June 15, 1998
- We open this time with a full, looooooooooong as hell obituary and biography for Junkyard Dog, who died in a car accident the week before. Nationally, he's most well known for his mid-80s run in WWF, but he was also one of the biggest stars ever in the Mid South region and if not for drugs, Dave thinks he'd probably have gone on to be an even bigger star nationally and would likely be remembered today with the same reverence as Hogan, Flair, Piper, etc. He was a horrible wrestler, but his charisma and mic skills made him a megastar in the Mid South. Anyway, Dave goes into a ton of detail on his early life, the first years of his career in Stampede, and his rise in Mid South when Bill Watts made him the face of the company. Dave talks about how JYD's rise back then was similar to Goldberg's now, where he was fed an endless stream of people and dominated them and became unbeatable and the crowds ate it up just like they have with Goldberg. Dave recaps the famous angle where the Freebirds "blinded" JYD. It created such sympathy for JYD that at one point a fan jumped the barricade with a gun and pointed it at Michael Hayes to protect JYD. The angle eventually drew 30,000+ fans to the Superdome for JYD vs. Hayes in a dog collar match. For a company only a year old and featuring 2 guys that almost no one in the country outside of that region had ever heard of, that was obviously huge and helped put Mid South on the map. For the next several years, they were routinely drawing 20,000 or more to the Superdome several times per year. But during this time, JYD got hooked on cocaine and gained weight and then WWF came calling. JYD bailed on Mid South without notice to go work for Vince. A year later, he returned to New Orleans and teamed with Hogan in the main event at the Superdome and only drew 6,000 fans. JYD's marriage also fell apart and his wife was institutionalized and later tried to kidnap their daughter which led to JYD fighting with her brother (a police officer) and shooting him (later ruled accidental). He eventually got fired from WWF for multiple no-shows, went broke and eventually lost his car, home, etc. He had a final run in WCW in the early 90s and had been working indies ever since. He still had a rep for no-shows and never had a stable address. At one point recently, he was working for Walmart in Las Vegas and couldn't get a job with WWF or WCW and reportedly still had a drug problem up until his death.
- JYD's death came as he was driving home from his daughter's high school graduation but sadly, even that doesn't have a happy ending. He arrived several hours late, after the graduation had already ended and his daughter had already left with friends, so he never saw her before he died. She didn't find out until the next morning that he had even attempted to come to the graduation and she also learned of his death at the same time. Buddy Landel was the only fellow wrestler at his funeral (in Wadesboro, NC), although the Funks and Ted Dibiase sent flowers. Michael Jordan also sent a card. But there were close to 2,000 other locals in attendance, as he was still a celebrity there.
- WCW has filed a lawsuit against WWF that is almost identical to the lawsuit WWF filed against them in 1996. The suit alleges use of WCW trademarks, violating unfair trade practices laws, and other such stuff. The lawsuit is asking for $2 million in damages and for a court injunction preventing WWF from mentioning WCW or its wrestlers, showing WCW logos, or any of that. All of these seems to stem from the DX skits where they showed up at WCW events and aired the footage on TV. As a result of the lawsuit, WWF has stopped all references to WCW. The lawsuit in 1996 was WWF claiming that WCW was trying to mislead the public into thinking Scott Hall and Kevin Nash still worked for WWF and that there was a WWF vs. WCW angle happening. WCW's lawsuit basically alleges the same thing, talking about all the times WWF has disparaged WCW or attempted to mislead fans (Billionaire Ted skits, giving the false impression that Hall and Nash would be returning with the Fake Razor & Diesel gimmicks, claiming on TV that Hall and Nash are being held hostage by WCW, Jim Cornette's anti-WCW rants, etc.). The suit also talks about how they infringed on the CNN trademark when they aired footage of DX at the CNN Center prominently showing the logo. The lawsuit also goes on to complain about HHH imitating sometime WCW ring announcer Michael Buffer, saying "X-Pac" is a violation of the "Syxx-Pac" name he sometimes went by in WCW, comments that have been made on WWF's hotline, in WWF Magazine, etc.
- There was also this little nugget, which Dave says WCW is actually 100% correct on: "As part of its presentation on April 27, Titan willfully and maliciously represented falsely that WCW was offering free tickets to its Nitro event in Norfolk. In the professional wrestling business, the giving away of free tickets to an event on the day of the show is a response to a failure to sell out the venue, and it reflects badly on a promotion, suggesting that an insufficient number of fans are willing to pay to see the show. WCW had in fact sold out the Norfolk event far in advance. Titan falsely and maliciously telecast video footage suggesting that tickets were being given away by the juxtaposition of an unrelated message on the marquee of the Scope with the message announcing that evening's Nitro event. This maliciously altered footage was replayed on the May 2 Live Wire and the WWF Superstars that appeared on USA on May 3." Dave says it's true that the show was sold out and WWF did indeed edit the footage to make it look like they were advertising free tickets. It's pretty much the only thing Dave thinks might hold up in court. But then again, on the same night on Nitro, Tony Schiavone made a comment about WWF not being able to give away tickets to Raw when in reality, the show was legit sold out also. So, yanno.
- Basically, any time WWF has even remotely acknowledged WCW's existence, it's probably listed in the lawsuit. Dave says most of it comes off as frivolous but hey, a lot of WWF's lawsuit against WCW was frivolous also. It was probably filed mostly just to get WWF to shut up about WCW, just as WWF's lawsuit made Turner force Eric Bischoff to stop running down WWF for awhile. In the end, this is nothing more than 2 companies that hate each other trying to hurt each other with petty lawsuits. Because that's where we're at now in this war.
- Dennis Rodman made major headlines this week after blowing off basketball practice in the middle of the NBA Playoffs to make an appearance on Nitro instead. The story became a huge topic of conversation in the sports world. Rodman reportedly called coach Phil Jackson just before practice and told him he couldn't make it. When Jackson asked why, Rodman simply hung up on him. No one knew why he couldn't make practice until later that night when he showed up on television on Nitro. The deal was put together last week in response to WCW losing in the ratings to WWF. They wanted Rodman to make an appearance on the show but they couldn't promote it ahead of time because that would alert the Bulls that he planned to no-show practice. Footage ran in all the news outlets of Rodman and Hogan attacking DDP with chairs. Rodman was fined $10,000 by the NBA and another undisclosed amount by the Bulls for no-showing practice (and surely pissed off his entire team in the process).
- Bischoff has obviously made the decision to keep DDP in the main event of Bash at the Beach, where he's expected to team with NBA star Karl Malone against Hogan and Rodman. Remember, Hogan had been pushing for Randy Savage to get the spot but Bischoff overruled him. Malone's involvement isn't expected to be announced until after the NBA Playoffs are over.
- Mr. Aguila (who has been working in WWF recently under the name Papi Chulo) worked EMLL's big anniversary show and was booed out of the building despite being a babyface. He's been wrestling unmasked in WWF and word apparently got out that he had dishonored Mexican tradition by willingly unmasking in the United States for no reason, so they booed the shit out of him when he tried to use his masked Mr. Aguila gimmick in Mexico.
- WCW and NJPW seem to have patched things up. Chris Benoit, Brian Adams, and Scott Norton are advertised for NJPW shows in July and they've started slowly using the NWO name more often.
- ECW's upcoming Heat Wave PPV in August was originally planned for Indianapolis but it looks like it will be moved to Dayton, OH because there's a big NASCAR race happening that weekend in Indianapolis (Brickyard 400) and finding available hotels, rental cars, and flights into the city is pretty much impossible.
- For the first time in a long time, ECW failed to sell out the ECW Arena, although a lot of people blamed it on a mass transit strike happening in town that shut down a lot of city transportation. It was said to be the worst ECW show in a long time.
- WCW is meeting with Ric Flair this week for settlement talks, in hopes that they can bring him back at the Georgia Dome episode of Nitro and have him reform the Four Horsemen with himself, Chris Benoit, Bill Goldberg, and one other person, still undecided. Arn Anderson would be the J.J. Dillon-type manager of the group. This was basically the original plan before Flair got suspended. On a recent radio show, Gene Okerlund claimed Flair will be returning soon, but Flair's attorneys then called Okerlund and told him to make a retraction because it wasn't true.
- Eric Bischoff had a meeting with all the wrestlers before Nitro last week to discuss various topics. The main issue was the travel, with Bischoff promising to make the schedule easier and that he wouldn't book more than 18 dates per month and that there would be at least one 6-day break each month with no shows. He talked about all the injuries everyone is dealing with, saying that was why he is easing the schedule but also asked that people try harder to work through injuries, which as you can imagine, everyone was just thrilled with that idea. He also announced that Dusty Rhodes will have a bigger role in the booking and also scolded the wrestlers for arriving late to TV tapings and house shows and said WCW will start fining guys who are late.
- Starting in August, Thunder will be taped every other week so they'll do 4-hour tapings, with one show being live and the other one being filmed for the next week. Dave says it's going to be trouble for WCW because this means they'll have to be organized and can't change things at the last minute like they do every week now because they will have to factor in things that were taped in advance. This also pretty much establishes Thunder as the secondary show that they aren't taking as seriously as Nitro.
- There's been talk of doing a bunch of upcoming heel and face turns in WCW, as if they haven't done enough already. Curt Hennig and Rick Rude are expected to turn and join Hogan's NWO along with possibly Randy Savage. Meanwhile, when Scott Hall returns, he may join back up with Nash, thus completely negating the heel turn a few weeks back that was already pretty much totally forgotten. Hall is expected back from rehab in a couple of weeks. Nash also doesn't want DDP in the Wolfpac group so that may change also.
- Dave recaps Nitro this week and just shits all over the dozens of things that didn't make sense or the terrible matches. Hogan had, like, 8 different segments throughout the show. The Bischoff/Savage/Liz storyline has a million plotholes which Dave gleefully points out. So on and so forth. The only bright spot was Goldberg's match, and Dave says the crowd went absolutely nuts for Goldberg more than possibly any pro wrestler in history aside from Antonio Inoki in Japan at times. So yeah...Goldberg is OVER. Dave points out that Goldberg's Nitro win made him 99-0 but they have 2 house shows scheduled before the PPV this Sunday, which will make Goldberg 101-0. But they're not planning to acknowledge those, so Goldberg's match with Konnan at the PPV will be recognized as his 100-0 match, although in reality it will make him 102-0. There had been talk of having Curt Hennig attack Konnan in the match, which would cause Goldberg to lose by DQ and prevent him from getting to 100-0 but luckily, less idiotic heads prevailed and they won't be doing that.
- Latest plans on Ultimate Warrior is for him to debut in August or September, but again that can all change depending on the ratings. If WCW keeps losing to WWF, expect him to debut sooner. No definite word on his contract, but allegedly it's for him to work around 36-38 dates for about $1 million. Which should do wonders for the morale of all the other WCW guys who don't even make anywhere remotely close to that much money and work 5x as many shows. They're producing new music for him and plan to give him a crazy laser lights show entrance even more elaborate than Glacier. Dave gives it 3 weeks before Warrior wears out his welcome and means absolutely nothing to the ratings and fans.
- Oh, we're not done with Dave's snarkiness, as he reviews this week's Thunder episode also and shits all over it too. Just a heads up, Dave doesn't have very many nice things to say about WCW for the next couple of years. We haven't yet scratched the surface on how much he trashes them. Anyway, this week he talks about how much Brian Adams sucks but WCW continues to give him a significant push simply because he was in WWF recently ("and nobody cared about him there either"). But, once again, Goldberg was hugely over, as he's by far the biggest star in the company right now and it's not even close.
- The Nitro Girls (other than Kimberly, who is the leader) were all making $50,000 a year and, as a group, they're asking for a raise to $65,000 each.
- The Giant is considering knee surgery on both of his knees, since both are currently in bad shape.
- Rey Mysterio was supposed to do a return angle on Nitro and he was backstage ready to go, but since Hogan apparently needed 8 segments for himself during the show, Mysterio's return got axed.
- Apparently an unnamed mid-card wrestler failed a drug test for steroids (oddly enough, for Dianabol, which is an old 80s steroid that almost no one uses anymore). It struck people as interesting since somehow only 1 guy failed when there's obviously more using it. Anyway, Bischoff ordered the guy to attend a 1-day counseling session as punishment. That'll learn him!
- Turner execs took out a full page ad in an industry-leading advertising publication that was full of complete bullshit about WCW. According to the story, in 1989, Ted Turner bought a wrestling company that was doing tiny ratings (they were actually doing 4.0's and higher every week) and running shows in high school gyms (no). Turner gave it a complete overhaul and now WCW runs 300 house shows a year (no) and most of them sell out the first day tickets go on sale (no).
- WWF's Raw at Madison Square Garden was sold out with nearly 20,000 people and a gate of nearly $400,000 which is the largest gate WWF has ever had in the U.S. for a non-PPV show. A recent Evander Holyfield fight booked for Madison Square Garden was cancelled and it was noted that they only sold 5,000 tickets. New York Daily News, when covering the story, said maybe boxing needed to bring in Austin and McMahon, since they just sold out MSG.
- WWF recently did a weigh-in on everybody and Vader and Faarooq came in heavier than WWF wanted, so both men are basically being buried on TV until they lose weight (in case you were wondering why Vader was scripted to call himself "a fat piece of shit" at the last PPV).
- The Summerslam main event will likely be Steve Austin vs. Undertaker, but that's not official yet. The original plans had been Austin vs. Vince McMahon but that's since been changed. Tickets are already on sale and they sold over $100,000 worth of tickets within 2 hours.
- There's been talk of having Vince McMahon act as sort of a manager for Steve Regal and Steve Williams, and bringing them both in as "shooter" types who Vince has hired to take out Steve Austin. Lots of Steves here.
- Sunny showed up 6 hours late for the recent TV tapings in Rockford, IL and was heavily fined for it. Dave says it's almost impossible for Sunny to not look good, but she came as close to not looking good as she possibly can at that taping. There's been a lot of different rumors as to why she was off the road recently, but Dave hasn't been able to independently confirm any of them so he doesn't want to speculate (this is right around the time Sunny gets fired for having a bad drug and alcohol problem and allegedly lying about having a miscarriage to explain why she missed a show).
- WWF has a show in August at Foxboro Stadium in Boston and they're hoping to get some of the New England Patriots players to be special referees or lumberjacks or something for the show.
- Dan Severn is no longer wearing the NWA belt on TV and they've stopped talking about his UFC credentials, and instead only mention his college wrestling days.
- An elementary school in California was recently defaced by racist graffiti and Nazi symbols and, amidst all the other hateful graffiti, the vandals also painted "3:16" and "NWO 4 life." The story made major news in California.
- Some notes on Adam Copeland, who should be debuting as Edge sometime in the next few weeks: he's from Orangevale, ONT in Canada and won a contest in 1992 (when he was 17) to be trained as a wrestler. He started wrestling in 1993 as Adam Impact ("What's Adam Impact doing in the, uh...Impa...umm...") and later became known as Sexton Hardcastle on the indie scene.