Issue # 170
Date:
Saturday February 20th, 1999 10:36 am
The Wrestling Booking
Sheet
GOLDBERG CHALLENGES AUSTIN
On the 2/19 edition of
the Tonight Show, Goldberg issued a challenge to WWF
superstar Stone Cold
Steve Austin. Angry that
Austin has called him a
rip-off,
he offered $100,000 if
Austin would wrestle him. No
forum was mentioned, though
Goldberg offered to
meet
Austin in an alley.
Obviously, this bout
will not happen. While Goldberg presented himself very
well in the interview,
I was disappointed to see the subject raised. While both
the WWF & WCW are
shameless when it comes to cheap shots, its always that much
sadder to see the
wrestlers jump into the fray.
At the same time,
Goldberg was not actually insulting; it will be interesting
to
see if the WWF will
mention the challenge in their live voice-overs Monday
night...
HBK BEHIND THE SCENES
Shawn Michaels was on
hand at the debut of the Texas Wrestling Alliance.
Formerly known as
Professional Wrestling International, the Boy Toy now owns
the
organization and names
Jose Lothario as its commissioner. A tournament will be
held on March 19th to
crown their first champion, and fans can expect a healthy
dose of WWF talent to
appear on their cards. (Our thanks to
San Antonio's own
Sergio Barrera!)
(Reported by Al Isaccs
at:
http://www.scoopscentral.com )
SUPERBRAWL FINISH
There are some serious
rumblings going on about the finish for the Hogan v.
Flair match this
Sunday at Superbrawl. Apparently there is a dispute over how
the end of the match
should be handled. You know, with the drubbing that Flair
took on Monday, it
follows that he should win the title on Sunday, but I heard
that Bischoff does not
want a title change, and Hogan does not want to do the
job, even though Flair
would be willing drop the title to Hogan in Flair country
at the Dean Dome
Nitro. But this is WCW, where most of the time, logic has no
place. Anyway, as it
stands right now, the proposed finish is for David Flair to
cost his father the
title. Reports are that David Flair is actually the camera
that the crazy woman
is talking to, and they are both heading to Superbrawl so
David can use the
tazer on his father costing Ric the match. (Reported by
Micasa at:
http://www.wrestlemaniacs.com/ )
NEW JAPAN ABANDONS
TOKYO EGG DOME
In what is being
considered a very drastic financial move, Seiji Sakaguchi,
President of New
Japan, announced that they may no longer work at the
Tokyo Dome
and instead sign a
lucrative, long-term deal to run shows at the newly
constructed Sapporo
Dome, which will seat 52,300 and be opened in the year 2001.
Sakaguchi told
reporters that the company is hurting very badly for
finances
and that more measures
will occur in the front office. Sakaguchi says that they
don't have a lot of
interest to run at the Tokyo Dome anymore and that the
Sapporo Dome is
something they want to call, "The Northern New Sacred
Place."
Sapporo Nakajima Sports
Center, which is a very loved-place by many Japanese
fans, will be
demolished this Autumn. (Reported by Zach Arnold at:
http://www.1wrestling.com )
ALL JAPAN TOKYO DOME
All
Japan is hoping to have a
ceremony for Giant Baba at the 5/2 Tokyo Dome
Show. The plan is to
include many of his legendary opponents, including The
Destroyer, Dory &
Terry Funk, Bruno Sammartino, The Crusher and Gene Kiniski.
At this point, The
Destroyer is the only one who has been contacted thus far.
(Reported by Dave
Meltzer of The Wrestling Observer)
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JUMBO TSURUTA RETIRES
Tomomi " Jumbo "
Tsuruta of All Japan Pro-Wrestling had a press conference in
Tokyo at 12:40 pm on
Saturday, February 20, and announced that he will retire
from pro wrestling and
study abroad in the State University in Portland,
Oregon, USA, starting
Wednesday, March 10 for 2 years. He will study
sport-physiology
there.
Jumbo Tsuruta beat
Jack Brisco to win the United National Heavyweight Title
(8/28/76),
he beat Bruiser Brody to win the International Heavyweight
title
(8/31/83),
and he beat Nick Bockwinkle to win the AWA World Heavyweight
title
(2/23/84).
Tsuruta will salute the fans at Nippon Budokan Hall in Tokyo
on
Saturday,March 6th
Reported by Masanori Horie (masa-h)
http://welcome.to/robswrestlingworld
===========================================
ROUNDING THE SQUARED
CIRCLE
"I'LL MEET YOU IN THE
YARD AFTER SCHOOL "
OR
"MY JOHNSON IS BIGGER
THAN YOURS"
BY
SAMJERRY
VISIT my Home Page:
http://members.aol.com/~samjerry
Last night (Friday,
February 19, 1999) Goldberg was a guest on the Jay Leno
Show. He must have
been feeling his oats because he issued a $100, 000
challenge
to Stone Cold Steve
Austin (SCSA), offering to meet him anywhere, anytime,
including the back
alley at NBC. What's wrong with this picture?
You may recall that
last year Good King Eric (GKE) issued a similar challenge to
WWF Owner (and
@$$hole) Mr. McMahon. As it turns out, GKE must be saying
his
prayers after watching
McMahon's performance the St. Valentine's Day Massacre
PPV. Had that ever
come to pass, there might well be someone new running WCW.
GKE knew full well
that McMahon wouldn't respond, just as Goldberg knows that
SCSA wont.
It is very easy to
throw out challenges that will never be answered. What
Goldberg did was no
different from you challenging Michael Jordan to a game of
H-O-R-S-E or Mike
Tyson to a 15 Round Boxing Match. The whole thing smells of
GKE. What better way
to promote yourself than to challenge whoever is above you.
Remember the old Avis
slogan, "We're Number Two, We Try Harder?" Now that WCW is
firmly entrenched in
the Number Two position, they are trying harder. Why would
the WWF or SCSA ever
consider accepting, when the only ones with something to
gain are WCW and
Goldberg?
Back to the drawing
board GKE. Goldberg has a great future in wrestling,
providing you don't
screw it up. How about having Old Baldy challenge some old
grandmother or
grandfather. That is more likely to happen. Heck, he might
even
win.
===========================================
ROUNDING THE SQUARED
CIRCLE
ECW -
FEBRUARY 19, 1999 - QUEENS,
NY
BY
SAMJERRY
VISIT my Home Page:
http://members.aol.com/~samjerry
The program began with
ECW Champion Taz arriving in
Queens, as fans chanted
"ECW."
A match between John
Kronus and Steve Corrino was in progress. Corrino had
Kronus up for a Power
Bomb as Judge Jeff Jones came to the ring. He told Corrino
that the Power Bomb
was not his move, that it belonged to "The Master." With
that Sid came to the
ring and Power Bombed Corrino over the top rope to the
floor. This got our
first "Oh, my G-d" of the program from Joey Styles. Sid then
Power Bombed Kronus.
The fans called for more, and Sid was more then happy to
comply. He went out on
got Corrino and threw him back into the ring. Sid asked
the fans which one
they wanted to see him dismantle. The fans weren't too
choosy. Sid hit
Corrino with his second Power Bomb. The fans were still not
satisfied, as they
chanted "One more time." Since he is such an easy going guy,
Sid planted Corrino
with a third one. The crowd loved it and began a chant of
"Holy S**t." Still not
satisfied, they began the "One more time" chant again.
Once again, Sid was
only too happy to give them what they wanted. He hit Kronus
with his second one.
The crowd picked up a chant of "Sid." The final score was
Corrino - 3, Kronus -
2. ECW is building Sid up as an unstoppable force.
After the regular ECW
opening, Joey was in the ring and welcomed the crowd, who
chanted "ECW." He
introduced Taz, who came out to a mixed reception. He said
he
would either choke out
or make tap out, whoever he faces for the Title, at the
next ECW PPV, Living
Dangerously,
March, 21, 1999. He then
challenged anyone in
ECW, WCW and the WWF
to face him. He said he was
New York City born and bred
and
their Champion. He
left to a big pop.
We saw a clip of The
Dudley Boys and The Public Enemy (TPE) going at it. Styles
said The Dudleys had
run TPE out of ECW and tonight their Advisor Joel Gertner
would reveal who The
Mysterious Benefactor that paid them to do it and to take
out New Jack is.
Styles also said we would hear from Shane "The Franchise"
Douglas about his rumored
retirement.
The first match pitted
Little Guido (LG) of The Full Blooded Italians (FBI),
accompanied by fellow
FBI member Big Sal E. Graziano, v. Chris Chetti. Chetti
began with a series of
Kicks to LG's body. This was followed by chain moves on
the mat. Chetti took
LG down to the mat and they went into another series of
chain moves. LG hit
Chetti with a low kick, following with a series of kicks to
the ribs. When Chetti
came off the ropes, Big Sal E. tripped him and Chetti went
out after him. LG
followed him out and they exchanged pleasantries out on the
floor. back in the
ring, Chetti hit a Spinning Heel Kick and a Cross-Body off
the top turn buckle.
He went up again, but this time LG caught him and planted
him. LG threw Chetti
out to the waiting arms of Big Sal E., who smashed him into
the ring post and put
him back in the ring. Chetti came back with a series of
punches, but missed a
Springboard Plancha. LG went for the pin, but Chetti
kicked out. Chetti hit
a Clothesline, several Punches, a Side Kick to the head,
a Power Slam and went
for a pin, but LG kicked out. Big Sal E. hauled his lard
@$$ up onto the apron
with the Italian Flag Pole he was carrying. As LG
discussed the price of
Provolone with Sal Sal E., Chetti hit him from behind
with a Drop Kick. This
knocked him into Big Sal E., who went to the floor. The
building shook as he
hit the ground. Chetti quickly followed up with a Tiger
Bomb, a Springboard
Plancha, a pin, and sent LG home for a Pepperoni Pizza and a
new game plan.
Winner - Chris Chetti
We saw a clip of the
Dudley Boyz and TPE from Detroit to set up The Dudley Boyz
in the ring to talk
about TPE and The Mysterious Benefactor.
The Dudley Boyz, Bubba
Ray (BBR), D-Von and Big Dick were in the ring, along
with Joel "I'll have
six eggs, a double stack and a slab of bacon please, I'm
watching my waistline"
Gertner. BBR said TPE had "sold out the fans, that they
weren't Hardcore
enough, and too old and too fat for ECW." He accused them of
not having the guts to
show up and face them in Queens. He went on to talk about
The Dudley Boyz having
been in ECW three years, not backing down to anyone, and
having split up The
Eliminators and The Gangstas. He said The Dudley Boyz are
the best wrestlers as
well as the best brawlers anywhere in the industry. He
went over their
accomplishments, including breaking Beulah's neck. He called
them the best tag team
of the past, present and future.
New Jack came out and
questioned The Dudley Boyz being the best tag team. He
said he wasn't there
alone. BBR mockingly asked him who he brought, Kronus or
Little Spike Dudley
(LSD). As this point, New Jack's old partner in The Original
Gangstas, Mustafa,
stormed out and both he and New Jack cleaned house, chasing
The Dudley Boyz out of
the ring. The crowd cheered Mustafa's return.
As Mustafa and New
Jack took the cheers, Mustafa turned on New Jack and clocked
him. The Dudley Boyz
came back in and they joined Mustafa in taking New Jack
apart. He was hit by a
3-D (Dudley Death Drop) and busted wide open. Blood
poured down New Jack's
face. Kronus hit the ring and found that fooling with The
Dudley Boyz isn't a
real smart thing to do. They wiped him out and hit him with
a
3-D. LSD was in next
and quickly hit BBR and Big Dick with a Double Low Blow. He
didn't have much time
to celebrate as he was quickly subdued and hit with his
own
3-D. BBR then hit New
Jack with a major DDT and ruled the ring.
Mustafa hauled out a
roll of money and gave a bunch to The Dudley Boyz. He gave
them enough to rebuild
Dudleyville. Then again, for three bucks you could buy
Dudleyville, and still
have enough left over for coffee and a bagel. Gertner
then identified
Mustafa as The Mysterious Benefactor. New Jack had always
called
Mustafa the only
person he trusted. Sorry New Jack, wrong again. As New Jack
was
help on his knees,
Mustafa threw money in his face and pounded him some more.
After a commercial,
Joey talked about what had just taken place with Mustafa.
Douglas came to the
ring, accompanied by Francine, who was obviously upset. He
brought a pair of
wrestling boots with him. The crowd chanted "Please don't
go."
It brought Francine to
tears, and Douglas close. Douglas said the rumors about
his physical condition
were exaggerated. He said people said pro and con about
him, but he always
gave his all. He went on to say that he always wanted his
last match to be his
greatest and thought that his recent Title match v. Taz was
that, even though he
lost. He talked about other wrestlers hanging on too long,
but he knows when its
time "to pass the boots." The crowd again chanted "Please
don't go" as he
continued that the person to fill the boots is..., Francine
broke down.
Justin Credible, his
Manager Jason and The Still Unnamed Afro African Woman came
to the ring. Credible
said he was the man to fill the boots, and was The
Hardcore Icon. He said
he beat Tommy Dreamer and was endorsed by Terry Funk as
his new protege. He
said "thanks gramps, for having passed the torch to the next
Franchise."
Lance Storm came to
the ring and laid claim to the boots and title of
"Franchise." The crowd
chanted "Where's your Bytch?" He compared himself to Bret
Hart and said he can
do it all.
Douglas said Tommy
Dreamer was the next "Franchise" and was immediately jumped
by Credible and Storm.
Credible swung his Singapore Cane at Douglas. Francine
shoved Douglas out of
the way and took the Cane square in the face, and went
down like a ton of
bricks and began to bleed. This got an "Oh, my G-d" from
Joey. Tommy Dreamer
hit the ring and was blasted by Credible and Storm, who
continued pounding on
Douglas. Francine went over to protect Douglas, however,
was kicked by Credible
as Storm held her. The program ended on that note.
===========================================
HAYABUSA'S STAR DUST
PRESS
Submitted by reader:
SlickVenom
Last issue, reader
ravin pointed out that Blitzkrieg won the 6-man
trios match with a
Star Dust Press (btw, how many blown spots happened in that
match? That is lucha
at its worst! ). The Stardust Press was popularized by
another one of my
favorites, Hayabusa. You may have seen him at ECW's Heatwave
98 (one
hell of a ppv!). The
first time Hayabusa used the move was one of only 7 times
he has landed it (its
a dangerous move, and his knee's could hit you in the
face, so many guys
just move). l was in awe when i fist saw it. Other popular
moves WCW calls wrong
are the following: fire bird splash (450), tornillo
(corkscrew moonsault),
quebrada (Backflip), tope con hilo (somersault plancha).
Ok, l just thought I
would put my 2 sense in. If you would like some Hayabusa
tapes, please email
me.
-zak-
Slickvenom
===========================================
VENIS THE PORN STAR
Submitted by reader:
SCologne
Did anyone else catch
and understand this? It took me about two or three
rewinds to finally
'get it', but I thought it was amusing enough to
mention...and it made
Jerry Lawler chuckle a bit, too...
During one point in
last Monday's Raw match between Val Venis and Billy Gunn,
Val connected with two
right hands on Billy, and then did this kinda outrageous,
totally unexpected
gesture that fit in perfectly with his porn-star persona. He
reached down the front
of his tights (?!?!?) with his right hand, and then took
a crouching stance,
holding his right forearm limply in front of his
groin...presumably, a
visual reference to pulling out his, er, 'Big Valbowski',
in a flaccid state. He
then swatted his make-believe 'Valbowski' two or three
times with his free
left hand, each time flexing his right arm upwards and
clenching the fist
tightly...I assume you can all figure out what that action
was alluding to.:)
Finally, he leaped upwards and connected with a right-armed
European uppercut to
Badd Ass' chin. Yipes! I could make numerous rude and
tasteless puns on the
words "European uppercut" right now, but I'll save you the
agony.
:)- Sean
===========================================
THE STUDENTS OF STU
HART
Submitted by reader:
Adam Schlosser (slush8)
Tonight, as I watched
Thunder and saw Chris Benoit hit a flying headbutt off the
top of a cage I
wondered, what would wrestling be like without The Crippler
Chris Benoit, Bret
'Hitman' Hart, Chris Jericho, Lance Storm, and Owen Hart.
Bret was strong enough
to carry the WWF for a few years, Benoit is just plain
amazing each time he
steps between the ropes, Jericho is the up and coming star
of tomorrow everyone
talks about, Owen has always been a sound wrestler, and
Storm is very
impressive as well. What do these men all have in common
besides
the fact they're
dripping with talent? They were all trained by Stu Hart. I
was thinking, what
happens when Stu is gone and people trained by him aren't
around? Sure,
wrestling will still have good athletes, but will they be as
good
as those trained by
Stu? What happens when Sharpshooters, Liontamers,and
Crippler Crossfaces
are gone?
===========================================
CROTCH CHOP
Submitted by reader:
Humphrey, Adam J. (HumphrAJ)
I have noticed that
many people get the crotch chops mixed up. Scott Hall was
doing the original NWO
crotch chop that was started by Syxx (X-Pac) while in WCW
and Scott Hall. This
is done without the arms crossing in the form of an "X."
Therefore, Scott Hall
was doing a NWO crotch chop and not a "DX Style" crotch
chop. Sorry for being
so technical.
===========================================
WILL SASSO WRESTLING
Submitted by reader:
Andy Laudano (Hitman-Andy@xxxxc...)
In my opinion the Will
Sasso angle was handled rather well. First of all, Mad Tv
is a decent show and
way funnier than Saturday Night Live has been in recent
years. A lot of SNL's
old audience watches this instead so I'm sure it attracted
at least some new
viewers. I also think Sasso made the sport look good as he
got
his ass kicked! He got
in NO offense! He was a non-athlete who didnt deserve to
be in the ring with
someone like a Bret Hart and unlike Jay Leno he was treated
that way! Unlike
other non-wrestlers
like Rodman, Malone, White, Taylor ect who even though they
are athletes STILL
should have been embarrassed and destroyed by "legitimate"
wrestlers in wrestling
matches, Sasso showed exactly what SHOULD happen when
someone who doesn't
belong in the ring gets in there. All other recent celebrity
involvements have made
the sport look bad, Sasso finally made the sport look
good.
As for the announcers
being unaware of the Flair beating by the nWo, it was
WCW's attempt at a WWF
style angle where they show the veiwers whats "really"
happening "off-camera"
like with the girl talking to "camera" vignettes.
===========================================
KUDOS TO DROZ
Submitted by reader:
Blofish782
I usually try to pick
a "Wrestler of the Week" from either Nitro or Raw. The
reason I'm voicing my
opinion this week is that the man mentioned here deserves
a Nobel Prize for his
actions on Monday. First of all I have to give it up to
the WCW
luchadores who came in
2nd-6th place (No, El Dandy doesn't count). This weeks
winner is Darren
Drozdov. Thanks to The Great Regurgitator, we didn't have to
sit through (choke)
Steve Blackman versus (and I can't believe I'm saying this)
WWF Hardcore Champion
Bob Holly in an Almost Hardcore match. The three people
in the wrestling world
this week who get my lowest approval ratings are Bart
Gunn for coming back
from Japan, Bob Holly for getting on the mic and just from
generally being the
only person to make Gillberg look like a REAL champion, and
whoever decided to
give good ol' Bobby a push.
===========================================
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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Wrestling Booking Sheet ©1998, 1999, 2000
"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." - Bruce Springsteen
"The greatest challenge of
adulthood is holding on to your idealism
after you lose your
innocence and believing in the power of the human
spirit after you come
crashing into the limits of the real adult
world." - Bruce
Springsteen