|
Issue # 308
Date:
Sunday September 12th, 1999 1:02 pm
The Wrestling Booking Sheet
TAZ GOING TO THE WWF
Reported by Dave
Scherer at:
http://www.1wrestling.com
Scherer reports that
ECW World Heavyweight Champion Taz is close to an
agreement bringing him
to the World Wrestling Federation.
Taz is currently under
a handshake agreement that is valid until
12/31/1999; he is expected to
honor that agreement. Despite numerous
reports to the
contrary, Taz did not sign the agreement presented to
him late last month.
It is expected that the WWF will announce the
deal as soon as it is
completed, possibly as early as this week.
How this affects his
title match on 9/19 against Masato Tanaka is
unclear; if Taz will
be around until 12/31, we may see a delay in the
switch, enabling Rob
Van Dam to get the coveted victory over the
champion.
As a side note, Taz is
obviously the wrestler Jim Ross was referring to
in his 'Ross Report'.
BISCHOFF
WON'T BE BACKSTAGE
Reported by Dave
Scherer at:
http://www.1wrestling.com
Scherer reports that
Eric Bischoff won't be backstage at future WCW
events; whatever his
role in the company ends up being, he will largely
be kept out of the
creative/administrative end of the company. Besides
not undermining the
authority of the new leadership, this move
certainly should
improve moral in certain corners of the locker room.
BEULAH'S FUTURE IN ECW
Reported by Wade
Keller of The Pro Wrestling Torch
Beulah, the former
on-air girlfriend of both Raven & Tommy Dreamer (and
off-air love interest
of Dreamer) will not be returning to ECW, despite
attempts to bring her
back.
Paul Heyman told
Keller that will he still considers Beulah a friend
(Teresa Hayes), she
has told him that she has no desire to perform and
is happy in her new
life as a college student in New York.
To subscribe to Wade
Keller's Pro Wrestling Torch, send $36 for 20
issues to:
The Pro Wrestling
Torch
P.O. Box 201844
Minneapolis, MN 55420
WWF House Show Results
- Salt Lake City, Utah - September 11, 1999
Reported by Curt
Creighton, Jacob & Brian Michaels
-Jeff Jarrett & Mark
Henry defeated Val Venis & D'lo Brown
-Hardcore Holly def.
Crash Holly with a powerslam.
-Visera def. Gangrel
with a big splash.
-Edge & Christian def.
The New Brood, The Acolytes, & the Dudley Boyz
-Test def. Steve
Blackman with the Pumphandle slam.
-The Rock def. Triple
H w/out Chyna via DQ
-Ivory def. Tori,
Luna, and Jacqueline when she hit Jackie with the
title.
-Big Bossman def. Ken
Shamrock via knockout
-Kane def. The Big
Show w/ Visera with the
Tombstone.
-X-Pac def. Billy Gunn
with a rollup.
ECW House Show Results
for 9/10 in
Pittsburgh, PA.
Reported by Dave
Scherer at:
http://www.1wrestling.com
Dastardly Danny Doring
& Amish Roadkill beat C. W. Anderson & Wild Bill
Wiles
Jesus (a newcomer)
defeated Vito "The Skull" Lograsso
Three Way Dance: Super
Crazy defeated Little Guido and Davey Cash.
Nova and Chris Chetti
defeated Simon Diamond & Tony DeVito.
Tommy Dreamer & Raven
defeated Steve Corino & Rhino.
Jerry Lynn beat Lance
Storm w/Dawn Marie Bytch.
Axl Rotten, New Jack &
Balls Mahoney defeat
Uganda, Rod Price and ?.
Sabu beat Justin
Credible.
WCW
NEW YEARS EVE SHOW CANCELLED
Reported by Bob Ryder
at:
http://www.1wrestling.com
The PPV previously
planned for New Years Eve has apparently been
cancelled. The show
had been expected to feature a combination of
wrestling and a KISS
concert.
FALL BRAWL LINEUP,
SEPTMEBER 12TH, 1999
Reported by:
http://www.wcw.com
Hulk Hogan vs. Sting
/, Bill Goldberg vs. DDP /, Chris Benoit vs. Sid
Vicious /,
Perry Saturn vs. Rick
Steiner /, Vampiro & IPC vs. Kidman, Mysterio Jr.
& Guerrero
Berlyn vs. Buff
Bagwell /, Harlem Heat vs. The Windham's /,
Dean Malenko & Shane
Douglas vs. Hugh Morrus & Brian Knobbs
Kaz Hayashi vs. Lenny
Lane
===========================================
Bischoff steps down
Saturday, September
11, 1999
By Mike Mooneyham
World Championship
Wrestling announced Friday that Eric Bischoff is no
longer in charge of
day-to-day operations at WCW, effective immediately.
Bill Busch, the head
of the company's finance division, was promoted to
executive vice
president and will assume complete oversight of the
day-to-day business
and creative operations of WCW. The position is
believed to be an
interim one until a permanent head is named.
WCW employees were
notified of the change on Friday morning.
Bischoff, who has been
under increasing scrutiny in recent months, has
not been fired and
remains an employee of Turner Sports, according to
WCW sources. Bischoff
reportedly will continue to report directly to
Turner Sports
president Dr. Harvey Schiller.
The move follows a
rash of WCW releases and reports of internal unrest
in the company.
Bischoff has been
widely criticized for giving some of his top stars
enormous booking
control over their programs while alienating a group
of talented workers
relegated to mid-card programs. A number of WCW
performers have been
outspoken in recent weeks over the direction of
the company and the
sagging ratings.
"We need a complete
overhaul, from the leader to the production to
everybody who's on
top," WCW's Billy Kidman said recently. "We need to
overhaul everything,
because obviously the formula we have is not
working.
"Everybody can see we
need a change, yet Eric keeps looking to all the
top guys, and of
course they don't want to change because they won't be
in their spot
anymore," Kidman said.
Ric Flair, who has
sitting out due to back problems and a longstanding
dispute with Bischoff,
was asked on Friday to attend WCW's Fall Brawl
pay-per-view special
Sunday night in
Winston-Salem, N.C., and
Nitro
Monday night in
Baltimore.
For wrestling updates
during the week, call The Post and Courier Info
Line at
(843) 937-6000, ext.
3090.
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.
===========================================
September 11th, 1999
Jackal's Winnipeg
Sun/Thunder Bay Chronicle Column
By Don Callis
Courtesy of
http://freeweb.digiweb.com/sports/thejackal/main.html
Every so often
something happens that reminds me of why I got into the
wrestling business in
the first place.
Such was the case two
weeks ago in the ECW Arena, when I was witness to
Rob Van Dam and Jerry
Lynn put on the single best match I have seen
live since the
legendary Shawn Michaels-Undertaker Hell in a Cell match
back in 1997.
Van Dam and Lynn have
been putting on consistently fabulous matches
throughout 1999 in
what will likely be the feud of the year, but the
match in Philly
eclipsed all the others. The combination of both mens'
timing being perfect
that night along with the incredible emotion of
the live crowd popping
for a feud which is now rich in history.
The crowd reaction was
very much like an All Japan main event in the
sense that the well
educated (for wrestling anyway) crowd was familiar
with many of the guys'
spots and the clever twists Van Dam and Lynn
added had the crowd on
an emotional roller coaster for fifteen minutes.
The Van Dam-Lynn feud
is a modern example of traditional booking, of
how in an age of
vignettes and comedy sketches, that actual wrestling
can be the focal
point, that people can believe and care about the
athletes.
While Van Dam is a
huge babyface with ECW fans and has beaten
Lynn
every time they have
wrestled,
Lynn has carved himself a
niche in the
traditional role of
sympathetic babyface. The fans love RVD, but Lynn,
who may be the best
worker in a company of great workers is a guy who
is so good in the ring
that he gets over by losing.
Its all about the
booking, you see. The idea is that
Lynn never beats
RVD, but that one day
he will, finally. The way the feud has been
booked makes fans want
desperately to see Lynn get his win, and the
more time RVD beats
him, the more drama is added and the more
significant that
eventual win will become. As a result, the fans pop
wildly for every two
count, every move and every death defying dive.
I recently told Lynn,
who is a friend, that the worse thing that could
happen to him is to
beat RVD.
Lynn is so good he doesn't
need to. The
pairing with Van Dam,
who is the best pure athlete in wrestling, along
with the creative mind
of ECW Executive Producer Paul Heyman is the
stuff of which
historic, legendary feuds are made.
For myself, I just sit
back and enjoy like everyone else. And while the
wrestling business has
many downsides that often make me question my
place in it, for that
one night, I was a fan again, sitting in the
famed Eagles Nest at
the ECW Arena, Paul Heyman next to me, both of us
out of our seats high
fiving each other, marking out for the false
finishes.
It was a great night
to be in the wrestling business.
Insider
Condolences to the
family of Brian C. Hildebrand, who referred in WCW
as Mark Curtis, he
passed away this week after a long battle with
stomach
cancer...Kurrgan and myself will be featured on a card at
the
University of Manitoba
on Monday at 1:30 in University Centre...Former
IWA star Joe E.
Legend, currently in Germany for Otto Wanz, is getting
another look from the
WWF...Giant Silva is still plying his trade in
Mexico.....
You can catch Jackal
every Sunday on the NHB (No Holds Barred)
Wrestling Call In
Radio show from 6-7pm live from the Pony Corral on
Grant on 92 Citi FM.
Also watch him on ECW Wresting on TNN every
Friday from
7-8pm.
Cyrus (formerly known
as the...)
Jackyl
===========================================
"Straight Shooting"
by : Fritz Capp (pwbts)
September 12, 1999
http://pwbts.com
PWBTS 2000
Word is that there are
a lot of people in WCW who are very upset with
the New Year Eve
pay-per-view that is expected to be run. Do you blame
them? I mean what the
hell is WCW thinking? Not about its workers I
can say that. Here we
are at the biggest New Years Eve as far as
historical value is
concerned in our lifetime and WCW wants to make a
few bucks. These are
real life human beings you are asking to give up
that night idiots. And
does WCW do anything special for them? Hell no!
If I was in charge in
WCW and I wanted to run a pay-per-view on
December 31, 1999 believe me
when I tell you I would make it worth
everyone's time. How
about having the pay-per-view somewhere you never
go...say
Hawaii, all expenses paid for
by the company? This would at
least compensate the
workers for their sacrifice. WCW is now not only
killing its promotion
but really getting everyone, including
managerial employees,
pissed as well.
I've received a few
letters asking if the Eric Bischoff being replaced
was a work by the
company to increase interest. I have to say that I am
not quite sure if WCW
is smart enough to pull something like this off.
While it is true that
it was 1wrestling.com who broke the story (this
is the same website
that broke the Hogan retirement story and we all
saw where that went) I
am hard pressed to believe it is another work
perpetrated by WCW on
the wrestling fans. Here is one of the letters I
received:
***
Fritz;
I may be paranoid,
but....Who actually reported this ? Is there any
supporting information
on this news ?
Strange that Bishoff
would be demoted right before a PPV, and one where
Sid is supposedly
going to squash Benoit, eh ? Lately, Ryder and Co.
have been hyping how
much Eric listens to the Internet fans, last
Monday, Bishoff told
Ryder that Benoit will get a title shot on the
next Nitro.....now
that he's supposedly not in charge...do you think it
will still happen ?
Call me weird, but I
would not be surprised to see Benoit get squashed
by Sid on the PPV,
then not get a title shot on Nitro, and finally, a
week or so latter,
Bischoff "getting another chance" as president...if
you smell what the
sock is cooking.
Kurgen
***
Makes some interesting
points huh? Anything is possible and if this
does happen then once
again everyone will have to consider who the real
"news sources" are on
the net and who is just shilling for a promotion.
---
Last but by far not
least Chris Jericho put out his column this week
which is about Brian
Hildebrand. While I usually do not post other
peoples columns in
Straight Shooting I consider Chris a friend and one
of the true "real
people" in this business, and what he has to say
should be read by all
so I will leave you with that. Remember wrestling
is nothing more than
what it appears to be.
---
Reported at:
http://www.chrisjericho.com/
09/11/99
NP:Boston-Greatest
Hits
Hello Jerichoholics!
(In reference to a
picture of Brian Hildebrand,
Jericho, Eddie Guerrero,
Chris Benoit & Dean
Malenko)
This picture features
four of the best friends that I've ever met in
this business. Four
guys who love and respect wrestling as much as I
do, who appreciate
everything they ever received from it and who strive
to keep it a thriving,
entertaining and well respected sport. Four
guys who take special
pride in going the extra mile to be better than
the norm. Four great
friends...and now one of them is gone.
Brian Hildebrand knew
and loved the Lord, so he's in a better place, so
that's a good thing.
But the fact that I'll never have the honor of
being in his presence
again is a bad thing. Brian was not only a funny
guy who loved disco
music and could cut a rug with the best of em, he
was also a student of
the game and its number one fan.
Countless times, he
would tell me with great delight how he had just
seen a match between
two guys I've never heard of from 1973, a match
that would bore me to
tears, but a match that would excite and
captivate him. He knew
what made a good match, what made a bad match
and what made a
classic.
If you ever got a
compliment from Brian on your match being good, you
knew it was genuine.
He wasn't one to throw out empty praise or blow
smoke. He was genuine.
He was also the
toughest man I've ever met. He never complained about
his disease, never put
it over, never sold it. He was so full of
desire and
determination, that you knew he was going to beat the
cancer.
For all intensive
purposes, he did. He beat it twice, twice more than
the normal person
would've. He came back to refereeing a number of
times, each time
deflecting well wishes and proclimations of amazement
at his return, because
to him it was always a given he would survive.
One of my best
experiences in wrestling came on
Nov 30, 1998 in
Knoxville. You know the
story. Tribute to Brian, huge turnout,
awards, ceremonies,
everyone applauding and commending this fine gent.
But I knew how Brian
was, I knew that he was a student of the game. I
knew he appreciated
the art of heeling. So that night before the main
event of myself and
Eddie vs Benoit and Malenko, I grabbed the mike and
told Brian that he
most certainly had done nothing to deserve a tribute
and that the only
reason the people came to the show was to see Me and
Eddie . I told Brian to
sit down, shut up and be thankful that he had a
free front row seat to
watch greatness. The fans didn't like that and
booed profusely.
Of course at the end
of the match, after I had beaten up the ref and
then had the tables
turned, Dean and Chris both had Eddie and I in their
finishing holds, but
couldn't get the win as no ref could call for the
bell. But heroically,
into the ring slid Brian and signaled for the
bell with his
trademark two gun salute!
Needless to say it was
one of the greatest roars that I had ever heard
during a match. The
people went nutso!! It was what pro wrestling is
all about. It was what
each and every one of us in the ring crave to
achieve every night we
perform. It doesn't happen often, but that
night us five guys
worked together to produce a most magical moment.
After the show the
gleam in Brian's eyes was worth the moon and I have
never felt so good
about a wrestling match before...and probably never
will again.
Goodbye my friend. I
learned alot from you and I promise I will never
forget it...nor will I
forget you.
See you in heaven.
-Chris Jericho
Fritz Capp
PWBTS 2000
http://pwbts.com
===========================================
ANOTHER VIEW ON
BISCHOFF
Written by reader:
madspector
Shooting the horse
that brought you there.
I'm taking in the news
of Eric Bischoff's removal from day to day
control of WCW with
mixed feelings. Personally I think its a stupid
move made by narrow
minded stuffed shirts who have no place in the
business. Many words
come to mind when I think of what a retarded move
this was, and so I
will elaborate on some of the things that expose
this as a panic move
rather than a well thought out one.
Timing. Why do
something this stupid less than 48 hrs before what
could have been a
major PPV? If they were going to shaft the guy, why
didn't they do it
before signing him to a brand new 3 year contract?
Now they still have to
pay him the exact same salary that they would if
he were still running
things..sound like a well laid out plan to you?
Precedence. With all
of the moaning and groaning being made by the
infantile Ric Flair
and others this move comes of as a coup. Now Flair
and his like will be
happy when they should have been unemployed. This
blunder sets a bad
presidence and pretty much damages any credibility
of the next guy who
should hold the position, If the employees know all
they have to do is
bitch and moan like babies and become cancers in the
locker room to put
pressure on the person who employed him...what does
that say for the next
guy?
By screwing the guy in
the position they've screwed the position
itself, making it
nothing more than a puppet title for the stuffed
suits to control.
Outside Influence-
Turner Sports
The stuffed suits.
Eleven years ago, when Ted Turner bought the NWA, I
said to myself "this
is a bad move...what the hell does Ted Turner know
about wrestling?". He
soon proved me right. The newly named WCW lost
money in each of its
first five years under Ted Turner's ownership, and
after "Cowboy" Watts
presidency, enter Bischoff. The rest is history.
But the seeds of
stupidity were being sown years later when the
ultimate cardinal sin
was committed, elevating a non wrestling oriented
stuff suit in to what
was basically a watchdog position.
The man in question,
Bill Busch, a Turner Sports accountant who had no
real wrestling
association, if any at all. The Turner pencilnecks put
Busch into place
because they were
concerned about how much of WCW's funds were being
spent (Triple Hmmm
that's funny, all this despite the fact that Bischoff
made the funds
everyone seemed so concerned about possible in the first
place).
There were those in
stuffed suit land who were concerned about the
ratings for Nitro
...which by the way wouldn't even be in existence if
hadn't it been for
Easy E creating the entire format in the first
place. So it sounds to
me that there is alot more movement behind the
scenes that even the
internet loudmouths may not be privy to.
For all of the
internet marks who are happy about this, the ones who
could never stop
running their mouths about how how bad WCW is doing
and that Bischoff
should be executed...ask yourselves this...Could you
do it? Could you take
a money losing company and turn it into a
wrestling powerhouse?
Would you have had the balls to take the risks
that it takes to build
a company? Could you? Or are comfortable at your
keyboard in front of
your monitor taking shots at those who can?
As for WCW's
future...things could turn out for the better. I'll
definitely keep an
open mind, but at the same time I have learned that
when it comes to
wrestling Turner Sports doesn't know what the hell
they are doing, and
have just removed the only good choice they ever
made.
===========================================
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
|
