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Post by BlackoutCreature on Jul 18, 2020 11:35:09 GMT -5
Man, the trouble that WCW went through with Tex Slazinger back in the day. Who would've thought that Mideon would be that much of a headache?
And I'm not gonna lie, I'm kinda sad we didn't get that Texas Outlaws reunion in 1993.
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Post by James Fabiano on Jul 18, 2020 13:11:05 GMT -5
Ah yes, the Tex Slazenger fan club. Headed by future announcer Scott Hudson of all people!
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Post by Deleted on Jul 19, 2020 7:34:43 GMT -5
1993 September - October
Sept 6, 93
"WCW had its share of success with its 8/21 TBS Saturday Night television show doing a 3.4 rating, largely due to the Ric Flair vs. Sting 41 minute NWA title match which peaked at a 3.8. The rating is the largest for a regular WCW television wrestling show in a few years."
"The NWA promoters are going to attempt to get a deal that they'll allow Rick Rude to win the title since the TV has already been taped, but only if WCW agrees to have Ric Flair regain the title from Rude at a house show promoted by a non-WCW NWA affiliated promoter."
"The middle section in front of the cameras was blocked off again for models and suits as part of the "no black kids in front of camera" idea."
"Eric Bischoff received a promotion based on the Clash rating to Senior Vice President. David Crockett was also promoted to Executive in charge of all television production."
"For the canceled Alamo Dome show, Pace Entertainment had already spent $22,000 in advertising and gotten an advance of only 400 tickets."
"WCW has sent word to cable systems that the Flair-Rude match is to be only advertised as for the "World heavyweight title" rather than the NWA heavyweight title."
"Sabu received word from WCW that they weren't going to bring him in. Let me get this right. Charlie Norris, Thunder & Lightning, Harlem Heat all passed their tryouts and Sabu failed his."
Sept 13, 93
"New Japan took Leon White to court, claiming creation of the name Big Van Vader and costuming, plus claimed a breach of contract when White, who was under a long-term deal with New Japan, signed and wrestled for UWFI.... Since the name "Vader" was trademarked by movie producer George Lucas ("Darth Vader" of "Star Wars"), New Japan can't stop White from using the name "Vader," although he will no longer be allowed to use the name Big Van Vader since it was intellectual property of New Japan Pro Wrestling."
"WCW does own the physical NWA title belt itself, as Sakaguchi, as NWA president authorized the sale of the belt to WCW when Windham became champion. This may speed up the inevitable process of unifying the two title belts in WCW, and simply having the eventual winner, with Dustin Rhodes name being touted the loudest as being groomed for the spot, be referred to as simply WCW champ or undisputed world champ which fans will accept as also being the "real" NWA champ just as the same situation occurred in 1991 when the NWA champion legally ceased to be the WCW champion but that issue wasn't made clear on television to wrestling fans so virtually all assumed they were one and the same."
"Power Hour that aired two days before SummerSlam had a taped match from Starrcade '87 where Dusty Rhodes beat Lex Luger in a cage match."
"Cactus Jack did an interview saying that he really didn't have amnesia and it wasn't his wife and kids in the videos. His explanation was he was playing mind games with Harley Race and Vader."
"Some of the new B team wrestlers are being brought in for $150 per shot and having to do all drives, including the crew having to drive from Atlanta to Indiana for the shots a few weeks back. For the main guys, the longest drives are said to be 450 miles each way."
Sept 20, 93
"Much discussion within the company about the "plan" to make Dustin Rhodes world champion. Nobody has anything bad to say about Rhodes as a person and most everyone compliments him as being a good worker, but you'd be hard pressed to find many who see him as someone to be put in the position as world champion"
"Leon White did an interview and was simply referred to as "Vader" coming off the Japanese court case."
"Gene Okerlund won't be coming in that quickly as reportedly Titan is going to enforce a non-competition clause in his contract."
"The "fans" in the front center section at Center Stage which is roped off from regular fans consist of TBS executives and people being paid $25 to $50 as scene extras from an Atlanta talent agency."
"Even though Erik Watts turned heel on television weeks ago, he's still working as a face at the arenas and was back as a face at the television tapings on 9/13 in Gainesville, GA. It's like the people running things don't even remember their own angles now."
"A sold show to Pace Entertainment at the 78,000-seat Texas Stadium in Irving, TX set for 9/17 was canceled after only 35 tickets were sold."
"Announcers were all told specifically to never mention the term "NWA" again in reference to anything."
Sept 27, 93
"On September 1, WCW withdrew as a member of the NWA. The NWA board of directors, which by the NWA by-laws, controls and has the decision-making power over the NWA world heavyweight title, refused to sanction the title change and at their annual convention on 9/3 decided to take control of the championship and create a new champion."
"WCW led NWA lawyer Ed Lyons to believe they were accepting NWA's proposal that would allow WCW to go through with the Flair-Rude title change provided WCW agrees to have Rude drop the title clean to a wrestler of the NWA's choosing on an NWA house show before January 31, 1994. There were several other provisions as well, which included WCW being forbidden to do anything that would discredit the NWA name or title and would give the NWA the possession of the championship belt. If Rude wouldn't do the clean job to the wrestler of the NWA's choosing, WCW would agree to pay the NWA $100,000 per day in damages."
"Early the next morning, the NWA lawyers were told that there might be a problem because WCW was concerned that Rude wouldn't agree to do the job and obviously if that was the case, the price for that in daily penalties was way too steep. The counter-offer was made that the Flair-Rude match would be billed as being for the "World heavyweight title" and the result of the match would go as planned, but that on the broadcast the announcers would read a disclaimer that this match wasn't an NWA world heavyweight title match and that the National Wrestling Alliance did not sanction this event as a title match, which apparently the NWA was still willing to accept."
"Later that morning, WCW pulled out from negotiating a settlement and announced it had hired Faison Hicks to represent them in the court case for the temporary restraining order scheduled for that afternoon. Hicks had represented both the NWA and WCW in a 1991 case it won against Vince McMahon and the WWF belt over the NWA belt which resulted in the judge ruling that Ric Flair could no longer wear either the NWA belt or the facsimile NWA belt (when McMahon ordered a duplicate replica belt created for Flair when it was believed Flair would have to return the belt to the NWA/WCW). In the aftermath of that case, Flair was paid $28,000 by WCW for his NWA title belt"
"On or around October of 1992, Bill Watts, drafted a letter, which was believed by NWA counsel to have been a bill of sale for the physical championship belt from the NWA to WCW for the $28,000 already paid by WCW, representing the NWA, to Flair, which was signed by Sakaguchi as NWA President. Apparently nobody from the NWA actually saw that letter or knew of its contents other than it was known about a bill of sale letter for what had become known in the industry as the "Ric Flair championship belt" to WCW. What wasn't known was that letter, written by Watts and signed by Sakaguchi also gave WCW all "intellectual rights" to use the name NWA."
"The letter was the key in the judge turning down the NWA's claim and allowing the match, advertising of it as a world title match, and the scheduled result, to all go on as planned. The only thing Voorhees ruled is that WCW would be prohibited from calling the match on the PPV show as an NWA title match, which WCW wasn't going to do at this point anyway."
"The title switch to Rude for what all wrestling fans will believe is the NWA championship did take place on 9/19 in Houston, although the initials NWA were never used on the broadcast, but to virtually all wrestling fans watching the show, they believed they were watching an NWA title match and that they had seen the NWA title change. On the air, it was simply referred to as "The World heavyweight championship" and presented as if it were the premier title in the promotion since Vader's title was called just "WCW title" and downplayed heavily."
"DiBiase and WCW negotiated during the week but the negotiations broke off mid-week. DiBiase didn't get the money offer nor the number of dates he was after. The numbers we were given was that DiBiase wanted $100,000 to $125,000 for a 100-date deal and WCW didn't want to make that commitment which should tell you something about future contract negotiations with a lot of wrestlers because there aren't a lot of DiBiase-calibre performers in this country. He was also told his first match back would be a 30:00 draw with Dustin Rhodes in a U.S. title match at the Halloween Havoc PPV show (which would have replaced the scheduled Steve Austin in the spot), which he apparently didn't feel like was the appropriate way to begin with a new promotion."
"Missy Hyatt, dressed like Kelly Bundy of "Married with Children" came out as new manager of the Nasty Boys which Tony Schiavone and Jesse Ventura tried to act like it was a surprise to all the fans even though there were visible posters everywhere regarding Missy being with the Nasty Boys. One poster read, "Hey Missy, did you buy them," which ruined Ventura for several minutes since first he started laughing, and then he kept trying to do one-liners that would top the poster."
"Schiavone talked about how Cactus had lost his memory, disappeared, didn't even recognize his family, etc., basically everything that an interview done on television two weeks earlier had acknowledged wasn't the case. We've got two different sets of storylines and nobody informs the announcers that an angle is dropped, even when it's dropped on their show."
"The funniest Fifi story came a few days before the match when they were doing the satellite transmission to hype the card with Flair being interviewed by several TV sportscasters from around the country. The satellite was already on with Flair and Fifi and Fifi, who has obviously never been put in this position before, asked Ric want happens if someone asks her something in French or wants her to talk in French. Anyway Ric pretty much said he'd cover for her."
"Jesse Ventura acknowledged a "Welcome Mean Gene" sign in Houston saying that "he's on his way."
"No Havoc mini-movie this year because of the furor of the boat being blown up in the last mini-movie."
"Eric Bischoff has the ultimate power although Dusty Rhodes is thought by the wrestlers as still being the most influential since most believe Dustin is still going to wind up as the person unifying both world titles."
"WCW now has two syndicated shows in the San Francisco market (Ch. 20 on Saturdays at 10 a.m.), and both stations air WCW Pro, so the "A" World Wide show doesn't air, probably because the brain surgeons don't even realize it's the same market and figure San Jose is a suburb of Los Angeles, which already gets the World Wide show, when the two cities are about 330 miles apart."
"If you want to know how TV stations think of wrestling, consider this. KGSC (Ch. 36, San Jose), was listing "WWF Wrestling" starting this past Saturday night at 11 p.m. However, nobody from WWF knew anything about it. A call to the station resulted in being told it was "WWF Wrestling with Hulk Hogan" that would air (even though Hogan is no longer even with the WWF), later examination showed it was WCW Pro but the station rep said that "we thought all wrestling was WWF Wrestling with Hulk Hogan." "
Oct 4, 93
"WCW debuted at the Crystal Chandelier bar in Kennesaw, GA on 9/21 drawing 42 fans at $5 a head. They are supposed to run every week, mainly using it to give the training school guys some ring time."
"Everyone in the office at WCW constantly complains that the guys today can't work, partially because the new guys are largely green and partially because the guys who can work do a different style because times have changed which doesn't make it wrong because it isn't what was done in the ring during the 70s, just an updated version."
Oct 11, 93
"The 10/3 card at the Omni in Atlanta drew just 800 paid fans and $8,000, which is believed to be the smallest crowd in the nearly 20 years it has housed pro wrestling. It was so bad that at the door, scalpers (if that's even the correct terminology) were unloading ringside seats for $1."
"WCW had to cancel a television taping in Anderson, SC because there were no fans, even in a town that was heavily papered. Depending upon which source one wants to believe, there were anywhere between 40 and 210 fans in the 3,900-seat arena when the decision was made to cancel the show, with the crew, truck and all the wrestlers already there and basically outnumbering the audience. The fiasco was blamed on bucking a major fair in town, but in reality the product has reached the depths where it has virtually no interest as far as a paid house show product. Now it has become difficult for the promotion to even draw a papered crowd in some cities. Reportedly this fiasco cost the company in the $50,000 range. The taping was re-scheduled for 10/13 in Gainesville, GA and it's being advertised that the first 1,800 fans who come to Gainesville will get into the show free."
"Rick Rude came out with the belt and talked about the match with Flair on the PPV saying the question is will Fifi "go with Flair, or come with me," which qualifies as one of the better double entendres of recent memory."
"It's pretty much a lock that the new battle plan is for Vicious to go face and eventually win the title, which is a great move for a company that never thinks of the long run (like, what happens in April when it gets warmer)."
"By and large, morale overall is hitting new lows with lots of people looking for an escape hatch."
"World Wide in Miami was moved to 10 a.m. Saturday on Ch. 33 from 6 a.m. Sunday, although the TV Guide lists the show as WWF."
"An interview aired on television where Shock Master was surrounded by kids who called him Uncle Fred and he blew up a balloon which one of the kids had poured powder in, the balloon popped and he had powder all over his face."
"Many thought Hogan was going to appear the Saturday prior to the open on WCW to promote the movie, but he decided against it, apparently not wanting to rub anyone at WWF the wrong way since WWF heavily pushed the movie on television and surprised both Hogan and Jimmy Hart with a two-page spread on them in a recent magazine even though they weren't working for the company."
Oct 18, 93
"So this week they turned about half the crew. Already taped are babyface turns by Sid Vicious, Brian Pillman and Maxx Payne. What appeared to be a heel turn by Erik Watts was taped and then once again forgotten about. Ron Simmons and Paul Roma are both in the midst of heel turns."
"Nasty Boys have the tag belts in all television shows that air after Havoc so the idea that Bagwell & Scorpio's reign will be a "one-day" looks like it's a good guess."
"The non-title win by Bagwell & Scorpio to set up the title match was supposed to air this past Saturday on TBS, however an auto race going long pre-empted the first 20 minutes of the show so the match, the opener, didn't air."
"12/27 Starrcade from the old Charlotte Coliseum (now called Independence Arena) looks to be Vader vs. Vicious, Sting vs. Rude, Nasty Boys defending against Flair & Steamboat and Anderson vs. Roma."
Oct 25, 93
"The tradition ends. The Omni on Thanksgiving night was canceled, which was traditionally one of the biggest crowds of the year"
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Post by "Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay on Jul 19, 2020 18:46:22 GMT -5
I'm sorry. 'No black kids in front of the camera'
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thirteen3
Dennis Stamp
posted with a broken freakin neck keyboard
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Post by thirteen3 on Jul 19, 2020 18:55:49 GMT -5
I'm sorry. 'No black kids in front of the camera' I believe Bill Watts was in power during this time and he used some harsher language.
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Post by "Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay on Jul 19, 2020 19:00:22 GMT -5
I'm sorry. 'No black kids in front of the camera' I believe Bill Watts was in power during this time and he used some harsher language. Ah, the Watts period. That makes more sense. Less surprising, equally gross.
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cjh
Hank Scorpio
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Post by cjh on Jul 19, 2020 22:42:28 GMT -5
I'm sorry. 'No black kids in front of the camera' I believe Bill Watts was in power during this time and he used some harsher language. Watts left in February.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 20, 2020 4:54:08 GMT -5
1993 November - December
Nov 1, 93
"The finish was supposed to be Smith doing a powerslam at the bell, however the timekeeper told them they had ten seconds left when Smith picked Regal up for the move, but then announced 20 seconds left over the house mic so Regal had to kick out. They improvised the piledriver at the bell near fall."
"Dustin Rhodes retained the U.S. title pinning Steve Austin in 14:23. The graphic listed Austin as being managed by Rob Parker, but Parker wasn't with him and the graphic was about two weeks ahead." "Sting pinned Sid Vicious in 10:41 to remain the franchise. Okay, what title means anything if you've already got two different world champions, a Battle Bowl champion upcoming, and two other singles titles yet the franchise match involves two wrestlers with no titles." "Fans were chanting at this point "Sid, Sid" which the announcers said on the air were chants for Sting."
"Earlier in the show an announcement was made that the international promoters of WCW recognized Rude's title as a world heavyweight title so that the title is now valid once again."
"Rude pulled out an object but Flair back suplexed him and the object went flying. A TBS still photographer at ringside, not realizing what was going on, grabbed the object which ostensibly ruined an already bad finish. The photographer had to give the object back to Flair so he could use it and get caught by ref Randy Anderson for the DQ."
"Tony Schiavone opened the match repeating the Cactus Jack angle about losing his memory, etc. that had all been recanted months earlier. Don't they follow their own television?"
"Harley Race shot Jack with a stun gun so he couldn't get up from the ten count. What's next, a straight edge razor, a switch blade, and finally a .44 magnum?"
"The gimmick of Michael Buffer as a guest ring announcer has run its course."
"SMW jobber Robbie Eagle was talked with about coming in as the 1990s Gorgeous George."
"After Havoc, most of the big names immediately left for a European swing from 10/26 to 11/7 so nothing major is going to be happening until the Clash."
Nov 8, 93
"A vicious hotel fight in England between Sid Vicious (Sid Eudy) and Arn Anderson (Marty Lunde) resulted in both men receiving numerous stab wounds." "WCW p.r. head Mike Weber, who was on tour in England, tried to use the Sid/Arn fight as a means of hyping pro wrestling as real, with his quote in the London Sun saying, "It just shows that what you see in the ring is what you see in real life. These two haven't fought each other for several years and obviously don't get along. I don't know what the disagreement was about." "
"At some point in November, an angle was scheduled to be shot where Roma would turn heel on Anderson, leading to a Starrcade match on 12/27 in Charlotte."
"It is well known the original plan was for Vicious to win the WCW title from Vader at the same card, then win the other world title from Rick Rude in early 1994 to finally unify the belts, and pushed as the focal point of the company."
"By Thursday, WCW officials gave word to the production staff to remove Vicious and Anderson from all pre-taped television shows that would begin airing this coming weekend, which led to wide-spread belief within the production and announcing crew of the company that both had been or were going to be fired. Reportedly all promotion for the Starrcade PPV show where Vicious was initially scheduled to win the WCW title from Vader, has been changed to pushing Vader defending against Flair as the main event. That was actually the second choice as steps were taken to put together a different main event bringing in a wrestler from outside whose name can't be confirmed, but that deal quickly fell apart."
"Dallas Page should be returning shortly."
"Ticket sales were hampered when one week before the tour, WWF, which is far more popular in England largely by default since the WCW had strong popularity not too long ago but lost it due to a television show that made no sense, announced UK dates for December."
Nov 15, 93
"The Vicious-Anderson incident wasn't the only one overseas. Reportedly Bill Dundee had his eyebrows shaved and there was an altercation on the bus the first night between Brian Knobs and referee Nick Patrick which didn't turn into a fight." "Larry King even did a promo building up Okerlund's debut like he was Walter Cronkite. After all these years they finally get some cooperation from TBS to get a CNN celebrity on their wrestling show and they waste it by having him plug someone who can't draw them any money." "Despite the fact Ventura acknowledged Okerlund's arrival two months back on a PPV show, that it was plugged all week on the WCW Hotline and on the morning Power Hour, they still had Jesse act shocked when Okerlund arrived." "Okerlund made comments on his Hotline debut that really ruffled some feathers in Titan Sports....The comment that struck the nerves was when he called the WWF a cottage industry and called TBS a multi-billion dollar conglomerate. Cottage industry is a term Vince McMahon has used for years as a derisive term for everyone else in the wrestling business."
"Okerlund criticized Titan's recent hirings, mentioning by name Jim Ross, Boni Blackstone (who is no longer with the company), Jim Cornette, "Bruce Prichard's brother" and Todd Pettingill and noted WWF TV ratings have declined over the past three years. At this point Gene fell into fiction claiming when he hosted All-American Wrestling that they got no production budget but the ratings were excellent, and that Vince used the money that should have been spent on All-American for Vince's Monday Night Raw show, which Gene claimed has struggled in the ratings."
"Hyatt regularly on the Hotline makes reference to her current relationship (legit) with Hawk, which is funny since she's managing the Nasty Boys on television."
"Tommy Rich returned on the 11/2 card in Kennesaw, GA against Brad Armstrong. The Tuesday night shows continue to draw about 60 fans per week."
Nov 22, 93
"Expect to see far more hype and for the WCW 900 line on its various television shows, since its most pushed television commodity, Gene Okerlund, heads the division and has a contract that calls for a percentage of the income." "World Championship Wrestling's quarterly Orlando World Wide tapings once again gave away many future story lines and occurrences, although not nearly to the extent of the first set." "Vader beat Ice Train in the finals of the Jesse arm-wrestling tournament for the fall and winter." "In syndication in January, Michael Hayes turns heel and will feud with Badd." "At the SuperBrawl PPV on 2/20 from Albany, GA, the headline matches announced were Flair vs. Vader in a Thundercage match for the title, Brian Pillman & Sting & Rhodes vs. Austin & Orndorff & Rude and Regal vs. Smith for the TV title." "Since Flair was on post-Starrcade television and in a main event, obviously either Flair is winning the title or the pre-match retirement stipulation will be ignored. Since Vader didn't have the belt in post-Starrcade matches and wasn't announced as champion, it tends to make one believe the title is changing although the company wasn't as overt as at the previous taping in that Flair never came out for a match or interview wearing the belt." "The highlight of the show was Jesse Ventura's jokes about Assassin throughout this match. The only problem is that the promotional storyline is the Assassin is this ruthless menacing figure who is so evil he might even harm Dusty's mother, but Ventura takes all the heat away from that gimmick by turning him into a comedy figure as the butt of jokes."
"That made the second straight major show in less than three weeks where Flair pinned a world champ and in virtually the same manner, didn't win either title."
Nov 29, 93
"Eric Bischoff missed Battle Bowl as he spent four days in Japan trying to work out a talent exchange deal with New Japan and appeared to be wanting to learn how they do what they do."
"Some changes in WCW hierarchy. Sharon Sidello will work most of the year out of Europe selling syndication. Mike Weber will take her duties in marketing and PPV, and Chris Potenza takes Weber's p.r. duties. Feel sorry for him."
Dec 6, 93
"Early estimates are that Battle Bowl was ordered in 60,000 homes, or an 0.27 buy rate, which is believed to be the first major office PPV show that may not even show a profit."
"Gene said he'd love to be a character witness for Vince and that Vince was completely innocent of everything and that the government has no case. The last time I remember Gene as a character witness it was for Ken Patera and it sure did Patera a lot of good."
"Missy Hyatt on the hotline apologized about saying Fifi was gone, saying she was told she was gone and then got to the PPV and there she was, and then noted that Fifi really couldn't speak French."
Dec 20, 93
"It's been ironic since television is now taped months in advance to see Anderson doing interviews that were taped in September and October talking about being stabbed in the back" " "The Boss" (formerly Big Bossman) showed up and promptly defeated Rude in a non-title match to set up a PPV match between the two. Roddy Piper was originally talked about for the replacement role but apparently that didn't happen. Bossman was scheduled to return full-time to WWF early in 1994, and as recently as the past week had worked on WWF shows in California, so his appearance was a big surprise on the WCW taping. WWF officials who apparently have Bossman under a contract reportedly are going to attempt to take legal action preventing his jumping." "Heenan following Okerlund to WCW will for the first time in a long time create the public perception that people are leaving WWF for WCW and give people the idea that somehow WCW is turning things around, even though there is really no evidence of it happening." "There were pretty stern warnings about Vader's future should he do the job in UWFI, which is hilarious since WCW five days later had its world tag team champions (Nasty Boys, as if anyone even cares) do a clean job in New Japan rings for New Japan's tag champs (Jurassic Powers) on a major show in Nagoya, and I'll bet nobody in the office was even aware of concerned about that, nor should they have been."
"WCW officials are enthused because the Saturday television ratings have made substantial improvement and Starrcade has a $30,000 advance for the Charlotte Independence Arena. Both of those factors have a lot to do with the continual push of Ric Flair in the highlighted singles position, and reportedly Flair is doing the greatest interviews in many years after being handed the ball. It's ironic since the original plans by the bookers were for Flair to be in the mid-card tag title match even though his name and Starrcade are synonymous and the show was in his home town."
Dec 27, 93"Flair did an interview asking what Joe Montana, Michael Jordan, himself, a few other legit sports legends and Sting and Dusty Rhodes have in common. Once he mentioned Dusty, I had no idea except maybe they all eat at Sabotino's when they come to Baltimore."
"On the 1/8 show, Shock Master does as interview and they talk about his new opponent coming in, Super Shock Master. I wonder what relative of Dusty's needs work?"
"Ted Turner addressed the wrestling company, both wrestlers and front office, for the first time ever in a meeting held on 12/16. There was nothing of major importance discussed other than it being a pep rally with Turner vowing that the entire Turner Home Entertainment empire would be backing WCW and that with the exception of CNN, every aspect of the empire would be involved in cross-promotion. He vowed that as long as he was around, the company would never go out of business, which uplifted everyone's spirits."
"There was talk about doing a special card for TNT and a lot of talk about this being the year that WCW overtakes the WWF."
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Post by saneiac on Jul 20, 2020 13:55:43 GMT -5
"Sabu received word from WCW that they weren't going to bring him in. Let me get this right. Charlie Norris, Thunder & Lightning, Harlem Heat all passed their tryouts and Sabu failed his." The Wrestling Observer takes a lot of shots a people, often times deservedly so (Watts & Watts). This one, though, seems needlessly derisive towards Harlem Heat. Booker and Stevie were both young, tall, muscular, handsome, and athletic. Everywhere they worked prior to WCW, they were pushed as the premiere tag team and were a top draw. Why does this writer sound so surprised that they passed a tryout?
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Post by DSR on Jul 20, 2020 16:07:45 GMT -5
"Let's go, Sheamus."
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XIII
Bill S. Preston, Esq.
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Post by XIII on Jul 20, 2020 16:18:10 GMT -5
"Sabu received word from WCW that they weren't going to bring him in. Let me get this right. Charlie Norris, Thunder & Lightning, Harlem Heat all passed their tryouts and Sabu failed his." The Wrestling Observer takes a lot of shots a people, often times deservedly so (Watts & Watts). This one, though, seems needlessly derisive towards Harlem Heat. Booker and Stevie were both young, tall, muscular, handsome, and athletic. Everywhere they worked prior to WCW, they were pushed as the premiere tag team and were a top draw. Why does this writer sound so surprised that they passed a tryout? I think that it’s less a shot at Harlem Heat and more an endorsement of Sabu, as at the time he was so unique and like nothing anyone had really ever seen. Before everyone started stealing his spots it was like he was from another planet.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 21, 2020 5:03:35 GMT -5
1994 January - February
Jan 3, 94
"In a snafu the likes that seems to happen with alarming regularly with the company, a PPV ad that ran one week before the show in the trade magazine Multi Channel News, featured an ad not for Starrcade, but for SuperBrawl (2/20/94) listing the main event as Flair defending the title against Vader in a Thundercage match."
"How many people seeing Ric "Family Man" Flair with his wife and kids are confused from all the months of seeing Flair with Fifi on television?"
"The Flair-Rude match only went 9:00, which made people even more unhappy when they were doing 15:00 prelim matches, ending in a DQ when Vader interfered, bringing out Sting, and they did a four-way with Vader splashing Sting and the ref counting 1-2-3 in :45 seconds which infuriated everyone since that was billed as a WCW title match and the main event."
"The four continued to brawl with Vader, Sting and Flair going over the top rope, and then guys started coming out for the Battle Royal and it was announced Vader, Sting and Flair had gone over the top and were eliminated, even though the other wrestlers hadn't even shown up. Some guys came in as late as 5:00 and 7:00 after the match had started and it came down to Rude and hometown hero Scorpio (who got a lot of major media press leading up to the show and was the most popular wrestler on the show) with Rude winning, which only infuriated the fans even more."
Jan 10, 94
"Despite the frequent mentions of Hogan on WCW broadcasts, that's just a gimmick come-on for Gene Okerlund to get people to call the 900 number."
"The stuff in Flair's house at the beginning of the PPV was shot a few weeks before the PPV, although the post-match stuff was live, which is why he had three kids at the beginning of the show and four kids at the end."
"There is apparently a major feud going on with Gene Okerlund and Jesse Ventura with Jim Ross. Okerlund made some sarcastic remarks about Ross on the Hotline although nothing serious, but Ventura has gone a lot deeper on television including this past weekend on World Wide asking about whatever happened to the fat Oakie and that made a remark about him broadcasting shows that have midgets dressed up as clowns. Like Ventura has never broadcasted on a show that had a midget dressed up like a shark trying to blow up a boat. Ross on his WWF radio show called Ventura overrated and made comments about Dusty Rhodes' weight, which was equally ironic."
Jan 17, 94
"Steve Austin does an interview where he says he's got a managers license and will be in Rob Parker's corner at the Clash for the match with Brian Pillman. Gene Okerlund does the shocked look at finding out the news. The only thing was, they had to do a re-take of the interview right away and when, to the live audience, Okerlund got the news of Austin being a manager the second time, he still acted shocked as if he hadn't heard it which pretty well exposed everything to even the densest fan there"
Jan 24, 94
"The company signed Zane Bresloff, the WWF's leading independent house show promoter for the past nine years. Many believe the signing of Bresloff will result in the fiercest war between WWF and WCW in a few years because this deal pretty well guarantees a far more aggressive approach WCW will take to booking major arenas that it had been locked out of in the top markets."
"In 1993, WCW drew about $7.56 million on seven PPV events as opposed to around $3 million on more than 300 house show dates. While estimated profit is haphazard, the PPV shows probably did $2.5 million in profit while the house shows certainly lost a lot more than $2.5 million."
"The idea of Super Shock Master as referee for the 2/20 PPV Flair-Vader match may have been thrown out the window as neither Flair nor Vader were keen on it."
"The remainder of the 1/29 show (which will be a 2:30 show) builds up to Rob Parker having to wear the chicken suit because he lost at the Clash to Brian Pillman (this all being acknowledged to the fans in Atlanta who are there live despite the Clash being more than two week away). The angle where Pillman forces Parker in the suit was said to have been great although for a company that forces all employees to sign letters saying they can't reveal scenarios, it's amazing that the company itself gives away its scenarios to its hometown audience."
"The week after Starrcade they tried to do a still photo review of the show with Gene Okerlund, however the photos they used for "Starrcade" were obviously taken at the 11/10 Clash."
"During the Green Bay-Dallas playoff game, their was a holding penalty called and announcer Randy Cross said it looked like a WCW wrestling hold, which is the first time in history an announcer said WCW rather than WWF."
"Jesse Ventura won't be at the Clash because he'll be out of the country, so don't take Bobby Heenan replacing him as a sign Ventura didn't sign his new contract."
Jan 31, 94 "Dusty Rhodes' tenure as booker for World Championship Wrestling came to a close last week. Rhodes officially resigned early in the week."
"The official word seems to be the booking will be handled by a committee composed of but not limited to Bill Shaw, Eric Bischoff, Mike Gossett (Graham), Greg Gagne, Robert Welch (Col. Rob Parker) and Ric Flair. WCW has frequently gone to committees in between bookers, and the result has always been chaos to the point the wrestlers themselves would ask three different committee members what the finish was for a match and get three different answers."
"Here's a first. Cactus Jack was on the Wrestling Insiders show over the weekend and when the subject of him winning the Bruiser Brody award came up, he said that he didn't deserve it for this past year. He said Vader did."
Feb 7, 94
"The rumor mill has been flying all week concerning the possibility of Hulk Hogan coming to World Championship Wrestling for a PPV match with Ric Flair later this year. The story, which has been spread within WCW and is well-known at this point throughout wrestling is that a Flair-Hogan PPV match will take place, probably during the summer."
"Aaron Neville, who did an interview at the Clash, actually bought a ticket and nobody knew ahead of time he was there so the interview was impromptu. It sure came off like nobody knew what to say as well."
"Rhodes officially is entitled Senior Consultant, which basically means he has the same job Jim Crockett had. There is a lot of heat in certain circles since Rhodes was still at TV on 1/31."
"Michael Hayes quit after being offered a $75,000 per year deal. Hayes also has a seriously injured back, so the entire Johnny B. Badd-Hayes scenario on World Wide will lead to nothing and their match scheduled for the 2/20 PPV is out the window."
"A real strange situation at the 1/29 USWA television show saw Bill Dundee (WCW's Sir William) show up and talk about the angle building up the 1/31 main event (Jerry Lawler vs. Eddie Gilbert) but also plugging the WCW show that night in Tupelo, MS. It was almost bizarre seeing a WCW card plugged on a USWA telecast."
"WCW is said to be introducing penalties for those who no-show at house shows and Bill Shaw said in a Miami Herald interview that a policy will be implemented to tell the fans the truth at the arenas in the event of no-shows. That (telling the truth to fans) will be a revolutionary policy in the modern U.S. pro wrestling business."
Feb 14, 94
"The initially planned Ric Flair vs. Great Muta main event for the 4/17 Chicago PPV show will be changed to a double main event with both Flair and Rick Rude defending their respective titles, although Muta isn't expected to be the foe for either one anymore."
"Ted Turner and Jane Fonda were in the front row for the first half of the 2/12 television show, and were constantly being shown and referred to and were interviewed by Gene Okerlund as well. In the interview it appeared Turner had no knowledge of the product because he didn't mention any names as he always does when interviewed about the Hawks and Braves, but did say that wrestling has been on the station since 1973. Naturally during the period Turner was there, all the wrestlers' workrates were up a notch."
"A 6-5 newcomer named Terra Rizing (Paul Laveque), who I believe is a Killer Kowalski student from New England, debuted in a dark match and looked good enough that he was given a debut match on television for the 2/26 show."
"The Nasty Boys had a squash that will never air because somehow things got out of control with Sags and jobber Bobby Walker in the ring including Sags trying to bite him in the face, and after the match in the dressing room apparently The Nasty Boys jumped Walker and Blackjack Mulligan had to break things up."
"Even though WCW officials are telling everyone that Ric Flair is the head of the booking committee, Dusty Rhodes was still around at the tapings and supposedly headed the meeting about the Orlando tapings which determines the company's direction over the next four months."
"The whole Flair-Vader promotion has been mind-boggling to say the least. As of the weekend television, they still had not announced the match was going to take place so the announcement that the main event is back on the show won't come until eight days before the card. Even more bizarre is that WCW sent out faxes to 23 media outlets this past week stating that the Flair-Vader match was pulled from the show and that the main event would be the six-man tag. They went off television this past weekend with Flair begging Nick Bockwinkel for the match and Bockwinkel saying Flair would have to get a letter from his doctor to the office by Monday, Flair acting like he wasn't sure he could, and them telling people to call the hotline on Tuesday to find out if the match is on."
Feb 21, 94
"World Championship Wrestling did its quarterly Orlando, FL World Wide tapings from 2/7 to 2/10, giving away some aspects of the storylines through the end of May."
"Less was given away at this third taping as compared with the previous two, as no title changes were made obvious to the public."
"The 5/22 Slamboree PPV will take place from the Philadelphia Civic Center. The only matches made clear are Rude defending his title against Vader in a heel vs. heel match, Rhodes vs. Bunkhouse Buck, Austin defending the U.S. title against Johnny B. Badd and Regal defending the TV title against Larry Zbyszko."
"Neither Hart nor Beefcake ever appeared before the camera and Hogan never appeared at the taping, however a series of three short interviews for WCW were cut by Hogan with Gene Okerlund and Bobby Heenan largely to plug Hogan's television show which debuts in syndication on 3/21. In the interviews, the possibility of a Hogan-Flair match is brought up, which would lead one to believe it's going to happen as pro wrestling rules are that you don't tease something on television that you aren't going to deliver. However, pro wrestling rules don't apply to this situation."
"On road swings, the company used to pick up the tab for wrestlers rent-a-cars provided they ride at least three to a car. That policy has been discontinued."
"Some question regarding the futures of Steve Austin, Brian Pillman and Ron Simmons. The first two have contracts that expire shortly. Austin is known to be coveted by Titan and apparently wants a raise from his current $190,000 deal. Pillman has a deal in the $240,000 range and there is some question as to whether they'll try to cut his salary down. Simmons is working without a contract, and actually has been for some time."
Feb 28, 94
"SuperBrawl drew a full house of 7,600, of which 4,217 was paid with a gate of $39,000. The group was pleased out of their mind with the turnout and as group-think with the show itself, although that wasn't a unanimous opinion. Getting a lot of praise was the work of local promoter Chip Burnham, considering there was no advance a week in because the storyline didn't allow them to advertise locally the Flair-Vader match until one week before show time. "
"On the SuperBrawl PPV, there were a couple of references to Hogan, one of which was put directly to Flair in an interview before his match with Vader, where the possibility of a Flair-Hogan match for the title was brought up. Flair responded by saying if it did happen, it would be the biggest event in pro wrestling history."
"Michael Hayes agreed to come back for this show even though his deal with WCW expired, and he was legit injured (although I'm sure he didn't need to be in a wheelchair since he's scheduled to perform in two concerts next month)."
"Jimmy Garvin claimed he was a retired airline pilot and didn't have his gear with him. Bockwinkel said if he wasn't ready in 45 minutes that he and Hayes would be fined and suspended, which caused both heels to panic. Boy does that defy logic. A guy who doesn't even wrestle is afraid of being suspended and a guy who is in a wheelchair is afraid of a suspension."
"They did about as good a job with a clumsy situation regarding Missy Hyatt (fired, but still has months more worth of pre-taped World Wide appearances) by saying she was at the Mayo Clinic getting her gums repaired, which was actually the funniest line of the show."
"Payne did a suplex on Brian Knobs that looked like it could have broken his arm and his neck because of the bad landing, but "only" dislocated his shoulder although there was fear he may have broken his shoulder as well, which would sideline him for several weeks."
"Vader was working with a staph infection in his chest, hence the new ring outfit."
"By the time Boss broke the handcuffs, the camera was in the wrong spot so not only did they miss him breaking the cuffs, but missed his cracking Vader in the knee with the night stick and by the time the cameras got the right shot, Flair was clumsily putting the figure four on Vader and Boss signalled for the bell even though Vader never submitted."
"On 2/15, Sting appeared on the Arsenio Hall show. Due to a snafu blamed on the p.r. company that got Sting the booking, he was advertised on all the radio ads the Hall people buy as "current WWF heavyweight champion."....Hall plugged SuperBrawl by saying it was "SuperBrawl four times" rather than "Super Brawl Four" and when he asked Sting about his match Sting just said he was in a thundercage with two other guys against Rick Rude and two other guys."
"On 2/16, Ric Flair was on Larry King's show in the best segment of the three. It started out like it would be a disaster when King, who also was totally unprepared but bluffed his way through it much better than Hall, asked Ric if he had ever appeared on a pay-per-view show before."
"Sting said something on the show about having nothing in his body except bran muffins, the same line that he used on the CNN Sonya show years ago when the subject came up, and apparently it got over just as bad this time. On the Sonya show (I believe this was in 1990), he was on with Luger and Sonya asked Luger about steroids and Luger hemmed and hawed trying not to lie but not knowing how to go about it and Sting got up and said there's nothing in his body but bran muffins and Sonya pretty well told him to sit down because she asked the question to Lex."
"The reason Equalizer will have the ring name Evad (Dave spelled backwards) Sullivan is because they're going to say he's dyslexic. I never knew dyslexia also causes you to mess up all your spots in a wrestling match."
"On the World Wide show that aired the day before the PPV in most markets, the Events Center segment saw Okerlund to get viewers to call to see the show "tonight" and they had interviews airing plugging a Steve Regal vs. Davey Boy Smith match for SuperBrawl where if Smith won, he'd get five minutes with Sir William. If they are going to tape months in advance, the least they could do is have someone edit those months old shows to make sure things like that don't sneak through."
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Post by jason1980s on Jul 21, 2020 10:02:37 GMT -5
That Gene Cottage Industry shot is pretty great. If not for how inept WCW management was and Ted not having any part of the company, the multi million or billion conglomerate should have destroyed the cottage industry. I'm sure it would piss off Vince if someone called WWF that BUT I also bet he would called WWF a Cottage Industry and scream it to the hills if it helped him pay lower taxes, lower wages, get away with lawsuit and trails etc...
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Post by evilone on Jul 22, 2020 4:08:33 GMT -5
Amazing how WCW had ability to recognize and bring in young future proof superstars. Even more amazing how they have managed to loose them so quickly.
When you think about it they've traded them for WWF midcard washouts but at the time it made sense cause WWF had credibility and WCW did not. So bringing in WWF superstars gave them that credibility. I always wondered how DDP didn't end up in WWF together with Hall and Nash or with Austin. You could tell from ten miles away that DDP, Vegas and Diamond Stud were mega stars in the making. Even though WCW didn't retain them they went off to WWF, gained credibility as Razor and Diesel and then came back and took over the world. It played out perfect for WCW. Lightning Kid and Terra Rizing were almost Benoit good at their debuts. I guess you can't have them all right?
I've always liked Rick Rude, Sid, Heenan, Ventura and Gene acquisitions cause they were top tier talent. To me that made sense unlike many washouts that came in between.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 22, 2020 5:39:22 GMT -5
1994 March - April
Mar 7, 94
"Jim Ross had a meeting in Atlanta with Eric Bischoff about returning to WCW. Bischoff reportedly didn't offer him a job at the meeting. While Ross has allies in WCW, he also just as clearly has his very public enemies, largely among the current announcing crew. The most noted would be Jesse Ventura, who worked with Ross on Clashes and PPVs before Ross was demoted in the Watts' fallout, with both calling the other overrated as an announcer in the aftermath. Ventura started telling jokes and continued to joke about Ross' announcing, his Oklahoma background, etc. on television from the period he left the company through virtually his entire WWF tenure. Tony Schiavone, who worked as Ventura's set-up man for much of that material, even as late as this past weekend's television show seemingly had comments slyly disguised as being directed at Ross."
"Ric Flair is now officially head of the booking committee and the first thing he did was turn himself back heel for upcoming feuds with Rick Steamboat and potentially Hulk Hogan. Flair's first television show will air on 3/12."
"They've done television teasing Ric Flair defending the title on 5/22 in Philadelphia at the PPV against a 6-7, 300 pound blond haired former world champion to tease it would be Hogan, but it won't be Hogan. In fact, nobody knows who it will be. Actually there were two candidates, neither of whom was Sid Vicious by the way and one of whom was Barry Windham, but it looks as though neither will happen."
Mar 21, 94
"Hogan has at press time not signed a contract with WCW although serious negotiations have taken place during the past week in Florida."
"Ventura, in response to what was written here about expected changes to make Heenan the No. 1 announcer said that since he gets paid more than any other announcer, it makes him the No. 1 announcer."
"Funniest line of the month, and it was by of all people, Tony Schiavone. When Bobby Heenan was talking about scam artists, Schiavone responded, "I've worked for many of them." "
Mar 28, 94
"As for Cactus Jack, his right ear was ripped off on 3/16 in Munich, Germany during a match against Vader, Jack (Michael Foley) went into the ropes and hung himself between the second and third rope. The pressure of the tightened cables was such that his right ear was torn completely off and his left ear was split badly, needing more than a dozen stitches to close the cut. Ring announcer Gary Cappetta took the right ear and iced it, however doctors were only able to save about one-third to one-half of the lower part of the right ear."
"Alex Wright, the 18-year-old son of scientific legend Steve Wright from England, worked on the WCW tour after so many had gone down with injuries and was said to have been impressive."
Apr 4, 94
"Names listed in a flier being sent out by WCW as appearing at Slamboree are Dusty Rhodes, Verne Gagne, Killer Kowalski, Red Bastien, The Assassin, Ray Stevens, Mike Graham, Tommy Young, Greg Gagne, Tully Blanchard, Ole Anderson, Blackjack Mulligan, Hardboiled Haggerty, Larry Hennig and Lou Thesz. They will hold a Slammeet on 5/21 and Slamfeast on 5/21. It wouldn't be WCW without mucho problemas. The flier lists the show, Meet and Feast as taking place in April, not May."
"WWF is attempting to keep WCW from using the name "The Boss" and the policeman gimmick for Ray Traylor."
Apr 11, 94
"WCW teased on television strongly that Hogan would be at ringside for the Ric Flair vs. Rick Steamboat title match in Chicago on 4/17, although it isn't confirmed that is the case since they also teased Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley being there and they won't be there for sure."
"A few additions to the PPV show. Johnny B. Badd vs. Dallas Page is scheduled as the opener replacing Tom Zenk vs. Terra Rizing. In addition, a match is scheduled with Danny Bonaduce (Danny Partridge of "The Partridge Family") vs. Christopher Knight (Peter Brady of "The Brady Bunch") which may or may not be a dark match. The two are scheduled to have a pro wrestling style match, which better be kept short."
"Alexander Wright, an 18-year-old British wrestler billed from Germany, who worked the recent German tour as a fill-in due to all the injuries, was given a try-out on 3/30 at Center Stage and looked really green. Wright is the son of Steve Wright, who was a scientific wrestling legend in Europe, Mexico and Japan."
Apr 18, 94
"The Hogan hype has been amazing, if only because the company has already started making Hogan the centerpiece of its company before it even has him signed and with knowledge that Hogan's release from Titan Sports gives them the legal option to match any offer and prevent him from accepting the WCW offer according to a report on a New York television station citing a Titan Sports source, which is consistent with information we've received."
"Because of his contractual release from Titan, even if Hogan agrees to a deal, it would be 21 days after that point before he could legally sign a contract because Titan has 21 days to match the offer, and if Titan matches the offer, Hogan still couldn't sign, which is why the offer is said to include such amazing revenue percentages of merchandise and PPV revenue that there is no way Titan would match it."
"Pillman's contract expired a few weeks ago but is fulfilling his commitments through the PPV show, but isn't on the booking after 4/17 and the sides were far apart enough on figures (WCW's offer was a serious pay cut, believed to be in the $50,000 to $60,000 annual range from the $240-250,000 range to $190,000) that is looks difficult to come to an agreement."
"Austin is on the booking sheets through the end of May, but his contract expires well before that and it was known he wanted a significant raise but WCW offered him a cut in pay as well."
Apr 25, 94
"Hogan reached an agreement with WCW to sign a contract. Due to the terms of Hogan's release from Titan Sports in late 1993, Titan has the right of first refusal on any offer given to Hogan to wrestle. Titan now has a 21-day period in which it can match the WCW offer, or else Hogan would sign with WCW and most likely start out at the 7/17 Great American Bash PPV show in a match against Ric Flair."
"Vice President Eric Bischoff also reached two-year contract agreements with Steve Austin and Brian Pillman....Both Pillman and Austin had met with Titan Sports in recent weeks and tested the waters with All Japan and were considered somewhat likely to leave the promotion. It is believed Austin's contract calls for 200 dates minimum (at the present rate, WCW won't book 200 shows so he'll get his minimum) per year at $1,000 per show, which would be a slight raise from what was believed to be a $190,000 base per year deal he was under, although both contracts reportedly had several bonuses worked in so comparing flat figures could be misleading. Pillman's contract calls for 185 dates per year. No reliable money figures have been speculated on, although it is believed to be in the ballpark with his previous deal."
"On the Saturday television show Gene Okerlund stated he had talked to Hogan who told him he would be at ringside, which strangely was again plugged during the show. Hogan was actually never scheduled to come to this show even after the agreement was worked out earlier in the week, so it was nothing more than deceptive advertising on the Saturday show. Plugging it again on the PPV was really strange because it only called attention to the fans to the fact they'd been deceived in the hype."
"The only major backstage commotion regarded Ventura, who arrived at the building completely unaware he wouldn't be doing the play-by-play as apparently nobody in the company had informed him, although a lot of people were less than thrilled about the Danny Bonaduce-Christopher Knight match."
"Knobs and Payne wound up in the first "fake concession stand brawl" ever, as they set up a concession stand with four t-shirts and a few foam hands which was obviously a work since it was inside of the barricaded off region of the building."
"Sting won the WCW International title from Rick Rude in 13:09. Harley Race came out before the match so Vader could challenge the winner (which is funny since Vader actually is going to wrestle the loser)."
"Nick Bockwinkel told Boss that in other matches (Street Fight and Bunkhouse) the stipulations allowed gimmicks, but this match wasn't a gimmick match and he was taking the nightstick and handcuffs and told him he could no longer wrestle as The Boss. Poor Nick is continually put in a position to make rulings that make no sense (who can forget, well, okay, everyone can forget the memorable ruling threatening to suspend Jimmy Garvin who didn't even work for the company) as what does the name have to do with anything? Well, of course, it has to do with everything since Titan has been sending nasty threatening legal letters about the name, uniform, nightstick and handcuff gimmick and if there ever was a case that they should win, this would seem to be it since they created the entire gimmick and trademarked it, and their competitor was using it. Given all that, one asks why WCW used it in the first place, but that's another story."
"Bischoff reached a very limited deal with Eastern Championship Wrestling which resulted in Arn Anderson and Bobby Eaton shooting an angle at the 4/16 ECW show to set up them wrestling on the 5/14 card."
"WCW offered to put some ECW wrestlers on its TBS shows for a few weeks to build up an ECW feud, but that proposal was turned down. Dangerously, who still has a lot of bad blood with the WCW hierarchy, in particular Bill Shaw and Bob Dhue because of how his dismissal and post-dismissal legal action was handled, initially didn't want to make the deal, but asked for Steve Austin and Brian Pillman first, with Pillman to be Sabu's mystery opponent on the show. WCW turned down the request not wanting either to be injured for Spring Stampede the next day, but did send Anderson and Eaton to the show to do an angle and several weeks worth of interviews leading to the 5/14 show."
"WCW wanted to work with ECW in the Northeast to aid in promoting Slamboree in Philadelphia, plus as a revenge against the WWF for aiding SMW for cards in Marietta, GA."
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Post by DSR on Jul 22, 2020 20:27:07 GMT -5
Alex Wright isn't actually German?! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
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Post by Deleted on Jul 23, 2020 5:55:09 GMT -5
1994 May - June
May 2, 94
"It's been reported just about everywhere that Too Cold Scorpio was fired after failing a drug (not steroid) test, which was more the result of failing several in a row than a singular one."
"Because of that, the company surprised the wrestlers with drug tests this past week and it is well-known and obvious from the PPV that if the results are to be adhered to that several key wrestlers would likely be suspended, so it'll be difficult for the results to be adhered to according to company policy that mandates six-week suspensions for failure. The last company-wide drug test was nearly one year ago and saw nearly numerous failures and no suspensions."
"The May Disney tapings (5/11 to 5/14) won't be from the Disney studios because they are already booked. Instead they'll have to tape outdoors. Because of the heat and lighting problems, they'll have to be done at night."
"Ads are everywhere for the Slamboree PPV with the only match listed being "Rick Rude defends his WCW World title against Vader" despite the fact the title change hasn't taken place in Japan yet and the title is called something else."
"Evad Sullivan (The Equalizer) will be out indefinitely after blowing out his knee at Slamboree, so Kevin Sullivan & Cactus Jack have become a new tag team to feud with the Nasty Boys. Jack will be postponing his reconstructive ear surgery because of this."
"Regarding new talent, Bischoff claimed the first thing the company looks for is in-ring talent, which I guess explains why Thunder & Lightning and Harlem Heat got jobs and Jimmy Del Rey and Sabu didn't."
"The fact the past three PPV shows have been pretty good is largely due to Sid's problem because if it had gone as originally planned, Ric Flair would be in the middle of the card, Rick Steamboat probably wouldn't be on the card, and who knows who they could program Sid with on top."
"WCW claimed Hyatt wasn't fired, that they simply let her contract expire (which is the same thing) and there were no future plans for her. However, that line was proven totally bogus because Sherri Martel was brought in as a face to manage the Sullivans against the Nasty Boys, and the company even taped television (that hopefully won't be airing but you can never tell) with Sherri in that role."
May 9, 94 "The 5/2 taping was moved from 5/3 at almost the last minute because nobody had remembered to reserve a production truck and with Bill Clinton at CNN and the Hawks and Braves having games all on 5/3 it was too late to get one from outside."
"When Ch. 14 in Atlanta pulled both USWA and WCW World Wide because the wrestling block has been cut to three hours (now airing North Georgia, SMW and WWF), supposedly there have been dozens of calls about USWA and not one complaint about World Wide being dropped."
May 16, 94 "A new faux pas on the Sunday show. On Saturday they announced that Rob Parker's man would challenge the Flair-Steamboat winner for the title and on Sunday they did interviews and talked of the match as being Flair vs. Parker's man."
"The on-again off-again status of Barry Windham at press time is off-again. Windham missed his scheduled main event matches against The Guardian Angel (as billed in newspaper ads and as "The Man Who Represents Law & Order" at the shows) on the WCW weekend house shows in Florida and the Bahamas and was replaced by Paul Orndorff. It is believed Windham was pulled from the shows because he hasn't given the organization medical clearance to return after major knee surgery. Windham was scheduled as the secret opponent for Ric Flair at the 5/22 Slamboree PPV show in Philadelphia."
"There was no speculation on who could be the replacement since there is a shortage of 6-7, 300 pound former world champions with blond hair, and because absolutely no consideration has been given to bringing back Sid Eudy and because they aren't going to waste Hulk Hogan's first match on a scenario that hasn't been well promoted. The leading candidate appears to be Terry Funk, who would be pulled from the legends match."
"They are now advertising the Disney tapings to wrestling fans because they are being done at night, outdoors, after the park closes. Reportedly there will be three-hour nightly tapings, mainly of matches without a lot of interviews or angles so storylines won't be locked in so far in advance."
"The reason Jesse Ventura hasn't been appearing on the Main Event and others shows in recent weeks is reportedly because his contract stipulates a certain number of days notice has to be given for him to come in for voice-overs. Dusty Rhodes has been taking his place on the "just-for-Sunday" match with Eric Bischoff."
May 26, 94
"It was said by many during the middle of the week that Barry Windham did receive medical clearance and thus would be Ric Flair's opponent in the WCW title match, however Terry Funk was told this past week to be ready to work two matches on the Slamboree show."
"The TV tapings in Orlando from 5/12 to 5/17 weren't packed as individual shows, but instead simply had 11 matches taped each night, almost all of which were squashes. The shows were taped outdoors, with a New York backdrop set which is said to look great."
"Sherri Martel was continually scouting Brian Pillman and apparently made references to looking for a Perfect man, which led many to believe the Ron Simmons idea has already been cast aside for Mr. Perfect, but that is total conjecture at this point." "For the past few weeks, problems have surfaced regarding Rude's tenure in WCW. At least some of the problems were brewing by late April, which made many question the decision to go along with the original plan of putting the International belt back on Rude at the Fukuoka Dome." "Rude himself was unhappy and reportedly at one point requested being bought out of his deal ala Jimmy Garvin in 1992. There was also speculation Rude's injuries would lead to him sitting out for a lengthy period of time and collect Lloyd's of London disability."
"The initial plan was for Rude vs. Vader to have a disputed finish, perhaps a double count out, and lead to Flair vs. Vader and Rude vs. Sting at the 6/23 Clash of Champions with belts at stake in both matches."
May 30, 94
"Rude and Ric Flair got into a serious argument in Philadelphia again and Rude refused to do whatever he was supposed to do in regard to going out there when he was being stripped of the title (and it still boggles the mind how stupid they were to put the belt back on him when he was embroiled in these problems before even going to Japan)" "While Rude has clearly been working injured for more than a year, you'll hear a lot of skepticism about this severity of this injury that was supposed to have been suffered at the Fukuoka Dome, because it came just days after Rude had stated that he wouldn't put Flair, Hogan or Vader over. Apparently the original idea for the 7/17 PPV show was a tag match (either Hogan & Flair vs. Rude & Mr. Perfect or Hogan & Sting vs. Flair & Rude) where Rude was going to do the job at the end." "The reason Assassin never showed his plaque was because they mistakenly made two plaques for Harley Race so the plaque given him had Race's picture." "Badd came out with "I love Philly" on his ring jacket and was still booed."
"Flair was introduced as an 11-time world champion, even though they were proclaiming him a 12-time champion the previous week. Actually Tony Schiavone was attempting to explain that contradiction but got interrupted and never got back to it. Maybe next PPV." "Sting pinned Vader to win or maintain the International title in 13:54. Earlier in the show, mannequin ring announcer Michael Buffer called ref Randy Anderson "Randy Peterson." Hey, mistakes happen, although they happen more often when the ring announcer doesn't have a clue then when he does. But for the second time in the show he did it again. Like, because this guy announces real sports for a living, nobody has the guts to tell him he made a mistake?" "Although Flair did an interview talking about a match with Mr. Perfect at the August Clash, Perfect's contract with WWF doesn't expire until 9/30. Unless Perfect can get a contract release from Titan, the match won't take place until November. Perfect was in Philadelphia for Slamboree although never appeared in front of the camera as it would have constituted as a contractual violation." "The two-faced nature of wrestling was apparently never more evident than at Slamboree. Verne Gagne, who is widely considered to be the most disliked individual in the industry, was "treated like the pope" by all those who have spent years saying bad things about him according to those there. Apparently the one Gagne-hater who didn't succumb to this was Jesse Ventura."
June 6, 94
"Barry Windham blew out his knee again during the match with Ric Flair. Let's just say many people are skeptical of that as well."
"Flair taped a series of "secret" interviews in studio on 5/25, literally with the studio doors being guarded and virtually nobody being told what they were about." "On 6/11, during an interview, Rob Parker says that Steve Austin is still under contract but Austin will wrestle on his own from this point....On 6/18, Austin did a squash and Parker and Ming (King Haku) were at ringside, even though Parker the week before announced he wasn't going to be with Austin. At the Disney tapings, Austin worked without Parker." "The problem between Flair and Rick Rude at Slamboree is that Rude wanted to do an interview about losing the belt where he would complain about being stripped because he won with illegal means yet when he lost the title to Sting, it was because Harley Race interfered. Flair didn't like the idea because he thought it would take legitimacy away from the Sting-Vader match being for the belt (since Rude's explanation actually made too much sense) and because it would get Rude over when there were no future plans for him. Flair had his own idea of what he wanted Rude to say, but Rude didn't like it and walked out a few hours before the show." "When Haku debuted as Ming, the announcers pretended not to know him even though Bobby Heenan at one time managed him. Eventually Heenan said he did know him and that he used to be a bodyguard for rock stars." "During Hogan's interview when he talked about Flair being an 11-time champion, Okerlund corrected him and said 12-time champion. Can't blame Hogan for the mistake since nobody in the company can decide from week-to-week whether it is 11 or 12, and really, does anyone at this point even care?"
June 10, 94
"Cactus Jack, who currently holds the WCW tag title with Kevin Sullivan, but was pretty well expected to lose the belts to Paul Roma & Paul Orndorff next month, gave notice on Wednesday that he'll be leaving to work independents and Japan but will be fulfilling his WCW contract through September."
June 20, 94 "Hogan's debut on a live cut-in from Orlando, FL's DisneyWorld came on its 6/11 WCW Saturday Night show....In an unintentionally hilarious spot, former WCW jobber Randy Hogan, who was used in years past to mock Hogan, actually was on camera two or three times taking sound for a local radio station unbeknownst to many in the company." "The Hogan publicity was enough for the WWF to produce its own retaliatory piece, which started airing the same day of Hogan's press conference on WCW, attempting to equate Hogan, shown doing a legdrop on a tape made to look grainy and ancient, as equivalent to out-of-date items such as broken down 1920s cars and airplanes, and showing the current WWF crop of headliners as being equivalent to 1990s cars and airplanes (some later airings of a similar piece saw Hogan edited out), coining a new phrase that this is the new WWF generation, not living in the past, a direct shot at the amount of publicity WCW has garnered from Hogan."
June 27, 94 "World Championship Wrestling opened the day of blunders by airing the "Control Center" segment scheduled to run on 6/26 one week early. While that would be a minor problem under normal circumstances, this being a week with a major show (Clash of Champions), the segment revealed that Ric Flair had beaten Sting "this past Thursday" to become unified world champion and that because of what took place at the Clash, Hulk Hogan wanted a shot at the title at the 7/17 Bash at the Beach PPV. The segment also revealed, among other things, that both Steve Austin and Cactus Jack & Kevin Sullivan retained their respective titles at the Clash and would be defending them against Rick Steamboat and Paul Orndorff & Paul Roma at the Bash at the Beach." "Hogan's deal is for three PPV shows until the end of the year which will be Bash at the Beach, Halloween Havoc and Starrcade, so the odd show out will be Fall Brawl." "The September PPV show will be headlined by a War Games match which is tentatively Terry Funk & Bunkhouse Buck & Ming & Arn Anderson vs. Dusty Rhodes & Dustin Rhodes & Nasty Boys, which tells you a lot about what is on the horizon ( My Note: Arn and Nasty Boys hadn't turned yet)."
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Post by jason1980s on Jul 23, 2020 7:33:25 GMT -5
I distinctly remember Michael Buffer announcing Randy Anderson as Randy Peterson. As a kid I knew WCW called him Randy Anderson but I just figured they changed his name at some point, for some reason. I never thought it was Buffer getting it wrong. As a wrestling fan I never cared for him being on the show. I wanted to see the matches, I didn't need to know (I already did) that British Bulldog was wearing white with blue and red trim representing the flag of the United Kingdom.
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Post by BlackoutCreature on Jul 23, 2020 7:57:32 GMT -5
Seriously, did Michael Buffer ever make these mistakes when doing boxing intros? Did he ever accidentally call Evander Holyfield "Ezekiel Hollywood" or something?
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Jul 24, 2020 5:12:38 GMT -5
1994 July - August
July 4, 94
"WCW did acknowledge its snafu on the Main Event show the previous Sunday where they gave away three finishes and one angle ahead of time by playing the Control Center segment scheduled for the following week. It was first acknowledged during the opener with Bobby Heenan out of nowhere denying he was responsible for switching of the tapes, and in an interview with Sting after that match where he tried too imply Flair was playing mind games and using psychological warfare and indirectly mentioned a tape without actually explaining what he was talking about."
"They made the same snafu on the Clash, airing a promo tape for the following Saturday show talking about and showing clips of Dustin Rhodes & Arn Anderson as a tag team before the live interview aired where Anderson had agreed to team with Rhodes."
"Jesse Ventura doing color managed to cheapen the TV title as well by basically saying that Austin lost the TV title on purpose so he could step up and win the U.S. title, which makes titles really prestigious if guys lose them on purpose, even though they really do and they really aren't."
"A meeting was held on 6/20 where a furious Eric Bischoff talked about the Main Event snafu."
"The Steve Austin vs. Sting U.S. title matches ended in a DQ when Col. Parker interfered. Oh, Col. Parker on TV said he no longer would accompany Austin to ringside?"
July 11, 94
"Hogan then did an interview where Hulk told Jimmy Hart basically to punch Sherri Martel if she interfered, which is probably the worst timing in the world right now to say something like that."
"On both syndication and cable this past week they aired the previously taped and latest disjointed angle with Sensational Sherri scouting Brian Pillman and pretty much being in a babyface position, after she's already turned at the Clash. The announcers, put in a no-win position, tried to explain this faux pas by saying Flair is her business interest and she's looking at Pillman as a romantic interest."
July 18, 94
"WCW's more than double the usual ad budget was reflected in buying spots in syndication for Bash at the Beach on many WWF Superstars shows, which must have thrilled those in Titan."
"They spent the entire show pushing the 900 line telling people to call and vote for two wrestlers that would appear in the main event. Reportedly there were about 6,000 calls grossing $12,000 (about half of which goes to the phone company), which the company was thrilled out of its mind with although I'd consider those numbers disappointing with the constant hard-sell throughout the show since Jim Ross used to gross that much revenue when he did the hotline on an average Saturday. Latest word is that the company wants to do this gimmick regularly on television now where fans pick participants. If 45 minutes of television promotion time is only worth a few thousand dollars, somebody needs an economics lesson."
"Everyone knew in advance they were running Flair-Sting on top of course, and the show largely led the audience to pick Flair and Sting so in reality it was a scam, but supposedly the numbers represented on the screen picking Flair and Sting were legit."
"WCW officials explained the Clash finish so well to the press that every magazine in Japan reported that Johnny B. Badd beat Steve Austin to win the U.S. title."
"Supposedly the word has come directly from the top that the heavy blood violent matches, such as the two Cactus Jack matches from the PPV's and the Dustin Rhodes-Bunkhouse Buck first match are no longer to be tolerated, even on PPV. The fear is with the national and congressional mood against violence on television, Ted Turner, a major public figure who has to be in step with the times, doesn't want to be caught with an achilles heel."
Aug 1, 94
"Bash at the Beach was a huge success. I don't think it was close to the best PPV show WCW has put on of late, but it accomplished what it needed to and at least as far as the first show went, the Hogan signing was a success.... It was the first time in history that a WCW PPV show outdrew a WWF one during the same period, and we're talking by 30%"
"It wasn't until the last minute that it was even clear Cactus would work, as he was still in rough shape from a back injury suffered in the match against Sabu. WCW officials were also exceedingly upset about Cactus spitting on the belt and throwing it on the ground doing an ECW interview. Brian Pillman was flown in to sub for him, but instead just made a cameo appearance at the Hogan victory party along with Brutus Beefcake, Jim Duggan and Brian Blair."
"The announcers tried to get over an insulting storyline to any fan that has even the semblance of a memory that this was Hogan's first match in three years and it was the first time Flair and Hogan had ever wrestled."
"Three bad points. No George Foreman. Mr. T was there. So was Michael Buffer."
"Jesse Ventura was complaining to anyone who would listen about his treatment. Ventura cited that the Saturday ratings have continually dropped since he was replaced by Bobby Heenan (true, but that is more a result of seasonal variation than related to who the answer is) and was upset that nobody in the company gave him any lead time in knowing what role he'd play on the PPV."
"Company sent out press releases and an accompanying photo to the media of Hogan & Hart with the caption reading "Hulk Hogan & Jimmy Cliff." "
"Jimmy Hart is apparently trying to get his friend Honkytonk Man in."
"At the Orlando PPV, about 90% of the souvenirs being for sale in the building were of Hogan. The Orlando Sentinel, which did several major stories before and after the card, noted that and asked a vendor why in particular there wasn't any Flair merchandise and the vendor said that nobody wants to buy anything of Flair."
Aug 8, 94
"There has been a ton of heat from WCW about the ECW television, particularly interviews by Funk and Jack. Funk did an interview talking about wrestling in WCW but saying that he tells everyone, and gets a lot of flack for it, that ECW is where it's at. Jack's interview where he spat and threw down the WCW tag title belt got even more heat, particularly when he screeched that he isn't a family entertainer."
"The entire television show had to be changed since Hulk Hogan had been advertised and scheduled to be there but wasn't, with the reason being varying from being exhausted after a European promotional tour or simply that somebody forgot to tell him the TV was booked around him."
"As for the Sting rumors. Let's put this simply. Sting has a great contract with WCW which expires at the end of this year. It is very difficult to make $700,000 per in this business and not be intelligent when it comes to business affairs, so the idea of Sting leaving before the last paycheck comes in on the current deal sounds totally far-fetched. After the deal expires at the end of the year, anything can happen but if Sting were to be offered the same money no matter what position he'll be put in (and he's always going to have a good position), he isn't going to leave. He lives in Atlanta. He has a family. He has businesses in Atlanta. WCW is based in Atlanta. He gets more days off and works numerous dates within driving distance from home. In WWF he'd be on the road constantly and spending an awful lot of time in foreign countries. The same situation why WWF couldn't pull the trigger with Brian Pillman and Steve Austin is the same with Sting, except he makes three times the money they do."
"After the last PPV outdid the WWF's last PPV, WCW is going to adopt a new advertising slogan of being "The New No. 1" as a counter to WWF's "New Generation" theme."
Aug 14, 94
"The Disney tapings now seem designed more to fill program time for World Wide, while the main angles will be kept on the cable shows, particularly the Saturday night show, which is only taped a few weeks in advance."
"This installment, taped 8/3 to 8/7, saw the introduction of Blacktop Bully (Barry Darsow) doing a heel fan gimmick in the stands with a loud horn. This gimmick is apparently an inside stab equivalent to Vince McMahon's IRS character (since the IRS regularly audited Titan Sports in the late 80s) in that for years the company has never understood how to deal with fans who "don't behave as they should" forgetting that those fans pay money to attend and have turned out to be the most loyal fans the company has"
"Ron & Don Harris (The Bruise Brothers) were brought in as a heel tag team, given several wins until eventually getting totally squashed in 45 seconds by Hulk Hogan & Sting on a syndicated main event."
"They taped segments leading one to believe Ric Flair would be suspended based on what took place at the 8/24 Clash against Hulk Hogan and announced the 9/18 PPV show triangular match would be Sting, Vader and Guardian Angel rather than Sting, Vader and Flair."
"Also getting a huge push as an out-of-the-ring Big Bubba Rogers type character was Meng (King Haku), who ended up "injuring" Scott Armstrong with a choke slam and got into a confrontation with Rick Steamboat that ended in a pull-apart with Meng blocking all of Steamboat's offensive martial arts moves."
"Harlem Heat received a big push, but there was no sign of the manager they talked about on recent interviews (which appears now to be a rib at Paul E. Dangerously) with the cellular." "John Tenta was pulled from International Stars of Wresting shows in British Columbia 8/22 to 8/24 because Titan has him tied up legally from appearing on any U.S. or Canadian dates until 10/2 apparently trying to block him from going into WCW."
"The reason Vader missed the Jacksonville house show last week was because he was filming the movie "Fist of the Northern Star," which apparently WCW knew of weeks ago but communication being what it is, he was continually advertised anyway."
"The fans choice match was Dustin Rhodes vs. Bunkhouse Buck (Heenan continually prompted fans "not" to vote for that match)."
"An interesting inside comment made during this show by Bobby Heenan in references to bald-headed guys tape recording everything as being wanna-be announcers was in reference to Howard Finkel, who apparently has heat with Heenan because Finkel didn't attend Joey Marella's funeral (Marella was friends with Heenan) and perhaps because Titan hasn't acknowledged his death yet on television. I'm sure there are other professional rivalry reasons as well such as the belief within WCW and elsewhere, whether founded or not, that Finkel tape records everything everyone says on every hotline and plays them for Vince McMahon"
"Ric Flair has told friends he is not retiring now, but when the day comes for his retirement, it'll be a real retirement and he won't be doing comebacks."
Aug 22, 94
"Steve Regal defends the TV title against Johnny B. Badd. Apparently this latter match will be a title change as at the Disney tapings there were interviews done that acknowledged Badd as TV champion in a feud with Honkytonk Man for later in the year."
"When Sherri raked Sting's eyes, he was not only knocked out of commission but had to miss a PPV one week later. When she did the same to Hulk Hogan, he sold it for all of three seconds before making his own comeback."
"I don't know how this started, but there were rumors around Tallahassee (where Ron Simmons was a college football superstar) that Simmons had died, to the point all media in the area were working on stories until they found it was a hoax. Bobby Bowden, Simmons' coach, had already filmed a television interview (that never aired) talking about how sad he was about Simmons passing away and what a great player he was. About a week later, the Atlanta paper picked up on how prominent the rumor was for a few hours and joked that Simmons wasn't dead, but based on his current role with WCW, it appears his career is."
"On the television hotline tease on Saturday, Gene Okerlund talked about revealing who Patriot was and his background, but on his report the subject was never even brought up."
"Lots of complaints the second and third night because Vader no-showed his match with Guardian Angel and was again replaced by Tex Slazenger. Again WCW should have known in advance because Vader was scheduled to leave for Japan for his UWFI match with Takada that has been known about for months."
Aug 29, 94
"The Madison Square Garden date for a Hogan-Flair match is 11/26. The fact WCW has the building booked and with a match that will probably do at least decent business is actually one of the biggest stories within wrestling because it's the first non-McMahon family run date in the major arena since as far back as anyone can remember."
"Erik Watts was scheduled to be cut from his contract signed while his father was head honcho but there was some sort of a bureaucratic snafu that gave him three more months."
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