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Issue # 218
Date:
Saturday April 17th, 1999 12:58 pm
The Wrestling Booking Sheet
AUSTIN ON NASH BRIDGES
Steve Austin will be
in the season finale of Nash Bridges (which means I will
have to watch another
episode of that show, which is beyond horrible). You can't
blame Nash for wanting
him back though because he did jack their anemic ratings
24 percent when he was
on the 2/26 show. He will again play Jake Cage on the
season finale, which
will air on 5/14. There are rumors going around that CBS
execs may also be
watching
Austin so that they could
evaluate possibly offering
him his own spin-off
show. They were very happy with the job he did the first
time around.
Reported by Dave
Scherer at:
http://www.1wrestling.com/
KEVIN NASH ON WCW LIVE
On the 4/15 edition of
WCW LIVE, Kevin Nash shared his views on whether his
friend Shawn Michaels
will be returning to the ring:
"I talk to Shawn at
least once a month, but usually every other week, and I
don't think he has the
desire. I think its more important to him, at this
point, to have some
kind of health, to enjoy the success that he has, and Shawn
gave us everything he
had. And I was out there for almost four years with him,
night in, night out,
and there was never a night, whether it was in front of 500
people or 20,000
people, that Shawn didn't give it 110 percent, to steal the
show. Those things,
the qualities that made Shawn Michaels what he was, are the
same qualities that
basically put him in the situation he has now. His back's
bad, he's had some
discs fused in his lower back. I don't think at this point
Shawn wants to take
that risk."
On the Horsemen:
"I think that Dean and
Chris have stepped up in the tag division. I think with
Mongo out of action,
whatever you want to call it, there needs to be somebody
placed in that
position. Of course it has to be somebody with strength. In
a
perfect world, I'd
love to have Sid back, but due to the situation that
happened
before, that's
probably never going to happen."
On the departure of
Torrie Wilson:
"The biggest problem
she has is, she has an agent that is very difficult to work
with. He's calling our
production people saying, 'she's not being shot right'
and so on and so
forth. She's a sweet girl, and she was an asset when we used
her, but there's
enough headaches in this business without having another
headache. There's a
ton of beautiful women out there that are looking for an
opportunity to be part
of a top ranked cable network show."
Reported by Chris
Woodward & Dave Scherer at:
http://www.1wrestling.com/
CORNETTE TO
WORK IN MEMPHIS
Mark Madden revealed
on the 4/16 edition of WCW LIVE that Dave Meltzer has
stated that Jim
Cornette will be sent down to Power Pro Wrestling, based in
Memphis, TN. He will
still be a WWF employee, and will work as a heel manager
and help with the
development of the younger and newer talent. Even with the
limited exposure, I'm
excited that Cornette will be given the chance to manage
again, especially in
an environment so well suited to his style. While I may
agree that the heel
manager routine is dated, nobody does it nearly as well as
Cornette.
Reported by Michael
Tavares at:
http://www.wrestlingpages.com/big3
A LEGEND IS HONORED
Giant Baba 's Farewell
Ceremony was held at Nippon Budokan in Kudan-shita,
Chiyoda,
Tokyo from 12:00pm to 1:00pm.
The Destroyer (Dick Beyer), Lord James
Blears, Stan Hansen,
Vader, Gary Albright, Johnny Ace, Johnny Smith, the Head
Hunters, and all the
Japanese wrestlers, office workers, and their families
attended the ceremony.
The live orchestra played solemn classical music. About
28,000 fans came and
called to express condolences from
10:00 am to 3:00 pm.
I confirmed New
Japan's president Seiji Sakaguchi, FMW's president Shoichi
Arai,
Hayabusa, Jado, Gedo,
Tarzan Goto, The Great Kabuki, Great Kojika, all of Big
Japan's wrestlers, and Killer
Khan attended the ceremony.
Reported by Masanori
Horie at:
http://welcome.to/robswrestlingworld
BRAD ARMSTRONG RENEWS WITH
WCW
Brad Armstrong
recently renewed with WCW, and the bookers are trying to
figure
out a gimmick for him.
There was speculation that Armstrong would join his
brother Road Dogg in
the WWF, which may have been a good career move. Armstrong
is one of the more
underrated workers in the business, and can make an impact
in
the Cruiserweight
division if his credibility is restored.
Reported by Wade
Keller of The Pro Wrestling Torch
To subscribe to The
Pro Wrestling Torch, send $36 for 20 issues to:
The Pro Wrestling
Torch
P.O. Box 201844
Minneapolis, MN 55420
MORE ON
CHRISJERICHO.COM
At the bottom of
http://www.chrisjericho.com/, the official web page of
Chris
Jericho, is the
message: "WE
ARE NOT CLOSING DADDIO
!!!!!!". While I'm not
sure what the ultimate
fate of the site will be, this certainly raises more
questions.
Reported by
PrincssGil
AUSTIN IN COLLISION
Reported on
http://www.wwf.com/
As he was getting set
to head to
Vancouver, BC, Canada, for
Friday’s World
Wrestling Federation
Live Event, Stone Cold Steve Austin was hit by a car at the
San Antonio Airport.
Austin was walking from the
parking garage to the terminal when the automobile
struck him. Stone Cold
was able to somewhat move out of the way, so the
collision wasn’t as
bad as it possibly could have been. However,
Austin was
knocked up on the hood
of the car and down to the pavement.
Needless to say,
Austin was not happy with the
careless driver. The World
Wrestling Federation
Champion was able to get up right away and signal for the
driver to pull over,
however, his wish was ignored as the driver just sped off.
Stone Cold was able to
get the license plate, so an investigation is pending.
We want you all to
know that Stone Cold Steve Austin is okay…but you have to
believe he will not be
a happy camper when he steps in the ring at Backlash to
take on The Rock for
the World Wrestling Federation Championship.
Reported by
http://www.wwf.com/ &
EndlesMind
===========================================
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===========================================
WCW reads like a
tragedy
Sunday, April 18, 1999
By Mike Mooneyham
Gen. William Tecumseh
Sherman may have burned down Atlanta in 1864, but its a
triumvirate - Eric
Bischoff, Hulk Hogan and Kevin Nash - with the matches this
time around. Unlike
Sherman's quick march to the
sea, however, this ruinous
rampage has been a
work in progress.
World Championship
Wrestling, which for nearly two years enjoyed a previously
unfamiliar position as
the top wrestling promotion in the country, is beginning
to sink under its own
dead weight. And, while business remains generally strong,
the company is showing
the strains of a wrestling war that it is decisively
losing.
The story behind the
gradual decline of WCW reads more like a tragedy. All the
main characters were
masterfully - and strategically - put into place. The man
(Ric Flair) who meant
most to the fans and was the heart of the organization was
trashed, deposed and
eventually lured back, but a banana peel was put in his
path to restoring
company supremacy. The man (Kevin Nash) who would be king
found it more
politically expedient to join the king (Hulk Hogan) rather
than
oppose him and was
given the book to carry out the king's dirty work. The
emperor (Eric
Bischoff), who discovered that it was no longer fun watching
the
ratings come in on
Tuesdays, merely watched as his empire slowly burned.
Oddly enough, Dusty
Rhodes, who is no stranger to burning down territories, was
enlisted as an
assistant booker to oversee the devastation. And ironically,
it
was Rhodes who was
perhaps more responsible than anyone in the company for the
formation of WCW,
since it was Rhodes who sent Jim Crockett's NWA spiraling
into
bankruptcy in the late
'80s and paved the way for Ted Turner's buyout of that
organization.
And, God bless him,
Ric Flair risked his sterling career and reputation to bail
out a company that had
betrayed him. Like so many times before, he returned like
the knight in shining
armor, pumping new life into the promotion and giving the
fans some of the
greatest moments in the history of the organization.
Ultimately, though,
the opposition would prove to be too great. Not from the
WWF, but from within
his own ranks, from Hogan and his minions whose personal
success seem to be
contingent upon others' failure.
Ric Flair did
everything he was asked to do - and more. He gave
impassioned,
straight-from-the-heart interviews. He jobbed to lesser
talents when it was good
for business. He even
reverted to heel in an attempt to do what many thought was
impossible - turn
Hogan back babyface. Flair's presence alone seemed to
revitalize the
heretofore uninspired Sting last week on Nitro, and he also
paved
the way for Randy
Savage's return.
But hold on, you ask,
what about the sellout crowds and the big pay-per-view
numbers, and the
record-setting revenue?
One need only look
back at history for a clue. The Titanic may have been
sinking, but all the
while the band was playing and the deck chairs were being
arranged. The party
went on. Looks can be deceiving.
The past several
months of Monday night ratings battles have offered more
than a
glimpse of the
changing tide in the wrestling war. While ratings don't
necessarily ensure
success at the box office and on pay-per-view, they do
provide a fairly
accurate barometer by which to measure the overall health of
a
promotion. And, while
both companies have thrived during this pro wrestling boom
period, WCW seems to
have become the victim of its own success.
WCW, with arguably the
greatest array of talent in the history of an American
wrestling promotion,
initially rode the wave of that talent on Nitro and mixed
it well with its older
division of established stars. Little by little, though,
Hulk Hogan began to
demand more air time - at the expense of WCW's younger
stars.
Sting, with one of the
biggest buildups in the history of wrestling, was in
position to become the
game's top draw in 1998, but instead foundered in a
colorless new role
upon his return. Bret Hart, with a multimillion-dollar
contract in hand and
coming off of the infamous WWF double-cross, was set to
become a major player
in WCW, but now is little more than an irritating whine in
the distance who has
been devalued and relegated to the damaged goods
department. Even Bill
Goldberg, WCW's meal ticket for the future, has taken a
back seat despite
being the promotion's top star.
It also has been
disconcerting to watch WCW's once-solid announcing crew sink
to
its present level of
confusion and disarray. Tony Schiavone, Mike Tenay and
Bobby Heenan seem to
have been thrown into the same paranoic pit, and
unfortunately their
mutual mistrust often has surfaced in their commentary, so
much that Tenay was
bumped from Nitro to Thunder to work exclusively with Larry
Zbyszko. The
behind-the-scene squabbles and on-air bickering, however,
are
reflective of a much
bigger problem.
WCW, with its
proverbial foot on the rope, has lost its heart. As the WWF
domination increases
and the WCW morale sinks lower, with no end in sight, the
locker-room rumblings
grow louder. Performers who opted to sign lucrative
contracts rather than
build their careers elsewhere are now having second
thoughts about their
choices. Some whose contracts are coming up for renewal are
looking in other
directions. Even money has its limits.
Chris Jericho,
considered one of the game's hottest young properties, is
looking
elsewhere despite a
big-money offer to remain in WCW. One of WCW's top workers,
Chris Benoit, has been
jobbed into oblivion and is not viewed by management as a
legitimate heavyweight
contender.
Many disenchanted WCW
performers now subscribe to a conspiracy theory that Hulk
Hogan and Kevin Nash
are putting themselves over at the expense of other WCW
talent, securing a
base of power strong enough to repulse any opposition, all
the while waiting to
jump off the foundering ship, ready to board a WWF life
raft that will steer
them back into familiar waters and eventually deliver them
to the promised land.
There have been some
silver linings to the dark clouds hovering over WCW.
Steve Borden's life
changed dramatically last September when the wrestler known
as Sting became a
born-again Christian. Scott Hall, who for the past year had
earned a well-deserved
reputation as wrestling's "bad boy" and was considered
the most likely to
follow the path of the late Brian Pillman, followed Sting's
lead instead and now
is walking a different walk as well.
Ric Flair has
continued to produce memorable moments. Billy Kidman,
Juventud
Guerrera and Rey
Mysterio Jr. stand atop a group of ultra-talented
cruiserweights.
Charles Robinson, who has emerged as WCW's top referee, is
showing potential of
being an entertaining storyline character as well.
But give credit where
credits due. WWF boss McMahon has had a major hand in the
ratings turnaround.
"We used a better
mousetrap," he says.
Who knew it would be
so easy?
Mike Mooneyham can be
reached by phone at (843) 937-5517 or by e-mail at
mooneyham@xxxxcxxxc.... More wrestling news with Mike
Mooneyham is
available every Monday
on The Wrestling Observer Hotline. The number is
1-900-903-9030. Calls
are 99 cents per minute, and children under 18 must get
parental permission
before dialing.
===========================================
WCW House Show Results
for April 17th, 1999
Prince Iakea d. Mike
Enos
Norman Smiley d. Barry
Horrowitz
Horace d. Al Green
Kidman & Mysterio d.
Benoit & Malenko
Bam Bam Bigelow laid
down (literally) for Konnan
Rick Steiner vs. Meng
went to a double DQ
Ric Flair d. Disco
Inferno
Reported by Stephen
McKee (smck20@xxxxs...)
===========================================
ECW HOUSE
SHOW RESULTS (Contains
Spoilers, skip to be surprised)
ECW TV Taping, April
17th in Buffalo, NY at the Bert Flickinger Center
Balls/Axl beat
Guido/Sal E.
Nova/Chetti vs.
Doring/Skull Von Krush - (Doring picks up the mic during the
match
and mocks Taz, who
then comes out and destroys all 4 men, and then Spike's
music
comes on)
Taz beats Spike Dudley
Lynn & S. Crazy beat
Credible/Storm
D-Von beat RVD
(Dudleys get the Tag Titles)
Tajiri beat Rhino
Richards
Dreamer beat Corino
New Jack beat Mustafa
Notes:
***D-Von/RVD went
through 4 refs, Bubba interfered throughout, RVD kicked out
of the 3D, D-Von
kicked out of Split Legged Moonsault, 5*Frog Splash and
VanDaminator, D-Von
won with a Super 3D from the top
***Corino/Dreamer had
about 20 minutes of mic time, Corino had some real good
lines and furthured
his technical wrestling angle
***Doring also had
about 10 minutes of mic time and was on the mic during his
match, ripped on fans,
awesome mic work
***Taz said "He's cut
through every opponet like OJ cut through his Ex-Wife",
which got a huge pop
***Some fan put a
JOB Squad shirt in Rhino
Richards face, he took it and the guy
threw a fit, and he
never did get his shirt back.
Reported by
JDSVideo
===========================================
THE
REAL CHAMPION
Submitted by reader:
NOLIM8SLDR
Now That Duane
Gill"berg" has been released by the WWF, what happens to the
Lightheavyweight
Championship. We could have a scenario like the one with Ric
Flair & the WCW
Championship belt, and the WWF in 1991 (just in case you
don't
know what I am talking
about check out any tape with Flair from 1991... He was
the "Real Worlds
Champion").
===========================================
MOCK HORROR
Submitted by reader:
JlBt911
Here are some mock
matches involving WWF & WCW stars:
MAIN EVENT: In A Microwave
Ladder Match
*Hollywood Hogan vs
*Ric Flair
- In this match, a
microwave will be suspended high above the ring, and a
ladder
will be made
available. The object is to climb the ladder to get the
microwave,
activate it, and set
off your opponents pacemaker, effectively incapacitating
him.
TURTLE WAX MATCH
*Steve Austin vs
*Goldberg
- Here, there will be
three containers of turtle wax in the ring. The object is
to wax your opponents
head to the point where the waxer can see his face in it.
LASER SURGERY TRIPLE
THREAT MATCH
*Droz vs *Bam Bam
Bigelow vs *Perry Saturn
- Each man will have a
laser machine. The object is to rip off your opponents
clothing and use the
laser to remove their tatoos. The last man with a tatoo
left wins.
CURLING IRON MATCH
*Diamond Dallas Page
vs *Curt Henning
- 2 of the curliest
SOB's around. Each opponents hair will be straightened
before the match.
First man to curl the other man's hair to its original look
wins.
"BLINDING BLONDES
MATCH"
*Scott Steiner vs
*Hardcore Holly
- Each man will have
bleach and #20 peroxide in their possesion. The object is
to blonde the other
man's hair so much that it becomes white. First man to turn
the other man's hair
white, wins.
GREASE
FIRE MATCH
*Scott Hall vs *Bret
Hart vs *Kidman
- Matches will be
provided. The object is to set the other wrestlers hair
ablaze on the grease
that is already in it, until no hair remains. Last man with
hair wins.
DOUBLE CONSONANTS
MATCH
*Road-Dogg & Badd Ass
vs Jeff Jarrett & Sunny Onoo
- This is such a
mismatch, but its just a basic one with the winners declared
the kings of the
double consonant. Debra McMichael will be on hand, but she
will not be dealing
with double consonants. (double D chest size,maybe.)
COMIC RELEIF MATCH
*Gillberg vs Lenny
Lane
- This is just a hoot.
First man to get pinned, wins!
THE "WHAT DID HE
JUST SAY?" MATCH
*Konnan vs Kane
- Good Ole JR Jim Ross
will referee, Steve Williams will be barred.
THE BOILER
ROOM SEXUAL EXPLOIT MATCH
*Too Much vs *Mark
Henry & Val Venis
- I'm not saying what
the object of this match is...lets just say that Too Much
are the heavy
favorites given the circumstances.
THE "ACTUALLY ADOPTED"
MATCH
*Owen Hart vs *Rick
Steiner
- Is there any
explanation to why both respective stars families abandoned
them?
This is a steel cage
match, and the winner will still not be able to function
without their family.
CROSS DRESS MATCH
*Saturn & Raven vs
*Mosh & Thrasher
- The losers have to
wrestle Too Much later that evening for obvious reasons.
===========================================
TAG TEAMS: ONE TO RAGS, ONE
TO RICHES
Submitted by reader:
hbk_dhc
I've been thinking
about something lately. Did you ever notice that when a tag
team breaks up, one
member becomes a superstar and the other's career goes down
the toilet? Some of
the best examples are the Rockers, the Smoking Gunns, and
the Hart Foundation.
In The Rockers, when they broke up, Shawn Michaels became
an
I-C, Tag, and World
Champion. After a short feud, Jannetty did nothing. He is a
WCW preliminary
wrestler now. Billy Gunn is now a very successful singles
and
tag wrestler. And
where's Bart, alone? Nowhere. In the Hart Foundation, Bret
Hart
became a main eventing
World Champ. Niedhart struggled to be a midcarder. And in
all of these cases,
neither man was ever said to be carrying the team. As a
matter of fact, it was
sometimes said Jim carried the Hart Foundation. Just kind
of an interesting
topic.
===========================================
DPW ***Dixie Pro Wrestling***
Results From April 17, 1999
at the National Guard
Armory in Maryville, TN
*Cruiserweight
Championship*
"Crazy" Bobby B.
pinned The Delaware Destroyer at 10:12 to retain his title
in a
no-disqualification
contest.
*Tag Team
Championship*
Night Stalkers pinned
U.S. Marshalls at 12:06 to retain their titles.
Biohazard defeated
Tennessee Hillbilly at 8:42 when the Hillbilly was knocked
out.
*4-Man Elimination
Match to Determine the
DPW U.S. Championship*
Jungle Jim outlasted
White Scorpion, Big Daddy and Andy Savage. He pinned the
Scorpion at 18:22 to
win the belt.
Master Mayhem pinned
Mike Blade at 21:25.
*Special Grudge Match
Main Event* Jerry Lee pinned Eric Rose at 9:53.
***DPW
News***
DPW returns to Maryville, TN
on May 15 at Alnwick Community Center.
Reported by Jason
Dickson (JayBD71295)
and Matt Baldwin
(Im4Bacon)
===========================================
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.
Copyright- Steve
Appy of The 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
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