October 07, 1996
- In a major shocker, former NJPW star and booker (and current Japanese Senator) Hiroshe Hase announced that he is joining AJPW in January. Hase met with Giant Baba last month and came to an agreement to join the promotion. The same day, Hase informed NJPW that he was leaving. All sides were trying to keep it quiet, but the news leaked out, forcing Hase to confirm it in the media. Hase was one of the top workers in the world before going into politics and is basically a dual star now, because he's such a respected sports star and a respected politician. He's also married to the host of one of Japan's top morning talk shows, so he even has a famous wife.
- Dave says Hase and NJPW have had a bit of a falling out in the last year, mostly stemming from the death of one of Hase's proteges who was training at the NJPW dojo last year. Hase had personally recruited a trainee named Hiromitsu Gompei and had plans for him to be a big star in NJPW. Gompei's parent's were concerned about their son being a wrestler and Hase met with them repeatedly to convince them that their son would be okay and safe. But during training at the dojo, on only his 2nd day there, Gompei was dropped on his head and died. Hase ended up being the one who had to tell the parents their son had died and for months after, Hase and the parents tried to get the real story of what exactly happened but never could get a straight answer from anyone that was at the dojo that day. After spending a year feeling like NJPW was trying to sweep the incident under the rug and forget it ever happened, Hase finally decided to just leave (I'm not sure if it was publicly known at the time and Dave doesn't say it...but the general consensus is Kensuke Sasaki was doing the training and felt Gompei wasn't working hard enough, so he started beating this kid up and ended up dropping him on his head and killing him, but no charges were ever brought).
- Shawn Michaels isn't scheduled to work the In Your House: Buried Alive PPV later this month. The thought is Michaels has main evented every PPV since Wrestlemania and they want to try a show with someone else on top to see how it does. Michaels will still be on the show but won't be wrestling (Shawn did end up wrestling that night, in the final dark match of the night against Goldust, but he didn't actually wrestle on the PPV that aired).
- WWF ended up drawing the lowest paid attendance for a wrestling show at Madison Square Garden in over 40 years (and possibly the lowest ever), only drawing 3,917 fans to the arena. Dave blames a weak lineup and the fact that WWF lost their local TV in the New York market recently when they decided to stop paying for syndication. For comparison, just a few months ago, they held back-to-back sold out shows at MSG and set gate records (the Curtain Call show).
- AAA house show business is suffering because so many of the top stars are spending so much time working for WCW. Even though most of the AAA guys working in WCW are the lowest paid wrestlers in WCW, they still make more money than they would in AAA because the Mexican economy is so bad. So guys like Psicosis and Rey Misterio are choosing to work WCW dates over AAA dates.
- The morale for foreign workers in AJPW has changed in recent years. In the past, being a foreigner working in AJPW was the best gig in the business. That's why guys like Stan Hansen, Terry Gordy, and Steve Williams worked much of their careers there. The pay was good, the schedule was good, and you never had to worry about lying promoters, poor booking, etc. because Giant Baba is so respected as an honest promoter. But these days, with AJPW booking becoming stale and business down and WWF and WCW constantly paying big money to get new talent before the other one, it's created a situation where no one really wants to work for AJPW anymore if they have an opportunity elsewhere.
- During the NJPW/WCW tournament a few weeks ago, Eric Bischoff wasn't there, but he sent word that he didn't want any WCW wrestlers working with Road Warrior Animal. Apparently there's some sort of heat there with Bischoff and Animal, but Dave doesn't clarify (we never find out why. Sorry).
- Because UWFI is deeply in debt, top star Nobuhiko Takada has put himself on the indie market charging around $27,000 per match. It's the most anyone has ever gotten on a regular basis to work indie shows. Guys like Ultimate Warrior have requested higher prices in the past but never got them. Takada is scheduled for a match with Abdullah The Butcher in Japan soon and Dave thinks it's totally bizarre because it'll be such a styles clash.
- While listing the lineup for another show in Japan, Dave mentions Don Callis and describes him as "a wrestler from Winnipeg who looks like a young Howard Stern and does awesome interviews."
- The rock band "Wheezer" (Dave's misspelling, not mine) has a song getting some radio play that references Public Enemy member Johnny Grunge and ECW's New Jack (the lyric is "watching Grunge leg-drop New Jack through a press table" and the song is El Scorcho).
- Billy Graham had the hip replacement surgery mentioned last week. It was a serious, six-hour operation and it's expected to take him nearly a year to recover.
- The 9/30 episode of WCW Nitro was one of the worst Nitros in history. The NWO was having a party at a hotel that they aired clips of throughout the show, so none of the NWO members appeared live. Also, Ric Flair (shoulder injury), Sting (filming a movie) and Randy Savage (no clue) were all off the show as well. So you can imagine how thrilled the live crowd was. After the show, fans pelted the ring with garbage, except this time it wasn't because the NWO was getting heat. It was made even worse by the fact that WCW didn't have a video screen so the live crowd didn't even get to see the NWO hotel celebration segments. Reportedly, the complaints didn't fall on deaf ears and Bischoff is aware of how bad the show was.
- During one of the Nitro segments, the Nasty Boys joined the NWO and Jerry Sags bent over, grabbing his ass and said he was doing an impression of Eric Bischoff. This apparently led to Bischoff walking off the set during the 2nd hour of the show with some thinking Sags' comment was unplanned, but Dave says you never know anymore since Bischoff is obsessed with worked-shoot angles. The other announcers teased that Bischoff may be going over to the NWO party to confront them, but it was something they made up on the spot because they had no idea why he left the booth. Bischoff wasn't seen for the rest of the show.
- Dave says Chris Jericho has potential but the WCW booking committee is clearly trying to make sure no one ever perceives him as someone who can be a top star. He's been treated like a total jobber lately. For instance, on the latest Saturday Night show, Jericho teamed with Jim Powers and they lost to Dick Slater and Mike Enos, with Jericho eating the pin.
- The reason Sting has been off TV is he's filming a movie called Liar Liar which stars Jim Carrey (this blew my mind, so I looked it up. Turns out Sting and The Giant were both in this scene, which was a big wrestling match scene, but it ended up getting cut from the movie. In a later issue, one of the writers of the movie writes in and talks about that scene, but we'll get there).
- Several indie guys got WCW tryouts this week. The most notable was Scott Vick (who later got hired as Sick Boy, part of Raven's Flock). Another guy named Big Sexy got a tryout. Doesn't look like he ever got hired, but I guess Kevin Nash liked the nickname.
- J.J. Dillon started with WCW this week, as Kevin Sullivan's assistant. Word is Dillon had his house for sale in Connecticut for several months and as soon as it sold, he quit WWF without notice so he'd clearly been secretly negotiating with WCW for a long time before jumping ship.
- In his first major act as new co-CEO of WWF, Neville Meyer fired 5 vice presidents of different divisions. The VPs of world wide properties, new media, merchandising, international licensing, and publications were all let go at once. Meyer reportedly wants to restructure those divisions and bring in his own people. Meyer has reportedly been brought in to do the dirty work like this, while the other co-CEO Linda McMahon will handle contract negotiations with talent. Jerry Brisco, Bruce Prichard and Jim Ross will be working as office liaisons with the wrestlers.
- Brian James (formerly the Roadie) will be using the name Jessee Jammess ("J-E-double-S-double-E J-A-double-M-double-E-double-S") and have bleached blond hair. "Sometimes I think the Buried Alive concept on the next PPV is apropos for the entire promotion when you see things like this, the new Razor and the new Diesel," Dave says.
- Terry Gordy had a WWF tryout and looked decent (eventually hired as The Executioner).
- Sunny will no longer be managing Faarooq and is being taken off the road, for 2 reasons. For one, she's going to be hosting the Livewire show on Saturdays, so they need her in Stamford more often. And secondly, with Chris Candido no longer on the road with the company, Sunny has been getting a lot of heat with people so they want to get her away from all that (Dave doesn't clarify but, yanno).
- In regards to the Jim Ross/Diesel/Razor angle and the ECW/WWF angle, very few people within the company were told ahead of time. Most of the wrestlers and even announcers and office people had no clue either angle was happening and many of the reactions you saw and heard from people were legit. They've been pushing the heel Jim Ross vs. Vince McMahon announcer storyline, with Ross making references to Vince's steroid trial and even veiled references to Vince being on steroids. Ross has even made references to WCW being ahead of WWF, which surprises Dave that they'd even acknowledge that.
- The ECW/WWF angle was talked about on Livewire when someone called in and asked about ECW. Host Jim Cornette joked about ECW running shows in a bingo hall. Also, fun fact, WWF had previously worked out a deal with indie promoter Dennis Coraluzzo to send low-level WWF talent (like Dwayne Johnson and Mark Henry) to work Coraluzzo's indie shows so they could gain experience. But with the ECW angle taking place, that has since fallen through. Poor Coraluzzo just can't catch a break from ECW.
- Last week, Jerry Lawler told fans at a USWA show not to buy tickets to WCW Nitro when it came to Memphis. This week, in a Prodigy Online interview, Eric Bischoff responded, saying, "I think Jerry Lawler exposed himself quite a bit with that little stunt. Jerry Lawler in my opinion is a small time, going nowhere individual who is probably at the end of any kind of professional career he may have had. Perhaps his bitterness is showing through. Then again, Jerry Lawler owns half of a promotion that is lucky to draw 150 people to an event at a flea market, so I can understand why he'd be bitter."
- Jim Neidhart is gone from WWF. No reason given.
- A guy named Bill Behrens writes in and basically gives his thoughts on all the American promotions. I only mention it because I googled his name and the guy apparently works in the business as a booking agent for lots of big name indie wrestlers.