno Sammartino has agreed to be the special referee for 4 upcoming WCW house show matches between Randy Savage and Ric Flair in the Northeast area. Sammartino will make $2000 per show doing it, so hey, easy 8 grand.
- After last week's low Nitro rating, there was word that Kevin Sullivan would be fired as booker. But this week's rating is way up and now Sullivan is back in WCW's good graces, although they want him to give up being an active performer after his current storyline with Benoit wraps up (keep this in mind a year from now).
- Mikey Whipwreck was backstage at the latest Nitro, looking to get a job with WCW.
- Jeff Jarrett's WWF contract expires on Oct. 7th and he'll be starting with WCW immediately after.
- Brian Pillman debuted on Raw this week, doing his contract signing in a pre-taped segment. He was in the hospital all week prior to that because his ankle got infected and he had a high fever.
- Vader has been upset about doing 20-second jobs to Ultimate Warrior at house shows lately. During one match, Vader was clotheslined a few times and then just rolled out of the ring and walked to the back without finishing the match. Vader was told that if he didn't walk back to the ring, he may as well walk back to Colorado and not come back. So he went back to the ring, worked a few more seconds and then rolled out again and allowed himself to be counted out rather than pinned. Vader doing all the jobs is getting big press in Japan, where Vader is still a huge star, so he's naturally pretty upset. Right now, WWF has no plans to push him and they want him to lose weight.
- HIV testing has officially started in WWF.
- The Bodydonnas new manager will be a guy dressed as a woman named Cloudy. He'll wear Sunny's old Bodydonna gear and is a friend of Chris Candido's who has wrestled a few matches.
- WWF has hired a new announcer named Kevin Kelly, who will likely start as a backstage interviewer but is being groomed to take over announcing from Vince McMahon, who is planning to step down in a year or so.
- Tony Anthony (better known as Dirty White Boy) will be in WWF using the name T.L. Hopper and doing a plumber gimmick, which is what he actually does as a regular job in real life as well.
- Barry Windham had knee surgery 7 months ago and is supposedly in good shape now and is meeting with WWF in a week or two. Windham was one of the best at one time, but several years ago, he walked out on WWF during his Widow Maker gimmick and hasn't wrestled in several years after suing WCW for his multiple knee injuries.