January 13, 1997
- Awards issue. Here are the results for all the bests and worsts of 1996, as voted on by readers of the Observer.
- There's a bunch of other stuff where Dave runs down all the major shows from 1996, recaps notable events, calculates who had the most great matches during the year by calculating and averaging out all his star ratings (Kobashi was #1, for anyone curious), and other stuff. Beyond that, not much other news in this issue.
- The Starrcade buyrate is looking to be somewhere between 0.9 and 1.0 which would make it the biggest WCW buyrate since the Hogan/Flair retirement match in 1994. And because of the higher price of the show, it is believed to be the biggest money making non-WWF PPV in wrestling history.
- The debut of Shotgun Saturday Night was reportedly a flop. Dave hasn't seen it but all the reports and calls he's gotten about it have been 100% negative. It was said to be "like watching a poorly-lit minor league promotional cross between Incredibly Strange Wrestling and "Grunt: The Wrestling movie" but with bigger name stars." The Headbangers debuted as a tag team called The Flying Nuns managed by Brother Love and using a loaded Bible to get the win. During a Goldust/Sultan match, Marlena pulled down her top to flash Sultan to distract him (it was filmed from behind and she actually had pasties over her nipples). Ahmed Johnson and Savio Vega brawled into the street and Ahmed did his finisher on the roof of a car, which was said to be the highlight of the show.
- Pro wrestling has been deregulated in New Jersey. This should lead to a lot more indie shows in the state because it will be a lot cheaper for promoters to run shows there now. It is believed ECW is already making plans to run shows there, as the regulation rules are what kept them from running shows in the past. About 7 years ago, it was due to issues with the New Jersey legislature that led to WWF admitting that pro wrestling was a work, which became a big story for awhile. WWF has been pushing for years to get wrestling deregulated there and finally succeeded last week.
- Correction from a couple of weeks ago about former SMW wrestler Bruiser Bedlam (aka Johnny K-9). He wasn't arrested in that major weapons/drug bust. Members of the motorcycle gang that he hangs around with were arrested, but he wasn't (give him a few more weeks...).
- Scott Hall missed this week's Nitro because he got some of his teeth knocked out by Jerry Sags in a house show match over the weekend and had to go get oral surgery. Presumably it was an accident, but there has been heat between Sags and Hall for awhile because last year, Hall apparently stiffed Sags with a chairshot to the heat and gave him a concussion and they ended up in a nasty argument backstage at the time. There was also an incident at another house show where the Nasty Boys were working with Hall and Nash (who were supposed to be the heels) but Hall and Nash kept doing all the babyface spots to get themselves over, which got them cheered and made the Nastys look like fools, and they weren't happy about that.
- Dave was at a recent WWF house show and of note, during a promo, Shawn Michaels pulled his trunks down to his knees and mooned half the crowd. Unfortunately, Dave was on the other side of the crowd and instead of seeing Shawn's ass, he apparently saw Shawn hanging dong. "It was the first time I've ever seen a wrestler expose himself (at least as part of the show) in more than 25 years of going to live wrestling."
- Ken Shamrock was in attendance at the WWF house show in Stockton and was mobbed by people wanting autographs.
- The Grimm Twins (Harris Brothers) have been released by WWF. I never knew they were back.
- On the WWF Livewire show, hosted by Jim Ross and Vic Venom (Vince Russo), they said they were no longer screening calls and it was apparently the truth because most of the calls were about WCW. Jim Ross was very negative towards WCW, saying that he fell asleep during the Hogan/Piper PPV match and said Hall and Nash should attend a WWF PPV because they haven't been near a good PPV since they left WWF. When asked about WWF signing Randy Savage, Jim Ross said he WWF was interested in younger athletes and had no interest in "looking for people my age" to be wrestlers.
- SuperBrawl was originally supposed to be the climax of the Sting/NWO storyline but now that they have turned Giant babyface, they plan to run with him for awhile and delay the Sting payoff for a little while longer (or, yanno, for the rest of the year).
- Televisa has been pushing AAA and EMLL to work together for awhile but both sides have resisted. But it seems Televisa finally succeeded, as there's expected to be some kind of joint show held in February.
- In ECW, the BWO are over huge and BWO merch is selling like crazy.
- ECW held their first show in Revere, MA since the Mass Transit incident (same city and building where it happened). The show was really subdued and there was no brawling in the crowd and no blood, which led to a small group of fans chanting "ECW sucks!" and complaining about how toned down the show was. The Gangstas weren't booked on the show. Killer Kowalski made an appearance, in the corner of The Eliminators and got a huge pop. And finally, after the main event, as they were leaving the ring, a fan reached over and grabbed Francine's breast, which led to Shane Douglas going nuts and having to be restrained from attacking the fan.
- Hiroshi Hase debuted in All Japan, working opening matches. The gimmick is that Hase (NJPW legend, current Japanese politician) doesn't want any special treatment and wants to work his way up the card and is starting out as a prelim match wrestler. There was so much hype around Hase's debut that scalpers were selling tickets for $500 a pop.
- On Nitro, Eric Bischoff did some commentary and made reference to Randy Savage coming back and acted as if he wouldn't allow Savage to return and told him to go join some other inferior promotion. In reality, the Savage/WCW negotiations are pretty much a done deal and Savage should be returning soon. Bischoff also teased a new major star joining the NWO, which is expected to be Curt Hennig when he's contractually able.
- At an All Japan Women's show, Aja Kong beat Yoshiko Tamura with such a stiff punch that Tamura had to be hospitalized.