January 27, 1997
- The issue opens with a big story about UFC and the regulation issues they're facing in New York with the upcoming UFC 12 PPV in Buffalo. It's full of ignorant politicians who don't know anything about the sport trying to get it banned, words like "barbarism" and "human cockfighting" and "bloody public spectacle" with "no skill involved" and all the usual nonsense. NY governor George Pataki is pushing to pass a bill that will ban the sport in the state (which, of course, he succeeded in doing and the ban lasted 19 years). But that's not wrestling news, so.....
- Other notes from the Rumble: despite a heavily Hispanic crowd, no one seemed to care about the AAA guys on the show, even though many said that 2 of the AAA dark matches before the show went live on PPV were the best matches of the night. Mr. Hughes debuted as Hunter Hearst Helmsley's bodyguard (that lasted for one show before he was replaced by Chyna). Funny note from Dave: "Helmsley has potential, but at this point, he's being pushed only on potential and politics, and because he's got a good head of hair. His work is only slightly better than average and his interviews and persona are below average." Steve Austin spent 45 minutes in the Rumble and eliminated 11 people, which Dave thinks may be a record (I think it was at the time). Mil Mascaras jumped over the top rope eliminating himself and they tried to explain it as if he didn't know the rules. Dave says Mascaras was probably in the first battle royal ever held and would likely claim he invented them if you asked. Austin was eliminated but the ref didn't see it and he came back in to eventually dump everyone else out and win. And as expected, Shawn Michaels was greeted to a huge babyface reaction.
- Dave notes that, after several years of trying, they finally got Jim Ross to wear the black cowboy hat as a full time gimmick. A few years ago, when Ross was fired by WWF, he was fired for numerous reasons. But one of them was his refusal to go along with WWF wanting to portray him as "Good ol' J.R." and wear a cowboy hat.
- Just one day after the Rumble, WCW set their own all-time attendance record, drawing over 17,000 paid fans to Chicago for this week's Nitro. They also set a record for all-time merch sales at a single show. Overall, Dave says the wrestling industry as a whole seems to finally be on an upswing. WCW is doing strong TV ratings, setting attendance records, and doing great PPV numbers. Meanwhile, WWF's TV ratings aren't great but house show business is the best that it's been in years.
- WCW also held a Clash of the Champions show last week. Dean Malenko won the cruiserweight title back from Ultimo Dragon in a fantastic match but the interesting note is that Dragon kicked Malenko in the back early in the match. Malenko's lower body basically went numb but he still finished the match and collapsed backstage as soon as he got behind the curtain. Benoit hit Kevin Sullivan with a chair, which is against TBS guidelines and Sullivan also bled, which is against the rules but it looked like it may have been hardway because he had bladed the previous night and it looks like the cut just opened up again. Scott Steiner, who had been out with a back injury since September, worked his first match and didn't do much of anything and took no bumps. Dave says Scott is probably pushing 300 pounds these days and just looks monstrous.
- Request TV has confirmed that ECW will air their first PPV on April 13th from the ECW Arena. The contracts were finalized this week and Dave runs down the expected card.
- Dave lists a couple of American wrestlers who are working upcoming WWC shows in Puerto Rico. Among them are Skull Von Crush (later Vito in WCW and WWF) and Sean Morley (later Val Venis).
- The reason Vampiro turned down the soap opera role that was mentioned recently is because they wanted him to play an immigration officer who rapes and murders illegal immigrants entering the United States. Needless to say, Vampiro turned it down because he ain't trying to get that kind of heat in Mexico.
- Giant Baba (AJPW) and Atsushi Onita (FMW) met this week and agreed for their 2 promotions to work together, although there are no details on how. Onita is pushing for a Hayabusa vs. Kobashi match. When asked about it by the media, Baba pretended not to know what they were talking about. Kobashi had no comment. Other AJPW wrestlers were quoted in the media, with Misawa saying that he had no interest in working in FMW because he doesn't feel the wrestlers there are as the same calibre workers as AJPW guys. And Toshiaki Kawada referred to Onita as "Mr. Tell A Lie" because of how he retired only to come back a year or so later.
- There were talks about former UWFI star Nobuhiko Takada coming to AJPW, but those fell through. Takada wanted a big money deal and it just didn't work. Also, Dave basically calls him stupid: "Takada then signed a six-month exclusive contract with Fuji TV to appear as a network sportscaster and appear regularly on talk shows and do some anchor work so he probably won't do any wrestling until the summer. The idea is because Takada has the look and the name to try and make him into a commentator, but Takada in real life didn't even finish up high school and in his heyday as a wrestler was always protected by the promotion when it came to doing interviews with the press because his gimmick was as a thinking man's wrestler but the reality is he's not very intelligent and they were always afraid he's say something stupid and blow his wrestling gimmick."
- Lots of drama in USWA revolving around Jerry Lawler's business partner Larry Burton, who is running a lot of the business since Lawler took over full ownership of the promotion. A lot of the wrestlers see Burton as a "Hollywood mark outsider" who is trying to tell them how to run a Tennessee wrestling promotion and they don't care for it. It's gotten so bad that a lot of the wrestlers are talking about quitting.
- The plan for Rick Rude in ECW has changed. Initially, they planned to keep him masked and keep his identity a secret, with Rude going so far as to wear the mask backstage to try to keep the other wrestlers from finding out also. But since the fans immediately figured out who it was, they're no longer trying to pretend. For now, he's still wearing the mask but it's openly acknowledged now that it's him. Rude even got involved at the latest show, delivering a Rude Awakening to Mike Awesome and did the hip swivel (wtf was Paul Heyman thinking here? How did he think he could keep something like that secret from the ECW fanbase?).
- ECW is talking about doing a 2nd PPV later this year in Scranton, PA (ended up being Florida).
- As expected, Randy Savage returned to WCW at last week's Nitro and did the gimmick where he refuses to leave the ring. No word on what his new contract deal is.
- At the same Nitro, La Parka was scheduled to face William Regal, but evidently the airline lost his luggage, so he didn't have his gear. Psicosis was scheduled to face Chris Jericho, but Psicosis simply never showed up so that match didn't happen either.
- Rey Mysterio Jr. will not need surgery on his knee and will be back in action in a few weeks. He and The Giant appeared on Regis & Kathy Lee's show and did a fake tag match with Mysterio and Regis vs. Giant and Kathy Lee. Mysterio was noticeably limping during the bit but he still did a couple of spots. A week later, the NWO was on the show and Hogan told Regis he wouldn't be his friend anymore if he lets Giant be on the show (somehow I can't find video of any of this. Bummer).
- Kevin Sullivan and Chris Benoit are seemingly taking their angle to the extreme. After Nitro, at a bar in New Orleans called Hightoppers, Sullivan and Benoit got into a brawl and had to be separated because Benoit was making out with Woman (Nancy Sullivan). Dave says this is similar to the Brian Pillman loose cannon angle, where only Sullivan, Benoit, Nancy, and Bischoff are in on it and they're trying to pass it off as legit to everyone even within the company. Pretty much everyone at the bar works for WCW and because they've been fooled before by Pillman, most of them weren't buying it, but at least a few people thought it was real (umm....about that...)
- There's talk of doing a Nasty Boys vs. Outsiders angle, playing off the real-life incident a couple of weeks ago between Jerry Sags and Scott Hall.
- The Chicago-Sun Times newspaper did an article about Steve McMichael, saying he earns a mid-six figures salary. Dave says McMichael was making $350,000 as an announcer but he doesn't know how much he makes now to wrestle "or whatever it is they call what he does." Ouch. Dave then goes on to bury McMichael's mic work, saying his wife Debra is carrying him in promos and says that McMichael is still occasionally training and is still barely able to do the basics.
- Both Juventud Guerrera and Jushin Liger have missed WCW events lately because they're having visa issues that have kept them out of the country.
- Between the Rumble and Raw, the last couple have nights have been the Steve Austin show and Dave says at this point, Austin is arguably the premier all-around top performer in the country right now.
- Brian Pillman is expected back in action in about 3 months. Meanwhile, Marc Mero will be out of action for several weeks for a personal situation but Dave doesn't know the details (we never find out what his "personal situation" is, but a few weeks later, he tore his ACL and ended up being out for 6 months and was never the same again).
- This week's Shotgun Saturday Night (filmed in a bar in San Antonio this time instead of New York since they were there for Rumble) was a much better show than the previous episodes, with Funk cutting a crazy promo and then getting into a brawl with Steve Austin. (There's an HD quality version of this on WWE.com but all the good parts are edited out. Here's the full version, with Funk calling Todd Pettingill's mother a whore and calling Austin an asshole, among other things, while Vince apologizes because they're on live TV).
- WWF has a house show in Knoxville next month and are treating it like somewhat of a Smoky Mountain Wrestling reunion show. Buddy Landel is scheduled to come in for a match and T.L. Hopper and Freddie Joe Floyd will use their old ring names for that night only (Dirty White Boy and Tracy Smothers respectively) and will face former SMW tag team The Headbangers. Tom Prichard will also work the show, using his real name instead of one of his many WWF gimmick names.
- WWF will be holding a press conference in Toronto to announce the signing of Tiger Jeet Singh, who will be helping to book WWF tours in India, Pakistan, and other Middle East countries. His son Tiger Ali Singh is expected to join the company also.