September 22, 1997
- So I wasn't going to post this today originally. As some of you saw, I was getting ready to go Hollywood. A long time ago, I signed up for a casting agency website. I had this bucket list idea that it would be cool to be an extra in a movie, just to say that I did it. "Yeah, I was in a movie once." And turns out you pretty much have to at least sign up to one of those sites and get on their mailing list to even have a chance.
- Anyway, sometimes they send emails for stuff. Got one yesterday saying they were looking for people to play "fairground workers" for a movie they're filming here in Memphis. I responded to the email with the info they wanted (name, height, weight, recent photo, etc.) and literally got a call back 10 minutes later saying I was hired.
- Point being, I didn't think I'd be able to do this today. But then I got here to the set and my call time got pushed back. So now I'm just sitting in my car with nothing else to do so....let's Rewind back to 1997, shall we?
- Usual disclaimer: I'm posting from my phone so if formatting is borked, that's why.
- The issue opens with a loooooooooooooong obituary for Fritz Von Erich, who passed away from cancer last week at 68. He was everything. A frightening main event heel wrestler during the post-WWII era, a real estate mogul who became a millionaire. One of the top promoters in the industry and easily the most famous wrestling personality ever in Texas. He was loved, hated, and feared by many. Father to an All-American family of kids that Dave describes as a Texas version of the Kennedys, and much like the Kennedys, they're a tragic family. He had 6 children. 5 wrestled. And only 1 lived to see his 34th birthday. Dave covers Fritz's life story in detail, from training with Stu Hart in the 1950s, his years playing an evil German heel, making the Iron Claw the most feared move in wrestling, the death of his 6-year-old son in 1959, his superstardom in Japan, his wrestling career through the 60s and 70s, his success in running the Texas territory during the NWA years, the World Class Championship Wrestling era, his deep ties to the religious community, the forced push of his sons, the Freebirds vs. Von Erichs years at the Dallas Sportatorium, and of course the tragic deaths of most of his children, mostly through drugs and suicide. It also goes into about how Kerry was already on steroids in 10th grade (given to him by his father), David Von Erich's death in Japan, how various scandals and angles eventually brought down WCCW along with Vince McMahon's expansion, and more. Anyway, Dave then basically talks about the "curse" of the Von Erichs and says that a lot of it can be attributed to Fritz, who essentially forced his children into a life they weren't equipped to handle and often put the success and image of his company ahead of their well-being and even facilitated their steroid abuse. A lot of people would say that the tragedies of Fritz's life may have been karma for many of the things he'd done, but Dave doesn't think anyone deserves to lose their children. Anyway....this guy's life should be a movie. Dave's obituary is long as shit and goes into a ton of detail on all this stuff. It's a must-read if you're into the history of wrestling like that.
- Mark Selker, one of the 3 Cleveland-area businessmen who recently purchased USWA, filed a lawsuit against Jerry Lawler and Larry Burton this week, claiming fraud in relation to the sale of the company. Selker basically claims that Lawler and Burton doctored the books to inflate the value of the company, so that when Selker bought in, he paid much more than he should have. There have even been rumors of criminal charges being filed against Lawler and Burton if this turns out to be the case. As for Lawler's side of the story, he basically says Selker bought in and then lost money and now he's just bitter about it. Selker has also informed the wrestlers that there are no more USWA shows and any shows booked by Lawler and Burton are not USWA shows and thus, USWA will not be paying them. Burton has been paying the wrestlers out of pocket for recent shows, but it looks as though some of the upcoming shows have been cancelled, including one that was supposed to feature Lawler vs. Tommy Dreamer. If the Cleveland owners bail on the company, it's believed that WWF may swoop in and buy it and use it as a developmental company, but until the legal mess is settled, WWF is staying out of it and not sending any of their talent to Memphis for the time being (this was pretty much the end of the road for USWA but we're far from done hearing about it).
- All Japan Women is in trouble also, as 5 of their stars, including 2 of the top names, have all left the company. Etsuko Mita and Mima Shimoda leaving is a huge blow and at this point, there's only 11 women on the roster and one of them is out injured. The company is $22 million in debt and no one has been paid in 5 months. The owners are so deep in debt that they can't even pay the interest. If they file bankruptcy, by Japanese law, they won't be allowed to start the business up again for 3 years.
- The Funk family indie show held in Amarillo TX last week was billed as Terry Funk's final match in his home town (NOT his actual retirement match, as they portrayed it in Beyond The Mat. Speaking of...) and the main event of Terry Funk vs. Bret Hart was filmed for a Barry Blaustein documentary tentatively titled "Beyond The Mat." There was a big ceremony for Funk held before the main event, featuring Paul Heyman and several ECW wrestlers, with Heyman giving Funk a replica ECW belt and telling him he is the lifetime ECW champion. Bret Hart also spoke and said he believes Funk is the greatest wrestler of all time. The show also featured most of the ECW roster and was pretty much a glorified ECW show with a few WWF wrestlers thrown in (including a Mankind vs. Sabu match). A guy named Dennis Stamp refereed the main event. The Hart/Funk match was great, with Hart working harder here than he usually does in WWF. Dave also says the film crew went with Terry Funk for a doctor's visit a few days before the show and says you can only imagine how bad the damage was after 32 years of the craziest wrestling ever.
- Vampiro had shows scheduled with both EMLL and Promo Azteca but he no-showed both of them, so it looks like he might have burned 2 bridges in one week (nah, seems pretty much impossible to burn bridges in Mexico during this time. Everybody got a million chances).
- Rey Misterio Jr. was almost suspended by the Tijuana athletic commission for no-showing a recent Promo Azteca show. Misterio went to the commission and explained that he had never agreed to the show and they had advertised him anyway and pointed out that he was injured at the time so he couldn't have worked the show anyway. He made a deal where he appeared at another Tijuana show and cut a promo to the crowd and promised to make up the show as soon as possible.
- Japanese women's wrestler (and wife of Kensuke Sasaki) Akira Hokuto collapsed at a clothing store and was hospitalized this week. All Dave knows is she had severe back pain and says she's been working with bad back injuries for years and that it wasn't unusual for her to get painkilling shots in her back and knees before matches.
- The upcoming shootfight between Nobuhiko Takada vs. Rickson Gracie is reportedly selling better than expected. At this rate, they're expecting a crowd of near 40,000 in the Tokyo Dome, which is that happens, the show will be a financial success, which nobody really predicted (and so it was. Ended up being closer to 50,000 and Pride was born).
- A Big Japan Wrestling show was cancelled because almost the whole roster got food poisoning after a big group dinner. They had to cancel the show because everyone was vomiting and had diahrrea and they didn't have enough healthy wrestlers to hold a show.
- Correction on Jeep Swenson's funeral. Hulk Hogan didn't give a eulogy and wasn't even there. Actor James Caan was there but didn't give a eulogy as reported. But apparently Davey Boy Smith was there and did deliver an emotional eulogy. Glad we cleared that up.
- On ECW TV this week, Paul Heyman announced that Tod Gordon is no longer the on-air commissioner of the company due to being too busy with his family life and outside business. Word is Heyman and Gordon have agreed not to bad-mouth each other publicly. Dave also mentions that when Paul Heyman took over ownership of ECW from Gordon several years ago, he agreed to take over ECW's outstanding debts, which were around $400,000, which Heyman would pay off in monthly installments to Gordon. Heyman was reportedly only about 4 months away from having it all paid off when the split happened.
- ECW is still sending WCW and Raven threatening legal letters about filing a lawsuit against them (and against Raven personally) but as of yet, no suit has been filed.
- Louie Spicolli got a tryout match with WCW and it's expected he'll be signing with the company soon. Word is he looked to be in better shape than he was in ECW a few months ago.
- All charges against Steven Regal for the airplane incident a couple months ago were dropped and he's been brought back to WCW and jobbed to Alex Wright on Nitro. Regal looked really overweight and rusty in the match.
- Hogan held up a sign on Nitro that said "Hey McMahon, Bite Me!" The cameras also repeatedly focused on a sign saying "Raw is Taped" which Dave thinks was planted.
- Jeff Jarrett's WCW contract expires next month. No word if he's planning to re-sign (nope).
- In bigger contract news, Hogan's WCW contract expires at the end of the year and he's already sent feelers out to WWF to gauge interest. The belief is that Hogan has no intention of actually going back to WWF and is only using them as leverage to get a better deal from WCW. Hogan has a ton of leverage right now because the Turner execs pretty much believe (rightly or wrongly) that Hogan is responsible for all of WCW's current success so they desperately don't want to lose him. Furthermore, Hogan's contract is due right about the same time as Starrcade, where he's expected to drop the title to Sting. So Hogan can use that as leverage as well, because if he wanted to, Hogan could refuse to put over Sting unless he gets what he wants, which would completely destroy the angle that they've been building for a year. And, of course, Hogan is also angling to get WCW to bring back Ed Leslie (Brutus Beefcake/a million other gimmicks).
- Shawn Michaels made news this week by going out on Raw in tight biker shorts with a sock stuffed in his crotch to make it look bigger, and then made a bunch of lewd gestures, swearing during his interview, and more. Much of it was edited out before it aired (remember, "Raw is Taped") and if you didn't know better, you wouldn't even realize it had been edited. Word is Vince McMahon wasn't there and when the cat's away, the mice will play. During the promo, Shawn also talked tons of shit about Undertaker, calling him "chickenshit" and other names but it was edited out. Undertaker wasn't there in the arena either. Everyone has talked about how unprofessional it was and Dave openly speculates that Shawn is trying to get fired so he can go to WCW.
- Now that WWF has introduced a new light heavyweight title, they have threatened NJPW with a lawsuit because they still use the old WWF light heavyweight belt as part of their J-Crown title. It's expected that NJPW will just quietly drop the belt.
- On Raw a couple of weeks ago, the idea was that British Bulldog would beat Hunter Hearst Helmsley in a match with Rick Rude's help. The gimmick would basically be that Rude would work for whoever paid him the most money and thus, he'd cost Helmsley a match since Bulldog paid him more. But Shawn Michaels stepped in and got the whole thing nixed so Helmsley didn't have to do the job.
- Paul Heyman has asked WWF to release Aldo Montoya (PJ Walker) from his contract so he can use him full time in ECW, but they won't do it.
- Marlena's grandfather died last week, so she and Goldust both missed a couple of house shows to go to the funeral.
- For some reason, AJPW is interested in using the Blackjacks (Barry Windham and Justin Hawk Bradshaw) for a tag team tournament. "Don't ask me why," Dave says. Anyway, WWF isn't using them lately so it may happen. Also, Bradshaw is expected to be repackaged soon and the team will be split up.