1995 November - December
Nov 6, 95
"The 1995 version of a creatively booked PPV show contained a man falling off a five-story balcony to his apparent death, either into a river or a parking lot (nobody was quite sure), and showing up 15 minutes later to wrestle without even a scratch, or for that matter, wet hair. It contained so many turns (all of which were at least very well done) that the 1988 booking by Dusty Rhodes that put Jim Crockett out of business seems mild in comparison."
"Randy Savage (Randy Poffo) pinned Zodiac (Ed Leslie) in 1:30 after an elbow drop off the top rope. Zodiac subbed for Kamala, who decided to quit the promotion early rather than do a job here."
"Savage is working with a detached tricep, which is a pretty serious injury that should be keeping him out of action a few months."
"When the show started, it was announced that Flair had been injured in a pre-match attack by Anderson & Pillman and was questionable for the match. This made perfect sense since just two minutes earlier, Anderson & Pillman had been out doing an interview and none of this was acknowledged. The quality control division of this company leaves much to be desired."
"Hogan came out first in street clothes explaining that because of what happened to The Giant, there would be no match. Giant then came out, proving to be immortal to falling off buildings, but not to legdrops and poorly timed foot to the faces."
"Yetti (who turned out to be Ron Reis wrapped up like SMW's Prince Kharis since Giant Gonzalez went AWOL after being hospitalized in mid-week after actually getting into the country to do the angle), who was a good three or four inches taller than our original Giant, combined for a double bearhug on Hogan. At least I hope that's what it was, because it looked more like a kinky sandwich. Yetti isn't supposed to be a mummy but is supposed to be an abominable snowman from the Himalayas. They got it half right."
"It started as a great angle but turned into something campy in the worst way when the guy wrapped up in toilet paper showed up and tried to have sex with Hogan."
"The Luger turn and Benoit joining the Horseman ideas had to be last minute because the Starrcade plan was for WCW babyfaces to go against New Japan heels in seven matches, and Luger and Benoit were scheduled on that show."
"Black Bart (Ricky Jones) resurfaced on WCW Pro in a jobber role as Big Train Bart."
Nov 13, 95
"Sasaki came out several times announced as United States champion with the belt (he wins the title from Sting on 11/13 at Tokyo Sumo Hall) for shows that air between 11/18 and Starrcade (where he's at this point scheduled to lose the title back). Masa Saito was furious backstage about this and wouldn't let anyone shoot photos of Sasaki's matches since he hadn't won the belt yet."
"There were problems on the first night of the tapings because Kanemoto & Otani were booked to go over the American Males via submission and the Males put up a fuss and a lot of the WCW regulars didn't want to put over the Japanese on television because in most cases the Japanese were using submission finishes."
"All photographers were banned from ringside during the Benoit-Sasaki match because New Japan (see, American promotions aren't alone in their paranoia) in the deal to agree to allow Sasaki to do the job didn't want any photos of Benoit beating Sasaki in their magazines and for it to make the news in Japan (no such luck, you can't play that game in 1995)."
Nov 20, 95
"As evidenced by the WCW World Wide show that aired over the weekend talking about the winner of the 11/26 World War III Battle Royal getting a shot at the WCW heavyweight champion, it is apparent that the title switch from Hogan was not planned at the time voiceovers for that show were done."
"The three Giants, with El Gigante not appearing, will turn out to be Yetti, The Giant and Hulk Hogan as the third giant, or One Man Gang if you prefer him to be a giant."
"The chance that Guerrero, Benoit or Malenko will leave after the 90 day contracts are up seem to be virtually nil."
"WWF is blowing WCW away on promotion of the Japanese women with the video features talking about all the women coming in, showing who they are and their finishing maneuvers. On the other hand, WCW's Gene Okerlund, when mentioning the names of the ones coming to WCW, said they sound like something from the menu at a sushi bar"
Nov 27, 95
"At the WWF PPV show, there was a banner on screen for a long time stating "Bring back Teddy Long." Either WWF has changed its policy, or, nobody in the truck knew who Teddy Long was and that he was a WCW personality on television."
"The reason they are doing a house show on 12/2 in Denver is because when they did Nitro, they ran a deal where anyone who ordered the previous WCW PPV show would get two free tickets to Nitro. However, many of the people were turned away at the door since Nitro sold out. TCI held WCW accountable for the upset costumers so they are giving two free tickets to everyone who ordered that PPV including those who got into Nitro for free with the same deal, and running a house show with a 20 man Battle Royal, Harlem Heat vs. American Males, Lex Luger vs. J.L., Sting vs. Kurasawa, Scott Norton vs. Giant, Bunkhouse Buck & Dick Slater vs. Blue Bloods, Page vs. Badd and Alex Wright vs. Disco Inferno."
"Sabu said he watched Nitro and heard Bischoff on commentary talk about a wrestler who is no longer with the company and to call the WCW Hotline to find out who, and he called the Mike Tenay message and that's how he found out he was fired."
"WCW had been upset with Sabu for numerous reasons, such as him brawling out of the ring more than they wanted him to and going longer than scheduled in some television matches. In addition, The Sheik wasn't supposed to throw fire at the PPV show and it caught everyone at WCW by surprise. Sabu was unhappy at being a mid-card performer and those in WCW say he insisted on not having his weight announced because of the belief if he was categorized as a junior heavyweight, he couldn't work on top."
"Chris Cruise and Sonny Onno are killing the New Japan gimmick deader than Kelsey's."
Dec 4, 95
"The show opened with one of the weirdest interviews probably in wrestling history. Hulk Hogan, Sting and Savage came out. First Hogan dumped his black wrestling attire in a burning garbage can. He then went off on a tangent about "rag sheets" which is a term those in the business unfamiliar with how the real world operates refer to newsletters such as this (as if this newsletter should be put in a grouping with anything else). Hogan threw a tantrum about a report that said The Giant was going to win the Battle Royal (which couldn't have even come from here because the last thing we wrote on the subject was that Sting or Savage were the best bets to win) and how they were wrong, which pretty well tipped everyone off that the Giant wasn't going to win."
"Hogan then said that the Savage arm injury was a total swerve on everyone including the wrestlers in the dressing room and that Savage's arm was fine (Savage had legitimately torn his tricep and his left arm was barely half the size of the right). Even weirder was even if the injury wasn't real, the major storyline of the show is that Savage had an arm injury and the announcers never acknowledged Hogan's saying Savage's arm was fine."
"He then threw the "rag sheet" in the same burning garbage can saying "Observe this," and said that it was a dinosaur and that the internet is the real story. I suspect as his popularity and drawing power continues to drop he'll get even more bitter. Since it appeared to be directed at me, I took it as a tremendous compliment."
"Gene Okerlund, in plugging the WCW hotline, mentioned that the WWF steroid scandal isn't over. Anyone in WCW talking about the WWF when it comes to steroids has one hell of a lot of nerve."
"Lex Luger (Larry Pfohl) beat Randy Savage (Randy Poffo) in 5:28 by with a step over armlock. It appeared on television from the announcers that it was a submission finish but the idea they were supposed to get across was that the referee stopped the match and that Savage actually never submitted to the move because, well, top babyfaces don't submit in this country."
"It looks as though Michael Buffer won't be doing UFC events any longer. WCW gave him an ultimatum because they felt UFC was competition. Since WCW runs more major shows per year than UFC, most likely he would choose the one that gives him the most dates."
Dec 11, 95
"Since it's become apparent that the original plan for Starrcade of being a set of seven matches of WCW wrestlers against New Japan wrestlers would have flopped as a PPV event (in terms of buys, not necessarily in terms of show quality), the company officially this past week added a triangular match and a WCW title match to the seven originally scheduled matches."
"WCW had actually suggested to New Japan a home-and-home series for the World Cup where the Tokyo Sumo Hall show on 11/13 would have been under similar rules. The idea suggested is it would be tied going into the final match which would involve a WCW heel, who would then "throw the match" by selling out to Sonny Onno, giving New Japan the win, and setting the stage for the rematch at Starrcade where WCW would only use babyface wrestlers on its team. Wisely, New Japan disregarded the suggestion."
"Terry Taylor, who was in charge of working backstage to get the word to the wrestlers to get eliminated in the Battle Royal, was given a sheet of paper listing the first 50 eliminations. The final ten were called by Hogan in the ring as they wouldn't even let the booking committee know the storyline of the finish."
"WCW ran a rare house show in Denver on 12/2 drawing 3,000 fans and about 1,000 paid for a Battle Royal won by Giant, Giant over Norton and Sting over Kurasawa. Show was said to have been among the worst with nobody working hard, all blaming it on Dennis Condrey's ring being so old you couldn't work in it."
Dec 18, 95
"There was a ton of controversy this week regarding Nancy Sullivan. Mark Madden reported on the WCW Hotline that Sullivan would be leaving ECW for WCW and go under the name Elizabeth and manage Randy Savage. WCW actually taped over that message and there was tremendous heat on Madden to the point his future with the company was questionable, with Sullivan denying she's leaving ECW and Kevin Sullivan wanting to replace Madden on the hotline with himself and Paul Orndorff."
"Fans in the first few rows that were given Hogan merchandise to wave around (nobody actually buys Hogan merchandise at these shows, the stuff you see on TV is planted) at the end of the show were ripping up the bandannas and throwing them at Hogan. Luger was also cheered and the biggest pop of the night was when either Flair poked Hogan in the eyes or when Luger put Hogan in the torture rack."
"A long terrible post-match interview saw both Hogan and Sting on live television forget parts of the storyline each was involved in. Sting thought he punched Hogan last week when it was the other way around. Hogan talked about being suspended from WCW (which makes a lot of sense since he wrestled that night) when it was a probation."
"The show went about 9:00 long to get the advantage of having the extra quarter-hour at the end factored into the rating. It's a great trick and if they do it continually, Nitro should consistently beat Raw in the ratings."
"I couldn't figure why they are going so strong with Konnan but I'm pretty well convinced it was a way to get the AAA talent away from ECW."
"Public Enemy will be on the 1/23 Clash from Las Vegas against Nasty Boys. There is some problem over the name. Originally they were going to be the Mac Daddy's, but now WCW believes it can use the Public Enemy name by going through Def Jam, the record company that owns the rap group's name, although Paul Heyman claims he has rights to use the name in wrestling."
"The Bushwhackers are supposed to come in as Luke & Butch from Down Under (since Titan owns the Bushwhackers name). I have no idea why. If they meant anything, wouldn't Titan, which desperately needs anything, still use them?"
Dec 26, 95
"Debra Micelli, formerly Alundra Blayze, came onto Nitro with the WWF womens title belt and threw it in the garbage can. Calling herself Madusa, and saying she's always been Madusa, she showed the belt and put it in a garbage can saying that's what she thinks of the WWF and its womens title, calling the WWF by name."
"Micelli's WWF contract expired on 12/13 and it was well known within the WWF that she was negotiating with WCW and her contract wasn't renewed, so technically she was fired. J.J. Dillon sent a letter in mid-week to All Japan women, cancelling the Blayze vs. Aja Kong match that was scheduled for the Royal Rumble, saying that Blayze's contract was going to expire and not be renewed."
"WCW has reconsidered the original decision to tape Nitros bi-weekly starting the New Year. The belief at least from WCW is that Titan is on its last legs and they want to keep up the full court press so they'll be going live at least through April."
"Hogan was cheered big-time in Augusta, because before they went live he made a big deal about how he was born in Augusta (which is true) and he was a hometown boy."
"Mark Madden was actually fired for a few hours from the WCW Hotline this week by Eric Bischoff. It wasn't until late in the day when someone in the office actually listened to it and Bischoff freaked out when Madden pointed out that Hogan was booed in Charlotte and wanted him out. However, Nick Lambros, the company lawyer, said it wouldn't be a good idea legally since everything Madden says has to first be approved of by the company and he recorded it well ahead of time and nobody bothered to check it out until it was on the books for a day. He was also ordered to never talk about UFC again on the hotline."
"It appears the deal to bring the Bushwhackers in has fallen through as they were still under contract to Titan."