The Wrestling Booking Sheet online newsletter

Issue # 199

Date: Saturday April 3rd, 1999 12:37 pm

The Wrestling Booking Sheet

WCW ANNOUNCING SHUFFLE
Mark Madden had a big story on his 4/2 WCW Hotline report. He said that on the
4/5 edition of Nitro, we would see a new broadcast team at the Nitro show. Of
course, we already knew there would be a new set and logo on Monday, but there
will also be a major change in the announcing team. According to Madden, WCW
will turn to a two man team and the odd man out is Mike Tenay, who will be
relegated to doing WCW Saturday Night and Thunder. WCW will move the announcing
team to ringside. Tony Schiavone will do play-by-play, and will be joined for
the first half of the show by Larry Zybysko and the second half by Bobby Heenan.
I have also heard that it will just be Heenan with Tony for the whole show. Also,
Madden said that Riki Ratchman will also have a bigger role. Tenay will still do
his other shots, and is scheduled to be on the PPVs as well.
Reported by Dave Scherer at: http://www.1wrestling.com/

BULLDOG TYPO
In last issue's report about Davey Boy Smith, we meant to say that he will be in
the hospital for a maximum of six weeks (not six months). My thanks to Dr. Mike
Lano for catching the error; this is one time I'm very glad to be worng...

THUNDER RATING
Thunder tied its all time low rating Thursday, scoring a 3.1 (with a 5.0
share).
Reported by Dave Scherer at: http://www.1wrestling.com/

32 MAN FANTASY TOURNAMENT
Matt Tulio is running a 32 man fantasy wrestling tournament, and would like
input.
If you would like to participate, e-mail Matt at FlashFan1
===========================================
Found on http://www.wwf.com/
Ross Report Update
(For the week of April 2, 1999)
By Jim Ross
Hello everybody! It’s Good Ol’ JR here again on wwf.com—this is the Ross Report.
Thanks for checking us out! Certainly it’s been one hell of a week for everyone
here in the World Wrestling Federation. Many of us left the latter part of last
week to head to Philadelphia for the many WrestleMania activities. Certainly, it
was a very emotionally draining WrestleMania weekend. I thought all the athletes
and many of the television folks rose to the occasion on Monday and Tuesday
after leaving it all on the field at WrestleMania. Great effort by everyone on
Monday and Tuesday and hopefully this Monday’s RAW will be reflective of that
effort on Monday night on RAW on the USA Network.

On a personal note, I really enjoyed the opportunity to be a part of
WrestleMania as a performer. To be able to go back to ringside and do the
play-by-play for the main event was a great honor and a great privilege, and the
person I have to thank for that is Steve Austin. Steve Austin lobbied loudly and
longly with many of Mr. McMahon’s emissaries about JR doing the play-by-play for
his challenge for the Federation Title. Apparently, Mr. McMahon was so sure that
Austin was going to lose, I think primarily because he thought the Big Show was
going to be the official, and with the Big Show in McMahon’s pocket (or so
McMahon thought) that it would basically be a no-brainer. In his view, Austin
could not overcome the magnificent athlete that The Rock is coupled with a very
biased, large official. Well, certainly the officiating story as we all know did
not materialize. The Big Show is now anti-corporation, there’s no doubt about
that—but back to Stone Cold. Had it not been for Steve Austin letting the
Federation officials know that he wanted me, even demanded that I broadcast his
match I don’t think I would have ever been considered. And instead of arguing
with Austin or debating Austin, the Federation officials basically acquiesced
and said "What the hell, you’re going to lose anyway. So it will probably be
good medicine for both of you to see what it’s like for the Corporation to do
what they do so well, and that’s take and take and take. They wanted to take
Austin’s opportunity away from him to be the Federation Champion, and they are
obviously still trying to take away the respect I think I’ve earned in the
20-plus years I’ve been in this business. And they still refuse to put me back
on the air on a regular basis.

I am not doing play-by-play this Monday on RAW. I do not know when I will start
back on the air as the play-by-play announcer for RAW. My phone calls, my
request for meetings have been pretty well blown off by those in charge, the
decision-makers, those lovable blue-suit wearing butt-kissing corporate types
who certainly don’t want to pass gas without asking Mr. McMahon if it’s OK. So
I’m basically in a holding pattern. I think that my speech is good enough to
allow me to do a good job on Monday night. It’s not 100 percent, I’m not 100
percent and I realize that. But the passion is there, the adrenaline starts
pumping and the love and determination to do this job certainly exists stronger
than ever. You really don’t know what you miss until you lose something, and I
probably at times in my career have taken my job and the opportunity to be
associated with world-class athletes, the passionate fans and scintillating,
extraordinary events a little bit for granted because they were always there,
seemingly. I don’t think I’ll ever do that again. I’ll live one day at a time to
its fullest and positively as I can. But I am still going to raise some hell. I
am still going to continue to be a thorn in the backside of the Corporation. I
still think they’re making the wrong decision. And if I get back on the air and
I fall on my ass, and I don’t do a good job, then you have a very viable reason
to take me off the air. If I can’t do the job that I think I can do, then I
don’t deserve to be on the air. It’s that simple. But I guarantee you I am more
than happy to allow my work to be compared to any other announcer’s on
television—just not the Michael Cole’s and the Kevin Kelly’s of the world here
in the Federation. They are two young guys that want to be better and want to do
a good job.

But I certainly would encourage you to put my work up against anyone else’s in
the business. And I think the proof is in the ear. You hear a difference, you
feel a difference, and that’s what I think I can bring to the table once again.
Where this journey will take us…who the hell knows! Will JR ever get his job?
I’m not going to say yes because I don’t know. I don’t know if I will get my job
back. I don’t know really what’s in the mind of the Corporation. We’ve talked
about it before. They like to have a younger, more attractive, more neutral
sounding announcer. A lot of these television people just allow themselves to be
consumed by someone’s look or by someone’s sound. I do sound different—I am
unique in that regard. Certainly, they’re not going to put any posters of JR out
there. I’m certainly not going to be in any swimsuit issue for God’s sake. But I
don’t know that folks who tune in to RAW do so because of cute announcers. I
think they tune in to see the athletes perform, the story lines develop and
announcers to add, compliment and support the story lines and to make things
that are good a little bit better. So that’s what we’re going to be working on,
and hopefully we’ll keep you apprised on how that is developing. And you know,
it would be great to start back on television at our next taping which I think
will be in Detroit on April 12.

In closing, I just want to say that I’ve seen a lot of smart-ass signs from
normal, young teenage boys that think it’s funny that my face has paralysis.
They don’t understand the situation. I don’t hold it personally against them
because they don’t know better. You can't judge a person until you walk that
proverbial mile in their shoes. So, with that said, the negative signs and the
anti-JR signs…hey, that’s fine. Everyone has a right to express themselves. I’m
not going to be so paranoid like WCW guys are where you can’t wear a WWF shirt
to their event or you can’t have any signs that would indicate that you are a
Federation loyalist. Paranoia, paranoia, paranoia.

With that said, I do appreciate all the positive signs. It really is a
heart-warming, uplifting thing that someone would take the time to make a sign,
bring it from their home to the event and display it on my behalf. Very nice,
very classy and I thank you for that.

Now, to the Federation news:

It looks like with the suites that were sold in Philadelphia, the 20,276 number
was the official attendance in the building for WrestleMania, which is
tremendous.

We have heard that TV Guide’s newsstands sales are up almost 25 percent thanks
to the Federation covers a few weeks ago.

Federation folks are already planning WrestleMania 2000, and that will certainly
be a much-anticipated announcement to be made within, we think, within the next
few days as to the site. And certainly one of the places that is being strongly
considered is the Los Angeles, Anaheim area. The WrestleMania XV buyrate, I
don’t know what the exact buyrate number is, but preliminary numbers indicate
that approximately 850,000 folks bought WrestleMania on Pay-Per-View. The record
for WrestleMania was in the low 700,000’s, so consequently this WrestleMania is
going to top any previous WrestleMania and any previous Pay-Per-View in
Federation history.

I’m sure a few of you saw the very hostile ESPN piece about the Federation on
"Outside The Lines." Just to let you know a little bit about the background of
that—the ESPN producer who did the piece (who is married to Marv Albert) when
they first contacted the Federation they wanted to talk about the athletic
background of many of the superstars, their college days, their NFL days or
whatever the case was. That was basically a smoke screen to gain access to the
Federation superstars and management so that they could get to the real story,
which was to talk about the negatives that are involved in this business. Well,
let me be the first to say that this business is not without problems. There are
problems in this business. But the problems that are in this business are not
exclusive to this business whatsoever. Every industry, every corporation, any
business you want to look at has problems that are comparable in nature to those
problems that you will find within this genre. Not just the Federation, but in
any organization that does what we do for a living. It seems to me the Monday
Night Football ratings were down because so many young males were watching
Monday night wrestling. And of course, ESPN is owned by ABC—which covers Monday
Night Football—and there is some speculation that within the media that all ESPN
is trying to do is damn sports-entertainment and turn off Monday night wrestling
so that the Monday Night Football numbers will not be in as much jeopardy. We’ll
talk more about the "Outside The Lines" piece once I have a chance to really
study it, and I hope to do that next week. Some of the things that were said on
the ESPN piece I’m sure have a great deal of validity and are perhaps right on
the money, But it certainly, in my view, was a very unfair look at the
Federation and the business as a whole. There are aspects of this business that
need to be addressed—but again, not unlike any other business. No business is
perfect, but the Federation can't be held responsible for all that is wrong
either.

Next Wednesday on ABC, "20/20" is going to do a feature basically on "Backyard
Wrestling," and again the Federation is getting the blunt of the blame for young
men making a decision to emulate what they see on television in their backyards.
Mick Foley, I guess one of the cult heroes of the backyard boys, was interviewed
along with Vince and Linda McMahon. It’s going to be interesting to see how much
of Mick Foley's interview makes the air, because from what I understand a lot of
things Mick said made a lot of common sense. But you have to wonder if ABC will
air Mick’s comments. I have a feeling that his comments will be heavily edited.
Again, many of these pieces do not accurately portray the Federation as a whole.

I understand that CNBC is strongly considering doing a Vince McMahon profile,
which could be airing in the next couple of months.

Esquire Magazine, in their annual brothers issue, will feature Mick Foley and
his brother. Those pictures were taken this past Tuesday in Long Island. It will
be turned into a coffee-table book as well.

Annie Liebowitz, a very famous artist, was the photographer on record for Steve
Austin’s milk commercial which will air all around the world in the coming
weeks.

Austin is being considered for the cover of Entertainment Weekly in the next few
weeks as well. We’ll keep you apprised of that.

From what I heard wwf.com did over 80 million page views for the month of March,
which is absolutely scary! It’s scary the amount of people that are tuning to
the Internet—and I’m glad that you are!

I certainly want to send my heartfelt get-well wishes to Kerwin Silfies—the
director for 17 years of Federation television. He had a heart attack at the
Federation television facilities on Thursday. Kerwin is stable and he’s going to
be just fine. He is without a doubt, in my view, the best director in this
business. Kerwin Silfies does super as do all the television guys at Titan
Television. But we look forward to seeing Kerwin back in action—he will
certainly be missed.

An interesting bit of television information: The median age of the Federation
television viewer right now is 27.5, and the media age of WCW’s from what I
understand is a little over 30.4 years of age.

The Federation had a huge night, massive numbers, for the Home Shopping Network
and the subsequent sales in the venue as well as on television of Federation
merchandise. Interesting enough, the number-one selling item was the blanket
featuring several Federation superstars. Those sold big time. The McMahons made
even more money!

Certainly, the Federation is sad to say goodbye to Steve Regal. Steve Regal has
some personal issues that he has been and will probably continue to deal with.
We wish him nothing but the best as far as his health is concerned and certainly
as far as his profession is concerned. It’s just too bad Steve Regal’s career
could not have been as good as we all envisioned it would be here in the
Federation, and we wish him good health and success for the future. Rumor has it
he may be headed to ECW.

From what I understand, there’s about 7,500 to 8,000 fans—not yet a
sell-out--set to witness the Federation in Oberhausen, Germany, on the first
night of the International Tour. However, the other three nights of the four-day
tour are sold out. Tickets are being scalped for a lot of pounds over in the UK
for the three events remaining on the tour as I am recording this.

Again, I want to thank you for checking out the Ross Report here on the web and
we’ll have another report here next week. I always appreciate any feedback you
have! We’ll talk again soon!
===========================================
X-PAC'S LEADERSHIP
Submitted by reader: Si316
Here's ideas for X-Pac's development in the WWF. It may just have been me but
X-Pac (complete with leather jacket and glasses) reminded me a lot of Bret Hart
in his later WWF days. The way X-Pac stood and paced in the ring was very
Hitman-esque to me. I think that this would be a very good direction for X-Pac
to be taken in, if he is to be leader of D-X. Am I the only one who thinks that
X-Pac could do worse than take the role much as Bret Hart when he lead the Hart
Foundation, he would lead his gang to the ring, stand with his glasses over his
head, etc. X-Pac could take a hyper form to this but I don't think he can get
that more intense, perhaps seeing him obtain a cooler persona could see him take
a path to the Intercontinental and finally WWF World Title. Just a little idea,
maybe the readers can bash this out further.
Best, as always,
Simon
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ADVERTISEMENTS
If anyone has the announvcer saying "Lets Get Ready To Rumble" in wav or Real
Audio format will they please send it to Golfslife1

UPCOMING NWA-NY DATES
APRIL 10, "APRIL's REIGN!"
Staten Island, 460 Brielle Ave, Colony Hall on the Grounds of Seaview Hospital!
Tickets are $16 ringside and $13 General Admission. For the NWA-NY Heavyweight
Title, Biggie Biggs w/the Grand Vizier vs. BLAST. For the NWA-NY TV Title Zieg
vs. Ace Darling. PLUS Special Appearance by the Hooters Girls, Bobby B. and
Guillotine Leogrande and Stormin' Norman!

May 1 in Copiague, Long Island. The Long Island Invasion by the NWA Begins!
Tickets are $16 Ringside and $13 for General Admission. Copiague HS, Long
Island, 1100 Dixon Ave. Call 516-842-4000 or call 516-842-8031
Tito Santana vs. Chris Michaels, Zieg w/Preston Montgomery, Esq. vs. Ace Darling

May 8, in Deer Park, Long Island, Deer Park Slaughter! JFK Intermediate School,
101 Lake Ave, Deer Park [across from theFire Dept.] TICKETS ARE $25 FIRST ROW,
$20 SECOND ROW, $16 Ringside, and $13 General Admission.
Call 516-667-6665 for more information! Mr. Bob Backlund vs. Ace Darling. Tito
Santana vs. Jack Soul. Zieg vs. Devon Storm

MAY 22, in Brooklyn BLAST into BROOKLYN! ALL TICKETS are $15 GEN. ADMISSION!
Call 718-967-6342. Scheduled to appear: Tito Santana, Biggie Biggs, BLAST,
Devon Storm, Zieg, Crazy Ivan, MAGIC, Tommy Logan, Eric Kreed, "Wacky" Wayne
Woo, The PitBull DUKE SNYDER, Preston Montgomery Esq., The Grand Vizier and
MORE on the way!

JUNE 12, on Staten Island. "REVENGE!"Colony Hall, on the Grounds of Seaview
Hospital, 460 Brielle Ave., tickets are $16 ringside and $13 general admission.
Call 718-967-6342. Scheduled to appear:Biggie Biggs, The Grand Vizier, Extreme
Fahrenheit, The Soul Brothers, The Big Unit, CJ Summers, 'Mr. Puerto Rico'
Carlos Cruz, MAGIC, Tommy Logan, "Wacky" Wayne Woo, Zieg, Preston Montgomery,
Esq. and MORE!

JUNE 19, Back in Deer Park,"LONG ISLAND MASSACRE!" Tickets for that event are
yet to be determined. Show is at The Deer Park Community Center, 41 Homer Ave.,
Deer Park, Long Island. Scheduled to appear: Devon Storm, Biggie Biggs, BLAST,
MAGIC, NC-17,The Soul Brothers, Kid USA, Zieg, The Big Unit, Extreme Fahrenheit,
Paul Lauria, Stormin' Norman, Guillotine Leo Grande, Kamikaze Kid, Preston
Montgomery Esq. and MORE!

We here at NWA-NY are looking forward to an exciting next few months! There will
be a show for the Special Olympics on Staten Island in July, a free show for the
Night Out Against Crime, also in August, and a BIG show in September for the
NYPD 122nd Precinct! It certainly is an exciting time to be a wrestling fan in
NY!
Call the NWA-NY HOTLINE at (718) 227-8561 for updates!

London, Canada. gets "HARD To THE CORE!!!"
Hardcore Wrestling MEGA Superstar The Honky Tonk Man appeared on Canadian Radio
in the last few days and had this to say about going for the HWF Canadian
Championship. "Here is the thing about Hardcore, I was the creater of Hardcore
back in the early 80's late 70's when I had the Tupilo concessionstand match
down South with a couple of guys when we tore up the concession stand up. That
evolved into the ECW Extreme Championship Wrestling and now into Hardcore
Wrestling."
Former WWF Star "Leaping Lanny Poffo" is in talks with the HWF, we will keep you
posted on this very interesting situation. There are still Tickets available
for the HWF Meltdown 99 that is being held in London, Ontario on APRIL 23rd but
get your tickets before it is to late.London Ticket Centre 1-519-673-5715.
http://www.wrestlesource.com/hwf
Reported by Markus Anderson
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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. We have no problem if you want to use our stuff; just credit it properly.

"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