September 16, 1996
- The issue starts with Dave going on a rant about WWF and WCW running angles aimed at hardcore fans and newsletter readers, to try and swerve the "smart" fans. This also leads to Dave talking about ratings demographics. WCW is drawing double the number of adult fans as WWF. Meanwhile, WWF is still winning the in the kids and teenagers demographic, but only barely and WCW is slowly stealing them away too. WWF's top draws for kids are Undertaker and Shawn Michaels. And in the case of Michaels, he has strong negative appeal among adult viewers, who tend to tune out in droves whenever he's on TV while kids still love him. But adult viewers are what make the difference in the ratings war and WWF is just getting slaughtered on that front.
- The biggest example this week was WWF claiming that Razor Ramon and Diesel were returning to the company, in a desperate attempt to get ratings and generate calls to their 900 number. But it didn't work and once again, WWF lost the ratings battle to WCW and in the process, the stupid angle completely overshadowed all the hype and build up for their upcoming PPV. As for WCW, they threw another hotshot angle at the wall, with the fake Sting character. That angle led to fans changing the channel en masse and ratings for the rest of the show plummeted, but they still managed to beat Raw for the night. Dave basically thinks both companies (but especially Eric Bischoff) enjoys trying to swerve fans with surprises and then going on the internet the next day to read all the feedback and congratulate himself on how clever he is.
- As for the Razor/Diesel angle, it aired on the special Friday night live Raw and apparently, Vince McMahon came up with the idea just one day earlier on Thursday. This led to many in the company not being aware of the angle and being surprised when Jim Ross announced they were returning. It led to a record number of calls to the WWF Hotline and speculation on the WWF AOL forum, but it didn't translate to ratings at all. Anyway, the initial idea was just to get people talking and hope it translates to ratings, but there is a plan to possibly bring in Razor and Diesel impersonators, although almost everyone in WWF thinks it would be a huge mistake and that they should just drop the angle. But there's been talk of bringing in Rick Bogner to portray "Razor Ramon" and for Glen Jacobs (formerly Isaac Yankem) to portray "Diesel." Having new wrestlers portray old characters isn't new in wrestling, but it's never been done on this big a level with unmasked wrestlers. If they go this route, almost everyone in WWF believes it will backfire huge (yuuup).
- As for Kevin Nash and Scott Hall, they knew nothing of the angle and found out about it while working a WCW house show that night. There's no loophole in their contracts that would allow them to leave WCW, nor have there been any talks of them returning. WCW can't really respond publicly to this because of the lawsuit, and WCW is avoiding even indirectly referencing Hall and Nash as Razor or Diesel. (Of course, Nash and Hall have both always claimed that Bischoff panicked due to this storyline and gave them both a big raise so they wouldn't go back to WWF. But given how locked in to their contracts they were, I can't fathom Bischoff would be that foolish. Story has always sounded like bullshit to me and Bischoff himself has flat out denied it. I was curious and asked Dave on Twitter and he said he also thinks it's bullshit but he can't sure).
- The American Wrestling Federation is buying syndication in most of the major TV markets in the U.S., which will give it more syndicated TV than any promotion other than WCW (remember, WWF lost all its syndication earlier this year because they decided to stop paying for it). This pretty much makes AWF a nationally airing promotion and word is they are spending $4 million per year for it. The show is called AWF Warriors of Wrestling and the latest taping featured guys like the Road Warriors, Sgt. Slaughter, Tito Santana, Greg Valentine, etc. (this turned out to be the last gasp of the promotion. They were founded in 1994 and apparently threw every penny they had at this big national push. It didn't work and they ended up folding just a few months later).
- All Japan has gotten terribly stale lately and it's finally taking a toll. The promotion used to routinely sell out venues in Tokyo and had a string of consecutive sellouts at Budokan Hall and Korakuen Hall dating back to 1990 but that string has been broken. AJPW continues to announce the shows at those venues as sellouts because they want to keep the streak alive publicly, but in reality, they haven't sold out either venue in months. They still have some of the best wrestlers and matches in the world, but when you have the same 5 or 6 people in those matches year after year, it still gets stale. AJPW almost never does angles, but they've started doing more storylines lately because they're finally realizing that just having great matches isn't enough to keep drawing.
- Speaking of great matches in AJPW, Stan Hansen had what will probably be his last great match against Kenta Kobashi. Most people figured at 47 that Hansen's time as a great worker was long past, but the match they had stole the show and Dave has heard it's in the 4.5 star range (he eventually gave it 4.25 when he finally saw it. Anyway, here ya go. The last great match of Stan Hansen's career).
- Great Sasuke, Scott Steiner, and Scott Hall were all scheduled to work an upcoming NJPW tour but all 3 cancelled. Sasuke is dealing with a fractured skull and Scott Steiner has a hip injury, so that's why they're out. As for Scott Hall, the terms of his WCW contract allow him to book his own dates in Japan (something he had asked Vince to let him do before he left WWF and Vince said no). But WCW has their own deal with NJPW and they booked Hall for the tour, but Hall was able to refuse because of his contract. He has the ability to negotiate his own Japan deals and didn't want to work a tour where WCW was going to get a cut of the money. Marcus Bagwell will replace Hall on the shows.
- Great Sasuke has vacated all 8 of the junior titles he just recently won in the J-Crown tournament due to the skull injury so he's expected to be out for awhile. Sasuke made an appearance at a Michinoku Pro show, but had to be carted around the arena in a wheelchair.
- Dave says a show in Japan probably holds the record for the longest stipulation in a match ever: "a chandelier broken glass cabinet drum barbed wire baseball bat street fight death match," whatever the fuck that is. I can't find that match, but here's one a few months later where there's a cactus in each corner and a glass container full of scorpions in the ring that I found while googling it.
- In USWA, Luna Vachon is doing a gimmick where she bites people on the neck and they say she's biting the carotid artery and it makes them pass out like it's a sleeper hold. Dave says it looks like she's just giving guys a hickey during the match.
- Still no word on ECW's plans to run a PPV. Their biggest show of the year is November To Remember taking place on 11/16 but that definitely won't be a PPV because the cable companies need a good 4 months of advance notice on a PPV date to properly market it and ECW hasn't even started that ball rolling yet. So don't expect ECW to get on PPV this year.
- King Kong Bundy and former wrestler Larry Sharpe have written a comedy book called Hittin' The Mat that is a humorous guide to the dos and don'ts of being a wrestler. Here it is for $75 bucks, probably one of the only copies left but if you're an obscure collector of wrestling stuff, then there ya go.
- The Iron Sheik did the Macarena dance at a recent indie show, which was reportedly hilarious.
- Oh shit, here we go again. A wrestling ring belonging to a promoter in Oklahoma has been stolen. The missing ring has been used for wrestling matches for over 50 years and guys like Danny Hodge and the Von Erichs have wrestled in it. The police report values it at $10,000.
- Sean Waltman finally got his release from WWF this week and is expected to start with WCW either at the Fall Brawl PPV or Nitro next week.
- Ric Flair's WCW contract expires in November and he's making it known that he's still unhappy with how things are going, particularly the Horsemen being made to look like the NWO's bitches every week. Lots of other mid-card WCW wrestlers are unhappy for similar reasons, saying that with Hogan basically running the company, no one else is allowed to get over unless they're part of his inner circle. But Hogan is signed to WCW through 1998, so that won't be changing any time soon.
- Speaking of Hogan, he had a major scare last week when he was jet-skiing with his 6-year-old son Nick being pulled behind on an inner tube. There was an accident and Nick ended up hitting the pilings and was injured. He suffered a concussion, needed stitches in his head, and injured his arm. It could have been much worse, so he got off lucky.
- Former SMW referee Mark Curtis (real name Brian Hildebrand) is now a full-time referee for WCW.
- Jacques Rougeau and Karl Oulette debuted on Nitro as a team called the Amazing French Canadians. WCW gave no hints that they were ever champions in WWF or that they were major stars in Canada and simply brought them out as jobbers to get beat by the Nasty Boys. It was Rougeau's first match since his WWF retirement match 2 years ago. Outlette has gained a ton of weight and looked awful but was more agile than you'd think by looking at him. Gene Okerlund slipped up and called them the Rougeau Brothers, which is the WWF name that they have trademarked, so it's entirely possible they'll hear from Vince's lawyer on that.
- Speaking of WWF names, Bobby Heenan accidentally referred to Meng as "Haku" leading Bischoff to give an elaborate on-air apology, saying that Haku was his WWF name and that he's in no way associated with the WWF. WCW is still walking on eggshells after that last WWF lawsuit.
- Nitro ended with an angle where all the WCW guys ran out to the parking lot to surround the NWO limos, including Randy Savage who ran out of the ring mid-match to go do it. The angle was great on TV, but it pissed off the live fans because they had no way to see what was happening backstage and they booed the hell out of it. As a result, WCW is planning to buy a video wall to bring to future TV tapings so fans can see what's happening backstage during segments like that. Also, the next time they return to the city, they're only charging $5 per show in an attempt to make it up to the fans who were so furious.
- A couple of weeks ago, when Hogan and The Giant destroyed the announcer's set in an unplanned bit, they ended up causing an estimated $40,000 in damage. Also, someone fucked up bad on the time management front because the show ended 9 minutes early, which kept the episode from setting a ratings record.
- Woman (Nancy Sullivan) had a wardrobe malfunction on the 9/2 episode of Nitro when her top slipped down, but the camera angle switched just before it happened so it didn't show on TV. It happened when she grabbed Ric Flair's hands as he had the figure four on Kevin Sullivan.
- Undertaker is out with a staph infection in his arm, stemming from a cut he received during the Boiler Room Brawl match last month with Mankind. Of all people, Bill Watts was brought in to work angles at the house shows to make up for the lack of Undertaker, ending with Mankind beating him up after Watts threatens Paul Bearer.
- Lots of negative heat on new WWF signee Mark Henry, on multiple fronts. Henry has been getting lukewarm responses at house shows and Dave thinks they should probably stop calling him the "World's Strongest Man" since everyone knows he didn't do all that great in the Olympics so no one buys it. And backstage, there's several wrestlers upset over the fact that he got a 10-year guaranteed contract despite having never wrestled and that WWF sponsored (paid) him during his Olympics training. There's also been reports of him not getting along with people backstage, just a personality clash. It's not that Henry has a bad attitude or anything, but with so many people already resenting him, he's had some dust-ups with people.
- WWF is advertising something called a Buried Alive match for next month's PPV. The plan is for there to be a cemetery set with an open grave and the match ends when someone is thrown into it and buried. Shawn Michaels isn't scheduled to work the show for some reason (that would change) and Dave suspects they might do a house show title change before the PPV (nah).
- WWF's Saturday morning show Mania is getting a format change and will become a live show with interactive phone calls, faxes, and emails and wrestlers in the studio responding (that later became Livewire). Vince McMahon also still wants to do a late-night ECW-style show on Saturday nights live from New York, but the idea of doing it on weekly PPV has been dropped.
- All charges have been dropped against the servicemen who attacked Shawn Michaels in Syracuse last year. No word why but that case is over.
- Kurt Angle, the amateur wrestler who won a gold medal in the Olympics this past summer, was at WWF offices meeting with Vince McMahon last week and they even acknowledged the meeting on TV, which Dave says means they must be confident that he's going to sign with them. They also have interest in Matt Ghaffari, who won a silver medal in the same Olympics.
- Tom Prichard has been training Mark Henry and Dwayne Johnson (Flex Kavana) along with a couple of other new signees. Mark Henry is already scheduled to debut at the next PPV against Jerry Lawler. Word is Dwayne Johnson is the most advanced in the class, due to his athletic background and having already worked some in USWA.
- WWF is hopeful Brian Pillman will be ready to wrestle again by November and expect Ahmed Johnson back from his kidney problems in December.