December 02, 1996
- WWF held a press conference in San Antonio to announce that the Royal Rumble next month will be held at the 72,000-seat Alamodome. The news actually got bigger coverage in Mexico than in the U.S. It will be the WWF's most ambitious live show since Wrestlemania 8 in 1992. The company hopes they can fill up the arena with hometown hero Shawn Michaels trying to regain the title and the final appearance of Jose Lothario, who was a big draw in San Antonio in the 70s. They also have gotten local sponsorships with San Antonio-area businesses and with Taco Bells throughout Texas and are selling low-priced tickets. The plan is for Sid to retain the title against Bret Hart at the next PPV (due to Shawn Michaels interference) which will leave Hart frustrated at Shawn. Then Shawn wins the belt at Rumble to build to Bret/Shawn at Wrestlemania 13. As for Sid, after just winning the title 4 days ago, he no-showed the big Rumble announcement press conference, claiming he'd overslept. Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, and AAA's Pierroth Jr. all spoke at the event.
- It was confirmed that AAA stars will take part in the Rumble show. The relationship is just a trial basis for now and there are no plans for them to work together beyond Rumble. It's also believed that WWF stars will work a big AAA show in Mexico City later in 1997. The news wasn't lost on Eric Bischoff, who immediately began trying to sign all the Mexican wrestlers to WCW contracts (they've been working in WCW without them). AAA president Antonio Pena has openly said that all of the stars who left from AAA to jump to Promo Azteca are still under contract to him and that he would go to court to enforce it if necessary. So Bischoff is worried about all these new WCW names like Rey Mysterio Jr., Psicosis, Juventud, etc. showing up at the Royal Rumble. Konnan claims that all those guys had at one point been under contract to AAA but he claims AAA doesn't exist anymore as a business, only as a name, which is technically true. During all the business turmoil in recent months, Antonio Pena closed AAA as a company and opened a new corporation called PAP, which is the parent company of AAA (sorta like how Titan Sports is the parent company of WWF). Konnan's argument is that the contracts were voided when AAA closed as a corporation.
- In one of the most shocking angles in history, EMLL star El Hijo del Santo turned heel this week. Santo is the son of the famous El Santo, arguably the most popular wrestler who's ever lived and had been a babyface his entire career. The angle had incredible heat (from what I'm reading elsewhere, the crowd nearly rioted).
- WCW's World War 3 PPV is in the books and the 3-ring battle royal was once again basically unwatchable horse shit (Dave says it a little more elegantly, but that's the sentiment). But it was a legit sellout. Ultimo Dragon vs. Rey Mysterio Jr. stole the show in one of the best matches of the year in the U.S. The NWO/Roddy Piper contract signing angle where they attacked his surgically repaired hip was well-done. "Too bad they have to wrestle a match," Dave adds.
- Antonio Inoki held a press conference announcing that he had received challenges from Dory Funk, Tiger Jeet Singh, and Willie Williams. It is believed Inoki will face Williams at the Jan. 4th Tokyo Dome show. Williams and Inoki had a famous martial arts match back in 1979 and Williams has made a career off the fame of that match. Inoki is then expected to face Dory Funk Jr. at some point later in 1997.
- Jerry Lawler made news in Mississippi this week, after testifying under oath that wrestling is entertainment. He was testifying before the gaming commission there, in order to get a promoters license to run shows in some of the casinos. Lawler said wrestling was "as real as Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny." On USWA TV later in the week, Lawler explained it to the fans by saying he had to lie and say that under oath in order to get the license and not pay an $8,000 fee. Then he said he still believes Santa and the Easter Bunny are real and brought out 2 Hooters girls dressed in Santa and Bunny costumes. He then started shooting on the Memphis newspaper that reported it (The Commercial Appeal), saying that they weren't a real newspaper ("Fake news!") and held up a copy of the USA Today and said this is a real newspaper.
- A strange incident took place at an ECW show this week involving a 17-year-old named Eric Kulas, who was put in the ring with The Gangstas and New Jack apparently used an Xacto knife to blade him. Kulas, who never had much formal training, moved as he was being cut and it sliced an artery and he began bleeding like a faucet. Kulas was using the name Mass Transit and was subbing for Axl Rotton who no-showed. Kulas needed 50 stitches to close the wound. The show was delayed for a long time after the incident because several people, including Kulas' father, were freaking out. His father was screaming about suing the promotion and wanted to press charges. After the incident, New Jack got on the mic and said something about hoping the guy would bleed to death. It took them 25 minutes to clean all the blood out of the ring (this is all Dave has for now, but bet your ass this becomes a bigger story).
- They did an angle in ECW where Shane Douglas attacked and "injured" J.T. Smith. It's actually Smith's last weekend with the company and he has moved from Philadelphia to Virginia so this was how they wrote him out (yup, he pretty much retired after this).
- At an IWF show put on by Killer Kowalski, a woman named Joanie Lee had a match facing a masked wrestler named Rain Drop, who was actually a male wrestler under a mask and was convincing enough that people thought he was a woman. (Joanie Lee is, of course, Chyna. First time I've ever seen her mentioned in here and it appears this was only her 4th match ever. Far as I can tell, she didn't wrestle again until 1998, when she was in WWF).
- On Nitro, Chris Benoit and Nancy Sullivan cut a promo on Kevin Sullivan, with Nancy telling Kevin that it's over between them. Benoit has never been great on the mic, but this was the best he's ever come across as far as personality. Dave then adds, "Benoit and Nancy had really good charisma together."
- Dave says Eric Bischoff's new heel gimmick is based on the character Gordon Gekko from the movie Wall Street. Umm...sure, let's go with that, why not.
- Gene Okerlund is back doing the WCW 900 hotline. Dave says that since the "sleazemaster" was gone, hotline business had dropped significantly, so they brought him back.
- The Giant has a cameo in the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie "Jingle All The Way."
- Dave notes that WWF is trying to get Steve Austin over as a babyface while still keeping him heel. Basically doing the lone wolf gimmick with him where he just doesn't like anybody. (it worked out okay).
- The latest on the Curt Hennig situation is this: Hennig was contemplating taking a huge lump sum from his Lloyd's of London insurance policy (anywhere between $150,000 to $300,000 depending on who you believe). But in order to get the money, Hennig would have to sign a letter saying that he was permanently disabled and would never wrestle again. During this time, Hennig was doing the angle where he would manage Hunter Hearst Helmsley and there had been talks of him returning to the ring. WWF apparently believed Hennig was going to resume wrestling, so their legal department sent a letter to Lloyd's of London to try to reach a settlement regarding the deal. This led to Lloyd's deciding not to pay Hennig the lump sum payment because they were under the impression that he intended to wrestle again. When Hennig found out he was, as you'd expect, absolutely furious. So he contacted Eric Bischoff with plans to go there and no-showed his WWF TV tapings. Later on in the week, Hennig and McMahon talked things out and McMahon offered Hennig a 5-year guaranteed deal worth $300,000 per year and Hennig verbally agreed to it. At this point, McMahon believed everything was all good, since the deal would pay Hennig far more than he would have made from the insurance payout. But Eric Bischoff apparently counter-offered with a 3-year deal for even more money, so Hennig decided to take WCW's offer, without informing McMahon, and no-showed the Hall of Fame, Survivor Series, and Superstars tapings. WWF now claims that Hennig has breached his contract by no-showing. Hennig's WWF contract expires in May and they are threatening to take the whole thing to court if Hennig shows up in WCW before then.
- The latest on WWF's planned Shotgun Saturday Night show is for it to debut on Jan. 4th. The details are being kept secret for now, including the venue and and TV deal details, because there's fear that WCW will somehow try to sabotage it if word gets out before they're ready. They want to host the event in various New York City nightclubs and last week, Vince McMahon, Bruce Prichard, and ECW's Paul Heyman went out together to scout various clubs and to try to make deals to run shows for them. Heyman is not an official consultant for the show, but Dave wouldn't be surprised if he ends up having some sort of involvement in it. It's interesting because this will be WWF's first weekly live show (remember, Raw is still taped in advance most weeks) and McMahon has criticized WCW in the past for spending so much money to run live shows weekly. And now he's doing the same thing. On top of the weekly costs of going live, WWF will also be paying for syndication for the show to run in other markets throughout the country. And considering it's scheduled to air at midnight, there's no way it will draw big ratings and they won't be able to make as much money selling advertising. And furthermore, Saturday nights have always been the best night for house show business and now they'll have to pull big stars from the house show tours to work the Saturday night TV shows, so that will cost them money also. Overall, Dave just doesn't seem to get why Vince is doing this, since it looks like it might end up costing them more money than it's worth.
- Early Survivor Series buyrate estimates look hugely disappointing, especially considering it was Bret Hart's first match back and was heavily promoted because of that.
- WWF road agent Arnold Skaaland collapsed backstage at Survivor Series, apparently due to low blood sugar but was back at work a few days later.
- Former SMW tag team The Headbangers debuted at the latest Superstar tapings and looked pretty good. Flash Funk (Too Cold Scorpio) also debuted on the show and looked awesome, both in the ring and with his entrance and gimmick.
- They're doing an angle with Rocky Maivia where all the heel managers are trying to get him but he turns them all down. Dave says there's no doubt Maivia has potential, but he's still very green and fans tend to rebel when companies shove a green babyface down their throats rather than let them get over naturally and it's starting to look like WWF is planning to shove this Maivia kid rather than let him get over slowly.
- Leif Cassidy (Al Snow) has changed his look and dropped his geeky persona, on his own (wasn't told to by the company) because his contract is due up soon and he realized he's going nowhere in the company. So with nothing to lose, he's changing things to try and get noticed.