Issue # 360
Date:
Wednesday October 20th, 1999 3:57 pm
The Wrestling Booking Sheet
SMACKDOWN SPOILER
At the conclusion of
this issue we have the Smackdown Spoiler for
10/21; as always, if
you would rather be surprised, please skip this
section.
BENOIT & MALENKO
NEW JAPAN TOUR RESULTS
Reported by Zach
Arnold at:
http://www.1wrestling.com
Current Chris Benoit &
Dean Malenko tour results from
New Japan house shows:
10/15 Nagoya Aiichi
Welfare Gym (2,800)
Wild Pegasus, Dean
Malenko, & Dr. Wagner Jr. (14'24
Pegasus diving
headbutt on Samurai) Jushin Liger, El
Samurai, & Kendo Ka
Shin
10/17 Hyogo, Kobe
World Hall (6,000 -> 75% capacity)
Dean Malenko (12'41
Texas Clover Leaf) Koji Kanemoto
Wild Pegasus (14'29
Dragon Suplex Hold) Jushin Liger
10/19 Fukuoka
International Center (4,500 -> 60%
capacity)
Kendo Ka Shin (9'06
Standing Arm Scissors) Dean
Malenko, Jushin Liger
& Wild Pegasus (15'10 Liger high-angle
leg roll-up on
Takaiwa) Shinjiro Ohtani & Tatsuhito
Takaiwa
10/20 Kumamoto City
Gym (3,200)
Dean Malenko & Kendo
Ka Shin (10'29 Dean uses Texas
Clover Leaf on Sammy)
Jushin Liger & El Samurai
Wild Pegasus (3'05
diving headbutt) Shinjiro Ohtani
===========================================
ANOTHER TAKE ON NITRO
Written by reader:
Riverside Rick (RickXTN)
Apparently I must have
received an alien transmission of this past
Nitro because everyone
else seems to have seen a Nitro second to none,
whereas I saw a Nitro
that could well have been the worst ever! When I
first saw the WCW logo
appear as always I said, "Let's see what Russo
has up his sleeve". I
waited, to be honest, with pretty low
expectations.
Knowing that Russo and
Ferrara were largely
responsible for the WSOF
(World Soap Opera
Federation) product had me pretty worried. Well, my
worries quickly became
a reality as the show featured no continuity and
way too much non-arena
(backstage/ out of arena) scenes. Things were
happening that made no
sense at all. We all love surprise title
changes and seeing Rey
and Konnan with gold is great but it happened at
the worst possible
time! I never thought I would actually be upset at
seeing Mysterio with
gold. Goldberg was made to look like a wimp by
getting taken out with
a big boot and Powerbomb. Then Sid talks
about getting out of
his match, rips up the contract", and says, "See
you at Halloween
Havoc". How much sense does that make!?
I have never been so
DISinterested in Nitro. Hell, I went to the WCW
site, found that code
for WCW Mayhem (before they broadcast it on the
air) and played Mayhem
for a while during a triangle match that I would
have normally been
excited about. I don't know what the hell WCW put
on the air Monday
night but it sure as hell wasn't Nitro and if that
kind of production
continues, I may well turn into a non-wrestling fan.
:-( Now would be a
great time for Ted Turner to get a show going that
would showcase the
many great rivalries and matches of the old NWA and
pre-Russo WCW days.
There is a ton of great wrestling action that has
happened over the
years and it seems the future of pro wrestling is
pretty bleak at best
now. WCW has shot themselves in the foot...now
let's see if they can
heal the wound before the wound gets infected.
===========================================
WWF CONTENT
Written by reader:
BadgerLand
I'm not sure how many
of your readers are of an age to comprehend all
that you are
discussing here about the various WWF angles. I,
personally, rest
firmly between the four and five decades of
experience that gives
me a bit of right to comment on this and the
morality and right &
wrong in general. Oh yeah, I'm also a parent and
only got 'hooked' on
WWF because of my youngest daughter.
The WWF has turned
into a family event in our house. This includes both
daughters and my wife.
We do struggle with the right and wrong of
things and I admit
that I have taken advantage of the opportunity
offered by certain WWF
showings to try to teach my kids some values.
For instance, in one
show back when an Arab vs.
USA angle was in vogue,
there was an attempt
to have an actor (wrestler) wipe his nose on the
American flag. It
didn't happen, but even before seeing it my family
knew we would not be
watching WWF anymore if it did occur. That is an
example of 'crossing
the line'.
The same is now going
on with the Big Show. Worse yet is the atrocity
of the angle involving
Mark Henry. These clearly cross the line. What
point is served by
trying to explain to 10 and 12 year olds the
atrocity committed by
incest when it is admitted by
an actor (wrestler)
they formerly rooted for. The same could be said
for Satan worship,
though that was handled a little differently. At
least the Undertaker
has been in a consistent role of a 'darkside'
practitioner.
The bottom line is
that some viewers will abandon the entire genre. If
WWF wants just a few
nitch viewers on the outside of society, they will
get them with their
current approach. This will drive down earnings and
the stock price will
plummet to single digits. BUT, Linda and Vince
will be billionaires.
Maybe that's the bottom line; 'cause stone cold
Daddy said so!
-Badgerland
===========================================
STEVE CORINO IS RIGHT!
Written by reader:
Jamel Wright (sting_lex)
Where has wrestling
gone??? its obvious from my experience that the
average American
wrestling fan couldn't sit through an actual WRESTLING
match. This was proven
to me a couple of weeks ago, when my friends
chose to watch a 30
minute Rock/Mankind sit com over the Chris
Benoit/Bret Hart match
(which must be considered for match of the year).
its sad to see that
this is why guys like Tito Santana, Ric Flair
and Rick Steamboat
constantly put over people....so they can refuse to
put over the next
generation. Steve Austin used to be a great wrestler,
but Stone Cold is
another matter. Yet, this farce (the PWI 500) ranks
him as the NUMBER
ONE wrestler in the world!!
This was not a problem
until I saw who number
#3 was--a main eventer in
Japan who didn't want
to book himself as
champion.
Ladies and gentlemen,
I present to you the best worker in the world and
a
TRUE wrestler, Mitsaharu
Misawa. If you haven't seen him, I'd advise
that you find someone
who records All japan Pro Wrestling---No
outlandish storylines,
no egos, no DQ's, NO screwjob finishes!!! NO
evening gown matches,
just guys like Vader, Stan Hansen, and Johnny Ace
telling storylines in
a ring, NOT on a mic.
-Jamel Wright
===========================================
AUSTIN & THE BIG SHOW
Written by reader:
Busta12uss
Well, the two most
popular topics right now seem to be Paul Wight's
cancer angle and
Austin's wrestling ability so
I thought I'd add my
thoughts on both.
First of all, I
believe BPapa2000 made the most valid point on the
cancer angle I've
heard. From the moment the WWF started selling its
product as "Sports
Entertainment" rather than "Pro Wrestling" the
limits on what was
acceptable material were lost. People need to stop
analyzing the WWF as
professional wrestling because it no longer is.
"Entertainment" takes
the forms of talk shows, action shows, comedies,
drama, etc. It seems
clear now that Vince McMahon intends to
incorporate all these
forms of
entertainment into his
shows, and a story pertaining to a victim of
cancer is certainly
acceptable in every other form of entertainment, so
why would it be any
different in the WWF? The only contradiction I see
lies in that 5 letter
word proceeding "entertainment": Sports.
What is considered
Sport-related entertainment and what is not? Its
certainly a debatable
issue, but personally I feel that using cancer as
an angle is fine, for
its emotional content (but I have never lost a
loved one to cancer,
so I can't and know I don't speak for all.)
As far as
Austin's wrestling ability is
concerned, this also is
affected by the move
to Sports Entertainment.
Austin is no longer
considered a wrestler,
but an entertainer, and he is one of the best in
the business at doing
that. His in-ring skills are noticeably limited,
ranging from punches
and kicks to....fancier punches and kicks.
However, his skills
are far above the level of the man responsible for
most of us becoming
wrestling fans. The Hulk
Hogan of the 1980's
gave wrestling more popularity than anyone else
ever has, and he was a
punch-kick-finisher type too. No one ever said
either of these two's
wrestling ability was great, but none of us can
deny it is
entertaining.
===========================================
MOOLAH & MAE YOUNG
Written by reader:
Raf314
The person who ranked
on Moolah and Mae in your issue had a lot of
nerve. How dare he put
legends in quotes. The people who rank on them
are people who don't
even know who they are. Well, I do, and Fabulous
Moolah was one of my
favorite stars of the 80s, and I am really happy
to be seeing her
again. She is a great talent, no matter what her age.
And it is COMEDY. You
aren't supposed to take it seriously. Laughter
is healthy, so learn
to relax a bit. (This is directed at the author
of that segment, not
the person who writes
the newsletter.)
===========================================
SMACKDOWN SPOILER:
Skip if you would like to be surprised!
Reported by Alex
Bozich, Matthew Denison, & Curt Creighton at:
http://www.WrestlingUnleashed.com &
http://www.ultimowrestling.com/rwin
/index.shtml
WWF Dark Match, Sunday
Night Heat, SmackDown Taping Results Louisville,
Kentucky - Freedom
Hall -October 19, 1999
DARK MATCHES
-Kurt Angle defeated
Tracey Smothers
-Rico Constantino
defeated Flash Flanaigan
-Paul Buckner defeated
Trailor Park Trash
SUNDAY NIGHT HEAT (Air
date - October 24, 1999)
-The show opened as
Jericho entered, challenging Chyna
to an Intercontenintal
Championship match. Chyna replied
she was "PMSing" and
just couldn't do the match tonight.
-X-Pac/Kane defeated
Headbangers via Dudley Boyz interference
-Curtis Hughes
defeated Faarooq
-Gangrel defeated
Steve Blackman
-Vince McMahon was
shown backstage telling
Jericho he didn't think he
could beat Chyna, but
he would get a European Title on Heat vs. D'Lo
Brown.
-Prince
Albert defeated. Stevie Richards, who came out in
Meat's former attire.
Blue Meanie made his way out dressed as
Prince
Albert.
-European Title: D'Lo
Brown defeated Chris Jericho to retain the
European title after
Chyna caused Y2J to lose the match.
-Heat ended with a
stare down between Chyna/Chris Jericho.
SMACKDOWN (Air date
October 21, 1999)
-Show began with
Mankind in the ring, who voiced his disapproval of The
Rock and declared he
wanted a match tonight. Mankind said he would stay
in the ring all night
unless Vince gave him the OK for match vs. The
Rock.
Vince McMahon made his
way out, followed by The Rock. Rocky accepted
Mankind's challenge
for a match later tonight on Smackdown. Out of
nowhere, Val Venis
made his way to the ring telling Vince McMahon he
wanted a match with
Steve Austin on Smackdown.
Austin came down to the
ring and also agreed
for a match tonight.
-Triple H was shown
talking to Vince McMahon backstage. Vince told Triple H
that he would have to
defend the title against Al Snow tonight on
SmackDown. Triple H
told McMahon he didn't need anything from him and
walked away.
-Edge/Christian/Test
defeated Rodney/Pete Gas/British Bulldog. It
originally was just
going to be Test/Bulldog, however, Bulldog brought
out the Mean Street
Posse with him. Test said he had a surprise of his
own in Edge/Christian.
-A short recap was
shown on the OvalTron about the past few weeks
inthe Big Show's
life... Big Show was then interviewed backstage,
talking mostly about
the Big Bossman...
-Backstage, Triple H
attacked Al Snow right before their title
match...
-Triple H defeated Al
Snow with a Pedigree to retain the WWF title.
This match was pretty
well worked by both Snow and Triple H. But, as
Triple H went for a
Suplex on Al Snow, Snow's private area was clearly
exposed to all of the
fans in
Louisville. By the time I got
done
laughing, Triple H hit
the pedigree to end the match.
-The Fabulous Moolah
and Mae Young were shown backstage preparing for
their title match...
-The Fabulous Moolah
and Mae Young fought to a no-contest to let Moolah
retain the Women's
title. The match between the two "dinosaurs" came to
a halt after Ivory
came into the ring to cause the DQ. After that,
Tori, Jacqueline, and
Luna all made their way into the ring, and the
mess had to be stopped
by WWF officials.
-Mark Henry and the
Godfather were shown backstage. The Godfather told
Henry to be himself
and not worry about the sex therapists.
-The Rock and Mankind
fought to a no-contest after Val Venis, who was
ringside for
commentary, interfered in the match. Val received a Rock
Bottom after he
interfered, but, Triple H made his way into the ring
and delivered a
Pedigree on the people's champion.
-The Big Show was
shown backstage preparing to meet the Bossman...
-The Holly's defeated
the Hardy Boyz w/Terri Runnels to retain the Tag
Team titles. The
Hardy's seemed to have this match under control, but
the Holly's came out
of nowhere to retain the titles...Post match, The
New Age Outlaws
attacked the Holly's in the ring.
-The Big Bossman made
his way through the crowd with a Police Officer
into the ring. Bossman
talked about the Big Show, but before he could
get much out, the Big
Show came out and attacked the Bossman and the
Police Officer. The
Bossman was able to escape, but the Police Officer
received a chokeslam
for his troubles.
-The Road Dogg and
Steve Austin were shown backstage. I was unable to
hear what was said
between the two...
-Mark Henry/Godfather
defeated Mideon/Viscera by pinfall. There wasn't
much interesting about
this match except for the hoes.
-Val Venis, The Rock,
Mankind, Triple H, and Steve Austin
were all show
backstage...
-Stone Cold Steve
Austin defeated Val Venis after a Stone Cold Stunner.
Venis and Austin both
worked an excellent match, which ended cleanly
with a Stunner. Post
match, The Rock came into the ring, and had a
confrontation with
Venis and Austin. The show ended with Rock and
Austin staring each other
down.
-This is where the
program will probably go off the air. After that,
Triple H came into the
ring and was stunned several times by
Austin, as
Austin drank several beers
with Earl Hebner before leaving. Overall, it
was a much better show
than I saw the last time the WWF was here for
RAW in July...
Biggest Pops:
-Rock
-Austin
-Mankind
-Test
-Jericho
(when he came out at the very beginning of Heat)
Biggest Heat:
-Triple H
-Val Venis
-British Bulldog
-Jericho(before
his match with D'Lo on Heat...)
===========================================
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
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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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