Issue # 389
Date:
Monday November 8th, 1999 5:34 pm
The Wrestling Booking Sheet
ECW ON TNN RATING FOR
11/5/1999
Reported by Dave
Scherer at:
http://www.1wrestling.com
The 11/5 edition of
ECW on TNN bounced back up to a 1.1 rating, an
increase of .3 (which
may be favorable to November To Remember's
buyrate).
===========================================
Straight Shooting
By : Fritz Capp (afcpwbts)
November 8, 1999
http://pwbts.com
PWBTS 2000
This version is going
to go back to the old format as I want to speak
on some random
thoughts that are going through my head and catch up on
some of the readers
feedback and also get back to the "Favorite
Memories of the
REAL NWA.
=====
First I have to wonder
where all the so-called professionalism in
wrestling reporting is
that I have heard so much about the past 2+
years I have been on
the Internet.
Now I am not passing
judgment on anyone nor am I trying to give you
your opinions. I leave
that up to each and every reader of this column
to form their own
opinion. I also ask everyone to check out what I say
here so you know for
yourselves that I am being truthful with you and
not just saying
something to generate heat.
The topic I want to
bring up is the latest shots being fired between
the WWF's "Byte This"
show and WCW "Live".
Last week on "Byte
This" Kevin Kelly and company took shots at WCW
Live's hosts Jeremy
Borash and Bob Ryder. Not at family members, not at
friends, at Borash and
Ryder.
Now you can expect
this, especially on rival wrestling programs that
are being run by rival
wrestling promotions. In wrestling just about
anything is fair game,
I imagine, but all I did was chuckle to myself
when I heard that
Kelly and Co. took shots and I wondered what the
response would be.
Well the reports are
in and what is being said is that Bob Ryder and
Mark Madden (was he
even involved?) did fire a salvo back. But not at
Kevin Kelly, not at
anyone else on the show, but at Kevin Kelly's wife,
basically saying how
ugly and fat she is. My take is that Jeremy Borash
has more class than to
lower himself to those levels.
My question is
couldn't Ryder (again Madden was just trying to generate
heat for himself by
interjecting himself into this) take shots at Kelly
and Co.? Why did he
have to drag Kelly's "wife" into this? Has Kevin
Kelly's "wife" ever
done anything to Ryder to warrant such an attack?
I highly doubt it but
this shows the utter lack of class and
professionalism that
some people in this industry have for other
people's feelings. It
also shows a great lack of imagination on both
Ryder's and Madden's
part.
I have dealt with
certain people for as long as I have been doing this.
During that time they
have time and time again showed how low class
they are by never
coming straight at me in public, but they have had no
problem with taking
shots at family and friends of mine in the public
venue. It seems this
practice has rubbed off on Bob Ryder and it is a
shame because if I
remember correctly (and I always do) Bob Ryder used
to have class and was
above these
kinds of attacks.
Hopefully one day Bob will remember that and return
to the person he used
to be, all those paydays ago.
=====
Everyone has been
having their say about the dreaded glitches that
happened on Nitro last
week. Give the techs a break everyone, they are
running a format that
they are not accustomed to. Remember, for years
they were used to
doing things a certain way and now have to change on
the fly. Of course
there are going to be glitches. It is not unlike a
pro football team
getting a new coach. Sure the guys know how to play
football but with the
new coach comes a new play book and nuances that
they have to learn.
Unlike pro football
the television crew at WCW didn't have training
camp or pre-season,
they just went right into the playoffs. So cut them
some
slack...everything will be worked out.
=====
Keeping on the same
note I think that Hall and Nash should keep the
glitches in their
promos. Beings their big thing right now is that
everything is "for the
ratings" I think it would be funny to hear the
producer counting down
at the beginning of their promos. They should
also leave the camera
on them when the promo is done so we can hear
them talk about how
good it was and how that should boost the ratings.
If done right it would
be humorous to say the least and I am sure that
Russo and company
could make it work.
=====
I finally got to see
Sandman's return to the ECW Arena and I for
one am
glad to see him "go
home". Only the people who are longtime ECW fans
know the history of
Sandman and how he came to be what he is today.
Only the fans of ECW
appreciate what Sandman stands for as far as
"politically incorrect
and damned proud of it" goes. Also only in ECW
will Sandman garner
the respect that he deserves for all the blood and
sweat he has given to
wrestling in general and ECW as a whole. I am
glad to see him there,
and hopefully he will never leave again.
=====
I just picked up WWF
The Music : Volume 4 and I have to say I really
enjoyed the fact that
all the music was current. If you haven't picked
it up yet and you are
a WWF fan this is the CD for you.
=====
The WWF has taken
another hit, albeit a minor one with Terry Taylor
going back to WCW. The
only reason I say it is a minor one is the fact
that
Taylor wasn't really used
during his tenure with the WWF but I am
sure that he has
enough information that he can fill in Russo and
company as to what
Vince has been doing since they left the company.
=====
My Favorite NWA
Memories
I want to thank
everyone for sending these in and for being patient
with me posting them.
If anyone else has memories of the old NWA
promotion and would
like to share them with the readers please send
them in to
afcpwbts & please put NWA Memories in the
subject box.
---
After Magnum TA's
accident they had him out with his baseball bat (The
Equalizer). Tully
Blanchard and JJ Dillon, part of the Horsemen, of
course confronted him.
There was a stare down and Tully dropped Magnum
with a punch. They had
just started going to work on him when Dusty
Rhodes ran-in and pounded
Blanchard with the bat. This is my most
memorable NWA moment.
Also, the Flair/Sting Clash of the Champions 1
hour match was right
up there also. (David McKinney)
---
Hi I am from
Virginia and grew up watching
Mid-Atlantic
Wrestling. These were
the days when they actually had matches the
whole hour and a few
interviews!! It was fun to watch all the greats
Flair, Paul Jones,
Blackjack Mulligan, Ernie Ladd, Mr. Wrestling, The
Anderson brothers,
Tony
Atlas, & The Brisco
Brothers.
I saw my first live
match in
Roanoke Va. at the Civic
Center and had a
blast. The main event
was the battle of the Nature Boys, Flair vs.
Buddy Landell. It was
a good match and I really enjoyed it.
The best memory is
when I took my grandmother to a match at a local
high school. She had
never been to a match live but she watched
wrestling every week
on TV. She had the time of her life!! We sat on
the front row and got
a chance to heckle some bad guy wrestlers. I had
more fun watching her
than the matches!!! I was really glad that we got
a chance to go!!
To tell the truth I
kind of miss those old days of wrestling, it was
just as fun without
all the hype!!
Oh my fav. tag team
from those days was Doom, they rocked . Also can't
talk about the old
days without mentioning Greg "The Hammer" Valentine
and Ricky Steamboat,
two of the best in their day!!!
(Gerald Rubin)
---
NWA memories, huh?
Okay. Wahoo McDaniel, probably one of my top
childhood heroes. I
think I got in trouble at least once for Tomahawk
chopping someone in
the throat.
The Road Warriors,
probably the greatest tag team ever, and don't even
mention Tully and Arn
in the same breath. All things being equal, Hawk
and Animal would have
ripped those punks new orifices. How about
'Number One' Paul
Jones? He was always entertaining. Roddy Piper
didn't look puny back
then. I could think of a few more, but I have a
cold and a few beers
in the system. But those things I have mentioned
stick out the most.
(Rogers
Alley)
---
When I think of the
NWA, I think of Jim (King) Ross calling Flair
vs.Steamboat.
(SCCI1735066)
---
The NWA had the best
mixture of mat work and blood and violence going
in the 70's and 80's.
Guy like The Funks, H. Race and Flair could and
would work for 60 min
every night. Not the 10 min matches ending in a
screwjob that we have
been treated to by WCW and the WWF for the past
15 years. Flair's
promo's were the reason I turned on the tube on
Saturday morning. He
made a living putting asses in the stands on the
mike. He put mine in
the stands 50 or so times. Times change but there
will be only one
NWA!!!! Thanks,
(Gary Rowe)
---
One of my best
memories of the NWA was Nikita Koloff, Dusty Rhodes and
the Road Warriors
against the Four Horsemen in a War Games that was an
awesome match. Any of
the Dusty Rhodes/Ric Flair matches for the World
Title or Tully
Blanchard/Magnum TA for the best of 7 for the US Title,
those were great
matches too.
(rlk)
---
1st - The Road
Warriors just turned heel and beat the Midnights on a
house show for the tag
straps (they showed footage) and Eaton was
busted open so he
didn't work
...Cornette got a call
as Lane was working on a jobber and he mumbled
something about using
the name, next thing ya know Paul E Dangerously
and the Original
Midnight Express (Dennis Condroy and Randy Rose) came
out and
jumped the Midnights
and Cornette and busted Eaton back
open...very cool.
(Elbowdrop)
I have been watching
wrestling for awhile so this was easy.(maybe next
time you could ask for
memories of WCCW or
AWA). I think of Barry
Windham and Lex Luger
against Tully Blachard and Arn Anderson at the
1st ever Clash of the
Champions for the tag belts. Ron and Jimmy
Garvin w/ Pecious
involving an incident with Ric Flair. Dusty
Rhodes as
the
Midnight Rider. The 4
Horsemen will always consist of Ric Flair,
Arn Anderson, Tully
Blachard and Lex
Luger with JJ Dillion.
That was my favorite lineup.
(Tara)
=====
And with that I'm
outta here. Remember wrestling is nothing more than
it appears to be.
===========================================
THE WWF/NWA CONNECTION
Written by reader: Tom
(tbrutis1)
The WWF NEVER at
anytime belonged to the NWA. It was the WWWF that had
been part of the NWA.
Regardless of what anyone thinks, the WWF & WWWF
were two completely
different organizations.
It was Vince McMahon
Sr. that broke away from the NWA because of
something to do with a
Title match that was proposed to happen between
the then NWA Champion
Lou Thesz, & "Nature Boy" Buddy Rodgers.
Negotiations fell
through, & McMahon Sr. broke away from the NWA &
formed the WWWF, &
named Buddy Rogers as it's 1st Champion.
The difference between
the WWWF & the WWF are as follows: The WWWF was
in actuality a
REGIONAL Wrestling Promotion that operated in the
Northeast part of the
Country. The WWWF was headquartered in
Washington, D.C. & operated
under the auspicies of Capital Sports Inc.
The WWWF's 1st
president was the late Wilie Giltzenberg. The WWWF at
one time had only
ONE Television show that was
syndicated n JUST the
Northeast, & had the
late Ray Morgan as it's announcer. When Ray
retired, a young kid
by the name of Vince McMahon Jr. took over the
announcing duties.
Though the WWWF
Heavyweight Singles & Tag Titles were listed as "World"
Championships, they
were in actuality "Regional" titles, seeing that at
the time, the WWWF
NEVER went anywhere outside of the Northeast part of
the country. Wrestling
Promoters (including Vince Sr.) NEVER invaded or
ran shows in areas
that were already being ran by other wrestling
promotions. There was
actually professional courtesy between promoters.
When Vince Sr.
retired, he sold the WWWF to his son. Shortly
thereafter, Vince Jr.
took this regional promotion, renamed it the WWF,
& turned it into the
Sports Entertainment giant that we all know today,
& ran LIVE events
along with TV shows literally AROUND THE WORLD. The
rest is History. In
the words of Paul Harvey," and now you know "THE
REST OF THE STORY"
–-Tom,
tbrutis1
===========================================
JUVI & CHAVO
Written by reader:
Alicia (DGenX829)
A reader wrote in and
suggested that WCW pair Juventud up with Eddie
Guerrero to compensate
for Juvi's English problem. Well, Eddie 's doing
his own thing now, but
for those first 3 weeks before Russo and after
Bischoff, when WCW
looked like they were getting better, they did have
Juvi with an
English-speaking wrestler. They put him and Psychosis with
Chavo Guerrero Jr.
It looked like it was
going to be a great group, since all three are
immensely talented
(throw in Silver King or La Parka to round out the
group and it would
have been perfect). Plus, Chavo can speak English,
has a great voice and
an awesome sense of humor.
If Juvi does have to
leave, I'll say what I've said before: he needs to
take 3 or 4 of his
buddies (the guys mentioned above) and go to ECW so
they can party with
Super Crazy and put on some good matches that we'll
actually get to see...
often.
--Alicia
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Steve Appy
responds:
Alicia,
I like the idea, Chavo
does have tons of personality and is a terrific
worker to boot. As
long as they weren't presented as a comedy team
they could be
tremendous; tremendous in a promotion that valued a team
made up of smaller
workers who were two of the best in the company (I'm
thinking of teams like
The Midnight Express & The Rock & Roll Express).
I just can't see Russo
putting the energy into pushing these guys,
despite the talent &
potential.
===========================================
WRESTLEHOLIC
Written by reader:
Tina J. Jones (edgeluvr)
I'd like to respond to
the mark thing. I'm simply a wrestleholic. I'm
hooked. I told my
fiancé if I'm ever admitted to the hospital he'd
better make sure he
tapes wrestling.
===========================================
NEW JAPAN MAIN EVENTERS
Written by reader:
Kevin Bryce (KevinBryce)
When so called
wrestling fans question the ability of Dean Malenko, you
know there must be a
problem.
Now onto more
important things - The state of NJPW.
New
Japan Pro-Wrestling is a
great wrestling company who have some
extremely talented
wrestlers at their disposal, but there is a problem
at the moment. This
problem is the lack of top quality main event
matches. Mutoh is a
brilliant champion, but he isn't getting the right
matches. He has had
some good matches, but he hasn't had any classics.
AJPW have Kobashi,
Misawa, and Kawada, meaning you will get a ****+
Triple Crown title
match on numerous occasions during the year, this
doesn't happen in
NJPW.
New
Japan have a great mid-card,
and some of the matches involving the
Junior Heavyweights
have been out of this world, but it's the
Heavyweight title
which is the most important.
An option could be to
put Liger in the ring with the heavies. He has
done it before and
held his own so it wouldn't be a bad option as the
Junior division could
cope without him. Ohtani is the next big thing,
so he could carry the
ball.
NJPW must get rid of
Onita!!! The man is a joke, and most NJPW fan's
do not like him. The
sooner he leaves the better.
A deal with the WWF
would be a mistake. Seeing NJPW titles defended on
smut TV would be very
bad, and I don't think the wrestlers in the WWF
are worthy of
challenging for NJPW titles (Jericho
could!!!). Lance
Storm said recently
the Rock would get laughed out of a NJPW building
and that is true, mike
skills are not important in NJPW. WCW wanted
Norton to defend the
IWGP title on Nitro v
Lodi, but NJPW said no as it
would degrade the
belt, so I couldn't see NJPW working with the WWF.
The best thing to
happen would be NJPW and AJPW running a
Tokyo Dome
show together. This
would capture the whole of
Japan's and the worlds
interest, and the
matches that could be made are breathless.
I believe this could
happen as Misawa has said he is announcing big
plans for AJPW in
January 2000. I wait and hope the two companies will
start to work
together.
===========================================
JERICHO MUSIC VIDEO
Written by reader: Zac
Boyer (EAGLEBOY5)
If you watched Sunday
Night Heat last night, you saw the debut of Chris
Jericho's music video
for his theme song, entitled "Break Down the
Wall". Well, now that
it officially has a music video and is on a CD,
let's try to get it on
MTV's Total Request, a show where the viewers
vote for their
favorite music video. What can you do? On November 26,
go to
http://www.mtv.com/mtv/tubescan/trl99_new/pickaday.tin
and head
to the bottom of the
page. Type in "WWF: The Music Volume 4" under
artist and "Break Down
the Wall" under video name. Then go to the top
of the page and fill
out the information. Then click "submit". If we
get enough votes we
can get the video on the top ten countdown. Make
sure to spread this
around to wrestling fans around the world!
-Zac Boyer (EAGLEBOY5)
===========================================
ADVERTISEMENT
FINALLY, THE
WILD SAMOAN TRAINING CENTER
RETURNS TO ALLENTOWN PA. Top
Rope Productions and
World XTreme Wrestling's CEO and Owner, Afa The
Wild Samoan is very
proud to announce that The Wild Samoan Training
Center will be opening
a second campus in the heart of the beautiful
Lehigh Valley.
WSTC II will be
located in the
Allentown area. The building
has yet to
be named. Afa's
Wild Samoan Training Center
is no stranger to this part
of
Pennsylvania, as before the
Hazleton campus had opened, the Wild
Samoan Training Center had
been located here. The opening date has yet
to be named, but we do
know that it WILL be open for business in time
for the new
Millennium!!! The WSTC II opening will be a historical
event, because there
is no other multi- campus professional wrestling
in the country!!
Hazleton campus will be open
Tuesdays and Thursday, and WSTC II will be
open Mondays and
Wednesdays. It is a well documented fact that the
Wild
Samoan Training Center is the
BEST professional wrestling school in the
country. With stars
like Kidman, Kanyon, Bam Bam Bigelow, Hulk Hogan,
The Headshrinkers,
Paul E Dangerously, Luna Vachon, Gangrel,Doink The
Clown, and so many
others. Our reputations speak for ourselves. We will
keep you informed with
all further information as is develops.
-Josh Pontrelli News
Reporter The Bagpipe Report &
http://www.wildsamoan.com/wxw/
===========================================
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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