September 09, 1996
- WCW attempted to take Davey Boy Smith from WWF with plans to reveal him as the newest member of the NWO at Fall Brawl, but at the last minute, the plan fell through. As a result, WCW has turned The Giant into the newest NWO member. But Dave also thinks it makes WCW wrestlers look like total pussies, since week after week, three NWO guys routinely beat up half the WCW locker room, particularly the Horsemen, who look like jobbers now. It's all being booked by Hogan and naturally, there's some resentment among those who feel Hogan is simply booking for his own ego and attempting to bury Flair, Anderson, Benoit, etc. As for Giant turning, it was a last-minute panic move and completely throws future plans into chaos, since Giant was booked to face Kevin Nash at Halloween Havoc, and in matches against NWO members at house shows, among other things. Also, funny note, at the end of Nitro when Giant joined the NWO, they all went up to the announcers area and destroyed the set. Turns out they weren't supposed to do that and the set is expensive, so some people were a little upset about that.
- As for Davey Boy Smith, the plan was for him to walk out on Nitro (the one year anniversary episode) as a surprise, much like Lex Luger did a year ago when Nitro debuted. But on the day his WWF contract was set to expire and WCW thought it was a sure thing, Smith signed a new 5-year contract with WWF. Word is WCW offered him more money but it wasn't about the money for Smith and his main complaints with WWF were that he felt he wasn't getting the push he deserved. Apparently Vince said the right things and Smith agreed to stay and signed a written agreement saying he was staying. However, Smith believed that the agreement only said that he had agreed to stay while they negotiated but they hadn't settled on an actual deal yet. So he continued negotiating with WCW. Vince found out about it and was furious because Smith had already signed paperwork saying he would stay. So Vince and WWF lawyer Jerry McDevitt got on the phone with Smith and after some arguing and presumably legal threats, Smith signed a contract and is now locked in with WWF.
- WCW is still trying to bring in several ex-WWF stars, expected to become NWO members, but legal issues are holding them up. Sean Waltman is still in a state of flux and hasn't gotten a full release from WWF yet. Jeff Jarrett's contract expires next month and he'll be in then. WCW has expressed interest in Bam Bam Bigelow, who's WWF contract expires in the next few weeks, even though they haven't used him in a year.
- All Japan has entered into a working agreement with UWFI, which is surprising because AJPW has long been an isolationist promotion that never works with anyone else. Last year, UWFI was on the verge of collapse until an inter-promotional feud with NJPW propped them up for awhile, but NJPW also booked the entire feud and basically buried UWFI. So now, they're still struggling and went to NJPW for help again. But NJPW turned them down this time. So UWFI went to Giant Baba and worked out a deal with AJPW. So far, the agreement is only for one match, with AJPW's Toshiaki Kawada vs. UWFI's Yoshihiro Takayama. If it's successful, it obviously opens the door for future matches between AJPW and UWFI's top stars, which would probably draw huge in Japan.
- Sources say Bret Hart is scheduled to return to the WWF to face Steve Austin at Survivor Series in November. Hart was originally scheduled to return at this month's PPV to do an interview to build up an angle for that match, but Bret will be in South Africa filming a TV show at that time, so that won't be happening. Bret Hart and Vince McMahon reportedly reached a verbal agreement for Hart to return, with the plan being for Bret to face Austin at Survivor Series and then appear at the December PPV before going back on the road full-time in January. From there, the plan is to shoot an angle at Royal Rumble in order to build for a Bret vs. Shawn rematch at Wrestlemania 13. Dave says Bret was unhappy about putting Shawn over last time and wouldn't return if it meant putting Shawn over again. And Shawn has said he's willing to put Bret over for the title as long as he gets it back sometime in the future. So surely that will all work out great for everyone involved. Anyway, Bret Hart told friends that WCW had offered him substantially more money (reportedly TRIPLE what WWF was offering) but he felt going to WCW would be a step down, so he's choosing WWF.
- Ultimate Warrior filed an unfair termination and trademark infringement lawsuit against WWF last week stemming from being fired after missing shows in June. The suit claims WWF wrongfully fired him after he missed 3 shows while his father was dying and that they used his trademarked terms without honoring their contractual agreement and paying him for it. Warrior owns the trademarks for "Ultimate Warrior," "Warrior," and the slogan "Always Believe" and the terms of Warrior's contract were for WWF to pay him to use them. Warrior attended an industry trade show and saw a booth WWF had set up using those words, which was never cleared with Warrior. As for WWF, they claim Warrior no-showed the 3 shows after an argument with Vince and that it had nothing to do with his father's death and that he waited until after he missed the shows before sending Vince a fax saying his father had died. Two of the shows Warrior missed came before his father died. WWF lawyer Jerry McDevitt dismissed the lawsuit in a statement, calling them phony allegations. Also, Dave mentions in passing that Jim Hellwig has legally changed his name to "Warrior."
- WWF is having issues with the America On-Line internet service. AOL has a WWF section and a separate wrestling section unaffiliated with WWF called Grandstand, where wrestling fans post and discuss news ("more often wrong than correct," Dave says. Oh how little things have changed). WWF has an exclusive contract with AOL and have complained about negative comments being made about WWF in the Grandstand section of AOL. Since it has a contract, WWF believes their section should be the only wrestling section on AOL (since it's the one they can moderate). The complaints have led to several negative WWF posts being removed from the Grandstand section of AOL. Wrestling fans have taken this as WWF infringing on their freedom of speech and the bad publicity has started to spiral out of control. Finally, Vince McMahon instructed the online dept. to do whatever it took to make the problem go away because WWF was looking like the bad guy. In the end, WWF and AOL issued a joint statement apologizing for having the posts removed (the early internet was weird).
- All Japan star Doug Furnas has been negotiating with WCW, which led to major heat on him in Japan, and AJPW has taken him off upcoming shows.
- Speaking of All Japan, a couple of American guys who were trying to work there both ended up washing out. One of them was a former football player who is a protege of Steve Williams and after working a show, he didn't show up for the rest of them. Another is a heavyweight boxer who was being trained there and only lasted 3 days before quitting. Dave says that's why most of the wrestlers who work in AJPW end up becoming good workers because those that can't cut it usually wash out pretty quickly since AJPW is known as one of the hardest promotions to work for.
- Jake Roberts was scheduled to work a USWA show in Memphis but no-showed. No word why, but Jerry Lawler got on the mic and said Roberts was passed out drunk in the Atlanta airport, although others claim Roberts simply missed his flight. Sid Vicious ended up appearing instead and won the USWA Unified title from Lawler.
- Vampire Warrior (Gangrel) and Luna Vachon both started working for USWA this week as well.
- Fabulous Moolah put together a show recently and both she and Mae Young worked it. Dave notes that both women are 72 years old and how it's crazy that both are still wrestling. Oh, just you wait Dave...
- Dave says a company called RF Video is selling tapes of Jim Cornette's SMW promotion, including several house show matches that were never televised.
- This week's WWF Raw is happening live on Friday night due to being preempted on Monday. To hype the show, WWF bought ad-space in major markets around the country that aired during WCW Nitro.
- WWF has completely dropped the idea of doing weekly Saturday night PPVs.
- Amateur wrestler Kurt Angle has received an offer from Linda McMahon to sign with WWF and he has also had offers from at least 2 other Japanese promotions. Angle won a gold medal at the recent Atlanta Olympics in the 220-pound wrestling event.
- German bodybuilder Achim Albrecht just signed a deal with WWF. Dave says that he's got by far the best physique of anyone to ever step foot in a wrestling ring. Albrecht has competed in Mr. Olympia bodybuilding competitions. Dave thinks it's risky taking a steroid freak out of the gym who has no known athletic experience, and trying to make a wrestler out of him (yeah, this guy pretty much never made it out of dark matches, far as I can tell).
- Shawn Michaels is on the cover of the October issue of Playgirl. The article mainly has him talking about what kind of women he likes (more than just a cover shot, Dave...)
- There's still heat between Shawn Michaels and Jim Cornette (and Jim Ross). Michaels feels he's the one drawing the big crowd numbers these days but he feels Ross and Cornette's booking is outdated. And he doesn't like that Cornette is getting such a big push on TV.
- There's been a recent storyline between Mr. Perfect and Hunter Hearst Helmsley where Perfect keeps coming to ringside and stealing the girls that come out with Helmsley. It's actually not going to lead to a feud. The plan is for it to be revealed that Mr. Perfect is taking the women away from ringside because he feels they're distracting Helmsley and keeping him from reaching his full potential. The idea is it will lead to Mr. Perfect mentoring and managing Helmsley.
- The Bodydonnas are done. Zip (Tom Prichard) is being taken off the road to work as a backstage trainer for new guys like Dwayne Johnson and Mark Henry. Skip is still injured but when he comes back, it'll be with a new gimmick and as a heel (he never returned).
- There have been interviews filmed with Faarooq holding the IC title. Last Dave heard though, Marc Mero is still scheduled to win the tournament (yup. In fact, Faarooq never won the IC title in his entire career. But somewhere in the vault, there's un-aired promos of him as champion).
- Letters section is mostly people writing in about the new Observer Hall of Fame and, naturally, naming people they feel should have been inducted, trashing Dave for not inducting so and so, questioning why so and so got inducted, etc. Pretty much all the same stuff that happens today.