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Issue # 288
Date:
Saturday August 28th, 1999 8:29 pm
The Wrestling Booking Sheet
FALL BRAWL LINEUP STILL
UNKNOWN
Reported by Dave
Meltzer of The Wrestling Observer Newsletter
There is still
absolutely nothing on the drawing board for the 9/12
Fall Brawl WCW PPV.
WCW was supposed to cut its first PPV channel
promotional piece for
the show this past week but cancelled filming
because nothing had
been decided.
its expected that the
main event will be Hulk Hogan defending the WCW
World Heavyweight
Championship against either Sting or Sid Vicious;
there will not be a
War Games this year (which may be a good thing,
considering the way
WCW has damaged a once can't-miss concept).
WWF SMACKDOWN! RATING
Reported by Dave
Scherer at:
http://www.1Wrestling.Com
The debut of WWF
Smackdown on the UPN network was a smashing success,
and actually allowed
UPN to beat CBS and WB for the night. UPN scored a
rare fourth place for
the evening powered by Smackdown.
Complete ratings
released Friday afternoon had Smackdown with a 4.2
rating and a 7.2
share. By comparison, Thunder had a 2.0 rating and
3.3 share. The TBS
numbers are based on the show's performance within
the TBS coverage
universe (roughly 70% of US TV households), while the
UPN figures are
measured against all US TV households since UPN is a
broadcast network.
Psychosis UNMASKED
Reported by Dave
Meltzer of The Wrestling Observer Newsletter & Dave
Scherer & Mike Johnson
at:
http://www.1Wrestling.com
In what may be the
biggest mask lost in
Mexico this year, Rey
Mysterio
Sr. (Mysterio Jr.'s
uncle) put up his hair against the mask of WCW
Cruiserweight
Psychosis. The match took place 8/26 in
Tijuana and was
billed as a teacher
vs. student match and promoted as the "event of the
century."
The plan was for
Psychosis to lose his mask in the match and to
voluntarily remove the
mask for good over the next few weeks on Nitro.
History has shown that
Eric Bischoff seems to have a natural dislike
for the masks that are
integral to the Lucha Libra concept; his
"protection" of
Juventud Guerrera Jr. after being unmasked shows us
that a push is far
from certain even if Psychosis does unmask. With the
masks design (inspired
by Jushin Liger) actually very striking, I would
not think this to be a
wise move on WCW's part…
Psychosis lost his
mask to Rey Mysterio, Sr. in a best of three falls
match at the Auditorio
de Tijuana. Mysterio Sr. played heel and had
help from Damien 666,
Halloween, & Juventud Guerrera.
ICP MAKE SURPRISE INDY
APPEARANCE
Reported by Dave
Meltzer of The Wrestling Observer Newsletter
The Insane Clown Posse
worked a Future Alliance show 8/21 in
Pottsville, PA. At the 3:00
PM that day, who were performing the
previous night in
Scranton, PA, called the building and said that they
saw about the show
scanning the internet and wanted to wrestle on it.
The promotion,
thinking it was just a prank and it wasn't ICP, gave
them directions. ICP
called two more times; when the promoters *69'd
the call they got a
Detroit area code and figured it was a practical
joke, not realizing
that ICP was calling on a cell phone with a Detroit
area code. An hour
before the show their tour bus arrived in the
parking lot…
LINE OF THE WEEK
Written by Dave
Meltzer of The Wrestling Observer Newsletter
In reference to Jerry
Lawler acting like he didn't know Miss Kitty
(Stacy Carter) when
Jarrett introduced her on RAW:
"She's the 16-year-old
you were picking up at the softball game when
your were only pushing
40. All I could think about was how weird the
world has become when
she's got a shot at being the First Lady of
Memphis."
WRESTLING OBSERVER
SUBSCRIPTION
INFO
The Wrestling Observer
is usually cited as the most top source anywhere
when it comes to the
wrestling media. As a diehard subscriber of many
years, I would give
The Observer my highest recommendation. To
subscribe, send $11
for 4 issues to:
The Wrestling Observer
P.O. Box 1228
Campbell, CA
95009-1228
DUDLEY's OFFICIALLY
SIGN WITH THE WWF
Reported by Dave
Scherer at:
http://www.1Wrestling.Com
Scherer confirms that
the Dudley's have signed three year deals with
the WWF and will start
on Tuesday night at the Smackdown tapings in
Worcester, MA. No word
yet on whether Sign Guy Dudley will be a part
of the team or not.
PWBTS INTERACTIVE
NEWSBOARD
Our very own Fritz
Capp is the guiding light behind Pro Wrestling
Between the Sheets,
and
http://www.pwbts.com has a new feature that you
should all check out.
The new PWBTS message
board is up and running. It is very easy to
use...only takes
seconds to sign up and the topics are already starting
to grow. If you cannot
take a minute to come over, can you at least
take a second to tell
a friend because the hardest part is getting
everyone to know that
an interactive message board is actually up and
running. Hopefully I
will see everyone there because I know that we
could all have some
great debates.
http://pwbts.com
===========================================
ADVERTISEMENTS
Stone Cold Steve
Austin and Debra will be appearing at a Monster Truck
Show at Beech Bend
Raceway in Bowling Green, Kentucky on Friday,
September 24. For
ticket information, call (270) 782-1138.
The AWF is open for
business. The AWF is the American Wrestling
Federation. We are
looking for original wrestlers who have some
previous experience in
the world of E-Wrestling. If you are interested
please email the staff
at
awfprez61 or go check out the
site at
http://awef.cjb.net Hope to see you in the ring soon!
Ultimate Pro Wrestling
has two upcoming shows in the
Southern
California
area.
See them Friday,
September 3rd at The Galaxy Concert Theatre in
Santa
Ana
(For ticket info call (714) 957-0600) and September 17 at
The Coach
House in
San Juan Capistrano (For
ticket info call (949) 496-8930).
ULTIMATE PRO WRESTLING
shows are nothing short of an assault on your
senses. We offer a
combination of the most talented up and coming
wrestlers, scantily
clad babes, sick angles and a full bar to wash it
all down. YOU
ARE GOING TO EXPERIENCE
ENTERTAINMENT OVERLOAD ! ! !
Some of the sick and
twisted individuals appearing on these shows are:
Hard Core Kid,
"LoverBoy" Aaron Baker, The Ballard Brothers, "Smelly"
Mark Bell, "Mad Dog"
Mike Bell, Jobbers-r-us, The Fallen Angel, Bad Boy
Basil, "Who's Your
Daddy?" Dempsey, Psycho Matt Hall, Suicide Kid,
Staz, "Bad Bones" Hill
& Howard, Justin Sane, Rebel Without a Cause,
Bonecrusher Mukes,
Sylvester The Escapee, Rio Storm, Caryn "Carnage"
Mower, and the always
entertaining Big Schwag! For all of the details,
go to
http://www.ultimateuniversity.com/
===========================================
JERICHO COMMENTARY
Below we present Chris
Jericho's latest commentary to his fans,
courtesy of the
official website of Chris Jericho:
http://www.ChrisJericho.Com
08/27/99
NP:Zakk Wylde's Black
Label Society-Sonic Brew
Hello Jerichoholics!
Well, I just came off
of another road trip and everything is still
going smashingly! I
love the WWF so far! I just had my first
appearance in my
hometown Winnipeg Arena and it was a memorable one for
sure!
Due to a problem in
Miami, The Rock wasn't able to make his flight into
the Peg. The only man
who could save the show was your party host
himself!
Once announced that I
would be taking the Rock's place in the main
event, refunds were
offered, but much to my relief, only 75 of the
11,500 in attendance
did so. I told you Y2J is the saviour of the
WWF!!!
Speaking of the Peg, I
had a great visit there as well, seeing friends
and family and making
a guest vocal appearance at a
THC show. The band
is so awesome, they
just need a break. Check out their website and if
you own a record
label, sign em up!! We did a blazing version of Iron
Maiden's The Trooper
and I can't wait for another Fozzy gig, which is
in the works right
now!
Good luck to ECW with
their new show.
Zakk Wylde, guitarist
extraordinaire, was at Summerslam. We had a
great conversation
about his days with Ozzy and he was a great guy.
I'm a big fan of his
and he even made a cameo during the hardcore match!
The movie of the week
is Groundhog Day. Bill Murray is outstanding in
this one.
Just a quick note, I
gotta split! Be good to one another and God Bless
You!!!
~Chris Jericho
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Straight Shooting
By: Fritz Capp (pwbts)
August 28, 1999
http://pwbts.com
PWBTS 2000
Well I have to say
it...for the first time in a long long long time I
sat down with an open
mind looking forward to seeing what Paul Heyman's
ECW had to offer up
for its first national broadcast. I must say that
even though it was
more an introductory for the people who never had
the pleasure of seeing
ECW before, it was still not half bad. I loved
the opening intro for
the show. It was the most professional piece I
have ever seen ECW do.
The match with Rob Van Dam vs. Jerry Lynn, while
being a little drawn
out and maybe had a few to many hype blurbs
through it, did give
the people a taste of the extreme style of
wrestling that ECW
does offer. I still cannot believe they have that
damn whistle blowing
throughout the match but I am sure Fonzie serves
some purpose although
I am hard pressed to figure out what that could
possibly be.
The one thing I have
to say is TAZ has improved so much on the mic
since the last time I
saw him do a promo. Remember now, it has been
over 2 years since I
last watched ECW, except for the one Hardcore
Heaven PPV I believe
it was which was Sandman's last one. So while many
of you have seen Taz's
improvement I didn't so it was refreshing to
see. All in all to
honestly rate a show you have to see a couple shows
but I have to be
honest, I can't wait until the next one.
And with that I'm
outta here. Remember wrestling is nothing more than
what it appears to be.
===========================================
ROUNDING THE SQUARED
CIRCLE
"ECW, ECW, ECW ......
EC-F'N-W"
OR
"WELCOME TO THE
REAL WORLD OF HARDCORE"
BY
SAMJERRY
Visit My Home Page At:
http://members.aol.com/samjerry
Judging by the amount
of mail I've received in the past 22 hours, TNN
made one heck of a
decision to give ECW national TV exposure. I have
received a lot of mail
from people who have never before had the
pleasure of watching
ECW. Many people commented about the crowd
cheering for the
promotion ... "ECW, ECW, ECW." They wanted to know if
that's a common
occurrence. I told then ut certainly is. ECW fans are
loyal and they let the
wrestlers know they appreciate the show they are
seeing.
A lot of people said
that this was their first exposure to Rob "Mr.
PPV" Van Dam and
already he is one of their favorite wrestlers. I
consider him to be the
best wrestler in the world. Others wondered
about Sabu, "The Most
Suicidal, Homicidal, Genocidal Wrestler In The
World" and why he is
"banned" from every arena in the country. Against
doctors orders, Sabu
kept getting involved in matches while healing
from a fractured jaw.
Justin Credible, along with Lance Storm and
Jason, engineered the
ban. Not to worry, Sabu is presently on tour in
Japan. When he
returns, you are in for a show. When Sabu and RVD teamed
up and were ECW Tag
Team Champions, the moves they performed were
nothing short of
A-F'N-Mazing,
Another question
related to what TNN will and won allow. TNN will allow
blood (Note to WCW,
people do bleed), however, have banned cursing and
barbed wire. Those
that saw what Taz did to Yoshohiro Tajiri with
barbed wire will
understand why. TNN executives were at the PPV where
Taz stuffed it down
Tajiri's throat and wrapped his face in it. Tajiri
wasn't winning too
many beauty contests before it happened, imagine
what he looked like
afterward.
Then there were those
that asked about the ECW Champion Taz. Taz may be
the only wrestler that
doesn't need a gimmick. As Joey Styles says, he
is just a nasty SOB.
If I had to pick one man I wouldn't want to meet
in a dark alley, or
get PO'd at me, it would be Taz. You saw a sample
of the Suplexes he
uses last night. he is known as "The Human Suplex
Machine" because of
the wide variety he uses.
Stay tuned, it
promises to be one hell of a ride. Add ECW on TNN to the
list of migraines Good
King Eric and WCW are going to be experiencing.
Vince McMahon and The
WWF also better pay attention. "ECW, ECW, ECW."
===========================================
ROUNDING THE SQUARED
CIRCLE
ECW ON TNN - AUGUST
27, 1999 - PHILADELPHIA, PA
BY
SAMJERRY
Visit My Home Page At:
http://members.aol.com/samjerry
This was ECW's debut
on TNN. The original plan was for the debut
program to be a show
taped in Toledo, Ohio. ECW Owner Paul Heyman was
unhappy with how the
show looked, so changed it to an "Introduction to
ECW," showcasing ECW's
talent. Announcer Joey Styles was at the
announcers position.
The show began with
The Dudley Boyz Power Bombing Balls Mahoney thru a
flaming table. Joey
said "This is not WCW, this is not the WWF, this is
ECW on TNN," and lead
us into the ECW opening.
Joey talked named
people who have held the ECW TV Title, including
Chris Jericho, Dean
Malenko, Eddie Guerrero, 2 Cold Scorpio, Bam Bam
Bigelow and Taz, but
Rob "Mr. PPV Van Dam (RVD) is perhaps the greatest
TV Champion.
The first match was
from the Hardcore Heaven '99 PPV, held in Toledo,
Ohio. It pitted RVD
(C) v, Jerry Lynn, for the ECW TV Title, that RVD
has held since April
4, 1998, the longest reigning TV Champion in
history. RVD got a
major pop and played to the crowd. The match was a
highlight reel of fast
and furious action, with many aerial and high
risk moves by both
men. RVD broke Lynn's nose when e hit him with a
VanDaminator early in
the match. There were all kinds of Springboard
moves off the ropes.
Lynn survived several VanDaminator's, and even hit
one of his own. He got
up from a RVD Five Star Frog Splash, something
that is never done.
Lynn nailed RVD with a Sunset Flip, into a Power
Bomb off the apron and
put him thru a table at ringside. RVD's manager
Bill Alfonso got
involved in the action and took a big chair shot from
Lynn. Lynn took Van
Dam to the absolute limit and almost defeated him.
He shook off a Split
Leg Moonsault. The crowd chanted "RVD" many times
during the match. In
the end, Van Dam won after hitting a Corkscrew Leg
Drop and a second Five
Star Frog Splash.
Winner - Rob "Mr. PPV"
Van Dam - Retained the ECW TV Title
Winner - Jerry Lynn -
He took RVD to the limit
Winners - The fans and
viewers. This was a hell of a match
Styles did a promo for
Roller Jam. It follows ECW on TNN and hyped ECW
tapes and merchandise.
Those new to ECW better get used to hearing
promos for every tape
ECW ever made.
Styles talked about
the ECW Championship and all that tried and failed
to win it. He
mentioned Stone Cold Steve Austin, Mic Foley, Chris
Benoit, Saturn, Farooq
and Konnan.
We saw a clip of Shane
"The Franchise" Douglas winning the NWA
Championship on August
27, 1994, throwing the Belt away and declaring
himself the first ECW
Champion. The title has been held by Raven, Hak,
Terry Funk, Bam Bam
Bigelow, Sabu (who is currently banned from
participating in any
arena in the USA) and the current champion, Taz.
The next match was for
the ECW Championship pitting Taz (C) v. Rhino,
accompanied by Steve
Corino. Taz warned Rhino prior to the match that
he was going to choke
him out and make him bleed. He said his trademark
"Beat me if you can,
survive if I let you." Rhino began fast with a
Power Bomb.
Unfortunately that was about the only move he got in. Taz
got immediately up and
tore him apart. He hit him with a Head and Arm
TazPlex, and Overhead
Belly-to-Belly TazPlex and then brought a table
in and leaned it
against a corner. He then demolished Rhino with a
Hardway TazPlex that
put Rhino thru the table. From there it was into
the TazMission and
case closed on Rhino. Joey said sooner or later Taz
will get his hands on
Corino. Corino would be well advised to leave the
galaxy.
Winner - Taz -
Retained the ECW Championship
Loser - Rhino - He is
lucky to have walked away
Next up was a short
highlight reel of Sabu, The most suicidal,
Homicidal, Genocidal
wrestler in the world. There is no risk too great
for Sabu.
We met Little Spike
Dudley (LSD) as we saw the end of a match v. Big
Sal E. Graziano, a 600
pound hunk of flab with legs. LSD hit The Acid
Drop and won the
match. He is known as The Giant Killer.
We then saw Jason,
Justin Credible, Dawn Marie and Cyrus backstage.
They each told us how
wonderful they are.
Joey gave ECW's
schedule for most of September.
We then saw a music
video "Bawitdaba" by Kid Rock. As it ran we saw
short clips of most of
ECW's roster. Included were: Tommy Dreamer,
Francine, Balls
Mahoney, Super Crazy, Little Guido, Chris Chetti, New
Jack, Uganda, LSD, Axl
Rotten, Nova, Danny Doring, Roadkill, Lance
Storm, Dawn Marie,
Justin Credible, Jerry Lynn, RVD, Sabu, Taz and
Steve Corino.
The show closed with
Taz somewhere in the dark talking about how ECW is
known for barbed wire,
bats, flaming tables and other weapons, all of
which are manufactured
by various Divisions of The Acme Corporation,
but his hands are his
weapons. As he spoke, we saw clips of him
defeating Shane
Douglas, Bam Bam Bigelow, Chris Jericho, 2 Cold
Scorpio, Chris Candido
and Jerry Lawler, who he called an "idiot" and a
"schmuck." He said he
is the guy your parents warned you about and is
no role model. He
lives by the rule "Kill or be Killed." He closed with
his trademark line
"Beat me if you can, survive if I let you."
===========================================
The Hardcore Truth
By Josh Hewitt (San316born)
That was the end of
it. My girlfriend, Kristina, after the WWF week on
MTV, was sick and
tired of wrestling. She had, in a way, had enough.
So, she took me on the
town, to escape the wrestling monster.
First, we went out to
eat at a local establishment....but a number of
the people there were
wearing Austin 3:16 shirts and other
paraphanalia. Then we
went to the mall, but all the clothing stores
had wrestling tee
shirts (including one Life Size
cardboard cutout of
Austin himself), and the music store was
playing"WWF the
Music vol 3". So then
we cruised to the Video Store, where numerous
wrestling videos were
not only available to rent, but also for sale (I
got my copy of DX's
video previously viewed for 4 bucks....ha, S*CK
that, Capitalistic
Stooge McMahon!).
Finally, we headed to
the grocery store, where we not only picked up
some beer, red wine,
and croissants--but I got two cases of
"BackBreaker Blue"
BodySlam drinks.
Now, the point of this
story isn't to tell you its futile to try to
escape
wrestling....you will all be assimilated....BUT its caused
me
to think of the people
critizing wrestling as a "fad".
Let me ask you this,
what other fad (besides the New Kids on the Block,
who had EVERYTHING
with their names on it....my ex-girlfriend those
days was using NKOTB
tampons, I'm sure) has had soooo much merchandise?
And secondly, back in
the early to middle 80's, when wrestling was
more popular than the
prettiest girl at the dance, were there so many
people buying this
stuff? I mean, sure, Hulk Hogan had T-shirts,
bandannas, and an
album, and other such stuff, but did you know anyone
who owned any of it?
Sure, I had a Hulkster action figure (they are
NOT
dolls), but beyond
that?
Wrestling's success in
this age has stemmed from its marketability,
and as long as that
marketability is there, then wrestling will be as
well.
Now, the point of all
this is not just to address critics. Sure, the
Evening News with Dan
Rather will tell you that buying stock in the WWF
is a bad idea. Sure,
ESPN will still joke about wrestling not being a
real sport. And yes,
Sally Jesse Rapheal will still refuse to do a
show "Wrestlers
reunite with long lost family members". But, the
wrestling fans of the
world take heart: simply put, Austin is as big
as he is today because
he's not just a person, he's a T-shirt selling
machine. The Rock will
continue to give you the "People's Sunglasses".
Goldberg will wonder
"Who's Next" to buy his statues, and the
Undertaker will
continue selling comic books. Now, I
gotta go back to my
real job, or I'm NEVER gonna be able to afford that
collection set of
WrestleMania videos.
===========================================
Being Hated Is An
Art...
Written by reader:
Matt Waller (wally)
I woud like to respond
to the guy that said they need to get rid of
wrestlers in WCW to
help them out. He used the Cat as an example.. I
believe if he thinks
the Cat is expandable he wouldn't have used him as
an example. If you use
him as an example its obvious what he is doing
is important.
===========================================
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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