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Issue # 253
Date:
Wednesday May 19th, 1999 6:23 pm
The Wrestling Booking Sheet
HART ANSWERS THE CHALLENGE
Aaron Steiner sent the
following.
During Jay Leno's
monologue, Bret Hart pushed a security guard down &
came on the stage.
Leno told Bret about what Kevin Nash said about him
on Friday. Leno told
Bret that Nash challenged him to a match for
$250,000, which Leno
would hold for the show. Leno made a joke
saying that $250,000
in US equals $5 billion in
Canada. Bret said that
Leno & the rest of the
Tonight show crew never called Bret to come on
the show. Leno made
another joke saying that to dial to
Canada, you have
to dial with a 1 &
then all these other numbers. Leno continued by saying
that he had to reach
the "one" operator whose name is Marjorie. Bret said
he beat Nash before &
would do it again. They showed a clip on the
screen where Bret
injured Goldberg's leg at Slamboree. Bret told Leno that
Nash would be toasted
& so would Jay Leno. After the break, Leno came
back & announced that
the match would take place next Monday (5/24).
Reported by Aaron
Steiner & Dave Scherer at:
http://www.1wrestling.com/
WCW BOOKING FOCUS
Mark Madden was on WCW
LIVE! last night and he told the audience
that Eric Bischoff had
a meeting with the wrestlers at Nitro this past
Monday night and the
company was going to turn their focus towards
pushing 10 top
wrestlers. It should be pretty obvious who those ten are,
or will be.
This will no doubt not
sit well with many of the mid card wrestlers who
are already unhappy
about their pushes and their allotment of TV time.
Bischoff apparently
thinks it is important to concentrate the booking in a
specific area, and I
agree with that. I don't know if I would do so at the
expense of some of the
mid-card guys who they could develop into stars,
but then again no one
pays me to run a promotion either. Although the list
hasn’t been released,
here’s the ten names most likely to be focused on:
Hogan, Nash, DDP,
Savage, Piper, Flair, Goldberg, Scott Steiner, Hart &
Luger. definitely not
my ten choices…
Reported by Dave
Scherer at:
http://www.1wrestling.com/
HASHIMOTO RETURNS
Shin'ya Hashimoto held
a press conference on 5/17 stating that he would
make his return at the
6/8 Nippon Budokan show to fight Gen'ichiro Tenryu
in a singles match.
Hashimoto and New Japan are making claims that he
has lost 18 kilos (38
pounds) of body weight. New
Japan's selling point
was that they felt
embarrassed by Hashimoto's excessive body weight.
However, Hashimoto
claimed that he wasn't ashamed of his "old figure."
Reported by Zach
Arnold at:
http://www.1wrestling.com/
SABLE CONFLIC T
Sable continues to
have problems with WWF management. Apparently she
showed up at the Raw
tapings with a lawyer, trying to get out of her match
with Debra. Sable does
not have a wrestler's contract, so she was asked to
drop the title because
she doesn't work the house shows, and she doesn't
want to wrestle in
general. She didn't want to do the job, so they worked
out that whole deal
with Michaels stripping her (of the title) and giving
the belt to Debra. The
Torch says Sable has been the victim of several
locker room pranks;
words were exchanged between Debra and Sable
after the women's
title segment, because Debra thought Sable was being
too rough in ripping
apart the dress. If you watch the segment again,
you'll notice that
Debra had to seriously guard against her top coming off.
Reported by Micasa at:
http://www.wrestlemaniacs.com/
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ROUNDING THE SQUARED
CIRCLE
"HOW NOT TO SUCCEED IN
BUSINESS WITHOUT REALLY TRYING"
OR
"SO KID, YOU WANNA BE
A WRESTLER?"
BY
SAMJERRY
If you were asked to
name the most important attribute it takes to become
a star in professional
wrestling, what would your answer be? A great
physique? Above
Average Strength? Technical Ability? Outstanding
Mic Skills? A Good
gimmick? These and lot of others that come to mind
all contribute to what
it takes. However, it looks like the most important
thing nowadays is
being tossed aside by WCW's resident genius and
leader (No, not Slick
Ric or The Ancient Piper), Good King Eric (GKE).
Let's take a look at
some of the strategic personnel moves he has made
over the past three
years or so.
1. He fired X-Pac (by
Federal Express no less). X-Pac resurfaced in
the WWF, where he
originally became a star. Upon returning to the
WWF he joined
Degeneration-X (DX), won the European Championship
and is current
CO-holder of the WWF Tag Team Title. His best days are
still ahead of him.
2. With the split of
the McMichaels, he kept Mongo and let Debra go.
Given a chance to make
it big, Mongo was exposed as talentless, and
although a member of
The Four Horse's @$$es, is currently MIA with
a very cloudy future.
Debra signed with the WWF, replaced Sable as the
WWF's Numero Uno Femme
Fatal, and is currently the Women's
Champion, which
although basically a symbolic title, shows her position.
She "owns" arguably
the two most famous "Puppies" in
America.
3. He let Paul Wight
(The Giant) go after having him Job to such Main
Eventers as East El
Lay's Favorite Taco Vendor. This was after deciding
he had gone as far as
he could in WCW. Now in the WWF as The Big
Show, his talent is
just beginning to emerge. Handled properly he could
easily be the new
Andre.
4. Probably his
biggest mistake was Steve Austin. He let
Austin go
after telling him that
"a wrestler who wears black tights will never
amount to much." Last
time I looked Stone Cold Steve Austin had
become the most
popular wrestler in the world. I suspect he could have
his old job back if he
wanted it, bald head, black tights and all.
Skip ahead to the
present and the Chris Jericho situation. For the past
six months, GKE has
been trying desperately to resign
Jericho without
success. It now
appears that
Jericho will be leaving WCW,
heading to
either ECW or the WWF.
How is GKE handling it? He now says he
really doesn't want
Jericho because he's a
Cruiserweight who can't play
with the big boys.
That just rings as total Bullsh*t. You chase someone
for months, with an
offer reported to be around a million dollars and
now he isn't big
enough? What will the next person you try to keep
think about that? I
have a very strong suspicion that if
Jericho signs
with the WWF, he will
become one of the top players in the game. After
all he is as sound
technically as anyone, and is among the very best
with the mic.
Those are just a few
examples of how GKE has blown it. He built his
Empire by outspending
this and the nearest three Galaxies, and what
does he have to show
for it? A collection of names who have seen their
better days, with egos
bigger than Paul Bearer's or Joel Gertner's
appetites. Much like
Nero's fiddling, its business as usual for GKE while
his Empire crumbles
around him. It is reported that his most popular star,
Goldberg, is unhappy
that he is making less money than five or six others.
Bret Hart came to WCW
with much fanfare and has seen his career go
into the toilet. To
quote Goldie, "Who's next?"
Of course GKE has made
some good decisions. The creation of the nWo
being the most
obvious, but wrestling fans are asking "What have you
done for me lately?"
Hopefully GKE's Mia Culpa this past Monday is
a signal that he has
gotten the message that WCW must change the
way it is operating. I
for one will have to see it to believe it. Parroting
the company line, Fat
Tony for the first time let on that maybe NITRO
isn't "the most
watched wrestling program since the days of the Roman
Coliseum." Heck, they
couldn't even give away tickets to their last PPV
to make the arena
appear full.
Until such time as GKE
gives the spotlight to some of his younger,
more talented people,
it will be business as usual, and who is being hurt
by this? We the fans
are. its time to put the relics out to pasture and give
the youngsters a
chance. Vince McMahon has proven that a wrestling
promotion can succeed
with just a few big names and an army of
up-and-coming future
stars. Of course, good storylines and angles wont
hurt. We all know what
goes up must come down. McMahon knows it.
GKE and WCW have
proven it. Now its time for him to show he can
turn WCW into a
Phoenix and rise from the
ashes.
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FEMALE WRESTLING FANS
Written by reader:
SirDopeNes
In response to the
letter in #252 about the female wrestling fan; I have
heard alot of women
say that wrestling is barbaric, and basically what
you said in your
article. And your right, it is very rare to find a female
that really likes
wrestling. I appreciate you saying so. I just have one
question.....Will you
marry me?
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ANOTHER VIEW ON VINCE
Written by reader:
MadSpector
How do I spell Clown?
V I N C E and here is why.
1. He makes the sport
the and the athletes in it and wrestling fans
across the board look
stupid. Somewhere alng the line the Clown
realized that he had
inferior ring talent so instead of going out and
getting some wrestlers
who can actually wrestle he adopts the "hey kids
look at every thing
else but are poor in ring product" approach to things
that has resulted in
him turning his end of the sport into a three ring
circus for retards. By
doing this, the Clown mocks the sport and the
hard work that these
men go through, not to mention the injuries, by
turning an art form
into a joke. The saddest part about all of this is
that the Clown has
tapped in to a fanbase that I could without. His
whole success depends
on the lack of wrestling knowledge that his
so called "fan" are
famous for. Without the Jerry Spinger Beerguzzler
“authority sucks”
crowd....the Clown would be left out in the cold.
2. He brings guys into
his fed that I wouldn’t hire to wash my car
ie.Paul "The Big Slow"
Wight...this is the Big Slow’s fourth year
in wrestling and he
has gotten worse in each of them. He’s out of
shape, he’s slow, and
for a guy who 7 feet tall and well over
400 lbs he’s not very
intimidating due to the fact he can’t move
around the ring very
well. So the clown signs him to a 10 yr contract,
the truth being that
the only reason this guy was signed was to show
up Bischoff. The Giant
is as much a waste of time in the WWF
as he was in WCW.
3. His signature on a
contract doesn’t mean jack $#!&. First
two examples that come
to mind are Bret Hart, whom he backed out
of a 20 yr contract
which resulted in the Clown getting knocked on
his ass at the
Survivor Series. The second example is Steve
Williams, who was
recently released and has a pretty good case
against the Clown for
breach of contract.
4. He has no class.
He’s an @$$hole and he plays one on TV.
An example of this can
be found on any non wrestling media in
which the clown gives
an interview, and his true clown colors show
brighter than ever. If
Vinne Mac is a symbol of our sport he could at
least honor the role
by not acting like a complete stooge on TV when
he’s trying to defend
the brand of garbage he calls entertainment.
Also, alot of the
stuff you see in the “Hitman: Hart” documentary goes
to show you what a
true snake this man really is.
5.He perpetuates the
fraud of wrestling being a soap opera. For this
the Clown needs to be
smacked from one side of the room to another.
To anyone out there
who wants to compare Days of our Lives to
300 lbs plus men
tossing each other around and putting their bodies on
the line on a nightly
basis, I have this to say to you:
GET A F$@$!!&&N
CLUE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If you want a soap
opera, go watch
one.....if you want a
show like NYPD Blue...than go watch NYPD Blue.
In fact, the best
thing for you to do is drop wrestling all together and turn
it to something
else...at least until you can tell the two totally different
types of entertainment
apart. But then again, the Clown can’t tell them
apart...so why should
I expect anything more from his fanbase.
6 The whole Steroid
crisis in 1994....I don’t care whether the Clown was
aquitted or not...as
far as I’m concerned he either knew about the distribution
of steriods to his
wrestlers or was directly involved in it....no amount
of E-MAILS will change
my opinion on this. I hold the Clown responsible
for the black eye that
was given wrestling during that whole incident. Any
owner or pres. of a
fed who is even remotly involved with anything like that,
including Bishoff, or
anyone one else for that matter, should be held
criminally responsible
for the damage it does to all that are left behind.
===========================================
NO
NEW ANGLES?
Written by reader:
immortal
No new angles are
possible.........
At least that's what
WCW keeps saying. While the WWF can still
innovate, WCW will not
even renovate. Time in time out this has been the
point. While the
Ministry of Darkness finds favors with some, others
disprove.
The Mean Street Posse,
the Godfather..........the list goes on and on. All of
these
are somewhat fresh and
new angles. Give credit where credit is due. But saying
that nothing new is
possible is no excuse. Admitting that they just can't do it
anymore is a better
answer. But what the hell? Humbly accepting it on Nitro,
by Bischoff, will not
earn ratings but further expose Nitro's weakness on
national TV.
Flair's trip in a
straight jacket was a blatant rip - off from Kane's angle.
Dragging the point too
far so as to bore the people has always been WCW's style,
and the jig at the
loony bin was unnecessary. Flair's new "nurse"
('Asia'/'Asya'?)
is again another
blatant rip-off attempt at Chyna. Come on! People do watch
the other channel. We
do know what happens on Raw.
DDP's attempted
rip-off of "The People's Champ" didn't go too far. The
Rock is by far the
most......... and DDP is/was/will never be anything close to
that. So DDP tried to
be the blue collar working man's champion which again
was a blatant rip off
from Steve Austin's persona which again failed to get off
the
ground. 'Coz
Austin is the toughest
S.O.B..............and DDP, well.....forget
it.
But wait. Isn't Randy
Macho Randolph King Savage Man Poffo supposed to be
WCW's version of the
Godfather? He's got Madusa, George, Miss Madness.
But wait again. Back
up a little bit. He wanted to come in as another
Austin-like
gimmick. Wait. Wait.
Wait. Isn't there Goldberg already? Whoa. Some booker
up there is obviously
more confused than we think he is. People say that Kevin
Nash will not book
himself to be a champion for too long as it will generate
too
much heat backstage,
since he can virtually book anything for himself. Well,
that's just another
excuse for the fact that he is already past his prime and
does
not want to expose his
limited wrestling skills head to head with anyone else in
the WWF, especially on
pay per views. The main question is, would he like to
wrestle some more and
make the best of the limited time he has in the ring to
make a name for
himself or would he rather prefer to let his old "Diesel"
gimmick
fans remember him as a
great booker rather than an average wrestler?
-The Immortal,
Mumbai(Bombay) India.
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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.
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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