Issue #
025
Date:
Wednesday October 7th, 1998 12:14 pm
Here are the ratings
from Monday's head to head battle. Raw took a
narrow victory,
which is ironic because for once, Nitro was actually
the better
show. Here they are:
October 5th,
1998
RAW
4.55 Composite
Rating
4.5 First Hour
4.6 Second Hour
Nitro
4.53 Composite
Rating
4.8 First Hour
4.3 Second Hour
4.5 Third Hour
[Credit for
ratings: 1Wrestling.com]
Lots of rumors
that Rocky Maivia has signed a two year contract
extension with
the WWF and supposedly his contract places him at
the
upper echelon
(Undertaker/Shawn Michaels level, just short of
Stone
Cold). I still
consider this a rumor until its confirmed by a
source
I trust.
Rick Rude had
his cancer removed Tuesday, and is reportably just a
cyst, according to
Gatts316.
He reports that Rude is doing
fine. I don't
know too much about this development yet, but
hopefully
the one thing
that it does signal is that a happy ending is just
around the
corner.
===========================================
Here's the
official press release regarding Vader, straight off
the
WWF web site.
VADER: IS IT
TIME TO MOVE ON?
By Lou
Gianfriddo
WWF.COM has
just received word that "the man they call Vader,"
the
450-pound
mastodon has asked for his release from the World
Wrestling
Federation.
Vader, who recently competed against Bradshaw at
Breakdown: In
Your House late last month, will remain active in
the
Federation
until the end of October, possibly November.
Many reasons
have been cited for Vader’s departure. Some fans
felt he
couldn’t
compete with the faster and able-bodied superstars
that are
currently
dominating Federation rings. Others feel it has to
do with
the big man’s
health. Whatever the reason, Vader has determined
that
he will no
longer compete in the World Wrestling Federation.
Vader was a
central force in the Federation since he stormed
into
battle in late
1995. He competed against some of the best athletes
in
the Federation,
and will forever be remembered, by fans and foes
alike, for his
potent Vader Bomb splash from the second turnbuckle.
In
his early
years, Vader was also a standout on the gridiron. He
was an
instrumental
player for the Los Angeles Rams defensive squad, and
once
he broke into
wrestling, was one of the most impressive athletes
ever
to compete in
Japan.
The vigorous
road schedule, which is expected from all Federation
superstars, may
have taken a toll on Vader. After all, competing on
a
nightly basis
against the premier superstars in the world is
enough to
wear down the
heartiest of men. Unfortunately, that may have been
the
case with
Vader. While he can knock heads with the best of
them in a
five to eight
minute fray, he couldn’t – because of a lack of
stamina
and
conditioning – compete in that manner for any
extended period.
Still, he is a
tough man and will always be capable of bashing
someone’s
brains into the canvas whenever the situation calls
for it.
In any event,
Vader believes, as do Federation officials, that it
is
in his best
interests to move onward. Whether or not he competes
again
is a question
of debate. However, all of us at WWF.COM and at
TitanSports
Inc., wish Vader the best of luck in any endeavor he
chooses. Check
back for more on Vader here on WWF.COM in the
upcoming
weeks.
===========================================
Here's Diamond
Dallas Page's most recent message to his fan club:
STATE OF
THE UNION ADDRESS
from Diamond
Dallas Page
10 / 6 / 98
Title: Coast to
Coast
Yo Cutters,
what's up?
We'll start off
in
New York City where
Nash, Luger, Sting, Goldberg,
and
Hollywood "Scum" Hogan
and I walked the floor of the New York
Stock Exchange.
Flew up there early Wednesday night for the
festivities on
Thursday. The brokers went pretty crazy. You could
tell
a lot of them
watch what we're doing. There were cameras from all
the
major news
stations as we walked across the floor signing
autographs.
We pretty much
disrupted the entire New York Stock Exchange during
business hours.
From there, we
went to sign autographs. It was arranged to kick off
our new line of
credit cards. Each one has a picture of each of us
on
our own along
with a Nitro Girls, WCW, nWo white and black and nWo
red
and black
versions. So if you want your Diamond Cutter credit
card,
call
1-800-WCW-CARD. Who ever thought that a group of
professional
wrestlers would
make it onto the floor of Wall Street?
Left for
Atlanta at seven
o'clock that night, which got delayed until
nine. Got home
just after twelve, unpacked, repacked, and the next
morning Kim and
I headed to
L.A. for Jason and
Shannon Hervey's
wedding. You
will probably remember Jason as the older brother on
the
Wonder Years
and his appearances at many WCW events. Friday, we
went
to Gold's Gym
where I saw my buddy, Rich Mincer, got a workout and
headed back to
our favorite hotel in
Hollywood. Rich also
showed us
some on the new
Gold's Gym clothing and stuff. It was something
else,
and I just had
to get some to take home with me.
The next day, I
hopped on my Harley and took a ride up the
Pacific
Coast highway with
Jason's partner and good buddy, David Salzberg.
Riding up that
coast is beautiful. One thing I forgot to do was get
my
tuxedo, but to
hear that story, you have to be a member of the
Union
Of The Diamond
Cutters, where you get the special email. Very funny
story. (*
RichInKC reminder - If you are not part of the UDC
email
list, sign up at:
http://www.thediamondmine.com
*) We went to the
wedding that
night, and it was beautiful. A lot of
Hollywood people,
and everybody
was pretty much
a real person, which sort of surprised me. I think
it comes down
to "real people
hang with real people."
The next
morning, Sunday, Kim and I went to breakfast at our
favorite
breakfast
restaurant on the planet, Hugos in
Hollywood where I met
Denzel
Washington. If you want to hear what we talked
about, once
again_you gotta
be a member. Got home Sunday night around
nine
o'clock,
unpacked-repacked, and left Monday forColumbia,
South
Carolina.
This week, along with Columbia, I hope to be at
Huntsville,
Alabama and
Indianapolis, Indiana for Thunder. Friday, I'm at
the
JCPenney in
Forsythe, Illinois for
autographs. I say "hope to be",
because I have
what I thought was a staph infection in my arm which
spread to my
other arm, and then to my back. Turns out it wasn't
an infection, it was poison ivy. I love the
outdoors, but it
has been awhile
since I went out into nature, so I don't know how I
got it. The
poison ivy is why my arms were so heavily taped on
Nitro
tonight.
Maybe we will see
Raven, Kanyon, and Lodi scratching like
Kidman used to
pretty soon.
As usual, its been
your pleasure-
The Master Of
The Diamond Cutter
Diamond Dallas
Page
ATTENTION ATLANTA AREA
DANCERS
So, have you
ever thought you could be a Nitro Girl? Do you have
a
dance
background? If so, send a professional head shot and
resume to us at:
Front Page
Performances, Web
P.O. Box 813236
Smyrna, Georgia
30081
This is a full
time salaried position and you must be able to
travel.
Look forward to
hearing from you. - Kimberly
===========================================
Reader Mailbag
Submitted by reader:
Roberag
Subject:Is
Stone Cold frightened of the English?
Glad to see
you're back online!
Thanks for the
updates on Raw & Heat (we do not get heat in the
UK at
present).
I must say (I
hope you agree) that Raw has been really poor since
Summerslam.
With the
exception of the odd good bout the direction of Raw
has been
weak. Does this mean that the emphasis has been
switched to Heat (and
in that vein
allowing Shane to take over the running of the WWF -
think about
it)?
I really wish
that Stone Cold was either WWF Champ or challenger
at
Capital
Carnage. Neither seems likely owing to the current
direction
Vince is taking
Stone Cold (the next time I could see him with gold
is
Tag Team with
Billy Gunn). I think this is a shame as once again
us
British
Wrestling fans will miss out on seeing The
Rattlesnake. He
has not yet
ventured to the UK (as far as I can remember), why
is
this????
One final
thought - who will be the first woman to get her
t*ts out or
go fully nude
on a PPV and when? This also seems to be something
brewing with
Chyna also getting in on the act of the female fans,
Sable,
Jacqueline & Luna (not forgetting Terri is now
back). I won't
dwell on this
though as I have mentioned it several times before.
===========================================
Reader Mailbag
Submitted by reader:
Fyrcraker9
A possible idea
for HBK's return
HBK comes out
on Raw to do commentary. Throughout the broadcast
Ross
and
Lawler make
references to the fact that he "was" one the greats.
Shawn brushes
these remarks off. Later in the card Val Venis comes
out for a
match. Val stops at ringside and tells HBK that he
was his
favorite
wrestler and that next week he would have a surprise
for
Shawn. Lawler
says something about how the female fans seem to
like
Venis in the
same way they used to cheer for Shawn. Shawn gets
angry
and tells
Lawler that if he says one more thing like that he
will
"kick his teeth
down his throat".
Next week on
Raw Ross says that Val is about to unveil his
tribute to
HBK. Val comes
out to Shawn Michaels "boy toy" music with something
in his hand.
The thing in Val's hand is HBK's Playgirl issue,
which
he holds up to
the camera. Val says "Right now I'm the sexiest guy
in
the WWF. But I
have to pay tribute to the
guy who blazed
the trail. Shawn this is dedicated to you."
Val shows
one of his
"porno" movies
starring two girls, one of whom he apparently has
neglected. Val
grins for the camera and says "now that’s why I'm
the new
Heartbreak Kid" (for added effect maybe the scorned
woman could
be Shawn's old
manager Sherri Martel or maybe even Chyna). Val
could say
she wasn't good enough for him (not
many wrestling
fans seem to find Sherri all that attractive,
though).
This is too much for
HBK to take, who runs in the ring and beats on
Val. Val takes
the beating but eventually rolls out of the ring and
escapes. HBK
grabs the mic and says he thought Val's movie was
good
but
"underexposed", then he says "second of all, I want
to do a little
survey, ladies,
Will it be Val? Or good ole HBK?". Naturally the
crowd
goes nuts for
Shawn.
Shawn then
tells Val that next week he won't be on Raw to talk,
he
will be on Raw
to fight - if Val thinks he could "measure up" to
HBK
and the
millions of clique followers.
This angle
would give Shawn, a low impact feud to bring him
back and
propel Val to
at least I-C status.
===========================================
Reader Mailbag
Submitted by reader:
SINISTER13
Isn't it funny
that for Nitro to put on a good show they had to
steal
two angles that
the WWF did before them? First of all, besides the
obvious fact
that even though Hall may be an actual drunk the
fans see
it as a ripoff
of the Hawk thing. Nash then shoves Hall's face in
a toilet
and flushes it. I seem to remember Steve Austin
doing the same thing
to Brian
Pillman at a WWF PPV about a year and a half ago,
except we
actually saw Pillman's head go into the toilet. And
what about the car
angle? At
least WCW should have taken something that was used
before the
time span of a month. How can you say the Sting/Hart
brawl was
good? The table break was horrendous and Bret was
using a padded
chair to try to
“do damage” to Sting.
===========================================
Reader Mailbag
Submitted by reader:
Cwbaka
I would love
for the old HBK Undertaker feud to start up again
when
HBK comes
back. I haven't
really seen anything for the WWF to pursue a feud
between HBK
and Triple H
since they never really had one. But that casket
match with the
Undertaker was
awesome, those two perform well together. I like HBK
and think he
is one of the
best wrestlers in wrestling today and would kind of
like to
see him kick the c**p out of the Undertaker just
because the UT
beats on
virtually everyone except SCSA, especially when it
comes to
cage matches and other odd things like inferno
matches. Those seem to
be the UT
things and I want to see someone beat him there. I
am sick of
seeing Mankind get the living hell beat out of him,
although it can
provide some
great entertainment.
Thanks for reading (Cwbaka)
===========================================
Reader Mailbag
Submitted by reader:
Hammerly99
Here's my take
on the whole LWO/Rey Mysterio Jr. thing (yes they do
have a
connection):
Over the next month or so, Eddie Guerreroslowly but
surely builds
up his stable with additions such as Psychosis and
possibly Juvy.
Eddie 's next angle comes when Chavo campaigns to
join
the LWO and
make up with his uncle. Eventually Eddie agrees.
Finally
Konnan joins
the LWO (arriba la raza). As a replacement for
Konnan,
the Wolfpac
recruits and gets Rey as its newest member. I think
this
would be
interesting twist on the same old plot, especially
the
Eddie /Chavo bit.
===========================================
Reader Mailbag
Submitted by reader:
ABRUINS
New Flock
Member?
Hey, the next
Flock member will be Rick Fuller. He signed a $1,000
a
match contract
with WCW and moved from Fall River Mass., to
Georgia.
===========================================
Reader Mailbag
Submitted by reader: Ryan S.
Oaks (warriorism@xxxxpuno.com)
Lethal
Injection
by: Ryan Oaks
DrHardcore@xxxxpuno.com
Hey, I just
want to get some things off of my chest about WCW.
In my
opinion they
are destroying the image of wrestling. First, the
NWO
was kind of
exciting at first but when you do the same crap week
after
week for over 2
years it is bound to get old. If you really think
about it, it
really only took a few weeks to get old. Now they
have
killed it.
So they decided to
bring Warrior in. I thought this was
the best thing
they could do, until they made him Batman. Give me a
break, are you
trying to tell me that Eric Bischoff couldn’t see
the
Warrior but the rest of the world could? What is
this, some kind of
super hero
cartoon? I have a lot of respect for the Warrior
and this
man is getting the worst end of the deal in WCW.
Sure, he has a big
contract, but I
wouldn’t play Batman for all the money Uncle TEddie had
to offer. They
will of course job the Warrior into not resigning
and
hopefully
Warrior will go back to WWF and make his career what
it was
before they
decided to make him Batman.
On another
subject, there are those women that come out on
Nitro and
dance to keep
the attention of the crowd during there 10 minute
commentary
segments. Would someone please tell me when
wrestling
decided that
cheerleaders belonged in the sport? Wrestling
doesn't
need
cheerleaders if it is good wrestling. Which tells
you right
there that WCW
stands for we can't wrestle. That being of course
because WCW
won't let the guys work to their full capability.
Don’t
get me wrong,
WCW has a
lot of talent, but they just don't use it. Anyway,
having these
women come
out each week
is a huge disgrace to wrestling and it is insulting
to me that
they think that their lack of ability will be
covered up by
dragging the
fans attention to the Nitro Girls.
Yes, I think that they
are very
attractive, but the main point is that they have no
place in
wrestling. I could understand it if they were there
and they managed
or had some
kind of angle like Sable does but they don't, and
therefore they
don't belong in wrestling.
Now onto the
third and final subject of today’s column, Goldberg.
This
man walks into
WCW and for no reason that I can find they make him
an
overnight
superstar and then WCW World Champ. This tells me
that WCW
doesn’t care
about wrestling or WCW’s real talented superstars.
Goldberg is in
WCW for a short time and they make him the champion
after less
than a year. On the other hand you have Chris
Benoit, who has
been in WCW for
a few years now and he hasn't even gotten a smaller
rank title, and
I would be willing to bet that in a real wrestling
match, Chris
Benoit would
give Goldberg a concussion. Main point is that
Goldberg
sucks and I think WCW is the worst promotion in the
world because they
can't book for
s**t!
I am of course
expecting hate mail from all of you people that
think
that the nWo is
cool, or those of you that think The Nitro Girls
make wrestling
even better,
and then those of you that actually like Goldberg.
That’s fine, I welcome all of your comments and send
them any time.
You will not offend me, I have heard it all.
Also I would
like to say that anyone that wrote about
the Joe
Wrestling Fan column, pay more attention. I just
want him to
know that I
understood his column just the way it was meant to
be taken,
and for those of you that still don’t get it, its a
joke!
Thank you,
Ryan S. Oaks
===========================================
Check out a
terrific new wrestling website Mickey Knox put
together at:
http://members.aol.com/KnoxMickey/main.html
===========================================
The staff of The Wrestling Booking Sheet
Editor: Steve Appy
Columnist:
Mark George
Columnist: SamJerry
Columnist: Fritz Capp
Columnist: Rick Phelps
Columnist: Cindy Barnes
Columnist: Josh Hewitt
Columnist: Swami
Columnist: Tom Misnik
Columnist: Nate Pelley
Columnist: Robert Troy (Osiris)
Columnist:
Tom Kirkbride
Columnist:
Ryan S. Oaks
Columnist:
Darren Kramer
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