Issue # 053

Date:  Monday November 2nd, 1998  11:20 pm

WCW Nitro Report for November 2nd, 1998
By Steve Appy
Alex Wright pinned Norman Smiley
Decent work, but the announcers focused far more on World War 3 than
on the match. Wright's victory was one more step towards his silly
goal of becoming WCW's top European wrestler.

Disco Inferno pinned Kaz Hayashi
Hayashi really does have alot of potential. Hayashi hit Disco with a
moonsault for a near fall. Based on Sonny Onno's "victory" over
Hayashi Saturday night, Onno is calling himself the top Japanese
wrestler in WCW. Partially due to Onno's distraction, Disco was able
to score the pin after a Piledriver. This will do wonders for Kaz's
image; he's feuding with Sonny Onno over a meaningless title.

Gene Okerlund interviewed a returning Booker T. Booker T claimed to
be neutral towards his brother, deciding to let him live his own
life. Booker then challenged Scott Hall to a match later in the
evening, informing us that Hall was the villain who attacked his knee
several months ago. Do I smell Stevie Ray attacking Booker T later in
the evening? It is nice to see Booker T back, though.

Fit Finlay pinned Scott Putski
Putski wore his usual outfit, the old Pirate/Madonna look. Finlay
controlled virtually all the offense, and scored the pin after The
Tombstone Piledriver. Finaly is really being sold as a tough guy.

Raven began whining backstage, until Kanyon confronted him and called
him a crybaby. It really does look like Raven will be turning babyface.

A video aired of the Jericho/Goldberg non-feud. Although I heard
Goldberg vetoed this idea, it now appears to be back on.

Ernest Miller (w/Sonny Onno) pinned Scott Armstrong
Miller did his usual lame act and his challenge was accepted by
Armstrong. Although Scott went on the immediate attack, Miller
quickly destroyed Scott with a Roundhouse Kick. Steve Armstrong ran
in to make the save and he was quickly destroyed by Miller as well.
Miller bragged about destroying the entire Armstrong family; a false
boast, since Dusty Rhodes did that long ago.

Wrath pinned Kendall Windham
Wrath quickly squashed Windham with The Meltdown. Not pretty, but
short.

Gene Okerlund interviewed Bret Hart, who begged out of his scheduled
match with Lex Luger due to a groan pull. Hart is really getting into
The Hitman persona, taking pleasure in injuring his opponents. Lex
Luger confronted Hart and ended up kicking his ass (nailing Mean Gene
in the process). Hart really is a great heel.

Clips were shown of the Ric Flair/Hulk Hogan cage match from Halloween Havoc 1994 (Flair's "retirement" match). Of course, all the clips
were of Hogan on offense.  Hulk Hogan appears to be prominent in this feud now; will Hogan finally job clean to Flair?

The Four Horseman were interviewed after the clips were shown (Mongo
was there this week). Arn Anderson was the main speaker; amazingly
enough, Arn claimed that Bischoff was dishonoring Hogan as well, since
Hogan actually was a good wrestler at that point (yeah, right). As
usual, Arn delivered a strong, credible interview. Ric Flair took the
mic. As much as I usually enjoy Ric's interviews, this one paled in
comparison to Arn's.

IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Scott Norton (w/Vincent) pinned Van
Hammer
Bad, but at least short. Norton can be effective when with a good
worker, which Hammer certainly is not. Norton won after a Powerbomb.

Saturn challenged Eddie Guerreroto a brawl and Eddie obliged. It was
actually really good, but then of course the LwO all attacked as one.
Konnan made the save claimed that Eddie was using the LwO just
like Raven used The Flock. Pretty interesting. The LwO looked torn,
like they didn't want to feud with Konnan. Seattle Mariners shortstop Alex Rodriguez celebrated with K-Dawg.

Scott Steiner was scheduled to face Kenny Kaos, but Steiner went crazy
and threatened JJ Dillon and the announcers. Scott was swearing,
which was sometimes audible over the bleeps. The match never
happened due to Scott's tantrum. Scott came off as more crazy than
scary.

Psychosis pinned Rey Mysterio
These two work together as well as anyone. The announcers paid no
attention to the bout, a feeling that the fans echoed. Psychosis hit a
Frankensteiner off the top rope. After the LwO distracted Rey, Psychosis scored the victory. While I never like to see Mysterio lose, it was nice to see Psychosis get a victory.

Gene Okerlund interviewed WCW Television Champion Chris Jericho.
Jericho may be the funniest man in the sport. He claimed to respect
Goldberg and then mocked him for all it was worth. Jericho is a
future franchise player.

Dean Malenko defeated Raven via disqualification
Raven sulked in the corner before the match. Lodi came to ringside
but he was run to the back by Mongo. Raven applied the drop toe hold
to Malenko, sending Dean crashing face first into the steel chair.
Decent brawl. Kanyon tried to interfere but Chris Benoit repulsed
him. From behind, Bret Hart jumped Benoit, and locked him into an
armbar. Lex Luger made the save, making a mockery of Hart's alleged
injury.

WCW Television Champion Chris Jericho fought WCW Cruiserweight
Champion Kidman to a time limit draw
Jericho's TV Title was the belt at stake. Kidman is the 1998 MVP of
Nitro. Kidman was given more credibility by becoming such a viable
challenger to Jericho. Kidman hit The Shooting Star Press but took
alot of the blow himself and was too injured to go for the victory.
Kidman hit Jericho with a flying bodypress just as the time limit
expired. Great match; these two work very well together. I'm not
sure which of the two is a better worker, there both that good.

JJ Dillon announced that Buff Bagwell was fined $50,000, and Scott
Steiner $100,000 for their attack on Dillon last week. Steiner stormed out and tore up the announcers desk. He REALLY looked crazy. Buff did his sincere act and asked Kenny Kaos to join him in the ring. Buff lured Kaos into the ring and Scott beat the hell out of him. Scott locked Kaos in the Steiner Recliner and left him laid out. I can't believe Bischoff cleared all the cursing Scott did.

Booker T defeated Scott Hall via disqualification
Hall acted sober this time. Both men are very solid, if unspectacular
workers. Solid brawl, if somewhat slow. Hall was DQ'ed for hitting
the referee. Not doing the job to Hall gives Booker T credibility; a
good comeback match for Booker T.

Lex Luger defeated The Giant via disqualification
A horrible, slow moving affair. Luger has always been awful and The
Giant just keeps getting fatter.  While WCW usually has a great showdown for the main event this match is a ratings killer. Bret Hart caused the DQ by attacking Luger with the safety railing; really, he put us all out of our misery. Goldberg made the save and accidentally speared Luger. Will we see a Goldberg vs. Luger match?  Goldberg seems to have a big problem with "accidentally" spearing his allies.
===========================================
We published a hysterical sketch about The Rock several issues back,
and the person who sent it in neglected to credit the REAL author.
Please, if you send in anything not of your own creation, just credit
the source. Do not take credit for someone else's creation; besides
being plagiarism, its also bad manners. Dante Beck was the author of
that very funny sketch, and the rest of his writings can be found at:
http://members.aol.com/dantebk/divine.html
There's some interesting stuff at the site, so I suggest you check it
out.
===========================================
*KRAMER'S WRESTLING TRIVIA CHALLENGE*
I WILL SEND A GREAT WRESTLING DOWNLOAD TO ALL CORRECT ENTRIES SENT TO
ME VIA EMAIL. WINNERS will be posted in next issue. Thanks and GOOD
LUCK!
LAST ISSUE's Trivia: Junkyard Dog Trivia!!!!!
1. Who did JYD lose to at SummerSlam 88?
2. What 2 men eliminated JYD from the WrestleMania 4 Battle Royal?
3. Who defeated JYD at WrestleMania 3?
4. Who did JYD beat at WrestleMania 1?
5. Name JYD's song on THE WRESTLING ALBUM in 1985?
ANSWERS: 1. Rick Rude, 2. Bret Hart & Bad News Brown, 3. Harley Race,
4. Greg Valentine (by countout), 5. "Grab Them Cakes"

 

LAST ISSUE'S WINNERS: flair_dog@xxx.com, pxpres@xxxxpdt.net,LoneWol135, DRSmithers, rawiswar@xxxxcorldnet.att.net, MArticolo,Vgmastr, PG13fan, Rob978, Plautus2, Vdog66, SaxMan73, OddJob436, AWalkBoCe

 

THIS ISSUE'S FOCUS: PAINTED FACE Trivia!!!!!
1. Who did The Powers of Pain defeat at SummerSlam 1988?
2. Who did Sting team with to win the Jim Crockett Memorial Cup tourney?
3. Who was The Road Warriors partner as NWA 6-man tag champs?
4. Who did the Ultimate Warrior wrestle at WrestleMania 4?
5. Who managed the Missing Link in the WWF?
SEND ALL ANSWERS TO DKramer213 GOOD LUCK!!!!!!
===========================================
Reader Mailbag
Submitted by reader: Fyrcraker9
There has been a lot of healthy debate in this newsletter over the old
WcW vs. WWF question. Although a few months ago I thought Nitro beat
the hell out of Raw, I now enjoy the WWF shows far more. I find that
WCW wastes most of their talent, I tune into see Nash vs. Hogan, Hall
vs. Sting, Hart vs. Flair, Giant vs. Hennig, I'd even settle for Raven vs. Jericho, or Benoit vs. Saturn.

Instead when I tune in to Nitro or worse yet a pay per view, I see Lodi, Norman Smiley, Ernest Miller, Fit Finley and Rick Steiner. For Rick Steiner to appear at Halloween Havoc twice with WcW's stacked roster is unbelievable, as he is not main event material and the fans don't really care much about him. There are several talented and popular WCW wrestlers who did not even appear at the even that could have been put to good use.

Second, I find that many WcW angles do not make sense. Take for
example the Giant interfering in Jericho's matches, we never found out why this was happening.

 

I also hated seeing Karl Malone, and Kevin Greene wrestle although
those two are at least athletes. Jay Leno's wrestling career was part of what makes wrestling look like a joke to non-fans. Finally, I can't
understand why Goldberg is champion and why Bret Hart (doing the best
wrestling of his career-putting him out of everyone's league) jobbed
to DDP. I like to watch the WWF even though I think it some of it
does not belong on television (Vince's enema and the Godfather come to
mind).

Every week I see the top stars performing in storylines that make
sense, not long poorly thought out interviews from some of the sports
former greats. I feel that although WcW used to be the fed that gave us good wrestling action, while the WWF scrambled to fill the void left by whomever Bischoff signed. The WWF is definitely a superior program today with both better (more top caliber) wrestling and better angles.  While WcW provides a good product, it fails to deliver the entertainment value that the WWF shows do. This could change in the
future, I say we start a "fire Bischoff" movement, to rid wrestling of the man who buried the AWA and the careers of many fine wrestlers.

 

Yours Truly,
Ed (not a teenager, boring and middle class fan of HBK and Bret Hart)
===========================================
Reader Mailbag
Submitted by reader: Josh E. Dangerously (Josh2Face)
As a writer for various online newsletters and a major wrestling
mogul, if I do say so myself. I have some news on the Triple Threat
deal. First of all, some people say that Sabu may jump ship, but I
look for that to be highly unlikely. Candido/ Douglas/ Sabu?? It
doesn't even sound right. Others say that Taz will join; if this is
true, it'd be a huge turn because when you think of it, this is
definitely not the "Taz thing to do". My personal opinion lies with
Lance Storm going into the mix, and filling in the third spot.

Keep in mind that Tommy Dreamer NEEDS a mystery partner. If Terry Funk
doesn't show up, could we see somebody like Candido being his partner,
thus putting Dreamer in a brand new role as a Triple Threat Member??
Hmm, Bigelow's departure has set up big talk in the ECW. But now that they've lost one of their key athletes, ECW may be sinking.

Look at it this way, many TV stations have cut them off recently,
Bigelow is gone, The Sandman is gone, WWF has lost interest in
collaboration, sponsors are pulling back, and even worse, for all the
wrestling fans that like the hardcore and extreme style of wrestling
that ECW brought us for many years...well....every Monday night,
Mankind flies off of cages and Al Snow does moonsaults with
chairs.  The WWF has taken the "ECW gimmick" and brought it into
mainstream USA.  ECW has seen better days........
===========================================
FANTASY BOOKING- THIS WON'T REALLY HAPPEN
Reader Mailbag
Submitted by reader: Clint Blankenship (dxheartbreakkid4@xxx.com)
WWF GETS EXTREME
Raw after Survivor Series- Terry Funk returns at the beginning of the
show. He tells the fans that there are many factions in the world of
wrestling, but not nearly as many are as devastating as the one he is
about to unleash on the WWF. He warns all groups to be forewarned of a
new power to rise.

Later that night it is Mankind/Al Snow vs. The Headbangers. Terry comes
down and jumps Mick and Al with a chair, leaving them laid out in the
ring. He grabs the mike and yells "We're coming!"

Heat- Terry comes out and tells the people to watch Raw as the first
member of his ALLIANCE is revealed.

Raw- Scorpio is wrestling Farooq in an actually good match. Suddenly,
Terry comes from the crowd and distracts both men. They are standing
in the ring yelling at Terry on the floor. Suddenly, from the crowd,
Justin Credible runs in the ring with the Singapore cane and takes
them out. Then Terry comes in and uses the chair on both of them.

Heat-They interview Justin and Terry, and then Scorpio comes out and
challenges Justin to a match the next night on Raw.

Raw-Justin and Scorpio wrestle in the main event of the first hour.
Terry and Farrooq are in the corners. Suddenly, Chris Candido and
Sunny run to ringside and take out Farrooq. They all enter the ring
and beat down Scorpio. They all stand in the ring with Funk. Funk
grabs the mic and says " This is only the tip of the iceberg." He
challenges the tag champions The New Age Outlaws to a match next week
for the titles against their mystery team.

Heat-Credible is interviewed with Joel Gertner.

Raw-As the NAO stand in the ring, Terry introduces their newest
members, the Dudley Boys! In a classic match, all of DX and Funks
group gets involved. They call themselves the Threat. NAO drop the
belts via the 3D on Billy and breaks his neck. A dark man is seen in
the rafters as the show goes off the air.

December PPV- A four man match takes place. Triple H, HBK, X-Pac and Road
Dog face off against Candido, Credible, and the Dudleys. Funk
accompanies them to ringside. The match is classic, an all out war all
over the arena. Suddenly a masked man attacks HBK in the back. Him
and Candido attacks HBK and leaves him helpless there while Candido
gets the pin. As they come back, the entire group turns on Terry and
beats him down in the middle of the ring. Again the man is seen in
the rafters, this time with a companion.

Raw- Lance Strom is introduced as a new member with his lady, Tammy
Lynn Bytch. Candido grabs the mike and says they have a new leader for
the Threat. He challenges HBK to face the new leader later that night
on Raw. DX comes out and accepts the challenge. HBK waits in the
ring, and the Threat's music begins to play and SHANE DOUGLAS WALKS
OUT. It is a see saw battle until X-Pac comes out to help, then
Credible, then both factions are out. As they battle it out, Funk is
seen in the rafters with the two men.

Heat- The Dudleys face X-Pac and the newest member of DX, Rob Van Dam.
This time Funk is seen with two men in the front row, they are adorned with Blue hoods. Van Dam and X-Pac have the match won until Candido and Douglas come out to cause the DQ. They notice Funk and go to taunt him, the two men sit up, and nail them with their chairs! They throw off the hoods and its the bWo, Blue Meanie and SuperNova!  They run off into the stands with Funk.

Raw- Funk and the bWo are interviewed. Funk says there is more to
come. The bWo challenge the Dudley's to a match that night on Raw.
During the match, Candido comes out and Funk takes care of him. As
Douglas comes out, a fan jumps over the guard rail with a luchador
mask on. He pulls Douglas around and NAILS him with a superkick. He
takes off the mask to reveal STEVIE RICHARDS!!!! Right after this
they nail D-Von with the Blue Light Special and win the belts.

Raw- The Threat comes out and say there is an APB out on Justin, he's
been missing for a few days. Then Douglas calls Funk out. He challenges Funk to a match next week, Funk accepts, but says make it a tag match. Him and Candido versus him and a mystery partner.

Heat- Candido and Storm wrestle the bWo. The bWo wins with the Blue
Light Special. Then DX comes out and beat both teams. They grab the
mic and say they have another new member and he'll be introduced the
next night on RAW!

RAW- DX comes out and introduces their newest member as none other
than JUSTIN CREDIBLE!!!! This infuriates The Threat in the back.
They walk to the ring and bad mouth DX, and suddenly Funk runs to the
ring and attacks Douglas and Candido. They beat him down. As he lays
helpless in the ring, TOMMY DREAMER runs out and lays out Candido and
Douglas with a chair. He helps Terry up and the rest of their group
comes out and stands in the ring. Terry grabs the mic and says watch
RAW to see one more member.

RAW- The whole Funk group is in the ring. He says, he must be passing
on, his time is over. He asks the fans to always remember him, and
to accept his replacement and to know the leader of the wrestlers
themselves is Tommy. He tells Tommy to follow in his footsteps. He
asks to turn off the lights. As the lights come back on, he is no
longer in the ring, but PAUL E. DANGEROUSLY is! He says this is the
future of the WWF. This is the EXTREME ALLIANCE!!!! He asks Shane to
face Tommy tomorrow night on Raw.

Raw- The match is classic. Tommy comes into his own and controls most
of the match. As he prepares Shane for the DDT, a hooded man runs
down to ringside and does a belly-to-back suplex on him. He takes
off the hood to reveal TAZ!!!! They beat him down until the EA save
him. Paul E. challenges TAZ to face his next member that Sunday, if
he's man enough. Taz accepts.

Royal Rumble- TAZ stands in the ring. Paul E. comes out and again
asks to dim the lights. As they reappear SABU stands in the ring and
takes TAZ out with an Air Sabu. A classic match with Sabu winning,
as the Extreme Alliance's legacy just begins.
===========================================
To subscribe to a cool joke list, send a blank email to:
jokeaday-subscribe@xxxxpakelist.com

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

Any submissions sent in by readers or columnists become the property
of The Wrestling Booking Sheet, and are subject to editing due to
grammar, spelling, or content. Any information taken from The
Wrestling Booking Sheet must be credited properly, with our E-Mail
address listed.