Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 13, 2020 7:53:48 GMT -5
JYD was brought in 4 times by 4 different "heads" and worked for 5 (he was there when Watts came in)
Nov 88 - May 89 (Crockett was "in charge" until Jan 89) May 90 - Aug 91 (Herd) Feb 92 - Aug 92 (Frye) Apr 93 - July 93 (Bischoff)
|
|
|
Post by jason1980s on Jul 13, 2020 7:56:25 GMT -5
Thanks for clarifying. I wonder if those particular guys liked JYD or if someone in booking was the fan of the man or wrestler. JYD was always a great name to have.
|
|
|
Post by cornettesracket on Jul 13, 2020 8:02:21 GMT -5
Wasnt the reason the iron sheik was in WCW in 1991 because like a lot of the notes from meltzer the company was a mess ? They signed him in 1989 and let his contract role over so he got more money for doing nothing which is very wcw. But to respond to the notes in this thread the one about 16ft ropes for an 18 ft ring is shocking stuff for a wrestling company who had at that point nearly 60 years of experience yet let that happen.
|
|
|
Post by Hypnosis on Jul 13, 2020 9:15:50 GMT -5
I thought this was going to be like an LOLTNA thread.
"Jericho's wife bought her husband's action figure, but the check went to Hulk Hogan instead. WCW everybody!"
"Starrcade '97 had a long, interesting build for Sting vs. Hogan, and the match finished in a total disaster. WCW everybody!"
"Bischoff had Schiavone spoil Foley's WWF title win on Raw, and it made more fans watch that show instead. WCW everybody!"
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 13, 2020 14:50:21 GMT -5
1992 May - July
May 4, 92"When they say there is dissension within the Dangerous Alliance, they aren't kidding. In Charleston, WV, an incident took place backstage with Dangerously and Madusa with them yelling back-and-forth about non-wrestling related items. Some feared it would turn into a fight except Taylor made the save when things got hot."
"WCW Executive Vice President Kip Frey confirmed that the company has filed a lawsuit against Lex Luger for a violation of their contract release agreement. Frey said that the wording of Luger's contract and his release, which Frey himself put together, is confidential. However Frey believes Luger and the WWF have gone way over the boundaries of what was allowable in the release by regularly appearing on WWF television shows, even if it is "supposedly" to promote the WBF television show rather than the WWF."
May 11, 92
"WCW brought in Dr. David Lee Black from Nashville to give a seminar on steroids to its wrestlers before the television taping this past Tuesday in Birmingham....One person described it as almost like a comedy scene from a movie when almost all the wrestlers were there for the seminar, then ten minutes late, in a sleeveless t-shirt with his 20+ inch guns showing, in walks Scott Steiner."
May 18, 92"Turner Broadcasting announced Tuesday morning the hiring of Bill Watts as Vice President of Wrestling Operations."
"Harley Race is currently involved in a civil suit concerning a boating accident in 1990....The plaintiff, Brenda Willison's lawyer stated in opening remarks that Race was drunk and reckless when he rammed his 23-foot boat into the plaintiff's 36-foot cabin cruiser. Race's lawyer claimed the former seven-time NWA champion may have had a few drinks, but he struck the cruiser at night only because it had no rear lights and that Race should be considered a hero because he helped pull Willison and her husband to safety. Willison suffered broken bones in her back and shattered legs and has been wheelchair bound since the accident. Willison's lawyer, J. Kirk Rahm, told jurors that Race's ex-wife, Yvonne, would be among his key witnesses, saying she had refused to ride in the boat with him that night because he was too drunk. He also said that Race shouted profanities at a police officer, shoved him and refused to take a breath test for alcohol. Race's lawyer, James Schwinn, countered that Race and his wife have endured a bitter marriage and divorce and the altercation with police came after Race had reached shore with a cut tongue and broken nose and the officer walked up to him and accused him of being drunk."
"Lightning Kid (Sean Waltman) had a try-out match and looked tremendous, so I'm told."
"If you look closely during the tag team tournament press conference you'll notice one of the mics has a WWF logo on it."
May 25, 92
"Harley Race's lawsuit regarding the boating accident was settled on Saturday when the jury ruled Race had to pay Brenda Willison $250,000 for injuries suffered. Race had earlier plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge of reckless driving in thce legal aspect of the case. He testified in the trial he plead guilty to a lesser charge to avoid a potential prison sentence if he fought the case and was convicted"
"Super Invader (Ray "Hercules Hernandez" Fernandez) pinned Todd Champion in 5:27 in an unadvertised addition to the show. Well, Ventura and Jim Ross were good but it would have been better if they were just doing banter over a screen with a test pattern. This is almost the ultimate dream match, the worst of the WWF against the worst of WCW and it lived up to everything it promised." "Morton was a last minute sub for Diamond Studd Scott Hall who quit the promotion that day after asking for and getting turned down in his quest for a guaranteed contract--the new contact he was given reportedly was for $300 per night with no guarantee as to the number of dates; Hall was being groomed for a program with Dustin Rhodes and to possibly be Larry Zbyszko's replacement in the Dangerous Alliance" "The Clash of Champions with the NWA tag team tournament will still take place on 6/16 in Charleston, SC but won't be airing on television until 6/22. This was due to a TBS/WCW communications mix-up since TBS scheduled other programming for that date and claimed to have informed WCW of this but none of the higher-ups at WCW were ever alerted to the change." "When Scott Hall quit WCW on Sunday, he said that he had lined up a job in the WWF to play a character similar to Fonzie on the old Happy Days television show."
June 1, 92"Kip Frey quit the company on Wednesday, which came as no surprise to anyone. Frey reportedly had no idea that they were literally pulling the rug from underneath him when it comes to power in the hiring of Bill Watts as Vice President in charge of wrestling operations. While Frey was given a figurehead position to save face, nobody expected it to last." "6/20 in Fort Irwin, CA drew 2,200 for an outdoor show on a dirt infield with 25 MPH winds so the ring was filled with sand which made it very difficult to work."
June 8, 92
"WCW wrestlers this past week all received a letter officially listing the new rules effective on 6/1, the rules, dubbed the "ten commandments," by the wrestlers, go as follows:
1. Use of the ring barricades and the ringpost is forbidden and will also be cause for an automatic disqualification 2. Wrestling outside the ring is discouraged 3. Absolutely no low blows. First offense is a $1,000 fine, second offense is a $2,500 fine and third offense is a $5,000 fine and will be considered a breach of contract. If a wrestler is hit low, he is to make every effort not to sell the move as a low blow 4. All wrestlers are due in the building one hour before the scheduled starting time of the show, with fines again being implemented for being late of $1,000 for a first offense, $2,500 for a second offense and $5,000 and a breach of contract for a third offense 5. Missing an event except in the case of the most severe injuries is considered a breach of contract. The only excusable exception to this rule is an act of God. 6. Wrestlers who are injured and can't perform are still expected to make the town in order to show the fans that WCW will no longer falsely advertising talent. The only exception would be a crippling injury which doesn't allow for traveling 7. Talking over the p.a. during the show is to be discouraged. Lewd hand gestures are prohibited, as is any cursing loud enough for the audience to hear 8. Fraternization (between heels and babyfaces) in public is not acceptable. This includes traveling together to and from the arena, to public appearances, restaurants and even to the gym. This also includes faces and heels socializing together in social situations and the gym 9. No guests are allowed in the dressing room, including family members, media, etc. 10. Each wrestler is allowed only two complimentary tickets to each show for friends and family. Any number of tickets above that number must be purchased at face value by the wrestler."
"Watts called the WWF a macabre cartoon and said that WCW wouldn't be having people throw up or be electrocuted (in reference to the recent angles with Ultimate Warrior and Sgt. Slaughter, although pro wrestling's most famous electrocution was at WCW's Halloween Havoc show in 1991 with Abdullah the Butcher) on television."
"The padding on the floor was eliminated (in many states it will be kept because of commission rules in those states as far as safety regulations) with Watts saying something to the effect that real wrestlers don't need a bunch of mattresses to fall onto."
"There was more of an emphasis on matwork as opposed to flying moves, with no top rope moves and only two moves off the middle rope. The squash matches all lasted around 2:30, similar to WWF squashes."
"The heels and faces now come out of different entrances at Center Stage."
"Even though the Zbyszko-Dangerous Alliance break-up aired on Saturday night they will still air segments "teasing" the break-up on syndication this coming weekend."
June 15, 92
"The official company policy on blood is that Watts is going to use blood. However, because of the higher-ups being afraid of a lawsuit by a wrestler unwilling to cut themselves and taking the company to court if they either lost their spot or their job over it (and in that case, the wrestler would almost surely win), Watts is unable to order anyone to cut."
"Apparently Watts tried to discourage using chops to the chest ala Ric Flair, feeling that they expose the business, in favor of more punches. This has been cause for some dispute since the stiff chops ala Flair have become very popular and in some ways the loud sound effects of a stiff chop makes things seem more realistic than punches with no sound effects."
"The July date in Los Angeles was canceled and there was some heat with the Forum over the cancellation since they asked WCW to get the ring they were storing at the Forum out of the building."
"Abdullah the Butcher was at the Omni trying and succeeding in losing a job the same night. Abdullah was asked to put Dustin Rhodes over clean and he made a fuss about not being treated right and quit on the spot. Since Abdullah has another Japan tour booked for the month of July and is headlining in Puerto Rico, it's not like he had any dates booked in the first place or was actually planning on sticking around." "6/7 at the Omni in Atlanta drew 2,600 with Ron Simmons winning the Battle Royal and the first eight eliminated were to not work the undercard and the remainder were to work in pairings (9 vs. 10, 11 vs. 12, etc.). Minor screw-up as apparently Rick Steiner was supposed to go out before Barry Windham and he didn't, but Windham still worked the undercard even though Windham went out No. 8 and Steiner No. 9." "Simmons pinned Anderson in 5:00 (rhetorical question--Why, if Anderson is going to headline the next Omni show against Sting, does he get pinned cleanly by Simmons?"
June 29, 92"They said fans would decide on the 900 number, but then did a pretty sleazy con late in the show by announcing that Madusa was ahead 51-49 percent since Missy was the face in a way to encourage more brainless people to call for Missy thinking one vote could make a difference." "The steroid PSA's have disappeared from television."
July 13, 92
"Watts has now banned babyfaces and heels from flying in the same airplane which in some cases has made a tough travel schedule that much tougher with the faces and heels alternating weeks in having to take the early flights out of town (after wrestling the previous night). The reason given wasn't kayfabe as much as the fear that if everyone was on the same plane and it went down, there would be nobody left to wrestle. So now, the billion-to-one odds of that happening are doubled."
"It appears the big losers now that Watts is in charge are Brian Pillman, Jushin Liger (who did a job for Flamingo in hardcore Baltimore on 7/4), Tom Zenk, The Freebirds and Marcus Bagwell and the big winners are Terry Gordy, Steve Williams, Mr. Hughes, Ron Simmons, Greg Valentine, Dick Slater, The Barbarian and Dan Spivey."
July 20, 92
"If the Great American Bash showed anything, we are in for a major change in direction. A lot more matwork and working holds. Less high spots but more attempt at athletic realism. In other words, the U.S. wrestling scene is going to have two promotions going opposite extremes with nothing in the middle."
"No heat, but I'm a Freebird and that's my excuse. Hashimoto replaced Akira Nogami who suffered a legit eye injury. In fact, to prove it was legit, WCW got footage from Japan of Nogami having his eyes examined."
"Steve Williams & Terry Gordy beat Steamboat & Koloff in 21:39...This was one of the dullest matches I've ever seen involving wrestlers of this calibre that were all trying hard and not blowing up or missing spots. The amateur stuff was fine to set the stage in the beginning but it lasted way too long. It looked legitimate, but wrestling promoters learned sometime in the 19th century that legitimate wrestling isn't marketable and that's when someone got the idea for showy moves and started making money."
"Gordy & Williams beat Rhodes & Windham in 21:01 to win the NWA tag team title....Rhodes was controlled on the mat for most of the first half of the match until Windham made the hot tag and it sounded like two fans popped. They quickly cut him off and he was controlled for about six minutes until Rhodes made the hot tag and this time it sounded like three fans popped."
"Noticeable by their absence, besides Dangerously, were Missy Hyatt, the ramp, elaborate set designs and all other trappings of the Jim Herd era."
"The word used more than any other was simply "boring," with no real complaints about the show other than that one dreaded word. The booking and storylines were focused. The matches all had clean-cut winners and everyone did jobs to clean moves. There was none of this fear of having the top babyfaces lose cleanly."
"Even though the company from a wrestling standpoint is a lot more organized and seems to be focused on a direction for the first time in a long time, I've never heard of morale being at a worse level."
"Guys are now being told specifically who they are forbidden to have contact with and all wrestlers have to remain in the building until after the main event on the card is concluded"
"The "fear of God" was put into several wrestlers when word came out that Terry Taylor's contract was eliminated. Taylor was earning a figure probably in the range of $156,000 per year and was told he wasn't being renewed but told he could stay and work for a nightly guarantee (rumored to be $300 per night but I can't vouch for the accuracy of that figure) but since he has no scheduled bookings at present in August except for Japan, he'll basically have no income for the month."
"On the plus side, the ref bump finish seems to have been all but eliminated, they are establishing very convincingly that anyone can lose to a clean hold which should put more interest into when faces take a big move and are covered since fans had come to believe Sting and the Steiners would never be pinned."
July 27, 92
"They put the title belt over strongly as in every interview, everyone issued a challenge to Big Van Vader for the title and Watts doing commentary mentioned that Terry Funk, Ric Flair, Lex Luger and Sid Vicious had all called about title shots. Well, I suspect Watts has talked with all of the above, but none for that reason."
"The television staff has been pulling all-nighters on Sunday's to get the Omni title changes and the PPV rundowns done in time for all of the television shows the following weekend. This attention to detail is something that hasn't been present in the past."
"The new policy will be to turn off the house lights for television creating the dark arena so they don't need to pad the buildings or promote extra-hard for television tapings to have a decent crowd since it won't be visible. While it will make the product look different from WWF, something this group is desperately striving to do at every turn, different in some cases will look worse to the casual fan at home."
"There may be a major heel debuting as soon as the 7/27 tapings in Center Stage and put on top in tag matches in August teaming with Vader against Sting & Simmons (currently Invader's name is being advertised although the name on the booking sheets is the kayfabe Big Bob, so I guess it could be Bill Murray)."
"In 1985, the Great American Bash was born in the Charlotte Baseball Stadium as a sellout crowd of 27,000 saw Ric Flair pin Nikita Koloff to retain the NWA heavyweight title. In 1992, the Bash returned to the Charlotte Baseball Stadium on 7/18 for perhaps the biggest card on the tour besides the PPV show, drawing just 2,200 paid and $20,000"
|
|
XIII
Bill S. Preston, Esq.
Posts: 18,388
Member is Online
|
Post by XIII on Jul 13, 2020 14:56:32 GMT -5
I love threads like this. Keep it coming.
|
|
|
Post by saneiac on Jul 13, 2020 14:59:19 GMT -5
"The padding on the floor was eliminated (in many states it will be kept because of commission rules in those states as far as safety regulations) with Watts saying something to the effect that real wrestlers don't need a bunch of mattresses to fall onto." This is possibly the dumbest thing I've ever heard. I've seen real wrestling. It took place on padding. On the floor.
|
|
XIII
Bill S. Preston, Esq.
Posts: 18,388
Member is Online
|
Post by XIII on Jul 13, 2020 15:39:47 GMT -5
1992 May - July
May 4, 92"WCW brought in Dr. David Lee Black from Nashville to give a seminar on steroids to its wrestlers before the television taping this past Tuesday in Birmingham....One person described it as almost like a comedy scene from a movie when almost all the wrestlers were there for the seminar, then ten minutes late, in a sleeveless t-shirt with his 20+ inch guns showing, in walks Scott Steiner."
We’re going to need “Scott Steiner: the movie” by the time we reach the end of these reports.
|
|
|
Post by James Fabiano on Jul 14, 2020 12:19:23 GMT -5
Big Bob= Jake I presume?
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 14, 2020 12:20:55 GMT -5
1992 August - October
Aug 3, 92 "Word has it that Bill Alfonso jumped to WWF as part the the package with El Gigante. Alfonso was Gigante's roadmate with WCW in helping him cope with foreign surroundings and translating for him, etc."
Aug 10, 92"The best thing about Simmons winning the title is that hopefully never again, never again, never again, do we have to hear this promotion do outdated race-baiting hype every time an African-American gets a title shot. They did interviews in the building until about 1 a.m. after the show for airing as early as this weekend, and there were implicit instructions made not to bring up the subject of race relating to Simmons winning the title." "While there were a few wrestlers that knew ahead of time that Simmons was winning the title (some who knew the title was changing in Baltimore seemed to believe it was Sting that was going to get the belt and everyone knew something big was going to happen although exactly what was a well-kept secret) in Baltimore, supposedly neither Vader nor Simmons knew for sure about the title change until they got to the building that night." "Most of the wrestlers were shocked backstage when Roberts showed up doing the angle even though it was generally assumed Roberts was the Bad Bob on the August booking sheets and there were some expectations that he would debut at Center Stage the previous Monday. Roberts wasn't backstage before the show began and almost nobody even knew he was in the building or in town until he did the angle." "Larry Zbyszko showed up with his arm in a cast selling the broken arm angle they shot earlier in the week at Center Stage even though it hadn't aired on television because that's how Watts is going to do things" "Bill Watts was at the Philadelphia house show and chewed out several of the wrestlers regarding their performances." "Terry Taylor is definitely through and is trying to get back with the WWF or indie dates. He was offered a spot to come back under a hood as Mr. Wrestling III, a protege of Mr. Wrestling II, but it isn't going to materialize."
Sept 1, 92"Watts asked if anyone had a problem and told them he wanted to know if anyone had a morale problem. Surprisingly, one wrestler, Nikita Koloff, spoke up, and talked about having a problem with the rule about having to stay in the buildings until the main event ends every night (ironically, the person speaking up here, Koloff, at this point is still high on the cards and thus would be in the buildings late every night anyway unlike a prelim wrestler who is affected by this rule) and missing occasional chances to catch a late flight home and spend an extra night every now and then with his family, which, because of the travel schedule, family time is limited. Watts responded, and since I only heard this from one source and don't want to misquote him, but suffice to say every wrestler with a family, which is most of the guys, were left cold with something along the lines of this business isn't conducive to family life." "Dangerously is in the exact same position Jim Cornette was in with Jim Herd. When Herd took over in 1989, he saw all these existing contracts and saw Cornette at $225,000 per year and thought that no manager deserves that kind of money so he wanted to phase him down to prove that he wasn't worth that kind of money and it became a self-fulfilling prophesy. When Watts took over in May, he no doubt saw Dangerously's newly signed two-year deal, which probably was in excess of $200,000 per year, and no doubt had the same reaction, that no manager is worth that kind of money and when the person in charge believes it, his decisions will make sure that's the case, particularly since Watts is trying to cut personnel expenses as a way to improve the bottom line and Dangerously is hardly alone in this vein." "There has been an awful lot of talk that Arn Anderson & Bobby Eaton will both be let go in January when their contracts ($260,000 and about $170,000 respectively) expire"
Sept 7, 92 "Despite some people rejoicing when Bill Watts was hired to take control of WCW, Watts wasn't brought in to take on Titan Sports. Only with words, which have little meaning. They wanted him to cut back on the bullets. He was brought in to cut expenses." "In order to switch from being No. 2 to No. 1, you need to have the most recognizable stars, which, in this case, were names like Hulk Hogan, Roddy Piper and Randy Savage. While WCW did have "secret" meetings or phone calls with Piper and Savage, at no point did they get a name of that calibre to jump." "I used to appear on non-wrestling talk shows several times per week a few years back and was always asked, when will (Flair, Luger, Steiners, Sting, Road Warriors) jump to WWF, but never when will (Hogan, Piper, Savage) jump to WCW. That one question, more than any other, repeated over and over again, was WCW's biggest problem." "Kip Frey was enthusiastic as all hell and ready to fight the big fight. He started spending money, had ideas of upgrading the shows, not all of which were good but he was in a bad position having little knowledge of wrestling going in. He spent big money to sign the talent, added incentive bonuses to increase their workrate, truly wanted to clean them up from steroids as a real deal rather than a p.r. con, signed Jesse Ventura, one of the five biggest wrestling celebrities in this country, and made big money offers to some near-the-top WWF talent, although the only one his negotiations truly netted was Jake Roberts (who ultimately, his successor, Watts, is being given credit for bringing in)." "Watss did offer guarantees in Mid South, but later changed his mind about them. He even convinced people who should understand better that guaranteed contracts ruin motivation and make for a worst product. Like the WCW wrestlers who were on guarantees weren't working as hard in the ring every night as WWF wrestlers who didn't have guarantees." "Watts is attempting to get wrestlers off their guaranteed deals when they expire. I'm sure in some cases he'd like to do it sooner, but that seems to be awfully hard to do. Nobody is going to quit a job that pays $3,000 per week when the options elsewhere are to make nowhere close, even if it means being jobbed out on television. And the contract, even if you do quit, can easily preclude you from, if McMahon wants you, even going there. Don't believe it? Tell me what Lex Luger would be doing this Saturday night if he hadn't been injured. Do you think, with business the way it is, that McMahon doesn't want him on the road as the new superstar on top instead of Razor Ramon?" "There is an upside. The incentive programs. If a PPV show does better than a 1.5 buy rate, the contract calls for a bonus. Great! WWF's last PPV just hit 1.5 and they'll struggle to hit that number more than once or twice more before they'll never see it again. WCW will never come close to that figure." "Also, there is a withholding aspect. Wrestlers who earn the $1,000 a night will actually only receive $750 per show each pay period, those at $500 will get $350 and those at $350 will get $250. The remainder will be kept in escrow and released every four months in lieu of possible fines, making sure wrestlers do jobs (not doing so and you'll forfeit one hell of a lot of money), don't miss shows and don't walk out in the middle of the program." "Needless to say, everyone whose contract expires anytime shortly that was under a guarantee, is going to be up in arms, because the day of reckoning seems to have finally come.... If they can get more money or live a less stressful existence working Japan and indies, or WWF, then they should go. Money is down in WWF because gates are way down, and the money isn't guaranteed there either, well, nothing above the standard $2,250 or so per year. But in a good spot, or even a decent spot, you'll still earn a good living." "Reed subbed for Danny Spivey who was in Japan. The story was that Cactus Jack called Spivey and told him to stay home because he was bringing in Reed, who knows more about Ron Simmons than anyone. How that explains him wrestling Rhodes & Windham is another story." "A near disaster was averted 9/6 in Dallas when during a Sting & Koloff vs. Roberts & Invader match, a man in a walker, in his 70s, pulled out a pistol and fired a shot. Apparently either he shot the ground and the bullet ricocheted and went through the ceiling, or someone grabbed his hand as he went to shoot and slammed it down so he shot the ground. The man, whose name hasn't been released but was taken to a mental hospital afterwards, has been a Sportatorium regular for 30 years and had no previous incidents." "Watts sent word to Dallas on Saturday night that if Jim Crockett came to the Sportatorium that he would have to buy a ticket to get in, and that he wasn't allowed near the dressing room." "Starting 10/1, wrestlers will be assigned who they travel in cars from town-to-town with, four to a car, rather than being allowed to travel with their friends." Sept 21, 92"Rick Rude, whose guaranteed money contract expires in early 1995, was reportedly given a proposal by Watts that he'd give him a large cash payment now (apparently far less money than Rude would earn on his current deal even throwing in the $1,000 per night of the new deal he'd sign, plus he'd be signing away his financial insurance in case of a major injury) if Rude would sign away his current contract and instead go on the per-night deal listed in last week's issue for $1,000 per night, but reportedly with no guarantee of a number of dates."
"It also should be noted that reportedly the new deals also include a clause that the wrestlers can be asked to relocate their home base. In other words, they can be sent to another territory provided that territory picks up the $1,000, or whatever per night deal. On the surface that doesn't sound bad, but a worst case scenario could see someone transferred to Puerto Rico."
"Lance Russell, who headed the 900 number, will retire on 11/1. Russell was planning on retiring just a few months later anyway but they sped it up and pretty much are putting Jim Ross and Dennis Brent in charge of the 900 number so they don't pay per diem and travel costs for Russell." "Ticket prices in most cities will be moved back up in October with top price going from $12 to $15. Although this isn't going to please fans, Kip Frey's experiment of dropping ticket prices wound up having little if any positive effect on attendance and had a definite negative effect on gate income."
Sept 28, 92 "Butch Reed, who debuted just two weeks earlier, was fired Tuesday after no-showing the television taping in Macon, GA without calling ahead of time with an explanation. WCW had a storyline set up involving Reed which was to start in Macon and had to be postponed. The company was attempting to find a replacement for Reed to debut at Center Stage on Monday night. Mondo Kleen (a larger version of Teijo Khan, both in ability, charisma and physique) was offered the spot apparently on Friday, and then called Titan and got a starting date with them at Titan's October tapings." "Jim Garvin was tentatively released Tuesday after a contract buy-out. Garvin had approximately 17 months remaining on a reported $186,000 contract, and was given a huge lump sum, reportedly in the $180,000 range, to give up the remainder of his deal as a buy out." "While not confirmed, it is believed Michael Hayes' contract, which was for a similar time period and a similar value, was also bought out, albeit it a far lower price, however Hayes was then given a new contract to work primarily as an announcer." "Both Freebirds' contracts were originally planned to not be renewed early this year, however due to an office clerical error, they were informed they wouldn't be renewed just days after the contract had automatically renewed itself (similar situation to what happened with Tom Zenk) for two more years." "Watts confirmed all new contracts will have a time period in which the company, but not the wrestler, has the option to terminate the contract provided the company gives the wrestler 30 days notice in writing.... "If you want security, go to work in a bank. You have the choice. You can make big money or you can have security. There's never been a time in America when you can get both." "Watts also confirmed doing away with medical coverage and contracts that call for paying wrestlers for dates they miss due to work-related injuries, defending it by saying the wrestlers are independent contractors. Watts said the company workman's compensation premium was more than $400,000 this year. "We're doing away with it. If they want insurance, they make enough money. They can get their own." "As for unionization, Watts said, "It's awfully hard to unionize in a buyers' (owners) market. I don't give a damn if they do it or not. Most of them don't have the gumption to follow through. The only thing I've seen unions ever do is cut themselves into a piece of the pie." "
Oct 5, 92
"Morale remains at roughly the same level as it's been, with most expecting that the key performers whose contracts expire will be finding new places to work rather than stay under the new system."
"Rick Steiner underwent surgery on Monday in Birmingham for a badly torn pectoralis major muscle.... Under the new system, if the Steiners were to have signed the offer on the table to them and this injury were to have taken place early next year, not only would Rick Steiner have to pay for both the operation and rehab, but he also wouldn't be getting paid until he returns to the ring."
"I believe six wrestlers, including Sting, Rude and Simmons were all fined $1,000 for "work not up to par.""
Oct 12, 92
"Jimmy Garvin apparently got his $180,000ish contract buy-out payment over the past few days. If that's the case, that has to be a sign that TBS has something of a long-term commitment and any rumors of this company's impending doom appear to be unfounded. Realistically, if the company was going to pull the plug at anytime next year, why would the higher-ups agree to pay Garvin so much money to get out of a contract and save them what wouldn't be a dime, but in fact cost them, unless they were to continue in operation at least another year."
"WCW lost its television in Richmond, VA on the CBS station which has carried JCP/WCW for the past 30 years."
"The Control Center that aired on Saturday listed Rhodes & Windham as tag team champions about an hour before the match where they were beating Gordy & Williams to win the titles was to air for the first time."
"If there is a 7th game of the World Series this year, it would go head-to-head with Havoc. You would think after it fell head-to-head last year that they would never make that mistake again."
"The Bristol card, which was the fifth house show in a 50-hour period (they did double shots on Saturday and Sunday), was said to have been a horrible card with everyone looking like they'd just worked their fifth show in three days."
"On the 9/29 World Wide television tapings in Columbus, GA, Scott Steiner did what could be described as a subtle heel turn, except that it may not have been. It started with a tag match with Steve Austin & Brian Pillman vs. Steiner & Marcus Bagwell. Steiner was getting worked over and while his back was turned, Arn Anderson came to ringside and destroyed Bagwell. Steiner then freed himself a few times to make the tag, but Bagwell was down on the floor. Finally when Bagwell got to the apron and Steiner again freed himself, Steiner turned on Bagwell, throwing him into the ring and walking out on him, leaving him to be pinned."
"Later in the taping, during a TV title match with Rick Steamboat (which is scheduled to air 10/16), Steiner won the title with a subtle heel move. Early in the match, which was worked babyface style, Steiner took a bad bump and Steamboat opened the ropes and gave him a chance to recover. Later, when a similar thing occurred and Steamboat took a bad bump to the floor, Steiner, instead of giving him a chance to get into the ring, jumped on Steamboat just as he was getting into the ring and cradled him to win the TV title."
"Supposedly Steiner was told that he isn't turning heel, and that is just something to make the television more interesting."
Oct 19, 92
"Scott Steiner reportedly had a locker room argument with WCW Vice President Bill Watts before the taping 10/5 at Center Stage."
"Michael Hayes will be producing new theme music for all the major WCW wrestlers. This apparently includes new theme music for the guys like Ron Simmons, Sting and Johnny B. Badd who don't need new music."
"Greg Valentine walked out Monday rather than do a 4:00 job on television for Sting. It isn't that Valentine refused to do the job as much as he got the new booking sheet and saw that his name wasn't on it for any dates, so he decided why do the job when it appeared he was finished up either way."
Oct 26, 92
"After the locker room incident on 10/5, Scott Steiner was removed from all house shows on the new bookings, including Halloween Havoc, just a few days after he had won the TV title from Rick Steamboat. Brother Rick of course, is out of action after tearing his pec in Japan. Unlike as was reported here, Rick hasn't undergone surgery because the doctors decided the surgery was too risky because of the placement of the tear being too close to internal organs. But Rick isn't expected back until after both brothers' contracts expire in December. Scott was scheduled to appear on 10/14 and presumably drop the TV title in Dothan, AL, and then apparently would be given time off with pay until the expiration of his contract. However, on 10/12, Steiner sent word to the office that he had suffered a deep thigh bruise in a 10/5 match against Steve Austin and had a doctor's recommendation that he stay out of the ring for three more weeks. The company almost assuredly wants him to do one last job, dropping the title, before no longer booking him. There is a lot of uncertainty as to whether or not Steiner will work the last shot and do the job or not."
"Scott Steiner had been told that the angles taped in Columbus, GA were just things to keep fans guessing and provide for entertaining television and not meant to turn him heel. After seeing how they were handled, the idea appears to have been to set the stage for a heel turn after all since the company's idea if the Steiners were to have stayed was to have used Scott as a heel and Rick as a babyface, thus obviously splitting them up as a tag team. Both were adamantly against being split up, which didn't help any in negotiations. The two weren't going to ever be programmed against each other, because that would be stupid and unrealistic, but it was felt Scott had strong potential as a singles heel and Rick would have to remain as a comedy babyface."
"To show just how much WCW is being booked on the fly these days, the new WCW Magazine has several articles talking about Havoc. While Sting-Jake, Rude-Chono and Simmons-Barbarian were scheduled from the start, the original line-up had Gordy & Williams defending the tag titles against Steiners (Steiners were originally going to win the belts at Havoc), Steamboat defending the TV title against Austin and Cactus Jack vs. Rhodes in a falls count anywhere match."
"The Springfield house was strong but there were eight no-shows on both that card and the Kansas City card and virtually none of the matches on the advertised line-up took place. Arn Anderson, Barbarian, Barbarian's mystery partner who would have been Atlas, Steamboat, Simmons, Windham and both Steiners were advertised for those cards on television and weren't there."
"In Kansas City they announced during the card that tickets for the return date would be available during intermission, and then intermission came, people got in line, and no tickets were available which is only an issue because of how frequent things like this have been in Kansas City"
|
|
|
Post by James Fabiano on Jul 14, 2020 12:37:02 GMT -5
Yep, which was why Fonzie was seen on WWF programming in 1993. He was to Gigante what Tim White was to Andre.
Most infamous appearances: ref in the WBF vs WWF tug of war. And getting his car taken in the Coliseum Video "spend a day with Repo Man" vignette.
|
|
XIII
Bill S. Preston, Esq.
Posts: 18,388
Member is Online
|
Post by XIII on Jul 14, 2020 14:56:43 GMT -5
I’m almost amazed that someone didn’t mop the floor with Bill Watts’ old tired ass with these things that he was doing.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 15, 2020 14:38:58 GMT -5
1992 November - December
Nov 2, 92
"While Watts proclaimed that WCW was going back to wrestling, "the real deal" and needing to bring credibility back to the product, on his first PPV show that he was willing to take full responsibility for (previous shows he was willing to blame his predecessors because wheels for those shows were in motion before he got there, even though in the case of the Bash, he was in charge from start-to-finish for all the television build-up of the show) we heard announcers talking about anti-venom, a snake chewing on a man's cheek, a string of ref bump finishes, a major no-show (Gordy), the most blatant example of bait-and-switch advertising in recent PPV history (Rude/Koloff), and finishing off with the destruction of the credibility of the every major singles title in the promotion."
"Madusa came out and after a too brief build-up, was fired by Dangerously, basically called a bitch and a hooker, and Paul E. continued with the most heavy-handed put-downs on women imaginable. Madusa, who by this time was close to being the most over babyface in the building, kicked Paul in the head."
"Gary Capetta introduced Seiji Sakaguchi as NWA President, Hiro Matsuda and Manobu Nakanishi as a member of the Japanese Olympic team from Barcelona. Ross at this point commented about how glad he was he didn't have to pronounce those names."
"Rude beat Chono via DQ in 22:33 so Chono retains the NWA title. The match that destroyed the show. The match that destroyed the NWA title in the United States. The only thing positive to say is that it's a good thing this wasn't televised in Japan. I wonder if this was the first time in wrestling history where two wrestlers, in their first meeting ever, had a potential match of the year, and then in their first rematch, had a potential worst match of the year?" "Rude, the supposed top heel in the United States comes to ringside with a just-turned babyface who had just been fired minutes earlier but is still there anyway after being fired, with no plausible explanation. Ross and Ventura did address the subject, but there was no answer that made sense and their attempt, saying that Rude had apparently chosen Madusa over Paul E., only served to make Rude theoretically a babyface, although in reality it made him another wrestler that nobody seemed to care about." "A fan at ringside was wearing a WBF tank top when the show started, but the shirt mysteriously turned into a WCW crew shirt. Good to see paranoia about clothing being worn by fans isn't limited to those at Titan Sports." "Next up was an interview with Bruno Sammartino, Erik Watts and Ron Simmons, with the idea that Watts would "get the rub" from standing alongside the wrestling legend and the current world champion. This got a lot of heat with a lot of people."
"A satellite television press conference with Jake Roberts took place to plug Havoc that made many television sports reports around the country. The funniest thing is that Roberts was talking very openly with no knowledge that it was going up on satellite like an hour before it was supposed to start and somebody found out and immediately put music over the voices, but it was audible at one point his complaining about the lack of medical coverage."
Nov 9, 92"On Monday at the WCW offices in CNN Center, a thought for the week was posted at the Secretary's desk: "Failure is an opportunity to begin again, more intelligently." " "On the 900 line this weekend, Jim Ross noted that Jim Cornette was in Atlanta this week. Cornette threw a fit about Ross reporting that on Mike Tenay's radio show that same night, although Cornette and Watts have met."
"There were complaints about the second interview Tony Atlas did on the 10/24 WCW Saturday Night television show where he made racial remarks about Ron Simmons. There were apparently many viewer complaints, which is to be expected because there are always complaints when the heel calls a black babyface "boy" (which happens once with just about every administrator). That's probably why when the Atlas interview was replayed this past weekend, most of the interview was bleeped out."
"The blame was being put on Atlas for not knowing better and saying things that he wasn't told to say. However, when a nearly identical interview aired on WCW Pro in syndication, coupled with the Clash match being called a Ghetto Odds match, it sure looks like another case of people passing the buck and the company only knowing one way to run an angle with a black babyface."
"WCW inked a deal to start running monthly shows starting September of 1993 at the old Charlotte Coliseum which will be renamed Independence Arena. The deal was done so far ahead of time probably because Jim Crockett is expected to open up a promotion in November and some think Charlotte would be his home base." "Even with kids tickets priced at 66 cents for 10/31 in Chicago, the card only drew slightly more than 2,000 fans. Actually, that's a monster house since shows in Jasonville, Danville, Knoxville and Milwaukee all drew in the 400-600 range."
Nov 16, 92"The most staggering numbers are that comparing the beginning of 1992 with October. WCW attendance has dropped 44%, gates 57% and cable television ratings 33%."
"The guy in the kendo outfit sparring with Madusa on the video that aired Sunday was Eric Bischoff. Bet you didn't have any idea the guy was that good with his hands and feet."
Nov 23, 92 "Charles Skaggs, who worked as Flying Scorpio in Japan is expected to debut at the Clash as Simmons' partner in the Ghetto Street Fight since Robby Walker, Simmons' original partner, was fired earlier in the week. Even though Skaggs has a lot of potential and has a finishing move off the top rope that is equal to anything in the business, it appears his prime qualification for being chosen as a replacement in the Ghetto Street fight isn't that he has a lot of potential or a hot finishing move." "Orndorff came in for the show airing Saturday and Jim Ross brought up the problems he's been having with Ron Garvin which tells you some kind of agreement has been worked out with Smoky Mountain if Ross is going to acknowledge another promotion's feud." "Bill Watts claimed on the 900 number that the company would be paying medical expenses to wrestlers who were injured in the line of work but that they just wouldn't be paying them (unless they are under an existing contract which has that provision built in) while they were missing dates for those injuries."
"All the local promoters are being taken off salary after the first of the year and will instead be paid $500 per show with a bonus of five percent of the net after advertising and building costs."
"Dangerously and Madusa were both fined $500 as a shoot for their language on the PPV (words like bitch, hooker and bastard in specific)."
Nov 30, 92 "Vegas did an interview so bad it was good, particularly when he couldn't remember the names of more than one hotel in Las Vegas" "Why does Vegas have that accent? Nobody in Las Vegas talks that way. He's trying to do an Atlantic City accent and be from Vegas. Yeah, they both have gambling but, so what. At least in the WWF when they have a guy doing a bad Hawaiian accent, they don't bill him from Florida or California although they did bill him from Oregon City for a few months there. Anyway, change the name to Albert Atlantic City or Nick New Jersey or even Diamond Dallas Page II if he's going to continue this gimmick." "For the answer to the most pressing question, I believe the ring card girl was Van Hammer's girlfriend. I think. That's not for sure, though." "Next up came the drawing for one of the matches at Battle Bowl. Missy Hyatt "picked" Cactus Jack & Johnny B. Badd vs. Danny Spivey & Van Hammer. People all over America were calling their cable companies to cancel Survivor Series and order Starrcade after hearing that match." "Robby Walker's leaving went something like this. Apparently at the 11/11 tapings, he got his booking sheet and found out he didn't have any bookings after the Clash. At that point he must have figured his role at the Clash was to get destroyed, so he simply left the building."
Dec 7, 92 "As of 12/1, the Steiners were officially released from WCW and on the Jim Ross radio show this past Sunday, Ross talked about the Steiners going to the WWF while Bill Watts commented on the 900 number saying that he got along great with Rick but not with Scott." "WCW has agreed not to do any "B" team shows in the Smoky Mountain territory although they will do occasional "A" team shows in the region." "Because the Main Event ratings continue to be unable to break the 2 plane, they aired the classic Flair-Steamboat match from Chicago this past Sunday and will be airing Flair-Funk this coming week." "The only bookings Dangerously has are two Christmas week house shows against Madusa, so it appears he'll be getting the big money for the next 16 or so months to stay home." "Apparently the magazine people can't get ahead of what has already happened since they are kayfabed about future plans (and even if they weren't, those plans change so frequently it would be setting themselves up for embarrassment if they printed anything about what hadn't already taken place)."
Dec 14, 92
"WCW is attempting to put out the word that Scott was the wanted who wanted to go to WWF and Rick was happy with the situation, apparently Rick, although remaining cordial with Bill Watts until the end (something that certainly can't be said for Scott), was of the same state of mind as his brother."
"Greg Gagne was introduced to the guys backstage at the Center Stage tapings on 12/7. He's expected to become a new member of the creative team."
"Ron Simmons' new music sucks."
"The Omni will be curtained off for an 8,000 capacity for Starrcade rather than the normal 16,000."
Dec 21, 92"Austin had a meeting that morning with Bill Watts and Dusty Rhodes since reportedly he had refused to do a job for Erik Watts in Greensboro. Since he was pushed on television 12/14, everything apparently is smoothed over"
"Bill Dundee gave notice in Memphis that he was starting 12/25 with WCW in the office"
"Anderson reportedly checked things out and decided that even with a major pay cut, he could still make out better with WCW than WWF....In the case of Anderson, Bill Watts was right when he talked about it being a buyer's market. Of course, in the case of the Steiners, he was wrong."
"The situation with all WWF wrestler contracts, despite what you may hear or read, is that when wrestlers join the company, they sign two-year deals. No wrestlers in the WWF receive guaranteed money other than the figure of $1,500 to $2,250 per year which is basically a $150 per appearance guarantee for appearing at a set number of television tapings. The contracts have a window of 13 weeks at the end of the two year period where a wrestler must give notice by and work out the rest of their contract to keep the contract from automatically renewing for one more year. If they don't give notice prior to that date, the contract automatically renews for another one year period. Not understanding that the 13 weeks notice only applies during a certain window each year has kept some big name wrestlers (Hart, DiBiase) from leaving WWF when they were offered guaranteed money contracts by WCW."
"Rude, who was in Greensboro but didn't work because of his shoulder injury, was reportedly jumped in the parking lot by someone a lot larger than he was. Rude flattened the guy with one punch. The guy came back later and wound up with his face introduced to the hood of several different cars."
Dec 28, 92 "Dangerously's contract is different from any of the wrestlers because it is a TBS employee contract rather than an independent contractor deal. That means his expenses on the road are paid for by the company and he also gets the entire company benefits package. TBS has been investigating his expense receipts for the past three months."
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 16, 2020 12:26:20 GMT -5
previously....
1993 January - March
Jan 4, 93"Before the opening match, they had Hank Aaron present the Battle Bowl ring from 1991 to Sting. The irony of seeing Aaron standing next to Bill Watts was probably lost on almost everyone watching." "The crowd booed heavily when it was announced that Rick Rude wasn't going to wrestle because of an injury. They announced in the building that the reason Steve Williams was replacing him was because he was the No. 1 contender, which drew a lot of boos as well as the fans were smart enough to realize Williams almost never works for WCW so how could he be top contender." "Rude, who from all indications, despite what has been heavily rumored and reported just about everywhere, was not going to win the title from Simmons, will be out of action for an estimated eight weeks." "While nothing happens until it happens and you'll be reading this after, but I suspect by the time you read this that Vader will have won the WCW title from Simmons." "The WCW title came off as so unimportant it was pathetic with them acting like the King of Cable trophy and the Battle Bowl ring were more important then the world title. To make matters worse, Simmons was booed a lot when they raised his hand in victory. I think everyone has finally come to the conclusion that this experiment was a failure." "Sting missed both Fort Myers and Charlotte because he has a specific amount of dates per year that he has to work in his contract that they booked him in more than that number of dates, so he skipped the afternoon of the two double-shots. In the company's defense, they probably didn't know about this in time to change the advertising, and in Sting's defense, considering Bill Watts' comments and actions, I don't know he should feel any moral obligation to do anything not specified in his contract." "An angle was shot on 12/27 in Charlotte where Arn Anderson and Erik Watts got into a street fight in front of a 7-11. They even had the Charlotte police participate (since Doug Dillenger was a long-time member of the Charlotte force) and "arrested" Erik." "Hard to believe they booked Christmas week with Sting vs. Muta, Simmons & Chono vs. Vader & Rude and Steamboat & Douglas vs. Liger & Sasaki as the headliners. While all quality matches on paper, none were built up one iota on television, thus had no interest among the ticket buying public."
Jan 15, 93"The Vader-Simmons title change was supposed to take place on 12/29 in Philadelphia, however Simmons missed the show. Bill Watts and the television camera crew flew to Philadelphia to film the title change that never took place and you can just imagine the heat that caused. However, Simmons did show up the next night to drop the strap in his final scheduled match before leaving for the Tokyo show." "Although you won't probably see this on television, there were girls in the front row at the taping with signs that said: "WCW: Watts Can't Wrestle" and "Daddy told me I could win!"
Jan 20, 93"It was announced with Van Hammer injured that the cage match would be 4-on-3. So Harley Race did an interview and fired Barbarian, saying he didn't want anyone around who was friends with Cactus Jack. Barbarian started choking Harley, and Vader hit him from behind and Orndorff piledrove him on the floor. This wouldn't have been that bad except: 1) They've already turned too many people and why turn Barbarian?; 2) They were doing almost the exact same angle later in the show; 3) The heels had a 4-on-3 advantage and then eliminated someone on their own team to make the sides even. Doing that made no sense, even in the illogical world of WCW." "Big Van Vader was then interviewed to set up another angle. Ron Simmons came out and they went at it with Simmons initially cleaning house on both Vader and King Harley. Then Simmons jumped outside the ring to continue to pound on Harley. Vader attacked him from behind and did an elbow drop, a big splash and two shoulderbreakers on the floor. By this point I was expecting Watts to run out and give Simmons his notice. Boy, it sure doesn't pay to no-show." "I'm just glad the cage match started because if the show had gone any longer, it would have ended up being a singles match." "Simmons was reportedly fined $2,000 for missing Charlotte and Philadelphia and has clearly been in the doghouse ever since, which shows how fortunes can turn in this business, because in August he was going to turn the company around." "Rude will be out until around the first of March because of the bulging disc problem in his neck. Apparently WCW is refusing to pay him because he's not working, despite this injury occurring in the ring. Watts reportedly wanted Rude to go on workmen's comp. Rude does have an insurance policy with Lloyd's of London as part of his contract, paying him in the neighborhood of $20,000 per month if he can't work, however the policy doesn't go into effect unless Rude misses three months, when, as it was explained to me, it's pro-rated to include the first three months and the company would be paid back his salary laid out during the injury only if he misses three months." "On the television show that aired 1/16 (taped 1/11), Bill Watts cut a promo about Rude refusing to return the U.S. title belt, which is a shoot, based on the dispute." "Funny how when Johnny B. Badd does a Frankensteiner, nobody will call the move." "Bill Watts went on the 900 line again on 1/5. He addressed Sting's missing the two dates Christmas week because he was overbooked and blamed it on a clerical error by someone who is no longer working here (I presume that to be Terry Allen) and then blamed "the booker" (Dusty Rhodes, whose name wasn't used) for booking Sting in double-shots without clearing it with him first. Watts said that "I didn't like that he (Sting) did it that way, but if I was a wrestler, I might have done it that way."
Jan 25, 93"Paul E. Dangerously (Paul Heyman) was officially fired 1/15 by WCW by a letter faxed to him from Bill Watts. Watts, in the letter, claimed that WCW's investigation of Dangerously's expense reports turned up falsified reports at the Ramada Hotel Atlanta Airport South for dates in April, May, June and July of this past year. Watts' letter also claimed that the Ramada Hotel confirmed Dangerously wasn't registered as a guest on the dates claimed in his expense reports and "it appears that you induced Ramada Hotel to provide false information that you did stay at the Hotel to support fraudulent expense reports and attempt to obtain improper payments of approximately $1,200." "Dangerously signed a two-year contract with WCW and Kip Frey on April 1, 1992 worth, between base salary, performance incentives and expenses, well in excess of $200,000 per year. The contract also listed him as a TBS employee, rather than an independent contractor. This would have made him the only performer in the company designated as such so the contract was somewhat precedent setting for a pro wrestling performer. The employee's contract provided that work-related expenses, such as medical expenses, road expenses and promotional expenses be paid for by the company." "Rude has yet to return the U.S. title belt to WCW as of press time"
Feb 1, 93"Funniest thing on the television show Saturday is when the announcers go off on Vinnie Vegas being a lefty, and then he proceeds to do every single move in his match right-handed." "The lack of communication or short-term planning is unbelievable as they spend all this money to do well-produced music videos on people (Zenk, Gunn, Scorpio) and then use them to put people over on television."
Feb 8, 93"2/1 TV taping for WCW Pro in Gainesville, GA was stopped after five matches because a pipe broke in the bathroom and flooded backstage, which is where a lot of the equipment was. They held up the show for 20 minutes before announcing to the crowd they'd have to stop the show because of the flood and would be back on 2/9 with a taping and everyone who had a ticket stub could get into that card for free."
Feb 15, 93"The expected major bloodletting at World Championship Wrestling took place in a meeting on 2/2, resulting in a significant changing in the corporate hierarchy including loss of power for both Bill Watts, and more particularly, Jim Ross." "Bill Shaw and Bob Dhue, who were put in charge of the company nearly one year ago from the now-retired Jack Petrik, have taken more of a hands-on approach in recent weeks rather than leaving much of the decision-making to Watts. They've divided the company into three categories, a pay-per-view division headed by Sharon Sidello, a television division headed by an as yet unnamed individual who is expected to be named this week, and a wrestling product division headed by Watts." "Sidello and the television division head, whose title will be Executive Producer of WCW, will have the final say-so on all matters relating to their divisions including the matches that air on television and on PPV shows." "Since, in reality, television is the most important facet of a wrestling company, the new Executive Producer may wind up as the most powerful front office employee. The Executive Producer apparently will either be Keith Mitchell, David Crockett, Tony Schiavone, Eric Bischoff or someone not currently working in the company at present. Speculation within the company over the weekend is that Mitchell or Bischoff had the best shot at the position." "Jim Ross, whose official title had been Vice President in charge of television, took the biggest fall of anyone. Ross will be removed as a personality from all TBS shows effective March 1 "A huge booking committee was put together. Officially on the committee are Bill Watts, Dusty Rhodes, Greg Gagne, Bill Dundee, Jim Barnett, Keith Mitchell, Ole Anderson, Jim Ross, Larry Zbyszko, Sharon Sidello, Mike Graham, Eric Bischoff and Michael Hayes. In addition, it is expected that if the Ric Flair deal doesn't fall through, that Flair will be added to the committee. Sid Vicious was also promised a spot on the committee should he sign with the company." "In addition, management laid down a new doctrine, aimed at mainly Watts but also Rhodes. There can be no yelling or swearing at employees or overall bombastic behavior within the office, and that executives (ie Watts and Rhodes) can no longer wear jeans, Zubaz pants, sweat pants or t-shirts to work and must wear suits and ties." "Rude received a check for all the money he would have earned the past month while he was mending his neck injury. So all negatives regarding Rude's return have been settled and Rude returned the U.S. title belt, which Dustin Rhodes is now wearing" "Jesse Ventura was sent a memo from Watts reprimanding him for not being serious enough as an analyst. "What was cut out was Cornette saying he hated Jim Herd, he broke up the Midnight Express because the company was trying to turn them into something they weren't, threatening to sue Watts, TBS and everyone else (that suing is something everyone is a bit touchy about nowadays) and they also cut out the line when Cornette was yelling at Morton & Gibson and said that they'll settle it 2/19 in Knoxville (which was an SMW card) so it made no sense when Watts came back and told him not to be talking about something "our fans" don't know or care anything about. Watts had OK'd all those lines beforehand." "When Vinnie Vegas came out for his match, Van Hammer (still injured) got on the house mic to challenge him to the left-handed arm-wrestling match and Hammer was booed out of the building so vociferously (and by a crowd that was mainly kids) that he quit his interview in mid-sentence and went back to the dressing room."
Feb 22, 93"Bill Watts resigned as Vice President of Wrestling Operations for World Championship Wrestling on the morning of 2/10 and in a meeting of WCW department heads on 2/12 it was announced that Ole Anderson (Alan Rogowski) would take Watts' position and Eric Bischoff was named as Executive Producer of all WCW television." "The resignation came just as at least four different media sources were working on a story based on statements made by Watts more than 18 months ago that were along with lines of statements made by Marge Schott, the Cincinnati Reds baseball owner, which had become front page news in recent weeks and resulted in her one year suspension from baseball" "The interview in question was by Watts in the Pro Wrestling Torch Summer 1991 annual. In addition, an interview published in the past few months by Watts in the Wrestling World Examiner newsletter contained comments by Watts regarding Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany that were eerily similar to remarks Schott made" "Jim Ross saw his position fall even farther this past week as the decision was made to remove him from all television effective immediately. Ross' last television broadcast will be the Saturday Night show that airs this coming weekend. Ross was pulled from the announcing line-up for the 2/21 Asheville, NC SuperBrawl PPV and was also removed from consideration for hosting World Wide Wrestling and would be off television in all forms completely." "Erik Watts was on his honeymoon when his father resigned."
Mar 1, 93
"Flair won't be working any matches until the 6/15 Clash."
"Looks like the 2/15 WCW first steroid test fell between the cracks in the Watts-to-Anderson transition."
"With the new management, Jesse Ventura is now allowed to concentrate on the jokes rather than the move-by-move. Watts wanted him to cut the comedy and concentrate on the match. Also with Watts gone, the mats have been returned to ringside."
Mar 8, 93
"Jim Ross, who has been the face of World Championship Wrestling for the past five years, officially resigned from the company on 2/25."
"They had a new ring announcer who tried to do a Howard Finkel imitation, although he did pull one or two snafus including introducing Scorpio as "Too Short Scorpio."
Mar 15, 93
"WCW champion Big Van Vader (Leon White) reportedly signed an unprecedented four-year contract this past week which would tie him up through the first week of March of 1997. This, if the story is accurate, would be the longest-term deal in WCW history."
"Curt Hennig had been attempting to woo both Vader, whose WCW contract expired on 3/4, and Too Cold Scorpio, to the WWF to fill monster heel and acrobatic babyface roles."
"Unlike previous policy, Pillman & Austin were acknowledged at the arenas this past weekend as new champions and defended the belts against Steamboat & Douglas even though the title switch won't air on television for a few weeks."
Mar 29, 93
"Lo and behold, the WWF beat WCW to the punch in the Hall of Fame idea. WCW was planning on using Slamboree to announce the Hall of Fame idea, however WWF on 3/22 Monday Night Raw announced its Hall of Fame and Andre the Giant as the first inductee."
"WCW sent a fax to cable operators around the country on 3/10 (or three days after the Japan Super Show aired) explaining why the Steiners match didn't air. It wasn't that WCW backed down to a threatening letter from the WWF attorneys as reported here, but that the WWF actually got a court order prohibiting WCW from airing the match late Friday afternoon so WCW literally had to fill a hole at the 11th hour. Several companies were upset that the letter wasn't faxed until 3/10, when the court order came down on 3/5 and the show aired on 3/7, because there were viewer complaints."
"Original plan under Watts was to have Flair vs. Rude at the June Clash building toward a double-main of Vader & Payne vs. Flair & Sting and Rude vs. Rhodes at the July PPV."
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 17, 2020 5:35:29 GMT -5
1993 April - May
Apr 5, 93
"Jim Ross tried to pull off an angle reminiscent of when Vince McMahon took over the TBS time slot nine years earlier. On Sunday, Ross announced on his radio show on WSB in Atlanta on Sunday night that he had joined the WWF broadcast team and had Vince McMahon, Bobby Heenan and Shawn Michaels as guests on a Wrestlemania preview on his radio slow that is sponsored by WCW."
"Dutch Mantell's shot at coming in went out the window. There had been talk of him doing color, but the "he's too country" forces won out over the "he's a good commentator" forces."
"Omni show 3/28 was said to have been a boring show except for the 45:00 draw with Brian Pillman & Steve Austin vs. Rick Steamboat & Shane Douglas which was said to have been excellent. With only five heels making it to the house shows during the week (Pillman, Austin, Wrecking Crew and Pierce) for whatever reason, the same tag match has had to go 30-40 minutes per night and carry the five match cards."
"Surprisingly they are running the Omni on 4/24, another card before Slamboree (event originally was booked for Jacksonville but canceled because they had a big-time tractor pull in town that night and WCW didn't want to compete with that.)"
"Scott Norton debuted in Monroe, but not only did nobody know who he was, hence no fan reaction, but nobody could tell whether he was a face or heel either."
"The 3/23 Center Stage taping saw most of the crowd stay until the end (about 650 of the 740 were there at the end) because they were giving away free t-shirts to anyone who stayed until the end. That turned out to be a mess because of the delay it took in getting everyone out of the building."
"The only non-squash taped for this coming Saturday's television slumber party was Wrecking Crew beating Brad Armstrong & Watts with Brad doing the job. During this match, four kids in the front row right in front of the camera actually fell asleep and Doug Dillenger had to wake them up."
"The lowlight was a match with Davey Boy Smith vs. Vinnie Vegas from Manchester, England which was one of the worst matches of the year. Eric Bischoff did voice-over commentary with Larry Zbyszko on the match and they acted like they were broadcasting live from Manchester, but then talked about Vader being world champ (Sting was champ when the match took place), which is a minor mistake, at least if you consider the WCW title a minor title."
"A typical WWF house show that draws 4,000 paid will do a gate of $54,000 to $65,000 depending on the price structure of the city. A WCW crowd of 4,000 paid with its price structure will do about $25,000."
"Television ratings 3/20-21 weren't good, but then again, neither is the television product"
"Does anyone know the rationale behind Eric Bischoff's new television concept to cut off the ring announcer's mic during introductions? It makes it like you're watching the television show through a window from the outside."
Apr 12, 93
"WCW sold approximately $450,000 worth of merchandise on the U.K. tour."
"Johnny B. Badd did agree to terms for a new contract which reportedly guarantees him $500 per match and a minimum of 200 matches per year, plus a $50,000 signing bonus and a $31,000 wardrobe bonus. Titan had made a major play for him and were still pursuing him as late as this past weekend."
"The best part of the show was that Schiavone and Ventura were like Abbot & Costello. The bad part was that almost none of their material had much to do with the product."
"Classic comment was Ventura calling the Muta-Windham title change "One of the classic matches of all-time." Right up there with that memorable Ron Simmons-Barbarian title match from Philly."
Apr 19, 93
"Speaking of the New York card, another one of those inexplicable mistakes that only can happen here saw the final television show in the market before the card not have any interviews or event centers pertaining to the card."
"Jesse Ventura was still cracking on Jim Ross this past week saying there's nothing uglier than a fat man in a toga."
"They gave away Paula pennants at television that fans were waving around during Orndorff's squash match."
Apr 26, 93
"The show at the 4,500-seat Paramount Theater (part of the MSG complex) received unanimous negative reports, including by those within the company."
"The show got off to a bad start with the announcement that Ric Flair (scheduled to do an interview segment) wouldn't appear due to a problem with his flight from Charlotte (which was legitimate in that the flight he was on had an engine problem and had to return to Charlotte)."
"Simmons-Benoit followed, opening with a hot two minutes which was largely described as the best action on the entire card, then shockingly ending at that point. The announcement was made that due to the two wrestlers violating WCW rules, that the match was being stopped and ruled as is it never took place. For reasons that nobody has made clear, one of the agents backstage ordered Nick Patrick to ringside to inform the local referee to stop the match immediately, which left a major sour note with the New York crowd that the show largely never recovered from. The match was booked to go about 9:00 with Simmons going over, so this problem was not one of bad booking but of a decision made backstage which nobody is taking credit for and there has been no real explanation for."
"Most of the top company brass was at the show and seated with them was Verne Gagne, who might as well have been responsible for this lesson in how to not to put on a live show."
"The 4/12 television taping at Center Stage was canceled at the last minute because somebody forget to check the schedule for the TBS production trucks. One was with the Braves, the other with the Hawks, which has happened in the past and they just rent a truck but somehow this didn't happen so it was rescheduled for 4/21 at Center Stage. Marcus Bagwell, The Cole Twins and Erik Watts went to Center Stage on 4/12 and signed autographs for those who came for the last-minute cancellation."
May 3, 93
"Scriptwriters started writing some of the interviews the guys have to do this past week. Expect more cute puns and less "I hate your guts and here's why" interviews."
"Ric Flair's Gold's Gym has its grand opening on 5/1 with Randy Savage coming in on 5/5 as a special guest. On the WWF TV Events Centers that run in Charlotte, Gene Okerlund plugs Flair's Gym opening every week, which is strange since he's working for the opposition. Naturally on the WCW show, there is no mention of it."
"The Wyandotte (MI) News-Herald did a story on Vinnie Vegas, who is from nearly Trenton, MI and was called Kevin Nash in the story. The subject of steroids came up and Nash said in the story that WCW began testing for them last year, which would be news to everyone else in the company."
May 10, 93
"Col. Robert Parker (Robert Fuller) debuted doing an interview in the role of a heel wrestling promoter, claiming to be kin to Col. Tom Parker (Elvis Presley's manager). When I was a very young child in the 60s, I always thought The Beatles were way bigger than Elvis, but now in the 90s I've learned I was wrong. 20 years after his death, Elvis is still being used in wrestling angles while nobody in wrestling ever mentions The Beatles."
"Hammer beat Wrecking Crew Rage in a match where the highlight was Al Green losing his contact lens, and then found it and put it in his mouth for safe keeping."
"Jesse Ventura missed the taping because he had a city council meeting to attend, although they announced it was due to post production on a movie that they keep talking about."
"Latest on Tully Blanchard this week is that he's not coming in because he's mad that he was offered less money than Johnny B. Badd and Jim Neidhart were given and less than Tom Zenk is earning. Of course that could all change by the time you read this."
May 17, 93
"Robert Fuller aka Col. Robert Parker is in largely at the behest of Sid, who also wanted WCW to bring in Ebony Experience (My Note: Harlem Heat) from Dallas."
"About 42 ex-wrestlers in all are being brought in for Slamboree at $500 per person plus travel and lodging expenses."
"Kensuke Sasaki was advertised on all the "A" shows this past week although he wasn't scheduled to arrive until this week."
"Erik Watts got an NWA title shot and lost to Barry Windham in Indianapolis on 5/8 when Sasaki "no-showed". Because WCW lost its television in Indy before the card, the show drew only about 250 fans."
May 24, 93
"As of late this week, less than 1,000 tickets had been sold for the live show on 5/23 at the Omni in Atlanta. WCW was both doing heavy giveaways and giving out a lot of 2-for-1 ticket coupons in the Atlanta suburbs in order to make the house at least look respectable on the PPV broadcast as opposed to being respectable when the cash is counted."
"WCW is talking about Kensuke Sasaki being injured on television and it's questionable if he'll be ready for the PPV, yet having him work not selling any injury at all the houses. WCW can at least justify that stupidity because nobody attends its house shows."
May 31, 93
"The basic story on Norton allegedly is that they had offered him $2,000 for the match with Sting and they wanted him to put Sting over. Norton saw that he wasn't booked on the television shows that would air after Slamboree when they taped Monday through Wednesday and must have thought it was a quickie blow-off since he had just arrived and it was his first major show. Since his business is Japan where he's a top star, he may have thought it wasn't good for his primary job to put Sting over on a major U.S. card. Whatever the reasons, lawyers got involved, and on Friday, negotiations had broken off and Norton went home."
"They announced that "The Prisoner" had done something to Scott Norton and that he'd be facing Sting. On television on Saturday they had announced that Nailz (Kevin Wacholz) had injured Norton and would be facing Sting. Sounds like a last minute threatening legal letter came from Connecticut which caused them not to use the Nailz name, which is the subject of some legal volleyball right now."
"It was almost science fiction as the ultra-prepared Tony Schiavone, who did his best job ever on a major show, suddenly developed a major memory loss during that match as he acted as if nobody knew who the Prisoner was or his background, despite the fact he had to know that almost everyone watching knew both, especially since he wore the same ring outfit down to the nightstick as with Titan."
"WCW jokesters got their little revenge by announcing Prisoner from Green Bay, WI, which is where Mr. Wacholz allegedly did that number on Vince McMahon which has resulted in a lawsuit and a counter-suit."
"Fans chanted "bulls--t" when they saw Nailz come out instead of Norton."
"Sid got a big babyface pop, which should have come as no surprise since he always did before, so it makes perfect sense making him a heel."
"Assassin, who needs to buy a new mask because this one only covered three of his six chins, challenged Dusty Rhodes again"
"I think Stu Hart is the only individual in the wrestling business who can be acknowledged and appear on PPV shows for both WWF and WCW."
"Newer fans were probably perplexed at seeing Brunzell, who has been an anonymous WWF jobber for the past several years, called a wrestling legend."
"Blanchard was announced as going to appear on television the day before the show and on all radio and television ads in the Atlanta market even though it has been known for weeks that he turned down the offer."
"May has been probably the worst month ever when it comes to arena business in WCW history, and that's saying a mouthful. A recent show in New Brockton, AL drew fewer than 100 paying fans, and this past Thursday and Friday night in Baltimore (going head-to-head with "Cheers" finale) and Philadelphia drew each city's lowest crowd in history, of roughly 1,000 and 600 respectively.
"Isn't it amazing after being in the company for three years that all of a sudden now Larry Zbyszko is a former AWA world champion? Important lesson of the week: Wrestling history of a territory only exists as long as someone who owned or is family with one who owned or booked that territory still has a prominent place in an existing major office. In other words, if Greg Gagne wasn't in the office, they wouldn't have even acknowledged the initials AWA."
"On 5/21 in Philadelphia, Van Hammer no-showed for the NWA title match against Barry Windham and was replaced by Steamboat. The Hammer-Windham match had been pushed as the main event until one week out when the Sting & Smith vs. Rude & Vader match was announced, which resulted in the smallest Philly crowd ever."
"Sting & Davey Boy Smith had a squash match and during it Harley Race and Col. Parker said they were going to put their heads together and open a KFC franchise, no really, put Big Van Vader & Sid Vicious as a tag team."
"Maxx Payne appeared on a wrestling radio show in Brockton, MA over the weekend and talked about his background training in Japan, etc. He said he got the job with WCW by sending a tape of himself playing the guitar, not wrestling, to Bill Watts."
"By the way, in an interview in Wrestling Flyer, Watts claimed the remarks made that caused all the uproar in Pro Wrestling Torch were taken out of context and misquoted. Since I've heard the tape of that original interview, that is simply not the case."
"Management one year ago wanted to get rid of Zenk but sent him his notice after his contract had already rolled over for another year."
|
|
|
Post by CeilingFan on Jul 17, 2020 6:19:39 GMT -5
1992 seemed like a good year for WCW on-screen. I never knew how bad things were behind the scenes.
|
|
BarmPot
AC Slater
Keep on keepin' on
Posts: 120
|
Post by BarmPot on Jul 17, 2020 18:51:08 GMT -5
Very interesting reading, keep 'em coming!
|
|
ToyfareMark
Vegeta
A WINNER IS YOU!
In Hutch I trust!
Posts: 9,590
|
Post by ToyfareMark on Jul 18, 2020 3:18:17 GMT -5
I'll still take this WCW over anything from July 94 and on.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 18, 2020 4:08:24 GMT -5
1993 June - August
June 7, 93 "Sting, Davey Boy Smith, Sid Vicious and Big Van Vader were in Tampa on the beach a few weeks back putting together an $80,000 mini-movie for the 7/11 PPV." "Michael Buffer, who is currently the most famous boxing ring announcer, will be the ring announcer at the Norfolk Clash." "According to one source, Dusty Rhodes wanted to run an angle on the eve of Slamboree which would have resulted in himself and Dick Murdoch as a tag team against Tex & Shanghai, but it was vetoed by those above." "My own opinion is that Watts making Ron Simmons world champion is hardly evidence of him not being racist, and it's more evidence of the opposite since he was made champion specifically because of skin color and ignored that he wasn't ready for the spot because he was making a value judgement based primarily on skin color." "Have you ever wondered what happened to those secret service man that were with Ric Flair when he first came in? Don't you love angles with a start, no middle and no conclusion?" "Before the show, 200 handbills with Tex' name were passed around Center Stage. Before the show began, Doug "Head of Security" Dillinger had the dubious task of retrieving all of them before the taping started, which put the crowd in a bad mood to start. Tony Schiavone, before the show went on the air, tried to break the ice by joking that you know we're a dictatorship here. It was so bad that when Gary Capetta tried to get the crowd to chant "We Want Flair," they instead chanted "We Want Tex." "
June 8, 93 "Fans at Center Stage now sing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" at Sid." "Paul Roma debuted as a face, but the crowd chanted "We Want Tully" at him." "6/26 show has Teddy Long talking about Bagwell & Scorpio's plane being delayed in regard to their scheduled match with Wrecking Crew. This was a total expose to everyone in the audience since they had just seen Bagwell wrestle live 90 minutes earlier." "The Assassin (Jody Hamilton) did yet another interview challenging Dusty Rhodes. It appears they are headed for a match on the 7/11 PPV, although some believe Bill Shaw will have it nixed because he specifically doesn't want Rhodes in the ring again."
June 21, 93 "There are reports that Tully Blanchard sent WCW a letter two weeks before the last PPV saying that he wasn't going to be there and not to advertise him"
June 28, 93 "Parker assured the rest of the heels that he had a plan that would keep Sting & Smith from appearing at Beach Blast. Little did he know that plan would only keep viewers from buying the show. It wound up with a dwarf wearing an eye patch swimming with a shark fin putting a bomb on a boat that Sting & Smith used to get to Gilligan's Island. Two very young girls saw the dwarf. The heels then took a boat ride to Gilligan's Island, and the only thing positive about that is that they didn't let Harley drive the boat. After a confrontation where the heels demanded the faces retire and the kids acted like they were going to cry if the faces would retire, one of the little kids told Sting about the funny man who was hanging around the boat. As Sting went to check, somehow one of the little girls told Smith about a ticking noise, and Einstein himself started sprinting down the beach, which was a sight in itself, and knocked Sting out of harms way just seconds before the bomb exploded and the boat blew up." "Flair, fighting alone, pinned Pillman with the Misawa forearm in 9:40 to win the first fall and guest ring announcer Michael Buffer than announced a title change, but luckily it was just as they went to a commercial break." "Reportedly before making his deal with Japan, Ted DiBiase tried to get a $250,000 deal to come here but was turned down."
July 5, 93"The original idea was for The Possee to be brought out in chains and shackles, to give the visual impression of a white southerner leading two black men in chains and shackles. The idea, which was the brainchild of one Sid Vicious who was impressed when working with the duo in a tag team match at the Adkisson Memorial show in Dallas on 4/2, had wanted to bring the duo in with the gimmick of them being escaped murderers managed by Parker (Robert Fuller). The idea was all dressed up and ready to go on television when Eric Bischoff, who apparently didn't know the extent of the angle, nixed it just as it was about to be taped. When WCW President Bill Shaw found out about the idea which almost ran, which no doubt would have caused even more negative phone calls, he found a finger-pointing upper brass all trying to blame others for giving the approval of the idea." "While Booker T and Stevie Ray are going to keep their jobs with WCW, when they appeared at the television tapings Monday night, they were instead called Chitown Heat" "Higher-ups in the company caused cancellation of any repeating of the Beach Blast mini-movie on TBS, and also on Thursday canceled all future "Search for Cactus Jack" features" "WCW champion Big Van Vader, NWA champion Barry Windham and TV champion Paul Orndorff all missed the week's house shows due to injuries....To make matters even worse, at the beginning of all the house shows this week, an announcement was made in each city that the three would not be appearing due to contractual problems, instead of telling the truth about all being injured." "Everyone in the creative capacity looked exhausted at the 6/28 tapings, since apparently the previous night they were meeting until 5 a.m. because they had to re-book all the line-ups for the arenas because of the injuries, redo all the television shows since the bookings had changed and several video segments had to be eliminated by orders of the higher-ups, and had to re-program the entire Beach Blast show because several things on paper that would lead to other things can't take place for the previously mentioned reasons."
July 12, 93 "Expect much of the planned direction as of this moment to be revealed this week in 12 hours of World Wide tapings (August through October) from 7/7 to 7/10 in Orlando." "Nasty Boys as heels managed by Missy Hyatt debut at the taping and expect them to be pushed as the No. 1 heel tag team ahead of the Hollywood Blonds. Go try and figure." "7/3 Omni card billed as "The Great American Bash" was canceled a few days ahead of time. Reason given was that Vader, Barry Windham and Paul Orndorff would all be unable to wrestle, but that has been the case for weeks at every house show, none of which were canceled. Real reason appears to be that the last time a house show totally bombed at the Omni drawing 1,100, Kip Frey was done and Bill Watts was brought in. They can die on the road but nobody at TBS knows about it. If they die at the Omni, since the Turner employees can attend those shows, people start asking questions about how the company is being run."
July 19, 93"Tapings occurred from 7/7 to 7/10 at MGM Studios as DisneyWorld in Orlando, for among other things, all episodes of the syndicated World Wide Wrestling shows that will air from 8/27 through 11/20" "On 8/27, the NWA heavyweight champion will be Ric Flair, the unified tag team champions will be Arn Anderson & Paul Roma and the WCW television champion will by Ricky Steamboat. There was no acknowledgement of a U.S. champion during the entire period, although both Rick Rude and Dustin Rhodes made numerous appearances." "Anderson & Roma will obviously be beating the Hollywood Blonds (Brian Pillman & Steve Austin) for the tag team title, likely at Beach Blast, while sometime over the next six weeks, Steamboat will win the TV title from Paul Orndorff, perhaps at the 8/18 Clash of the Champions." "On the television show that airs 9/18, The Nasty Boys, as heels without Missy Hyatt (who doesn't show up as their manager until mid-October), come out for an interview announced as World tag team champions and holding the belts" "On the television show that airs 9/25, Lord Steven Regal comes out as new WCW television champion" "On the television show that airs 10/8, Rick Rude comes out with the NWA heavyweight title belt announced as the new champion" "In tapings in November, Rude still came out with the NWA belt but was announced by the ring announcer as "world heavyweight champion" as opposed to NWA champion" "At one point, the Nasty Boys and Hollywood Blonds join forces for a match against The Four Horsemen, whomever they may be, that wasn't taped, but by November the two teams were seemingly building up for a feud with one another, with the Blonds seemingly as the babyfaces although that wasn't made clear." "Cactus Jack did interviews at the taping for a PPV main event match with Vader, showing no signs of the amnesia gimmick that he is playing on current television" "Road Warrior Hawk will debut on 8/18 as Dustin Rhodes' mystery partner in a tag match at the Clash against Rude & The Equalizer. Sid Vicious did an interview where he did the freaked out bit when he was informed that "the Road Warriors" are coming in"
"The crowd was composed of largely non-wrestling fans, who were shown a videotape telling them who to cheer for and who to boo, and they had signals given to them when to cheer and boo during the tapings as well."
"WCW didn't want wrestling fans at the show, since it never mentioned the tapings on its Orlando syndicated television shows and there was no advertising either by WCW or Disney that tapings would be held at the park beforehand"
"If someone new was brought in to replace Anderson or Rhodes, it wouldn't be until November that they could bring in any new talent, get rid of any talent, change the direction, etc. because everything is locked in place. There is little point now in changing upper management until November."
"Another set of tapings was announced for early November at the same location, where tapings that will air through the end of February will take place, so storylines will again be made public months ahead, that is, if there is even still a company by that point"
"Yet another pay-per-view show was added for 11/21, just three days before the WWF's Survivor Series is scheduled, the first time the two companies will run PPV shows in such proximity of one another, which isn't going to help the buy rate of either show. WCW now will run PPV shows in September, October, November and December."
"Using a modern example of what if, If four months back, the WWF put itself in this kind of a position, it would have already "written" scripts for Hogan to bodyslam Yokozuna on 7/4 and win the title on 8/30, and the company would literally be forced into using Hogan on top under whatever demands he would make, because television that had been written wouldn't allow for a Lex Luger turn to fill in the emergency gap as needed to have been done, ditto for the Curt Hennig turn last year when Ultimate Warrior and Davey Boy Smith departed." "This can only happen in WCW: The 7/4 Greenville show was advertised as starting at 4 p.m. in the newspaper ad and announced at starting at 4 p.m. the day before when a B team show was held in nearby Spartanburg. The card actually started at 3 p.m. and those who arrived at 4 only saw the final two bouts."
July 26, 93 "Brian Pillman & Steve Austin retained the NWA & WCW tag titles beating Arn Anderson & Paul Roma in 26:14. Don't know if this result was changed as a swerve because it was reported in so many places that Anderson & Roma were getting the belts, or simply to give the heels the first win because the faces will get to even the score and get the belts, most likely at the Clash." "TBS will no longer plug any arena dates as per orders of Mr. Bischoff who felt they muddy up the show."
Aug 2, 93 "The Saturday Night show will shortly be broken up into two one-hour shows that air one after the other rather than grouped as a two-hour show. The reason is apparently a television ratings gimmick."
Aug 9, 93 "Stan Lane was offered a job to come in and team with Bobby Eaton. Lane was offered $250 per match, and apparently has already turned it down."
Aug 16, 93 "On 8/9 at Center Stage, they taped for WCW Saturday night shows airing 8/28 and 9/4. Before the taping they once again confiscated all pro-Tex Slashinger signs, and they also brought in a group of well-dressed female models to sit in the center in front of the camera along with some execs in suits because apparently those in charge don't like the idea of the show airing wish so many black children's faces on camera." "The first match on the first show was a near disaster as the Hollywood Blonds beat Mark Starr & Frankie Lancaster, however Brian Pillman, in taking a monkey flip out of the corner, landed wrong and his right ankle went out. He was hospitalized that night and told he had torn ligaments and bone chips and should stay out of action for three weeks, which would be past the Clash. However, since the Clash match is so important for obvious reasons, he'll have to work and try to get through that match." "On 7/24, Ole Anderson challenged any "rag writers" (who we presume to mean newsletter writers but considering his references to Miami, it seemed to also include Alex Marvez of the Herald) to get in the ring for $10,000....On 7/31, after Mark Madden (Pro Wrestling Torch/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) contacted WCW about accepting the challenge, Anderson cut a promo on the 300-pound Madden saying he was fatter than Haystacks Calhoun and that one of the McGuire Twins must still be alive (McGuire Twins were a pair of 750-pounders who I believe have both passed away that did some wrestling in the early 70s)....On the 8/7 Hotline, Anderson said basically that he meant it all in fun." "The first Disney tapes aired 8/7 on WCW Saturday Night, which is the only Saturday show taped at Disney....It was downright embarrassing to hear the crowd cheer for Rick Rude and clap for his music and see the guy leading the crowd point his thumbs down on camera and then have everyone start booing."
Aug 23, 93 "WCW is the laughing stock of the industry. Those at SMW are quick to point out that they largely outdraw WCW in head-to-head competition within their territory. In fact, based on average attendance, SMW doesn't trail far behind WCW. And that's with a company in which the salaries of the entire crew combined for one year is less than half of what either Sting, Sid Vicious or Big Van Vader will earn this year." "Arn Anderson & Paul Roma won the WCW tag titles from a Hollywood Blonds tag team consisting of Steve Austin & Steve Regal in 9:52. Brian Pillman's ankle was already in the cast from an injury nine days earlier, and he'll be out of action for an undisclosed period of time. They announced the belts would be at stake anyway." "On World Wide, during the Erik Watts turn, Watts was supposed to kick Frankie Lancaster's foot off the ropes when he was being pinned by the Blonds. Watts never kicked Lancaster's foot off the ropes, and then on the replay, it showed it even clearer although Tony Schiavone and Jesse Ventura were then put in the embarrassing position of having to sell something that all the viewers saw didn't happen." "On Saturday Night they already aired the promo listing the Flair & Sting vs. Kongs match before they ran the angle where Flair got involved in the match."
"WCW got a lot of local publicity in San Antonio to promote the 8/29 Alamo Dome show billed as "The Great American Bash." Hector Guerrero will be brought in for the card and he and Sid Vicious did promo work in the city, which included a major story in the local newspaper. A couple of local politicians stole the show from the wrestlers. Vicious did some heavy racial remarks on Hispanics for heat."
Aug 30, 93
"Pace Entertainment, a group which specializes in concert promotions, called off the 8/29 Alamo Dome date in San Antonio after all the local publicity we mentioned last week netted an advance five days before the show of only 400 tickets in a 45,000 seat building. WCW officials were really unhappy because they had been guaranteed $50,000 to do the show."
"Okerlund's WCW deal is reportedly for $250,000 per year plus 35 percent of the 900 number." "Pro Wrestling Torch columnist Mark Madden's ongoing saga with Ole Anderson hasn't completely died down. WCW attorney Michael Shapiro wrote Madden a letter claiming that Anderson's challenge wasn't given to a specific group and thus wasn't valid, although Madden claims the term Anderson used, "rag writers," is a very specific finite group that he's one of, and Madden wrote a goading column directed at Anderson that will likely be published this week or next." "Power Hour is now airing matches from other shows, as has been all along, but no longer doing new voiceovers, so they'll talk about things "later in the show" that don't occur because the commentary was originally done for a different show." "Barry Windham was mentioned in The Star about being formerly romantically linked with Pam Seals, who was the Tampa woman in the Burt & Loni deal. Even though that publication isn't known for accuracy, that aspect is apparently correct."
"On the Saturday WCW show, you could hear the spots where they had to redub the audio by Tony Schiavone to talk about the Shock Master rather than Hawk in the War Games."
|
|
cjh
Hank Scorpio
Posts: 6,572
|
Post by cjh on Jul 18, 2020 10:59:39 GMT -5
|
|