Issue # 117
Date:
Friday January 1st, 1999 10:21 pm
The Wrestling Booking
Sheet
MESSAGE FROM JIM ROSS
Reported by Micasa at:
http://www.wrestlemaniacs.com/
From Jim Ross:
"As many of you
are aware, that within a span of about 10 days, I
lost
my uncle and
then my mother ... my mother dying while we were in
England during
Capital Carnage, and then unfortunately I came down
with another
bout of the Bells Palsy, which has paralyzed a large
portion of the
right side of my face. So consequently my speech as
you
can tell is a
little bit slurred ... feeling a little bit better
...
certainly made
some significant lifestyle changes as far as diet
and
exercise are
concerned., and doing everything I can to get
healtheir.
I hope to be
back on Monday Night Raw by mid-January, hopefully
shooting for
the Royal Rumble, if not sooner, but this particular
affliction has
its own timetable, and we'll just keep our fingers
crossed. But I
did want to say that I really appreciate all of the
cards and
literally hundreds and hundreds of get well cards ..
. its
been absolutely
overwhelming. I don't know how many hundreds of
e-mails that we
have received on wwf.com, and I really and truly,
from
the bottom of
my heart appreciate all the sentiments from all the
fans
and their best
wishes.
I had a nice
conversation on Christmas Eve with Steve Austin, who
gave
me a call to
see how I was feeling, and certainly
Austin is injured at
this point, and
is out of commission. Steve has a muscle tear in his
lower abdomen.
He's doing some rehabilitation -- I don't think that
we'll see Steve
back in the ring before the Royal Rumble. I think
this
injury is going
to take some time to heal. It can be a very serious
injury,
inasmuch as it will just nag and linger and linger.
It needs
to be healed
for
Austin to get back at
100%. I don't think it will
happen before
the Royal Rumble, but again
Austin continues to
surprise
us all --- the
hottest box office attraction in the history of
wrestling.
Certainly, seemingly the most admired because
imitation
they say is the
most sincere form of flattery, so
Austin has certainly
been imitated
by a lot of other wrestlers.
Also, I had
over the weekend, an opportunity to chat with Shawn
Michaels. Shawn
Michaels also gave me a call to see how I was
feeling,
and I did
appreciate that very much. Shawn Michaels ... it
looks as if
will undergo
back surgery at then end of January to fuse the disc
in
his back, and
hopefully relieve the pressure that's causing all
the
pain in Shawn's
lower back. So the big news is that Shawn Michaels,
looks like
after attempting to let this thing heal on its own,
is
going to
undergo the knife and that will occur in the latter
part of
January.
its amazing
that I've gotten flowers from virtually, well, every
major wrestling
organization has sent ... or their emissaries ... a
lot of folks
I'm sure that won't want their names mentioned here
has
sent me flowers
and get well cards, and I do appreciate it very very
much.
Reported by Micasa at:
http://www.wrestlemaniacs.com/
CANDIDO & SYTCH
RESPOND
I just received
word from Chris Candido & Tammy Sytch that the "Open
Letter to Paul
Heyman" was not written by them, but was instead
written by
imposters. Their future plans have not been
determined,
and the
"letter" to Paul Heyman that was attributed to them
was false.
My thanks to
both Chris & Tammy for clearing up this situation;
their
response is
printed below:
From Chris
Candido & Tammy Sytch:
"Just read
report #116. Please report that the "open letter to
Paul
Heyman" from
us, reported by Dave Meltzer, was written by
imposters.The
letter is not part of our
storyline or
have anything to do with us. Please report this if
possible in
your next report.Thanks for sending us your reports
------CC&TLS
STAN LANE
RETURNS
Sal Cornette
(The Big Cheeze) has coaxed
Sweet Stan Lane (of
Midnight
Express fame)
out of retirement. To contact them for bookings or
appearances
contact Sal at
(704) 785-8855,
any calls referred to Lane will be rejected. Is it
just me, or was
the Midnight Express version of Lane, Eaton (w/Jim
Cornette)
possibly the best tag team ever? its good to see
Lane in
the ring again.
===========================================
"IF SABU WERE
PRESIDENT"
BY
SAMJERRY
VISIT my Home Page:
http://members.aol.com/~samjerry
1. The Capital
would be located on the steel frame work, on the top
floor of a new
110 story skyscraper. If none were under
construction,
it would be on
a tightrope over
Niagara Falls in the
winter, and over
Victoria Falls in the
summer. As a last resort, it
would be
located in beautiful downtown Dudleyville, where all
members
of the
Government would wear, "Grandpa Dudley Sucks"
T-shirts.
2. Sabu's
autobiography, "Evel Knevel, What A Wuss" or
"Jumping Off
The Eiffel
Tower For Fun And Profit" would be the Training
Manual for
ECW wrestlers
and the Certifiably Insane, and used at every
Orthopedic
Surgery Center
in the world.
3. Appointees:
Bill "Fonzie" Alfonso, Secretary of State; Rob Van
Dam,
Secretary of
Defense; Joey Styles, Press Secretary; Presidential
Bodyguard, New
Jack; and Al Acme, President Of The Acme Table And
Chair Company,
Chief of Procurement.
4. The top
Christmas toy would be The Barbi And Ken Do It
Yourself
Hydrogen Bomb
Kit. It would come complete with everything needed
to
assemble a 25
megaton bomb in the comfort of you own home. It
would be
available at
the ECW Arena, at Nuts "R" Us, on the Internet at
www.HomicidalWrestler, or by calling 1-800-TAZSUCKS.
5. If Saddam
got out of line, Sabu would challenge him to an
Anything
Goes, Bring
Your Own Weapon Of Mass Destruction, Two Men Enter,
Not
Much Chance
Either Would, Death Match.
6. The National
Symbol would be Sabu holding a ticking time bomb
with
less than
one-second left on the clock. Under his picture
would be the
words, "Plenty
Of Time."
7. The military
would be conscripted from the homeless and toothless
population of
Dudleyville. If they can't beat the enemy, they'll
have
them over for
dinner, well seasoned of course.
8. The National
Anthem would be replaced by chants of "ECW, ECW.."
9. The dollar
bill would have a picture of Sabu pointing to the
sky,
with the words,
"Homicidal, Suicidal, Genocidal" beneath his
picture,
on one side and
a picture of a Barb Wire Surrounded Ring On The
Back.
10. Taz would
be banished for life to WCW to job to Barry
Horrowitz
and every
member of the Armstrong family, and Shane Douglas
would be
stripped of his
ECW Title and forced to job to Sal E. Graziano and
Amish Road
Kill.
===========================================
1998-Don't Look
Back in Anger, Hell, Don't Even Look Back
Japan Board Article by Dr. Michael Lano (WReaLano)
Other than in
Japan where most years
provide memorable ring
moments;1998
was
pretty much a
bust everywhere; so say many proresu writers. The
upcoming Dome
card Jan 4th will still be decent, despite a less
than
stellar
line-up. Onita's antics alone lately have been a
blast and
he's gotten the
big press over there.Flushin' Roulette.
its reported in
Nihongo newspapers that 70's wrestling veteran
Thunder
Sugiyami's ex-wife alledgedly is being held without
bail for
"selling her
granddaughter to a prostitution ring in order to get
money to play
Pachenko." Ouch.
Current Black
Belt Magazine has wrestler Mimi Lesseos look-alike
Shannon Lee on
the cover (Bruce's daughter) and she's immersed
herself
in amongst
other things fight-Gracie Jiu Jitsu. Rickson
Gracie's No
Holds Barred is
another good regular column and his brother Royce
sports a
similarly shaved head at present. Lots of NHB stuff
in here
as well as the
current Karate and Kung Fu Illustrated newstand
magazine which
takes a look at karate experts who've participated
in
UFC.
The Gong for
12/31 had that great Onita and Hashimoto cover as
well as
a ton of
Sheik and Sabu
photos over there- Sabu had another wedding for
Mibu's
family and
friends there; and everyone looked great. Super
feature
plus other
shots of the whole family at various Japanese
locale.
On the Toy and
Gimmick Front, while I've not seen them in the U.S.,
Japanese
proresu fans
are buying up Talking Portraits-little picture
frames of
WCW
wrestlers that
talk nonstop for at least a minute when you push the
wrestler's
face. Series one has Hogan, Savage, Bret, Sting, DDP
and
Giant while
series 2 has Goldberg, Raven, Hall and Nash, Hennig
and
Lex. WWF had a
licensee do their own line over a year ago.
===========================================
FANTASY
BOOKING- THIS WON'T HAPPEN
Reader Mailbag
Submitted by reader:
TripleH99
BOOKING-Hulk
Hogan's return
1-4-99-Nitro-
Eric Bischoff
gets in the ring and states that later on in the
show
Bischoff will
bring out a special surprise returning star just
like he
promised. At
this point, Bischoff brings out Hollywood Hogan (its
around the
10:00 timespan) and
Hogan says he's gonna fight Ric Flair
tonight whether
he likes it or not because Hogan said so. The match
is
set to begin at
about
10:55 when Macho Man
jumps into the ring from
the crowd with
a chair. Hogan grabs the chair away from him and
Bischoff gets
into the ring and tells him to nail Savage with it.
Hogan's about
to hit him when he turns around and nails Bischoff
with
it. He throws
down the chair, tears off his"Hollywood"
outfit to
reveal the old
yellow and red colors and the show ends with the nWo
coming out and
then the 4 Horseman help out Savage and Hogan.
1-11-99-Nitro-
Hogan and
Savage come out with Flair and Arn Anderson and he
states
that they are
forming a new group in conjuction with the other
Horseman to rid
the WCW of the nWo and its called the ICONS (or some
other catchy
name) and Savage later on goes onto issue a
challenge to
Roddy Piper for
later on. Later on in the show Piper accepts. The
match begins in
the third hour and Piper beats him cleanly and Hogan
and the rest of
the ICONS jump in and say that because he beat a
fellow ICON in
Savage that if he wants he can be a part of the
ICONS.
Piper accepts
but just after this the nWo comes out and they all
start
brawling until
suddenly the Warrior comes out and helps the ICONS
as
the show ends.
1-18-99-Nitro-
The Warrior
calls out Hogan and demands a match with him later
on in
Nitro for a
shot in the ICONS. Hogan accepts saying that he'd
love to
have him in the
ICONS if he can beat him. The Warrior ends up
winning
the match but
when he askes if he is an ICON or not all of the
ICONS
jump him and
Hogan gets on the mic and says "You never have and
never
will be an
ICON. You're not the Ultimate Warrior but you're The
Ultimate Piece
of S**t" and they continue to gang up on him and
Hogan
once again gets
on the mic and says "From now on you're not welcome
in
WCW anymore
because Bischoff said so". The show ends.Not to drag
this
thing anymore
and make it too long but Bischoff joins the ICONS as
a
manager and
quits the nWo and with this the ICONS turn heel
along with
the Horseman
just like I feel it should be.
===========================================
THE FOLLOWING
LETTER CONTAINS INFORMATION ABOUT THIS COMING RAW.
SKIP
THIS LETTER IF
YOU WISH TO BE SURPRISED THIS MONDAY
Reader Mailbag
Submitted by reader:
KFITZPATI
I was surprised
to get the news from your newsletter and WWF.COM
that
Foley
won the title
from the Rock at the last RAW TV taping. But I
personally have
to give him a lot of credit for his rise to the top
of
the game. Most
of you out there are like me and remember him
starting
out as a jobber
in the WWF and as the early Cactus Jack (see
SuperClash III,
that '88 AWA pay-per-view for an early appearance
where he lost a
six man match with the RPM's to the Guerrero
brothers). I
even remember switching channels and not watching
WCW TV
in the early
90s when he was thrown into title bouts. But he
perfected his
craft in what seems to be the most influencial
federation in
the world, ECW, and I have never seen him put on a
bad
show since he
joined the WWF in 1996. Bottom line: his interviews
are
regularly
fabulous, his brawling is perhaps the best in the
business,
and the ability
to sell THREE characters like he has cannot be
denied.
And I feel this
has been very important for the WWF too....after all
if you go back
just to 1996, we have seen more injury problems
(Ahmed
Johnson, HBK's
back, Triple H's knees, now Austin's torn muscles)
and it
has taken a lot
of effort to keep the talent healthy enough to put
on
even an average
show. But Foley has been superb- the Hell in the
Cell
match at King
of the
Ring 1998 with
Undertaker proved that he will do whatever it takes
to
give the fans a
good show. And it seems to be only positive for the
WWF, too.
===========================================
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: Osiris
Columnist:
Tom Kirkbride
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
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We have no problem if you
want to use our
stuff; just credit it properly. Copyright- Steve Appy of The Wrestling Booking Sheet ©1998, 1999, 2000
" Before you choose
your wish .... You better think first....With
every wish
there comes a curse" - Bruce Springsteen
"When you're young and
you pick up a guitar, it feels so powerful. It feels
like you pulled
the sword from the stone. I used to believe that it
could save
the world. But I don't really believe that anymore."
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