The Wrestling Booking Sheet online newsletter

Issue # 267

Date: Sunday July 11th, 1999 12:43 pm

The Wrestling Booking Sheet

Hart expected to return to do program with Hogan in Sept.
Sunday, July 11, 1999
By Mike Mooneyham

Bret Hart made his long-awaited return to WCW last week on Nitro. His
future in the business, however, is no clearer now than it has been
over the past several months.

Hart, who was given as much time as he wanted for the interview and
freedom to say whatever he wished, was visibly shaken and expressed
mixed emotions as to his future, but it is expected that he will return
to do a program with Hulk Hogan in September.

Hogan recently claimed that he and Hart, who often have not seen eye to
eye on issues (such as Hogan refusing to pass the torch to Hart near
the end of Hogan's WWF run), have been brought together by the death of
Owen. Hogan met recently in Chicago with Hart and Eric Bischoff to
discuss the immediate future of the company.

Hart opened his Nitro interview at the Georgia Dome by talking about
his late brother, saying that he was his closest brother and that they
never once had an argument. He also said that life hadn't gone quite
the way he had planned, and added that he had even considered moving on
to another field. Being part of Nitro Monday night probably convinced
him he's in the wrong business.

The Bret Hart video package put together by Mike Tenay was one of the
few bright spots on an otherwise horrible show that included another
mercifully short Kevin Nash-Sid Vicious match and the brief return of
Bill Goldberg. Announcer Tony Shiavone sold Goldberg's "surprise"
appearance as if it were the Second Coming, although behind the scenes
Goldberg has been very unhappy with his status in WCW.

Bischoff has been working feverishly with Goldberg's agent, and even
though he has three years left on his contract, Goldberg reportedly has
already made contact with Steve Austin concerning a major program with
him in the future. Goldberg is holding out for a restructured contract
that would boost his current $800,000 salary to the $1.5 million range
and would put him in the same ball park as Randy Savage, Diamond Dallas
Page and Sting.

Goldberg reportedly was furious over remarks made by Hogan on a recent
radio show.

Hogan, who admitted to being the "best chess player" in the locker
room, alluded to Goldberg when he talked about "an unnamed wrestler who
has received the largest WCW push in years, yet is on the verge of
self-destructing." Hogan also questioned Goldberg's desire in an
interview with Larry King,

Last week's Nitro was a disappointment on a number of levels. Most
mind-boggling was the fact that WCW was in its backyard and, instead of
putting on a memorable show, instead delivered a Nitro comparable to
its last outing at the Georgia Dome. That show featured the sad
spectacle of Kevin Nash "laying down" for Hulk Hogan and giving him the
WCW strap, and hometown favorite Goldberg only being used for a run-in
at the end of the show.

The crowd at the Georgia Dome was announced at more than 25,000,
although paid attendance was 19,000. Cameras - not so strategically -
showed rows of vacant seats behind DJ Ran as he was spinning his CDs,
then again revealed scores of empty cheap seats as the building was
wisely partitioned off. It might also be noted that the WWF sold more
than 19,000 tickets the first day for its Georgia Dome show on Oct. 11.

Sid Eudy and Randy Savage laid the groundwork early as they interfered
in the opening match between Juventud Guerrera and Chavo Guerrero,
effectively ruining the best bout on the show and sacrificing it for
the sake of a horrible angle.

The aptly named heavy metal group Megadeath appeared as out of place on
a WCW show as rapper Master P and his entourage have the past month.
Fitting in more with the surroundings were the "West Texas Rednecks" -
Curt Hennig, Bobby Duncum Jr., Barry Windham and Kendall Windham -
whose popularity has demonstrated how out of touch the WCW braintrust
is. Only about 2,000 fans stayed on for an additional 30 minutes of
Megadeath after Nitro. That segment drew a show-low 2.1 and was more
than tripled in the ratings by the 6.6 posted by the Rock-Hunter Hearst
Helmsley cage match on Raw.

The minute-and-a-half main event between Nash and Sid was marred by the
increasingly annoying end-of-show run-ins that featured an obviously
bogus Sting (Jeff Farmer) while fans continued to chant "Goldberg."

Perhaps Roddy Piper put it best when, in yet another incoherent
interview, he declared that "Crap is crap." The WCW braintrust partly
attributed the show's low rating to the Fourth of July holiday, but
that's hardly an excuse for the show's poor quality. More inexcusable
is the atrocious booking and the hypocritical stance being taken by the
company.

• ACW will hold an eight-match card July 23 at Ridge Baptist Church in
Summerville. The lineup is: Hoss vs. The Gambler for ACW heavyweight
title; George South vs. Bubba Shults; Tony Charles and Johnny Blade vs.
The Menace and The Spoiler; Crazy Train vs. Big Jack Spurrs; Wildcat
vs. Kevin Anderson; Amos Jones vs. Adam Briggs; Jess Bradley vs. Shadow
Stalker; and Kashmir Von Troy vs. Tank Abrams.

Mike Mooneyham can be reached by phone at (843) 937-5517 or by e-mail
at mooneyham. 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.
===========================================
QUOTES FROM THE PAST...
MADUSA SHARES HER VIEWS ON STEVE AUSTIN
Before Steve Austin became the biggest star in the industry, he was a
promising
mid-card talent in WCW. While many were impressed, few sensed his
ultimate potential. Madusa spent a year as Austin's part-time valet
(from 11/91-11/92), and she shared her thoughts of Austin in this 1993
interview with Wade Keller of The Pro
Wrestling Torch:

Keller: "What is your impression of a wrestler many have anointed the
next superstar, the next franchise-Steve Austin?"

Madusa: "Steve is a very young wrestler who has alot of ideas and
feelings. He is very personal. He and I have spoken quite a bit about
the business and our talent and our characters. I think at the
beginning, he gave me alot of respect and he asked me alot of questions
about what I thought about his match, what I thought about what he did
in his match. It made me feel good, I was getting respect from even
male wrestlers. There are people like Steve and a few other men who
have asked me and that is the greatest feeling to get respect in this
business. Steve is a hell of a talent and I think he'll go far if he
keeps focusing like he is. His feelings get hurt really easily. If a
joke or a rib is played on him, he takes it really to heart. He is a
very deep and sensitive guy, a very emotional guy.

Keller: With all of the praise that is piled on him as a big part of
this business, does
he show signs of developing an ego that could hurt his standing with
some other wrestlers?

Madusa: No. He's a very personal guy. He doesn't have any goal other
than to do
good. He loves the business. But he is a penny-pincher. He saved his
money. I mean, this guy wouldn't buy a pair of boots for ten years.
He is very economical.

Torch Talk, conducted on March 14th, 1993
To subscribe to The Pro Wrestling Torch, send $36 for 20 issues to:
The Pro Wrestling Torch
P.O. Box 201844
Minneapolis, MN 55420
===========================================
ROUNDING THE SQUARED CIRCLE
"RANDY, THE REAL SAVAGE"
OR
"SNAP INTO A SLIM GIRL, OH YEAH"
BY SAMJERRY
Visit my Home Page: http://members.aol.com/samjerry

In my Article of July 6, 1999, I touched on something that happened on
NITRO this past Monday night. One of my "Items" related to the "New And
Improved, Buffed Macho Man" roughing up his girlfriend Gorgeous George
and Tori Wilson to end the program. At the time, it wasn't clear if
this was part of the angle. Info since then is that it was not. The
angle being played was that Big Soxy had kidnapped George the previous
week, and Tori had gone along willingly. After his match against
Vicious Sid, Big Soxy told The Buffed One that he could "find what's
left of your girlfriend in my locker room." Rushing to reunite with his
beloved, The Buffed One proceeded to scream at her and then shove her
and slap Tori twice. What the story line called for was for him to
shout at George, period. He apparently took the physical action on his
own.

Since his return, Savage has been a bit stranger than usual. It is
reported that Good King Eric (GKE) was unhappy at the length of his
comments whenever he has had the mic and at some of the stuff he has
been saying. He injured Little Slick Ric (Charles Robinson) with an
elbow drop that put him in the hospital with an injury to his chest and
lungs. Now he has gone completely off the deep end by manhandling two
females, live in front of a national TV audience. As well as being
completely wrong, it is the kind of publicity WCW and wrestling can do
without. The critics of wrestling will have a field day with this. I
can just picture Phil Mushnick salivating over his keyboard as he tears
the sport a new rectal orifice. Booby The Brain-Dead calls Savage "The
most dangerous man in wrestling," and it looks like in this case he is
110% correct.

WCW should, no make that must, suspend him indefinitely and have him
seek counseling. There is something obviously wrong with him and it
needs to be corrected before he hurts another person. Hitting a woman
cannot, and must not be tolerated. If this is swept under the rug, it
is a licensee that any behavior will be overlooked, no matter how
revolting. I wouldn't blame Ms. Wilson if she took legal action against
him. It certainly appears that she has a stronger case then Ms.
Sweetness does against the WWF.
===========================================
AN INSIDER VIEW
Written by reader: GPSwizard

Dear Steve,
For twelve years now I have been wresting profesionally. Wresting is a
cut throat business. For the workers no players association or union;
there are very few
making the star money and the rest of us are working day jobs to
survive. It is not about talent it is about politics. As you well know
if you have been around, and it seems you have. I left football because
I love wrestling and still do. Vince and Eric have not ruined
wrestling as one may think. The ratings are great, sponsorship is up
and for the average mark they can sit at home, and see 14 hours of
wrestling on
tv each week. Even Nascar doesn't have that, or any other sport outside
of the NFL. Of course football has a season and wrestling is a year
round deal.

Bottom line, wrestling mimmicks society, violence, sex, and weirdness
is all
a part of where we are today in the USA. I guess the feelings I have
after bumping all these years is too much microphone, too much stomp
and kick, too much fist, too many run ins. To much hokey Mexican stuff
and not enough pure wrestling. When we as workers grab a hold the fans
yell boring, so hence we have to jitterbug or for
the marks we call it high spots.

The problem is very few tell a wrestling story, there is to much shades
of gray, there should be a pure babyface and a nasty heal, good workers
and there is a bunch in both companies, need to get back to wrestling.
The really excellant workers like
Hart, Beautiful Bobby, Barry Horowitz, Steamboat, these guys are great
but they are either retired or never really had a oppertunity to be on
top. Yet if your 6-10 and can talk those are the guys that get the
push. Take Goldberg, looks good, got a great gimmick and has come on,
and has drawn money, but can he work, not really. But there are alot of
guys that can't work, look at Knobbs and Virgil, please spare us.

Flair needs to keep his suit on, Piper needs to keep doing movies,
Bagwell, Malenko and Finley, push those guys. What the sport needs is
intergrity, you don't see any 50 year old NFL guys, why is that, your
skills erode, my friend.

What I like about Vince is he took mid card guys, independent guys and
green guys and he is kicking butt in the ratings. Maybe Eric should
take a page out of that success and use the older talent to push the
new guys. Oh yes, I forgot one thing, politics.
===========================================
ROUNDING THE SQUARED CIRCLE
"THATS ALL I CAN STAND, I CAN'T STANDS NO MORE"
OR
"DUMP A LOSER, SAVE A FEDERATION"
BY SAMJERRY

Visit my Home Page: http://members.aol.com/samjerry

The time for action has come. WCW is falling apart and there doesn't
seem to be any hope of saving it under the present management. Witness:
The "Biggest" NITRO of 1999, featuring the return of The Canadian
Crybaby and Goldbrick, lost the ratings to a taped RAW by a 2-to-1
margin; The WWF has won the Monday Night Ratings every week for the
past six months; Sellouts at House Shows have dropped from the 60%
range to the low 20's in the past year; Revenues are down; More and
more reports of unhappiness in the locker room; PPV buy rates are
dropping faster than Fat Tony can scarf down another Double
Cheeseburger; and Free tickets are being given out to televised shows
so the arena doesn't look empty.

It has become apparent that Good King Eric doesn't have a clue how to
turn things around. He still has wrestlers doing the booking; he pedals
a line that ratings aren't important, that sponsors are. If you believe
sponsors will keep knocking down the doors as the situation worsens,
I've got a bunch of slightly moist acreage to sell you in the
Everglades; He brings in Rap Artists and Heavy Metal Bands that are
booed off the stage; he still allows the Geriatrics to run the show,
etc., etc. HE MUST GO.

How can we accomplish this? We can start by boycotting WCW shows,
carrying banners to the shows we have already purchased tickets to (if
they aren't confiscated by The WCW Thought Police) that give our
feelings. Things like "Eric Must Go," "Evict Eric," "Save WCW, Dump
Bischoff," "Retire Hogan" (any number of names would fit here), "Dump
Dirtbag," "WCW - YES, BISCHOFF - NO," and "Oust The Oldies." I have
confidence that you can come up with some very creative ones.

The sooner we get started, the sooner we may be able to get things
turned around. We the fans are being short changed. We are forced to
endure losers like The Cat, Horrible Horace, and The Gay Caballeros,
while the matches we want to see are cut short or nonexistent. It can
be done if we put our minds and effort to it.

Join The Rounding The Squared Circle Crusade To Save WCW. I am getting
more and more mail about how badly things are in WCW, and items I read
in the various Newsletters say you are unhappy with the way things are.
Let's get them changed.
===========================================
New Dimension Wrestling Daily News/Gossip
Sunday, July 11, 1999
-Hillbilly Cousin Luke, Tommy Cairo, & Kid USA were late scratches off
the
New Dimension Wrestling show in Columbia, SC this past Friday night.
All
three wrestlers were not licensed in the state of South Carolina to
wrestle
and the company came under a budget cut from the baseball team in
Columbia.
All three wrestlers worked the next night in Concord, NC.

-NDW Wrestler Beastmaster Rick Link was a no show this past Saturday in
Concord, NC. The company wanted Link to wear a mask to the ring in his
scheduled match with Hillbilly Cousin Luke and then reveal at the end
that it
was Rick Link he was wrestling. Link thought the idea was not very
creative
and decided not to show for the show.

New Dimension Wrestling Rankings: (as of July 11, 1999)
Champion: Otto Schwanz
1. Venom 6. Brute Shooter
2. Rick Link 7. Nite-Stic Eddie
Brown
3. Manny Fernandez 8. Cham Pain
4. Ricky Morton 9. Dirty White Boy
5. Mike Gunner 10. Gravedigger

New Dimension Wrestling Schedule (mid-August):
Fri., July 23, 1999 Danville, VA Dan Daniel Memorial
Park, Time
TBA
Sat., July 24, 1999 Burlington, NC Burl. Athletic Stadium,
Time TBA
Thur., July 29, 1999 W-S, NC Ernie Shore Field, Time TBA
Fri., July 30, 1999 Lenoir City, TN Roane County Fair,
7:30p.m.
Thur., Aug. 5, 1999 Salem, VA Salem Memorial Baseball
Stadium,
TBA
Fri., Aug. 6, 1999 Tazewell, VA Tazewell County Fair,
7:30p.m.
Sat., Aug. 7, 1999 Thomasville, NC National Guard Armory,
7:30p.m.
Mon., Aug. 9, 1999 Garrett, MD McHenry County Fair,
8:00p.m.
Wed., Aug. 11, 1999 Wise, VA VA-KY District Fair,
7:30p.m.
Sat., Aug. 14, 1999 Charleston, WV Watt Powell Park, TBA

New Dimension Wrestling Roll Call of Champions
NDW Heavyweight Champion: Otto Schwanz (7/4/99)
NDW U.S. Heavyweight Champion: Mr. Excellent (5/29/98)
NDW Light Heavyweight Champion: Cham Pain (6/3/99)
NDW Tag Team Champions: Vacant (6/3/99)
NDW Women's Champion: Bambi (4/3/99)
World's Brass Knuckles Champion: Beastmaster Rick Link (12/3/98)

New Dimension Wrestling hotline: 336-882-4921 24 hours a day, 7
days a week
New Dimension Wrestling worldwide website: www.ndwwrestling.com
For all of the latest news, results, rankings, upcoming shows,
merchandise, and wrestling school visit the hottest independent
wrestling website on the web today!!!!

Or write to:
New Dimension Wrestling, P.O. Box 10211, Greensboro, NC 27404-0211.

New Dimension Wrestling merchandise: Mail payment to NDW P.O. Box
address,
e-mail at CPlano or call 336-882-4921. T-shirts, hats, and
videos,
calenders, pens, are for sale at reasonable prices!!!

NDW/T-N-T Hardcore School of Wrestling, Rick Link, Instructor, call
336-218-7677, 336-882-4921 or e-mail at CPlano. Serious
applicants
only need apply. Training to be wrestlers, managers, valets, and
referees.

Boogie D's Wrestling Show, every Monday afternoon at 4:50p.m., on
Greensboro,
NC's hottest hip-hop and R&B radio station 102 JAMZ.

Andy Durham Sports Show, every Tuesday night on 950AM WPET, Greensboro,
with your hosts Andy Durham & Bruce Mitchell, 7:00p.m.
Ripley Von Slam's Slamfest, every Tuesday night on 89.3FM WSOE,
Burlington,
NC, 6:00p.m.

That's all for today!!!!
Chris Plano
New Dimension Wrestling, LLC
===========================================
SSW News presented by http://surf.to/ssw
Summer Bash 99 results
Chuck Jones, Slammin' Sam, and Joe Fillers beat Tennessee Equalizer,
Rob Valor, and The Memphis Body Guard #2.........Wayne Rogers w/ The
Manin Black pinned Brian Logan...... Ricky Harrison beat The War
Machine for The Appalachian Title.... The Duke pinned Jimmy Valiant
after Chuck Jones turned on Valiant..... Chuck Jones won an underdog
Battle Royal...... Steve Flynn & K.C. Thunder won the Tag Titles in a 3
way out lasting Death and Destruction and The Christian Brothers....
SSW Champion Iron Cross pinned"Handsome" Beau James w/ PJ Sharp

Rankings: SSW Heavyweight Champion: Iron Cross
1.Ricky Harrison (Appalachian Champion)...2.Wayne Rogers...3.Beau
James... 4.War Machine...5.Roger Anderson...6. Steve Flynn...7.Jimmy
Valiant...8. Danny Christian...9.Heinrich Franz Keller...10.Chuck Jones

SSW Tag Team Champions: 1st Family KC Thunder & Steve Flynn
1.The Christian Brothers...2.Death & Destruction...3.Ricky Harrison &
Jimmy Valiant...4.Joe Fillers and Slammin' Sam...5.The Memphis Body
Guards

Watch SSW Sunday July 18th at 2PM on UPN 30 WAPK
Upcoming Events•Weds. Aug. 4, Haysi, VA Dickson Co. Fair
Iron Cross, Beau James, Death and Destruction and more!!!
•Sat. Aug. 7th, Kingsport, TN Civic Auditorium
SSW Title Iron Cross vs. Wayne Rogers
SSW Tag Titles Steve Flynn & KC Thunder vs. Death & Destruction
"Handsome" Beau James vs. Brian Logan
•Sat. Sept. 4th, Big Stone Gap, VA Carnes Gym
•Sat. Sept. 11th, Newport, TN Nat'l Guard
•Sat. Sept. 18th, Kingsport, TN Civic Auditorium
http://surf.to/kingofkingsport
===========================================
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